Episode 163: How Learning the Most Important Thing for Success Allowed Harry to Overcome All Othe...

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weidel, and let's get started. I'm here today with Harry Rathbone Thomas. Hello, Harry.

Hi, Larry. How are you?

Great. And I appreciate you getting on, and congratulations on your number one fitness company, your own fitness brand, and also your Harry Thomas coaching business. So introduce yourself to everybody and let them know how a guy like yourself, who started out with all the disadvantages many of us start with, was able to get up to age 33 with so much success and so many lessons and so many accomplishments. Explain, you know, who you are and how you got to this point.

Yeah, sure. So my name's Harry, from London originally. I'd say just a personal trainer, and that's all I was. Met my business partner in a gym initially, and we were really passionate about what we did, and we worked with a number of people that hated it. They didn't make an effort. In the end, we just said, why don't we just save our money and we'll open our own gym? We didn't know what that actually entailed and realized that that would become our life. But within that time, we learned a lot of life lessons within building a business.

So you started. When did you start with. You got your PhD from Cambridge when? I was just kidding.

Yeah. No university. Just straight from. I've had three jobs my whole life, all in fitness.

Three jobs, your whole life. Now you're in London proper right now?

Yeah.

And there's like, 33 boroughs or sections to London. Which one are you in?

I'm literally the city of London.

I. Oh, the city of London. The Square Mile. Okay. Aha. And so where did you come from? Where did you start?

So originally was in a local sports center, then become a personal trainer in a local gym, and then made the jump to London. And that's when I learned that there was a lot more to learn about what I did.

Was that a big jump?

Well, initially I didn't think it was, but as things started unfolding over the years, you start realizing just working with people that are doing some big things that you didn't even know was possible before. So I think what you get to experience being around more success, then you learn more.

Yeah. And the thing is, as you started out, why did you go into training? Because that's where a lot of people just follow the natural things they did in school, growing up. And it's kind of like the easy way. But a lot of times the easy way leads to poverty, leads to, you know, Things that are easy to do usually can be dead end or can often be dead end type things, but just about anything can have unbelievable possibilities if you do it big. But you got started in fitness because that was just. You were always in sports.

Yeah, always in sports. And never really had a real passion at school in terms of subjects. But I loved competing, I loved doing all different types of sports as well. So it was just an assessor just introduced herself and said, my name's Lisa and I've worked on a cruise and I trained people all around the world. And that was just like, wow.

And so the idea of this could be your ticket to something bigger really hit you right in the beginning. Is that right? Yeah, because the thing, you know, that's a point for people to, you know, you didn't realize what was happening, but what happened to you there is the kind of thing that people need, who don't have that happening to them, need to look, it's like get involved, at least get involved and make the first steps of effort in something that has bigger potential. A lot of people never even give any thought to that and they put tons of energy. It's kind of like choosing a company. Like if you're, you know, you're going out in the world, like, you know, at least, you know, get a company that's growing inside an industry that's growing because you don't want to get involved in a company and put major efforts, then find out this thing is going out of business in six months. I just wasted my. Why was I working 80 hours a week for that? Or to get in a company that's go, go, go. But it's an industry that's a dead industry. The whole industry is short, going to have a short life and be replaced. And so, you know, you got in, you know, fitness. Obviously people are going to be wanting to be fit, there's going to be lots of opportunities there. But the idea of if you never went beyond personal training, the fact that you could just take the personal training of it and see the world, meet all kinds of people that electrify you. So look for things to electrify you. And do you think the fact that you had that spirit, had that picture early on, allowed you to attack your job with more energy than you otherwise would have done?

Looking back now, yes. Like, I was used to coming home, my mum and dad moaning about going to work and moaning about their day and it's like, that doesn't sound normal to me. And all my clients, they moan about, I love What I do. When I'm hearing people tell me what they love doing, I'm like, I'd do that for a job. And that's my life. That just made sense to me. Young and now, looking back, I have never been vocal enough about how much I love what I do. Because when your customers speak to you, what do you do? I'm like, I love what I do. And they're like, what do you do? And I'm like, I'm a personal trainer. And before, I wouldn't even admit I was because it's a job that people just seeing as, oh, it's fitness, but I love what I do. Do you love what you do and then you just see people? We're on the same page again.

Yeah. Now, did you come in the door? Was that a transition you had to make where you had to get over that thing of apologizing for what you did?

Oh, yeah, definitely. But now, because before, I'd be like, why have I done that? Why have I done that? Now it's like, well, what have I learned from it? And then I will never do it again if it didn't serve me. But what I used to do is be like, oh, I didn't do that four years ago. And if I only ever done that, but now I can let that go. That just adds to my story.

Yeah. And, you know, it's just so much easier when you get to the place in your life, you know, One of the transitions that high achievers go through is the point where they say they stop looking over their shoulder. You know, they stop saying, well, if I did this, or, you know, because that leads to so and so did, you know, you get away from what you did to yourself. But then it's like, what they did to me, or I was unlucky, you know, and I. I bought my lottery ticket and I didn't. Didn't win the $10 million jackpot. And if I had, boy, my life would been, you know, just all this sad sack stuff. And most people. Most people have had the thing to realize. Most people have had it worse than you, you know, so get over yourself. And if you're gonna achieve anything, it's gonna be in spite of all of these kinds of things that hold most people back. And so how. How did that play out in terms of what. As you go through and you see, how has that informed you? Continuing to move up and stay energized, because working and working with people who moan and groan every time you see them, and they probably don't ever change their eating, probably don't change their habits to where they make big progress. How did that keep from getting old from you? How did you stay fresh into that again before?

I would have just been demotivated and you'd end up losing them as a client. But you literally then don't even bother talking to them in the future because they didn't put any effort in. Whereas now I'd use literally any negative that someone comes to me. I say, that's a positive. I'm like, let's say that you had depression for 10 years. I'm like, wow, congratulations. And they're like, what? And I'm like, you did that for 10 years. You've got strength. I wouldn't have lasted two years. And then I flip it and then say, imagine if you then just did exercise with me for a year. That's easy compared to what you've gone for last 10. So any negative, you can turn to positive. And I just showed them. Why are you letting that drain you? That's a good thing. What can you learn from it? How can you move forward with it?

What we're hearing, folks, is the fact that even. Even in a physical activity like physical fitness and working out, the mental part of it is so much bigger than the physical part. When people think about working out, they're thinking, oh, sweating, going to the gym. I can remember Harry when I was in starting the business, the first few years of the business where you're running around the clock. And then my younger son, he wanted to. He got like 12 years old, he wanted to go to the gym and start working out with a trainer. And of course, it was implied I would go along with him. And I could remember driving up to the gym. He finally talked me into joining the gym. I can remember, nice. It's sports and everything and growing up. But when you get into business, you know, you don't have time to go play basketball and tennis and sports. You're starting a business. So it's like you get out of it. It's, you know, you're a little overweight, you don't feel like it. You're not comfortable in there. I can remember sitting in my. Driving up to the gym, letting my son get out, go in and meet the trainer. And I'm sitting in the car for 10 minutes, 10 more minutes, trying to force myself to get out. And then once you get out, you get in there, you know, you get in the flow. But it's so much there. It's even in a physical thing. You know, we understand life will give you. You know, you got to think right, but you got to think right even if you're doing. Get yourself organized mentally if you're going to be a success at the gym, because it's all what's going on inside your brain that keeps you on track and keeps you not only doing it, but doing it with the energy required to get growth. Because you got to put a demand on your body if you're going to make progress, you know, you got to push those muscles, you know? And so I just.

I just call them out on their excuses because at the end of the day, everything is an excuse. So I'm like, just the word healthy people come in and they want to do health. When do you want to get healthy by? Oh, three months. I'm like, listen to what you're saying. And then. So I stop them and say, you haven't done anything for four years, nothing at all. So would I be right in saying for the next year, if we just scrapped all the days and weeks for the next year, every third sunset, you're going to go and be active all year, would that be healthier than the last four years? And they'd be like, yes, that's all you need to do. That's it. And if you want to go more than that, we can have an even healthier year. So you've already set them up for success straight away?

Yeah.

And.

I think back to talking with Chip Chilson back when I was doing the road, the cycling, and I won't say racing, but I will say cycling. And I talked to him about what he does with new clients, and the first thing he did with them was get a plan, get them to buy into a picture of what they were going to be accomplishing, and then you start breaking it down in, like, when and for how long, and then what kind of results are you expecting? Get out of it. Because that mental breakthrough has got to happen before the physical breakthrough happens. And how have you. How do you see this play out over time?

I think, well, the fitness industry, there's a massive gulf in the education which we're tapping into. But it's all taught, I think, wrong in the sense of, like, for example, if you ask any personal trainer to tell you how much they charge, they all will say, I'm this much per hour, I'm this much per hour. And again, anyone that charge per hour, you're just telling your customer, this is all I do for an hour. But you do so much more than an hour. So why are you talking per hour? You, you charge them like you said, the plan, and you come to me for 12 weeks, this is how much it's going to cost and then within that you're going to get all these things. But you don't need to know the hour session. It doesn't make any difference to what you want to do. Like you're buying in for 12 weeks and then if after six weeks you're not sure, that's fine. Trust the plan. If you're sticking to it, have you stuck to it? No. Well, let's get back on track again. It comes back to the customer every single time. And you can do that. Not just the fitness industry, literally every.

Industry and this is something you've seen play out day after day, year after year. And most, would you say most trainers never pick up on this?

Yeah, most trainers don't go on a course after qualifying, but yeah. So most trainers don't. Most trainers have an ego. Most, most trainers, like you said earlier, know it all before. They've actually then earned their stripes. So for me it's just like, it's fine if you don't know, let's do what I've done. I've been in the industry for 16 years. If you just take the same journey, make a few mistakes, make a lot of mistakes, learn all this stuff, would you be happy by the age of 33 to be where I am? Yes. Okay. But take your time.

Yeah. And so the thing is, that's not what people, most of the people in the industry, that's not the way they look at hiring people and training people. And you know, if the ownership of the people running the gym don't have this concept about getting your mind right, positive attitude, having, looking at programs, not just a workout and you know, a program that's going to deliver all of these benefits to you and if they don't have that, you're going to have people that buy and you know, they start all enthused. They'll have sales, half price sales, they'll have specials for holidays, membership, free trials and then nobody ever comes. Right. And so talk about how the washout rate inside that industry, really high.

I think you can bring it all back down to the education because what happens in our industry is people that never make it as personal trainers then go, fuck, what can I do? Sorry, what can I do in the fitness industry? I'll become a teacher. This very easy because they're teaching personal trainers to be bad. And then it's this cycle, so it comes to education for me. So if you haven't gone down that route, then your company should be investing in educating the staff, because when the staff learn more, they get more excited, then their customers get more. So it filters down, but it comes back to the education, the start. You need to get excited about what you do because really, you have an amazing job, you don't sit in office. You are literally changing lives. But when you ask any personal trainer, they don't. I say, do you like what you do? Then they're like, yes, all right, change that, change that. And that's the difference. I think if you just talk actually about what you do and tell people, I love what I do, then all of a sudden everything else becomes a lot easier. Everyone gets a lot more motivated around you. And also, if you've got a place like that, a new trainer coming on, they all want. They have to up their game to even be allowed into this place. You're creating, like an energy around your whole workspace and everyone wants to be there and work for you.

Yeah, and I want to get into. Next time we talk, I want to get into how this attitude has caused you to be able to get your own brand and move up to where you got your own company. And, you know, you're in charge, you're not going to somebody else's gym and you are training people and, you know, over the 16 years you've been in it. But the question that I would have, you know, when I hear you talk. Well, one thing I want to point out to people is the fact that this applies to even in business, when you have people working for you, if you have them only thinking about the jobs they do and the tasks they do and that slot they fill, there's no magic in that. But if they understand the mission of the company and how their role is important to the company, hitting their goals and making progress, and then how that ripples out into the industry. And they have a pride, they're going to have more of a pride about what they do. But that's not going to happen by itself. That's going to happen if it might happen with the occasional employee or two. But if it's going to be instilled in the company, it's got to come from the leader at the top who understands it's not just someone sitting at a desk doing a job, it's what's going on in their brain. How do they picture themselves? You know, how important do they think what they are doing is? And if they think it's Important it's because you told them. I mean, you know, we count on you. I mean, you know, you know, we're as good as you are because you impact all these other things, you know, and, you know, I've got a thing where I don't talk about it that much because it's probably illegal, but if we have someone to hire, you know, we need a new person in the office and they get through the initial interview things I tell our staff to have them give me a phone call and see, I'll never see them. You know, this will be my first interaction. But if I hear their voice and I don't like their voice, that's it. Because, you know, your voice is how most people are going to know you. And you and I are stuck with these lousy voices we have. So we got to make the best out of it. I'm just kidding. But when we're hiring staff for our team, we can be selective about. I want people to hear that voice because that voice is going to be either confident, not confident it's going to be a positive voice or a non positive voice. It's going to be welcoming and it's gonna, you know, that's gonna represent me. And so, you know, but that comes from, you know, a lot of people don't even think about something like that, you know, but. And I let, you know, I let our people know, like every phone call you have, you know, and just about anybody we do business with, I'll get compliments from my staff. Like, man, you got the greatest people working for you. So and so, so and so, so and so, so unbelievable. And, and you know, that's not by chance, that's by design. And you can, it's a life changer for you to understand that you can take charge of a lot of these things and by design, make it have a positive vibration, a positive impact on you. Because good attitude spreads, but also bad attitudes spread.

And.

That'S why every day that you go in there, with every action you take, you're setting the tone again. You're either reinforcing it the way you go, correcting it, or letting it go the other way, you know. And so it's been great talking with you. I can't wait to get in and find out how this exploded into your own company, what steps, you know, you had to go through in your mind and things you had to put together to have the courage, you know, to step out and do that. But when I listen to you talk, I can't help but think how great it would be if Ricky Gervais started another comedy series like he did the Office, but it would be Ricky Gervais starts his own gym.

Yeah, that would be awesome. You have the private cameras with the conversations with the trainers and.

And then you go back into management and they're talking and the trainer comes out on the floor, talks to the client. Oh, I need to. Hey, I've got a copyright that idea right now.

Inspiration rights. Yeah, yeah.

Either either him or Larry David if he gets ready to do something different out there. So anyway, thanks so much. This has been great and can't wait to talk to you again, Harry.

Thank you, Larry. Good to speak to you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind with me, Larry Wydell. If I've helped you in any way, leave us a five star rating and review on Apple Podcasts. For more information like this, listen to our other Million Dollar Mastermind episodes and check out my Widel Academy YouTube channel and visit us on widelonwinning. Com. I'm the Million Dollar Mastermind. And until next time, go.