The Fit to Grit Cast
Fit to Grit is an audio/video/newsletter hybrid featuring in-depth conversations with leadership within the athletic space. Guests range from top executives within the athletic space to professionals in adjacent industries with a proven track record of success working in the athletic industry.
We explore visionary ideas and practical strategies driving the industry forward, covering areas such as marketing, finance, branding, equipment, product development, biz dev, and more. Join us as we share actionable insights and real-world experiences while embodying the "fit to grit" spirit.
The Fit to Grit Cast
The New Era of Fitness and Wellness
What happens when weight loss drugs are prescribed without behavioral change support? Fitness and biotech consultant Nathan Hyland offers a compelling perspective on the rapidly converging worlds of wellness and biotechnology, with particular focus on GLP-1 receptor agonists that have revolutionized weight management.
The conversation challenges both fitness purists who reject pharmaceutical interventions entirely and those who embrace these medications without understanding their limitations. "The only realistic solution they have to keep that weight off is to stay on the drug. Well, what if that's a drug that you're not meant to stay on?" Hyland questions, highlighting the essential role fitness professionals must play in creating sustainable results beyond medication.
We explore how studio owners can position themselves strategically within this changing landscape—developing partnerships with healthcare providers, educating trainers about emerging treatments, and focusing on their unique advantage of building community in an increasingly isolated world. Hyland makes a passionate call for elevating professional standards: "We have completely devalued education in our industry... We need a renaissance in caring again."
The discussion goes beyond business strategy to examine deeper questions about authenticity, vulnerability, and the distractions of modern technology. Both hosts share personal experiences with finding balance between visionary leadership and day-to-day operations, while acknowledging the challenges of social media addiction and the importance of mental health support within fitness communities.
Whether you're a studio owner seeking competitive advantage, a trainer wanting to understand peptide treatments, or simply someone interested in sustainable approaches to health, this episode offers valuable insights on bridging two powerful industries that too often operate in separate silos. Connect with Nathan on LinkedIn to continue the conversation about the future of fitness and wellness.
Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://creatitive.com/fit-to-grit-cast/
The only realistic solution they have to keep that weight off is to stay on the drug. Well, what if that's a drug that you're not meant to stay on? You don't have diabetes. You're taking it for weight loss, hey everyone.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the Gym Break cast, where we sit down with visionaries in the field that may go out and get a lot of those visionary integrator type ideas through their normal daily gym break. Today I have a special guest. I'm actually kind of surprised we kind of chatted about this before that we actually have a lot in common and a lot of people in common, so I'm surprised we haven't met before. So this is going to be a fun conversation for everybody. Why don't you introduce yourself?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Zach, we must have walked past each other at least half a dozen times at these different industry events and just narrowly missed our introduction. But yeah, my name is Nathan Hyland. I am a fitness, wellness and biotech consultant. My firm is called the Pay Hyland Global Business Consultants and, yeah, most recently I kind of find myself in this niche, this kind of fixture of worlds of wellness and biotech, and that's where I've kind of tried to build my, my strategy and my uniqueness around.
Speaker 2:Can you explain to everyone a little bit about I mean cause? It's probably a pretty diverse and we can get into something else here in a minute, but it's probably a pretty unique niche. So explain to everyone a little bit on how that as a consultant, how it really works, yeah absolutely so.
Speaker 1:My first love, and where I have most of my experience, is in the fitness and wellness industry, like you, very passionate about making that my home and making it the best I can be through my small contributions. About three years back, when I left my old job at the National Academy of Sports Medicine NASM NASM as a lot of people know I started my consulting career and actually my first client was in biotechnology, which is, I would say, it's adjacent, you know, at best, to wellness right, and I really wanted to kind of learn a new craft, learn a new industry, still keeping fitness and wellness close by, but kind of seeing what that space was like. And in that I realized that there's a space between that. I'm like at some point these are going to merge, like they're siloed, they're running in different tracks, but I just saw at some point there's going to be a convergence. I didn't know what it was.
Speaker 1:It's not like I'm some soothsayer or you know I'm especially wise. I just had a feeling that we were going to see these two entities come together. And sure enough, with the progress of peptides, specifically GLP-1 receptor agonists, which we're seeing now, that were used as a diabetes drug, now being used for weight management, weight loss. Those worlds have come crashing together and so that's where I'm. I was kind of an early adopter in that space, not that I'm an expert in biotech, but because of the people I work with, because of the people that I've managed relationships with there, and because of my background in fitness and wellness, I'm able to be kind of I guess, a little bit of a liaison, kind of diplomat between those worlds, as they're kind of coming together.
Speaker 2:Okay, so do you work with studio owners in specific or do you work with the leadership roles? Can you explain a little bit on how you how you sink in the biotech side and you mentioned a lot about weight loss, so I'd love to hear a little bit about that. Not to get over the head of, you know, some of our viewers, but yeah my primary stay is in fitness education, you know so, the fitness professional.
Speaker 1:So these are people that are plugging into the clubs and studios. I'm not really working with the clubs and studios directly. My partners like so you as a consultant, the partners that I work with are usually one of two types of organizations. It's usually fitness education or fitness equipment. That's on the fitness and wellness side. And then you know apps and wearables and things like that, but it's more. You know, it's the thing that attaches to the coach, maybe attaches to the end user. Clubs and studios are usually customers of those partners of mine. I don't usually work with them directly, right, but I have relationships there, you know good relationships with the health clubs and studios.
Speaker 1:And then on the biotech side, I have one client is iMetabolic Biopharma, biopharma basically I'm taking strategic measures to bring that organization and Dr Urban Kiernan, who's the chief science officer, the CEO, the founder, into my world of wellness, which now he's been actually like a pretty renowned, key opinion leader within the health and wellness space now, because he was in the room where it happened, where these glp1 receptor agonists were created. You know, he's the one actually innovating all these different scary things that I think we as fitness professionals, I know at least for me when I was coming up in the industry big pharma is bad and you know, of course I still very much believe in, you know, doing things from a preventative nature first, right, but but I think people kind of lump biotechnology and big pharma together and they're two completely different animals. Right, biotech are the innovators. These are very often the good guys, the do-gooders that want to create new things to help save lives, to help counteract certain things, to put more time on the clock so that you can bring in a healthy lifestyle and not just add more years but lifespan.
Speaker 1:We're talking about quality of health. So that's where I'm kind of building my brand around is bringing these worlds together, having these conversations. Hey, these guys aren't as bad as you think. Come and talk to them, see the table and then ultimately making partnerships and strategic deals off of that. I know it's a very like 50,000 foot table and then ultimately making partnerships and strategic deals off of that. I know it's a very 50,000-foot view.
Speaker 2:Your vision, man. It's a good vision, Right? Right, it is one of those fields I mean, even me myself it can get scary because you hear so much and especially with everything that's happened in the last couple of years, you, multiple sides of you know, like you said, big pharma, and you know I look at weight loss stuff, for instance, and you know you think exactly what you said, Like, oh well, is it, is it going to be something? I think, as fitness enthusiasts, anyone that's either going to the gym, or even owners of studios that are looking to bring in products to their location, they have to think about the security risk, right? And I don't think. I think most of us, we try to live as a healthy lifestyle as possible. Yes, To a degree, of course. I still. I hate to say this, but I still love my occasional Diet Coke.
Speaker 1:Hey, we all have our thing, man, like there's no shaming, we all got our thing, but you have to explain to me a little bit about the advances, like how are things changing?
Speaker 2:Because I had a conversation with my wife the other night, you know, because I'm getting to the age right now, for instance, where, um, my stress is so high because of having the three children that I told you about, three recording that like I'm losing my hair like crazy and I've never been one um in my genes, in my family, to have hair loss, and so like I took it as a point of like okay, this has to be a health issue, not necessarily a stress issue, not necessarily a genetics issue. But then I looked at her and I said, dude, we're in 2024, man, why don't we have anything that like, actually like that I have tried, that actually does what it's supposed to do? Yeah, and I feel the same way about the weight loss stuff. Right, that's what you hear. The same way, about the weight loss stuff right, that's what you hear you say, hey, why would I buy something like that? That's just going to either one cut all my muscle and be very unnatural, or to put us in a situation where it just doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I absolutely understand what you're saying and I think so. Let's take a step back. We're talking about drug and, uh, you know different let's just call them innovations, right? There's there's like small molecule things that have been around for years, like NSAIDs and antibiotics that have decades and decades of research and they're very effective, very often um, very, very low cases of anybody dying from taking them, like it's a tainted batch or something like that, but very, very few and far between. That's the stuff that's been around for sometimes, you know, a hundred plus years, right? Then you have this new stuff, which is so that small molecule that's usually oral. You take it. You have these newer innovations, which are called large molecules. These are usually injectables. These are things that are like the newer innovations that maybe don't have those decades and decades of research, which I'm very much on the same camp as you, kind of that you alluded to. Hey, look, these are cool, let's develop them. But let's be realistic about this. Let's not just pump up all the great things that they could do. Let's look at the stuff that we're not sure what's going to happen yet.
Speaker 1:And I think in this society you know, a guy with a lab coat and some glasses, stands there on a video and tells you, hey, this is safe and effective and it can do all these great things. There's like this willingness to just trust that. And especially if you're someone that struggles with weight, you know, I mean, I totally get it If there's this miraculous thing out there that can make you drop loads of weight, which a lot of people have started taking these different biologics, you know these GLP-1 receptor agonists, and they're losing a bunch of weight. What we don't know yet is what happens when you stay on that long-term. We think that if you take it for a short term and use it as a way to curb your appetite, taking less calories, let and I'm not a scientist, you know like I have a degree in exercise science. You know my master's in exercise science. I don't subscribe to being a society, you know scientist, but having worked alongside these guys long enough in biotechnology, obviously I understand some of the mechanisms of how these work Right. Glp ones are, you know, naturally in our body. We take these GLP one receptor agonists. It does the job of curtailing these things and blah, blah, blah, you start to lose the weight. But what happens when you don't use it as a temporary crutch but you stay on it for a long term. There hasn't been a lot of people that have been on these long term to really know exactly what's going to happen. We're already starting to see some speculation and some studies of what could happen I always go back to.
Speaker 1:It's kind of like some weight loss surgeries that existed before. If you go in, you do these bariatric procedures and you intervene many times, sometimes they have to cut a little bit of weight, because sometimes people were too heavy to even have these surgeries performed so they had to manage their weight and lose it a little bit. But it was basically this milestone they had to hit in order to be eligible for the bariatric surgery. But they didn't learn any true skills right On behavior change, the right things to eat. Sometimes they're working with dieticians, maybe not. They could have just been starving themselves to get to that milestone weight which isn't a healthy protocol either.
Speaker 1:I think of these GLP-1 receptor agonists as the same thing. Many people are getting on these with absolutely no behavioral change. They're not working with a personal trainer. Lots of times they're not working with a nutritionist. They're not working with anyone. From a behavioral change standpoint, it's either a telehealth appointment, which many people are doing, or it's a doctor that just gives them the prescription. Right, they're taking this. They're losing weight. What's going to happen when you get off of that, if you haven't done any of the work to put in beforehand? Almost all the time they put all that weight back on. So what's? The only realistic solution? They have to keep that weight off is to stay on the drug. Well, what if that's a drug that you're not meant to stay on? You don't have diabetes. You're taking it for weight loss. Like I said, we don't know yet.
Speaker 1:So I'm not an advocate of these drugs.
Speaker 1:I'm not a naysayer of these drugs either, because I think some people can use them for life-changing and life-saving scenarios.
Speaker 1:They're so overweight, it's beyond being overweight. They have full metabolic syndrome, right, they have these four or five different indicators lipometabolism, cardiac risk where, if they don't get on this, they're on a path to an early grave. Those people should probably be more candidates of these things, but working with other professionals dieticians, personal trainers, people that can actually help with their behavioral change so they can get off it and now we save their life and they can maintain a healthy life that would be, I think, the utopian best case scenario. I haven't seen a lot of people advocating it that way or doing it that way. A lot of people are just getting on these things blindly and thinking that it's a miracle drug, and I hope that it is, but I don't think that it's going to be that way. There are going to be, unfortunately, I think, some very bad side effects to these things. Like I said, I hope I'm wrong, but we weren't meant to stay on these things forever from a weight loss solution.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I mean, some of them work very well, like you can cut like weight pretty fast. What was the one years ago I don't remember, it was like 15 years ago that was just like could cut your weight fast, but it was pretty bad, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I mean, anytime you're taking methamphetamines, that's going to make you race around. Those things were crazy, right, and just like anything, whether it's a small molecule drug, whether it's a large molecule drug, you're injecting it, you're taking it orally, whether you're getting a surgery like the bariatric surgery, anytime there's that intervention. Without the work up here, I think it's not going to be something that's sustainable. And I was talking to Neil Spruce, who you might know, such a wise man, been in the industry for a long time, done some big things, and he had some really interesting takes on this. I won't share everything because I probably won't get it right, I don't want to speak for him, but he said something really compelling. He said if weight loss and eating and behavior change and all these things were going to work, they would have worked already.
Speaker 1:Right, because we do have this obesity epidemic and I think we do have to be careful. There's a toting in this line of this body positivity movement, right, where, yes, of course, we don't want to shame you know, fat shame people or make them um, you know, make them feel like they're, like they're any less than you know someone. That's a healthy weight, but we can't glamorize it and I think we can't. I don't like the term healthy at any weight, because the truth is, when you do have BMI, it's not the be all end, all right. Body fat is you know, I hate it.
Speaker 2:I hate BMI Like yeah, me too, Me too.
Speaker 1:It's silly. So we all have to be a little bit more practical, like I wish everybody would read the book Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. We need this coming back of just critical thinking, right, what does the data suggest? What are some ways that I can lower my subjective thinking and think a little bit more objective, you know, objectively, talk to these people in different industries and bring them to the table. We're not doing a lot of that, right? It's like shouting, it's like angry, it's like making all these suppositions and I got off on a tangent there, oh yeah.
Speaker 1:So going back to what Neil said, which I think is brilliant, that's so smart, like it does work. We know behavior change, managing weight through exercise and diet that is the best thing for long-term getting all the endocrine system, all the neurotransmitters like you earned it. You feel good, you're just living your best life when you do it that way. If that was going to work and we, as coaches, were going to be able to coach people into that lifestyle, we wouldn't have an obesity epidemic in this country. The simple fact is we do so. Can we use these GLP-1 receptor agonists as a tool? I believe yes, but for whatever reason we as people's going to be. We have to work together. Biotechnology and wellness industry we got to stop being at each other's throats. We have to work together and that's where I'm doing my best to manage these conversations and bring the right people together, find solutions. That's what I'm trying to do as a consultant, beautiful.
Speaker 2:So one thing that really came up there for me, and what probably a lot of listeners will wonder, is like okay, well then, how does this help me as a, as a, as a studio owner, right, um, and you said something in there that was quite interesting to me as you were talking about, um, really, really, towards the positioning. Something that really hits me quite, quite heavily and with what I do is positioning of the studio. So what types of ways, if you're trying to get some of these better products, not just out there, but getting them to the studios in certain ways, yeah, would that studio need to be positioned and or how could they position themselves around this type of, these types of products?
Speaker 1:Yeah, look, I think it starts with knowledge. There's some really good education out there about this for fitness professionals. There's actually, I don't know if you know. Do you know Bob Thomas?
Speaker 2:Sounds familiar.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So he's been around the industry for years. He owns a company called NextGen360, and they've built an entire ecosystem around making this solution for gyms and health clubs and they do a good job Like they lay out the literature. You know, I think if you're going to take these things, which people are going to take them like we can't bite we are. We as fitness industry. We cannot be as naive to say that we're going to stop people and tell them not to take these. It's like I think you need to pass along the information. You need to be a conduit for this. Let them know the potential upside, the potential risks. That's when you're being objective in the middle. And of course, these guys NextGen360, they have basically a CRM and a telehealth plugin for these clubs where trainers can get their weight loss clients on these peptides and there's other peptides as well there's some really good peptides out there for muscle growth stimulation, things that might be good for neurodegenerative disease.
Speaker 1:We don't want to ignore these peptides. Glp-1s get the most press because they're up here, but there's a bunch. You know BPC-157, you know just a variety of different peptides that have some things we should really be looking at for as professionals, for our clients for longevity, for lean muscle, which helps you live a longer, better life. It's connected to things like people with more lean muscle are less likely to get Alzheimer's, less likely to get cancer. This is all clinically proven. So why would we ignore this stuff? Oh, just take a multivitamin, lift weights and drink protein. Okay, old man and I put my millennials into that bucket too, because I even hear people you know my age. It's like dude, like we can't be so close-minded, like let's just look at the best available information, the peer-reviewed information on where it is now, and just be able to be good communicators of our clients, of what literature is out there, what we know, what we don't know yet, and then let them make the decision, because they're going to ask us and we shouldn't shoot down things that could potentially really help them in life.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, as a club and studio owner, you're managing fitness professionals. I think it's important to remind them stay within your scope, right. We can't prescribe things. We can't tell people. We can't even tell them what to eat, what not to eat, like that's outside of our scope of practice. As exercise professionals, right, dietitian nutritionist, they need to be doing that.
Speaker 1:But we are the quarterback right. We're kind of player coaches. We're helping them in this overall scheme of wellness and life, and so I think solutions like you know, bob's and other ones out there, put it in the doctor's hands Like, hey, I can tell you this and this. I don't want to go too far outside of scope. Look into the upsides for you, but be aware that you know X, y, z. Like just give them little nuggets and then pass them on to the pros. You're the quarterback, you're handing off the ball, you're tossing the ball. You can't run every play.
Speaker 1:That's the advice that I would give the club operators is plug in with the professionals and start expanding your network, because you're not going to be able to stop these peptides. These peptides are everywhere. People are getting them illegally. They're buying them on the black market. Now, with the new administration coming in, they've already promised that things like stem cells and peptides are going to be more readily available through things like compounding pharmacies. So once again we're the wave is coming like this to think that you're going to stop it. You're not. The best thing you can do is educate your professionals and make sure they stay within scope of practice.
Speaker 2:Well, that that brings up two things for me.
Speaker 2:One, you know I always talk about unique ways that these studio owners can build strategies through unique vertical partnerships not partnerships and you brought up something really interesting there which was you know, if you're positioning yourself as a health and wellness type studio, then you know there's nothing wrong with trying to find a local doctor that's really passionate about this stuff, a nutritionist, and partnering with them to help with referrals and just help with the overall.
Speaker 2:If you have the very similar audience, it's going to go hand in hand within those relationships. But two, you and I you and I were talking beforehand how we, like we said we know we cross path. I mean, I think we were both at the beyond active event in uh new york a couple months ago and, uh, something that was set on stage, something that really hit me, was the talk about how we're trying to improve not just the physical health but the mental health, um, and utilizing uh locations to really focus on the mental health aspect of the growth Right. And you mentioned in there a little bit about, you know, some of these studios possibly, you know, having some sort of integration with, with telehealth. A lot of a lot of studios may not even know what telehealth is, that's fine.
Speaker 2:So how do you feel some directions that these studio owners can take to help solidify some of this? Because one thing, my wife, my wife's a therapist. My wife works in insurance. She works, so she's pretty common in this field and she I've always talked to her about no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look, I I totally agree with you. You know, as, as someone that I I've used therapy a lot in the past, I used to be like it was like stigma and like the nice thing is especially like you know this lately this newer generation, like these Gen Z kids, they are really open, they are super emotionally intelligent and I think we need more of that in our society. Like, why, why would you not advocate for someone that might be struggling in secret to go and get therapy, and especially as exercise professionals, right? So to your point. I would love to see you know whether it's like an in in office solution or some type of amalgamation of the mental and physical side. I, like you, I haven't seen that a lot, but I think at least opening up the network, like having someone that you can say, hey, even if it was better, helpcom, or one of these different tele options that are out there uh, I've used tele health therapy, I've done it in person. You're going to benefit from both. And who who hasn't struggled with mental health at times, even if you don't have mental illness, you know like we're all going to go through times of man.
Speaker 1:This is a little bit more than just having the blues. This is more than just a little bit of, you know, occasional anxiety. Like you might be getting anxiety attacks, you might be having depression. Of course you need someone to diagnose you with that. But if you feel a little bit off, go in when the check light engine comes on. Don't go in when the engine starts smoking.
Speaker 1:You see those early indications, especially like as personal trainers, we need to be more aware. Like you know, I said something nice about Gen Z. Now I'm going to rag on them a little bit. I see these young guys that are trainers and they're on their phones and they're talking to other trainers while they're training their client. Be present with your client, like you could pick up on little cues. Like maybe they're super happy-go-lucky and they're just looking at the floor. They feel a little bit more detached. That's a really good opportunity for you to come in and be like, hey, is everything okay? And if they share something with you? Obviously we can't give them therapy as fitness professionals, but we'd be like, hey, I really encourage you to talk to somebody.
Speaker 1:Go on these different links that are out there betterhelpcom. Hey, I have someone that was recommended to you bya client. Check them out, give them a call. We need to be aware and pick up on these cues and be able to shamelessly say that to our clients and and not just people that are clients like in our circle like we need to look out for each other more. Like somebody's struggling, they put like a cryptic message on social media. Like don't screenshot it, send to a friend and make fun of them Like they might be crying out for help. Like we're so willing to just, I think, like pile on and just be mean to somebody when in reality we don't know what their reaction is. That's going on Like they might be going through something really tough. Take that opportunity to lend a hand, you know.
Speaker 2:Send them a link to betterhelpcom you know, have a simple conversation with them. That isn't along the therapeutic route, that's just a listening ear. There was this huge fad where everyone was working from home. You know a lot of. There's a lot of you know.
Speaker 2:I mean, I've been, I've been working at an in-home office for, I'd say, almost 10 years now and it's not all, but it's cracked up to be, you know, and I all, but it's cracked up to be, you know, and I I think that uh studios in particular have uh an advantage right now that a lot of um other types of uh industries do not, and that is the experience in the community building um aspect. I think that we all want to find a place to have a community. We all want to find a place to have like-minded people that we can work with and feel that abundance when it comes to not just the teammates in the gym but the other members. And so back to that mental health situation. That's why it's in the positioning side. I think that's why it's so important for these studios to look at the bigger vision of what they're trying to accomplish, and I'm going to bring in a little bit of what I do here, just so you're aware. Yeah, you know, stop, you know, looking at lead generation and as, hey, let's just call a million people and just look at them as a number on the screen, like technology. Technology is great, it's going to, just like biotech, it's going to, you know, it's going to continue to evolve.
Speaker 2:But I mean, I'm old school, like I'd rather go and I'd rather have a conversation with someone on a phone, right, like in person, you know. And so try to do a hybrid of that. Like, how do you, how do you kind of build a hybrid? If you're talking to personal trainers, for instance, that are looking to grow an online business, you still have to think about that in-person type of feel where gyms are thinking about like, hey, this is our community, Like you said, with positioning, if you're really focused on mental health, have culture, stuff within the organization that allows people to get you know therapy, you know, for instance.
Speaker 2:Or the personal trainers, like you said, stay present. Nice, I'm sorry, no phones. A studio, any kind is when someone's sitting there in on their, on their chair, for, like you know, it's okay to check, like, your weight or, you know, put some, put some numbers in, but when you're sitting there for like 15 minutes on a bench and you're just like on your phone. I'm like dude, like we're here for a reason, man, yeah, you know. So bringing in those, those aspects, those values into the organization, I think is key.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. It's like you're, even if you're taking, you know, one to eight work to rest ratios. You know what is that? Average set is about 15 seconds, so it's two minutes max. You should be on the machine checking memes between between sets. I totally hear you, man. Yeah, look, I would love to see the fitness industry Like we're such a great industry, like I've worked in other industries. I got my degree in finance. I worked in finance for a little bit Went and worked for my dad's construction company. You know underground construction. I've worked in different industries. I don't want to be anywhere else.
Speaker 1:I love the fitness industry. I love that we're all walks of life and we're generally I like to think we're pretty open-minded. We're probably more open-minded than other groups, but we can still be really close-minded and really judgmental as an industry. And I would just I would advocate for us because I've been, like I'm 30 years old, I started when I was 17. So 21 years I've been doing it. I'm kind of an old guy in the fitness industry. Now we could do a better job at not being judgmental and being more open-minded. Okay, so that's a call out to younger generations, older generations. We need to do better. People are coming to us for answers. We can't just make something up. Know what you know, but don't be afraid to say guess what you got me? You got my whole network. I got a nutritionist for this. I got a mental health person for this. It's on you, it's your responsibility as a fitness professional, as a gym operator, as a studio operator. You have to have the network because these people are putting their lives in their hands.
Speaker 1:And here's something else while I'm on, I got to get on my soapbox real quick. We have completely devalued education in our industry. Yeah, I'll say that again we have completely devalued education in our industry. It's fine if you got a four-year degree in polyscience. You realize it's not for you and you want to come to fitness. But it's on you to make up the gaps of what you know about Senate House, committee hearings and all that stuff you learn in poli-sci to knowing about the basics of the human movement system, how to do assessments, holding a credential Dude. It's $600 a year to get a certification from. You know, I work with NCSF awesome certification for CPT, strength and conditioning. It's $600 a year and you're complaining about that. You just spent 80K You're not even using on a poli-sci degree. Get the education. Quit complaining about it. Recertify every two years. We have to own these things we have to take.
Speaker 1:We need a renaissance in caring again. Okay, like there's too many people in our industry that are gym bros, that are social media influencers yeah, okay, you look great with your shirt off. Give me a basic assessment that you would show a first day client. Show me how you would do you know questionnaire to find out where they are, where they want to be, find out their hopes and dreams. If you can't do one of those two things, you don't belong in our industry and our industry deserves better.
Speaker 1:It's on you to start caring about the education, being open-minded and stop being so judgmental. That's it. I won't rant anymore. I just deeply care about this industry. We have great people in the industry, but there's older people that have been doing it for a long time, that are a little bit closed-minded, and there's newer people coming in and think they have it all figured out. I like to think the really good people are somewhere in the middle that can have these conversations, that can call people to the carpet, that are emotionally intelligent and can reflect within and we need to. We can't be afraid to call people out Like everybody's so scared to like offend somebody, offend somebody. These lives are in our hands. We need to say things that are going to get people's attentions and, and you know, get them thinking critically in these situations. So sorry, zach, I, I, uh, I didn't mean no, I mean it's great.
Speaker 2:Well, that's, that's authenticity right there, because I think that you know, um, you know, one of the big things I do as a consultant is we really try to work on helping, um, these studio owners become more personal, brand minded, right, who you are, figure out your values. I mean even me. Like you know, you get to the point when you're online and you're speaking. All the stuff that takes off is all funny enough, all the stuff that I like to, I like to rain about that, like I feel like no one's gonna like. So you know, yeah, or judge you, and it's like, oh, oh, yeah. And so now I see those dislikes and I'm like, oh, I see you, I see you dislike in my comment, but uh, but it goes back to online, right, like I think that you know, especially with all of the ai stuff coming out right now, it's even worse because we're just getting regurgitated information. That's all stuff, stuff that's already out there and it's just people think, oh, I'm just going to, I'm just going to AI, it and chat, gpt, it or whatever you're using, which there's definitely things that AI is going to be suitable for, but I'll take LinkedIn, for instance, and this is a. This is a great example, me personally, like I want to be authentic. So why the heck am I going to go on LinkedIn and let them write an automated post for me? Exactly, you know, back to your stuff, like, be okay with talking about things that you've seen or things that you're doing to help improve people's lives. I think that one thing that I really preach, especially when it comes to these, these multi studio location locations, is like, hey, like, your trainers are your personal brands, and so they are. They are part of your brand, so leverage them to be able to talk about the things that they're good at or they want to know about.
Speaker 2:You know like, yes, different types of, different types of exercises, different types of of diets. You know I was on keto, for I was actually on keto for a whole year at one point the healthy version, not dairy keto. I was on the healthy version, so I still had a lot fiber, carbs and all that stuff, and it lost my weight. But it wasn't until I was getting close to the end of that that I realized that. You know, like, this is an extreme diet. Like I I'm not getting my magnesium, I'm not getting my potassium, because these foods don't allow me to get my micronutrients. And so why would I stay on? And that's funny enough, when my hair started, I started losing my hair too. And you know why would I stay on a diet if I know it's? It's going to not give me the nutrients I need, right, just to lose weight. And that goes back to your original cycle, back to the original point of this conversation.
Speaker 2:Why would you sell, uh, drugs, protein powder, whatever you're selling why would you sell something that you know? I mean, I have a friend, for instance. When he first started out working out this was years ago he was just buying protein powder from, you know, walmart. I think it like that, the $10 cheap ones. He went to the doctor like three weeks later like I had to stop taking protein powder. I'm like why? He's like? Because he said my, my, my cholesterol was so high from, like I eat at McDonald's every day. And I'm like, dude, I told you that that shitty protein powder has like really bad, like it really with your, with your cholesterol levels, like you just have to get healthier, healthier stuff. Spend a little extra dollar, couple dollars, to get something a little more healthy, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, it's, it's um I tell people this all the time the things that we're willing to spend a stupid amount of money on materialistic things that aren't actually going to add value to our lives or you know, we use this term lifespan or health span, not just longevity, living longer, but quality life. Why would you not curtail the spending on those materialistic things and reinvest? Dude, like my, most of my shirts are free jujitsu shirts or clothes I get for christmas, and my mom probably got this for christmas for me, like five years ago maybe my wife makes fun of me because I have this team.
Speaker 2:She's like why do you buy plain shirts all the time, um? And when you buy them, they're like keep them like. Well, one I'm a brander. Why would I go out and buy, spend money to brand somebody else's company? It doesn't take me but. Two it's like I've always been a simplistic guy when it comes to spending. I'm like I don't need things to make me happy, I need people.
Speaker 1:And experiences right, like he was something the human experience Like, when we think about how short life really is. You want to have quality life and you want to do cool things right. If you're buying materialistic things, it's eating up your resources to be able to do both of those. So people would say, oh, I need to spend less money shopping, I need to lose weight. They say I need to. I need to. When you actually make it actionable and you can visualize and this is why I love journaling, this is why I love vision boards really visualize what your future, what you want your future to look like. Like. Hey, like you know, I'm. I'm 38. I want to be able to do jujitsu well into my 70s and 80s. And this is realistic because people do it. And if you know, just like the um, you know the anthony hopkins line what's a movie called? Where they're hunting the bear and he goes. What one man can do another man.
Speaker 1:And if somebody else can do it, you can do it and visualize it. And when you have a reason, when you have a why, you will find yourself spending less money on materialistic things and reinvesting into your health, getting the better quality protein powder, giving yourself a trip that's not just for Instagram and feeding your once again your materialism, but for your soul. You know, being able to do something you've always wanted to do, being brave, being courageous. And if you're a coach and you're an operator and you're listening to this, that goes for you. If you're not doing this, you don't have the ability, you don't have the conviction to tell your trainers, then your trainers don't have the ability and the conviction to tell their clients right. This ultimately starts with us as leaders. We have to have those courageous moments we're willing to sacrifice here. Like drive a, like my car is from 2016. I don't care Like. I don't care Like if I pull up to an important business meeting, it's vacuumed, it's cleaned, I park, I do not need the nicest car out there. And I don't think like even if I became a multi-multi-millionaire, I don't know that I would spend money on materialistic things. Maybe Like. I can't say for sure, but it goes back to your point around the like low-quality protein. This is something. Buy the high-quality foods, the high-quality supplements when you're doing things like keto, if you need keto I used to do keto to cut weight for MMA fights you know like the week of going to ketosis.
Speaker 1:You know like you smell terrible. You know like your first two weeks man, that first two weeks, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, when you're, you know, get the keto flu. But guess what? Goes back to being somewhere in the middle. You can be fat efficient, lower carbs, managing your sugar, eating high quality foods, eating within you know, um you calories or a slight calorie deficit, just to maintain or slightly lose weight. And guess what? You can still have ketones, ketones present without being in full ketosis, and that's when your body's fat efficient. So it, um, it goes back to knowledge and the conviction to actually do something about how you want to achieve your dreams. And it starts with you as the operator, down to your coaches, down to your clients. We have to own that as leaders in this industry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the hard part is something that I've slowly learned over the years in working in this. And this goes back to what you said with like we need to change things in certain ways. Like we're we're we're very good at what we do, like the fitness industry it's, it's unique and people are adapt to change, but I feel like there's a lack of leadership and I think that there there comes a place where these operators, these marketing directors, these operation directors, um, they need to come in and start, you know, becoming the vision, helping become the visionaries of what they're doing. It's so easy and this is easy for me to say because I am I told you at the beginning here I am an integrator at heart, so, like it's, I have to try to separate out my, my integrator time, which is, you know, get the work done, do what I need to do to start adapting in the visionary time, like I need out. And so back to what you were saying like visionary time doesn't seem as impactful, and this is from a personal level, this is from a, this is from a work level, but it's actually going to make all the difference.
Speaker 2:Take yourself two to three hours a day going and working out by yourself, like if you're a trainer, still like, okay, have that time for yourself, still to keep yourself enjoying training. It's funny when I talk to a lot of studio owners, they're probably at about the spot of like 250 to 500K. They're still pretty small, pretty pretty small they're. They're talking about how they're burnt out because, yeah, place where they're like, oh, I went from training to operating. Um, everyone tells them oh well, you just need to delegate, you just need to delegate. And I'm like the exact opposite. I'm like no dude, I want you to take an hour and I want you to go enjoy your workouts again, like you used to go out to the. Go out to. You know, go for a run, take a walk with your family, like, do something that's going to help you personally to reset and allow yourself to evolve your thinking.
Speaker 1:I think that's a great point, man. And if you are an operator and you started off as a coach and you still love coaching, I mean look like, yeah, you're going to delegate a lot of stuff. You need to to grow and scale, but there's nothing wrong with keeping a couple of your favorite clients on the book a couple of times a week. Like, go back and do what you love coaching. You know you won't get rusty, you'll. You're feeding that joy. Maybe there's a new trainer coming on and he has a chance to shadow you and kind of learn from the best while you're doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, I'm a, I'm a big fan. Like, yeah, man, I'm a, I'm a big fan. Like, there's, I've gotten good at delegating the things that you know, uh, the quadrant, the things we're good at, the things we like to do, the things we're not good at and we don't like to do. That's the stuff that we want to delegate and get it on. Because I have I like I have a couple associates, I have an intern like that stuff brings them joy and they're good at it. I suck at it and I don't like to do it. Get that off your plate, right, but the stuff that brings you joy, that maybe isn't super high value. Indulge yourself right Like there's a.
Speaker 1:there's a justifiable reason for you to still do that on maybe not a day-to-day business, but a couple times a week we have business needs to thrive, but you need to thrive too, and you should always run a line through those points right, it's not a, it's the genius of the end. Just like Jim Collins said in good to great, sometimes you don't have to. It's not one or the other. Like good, innovative leaders, intellectual people like they. They problem solve, they figure out how they can do both.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I heard a good quote yesterday that um was actually hit me quite, quite strong on a podcast I was on yesterday. It was like too many, too many studio owners focus on who they want to be, not what they want to build, and I think that's an interesting quote that Raiden made me start to think because I'm I'm very similar to that. Like I had a point where um and I know you speak too, so you probably had to go through. You know you write your own. You probably still write your own speeches, right, you probably had to go through. You know you write your own. You probably still write your own speeches, right. You probably still write your own content because that kind of stuff brings you joy, but allow yourself on those things that I do not want to do.
Speaker 2:The funny thing I think that happens to most of us is we get so caught up in the things that need to get done, even though we don't want to do them, that we get stuck in this mode here and we forget that, like it actually holds us back from allowing ourselves to do them.
Speaker 2:That we get stuck in this, in this mode here, and we forget that, like it actually holds us back from allowing ourselves to do those things that we want to do. You know, and you know, start small. You know, like for me, for instance, I was I had an iWatch for years and just getting notifications on my watch every day was like, and watching emails was something that I'm like I need to cut this out. And so, like your ring, like you talked about, we talked about, you got your ring, I got the, I got the garment and I just turned everything off because I'm like I would rather have a watch that can track things that I can look at at my time than that's it, the system, you know we can't become slaves to our devices and I and I say that as someone that struggles with that Like I have to put limits on my phone, even though, like, social media is a great tool.
Speaker 1:you know, like at first it's like man, like, cause I love memes, dude. I like, if I put, like your Diet Coke is my memes, like that is my unhealthy indulgement, that I no-transcript out how to poison our minds with these apps. You have to remember that you are not a user of these things. They want you to be a slave Literally. This isn't conspiracy theory. They have people that come up with ways to make these algorithms addictive.
Speaker 1:And if you don't think that you're an addict, you know how that goes right. Usually, if you're denying being an addict, you are one. We're all addicted to our phone. So you have to actively. I have a stoic coin. I don't know if you've seen the stoic. Know, like the Stoic virtues wisdom, temperance. You know temperance is like you don't have to abstain from things, you just have to willingly understand that this isn't great for me in large quantities and I'm picking small quantities of it. So I have that coin. It's like because I I want to live a temperate life and I and I have to treat myself like an addict. You know, in a lot of things and maybe not everybody struggles with it from like an addiction standpoint. But you do have to realize that these things can become latched onto our souls and that extra weight of being the people, being the person you want to be, that addiction or that thing can cling to that what you would otherwise become and hold it down.
Speaker 2:You have to be willing to acknowledge that I myself like I don't even look at, try to look at my phone throughout the day because I'm on my computer most of the time. Right, I do try to. I'll take like a during lunch. I'll be like I need a 15 minute reset because I have it in my schedule. My ideal future schedule is like okay, I'll do some integrator time for three hours in the morning and then I'll I'll do my visionary time in the afternoon, and so I need to have a reset in the day. But back to your point with Instagram. I'm the same way man. Like I don't usually watch it, but then like it's very easy to get on and be like I'm just gonna look at a couple at like nine at night when I'm in bed, getting ready for bed, and then I'll be swiping through and next thing I know it's 30 minutes an hour later and my wife's inbox of like 50 reels and and but my mind, but, but like my mind is like I can feel it being like tired and mushy. You know, from that situation. Um, and that goes back to paid ads too.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, I think a lot of businesses right now, um, especially in the gym space, they assume that social media ads are the end all be all. And back to what you were saying with positioning and doing what's right, like you have to give if your audience, if you're trying to help them, why are you and this goes back to my value, for instance like we don't do social media ads, like we don't do cold outreach, like for me and my values. I'm like dude. I don't like it when random people write me. I'm a connector, like. I like to connect with people, right, like, so our marketing solutions derive around that, right so I think it goes very similar to people and gym owners too. It's okay to be like no, sorry man, like I'm going this route. Go, go back to the community man, go back to like going to events and like have a show and all that stuff. But I'm ranting now.
Speaker 1:Well, this is, yeah, this is good stuff. Man, can we say this, I think, as men you know we're two guys talking vulnerability, you know we hear about sensitivity and emotional intelligence. Vulnerability is a big piece of it. Like if you can just understand who you are as a person, understand that you're not perfect, that you don't have to have to have the answers for everything, it's hard. It's so hard Like even in you know, like you know, we talked about therapy. Like once you start doing therapy long enough, like I recommend, like start doing coaching. Like when you have the time and you feel like, okay, my mental health is good. It's like, okay, you got really good cleaning at the dentist, you still want to do really good at home care and get it like filling that time you were doing with therapy, with coaching, with whether it's business coaching, life coaching.
Speaker 1:That stuff's so important, man, because we have these things, we have these blind spots, especially men, like I've only ever experienced my life as a man, so I can only speak from that perspective, not to say that females don't struggle with this too, but I see it all the time in conversations that I have with young guys, older guys.
Speaker 1:It's just like why is it so hard for us to be vulnerable, sometimes, to admit that we're wrong, to understand that, hey look, I want to be here in life and if I don't remove these obstacles, I'm not going to get there?
Speaker 1:It's kind of like the same thing you're saying with your brand, like you have to have the vulnerability, you have to have the realization that you're not invincible, you can't do it all and that you don't have to follow the beaten path. You can clear your own path. And if you don't want to do certain social media ads, if you want to zig instead of zag, guess what? Yeah, people might try to ridicule you and talk crap or whatever, but guess what, at the end of the day, if you're not hurting anybody, you're helping your vision for success becoming what you want to become. You just keep forging in that direction, yeah, and so I'd really admonish guys to be vulnerable, have those conversations with yourself, sit in silence. I'm a big fan of journaling Like, take it out of here and put it on those pages. That's so important for understanding who you are and what you want to become.
Speaker 2:I actually did about a 15 meditation right before this Cause because, uh, I've started to. Funny enough, I got my garment watch just for my birthday, which I just turned 39. So we were the same age for a little bit, oh.
Speaker 2:I wrote the same thing and uh, and I got my garment watch just for my birthday and you know I don't like things, yeah, and I've been able to start tracking my sleep a little bit more and I'm seeing, with the three kids I don't have, I don't get REM sleep, you know because I wake up. I wake up at three, four in the morning because my kid, my, my, my youngest is about seven months now, and so I've been the last two days I've been tired, just tired.
Speaker 1:And so I've been the last two days. I've been tired, just tired, and so I'm like you know. So why don't we do this? I want people to be able to contact you and figure out how you can help them. So why don't you tell anyone who's watching this, like the start of my funnel, and puts a face to the name? I get to connect with you, we get to share some information, so LinkedIn is a great way to contact me. It's Nathan and then Hyland's my last name, h-y, as in Yankee, l-a-n-d. Yeah, I would love to hear from you if there's anything you feel like I can help you with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would love to hear from you if there's anything you feel like I can help you with. Yeah, and I'll definitely put those in the show notes down below on the YouTube video as well as the podcast, the audio version as well. But, nathan, it was really a pleasure having you on today and I look forward to possibly having you on again in the future. See where everything's going with the updates. I'll want an update a year from now, so maybe we'll have you on again in six months to a year from now.
Speaker 1:That would be cool. I really appreciate you having me on. Glad we finally get to connect man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely. Well, again, thank you for being on, and this is another episode of the Gym Break cast and I hope everyone has a good one.
