Building a Fitness Business While Working Full-Time: Tony's Balancing Act as an Educator & Fitness Entrepreneur

Ever wondered how you can juggle a demanding full-time job while pursuing your passion? Meet Tony, my long-time friend and former rugby teammate, who shares his inspiring transition from college faculty member to the founder of an online custom fitness and nutrition programming service. Tony discusses the importance of finding your niche and how he's helping busy individuals achieve their fitness goals efficiently. His personal journey and expertise make him an incredible mentor and role model, especially for those looking to balance a hectic schedule with effective workouts.

Have you ever faced the challenge of maintaining your fitness routine during significant life changes? Tony shares his own story of converting a neglected basement into a functional home gym during a furlough period and explore strategies to stay fit even with limited time and resources. Tony and I dive into creative approaches to overcoming mental blocks around shorter workouts, emphasizing the significance of sleep, nutrition, and habit-building. We also discuss how to tailor workout plans to individual needs, ensuring that fitness remains a priority regardless of lifestyle constraints.

Starting an online coaching business while managing a full-time job comes with its own set of challenges and rewards. Tony and I unpack the logistics of offering personalized training through digital platforms, the importance of building strong client relationships, and the initial hurdles of leveraging social media for business growth. We also touch on the balance between professional and personal life, the importance of sustainable habits, and the realistic approach to achieving long-term success in any side hustle. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for anyone looking to juggle multiple commitments while pursuing their passions.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

What's going on, guys? Today I've got my good friend Tony on. Tony dude, what's up, dude? I haven't seen you in a while. How have you been?

Speaker 2: 0:47

No, it's been a couple of years, rob, I'm doing all right. How about you?

Speaker 1: 0:51

Dude, I'm doing great. It's a little crappy weather here today, but better weather is right around the corner, so I'm excited for that. How about yourself? What's up with you?

Speaker 2: 1:00

How about yourself? What's up with you? Yeah, just actually my full-time job. I'm a faculty, I'm a teacher at a college here nearby, so today was actually our last day before summer break, so just went in and kind of closed the loop on a number of things and looking forward to a few months ahead here with summer. So that's kind of what I had going today.

Speaker 1: 1:21

Awesome dude, and summer's right here starting up and you recently started something new, a whole other venture, right. Care to share a little bit about that.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Yeah, that's right and absolutely so. Recently I just started an online custom fitness and nutrition programming for a number of people, so it's been a process here the last few months, kind of getting that off the ground and officially launching it and the strategy behind that as well, which I know we'll discuss. So been busy, busy few months here, but busy is good. So, yes, good.

Speaker 1: 1:57

Yeah, busy is good. It's always good to stay active and making sure you filled up your schedule and stuff. Could you share a little bit on how you got into this? So everybody who doesn't know, I met Aqua back in college when playing rugby, so I know sports is a huge background to you. What made you having a full-time job? How did you and why did you kind of dive into this coaching, taking on this whole new project?

Speaker 2: 2:21

Yeah, so, as Rob mentioned, we met at SUNY Cortland in college and we played rugby together and sports have been a part of my life basically. As far as I can remember, I studied sport management for my undergraduate master's degrees, on to pursue collegiate athletics in terms of working in the industry and in NCAA athletics administration and recently I transitioned over to the teaching side of things. So teaching in sport management as well, you know, again, sports have been a part of my whole life, whether it's playing, working in the field, teaching them, coaching and so on, and health and fitness has been a big part of that. So for years I've really been creating programs for my friends, teammates, athletes, family members and really everybody kind of at one point or another has just said, hey, like you know, why don't you, why don't you do this as a thing? Right, you know you're kind of writing us some, some programs on the house here, but have you ever really thought about this?

Speaker 2: 3:26

And I always sort of brushed it off right, just said you know I'm busy, I got a full-time job and I do it because I enjoy it. But you know, that's when it really turned for me. Rob was exactly that right. If you really enjoy something you know that might be a key indicator to say, like, why not, why not follow, follow through with that passion. So that's really to your point. You know kind of why I? I finally said you know, no better time than now, let's, let's, let's get up and do it and and sort of put this all into fruition here.

Speaker 1: 3:57

Yeah, I love that and I'm glad that you kind of laid the groundwork on having your job and then pursuing your passion. You were such a great mentor and role model to me back when we were in college and I could just clearly see the level of care that you put into coaching and teaching and helping others get better too. I wanted to ask you a little bit on like other than rugby and like your friends and family, who specifically do you write programs for? Who do you help? Is it just general population people, or is it just athletes? Or is there like a niche or what is your kind of window there?

Speaker 2: 4:38

Yeah, there is a niche, Rob, and you know they say in kind of the entrepreneurship world here that if you're trying to serve everybody, you're serving nobody. So I really did boil it down here, to be specific. And they also say that the best niche is really you is a representation of who you are and what you kind of exemplify. So what I really created here, rob, in sort of my lifestyle, is, you know, as I mentioned, as you know, sports have been a part of my whole life forever. There were days where I could spend the full day, two hours, in the gym, working out, talking, hanging out with others. And you know, life happened and that's not the case anymore. I have a family, I have a kid, I've got a house that I take care of, a full-time job. My parents are getting older too. So my lifestyle has changed to the fact that I can't dedicate multiple hours a day to working out myself, but it's still important to me to try and get the same results with a little bit more efficiency. So this might answer a question you have down the road, but really what the turning point was was COVID hit and gyms closed.

Speaker 2: 5:49

As you know, I actually wound up getting furloughed for a while in my original athletics administrative job and I was home with gyms not open, kind of hanging out with no job, and I said, look, this has been a part of my life, my entire, my entire childhood and through where I am now.

Speaker 2: 6:08

I'm not stopping now.

Speaker 2: 6:09

So I converted my entire basement, which was a molded, rotting out room, into a home gym and and I had to be a little more creative and innovative in terms of what home workouts look like.

Speaker 2: 6:21

Until I got you, I got more equipment and even through that process as well, as how do I condense that into a 20, 30-minute workout with my busy lifestyle now, with my job, my family and so on, and still get the same results that I'm used to getting my entire life? So really, that was kind of the turning point and that's really the niche that I'm trying to represent here is those people that have underwent an entire lifestyle change, right? Maybe they got married, maybe they got a new job or their first job after college, right, and they have less disposable time and maybe their commute is really long to work and now they only have 20 minutes to work out at home out at home. So that's really my niche, rob, is those people that have just taken on a big time lifestyle change and it's shifted the way that they've got to operate their health and fitness and we want to be efficient with the time, equipment and space that you have, and that's the population that I'm really trying to serve here, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 7:20

Yeah, yeah, definitely, because I know a lot of people like constantly using the excuse that they can't find the time to get to the gym or get a full workout in, or they don't have access to the equipment. And you kind of brushed over your gym. You turned it from basically nothing into what I would say is a great home gym. I've seen a lot of footage and photos and stuff too, and I guess now it's also kind of like your studio too for your content that you're producing on social media and such. But I want to ask you a quick question before we move into like the next kind of segment, though. What do you have to say to people who might be like oh, I don't get the full effect of a workout in, like a shorter, condensed workout, how do you approach someone dealing with that kind of a mental block?

Speaker 2: 8:06

Yeah, sure, um, you know, creativity is a big part of it. Um, I, I've started my kind of my infancy stages here on Instagram and I'm going to continue to, um, you know, really post some some creative and innovative workouts. Um, you know, one I've got coming on this week to to kind of speak to your point a little bit is um, you know what can I have a? You know, I went to Lowe's and I bought a 70 pound sandbag and I just experimented, experimented with that and a couple, um, a couple of straps that I wrapped around the sandbag and and, um, you can make it just like anything, rob, in my.

Speaker 2: 8:44

My philosophy, in my opinion, is you, you make it what you want it to Right. And, um, you know, yes, for those that were, myself included, used to a commercial gym, you know, their entire lives it was an adjustment and, um, I, I didn't. I lost the shape that I wanted to be in until I finally gained that back. And to your point a little bit, I was a little bit negligent in a lot of the other things. It's not just the training program, it's the sleep, it's the nutrition, it's the habits that we're building. So nutrition is a part of it and it's an important part, but to me it's part of the many pieces that create this whole.

Speaker 2: 9:25

So, um, I think, being creative, uh, being innovative, and then and you know also, while you're doing that, just realizing as I get older, that you know you don't need a three hour or two hour workout, and sometimes you don't even need a full hour workout to get the results that you want. It's just how efficient and effective are we being to maximize those results? And I'm a big believer that if you've got 20 minutes, it's better than nothing at all. And I think that's kind of where I want to get. People's mindset, too, is oh, I can't make it to a gym, well, I'm not going to work out because it's not going to benefit me. My philosophy is that's not the case. Right, we can still. Let's get something in here and let's develop and create and progress on these good habits to reach our goals.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Yeah, no, I love that too. So many people kind of default to the if I don't have the exact perfect situation where I have an hour to an hour and a half or all my equipment or the right time of day, like people bug out and then they just go out and nevermind, I'll pick it up another day or so, like that. So I really I really respect the creativity that you came up with and growing, and it's got to be a fun challenge because you work all custom trained too, right? So I guess you have to deal with your clients that you're working with. You have to figure out what kind of equipment they have access to and build from there, right?

Speaker 2: 10:44

Absolutely, and that's part of our onboarding process is give me the number of days you'd like to train, um, give me the time, how long you'd like to train each session for, and give me the equipment you have, if you're, if you choose to train at home and I I do programs for commercial gyms as well, but, um, you know, in that you know, what I'm going for here is, yes, total customization based on you know, your time, space and equipment and you know, with that being said, again, it's let's create something that's fun, that you want to do and that you're going to be able to do, you know, progressively, over time, instead of something that, okay, well, you'll have to drive to a gym.

Speaker 2: 11:22

Well, guess what? Somebody doesn't feel like or doesn't want to drive to a gym and they don't enjoy doing that. They're not going to be able to sustain that over time. So I would rather work within the parameters that you enjoy, not to say it's not going to be challenging. There's going to be some difficult parts to it in mornings and days where you might not want to do it, but hopefully at least we're creating some habits that are sustainable.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Yeah, I love that Because so many people over the years have asked me what's the perfect program or what's the perfect approach to building my business or what's the perfect thing for that, and people get pissed because I tell them that they're like to be honest, there really isn't a perfect answer. The perfect answer to that is whatever you find fun, whatever you find enjoyable. Going back to the whole reason why you started pursuing this, is because you enjoy it and you find value in it and you enjoy helping others. But if you absolutely hate running or can't even run like, you're never going to get that program done, so it's never going to fall through. Can you talk a second on the importance of training as an entrepreneur?

Speaker 2: 12:35

Yeah, I'm a big believer, Rob, and again, my full-time job is in higher education and teaching there, and I'm a big believer that you've got to practice what you preach. I preach to my students a lot, those 10 things that require zero talent. I'm sure many of you have seen that right. You know the showing up on time and good work, ethic and good body language and attitude and all those things. And you know, if I'm going to expect that of my students, then I would expect when I show up to teach them that I've got to, I've got to deliver with those same things. I'm not going to be late. I'm going to have good body language, I'm going to be prepared, I'm going to, you know, have a positive attitude about those things. If I'm going to make somebody or try and make is a bad word try and hold somebody accountable for their training, their nutrition and their habits I best believe that I better practice the same things.

Speaker 2: 13:30

I think today we live in a day and age where mental health and the stress of mental health is so important in our society. People often talk about and I think there's so many mental health benefits that come from training as well where look? You don't have to be the most physically fit, most athletic person in the world. But guess what? If you've got a 20-minute workout in the morning, you might be better mentally prepared to attack the day and to achieve your goals and be more ambitious and motivated about what's ahead of you.

Speaker 2: 14:00

And there's a couple of posts I've seen online where if the hardest thing about your day is getting up at 5 am or getting up at 6 am to get a workout in, you're not going to dread that meeting or that test or whatever that happens later in the day that you might have been dreading before. You do those things that are challenging and you do those things that are difficult and you lead off with your day on that in terms of working out. Well, guess what? You're going to be well prepared to kind of attack whatever else you have and you're going to be more accomplished as well. So I think all of those things kind of combined for me really really show the importance of training. Is it's not always, although the physical aspect is a huge part of it and it's a great benefit from training is there's so many more things, as you know and you've talked about and discussed with others, that that really come from from training physically.

Speaker 1: 14:52

Yeah, 100%, and I don't write as many programs.

Speaker 1: 14:57

I'm not into the health and fitness as much as I used to be, but both fitness and nutrition are still such a staple in my coaching program and it's not necessarily as much about like getting to the gym and getting the workouts and doing the workouts as much as it is developing the discipline and the self. Accountability is developing the discipline and the self-accountability, so it's a little bit. It's an easy challenge. Just get yourself up, get there and go through the things that are laid out and program built so like can you follow directions and can you stay true to what it is that you set out to do and that helps leaps and bounds, more so than just like the amount of reps that they can do at like 225 or whatever they're working on, no doubt. So diving into the online world, there's a lot of different challenges and technology is definitely making things pop up a little bit easier. And are you your coaching? Is it just purely online, or are you also working with some people here and there in person?

Speaker 2: 15:58

Yeah, so so to start, I've really been doing it just online predominantly. I would love the opportunity, maybe at least seasonally, just based on not teaching in the summer and over winter break, to be able to offer some personal training at home here in my home gym, as well as maybe some creative outdoor workouts and things like that, just to kind of sample and test. I'm not there yet, I've I've sort of just just kind of launched here in an online capacity but, but so so just based on my, my schedule, so maybe maybe the in-person, but from a time perspective, kind of looking at just just online initially.

Speaker 1: 16:48

Cool. I asked that because of your full-time job as a working with students and things and all this other stuff.

Speaker 2: 16:55

I was wondering if the transition to online with logistically, how I pretty much deliver it is I work predominantly out of like a Google Drive folder and again, this is you know, the niche here is really a busy person, right? So part of what this is is, you know, I use Google Drive, I use WhatsApp to communicate with my clients weekly, daily, depending on the level that they're in. I'll customize their program based on some onboarding info and customization pieces that I collect from them. We will communicate daily or weekly, just based on how they're feeling, any changes, any struggles, challenges, adaptations that we need to make along the way, really through those shared documents and folders, so we don't necessarily have to meet up at the same time. You know a client that might prefer to work out at night or have a night shift in terms of you know, I've got one client that's a bartender and they work out at night and they don't sleep great the next day. So we've kind of worked around different schedules and that way we don't have to necessarily be in sync in terms of our time. So, logistically, that's kind of how I've set it up online In terms of like holistically looking at it, which I guess is probably the second piece for me is is Rob. What I really wanna do is I wanna make these people feel valued and I think the relationships and the service that I provide to them is really where I feel that I can be separate than maybe some others. We all go on Instagram and we all go online and we see people with the tens and hundreds of thousands of followers when I feel that I can separate. Right now I don't have a massive following obviously I'm just starting out and this is new to me but those relationships and I think the trust that I build with my clients, I think over time, is really what will grow my business and will grow my platform.

Speaker 2: 18:53

My wife's a realtor on the side. Her side hustle is a realtor and she's talked to people about getting into the rental space and things like that. The way to start with rentals isn't you go out and buy 20 rentals. The way that you start with that or house flips is you start with one and then you invest in that one, you rent that one out and then over time, that pays dividends and you see a return back.

Speaker 2: 19:19

I look at this the same way I'm not trying to grasp here at hundreds of thousands of clients. Let me get one and let me make a difference in one and then over time, if I do a darn good job with one, then I'll look at my second rental or my second client, so to speak, and I really want to invest my time and energy and not think of this in terms of a quick money fix, because that's not what it is for me. It's how do I really commit holistically and making a difference in one person? And I think if I focus on that sort of using this rental or house flip analogy, everything I've read and the research I've done, I really feel like that's what's going to pay back for me in terms of the sustainability and long-term impact on my business.

Speaker 1: 20:01

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 20:02

I really love that analogy too, because, just like rental properties as much as many people like to highlight, I guess, on social media and everything it's not as you can't just buy the house and then just let it go forever there's still investments.

Speaker 1: 20:18

You got to upkeep on different things and I can tell you, invest in all your clients and making sure that you're pushing them to make sure that they're the best, and it's just going both ways.

Speaker 1: 20:29

So you got to continue to provide that value. And someone who might have hundreds and thousands of followers on social media, they can get away with just writing cookie cutter programs and just tossing it out to the masses without ever actually developing the relationship that you're talking about. And I feel like when you can have that more one-on-one and cater things and actually develop a relationship and check in with them and get to know them more as a person instead of just a number in your bank statement, that makes a world of a difference, because you're actually impacting the world instead of just collecting money, yeah, yeah. So I want to ask you most people or I should say most people would freak out at first because they might not have as big of a following, just as they're starting on social media, but you are turning that around as we were just talking about that. What other kind of challenges or struggles do you see yourself going through at these earlier stages in your business?

Speaker 2: 21:26

Yeah, I'm actually going to start with social media and I'll talk about maybe a couple other ones here. But social media has been the biggest challenge for me, rob, just because historically in my position, particularly within collegiate athletics, working in the industry and administration it was always and you can probably assimilate with this is don't post anything. You're better off not posting anything than posting something that's possibly questionable, right? And for that reason my lifestyle has just been well, I'm not going to utilize social media to post any of my personal stuff, right, and I figured it was just easier to stay away from it and that's kind of how I always operated really, and my social medias are kind of reflective of that is I don't really don't really post a ton. So so the first challenge, rob Rob has really been just turning this, turning this kind of dial to, to understand that I've got to put myself out there and be a little bit vulnerable on social media to be able to even get anything back. So that's been really difficult for me because my entire life that's been polar opposite to what I've, how I've really operated. So, um, you know that's I'd say that's been kind of challenge one, um, you know. Challenge two is is certainly time, um, and just managing my times. This is a side hustle and obviously that's, you know, the focal point here if you're your podcast is. You know what's the time balance where, um, you know, my philosophy here is let's fit in this training program If have 20 or 30 minutes a day. But you know I've got other priorities and importances in my life, and that's family, that's my son, that's my want to grow like a full-time business where everybody says you've got to pump full-time energy into something like this has been challenging as well, without getting to the point of burnout, right. So it's finding that balance for me in the early stages too.

Speaker 2: 23:31

Here, rob, is probably a challenge too in terms of, like, how much can I really invest in this? And you want to invest as much as you possibly can, but you don't want to lose love for it, right, you don't want to lose passion for it. You don't want to burn yourself out to the point where you hate it. So it's been a learning curve for me to figure out, like, what is that break right? Where is that limitation for me to not turn to the point where I dislike it, which I do not. I still have a big love for it. Just finding that balance right now has been in the early stages. It's probably the second biggest challenge in terms of just looking at it from a 3,000-foot view. Social media in that aspect have been some learning curve for me.

Speaker 1: 24:14

Yeah, I know I speak with a lot of different people at different networking events and I see a lot of these guys are teetering on that fence of burnout and they fall into that trap of burn the boats. I just need to work harder, it's going to come. I just need to push, push, push, push. Do you have any advice for that self-reflection, to kind of gauge where you're at on that?

Speaker 2: 24:40

Yeah, yeah, so two things, and one of them I think I just kind of mentioned and I would go back to and this is I know you're going to ask this later on and this is the one piece of advice is that house analogy and is that apartment flipping analogy is, if you try and look at this, where I need 1,000 people, right? Or I need to conquer it all in one night or in one week and turn myself from 500 followers to 5,000 or 50,000 or whatever number you want to turn to, it's not going to work, right, and it's just like training, right. If you think that there's a seven-day fix or a 21-day fix for your body that you've let go for the last 10 years, you're wrong, right. So it's going to take just as long as it took for you to potentially maybe get out of shape or lose sight of what your goals are, to maybe gain that back and work on that right track. So I'm really trying to look at it in that sense.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Rob is just attack this in a smaller portion, and if I can help one person a month feel better about themselves, that makes me feel good, right?

Speaker 2: 25:45

So I'm trying to not look at this from a dollar sign lens, which is tough because when people pick up side hustles it's often money driven right. But I'm trying to look at it as the impact I have on other people and even if that's one person that I can change their habits, their lifestyle. Just like training right. We can't change our bodies in one day, one week, no matter whatever seven-day crash diet we think exists out there right, or seven-day you know, turn your business we all see the ads. Turn your business into billions overnight right. To me it's like training right and it's that long-term investment and long-term commitment. And I think, knowing that going in and just kind of taking a step back and exhaling for a minute at times when we get really, really caught up in it, that's what I try and do to kind of separate the trees from the forest, so to speak, and just think about this as a long-term gain.

Speaker 1: 26:40

I love that, and it sounds like you're talking a little bit about how shifting the focus from the outcome goals to more process goals and you were mentioning social media. It's a process you've got to learn. You've got to kind of build I'm sure you work with your clients, not to just like wake up hoping the scale changes, like they're actually implementing action items on a day-to-day basis. So I'm curious, in terms of you and just this business of online coaching, what are some of your daily action items that you kind of focus on to make sure that you're moving the business forward?

Speaker 2: 27:15

Yeah, I think providing consistent value is an important thing. That can come in a number of ways. That can come in social media posts. That can come in a simple check-in with a client through a message hey, how are you doing today? Or hey, it's raining out. Or in the middle of winter, it's snowing out, but let's go get it done. And we all lose motivation at times. Right, it's inevitable, it's the, it's the ebbs and flows of life.

Speaker 2: 27:41

But just providing that extra layer of accountability and motivation where somebody might see my post online and say hey, I'm going to give that a shot, right, or I'm going to try to maybe cook that, that 10 minute breakfast this morning. And you know, those consistent touch points, I think are important because if others see that I'm again practicing consistent habits, then hopefully it might be just something they try and implement into their nutrition or training once a week, once a month. But hey, progress over perfection is kind of something that I preach in value as well. So consistent touch points. So consistent touch points, you know also.

Speaker 2: 28:19

You know, as you've probably seen on my social media, I think, another, another part of it is show you're human too, right. And and maybe not taking yourself too seriously, right, and with some of the posts or some of the things that that you put out there and you know, if you miss a day, just being honest about it, right, hey, it wasn't. You know I wasn't feeling it today and I have those days too. And you know I wanted pizza for dinner, right, or I wanted to have a couple drinks, right. And again, just showing that human element to where we, you know you're not looked at as this, you know robot, or you know imaginary figure, right, that doesn't screw up. And showing that you have you don't take yourself too seriously and you, you have a little bit of a sense of humor and a human side. I think is really important to, to, to showing that relatability and in developing relationships.

Speaker 1: 29:07

Oh yeah, definitely I love. I love everything you just said there, um, between the reaching out and the commitment of like making sure that you're checking in and touching base with people uh, clients and even non-clients and then the kind of giving yourself permission to be vulnerable and it's okay to be human, trying to do the certain things that you're trying to do, and it's not always going to be 100%, and I remember one of my coaches once kind of held that to me as well. He's like hey, dude, like you're a little stagnant right now with your coaching program and you're asking your clients to track their nutrition, ask them to track their habits, and then you're checking in with them, but what are you doing on your business front? So I wasn't tracking anything, I was just kind of just going willy-nilly on everything. But then once I kind of took that same approach and applied it to myself, it changed a lot of things myself. It changed a lot of things, so not necessarily counting the reps and sets for my business, but like counting my reach outs and the amount of value that I'm trying to create.

Speaker 1: 30:04

And what is? How do you quantify value for what you're kind of doing? So a lot of those things. I was kind of going through my head and making sure that you, you still show that you're human, because that's how you're going to be able to connect and people are going to actually like you, instead of that figure that everybody thinks that they want to be like. Sure. So, other than all this stuff here, what else do you use? Because you're very busy, you've got the full-time job, you've got a family at home, you've got a lot of things. How do you stay organized and motivated at the same time? Because I feel like motivation comes and goes and life can get chaotic at times and I know you've got a lot of balls juggling at once over there with all the different projects. So would you share a little bit on that?

Speaker 2: 30:47

Yeah, you know you're right and you know, just again, going back to you know, we can learn so much about training and nutrition as a microcosm of our everyday lives and I think a big part of that is balance, rob. And again, if that's hey, I just got to take the night off from creating content or grading papers or whatever and just debrief and spend some time with my family and go for a walk right or have a couple drinks out on my back deck or whatever that looks like.

Speaker 2: 31:18

That balance to me is really important and you know staying organized and staying consistent and adhering to a schedule I think is, I think is critical.

Speaker 2: 31:27

But you know, we just all have those days where you know we had, we had that training program planned and I had planned to stay up till 11 o'clock and finish this project or finish this, you know, home renovation or business venture, whatever it looks like, and it just wasn't happening that day and me sitting there and forcing myself to do it and this isn't necessarily I'm not trying to look at this from a creating a bad habit perspective but if I were to sit and work on that thing till 11 o'clock it might have driven me to hate it that night.

Speaker 2: 32:04

But if I took that night off and said, look, I'm going to revise my schedule and instead of doing this tonight, what I'm going to do is I'm going to wake up at this time or I'm going to fit this in here and I'm going to make sure that I schedule it and get it done there, but I just need tonight off, right, that's a little bit of the negotiation that I can kind of play with myself while also using my schedule and staying regimented, if that makes sense. To kind of to kind of compromise and keep that balance is part of my life. But you know, coordinating that schedule with with balance, I think is really important because again, otherwise you you kind of drive yourself into the ground with it a little bit the ground with it a little bit.

Speaker 1: 32:40

Yeah, no, I love that Taking that proactive approach instead of the reactive. So many times people are like, oh yeah, I'll send that email, I'll write that piece of copy or whatever later, and then they just kind of push it off and they don't take a proactive approach to look at their schedule and actually like, okay, instead of doing it here, let me take some time for myself and kind of regenerate. I'll pick that copy back up later on at this time, or whatever it might be. Yeah, so we mentioned the social media. That's kind of growing and kicking off. What is the social media handle? How do people find you? I know you're pumping out content like it's crazy. I love all the stuff you're posting. So how do other people find it and stay in touch with you?

Speaker 2: 33:16

Yeah, thanks, I primarily use Instagram. It's T-Aquilina9. So first initial of my first name, then my last name and the number nine on Instagram. That's primarily where I'm posting my educational content there. There's also a link there to inquire a little bit more about the programs and the customization options for training and nutrition that I have available. You know, I know obviously Rob would probably put this out there as well on your social media. So you know, private message there is usually the best way that people kind of start to connect with me.

Speaker 1: 33:53

Cool and taking on new clients working for different things. Like we said earlier, it doesn't matter. It doesn't necessarily matter if you have equipment or not, right Cause you can tailor it regardless of what they have access to.

Speaker 2: 34:07

Absolutely, and that's that's kind of my, that's kind of my um. My market here is any time space equipment available as well as um. Creating sustainable habits, right. So we're not necessarily giving up all those things that you love to do, all those things that you love to eat and drink. We'll work those into your plan and we're focusing on progress instead of perfection.

Speaker 2: 34:27

We want something that's not one of these crash diets where people often lose those 20 pounds really drastically or immediately, and then they gain them back a lot of the time because they're deprived of the foods that they love, they're deprived of the things that they like to do and, in frustration, they just gain those back right. So we want to create and build sustainable habits and my goal is you don't need me after time, right, and that's where I find success is you know, hopefully, after a few months, after a four-month plan or program here which I traditionally do is you know what your numbers are, you know what those habits are, we've built them and boom, you can fly on your own and my job is done. As much as I'd love to keep people forever right, the goal is to create transformations and build sustainable, good habits with your lifestyle. So yeah, absolutely. That's kind of the market and the platform that I built myself on.

Speaker 1: 35:23

Awesome. I love that Equipment. Whatever you got nutrition habits you're pulling it all together. I love it and I'm super excited for you to do that because I love all the content you're putting out there. I know you're a great leader on our team and a role model to me personally, so I just know you're going to help out a lot of other individuals with this and really cool and excited to see where this is going to go and I want to be courteous of your time. I know you're super busy School's ending, you've got a lot of other projects to get to, but before we go, I want to ask you, what will your number one piece of advice be for surviving side hustle?

Speaker 2: 35:57

Yeah, yeah, that's a. It's a good part, rob. Good question, rob. And we've we've talked partially about this throughout, but, um, you know, don't look at it as you've got to conquer this all in one night. Don't look at this all as you've got to conquer it in one week. And there's a lot of things out there on social media that are going to, that are going to try and bait you to. You know, how do you turn your following around in one night? How do you go viral in 24 hours? How do you make millions of dollars in a week? Well, I will tell you, from a lot of the experience and research I've done, is that's just, that's just not realistic, right, and and don't get discouraged based on that Right, and you don't need a massive following to be able to do that. So that's really the one piece that I would probably lend myself to others is you know, don't feel like you've got to conquer it all or accomplish it all overnight, because it's not realistic.

Speaker 1: 36:50

Awesome dude. I love it. Thank you so much and we will talk soon. Thank you, Sounds good.