Growing an Inclusive Community with Jason Leenaarts

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 170. Today I'm sitting down with coach Jason Leaners, and we're talking all about growing an inclusive community. Are you ready? Let's get started. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up, coach? Thank you so much for joining me in another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson. If this is the first time you're here, welcome. Thank you so much for pushing play. I'm super pumped to get into today's episode. It was so such an incredible conversation and truly I could have talked to him for at least another three hours and I choked up at least three times. Jason is completely open and such a warm, open heart and shares his journey very powerfully inside of this episode. He also talks a lot about how he's been able to connect with human beings even if he can't relate to their specific example. So we talk a lot about imposters syndrome, moving through that. What if you're working with people who are not your avatar, you haven't gone through their journey, how you can connect, how you can relate, how you can be respectful and kind and create an inclusive environment. He also shares a lot inside of this episode about how he's gone through some of the toughest moments that so many people don't come back from. And he shares how. How fitness saved his life. Essentially, those are my words.

Not.

We also talk about power of education and books. He shares with us some of his favorite books that he reads. And honestly, it's such a generous episode that is powerful and I cannot wait for you to listen. So he is the owner of Revolution Fitness and Therapy, author. He's also a coach for Dr. Spencer's Nadolsky's big Rocks Nutrition Coaching, which he talks a lot about in addition to being the dad of two boys and an incredible musician and artist, and shared shares all of how this has shaped his successful business inside of this episode. So without further ado, let's go ahead and roll that interview. What's up, Jason? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you doing?

Hey, Beverly. I'm great. Thanks for having me.

Oh, My pleasure. I cannot wait to dive into today's conversation. So for those of you who are listening in, I'd love for you, Jason, to share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve, and how you got there.

Sure. I'm trying my best to find the Reader's Digest version of this story. So I will try to give you the fastest way that I can. Growing up, I was not much of an athlete. I was really into music, so I thought I was going to conquer the world with guitar and a microphone. And my cost of living was a little bit higher than what that lifestyle would let me afford. So I always had another job that was in the back that was like, okay, well, this lets me buy the clothes that I want and have a car and all that other stuff. And I. As a sort of a byproduct of being really caught up in music, I also developed a pretty nasty drug addiction for about 10 years. And in the midst of that is when I fell into fitness in a roundabout way. So I had one of those sort of epiphany moments early in that decade of drug addiction where I looked in the mirror one day and I said, I should do something about this. So I started lifting weights and lifting weights then phased into, maybe I should eat better and then wait for it. Then I finally got off drugs and I've been clean since 2006. So I got a part time job shortly thereafter in a gym because I wanted a place where I could train for free. My degree is actually in business management, so most of my work experience actually came running retail stores up until I started to get into training as a side hustle, essentially. And one of the things that I really despised about working at a gym was I didn't like how manipulative. A lot of the sales tactics were to get people to sign on the line and commit to a membership. And so I found that I was already kind of giving people fitness advice, being a salesperson in a gym. So I went to the head trainer and I said, look, I want to find out more about being a personal trainer, so where would you point me in the direction of. And he said, well, you know, here's some organizations you should look into. And he gave me the pros and cons about each and where I was. You know, with my degree and with life and everything, I thought, okay, I'm going to go and get certified. So I did that. And, you know, life circumstances being what they are, I had a lot of really cool things and a lot of really not so cool things happen sort of all at one time. And it allowed me to open up business of my own. So since 2009, I've been the owner of Revolution Fitness and Therapy. We are just a brick and mortar, what we call semi private personal training facility in good old. Well, today it's Sunny Stowe, Ohio. And yeah, so we've been doing that for the last 13 years. And that is, that is a Reader's Digest version.

I mean, that is amazing. That is a powerful. That is a powerful story. And I have so many questions. But first of all, I see in your background, because I'm. We're. We're recording this on video. Is that a baby next to a kettlebell?

Yeah. So I have, I have two boys. My oldest is 14. His name is Jackson. He's from my first marriage. And so if you're looking here to this side. Sorry, I pan left, pan right. The largest picture here is my, my, my big boy Jackson, when he was about six months old. And right next to him is my little guy, Sebastian, when he was probably about two or three months old. So Sebastian is almost five, Jackson is 14. And there they are. A blast. So amazing.

I have, I'm a mom of two. My daughters are six, and my daughters are. I was going to say six, six and seven, but they're not. There are seven and five.

Seven and five, excellent.

But one is turning seven, six and five, I guess. So I get, I see the babies and I'm like, oh, I got it. Parent life.

Yeah, that's right.

That's fun. So right before we hit record, you were also starting to share a little bit how you have a brick and mortar. Brick and mortar facility as well as now being a coach in an online world. And you were starting to talk about some of the differences and how they require two different brains. So I'd love for you to talk a little bit more about that journey. How did you go from. From the brick and mortar world and adding on online world and what are some of the biggest lessons you can share with us?

Sure. So, you know, as. As, you know, being in the world of podcasting, it's interesting, just the conversations you have and the people that you get to connect with. And I had a podcast that I ran pretty consistently for six years, and I just kind of recently closed the doors on it because as I'll allude to here in a moment, it was one of those things where I had to really start looking at how I managed my time. And also something that you're probably very Intimately aware of. We've been in this whole pandemic thing for the last couple of years, and there was already a surge for online coaching prior to that happening. I know what happened in New York because I know a lot of coaches who live in New York, but it was a pretty aggressive shutdown in that state and in Ohio, it wasn't quite as an aggressive of a shutdown, but I definitely needed to have some roots in online coaching to be able to transition all of my face to face clients into the online realm so that we could keep something going. And online coaching was something that I've done for a handful of years. I've never marketed it very aggressively because it's like, well, I've got the brick and mortar business. That's my bread and butter. I don't need online coaching. So if it's. If people want to sign up, great. And if they don't, that's okay. But along the way, someone that I had connected with many years ago and someone who was a guest on my show very early on was Dr. Spencer Nadolsky. And late last year, Spencer was in the process of launching a few different things at one time. So one of them was called liftrx, which is an online exercise platform. And he also was going to be starting a nutrition coaching program. And I was one of the first, I believe it was four of us that he initially hired through Mac Nutrition Uni as nutrition coaches for him for what we've now called Big rocks nutrition coaching. And so that is. It has come out of its beta phase. We're still kind of, you know, scaling up for the. The big ramp up, which depending on when this episode is released, may still be, you know, happening very soon. But it's been great. It's been a. Just a huge honor and privilege to work with him and the staff of coaches that he brought on. I think there were up to six coaches, so. But it's just been a tremendous opportunity and Spencer's got a lot of great reach. It's a really cool platform to work through. But, you know, one of the things that I've found so, you know, I've been. This will be my 15th year as a. As a coach since I got certified. And there's some pretty stark differences between the way that you coach face to face and the way that you coach in an online platform. And I have to be very candid when I say that, you know, the clients who come into redfit, they are here for both training and potentially nutrition coaching, whereas the people that I see through Spencer, they are only there for nutrition coaching, so the focus is a little bit different. So there are, you know, pros and cons to both coaching atmospheres, if you will. So that was one of the reasons why I shut down the podcast, was because I thought, you know, I've only got so much time. I'm one guy. I just can't do it all. So. So, yeah, that. That was kind of how all those things came to fruition.

That's beautiful. So I'm curious, you know, now that you've had the experience and now that you are incorporating the online space, do you foresee that you would, you know, grow your Rev company and add some hybrid online components to your brick and mortar?

Yeah, it's a good question. So right now, if I just take just a snapshot of the clientele that we have here at Revfit, it's myself as the owner and head coach. I have three coaches that work with me here, and they are each in their own right. They are also business owners, so they each have their own businesses that they oversee, one of whom does strictly online coaching. Another actually owns a martial arts dojo here in our plaza, and the other coach does youth athlete training out of this facility. So, you know, I have to be mindful of the fact that these are three young men who are also, you know, budding entrepreneurs that really want to try to make a living for themselves. And what I do find, just as sort of a matter of course, being where we are, is that I might have clients that start with me face to face, and then they move away and they want to continue that training experience because they like what they did here. So it becomes an easy opening for them to do online training. And, you know, again, because time is of the essence, it's like, well, how aggressively do I want to market online coaching when I've got, you know, about 100 clients here face to face right now? Plus, I've got all the people that I'm working with through Spencer. So it becomes one of those things where you can't say yes to everything, and you also have to be strategic about what you say no to. And I think that's one of the probably the toughest things of any coach in this industry is, you know, you. When you get started, you kind of have to say yes to everything, because it's like, I need to make a paycheck. I need to pay my rent and pay my utilities and possibly support a family. And then I'm in a nice place now where I can confidently turn things down because it's like, well, I'm not best suited for this individual, so can I give them to one of my coaches or is it better served in another facility, that kind of thing? So, yeah, it's just trying to try to balance where are my strengths at Love that.

I also think too, that you bring up such a good point, and I think a lot of people miss this, is that people don't realize that when you're saying yes to something, you are also at the same time saying no to something else, whether you realize it or not. So I think that's really powerful. So I'm curious. You mentioned that you were a music that you love music. You thought you're going to change the world with music. Have you still been able to incorporate music into your life, into your business? How has the lessons from that journey also been shown up in your business?

Now, that's a great question. Music for me primarily is essentially just an outlet. And, you know, I think the place where I probably use it the most when I'm, you know, when you're having a say, a coaching moment is probably happens more through the realm of, you know, coaching for nutrition. Because a lot of the clients that come to see me, whether it's the people who Spencer or the people that are here, you know, if there's weight to lose, perhaps it's because of a lack of particular coping mechanisms. And so where food becomes the cope for a lot of people struggling with stress or boredom or, you know, emotions otherwise undefined, you do start to ask things like, well, what else do you do with your time? What else can you do when you're bored? What else can you do that's not directly tied to food? And one of the things that I use for myself is I still turn to my guitar. So, you know, I have a guitar at home and I have a guitar right here next to me at the studio. And I will routinely just pick the guitar up if I have a few minutes and find a couple songs I just want to kind of venture through. And part of it is just to kind of stay somewhat up with the skill of, you know, like a lot of things, if you don't use it, you lose it. So that happens to my voice, it happens to writing, it happens to the dexterity of my fingers to be able to play. And it's like, okay, well, you know, we can work on this. And if I were talking to a client that maybe plays an instrument or maybe doesn't, but just really likes music, we might Talk about, well, what can you do to incorporate that thing so that while you're there, you're busy focusing on that skill and that hobby and not thinking about what's the next thing I'm going to eat. And so it just becomes kind of a, you know, a topic of conversation to go, why don't you try this? And it can work. So, like a lot of things, any, any tip you would give somebody, it's not foolproof. There's still going to be ways to, you know, you know, go back to the pantry, but you're just trying to find ways to break up patterns that might. Might otherwise be destructive for them.

So true. So good. And honestly, as you know, as you mentioned, we all have vices, and I'm sure you have experienced and noticed correlation between people's behavior in terms of their relationship to food and their neural pathways in their brain, which can be as severe and very similar to addiction.

Sure, sure, sure. And it's, you know, that's, that's an easy place for me to relate because, you know, here's the thing, and I didn't really get into this during the intro, but I've always been a thin guy, so I never came into this industry from, oh, I had 70 pounds to lose or whatever it is. And so I can coach you because I have been there and I have done that. I mean, I have been there and I have done that, but not from a weight loss perspective. It has been from a. I know what it is like to look to unhealthy behaviors to fix my problems. And, you know, 10 years was a long time to spend fixing my problems with the wrong things. And so that is where I just try to have some common ground. Because fact of the matter is, most of my clients have never been addicted to drugs. They might not really be addicted to much of anything, just these particular patterns. So it's all right. How do we find some common ground? And how can I help you get out of your way so that you can be closer to where you want to be?

Yeah, it's so true. I'm also curious, you know, as you. You bring up something that I think a lot of coaches battle with, and some are talk about it and some don't. Is this concept of what if I am not my ideal client? Meaning what if I've just been shredded my whole life? What if I, you know, or. Or some people will say to me, you know, I'm not fit enough to be a trainer because I've never had a six pack or, you know, they go through these imposter syndrome feelings. So I'm curious how you've navigated that and how, you know, what would you say to a coach that's potentially feeling the same way?

That's a great question. You know, I'm someone who. I try to think about the best way to say this. I've always had visible abs. That's either a good or a bad thing. So the reason why I bring that up is because as a guy and having trained a lot of men who talk about being able to see their abs and all that stuff, and ladies that, you know, may potentially talk about the same. I heard something from a. A good friend of mine early in this career, and he made the comment, he was like, you know, Jay, not everybody wants a six pack. And that was. It sounds really simple, but it was a profound thing for me to hear him say, because I was like, oh, yeah, not everybody wants that. And then you start to kind of learn more about people and their struggles and all this different stuff. And it is like, by and large, most people just want to be able to feel better. And how do you get them to do that? So, you know, I'm going to just going to take an arbitrary number that means nothing to anyone, but just to kind of throw it out there and say, 200 pounds. Now, that means something to one person totally different to another. And I'll just kind of shore this up the best way I can. For one person, 200 pounds is a weight they never want to be at. And so if they hit it, they want to try to reverse things. And for another person, 200 pounds is their dream weight. That is where they will be their happiest. And trying to find the divide between, what are these two people like? And how do I get them closer to happiness so that they can feel and move and behave in a way that is more aligned with the way that they want to live. And that may mean, can I go up and down a flight of stairs without being out of breath? Can I play with my kids? And again, think about these two different types of people, because for both people, the answer is yes, but they're working against a different number. And so it's the kind of thing where it's like, what I weigh means nothing. Because in all the years that I've done this, I've encountered maybe, maybe five people who have said, I want to look like you. That number's small. Which means, why would I try to get somebody to look the way that I look? Why don't I just get you to work with the. The cards that you've been dealt to go, let's improve it, and how do we improve it? And I think that once I can do that, instead of saying, well, don't you want to look like me? Again, it starts to kind of neutralize some of the situation. Because if I made anyone feel like they were less of a person because they don't look like me, well, that's not very fair as a coach. So it became less about the way that I look and more about how can we. How can this coach client relationship benefit somebody that we both know is Chris Little. And Chris Little is an incredibly strong individual. And I'm sure that Chris knows that not everyone will be as strong as he is, but that doesn't mean that they can't be stronger than what they are. And so, again, it's just trying to find where's your starting point and how do we move the needle closer to where you want to be?

Yeah, it's so true. And I think you said something that that is worth reiterating is that you talked about shifting focus from I to you without notice. You know, you know where it's literally when you can get out of what are they going to think of me? And more into how can I really help and serve the person that's right in front of me? That is just a good. A game changer. It's a game changer for you. In your confidence. You'll get the rep working with people. And also, like, people can feel that subconsciously.

Sure. That's the hope at least, right?

Yeah. And also to acknowledge that those feelings are really Are so. Are so true. I mean, it's normal for people to feel that way. I think that that's also a mark of a good coach knowing that there's always something more to learn, to get better, to. To consistently sharpen the saw. I think that's a powerful place. So I'm curious, too, since you talked about mastering your resources in terms of your time, how have you been able to prioritize your own health and your own mental health as well as you get busier as you grow? Because I know for me, it's definitely the first thing that goes. And I also know that a lot of coaches and fitness managers struggle with this is how do you prioritize your own health when you're managing everyone else's?

Yeah, it's really hard for me to talk about this without talking about my itinerary. And my itinerary is I'll Just say it's hard to copy it. Yeah. So for the, for the folks in the cheap seats, my day, six days a week starts at 3:45am and yeah, that's the look that I get from a lot of people too. Yeah. So it's, it starts early and I'll try to frame that up the best way that I can. It gives me about a half hour to have some coffee, kind of shake the cobwebs off, read a little bit. I do go through my phone to see if there's any, you know, reschedules or anything that's going to be pertinent to my day starting that I can see. As soon as I wake up, I get freshened up. It takes me about 20, 25 minutes to get to work from here. We start training clients at 5:30 in the morning. Depending on the day of the week, they might get here about 15 minutes early. So we need to be here basically with bells on and ready to rock and roll. I have the day split into two training blocks. So it starts at 5:30 in the morning. It goes till about 10 and then we shut down operations for about four and a half hours and then we fire it back up at about 2:30. We go till about 5:30 most nights. So two training blocks with that big gap in the middle where I can do all of the other things like client programming, being a guest on a podcast, being able to get my own lunch. It's also typically when I would do my own training. So if I'm going to do cardio, if I'm going to do my strength training, that kind of stuff happens then. And you know, being a parent, sometimes my wife has things going on where she's like, can you watch Sebastian? Yeah. Okay, so that's got to happen during that time too. And so it's, it becomes the balancing act. And you know, and I'll say this too, just because I'm certainly not perfect, but I'm pretty damn regimented because things have to work just so or they just don't work. But it's one of those things too, where here I am, I'm sitting in the office of my studio and I can absolutely give myself enough busy work that I don't go into the gym and actually do my work, like do my workout. But I have to remind myself this, you know, to the best of my ability, I have to be able to walk the talk. So if I'm going to coach to my clients, you should be able to make 10 to 15 minutes or 15 to 30 minutes out of your day, you better damn believe. I've got to be able to, you know, not only preach the gospel, but actually work the gospel. So I got to be able to get that, you know, get out there and do those things too. Even if it means that I got in 15 minutes before people started training in the morning, and then 15 minutes during a block, at least I got it in. It doesn't really matter about how you get it. You just got to get it. And then, of course, if things get really screwy for me, where I get a curveball thrown my direction, which absolutely happens when you own a business, then you push it to the next day. It's not a big deal. So, yeah, it's one of those things where I'm not much of a party animal, so I don't stay up late, but my days start very early. And that's just how I structure everything. But I know that it. I'm not the norm. And as I said, it would be. It would be a difficult schedule for somebody else to replicate. But I do have to remind myself that it's like, you know, even if you can only do 10 minutes, even if you can only do one set of squats, that's what you're going to do, and you're just going to call it a win for the day.

So you talk about something that I think is really powerful, which is the. Recognizing the difference for yourself between what is resistance in terms of I just don't feel like it, versus being too registered, regimented, and, you know, working out with the flu, which I feel like is two opposite sides, and people have a hard time navigating what the truth is for themselves. I think that's really powerful. And honestly, when you can lock that in, I think that's part of what separates people who continue to struggle from the ones who rise.

Yeah, and it's. It's one of those things, too. And I'm very open about this. I. You know, for a guy that makes a living and supports his family by running a gym, I don't love exercise. I do it because it's the same reason why I brush my teeth. I want to keep my teeth. So it's. And I'd like to be able to keep most of my teeth. It's one of those things where I don't love it, but I will make it work and I will love the results of doing it. So it is a simple trade off for me. I know a lot of people are like, find something that you love. And I Am like, that is bullshit. Find something you can tolerate and love others. Because here's the thing. And again, we talking about, like, relating to people. I have clients that come to me and they're like, is there something wrong with me that I don't love? Exercise like, hell, no. There's nothing wrong with you. You were a human. I'm with you.

Oh, my gosh. My husband, he'll say it to me all the time. He will be like, I just can't. Like, I can't believe there are freaks like you out there like this.

Hey, it's a slow death, but we can make it. We can make the scenery more pleasant. Right?

Oh, my go. And I said, listen it really? And it's so funny. I'm going to tell him that you said, I'm going to tell him that. Because that's insane. Because it's not that I actually like doing it. I just like how I feel after it's done.

Sure.

Not even look. Just that, like, my mental clarity is gone. Like, my. My. I feel less anxious. I feel like it's just so much better. But the actual act of doing it is terrible.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, and the thing is, like, think about how many people, like, don't go to a gym because they're like, like, but I don't love it, or I don't want to sweat, or I don't want to do the thing. And it's like, you know, we were just talking about meeting people where they're at. It's like, who says you have to sweat? I mean, sweat if you want to, but you don't have to sweat. We can do things that don't necessarily induce perspiration or make you glitter or whatever. So. Yeah.

So true. You know, too. And my husband used to say there was a commercial, and I'm pretty sure it was crunches, but it's either Crunch or Planet Fitness about the workout tart, where he didn't want anybody to see him working out. So it was like a whole commercial of, like, working out with the tarpon. People feel like that. He still talks about that. And that commercial is 10 years old.

Yeah, yeah. It's true. And it's. I think it's why, certainly something that we have tried very hard to do with this facility is we've tried to build and maintain a community where it doesn't matter where you're coming from. From, like, you're welcome here. And unlike Planet Fitness, we lift heavy things and we use chalk and you can slam weights. Like, it's fine. So it's, it's one of those things where I think the more people can just be themselves, the better, the better atmosphere it's going to be. And we're kind of wild here at redfit. And I say that to people during their consultations. I'm like, listen, I'm just going to tell you we're a little bit crazy, but you know, we'll have a good time.

So I love it. And I think what is clear just in the conversation with you is that you are incredibly good at creating a safe community, even in your brick and mortar and have like a very awesome, like a very, a sense of openness and creative community in your, at your place. So I'm curious, what are some of the ways that you have cultivated that type of environment for your brick and mortar specifically?

So if you would have asked me 13+ years ago when I opened this place, what, what do you want this to be? You know, people talk about you like your five year plan and all that stuff.

Where are you going to be five years from now?

Yeah, exactly. Which is another, like, where does this question come from? So I, I, all I wanted to do was to be successful by a given definition. I wanted to be able to pay my bills and be able to have some n. Whether it was to support my family and go on a nice vacation or I collect things like I collect books and records and bourbon and stuff like that. And it's like I want to be able to have those things. And so what the business has become is something that is better than anything my imagination would have come up with. And I remember and I will always do my best to give credit to this. Mark Fisher Fitness is someone, Mark Fisher in particular is someone who I watch because I heard people talking about him and I saw the kind of community that he and his business partner Michael built. And I thought now, and keep in mind, my wife was groomed in musical theater. So there was a link to this that I was like, this is really fascinating. It's happening in New York City. It is very much. While it's not necessarily catered to the musical theater demographic, it certainly can draw that demographic in. And I thought, God, what they're doing is brilliant. It's absolutely brilliant what they're doing. They've got fitness, they've got theater, they've got perversion. You know, they've got all.

Lack of a better word.

I mean, it's just like, you know, it's, it's all the things. And it was one of Those things where I was like, my God, what an absolutely brilliant business model. It's a shame I don't live in New York City, because how in the hell do I replicate that? And I'll be really candid. Once I started to grow my LGBTQ community, it happened on its own. It brought in a demographic of people who are very caring, they're very loving, they will support you until their dying day, and they make the atmosphere a more fun place to be. And when you start to hear things like that, about having, like, an all inclusive space and all that stuff, I don't even. I didn't even know what all inclusive meant. I didn't know that as a term when I opened this business. But then when it became that, it was like, well, of course we're all inclusive, but why wouldn't we be? But what I saw, and of course, as we've been watching, like, things happen on a social level over the last several years, is you start to see. And this was even like a recent conversation that happened with some of my clients here, trying to think the best way to say this. One of my newer clients had gone on Facebook and said, is there an LGBTQ community or friendly gym in this area? And one of my current clients said, you need to go to Revolution Fitness and Therapy. And so he called and I said to him, I said, I don't mean to be stupid, but is there actually such a thing as a gem that's not LGBTQ friendly? And he said, yes. Really? That's fascinating. It is 2022. How is that possible? But you know what another gem's loss is? Our game is the way that I see it. So it is one of those things where as that part of our demographic grew, it changed the atmosphere of how we function as a cohesive unit. And right now, I would say that that community is maybe 15% of my total clientele. I'd love to have more, but I'm happy with the 15%. But what is also, I think, fascinating to see, just because I love to study people in general, is it's an awfully politically charged society too. And I've been very fortunate that over the last handful of years, that I can have two people in the same room who are on two different ends of that fence, and they can be civil to each other and they can talk to each other like normal human beings, and they wouldn't fight with each other the way that they might if they were strangers on the Internet. And I'm proud of that. So I wish I could Say I did these magical things and thus this is rev fit it. But I would say that a lot of it was like a happy accident. I just, I think it's all going to come back down to do you treat your people with respect? And does everyone who walk through your doors, do they get the same basic treatment? Like, you know, obviously we can't train every single person the exact same way and not everybody has the same nutritional needs and not everybody has the same bag as they bring to the table. But like Beverly, I don't know you from athletes, them, but if you came through these doors, I would treat you and your husband and Chris little with the same love and concern because it's like you're coming into my place and I want you to feel comfortable and I want you to be a long term client. How do we foster that? We foster it by having a good damn time and trying to meet you where you're at. So, yeah, I mean, it's kind of like the golden rule, right? Treat others as you want to be treated.

Yeah, it sounds so like simple and matter of fact. But you know, we both know that what is calm common sense is just not that common. But you know, I, you know what I hear and what I feel is that is empathy and compassion. That when we really can. Just look at him. I think that in addition to the pros and cons, I mean we're dealing, we're also talking about the law of polarity. Right. Is that you cannot have one without the other. So with social media, you've got the pros and the cons and they live together and the pandemic. Plus these social media just created a pressure cooker for forgetting humans are on the other side of that platform.

Right, right, right. And it's, you know, it's unfortunate because I'm very aggressive with marketing this business on social media and I marketed in one way on Facebook and I have pivoted to the way that I marketed on Instagram. But I try to follow a very simple rule for myself which is am I inspiring people or am I humoring entertaining people? What am I putting out into the world when I do this thing? And I think that if more people could do something of a self audit where. And I'll use Facebook as an example because I think Facebook is a fascinating platform to do this from. Go through your feed and look at the things that you put out into the world. What is it like? Are you one of these people that you post funny memes? Cool. Are you one of these people that post a lot of pictures of their family. Cool. Are you the kind of person that likes to engage in dissenting conversation? I don't know if that's super cool, because other people see that. And the thing is, the thing that we know is there are a lot of folks with a more fragile mental state that now this is becoming part of their psyche, too. So you see certain things. You see, you know, we just had a. A very unfortunate incident happen in Akron with law enforcement and a, you know, someone in the public. And as part of that news, you saw body cam footage of things that were happening, and it's disturbing. And so as a. As the public, you see this thing and it's like, do I want to watch this? Do I want this to be part of, like, my mindset for the day? Do I want to be incensed? Do I want to feel like my rights are being violated? Do I want to fight the man? Like, whatever your emotional responses to this thing. And social media is this outlet that gives us freedom to feel a lot of different things and not freedom of consequence. So it's one of these things that, as a business owner, it's one of the coolest things I've ever been a part of. And as a person, it can be one of the most frightening things that you've ever had your hands on. On. And it is trying to balance all that stuff, you know, because we are in the health field. This is all health. And we wonder why people can't reach their goals. It is like, what world are you having access to? And so it is a powerful and a beautiful and a dangerous thing all in one. And so I know I went totally off on a tangent.

You did it.

I think if we don't address these things, too, we're not going to get down to the root cause of the things that are really bothering our clients. And so we have to be able to have an open space because we know that our clients are going to vent, and we have to be able to do it judgment free. Because if I have a hundred clients, and I do, I'm not going to be on the same page with all 100 clients about every single thing that happens. But I can still be respectful and I can still love them and I can still want them to be better people, regardless of where we might have something of a divide. So I think that is one of the other challenges of coaching and trying to keep a community intact is how do you keep everybody safe? Because everybody wants to feel safe.

I mean, this is such a powerful conversation just also too that and as we're talking about this, I'm just going to go ahead and and what I which I always say is that I can acknowledge my privilege in my and my accessibility. Acknowledge that as I'm sharing and I know that you feel the same. I just like to to because I too really value diversity and diversity in thought and diversity in experience. Like it's something that I really do value and that I work to actively cultivate in my space and communities. So with that also comes the question which I have spoken about with my friends and call and clients oftentimes is, you know, defining my boundaries in terms of what is acceptable for me and what I can be respectfully okay with, disagreeing with and what I can't because those lines are there. I'm never in a million years going to support a KKK member ever. Right. And I'm using that extreme example because that's clear. But what is, you know, to your point earlier was like I can't believe we're still talking about this because in many cases in some places we are. So it's worth noting, however, I do have to be, I do have to ask myself and create those boundaries for myself and for my business and for my communities of where are my lines in terms of what I can and what I will tolerate and what I won't.

And you raise a good point because it's like, like you, I will if I look on my, as an example, if I look on my Facebook friends, the majority of those people are people in our industry. And it's because I've had them on as podcast guests or their fitness, you know, enthusiast or whatever. Maybe they liked my, my show when it was, you know, on the air and whatnot. But it's all people that I'm connected with with through this industry. And I try to be very intentional about the fact that I know I'm not in agreement with certain people about certain things. And I'm going to I'll move this away from the social stuff. Let's just talk about fitness, which, you know, arguments abound everywhere. Keto this, not keto that. Intermittent fasting. This not intermittent fasting. How slow should the cadence of those reps be? And you will see people just get into horrific arguments about this stuff. And I don't mind it because I like being educated and I like having an opinion, but I also like having my opinion challenged. But I don't need to be in an echo chamber. I don't need to surround myself with yes men and yes, women to go. No, Jason, actually, you've been right all along.

Oh, my gosh.

So it's. It's that. But then to your point, there are certain. Say this. There are certain people that just have to unfollow because I'll come back to that whole, like doing that self audit if I see that you are the kind of person who every time I see you post, it's nothing. It's not positive. It doesn't. Doesn't leave me feeling better. It doesn't leave me feeling like I learned something. I will probably unfollow you because I might like you as a person face to face. Perhaps this person's been on my podcast and we had a perfectly good dialogue about X topic, but then I see that every time they're on Facebook, they're just kind of a jerk. It's like, I don't need that right now. I want to get on social media and feel good about something.

You know, it is. I mean, I love that you bring this up is because that you can love someone and respect them and then not have them in your energetic space days. Because for me, it's just a ma. It's just a matter of managing your energy. And I want to be around the people that make it easy and that put my. Put my energy and frequency in just an easy high feeling that doesn't have. And it doesn't mean that it's like all sunshine and rainbows all day long. It just means that I don't have to work and spend a lot of efforts to stay neutral. Reading your story off, being in your energy right with you. And then I think that that's powerful.

Well, and it's one of those things, too. Kind of coming back to how do you manage your day? Well, I'll be the first person to say I probably waste time on social media. You know, when I'm not actively posting things, I probably do scroll and get lost in that vortex. And it becomes one of those things where if I don't get caught up in all of the negative stuff, if I can just trim some of it back a little bit, then it's like one more thing that my mind isn't really spinning about because I've already got it spinning. I've got it spinning over good things. I might as well, you know, if the bucket's going to be full, fill it with something. Fill it with something good, you know, because life. Life provides its own drama.

Amen. Amen.

Amen. Amen.

Okay, so I definitely. I definitely want to be mindful of your time. So I do. I had, I had one thought, one question that I wanted to ask you and now it is escaping me. It is going to come back to me. It is going to come back to me. But it was something. It was going to. It was, it was going to come back to me. It was about energy management and now I cannot recall it. And of course it'll come to me as soon as I hit stop recording.

Well, you know, as part of that coffee is included. Yeah. And if I could do a shameless plug, it would be death wish coffee. So. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, okay. Great. Okay. It did. It came to me.

There you go. The wheels are spinning.

The death with the coffee cave.

The coffee powered by death wish. You can send me a lifetime supply. Thank you.

My question was actually about, you know, critical thinking and the energy management and how you continue as you grow your business to sharpen the saw in terms of your education. What are some of the ways that you continue to fuel your critical thoughts and grow as. As a coach and as a leader of coaches?

Sure. That's an awesome, awesome question. You know, the podcast was definitely one way that I did that. And that was one of the reasons why I started it, because not having that background in exercise phys, I knew that there were things I didn't know. And I thought, well, if I'm going to follow these people, the Spencer Nadolski of the world and all that stuff, how am I going to learn from them? Well, I can just wait for them to release information or I can invite them on my show and I can ask them specific questions so that I can learn more and grow as a, you know, as a person. I read an absurd amount of books and I always try to throw just a little disclaimer in there that consuming and remembering are two different things. I do a lot better at the former than the latter. But early in my career, I read as much as I could about exercise and nutrition and psychology of nutrition and things like that that I could get my hands on. And at a certain point, I just kind of burned myself out because as I'm sure you know, that's really dry material and it's really hard to make it fun and enjoyable. And at a certain point, how much more do you need to read about lean protein and fruits and vegetables and fucking legumes? Sorry if I'm not clear for put explicit on this one because the potty mouth in Ohio, the. I. I have always appreciated and I took this from the years that I was A songwriter. When I stopped writing songs was after my father passed away. I. It just did. The fire went out after my dad died, and I was like, I still need an outlet, something if I'm not going to write songs. And so that became block. And I still do a blog. I still do a weekly blog, and it's a good place to sort of, like, let my brain dump. And what I found along the way was that if you want to be a better writer, you need to read more fiction, and you probably need to read some books about writing. And so I've done more of that, too. I still love music. Just with every fiber of my being. I love music. So I love to read about music. Music history and music biographies and all that stuff. Stuff. So next to me, you can't see it on camera or on this camera, but there's probably a thousand books over there on that side of the room. I've read probably 90% of them. Don't ask me what I remember. It's not going to be a. It's not going to be an impressive answer. But I could let you know I would read that again or I wouldn't read that again, or. Yeah, you should check that out. But it's one of those things where I continue to read because I want to continue to do one of a few different things. I want to get better at writing. I want to get better at coaching. I want to entertain myself by reading about things like music. I want to escape stress by reading things like fiction. I want to be able to, like, talk to a client about some of these things because I. I remember having a client years ago who she came in for her first session, and I like to think I'm a fairly personable human being. And I just couldn't. I couldn't crack this one. I was like, does she hate me? Like, do I stink? Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose?

Like, she hates working out.

She might hate working out. Like, seriously. So I was like, why are we not. Why are we not, like, connecting? And I won't tell that story that. So I'll tell the story like this. I found out that she liked to read. And so that became the point that we connected on. So while not every. She became a client, she was a client of mine for, like, five years. So fortunately, like, we got over the hump. But it was always that connecting point. Hey, so and so, what are you reading? Reading. And she had such good taste in books that any book she told me about, I bought it and While I might not have rushed to read it, by time I read it, I'd be like, hey, remember that book that you told me about? I just read that. That book was great. So thank you for that. So, you know, kind of coming back almost full circle to our conversation about community and clients and growing it and making it work and all that stuff, find that point of connection because I literally, I was banging my head against a wall for that whole session going, how am I going to connect with this person so they actually want to come back. And it was books for me. It was books. You know, she might have said, I came back because he had a booger hand out of his nose and I felt bad for him.

That is amazing. Okay, so final question I'll leave you with. This is if you could go back to and talk to yourself now. You said, I wanted to get better at writing, I wanted to get better at coaching. And you could go back to yourself now and you had the opportunity to fast track success. What would be your top three books that you study that you would recommend to yourself?

Oh, God, I don't know. I'm not sure because there are so.

Many to choose from.

I know there is. But I will say this. There. There are a couple of books that are, that I'm going to mention and I'll give this this caveat. I'm not going to mention these because they were my favorite. I'm going to mention them because they came so highly recommended. And I recently went through each of them a second time just to see, like, here I am all these years later. Am I still learning something from this book? Is there still something to take from it? And the one was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and the other was how to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. So again, if you've, if you're listening to this and you've never read these books, I would say go read them. I'm not saying they're the best books I've ever read, but what I will say is that you're probably going to hear people talk about these books a lot. They were written a long time ago and the principles behind them still hold up, up. But they are books that there is reason why people still talk about them because the principles still matter and there's still things of value that even if you have points of contention where it's like, it's 2022, it's 100 years later, these things are not the same. Go to the principles, like, you know, file away some of the Minutiae and all that stuff that you're like, well, that doesn't sound, you know, feasible. And just go, but what am I learning about this? Well, it's teaching me how to connect with people, and it's teaching me how to respect. Respect people. It's teaching me how to respect myself. And I think those are the things that are worth coming back to. And I'll throw one little, like, wrinkle of a book in just because I always reference it whenever I hear people or see people on the Internet go, give me a good book to read. I always, always, always reference this book, and it's called American Kingpin. I have the physical copy. I listened to the audiobook. It is a nonfiction book about the person who started the Silk Road, which is the. The. The part of the dark web where they sold weapons and bombs and all of all that other stuff. It is paced like a movie. It is fascinating. So if you like nonfiction, if you want to. If you want some escapism or whatever, check it out, like, and send me a message and let me know what you think, because it's one of those things that, like, why have they not made this into a movie? This is one of the most insane stories I've ever heard. So, yeah, there's your amazing.

Okay. I love it. All right. I love it. I love it. Have you also, side note. Have you read Napoleon Hill's Outwitting the Devil? Oh, my gosh.

I have not.

Mind bending.

Sorry. I'm going to write this down now. Thank you so much. I love walking away with something that I did.

I would tell you to listen to the audiobook.

Okay, okay.

Because it's just so. I mean, it is like. And then, you know, you know, Napoleon Hill's work, so you know that the context of how he writes in. When he wrote that book, it will just completely, like, fascinating. So fascinating.

Okay. Okay. On that note.

And you'll. You'll have to tell me what you.

Think on that note. I. I've heard people say that they will abandon books, and that is one of the strangest things to me. Like, you've picked up a book, you've started it, and you get however far into it, and you're like, this is a waste of my time. I've never done that. I have never not finished a book. And I recently did the audio version of a book that I won't reference it just because most people probably won't take the reference. But it was a big book. Big, you know, massive book. And so the audiobook was super long. And I'm sitting there listening to it because the reason why I did it. I really liked another book that this author wrote. And I'm going through it and I'm like, my God, this is going to be a long span of time that I dedicate to this book where I'm just really not feeling it. And I'm just sitting there plotting, plotting, plotting, plotting through this damn thing. And I hit the midway point, and I've already got, like, mucho time invested in this book. Yeah, you're in it. And at the midpoint, all of a sudden, it was like, cool, things are happening. I'm liking what I'm hearing. This is like. But what a strange thing to do to your audience is like, you're going to tie me up for that long, get me all like. Like all round before here. And then all of a sudden, now, now, now we hit the climax. You son of a.

He clearly that author clearly. Or he or she clearly missed on writing. Like, we need to edit something like.

Like murder your darlings. Like, we need to go.

Yeah, let's go.

Yeah. So it was one of those things where I heard that person's voice or those people's voice, that collective voice in my mind going, put it down, put it down. You put on things you can do. And I'm like, no, a good part is coming. Don't let me. I did it.

Oh, my gosh, Jason, this has been incredible. There are so many. I mean, I probably could have talked to you for, like, a good four hours. So for those of you that want to learn more about your work, your community, where are the best places that I can send them?

Sure, you can always go to my website. It's JasonLeanarts.com. i believe I'm the only Jason Leinarts on the planet. So if you've got the vowels right, I'm like a wheel of fortune wet dream because of all the vowels. If you've got the spelling right, you'll find me there. You will also find older episodes of the podcast that are on the blog as well. If you want to see what we're doing at Revolution Fitness, it is RevFitTherapy.com and please, if you're. If you want to be just dominated by all the things that we do here at redfit, you can friend me on Facebook and then also find me on Instagram, because I'm doing just all kinds of strange things on there, especially with my kid. I've got my kid on Instagram now, too. And he's hysterical. So my little guy.

I love it. I love it, I love it. Okay, we'll make sure we link all that up in the show notes. So thanks so much for pouring into us today. I really appreciate it.

Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure.

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