S6:E29 - Behind the Scenes at Enterprise Fitness - A Personal Journey

Welcome to the show that punches you in the face with information. Welcome to the Enterprise Fitness Podcast. My name is Mark Ottobre, and today I am joined by senior coach Cristiano Colla and induction coach Heming Hu. Uh, in this episode, Heming, you're going to be taking the reins, uh, in some ways, and Cristiano, and you're going to be asking me questions. What are we doing today, Heming?

Today we're going to be talking about the, the pleasure and pain of being a successful business owner the tough parts, the challenges, and the perks that come along with it, and just what your journey has really given you.

Oh, me? Not you. I thought you were talking to someone else then. So I guess fire away.

Yeah, so a lot of people— what intrigues me about, you know, the new world, a lot of people, they'll gladly say, I'm a business owner, bro. And they don't really understand.

Hashtag entrepreneur.

Hashtag entrepreneur. It's the new thing.

Hashtag hustle.

Hashtag hustle, hashtag grind, but they don't really understand entrepreneurship life. So for you, what would you say are the biggest things that you've gone through that people don't see in terms of the grind that you've had to learn to love?

Ah, yeah, it's a lot of shoveling shit. It's one star, don't recommend. Honestly, like the entrepreneur life, the business life, I, I fell into it by accident, really. Um, first and foremost, I wanted to be a personal trainer, and through being a personal trainer, I mean, I just want to train at the gym, right? But then I realized through being a trainer, I need to find my own clients, and then I needed to be able to organize myself, and then needed to be able to take and get money. And then I wanted to do an online website, and I need to learn about marketing and ads and copywriting and Then I wanted to be better at communicating with people. And it's just all these, like, you want to do this thing. Let's say you want to, I want to have a studio, but then to do the having the studio, there's 55 other things that are related, that are not related to having the studio that you have to learn to be able to do, if that makes sense. So, oh, you want to employ people, you need to learn this software. Oh, you want to have that, you need to get contracts. You need to, you can't, in Australian law, you got to, you know, pay them super. No, you can't employ them. Subcontractors. You can't do it the simple way. You've got to employ them properly and you've got to pay their super and their tax. And oh, by the way, there's a BAS and you've got to withhold their tax. And eventually there's this list of things. You just want to do this one simple thing and these lists of other things that come attached to that one simple thing. Yeah, so I mean like 55 other things that get attached to that one thing that you wanted to do. And then you look at it and you go, well, I really want this one thing. Can I do this other 55? And for me, it's always, okay, well, what else am I going to do? Like, the alternative isn't acceptable. So it's like, I want that thing. Am I not going to do the thing? Am I not going to have a studio because I'm not going to do these other 50 things? Well, no, I'm going to do the 50 things and I'm going to get my studio.

How did you manage to multitask there?

How do I— well, how do I manage to multitask? I don't know if I do.

I just I mean, because you said you had to learn like the software, the employees.

Yeah, well, I mean, I'm always multitasking and managing multiple projects on the go, but it's— I think over time what you realize, and I think initially I had that single-minded mindset of like, I still do, which is just focus on this one task, and once this one task is complete, I'll move on to the next one. But like, even say writing the book, it wasn't simple enough as I'm just going to write this book and that's all I get to focus on. I when I was writing the book, I was also doing 50 other things. I had the studio team to manage, pro— like, you know, there's lots of other things. The branding that we redid at the same time, there was a lot of other projects on the go. So I kind of— chaos and order. The more order you have, the more chaos you're able to invite into your life. And that's why I'm quite a stickler for order, because I realize, like, the amount of chaos I'm able to handle is directly proportionate to the amount of order that I have. And the more order I have, The more chaos I can bring on. And I, you accept it as a cycle. You accept that it's not going to be nothing. You're going to get it orderly. And then you're going to have something, which is also the blessing, the entrepreneur's curse, the blessing and the curse, which is I'm going to get all this perfect like this. I'm going to do this perfect, right? The user manual. You know how many times we've done this? 4. Well, we had actually 4 or 5 iterations of this, right? Uh, because the first time I did it, I'm like, this is perfect. And you realize, oh no, I'm going to change this. Oh, look, it's gonna be better. Like, you have the optimization mindset and you, you know what would be really nice as part of a user manual? If I had a book. Yeah, I'm going to spend the next 3 years writing a book. Like, oh, our logo is not that good. Maybe we should change our logo. It doesn't, it's not, you know, there's constant things that you're trying to optimize and reassess. So I don't But it comes out of creating order. It allows more chaos that allows your, I suppose, brain to— the way I relate it to is like Wi-Fi, right? So let's say you've got your Wi-Fi modem. If you have one device plugged into that modem, it goes— Wi-Fi goes really fast, right? If you have two devices, it's so fast. You have 100 devices, now it goes really slow. And I think entrepreneurship is, yes, you are taking on, you can take on, you know, a few things, but if you've got one big thing, You really got to allow focus for that one big thing, but you also have to have mastery in a level of, you have to have a level of systemization and processes for all the other things to run before you can take on another thing. That's how I operate. It's once I've done this thing, then I can take on more things. I earn the right to take on more things.

Is there any difference between being a business owner or being an entrepreneur? Or is it the same thing?

No, I think they're different. I think they're very different. I think a business owner satisfied is satisfied with where they're at.

Yeah.

I think a business owner is someone who owns a business and is happy to get a return off a business. And the world does need business owners, but it's very, this is what we do. We are not going to innovate. We are not going to rock the boat. This business consistently gives us 10% return per year, whatever it may be. It's not emotional. A service station is a good example of a business. Every time you go in there, you know what you're going to get. They're probably going to do the same amount more or less next year as the year before. It's on a good street. It's a good business. People need to get petrol. Entrepreneurship is how do we do this better? Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, said entrepreneurship is jumping off a plane and learning how to build a parachute on the way down, or words to the effect, jumping off a cliff and learning how to build a plane on the way down. But I think even more to that, it's It's how do we do this better? It's the constant thought of how do we do this better? How do we, how do we do this better? How do we give the book better? How do we give that message better? How do we recreate? How do we make this better? Or at least that is what it is for me. And maybe I'm just talking about my personal experience in business and entrepreneurship is my leading question is how do we do this better?

Is that how you think about everything? Or is this, is there a specific thing about running enterprise that inspires you, because you are always thinking, how can it be even better? Whereas I know that maybe if you were to play basketball, you wouldn't care, you wouldn't have that same mentality to—

hey, I don't care about basketball.

What makes you care about this?

So maybe it is just me in the sense, but I don't, I don't care about sport. I've, I actually have very few interests, um, in the grand scheme of things, right? But like, I'm— things I'm really interested in, but for me, if I get interested in something, then I want to optimize it. And I am the type of person, if I get interested in something, I want to go to the best in the world at it and hack their brain and know what they know. So I think, what is it about this? This is something that I've chosen to be good at, and I feel in a way it's chosen me to be good at as well. So there's a two-way dance of I recognize the changes that people get from like the significant changes when people have failed so many times and they come here and they get the result. And also my, you know, years as a coach, I mean, I was coaching, the level of impact that I had on people's lives. And, you know, for years, years later, they would refer back to me and change and refer all that kind of stuff. I recognize the magic and the uniqueness of what we do, and I feel is a bit of a gift, and that's something that I feel compelled to explore. If that makes sense. So I don't feel like I'm done exploring that, and that's probably what gets me up in the morning and motivates me and inspires me, is how do I make this— I know there's, I know there's another layer of this somewhere. I don't know exactly what that layer is, but I know there's something here that we could do better, and I'm gonna find it, and I'm going to create an experience for someone and, or a process that's going to change people's lives and have more impact, or refine it, or make it more seamless, or make it more effortless. Like, that's what makes my brain curious of how I can do that.

Like, you're always pursuing better, right? Because you know that deep down in your heart, you know that better exists. Something— there's always something out there that can make this whole thing a better experience for people.

Yeah, I think, I think it's the balance of that, that. So I think it's, for me, I think I've kind of, my creed is philosopher in mind, warrior in body, artist at heart. Now that's my personal— I didn't read that anywhere, that's my own personal philosophy, right, for, for me and my life.

That's a king.

Sorry?

That's a king.

That's a king.

Mark Ottobre 2023 quote.

Uh, there we go. So for me, for a lot, I love philosophy. And like, why do we do the things that we do? But the artist at heart, and that, that for me, that philosophy started with artist at heart. The first one was artist at heart, philosopher in mind, and then I was like, mind, what do I want to be in mind? Like philosopher and body, warrior in body. Um, but it started with artist at heart. Now artist at heart, it's not about money. It's about trying things. It's about, as, um, Mark Zuckerberg would say, go fast and break things. it's about trying stuff. It's throwing shit at a wall really and seeing what sticks. And most of the time shit doesn't stick. Right.

Because you, some people, and I know I certainly used to have this idea that you just knew that straight away you wanted to do something like this. But then when my brother Hua started learning how to better build himself as a business owner from you, and I read your website, it's like, oh no, no, no, this guy actually tried a lot of different things. And they didn't go as he hoped.

I knew I always wanted to have a gym, a studio. No, I wanted to have a gym. That's all I knew. When— so basically, if I go back into my like origin story, is I was the fat kid at school. So I was picked last at school. I, you know, was the dumb kid, didn't have any friends, hated lunchtime because I'd walk around the school as a loner. Uh, I had one friend, one gay friend, walk around the school Like, he was gay, um, we knew, but, you know, even primary school was definitely the gay kid. And, um, you know, he was my bestie, right? He was my bestie. I mean, me and this kid, we walked around the school and that was my lunchtime. And, uh, you know, he, he— when we went to high school, like, he left and I had no friends. And, uh, the friends that I did have, like, I made friends because I was so desperate. I remember, like, the first day, Year 7, I turned to a kid and said, do you want to be friends? And anyway, I got bullied. Yeah, I know it was cute, right? But this is how much of a social, uh, I don't know, awkward, socially awkward kid I was, right? That didn't have any friends, uh, really desperately wanted— been very sensitive as a kid, like, super people. That's one of the things I think people don't see. Like, they see this like strong bearded man, it's like, you know, with the resting fuck-off face, um, but how sensitive like I am to things. And also as a kid, like tremendously sensitive, and I got the shit beat out of me, not physically but emotionally. And that's what I think built a lot of the resolve that I have, is that I didn't have an easy run in primary school, I didn't have an easy run in high school until I started weight training, right? And it was like, you know, I remember I was picked on and bullied and all that, and then I started weight training and I developed self-confidence. And for the first time in my life, I felt comfortable telling people to go fuck themselves. And it felt really good. So I started telling a lot of people to go fuck themselves. And, um, telemarketers, and, and you've heard me, and, uh, you know, like, it's standing up for myself because, because it was like, well, you know, I was able to, and, um, this is, this is like, I can protect myself, if that makes sense. Um, and I don't mean like I'd get into fights because I didn't get into fights, um, but I was able to to put barriers up where, you know, before I wasn't. Um, I accept it. So for me, weight training was such a— and I went literally, I went from a D average student to an A+ average student. And that wasn't because my teachers taught me better or because I learned some magic secret. That was because of weight training. And weight training and being in the gym changed my life. So at the end of year 9, I spent all school holidays of year 9 in, in the gym twice a day. Lost a bunch of weight, came back to school, people started treating me differently, I started treating myself differently. And literally from year 10 on, every day after school I'd catch the 305, uh, the 305 bus from the outside of East Doncaster, uh, to Doncaster Shopping Town. And I would train at— was— now it's a block of flats, but it was the Genesis in Doncaster. Um, it was originally— I went Akarena, then I went Doncaster Genesis, and I would train. And that's what I did for every day after school from Year 10.

And you got A pluses?

Yeah, I got merit award. I was— I got him— I got a merit award in Year 10, in Year 11, in Year 12. I actually got the subject award in art in Year 12, so I was like number 1 in my art class. Uh, and again, that was because of weight training. So why am I telling you this? Is that always been— I don't know, why am I telling you this? What was the original question? My origin story, I, I think I had to predate my origin story. So yeah, I don't know what I'm telling you.

I think it was a business, like overcoming obstacles and challenges throughout the way. You refer back to being a kid and, you know, fighting through the bully.

And yeah, so I think that, that's, that's probably been part of, you know, part of the story of optimization of— I don't know that, but that's, that's how I started. I interrupt this podcast to give you a very special message. December, we are running an Elite Results Bootcamp. What is the Elite Results Bootcamp? It is a 3-day bootcamp where we teach our systems around strength, hypertrophy, and fat loss. It is intense. There are 6 workouts over the 3 days, and our trainers not only spill the beans on all the techniques, methods, systems that we use to get next level results, we take you through actual workouts so you can experience in real time. If you're a client, if you're someone who's interested in Enterprise Fitness, or if you're a trainer looking to level up, check out our course Enterprise Fitness Academy and click on Elite Results.

Would you say that that's why you have such a burning—

sorry, I know why. So then after that, right, my— got the subject award or not, my career's canceled. Said, I said, I want to be— this is year 12— said, you know, if you want to do, if you want to be in fitness, which I did because spending all day at the gym, you kind of need to already be. She really didn't want me to do that. She was like, go pursue, you've got talents in art and design, which I, I did and do, uh, go pursue art and design. That was her advice. So when I finished school, I did, I went to Box Hill TAFE and I did my Certificate IV in Applied Design. I'm not gonna say I fucking hated it because I didn't, but I knew it's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be in the gym. So in the end of that, I did my Cert 5, my Cert 3 and 4 in 2005 in PT and started work in 2006 at Genesis in Ringwood as an employee earning— it was like $16.75 an hour. And I was ready to quit after 6 months, and then my manager came to me and said, you know, you can— we're introducing a new model, you can rent the floor for $1,100 a month. And I said, I was scared shitless because before that I'd only earned, you know, like $400 a week. And I was really struggling because I was working from 6 in the morning till 9 at night, not earning very much money. And, you know, trying to get clients, trying to do all these things. But anyway, I went for it. He sold me the opportunity and I made it work. Started doing business courses and just So I mean, like, my, my baptism into business was because there— I knew what I wanted to do, which was I wanted to do personal training, but I didn't know all the other things I would have to do to accomplish that goal, if that makes sense. Because I couldn't go to someone and say, employ me as a personal trainer, because even now there aren't really that many opportunities. There aren't that many enterprise fitnesses that have our model that will employ trainers and pay them a wage. If back in the day there was, I would probably still be working as a PT at another brand, if that makes sense. Uh, business wasn't on the cards of things that, you know, I didn't— when I was a kid, I was like, I'm going to start a business. It wasn't.

So it's a young Mark would probably work for Mark now.

Young Mark 100% would work for Mark now. 100%. He would be his best employee.

I was going to ask what their relationship would be like.

He would be, he would be a teacher's pet. Like, he, he would be like, how do I do this better? He would be like, number one, there's no— I want to be employee of the month every month. Um, he would love it. And I think in many ways, like, Enterprise Fitness was created for me, the, like, you know, like, the trainer that I was, uh, that wanted to be shown all these things and, and the right way and have the mentorship and the guidance and the clients and not have to do any of the business stuff. I, I've done that. I've paid the path forward. But it was really out of necessity because I didn't have another— like, for me, it's very simple. Like, what else was I going to do? Like, what else? Get a real job? Fuck that, right? Like, what else was I going to do, right? Um, I, I, I, I don't think that was— you know, I think in many ways I'm unemployable. So me getting a real— the idea of me getting a 9-to-5 or a real job— so I just went all out. All, all out in, in this, but at the same time fell in love with it as well. Like, I always— I loved training. Like, training— I think because I have so much love for training, everything else was like, this is just the price that I have to pay. Like, I have to learn this stuff because I want to be here, so I have to learn this stuff. If I want to open up a gym, I have to learn this stuff. Um, what else is your other— like, what, what other option do you have? You don't have another option if If you want to get your message out to more people, you have to learn the website stuff. You have to learn marketing. You have to learn sales. If you want to open up this studio, which you say you want to do, you have to learn the administration side of things.

Do you enjoy these things like marketing, sales?

Fuck no. Marketing, sales, business now I really enjoy. But I mean, there's so many like tax, who enjoys tax, right? Like there's this. I've come to enjoy it now, and I enjoy it a lot now, but there was a time where I—

is it because it's easier now to get?

It's because I've become good at it. Like, I'm— yeah, it's—

do you think that stuff also helped you in developing other skills in like other areas of your life?

Of course, without question. Patience, uh, you know, application. But I mean, look, there was a time where there was a lot of stuff like— and look, there A business owner, I think entrepreneur, business owner, they don't get the jobs often. Or if you're growing a business, I think this is the difference, right? To answer your question, if you're growing a business, you don't get the things that you necessarily want to do. They're not the things that you get. If you're growing a business, you're doing all the things that you have to do or no one else will do. And yes, sometimes you can delegate that if you have the money to delegate it. If you don't have the money, well, guess what? You're the one learning it and you're the one—

and people rush that, right?

People rush that part, right? And, and for me, you know, like, I started with nothing. It's not like I had an investor give me money and say, here, open up this gym. I started with nothing, absolutely nothing. I went to the bank and I asked the bank to give me a loan to start Enterprise Fitness. They said, absolutely not, there's no way, there's no way, we're not giving you any money. So I saved up $80,000, uh, over like 10 years and put it all on black, right? Put— oh, I should say put it all on blue, where our logo is black now. So back then it was blue, right? To start Enterprise Fitness, I bet the farm. There wasn't like— there was no plan B for me. It's— and I remember thinking the thought that I— when I rented, like, uh, got the lease here, I remember the thought, I'm either going to do this and be wildly successful as a personal trainer, I'm going to live Live at home with my mum. Lucky I'm Italian, right?

Um, or Asians.

Yeah, there's no in between. There's no in between. I'm either going to do this and it's going to be successful, or I'm going to have to go back home and live with my mum and dad. That's it. And that's okay because at least I'll know that I tried and I gave all out. So, and look, when I started as a PT, I had friends tell me You know, interesting stories like the careers counselor, we ended up training her daughter. I trained her daughter personally. And, uh, I had a friend who was my training partner. He said to me, oh, don't be a PT, right? Why would you want to be PT? It's already— this was 2005. It's already too competitive. You know, it's so competitive. There's too many of you in the industry. Don't be a PT. You know, stick to your design stuff. Within 4 years, was it 3, 4 years, he called me and said, can you train me? And interestingly enough, I was like, what times do you want? He told me the time. Like, dude, I'm booked up. I can't train you. I'm too busy. I, I can't fit you in. These are the only times I can't do that. I'm like, sorry dude, can't train you. Which to me always says a lot about the journey. Um, you know, like these little things that happen where people say you're never going to do this, you're never gonna— or you shouldn't do this, or whatever. And then it becomes way more successful than you ever thought it would be.

Would you say you're someone— like, I know I am like this— when someone says you can't do something or don't do that, you're more inclined to actually prove that you can?

I don't care. Someone says I can't do something, I don't care. I don't care either way.

Just go on your own path.

It's, it's not like you say I can't do it, I'm like, say I can do it. Yeah, I just want to prove me right. Um, I don't really care if someone says— if someone's like I'm not that type of person that when people say, oh, you know, put it on your shoulder and use it as fuel and let that fuel you. I'm like, man, if that's all you think, fuck it, man. Like, maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong. I don't know, but I'm gonna do it anyway. Um, like, I don't know, maybe you are right, but maybe I am wrong. I think I— yeah, sure, but maybe you're wrong. And but you know what, at the end of the day, it doesn't even matter because I'm doing it anyway. Why the fuck do I give a care about this person's opinion? I don't. I don't give two shits about this person's opinion. I want to do it because I want to do it. That's enough for me. Uh, yeah.

What are the main lessons that, um, you've learned from doing business that you apply to life? And what are the main lessons that you've learned from life that you apply to business?

Patience, again.

Would you say it's a strong point or something you had to work on a lot?

Work on, dude. Work on. Um, they're definitely like, I'm a thousand times more patient now than I was when I started. Thousand times more patient. I wasn't a patient person at all. Um, very like— but that also, I think you, you probably can see this, you know, we— you've worked with me for some time now, both of you have. Everything is urgent. Like, if I've got something to do, it's, it's getting done. It's not It's not, I'm not waiting for it. If I make a decision, then that decision gets implemented when that decision gets made. And I want to free up mental space in my head. So I want to make decisions fast. I don't want to be thinking about shit. I don't want to go home and go, oh, you know, which one? It's because I can make a decision and find out it was the wrong decision and then move on to the next one. Right? Like I'd rather be doing, figuring out. I think decision-making sometimes is a figuring out process. You make a decision, you figure it out, see if it's right. And then if it's not right, then you know it's not right, and then you can— yeah, you can pivot. Exactly right. So, and I also don't like— I don't like decisions weighing on me, uh, you know, like I want to free up that mental space to solve problems. So when I make a decision, I want to move forward and fast. So patience has been definitely a big, a big lesson in business. Also around like relationships and managing people. And I think, you know, if James was here, you'd probably be able to share some more insight. But in the early days, I was a bull, right? A bull. It was—

I think this is like, like, you've helped me a lot with better relationships with the guys that work here because, okay, I feel like we both have a background where we were very individual, doing things by ourselves. It was all, why should, you know, why should I include other people when I can just do this myself?

Yes.

But obviously a lot of real-life success and, you know, enterprise's success comes from doing things as a team. So I've had to learn the long way, and you've guided me along that to really work as a team. But I mean, something that I really admire about you is that you're able to do all these different— you're the man that can do a lot of these things quite well, but you know when to go, you know, James is better at that, so here's that. What has this journey been like for you, being the individual player versus now letting go?

Because again, early days, 2013, It had to be all me. I had to be the comp prep coach. Not you, not anyone. I had to be the comp prep coach.

You still got it.

Yeah, you still got it.

Well, I don't even want to have it anymore. That's the thing. It's like, I want you to have it. Like, I genuinely, like, now this stage of life, I'm like, no, please, can you be the comp prep coach? I don't want it. I don't. Um, but, but once upon a time, like, those words would never leave my mouth. I didn't even think there was going to be a day where those words would leave my mouth, if that makes sense. Like, So I think the ego, dropping the ego of having, having to have it all, or, you know, having to be everything. Like, I have to be the number one person to do sales, I have to be the number one person to do marketing, I have to do, have to be the head coach, I have to review every program, I have to review every nutrition, I have to, I'm the one who has to get the client results, they have to be shouting me out, they can't be shouting other people out, like, it has to be me. And then, I don't know, like, things become, I think success when you want to go for the first stage of business, I think you actually need that. I think you need that to get to a substantial level of success. The problem is that skill set is the exact opposite skill set to break you past into the next level of success. And when I broke through that part is I got to the next level of success. And that was a big personal journey. And now it's, you know, you come into, it's like, what, what do I actually do here? I mean, I'm able, because I'm able to delegate Hey, go, you know what, you be the man on sales, you be the, the girl on marketing, you be the guy at the comp prep coach. Um, because I'm able to delegate so much, it allows you freedom to go to create other things. And for me, in my heart of hearts, that's actually what I want to be doing. I want to be spending more time thinking and creating rather than having my— having to satisfy an identity that was once true. Because by staying stuck to that— you said like in previous episodes about the identity being the soccer player, about the identity of being the table tennis player. For me, it's the identity being the, the guy, the trainer. Like, I was the guy that everyone was coming to. Like, I was booked out. I was charging $250, $300 an hour. I was the peak, and I was booked out. I was the guy. Like, to let go of that for something else, it's a, it's a big step. You don't want to let go of it. Sorry? Years. Years. I think for me it was a case of you're forced to break out of it in, in many ways because you see, you see the cost. And for me it was probably a number of situations, not any one particular one, but you see the cost of having to be the guy that it has actually on the business and it has actually on the people that you care about. So if I have to be the guy, then you leave because you want to be the guy, if that makes sense. And when you're losing people you care about, you're like, well, hang on, what? Oh, it was my ego. Fuck. It was my ego that got in the way of that relationship, right? It was my ego. And I mean, it's taken me years to kind of reflect back and go, oh shit, you know, if I Didn't have to be that. I mean, it's a thing of like over the years you give more, you give more, you give more, and you realize you can let go of the whole thing and you go, actually, it's okay, right? But again, I'm going to say the early days of business, that, that's certainly not what I'd recommend to do at all. Like the early days of business, you need that, you need that to get to a certain level. Absolutely. And I needed, I needed to go through that phase to get to a certain level. And if I didn't go through that phase, I would never have gotten to this level. To be able to push forward, right?

Because at the start, no one will save you. You're there, you've got to make it for yourself, kind of thing.

You've got to make it for yourself. Like, no one's going to follow the guy who's not the guy. Like, if I'm not getting results and kicking ass and taking names and I don't think I've done the shit, who's going to follow me, right? Like, if I'm getting average results, you don't want to follow someone who's getting average results. You want to follow— and I mean, with that comes like, yeah, this guy does have the confidence and he can produce. And that's what attracted me, really good clients and people, and people who wanted to work for me and all that kind of stuff in the early days. Like, you need to have that bravado. But when it starts to take a life of its own, you need to pivot, you need to shift. And I think I said it on a previous show, you go from being the warrior to being the gardener. Oh no, I didn't. I said to a friend, yeah, you go from being a warrior that has to do it all, that has to have that ego to protect themselves, to being the gardener that is allowing the flowers and everything else to flourish and bloom.

I remember first starting here and I was like, man, everyone should do this. But then you quickly said, no, not everyone should do this. This is not— not everyone's cut out for it. Yet, you know, the behind-the-scenes work that you do is obviously—

do what? Were you referring to it?

So everyone should, everyone should train with the trainer here because everyone needs it. Because I'm viewing it from a lens of like, everyone's Everyone's got terrible habits. Everyone's got terrible mindsets around nutrition and what works and how they view themselves. Um, so I'm like, everyone should do this because I come from a background of a lot of personal development. But then over time I realized not everyone is cut out for it. So I guess what, what has been the biggest things apart from just getting results? I mean, people stay for more than just the results, but what would you say is the biggest thing that gets people going? Yes. I invest way more here, but I'm— I feel like I'm getting more than what I invest.

I think when it permeates in all other areas of their life, I think that's— I think it's the same experience that I gave myself when I was in year 10. It's— you think your problem is you're overweight, and you think your problem is you're unhealthy, and you think that's like— you want to— and yes, it is your problem, but what you don't realize on the other side of that is all these other things that you thought about yourself that weren't true as well. So it's not, it's not just a physical change. And this is the thing that at the core, you know, if I go into my woo-woo phase, we are all, we're all spiritual beings, right? Uh, we're all spiritual and our body is our vessel. The vessel contains our spiritual essence. And for me, it makes sense that the vessel is as healthy and pure, for lack of a better word, as possible to express that essence to the best way you can. So when you, you look after the vessel, you're able to express the essence of who you really are better. So if your vessel is poisoned, if your vessel is dysfunctional, you're not going to be able to express that essence to its truest capacity. Also, being able to test the vessel physically, I think, enhances the essence as well. So for me, this is where training isn't like— I don't train just because I want nice muscles and biceps. Yes, I do want those things, but it's also a practice. It's also a grounding. When I've gone through the most challenging— the only— like, I've gone through a lot of challenging things in life, like having a child in hospital for 4 months in, um, you know, ICU. Very, very challenging for me. You know, I didn't get into drugs or alcohol or, you know, any of that shit that a lot of people do find themselves in hopeless situations. I had my training. That, that was my grounding, and it always has been for me, is if I need therapy in a sense, I'm training and figuring it out with my body and going through the motions, if that makes sense. So I think what we do here exceptionally well is we teach people that, how to cope without necessarily directly explicitly saying it to people. It's just the way I've taught my trainers here. It's the way we do things here. It's the way I've systemized things here. The way, you know, from the session 1 to the session 2 to the session— why we do the certain exercises, all these things progressive. It, it's the way I've done it and what helps me. And I think that's what breaks people through, because there is a difference between training with us, training other people. It's not just, you know, it, it's a lot deeper. And I think people get that when they— it's because it has to be something you experience. Yes, it's not something that you, you can even necessarily explain. And you know, you've had it and you've seen it many times when people sign up, they really say, I didn't realize I was going to get all this.

Because, because their knowledge of everything in the world and is, is that— I think you said it once, so true— their knowledge is that, and they think audio people can't see what you're doing. So they, they might have, you know, a little bubble of what they think the world is and what they think works and what the problems that they're going through, what the symptoms are, but really they're not aware of the disease. They're not aware of the disease at all. And coming here, it's like, well, well, most people— me being the first person that comes, it's like, why should I believe that?

Weight training. Most people think the gyms, they think, oh, you just, you know, you want to get in pretty biceps, you want to lose some weight. That's what most people think. Yeah, that's—

yeah, but that's so far from—

that's so far from what it just is. Yeah, correct. They don't— they don't get all the other things that weight training and exercise does. They just see, oh, you want to have a pretty body, or you want to go to the beach this year. That's so superficial. It's like, no, it's not superficial. Me working on my body actually connects me to a much— to myself.

It's a reflection of who I've become from all the habits that I've learned, the hard work.

Paul Cech said it really well. He goes, I don't go to church because I am the church. And the first time he said that, I was like, what? I am the I'm like, oh yeah, that actually, that, that actually is true. I am the church, as in your vessel contains your spiritual essence, and that has everything that is happening. I know you love this spiritual talk, but it, your body is, is the vessel. And for me, taking care of it is your duty to, to experience life as fully as possible. It's your duty to take care of it. It's not just something that, like, oh, it's not, it's not an option, it's your duty. And it doesn't necessarily mean you have to train every day, but I think physical, physical culture, physical something needs to be part of your life every day or every second day at least, probably every day.

I love when people come in and they just say something that, and everything they're saying is a symptom of a lack of understanding and/or just things that are short-term fixes, whereas those things are not going to carry you very far.

It's depending on the experience they had before as well.

Yeah, well, I think also for people it's a reference point too, right? So people's reference point of exercise is you do it to lose weight, full stop. That's the reference point. Or exercise is a group class, a bike, uh whatever it is. Like, that's their— and then when you change their reference point to exercise, can be a lot of things. It can be something you can enjoy, it can be something that enhances your body, it can be— it doesn't have to be something you hate at all. It can be very enjoyable and fun. And you, you give them a different reference because that's the thing, coming to Enterprise where everyone absolutely loves what they do every day, and even, I don't know, if we had a bowling alley, let's say all you guys were bowling coaches, and you came in, everyone would end up loving bowling. Or if it was mini golf or table tennis, whatever it is, it's because we love what we do, it becomes infectious. Then I think people go, well, I want to do this. And the reference point, it's like the difference between having an exceptional teacher at something and the difference in having a mediocre teacher is that you fall in love with the subject matter, if that makes sense.

This makes so much sense because I, I had my mentor David Sekira, he was saying, you know, like What, why is it, why is it that you feel like you belong at Enterprise? I want you to think about that. And I couldn't think of why. And he's like, who you work with is more, is often more important than the exact thing that you're doing. And, you know, if you look at Mark, he's been known to be able to, when the sinks, when the ships are, ships are down, he's able to get back up from it and always come back on the, on the other side better. He's able to roll with the punches. And the things that go on there are much more healthier than the other job that you're working at, where, um, you may technically on paper enjoy helping people with their personal development more, but you don't feel— you feel like it's wrong because the environment's not allowing you to, to really flourish because you're not having the right environment there to really grow. Things that are happening there are just not as professional as the things that are happening there. And that's, that's really That's really, you know, you feel that whether you realize it or not.

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's less about the subject matter, right? It's more, it's more about the, the, the reference point. Like, you could fall in love— like, I went whitewater rafting like 2 days ago, and I'm like, this is awesome. But if there wasn't an awesome crew of awesome— like, if there wasn't an awesome dude to talk to me on the boat, I'd be like, this is average. But, you know, I mean, it was pretty outstanding actually. But I mean, it was outstanding because it's whitewater rafting, but it was even more outstanding because the people we went with were outstanding. I think it's the same thing here, is that you can train, but when you're training with people who love what they do, it— the reference point completely changes for, for you. Actually, you want to be better at it because they inspire you to want to be better at it. Final thoughts?

Come train at Enterprise.

I like that.

How many people have come— because me being the induction coach, I'm the first person they see, especially dudes. Well, only dudes. They point to that photo of Cristiano and they're like, I want to look like that. Like, you need a dad like his then. Genetics.

Do you want to pull it off the wall and we'll show the face?

That's what he said.

You should just do the pose.

Cristiano's like joking.

You can do the pose as well.

You should just, um, you should just rip that photo of me off and then people will automatically be sold.

Yeah, yeah. Are there any tickets left? Are there any tickets left?

Tickets left?

Yeah, to the show. I was gonna say, Champion Cristiano. Yeah, that shit. No. Alrighty guys, well, uh, thank you for the, uh, the rapid-fire questions in this podcast. I hope you all enjoyed that, whatever that was. So if you've enjoyed this episode, if you want to hear more from us and the crew here at Enterprise Fitness, make sure you hit subscribe to wherever you listen to us on podcasts. We're everywhere. Apple, Spotify, YouTube, anywhere you listen to podcasts. And also, if you have enjoyed, do share with a friend, help us get the message out. So till next time, friends, train hard, eat well, and supplement smart. Oh, hi there. I hope you enjoyed the podcast while I've still got you. Why not check out our book, www.enterprisediet.com, today and grab your copy?