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Join Ben Todd, student pilot and competitive bodybuilder, as he documents the journey from flight training to professional aviation, while pursuing peak physical and mental performance.
Each episode of The Performance Pilot dives into the parallels between flying and fitness: discipline, precision, mindset, and continuous improvement. Through personal stories and conversations with industry professionals, Ben explores what it really takes to perform at the highest level — in the cockpit, in the gym, and in life.
Tyler Fluitt (00:00)
you're the cause and the solution to all your problems. And I think I learned that very early on that if I didn't like something, I could change it. Right. So I think that's helped me carry a lot of those lessons through life. Right. In college, if I wasn't making the grades I needed to, I knew I was the solution and I was the problem because I was partying ⁓ at work. If we got slumps in business, it's all on my back. Right. And a good lead.
takes they strap everything up and I don't care what anybody else did it all falls on me and I think embodying that attitude is incredibly useful if you want to be successful
agree. There's other places that are very good around here that are great and attractive. I googled it and got that. And I found out that some people like to them. It's kind of like, think, like a... A match of honors. Yeah, yeah, yeah. People like drink cooler, so they drink beer. That's what speaks to
Ben Todd (00:57)
Welcome to the Performance Pilot Podcast, where aviation meets athletic ambition. I'm your host, Ben Todd, student pilot, competitive bodybuilder, and lifelong learner, sharing my journey from the gym to the sky. Each episode, we'll explore the habits, discipline, and mindset that it takes to perform at your best, both in and out of the cockpit. Let's get airborne.
All right, y'all welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Happy to be along with you guys again for another week coming at you with another interview episode this week. I know a couple of weeks ago we had Colin on, ⁓ talk some flying, talk some aviation, talk some flight training. They were talking fitness. They were talking bodybuilding. ⁓ I am joined by my really good friend, my mentor, as well as my personal bodybuilding coach for the last three years. He is an IFBB professional bodybuilder in the men's physique division.
He is also the founder of level up physiques and Austin, Texas based fitness coaching company that sets out to provide a more personal and communicative coaching experience for all of its clients. He's been my personal coach for the last three years. Please welcome my good friend coach and mentor, Mr. Tyler fluid. Tyler, how you doing, man? Appreciate you joining the podcast.
Tyler Fluitt (02:15)
Yeah,
thanks for having me on and for that introduction. Maybe slightly embellished, but thank you.
Ben Todd (02:24)
Well, I mean, hey, you know, it's a,
we, we, we, we gotta, we gotta give you all the credit where it's due, man. ⁓ I remember reaching out. I remember reaching out to you. Well, I remember, ⁓ first running across you. didn't know who I was, but, ⁓ when I first moved to Texas in 2019, ⁓ I used to like go to a handful of the local shows around Houston. Cause I was living in Houston at the time.
Tyler Fluitt (02:32)
I appreciate that. ⁓
Ben Todd (02:53)
ever go into a handful of the Houston shows and I would kind of see you roaming around and like, knew who you were. Um, I knew you had a big social media following at the time, like you were heavy in competing yourself. Um, and so I kind of just like familiarize myself with you and followed you on Instagram. And I don't think I ever actually reached out to you or talk to you, uh, for years. And in 2023, I was just wrapping up, um, another
my experience was another online coach ⁓ that didn't really align with kind of my personal goals or kind of what I was looking for in a coach. And I remember reaching out to you on Instagram, I think, and I think we had a call either that day or the next day. ⁓ And we've been kind of doing this thing ever since. And so it's been, it's been really great for me. I feel like my personal physique has really, ⁓ really matured and really
I've reached a lot of my full potential thanks to you and your leadership and your guidance over these last three years. just, you know, client to coach and friend to friend. just wanted to say thank you for, for all of your leadership and guidance that you've given me over these last few years.
Tyler Fluitt (03:53)
you
Likewise,
yeah, it's been a pleasure and very easy to work with very coachable Follow instructions and really that's all that's all this is man. If you can just follow instructions you can go a very far away and That's easier said than done for some folks myself include I struggle with it sometimes too
So yeah, thanks for being ⁓ really easy to work with.
Ben Todd (04:32)
Yeah,
you got it, man. And thank you. You know, I, my, my kind of philosophy on coaching is like, if I'm going to invest my hard earned money into doing something, right. It makes the most sense to me to do it to the best of my ability and to like maximize on it, because otherwise you're just wasting your time, your money, and you're wasting you as the coach, you're wasting your time and money too. So it's, it's, it's beneficial for everybody for clients to kind of just maintain the protocols and do what they're supposed to do, at least in my opinion.
Let's get started. Let's, let's talk a little bit about you and your background. ⁓ first of all, like where did your initial interest in becoming a fitness professional begin? And was that something you would always wanted to do? Or were there other careers that you had wanted to do, but kind of just fell into this, into this fitness space, kind of talk about that a little bit.
Tyler Fluitt (05:21)
Yeah, I was thinking about this other day. We it like maybe fifth grade and they were like, draw your career in the future. And I think I picked two, like three or four. One was a carpenter. So I drew like me hammering. One was a veterinarian because I love animals. The other was a Marine, which I didn't, I didn't see out. ⁓ But I guess growing up, don't really know where your past going to take you. I really envy people that know exactly what they want to do at a young age. So.
Much of this was kind of meandering through life and trying to figure it out. And there was always a deep interest in fitness for me. Just because of the physical exertion, I really was interested in physical performance. We were playing sports and I think I started dabbling in weights when I was, well, probably 10 or 11 for football.
Oh, and then left that.
got passed up in sports, you know, just kind of a small kid couldn't really keep up with some of the bigger guys in my class. So I was looking for ways to stay active and I like to be active. So ⁓ that was just took a lot of different forms of skateboarding, whatever I could have access to. So but one thing I remembered when I was young was the weights and I felt like I was pretty good at it and I was way better at that than sports. So I was like, well, let me let me pick up on that.
And
I remember right around when I got my truck, I think I was probably 16 years old, this guy in my gym class, and this is the slacker gym class. We like go clean the field for the actual athletes. ⁓ So was like the nerds, I was in there with all the nerds that didn't play sports. This guy was like, man, I got these weights, do you want them? And I was like, yeah, for sure. So.
Ben Todd (07:05)
You
Tyler Fluitt (07:18)
you know, this classic story of just like lifting these rusty weights when I was a kid in my backyard. That's where it all started. And ⁓ I just saw it as a good path for personal development. I started kind of filling out and growing and I was not that skinny kid I used to be. So that was the first time I can recall in my life that I felt very empowered and also very in control of myself and my outcome. And I think learning that early, it was always in the back of my mind. So when I went to college,
So.
I ate junk, ate pizza, drank beer probably three, four nights a week. I was in a fraternity. I was partying all the time, living this ridiculous lifestyle as many of us do, but I was always in the gym. I was always at least hitting four days, taking those old school pre-workouts. I was still in the mix, Jack 3D, there was one before that. Maybe it was Jack 3D. And this was like, not to date myself, but like 2006 is
Ben Todd (08:06)
Jack 3D.
Tyler Fluitt (08:18)
when I started my journey. So I was in college like 2008 to 2013. So it was just always something there and I kind of meandered through degrees. I did aviation for a little while.
not have the money to keep doing that. ⁓ So, you know, I was like, why don't I take some physiology courses? So I took those and decided, well, if I do want to do personal training. this this was early on that I was interested in doing that. I don't necessarily need a degree to do that. ⁓ So anyway, got out into the world, did a lot of sales. I do sales every day. It never goes away. ⁓
But a lot of sales careers, bartending, kind of felt empty in a way where I didn't feel purposeful. And I remember my journey was really impactful and I wanted to impart that on other people. ⁓ And then I grew up in Louisiana, people, they're not really healthy over there. So I really wanted to kind of break out of what I'd grown up around and kind of the way that I was taught to live. So post-college moved to Austin.
awesome, very healthy city. yeah, I got into personal training because I got fired from bartending actually. think I was 26 years old and ⁓ I was kind of climbing that ladder. This was at a corporate hotel, one of the biggest hotels in town. And ⁓ I didn't really do anything wrong. just don't like.
people telling me how to do my job. I've always been that way. don't like authority. I probably would have been terrible in the military now that think about it. So I got let go and I was like, you sure you guys want let me go? Like I'm about to be head bartender. I'm about to move up the ladder and they're like, yeah, man, you got to go. So, you know, I was really just, just on my butt, man. I didn't know what to do. started, I've had the personal training book. I wasn't even looking at it. So was like, I'm just going to read this real quick.
Ben Todd (09:58)
Ha
Tyler Fluitt (10:21)
I read it, studied for two weeks, go past my exam, and somehow the good Lord shed some light on me. And I found a job at Gold's in Westlake as a personal trainer. It's not a lot of money, but I was continuing to educate myself and practice. And all the while I was in this affluent area, so I had a lot of really smart people around me. that's probably one of the best jobs I had, not because I made any money.
at
all. I think I made about 20,000 the first year I did personal training. By the way, if you want to get into coaching, if it's about money, go into real estate or banking or something. This is not where the money is unless you spend the time. And I think that's everything ⁓ or everywhere in general. ⁓
So once I got there, I started just really kind of feeding off of these people that I was around, business owners, real estate, you people that had huge real estate portfolios, people that worked in startups, you know, these people are doing really well. They're very smart. And I really just absorbed everything they had to tell me. And I think that put me into an entrepreneurial mindset. And I eventually broke out, started personal training on my own and then went to, to online. So to answer your question, I think it
was always kind in there because it was so impactful to my life and I wanted to share that with people. And the fact that I had a deep love for it is probably the only reason that I've made it as far as I have. Throughout this journey, it's been incredibly discouraging many, times, many years. And if you don't love the game, it's going to be hard to really make it through some those tough times. So I'm just very grateful to be where I am. But yeah, it's been great. It's been hard, but it's been great.
Ben Todd (12:10)
You know, I, first of all, thank you for sharing all that. And I think it's a testament to your resiliency and just how much you really do love what you do, because I've been around fitness for a long time. It is hard to make a living as a fitness professional. It is especially where you are, especially in Austin. is an extremely saturated market. Everybody, especially with, with Instagram and social media, like everyone thinks
Tyler Fluitt (12:10)
Yeah, that's the Soviets. Basically in front of Easter, they'll get their little cheese. They're not still like turtle box Easter's or whatever. Yeah.
you ⁓
you ⁓
Ben Todd (12:40)
that they are a fitness professional. can post some workout advice online. and, and people like to brand themselves as fitness professionals. So it's very, very saturated. And so I think for you to have done as well as you've done for yourself, it's a Testament to the work that you've continued to put in over all these years of grinding, continuing to learn, continuing to improve and continuing to build your skillset. And I think that's what makes you as successful as you are.
Tyler Fluitt (12:40)
I ⁓
Ben Todd (13:07)
One thing I wanted to circle around to is
when you were, cause I can relate to being the skinny dorky kid that was, that was me growing up. When you started training and you started lifting and you started seeing those physical changes, did that help to elevate your confidence? And did that help to kind of, make you feel like you actually had some, worth and some value instead of just being like this dorky, you know, skinny kid.
Tyler Fluitt (13:35)
First off, I was never a dork, but now I'm kidding. Yeah, man, I was just... Man, was like a late bloomer. I didn't hit puberty till I was, I don't know, later in high school. And there was just a lot of insecurity around that.
Ben Todd (13:38)
you
Tyler Fluitt (13:54)
you know, navigating girls and, you know, relationships and social environments was very difficult for me. And it instilled, and I spent a lot of time alone growing up because my parents were divorced and my siblings were much older. So I struggled a lot in social situations that, man, I really don't feel like I broke out until I got to my 30s, but.
Fitness was such a useful piece of me breaking out of my shell. And it was very much about, well, now, you know, I'm stronger than some of the kids in school. I've filled out a little bit. I've grown taller. That was very.
confidence inducing sure the physical change but I think something about the application and the outlet and proving to yourself you know as you get stronger there's there's really something to ⁓ what's the word I'm looking for it's very empowering right so it came from both ends yes the physical change but also just going for the journey and I think very early on I realized that
something I talked about today on my story, you're the cause and the solution to all your problems. And I think I learned that very early on that if I didn't like something, I could change it. Right. So I think that's helped me carry a lot of those lessons through life. Right. In college, if I wasn't making the grades I needed to, I knew I was the solution and I was the problem because I was partying ⁓ at work. If we got slumps in business, it's all on my back. Right. And a good lead.
takes they strap everything up and I don't care what anybody else did it all falls on me and I think embodying that attitude is incredibly useful if you want to be successful in whatever industry I think that's that's something that people would benefit from from just taking on just take absolute responsibility for your life and it'll change and if it doesn't change you know
you'll understand what's important and what's not to you.
Ben Todd (16:08)
You know, it's funny you bring that up because
I actually watched your Instagram story about an hour before we sat down to record this. ⁓ and it reminded me, and you may have gotten inspiration from this. It reminded me of extreme ownership by, by Jaco. and the philosophy of that book and just how taking ownership of everything in your life, by doing that, you actually start to take control of your life because you realize that you are not only the problem, but you're also the solution to the problem.
Tyler Fluitt (16:12)
Right. ⁓ Right.
Ben Todd (16:38)
And so I think that's a really
great approach, but I think there's a lot of people who they'll push that blame off to other people or other things, and they'll make excuses for why they aren't where they need to be or where they aren't, why, where they want to be, ⁓ or why their life hasn't panned out, how they have wanted it to. And so I think it's just really accepting responsibility for not only where you are, but where you want to go. And then I think that's a really important piece of the puzzle.
Tyler Fluitt (17:04)
Yeah, made it through about a third of that book. I got lost in the military jargon, I think.
Ben Todd (17:09)
It's a good read. It's in my top five of personal development books. I really enjoyed it. So let's dive into competing a little bit. So IFBB Pro, Men's Physique, you don't just wake up one day winning your Pro card, right? For those of us in the bodybuilding space, mean, unless you're, you know, very, very rare circumstance.
Tyler Fluitt (17:10)
You ⁓
I don't know if you do it by now. I don't know. ⁓
Ben Todd (17:37)
For those of us in the bodybuilding space, know it takes years of work, years of dedication, years of consistency. Let's talk about how your initial interest in competing in bodybuilding started. Where did you, like, when was your first show? What
got you into even wanting to compete? And what led you to eventually wanting to pursue your pro card?
Tyler Fluitt (18:02)
Well, I mean we can trace this back a long long time I think growing up the way that I did some of the stuff I told you about Those those not those insecurities that grow out of that You know you start kind of heroic sizing
other figures, right? So in the 90s, this is how old I am. In the 90s, ⁓ you know, the media was much different than it is now, in my opinion. You know, it was all the action movies, was all the action stars, was the WWF back then wrestling.
Ben Todd (18:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yep.
Tyler Fluitt (18:39)
It
was Ronnie Coleman, Jay Cutler on the covers of the magazines and the grocery shops. that cultural influence really got a hold of me, right? And being the skinny kid wanting to be strong, athletic, so on and so forth, I really identified with that's what I wanted to be like. So this runs really deep for a long time and it's still in me and I'm glad it is. ⁓
You know, and when I started having the outlet of lifting weights, I'm like, okay, this, can actually see that, you know, maybe I can, I can become something like you can actually change by lifting weights. And when bodybuilding was around in the nineties, it was, it was just in the 2002, but it was just open bodybuilding. And I saw these guys and I'm like, how does, how does a human look this way? Like, how is this possible? Like it was just so mind blowing to me and
I think around after I graduated college, I think Men's Physique got introduced.
So this was, and I knew some guys that were doing it or knew of some guys that were doing that they're like, Hey, this is this new thing. I'm like, well, maybe, maybe there is a place for bodybuilding for me because even with all the years I've put in, I mean, I probably can't get that big, right? It's just not, it's not in the cards for me. Um, but what can I accomplish? Right? So I, I try to men's physique show. think I got third. Um, I didn't really know how I felt about the experience. This was in 2016.
⁓ But some time went on and I'm like, I think I want to do this maybe a little bit longer. Let's see if I can run with it. And really all I wanted to do was just get up there, test myself, apply myself and see what I could look like. ⁓ I think at some point I got this. ⁓
Maybe an old coach told me I could go pro, ⁓ probably blue smoke my way. ⁓ Telling me I could go pro in 2016. If you looked at me, you'd be like, there's no way. ⁓ So I think I kind of got the bug there and I just started kind of chasing it.
when I did my first national show in 2017. I think I got 14th out of 32 or something like that. Honestly, not that bad. mean, I was completely, I was completely natural. I mean, I was killing myself with hip cardio. Probably the leanest I've ever been in my life. And I was like, okay, well, this really tells me where I am in the world. So I kind of had a goal each year. want to make, you know, next year I want to get top 10, next year.
Ben Todd (21:00)
Terrible. Right.
Tyler Fluitt (21:16)
The following year I want to get top five and I kind of coarsed it out. That did not go the way I thought. The next year I got second and I was like, dude, I almost went pro. Like it's just a matter of a little bit here, a little bit there. And that was not the case. So I lost a little bit of focus thinking I was, I was getting close and didn't really apply myself the way I needed to. I was still immature in the sport and uh,
Man, I think I probably went to nationals if I had to guess close eight times probably before I turned pro, maybe more. And I got second twice, I missed pro twice at junior nationals. And I kind of felt as though my time was running out, not necessarily I was getting too old to compete. My father had a heart attack in 2022 and reality started to set in. I don't know.
At the time I was using hormones more when I was competing versus the off season. But I'm like, I don't know if my body is built to really push this and I don't wanna find out. So I need to protect my heart, I need to set myself up to want a family or be able to have a family. So I knew coming into 2023 would be my last season. And I've hoped for-
12 or 14 months a couple of times to get bigger. And ⁓ in 2023, I said, this is it. It's do or ⁓ die. This is my only chance. And I hired this coach. He coaches me now. And I knew he was going to just murder me, man. I knew this was going to be miserable. And that's what I wanted. I'm not win or lose if I can do everything possible to see this out. I can be satisfied with my journey.
And luckily it panned out for me. I the best season of my life. I still got second at Nationals and lost pro and I almost gave up. And I called my coach and I'm like, I'm done, dude. I hate this. And he's like, no, you're not done. Like you have, you have one more week. He was like, dude, I'm going to come fight you if you quit. And I was like, all right, let me, let me see if I can, you know, just keep my head down a little bit longer. And got it done at Universal. I think I did second, either second or third overall, won the class.
Ben Todd (23:19)
I'm
Tyler Fluitt (23:37)
And then I was just very satisfied with that career. I did a pro debut like a week later. I was not focused for that. I'll admit I wasn't focused for that. And that's a big regret. I should have held on for another week. But it was, I couldn't have asked for more. I never cared to chase Olympia. just, wasn't worth, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze for me.
And even if I did everything right and I did five, 10 more years, there's no guarantee I could get them.
Ben Todd (24:11)
Right.
Tyler Fluitt (24:11)
So
that was always not always not but after my first or second show that was just the goal like if I can die a professional at something in my life I'll be pretty happy with that and ⁓ thanks thankfully the npc introduced physique and classic physique to give guys like me a platform guys that maybe were more risk-averse to hormones maybe didn't have the genetics or the bone structure to get as big as we needed to ⁓ some people say it's a little bit watered down with those divisions
I don't really think so. think it's just growing, giving more people opportunity. ⁓
Ben Todd (24:46)
You know, I think, and we could, we could dive into a whole separate discussion about, know, what the pro ranks look
like. But I think just within the last handful of years, think. C bum has really brought a lot to the sport, ⁓ especially in classic and just like made it more accessible for a lot of people, but even the men's physique guys that you see, mean, those are competitive classes these days at the Olympia and men's physique. mean, there's, there's a lot of really, really good, strong competitors.
Tyler Fluitt (25:12)
Yeah, ⁓
Ben Todd (25:14)
these days. And I think it just shows the evolution of bodybuilding over these last, you know, eight to 10 years and just how far these, these divisions have come and, kind of what it's kind of evolved into. But we go into a whole separate conversation about that. But one thing you said that really kind of struck a chord with me is when you went into your 2023 season, like you were putting it all on the line, whether you won,
lost, got your pro card, didn't get your pro card.
What was the feeling like for you to have finally like, once you got your pro card at Universe, what was it like for you mentally to have like, realized this dream that you had been chasing for six years? Like, what was that experience like for you to know that you finally reached this ultimate pinnacle of what you've been
Tyler Fluitt (25:56)
You know,
I visualize that moment so many times in my career and it was elating, of course.
I think I went in the back and cried like a little baby for a little while and then called my wife and spoke with her. And it's certainly exciting, I think.
You know that situation couldn't have been any better. I'm glad I'm so glad the way that turned out ⁓ I Don't know there's a little bit of like is this Do it Did I expect the moment to feel like this did I expect it to feel better? I don't know. It's really hard to say on it. Certainly. I was extremely happy ⁓ Was it everything I made up in my mind? It's hard to say
⁓ I wouldn't say it was a letdown necessarily. ⁓ It's just like you replay this, you play this moment in your life, in your mind for seven years. You know, you don't really know what to expect. ⁓ I think the high of the moment was good. What was better was the satisfaction of the journey. And that's, you know, I don't even...
I don't even talk about going pro. I don't I mean it never comes up. No, it's kind of like your GPA when you when in college when you apply for a job. No, like if I went and tried to do something fitness, nobody's going to be like, Hey, did you get your pro card? Like it's in this in the realm of the real world. Maybe it you know, it's a great thing. It's impressive. ⁓ But it's more the personal satisfaction of it. And knowing
You know, you go through something like that for seven years. Man, I can do a lot. I'm capable of a lot. And any success just comes down to focus effort. You know, it's effort, it's focus, it's time. It's a combination of those three things. Obviously, people, you know, we all have limitations. There will be limitations to that.
But I always grew up thinking that anything was possible. My mother was really good about teaching me that. So I never thought that I couldn't accomplish anything, which got me into a lot of trouble growing up. I thought I was better than I actually was in certain situations. But I think that that mindset was really useful in that whole journey.
And having proved that to yourself, now you carry that with you for the rest of your life. So it doesn't matter what it is, writing a book.
building a business. I know it's just a matter of focus, effort, time. And to have that, got to have love for the game and the desire to want to do what you want to do. And I've noticed as I got older, I don't really want to do most of the stuff I thought I wanted to do because I know how much it's going to take. But anyway, it's a little off topic, just some on my mind lately.
Ben Todd (28:54)
Ha ha ha.
No, that's no, I appreciate you sharing that. And I'm a big follower of Nick Bear. I really love his content and just like what like kind of just his philosophy on life. And he always, you know, ⁓ kind of advertises this mantra of always embracing the journey and just the journey is always going to be better than the actual destination. You're always going to feel more fulfilled through the journey and during the journey than you will whenever you like reach the destination of wherever you're going.
Tyler Fluitt (29:10)
Or was he saying that you're thinking about me? ⁓
Ben Todd (29:29)
And I think you can kind of agree with that, that your journey through bodybuilding was, it demonstrated to yourself that you were capable of doing anything that you put your mind to, that anything is possible as long as you put in that time and that effort.
Tyler Fluitt (29:30)
Thank you.
Yeah, ⁓
yeah the real prize is you know the person you become through the journey and I know that sounds so cliche and If you told me that when I was younger, I would roll my eyes so hard ⁓ You know, I carry my pro card in my wallet
and I don't even look at it. But when I do, you know, it reminds me of that journey. And what I felt more fulfilling when I left that and I've never fully left, still still diet, I still train. I'm cutting right now. Like it's for me, it's probably going to be for the rest of my life. It's just not going to be to those extremes where, you know, I'm implementing hormones or
I'm pushing myself so far that other things in life are getting compromised. So it's a lifelong journey for me and ⁓ I'm not stopping anytime soon, but the competitive days are probably behind me, at least for some time. And what I find more fulfilling now is just helping other people through that journey and imparting some wisdom or experience onto them.
The thing about competition coaching, it's just so sick, man. And I've always liked it, but here's the thing, I get to go to shows like every other weekend through the year. I get the same competitive spirit. I get super excited. ⁓ I get upset when we lose and I know we shouldn't lose. It's kind of the same mindset.
bringing other people and helping them to shows is my favorite thing on earth. And the coolest part is I don't have to kill myself for 20 weeks to get laid enough for show. So that's just been so, rewarding. And I've perceived myself doing that for some time. And I think my first prep, I prepped somebody in 2019. So it's been over six years now and it's something I want to continue doing for quite some time. It's just extremely rewarding.
Ben Todd (31:35)
you
That's awesome, man. And I think you've proven through your track record of sending people through shows for that amount of time that you are, you really are talented at what you do in terms of competition coaching and prepping clients for shows. think you have proven that just in the way that your athletes have performed at shows over the course of time. ⁓ You you're very knowledgeable in that realm, which actually is a great segue into
Tyler Fluitt (32:15)
You got to turn the light
Ben Todd (32:25)
Uh, my last question, and that's talking about your business as a fitness coach. So you've made it your life's mission to help people achieve their physical goals, whether that's to step on stage and compete or just to look better, feel better for just lifestyle, just people in general. Right. So let's talk about your experience as a coach and a trainer for the last nine years. You talk a little bit about your company level up physiques.
What's your philosophy is in terms of coaching? ⁓ What kind of results your clients tend to experience when working with you? And if somebody is on the fence about investing in a coach, what can kind of tip the scale for them to bet on themselves and to do it?
Tyler Fluitt (32:56)
you
Yeah. Well, yeah, we to your point of being talented, I don't know if I'm particularly talented. I think anyone can do what I do if the desire is deep enough, if the interest and curiosity is deep enough, if they have the fortitude to do it every day.
and somehow not get bored. ⁓ I think if you have those qualities in this space, you can do what I do, maybe even better. It's just not everybody has. It's less talent and it's more the desire. So when I think about clients, I mentioned this to a client the other day that...
You know, she's new to this. She's having a hard time. I told her it was going to be hard, but she's in her 40s and she's like, I got to do something. My health is not where it wants to be. So I pushed her for the first time. I had kind of given her empathy. And then last week I was like, it's time to give her a little bit of a nudge. So ⁓ I did so and I told her, listen,
I hope that this doesn't come off discouraging, but when you win, I win. So every single client I take on, their success is my success. So that deep buy-in to each and every client, no matter what their goal is, is extremely important. And there's, you you can talk about...
you know, there's financial reward in that because you have transformations and people tell people and that's all part of it. But at the end of the day, I chose this career not because it's going to make me a millionaire. Maybe one day, maybe one day. Well, I chose this because I wanted, I wanted to change people's lives, right? I may not be able to have an impact on millions of people in my life. I hope that I do. But if I could be a major impact on.
a couple of thousand, if I can completely change their lives, if I can add years to their lives, if I can add quality of life to their life.
if I can help them get on stage if that's their goal. That to me is really what's rewarding about this ⁓ career. And another example, I had a woman that had competed last year. First show, all natural, crushed it. Like three or four gold medals in bikini. Like I was, we were both surprised a little bit.
But I was super proud of her and we had gotten her up to that prep as healthy as we could. We tried to keep her as healthy. I told her, four to six weeks, we're gonna kinda give up on that a little bit because you gotta get lean. And then we kind of built her health back up on the back end. And she came to me two or three months after the show and was like, hey, I wanna get pregnant, I wanna have a baby.
I told her there's nothing I can think of that's more rewarding than me being even a small part of bringing somebody else into this world. And ⁓ she's pregnant now, so I'm coaching two pregnant women, ⁓ which is completely different. You got to put on body fat. You can't push in the gym. So it's a completely different paradigm shift in coaching for me. ⁓ But little stories like that along the years, anytime I get discouraged.
I can look back at that and say I was at least somewhat even a small piece responsible for something like that. You know, that's that's really what this is about is is changing people's lives. And I know, you know, that's kind of a little bit on the nose because I got to talk myself up. But it's true. I really feel that way because I have my own journey. ⁓ Everybody has their own journey. And I just want to be a major piece of that.
Ben Todd (37:21)
Well, and I think that's cool. And I think that just shows that you are in this for the right reason. I think there's, there's some coaches that try to get in it for the, for the financial piece of things or for the Instagram clout or whatever it might be. I think that there's, there's a lot of reasons why people get into this career. ⁓ but it sounds like you're in it for the right reason. You're in it because you really genuinely care about people and you want to help them become better. You want to help bring out that best version of themselves.
Tyler Fluitt (37:23)
I asked if they would release a cap on these phones. Right now it's CVI. ⁓
Thank
Ben Todd (37:50)
⁓ because I think that goes back to when you were a teenager and you you were kind of just starting your journey and the rewards and the gratification that you felt from feeling better and looking better. And I think that probably plays into the psychology behind why you're so passionate and why you really do your best to bring out your clients best. And I think that's all kind of tied together.
Tyler Fluitt (37:53)
that was live with me.
reason I like it.
Well, everybody liked them until this week. Everybody liked that for the last three years, and they were up for the next year. I mean, good points to the red box is one of reasons why. But now, why the coverage
is so bad is because of the red Yeah, thank you. I have this conversation with a friend of mine. He...
He runs a gym, they do a lot more than just a gym. I mean, it's a really impressive business model what these guys do here in town. And we've been, I've actually worked for him for a couple of years, but one of my best friends in town, we talk about this all the time. You know, he has this deep passion for what he does and he possibly affects people's, you know, people's health and whatnot. And...
We're always talking about, not necessarily about a specific person, but we're always talking about this concept of like, we may not have exploded our business, right? And there's gems that just explode overnight.
And there's people that have this just slow build like me and him over the last 10 years. It's a slow build. But what I find is the people that are slowly building and they're doing it the right way, they have something that sustains itself for a very, very long time. The success comes very slowly, painfully so. But when you look at these other businesses and you can tell their intentions are not right.
Tensions are usually money or attention or whatever. They blow up fast, you know, but they die fast too. And I told him the other day, we went out to dinner. I said, listen, man, you know, you were talking to me a year ago about where you wanted to be in six months to a year and you wanted to lock in on that goal.
Now you're here and you're telling me about all the problems we have here. Your problems are just going to change. Okay. These are problems you wanted six months ago. These are problems I wanted six months ago. I'm super freaking busy right now. Well, guess what? I asked for this. wanted this, right? So, and eventually what I told him is, is I think you and I are growing at the appropriate rate. I think that we are, we have the businesses built in the proper amount.
of where it should be. And we need to keep working on it, but we don't need to get impatient. We just need to keep stacking those bricks over time. And that's just honest work, Honest work always shines through. ⁓
Ben Todd (40:35)
That's no, it's, and I think again, that kind of just goes back into the fact
that you are doing this for the right reason. And you understand that good things take time and you understand that, especially when it comes to business, business is hard. Entrepreneurship is hard. And it takes a lot of patience and a lot of just continuous grinding to really kind of make an impact and
Tyler Fluitt (40:49)
time.
Ben Todd (41:02)
and make something that's really making an impact on the industry. And so I think that the fact that you understand that and you don't expect, or you don't have the inflated expectation that you're supposed to be blowing up overnight. ⁓ think that's just a testament to you understanding the process and you being grounded in that process.
Tyler Fluitt (41:04)
They have to play with it.
you
We'll
be in there.
Yeah, yeah. I did blow up overnight, I wouldn't value it the same way. And I think my intentions would shift. So it's probably good for me that it's been a slow grind. And ⁓ I think if people have resolution, if they're resolute, they can see a lot of things out. ⁓ the business is so, it's so hard, man. It's so frustrating.
You got to roll the dice all the time. You lose a lot of money. You make some back. You lose it again. It's just, it's constant, but it's part of the process is all it is. So yeah, and really thanks for having me on. What I wanted to get on here is so I could just hear all your compliments. I needed an ego boost.
Ben Todd (42:21)
Well,
there you go. You got, you got one today. One, one final question I want to finish with is if there's somebody out there listening to this who has thought about wanting to change their life, thought about maybe hiring a coach, haven't pulled the trigger on it, kind of apprehensive about it. What would you say to those people? What, what would you suggest to people who really have this desire burning within them, but just
Tyler Fluitt (42:31)
I hope we have separate rooms though.
Ben Todd (42:49)
can't pull the trigger on actually doing it. What advice do you have for people?
Tyler Fluitt (42:55)
I read recently, I can't remember who said it, but they said in business, the best money you can spend is on a tax person and a real estate agent. You need to pay them way above the premium and you need to find them because those individuals are going to save you so much time and money they're worth their weight in gold.
And when we apply this to the fitness journey, I did this the hard way over the last 20 years, I taught myself. And who knows where I could have been in my journey much faster. And I think it's very much the same case. If you want to beat your head against the wall, and it's harder now, it's harder because there's, well, it's easier because there's more information, but it's way harder because there's more information. So.
You know, if you're trying to aspire to look, to feel, or have health or whatever, you can do this the hard way. You can beat your head against the wall for decades and figure it out the hard way. Or you can invest a little bit of money and 10 times that growth rate and have someone, have someone curate everything that you need to know. Because if you rely on the internet, you're going to hear about 40,000 people disagreeing with each other.
about things that don't really matter a lot of times in the grand scheme of things. know, artificial sweeteners, for example, are not that big of a deal. I can promise you. ⁓ Just for example. And what I find with the consumer is they get so caught up in minutiae, they lose the force for the trees. And that's a sure shot way to keep spinning your wheels.
Ben Todd (44:26)
you
Tyler Fluitt (44:42)
flip-flopping programs, flip-flopping dieting styles, and just wasting a lot of time ⁓ stagnating. I think the best thing that an individual can do is, and I know I'm in the industry so I have to say this, but no, I really believe one of the best things you can do for your health or your fitness journey or even physique journey is just...
to put aside, you can get a good coach for 300 bucks a month. To put $300 aside, I guarantee if you lock in, you spend the money, you're gonna take it seriously for one, and you're probably not gonna be going out to the bar and racking up $100 bar tabs. You're probably not gonna be eating out all the time. In many cases, you're gonna save more money having a coach, and you're gonna save yourself a lot of time and frustration trying to figure this all out on your own.
And I've tried to do this with taxes and then I eventually just paid a tax guy a lot of money. And I learned the hard way. I should just pay this guy day one because I don't know what I'm doing. And TikTok is not helping me file my taxes properly. trust me, do yourself a favor. It doesn't have to be me. There's a lot of good coaches. There's a lot of good coaches in town. I mean, there's great coaches in Austin.
think for the most part we support each other and if I'm not the coach for someone, I have a dozen people that would be really good coaches. ⁓ At the end of the day, I want to work with everyone, I want to grow my business, but it's important that if it's not with me, it's with someone, that you get the help that you need. So for anybody that may be considering hiring a coach, number one, do it and stop sitting on your hands ⁓ or you'll never do it.
And then two, research. And the best ways, ⁓ I think, to research, look, Google reviews are great. We got $100 on there, all five stars, people love us, all right? But look deeper, right? Look, see people's clients. Go talk to them, DM them. How has your experience been, right? I think the two most important things to look at is portfolio.
not can this guy have a good transformation with one person, but can this guy or girl consistently show up and have different transformations with people of different goals. They may be competition goals. They may be this woman wanted to get pregnant. This woman wanted to lose 30 pounds, whatever the case that they have a broad knowledge and experience helping people with many backgrounds and make sure they can help you in your specific context. And then of course, just, just speak to their clients, man.
because that is, they're gonna tell you everything. Trust me, they'll tell you everything. And I'm very grateful because ⁓ we have great clients and I can go to bed at night knowing if anybody hits them up, they're not gonna, they may complain about their cardio regimen, but they're not gonna say anything bad about us. And that's very, very important to me that everyone has.
Ben Todd (47:49)
Ha ha ha.
Tyler Fluitt (47:56)
regardless of if they're my top athlete or just some normal person, normal person, regardless that they have the best experience possible. And that my buy-in was 100 % and that I was consistently communicating, coaching, consulting, and always being available for them.
Ben Todd (48:16)
You know, I think that's, I think that's really important. And, and just from me being a client of yours for the last three years, I have felt that and continue to feel that. I mean, every week when I check in with you, you're always prompt with your responses. You always give me really detailed critiques for things I did well, things I need to improve on. And, and just, I can tell you really care. You're not, you're not just going through the motions. I'm not just a number to you. Like you actually do have.
Tyler Fluitt (48:24)
And it takes it and you enjoy.
you want to do yours right now or? As we're doing? Let me skip. ⁓
Ben Todd (48:46)
a lot of investment in, my personal success. And I know you feel that way with all your clients. And so it's one of those things where that's kind of what led me to you, ⁓ was because I wasn't necessarily feeling that, that reciprocity in some previous coaching experiences. ⁓ and I kind of learned from that. And that's why before I came to you, I really tried to do my research and kind of vet you and your business out.
Tyler Fluitt (48:58)
I grew up that too. It's too polished, it sounds like a robot. You can take what you bring to the planet, see if you're really proud of it, take that, you say, this is my voice.
Ben Todd (49:14)
⁓ for those specific parameters. Like, hey, is this going to fit with my goals? Is this going to fit with what I'm
Tyler Fluitt (49:15)
And then you can also say, like, how would you think, like, I don't know.
Ben Todd (49:19)
looking for personally? ⁓ And so I think it's really important advice that anybody who hires a coach, those are really important pieces to the puzzle to make sure that they're investing their time and their money into the right person who's going to be right for them.
Tyler Fluitt (49:34)
Have a conversation with the coach, know, don't just don't just sign a form and buy the product. Have a conversation. That's important. One last thing on that. always always think about my brother. He's a contractor and, you know, he's flipped houses, he's built houses, he's done all of this stuff and he frustrates me like crazy.
because I tell him, well, dude, nobody cares. Just throw up some crown molding, throw some drywall up. It's going to look good because you're really skilled. And he's like, man, I can't. I just can't. When I go to bed at night, I have to know that I handcrafted every single piece of this house. And if that's not for this market, maybe it's for a different market. But I have to put I have to be proud of every single thing I do.
And to me, it's a house. I don't have that love for building like he does. So I could probably be okay with a cheap crown molding. it doesn't have to be handcrafted for me. But he's different. That's his passion. That's his love. And maybe we learned that from my dad. Maybe it's just deep in our cells. I don't know, but I'm the same way. I can't go to bed knowing I half-assed anything or I let somebody...
I failed someone or I didn't pull my weight properly. So I take a lot of pride in my work and I'm glad I do because I don't think I would have made it this far. I don't have huge social media following. I'm not good at grabbing attention on social media. ⁓ It's not my thing.
A lot of people grow that way. have not been able to. I mean, we have a little bit, but that's not our main thing. Our main thing is referrals. So most of the people that come to me hear from a friend, an old client, or they know of us. And that's really how we grow is grassroots word of mouth, referrals, return clients, right? So that's the foundation of our business. So that's why it is so important that we hold that standard and we never
not stand.
Ben Todd (51:46)
And I think that as long as you keep that standard in mind at the forefront and kind of guiding your business and the decisions you make for your business, I think you're always going to have an influx of clients because you're always going to be providing a great service to your clients. And therefore you'll always have those word of mouth recommendations because of the service that you're providing to them.
Tyler Fluitt (51:55)
you
Yeah, yeah, it's proven itself many times. ⁓ So I'm very, very grateful of that. And it pays off. You doing the right thing pays off. It pays off very slowly, but it pays off. Doing the wrong thing. Yeah, doing the wrong thing pays off quick. And then it does it pay off quick.
Ben Todd (52:24)
Slow is better than slow. Right.
No, yeah, I completely understand that. Well, hey, Tyler, I really appreciate all of the information you've shared today. Is there anything else that you wanted to share before we depart today? How can people find you if they if they're interested in coaching or kind of learning about learning more about you and your business and what you guys offer? Where can they find you at?
Tyler Fluitt (52:39)
Thanks for watching!
boy.
Sorry, is that good?
We put a lot of information on ⁓ social media, this is anywhere from...
workout tips, hey, you got 30 minutes to do a workout, try this. Sometimes we get into the weeds on, you know, what's the new thing, peptides or whatever's going on. So we try to build a lot of value in that page. And that page is level up physique with underscores separating each word. And then our website kind of showcases a lot of what we do in our services. And that's level up physique.com. ⁓
Ben Todd (53:26)
Awesome, man. Well, I will have those in the show
notes for anybody who might be interested in checking you guys out and learning more about what you have to offer. So really appreciate your time today, Tyler. Thanks for thanks for hopping on. Thanks for joining me. And we got what? Eight weeks left until prep. We're getting there, man. It's it's coming up July 11th. Yeah, Austin. I'm I'm coming. Coming to hang out with you for a for a weekend.
Tyler Fluitt (53:40)
It's coming up quick. July 11th, right? I'm excited about that show.
Yeah, I think we got four in that show. And ⁓ I may have a good friend coming down to do that show from Nashville. ⁓ So I'm super excited. It's probably my favorite. Probably my favorite show of the year. It's where I my pro debut. It's very special to me. So we're pulling out all the stops.
Ben Todd (54:16)
I'm looking forward to it, man. It's gonna be ⁓ a journey, for sure. It's been a journey already, but it's definitely gonna be a journey once we start prep in a couple months.
Tyler Fluitt (54:23)
Yeah, I'm excited for it.
Ben Todd (54:25)
Well, cool, man. Well, hey, appreciate you hopping on, Tyler. And thanks for tuning in, y'all. ⁓ If this episode brought you guys any value, please share it with someone who's chasing their own version of high performance. And don't forget to follow the show so you never miss a flight. Fly safe, everyone. We'll see you next time.