The School of Greatness - 431 The Truth About Success in the Business of Fitness with Marc Fitt

Episode Date: January 11, 2017

"If you cannot generate money yourself, you should not take the money of others to play with." - Marc Fitt If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/431

This is episode number 431 with fitness phenom, Mark Fitt. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast.

I've got a good friend on today. His name is Mark Fitt. He is taking over the fitness world personally with his personal brand. He's got almost 5 million fans on Facebook, almost 1.5 million on Instagram, and it's blowing up everywhere else online as well. And he's only 26 years old. This guy has an incredible style. He's got an incredible heart.

He's just brilliant, bright. And the thing I love about Mark is he has no limitations. Here's a kid who was studying to be a cop in Quebec in Canada, and all of a sudden realized he wanted to get into the fitness space. He's built everything himself. He's learned design, coding. He's learned manufacturing, customer support, all the technical elements of building a business around a personal brand himself, from growing an audience to building everything he's done and learned it. Nothing has scared him off from trying something new.

And I find it fascinating how he's built this massive personal brand, how he's monetized the personal brand, and also what he's done to build a separate massive brand that is blowing up apart from his own name, where I think a lot of people in the entrepreneurial space with a fitness space or influencers don't know how to do they don't know how to build a business separate of them, but also leverage it as well. So what we talk about is how to stand out in the fitness industry, but really in any industry at all, but what people are doing in fitness specifically that don't make them stand out. Why he started companies that are separate from his personal brand and how he's building them into massive brands right now. The truth about the grind and what success really requires of you.

Also, how to balance relationships and work when you love what you do. Mark and I talk about how sometimes we go weeks where we realize, hey, we forgot to talk to our family. We forgot to catch up with certain people because we're so passionate about what we do and we're building something. We're creating something. And how do we balance relationships, both family, friends, and intimate? That and so much more, guys. I'm super pumped about this because Mark's been a good buddy of mine. I've seen him transform over the last four years personally as a friend.

I've seen what he's done in business. He's one of the smartest guys I know in terms of taking an idea and building it online just based on his results alone. He's done some incredible things and it's just amazing. Again, he has no fears stop him from creating what he wants. He's afraid. He feels them, but he figures it out and he's constantly failing. I think that's cool about him is he learns how to fail quickly every single day he's failing. And he grows so much faster because he's taking action,

failing, learning, getting feedback, taking action, failing, and constantly doing that every day is a process. So I hope you guys are inspired by this. I hope it inspires you to realize that that idea you have inside of you right now, that thing you've been thinking about for the last 15 months that you haven't put out there yet, it's time to start putting it out there. It's time to start Googling and researching and learning how to take on new skills the way Mark talks about here in a moment and start taking action. You are wasting time on building your brand. You're wasting time on building your business and an empire and putting your ideas into the world if you allow fears to hold you back. So take these lessons, assimilate them, use them, breathe these lessons, and learn and take action yourself. Let me know

what you guys think. Share this out with your friends, lewishouse.com slash 431. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, Mark Fitt. Welcome, everyone, back to the School of Greatness podcast. We've got my good buddy Mark Fitt in the house. Good to see you, man. Good to see you, too, man. It's been three years since you came on the podcast. Yeah, three years.

You were, what, 22 then? 23? 22 or 23, yeah. 23. You're 26 now. Yeah. We connected over, where was it? Facebook? Instagram? I can't remember where we connected. Twitter, I think. Twitter, was it? I think so, yeah.

Four years ago, maybe. Yeah. Like right after, within a couple months after I started the podcast, you were like, reached out to me and said, I listen to the podcast all the time. It's my goal to be on the show or something like that. I don't really recall it. I think you said something like that. Like it's my mission to be on the school.

Yeah, I told my girlfriend, Kat, that one day I will be on the School of Greatness. Yes. And you were on three years ago. Yeah, the OG. The OG, man. This is before the studio, before anything, before video. And I felt like people should see how good looking you are.

So if you guys aren't watching, go watch the video right now. You're from Quebec, Canada. You started out as a police officer. Is that right? Yeah. You were in the police academy in Canada for like a year. It's actually a three years program. And I did two years.

Two years. Yeah, two years. And then I decided to take a year off. And yeah, I just went to the fitness and just trying to put my name out there. And then I came back to finish just two classes that I needed to finish. And I finished. So you finished the police academy? Yes, I did finish it.

I could be a cop. You could be a cop right now. Yeah, I could. In Canada. Which isn't saying too much because there's not much crime, right? Pretty friendly up there. Yeah, it's not like in the US. I don't know.

It's different. It is different. So you could be a cop right now. Did you ever go into the and become one? Were you ever like in the field? No. I just enjoy too much what I'm doing. So I wish I could have like done maybe like a year. I just enjoy too much what I'm doing. Yeah.

I wish I could have like done maybe like a year or two because it's something that I, I don't know, I find cool. But, I mean. Just to have some photos of you in the outfit and be like a cop. Yeah, I've been a cop. Yeah. And you were like 18 or 19 when you were doing that, right? Yes.

Yes. And you were living, were you living at home still? Yes, at my dad's house, yeah. Your dad's basement. Yeah, and I was just working, working, and yeah, I mean, I just wanted like just to do what I'm doing today, and yeah, the first time I was like on the show was starting.

You were just getting started. I don't recall like what I was doing like at that time, but was starting like to pick up, yeah. I remember you had like, I think you had like a half a million or maybe 700 000 fans on facebook now you have 5 million almost 5 million and you were a lot skinnier you were like lean and that was like super shredded you put some more bulk on and you were just getting started you had like some youtube videos you were you were growing with like content creation I think you had maybe a membership

site, something like $20 a month. Yes, I said that. And then you had workout programs and I think maybe some supplements or protein powder that you were getting sponsored or endorsed by. That was about the extent of what I knew you had available then, right? Yes. And three years later, you've created an incredible brand for yourself, personal brand. You know, your following has grown tremendously on Instagram, almost 1.5 million. Again, 5 million on Facebook and it's growing everywhere. And you've leveraged that to build a business around your personal brand but also build other brands.

And I'm curious, first off, what have you done to build the personal brand, number one, because I think there's a lot of people who are in the fitness space who are watching this or listening, plus entrepreneurs who have their own online business that want to build their own personal brand, because they know when they build a brand, they can generate more business and more income. So first off, what are the steps that you'd say high level strategy that you took over the last three to five years

to build your personal brand and how has that helped you this is a great question the first thing is like be different because too many people just look

it's good like to see what others are doing and just you know take a bunch of stuff that they are doing and just apply anything that they do

into your own business. But what I like to do is go outside the fitness industry and look what is happening, like in the fashion world, uh, in technology and just take some stuff and just bring it to my industry. Uh, especially like the music world is pretty advanced compared to the fitness

to any type of other business. Um, so that's one thing, just be different. Just don't try to do what of other business. So that's one thing, just be different. Just don't try to do what everyone is doing. So that's one of the things. Being French, I think, have helped me in the sense of like, oh, that sounds different.

But everyone is different and you need to understand that. And it's not because someone is liking a certain person that you need to replicate what they are's not because someone is liking a certain person that you need to replicate what they are doing and to be like them because you will find people that will relate to your story they will relate to yourself they will relate from where you're from from uh the way that you do things and i think you just don't want to limit yourself by just saying like i'm not good enough you know yeah um and as soon as you take that ownership of yourself by just saying like, ah, I'm not good enough, you know? Yeah. And as soon as you take that ownership of yourself and just say like, this is me and I will just be like me

because right now it's just always videos, pictures, everything that you do, people will see it. And if you try to be fake or try to be someone else, at some point they will see it. And you can also sense it in a video, you know, when you talk. and if you try just to show off too much or try to show that you have everything or i mean it's you connect less with people right yeah it's more cold yeah yeah exactly yeah okay so first thing is be unique be different and one of the things is uh you know three years ago you could barely speak english it was like a struggle for you to have conversation in English and you learned English you know five years ago I guess because you spoke

French your whole life but you saw an opportunity to learn a new language to reach more people right yes exactly so how did you I mean how did you do that first off just say I'm going to learn a language and do you think having English in your repertoire has helped you build even yes absolutely because like in the business world, it's just English. Even sometime I'm talking to the phone and I know the person can speak French, but because we talk about business, we speak English for, I don't know. Really? I don't know what's the reason, but we speak English.

Even if he's French? Yes, even if he's French, yeah. Okay. But yeah, I've learned English. I was really bad in English first at school. We learned English, but I didn't really care because I was like in Montreal and we don't really need it. No one speaks English really.

No, my parents don't speak English at all. So it's just French. So I was like, I don't need like to speak English, do anything. So I just didn't want to learn it really. And that is just putting like a barrier, you know, on yourself. So I would say be willing to learn new things that's that's the first step um and the way that i've learned it is by watching game of thrones really yeah i was like really bad until i was like 21 or 21 or 22 and then i decided like no i need to do

something and the way i can do things because i didn't have like the money i'd like to hire like a teacher or something i just decided to do something that I like to do watch movies or watch like a series and I forced myself to go to the theater once every week that was like kind of like my homework and 30 minutes from where I'm living because there's not that many theater in English where I'm from oh so you went to an English theater yeah exactly subtitles or no subtitles no subtitle and I was just going there once a week yeah and I just started this way and then putting like Game of Thrones like on my computer one episode every night and just because Game of Thrones is really hard when you don't speak English I don't understand anything so for the first 10 episodes I

was you didn't know what's going on no I was just like seeing like the images I was like oh okay I understand a little bit that's cool

and were you were you like researching during the week to learn like oh what are these words or just learning more yes and Kat is better

than myself in English your girlfriend yeah my girlfriend so I was asking her like a bunch of questions all the time and how do I say it and just going like

on Google translation and just figuring out like the words I still do you know there her a bunch of questions all the time and how do I say it and just going on Google translation and just figuring out the words. I still do. There's a bunch of words that I don't know. For sure, it's still a limitation. But at the same time, I'm getting better and better. And you feel like your personal brand has grown online? Your audience has grown because you speak English? Yes.

Yeah. If you just stick to French and you only use French. It could have been big as well. You think so? Yeah. Because in the fitness industry, it's blowing up right now like in France. Right. But it's like we are like in English, it's like four or five years ahead than in the French world.

Right, right, right. Got it. Now, what else can people do? Do you have like a consistent content schedule? Are you posting? Yeah, in terms of social media, I try to two post it every day. So on Facebook and Instagram. Two posts on each?

Yeah, two posts on each. Usually it's the same picture or the same thing. I just put the same thing on Facebook and Instagram. One in the morning, one at night. In the morning, I try to be between 7 and 11. And at night, it's between 6 and 11 as well. Just to reach both sides. The East Coast and West Coast.

Or even Europe as well. Where do you think you'd be without Facebook and Instagram? It's everything right now. Both those platforms. There's many people who come to me like, I want to have a sponsor and I want to do things. And the first question is like, how is your social media? Because this is the exchange that you need to give to the companies to do something.

I know it's sad, but this is the new world. It's not like doing a campaign with Calvin Klein anymore and just being on a billboard. You need to work on your social media. Get down to your audience. Yeah, exactly. Because it's your audience who will bring money to the company and a company will never invest in you if they cannot make the money back or even like break even or make a little bit of money there's no point investing in someone so your social media following is everything right

now yeah more than the email list would you say more than um not for my personal brand but like if i want like a sponsor or do something with a company social media play a big role yeah what about what about for an entrepreneur do you think uh who's not in the fitness world but just has their own business you think they have to be on social media right now or can they yes i mean you need to be everywhere if you want to just have more chance to make a sale or just to reach people depending on what's your message but for sure mailing lists is good. Yeah.

Yeah. So what are all the different revenue streams that you have for your personal brand? Personal brand? There's TeamFit, the membership site where I put all my workouts, videos, tips, Q&As. There's over like 500 videos in this section. Then there's the Limitless Camp. This is a camp on eight weeks that i built last year and i will do the limitless camp 2.0 and it's all about all about unlocking your your potential mentally

physically and just go after what you want and removing some limiting belief that you have so this is limitless camp then i have personal training program but i will probably stop doing it uh not because it's not good in terms of money but it's just my time. It's too much time right now. And when I do something, I like to give everything that I can. I don't know for the service that I give.

So I will probably stop it or just take really like limited number of people. This then... Supplements or protein or... Yes, I'm sponsored by a supplement company and so it's commissioned, affiliates. What else?

I'm doing campaigns for a big brand right now and modeling. So I think that's pretty much it. Those are the main things, yeah. And then so from there, you can really only build it to a certain level with your personal brand and your own stuff, right? Mm-hmm. You can only make – I think you're limited it seems like in what you can make.

But it's just you always exchange your time. Yeah. And you need to always be there, you know, because you're the brand. Yeah. For sure you can make a lot and it can be enough for a lot of people. But for my goals, I wanted to have my other brands that I can leverage. But you saw that you were limited essentially with that unless you built something separate. Yes, exactly.

That didn't need you all the time, right? Yeah, and if I die, I mean, you can still generate. Right, right. So you created Rise and when did this come out? It's been two years now. Two years. And what is Rise and why did this come out? It's been two years now. Two years. And what is Rise and why did you create it?

Rise, it's the future of the fitness clothing. Okay. It is, I created it with one of my good friends, my best friend actually.

Tony. Tony. So we created the brand. It's a brand that we, we were like in school together, Police Academy. Yeah. And five years ago we

said to ourselves like we need to create something that uh because we just enjoy training you know and we enjoyed uh lifting and we wanted just to create like our own not not even like we weren't talking about clothing at first it was just like gear companies so belts wrist strap lifting strap knee wrap everything that can support uh a person to perform better in the gym and prevent injuries. So we started with three products in his room, actually. Really? Yeah. All the inventory was fitting like in one window.

So that's how we started. And right now we have 200 and something products. Wow. And he wasn't a designer. He wasn't a product developer. None of you guys had built a company on your own. and something product yeah wow and he wasn't a designer he wasn't a product developer none of you guys had built a company on your own yeah so how did you start from like simple stuff like designing a logo to designing like the hats the belts whatever the concepts the website everything

that you've done how do you as i said like in the beginning don't put limitation on yourself i put a video out like two weeks ago it's there's my my one secret for success and or it was like my one rule for success and the rule is there's no rules so when you understand that that there's no rules and everything that is created around you like Steve Jobs said everything that is created around you was created by people that were no smarter than you and that's just so true and even for anything that you can see like any building any like the iPad for example they just

figure it figure that out they just wanted to create something that people could use with their finger so when you understand that you remove a lot of limitation and you just fail forward because there's nothing that will work the first time never never never and we say that and everyone say that, all entrepreneurs, but the people who listen to it or watch it, they don't understand that you will fail hard every day, every day.

There's nothing that works the first time. Nothing, nothing. And you, I mean, because you didn't have design, you do all the websites yourself. Yes, I've just learned everything. You do all the design, coding, everything. You just said, how do you learn it? Do you just Google it?

Do you take courses? Do you have someone help you? So at first, because I started with $300, like in my basement, I mean, you just need imagination. You see something, you see something nice, like on a website that may be like a team build it, and you just sit yourself like, damn, I need to do that.

And now you cannot hire someone to do it for you, so you just need to learn it. So I was just searching on Google, YouTube tutorial, and finding out to do it. How to code, how to learn it so i was just searching on google youtube tutorial and finding out to do it how to code how to code yeah since they want how to use photoshop um how to edit the video how to edit the picture and just non-stop researching so you research it all you find the tutorials you try you test it try test it and sometimes just like moving just a small thing on my website could have taken me like 10 hours. But when you do it once, then you got it.

And then the next time you have to do it, then you know it. Wow. So HTML, CSS, iframe code, whatever. So you didn't know English. Didn't know English. You didn't know design, coding. Coding. You didn't know product development.

You didn't know. No. I never studied like in business. I never. You didn't know product development. You didn't know. I never studied like in business. I never. Any of this stuff. Yeah. But you had an idea and you just started researching and trying. Yeah.

I just told myself like if someone was able like to create Nike, for example, Nike. Nike. There's people who say Nike. I think in the UK they say Nike. In the UK they say Nike, yeah. So, for example, like Nike, I've listened like just to the book and I was like, I mean, everyone starts with nothing and they just figure that out. So there's just no rules, seriously, and you can just learn it. So how do you develop the mindset to think like this where so many people, when they don't have the information, they feel like it's too challenging?

They're like, well, I don't have the money. I don't have the resources. I don't have the resources. I don't have the skills. How come you think differently and what is that? This is a great question. Are you not afraid to fail? No, I'm afraid to fail.

You are afraid. Yeah. I mean, it's good fear. I mean, you need to be afraid to fail. If not, there's no challenge.

And, oh my God, this is a great question. Let me think about it. But why are you able to move forward in figuring out all these things

and elements to bring together a business and a brand where other people don't go after their dreams? I mean, I started with nothing so I have everything to gain.

I mean, everything that I created, it's built from my imagination. So even if I lose everything, I didn't lose anything because... You didn't have anything. Exactly. And I can just build it back and I've learned a ton.

So all the money that I have in my bank account, I mean, if I lose it all, I will just build it back. I just need a computer. Or an iPhone now. Yeah, even an iPhone. It will be long though.

That's the thing. Like, people need to understand that, for sure, if you don't have the money, it's, it will take like, way more time than someone who has like,

all the resources possible. Yeah. But, at the same time, you learn a lot. And then, when you have a team around you, you can teach them how to do stuff

and even leverage them because some people will be better like just doing accounting, you know, but then if you can teach them how to do other stuff, then your team's just getting like stronger and stronger. And because I did everything, I know like the timeframe that it takes like to do a certain job and everything.

So if it's not productive enough, then I can just be there it takes to do a certain job and everything. So if it's not productive enough, then I can just be there just to help. You haven't taken any investors with anything, right? Nothing. No debts. Nothing. I feel like, give me your opinion on this, but I feel like I wouldn't have wanted to take money at any time until I felt like I'd been really successful and made a lot of money and had all the skills.

And then maybe I could accelerate the money. But if I took money early on, I would have known what to do with it. You just had more stress to yourself as well. So much more stress. If you cannot, that's just the way I think. If you cannot generate money yourself, then you shouldn't take the money of others to play with it. Even if it takes you five years to learn how to make money

or how to leverage everything that you create, I would prefer waiting during five years and just learn a bunch and be solid if I have an investor after. Because at some point when you know how to generate money and just to play with it, if you have an investor, it's just leverage. It's just leverage.

To help grow it. Yeah leverage it's just leverage to help grow it yeah exactly just faster but don't do moves that you know that will not work

and you can feel it it's just I think people don't follow the instinct and sometimes they're they have like opinions of others

you should do that you should do that but if you don't feel it just don't do it right now there's a lot of personal brands in the entrepreneur space but also in the fitness space that people are building big followings but they don't know how to build a business on the side

or build a business off of their personal brand. Everything is evolving around them. And you started this company, Rise, Everything's evolving around them. And you started this company, Rise. And how many other people would you say in the fitness space alone have started other apparel brands or other fitness companies that don't evolve around their personal brand? There's not that many. Not that many, right?

Not that many. And that's one of the things. And I talked to you about that before we started the interview. I don't say that I created Rise. Yeah. And I don't want to say it. Except for on here. Huh? Except for on here.

Yeah. But you're not publicly out on your social media channels. Even our partner, because we told ourselves we'll not say it, and we're just working on it, and it's our baby. But we see it as big as Nike and be a top brand. And why we don't put ourselves like forefront is just because I don't want to be the brand to be around me. So if I'm in a car accident or if something happened, my family can still have something and my partner as well. And there's no –

It's not evolving around you. Exactly. Even if I don't post on social media, it doesn't change anything to the companies that I build around. Right. It's still growing without you and your efforts. Now, there's so many different pieces of this. You've got a warehouse. You've got shipping elements.

You've got customs to deal with. You've got the design elements. You've got going to China, working with the manufacturers. You've got so many different elements to this. How hard is it actually launching an apparel brand from scratch? A lot of these fitness personalities want to have their own clothing and they think it's cool, but I don't think they understand how hard it actually is

to actually do something that looks good and feels good and is high quality. It's hard. It's hard, right? You've been doing it for two years now, right? Yeah. It's seven till midnight every day

pretty much but it will be the same thing with any business I'd say even like my personal plan I was working

that many hours so if you're coming from someone who want to bring value to people and not shitty services

and cheap clothing or something yeah we just seen like a bunch of companies that they just want to make the quick buck, and after five years, they're running out of business. So it depends where you're coming from and what's your goal.

I like to build things that I'm thinking 10, 15, 20 years ahead. So maybe the growth will be smaller, but will be consistent. Okay. And how many different elements are there? I mean, there's a lot of moving pieces. How many people are on the team now? But any products, I mean, you will create like,

even if you create like a tripod and you try to sell it to a market, you will have to, oh my God, it's just the, yeah, it's a bunch of work. I mean, you get the transaction on your website and then this you need to bring it to another software to ship it, create the labels. And then there's a custom declaration.

Then you ship it to the person. And now if you're just starting, like your shipping rate is not that great, so you try to maybe buff it with your margin. Yeah, exactly. And then there's like the customer service a bunch of people think about like creating the product product and then the service is not there um so there's a bunch of element but you you have to always have the mindset that you will learn something every day and that you don't know all the answers and it's

fine and how important is it in finding like the right uh production partner to manufacture the materials the clothing it's really important and how do you find that oh my god because you've tried lots of different samples from like all over the place right yeah and a lot of people it takes a month for them to get to you and test it and then you gotta go back yeah each product could take like between four months to a year. Wow. So you get it right. Yeah. Do you feel comfortable to put it out in the market?

Yes, exactly. Because you don't want to just sell something that people will, you know, just, they get it and then they're just like, ah. Crap. Yeah. Because they will not be a repeating customer. So it takes time. It's not like instant. There's a lot of these other people in the fitness space specifically who are just kind of putting their brand or like a logo on they're like white labeling someone else's materials already right and that's the other

option is like you just have your own gear with some like some t-shirts or whatever yeah but i mean even like the magician musician world like the music world, every artist has like their merch. Just like Justin Bieber, for example, his tour merch. I don't really know what's the name. What's the name of the tour of Justin Bieber? Purpose? Purpose, yeah. Purpose is making like his clothes and it's just printed.

It's just printed. It's not like custom is what you're saying. I don't know if it's custom, but I mean like every artist like does that. It's not like custom is what you're saying. I don't know if it's custom, but I mean like every artist does that. And it's fine because they need to generate money and shows it's not enough to sustain like the intense traveling and all that stuff. Just ticket sales alone. Yes, exactly.

But it's just a bit like – It's not building a brand. It's just merch. Yeah. It's just depending on what you want to do. What's your goal? Right, right. But it's not something you can build and sell one day like a brand brand that's not just like you. No, because it's yourself.

Exactly. So what's possible when you build a brand separate from yourself then? What's possible, as I said, is you just leverage everything. It's not you who needs to always work and be forefront for it. It's just better for the long run, I think. How many people are on the team right now? Uh, we are all 15, 15. Yeah.

And you're still like just starting, just, just going right. Amazing, man. Um, what do you see about the future of the fitness industry? I just feel like it's so oversaturated in terms of fitness personalities, in terms of the supplements and the protein world. There's thousands of companies trying to take a piece because it's very profitable, it sounds like,

if you can do it right. We just got back from the LA Fit Expo this weekend. So where do you see the fitness industry going? It's been a lot about vlogging vlogging last year yes everyone is vlogging daily it's almost too much right it's so much but it's like you know like in january and february everyone is like signing up like to go to the gym so there's a bunch of

people will just fade away and i don't say it just because i hope it's just it's just like that there's a lot of people who try and then they just lose their motivation and inspiration and it's just fading away. So in the next year or three years from now, I think it's all about information and bring value to people. It was that before.

This year was more about like, this is my life and that's what I'm doing. It's fine about vlogging like yeah yeah but i think like just having like a topic about the certain stuff or like that will be the future because people teaching yeah giving values it's cool to to show your lifestyle and because you can inspire people like want to do the same thing or have want to have something similar or just um have positive vibe you know in their life and just smile more because they see like other other people achieving things but i think it will be all about information in the next three years

because yes because people want to progress and progression is that equal happiness if you feel that you stand and you're just there and that there's nothing that advance in your life then you just don't feel

happy wow who's doing video the best right now whether in any space in your mind like in the

vlogging space but in entrepreneurship or people on Vimeo people on Vimeo yeah is there a personality that you like

who's in any type of genre that's doing vlogging? Vlogging? Like Casey Neistat or like, you know, someone else in another industry. Is there any, like a Gary Vaynerchuk

or is there someone that you like who think is doing it really well? I'm really into the art of video. So, and I don't have like one person in mind. But when you're putting out like a video every day, it's almost impossible to create like the best video possible. Because.

To create something beautiful and inspirational. Yes, exactly. Because the workflow is just too intense. But for sure you can create awesome visual and depending on where you are in the world and there's John Olson who just crushed it this year. John Olson? John Olson.

Yeah, you should have him on your podcast. Is this the guy who does the drone stuff too or no? Yeah, he's partnered with DJI, I think, and he's just traveling and his videos are- He's showing me his stuff. It's beautiful, cinematic. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's nice.

But in terms of video and quality of if it's cinematic or not, there's people who are underground that are just creating awesome things and they're not putting themselves out there, but they should. But if you want to watch some sick video, Vimeo is the place to go. This is where the videographers

and people with a bunch of talent or around what's gonna be more important in the next three years having if you had to choose one photo or video video video video is the future even like Facebook will turn into a video platform or so you if you had to do only videos every day on Instagram and Facebook, you'd do that over images? No, because images has been there for the last 100 years. It will always be there, but video is where you create the relationship with people.

It's where you can show yourself more. Picture will never fade away, I think. But video will have a bigger place into social media and will you be doing more video than over uh photo sharing or will you be kind of the thing is like you can do both at the same time if you're like shooting videos then you can take some still and like the cameras are increasing so much like the quality of it that you can take like just a screenshot of like you recording yourself like in 4k and this is your pick, you know?

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Who inspires you the most right now in the, in the fitness space besides yourself? I don't really look up to people in the fitness. You look at other industries and kind of see what they're doing. Yeah.

I don't have any name seriously there. I mean, there's the top fitness model, but they're my friends more than I look up to them. No, I don't have any name, but I like people who think outside the box. Who's doing that? I don't have any name, seriously.

Really? No. I just take a bunch. I like to learn from a bunch of people. Take ideas here and there. Yeah, and you have awesome guests on your podcast, so often I will just listen to it. But I'm more into audiobooks right now

and just trying to learn and learn more. But I don't really look up to people. I don't have time to watch videos, really. What was the biggest lesson you learned last year from your personal brand to building the business rise? What was the biggest either financial lesson or mindset lesson? Biggest lesson? Take more time with my family, I would say.

Take more time with family because you spend it all on the business and brand? Yeah. So just scheduling personal time in advance instead of like just going with the flow. If not, you will not take time for yourself. I'll go like six weeks sometimes. I'm like, I haven with the flow. If not, you will not take time for yourself. I'll go like six weeks sometimes, I'm like, I haven't talked to anyone in my family, or done anything,

because I'm just so focused. Yeah, last year I've seen my mom like, maybe three times. Does she live in Quebec? Yes. She's like 20 minutes away from me. Shut up.

Yeah. Even my dad is like, he's just coming to see me, like at the office, but. But you're just so in the zone, right? Yeah.

What is that? How does it, why is it hard for us to kind of like at the office but but you're just so in the zone right yeah what is that how does it hard why is it hard for us to kind of like relax it's just because we enjoy and we want to i think i know that i will die and i think that's my biggest inspiration because i never know when it will end you know so i just want to make sure i can just create as much as i can so when i'm gone people can still have some stuff. That's why I also record a bunch of videos, and they're just on my hard drives, and I don't put them out because when I die, I know that people will be able to still release stuff

and bring value to people. But just being an eye achiever and just wanting to create and create is just addicting, I think. Seeing people consuming and just i don't know that's that's my drug i would say right what's the big mistake you made last year in business could you have focused on something a little bit better and spent more energy and and had a better result than focusing on something you were doing or looking back what do you see biggest mistake i think it's like i forget my mistakes i just move forward so i don't know i've made so many mistakes so i don't have like one that just

stand out in particular no idea seriously it's. It's not I'm perfect or anything. It's just I'm making mistakes like over and over and over again. So there's not just one thing that stands out. You got to be kind with yourself, I guess, and just learn. What's the big thing you think you need to learn or grow into in order to get this brand

where you want it to be this year? What's something that you need to learn or grow into in order to get this brand where you want it to be this year? What's something that you need to take on personally? Either information wise or skill set or

in order for it to get from where it is now to 5 or 10x the growth or beyond. It's just doing things differently and

doing like I think it's just video wise now. Really? Yeah. So just big production and stuff that people never seen before so you just mark them you know mentally they're just like oh my

god this is just next level um you think that converts into customers yes that's for sure really yeah the better the production value of the video you think people buy or they just more appreciate the art of it and that's it some will just appreciate the art of it but many will be like oh my god this is next level and this is the future so i want to jump they'll be inspired to feel something inside and then want to buy the brand yes and who's doing all the video filming and editing um i used to have like two guys who were doing like team fit videos now uh because i wasn't like focusing that much on my personal brand um i'm not working with them anymore really um so uh we handle everything you edit it yeah but we will we would we will i hire someone if we have like a particular project how do you get it all done

how do you edit the video shoot the video work out run the business manage the team design code you just you don't have a designer you sleep faster you don't design, code. You don't have a designer. You sleep faster. You don't have a coder. You don't have a designer. You and Tony do it all yourself. It's just like for in terms of like web design and like coding, if just taking the time to explain what I want will be longer than just doing it.

But it depends on what's the job, you know. So if I see there's more value hiring someone, I will just hire someone. But for some stuff, yeah, it quicker for you to do it. Yeah. It'll take me five, ten minutes for one thing and then I just move to the next thing. That's crazy, man. What's the best skill you think you have? Being just someone you want to learn every day. Yeah.

That would be like the best skill. Knowing that you don't know everything. That you have personally. What's the best skill? That one? Yeah know everything that you have personally what's the best skill that one yeah just be willing to learn new things everyday what's the best technical skill you have technical skill like coding or design or you know

it's maybe not technical but I'm just willing to put the work into you know and just work non-stop it's not that technical I'm just willing to grind the work into, you know, and just work nonstop. It's not that technical. It's just I'm just willing to grind, grind, grind, and just fail, fail, fail, and then at some point we'll just unlock.

How do you deal with keeping a close relationship? You've been with Kat, your girlfriend, for how long now? Five or six years? Five years and a half. Five and a half years. How do you handle having a quality relationship when you're working 20 hours a day? It's not easy. And we have a close relationship, but like I'm working so much that there's some point it was not easy at all. But communication is one of the big thing.

So she will let me know when she needs like more time. Really? And I will take the time. And what do you do? Do you just schedule like a date night? Yeah, we try to have like a date night every week uh sometimes like the for the last like two months didn't happen but we went like into a vacation we have been like traveling a lot so vacation just going out for like a week or two weeks just being alone is like we do that at least three times every year.

But she supports me a lot. And she's around. She works with you. Yeah, she's just involved in everything, yeah. And how do you handle, you know, since five years ago when you were really like just starting out essentially in the fitness space to being at these trade shows and girls always wanted to be around you and this and that do you ever feel like tempted or how do you handle that experience when you should get jealous because

you're you know she's not getting jealous so that's that's nice yeah that's a good thing because i mean if the girl who's just come out and under your pictures means nothing yeah you can do anything about it but she travels most of the time with me so I think maybe like two trips she was in there at the expo so I'm not tempting really yeah it's just like at the end of the day

it's if you do something like with another girl you will regret it because it's just like one night for sure it can be hard because as a human we're not made to be like uh mono monogamous monogamous yeah i don't think we are made to be but we want to because i mean it's just like if you do i don't know you will just repeat you know the circle it's sleeping with a girl can be it's nice but i mean, I mean, after, you will be just like, holy shit,

I just made like a huge mistake because at the end of the day, that's not the person I want to be like every day. So, yeah, try to focus just on myself

instead of just focusing on like, oh my God, that would be nice. Right. Yeah. Sure. What do you think people, what's the thing most people you think

don't know about you my real name your real last name right because it's not fit it sounds like a great name yeah um what's your real name mark andre mark andre andre bernard b-e-n-a-r-d yeah so in french will be mark andre bernard so why did you when did you change it and why did you decide to change it um i actually like started like a fitness page on facebook first was fitness page for all and then i decided that i needed like to put my name somewhere you know because it was more like it was just like pictures of me and stuff so why fitness page for all so i decided to uh delete the page at like 10 000 followers back in 2012 i think or 2011 and um i was like damn i cannot call myself mark andre

bernard fitness page people need to remember that they will not even know how to write it down so i was like just mark mark mark because was calling Mark. I never said like Marc Andre. So Mark. And then I was like, Mark Fitness. Or I was like just Mark Fit. I will put 2T because it looks like it's my last name. And people will wonder.

And it's like, I just said it to myself. The Rock can call himself The Rock because he was a wrestler. Why not? I cannot have like a show name or something. What has that done for you, you think,

by giving yourself that name? Do you think that's helped you build your audience? Yeah, that's for sure because it's easy to remember. It's Mark Fit. And then people were making the link between like fitness and fit. And a bunch of people are just like, damn, this is like so weird that you have like Fit as last name. You are Fit. Yeah.

It is weird. I'll probably add it like to my record. I don't know. Your real name? You think you'll change it? I will keep it. Maybe I'd probably add it like to my to my record I don't know your real name you think you'll change it I will keep it maybe I'd fit it yeah

I can do that amazing man do you think like that's just so cool that you thought of that at an early age I guess but it's really helped build your brand

I feel like yeah that's for sure yeah 100% what if you had your full name and Facebook and Instagram

I don't think we'll have how big of a following would you have you think no idea I've been there that much really

it's just too long it is huh so you think the branding of your name is even important it is important do you think

you should change your name if you have like this long name that no one remembers what about Schwarzenegger he had a long name but

it's the most memorized name most recognized name in probably fitness world yeah but but it's the most memorized name, the most recognized name in probably the fitness world. Yeah, but Arnold, it's easy to remember. No. Schwarzenegger is not. Now it is.

Yeah, I don't know. 25 years ago, it wasn't when people were like, what is a Schwarzenegger? Yeah, maybe people would say, you weren't proud of your name and all that stuff. But if you feel that you have to change it, why not? There's nothing bad with it. You feel like it's definitely helped you.

Yeah, and also it helped me, like, because when I was, like, calling myself Marfit, it was, like, not a character, but Marfit is capable of doing anything, you know, because at the beginning, I wasn't, like, speaking English at all, and I was, like, putting videos out, and it was really hard. Like, I was restarting, like, 10, 15 times the video

because I was making mistakes all the time um so even when i did my first tv show live i had like a segment i was a fitness columnist uh and it was an english tv show that i was brought on and was like every morning uh no twice twice twice a week at like 6 a.m or 7 a.m and i was like at the audition and they took me i don't know why because i'm not i wasn't good in english but it took me and first time i was like live on tv didn't know where to look at because it was just like too many cameras i was like in a green room and i was just stressed out but like the the the host of the show told me like you're mark fit you can do anything i was like yeah it's true so when i was like going in the host of the show told me like you're mark fitz you can do anything and i was like yeah it's true so when i was like going in the room or just starting a video it was

like mark fitz can do anything uh so that was kind of like my affirmation yeah do you have do you have affirmation still today yes i will do affirmation like really yeah i use like the five minute journal classic yeah um so i like to just write down like my affirmation every day every morning you use it yeah morning and night yeah what's a non-negotiable for you every day something you have to do to set you up to win and be successful yeah besides listen to the school of greatness uh going to the gym is one thing not just because I want to live and just be in shape but it's just it's my meditation uh i told you i will try to meditate i didn't meditate at all but for me training is is the same thing i can think outside the box when i'm out of the gym when i get shit done you know when i'm able like just to work on myself and i don't focus like on my phone i don't focus on anything

i'm just like there just to work with my body and just perform. And I think it's the same thing when you were playing sports. I mean, you just have an eye as you can get while meditating because I tried it. But for me, it's just when you're able to – because I don't know if you noticed, but when you talk, you can hear yourself. And it's like if you were like two person I think you analyze the way you talk and you hear yourself as well at the same time so when you're just conscious about like the person you are then you can make me a better decision during the day and also always analyze

yourself that way you act you know was i like an asshole with this person or i don't know i don't know if that makes sense yeah of course um if you could do if you only had one picture that you could post on instagram and facebook and you could say one thing yeah a sentence and that was the last photo you could post will be a black and just written in white everything is possible black wouldn't be a photo of you no anything is possible everything is possible everything's possible that's cool yeah i like that that'll be it what um what are you most excited about this year i'm excited because i'm for uh 2015 i was achieving a bunch of stuff, but I wasn't like present really.

I was just like going with emotion and just achieving, achieving, achieving. This year I've been more conscious about like my success and realizing it and just appreciate it. So I'm just excited because I'm more conscious about the person I am and where I want to go. And I feel more alive than in 2014 and 15, which was just madness. Really? It was good, but I mean, it was just like... You weren't present.

Yeah, exactly. I was at... You know, you achieve something and then it's just like, ah, next and next. And it's never good enough, you know? Now you're acknowledging your accomplishments. Yes, more. Celebrating them for a moment.

Yeah. Not just going to the next thing. So that's what you're excited about now? Yes, more. Celebrating them for a moment. Yeah. Not just going to the next thing. So that's what you're excited about now? Yes, I'm just excited because I feel like I'm growing as a person. Yeah. Yeah.

What do you think is your biggest challenge, your biggest obstacle? Obstacles? That's a hard question. Do you have any? I like to think about stuff like for a long period of time.

I don't like to give just an answer like quick and it's not the right answer. But biggest obstacle? Or something you struggle with or Mark's invincible? No, I'm not invincible. It's just, as I told you before, I fail all the time. So I have many struggles.

And the biggest one will be I want to be better in term of like speaking and being able to bring more energy when i speak english because if you were talking french to me i would make passionate it's just fluid you know and i've heard you in french with your friends and you're just like more animated in your exactly and i can like just show more like emotions while i'm talking and i can just use specific word more and be more like into it. And so that's one of the things I want to improve like this year is just being able to do that, but in English,

uh, so people can feel it more. Yeah. Yeah. Because in French, I don't know. I'm, I'm really into it.

You know, it's just fast and you're like me when you're in French. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Is there any question you wish people ask you more of um i really like to talk like about business and i feel like i'm branching out a little bit of like in of the fitness world but at the same time as I told you like I don't want like the brands that I create to be like the center of who I am so I would say I will make the sacrifice to not talk about business we talked about it I know that my partner will not be happy with it

right so I will not let him know when it's out everything but it's just um that's something i'm passionate about but you're just marketing and all that stuff and got it i would like to be like just to show everything that we do because we do a lot and we achieve a lot and it's crazy what we do but you gotta sometimes remove yourself from like maybe it's just ego as well. You just want to, it's normal, but you want to show it off like, oh, successful you can be and what I did. And it's not like just, oh, I want to buy like a Lamborghini or whatever and just show I can buy a Lamborghini.

But I like the process of creating and growing. Yeah, that's cool. Well, I want to wrap things up with the final few questions. Cool. This is called the three truths. I don't think I had to ask this last time the final few questions. Cool. This is called the three truths. I don't think I asked this last time for you. No. All right.

So you know the question. Yeah, everything is gone. Everything is gone. It's your last day many years from now. And you have three truths to write down on a piece of paper that would be your lessons or truths to the world. So what would you write down? First one, there's no rules.

Second one, sometimes you will feel like the king of the world, but life will always be there to slap you in the face. So keep that in mind and just be kind with everyone and don't show off too much. That will be the second one. And the third one will be live in the present a bunch of people will read it and hear it but they will never really be in the present and we go too much like in the routine of like i'm going to work and i'm doing that that

and coming back and then but doing like the reality check every morning like in front of the mirror and just talking to yourself like this is who i am and i'm alive and i'll take everything that i can today and just achieve and just be the best that i can like at that moment that's a good thing well before the final question i gotta acknowledge you, for being an incredible friend. I've known you for, what, three and a half years now? Yeah. And it's been a fun journey to see you grow, to see you evolve, to see what you've created. It's amazing. I'm always impressed by everything you do.

But the thing I'm most impressed with – I'll shake your hand too. The thing I'm most impressed with is your generosity. And you give so much to the world. And your heart is big a lot of people don't think know you because um you know they just don't have access to you or they're maybe they just don't see you that much the way i do we talk all the time but you're such a giving heart and i know how pure your intentions are to create something meaningful for people you want to create a feeling for people that they can do anything also, whether it be wearing a hat. It's more than just a hat for you. It's a feeling of I can create anything in my life.

So in a lot of ways, you're giving inspiration, hope, you're giving motivation, you're giving opportunities to people without them even knowing it because of the content you're putting out there and the quality of product you're giving to people. So I want to acknowledge you for your intention, for what you want to create, for the man you are and who you're becoming. Thanks, I appreciate it. It's been fun to watch you grow, man. Thanks.

Yeah. Make sure you guys follow Mark at Mark underscore F-I-T-T-M-A-R-C, F-I-T-T on Instagram, Facebook, everywhere online, YouTube. You've got a lot of great videos there. Check out rise.ca. You can learn more about that brand.

And where else should we connect with you or follow you? Marfit.com. Marfit.com. And final question. Yes. What's your definition of greatness? I don't recall what I said the first time.

I don't remember. It's been three years, man. This is probably a new definition. Yeah. Be the best that you can be at this time and always try to be kind with everyone and not just think about like what you can get out from it but just like give the experience to people that are around you and that they can just feel it and just be there and just

have more energy because you're around them. And just, I don't know, it's... People need to progress when you're around them, not just going back. I think when you're able to inspire people just because you are the way you are, then that's great. All right, thanks. Thanks's great. Mark Fitt. Thanks, man.

Thanks, man. And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this one. I always love connecting with my man, Mark Fitt. And again, he didn't speak English a few years ago. He didn't have any of these technical skills. He didn't have the audience. He didn't have the physical body that he has now.

He's learned how to build everything from scratch. Nothing holds him back. He uses it as an opportunity to say, what can I learn to better myself? How can I continue to grow every single day? How can I take action? And who cares if I fail? It's going to happen because the most successful people in the world all fail every step along the way. They're constantly failing forward. If you're not failing every single day, if you're not creating something where people are saying it sucks, or they're not buying it, or they're not subscribing, or they're not sharing it, then that's good. It's good because it means you're doing something and you're getting feedback. Now adjust, change, learn something new, become something new and someone different in order to get a different result. It's up to you. You have the power.

Make it happen and don't allow your fears to hold you back. Be inspired by your fears and move forward. Again, the full episode is lewishouse.com slash 431. Tag me on Instagram stories, on an Instagram post, on Twitter, on Facebook. Tag me anywhere on social media at Lewis House. And then also tag Mark, M-A-R-C underscore F-I-T-T. Tag us both when you're listening to it. Share it out with your friends. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you enjoyed most about this.

And make sure to let Mark know as well. I appreciate you guys so very much. It means the world to me that we are on this journey together. We're learning and discovering something new every single day together by being a part of this podcast. It's my commitment to find the best, the brightest, the most inspiring in the world and what they do and bring you that information so you can learn because I'm learning also. But you gotta support by sharing the message

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You mean the world to me. And you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.