 New maps program announcement maps resistance. This is the perfect way to get started So if you found our podcast, you're like I want to get started with a workout I'll lose weight when I get in shape Maps resistance is the program to get going with and I'm giving that away for free right now to when you lucky viewers Here's what else I'm going to give away for free our intuitive nutrition guide to help you with your diet Two ebooks written by Jason Phillips our good friend very smart guy Macros explained macros applied that will also help you with nutrition and free access to our private forum for a year So you can get the support you need because you're getting started on your fitness journey By the way, maps resistance includes three different types of workouts body weight and bands Dumbbells only and barbells and dumbbells so you can get all of that for free But you got to win the contest. Here's how you enter leave a comment below in the first 24 hours That we drop this episode subscribe to this channel and turn on your notifications If we pick your comment will notify you and you'll get all that stuff now everybody else Check this out. If you bought all that stuff separately would cost you 320 bucks Here's what we're doing for the launch of maps resistance You get all of that all the ebooks the intuitive nutrition guide the forum plus maps resistance and the three workout programs within there For 77 bucks huge discount. So normally would cost 320 bucks 77 bucks that's it But you got to do this you have to go to maps resistance calm and then use this code for that discount Resist 20 that's resist to zero with no space for that discount. All right. Here comes the show I was looking at the The qua post right so on our instagram all the questions That people want us to answer And one of them I thought was really good. I think it was one of the most More popular ones that people liked which we normally try and answer those when when they're liked the most, right? But instead of answering it in a qua I thought it would be better if we did a single topic because I just think there's there's too much To talk about in a related in relation to this which is you know, the mistakes that we made early on as trainers Yeah, I think there's kind of a few of those. I think five minutes is not enough time Truth be told we we narrowed it down to 10 because That's a lot. Yeah, yeah, all I mean, uh, I mean again all joking aside, you know when when I I know I'll speak for myself when I start off as a trainer I mean, I loved it, right? I love fitness. I love helping people. I loved being in the gym But I just didn't know what I didn't know and I had an idea Of how I was going to help people through fitness And a lot of what I thought turned out to be totally wrong and it took me a lot Here's a here's the sad part took me a long time to figure out A lot of stuff I would say that I probably Wasn't that great for the first at least few years. I was a trainer. I say five Yeah, if not five, right? I ended up training people for or you know directly or indirectly through owning gyms For over two decades. So that first, you know quarter Of the time I was a trainer I made a whole lot of mistakes and what would drove me to realize those mistakes I think similar to what you guys say which is you really want to help people at some point You look at everything you've done for the last three four years and you go wait a minute This isn't working. Well, it's not like our heart wasn't in the right place So I'll give us a little bit of grace, but Yes, if you look back and everything we talk about now because of all these years of practice and and application and Seeing how these these methods play out amongst your clients It's cringe worthy to come back and see what you're actually promoting When you're first getting started, especially those first few years You know the thing I like about this episode is you know, when you look at the list that we have written down At first glance it actually doesn't look that bad But I mean some of the things that we're going to go over Well, you see this a lot still happening that exactly and that's why I think this is a good episode That's why I thought it was a great question because there's a lot of things that To your point Justin that we were doing With with pure intentions that I mean my goal was to be a good trainer It was in my best interest right to do that. I just think that looking back now I think they were they were I was terrible at it because I to your point Sal I didn't know that I didn't know. Yeah, I was unaware it resulted in people. And by the way, this is valuable For trainers. This is also and probably even more valuable for people thinking of hiring a coach or trainer because If they're if they're doing this stuff to you Then you know that they're making mistakes and they may not be the best trainer for you So these things to look out for and of course if you're a coach or a trainer Pay attention because we're going to explain why they were mistakes. Yeah now the first one. This was a big one for me Which was uh, you know, I just thought People were lazy. I thought that's why They're not getting good results because you know what it is and here's where it came from where it came from was I knew the formula, right? Okay. You want to lose 30 pounds for yourself or you want to be fit Right, you just follow the steps. Yeah And if you follow the steps, then you'll get the results And and the reason why this was a mistake was because I completely was unaware of human behavior And I was completely unaware that somebody would not be fanatical about fitness and nutrition like I was right So I didn't consider any of that stuff. All I thought was hey, you came to me with this goal Just do what I tell you. Oh, you don't do what I tell you I've done this a million times. It's easy. What's your problem? Yeah, and and what it did is it took the responsibility off of me So for instead of me looking at myself and going why isn't this working? I would just say oh, it's not working because they're just not it's not only that I think that at this point at least in my career. I didn't understand a metabolic adaptation I didn't understand how that works So I assumed, you know, these people were lying to me or lazy, you know The either they were lazy or they were lying to me when I when I would look and assess Their results after say, you know, four or five weeks of working with me And we weren't any closer to their goal of losing 30 pounds And they're telling me yes, I did all these things and I'm like one you're either lying and lazy lazy or lying or lazy But that's because I didn't understand that, you know, this person could have Had severe metabolic damage because they had been in this crazy diet For years and years and years and lots of compounding stress I didn't understand because once you train enough people or I should say, you know, a handful or so of Similar body types similar goals The mistake that I think you make as a trainer is you kind of assume that oh, you I've got it figured out like I trained a client that you need to lose weight just work harder Yeah, exactly work harder do these things and and we should be fine But you know, this this was the beginning of my Realization of how how individualized every case was no matter how similar the goal and how ineffective I was being Yeah, I just you know when this really hit me When I kept thinking this and I would have the same problems arise client after client, right? Oh, they get results But then they can't stick to it or for some reason it's not maintainable They can't sustain it and I'm like, oh, they're lazy. Oh this next one Oh, it's just because they're lazy and so on and then I looked and I said wait a minute Among my clients and there's a bit of a bias right people who tend to hire trainers tend to have more expendable income tend to be more successful And so on I looked at my roster of clients and I said Lawyers executives medical professionals. These are not lazy people. They're all accomplished In their lives and what they do Maybe it's my approach. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe it has nothing to do with them not being lazy Maybe they're just not fanatical about fitness, which I took for granted with myself And I said, okay. My approach is probably wrong. It's not a Laziness issue. There's it's a lot more complicated. That's really the answer The answer is it's much more complicated than that. It's not as simple as that Well, the crazy part about this one is it plays right into the second one Which is that I train people too hard. Oh my god This was the biggest mistake you first make the first mistake and thinking all these people must be lazy or lying to you And your answer to that solution is all right when you see me on Tuesday We're gonna burn all that shit off. And so you just get after them I remember taking pride. This is that embarrassing to say, but I remember taking pride In clients telling me how sore How crippling sore they were the day after or how and this was this again, I'm embarrassed to say but I'd have a client finish a workout Drenched in sweat They're barely able to walk out of the gym And I remember feeling proud that the other trainer saw my client could barely move, right? Oh, I did a great job, right? I just beat the crap out of them. Oh, man I mean, it's so it's even hard to admit right now that this is something that I took pride in Oh, I know it is embarrassing. I mean, I built a reputation originally on like how tough my workouts were to accomplish You know, it's like some kind of a badge you earn by training with me Uh and to the point where even I feel so bad about this lady actually It was having just a terrible day and knew that I'm just I just Provide these tough workouts to get through and she was getting through half of it and broke down So I'm crying got emotional and then I was just at a loss. I didn't know I didn't Think about like adjusting and and completely changing course to what I had planned I just kind of waited it out and be like, okay. We ready, you know, and then just keep applying the same thing Are you trying to open up to me 50 more burpees? All right. Cool. That's great. But now let's get back after Yeah, and the problem with this is that this what you learn later on is the right intensity will get them the best results Too hard gets them there slower or or results an injury I mistakenly thought the harder I train the faster they're going to get there So I might as well just train as hard as I possibly can. Oh, yeah, don't hurt them But train them super hard. Well, there's a there's a bit of like a negative loop here too or like a Culture in gyms around this I really said this is what I remember is You would walk into busy time the gym that we've talked about four is the five six seven p.m. At night. So at that time Jim's cranking all the trainers are there. So, you know, if you're a pretty good size gym There's 12 15 trainers moving around and signing clients in and out And there's a bit of this culture around like who trains their their clients the toughest You want to be that guy and even clients come in like they would they would even exaggerate. Oh, man You got me today Adam. Oh, yeah, and then other trainers be like, yeah, I want I want that guy Look how look how crushed his client is, you know and and said, oh, yeah Then you feel like this, you know, but you said badge of honor So there's this kind of this this feedback loop that is happening the clients think they like it You know other trainers see it aspire to be like it And then so people think that this is the way to train people and it's tough to Get out of that especially in these big box gyms where that culture has already been established And it wasn't until I got out of that and I saw like small private gyms where you have Typically have a a higher class of trainer that's working out there that have been experienced And you see a different vibe going on and that was when I kind of went Oh, wow, okay. These are some of the better trainers. They're playing everything I learned and educated myself through certifications And you know different modalities out there. I'm like, oh, wow, you guys actually use this stuff Like I would learn it all and then just you know, apply the same hammer to my clients Yeah, you don't want to be the trainer in the gym that everybody says Oh, he gives easy workouts. You want it to be the one that's like, oh, don't train with him ego Yeah, it's totally and it's so wrong. It's so wrong because the right intensity Gets you there faster. In fact, I got interviewed recently and someone asked me What are some red flags of a bad trainer and one of them was this I said If they train you so hard that you feel like dying at the end of your workout or you're Sort of the touch the following day That's a bad trainer. How funny is it? Well, again, it's hard to the week I mean as for most of my career, I was a fitness manager So I oversaw trainers and so I got a chance to meet like everybody's clients And I can't tell you guys how many times I had to have a conversation with a client because they would come to me and say, hey I want to I don't want to train with so and so anymore because he's not pushing me enough Yeah, he's not pushing me enough. I want to try. I still I see, you know, yeah I see what's his name. I see Sal over there and he's just crushing his client. Like I want I want I want to yeah, I need that I need that type of motivation and And I'd have to talk them out of that like no, trust me. You're with a great trainer He knows what he's doing or she knows what she's doing like just followed But I had those conversations all the time because it's so Engrained in the culture in some of these gyms. Now the next one is uh, is just failing to really individualize workouts or Training everybody the same, right? Oh, it's chest a here's the exercises We're gonna do oh and the individualization was the weight You lift this much weight you live that's much weight But the workouts look almost identical I have my favorite exercises my favorite combinations and you're just you're not really paying attention to how you can individualize a workout Because individualization will make a workout so much more effective. It's not even fun screams beginner Oh, dude. I'm so guilty of this. Oh, it's brutal. And I mean this is something I mean even brought up in the athletic culture like this is something that we all experienced because everybody Trained from the chalkboard whatever was written up there Everybody tried to apply it and figure out how best to To accomplish this workout and individualize it for yourself, but it was just the same Meat and potato workout every single time and no customization no individualization anywhere No, I'm I'm so guilty of this as an as an early trainer It's to the point where I even tried to organize my schedule so that I only had to write one workout for the whole day I'd have a lot easier. Yeah, nine ten people You know, let's see that day and they'd all be on that exact same body part split or whatever like that So that I didn't have to do it more than once You know what it is It's because you thought to yourself that your job was just to watch their form and make sure they use the Right, not that the exercise made a difference not that the technique necessarily made a difference Not that there was correctional exercise. It was just here's the exercises my job is to make sure you're doing right It's a good point. You bring that up because you know, we're laughing about it I'm pointing out how terrible of a trainer, but I actually didn't think I was that bad at the time because Exactly what you just said what I did think I was great at was attention to detail and form and technique And that's where I thought a lot of my my value was was and I was that guy So you'd see me train these clients they'd always seen doing the same routine But I'd be walking around each of them and showing the detail and correcting their posture and like really getting into it And so I felt like I was really providing tremendous value even though I really wasn't plus The thing we talked about right before this also fed into this too because you'd finally write this routine together That was a ball breaker and then you would stick with it because you're like, oh, yeah I got this this hard ass workout and then you wanted to run every client through it to see how they responded to it And so that that last problem fed into this one also Yeah, totally, uh, this next one is I was really guilty of which was just emphasizing these entertainment or entertaining workouts Right the fun factor Now that at some point this started to backfire because I started to run out of creative shit to do With my clients, you know, oh, I got Sally coming in We're gonna try that physio ball movement and oh, I saw somebody use the battle ropes. We're gonna do that Oh, there's this resistance band Rotational press that we're gonna do and then I'd combine exercises together And then it was all about like let's make the workout so different that you're gonna show up and be like, wow This is really fun And again the clients also feed into us by the way as a trainer You you want your clients feedback, but they're not the ones that are driving the workout And so the mistake I would often make is I would let them drive the workout because they'd say Wow, Sal. I'd never done all those weird exercises. That was so fun. Cool. I'm gonna keep doing weird stuff Well, the thing is there's sort of a benefit and there's definitely a negative to this because The negative is that it it deters you it takes you off of the past The path that's going to lead you to results Which is really what the client came in there in the first place To receive and you know the benefit to it is it is fun. It's engaging You know, it's something that like You know, they can talk about and look forward to like the next wacky thing that you're gonna have them do In the gym and also on the trainer side It's like You're trying out all these random tools and techniques and I guess if I'm looking back It was it was awful and in that like some of the clients that I was taking through a lot of these like tools and devices And things I was experimenting with they were literally part of my experiment And I hadn't really figured it out yet And so I was able to weed through all that stuff and find out what was actually effective and what wasn't Uh, but uh In terms of like being as effective as a trainer as possible. I was definitely not there yet Well, when we talk about things like this, it always brings me back to how we all came together because this really is Uh, the first initial. I mean if sal would have never sent over Uh maps anabolic to me the first the rendition of it that um dug in him created And if I would have never seen that and I wouldn't have been at this point in my career Where I've learned from this mistake. I probably would have never appreciated the programming as much as I did I mean that part of the beauty that I saw it was the simplicity of that This is what Like most of my clients should have been training like even though I went through this long phase of Always doing all these weird creative exercises that were way less effective And I think a part of that is this insecurity as a trainer that you feel Every time they come in I got to teach them something new. Yeah, they've already seen a squad Right, right. They've already seen that kind of a tricep exercise. I got to teach them a different tricep exercise So like I'm constantly Feeling like I need to be showing them something that they they haven't seen before or else They're not going to resign with me because if I keep doing the same, you know, great exercises, you know, that they're not Going to need me. Yeah, they're not going to need me They're they I need to be showing them something they don't know how to do or they've never done before They don't know why we're doing it so that I can explain it and I could teach it And if I kept doing that then they'd wonder like oh, wow if I stay with this guy I wonder what next week will be he'll show me something new and so that was my thought That was that was the extent of my programming in my early years was literally like around that like how Creative and unique and different can I keep it going in a program so that people always feel like there's something new Again, I think there there was good intentions behind it. I think the idea I was I thought I was providing a better service that way But the truth is to your point Justin, they're showing up to get results Like they they sign up they pay at the end of the day whether they like you or don't like you They're there to do a good job. That's right. Yeah, I want I want to either lose fat or I want to build muscle Or I want to be healthier. Like that's what they're paying you for and there are Exercises that are better than extra other exercises. That's a fact And long term especially right a hallmark of this is the is the trainer that follows the next fad Like I like I could call I could go over. I'm like I remember when Instability training was a thing all of a sudden the fad followers did Instability training then taibo right kickboxing getting all of a sudden trainers doing kick these with no kickboxing experience Holding pads and doing kickboxing right. Oh the battle ropes. Here's all the trainers doing the battle ropes and you know Yeah, oh circuit. Oh now it's all a circle hit training. Oh now everybody's doing hit training And it's that entertainment factor that is uh, it's a problem By the way, you're okay When I became better with my programming and it became more simple and individualized and not so weird My clients by the way, they stayed with me longer In fact, all of these mistakes we're talking about actually made me a less Uh successful trainer as much as I thought that they were helping me It actually hurt me because later on when I figured these out Clients stayed with me much longer had better longevity and sustained the results much longer This next one was This one I was so guilty of and this is mainly because I You know, you know doing the whole motivation inspiration thing for me came very natural I love it. I love talking to people hyping them up And so this was what I this was my strength my strength was to emphasize motivation and inspiration Oh boy, I could talk anybody into working out more. I could talk to anybody into following my meal plan I could talk anybody into Feeling motivated and inspired to get in shape now. There's nothing necessarily wrong with motivation inspiration But here's the problem What happens when that feeling goes away, which it will it doesn't stick around motivations of feeling it comes and it goes And if I convince this person to work out with me five days a week I'm really good at selling the motivation inspiration when it finally does go away, which it will They're gone that client is gone They're not working out anymore because they've relied so much on depending on that motivation factor Now trainers that do this a lot what do they look like the boot camp trainers the people that yell at people the hype The excitement right they're relying on It you're summoning this feeling or creating this feeling the client and that is a well That is very very shallow and it runs out of water very quickly And then you your clients don't do very well. Yeah, I'm for sure guilty Of this one and I think part of the reason why it's because I liked it I bought into it, you know, I like to be hyped up and motivated Like you sell it came very natural to me. I mean fuck I remember like I had like what they called chaperisms where I'd have Well, you know, if sexy was easy nobody would be it, you know what I'm saying? Like it's like it's seriously I'm so inspired to work out harder. I mean, I totally everybody has the same 24 hours and every day It's up to you. Yeah, I did man. I definitely I definitely pain is weakness. I just definitely fell in this trap I mean even to I would I would text clients to like, uh, obviously when that because we were before that Oh, I said motivational quote. Oh, yeah, I'd sit randomly in the day too and they ate it up and they loved it You know and and so you get that feedback as a trainer. So you think like, oh man, I am killing it I am doing a great job. You know, I'd send them around. What are you doing right now? Like get off get off the couch and go do this like I do stuff like that To get them moving and people do some people like it and they give you that feedback And so I think I'm doing such a great job because they're like, man I just so appreciate you if I was being lazy and then you sent that to me and I was fired up And then I went and did it and so it you know as a trainer again, I think sometimes Uh, you you you mean well with what you're doing and you but you just don't realize Well, I think this also feeds back sort of to the root of it Which is that you think that these people are just lazy, right? Yeah, and it's like they need for you to constantly hound them about you know Showing up. Yeah, like getting through this like in crazy intense workout. Like it's it's a total Domino effect of all the ones preceding this But yeah, I mean I was guilty too. I've just like trying to make sure like You know, my clients would come back and so I'd have to text them like hey, we're gonna have a great workout Like you're always like this constant hype machine, which was exhausting By the end of the day trying to do replicate that kind of energy with every single client like after that And man, I just got burned out trying to be that guy that that felt like well, they're not going to come back unless I do this Yeah, no, I'm glad you said that because There's another reason why this is a failing strategy because for you to be the motivation inspiring person You also have to feel motivated and inspired and you the trainer Eventually you lose this are also human and you get burnt out. Yeah, I don't want to do this This is actually what led me to actually wanting to leave training. Um, I was I was at that time So I was only like a pure trainer only training clients for less than two years And I was ready to be I was done like I was this is what burnt you. Yeah I was done being a trainer because I took a lot of pride in being this person With every client and I was such the hype man for Eight to ten hours a day every day and having to be a chameleon for each one And I again thought I was really good at that So I put a lot of extra energy into it and I just remember after a couple years being like I'm tired man. I just I just want to be me all day and not feel like I have to mold My personality and my and bring out this crazy level of energy when I'm not feeling not feeling it for the day and That part exhausted me and and the truth is when that starts to happen Whether you realize it or not your your value as a trainer starts to diminish Like you you're just not you're not your full full self anymore And eventually it wears on you and then that will be reflected in your programming and training And the real the big detriment to this is that it takes the the spotlight off of what's really important, which is Learning how to develop the skill of discipline or teach the skill of discipline Which is a slow step by step process But it lasts with you forever because the skill of discipline is with you whether you're motivated or unmotivated or tired energetic And if it's always about motivation You have developed no skill to deal with the situation when the motivation is gone You feel burnt out. You feel unmotivated. How many times people say that? I don't work out because I'm unmotivated. Yeah. Well, yeah Well, it's a crush Totally it's a crutch that you're providing your client that that they're so dependent on on you to summon and rally this Feeling, you know towards any obstacle that comes their way like a better trainer knows to You know equip them With how to deal with it when it's when it's rough and let them struggle through that themselves Yes, so the next one is going to ruffle some feathers because it still happens a lot It definitely happens a lot still and it also took This is one of the ones that probably took the longest for me to like really Come full circle and figure out how to how to do this better, right? And so And that is to is giving meal plans Uh giving meal plans is is a terrible terrible idea like literally for client And I know there's trainers listening right now that we're gonna piss off fight Find us every time we bring this up. Yeah, because you get offended by it. That's what you gotta give nobody eats this way That's the problem. Nobody wants to eat this way. Well, that's why right? We had to explain why it's such a failing method to write something out the You're you're not teaching you're giving the clients the answers to the test first of all So like you're just doing that you may get them to pass the test that while they're working with you But then when they go off on their own They're not going to have the tools and the resources to figure this out themselves So the education process when it comes to nutrition, especially the how individualized it is is so crucial And figuring out how to teach that process is so much more important than just telling someone the answer Yeah, to go a little deeper to that you're not teaching them how to navigate the real world, right? Like how do I navigate the real world? How do I navigate vacations? What about going out to dinner with my Husband or my wife or what about when I don't have my the food That I that I have on my plan with me, right? I it's almost like we thought that we could give everybody a pre-contest diet It's like we're treating everybody like a bodybuilder. Here's your meal plan Yeah, like this is what bodybuilders do for 12 weeks before a show. They don't even do this all the time It's not a effect and I thought by the way. I thought with nutrition That this was it like oh all I got to do is figure out their their calorie burn. There you go Here's the here's the solution Again going back to that. I thought they were lazy. Oh, you don't follow the meal plan Well, of course, you're not going to lose weight because you're not following I gave you what to do Just follow it and prepare and prep your food and package it and bring it with you all the time People don't live that way unless they're neurotic about it And this is the other part is I confused everybody with with trainers like What do you mean? Why aren't you neurotic about it? I'm neurotic about it, you know And I remember I had a client once once tell me Yeah, but if I was as neurotic as you were about it, I would be a trainer. I'm like, oh, yeah, that's right You know this is my chance to do this Yeah, so it's just it's and I promise you this will happens when you give someone a meal plan They'll follow it get results. They'll go off of it and they'll lose all the results Well, this is also another one that's hard because a lot of clients want this or demand this right? So this is a tough one to navigate. Shit. I was just uh, this was earlier this year I was visiting my uh my uncle and my aunt My uncle on the side that actually works within the company and some of that his wife So obviously she knows what we do and stuff And uh went out and saw her and you know, I hadn't done anything diet-wise or talked to her about that stuff And actually years probably since I was a beginning trainer And she remembers I wrote her a diet like way back when and so I'm out there not that long ago and she says Um, would you write me a diet? I go, oh and now I have a much better way of communicating this right back then I would just okay, you know and write write something where it's now. I'm like, yeah You don't really want me to do that. I'm not really going to help you if I do that She's like, we talking about last time you did it helped me great this and then she's so We're getting this argument back and forth about it. Isn't that funny last time you did that it helped me so great Well, why are you here now? Right, you know, you know, and that's such a hard and I actually lost I really did I lost the battle So I'm admitting that I just wrote her down stuff because she wouldn't let me go unless I did She's like listen and her final thing was like, I don't give a shit. I don't want to learn You know, I've actually gotten that a few times from clients. Yeah Yeah, they're just really adamant that like listen like don't give me all this work Just give me, you know the few things to focus on and make my life easier So that's so this is the part, uh, you know, I understand the trainers that that get caught in the situation Okay, um as as advanced as I am and I have the words to communicate why she just want to do that I still lost this battle. Um, now mind you, she's not a paying client that I'm seeing every day So what it would look like had I lost that battle and then still train be training her Is I would be be working on that as we're talking you'd be like wait for the wait for this to fail Then we have a great learning opportunity. Right. Yes, and I and I would teach her through Sessions and and that's and that's what you gotta remember. We are in a service business So there has to be kind of this middle ground of knowing knowing what I know is best for the client Also recognizing that they have this this idea or perceived idea of what you know This relationship is supposed to look like and it's my job to convince them sometimes what is best for them And sometimes that means I got to meet them kind of where they're currently at and that means I got to go Okay, this is what she wants right now I'm going to give her what she wants but then I'm going to explain to her as we're training some of that like Hey, this is the reason why I didn't want to write you a dyke Here's an example of a day where I actually would have told you to Bump your carbs or your calories because we did x y and z or hey, this is a day where I would have said You know what we probably should scale back a little bit because of x y and z So take those opportunities if you do get put in those positions when you're listening to this and you're like Well, shit. I feel like my client made me do that like when I talked to an nci. It's chess not checkers Right, right. So it's chess. So sometimes you gotta you gotta sacrifice a few pieces Knowing that later you're gonna get that checkmate. It's like no different than your kid You know, you're going out in the cold and like, hey, don't you want to wear a jacket? And they go, no, I don't want a jacket And so you're like I could fight them and force it on or I could go outside and then they'll be like Uh, it's really cold. Oh, that sucks, buddy. It's cold. You should you know, maybe we'll we'll get your jacket next time To have a deal right so it's one of those situations where it's it's chess not checkers But but make no mistake giving meal plans unless you're giving you're training someone pre-contest Is it is really a failing strategy because at some point you go off the meal plan and then you know, forget about it Which leads to the next one say I too much emphasis on supplements now I blame of course, I take responsibility for this But I do blame the first certifications and classes that I took When I became a trainer because some of these courses were funded by The gyms that I worked in which were you know, we're partnerships with supplement companies And when they would teach us how to make meal plans, which talks to the last one They would teach us how to integrate supplements into the meal plans with breakfast. They take their Multivitamin calcium pills and then you got your protein and creatine Before your workout your branching amino acids and afterwards your branching amino acids And then in the evening you take this and here's why it's so valuable And I thought oh man the supplements really Make a big difference. This is really going to make a huge difference with the person And this is also when I thought it would make a big difference for me The truth is Supplements make almost no difference whatsoever I mean unless you have an actual nutrient deficiency in which case it could be life changing For the most part it's not going to do much at all if anything Except for make you spend a lot of money Well in your defense too, um, and I think this is actually still true You would know better than me so correct me if I'm wrong But probably a majority of the most popular studies that are circulating are around supplements Well because they're because they have a desired outcome of selling something they're funded And it's hard to get funding for a lot of of you know fitness related It's also easier to control It's really hard to do a study on nutrition because they're so observational And people are notoriously terrible at reporting How they eat and then oftentimes you don't look at other behaviors for example Somebody we may look at and you know and find a correlation between I don't know high salt intake and obesity But it's not the salt It's probably that they're eating a lot of heavily processed foods and eating a lot of calories Just like in the in the the 50s or 60s when they showed studies showed that coffee caused cancer We didn't realize that coffee drinkers smoked a lot too So we didn't connect those two right but when it comes to a supplement It's very easy to control take this and then that's all we're measuring and then see what happens So you see those studies and the results are often You know They they'll have a result and then we'll extrapolate and then we'll you know come up with our own conclusion. For example You know taking this stimulant Causes more fat, you know any 10 increase in fat oxidation. Oh, this is going to help you burn body fat Well, if we do a study that actually shows fat loss We find that it doesn't make a difference whatsoever because at the end of the day It's about the calories that you eat and all that stuff So you're right and a lot of the studies that we would circulate amongst each other We're around supplements and compounds and new things and we as fitness fanatics, right? Especially those of us wanted to build muscle as you know, skinny kids We got hammered with all these ads too I was like I thought my supplement knowledge was my most one of my most valuable things I know how which supplement stacks to put people on and it's going to make a big difference And of course the gyms love me because I sold so many supplements. I just I look at it a little bit different today Right like and I think I always talk about like How much like spendable income that you have because you know, if you got all the extra money and And you like testing out the stuff like that there's They're fun to try to add into it's not a big deal But I also go back to what it was like as a struggling kid trying to get by and and buying $300 a month worth of supplements to get by and what I know now is that That money would have been better spent on having someone prep my meals You know that right there Well, you want to talk about someone having success with with their diet You know the money that they're spending on these supplements thinking they're going to get the competitive edge of 5% more of whatever it is That they're taking it versus hey, I've got that the same $300 now I could buy pay for one of those services that delivers the meals to my house and I have Macro balanced perfect So much more valuable way more valuable like the the success rate that that client is going to have by investing that money into something like that Will trump any great supplement study all day and I'll take the Pepsi challenge on that all day long So that's like where my mind has changed over years with supplements. It's not that they're all garbage Yeah, they have some value. We use a lot of different supplements here and there But if I had somebody who's like, hey, I've got 300 dollars to spend Supplements does not surpass things like that. They're far better off investing that when we're talking about, you know, creating good behaviors around eating totally now this next one connected to some of the other ones that we talked about and that's really just Failing to meet people where they were it was this kind of all or nothing approach And this is where the motivation aspect came in and the maybe they're lazy You know thoughts came in but if somebody came in and hired me or wanted to work out And they told me, you know what salad? I'm just getting started Uh, I want to come in and meet with you once a week, right? I'm already thinking waste of time once a week You got to be in here at least four days a week And so now I'm going to have this speech and this conversation with you and talk about how you need make this Decision and are you serious about this if you're really serious and you got to make the time and fitness is very important And they would work with me four days a week because I was very convincing And then they would fail because it was too big of a leap. It was too big of a jump From where they were I failed to meet them where they were and I'll tell you guys a story I've told this before it just always stands out to me of when I started to figure this out You know, I had somebody who came to me was referred to me by one of my other clients And this lady literally Literally the within the first three minutes of meeting her she gets referred to me. She comes in I shake her hand. We start talking and she goes. I'm only working out once a week I'm not doing any exercise at home and I'm not changing my diet So if that doesn't work for you, then I'll I'll go somewhere else now early trainer sal would have been like peace See you later. I only work with serious people The wiser version of myself said no problem We will make that work and I think in one day a week I can do a lot with you especially compared to what you're doing now Which is nothing now I understood that this was chess not checkers at this point and I knew that my odds of Showing her something once a week was great because it was more than what she was doing before And I knew that doing that would probably get her To eventually want to do more on her own and that's exactly what happened over the course of a couple years She went from one day a week to two days a week to three days a week to working out on her own She started watching her sugar intake increasing her protein intake all on her own And it was a very sustainable Permanent approach versus blowing her out of the water because I don't want to meet her where she was Well, this is always why I have a bit of a hard time answering this question that always pops up from other trainers is When should I know when to fire my client? And I'm like, I think you're asking the wrong question. Yeah Like where are you failing? Yeah Where are you not meeting them? Like how are you not? Finding a way to get them more engaged and interested in in you know pursuing their goals a little more intensively And I again, this is back to like my earlier Self where I would fail and be like, yeah, you know, I've given them everything. I gave them all the tools I'm here on time. Like I'm consistent. I'm do I'm kicking ass and I wasn't ever just like turning that around like oh, well, maybe I am Not presenting this in a way that's that's really resonating with them. Maybe I'm not finding Something else that will spark that and be like the catalyst to them all of a sudden getting it You know, because it does take a lot of interactions before sometimes that light bulb finally turns on for somebody Yeah, my my bottom line for this changed a lot Originally, it was like you're gonna either work. You have to work out with me at least three days a week You have to do a lot of my nutrition on my meal plan. You have to otherwise I'm not going to work with you later on This is where the line went You have to not be a jerk because I'm not going to train someone as a jerk Right because that's my hour worth you. So if you're an asshole to me, I'm not going to work with you Yeah, but if you're cool and you show up for whatever we decide on So if you decide on once a week and you show up, that's it because I know in that hour I'm going to be able to do something that's better than you not coming to see me at all And that's enough for now and then I can work from there If I tell you to kick rocks or peace out How am I going to help you? I can't do anything and is anyone else going to be more successful? I doubt it. So my line totally changed later on your ability to do this With exercise and with nutrition I really think is what takes you to an elite level as a trainer And it's I think I've refined this over years on What does meeting somebody where they're at exactly look like and What I what I've learned now is that if I can meet somebody Like and sometimes like you think meeting somebody is like where they're at Is that they they admit that they could do two or three times a week? And so you go, okay Well, we're going to train two or three times a week But if I also recognize that person has done nothing for fitness for years or ever in their life That actually might not necessarily be meeting them where they're at. Yeah, that's like they're projected You're right. That's where they think they can go or they may want to go What I realize is like this person is done absolutely nothing So I need to get this person some wins and that goes both nutritionally and with exercise So if you got somebody who is Eight like shit for their whole life never track food never done anything like that Again, putting them on this crazy strict diet Ride out the gates. Even if they say they're ready. I'm ready to diet. I'll tell me what to do I'll follow whatever you say You you have to learn as a coach to like, okay Be able to pick up on that and and know the type of person that you're talking to and where they really truly are at And meet them at a place that they can start to see some wins because once they start to see some wins That's a huge and build some momentum Then they get kind of hungry for then they want more and that's the place you want to be versus You starting out the gates where they think they are at currently right now and it's that's still hard as shit and way It's fail after yeah, and they're falling short. Oh, I didn't even make three times this week or Yeah, I ate two days this week what you said on the diet, but then I had a bad day on this day It's like and so they're failing. Oh, okay, we'll try again next week and then next week It's and it's kind of oh I had a good week, but then the next week they fail again It's like we're we're we're still overshooting with this person Let's pick one or two things in the diet that we're going to focus on a lot of times I prefer to add than to take away So I'm going to try and add one or two things to enhance with their what they're eating knowing that we'll start to Limit some of the bad choices that they're making if they're telling me they want to go two to three They'd never done anything Maybe I'm only going to let them start at one and say hey, let's be consistent with that Yeah, and then from there we can build upon that because guess what you've done nothing right now for the last 10 years of your life us literally just training once a week You're going to start seeing change between that and us making a couple different choices nutritionally I'm going to start to show you results. That's going to be awesome, right? So you you start to do that and then build on that huge huge difference You know what helps people understand this is if you think about the times this has happened to you like have you ever like Talked to a friend. Let's say they're an expert in you know bow shooting And you go to them. You're like, you know, I'm going to kind of try it out and then they throw everything out Okay, we're gonna do this you're gonna get there and you're like, all right No, I don't want to do this anymore. It's like way too much right or if they're like, yeah You know, why don't you try it out with me and see what you think and you try it out a couple times Wow, I really like that and you know your smart wise friend is allowing you to kind of fall in love with it Rather than blow you out the water Yep I've had experiences like you know with that with investments or with spiritual practice or whatever Where I go to somebody and they dump so much stuff on me. I'm like overwhelming too much I'm not going to do this or I try and it's not something I can I can stick to All right, so this next one Is you know, it's this one is actually more damaging than it sounds because I later realized That this is this was one of the single most effective tools I could have Creating consistency with activity with people and getting them to get in better health and that is undervaluing walking Anytime I'd ask somebody What do you do for exercise if they brought up walking? It was like they said they might as well have told me They lay down on the couch. Oh, that doesn't count. That's not exercise. That's stupid You know, if you're not running or you're not lifting or doing something really hard Uh, it's not really a workout. Oh my god. Was I totally wrong? First of all Walking is one of the most today effective forms of activity anybody can do for a few different reasons One it's still an activity that people can do and I say still because who knows what's going to be like 30 years from now Maybe it'll be like walley where we're all floating around on you know hovercrafts or whatever But today the average person who's out of shape and overweight still knows how to walk now They don't know how to run They forgot how to run at past the age of 10. So we're not going to have them do that Swimming is going to hurt them because they don't they don't swim very well anymore Uh, riding a bike. Maybe not but walking everybody can walk So number one it's you can apply it to almost to most people Number two, I don't need to change out of my clothes. I don't need to schedule an appointment I don't need to get special equipment Most people can just go for a walk outside and number three I would attach it to every day activities like hey, can you walk 10 minutes after breakfast lunch and dinner? There's 30 minutes of activity right there and it's so stupid that I completely I completely discredited this incredibly powerful tool that later on became one of my most valuable tools that I could use Same thing. I would I would scoff at somebody that told me that they they walked for exercise We had a park you thing that you would fill out as a trainer and one of the questions on there was always You know, what are you currently doing for exercise? And a very common one that I would get is people would say, oh, I walk and I'd be like, oh, no I met real exercises when I asked that question, right? And the irony of all this is that that's exactly where I start somebody now and going back to the example I just gave with the the client who says they can come two or three days But yet I know they haven't done anything I would probably start them one day of meeting with me lifting And then I would actually prescribe walking the rest of the time So I'd say, okay, if you can commit to three days of exercise, let's do this One day a week, you're going to come in train a full body routine with me And then two other days a week. I want you to go for a 30 minute walk exactly the same thing And that's so I would start them with that and knowing that this person is so sedentary Not doing anything that just simply getting them moving like that again It's already going to send us in the right direction And I know it's not a major commitment level for them Getting them to just go outside and go for a stroll for 30 minutes is really easy to get someone to commit to Versus, hey, get in your car, come to the gym, take punishment under the weights, be sore, get over like That that takes a lot more for somebody Well, it goes back to providing them with small wins and I do believe that Walking is just one of those fundamental movements that anybody can get up and do if you're able bodied And so it it does provide that bit of spark of momentum and something to build upon You want to find these opportunities for something that then you can build upon that's not too Demanding and it's not something that when you know, they come back to to train. We're going to have to Sort of medicate and deal with it's it's just something that's going to provide You know excess activity that's good in terms of like the overall Body demanding more movement in general. Yeah, well the study's done on walking show tremendous value It's it's it's 100 percent A valuable form of activity and it's the one that I reckon aside from the resistance training that I would take people through It's the form of activity that later on I realized was the most effective thing that I could add to almost anybody I didn't do that with any other form of activity, but walking you can walk with your spouse You can walk your dog. You can do it for 10 minutes three times a day I could you know It's so valuable and it's so stupid that I totally undervalued it completely when I first became a trainer Now this last one It's about the scarcity mindset that a lot of trainers have early on and I'll explain my My process through that I didn't really figure out the value of this like I understood it like oh, I you know, I had You know red books on You know leadership and I had red books on you know growing your business and they talk about don't have a scarcity mindset I didn't really get it until I owned my own wellness facility So I owned a wellness facility and in that facility I had Somebody who did nutrition and gut testing. I had somebody who did massage therapies like correctional massage therapy I had an acupuncturist in there, right? I had a yoga instructor in there And then there were trainers and myself and I would train some clients now because I owned the studio it was partially in my best interest to Bring business to the other people in my studio as well, right? So if I had a client that would you know talk about pain in their shoulder I would also think who else in my facility could help this person and I'd refer them to my massage therapist Or I'd refer them to the person who does nutrition. By the way, these people paid me rent I didn't get any commission or sales on it They just I just knew it was good for them to have their business so they can continue to pay their rent Now I also had a little bit of a fear which was okay Now my client spending more money with these other people Which means they may spend less with me, but I own this facility So this is something that I have to juggle what ended up happening. I did not anticipate The client the clients that saw me and the other people that were really good that I'd refer them to Ended up being the most consistent best customers. I ever had I started to realize that Rather than having pretending to have all the answers and this is where the scarcity mindset comes from They come to me with a question I have to have the answer and god forbid I refer you to someone else because I'm the guy I'm the person you have to come to rather than being that Saying I don't know the answer to that or I know somebody who can do that better than I can When I could do that I became a maven. I became one of the most valuable It was like I was their fitness ambassador or whatever the person who could refer them to other people And it just it was so valuable that it was it was incredible. I was blind to it before right thought if I refer people Oh my god, they're gonna have less money to spend on me. It was it was totally false Oh, I was paranoid in the beginning because Uh, I was so fixated on trying to keep and maintain clients and have all the answers for them And so I stressed myself out that oh no, I don't know the answer Well, you know, I'm gonna have to go get all this education And I'm gonna have to do all these things to make up for that one fact that I don't know You know how to how to deal with somebody who has this condition or instead of just going You know to one of my colleagues at the time and just having them You know come in and bringing them into what I was doing to help out And it took me a long time to learn how to do that properly and even with other trainers Realizing. Oh my god. This person literally specializes in getting your body to Do well on stage like that's that's just not my thing Uh, and I I even experimented one time with with, you know, one of my clients Who I was like trying to help them with that and then later was like, you know I this just isn't my world and I know somebody's amazing for this And so I thought, you know, I was just going to check that off as a loss like, okay I'm going to give you to you know to this other trainer who's really qualified in this And what happened as a result was she ended up, you know, having such a great performance and got, you know first place And was so thankful that you know, I kind of referred that she ended up referring some of her family members to me That would work well with me for their goals and pursuits And it was just like one of these things, you know, you build good relationships with other Trainers in the gym like people know what your skillset are. It's not It's not that competitive like scarcity. I'm keeping all my clients over here and and god forbid you steal one from me So of all the things that we we cover today, uh, this is actually the only one I didn't struggle with Uh, and maybe that was just because I was dumber than both you guys and I had to ask everybody for help So I was forced to Uh, give other people, uh, my clients when I didn't know the answers I was always forced to learn from others and stand on other people's shoulders I didn't have I was young was only 20 years old and really quickly I was managing a team of people that were more experienced more educated than I was And so quickly I learned that I needed everybody else So I relied on that really early on now where I did learn more about this or learn Let how valuable it was to not have this scarcity mindset was how much success I had because of that In comparison to a lot of trainers because it's very common. This is a common thing Uh, and I think that's because you work in a gym and trainers need clients the clients are inside the gym We're all fishing from the same pond Therefore if I help you or give you what bait to fish with or give you any sort of advantage You might catch the fish that I could have caught and so there's this competitiveness That a lot of trainers now what I found was I didn't know any of that stuff I'm trying to learn all these things I had to learn by asking and I also found that when I gave my knowledge or taught people what I had learned I got better at those things So I hacked into that early on that when I when I would teach somebody something that I had just learned It would it would learn it again I do and and I forget what the the drop off was I was just watching reading or watching something the other day I talked about like when you hear something like 72 hours Yeah, like you lose like 80 percent of it within 72 hours. Yeah, like a dramatic amount Yeah, most of it you lose within those those first three days And I mean, I don't know if I knew exactly that's how that worked But I quickly hacked into like wow. I just learned something really fascinating Literally, I was giving up that information like minutes later I would turn right around and teach other trainers what I had just learned And it would make me better at that and so it was selfish It wasn't like oh, I wanted this great guy who just wants to help everybody I was like, oh, wow, if I teach this it makes me even better at it So I'm going to do that every time I learn anything I'm going to turn right around and give that knowledge to other people And it's just served me in life and in business My entire life and then you build build relationships and people value that and trust you and then that compounds And so I learned this lesson not because I had the scarcity Mindset because I saw it and I kind of was the opposite of it coming up And it's a big reason why I was successful Yeah, you know the studies show that the when you teach something it's you you remember it much longer than when if you just learn it And this is actually a strategy that they'll have and so I had a client Who took her who sent her son to one of those camps? He was struggling kid delinquent, you know, the whole deal is she caught him smoking pot all the time So he sent him off to this place and he was struggling and was just not doing well And so what they did this was brilliant is they put him in charge of some of the other Campers and once he ran the other campers all of a sudden he has assumed the sense of responsibility He learned all the stuff because he had to teach it all and it was super effective Yeah, back to what you were saying adam in the gym, you know, it's funny. So just owning and managing gyms I'll tell you right now for anybody who's listening who does that It's if you're a trainer in a gym with a lot of successful trainers You're more likely to get more clients than you are in a gym with a lot of trainers You don't do very well with clients Even though you may think there's potentially more clients in the gym It doesn't work that way the energy the vibe the success breeds more business and more clients So you may think to yourself like oh, I don't want to work at that gym There's you know 10 trainers in there who are full and just you know, there's nobody left in that gym No, that's the gym that you're more likely to get a client Because the atmosphere in that gym is conducive to people hiring trainers You go to a gym where oh, you know, all those trainers nobody's training anybody and they all suck There's gonna be plenty of clients for me to scoop up. It's gonna be much harder in that environment That's the irony of the whole thing. So that scarcity minds actually hurts you in almost every way that you think it saves you Which is the irony of the whole thing Look, if you like this information if you like mind pump head over to mind pump free.com and check out all of our guides We have fitness and health guides that can help you with almost fitness and health goal With almost any fitness and health goal. You can also find all of us on instagram So justin is at mind pump. Justin. I'm at mind pump salad and adam is at mind pump adam