Barbell Shrugged - Spotting Trends And How To Use Them To Your Advantage — Real Chalk #69

Episode Date: April 2, 2019

In this week's episode, I talk about how important it is to notice where the trends of fitness are going and have gone. Being the first to market is always the name of the game and no one likes playing catch up once they realize it’s too late.   As someone who’s always been ahead of the curve, listen in on what made me make particular shifts in my business or personal brand.   Have you been wondering where everything is going? Want to make sure you’re doing everything you can to stay ahead? Then you’re going to love this episode.   This entire podcast is backed with personal stories of success, google statistics, and a few big name drops for reference.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/rc-fischer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ @bioptimizers: www.BiOptimizers.com/shrugged  “shrugged” to save 37% @vuori - www.vuoriclothing.com “SHRUGGED25” to save 25% storewide @whoop: https://www.whoop.com - "Shrugged" for 15% off a WHOOP ► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe 📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here- http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals.  Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini. We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast. Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here: SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/ barbellshruggedpodcast TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

This week's episode is going to be brought to you by BioOptimizers. You guys have heard me talk about BioOptimizers a few times now. These are basically the guys that create the probiotics that help us absorb all the expensive food that we put into our bodies. So if you're spending that little extra dough on the wild-caught, or you're spending a little extra dough on that grass-fed this or that, it's always nice to know that all that protein is going into the right place. So you do have to have a whole bunch of something called protease in your probiotics that have to be alive, they have to be good, it has to be a good solid product, and your body

will absorb a lot more of those proteins. This company, BioOptimizers, I actually had them on my show. It's called Optimize Your Life, if you guys look back. And the guys are really, really knowledgeable, and they hit so many topics on the show. That was just – it was an insane show. Like you should listen to that just to know more about probiotics. I did a lot of studying before I went into it, and I had a lot of questions for them. And it's probably one of my most educational shows that I've had ever. So you're going to learn a ton on that show. So the bio optimizers have given us a special code. You guys go to biooptimizers.com slash shrugged and you guys get 20% off for using code shrugged. And their website is B-I-O-P-T-I-M-I-Z-E-R-S.com.

These guys are super legit. I think you guys should give their product a go. It's like one of the only things that I bring with me everywhere I go because I feel like when I eat a ton of protein, which is like all the time because I'm a massive meat eater, I feel like it doesn't help my stomach get all like uncomfortable, which it usually does after I've done anything, and I can't work out for a while.

So I usually can work out an hour after I eat. Now I can work out like 30 minutes after I eat, and I'm good to go. Our next sponsor is Whoop, W-H-O-O-P. You guys have seen the whoops on either my wrist or a lot of the top athletes around the world right now. I've even seen LeBron James wearing one of these things. Brooke Wells talks about it all the time. It's a huge thing now. Actually, for a long time, I hated them because everybody was looking at it like, I'm only so-and-so recovered and whatever. And I'm like, oh my God, who cares? But then I eventually met the owners of the company and they gave me one to try out for a little while. And now it's one of those things that I kind of

just, I feel like it'd be weird not to have it. It kind of, it would kind of bother me. So what I really like about it is it doesn't just tell me how much sleep I'm getting. It tells me like the quality of my sleep and like some things that I could do to optimize my performance even better. And you don't necessarily have to be an athlete to optimize your performance. You can optimize your performance just by getting better sleep and getting to work and feeling better and all those little things that encompass better sleep and better recovery and just the way you feel throughout the day. So I really do think that the Whoop is definitely something that is worth it. It's on a monthly plan now. I can't remember exactly. I think it's like $20 or $30 a month. So if you guys go to whoop.com slash shrugged,

you guys can go on there, use code shrugged, S-H-R-U-G-G-E-D, and you get 15% off. That's a pretty good deal considering they're already cheap and they don't do deals. So they've given us a deal to give to you guys. So if you listen to the show, you guys are getting hooked up. All right, that's the sponsors for the show. I want to get into the show right now. So basically, this show is my interpretation of just fitness trends. And it's not only the fitness trends that you should be aware of, but it's exactly what is going on. These are factual things that are happening, and they're things that are going to happen regardless of whether you like it or not. over the world and people are spending less than $100 a month to use a bike that they can use in their house with probably one of their favorite trainers of all time at a way, way cheaper cost than it would be to go to that gym.

So you're seeing these bikes actually go all over the place. I know they've hit actually more members now on their online program than SoulCycle has in their like 90 locations that are worldwide. So these are just a couple numbers that I looked up to show you guys some of the things that are happening in the trend world that's not only applicable to SoulCycle and to Peloton. This is applicable to all of us who are in the fitness industry. If you're listening to this show, you probably enjoy fitness to a point where you're potentially making money on it, or maybe you do own a gym, maybe you're a trainer, or maybe you're just really, really into fitness and you like to geek out on what's going on out there. So those are all great things to be tuned into this podcast because figuring out where these trends are going and what's happening, obviously the first person that's there is always going to make the most money,

one. And two, it gives you an ability to predict how much money you're going to be able to make in the future. And it also gives you the ability to understand that this is something, Jesus, my mom was just calling me. This also gives you the opportunity to understand that there's things that need to be looked out for at all times for you guys to be able to succeed at your highest level. So first thing that I want to talk about is a story that was very, very interesting to me. So it was once I started my gym, and CrossFit was still really, really hot,

and it was something that I couldn't get past. It was the only thing that I knew. I wanted to do CrossFit the best way that I could for my members. So what that was was it wound up being a program that had a lot more in it, not necessarily like a longer WOD or a harder WOD, but it just had more in it to fill the class period. Because I'll never forget watching people get done with a workout and just doing more stuff. And it always bothered me because some people didn't want to do more stuff because it felt like, you know, they didn't want to be rude. Some people didn't want to do more stuff because they were actually dead. And some people didn't want to do more stuff just because

they didn't want to do more stuff. Or they weren't, they didn't know if they were supposed to or whatever. So I started making workouts that literally everybody couldn't wait to leave when it was over. And I would never do like Fran for the workout for the day. And that would be it. Because I'm aware that everyone's going to finish between three and 10 minutes. And then we still have, even if we did strength, we still have like another 10 minutes left. So I might do something that's like a Fran style workout for like five minutes and give them a rest and then go another five minutes, give them a rest, go another five minutes, something like that to fill that time.

And what it did was it started to just create a workout that everybody was looking for. So like everybody in my area, when I first started my gym in Orange County, there was like 11 or 12 gyms in the area. It was crazy. It was like, there was, there was a ton of them gyms in the area it was crazy it was like there was there was a ton of them and i live in um like newport beach costa mesa area if you know where that is so there was 11 or 12 gyms in the area and then soon as i opened the first thing that i did was i opened the nicest facility that i could potentially open i actually didn't even want to open one unless i had X amount of dollars. And which at the time I asked for a million bucks from my investors. I said, you know

what? There's no point in doing this unless we're going to do it different than everybody else. And I remember seeing a couple of gyms pop up around the, around the world because of Instagram, Solace and Brick and a couple of these other ones that had huge operating costs. And I was like, man, those gyms are cool. And everybody talked about those gyms. They wanted to go to those gyms. But I don't remember like Solace having, you know, humongous games athletes or this or that. They were known because their gym was super cool. And they had all the best equipment and they had this and they had that and they were known for that. So it was important to me to be known for having the best gym around. And then as soon as I did open my doors, it was very important to me to be known for the

best programming around. And as that became the norm in the area, now I'm around only three gyms. So there's me and three. So I've eliminated about nine to ten gyms just by having a better product and better program. Now you're like, all right, that's not a trend. You just created something better. No, it kind of is a trend because in the beginning, CrossFit was these little shit boxes that were like 50, 60 grand. And everybody put the worst equipment in it. They had the worst rental space ever. And it was cool because it was rugged and it was this, and it was that. So that is all good. And that was what was happening then. And I'll never forget opening my gym and having people, you know, hashtag, I don't need marble bathrooms to go

to regionals or hashtag, you know, we don't need this or we don't need that. We don't need locker rooms and people that were coming at me in the area that they just weren't really happy with what was going on. But I saw that people wanted to spend money in CrossFit and people were buying, you know, five pairs of Metcons a week and they wanted to buy like all these different things and knee sleeves and shirts and all this stuff. They didn't mind spending the money. So what started happening was a lot of gym owners, they saw that they were willing to spend more money. So they were willing to put more money into their business.

And the ones that are surviving right now, they dumped all their money into their business and made it super, super cool. So around this time, you also have a couple other big names that are happening right now okay hold on so before i get into this so the gyms are starting to get cooler they have to to keep up with what's going on and now you have functional fitness as in general is just exploding in the limelight of business right now so you you have functional fitness, you have CrossFit, you have Barry's Bootcamp, you have Orange Theory. It's all these kind of functional things with a bunch of cardio mixed in with weightlifting. And now we're all fighting for this space. So because this is a space now, it's a very popular one and they're all over the place. So now the next step becomes finding more of your niche. How do you niche yourself even more

to become more successful, but also make sure you're doing the right thing? So now at this time, I start to notice that social media is going to be the king of all things. And even Gary Vee said this before it was even a thing. He started on YouTube and he started doing all of his things. If you guys don't know who Gary Vee is, that's weird. But Gary Vee is Gary and then V is V-H-E-E. You can look him up. Gary Vaynerchuk, he started a wine company and now he's into all these crazy things. But he talked about social media and how powerful it is. And then I start to realize that that is the most important thing. So when I opened my gym,

that became the most important thing to me, not because of that, but because I could notice that what was happening. And there was kids and stuff with hundreds of thousands of followers making all this money. So if you're creating a gym, you want to create a vibe. You want to create something that's going to pull in these people who are on social media. And the age demographic that I'm trying to get into my gym is on social media. So now I'm on social media a lot. I start to notice the craze of the EMOM, every minute on the minute. Every minute on the minute is like – it's getting huge. I almost like – I really wanted to open an every minute on the minute is like it's getting huge i almost like i really wanted to

open a every minute on the minute gym and i thought that it was going to be like the next big thing and i just kept seeing all these every minute on the minute workouts and it it took you have all these people who are afraid to go to the red line so they make really easy imams and then you have people who are gnarly and they make the hardest EMOMs ever. So it kind of is right in the middle for like a lot of people. It's like a perfect workout. And if you were to have a gym like that,

it would be very easy to scale, you know? Maybe now you're not scaling the movement now. Now you're just scaling the reps. It's like 10 on the minute for you, 15 on the minute for you. Very easy. So I'm thinking about it in my head. I'm like, man, this is really cool.

So I go to patent the word emom and and i and i couldn't and i found out who the person's name that was on the patent was was jason kalipa so you guys know jason kalipa he owns norcal fitness or nc fit sorry and he has a ton of gyms and he's very successful and he has been in the space forever. So now I'm thinking to myself, okay, like I'm on the right track because I'm following all these various successful people. I'm seeing what they're doing. That's how I become successful, right? So I'm following these trends. I'm seeing what's happening. That actually gave me motivation that I was on the right track when I found out that Jason had patented the word EMOM.

And now I'm like going crazy trying to figure out what I could do with this. But in the midst of it, I found out a couple other things that changed over like the next six months during this time that I'm going to talk about in a minute. And it just changed the whole game completely. So the idea of having something called EMOM on top of my gym was something that was lingering in my head for a while. So let's just leave that carrot there. Now we have other gyms like Comp Train with Ben Bergeron, and we have CrossFit Invictus. So these are the other two huge names. You also have Misfit in there too, but they're a little bit later. So you have Misfit and you have CompTrain, and they're real big,

and you hear these names all the time. They happen to get a lot of the competitors that go to the games and such, which helps their following and so forth. But Invictus, if I believe, was the first one to actually start an online program so once they started an online program like everybody was following it and then all these other online programs came out and everybody else started following those so as those came out more and more and more and more came out and now there's all this free content everybody's checking out all these workouts but as you get to a point where you build a relationship with the workout,

with the person who's making them or whatever, all of a sudden you really want to keep following that. And that was when I think I want to say Invictus was the first person who was like, you know what, now it's like $40 a month I want to say is what they first came out with. And it was a shocker. A lot of people were like, shit, like they're charging money now that's nuts so um I didn't think anything of it I stopped following it no big deal and then a little bit farther down the road I'd heard someone say something about how they were making like seven figures on just their online programming and I was like whoa like that's crazy but you

think about it and there's all these CrossFitters, they all want to spend money. They all like these types of workouts. And all of a sudden, they don't mind spending the extra money on it. So a lot of people bought it and they were the only ones. And then I know CompTrain now is seeing similar progress as well. So there's all of a sudden, the online world is starting to grow a little bit. And then one day, I have a conversation with Jason Kalipa in my gym again, like a few, maybe like a year later. And he was asking me about how my gym was doing and some of the best things that I had going on. You know, he's always talking about business stuff. And I was telling him how my online programming was, you know, potentially more successful than my gym was

just because of the amount of revenue that was coming in and the hype around it. And you have more people who can see it and all that because the gym can only handle so many people in the door. And I saw like a light go on in his head. And it either was because he had been working on something similar and he looked at me and he like clapped his hands and like pointed at me and was like, yes, this is like what I'm talking about. So I didn't really get to dive into it with him at the time. It was 5 in the morning. But I could tell it was either something he was working on or it was something that he just didn't realize that he could be doing yet. And coming from someone who at the time, more successful than I am, probably still is, in terms of owning a gym, and he has way more gyms than I do. I solely like to just have one and then everything else I do is online. But for him,

I think that it was something that was something that he was really had his eye on for a while or was potentially just want to get into at that moment after he heard me talk about it. But it was another time where he came into my life again and showed me that someone who was a little bit above me was thinking about the same things. And it just confirmed to me that I was on the right track again. And then I decided one day that because the gym was doing so well, we were so successful as a regular gym, I just couldn't imagine opening another gym.

Like the thought of opening another gym to me was the most terrifying thing in the world. I was thinking to myself like, oh my God, all the hours that I coached all these classes and I didn't have coaches and then I had to get this set up and this set up. But now that I know what to do, I feel like it would be easier but still would be pain in the butt. And I don't necessarily want to hire a manager and all these other people to kind of put things in place and maybe potentially lose money for a while before it makes money. And God knows where everything's going. So the gym, super, super famous on Instagram.

Everybody's always asking me about it. Everybody's always asked what the workouts are. I just by chance, because I was so busy, I had never put our workouts online on the computer. There was nothing I ever did. So as the gym became more famous, people wanted to hear the workouts more. I just remember thinking to myself one day, I was like, you know what? What if I just put all these workouts online and I charge $20 a month and I make a different program for business owners that is more emulates what I do exactly inside the gym and

helps them. And they can see the programs that I'm using that are making my gym so successful. Because remember, we had 12 gyms around. Now we only have three doing something right here. And the workouts are, if you guys have ever seen my workouts, I just think very, very different. So I was like, you know what? It takes me a lot of time. It's worth more to me than what my gym is giving me. So I decided to put them online. I made it a separate location on my Wattify account, and hundreds of people just started flooding in to do the workouts. And they would tag each other and say, man, this is the coolest workout I've ever done or whatever.

Like I love following Ryan. I love following chalk. I love, I love what this all stands for. And it got me really excited. Like now, like making workouts to me is a little bit more exciting. Like I've been doing it for five years now for the gym and it is getting very hard to be as creative as I'd like to be. I go back and look at old ones and I try to critique them, but I hate them. And then I'm like, I got to make something new because my whole style on this is changing all the time. So yeah, I just like woke up one day and was like, holy shit, like I did this cool thing. And I could have done this even longer ago, if I just kind of saw what was going on, like with Invictus and with CompTrain and with other people that were online selling programming. Because it just seems so,

it's so interesting to me, like, whenever you hear of something that is, there's only a few of them doing it, but it sounds like a good idea, that could be the start of a trend. And had I not done that trend, I, you know, I wouldn't be looking to buy a house. I'd be looking to keep renting. I would be still, you know, looking at the amount of money I'm putting in my gas tank in my car and being like, shit, that was like a hundred bucks or something like that. But I have enough financial freedom now where I'm not worried about how much a trip costs. I'm not worried about, you know, putting gas in my tank, like all these things. And it's only because I saw a trend. I didn't invent something that wasn't invented. I, you know, didn't do a whole lot of extra work. I'm, I'm making workouts that I'm already making. I'm also, I'm just tweaking them here and there for

different populations and affiliate owners and such, but it's what I'm already doing. And I'm really, really good at it. And because I know that I'm good at it, I think that other people might like it. Now, there's a way that you could think that, well, why would someone buy my stuff when Ryan's stuff's out there? Or why would someone, or even for me, why would someone buy my stuff when Ryan's stuff's out there? Or why would someone, or even for me, why would someone buy my stuff when Rich Froning's stuff is out there, when Jason's stuff is out there, when other people's stuff is out there? That is the worst way to look at it that you could ever imagine because there is so many things that connect you to a person. I can't tell you like how many times I've been in

REI and I like another brand of clothing in there because I love adventure stuff. You guys know me. And I just, I keep going back to Patagonia because I love what Patagonia stands for. I love the owner. He wasn't a world champion climber. He wasn't like this or that. He had a really cool history, but he wasn't the best climber of all time. But he created a company that, in my opinion, was the best company of all time. And he has a cool logo and just everything about it, it just steers my head straight into the Patagonia section every time. And it's because I have that relationship.

So maybe there's something about me in particular. Maybe that moment I threatened to kill a judge. You guys all thought that I was a badass and thought that was cool. Or maybe the fact that I was like this homeless person and all these great things happened to me over the years. And it's really, you know, an inspiring story for you. I hope that's why you follow me more than anything. Or maybe you, when I was an athlete and I was really good, a lot of the things that I did, people still haven't done to this day. I had 400 pound back squat for 20 and 20 reps on broken. And I've done, you know, numerous other things. I was one of the strongest athletes in the beginning with snatches and clean and jerks, different things like that. But someone eventually connects to you for a certain reason. And that is what sells them. It's not necessarily all of your, all of your academic or even your professional results.

I mean, I can't tell you how many people online are insanely successful in the nutrition realm. And they're not an actual dietitian. Like they didn't go to school and get their master's in nutrition or even their bachelor's in kinesiology or some of the best trainers right now. I shouldn't say some of the best trainers, but some of the people who are making the most money on Instagram in the fitness realm are one, not personal training. Like they're not certified in any sort of training and they don't have their degree. You know what I mean? These are things that are

part of the trend and social media in general is part of the trend. So now you have these people who are becoming personal trainers or fitness influencers, insert my quotation fingers, and they're making ungodly amounts of money now because they are part of the trend. So if you guys don't see the trend, it's very easy to get left behind and have to be trying to claw your way up. It's not to mean, it's not to say that you can't. There's nothing worse than someone right now who's like, well, I only have so many followers and I don't know what to do and I can't do that. That's not true at all. I mean, this, this last year I've met so many different kids that are 25 and under, and they hit a hundred K out of nowhere

just from posting, you know, workouts and, and being genuine and doing different things like that. And as soon as they hit a hundred K, all of a sudden they have two, three, 400K within a year just after they hit the first 100. And it's just a snowball effect. So all of a sudden, I think the birth of online programming becomes a thing. And it's that thing that everyone is trying to work towards. So now as online programming becomes a thing and people are trying to create these subscription websites or trying to create more e-books or more online content, you start to get a lot of competition. So if you go to Google and see the most searched things right now, it will be amazing to you to find out

that the number six most Googled thing right now is how to become a personal trainer. Can you believe that? So right now, Google is hundreds of millions of billions of people and devices. Of all of them, number six is how to become a personal trainer or people trying to figure out like what cert to get, how to get closer, become a personal trainer or something in that fitness realm. But trainer specifically is number six. That's insane. So now you have all

these people who realize that people are making money in fitness. They realize that this is a career now. A lot of these kids aren't even finishing school. I mean, this is something that they are going after hard. So their Instagram is business. Like they're putting as much time into their Instagram now as you did when you were in college and you put that into your classes, into your homework, into your exams, all these things.

It's crazy to think about, but there's people putting that much effort into it. And I'm sure you've seen it before because you'll see someone put up four posts in a day with really dope captions. And you're like, how is that possible? When it's what you do all day, that's how that's possible. But not only that, they probably hide other people and stuff at certain times as well to help them out, but they had to get there first. So here's where I start to talk about where fitness is kind of going. If you are a gym owner, if you are a fitness trainer, if you own group classes in general, you're into the functional craze, you're into fitness enough to where you want to listen to this show and find out either what's happening or how can you increase your business in general.

What should you be focusing on right now? Social media, number one, 100%. You need to be showcasing your product. You need to be giving out value for free, and you need people to attach that value to your company and what your product is. Once people realize that they can go to you for valuable information all the time, now you're starting to create a little bit of a loyal following. That loyal following will eventually walk into your doors or go onto your website and buy your product. It's really that easy.

Now, giving out that content and all that stuff stuff sometimes writing it out is not that hard but getting people's attention is so now that's when you have to really start to get into like getting a dope photographer once a week or maybe he's there all the time or making a dope video once a week or you know maybe investing in a nice camera for yourself or the gym or whatever whatever you're doing a gimbal different things that we i've had different episodes about just like how to increase your content there's a whole bunch of stuff that you can buy that we talk about but a gimbal basically it's a stabilizer it doesn't let the camera shake and such and it just looks so smooth i I get excited over dumb stuff. Anyway,

these are different things that you're going to need to get people's attention so that they read your caption. Because no one's going to read your caption if it's a shitty photo off your iPhone, which sometimes can do well, but it's got to be great lighting, great this, great that, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, in the beginning, when you don't have that many followers, you need that wow factor. It's got to be dope all the time. Now, in my opinion, making it dope with filters and this and that never ever works. People actually hate those even more than a regular photo with nothing. So don't do that. Make sure you're doing professional photos, professional videos. And right now specifically, this is the thing that's happening as we speak. instagram will change their algorithm

like every couple months every year and in that when the algorithm changes your engagement changes so for me i wasn't really aware of what was happening with my instagram from like january to march and i was like i don't understand but my engagement is like literally half of normal and i started talking to different people. I met some of these younger kids I was telling you about that are 25 that are killing it. And they were telling me that the swipe is the new biggest thing right now. So now if you guys go on your Instagram right now

and you look at the people that pop up all the time and you're looking in the fitness space specifically, I guarantee you right now that all what they have been posting is a swipe feature. Now, when I mean swipe feature, I don't mean swipe up in your story. I mean swipe on the actual post. So they are either posting multiple movements in their workout. So like chest day, it'll be like bench press, flies, incline press, and you just keep swiping to the next movement, next movement, next movement. They have the entire workout right now. Those people are crushing it right now. Some of them are gaining hundreds of

thousands of followers because they realized that in the beginning. So right now, I guarantee you, again, you look, you see who's killing it. It's the swipe. Even Marcus Philly, he does the functional bodybuilding. You look at a lot of his stuff. It's not technically always videos, but even the photos, he's got all the swipes. It's another thing. I'm telling you, the people that you're looking for, the people you want to be like, I guarantee you right now, they have the swipe. And the reason for that is because if you have one video or one photo, it's not a swipe.

You can spend money on ads and boost that post. That's something that you can do anytime. So I've boosted tons of photos and videos and such and things like that, especially for all my programs that I sell. So what I think Instagram wants to do right now is they want to not penalize those people, but the people who aren't putting money into ads, they want them to shine. So they're doing swipes only. So they're not, it's not that it's only, but they're getting way better engagement than people who don't do swipes. And even on my own Instagram, I looked back at things I had that were swipes on accident. And

you know, I just, I just happened to have them like that and things that weren't. And the things with swipes, twice the engagement. So looking into crossfit or why do i keep saying crossfit instagram algorithms is very very important to your survival as well when when social media is something that's very very important to you now another thing is like where is crossfit going in In my opinion, I think CrossFit itself, like CrossFit as a brand and a competition and this and that, I think is dying. And I don't really feel all that bad to say that, but it's definitely on its way down. Now, with that being said, it doesn't mean that CrossFit training is down. I just think that the vibe of the competitor aspect, I mean, I can't even tell you how many people used to come in the gym and say they want to compete.

They come in the gym and say, you know, I want to be on TV or I want to go to the games. I never see that anymore. I never hear that anymore. Even when I travel, it's just like not a big thing. You don't hear, there's not a ton of people that care about competitor programming anymore. They want fun programming. And they want fun programming that looks good on paper. They want to get in, they want to get out, they want to get as much done in an hour, and they want to look good, and they want to be able to perform in their life. That is getting bigger and bigger and bigger.

And the word functional training really just consumes that entire conversation that I just had. So CrossFit training, functional training, still massive. And in fact, it's even bigger now than ever. Functional training right now is number three most Googled thing on Google right now, with group training being number two. So now you have group training and functional fitness, number two and number three most googled things right now on google in in the fitness realm so now if those are the two most googled things then you have to realize that your your programming is very very important so if crossfit as a sport is dying down but everything else is still big people still like that training factor

they still like the high oxygen they like the heavy weights they like it all mixed in alright, now we're getting somewhere what else is starting to pick up right now? and no one can answer me right now because I'm by myself but you start seeing the bodybuilding

starting to pull up a lot Marcus Fili's functional bodybuilding starting to pull up a lot marcus philly's functional bodybuilding you have ryan fisher myself uh the high intensity interval bodybuilding you have a lot more of the traditional bodybuilders doing like a lot more supersets more than ever which is not technically interval but it's better than sitting around for a minute or two and whatever whatever was the norm you see a lot more supersets. You see a lot more of mine and Marcus Philly's stuff all over the place. And you see traditional bodybuilders doing more CrossFit workouts. So that is a trend. I think right now in CrossFit gyms, if you don't have a little bit of a bodybuilding emphasis in

your programming, you're not like trying to build glutes. You're not trying to build people's upper bodies and stuff like that. I think you're going to start to lose some membership because I think people really care about the aesthetics right now more than ever. It used to be, you know, your time would go down on a workout. It didn't matter how you looked. You were stoked on that and that's what sold you. Fran went down, this, that. Now you want to look different. You want to get it done in a short period of time. And you want to do what is popular on Instagram, what people are seeing. So if people are seeing some of these certain movements, they're going to want to see that in the program. And especially right now, I think it's huge right now to cross the functional

fitness and the bodybuilding together. Because a lot of the people who are hardcore functional for a long time, hardcore CrossFit for a long time, they have a lot of injuries right now, their body doesn't feel all that great, and the bodybuilding sounds amazing because it's slower, it's different, and it's going to give them the results that they want. CrossFit gave people results really, really fast because people were doing a lot of volume in a short period of time. That's basically bodybuilding. You're getting a lot of reps in in a short period of time. You're exploding that muscle.

You're pushing a lot of blood to it. It's very, very similar to what CrossFit – I mean it's very, very similar to what bodybuilding is. Bodybuilding and CrossFit are very, very similar in that aspect. It depends on the workout and the person and the intensity, but for some people, they're getting crazy results because of that. Okay. So in my opinion, the trend right now, for those of you who are creating programming for someone else or yourself or your gym owner or whatever, I really think that adding the little bit of bodybuilding stuff in there is going to be clutch for your business right now. Yeah, you got to do it. I think that you can't have 15 minutes of back squatting anymore as the first strength part of your workout. It's got to

be 20 minutes with a squat and a hip thrust combo or 20 minutes with a squat and a single leg deadlift or a deadlift or another leg movement superset. I think you add a little bit more to that window, people don't talk as much, they get a lot more work done, they get better results, and it's something that they are going to be sore from, they are going to improve on. I think that's very, very, very, very crucial and very, very important. Also, because Instagram is so big, because the programming is so big, you're going to need some proof that your program works. you're going to need some proof that your program works.

You're going to need some proof that your program is cool. You're going to need some proof that people are going to want to be there. Like, why? So that's when you're getting your influence comes into play. And I hate calling people influencers, so you don't have to think of it that way. But you need people who are fucking cool in your gym or in your establishment or in your presence if you're trying to grow as a personal brand.

So having these people who have 100, 200,000 followers, maybe they have a million followers, maybe they even have 10,000, but you only have one. You need these people around doing workouts with you and showing that they're in your presence because of this. So when someone sees someone that's more popular with someone less popular, there's a reason why. They usually click on your profile.

They check you out. They kind of see what you're about, and they decide whether or not they're going to follow you. A lot of times that happens. So a lot of times I don't click on the person if they don't sound interesting enough. But if someone has something interesting to say about you, there's a very good chance that you're going to get a follow from it. Now, if you do own a business, I think it's great to let these people who show a huge influence to work out at your gym for free. Or tell them to come at certain times and take videos. Or tell them to come at certain times and do this or that.

And let them kind of do whatever they want because they're bringing people into your gym. I can't tell you how many times I would have someone famous come in the gym and then within a couple days, people will come in that would want to sign up because they either thought that person worked out there or they heard that it was a good workout.

It happens all the time. And then when that person tags the gym all the time, you get more followers on the gym. And then if you have online programming and people like what they see, now all of a sudden you have online program sales. This whole thing is like full circle. I'm like, I'm full circle this entire conversation so far. So now you're really, really paying close attention to social media. You're paying very close attention to programming. You're paying very close attention to who are the influencers in your area or the influencers in your space that you can collaborate with

and grow your business even more. You have online programming now. You have group classes being number two searched thing on Google right now. And you have these people who are searching relentlessly to become trainers. So if they're searching relentlessly to become trainers, then you have a lot more people in that online space. You have a lot more people that are going to be claiming that they're this or claiming that they're that, and they're really not. So for those of you out there who are listening to this and you're a consumer, you're not someone trying to sell. You are the consumer. What you are going to need to pay attention to is who these people really are. I think before you buy anything from anybody,

you should be looking them up always, 100% of the time. You should be trying to find out if this person was a Division I athlete, if they had some really cool education, if they got first place at some bodybuilding competition on their own, they didn't have any training because all of a sudden if they start selling training but someone trained them, it doesn't make any sense to me. Make sure there's something about them that is very paramount to just making you really, really want to buy something from them. Because there are so many other people in the space that own gyms. They've been grinding for 10, 15 years.

They know so much more than that person. And whatever information they give you, whether it's written down or you talk to them or DM, it's going to be so much better than this other young kid who probably has no idea. And what he's been doing is looking at the guy who's been grinding for 10 or 15 years and just making it better. So there's a huge amount of those people out there that I think is very, very, very, very important that you make sure that you are just making sure that they're legit. That's like the number one thing.

Everybody who has like over 100,000 followers is just pissed that there's so many people out there that have more than them because there are people that are above them that are not legit, including myself. It's always hard to find out that someone's doing insanely well who has like no idea what they're doing

or you find out someone's doing insanely well who's selling a product that they don't even believe in, that maybe they don't even write, that they don't even do. It's like over and over and over again, you find these things out and it's just heart-wrenching. So those of us who've been grinding a long time, we just get bummed on stuff like that. So I just want to make sure that you guys have all the information possible before you buy something from someone that you don't know. So another way that you guys can figure out what the next trend is and what you can do to be on top of it is to start attending more conferences. Start attending some more business meetings if you can. Like

there's a great app called Meetup, M-E-E-T-U-P. And there's people in your area who are meeting up. A lot of them are free, but they're business tech savvy people. They just want to do a brainstorming session with other people that are in either their industry or something similar. And they hang out, they get lunch, they talk. It's really, really cool. I've actually been wanting to do one for a long time. You can even meet up with people and do hikes. You can meet up with people and go walk your dogs. You can game nights. There's different things on there.

It's just random people who want to meet up for a specific reason. And sometimes there is paid big conferences. There's famous people there who you're speaking. And then it offers – I mean it requires a little money at the door, which is fine. And, um, and yeah, you can start networking. You can start meeting people who have made X amount of dollars in the space this year, which is something that blows you away. And you want to find out why. And they tell you, and it's like, oh man, I like, I saw that a couple of months ago. Like, I wasn't sure if that was a thing. It's like, dude, this guy just made a million dollars on it. You better bet your ass it's a fucking thing right now and you better get on it.

Especially if this is what puts the food on your table. This is what pays your car bill and your mortgage and all these things. Understanding these trends is huge. It breaks my heart to the point where like I literally can't even breathe when I talk to a gym owner and they want tips on how to make their gym better and they don't even have a social media account they don't have one they literally don't even own one they don't they didn't make crossfit instagram.com like you know what I mean they didn't do anything and it just blows me away because the demographic that comes in our doors as a CrossFit gym owner is literally what's on Instagram.

And not only that, Facebook is Instagram. So you better have both and you better be able to network through both, especially if you want like the over 35 crew, they're all going to be on Facebook still, sadly, but they're starting to get over to Instagram. And then there is the permanent content that is YouTube. There's a lot of things you can put on YouTube. And I've had people walk into my gym because of YouTube, which I actually just started just a few months ago. And I've had people follow me through YouTube because they found me on YouTube

and they didn't even know that I had an Instagram account. So now all of a sudden this social media thing and having a lot of content is something that is really gonna generate you a lot of business, whether it's online sales or it's going to be walking in your door. I wouldn't focus all of your energy on online sales all the time because, in the beginning, I'd still want to go to a SoulCycle class at some point and get that real life experience and actually see other people and, you know, communicate and stuff like that. And see other girls that are potentially really attractive. Anyway, and men, and men, right? If there's a girl listening to the show, sorry. So yeah, these are things that you need to be always always always aware of so i'm going to

go down the top 10 right now for the top googled trends of 2019 and number one is wearable technology number two is group training we hit that number three is functional fitness which we just talked about and then number four fitness programs for older adults, because now older adults are realizing that just by doing a few squats and doing a few little preventative bodyweight exercises for holding on to muscle mass is making all the difference and making them live longer and healthier lives. People used to get to like 70 or 80 and be like, well, this is it. But now there's people that are 70 or 80 and they're paddling from California to fucking, I don't know, Antarctica. People are doing crazy shit.

I don't know if that's happened or not, but honestly, I guarantee if I Googled it, it probably did. Number five is bodyweight training. Bodyweight training is a huge trend. How many girls do you guys know on Instagram that are like doing all these bodyweight things at a beach or in fucking Bali somewhere or, you know, in their backyard in Washington in the snow or whatever? And they have massive followings because everybody wants to work out now. It's a huge thing. And everybody wants it to be easy. Everybody wants it to be easy.

It's easy to follow an online program because you don't have to fucking do it. You go to a class, you have to do it. You buy it online, fuck that day. I'm going to check out the next day. Fuck that day. You know what? I'm not even going to work out today. It's very easy to do.

People see a bodyweight workout, the girl's ripped. All of a sudden, they're going to do the bodyweight workout. They start Googling for other bodyweight workouts. All of a sudden, they're number five on our list right now, and they are killing it. These girls are killing it with the bodyweight workouts. Guys, too. There's guys killing it with bodyweight workouts as well. But that's a trend, too.

So that makes me want to think about programming and what you guys should be looking for as fitness entrepreneurs is now all of a sudden we talked about programming but now incorporating more things that don't have a lot of heavy weights I know what you're thinking you're like but dude that doesn't build tone it doesn't make people actually look good I know fucking sadly I know and I wish every girl in the world thought that lifting heavy weights made them toned because they think that's going to make them fucking enormous and jacked. But in reality, it's the medium weight that they're lifting for high reps and creating a lot of volume is actually making them jacked. They don't even realize it. The heavier weights would actually make them look better. But anyway, yeah, that is what sells, my friend. That's what sells. And it sucks that that's what sells, my friend. That's what sells.

And it sucks that that's what sells, but sometimes you have to have a little bit of both. So maybe you have one class that has something that you don't necessarily believe in to the point where it's going to get you excited, but it gets the people excited. And that's cool. You get people excited, you're doing your job. You know what I mean? You want people to be excited about fitness. That's really what's important, right? excited, you're doing your job. You know what I mean? You want people to be excited about fitness. That's really what's important, right? And then if you do that well, you make money, which makes you happier too. But you can't do that unless you're making other people happy. So that's why

I brought that up. All right, number six, employing certified fitness professionals. People looking up freaking certificates, trying to become fitness people who aren't fitness people, and they didn't go to school to be fitness people, and they probably don't even look like fit people. It's crazy. So you got those people out there, number six on the list. They're trying to figure out how to get a piece of the pie, so you got to worry about these guys. You got to make sure that your content's better than them, and you got to make sure that you have some stories behind everything that you write so that people know who who you are where you came from and you you immediately attach that value and all of that to the person and they only think of you when it comes to that like when i was an rei and the only thing i thought of was

fucking patagonia because i just feel like the brand is dope you want people to be like ryan fisher is fucking dope dope dope this person's dope. This is why he did this. He did that. Not because he did a tricep extension into a bicep curl superset and his arms look fucking yoked because he was this and he was this and he was this and he looks like that, right? That's why. Create that story. Make your social media wrap around that. Make your brand wrap around that and you'll be ahead of the trend. All right. Damn, that sounded good. Number seven is yoga. Yoga is huge right now. Yoga is killing the game. I fucking hate yoga. I'm laughing by myself right now. Yoga fucking

sucks because it's so hard. It's actually so good for you. Good for them. Good for them for being number seven. Good for you, yoga. You are number seven on the list. You want to know why? Because motherfuckers realized that they could go to a yoga studio and lay on a floor with no equipment and spend a shit ton of money. And then some guy was like, damn, I can just rent out a space, put nothing in it, make them buy their own flooring. You can go buy your own expensive ass mat, make them clean up after themselves. And you know what? I'm actually, I'm not even going to get AC. I'm going to let that motherfucker go hot as hell. And I'm going to get paid more money than the guy with the CrossFit gym. Damn.

That guy's a fucking genius. That guy has no equipment upkeep. He literally has no bills. And he's making more money than CrossFit gyms right now for sure. Well, not all of them. But this guy, I mean, these people who own yoga studios are murdering it. How did they get ahead of the trend? Well, they started to see a lot of these people on social media start really, really getting into the yoga scene, and it became a community.

So now the yogis before social media, they were just kind of weird. But now there's a lot of people in the world, so now there's a whole bunch of weird people that are together. And now weird people can find other weird people and then they can become yogis which is fine i like a lot of weird people i think i'm kind of weird i like yogis sometimes not all of them the ones that shower and like they also do crossfit not just yoga then i don't know if we can be friends um but yeah they they saw that and it became a thing. And because of social media, again, and because of programming, the way people are creating yoga programs right now is way different than ever. It's not the slow, crazy stuff that it used to be. Not crazy, but non-crazy. Now there's

like power yoga. There's this type of yoga, that type of yoga, couples yoga. That sounds like sex, but it's a yoga thing. And then there's all sorts of stuff like that. And now it's creating yoga to be more and more and more and more exciting. Like high intensity interval bodybuilding for people. I hope it makes bodybuilding exciting for you. Anyway, moving on. Number eight, personal training. Personal training is a huge thing because now people want to get into fitness who were never into fitness before. These are not people trying to train people, but people who just like want to work out more because they start seeing all these people getting into fitness on Instagram and they're blasting up all over the place. Maybe someone they know likes someone's photo and all of a sudden it goes over to their gram. So-and-so liked it

and so forth and so forth. and all the algorithms that bring people together just bring a whole bunch of fitness onto your page so at some point on your little explore page on your instagram i guarantee you saw somebody working out even if you like following puppies on instagram one of your friends who follows puppies probably liked a fitness photo and all of a sudden it popped up on your explore page so So with personal training getting more popular, people are getting into shape. They have a little bit more knowledge because they were trained by someone who hopefully knew what the hell they were doing. And they weren't part of number six on our list. And what happened is they start to do some research and figure out what kind of training

they want to do. Maybe they want to go to your CrossFit gym down the street. Maybe they want to go to your yoga studio down the street and potentially still the other gym because they need to work out still. I just don't like when people just do yoga. Anyway, that, right? I'm getting, it's hard to talk alone, guys. I'm sorry. If I keep doing my little hiccups, it's because I'm alone. I don't have anybody to talk to me. It's a little harder. So yes, they're looking for the perfect program. They have a little bit of an understanding. They're probably doing a little bit of research.

And now you just have more people like that in the field. And now for those of you out there who are making $20, $30, $40 a class, either coaching a CrossFit class or some other fitness class or whatever, if personal training is something that's getting Googled more often and people are looking for it, now you have the ability to make more money because there's more people looking for you and now you can charge more money and it's more of a competitive occupation now. And there's a little bit more competitive rates and different things. I remember when I first started personal training, it made a huge difference in my life because

it quadrupled how much money I was making. All right. Number nine, functional fitness training. So number three is HIIT training. And number nine is functional fitness training. I'm going to go ahead and just put those together. It's the same shit. I'm actually upset that those are two separately Googled things. Anyway, yeah, we already talked about that. HIIT training, you guys know about it. Functional fitness, you know how big it is. We're done. Number 10, exercise is medicine. That's the number 10 most Googled thing for trans 2019 on Google. Exercise is medicine is very very close to number four which is fitness programs for older adults so exercise is medicine there's a lot of people right now and it's actually one of the cool things about greg glassman is i i i really want to believe that he's made enough money now where

he doesn't really care about it anymore and he does like go after like coca-cola companies and people who are doing things that are unhealthy. But he's also real big right now into exercises medicine as well. And that's why CrossFit is changing from a sport to a brand. And like a healthy brand, which I think is really rad. And I think that this is happening because this is what Glassman truly believes. And now that he's made enough money where he doesn't have to do anything ever again, he's probably like,

all right, well, this is what I really believe in. Let's start focusing on it. So the competitive atmosphere is starting to go down and this more exercises medicine is starting to come up. Our number 10 on the list. And what's going on with that is a lot of these people are working out and they're getting off their meds. And it's exciting. It's a good time for everybody. So even my stepfather, like he wants to get off of high blood pressure and cholesterol pills and different things like that. And when he's on a good fitness regimen, everything's fine.

And for those of you out there who know somebody who takes like 50 pills a day, maybe now after working out and doing some things, they're only taking like 10. It might not take rid of all those 50, get rid of all those 50, but definitely brings it down. And if you're taking less pills, you're spending less money on stuff, you're doing less harm to your body, keeping that liver healthy, and there's a lot of things that are going on with it. It's just so cool that we're in a time where that's a thing. Exercise is so popular now that everybody's doing it all the time. I can only wish that everybody lived in a place like I live in in California and everybody's riding bikes and walking and swimming and paddle boarding and all these things, and it just really gets me really excited to do something.

And when it's bright outside, I just want to go out and do anything. It's a, it's a great place. And I hope that a lot of you guys are looking at exercises as medicine in general. I don't want to dive too much into that, but I just think that's a really cool number, number 10. So, uh, yeah, those are your top 10 most Googled things that are trends for 2019 in the fitness realm. So before we end this episode, one, I hope you guys liked me talking solo and just shooting the shit and saying the ridiculous things that come out of my mouth. I love you guys so, so, so, so much. Like, I cannot believe how much my life has changed

over the last couple of years. And it's really all because of everybody who listens to this show, everybody who follows my online programs and supports the things that I do, join one of my nutrition challenges, like any of that stuff. It's really, really made such a huge difference in my life. And it's something I wanted for a really long time. And I couldn't get it without just complete concentration on exactly what I wanted. And yeah, I have other episodes that really encompass what that is. But to send you guys off, never underestimate who is around you and what they can do for you.

Everybody is always looking at you all the time. There's always someone that can just say hi to you on any day that if you leave the right impression on them, they will change your life forever. It happened to me. Whew, gets me a little bit emotional. Yeah, don't ever forget that. And make sure that you guys keep your eyes open for what's around and what you can do to better yourself and better your business and be ahead of the curve and be the first one on the trend. So yeah, those are two very powerful

things that will help you tremendously. All right, for the end of this episode, I just want to let you guys know that on April 8th, I'm going to start my third carb cycling challenge that you guys can sign up for no matter where you are around the world. And I give $1,000 to the top three people. If you guys have seen the photos, it's absolutely insane, the results that are coming from it, it's basically a scheduled high and low carb intake throughout the week at specific times. And it's making you guys really, really lean. It's something I've been doing for a couple of years. I've been trying to figure out the numbers so that I could do it on a broad scale. Finally figured it out and people are just fucking killing it. So I'm really excited about the challenge and I'm really excited for anybody

who wants to join it. Just go to jimryan.com. It's G-Y-M-R-Y-A-N.com. That's my website. And you guys can sign up for the carb cycling challenge. You get a free one of my books, high intensity bodybuilding, dumbbells, kettlebells, any of the books that you like. You get one free book with your purchase. And for Chalk Online right now, today, Monday, April 1st, when I'm recording this episode, I just came out with the Daily D, which is a daily dumbbell workout that only requires dumbbells and a jump rope every single day. That will be part of my online programming now. It is going to be amazing for people who are moms, dads, travel a lot, have limited time,

all the workouts are 20 to 30 minutes, all you need is a dumbbell and a jump rope, and I'm super stoked on it. It's a little more work for me, another program to make, but I think you guys are going to dig it. I'm really excited about it. Just the word Daily D is dope, and I think there's going to be a lot of little puns that people are going to like to tag me in on that. So yeah, guys, this is the end of the episode. Again, I love you so much, and I will see you guys next week.