Andy Elliott Knows... - Episode 058

Cool. Welcome back. Another episode. See you soon. Unfiltered. How you feeling?

The last week I've been, like, sick.

Like, I know that's rough, man. That's rough. You're recovering, though.

Yeah.

So cool.

I don't think I've been this sick this long for a very long time. Yeah, like, there's been two. I got Covid twice. But every single. I get sick, though, it's my fault.

Shout out Covid.

Yeah, like, both times I got Covid. Last time was right after new owner training. So, like, you go for several days, not last sleep, talking all day long. And then I got hit this time it was like, turn around, come back, cataclysmic event with copilot. Lots of stress, no sleep, Bam.

Yeah.

And so I'm recovering, but, dude, it's been. It's been intense.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, glad you're feeling a little bit better. I have a lot of random thoughts for today's pod. And the first one, we're just going to jump right into this. This is a question from the comments section from our last pod. Now, I apologize to whoever made this comment. I didn't put down the name of the.

You didn't?

No, I forgot. I forgot to. I forgot to copy and paste 2 comments in it.

You can't just screenshot the comments.

I forgot. Look, I just copied the. And then I. Okay, I can go back and look, we can give them some credit, but this is. I don't. I don't know. When in the pod we talked about health complications. Oh, I think we were talking about, like, processed food and, like, bioengineered food. Remember with the Celsius?

Okay, so I'm trying to help you out, bro. You're good.

Speaking of long term health complications, do y' all have opinions on seed oils and the movement to more natural products?

Wait a second. This wasn't on the last pod.

Was it not?

No.

Okay, maybe it was on my pod with Sam Gustin. Probably might have been.

Okay, let's.

I can. I can find it. I apologize profusely. Okay.

Yeah, there's. There's not on Sam's and it's not on mine.

Someone commented it. Because someone commented that. I will find it while you. While you start the topic.

Okay, so what. What was this about seed oils?

Do you have opinions on seed oils and the movement to more natural products?

Not really. Okay, like, obviously. Excuse me. Here we go. Less, like, refined stuff is usually where I'm trying to go. Like, I don't. I don't live by like, some law around it, like, whatever. Like, is it. Is it. Does it make sense that, like, cashews have milk? No. Does it make make sense that, like, these. Every single seed has an oil and a milk and a water? Not really. Like, how does that happen? Almond milk. Like, last time I checked, if I squeeze that thing, nothing's coming out. So does it make sense? No, but I, like. I don't know. I try to use a lot of oils in general. Like, when I make omelets, if you make. Put the cheese first, it. The fat will, like, be enough to lubricate everything. You don't need oil.

Yeah. Yeah. So fair enough. It is from. I found. I found this person. The username is Gig dg. I clicked on the profile, it just says Gabe. So. From Gabe. So there we go. Yeah. I didn't know if you had more opinions on it, obviously, because you have, like, a background in, you know, health, nutrition, fitness, if you will. I don't really have any opinions on it. I know that there's, like, a big uprising. You see a lot of people talking about, oh, it's bad for X, Y and Z. But I feel like, at what point do we just decide that everything kills you?

Yeah.

And we just, like, let everyone have freedom to do what they want? Like, do you feel like there are legitimate, like, health concerns to using those things? Like, from what you've seen, like, just gut reaction?

Yeah, I would say there is.

Yeah. Would you say why? Because, like, honestly, I've done no research. I'm gonna.

Like, driving a car is gonna increase your chance of dying really, really, like, substantially. But I'm still gonna drive. I'm getting a plane. Yes. You have a risk of, like, crashing and dying.

Yeah.

I'm still gonna fly. I'm not gonna walk.

Yeah.

So there's a risk in everything in life. And if you want to have some sort of quality of life, you're gonna have to take some risks.

Yeah.

And yes, having some seed oil occasionally in your food is probably going to happen.

Why? Why is it bad? What do you. What do you know about it? Like, why would people say it's bad?

Love. It's really, really, really processed.

Okay.

And then they'll take something like a soybean or they'll take a certain type of seed and they'll create a very engineered way of getting that to have oil which doesn't come in natural form. Like, if you can't go pick it up, like, and you have to, like, put through all sorts of machines and heat it up to like crazy temperatures or fuse it with a different type of chemical in order for it to become a byproduct. Like we have. Yeah, we have, we have situations that we're creating that are not great. And if it's a mutated cell in order to create that byproduct, I also am like, okay, mutated cells, probably not a good idea. Cancer. So I don't know, it's just one of those things. I don't, I'm not looking at the back of, you know, rappers. Like, I usually look at the macros, which is like your sugars, your fats and your proteins. But then I just try to stay away from things that are super processed. And yes, oils are extremely processed, typically.

Yeah, fair enough. So I figured I'd look it up. I'm pretty ignorant to this topic, so I thought, hey, I'll do some research. So this is from the clevelandclinic.org so are seed oils unhealthy? Here's the first sentence. Yes and no, but mostly yes. So it's like that. Anyways, because of the way they're made, seed oils are typically very processed, which is what you said. Even worse than that though is that they're usually used to make ultra. They're usually used to make ultra processed foods. Think fast food. Burgers, fries, and anything you eat at a state fair getting packaged in a grocery store. Seed oils themselves are high levels of omega 6 fats, which can lead to inflammation. And they're mostly used to make ultra processed foods which causes inflammation throughout the body. Keep in mind that they're also sometimes added to foods marketed as healthy, including whole grain crackers, bread products, protein bar shakes, etc.

Which if you think that a lot of those things are healthy, like we got bigger problems. It's like in general, like if it has, if it can be shelf stable for like a year or two, probably not a good idea to eat it. Yeah, right. And so, but then you choose your battles. Like there's some things in life, like I am willing to take one or two years left less of life, but enjoy by having all these other things. So there's pros and cons. I work out every day. That probably increases my life expectancy to be like 15 years, which means I can get away with some seed oil occasionally.

Yeah, yeah.

So there's give and take.

Yeah. It's just a balance. Yeah. Basically this article goes on to say they're usually an unhealthy food. Foods, inflammation in the body.

Okay, so my question is. Yeah, outside this question, on your channel? Yep. What got you on this kick of like, seed oil, health stuff?

Oh, no, nothing.

Oh, nothing.

No, it was the comment I told him I'd ask. Yeah, I don't really care about.

Someone actually cared what I thought about seed oil.

Yes, it was Gabe.

Oh, shout out. Someone knows what they're talking about.

I. And I said, hand up. I know nothing about this topic. This is the first time I'm learning. I've heard people talk about it on, you know, like, Instagram and stuff. But I'm. I'm a big proponent of. Like, my wife and I, we just try to eat typically just more natural food anyways. Like, I want to get just like, if I'm buying a package of beef, I want the ingredients to say, like, beef.

Yeah.

If I'm buying.

Yeah. Nothing else. Yeah, totally.

Like, like, like the lowest process possible. But yeah, I'm also like a sucker for, you know, like, I don't know, potato chips too. And like, yeah, they have tons of horrible things eat out.

The thing that where all a lot of stuff hides is the sauces. And that's why it usually tastes so good, right? Because, like, you can make the chicken at home, but the reason it tastes so good at the, at the restaurant is because they have the special seed oils and all the, the seasonings and the sauces that go along with the ribs along with the steak. So that's what you gotta be careful of whenever you eat out. You can almost just add 30% calories. And a lot of those calories aren't great calories. If you would have asked me this question 10 years ago, I would have a very scientific answer for you about oleic acids, all the different types of omegas and the balances and the ratios and what that does to your cholesterol. Like, I could really go deep with it now. I'm like, just kind of weigh out the pros and cons if you want to live longer and just roll with it like some people want to smoke. Okay, great. Like, you're going to probably on statistics, statistics are going to tell you you're going to live a little less. Okay. Yeah, Enjoy. Like, do whatever you want to do. If you work out, you're probably going to live a little bit longer. If you fly and you drive cars a lot, you're probably going to. You reduce your life expectancy. Like, so just a game.

Let's say you hit like you hit 110 years old.

Let's go.

Let's say you hit that.

What I think we'll probably both live to that.

That's crazy.

Easily.

That's crazy. Okay, okay. If you. If you genuinely think that. Let's say you live to, like, 125, let's go for, like, really old. Really old. Will you give genuine advice when you hit that age? Are you going to be the old guy that's like a Dr. Pepper every day? Like, you ever see those interviews?

I.

Oldest person in the state of Washington, and they do an interview, and they're like, every day, I drank Cokes with breakfast and a cigarette.

Yeah. Like, wait, what? There are. There are genetic predispositions, especially around carcinogens, like smoking that people don't have. Are not predisposed to. So, like, there are people that are literally 100 years old smoking every single day. Like, yeah, all the time. And. But they have certain genetics where, like, it actually doesn't affect them the same way. Same way that some people don't sleep but a few hours a night, and I feel super rested. There's a genetic disposition to not need as much sleep. And so I always love when people, like, look at those, like, very extraneous examples. Like, look. Yeah, like, the other million people dying of lung cancer because they're smoking. Hold on a second. Let's do the stats here.

So. Yeah, fair enough.

All right.

Well, yeah, it's really all I wanted to touch on. If somebody ever puts a question in the comments, I will bring it up. As long as it's. It's a value.

I think it's so funny about health, is, like, everyone just looks for data to warrant their decisions. I still remember one time there's this girl, and she. A friend of mine, she was on a diet, and she was on Weight Watchers, I think, and she literally had this option carrots or Cheetos. And I still remember her thinking, like, oh, I can't have the carrots. There's. There are more points. I'm gonna have the Cheetos instead. And somehow the Cheetos made better, like, health sense.

Yeah.

And I was like, this is so messed up.

Yeah.

And so, like, we will always look for data to support our health decisions. And that's why I always think it's funny when, like, fads come along. Like, that's why I'm like, eat vegetables, eat meat.

Let's have things.

We're good. Like, that's. That will be pretty much tried and true, I think, for eternity.

Yeah.

And all these other things, like, like, oat milk, and like, oh, no, you got to, like, do this. Like, I just think it's hilarious. Yeah.

What do you think about talking about fads? You know, our good friend Andy Elliott is now the spokesperson for hostage tape. And I brought this up once on the pod, and if you're unfamiliar with hostage tape, look it up. So you tape your mouth at night. It helps you sleep better because nasal capacity, I don't understand it. But the science behind is, like, you. A lot of people sleep with their mouth open. It's better airflow, breathing through your nose. Better sleep, whatever. Deeper REM cycles, who knows? And then they have these nose strips that, like, increases airflow. Whatever, dude.

Like, half his social media posts are out of st. Stupid hostage tape stuff. Yeah.

Well, yeah, he clearly signed a deal with them.

Very weird partnership, in my opinion.

Okay.

Because they're aligning themselves with someone who is very high likelihood of doing weird and shady things. Like, just align yourself with athletes. Like, why would you not go after NCAA.

Athletes for lower cost than the pros and, like, does grassroots strategy and give them money? Not this businessman that runs some really, really shady things and says some really weird things and dress really, really strange for a business person and, like, has some weird opinions about stuff. They just go. Just go safe. Just go, athletes. Because everyone wants to be an athlete. Most people don't want to be Andy Elliott.

Yeah.

Including me. And so, yeah, 100% don't want to be him. And so, like, if they would have gone after an athlete, it's okay to, like, look jacked and, like, do the stuff that he does. But when you have to a business person that's, like, yelling at people for, like, not having a six pack and coming to work, like, you're just aligning with a weird, like, yeah, I don't think that business people are their target demo because business people are like a subset of a subset of a subset. Like, go after everyone who wants to look good athletes. So I don't know. That's just my opinion, though. Yeah. They probably don't have a big marketing budget. They don't. They're not very big of a company.

No, they aren't. So I did look this up. Shout out to Cleveland Clinic. Again, top article here. A 2022 study revealed that patients continue to try mouth breathing even after their mouse had been taped, a phenomenon known as mouth puffing. Most of the evidence is anecdotal, and there's no strong evidence to support that mouth tape is beneficial. Says the doctor from the study.

Yeah, everyone always points to when you put it on and then you start breathing, it's like, yes, 100 of the air is now going through your nose. It's going to feel cool right here. And so like I just think it's hilarious that it's like the power band, whatever you. What was it called?

Oh well, there were fighting necklaces and bands. There were other ones.

Yeah. That it's the same.

Yeah.

It's like it's all in your head. And yes, this evidence will come out over the next five to 10 years. That really doing a whole lot for you. Should you breathe three nose. Probably there is evidence to prove like you'd rather have the air going through there instead of being through your nose. It does help with snoring, etc. Like do you need hostage tape? It's just great marketing and it's great. Like I do think there's definitely something to be said about breathe into your nose. Like there's definitely evidence around that they're a marketing company selling the solution to that, which is awesome. I think their marketing plan is a little weird.

Yeah.

I think I'd rather go after athletes that has broader appeal and that everyone can agree with versus like a very controversial business person that most people do not agree with.

Yeah.

Like no one, like nine out of 10 people that sees see Annie Elliott for the first time will not like him.

Yeah. I think he's, he's going after gym bros and car salesmen.

Yeah.

And like car salesmen that are Jim.

Bros. Like people with either a low IQ or B very low self esteem that can be yelled at. Like I don't know if that's a good crossover. Like anyone that likes his content. Usually it's not super high performer because a high performer will not be taught like spoke to like that and they will see through his weird ways of like stepping on other people to make himself look good.

Yeah.

Any opportunity Andy Elliott can take to make himself look better, he takes it. And I think that's like a true signal of a. Not an alpha but a beta. Okay. I believe that like that's like he's compensating for something.

No, that's good. No, it's fair. It's a fair assessment I have because you know my, my personal philosophy, work hard, be good to people. Not that you weren't being good to him in that moment. You're just giving your opinion. I have watched some of his more long form content and there are with, with the most people that are successful and you can define that however you please. But there are nuggets in his content where I'm like, that is a Great sales tactic that is.

I listen to his stuff.

That is a fantastic way to reform that question. So I do try to listen to it, but I'll be honest, I can't listen to it in long sittings.

I listen to it and I get a lot from it.

Yeah.

Some things that are good. Other things I just, like, don't ever be like that, Michael. And if you ever see this in my. In my. Do not do that.

Yeah. Same for me. Like, I'm like, I will never say that on a call with a prospective franchisee. Like, I will never ask that question. I'll never back them into that corner. Like. But, oh, the way he rephrased this, reworked that. There's always things you can learn from.

Everybody, like being jacked and having a bunch of money. Be careful what you say.

Yeah.

Like, it's easy to start casting darts at people. It's easy to start shaming people. It's easy to start throwing things at people to make yourself look good. And whenever you have to insult someone else to make yourself look good, you are a very weak human being, in my opinion.

Yeah.

And so I just know that, like, I will probably make more money as I get older. I will probably stay in good shape. I will make sure that I never do stupid stuff like that.

Yeah.

Because, like, if you have to put someone else down to make yourself look good, you are a weak human being.

Do you think. Let me interject there real quick. I think it's a good point, and I don't want to cut you off, but do you think that he maybe, in this pure speculation, maybe doesn't have anyone around him to check him or potentially has not built a culture around him that allows for pushback on his actions? Because if Liz or I saw you do half the stuff he does, we would. We would speak up.

I showed up in my underwear.

To the office. Yeah. Yeah. Like, I'm just saying if you did, like, half the. Or just said. If you said some of the phrases he says that just instantly turn you off. Like, Liz and I would speak up.

Yeah.

So do you think that he hasn't built that around him with his team.

That would, like, object to that?

Yeah. Or do you think it's kind of the opposite way? And I'm just using this term generally kind of almost like they've drank the Kool Aid, so they just go with it? Like, they don't even think to push back because, like, he's just so right.

Well, if he can get, like, his core 10 to make really good money, because it's like the things that he says and does and like the weird stuff he sells, they'll all fall in a line with it because, like they know they can't go to another job that makes two or three hundred thousand dollars a year or whatever. And so he just needs to keep that core 10 all positive. And then like, those are the people that get interviewed, those are people around him and it just becomes this vortex of, of same thoughts. And they're willing to like, put aside even their own morality or their thoughts about something because, like, well, we're making a bunch of money and everyone's saying it's right and like everyone's hyped up about this, so it must be right.

And yeah, yeah, he seems like almost a. If you go and watch like old, old Grant Cardone, he's like a caricature.

Of what, early Grant trying to copy grant.

Yeah, 100%. It seems very similar, just not in real estate.

Like if, like we could. I've thought about this before, like with the social media, I know the path to very easily triple our audience. I just need to say controversial things that are like borderline, like some truth, but really, really crossing the line.

Yeah.

On several things. And you just bring some massive audience. A bunch of people will hate you, but the other half will stay for the good stuff, just like you said. And it's like I said, I will watch his stuff for the few nuggets and then what not to do. Like I would just have to say some really like borderline slash over the line, religious, political, economic, say weird things about people that are poor. Things like that. Like even Alex, like his best clips are when he talks about poor people because it is so controversial and people hate you. Get in the comments below this rich guy, this white dude, that's how you bring audience.

Yeah.

And so you know he's Persian. Yeah, yeah.

It's all about getting like a new audience.

Yeah, totally, totally.

I've thought about doing it. I get why everyone's following trying to copy the Grant Cardone method, which is say borderline things. Realize you're getting a ton of haters, but people are going to stick around for A, the drama or B, the fact that you do drop good stuff.

Yeah.

And so I believe I'd rather just go a little slower.

Because like, if I'm not saying it, like, I actually really believe it. I'm just saying it to be like dramatic. I just don't know if it's sustainable. Like I don't believe in 10 years Grant will make videos. And even. Even if you look at his videos now, there's like, like his actual content creating from his channel. It's like read ingested. It's not like he's putting a lot of thought and effort into the content.

And it's sparse.

It's very sparse. Like, I wouldn't say, like, that's content I'd be proud of. It's definitely not one of one content. And so I kind of see this trajectory of people, like, they try and I get it. We've been doing content now for. For almost five years. It's a long like, of like where I had a team.

Yeah. Yep.

So I guess it'd be four years. Almost four years. And then like three or four years before that, I was doing it like videos all the time myself. So, like, I get it when you're just slowly chugging along. That's kind of how we've grown the channel. It could be like, dude, you mean I could triple if I just make a few really controversial videos? Yeah, like, you can. It's tempting.

Yeah. Who would be your comparison then? Is there. Are there creators that you would say they did it the way you're trying to do it?

I know Alex would be the closest. Yeah, Alex, basically, he upgraded his. His packaging and so what he. The content he used to make, like, in his. His closet and everything. Like, I follow when he was like between 6 and 18,000, and then from 18,000, I just saw like, he hired an agency, upgraded slightly, that got him to like 150 to 200,000 subs. Then he got in house team with Caleb, who was Gary V's old videographer. And then that just like, took it to the moon. So I'd rather do that, like, have really good bass and then just upgrade the content quality and like, the way it's packaged. And so that's what we're trying to do. That just takes a lot more money and like time and slower than just be making a video about, like, here's why Trump and Biden like doing that. And anyways, okay, like, the thing is, Tai Lopez kind of set the stage. Grant followed him. Yeah, right. So, like, Grant was chugging along. And then Mr. You know, here my garage showed up and everyone online realized, oh, if you say crazy, weird things and have lambos and flashy things, you get attention. And so that's what Grant did. And then he started saying some weird, outlandish things. He has some strange opinions. And like, that brings huge audience. Like, business does not have a large amount of Appeal, like when you look at like the broad audience of humans, like you look at Mr. Beast, massive appeal. You don't even have to see the words. And like it's engaging content for anyone that doesn't even speak the same language.

Totally.

Right. Then you like business. It's like, okay, 2 or 3% of people actually care about that. So how do you actually get broad appeal is you say things that are controversial to everybody because that sucks in the audience. That is not business related into business. And there's, there's definitely something to be said for that because it brings them into the business sphere and they learn things. So I'm not against like that 100%. But yeah, Tai Lopez like set the standard. And then you got people at Grant, then you have people that follow Grant's path. So for example, in my opinion, meet Kevin bought that jet because he saw what it did for Grant Cardone. And so.

I don't think it's done exactly what he thinks exactly. Like in from a social media perspective. But everyone's following Grant's kind of trajectory right now. And even, even to some extent, like when Alex took off, it's because after his calls with Grant or Grant said like make tons of content, like that was his big thing. The difference I think with Grant versus Alex is Alex has like a ton of like substance.

Yes, totally.

Versus Grant has a lot of like flash. Flash. Yeah. Like, which is bravado and like, like there's definitely value to it. Right?

Totally. Yeah. Interesting. I don't know if you ever seen that this clips, but I just saw it recently. It's. It's funny you bring up me, Kevin with the jet because it's like in influence. It's a clip from an influencer training course and it seems like parody, but it's not. And literally there's a guy basically saying like, hey, I have like 150,000 subscribers. I want to take it to the next level. I'm his exact words. I'm thinking about buying a Lambo because he's like, that'll take. Make my audience bigger. Because his, he had a gym content and like lifestyle content. So he's like, so if I'm like a good looking jacked guy and I have a Lambo, I'll appeal to a bigger audience. It's like what you're saying, it's like he infuses a Lambo that's going to draw like me. I'm not going to follow Jim Influencer. I just don't care like, cool, great that you look Fantastic. Proud of you for the hard work, but I don't care. But if you had a Lambo, I might click on the post. Cause I'm like, oh, Lambos are cool. So he's opening the audience, but then he's like, but then they sit and do the math. Like, what's a monthly payment on a Lambo? Okay, it's like 3,600amonth. Like, how many followers can I expect for that? And it. It just. I'm like, so that's how the world works nowadays. Like, it felt like parody watching that clip.

Yeah. Like, it's. If you basically to be an influencer, you need a reason for people to listen to you. And so either a, you can build something that takes a very long time and get credibility that way. And like Alex said, the moment that they sold Prestige Labs and gym launch and they made. They could publicly say they made $50 million, that's when he's like, his socials just took off to the moon. Because he could just say it. It's like, social credibility. The same way you can buy a Lambo today and tomorrow, post on your Instagram, and immediately have social credibility. And so the fast way is go get the Lambo. The long way is build a business for 10 years, do the ups and downs, sell it, or do something that. Where you can get public notoriety around it. And so that's why, like, we've never really, like, been too concerned about the social media because, like, we know if we just keep growing the businesses, like, eventually people will start, like, taking note of it.

Excuse me. And if you look at a lot of these other influencers that we respect, it's like, they have a big business, therefore I listen to them. And without the big business, we'd be like, dude, these people are goofballs, but they have this massive business. I will listen to them. Now. It's like the classic. You know, you go to a party, you're talking to all these people. It's like, this one guy is like, sharing you his vice occasionally. Like, what in the world? Then you go over to someone else and like, oh, by the way, he's like five worth five billion. Like, oh, sick. Yeah, I should be listed to that guy. And so, like, that's. That's the. The change. And I. That's why I hope social media goes more is like, we go. We look at the depth of the social credibility instead of just how, like, if you can go buy a Lambo tomorrow and get social credibility instantly. Usually what comes fast leaves fast. And So I think that we are being. Are getting smarter to it, and that's why the jets don't work as much. The Lambos don't work as much. There's not as much actual credibility given these people and the social credit. Social credit they get is from people that don't have what they're trying to get. And, like, they don't. They've never built a big business. So it's wannabes.

Yeah. Social credit system gives individuals, businesses, and government entities a credit score based on their trustworthiness. China. So that. Are you saying you're pro China on this podcast?

Is that, I mean, like, social credit?

I know. Hey, that's exactly what China's doing. I'm just saying I had to look it up. No, I get. I totally get what you're saying, but it does. Then it kind of blurs the line is of you're saying social credit to each individual. Like, you and I made assumptions based on what we've seen about Andy Elliott. But we're not expecting someone else to, like, give him a score and then we all follow what that score. So if he has a low credit, social credit score, like, everyone stops listening to him. Well, no, that's not fair. If people want to listen.

I don't really call it credit score. I call it credibility.

Yeah, yeah.

Social credibility.

Yeah.

Right. Because like, you, you look for evidence of credibility by things like what they're wearing. Like, if you don't know someone has money, you're going to try to assess them pretty quickly. Okay. Are they. Well, take, like, do you have this massive beard? They, like, haven't washed in 10 days, likelihood of them being successful, Less. Is it. Is it completely zero? No, but you can, with relative confidence, know they're going to be less successful if they haven't showered in 10 days. Likely if their. Their clothes are tattered. Like, so we're always looking for cues of like, where is someone at on the socially economic status. Yeah, that's just like, we're humans.

Yeah.

That's what we're wired to do it.

Yeah, Fair enough. All right. Switching topics completely.

Okay. We went from oils to Lambos.

Yeah, we're doing it. We're.

We're. And Andy Elliott.

We're getting weird.

All right, dude, I have a good thumbnail for this one. It's just like Andy Elliott's face with mask with his hostage. His mouth. And that's it.

Just that. Yeah, we. We'.

Monetized.

So we'll. I'm just gonna jump right in no context here, article Headline Yahoo Finance Planet Fitness has been pretty much destroyed says company founder amid speculation on boycott cancelizations. Now this is an article at time of recording from quite literally yesterday. So this is a very new article. Alrighty. So I'm assuming you're gonna look up the stock which I, which I already pulled for you. There's, there's year to date. But I do need to read the article.

I looked at this already.

Yeah.

Boycotts usually don't affect the stock price.

So Planet Fitness founder and CEO Mike Grondal, I believe is how you say it detailed a history of rampant abuse at the company and alleged it misrepresented its financials during a recent interview with a controversial right wing X user.

That part misrepresented financials.

That's what is this article goes on to say he did an interview with controversial right winger X user libs of TikTok which yes, great. Twitter follow.

This comes after weeks of calls for boycotts of the brand after the company canceled their membership of a Planet Fitness gym goer who was speaking out about a biological male in the women's locker room. Planet Fitness's policy allows gym members to use the locker room associated with their gender identity. But this policy has led to few high profile cases of women feeling uncomfortable in women's locker rooms, and some women and children have reported abuse and harassment at the facilities. Some of these incidents resulted in women losing their membership, but an arrest was made at at least one instance. In this interview, Grand Dahl outlined the history of the company and the reason behind its founding. He started the gym, noting that the judgment free zone was meant to be a welcoming signal to novice gym goers looking for a place to start. But when speaking about the company today says it's devastating what it has become. That's a, that's a big word to say as the CEO, and this is a direct quote. Plaintiffs. Plaintiffs. Planet Fitness was like another child for me and I put my heart and soul into building that company and it's been pretty much destroyed. You know, it's lost all respect within the country within the last couple of weeks. There's no common sense standing behind this. So any thoughts on that?

Just go to Anytime Fitness where we only have single bathrooms and restrooms. We don't have any shared bathrooms whatsoever. Like, great decision on Anytime Fitness is part of. I was making a note to run ads for the local for our gym that basically say we have individualized restrooms.

There you go. Perfect.

Yeah, that's what we're gonna do.

Yeah, love it.

So that would Be my recommendation. They're all unisex bathrooms and they have a shower and a toilet and a sink in them. And I don't care really what gender you are. You can go in any of them. Lock the door, baby. Yeah. As long as one person's in there, we're good to go. That's the biggest problem that any type of business has with the private bathrooms is sometimes two people go in there and then we got problems.

Yes, yes.

But, yeah, like, I don't know. I also think it's being blown out of proportion. There's thousands of locations. Somehow people think when it comes to franchises that one or two owners that kind of go can go rogue. It does impact the entire system. And this is why we've always stayed with, with Augusta Lawn Care is we are very careful to cut people from Augusta sometimes because if they go rogue, they can affect the entire perception of the brand when reality, it's a very small minority. And in my opinion, it's probably very, very, very few owners of Planet Fitness in terms of franchise owners that actually believe in this, whatever this is. Like in terms of the gender, bathroom garden identity.

Yeah.

And so it stinks, though, because you are going to get wrapped up into it as the brand because the. The public perception is all of Planet Fitness thinks this way.

Totally.

And it's easy to do that because they're all the same brand. And so that's what. There's so many. And they've seen this the past several years, like so many great things about having a brand with all these locations. And there's this other risk, and that is if a couple people go off the rails, we all kind of got to go with them.

Yeah.

And so it'll be interesting to see how they turn around. They will turn it around. It'll be a matter of coming out with a campaign that makes it very clear about the bathrooms. You know, like, if I was them. Okay, if you were them, what would you be doing right now to rectify this?

If I were the CEO.

Yeah.

I think. Yeah. I think you have to put a plan in place, like a statement, a directive on what the bathroom policy is, top down. And I think it would need to be that. I mean, this is my personal belief is that biological men use the men's locker room, biological women use the women's locker room, and that's that. But you're also going to then get the backlash from that. That side of the aisle. So I don't know. I mean, as a person, that's what I believe. As a company, I would say, is it feasible to install a general neutral bathroom or go the solo bathroom route? I don't know. That's what I would potentially be looking into. But then you're talking tens of thousands of dollars in potential renovations, hundreds of thousands, to maybe some of the bigger gyms. So I don't know.

This would be my. My thing. So they can't do what we've done because they have much larger gyms. They have to have like. Like five to 10 people in a bathroom at the same time. Because the. The. The. The big fix would be to have individuals, and it would take hundreds of thousand dollars per location.

Right.

This is. This would be the happy medium.

All right.

So I would recommend doing one bathroom that is unisex. And it's like, anyone can go in that bathroom. As long as there's one person you can go in that bathroom. It's just one. And we're gonna build it. It's gonna be one little room. It's gonna be like eight by eight. Let's go and make sure it's ADA compliant. All this. Then over here, if you. I would, like, make it really funny. And I would. I would really lean into, like. Like, if you have something between your legs, you go over here. If you don't, you go over here and, like, really make it funny.

Yeah.

And yes, you would get some kickback. Those are the same people that right now are super loud, and I would just. Just mute them by leaning into it the opposite direction and being like, we are going to serve everyone. Here's this one bathroom. Anyone can use it.

Yep.

Here's these other two massive ones that we got to do shared anyways. And here's our standards. Basically, it's biological, but you make it funny.

Yeah.

Like, do something really hilarious around it. I think you'd win everyone back. And then the 10 of people that are already mad, they're not coming anyways. So just, you know, throw it back in their face. They're going to all, like, super agitated. Who cares?

Yeah.

Lean back in the 90% of people that, like, want this, like, want things separated.

So, yeah, fair enough.

And then just gonna be like, we really messed this up. Even though I really believe it's probably less than 5% of their owners that are causing this issue. So internally, man, I bet right now it is catastrophe.

Yeah.

I bet there are so many arguments between owners between, like, what? Like all of them. What I just stated is my opinion. Every owner has a different one.

Yeah.

And so God bless that CEO.

Yeah.

That has to figure out what to do next because anything he does is not going to be looked on nicely.

Yeah, well, I think it, I think, you know, not to bring up politics, but he did do an interview with Libs of TikTok. So I think we know where he probably stands on the issue on a personal level. But he's also so worried about the bottom line and the backlash.

Right.

But like, I don't think he'd willingly do an interview with a. Oh, so.

You say you think he supports the whole thing?

No, no. Libs of Tick Tock is like an. Is a far right Tick Tock Twitter account. So if he willingly didn't interview with them, what Libs of Tick Tock is, is they post basically people contradicting themselves that are on the left. So they're, you know, you know, then they're like, you know, lock up Trump. And then they're like, people need to stop saying lock up Biden or whatever. And it's like, well, you're just contradicting yourself. Like that's a bad example, I think. But they out. They out people being hypocrites that are on the left or just what. What they deem as like crazy people on the left.

Got it. Yeah. I think you just make a bathroom and even you don't call it unisex. Just be like all purpose bathroom. You can have family. So you have a change room in there for like a diaper bathroom. I don't know if they have kids. They have change rooms there.

Well, it's a gym. I don't like.

I think sometimes they have daycare though. Oh, okay. I think sometimes they have daycare. And so you have like, you could have change rooms in there. You have, you know, everything for the, the man and the woman and make it like that's unisex bathroom. It's like overflow. You know, we have a shower in there, the whole nine yards and then two main ones. Yeah, I think that's be like a happy compromise. You don't take either either way. But like this is the worst position to be in, especially if he is doing like interviews like that where he's showing, kind of showing his opinion. Totally. Then his opinions will be like anyone will be any, any decision made will not be that far. Right. So he'll have to come this way and so he'll get backlash for coming any more directionally left. Yep. And then anyone on the far left is gonna. It's gonna be way too much.

Yeah.

So that's just a horrible spot to be. And there's no right answer for him. None.

Yeah.

Whatsoever. So it's gonna be brutal. Especially not so much the public stuff. Honestly, it's the internal stuff that's so hard because you care about the owners, you want them to succeed, but then you gotta do the PR thing and it's brutal, dude. Yeah, I'd like a little taste of that with Augusta, and I'm sure there'll be bigger ones down the road, but it's brutal. Like, it's really hard.

We just don't have brick and mortar, so we don't have to worry about bathrooms.

Yeah, no kidding, dude.

That's nice. So this goes into some of the financial stuff that you said you weren't sure about.

So.

Planet Fitness has 18.7 million members across 2575 gyms around the world. It would likely require tens of thousands of members or more to begin making a dent at its bottom line. While it is possible, it's notoriously difficult to cancel a Planet Fitness membership unless you're one of the people speaking out against the company. On short report from the Bear Cave In January of 2023, dubbed Planet Planet's Planet Fitness, an illegal billing operation with gyms on the side. Planet fitness is down 23% since that report came out. Now, that doesn't mean members aren't trying. According to Google Trends, there's been a 2,800% surge in inquiries such as how to cancel Planet Fitness membership on app. Google marked how do I cancel my Planet Fitness membership as a breakout trend, noting a recent rise in search results for this query.

Oh, man.

Yeah, so it doesn't go into the finances too much.

Hey, this is a good thing for Anytime Fitness. We've. I. To be honest, I don't think corporate has mentioned this at all, which is like, they're just like, let's just lie low and like, let this, like, just. Just feed us, baby, feed us. Because they're our biggest. Like, from a member perspective, they have more members than us. We have more clubs than them, but we're smaller.

What is Anytime Fitness Is total membership. Do you know?

It's probably around 6 million now.

Okay.

Because it was about a third, five, like several years ago.

So about a third of Planet Fitness.

No, they have 8 million.

No, it's 18.

I thought, okay, then we're probably more than that.

So we were 18.7.

We crossed 4 million. But that would have been like eight years ago. So, okay, you just type in Anytime Fitness members. I bet it's like, I'm gonna guess 8.5 maybe, maybe 9. I'm just guessing though. I just remember when we crossed 4 million when I was a personal trainer.

There's more than 4 million. But when was that?

I don't know.

It's gonna go down.

It's from the corporate website.

It's over for me. I remember that.

Great 1, 3, 2 number memberships. Anyways, it's millions. Who cares? All I know is that they, they take most of the members because they're lower priced and we don't want their members. A lot of times, yeah, like all these people trying to cancel their membership, doing their political agenda garbage. A lot of them are the ones that sign up for $10 per month.

Yeah.

So like we get higher quality people in there. We get, you know, we just buy a really nice piece of equipment. Like we really invest back in the club. So it's more boutique. Anytime Fitness is so much better. I'm just saying.

Yeah, it's more booty.

Anytime we travel and turnarounds, there's always an anytime fitness within. Like where we can go before the airport. It's awesome. Get a quick pump in shower, hop on a plane. That's the way to do it.

Anytime Fitness isn't public, is it?

No.

Okay.

That's private. Self esteem brands, they'll go public eventually.

Okay, cool. Yeah. Well, there you go. There's your gym talk.

Yeah.

So Planet Fitness, it's in a rough.

Spot here in our gym. Bros talking about seed oil and Andy Elliott.

Yikes. All right, any non financial advice for the people?

Do you have any?

I had something and I honestly forgot it, which is really frustrating.

Okay. So my non financial advice is if you have cold sores, get more sleep. So I pushed through my cold sores on my turnaround and came back and that hit me hard.

Yeah, fair enough.

It's been a whole week, dude. I usually get over stuff so fast. I have a pretty healthy body and I don't usually get sick. I took my first sick day on Monday because I couldn't talk.

You still did a mastermind though.

Yeah. How did I do that?

You were in the office. No, you came into the office.

Oh, I came in the office, dude. And then two hours I was just like. Yeah, dead. Yeah. And I bailed. Yeah, no, sorry. Sunday I couldn't talk. My bad. Yeah, Sunday I couldn't talk. I had to push off all my like weekly sync videos and everything for the team to Monday. But yeah, I came in Monday, recorded a bunch of them, did my mastermind and I was like, dude, I'M out. I just went to bed.

Fair enough. I've remembered mine now. Okay, so this is. This may be something I'm thinking about bringing to the conference. Maybe I'm workshopping some stuff. But this is. If you have an employee that exists in a gray area, it means that your value, your core values aren't defined well enough to make it a black and white decision.

If you have an employee that frustrates you or maybe doesn't step up or maybe isn't performing to the level they should be, or there are areas they need to improve and you're like, do I, do I fire them? Do I keep them? I'm not sure. If they exist in a gray area, it means that your core values are not defined well enough to make it a black and white decision.

Okay, but are there certain things. Do we want to debate this or not?

Sure, yeah. It's my advice. But you could take it or leave it.

Are there certain things in the core values, though, that like, you would have to have a lot of core values to cover all areas?

In theory, yes. But I would say there are certain elements similar to ours at the local shop at command center would be extreme ownership. Extreme ownership is a black and white. So if you're struggling with an employee that's like, you know, doesn't always accept when they make a mistake, doesn't always go back and fix things, doesn't, you know, own when they could have communicated better. Well, if you have a core value of extreme ownership, it is now a black and white decision. It is not. They don't exist in a gray. Are they practicing extreme ownership or not? No, they are not. Okay, great. We need to talk to them and they need to fix it or we need to let them go.

You're pretty black and white guy.

Yeah. Trying to be.

That fits with the brand.

Yeah, I'm trying. So I don't know.

That's all we got. That's fun.

Yeah.