The Truth About Entrepreneurship - Brett Klika

It almost bothers me when trainers kind of have this sheepish. I know. I know. I should I should probably get better at that. I'm like, dude, your family's starving. You're teaching five boot camps Sunday morning starting at five in the morning. Like that, that's miserable life. That is, you're gonna be out. You're saying you want to help people? You can't, you're done. You're gonna be energy bankrupt. You're gonna be, I'm not just talking about financially. I'm gonna be talking about you're done. You're gonna check out a professional together.

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 153. I get to talk to Brett Klika. So Brett is the founder of Powerful Playground and Spider Fit Kids. Um awesome dude. And the topic uh I'll get into in a second. But first of all, if you haven't yet, please go to iTunes or wherever you listen to this, Stitchers, Castbox, and subscribe to this podcast and then leave a review. And I will read it uh on air during the upcoming episodes forthcoming. So hit pause right now, just hit pause. Take three minutes to go do that. Three minutes tops, time it. Won't take long. Okay, go. Okay, awesome. Welcome back. So, Brett, man, you know, uh, if you haven't figured it out yet, if you listen to the show, I don't do a whole lot of planning for questions or things like that. I always like to have something in the back of my head in case a conversation gets stuck. But with Brett, that was never gonna happen. Um, I like to really free flow and go see where things are gonna go. And uh with him, we we turned to entrepreneurship. Um, and we never, we never look back. And, you know, man, if if I said it halfway through this, I think if I had one goal for this episode would be to talk one person out of entrepreneurship because it's hot, it's sexy, right? You got the Gary V's and you know, Elon Musk, and everyone's like, entrepreneur is the way to go. And yeah, it is. We need people solving problems. We absolutely need people solving problems. But if you're looking at it to be successful or you know, make a lot of money, um, sometimes that's not the reality. And the outliers sure can. Um, and you can, you can make a good living, but you have to be willing to deal with the lifestyle, and it's not that pretty a lot of the times. I mean, we talked about how often you get kicked in the groin, right? How um you constantly have to be working on your mindset, you have to have a really, really callous mind in order to do this kind of stuff. So, and whatever that even means, entrepreneurship, right? Uh I I just prefer to say self-employed at times, but we can debate that. Uh, you'll get a lot out of this if you are an entrepreneur. And, you know, with what Brett does and the way we talked about it, it really segues nicely into what level five mentors is all about. So if you go to levelfive mentors.com, that's level the number five mentors.com. Um, you know, our websites uh still need some work, but you get the point, right? We are helping entrepreneurs gain freedom, right? Freedom in health, relationships, purpose, time, money, right? All that stuff. That's what it's about. Because uh, if you want to be an entrepreneur, you want to live by your own rules. And maybe if you're like Brett and I, you kind of self-selected yourself out of it because maybe you're just not a good fit for a typical eight to five. That's what you want, right? Isn't that an ultimate really what you want? Is that freedom? So go check it out. There is a place to book a call or take an assessment and see where you're at. And uh hope you enjoy it. And hopefully I'll talk to you soon. So without further ado, episode number 153, Brett Klika of Spider Fit Kids and Powerful Playground. Enjoy. Boom. We're live. Brett, welcome, man. What's up, Eric? How are you? I'm doing great. Uh cool. So we got a Chill Dow California vibe guy here. And uh always uh always enjoying uh uh and like all you know, like all great podcasts, you know, I always start by saying you guys missed some really good conversation before recording. And uh, but it's lost now. We will never get it back. So um, Brett Man, I know people probably can look you up and and find out all the cool things you do with you know just being an entrepreneur, human performance, fighting childhood obesity and all that. But but tell us in your own words, give us your story, give us your background.

Yeah, so I uh I started in the the world of fitness and personal training. I it was kind of a funny way to start. I started as a coach at the U.S. Olympic Training Center uh because that was really what I had I'd gone through. I'd played sports all the way to college, and I thought that that's the route that I really wanted to go and be a high. What sports did you play? Uh I played soccer until I got hurt, and then uh I played just at Oregon State University. I I this is in the mid-90s, I played lacrosse at a club lacrosse. The funny thing is, I look back to that and like, I don't think I could make a high school JV team with the quality of play that it was a 95 in Oregon at Oregon State University. I walked onto the team I've never played before and had a blast. So uh ended up doing that and then um just just staying involved with I mean, anything from like club sports, intramurals. I I got went back and started to get involved with club soccer again. Um, but those were my big, I mean, track, lacrosse, soccer. I just was a even in high school as someone who was a I just loved sport. Everything about sports, I love the discipline, the preparation, the competition, and a lot about sports what's made me what I am today. And I'm sure most people listening play sport of and really that's part of my story as well. Um, you know, the role of sports and when I was young, and and quite frankly, the role of sports in my life now. I haven't slowed down. I'm 42 and I'm charging forward. I'm gonna be playing until I'm a hundred years old, I'll die in the field. But but so I I went through that. I was a um, so I had an opportunity to, after college, being very involved in everything, to be a coach at the or an intern first at the Olympic training center that allowed me to come down to San Diego. And as soon as I came down here, I was like, dude, I'm not leaving. If if I if I if I can make it down here, I'm not going anywhere. And after that, I I met Todd Durkin as he was opening Fitness Quest 10. And I I had a history of working in kids' camps and working with athletes, and he literally was just opening. It was like a hotel gym size. It's crazy to think where it's gone now. But uh it was kind of funny. He said, you know, and Todd, if you know Todd, you know he can he can sell anything. He's got this amazing personality and connect with people, and and I was leaving, we met through this mutual person. I was getting to the point the Sydney Olympics were over. I saw a tumbleweed blow through the Olympic training center. It literally was like, okay, Brett, it is time to go. Like it's a cush life living there, but there's no more opportunities here. This is this is you need to do something. And so I was I was like, man, I might have to move back to Oregon. It's so expensive to live down here. I can't, and the timing was amazing. I ended up meeting Todd and he he said he goes, Well, I'm opening the sports performance facility in Scripps Ranch. I'm like, well, where's Scripps Ranch? You know, I didn't know it's this area in San Diego, and he goes, You gotta come up and see it. So I come up and dude, this was a hotel gym. Like it was carpet on the floor, the dumbbells, like those little uh hotel dumbbells, the rubber ones that go to like 50 pounds. There was a leg press, a chest fly, and a Smith machine. I'm not kidding. And he's telling me about the sports performance facilities opening. I just came from the Olympic Training Center. Yeah, but here's the thing, I'll tell you this, and this goes to when you're when you're in this profession or you're you're really starting anything. Talking to Todd, Todd didn't say, yeah, this is a crappy hotel gym. He didn't see that when he looked at it. And I picked that up right away. And I'm not someone who just follows anybody. I've I always worked for myself. I'm not someone who I'm not I'm not a good employee, quite frankly. And I right away was like, I saw I that for the first 30 minutes I was there, that was the only time in my life I ever saw that as a hotel gym. It was it was amazing, you know, listening to vision and the power of vision and in a leader. And so after that, it just became, you know, he he and I, I was gonna lead the youth programs and the sports performance, and he was gonna, so we were able to experience a a lot of success pretty quickly, um, just from a lot of just blood, sweat, and tears, just willing to work, run through walls, whatever it takes. If you want me to, I was putting flyers on cars. I was one of those people, why not? I need to eat, you know. I mean, that's the whole thing. It's like, how can we market this? How can we get more people? And so that that went for years. And then um, I I we we brought the I brought the youth program up to where we're working with just kids all over San Diego every single week. Uh, working with professional athletes, we're working with moms and dads, just growing, growing, growing. And that went on, you know, I was working anywhere from 50 to 80 hours a week, uh, 50 to 60 of those being client hours. The rest of that was marketing and business and things like that. It was my life. And meanwhile, I got married and we bought a home and we did all these other real life things. And then eventually I got to a point and Todd and I had a great line of communication, but just was kind of there was no more growth really available within that structure. And so I looked for opportunities for my own. I had an opportunity. I liked speaking. I became very active in this in the fitness industry speaking. And on things anywhere from general fitness, but really the kids thing, you know, it was it's kind of you find you you start following your heart, you start following your passion. And I think it's important for people in this profession to not get caught up in what everyone else thinks is cool or what everyone else thinks is the most relevant thing, or or where your ego, your ego gets stroked by working with certain clients. You're gonna do the best when you really follow your heart. And and I look back at my career and work with pro athletes and all this, which is great for your resume. It makes great social media, but my heart always went back to man, I loved working with kids. It's something that if I have a natural knack for it. I understand, I'm kind of like a kid-like person. I'm I'm full of energy. I I like play. I find opportunities for fun whenever I can. So it was just kind of a thing. And so I I started writing a lot and started speaking a lot on that. And as soon as my my daughter was born, it just something hit me and said, Hey, you gotta make this a thing. And that's when I started my company, Spider Fit Kids, in in 2014. And since then it's continued to grow to now we're um our materials and and we're being licensed by a lot of the national sports governing bodies for youth. So that's really where I'm at, and that's what my passions lie. And and uh I'm still I do corporate consulting as well. It's something that in the interim, as I was transitioning out of the personal training world and into my own company, I started doing some uh through Johnson Johnson's Human Performance Institute. I started uh doing some corporate consulting, leadership, and they call it personal energy management. How can you prevent your top leaders and top performers from burning out? And there's a health component to that, and there's a psychological component to that, and there's a the organizational component to that. And so I had the opportunity to, it's based on Dr. Jim Lair's book and Tony Schwartz's book, The Power of Full Engagement. And if anyone's read that, it's it's taking the principles from that and applying it to larger organizations. And since that's something that I still do because I love it, um it's it's amazing, it's very powerful. Um, so yeah, that's that's where I'm at now. And and I'm I'm excited. I'm very uh like any entrepreneur, it's it's everything all the time, but my personality matches that. And I can honestly say I wake up every day looking forward to opportunity. I I see every day as an opportunity. I don't, I really honestly don't understand the I hate Mondays, hump day, Wednesday, thank God it's Friday. That's like a foreign language to me, and that doesn't mean everything goes great all the time. It doesn't mean I'm always excited, but in general, it's just like today's opportunity, man. I before I go to bed, how many of these opportunities can I take advantage of? And that's that's the way I say it. I get kicked in the the groin in the face, and and I get all that stuff too.

But it's it's something that you know I I am an ex I'm excited and I feel very blessed to be able to do what I do.

Yeah, awesome, man. There's so many nuggets in there. And it's uh I think you and I share a lot of similar values. I had um some guests on the show, Christine Conti was on, and she she brought up a term which I love of of a multi-potentialite, someone who's always needs like multiple irons in the fire at all time. I had a coach a long time ago who was like, Eric, when are you just gonna get good at one thing? I'm like, I don't think I'm ever gonna, that's never gonna happen. It's just not gonna happen. I can't do it. Right. And now there's like all this cool you know, research coming out. Um, there was a book uh by uh oh god, it's gonna kill me, but it's about um being a generalist versus a specialist nowadays. Uh I know exactly what topics. Epstein. David Epstein. Yeah, but I'm trying to think of the name of the book. I know exactly it'll come to us. But it's amazing, it's it's true. It's like, oh good. I'm not I'm not some kind of pariah. Like I I I there's other people like that. And then and I think it's interesting because maybe you can answer this question. I can't think of another industry that's so purely entrepreneurial as fitness. Because what do you do? You you get a fitness degree. I mean, I guess that's kinesiology, and then you get into a corporate job where you have you know a 40-year career with a 401k. It doesn't happen. It just doesn't happen.

It doesn't. And I think that for trainers out there that are thinking 10 years in the future, and and I don't know. Sometimes I think it's a blessing, sometimes I think it's a curse because it makes it very difficult to live in the moment. But I've been a four, I've always thought years ahead, even when I was young. And certain points in my life that's created me probably undue anxiety. But I'm always thinking ahead, and and when you're in the fitness industry and you're you're grinding, and that is a part, that is a rite of passage, and that is a necessary part. So don't think like you're gonna go into the fitness industry and just automatically show up and say, no, I'm gonna do this on my terms. And it's it doesn't work that way in any career, by the way, if if we're honest. But to go in it, but people thinking about, well, if I'm in it for a while, then that transcends me into this level that people will recognize, and that I'm essentially uh sending through a company, and then I'm gonna get a promotion, and I'm gonna do even within these gyms, because most of the the gyms are studio-based gyms and things like that, they're small businesses. And within a small business, the the court, the quote corporate structure is not clean or clear, or it can change overnight based on uh based on the economy or anything like that. So it's important to notice that if you are in the fitness industry, and I don't care if you're just a not just a pro, but if you're uh year one as a personal trainer or your year 20 as a personal trainer, your opportunities will come from getting better at business, from becoming a business owner versus a personal trainer. Seeing what you do as a business, you have to create growth for yourself in this industry. And I don't understand why through academia that's not pushed. I think that's a it's it's a downfall of academia with in general, because the future, honestly, the future economy, you know, Seth Godin talks about, you know, we're not in a manufacturing economy anymore. He he calls it the uh or the the I'm blanking right now. He calls the economy essentially where you're just like, oh, look at me, I got I got a degree. Now put me on the line, and I'm on the line, and and I'll just you'll just ascend me through this company until I'm done. It doesn't matter what profession you're in, that doesn't exist. So even if you want to go work a nine to five for somebody, you have to be innovative. You have to treat it like it's a business, like you're marketing yourself all the time. You're looking for in ways to innovate. You're looking for, if you don't do that, you will die in this in this economy. And by dying, I mean you're gonna be miserable, you're gonna be a victim. You're going to be someone who hates Mondays, sees Wednesday as hump day, and you can't wait till Friday because you're gonna be become a prisoner of the day. You're gonna become a prisoner of time, and you're not gonna be a uh a hero of your own energy. And that's that's where it becomes a problem. So you really do if you're gonna be in this profession. Too many personal trainers talk about, well, I just don't like the business side. Hey, you know what? I didn't either when I first got into it because my passion, I did not go into personal training to get rich. I went to personal training because I'm like, I'm gonna go to college, I wanna make college fun, and then I do something I'm interested in because I love playing sports. I loved all that. And then I get out and I'm like, well, I gotta feed a family and got to do these things. So by nature, I had to figure it out. And I didn't, it almost bothers me when trainers kind of have this sheepish, I know, I know, I should, I should probably get better at that. I'm like, dude, you're family starving. You're you're teaching five boot camps Sunday morning, starting at five in the morning. That's serious, man. Like that that's miserable life. That is, you're gonna be out. You're saying you want to help people? You can't, you're done. You're gonna be energy bankrupt. You're gonna be, I'm not just talking about financially, I'm gonna be talking about you're done. You're gonna check out of the profession altogether. That's not a sheepish thing. That's serious. We've got to start taking ourselves seriously.

Yeah, oh man, so much good stuff in there. Yeah, yeah, no, this is great. This is gold. So uh you and I see things very similarly. I think let me ask you this like you you mentioned every day you see opportunity, right? And you know, as I think one thing uh and this term entrepreneur is super hot and sexy right now. I sometimes I'm like, well, let's just call it self-employed. Can we just call it that? Like we're self-employed. I'm not sexy, by the way. Yeah, it's not so fucking sexy. Uh there's nothing about it. I mean, if people, yeah. You see opportunity every day. You also get kicked in the grind, probably on a daily, if not weekly basis, right? So do I. I face failure every day. Probably four times this morning, uh, I failed on something before we got on this call, and I don't remember it because my memory just and I try to erase it as quickly as possible, right? How do you work with that mind game though? That's hard, right? I mean, you you have to you have to like, you know, um, as uh Gogin would say, or Goggin who would say, like, you have to have a callous mind at some point. How how do you work that? How do you train yourself to do it? Do you have a morning routine? Are there things you do? Like, what is it?

It's part of it. It the first couple years, uh, and this is something that gives the the idea that owning your own business is this sexy thing, and that just means that you get the Ferrari and you you're and you could ask any, it's the first couple of years I did. I mean, the first couple years of of your own business, you're working for free, and you're working really hard for free. And when I say free, you're not making money, but you're also not getting a whole lot of like emotional highs, you're not getting a whole lot of even like ideas that, hey, this is gonna work necessarily. Some people hit it right out of the gate, but these are those are unicorns. And I was I reached a level, a point of depression. Not many people know that because I'm a outgoing and energetic person, but I wasn't looking forward to getting up because it's like, man, I gotta do all this stuff. I'm not, there's no one even there to say, hey, good job, or hey, this is great. This is it, just was like I'm doing this because I believe in it. But that's where it comes down to is what are you willing to? There's always gonna be something holding you back. And there's always gonna be someone, something, uh, which that's just the way of the world. I mean, look at sports. I mean, look at like a running back in football. How many times when they get the football do they score? Touchdown, almost never. I mean, very, very rarely. They're just getting their head knocked off every time they get the ball. They don't say, oh man, this game sucks. It's because I they just get up and say, no, my job is to get across that line. So you can hit me as much as you want. I don't want to be hit, and it hurts to be hit, and that's against what I want, but okay, you hit me. So line up. I'm gonna adjust because you hit this is why you hit me last time, because this is what I did. So I'm gonna adjust my strategy and I'm gonna go around. So part of it has to become whatever your mission is, whatever your why, whatever your purpose, and those terms are flying around pretty loosely now. But I mean, I don't mean like what sounds fun to you. I mean something that you're literally willing to go through a couple years of depression and failure to see success on the other side. That's that's powerful. That what is it that like when you think about gives you an emotional reaction and and you're willing to, it's like, oh no, someone just got online and said I suck. Someone just said that, oh, my stuff is ridiculous, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, that bothers everyone, but I care about what people say about me. I do. It bothers me when people say bad things about me, but I care more about why I'm there and what I'm doing. So it's not a matter of like, oh, it nothing bothers me because I have this beautiful little mission. No, it's that I care more about my mission than anything else. So that's the overlying principle. But to support that on a daily basis, you need to have a routine. And that routine is different for everybody. I can say for me, uh, exercise is a non-negotiable. Um, that's gonna happen every day because that helps keep me even. It honestly, just emotionally, it helps keep me even. I get up early. I'm a 4 30 get up in the morning person uh because I have a family and that whole thing. So I need that personal selfish time where I can do whatever. I want. I feel that educating yourself, and however you design this on a daily basis, you have to educate yourself to constantly, because you feel stagnant when a bunch of things fail in a row, which tends to happen at the beginning, you feel stagnant. It's hard to move forward. It's really hard because why would you? Our brains are literally wired for to avoid pain and to go after pleasure. You're not getting any pleasure. So your brain, after a while, is like, F this, like, this sucks. Why are you doing this? And so when you take in education from either mentors or books or audio or whatever, when you take that in, it just gives you just a little bit so you can take one more step forward, just one more little step forward. Um, so that that's part of my routine, constantly reading. But then also professional access, whether that be a mastermind that you pay for, whether it be a mastermind you've established on your own through other people you respect, or whether it be mentors, you can't be on an island because you will die on that island. And so all those things have have come together to uh to to really it help build armor through the process. Uh and even some personal things. I mean, for me, I added meditation to my life. And I went to as I went to Thailand and did meditation with the monks because I just wanted to dive in. And um, so that that became something that just was like I because my head is an entrepreneur, your head's always going a million miles an hour. You're thinking, how can I avoid the next pitfall? And then how can I take advantage of this opportunity but avoid the next pitfall and just goes and goes and goes and goes. And pretty soon, this brain that's supposed to have space for innovation and all these different things, it's just full of crap. It's just full of just stuff. And meditation for me is giving me an opportunity to help manage that better. So on a day-to-day basis, and again, you you do all these things and it doesn't make things perfect, but it just gives you armor for when you do get hit, because you get hit every day. So it's a not a matter of avoiding getting hit, it's a matter of how thick is your armor so that hit doesn't knock you down and out.

Yeah. Oh man. You know, it's interesting. I uh and I think if I maybe if we had one goal uh with this interview, it would be talking somebody out of entrepreneurship. Because I think nowadays and it it it's it's like the sexy thing to do, but there's there's no there's no like it's not sexy, like we said, there's no dishonor in in getting a salary job. I think you'll know, like about a year ago, you know, I was I was just after I sold my gyms, I didn't know what I was gonna do. It's taken me, you know, it's a little over two years now. Now I'm finally starting to get close to the income I had at one time, right? Two years, right? One year of almost nothing, right? I got offered a really nice, you know, like a nice corporate job about a year ago. And my wife, and she's like, Well, what you're gonna take it, right? I'm like, I don't think I can. I don't think I can. Like, I literally don't think I can work in that environment. And I think that's the thing is like, it's not necessarily that maybe I did choose on you know an entrepreneurial path. I chose that, but I also think it chose me. Like I've been in the corporate world. I can't do it. I am unhirable, right? In that environment. Like I'm just because you know why? Because I'll hack the job. I'll hack the job, and that pisses people off, right? I was good at sales because I hacked it, and then I worked like 10 hours a week. And they're like, What? Why you you can how are you doing that? And then eventually they're like, you know, you gotta go.

Um it's funny you say that because that's been my I can't stand like the whole idea of, and and again, when I say I can't stand this, and this is I think needs to be understood for entrepreneurs. Like, I think that if you're an entrepreneur that is criticizing people, like you said, for taking office jobs, I think you need to to check yourself because quite frankly, my life's a lot harder because I decide to be an entrepreneur. And yes, but uh and it's a personality thing. I don't work well in those environments where someone is telling me, well, this is the way you need to think, and this is the way we do it. And I say, Well, this is the way I do it, and I get it done faster and better. Well, that's just the way we do it. I'm like, so you just want me to donate my energy and my passion for an erroneous just because like it's finite, man. My my energy, my passion, my love, all this stuff, it's finite. I can't, me, I can't do that. My life would be a lot easier if I could show up and and do a nine to five and and be good for Mr. or Mrs. So-and-so. And I I'd never have been able to do that. And I look at people, I work around people in my corporate consulting, I work within that environment and I see people that do it. And a part of me admires that it's like they're they're able to, they don't have this, like I don't know that it's a positive thing. I don't think it is.

That's the point I'm getting at. Is I don't know if if it's a positive thing. Sometimes I look at you know, friends I know who have who are super happy and they've been in the same job, you know, same company for 15, sometimes 20 years. Yeah, and I always come along, I'm like, oh, you should think about doing your own thing. And they're like, Well, why the fuck would I do that? Like, really great. I get this nice paycheck bi-weekly. I'm like, wow, yeah, that sounds amazing. Like that sounds really good. I wish I could do that.

And someone's giving them tasks so they can be if something screws up, they'd be like, ah, yeah, so-and-so screwed up and they chose the wrong initiative, and you know, what am I gonna do?

Right.

Man, I screw up, it's I got no one to blame, but like, what the hell was I thinking? I just lost all this money, and uh Yeah.

Now on the other side, it's intoxicating, right? I mean, you you put something together, you you're like create something out of nothing, right? There's a couple of things where I'm like, well, I don't know if people think people will buy this, people buy it. Yeah, and then they buy it, and they buy it again. You're like, Holy shit, I did it. I created something out of nothing, right? And you're on cloud nine forever until you get kicked again. Yeah, yeah, until two out of three of them cancel, right? And then you're like, and people think, well, growth is some linear path. No, it's not, it's it's this zigzagging road that goes in circles and backwards and forwards and and all that. And that's just part of the game. And I think um ultimately, I think a lot of it comes down to if you are in a relationship, is having someone who is okay with that, right? Like my wife's okay, she doesn't get it, she does not get me at all. And I think that's another thing is is you know, if you're in business for yourself or an entrepreneur, you have to maybe get accustomed to the fact that your spouse or whoever you're closest to your family, they just won't get it. They're like, what are you doing? Like, what do you do? I I cross uh the Canadian border every so often. People ask me what I do, right? Because you get stopped and like, so what do you do? And I'm like, uh the first couple of times I'm like, well, I do podcasts and I do some mentoring and consulting, and then I do some joint ventures, and they're like, pull over. We're gonna yeah. And now I'm just like consultant. Consultant, that's what I say. I say consultant. It's easier, right? Um, but it just people don't, it's it's it's hard to relate to people on it. And you know, like I said, my wife said, Well, well, you're gonna take that salary job, but I'm like, I love you, but I think that's a terrible idea. Like, I'd rather just live out of a van, yeah. Which I don't, but I would. I'd rather live out of a van.

Yeah. Well, because you you value and and I because my wife is in the corporate world, she's very successful in the in the corporate world, and and it matches her, it matches her, and she's excelled in that environment. But the thing when we talk about things, and at this point, you know, she just she looks at me and she she under she does understand me at this point because you know we've been together for almost 20 years, and she just is like, and she's talking about these dynamics in the office and politics, and the um, you know, there's this and that. I'm just like, I I I jump out of that window. I that's enough, but it's too high. I jump right out of that window and I couldn't do it. And that does not make me a better person. The angst that's in me for that. I probably back in the day, I'd have to be one of those like uh you know, mountain men type people that just kind of lived on my own, and you know what I'm saying? Like, I don't know how I would have made it a couple hundred years ago. I like people, I I I'm I have tons of friends. I love the social world, but that collective notion, I just is never really it gives me a feeling that I can't shake and I can't really describe. It's kind of like someone's poking me with a knife, and it just I don't know. But I think finding your own path is important and not getting caught up. Being an entrepreneur is not sexy. It doesn't mean you're gonna be rich. It means you're gonna work twice as hard for half the money. It means that you're way, way, way less stable when it comes to things like income and opportunity. Your honestly, the downfalls probably on paper, way more downfalls than there are the upside. However, when the upside does come together on those occasions and you've created something that's in line with your mission, it comes from your heart, your belief, your experiences, and you've created something that your heart and your soul is into, and you're envisioning in your head how people are gonna benefit from this. And it's like, boy, this is what I wanted to do, and I'm seeing it happen. And so what I haven't, you know, I I had all these failures or I haven't slept in a while, just whatever it is. So what? That feeling of wow, I got that out there. That feeling to me is enough to make up for all of it. And doesn't necessarily mean you're gonna get rich, but it's just like you said, like if I were to live in a van but get that feeling, I probably would overall, I would be a much happier person.

Yeah. And it's it's the mindset of it all, right? I mean, that's that's the most important thing. I mean, you said you wake up and you and you train yourself on a daily basis to to get your mind in the right space where you see opportunity, right? Because it's really easy to miss it. Yep. It's really easy to miss it. And I think that's you know what I've really hardened up over the last you know decade of my life is is seeing that. And you there's this thing of like um universal energy, right? Or uh abundance. Like you know all these buzzwords that are flown around, right? And uh like, well, what the what is that? What is that I mean, right? Now, to me, it comes down to this is like you have to have this unshakable belief in yourself that you won't stop until you get your goal. Yes, that's it, right? Abundance, like law of attraction, all that stuff is a byproduct of you believing and then speaking that belief in a confident manner to the people you talk to. And if you believe that, right? Like this morning, uh yesterday I had a shitty day. You know, a project I'm working on. Um, some things went south, and you know, some people I thought that were on my side, you know, just weren't. And it was, it was it was bad. I went to sleep, right? I maybe had four fingers of mescal on the rocks and you know, called it a day, right? Watch some football as a first night of football, and uh and I went to bed. And then this morning, you know, I I do my normal routine, which you know, I don't wake up as early as you, but I'm an early riser too. 5 30 a.m. bell, and you know, I go through my cold exposure and my meditation breathing and all of that. And then I'm okay, right? It's like the armor that I put on for the day. And then you check your email, and uh, there's probably four emails where I was like, ah, that's not good, right? But then there was one. There's one where I was like, there it is. That's the opportunity for the day. That's the blessing, right? Now, would I have seen that in a different mindset? No, I wouldn't have. I would have been lingering on yesterday, right? But today I felt fresh. I'm like, well, I can I can tackle that challenge again. Right. And we look at that from a different way. And I think that's it's it's the belief, right? And that belief has to be you can't be like, well, someday I'm gonna make five grand a month, right? Where some people are like that, they're like, ooh, 60 grand a year, that's amazing, right? I'll do that. No, it's gotta be something really fucking big, right? That gets you that excited that you're willing to go through all these challenges to get there. Yeah. And that's that's the key, in my opinion.

Yeah. And that's why it's when you choose that thing, you really have to evaluate uh you have to look and see what has guided me in my life up to this point. Because if if you're like, okay, well, I'm super passionate about uh ending obesity, okay. You're super passionate. Okay, so has that led every action in your life up to this point as the person you are? Are you willing to uh to end obesity? Are you willing to go without sleep, go without food? Are you willing to uh fly on crappy flights to crappy places to talk to people who 50% of the time you change your life, do you change their life? 50% of the time, especially when you're starting, they're checking their phone because some organization that's out of touch with their employees or their people just brought you in for and when you it's you really got to check yourself and see what what is going to pull you because you find yourself just having to push, and the first couple years you do have to push, but if everything's a push, and then you you gotta find something that pulls you.

Yeah, yeah. And I I think you know, you you get on a really good point, like oh, I want to I want to end childhood obesity. Okay, awesome. But let's let's get really clear. And I'm I'm shocked um how many people really don't know what their goals are in life. Yeah. Zero. Like, what do you want out of life? I don't know. Just trying to get through the week.

Really? That's supported though. I mean, here's here's the thing is that's that's supported because you have this, you look at the dynamics of where we're at with people like this. Let's just say America. You have people that that really were never, I mean, they were held down from day one, they've never had opportunities, and and they've had the opposite of opportunities where they're just getting beat. Yeah, they haven't had a chance to do anything. So everything is survival because their brain literally has been wired for that. Then you have people that have actually had opportunities, they didn't see them as opportunities because they were, and however they were raised or their own belief system. Opportunities have surrounded them since day one, but they didn't see them as opportunities because their head was so down. And so, unfortunately, I think that's a huge chunk because that's kind of an easy default mode. Like you're not starving, so you don't really have to worry about like starvation or your own personal safety. So you move beyond that, but abundance just seems too much to get to, and that abundance is only for these people, you know, abundance is for these people who are just, oh, well, I'm just not you know, such a go-go person, those people are annoying. So you have this swath of just average, and it's not that I mean, that's not good or bad. It's just let's say if if I'm looking at a at a um dynamics of like a curve or something like that, there's gonna be this abundance of average. And and the average is just like, well, uh, it's this head-down sort of just survival day-to-day. So there's a lot of people, that's a common mindset. So then there's that's where we get like they're gonna, they're not gonna make movies, funny movies about people who are amazing go-getters and doing all and like let's say like comedians. I mean, there's there's you look at comedians, it's supposed to be this stealth, self-deprecating. I live in my parents' basement. That's what it's like, people like, yes, oh yes, and you you hate work and you hate this, and you're depressed, and you're this is stupid, and yeah, that's exactly it. And it that's what's become kind of part, you watch a sitcom. It's like, oh, the evil boss, the evil person, this, because that's what the middle wants to to see. And so it's it's easy to buy into that mindset, but that mindset goes nowhere, unfortunately.

Yeah. You know, what's interesting too is the relationship that people have with money. The episode that'll be released before this one is with Christina Wise, and she's um a money coach, like a legitimate money coach, right? Like shows people how to build wealth. Um and I think, you know, people's like even if you look at someone else, and Jensen Cyril has some great books here, read her stuff. Um they talk about someone's relationship with being wealthy and how the wealthy are looked as like, oh, they must be doing something bad, right? They're rich because they're assholes, right? They drive a nice car because they're assholes, right? So let's bring those people down. I mean, I'm not gonna Bernie Sanders finger point at all this, but you know what I'm talking about? Like, like, well, no, let's take it case by case. Maybe someone worked really, really hard with that. And what's wrong with that, right? What's wrong with being wealthy? Well, what's what is that? Like, why can't we talk about money in a way that's like, well, that's one of the that's one of the pure freedoms of life. It allows for freedom. And everyone wants freedom, but everyone hates money in this weird way.

It's it's you bring that point in in my relationship with money. I mean, and I kind of came from a situation where it was like, you know, rich people are assholes, rich people are that those are we don't want we don't want anything to do with with anybody else's money. They couldn't understand us, we don't understand them. And that's but I never even been around that, it just didn't make sense to me because like, well, you can choose, you can have money and still choose to do things. And that's really where I saw having uh uh you know my financial housing order is it's allowed me freedom for one, freedom to to help people and freedom to to do all those things, but also freedom to be to focus on being a better father, a better spouse, a better person. Freedom to do that. And if I if people look at the material side of it, yeah, there is a material side, but honestly, it's it's more the feeling of I can do these things for people, with people, uh, or for myself, or with my family, for my family. That's what financial more financial freedom is is offered. And it's not an evil thing, and people need to stop seeing it. And I think in in personal training, people say, Well, I'm not doing it for the money. Well, but what is it a hobby then? Like because last time I checked, food, shelter, electricity, all those things cost money. So I guess if you don't want those things, then you're not doing it for the money. But money's part of it. And when you have more freedom within our industry, when I started to have more financial freedom is when I got exponential in regards to the amount of people I could reach, contact, impact, and influence. So there was actually a correlation that's opposite of the belief. The more money I was able to come across, the more financial gain I achieved, the closer to my mission I was able to get and to live extraordinary by helping other people do the same. So it can actually be the opposite of you become the rich asshole. You can have money and actually increase your influence. And quite frankly, the circles I run in are the same thing. The more financial freedom they got, the more in line with their mission they've been able to live because they have the freedom to do that.

Yeah. The only people I know who are wealthy who I would deem as undesirable for me to hang out with are people who did it all for the wrong reasons. They did it all purely for the money. And some of you know, my my closest colleagues are extremely financially financially successful. Well, you wouldn't know it. They live on the same, you know, an average house on an average block. Um, but they have, you know, tens of millions of dollars in the bank and they're free. They're free, debt-free, right? They have freedom of of time, they can spend their time with whoever they want, right? They can do things whenever they want. Like you want to buy something, you buy it. But they're also not frivolous, but they're also looking for ways to make a bigger impact. And I think that's something to strive for. And you know, if there's one industry that suffers from this, this martyrdom I talk about all the time of like, well, you know, I just really want to help people, so I'm not gonna, I'm fine. I don't want to raise my rates, I don't want to leave anybody out. Like, well, cool. So you must be financially independent. Oh, no, no, no. Well, then what are we doing here?

Yeah. What what are you gonna do when you uh if you're not charging enough, you don't have money in the bank, you have all kinds of debt, and you break your leg in a car accident. So you you're just gonna have to you're gonna have to leave the profession. So all these people you wanted to help, you gotta leave. Or let's say you're cruising along and all of a sudden you get married or you have a kid or something like that, where it becomes critical that income becomes a critical piece of that. So then you you're like, well, no, I'm just here to help people. Yeah, no, you're gonna go to enterprise rent a car and get whatever job they give you so that you can get some benefits to take care of your family. And that's I I don't understand. I can honestly say I don't understand that mindset. I mean, one side of it, it allows you an out so that you don't have to feel the pressure to grow or feel the pressure to do these very uncomfortable things. I don't care where you're at or in the industry, talking to clients about money, raising your rates, these aren't comfortable things to do. It's it's not easy, oh yeah, by the way, I'm 150 bucks an hour now. That's how much it costs. That's not a comfortable situation. But you have to be willing to do it. So that that's where it's at. And I think it's but again, it's thinking ahead. If I martyr myself for another 10 years, can I do this for 10 more years?

Yeah.

Yeah. So this is an interesting question. This will probably segue nice into what you do now with um, you know, Spiderfin and all that. But when you set goals, Brett, how long in times of in terms of time do you set your goals? Like Okay, I want to be here in X amount of weeks, a year, five years, 10 years. How do you do that? Maybe you'd use your business as a example.

I've experimented with one of the the having early in my career, someone like Todd, you know, would working with Todd Durkin, who's always been he because he had great mentors before that. And he just he had great mentors, and I and he always from day one, it just was like, well, you know, what are you thinking? And what do you want to see yourself in four or five years? And so I've experimented, okay, what's my 10-year plan? What's my uh five year? What's my and honestly, the most effective I found for me, and everyone the the the closest, I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, but you know how like some musicians will be like, oh, when I write music, I see colors, or you know what I'm saying? Like that there's some weird process. My process for long-term planning can't be put on paper. I can't even describe it what it is. It's a vision in my head that creates this sort of like visceral feeling that goes to my gut, and it's this, it becomes hardwired into, and I honestly can't like that's what I'm saying. Like, I'm a pretty verbose person. I cannot explain this well. But it becomes like, where do I want to see myself in five years? A vision happens, but it's more these emotions happen. It's not like I see exactly what it is, like these emotions become hardwired, and then those emotions, whatever, drive these daily activities. And and it's like, if anything, it's I've learned to trust my gut. My gut tells me a lot. And so then that's my long-term plan. You know, that's okay, I want to arrive, whatever these emotions are, tied up these visions or whatever, that's where I'm going. And so then it's it's revining that back as what does that mean for the next three years? Okay, well, in three years, I want to see this, but even when it's that long term, it's more instead of right, and I will write down my because three years seems to be for me, that makes it tangible enough. And I'll write down some things that seem, and the way I evaluate if those things are right is it if they strike that same nerve for my long-term plan, then they're in. If they don't, they're out. But honestly, my most effective direct, direct action planning happens per year and the year broken into quarters, and then the quarters broken into months. That's my and then the months are broken into days. I mean, it just goes from there. But my most um action specific action driving long-term planning comes from this kind of emotional type of thing, you know. What I like I said, I can't describe it, but it comes down to the annual cycle into the quarter cycle, and within that quarter, then what does that mean per month? And this is all written out. I have, you know, my plan and um and all that. So that's that's my process, and everyone has something different.

Yeah. Yeah. I'm I've I asked that because most of the more successful people, and I think this is pretty well documented, plan in very long terms. Yeah. I um my goals are set out in my short-term goals are five years from now.

Yeah.

My um middle, I I go five years, 25, 50, and then my lifetime goals, right? So that's that's what I look at. I review those every morning because I need to see that for like you. I need that natural feeling in me of like, okay, this is where this is all going. And it makes those days like yesterday seem like nothing. Well, that's fine, right? I I'm I'm just gonna keep trotting towards my five-year goal.

Because I'm a running back, and that's it. And I'm gonna get across the goal line, and that's that's the importance of that long-term goal. And and you know, like you said, you these long terms that my long term is that it's I don't know, it works its way into my dreams. It's a very different sort of process. And it's it's I have these dreams, and the dreams create this emotional visceral reaction, and then that is hardwired, and then it's I can't quite, I know what it is, but I can't quite explain it. And then it's just I take that and like, okay, well, how about you know, this is where I want to see myself? Is that clicked into to that? So it goes into the like I said, like it goes down from there three years for whatever reason. For I don't do the five, I do the three, just because it's for me, it's more tangible, but it it just breaks down from there.

Yeah, yeah, that's a great way to do it, man. So I I I haven't even asked what what do you do? Like, tell us about Spider-Free Kids.

Well, so Spider-Fit Kids was like I said, when I had my daughter, it just struck a chord because I'd been working in this kid space for a while, first with the camps, and then I was I just kept with it because I had acquired a lot of time working with kids. And and and so it's kind of that 10,000 hour rule. I realized I've been working with kids a lot more than other professionals, so I have something to share. So I started blogging about it and I started presenting when I had opportunities at fitness conferences, and people started to see me as oh, this guy's you know works with a lot of kids. And but it part of my ego was like, hey man, I don't know if I want to be the kids guy, you know, be the cool pro-athlete guy. And so glad that that I got rid of that part and actually hit into okay, what does strike that nerve? What does put me in line with that long-term goal? And so 2014 started the company, uh Spider Fit Kids, and for the first year or two, uh, it was very much an education campaign because uh I had looked at this whole world of childhood and said, well, what's how come we're not making an impact on, let's say, um childhood obesity, not necessarily on how come we're not getting skinnier kids, but how come we're not able to get into institutions and legitimize exercise within schools, whether it's physical education or classroom movement? How come our sports system is still broke? How come we're not taking any action anywhere within our institutions to create some change here? And so I wanted to take an approach, let's talk to the professional, let's not just have me go out and have Brett's 101 favorite exercise to do with kids, and that's gonna solve it. It was like, okay, let's talk to some other people who have professionals to get out of our silos to get out and say, okay, so I talked to occupational therapists, I talked to physical therapists, I talked to pediatricians, I talked to fellow professionals, I talked to coaches, I talked to administrators from these national sports and say, what are you looking at every day? Like, what are you seeing? What is your take on this? What do you think? And so we we formed this approach that you know we've called it powerful play, but it really boiled down to we need to get kids excited about leading a proactive, active lifestyle and seeing health as an opportunity versus an obstacle. And I think health has become this, uh, yeah, well, I don't eat healthy because I wish I ate healthy. And if I just wish I was healthy. And it's become this uh health is a pain in the ass. And it but just be like, no, it's health is actually it's not that hard to be reasonably healthy and it's it's really fun to exercise. Maybe you don't like going to the gym. You know, we didn't have gyms for thousands of years. We looked really good, you know, totally status and stuff, right? So we coined this term powerful place. So what we did is we've created all these resources and education for, okay, let's say um, you know, here's some games, here's um whatever it is, you know, kids play this, but it all fits into a framework, and here's why we're doing here's the cognitive impact of these specific things, here's the physical impact of these specific things. Here's the so we've created this education from that, we've created a certification. We've created we're like, like I said, we're licensing our framework to these institutions who are under a lot of pressure now because of the climate of child obesity and sports specificity and child um you know injury rates amongst young athletes. We got the concussions, all these different things. They're under a lot of pressure to show that they're they're doing something about it. And so we're able to say, hey, we we have this, that you know, physical literacy initiatives and all these new kind of programs. We're able to say, hey, we have this framework and this curriculum that took us that first two years with no sort of uh attaboys um to create. And so now we have that, you know, certifications for fitness professionals or coaches or anybody else who wants to work with kids, or um, and I'm not talking about PE, I'm talking we call them non-traditional fitness educators, people that operate a uh a daycare, but they realize that if they had some sort of physical education or movement strategy within the daycare, they can improve fitness learning and behavior, better outcomes, they would improve the value of the business. So then we we uh we have creative products too, CEC courses that people can educate themselves online. We have the powerful playground, which is uh that's a database of people could go to, if you're a professional or anyone, you could go to this powerful playground database, and it's just hundreds of activities. You can search the database for the age of kids for the so let's say you're a parent volunteer with a soccer team and you have no idea what to do. Here's where that's interesting is that years ago you could just show up and be like, God, these kids have had PE, they've been playing all day. I'm gonna roll a soccer ball out as long as they don't kill each other. I've really made a great impact. And as a parent volunteer, honestly, yeah, if you just throw a soccer ball out there, get them moving around, you've made an impact. But we have to realize that these kids have not had PE. This first time you roll a soccer ball out to them, this might be the first time they have ever had any sort of really high-intensity movement outside of just activities of daily living. And maybe running around with their friends a little bit. But so it's like, well, there's opportunity there within sport, just playing some basic games, understanding why you're doing it to arrive at these goals. And so we we're online, we it's it's international. Um, I'm, you know, right now we're in the process of scaling. We're I'm getting master trainers to in Asia and in Europe and and all over the world so that we can certify more coaches, so that we can do things like that. So it's in a pretty rapid growth phase right now, which is exciting. Um, but you know, the funny thing about being an entrepreneur is when things are bad, it's slow and you're depressed. When things are good, you're stoked, but then you're also working non-stop all the time. You gotta be okay with that, and you have to be excited about that.

Yeah, yeah. You go uh you cycle from depression to stress all the time, right? It's like shit. Like, guy, because when you're not busy, you're like, all I want to do is be busy. And then you get busy, you're like, this is crazy.

It's nuts.

How did I get into this? Yeah, what am I doing? Yeah, that's awesome, and it's it's really it's really cool to see. And I think uh just if we can, it's not just kids, man. If everybody could play a little more, right?

Well, and honestly, with kids, and and I I have a Facebook Live this afternoon, and we're gonna talk about it. Um, but we see it as a kid's problem. Oh, childhood obesity. Well, that's a kid's problem. And and I talk to so many parents, and and I get emails from parents, and well, I just my kid needs to exercise more, and they're just making bad food choices and they're on their gaming system too much. And I'm just looking at that, how did that fit into the culture of your house? I mean, does your eight-year-old have car keys and a jaw and disposable income so they can drive to the store and use their disposable income to buy an Xbox and and then hook it up to your television and then just play it? I mean, literally, that's the situation. Does your child buy the food for your house? Does your child drive to fast food? Do they and it's us adults, and there's tons of data to support that notion that if if we don't become an example, and when I say become an example, I don't mean being an Iron Man or Iron Woman traffic. I mean that it's just an example of when we talk about health, we don't say, oh, mommy or daddy is gonna go exercise because we're fat. You don't have to worry about it because you're skinny. Oh, I have to eat all these you get to eat cookies. I don't get to eat cookies because I'm fat, but you're skinny, so you can eat whatever you want. That's parents talk to their fucking kids, and it just blows my mind. And so we we got to clean up. If we want to see positive outcomes with childhood obesity, it's gonna come from us changing our mindset, changing our attitudes and our behaviors when it comes to health and getting off this diet cycle and getting off this uh notion that, okay, I'm gonna do a 21-day challenge, and that's my fitness, and I'm gonna get a six-pack, and then I'm gonna be 40 pounds overweight. We'd be much better off finding yourself somewhere in that like 20% body fat, you know, where you're at that like healthy zone where you could tighten it up a little bit here and there, or you're but you're not like swinging between morbidly obese and then contest ready skinny and then making it to be this thing, just make an extension of lifestyle.

Yeah. Wow, such good messaging, man. So, where do people find all the stuff, man? All the stuff.

Yeah, so if you go to spiderfitkids.com, that's our blog. Uh, you can see we have we post a lot of things there. You can also find information about our other programs there. On our Facebook page, Spider Fit Kids, that's where we're posting every day, twice a day. We're posting research, we're posting uh making videos, we do Facebook Lives. Like it is an education trove. And I'm not talking soft stuff. Soft stuff bothers me. When someone just, well, this is what makes me feel good. So I'm gonna write about this today. Every once in a while, you're gonna have those pieces, but everything we put out is like, no, this is what the research is saying. This is you know, based on we interviewed this expert. We we we've done this, that's where we're coming from. So that's what we're posting every day. But um, you know, to our website and through that, you can keep yourself uh up on you know what what we're doing in regards to you know how you can become more involved, how you can get some of our resources. If you go to spiderfitfree.com, that's where you just download. This is where we just put up, we have different things all the time. So download it for free. Here's our guide to here's 20 activities that you can do with your kids right now. These are top activity. Here's uh we have video series we give away for free for education. It's just literally the more people that understand what's happening, the more people we get in our tribe that's committed to a future of happy, healthy, active kids, then it's it's a benefit to everyone. So, you know, we invite everyone to take advantage of all these free resources.

Right on. Well, Brett, thank you. Thank you so much for coming on, man. This is really fun. I think it was half interview, half mutual therapy session, but uh we we did something. Whatever it was, we did something. So I think uh I think say with confidence I'm gonna probably be asking you to come back on the show sometime in the next one. Right on, man. Yeah. Right on. Ladies and gentlemen, Brett, clip up. Thanks, Eric. 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 asked 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 we're 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 the 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 MarketingAlliance.com