Fitness Business University Podcast

SPEAKER_00: So, okay, yeah.

This is gonna be a a tough one.

So I I'm I'm recording this
podcast for me and me only.

So this is my excuse not to go
to therapy, but I'll probably go

to therapy as well.

I'm recording this on shooting
what day it is anymore.

Thursday, actually one week ago
today.

My mom died.

And probably weren't expecting
that one.

And yeah, it's it's been a
really, really, really rough

week.

I promise I have some business
insights to share for you in all

of this, but ultimately this is
maybe me venting.

And I I gotta be honest, so I I
am I now both my parents have

died.

And my dad died about four years
ago, and now my mom is gone.

And it's tough, it's really,
really hard.

I can't not tell you I've been
I've cried more in the last

seven days than I have in my
entire life, probably combined,

and it's weird.

I don't know if my dad would be
upset about this, but I cried

way, way, way more for my mom
than I did for my dad.

And I'm not I'm not sure why,
but here's kind of I'll just

tell you the very quick
backstory of what happened and

why at 46 I have no parents, but
it's basically in 2017, I had

just moved into a new gym, and
my dad had a pretty bad stroke.

And the stroke was like one of
those a lot of people have

strokes and they're fine, but
this was a bad one.

It lost, he lost his ability to
walk, lost his ability to talk.

Whole left side of his body was
pretty much paralyzed.

It was a really bad one, and you
know, my mom, you know, set him

up in the house.

We had to like rearrange a whole
room in our house, like build a

bathroom in our downstairs and
stuff like that.

But she gave him like amazing
care and and did everything that

she possibly could to take care
of him and give him the best

life possible.

I mean, the life quality of life
was horrible in terms of how

sick he was, but it was she did
her best, right?

And you know, it was a very,
very stressful experience for a

really, really long time.

And as soon as my dad died, my
mom got dementia.

And it's it 100% was related to
the stressful spirit experience

with my dad.

100%.

Like she probably would have
gotten dementia, but her mom

lived to like 94.

My mom's mom lived to 94.

My mom's grand, my mom, my mom's
mom just just died like a few

years ago.

So she's like it's so weird.

But anyway, so she gets
dementia.

You know, it's it's if you ever
had experience with dementia,

it's like it's a I guess it can
vary, but in my mom's case, it

moved very, very quickly.

And about a year ago, we had to,
you know, put her in a home.

And and then yeah, yeah, just
stuff starts breaking down, and

you know, she didn't make it.

And so it's like I am like super
sad because my mom's a really

fucking awesome lady, really
awesome.

And I I'm happy though that
she's out of pain.

She was not living a high
quality life.

She was in a home with like, you
know, she was in like the the

wart where they lock you up and
you can't go anywhere.

It's like it's hard.

It was hard to visit her there.

It was really stressful for me
and my sisters.

It was just tough.

So she's she's now gone, but
there's some there's some

there's some lights in all of
this.

I got to do a little digging.

So here's my first kind of
lesson for you on this

situation.

So I wrote my mom's eulogy, and
the first draft came back of the

eulogy, and I was like, this is
no way.

This needs to have a writer's
mind on it.

And I sat down for hours and I
wrote my mom a eulogy.

And the amount of feedback I've
gotten on my mom's eulogy,

sorry, not uh not eulogy,
obituary.

Obituary is like the the big
paragraphs with the way what

they write for when someone
passes, right?

And you basically describe who
they were, and a lot of times

it's like, well, the this person
leaves behind this person and

that person, and I was like, no
way, my mom's not going out like

that.

People are gonna know that this
lady was different, this lady

was special.

Again, this is the first
business thing for you, and so I

wrote a really good obituary.

Apparently, people told me that.

And then the second thing was
damn, I keep yeah, obituary.

And then the second thing was
because I have experience in

speaking and I did my dad's
eulogy, my sisters asked me to

do my mom's eulogy, right?

And so I prepared my ass off for
that, and used a lot of the

things that I know from speaking
in public to on podcasts to on

presentations and stuff like
that for my eulogy.

And I'm not saying that I
crushed it, I'm just saying that

everyone came up to me and it's
like that was the fucking best

eulogy I've ever heard in my
entire life.

Like that, it was amazing.

How did you do that?

Incredible.

And it all came down to
experience, it all came down to

the work that I've been doing
for the last several years with

speaking and writing.

And so the first thing I want to
tell you and share with you is

that you know, I'm yelling at
you guys all the time to learn

how to write, right?

To learn how to write copy, to
learn how to write emails, to

learn how to, you know, write
words that sell, yelling at you

guys to get out there and get
out into your communities and go

do mini workshops and go speak
and do and do this stuff.

And while I believe that things,
those things will, I don't

believe, I know, those things
will help grow your business and

make you more money.

Your ability to write and your
ability to speak will make you

more money as a gym owner.

Man, you can really do great
things outside of business with

your written word and your
spoken word.

And because I've been doing the
prep, it's kind of uh, I think

there's a quote, it's like your
your performance like falls to

the level of your preparation or
something like that.

And I have just my entire life,
not my entire life, but the last

decade have been preparing
myself to write and to speak to

doing this, and it enabled me to
really honor my mom on a much

higher level than I would have
done otherwise, right?

And so like the benefits are are
are way well more than just just

making money in business.

The same thing can go for, you
know, when my when my a lot of

times when my kids are having a
tough time, what do you do when

your kids having a tough time?

A lot of times you sit them down
and you have ta talk with them.

Sometimes that's the worst thing
to do.

What do your kid doesn't want to
talk about it?

And so what I've reverted to
when my kids are struggling with

something, I'll write them a
letter.

I don't write them words.

And so this the skills of
speaking and writing not only go

to helping you grow your
business, but they help you grow

as a person, and they help you
make impact, make an impact on

people around you and other
people.

Imagine getting up in front of a
church and smashing a eulogy.

It's one a great feeling for
you, but and again, say not just

eulogies, like wedding speeches.

I married my sister, they asked
me to do the what is it to do to

be the the minister, so I had to
become a minister, and they

asked me to marry them.

I've done wedding speeches, like
stuff like that.

So like it, those abilities and
those skills talk you take you

way beyond business.

And so I felt really proud of my
mom as I'm like digging through

all this stuff and looking at
the life she lived, and it was a

really, really great, great
life.

And I narrowed my mom's life
down to three words: generosity,

love, and the last one was
strength.

And she was a really awesome
person that helped a ton of

people, and a lot of people knew
that.

But when they heard me talk
about it and they read the words

I wrote about it, they really
got it, and it honored my mom's

life really powerfully, which
was really awesome, and I was so

grateful.

And it's a silver lining to a
really fucked up, shitty

situation.

I'll be honest with you.

Like, I'm like again, as I'm and
I'm here's my therapy.

As I as I do this and I, you
know, recover from this, yeah,

and and my my mom was so good to
my wife Vanessa, they had such a

great relationship, the two of
them.

She's devastated as well.

So it's it's a tough, it's a
tough loss.

So I want to share my experience
with my mom in business, and my

mom helped me start Gabriel
Fitness.

So she was my first employee.

And you know, when I launched
the gym, even before I launched

the gym, and you know, when I
was writing my first business

plan and I was doing all this
stuff, like my mom was like

right there by my side with me
doing all this stuff and helping

me.

But the big thing that my mom
had an HR background, and but

the big thing she taught me was
all about hiring.

And there's a funny story I've
told a few times, but my first

hire when I was looking to hire
a trainer, I had two candidates.

One of the candidates was a guy
that was very credentialed,

right?

He had all the certifications,
he had a degree, he had

everything you could think of.

And then the other guy had like
a college football background

and zero training experience,
and he had a communications

degree.

And me, the dumbass gym owner,
I'm like, no, we mom, I will,

and I'm talking to my mom about
this stuff, and I'm like, no, we

need to hire the guy that's got
experience, the guy that knows

how to train somebody, the guy's
this.

And she looked at me and she's
like, honey, no.

You hire the guy that's gonna
create relationships the best.

You hire the guy that's gonna
have the personality that people

are gonna want to come to this
gym with.

You can teach him the things
that he needs to know, but you

can't change him as a person.

And so you want to find the best
person for the job in terms of

their personality, their buy-in,
and she that that has been that

lesson has been a pillar in
every company I've ever had.

And I probably would have made a
huge mistake if I had hired the

other guy.

Huge mistake.

And I'm so glad it did.

Because I the other guy was
you've heard me talk about him,

is a guy named Big Tom, who's
you know, was with me for 13

years.

He's still one of my best
friends.

He's an amazing person, amazing
guy.

And he helped, he and I together
shaped that whole company.

And if it wasn't for her, I
would probably wouldn't have

hired him.

And so my mom kind of instilled
these different principles in me

uh of how to find the
high-quality people, and she

taught me the interview process.

And I had no idea how to
interview anybody.

She taught me, you know, what to
do and how to read a resume.

What are the things you're
looking for in a resume?

She taught me how to do a phone
interview and how you have to do

a phone interview first before
you do an in-person interview.

She taught me the things to look
for in the interview process

when they come in, and what are
the things that I could do to

test them a little bit outside
of just asking them questions?

What are the questions I should
ask them?

She helped me create this the
fourth interview, which was

called the Shadow Period, where
she told me to have them come

and watch.

And she said, have them stay for
like a whole afternoon or a

whole morning.

She's like, Don't have them just
come for an hour.

Have them come for like three or
four hours.

And I was like, Why?

And she's like, Because I want
to see if they really want this.

And that became a pillar of our
interview process.

It's like, you want to hire
someone that wants the job?

And so we'd have them come in,
and it's like, if they can't

hang out for four hours and
watch a bunch of sessions, and

they're like bitching about
that, well, they ain't gonna

want to work from 6 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

and then come back at 3 and do
it again.

Ain't gonna want to do that if
they can't do one shift for four

hours to watch.

You know, and the last one was
the last, you know, hiring, the

step in the hiring process was
she's like, go out to eat with

them, take them out to eat and
see what they're like.

You know, how do they treat the
waiter and the waitress?

Do they offer to pay?

Do they not?

You know, how do they, what are
their manners like?

What do they evaluate, all that
different type of stuff?

And she taught me this process.

And this whole process is
outlined in my book, the 364

hiring manual.

I think in one of my emails, if
you're on my email list, I gave

it away to everybody for free.

You can shoot me an email and
I'll send you a free copy.

If you didn't get that email,
Vince at GabrielFitness.com.

But I outlined that was my first
book I ever wrote, and I was

outlined the hiring process that
my taught me.

And shit, it's like it's really,
it's it's it's been tough.

It's been a it's been a really
hard week, it's been a really

tough week, and I've just been
able to just start working

today.

I haven't really done much at
all.

I think it's what it's like to
feel almost a mini depression.

I've been moving very slow.

I'm coming out of it, though.

I feel I feel a little better.

And the good thing is, is that
my mom's out of pain now.

She's hanging out with my dad,
and it's it's it's going to be

it's going to be good.

It's going to be good in the
long run.

And but I don't, she doesn't
leave without me learning a lot

of business lessons.

And that hiring process that I
just outlined for you.

I've taught that hiring process
for over a decade, and thousands

of gym owners have learned that,
and thousands of gym owners have

probably taken that and used it
to hire better trainers and have

better businesses because of
what my mom taught me.

And so this one was for my mom.

This one was for me to vent a
little bit.

I apologize if you don't, if you
this is if this is your first

episode, I am so sorry.

But if you're a longtime
listener, hopefully you can

you've been you're going on the
journey with me.

And hey, life's filled with with
great things.

I've had a lot of great things
happen in my life, especially in

the last you know, several years
with my kids being born and all

of that.

But man, life is there's a there
can there's there's downs in it,

and you know, the measure of
your life is how you respond and

the downs.

And I looked at I was crying
like crazy, but I looked at this

eulogy, and I really took it
very, very seriously.

Like when I did the eulogy at
the church, I took it really

seriously.

I put a lot of prep into it.

I wanted to honor her.

I wanted to use my gifts and
speaking to also teach other

people that they could learn
from her life and and learn from

the things that she did really,
really great.

And and I was able to hold it
together.

A lot of times people get up
there and they can't.

And I was able to hold it
together because of I don't know

how, but because probably
because of the preparation.

The preparation, I knew what I
wanted to say.

I rehearsed it a bunch of times.

I always do this stuff with
Vanessa, and I rehearsed it with

Vanessa.

She's like, no, take that out.

Vanessa's like, take that out,
take that out.

And I listen to V.

She's awesome.

But yeah, man, it's been a uh
it's been a tough one, but I

wanted to share that, you know,
she's had a little piece of, you

know, a lot of the stuff, a lot
of the stuff that I teach.

If you you know have heard me
teach about hiring before, and

there's a lot more too.

There's a lot, I this is all I
can muster today.

And I know there's more things
that she taught me that I now am

turning around and and teaching,
you know, to you guys, not just

not just from a gym space, not
from a gym business space, but

also just from a personal
standpoint.

But so this is all I can muster.

And if you want the book, if you
want to read the book, I'm happy

to give you a free copy.

I'm not gonna even send you the
opt-in version.

So I'm not generating leads from
this.

I literally, on my email list,
when I sent them the sent them

the book, I just sent them the
actual, I think it was a PDF or

whatever.

So if you want it, I'll give it
to you.

It outlines the whole process,
the five-step process that I

went through that my mom helped
create and created, you know,

one of the more successful gyms
in the in the in the world.

And then, you know, we went on
to teach this stuff to you know

thousands of gyms all over all
over the world.

And so, yeah, my mom had that
hand in it.

So thank you for listening.

I definitely wanted this to be
not a long one.

I didn't think I would be able
to go too long today.

But I appreciate you tuning into
this podcast.

I appreciate you allowing me to
give you an episode that's a

little different, a little more
emotional.

And I'm very grateful for this
platform that I have.

And and I thank you for
listening.

And so, over and out.

See you on the next one.