S4 Ep 5: Can Gratitude Actually Grow Your Fitness Business?

We don't always believe that you have to be hustling.

No.

But until you get a flow-on effect, you need to be your version of hustle.

But also, also, I've never met a successful entrepreneur that's not fucking busy.

Welcome back. It's the Welcome to the Hustle and Muscle Show with Rich and Riz. I'm Rich and here's Riz, 2 bald men talking everything about hustle and muscle, specifically in the health and fitness space, in the gym space, in the entrepreneur and business space. I own a marketing company called Comm Marketing and Riz has a fitness studio in Sydney called Riz Fitness. It's called Riz. We talk everything about business, gym, weights, how to hustle and should you muscle, or maybe it's how to put muscle on and should you hustle.

That's right.

And that's what we're talking about. The backstory here is I met Riz as a personal trainer in a big box gym. And Riz was on the mission to figure out how he could help to grow his business and move from an independent trainer in a big box gym and move out to his own Studio or gym, and we were just talking a bit of conversations at every session. And here we are now, he's moved into our Marketing Ninja program, and he's also moved into his own fitness studio. How good is that?

Fucking magic, mate. That's how good is

that.

On the topic of, yeah, magic, mate, gratitude.

Gratitude.

Like, it's a, um, I feel like that's the one I want to chop up today. So if you're, if you're ready and willing I reckon we'll go off the cuff, mate. Couple of bald blokes chopping it up. What are you grateful for current day, brother?

Well, I took my kids to school today and, you know, my wife Joey could have taken them to school, but I took them to school because I, you know, working in my home studio now, I like to get out a little bit and just get out. And in the car, Joey has every morning, we say this to the kids, we say, I am And they repeat it. I am amazing. I am grateful. And I'm going to have fun today. Every morning, Joey drills it. And so now our little one, 2-year-old, says, Joey says, I am amazing. I am fun. And so his little voice is there, Ricardo. And so

little Ricardo's speaking now.

Little Ricardo's talking about it and Seppi's talking about it. And now Seppi says, I'm a champion and today's going to be an amazing day. And there's a saying that Joey and her good friend Beck Brown used to say, always says that something amazing is going to happen today. And the point of gratitude, I think, Riz, is that there is something always to be grateful for. And if you don't keep talking about it, you don't find it. So I'm grateful that I could take my kids to school. I'm grateful that I stopped, had a coffee with Joey, sat down for 20 minutes, and then here we are back in the show. So there's a lot of things to be grateful for if we look out for them.

Yeah, absolutely, brother. Couldn't agree more.

And, uh, talk about what your, what your thoughts are on gratitude, Riz. I mean, I've, I've known you for probably 2 years now, and, um, it doesn't matter what you're doing, there's, there's always that, that smell and that sense of gratitude and appreciation and, uh—

Passionate appreciation for life, man. I'm very, very— coming from where I came from to where I am now, it's, it's a story that you're, you're hardly ever gonna hear. And that's not to toot my own horn, but I'm just self-aware. I know the, the depths of stories, and mine's very rare. And so whenever I wake up, man, even being able to ride my, ride my bike into the coffee shop and get a coffee and chill out, that wasn't gifted to me when I was younger. That wasn't something I had, and it's something that I've gifted myself. So every moment that I have now, nowadays especially, um, don't drink, don't do drugs anymore, nice and sober in bed at 8 o'clock every night, looking after my health. And so there's a lot to be grateful for every, every waking moment, man. I'm just— I'm grateful that I've even got this job. 50 years ago, I was thinking about it today, and I was looking— I was walking through Cronulla. There's like a little mall sort of section you can walk through, shops on either side. They've got this, uh, over— little overpassy sort of thing that has photos of like, um, old Cronulla in 1912 or something. 100 years ago, there was fucking dirt roads and you were riding on a horse and carriage. That's insane. That's insane. Only 100 years ago.

Yeah.

And so I'm like, and now I've got my own gym. bookshop for him, and I can— I can— you're in Brisbane, I'm in Sydney. That would have taken, you know what I mean? Like, that's— that wasn't— we couldn't have done this. So, so for me, so I find gratitude in so many things, and it's so good because then you appreciate your day so much more. So yeah, like you said, man, I'm grateful. I was grateful for my coffee this morning and being able to afford that, you know. It's a beautiful thing.

Yeah, so good. And, uh, it is interesting, like, we've had, you know, a lot of conversations face to face, and now, yeah, we're able to continue this Conversations through platforms like this. It is insane. And it's those things that you either decide to see the gratefulness in it or you decide just to look over it and go the problem. And I'm getting better at this gratitude thing every day, Riz, but it is, when you don't think about it, it can easily fall into the trap. Yeah. Easily fall into the trap.

But it's— I mean, it's one of those things for me. It's like, well, let's say you're having a shit week with your studio or whatever it is in your life, or you get your hours cut at work, or your boss is— well, it's like you could— there's always something to fall back on. For me, I was raised— I was partially raised by my granddad who was paraplegic from the age of 25.

Hmm.

And so he was wheelchair-bound, couldn't use his legs. He was wheelchair-bound from 25. And so I always grew up with him, and he was always for the most part happy, working hard, had his own taxation consulting business at home, you know, was killing it. And, and like, I had that to look at. I'm going, well, fuck, at least I've got legs. If he can do it, I can do it. Like, fuck, he doesn't have legs. That's pretty crazy. Like, I couldn't imagine waking up and not having legs.

Yeah.

Like, that's pretty full-on. And so I think that contrast has always helped me. I've just gone, well, fuck, you know, like, if when I've broken my foot or whatever— because it happened, I've broken my hand— I go, well, at least I got a hand to break. You know, at least I've got these things to have bad things happen to them. And that kind of keeps me— that kind of keeps me going. If you have a bad week in your work, well, at least you've got a job, you know. At least some people don't— there's always something good to fall back on. That has helped me a lot, for me, you know. I, I think a lot of people can fall in that victim, oh, my bosses— and I've felt there too. But I think it's really important to go, what is there to be grateful for? And let's just look at that and let that be the fuel instead of— I think it's really easy to get to, to focus on the bad and just go down in the day. I think it requires a bit more of yourself to look at the positive and be uplifted.

Yep. And I got into the gratitude world probably about 10 years ago. We were living in Canada, Calgary, for about 6, 7 months with— Yeah.

You were doing some things there. Weren't you doing some marketing and running around and sussing out and growing as a business owner?

Yeah. We had a business partner in Calgary called Mark Vella. He's actually back aboard with one of our other companies. He launched a company called Advertise with 2 I's and we did some stuff in Calgary and some, you know, that's a whole nother story. Just like advertising brands that couldn't afford it in really random spots. So you'd go to a cafe and there might be a chair there and you put advertisements there. So it's like the Uber for advertisers kind of thing. Really? But through that process, Joey learned mindfulness. She learned yoga, meditation. This is before it was kind of hip and cool, right? And I remember this practice that she did and she was kind of like teaching me the concept here. And it's like the book The Secret. I don't know if you've read that, Riz. It's kind of a famous book.

I haven't read it, but I know the general gist of

it. Yeah, famous book. And that's kind of where it all progressed from. So it was around that time and just every morning she would walk and she was going through some things, really clearing her head out and was like, She did the I am, like the thank you steps. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And she'd just say that for about 500 meters. And every morning was the same concept. And you start to, you start to say, I'm thankful for X. I'm thankful for this. I'm thankful for that. And, you know, last night I did it on the couch too. I was having, I don't think it was the best day. And I said, okay, I've got to shake this. And I was with Joey and I was with the boys. I said, okay, what are you thankful for, Joey? What are you grateful for, Joey? And that snaps you out of your mood to a degree because when you say you're thankful for something, what happens is your mind can't think about the negative part.

Yeah.

So you just start to open up the mind a little bit and you're good to go.

Yeah.

Another strategy I'm using at the moment is I'm continuing working with business coach Jeff Jowett. And, you know, when you work with different people, you try and figure out how can that person best serve me? And I've always thought, you know, I classify him as more as a mindset coach. Yes, he's got some great business skills and strategies and many successful businesses, but for me, it's like, you know, staying out of the weeds, staying out of the crap, and that elevates me as well. Trainer, you know, you're my trainer for a few years there, and I've got a new trainer here, and it's like, I was doing one session, now I'm doing 2, and I feel better for it, you know. So it's trying to It's knowing your boundaries. It's knowing what you have to do to stay in the grateful mode.

Yes.

If you don't know that by now, I've said it before, you don't know that by now, we've got problems. If you're 30, 40, 50, you know, 28, 29, you know, you're not kind of realizing what makes you feel good and what makes you feel shit. That's probably the first lesson here. We need to understand that.

Yeah, big time. I think it, and I think it, if you don't know, you better start, you better pull the emergency brake and start figuring it out. That's what my head goes. I go, whenever I'm in a shitty mood like this, uh, what was it, month— Friday?

Yeah.

I finished a really harsh 3-week dieting period where I lost 7 kilos. I did really well, but I was tired, I was run down, and I was looking forward to a rest week from the gym. So half my sessions and going back to regular food for a week and then back to dieting. But I was done. But I knew, hey, I got this rest week coming up. All because that self-awareness I built in. Okay, this week all I need to do at work is just the, um, just the non-negotiables and that's it. I don't need to do any extra fluff, any extra creativity. I don't need to find more work to do. I don't need to do some— buy any more equipment. Just need to do what I need to do, recover, and then back at it again so I'm not burnt out, so I stay fresh, so I stay grateful, so I stay passionate. Sure as shit, I've had a great week. I've had an amazing start to the week because I'm— because I was like, okay, Self-awareness identified where I typically go wrong, where I overload myself. Let's not do that. Let's pull the emergency hatch. Let's just go— I watched a movie on fucking Tuesday, you know what I mean? Went and watched like Doctor Strange. It was mad. We loved it. And I don't typically do that during the week if I'm in hustle mode. So that's sort of stuff like you're saying, staying out of the weeds, staying fresh, and not just head down into work all the time. You're going to feel a lot better for

it. Totally. Hey, Riz, um, I want to talk about a couple things that's been happening this week in the marketing world.

As we do. Let's do

it. It might help too for this conversation too, because I've been speaking to a lot of people, um, this week specifically that have, um, you know, large facilities, uh, gyms that are, uh, Western Sydney gyms that have got 700, 800 people. I've been speaking to studio owners in New Zealand too. again, probably at $80,000, $90,000 turnover a month. Good businesses. I've been spoken to a studio that's, you know, got 300 people in. So good, good solid businesses. And they've inquired for us to help them with marketing and jump into our Marketing Ninja program. And I always ask the question, I go, what's the why for you? Why do you need to do this? I mean, you're making some money. They're not in dire straits. And there's been a bit of a flavor at the moment, I must say, and this is going to help some people if you are sort of struggling to try and figure out what's happening with the marketing. I can't get my lead flow to work and things like that. I want you to hear this, is that these, all of them, and I've probably around, I'd say, 6 to 7 people I've spoken to the last week in the same kind of category as this, doing well financially. got a team, not stressed. They're not over their head and that kind of stuff in debt or anything like that. And I said, what's the why? What do you want to come into the program for? And they said, well, Richard, I know that if I don't— I know that the market is different. I know the leads are not as good as they used to be. It's not as easy as it used to be. And they're saying, I just want to make sure I stay ahead and don't get behind. I know there's competition. We retain our clients well. And it's a very different shift that I'm hearing at the moment from people that are just like, hey, I need a lead. I do believe over the last 2 years, those kind of people that were really struggling in their business and probably didn't put the effort in brand equity that they had once, unfortunately, they may not be really around here as a career or a business. And now I'm seeing the new wave of businesses coming in, which potentially weren't marketing before, but now they're putting up their hand and saying, hey, we've done very well. We've got a good business, but we also know that, you know, a franchise comes up that's got more brand equity and they're pumping more money into it. So we don't want to fall behind and we want to make sure we stay ahead. And I want to share that with you because, I mean, this is some of the secrets like gratitude, like self-awareness that you talked about, that if we don't—

Business awareness.

Yeah. If we don't understand that, hey, we are not going back to 2020. And if you've been waiting for that gravy train, that's not coming back. And it's the same gravy train as 2000s, you know, the internet boom, you know, that's not coming back. And every step along the way, this is, you know, financial crash in 2010-ish or '09-ish, right? Everything has a stage. And now people that have been in business for a while realize, hey, this is just another stage. Things are adjusting and we need to adjust with it. And these are the conversations I'm having now with really good operators, just knowing that we just got to get better at marketing. We've got to open more lead funnels. We've got to be more aggressive in our approach. And then we can kind of flow a little bit. But at the moment, Riz, we just got on the call and he said, hey, Richard, I'm crushing it. I said, yeah, good for you because It's about the intensity of work. It's about understanding, you know, what you're good at, what you're not good at, what you need to fix, and knowing that if you're not growing, you're dying.

Yep. I think it's, I think it's about being tenacious, tenacious, moving with tenacity. I think that sort of go-getter stuff, not being complacent, driven.

You need to be driven. You need to be driven.

Because, because that's not going to get you out of bed at 4 AM ready to go. Like, for me, if I've got clients in the morning at 5 AM, I'm going to be at work. Even if I don't have clients at 5 AM, I'm going to be up at 5 and ready to train by 5:30, 6 o'clock. I'm going, brother. I need that extra 3 hours of the day. My hours from 7 to 8 are not productive. Nobody's hours at 7 to 8 at night are fucking productive, no matter what you— what shit you spin to yourself. I don't know anybody productive at 7 to 8. They're always on the phone and they're just not self-aware, and they're always watching a show and they're just not self-aware. They don't bank it. Nobody's productive after 7 or 8 at night. You're too fucked. You're too tired. And so many people will sit there and be like, oh, I do my best work. Some people do. Maybe you'll get a 1%er that's their quiet time when the kids are going to bed. It's 10 o'clock and they can work.

Yep.

But very, very slim. And I feel like it's either you're really super driven there need to be super driven in the morning and ready to chase those extra hours. And the people that are willing to do those extra hours are the people that are fucking killing it. And I think if you're not willing to do that, you're not going to make it because the competition is harsh.

That's the summary. If you are not willing to do it, you're not going to make it. And

you're not going to do it.

There's another quote I've heard here. This is— I love this one. You have to— and this is for anybody who is doing good An okay, and they're in okay position. But, but if you just have to be off a little bit to actually be off— I'll say that again, you just have to be off a little bit to be off. And, and, and, and you only have to be off a little bit to be off, meaning that they're either going to choose this person or this person.

Sharp.

Because, because they were a little bit sharper. That's all it takes.

Out there.

2, 3 seconds.

Yep.

What should I choose? 2, 3 seconds. What should I choose? And that's the difference between before, you didn't have to be on. You could have been in bed and you're still getting the leads. Now you can't. You got to be back at the front, back in the driving seat.

Competition is everywhere. People think they need— you've got online trainers now. You've got online— you've got cuts at your phone. You've

got

people ready to train you from your phone.

Gym equipment at home. There's people that train you in different places. Everybody's everywhere and you've got the government saying that you can stay at home and you can isolate and all that kind of stuff. So that's another thing that's going on too. So you have to be, but you know, this show is called The Hustle and Muscle, Riz, and we don't always believe that you have to be hustling.

No.

But until you get a flow-on effect, you need to be your version of hustle.

But also, also, I've never met a successful entrepreneur that's not fucking busy. That's not— that's not— sorry, I'll take that on task. So that task might be relaxing or that task might be working, but I've never met a successful entrepreneur, someone that runs a business and a good business, that is not on task. On task means if you're resting— Jeff Jawett does it, he rests in the middle of the day, but his task is resting.

Resting, yep.

And then he works either side of that. Those are his tasks, but he's on task all day. And that stuff, that on being on task is super fucking important. If you're not on task, you're not going to be successful. But if you're, if you're on task, you're good as gold.

Yeah,

but it's about managing and understanding. Like for me, I, I can, I can afford a week off where I just relax and rest because I've been on task all the other weeks.

Yep, yep.

I've been killing it, murdering it. And so because of that discipline there, I can have a week where I go Nice. I need to recover. And then back in fresh again, ready for another fucking 8 to 10 week period of just going at it.

That's it. That's it. You, you've got to know when to, you know, what tasks you need to do in that. And what we're talking about here is you don't mind like just, just floating through, um, and just gliding. And then one day you glide and you end up over here where you don't want to end up on. It's, it's, it's being understanding what you're doing every single day.

Yeah, things like that.

Intention, knowing your numbers, looking at your numbers, looking at your sales, all these items that you may have just left there for a few months. It just means you've got to bring them back a bit tighter so you understand daily or weekly what is happening in the business and what you need to apply yourself for.

And that's the thing. So for me, look, I've never done— and we've never done a podcast together, but now I do a podcast before or after I record this show. I do one before or after because I understand that probably somewhere in something I say in that podcast, I'll get one client this year. Probably something they wouldn't have listened to me, and now all of a sudden they're tuning in or they're interested or whatever. But that'll have a carry-on effect. I'll get one client, then I might get two clients from next year. That's three. And for me, that's worth it. For some people, that's not worth it. And that's the driven shit. That's the

driven shit. True, true.

That's the driven shit. I'm willing to work harder to get the client than you are. And that's the thing most people don't understand because they go, "Oh, let them come to me." No, no, fuck you. I'm gonna go get them so that you know what I mean. I'm gonna tell her, "Hey." I'm the guy, I'm the guy. So whenever it's like McDonald's, whenever you're fucking hungry, there's a McDonald's within 5K.

That's right, that's right.

So what are you going to do? Of course you're going to go to McDonald's. I don't know where the nearest KFC is typically. I mean, like, if I'm driving around, but McDonald's, there's always a 202K this way. So of course I'm going to go, Macca's, it's the easiest fix. Drive-through is fast and smart. I want that. I want to be that for personal training. I want people to go, fuck, well, where's the— well, logical choice, Riz Fitness, easy. type in my details, he'll get back to me that day. Done.

Riz, I had a client, uh, I spoke to a new potential client this week, and do you know where he first heard about us? Right, this will blow your mind, right? I, I did a presentation in Hobart in 2000 and, uh, 2006, I believe. The only presentation I've done in Hobart in that period. Uh, he's been following us for 12 years, something like that. And, um, yeah, he's, he's gonna become a client. That's 12 years of put myself—

You were willing to do the shit that no other fucking bastard wanted to do.

So are you willing to go and do what you need to do? And, and this, you know, in our business is you might see me at events and things like that speaking, but I can tell you right now that every single talk I've done Majority of those are not paid. And yeah, it's just being there.

That's the shit.

Present, being there, being present. Same thing with any business. It's like, are you at your local event? Are you at— are you doing those flyers every single day? Are you doing the podcast every single day? Are you doing your marketing? It's the consistency. The goal, the only difference that people are winning and people are doing average is how consistent they are With the daily tasks. And you taught me a lot about that. You know, it's that consistency of daily—

In the gym.

In the gym. Is it—

And counting calories.

You're turning 2 or 3, counting calories. I mean, you did it. You just said you lost 7 kilograms. And if you don't follow Riz, what's your handle?

Riz Fitness. Riz Fitness on— or there's the Thicc PT. The Thicc PT is my personal, more personal page, my coaching page. Thicc with 2 Cs. The Thicc PT. Because I'm a little bit more curvy than the average PT, a bit bigger. Um, and so it was my— I've done this twice now. I've lost 8 kilos the first round, 7 kilos the second round. We'll do the ice cream challenge. So what the ice cream challenge was, was to show people that you can eat ice cream every day and still lose weight. Because everybody would come, I just look at ice cream and I gain weight, that's fucking meh. And I'm like, well, that's bullshit. I'm not only gonna look at it, but I'm gonna fucking— one up here, I'm gonna eat it every day.

Yeah.

And I'm gonna lose weight doing it. I'm gonna lose a fuckload of weight doing it. Both times I've run it this year has been wildly successful and shown people that you can lose a shit ton of weight in a short period of time without feeling like shit, without hating your life, and you can get back on track and look good. You know, it doesn't take much.

Yeah, I liked it because I, I, I didn't know you were doing it the first time, and I go, what the hell is this guy? What's Riz doing at Messina every night? And I go, what the hell's going on? 2 or 3 times. I missed the, I missed the start of it. And I go, he keeps losing weight. And then I go, what the hell? And he did it again. And it's like, it's super smart because you're, you're one of your philosophies in the RIZZ Method is to, you know, ensure that you know what you're eating and proving the concept that you can have a massive jug of, uh, uh, Messina at the end of the day and know that you're still losing weight if you know, understand, uh, what you're eating.

And that's it. So in the morning I'll have my oatmeal protein shake. The lunch I'll have chicken, chicken and rice and a bunch of veg. And then, uh, dinner time's typically a big fucking salad, a lot of steak, avocados. So lots of diversity of food, tomatoes, good, good, good food in there. And then I finish it off with ice cream. And I was losing kilos, you know, a couple of kilos a week reliably. Like, people just don't understand that the more disciplined you are in one aspect, the more freedom you have in another aspect.

Yeah.

So I could be completely rigid on 80% of my diet and And then that 20% can be whatever the fuck I want. And sure as shit, works.

Love it. It is that discipline. It's the consistency that's required now in both your body and your business.

That's it. Absolutely. But it's so true across everything, Rich, isn't it?

It is.

It is so true towards everything. However you want to do it, that discipline, do the body stuff, will get you all the rewards at the end. You know, the fast, quick weight loss is so much more worth it for me than a long, drawn-out 30-week cut. that I would need to lose this weight because I've got 20 kilos to lose. Not now, I've got 15 or something to lose, but like, you know, far out, that's a long-ass time. If I waited, that would have been 40 weeks if I did half a kilo a week. And that's, that's what they tell you is a safe— which is fine for most people who's starting off at the gym, but the way I work my system, dial in the calories hard during the week, have a bit more on the weekends. That way everybody wins. You can enjoy your social life, all that sort of shit. Anyway.

Love it. And what's the pro— what's the, uh, what's the podcast called, Riz? It's the Protein Balls, isn't it?

Protein Bites. Protein Bites. It was Protein Balls because I'm— how much I hated protein balls because they're just, they're just little dessert balls.

Yeah, Protein Bites. Check it out, check it out.

Protein Bites podcast. Yeah, suss it out, guys. I've got the, uh, how I lost— I think it's like 5.3 kilos, but that was halfway through it, so I ended up losing 6.7. So

Protein Bites

anyway.

Guys, this has been a big blast. Yeah, first one back through. I had a little break there.

Good shit, good shit.

This is season 4. If you haven't checked out the other episodes of the Marketing Muscle Up podcast, check those out. This happens every Friday. Every Friday it's gonna get launched with Adriano and Richard here, and we're going to talk about all these subjects. And the goal of this is to make you think. And yes, if you analyze what you're actually doing, because there are different ways to do things and getting out of the normal. So if you have liked this episode and it's given you some insights, I'd love if you share it and say, hey, this has been cool. Share it out.

Give us a rating. I think they can rate us, can't they?

Yeah. You can rate it on Apple. It's a tough rating, but you got to be on your desktop to rate it. But give us a rating. That's the best thing. Or just screenshot and just put it on your socials and just tag us in. That's always good too. People see, people see the flavor. But there is— it's been good to, uh, to get back to this episode. I think, you know, we covered on gratitude. I think that's a big one. I think that to me, that's a huge one. And if you are in a situation at the moment where things are a bit tougher, all you have to ask yourself is, what am I grateful for today? Come up with 10 things, and all of a sudden things are going to be looking very differently, very differently.

And just quickly before we go, On that note of gratitude, if you can't find something to be grateful for, create it. Create something to be grateful for. Create it. Make it today. Make it today. You're someone that if you are listening to this and you have ears and you have a mouth and you have hands and legs, you can create something to be grateful for by the end of the day. And I can guarantee it. Guaranteed. So if you don't have it, and some of you are probably listening going, oh fuck, I don't even have anything to be grateful for, maybe. Maybe you're that in that headspace. Create it today. This is an invitation. If you don't have it, make it.

And yeah, just look out for it. Look out for it and it will appear. It will appear. What am I grateful for? It will appear. Awesome, guys. You'll catch us next Friday on the Rich and Riz podcast show. If you haven't subscribed, subscribe to this episode, share this episode, and go out, have an amazing day, and be grateful for you. Thanks, team. Thanks,

guys. See you next week.