Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 99 - What Makes a Great Trainer + Non-Fitness Q+A

Episode Date: April 21, 2021

In this episode, coach Danny outlines some of what he thinks are "non-negotiable" elements of being a great personal trainer (or professional in any field).-He talks about his "5-Be's", the importance of knowledge, a "white belt mentality" and much more!---Thanks For Listening!---RESOURCES/COACHING: I am all about education and that is not limited to this podcast! Feel free to grab a FREE guide (Nutrition, Training, Macros, Etc!) HERE! Interested in Working With Coach Danny and His One-On-One Coaching Team? Click HERE! Want To Have YOUR Question Answered On an Upcoming Episode of DYNAMIC DIALOGUE? You Can Submit It HERE!Want to Support The Podcast AND Get in Better Shape? Grab a Program HERE!----SOCIAL LINKS: Sign up for the trainer mentorship HEREFollow Coach Danny on INSTAGRAMFollow Coach Danny on TwitterFollow Coach Danny on FacebookGet More In-Depth Articles Written By Yours’ Truly HERE!Support the Show.

Hey, everybody, welcome into another episode of the dynamic dialogue podcast. I am your host, Danny Tranga. My allergies today are pretty rough. So if you detect some hoarseness in my voice, I might even have to cough a little bit here. I'm doing my best to bring you this podcast in what is the peak of the allergy season here where I live in Sonoma County. And it's also a very windy day. So for the last two or three days, I've had a little bit of a cough, but worry not. It does not appear as though that is COVID. I have had my shots and I have also been checking my temperature quite regularly. And while that doesn't mean that it's not, I have multiple reasons to believe that it's just allergies. So today's discussion is going to be a little bit different. And it's going to be by and large, directed at helping coaches and personal trainers really reconnect with the fundamentals of what it takes to be great at what you do. But if you're not a coach or a trainer, I think that there's a lot in here that

you will be able to use with whatever it is that you do professionally. If you do something where you interact with people or you work with people on a semi-regular basis, whether that's customer to client, right? Like you are interacting with your customer, your client. Maybe it's interpersonal within your organization. Maybe you work at a company. Maybe you're looking to climb the ladder or just get more fulfilling work done, more meaningful work done, make better connections. This is one of those things that I think is really going to encapsulate a lot of what I've learned over the years. And I'm not somebody who's, you know, oh, I'm into fitness. I'm just going to start, you know, building a

social media platform or online coaching. I worked in a, you know, corporate setting for five years. I've trained lots of really intelligent, really smart people who have provided me with wisdom that I'll share with you today. Same thing with people that I've worked with. Everything that we're going to talk about today is very much skin in the game, things that I've learned on the job paired with some best practices, if you will. But I think it's really important to break down what it is to be a great coach. What are those fundamental pillars of being a great coach? And I think number one is your knowledge and your expertise, right? Great professionals in any field, in my opinion, are voracious learners. They're people who cannot get enough of the subject matter with which they work, right?

People who truly, truly, truly are passionate. Now, you can be a highly effective, very, very skilled coach and maybe not be as avid a learner as some of your peers, but I do think people that do things well and do those things for the long run maintain what I like to call a white belt mentality. They never pass up the opportunity to grow their intellect or expand their knowledge base. They're always looking for ways in which they can learn more so they can better help their existing clients get greater reach through outlets like social media or within their community. And they're looking to really round out the skill set that makes them an effective professional in any field. So I think what

makes somebody a great coach, number one, we look at knowledge. And I look for somebody who, it's not so important how smart you are right now. What matters more to me or what I've seen with the coaches that I've worked with who have had the most success, whether that be in the corporate setting, friends, other online coaches, the ones who are committed to constantly acquiring new knowledge, leveling up. They kind of, like I said, acquiring new knowledge, leveling up. They kind of, like I said, they live with that white belt mentality, that idea that there's always something to learn, never too good, never going to know it all. A humility, if you will, that's number one. And I think that that's something that extends into pretty much every profession. But even more, like beyond that, I'd go so far as to say it's going

to extend into your personal relationships as well. I was listening to a podcast today with Jay Shetty and Will Smith. That's of course the Willard Smith of Fresh Prince of Bel-Air fame. And he said something very interesting to me. Well, not to me, on the podcast. And he was asked, you know, what is one piece of advice that you would give to people? And he said, you need to repeat back to somebody what they said to you before you respond so as to make sure that you understand them clearly. this is tied into knowledge is it's not just important to understand subject matter. It's not just important to understand things that exist in the theoretical. It's important to understand people clearly that you're engaging with or interacting with. So not just hungry for the theoretical, but really as a professional, are you hungry and are you focused on really hearing, listening, and understanding your clients. And quite frankly, your personal relationships too. Because if you're checked out there because you're so intent on building

business, building a brand, making money, growing your social media, whatever, that you let your relationships decay, take it from me, not a good idea. I have been there. I have done that. I have made those mistakes in my life where I became like a total workaholic and you don't want to be there either. So be hungry to learn, engage and grow in as many areas as possible, but specifically the areas in which you plan on making money or being career oriented. The next thing, this is something that I got from my good friend, one of my original managers, Brandon Garcia, somebody that I worked for for several years.

We worked together as trainers when I first got hired and we didn't really get along that well. If anything, I remember getting hired and I saw that Brandon had quite a robust roster of clients when I first entered the gym. And because I was 18 and pretty insecure and not particularly in touch with why Brandon had that many clients, because I just lacked the fundamental self-awareness to see the areas that I lacked. I just kind of envied him. And he actually many months down the road, I mean, in fairness, not to bag on myself too hard, I was only about 18 years old, but

he got promoted to being the manager of the training department. And so I very quickly had to be comfortable with this guy being my boss. And you fast forward several years, we grew a very special relationship. He's one of the people in this industry who I really, really respect, not just as a professional, but as a human. industry who I really, really respect, not just as a professional, but as a human. But he brought something to the organization that we worked at, and more specifically,

to the club that we worked at, that I've never forgotten. And these are what he called the five B's. And I really liked these. And I think that these are important for any coach who is looking And I think that these are important for any coach who is looking to succeed. And I'm going to manipulate these a little bit so that it's relevant for coaches who work in person as well as coaches who work online. And again, regardless of the field that you work in as a professional, I think that this has a lot of translation. Any solopreneur, entrepreneur, business owner, if you follow these five things or your employees follow these five things, you're going to be in a much better place. And the first one, the first of the five B's is be prepared at all times. And so for a trainer who works in a gym, that means showing up

on time for your session. And by on time for your session, I mean five to 10 minutes early for your session. You should be in the gym, ready to go clean for your client, not one to two minutes before the session, still sweating from your workout, scooting in. That shit does not look good. And I'll be 100% honest. I'm not much of a prude. I don't know how much it would bother me, but I'll tell you this. If somebody was kind of illustrating to me that they were pushing their time right up until our session to the last second as a customer, I would say, okay, this is somebody who's not particularly interested in preparing for this because a good workout takes a little bit of fourth, you know foresight you have to think about it You have to plan it you have to think about where your client was at previously what the goals are

Many coaches are going to write that workout out being prepared is important And if you're not prepared people pick up on that extremely quickly um, the second piece of that Uh is like related to perhaps coaching in the digital space. You have to be prepared for everything that you do and you can't really slack on it. And that means being prepared for podcasts, being prepared for content creation, being prepared to answer comments on a post that you make that was specifically designed to generate traffic because you chose to maybe make it divisive or combative or whatever. You got to be ready for work when

it's time to work, period. The second of the five B's is always be on time. Again, I talked a little bit about this in being prepared, but being early, even just one to two minutes is exponentially better than being one to two minutes late. It says something to the people that you work with, whether that's for a session, whether that's for a coaching call, whatever the reason that you're scheduling something with another human being, you should make a point of being on time for that. And my dad taught me something early on that really resonated with me. And he would always say, five minutes early is 10 minutes late. And that stuck. And we were always early to everything. And to this day, I tend to be fairly early to everything. Unless of course,

I get pulled over and get a speeding ticket like I did the other day, which kind of bummed me out, but I digress. Um, the third B is to be inspiring, be positive, be the kind of human being that people want to hang out around. You can be prepared for the session, come in clean, uh, come in not smelling like you just worked out. You can be 10 minutes early. But if the minute your client shows up, you're somebody who's negative, miserable to be around, or maybe this is an online situation where every time they send you an email, you send something scolding and negative back, you're not going to build a lot of rapport with your clients. And so at the most fundamental level, it's always important to remember that people choose to work

with people that they like more often than people that they don't like. Trust, happiness, enjoyment are fundamental things that we like to get from our interactions. I want to trust the people I talk to. When I'm done talking to them, I want to feel happy. When I'm from our interactions. I want to trust the people I talk to. When I'm done talking to them, I want to feel happy. When I'm talking to them, I want to enjoy the moment. I want to be, you know, you have, let's say, two barbers, both of whom are more than competent when it comes to cutting hair. One of them is fun to be around. One of them doesn't say anything. Depending on who you are, depending on what you look for in that experience, maybe you like a more quiet experience, right? Maybe you like somebody who talks more.

You'll gravitate more towards what you want. And I think it's important to know that people who select an industry or select to get help out of an industry like personal training or online coaching are more often than not going to be receptive to somebody who's positive or inspirational. So any interaction that you go into, and this is a somebody who has a tendency to be a bit realistic and borderline pessimistic at times. Speaking about myself, I want to put my hat on, my inspirational hat or my positive hat or my pragmatic hat in that, want my inspirational hat or my positive hat or my pragmatic hat. And that, you know, no matter what kind of mood I'm in that day, I'm going to make sure that I give this client something that they can work with. I want my mood. I want my demeanor. I want my choice of words. I want my

subject matter of conversation to be pleasant and make people want to come back. I don't want to be somebody that people don't want to be around or talk to. And it's that simple. I think that's just good business. And that extends into everything that you do. One of the things that I've always heard about Dwayne Johnson, The Rock, that is interesting, and it's one of the more common things that people remark about him, is his schedules, schedules like you know the stuff of legend he gets like very little sleep he's always busy he always stops and talks to fans but one of the things i've heard a lot of people say is that he makes every person he feel he talks to feel special and so i've always said this to coaches the client that you're with should feel like your favorite client,

whether they are or they aren't. And so regardless of, because as trainers and coaches, we have a tendency to have clients we like more than others. It's not bad. That's being human. Some people we just gel with more than others. It's that much more important to put effort, energy, effort into inspiring those with whom maybe you don't connect to so naturally. So keep all of that stuff in mind. Number four, the fourth B, be attentive. Okay. And what be attentive really means is, are you present? Are you paying attention? So if you're in a session, are you on your phone? Are you talking to another trainer? Are you staring at the wall? Are you talking about what you want to talk about? Right these these things happen They're okay

But they can't happen very often. All right They just you want to avoid that for obvious reasons and the same thing with online coaching Like are you responding to your clients emails in a timely manner? Are you just letting them sit on red? Right, like are you reaching out to your clients if they have yet to reach out to you? What are you doing to help your clients be successful? And that's really important. And it's difficult sometimes for us to always be present because there's so much chaos, so much happening. But when you put that uniform on, and we'll touch on that last piece in a minute, when you're checked in on work mode, when you're transacting with another human being, whether that's an online client, whether that's in-person client, whatever, you should be respectful and attentive and you should be present. It's that simple. And the last B is, and this is modified. And the last B is, and this is modified. It was originally be in uniform, but I feel like be in uniform really fit nicely into the be prepared portion.

And for like the online coaching world, I think you could say that, you know, be in uniform means just be engaged when you're doing those tasks, right? Because you could be an online coach in your underwear for all it matters. doing those tasks, right? Because you could be an online coach in your underwear for all it matters. But I would like to change that fifth B from be in uniform into be collaborative or non-competitive and that our space is obnoxiously over-competitive to the point where we have coaches wasting so much time in frivolous debate over the finest details in our space when we have a country with a massive obesity crisis who has no understanding of nutrition at a fundamental level or exercise. The amount of people who need your help, like to waste time in the minutia debating or being competitive or petty with other coaches is so dumb. Like in theory, we should all be on one team

and we should all be working together if you disagree with somebody you know sometimes it's okay to call them out or engage in respectful discourse if they're really being a shit person but a lot of times you got to ask yourself like am i being combative or am i being competitive because i'm insecure and i want to seem smart you know and i see that a lot man Like there's a lot of coaches out there who are a lot smarter than myself. And, and I'm not saying that this is bad, but I go, Hey, you know, you've got a lot of knowledge, but it doesn't hide the glaring insecurity that I can see in the way you engage with other human beings. Like people think they can hide that shit, but they can't.

And so if you're letting your insecurity run rampant in the way that you engage with other people in your career, whether this is other trainers at your gym or studio, other online coaches and how you interact with them on comments or maybe direct messages, perhaps it's a situation at a different type of job where you could probably work better collaboratively, but you decide to be competitive and operate out of a place of scarcity. So operate from a place of abundance, try to be collaborative instead of competitive, and try not to let your ego and insecurity drive the kinds of decisions that you make as a professional. So those are the five Bs. Be prepared, in uniform, those are the five B's be prepared in uniform, not stinky, present, right? Be on time, preferably early, be inspiring, not so shitty to be around, be attentive. That's incredibly important. Be present again. And again, be collaborative in place of competitive or operate from a place of abundance in place of instead of a place of scarcity. Hopefully that makes some sense. Another tip that I have for you guys,

and this is big, this is really big. And I think that this extends again into pretty much any profession, but it is never mortgage your reputation. It is your only non-replenishable asset. When it hits zero, you're done. And this is a quote from Naval Ravikant. If you know me, you know that I am a big fan of Naval's work, but I like the way we think about

reputation in that it's an asset and it compounds. So the longer you invest positively in it, the more leverage you will have. And you invest in your reputation by being authentic, by being who you are, and by choosing to make integrous decisions, even when it would be easier to do the alternative. So I'll give you guys an example. I work with Legion. Legion is one of the few supplement companies that I feel does a great job of being transparent, providing education, and also, and perhaps most importantly to me, they're one of the only supplement companies that will tell their clients that they don't need supplements.

I also really like Mike, the founder of Legion. I think he's a really good human being. Every time I've talked to him, whether it was in person, online, every time I've interacted, I mean, I remember once Mike and I sat down in San Jose for dinner for like two hours and I had one of the best discussions I've ever had with a human being. And Mike is incredibly smart. He's incredibly intelligent. And he's the kind of person that when you talk to him, you go, okay, if I'm going to join forces with somebody, this is the kind of person I want to join forces with. I had been approached by many supplement companies previous to Legion. And I actually sat down with Mike for dinner before I worked with Legion that that came from that interaction, the Legion relationship.

And so my point in this is that a lot of those other supplement companies I could tell from the jump weren't transparent, weren't doing things the right way, were much more interested in making money than they were creating a quality product. And they offered me a lot better affiliate deals than Legion did when we talk about pure bottom line. And for me, the number one thing was, okay, can I partner with a brand? Can I partner with a company here that I feel like has the same values that I have? And that was number one. And so that came down to, okay, can I find a supplement company in a space cluttered with shitty people that actually cares about their clients, the fundamentals of nutrition and training? Legion was like the only one, right? So at a value level,

you want to do business with people, clients, brands, whoever, wherever you're at in your career that share the same values. Somebody could have offered me more money. Many companies did, but I wasn't going to mortgage my reputation by aligning myself with people who did not share the same values because thankfully I make plenty of money in this space and I'm certainly not going to just affiliate myself with any old company. I get like 20 DMs a week about everything from meal prep to CBD to supplements, you name it. And I just delete 90% of them because I'm really uninterested in aligning myself with anything that I feel could mortgage my reputation. And you can put a positive spin on almost anything,

right? And a lot of people, quote unquote, influencers, quote unquote, people in our space who have platforms will put a positive spin on shit that they know doesn't work. I see it all the time, especially in the podcasting space where people know a product is largely bogus, but they get a great offer from a company that wants them to shill for it. And so they go, well, what's the best way I can spin this bullshit so people spend too much money on it? I don't roll that way. Why? Because if somebody gets that product and they don't enjoy it, they will very quickly know in they'll know in their heart that I sold them on it, even though I didn't believe in it. And they'll go, well, this was bullshit. Why did that guy

who I trusted tell me to buy this with his code? He wanted me to spend a hundred dollars on this stupid product so he could get a 20% kick. Fuck that guy, right? That's how you lose your reputation in a space like this. Other than, of course, doing stupid things like having sex with your clients or taking money from people. That's dumb. you even afford the phone that you're listening to this podcast on, right? Like, you can't be that stupid all the time. That I can help you with, but never mortgage your reputation. To me, that's really important. And a good way to do that

is to under-promise and over-deliver. Hey guys, just wanted to take a quick second to say thanks so much for listening to the podcast. And if you're finding value, it would mean the world to me if you would share it on your social media. Simply screenshot whatever platform you're listening to and share the episode to your Instagram story or share it to Facebook. But be sure to tag me so I can say thanks and we can chat it up about what you liked and how I can continue to improve. Thanks so much for supporting the podcast and enjoy the rest of the episode. I'll give you two examples. We'll say trainer A is an under-promiser and an over-deliver. He sells things on good faith. He builds trust. He gets

lots of referrals. He gets clients who want to stick with him and renew because he tells them the truth and he delivers a little bit more than his initial, perhaps, quote unquote, under promise. Now then we have the other trainer who over promises. He'll say anything to get a sale. He'll under deliver, sell big contracts with tons of dropouts, low conversions on the re-signs and renewals because very quickly people find out that they've been duped. And instead of getting a lot of referral business, a lot of natural traffic and good reviews, they're constantly trying to keep their head above water because they'd rather lie and mortgage their reputation. Your reputation

is powerful. You can look people in the eye and lie to them. You can. People do it all the time, but only for so long. So again, never mortgage your reputation in any space because once it's gone, it's an asset that may never come back. Okay, next one. Remember at all times that people don't choose to work with you because of how much you know, but because of how much you care. And I put the caveat of kind of here, and here's why. Because we talked about knowledge being very important, and I believe wholeheartedly that there's tremendous value in being credentialed and genuinely intelligent in your field. That's a no brainer. That being said, there's no substitute at all for caring about your

clients, right? Being pleasant, being along for the ride with somebody's journey, being present to help them in their transformation, right? If everything you throw at people is science, science, science, look how much I know, look how smart I am. If you don't listen to me, it's on you, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You're losing what I call the art of coaching. Okay? Your clients are not robots. You have to remember that, right? So I always say people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. So if you can make sure that you communicate to your clients that you're along for the ride, you're on the road with them, you want them to be successful, you want to help them, you care about them, they will do a lot better than if all you do is throw facts at them and talk over their head or project your intelligence because maybe you're insecure and you think if I just sound smart, people will listen. A lot of coaches do that. And I'll be honest, it's not a great tactic for building a sustainable model. You want to be smart. You want to learn as much as you can. But if your clients gave a shit about that, they wouldn't have hired you in the first place 99 out

of 100 times. They want to work with somebody who cares and who takes pride in helping them get results. And you do that by treating them like humans and not robots. And another way I like to phrase that is you train human beings, not clients and not sessions. Coach from a connection-based model. You as a human being helping this human being. model. You as a human being helping this human being. Okay. You're not, it's not a robot where you go do this program, eat these macros, lose weight. That's very, very rare. And the people who you will work with like that, those are usually my other coaches. A lot of, so a lot of the clients that I work with online are other coaches and they are a little bit more robotic than the average Joe. So I can kind of be like, hey, do this. And usually they execute very well. My clients, as a lot right now, this is the best group of people I've ever worked with, right? People tend to come and go. And I think some of that reflects my growth as a coach. But this is the most diligent, awesome group of people I've ever worked with. But they're not robots either. Some of them are just a little better, but just remember that, right? You want to connect with the people that you work with. I think that's really important too. So get to know who they are, not just what they want to accomplish with their body. You don't have to be best friends. You don't have to cross any lines

professionally, but if you can connect with the things that matter to people outside of their fitness, you'll get to the bottom of why they're in front of you very quickly. Because people come to you because they want to lose weight or they want to get in shape or they want to build muscle. But the reasons that they want to do those things have very little to do with physiology and they have a lot to do with psychology. And what I mean by that is the goals that people have for their body are usually tied to emotions, as are their struggles, right? Weight loss is not difficult mechanistically. Eat less, move more. It's really that simple.

But it is difficult sociologically and emotionally. And that food is a very available coping mechanism that many people learn to turn to over years. And they don't know how to adjust or change their dietary decisions. And it's tricky. So getting to know who people are, where they struggle, what matters to them and really connecting with them will help you and them overcome hurdles when they pop up, right? Be real and long-term when you talk about shit with people. Explain to people why you choose to do what you do, why we're choosing a high protein diet, why we're doing the Romanian deadlift. Why did I switch this exercise for that exercise on your programming,

right? You can bake in education, but it's also connection. I'm sharing with you why this matters because you matter to me, right? And share elements of who you are that are respectable, respectful, I should say, and classy and professional, right? Like if a client goes, oh, I stayed up late on Friday because I went to the movie theater and watched the latest Avengers. You could go, oh, that's unacceptable. Never do that again. Or you could go, hey, I understand that that was really important to you. I respect that decision.

hey, I understand that that was really important to you. I respect that decision. That being said, you did miss that workout on Friday. So that will reflect in how our programming, you know, for this week changes, we might have to make up that volume elsewhere, or, you know, I might want you to catch that at another day to get that workout in. But, you know, I've done something similar. I'm a big Star Wars fan. I've stayed up late for a premiere, whatever, you know, be relatable, be human. And I think, again, your primary objectives as coach come down to make it fun, make exercise suck less, make the weight loss process more enjoyable, make it feel like they have somebody in their corner, right? Promote safety at all times. Don't do something that jeopardizes your client's health, safety, or wellbeing, whether that's nutritionally or in the gym.

Remember that your integrity matters. Always keep that front of mind. And education drives compliance, right? So the most important thing you can instill in your clients in person or online is education. Teach them things. Make yourself obsolete and your clients will never want to leave. I tell that to coaches all the time and they're like, what? And I'm like, listen to me, make your clients not need you and they'll need you forever because you're adding so much value. They enjoy the process so much that if they're only ever one step behind where you're at knowledge-wise, they're still going to keep coming back for more because education and learning about your body, like there's nothing somebody could pay you monthly or as a single session or whatever.

For most people that would ever reciprocate or return the value that they get from a really good coach or trainer that's helping them live a better life physically, emotionally, nutritionally, whatever. Like if you're doing your job as a coach or a trainer, you're worth more than what you're getting paid, period, end of story. And that's that. And your clients will continue to pay for you even if you teach them everything they need to know to be successful because they enjoyed that process and they're always going to continue learning because you are always going to continue learning and sharing. A few things about what not to do that I like to say. Don't be a self-righteous MF-er, right? A personal training industry is loaded

with self-righteous people, insecure people want to be know-it-alls, bad apples, shysters. It's not hard to hide. It's not hard to find them. Okay. Um, a lot of people go, Oh, I just want to help people live healthier lives. And then they go on and sell a bunch of crappy detox supplements, waste trainers. And it's like, look, show me what you're going to do. Or your actions are going to clearly speak louder than your words. And I just want to make sure that I reiterate, people are pretty damn smart. So if you want to bullshit them, they're going to figure it out eventually. And I cannot dissuade people in the fitness space away from that enough. Just don't do it. Don't even flirt with it, right?

Never offer or promise something you know you can't deliver to make money. Just don't do it. If it ain't realistic and you can't follow through with it, don't sell it. If you know it doesn't work, don't sell it. Just don't do it. And remember, you can never drill the basics enough. All right. The stuff that we just talked about might've seemed really rudimentary and really fucking obvious for a lot of people, but for quite a few people, it's not. So again, always go over the basics. And I just want to throw this out there. There's about 340,000

personal trainers in the United States. Okay. This is a number that I pulled off Google. Could that be a smaller number, a larger number? I don't know, but let's just operate assuming that there's some truth to this, that there's about 340,000 personal trainers in the United States. I kind of have a little bit of a pushback on that because that seems like it's like 1% of the US population. But again, just a quick Google number, but that's not the point of this exercise. So let's say there's 340,000. There are 100 million people in the United States living with obesity. 50 million people in the United States living with chronic pain. About 165 million Americans or 49.1% have tried to lose weight within the last year. There are more people out there than you will ever be able to help. Period. There's a ton of clients out there for any trainer who's worth half a shit and cares about doing good work.

A lot of trainers operate from the scarcity mindset that there's not enough clients, and if someone else is already doing it, I can't get in there, or that person's already doing well, so I'm screwed, or I'm too late. That's all baloney. There are more people out there that need your help in this area than you will ever be able to help. And problem solvers are always in demand, period. Another Naval quote, if you can fix people's problems, you'll have money, period. End of story. This is a big problem for a lot of people and you are offering it as a reasonable price, hopefully, whether that's for sessions, online coaching, whatever, okay? People need your unique experience. They need your unique perspective. They need your unique help. Every single one of those 49.1% or 165 million Americans who've tried

to lose weight in the last year as a unique person and a high, like a good number of them would gel with you really well. And you would be somebody that they could trust. You would be somebody that they click with, right? So none of this, uh, scarcity mindset stuff in our space, guys, if we can avoid that, let's avoid it because there's way too many people that need our help for us to be wasting time arguing with each other, bantering or operating out of a place of scarcity or insecurity. Plenty of reasons to assume we can operate out of an abundance mentality. I think that's fair to say. Okay, now let's go ahead and get into this. We're going to answer some non-fitness Q&As and this is going to be fun. So number

one, this one comes from happy Ashley five. And she says, what's your favorite thing to do to care for your mental health? I would say play golf. I really enjoy playing golf, even though it drives me crazy. And sometimes while I'm out there, just absolutely just slot shanking it, Just absolutely, just shanking it, slicing it, hooking it. There are days where I don't golf well. It definitely is probably worse for my mental health, but it's nice to get out there, focus. And when I bring Coop,

it feels like nothing matters in the world. Sean Patrick Doyle asks, do you drink alcohol? I do not drink alcohol on a regular basis. I have drank an alcohol or have drank alcohol recently, but I do not drink alcohol on a regular basis. I have drank an alcohol or have drank alcohol recently, but I do not drink alcohol very regularly at all. We have two questions here about investing. One is from MarybellMRN.strong underscore who says investment tips for dummies. And then Daniele who asks biggest advice

when it comes to finances for newbies. And I actually answered this today a little bit on my Instagram story, but because I think it's a question that I get asked about a lot because I talk about finance. But again, I'll run through them. I don't think you should try to time the market. Instead, you should spend more time in the market. Getting rich quick is hard. Getting rich slow is pretty easy. And what I mean by that is the number one thing you have on your side as an investor is time. Time gives you leverage. It gives you the ability to take advantage of what many people call the eighth wonder of the world,

compound interest. So the most important thing you can do is stop trying and waiting for the best time to buy stocks, securities, crypto, whatever you're trying to invest in, and instead educate yourself and start investing. I recommend S&P 500 index funds. Those tend to be very easy. Follow the market hustle on Instagram. This is somebody who I like quite a bit. We chat in the DMs. We chop it up. We operate very similarly in that we try to be evidence-based and practical. That is a great place to start. But the best thing you can do is what I said to do, and that is just get started investing and let time do it. Something I often recommend too is automating your investments. So have them taken from your

bank account every month so you don't even have to think about it. It will allow you to, taken from your bank account every month so you don't even have to think about it it will allow you to i think detach from the idea of having to put money into something for a lot of people it's hard to send money away and watch it whether that's spending it or investing and i think setting it up in an automated fashion so that you don't see it what you have in your checking account or whatever is what you have and then you know the investments get taken out automatically you don't have to be an active investor to build wealth. Not in today's world. You certainly can be, but for newbies, I think, you know, setting up a monthly, not subscription, but a monthly purchase of S and P 500 index funds that accrue at between

eight to 10% per year. and just doing that for a long time you can build an unbelievable amount of wealth if you're just patient uh diversify so again don't throw everything at one asset like don't be just a crypto guy please um you can but i think that there's a lot of strength in being diverse and not just diverse in your investments but you know do you have a savings account do you have an emergency fund? Do you have a Roth IRA? These are tax advantaged accounts like a Roth that help you get the most out of what you put into the market. Don't buy things that people tell you to buy. Do research first, especially if that advice comes from people on the internet or people that you don't trust if they're people that you trust and who have your best interests in mind sure you can take their

advice but uh don't get FOMO and be like why is everybody talking about dogecoin on twitter i gotta go buy some doge that's not what you want to do i promise you that okay last question is what is your purpose your why? you know It's the tacky answer that all trainers give which is I do want to help people but This is an interesting question because part of me hears this and goes I'm one of eight billion people on this planet Or almost eight billion people on this planet Or almost 8 billion people on this planet

Do I need to have a purpose? Do I need to have a why? Do I need to masquerade all over the world And make sure everybody knows my why and my purpose Because I'm not here for that long And I'm not that significant given that I've won of 7.5 billion. And so when I think about what my why is or my purpose, it's easy to get into this headspace where I'm like grandiose and I want to save everybody and I want to protect everybody. But what I think it really

boils down to when I put things in perspective and by perspective, I mean, when I challenge this notion that I'm special and that I deserve something or success or adoration or admiration and that, you know, I want to, my purpose is to get more of those things. It's not. My purpose and my why, I want to enjoy my life. I want to help people and I want to know that I'm helping the people around me live better lives. And if that somehow scales on social media or the internet or through things like my mentorship, which is coming soon for all you trainers who are listening, right? Those things are significant enough. My why doesn't have to be huge. Yes, my big why is that I want to help people. My big why is that I particularly would

like to help people be healthy and live better lives by, you know, being healthier and more fit. I think that makes everything easier. But also I'm totally okay knowing that, hey, you know, my purpose for being here on this planet can be as simple as enjoying my life with the people who matter to me, whether that's my clients, my friends, whatever. And I feel like when I take a deep, deep dive and ask myself, why do I think I'm here on this planet? It's almost a little bit arrogant to think that I'm here for anything other than to just be here and be present and in being present with the limited time that I do have here can I make other people's lives better or more enjoyable and make my own life better and enjoyable and accomplish things and

see things and do things because even though we all operate like we have I don't know 70 to 100 years we all act like we have like oh we have 70 to 100 years literally none of this is guaranteed and if I create and draw and illustrate this narrative in my mind that I'm here for this reason this is my purpose this is how I provide the world value I do think that there is a lot of value to getting clear on what you want to do and what makes you tick. But I also think there's a lot of value in taking a deep breath and acknowledging that everybody here on this planet has some type of purpose or value, or why. and if we all fundamentally just turned inward and said, okay, my goal is to make the fellow human being, my fellow human being in humanity's life better. If everybody's purpose

was to make everybody's life better, what kind of world would that be? And so my purpose over the years or my why has been simplified down to taking really good care of the people in my life, protecting them, nurturing them, caring for them, using health and fitness and trying to spread that using the platforms that I have through social media. That's what I like to do. And I'm not the kind of person to go, my purpose is to be X, Y, Z, because I don't think about it a lot. Because I think that, I don't think about it a lot. Because I think that, again, I feel that deep down in my heart to march around like I'm here for this special thing. And that's, I'm one of 7.5 billion. I'm a damn accident. I was one of a trillion sperm to fertilize an egg. I'm just happy to be here. I'm just happy to be on this earth. None of this is guaranteed.

And while I am here, I'd like to help as many people as I can, because that's what feels right. And so does being around people who I really enjoy and care about. You guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, be sure to do me a favor and subscribe to the podcast, wherever the heck you're listening. Okay. Whether that's Apple music, whether or Apple podcasts, whatever, iTunes, Spotify, all that stuff. Just do me a favor, hit subscribe, leave me a five-star rating and review and keep tuning in and giving me feedback. I really appreciate every single one of you and I hope that you have a great rest of your week.