Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2470: Personal Trainers & the Gym Industry with UFC Gym VP Don Cardona

Episode Date: November 18, 2024

Personal Trainers & the Gym Industry with UFC Gym VP Don Cardona Don’s first impression of Sal, and how their relationship was built. (2:01) Building and inspiring other people. (5:47) Gym culture then and now. (10:38) Challenging moments early on. (13:50) The differences in the club industry. (20:14) Empowering the fitness professional through culture. (30:22) How do we keep the RIGHT people? (32:58) Attracting the best talent and bringing mixed martial arts to the masses. (42:59) Merging Social and Brick & Mortar. (47:12) The goal moving forward. (55:37) Nailing the 4 F’s: Faith, family, fitness, and finances. (57:51) Aging like fine wine. (1:00:39) Related Links/Products Mentioned Visit NASM for this month’s exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! ** Fitness and Nutrition Bundle – Buy CPT get CNC Free! ** Code MPMFNB at checkout ** EARLY ACCESS to the Black Friday Sale is open NOW! ** ALL MAPS Fitness Products 60% OFF. Coupon code BLACKFRIDAY. The code will expire on Sunday, December 1st. Each purchase enters you to win one of two 5-day stays at the Mind Pump Park City Vacation Home. Each winner will receive $1,000 cash for travel and food. Bundle purchase - 10 entries, Program purchase - 5 entries, ALL other MAPS purchases (mods, guides, etc.) - 1 entry. Winners will be announced and contacted in December. ** Mind Pump #2465: How to Become a 6-Figure Trainer Mind Pump #1390: The State of the Gym Industry with UFC Gym President Adam Sedlack Mind Pump #1525: The Death of the Gym Industry?: A Reality Check With UFC Gym CEO Adam Sedlack UFC Gym and Alta Global Launch Gym Programs in Costa Mesa & Huntington Beach, California: Part of a Global Rollout to 150+ UFC Gyms Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources Featured Guest/People Mentioned Don Cardona (@dc.fit1) Instagram Adam Sedlack (@ceoufcgym) Instagram  Hany Rambod (@hanyrambod) Instagram  

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You just found the most downloaded fitness, health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode is a treat. My first mentor in the gym industry, the guy that taught me a lot of what I know about gyms and sales and fitness. Don Cardona is on our podcast today. Right now he's the vice president of Sales for UFC Gyms. In today's episode, we have a good time,

but then we also talk about the gym industry, personal trainers, and the future of personal training. And this guy knows, like I said, he's one of the OGs. He's one of the best people I know to talk on this particular subject. Now this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, NASM. They're one of the best certification courses for personal trainers in the world. I

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Yeah, so this is easily my favorite because, and I've mentioned you on the podcast many times. Yeah. So this is easily my favorite because, uh, and I've mentioned you on the podcast many times, you are my first and most influential mentor for sure. You and I go way back, 24 hour fitness. You were, uh, I had a manager before you just for a few short months, made zero impact on me. You come in and had just a tremendous influence on me, my life and all that. Now you're VP for UFC Gems.

You've stayed in the club industry this entire time, so it's awesome to have you on the show, bro. Glad to be here. Yeah, thank you. So we have to, because I feel like I've heard the story a hundred times from his perspective, I wanna hear what it was like meeting him for the first time.

And was it love at first sight? Did you hate the guy? Would you, I mean, what was your first impression of Sal and how did that relationship originally build? So first I come into the club and I think he had like Nino, Gaetano, all of his cousins, we're all working there, right? So I walk in.

I forgot about that. Yeah, you had the whole crew there, right? When I get a chance to meet Sal, you could tell right away that the level of engagement that he had in his mind was just completely different from a fitness perspective. And coming from a fitness guy, I was like, this guy's got a lot of talent. And it was just a matter of directing that talent in a different way. He was already successful at what he was doing.

Unfortunately, there wasn't a lot of leadership there at that time. I think that person went, how I got that club was literally the manager went on a bender and that was back in the old days, right? And I get a phone call saying, Hey, will you show up to the club from my mentor, John Romeo? And next thing you know, there I am. And I get a chance to meet this guy. Now, how old are you and him at this time? Cause I know he's what? 18. He's 18 years old. And how old are you at that time? I think I was like 22 Okay, so you both were kids we literally ended up our first meal was that What was that that catering place that was over there across the way that we used to go to for lunch every day?

That's no that was Sunnyvale. No Sunnyvale was that was that's a whole Oh no, that's not Sunnys. No, that was Sunnyvale. No, Sunnyvale was, that was. That's a whole other story? We have way better stories. I'm bad jumping ahead, sorry. Yeah, I don't remember where we used to eat across, I mean, my first big memory of you, Don,

was you coming in and I don't remember what day you come in. It must have been midweek and it was, I had just moved, I was moving over to the sales side. I was a fitness manager and I wanted to become a general manager and they moved me over to senior sales counselor at the time, which is I ran the weekend. So you came in, two days later, I'm running the weekend and that's the famous barbecue story that I tell on the podcast many times. And that's when you and I, because they gave away a barbecue.

We had a barbecue in the club that was for winners of a sweepstakes, right? You come in, you work out, you fill out a barbecue. We had a barbecue in the club that was for winners of a sweepstakes, right? You come in, you work out, you fill out a form. And it was Sunday night, I'm competing, this is club 504 Hillsdale. We're competing against, I think it was Mountain View. Back in those days, you couldn't see what other clubs were producing. You had to fax each other. And I would trick their front desk to fax me numbers acting like I was a district manager. So I'd get what they were. And I saw that we were so close, I had to close another deal. And so I had this family in there and the guy, the guy was on the line. So I gave away our barbecue.

So Don comes in, congratulates me on winning the weekend champion. You're going to be great. He's telling me all this stuff. And later that day, dude rolls up in his truck with the barbecue in the back, because it wasn't working. And Don says, hey, can I talk to you for a second? I do. Took me to the office, he's like,

you can't give away a barbecue, buddy. And didn't fire me. We became buddies after that. 100%. What was the most difficult thing about leading him? I mean, you say you could tell he was talented right away. You can lay it on. And you were being humble by saying

that you didn't really have to do much, but even that in itself is knowing how to let someone go and be themselves, how to corral that in, how to push. I mean, that's a sign of good leadership. So what was probably the most challenging thing with him? He definitely was somebody that you had to pull the rope back on, right?

Which is good. So you don't find that in our industry very often. People that are passionate about fitness. So the thing that I clicked with him on was he was a huge Mike Menzner fan. So we would talk about working out, we would talk about progressive overload, different things, supplements,

and then from a business perspective, it was easy because he was money motivated. He really wanted to succeed in life. And so that clicked, right? We're both, I think, first generation kids here, right? Where our families come from different countries. So it was easy to bond with someone like that, that had a passion for fitness and that wanted to excel.

This guy, he would push the envelope on a lot of things, which was good, right? So you had to pull the leash back, but I'll say this, his true talent is being able to build in other people. Like you don't find that. So being able to have the ability to inspire other people to want to be better than they currently are and be part of a team, that's what made him special.

You saw that even at a young age, huh? 100%. Wow. 100%. Matter of fact, I met with his parents and he was supposed to go to college. That's right. I literally went to his house and he's like Don you got to talk to my parents because we were in Hillsdale we crushed it right? Absolutely crushed it and I ended up getting a chance to go to Sunnyvale and so I made a call to my mentor and said look there's only one guy that I want and it's this guy and they're like he's a kid. I said, well, so am I.

So like, it doesn't make a difference. Give us the shot, we'll crush it. And so we go to Sunnyvale and he's my guy. And mind you, we had, I was just talking about him the other day, John Stewart, you know, Lenny Lohenstein, yeah, he passed away. We went and seen him that last time. We took him to breakfast.

It was tough when I flew up from Arizona. He was a mentor to us, right? Kind of taught us skills that you didn't know, like soft skills. Yeah. Like, you know, how to overcome objections. Like, I want to think about it. He would lock him in the office and just get up and walk out and go, okay, now you can think about it. Like the stuff that was

crazy that we would learn was insane. But his, his ability to teach other people and motivate him was just crazy. When you you when you think back to that Is it like was it like a? series of things that we're starting to see the signs or like or was there a moment where you saw him do something and Inspire a group or an employee and you're like, oh shit like this is this is it or like was it was can you recall something? Like that can you draw back? Yeah, there's a couple there's a couple things our first month there We literally broke a record like Like we did $300,000.

We were the first club out of Sunnyvale to do that. And that was the club that every person who became a district manager in the first month, the first month and it was in a November. So mind you, it was not January, February or March. We absolutely crushed it at 300 grand out of there and we didn't hit EFT. We crushed NMS. We would, we would piff out a lot of stuff, but Sal just had that ability, right? And the turning point for me was

there was Longhorn Bar and Grill, right? The restaurant in the morning, ironically enough, we have a club with UFC Gym right around the corner. And I first came there and I went to breakfast there. Sal and I would sit in the same spot every day and they now close that restaurant. The group that owned that, they knew our order. We would have steak, eggs,

like it was same thing every day, coffee, right? Me and him sat down and we were talking about, we wanna make six figures, we want to change this company, we wanna be the youngest people to grow, I wanna make him the youngest general manager. Sitting down and having those conversations and then seeing that come to fruition every single month, every single week,

like that's what clicked. And then we had a challenge. We had way to one closeout. Mountain View was just opening, so they were blowing it up, right? And Romeo calls my house and leaves a message on there like you and it was- I remember that. Yeah, he's like, you fucker, me and Sal are there, we're playing video games. I think we were playing some NFL game calls my house and leaves a message on there like you and it was

Fucker me and Sal are there. We're playing video games. I think we're playing at some NFL game House afterwards we stunk it up. We were terrible. And so I just looked at him and and that was the switch I'm like bro, we need to come in tomorrow without setup and we need to drop 50k We did Wow, like after that forgot about the rest is history. We tore it up. I think. With no ahead of time planning, no booking or sandbagging. Are you kidding me? We would fricking sit there in the office. It's like four o'clock.

We have like fricking two deals up. And I'm like, Sal, fuck dude, we don't even have daily need up. And he's like, DC, we gotta get this thing rolling. So we would literally just boom. You'd see he'd come out, he'd do this thing. We'd just start smacking deals and we could attach fitness like nobody's business.

Yeah, so that's the thing I recall hearing about Sal before I even knew who he was because, you know, and you're a great person to tell this story because you were there before us and you continue to stay there. Like talk about what gym culture was like, especially in regards to like personal training and stuff, just say 20 years ago compared to like now.

Like, I mean, it's like everybody sells training with a membership these days compared to back then. And when it first started, that was like an afterthought, right? It was. So Nautilus, we started like with Nautilus and then Family Fitness, right? So I was a Nautilus guy like Sal.

And then basically, you think about it, Family Fitness had two programs. So they had Apex, which back then was initially nutrition analysis. So imagine selling a nutrition piece that's not tied to personal training. So you had to sell two separate things. You had nutrition analysis and then you

sold PT so they weren't even tied together and they had supplements, but we got higher rips on other things like champion nutrition had that big bottle of creatine. Yeah. When McGuire was on that home run chase. And we, I'm like, how much do we get paid for the 25 bucks a rip?

I'm like, dude, we're selling that all day long. So me and Sal had people walking around with creatine, like in milk jugs, literally with grape juice all day long. We were talking about, you know, how that impacts like, you know, science behind exercise and recovery. So we were doing things that nobody else was doing, but we were able to do something.

And I, I, I heard somebody recently talk about this, right? Think about this, the psychology of sales, just as a whole, uh, the people that are successful in fitness do things differently. So when you think about the psychology of sales, I know you got a Ferrari, right? Yeah. So when you think about Ferraris, you don't buy it, it's a status symbol. It's not just a car, right?

You think about Apple, it's cutting edge technology. It's not just a phone. You think about companies that transcend certain things, Nike, right, you just do it. Like it's simple, there are certain things that change. The key is the emotional response that you can elicit when you're selling training. And that is something that people just don't grasp. And today now more than ever, it actually,

ironically enough, has more relevance in today than it ever did when we started because of the way fitness has gone to transactional models now. So if you are not skilled at how you do that, you're going to struggle. And I that now, just like we did back then. I think, I mean, tell me if you agree or not, like I think that skill to sell personal training is so unique and special because almost everything, not everything, but almost everything else that you do in sales, somebody walks away

with something tangible. And really when you're selling fitness to somebody, not only are you selling a dream or a vision, it's also something they have to put work in to go get. So it's like imagine, I'm asking for $5,000 for you for you to go do work for the next seven to eight months in hopes that you probably get this. May, if you figure that out,

if you figure out how to present that really well, I don't know if there's anything you can't sell really well. Yeah, well we used to, we were the first ones to sell fitness first. That's where we'd sell the training, and then the membership would go along with it, and it just made sense to us at the time, because both Don and I, back in those days,

the sales guys and the managers were not fitness guys. They were sales guys. We were fitness first, and then we became sales. And so now you ask them about some challenging moments. I could tell you challenging moments, because Don's being really nice right now, but I know I was a pain in the ass sometimes.. I could tell you challenging moments because he dawns being really nice right now, but I know I was a pain in the ass sometimes. Like I'll tell you one specific meeting where,

remember those planners we used to have? Yes. Okay, so how good was I at being organized with my planner? So his was so new, the pages were still stuck together. So Romeo would come in, flip desks over, and the first thing he would look is if you even open up the planner, Sal's is spotless. Like never even been open. Like never even even open up the planner. Sal's is spotless. Never even been open.

Never even been open. The page is still stuck together. Yeah. So he comes in one day and Don had come back from a meeting and at this point, we're top performers. I'm the top assistant manager. And so I think I just, I thought I was just, my shit didn't stink. And Dog comes in the office and he's like, we got to get our planners together. We got to be organized, keep track of our leads, this and the other. And of course I'm nodding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And my head, he's like, we gotta get our planners together, we gotta be organized, keep track of our leads,

this and the other, and of course I'm nodding, yeah, yeah, yeah, in my head I'm like, whatever. And I don't remember, it was like a week later, and Don brings us all in for a meeting, and Don's very intense, so he could be a very intense manager, and he says, Sal, show me your planner. And so I knew right away, I didn't even touch it, so I'm like, I forgot it, and he goes, well, show me your appointments.

I remember a white paper, just a bunch of like post-it notes, like in my pocket. And I pull them out and I put them on the, on the, on the desk. And Dawn said, that's it. You're not getting any walk-ins. You're not getting any guests. The only people you're seeing from now on are people that ask for you by name. So of course I'm like crapped out and I'm pissed off. I'm like, so I leave the club for a second, go outside, come back inside and people start coming in and they're asking for Sal. Oh, I'm here

to see Sal. I'm here to see Sal. And so Don's like, after like the second or third one, Don's like, what's this kid doing? Like, how's he getting all these appointments? Well, I was in the parking lot. I was telling people to ask for you. Yes. I was giving walk-ins, passes with my name on them, and that's when he threw the calculator in the wall. I did. It was like the Matrix.

That thing went flying and stuck into the wall. Yeah, dude. Yeah, so, but you know, you taught me how to be a leader. You really did because there was so much respect. The whole staff respected you so much that, you know, you could throw a calculator and it wasn't like, who's this crazy guy?

It was like, I disappointed, you know, I disappointed Don, so I need to fix this. I don't think I ever fixed the organizational issue. I think you can ask my partners. I'm still saying it with them. That's still a major, that is, Paul and I sleep in meetings. That's what we can't keep it.

We can't run a meeting with this guy. He would do the same thing even like that. Bro, this is your money, your company. You sure you don't wanna stay awake for this? Like five minutes in, this guy's nodding off we're on his phone. He cannot stay focused for that long. It's unbelievable.

It's definitely. But probably just like you, everybody puts up with it because as I say to anybody, they're like, how you guys stay together? So I was like, listen listen I'll take Sal at 10% of his capacity because 10% of his capacity is better than 99% of everybody else's hundred percent hundred percent And I'm sure that's probably how you look Exactly, and I recognized a lot of the the same skills that Romeo was coaching me on that that I had with him

Yeah, you know the difference is I, I was actually in law school when Mark came in. That's right. I forgot you were a lawyer. Mark, Mark came and talked to my grandparents and had that conversation, which is how I knew I had to do the same thing for you. Right.

I was going to leave when I was at Hillsdale. I was getting ready to leave because I, I had one semester left and that was it. And Mark came in and he's like, listen. And he literally, my first meeting, we're in Texas with UFC, nobody even knows me, right? They know a name but they don't know a face, right? I'm there and he gets up there and he's like calling me up

and I'm like, oh my gosh. And he has this conversation about that. I'm like, this dude has had how many people in his career, I'm talking celebrities, all these people, and he remembers a ridiculous story like that. But that's the impact that those type of founding leaders had and that's the same type of thing that I've had with Sal. We may not talk for six or seven months

and we catch up like it's just like yesterday. I mean, you don't find people like that. This dude was the best man in my wedding and that was a whole crazy shit. It's just crazy how far we came and I'll say this, at my most vulnerable moment in life, literally, we leave the company and we were the face of the organization. We controlled the troops. There was some disagreements that I had with one of the presidents at that time and Mark was in Asia and so me being an arrogant cocky son of a gun, that was it. I took off and these guys

followed me. Me and Sal literally on a Sunday, it was on Mother's Day, I go, bro, let's go to Palm Springs, Palm Desert. He's like, let's go We jump in his frickin little frickin We go down there literally this fucker falls asleep when we're driving and we almost run off the side of the road Oh, literally, dude, we're fucking in the middle of nowhere I'm like shit my pants cuz I'm I'm supposed to be sleeping. It was my turn to sleep. I was driving I just fucker falls asleep when we're driving. But it's situations like that where I could go back and go, how many people would literally

walk away from, this kid was making 150 grand back in the mid 90s, how many people would walk away from that to stand by you side by side and say, let's go do this. We could knock down any door we want together. We're in the middle of nowhere crushing it. That kid's crazy. Yeah, nowhere crushing it. It gets crazy. Buy a freaking waste management company. That's right, that's right. It speaks volumes about character, 100% does.

Well, all those things, because you look back and everything seems like it all lined up, but at the time it was scary. I had a savings that I, I didn't go to school to pursue the gym industry, and I had a savings that we dumped, same thing with Dawn,

we dumped it into this club down in Palm Springs. Yeah, just to try something on our own. That was the first time I ever became an entrepreneur. I think I was 21. And you guys are what, you're 21? I'm 21, so. 26 or 24. Yeah, right around there, yeah.

It's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. You think back to that, right, in that wild. Dude, it's insane. And he's getting married. Yeah. And this guy's getting married. We're flying back and forth. That's right.

I was in the process of, yeah, that was right before my first marriage. Yeah, it was a good time. And it was a lot of, there was a lot of learning and looking back, it's like it really formed kind of who I am now the entire time, so I like to talk about it. But you stayed in the club industry this entire time

and so you've seen a lot of the changes. So much. Yeah, because I know when I left 24, it seemed like it was moving away from fitness and more into the idea of- Memberships. Yeah, we'll just have our prices, we'll just have the best prices,

we'll have the lowest rates, we have all the clubs. This is gonna work. And then through COVID, which was just crushed. Brutal to now. What do you see in the club industry that's different now versus then? And what's it looking like?

Where's it going? So what's unique is when you think about where we were, we had iconic companies kind of fall apart. And so pre-COVID, you had companies like Bally's and those companies that were iconic that ended. The fortunate thing for me was I always had a visionary like Mark to kind of guide me and steer me through that. So staying at 24 through those last pieces of, I just call it a shit show. There's no other thing, right? Obviously we're as loyal as they come, right?

When you're 10 toes down, you're staying with the people that took you to the show. And when I seen, you know, Romeo get let go, Adam said, let go, all on one day, it was insane. And you know, they have a meeting with you saying, hey, you're going to be the guy now. I'm like, no, I already know I'm not. Like I got a mark on my back.

So I call Mark and he's like, put in your notice. And so Mike Sheehan at that time, who was our chief operating officer left and went to Bally's he's like, Dawn, how would you like to go from the penthouse to the outhouse? So they had just filed their second chapter 11, but talk about humbling, right? You take your skills and you go to a company

that has been around forever. They don't like our culture, right? They were competing with us forever and they still think that they're the shit. You go there and you're strategic on how you invest in people. And those are some of the most loyal people I've ever seen. I had a chance to go,

I was running basically Chicago West. And so I had a chance to be in Texas and see people that have been there 30 years. You never see that in the fitness industry. So they had some of the most loyal people. We ended up taking a negative EBITDA company and selling it for positive. And I was on Mark's jet and I go, okay, what's the next play? And he's like, listen, you know, we're going to buy some of these clubs. That's how they founded like some of the crunch brand, right?

Cause they had gorilla fit and all these different companies that valleys had consolidated. They ended up, you know, picking up some of those and any V was taking off. He had hard candy with Madonna energy fitness with, uh, a rod in Mexico city. Obviously. Yeah. We were working on the Nash project. Uh, when I was with him in Arizona, that's a whole nother story, you know, and then

they go do those clubs in Canada. Um, Mark's always been a visionary with stuff in Arizona. That's a whole nother story, you know, and then they go do those clubs in Canada. Um, Mark's always been a visionary with stuff like that. And he said, look, I'm going to do this thing with UFC. And so I, I remember meeting with Adam. I was with Bally's at the time. I went over to a club that they were

pre-selling in, in Rosemead in LA. And, uh, you know, Ryan junk, who was an assistant manager for us at that time, previously was his GM. And so I'm talking to him, listening, and at that point, I remember going back to Mark and that was the only time I ever questioned him. Initially I was like, sir, are you sure this thing's

gonna take, how many people wanna fight? I'm like you, and this guy, I was in it for physique and aesthetics, right? Yeah, I love boxing, you were a judo guy, right? I love boxing and sports performance training, but I was like, I don't know if this, this UFC thing is going to take off. Well, it did. Right.

And, and during COVID, what they did was they crushed the training specter. That was it. Right. It was a game changer. And then you look at what happened during COVID. Uh, I remember this guy going in doing his gym over in Los Gatos.

And he came over and he's like, Don, you gotta do your own gym. Why are you working for somebody else? So after traveling all over, I decided to go open up a gym in Evergreen. And so I started a gym, started training and got back to my roots. And out of that shit little 5,000 square foot club, we were doing it a million and a half annually. I mean, it's crazy, but I was training so much and I understood why he wanted to go into podcasting at that time because you can't replace yourself, right?

You could hire people, but people wanna train with you. You had that same thing, right? Where you're training and there's only so many hours in the day and when you're trying to have a family and trying to do things at a certain point, you gotta know how to scale back and let's be honest, when it's my gym, just like this guy, we're both CBS cheap bastards. So I'm fixing the treadmills, I'm cleaning, both these guys came out and I'm freaking do everything, right? Whatever it takes just to make the most margin that you

can. So I had a chance to have Adam shoot me a call and he's like, Hey, listen, we've got a project coming up. Now, mind you, Mark's done the NFL brands at this point and he's like, hey listen, we've got a project coming up. Now mind you, Mark's done the NFL brands at this point, all the stuff, 49er Fit, Cowboys Fit, all that. And he goes, listen, we got a club in Oak Ridge. And I'm like, Oak Ridge, where? COVID shut down everything. So I'm like, I don't know, let me take a look at it.

I go, well here, I'll tell you what, I'll go check out Oak Ridge if you look at my tech platform. And I was telling Sal and this guy, they came in, I had this crazy thing that we were doing. Two of my clients were engineers and I was coming up with the first connected fitness equipment. We literally had a yoga mat with sensors. We had some stuff where we could literally create smart bells. I could work on the pitch and yaw very easy, but any rotational movement, the algorithm

wasn't tracking it. So we had one of our old colleagues, Giuseppe Verzi, who was with us in San Diego, who's in Italy that knows the founders of Techno Gym. He's like, Don, I'll get you in. These guys were gonna buy it. They were literally gonna buy our product without a POC. I turn on 60 minutes, frickin' first thing I I see Italy's underwater, the Vatican's flooded, the next week COVID happens. So I'm hitting markup to try to talk to him about my platform because I had dumped a ton of money, had no idea what I was getting into. And honestly, even being with the legal background, it makes no difference. I had no zero

intelligence on like patents and didn't realize you have to like cover every country that you're doing business with and they got Way more money than us. So I was hosed and so Mark graciously said hey, man I'm gonna give you an opportunity to come in and check this out and Being a science geek. I started to understand pre and post workout modalities So that's the future of fitness, right when you look at the science of recovery that's the future of fitness, right? When you look at the science of recovery, anti-aging, and for me, I used to think that the real stigma in the industry was as you age,

you're kind of like a stripper on a pole. Like you have zero credibility after a certain point, right? Ain't nobody paying to see an old stripper on a pole. I'm like, so who's gonna pay for the old guy, right? And you start thinking about it though, and you're like, you know what, if you look the part and you have the science and they want to be able to be like you, and it was different than what I anticipated.

So I came, I looked at Oak Ridge. First of all, that was the longest presale in the history. Adam and them came in and did a podcast with you, Josh, remember? How long was the presale? A year and a half. Oh my God. A year and a half, bro. Half the members canceled.

It was insane. I didn't realize it took that long. Were you training people at the parking lot? Yeah, we were. I was training people at the parking lot. I was doing whatever we could do. End of the day, I started getting back in the saddle and Mark had me come in and look at it.

And he's like, where do you see things post-COVID? And Adam was talking about it and being able to collaborate with people that you have equity with, that you've put in time. Adam had a vision about a different strategy and it clicked right away with me. And the other thing is the science behind recovery. So he goes, look, post COVID,

you got companies like EOS and other companies that are putting footprints and they're super successful. Planet's not going anywhere. I was never an antagonist of Planet. You have to start somewhere. So to me, it's like starting and then you progress and you reach a certain point where you can't stay there anymore. I always looked at it as an opportunity to get a part of the segment that we would never

touch. Right? Forget about all the other stuff with the pizza and that. So for me, I think getting that ability to look at things and have the foresight to say, hey look, we've got to change our model. Cause we were 100% charging 200 bucks out of that presale for a membership.

And I'm like, dude, our sales funnel is really, really small, right? And we're attaching fitness, but it wasn't at 30% clip like we should. And I seen us go through some transitions. So basically we changed the entire model and where we're at now, you know, our company went through a huge metamorphosis,

shout out to Mark Mastroff for coming in and saving the day. He came in and literally, you know, repartnered with Adam and he now, you know, picked up UFC again after riding off into the sunset and you know, he didn't need after riding off into the sunset and, you know, he didn't need to, but that's the loyalty to some of the brand that he has and there's no better guy. And he's like, okay,

now what do you guys want to do because what you're doing isn't working. And so we switched it up. And so we are doing a forward facing model now that is something like you'd see at Chipotle. Think about that. So if you and I walk into Chipotle, look, I don't eat a ton of rice anymore, especially as you get older, right? It's protein and you know, they give you like a quarter size, right? I get guac and meat.

That's really my staple in my diet, right? Essential fatty acids and protein now it's 25 bucks, but they advertise $13. So we're going with the strategy where we are getting people on access only. And so we're gonna sell access to the club for a low price point. It's gonna be the only thing you see on the website. But my goal is just like there, there's a la carte items

where you'll come in and you add on. So if you want skills and technique, you'll pay a separate fee. By the time they come in, if I can get 50% of the people to find what they want, it's going to be a benefit, right? Because at the end of the day, people want to pay for what they want. They don't want to be forced into something. This empowers the consumer where no other industry is doing that. And our consumers

are happier. They're staying longer and they're getting more engaged in fitness services and recovery services than ever before. We did $200,000 on our two-year anniversary. I saw that was the last week. Out of San Jose, yeah, a week and a half ago. Like that tells you that the business is still there. Super interesting. So okay, so what is that? Give me like an idea of like what's the most baseline thing? That's what you're advertising. Then you come in. It could be as low as 24 bucks. Okay, and so then it's like, okay, but then I want to do these classes or I want to do this other, I want to use this other amenities. Oh, you were a recovery station.

Okay. And then you guys tackled it. That's smart. That's interesting. You know what? That also, you said it empowers the consumer, which is true, but it also empowers the fitness professional who can tailor and customize. Cause one of the biggest challenges I saw with the direction the fitness industry was

going was they were adopting this model of like you're ordering off a menu, like you're buying electronics. Like, okay, you sell a phone, you sell a phone, it's the same exact phone, I'll go with the one that's cheaper. And all of us who worked in the gyms knew that was a terrible model because I mean, I ran clubs, I mean, when you and I ran Sunnyvale, especially when I ran it later on, that club had been around for a long time. The ceiling would fall in when it would rain, the pool turned green half the time.

We gotta tell that story. No, let's not tell that story, please. But the reason why we did so well was the culture. It was the people in the gym, it was the training. You guys know this, I mean, you guys, Adam, you'd go into a club and you would double its production within a month. What did you do?

You changed the culture so it empowers the fitness professionals. Because if I'm selling a membership and I really believe in fitness and you're coming to my gym, I want tools. I want to be able to say, what's your goals, Mrs. Johnson, how long you've been working out. Here's what I think works best for you. What's it going to look like three months from now, six months from now. And I can coach you to getting something that's going to work

better for you. The way it was moving was away from that. It was like, order, here's your thing, that's it. Oh, salespeople, we don't need them. Trainers, it's not a big profit margin. Well, selling people on the thought that they weren't going to show up and we're just going to get numbers and volume that way versus actually trying to get them results. It seems like you guys have attached now the focus more on fitness again actually trying to get them results. And it seems like you guys have attached now,

like the focus more on fitness again, and trying to improve their actual overall experience and get them to come and get that kind of retention that way. So I gotta say, not just because you're a good friend of mine, but I've been working out at that club and the culture in there is great. I tell you this all the time. I tell you the front desk culture is great.

So you can tell that there's a good culture in that club and that makes a huge difference. That's everything. It is everything. That's everything when it comes to getting people results. CrossFit, the one thing they did right was that in a lot of the places. They had a good culture and this is why they got so many

people to deadlift and squat. 100%. When nobody was doing that is that they developed that culture and I wish more fitness experts understood this. This is, this is the other part why I wanted you on the show because I think this is brilliant. I think it's absolutely brilliant on, and it's also fascinating.

We have a lot of trainers and coaches that listen to the show and they're, you know, we love our audience. Trainers and coaches always have a special place in our hearts because that's what we did. We're fitness guys first, media people second. And they always ask us, how do they start in the industry? How do I build a good career?

Working in fitness, it's a tough way to make a lot of money. It's a tough way to build a career, but if you do it right, it's very rewarding and you can do well, it's just, it's hard. And so we tell trainers and coaches, start in a big box gym, you have the most opportunities, they do all the advertising for you at any given moment. There's people working out in the gym that could use a trainer. One of the hardest things you can do as a trainer is try and find potential customers or clients to talk to.

But the drawback was always the pay. That's why I was here. Well, they only pay this much and I'm limited and I can't whatever. You told me a few weeks ago, I ran into you at the gym. was always the pay, that's why I was here. Well, they only pay this much and I'm limited and I can't whatever. You told me a few weeks ago, I ran into you at the gym, you guys are rolling out this like pay structure for trainers that if I was a trainer, I don't think I would have ever left a big box club

if I continued down the path. Tell me about this a little bit, what inspired this? Did you have to convince people? Did they come up with the idea? Like what started this? No, there's a few things. And so obviously going through the changes that we went through, we had to look internally first.

How do we fix things? The number one asset that any company has is people. And so how do we keep the right people? Because I kept hearing out there that trying to find people in today's day and age is different than when we started. And I disagree. You have some very intelligent people that are out there that trying to find people in today's day and age is different than when we started. And I disagree. You have some very intelligent people that are out there.

They're just different. And you've got to be able to communicate and engage them on a level that's different than what anybody else is offering. So the fact that we're really going service-based, right? When you, and this is what I talked to Mark and Adam about. The first day I walked into UFC, obviously it stands for Ultimate Fighting Championships, right? Everybody knows that. But that was my initial

apprehension was, are you going to segment a portion of the population? So, as I started to engage in all the services that we offer, I'm like, look, to me, that UFC stands for Ultimate Family Center. We start youth programming at age six, all the way up to senior programming. We truly have the ultimate fitness center. So if you like multi-component movements like I love, we have platforms. You want to entertain mixed martial arts, you have that. You want self-defense, we have it. We have a starting point for everybody. Now, how do I get the right coaches?

That's really the key. Right. And so I looked at MMA, just like I looked at PT. That's a retention component. And they had an amazing system for EFT. To me, that's earnings for tomorrow. We've talked about that ever since you were with me. That's how you build that business model. Same with PT.

So one of the things we looked at is we reverse engineered it. If you look in the industry as a whole right now, transactional models have one manager, that's it. And you're lucky if you can make 40, 50K. Explain transactional model. What I mean by a transactional model is somebody that is just price point based, right? 999, 1999, they really don't offer too many other services.

Or you have a premium brand, like say a Lifetime Fit nurse or an Equinox, right? So you'll pay a little bit more, you know exactly what you're getting. Now, how do you get the best of both worlds? That's what we wanted to do so that you could get that hardcore consumer that wants to come in and get that gritty experience that you get out of a big box gym. But they also want that premium service, whether it's recovery,

whether it's one-on-one attention. So one of the things we said is number one, we need to make sure that our sales team is the best in the industry, world class. So we're attracting the best in the industry, world class. So we're attracting the best GMs and AGMs. Those folks is the staple just like we were when we started. You have to be fitness based. The majority of them have some form of training background. The second is the education component. So we're big with NASM where instead of you coming in and paying two or three grand, we do $199 cert. We have multiple CECs that we do for people coming on.

The other thing that we have is the UFC training cert is different than anyone else. You have to pass a physical with us before you can even get on the floor. Oh, interesting. So it's not just, hey, I've got the science behind it. You have to show that you're credible. And if you can't pass the physical,

you're not gonna make it. So that's another component. So now as we were looking at compensation, I'm like, look, when it's all said and done, I would love to go back and train. I just don't want to have to train 60 hours a week. Like that gives me inspiration and motivation, right? That's the whole reason why I've loved fitness this entire time. So how can we get somebody to come on with us that could go open up their own?

Let's stop a cap. So like our tier five, which is like an elite trainer in most gyms, it was about $155 a session. I'm like, if we could get $300 or $500, why would we cap that? Right. Why not take the top off, track the best talent, you call your own price point. At the end of the day, you're going to get paid a premium on your hourly. And if you learn how to sell supplements so that people can really have holistic programs from menu to, you know, water intake, sleep, all of that, and you're really good at what

you do, you're going to change the game. And so we just instituted that our whole structure has changed, not only with the acquisition of Mark coming on, but internally plus our marketing, we're redoing everything. I fully expect us to take off. Like this is a rocket ship that we're on now. So really cool. So just to paraphrase, your elite trainers can charge as much as they want.

Any trainer can, no. Any trainer. Any trainer. Wow. And I can sell. Like, Sal, you would have loved this. So POS now you can even sell high end. So you could like, I just seen the first $5,000 package for 10 sessions.

So you can literally, I was looking at, I'm like, sweet. So that was in SoCal, right? You can see some of these transactions go now as I'm looking in our CRM platform. If you're solid, you're seeing it. And almost everything that we're doing is going to that EFT PT model, where it's predictable, it's sustainable, and you have to deliver great results.

You do EFT with personal training as well? We do, absolutely. Really, so they buy, they'll pay X amount per month and get their sessions per month. We're doing more out of our clubs right now than I would say probably 95% of the industry. This was, this was, I never did this as a trainer. I never did EFT.

I always sold packages until the very end. When I met Justin, when we first started Mind Pump, he had a monthly price structure with this client. It was brilliant. They would pay X amount, and then they'd have up to three workouts a week, and it's up to you if you show up or not, and I was always afraid to institute that, because I would have, but it worked. It works phenomenal and obviously makes sense. If you're a top, if you're a really good trainer with a lot of value,

that's the way to do it. It's predictable, it's consistent and then the best part, and this is the part that I was afraid of, the clients love it. They love just paying their monthly fee and having a guaranteed X amount of sessions per week. I think this is actually gonna be one of the probably biggest game changers that you guys have done. This is gonna be super disruptive. I mean, think about us right now, right? Let's pretend that we had a breakup

and one of us decided to off and leave and stop this whole thing, and I was forced to go back into training clients. That would attract someone. 100%. I mean, that would attract someone. 100%. That's where I would go because I know that I've built that credibility for myself already, that I can charge more than any big box gym is going to allow me to sell. Why would I do that?

That just handcuffs me. You take those handcuffs off and now I'm in control of my session rate. I tell a story about something that happened to my trainers back in 24 minutes. So when I was there, so for almost 10 years, I went through seven different comp plan changes and always comp plans geared to for the company, right? To save money. It's not for the trainers to make more money. And so here I, as the boss, I'd always have to roll the positive spin on, you know, we

could find a way to make more money, this and that. And they did this comp plan change one time where it was literally just cutting the trainers and reducing their pay. And at this time, I've got 15 trainers, 14 of which are all master trainers. I've got all of them up to elite. They all have four or more national certifications. We're crushing everybody in the company. And they know that. I've built that confidence and they have that swagger about them. And then here I got to roll out to them, by the way, their company is just cutting all of your guys' pay. And I was so furious about that, that I was like, what can I do? And at that time we worked at just Santa Teresa, which is your basic you know, AAA club. And they did have like your specialty clubs that had premium pricing.

So I had to go all the way up to the VP and said, listen, this is what I want you to allow me to do because at that time they were doing a percentage of the dollar amount sold. And I requested that we had a higher pricing as trainers and they were so confused. They're like, what do you say, you want to be able to sell at a higher rate? And I was like, yeah, because then it won't be a pay cut for my trainers.

And all my trainers are confident that we could sell our personal training for five, $10 more a session. That's not what's keeping us from selling or not selling because we're literally, what you guys just did is you rolled out a plan and you cut the knees out on all of my guys that are killers. And like, how am I supposed to spend that as a positive thing?

Like, hey, great job. You guys are crushing gold, crushing at everything you do. You're hella smart, you're hella good. Here's less money. Like that's a quick way for them to all to leave me and go do it themselves. And they thought I was so crazy for doing that, but I had to do that in order just to

keep everybody happy with where they're at. So the fact that you guys have rolled out a plan like that, and I've always wondered like why would a company not do that? It's so crazy that finally somebody is doing that. It's so cool. So exciting. Yeah, I mean, you're only, I mean, you can, and here's the thing for people listening, you can charge more if you can get more.

So you got to be good. You got to build that authority, that consistency. You build that culture in the club and then you're fine. So it's not like you're charging more. It's like a word if you're not good. No, I mean, I remember teaching my trainers, that was our present day. Of course, you always have a few trainers, oh, a little nervous, but I said, listen, you carry yourself that way. It's like, hey, if you want cheaper training right up the street, you can buy it for cheaper. That's it. They sell it right up the road for cheaper if you're looking for cheaper training, but this you carry yourself that way. It's like, hey, if you want cheaper training right up the street, you can buy it for cheaper. They sell it right up the road for cheaper

if you're looking for cheaper training, but this is where the best is. So here's what I like about this, Don, because you know this. I mean, you've been in the club industry longer than any of us. For a long time, there's been a lot of talent has left the big box club industry,

and they've gone off to do their own things. I mean, you and I personally know many millionaires now who left the club industry because of screwy stuff, because stuff was kind of messed up. They weren't getting compensated. They were getting too controlled or whatever. These guys went off and did things like mortgages and care homes and other kind of, they're all millionaires and they lost the talent. These clubs lost that talent because they were so strange

about the way that they control things. I feel like you guys are going to attract a lot of talent with something like, is that the idea? We want the best. 100%. We want the best talent. And if you think about it, what you guys do was social platforming, right?

Regardless of whether it's a podcast or social media, that's the future. And a lot of people are doing training online. That's the next phase is how we attract that person to come in. So you're not just bound by four walls, right? We're getting ready to launch something like that right now. That's a premium offering with a company called Alta. I was talking to you a little bit about that.

It'll be, you know, 3,500 to 4,000, but it's a 20 week fight camp where if you want to do that and you want to participate in a fight, you're gonna deal with the best of the best. Like I'm talking like the founder is Conor McGregor's coach, John Kavanaugh. You look, I'm Daniel Cormier, you know, Laura Senko. Like we've had those people come out. When you have a credible coach, people are willing to pay for it, right? They want the best. You guys, now you guys are,, you guys are going to be having fights at the clubs now? So, we are partnering with this company called Ulta, which is, they're insane. If you look at what they're able to do, their arsenal of who's who in the MMA space is just a game changer. They have the best content. So, we're going to launch it in our Costa Mesa Club in Southern California. I'm heading there tomorrow.

You know, that's our co-founders. You know, they partnered with Michael Bisbein. They partnered with Cub Swanson. So you have real legitimate DNA that's going to be coaching these classes. So we're going to launch that program. It'll start by the end of this month. We plan on doing an international launch.

The goal is they bring people and it's just like a UFC venue. So it's not inside of the club. You will come, people will fly in. So whatever schools you're training at, they will pitch you just like a card. So it's like three rounds you'll go in and you literally get that experience to, to go in and think about it. We are all fighters in life, whatever, whatever it is for some people, it's winning in a board room for others,

it's just beating an illness, but you physically, that that's a part of our human DNA. You get to compete at a level with somebody that's at the same level as you. So you could walk right off the street with no experience. You got to get in there. So you can walk off the street with no experience and you actually get a three round fight.

And you were saying the people that are interested are like older people. It's crazy. Like the initial lunch that we had, it was moms, it was executives. Like it's crazy. Think about it, right? That's like on bucket lists. Hey, but you know, you point out that it's in our DNA and you put us all to sleep sitting in front of computers all day long of these people need some war in their life.

They need a little bit of that. Well, why is UFC the fastest growing sport on the globe? This guy was the one that got me watching it when it was Pride and then way back in the day, like literally. Like I remember huddling and it was like taboo back then to watch it. Now think about it.

My daughter, when I came over here, she said, dad, you know what's cool about UFC? And I was like, what? She goes, it's the only sport where a female can make as much as a man. Ronda Rousey changed that game. That's true. Dana doesn't care whether you're male or female.

Think about it. You sell them seats out. Yeah. Pay-per-view by like, dude, it transcends every barrier. It's all over. There's not a place in the country and that's the only sport during COVID on Fight Island that kept going. Like think about the creativity of that, you know, it's insane and they're fully behind us with this.

So I am excited to be able to see what we can do and see how we can bring combat sports and training. It's more empowering, right? Because your real fight is you versus you. It's not you against anybody else. And I think that's what people, they gravitate towards our brand for that reason. It's empowering them to be their best version.

You mentioned something, and so I wanna go back to it and go here, because this was on my list of things I wanted to ask you. In regards to social media and now the digital, I mean you've got a best friend of yours who you've watched build this digital media empire in the last 10 years. I personally look at the old brick and mortar kind of model and stuff like that, how a lot of those dogs are slow to get to here. Do you think that UFC gyms or anybody for that matter in that brick and mortar model is utilizing social media really well yet? And do you think that that's a huge opportunity or direction you guys are going? Because I feel like it's a missed opportunity for a lot of these big companies.

You're spot on and no, nobody is really driving that right now, right? You've got niche audiences that are coming in and that are doing it. What you guys have done and what your experience brings to consumers across the board, you touch people that people would never get to talk to. Here's the thing, brick and mortar cannot be replaced. We think about COVID, right?

And you think about that, that personal interaction with another human being in person is what motivates and inspires people, right? We are creatures of wanting to congregate together, right? That's always been in it. Yeah, it always will be. So you hit it. It's the whole point of brick and mortar,

like the event that we ran just a couple Saturdays ago. It was a social experience. It's not just for workouts, right? You look at online platforming and you look at certain things, and I think that that touches a lot of people, but it doesn't replace that in club experience. Whoever can combine those two is gonna be a game changer,

and that's why we're bringing Ulta. They are a tech company in the MMA space that just acquired their own CRM platform, a local company here that they bought, some young kids that came up with a company called Hype. So we are realizing how powerful TikTok, those type of things. I'm pushing us to do a podcast

that we are going to do for our company to go out there and start launching. Because think about it, you got Mastroff, you got Adam, you've got some of the best people. And then we got partners like you guys that we know that could help us go out there and give back. Because if you do that the right way, people are gonna naturally come in.

And when they experience our product and service, I think it's a game changer. No, 100%. I feel like, I kind of feel like the hot girl at the dance that keeps trying to get Adam to dance with me. And I'm like, and I'm tired of asking him. You need a new lipstick? You're going to have to come to this realization.

Yeah, I don't know if he realizes that I'm the hot chick. He does, man. He does. I feel like the merging of brands like that, because we agree, too. You'll hear us say, I don't care how good we are, what we do, how great our programming, all that stuff is. We still admit that nothing beats that in-person experience,

that in-person coach or trainer. Like, no great badass, not even us, digitally can help somebody as much as I could help them in person, so I agree, that's never gonna go away. But I do feel like the that model they're missing This piece and a percent you you put two, you know what it monsters together like that and look out You know, let's hope we can do that. Yeah, that's something that I was talking to Sal about that I'm glad we're socializing right here

I think there could be a synergy there between you guys and what we're getting ready to do You guys are doing something interesting that really, now this guy kind of irritated me because he did it on a closeout. I had trainers leave on a closeout to come to one of the seminars. But I was like, hey, fucker. I was like, dude, you were on a fucking non-closeout date.

I don't know it was a closeout. All joking aside though. That's when we launched the trainers. I talked to Adam and I said, look man, I think there is an opportunity to bring credibility to training like you guys have, where we could take something like that, that you guys have as a digital platform

and bring it to a company like ours. And this thing could go vertical and change people's lives. Because now with the way compensation is coming, this rollout that we're getting ready to do with Ulta, I would love to have a science-based program like that and an MMA program that is the best of the best, where you bring it in. Like I'll tell you, and it's everywhere. I had a chance to talk to Hany Rambod, right?

Like he came in and again, it goes back to our industry where you get old dogs like us, right? They're like, dude, we don't want another supplement company out there. I was like, what are you talking about? So like, are you serious? So what? Like who cares? You never know what type of synergy there could be just by getting somebody an opportunity to come in. And this guy and I are like kindred spirits. I didn't know, honey, used to work at 24 hour nautilus, started in Saratoga, worked in Sunnyvale, knows Romeo, knows Paulie, knows all of them. And what he's doing is just insane. And you come from that sport. Dude, he's going to get 25 time Olympian now.

Like you look at his track record and what was ironic is I go, dude, I was flying to the East coast, we're getting ready to open up a new club in Nashville. And I said, bro, I was watching that Phil Heath documentary and it, it like moved me to want to utilize some platforms that I wasn't using from supplements and other ideas.

I didn't realize that this guy had some of the mental challenges that he had. And I was like, I'm going to want to utilize some platforms that I wasn't using from supplements and other ideas. I didn't realize that this guy had some of the mental challenges that he had, like it blew me away. But talk about powerful, that goes back to social and how you bring all of that together in a brick and mortar experience. And I talked to Honey about it. I'm like, bro, I know there's something there with us. I don't know how, but we got to figure this out. And he's got his place in Texas. You know, he, he's a brilliant mind. Like you look at somebody that's doing it on a different level, what he did with Eva Gen, what he's doing with his training model and how he's touching people like that. I had no idea.

It's fricking insane. It's insane. And what's driving me crazy that I'm watching is you've got guys like you guys that understand the brickmore so well and that haven't figured that out on the social side. Then I have friends in the social media side that are crushing it there that are now starting their own gyms and have, and they, and they don't know a clue about that, but yet they're having some success because they're so big and powerful on the social media side. They're having success in the gym is even though they have no business because they don't even understand that model.

Then you have the guys that are killing it in the gym but haven't figured out this social media piece. It is ripe for somebody to come in and make that happen. And here's the mistake that I see a lot of companies like the 24s, the UFCs and all these companies, what they think they're going to do is to have, for example, NASM is an example of this. We're partners with NASM, I love NASM, great national certification, they're example, a, a, an ASM is an example of this. Like we're partners with an ASM. I love an ASM great national certification, their partners or sponsors.

Um, but they have a podcast, but nobody fucking listens to it because nobody tunes into a podcast to hear about a company, talk about company stuff. Like you have to build it around a brand or a person or someone who's figured the social media piece out. And then the merging works. All these companies see the opportunity in the digital media space and the podcast space and they think just by slapping, oh, let's go get our funniest guy or our personality, put him in there and then he's going to talk to the brand.

Nobody gives a shit about that. Nobody wants to listen to that because all they see it is like this massive commercial or it's like, you've got to figure out how to partner with the right person who's figured that piece out with the gym and nobody's done this yet And I know it's tough. They're both very different. They're both very different businesses, but they will boy will they feed each other? Nobody's done it. Nobody's done it But the especially in fitness, I think if you have a loud speaker and then you have the people delivering on the ground I can't think of a better

Success formula. I really can't I can't think of a better success formula. I really can't. I can't think of a better way to bring people in, to have them understand the culture and the narrative, then to experience the culture, get the service, and then to also attract the talent. That's why, again, that's why I was so excited about what you said about what you guys are doing for trainers and coaches, because the best trainers and coaches that I've known in my career left Big Box specifically because the best trainers and coaches that I've known in my career left big box specifically because the opportunities were elsewhere. And many of them did it not excitedly. Many of them were sad like, God, I wish I could stay, but you know, I just

got it, I got to make more and I'm going to go over here to this private place or start my own thing. So I do think that there's incredible potential synergy. It's just hard to put together because just cause you did one thing really well, doesn't mean you could do something else really well. Like, you know, again, we know people in the social media space opening gyms, they have temporary success cause they can attract a lot of, but they don't last.

You see the culture in the gym and it's a lot of selfies and a lot of place you wouldn't want to work out. Don. Definitely another place. Yeah. You wouldn't, you wouldn't want to go out, Don. No, I know. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? Definitely another place you wouldn't want to go to. So, all right, so moving forward, what's the goal? What's the goal here? I think our goal is to do what we did when we were all in that company

that changed the game for fitness. You think about it, right? When Nautilus and Family Fitness merged together, I'll never forget, I remember, you were with me. I remember when Mark said, hey listen, you're gonna have lines outside the door, and it's positive, any exposure is good exposure, and it goes back to the power of social media

and just viewership when he put that billboard outside in San Francisco that said when they come, they'll eat the fat ones first. It was a game changer. It's famous. Dude, Dr. Phil, like one show after another. And I was like, Sal, this is crazy. We have people standing outside. I was insane, right? But he had a point. And I think we're at that point now,

because you think about where we were during COVID, you think about how many trainers went outside and started working out at parks and doing things that are not paying for leases. But now the economy is changing, right? Hopefully it gets better and hopefully we get some stability back, right? But the reality is in the country of California, it's bad. It's expensive. You look at minimum wage going up. You look at the impact of all of these economic events that are creating a lot of hardships

for owners and businesses as a whole right now. I think where we're coming in, if we can leverage this right, the consumers are there, the need is there, right? That narrative is going to get stronger because people are going to have to start focusing on their health post-COVID. If you fix that the right way, this ship is going to take off. And I think with the UFC brand behind it, with programs like Ulta and our aspirations of doing things with social platforming and tying those entities together, we know where our miss is. We literally sit there, I'm going to be in our boardroom tomorrow, we've got some new people that we're bringing in, we know where our gaps are. That's the thing, right, is we deal in reality. And that's the thing that I love,

is our goal is to get better, and the only way you get better is by addressing gaps in your business, which is why that compensation changed, which is why our consumer forward-facing strategy changed. You gotta make the consumer the priority. If you don't, the game's over. Yeah, I love that.

You know, I wanna ask you some personal stuff. So when you and I first got together, or met, you had just become a dad. I think Nico at the time was two, maybe. So Sal, he actually, and I'll say this, I was so proud of him yesterday. So I'm announcing on, on my massive call, right? Um, I had five promotions. Nico is now going to be a general manager in La Mirada in Southern California, the largest box.

So he's been at Sunnyvale right now as the assistant manager. Obviously worked his way starting out. How old is he now? 26. It's crazy. That's great. Little kid, he was just a little guy back in the day. You have how many kids now?

Three. Three kids. Nico, Chloe, and Pam. Big family man. Yeah, that's great. Is he the only one that's in the business? Is he the only one that went in the business? No, so my middle daughter is training, Chloe. She's also just like her mom, she's musically inclined,

so she's on iTunes, she's pursuing her music career, and my youngest actually is going to look at cosmetology school today with my wife. So they're vastly different, but she works, my youngest works in Sunnyvale, she's a- So they're all in fitness? They're all in, every single one of them. All of them.

That's so, I would still like watching your kids go through and try and sell training and memberships and work in the gym. It's my purpose, right? I tell them, just like I tell everybody that comes in, first, and that's why we clicked, right? To me, it's about our faith, our family, fitness, and then finance. If you can nail those four Fs in your life, you're golden.

And for me, that's what it's about, right? So if you have faith in yourself and whatever higher belief you have and family is, that's the building block, right? So watching them achieve things and forget about me, right? I want them to be the best version of themselves. And it's rewarding. It's a little scary, I'm not going to lie, watching them achieve things and forget about me, right? I want them to be the best version of themselves and it's rewarding. It's a little scary, I'm not gonna lie,

because you know you got a name that you gotta go out and try to live up to and I'm like, you sure you wanna do this? He's like, I wanna do it. I'm like, all right, brother. Now, is he like you? Is he different? He is, he's me in the sales aspect, very fitness minded.

He's 100% motivated to help people. So- Is he intense like you, Don? Very intense. No way. You can hear the voice. Really? Yeah, he's hilarious.

I'll get calls like, boom! I just racked it. I'm like, I love that. That's hilarious. But he's big in social media. So, you know, same with my daughter, my middle one, Chloe. You know, obviously you have to be when you're trying to go out there and build a label. She just did this whole show in Almodan.

I had no idea that 5,000 people are going to show up to some park. Wow. But it was insane. And by the way, she got a really sick ass Warriors jersey, a Curry jersey. So I was like, that's dope. She won that one. So I was like, yeah. But it's crazy, the power of social content. So it goes back to that, but yeah, family's everything. All right, last question. How is it that I'm aging faster than you, Don?

I'm younger than you. I look at this guy, he looks almost the same as when I'm, like, what's the deal, bro? What's going on? You know what? It can't be stress, because I know you're always, you've changed stress, yeah, so like, what's the deal, bro? Eat? It can't be stress, cause I know you're always stressed. You chase stress, yeah, so like what's the deal, bro? Eat right, work out, good genetics, I guess, that's it.

Yeah, it's crazy. Yeah, it'll be nice. I can't wait to tell my parents that you, that we hung out and got to see you. They remember that day when you came and you closed them on keeping me. That was when I saw Don's primo sales skills right there. Well, I'll tell you, the best sales skills was me getting this guy into the Longhorn,

right? So he's drinking the entire time. Stop. This guy had a full beard, right? At the age of, like seriously, he used to tell me, Don, Samson, I'm like him, all the strength is in my hair. So his hair is... All his hair, that's what he used to say so when he turned 21 and we were celebrating his 24 They're like you're not 21 Don't gonna be drunk for the first time that was you done We had a blast we had we had a good time man, this is great, bro It's good to see you. It's good to have you on the show. I'm excited for what you guys know I love you, bro. You're like, you're always like family always will be so, uh, back at you.

Yeah, this is exciting, bro. Get Adam and Mark on the, on the same page. I think there's, I think there's opportunity there for sure. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Tired of, I'm tired of asking him to dance. I'll get you in that dance. Let's do it. Let's get them talking. Cause again, you guys, um, we have tremendous respect for, tremendous respect for what you guys do and we have yet to work with the gym, big box gym, because we only want to work with who we want to work.

It's not like we haven't been approached. It's just we only want to work with who we want to work with. So, let's see what happens. That's the same with us. Awesome. Pleasure, guys. Thanks, brother. Thank you for listening to Mind Pump.

If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Super Bundle at mindpumpmedia.com. The RGB Super Bundle includes maps anabolic, maps performance, and maps aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal, Adam, and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Super Bundle is like having Sal, Adam, and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price.

The RGB Super Bundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com. If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing MindPump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is mind pump. If giving a TEDx talk is on your bucket list, listen up. My name's Ashley Stahl. I'm a bestselling author and a top 100 ranked TEDx speaker. And I'm the founder of wise whisper agency where we've placed more than

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