Episode 41-Freedom, Fitness & Fatherhood with Brandon Hebert

00:02
Gentlemen, welcome to the War on Dad BODS podcast, special guest today. Are you a busy dad with a full-time job or a business owner raising multiple kids? Imagine being in great shape, living your dream life and winning on every front.

00:16
We're gonna talk about what that means. Today we have someone who's done just that. Joining us today is Brandon Abert, one of my old buddies for 20 years, an old workout partner, a guy I've worked a lot with, the dedicated father of three, former high school wrestling state champion, number one in the state, and the owner of the number one anytime fitness franchise in the entire country.

00:38
This guy's got one of the best gyms in the entire country. Brandon has built a flourishing fitness career, working with everyone from high school athletes to actual NFL and Major League Baseball professionals.

00:49
He's here to share his tools, mindset hacks, and strategies he uses to balance it all and help others do the same. Brandon, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for being here. Thanks, Matt. Thanks for having me.

01:00
I was so excited when you called, and I'm excited to kind of share my story and help motivate and inspire some other people. And if you guys can pick up on me and Brandon's energy today, we've been friends for many years.

01:12
We rarely have, like, kind conversations with each other. We're generally messing around joking with each other. So if y'all pick up on that, that's what's happening there. All right, Brandon. Well, we're kind of getting into this before, but what does it mean to be winning on all fronts?

01:27
What do you think that means? Well, that's a question for each individual, right? I mean, you know, my main kind of objective here in life is to be kind of free, is just free from having to do really anything.

01:46
Everything we do is a choice, right? So, you know, to, you know, be financially free, to be free to spend time with my children, free to have life adventures and experiences. experiences, things like that.

02:01
So setting yourself up for that is kind of what my idea of winning is. Oh, yeah, this is great. When I say that, I think the word alignment. So like every day, I'm not doing like any random freedom thing, but everything I'm doing is something I'm choosing to do.

02:20
It's aligned with what I want to do every day, even though you're pretty freaking busy all day every day. Oh, yeah, I mean, geez, every day is a good time. You know what I mean? Like I'm coming home and I am I am exhausted, but it's not because I was necessarily doing stuff I didn't want to do or I had to go do what other people wanted me to do.

02:39
I got to do what I wanted to do, which may not be things other people want to do. You know what I mean? You know, we often find our unique path, right? Speaking of a unique path, what attracted you to your fitness career in the first place?

02:57
Was there anyone you worked with that inspired you? Anybody that helped you get your foot in the door, what got you into your profession? You know, I don't really remember what kind of sets off the competitive spirit in a young man.

03:15
I guess it's just, I see it in my kids now, right? They just, they want to win. They want to do, they want to be successful, that kind of thing. And it started with playing sports at a very young age, of course.

03:25
And playground sports, you know, you're in Louisiana, you're playing baseball, you're playing football, basketball, and really got into wrestling in high school. A cousin of mine was a wrestler. And man, I'll tell you, there's nothing else like that.

03:44
It is a one-on-one sport where you are directly responsible for your wins and your losses. If you're ever curious why you won that match, well, it's probably because a lot of the work you put in, and if you lost, it's because of the things you didn't do.

04:01
And it's a hard pill to swallow. But what, you know, you realize is that you're training your mental mindset. And just that grit inside of you can make the biggest difference. You know, we used to say, you know, you got that everybody knows the same moves, everybody exercises, everybody goes to practice, but who's the guys that are running at night?

04:24
Who's the guys that are locked into their diet? Who's the guys that, you know what, I'm just not losing this match. I don't know how I'm going to find a way to win, but I'm going to find a way. And, you know, that's something the sport of wrestling definitely brought to me.

04:42
I would say that was my high school education much rather than anything I learned from books. Yeah, that was the challenge. That was the, you learn the persistence, you learn what it takes to win. And when I think about like kids in sports, like I think about like two categories team sports and individual sports and you want to get a taste of both of those ideally I think oh yeah yeah one of the beautiful things about wrestling is uh is uh and we had one of the we had a legendary coach back in the day but you know wrestling as far as team points go if I win my match by seven points my team only gets three but if I won by eight points my team would have gotten four so sometimes you win but it wasn't as good as you should have done or as good as you could have done and knowing the difference there because if you win by seven you can win by eight you know and if I can get a technical fall well I could I could have gotten a fall too so it's you know it's it's good because like you get the experience the victory and the success but like also knowing that like you know there's still there's still work to be done I could have done a little bit better and without that kind of consuming you it motivates you and there's always a drive to do a little bit better.

06:03
Oh, you know, so there's a lot of guys that when wrestling state championships graduate high school and they go on to do different things. How'd you get involved in the fitness industry? What you know, what's fun for you about it?

06:14
What drew you to in the first place? You know, it's just, you know, there's, you know, it's those dark days, those dark nights where, you know, you're struggling to succeed, or you're struggling to reach a goal, whatever it may be.

06:35
And, you know, like, if you put the work in, you know, you tend to reap the benefits. And I think that's 100% has to do with like your health, with your fitness, all that kind of thing. If you do the work, you get the results, you get the rewards, which is unlike some other things, because there's sometimes in relationships, and things like that, you know, where, hey, you know what, I'm doing everything right.

07:02
And maybe that other person just doesn't like me anymore, or whatever, you know, maybe I'm doing so. Fitness, however, is very different. Because if I get up every day, and I eat right, and I exercise, and do all those things, then, like your body responds, you get the results, and you get the reward.

07:28
So it's a great positive feedback loop that I've experienced in my own life. It's like seven highly effective habits, like there's the circle of things you can control and can't control. And you can control your daily energy, your food, your sleep, your workouts, your health.

07:44
Oh, yeah. That's great. Well, more about like, everybody has challenges, like if you're gonna have a great life, that means you've overcome something, you've been through something, have you ever broken through a frustrating situation?

07:59
and eventually found success? Oh, yeah. So, you know, so we're coming off of that. That that wrestling championship was it was about 2004. You know, I go to LSU and that was really a great time because that was when I got to spend a lot of time with Matt here.

08:23
We used to go hit the rec center, get our workouts in in the morning and really just learned a lot from him. And I've never really lifted weights at that point. You know, it's been all training for sports and cardio and things like that.

08:39
But exercise, you know, provided a, you know, doing the weights and things like that just just provided, like I said, that good positive feedback loop. Right around the second year at LSU was was when, you know, I got a phone call one day, I was working at Serrano's with Matt.

08:53
And, you know, it was basically my parents saying, hey. uh your dad's got a lump in his throat uh and you know we went to see the doctor and it's cancer and you know we don't really know what that's gonna gonna turn into what kind of journey that is and um you know that kind of brought everything crashing down right like oh man I'm at LSU I got my my awesome girlfriend I'm working out we just won a wrestling championship and it's like life said like hold on buddy like uh you know we got a little something for you here and um lots of years uh I think I'd moved home to to be home for a couple weeks I started going to UNO to be home with my dad and I was I think I was in my second week class when hurricane Katrina hit and now it was like okay man so so I'm going to school uh but wait your dad's got cancer so come do that and then life was like no actually hurricane Katrina is just gonna you know dump four feet of water in your house and and all that so so it turned into hey man I'm home to spend time with my dad and be around him and and help in whatever way but now it's okay we gotta we gotta get our house back together we gotta do that you know school kind of went on the wayside and um you know the the the the the the short story is that you know you scratch and you claw you know uh after my dad had passed it's like you know he just kind of lost with that direction um you know school had kind of gotten sidelined for me um and I can't blame it just on that there's a lot of personal you know things there but you know you're depressed you're you're sad you're you know you miss your dad and and you know that's your guy right like as most most most boys like you know your dad is is am i'm following this And,

10:57
you know, you kind of felt a little directionless, but what happens, you find friends, you find mentors, people that inspire you, and you scratch and claw your way back into, you know, being able to live life again.

11:16
But some people get weak, they become victims, they start making excuses, you didn't do that. Sure. Well, let me say, you know, didn't do it long term. You know, but, you know, there's a lot of times where, like, I'm sure people wanted to reach out to me and say, Hey, Brandon, let's go, let's get your life back together.

11:36
But like, who does that to somebody that lost their dad, right? Like, like, you'd be afraid to do that, you know, until you find that right coach or that right motivational person or the right friend that can have that conversation with you.

11:52
And, you know, in my experience, you need to be given the permission to have that talk with someone, right? You know, whether it's personal loss, or, you know, I've seen people, you know, have addiction issues, you know, people that have lost, you know, people that have gotten broken up with things like that, it's like, you know, you need, you need someone that can go there with you, someone that has that permission,

12:22
you know, to, to, to help you out of that whole, you know, one of the things I'd always heard, you know, there's sympathy, which is, you know, you got a guy, he's down in a pit, he's down in a hole, and he can't get out.

12:36
Sympathy is me saying, man, I feel bad for you being down in that pit. You know, empathy is when I jump in the pit with you. And I say, get on my shoulders, and we'll climb out here, man. So, you know, finding the right people to do that, you know, and that's what kind of makes the difference.

12:55
And you know, no one really ever truly finds success or does great things by themselves. Like if you're smart, you're going to get help, you're going to have people around you, and that network's really important.

13:06
Oh, for sure. Well, eventually, you know, you did really turns things, turn things around, and you got out of that hole, you got out of that pit. So thanks to whoever helped you out. Oh, yeah. And I'll say and I'll say thanks.

13:17
Definitely. You know, that's definitely a big motivator for me, health and fitness wise. Once again, can you can we can we control whether or not we get some sort of life threatening illness or disease, things like that.

13:32
You know, you always hear the story. Oh, I know this guy, he's super fit. He runs all the time. He acts all this time drop dead of a heart attack. And it's like, well, that might have happened 10 years ago, if he hadn't done what he does all the time.

13:46
We can never fully control anything. You know, if you asked me, we're not in control, God's in control. But we can certainly help mitigate get some risks or lower the percentage of bad things happening to us.

13:59
So, you know, control, we can control and, you know, but ultimately we're all along for the ride, you know. Speaking like a guy that has spent, I don't know what, 20,000 hours, 15,000 hours in training sessions, personally training high performers, with that in mind, based off all that experience, have you observed something about coaching people, training people that might not be common knowledge,

14:27
something that, I don't know, wasn't taught in school or just anything that like isn't common knowledge that you can take from all those hours of experiences and all those relationships, coaching people.

14:37
You know, a great coach doesn't take someone that's unmotivated and uninspired and make them all star athletes. You know, there's a, there's a. I guess a spectrum here, right, to where if I can just take that person that never goes to the gym, they hate exercise, you know, if I can just get them coming once or twice a week, if I can give them that little nudge, that's a win.

15:13
You know, if I now then again, you know, you get some guys that walk in and they're just natural athletes and they love exercise and all that kind of stuff. So now I got to take you from good to great.

15:24
And having the knowledge both as a coach and as, you know, a client or just a person is look, our job is not to get you from here to here in a short term. It's little nudges along the way, little pushes along the way.

15:43
And having an in-depth personal knowledge of who you're working with, what challenges they're facing, willing to go there on that personal level. Like I said, you know, with me, you know, once someone was actually willing to listen to my story and what I struggled with going through with my dad, it's like, you know what, you took the time to know me and learn about me.

16:12
I will let you challenge me. I will let you pull me along that path. But we're all busy, right? And we're all coaching. And for all these other trainers out there, I am just trying to fill my times so I can actually make some money in this industry.

16:30
And, you know, it turns into, oh, I got an eight o'clock, I got a nine o'clock, you know, no, no, no, you have Martha, you know, you have Will. And these are real people who have real life challenges.

16:45
And it's up to us to get to know, to go deep enough so that they love us, they trust us. And then only then can we start to start to push you along the way. And I'm going to tell you that goes for your world-class athletes, that goes for your NFL players, just the same.

17:04
Your employees, even. Oh, absolutely. And, you know, and I think you really answered the question there, because it's like, what can we see with all this experience that other people can't see? And I think that people that don't have our experience, which is a lot of people because they have a lot of different jobs.

17:20
But I think people expect to like be out of shape and then turn into somebody that works out every day really hard. And if they do that, they crash. It doesn't work. And it's not sustainable. What really works is taking where you're at, meeting them where they're at and just, OK, let's add this.

17:39
OK, let's add this. And it's a slow, smooth, steady increase that's allitable and doable. And so people that, you know, are getting into working out. or, you know, wherever you are, just know that if it's going to work out and be sustainable long term, and you're really going to get results, it's just nudging things forward and then nailing them down.

17:59
Oh, yeah. Um, all right. How about from all this experience, any unconventional motivational strategies, techniques, exercises, and your coaching that you'll get unexpected results, any, anything different?

18:17
You know, it's, um, it's been a really, really important lesson and I may diverge here a bit, but, you know, I mean, I'm an athlete, I've been an athlete my whole life, you know, you want me to achieve something, tell me I can't, you know, and, and, and that is, that is I love it, you know, I love that I, I raised my wife to the car, you know, like, I just love competition, I love challenging myself.

18:44
And one of the biggest things I guess I learned is, you know, fit people are probably have their own workout routine, they're probably already following, you know, some sort of program or things like that.

19:00
So, you know, most of the time, you're talking about regular people, you know, that you're going to be working with. And what motivates each person. So I guess the kind of unconventional thing is, is just knowing what, what our goal is, what's, you know, what's, what's our goal?

19:27
What was our goal when we're 20, Matt? Huge, huge pecs and six pack abs, you know, my goals are very different at 40 years old. Okay, then that I mean, I'd still love that. I still I still, you know, strive for that.

19:45
That's just the fun part now. Yeah, but but but But on the flip side, it's knowing what motivates people and finding those little challenges. We got the young kids, we've done the potty sticker charts, and you made number one, you get this.

20:05
If you go number two, you get the big toy. It's like- I'm right there. If you think we're beyond that as adults, you're wrong. But we tend to find the- the rewards are very different, I suppose, when you're an adult.

20:32
Where I was going with this is- and what we try to teach our clients, the people at our gym, is the most unconventional way I can think of would be setting your goals. What's most people goals here, Matt, lose, I need to lose 20 pounds, you know, I want to, I want bigger biceps, I want, you know, whatever, I want to look this way, or I want to feel this way.

21:02
And like, that's not a goal. That's not your goal. That is a byproduct of what you do. Right. So if I want to look better, and if I want to feel better, then really what my goal is, is to make sure my butt is at the gym, three or four days a week, that I'm being conscious about what I'm eating.

21:27
I got three kids, I'm running a business. I love frozen vegetables. That's my life. You know, I mean, that's just where I am. Is that is that the best choice? Is that the best thing I could do? No, but like, going and buying food and cutting and dicing and doing this, that's just it'll it'll it'll push me over the edge.

21:48
It's too much. Right. So what can what can I do? That's a smarter decision. Like I said, we talked about that, that kind of spectrum here, right? This is fast food for breakfast, lunch and dinner. This is I have a garden, chickens and my own cattle, you know, like, right.

22:06
So like, where where are we? And where are we willing to push ourselves? Right? Right. So I guess the unconventional way is looking at your goals, or the most conventional goals as really being just a byproduct of living a healthier life, making the right choices.

22:26
Because I'll tell you what, if you lift weights every day, and you apply progressive overload, and you eat enough protein, and you do all those things consistently, guess what, you're gonna have those huge packs in the six pack abs, because you did what was required to get it.

22:41
Yeah, and you were touching on something earlier that that probably brought up a theme that I've been thinking about in the last month. And that's as a coach, challenge versus support. And you were talking about challenging.

22:53
So there's different people, but then there's different people at different points of their life. So now we would take a guy and we might challenge him a lot more. But when he's in a really bad spot, maybe he needs support more.

23:05
And you're kind of always on that spectrum of, am I supporting enough? Am I challenging enough? And I think that's something that coaches really need to think about. Oh, yeah. Two, two big things that jump out at me, man, back when we were working together at the fitness principle was, I know you had the client who, what was her goal?

23:24
Do you remember? I don't remember her name, but her goal was to wash her face in the sink. She had a bad back, I think it was back surgery or something like that. But her main goal was like, I just, oh, yeah, like, I just, I just want to be able to put my face in the sink and wash my face.

23:40
And I've been unable to do that for a lot of it. She fell out of a tree and shattered her spine. Had like like a cage and you couldn't even bend over to wash her face and that was a big deal and we actually got there Yeah, so so so I want six-pack abs.

23:56
She wants to wash her face Uh, I think was it Dave had a client? You know, he's like he had some he had run some business successful businessman. He had boats he had cars He had this and he came to us because you know what he said.

24:10
He said I've made all this money I've got all this stuff. I can't get my fat ass in the boat. I Can't lift my leg up enough to get into my boat. Wow. So like what the hell is this? This thing is a big Piece of junk, you know All this stuff but I have no means to use it I can't physically get into things that I've spent this money It worked my whole life on Um, I want to get a little more Tactical here,

24:42
so Let's get a little more detail with one or two of the simplest things that someone can do to make their health better Like what is the lowest hanging fruit that like people that are doing more advanced stuff?

24:55
Just might be missing more fundamental lowest hanging fruit You know the the simplest thing to do in my life just and we can say our health Just plan it make a plan Every day and you know, but there's a lot of things.

25:15
I love spontaneity with the kids with my wife things like that But like I work at a gym and if I don't wake my ass up at six in the morning Like I plan every day. I will find a way to not get a workout in Right.

25:31
Like I mean, there's so many things to do, you know every day that I have so I mean the lowest hanging fruit is like What's important to you if it's really important to you then act accordingly and I tell my clients all the time it nothing pisses me off more than saying, Oh, I can't make our workout on Thursday, I got a hair appointment.

25:53
I said, we've been working out Tuesday, Thursday for years, at the same time. And all of a sudden today, you put a hair appointment ahead of me, ahead of your health. So all of a sudden, like you're just realizing, hey, like, you put your hair here, and you put your health here.

26:15
And that was a plan. You did that on purpose. So and that's okay. That's okay. I understand. But at the same time, like you got to make a plan if if if spend it, you know, and look, I'll go on here, like, if I'm sure Matt's the same way, man, I'm coming home, we're negotiating a whole real estate issue right now.

26:37
And I'm working and I'm dealing with that all day long. And I'm coaching two flag football teams. And I'm trying to have, you know, quality time with my wife. And it's like, the kids just want me to come play cards with them.

26:51
And I'm like, okay, let's play cards. You know, because but but you have to you have to, like, that's what's important to me. And I have to find the time for that to be in there. You know, otherwise, you get to overrun, you know.

27:08
And people like, use your calendar plan. And, and when you can show me your time, you can show me your calendar that I can show you what your priorities really are. Oh, yeah. And, you know, and, and like me and you, we come from a place where like, it's to us, it's so foundational.

27:25
And so obvious, why would you not have your health be the foundation of like all the things you're trying to do? Oh, yeah, there, there's been a there's been a I teach a core training class on Friday mornings.

27:37
And it is it is devastatingly hard. It's 30 minutes. And we always joke, we say, Oh, come do it. It's just 30 minutes. That's because any more than 30 minutes, and you'd be at a commission. And it's a bunch of 50, 60 year old women in there doing it.

27:53
And I guess they think, Oh, this can't be that bad, until I bring in one of my athletes, and the athletes are falling out like they just can't do it. They can't keep up. And I end the class every day, I say, boy, was that fun?

28:05
And they go fun. You think that was fun? I said, Hell, yes, I think that was fun. You know, what's not fun is not being able to do this is being immobile or unable to do all the things in life. I said, So yeah, this was a hell of a lot of fun, moving our body being fit, all that kind of thing.

28:24
You know, through that perspective, like, here's what's not fun. That makes a whole lot of sense. You know, so yeah, so maybe it is fun, because not doing it is not that's like the least fun thing I can think of.

28:34
Right? Yeah. Once again, we go back to that freedom, like I mentioned at the beginning, you know what, you want to go hike a mountain, you want to go run a race, you want to go do whatever I'm up for it, you know.

28:47
Because, because we can, we can do that. And it's not until we lose that ability, right, that you really realize you might have taken it for granted. You were talking about, you know, playing cards with the kids at night, and, and, you know, freedom in life.

29:04
And like, so you've got the ability to kind of sculpt your life to the extent that you can owning your own business and having your own family. Is there anything unusual with your marriage with your parenting, that you do that, like might be different and unusual, like, for example, like me and my wife, we sleep in different bedrooms, we don't have to know that.

29:25
But like, that's not common, you know, and we have a whole thing about that. But is there anything unusual or different that y'all do? So, so my wife and I have been together since junior year of high school.

29:37
So yeah. essentially 2001 to now, so we're talking almost 24 years. We've married since 2012. So, but we've been together for a very long time. So as you can imagine, we have our our own language. You know, but yeah, I mean, a lot more often than not, I have on top of the kids, I have a dog who just loves me immensely and can't bear to sleep without me.

30:05
And rather than the dog sleep in the bed, I'm usually ending up on the sofa at some point with with the dog. You got three kids and the dogs when you sleep. So but but you know, like, I don't know if it's, you know, it's so weird to say it's unusual because it's it's usual for me, you know, and that's what I'm used to.

30:28
But, you know, we, I guess the best thing and huge kudos to my wife, you know, we just I am I am just running all day long. I want to be the president of the men's club. I want to run these these act retreats.

30:45
I want to run my own business. I want to coach all the teams. I want to do jujitsu. I want to I want to do all these things. And she wants to just spend some quality time and lay on the sofa. And I'm like, that's great.

31:01
You know, um, so she puts up with me a whole lot. So like I said, it, it's the most usual thing in the world. It's the beautiful mix of, you know, she may not want to do so much, but I drag her into out of her comfort zone a little bit.

31:20
And at the when I'm ready to just crash, and I've just had enough, she's willing to she's just come lay down with me. And it's exactly what I need. It's exactly what she needs. And it's so it's like, you know, opposites attract, I suppose, but man, it's like it's like that perfect yin yang of of life.

31:40
You know, oh, what do you have in common with this person do we you know, I don't we don't have enough in common You know, sometimes that's good. Sometimes that's a really good thing Alright, so I'm thinking like health stuff and working with clients and Ideals and whatever is there anything you've changed your mind about it could be in the last year could be less 10 years But like is there anything that like you used to do,

32:07
but now you do it this way you Know like as far as uh Just as far as the I Don't know. I guess I guess I'm thinking maybe more like weight training in specifics, you know There was always a need to all right.

32:26
I want to lift more weights I want to you know, I want to be stronger. I want to lift heavier and and if we're not seeing progress, if we're not increasing our weights, if we're not able to do more reps, whatever, whatever your goal may be, whatever that progressive overload would be, right?

32:45
Like we want to track that we want results, man, I want to see it get better, you know, but like I said, now that I'm 40, you know, I'm considering if I hadn't been doing this, you know, where would I be?

33:02
And this was a subject of a little video I made this morning. But what I need to talk health, I'm just relating it to the kind of the gym business, right? Every single day, we sign up a couple members.

33:17
And every single day, a couple people quit or stop coming. And sometimes you say, Oh, man, we signed up 25 people this month. That's great. If I only focus on that, I could forget about the 30 people that quit.

33:35
So now I'm at a net minus five, right? Yeah, it's, it's finding that, that kind of balance, right? To, hey, you know what, like, I didn't lose any weight this month. But but you know, I didn't gain any either.

33:51
I didn't increase my bench press this month. But you know, it didn't go down either. And definitely back in the day, and you know, you're always looking for that positive result, you're always looking for that, that big success, you know, but sometimes like staying where you are, is huge, you know, because most other people are regressing in their health, or it's getting worse, or, you know, they're facing more challenges.

34:25
Whereas, you know what, if you just exercise and moving and things like that, you may not be seeing some some life changing transformation. But you know what, you're not you're not getting worse either.

34:36
And that would be probably the biggest mindset shift that I've had. You know, in my experience as a trainer, I totally see that with because I work with probably over 10 people one on one, that are like retired age over 60.

34:51
And if you're over 60, and you can do, or let's say now you're 65, and you worked out with me for five years, and let's say in those five years, you haven't gotten any stronger, you're doing exactly what you were doing at 60.

35:04
You haven't gone backwards, as you've gotten older, there's a win about that, because then we keep doing that. Now you're 70 doing what you were doing when you were 55. And so those people that's a big win, because now you're 90 doing what you were doing when you were 55, you didn't make any progress.

35:20
But but but you're not aging. So like a movement quality perspective and performance, cardio, perspective, mobility, whatever, you know, as long as older people don't go backwards, they're going in the right direction.

35:34
Oh, sure. And, you know, as a trainer, as a coach, that's where, you know, doing some physical tests, some assessments, you know, they come into play. The biggest one I face is, you know, I have a lady I trained, she has osteopenia, almost osteoporosis, you know, and I mean, basically, she will go get her test done and her scans done.

35:58
And, hey, you know, so, you know, so my bone density stayed where it is. And I'm like, well, fantastic. Because if we hadn't been listing these weights, and taking your supplements and all this kind of stuff, I mean, it obviously would have gotten worse.

36:12
So, you know, and then you know, I think about like, I kind of think about life in like 10 year chunks. And when I was in my, you know, before 20, it was like all sports, it was all soccer. Then in my 20s, it was like, you know what, I'm gonna date a lot, I'm gonna party a lot, I'm gonna get jacked up and look really awesome.

36:34
And I have tons of time to work out and be single and do all that. And then in my 30s, it was like, oh, you know what, I'm gonna start a business, I'm gonna travel a lot, I'm gonna meet my wife. And, and now I'm looking at my 40s.

36:46
And you know, if I don't get stronger, if I don't, whatever, as long as I'm like, healthy enough to have the energy, and to have just good health to prevent disease and stay on top of my health, as long as I can do that show up five days a week for half an hour.

37:02
But my priority in my 40s is like, I'm never going to have young kids ever again. And I've got 10 years to maximize the time I spend with them. I can go take my health and my money to the next level when I'm 50 when I'm 60, I can always come back to that.

37:17
But right now I've got this window. And you probably know this too, because we train sometimes older people, and we ask them questions about life. And this is one of the things that you know, they sometimes regret.

37:29
And we've had the privilege of picking their brains before we did it. Now we know like what's coming and what not to miss out on. That is the absolute coolest thing that I've experienced in this job, in this profession, in this calling is, yeah, you know, I've been referring to her a bunch.

37:49
You know, it's my 71 year old doctorate behavioral psychology, Martha, and, you know, we walk and we talk and then we work out and we just, you know, we talk about life and I train her. Then I'll train, you know, Mr.

38:10
Joe, who's, you know, he's one of these father figures in my life. He's a little, he's a little bit older than me. His kids are, you know, graduated college, they're starting life. And it's like, I'm getting all his wisdom and like, this is what I went through with my kids.

38:27
And, and, you know, you know, this is what I go through with my wife, you know, we're sharing all those types of stories. This is what you can expect. As those kids get a little older. And then I get well for the for the listeners, like, since they're not there having those conversations, what have you picked up?

38:44
What are one or two things that you picked up? Oh, well, just to finish that thought real quick is like, then I get to train the high school athletes who, you know, I've been in their shoes, so I can pass it down to them.

38:56
But it's like it's this beautiful flow of knowledge and experience. You know, it's like a glimpse of the future. It's a glimpse of the past. And it's just a beautiful kind of sharing within the community, things like that.

39:10
But, but um, I mean, what have I learned from from those people? I guess I kind of want to go back to just like, everybody has that thing they regret, or, oh, man, I wish I had done this sooner. Whether it's exercise, all these guys, I do I do these church retreats with these men, they say, Oh, I wish I'd been, you know, into my faith earlier, like you guys, or, you know, and I don't think they're the type of regrets that,

39:43
you know, we're just weighing you down, killing you. But you know, we all wish we had done something better for ourselves earlier in life. You know, if we knew if we knew then what I know now, you know, that that song, but that's the that's the moral of the story is, you know, there's only there's only time and there's energy that that is all we all have.

40:11
And like I said, if you want to see your priorities, or it's your time energy and money, I suppose, if you want to know what your priorities are, track those three. And, and you'll know what you prioritize in life.

40:24
But uh, but I'm going to go back to my dad here. And it's one of those beautiful lessons you only learn through, you know, through tragedy, through loss, things like that. I wake up just about every single day, and this is my dad's ring I've always had, but I'm 40.

40:45
My dad passed at 51. So in my head, maybe I have 11 years. I have 11 years with these kids. And I know what my kids I know how hard it was, you know, right to go through. So it's like, boy, I better I better I better get it done.

41:06
You know, parent wise, community wise, in your in your relationships, you know, never had that, never had that talk with my wife. But you know, one of the things that stuck out with my mom, I said, you know, it's always like, hey, mom, you ever gonna, you know, get remarried or anything like that?

41:25
She said, she said, my husband was like, you know, it was your dad. And that's it like, it wouldn't be better than that. So it's like, you know, hey, wherever people want to choose, but like, you know, I want to leave that experience, you know, knowing that your dad passed away at a young age.

41:46
I mean, that's got to keep such a deep place to keep you motivated and focused and living every moment, you know, that's that's a really deep core motivator. That's interesting. And oh, yeah, God, slim slim chance, you'll not be around in 20 years, you know.

42:02
Yeah, but hey, you know what, like, just like in life and business and everything else, hey, look, prepare for the worst, you know, but don't let it don't let it control every decision you make, right?

42:15
Like, but but at the same time, like, you know what, like, I better, I better be investing money, I better, I better take care of my finances so that if I do go, I got to teach teach those lessons got to have those talks got to be that person form.

42:33
Because if I were to, or if any of us were to leave earlier than we want to, I want to make sure that, you know, we left the right legacy, we left the right mark, you know, working with clients. There's mindsets, there's beliefs.

42:54
What do you think like, generally, across the board, what are the most common limiting beliefs that hold people back? I think it's just, oh, I'm not a I'm not a workout person. I've never been a gym person.

43:10
One of the best stories, you know, I heard I think it was back, you know, when when Russell Wilson was was good, playing on the Seahawks. You know, he was just like, it was just kind of like, you know, he had, he had had a conversation with his dad.

43:26
And it was it was about, you know, Oh, man, like, you know, why me or why am I so lucky or why did I get this opportunity and his dad was more like, why not, why not you, you know, like, why not, dude, man, you, you, you deserve all these great things in life.

43:47
You know, you deserve to be a Super Bowl champion. And I think that's what it comes down to. It's like, you know, we deserve to live happy, healthy lives. And no matter what set of circumstances that that these people that anyone that joins the gym has is, you know, they can be changed.

44:07
They can, you know, just because you got dealt a shit hand or maybe you got dealt health challenges or, or, you know, you just have that body type that puts weight on easier than others. Doesn't mean you have to be okay with it.

44:22
And doesn't mean you can't make it make a difference. And so it's just kind of like. when, especially when you meet someone that's looking for a trainer, or joining a gym, right? The big question is, you know, so you've probably thought about joining this gym, or hiring a trainer for the last six months.

44:43
So what happened yesterday? Like, what took place that you said, All right, I need help? Because that's essentially what goes on in someone's mind, right? You know, what does it take for me to say, you know what, I'm gonna take a car payment and hand it to a trainer.

45:00
You know, you're obviously going through a little bit of something, right? So it's, it's a big, it's a big thing. We take it very seriously when someone comes looking for a coach when someone comes to our gym.

45:15
Because really, what they're saying is, I need help. And like you said, changing that mindset from, you know, oh, man, I've been I haven't been living the way I'm supposed to, or I've been doing all the things wrong, right?

45:28
Like, you know, I haven't been exercising, I'm out of shape, I feel like crap, whatever, you know, and it's like, you know, they're looking for help, they're looking for help. And that's what, that's the mindset that we need to, to kind of change is that, you know, you deserve this, you can get it too, if we work together.

45:49
Why can't it be like, why can't it be you? I got a text message from a guy a week or two ago, he went to the Dustin Poirier last fight of his career. He said, Matt, I'm going to this fight tonight, man, I'm living my dream.

46:04
And I said to him, I said, No, that's someone else's dream. That's his last fight. Your dream shouldn't be to go watch someone else. I'm like, why can't that be you? Why can't you be the guy that does these things?

46:15
And I think, to pinpoint the belief or the mindset about things, people think that Dustin Poirier is like this exceptional human that did all these exceptional things. And that we are like, we can never be that and there's a huge gap there, when in reality, the gap is just not that big.

46:34
The potential of the human spirit of anyone's human spirit, anyone's brain, of anyone's mind. To me, what comes to mind is like, I never thought I'd be really good at technology and I'd be able to be focused for 30, 40, 50, 60 hours a week.

46:49
I just didn't think I could do that. But then once I started showing up and learning and asking questions and investing in time, you can go from someone who's 380 pounds to someone who was 200 pounds.

47:01
It's very, very possible. Like physically, mentally, it's all possible. And if you don't have that foundation of believing that you can do it, that's the first ingredient. We all need that help from time to time, right?

47:15
And you delivering that message to him, it makes all the difference. So I had worked at this Anytime Fitness for a decade, and then Hurricane Ida hit. and just tore through St. Charles Parish, ripped the ACs off the roof, I mean, just completely devastated the gym.

47:37
And that was when the previous owner said, I want you to take it over, I wanna sell it to you. So they're gonna rebuild it, all that kind of thing. And so this is someone's retirement. I view the gym, this gym is like, hey, like I'm, eventually one day this will be my retirement in a way.

47:55
But so we had to get a bunch of money together right to buy this gym. And you go, what do we do? We go to the bank and we say, hey, we got this business it's been shut down for three, four months. It's recovering from COVID, so gym memberships have been down, all that kind of thing.

48:11
And they want how much money for it? And the bank says, well, the numbers don't make up, the numbers don't add up, we can't lend you that money. And then we go talk to the financial advisors and they say, okay, so we'll do a different financing thing.

48:28
And well, here's the revenues and here's this. But again, we're talking hurricane, we're talking COVID. And they say, look, I don't see this playing out. I don't see this being a smart investment, things like that.

48:45
Now, who are we talking to here, right? Banks, financial people. And I'm talking to a friend of mine that owns a business. And he called me and he said, so what do you, the question, the topic we keep coming back to is, so what do you do if you don't buy this business?

49:03
You're a trainer, your gym is now owned by someone else. It's not you. I said, what are you gonna do? So he said, what are you gonna open your own gym? I said, well, I guess I could. He said, so you gotta build a brand new gym from scratch.

49:21
He says, how many members does that come with? I said, none. He said, so you're telling me you're gonna have a previously. existing gym with a bunch of members already. I said, you know, it seems like that's the way to go.

49:35
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then he looked, you know, he got he you know, he just like good coaches do, right? He kind of changed his voice a little bit. He spoke a little bit softer, which made me really listen.

49:48
And he said, who's going to run that business the way you would? Who's gonna who when you put your family on the line, and you go and do this? I mean, you can't fail. You can't. Like otherwise, you know, you've got three kids and a wife and yet I mean, so now it's like, you better you better make it work.

50:12
Right. And I think that was exactly what I needed to hear. You know, like, I wish I had the money back then to invest in it. But it's just, you know, but it's just like Who's gonna do it? Who's gonna do it the way you would, you know, it's yours, it's your baby, you know, it's a and that's, that's hopefully what we can instill in our clients, right?

50:35
Is, hey, you're your it's your health, it's your life. And like we said, you deserve to live an awesome life. So go and take control of it and run it the way you know, you need to, you have to. Why can't it be you live in the awesome life?

50:52
That's what I'm saying. All right, on the flip side, that's good advice. Some of the best advice you've ever had. What's the worst advice you've ever got? You know, it's just it's a it's a my wife will kill me.

51:10
But you know, like, but you know what, hey, just slow down, just slow down. Like you're doing too much. You know, there's probably a lot of people that'll fuss at me. But you know, it's like, Oh, my friend, Amanda would definitely agree with you.

51:25
She's like, if you can find a strong enough why and enough motivation, you can do more. You can always Yep, there is just, uh, you know, we're losing. Yeah, I'm gonna get you know, we're losing community with with the social media.

51:42
We're lucky. I'm very lucky to live in like a very close tight knit community industrial hand. But we're losing that we're losing the personal connections. And and so it's like, you see that, you know, the gym, the gyms 90% full of people with headphones on working out right next to each other.

52:05
The kids probably know one another, but they're just working out in their own world, you know, and it's like, man, what are we doing? Like, you know, so making that community in the gym, making sure we all know each other, we all know something about one another.

52:22
Like I said, with the church, I'm the president of the men's club out here. like, I got three kids, man, like, you think I got time for that? But if you don't do it, who will? You know, who is gonna, who is going to be that driving force of community, of inspiration, of motivation, of leadership?

52:44
Someone has to do it. And, you know, it takes away from every time we do like a church, a van, a retreat, stuff like that. It's like, I am leaving my family to go do something else. So it's kind of finding what your what your values are, you know, but it's like I can't I can't just ignore the community and that kind of calling to build that and just stick with my family the whole time.

53:16
I also can't leave my family and just be 100% focused on business and, and all those other things, right? So it's trying to find that like that that zone coverage, I guess of your life, right. And I feel like that's what we all struggle with.

53:34
But um, you know, like I said, just like, someone's got to be a leader in your family and your life and your health, whatever it might be. And it's like, you know, get like get up and get that good tired we talked about man, like, if you're not hitting the mattress and just going like in and out, then like, come on, what are we doing?

54:00
Wow, good to get it. Um, so I, I put your name through chat GPT. And I was like, All right, tell me about this guy. And at some point, you were quoted and saying, pursuing a goal is making the choice to commit to hundreds of small choices.

54:17
Tell us about that. Oh, yeah. So, I mean, the big thing I can think of is, you know, go back to just, you know, the big goal of my, my youth, right, was being a state champion wrestler, right. So I want to be a state champion.

54:33
Okay, well, I gotta go find out what state champions do, right. So you got to find some guys that have done it, and see what they do. And, and learn, right. So I gotta learn, what are they doing? You know, the one of the big things I tell my athletes is, you know, everybody goes to practice.

54:55
Your whole team is at practice, right? Everybody goes, you know, miss practice, right. And you'll get you'll get so far doing that, right. But I don't want to be just a wrestler, I want to be a state champion wrestler.

55:09
So how do they practice, right? They're practicing, they're locked in, they're, they're, they're not taking reps off, they're not they're not sitting on the side. You know, they're the most involved, the guys paying the most attention, all that kind of thing.

55:26
So you say, okay, cool, I want to be a state champion. champion. When I practice, I got to practice that way. And then you find out that you know what? These guys perform better because they're they're they're, you know, they follow a nutrition plan.

55:42
So now it's like if these guys fuel themselves correctly, eat a certain way, all that kind of thing, then they perform better. And then you come to find out that these guys are not just practicing, they're finding mat time on their own, they're, they're lifting weights in the mornings, they're running at night.

56:00
And it's like, hold on, man. Look, I just wanted to win state. Like, I mean, I just I wanted to be good. But now you're finding out that that means I got to practice and I can't just practice. I got to practice a certain way.

56:12
I got to follow a nutrition plan. I've got to run at night. I got to lift weights in the morning. You know, I need positive affirmations in my life. I can't just show up and grab the the the the the kid that just started wrestling and have him be my practice partner, I got to go find the baddest dude in the room and get my head kicked in until I'm good enough to do it on my own, right?

56:37
Like, so this is, this is like the mamba mentality. But it's just, it's like, geez, man. But but if you if you if you're deciding to, you know, hey, I want to live a longer, happier life. Well, what the hell does that mean?

56:55
You I'm surrounding myself with positive people. I'm following that nutrition plan. I'm carving out time for business for family for fun for vacations for exercise. And it's a scheduled life. It's a disciplined life.

57:14
But in the end, you get that you get that reward, right? Like kind of like kind of like we said, you know, you your goal should be to do all those things. The goal, you know, is to say, All right, it's, it's Tuesday.

57:30
And I've got these things to do today. And if I do all the things on Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday, then five years from now, you know, I'll get that that reward will happen. Yeah. And you know, what's weird is like, like, I had this big dream to move to Florida.

57:48
And, you know, and it, at first, it was just just a far fetched kind of out there kind of dream. And now I'm sitting here and we did it. And like, it was a huge thing to do. But like, once you get halfway, it doesn't feel so so vague and so far away.

58:05
And like, you slowly start to get the dream. It's not this big moment of like, we did it. It's like, well, yeah, because I worked about 10 times as harder than I thought I had to to get in the first place.

58:16
You know, oh, yeah, I'm like, so like, I gotta sit back and just this constantly say like, man, never thought we get this far. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you know, one of the funniest things was we opened the gym in 2022, or we reopen the gym.

58:31
And you know, it's like, okay, so we got to do all these things right. Because you know what, we we owe a whole lot of money. So we have to, we have to do this, we have to get the members, we have to, you know, get the training revenue, we have to do all these things business wise, we have to do all this kind of stuff.

58:48
And we're just head down, going to work every day, just doing everything we can to make that business successful, right. And then, you know, anytime fitness has a it's, it's five metrics that track the gyms overall performance and things like that.

59:07
And I think when we opened in January 22, we were like the 270 something gym in the in the franchise. So it's still pretty good, right? I mean, there's 5000. I think gyms in North America, anytime fitness gyms in North America, and we're just doing our thing, man, just going And I don't check the metrics, cause it's like, or I don't check our rankings because it's like, look, we're just doing what we got to do.

59:32
And you know, it's like you open up one day and I'm like, man, we went from 271 to two in the first year. And it's like, oh, like I had no idea, you know. I was just so busy being a bad-ass, I didn't realize.

59:49
Well, we're just plugging away, we're doing it. But that's why that same theme for me is such a big thing. It's like, you know what, like, I never wanted to be the number one gym until I realized, you know, we're number two.

01:00:03
You know, because I was just doing it. We're just doing all the things that you're supposed to do. And then, like I said, you end up with your reward or the thing you were chasing, but. So my question for you, Matt, is, all right.

01:00:17
So now you're in Florida. Your big goal was to get to Florida, do all that. So now what? Man, I've been trying to figure that out. You know, there's different parts of my life that I look at. And to me, it's hard for me to like really engage in building a huge career and a huge business and really pursuing those dreams at the expense of not spending time with my sons.

01:00:49
So I'm like, and I feel that so deeply and so strongly, and that's what I really want is for them and us to have just the best relationship I can. So I don't know how you measure this, but the next decade, like, I mean, I absolutely am gonna be growing my business and making progress and finding better ways to support the people I work with, but I'm not gonna go a zillion miles an hour into marketing my business.

01:01:16
That's not right now. We're doing fine. And as long as everyone that comes near me gets better, then I'm good with that stuff professionally. But for the next 10 years, it's like, all right, what does a great childhood look like?

01:01:32
And what do I want these guys to become? And what's going to be hard about that? And how do I schedule that plan that look back and say, you know what, even if I made some mistakes, I was the best freakin bad ever could have been in the first 10 or so years of their life.

01:01:50
That's much more important. And I think as they get older, they spend more time doing other things. But it's a big time investment, I think, for about a decade. So I'm getting more detail on what that looks like.

01:02:03
I got them out to a healthier city and a healthier place. And that was kind of step one. And now we're touching up the actual house and the environment and we still have to hatch the second one. But yeah, so I'm getting more detailed as to what that looks like.

01:02:21
And you know, I got to be. in incredible shape because these dudes are going to be competing with me in 10, 15, 20 years and I can't have them kicking my ass. Oh, I've got a recording on my phone of my six-year-old son telling me that when he's 18, he's going to wrestle me.

01:02:37
And I said, it's all my calendar, buddy. Like, you think this is a joke, you just, you know, you messed with the hornet's nest. So I said, all right, so I'm 40, he's six, so I'll be 52. Like, like a thousand workouts of years in the next year.

01:02:55
Yeah, let me tell you, Matt, it is, you know, we always joke because my son's Matthew. Matthew, if I made a chart, and this is probably the thing I'm most proud of in my life. If I spent the whole day with my son, Matthew, he will probably tell, he will just, we could be sitting on the sofa.

01:03:21
I'm on this side, he's on that side. He will just tell me, dad, I love you. He will, he might tell me 15 times a day. And I'm just like, you know, it's like, by number 15, I'm like, I know, bud, thank you, you know, like, you know, but, and you know, there's times where I'm trying to, I'm trying to focus on something, or I'm watching something.

01:03:43
And he's like, dad, I love you. And I'm like, I love you too, man. Like, you know, but man, if those numbers ever go down, it's gonna wreck me. You know what I mean? Like, but like, love about being spoiled.

01:03:57
Oh, yeah. But, but, but, you know, like, if you need a sign that, you know, you're, you're doing it right. I mean, that's my sign. And, yeah, that's a good one. You know, yeah. All right, getting a little more granular with, you know, we're trying to improve these guys' health.

01:04:17
More tactical. We're talking about, you know, how do I measure being a good dad? I don't know. But as far as health is concerned, you use any health tracking tools, apps, and I use an aura ring, like use any tools to track health metrics, the scale?

01:04:33
Well, the first thing we do all the time is, you know, there's there's your your, your physical makeup, right? You know, how much how much body fat do we have? How much muscle mass do I have? All these things we have, you know, anytime fitness, we have an Evolt scan machine, it's a, it's a bioelectric impedance machine.

01:04:55
So, you know, we do that, is it the best way to measure? No, but it is, it is useful, it will show us some changes there. But, you know, what does that even mean? You know, that's, that's a, you know, how much fat do you have?

01:05:07
How much muscle do you have? That kind of thing. In that app, which I think is really cool, is, you know, I can take I can take a screenshot of me, you know, when I'm when I'm just trying to get get real fit, you know, and it'll say, Oh, I got 105 pounds of muscle and I'm 642 20.

01:05:31
You know, what it allows you to do is you can take a picture of yourself. And you can say, Alright, this is me at this physical makeup. And then, you know, when I do my jujitsu competition once a year, I say, Alright, we're going hardcore cardio, I'm getting on that diet so I can get down to this 208 weight class.

01:05:52
And what do we all do, Matt? We go, well, dude, like 220, you know, I got some size on me, right? I feel good. But then when I'm 208, dude, my abs are popped out, dude, I'm ripped. But then I'm like, but what happened to my, you know, my muscle, right?

01:06:11
And we say, Ah, well, now I need to bulk up. And then once you get bulked, you say, Ah, shit, I need to cut, I need to get ripped. And we just, you know, anyway, but uh, so there's the physical makeup.

01:06:21
But then okay, cool. So looking cool is one thing, like doing cool things as another, right? So, so performance wise, what can you do? And how do we use this in relation to your goals, right? You know, is it performance based?

01:06:38
Is it? You know, it could be, hey, well, can you get can you wash your face yet? How close are we getting to that water? You know, but actually having some sort of measurement to find out where we are, you know, so tracking performance, tracking our physical makeup, the number one thing we all need to do is we need to get our butts to the doctor once a year, you get a blood work done, you know, we need to get all that type of stuff checked out,

01:07:06
you know, if if that was a big thing for me at 40 was, you know, okay, 40, I just that's just a huge number to me. So it's like, I got to go get my blood work done. I probably hadn't done it in five years.

01:07:20
I feel great. I feel like I look okay. But like, what's under the hood, you know, I need to get in control of, you know, if my dad had cancer, my aunt had cancer, then you know, I need to make sure I'm scheduling my scans and things like that.

01:07:37
But but just getting a general checkup, right, that's got to be done. So I think there's a there's a full body MRI. Now we're like, I physical makeup, you know, what's our performance capabilities, you know, and what's under the hood, essentially, you know, making sure we're, we're doing all those types of things.

01:08:03
But but really, like, that's the first place I would send anybody is go get your blood work done, we got to check your cholesterol, we got to check your blood pressure, all these types of things. Because while exercise will help, you know, there are certain things that we need to kind of keep in mind, monitor, there may be some exercises that we should or shouldn't do, depending on what's going on with you health wise.

01:08:27
So but that's what I tend to use those those those three metrics. And that's where the principle of specificity comes in into training. That's one of the big, big principles of just training coaching in general.

01:08:44
You know, I trained my football players, I say, Look, you need intense, just chaos for 10 seconds. And then you have a 40 second play clock. So you that's your fitness right there. Just absolute insanity for 10 seconds.

01:08:59
And then you get to breathe, recover, so on and so forth. You know, if I'm a wrestler, I better be able to go six minutes nonstop, I better be able to sprint for six minutes. You know, and if if I can't, if all of a sudden I'm walking or jogging, in that last two minutes, well, guess what, I'm be gassed out in my wrestling match if I can't do it.

01:09:18
So just finding what, you know, what modality we're talking about with each person, and and coming up with some sort of, you know, measurement device there, right? And it's kind of like if you're not a father yet, and you're preparing to be a father, and you really want to condition your mind, one thing you can do is listen to screaming children for hours and hours and hours as you're trying to have a conversation with your wife.

01:09:42
That's right. That's right. Just start sleeping on the sofa now. It'll be in here. All right. How do you um, AI has become really big, really important. Are you using AI in any way in your business, chat, GPT, any other AI tools?

01:09:57
Oh, you know, hey, Brandon, why don't you you don't you never thought about just doing like Brandon's gym or Brandon's, you know, whatever. It's like, well, that's where the anytime fitness really comes in, being able to work with those types of things.

01:10:09
Man, we've got, let's say Matt joins the gym, he starts coming, he's coming four or five days a week, he's on it, he's kicking butt, you know, because he just joined the gym, right? All of a sudden Matt starts coming three or four days a week, right?

01:10:28
All of a sudden Matt starts coming two or three days a week. Well there is a trend that unless I am pulling up Matt and I'm making some sort of spreadsheet and track and all this, you know, he's on a downward trend, he's trending to zero workouts a week and unless I stop it early on, you know, that's where it's going to go.

01:10:51
So we have those systems in place to where, hey, if you're a four or five time guy and all of a sudden you're coming two or three, it's, we're sending out a text message, you know, we're checking on you.

01:11:03
Does the system tell you, hey, go text this person or does the system just text the person? 1 So you can set it up either way. Of course, we do have smart messaging with the Anytime Fitness system, you know, so we try to personalize it as much as we can, right?

01:11:16
But it'll say, hey, Matt, it's your friends at Anytime Fitness Destra Hand, just checking on you, seeing if there's anything we can do to help, help keep you consistent in your workouts. You know, just a little nudge to say, hey, you know what?

01:11:30
We need to reach out to this person like that. It's really good to know that the number one gym is not the one that has the best manipulative sales process that signs up the most people and makes the most money.

01:11:46
The number one gym that makes the most money or gets the most whatever is the gym that makes sure people get results and has a great community to it. That's the way it should be. So that's awesome. Oh yeah, but you know, and man, we, we are definitely gym people.

01:12:06
We're not business people, but that's where it's gotta be, man. If I can tell you, you know, it's just, you gotta actually care, right? Like I would never just join the gym. I have this intention of going.

01:12:22
I wanna change my life. And then all of a sudden, like I just, like something must get in the way. There's a hurdle that needs to be navigated. And I do not wanna be that guy that is just collecting people's money because they forgot that they're paying for the gym or whatever, or they're locked into a contract, right?

01:12:42
Yeah, I hate that. I mean, if I could track the, I guess the performance of our gym just summed up in one thing, it's how many check-ins do we have a day? You know, like, because if they're not checking in, eventually they will check their banking account and go, oh shit, I'm still paying for that.

01:12:59
You know, our job, number one, is to make sure that people are actually using what they pay for, right? Cause I'll tell you- what? If we don't watch Netflix, we're canceling that shit. You know, like, because I'm trying to save money, you know, I'm sure we all are right.

01:13:17
But uh, that would be the number one thing, but the gym owner, the good gym owner focuses on the client results, not how many what the numbers look like. Because if you focus on getting the people transformed in shape supported, the money will definitely come you're not the most on the money, you focus on the clients getting their results and experience and all that.

01:13:36
I mean, because what's our what's it? Hey, what's our goal and what's our goal and running a business, right? I mean, we got to make money, we got to pay for life, you know, but if I want to make more money, that's not the goal, right?

01:13:50
The goal is to do the things that end with us making more money. You know, alright, so I want to talk about supplements. All right, you only get you can only take three supplements for the rest of your life.

01:14:03
Top three supplements. I guess you got to say for you, you could say for other people, but top three, what are your favorites? I make sure, you know, I'm finding a good complete whole multivitamin, you know, every day.

01:14:20
Probably, I mean, specific brand for the multivitamin. I have a, it's, it's a smarty pants, men's multivitamin. It's got fish oil in it. It's got a couple of different things, but yeah, I'm sure that Matt'll be the first to tell you, like, I think probably 80% of the world is vitamin D deficient.

01:14:37
We're all inside too much. We're not getting the right things in our diets. So I think you have to have a blanket multivitamin just to cover, you know, to cover all that. Most of us, the short speech I give people is that if the more muscle we have, you know, it's like having a bigger engine in a car.

01:15:02
We're burning more fuel. We're burning more calories just by having a little bit more muscle. So if I'm supposed to be eating my body weight in protein a day, I'm supposed to be eating 215 grams of protein, a chicken breast is say 30 grams.

01:15:20
So it was that seven, I need seven chicken breasts a day to, you know, it's just, that's tough, man. Like, you know, it's tough every day. So it's like every day. So having a protein supplement, I love Optum Nutrition, you know, whey protein.

01:15:38
And one of the things I love to do is I look at these labels, I look on the back and it'll tell you how big the scoop is and it'll tell you how many grams of protein is in it. And I've seen somewhere there's a 60 gram scoop with 20 grams of protein.

01:15:53
So I'm going, what the heck is all this other stuff in here? Whereas your Optum Nutrition is more like a 29 gram scoop and a 22 gram protein. So I know, I know that I'm getting much, you know, much more.

01:16:07
what I'm looking for. So that's a really good way to look at a protein shake. The total grams of protein versus how many total grams of everything per scoop. So that gap, the smaller that gap is, the more pure protein you're getting.

01:16:23
That's interesting. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And then the other would be, I mean, I take creatine every day, again, just to kind of help with that muscle. I hate taking pills. So all my stuff is gummies. But, you know, I think it's a force factor creatine supplement that I'm taking right now.

01:16:43
A lot of creatine gummies, if you can create a lot of gummies. But overall, you know, like I said, I mean, that that's more of a focus on maintaining muscle mass, which helps us, like I said, helps our body burn fat, helps our body move, helps us, you know.

01:17:01
change over energy, right? Like the more muscle we have, you get more glycogen in there. The food you eat doesn't turn into fat as much. After I've hit 40, I'm looking really hard at some joint supplements and things like that.

01:17:21
Yeah, I think I read a book on that. To review the supplements, guys, a good multivitamin. Inside of that, he mentioned it's got fissure, it's got vitamin D, then he mentioned protein shakes and that gap, the total grand that he mentioned creatine was that third one.

01:17:36
Yep. All right, this next group of questions is labeled rapid fire. So we'll kind of go through, it looks like six rapid fire questions. Yeah, I'll be too rapid. Yeah, I'll keep it short. What is the biggest health and fitness myth that drives you crazy?

01:17:53
You know, the expectation is to be super fit. I don't know, to be ripped, to be jacked. That's like the end goal. I don't know if that's what we're looking for here, but I'll tell you this, I have been doing this my whole life and I'm still not ready to be a bodybuilder.

01:18:22
So yeah, just you can't expect to walk into the gym, lift a couple weights and just see immediate results. Yeah, and think about who you're comparing yourself to. So like me and you, we're not bodybuilders, but we also have the background of being high school state champions that probably haven't gone a week without working out in 25 years.

01:18:43
Yeah. So you know, where are you genetically? What is your history? What's your starting point? And you know, get better. That's about it. Yep. If you had to pick one exercise for the rest of your life, what would it be?

01:18:58
Oh, you know, maybe if I was my third. I'd say deadlifts, you know, now that's a lower back, you know, I love, I love activating the glutes, the hamstrings, it's huge muscles. So deadlifts or some hip bridges, something like that to, to get, you know, to get those big muscle groups going.

01:19:19
All time most hated exercise. Oh, man, barbell squats, I don't know if it's a back on the back, you know, I don't know if it's a six, four frame, long legs like that. But, you know, just hate them, hate them, hate them.

01:19:35
I think the longer your legs are, the more you have to kind of be forward when you squat. So to stay upright with long legs is just, it's not a favorable position for your anatomy. And just, and just in general, you know, there are some, you know, some workout kind of just, I don't want to say, uh, you just.

01:19:56
Oh, if you don't, if you're not doing squats and you're not squat and you butt all the way to the ground, like, you know, it's like, it's like, no, no, no, you know, that's not, that's not accurate at all.

01:20:05
You don't have to do a certain exercise, you know, and, and as a coach, as a trainer, like you see people trying to do these exercises that have limited mobility in their ankles or their hips or whatever have you, and you end up causing more problems trying to do these, you know, fad, fancy squats and stuff.

01:20:26
So yeah, like, what's the point? I don't think I've done a back squat in at least 20 years. Yeah. Yep. Um, all right. You're short on time. You got to eat healthy. What is your go-to healthy meal when you're short on time?

01:20:38
It's the thing that's over in my, uh, almost over there. Uh, you know, so what I do is I get lean ground meat. Um, I'll, I'll brown that down. Um, I throw in some, uh, some bell peppers, some onions.

01:20:52
Uh, I just throw it all in there, man. Uh, and you know, some, some brown rice quinoa. I once again, I'm, I'm super sure, you know, time is just tough. Um, you know, I tend to be the cook in the house.

01:21:06
Uh, so right then in there, I've got my vegetables in there. I've got some good protein in there. Um, I got some good, some good fiber, some, some carbs in there. So, man, I, no sugar, quick and easy.

01:21:20
That's right. Yeah. I'm, I'm big on like making a big pot of food and just eating out all week, super simple, super easy to prepare a real food. I love it. Um, all right. What book has influenced you the most?

01:21:34
Uh, you know, going back to my, um, this'll be a little bit long one, but, uh, the last lecture, um, and just to give you a quick synopsis here. Um, it was a Carnegie Mellon professor who got, uh, I think it was pancreatic cancer and like he, he, he, it was a death sentence.

01:21:53
He was dying and he had young kids. know, he just kind of set up this last lecture. He kind of conned the university into it. But uh, you know, he basically spelled out his whole life and made something his kids could remember, which was, which was a big thing for me.

01:22:15
Yeah, because I think I think we were expecting my dad to fight through to pull through. So, you know, there's really, we never had like that talk, oh, this is what I, you know, want you to do in life.

01:22:24
And, you know, there's no like, no letters for you on your wedding day, no letter for you when you had a kid. And if you read that book, you know, you realize like, hey, you know, like, like, you gotta, you gotta have those things, you got to set those things up.

01:22:42
One of the best advice I ever heard, and that I have, and I practice and I do this still, I set up email accounts for all my children. And, and they get emails from me. we might be sitting at the park together and I'll snap a picture of them and just I'll voice the text right there or something short and sweet.

01:23:01
But you know, they've got emails from the day they were born to you know, when they graduated kindergarten when they lost their first tooth. My daughter has a letter for her on her wedding day, you know, in case I'm you know, so it's like all those things are there.

01:23:18
But boy, if I hadn't read that book, never really, you know, would have gotten that message or things. So you went and set up Gmail accounts for them. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. And it's cool, because like, you figure Google is not going anywhere.

01:23:34
So all the pictures I send and all that kind of stuff is staying with it. And I've invited other friends to, you know, friends, family, hey, you know, ever just want to send send an email to these kids.

01:23:47
And then the idea is, you know, if I'm still around at 18, or 21, or whatever age it is, you know, it'll be a little birthday present for them. I'll say, Hey, is that is a login and a password? You know, go check it out.

01:24:02
Here's a goldmine. Yeah, that's awesome. All right. What's your what's your last one? What is your favorite hype song to work out to? So it's something about the just the sound and the beat. When the levee breaks by Led Zeppelin.

01:24:27
It's a it's like a bluesy rock. Ah, wrestlers, man, we thought we like to bounce, right? We like to bounce before we go out there, you know, and man, it is a it just kind of zones me in. I got about that one.

01:24:43
The back that the back one is a or that the second would be there's a there's a I don't know what you call them. But it's kind of classical movie music. It's called two steps from hell. which is actually of reference to heaven, but their music, man, go listen to that and in some quiet solitude and it'll hype you up.

01:25:06
Wow, awesome. All right, we could do this like all day. Let's wrap it up. We got, all right, so I do want you to invite guys, when is this yearly men's retreat that you do? So we tend to do it in April, but this is something that started in San Antonio.

01:25:23
It's swept all through the Southeast. We've actually missioned with a bunch of other parishes to start it, but what we do, I mean, it's a men's Catholic retreat, but the boil it all down. It's a bunch of guys getting up there, telling their life stories about how, and in retrospect, my challenges are just so, inconsequential to, to some of the other things you'll hear from other people.

01:25:53
Um, and, uh, you know, I've always heard that they say, right? Like if, if a group of five guys sat at a table and we all laid our problems out, I would take mine back in a, in a second, um, you know, but, uh, basically as them getting up there saying, this is my wife, this is the struggles I've had.

01:26:10
This is how I got through it with God's help. And, uh, you know, so it's really open to all. Faith or non-faiths, whatever have you. Um, it's just a great weekend of men and it's, it's a, it's really awesome.

01:26:25
Yeah. I think that could be a good exercise for some people. Like sit down at the table with pick five guys, sit down. All right. Now everybody puts their problems in the table. So who do you want? Oh yeah.

01:26:35
Maybe you're, maybe yours aren't so bad. Oh yeah. Yep. All right. Let's start to wrap this thing up. Um, if you're in Destrehan, Louisiana, there's only one place to work out. Um, and if, I mean, I'm not sure if you can even get Brandon as a one-on-one trainer, but if you can, you're a lucky person.

01:26:52
Um, Brandon, it's an honor to have you here. It's an honor to have your words and your advice. Um, and the last words before we wrap this thing up. Uh, I mean, first and foremost, I want to thank, thank you, Matt, for inviting me.

01:27:03
Um, you know, there, there was a, there was a night where we were climbing into a hot tub together and Matt's abs were just outrageous. And, uh, I said, man, I gotta get, I gotta get like that. Uh, and really that set off the whole thing, right?

01:27:20
We were, we were, uh, we, we, we started working out all the time at LSU and, uh, you know, really stayed connected. Matt got us, got, got me a job, essentially worked with Mackie Shillstone at the fitness principle and, and, uh, you know, it was definitely one of my mentors and inspirations on, on doing this whole thing.

01:27:38
So I want to say thank you there. Um, but, but to, to, to you guys, whether you're, you're, you're clients or trainers or aspiring gym owners or anything like that, um, like I said, put, the put the big goal aside, figure out what it takes to get there and just get to work.

01:27:57
I will take lots of naps and and relax on all the vacations I'll take when I've got my life set and it's where you know where I want it to be. But for now, you know, go to work, make a difference. And have fun, man.

01:28:17
Why can't it be you? That's right. Why not? Let's wrap it up on that, man. Thanks a lot. Alright, thanks, man.