 This month, we have released a brand new program, Maps Prime Pro. This is the first program we've actually put together that is specifically designed to correct imbalances, to assess recruitment patterns and to fix some of these issues. We actually had to recruit Dr. Justin Brink to really help us out a lot with this because we wanted to take this a lot further than even the knowledge that me, Adam, and Justin share in terms of correctional exercise. I mean, we get into depth with this program. We look at the wrists, we look at the neck, we look at the lumbar spine, we look at the ankles, the toes. I mean, we get the shoulders, we get in depth with all of those areas and most of the movements that you find in Maps Prime Pro, you've probably never seen before. It's a very unique program. It's extremely popular since releasing it. Lots of people have enrolled in it. It's especially valuable to people in the fitness industry so if you're a personal trainer, it's a valuable tool for you to use on your clients and it's because it's new this month. It's also on discount, so the price is discounted. You can find it at mindpumpmedia.com. If you wanna pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind pump, mind pump with your hosts. Sal DiStefano, Adam Schaefer and Justin Andrews. So me and the boys went down to Florida not that long ago and met with a few key individuals in the fitness industry and one of them was Elliot Hulse. He was someone I was very well aware of before even getting started with Mind Pump. He's somebody that me, Adam and Justin kind of looked up to. He's an internationally renowned strength and conditioning coach. He's a strong man, he's an author. He's a social media celebrity, a holistic life coach. He's one of those interesting individuals in fitness that combines kind of this strength training, this that side of fitness, but also combines it with the holistic side. One of the very few people to do those things and he's got this very motivational quality to him and when you meet someone like this, you kind of think to yourself, is this person really gonna be like that? Is that really how they are? Well, he's definitely like that. That's exactly how he is. He's got over two and a half million viewers on his YouTube channel, it's called Strength Camp and he made it himself. He actually had no intentions of it really growing that big, but it did. Actually, he talks about it in this episode. We have some great conversations with him. We talk about his childhood, talk about his motivations, his injuries, what he's learned along the way. You can find Elliot Hulse on Instagram at Elliot Hulse. That's E-L-L-I-O-T-T-H-U-L-S-E. His website is ElliotHulse.com. His YouTube channel is Elliot Hulse's Strength Camp and his Facebook is Elliot Hulse. So without any further ado, here is Elliot Hulse. So I wanna get back to what I was just asking you, Elliot. I mean, I've been following you for quite some time on YouTube, watching what you're doing. You seem kind of like a one-man show. Do you have others that you use to help you or you buy yourself? How does that work for you? No, like I mentioned earlier, I have a wonderful partner and a young man that started out as one of my clients. And over the years, he's increased his amount of responsibility that I've given him and it started with answering emails and helping me train some clients and helping me edit my videos to now where he's such a great leader and he's such a great manager and he's the right person. He always has been to be my partner. So with Strength Camp, I've got multiple branches of Strength Camp, but he is a key player. His name's Chris Barnard and he's a key player in everything that we do. Then we also have a great support staff of coaches. And what I mentioned earlier is that when you end up working for me, I may hire you for one thing, but I'm always looking for your talents. You may end up wearing multiple hats. We have people who have started out as interns, like Chris, he started out as my client, as an intern. And as it's possible for you to expand as a human being, I want to be there to support that so that we can all win. So if you happen to be a trainer, but you're also good at copywriting, writing, I have one trainer that now he trains and he writes for me. So I'm not looking for a lot of people. I'm looking for the right people that can support the whole thing. Because we've got a lot going on. When you said that off air, the first thing comes to mind is just that's incredible great leadership. And I love talking to guys like yourself who've been doing this for 15, 18, 20 years of your life. Did you evolve to that leader or were you always kind of natural leader? I know you did sports younger too. Were you always kind of a leader or has that you evolved now? You've gotten to that type of a person now. Well, the type, I've always been a leader. I was the first of four children. I'm in Aries, which is the first sign. And my whole life, the type of leader I am has evolved over time. But I came out leading. How has it evolved? What was it like before? What is it like now? As opposed to the past, where it was more Elliot focused, my leadership now is more other person focused, meaning how can I best mentor you, be there with you, be your friend so that I can pull the best out of you so that we can do incredible work together. What are your true ambitions and what are your true talents? I wanna know these things so that I can nurture that in you so that we all win. So I said this to Chris when we first started working together, I said, don't get very attached to what you're doing for me right now. I like you. It's you I'm investing in, not this position because I saw multiple talents in him. I saw he's a very gifted person. So the type of leadership that I have evolved into is to continue that process of just investing in people. Now take us back, tell us your story a little bit. What got you started in, I mean, what led you to where you're at now? I know you did a lot of sports in the past and how did you first get into the fitness industry? How did strength camp start? How did all of this start? Well, I first came across the idea that number one, fitness is actually a business. You can actually have a profession in fitness back in 2000, I'm sorry, back in 1994, when my uncle showed up one day with a gym bag and he told us about his new profession, which by the way, he worked for himself. That was the second thing that I discovered that that moment when I was 14 years old, watching my uncle be a personal trainer. And so he also was my mentor when I was four years old. He started teaching me how to exercise. He was at the martial arts. Then at that moment in 1994, he started training me and my brothers how to lift in the basement with a power act and it was like this. So I was born to be into fitness. It's in my DNA. My uncle was there as a mentor from childhood to the point where I had to make a decision about what I'm gonna do with my life. And I knew immediately because he introduced me to the love for fitness and that I could make a living working for myself in fitness. So you instantly had a passion for it and what was the first business you did in fitness? What was the first job or how did it start? My first jobs, you might say, was training my friends, my football player friends. I played football across the street. My high school was literally across the street from my house and my uncle began teaching me and my brother how to lift in the basement. And so I was showing up bigger, stronger and faster than the other athletes. They wanna know what's going on. The coaches wanna know what's going on. And so I would invite them. I invited them. There are several times, you know, there are six, eight kids in my parents' basement and I'm showing them how to lift the barbell. You know, I'm 16 years old. So I've been doing this work since I started doing work. It's what I've been put here to do. Wow. So what I love too to ask is a guy like you is, how many, because we talk about this on MindPub a lot. We like to share our journey with everybody. And a lot of the pitfalls and maybe some of the stupid things that I used to say when I was 22, thinking that I was giving good information but science has evolved or later did I find out that this was a lot of bullshit that was being fed to me for a greater company trying to market and sell. Did you have moments in your career that like stick out to you that were very transformative for you as far as evolving as a trainer that like, oh, I used to kind of believe this one way or talk a lot this way. And I've kind of changed directions over those years. I gotta tell you, we had a conversation earlier about Paul Check. Yeah. I was lucky enough to be introduced to Paul Check at 22 years old. So I didn't get too far doing stupid shit. You know, I immediately was drawn to the truth that the man lives and spits. And you know, I watched those videos and I immediately, you know, within months I was miles ahead of other trainers. So I was one looking around like judging them. These guys don't know what they're doing. So maybe that did now, did you catch yourself ever at one point? Cause that probably did build a lot of confidence at young 20 year old going like, what the fuck are all these guys doing? Did you have a bit of a chip on your shoulder for a while? Maybe did you? Oh. There it is. Maybe that was a paradigm-shattering moment for you. Not only has that chip played a significant role in my life, but the healing from that chip Oh, wow. has been a tremendous thing in my life. Well, what was the damage that it caused that you needed to heal from? I've always been arrogant. It's in my nature. Once again, born leader, Aries, fire, arrogant and smart, knowing you're good and being good is a great place to be. That's why I have that big gold button back there that you were so fascinated with. Cause I'm good and I know I'm good. Right, right. Well, that's a great recipe for humility to be introduced into your life. It's a my life. You'll get that lesson taught. Yeah, it's coming. So I've had it come in many different ways at many different times in my life. One of the most obvious are the amount of injuries that I've sustained because I can just go. I can just do it. We'll talk about the first one, the first one that really woke you up because I mean you're the way you're talking right now by the way, you're in good company with people who think they know everything. Otherwise, we wouldn't be doing that. It's right. And I mean, I can speak personally. I've personally been taught that lesson many, many times that no, you don't know what you think you know and you're not as good as you think you want. And the more you know, the less you really know. And every time I come out of it, I come out of it thinking, Oh, I know now and I'm better and I'm just never gonna happen again. And then I get knocked back down again. Talk to us about the first time that happened. The first big, I don't know what you want to call it, wake up call or lesson where you were like, Oh, I'm human or maybe I'm not as good as I thought it was. I don't know. Restate the question one more time so I can wrap my heart around it. I guess you said injuries. Like what was the first big injury where you were like, Oh no, I'm not Superman. When were you aware of how big your ego was? Oh, I was aware of how big my ego was when I was seven years old. I mean, you know, just it was established that way being the first son. And you know, yeah. It's interesting. I know what you're saying, but it's interesting because with each slap that I've gotten, I knew it was coming and I knew I deserved it. And not only did I deserve it, but it was there to help transform me, to help grow me into what I truly am. So each one of these experiences, I never lamented too long or beat myself up too much. I could probably think of a few, but I also, but I immediately began to think about how this thing is a blessing rather than a curse. A lot of people dwell and, you know, they have regrets and resent. I don't, I don't carry much regrets or resent, but I get the injuries and I own them. So I've torn both biceps, tore my Achilles tendon. Heck, when I was five years old, I ran smack into the corner of a wall and split between my two eyes. Not only do I have two different color eyes, but I have a split between. What is this saying about this person? You're still handsome, bro. You're still fucking handsome. It's all good, bro. Right. Yeah, a lot of people talk about, you know, seeking happiness, but what I find more resonating is finding purpose because, you know, always being happy doesn't really make sense because you don't have anything to compare it to. Like what's happening. That would be boring, right? Well, what is being happy if you don't know what sad is? What is light without dark? And finding purpose to me always resonated more because you're gonna have, I mean, it's life. Shit's gonna suck sometimes. Sometimes it's gonna suck really bad. And really the way you come out of it, or at least the way I've learned to come out of those things is to find the meaning and purpose behind it. So, okay, this horrible thing just happened to me. What's the meaning behind it? What's the purpose and how is this gonna make me a better person? And it doesn't necessarily make it a happy moment because it still sucks. But at the end of it, I feel like I got something out of it and I feel like I don't repeat the same things over and over again. Sometimes I do, but not as much as I think if I sat there and kind of dwelled on them. When you coach people, you're obviously a successful coach of clients. One of them became your partner in business. And that always tells me that you've been very successful as a coach. You've been able to lead people in meaningful ways aside from just fitness. What are some things you can say that make you that person? Or what are some ways that you coach people? Because we have a lot of trainers that listen to the show. There's a lot of people who listen to Mind Pump who are personal trainers or online coaches who desire to help other people through fitness and wellness and who wanna become successful at it. What are some tips you can give them? What makes you such a successful coach? Well, the first thing is love languages if you're familiar. There's a way that you like to be loved. And generally speaking, you're going to like to love other people that way too. Break that down, explain that a little bit. So according to, I believe his name is Chapman. He wrote a book called The Five Love Languages. There are people who are attracted to physical touch. That's how they get filled up and that's also how they're going to wanna. I almost did. Others want affirmation, others want physical gifts, monetary things. Right, words of affirmation is mine. I like being told I'm doing a good job. I like being told, you got this, trust yourself, you can do this. So if you study my videos on YouTube, a lot of, because I'm coaching when I'm making those videos and I speak the same way to the people around me, it's about, you got this, you can do this. You're amazing, look at this. Look at the progress, look how you're evolving. You're growing. I want these things to be said to me. So I say them to other people and we all rise. You have a lot of passion behind your words. What's driving that? Well, first of all, my dad talks like this. And all his brothers, and when I was a kid, I'd see them sitting around the table having conversations with their bodies. I bet dinner's going to be awesome. And I'm sure it's loud and fucking totally colorful, man. Everybody going back and forth. Awesome. And they're from Belize. So, you know, the way the culture was was a bit different than here. So, you know, talking loud makes some people uncomfortable in our culture. Person talking too loud or laughing too loud. Well, there, when you're expressing yourself, you're just expressing yourself and everybody's expressing themselves too. You know, this is where there's anywhere where you're the socioeconomics are lower in the world. People tend to be more into their bodies, more expressive. The higher up the ladder you get, the more repressed we become. That's a very excellent observation. I mean, I'm the product of poor Sicilian immigrants and complete opposite side of the world, right? Belize and then, you know, Sicily. But we are very loud. We speak a lot with our bodies. There's a lot of touch. It's very expressive. People used to come over my house to eat over and we'd be eating dinner. My parents would be speaking Sicilian and then my friends would kind of get quiet. And then when something, you know, when they get a break, they'd look at me and be like, should I leave? Is everything okay? Yeah, I'd be like, what do you mean? They'd be like, well, why is everybody fighting? You're yelling. Oh, yes. We're not fighting. That's just how we talk. They're doing this with their hands. That's just how we talk. Yeah, I was thinking Italians too when I was saying that. Absolutely. For sure. So besides that though, besides the way you talk, look, I've known lots of people from, you know, countries that are expressive like that. But there's something else behind your passion. I can feel it. Is it from your own personal growth? Maybe you find your own pain and it drives you to be passionate to help others. Is it because you felt, since you were young, that you were here to lead? Was that something that was maybe, you were raised that way because you're the oldest of four? What is it that makes you so passionate about what you do besides just how loud you are? I'm going to give you one of my dad's responses and you're not going to like it like I didn't like it. That's just the way I am. That's just the way I am. I can go into very different, all these different aspects as to what brought me to this place. We can start anywhere and I'll bring you to where we are right now. This is just the way I am. This is what I came here to do. This is what I came here to be. Which I think is cool because being someone who's been following you for a long time, I was actually really excited to meet you because when you get to a point where you got the big play, the gold play button on YouTube, you get tons of hate that you get from all these people that want to be like you or want to hold you down from what you're doing. And one of the knocks that I've heard or seen people say is they don't believe this is really you, that it's this act for YouTube to get followers. But I think that's what's so unique and I think that's the message you're trying to convey right now is just like, motherfucker, this has always been me. Maybe you just got introduced to me, but this has always been me and I've been real, which I think is a big part of why you've been so successful doing that is because this is also what I think is so great about Mind Pump is we're in a world right now of Photoshop and fake it till you make it type shit. And a lot of people renting Lamborghinis to look like they're ballin' out of control when really they're livin' at home with their mom and dad. And I feel like you're one of the few people out there that are very real, raw and transparent and comfortable with who you are and you've always been the one. I don't give a fuck if you're gonna judge me. Well, I think that's why we have to get to ask those questions because it's very rare to find people that really know themselves and then it can express themselves as their true self. So we do get a lot of that. We get a lot of the facade and this mask that you meet somebody with and you want to just cut that mask away and you just want to get right to the person. So we want to find people like yourself that can express that and get people on board with that mentality. So. Well, I want to know this too, since you are such a self-aware, confident guy, what are you currently working on in yourself right now? Like what is, give me a struggle right now, a growth struggle for you right now. A growth struggle right now. Yeah. I'm in a place of receptivity. Explain. I'm not struggling. And where there is a something that could create struggle, I do my best not to struggle with it. I am allowing things to unfold in my life. I'm receptive to what comes. There are strategies for that. One I discovered was called free reframing. I do a lot of reframing. When I did it, someone was like, yeah, it's reframing Elliot. Like, well, yeah, I do a shitload of reframing because I believe in taking the path of least resistance. And a lot of times that means there's a struggle, but hey, what's the gift in it? How is this going to turn into a gem in my life? How is this going to help me evolve? You see? So when you ask me about struggle, that means I'm currently wrestling with something, but if something comes up that I would ultimately need to wrestle with, I'm in reframe mode. I'm in receptive mode. So let's talk about something you're eating it. Let's talk about something you've reframed recently. Mm. How about that? My Achilles tendon. Okay. I tore my Achilles tendon. Doing what? Instant reframe. I'm thinking about the moment and how I've shown up so much that the people in my life helped me reframe. I was doing a one day grounding camp in Amsterdam. Just so you know, that's Osho Active Meditation. So there's a lot of jumping around, shouting, dancing, getting into our emotions, expressing ourselves through our body. Well, my body expressed itself that day by snapping my Achilles tendon when I did a jump. It was a very little jump too. I don't even know what I did. It just snapped and it was dark. And I knew it happened immediately because I felt like I stepped in a hole. So it wasn't like, oh, I tweaked something. I was like, I'm fucked. And this thing just started. No more than 10 minutes into an eight hour event that I was doing. Oh man. And I walk over to my wife who's there and I say, sweetheart, I just tore my Achilles tendon. I'm pretty sure I tore it. And she's like, you sure? And she has this look on her face of despair. And I'm like, I got to roll with this thing now. I tell her, immediately my mind goes to fear. And I'm like, when this happens, people don't walk the same again. This is the same because the fear comes to me. The first thing came out, and before, I think I merely uttered that and Colleen looked up, smiled, gave me a high five and said, you got this. Boom, gave me a high five. And I said, and I went out there and I did the entire event on one leg. Oh wow. Hell yeah. Reframe that shit. That's a team player, right? Yeah. Let's go. Bring it on. What's it like? It sounds like you have an incredible relationship with your wife. How important do you think that is to have somebody like-minded as far as health, fitness, wellness, take care of it? We get a lot of couples on our show that ask questions like, what do you do if my partner- I can't get them to buy into this concept. They don't want to work out really. What do you have to say to people that deal with that? Leave her alone. Let her be. My wife wasn't into exercise until maybe about five, six years ago. Oh. Yeah, after Benjamin was born, she was busy having children. Now if I'm so in love with my idea about what I'm doing in life that I need her to mirror me, then I've got a pretty weak sense of self. That's a good statement right there. I'm into fitness, I'm into exercise. She doesn't, she don't like to sweat. She does now, she loves training. But I never pushed it on her all those years. We dated throughout high school. I lift. This is what I do. All the things that I did was so polar. We are so polar opposites in the way we chose to live life that we left each other alone. And I could just support her from my place and she could support me from her place. And the things that are supposed, that are true, that ultimately come together in our lives like exercise is true. And I've been doing it this long. She figured it out like, yeah, I should probably give it a shot. Especially after, you know, our last child. Talk about how that happened because I share my story. My girl and I have been together only six years, but we just really started consistently training with each other maybe two and a half years ago maybe. And I had left her alone and people think that's weird, being a personal trainer. Why weren't you teaching her this or telling her this? And I say something similar. What was that journey like for the two of you and how did that happen where she started now getting involved more into it and what's that like now for you? Well, we have four children. So she spent a lot of time with that. And in between each child, depending on where I was and my journey and where she was, we would do a little bit of exercise in between children and then we got pregnant again. So it was very intermittent. It was very small. When she was pregnant with Benjamin, our last child, I mean, which was, you know, I was well down my career path and she knows me better than anybody. She asked me what I thought about her taking yoga classes, prenatal yoga classes. And I was like, yeah. I was like, that's great, that's exercise. You're breathing and you're stretching, you're being with your body, you're being with the baby. It's a wonderful idea. Well, so she did that. That was her first introduction in a way. And then when Benjamin was born, she went back to the same gym that offered the yoga and she started taking kickboxing classes. Now here I am, a professional strongman. And this is what somebody who has a weak sense of self would need for their wife to go lift. And but because I knew that it was best for her and it's not about me and her satisfying anything in me, exercise is a great idea. And when she showed up on her radar, I was like, yes, wherever it is, I'm supporting it. Yeah, go do that. And so that is the kind of love that I even give my clients. It's a matter of where are you and what are you ready for and how can I support you right now because everything's a seed. That, by the way, is what if you're listening and you're a personal trainer that is what will make you successful, truly successful, those are the kind of trainers that have clients who work with them for five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10 years or who work with you for so long and then go off and continue on their own. Well, you're constantly getting feedback, right? And I feel like a lot of times with personal training, we have an agenda and we want to influence these people and change their life and get them to lose weight when we're not really picking up on a lot of the feedback they're already giving to us with their body language and in the way they show up to the session and all that kind of stuff. In my early days, I actually didn't recall specific clients that I lost because I would sit down with them and I'd tell them, you have to do it this way. And if you're not coming in this many days a week and if you're not eating like this, then you're wasting your time and then they'd stop coming in and stop altogether. And then I remember at one point thinking, I have not only- I did a terrible job with that. That was, that didn't help anybody. All it did was help my ego. It just fed my ego, but that person is not doing anything anymore. What are they doing now? Exactly, and I switched, I changed. I changed my approach and what happened was if there's patients that's involved and letting people have their own journey and then I'd have clients who work with me once a week and they do this for years and next thing you know, they come up to me three years later and be like, hey, Sal, I want to work out twice a week with you now, just out of their own. I'm like, okay, next thing you know, three days a week and now I'm eating right and then they lost 30 pounds. But it was permanent. It was a permanent change versus the old approach which was here's your meal plan, follow it this way, train this way. And if you're not doing it this way then you're wasting your time, which doesn't help. And I think when you have a partner and you want to share what you enjoy so much, really it has to come from a place of love because if it comes from a place of ego, then you end up forcing it on them. It ends up becoming a condition of your relationship. Like you need to be fit and if you're not, then this isn't good and I am and why aren't you? And you'll find that again, if it comes from a place of love, they tend to do it. It tends to become something that they want to do. Yeah, I never had to ask her. When she started lifting, she came to me. She said, you know, I think I'm ready to start lifting. And at that time- You tried to hold it, you're excited, like okay honey, let's get this going. No dude, I'm always looking for the greatest return. So yes, you're gonna teach you how to lift and I have a new intern right now who needs to learn how to lift the way I teach people to lift. So we're gonna work together on you. And now that trainer is our head trainer at the gym. Closer over here. Isn't that man? Closer to you. I'm speaking with the big light, the flood light, not the spotlight. So your approach to fitness is very, I mean, it's very holistic. I mean, you talk about, you're a professional strongman. So here's a guy that lifts heavy weights and loves iron and chalk and the dungeon. And then you talk about things like meditation and yoga and how emotions are stored in your body. I watched a video that you had posted a while ago of you, screaming and laughing because someone was working on, it looked like they were doing a so-as release or some work in your midsection. I mean, just what looks like things that shouldn't be put together because I think fitness puts people in so many boxes that you're either this guy or you're this guy. Like you either do strength or you do cardio or you do yoga or you do meditation. But nobody does all this stuff, right? What made you so open to receiving all of that? Because I mean, I remember myself, I was hard headed for- Especially the meditation. I've been in fitness for 20 years. I was a personal trainer at the age of 18. I was managing gyms at 19. I didn't become open to this until my body literally forced me to, which was probably 10, 12, maybe 13 years into my career. So I learned the hard way. Like what made you so open? Was it a lesson or was it just day one? You're like, cool, I'm gonna learn all the shit and it's all awesome. I wanna share with you a fundamental paradigm that I believe allowed that to unfold in my life, which is that I am of multiple ethnicity. I don't have a box. Oh, wow, that's interesting. So you already felt that from early on. I relate to that big time. So I'm half Mexican, German, right? And if I would hang out somewhere where there was a Latins, I would be the white boy. If I was with all the white guys, I was Mexican. I couldn't fit in with anybody. So from day one, I was like... You're free. I'm free to be whatever I wanna be. Which I think benefits guys like us, as we get later, builds character young, right? And then you were like, you know what, I don't wanna be in a fucking box anyways. I was trying, as a young kid, you're trying to fit in, but then when you start to get older and comfortable with yourself and you're like, wait a second, it's way better not belong in a box. You guys don't get it. Yeah, you're so free. You don't get it. So that's how it started. So right away, you're like, hey man, I'm not in a box. And you get into fitness and you gravitated to war. What did you gravitate to first? Was it the strength training? Well, it all is one thing because I had a fundamental question that I had to answer, which was, what am I? What are you, right? Well, I'm a little bit of this, a little bit of that from this country. It's not an easy answer. So I started doing research into what am I? I stumbled upon the philosophy section in the library at about the age 12 or 13. Wow. And I saw a book that said, something to the effect of a man's search for himself, Apollo May, I think that's the author's name, Apollo May. Anyway, that was a very long time ago, but that opened me up to the facts about what I really am. And he went into quantum physics and he went into spirituality. And that opened my taste for religion and spirituality and practical application in science. So being attracted to fitness, it's a very grounded thing. Fitness is very rooted in the body. It's very dense. It's your muscle. But also being open to, I'm a lot more than what I'm seeing in the mirror was the soil upon which Paul Chek see dropped into. Because the minute I came across his talks and his books, I was like, whoa, here's a guy in fitness, but he's everywhere. He's talking about the cosmos. He's talking about psychology and spirituality and he's going in, he's expensive. And his whole position was holistic, corrective, holistic, exercise, kinesiology, holistic. I was first introduced to that idea of holistic or holism when I was 23 and I was like, oh, this is it. This is where I've been. This is what I've been looking for. This is, I'm riding the correct train now. This is a thing. I don't have, it's a thing not to be a thing. I'm all of it. Bruce Lee. I like that. That's what Bruce Lee talks about. So when you look at the current state of the fitness industry right now, what do you think as a whole? What do you think about it? I like to think of personal trainers and fitness trainers as kings. I see it as our responsibility to be lined up in ourselves and with the higher, however you wanna look at it, God, vertically, if you look at the chakra system, right? That's the body lined up, but also it goes beyond. And also that's a vertical line of the king. The axis Monday, if you notice, it's a cross like the Jesus cross. That's the symbol for the axis Monday or the spot where the king's throne is. It's vertical, meaning I'm lined up, being the best version of myself and I'm connected to source. I'm available to source. And the horizontal, I am very much present and available and engaged with the physical world. I'm drawing down from above and I'm blessing my horizon, my world, the people in my life, the work that I do. Do you see? That's what a coach does. A coach has to be the thing and then his vocation is to serve others with it. And there's nothing better to serve other people with than giving themselves back through fitness, through health, through alignment, making other kings. So coaches are kings not because they're kings, but because they create kings. So you really think that's the fitness industry right now? That's my vision for what this profession could be. Okay, I was gonna say, now that's different because I think there's only a handful of people I've ever met that even talk this way. Well, I'm a spark. It's happening, it's on its way. So let's talk about, though, its current state where it's at right now. I'm with you and I believe that there comes great responsibility for us that teach others. And I think that I think we are heading in the right direction in some areas. It does feel like we are. Yeah, there's, I think there is some things that we see going in the right. But then I see a lot of bad stuff, too. And I was curious to what areas do you see the industry the most wounded and where do you see the good and where do you see that going? I know where you want it to go and I know what role you kind of play in that. But as the industry whole and everybody else, what do you think about it? I'm not interested in it. I'm not interested in the contrast because I'm moving beyond it. When you say you see the bad things, well, great, it's good that we're seeing the bad things because the light has risen. The internet exposes bad shit. Now I'm not interested in the bad shit. I'm grateful for it being exposed so that I can work to help heal it by focusing on where we really are going, what the truth is. So if bad shit is going on over there, it's great to acknowledge it so that we understand the contrast between what is dying and what is rising. But I'm not interested in fixing the dying. That's like, you know. You'd rather be a beacon. Yeah, I'm moving the other way. Yeah, yeah. It's, it's, we were talking earlier. So we're obviously, we're in your garage, which is also a gym. And you have the gold YouTube trophy, which means we keep referencing. Which means we can't get over it. And it's impressive. When we asked you about when you first started, you know, using the internet, you brought up the internet right now as it exposes, right? Exposed, it's like light to everything. You said you entered into that, not even considering that that was like, it was to help your clients, your bootcamp clients. Yeah. And it just took off from there. What was the first video that did that? The very first video on my strength camp YouTube channel, which is me and a few guys flipping a tractor tire in the park. So that first video took off just like that. When did you start talking about the universe? When you know your videos. Okay. So where do you want to go with this? Yeah, those are two different directions. Those are two different directions. I want to get there. Is what I'm trying to go. You went in universe and you went YouTube celebrity. Let's bring them together. Did you tie them together there? You're real good. I could, but we'll be here all day. What was the first video that really got lots of, I guess, attention? I wouldn't say it was one video. I would say that when I hit a particular version of Elliot evolving. Oh, interesting. Right. So there was a version of me that was most appealing on video. So there was a version of me that was when I was a professional straw man. I wasn't that sexy. I was huge. I was swollen. And I also hadn't had much practice at that time. But then the Elliot that slimmed down around 2014, that had been making lots of videos, that has been practicing, that learned how to speak from his core rather than from his head and began answering questions because he loves doing that rather than anything else that I was doing. That's when I hit a stride when I found that sweet spot between practice, preparation, and opportunity. Also, I started when YouTube started. And when YouTube began to grow, I'm growing right there with it. So a lot of it, I want to say, is luck, too. But that's when timing, preparation, right? Yeah. Exactly. Talk about the importance, though, because we have a lot of trainers. We have a lot of business-minded people that listen to us. That transformation of realizing that, when did you realize, hey, I'm speaking what I think I'm supposed to say on this channel versus speaking from my heart, which you referred to. What was that transition like? Was it a process? Or was it just like one day you're like, you know what? Fuck this. I'm just going to speak my mind. I'm going to go this way. Or I'm going to answer this question, even though normally I wouldn't answer this question. Was there a video or something that you did that? I've been like this from the beginning. Yeah, they gave me Ritalin as a kid. They shit don't fly at school. Yeah, no, I've always been expressive. My friends used to say that I don't have that switch that says, don't say this right now. And one of my kids has that, so I know it's in the DNA. That's not appropriate. Just think before you. My dad used to say, think before you speak. So because it's gotten me into a shitload of trouble also, not being mindful of what's coming out of my mouth and just rolling with it. So now that's always, I've always been this way. You talked about slimming down in 2014. What was that like? How big were you before versus after that point? The biggest I was was 237 pounds I weighed in when I competed as a lightweight. Cause in straw man, you know, around 230 pounds is lightweight with heavy weights in a show. Guys over 300 pounds. And you're what, I'll tell you about 511. Not even, 5-8. Oh, okay. Yeah, I'm being modest. So you're a big, yeah, I was a big dude. And then you slimmed down in 2014. What did your weight get to? About what I am right now, except I looked better then. I was younger, I guess. About 198, I was lifting more. That's a big difference in weight. What did you do differently to drop that weight? Was it a difference in diet training? Dude, you know, your whole hormonal profile shifts when your mindset shifts, when your brain shifts. So my priorities changed because my mind changed. So I just turned into where I was now going. I'll put it a little bit more practically for you. So in 2010, I had just become a professional strawman and I was winning, I was destroying. I'm good at this shit. Flipping, dragging, pushing, carrying. I'm built for this. And I was going into my first pro show and I decided to do Trimbalone, my cycle of steroids. Two, to be exact. And man, I'm swelling the fuck up. I'm getting big, I'm getting strong. I'm like, no one's going to beat me. I was slated to win. Was that your first introduction to Anapolix or had you played around with it earlier? My first introduction. Oh shit. Yeah, especially when you got good genes, it takes out. Yeah, right. That's the other thing too, you know? I'm built for this. I was going to win anyway, but I was ready to just do whatever. I was in that place. I was that version of Elliot that was like, do whatever you have to do to win. I'm lucky, I'm happy that I had that mindset and I'd never have any regrets or remorse because that's the attitude that dug me out of a hole of $90,000 in debt, starting my business, having my four children, being that fucking aggressive and willing to do whatever it takes. It was useful at that moment. Right, it got the momentum going for my life. That was my attitude. So yeah, fuck it, I'm a winner. I'm going to win, I'm going to do whatever I have to do. And so yeah, I juiced up and I paid the price almost immediately. I got so fucking strong that I popped my left bicep before I even got to do the show. Oh, shit. In training? Yeah. Well, no, my dad, it was a day after intense training doing Conan's wheel. To, my dad asked me to pull up some dead roots, tree roots in his garden. It's always doing some shit. Yeah, yeah, I tore that bicep. And when the moment that tendon tore, I knew what was happening. Just like when I tore my Achilles tendon, right? This is a theme in my life, death and rebirth through injury. I cried. The minute it had my first time, my children were there to see daddy crying. You know, there I am, 230 pounds. I didn't cry because it hurt. And I didn't cry in disappointment about missing the strawman show. I cried in mourning of that version of Elliott Hulse because I knew that with the bicep, not that I couldn't come back. And I did, I did a few other shows later, but that version of me, that way of Elliott Hulse died. Well, that's, it stays true to you, what you've said since the beginning, since we started this podcast was that you've always kind of been aware. And so you got the slap in the face and it was more like, motherfucker, you deserved it. It was more like that than it was anything else. So I could see that. So at that moment, done, transition, no more, no more training, no more strong man, none of that after that. I took a break, but I still, I did strong man, but I slimmed up quite a bit. And I began dedicating myself to what I, look, here's the contradictory. This is why I run the spectrum. I was a Paul check student and you know Paul's pretty conservative about a lot of things. He's a genius and he holds you to it. Well, I threw all that out the window when I became a professional straw man and I was doing anything that- By all means necessary. Yeah, by all means necessary. I was drinking, bro, I remember the time I was making protein, whey protein shakes with heavy cream, with, and then I put some flax seed in there. And I put shake cereal in it. Now they're gonna support Ben. Yeah. Right, and then I'm waking up the next morning, beating the shit out of myself, getting up early to train clients. So, you know, I went hard, but when I exploded, I knew better. So when that happened, I was quickly able to begin healing myself with, all right, I should probably not be eating that shit. I should, you know what I'm saying? Just confirmation for you. Right, I had, my dad says, I can tell you not to put your hand on that burner all day long, but until you touch it, you won't know. So, I've lived my life that way a lot, you know? I do it till I hang myself, and then I gotta be reborn again from the experience. Do you try to avoid that now, or do you still do that? Do you still like, hey, I'm sure. Oh, I'm trying to avoid that. It keeps showing up though. Yeah, I'm very happy with where I am at right now. I'm not trying to change anything, but hey, it might be what I need. So I'll just roll with it, whatever happens. It's the burden of being, because we can all totally connect with that. It's like the burden of the young lion, you know, this energy, this testosterone, this, any problem I have, I'm gonna bulldoze it, and I'm gonna hammer it, and I can work. Bell, the bell, 24 hours a day, and I don't need sleep, and I can eat all this food. Nothing bothers me, I'm indestructible. And if you're this person and you're listening, at some point you're gonna, there's a lessons coming for you, and you can learn from it, or you can keep going down that path, and it's sad when you see young lions continue going down this path because then they become dead lions. And I'll tell you what, learning that lesson just makes you better. It makes you much better and much more effective at what you do. Did you change some of your training after that point? Were you, did you focus more on things like mobility and flexibility training and yoga and meditation? Did it awaken those things up, or at least strengthen those in you after you tore your bicep that first time? Well, it's been a long adjustment in healing process. So, it depends on which stage you're talking about. But I'll tell you this, that it has evolved into the place where for the past two years I've done mostly yoga than training in the gym. So I've gone from professional straw man, training like no one could out train to I want a comfortable place with air conditioning. I want no distractions, and I want a yoga mat. I just want to do my yoga. I want to breathe and I want to stretch and I want to move. So not to say that, look, I go extremes. That's just, that's my nature. I went extreme with the straw man. In order to create any kind of balance in my life, I've got to go extreme with the yin. So that's not to say that this is the right thing to do. And I never offer myself up as an example, what you should do. It's important what you're saying now. You said you're going extreme with the yin and people may not know what you're referencing. So yin is the female energy, right? That's the calm, the meditate, the working in. Then you have the yang, which is the male energy, which is the aggressive, the strong, and the working out. And when you say you're bringing balance for you to bring any kind of balance to your life, you have to go so extreme. You, and correct me if I'm wrong, the way I'm interpreting it is you were so extreme yang for the first part of your life that now you need to go extreme yin. And then at some point, you'll be able to do more both. One of my teachers put it this way. He said, Elliot, it's like you've been living in 10 years of summer. You haven't let a winter come in. You have a lot of paying back to do. And I got it. And I've been doing a lot of paying back. But that's just to correct it. Because you're in my new gym now. I've got all new equipment in my new little space here. I'm ready. I lifted yesterday. And I'm integrating in a respectful way, resistance training into my healing process. It's not, I'm not lifting to beat the shit out of myself or prove anything any longer. I'm lifting because it's good to keep the spokes tight. It feels good to be strong. And talk about how you, I mean, you're a 38 year old man. You're not a young spring chicken. None of us are anymore. So talk about how you feel, everything from how you feel aesthetically about your physique, mentally, physically. And by the way, for someone who doesn't lift weights that much, that's kind of, I mean. You're just like, Yeah, fuck you. That's what I have to say to you. Fuck you, bro. I walk in, I'm like, man, look at this guy's forearms. I just do yoga. Okay. It's a gift. At least you admit it though. I fucking hate the guys that don't admit that shit. Like, God damn, bro, you got some good ass genetics right there. Yoga does that, man. I'd be like four cycles of steroids and like some serious strong man lifting for me to even get your size. It's crazy. That's why giving advice is a difficult business to be in because you're not in that person's shoes. I can't tell you based on what I've done, what you should do. All I can hope to do is to help you live your greatest experience and be there to kind of point out some things that might help you along your journey. Let's talk about some of all of our greatest advice that we've ever received. And I like to go business because you are a very six, we're over here talking about our bodies and that's all of our profession, right? We're all similar when it comes to that. We have very similar philosophy. So if you've listened to Mind Pump, you've probably heard a lot of the things that you're actually even talking about from us or our guests, but I love to give people the behind the scenes, the business, how we turn something that we're so passionate and we love into making money and being profitable doing that. And you mentioned digging yourself out of a $90,000 debt. Like that's incredible. Can you remember some major points in your life, books you've read or advice that made that happen? Like what was some of the best business advice you ever received from somebody? There's so much, but I'm gonna give you two that run the spectrum that give the whole picture, the yin and yang like we're talking about. Dan Kennedy once said, success is cooked up in a dirty kitchen. I like that. I like that. That means it doesn't have to be neat. It doesn't have to be clean. It's a dirty kitchen. You're cooking some shit up. Imagine a chef in there. He's got stuff all over the place. He's got ships flying on his face. He's got stuff. So with that image, I realized that I don't have to be perfect to be into business. It's cooked up in a dirty kitchen. And then the other end of the spectrum, which I'm gonna attribute to Craig Valentine and he's spoken about this for many years. He was a fitness trainer and now he owns Early to Rise and he's got a book. I don't remember his book. It's in there. I wish I could remember the name of it. Perfect day formula. He is on the yang end of the spectrum in that you need to structure your day every hour. Get up and for the first, you have to nail down the first 15 minutes but perfectly the first hour of your day. Nail it down with your most important activities, your most important ritual and plan your day out ahead of time. Be very structured. So when you have successes cooked up in a dirty kitchen and you've got every day formula by Craig Valentine which is about structure and creating more and more structure and rules in your life. He has rules. You gotta write yourself 12 rules. Things you will never do. What I see and what I hear and what I experience in my life is fluidity within the structure. It's sort of a dance. It's yes to both. And knowing that business, like everything in life yin yang is a dance between fluidity, success cooked up in a dirty kitchen is very feminine. It's all over the place. It's like nature. It's creative. It's very creative. It's very creative, right? It's passion. So when you're talking about these two what seem to be opposing philosophies with business one of them resonates very strongly with me and the other one doesn't and I'm realizing that I tend to and I'm changing a little bit. I'm starting to grow myself as a person but what's always resonated to me was the yang approach but get up, do it and get it done. And I'm realizing now that the ones that resonate with me are probably the ones I shouldn't focus on. The one that, cause those are the ones my ego likes the most. Bias, right? Yeah, so it's probably the one I should probably read or the philosophies I should probably look at or the ones that are on the other side. Here's a philosophy for life in the new world. I know it might sound strange saying that but things are evolving rapidly and we ought to figure out how to roll with the punches is that there is no right or wrong. That's your judgment. Quickly pointing out which one I like and which one I don't. The answer to everything is both and. It's both and. When we can get to the place of both and now we're really cooking in 5D. Now we're really evolving our consciousness because the minute we resonate with one thing and we have its polarity, if we judge it or we push it away or we turn our ears away to it, we're missing half the puzzle. God, is that hard? You're, yes, you're, yes, you're, yes, what you're feeling good about but that one that you're saying no about or that you have resistance about, you're not gonna get the whole picture. You're not gonna get the full thing. You're not really gonna benefit until you start exploring what that's all about. God, it's so true. It is. Now you're a father of four children. So you've got a big family. I have two children and my kids, if when people ask me the teachers that I've had in my life and the people who mentored me, I quickly start to realize that my kids teach me as much or more than almost any mentor. What's it like for you being a father? What has that taught you just in life and even in coaching? Humility. You know, I've learned humility in many different forms over these years and injuries will give you humility and so on and so forth. Being in debt provides humility but when it comes to the humility associated with raising your family, being there for your family, holding space for your family, it's to realize that you don't know all the answers. You can't do this right. You're not gonna win. You're humble enough to receive that and humble enough to receive that you're doing the best that you can. I'm doing the best that I can with what I know, right where I'm at. Sometimes I could see where I can do better and I'm gonna try better but you have to have humility to be in that space. Otherwise, it's just been my experience that humility supports that. Otherwise, I resist being a tyrant. I don't wanna know everything and force my children into too rigid of a structure of an idea of what I think they should be. You know what I mean? Colleen and I play a very beautiful yin-yang relationship in our relationships where dad is the yin and mom is the yang. I'm a bit open with the children and she's very structured with the children and it works out beautifully. That's interesting because if they saw you, they would think you were the... Yeah, they would think the opposite. And I do find this being a challenge. When you're a leader or a natural leader, your tendency to raise your children is it's natural to be authoritative, right? It's natural to be like, do this, don't do that, listen to what I'm saying. So it must be, is that difficult for you to take that role where you're not that authoritative? It is and in that way, I'm a bad leader because I don't like anybody telling me what to do, what to think, who to be. And I don't like doing it to other people. Now are your kids like you? Do they, are they like that as well? Or are they like, don't tell me what to do? They're very young, but that's human nature. Our first word is no typically for a good reason because it's our first boundary and it's our first expression of our sense of self. It's our first, the ego develops when you say no. I don't wanna deny my children their ego. So I know that they're gonna be no's. I know that there's gonna be resistance. Sometimes I have to win and I rationalize it to them at that moment too and I have Colleen who I call the commander a lot of times and she doesn't play around. So I don't remember where this is going, but it's a tender bound, it's both again. It's yes and no, it's... Do they know what you do for a living? Or how old are your kids by the way? And that's the other thing, yeah. They're all very young so it's hard to gauge some of these things. They come in with their temperaments which is very obvious, but they evolve, they grow. And it's interesting to see how that... What's the oldest and youngest? What are the age? Six, eight, 10 and 12. Okay, they're close to you guys. Yeah, they're pretty close, yeah. Yeah, cause at my daughter, she's seven and she did a Father's Day gift for me and she wrote a card out and they're always hilarious when they're that age cause they'll ask, she was answering questions like, what does your dad do for work? And she wrote, he's a YouTuber. And then it said, what does your dad like to do? And she said, oh well what's your dad's favorite thing to do is she wrote, take a nap. Like, shit. They're cute, yup. Yeah, it's hilarious, like damn it. It's so true. But anyhow, yeah, for me having children, probably the biggest lessons I've ever learned come from having kids because if there's something inside, at least this is my observation, there's things within us that we don't like to face or try to learn from. And then you see these little people exhibit these tendencies and these personalities and then you gotta face them 100%. Like, how am I gonna deal with this behavior when that's totally like me, that they're just being like their dad. Yup, yeah. Elliot, you brought up, and I love that you said this, about not caring about the bullshit in the industry and staying focused and healing others. Is there anything though that is really positive that you see that's happening that excites you? Like, are you into tech? Like, are you into the tech side of fitness? Do you like what's coming out with the wearables, the newest, latest, greatest thing to get us closer to understanding our bodies, metabolism, and stuff like that? Or are you, is there anybody that you've found recently that's giving information out there in the fitness industry that you gravitate towards, or you really like learning or listening to? Is there anything out there? I'm really fascinated with how the conversation is evolving and our language is, excuse the term, becoming more new age. And where it's not so weird to say certain things like consciousness or spirit. I had a conversation with it on another podcast, and a guy was telling me how he spent some time in the Amazon in a shamanic thing, and they used some frog, they used a frog to get some medicine. Frog medicine, yeah. Right, and so, definitely the generation before us. No. And definitely, yeah, definitely not them. And even as little as 20 years ago, depending on the niche, because now we're talking about fitness, for this new language to be spreading in fitness, to me, it excites me, because I'm like, we're waking up and it's evident in the way people are talking and the conversations that we're willing to have that are not linear, that are sort of spacey. I love that you said that, because it's not necessarily, and maybe it is, but it's not necessarily that there's the right answer and all of these different things. It's that people are now open to talking about them all. And I've been in fitness for 20 years. This is a rather recent phenomenon. It wasn't that long ago that literally, maybe five years ago, if you went to a yoga class, you did not see a man in that class. It was rare to see a man. I took a yoga class last weekend. Especially a buff guy. I took a yoga class last weekend, right? Out of maybe 20 people in the class, there were about eight of us that were men. Five years ago, that was, you never saw that. I'm hearing people, like strength athletes, talk about meditation. I mean, whether you like that kind of stuff or not, I just love the fact that we're talking about it. You know? It's great. It excites me. Oh, it's the micro biome of the gut. Here's another one that's great. I just heard the other day, I remember, what bodybuilder was it, Ben, that talked about it? I know he's reading on it right now. These are pro bodybuilders talking about the gut micro biome. I mean, are you kidding me? The last people on earth that I would expect to talk about the health of the gut. But the conversation seems to be opening up, which in my belief, the only way you really can ever find the true answer for yourself is first you have to be able to be open to exploring all the potential answers. And then the answer is somewhere out there, right? Somewhere of a combination of those types of things. Where do you see your evolution moving forward? You're not the same person today as you were 10 years ago. You're probably not going to be the same person 10 years from now. Do you have any inkling of an idea of where that may go or what you think that's going to look like for you? Well, I think the best way to predict the future is to look at what's present, what's here now, and what's evolving, what's unfolding. And so we can go to business. And I have four businesses, one of which is Shrinkant Gym, which is my gym here in St. Peter's How long have you had that, by the way? I started Shrinkant in 2007. This year is our 10-year anniversary. Excellent. Congratulations. It's a big thing at the end of the year, in November. Now, how does Shrinkant work, by the way? Is that like a membership fee? Or do people pay memberships? Or do they just work with coaches? We do group training. Got it. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I could go into that. But what's evolving, what's in the future for me, is working with that. We're in Shrinkant Gym itself, because that's one part of one of the businesses, we're working to develop the program design a little bit better, improve the coaching a little better. We could always improve in everything. So we're working on creating a curriculum for that. We're also, our business model is tight. We have great branding, and we have great coaching. Our systems are great, and they're going to be better. So we're also licensing strength camp, that's Shrinkant International. So we started it, the ball got rolling a little bit. We're drawing back a little bit, because we realized we need to spend a little bit more time educating, and that's why I just mentioned the education system program that we're developing, so that when we do franchise, ultimately, which is the goal, license to franchise, I can feel confident sending someone to strength camp, San Francisco, and they're gonna get the type of treatment that they would get. And that's not an easy task. I was just gonna say, that's gotta be a little nerve racking, because there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that. We're gonna do the best that I can. We have good coaching, in other words, I'm being coached by someone who's gone through this, a business coach. So that's strength camp international, that's one of the things that we're working on. I have strength camp media, which is my media company that publishes my books. We're also publishing many other experts. The late Dr. Squat, who just passed away, Fred Hatfield, we're republishing all his work, and we're doing a documentary on his life right now. Oh wow, that's great. Which it will be coming out soon. And he was my first formal education in fitness. I took his certification back when I was in college. Wow, now what was it, what was it? Fred Hatfield, what was it? What was his certification called? ISSA. That's the original ISSA, that's right. Very fast. That was one of the first ones I took. After IFPA, I did IFPA then ISSA. Did you really? Yeah, right afterwards. He was like, wasn't he the first man, if not the first man to squat? First thousand pound squatter. The man is a legend, and we're lucky enough, blessed enough to be republishing his work and putting him out there to be recognized as a legend he is. And we're doing that through Shunt Camp Media. Shunt Camp Media publishes any of the works that I'm in creation of, so right now I'm creating a book called The Non-Job Revolution, which is all about entrepreneurship in this day, in the new age, in this age, which the internet has exploded. I call these non-jobs. So I'm writing that now. You saw those papers on my kitchen table, that's what I'm working on. So that's Shunt Camp Media. Grounding Camp is my event company, meaning my traveling event, where I put on grounding camps, three-day grounding camps with that feature OSHO active meditations and bioweanergetics. And I call this an initiation. It's a three-day initiation. And I position it as what it's done for me in my life and what I've seen it do for countless others, which is when you feel that transition in your life, where things are evolving more rapidly, then you can get a grasp on it, or you're confused about where you're going in life. You need a jolt. The type of meditations that we do and the exercises that we do during grounding camp and the community that's built really supports people into blossoming or skyrocketing into the next phase in their life. And it's amazing to see all the things that have happened. So grounding camp is my company to share those gifts with the world. I have a few other projects with grounding camp. Is that for businesses? I guess that I think that's it. You didn't even count the YouTube monster. I mean, that's a business in itself. YouTube is a part of Shunt Camp Media because it's a lead source for the books that we publish. So that falls on the Shunt Camp Media, but yeah, I got my hands full. So there's a lot unfolding. I don't know how it's gonna turn out, but this is where it's at. Do you advise young entrepreneurs or trainers that are coming in and wanting to get started, see all this great stuff you've created, and what do you normally tell them how to start? Hey, Elliot, I wanna be just like you. I wanna have the gold YouTube play button. I wanna have camps. We spoke about that earlier when we spoke about getting people into fitness. And my number one advice, and I have a great story about this, my number one advice for low resistance advice for getting into fitness, getting your body, getting your health back in order, is to walk for one hour every day. That's it, just walk. It's not a big deal. Just find a space to walk every day. And if you can't do it every day, do it every other day, but start walking. I went to my 20 year high school reunion up in New York last weekend. And nobody that I went to elementary school with, Robert Pepe, showed up and he said, Elliot, I watched your videos in January. It's June now. And I started walking and I lost 38 pounds between then and now. I was so happy he was telling everybody. He was patting me on the back and saying, Elliot, it's the real deal. It's the real deal. He's got me walking. And I'm like, yes, because it's that simple to get the momentum going in your life in the direction that you know you're going. Start with low resistance. Well, let's talk about how crazy that is. I actually talk a lot about this on the show. It's, you know, I'm wearing my Fitbit right now. And it's one of my favorite tools that we have now and really for the awareness purpose of it. And that's why I don't get hung up on the percentages of, oh, is it how accurate is it to my metabolism? It's what it does is it reminds me how fucking lazy I was for the day. You know, that's what it tells me. So it's crazy that the average American is stepping less than 4,000 to 6,000 steps in a day. When you break that down mathematically, if all of us right now took off for a little stroll around your block for one hour, okay, one hour of walking, you would get over 6,000 steps. So the average American doesn't even move fucking for 60 minutes in the entire day of their busy life. So I think that's incredible advice. And as simple as it is, it's amazing how much we're going the other way. It's scary how little we move these days. I'm not scared. You get caught up in the contrast again. And I've always said this as a personal trainer. I'm interested in people who are getting better. I'm interested in people who are ready to get better. Let me put it that way, because I don't know who's getting better, but they're ready to get better. If you're not ready to move with the light, then you're just gonna dissolve with the darkness. In revelations, and I'm not a Bible thumper at all, I don't even consider myself a Christian, but it speaks of this particular day. And one of the things that's described in this day, which is the end times, we're living in transition, 2012, the Mayans had it there too, there will be a harvesting of souls. I see that as those who are evolving in consciousness, taking care of your body is evolving in consciousness. Your body is conscious, and those who are separating the wheat from the shaft, they'll cease to exist, one of my teachers said. Don't worry about them, they'll cease to exist. You worry about healing you and healing those who are ready to heal. Well, you can't help people, you can't help someone that doesn't wanna be helped anyway. And it's okay, which is fine. Yeah. Now do you, I have my own spiel, I'd love to hear yours if you have one, as far as when you first meet somebody who's considering hiring you or one of your trainers, do you kinda lay that out to them? Because let's be honest, in our industry, how often has someone tried to pay you and thinking that that's the real answer, it's just the paying your service. Oh, Ellie, it's a really smart guy, if I pay him all this money, I'm gonna get all this, but then truly they're not really ready to do the work, how do you separate that right from the beginning or do you, do you have something you say or how does somebody convey that message? Well, I can give you that answer for Elliot today or I could give you that answer for Elliot 10 years ago. Oh, I want both. I want the worst version and then I want the good version. Well, there's a time, there was a time when I needed the money. So I know you're not interested in doing much more than what we're doing here today, which if we're doing anything, it's great. I'm an ambitious guy, I got into this because I wanted to train football players, so it's like, I'm preparing you to smash heads, right? So if I've got an old client, I don't wanna put it into any category, but someone who's just not wanting to evolve beyond a particular point, as much as I resisted it, there were times where I was taking their money. I do remember cutting one client off that was the last straw, like I carried her for a long time and having the confidence to just say, I have to cut it off. And it was hard because I needed her money every month, but I was prompted. My soul told me that, okay, you gotta cut her loose now. That was a tough thing. I made a vow at that moment to put myself in a situation where I only work with clients that I wanna work with. I don't want your money. I'll take it, because there's an exchange for what we're doing here, but I don't need it. And so today, if I have a gym and my trainers do a wonderful job and we have a wonderful community at Strength Camp. Oh man, I mean, all of, I could go on for days about the amazing things that are happening at Strength Camp for the members, the people that are there. But if there's resistance, my trainers are dealing with them. Man, you got a job to do. It's part of it. This person, and that's why it's group training, too. It's not so draining, you know, if they show up every once in a while, it's fine. At least they're doing something. You don't have to be emotionally attached and you're getting paid anyway. So we still get to serve those people. You see what I'm saying? There are those that that's where they're at. If they show up, if they show interest, that means there's a spark there. So that they're on the healing path. Where are they in their ability to make a commitment long-term and truly evolve? That's not up to me to judge. It's up to me to create a space for and perhaps inspire them. But I can't be wrapped up in trying to get you to be what I think you should be at this moment. I just create this space. Do your trainers ever come to you out of frustration, though, with dealing with clients like that? Do you get some of these guys that work underneath you, or girls that work underneath you, and feel like, oh, Elliot, so-and-so, she never fucking shows up, and this and that, and do they express that frustration, and is this what you say? Yeah, so of course there are those people. There are those people that do show up, and everybody's where they're at. And I think what I might train myself and my trainers provide is compassion for that also. There was a time when I was a version of myself where I was quick to fire people. And it had a little bit to do with ego, too. But as I've grown in my compassion, I am more tolerant and I can accept people where they're at and know that when you're ready, you know that I've created this space for you that you can blossom into. So we have, like, so for example, we got this one guy, I'm not gonna say his name, but he came in really overweight, family friend even, too. I have a lot of family friends at my gym, came in really overweight, and someone like that, you know, as a trainer, you don't have to do much, they're gonna start losing weight. So he's not changing too much in his lifestyle. Every once in a while, he'll make a commitment to eating a little bit better, but, you know, he's living the way he wants. But he's exercising, he lost weight, but he got stuck, right? And so, because we're family friends, we bump into each other at an auction that we did for our children's school. Our kids are in the same school. And I'm sitting there and he comes over to me and, you know, we know each other from the gym also, and he's looking better than he did before, but I know he's stuck. I'm like, dude, it's been a year and you still lost the same weight. But I don't say anything. I'm not judging him at all. I know what's going on. He comes and he sits next to me with a cocktail in his hand, some fucking soda, sugary drink with alcohol. And he starts asking me, what do I need to do? You know, I'm doing everything. I'm trying everything. And I didn't say anything except, what are you got in that cup over there? And he looks at it and he goes, oh, well, yeah, I get it. Cool, you're just not ready, bro. I see you. You had, right? Right, we should get in that drink over there, buddy. Oh, no. Oh, you got me. I always find that the most comical, though. That's how people are. And I think you're gonna have a slice of pizza in my mouth. I don't understand why I'm not losing. You ever run into a client at the grocery store? Oh, that's the best. All the boxes and frozen shit. I've actually seen clients will see me and they're like, oh, you can see them like, oh shit. And they're like, terror. Yeah, like go around the corner like, don't look inside of my basket. Oh, you know what that reminds me of? How about this for you? Then you got to get this too. One of the things that we talk about drives me crazy. I like to get away from this talk all the time because this is what we all do for a living. We talk all day, we help people all day long. So like, you know, when we shut down the mics and we're just hanging out with friends or socializing, I feel like people always have to explain themselves on what they're consuming or what they're doing in front of me or how they're going to be doing all this and like, hey man, it's okay. Just relax. Do you, bro? I don't care. You know what I'm saying? Not being the actual trainer there allows me this space to be completely indifferent. You know what I'm saying? So it's like, and I don't know how it is in their mind but I know I'm a leader. I know I'm the strength camp and I'm there but I don't care. So you don't have to prove anything to me. Now if Shannon comes, my trainer, the gym, now you might have some explaining to do because he's been working with you for the past couple of months and you keep complaining to him and now he sees you eating that shit. Don't let Shannon catch you. I get to be the good guy. Yeah, yeah, right. But when you're ready, I have all the resources you need to take yourself to the next level. Right, right. That's so great. Well, very cool, man. Yeah, man. It's been a great time hanging out with you. I look forward to us doing some more stuff. I'd actually would love to get you out in the Bay Area, man. I think maybe doing a strength camp out there or maybe bringing something over to a mine pump headquarters. Hold it in the facility somehow. Yeah. See if I can work that out. Yeah, absolutely. Been a pleasure, my friend. Yeah, absolutely. It was a pleasure. Thank you. Listen here. If you go to Mind Pump TV on YouTube, you'll find that we post a new video every single day. 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