Vulnerability in Crisis...and Cat Memes - Tony Gentilcore

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, where we talk with entrepreneurs, researchers, and practitioners in fitness, wellness, and the health sciences. I'd like to give a big thanks to our sponsors, Level 5 Mentors, helping entrepreneurs achieve the highest levels of freedom in time, money, relationships, health, and purpose. Also, Certified Course Creation, helping entrepreneurs create accredited online certifications that are not only lucrative but highly scalable. Go to level5mentors.com or certifiedcoursecreation.com and learn more. I am your host, Eric Malzone. And once again, welcome to the future of fitness. Boom. We're live. Tony Tony Tony, man. How you doing?

I'm doing okay. That's, you know, like everyone else, I think I'm doing okay. Yeah, for now, right?

And I think everything is so everything's so touch and go right now. And my favorite quote I saw in a meme, which I feel like I say every hour, is like, man, this week has been the longest year of my life. And you know, it's just everything seems to be moving fast yet slow. And it's an interesting time. You're seeing a lot of advice come out.

Which I wish, by the way, I loved, I love that three-minute video you put out the other day of stuff that to me was like hit the nail on the head, in my opinion. I think for the people who are listening who didn't hear it, basically you just said, like, don't say, I know the answers. Don't say actually you should say what you said.

Yeah.

Yeah, it was you're you're the one that said it. Why don't you say what you said? Because just if you could just say it in like 10 seconds, and like because it it really helps.

Yeah, I think the first one, and I have to recall now, it was, you know, don't don't say I I told you so, because that's the whole topic we can do talk about for 30 minutes is don't say I have all the answers, and don't say it'll be over soon.

Yeah, okay, perfect. Yeah, because you're right. There's a now you can't you can't go on Twitter or Facebook or any or Instagram's a little bit different, but Instagram is just like everyone's 66th variation of a split squat. But Twitter is just like everyone, it's just you can't get away from it. Everyone has an opinion or a side, and it's hard. And I remember talking to my therapist last week about it's like, you know, I try to, I'm really trying to limit myself to the news. Like, I'm trying to limit myself to like 20 minutes in the morning and like 20 minutes at night from fairly straightforward middle ground resources. Like I watch G Good Morning America in the morning and I watch PBS New Hours at News Hour at night. Um, and you go on Twitter, it's just like she's just like, you know, it's you have to remember that it's everyone's you know, you see an article saying one thing and an article saying something completely different. It's like this is all coming from everyone's own psyche, uh, and their and their experiences and their background and you know, certainly their echo chamber that they're involved in. But you're right, it's just you can't get away from everyone everyone has like, oh, this is what you need to be doing, this is what you need to be doing to prepare. No one knows shit. No one knows shit. This is completely foreign territory for everyone.

It's interesting. And the ones like, you know, if I had a point, I I've talked to people who there's uh I won't say it because it was an offline conversation, but with a guy who has been essentially leading the marketing for uh a very popular online coaching platform, and they're up something like 4,000%. Right. And but he's like, you know what? I feel bad saying it. I'm just we're just acting as if business is normal and we're just trying to help more people. And then you hear other people who are maybe online coaching gurus who are like, This is why I got into online coaching. This is why, you know, so-and-so made six thousand during COVID, COVID 19.

I'm like, man, so there so so there's some people you've seen that are actually like marking the fact that people are making more money during this time. Oh yeah. Uh yeah, that to me just screams of tone deafness. Yeah.

And but I think it's I think it's in how you put it too. Be like, hey, it's okay to say, like, hey, if you're if you need to make some money, here's a direction I can guide you in because everybody is kind of looking for a better way right now. Or you could do it from the way of like, this is why I've always been doing it this way. You know, this is why I got an online coaching stream. Like, you didn't know that. You just got lucky. You just got lucky. Yeah, yeah. Were you planning for a pandemic? And you're like, oh, when the pandemic hits, dude, I'm gonna cash in.

Yeah. Yeah. And then and then there's a conversation too, which I've seen this echoing in the industry too, is people taking like selling products during this time, which I am one. I don't see any issues with that whatsoever. Because I I think there's one side of the fence where there's blatant profiteering, which is kind of what you were alluding to in your example. And then there's the other side where saying, hey, you know, like I recognize that there this is the downtime for a lot of fitness professionals, and we have a lot of time on our hands. And I think I have relevant information that can help you, you know, hone your craft, sharpen your skills. Everyone needs continuing education. Here you go. Because Dean and I just released or we re-released Complete Show of the Hip Blueprint today, in fact, and which we were planning to do two months ago to do it this week. And both he and I, like, we're not oblivious. Like, we were both kind of like, oh, should we do it? Like, I don't know, does it do the optics look bad? Like, how do we do this? And we were both kind of like, you know what? Like, we we're good individuals, we have good intentions. You know, it's not our fault that we've made resources to sell, like that is part of our revenue and our income. So let's release it again or do the do the sale that we were gonna do. We'll lower the price even more, but also offer a payment plan. And hopefully it will be received in a way where it's not taken the wrong way, which I don't think that's gonna be the case because we're not sitting here saying, hey, this is a cure to COVID. But I know there are some individuals out there where that they're they are being pretty nefarious with their marketing and they're taking advantage of the situation, which is unfortunate.

Yeah, yeah, and it's and it's all you know, it's all gonna be done within context and tactfully and empathetically. But I'm from the camp of, hey, if you have something that's sell and people find it valuable right now, sell it. By all means, go for it. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. And I don't think you have to give away everything for free. That's the other thing. It's like, you know, I once again, it's in context. If you're in a situation where, hey, you can afford to give away things for free and you see an advantage in the long term to gain influence in a way that is is beneficial for the industry and the client and your business, then I think it's okay. But if you're doing it because you're scared and you don't know what else to do and you can't really afford to give away stuff for free right now, don't give it away for free.

Yeah. And that was actually a topic of a guest post that I put up yesterday by Erica Sutter and uh Johnny Pytranti. I'm probably saying his name really wrong, but uh um he and I have crossed paths on social social media a few times, and I'm really good friends with Erica. Um, and that's exactly what the article was. Like, this is a time where we need leadership in the industry. It isn't necessarily a time to inundate your Instagram free feed with free bodyweight workouts and free this and free that, checking on this. I mean, we all understand why that is a thing. I mean, I think it's normal. There's nothing bad to say about that, but certainly you shouldn't feel bad about selling your services during this time. No. Or feeling bad about, I mean, I I've switched to I'm not training any people in person right now. No, I mean, I shut down my studio, I'm not training anyone in person, and I've switched over to virtual. Not all my clients are doing virtual sessions, but some are, and I'm charging my normal rate because it's like I didn't become less I didn't become a less knowledgeable coach in a week. I'm still writing programs, I'm still, you know, my certifications are still valid. So, you know, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna I'm gonna charge my rate. Like I'm I'm I'm an hour of my time is an hour of my time. And I didn't get any pushback at all. So I don't I think a lot of it is fear. Like people are afraid to be like, oh well, you know, maybe I should maybe I should discount my prices during this time or discount because I'm doing online instead of instead of in person. And I get where that comes from. I think that's normal. But I really feel that the the bulk of people's clients are actually gonna say, no, I am paying you my full rate, your full rate. I've had numerous friends of mine say that they they had offered doing it discounted and their clients push back saying, No, I am paying your rate. I think we're in a time where just everyone understands we're here to help each other and try try to get through this. And no, I hope I I I do feel like this this does bring out a lot of good in people. I don't want to I don't want to make it seem like I'm all pessimistic and and uh uh you know downtrodden all the time, but I do think this is uh there there's a lot of good going on in the industry. And yeah, I I lost my train of thought.

So I I agree, man. Yeah, no, it makes total sense, and I I agree, and I I like to get into you know what what you think the qualities of leadership we are and we need right now. Sure. One of the things I you know when you posted an article and I reposted in the Modern Fitness Pro Facebook group that I manage, you know, you talked about your therapist, and I was like, Yeah, you know, that that's a pretty cool thing to do. I see a therapist and you know, I'm 43, and I think I said in my repost of it, I'm like, hey, if if you get to the age of 43 and you don't have some shit to talk to a therapist about, good for you. Very true. So that's one thing. But I actually talked to my therapist about this whole situation either. And one of the things she brought up is like, hey, we're coming off as a society, right? As humanity. And it's you know, different countries, different regions of the world are at different phases of this. But the one we're in now here in North America is we're coming off about two weeks of a huge adrenaline rush. And, you know, people are acting in in the way you would if you're on adrenaline rush. They're just throwing things out there. And I'm I was part of that too. I was like, oh my God, I just up my, you know, social media by 5x, 10x, and sure, you know, you know, everything, right? And then she said, well, after that, what happens is physiological, people are going to a depression. And so we have to look out for each other even more as the adrenaline rush wears off. And how do we help each other, you know, support health, mental health? Because hey, man, a lockdown that's tough on mental health. So we have to be aware of that. And I think this is a huge opportunity. We talk about leadership for fitness professionals to step up into a major role within their clients' lives. And I don't, I don't mean stepping outside of your scope of practice. I think we all know the difference between a licensed therapist and a fitness pro. Um, well, I hope we do. But you'd be surprised, Sarah. Yeah, I know, I know, I know, I know. I uh and I think what we do have is access to people's lives that a lot of other people don't have. And if you're doing Zoom calls and if you're doing, you know, group sessions, or if you're running groups, or if you're just picking up the phone and calling your client base, uh, it's gonna go a long way. Like they just probably, yeah, they need someone to help them move and work on their mobility and not gain too much weight during these lockdown periods. They also just need someone to talk to, man. And I think that's something where the fitness industry can step up and move up a couple pegs in the pecking order of of professions.

Yeah, I agree. Like I I think one of the first things I started doing with my own clients, once I once I made it known that I was shutting down the studio, once Massachusetts was like, okay, we're we're shutting down all non-essential businesses, I was like, okay, well, there you go. You know, I'm shutting down the studio. I think one of the first things I started doing was just reaching out to my clients individually via text or email, just saying nothing more than what can I do to help. It wasn't like, hey, let's start virtual sessions. No, that wasn't the first thing out of my mouth. I think that organically ended up being like the the next like email or two after that. It was like, okay, let's game plan. Because a lot of them were still worried about I've done all this work to get in shape and I'm worried I'm gonna lose everything. And that was another thing I had to do was kind of play a little bit of quarterback where I was like, you know, listen, like that when we when we talk about maximal strength, cardio endurance, that stuff sticks around for quite a while. You need to be like laying on a bed horizontal for four straight weeks for you to lose a significant amount of of both of those qualities. You know, I think it's so long as you're staying active and doing something. I think if anything, what we've loved in the past two weeks is that bodyweight exercise can be pretty challenging. Yeah. Uh especially when you start putting in time under tension and doing tempos and one-one-half reps and supersets and what have you. Like doing that, like just reminding the body of like tension and what it feels like to strain, you'd be surprised in how much of those qualities that it's gonna maintain. And and honestly, a lot of people, I see way more people outside running now. So I don't think anyone's cardiovascular fitness is going down in the tubes anytime soon.

Yeah, I agree.

Um, so you know, once I kind of down, like said, okay, listen, like you're gonna be fine. You're not gonna, you're not gonna wither into this emaciated human being in a matter of two days. You'll be fine. And then I was like, what can I do to help? And then that eventually gravitated to a conversation of like, okay, for programming, what are we what are we gonna do? Do you want me to still write your programs and you do your own thing at your, you know, giving give me what you have at home. What do you have available? And let's let's modify your program and we'll act accordingly. Or do you want to do that plus a virtual session one once or twice a week? We can do that. Or are you just gonna press the pause button like entirely and kind of focus on your life and your family? And I just had to have a conversation with each one of my clients for that. And I spent the first week essentially modifying every program that I've written for the past for all my clients, and it got a bit interesting to say the least, because you know, most people's home home gyms aren't that well equipped, so it it was a stapler, a kettlebell, and and like a a bag of rubber bands. Okay, give me give me a four-day four day week program, Tony. So I was stressing if anything, that was that was the most stressful part of the last week or week or two for me was that modifying everyone's program to coincide with what they have available at home. Because right now, too, I mean it's almost impossible to get home equipment now. Everyone is is out of stock of everything, it's crazy. So, yeah, I've had to, you know, you use stairwells and let's use let's use hallways and let's figure it out. But at the end of the day, it was just a matter of like, what can I do to serve you and help? You hire me as your coach to help you write your programs and get you in shape, but there's more to being a coach than just that. I wanted to make that known to my clients as is okay, I'm here to help. What what what do you need me to do? Like, what do you need me to be for you right now? And I think that's an important message that can be relayed to any other fitness professionals who are listening in on that. Uh, because I think you're right, Eric. I mean, there's definitely a massive adrenaline rush for the past week or two. And Instagram was was a a a very bright beacon of that as far as the content I was seeing. And it wasn't bad content. Like, I believe me, like I saw a lot of innovative stuff. I was like, huh, I could use that. Huh, that's a good idea. Um, there's a lot of good that came from it, but I do think a lot of people were panicking and putting up a lot more content to what they're used to, but at the peril of not keeping their clients in the forefront, which I think is is a mistake. Yeah.

Yeah, it's really interesting, man. I think you know, just hearing you speak and what you're doing is essentially creative problem solving, which I think is the number one focus that people should have is you know, how are we taking all this uncharted territory and creatively problem solving for our clients, for our businesses, for our industry? The question I've been asked at least twice a day for the last 10 days is how is the fitness industry gonna be different when this thing runs its course?

I do not know.

I don't know either.

Um I I can look at it, I can look at it at both sides of the fence here and say, okay, on one hand, I do see it becoming a thing where people are gonna realize, like, oh, you know, I can I have this pretty killer set up at home now. Like I don't need to go, I don't need to be spending fifty, sixty, seventy hundred dollars a month paying for a gym membership when I can just stay at home now and listen to my own music and work out when I want to work out or X time during the day and be fine. Um, and I don't think, especially when things start to subside with the with the pandemic, I don't think people are gonna be clamoring to go right back to the gym right away. You know, maybe the the hardcore fitness bus will, but I do think there's gonna be a delay there. But then I don't know. Like I I the other part of me feels like, you know, for the for for the people where fitness is a part of their life, that's gonna be the first thing that's gonna they they can get control back or gain control back of and like, you know, and make it part of their daily routine again. And you know, I I I it's gonna be interesting. I have friends over in the UK, uh, and and the UK is doing it a little bit differently, where like a lot of the even a lot of the fitness industry, at least for the bigger corporations, commercial gyms, are getting state help, which means their trainers are gonna be okay and they're gonna have a lot of them getting furlough, they're gonna have a job when they get back. That's not necessarily the case here. At least I don't think that's what's happening here. So I am very curious on how you know larger gym chains are gonna are gonna fare out or or how they're gonna do at the end. But certainly what what really what really worries me are the the small business owners because it is just absolutely chaos as far as the information coming out and like okay, this grant does this, this loan does that, here's we gotta go to apply for this one, and it's just it I can't follow it. And I do think unfortunately there's gonna be a lot of people losing their blood, sweat, and tears and their the gyms that they built from the ground up, and that's unfortunate. But but thankfully, you know, there's there's friends of mine whose landlords are being very cool about the situation and saying, hey, don't worry about it. And there's others that are just like, no, like pay me. It's like straight up good fellas, like pay me. But at the end of the day, no, I don't know. Like I've I've been asked the same question and I don't know.

Well, that's the only honest answer, man. It is, and that's the thing, is like I think a lot of it it comes down to the duration of this. I mean, that's really the big the big factor of it. I mean, if yeah, if you know for some miracle reason this lockdown lasts for 30 days, well, things could go right back to normal. It won't. It's gonna last longer than that. But you know, all I I think there's I think there needs to be some real talk too. I I think, you know, when people are saying, hey, save your gym by by doing XYZ. You know, I I just have to say a lot of small gym owners or ones that have running on thin profits high overhead, they're just in unforgiving landlords who just they're they're not gonna make it. It kills me to say that. It kills me having been a gym owner and knowing that it's just the reality of the situation. It's like, hey, not everyone's gonna survive this. What I do think we can offer is maybe not the answers, but some really good questions. And, you know, I was uh talking to a really good colleague of mine who owns a very successful gym. And one of the first questions he was asking himself was like, Do I really want to survive this? Like, do I want to go back to gym ownership? Because right now is maybe, I mean, it sounds weird in a positive or positive in a weird way, is like some people this could be their opportunity to get out of something without a damaged ego or you know, a failure on the record, you know, in their mind.

And and probably like a little bit more forgiveness from the government and et cetera, in the sense of yes, you know, it's like, hey, like, I mean, pandemic, hello, like yeah, yeah. So yeah, I never thought of that actually. It's actually a a good point. Yeah, there might this might be a window of opportunity for some people who feel like they've been stuck in gym ownership to get out. Yeah, I've never thought never thought of that. That's a valid point.

The other thing, I mean, the the big thing I think for people right now too is just managing your cash. I mean, that's you know, you and I were talking about that. It's it's really king. I mean, I'm okay, but when I found out that the company that was loan, you know, has my car loan was like, hey, do you want to defer payments by 120 days? I was like, Yep.

Yeah. When they when they say defer though, are they just saying like we're we're we are pressing the pause button for whatever it was, four months? And like we're not like, okay, that's yeah, that's great in them to do.

You know, and I big shout out to Ally Financial. Well yeah, give this man a free, I don't know, year membership.

I don't know. You know, I I feel very fortunate too in that I, you know, my wife and I, we have savings, like we're we're we're going to be fine if this only lasts for half a year, eight months. But after that, then who knows? I mean, you know, there's only there's only so much savings that we have. You know, I feel thankful for that that I've worked, that we've worked hard to be able to provide this safety net. But yeah, certainly, you know, we've we've already started conversations like, okay, what what are we gonna cut back on? What can we cut back on, just to kind of plan ahead. We really don't know when the gym's gonna be reopened because they keep pushing back when non-essential businesses are gonna are are have to remain closed. Started off as April 7th, now it's May 4th. You know, if I if I were a betting man, I would say it's gonna be past May 4th. Yes. You know, I if not in the if not through summer. So, you know, yeah, and I'm just we're I'm just pivoting, you know, like I said, virtual sessions. You know, I've I I'm I've I'm working with my my my website guy to develop a platform to send out uh at home workouts, which is something that I was planning on doing down the road anyway, not not necessarily at home, but just like you know, pe workouts that people can have written by me that they can just do at their commercial gyms. But I'm gonna start with at home and then progress it to at you know more robust gyms to now when people are allowed back into commercial gyms, I can write programs for that. But so I'm very fortunate to have that that that's gonna be coming out in a couple weeks. He's been you know, I've already made the first several videos. He's been he's been developing the platform, and we have a nice little synergistic uh relationship there that you know will help both of us develop a revenue stream. And of course, my and my wife is a psychologist, and she's worried that she's gonna lose clients. But I feel like I don't know, like I feel like you're gonna pick up clients during so too.

Like I think telehealth is gonna be tremendously valuable.

I mean, she's in she's in our back room right now seeing patients. Thursday is our her private practice day, which she she's had to revert to doing everything online. But I feel like between her regular patients and even people within the fitness industry wanting to reach out for mental health help, she's gonna be okay. But but yeah, there we just have to plan ahead and just try to be very frugal with our with our money, um, which I think everyone should be. I I think any fitness professional should read profits first and make that. I mean, that if I I know might not be the time or place, but that book saved me. Yeah, yes, it's because of that book that I'm in this situation now where I have the safety net. It's because it it allowed me, it gave me the framework to okay, manage my money. Okay, what what is going where? It's just really simplified things for me and helped me just yeah, know where my money's going and where where I needed to be.

Yeah, that that book changed my business as well. It's funny. I think I read it first in like 2015.

Yeah, that's when I read it. That's when I when I left Pressy Sports Performance and opened up my studio. That that's the book that was recommended to me. It really resonated with me. And that's the system that I use. And I tell every fitness professional views because it it just like I said, it just really simplifies it and it just it it it tells you where to put your money based off what's coming in.

That's a really good question. So, you know, a lot of people have a lot more time, hopefully, to to read a little bit, maybe reflect, you know, Netflix, and we can probably do a whole episode on Tiger Kings, but I have not watched it yet. Oh, dude, yeah. I feel like I I feel like I don't want to watch it, we'll come back, we'll do a whole episode on Tiger Kings. As my friend referred to, he's like Tiger Kings is the glue that's holding together our society.

Well, I feel like that talk about perfect timing for that that type of documentary. I figured if it was just a normal time, I mean, yeah, I'm sure it would have gotten traction, but I just think it's just like crazy traction right now.

Tony, is there anything else you're reading? Any other books that right now?

Yeah, please. Currently I'm reading um Pity the Reader, which is Kurt Vonnegut. And it's not written by Kurt Vonnegut. It's one of his mentees. It's a female writer. Um the name is uh alluding me at the moment, but basically it's uh it's a whole book on creative writing, um, featuring a lot of Kurt Vonnegut's. prose and and writing and interviews and and she's kind of going through and saying here's an example of this here's an example of that and and it's phenomenal I just I mean I'm I'm obsessed with Kurt Monegate and it's just like I hate it because it's such good writing. Uh but uh so I'm reading that just I like as someone who does a fair bit of writing I like reading other books on the process of writing other people's processes of writing which is always very helpful. And I'm also reading a Robert Loveloam novel Apocalypse Watch which is I mean I'm I'm a big fan of Robert Lovelum. And then uh but as far as anything like um you know personal development or business currently I am not reading anything at the moment. Pete Puyee would be the person to ask for that or Mark Fisher. They're essentially a library of the best books to be reading at the at the current moment uh from personal development. But I'm trying to think was the last one I read. It wasn't too long ago. Oh gosh I'm I I can't think of it at the moment. But those those are the two books I'm reading right now. And then trying my best to keep up with people's content online too. Because I think that's that's where the most relevant information is honestly is people's Instagram and websites and kind of like what they're thinking about at the at the current state at that day. I kind of like keeping up on that stuff. Dan John Mark Fisher and Michael Keeler all the time on business related stuff. Shoot your video from earlier in the week was money. I shared that. But yeah right now I'm I feel like my form of escapism is writing it was really nice that that article that blog post that you reposted of mine that I wrote earlier this week. It was so good to have an afternoon to get away and just my wife would just like was basically just like go in the go in the bedroom you're going to work in quotations because like we have our toddler home all day now. And if I'm around I'm like his magnet. It's like he is attached to my hip the whole time. And so she would just like go in the back room and go do work. And it was just really nice to feel to go back and and do some writing because I feel very rusty at the moment with with my writing really my form of escapism is yeah we've been watching shows like we're watching the current season of homeland we're watching uh Westworld you know what else are we watching right now? Of course we watch John Oliver and stuff like that which is weekly but I'm watching TV just like everyone else like I'm not immune to that. Like I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I'm a big movie buff. We're I'm re-watching movies like crazy we rewatch what did we watch the other day I rewatched Zero Dark 30 and the sniper in one day or American Sniper sorry so I love Zero Dark 30. Like at that I love that and then I was watching it and my wife walked in and she's like oh let's watch American sniper I was like okay she she didn't have to pull my arm uh so we rewatched that so you know I'm doing it for a bit of media watching too not just reading yeah I think both of us are are fairly introverted guys so you know times like this actually are uh you me sitting at home watching movies and writing that's like happened to me yeah yeah it's I gotta get actually I hate saying it I hate saying it because I love my clients but when I set up these virtual sessions on my during my normal coaching hours and it's just like I'll I'll spend the whole day like basically playing with my son and then maybe do some writing because you're finding me I was like oh I gotta do virtual sessions now. And training and honestly like training people virtually is just not the same as in person. It's hard I it is really hard. It's it's an art I turn it on like no certainly like I you know I'm able to do it but it's not my favorite thing to do in the world. But I mean again it it's not about me it's about my clients and being there for them. So I'm doing it. But yeah it's hard when I'm in introvert mode for eight straight hours and then it's like okay gotta turn gotta turn it on. It's tough.

Yeah it reminds me and I already I'm gonna reach out to Mark Fisher too and see if he wants to come on. I'm sure he's got some really good insights into what's going on right now. I've rebooted a couple things so I'm back on the Anthony Pordain bus. Oh yeah yeah some of his stuff because it makes me feel like I'm traveling again. And then uh there's a great Nassim Tableib and this is by no means like escapism because it's mentally challenging to read it but his book uh anti-fragile which um talks about his concept of black swan events which was the previous book and if there's one thing we're going through right now it's a black swan event completely unforeseen no one knows how to handle it and what happens when and I'll kind of leave people with this principle is you know there's anti-fragile is not the same as robust or sturdy. Anti-fragile is something that gets stronger within times of chaos. And which I guess would be Donald Trump right oh man basically geez that guy I mean if there's one thing I say whatever you want about the guy you think like oh man that's it he's done he just seems to get stronger and stronger in a weird way. But anti-fragile I think is something that people could read and be like okay you know how do I because maybe it doesn't prepare you for what we're going through right now but there's always going to be black swan events throughout our lives and I think that's a really powerful concept for people to get and understand. So yeah man.

Look at you way way to one up me Eric was I doing that yeah I'm reading I'm reading a Robert Lotham spy novel and watching Netflix and like oh I'm reading anti-fragile oh dude I'm reading first of all I'm listening to it which I know that is like a subcategory for reading but uh dude I'm watching some trash TV I don't I like I don't even know what the name of it is sometimes but Tiger Kings is number one and I I don't know I mean everyone's dealing with it in their own way I'm gonna watch uh I'm drinking more I can tell you that okay yeah I'm drinking more energy drinks that's for sure I will say the amazing race I used to watch that back in the day I fell off the bandwagon I started I started on Hulu I think it was like season 29 which is from like I don't know three years ago and I've been make I've been watching that and to me like an amazing race if there was like one reality show that that I would probably that I would do it would be that because to me that seems a little bit more it seems a little bit more quote unquote real than a lot of trashy reality TV.

But yeah so I've been watching that my wife has been judging me you know it's uh it's interesting you know what else I've been doing a lot of is just a lot more like last night I was on a uh a zoom happy hour call with all these guys I went to grammar school with oh wow and it's yeah my wife's been she's done a few of those where she's gotten uh like she has a group of her girlfriends and they they've gotten on zoom and done a happy hour they each have a cocktail and they're just kind of talking and catching up. It's really fun. Yeah it really is you know and especially if you're the one who hosts it because you you can mute people whenever you want to find out if anything it's just reaching out to friends colleagues.

Like I I I'm I'm trying to make it a point of at least once a day reaching out to a gym owner friend of mine or colleague saying hey how are you doing? How are you holding up uh I did I did that today with friends that I have in Raleigh uh North Carolina and I just think that's important because people want people want to feel like they they're in other people's thoughts and they have uh people on their corner. So yeah.

Yeah I agree man I agree. Any uh you cover a lot of ground today you know I I wish I had a five step process for fitness professionals to be successful over the next 90 days there's not there's really not I think I think that the more authentic you can be um and honestly not feeling timid to reveal yourself.

Nice my wife always says like you know it's okay to feel your feelings it's even it's even okay to convey your feelings. I mean some people like to repress them. Certainly I'm not saying you need to punch a wall or anything. It's okay to to show vulnerability and it's okay to say you don't know and it's okay to cry. No so I I do think it it is it is completely fine and human to feel your feelings and and to let them ride. We are in the unknown and we're all we're all in the same no it's a I do find solace in that we're all in the same boat. There is a part of me it's like you know every everyone is going through some shit right now one form or another. And I do find solace in that in that okay it's not just like one group or class of people or whatever we're we're all going through some shit. And obviously there's gonna be some more than others of course I'm not trying to belabor that point at all or downplay it. But yeah I think the more authentic you can be during this time the better. Like I don't to me I I'm with you I don't have enough eye rolls to get for all these Facebook guys I'm seeing like oh you're a gym owner here's what you need to do to survive. It's like fuck off like um you don't know shit like my God and like and the last thing people need is some you know when people are doing their ML like the supplement schemes. What are those network marketing and ML something like that. And that's just like that that's like the the the fitness industry's version of that and I'm just like oh yeah um I but I do think there's a conversation to be had too of like now I think this is going to be a reflection time where people where fitness professionals are going to start to realize that they need to kind of diversify. Because then there you know there's it might have been who would I see it like because you know we you know peep in the trench co in the trenches coaches like myself and others who are like coaching people in real in real life and we we've gone out of our way to kind of belittle influencers or people online be like oh like you know when Instagram goes down or Facebook goes down like oh my you're screwed now like ha ha ha and now the people who are on Instagram are like ha ha ha like you know what I mean it's just like oh that's that's that's a fair point. So I think there's there is a conversation to be had about being a little bit more diversified. Like you kind of have to have your your toe in each little like puddle here. You know I do feel like yes in-person coaching to me is always going to kind of be like number one but then having an online presence having in writing doing video you know eventually gaining enough career capital where you can you can put resources out there and products out there that people are going to buy that doesn't feel rushed or taken advantage of the moment because I mean there's probably an influx of I don't know how many free ebooks are out there now. But yeah I think this if anything this is this is going to be a a nice reflection time for a lot of fitness professionals and how they can better diversify their their portfolio their their career portfolio.

Yeah yeah I agree man I look at people like you I look at Erica Suter who's actually going to be released on a podcast right around this one too you know just taking the time like you know you put the time in you you you started writing blogs a long time ago you worked with people in person you've developed online coaching writing is so important that's such an important skill to have sorry I cut you off yeah it's great I think if you if you can develop the skill to write and just get really good at it and be able to to communicate and convey your message via writing like that's never going to go away.

And I think the people who always say writing is dead are the ones that can't write. You know I I think if you that it's such an important skill to have even in just an everyday life. I mean I'm sure Eric you've seen your fair share of emails and you can tell by just the way people write their emails it's like oh my God like are you kidding me?

We have Emmerly now. Yeah.

Yeah that's and which I need to start using because I I I go back and look at some of the stuff I've written on my blog I'm like oh man like there's like five grammatic layers in the first paragraph. Um like maybe I should keep my mouth shut on this whole like writing thing. But yeah I'll shut up and let you finish your your thought I cut you off.

Yeah no there there are no further thoughts man I I think if there's messaging that you know people can get out there I think you nail it number one we're all in this together and you know I when you watch those movies of like aliens coming invading the earth and all the countries all of a sudden uniting behind a common cause because we have a shared enemy it's kind of that right now right from a sci-fi standpoint. And it's okay that you don't have the answers and right now authenticity and just being creative and in how you meet people's needs is is number one. You don't have to follow a system you don't have to follow a step-by-step guide that some guru threw out there. And also it's okay to to be really really genuine and open with what you're feeling and because you know what that's what people are going to relate to anyway. So you know now's the time just to if you're gonna if you're gonna flex some influence that could that you've already earned it's it's you know do it the right way that's that's what I want people to to get to and even you know influence is is varied in how you actually interpret it but influence can be simply the one on one connection you have with your client that's it so do the right thing.

I think that's the message right that's that's not a bad message yeah that's a good that's a good title.

Yeah I like it.

Well man Tony it's it's always a pleasure dude I always a pleasure yes I really appreciate it I love touching bass with you.

Yeah cool. Well we'll uh we'll talk soon everybody you know you can find Tony everywhere but TonyCentalcore.com of course and uh get on his email list because it's really enjoyable so thanks man hey it's your host Eric Malzone thank you so much for listening to another episode of Future of Fitness if you enjoyed it please do me a huge favor by going to the website and signing up for our newsletter website is futurofitnessco again that's futurofitness got some big big announcements coming down the pipe and we want you to make sure that you are on top of it. Thank you again signing off