Home Gyms, Sales Training, and Roast Beast | Ep. 28

And so we were like, well, yeah, frick, dude. Well, at that point, like, we'll just get this American flag one. It showed up, dude. It is so sick. I feel like— I feel so patriotic when I'm lifting, dude. I was like, when I was squatting today, I'm looking in this mirror as I see like on the— on my left hand, dude, I've got like the stars, and on the right hand I've got the stripes, dude. And I'm like, this is— is this how like Captain America feels when he's like in the gym, you know? Welcome to The Rising Tribe. I'm Jared.

And I'm Austin.

And our goal is to inspire young men to build strong families and discover their potential as men, husbands, and fathers.

And we'll do this by having authentic conversations about faith, family, health, and business as we strive to level up our lives and the lives around us. So welcome everybody to our December, our last episode of 4 episodes. Thanks for listening up until this point. If you're brand new, welcome to the Rising Tribe. I'm super excited. Like, I don't even want to like beat around the bush. I just want to hear about your new gym, dude. Like home gym. I like walk us through what your thought process was on getting a home gym, how you felt getting everything and how your life has kind of shifted just from having the gym.

Okay, well, I realized that we haven't— we didn't even talk about the conversations leading up to getting the home gym. The last time we talked, I think I had told you like, we're not doing a home gym until we go back to the States. So, uh, yeah, so yeah, lots of, lots of conversations were had fairly quickly. Um, and this, this is kind of in a lot of ways, this is, this is kind of how I operate in that if I have an idea of something I want to do, I will start researching like, you know, uh, you know, what different companies are out there, what's the price range, what's the quality look like, you know, what kind of deals go on throughout the year. And I kind of just have like my eyes open, um, like for a while. Then when it comes time to make a decision, it's like a pretty quick, like, okay, you know, you know, these were the 3 different options of whatever product I was looking at doing. These are the 3 different options. One of them went on this huge sale, like, pull the trigger, ready, set, go. Like, like the decision happens pretty quickly, but there's like a lot of, uh, kind of research that goes into it, uh, well beforehand. Um, so Marisha and I had talked about, well, when we first moved here, we were like We will do a home gym, you know, when we go back to the States. Uh, the military has a weight limit of how much you can, uh, ship, and it's like based on your rank and stuff. And so we, we, we had kind of like maxed out the weight when we brought our stuff out here and we've accumulated more furniture since we've been out here. So, and we, we don't have a garage. We have like this little carport that has like our bikes and yard tools and stuff in it. So like there's no, there's no space. We have no garage space to do it like a garage gym. Um, and then downstairs we have like our kitchen, our dining room, and our living room. And that's it. And then, you know, on the second floor is where we have some bedrooms, and then we have an attic. Um, and so there just wasn't really space for a gym. And, uh, but for a while, like, I've been looking at— I've been looking at gym equipment. And, you know, I've been to, I don't know, dozens of gyms around the world for, for work and stuff. Every time you go to a different, uh, different base, when I go back home, like, uh, we go to the gyms. And I've— so, you know, and I'm sure you have too, used all the different kinds of equipment out there. You know, you've seen all the different, different like weight plates, like, you know, you've used all the different kinds of iron plates, all the different kind of bumper plates, like all the different kinds of dumbbells and like different dumbbell racks. And while you're at the gym, you're like, dude, I freaking hate this rack. Like, why would they design something like this? You know, or I hate these plates because they don't have this, that, or the other. You just like, you kind of know what you do and don't like when it comes to weight equipment. And I've been lifting weights for I mean, I think it's like 10 years now, uh, pretty much since I left high school I started lifting. So, uh, so it's been a minute. And, uh, and so I was, I was kind of keeping my eye open for, for different deals and whatnot, just on and trying to figure out how much this is going to cost us somewhere down the line. But right now we don't have the space, we don't have the weight limit. Like, it's not going to work while we're in Italy. We still have 2 more years here. We'll just have to wait till we go back to the States. But when we do go back to the States, like, we're gonna have a garage that's big enough for us to have a gym, or we're gonna have the space. Like, it's gonna be part of the decision-making in either buying or renting a home. We'll be having enough space for a home gym. And, uh, kind of in, in recent weeks— so yeah, a few weeks ago, Marisha and I were just talking about how tough our schedule is, um, trying to fit certain things in, one of them being, uh, restrictions on, uh, kind of her freedom. Because if I go up to base— so we live about a half an hour from base, so, uh, when I leave, you know, I usually get up at or at least before this, I'd get up at 4:30, I'd leave the house by 5:30, get to the gym on base at 6:00, lift till 7:00, shower, you know, shave and all that. And then I'd be in my office by about 7:30, 7:35, uh, and then I'd prep for my 8:00 meeting. So that means from like, I'm up at 4:30, I'm gone by 5:30, uh, and then I'd get home from work at like 6:00 or 6:30 in the evening. So gone for like a huge chunk of the day. And while I'm gone, since we have a 6-month-old and the almost 3-year-old, like Marsha's kind of stuck. She can't really go and do it. She can't go running. Uh, she could go running with both of them, but we'd have to get a double jogging stroller. She hates running with jogging strollers. You know, it's, it's just that much more chaotic with napping and sleeping and it's, it's just like a big, uh, a big hurdle to exercise. Um, and so she just hasn't been exercising. You know, regularly. She's been doing yoga here and there, um, you know, going for, you know, a few weeks of consistency and then not doing it for a few weeks and kind of just back and forth. And, um, and so we— I don't even know how it came up, but while some of our family was here, this was probably like a week, week or two before Thanksgiving, uh, she made a joke about— or I made a joke about weight equipment or like having a gym in our house. And she's like, at this point we might as well just like put one in the living room because like You know, I try to make our space beautiful and then we have children who like destroy things and all of this. Like, you know, why not just at least make our house functional? Like if it can't be beautiful and functional, at least let's have it be functional. So she made the joke and I was like, you know, I laughed along and then Marisha was like, "I'm only half kidding." And I was like, "Well, I was only a quarter kidding." Like, you mean like the living, you know? And our living room's kind of this funny shape where it's like, you almost have like two rooms connected to each other. So, um, almost like, you know, we could use half of the living room as a living room and the other half is like a gym room or whatever. Um, so I started kind of like taking some measurements, just like we're not— we hadn't made any decisions. It was just kind of like a half joke that we made. Um, and I was just trying to see like, is it even feasible? Do we even have enough space? This, that, and the other. Um, but I've— I had shown Marisha periodically like some of the Nike Grind equipment that had come out. Um, you know, where they, they shredded a bunch of, uh, like recycled shoes and then like reused rubber, and then they, they melt plates together and stuff. So now their bumper plates and their dumbbells are like this, like textured, multicolored, like stuff. It's, it's super cool. I thought it was super cool. And I'd shown her a while back, months ago, I had shown her, and, um, and I was like, dude, check these out. And she's like, oh, those are really cool. And I was like, look, and they're, you know, they're on sale for however much, you know, a couple thousand dollars off. And she's like, well, that's not as expensive as I thought it would be. And I was like Okay, duly noted. You didn't think that was that expensive? Like, awesome. I also didn't think it was as expensive as I thought it would be, so, you know, positive. Well, she had made that joke about, uh, you know, having a gym in the living room, and, you know, I kind of took some measurements to try and figure out how much space we'd even actually need because I, I didn't— I hadn't done that, you know, figure out how much space would we even need to actually have all the gym equipment like in a space. But then a couple nights later, she like she couldn't sleep for whatever reason. I think she woke up to the baby and then like couldn't go back to sleep for a while. So she, she like hops on her phone and, well, she goes and she, she like gets out of bed and goes into the wardrobe room. That's what we call the, like, bed— we have a bedroom off of our bedroom and you can only get to that room by going through our room. It's a really strange setup, but, um, we just had our wardrobes in there because we don't have closets. There are no closets in this house. Like, nothing's built into the walls. So like we had to get these wardrobes that are just like closets, you know. Um, well, she like went in there and kind of like measured it out and started looking to see if there were any options to better use that space and to see if maybe we could turn that space into the gym room. And mind you, it was, it was something that never came across our minds because it's on the second floor. Um, and you know, generally speaking, you don't want to put a bunch of heavy weights on a second floor of a house. However, our house is made of concrete, like a foot and a half thick concrete walls. Like, most, most homes in Italy are made of cement. So, um, but we hadn't, we hadn't considered it. Um, and but anyway, she was like, well, if this room was like structurally sound for us to be able to do this, like, what could we do to kind of make it happen? And this is, you know, I don't know, 2 o'clock in the morning or something, and she's just like running through her mind. Well, I wake up, and then, yeah, I don't know, within an hour of me being awake, she's like, so I couldn't sleep last night So, but I started having some, uh, some ideas about how to use the wardrobe room and how we could turn that into a gym. And look, we could actually get rid of all of our wardrobes. We could get these ones from IKEA. Two of these actually fit on the wall better than the floor that we have. And she like starts walking me through all these plans that she has. And she's like, I think that would then free up enough space for us to have all the weights and stuff. And I was like, this is why I married you. Like you take, I kind of have this like half-formed idea and then you come up with an even better idea that like actually meets all of our requirements and is way more thought through and like, you know, like way better than whatever half-formed idea I had. Um, and so we started talking about it and we're like, oh, we could actually, we could actually do this. And not only would that make enough space for our gym stuff, but maybe that would actually better utilize the space that we have in there and up in the attic. Because there were, like I was showing you earlier before we hit record, some like a dresser— or not a dresser, uh like a desk, two desks that kind of had to come up here to the attic for like workstations, like her sewing table and then like her desk desk. So we're like, oh, well, if we put those up here, actually now our attic becomes more functional for everybody and not just for me, 'cause my desk is in the attic, right? So maybe all of us could have a more useful attic space and a more useful gym space down in the wardrobe room. And so then once we kind of were like, well, let's, like, let's see, let's see if we can kind of make this happen and what it would look like. So then for like 3 or 4 days, like in, in between all of our travels while we're like going on day trips or like I'm staying home with all the toddlers and everyone else is going on a day trip, um, dude, I am like doing all this research. Like I pull up a spreadsheet, uh, and I, I start looking at like what stuff does Nike have, how much does it cost, how much does it cost in Italy, what kind of deals are going on for like the Thanksgiving, Black Friday time, how much is shipping going to cost. Uh, so I was looking at Nike, I was looking at Rep, and I was looking at Rogue. Um, and that was around the time I was texting you about advice for gym equipment. Um, and dude, it turned out— it turned out to be way more intensive of like research than I expected. And primarily because we live in Europe, like it's, it's just so much harder. There's so much stuff that is sold stateside that we can't ship to our Army Post Office box. So like our, our, um, our post office box on base. Like, we can't ship it here. Um, and then if it's like bought on the American website, we can't ship it to our physical address here in Italy. So we'd have to buy it from a European— the European version of the website, which often has higher prices, and then we'd have to have it shipped to Italy. And so then like, now we're talking like shipping times are super delayed or they're really expensive, or like, it just— it made it way more complicated., to try and figure out how much it would actually cost us to get some of this equipment. And in the end, like, we paid, we paid a premium to have a gym out here, um, like probably an extra like 15-20% to have, like, to send all of our stuff out here just because of shipping costs. Like, it was, it was insane how much it cost to ship all this stuff. But, um, we, like, I pulled up like, okay, we could get, I, you know, after comparing all these different companies, these are the things that would be like perfect and that I wouldn't want to replace later on, you know? Yeah, because Marisha and I talked about it. She's like, look, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right. I want to get the right wardrobes. I want to get good buckets that we can like put all of our clothes, because this is still like our closet room. It's kind of like having a humongous walk-in closet the size of a bedroom, um, but like, yes, but that's like, that is all of your storage space. So it would require us to make all of our like actual storage, like, like really organized and efficient. Like, we have to get a bunch of buckets. We have to get, um, like different wardrobes. We're gonna have to move stuff. Stuff's gonna have to go upstairs in the attic. And if it's gonna go in the attic, it's not just going in, you know, trash bags on the wall. Like, it is, it is going into bucket. It's all got to be organized. Like, we've got to figure that out. And she was like, and if we're going to do this right, I don't want you to get gym equipment that you will want to replace in a couple years. Like, I want you to get the right thing that is sufficient for you to replace your working out on base at home. Um, because if we could do that, I mean, that shaves like a ton of time, dude, off of driving. Because it's a half an hour to base. So like, if I don't work, I'm not going to the gym. Uh, so like weekends, holidays, like I don't go to the gym. I mean, I've gone several times on those days off, but it's like a 2, 2 and a half hour venture because it's a half hour up to base, then I lift, and then it's a half hour back, dude. And by then, you know, and then I shower and whatnot. It's been like 3 hours of my day off when I work like 60-hour weeks. So like Now it's just even more time away from family. Um, and so it's, it's just like not a sustainable thing, um, in that sense. So, uh, Marisha was like, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right. Uh, we won't get all of the things that you need, like, or that you want because we don't need all of them, but we will. I do think we should get the minimum, uh, it's like the minimum viable product, right? Like everything that you need to at least replace your working out for now at home. And so we're like, cool. So I do, you know, I kind of research, these are all the things I want, and then these are the things that I think we need first. And so like, we need a squat stand, we need a bench, we need some dumbbells, we need a barbell, we need some bumper plates like that, and some floor mats, you know. Like, that's what we need to actually replace all of our workouts at home. Because it's not like, oh, I'm gonna work out at home, you know, for 4 days, and then I still want to go on base because then I can still, you know, hit that. Like, no, it's got to be all or nothing in that aspect. Um, so we, like, I was looking at benches and I was pretty like upfront with Marsha. I was like, look, this bench is more expensive than this bench. This bench is sufficient, but these are the things that I don't like about this bench and that I think within 2 years I would want to replace.

By the way, what did you get for your bench?

Uh, we ended up getting the Rep Blackwing bench.

Okay.

Um, it's like their, their top bench. It's, it's pretty, uh, I would say it is like exactly comparable to Rogue's, Uh, crap, I can't remember what it's called, but Rogue's top tier bench. Um, yeah, except the Rogue one is like $1,000 with the, uh, with the leg attachment at the top. You know what I'm talking about? So you can do like decline, uh, adjustable.

Oh, do you have a, uh, I haven't, I don't have a decline setup at all, but I just have a, yeah. So I'm like wondering which one, but yeah, dude, I mean the, the bench press, the, you got the Rogue. Do you have one that does decline?

For the bench itself.

Yeah.

Yeah. So the bench does decline 10%.

That's great, man.

I will. I'll send this to you, dude. I'll send this just so you can, you can see here. I'll text it to you.

Well, it's like, that's awesome that you've got, you got that set up. Like, the cool thing is I talked to my buddies about this today. It's like, yes, once you buy this stuff, you're done. You don't have to buy a membership ever again. You don't have to commute every day.

The—

I feel like you're the type of guy that would be able to calculate like, this is how much time I save with commuting. Like, you know, you got your spreadsheets and stuff, but you really do save a ton of time that just goes straight back to your family, straight back to being with your kids more, helping your wife more with the kids. Oh yeah.

Oh yeah. 1,000%.

Insane, dude.

I know, I know. I'm— I get to monologue on all this stuff because I'm super excited. This is amazing. We can talk all about family benefits in a minute because we've already started to see several of them. It's been like 2 weeks. Um, but yeah, so I pull up all the different options, um, and then I kind of mentally know, I think these are the things that I want. And like, on some of this stuff, like the bench, like Marisha doesn't care and she's not going to do the research to figure out what bench she wants, right? Like, she trusts me to give her the options, kind of show her the pros and cons, and let her help me kind of make the decision on those. So I presented them, I was like, this is all the equipment, these are prices, these are the different companies, like we're not going to get this stuff from Rogue, we're not going to get this stuff from Rep. Like, you know, just kind of like showing her what is reasonable, um, for like a full setup. And then I was like, okay, but this space, like all this equipment is going to be in your space because it's not like a separate room, it's like part of our wardrobe, like our closets are in here, you know. So like, we're gonna be— you're gonna be in here every day, uh, both to exercise but also like to change clothes and to get in the dresser and all this other stuff. So like I don't want this to be visually, like, unappealing to you. I don't want you to walk in here and have, like, this, you know, small tinge of, uh, like, like, I hate how ugly it looks, you know, it's so industrial in here, you know. Like, I want her to not feel any sort of resentment towards it at all visually because it's her space. And I'm like, I'm a pretty clean and tidy person, so, like, I make sure that our space is tidy and clean. But like, if she doesn't like the way that it looks, well then, like, you know, that's slow. I mean, we're talking about this every single day, multiple times a day. Like, even though it's like, oh, you know, we got the red one versus the black one. But like, if she doesn't like it, like, to begin with, dude, I'm like building that, that little, you know, that little thorn into our life, you know, like forever. Like, why would you build that into your life intentionally? So, um, so I presented it to her and I was like, okay, Now here there are color options, you know, like the— you can get the squat stand in black or red or blue or— and she's like, I want everything to be black. And I was like, oh, okay, I wouldn't have guessed that. Like, I'm glad you told me. She's— and so I show her the bench and I was like, I really like the bench in red, but you said you want everything in black. And she's like, she's like, I'm sorry, but I want it to be black. I was like, okay, like, I can live with that, you know. Um, and so we do that for everything. And then we're looking at barbells or dumbbells. I'm like, okay, we can get these ones, you know, these urethane bells from I think from Rogue, from Rep, or we can get these ones from Nike. Like, what do you want? What do you think? She's like, I really like the Nike Grind dumbbells. She's like, I think they're really pretty. I'm like, okay, I do too. I really like them. And they, you know, after shipping and the Italian upcharge and all that, like, it's actually going to be the same price as this other stuff. So, okay, so we made the decision on that. And then we look at bumper plates and she's like, okay. Uh, I was like, I either want the Rogue urethane bumper plates because, like, the kind of grippy ones, because I love those plates. I've used them at a billion gyms. It's like, or these Nike Grind plates. Like, I also think these are really cool and they're grippy and all that. Um, she's like, I really like the Nike ones. We're like, okay, perfect, like, decision made, you know. And, um, and so she, she kind of like helped me make those decisions, and it, you know, it makes it part of like our thing, you know. We made these choices together. Um, and, you know, talk about like team building and stuff, like, if you want people to buy in on something, they've got to be part of the the building. Yeah, you know, they've got to create it with you. And in a lot of ways, like, isn't that part of like married life, is that you're creating a life with someone? You're building your life, your home, you know. It's just like the house and the things in the home, but like you are, you're building all of it together, you know.

Yeah.

And, uh, and I've, you know, I figure if, if she has inputs into it, then like she's going to be more inclined to use it. And so for like the last couple of weeks, dude, we, we get up together, um, and we exercise, and she'll ride the stationary bike for a little bit, or she'll go on a run because now she can go on a run because I'm home with, you know, the girls are still asleep, but she can actually leave the house and go running. You didn't— like, she knows she doesn't have to worry about anything at home. So I'm here and I'm, I'm lifting, then she'll go do some yoga and like We don't lift together, you know, but we're in the same space. We both got our headphones on. We're not really talking, you know, but like we can smile at each other and I can give her a kiss and then she can go do yoga and like, you know, we're together still, even though it's quiet, even though I don't like talking in the mornings, like we're just in the same space together. And that has been, that has been huge.

Yeah, I think that's so cool. As you were talking about your gym, I'm like looking at the picture of it and I was like, this is so beautiful. Like the, the— I actually like how the plates that you have, they're an accent to the black, you know? So you've got everything black and then you've got those, the grayish Nike plates, and they look— they have some color to it as well. Yeah, they seem like— but dude, it looks so cool. And yeah, the benefits of it, man, like you got your time with your family back. I, I think it's cool that you and your wife both work out. Together, same time. Um, Kaya and I are going to do our 12 Days of Christmas together. It's a CrossFit workout that it's like, that's what you do for CrossFit. You do a 12 Days of Christmas.

I already hate it. I mean, I love it for you and I, the number of circuits that you're probably doing.

I'm like, oh, that just, I mean, it goes 1, 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And one of them is burpees. I think it's like 5 burpees. You know, so you do a lot, but the thing is, uh, like you do a lot of different things and the difficulty in that workout isn't so much, it's hard, but it's just like jumping from one station to another, you know, you're in your 12th circuit and you're doing 12 motions. So anyways, point is, I think it's cool that you guys are working out together. Yeah. And it's, it's part of your family culture now, which I know is important to you because you said like, I want my daughter to know, my daughters to know that we lift and we're physical, we move our bodies. And it just is becoming— that will forever be a lifestyle thing for you guys.

We—

I spend more time in my gym than I do in my house a lot of the times, just hanging out there with Georgia. We'll throw on the music with the Elsa lights and, you know, the LED lights. So, dude, it looks sharp. I think you guys are going to love it. I'm so excited for you. How did— oh dude, getting the boxes feels like the best Christmas present you ever got in your life.

Oh my gosh, dude. This dude rolls up, um, cuz the— so the Nike equipment we had to buy like from the European storefront, and then the Rep equipment also had to buy from the European storefront. The Rogue stuff, they shipped it to our post office box on base. So, uh, yeah, so we had to, we had to wait a little bit longer for that. But dude, like no joke, like within a couple days this dude just like comes knocking on our door with this big old truck and he like freaking forklifts this pallet, this un— like this, I don't— it's just this huge pallet. It's all wrapped in black like plastic, so I don't know what's in it. And he just drops it off and I'm like, dude, what is— I was like, is that the dumbbells? Is that the bar? Like, I have no idea what this is, like what part of the equipment it is. Um, and it turned out to be the, uh, that first one was the dumbbell rack and all the dumbbells and all the bumper plates. Um, Well, except— okay, so I have the— I had the 5 through 50s. I'm waiting on— or sorry, I have the 5 through 45s. I'm waiting on the 50s, which are in the same like Nike Grind colorful rubber. And then the 55s and the 60s are black, they're just solid black. And I showed Marsha— yeah, yeah, yeah, I showed her. I was like, well, you know, we'll get the— we'll get to 65s and 70s and 75 and stuff. But like, in a lot of exercises, I still need to— I need to bump my numbers up to like earn some of those dumbbells.

I think Once you start getting past 50, I thought— I personally think it's like, it's almost because they're so big, the benefit of a 50 to 55 is kind of minute. Like, it's not worth the space to me. So like, I'm thinking you get 6. That's what I'm thinking I'll do is I'm already on Facebook Marketplace for these, this type of stuff for like 70s, 90s, and 100s.

Um, for like—

but anyways, yeah, good call.

I mean, Yeah, well, and I have to double-check, um, because we're only going to do one more dumbbell rack. So I have to verify, like, like, I'm not getting any dumbbells more than 100 at any point, pretty much. But, uh, like, if we do get hundreds, then, like, is it like hundreds and then 90s and then 80s and then 70s and then 65, 60, 55? Like, I don't know what fit on the rack itself, so I had to figure it out as well.

Yeah, 100-pounders are just Yeah. Go light there.

And I have to be honest too, Marsha was like, do you need 5 through 100? And I was like, unfortunately no. Like, like my pride's just been like sucker punched, dude. Like, no, I, I, I never use 100-pound dumbbells. Like, we're, uh, not that strong yet.

We, uh, we did our, like, I'm on a new program for like CrossFit Mayhem. And so it's like where all the, the really competitive CrossFit fitter, CrossFitters come from is this. Na— this gym, I think it's close to Nashville. I don't know where it is exactly, but it's in, it's in Tennessee and all of the CrossFit people come from there, but it's faith-based gym. And, uh, so like I subscribe to their program and every day there's a scripture and there's a workout. I chose to do the, the bodybuilding version of their programming. So it took CrossFit movements and it is no longer about like running yourself into the ground as much as it is the hypertrophy, the high rep count. You get adequate rest between sets, but, uh, we're starting to get to the point where we're like, I kind of want some 70 pounds and 90 pounders just for the dumbbells. And that's, that's a Facebook Marketplace from here on out. Like, it's just, I did my big haul last year like you did. And it's like, okay, well, time to just get, time to just find gym equipment that somebody bought thinking they would lift a lot and they didn't.

And then they didn't. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Because they didn't, you know what a big thing is, man? They probably just didn't do this space. Like I'm reading Switch right now. It's a book that Jeremy, we had him on the show this year. Jeremy Davis gave to me. It's his favorite book, but it talks about how to make change easy. And it just, uh, yeah, like you probably just didn't get the space. It's like the stationary bike thing that everybody's got a stationary bike with something hanging on it. Um, I've had that, you know, like.

Right.

So it's like if you don't have the right space for it, or if you don't create an environment for it, you probably won't do it. That's why it's so important that you dedicated a room. Granted, it has your wardrobes, but if you look at the picture, those wardrobes are like completely separated from your gym, right? There is a space that is the gym. Yeah.

And these wardrobes, these are like the ones we got issued when we showed up. Like we still haven't bought the, uh, like the new ones. The new ones are even a little bit thinner, um, and even more efficient with the space. These wardrobes are actual garbage, like they're terrible. Uh, but we're going to be able to, uh, to clear those out. We're going to put some mirrors up on the wall. Marisha found, um, some like really great kind of like frameless mirrors that we'll be able to like mount on the walls pretty easily. Um, so like, and, and that also really helped too, cuz this room only has like 2 windows on like one side and it doesn't get too much sunshine. So it'll help to kind of bring some light into the room, having more window or having more mirrors along the And I love lifting with mirrors.

Like, you know, there's nothing better than just seeing your bulging bicep vein. It's like, dude.

Well, and so, so talking about like benefits of this, dude. Well, like for starters, today's a Monday. Like I have this whole week off from work and, uh, I lifted today. I hit some squats, you know, this morning and I was pretty stoked about that. On, uh, on Saturday I lifted as well. Like I haven't lifted on Saturdays like hardly ever except for when I'm TDY and I'm like in another country without my family. So, uh, had that. And then usually when I'm on vacation, uh, if I ever, if I ever have time off, like, I don't, I don't work out. Now, when we were doing the Burpee Challenge, I was still doing my burpees, but now, dude, I can get like a full workout in and it's super sweet. So, um, like, if it was, like, if it was me by myself, I wouldn't have got the 5-pound dumbbells, I wouldn't have got the 10-pound dumbbells. Like, I would have started with probably like 15s and up for, like, you know, certain muscles and stuff. But we went with the whole set, one, because it was part of the set, but then also, like we have children and my wife. And so like, my wife, my children, they're not going to do any workouts if the lightest dumbbells we have are like 20-pound weights. You know, like you got to see. So the 5 pounds— well, they're actually 2 kilograms. So they're like 4.5 pounds. Talitha—

Oh, you have kilogram dumbbells?

Yeah, dude. All of our dumbbells and our bumper plates are all in kilos because I had to buy them from the European storefront.. So everything I have is in, um, is in kilos. So instead of, instead of 5 pounds to 50 pounds, it's, uh, I have 2 kilos.

Yeah.

Yeah. So it's 2.2 for each pound. So the 2-pounders are, or sorry, the 2-kilogram, uh, dumbbells are 4.4 pounds. Right. So I have from that up to like 22.5-pound or 22.5-kilo dumbbells. So though the weights are a little bit off, but it's You know, it's all fine.

I like to leave it. Go ahead. Yeah, the weight, the kilos are the best, dude. We have the kilo plates. I've never heard of, I never thought of doing dumbbell kilos, but I think the weightlifting is so much easier because from Kaya's perspective and like the sport, it's like that is the way to lift weights. Like, uh, internationally everybody uses kilos except for the United States.

We're the only ones, dude. But yo, so like, uh, like on Saturday we're lifting. This morning I'm lifting, um, and Talitha, who's— she turns 3 in January— like, she wants to come in and do her exercises with me, right? Like, and whenever I was doing burpees, she would see them, she'd call them burpees or bopies, uh, and she'd talk to— she'd talk about exercises as your exercises. And, and so she like, when I'm like, hey, well, baby, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna go work out, I'm gonna go do my exercises, and she's like, oh, I want to do my exercises with you. And so then she comes in and she's like in her pajamas and we have like an ab roller. And so like, or an ab wheel. So like she'll do like ab— she calls them rollies. She does her ab rollies and or like I'll pick up some dumbbells and I'll do like, I don't know, doing like stiff, stiff-legged or Romanian deadlifts with like with dumbbells. And she'll like pick up the, the 2 kilo, 1, 2 kilo dumbbell and she like Picks it up and she's like, you know, and like she's like lifting them. We have a couple, um, uh, like old physical therapy, uh, like elastic— they're not like bands bands, like they're not like circles, you know, but just yeah, some elastic bands. And she like— we have two of them, so she'll give me the black one, she keeps the green one, and then she'll like grab it and she'll like pull and she'll go, one, two, and like I'll count, we'll do 10, like we'll do 10 together and Um, and yeah, or, or then I was doing, I was doing calf raises. Um, and, uh, I was doing the calf raises on one of the dump, uh, one of the bumper plates. I like put it flat on the ground and stood on it. And she's, she's doing, well, she's just kind of like standing on top of one of the bumper plates. Um, and then I, uh, I found, man, we, we have all this like packing material over all over the place as we're trying to, you know, like rearrange the house. And so I have these like Um, they're kind of like felt strips, just like these flat felt strips. Anyway, I like put them on the ground, and so she would like stand on her dumbbell or on the bumper plate, and then she'd jump onto one of the felt things, strips, and like run along it, and then go run on one of the other ones, and then jump on a box, and then climb on top of the bench, and then get down, and then like— I mean, she was just like running all over the place, just having the time of her life. And then, I'm not kidding, uh Yesterday we're like sitting on the floor, we're like playing with toys, or she's playing with toys. Marisha and I are just talking and she keeps like asking us questions. We're like, Talitha, we are trying to have a conversation, like just play with your toys. So finally she like ignores us and goes and plays with her toys. And with her blocks, she builds this little like obstacle course. And then she grabs her little toy minis and her— they like, they run on the ground and they jump on a block and they jump on another block and then they like climb down. And like, she's like playing out this thing that she was doing in our gym just a couple days ago, you know. And like, I don't exactly know what's happening, but something is happening. And she is understanding that, or she's starting to learn that like exercise is important to us and we lift our weights. The other day she's like sitting on the floor while I'm, while I'm lifting. She's, she's reading her dinosaur book. We have like this dinosaur encyclopedia. And I like go to look at one of the pages with her and she holds up her hand. She says No, you need to do your exercises. It's just like, you don't get to read the book. Like, you are here to lift. Like, go lift. And I was like, okay, all right, I'll go lift, you know. And, uh, and dude, she, she just loves it. She absolutely loves it. And, you know, we have to, we have to be careful about what kind of, like, what actual, you know, when she gets older, like, what actual weightlifting she's gonna do and when. And, you know, don't want to, like, stuff her mouth or anything. But, like, keeping children active, like that is something we totally want to build into our lives.

So I'm stoked for you. It's just, it's, that's why I just tell everybody if they're into working out, like, I think that's a great investment. I think it's like the idea of if you're a vegan, you'll know, like if someone's a vegan, you'll know right away. If someone has a home gym, like you'll know pretty quick too. Like one of those, one of those things that you just want to tell everybody about, cause it's like, hey, you should do this too.

So, oh man, it is like, I already freaking love it. Oh dude. And then, okay, I forgot to mention the dumbbell or the barbell. So, uh, I don't think you can, I can't remember if I sent you a picture. You can't see it in this picture. I'll send it to you, dude.

See the package only in the picture you sent.

Okay. Yeah. I'll, uh, I'll take a picture of it. I'll send it to you.

Oh, you got like a cool barbell. Like, yeah.

Um, okay. So it's called the Rogue Freedom Bar. Here I will. Oh baby, here, I'll send it. I'll send you the link right now, dude. Uh, so it's, it's definitely on the pricier side when it comes to, uh, when it comes to, uh, the freaking American flag on there. Yeah, dude, that's so cool. It's so sick. And so the reason we actually went, ended up going with it is shipping was gonna cost so much for pretty much all the other barbells we were looking at with other companies that they would come out to be only about $15 or $20 cheaper than the Freedom Bar. And so at that point we were like, I will pay an extra $20 for this American flag barbell. Like, because dude, it was insane. Like, like one of the— I was looking at the Colorado bar from Rep because they, they've got this beautiful— it's like all black, um, with like the Colorado flag logo like in like a metal design on the sides. Like super cool. And we'll actually get that one in when we get Marisha a women's bar, we'll get her that one. But we just started with just the men's barbell. Um, but yeah, dude, there's like— I was going to get this other one, it was going to be $100 cheaper or $150 cheaper, but then shipping was like $130. And so we were like, well, yeah, frick, dude. Well, at that point, like, we'll just get this American flag one. It showed up, dude, it is so sick. I feel like— I feel so patriotic when I'm lifting, dude. I was like, when I was squatting today, I'm like looking in— we only have one like skinny mirror up right now, but I'm looking in this mirror as I see like on the— on my left hand, dude, I've got like the stars, and on the right hand I've got the stripes, dude. And I'm like, this is— is this how like Captain America feels when he's like in the gym, you know, in like World War II or whatever? You know, like, dude, it's just America. Fantastic, dude. I freaking love it. Um, anyway, so we, we, we are bought in, dude, and it has already been so great. We are both super sore all the time, and it just makes— it makes me so happy that my wife is like, she's— I mean, when I say she's excited to exercise, she's excited that exercise is so easy and, uh, accessible really is the right word. Doesn't mean she's like, she wakes up and she's like jazzed about going on a run when it's like freaking cold outside and stuff, but like we can build it into our lives very easily. And she is grateful that it— like that I'm home, you know, like for 2 weeks of work I have been home for an extra hour and a half than I was before because I don't have to leave the house so early. So like, we're getting up at the same time and we are just kind of in the same space all morning. And then I'm like, you know, I'm cooking breakfast, she's reading her scriptures, we're sharing a mate as I'm like getting ready to go out the door, and then we say a prayer together and then we leave. Like, that is such a change to the, to the, um, like to the, the atmosphere, like to our daily atmosphere, our environment. It's like it's a change in the way that we show up to the day every day when we can like be together in the morning. We can, you know, have a quick conversation and we can say a prayer together and then we can, you know, I can head to work and she's here and like the girls wake up in an hour or so and like start our day on just such a better note, dude. It is like it's, it's already starting to pay itself, you know? Yeah. Pay for itself.

The cost of the equipment it's the cost of the equipment is nothing compared to what you got back in my mind with commuting and family time. And, uh, yeah, I think it's, I think it's a smart decision for, for somebody who really wants that to be a priority in their life. Like it's the best. So yeah.

Yeah.

You're, I love the way you go about making decisions. I think I told you this when we were in Greece because I said, Look, every time, even if it's, hey, what podcast thing should we use? Right? My brain just like, when you come to me with all these different things, it's like, these are the pros, these are the cons, this will do this feature, this will do this feature. So you know all of that. I admire the way you think because for me, it's like our decision to do a home gym was I'm tired of driving my car to the gym in the morning. And then I said, Kaya, I like, we have a cart. I have all this stuff in it. Like you're getting your home gym now. Like anything you want to add or no? I'm like, I'm, because I'm done. I don't want to go to the gym anymore. Like we're, and the thing is it was weird. Cause like Kaya has these really, really, really good ideas of we should do a home gym. I'm like, nah, no. And she's always wanted one. And then I guess we could work on that. Cause I'm like, as soon as it's my idea, Kaya knows this. As soon as something is my idea. It is just full bore. You know, we're going to go all out. But Kai always wanted one until I was like, I don't know about that. And then, yeah, then now we have it. But the gym has become for us. I think you guys might experience this too. It's like you can have people over to work out now because our house, we have people over all the time now. Yeah.

And for, I mean, in our, in our scenario, it's a it's a little bit harder to have just like people come over for the gym because you have like base in one place and then everyone lives all over. Yeah, it's like we don't live close to friends or any— like not even kind of close. But, uh, when we have family come visit, they're welcome to use our gym, right? Like they're welcome to come work out. Like my sisters come for like 3 or 4 weeks at a time every time they come. So like, hey, if you want to get some exercise in, like we got a gym, you can use it, we got some weights, you can use it. Like, um, super excited. And, and this is only like, this is only for the right now version of this, right? Like, the moment we go back to the States, or if we don't end up going to the States and we move to, like, Germany, like, we're gonna set up shop, you know, we'll, we'll find a home where, like, we— where this is part of the plan, you know? Kind of like you move somewhere, you have a piano, like, you've got to build where you're gonna put the piano into the decision, right? But anyway, we're gonna build that in. And yeah, like, I I think we've talked about this. Like, I want to be able to be like a young men's leader at church and be like, all right, 15-year-old boys, like freaking, we're going to start lifting some weights and you guys can put some meat on you. Like, you know, like this is—

I, I'm not a young men's leader, but I've tried so hard to get those kids over to our house for workouts. I successfully did it once and I— Did they all hate you afterwards? I don't think it was even that hard of a workout. It was like a station workout. We were like 10 stations. So we had, you know, 10 of the young men rotate. And one of the young men's leaders was there. I don't know if he listens to this. If he does, whatever. But he probably doesn't. But I was like, hey, you're working out too. And he goes, no, I'm not. And I said, yeah, you are. Like, get to that station. Get your butt over here. Yeah. Actually, you can start on the Bulgarian split squat. Yeah. So I'm like, you need to work out. But I think I've done a better job at when I get a new person to the gym with me to tell them, look, just move your body, do these little exercises. The fact that you showed up is huge. I used to have this, I think it's the Spartan brain in me where I'm just like, I want to just crush people when they come to our gym. And I like to crush myself, right? But that's, that's the way I get fulfillment from the gym is just total annihilation. And, uh, I've scared away a lot of people. So since then, like with Tyler, he'll be on our podcast next month. But with Tyler, we started out super slow and then you let them kind of crank it up with intensity. But, uh, we now have other things that attract people to the house, like, like to come over, like the sauna we'll set up. Like, um, yeah, we'll set that up and we'll get people over here. And it just has created this environment of like, hey, at the Masers' house you can do workouts, you can do sauna. When the cold— when it's not freezing out here, we have the cold plunge up. So like, it's fun, dude. It's always— it's a life I want to live and we just built it, right? Like, yeah, this house was perfect for that, kind of. The backyard sucks, but like, the house— this house was exactly what we needed to be able to create a gym environment, a bigger gym.. And that was probably 80% of my decision to buy this house was like this specific house was it's got a good garage. And I know that sounds crazy, but Kaya sent me a meme of CrossFitters when they're looking for a house. And the CrossFitter just looks around the house and just kind of cool. That's a good bedroom. And when they go to the garage, he's like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. I can put all this stuff here.

So, well, yo, so that's— that I think you hit on something. Like, if, uh, so for example, my wife hates going to gyms, uh, one, because she finds like weightlifting really repetitive and kind of doesn't— doesn't really— she's not like naturally inclined to it, whereas I'm like, 8 sets of 12 sounds great to me, dude, like, let's do it. Uh, but dude, there's— there's so much insecurity around like lifting for, for a lot of people. I mean, just in exercise in general, you know, if you're out of shape, like, you don't exactly want to go put on some tight-fitting clothes and like flaunt it to the world, you know. But like, in, in our gym, for example, just a couple days ago, Marisha like grabs the 4 kilo weights and she was like doing— I can't remember what exercise she's doing— and she kind of like looks at me and she like kind of hunches over and kind of gives me this like embarrassed look, like, like, don't laugh at me, I'm using the tiny weights, you know. And I like took my headphones off and I was like, there is no one in this gym judging you. Yeah, at all. And I was like, it's like, like holding her, I'm like, I don't care what you do. All I care is you're doing something. You are moving your body and that's what matters. That is what matters, you know. Like, you are, you're here. Yeah, you're sitting on the stationary bike for a little while, you're gonna go do some yoga, you're, you're, you're doing ab rolls, or you're doing some— just some lunges. Like, I don't care what you do. Like, I'm not your personal trainer.

And like, don't be—

that would be— that'd be— no, but like, it doesn't matter. I'm gonna do my workouts, you're gonna do your workouts, and no one in here is going to judge you. And like, you just feel comfortable to grab the tiny weights. Like, that's perfectly fine. You will get stronger, you know? Like, it's totally okay. And I'm I think that's a huge benefit of this.

Kaya will know, like, hey, I will ask for feedback, but I think I've talked about this on our podcast, is that her style of weightlifting is so much more professional and beautiful and technique and everything, which is good. I like that. But I actually will go to Burn Bootcamp and let her train me because she got her job at Burn Bootcamp.

Okay, awesome.

Um, this is totally random. But you want to talk about overcoming insecurities. You said, you said flaunt it all, like put on tight clothes and flaunt it. Dude, the other day, this is where I'm changing subjects completely, but I went to a Korean bath spa. Dude, you just walk around butt naked. Like there is nothing that they give you. They don't give you any towels. So one of the guys, our elders quorum teacher served his mission down in Korea. And he just talked about doing Korean bath spas. Like, I'm super into saunas. Their saunas were super hot down there. They do like a lot of skincare stuff there. And I get there and he's like, you take your shoes off here. And then we go to the next locker room and I look over and I'm like, what do we do now? And he goes, you just get naked. We're going to go to the bath spa. And I'm like, wait, what? And I look over and he's just butt naked. Oh my gosh.

I was ready for this.

Yeah, so it was fun, like, but he talked about like nudity is very much different, very different in other parts of the world. And he said in Korea, it's not sexualized as much. Like, people aren't as nervous about it. He said there's big people here at the sauna. There's, you know, tiny people and no one cares. It's just, you know, not something to just, it's not something to worry about here. And so, yeah, by the end, I was just walking around naked through this sauna. It was an experience. Probably, probably not one that I'll, I need to do again, but it was an experience.

Awesome. Well, dude, okay. So we've been recording for almost 48 minutes now and all we've done is talk about my gym, which I'm very excited about and happy to tell everyone about it. But I want to hear about Maser Sales Training. So what's the, uh, what's your progress and update on that?

So basically what happened was, is I, after I left, after I left Anthem, I didn't know exactly what I was gonna do, but I do that. I like sales training. And dude, this is insane. Like, I had a little short-term blitz that I was going to do out in California, and I knew that I kind of wanted to do— because this is just to make some extra cash, still haven't decided where I was going to go. I had a short-term blitz and I wanted to take a videographer with me. To like, do some video training and help me kind of get some content so that I could possibly consult down the road. And in a day's notice, when I had this idea, I hit up one of the guys that lived next to me at my last house, like at my last townhome. And I said, hey, dude, I'm going to California tomorrow. If you're open to doing videography, like, you know, do you want to go to Cali with me? And you— oh, well, you want to come over? With me? And he said, yeah, I'll come. So he ended up coming out to California with me on a day's notice. I bought him a ticket on Delta. It wasn't cheap, but I was like, hey, this is my vision for the future. I want to have it as an option. We went out to Cali. He got like a— I was blitzing for a company out there and I had a hidden mic on me and we got 10 full sales videos. 8 of them closed and 2 of them I didn't sell. But they're really good videos to show that even when you don't sell, there's still sales processes going on. So I have this, all of this really good, really good videos. And he ended up becoming my videographer. He started filming reels for me and he's creating all that stuff. He is creating a training course for me, which we've been filming downstairs in my basement. So we'll have close to 60 videos on that course. Of just me breaking down a pest control sale, how to say certain things, why you say certain things. And I'm going to package this up and sell it to companies. And it'll give me an opportunity to have more of an impact. And I'm just excited, man. Like, I, I'm going to be doing more blitzes. California is a really fun market. I loved selling out there. It was really fun. It was out in San Francisco.. And it, it, I'm excited, dude, like to have my own logo for my own company. And it's a Spartan helmet that looks like an M, right? So I think I sent it to you, but the way I want to go about this is obviously I'll, I'll continue to make money through selling pest control. That's a great way to make money. I talked to you, like I'll be on the road a lot this summer selling in other markets because I'm barred from selling here for another 9 months, right? But eventually I'll come next year, I'll come back to Georgia and go back to our old school, wake up, work out in the home gym and go sell. But the time is different right now where it's going to require me to go to a different state. And San Fran is a fun place, man. Good food. The people out there, dude, are way more direct. Oh, it's actually influenced the way I train people now. Like, it depending on what market you're in, in the South, you have to be really heavy on rapport upfront. And I did trainings for Anthem all the time about how do I create rapport in the first 3 minutes? And now if I ever do a training for a rep that's going to sell in California, I say, dude, cut the rapport out. You don't need as much.

No, they do not care who you are, where you're from. It's like, what do you got? I got 10 seconds.

And even if they're buyers, there's still the same attitude. Like, I got 10 seconds. What's up? They could be a buyer. And then I had that on the Blitz, I had people say like, okay, cool, do you need anything else? I said, just a credit card. And they just reach in their pocket, give me the card, and be like, anything else? Okay, cool, bye. And they're not being rude, it's just I, I realized that that's way more common out in California. So it caught me off guard at first, but it's actually way easier to do because you're not wasting time with people that might not end up buying. It's just a way more monotonous thing that like you can actually get more reps in and more. I was able to sell. I had my best week of my life. And this, I haven't said this on our podcast yet. I had my best sales week of my entire sales career in California for a 6-day blitz. It was nuts. I was selling for a company that was pretty well known out there. So that helped. But dude, like, there was no fluff. It was transaction after transaction. Like people just wanted to know, what is it, how does it help me, what's it cost, and you just ask for a credit card. And obviously there were objections, but they were more straightforward. So I'm excited to be selling out there this summer. Um, I'll be— I'll also be selling my training course to other companies, and it'll be fun, dude. Like, it's cool because it's— I'm doing it for me, and I think that's why I always had my hang-up that I didn't always talk about openly, like beforehand, but I had that hangup of like, I'm not building. When I was at Anthem, I wasn't building anything for me. All of my training materials belong to them. And so that's okay. It was an awesome 4 years there, but now I took a jump and it's scary. Like, yeah, it's scary to, I talked to you a lot about this in Greece. It's scary to leave my family for a majority of the summer. Not going to be the most fun in that sense. But it's going to be fun that I get to try a new market, I get to, you know, create opportunity for our family long term. And I think that's why it's okay for me to do it. It's, it's me doing something that is difficult now, so that number one, I can come back to Georgia and start my own branch of a pest control company. Number two, meet new people, have bigger impact. And, you know, I'm selling with a company in California, but I'm not barred from jumping over and doing a consulting package and selling with another random company any other week. Like, the freedom— that not being owned by somebody actually is kind of nice. It might come at a cost, but the value of that is awesome. Like, not being told that you can't— oh, Austin, you can't go do another blitz with another company. Well, why not? Well, because you work for us. Well, now I work for me now, and it's just working for me, and I get to call all the shots. And I'm to a point now where that's exciting, and I'm— that's the next step for me. So Maser Sales Training, I'll have an Instagram page for that that I think I'll just have my videographer help me create and He ended up— oh dude, this is funny— he ended up watching me sell, get my nuts kicked in day one. And we go to work and he— I'm sorry, we go to dinner that night after I just gotten wrecked. I sold one account my first day blitzing with him, like having him record me. But obviously the dynamics change when you've got a kid like they're just filming, right?

Right.

But we're sitting down at Panda Express and he goes I kind of like this, man. I want to do it with you. And I almost spit out my chicken. I'm like, what did you just say? Like, you want to do this? And he goes, yeah, looks pretty cool. So he's joining, like, he's, he's going to join me wherever I blitz this year. He's so excited. He's been filming my stuff. I've been coaching him up and it's been great. That's a little bit of insight on what I'm doing.

Yeah.

I'm so stoked. That's sweet.

So, yeah.

Yeah.

So, so I mean, it sounds like you've got, you've kind of got some, some big moves, kind of some big rocks of how next year's not, not how next year is going to play out, but rather what your kind of focus, focus is going to be on over this next year. Kind of some of those. Yeah, some of those big rocks. I've been thinking about what this next year is going to be. Um, because this year was, as far as like my, um, as the Military Miler goes and military travel rewards, like some, some huge accomplishments were made this year for sure. Um, and then some, some really big setbacks as well, um, with, uh, losing my, my status as a publisher. So, um, but what's crazy, dude, is since then I, uh, these last couple of weeks have been pretty slow on putting, uh, content out because of the traveling, and I wasn't as prepared as I should have been for the traveling and the family and the visiting and all that. But I've still had several people reach out, reach out from the YouTube channel, reach out from the Instagram page, from the website, sending emails saying, you know, hey, I got a question. Hey, what about this? Hey, what are your thoughts, etc.? And my goal, kind of my big goal for next year is, is finding my rhythm and trying to figure, like, to figure out the design for making this happen because you're juggling lots of pieces and you'll see, you'll see parts of this too, as you, like when you start your social media for, for your sales training is like all the work that goes into putting up videos on YouTube, all the work that goes into putting up posts on Instagram or putting, editing the website. Like what stuff goes on the website, what stuff goes on the Instagram page, what stuff goes on YouTube, what stuff goes on the audio podcast. And how to simplify those processes. One of the things is like, as I get more familiar with Descript, which is the editing software that we use for all of our episodes, there are a lot of really powerful tools in there that I'm excited about, which is why I wanted us to be able to use it for, for The Rising Tribe as well. But it requires learning, you know, getting used to or figuring out how to quickly and efficiently kind of take a recorded episode, throw it in here, edit it, publish it, use it for, uh, creating social media clips and for transcripts and all of those things. I'm like starting to learn more and more how these things work, and my goal, kind of my big goal next year, is to, is to figure out the processes to juggle all these things. Because it is juggling, right? Like, you, you got to post something on the Facebook group, you're gonna post something on Instagram, you're gonna upload your video, you got to do your thumbnails on YouTube, like all the different things that have to happen in, and I believe that I can figure it out, but that it's a matter of— it's, it's a matter of design, like process and design, and then discipline. And the, the more effective and efficient your design is, the less discipline is required to like to keep it going. And but at the same time, you need to have the discipline to do it. And that's— it's those kind of two things that I've struggled with is is building a refi— or refining a system to make it efficient and effective, um, and consistent, uh, and having the discipline to sit down and do it. And part of kind of, uh, creating space in our schedule to make this happen was having the home gym, because now I have a half an hour more time every day than I did before. Now there's things at work on in terms of how late do I stay and all that. Those are other problems that need to get solved. But that it's just that, that they are problems to be solved. And so now I've got an extra half hour at home, which, uh, so far is being used for sleep because we're not sleeping enough, uh, with all the, all the visiting and the family and everybody. But like, I'm, I've still gotta figure out the design. I have some ideas of how to make these things happen. Like there are certain things that you could do with half hour chunks of time, but there are other things that you need like a 2 or a 4 hour block of time. To get a lot of work done. So Marisha and I have talked about it and there I have some ideas of how it's going to work. But, um, uh, just between now and the end of the year, I have a goal to, uh, to build out a, just kind of a plan of how I think this could work and then to start implementing it and holding myself accountable. Big part of this year was learning to be consistent in something. And so, um, I'm going to roll that into this next, um, into this next area of life. And that is how do I build this business system and then stick to it. And then, you know, what it— or what, uh, yeah, what iterations need to happen? How do I refine it? How do I make it better? What stuff do I, uh, add? What stuff do I take out? What stuff do I outsource? All of that stuff. But that's kind of the big, um, my big goal for next year with a, um, I guess with a secondary goal of, uh, becoming a full-on publisher by the end of next year, uh, for, for the website.

My, my favorite, one of my favorite stories that you shared with me is how you became a publisher in one of our previous episodes. Like, it just reminded me of the Jesse Itzler, if there's not a seat for you at the table, then make a seat for yourself at the table. Just go and get it done. Part of the benefit of not knowing all the steps was you just went straight to the source and asked to become a publisher. So to know that you've gotten it, with no track, with not, with no track record, like, and now, now with a bit, like, as you create better systems, you'll have a great track record. That's exciting. Yeah.

So, yeah, it is.

Um, dude, I like that you have a theme, like creating systems and then adding the discipline to it. And the gym is like you said, a great example of a system. My theme for next year is going all— go all in. Uh, the word— I just— I could use be all in, but I thought go all in, like go to just make sure that I remember the action part, like take action. Typically when I get the most fearful in my life, it's when I'm stagnant, I'm sitting around. And with me being on the road, it's really— there's not really an option to kind of do this half-heartedly. Like it's, if I'm away from my family, I'm going to go go hard and have my biggest sales year ever when I'm in California and wherever else I'm blitzing. And I already felt that because I had that really successful blitz on this little offseason and did $39K in revenue in 6 days, which is bonkers. But like, that's the last time I ever did $40K in revenue was when I did 80 accounts here in in Georgia. So, um, point, point is like going all in and in my fitness now, like I, I actually feel better now because I have a system and I'm plugging into my system every day and I'm just doing the program. So that kind of simplified, like you talked about creating a system that you just plug into that will give you the result. Like I did that for the Mayhem programming and we've been on it for 3 weeks. And I love it. And I didn't have to wait until January 1 to start that either. So I've just thinking about themes and visions. I, a lot of like, if I ever work with a sales rep now, it's like, hey, you're not allowed to do one-on-one calls with me unless you have a vision board. Otherwise, like the stuff I'm teaching you, it's stuff that it's going to help you make more money. But for what cause? Like what, do you want to do with this vehicle? Like, you need to know where you want to go. I think it's super good to create a vision binder on all the different aspects. And I will be working on that this last week leading up to January 1 and getting really specific. I think most of the stuff in the vision board last year, I was able to hit like, as far as trips go and events go, I did all of it. Finance— financially, like, I was so— I feel like I was so in a in confusion and what I wanted to do moving forward. And I still am not 100% sure, like, what exactly it looks like long term with the major sales training. I just know that it's exciting. And typically, it's not like shiny object syndrome either. It's, it's exciting. And I see potential for this to become something that replaces my sales income. So I'm like, okay, cool, let's do that. But having that vision board helped a ton because I would go on and check things off when I did it. And, you know, our trip to Greece, like, we did that. And that's one of the coolest things looking back on this year. Like, we did it.

It's been huge. It's been so huge. I, I mean, I'm wearing my Spartan t-shirt right now, so I'm excited to see— I'm excited to hear what your vision board, your vision binder looks like next year. For next year, I've been— I kind of have a brainstorming page still. Um, and I'm just jotting down thoughts, notes, what kind of stuff I want in this, uh, in this binder. There are things that I, things that I managed, things that I like crushed, and stuff that I didn't do. And I'm kind of looking back at, okay, this is what, these are the obstacles that got in the way, these are the things that changed structurally about life, getting a new job, changing squadrons and whatnot, whatnot. Um, but I'm, I'm excited to keep you know, keep pondering this. I have this whole week off, which is, which will be really helpful for me to have some, some time in the mornings to just contemplate what it is that I really want next year to look like. So I think for January, for our first episode, we should, we should talk about our vision binders for the year, dude.

Yeah, let's do it. And if you're listening to this, listen to our podcast last December about visions and vision binders, and we'll talk about it again in January. I just got to share this because I told you about it before we started. Because the, uh, the video recording gave me an option to put my pronouns and I put Grinch. So first of all, Merry Christmas. Uh, second, dude, uh, my daughter and I— this has been my last thought because we can wrap up— but my daughter hates Santa Claus. So she loves the Grinch. She won't, uh, when we go to like the mall or anywhere else, she doesn't want to talk to Santa. She only says that she wants to see the Grinch. We were getting public sandwich the other day and the lady making her sandwich said, is Santa gonna come to your house? And she goes, no, Santa not come to my house, Grinch comes to my house. So we're rolling with it, uh, because I've dressed up— I dressed up as the Grinch for the Christmas— the church Christmas party. I dressed up for the Grinch for like, uh, arts and crafts downtown Winder. And like for my breaks, I'd go to the bar that was right next door. So I just— pictures of me just drinking a water at the bar. But it's hilarious because that's where the Grinch would be, right? But yeah, dude. So like, that's next year. I want to get a full-blown Grinch mask, get my Grinch voice down and go all out there because like the costume this year was cool, but I like did some digging and there's some really cool prosthetic masks that you can get. So that I can move my mouth. Oh yeah. So anyways, for sure, that is our little thing. And the reason why I think it's effective, and this might sound terribly manipulative, but I think Santa Claus is terribly manipulative as well. But you know, with, with, with kids, it's like, hey, if you're bad, you're going to be on the naughty list and you're going to get nothing. And it's this very elusive thing where, you know, like, okay, well, I don't have anything right now, so who cares? Versus is if you're bad, then the Grinch is going to take all your presents. It's the fear of like not having versus the fear of loss. And I think the fear of loss actually kicks people into gear a lot better. So Georgia wants it. We're just going to roll with it.

But anyway, that's like one step, one step in the direction of like Krampus, which next year, if I'm not deployed over the winter, we're going to go to— we're going to take my sisters to a Krampus festival. Um, which, right, for anyone not listening or who doesn't know, Krampus is like this mythical creature, beast, demon that like kidnaps naughty children and like whips the crap out of them. Dude, they're hilarious. I, uh, in— if you watch The Office, there's one Christmas episode where Dwight dresses up as Krampus and it's awful and so funny. Um, but yeah, there are actually several Krampus festivals in like Austria and in Germany and like not too far from us, so, uh, we'll probably do that next year.

Uh, dude, that's awesome.

All right, dude, well, hey, well, we can go ahead and wrap this up. Uh, yeah, and when we talk about vision binders, dude, um, I'll also give you— we can, we can talk a little bit about, um, adjusting to the stuff that's going to come up, like what plans you have for how you're going to manage your time away from home over the summer. And, uh, I've got several work trips that I've got to go on next year, um, some lasting, you know, 3 weeks, some of them lasting 6 months. So Um, kind of navigating and kind of preparing yourself for that ahead of time and what, you know, what we can and can't do to prepare ourselves and, um, overcome some of those challenges cuz they're, they're real. That's for sure. Um, but dude, I'm so glad we were able to catch up and so glad I was able to tell someone else about my home gym. So, uh, uh, but, uh, dude, this is, this has been good. So, um, all right, dude. Well, uh, in case we don't talk before, uh, before Christmas, dude, Merry Christmas. And, uh, I hope you guys You guys have a wonderful Christmas, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and that the Grinch comes in and visits Georgia tonight.

We're doing roast beast. That's, that's, we're doing, we're doing a ham and it's the roast beast. So appreciate you, brother, man.

All right.

Love you.

See ya.