Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: What's up, guys?

Welcome to another episode.

This one is going to be really
helpful for you to get into 2026

with everything ready to rock
and roll.

So every year I do something
called an annual planning event.

And I do this with my private
mastermind group, where I always

do it with them.

It's included in their
membership.

But I also open it up to outside
people to come in, hence why I'm

recording this podcast.

But I've probably I think this
is like the fifth or sixth year

that I've done this.

And everyone loves it.

Everyone really enjoys the time.

They block a whole day.

It's not, I wouldn't say it's a
whole day, it's about five hours

that we block.

And it's where we do all of your
business, personal, financial,

and marketing, planning all
inside one single day.

And today what I want to do is
just give you like a little bit

of an outline of the day.

And if you decide to come after
this, great.

I think it would be really
helpful.

But I do believe that I'll give
you enough that you can take and

do this on your own.

Now I will say this if you're
going to do it on your own, you

do have to have the discipline
to sit down and really knock all

this out on your own.

The beauty of doing it with me
and doing it with the rest of

the group is I it is almost like
a workshop format where you're

gonna actually show up and then
you'll leave with everything

finished.

And I found it's like I've gone
through years where I really

waited till last minute to do my
annual planning.

And sometimes I honestly haven't
even really done it.

It's like January, oh, we're
getting into it.

And it's just it's really
important that you sit down and

do this.

Now, here's one thing that you
gotta know.

There's a great Mike Tyson
quote, and he says, Everyone has

a plan until they get punched in
the face.

And what you gotta understand is
the most valuable part of this

whole process is sitting down
and doing the plan.

It I'm gonna make you a promise
right now.

It is not gonna go exactly the
way we got laid.

Right?

And so if you have a certain
goal number of members or a goal

number financially, a goal
number of just set goals that

you want to achieve.

I promise you this, what all the
stuff that we write down, it is

not all going to happen exactly
as you plan.

Some of it will, some of it
won't, but it is not gonna be

like this picture of, oh, we're
gonna create this perfect plan

and so it's not gonna happen.

It's just not.

One of the things you got to be
always prepared for is to

redirect.

If something is not going rare,
I was watching a reel of Mr.

Wonderful, who I love Mr.

Wonderful's reels.

And he says, he said the number
one thing, the number one skill

of an entrepreneur is to be able
to pivot.

That's what he says.

He's you got to be able to
pivot.

And what he mean by pivot,
right, I think he meant like you

have to be able to adapt when
something's not working.

If you have a specific marketing
plan that's going and you think

it's gonna work, and you put all
this time and effort into it,

and all of a sudden it just
flops.

That happened to me recently,
where I put like a lot of energy

into a specific marketing plan
or a specific marketing

campaign, and it just flopped.

It just didn't work.

And I was like, fuck, man, that
sucks because I spent a lot of

time into that.

But back to the drawing board
and go back and do something

different.

So the most important part is
the plan itself.

It's not necessarily that
everything goes exactly the way

we want it to go.

So the work is sitting down and
doing it, and that's what we're

gonna do in the workshop.

So the it really comes in four
sections.

The first section is to recap
your year.

So 225.

And we're gonna do this on
December 12th.

And so obviously, there's almost
a month left in the year, but

we'll do it through the first 11
and a half months, 11 and a

quarter months.

And uh what were the wins?

What were the good stuff?

It tends so a lot of times we
tend to focus on what were all

the shitty things, but what were
all the good stuff?

Let your positive focus fuel a
lot of the energy.

Sometimes something really great
happened in like February, and

it's like you totally forgot
about it.

It's wait, man, oh February, we
killed it, or I hired this

really good employee in
February, and just a long ways

away.

So it's a really good time.

You take this time to look back
and be like, all right, what

went good, right?

What went good?

And everyone, even if you have
the worst year of your life,

there's still like some good
stuff.

Dan Sullivan has an app that he
created called the Wind Streak.

And he basically says your
confidence goes when you focus

on your confidence grows when
you focus on the wins.

And so that with this win streak
gap is, it's basically this app

that you it asks you this
question, what were your wins

today?

And even if you again, like I
just said, even if you have the

worst day in the world, you
probably can find like one thing

you know that you did that day
that was winning.

And it's just and you're not
turning a blind eye to all the

other stuff that you need to
turn, that you need to address

and face, but it just doesn't
put you in this downward spiral

of focusing on all your losses.

So that's the first piece of it
is what are the positive things

that happened throughout the
course of the year?

And you can do that for business
and personal too.

Usually the recap is not just
business-wise, you can do it for

personal life.

Like, what were the good things
that happened in personal life?

And then the second question you
usually go through is like, what

didn't go as planned, or great?

What were the things that
happened that were not great

that you maybe can extract
lessons from?

What were the things that
actually came from that you

learned from?

And like for me, I had a huge
one, right?

I this I had a monster year this
year.

I acquired a company through a
buyout, and then I sold the

company all in the same year.

Some of it was good, some of it
wasn't good, but there was

massive lessons from it.

Like I could write a whole book
on that whole process.

And so a lot of it is carrying
forward the things that you

learn.

And then the other piece is like
looking at the numbers, like

what were the data points that
are most important to look at.

And I in the document that I
give everybody when they come, I

outline the most important ones,
the most important numbers that

they should know.

And actually, I do some
pre-work.

I I do a little pre-work where I
had to send them an email and be

like, hey, make sure you have
these numbers ready, look up

these numbers ahead of time.

But there's some numbers that
are more important than others,

and there's some really
important numbers that are

important, not just to be like,
hey, how did you do this year

with these specific things?

But also sometimes the you need
the numbers to look at what your

goals are going to be in the
future, right?

And so if you want to know what
your revenue is gonna be in

2026, we kind of got to know
around where it was in 2025.

What was your profit?

Like these are all important
things that you need to know.

So it's recapping 2025 from a
personal standpoint, from

business standpoint, best things
that didn't go out, and then

specific data points and
numbers.

What are the most important
numbers that you want to review?

And then how do we take those
and carry them forward?

So that's the first section of
it is really recapping and

reviewing, you know, what
happened in 2025.

The next piece is your business
plan for 2026, right?

And uh this is pretty simple,
right?

One of the things that we want
to do when we do the planning is

we want to keep it really
simple.

I think a lot of people do these
very complex planning purposes.

And I remember I used to have a
guy that was a mentor of mine,

and he would send me this
massive document with thousands

of questions and just and it
would take me five days to do

it, and it was just like
overwhelming as hell.

And one of the best parts of
this process is we keep it

really simple.

And actually, I've kept it the
same almost for four years in a

row.

I haven't made any changes to
it, but I went and made a bunch

of changes this year, and I was
just like, hey, dude, how can I

make this even simpler, even
clearer, even easier for

everybody?

So there is stuff I eliminated,
there was stuff I added in.

But what you want to do when
you're creating a business plan

is you want to keep it simple.

You want to make sure because
complexity is the enemy of

execution.

The goal is that we create this
business plan and we do it to

the best of our ability.

And so we have a really
structured one-year plan.

Again, it's not my plan.

I learned it from EOS
entrepreneurial operating

system, but it's a real simple
plan to outline your one-year

goals.

What do we want from a client
standpoint?

What do we want from a revenue
standpoint, profit standpoint,

what are our actual goals that
we're going to achieve?

All that stuff goes into the
one-year plan.

So that's the main thing.

I'm just pulling up my document.

Hold on, I have it here.

Oh, and one of the things that
we do is we I said before we do

a lot of data, we pull the data
from 2025, but what we do is we

set the goals from a financial
standpoint and a conversion

standpoint and a nutrition
standpoint for what we want to

have happen in the tw in 2026.

Right.

So there's some money math that
we do, some money math.

And actually this year, one of
the changes I've made is using

ChatGPT to help with this.

I think sometimes people are
like, oh, I don't know how to

get the goal.

I don't know what and what I did
is I went in and I used, I

created a bunch of new prompts
for Chat GPT.

And what I'm going to do is I'm
going to give the people in the

workshop, I'm going to give them
the prompts right then and

there.

And so they can use ChatGPT to
help them get the exact goals

that they want, knowing that,
hey, you might not achieve this

exact number, but hey, let's put
something down so we can go

after it.

So that's one of the new things
I added this year is these

ChatGPT prompts to be able to
use AI to help you in this

process is really, really a good
thing to do.

So that was the money math
section.

There's a money math section,
there are my prompts.

I talked about the one-year
plan.

The next part after the one year
plan is we would say, all right,

I'll lead them through a process
on how to create your 90-day

goals, right?

So you're going to have goals
for one year.

What do we want the thing to
look like?

But what we need to start doing
is chipping away at what we want

to look like in a year, and
that's to set some goals for 90

days from now.

So basically we set the cue on
goals and I have a pretty cool

process of how I do that.

So that's your business, that's
the business plan for the year

and for quarter one.

And then the third section is
all personal stuff, is just what

do you want from your personal
life, right?

Because you know your business
is great, and but understand

what your business is.

Your business is a vehicle to
help you live a better life.

And I really I love this
section.

This is my favorite section.

Business stuff is cool, but I
love the section.

We added this section last year,
and this section was called a

Masogee.

And what a Masogee is one big
event per year that you pick

that you're gonna do.

And most of the time, I wouldn't
say most of the time, but a lot

of times it's like a physical
challenge.

Let's say you've like never run
a marathon before, and like you

put, all right, my Masoge is I'm
gonna run a marathon.

Let's just say that so my
Masogee this year was climbing

Pike's Peak.

Last year, the year before that,
it was doing the Green Monster,

which was a 50K.

The year before that was writing
my kids' book.

So it's something, one thing
that's like kind of

year-defining that you are going
to let it be the highlight of

the year, right?

If you could look back on one
thing throughout the course of

the year, then you would look
back on this one thing, right?

And so like when for example,
I'll just use the ones I just

said, but for example, when I
look back and I think about

2023, I was like, all right,
that's the year I wrote a book

for my kids.

Okay?

2024 was the year of the Green
Monster, 2025 was the year of

Pike's Peak, right?

And each year you have one thing
that you can do.

We sit down, we give a bunch of
examples, and we help you lead

you through an exercise to help
you decide what you want.

We've had so many people in our
mastermind do this, and so many

people, one of the ladies in our
group, her name's Kathy, she Her

Masogee was to run a marathon.

She had never run a marathon
before, and she ran the

marathon, and it was like a
massive accomplishment in her

life.

It was like life-changing for
her to be able to do that, and

it was all because she decided
that it was Hermasogee at this

annual planning event that we
did.

Right.

You can see how this is it's a
really powerful process.

And then we'll set goals like
health and fitness goals and

habits, marriage stuff for you,
family, any family stuff.

And then I added a section this
year called life experience

stuff.

Right.

So obviously a Masogee is like a
life experience thing.

But I was at a live seminar
where Jesse Itzler spoke, and

Jesse Ixler is actually the guy
that taught me about Masogi.

But he also talks about just
like living a life of

experiences and finding cool
things to do and doing more

things like that and being
intentional about it.

And I've tried to do this more.

It's like my sometimes I'd like
kind of want to home get sit

home and read.

But I know that if I think back
to the cool moments of my life,

it's when I got out there and
did shit.

So just I'm recording this on a
Friday.

Tonight, there was a line
dancing thing at our church.

And Vanessa and I and the kids
are gonna go.

That's a kind of an experience,
like we're doing something cool

and different.

And the more you fill your life
with these things, the better

your life's gonna be.

And so the annual plan process
allows you to be intentional

about adding those life
experience things to your

calendar.

And it doesn't have to be things
like that are that cost a lot of

money or big elaborate
vacations.

It could just be it's not
costing as much to go to do line

dancing, right?

But it's gonna be a cool, fun
and memorable experience, right?

You could do a day in this city,
like we took the kids to

Philadelphia for the weekend a
couple years ago, and it was

amazing.

It was a great life experience.

It was good for us, it was good
for the kids.

Things like adding some and
being intentional about living a

more full life.

There's a quote most people live
lives of quiet desperation.

So get out there and do stuff.

And I'm speaking to myself too.

Again, as I said, my inertia is.

I just want to sit home.

I work hard, I just want to
relax a little bit.

But we're going to do stuff.

And actually, on Monday, we're
doing a lot of stuff lately.

We're going to Monday Night Raw.

We got Joey, my son, tickets to
Monday Night Raw.

So we're going as an entire
family to Madison Square Garden

to watch Monday Night Raw.

It's a life experience.

It's cool.

A wrestling match is you're
going to remember that.

I remember as a kid, I went to
one wrestling match and I went

with my dad and I saw Andre the
Giant live.

Like it was incredible.

It was something I it's a
massive nostalgia, but it's a

life experience thing.

Right.

And so if you start your year
and you're intentional about you

sitting down with your family,
you're sitting down with your

spouse or whatever, and you're
like, hey, what can we do cool

that's different and exciting
this year?

Let's map it out.

Right.

And so at the workshop, we're
going to give you time to be

able to decide some of that
stuff.

We'll also talk about personal
productivity.

What do you need to do?

What's your job description for
your business?

What are the things you need to
do better?

What are the things you need to
do differently?

What are the people that you
need to hire to be able to get

you the time to be able to do
more of that stuff?

So I'll have a whole product
personal productivity section in

there too.

And the last part is the
marketing plan.

And we're going to do this only
for quarter one because time

just from a time standpoint to
not do the full year.

But honestly, you can take a lot
of the same concepts in Q1 and

use it for the other quarters.

But we're going to outline what
you're going to do for marketing

in January, February, and March.

So you will leave with a loaded
marketing calendar for Q1 after.

That is the final section of
this process.

So I'm super excited about this.

I love this day.

And this is, I'm about to make a
big announcement, right?

And so here's the big
announcement.

So I'm sitting outside my gym
recording this right now.

And I have been in a small room
for, shoot, a couple years now.

And I have an office that's way,
way too big.

And across the hall, Mike
Mullen, who runs my gym, he's

had an office that's way, way
too big.

And we have a lot of, it's a big
gym, so we have a lot of office

space and stuff like that.

And so what I did was I took our
two offices, I blew walls out,

and I turned it into a mini
teaching area that's going to be

our FBU, Fitness Business
University headquarters.

There's going to be a mini
library in there, there's going

to be a podcast studio in there,
and there's going to be an area

for about 15 to 20 people where
we do mini workshops like this

annual planning event.

So you will have the ability to
do this annual planning event

with me over Zoom.

That's normally how we do it.

We normally do it through Zoom.

But this year, I'm also going to
be giving an option to do it in

person where you can come to my
gym and join us and do it live

with me.

And we have a packet that we'll
print out for you.

We give you the packets, and
it's going to be it's going to

be awesome.

So we'll have 15 spots for that.

I'll be honest with you.

Most of the spots are going to
be taken by my mastermind group.

They're already buying for spots
for this thing.

I just had to actually, we just
finished demo today.

The flooring guys coming
tomorrow, paint guys coming next

week, electro guys, otherwise.

So we got like, man, we got to
get this all done by the date

that we have this event, which
is on December 12th.

If you are one of the lucky ones
to be here in person, you'll be

able to experience the FBU
headquarters.

Now, this is also happening on a
Friday.

And we start the workshop at 10
a.m.

And not only do I coach gym
owners, but man, we got a pretty

damn good business, a pretty
damn good gym.

And we do small group training
better than most gyms.

You, if you're coming to this
event in person, I also invite

you to come and watch the
sessions at my gym from 6 a.m.

to 10 a.m.

Right?

So now you'll get a full day out
of it.

You can come watch it.

You come to my gym, watch my
coach's coach from 6 to 10, then

come into the back, into the new
FBU headquarters, sit down, and

we'll get your annual planning
done, be done by three.

That's a full day of you taking
it to the next level for your

business.

So this is really exciting.

It's gonna be super exciting for
me to do this live in addition

to having it on Zoom as well.

Yeah, really exciting stuff.

I will be pumping a link in the
show notes.

There's just like a quick uh
opt-in page.

You just fill out the opt-in
page.

I think it's booking a call.

Get on the phone with Tom.

He'll give you all the details
about the event.

It's really small fee.

We don't charge a lot of money
for this.

I really want as many people to
do this as possible because I

really feel like the planning
process is super important.

So I don't put a huge price tag
on it because I want people to

do it.

There'll be 15 spots in person
and then a bunch of spots

virtually.

I'm not going to put this fix,
go.

We can only take five people on
virtual.

No, we can take a lot of people
on virtual.

So yeah, so that's the outline
of the annual plan works

workshop.

We do it every year.

It's what Anchorman calls the
pancake breakfast.

You've watched Anchorman, it's
the pancake breakfast, Ron.

We do it every year.

It's the annual plan session,
Jim Boner friend.

We do it every year.

And we're doing it this year,
we're doing it a combo of live

and in person.

Really excited to be doing this,
especially this year, new with

some of the new chat GPT
prompts, with some of the new

questions, some of the new
sections I've added, taking a

bunch of stuff out that wasn't
really necessary.

So this is a much better version
of this workshop coming up, and

very excited to do it live as
well.

So click the link in the show
notes.

Let me see if I have a quick
URL.

I don't think I do.

Let me see if there's a URL.

I can't even read it.

I think it's live.

Let me say copy.

Hold on, sorry.

I can't see it.

It cuts off the link, so I don't
know.

So just click the link in the
show notes.

I can't read the whole link.

It's it's it's annoying.

But anyway, I'll go.

But just click the link in the
show notes and it sends you to

the page to get the rest of the
info.

For again, we charge a small
fee, but it's nothing crazy.

And uh yeah, hopefully you can
make it either to New Jersey or

live with us on Zoom.

It's on December 12th.

We're starting at 10 a.m.

going to 3 p.m.

No lunch.

We're going right through, five
hours straight, and in five

hours, you're gonna have all of
the planning done for your year.

Super exciting stuff.

I'll see you in the next one.

Peace.