"I Haven't Worked in 10 Years" - How Rob Lipsett Built a £1M Fitness Empire From Nothing

I started out in an industry that didn't exist in Ireland. It's the first ever Irish fitness YouTuber. I saw a lot of guys in America doing it, online coaching, building apps, selling ebooks, living life of freedom, going to the gym, making money from doing bicep curls. Said, I want that life.

Rob Lipsett in the house.

There you are. Welcome, welcome to the neighborhood.

Tell me Fitness industry, very, very saturated space. Tell my audience, who probably a lot more entrepreneurial than fitness guys, what sets Rob apart? Why, why are we going to love you? And, uh, and why you, why are you standing out in such a saturated marketplace?

Love this. Okay, first let's break it down, right? Number one, saturation, good thing. It's only the pussies and, yeah, the lazy people that complain about, oh, the market's saturated. That means it's good. It's saturated for a reason. And if you can't rise to the top, well then you shouldn't be there, you know? Okay, so first of all, when someone says market saturated, I always kind of have a little chuckle to myself. Why you should listen to me? So I don't want to be cocky, you know, I don't want to come across crass, but I'm the only person from my country who has lived a life like I have. I started out in an industry that didn't exist in Ireland. It's the first ever Irish fitness YouTuber. I saw a lot of guys in America doing it, online coaching, building apps, selling ebooks, living a life of freedom, going to the gym, making money from doing bicep curls. Said, I want that life. But in Ireland, I'm not sure how familiar you are with it, it is an extremely small country. Like, the population of the entire country is like smaller than a ton of American towns. So when someone does something a bit different, you get slated. It's kind of— UK is very similar when you go to a small town. So I started doing that as the first to do it, and of course got a load of hate. Even my parents were like, what are you doing? You know, because I dropped out of college, you know, I had no job, nothing. I said, this is the only thing I'm good at. It's the only thing I can give a fuck— am I like cursing this podcast? No, only thing I can like give a fuck about. It's the only thing I can like get motivate myself to do. I was the worst in my year academically. And so I said, this is the only option for me. I said, I don't also be tied to one place, you know. I was working 9 to 5s here and there. And so, you know, I'm about 22 right now. I get on YouTube and, you know, I start talking about myths and facts, and even doing kind of like lifestyle vlogs in Ireland, going to Aldi, Lidl, all the gyms in Dublin. And so while a lot of people were giving me shit, a lot of people were loving it, were loving it. And I built like a really hardcore audience. The majority of my audience is still Irish, and so I get a lot of support from Ireland as well. And then I haven't gone to work in 10 years. I've traveled the entire world. I've built a 7-figure fitness business. I've built the COVID model physique myself, competed like a stage-ready physique. Better yet, I've transformed thousands of physiques via my app, my book, my videos. I've done all this while essentially like going on a, you know, having fun, like, you know, not having to go to work.

10-year holiday.

A 10-year holiday that's still going. So someone actually commented on one of my Instagram posts. I was just showing like a full day of eating, you know, what did I eat in a day, like cooking and everything. They're like, uh, let me guess, you're unemployed. And I was like, yeah, They're expecting me to like, you know, bite back and I'm like, yeah, no, I haven't worked in 10 years, you know. So that's funny, always disagree with the haters. And so yeah, you know, villa here in Marbella, bought that at 29. If you can name another Irish lad who's lived a life like that, works with the biggest companies in the fitness industry, if you name one other Irish guy who's done that, I want to be best friends with him, but there's not.

Let's break down some of those individual bits then. I mean, so just going back to the beginning and your interest in fitness, I mean, that was just a hobby. I mean, did you have any formal fitness education? Or you just like to lift weights and go running?

So the school that I went to was a really big rugby school. And so, you know, typical meathead, typical jock. I was shit at school, but I loved rugby. You know, I was never like the best at it, but what I was like really good at, really excelled at, was like the strength and conditioning outside the rugby. So your coach, you know, when you're on the team, you have to go to the gym, you have to like weigh yourself in to be heavier. You know, nowadays I'm like trying to get lighter, but I— And so like the strength and conditioning, weight training aspect of the rugby, I loved. And so when I finished school, you know, I played a little bit of rugby socially, but then I quit that and put my full effort into the gym. And then I got my, you know, really high level PT certificate. It was the first exam I ever passed in my life. And so I was always led to believe that I was the dumb kid, I was the class clown, but I just wasn't doing something that I had any interest in. And that's like, it's pretty typical for today's society. You know, we're forced to do shit we don't want to do instead of doubling down on the things that we're great at. And if society pushed that more, we'd have a lot more people doing, doing great things.

Would you say we're forced to do stuff we don't want to do, or that people happily do stuff they don't want to do too easily?

So a little bit of both, right? So society's got like this copy-paste route for everyone, you know. You, you go to school, you go to college, you do the apprenticeship, the internship, you get a wife and 2.5 kids, you know, a mortgage, and that's you done. And but people love told what to do, you know. There is a very small percentage that don't like being told what to do and have to go out and make their decisions. So both are correct, and, uh, they go hand in hand. But I think, but I think if more people were like, you know, encouraged to try something that they're more passionate about, like, we, we'd have a lot more artists, musicians, and actors and creative people, you know.

Talk about the YouTube. I mean, did you have any following?

Oh no, no. And you know what's funny as well? Someone's like, 'Oh, uh, daddy's boy, mommy's boy.' Like, you know, they— because I have like a posh Dublin accent, people are like, 'Oh, you've everything handed to you.' And I'm like, 'What, my fucking— my mom gave me YouTube, her YouTube login? Like, what?' You know, it's zero subscribers, that's it. And so yeah, just everyone starts from zero. I just picked up the camera, as you saw, picked up incorrectly, and just started. And so I was on like, you know, Facebook and I think Twitter maybe or something, but the real power is in video, stuff like this, podcast. Because like reading an article or like just looking at a picture, it's not as impactful. You don't know what someone's voice sounds like, you don't know what their body language characteristics.

And particularly in a space like fitness, I guess, where either you want to see the person who you're talking to looks something aspirational.

Exactly.

And you want to— I mean, I've read a lot of Men's Health magazines when it talks about like how to do this exercise, and okay, you can you can maybe decipher it, but, but it's not the same as watching it.

It's a little two pictures with an arrow. I'm like, oh, great explanation. Useless. So like, I know I'd be— and also what I told you you're gonna say there is, uh, like in fitness magazines and even pictures, like I've been on, on the magazine covers as well, and like they're all airbrushed and Photoshopped to bits.

How so? Like when you had your cover on there, I mean, how Photoshopped was it? Because I mean, obviously you look great anyway.

Yeah.

But did you notice how Photoshopped you were? I actually would have liked them Photoshopped more.

I think, I think I got, I think I got a pretty straight up accurate one. I was like, guys, just make me look a little bit better. But so I think I got a wrong end of the stick. You know what, I, cuz I did it with, um, like it was for, uh, Muscle Fitness and I did it with a local photographer that I'm kind of friends with, so maybe he didn't do it. But if I got, if I got their actual Muscle Fitness ones, they would have done it more. But anyways, you can only tell so much from a picture, but with videos HD, you know, you can't Photoshop that.

Were you PTing at this point as well? Did you have some kind of income?

No. So I had an income, but I wasn't PTing. And so this was— I was working just a typical 9-to-5 office job, sat at a desk all day for just like a startup company.

And just training for yourself? You didn't even have a single client or any fitness?

No, I was— I know I was also like working in like retail, like folding clothes in Hollister, you know, the shop I was working in. And so I was like bouncing. I even worked in like a watch shop and Someone would come in and, you know, my boss be there and they'd be like, you know, sell me this watch. I'm like, well, it tells the time and it also has the date on it if you look closely. I had no fucking clue what I was talking about, you know, no passion for it. And so I was doing these shitty retail jobs, getting fired, you know, getting let go. Then it was when I was doing this kind of like more the 9-to-5 office one. So I was doing that for maybe like 6 months and I was doing YouTube on the side. So, you know, again, I didn't, I didn't start like just full-time YouTuber. No one gets their dream job just at the get-go. And so I was doing it on the side, and this was like one of the— I say toughest, but I actually loved it so much. So I'd work 9 to 5, I would drive home, Irish traffic in Dublin. I would like eat dinner, get ready for the gym. I would train 8 to 9, and then I get home, shower like half 9, and between half 9, like 2 in the morning, I was working on my fitness business. I was like trying to get clients coaching current clients, editing videos, coming up with new video ideas. Just, I even was selling like gym gear, gym gear with the videos.

You were doing all the work yourself? Oh yeah, filming it, editing it.

Oh God, yeah, I could barely— I couldn't afford a camera, I had an iPhone 5. And of course, yeah, I'd like downloaded Final Cut Pro illegally, like the software, you know. I'd like £200 in my bank account always, like just living paycheck to paycheck. And so I was doing, working on my fitness business up to 2 in the morning every night.

When you say the fitness business, what was it?

It's coaching, mainly coaching and ebooks, and then a little bit of clothing. And then like YouTube pays you like a tiny bit.

And you were selling some ebooks?

Yeah, yeah. So that was actually the first like the online sale that I ever got. I had like a €30 ebook on roblipsett.com and like I sold that and like, oh my God, the feeling I got when I got that like PayPal notification like the first time something went into my bank account from online, I was like, whoa, okay, I can do this. And so after that I was like, I'm going to make a mission. I was earning minimum wage in the 9 to 5. I was earning €1,800 a month. Average rent in Dublin is like €2,000. It's like impossible to live. But so I was earning €1,800 per month working, you know, 9 hours a day and Monday to Friday. And I said, as soon as I get 3 consecutive months where I earn over €2,000 from coaching, I'm gonna go and quit. So I did that after like about 6 months, walked into my boss's office, and he was actually pretty cool. Like, he's chilled. A lot of people are like, oh, you know, fuck, fuck the boss. He was cool, cool guy. And I was like 22 at the time, so I just explained to him like, hey, look, I'm gonna leave. I'm gonna like give this 100% effort. Like, I'm obsessed with fitness. I'm just gonna do my own thing. And he was like, right on, go for it. And then like that week, I was like, I had all this spare time. I had an extra 9 hours left in the day, and I was a bit like, oh, at first I was like like, oh my God, like, geez, I, I gotta make this work. But then, like, once you put 100% into something, things just take off.

How were you learning what to do back then? I mean, did you— were you reading books? Did you have any courses, mentors? Or were you just, you know, fucking up and finding your feet?

And the best learning resource to this day is YouTube itself. If you want to learn how to edit, you want to learn photography, you even want to learn marketing, you can watch like Gary Vee, 3-hour conversations. You can watch Grant Cardone. You can watch actually Tony fucking Robbins, that people pay 60 grand to go to the weekend to see him. You can literally get the full talk on YouTube. You can get the full HD talk. YouTube's the most powerful search engine ever.

I don't think people appreciate how, how much is on there because, I mean, I've been to a lot of live stuff with, you know, the likes of Grant, uh, you know, Tai Lopez. I've never been to a Tony Robbins, but, you know, a lot of the guys who you see online. And the reality is all the content is the same. I mean, I mean, nowadays these guys hold nothing back.

Yes.

If you've got no budget and you've got lots of time on your hands, there is nothing you can't learn.

Yeah, if you're just starting out. And so I did also get like some, you know, courses and read a few books, but honestly, uh, the way I like work best is like listening to things and watching things. So even when I was in that 9-to-5 era and trying to learn stuff, I'd be like driving to work, listen to a podcast or listening to a YouTube video, or I'd be in the gym doing cardio and listening to something. And if It became like the soundtrack to my life. And I still to this day, like, my girlfriend calls me like the walking podcast, you know. That's why I started podcasts because I listen to so much of them. I am constantly gathering information or even listening to something positive. And so I call it like brainwashing yourself. I'm always listening to something, just these positive affirmations. So that's where I learned pretty much.

I had this guy on my podcast once, and the way he described it was he was told by his old boss that his car should be a university on wheels. That is that choice you're making, that driving work, getting the bus to, you know, to school or work or whatever in the morning? Do you listen to music? Do you talk shit?

Or do you watch Love Island in the evenings? Yeah, I was actually on Love Island. I'm still, I'm still talking, I'm saying don't watch it. And you know what, here's another funny one. Uh, me and a friend of mine, he's from London, he works in property. He always, like, he's super successful, he'll link YouTube videos from like billionaire tycoons 40-minute-long interviews and everything on his story. And he'll be like, look at the view count on this. It's like nothing. They're the lowest viewed videos. And then he'll like be like, look at this like funny cat video, it'll have millions of views. The information is all there. People just are too lazy to go looking for it, or they don't even want to sit down and learn something realistically.

So for the people out there who, who are doing YouTube themselves, trying to build a social media following and, and getting despondent with the, you know, the time that growth takes, how long did it take you from making that first video to actually starting to get some traction? And I guess, what was it that you started to do right other than compounding results?

Yeah, so my channel is about to hit half a million now, and then in the first year it got 19,000 subscribers, which, which is still, that's very strong, really, but it was still really good, you know. But obviously the, the graph is like, you know, you get, you get, it snowballs. And so, but YouTube is so, uh, powerful because Okay, let me explain. You can quit your job with like 10,000 subscribers. Like, I know like loads of like fitness coaches who have like 10K subs and they make like crazy amounts of money.

But are they making the money that— because I think this is what people probably don't understand as well. They're not making that money from YouTube ads though, are they? No, I'll be giving them a bit of money, but it's giving them a strong loyal audience of 10,000 people that they have to then have a product to go and sell to them.

Exactly. And so it's not about the views, it's about what you do with the views. So just put it into numbers. If you get a— on average, if you get a million views on YouTube, it's like $2,000. You get to spend $2,000 from Google, which is like nice because it's also— that's collective. So if you upload like 20 videos with like 50,000 views or 10 with 100,000 views, you still get a million views. So if you keep banking videos over time, like because I've uploaded like 800 videos and they're always getting views, even the old ones, it actually pays, pays decently, but I still don't really count it towards my income now. Okay, so you get a million views and get $2,000. Cool. Let's say you get a million views and you've got a €30 ebook and you sell 1,000 of them out of a million. Pretty easy to do if you do the right call to action and everything. So there's €30,000 versus €2,000, you know. So it's about what you do with the views. The most important thing, and I kind of hate this, is titles and thumbnails. You can have a shitty video with a really good title and thumbnail and it'll like go on to the Explore and blow up. And I've actually like a full-time thumbnail editor. Oh really? Yeah, yeah. Like he just does the thumbnails. Like, so that's, that's how important it is. And then nowadays, he just— for you, or he—

oh, that's his job But you're a client of his?

Yeah, yeah, I'm a client of his because like he does them pretty quickly, but he's so brilliant. I think he has like a number of clients, but the fact that— and then I'm also an editor, a videographer and everything. But the fact that that's how important thumbnail is, that people's like sole jobs just to do thumbnails.

How much do you script yours?

So I've like, I got it. I got a teleprompter and I never use it. So the only time I ever use it is if I'm doing like a sponsored video and it's like I have to say these exact words. But if I'm doing it like just my own videos, I will just make key points that I need to hit because you just sound robotic.

And you have those key points written on the wall or something so you can see them, or—

and that's because then I try that and then I'm always looking at them. So I'll just kind of like, I'll have them on my phone and notes and I'll just kind of study them. And then another thing I try to do this is like I'd have my phone there and if I need to remember them, I'd look at them. But having the option when it's there, it actually makes you worse. Because you just like, you just look at it. So the best thing is to just like map it out and kind of remember it in your head. I've been doing YouTube 10 years. I know guys even with like 5 million subscribers and they mess up to this day constantly and they just like keep rolling. And so one thing that stops a lot of people from like pursuing YouTube and keep— or any, any social, like any social, is they'll speak to the camera and they'll watch themselves back and they'll cringe. They'd be like, I fucking hate myself. Get over it. The power of editing. Like, there's been so many videos where I'm like, ugh, watching myself, and then I'll edit the whole thing. Or sometimes I just send it to my editor and I'm like, polish a turd, and I get it back and I'm like, sick. Yeah, I'm like, fucking love myself.

I'd say also, coupled with that, that no matter how good your editors are, your first video is going to be fucking horrible, and your 10th one is going to be better than your first. And maybe when you've done 20 or 30 or 40, you might start to be able to look at— I I watched back any of my first 100 videos because I would literally be cringing, like my face, my voice, my accent, absolutely everything.

So the best advice there is actually, um, for any platform is just make 100 pieces of content. Really applies to YouTube though. If you make 100 videos, by default every skill— editing, speaking to camera, lighting, the whole lot— is going to get better. But then you get those 100 videos, you sort your analytics, and then you view your top 10 And so now you got your niche. Now you know what your audience likes. Now you know what you're good at. So then you take those 10, then you make 10 more of them. So that, that's how you— that's the first thing you should do to get good at YouTube or any social media.

You talk about obviously, you know, selling to your audience and having, you know, someone with 10,000 subscribers could be making great money. Where do you find the balance between making great content, educating, and then selling so that you're not sell, sell, sell and switch people off.

Yep. So you can get like audience fatigue, you know, if you're like constantly selling, people are just going like, what am I watching the ads? Like, you know, like on TV, like everyone doesn't want the ads, they skip past the ads. So it has to be like a very small percentage of your actual minutes that you're putting out. And it should also be very natural. And it should also be like there's some months where I like, you know, do amazing with my coaching and app signups and like I don't even push it. I just have it there linked and I create really good content. And if people want to find it, they'll find it.

Do you have videos where you certainly won't sell anything? You'll just—

Oh yeah, yeah.

So you'll have ones where you sell nothing.

Yeah, no, majority content.

Yeah, ones with a little soft sell and then maybe some actual hard—

Oh yes.

Well, I want you to listen to this because I want to sell you something by the end of it.

Exactly. Yeah, you've like hard launch, like maybe you're, you're like launching a challenge or it's like you sign up, sign up to this, I'm picking someone to fly out to Marbella to train with me. You've done that before, trained with like a load up high-ticket clients as well, and people love that. So when you're doing like a really big launch, maybe on a clothing brand, you're dropping a new, you know, season or whatever. Yeah, you do a hard launch, like, like with your girlfriend, you know, a hard launch. Yeah. So there's, there's definitely like, yeah, ways to go about it, but the majority should just be like you providing value and just, you know, making casual content. And that if someone really wants to find it, like, they'll go find it.

So you're 22. You've had 3 months on the bounce of earning €2,000, you've made it, you've quit the job, you've started to go full-time. When did you really start to, you know, when did you start to make some real money? When did you think, I've really made the right decision here, I'm starting to roll in it?

Yep. So this is like, so around that time, it was like 2014, '15, '16. I didn't go out, I didn't drink, I'd have no money to really do it. Like, I'm still just laying the foundation.

An Irishman not drinking?

I know, right? Like, blasphemous.

Like, now Times have changed.

But so a lot of guys, like, uh, at the start of their journey, like, they need to realize that you're gonna need to stay in and grind. Whether you do it now or later, you're gonna have to have a period that you're not popping bottles and partying. Why in the club popping champagne with nothing to celebrate? So you can even, like, go back to these videos on that. In that era, I was just, like, going to Aldi, going to the gym, saving money, and you're making content and building up a client base. And then after I did that, like, for a few years I had a few videos like pop off and did like a little brief 8-second cameo on Love Island. But, but you know what's funny? Like, I went in the like Casa Amore thing, it was in 2017, right? Like, I was literally on it for like 2 seconds. Like, there's hardly any footage of me.

Why?

Because, because just shit upon birds. Yeah, I got along well with everyone there, but like everyone's like coupled up and, you know, I'm actually quite like a chilled, reserved guy. I've always been a relationship guy. But anyways, I made a YouTube video being like what it's like inside Love Island, and that got like like hundreds of thousands of views. And so that like brought a lot of people to my channel and everything. And just, yeah, I started getting loads of banger videos. And so in 2017, like, I, I saw like a bunch of growth. And of course then your coaching business and everything goes up with that. And that's when like I started like having fun and, you know, going traveling all over the world and, you know, meeting really cool people and certainly enjoying life a little bit.

Tell me a bit about the coaching business. Do you only do online, or do you have higher ticket stuff for people who want to get one-on-one with you as well?

Yeah, so when we were, um, talking about the men's fitness thing, you know, I, I was like, I was trying to get into this as well. So I'm really glad you asked. And we were talking about, uh, going to like, you know, Tony Robbins in person when the information is all out there. All the fitness information is all out there as well. Okay, so when people sign up to either my app, they need a personalized plan. Okay, then they need it to be personalized to them, and they also need accountability, right? They need to buy in or just no one gets results. I have given So many friends and family, they're like, Rob, you know, some app is called Gameplan. They're like, give me a Gameplan subscription. I'm like, sure, get my app developers, here's the code, it'll put the price to zero. None of them fucking bother. 0% of them ever get results or bother. If there's no buy-in, you might— you just— it's nothing. And I'm like, damn, we made you personalized plan, still nothing. And then, um, so that is like, you're not one-on-one with me, the app and my team will handle that. And there's like, you know, it was well over 1,000 users doing that. And that's €39 per month. And so that like runs, I have sales and stuff the other time, but that's like runs itself.

Do you have other, um, like on your team, are there other personal trainers and stuff who actually help with the accountability?

And yes, yes. So that's like the app, and there is 24/7 customer service and everything. That's like quite a big team. And then I have the high ticket coaching, which is like I work with you one-on-one, and I only take on honestly 20 people.

Still remote?

Uh, still remotely, yeah. But, but, okay, so, and that's like, I have an assistant head coach for that, and, you know, um, the sales team, onboarding team, and everything to do that. And that's like, you know, I won't say the price of that, but that, that's like a lot more expensive. And it's all my clients are like guys like yourself, usually in their late 30s, 40s, uh, really all have like really good jobs and, you know, high net worth individuals who need me on their ass. Making sure they get results, getting accountability. And with that program, you also have the option to come to Marbella and train me whenever. Just give me a heads up. I love it, you know. And actually, a lot of like clients live in Marbella because it's fucking well off. And then the majority of my clients are Irish and English, so it's just like a 50 quid flight. So I still do that the odd time, and I really enjoy it. But yeah, majority of it's online.

Tell me about some of your, some of your other businesses, because, um, so I know you've got, uh, what's it, what's the protein pancake? Yeah, Fuel Cakes.

Fuel Cakes. Yeah.

And, um, so Gameplan and Fuelcakes, they're your two things.

Yeah, they're my two things.

T-shirt you're wearing, that Alpha Elite, that's something that you're an ambassador for.

Yes.

And I see Ghost on your Insta a bit as well.

Yeah. And so that's the same. So, um, so to go through them, uh, you know, Gameplan is the app, and then I guess like the high ticket falls into that as well.

But are there any other cross-sells, upsells from that?

Oh yeah, for sure. Yeah, the two of them like kind of work in unison, you know, like if you like the app and you like my style of training, like real bodybuilder, high rep stuff, you know, track your macros, no bullshit, you know, no self-love, just fucking straight honesty, then, you know, you will also like working with me directly. And then like if you're following one of those programs, you know, the supplement company I work with, Ghost, you should probably grab some protein. And so if you use my code Lipsett, I'll get commission off that. And then, you know, if you wanna look good in the gym, you'll also go pick up Alphalete, because Ghost and Alphalete are pretty much the two biggest sports nutrition and clothing companies in America. Like, Gymshark would be the only one ahead of Alphalete, really. And so it all, like, works in unison.

Have you considered doing your own protein or your own, your own clothing?

So with Fuelcakes, you know, so one of, one of my most viral videos was how to make protein pancakes. And if you're trying to come up with a product, product or service Don't think of the product or service first. Build the audience and community first and then ask them what they want. Okay, so the protein pancakes were always like a thing on my channel. Yeah, I make them in every vlog. I'm always like, I review like the Flip, you know, became like—

that was just your thing.

Yeah, it's just my thing.

Like, I was like, you like eating pancakes?

Yeah, I was a protein pancake guy and I was like, you can get shredded eating protein pancakes, you know, if you make them right. So then I was like, okay, I can't make a supplement company because one, I think it's also kind of overdone. Like everyone kind of does that too. I'm really happy with Ghost and I can't like just—

it's—

I'm in a contract. I can't make like a direct competitor and I didn't really want to. So I was like, okay, what can I make that's kind of like quirky and fun that I can get into shops and that isn't like just like bodybuilder, you know, it's like a fun little thing. Like my, my sister and her kids eat them and everything. Thing. So then I, I just taught a few kicks. Yeah, I started selling it.

Tell me about Villa Lipsett. Yes.

Yeah, yeah.

So, uh, I mean, was that an actual project, or— because I know you host people and you've been doing a renovation, but was that by accident?

Oh yes. So, okay, so as we were saying before we jumped on, I was living in London. London shut down, Ireland shut down, so I ended up coming to Marbella. Now, because the gyms are open, so literally, literally here because of the gyms. My life revolves around the gym. And so I've been coming to Marbella all my life. I used to work down Port handing out flyers when I was like 17, 18, around that age. And so me and my missus were renting here, kind of like, you know, you, you just keep extending. And so month by month I was doing Airbnb, and then I was like, you know, I was 29 at the time, so this is like, you know, 2, about 2, 3 years ago. And I was like, you know, maybe it's, maybe it's time for me to look at purchasing something. And so, as you know, everyone here is a real estate agent. Yeah, you know everyone. And so a girl that I were friends with, she was like, hey, look look, this, uh, villa just went on the market. It's like, you know, in Nueva Andalucía, like you can walk to Puerto Banús, uh, detached, a 4-bedroom, swimming pool, you know. I, I never reveal the price, but really, really good price, okay? And so we went up on the first day and the place is fucking jammed. Like, people are— everyone's trying to buy this. Like, this is like— it's, it's genuinely a good deal, you know, the way like every real estate agent will tell you that, but I was like, no, this is, this is a really good deal. And so she was like, I visually saw everyone trying to buy it there, and she was like, look, because we're like good friends, if you put down a deposit today, I'll take it off the market for you. So me, $10K, no-brainer. And so we did it, we did the whole process, the brokerage and all the red tape, the paperwork, and, uh, had to do an insane down payment, like insane. I'll tell you how much off camera, because I'm like a foreigner and like I have a weird job. You got a mortgage? Yeah, yeah. And because I got like a weird job, they were like, you might as well have to pay the full thing. So I got that. And then we got the keys on like, uh, January, like the very beginning of the year in 2022. And then I'm like, okay, I got a project ahead of me. So I got like 10 quotes from different renovation companies and like went for actually kind of like, like the second cheapest one. Yeah, I just got a good vibe. I got along well with your man, and, uh, they, they smashed it. Like, they did really well. They did it in like 6 months, which is quite quick. Now, not fully completed in 6 months. Like, we could move in 6 months, but like, there's no wardrobes. But it was like a really enjoyable process. The renovation was €150,000, and it was like like, I felt like every day I got obsessed with it. Like, every day I would drive by and I would see something new every day. And like, it was like painting a picture. It was like an art project. And like, I think it looks like an art house. Like, I think it's really cool personally, very like minimalistic and stylish. And I absolutely love that. And then we moved in, uh, we just— and like, we slowly improved it over time. And yeah, we— it's like my dream home. It's crazy.

Do you host people there as well? Like, you know, with your masterminds and your high-ticket stuff, you use it for business?

Yes. Yeah, For sure. So first, like, big, big event, I had like 60 people over it, like, who went to my seminar. And yeah, there was like an add-on of the ticket, like you can purchase like the VIP ticket to come like have a party in my forehand. Yeah. And I was kind of worried, I was like, who the fuck's gonna show up? But everyone was so nice and like really mannerly, implied zero damage done, was great. And then yeah, with high-ticket clients, I'd be like, you know, the ones that I'm working with, like when they're in Marseille, I'm like, yeah, meet at my We'll get some pre-workout in, we'll go to gym, we'll go back, like we'll have a barbecue and like to really give a full experience. So yeah, I definitely utilize it.

Would you do any more real estate projects?

I would love to. And I also like, I do all my podcasts usually in there as well and like YouTube videos because like it's all white, looks like studio. So I utilize it a lot. And yeah, I would love to do another one. I was actually looking at like doing a villa in Ibiza, but Ibiza property is like, wow, it's got— wow. I thought it would be the same as Marbella, but but it's absolutely insane. So, you know, maybe in a few years.

Tell me the future of the fitness industry. Where's it going?

So, there was a huge online boom and then, like, you know, that went great. And then, like, things go in waves. Now, people, like, for example, wanted more one-on-one. They wanted less apps. They want more in-person training. So, right now, especially after COVID and lockdown, people want that more personal touch. Now, so that could, you know, again, go the opposite way in a few years. And, uh, like a lot of people say AI and all, I'm yet, I'm yet to see anything impressive in fitness in AI.

Like, I mean, for me, and I'm obviously not fitness spacey at all, but all I can see AI doing is, for example, helping you replace some of your staff who are creating people's programs. Yeah, the AI can't replace the accountability. The AI can't do some protein shaking. Yeah, exactly.

And like, even like the, like you said the programs that AI makes, it's still making mistakes. I think in a few years it will be phenomenal, but we're yet to hit that point. But at the moment, the trend is kind of more personal and one-on-one. And yeah, that's it. Unless we get robot arms that we can click on and it'll literally do everything for us, well then, I don't see it anytime soon. But no matter what, in any industry, right? You just gotta roll with the trends. So for example, even with social media, I started out on Facebook. I don't use Facebook anymore, it's gone. Did I have a cry? Oh no, my Facebook page isn't going as well. No, I'm just like, okay, where's hot right now? Oh, Instagram. Okay, let's go on this. TikTok comes outta nowhere. Okay, sweet, let's do this. No matter what happens, you just gotta adapt and improve and roll with it.

And 10 years, it's been a whirlwind, 22 to 32. Where is 42 or maybe even 62-year-old Rob Lipsett Rob Lipsett.

It's a tough name. Yeah, so you said it correctly, but sometimes to make it easy on people, I just say, just say Lip and Sett. But it's Lipsett. It slips it. Yeah.

But, you know, do you see yourself in the fitness industry at 42, 52, 62?

Oh, 100%. And so, you know, this is a— a lot of people will say this because, you know, it's a physical thing and your body deteriorates. Not mine, but anyways, you know, but like, I look at guys like, uh, Joe Rogan Andrew Huberman, Gary Vee, who we've mentioned, and I was actually like Jordan Peterson. I'm like, all these guys that are like a podcast that I watch, all of them, they're all way older than me, like way older than me. Like not just fitness, like in any industry. So I'm always going to be doing this. I'm always going to be chatting to a mic. There will always be a fitness element to it. Like, I actually think Joe Rogan's the biggest fitness influencer in the world. Like, he has the most most— he has the most power with what he says. If he recommends a diet or if he gets a certain doctor on, like, people are going to listen. Like, he has the most influence ever, and he's crazy into fitness. Like, he is in insane shape. He's always, you know, talking about the latest trends. So yeah, you know, he's 55, so that's, that's where I'm gonna be. I ain't going nowhere.

Well, so Rob, it's been an absolute pleasure having you on, mate. I know it's taken a while to get our diaries across.

I know, right?

The email's not your forte.

Yeah, I know. Yeah, not Not at all, not at all. I'm like, it's not even me. But no, fair play as well to your assistant, like, for locking this in. She was fantastic, really responsive. And now I'm delighted. And I'm also delighted that we got to do it in person, Murphay.

No, it's always much better to do in person. And it's great to know we've got so many mutual friends. And I'm sure—

A little bit too many.

I know. We get caught everywhere nowadays, don't we?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

But listen, mate, it's been great to chat. I'm pretty sure our paths are going to cross again. I'd love to do a round 2 when Uh, hope to see you at some more fitness events soon as well.

Thank you so much, Ramy. Cheers, Rob. Cheers.