Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Being STRONG is more than just how much weight you can lift.
The Strong New York Podcast is dedicated to inspiring you to become your strongest self- in the gym, in business, in relationships and in life.
Join Kenny as he sits down with his strong as fuck buddies and shoots the shit on what it takes to be strong willed, strong minded and physically strong. Season one features everyone from entrepreneurs and local business owners to doctors and industry leaders in the fitness and wellness space.
With over a decade of experience, Kenny Santucci has made himself known as one of New York City’s top trainers and a thought leader in the health and wellness industry. After transforming his life at 15 years old through fitness, Kenny made it his mission to transform the lives of those around him.
Kenny has trained some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Jon Bon Jovi, Liev Schreiber, and Frank Ocean, and has been tapped as a fitness expert sharing his training approach with Men’s Health, Men’s Journal, Runner's World, SHAPE, Well+Good, among other publications.
Kenny is the creator of STRONG New York, NYC's only Health and Fitness Expo. Strong New York is an immersive day of workouts, wellness experiences, panel discussions, and inspiring conversations with the best in-class wellness professionals, industry leaders, and change makers who are sharing their expertise on today's hottest wellness trends and first-hand experiences on how to optimize your overall health and life.
You can find Kenny at The Strength Club, his private training and group strength training facility in the heart of Manhattan located on 28th and 5th Ave in New York City.
Pretty good. Yeah, I think we're so stoic young man.
Always looks like I'm ready to kill somebody. That's a good thing. Fear is better than love. They say. Yeah, this is nice. I think it's a combination but
Well, we'll get into that. Yeah, we're ready to rock and roll. All right. Welcome back to the strongest fuck podcast I am your host Kenny Santucci and sometimes people come along in your life that are meant to help you out And that's exactly what this gentleman does You know, the podcast is a lot about business.
We talk about how hard it is to run a business here in New York City. And a very good friend of mine, my friend, Rachel said, Hey, you need a little help on your business. As do we all, if you're going to be good at something, well, you better find somebody who's better at it than you who could help you out.
So with no further ado, my man, Ian Jarvis. Is here with me and he's going to drop some knowledge on how to become a, uh, well, he helps people. He coaches people through business. Like I coach people through fitness. So Ian, you were a bit of a delinquent as a, as a younger man. Um, I think, you know, when I, when I first met you and we're sitting at the Ritz Carlton.
Two fancy guys just having some 8 coffees. And, um, we were talking about it and I said, holy shit, that's one hell of a story. Why don't you give us a little backstory on how you were running from the law?
Sure. Um, the, well, the, the once upon a time I was a nice Jewish boy from New Jersey and, uh, I went to Georgetown, dropped out my junior year because I was Fundamentally bored with what was going on there.
And we ended up driving around the States in a, um, my Chevy half ton pickup with a Triumph Bonneville motorcycle in the back.
I'm always interested in what years, like when people start, like, I try to get to the idea of like the error, like what was the 80s? The century? Yeah.
Yeah. It was, uh, it was. The seventies.
Seventies. Yeah. Okay. And times were
different. Love was free. Yes. Music was loud.
Yeah. Yeah. Drugs were everywhere. Yeah. And they didn't have the, um, the, there was still a belief that drugs were all positive. There was all gain and no, no pain. I
have a question for you though. At that time, you know, where a lot of your friends going to college, like, was that a thing because I, my mom never went to college, right.
And she's a little bit older than you. And I just don't think it was. looked at as like a thing you had to do to get to the next level.
I'm not sure about the second part of your statement, but the first part's true. It was not a thing you had to do.
Yeah.
I'm not sure that, you know, this was a generation that grew up in great comfort,
um,
because the world was very comfortable and Americans were very comfortable.
We just, you know, we just won the war. And so, um, I, I think that part of the generation The, the issue with my generation is that we, we grew up without, um, not terribly goal oriented because there wasn't a lot of pressure on us.
Mm-hmm .
So the idea is we didn't have to go to college. I don't think anyone thought too much in advance of that.
So I dropped out and I was driving around the states, um, in motorcycle with motorcycle in the back, and I was, by then I was a mechanic.
Mm-hmm .
And, um, and it's, I went out, it was in California and it was all over the place. I wound up in Cincinnati and, um, there was, how, how'd you wind up there? Driving around the country and that's where he is.
There was a guy I wanted to meet and he happened to live there. I looked him up and he, he was in Cincinnati. He's a fabulous jazz pianist. And um, There was a, this burgeoning scene around drugs and, you know, everybody dropped out and, and, um, one of the people in there was, uh, in this group was, uh, the kid who inherited a million dollars and, you know, his parents died and he quickly became a junkie and, um, decided to get married on the spot and then at that point said he was taking her to Europe for, um, honeymoon and, um, Would I come along because I think he needed a kind of valet.
He was that screwed up. He's like, yeah, I'll just pay you to do a bunch of random shit. Come along, you know. A million dollars then was. Huge. Absolutely. 20 million. Yeah, it was serious, serious money. Serious money. And, um, so we went to Europe together. He and I, he had, I brought a girlfriend along in the four of us and within three weeks he'd run out of heroin and he died.
He flew back to Cincinnati and left his girlfriend, his wife and my girlfriend and me together and gave us some money and split. So those were those times. And um, so we, we were like, where will we go? And we, we went to this place that not a lot of people had heard of at that time called Ibiza, this Island.
Oh, okay. Really? And it was nothing. You guys were probably the first ones there. Honestly, maybe 50, 75 folks there. A house costs 15 a month. It was that kind of place. But, um, To get back on track, I was started exporting drugs to the States and I would do it by, uh, taking, buying a motorcycle and taking the engine crankcase apart
and
take the, uh, the crankshaft and the connecting rods and stuff and put them in a separate package, send that to a separate address in the States.
And I had this big cavity inside the engine and I'd fill it with hash, put the motorcycle in a, um, a crate and I'd send it to the States. And, you know, this, in those days they would open up the crate and they'd see a motorcycle and they'd go. Okay. It's a motorcycle.
And
what was your
drug of choice? Oh, it was hash.
Yeah.
That's funny because I got a buddy of mine who I used to, he was, uh, he was one of the producers on a show I used to be on and he's a big hash guy and he's about your age. Yeah.
Well, in Europe, there was no graphs. Okay. It didn't exist. And, um, obviously all that's changed, but in those days it was strictly hash and you would, you'd roll the cigarette and Drop the hash on it smoke it in the cigarette.
Why do you think
it's not as relevant of the drug anymore as a drug? Yeah, like people don't like you never hear
anybody be
like,
oh, it's yeah. No, it's it's I I don't I don't know I just think that It's more peaceful drug. Yeah, that's what I say. I'm just gonna say people I think are looking for bigger and bigger Events.
Yeah, you know, it's it's it was peace and love. I don't think we're We're at that. Yeah. Yeah. So we're, I think we're coping with
a whole different level. There's a meme on social media and it's got all the different jokers. From the Batman's from like the 60s Joker to now and it's like it's basically follows like drug culture, right?
Like in the 70s, he was like this kind of hippie He'd be into smoking hash or you know doing you know, smoking marijuana and stuff And then it's like now it just gets into the hard meth. He's got the tattoos on his face And yes, what I saw
that which is what's going on right now, and I saw that in California I went to San Francisco and And there was this idea it was going to be a great place.
And all I saw was meth started to make it, it's, it's an introduction there. And in the seventies, yeah. And I left really, I turned around and left, uh, so that's been going on for a while forever. And so, uh, anyway, so I had a couple of these wonderful shipments and then a guy showed up in Ibiza, his name was Billy Frick and he was a third generation of the Frick family, which you may or may not remember or know, um, put together us steel.
In the, in the, um, late 1800s, and there's a museum here in New York called the Frick Museum. That's the same family. Anyway, net, net. It was a family tradition. When you turned 21, you got 50, 000. So Billy shows up with 50k and we're, you know, high and high again. And we decided we're going to be titans in the drug business.
And I, I got a Land Rover and I went to the Reef Mountains in Morocco and I scored 60 kilos of Wow. And I shipped it in. What's that look like? What do it look? Give me an idea. Like what's 60 kilos? Uh, yeah, I'd say a, a, a rectangle about like that. Really? Yeah. And I shipped it in. Of course we were insane.
It was terrible. There was no real plan. And, uh, there was a bust and, um, it's a lot of shit to get caught with. Yeah. And everybody got caught except me. Five guys went down on that. I escaped from half a dozen FBI agents at Albany International Airport. What? Give me the story.
Uh, You're at the airport. Yeah.
I was at the airport. Because I felt like it's a hard place. I guess back then it wasn't, security
wasn't as tight. Well, we weren't doing the deal there. The deal was going down elsewhere and these guys were involved and I happened to be away. So when they, when they, then the FBI closed in and snapped those guys up, I knew about it.
I heard about it. And I, and it was this huge snowstorm in Buffalo that day. It was like three feet and I had nowhere to go. I couldn't get out of town. Didn't have a car. So I went to the airport just because I didn't have anywhere to go. Yeah. The airport was shut. It was closed. So, uh, I'm there. 40 minutes and there's no one in this airport and a guy shows up in a gray three piece suit carrying a suitcase and he sits near me.
And I, it's like clear, classic movie, yeah, right at seat. Right there. And he starts these conversation, you know, and I'm like playing this game back and forth with him. At some point he says, so where are you going? And I, I pulled the CD out of my head, I said, Miami, he went, isn't that amazing? He said, that's where I'm going.
You know, I'm a school teacher and I got to do this. So then I went to get a coffee and I went into the coffee shop at lunch and there's six guys, white guys, all in their thirties in brand new mechanics uniforms. And one of them is looking at me like I'm going to die, just staring right through me. And I went, okay, so that's, that's where the reserves are.
And. Uh, I managed to get to a pay phone without them seeing it, called my, I have a twin brother. So I call my brother up, he's in Pittsburgh, I had him come by and get me. He swings in, I said, when you see me come up the steps, when you see me just be ready to lock and load, right? So I, in the meantime, I had this insane conversation for three more hours, just crazy, you know, one lie after another.
And I, but I managed, I went, I went to the bathroom two or three times, get him used to seeing me go to the bathroom because it was right near the exit door. I see my brother, he puts his head down, I walk to the bathroom, I leave behind everything, right? My life, my guitar, my everything I own. And I walk to the bathroom, I'm gonna pee at the last minute.
And I fucking turned. And run. Got out the door and got away.
Did
he run
after you?
The guys ran after me. But they, because they're FBI and surreptitious, they had parked their cars in the back. And there was all this snow and they couldn't get out. They couldn't, they never followed me. Oh shit. We, we escaped into the night.
Three days later, across the border to Canada, take a plane to Paris. And I arrived in Paris this one, this morning, this beautiful winter morning. And, um, I had nothing. I had no family, no friends, no money, no
past. What did your brother, like, what was the depart, what
the departing situation with you and your brother and I?
A big hug. He handed me his overcoat because I didn't have a coat. And, uh, he got back in the car and went back to the States, you know, and a year and a half later, they tracked him down because in, in, in a technical sense, he was an accessory.
Yeah.
But at the end, when they heard the real story about what happened from him, it was like, Oh no, we can't, you know what I mean?
They're not going to prosecute him for helping his twin brother, et cetera, et cetera. So they let that go. So I arrived in Paris with my whole life. Dad behind me, you know, missing and my whole life to make because I had nothing. I had no money, nothing. And I lived there for eight years as a, um, a wanted federal felon.
Eight years in Paris?
Yeah, well, not in Paris. I was in Paris. I was in London. I got married. I had a kid. I lived with two prostitutes for a couple years in Paris. I must have lived on it. It wasn't bad. And, uh, uh, I lived in Ibiza. I lived in North. I worked in Morocco for a while. I was working for the king of Morocco.
I always find it interesting when I hear these stories because I, I, I. I have some friends who've been on the run as well. And what are you doing for like quick cash?
My life was all about present tense. It was all quick cash, really, except no, when I got married, I moved to London. My wife was. 10 years old and had two children.
So I suddenly was, I was 22 and I had three children. I was responsible for,
so how old were you when all this happened?
I was 21 when it started. Right. It was a year later I got married and I got in London with, I don't know, 40 bucks and no place to stay. Well, no, and they couldn't come after you. They could, but I wasn't at that level.
It was what is, it's like having a standing warrant, a bench warrant. It's the same as having a bench warrant. So here's, here's what the danger is. The danger is. If I got stopped at any time, I was an illegal alien, illegal immigrant this whole time. If I got stopped for anything, and I got, came close to this dozens of times.
Yeah. And somebody actually pulled me in, they would have made a normal inquiry about me as an American to um, Um, to the embassy? No, the, um, there's a center there, center in Europe for, uh, it'll, it'll come up, I'll remember in five minutes. And, um, and that would've, that would've hit the jackpot then I would've had a free trip home courtesy, the FBI.
Yeah.
So, so that's the, that's kind of on your shoulder the whole time. But it wasn't like they were looking, they were waiting. Yep. So, um, you know, I lived in all these places and, um. You know, I would be a mechanic or I would sell drugs or I would, um, you know, I, I, I lived in France long enough to pick up French, like I became fluent, but I learned it on the street.
Right. And, um. And that gave me a ticket above my pay grade in the social structure in Paris. So I was getting invited to these wonderful, really delightful dinner parties. And I wound up sitting next to a guy who was working for the King of Morocco as a designer. And two years later, I was in Morocco working in the Royal Palace and the guy liked me and kept me working there.
That's great. Yeah.
One thing after another.
One of the things that I tell people all the time is I find it fascinating when you meet somebody who's got such a great personality that their personality could get them seated at any table, it could get them into any room. And I think that's such a skill to have a, if your personality could lend itself to any situation.
And when I look for people in business or in leisure, it's always. Would I want to hang out with this person? Are they magnetic enough where they draw people in? Because if you have somebody like that, then they could work any job. They'd be good at any position. So I guess that's why through your twenties, you were just a jack of many trades.
It was a chameleon like existence in many ways, but, and there, it's like, catch
me if you can.
Yeah. It wasn't that far away from it really. Um, I just wasn't working on the scale. He was. Um, I was able to, to survive in a lot of different levels, but I think that's, there's a sensitivity to, uh, you know, you got to walk in other people's shoes.
You know, I, when I tell people I'm talking about business, I say, if you're in sales, it's never about what's in it for you. What you have to understand is what's in it for them. How
old were you when you started to realize this? Like when you were, that business isn't about you. It's not about like, how does this make me money?
It's more about how do I lend myself or create a service, create a product that has the customer in mind.
Well, you know, I think, I think it kind of, I think. I think I knew that always, but I think as a, as a conscious understanding, I think it came in later when I actually was involved in, but you were, you're already doing this.
I was in business all the time selling cars, but I, but I think we're in sales all the time. Yeah. I think all of us are in sales all the time.
The way you dress, the way you present yourself, you're always selling yourself. Yeah. Yeah. You have to. I want to walk. Even though if you don't want people and this throws back to my business and what I tell people all the time.
When. I say it starts with your physical appearance. It starts with you working out, starts with you taking care of yourself. If you are one of these people, if you look attractive, I didn't write this fucking rule that says, Hey, if you are more attractive, more people want to give you money. They want to be around you.
They want you become more magnetic. It's just human nature. It's the way we are like ever. Attractive women or attractive men can sell anything. So if you know that that's the game, well, you could win just by
taking care of yourself. I, I'm a great believer in that. And I know you also know as I do that it's not.
You don't have to be beautiful to make it work, but, but if you have this, this, but it helps. No, this presence is so important. You just, you can walk into the room, it walks in with you and then you don't have to sell because it, you know, it'll come to you if you're just
quiet. Yeah. And, and, and I'm not talking about the sense of the things that we can change, right?
Like nowadays everybody wants to change their nose, change their chin, change their fucking eyeballs. Yeah. They'll change every part of their body, but if you just took care of yourself, you already send that signal. It's subconscious everyone that, Hey, this person works hard. They take care of themselves.
They have some level of dedication because you know it didn't happen by mistake. Correct. And, and, and
then as you get older, you don't keep it by mistake and keep it for working out. Absolutely. Well, you got a double time. Yeah. You're really, cause you're fighting gravity. You're fighting everything. How old are you?
I'm a man of a certain age.
Well, I'm just saying. There's a lot of people, there are a lot of people who You know, say, Oh, I can't do this because I'm older. I can't do that. And it's like, here you are. You're still living in the city. You're, you're running around. I know you're running around servicing clients, going everywhere you need to be.
I don't think that ever stops unless you want it to stop.
Yeah. As you get older, you come up to a moment in time where you risk not being relevant. And this, I'm a person who wants to be relevant until I take my last breath. So, uh, and if you make that decision, then you're constantly engaged. I just got a radio show up in, um, in Great Barrington, which starts in January.
Where's that? You and I haven't talked about this at all. Great Barrington, where's Great Barrington? I've never heard of it. Um, Oh, about a hundred miles north of here, just at the, the juncture of Connecticut, New York and Massachusetts where they meet Great Barrington. Okay. And, um, you know, I've written this memoir and that I've.
Two agents who were terribly excited about it. So it's kind of like Your whole life story, you know a memoir a memoir by definition It's not a whole life story memoir is a a segment of your life. So this is that segment of my life when I When I went through the, the drug deal and the bust to this whole arc where I came back to the States, spent my first night in jail back in the States, New Year's got through the judicial system, made it come out on my side and then totally bullshitted my way into my first job back in the States, back in the States, 90 days after I got custody of my daughter, because that's what changes your life, you know, you, you're suddenly you're, you know, I've been this indulgent.
Life stopped so long. Now, this is nine year old girl who is looking to me. And so 90 days later, I had this job with a major French multinational. And 18 months after that I was, um. Vice President of the U. S. Division. And my wild and wooly story became very charming. So that's the memoir. It's about going from here to there.
Well, you hear it a
lot about, you know, different rappers and athletes, and they come from this hard background, they've gotten some trouble, and then they turned it around. And now it's, how do you, how do you see, how do you really kind of turn that around? Sum up how that happens. You go from being a felon on the run to, Hey, now I'm working in corporate America, CEOs, there's a,
there's actually a very simple trigger, a certain age.
I think when we get between 28 and 32, something kicks back in and you want to slay the elephant, you know, you want to own the house, you know, you want to put away these other things and you want to, you want to be part of this thing.
And,
uh, so you've got that, I absolutely believe it's, it's, it's in our DNA.
And then the trigger was my daughter, which she came in when I was 31. And I was, I was frustrated. I wanted to be there. And, but her presence in my life gave me an incredible push to make that happen. I mean, I created a resume for this French company. The only words of truth in it was my name and my phone number.
You couldn't do that today, obviously.
Yeah. But
everything else was a lie.
Do you think you're, um, you succeeded because of the times? They were,
I succeeded in this way by these times. Yeah. I do believe I would succeed in any time because I'm humble as ever. But, but yeah, in that moment, in that time, I was able to get away with this kind of stuff.
Um, when I, when I went, when I showed up at Philadelphia International Airport after years, I went to jail that night. Um,
I mean,
you
just spent the one night in jail.
Yeah. I made bail the next day. And, uh, you know, and how much was bail at the time? It was nothing. It was 50k. So, you know, 5, 000. But, but, you know, the, the prosecution sitting there going, he's a flight risk.
You got to keep him in jail. And this federal judge is looking at me and he goes, he goes to the prosecution. He says, I understand Mr. Jarvis turned himself in. Yes, your honor. And you have his passport. Yes, your honor. He said 50, 000 bail cut me loose right there. And um, So now you give them the five grand.
Well, yeah, but this is the key was when I got busted by the FBI and I, 20 minutes after I showed up at the airport, I was handcuffed to a water pipe in a room at the airport. Right. And the FBI, 40 minutes later, the FBI showing up and they're, and they're like, they just want to know who I've killed in the last eight years.
That's their attitude. Right. And so, you know, slowly that kind of, that dissembles because they sound these faxes and everything. But, but what I did was immediately I said, I'm guilty. I did this. I'm not fighting you on this. It sucks all the air out of the system.
Well, It's funny because my dad was a cop.
My brother's a cop. My uncles were cops. So I've been in and around cops and they're like, if you don't want a problem, just submit. And, and that's what I think a lot of people have a hard time doing. Like, even when you get pulled over, I've been pulled over plenty of times. If you shut your car off, turn the lights on and put your hands on the steering wheel, it just makes them a lot more comfortable.
Exactly what I do.
Yeah.
Yeah. And now they're like, okay, I don't need to be as scared as I would be if you had the car still running. So it's like doing those things puts the cop at ease. So now it's not this like weird confrontation. You're in sales. Yeah. Now you're like, all right.
Hey, man, just I'm selling yourself.
He's an okay guy. Yeah. And then you say what you did and half the time they're going to go get out of here. It's okay. It's okay.
As soon as you start mother effing them, they're like, hold on, let me,
you know,
break his fucking balls because he's breaking mine. Exactly.
Yeah. So as soon as you say that the FBI, the temperature goes out of the room, but also the temperature goes out of the whole system.
Yeah. Because
now they're like,
I
don't need to smash his head up against the desk. I'm not going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours and time proving the guy's full of shit because he just pleaded guilty. When you plead guilty, that meant in my case, because my story was about what I did.
5, 000 miles away, nobody bothered to check. So I created this vision of me as this middle class guy trying to live a middle class life in Europe.
Yeah, yeah.
And nobody bothered to check because I had pled guilty. Because that's all the system wanted. So anyway, I got, you know, blah, blah, blah, three years probation, and
And now here we are.
Yeah. So we met because My friend, Rachel, also my client, uh, and I trust her opinion. She's like, Hey, you got to start working with Ian. And she's like, well, that's a question for every time we talk about business. She's like, that's a question for you. What makes you such an expert on the whole world of business?
Do you do the way you look at it? Is it basically a sales job? Like kind of give me your tactics on how.
Yeah, that's a very good question. Um, because the question is, how do I, how do I, how can I work in any industry is basically the question. And the answer is, is I'm dealing with the human condition. I'm dealing with people and how they act under certain circumstances.
So it doesn't matter if you're running. Uh, uh, multinational, you're running a business buying and selling cars or houses. I'm dealing with people and what they suffer from and the habits they have. And so, you know, my job is to look at people's habits and see where they come from. And then work on breaking people's habits because obviously I come to it with an idea about how this should be done.
I believe 95 percent of the businesses in the world are making money in spite of themselves. They're, they're, they're badly run. So there's plenty of room for change. So
I think I told you about this when we first met. I had met an older gentleman years ago in, um, California. And he had told me, he goes, there's no such thing as a bad business.
It's bad people and bad management.
1000%. I will ask a client three or four questions about who they're dealing with. And I'm going to know how that person acts. Now I can talk to you about what you need to do to get through pastor or sideways on that individual, because I'm also going to only ask, I don't, I don't know, I don't need to know a lot about an individual to know how they're going to handle themselves.
I often say that, um, two things, people are what they are and everything they do. Show me how you play tennis. I'm going to show you how you. Yeah. People are telling you everything
you need to know about them. The minute they
walk in the room. Which goes back to what you said about looking right. I'm going to know pretty much how you treat your employees.
And then people are telling you everything you need to know about them. The minute they walk in the room, which goes back to what you said about looking right, you know, How people walk in a room tells, for whatever gifts God gave me or I was born with, those are gifts that I have to see those things really quickly in people.
And that really is the central issue, to answer your question, is that I can see what makes people tick very quickly. And that's a great relief for everybody because I can get right to the heart of the matter without spending too much time. You know, six months. Weeks. Yeah. Yeah. No, just, I know what's going on.
Yeah. What do you tend to see that people, I used to love watching Bar Rescue. My dad was into it and then I watched it every once in a while. And you, you start to see the same problems with every situation, right? It's poorly managed. They're not doing the things you need to do. And just like we said before.
How do you keep the customer in mind to give them the best experience possible? And I do sleepless nights, right? I'm always like, I could go bigger. I could spend more money. And then you start to battle with like, am I spending too much? Is this how you go out of business? What do you see to be the problems or the archetypes of some of these personalities that are doing things wrong and that are easy to clean up.
Um, to, to talk about generalities, I want to be very clear that I'm talking about generalities, which means there are exceptions to everything I'm going to say. Yeah, of course, yeah. Um, often, when I'm working with men, I have to teach them how to learn to say yes. Because their, their tendency is to want to control by saying, no, that, by the way, that's not you.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm the opposite. No, I need to teach you how to say no. Yeah. That's a whole different issue. But, and I've had clients like that before. But largely I have to teach men how to say yes. When I work with women, I often have to teach them how to say no, because guys will take advantage of the fact that women as, and I'm speaking in incredible generalities here, women often are looking for agreement in a situation.
And that's, that's a powerful tool. But every tool becomes a weakness if it becomes a habit. Your habit is to say yes. Yeah. Right? That's a powerful tool. But if it's a habit It's a weakness. It becomes a
weakness. Same thing. Yeah, I, I, I tend to see in my business, there's a lot of times where I'm kicking myself in the ass because I said yes.
But at the same time, I've had a lot of value come out of me saying yes to a lot of things.
But again, it's a question of the judiciousness of knowing when to say yes and when to say no. And yours is a habit. So people get into habits of that. It is, there is nothing in anyone's character that isn't a powerful tool.
As long as it is judiciously applied. And that's something that I work with people a lot. And, and, and I change people's lives. Because if, if I can teach you to change your habits, everything else will change. And then, and you know, I, I work with individuals. So if I'm working with the head of a company and I'm working with him or her and and and often I'm in the background, no, no one even necessarily knows I'm there.
Suddenly that person starts to change what they're doing, change how they communicate. Well, it's, it's funny. The company changes off that. That's what I'm saying. It all goes down.
But it's funny to me, how Simple and how parallel it is to the exact same thing that I try to get people to do. I'm like, if you could change your habits, if you change the things that you do on a daily basis, then you will ultimately improve your lifestyle and you're doing the same thing with business.
But it's funny because I don't. See the business side. I'm like, Oh, if you just change your diet and work out more and do this, it's like, I know the path to getting someone healthier and looking better and feeling and the discipline, whereas when it comes to business, I'm like a scatterbrain. I can't even like see it.
Like I could see it, you know, happening when it comes to health and wellness. When it comes to business. I'm like, what am I fucking doing wrong? You know, it's so many times like you see certain people. I've started so many businesses. I've tried to be an entrepreneur since I was a kid. No, it wasn't a thing.
thing. Then I just enjoyed kind of dancing to the beat of my own drummer. I always wanted to have a t shirt line. I always wanted to own a gym. I've always wanted to like kind of just, Oh, that guy's doing it this way. I'm just going to do it this way. Cause I like it better this way. And, you know, opening multiple gyms and doing different things.
I never had that instant success. And I see so many people nowadays, it's like, Oh, I started this hat company or I started, uh, you know, this supplement brand and it just blew up and I'm like, what? What have I done? And sometimes I'm like, I'm happy about it because it allows me to speak about it and understand the struggles and understand my business better because I've had to grow it from the ground up.
Whereas it's like an athlete, right? Somebody who's just naturally gifted. Came easy to them and boom, they have no problem with it. It's the same thing in business. Like I've seen so many people just instantly become successful. And I'm like, I don't even think they know how they got there. It's correct.
They got lucky.
Yeah.
I look, I happen to think Mark Zuckerberg got lucky. You know, I don't, he was in the right place at the right time. Yeah. Don't tell me he's brilliant.
He
just got lucky. And I think a lot of people are lucky, particularly in today's environment. Do you
think the way he handles the company though, is.
Is luck or is, uh, do you think he's kind of developed a skill over time?
I think he's developed certain skills, but I've watched him over the years make really terrible decisions. Oh, for sure. Yeah. And, and, and that's because of this. That's why I come back to say he got lucky. At a certain point, when you've got that much money, you can make mistakes.
It doesn't matter. Mm hmm. You know, you can You can be Elon Musk and make those mistakes if it doesn't matter because all the money's there and it's like too big to fail. Yeah, it's too big for, well said. And so, you know, the, the, that goes on at that level, but on our level, um, this, you're, you're eminently, eminently capable of making this thing happen that you're working on right now.
Your only issue for me is, you know, I just want discipline, you know, so for me, You know, if I, in, in circumstances like yours, I often have a client who calls me every two days for months, just because that's how long it takes to say, Hey, this has come up and I, and you know what, Ian, you'll be proud of me.
I didn't say yes. I said, I'll get back to you. What do you think? What should we do? And it's, it's in the, it's in the building of that relationship that people learn about themselves. They, they, they don't count on me forever. There's this arc where you suddenly acquire it yourself.
Yeah. I. Um, And again, to just go back to the parallels between the health and wellness work, so many clients come to me and they're like, well, I'm doing everything right now.
I'm eating right now. You go, okay, how's this just just for a day? Because if you tell somebody to do it more than a day, they can't, they never could get it done. So for one day, write down everything that you put in your mouth. Leave out the sexual shit. Just give me everything everything else everything else that you put into your mouth write it down And then when I get this from people and I see it, I'm like well here I mean you were at work you were eating candies Then you went out last night and you had you know Three drinks and an appetizer and this I go you've overeaten 2, 000 calories yesterday They're like, I would have never thought that so until you start writing it down.
And I think that's a, it's been a huge help for me. I'm like, all right, what am I doing wrong? So until you could actually, I mean, I'm this type of person until you see it on paper or on a screen. You just don't realize how many times you're making the same mistake over
and over. We do. We tend, that's precisely what we tend to do.
And you know, um, that's precisely what we do. So when I talk about breaking habits, I'm generally talking about breaking two or three.
And
I mean, it's a pleasure working with you because I know we're getting, we're going in that direction. And, and I believe that success, you know, success, success is an outcome.
Not a goal. I know you know this, you know, if you do all the right things,
it's going to happen. It's the inevitable. Yeah.
And so I think our work together is very profitable in that way because I think, you know, and I love, I love how tied up you are in our relationship so that we can continue to do this.
Same thing with you and your people. You know, you have to get into intimately involved in the two or three habits are working that they're, that they're not aware of
each situation is so personal. Like, I can't name two people that are exactly the same, but, but the situation at the situation entirely
personal.
But they're also the same. Yeah. Yeah. And which is what makes, which is why you can be predictable in your world. I mean, you can make predictions in Europe as I can make them in mind.
It's almost like you're driving down this road and they start to veer off a little bit and you're like, no, no, no, no, no.
Yeah. And you see it coming. Yeah. I mean, listen, it's, it's definitely been very helpful, like just sitting down and talking about business. And there are so many people out there who are complete bullshit when it comes to what's your thoughts on all these life coaches, especially like somebody who's a life coach under the age of 30, where I'm like, yeah, you really haven't lived long enough to give anybody life advice.
Yeah.
Um, I agree. You know, I think there's so many people out there on social media. And, and listen. Yeah. I'm happy for people. I want
you through the night, right?
I want it. Well, I want to see people win. I love the idea of like being like, Oh, I know that guy's done really well for himself. He did this, that and the other thing, because there's definitely enough to go around.
There's no shortage of people on this planet. There's, you know, when I talk about it. Even my gyms both my gyms would be successful 200 people and I'm in a town in New Jersey That's got I think the population is like eight or nine thousand people with a couple of towns surrounding it with about the same So you're talking 30 40, 000 people.
Absolutely, you know All I need is 200 people for my gym to be successful beyond that. I can't really service anybody and I can't handle much more here in New York. We have 8 million people with another, what, three or 4 million coming in a day. Yeah, easy. So I'm like, okay, all we need to find is 200 people.
There's no shortage of people. You just need to convince the people who aren't doing what they're supposed to be doing to start doing it. I don't need to go pull from another gym. I need to get, you know, More people exercising because
we're talking about it to other people.
Yeah. Yeah, you just need to do a good enough job I tell people all the time just do a good enough job that people want to tell their friends about you There's nothing more important.
I mean, I I heard about your
tizer
and I barely exist Yeah, it's not like you're some fucking social media.
No, it's just people as you got it From Rachel. Yeah, from Rachel. Yeah. That's how it works.
Yeah. No, I think it's so important. I think when people realize that, like, hey, all you have to do is dial into the people that you're already servicing.
What keeps them up at night? What's in it for them?
Mm. Well, all of us kind of have the same fears and anxieties and struggles.
Yeah. That's why it's easy for me to, again, that's why it's easy to deal with coming back to what your question was, um, younger folks or folks who come on as life coaches. You know, I'm always happy to tell people what you're getting from me didn't come out of school, it didn't come out of a course, it didn't come out of studies, it came, it's, it's boots on the ground.
I,
when I was living in L. A., every Wednesday morning, I didn't go to my company, I went to Venice High School. And um, I worked with at risk children in Venice High, which is seriously at risk children. And I, the first time I walked in, it was like, all these kids in, you know, hoodies, just, you know, they're going, what's this guy going to do for us?
And I walked up to the board and I put, I put my salary up on the, and I had their attention. Because in all of that, that's a good approach and all the kids, yeah, they, they, they want to have that control and what, what that money means. And I said, and I said, I earned this money because I have one incredible skill.
I solve problems and I solve problems better and faster than just about anybody else. And there's a reason that I do this and hardly ever make mistakes. And the reason is. In my life, I have made every mistake known to man.
Well, right then and there, you kind of got their attention. Yeah. Because kids are like, well, I'm gonna fuck up.
I'm gonna make mistakes. I'm never gonna succeed. And if I'm not good at this school thing, then I'm not gonna be good at anything. That's exactly
what I was dealing with the vibe. Yeah. And, um, And I was saying, I, you guys are solving some of the right problems. Some of the, some of you guys are solving the wrong problems.
I'm here to help you show you how to solve problems.
That's so, so I had a priest when I was a freshman in high school. I hated school. I love art. I love creating. I loved, you know, working out my freshman year. There was a priest at my school who every, he was loved by everyone. And I think this is wise because he kind of understood.
Um, and he, he said to us, he's like, not all of you are going to graduate with honors from here. Not all of you are going to go to Harvard and Yale. And I was like, Oh fuck, this guy's calling me out big time. And he's like, but the guys who aren't the, the scholars are going to be the connectors. They're going to be the ones who are more social.
And, and I'm like, Oh shit, that's me. It almost gave me hope. Like my freshman year, I'm like, I, I hate doing a school thing, but if I could succeed, if you're telling me that I could succeed by being who I want to be and doing my art. Yeah. Then shit there. I got hope and I'll never forget that. And I think that's what you did for these kids is like giving them that idea.
Like, Hey, you don't have to be good at this school thing. You can fuck up and it's okay. And I think more kids need to hear that. They,
they look, the school system in America is
broken.
It's a disaster. We're graduating. It's the only thing that's more
fucked up than policy. No,
I, I, I put it absolutely next to politics and I put it at the top of the and those kids.
We're graduating them sitting on the street and they don't have any of the skills, you know, and then, then that creates all the, all the other stuff that happens. So
most of the successful people that I know, especially here in New York are college shoppers. Like one of my clients, he dropped out of MIT and he's a multi multi billionaire now.
And he's like, yeah, I never went back there. He goes, they even invited me back to finish and I still didn't go. And it's incredible because there are guys. I remember. I went to high school with, and I'm like, God, if I was half as smart as him, that'd be so good. And you know, some of these guys I look at and I'm like, this guy never did shit with his life.
Yeah. But you, you are, we all, I have, um, I make, um, presentations to groups of people, like a hundred architects or whatever I'm working with. And one of the things I, one of the slides comes down and says, fabulous you. Mm hmm. And I turn to the audience and I say, everyone in this room is fabulous. Everyone in this room has between three to five things they do as well or better than anyone else in their company.
I agree with that. The question is. Are you doing that or are you letting your business or your company or even yourself sidetrack you into doing other things that you're not fabulous at? And so, you know, and I have this whole kind of talk about rearrange your life, structure your business, structure and hire the right people and make sure that all you do is fabulous.
Yeah.
So. This is on that topic. And I'm sure I'm not the only person out there who's got the same problem.
Yeah.
Um, I have some employees where I don't, some of them are like, I'll do everything and I can handle it and blah, blah, blah. And I've had them throughout the years. And then there's others who, you know, have just one skillset.
They're really good at this one thing. And the others get mad because they're like, well, you only have them do the fun stuff. And you have us doing all this other stuff and I go, they're incapable of doing that other stuff. How do you kind of manage those two personalities or like, I need both, right? I need somebody who's really good, good at the fun stuff.
And I need the people who are really good at like, The excel sheets and keeping records and doing all those things. Those people want to do the fun shit too, but they're just not as good at it as the fun people. Yeah You know, it's it's the it's the the scholars and then the personalities There there are a number of
elements to answering that question.
One is how you hire so You have to hire people whose skill sets are valid and valuable to you at that time. So the, the guy, the women or men who do this fun stuff, when they come into your company, do you need one right now, or do you have a place coming along where that, you know, but the people who have to do the, you know, who carry the spear, right?
You know, how did you like the linemen? Yeah. How did you set them up in the first place? Yep. How we set them up in. in bringing them in so that they don't have any illusions about what you, what you want from them and how much you value and how do you reward that work. Yeah. You know, you have to reward that work.
People want three things, the three Ps. Um, they want, um,
They want three R's, I think responsibility, recognition, and reward. So when you bring someone in, if they understand, you know, you have, you have to, I think you, I use you in the larger sense, we have to understand how that person fits in the company before we hire them. It's not like we're going to hire them because, Oh man, they had a great story about, you know, Miami or I like them.
I don't care if you like them. How do they fit into this equation of yours? Which, uh, whatever that equation is and how do you, how do you set them up so that when they say yes to it, they know what they're saying yes to and it doesn't change on
them
because I think if people came in and knew that they were going to be carrying for their alignment and they knew what that was and, and by the way, I have a program to reward you for that.
I don't mean a program like, you know, and if you do this, I'll get you, but some kind of recognition. And so, you know, I make, if I make that part of your career, if I build your career in that world, you're going to be rewarded for that. If
you, if
you help those people understand at the beginning, not later.
Yeah.
That's the key.
I was talking to a gentleman who owns a very successful, probably the biggest chain in the country when it comes to gyms. And we were talking about that about a year ago. We're sitting down having lunch and he was like, Oh, this is the guy who runs this part of the country for me. And blah, blah, blah.
And I go, that guy sucks. He's like, but he's so organized and he's so good at doing all that stuff. He's like, I had to give him that job because he wants that. I go, but. She would be so much better at that job. He's like, I know, but I have to, I need him. And I thought it was funny that. I've had that similar situation where I said, I go, I, I need to put this person there because they'd be better at it.
Do you sacrifice the business for this person who keeps the business just a little bit
tighter? Well, you know, I think people who keep your business tight are terrifically important, but I come back to what I said. You have, they have to know who they have to know what's expected of them. When you hire them, it's really incredibly important and you have to reward them for that, which you, if you have a split, for example, you've got the character who's the personality, you've got the character that makes the, makes the parts home, there's always a way to merge that or and or separated so that each one gets to do what it is they want to do.
Somebody, this person who's the person who's carrying the spears. Has to have a sense that that's a great job
that is, but then you, you can't really teach those skills to, Oh, no, they got to listen.
Well that skill you can't that because that, that still comes, that comes back to organization that comes back to people wanting to.
Order.
Yeah. You know, see, I love order and I, I'm so bad at that. Like when I, I have two young ladies who work with me and they helped me out a ton and they just see things differently. They could keep things organized. My brain, like when I take notes, if we go to a seminar, And it's like an educational seminar for fitness.
My notes are horrible. They're all over to just imagine, right? I can see my mind just, it doesn't, it doesn't work like it's not, it's not sequential. It's not. Whereas I'll be like, all right, you just take the notes because I'm never going to be, I've been like that my whole life. There's doodles all over the page and it's just the way my mind
is.
If you know that, you know how to compensate for it. So these people have to hire people, Kristen. I mean, right.
Yeah.
I mean, people like that are, are fundamental to your success. For sure. They just have to come in and know that's what they're doing here. And if they don't want to do that and all day and they go, but I really want don't hire them.
Yes. Yeah. You, you can't break out of that need. Because you like that person, you think that there's a hundred other people behind them.
Well, and it's funny, it works both ways because you're like, Oh, if I had this personality they could help my business. But there's so many times I've hired the personality and I'm there, they're the biggest fucking headaches.
It turned
into shit. Holy shit. But that's, that's about stepping out of yourself. watching those people. And it's more than one. I have a client who I walk through for many months while he was restarted, stepping in his office and he had, he would take people out to, he would see people three and four times before you hired it.
Yeah. It's God. I'll tell you what, right now I'm hiring for the new gym and You're like, I want to like this person, it would just speed up the process, but like you have, yeah, it's can't do that. I know. And I, I just this year I fucked up on that. Yeah. You know, pay the price. Yeah. And, but for me, because like, I'm a yes man, I want to like people, I want them to be good.
There are certain people that when you first meet them, you're like, yeah, you, you're shit thick.
Yeah.
You're, you're so bad at being a person. Yes. Yeah. Ridiculous
outta here.
Uh, but then there's other people where you're like, all right. You get, you have a lot of the, the, the. Elements that I'm looking for in a, in a, in this position for this position.
Um, and then you, when you hang out with somebody enough, like you get two or three times in and you're like, all right, what makes you tick? What are you doing? You know, I got this guy right now who I've been spending a lot of time with in the last couple of weeks and church guy, which. I'm not a religious guy.
I don't give shit. I respect religion. I love it. I think it's a necessity for a lot of people That need to be grounded.
Yeah, it helps you get
I
say
if it gets you through the night Yep, and for me, I love it. I respect it. It's just not what I do on a daily basis However, this guy every time I talk to him, he's like i'm a church.
I'm a church I'm like fuck man. Are you gonna be a priest or uh, you know, but but what does that tell us?
I admire it Set that aside I need you to act like a surgeon with a scalpel. What does it tell us? He needs Jesus. He does. He needs it. And if you need Jesus, that means you have certain skills. Uh, rules that you adhere to certain ways of doing things and, and a certain morality and ethical value chain that is black and white.
So you know, that tells you something about this person's character is that I'm not saying is wrong for you. Is that right for you?
You know,
but those, again, you know, If I watch you play tennis, so if you're always at church, heaven knows, heaven knows, I'm not putting that down, but what does it tell us about this person's character?
What does it tell us about this person's needs and the way this person judges things?
Mm hmm.
So it, it,
Yeah, I'll tell you what, like, I've had nothing but great experiences. Um, and that's why I continue to hang out with him because I want to, I want to be like, is he working for you? Not yet. Right. Not yet, but it's, but when you're hiring somebody, obviously you get their representative, right?
You get the, whoever they want you to think they are. Right. Exactly. Everyone's in sales. Yeah. So, but, but
there's a lot of people you could just smell it on. You could see right. Absolutely. And this guy may be wonderful to work with, but I'm not saying these are definite, definite issues that he brings to the table.
I'm saying that one. One's alarm bell has to go off around that possibility so that you can explore that deep, more deeply. And that's what you owe him as well as yourself, because. I'm not saying I'm right that this person brings all of this to it, but it's logical and it's typical. And he may, he may be incredibly atypical.
He may not bring that at all to the way you do yours, but it's incumbent upon you to find out.
Yeah. And well, what I like about that is that someone has. This level of dedication to themselves and to God, whatever God you believe in. I don't give a shit which one you're right. Um, so I go, all right, I like that.
I admire it. Um, you're, you're right.
It speaks to great discipline. It speaks to great commitment. Those are all the positives. Those are our job is to find out if it bleeds over into a judgment.
I
agree. That's all. And if you, if he passes that test, Then you're looking at all the positives. Yeah.
Yeah. No, I, I, I definitely get excited when you meet somebody.
You're like, I hope this works out. And then they start to show you a lot of their character, um, and it makes you feel a little bit more comfortable, a little more comfortable. And you're like, okay, now we can pull the trigger on this thing. You know, it's almost like
lining up your sights. Yeah. I'll tell you, I just, cause we're talking to people out here and I just want to pass this on.
I don't interview for skills. I interview for character. Of course. So I'm interested in where you, I'll always say to anyone in New York or in the area. So how did you get to New York? Tell me about your trail. How did you get here from Wisconsin? I want to know what brought that person to New York. For sure.
What did your parents do? What sports did you play in high school? I
think what, I mean, hot topic, but, um, I think people are so quick to judge people on those things, like your background. Like I always. Like knowing where you're from, what, what, basically what your parents do, what do, what do you like to do?
I think all those things, we all immediately have the same type of judgment. If you're like, Oh, I'm from the Midwest. I'm like, all right, he's a little laid back, a little redneck. Maybe, you know, like you get these, I mean, they pop right in your head. It's like archetypes, stereotypes, whatever they may be.
You're, we all have the same ones. We all think the same thing about if you're like, Oh, I'm from California. You immediately have this idea of like what. You think somebody from California would be like, then you get to meet them and you're, you start to see a little bit of those stereotypes bleed into who they are.
It might not be a hundred percent, but you, but people get so offended by that. When I tell people I'm from New Jersey, I know immediately they're like, he's white trash.
I'm from New
Jersey. Yeah, I know. But like right away when somebody tells me they're from Jersey, I'm immediately, I'm like, That's where I'm from.
I'm probably going to get along with you more than I would if I met somebody from Minnesota, right? So, I think we all have those stereotypes, and you should never be offended by them. I
don't
think so.
Two things to say to that. One is, it's information. And so it's not, it's, it's less, to me, it's less about judgment, although that's there, than it is about information, because I'm assembling this tapestry.
So, here's what mitigates Iowa, learning how you got here. You left Iowa to come to New York City. I think That tells me
something. I think anybody who comes to New York Yeah, exactly. Who's not And even if you're from here and you stay here Yeah. You're like, oh, he's a dog. No, you gotta have a goal. She's a dog.
Yeah. You gotta have a goal.
You can't, you can't survive here if you don't get it. No. So that's why I love you. It's gonna suck.
It's gonna suck. It's so hard. It's gonna beat the shit out of you. Yeah. It's gonna, yeah. And when you're here, like you're a lifer, I mean, how long have you been here?
Uh, this time, 25 years.
And I was here 10 or 12 years, um, prior to that. Yeah. In the, in the eighties I was here. Yeah.
Yeah. And I, I think like anytime somebody tells me, they're like, I'm moving outta New York. I'm like, you're a quitter. Yeah. No.
Yeah. Gave up. There's a judgment .
Yeah. Yeah. Well, right away, because. I admire the people who are like, I'm a New Yorker.
I love it. There's something to be said when you go, I'm a New Yorker. You're like,
and I say, I have that feeling myself. I will always tell you. I respect everyone on the street. I don't care what color they are, what language you're speaking, what they're dressed like, because if you're in goddamn New York,
yeah,
you have
goals.
And if you're in New York, like all the shit that happened during 2020. And I go, if you live in this city, you can't be. Racist or right prejudice towards anything. I go, you're in the melting, but you are here. You're in the thick of the shit
in America. It's not the world.
Yeah. If you were any of those things, you wouldn't live in this fuck.
You'd leave. You would leave. Yeah. Made it here. You have to You have to work with these people. You have to live with them. You have to be on the subway with them. You're going to live in an apartment next to them. You can't be you. And that's what I love about New York. Like the diversity in New York is so amazing to me.
Like when I'm in my gym and there's so many different people from different walks of life who came from all over the world. I'm like, this is cool. Like, this is so much. There was a comedian who had a skit about, he goes, I don't understand how people don't see the United States as the best country. He goes, because if you look at the Chinese team or you look at the Italian team, everybody looks the same.
They all came from the same place. He goes, you look at the American team, everybody's different. And that's so cool. It's like we all get psyched about assembling the X men or the justice league. It's, it's somebody from every walk of life. Who's got a different power. Right. I think it's so cool. Like, that's what I love about New York, about this country, you know, and I think there's, there's beauty in that.
There's beauty in all these people. And there was, um, I forget what it was, but there was a study a couple of years ago and they were talking about what the average American will look like by like 20. Right. The
color of their skin, the color is. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because sort of brownish.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Because there's so much, you know, There's so much melding together. So drop some wisdom on us. What are, what are three things that most people should be doing when starting a business or, you know, looking out for employment? Like what are, what are the things that you tend to see that you're telling most of your clients?
Well,
one of the things I'm trying to tell people immediately is when you start a business, the structure of the business automatically becomes what I call a wagon wheel. You're at the center. And everybody reports to you, right? And you're making all these decisions very quickly. You have to get out of the wagon wheel.
I see people trying to run 14 people or 20 people or a 12 million business or even a 4 million business by being in the center of it. You can not, you cannot get anywhere near your potential unless you delegate. How do you delegate? You have to hire great people. We go back to, you know, what's fabulous you, who does this and who does that.
So one of the things about starting your company is to know that very quickly you have to get out of the center of it and move to another position where people are reporting to you and you have to hire people you can trust. That that's, that's one. The other is, um, again, money, you cannot think of money as the goal.
So you have to, you know, I talk about the money tree, right? And I have a, I have a, uh, a slide that comes up when I'm talking to me in, um, in, in my presentations and it's a tree with money on it, right? You can't get under that tree and work to the money. The tree only needs one thing. Sunlight and water.
You give the tree sunlight and water, it will give you its fruit. The tree cannot help but give you its fruit. Life cannot help but give you success if you give it sunlight and water. I, fuck it,
God, how much I struggle with that when I always think like, alright, when is it going to happen? When am I going to break this cycle?
Yeah, right. Because I do love what I do. I do it every day. People are like, when are you going to burn out? Or like, what happens when you burn out? I go, I've been burnt out, but I love what I do. So I continue to do it. But I'm always waiting for that. No, the moment where these, these lines cross and there's more money
than there is trouble.
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm like, when the fuck does that happen? Well, I believe you and I are working
on that. And, and I, I tell myself like, I'm not, that's not why I started doing what I'm doing, but it is the reward and you're like, all right, of course it is.
And after a certain age, it really becomes a great reward is to have this, the money to have the, the, um, The comfort of not wondering where, how to write a check or where it's coming from.
And you, in my mind, just talking to you personally, have the structure, you have everything you need. I think we're doing the work that's going to get us to the point where you'll say no, when you'll say no to certain things and say yes to fewer things.
One of the, one of the other things that you had just mentioned that I wanted to talk to about was there are so many people that I know, um, on social media who talk about starting a business and then getting out.
Yeah, they do. Yeah. People have short attentions, man. And I, I'm like, I developed the skills that I have on the training floor and do what I'm doing. And I love what I do. And I look at it the same as an attorney getting really good at being in a courtroom, winning over the jury, dealing with judges, dealing with clients, all that.
Why would I exit at the peak of my skill level? Right. I, when I meet trainers who are like, I don't want to be on the gym floor anymore. I go, well, then I don't think you should do this job because that's what the job is. I didn't, I never really set out to be a business owner. Right. I wasn't like, oh, I want to, I love what I do.
I just kind of gravitate towards what I like doing. Like I said before, I'm, I became an entrepreneur, but I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I just wanted to do it my way. Um, but the thing that I like doing the most is what I want to do. And when people are like, you need to get out, you need to stop spending your time.
And I get what they're saying. Stop spending so much time on the gym floor and start doing these other things. But how do I manage to do both?
You are, you are a big personality. And when I look at fabulous, you is that you are, are a connector and the people like being around you and you have great ways of meeting and, and bringing people into your circle.
So for me, when I look at you getting out of the center and getting into this other's place on top of this pyramid, let's call it, that's you being, that's the, you, I want to say now, how do you do that? You only do that by someone else. Taking up this other spot that you don't, and that you don't, I'm not talking about you, your relationship to your clients, that's, you're fabulous at that.
Mm-hmm . But I see you as a guy who builds your company by virtue of your, the power of your personality and the presence that you bring to it. And, and, and the, the sense of a winner that you are, that you have when you walk in the room. Mm-hmm. So, so for me, that's your job. So, okay. Then your job. Is to hire one or two people who make everything else go and you have to surrender all that.
That's the hardest thing. Finding the right people. So it
is. It is. But we talked a little about it. It's how you hire and, and, and how you see it in this, you know, what, you know, Kenny or anyone else out there, you have to know what you want in that position. What does that position call for? Who's, who's, who's, who's that position calling out to?
What are the skillsets I need? And I don't have to like them. I had, I had a vice president. I didn't like, damn, that guy did a great job. Yeah. And I made his life wonderful because he just did what I needed him to do. You, you have to find, and I say you, I say to everybody, you have to get away from the things you did when you started your company and become the person that's going to build your company.
But you do that by creating a structure that is totally solid. One of the keys. It's to build a culture where you solve problems, not crises. If you don't fix something as a problem, you're going to fix it as a crisis. Problems only do one thing. They get bigger and bigger. So, you know, who's that person?
Who's the person? Not you. Who's the person you hire who loves, loves to solve problems, hates to see them get into crisis and has the incredible mental agility, agility to solve that problems. You know, that's not, that's not a skill. Everybody had. No, it's so hard because, because part of that skill is exactly who you are, which is making people feel better when they're pissed off or you don't have the money to pay them.
It's going to be a month. You make them feel like I'll have it for you in a month. Don't you worry a minute. You know, it was, you know, everything from that to the plumber or to the guy who's putting on your, you know, your floor, whatever you, you need that person.
Yeah.
It's not, it can't be you. I know. I know.
It can't be you because your job, your fabulous Eunice is over here.
It's when I'm in a better mood because I, yeah, there's been at least five times where I want to fucking kill some contract. Yeah,
someone else, someone else has to do that and report to you.
God, I'm going to end up yelling at somebody for that shit.
Especially probably in about 10 minutes from now.
When you think about, when you think about I'm spending money, I'm spending money, that's great money to spend. That is the, that is the place to spend money. Yeah,
yeah.
Because that will free you up to be the guy who makes, and I know you, you meet people all the time and they want to be associated with you and they want to get, and you know, seven of the seven out of those 10 aren't for you because you, so you'll say no to that, but you keep making that happen.
That's, that's your power.
Where could people learn more about you? And, uh, you know, you got this radio show coming, right?
Yeah. WBCR. I'm going to start in January. Yeah. Business advice, but blah, blah, blah.
Nice. Okay. And where could people learn more about you? That's, that's not easy. You got to know somebody who knows somebody knows something about it.
Call Kenny.
Hit me in the DMS. I'll
just, just ask Kenny. He'll piece on my information.
Yeah, guys. Ian, thank you so much for coming on the show. Guys, if you want to learn more about business, he's already helped me and some of my friends, uh, just kind of manage their business and take those day to day steps that need to be, uh, treated.
I mean, it's, it's like therapy, but for, for business.
For biz. And I just want to say that, you know, the first conversation we have is just, You know, we're just yakking and, uh, you, you know, anyone I talked to would, I think at the end of that time go, you know, I'd love to work with this guy or Jesus Christ.
Like, you know,
yeah, and I'm good and I'm good. And I say that all the time, you know, there, I just got a review from somebody who, uh, who came and took my class and this woman's like, just absolutely shit on me. And I'm okay with it because I'm like, I'm not for everybody. I'm at that point. Yeah. Yeah. When I was 30, I was like, Oh shit, I should change.
I should do better now. I'm like, fuck, suck my ass. I don't give a shit. I just do things my way. Yeah. And I'm not for everyone. And you have to understand that your business, your product, you know, whatever you're doing in life, you Isn't going to be for everyone. And if you're for everyone, you're for nobody.
Yeah, I totally agree. I have very specific way of working and it is extremely empowered and great with results. But if it doesn't work for you, who gives a shit? It's
like, you're only holding me up from getting somebody else. Getting someone who really wants it. Yeah, who like, we connect a little bit better.
So that's the conversation. I have a conversation with somebody, we'll all figure it out.
Well, I appreciate you coming by. Thank you so much guys. Listen, like, subscribe, share, do all the things. And yes. Oh yes. I have a, I have a little present. I've been wanting to do this on the last couple of shows. Um, strong New York gear.
Everybody should be wearing it. And Ian's got his first one. I got mine. I can't believe you didn't get one at strong New York. Don't worry. I will not judge you.
Oh, Oh, I didn't buy it. Yeah. Don't
worry. You got one now. Okay. Um, so go to shop strong, new york. com and grab some stuff. Thank you guys all so much for liking, subscribing and showing up.
I'll see you guys in the next one.
I think we went over a little bit.