Barbell Shrugged - The Strong Coach  — Secrets to Overcoming Distractions and Being The Best Coach w/ Jeremy Thiel — 1

Episode Date: June 22, 2018

Jeremy Thiel has been successfully running his box, CrossFit Central for 13 years! As a box owner, he kept focus on challenging himself and those around him to consistent excellence. Blessed with the heart of an athlete, mind of a leader, and an entrepreneurial spirit, Jeremy is not only effective in his approach to business, but also extremely gifted in motivating people to achieve their own goals. His intense drive and dedication to succeed in the life has laid the foundation for his innovative approach to leadership. In this episode, Jeremy shares his story about getting into CrossFit early in 2005, and how he established himself early by attending the L1 seminar every 6 weeks. He also talks about his career as a competitor, and when his CNS hit a point that removed him from competition, and led him to take over a year off from training, until he found the Wim Hof Method. Jeremy soon underwent a mindset shift that turned his gym into an explosive business. He explains that his awesome team of coaches is formed not through training, but on instilling in them ideas of mental growth and responsibility. He also talks about his strategies to continue his own learning in how the human body works, and much more. Enjoy!   - Mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/sc_thiel ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ► 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

Welcome to The Strong Coach. This is your host, Mike Bledsoe, and I am super stoked to be running this show and bringing it to you. And I love that what we've done with The Shrug Collective, we're able to do seasonal shows. So now I've got this A-show season where I can get very dialed in to a very specific topic and then get in and get back out and get on to other things. And I want to share with you a story about my very first, my very first, my favorite coaching moment. And my very favorite coaching moment happened just two, three months ago. I was visiting the in-laws. I was in Oklahoma visiting my wife's parents,

and we were there for a few days. And within a couple days of being there, I noticed that my mother-in-law had been complaining about back pain. And she's around 60 years old and doesn't move very much, lots of sitting. And I noticed that she didn't have a lot of internal rotation of her right leg. And so if somebody's a movement specialist, they would recognize that. And then I began to relay to her, I said, hey, you know, I noticed that you don't have a lot of movement there. I bet that's really creating a lot of pain right there in your lower back. And I was able to point at it. And not only was I able to, I was able to share with her where I suspected she was experiencing pain and the things that she was going through.

Because I understood what happens when that happens. Which I think she thought I was psychic or something. But I was also there to listen to what she had to say about her pain. And I would say I think that up until this point, my in-laws thought I was pretty kooky. They thought I was strange. A lot of the things I do doesn't make a lot of sense to them. They don't understand what I do for work necessarily. And that's okay. So a lot of times if they were going to take advice from me, it might seem strange. However, I looked at her and I got talking and you know

what I could have done. I could have, you know, I asked her, you know, who have you seen? Are you going? She said she'd been going to this chiropractor. And what I got was she's doing a lot of things where people are working on her, but she wasn't working on herself. And it's because she simply didn't know how. And I could have prescribed her all these hip mobility drills, and I could have given her some bands to stretch with and all this stuff. But you know what? I was able to listen and I understood where she was at. And I think that was the most important piece for me. And the thing I'm most proud of is I didn't give her too much and I didn't give her too little.

I gave her exactly what it is that she needed to make progress from that point forward. And in this conversation, I was very concerned because I totally recognize that when you start losing, when you age and you start losing mobility, that's a downward spiral. We don't want that because now you're stepping closer to death much more quickly and you are having to depend on other people to take care of you as well. So we had a conversation about that. And so through my listening and through being with where she was at, I was able to talk to her in a way that I didn't create a lot of fear. I created a lot of hope and I created a conversation where she knew exactly what to do.

And so what I told her to do was to spend five minutes on the floor every day. And she didn't know. She was really surprised that my advice was so simple when I think a lot of times when I talk, I may sound complicated to them. And I invited her. I was already sitting on the floor at this point. So everyone, everyone in that, so my wife and I are sitting in the floor and then her parents are sitting in chairs and we invite her to sit on the floor with us. And her father, he joins the invitation and sits on the floor. So there's the four of us sitting there on the floor. And mind you, I haven't seen them in four years either.

So this is a really cool moment for me with the family as well. And so she sits on the floor, and she looks right at me and says, Well, what now? And I said, This is it. This is all we're doing. All I want you to do is sits in the floor and she looks right at me and says, well, what now? And I said, this is it. This is all we're doing. All I want you to do is sit in the floor for five minutes. And, you know, in the five minute period, I noticed that she started shifting a little bit. She started changing positions and things like that.

And I started talking to her about the importance of building your relationship with the ground. And they chuckled at that. And it was good. It was fun. And we spent five minutes on the ground. And then I asked, you know, okay, it's been five minutes. Let's get up. She goes to stand up.

And she couldn't stand up. Well, she thought she couldn't stand up. And my wife and her dad and myself all popped up to our feet and she got confused. And even though I think my wife and her dad wanted to help her up, I encouraged her to really get up on her own. And she looked back and forth as if she was confused about whether to go to the left side or whether to go to the right side. And I could tell that she also was experiencing some embarrassment. She didn't like that the three of us were watching her and what she, what she was experiencing in that moment was failure. And I told her it was okay and that she could do it. And that,

and I recognized that she simply forgot her body. She forgot to listen to her body. She forgot that her body knows exactly what to do. And I reminded her of that. I said, you know exactly what to do. You trust your body and you know exactly what to do to get up. And we gave her a little bit of space. I took a deep breath with her, and she, after a moment, got into a crawling position and put her hand up on the couch and was able to stand up, and it was a little shaky at first, and so I told her, I said, you know what? If you spend five minutes on the floor, your back will feel better, and you're going to feel better overall. Life is going to get better. And, you know, sometimes when you give the in-laws advice or something like that, you have

no idea if they're really listening or not. So I went to bed that night, woke up the next morning, and of course they beat us out of bed. And she greets me as I come into the kitchen. She says, I've already done my five minutes in the floor. And I was so excited about that because not only did I teach her something that would benefit her, but it was, I was able to present it in a way and she was able to receive it in a way where she got to use it and she knows exactly what to do. And every day that we were there, we were there for a few more days. Every day that we were there, she spent five minutes on the floor every morning and every evening. She was addicted to it by the time we were gone because the benefits were obvious. And they were obvious because I explained why.

I listened to her. She felt understood. And this is my most proud coaching moment because I do think I've never been more on the mark and I was able to do it with a family member. And we all know that family members are a lot of times the hardest people to connect with and give advice to and all that kind of stuff. So I'm super, super pleased with that result. And yeah, so this was something that happened before I decided to do the Strong Coach even. And so as I'm sitting here, I'm excited about presenting this information. This is a perfect example of the type of thing that I hope you get out of this. And for every client that walks through the door, it's an opportunity to practice connecting with

them exactly where they're at and giving them exactly what they need that's going to keep them moving towards their goals. So right now we've got Jeremy Teal, and I'm excited to interview him because he opened his box in 2005. He's been a CrossFit gym owner for 13 years. He's a true OG. He was there before the CrossFit level one cert was really a cert. It was a bunch of people getting together and doing things together. He competed at CrossFit games. He's managed a gym, competing in family all at once. He talks about burnout, managing his ego, the gym splitting, team dynamics. And we dig into a lot of things you're really going to enjoy. And go over to thestrongcoach.com.

If you want to get into the Strong Coach program, it's an eight-week program I put together that's created to develop coaches and all these interpersonal skills, communication, leadership, connection, all these intangibles that I see missing in the fitness industry. So if you want to get in on that wait list because it has not launched yet, I've got one group going through. I'm going to be taking another group through very soon. I've only got 10 spots left in the next group. So make sure you go over to thestrongcoach.com, hit that application button, get on that wait list, and I'll be in contact. All right, Jeremy, man, real pleasure to sit down with you. I made the Instagram post of who are the great coaches in Austin, and you popped up. And one of the reasons I really want to interview you, aside from other people saying you're a great coach,

is the fact that you've been doing it for so long, and you've been involved in the community with CrossFit for so long. And, yeah, I mean, I've bumped into you quite a few times over the years and have yet to interview you. So I'm excited that we get to talk about this topic specifically. Yeah, no doubt, man. I mean, first off, I just appreciate you reaching out and getting me on. And you guys have done some phenomenal stuff in the space, and so it's cool to be here. I know our mutual friend, Zach Evanesh.

Oh, yeah. I love that guy, and I've listened to y'all's podcast. I don't know, it was maybe a year ago or something. And anyways, I just always have respect for you guys and all that stuff. So thanks for having me on. Yeah, man. You know, it's funny. You mentioned Zach Evanesh, and I'm going to do eight interviews for this series, and Zach is on the list. I'm going to be going up to Jersey to hit him. Oh, yeah.

Zach is the man. I just got connected to one of his high school mates that's out here. He works for Flowcast, Flow Wrestling, and he reminds me of Mike. His name's Mike. He reminds me of my or his name's mike he reminds me of zach and it's just like that kindred spirit like connection all that stuff because zach's such a great dude yeah can you tell people a little bit about yourself uh how you got started in the scene and just a quick little bio no doubt i want to go i'll start my story out early on um just to get a real big picture and i'll speed

it up but essentially i was like 10 11 years old i got picked on for being fat so my brother's friends and him just you know the brotherly love of like hey chunk hey fatty you know just mess with me and and i remember like a switch went off in me that i made a vow that i'd never be overweight and i was going to show everybody and so i came a family of five from Lubbock, Texas, and my dad's a farmer. He was into fitness. He went to the Nautilus Fitness Club every day at his lunch hour. I would go in there and tool around when I was probably around that age. And so I knew fitness that I could figure it out because my sisters and brothers played sports.

So what can I do to learn this? And so instantly my mom would take me to the bookstore, drop me off, and I would grab the muscle and fitness magazines. I would get the Arnold Schwarzenegger Encyclopedia, crack that open, and literally I would sit there for two to three hours reading. And I just devoured that stuff, and I loved it. And I looked at the muscle magazines and looked at the bodybuilders. I was like, I'm going to be like that someday. And I got it. And I looked at the muscle magazines and looked at the bodybuilders. So I might be like that someday.

And I got the strength shoes. I don't know the big, you know, the, I remember those for the jobs, the calves. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, how old are you? 36. Okay.

I am. All right. We're the same age where it's funny because when you look back at an era and back in the the 90s and you wanted fitness advice it was muscle and fitness you were at the grocery store picked up the magazine the the arnold's encyclopedia i i have the same exact story it's like i just when i was you know 13 14 15 years old just consuming all of that content and I remember in the back of the magazine seeing those jump shoes. You actually got them.

Oh yeah, my brother had them. They were like $180 or something but my brother who was a couple years, who was called me fat, his friends picking on me he had them so I would stuff little socks in the end of them and take them down so I could fit them,

um, and go down to the elementary and running those there's little placard cards that had what to do. So I was doing sprints and figuring out all that stuff. And then, um, when I was 15, 16, I got my hands on the Texas tech was from Lubbock, a binder with the macronutrient breakdown for zigzag diet, high carb, low carb, how to zag all that stuff, a binder with the macronutrient breakdown for zigzag diet, high carb, low carb, how to zag, all that stuff. So I started learning macronutrients. And I got introduced to supplements when I was 14, 15, taking creatine and all that protein, muscle max, 3,000 calorie post-workout stuff. So I just was loving it.

And I grew up in West Texas, so football was king. So I just played football and trained and worked on the farm in the summer and that's all I did and so when I was 18 I was doing summer strength camps I went through them in high school then I started to work for a couple guys when I got out of high school because they liked my work ethic because I love to work and train and so I worked for them for two summers, and I was getting the guys to go. What I noticed, they didn't have a real tight system,

so I noticed that 50% of the guys would come in the gym for the strength camp, but they wouldn't do the work. So I was like, screw that. Y'all are doing the work. So I put together protocols I learned from my high school football coach to organize the guys and really structure it so they would have to do the workouts. And when those guys graduated from college, they were like, we're done doing the summer camps. Do you want to take it over? I was like, I went to my head football coach who was a huge mentor, Coach James Morton.

He was at Midland Lee, big powerhouse in Texas. Now he's in Eastland. And he said, can I run this, coach? And he goes, I'll give you a year, a summer to figure it out. I said, hell yeah. So I took it on. And he goes, I'll give you a year, a summer to figure it out. I said, hell yeah. So I took it on, and, man, I just jumped in it, recruited a couple of my other friends that played ball with me that were playing college ball, come and work with me at this camp,

and we just put together, and it was a hit. And so I did that two years. We grew up. We picked up another school. We had 300 kids running through programs in the summer. got introduced to kettlebells at our early stage because my mentor that was teaching me the summer camps introduced me to dragon door oh yeah coach davies i don't know if you know renegade coach out of he was out of the midwest um he was doing all like the stuff that on it has now like the club bells the mace the. He was doing it in 03.

So I was on his site. I ordered my first Dragon Door kettlebell set. That's the one thing I missed that I wish I would have been introduced to earlier. I didn't get introduced to kettlebells and stuff like that until I got introduced to CrossFit. But I talked to a lot of people. For some reason, Dragon Door just went right by me. I don't know why. Yeah.

Yeah. So I got introduced to Kettlebells. I ordered my, I think it was a two-pood, one-and-a-half-pood, the 35-pounder. And the two-pood sat on my parents' back porch for two or three years because I didn't know how to do it. But I just went out and taught myself swings, cleans, snatches, all that stuff, and combined with the strength, conditioning, speed, agility work that we did. And so that kind of fast-forged me to 2005, and I was done with school. I got into the endurance scene because I liked to compete, but I wasn't doing football, so I was doing triathlons and half marathons because Austin was big

because that's where I was out in San Marcos, and I was swimming and trying to figure out other proponents of fitness just because I loved it. And I got done with school, and I was looking to do something next. And my sister was a personal trainer in Austin, Carrie Kepler, who we found at CrossFit Central together. And she's out here and said, hey, I'm going to move to Austin and start training people. But I don't want to be a personal trainer just because I see that the struggle that it is. You lose 20% of your income when two clients drop off. And so there's got to be a personal trainer just because I see that the struggle that it is. You lose 20% of your income when two clients drop off. Right.

And so there's got to be a better way. And I was looking at Dragon Door certification up with Pavel up in Minnesota. And it was a couple thousand dollars plus travel. So I was going to have to spend $3,000 to go. And my buddy Lance Cantu introduced me to CrossFit via email he was in the Marines and he was traveling over to his first tour and he ran into someone coincidentally in Australia that was doing CrossFit he's like what are you doing there's like CrossFit go check it out when he got on the boat he looked it up it's like

CrossFit sent me fitness in a hundred words or less sent me nutrition and I looked it up. It's like CrossFit sent me fitness in a hundred words or less, sent me nutrition. And, um, I looked it up and I looked at the certification. I was like, man, this is, you know, a thousand dollars. I can go to golden Colorado. That was a offsite from Santa Cruz that they're hosting in December of Oh five. And so I was like, man, this is, it's got kettlebells, got powerlifting is all the stuff that I do. so i just said carrie we're gonna go do this and you can sign up for 500 bucks and be an affiliate yeah like hell yeah this is our first door to a gym easy accessible and so she's like all right let's go do it and we signed up and i walked in and you know the nasty girls were there eva t ann Annie, Nicole, Coach Glassman,

Lauren Glassman at the time, all the, Mike Bergner, like anybody that was anybody that was on this, Greg Amason, you know, Josh Everett, you know, everybody that was anybody was there. And I was just like, I walked in and I was like, shut it down. This is the future. I knew it. You just felt it, you know? And so we went through it. I, and matter of fact, I hadn't done a CrossFit where I didn't, I know like workout of the day in the blog, I saw it, but I didn't even know what it was. I didn't do a CrossFit workout until I went. Yeah. I got it. And back then it was three days long, right? So it was, it was Friday, long right so it was friday saturday sunday

and you did two workouts a day you were doing tabata something tabata this you were doing fight gone bad you were doing fran like two workouts a day damn i did fran in colorado for the first time ever and i was decently strong and i did the thruster 21 thrusters did 21 dead hang pull-ups and i was seeing funnels like my eyes were closing down ears were ringing i was gonna die but everyone's yelling at you to keep going i didn't know how to kip but anyways it was a it was a life-changing weekend and what the cool cool thing is, is like, you know, I'm a total immersion type of person. So CrossFit was hosting a cert every six weeks, and no one really told me I couldn't go. So I just went for a year every six weeks to a level one cert.

No way. Yeah. Oh, shit. So I just kept going, and I kept bringing people with me. And Coach and Nicole and them were like, all right, the second one's $750, the third one's $500, and after that it's free and you've got to work. And so I was like, all right, so grab a PVC pipe and start teaching people movements.

And so people might not know all this history about me, but I was like, because I was in. I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah, I was in. I had no idea. Yeah. Yeah, this was cool. So I was part of CrossFit's first, like, L1 training staff before it was a thing. Yeah. And so fast forward, we got our affiliate going.

We started building CrossFit in a park. We had boot camps outdoors because I was scared to sign a lease. It took us 17 months before we got a lease and got a 600 square foot space. And so, you know, we had, it took us about a year and a half to build about 70 CrossFitters in Austin. So it was about 2008. And, but I was, you know, part of CrossFit when Coach Glassman quit doing the certs around the country. You know, Dave Castro called up and said, hey, we're going to do a certain Dallas can you and Big Mike come and be on staff with us so was Kelly Starrett um who else was

there you know Dave was running it um Rob Wolf um we were all kind of doing the the L1 um cert in Dallas without Coach Glassman which was crazy crazy. And that was the thing. And at the time, they wanted me to be on staff to teach the L1s, but I was so into my affiliate and my box, and it was exploding that I just didn't want to take the time to leave and build something else, first build my box. But in that season, too, I went to the first CrossFit Games in 07, and I went out there, met all you know, all the guys, Chris Beeler.

You got, who else was out there? Josh. It was just a wild, like, eye-opening experience again. You know, Fitzgerald, James Fitzgerald. You know, those guys were so competitive. And I was into it, but I didn't realize it was a real thing. Right. And it took the the the um power

lifting portion the back squat deadlift press they were getting psyched up about it you know they're getting ready and I was like I used to do that power lift but this is just a get the fun thing they're like really serious I was like damn this is this is a real competition. And like, you know what I mean? And so I like, it flipped another switch where in 2008, I took third. And that year I trained, like I'm going to win this damn thing. Yeah.

And that's when my love for the sport of CrossFit just exploded. And that's where it became a cultural piece in our gym that CrossFit, you know, lifestyle, fitness plus competition is what we do. This is a long answer to my historical history here. That was all very fascinating stuff. Yeah, man. People are going to love to hear that.

Very early. I got to meet Zach Evanesh at the 09 Affiliate Gathering. CrossFit used to do that. We both spoke and so many relationships just spawned from those early days that these major influencers in the market in crossfit or not in crossfit anymore that are just impacting thousands of people's lives yeah you you you you Would you agree with that? I do agree, and at the same time, I would disagree. And so it all depends on the scope of your abilities

and what you can really put focus on and how well your team is established yeah so there's versatility there but um yeah i think that where your attention is um you know it's going to prosper and what i found in the long term of this is is impacting lives and changing everyday people is what we're all about again. But I think that there is a prominence to having competition and a beast in the gym that makes everyone else inspired and drive. So there's a balance to it. But I think that the ego does want the attention. And so that was my deal early on that I want the attention of that. And how do I let that go? Um, and so,

you know, now in 2017, we're, we're a primary, you know, um, general health and wellness fitness facility that provides CrossFit functional fitness for our athletes. And now, you know, and I was telling you this offline and now on here, it's like I listened to a podcast from Gary Vee. It was just really calling me out to triple down, 10x down on what I do. And in 2017 or 18, I committed to being a coach first and foremost. I'm a coach. And so opportunities arose for me to step into other coaching roles that I hadn't played in the past. So I didn't program for my box for 12 years.

Last year, June, I took over all programming as a partner stepped out. And now I've been programming for a year. And I freaking love it. Oh, nice. It took me about nine to ten months where that creative, magical formulation of programming has become so systematic for me. I mean, I write at work. You know you write something and you're like, damn, that is good. Yeah. You know, and then they do it and then you write one you think is good and they blow up.

But, you know, but you're like you can really write and program well. Yeah. You know, but you're like you can really write and program well. Another, I took over a corporate wellness boot camp for one of my coaches, a corporate wellness boot camp. A coach moved from outdoor to indoor at the north location and is a nice paying corporate client. And I was like, you know what? It's a good payment. It's an opportunity. First day I rolled out there, I was like in my head, why am I out here? Your betterness, that voice. And I said, I was like, in my head, why am I out here? Your betterness, that voice.

And I said, I was like, shut up. You're a coach, and you're going to coach. And I've been out there for five months, and I got 20 people showing up, doing boot camp, and I'm coaching them up. And I'm loving it. And that voice has gone away, and I'm getting response back, and I'm doing what coaches do. And that's changed people's lives, just doing some footwork, some med ball, light kettlebell work in the garage.

Yeah. And so it's really not put myself or my ego in front of like what I am as a as a craftsman, you know. And so now, like I was telling you, our gym is just exploding. I mean, our numbers are crazy. In the month of May, from May 1st to May 16th today, dating the podcast, but 26 new members? It's explosive. That's amazing.

It's ridiculous. Yeah. And we're not like every day. We were doing three people at the first of the week. We're like three people a day were coming in. What do you attribute that to? You know, there's multiples that connect to that, you know, because it's not always just one thing. Being consistent in the marketplace, our social media events that we host, but the environment.

And I just want to come back to Gary Vee on Tripling Down, but I really shifted, and this is a big thing that we can talk about from a coaching standpoint. I got these new insights that I've just been waiting for for so long, and one of them, I got HeartMath certified. I don't know if you're familiar with HeartMath.

So I became a certified HeartMath coach. After I got to Wim Hof, I started learning. A good friend, Emilio, introduced me to their certification program. So I got I became a certified heart math coach after I got to Wim Hof. I started learning a good friend. Emilio introduced me to their certification program. So I started to fill us all in on what heart math. Oh, man. Heart math is revolutionary. You know, it's over 25 years of medical doctors studying the impact of the heart field. So the heart emits a hertz level out into the environment. So a lot of things that people would say was like woo-woo-y or was just like word usage about, man, he's got a big heart or he's all heart or lead with your heart, it's scientifically proven that it's an electromagnetic field.

And heart math studies that. And then through coherence can show how hearts actually connect through electromagnetic field. And how coherence in a team environment, in a community environment can pounce miles out. And they all sync up and become more powerful. It syncs up. And when you have like-mindedness, like heart-edness, if you will, the electromagnetic field increases. And so, like, if you walk into a stadium, you watch a team play, and you're like, dang, this is electric. You walk into a party.

You walk into a concert, and it's like, man, it's the heart vibration that's electric. And they talk about it in books about, you know, teams that elevate performance. Some of the doctors from HeartMath wrote a book about players that describe playing in a team sport where everyone elevated to a level performance of excellence that when they got done, the losing team was just as elated as the winning team because they rose to a level beyond what they physically could do. And so getting the fundamentals of heart math, I'm a, you know, I don't know if you're a strength finder 2.0. My strengths, I'm a strategy arranger type, so I can see connections very well in my head. And so I started to get like, oh, how can I create a team dynamic and talk about developing coaches? And so that's the

base of heart math you can get your brain and your heart to communicate and with all my study and research i've discovered that you know we have a brain in our gut a brain in our heart and a brain in our skull and when they're unified we are unified in one energetic field. And our flow, our impact is much greater. And so my studies over the last two years have been how do I not only maximize an app that you can test your HRV, which is the next wave of what, you know, wearable technology with the WootBand that will give you HRV feedback of where you are with the sympathetic, parasympathetic nervous system, recovery, heart connection, brain connection, how you are as a human, and then how you're connecting with others, right? And so what it got for me was this, is that the heart has always been a huge thing for me, even when I was in high school football, because I was all heart. I was very little skill. I mean, not skill, but talent. You know, I just had to work my ass off.

Yeah. And so I can remember in high school, there was the heart and soul of the defense, the Monterey's defense. I can always remember that. It's like, yeah, I'm i'm proud of that but as an adult my brain got in the way yeah and i and until my body broke down i had to go back to my heart to figure out what my passion was and so when i went back to my heart and then i found heart math i started to understand that this is not just words it's actually a science that's teachable, trainable, and duplicatable. And so it's like, holy smokes.

This is like the secret elixir to team dynamic because I love teams. And so it bumped me into this new thing. Gary Vee is always talking about currency. So it's like attention is a currency. Money it's like attention is a currency. Money, greenbacks, is a currency. And what it hit me was through heart math, I call it heart set, and then I got quantified this, and this is what I take my coaches through in their quarterly reviews.

I talk about money currency, dollar currency. How much are you making? How many clients do you have? How much PTs? Are you happy? How much do you want to grow it? That's one quadrant. Then there's another quadrant.

That is your skill quadrant. That's your skill currency. If you don't have value to put in the marketplace, then you're not going to get paid currency. So what are you working on the last six months and what are you working towards the next six months to develop you as a coach? Is it barbell? Is it gymnastics? Is it communication? Is it self-development? What is the aspect that we're working on right here? And the third is love currency. So relationship currency. And this is one of my mainstays that I believe wants the people, coaches, and I want to educate on is to teach people how do you measure the love currency. Well, the pieces that come out of that – I'll come up with a word here in a second.

But what is really big, like Brene Brown, is empathy. So you look at empathy, encouragement, and affirmation. Those three pieces that come from love currency transform your athletes and your relationship with your associates. But prior to my ego meltdown, I had no empathy. I had no encouragement for others. And I affirmed no one. I only expected. And that was a top-down boss experience that I didn't want, but that's the way I was, right?

And so going through hard times, you learn that people actually struggle. And when you're going through something like that, you don't know you're going through it. If you knew you were going through it, you would change it. But, I mean, it's called a blind spot, right? Exactly. And we have these blind spots as entrepreneurs, as coaches, where shit happens and people may even say stuff. And it's as if you can't even hear it.

Right. Yeah. Yeah, the pain. So that's kind of where my relationship with pain and why pain is so important. That's another antidote that I believe is vital for personal growth and development. And until, you know, Tony Robbins, I've been through all this stuff and just understanding pain, but with the love currency, we can, you know, measure it. And so what I started to get was this is another teaching tool that I have with my coaches and people I just sit with. I mentor people on entrepreneurship, and I talk about if you won the lottery tomorrow and you became an instant billionaire,

and you walked into Starbucks or anywhere and you said, everything's on me, I got it. Why? Because you got a billion dollars in the bank everybody like oh thanks for the love or no no the currency the financial currency but you just bought them something so that's one implement onto them that they're like hey thanks man cool he's a billionaire he can afford it cool but how do you walk into Starbucks and bring the love currency? Because if we're connected to source, we have infinite love. If we think from abundance to lack, if you go into abundance, we have infinite source of love. So if you walk into Starbucks and you're like, man, I won the love lottery. And you walk up to the barista and say, how's your day?

Your hair looks great today. Thank you. And you're genuine. You just gave them some love currency. You see someone else in there. You admire them. You respect it. You say, hey, you say you're looking great today. Have a great day. You just dish some more off. You walk into your box. You can come in pissed off and frowned or down. You're intense business guy. That's me, walking around demanding excellence. You can walk in and be like, man, I got infinite love. What's up, you know, staff member?

What's up, coach? What's up, client? You know, I used to let my clients have the relationship with their coach and I wouldn't get involved. Now I'm in the mix being like, hey, what's up? Hugging people, giving dabs, that's love currency. And so when I shifted and that was the big aha moment for me, when I shift from the financial currency into the love currency, that's what coach Glassman talks about in excellence, strive for excellence. I never could understand that when you move excellence in love, financially you explode. And so that comes back to, like, why is the gym exploding?

I got that aha moment in my brain, in my heart, in my body. Now I'm just spreading the love nonstop. Love it. And it is the dividends are ridiculous. And so that's the big thing. And the fourth quadrant that I measure, so I don't leave that out, is community involvement. To my coaches, what's your community involvement? If we do a happy hour, do you show up two hours late and leave first to leave?

When you show up to the gym, do you come in, coach your classes, and leave? What are you doing to gather people outside of the space? Because if you're building your roster you're building your skills you're pouring in the love and you're building community you're going to have a coach that's in demand right and so that's what i'm doing and now with this awakening to get like now out of and there's so much more you can do when you're moving in love than in a hard ass way that now whenever I sit down and I have to reprimand somebody, I can do it so much easier because they might've fell short. So I just quick to check mistakes.

Hey, you were late here. Why are you doing that? And they're responsive positive to that. So that's kind of like what we've been quantifying on our back end. It's now producing a front-end effect that we are just magnetic. It's like now let's just continue to do exactly what we're doing. And the last thing I learned from Gary, which is a huge influence on me, that's where I'm referencing him, is I never make it. I never made it humble and hungry. Right. And so I want to be a humble servant before you get to a point where you're like, okay, people should serve me. That whole idea is I never make it when I'm a hundred years old, I never made it. And every day is my first day.

And if I can get my staff to walk because the leader's walking in that way, then you can't lose. That's what I feel like. And so we're putting it to the test and, and just measuring that out. Wow. Yeah, man. Dude. Love it. Yeah. Amazing message amazing message i'm i'm processing everything you're saying too like oh this is such this is amazing it's good shit what um i want to get a little more uh into the uh nuts and bolts of things yes how are so you're running a gym you have close to 300 clients how many coaches are on your staff? So just to quantify the numbers real clear, so I'm really particular about numbers

because people fib their numbers very much. So I have a running dashboard every 24 hours to 48 hours. It's updated with current membership. That's contracted members that are paying a monthly um eft right so we have like i can pull out my phone right now and tell you what's in the docket and i know the last time i checked it before i came over there's 272 contracted members okay and then um i have 12 members that are currently on hold due to travel or injury or whatever it is. Are you using a software for this?

Right now, it's just a Google Doc. It's a Google Doc that my business ops updates every 24 to 48 hours. And then I have my sales dashboard of T-shirts, supplements, drinks, all that listed too on the sidebar. So I can observe it at all times. So that's very important. And then from there we have, um, so we have eight coaches and I would say seven of them are full time. Um, the one that's not as my wife, she only coaches two classes, a woman's only nine 30 class cause she just wanted some involvement. But so we have seven full-time coaches. And they run – we kind of – from Mad Labs, you know, those guys.

I talked with Jeremy Jones from over there about their compensation model. We kind of tweaked a compensation model from them on their – my coach's book of business and how they get paid a percentage of the people that they coach or they're on their roster. So every coach has a book a business and how they get paid a percentage of the people that they coach or they're on their roster. So every coach has a book of business that's their roster that they earn a percentage on and what they manage. My coaches average about, I'd say the average number is about 45 on each coach's roster.

My top coaches have 60. Bottom coach who's in his first year, has 23 on his roster. What are you doing to train these coaches? Is it a weekly meeting, monthly meetings? Do you have – it sounds like you have some type of assessment period going on too. Yes. We have different tenured coaches from Chris Hartwell, one of our coaches who's been with us for 11 years.

He's on CrossFit's kettlebell certification team. He's a wizard, a technician, super talented coach. From him to a one-year coach, Davis, who works under Chris, with him Tuesday, Thursday mornings, learning the craft from him. And so right now we're more focused. We just ended a eight week protocol on our spring semester was on leadership development. So we were seeing that leadership in, you know, individual leadership within our staff was the most vital, important thing to train. And so we took 21 laws or irrefutable laws of leadership from John C. Maxwell.

And the coaches had to team up with another coach and they had to do a presentation. So they read through the laws, then they would each present two or three laws every other week. And so that was the educational format from personal development. Yeah. And right now we're going to bring in – and so I would say from – I would give my staff from a coaching standpoint probably like an A- on their ability to communicate and present the movements, the coaching, and cueing, you know, and then we work through what strengths they have from barbell gymnastics, the basics of those two proponents that they can teach. And then any other skills, you know, from jump ropes, like how well they communicate that. But I want them to be, my coaches to be barbell experts and gymnastics experts. So those two quadrants, I'm really hyper-focused on them being very talented at teaching

because I think they're fundamental and where the biggest gaps can be in a space. Yeah. Um, and so we do, so the next book that we're doing and we're going to be doing an eight week, I think it's going to be, it's either eight or six weeks. We're going to be doing, um, and next implement will be, um, Jocko's, umo's, what is his book? I'm sorry. Extreme Ownership. Dude, what a good book. Yes.

Good book. Because that's the next book we're going to do because right now, culturally, we want people to own every action that they do. And so we're going to read through that book over the course, I think, six weeks. This will be our summer education. And then each coach is going to have to sit down and do like a debrief with me with specific points on each chapter and what's their implementation of the content that they're reading. And so that's

where we are right now. So I think from a gym standpoint, we're not as much focused on the movements right now as we are on mental and personal responsibility. Yeah. Yeah. That's really incredible. And so you're using this four quadrant assessment to figure out what areas you're wanting to put more attention into education as you go? As a whole, as a whole, yes. And then as an individual. So three of my coaches identified that gymnastics is a weakness of theirs. And so now we're seeking out a coach to come and do a specific gymnastics training development for my staff. Because my sister Carrie and I could teach Carrie's great at gymnastics, but we want to bring a third party in to educate them on that specifically. And so that's one aspect that we would do to develop them as a collective whole.

But outside of that, you know, one of my coaches just was in New York. He's going to Chicago, I think, this next weekend to do courses. He's always devouring, you know, next level education. That's Coach Tao. Yeah. And so people are at different spaces. But so on individual, so when I go down those quadrants, if I pinpoint that their skill level in the space is low,

then my emphasis is for them to skill first and then the other stuff. Right. Yeah, gotcha. I think it's – I said this to myself just a few months ago. I, uh, I showed up to a, I did the, uh, the Onyx kettlebell certification and I was, I chuckled at myself. I'm 36 years old. I chuckled at myself.

I go, who would have thought that over, you know, over 23 years after getting into fitness that I'd still be going to a fundamental certification course which I've been handling kettlebells for over a decade and yet here I am with people who've never touched them and I was chuckling that I was getting so much out of it and in fact I I recognized by the end of the course that I think I got more out of it than the average person in the room. And it was, uh, and I could tell some people weren't getting much out of it. And, uh, and I was really, I was chuckling at myself because I, I would have 20 years ago, I would have been like, yeah, you're a fitness fanatic. You probably won't be doing certifications in 20 years. But here I am just still eating it up. What are you doing for continuing education right now?

You know, I leave today at 5 to go to Atlanta to go work with Pulse Centers, with the PEMF, Pulse Electromagnetic Field. I don't know if you're familiar with the PEMF. This is something that I got introduced to probably about six or seven months ago, but the PEMF technology has been around for, you know, Tesla was the first introduction to alternating current and direct current and how electrical current can heal the body.

And so his technology is now being used how we can put it into our body to heal or really to charge the cells and to get ourselves to naturally produce ATP that will allow our body to heal. Yeah. And so where my dive might, so I'll step back and kind of my training now is not about movement per se right as much about as how the human body works right and so wim hof introduced me to the nervous system and how to the autonomic nervous system parasympathetic sympathetic how hormone production works how how we recover, and what a resting state looks like, what an active state looks like. But prior to that, the way I viewed the body was we have muscle,

we have ligaments and tendons, we have fascia, and we have a brain that commands it to move and work. You saw it in parts. Parts and like brawn and go, pick up and do, and will. And when my body broke down and I couldn't will it to do anymore, it made me stop in my tracks. And that's where the education turned towards the insides and really starting to understand how the organ system, the lymphatic system functions and works because I was a novice at that in that space. And now with this deep dive in understanding how important the organ system is to overall health and wellness and through my acupuncture, so I've been doing acupuncture for five years,

six years, maybe longer. I never stopped to ask how really the meridian system and the flow of the chi was really working in the body. But now I'm turned on to that 100%. Because I believe now through what I was sharing about heart math, understanding the organ system, now I'm understanding about voltage in the body and how that really impacts vitality. Yeah. And so when you're at the low of your vitality and you can actually increase it through putting direct current into your cells, it's pretty eye opening.

Cool. And so, yeah, I'm getting to going into advanced training for the next couple days. I'm really intrigued by what Dave Asprey is doing with Bulletproof and with biohacking, a lot of different experts on light exposure, different proponents of advancing, optimizing the human performance in the person. And so that's where my education is really drawing deep right now and understanding how to supercharge the body. And I'm really committed to the 120-year lifespan and saying like, okay, how is what I'm doing today impacting 80 years from now?

And so I'm getting that broad perspective. And so, yeah, that's what i'm up to you know right now with education um and all that that's awesome yeah i i find that um not not everyone gets there where they start digging into more of the holistic wellness piece um it took me i had uh i had surgery I had three hernias I go in for I got some pain oh you got three hernias and then I didn't recover as quickly as I wanted to and then I end up

down this wellness path someone gets burnt out and then they just keep digging digging digging and it's really interesting to me to see how many people that come from fitness end up down this wellness path as well it's really interesting to me to see how many people that come from fitness end up down this wellness path as well. It's like, oh. And then all the stuff that I used to think was silly, I'm now going, oh, there's actually something to that.

Because when you're 25, you can't see how something like that directly correlates to your back squat. And it's hard to really connect the dots but as you age you know i think it just takes time to to what to connect all the dots and go oh this is all connected and it all matters absolutely and i think that now science is catching up to all of the ancient practice that's associated to energy or woo-woo or spiritual, if you will, that is actually scientifically measurable and duplicatable. And so now with what I was sharing with you, like I think about wearable tech and what it's going to give us feedback with what's showing up in our blood panels, what's showing up in our daily measurements that, you know, the athletes are getting,

you know, aware of it and, and the coaches that mature, we'll be able to bring it back down where it's going to become more common practice. Um, and so it's just a matter of time, but you know, this is, is very power powerful because coming from that, what I've really, my concrete belief now is that our physical bodies and the technology that is inside of us is the most advanced technology on the planet. And I believe us as beings are living at a very low level of our potential. Yeah. And, and I'm really committed to discovering what we can really do with our bodies, the technology that's inside of us, understanding what the heart brain, the gut brain, the mind brain, and then it's all about the collective working with other like-minded because that advances us because the, you know, your five closest people you surround yourself, the law

five is so vital. And now I'm just learning like when you just put yourself around greatness, you will come up to that level. And so I just want to be humble and around great people to absorb their wisdom and knowledge and stuff like that. So that's kind of my educational seeking point now. But it comes down to fundamentals. Walking outside, drinking water, breathing, getting in the sun, having fun, enjoying life, companionship. That's what it's about.

That will bring more joy and healthy wellness to people than ever going high intensity, which there's a place for high intensity and we need it because it's what we need to do, um, at certain levels and certain aspects in our program. But walk, ride your bike, get in the sun, drink water, breathe, you know? It's so funny. I was talking to one of my buddies who's, he's a really one of the top coaches I know. He goes, people pay me to basically tell them to drink more water and go for walks because because that's if you're not

doing that you're not drinking great water and going for walks then all the other stuff could be a waste of time or it's not your highest leverage thing you could be getting into i want to rewind back to something you said, which I find really interesting and completely agree with. And I just want to highlight it, which is, you know, a lot of science is coming and proving or creating a lot of evidence for these ancient practices. And that's one of the things that occurred for me, too, is coming from a scientific background and then being you know for me being atheistic about things where I don't want to hear anything about anything that could be woo and then I hit a science wall and then I go into this whole woo category myself and then I start going oh shit science science is interesting because it's as if –

and people who are committed to science only, like I used to be, would go, okay, that stuff doesn't matter. That's just crazy talk. And then as science creates evidence for the crazy talk, it now calls it science. And so all the woo stuff is just stuff that science hasn't gotten evidence for yet. Right. And so it's, it's mounting very quickly, which is interesting. So I've watched a lot of people from a scientific background really change and go, Oh, wow. The thing you

were suggesting might be a good idea. Like I had been, I had been looking into fasting based on some things I had read decades ago in some yoga texts. I think this could help really push the human body towards more potential.

People are like, no, more calories. You need the right amount of macros basically macros and then now everyone's going oh wow fasting every once in a while this could really do some amazing things for your body i'm like okay cool so i'm not saying everything i've said is like is is have it has scientific evidence now but i think i think people should, and I think they are paying attention and going, oh, wow, everything's changing so quickly that if something comes up, a lot of times our skepticism steps in. But I think it's worth lowering that skepticism a little bit and hanging out with people who've got some stuff figured out that may not have a scientific background, and that's okay. Yeah. Um, what do you, uh, when you see

someone come in the gym, I mean, you're hiring people, you've had to hire and fire people over time. What, what is the difference between somebody who is going to make it and not make it? Who's going to be a great coach, somebody that you want on, on your staff? You know, I think it always can be depending on what the gym needs at that time. So that can be a big role in it. But really what I'm looking for is the personality that can connect with people. And I'm not looking for someone that can, you know, is going to be a big personality in a sense that they're charismatic, but as much as that they can connect with humans on a human level. And then they're passionate about learning fitness. But if someone comes with a lot of fitness and they can't connect with people, then they're really not beneficial to what

we're doing because we're in the relationship, human interaction business. And we teach these skills via movements to, you know, the people who are going to always be at a rudimentary elementary level in the sense of what they're moving at. And so I was looking for, you know, the, the person that could connect our last hire. Our last two hires have been great. Um, coach Davis, who's with us now, you know, he's got a huge heart. He just loves people and his skill level is pretty low. But his relationship building and connecting is so high. It was something that the gym needed at the time. And so he was a definite hire. And I used to be real superficial because I wanted to look too. And he wouldn't have been my standard hire.

Yeah. And, you know, he is killing it. And people love him. But he's got to get a skill up. And so his last review, skill up, buddy, because you've got to become better because the demand is coming. And we've seen that start to be the case, and he's getting signed up for his next cert,

getting those pieces of the puzzle put together. But I just think that if somebody doesn't genuinely love people and they come in and want to coach, then it's just not going to work. Not going to work. No. Yeah. Awesome. Anything else you want to mention before we call the show quits?

No, man. I think it's great. I just appreciate, you know, getting to come on and share it. You know, I just have a newfound, you know, passion that was inside of me that I'm glad to be able to come on and share what I'm up to. We're going to do this thing. I'm committed to my gym and my space for the next 10 years, not looking any other direction than right where it is. We're going to keep doing it. Oh, yeah. That's awesome to hear. There's a guy I know. He mentors a friend of mine. This guy is a

billionaire. Just crazy level of financial success, you could say. And the one thing he told him was, if you want to be successful at anything, you've got to think in terms of decades, because most people are thinking in terms of months or years. And it's cool to hear you say, you know, I got committed to this for the next 10 years. No doubt, man. That's awesome.

Where can people find out more about you and what you got going on? Yeah, I'm on Instagram at Till Jeremy. It's T-H-I-E-L-J-E-R-E-M-Y. I like my Instagram. It's my main social platform, Facebook. And then our gym is CrossFit Central. We also have the Fittest Experience, which is our competition that we host in January. Our online qualifierifiers in October.

We're really beefing that up. We've got a lot of badass things in the works for that. And so they can find us on the interwebs. Yeah. Very cool. Thanks for joining me today. No doubt, brother. Thank you.

And as always, go to iTunes, give us a five-star review, positive comments. And man, if you want to get in that Strong Coach program, go over to thestrongcoach.com. Get signed up. Get on that wait list. I've got 10 spots available when I launch that again. It's going to be in the next four to six weeks. So get in there. And if you want to shoot me a message,

you got a question, you got a topic you want me to cover, go over to my Instagram, Mike underscore blood. So shoot me a DM and we'll get in a conversation later.