Unknown Speaker 0:02
Alright, what? What are we talking about here? We're gonna talk about managing schedules and balancing life.
Unknown Speaker 0:10
Work life balance, especially going into
Unknown Speaker 0:12
integration. Yes. All right.
Unknown Speaker 0:20
Especially going into the holidays. And getting back into exercise for both of
Unknown Speaker 0:28
us. Yeah, yeah, that's, it's pretty crazy how, how that's worked out. I think now, more so than ever, especially like, during this time of year, I see more people and the old cliche of like, stress around the holidays. Yeah. But like, there's more to it than that. It's
Unknown Speaker 0:51
before we get too much into it. We need to actually introduce ourselves.
Unknown Speaker 0:53
What's wrong? What's wrong? Continue your thought.
Unknown Speaker 1:03
Sure, introduce myself. Now. I am, my name is Erin. I am head coach and owner at C town fitness in Fairview Park. Let's see. I've been been doing this for a little over 10 years now. And I still feel like I have nothing figured out. But every day is a new day.
Unknown Speaker 1:30
What that means? Yeah, that's good thing, right? Yeah. The more the more you learn, the more you don't eat the more you know, you don't know anything. That's exactly. That's my theory. That's my thing. All right. So anyway, continue your thought. Let's get back on. Oh, so we're talking about holidays and fitness. And yeah,
Unknown Speaker 1:47
yeah, I see a lot of people drop off around this time of year, maybe because they say the schedule is crazy. Or oh, work is just busy. Or, Hey, I got family in town, I got to take some time off. Like, there's always something going on. I guess, where? Where do we fit ourselves into that equation? Like why are why is our own body, our own minds taking a backseat to a schedule, or to someone or something else. Like if we're not around, I'll insert the old oxygen mask thing from the airline's like, if we don't put our oxygen mask on first. And we don't take care of ourselves what happens when we're gone? Like we're, we're no use when we're in a box or you know, we're cremated or whatever. Not to be too morbid. But I guess it's like
Unknown Speaker 2:50
I don't know how to fall out. No, I I see it start in September or October and get, like really heavy with the stress is we get close to Christmas. And first of the year.
Unknown Speaker 3:11
I mean, we can eat neck we can even group that into our conversation this morning with everybody in terms of just the cancellations we've had everybody's lives getting nuts.
Unknown Speaker 3:22
Yeah, I mean, I think it's always a thing right? When when we first started like, Hey, we're gonna do a podcast and and I don't know who came up with it Aaron, or Cara but this idea of like work life balance, like it's always a thing. And then now we're adding adding time and holidays and all that kind of stuff on top of it. So I mean, I was like yeah, let's do it because I don't have it figured out I promise you that.
Unknown Speaker 3:47
Yeah. And I mean you're working you can even add another layer the fact that you know I I leave work at five six o'clock it's pitch dark out. Oh, God, I suppose to walk the dog now go for a run outside and and you know, it's cold, it's dark, and you're you want to just go to bed rather than go to the gym or do more work or whatever, whatever your your responsibilities supposed to do?
Unknown Speaker 4:10
Yeah, it's what's interesting is, like we're seeing a shift in, or at least I feel like we're seeing a shift in fitness, where it's not always about more intensity or doing more but like being smarter with your time. So when or where do we take the approach, like in the other areas of our life? And like, Why does fitness always become the first thing that people cut out? Or do their mental health
Unknown Speaker 4:44
before we, before we dive into it? Do you think it is fitness or do you think it's just like people just don't put themselves first whether you're talking, you know, taking care. I just saw it like a marketing post where somebody posted how much how much their vet bill was? It was like $4,000 or something like that, how many people would drop $4,000 on themselves to do a fitness thing or a health related thing? Yeah. So is it just the personality thing? Is it mainstream? I just don't think it's just fitness. I think it's self care,
Unknown Speaker 5:18
period. I think you're right. I see the I think medical professionals are starting to see it now to not to not to go into the whole like vaccine thing, you know, whether you're anti Vax and Vax, whatever. But I think medical professionals see where we're where people are. I don't want to say ignore, because I have hoped for this. But like, it's almost to the point where people are ignoring signs that their health is declining. Like whether they're, they're gaining weight, they're having heart issues. The doctor told her, Hey, your cholesterol is really high, like people, for some reason, always put anything related to their health on a back burner. And I, I know that's kind of a generalization, like people in general, not everybody's like that. But I see a large group of this society that's around us. At the point where, like, I need to work, I need to make money. I need to take care of my family. I'll get to my health later. Yeah, like your health never waits. Like your your health doesn't take a vacation and says, hey, I'll see you in like 10 years, it may be
Unknown Speaker 6:34
more of a very poor insight into the future preparing for the future, because I feel as those folks also have probably don't have a 401k setup or retirement plan set up or, you know, Nick, you might you could probably chime in on this, but college funds for their children set up and they just start very much living day to day.
Unknown Speaker 6:58
Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I can tell you that I personally feel like I'm guilty of it. You know, I kind of prioritize the business and we got married, and we bought a house and you had a kid, you know, like, you just kind of prioritize all these things. And all of a sudden, you're like, Man, I haven't done a really good workout in a while or I you know, I can tell I'm not eating well, or, I mean, heck, just, we just had a baby three weeks ago, I ate like, crap for three weeks, right? I mean, we bought Chipotle and random, you know, I mean, we were eating frozen foods out of the freezer, because we just weren't right. You're trying to like survive the moment.
Unknown Speaker 7:34
It just becomes a time thing.
Unknown Speaker 7:36
It's not I mean, it isn't it isn't. I think it's like, I was home. I had time, I was tired. But I had time. We still didn't want to cook, we still didn't want to. I wonder how much of it's a stress thing. And then the things you prioritize to reduce stress is I don't think I think we had time, I think, like, we weren't sleeping and that kind of stuff. But it wasn't like there weren't really one hours in the day.
Unknown Speaker 8:02
The the time thing is interesting, because, like, all of us feel like we're pressed for time. Like we we have the time if we make the time. Yeah. Right. But like, some of us feel powerless to, like make the time because we're we're imprisoned by our own box that we that we built like in our heads to actually live, right. So just from personal experience, like you guys know, like, I'm recovering from hernia surgery. And it's been ingrained, I think, by me, or at least, maybe parts of like, how I grew up, or like the people that I was around to, like go to work every day and just work, work, work, work, work, work. And, you know that that's great to have, like a work ethic like that. But like, it's some point, you have to take care of yourself. And if you're somebody like me where you you work, you know, 12 to, let's say 15 hours a day, five to six days a week, and you average four and a half hours of sleep for a couple years. Some things can go really, really bad. And I think in my case, I I probably got a hernia because I worked out really hard during those years. I work a lot of hours. I wasn't recovering. I wasn't sleeping enough. My stress level was super high at some point something gifts. It wasn't my heart. Thank God, but it was my my abdomen instead.
Unknown Speaker 9:44
Nick, you and I have talked about this in the past if people stress levels become so high so consistently that that just becomes their new normal. And they don't know how to deregulate that back down. They're just so used to constantly constantly
Unknown Speaker 10:01
Yeah, I think I think it was Caitlin Glenna, therapist, friend of mine, we're talking about buckets, right? Like, how much energy do you have in a day? And where are you going to put it? Because I, I think when you're especially if you're in that stress, kind of like you're in that stress mode, it's almost like you're trying to put out fires. And like, Hey, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here. And then to prioritize, exercise or fitness on top of that is like, like, I'm already stressed out, I don't need more stress, you know, kind of that that feel. And then I think there's, in my mind, there's two categories, there's people that are super stressed out, and then they go Hi, crazy high intensity fitness to get even more that kind of sympathetic drive and just kind of beat themselves into exhaustion type of thing, which is, I think, a burnout waiting to happen or an injury waiting to happen. And then there's people that just avoid it. They just like, No, I'm not gonna do it. So I don't know. I mean, I don't think that's a tough I mean, I think it's a tough conversation. If it was simple. Everybody knows they should be exercising. So if it was simple, we just see healthier people, right? There's there's a lot to this.
Unknown Speaker 11:11
Oh, here's a question that I've been asking, like myself the last few weeks, when it comes to like work life balance. I like to say work life integration, because I feel like your work should integrate with your life and vice versa. So it's not this constantly pushing bowl. But if you're if your working life integration is out of whack. Let's say you're too tired to work out, you're too stressed to work out. You have poor eating habits. You're tired, a good portion of the day, like, what's the first thing to start with? Like, people? I think I think people that asked me like, Hey, I just don't have the energy to workout. And I feel like I don't have the time. Where do I start? Do I just start lifting weights? Do I just start working out? Or is there something else that I have to start with? And and like, there was a time where I said, You know what, you should just start going to the gym and just start working out and I like now I almost feel like, we have to work things out, like up here. Like, people need to get okay with the fact that like, if they want to change their lifestyle, what it looks like, what it's going to feel like, like they have to walk them selves through that, instead of just shoot first ask questions later.
Unknown Speaker 12:35
I think I think that hits the nail on the head, if you can mentally wrap your head around that new lifestyle change, and you're going to get there. What do you do for people? And like, what or when somebody asked you that question, and I mean, what are you doing for a new member or somebody that's having an issue with that?
Unknown Speaker 12:52
You know, I think it depends on the case. Like I, I hate saying like, it depends, but I think we live in a world of individualization nowadays, like in in fitness and wellness. Like, there's no two cases that are exactly the same. I mean, sure, my gym does a lot of group oriented classes, but we kind of pride ourselves on individualizing the experience. So I mean, does the person work from home or their mom or their dad, like, I can speak for like a couple of cases. With that's, you know, I work with a couple of dads early in the morning. And they're two very good friends of mine. One is an attorney and one is a marketing and they have different stress levels. And they're two completely different individuals. They have different personalities but like the three of us together, we're are like the three musketeers, we just, like hit it off, we have good time in the morning. Like they're coming in not only to work on themselves, but to have like guide some people need just an hour away from their home environment, which could be like their work environment to like, ever since a pandemic. You know, work in home has become integrated. So where are people having that separation of like, work and home that can sometimes be, you know, beneficial for them, some people that they're not getting that. So the gym is like the release. So it depends on the person's goals. You know, if somebody's goal is to lose weight, like number one I, I want to understand like why they want to lose weight, like what's the emotional tied to them saying that they want to lose weight, or that they want to be in better shape. And that's where that's where you have to have a very personal conversation with the with the person and it becomes much more than hey, let's just start working out and I need you to start eating this way. We'll whereas the person travels a lot, like, and they, they can't control their food all the time. What does that look like? So if you, if you're starting to change someone's lifestyle, like, as a coach, you kind of need to meet them in the middle or leave them where they're at, instead of trying to get them to shift all the way over to where you want them to be at their endpoint. Like, we did start with step one. And step one is, hey, let's, let's start thinking about some of the things that you you know, you can control in your daily life. So like, you know, can you stand more at work? Because you you sit in an office chair a lot? Can you drink more water, like things that are at your fingertips that you can change? And then I think you, you know, you progress things from there, depending on the person. But that's, that's where I start.
Unknown Speaker 15:52
And another thing to consider those things are always a moving target. Even on myself, I feel every once a while, I have to do a self assessment of, you know, how many hours of sleep Am I sleeping? How much water I'm getting in? How many times we're eating out during the week, and just kind of put myself into check.
Unknown Speaker 16:12
Yeah, and I mean, personally, I've kind of almost gotten Okay, with, okay, there's this, okay, it's gonna be balanced. Sure, fine. But the reality is, like, there's things that are going to happen that are going to upset that balance. Can we find ways to not upset the big goal, though, like the big picture, right? Like, again, we just had a baby a few weeks ago, the reality is like, life is gonna look pretty different for a little bit, you know, and then so I wasn't getting as much work done. I wasn't getting, you know, maybe some of the fitness goals done. Alright, but what can we do to kind of make sure that at least we're not falling off a cliff, and were able to get back into it afterwards, too. Because that's, that's the other piece of it, like things are gonna happen. But how do we make sure it's not a six month tumble versus a six week tumble? Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 17:05
it goes back to the mental side, like, talent, or, you know, having a conversation with yourself or with someone that can help lead you through that with yourself of, like, here's how things are going to look for a little while, like, I think, you know, the day, there's so many people that are all or nothing, you know, they they get in this constant like, well, because I'm not perfect, you know, what that The hell with it, like, I'm going to eat that pizza, I'm going to eat the doughnuts, I'm not going to work out. I'm going to work long hours, whatever like their vice may be. But I think when when people can grasp and understand that this is a process and a journey. That's not perfect. And progress is not linear. We can start to finagle some things, you know, to move that person in the right direction. But if we're constantly trying to be perfect, we're almost doing ourselves a disservice. And setting ourselves up for a really hard day or a day where we just throw everything away, because, you know, hey, I was 100 calories off on my diet. Like, who the fuck cares about 100
Unknown Speaker 18:17
nutrition labels themselves without Yeah, they're right. Um, and on top of it, I really, I think a really big piece of it is really sitting down and having an honest conversation with yourself and what really what your priorities are, and how willing you are to change. I if I start to go off track, I know anybody that that I coach, we like to sit down and make, you know, two or three non negotiables with your day, like three very simple things that you can just check off to make a step in the right direction. So like, like I was saying earlier, like pert like personally I'm just getting back into working out myself. And but now that I hadn't been working out that time got filled with other things. So I mean, mine were all things I could do for from home and kind of refocus where I want to be in life. So it's no making sure I walk the dogs every single day getting an hour of some sort of reading in and and then the other one was was hydration base. And it was something to just at the end of the day, assess how I did and see if I need to make any adjustments going into my next day.
Unknown Speaker 19:39
What do you do if you miss it? Because that's, that's the it's easy to go okay, I'm gonna do XYZ and then you screw it up. And then what you know, so
Unknown Speaker 19:48
that's where you know one you cannot be hard on yourself because like you said, life happens, but trying to figure out how to fix that for the next day. So say you know, we did walk the dogs? Well, maybe that time slot didn't really work out, like maybe morning because like we were going at night now it's pitch black out, maybe be better if we go in the mornings before work and trying that route. But if you constantly, you know, you're constantly not doing the same thing over and over again, but you're not trying different, you know, ways to go about it, and you're setting yourself up for failure. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 20:25
I agree. And I think I think you got to take a look at the when you say, Okay, why didn't it happen? You got to look at yourself a little bit too, right? Like, again, I just use myself exhibits really say, Oh, we just had a baby. So I can't do this. Well, yeah. But you probably could have, you know, like, you're kind of putting those restraints on yourself. So I think some of it is that intrinsic extrinsic control to like, Oh, my job sucks. I got this long commute. I can't get this done. Okay, that is a hamper. It's a barrier. But how can we work around those things?
Unknown Speaker 20:55
Yeah. And I mean, just people, a lot of times people, you know, they, they say how busy they are. But they really sat down and looked, how many, how many hours a day they spent scrolling through social media spent watching Netflix, all the things that even sitting in line for Starbucks, as silly as that sounds, all the things that really add up that time could totally be used for, you know, to actually work towards your goals.
Unknown Speaker 21:21
But that comes back to what Aaron said, right? It's a that's a mental thing. If you're scrolling on social media, you're distracting yourself from something, right? You're, you're looking for that little dopamine hit, or you're stressed out, and you're trying to escape something or something's going on, right? If you feel like you got to be on social for nine hours, or you're watching 15 episodes on Netflix.
Unknown Speaker 21:40
Yeah. It all starts with the mind. At least it's like the more and more we, I think that you guys like work with people and I work with people. I think the more cases that I see, it's like this is this has become not so much like a fitness and health problem. But like, I know, mental health is becoming like really, really big, like in the marketplace. And I think there's a reason for that, I think more more people are waking up to the idea that like, maybe just some of why they're held back in, like approaching or starting, like their journey to like get to their, you know, their, their their goals, is due to the fact that like, maybe they haven't managed their time well, because like they're looking for something they haven't found yet. Like they're not, they're not getting happiness or fulfillment from their job. So it's, it's stressing them out using up a lot of their mental energy. And by the time they're done with the day, they don't feel like doing anything. Maybe it's a relationship that's, you know, that's exhausted for them. Maybe they're at a, you know, God forbid, a, you know, an abusive relationship that, you know, is causing them not to want to work on themselves. They don't. They just they feel like they're in a hole. And this is why, you know, there's so many individual cases out there. And who knows, like what's actually holding people back. And that's exactly why conversation needs to be had that no one could be roped into one category.
Unknown Speaker 23:21
For a lot of times, it's how people really identify themselves. If people don't see themselves as somebody who works out, they're not going to, you know, do actions that support that. Because now they're the person that who, you know, goes home and watches TV at
Unknown Speaker 23:40
night. Yeah. Right. So with, with, like health. So this is, this is something that's interesting to look at. You know, 10 years ago, fitness was totally different than it is now. In the sense that, like CrossFit was was becoming really big at the time, and we preached high intensity. And it was like CrossFit versus the world and the world versus CrossFit. And now it's almost like, nobody knows where fitness is gonna go right now. Like, everything's kind of up in the air. And maybe it's not that like, I think fitness is always going to be there. I don't think you can really reinvent the wheel. With fitness. There's always going to be different philosophies and different strategies around like how to get people stronger, faster, you know, in better shape. But if you're in the fitness industry right now, or you you have ties, I think if you're wanting to stick around in the future, you have to tie yourself to some sort of messaging with mental health. Like you Do you have to a part of your business or part of your philosophy needs to be tied into working with people on their, on their mental well being. Without that, I don't think I don't think people are gonna, you know, stick around long enough to, you know, to support your business or support your, you know, your your craft,
Unknown Speaker 25:23
I agree with you on a percent I think we're not. And when I look at fitness, I think you got the competitive side, and you're gonna have people that that want to compete in sport and the performance side to that, and bigger, faster, stronger, all that kind of stuff is going to be it's going to be prioritized. In the in the mental health on that side is different, right? It's it's sports psychology, and it's making sure we're able to perform. But then on the other side, there's this whole adult fitness world of what is the best exercise to improve mental health, right? Like, if you're feeling off and you go for a jog or you get on the bike, and you ride for a while you even just get outside and go for a hike, all of a sudden, you're like, Oh, my thoughts are a little more clear. Or, you know, you're a little more positive, a little more positive outlook. How do we maximize that? And also, I don't know if it's just not like sexy enough for what but it's not promoted in fitness. Like, there's a lot of research that even basic levels of exercise improve anxiety and depression. A lot. I mean, it's, there's a chunk of it. So why why is that not getting pushed? Is it a marketing thing is it's a state, we don't want to have that conversation, you know, to your point here, and like, how do we? How do we ingrain that in fitness in the future? For people?
Unknown Speaker 26:38
Yeah, my wife would be smiling right now is she she is in marketing, and she constantly tells me, we need to work on your message. Like we we need to work on, like, what you're educating the marketplace on? Or like, how people are going to perceive who you are and what you do. And I suck at marketing. I did you have a product placement? Right? I have no. I I do know. I love talking to people. And I love one on one conversation. But when it comes to marketing, I have no clue what I'm doing. So what's what's interesting is I'm now having conversations with my wife about how do we change our messaging, like what we do inside of the gym, we need to keep doing, but how do we change our, you know, our messaging online, or what we do through social media. And I feel like, we're already starting to do that I see other professionals doing the same. But I feel like industry wide as a whole needs to move in the same direction that like people that are talking about, like, how to integrate mental health and physical health. Until we do that. There, we're always going to be battling what it feels like each other on like, hey, how should we work with people like, should the mental health component like play apart or should not wait, like, I feel that it should. But until everybody gets on board with that, there's always going to be this, you know, this constant battle. And I want to say that hopefully, within the next few years, what you'll see is more gyms providing like a mental health service, and are providing like educational material on how to sustain a healthy diet for themselves, and not a fat diet. And you have people that know how to work with like high level injuries, such as yourself, so you guys
Unknown Speaker 29:10
you guys, he's not good at marketing.
Unknown Speaker 29:13
I love conversation. be so nice to us. It's so hard like going back to a conversation like you and I had a while ago, actually, when I first met you guys, it was know what you're like really good at and the things that like you're not so good at either delegate or get better. Like, I'm somebody that loves to work around people. So I'd rather delegate because I love so much what I'm good at. I want to do it all day long. But the things that I'm not so good at. I don't I don't want to take away from the things that I really enjoyed to do the things that I don't enjoy and I'm not good at just for the sake of like making more money. Like I don't I don't care about the money, I'd rather, I'd rather give the money to other people that they can do it way better than I can. So I think, you know, getting back to, like, what does this look like in the future? I think, I think as a whole is an industry, it's gonna require collaboration from like, all of these different areas. So like what we're doing, or like, we've teamed up together and we work together with, with clients that are in the gym or whatnot. Like, I also have a registered dietician. I also like, have a mental health specialist on staff. So when we see more facilities like that, I think we can start to make, like, some progress. Where it's what we see is more and more people not beating themselves in the dirt.
Unknown Speaker 30:57
Yeah, you're seeing that divide in CrossFit, right? I mean, you got Yeah, CrossFit, the competitive on ESPN nonsense. And then you got CrossFit health. Right. So it's like these, you're almost seeing that divide happening within the CrossFit community as well. It's Aaron, you're in it. way deeper than than we are? How is that? Like? What is your take on that? And how is that impacting your business and the community?
Unknown Speaker 31:24
Um, that's, that's really interesting, because there was, there was a time probably five years ago, I actually got to see town, one of my close friends brought me here. So to give you a backstory, I was going to open my own gym. And a week before I was going to cut a check for the equipment, and the space. This guy met her I met this dude who owned a gym and say, Have you ever thought about, you know, working in a place like this, like, I know, you were gonna open your own place. I'm like, Man, I put a lot of like, time and energy into like, opening my own place. I think my wife would kill me. If I if I said I was gonna work someplace else. She she'd be like, What the hell are you doing? Like you, you spent all this time on like your, you know, on your baby on your passion. And I came home one day, I'm like, Hey, I know this sounds crazy. But I really think I'm meant to work at Seton. And she's like, are you nuts? I'm like, I mean, yeah. But I like something about this place just feels like I should be there. And that's kind of how I got started at SeaTown. And then I eventually took ownership this past year, but what I've seen since the time that I that I got to see town, which was like my second stint with CrossFit. That was right about the time where like, at least my organization that I'm a part of decided, we were going to keep doing CrossFit like classes, and we were going to be an affiliate, we were going to have our own name. And we weren't going to be you know, SeaTown CrossFit, we're going to be SeaTown fitness. And we're going to start to reshape ourselves into what like we want it to be you know, a lot of people have different philosophies on that, whether that's right or wrong. But that's, that's what we felt like was best for us instead of someone else or another organization, dictating our messaging to the public. We were now going to take a little bit more control over, you know, how we were perceived. And initially, like, you know, the, the first person through the door gets bloody, like we, we took so much heat for it. There is so much talk like in the community, like, Hey, see town, like has lost their mind. Like they're, they're making all these changes, like they're crazy. And granted, we were crazy, and we made a lot of mistakes. But, you know, just like any other instance in life, like, you know, you're gonna make mistakes, there's gonna be shortcomings but as long as you learn from some of those mistakes, like you'll eventually end up in a place like, if you've, you've put in the time and the work to put yourself in a good position to take a step forward. That's what I feel like we did. During my time here before I was an owner, we were laying a lot of the groundwork for how I actually operate the gym now and when I took over, I just kind of pulled the trigger on some, you know on some things that I've been wanting to which is like bringing in a therapy group, bringing in a registered dietician bringing in a mental health specialist. So all those things were kind of being laid out the last like four or five years, but I, I have seen where like other gyms have decided to become, you know, more competitive, where like, it's not about holistic health, it's, it's more so about like, Hey, we're going to do local comps, we're gonna do you know things that gear themselves around the game and that's, that's totally cool like, if that's their demographic their target market, like who am I to say that like that's wrong, it's just identifying who you know who you want to work with who you have a passion with. And that's fine. It's just like, I have a passion for working with, you know, people that are athletes and former athletes but not necessarily to keep them in a competitive mindset. It's, it's more or less to get them in a point where they're really happy about where they're where they are,
Unknown Speaker 35:56
it kind of a funny thing, at the end of the day is, you know, when somebody is really happy at their gym, and they have, like, you know, they have all these resources available, they're kind of set up to be able to and do well at local comps, which is, but a lot of the, you know, local competitive gyms are setting them up for anyone. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 36:14
in a passive way. Like, it's not that, you know, I'm trying to, you know, make them, you know, worse it lifting heavy weights, or worse at doing gymnastics, like, we still work with people on a very high level on those things. But it instead of it becoming only about those things, those, you know, those categories have now just become a part of what they do. And, you know, community is super important, like in our gym, but the mental well being of each person is the most important. And that's where I spend the most time with people working with him. It's, it's conversations that we have before and after class, it's it's when we're hanging out outside of the gym, it's texts and phone calls to ask them, you know, how are the kids doing? So I think in a way, like, from where like we started, at least where I came in, and where we are now is totally different. The vibe is is different in the gym. But that ball was set in motion. You know, like I said, when I first got here, but previous ownership, it's just, you know, sometimes the people that lay the groundwork, aren't the people that, you know, carry the torch long term. And that's where I kind of feel like what happened, I was fortunate enough to be in a situation where a lot of things were set in motion, and I kind of just had to finish things off and continue. So yeah,
Unknown Speaker 37:50
it to kind of pull some things together in the beginning of this chat, when you're talking about how when you get stressed first thing that really falls off the deep end is exercise, go into the gym. So if somebody is becoming stressed or something, is it, disrupting their mental health, and they're not coming to classes, do you have some sort of protocol in place that alerts you after they miss so many days or so many
Unknown Speaker 38:16
classes? Yes, I do. People People know right away, they're like, how do you know, I hadn't been to class like, Well, I haven't set up to know, have you checked in or not. Um, so besides the fact that I'm in the gym for a really good portion of the day, and I see everybody that comes in through the doors. I also have a system set up that lets me know when someone hasn't been in class in 10 days. So like, we understand people go on vacation. And, you know, things pop up, like things happen. Like, you can miss a week of exercise, it's okay. Um, when we start getting past that 10 day mark, like, it's either Okay, they're out of town, they're out of the country, or like, they're like, in a rut, like with work or family. And it's, you know, I reach out to people not to get them into class, it's to understand what's happening. Because, holy shit, what if, you know, what if somebody's loved one passed away or whatever, like, and I'm barking at them about getting in the gym, like, I'm an asshole. So I want to, like the whole point of our conversations, at least with our coaches and our clients is to understand their situation, see if there's anything we can do to help and then start taking steps forward. So yeah, I do have a system in place and like I, I watch it like a hawk daily. So if I get a notification that somebody hasn't been in class, I reach out to that person right away. And that's just, I don't know, like, not everybody wants to do that. But Like I said, that's kind of how I roll.
Unknown Speaker 40:03
I mean, I think, in my mind, people, people do group fitness for one or two things. They want accountability. But there's a lot of ways to get that. And then I think the bigger ones community. And I think if you can lock both of those things down, people are going to be successful. And I think, just the way you explain that of, I just wanna check in and see how you're doing. Like, that resonates with people like they, they're gonna, they're obviously gonna feel that and that's, you know, it's gonna be a place where they want to go right when they're stressed. And that I think that's even, you know, when you talk about your, the way you structure your gym, and there's no right or wrong, there is a difference. Like, if you're competing every day, then you're competing every day. And there's people that want to compete, right, and there's nothing wrong with that, like, help them compete. But then there's people that just want like a lifestyle place, and they want to make sure they're healthy. And they're doing the mental health things and those kinds of things. And it's just, I think it looks different. I don't know how some CrossFit gyms blended, because there are some that did do a pretty good job of having like, a comp program, and then like, your, your regular lifestyle program, I think so hard.
Unknown Speaker 41:10
It's definitely difficult, it's a lot of energy, it's It's taxing, like it like you said, it definitely can be done, I think to do it very well. Not necessarily like to do it right. But to do it well, and, you know, to not burn your coaches out. They definitely need to be separate. And like the whole competition side, and the, you know, the regular class side needs to be separate. But I also think, like, in the end, they all still do need to be part of a community. I mean, at that point, you're talking about culture, like what kind of a culture do you want? Yeah, like are the are the competitors driving that culture, in some ways that can be really good, and other ways it can be toxic. And, you know, on the same token, like, you also don't want to create a culture of like, you know, taking it easy on people every day in and day out and creating a lacks, you know, culture where, like, you know, hard work is not present. Like that's not what I'm saying. Like you have to find a balance. And it's, that's hard. Like that takes months and months in some cases years to build in a gym. So it's not only having the coaches there that are the right fit, but also the right people that come to the gym. Like it is a it is crazy how like, sensitive those things are, like, how those pieces are intertwined.
Unknown Speaker 42:43
Mental Health Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 42:45
And like you said at all it's very much on like the your message not only on social media, but even how you're leaving in front of your classes. And you you see it where, you know, some gyms, you know, they try and cater maybe to non competitive CrossFitters. But then maybe in class are sitting there being like, Oh my God, look at this person who just deadlift at all, like so much. Oh, now Now you remember, you're confused. It's like, well, am I supposed to come in and kill every single workout like that and be a competitive person? Or do you want a more of a non competitive crowd? Yeah, I was just talking about you just need to be consistent.
Unknown Speaker 43:25
Yeah, I was just talking to Jason over at Qadri and the owner there and they took the words are X out of their programming. So they went two levels. So it's level one, level two, level three. But the word RX has gone beyond just that message of, well, this is what the prescription is, well, if I can't do that, now, I'm not as good right. So I, I love that. I was like, just look at you go, Hey, I'm gonna do whatever level I want to do based on my health and my fitness, my training history. But it's not an I'm not good enough. Right. Like, that's kind of the message. I love that. I like that a lot.
Unknown Speaker 44:01
And I mean, this I, my husband always disagrees with me on this because I think it's because of it's more of a own CrossFit mentality where he loved having, like, everybody, everybody scores on the whiteboard, wherever I've always hated it. And I much more prefer the gyms that have more just the art like Zen, like the the actual, like, modify. Oh, like the results are like online. Yeah, if you will. So if you are interested in blogging and posting your results, you can, but it's not a end of the class. everybody's yelling out their score. And you're sitting there like well, I've got like a piece of shit.
Unknown Speaker 44:39
Yeah. I mean, these are these are all things that like I saw through the last like 10 years like there are so many intricacies to what we do. Like it's not the average person's job who comes in the gym to really know what we do. It's they don't need to go into all this stuff. But I mean every Every single thing matters. Every single thing, how you greet the person when they walk in? You know, how are you communicating with the client through the class or you walk like as a coach? Are you walking around through class and building relationships as they're going through it? And while you're building relationships? Are you giving them valuable feedback? Like, are you making them feel like that is the best hour of their day? And if the answer is yes, then thumbs up. And if the answer is no, like you, you got to look at like, Okay, where did I go wrong in my process? Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 45:37
So many factors at play. And I mean, I think I think we covered a lot of cool stuff here. I know, Kara's got a run she's got. Speaking of work life balance, she's got an evaluation to do.
Unknown Speaker 45:49
Yeah, I literally looked at his 305 will be texted real quick.
Unknown Speaker 45:56
When this gets published, you can just be like, This is what I was doing. I don't think that works for appointments. No, no, I'm gonna make an entrance.
Unknown Speaker 46:08
Zoom is alerting me that I'm trying to raise my hand even though we're just kind of talking with our hands. Did you? Did you get notification? Yeah, I
Unknown Speaker 46:15
saw it. So it's probably gonna be on the recording too. We'll see. Alright, well, let's wrap this up. We'll we'll certainly circle back and talk about more I again I'm personally and with our clients I'm just so invested in this idea of what is the optimal fitness for for mental health for longevity aging. It's just I think it's a neglected area and fitness. I think the competitive stuff is you know, certainly everybody's getting better at training competitive athletes and I think there's still that's a whole market there of I mean, heck, look at the Browns are still getting injured. So I think there's there's a competitive side of we need to get better at competitive training too. But I think just probably where my life is taking me I'm super interested in the aging side of it and the health side. And then Kara's got all her weightlifters where she's doing the competitive side and it's it's just keeps it
Unknown Speaker 47:07
just so ironic because I've spent my what the beginning of my career in geriatrics. It's like that was all geared towards it. Right away, you're ready to do something. You're like, Oh, great. We want to compete.
Unknown Speaker 47:22
Yeah. Alright, guys, Aaron will tag in all this stuff. And we'll go from there. But let's get wrapped up sweet care can do your thing. Yep. I'll see you guys next time. Yep. Thanks.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
