The Champion Mindset with Tony Taveras

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 72. Today I'm sitting down with Tony Tavares, and we are talking all about the champion mindset. 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 pressing play on another episode of the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and today we've got another special episode for you. Okay, so it is super early in the. This is like the fifth time I tried to record this. My brain just must not be firing. But so I'm going to do my best to keep this super short. I'm really excited to bring to you Tony Tavares, who is a serial entrepreneur and an IFBB pro bodybuilder. Plus, he is a managing partner at Linear Roofing. And dad, in this episode, we talk about all of these components because his key focus in life is truly about helping others become the most elite versions of themselves in both fitness and business. And you are about to discover that in this episode. And we talk through some key components that will help you master having a champion mindset and becoming an elite version of yourself. So Tony has 10 years of experience recruiting, developing, and managing sales teams across both the fitness industry and the roofing industry. And he specializes in building winning cultures for companies in order to take them to the next level. So without further ado, let's roll that interview.

Toni, I'm super pumped to have you on the show today. How are you?

I'm doing great. How are you doing?

So good. This is so fun. I'm glad that we connected. I can't wait to dive in.

Yes, me too.

So why don't you go ahead and just start, Tell us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Yeah, so it's a little bit of a long story. Hope we got some time today.

I can't wait. I already had the pleasure of hearing some of it in the green room before we hit record, and I was bad. Just gonna make you say that over again.

Cool. Well, I'll start from the beginning a little bit so people can kind of hear where I started in my background in the Fitness realm because it all started in fitness in sports and then it's transitioned to what it is today, to building a huge brand and a business and now even a multimillion dollar company in a roofing business off of fitness. So it all started really in high school. I grew up in a small town. Small town of Grosbec, Texas. I mean small, little 3A school, when I mean small. Our mascot was a goat. A goat. Not a bulldog, not a tiger, not a lion, a goat. So you can imagine that it was country.

But where's greatest of all time?

That's right. There's one thing about Texas, and we love Texas football. We're crazy about it. So I fell in love, naturally with football. I fell in love with working out in the gym. I fell in love with the discipline of it and just the ability to know that whatever you put in to the gym and whatever you put into your practice, that's where you're going to get out in the result. Like you can't hide like when, when you're competing, when you're, when you're in sports, it's like whatever work you put in, that's what you're going to get out. And I fell in love with that concept. So fell in love with sports. Went to play ball at North Texas. I played middle. I was a middle linebacker at North Texas. Was recruited by Princeton and Harvard. My dad wanted me to go there. I was like, nah, I don't want to go Ivy League. I just want to play D1 ball. And after I had a really horrible injury in football in college, my sophomore year, my roommate actually ended up going to the NFL. He's been in the NFL eight years. That was my goal. That was where I wanted to be. I had a horrible injury, had to walk away from the game. And after that I didn't really know what I was going to do. And lo and behold, LA Fitness came calling me. I did a little research on you. I know you were with Crunch at one point. Yes. So I was, Yeah, I started. You were with them what, how long?

I was with Crunch for about five years. But our stories are similar in terms of like, our growth. But I'm not gonna rob them. Let them. You can tell them the story. Tell them the story.

So I started in LA Fitness when I was 21 years old. Green as can be. Never did sales coming out of playing football. I loved theater. It was theater and football were both my passions. So I just saw them combining when you talk, sitting with a customer and sales and being Lively in a club. I fell in love with it. And I quickly became one of the top sales personnel in the company for LA Fitness. And at 24 years old, I became a vice president for LA Fitness and I was on the acquisition team, meaning we would go buy out other health club chains like Urban Active Lifestyle, Family Fitness. And I would be the point man on the ground as we would bring on their employees to run our play and our process and our procedures. And I would coach them, train them and develop them on how to sell PT our way, in essence, and to take care of customers. So I did that for a couple of years, became a regional vice president at 26, ended up running multiple states for LA Fitness. We grew that, you know, it's a multi billion dollar company at this point. And I ended up ending my career there, off the west coast of Florida, running the entire west coast from Tampa all the way down to Naples. All those health club chains, I mean, it was beautiful, right?

What caused you to leave?

Yeah, so it's a good question because, you know, you would think I was like 27, 28 years old, I was making over 200 grand. I had worked my way up in this company for all these years. You know, all the people around me were like, why would you ever want to leave where you're at? I mean, you're good. I mean, you got everything on AutoPilot. You're number one in the company. But there comes a point where you don't want to cap in your life. You want to have the ability to keep growing and getting better and receiving the returns off of that whenever you feel like, hey, even though I'm getting better, I'm not getting more of a return on my investment. That's a bad place to be. And I saw that happening. I would have been capped around that 200 some odd grand every year for the rest of my life. And that wasn't what I wanted to do. So ultimately I ended up leaving the fitness industry. I would circle back around to it because I love it, but I left it at the time to come into a whole different realm of the roofing industry. And I left with a couple of partners who were with me in the fitness industry and fast track. Over the last five years, we have taken what we learned in the fitness industry and what we did in sport clubs. Being able to the daily habits, the daily routine, getting up every single day and taking care of our customers and putting your customers first to where they're driving you, referrals and being true professionals. We took that into the roofing industry, what we learned there. And we quickly separated ourselves and became a purple cow, so to speak, in the industry. Because I didn't know anything about roofing. I knew a lot about selling pt. So we quickly separated ourselves and we started bringing in top fitness personnel around the country, former VPs in the fitness industry. And we grew this roofing company to an authority figure in the nation. At this point, we're one of the fastest growing roofing companies in the Nation. This is five years in. We're on pace to do over 100 million this year. And that was coming from the fitness world. So that's a little bit of the insight of the story. You want me to get into it? Maybe a little bit of the fitness background, how I circled back to it.

You can share with us a little bit about what you circled back to. I definitely want to get back. I want to get to that. But I'm just curious, you know, what are, what would you say are some of the underlining principles that you were able to take from your time selling PT that you've now used in building your roofing business?

Yeah, I would say one of the biggest things is walking in your own truth and being that person that others want to be a part of and, you know, having an attraction, power that is real, that is genuine, and building a culture and a winning environment that. That others want to be a part of. You know, there was times in our fitness clubs where we would run closeouts and we'd have a chick fil, a cow dancing and a DJ and boots and vendors. You know how that was. It was crazy. I mean, but it was. It was the atmosphere that everyone wanted to be a part of. So taking that into something that was considered boring in the roofing industry. Right. Putting on shingles on a roof. But we're making it fun. Like, for instance, in the fitness industry, when I would run districts, you know, many of my directors would emulate or embody a certain character. Like, once they would pass a certain realm, like let's say 90 days, and they're doing a great job and they're making their sales or their quotas, whatever, they would graduate and they would get a character like Captain Marvel or Wolverine or Superman or Batman. Just making it fun, making it a game, making it to where you're going to work and you love the people that you're doing it with. We've done that in the roofing game, you know, so little things like that, I think go a long way. Because when you're taking care of your people and they're really and truly enjoying what they're doing on a daily basis, then you don't ever have to really recruit. I don't ever have to go on. Indeed, we organically get our people sent to us, knocking down the door to work with us because of the environment and the culture that we create for our people to not only be great in roofing, but it's like we're pushing them to grow in all aspects of life. And when it's genuine, like I was saying, and they feel that and they know that you're looking to make them better men, better husbands, better wives, better mothers, better fathers in their life for personal growth, then they're going to tell other people, man, you got to come work with these guys. Because it's not just about work. Like, this is a family, this is unity right here.

Would you say that this is also something that has transcended to your clients? Like your clients find you because they feel that you guys are a family?

Absolutely, yeah. I mean, what's crazy is most of the roofing companies, they will spend an astronomical amount on marketing and buying leads, right? So we talk about that. You have in sales, you have hunters and you have trappers, right? Hunters that will go out and they go. And they go out and they, they kill, so to speak. They go find their food. And in the roofing industry, we have to go knock doors. In essence, we got to go meet people belly to belly in the fitness industry. We're working the floor, we're helping people on machines and we're taking them through workouts and you're hands on. And then you have trappers, which they want to just buy leads and sit back and go service things that are given to them. And I would say one thing that we did early, the creation of the business is we wanted to organically grow our referrals and we wanted to organically attract people from our social media online.

Yeah. So good. I love it. Okay, so then how'd you get back in? So did you miss fitness? And then decide I need to have definitely miss fitness.

So I'm over here doing roofs and knocking doors in Texas, coming from Florida, and I'm like, man, I have a little more free time now. I'm not in a box every single day. So I'm out in the open and, you know, fitness is my passion. I've loved it since I was, you know, 10 years old. So, you know, three and a half years ago, I decided to compete in my first bodybuilding competition. I was about 70 pounds lighter. I won the overall at my first show, which was the KU KLO Classic, and I fell in love with the sport, fell in love with the discipline. Say that.

And what led to that? What led to, oh, I want to do a body competition?

It was that. It was actually my, My. It was on my girl's bucket list. It was on her bucket list. And I never even thought about really doing a show. I love working out in the gym. So she said, man, it's on my bucket list. I said, what the hell? Let's hire a trainer, hire a nutrition coach, and let's figure it out and let's do it. And we signed up in eight weeks and we went ahead and we did it. Now, I won that show. A year and a half later, I turned pro. I won the overall at Universe. And then last year, I competed in my pro debut where I beat some Olympians. And in my pro debut, I got second and I lost to number seven in the world, barely neck and neck. So this year they have me projected to go very, very far. And, and I'm looking to battle for the title in eight weeks at the Europa and go to the Olympia, which is the top show on planet Earth.

Oh, my gosh, that is so exciting. Okay, now, how are you navigating that type of athletic pressure, essentially, and running, you know, a multimillion dollar business?

That's a. That's a very good question, because I wouldn't recommend it for everybody. You, you definitely. It comes down to me. It comes down to. It comes down to really. You have to have. You have to be tremendously disciplined. Right. In order to even compete at a pro level against the top in the world. I mean, that's going to take 3, 4 hours of your time and energy every day, from cardio to your nutrition, to your workouts, to your posing. So it's about being very organized and precise with your routine. And I truly believe that those that are very successful in whatever they do, it is because they have great daily habits that ultimately lead to the result that they want. So that means for me, I am getting up every day, 5:30 in the morning, doing cardio every evening. I'm working out all throughout the middle of the day. I'm dedicated to working and building a brand and building a business, but you definitely can't do that if you're all over the place and disorganized and don't have a schedule. And some days you're waking up at this time, and some days you're doing it this time, you need to be able to fill in all the gaps and all the hours in your day to make sure that you're ultimately being super productive. And it comes down to action, because you could talk about doing things all day long, but if you're not willing to put forth massive action, it ain't going to happen.

There were three things that you think that. That you said that I think are worth noting because you mentioned the word discipline a couple of times. And I think that's so key and so important. And also the idea of habits. Right. Because we're 100% habitual people, so we're. You're not going to get your goals, you're going to get your habits and discipline. In my opinion, it starts with the decision to be committed.

Yeah.

To stay committed. That is what's going to get you through when you just don't feel like it because you're going to have. You inevitably will have those days where you just don't feel like it. And the ego's like, nah, let's just sleep.

Yeah. No, it's a great point. And the reason why I do like competing, too. To relate this to anybody listening, it's like, I usually excel when I put myself out there because it forces you to follow through in those moments that you talk about where you don't want to go to the gym and you don't want to get up because you've already put yourself out there. I put myself out there, I'm competing and I'm going to be on stage in eight weeks for all the world to see. I can't hide. Right.

So.

So, like the days that I don't feel like it. No. I better get my ass up and get moving because it's all going to be shown on display in eight weeks. And I think some people shy away from that pressure at times, but that pressure is good if you can put it on yourself in a positive light and meaning, put goals out there, put numbers and markers that you want to achieve and hit and tell somebody else. So it holds you accountable. Don't just hold it to yourself that way. You're putting it out there in the universe and you got to follow through with it. We had a phenomenal speaker come in the other day and he talked about, you know, when you're afraid of something and you're fearful, you got to go attack it immediately. So, you know, if you're afraid of. If you're afraid of anything, what. What diminishes fear quickly is massive action. So I enjoyed that.

So what do you do? Like, what does get you through on the times where you're. I just don't feel like it. What, what gets you through? How do you push through? And when do you know? When, when do you decide? Oh, no, I'm, I'm, I need to be disciplined and just push through or I need to rest. Like, I'm, I'm teetering on that. I need to, I need to rest.

I think what ultimately pushes me through in that, in those moments is you got to take pride in the name that you're attaching yourself with what you're doing. In a sense, like, I take name, I take pride in my name from my parents. Like, I'm my only combination of my parents. And this is weird to think this way, but I'm like, I'm their only combo. I'm representing both of them. So if I fail in life and in things, I am a reflection of that to me. Like, I take pride in that. I take accountability in that. And so I want to win in everything that I do. I want to excel in everything that I do because I want to make them proud. So that's an underlying thing. Never to mention my daughter who's 2 years old, who's looking up at daddy and you know, she's going to remember all these moments. I'm going to show her these moments, you know, as she gets older. But you know, I got a daughter now looking at me, so I have it from both ends, a why factor that motivates me to want to win in everything that I do and be a champion in anything that I touch.

That's incredible. So I would love for you to just dive a little deeper into. Because now you're navigating parenthood, business and athletic. It's like threefold full time jobs essentially at, you know, all the time, 100%. Right. How do. And you mentioned that you navigate your time essentially by your plan and your strategy. So what are some of the principles that you live by to manage and organize your time?

Yeah, I think it comes down to priorities. You know, the most important thing at any given moment. I think some people, some people get caught up even if it's, even if it's, in their one job. Some people will get caught up in minutia and busy work because, you know, minutia and busy work and things that are not making them money or being profitable. Right. You should. The first priority when it comes to my work day is what is the most important thing I have to do to move the ball forward. So I think every single day at night, when you talk about principles, every night I am looking at the next day, I am looking at the next week's forecast, and I am deciding in my head, okay, out of the 30 possible things, you just said it. I got a daughter, she is going to classes. I got competition, I got workouts. I got over 100 something employees in sales at this point, all over Texas. What is the most important thing out of those 20, 30 things that I need to do tomorrow in the morning and then in the afternoon and then in the evening. So being able to prioritize the night before and plan, I think is critical. And I think also one of my underlying principles to set myself up for success. Every day that I recommend to anybody is starting your day off with some positive messaging. We hear it all the time, affirmations or meditation in the morning. But the stuff is real because you want to set yourself up to attract success to you. Because I do believe that you attract success to you by who you are and what you're feeling and the vibes that you're giving off. That's going to bring you more clientele. So every morning, for instance, this morning during breakfast, I'm playing an Eric Thomas video. As I'm eating breakfast or as I'm doing cardio, I'm listening to an audio to fill my mind with new material and positive messaging that I might pull from throughout the day. So those are a couple of little principles that I incorporate.

That's powerful. I think people, you know, they brush that off as, oh, that's woo woo affirmations. I don't need that. But people underestimate the impact and power of your word and doing what you say you're going to do. All, you know, people underestimate that.

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and oftentimes even champions. And I shared this story with my team. We had a Member appreciation day. A couple of speakers come in, and I shared this with my team the other day. That first time that I stepped on stage ever competing in bodybuilding, I worked, you know, what was it, three, three, four months straight to get ready for this show. And I'm backstage about to go on for my first performance ever in front of hundreds of people. And lo and behold, a voice comes in my head and tells me, you're not good enough. You're not ready to go out there. You shouldn't do this. You're going to embarrass yourself. You're going to trip and fall. All these scary, fearful thoughts pop into my head. There's literally 10 seconds before I go on stage, and then I'm like, you know, my mind is like. And then all of a sudden, another voice comes in and is like, you know, that's bullshit. You've worked too hard for this. You've already put in all this time and effort. You're gonna go out there, you're gonna live in the moment, and you're gonna put on a show and you're gonna go win this damn thing. Right? And I listened to that voice, and I won the whole show. But I say that because I won the overall at the show, and I still had a voice in my head that could have. That I could have decided, oh, I'm going to allow myself to succumb and be weak in that moment. But I encourage everyone when you have those thoughts, they come to everybody. But choose the one that believes in yourself and says that you can. And eventually that other voice will start to go away and diminish.

That's so good. So good, so powerful. And, you know, with that, I think that's a good segue into. My next question is I feel like a lot of people in the fitness industry, they are faced with looking at a saturated market, and they think, oh, why me? When there's a whole bunch of people that are already doing it and then they're at the beginning. And I think a lot of people will compare themselves, therefore, day one to somebody else's, you know, year 100 or year 10, rather. Right. So what do you say to your employees, whether it's fitness or in, you know, right at the beginning, who are starting to feel those feelings of imposter syndrome? How do you encourage, inspire, and navigate those feelings for them?

Yeah, I think everyone's got a different journey, and I think you don't need. You definitely don't need to be comparing yourself to someone else because it's your life, you know, so it's your story that you're creating, which is beautiful in itself. And, you know, I'll share with them, you know, even where I started. So if they're looking at me on, oh, he's at this state. And at this level, we all had to start somewhere. I mean, and I'll share even. Even with my employees in roofing, it's like, I mean, just seven, seven, seven, eight years ago, or when I started with LA Fitness, it's like at 21, I didn't even have enough money to put gas in my tank to go to my father's 50th birthday. Right? Or you know, I was 190 pounds when I started bodybuilding. I'm up to 285 in the off season. So I think, yeah, yeah, big, big difference. So I think getting to understand it doesn't happen overnight but that, you know, all it all it's, all it takes is to get started and you have to chop it down one step at a time. And that it's not going to be this instant gratification. You're going to have to make sacrifice if you want long term gains. And so I think sharing where you come from, that it didn't just happen, it wasn't just given to you that there was hard work that had to be put in. May give them insight to. It doesn't matter where they start. What matters is where they're going and where they're headed in their journey.

Mm, that's good. It's powerful and it's. This is kind of a segue. But just real quick, I'm out of curiosity because it's so clear that you are passionate, you're passionate about fitness. You know, how were you able to build a business that you necessarily, you weren't necessarily passionate about the, you know, roofing itself.

Yeah.

Did you.

That, that's interesting because I definitely wasn't passionate about roofing.

As I was asking that I was like, you know, have ever. Because maybe he is, maybe he really likes.

No, definitely not passionate about roofing. But roofing is created. I knew that roofing could create ultimately what I wanted in life, which is financial freedom and options, the ability to take care of my children and change their children's future. So it was like there was more to it than I saw beyond just the roofing. You know, some people will look at, oh, I don't really like what I'm doing so much or I'm not in love with this. But the purpose was, man, this is going to allow me to free myself up, create an immense amount of financial freedom to where then I can do more of the things that I love to do. And roofing was able to open up doors on television. You know, I ended up servicing a client three years ago. Her name is Jennifer Todrick, known as the rambling redhead on Instagram. She's big time and I did her project, knocked on her door, did about half the neighborhood and you never know what client that you're taking care of when you go above and beyond and look to not just like my thing with clients is like, we're not just trying to put on a roof, we're Trying to give you the greatest experience you've ever had with a gc. That sounds cheesy, but it's like that's my focus is I'm trying to give you the best experience you've ever had with a GC and make this thing so fun and be so transparent and over communicate, unlike many in the industry, that after we're done, you're going to be walking me up and down the streets to your friends and family members and introducing me to everyone. I did that with her and lo and behold, she was working on a TV show through HGTV called no Demo Renault. It's actually airing now. I filmed a couple of the episodes with Jennifer on there. So you can go to Amazon prime, you can go to Hulu, you can. I'm on the first three. So it opened up doors in television, which I was passionate about. Theater. It opened up doors to be able to be freer to compete in bodybuilding and have a little bit more time to fall back in love with working out and in the gym and now competing as one of the top in the world. Because my goal this year is to be top 10 in the world, considered as a classic physique pro. And we'll get it done, no doubt about it.

It's already done.

It's already done. It's already out there into the universe. I've already spoken it and now we're just following it through with action. But yeah, so yeah, it was just seeing that there was a bigger picture than roofing, seeing that there was a bigger goal ahead and being able to see five, 10 years down the line, that this is going to create something amazing for my future and family.

I love that. To me it's just so clear that you have a service heart no matter what it is and no matter who it is that you're serving. And I'm a firm believer that if you really lead with service and lead to end suffering, right? And I say that kind of stuff too. And people are like, oh, that's so cheesy. You're in fitness. But you're like, but no fitness has saved people's lives. People prioritizing their health saves their lives mentally and physically. So trainers get so in my opinion, they just are looking. They can look so short sighted sometimes and only see, oh, I need a client, I need a client. Forgetting that their clients could open big doors for them if they lead with service. You never know who's looking at your stuff, you never know who's listening to you, paying attention to you. Inspired by. You never know.

That changing lives thing you just said, hit me, because that's exactly what we used. That's why we created the superhero themes. It's because we literally were running around and all we talked about all day long was we were saving lives. And that's where we were pouring our hearts from, was because I would be sitting with women. You know, I remember one that was 350 pounds. She had battled time and time again with cancer and, you know, was fighting through it for many, many years. I ended up getting her with a trainer. I ended up paying for half her program. And she's still alive today. And it's like she still keeps in touch with me, like 10 years later and follows everything that I'm doing. It's like, why are we here on this earth if it's not to inspire people and change lives? And. And even now with roofing, transitioning, that fitness feel, my guys on social media, it's like we're changing lives. We're doing the. We're repairing roofs over your family's head, which is taking care of your loved ones. Right. So it's typically your number one asset. So to your point, I really don't. I don't feel as cheesy because I believe it. I truly believe it. Yeah.

And you know, the thing too, is that, you know, when. When we. Because I asked about moving from fitness to roofing, for me, when I reached that point, is you kind of come to recognize and realize you're either going to. You're building someone's dreams. You're either building your own or you're building someone else's. Not wrong or bad to have a job like every single person is meant to be here to do what they're supposed to fulfill. Right. But. But for me, I just couldn't. I didn't want to build someone else's dreams anymore. Now we're building mine. Didn't matter what it was.

Yeah.

Just had.

That's fantastic. And I think back to the culture with what you're saying on building dreams. I think what's allowed us to scale so quickly and get so many top. And we have females kicking ass in the roofing industry, which is unheard of. We're empowering women to do this thing and coach homeowners, do an insurance claim process and jump on roofs. Right. So we're very diversified. But why I bring this up is we are creating such a culture to where we want our people winning at such a high level, to where we bring them in, we train them we get them to where they can literally make 250 to 500 thousand dollars in our structure. Like that's how we've designed it. So they technically can build their dreams because they're an independent contractor with us, they're basically running their own business. We're teaching them how to run their own business. To your point, to where eventually, if they do well enough, they can bring others underneath them and build a business within the. Within the company. So we wanted that feel to your point where people can come in and not feel like I'm just building someone else's dream. Like I'm able to create a tremendous, immense financial freedom for my family, where we've had a lot of guys have their wives literally be able to leave their job, stay at home with the kids and change generations. So we're definitely trying to do that and that's helped us catapult for sure.

So now do you have, do you know, you mentioned you have employees and that you're rapidly growing, but based out of Texas. You have people all over the nation, all over the world. Like, how does your business work?

So Texas is the, like the number one area for what we do dealing with hail claims, basically insurance claims. 99% of what we do is insurance. My parents own one of the largest insurance licensing companies in America. They also have a podcast spot on insurance. So I knew that there was a lot of potential in insurance and that's what we focus in on. But right now we're basically the number one re roofing company in Texas, which is the mecca for our business and what we do. And now we're in Austin, San Antonio. Our headquarters is in Dallas. We're also in Lubbock. So we're really dominating Texas. And now we're in Louisiana. We have our license in Colorado and we're actually launching full force in Florida in the next 45 days. And it's going to be. It's going to be crazy in Florida. So it's going to be big time. So we are going to be basically covering the entire south and kind of going up central because that's where the hurricanes hit in Florida and then most of your hail and tornadoes hit middle.

Of the US So does that mean you're going back to Florida for a little while or.

I am. I am going back to Florida. You hit it on the head. So I'm actually going out to Austin for about probably 90 days to six months to really help catapult that market because it's going to be a great market for Us. Joe Rogan just moved over there in Bee caves area. It's beautiful. And then I'll probably move to Florida as we open up that office in Orlando and then another office in Tampa because we have a lot of personnel back to fitness. A lot of personnel that I worked with in fitness, running, sport clubs, all in Florida. You know, watching what we are doing on social media and excited for us to get there. So the minute we hit the ground, we already have 20, 30 guys that are looking to come on board that are top sales personnel in the fitness industry.

Hmm. That's cool. So now back to fitness real quick. Are you still training at all or is it just your own personal training? Oh, you're still training clients?

Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not training clients. No, no. I thought you said am I still training? I'm like, yeah, I'm training every day. Yeah. So I don't. Because I'm, because I am a managing partner with the company. There's three partners and I run all of sales. So it's too much, it's too much to handle to then have one on one training clients and then also train myself. It would then take my energy too many places where then I couldn't give that energy to your point, to my daughter and family and then to the business and then to being a top pro. Like those three are enough. So. But, but I do have a nutrition coach who is an ex Olympian and I do have opposing coach and a trainer. So I have two people on my team, Stephen Mass and Ray Baker, who do a phenomenal job because I believe in having a coach. You know, the best people in the world, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Tom Brady, they all have coaches. So whenever we think we are past that and past having a mentor and a coach and someone to give us another pair of eyes, we're doomed.

Oh yeah. I say that all the time. I say that all the time. If I'm to hire a coach and my coach doesn't have one, that's a red flag to me because you're, you're either moving forward or going backwards. There's no standing still.

I absolutely agree. Yep. I have, I have an executive coach. US partners are in an executive group called apex. One of my buddies, Ryan Stuman, runs out of Dallas. A bunch of business owners that are all a part of this. And we do fly in Fridays every Friday. So we come together, we're sharing ideas, we have masterminds. And it just allows you to come in and you walk into a room and you're like, damn, all these guys and gals are winning at a high level. I better step my shit up. So it doesn't allow you to get comfortable.

Yes, yes. That's so important. I think it's so important. And it's undervalued, but I think it's important.

I would recommend it to any business owners that are listening. Like, if you don't have a coach or you don't have a mentor, you're not a part of a mastermind, then I would definitely do it because it's allowed me to open up a lot of doors over the last six months, because it's allowed me to say to myself, there's no way you can get stagnant. Like you said, you're either getting better, you're getting worse, there's no standing still. So it has allowed me to find other avenues and allow that coach to say, well, you can go do this, you can go do that, you can go do this. And it is pushing me to be the most elite version of myself.

Yeah, I think it's so good. So now, as a pro, with someone with your pro card, what are your responsibilities as a pro competitor?

Well, you know, some people turn pro and they never compete again. They just get their pro card. Yeah, they'll get their pro card and then they'll just train online or they'll just train in a gym, or they'll just use that to be opposing coach, and that's fine. Some will try and open up other avenues and grow a business. You know, for me, it was about the love of competing, you know, so it was for the love of battling for the top titles in the world, the Arnold, the Olympia, those kind of things. So, you know, my responsibility at this point is to pick out shows that I want to do during the season, because it's a point circuit system also. So once the season hits after the Olympia, everything resets. So after the Olympia is over, the season basically begins again. And you can rack up points during shows. So you strategically, as a pro, are picking out shows that you want to do that are in line with your schedule and how you want to land. And ultimately, if you win a show, you're in the Olympia, which is basically the Super Bowl. That's considered the Super Bowl. We got the regular season in the Super Bowl. So at this point, I picked out the Europa. I've been training for that since my last show. The beautiful thing about this thing, at the highest level, the minute I step off stage, right, you can apply this to anything. The minute I step off stage and you know, I didn't win first, it's like, okay, what are all my, all the gaps, the opportunity gaps I have to work on, I got to work on this, this, this, this, this, this, that. And then immediately right after it's like, okay, what's the game plan to improve those over the next nine months? And that's what we've been doing through the off season, through eating more, you know, it's, you're either in a surplus and you're growing muscle, right, or we're in that deficit and we're basically losing fat. So in the off season I'm working on building muscle tissue, staying in a surplus, eating higher protein, higher carbs and working out very hard with a minimal amount of cardio. And then as we get into competition prep mode, which has been in the last four weeks, that nutrition comes down, fats are very low, carbs begin to come down and cardio starts to taper up and all the fat comes down. So over the next eight weeks I'll be really getting shredded because I mean I'm coming from 280 something pounds. And in the classic physique division we have a height weight requirement. So it's not like bodybuilding open division. I'm in the classic physique division which is kind of bringing back the Arnold days and the aesthetics and the artistry and it's more about the performance and how you look and your appeal. So you have to have a height weight. So I am five eleven and a half. So I have to be 222 pounds the day before the show. Okay, so I go from 280something. So I do a 60 pound cut and I am absolutely peeled 4% or so body fat by the time we'll hit stage.

Ok, eight weeks out, you said eight.

Weeks from this next Saturday. So I'm right on the money. I'm waking up at about £250 right now. So in the bodybuilding scheme of things, I really have to hit about 228 pounds and then I'm pulling about 6 pounds of water in the sauna. And so my body is physically at £228 pulling the water just to hit the weight. And then I should technically, once I'm fed up with carbs and nutrition, I should be 228, £230 on stage, which is absolutely the biggest I could be for my division. So theoretically I'll have the most amount of muscle on stage you can possibly have.

Ok, here we go. That's exciting and fun.

Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to look out for it. I'm going to have to send you the link so you can watch it live.

I know for sure. Totally, totally. All right, so I definitely want to be mindful of your time, so I'm going to leave you with this last question question. And then, of course, share with us, tell us where we can find you, and we'll link all this stuff up in the show notes. But you're the last. And I have for you is what I'm like, my biggest takeaway and what I hear from you is that you just live, like, the champion lifestyle, like, with the champion mindset. You are, you know, always looking, you know, always working towards being the best. So what would you say to yourself or to other people who are, like, right at the beginning, like, what is the champion difference? Would you say that set people apart from the ones who struggle and the ones who continue to struggle and the ones that succeed?

Hmm. I believe. You know, one thing I think is critical is you have a. Always the best. The best decisions that I've made in my life. Looking back, I ended up getting this gut feeling internally. The decision to leave school. I left school with a semester left. I mean, mind you, I was recruited by Ivy League. My parents were pissed when I told them I was leaving school with a semester left to go to LA Fitness to run a health club. They're like, what the hell are you thinking? My dad wanted to disown me, remember? I only want to make them proud and they're trying to disown me. I got this gut feeling and I said, no, something is telling me that I need to do this. And then I got a gut feeling at the end of LA Fitness, eight years in, that I needed to go create this roofing company. And so I encourage those that when you get that gut feeling, that instinct, you know, follow it, but then bet on yourself fully and burn the bridges. I think a mistake that people do make, they say they want these things. They say they want to be a champion. They say they want all this stuff in their life and happiness, but they have a plan B and a plan C and a plan D and all these other things. Distracting. You're never going to be able to get there when you have all these things. The minute something goes wrong with plan A, oh, but I got plan B over here. Oh, but I got plan C. So my advice is don't have a plan B and plan C. Allow yourself to burn the boats, burn the bridges. So to speak. And it literally is a win or die mentality. That's what it becomes. That's what it became for me. Because ultimately, if I would have failed when I went into LA Fitness, my family would have looked at me like I was crazy. If I would have failed leaving LA Fitness to start a roofing company for no guarantees, with no one. I mean, we had nothing.

Yeah.

People would have looked at me like I was crazy. So I put myself in a position to force myself to win or die. And when you're in a position where it's win or die, you're gonna find a way to win when you give yourself no out. Right.

I love. That's so true. I love that. I love that. But bet on. Bet on yourself.

Yes. Bet on yourself and be willing to do the work. Because most won't bet on themselves. Most won't bet on themselves and follow that gut because they're in the back of their head. They're like, but do I really want to do all this work? Am I really, really willing to make all the sacrifices necessary? And their answer to themselves is no, I really don't want it that bad. Right. So be willing to bet on yourself that you're going to do the work and give yourself no out. And that's what I have to leave you guys with today.

Oh, God, that was so good. Loved having you on the show. Thank you so much for being here. So for those of you who want to come hang out and learn more about you and follow your product, follow your progress, your process, where can I send them? Yes.

So my Instagram is Tony Goat. Like the animal. Tony Oat Tavares. T A V E R A S and then my Facebook is Tony Tavares. And you can also find me@linearroofing.com and we have a Facebook page on Linear. You could follow what we are doing there, but on my Instagram you will see over the next eight weeks, which is cool. You guys follow me. You will see a lot of my videos coming out as I get ready for competition. I will have a lot of pictures and progress coming up and it'll be exciting.

Yeah, I can't wait. That's gonna be amazing. So thanks. I really appreciate it.

Yes, thank you for having me.

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