Latest / Be Locally Loved / 005 - Theo Thurston - Faith, Fitness, and Community: Building a Place Where People Get Age Fit

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005 - Theo Thurston - Faith, Fitness, and Community: Building a Place Where People Get Age Fit · Be Locally Loved

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I call it red light, green light.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I got this building, it was a huge in financial investment.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: We needed about a half a million dollars to even get started.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, God is giving me the green light.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, you know, let me pray on this for a few days.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm still getting the green light 100%.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, people started coming forth.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, do you need investors?
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just, it was just all by the grace of God that it came together.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're featuring a special conversation that previously aired on our sister podcast, The Unbridled Creative, because its themes align beautifully with what we explore here on Be Locally Loved.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: We hope you enjoy it.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: Moving to a new town can feel overwhelming.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know where to go, you don't know what to do, you don't know who to trust.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's where BeLocal comes in.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: Like a best friend, BeLocal personally welcomes newcomers and connects them to the best local businesses, restaurants, community events, so they can feel at home faster.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_02: And for local business owners, BeLocal is like a matchmaker, introducing them to new families who are ready to form long-lasting and local relationships.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: To grow your business by reaching newcomers, visit reachnewcomers.com.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, we're here today with Theo Thurston.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Theo is a certified personal trainer from the Cooper Institute.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: He's the owner and the founder of GetAge Fit and a friend of mine.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to tell you a little bit about Theo before we dive in with him.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Theo's journey in fitness began back in 2001 at the age of 47 when he completed his first 12-week transformation challenge.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Can you imagine?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: A powerful integration of resistance training, balanced nutrition, and strategic cardio.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: That experience for him was life-changing, igniting not just a traumatic physical transformation.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: He lost 14 pounds of body fat.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: He gained 17 pounds of lean muscle, but he also reshaped his mental, emotional, and spiritual outlook on life.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: Over the last 23 years, Theo has personally coached more than 35,000 one-on-one and couples training sessions.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: And his approach is grounded in results-driven methodology, continual education, and a deep respect for the individuality of each client.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: He has studied under some of the world's leading fitness coaches, absorbed thousands of hours of advanced training content, and brought the same discipline to his own life, competing for a decade in drug-free bodybuilding in the masters over 50 and over 60 divisions before retiring from the stage at 66.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: He's currently in his ninth year as owner and CEO of Get Age Fit, an 8,000 square foot boutique personal training studio with age-appropriate resistance training, cardio, and healthy nutrition for individuals and couples ages 35 to 85.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome, Theo.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's a pleasure to be here.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: We would love to have you start by telling us about your journey, kind of when you first noticed that you had an entrepreneurial spirit and wanted to kind of break free from corporate America and get into the freedom of entrepreneurship.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you for that question.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been kind of an entrepreneurial mindset.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think I've really only had one official job where I was working for somebody besides myself.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of like it that way.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm what Carl Jung calls an intuitive introvert.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I have the ability to really see things beyond, you know, by the grace of God, what people that are thinking are more linear, um, step by step.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: My consciousness is more spherical, so it's always worked for me to kind of do my own thing.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I got into the real entrepreneurship after I'd worked about 13 years in big box gyms.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I grew up in the 60s with uh the whole um crazy music and all the other stuff that went with it.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just kind of got tired as I evolved spiritually and got closer to God and my real self, um, that I didn't want to be in that environment anymore.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I thought I would drive up and down Williams Drive, which is our main street here in Georgetown, and look at the strip centers, you know.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: My mindset was not an 8,000 square foot facility.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: That took a little jumping to get to that point.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: But um I didn't find anything.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was driving back, I saw this little building, and there was there wasn't even a sign at there was a tattoo shop on one side, and then there was looked like an empty little maybe 800,000 square foot uh facility.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't in a strip center, it was this cute little building.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went in there, looked in the uh window, and it was definitely empty.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I went back uh to the across the way to the tattoo shop, and I talked to Forrest, who owned the tattoo shop, and he goes, Well, that's owned by Ted so-and-so.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: And within about two minutes, I was on the phone with Ted, and Ted was a power lifter, a bodybuilder, and he and I just hit it off like that.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was the divine direction that God gave me to start in this little building.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I basically worked 12 hours a day, and I can never understand how people could fall asleep at the wheel of the car.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, seriously, you should be able to stay awake if you're driving, right?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But that two-year cycle where I was just training from early morning till evening and then hardly sleeping and doing it over and over again.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Built up, I built up a client base where we had a waiting list and everything.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I was so grateful when this guy named Kelly came by and he goes, Hey, are you looking for trainers?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Yes.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: A little break.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the beginning.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Forrest went ahead and moved his tattoo shop somewhere else.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: He became a realtor, I think.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Very nice guy.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so we put a hole in the wall and everything in Forrest's side was black, black ceiling, black walls, you know, tattoo shop, right?
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so um we went ahead and hired a contractor and did a pretty extensive renovation with our signature purple and green and white, and really made it an uplifting space.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's really when we started to take off when we had that little bit of extra room.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that was our second location, and then we had to move to another location because we outgrew those two.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then um on December 6th of 2023, we went ahead and moved into this much larger, uh, high-end, upscale, absolutely beautiful place that um we wanted to honor the people that trained here that were getting a little older, maybe push to the side a little bit, um, you know, in terms of how people do.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Honey, can I carry your groceries out for you?
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: That type of thing.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so we now have about 150 clients and about 18 trainers.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's kind of my progression from um, you know, uh the last 10 or 12, 15 years, something like that.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: What you have built, Theo, is amazing.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I've had the privilege of being kind of on the front row, especially the last two, three years as you've grown into the 8,000 square foot facility.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_02: As you've built this brand really from the ground up with your own blood, sweat, and tears, like what were the biggest obstacles?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like, can you remember one moment when you thought to yourself, like, I don't know if I can keep going?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like maybe this is not for me, or maybe a moment where faith jumped in and you said, Okay, God, I don't understand this, but I here we go.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Laura, faith is the number one thing that runs this business.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: If, you know, I'm a personal trainer, I'm not trained in business practices and everything like that, but it's because of my prayer momentum by the grace of God and trying to become less of my human ego and let create a vacuum so God can enter in.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And then I really try to listen.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I call it red light, green light.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I got this building, it was a huge in financial investment.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: We needed about a half a million dollars to even get started.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, God is giving me the green light.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, you know, let me pray on this for a few days.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm still getting the green light 100%.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, people started coming forth.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, do you need investors?
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just, it was just all by the grace of God that it came together.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all the trainers we have here, um, all the clients, people go, where did you get these people?
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're just magnificent, right?
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because you train here, Laura.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: And um, it's all just kind of God-based.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I can't imagine trying to do it from my human understanding of, you know, business, because you have to have the blessing and the support of God, I think, unless you want to take the left-handed path.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's sort of a dead end street when you get to the end of that one.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: So, um, but my biggest obstacle was um opening up this location and you know, really being stressed out about it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was a continuation of the business, but it was really a startup.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so, whenever you do a startup, it's a tremendous amount of energy, and you go get to those points where you're beginning to doubt yourself a little bit.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And like, did I make the right decision?
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: What have you?
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember my wife Signey, she's like, God already gave you the green light, just keep going, just keep doing the next thing.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so that really sustained me with her being super supportive like that, and she always has been.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and then, you know, I just met with the owner of the building a couple days ago.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: We went through our financials, and he's like, Dang, Theo, you've really turned this thing around.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, Matt, it's by the grace of God, you know that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, I believe that.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the biggest challenge probably I had.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: And really what it was, Alex Ramosy, he says, like, when you do your startup, your first year is gonna be really challenging.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: After that, you're going to have even greater challenges, but you're gonna be more used to the energy, to the opposition, to, you know, whatever.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're you you're e it's easier for you to handle it because you've become grown into a bigger, more resilient uh person.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that so true?
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: Isn't that so true with um training?
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh training your body to get to a certain point where uh once you're used to it, you've got to train differently to get the different muscles, right?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you can't do the same thing because your body's like, ha ha, we've already done this.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm actually glad that you had meant mentioned how important God was in the whole focus of your business, um, especially knowing 100%.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because uh because you we we all have areas where we're not best in.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, you're not trained in the business operations of things.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um you're a personal trainer, you're trained with the people, um, and putting God first, but uh and also you mentioned your your wife being an encourager, and I'm sure many, many other people, uh even people you've trained, you encourage them, but I'm sure they encourage you by them digging in, you know.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: But just that both of those factors at play, you know.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: We we need God, number one, he's the creator of everything, but we also need other people.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have to be encouraging to each other.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's that's great to hear.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: I I hear that all the time.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Love one another as I have loved you, right?
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: We try to encourage um people to like you have training, obviously, nutrition and cardio, but the fourth thing, which is the magic bullet, is community, which I I say is really love.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like when you see people interacting here at GetAge Fit, they are super encouraging.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like any little thing that is an improvement on somebody, it's celebrated, not just by me or my staff, but by um, you know, the people amongst themselves that train here.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's we have a culture of love, joy, and gratitude.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I pray for every day.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to maintain the love, joy, and gratitude of God as our culture.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: And when you walk into the facility, um, you'll actually feel that.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: You'll you'll feel that because many, many people are praying for, you know, God's will for this place.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I train there and I will tell you that that is absolutely true.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: There's so much joy in that place.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: And Theo, it's not a traditional gym.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you're not, you don't have like rock music blaring and like, I don't know.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_02: Can you speak to all of the uniqueness that is the Get Age Fit brand, from the the target audience you serve to the way that you've created the vibe of the of the place?
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: Tell tell us about all of that uniqueness.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, I created Get Age Fit to honor people who had spent their lives, you know, get married, raise a family, get an education, do well in business and everything like that.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: And while you're we're while you're mowing and blowing like that for 20, 30, 40 years, you're not really paying too much attention to your nutrition and your weight training.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: You're just, you're young, you're just pushing it, right?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: I remember one client told me he would be flying all over the country, he'd come back, his wife would give him a mixed drink, you know, when he got to the door, and then he'd be off again, right?
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: But um, it catches up to you.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so, and I noticed that that older people are kind of, I don't know if you call it ageism or whatever, but they're kind of like you're not quite so relevant anymore.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that they're super relevant in a lot of uh American Indian and other cultures, the elder of the tribe or what have you is the most respected one, right?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to go ahead and create a place where we could honor um, so to speak, the people and their accomplishment.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: I still remember this one guy, he had a comb over and his hair was dyed kind of a funny red, and he was kind of skinny.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: Well, he was like the head of Livermore Laboratories, and he had done all these amazing things, right?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you'd never know it if you just saw him in the grocery store.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_00: So um that's what we try to do.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then also we wanted to get away from the gym scene where um not necessarily a meat market, but where there's a lot of pride and ego, and everybody's really looking for the aesthetic health, maybe secondary.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to take it a little bit away from the aesthetic.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we still don't mind losing a few pounds and getting some muscle tone, et cetera.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: But we're really looking for um quality of life and um, you know, a healthy longevity so that we can put everything that um we've worked our whole life for, we can have the energy and actually the reset of your life, like my life reset at age at age 47.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: So when people do a trans, I always tell people when they sign up, I go, This is gonna change your life.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, Yeah, okay, it's working out.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: But they'll tell you it it will change your life.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's changed yours, Laura.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and also I had the pleasure of helping you with your rebranding, and I got to interview some of your clients, and I remember them talking about how much it changed their life.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: And what stuck out to me was that they said, I want the ability to live life on my own terms, which is a huge value of this podcast and a huge thing that we're trying to inspire the world to define your own success and live life on your own terms and be in freedom.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I remember, I can't remember which client it was, but they were like, when we go on vacation, we want to be able to climb the steps to that museum and not have to take the elevator.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it was really about being, you know, functional, mobile, strong, and have the endurance and the energy to enjoy life.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: We have a an older couple, Tom and Kat.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: They specifically joined so they could go to Machu Picchu and climb those those straight up steps.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they did.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: They were like super shape, and now they're back training.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: We have another couple that walked the Via del Camino, which the the movie The Way with Martin Sheen and his son.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I've that's one of my favorite movies.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting chills right now, but anyway, so they did that walk.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of things um that you normally wouldn't be able to do become more of a possibility, and that's just fun, you know, to be able to do like you were saying, Laura.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's just fun to be able to have to choose to sit on the couch and watch Netflix for a night if you want to, or you know, do something else that's more physical.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think also you really create an amazing bond with your trainer.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know I just came back from vacation and I missed James.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: He's a great guy.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: To have someone that is expecting you to show up that is going to call you out if you're late or you know show, someone who's going to be recording uh the last number of reps and the last amount of weight that you moved, and he's gonna push you beyond you know where you think you can go.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_02: And like to just be able to kind of show up and not think about it and just know that you're safe.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like the weight he's giving me, I'm safe.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: The the the boundaries that he's pushing, he knows I can handle.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: I've been training with him now for over two years and I have his voice in my head, um, even in my business.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_02: When when I say I can't do this, or whatever little negative thought might come into my head, I hear him say, You can do it, you're strong.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like I'm gonna put that on like you can do this, you are strong.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: He always says to me, I I I don't know if I can do this.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: He says, Yes, you can, you are strong.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I have this you are strong anchor from him, which is a great way to influence, you know, my life and my business and the way that I show up in the world.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, one thing your listeners, you know, if anybody struggles, and and I super appreciate because I've seen you, Laura, go from when you started to where you're at now, and I can see you're actually living that statement you are struggling.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: You're living that now, and it's carrying over into your business, doing podcasts, you know, and things like that.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: It just creates more opportunity.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say though, like if any of your listeners um or people seeing this podcast are suffering with depression or something like that, you know, the very best thing to do is to start moving.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, if you can find a 12-week transformation, for instance, if you get the book Body for Life by Bill Phillips, it was written back in uh uh 1998 or something or other, but the physiology doesn't change, it's just different fads and things.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So that was the 12-week transformation um that I did.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'll give Bill Phillips, the author, a little plug, not that he needs it because he sold uh experimental applied sciences for$380 million back in 2008, so he's not needing any plugs or anything.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a wonderful book and it gives you, it's very non-complicated, easy.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: Pick it up at the used bookstore for 20 bucks or something, and then just follow the easy steps.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I did.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And when I got to the end of the 12-week transformation, I was a completely different person.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I sold this other business that I'd been working on, that I'd wear a suit to work and so forth, an entrepreneurial thing.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, my wife said, That business is gonna kill you.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Why don't you become a personal trainer?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because there was literally 20 people that in this little gym called Busby's Total Fitness, it's not even in business anymore.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were watching me go through, you know, this process.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: And after about six weeks, people were like, What are you doing?
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I honestly don't know what or why I'm doing it.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just following, I'm making, making a cake, following the recipe.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so literally, when I had finished that, there were 20 people that wanted me to train them.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, well, you know, just get the book and do it yourself like I did.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they go, No, no, you seem to know what you're doing here.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, I sold the publishing business.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: This was a God thing.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: There was a competitor.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Hey Chip, do you want to buy my business?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, What are you selling it for?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I said, X.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: He bought it the next week, so got that out of the way.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_00: Went to the Cooper Institute in Dallas, got certified, and in January of 20, uh, 2000, I literally had those 20 people that wanted me to train them.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: They actually paid me money and said, Okay, you're a certified trainer, we want you to train us.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so all I did was run them through the same process.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so anyway, I'm kind of um doing a little weave here.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: But coming back to it, if you get that book and do it, you'll notice that you'll start having a more positive attitude.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: You won't be um, you know, you won't be thinking about the negative things.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I went through a depressed uh time, um, I remember growing my beard out all straggly.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was it was a bad time, but I finally got fed up and I said, Okay, this is the line, this is where I Want to be and I'm not going here.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And once I made that determination, that actually worked.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you start feeling that it's like, nope, those thoughts bring you down.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let's focus on something positive.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Let's work out.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Let's realize we're sons and daughters of God and children of the light.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, things like that.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I think um being able to tap into your why.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like I know you have a t-shirt at the studio that says know your why.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, for me, I'm an older mom.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: I'm what they call AMA, uh, advanced maternal age, and they made it really scary.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the medical community does.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: They made it very scary.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, my why is I've got a younger son and I want to be, you know, fit, to be able to paddleboard with him, or, you know, to at least be able to walk to a band concert and have someone know I'm his mom and not his grandma, you know.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_02: So I stay strong and I stay fit.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I right now am working, you know, with you and your crew to make sure that fitness is is programmed to him as a young ape, you know, that he's thinking about how his body moves and how to exercise safely and how to eat right.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, we've been working with Grayson the last two years and we've watched him, I don't know, grow eight inches and put on 40 pounds.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, he's been doing that kind of under uh the get aged fit, you know, umbrella.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_02: So that's been a huge blessing as well.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: So, Theo, I would love for you to dive into your love of community, but specifically your marketing, like what you've done to get out into the community, because we have a lot of people that are listening that are local business owners and they want to be known, liked, and trusted in their community.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: They want their brand to be a household name.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even before your rebranding, you were a household name.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like you were out there with your likeness, was in all of the ads.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Everyone knew who you were.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_02: You would walk into a restaurant and you have a big physique and bodybuilder and all that.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like people know you and then knew you.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: And now you've pivoted it to maybe not being in all of your ads.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: And you've got myself and and James, we're on the side of your building, we're on your website, we're on in your ads.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: You are our avatars.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: We are.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_02: Can you speak to like just your mindset about local marketing and like what pivots you made to rebrand and get yourself out in the community because you have attracted um exactly what you set out to attract?
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like one of the things we wanted to do was get a little bit of a younger skew, right?
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: To make sure that we were pulling 35, 45, uh, not just the, you know, maybe over 60.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so to talk to all of that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I was um a little bit younger and doing bodybuilding, you kind of have this little ego about how great you are and how great you look, which is okay.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: But so that's what I was promoting in the beginning, like 12-week transformation, and we're gonna get you in the best shape of your life.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be shredded, you're gonna, you know, uh change your mind, change your body, change your life, that type of thing.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I was promoting.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: And as uh people get older beyond their 40s and maybe 45 or so, they're not so interested in a uh fancy um physique transformation as they are, you know, some of the more health benefits, balance, flexibility, gaining muscle so that they don't fall and break a hip and things like that.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: So um I think Laura, you helped me with that too in some of the rebranding.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh but so I just started changing to that and I started uncomplicating my ads and just have like uh one thing.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: But the biggest thing that I've done that has increased um the amount of people that come in here is I almost hate to say it, is pain points.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like in the top of all of our ads, it says uh gaining fat, losing muscle, need accountability, all these things that when I do the consultations for new people coming in to check out our facility, uh, and that's what their concerns are.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, people are gonna re respond more to fixing something that hurts rather than wow, we have a great facility, we're super nice people, and they're like, whatever, you know, it's not fixing anything.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so so what we did, we we did that, and then we started putting like a little bit older people in the ads, and the fact that they had lost weight and done really well.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: And then we started getting even like decrepit people coming in, which is okay, we'll work with them, but we wanted a little bit more of a balance.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that's when I when I saw that picture of you and James, and it was like perfect, the perfect age, the perfect nice-looking people in their 50s and fit and just exuding love and happiness.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we switched to that, and um, that's when we really, like you mentioned earlier, that's when we really started to get a more dynamic uh cross-section.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the older people like being around the younger people, and the younger people like being around the old, if the younger people are training here and not at some fancy place, you know, for kids or for young people, you know, with all the loud music and everything, then they actually like older people.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a nice, it's a nice blend that way.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I totally forgot what your question was.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: Just about how you've pivoted to make sure that you're known, liked, and trusted in the community and what you've done to get.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know also getting into community impact was a big thing because community impact goes citywide and it's very well read.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_02: Getting into the local Georgetown, you've got the back cover that goes to new people that are coming in from out of town and out of state.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: They don't have anything that's very effective for us too.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: The the be local, um, you know, on the back cover.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's uh people have mentioned that when they come in.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's funny, a lot of the phone numbers, you know, when people fill out the the um health history and their contact information, a lot of the phone numbers aren't 512.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's people that's coming in new.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: So your magazine is um very helpful in attracting those people when they're looking for something, you know.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: The one thing about the word get age fit, when I was thinking about a name for the company, I was at uh GoDaddy, and I'm like, okay, get age fit, of course that's gonna come out red, it's not available.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it came out green, this is available.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, oh my gosh, and got it, you know, and all of that.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so everybody that comes in here, I asked them, like, why did you come in here?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: You know, what was it motivating you?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: And they go, honestly, Theo, we like all your before and after pictures, and we like all that stuff, but it's the name Get Age Fit.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: That just resonated with us.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like that would be something that would be kind of more for us.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And so I really um, you know, by the grace of God, really kind of lucked out on finding that name and and and uh having that um idea.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: So when you're first starting out, like I'm trying to help my daughter who's a personal trainer at another gym.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um she worked for me for about three years, and then she wanted to, you know, do more of her young people building up your glutes type of exercises that the young people want to do.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_00: But anyway, so I got into this thing called the Georgetown View because it was cheaper and it had a mailbox distribution.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just a pickup at the at the Chamber of Commerce or whatever.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um, so that's what I did for many years.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: They go, as long as you don't miss a month, we'll keep you at the$800 a month level.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: But if you miss and come back the next month, it's double.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was what motivated me to just keep that full page ad out there for, you know, six years, I guess it was.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had run a little ad in community impact and you know, like a quarter page, and I think I got one call in six months.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just kind of had this mindset, and that doesn't work.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: So I met with the community impact people and I went ahead and did a half page, and sometimes we do full pages.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that is, like you were saying, Laura, that's really the phenomenal thing.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you have the money to invest in that, it's gonna come, ROI is gonna come back, you know, big time.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's some, it's a it's a format that people like and trust.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just a fluff thing.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're also in the Sun Rays magazine for Sun City, which is a big retirement uh retirement community here in Georgetown.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_00: And um, and then we have a lot of people that come from around the lake and downtown and and um so forth.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's basically been the advertising um up until now.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: But what my next thrust is, I just turned 72, which is a new life cycle.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: You can figure you have a new life cycle every 12 years, so 12 times whatever equals 72.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm starting fresh, and what we're doing is a YouTube channel, and um going to go ahead and share some of those things that hopefully I can help people get started, give them um, you know, break some of the myths that people are operating on, and it's not giving them the results or the happiness, and you know, just do that.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then we have an actor, uh Will Roberts, uh, he's a trainer, but he's also been doing my filming, and we have a video editor, and we're getting ready to launch at some point, maybe in the next six months, a 12-week transformation challenge nationwide.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody goes like, hey Theo, um, when are you gonna open up a GetH Fit in Miami, in Bozeman, in Chicago?
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Do you realize how expensive this is?
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna do that.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what we're what we're gonna do is the next best thing um and offer the the full um spectrum, kind of like Body for Life did in the day, but like more an advanced version.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: And hopefully we can inspire a lot more people to do that virtually.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's great.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to you for you to speak.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: We kind of before you even started our interview, we were talking about all this amazing technology, the fact that we can jump on and have a podcast.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: We don't have to be like a remember the old days, it was like radio and TV and newspaper, and if you couldn't afford that, you were you were out.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: But now, because of technology, even the smallest business, the the most you know, novice entrepreneur can use tools to use, you know, to share their voice online to the world.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I remember when I first met and you and got familiar with the Get Age Fit Fit brand, I was one of those people that said, you we need a get age fit in every city in the country, but that is very expensive.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: So I love that you're doing a YouTube channel.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: I love that you're using your voice to like reach a wider audience and you're gonna inspire a lot of people.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: And those YouTube videos live on, you know, for the next generation.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: That's a living legacy.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's pretty neat.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_00: We I did do TV advertising back in the day, like for about six months.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it was really more a semi-branding kind of thing.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't really bringing in people that said, Hey, I saw your TV ad, and you know, that's why I came in.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like that.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I found that the print ads, and I know that the YouTube um is going to be good because if people know, like, and trust you, it's funny.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: My whole life, you know, if people don't know me, they think I'm a sort of a jerk, you know, looking from beyond, big guy, bald head, who does he think he is, you know?
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: But once people get to know me, they know that I'm a very heart person.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: You are and um love is is really important and things like that.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so um, that's what I want to convey in this.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then that way when people are thinking about coming to Get Ace Fit, they're like they already kind of know me and they know the brand and stuff like that.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: So when you and I first started working together, you were already using print to reach the audience.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: So you already believed in the power of print, and then we've layered on more print.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: We know that print is the most trusted form of medium.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Trent and I, working in marketing and media professionally, we run into a lot of business owners that say, I don't do print, I only do digital.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we all know that digital, especially with AI coming online, is like even you have to be even more skeptical of what you see online.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: Can you speak to why you started with print all those years ago, why you've kind of doubled down on print to help you build your brand as a trusted local resource?
• 34:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I've tried other things.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I did postcards with postcard mania, you know, that's very expensive.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've just found the best results for the investment with print.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of there's, you know, if you're doing a TV ad or you're doing something like that, you know, it's a lot of stuff that you've got to get together and and do.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: But with an ad, um, you know, I just sit down on my little Mac computer and use InDesign and then create create an ad, you know, based on some of the stuff that you showed me, Laura.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just found it simple to do.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: You can change up your message.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know, I really don't know if it's better to keep the same ad all the time, but I change up the ads every month or every couple of months.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: And um, that seems to be effective.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I just like it because I can put out whatever I want to.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like if I want to announce a two-for-one special, which we're running right now, um, or if I want to uh announce, you know, a$500 credit towards a 12-week transfer, whatever I want to do, um, that's what I can do, that's what I do.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what I like about that.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And it's kind of worked over the years, but I'm I'm ready to to you know expand a little bit beyond that as well.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: I do use AI as well, too.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like in my little bio I sent you, I wrote the bio and I said, you know, I've watched thousands of hours of YouTube videos.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_00: Well, when I ran it through AI, they didn't even mention YouTube.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: They just mentioned the other, you know, they they have a way of saying things.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then um I went through, and if it seemed too like it was written by by AI, I went ahead and kind of personalized a little bit more.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely think um AI is is pretty cool.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: I know James, your trainer, um, he has an AI like coach or something, and he'll ask him anything, and the coach will go, Okay, when you're running, you need to do this and you need to, you know, plant your feet.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, James has really taken it to the next level with uh using AI as a personal coach.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's he actually inspired me to do the same as my AI Ray, R-A-E, inspired by The Force Awakens, the main heroine in the Force Awakens Star Wars movie.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the idea that this is a force for good.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_02: And I use her as a fitness coach, a wellness coach to be a better mom, to be a better business owner, to do a better job connecting with my clients.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I now am teaching AI classes for the local chamber of commerce and the local downtown Georgetown Association.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: So AI is absolutely a major tool in the world of marketing.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: And ChatGPT can make marketing easy and fun as long as you know how to prompt it so that you get back responses that are on brand.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: Because if it sounds like AI and it doesn't sound like you, then you're actually hurting yourself, right?
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I love helping business owners learn how to use Chat GPT for their marketing.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's chat, you know, AI is becoming the matchmaker, you know.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Find the best personal trainer for me based upon who I am.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, it just matches you up.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty neat.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a online marketer that's been around for a while named Frank Kern.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: He said what he did is he went and copied all of his emails, and Frank has a real unique way of like just click on this thingy over here, you know, it's he's got his own way of saying things.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then he um he ran that through AI, and then so he automates his emails that he sends out, and it sounds just like Frank because AI has, you know, figured out how he talks and how he communicates.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean the sky's the limit on on that, but um, you know, I always don't want to lose I don't want to lose the heart flame in in it too much, but I I don't think we will.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because that's rooted in who you are and the creator, most of all.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we always like ending our episodes with a question to give you the opportunity to really speak to the audience, um, to really share with them if you can think of the one thing you would offer someone today who's standing at the edge, maybe they're standing at the fence, or in some cases maybe they've been thrown over the fence and they're trying they're in the they're in the wilderness running by themselves at the moment and not knowing what the next step is.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_01: But what would you encourage people in that situation, afraid maybe to take the next step?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, well, the foundation is always going to be prayer.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: Get yourself out of the way and let God show you what to do.
• 39:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you've got to take action, like is um false evidence appearing as real.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: So you don't want your fear to s uh to stop you, you know, feel feel the fear and do the thing.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so you'll find out like it'll be scary at first.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_00: So just do something small, not too intimidating, and then build from there, and you'll get confidence um in the fact that when you face your fears and act anyway, you know, God and the Holy Spirit will work for you.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like before this podcast started, I was nervous, and but I'm always nervous before I speak.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then once I the camera's on or I'm I'm giving a speech or something, it's just a flow.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's um, you know, that it just comes out, you know, how you want it to.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: So basically, you just don't worry about if you're nervous or whatever, just do the next little thing and make sure you're praying about it.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: This may sound a little bit weird, but every morning I get up about two to three hours early before I have to before I'm here at at GetHit, and I name, you know, God wants you to be specific in your prayers.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I name all the personal trainers, I name all 150 clients, I name the landlord, I name my CPA, I name my friends, my family, everything, and then I ask for God's will in all of those things that I've asked for.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you always want to qualify it, you know, not my will, but thine be done, right?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, that may be a little fanatical for some people, but for me, you put a little bit of time up front, and then you don't have to schlog through all the problems during the day.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so that would be my advice is just to just to get started and watch videos of people that are successful or people, there's tons of stuff on YouTube that can help you, you know, develop the right mindset to break through.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then talk to uh people such as yourselves and um take advantage of your knowledge and expertise.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um definitely got me through like the grand opening and marketing and brand books and you know, the whole thing that I had like no idea what to do.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, hire a professional, hire an expert, you know, to help you.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_00: I remember I went to GSD and which they do ads, they're in Austin, they do ads for like Coca-Cola and everything.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_00: So as a naive young entrepreneur, I went in there and I said, you know, I I need some help.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they're like, uh, this is GSD and M.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we'll recommend somebody that works out of their kitchen table for you.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: But um, so you live and learn.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: But it's fun, it's really fun.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, it's not about happiness so much.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: I I guess happiness really comes from feeling that you're doing what God put you here to do.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I and you know, when I get from God, like when God says to me, or I get the sense that he's saying to me, Will you do this for me?
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and the answer is always yes, as long as you don't leave me hanging.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, be willing to take off um chunks of things that seem challenging to you.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: And God's a pretty big God, so you can definitely get through it.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: You have been an inspiration to me personally for years now.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that you're an inspiration to so many people in our community.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think after our audience gets a chance to see you speak on this podcast, you're gonna be an inspiration to them as well.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: So, where can they learn more about you?
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_02: Where can they follow you?
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_02: Give us all the deets.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, probably the best place is to go to our website at getagefit.com.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, then all the contact information and all that stuff is in there.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think we have Instagram and YouTube and all that stuff.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'd have to talk to Maria, she handles that, but mainly our website.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thank you, Theo, for taking time to share your wisdom and your spirituality and your entrepreneurial journey with us today.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: We're so grateful.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, be blessed.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you too.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you all.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: Now it's time for the break-free blueprint.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: Three key takeaways you can carry into your week to help live a life unbridled.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: Wow, Trent, that was amazing, as all of our guests are.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'd love to kind of just talk through, I think, the big three takeaways.
• 43:58
  SPEAKER_02: The first that I heard was.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Faith.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_02: Theo is so spiritual.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_02: Faith is the foundation of his life and his business, right?
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_02: But action has been the key to his success, right?
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_02: Theo built Get Age Fit, not from a business playbook.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_02: In fact, he was very clear to tell us that I'm a personal trainer.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not trained in running a business, but from prayer, obedience, and what he calls that red light, green light thing from God, right?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: Whether to move forward or stop.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_02: Um he shared that every major decision, especially the leap to open this big 8,000 square foot facility that he's in now was fueled by divine prompting and spiritual surrender.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_02: But he didn't stop at prayer.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_02: He moved forward in faith, one small, brave step at a time.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, prayer is that main action step.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, sometimes we may think that, well, when we pray, there's nothing that it's only something that we're doing and it doesn't cause anything.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing else happens.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it does happen.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, God steps in and makes things happen, not exactly according to we what we want, right?
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: But prayer, as he said towards the end of the our talk, is he prays for everyone before he goes in to work with them.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what it does is changes his heart towards them and thus their heart towards their clients.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: So he's leading by praying, having faith in the unseen, which he doesn't know what the outcome's gonna be of his prayer and action.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why faith is so important.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that that that kind of takeaway is that uh an unbridled creative, um, Theo is the epitome of an unbridled creative, is that the unbridled creative's heartbeat, their spiritual alignment precedes business strategy, precedes marketing strategy, right?
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_02: So for our listeners that might feel fear or stuck or waiting for clarity, you know, Thori Theo's reminder to start with prayer is a is a great first step, right?
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: The second thing that I took away was strength isn't about aesthetics, it's about freedom, right?
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_02: He works in fitness and he helps people, especially as people age, to feel strong in their bodies, right?
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_01: Here I thought it was all about the six-pack.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_02: In the old days, maybe.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_02: His mission is to help people reclaim their energy, their vitality, their dignity, especially as you know, the decades go by.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: And he pours into others.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, his brand is built for clients ages 35 to 85 who want to travel, hike, play with their grandkids, and live life on their own terms.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_02: It's not about the shredded abs, it's about the bones, the strong bones, the healthy hearts, and being able to climb the stairs at, you know, the museum in Italy the next time they're on a trip rather than needing an elevator.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: So true.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: And what he did at age 47, you know, that life change at the time that people aren't even thinking about that.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: Most people are thinking about getting fit when they're younger because they're trying to press the girls or guys, right?
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but instead it's for a better quality of life.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: And it makes a huge difference.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: It really does.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: Mentally, physically, everything goes together.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: God created it that way.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and he's also challenging the traditional fitness industry that rewards that hustle culture and the aesthetic driven narrative, right?
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_02: But what Theo is championing is joy, love, hope, functional wellness.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think for us as entrepreneurs, uh, it's a powerful metaphor to how to build something sustainable for your business, not just something that looks good on the outside.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: Such a good point.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yep.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: And the third thing I took away was that community is the secret ingredient to real transformation.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Theo said it simply uh the fourth pillar of transformation is community.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's really, in his words, love.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I get H Fit, small break, small victories are celebrated out loud, encouragement flows freely, clients become family.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: The culture didn't happen by accident.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_02: He he prays over it, it's protected and it's practiced daily, right?
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like even in his marketing, he prioritized human connection over vanity metrics, relying on print as an important part of his marketing strategy to be known, liked, and trust trusted in his community so that his brand can be featured and he can connect with real clients, telling real stories and have real transformation.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know what's interesting about that?
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: The first thought I had was in that reflection about community being the secret ingredient.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: You know, when you think about personal transformation, that word in itself, you're transforming yourself, right?
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_01: So for the goal to be community as a secret, what that proves is that it's not about self and it shouldn't be.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's about serving others.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you are healthy yourself, then it enables you to be able to serve others.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I was thankful that he talked about and encouraged, encouraged those who've dealt with depression or currently deal with depression or anxiety.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's the often rooted in not just bad thinking, but bad health too.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because our God created us in such a unique way that when you go out for a run, your body changes.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_01: There's things that are happening in your body chemically that happen.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that's the way God created it.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's not because there's no God and we got to count on our bodies and and what we have control over, but God created it.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: So we have to work with what God created.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then to serve others and build community, that's the body of Christ.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: Working together as one, as you know, some one person's skilled in one area, a little finger, I always say, and the other person's the thumb, you know, and the arm and the leg.
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we all have to work together.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: And we may not have the same function or agree with each other, but we have to work together.
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that was such a great point.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: And that's rooted in love, which is unselfish.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: And to be an unbridled creative, by the way, isn't to be selfish and self-centered, that I want to do my thing.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_01: It's actually the opposite.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm so glad he mentioned that.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because when you're in community, when we say all the time about joining the herd, that's being in community, that's running alongside others who feel unselfish the same way and doing what God's gifted them to creatively do in life.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_02: Well, and I think that you know, being in community is this big take takeaway from Theo, that it's a blueprint for uh trust-driven growth and success in your life and your business, right?
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like whether you're building a brand, a team, or a movement, people stay when they see when they feel seen, known, valued.
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: And that's exactly what Theo's done in this brand.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: Community is not just a bonus of being at GetHFit.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's the catalyst that has helped get fit grow.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: And Theo's story proves that love scaled, um, that a love scaled business is a real powerful um business worth building.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love it.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, thanks to everybody for joining us today, and we'll see you next time.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for listening to Be Locally Love.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_02: We hope this episode sparked ideas, encouragement, and a deeper desire to get involved in your community.