Turns out that Journalists only use parts of an interview. Thought Id post the whole thing since I worked on it and Google seems to like content for contents sake anyway.
– What was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I think I was like a lot of people, in the sense that I saw my “real world” job and my “real self” as two distinct lives. I can remember spending some very long days watching the clock, waiting for that 24-hour Paramedic shift to end just so I could go train in martial arts for an hour or hit the gym. Before bodybuilding and Martial Arts, it was music. I played in bands from ages 13 to 33. It’s all I cared about. I was a terrible employee in literally every job I ever had, including the Army. I was the guy who was always late and screwed up basic rookie things. However, when I would get to what I perceived to be my “real” life, I would suddenly become this energized, focused guy who cared about details and loved even the mundane parts. It was a weird evolution from playing in bands to martial arts to weightlifting to going into business, but it all feels like the same project. The big moment of my life was meeting martial arts instructors and personal trainers who did it full time as a “real” job. All of a sudden, that power that I had in my “off” hours was something that could sustain me in my “real” life. I did attempt to do personal training as a “side hustle” for a while and keep my Paramedic career, but after getting fired for the 4th time in 2012, I decided to jump in full time and make it happen. I had negative 100 bucks in the bank that day. I burned all my State of Texas Medical Documents and effectively made myself unemployable. It was June 15th. I celebrate that day every year. All six companies I worked for here in Texas have since shut down. So much for Normalcy….
– Social impact: how does your business help the community or the world?
It doesn’t. Personal training is about the individual. Weightlifting/Bodybuilding is a very individualist sport. Group training encourages one kind of feeling, and One-on-One training, like we do here, encourages a totally different feeling. People change when they train like this. So much so that the physical effects sometimes seem secondary. People become more themselves and less what others want them to be. “Society” in general is not that important. Cultivated individuals are priceless.
– Risk-taking: how do you think about risk, what role has taking risks played in your life/career?
Humans tend to be risk-averse by nature. It’s just part of our survival hardwiring. However, our brains are funny in that we have a hard time telling what is truly a dangerous situation and what is an unconscious script playing out autopilot in our heads. My personal relationship with “Risk” is to try to pay attention to those old fear/scarcity-based scripts and lean into the uncomfortable space. So much of what we perceive as a risk is really a self-imposed limitation based on practically zero, so it certainly makes sense to aggressively test the boundaries of reality to make sure we are even in reality to begin with! Almost always it has paid off, and when it didn’t, it didn’t kill me or the business. Just a blip on the screen.
– What is the most important factor behind your success/the success of your brand?
In terms of what we provide here, the sign on the front says it all: “Old School Fitness.” What exactly is “Old School Fitness”? It is the things that have always worked, that are time-tested (Western bodybuilding is almost 200 years old!) and can last a lifetime. The era that I draw the most inspiration from is the “Silver Era” of bodybuilding, which roughly spans from the early 1900s to about 1960. Just about from the birth of Bernard McFadden’s “Physical Culture” magazine to the earliest Muscle Beach culture that ended in the late ’50s/early ’60s when steroids started becoming prevalent in bodybuilding culture. During this “Silver Age,” most “Physical Culturists” were regular men and women with jobs and families and did not fit the modern mold of the 24/7 “gym rat”. A regular weightlifting routine was a 3-4 day a week at most rotation and was usually full-body and not much more than an hour. Just add clean classical American-style foods from that time, and you suddenly have some of the best bodies to ever exist. Examples? For boys, look up Steve Reeves, John Grimeck, and Reg Park. For girls, look up the QUEEN: Abbye “Pudgy” Stockton. Fitness is incredibly simple. Literally everything you need to know to stay lean and athletic could fit into one issue of one magazine. I’m pretty liberal with the term “Bodybuilding” as most things that we want to get out of our fitness actually fall under the domain of Bodybuilding. No one goes into a CrossFit gym to NOT see their body look good regardless of whatever silly “functional” angle they are selling. The good news is that it’s a spectrum. The type of routine that I would prescribe to someone just wanting to shape up for vacation is the same type of program that I would start an aspiring competitive bodybuilder on. It’s largely a matter of varying intensity.
Aside from the actual “product” i.e., the training, I can tell you with 100% certainty that what has made Ronin Fitness of Richardson successful is my Private One-on-One approach. When you are here, it’s just You, Me, and my dog Kit! There is NEVER another trainer or other people. People feel comfortable here, and they can just focus on making the training happen rather than worry about being surrounded by a toxic globo gym environment. Changing your body is very personal and needs to be done somewhere that doesn’t feel like you are in HR or a mall.
Finally, I think Authenticity plays a role. You don’t keep clients for months and years at a time trying to sell them supplements and upgrade packages. You get essentially the training and diet protocol that changed my life and I train in myself today and that’s it! Straight to the point and straight from the heart. Maybe the environment is fun too. My studio is only about 500 square feet, and about half my equipment is from the 1970s, with posters of the greats like Bruce Lee everywhere. I play ONLY high energy 80s rock when we are training. It’s definitely its own thing.
– How to know whether to keep going or to give up?
When you try to know the difference between your highest and lowest self and which one is speaking to you at the moment, then it becomes a little easier. Moving forward is always the Modus Operandi and is often the best decision, even if it is not the exactly right one. However, there are decisions you will have to make to quit or double down on a certain action, and it is important to know if it is truly a strategic choice or just your lower self that wants ice cream and an easy way out speaking to you. This is true in business or the gym or anywhere else.
– Work-life balance: how has your balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?
I would definitely tell a new entrepreneur to 100% forget that the term “work/life balance” even exists, especially in the first 5 years, which are critical. It is literally all you do. I was a maniac when I started this, and my only regret is that I wasn’t a bigger maniac. After a period of time, your value isn’t the man-hours you put in but the quality and clarity of your thoughts/decisions and the continual refinement of your daily operations. At that point, it makes sense to have scheduled “RnR,” but even then it’s better to think of yourself as an athlete in recovery for the next event rather than “earned” leisure time. When you are an entrepreneur, this is all you really do. The upside? If you are really truly an entrepreneur, then this is all you want to do anyway.
– What makes you happy? Why?
- As a Businessman: I’ve been self-employed for 12 years. In that 12 years, I haven’t had to call anyone “sir” or “ma’am” that didn’t deserve to be addressed as such. Also, 12 years is ANCIENT for a personal trainer. Practically everyone that was doing this when I started has moved on or went back to their regular jobs. All of them citing “not enough money,” while I’ve grown financially every single year, INCLUDING 2020! I’m not happy they are gone, but I’m grateful as hell that I’ve been able to learn some unorthodox ways of running and growing a business that has created this really robust structure. I look forward to the future when I can pass this knowledge down and help other people become free.
- As an Athlete: My particular training style for myself is a hybrid of “Power-Building” and Fight Conditioning. A lot of people seem to think that Bodybuilding and Fight Conditioning are not compatible, and for the most part, they are correct! I’ve been playing with this for years and have found enough commonalities between the two to create a system that addresses my needs perfectly. Leo Fong’s book “Power training for Karate and Kung Fu” and its sequel “Advanced” were key as well as “The Art of Expressing the Human Body” by John Little, which was about Bruce Lee’s training method. Learning how to eat and supplement in a way that keeps me fueled properly without feeling like I’m on a “diet” is huge. I’m 47 now and vastly physically superior to myself at any point in my 20s. Everyone should feel this good!
- As a Martial Artist: I’ve been doing Martial Arts for over 20 years, and I still feel like a white belt. I feel like I know nothing, and I still find it fascinating. I’m supposedly this high-level instructor, and I feel like I’ve barely touched what is possible. There are few things more grounding than the study of the Art of War.
- As a Personal Trainer: Like I mentioned before, seeing my clients progress beyond needing me or any other trainer. When they come in and start asking little nuanced questions that show they are really embracing this and not asking Reddit-level questions, then I know we are getting somewhere.
- As a Person: First and Foremost, my true joy is my relationship with God. I have a prayer alcove in my home, and I spend a lot of time there. I understand that a lot of people are turned off by that because of their experiences with Religion. It’s understandable. I have my own struggle as well. It’s important to not confuse mere religion with actual Faith. It’s worth pondering. Secondly, I’ve been in a committed relationship for 5 years and really often wonder how I lived so many years without her before that. My day-to-day life is pretty hardcore with the weight training, the martial arts, prepping for an upcoming boxing event, running a business, etc., so coming home and having this very settled, loving life with her is where my peace is. After that, just being able to take a random Sunday afternoon off and watch Power Rangers is enough for me!
– Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?
There was never a choice! Some of my earliest memories were of trying to create or organize some type of adventure. All kids are like that, but I was always really intense and took “play” a little more seriously. Music was my first love, and Punk Rock was my weapon of choice even when I wasn’t exactly playing Punk Rock. The first time I paid my first bill with the first tiny bit of money I made in an unconventional way, it felt more Punk Rock than actually being in a Punk band! The idea that I could sustain myself with something that was so intensely personal without being a “sell-out” and give myself entirely to the process of “work” and become more rather than less was pure Revolution to me. Even now it still feels that way, it feels like creating. I spent a big chunk of my recent vacation studying for an SEO certification for no other reason than I wanted to be able to communicate with SEO providers better. What could be more dreary? However, when what you are doing is central to who you really are and contributes even .001% to your Freedom and your ability to teach others to Free themselves, then even very mundane things like SEO certifications become infused with real meaning, and the work feels like a creative act. Damn near Alchemy.
– How do you define success?
Anytime you can be 100% Authentic and get paid in the process, then you are Successful.
