Who's Got the Bigger Dick in the Room? Friendly On Friendly Fire and BS Masterminds That Drain

David, welcome to the show. How are you?

Good. How are you, Chris?

I'm amazing. We're drinking tequila and having fun. We might even smoke a cigar. Do you drink?

Yeah, I'm watching you occasionally.

Man, I'm having a hard time finding friends, David. I'm alone in this world. Nobody wants to drink, but that's okay. So tell me what kind of business you're in.

So I own a gym in the fitness industry.

Oh, fun. And, yeah, how'd you get started in that?

So, kind of make a long story short, I'm a nurse by profession. I've been a critical care trauma certified nurse for 14 years now.

Holy cow.

And a gym of mine that I used to belong to, I was good friends with the owner, and I always teased him that I would purchase it from him one day. And the opportunity kind of came around in 2014, and as the gym was slowly kind of deteriorating, I purchased it at a really low price and has since rebranded it and turned it around and actually quadrupled the membership base that I had when they first started on November 1st of 2014. So we just came up with our fourth anniversary.

Oh, congratulations. How. Just out of curiosity, how did you increase the membership? What. What three or ten things did you do to do that?

So a lot of it was just customer service.

You know, keeping things clean, upgrading equipment. It's amazing how something as small as just reupholstering equipment or fixing cables or belts really go far. And then word of mouth, people that had left the gym previously started filtering back and, you know, as months kind of grew and membership basis kept coming up, I just kept.

You know, reinvesting that money every month back into the facility. And it's grown very well, you know, with having no, you know, traditional business education at all. All of mine's been nursing. I think I've done very well for myself, but it's been a lot of trial and error over the years, a lot of mistakes. Learn from those, you know, podcasts, reading books.

Things like that.

What are your favorite podcasts besides Business Outlaws?

I actually commented on your guys's Instagram, I think not so long ago that in the last couple years, where I've been watching podcasts and listening to podcasts, Business Outlaws has actually done the best for me. I know that you guys kind of more. You market it more towards the millennials. You know, I'm 41 years old, kind of getting into business late, but there's a lot that I still get from what you guys talk about.

You don't talk over my head, you talk in layman's terms that I can understand.

And that really helps with me. A lot of the podcasts, business wise gin related that I've looked at in the past tend to be in business models that aren't mine. And so occasionally they would have a podcast that would benefit me, but otherwise this wasn't really relevant. You guys pretty much are hitting home runs, you know, every episode.

So that's very sweet of me to say. Thank you. And yeah, it's my so I see my role on there is kind of trying to get all the genius out of Mike and translate it sometimes. But he's. He really is menta. He's. He's one of the smartest guys I know. And.

What books tell me what business books have resonated with you.

In all honesty, right now I'm halfway through Extreme Ownership by Nako. I got that one from listening to you guys.

How great is that story at the beginning about friendly on friendly fire?

Right.

It's a great lesson. And I thought initially reading that book that this is all going to be war stories. And I love how every chapter it goes through a war story. So for someone like me that struggled with reading as a kid, never been a big reader, never been a fast reader, it keeps my interest and then it tells me a principle and then how it relates into business.

Great, great stories. He's got great stories that apply now. That's. I think that's one of the best leaders leadership books I've ever read. What other books have you read?

In honesty, I got. I haven't read a whole lot. It's hard for me to.

Again to keep my interest. Think and Grow Rich. I started and it's one that I got on podcast or not podcast, but ebook so I can listen to it. Crucial Conversations has been another big one for me.

I think having those different. Yeah, just having those difficult conversations with, you know, as being a gym owner and having employees and not being a confrontational person to having those conversations. I still to this day when I have to have a conversation with an employee or have a difficult conversation with a member, you know, you still get those butterflies in your stomach and, you know, sweaty palms and you know that it's helped. But yeah, those are a couple of the books that I've read.

So yeah, it's funny, Mike and I were talking on Sunday when we were hanging out about he was saying that he had somebody that that worked for him or that he knew that had no problem firing people, like enjoyed firing people and we were like, both of us were like, man, we can't sleep the night before we have to fire somebody. Like, I think if you ever get to the point, no matter how bad the person is that you're firing, you still are going to care about them in some way or, you know, you're going to have feelings about the situation no matter what. So there's probably something wrong with you if that gets easy.

Yeah. My very first employee, I had to do that too. And he was an older gentleman, but the day came where he had some sensitivity and we had a conversation and, you know, he turned around and looked at me and said, you know, Dave, when are you going to realize that this gym is always going to be a small town gym and that's all it's ever going to be? And that's when I knew that he wasn't the right person on the bus.

You're right. That's funny. I've heard that in, in different ways, but the same message many times, like, hey, leave me alone. We don't need to get better. We're fine.

Right?

Okay, ladies.

I think you guys should try these because I'm having a hard time. Maybe we can make one for Tim and have. Can we have him try them because they're both winners. You know, we're having Mike Tyson on tomorrow. David, I heard that. Iron Mike Tyson.

I'm pretty excited about Tyson. That's like a pretty cool thing that people like that are wanting to come on the show now.

He's a very interesting person.

Yeah. Then the research that we've done on them, I mean, there's so many stories and it's crazy. So tell me, what's your business struggle? How can I help you?

So, you know, the business has been successful to this point, but I guess I'm trying to figure out how to get to that next level. A year ago, In October of 2017.

I attended a business seminar in Columbus, Ohio, that Dave Tate, who is the owner of Elite FTS in Columbus, Ohio, put on, had speakers, pro athletes come in. He had Chris cooperating business there. He had his.

Chief financial officer talk. The whole gist of what I got out of that business seminar was the importance of, of a mentor. And as I've over this last year have.

Looked into trying to find a mentor.

Heard podcasts, read books. Everyone kind of says, you know, how mentorship has helped them and it made them successful. But no one ever talks about like, okay, well, how do you find a mentor? I brought up that question in that seminar that day. And people were basically like, well, you know, if the top dog in the industry is in California, you go out to California and you, you know, and I'm like, okay, well, let's talk realistically, you know, how do I do that? I've struck about six times over the last year. Most people in the industry that I'm in the ME as full competition or they don't want to because they devote that a way of doing something that they didn't want me to steal from them. I've got two local guys that have pretty much been my only help, but not really at the same time. One owns a restaurant, one owns a machine shop. You know, they both pretty much say, save your money. Baby steps, you know, slow and steady wins the race.

And that's all like fingernails on a chalkboard to you.

Yeah, because, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm just trying to look at. Okay, for four years now, you know, still doing nursing to support my home life, reinvesting business money to support the business and grow the business. I'm to the point now where I'm like, okay, we've got 350 members.

We're going to need more, a bigger location soon. I want to offer more services, but how do I get to that next step? I've joined a business networking group. I haven't really got a whole lot from mentorship opportunities out of that. So it's just really like, you know, when, you know, whoever says, hey, you know, mentors helped me, that's great. How did you find that mentor? That's what I'm looking for, is suggestions on what to look for. You know, what makes a good mentor, what makes a bad mentor, you know, stuff like that.

So I feel like there's kind of two sides to this because I don't know that a mentor fixes what it is you're kind of looking for. So you're looking to scale the gym, maybe expand into other gyms and have that be. You could be able to have that be your income if you wanted to, but.

Correct.

Have it grow independent of you having to be there every day.

Either way, that's. That's the long term, you know, five, ten year plan. Absolutely. I guess what I'm looking for is just someone looking at the business from a different perspective. So when I get in that fork in the road and I'm like, do I go left or do I go right? You know, because I don't know what I don't know, they can say, well, look at it this way. I see why you wanted to go all in going this way, but here's how I'm looking at it. Maybe play conservative or vice versa, you know, just something like that.

I've, I've been, been doing this a long time and the frustration for me has been like, I've paid a hundred thousand dollars a year to be in a mastermind, sat in a mastermind next to people that I know aren't doing what they say they're doing. They, they talk about the idealized version of everything. It's a big who's got the bigger dick fest and nobody's ever telling you what real numbers are, what the real struggles are. Everybody shows up that they're perfect and everything's great. And the guy leading the mastermind pretends like everything's great. And it's frustrating because for me, like, I like to talk about numbers, I like to share numbers. And you know, and so that's why I started syndicates is, you know, just imagine in a syndicate that you're sitting around the table with 10 gym owners like you, and your numbers are all on a sheet and you're talking about memberships and processes and pay plans and systems and, you know, I have a gym and a syndicate that is closing ratio from Groupon and Instagram coming into a package from trainers is close to 100% conversion. Like, don't you want to sit next to somebody who's actually got the numbers in front of a front in front of him and he can like, you know, tell you real results. It's a private meeting, nothing shared. It's, you know, all the phones and everything are outside and you can be vulnerable. You can talk about what's really going on and everybody's rooting for you and trying to help you. To me, that's the best form of mentorship is people in the same business that are sharing their numbers, that open their books, that open their Rolodex and open their wisdom of, of success and failures because both can be as, as teaching and as important, right? So to me, what it sounds like you, you need is to be in a syndicate. And mentors to me have kind, I've been having, kind of gone. Say that again.

And those are the, the frustrations I've been having is exactly what you said. You know, being in networking groups and.

Trying to tell what the truth is and who's what and who's real and it's all ego and like, who's got the bigger dick. I hate all that. I'm like, Always a quiet guy in the back of the room, like probably making more money than everybody and nobody's asking me any questions and I probably know the answers to all the questions, but it's always some guy that isn't making any money on stage blabbing and talking and know it drives me crazy, but I'm not the guy to like stand up there and pretend like I know everything either. You know, I like to have a conversation and talk about the good and the bad. Like it can't always be good and it's not always perfect and it's work.

Right.

You know what I mean? There's no magic pill and so people don't want to hear that, but that's the truth of business. And so. Yeah, well, let us, let me send you a little syndicate book and, and I think that we can assist you in that and create a syndicate. We have one already that you might be a good fit for. We can create one specifically for you. So be thinking of some gym owners that you respect and like that you'd like to have in a syndicate. And we'll reach out and we'll try to, to curate that for you and get them all in a room and see if there's chemistry and if they want to share their numbers and really, you know, get to the next level. But usually pretty easy for us to create for you.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, you're craving some realism, right? Some like, hey, just cut, let's cut the chase. Yeah.

I mean as much as I like nursing and it's been a great profession, I'm kind of to the point now where, you know, during the fitness area, I used to be a personal trainer. I love seeing that side of healthcare and I'm much more passionate about that side of being able to have a guy who comes in from a doctor's office that says, my doctor just said if I don't lose weight, I'm pre diabetic, that's hypertensive, I got high cholesterol, I'm going to die. I want to be able to see my grandkids grow up as opposed to the guy that's in multi system organ failure in the hospital and saves me, saves me. And I'm like, there's nothing we can do for you, sir. Like these choices that you made and prolong these things are ultimately going to be, you know, what's going to be the end of you. I like to be able to still fix people while I can.

But that's what my, I guess that's what my passion is and the ownership of the business and having those trainers there that share that envision is what I really drive and what I really stress.

Yep. You're like me. I think we can help you with that. So let it. I'll have Corey, you know, off the air, reach out to you, get your address. We'll send you out a book. Read it, and then hit me up and let me know your thoughts.

All right? I appreciate it. Thank you very much, Chris.

Thanks, David. It was great talking to you.

Yeah, you too, sir.

Bye.

Ra.