Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - How Iron Asylum Gym Inspires Determination and Discipline in Every Member

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

In this episode of The Determined Society, host Shawn French sits down with Alvin Lapitan and Kyle Florio, the owners of Iron Asylum Gym. They share their journey from overcoming challenges, taking risks, and building a successful business. Discover how determination, discipline, and a willingness to take action can transform your life. If you're looking to push through obstacles, grow in your personal and professional life, and embrace delayed gratification, this episode is for you. Don’t miss out. Get inspired and stay determined! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at good to know facts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit good to know facts.org. Take risks. Without risks in life, you can't ever get ahead. You gotta be a horse with blinders on, man. One of the greatest examples of determination. Again, it gets out of the military, no job, broke, unsure what you're gonna do?

So then I come to him and I was like, hey, you're successful. What should I do? Simply put, I'm the guy. You've never been to Home Depot before, and every aisle is a year of your life. And you're looking for a shovel. I'm not just going to walk up and down every aisle. I'm going to ask, hey, where's the shovel? Exactly. So I asked him, hey, man, what are you doing? Yeah. I was like, good God, this guy is clearly determined, focused. What he's saved up over the last five years. willing to invest this into a business and vision into something that he wants to do. He's going to be the right partner for me. What are, French, what else?

Everything I'm doing up until it's done. I mean for the entirety. I'm putting over time. I'll be working. Just know I'm a go for mine because I earned it. They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed. I confirmed.

What's up, everybody? We're back with another episode of the Determined Society. I'm your host, Sean French. We are live at Iron Asylum Gym in Norfolk, Virginia. Today I have two special guests with me, but before I introduce the guest, if this is the first time watching, I want you to go, subscribe on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts, and share this episode with some of that you know, love and trust that needs to hear this. So today I have with me the owners of this beautiful gym that is 25,000 square foot lifters gym. This is a beautiful place, man. People down here right now at 9 p.m. on a Friday night getting their lift in.

So this is a whole other meeting to Friday night at the bar, right? So I have with me, my man, Alvin Lavatan, and California. Welcome to the show, boys. Thanks, buddy. I appreciate you. I appreciate you having us. It's always great. It's a pleasure.

It's a pleasure. You guys got quite the gig here, man. You got four locations, right? Veteran owned. Correct. Just a beautiful. So, like, what was the vision, man? That's you, man.

I mean, it kind of goes back. We actually just celebrated our 10-year anniversary January 2nd, right? Wow. So we started with one location, a little swamp box, 4,000 square feet. Mm-hmm. And I've been in real estate for about 20 years. at that point it was about 10 years in. I like so many other people, Kyle included, with gym rats,

just absolutely love throwing the weight around, you know, training, having some fun. And the vision really was, it was a gym rat, going to your traditional health clubs, fitness centers, and everything like that. And I always felt that there was like a niche crowd of people that didn't need all the fluff of 50 classes, holes, you know, and nothing against them.

Sure, I mean, there's a place for it, yeah, yeah. A cinema room, you know, and then I said, It'd be kind of cool to have our own little playground, about a 4,000 square foot building, literally across the neighborhood, so it was very convenient. And decided to pull the trigger. Kind of did it, I figured,

if I could find 100 like-minded people, paid 39 bucks a month, it was going to cover the overhead. Yeah. And it was kind of amazing, because within the first month, I think we had 100 people. That's wild, man.

Shit, we've got something going on here. Yeah, yeah. So that's kind of what happened. And then it just kept exploding, exploding. We grew into a bigger facility, about two years after that. Kyle wasn't in the picture.

I was in the picture yet. And then two years after that, I opened up a second location. And I was kind of done, right? I'm working real estate full time, working the gym full time. And then Kyle kind of came along and was like, dude, we got to open up a third one. I was like, I really don't want to. He was like, no, we need to. I'm glad he kind of gave me the kick in the ass through.

And we did it, and that's where we are now. And this one's actually turned out to be the most profitable, the biggest one. So this was the third location. Third location. Wow. Then we opened up our fourth one in Newport News, which is about 45 minutes away from here. Holy shit. Just last year.

Okay. So when did this one open? This one opened was May of 2022. Wow. So not that long ago. And Newport News was April of 2023. So what's on the plans? May you guys?

Are you opening more? What are you doing? So we literally get that question. It's a goal. Probably five times a week. It's a goal. But, you know, your business guy, the biggest thing is finding a location that's worthwhile. Sure.

Population density. Our footprint. Make sure it's far enough from the others. competition and all that. You guys hear that background noise. That's a bunch of people, and that's always how it is in here. Yeah, that's the Bobby Hindline Foundation.

Charity workout, man. They're out there getting it. Yeah, yeah, for sure. They're getting it. For sure. It's been crazy. The assault bike. Terrible.

Brutal. Oh, you guys cut. He's a sleeper. This guy's a monster. He's a stud. I mean, the dude's strong. He's fit. Yeah, he goes, I don't do cardio, and he does it.

What was your time? I think it was 1113. 1113, 50 calories in a minute, 13 seconds. Yeah. You're about a minute 30, right? No, I did 216. 216. I can't generate the forces.

But the record. What was the record? I don't know. So, you know, it's more over like a crossfit workout and stuff like that. A lot of people are familiar with it. I don't know. It's like 24 seconds, I think. Which is amazing.

It's like the world record, yeah. And these guys just generate so much force. And you're just, that's wild, man. That's wild. You had an interesting, you know, analogy before you kick the workout off. You want to share with the audience. Oh, no, we talk about it. You know, it's a 50-Callad chat.

And everybody's like, oh, you know, whether you think that's a lot or a little, you know, Snickers ballers got about 250 calories. You know, you're only burning off one bite of a Snickers. Dude, that's wild. It makes it sound easy. That's wild. It's in perception. Yeah.

What's even crazier that one bite of a snickers is 50 calories. Yeah. Makes sense. That's crazy, right? It's insane. So you guys have the four gyms here. What do you guys learn most about your journey and, I guess, pushing through the fear of opening? Because there's, you know, when you expand, right?

and you add more gyms. There's always a level of like oh shoot, what are we doing, man? You know, like absolutely. Yeah, so how have you guys worked through that together? I mean, you got to have a little confidence right after we did the first tour

the first tour established. We kind of had a good following here locally. And we were kind of in the area here in Norfolk. We knew it was a little more central right on a major highway here or roadway. And we're just confident, man. We've got the mentality now. We know who we catered to.

Yeah, we know who we are. Yeah. We know what price range we need to be in. Yeah. What membership price point we had to be in square footage. I tell everyone, we don't, we don't do much research on locality because if there's a chick-fil-A, a Walmart, a Home Depot, or those close by, we're in a good spot. Yeah. PDs huge vehicles per day.

Okay. So you want to stay around like 40 to 60,000 vehicles per day. Oh, wow. Signage on the major highways, huge, too. This one was, I'm spoiled with this one. Alvin's been through kind of the ringer of building from nothing to something. for this one for me we kind of we did it together and then overnight it just blew up wow um so i i still consider myself a little spoiled yeah so i always have to rely on him even with the new portese

one because it's it's going a little bit slow it's still doing great yeah it's just a little bit slower so i'm always like the album like hey man how we how we do because he can compare it with kemstle and castleton because he's seen those that pace compared to the norfolk pace which the norfolk pace was just it's insane yeah so there's a crit you you're i think we were talking earlier i think it was you, Alvin, you're talking about how many check-ins a day you guys have here. Yeah, so this location, you know, we're open 24 hours. Right. But obviously, our slow times are going to be from like 11 to 4 a.m.

Yeah. 11 p.m. 4 overnight. But we still get, there's never an hour where nobody's in here. That's a crazy thing. So at this location alone, I think we're getting about 14. No. So Mondays and Tuesdays are busiest days. It's like 1,700 to 1,900 today here. Yeah.

That's wild. And then, of course, it tapers out. It tapers down. Somewhere around 14, 1,500. And you guys have 3,000 members here. Yeah, right? At this location. So, like, you're talking more than half the members on money.

I mean, they're running through here, right? That's pretty badass. Yeah. You know? I mean, we've got the mentality, like, not to knock any other chains or gyms, right? Some of theirs are strictly business. They would much rather you pay and never show up. Yeah.

Use a piece of toilet paper or take a sip of their water. Yeah. We've got the mentality of no. We've got a very fair price point. We want our people coming in here training. And we like to know them. We want to see everybody kind of improving. and actually utilizing the facility.

Yeah. We do our best to tailor to all disciplines, whether you're functional fitness, power lifting, strong, man, Olympic lifting, bodybuilding. So it's a unique space in that regard. There's not a lot of places in this area that tails to all the disciplines.

So no matter what you're trying to do, you can do it here. You can do it here. Yeah. We do get it sometimes that we're intimidating. But, I mean, everyone's the nicest, everyone here is super nice. Yeah.

As long as you just get over that fear factor, that just that initial shock. I mean, you can ask the biggest guy in here, he's a little petty bear. You hear the metal plates. banging and clanging you. He got the guys with their shirts off. It's an intimidating atmosphere. Sure. But it's

not intimidating once you spend a day here. Yeah. I mean, I do like go walk in here. You know, we're outsiders. You know, we're from Florida. We come in here. Well, and everybody's been super kind, man. Anything like this in Florida? Huh? Anything like this in Florida? Not in our area. No?

No. Nothing like this, man. This is different. This is just a hardcore trainers gym. You want to come here. You know, if you want to get in shape, and you want people around you that are doing it that can help you. This is the place to be, maybe. Yeah, I always say motivation fades. You may be motivated three, four times a week, but it's the consistency.

But you come in here and see other guys getting after it. It motivates you even when you're not motivated. You're so funny because I always say about motivation, I'm motivated like three or four times a month. Yeah. Because really, I truly feel like discipline and determination will bring you where you want to be, right? Motivation's going to give you that kick in the ass that you need. I agree. But it goes away.

It's fleeting. So like tomorrow, right, when we get up here and we light up the stage down, There will be so many people that are going to walk out of here, motivated the shit. I'm going to go chase my dreams. I'm going to go do this. And they get home and their kids shits themselves. They got the flu. And now they're cooked.

They're done. It's got to go on or gone. It's done. But when we set our systems up like you guys have to build these gyms out, you got the template now. You know what works, right? So when you do that and you execute things daily, right? And for me filming the show, we have a cadence, right? We all have our certain jobs in here.

My job is to show up and do this. When I stay in my freaking lane. Yeah, for sure. Right? And then at that point, I'm not always, I'm excited to film because it's just what I love to do. But there's certain things within the business I don't like to do. I'm not motivated to do. What the discipline says, hey, I get to do this.

This is what's going to build my business, right? So how have you guys worked through that? Because the audience that's listening and watching this right now, someone is struggling with the discipline or just saying like, hey, I'm not motivated to do this. So I'm going to, you know what, I'm going to chill today. I think, you want to go first? Well, I was to say, I mean, it's simple.

I mean, I'm not the first to say it, but I mean, it's that mindset shift, right? It's not, like for the gym, it's not, oh, shit, I got to go work out. It's, oh, shit, I get to go work out, right? Yeah. You actually have the ability and chance to go and improve yourself. Like, why the hell wouldn't you? Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah. You could be normal. You can sit on the couch. You could not do anything. I agree. where you go do something that helps you physically and really mentally, right? I mean, well, big time mentally. There's a weird stat.

I can't remember the exact percentage. So I might be butchering this. But I think it's something like 70% of New Year's resolutions of like going back to the and to finish. 70% of that falls off after like the first month or two. Yeah. So yesterday it was quit day. Yesterday was quit day?

Is that like literally a day? Literally a day. 15 days or something? 15 days or something shit like that. So it would have been not yesterday. I think the issue is is people that. They go in too hard. I think the gym's a great accelerator habit.

Like, if you just plant the seat of waking up in the morning early and going in and taking like a step at a time, I think eventually it can formulate and kind of grow into other things. But you have to build a foundation first. You can't just wake them and say, I'm going to do everything. No, you can. Especially in business. You've got to start small and grow up.

Didn't Bill Smith have some type of thing about laying like one brick at a time? Yep. One break at a time. It's the same thing in the gym, I think, in any business. It's, you build a happy. to build a foundations, but you can't, you can't go so hard so fast. Like Joe Rogan or someone said, if it took you six months to get out of shape, it's going to take you six months to get back in shape.

You've got to treat it as such, or you just get discouraged. You wake up the next thing, you can't move, like, I don't want to go. Who's going to go back and do that, right? It's all about like you're saying, habit stacking. Here's something crazy. It's something that I've been going through. So on December 20, oh, sorry, December 3rd, I was 225 pounds. Do what?

225 pounds on December 3rd. Okay. And I said to myself, like, man, you're fat. Like you, I didn't like myself on camera. I hated it. I hated everything that came out because I was just so puffy. And I'm like, this is not, there's no longevity in this, right?

I'm unhealthy. So I went to a good friend of mine. I said, hey, man, fix me. And we went through all my nutrition, you know, put me on a great protocol. I'm down to 200, man. And I'm thriving. I feel amazing. A lot of people just need that, too.

It's that accountability. They just need someone. Yeah, it's in person, too. Yeah. So, like, working out, it's kind of like the nutritional aspect. You've got to find something that's sustainable. That's right. But you were saying earlier.

It's too many people try to do too many things so hard. And it's like, that's where you crash or get burned out. Yeah, start off just trying to drink a gallon of water a day. Just try that. I mean, I love water. I do that when I'm fat, too. I love the taste of water. It's the best thing, yeah.

It's the best ever. But my point is, is like I had the habit staff, right? And I went to somebody, like my friend Jeff Delaney, that went through my whole nutrition. He does have a weight loss clinic in Naples. called New Viva, and we went through everything, man, console, dexas scan, everything. I've done two dexas already. In four weeks, I lost 13.77 pounds of fat in four weeks. Wow.

Just by training hard, six days a week, and, you know, three days were weight training, three days are hit training, and I'm dialed in on my nutrition, and I'm getting the results, but, like, I'm not sitting there thinking, like, I have to go so hard in the gym. I'm like, man, I'm going to start slow. I'm going to go to all these workouts because I committed to it and I reached out for support. But the main thing I'm going to do is I'm going to listen to my body. Correct.

And it's so funny because now the aches and pains that I had, I was talking to a buddy Mike before we shot the show here, like my spine is more mobile now. It doesn't hurt. My hip flexors don't burn anymore. My knees don't hurt anymore. Man, 25 pounds? It's a lot of weight.

Yeah, you should. It's a big time, man. Your person. I feel like I look like. around a couple of bricks. Yeah. I look like a different person. Yeah.

Like I saw pictures from the event earlier today. And the sales training, I'm like, holy shit. I like me now. There you go. I'm like, yeah, I'll add that to my story. I think that's the greatest thing about fitness too,

about being like in this field is if you're consistent and you're doing your day, but the results actually come quick. Very. And actually, and when you start seeing results, then it becomes addicting. Yeah.

Like I remember in like my real estate business, I was supposed to do like calls, notes and pop-bys, but when as a new agent, it's really hard to track that. You can do that for a year. And it's like, well, I don't know if I'm getting any business out of it. So you get discouraged quick.

But this, it's just like, man, you've just commit a couple months. Yeah, dude. You just really stick with it. You start getting stronger. You start looking different in the mirror. And then you become addicted to, like, the process. What I found really interesting, and you guys would be able to speak on this. And I want the audience to really hear what you have to say.

Because, you know, they talk about, you know, it's going to take months to see the physical change. I don't believe that. Right. Because I saw it in a week. I lost 10 pounds in one week. Just by eating the right. right foods and exercising, right? And then by week two, I was down 15, you know, and then just by then, it's just like

incrementally gotten better. But the crazy thing is, is like, people say it's 80% nutrition. No, son. It depends, right? Case by case, I'd say. I don't, for me, it's like, for me, it's like 99.9%, right? Nutrition? It's like, dude, yes.

I agree. No. It's nutrition's huge. It's massive. It's huge. Yeah. So we say case by case, right? So, I mean, obviously, one person could eat more of one thing than another person can.

Correct. But what are your thoughts on nutrition, how important it is? I mean, that's the thing I need to dial in. I mean, but I'm at age, I'm like 45. I still like to wait five times a week and that kind of stuff. But, yeah, I mean, just a simple habit. Like we were talking about, drink more water, eat, you know, better portions. And, you know, that'll just already in itself.

Stop trying to drink so many liquid calories. I tell people that all the time. Yeah. Yeah. You do those three small changes. and 90% of the population, you can see drastic changes. Dude, just palm that protein. I don't even know if you like you drink,

but just cutting out alcohol will literally change your body's competition. There's a lot of sugar in that, man. Well, you could speak more on me. I'm not an nutrition or something like that, but when you drink alcohol, I think I'm pretty sure your body shuts down all it's like fat burning cells because now it's working on omitting the alcohol in your liver. It's just all it's doing.

And I think it's like a two to three-eight process that it takes just to get the alcohol. So you're not burning fat, you're not gaining muscle, you're just kind of sitting dormant for three days. Wild, man. Because your body's working to push out all the toxins. It's crazy. I stopped liking to drink a while ago. I still like it anymore. You know one of the things I really actually, and I drink.

I mean, shit, we were in my office yesterday. Yeah, we had a while for a beer. I had a beer. But it's not like we drink a lot. Right. But I do appreciate, like, on my feeds and stuff. I don't know if you guys have noticed, a lot of, like, sobriety celebrations and kicks and this and that. And I'm like, it's actually motivating, you know, like, the dry January that's going on right now with a lot of people.

with a lot of people. That's some good stuff. That's really cool, man. It's really cool. I mean, hey, it's a healthy habit, right? They're going to feel better. They wake up in the morning. They're probably doing better at work. And you know what? If they're married with kids, they're probably having better interactions with the wife and they get a little more patient with the kids, right? Hands out.

You know? Absolutely. I agree. I agree. I agree. So, I mean, I just think that, you know, when you look at it, everybody wants to, you know, they have the idea of wanting to get in better shape, wanting to do something. That's what it shows about.

about determination and discipline, right? But there's a disconnect with people, man. What do you think it lies? You know, the disconnect to continue on the path. Let's say, you know, someone come in, you know, starting the gym, and you can just see them quit on themselves after about a month. What do you think that's going on in the mind? I mean, it's a good fact of things.

One, you've got to find the right atmosphere, right? So whether that's going to be in here or a Pilates studio or a CrossFit gym or the YMCA or something like that, atmosphere, I think, is a big, thing, right? You got to find your crowd. And again, that might be, you want to go do a tough mother, you want to do a power living competition or bodybuilding, or whatever it is, you know, run your first half marathon. I think that's one big thing. Goals, or lack of it. I mean, I try and, I try in almost, I don't know if it's like the wrong analogy, but, I mean, I have a couple family members that were alcoholics, right? And

it's hard to get someone that's drinking alcohol or an alcoholic to stop. Like, they're going to stop when they want to stop. Sure. And I think it's the same almost than anything. Like, if somebody actually wants to get serious about their health, they're going to get serious about their health. Other than that, it's the same thing. Today was quit day, right? I mean, most people, they go through the phase, and then they just resort back to their normal habits

because they don't have the goals. They don't have the drive. Or they just don't really actually want it. But it's tough. I totally agree with Alvin. Atmosphericure is huge. Because like what you said, you're motivated three or four times a month coming into a place like this. it helps to see other people getting after.

It's inspiring. You get motivated. Yeah. Even if you're not motivated. Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's tough. I don't, I've always been in gym rat. I,

my brother's a big guy. He got me into working out. My, uh, I used to wake up in middle school from my mom working out like four o'clock in the morning basement to Jop Jams, Volume 1. It's like, pump. Oh,

I do you don't remember that. That's good stuff, so that used to wake me up. Yeah. So like, I've always been around it. Yeah. For me, it wasn't, it wasn't hard. Like, I don't, it's even like the same.

concept of spenders versus staples like people that have issues of saving money. They don't, there's a disconnect, there's the money there, I'm going to spend it. Whereas me, if the money's there, it's like, oh, it's not my money. I'm not going to spend it. I need to use it to invest in X business or whatever case. I don't have that money. For me, it's just so one-to-one, but there is a disconnect and it's hard to, I don't, maybe just because I'm not in it, I just don't understand, but what do you think?

One of the other things, and this could relate to everybody is life happens, right? Yeah, no. I mean, at the end of the day, you get derailed. because something happened at work. Like you said, your kids get sick. Yep. Whatever it is. You got into an argument with significant other.

It could just be so many things. And then it kind of throws you off. You get into this slump for a couple days. You miss the gym, three, four days. Like, my rule is don't miss the gym more than two days in a row. Yeah. Right? And that's not overworking yourself.

But you do that. Then you start creating that habit of next day, next day, next Monday. Next week I'll get back. Yeah. And then it's like two months, right? Yeah. It's crazy. So this is one of the things that used to be with me with like,

I would play with it a little bit, right? Yeah, like I'm committed. And I'd bring my clothes when I'd go on a road trip to go to a gym because all hotels have gyms. And I would never go. And it's so funny. Last night was the first night I stayed here. And my ass was up at 4 a.m.

And I was in the hotel gym by 4.30. And dude, I was so proud of myself. As you should be. Because I've never done it. Yeah. You know, like, yeah, I'm locked in, but am I really locked in? Can I do it here? and so it was a non-negotiable for me to get in the gym.

It just felt amazing. I always challenge myself with the thought process. Like when I'm laying in bed, because I've been going probably around 5 o'clock in the morning pretty consistently now. And there's some days where I just don't want to move. But then I think it's like, well, I know if I wake up and I go to the gym, I'm going to feel amazing afterwards. It catapults the day you have energy.

But I also know the feeling if I don't wake up and go, and then I'm miserable. And I have this burden on my shoulders. Oh, I still have to go to the gym. And I haven't released that energy yet. So then ask him, I get kind of crazy. Yeah, so do I? So, like, yeah, I think of like, ooh, do I want to feel this way today or do I want to feel this way today?

And most of the time I roll out of the bed. That's that like the aspect that we were talking about. I mean, it's a Tuesday, right? We're both. Well, it used to be a 5 a.m. or my kind of switch off. Yeah. It really depends on like my calendar in that day, but it's a 5 a.m. And I'm an advocate for it.

I'm like, guys, like you just said, there's no greater feeling than getting up, driving when there's no traffic. Sun hasn't even come up and you get in here. And you're like, yeah, I'm working when everybody. else is kind of fleeting, right? Yeah. You could have that mentality. But it said you all if you get the bed usually earlier because you're tired at 8 or 9 p.m. most of the time. I've been passing out hard, man. Yeah. Been passing out real hard like around nine. My wife's like, are you going to fall asleep really? And I go, do my body's just, I'm going to bed tired. And then like even like,

not to boost iron asylum, but there's space like this, our busiest times, obviously, when the military gets out between like five and eight or something like that, and then the morning crew. But the morning crew is a serious crew. Like, it's a good group. Oh, it's a serious group. Oh, it's a serious group. Hell yeah. There's no nonsense. Anybody that's getting up at four or five. Yeah. But it's busy. Yeah. I mean, it's back.

It's probably like, it might be busier than this in the mornings. At four, that's great. And this is what we love to see. Obviously, we've got the event, but there's, you know, maybe a way more people here. There's still, you know, 80 people here on Friday night at 930. Yeah. Come on. That's insane.

The thing, dude, that I found is, you know, you can shift, right? You can go, okay, I can either be happy and go do what I need to do or I can be miserable the rest of the day and have this burden on my shoulder. Correct. But the one thing I found, but I think it's so dangerous. I want the audience to really think about this is the moment you tell yourself the night before I'm going to get up at six, seven, I don't care what

time it is to go do a certain activity. Yep. And you don't go do it. You are setting your day up for failure. Correct. Because now you've already taken the easy road. And the moment you take the easy road and choose easy over the hard,

like your discipline goes out the window. Now, the next time you have to make a decision through that day about, am I going to do the right thing or am I going to do what's easy? Guess what you choose? It's easier for you to choose easy. Yeah. It's easier for you choose easy. If you lose that self-confidence and self-respect slowly. It happens. I've been through it. Or back, yeah. A, I've been there, right? That's what got me in trouble. Yeah. No, you're not sure. And one of the tips that I tell everybody like Jim guys, again, back on the water kick, I tell everybody, before you go to bed, put a bottle of water or your Stanley cup of water, 16 ounces. Right when you weigh, you weight. You, you wait a

up and set that alarm, chug that thing down. You've already accomplished one goal. Hey, I'm hydrated, I'm ready to go. If you don't feel like going to the gym, which sometimes happen, set yourself up, do five sets of sit-ups, push-ups, air squats, just get some movement going, stretch, whatever you want to do. At least you've accomplished something today, right? Because the rest of the day might go to shit.

Yeah, there's so many facts, too. Put your alarm clock on your phone on the other side of the room, so you actually have to get up and walk to it. My wife would destroy me. Once your feet hit the ground and you walk five steps, you're like, ooh, I'm actually, yeah. You know what's crazy? A lot of times, too, with what I'm doing, like, I'm trying to show people, you know,

hey, you can make these changes. Like, if I can do it, you can do it. And I'm really looking to inspire. So every morning I've been doing these things on my story, like around 430 or, you know, like right before I go into the gym, I'll write this message on whatever download comes in my mind, you know, about comparison or, you know, whatever it is, discipline. It doesn't matter, right? I'm giving value first thing in the morning.

And then I'll put a timestamp on it. And then I'll put blood type determined. Every day, people are like, I love these. These are freaking incredible. Like, thank you for these. Like, oh, my God, I was just dealing with this last week. And da-da-da-da-da-da. Thank you for putting this.

I know I'm not alone. So you know what? I have to wake up and go. Yeah. Because I was watching you. Yeah. Because if I don't, all right, he stopped. that you know and hey and the bottom line is there might be something on the calendar like you said like

you know maybe i'm traveling but like if i'm traveling i'm still doing the story the motivator also needs motivation what's that i said like there's a quote like the motivator also needs motivation you know i need that accountability you know and then like hey keep doing these keep doing these so that's that's me every single day that's my self-accountability but i'm also doing it to help people because i know everybody else is thinking the same thing. It's true. You made a good point about being alone because a lot of people, a lot of people feel like they are alone. But when they see other people struggling through, like, oh, me feeling this way is normal. Yeah. That's almost, it's almost reassuring. Yeah. A lot of times people tell me like, oh my God,

I needed to hear that. I'm like, I needed to write it because I needed it. Yeah. Absolutely. Right. That's like the best type of coaching when you're like just sharing your journey with the public and your friends, it helps you heal. But at the same time, it gives value to them. And then, it sets off a whole, you know, chain reaction to them going out and taking action. 100%, yep, I agree. That's kind of what I say about Kyle. Kyle's not the biggest fan of, like, speaking and podcast.

Oh, I was going to do this. I tell him, huh? The only reason why I'm here, not Chris is my daughter. I was like, I can't, I told you this. They're right? Well, the thing is, like, he hates talking. I don't like, videos and shit.

I just feel like I'm like, I haven't really accomplished anything yet. What am I going to say? But yeah, he's 35. You said I'm 35? You're 35? You're 34. You're 34. And you're 34?

I'm 45. So I'm 46. Yeah. So we're on marriage, yeah. But Kyle's got chips on his shoulder. He feels like he's always got to do more, do better, which is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Yeah, they won't go away. He also feels like he doesn't have a story worth sharing quite yet because he feels like he wants to accomplish so much.

And I'm like, Kyle, dude, you're 34, 35. Keep on. You know, your father, you're married, you're successful. He leaves a real estate team. You've been in the military. You've gone through that. Yeah. You've been dead broke.

Been dead broke. Mm-hmm. You're 27. Multimillionaire. So what the one is dominating about. Yeah. So that's what I say. I'm like,

dude, your story is not typical. It's probably come back to what you said before, like comparison. Right? I just feel like I'm, I don't know. Comparish.

Yeah. Which is the thief of what's the quote? Comparisons is the thief of joy. Yeah. I mean, I'm happy. I'm, but I just feel like I still.

We're still hungry. I'm still. I'm happy. I'm hungry. Yeah. I'm kind of like, but you can still be hungry, right? But you can still be hungry, right?

I got to get better. And like, The point was, like, I have a, I have a 13, 13-month-old little girl, Vera. I'm like, I can't tell her, like, hey, go do something or go chase something when I'm too scared to speak on a podcast. Yeah. It was literally what I said to myself. That's amazing.

You know, but you know what she could also think of, too. Huh? You don't speak up. What was that? If you don't speak up. If I don't speak up. And tell your story. Yeah.

You're selfish. You know why? Because someone needs to hear that shit. That's exactly. The point I was saying after you had shared yours and you know how you're the motivator. Yeah. I'm like, Kyle. How many other guys.

Or in the military, they feel kind of lost. Want to get out. Maybe stay in. They're afraid of what's going to happen. How many other guys were dead broke? Yeah. Yeah, there's a plenty. I mean, I'm very good one-on-one.

But for some reason, like, once you got these, like, bigger lights on me and, like, one. What are you talking about? You're killing it, dude. I don't know. I mean, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is, this is what we do. Yeah, this is my first one. I think I did one with you at your kitchen table once. Remember that?

Maybe. Yeah. We were just winging it. Yeah, but see the point is, though, right? it's like your story and I know this is extreme but your story you can save someone's life

possibly it's worth it you're right they might be in that same status and going damn man what am I going to do what am I going I'm broke what's the point of being here

we love to share that stuff yeah my background's a little different see see but no I think but I think you know at the beginning of everything

as me and Kyle we're talking about you know you asked me if I know this whole imposter syndrome thing yeah that's just until you get proficient at something, right? That's normal, right? But it's also when you compare yourself

to other people thinking like, what have I actually done, right? But then you're looking at a snapshot of someone's life. You have to go off your experience. Yeah. Right. Everything that you've accomplished, right? Deadbrook at 27. Successful real estate team that you leave. You're married. You have a daughter, you know, you own two gems, you know, or you might be partner in the other two. I don't know. But like, but dude, like you've done some stuff. You know, and people need that light. People need to see that. And so this is like a therapy session on Kyle.

No, I like it. Sorry, guys. We're right over this guy. You know, say, hey, come on. But, like, that's going to be my challenge to you after here, man. It's like, dude, just find your voice and do it little by little, right? Start with maybe typing something on your stories. Maybe then do a video.

But just understand that you've got to be willing to really suck at it. I agree with that. You know? because I was terrible. Yeah. Do you know? Terrible. You get your reps.

You get to reps in. You get better. You get stronger. You get faster. Whatever it is. Just like squats, right? You're not, you don't have the greatest technique

when you squat at first, but you learn, you know? Well, I'm Asian, I had the Asian squat when I was born. You have the Asian squat? What's the Asian squat?

You never seen this? No. No. No, the Asian squad is like, that was straight. No. All Asians can literally just like sit in the squat. It's like the thing.

Can you get back up to? Oh, yeah. That's amazing. It's easy. No, I mean, no, I, it's literally, okay. I'm trying to see. You know, they're always, oh, like a super restaurant. Yeah, no, they're literally, you know, they do so many things just sitting here like this.

And, you know, for most people, they're like, the hell. So what do you do down there? You just hang out? No, it's just the squad. That's what I'm saying. Messing around. I was just born. I love it, dude.

I love it. That's fantastic. No, but, you know, what snacks for you guys, man? I don't know, man. Just like I think so many other guys that's, have the entrepreneurial spirit and just go-getters and some dogs. We've got 100 ideas. Yeah.

I just want to open up more gyms. More gyms. Jims, obviously. These, they do very well, fortunately, so thanks to all of our members and supporters and everything like that. But yeah,

more gyms, keep dominating. You know, we do very well in the real estate aspect around here as well, but we're both also family men. So just like everybody else, it's the balance of the family life, the kid's life,

and all that. And we just keep, doing what we're doing, I think. Yeah, we were talking about before about like the greener grass syndrome. I think there's a lot of noise out there right now. It's easy to get distracted, but I think you just keep digging the same hole.

Eventually you'll hit something, you know? Yeah, dude. I just think that it's so important, like when you have your purpose and you know what it is and you enjoy doing something, like, this isn't work to you guys. Yeah. No, it's really not.

It's fun. You know what I mean? Sometimes, you know, any business of course, there's behind it. Like, this is fun for me, but there's times where I'm like, dude, this is stressful as shit. We're just firefighters and gym.

I don't have a few apartment complexes and it's really... Wait, so, hold on. You own apartment complexes too? Yeah. Yeah, you've done nothing with you life. But I think it's very similar because when you own apartments, you're just putting out fires.

Like, there's leak, there's this and that. It's very similar here. Now, we have great management. Tessa here kills it. Trey and Rams, they kill it. Xavier also here. They all kill it. So we're pretty hands-off.

I mean, we're involved in everything, but they do a really good job of handling everything. thing, but in essence we're firefighters. We do a lot of stuff behind the scenes. Sure. It's just this broke, this broke. The hot water here went out.

There's a leak here. Yeah. I think you got stuff going on in Castleton, Kempel right now. It's always plumbing stuff. Yeah. The protein shake. A lot of, a lot of protein.

Guys flopping on the toilet and they break toilets. It's just, I think your, can't your heat go out? It's always something. What are you going to do? But for me, like, for me, like, either cry over it or.

I'm like, ask him, like, I respond like, in two seconds. Like, for me, it's an issue. Like, I didn't get to help ASAP because I don't want my members to you know, be cold or hot or or not have a bathroom. We had no water at Newport News for like four hours because somebody hit a fire hydrant. So like that's inconvenient. If someone has to take a piss, like, you can't.

But it's always something. Yeah. But in the grand scheme of things, I think it's pretty minor stuff. Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, it's like you you cannot have all this foot traffic and things not break, right? And that's just, that's the part of the blessing and

the curse, right? You have this many people coming in. Like I walked in, I honestly didn't know what to expect on a Friday night. You know, I walk in, I'm like, holy shit, dude, this place is jammed up. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's great. Right. But so, yeah, things are going to break. But that's just a testament of what you guys built. You know, part of business, cost of business. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. So let me ask you this. This show is, you know, called the Determined society. So I want each one of you to answer us, what does determination mean to you and what does it look like? I need a pause here.

Cut tape. Let me see. What does determination mean to me or us? I don't know. That's such a hard question. I wish I had an evening and talk about it. But one of the things I can say is, you know, being a family man, like I'm determined to literally show my kids and my wife, you know, well, shout out to my wife.

If she ever watches this, but we've got a 20-year anniversary in March, so it's been a long time. Oh, nice. But I've got three kids. One's grown up. He's an engineer up in D.C. I've got 13-year-old twins. And I'm determined to let them know that their dad is an absolute month. I love that. Like, everything that I do is literally for all of them. They're going to be set, but it's also the mentality and the physical out. Like, they come in, you know, they're wrestling, they're golfing, one's track, one's field hockey. They're doing everything. So I'm determined to be that role model for them to fully understand that, hey, your dad's out here busting business. He's out here busting his tail physically.

Yep. Because he wants to be the dad that's out there on the basketball courts with you. Yes. Running with you, not just screaming from the sideline, run faster, do better. And I'm determined to let them know that hard work is, it's not negotiable. Like, they will be hard workers. Yeah. So that's, I love that, man.

I love that, dude. That's really good. I can, I'll piggyback off that because that's great. I mean, take risks. Yeah. Without risks in life, you'll, you can't ever get ahead. persevere. There's always going to be obstacles in your way. You've got to be a horse with blinders on, man.

Dude, it's so true, man. It's focused. I mean, when we first met, and I, when we met back in, like, what, 2016, but I approached him a few years later asking about the gyms when I got out of the military because I saw, you know, a successful lender. Something got to open a gym. I'm like, ooh, he knows something I don't know. Let me go talk to him. And I had no money. I was broke.

So he gave me, like, this astronomical number. Like, hey, come back with this X amount. this number and I came back with it what couple years later like hey I'm ready let's open to the gym now that's probably the best but wow one of the greatest examples of determination again gets out of the military no job broke unsure what you're going to do he tries to get me I try to be an appraiser first I pass the test then I realized that they require like something like some 2,000 hours of OJT but the appraisal community here is like to cold like they don't they only hire within because they're technically hiring the replacement so nobody wants to train the replacement for so

you don't get trained yeah so then I come to him and I was like hey hey, you're successful, what should I do? Simply put, I'm the guy, if you go to Walmart, Home Depot, you've never been to Home Depot before, and every aisle is a year of your life, and you're looking for a shovel, and you've never been there for it? I'm not just going to walk up and down every aisle. I'm going to ask, hey, where's the shovel?

Exactly. So I asked him, hey, man, what are you doing? Yeah. And he tried to get me into lending, because he's a lender. And I couldn't pass the test. Granted, I didn't really study, but I took it like two or three times. Well, there you go. I took like three.

He wasn't determined. Granted, it's a hard. Granted, it's a hard test. Yeah. But I took it two or three times. I'm like, dude, this isn't for me. Yeah. So I went back to him.

I was like, hey, what else you got? So then he said, realtor. I'm like, okay. So I went and I, like, that's just me like Forrest Gump. Okay. So I just went and I did that. And then I came back like a month later and he introduced me to my old team member and just hit the ground running.

It's amazing. And speaking of the determination there, man. I mean, that was the craziest thing. Kyle literally, again, he went from broke, goes on, joins a couple of teams. That's very successful. estate comes back to me five years later. It might be less than that. Maybe less. He goes, hey man, how about that gym? And I was like, dude, remember, it takes a lot of money. I'm not going to let you buy in without money. He's like, I've got a lot of it.

So I was like, God, damn. So here's the term. He literally stacked every dollar. He's so frugal. Even today, I don't spend any money. Yeah. I'm so cheap. Yeah. And then I'm just trying to grow. I came back a lot of money. And I was like, and to me, I was like, good God, this guy is clearly determined, focused. He's going to be the right partner for me. He's willing to, you know, what he's saved up over the last five years, willing to invest this into a business and vision into something that he wants to do. So I knew he was the right one. Yeah, I was on a nine-month deployment on the Roosevelt.

And I got off in six months because I wrote a business proposal. It was called it was called Sovereign Barbo. It was 16 pages. And I sent it to my CEO of my man. I was like, hey, I want to get off this boat because I'm going to. getting out of the military in like a month after I get back from the appointment, let me leave on the early debt to kind of set up shop and try and open a gym. And I convinced him to let me out early. Wow. And I did. I came back, but then I stumbled upon honor and Osama. I was like,

oh, dang it. Like it was very similar to what I wrote up. I even have it. I've never even shown it to you. I think he showed it too. But yeah, and then what he said, it kind of just spiraled into that. But yeah, I'm super grateful for the opportunity for this. That's, that's incredible. That is determination, right? It's been fun. Yeah, dude. I mean, like, that's just a testament into what he, how he trust you as well, right? Like, came to him like, hey, dude, show me the playbook, man. Like, what do I do? Yeah.

And then you took action. And I think that's one of the things that a lot of people get stuck on and looking at you guys, right? And for the people that aren't taking action on, you know, advice that you're getting from people, I think you're squandering an amazing opportunity. Yeah, I think you can only do so much. You can only control so much. Like, the things that you can control are living significantly below your means.

Yeah. Um, the stack action. and then be opportunistic. And then you have to be able to capitalize an opportunity with capital. So he was the most successful guy I knew at the time. So I'm like, cool, let me just leach on this dude and see what happens.

And that's pretty much what I did. It's amazing. It's amazing. You know, years later. It's amazing. Well, dude, guys, thank you so much for coming on. I love learning about your guys' partnership and the journey and the vision of this place.

And I tell you, dude, it's been a fun time being here. And not a bad way to spend a Friday night. I appreciate it, man. No, we do appreciate it. It's always very humbling when I use that word often, but, you know, when we compete in this business, it's against these $5, $10, $15 million facilities. We're not cheap.

I mean, it costs us a million or two or something like that. Nothing as grand as these other places. It's when members and people will talk about us and, you know, would rather have a membership here. It's very humbling to sit here and demand. We know you've got options, but you're here. Yeah. So we're doing something right.

You're retaining them and giving them the value. And I think that's definitely why they're here. So I appreciate you guys. Hey, thank you all so much for listening and watching. Please share the show with someone you know love and trust that needs to hear this episode for someone that is shooting for something that they have to work really, really hard for and delay that gratification, maybe two, maybe three, maybe five years. Have them listen to their story.

And, hey, until next time, guys, stay determined. Over time, I'll be working, just know I'm a go for mine, because I earned it. They watch and I know it's time. I confirmed it. A whole society determined, the term is a show.