All Around Joe - Joe Bauer

Majority of the people that I run into on a daily basis don't love what they do, then I have to ask, you know, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Because I don't care about your apartment or your car or whatnot. Like if you walk in and you like are glowing because you're so happy and excited with what you're doing, that's what really matters.

Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness Podcast and Interview Series. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and this is episode number 76. So I get to talk to Joe Bauer. So he you can find him at allaroundjoe.com. He is a podcaster, blogger, uh fitness uh enthusiast, and he's also a digital nomad, which is one of my favorite topics. So at the point of this recording, he is driving around um in his converted four-wheel drive sprinter van, uh, which is his living station, working station, and also his workout station. He talks about how uh he's got, you know, probably close to a thousand pounds, if not more, of equipment that he lugs around with him uh in the sprinter van so he can get his workouts so he doesn't go crazy. Uh a large part of this, large part of this interview is about um being a digital nomad, um running a podcast and monetizing a podcast. Uh it's it's uh it's a great opportunity, even though podcasting is nothing new. I think the future of podcasting is extremely bright and any kind of voice-oriented um content uh is gonna be really important because people love to do two things at once, right? They like to listen while they work out, while they drive, while they cook dinner. Um, so uh podcasting is a great way and he's monetized it successfully um and he's living the dream. So um without further ado, let's get into it. I really, really enjoyed this uh this podcast. And before I do, um we do have another sister podcast called the Fitness Blitz. So if you are a fitness professional and you want to get uh highlighted on a podcast, um we have a great show. It's called the Fitness Blitz Radio, it's 10 to 15 minutes. Um I would gladly um talk to you about being a guest. Um, we're pretty loose on the guidelines. The whole goal is just to build a network and highlight people who don't normally get highlighted, even those who do. Um, so we have huge names on that show as well, um, as well as people who are just getting found. So if you want to find out more, uh just hit me up at Eric Malzone at fitnessprofessionalonline.com. Without further ado, this is episode number 76 with Joe Bauer. Mr. Joe Bauer, welcome to the show, man. Thank you so much, Eric. How are you doing, man? I'm doing great. I'm doing awesome. I um, you know, obviously we'll talk about you a little bit in the intro and and all that, but uh, you know, I love talking to people who have similar life interests, you know, like yourself. And uh so I'm not gonna spoil it. Why don't you just get into it? Tell people what like what your life looks like right now, and then we'll get into the backstory of it next.

Well, at this exact moment right now, I'm actually in a house, but normally where I am is uh living in my van. So my girlfriend and I bought a 2017 four-wheel drive sprinter van. We cut the top open, we put a pop top in it. We threw 300 pounds of bumper weights in the box in the back with a couple of barbells and a rogue rack that's even tall enough for my six foot-one frame to hold on to. Um, and we're driving around all the national parks, man.

It's awesome. That is cool. So you committed to like a full year, right? Where you're just gonna check out all the parks, is that right?

You know, we're telling people a full year, but to be honest with you, it's kind of like how long, however long it takes, you know. Um people like, at least the people that we talk to, our family and friends, like to know that, oh yeah, they're gone for about a year. But if I'm being completely honest with you, um, the conversation between my girlfriend and I is well, we've got a goal to get to all the national parks and see some really cool stuff. Yeah. Um, and that might take a year, it might take longer, you know? Yeah.

Yeah, it's interesting because we know when my wife and I picked up um and left Santa Barbara, which was our community for um, you know, a decade, and you know, so many friends and everybody was like, Well, you're coming back, right? And it was just easier to say, like, yeah, we're just gonna go on this, we're gonna get this whole mountain thing out of our systems, and we'll yeah, we'll we'll probably be back. And but I don't know if we're gonna go back. You know, I think we've gone through um, you know, because I've we've been through, we lived in six different places in 12 months, and we're leaving next week to go to another place. And um anyway, so it's it's cool, man. So we're we're gonna dive deep into that lifestyle on here in a little bit. Let's let's give the listeners a little backstory, Joe. Cool. How you got there? You know, how did you get how did fitness get become such a big part of your life, and how have you gotten to this this point? Yeah, how far back do you want to go? Uh, let's start at the very beginning, the birth of Joe.

All right, so yeah. Um, born in uh Kirkland, Washington, and I actually had an interesting upbringing where my mother decided that she didn't like the public school system. So she had a teaching background and she decided that she would homeschool myself, um, my younger brother, and my younger sister. And it was interesting in that she actually gave us the option. She said, Hey, you can go to school whenever you want to. Um, and I'm gonna teach you and get you tutors for anything that we need to learn. And if we're gonna go on field trips or do history lessons, we're gonna drive there and you know, we're gonna see the ice caves, or we're gonna go to this national monument or whatever, and then we're gonna do some sort of report on it. So I looking back now, I think that really ruined me for like having a regular job. Yeah. Um and thank you, mom. Thank you, mom. Uh so then that led into basically playing sports a lot because we had a lot of time. We'd get our schoolwork done and then we'd play sports a lot. And that led into a college baseball career in junior college at least. And I picked up on the weightlifting in college baseball and just absolutely loved it. Could not get enough of weightlifting. I was doing an extra session during the day, even though it wasn't, you know, we didn't have to for the baseball team. Um, and I I learned as much as I could. So at the time it was like, yeah, you're reading bodybuilding magazines. That was pretty much about all they had. And I would just dig into that and read as much about it as I could. And after the baseball career, I didn't really know what I wanted to do, but I loved working out. So I transferred to San Diego State University and they had a great kinesiology program there, which was perfect, right? I, you know, didn't know what I wanted to do. I love working out, and they have kinesiology. Even though I didn't know what kinesiology meant at the time, I was like, all right, cool. They teach you how to get better at working out. So I went through that program, and it turned out there were some fantastic professors there, and that led me into personal training. Um, and I started off with personal training at 24-hour fitness, which is an interesting experience. We teaches you how to sell, essentially, um, which is a skill that I'm really happy about having now, and getting out of your comfort zone in selling. So I did that for a little while before going out on my own and having my own personal training business in San Diego. Then that led me to eventually moving back to Seattle because I have all of my family network, and that's really important to me uh in Seattle. So I moved back to Seattle, did some more personal training there, and then uh lo and behold, followed a girl out to New York City where I continued to personal train for uh a few years and actually got really involved in the corporate personal training, like go to people's homes or offices or gyms wherever they are in New York City. So I was that guy that you pay a lot of money to. I'd come to you and I'd you know motivate you to work out essentially, which was cool, except I always felt like I had a larger calling to reach more people, you know, because uh have you ever been a personal trainer, Eric?

Yeah, yeah, I've done all types of training from you know, personal training, online training, small group, big group. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. So you can imagine in this situation, I was like, I couldn't book one hour after another because I was going maybe from downtown or midtown to uptown to whatever town. And uh it would just it would grind on you, and I and I would be having you know 15 clients or something like that, because that's all I could have, making great money. But like I said, I had this calling to reach out to more people. So I started blogging at that point, didn't know what the hell I was doing. Um, but I started the blog uh all around Joe, which is actually fitting that it's still the same blog that I'm I'm pounding on the keys for now.

But what year was that, Joe? When did you start your blog roughly?

Oh my gosh, that must have been it must have been around 2008. Okay. Great time to start that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, cool. Yep, it was cool, and I I remember it it it picked up traction at times, you know. Like I didn't even know why. I'd like I'd write a post on something and Google would pick it up, and I'm like, wow, I got a whole bunch of traffic. I don't know what to do with it, but I got a whole bunch of traffic.

Yeah.

Um so that was cool, that was fun, and but it took a few years still of like pounding on the blog, trying to figure out how business worked, because I was not a business person, I was a kinesiology major, didn't understand business at all. Um and that eventually I got really burned out by New York City, although I learned a lot of lessons. Um, anybody who's lived in that area can probably attest to like either you you learn lessons and you keep up with what other people are doing. Basically, you survive or you get chewed up and spit out. And I was able to figure out how to take my naturally introverted self into this you know extroverted world, survive for a little while, and add that to my tool belt. Then when I moved back to Seattle after getting tired of the city, um, I had this kind of like extra superpower in my pocket where I could basically turn it on or blitz or whatever we want to call it for the period of time that I need to. I could jump up on stage and you know do a presentation, um, whereas that was something that would have just terrified me beforehand. And that led into online coaching. I did online coaching for people all over the world for a while, got into affiliate marketing, um, basically promoting other people's products and did pretty well with that. So that's kind of like without getting into you know, going through the the fitness part of it of bodybuilding to ultra running to Iron Man to competitive CrossFit, um that's the the story in a nutshell.

Oh, it's awesome, man. And just, you know, I I I know Joe, um, just through I've been on your podcast. Um, you know, we we've had opportunities to talk along along the road, but now knowing the backstory on you, it's really it all starts to kind of make sense. You know, like the homeschooling thing is really interesting to me. You know, I've always felt, and maybe I'm sure you probably have an opinion on this, but school systems kind of set us up to be a cog, right? And just enter right into the system and then work your 40 years, get your pensions, which don't really exist anymore, and retire. Right. Um, but I can see yeah, why you would naturally be resistant to that and just not fall into that space. I mean, I did, but you know, I went to, you know, 18 years of Catholic school, which is even man, yeah. I call a hard time, right? And uh but you know, afterwards it took me, you know, 10 years to kind of realize, like, you know what, this mold doesn't really fit me that well. Um yeah, I'm curious on your insights. Like, how how do you what what was it like being homeschooled versus like I'm presuming you had a lot of friends who were not homeschooled, you know, how how are those interactions? Do they look at you funny? Did they were they jealous? You know, what what was kind of how'd that go?

Yeah, it's a good, it's a good question because I feel like there's this thought that people have of homeschoolers, and there's the the stereotypical homeschoolers, which are kind of like the the kids that love reading, and you know, nothing wrong with that. I I I think it's great. Looking back now, I was like, I wish I was that type of homeschooler that like burned through business books when I was 10 years old. Um But uh yeah, basically my parents put us into sports a lot so that we had some sort of um social interaction with other kids. Yeah, and I do feel like there is that stereotypical homeschooler though that we hung out with a lot because we'd still get together with other kids, and my mom would teach classes in our basement, or if we had tutors at um other schools, like private schools and things like that, um, which it was cool, but there, yeah, there's this, there's a sense of like you're you're an outsider for sure, um, with the exception of the sports. Um, unfortunately, I I happened to excel at sports, so I think that that helped me. Um, but although I was still very introverted, and I was the kid that, you know, growing up, if we were eating out at a restaurant uh and the waiter came over, I was like hiding under the table because I didn't want to talk to the waiter. So if that gives you any insights, I how I came up, the upbringing of Joe. Um, but then at the same time, you know, I was able to flip it on and be a successful pitcher in baseball, which is like, you know, all the spotlight is on you. And I think that that kind of led into what I've become now. And I don't know how how it would have gone otherwise, you know, like if I didn't have those sporting roles, I think I probably would have been a completely different person. So for people that are thinking of going down that route, if your child is not an extrovert or you know, isn't a heavy introvert, it would be interesting to see, or I feel like you putting them into sports and things like that is super important.

Yeah, yeah, interesting. Yeah, I mean, you and I have talked to him, we both um have talked to to Die Manuel, who um, you know, he's he's also living his life on the road like you and I do. And um, you know, he's got I think I believe a 12 and a 15-year-old daughter. And uh, you know, he pulled them out of school and and now they're they're in volley somewhere. So, you know, I think um it's interesting, it's great to hear because I think a lot of people, you know, refrain from maybe doing something different with their life, whether it be, you know, going to a little a different country. Um, you know, I hear all the time for us because we don't have kids, I hear this all the time. Like people, oh well, do what you can do now before you guys have kids, right? I'm like, well, I don't know. Like what if what if we have kids? Like, how does that change? Because homeschool them or we can figure out a way to, you know, just because that's the way you did it, doesn't mean that everyone else has to do it that way. And we're just this stuff's so deeply ingrained, right? Yeah in our system. So yeah.

Yeah, and I don't know how many people I'll piss off with this, but if if I have the ability, I will absolutely homeschool my children. I I think the school system, at least where I'm from, is fucked. Yeah, you know, um, having known what I know and gone through what I've gone through, um, and you know, maybe that will end up backfiring on me, and I'm fine with making mistakes that way. But um I I would love to homeschool the kids when we have them and you know, take them down the path of teaching them how to be entrepreneurs if they want to be, teaching them, you know, how to go learn things that are outside of what the teachers are supposed to teach people. You know, it's like, man, I I'm sitting here thinking, like, how important is it for me to know how to eat correctly these days and you know not be obese and feel good, but I was taught, you know, US history that was probably not real. You know?

Yeah, no, I'm just like that's so fucking true and honest. And uh I just never yeah, I've just never put it in that perspective, but you're 100% right. You know, my sister homeschooled um a few of her kids and like a couple other kids she has in the normal school system. But here's the thing like, okay, is how outdated is school systems now? And this isn't where I want to go with the the whole topic of the podcast, but like how outdated is it really? I mean, we we have as much information as we want at the tip of our fingers. Do we need to learn history? Which you're right, is probably taught to us, and it's not true. Whoever we know, whoever writes history is the one who won. So um, is it really what happened anyway? Sure. Um, you know, language, like even like we had to take handwriting. Like, is handwriting necessary anymore? It's it's cool to do, but is it necessary? No, it's not. Um what people need to be learning nowadays and kids need to be learning, and not to mention the bloated, you know, uh university system, how much that costs with student debt and all that to figure setting kids up to get fucked. And then yeah, like critical thinking, right? Okay, here's a problem, go solve it. Come back to me at the end of the day, right?

Right. That's teaching, that's learning. And then and then use as many friends as you can, you know, like leverage the other people in the room. It's like, how are we taught to take tests by ourselves? It's like, man, if I have a big problem, I'm like, man, I wonder if Eric knows the answer to this. I'm gonna give you a call and be like, hey, dude, have you run into this problem before? You know, I'm never gonna be like, how can I solve that myself?

Yeah. How to seek mentorship too, right? Yeah. That's yeah, like how do you seek a mentor? I mean, if I if I could, I I um, you know, I got some support through school, through athletics, but my dad paid most of the way, you know, through college. Now, in hindsight, knowing what I know now, I would have probably either gone to city, right? Um, or maybe skipped it altogether and then taken that money, um, lived off it for a short while and worked for free for an amazing mentor. Like, hey, I'll work for you for free for two years, just teach me everything, right? Like, well, how cool would that have been. So cool. Right. So anyway, wow. So, you know, I I look for um in this podcast, Joe, I always look for actionable, actionable items that that our listeners, fitness professionals can use. And I think um one thing you have utilized extremely well um to afford you the life that you have now is affiliate marketing. And I think that's a confusing thing. I think it's even some people when they hear it, they think dirty word, right? Yeah um, you know, like MLM or anything like that. So talk about us, like if you can just explain the story of how you developed, obviously, through your blog and you have a podcast, you develop these audiences, and then how are you leveraging affiliate marketing? Like, what is affiliate marketing and how is it bringing you money?

Yeah, sure. Um, and I was fortunate way back when I got started, that I had a mentor that told me about affiliate marketing. It was like, when you first get started, you don't know what to do. You can post these links on your site, and if somebody clicks through them, then you can get paid. So that's essentially one form of affiliate marketing is that I will post a link on my website on my blog, and somebody, if they decide to click on that link and then actually make a purchase of that product, then I will get paid for it. And that's that's one of the ways. Um, another way that I really like to use is coming up with a coupon code for the product that we're talking about. So let's say that the company gives me a 10% off coupon code to share with my readers or audience, and then I will get 10% of that purchase price as well. So it's kind of like a 50-50 split. And like I said, I got into it just because I didn't know any other way to monetize my network at the time. And it was one of those things where I don't know why, but when I first saw an affiliate marketing check into my PayPal account, it was like the best feeling I've ever had. And still, even to this day, if I get, you know, uh even $100 or something small of affiliate marketing, I don't know why, but it's just like, wow, that money like came from something that I did. And you can sometimes track it back, but a lot of times you don't know exactly where it came from. Like, was it from a podcast I did two years ago? Sometimes it is. Right. And to me, I think of it like um uh mini rental houses. So a lot of people understand how rental houses work. You get a you buy a piece of property, you put a renter in it, and you collect mailbox money if you're doing it correctly. You collect mailbox money uh every month, the the net from whatever those people are paying you after you pay for the mortgage and the taxes, insurance, all that fun stuff. Yeah. So for me, I'm like, wow, if I post a blog post up that's a review of some product that I love, because my my idea of affiliate marketing or how I do things is I only post products that I love. I don't want to bash anybody. So if there's some product that I get and I start reviewing and I don't like it, I just will not post about it. Um but I could do that right now, and then two years from now, it could still be paying me money, yeah, which is super cool to me. And I'm not sure. Did I answer all the questions that you had?

Yeah, no, it's excellent. That's an excellent overview. And um, you know, we in the mastermind groups that that we have, we we're calling affiliate markets always coming up, you know, because it's all online fitness professionals. So we're all putting out content, everyone's trying to figure out ways to monetize. And you know, I think the traditional thing is everyone thinks, okay, I'll have a podcast, all these people will listen, and then I'll get a sponsor. Right. Right. Well, there's so many ways to monetize this stuff. You know, I I've never had a sponsor, nor have I actually. Sold anything on affiliate marketing. Um I tried my first 10 or 20, I didn't sell anything. So really anyway. Yeah, it wasn't. I don't know. I don't think it was that I didn't do it well. Um, but uh you know, we've had indirectly tens of thousands of dollars of revenue come from from our podcast because you know people hear it, you start conversations, you learn, um, and all that. So there's a lot of different ways, but I think this is something that would really motivate people. And uh are you doing it mostly through blogs? Are you doing it through your podcast, or where do you think most of it comes from? And I don't know specifically.

Yeah, I mean, a lot of it is through the podcast. And what I'll do is I'll find a product that I really, really like, and then I've had a created a great relationship with the company, meaning that, like I said, the 50-50 split is something that I think works the best. And it depends on how much margin the company has in order to give up. But it could be that I give 25% of a discount to somebody and I get 25% in my pocket. Um, that's obviously awesome. You know, if I can make $100 per sale on some product or something like that, which is not uncommon, um, it's super cool because then you can see that add up really quickly. Um I utilize the podcast mostly, and it will be a something along the lines of this product podcast is brought to you by one of my partners because I'm partnering with that. It's not that they're necessarily sponsoring the podcast, but it's one of my partners, and the partners have allowed me to give you guys a discount code for X product, and then I'll tell a story about how the product has changed my life. And I try as best as I can to copy the things that like guys like Tim Ferris do, you know, and how do they tell stories about the affiliate products that they're promoting or the sponsorships that they're promoting? And the truth is that, you know, like you mentioned, you could have sponsors on your podcast, and I've maybe I haven't been ex looked extensively into that, but it seems like the rates that I would get for sponsorship are far lower than the amount that I make from selling these affiliate products. So if somebody comes to me and says, Hey, I want to sponsor your podcast for you know $500 an episode or something like that, I'm not gonna turn those guys down. But it's I it's not unheard of that I could get five affiliate sales from an episode, which could be $100 each. So you gotta, you know, weigh that out. And you know, one thing to keep in mind though, if you guys are thinking about going down the affiliate marketing route, is that you always have to be careful about um keeping your eye um on the market and finding new products to promote or try out that you love so that you can promote them honestly, because you're at the you're getting controlled by that company. So I've had several times where I'm making a couple thousand dollars a month on one product and then they'll decide to change or get rid of their affiliate program. And that's never fun.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Interesting. So, you know, I I know I have two podcasts, right? And everyone, I've every once in a while I'll ask someone if they want to be on my show, and I'll get the question, how many downloads do you have? And I think, you know, I look at downloads as um, you know, because you you're a CrossFit guy, um, vanity metrics, right? They're important. Just like back in the day in CrossFit in the first, you know, 2007 and 2012, all people want to know was um, how many members do you have? How big is your gym?

Yep.

That's it. That's all anyone cared about. And whether those numbers meant anything, it didn't matter because you could say, Oh, I got 250 members, I have a 5,000 square foot gym, so what you got, right? Right. And uh I know because I did it. That was me. I was such a jerk. And um, you know, so when you when you are if you're giving advice to podcasters, you know, is there is there like a certain how much emphasis do you put on on numbers and downloads, and how much emphasis do you put on, you know, hitting the target audience? And and how do you know? Like, how do you get that feedback? How do you get, I guess I get in in a layman's or a non-layman's term is KPIs, right? Like, how are the key performance indicators done for your podcast? Um, how do you how do you how do you measure it?

Yeah, and that's a a great question because I actually have uh another podcast that I was doing as well. That's a completely I do have a couple different podcasts like you, and I got the the privilege of talking to this guy whose uh name is Mike McAllowitz. And those those of you that haven't read the book Profit First, if you own a small business, I would recommend it like drop everything and read it right now because it changed my business, it changed me being you know stressed about taxes and all that stuff. It like sets it up for you. So anyway, um he he just has this really interesting perspective and he does really, really great at sharing, sharing his content and and whatnot. But the the KPIs, what really matters and what he talks about is the profit. Um, so what I'm looking at at the end of the day is like how many checks are in my mailbox and how what does that number look like?

Yeah, I love it.

You know, I don't care, like I do look every single time I open up my blog, it pops up the number of downloads that I have, and I do have goals like all right, I'm looking for a steady growth on that, and and I've had this growth or this goal for a while to have 10,000 podcast downloads per month, and I'm on my way to getting there. Yeah. Um, but at the end of the day, if I get a $2,000 check from an affiliate, that's the measurement that I'm caring about. You know, if my lifestyle is to make um, you know, or if my goal is to make $5,000 a month through my podcast and one affiliate's paying $2,000 and I fill in the extra $3,000 with a you know a bunch of other affiliates or product sales or whatever it may be, that's all I care about, man. I as far as the KPI, that is all I care about. For somebody that is um starting a podcast, I always give the advice of like, man, your first 20, 30, 40, 50 podcasts are actually gonna be for you, not for the audience, because you're gonna think unless you have some broadcasting background or something like that, which hope, you know, cool if you do. Oh man, you're gonna be so bad. You don't know what you're doing necessarily, you don't know if your audience is gonna resonate with one thing over another thing. Um, you know, and it I'll go, I don't even like listening to my first 50. I'm like, oh, don't. It like it will pop up in my iTunes sometimes, like it will just play if I have it on random. I'm like, ah, don't do it. Um, so that's kind of the advice I give, you know, is like get in the be ready to grind for you know 20, 30, 50 episodes and and then ask people what they think and and see if you can find your really your real voice and have fun, you know.

Yeah, man, it's so it's so true. I um I interviewed uh a few episodes ago, um, which will be aired by the time this one is. It's Mike Bledsoe, um from Barbell Shrugged, and we talked about, you know, and I asked him because he's you know, he got in early on the podcast scene, right? He got in early. Um, you know, like he's like the Joe Rogan of of fitness podcasting. He just got in sort of his audience, right? Um and he's unstoppable now because it's it's just big. You know, I asked him, like, so you know, if you're you know, starting where I'm at now, which was you know only less than a year ago, and he's like, dude, just bury your head and do 100 episodes and just make sure you're having fun. And that was it. He's like, just make sure you're having fun because um and I took that to heart, you know. Now you know, if people are listening, I'm actually have a consultation with a young man to get him started on his podcast now. You know, take what you've learned. I listen, I dude, I listened to my first 20 out of 30, maybe even 40. And I'm like, ugh, like my first couple, I just had my iPhones, earplugs in, I had no microphone, I was just using, you know, Zoom and uh just get started. I think if that's that's the biggest thing. So um yeah, man, great insights. So let's let's move on a little bit. Let's talk about um your life on the road, right? You set yourself up. Now, actually, I'm gonna kind of rephrase this a couple questions because it's not easy, right? You know, everything you've done, um, you know, building your blog, building your online businesses. I know you're also dabble in, I think it's real estate, right? Um it's not easy, right? People look at it, and people like to paint this nice picture, especially when you're on a podcast or you know, any type of content that, hey, everything's great, you know, took me 90 days to build my million dollar business, right? Um, what's what's the road been like from from the sake of like the ups and downs or or the circles, not even, you know? People like, oh, it's up and down. No, it's actually more of like a circle parabola. Like, you know, it's just everything's kind of there. Yeah. So what what's the journey been like you for you to get to the point where now you can you have enough freedom of lifestyle that you can live in a van? And then we'll talk about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, you're right. Is it it's been a uh head down grind, um, but a a really exciting, fun one, assuming that my head is in the right place, you know. And as you know, it's there's ups and downs, and you're excited, and then things seem like they're going your way, and sometimes it feels like the world's coming crashing down on you. Um, and my journey was as I was saying that I lived in New York City, and at that point I really realized that I was unemployable to the point where I was just not happy if I was working anything that resembled something that took my time away from me in a way that I didn't control. So I wanted to be able to get up and make my own schedule and be like, all right, you know, I want to record a podcast and be creative today, and I want to work out for damn, three hours today, four hours maybe. I don't know, you know. Um, I want to have the ability to drive, you know, across the country or do whatever and share as much of my message as I possibly can. So when I moved back to Seattle, I didn't have a job. I didn't know what I was gonna do. I didn't want to be a personal trainer. I knew that my blog was doing some things, I didn't know why or how. But um fortunately, you know, I've already mentioned my parents are awesome, and I made a deal with them. I was like, hey, I'm gonna, I can't work the nine to five. It's just it's not in me. Um, but I'm going to put even more effort into trying to make this online fitness business work. And they got behind me and they had a spare room, and I slept on that spare room, you know, terrible bed for probably, gosh, I think it was like three years, something like that, um, where I was just grinding as much as I could. And it wasn't that um at maybe after a year or so that I needed to, but it's like you're at a point where I have a great relationship with my parents and it was fun to actually live with them. It's weird to think, you know, I'm 33 years old and I'm living with my parents, and a lot of people probably look at that and like, oh man, why would you want to do that? I I highly recommend it. If you know, I'd much rather go down that road and be building an online business. And at the time I was training for Ironmans as well, so it was like I've decreased the amount of income that I need as much as possible. I am spending as much time as I possibly can writing at that point, because I at that point I didn't really understand the podcasting. I might have had a couple of episodes, but it was not sophisticated. It was kind of like, oh, maybe I'll use my call recorder, like you said, with my iPhone, headphones in, record something. Maybe even I'm out running as I'm recording, I don't even know. Um and so I was writing a whole bunch because that's where I'd seen my traction with Google was SEO writing and then training. Like I was doing two a days, you know, get up and do some sort of Iron Man training and do full four at least four days a week of CrossFit. So I was I was pounding at home, and like I said, it took about three years of real grinding before and deciding that I wanted to, you know, move away from that particular lifestyle. Because like I said, it it's not necessarily a bad thing. I think that we have this perception that like, yeah, you go and move in with your parents and it's a bad thing. Not necessarily. I mean, look at other countries, they their kids live with their parents to like 40 years old or or longer.

Longer.

Yeah, and and it's not it totally helps out if you know if I have a situation right now when we move back out of the van at some point, if somebody, you know, that I know well says, Hey, I want to get a business off the ground, need a place to sleep, I'm gonna be like, hell yeah, come sleep in my spare bedroom. And if you need any advice, let me know. Um, because I can I get it, you know, if you're trying to change the world and do something that's going to fit how you feel like you should be living, then yeah, let me give you that helping hand.

Ah man, it's so good, and it's so true. You know, um, like in my personal experience, you know, I sold my gym last June, um, you know, sold it successfully, put some money away, but we don't touch it. You know, it's like it's just nice to know that it's there. But we we live off one income. We live off my wife's income. I have a meager paycheck that I take every month. It's kind of like the base level that my business partner, I decide we need to take. Uh everything gets reinvested. Um but we've moved one of the reasons we decided to hit the road is like, I can't do this in California. You know, we can't, I can't do it. I can't do it in Santa Barbara, California. But if now if we go to Montana, you know, which happened to be a win-win anyway, because it was amazing, you know, um, you know, we can cut our our living cost by a third. And, you know, I can do we can rent 900 square foot homes, you know, for twelve hundred dollars and versus the four grand we were spending in Santa Barbara. And it's that ego thing, you know. I I have no problem doing that, you know, I have no problem downsizing. Um, I'm gonna live with my parents August, September, you know, this month because we're like, okay, let's save a little money because I want to buy my van. And yeah, you know, so it's like I'm 41, I don't give a shit what people think about that because I know in five years, 10 years, 20 years, I can look back and be like, that was the best move I've I've made because at least A, number one, I tried, right? Yeah, I tried. And most most likely I'll succeed because I won't stop, right? Right. Um, which I know is a big thing for you is perseverance, right? Just keep going. Um, so yeah, I think if people are listening to this are like, well, geez, you know, I'm kind of stuck in this, and you're not, you're not stuck. It's just choices, right? We've talked about this. You and I personally have talked about this. It's just choices. You just got to make that first step.

Yep. Yeah, and I think that people and they tend to bury themselves, like you were saying, with the choices that they make, and they feel like they want to keep up with all those people that are around them. And that, you know, might mean paying $2,000 a month for rent and driving a super nice car and you know, eating out at restaurants and whatnot. And it's like you made those choices, and because of that, you have to give up eight, nine, ten hours a day to this particular thing that hopefully you love. And if you do, then more power to you. But if you don't, which is seems like majority of the people that I run into on a daily basis don't love what they do, then I have to ask, you know, what the fuck are you doing with your life? Because I don't care about your apartment or your car or whatnot. Like if you walk in and you like are glowing because you're so happy and excited with what you're doing, that's what really matters.

Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough pill to swallow for some people. In some ways, I have admiration, you know, people maybe who have, you know, haven't don't see the things the way they have three, four kids, right? And they can take it and they just eat it. They just eat it every day. They show up to their nine to five, they grind it out, but they're doing it for their family. I have a ton of respect for that. You know, I really do. Um, so I'm not saying like, you know, I I know you're not either. It's not like, hey, you can change anything. Some people really, it's like, fuck, well, I need I need $150,000 a year all the time, otherwise my family starves. So I get that. Um but there's still, if you really look hard, there's still hard choices that you can make. You know, maybe you work on the weekends while you build your business. You know, there's there's always ways out, but you if you really want it bad enough, you get creative with it, you can you can really do it. Um, yeah, man. I mean, you're living you're a living testament to it. So let's let's talk about the new life, right? Let's talk about van life. Give us the good, the bad, and the ugly, man. What what is what is it like? You know, people are wondering what it's like to live out of a van. Well, how's it how's it go?

Yeah, so the the van that we have is a 19-foot sprinter van that has a pop top on it. So what that if you envision being inside of the van, what that looks like is six foot one me is not able to stand up all the way when the pop top is down. When the pop top is up, though, it's like having you know four extra feet of headroom and windows all around you that are up above, shining light in, it's a glorious thing. Um, and then we have you know an indoor bathroom, an outdoor bathroom. We have, you know, a second bed actually, because the pop top has a bed that drops down, and in the back there's another bed that the bench seat that folds out. So, you know, refrigerator, probably about a quarter of or a third of the size of an average refrigerator, and then uh sink with running water, hot, cold, all that fun stuff, and a stovetop. So being in the van, I was trying to think about what it makes me feel like. And I think it was like when you're a kid and you first get your you first realize that your bedroom is your room, and you can like close a door and you can like play inside of there. And you know, I used to remember I had a tent on my bed when I was growing up, and I thought that was like the coolest thing because I could like zip up this this bed tent thing, and it was like my space.

Yeah.

And um that's kind of what it feels like, and it it is actually more space than what I had imagined it would feel like, so that's that's great. I don't feel like uh it I feel clean. I know a lot of people think, oh, you're gonna go live in a van, it's gonna be dirty all the time. And I know that having done a lot of backpacking and camping, I you I tend to feel dirty when I'm doing that stuff. Yeah, but it hasn't felt like that at all. You know, we keep it clean and we have the showers and things like that. So showering every day and and all that keeps it keeps everything feeling clean. And then um we work regular, well, fairly regular hours. My girlfriend has the the nine to five that she can do from the computer, um, and we just we plan our trip based off of where there's internet connection, which sometimes is accurate and sometimes it's not. Yeah, yeah. Um, but we we do that and we get the the work done and um we play. So it's been really fun to travel around and see things and live minimal. Um, I've that has been the best part about it. It's like everything that we have goes with us everywhere. So it's like, you know, where's my toothbrush or where's my computer or where's my shirt? Um, if you're parked at the grocery store, it's it's in the back, you know, it's right there. All of that stuff is, you know, where's my protein supplement? Whatever, it's all right there. So I found that when I like in the last weekend when we're at home uh hanging out with the family here, uh, it's been weird because I don't have everything. I'll be like out doing something. I'm like, oh shoot, I don't have that thing with me. You know, it's not right in the back of the car. Um, so that's been fantastic. I I love it. I'm so excited for more seeing more and more and spending more time in areas. Um, the hardest part, so we're talking about the ugly, has been finding a routine or a schedule. Um I'm a very routine person. Like if you look at my calendar, it's like, all right, I'm gonna get up and I'm going to, you know, drink water and meditate and write for a little while, and then I've got a podcast, I'm gonna write, and then I'm gonna record the podcast, and I've got another podcast interview I'm gonna do, and then I'm gonna work out for a couple of hours, and then I'm gonna go have dinner. It's like might be a little bit crazy, but it's you know, that's how I like to live. I like to make sure that I get things done. And if you have to drive, you know, a couple hours, that kind of throws it off. And I found that I need to get my workout in in the early in the day just to make sure that I get it done because I'm the type of person that has more energy than the average person, I think. And if I don't burn that energy off, I tend to be somebody that maybe other people don't want to be around as much. Um I just, you know, maybe that's why I can go out and run 50 mile ultra marathons and do Ironmans. It's just I got this extra energy I need to burn off. So I have to get that down done in the morning so that I don't, you know, drive through the day, work, and then find that it's 9 p.m. and I don't want to work out at 9 p.m. Um and then also the work schedule too. So like that is that can be challenging in that like my girlfriend, she needs to work, you know, eight to four, nine to five. I don't necessarily need to work that that schedule. You know, it's more flexible for me. If I have a podcast interview like with you, then I'll know that I have to find a spot. And I think the the last time we talked, I was sitting outside of a Starbucks and I don't even remember where it was, like by Pinnacles National Park or something like that. Right.

Yeah, of course.

Yeah. So you just find, you know, Starbucks and and someplace it's gonna have connection and you're good to go. And we hit the road again after that. And then I would log back on at night again and get the rest of the work that I needed to get done. So that's been the hardest part of it. Um and I'm planning on squashing that hard part by spending at least a week in each destination that we're going to from here. And I'm sure that you know we'll screw that up and it won't necessarily work the way that I'm planning to have it. But my my vision is that we find a piece, a place to go park and stay there for at least three days or four days or a week, and then get into the rhythm of, you know, all right, I'm gonna get up and get some work done, then you know, do a little workout in the afternoon and then do some more work out work done, do another workout later or whatever, go for a trail run. Um just to have some sort of structure in an unstructured life, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does make sense. And uh, you know, I all the time people will say, you know, oh, you work from home or you work from the road. And they're like, Well, yeah, I would just, I could never do that. I would just watch TV all day. Like, well, that's why you don't. And you know, because I look like I need that structure. And like most of the times it's funny when you start working on your own. I think if if you're a disciplined person, um, you actually book yourself up so much more than you would if you worked in a traditional setting, you know, um, because you know, there's like traditional saying, there's lunchtime, right? There's coffee breaks, there's people at the water cooler. You don't have any of those distractions. So if we you know left our own devices, you know, we're either working out or working. And uh, you know, I tend to default more towards just work. Like I told you before this, we're in a sprint phase of our business. So it's like just you know, I'm mentally exhausted. But yeah, it's it's interesting, man. And uh, you know, everyone does it differently. You got you have your own way of doing the the mobile van life. Um, you know, we we decided after a year of doing this that we want to squat for three months each plot and get to know it, you know, get some solid interconnection, do all those things, and then use that as launching points to go out to different areas. And then there's a lot of different ways. There's ways you can just straight up be in a van, you know, drive every weekend, stop in a new spot. So um I hope I hope this podcast inspires some people to to live um you know an unorthodox life. You know, that that would make me happy. And if people are listening and this does uh hit us up, let Joe and Eric know that that we did we did some some inspiring today. That would be really cool.

Yeah, or if you need an extra kick in the butt, hit us up and we'll push you that extra little bit.

Absolutely. Awesome, man. Well, Joe, where where do people find you, man? Where do you send them?

Uh, pretty much all around Joe, all over the internet is where you can find me, allaroundjoe.com for the the blog and the podcast. Uh Instagram is something that I post on uh frequently and I try I'm trying to post more and more on there, even now with the new Instagram TV, trying to even put some podcast-ish episodes up there where the people can see my talking head or whatever. Um, so all around Joe at Instagram, all around Joe on Facebook. And uh like I said, I love to hear from people. So if anybody wants any advice or just wants to say what's up, let me know. Awesome, man.

Joe, thanks so much for sharing your story today. It's awesome. I love it. Yeah, thank you, Eric. Hi, man. I know I'll talk to you soon, so no goodbyes. Hey fitness fans, don't leave yet. It's your host, Eric Malzone, and I have a quick favor to ask. Actually, three favors. So, number one, if you're a fan of our show, I ask you to do something that takes under three minutes. Go to iTunes, please, and subscribe to our show. Please, please, please. It means so much to us. It's so important. And then give us a favorable review. We would really, really appreciate it. And uh, I can't tell you how much it means and helps us out. So I know it takes two minutes of your day, and uh, it means a lot to us. So please do that. Number two, go to our YouTube channel or Fitness Marketing Alliance, and uh please subscribe to our YouTube channel there. Number three, if you like this episode or any of the episodes that we've released, share it on social. That's huge, that's a big deal for us. And when we put a lot of work into these episodes uh trying to give you great actionable content uh for the fitness industry. So that would mean a lot. And that's it. So we have some big plans coming up for this show. I'll be talking about that in the next couple episodes. But thank you so much for listening. It means so much. And uh, if you have any questions, please reach out to me. I'd love to hear from everybody. Eric, E R I C at Fitness MarketingAliance.com