Surviving the Side Hustle

Engineering Success: Austin Kane's Blueprint for Fitness and Entrepreneurial Fortitude

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 41

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Embark on a transformative journey with Austin Kane, where the realms of fitness and entrepreneurship collide in a symphony of self-improvement. His narrative, from a shy teenager to a fitness coach with an engineering mind, is a testament to the power of dedication. Throughout our conversation, Austin offers insights into his personal evolution, shedding light on the strategies he employed to carve his path to success. He reveals the link between physical training, forging confidence, and professional growth, emphasizing that it's not solely about the destination but the milestones along the way.

Austin's tale continues to captivate as he recounts the intricate dance of juggling a corporate career while nurturing a burgeoning fitness enterprise. He underscores the importance of a holistic approach to wellness, diving into the crucial balance of diet, activity, and rest. His transition from engineering to coaching brings forth universal lessons of excellence and self-betterment that resonate across industries. For those seeking to fuel their passion projects, or side hustles, Austin serves as a beacon of inspiration, demonstrating the symbiotic relationship between personal growth and career success.

The episode rounds off with a deep dive into the entrepreneurial mindset, where daily discipline parallels the rigor of fitness training. Austin reflects on the vitality of mentorship in shaping one's journey, the art of problem-solving in business, and managing the rollercoaster of entrepreneurship. He leaves us with a call to embrace 'Extreme Ownership,' fostering a mindset of accountability and vision that's crucial for the growth of any endeavor. Join us, as Austin's story not only motivates but equips us with the tools to take on the challenges of our own arenas, be it in fitness, business, or the unpredictable adventure of life itself.

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Speaker 1:

What's going on, guys? Today I've got Austin Cain on the show. What's up, dude, how are you?

Speaker 2:

Doing great man. Thanks for having me here.

Speaker 1:

Of course, of course. Where are you located, by the way?

Speaker 2:

I'm located in New Haven, connecticut. Yeah.

Speaker 1:

I don't think too far.

Speaker 2:

Grew up in Connecticut.

Speaker 1:

I'm from Connecticut grew up in Connecticut. I'm from Connecticut, awesome, so uh, yeah, so you're sharing the same kind of uh woolly weather as I am today.

Speaker 2:

Right, yeah, son's trying to poke through cool.

Speaker 1:

Um well, so they shifted off of the weather. I guess, a little bit, let's dive in um. Did you go by, coach Austin, or how? What's the best way to like introduce yourself? How would you introduce yourself?

Speaker 2:

um, I don't really go by coach austin. Uh, I am a fitness coach, uh, transitioned into that, we'll get into that, but, um, I just go by austin. Um, a little bit about me and why I'm here is surviving the side hustle is something that I've been dealing with for a long time. It's a it's a good journey, but, um, something that I wanted to share and help other people, um, who are going through similar situations like me. I love that. What's?

Speaker 1:

your. So what's your background? So you? So you fitness coach and, and uh, what else?

Speaker 2:

yeah, so I actually started, uh, my career in the engineering field. I was an engineer for about six years, um worked my way up from like uh, working as a technician in multiple different companies biotech and med device and throughout that time, I've always been passionate about personal development. In early 2015, 2016, I started listening to podcasts about entrepreneurship, personal development stuff like that, personal development stuff like that and I always had the mindset of like an entrepreneurial type mindset while I was working in these other companies and I first started working on myself just to try to be a better version of myself with fitness. That kind of led me to where I am today and wanting to help other people with fitness.

Speaker 1:

I love that because my background is also in strength and conditioning. So I got into fitness and sports when I was much younger and that really was essentially the gateway drug for me for personal development, because I worked on my audit and it led into paying attention to the different types of things that I was consuming, which then led into like an audience set and so on and so on, and I really started with the fitness journey. Um, so take me back, so you're, you're in the engineering world, and then you just started dabbling with fitness, or how did you get involved into it?

Speaker 2:

I got involved to fit into fitness, um, just on a personal level, outside of high school I was a very shy kind of introverted kid, didn't really know who I was, I wasn't sure of myself, I lacked confidence. I remember being scared of going out in public, going to group events, and shortly after high school I got into just going to the gym, like every single day. I was going to my local YMCA and just started working on myself and seeing improvements in my mindset, seeing improvements in my body, which helped my mindset and my confidence. And it was probably the most powerful thing that I've ever done was to like set out and say, okay, you should, we all go to the gym and like have people we look up to and like a physical goal that we're trying to get to right. You're like, oh, I want to look good. Usually that's how it?

Speaker 2:

starts right, yeah, and when you do that and you start to show up and put in the work every day, it builds that kind of self-belief in yourself and that confidence like what else, what other goals can I work on? What other things can I do? So I took that and just like from there, it really just I. I always knew that I was working on myself. I always knew that I was working on myself listening to podcasts, putting good things in my body, using my body with workouts and stuff like that to make myself better, with not only physical but mental character traits and whatnot.

Speaker 1:

And I knew that that was going to make me better in my career as well. Yeah, so it's like one thing after another just improving. I like to think of it kind of like a snowball or an avalanche. Things start, I don't know, and one thing becomes two things, two things becomes like five things, and it just kind of keeps going, going, going. And then all of a sudden're deep into that like personal development, kind of like practical thing and um, so you're talking about bullet setting and such. In the beginning. There you first started off with certain things that you said like the typical. What was? I'm like, oh, I don't know where we started, but like, for me was okay, I'm gonna pinch 135. And then it was like okay, then jump it up to 185, and then that's just kind of like scaled up to getting higher and higher. And then, uh, you see goals change over years, like, so walk me through a little bit on your goal setting approach um, I didn't know like how to set goals back then.

Speaker 2:

You know, I was 18 to 20 years old when I started and it was mostly just like, okay, get a little bit leaner, I'm getting a little bit muscular. That I'm getting a little bit muscular, that's cool, let's keep going. And again like, yeah, the weight thing too. Okay, let's see if we can put a little more weight on the bar. A little more weight on the bar, and that felt good over time as well. But mostly it was the physical goals, what I saw in the mirror and turning myself into someone that I could really admire and look up to Nice, and turning myself into someone that I could really admire and look up to Nice.

Speaker 1:

Well, now you're working with clients, so how do you tackle goals with that?

Speaker 2:

Goals with them is mostly based on. I like to think of breaking down someone's fitness goals into their habits. Any goal you can break down into your habits, right. Whether you want to be a successful business person, a successful in your physique or your health and fitness, how you want to look, it's just a matter of changing your habits to align with the type of person that has that goal that you're after. So we take a look at three things that goal that you're after. So we take a look at three things how they're thinking, um how they're, what they're eating, what they're consuming and what their activity levels are. Then we align those three things with the type of person they want to be, um with their health and fitness so what if there's?

Speaker 1:

what if they come to you with somebody who you don't know too much about? Though how do you make what they're going to do? So if I come in and I'm like, yeah, we're like four from the Avengers if you've never met him, I guess you just kind of like you stay together, we'll sit down and have a conversation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we'll sit down and have a conversation about what they're currently doing and I'll look for gaps about what they're currently doing. And I'll look for gaps in what they're currently doing, what we can add in, what we can take out um to get them towards where they want to be sitting down.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that, that's awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, going through mostly like what they're eating in a day. Are they tracking what they're eating, what their activity levels are, not only through a routine workout plan? But what's your activity at work like? Are you sitting down all day, are you sedentary, or are you on your feet all day? Stuff like that? How's your sleep? What kind of habits do you have as far as recreational substances and stuff like that? How often do you eat out? Do you drink smoke, et cetera? All those things I think contribute to you being your best self and fitness for me. Nutrition, for me, is way more than just looking good. It's about me waking up every day and doing the things. That I know makes me feel like my best self, makes me feel like I put in that work and I can go to bed at the end of the day and feel good about, at the bare minimum, taking care of my body and my mental state.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. So it sounds like you really built that bridge for your clients from where they're at currently to where they're trying to get to, and just laying one brick and a brick and working their way through that. With that being said, do you have a specific population or type of person that you particularly work with, or is it you just kind of depending on who it is, whether you can kind of connect with them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, specifically I love working with guys, you know, 25 to 35, who are in that kind of corporate environment that I came from, because I can apply a lot of things to them and relate to them.

Speaker 2:

They can relate back to me a lot, so I can speak you, I'll work with pretty much anyone. But I'm not going to just like I have a lot of like younger kids, high schoolers, that want help and I'll usually just help them for free, give them a few tips that they can take and start implementing, like I think back to when I was their age and be like what would really change what I was doing back then. You know, I didn't know anything about eating right. Know, I didn't know anything about eating right. I didn't know anything about, like rest and recovery. So, um, I I turned away a lot, a good amount of people, just because I I don't think we're a good fit as far as, like, the younger population. But that 25 to 35 um working in a corporate environment is who I love helping nice and are you still currently in the corporate environment?

Speaker 1:

is who I love helping Nice and are you still currently in the corporate environment?

Speaker 2:

No, so I left the corporate environment last year After working for a biotech company. For the past three years I worked with my brother's manufacturing business and then I left them early last year to pursue. So here's one of the big things I wanted to talk about. Surviving the side hustle was sometimes you're in a career that doesn't necessarily align or isn't necessarily related to the side hustle that you're working on. Right, for me, it was fitness. I want to start start something around personal development, helping people become better with their health and fitness and their mindset. But I was working as an engineer and just putting in long hours there and it was hard to switch back and forth to working on this working on that. I'd love to talk about how it started for me and yeah, I would love to hear about that.

Speaker 1:

So set the stage for me. So you're currently in the 9-to-5, working in the engineering world, and now you've been dabbling with fitness and you know you want to do more with that and now you're kind of are you currently coaching, Like for the setting of the situation? Are you currently coaching a little bit? So you're bouncing between both jobs.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so right, I I switched from engineering to being a full-time personal trainer in person at a couple gyms here in new haven and north haven and working on my business um in parallel with that. So everything is really that I'm doing now is is in the fitness world, not bouncing from engineering to fitness, you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so when you were still doing both and it was difficult to do both of those. Where were you when that was happening? Can you talk to me a little bit about balancing both and when you made the decision to do both? When you made the decision to leave?

Speaker 2:

your full life. Yeah, I'd like to first talk about relating fitness and personal development to my position as an engineer. That's cool. So I think a lot of people don't put in or don't put emphasis on the career that they're in now because they know they want to switch into something else. So they're not trying their best at what they're currently at. And I tried my absolute best.

Speaker 2:

As an engineer, I was going to be the best person in that organization that I could be and it was through fitness, nutrition and mindset that I knew that when I show up like here's an example who's going to do a better job working in a 9-to-5 situation? The person that goes out Friday night for happy hour? Saturday they go out and drink and have fun. Sunday they're kind of recovering and then Monday they come in and they're lethargic and like, oh, it's Monday, blah, blah, blah. Who's going to come in and do a better job? The person who does that? Or the person that worked on themselves all weekend, got up early, worked on their fitness, put good things in their body and kept the momentum going through the week.

Speaker 2:

I knew that I was going to show up as a better individual, with more energy, with more enthusiasm, being on a better mental game. So I applied that to being good at my job and I saw the results of that. I got multiple raises, changed, multiple positions, like there's no doubt that working on myself with those things contributed to being good at that. I wanted to kind of throw that out there. So if you're trying to work on a side hustle while in another career, you still have an opportunity to be the best you can be in that and bring those things over to the new thing you did. You're not just going to be. I like the saying like how do you? One thing is how you do everything. If you're you're shitty at one thing, you're not just going to automatically turn it on in that next thing you know, yeah, it doesn't work like that.

Speaker 2:

You're cool, if it's not, doesn't transfer yeah, so when I was working as an engineer in the last few years, I started coaching people on the side um just through an online app, um for free. I just started coaching with people, trying to work with people where I can getting some people results, getting people close to the results. Um started with family, closer friends and stuff like that, and I would be on like coaching calls after work. So I'd be at the office, you know around five, six, and then after that I would schedule calls with like mentors and groups that I was working with to learn more about my side hustle after that and I would basically spend at least um two or three hours outside of that normal nine to five job after work to study and learn more about the business that I'm trying to pursue. And until I realized that it wasn't going to be enough, you know I had to make a leap. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So you started studying, you started putting more time towards it, and then you saw some of the success that was coming with it. And then you were like, okay, I need to spend more time to this. Like, do you remember to where you were so when you decided to end the engineering or corporate world? How was that?

Speaker 2:

It was freeing in a way and scary at the same time, because you know, giving up a good salary, giving up that, you know consistent, get up and go to work, like I know I'm gonna have a job, to then get on making it happen for myself, which is still scary I've only been in business a year. Like things aren't going. You know when you're, when you start a business, you think it's gonna pop off like that and I've learned over this past year it's not the case.

Speaker 2:

You know we're still in the very early stages of things yeah, it definitely was scary, and one of the biggest, craziest things was sure people can relate to this is that sunday night dread of going to the office the next day when you don't love your job or you don't love the situation you're in. I remember having that feeling when I quit and then reminding myself wait, I'm not, I'm not going into the office. It was crazy.

Speaker 1:

That was a crazy feeling such a such a relief, right when you're like, oh, I don't something, that don't happen, something that scares anymore yeah yeah but, it does, it does get replaced with other stressors being an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1:

And now, like you were saying, like that it is scary because now you how it's all on, so you don't have that cushion to kind of rely on. And how did that change your mindset, if it did at all? Because going from that like yeah, I got salary, I got a paycheck we can meet, to now it's on me, I need to actually show up and perform consistently it's still a struggle.

Speaker 2:

It takes a lot of uh accountability with yourself to do what's needed, and what's needed isn't always clear like you don't know, like I don't know what's gonna like steps to exactly follow every single day to build my business. It's it's a lot of trial and error and like blind consistency of like okay, and a little bit of faith of like okay, I'm gonna keep doing this and then show up again and this is gonna work out eventually and just like your fitness goals, it all relates back like the beginning of a fitness journey. You're not seeing results, even though you're putting in the work. You're showing up and you're eating the right things, you're doing that workout, you're sleeping right, you're cutting good things in your body, but the physical result doesn't come until like 30, 60, 90, even more after that, depending on where you are. So applying that fitness mindset to the entrepreneurial side of things has been helpful.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like how you said that in fitness it usually takes 30, 60, 90 days to kind of start to see some of the results and the things that you've been putting in the hard work. Where do you feel you are if you were to convert that fitness training kind of timeline into your business entrepreneur world? Do you feel like after one year in? Are you 60 days in? Do you feel like you're back on day 10? Where would you put yourself right now?

Speaker 2:

day 10, like where would you put yourself right now?

Speaker 1:

I feel like I'm the person that's struggling to lose weight, to get started and start to see that momentum, um yeah that's positive and and I know as a coach it's always constantly reminding like, hey, these are proven strategies, this is going to get there, you're going to get there. You just got to make sure that you stay focused on the process, not necessarily the outcome. So, for you personally, with your business, what are some of those process goals or process steps and tasks that you're doing on a day-to-day basis that is helping you move the needle forward a day-to-day basis.

Speaker 2:

That is something you need to look over. Yeah, I try to um, I mean at a base level. I tell myself well, if I had a bad week or a bad day or I didn't execute today, listen, I'm not gonna quit and that's all I need to know. That's all I need to have in my mind. It's like I'm not going to quit, so just get up the next day, make it happen and keep rolling that and keep that. I break things down just like a fitness goal. Really, if you want to lose 10 pounds, you can break that down into how much you should be eating. Basically, I'm not going to get that pizza, but basically, what are the critical things you should be doing every day to move the needle forward? What does that look like for me and my business? And just daily execution on a handful of things to move you forward, just like your fitness goals.

Speaker 1:

Nice yeah, and what are some of those goals that you have? Is it like specific to uh touches with certain clients? Is it like referrals you reach out to social media posts? Is it like cold calling, glory mocking? What is, what are some of your things that you're doing on a day-to-day?

Speaker 2:

a lot of it, um, is based on social. So certain like reaching out to a certain amount of people, like making sure people follow me, reach out to them if they're like look like an account that I can help or someone that I can contact. You know there's a lot of random accounts out there. Yeah, social media touches social media content. Right now I'm in the process of of building a different part of my business in parallel with the coaching side of things, so I'm reaching out to vendors. I'm getting, uh, you know, samples on order for certain things, um setting up certain things for like the legal and business side of things with the state or stuff like that. So just, uh, identifying key things like that that are moving you forward, um, yeah, is what I focus on.

Speaker 1:

I want to ask you about that right there, because the whole legal and all the different things and so many oops gotta jump through. How do you work through those challenges? Um, because let me teach you how to run a business, like sure, I'm sure they didn't teach you how to run a fitness business when you, while you're in school for engineering, um they didn't teach me anything.

Speaker 2:

They were like oh all right, good luck one thing a good engineer is is a problem solver like one thing I could. Someone who works in an organization that is valuable, no matter what job you're in it, doesn't have to be an engineer. But I learned to be a person that not only identify problems but look for a solution. There's a couple different types of people in an organization. There's people that just bring up problems to their superiors, and then there's a person that finds problems, try to fix it and then bring it up. So I've always been a problem solver and a viewer. So you kind of just have to like, just take action, like action. Yeah, yeah. Action is everything like, not only like the speed in which you take action, but just start doing something. There's, there's. You hear people all the time. They'll ask you a question or something that they could have simply googled. Like. I think to myself like you couldn't just lift that up.

Speaker 2:

Like you gotta think like how can I solve this problem? Like be proactive, like I don't know, I don't know if I'm making sense yeah, no, definitely.

Speaker 1:

So I have different situations. To touch on that point. Yeah, I'm in a couple group chats with a bunch of friends from different different parts of my life and, uh, there's one group chat where everyone's talking about certain things and we're like talking about an event or something, or tv show or something, and there's this one guy who just always chimes in and asks like the like most outpietous questions, and every time somebody in there is just like dude, did you forget how to use google? Or like, did you forget that? Like just to scroll up like five seconds into the chat. Like you gotta be a little more resourcefulness. Like it just sit back and wait for everybody to hand you things. You gotta show that you, like can actually actually few things out well that's a good point like, how bad do you want it?

Speaker 2:

no one's gonna come show you the answer and you have to be okay with that. Take responsibility for everything. I like to take responsibility for everything in my life. I feel like everything in my life like good and bad. Own it. And like, if you want to make something happen, how bad you want it to happen. If you can't even figure out how to look it up, everything you want to do is on the internet.

Speaker 2:

Now that's like the beauty of the time we're living in. Go do a little research, try something, see how that worked, tweak it, try it, tweak it, try it. That's like how bad do you want the result you're after? Just like with fitness, like I love helping people with it, but I don't feel like what I help people. Like the game plan it's nothing crazy. I'm going to tell you a game plan and like, if you have a certain day where you know you couldn't get to the gym in the morning and you got to go a little later, for me, thinking back to my fitness journey, it wasn a question I'm gonna make it happen because I want it, you know. So same thing with growing a business like certain things are gonna happen. I don't know the answer to this question, or figure it out, because I want it, that's the mindset you have to have that's definitely.

Speaker 1:

And you, you said something interesting there a minute ago about how you take ownership on pretty much everything that you do in your life and take control of it. Um, and it reminded me of a book stream ownership. Have you read that book? Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah. So that's a very good one.

Speaker 1:

And another thing you said was, um, yeah, where you live in this age where information is so regularly available, so we could just Google to figure pretty much anything out. And now with TextGPT it's even easier to kind of figure things out. Obviously you've got to vet certain information a little bit more carefully than others just to make sure that you're getting relatively accurate information. But I wanted to ask you you've also mentioned earlier a little bit about mentors um, and I'm totally, I totally believe in like nobody pays for information. Like, if you want to lose weight, if you want to build a successful business or if you want to get better at doing something, you can, you can figure it out if you really want it when you have a mentor or coach or something. You're not paying for that information, you're paying for the expedited experience, so you can skip past that trial and error period and you can just jump right into it.

Speaker 1:

So, with that being said, who are some mentors in the fitness world and coaches. Maybe that you've looked up to in just the fitness world and coaches.

Speaker 2:

Maybe that you've looked up to in just the fitness world just fitness, yeah, like, um as far as like me with my personal fitness goals yeah, so like, who do you look up to in the beginning?

Speaker 1:

where'd you get your information from? That really kind of got you rolling into this whole thing. Were you just looking at like movie stars and television? Yeah, I mean, I grew up watching like I didn't keep her into like research based stuff and coaches and professors, or or you just started like following people on social media that or some bigger accounts that she loves it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, there were some people on social media in the beginning and you know I grew up watching, like you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger and the movies and stuff like that. I started working out when Instagram kind of just started, so I think one of the first people I started following was this guy from England. His name is Ross Dickerson.

Speaker 2:

I don't even know if he's still what he's up to now but awesome physique and I'm just like all right, cool, I'll look like that, just get to work. But I didn't do a lot of like sit down and research. I just started like working. I just started, all right, I'm gonna go lift and then you learn things along the way. Okay, here's a couple different methods I can use. Oh, time under tension, what's that? Oh, slow down the negative and slow down the positive. Oh, this feels a little different, you know certain things. Just gotta start taking action and figure stuff out.

Speaker 1:

So that's really how I started doing. Oh sorry, is that the same thing you're doing for business, or you have somebody that you kind of look to for advice and guidance?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, pretty much Since 2015, I've been listening to podcasts. You know, podcasts around entrepreneurship, mindset, sales, and that's just a huge resource out there. Um, and that's just a huge resource out there and like, if you like, there's another thing like when I was working at nine to five, I'd be sitting at my desk like listening to podcasts when I could like. Well, if I know I was like doing work, that I can also listen to something, I'd be listening to podcasts to help my mindset. On days I read books on my lunch break. Actually, I'd go sit at lunch and read like personal development books.

Speaker 2:

And like with mentors and stuff, there's a lot of people out there that you got to vet and you got to see if they're legit. Like there's plenty of people out there who just want to take some money, just teach you some things you could learn on YouTube. But like, even with like me as a fitness coach and fitness coaches, there's plenty of things you can get started with out there for free. You don't necessarily need to hire a coach. Like that sounds crazy for me to say that, but it like it comes back to that. How bad do you want it? Like you can go start just lifting, like I guy to go from there, or you can hire a coach to expedite what you learn. You know, like he just said, but for business, make sure that it's someone who has the type of business that you're trying to grow. Do they actually have business? Do they actually have success in the area that you're trying to learn and grow?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. That's so true, because I can't imagine a lot of people just follow in place just because something that they might not have heard before. They might not even be aligned with what they're trying to accomplish, with their own personal goals and things like that. So I feel like it's pretty easy to kind of get lost into that whole whole world of things and that can kind of weigh on you, on your mindset, and kind of bring you down if you're constantly doing things in the wall and nothing seems to be a big attraction and sticking to it. So in fitness with your clients, how do you help them shift their mindset when they're not seeing that result and it's taking longer than expected and they're getting discouraged?

Speaker 2:

That's a good one. Definitely deal with that a lot. It comes down to daily execution, thanks, and there's certain things that we're going to assign to you every day that are going to get you towards your goal, and we look back at how well those are executed on. Oh, you're hitting your calories in three out of seven days and you feel discouraged that you haven't lost weight. Well, let's try to um improve that, you know. And once they realize that it it's all about daily execution to the best of your ability of certain tasks, then it's just a matter of stacking a win after a win after win every day until you end up getting there. You look back, like on my fitness journey, like I'll lock in for a good three months and stuff. I'm, like, you know, trying to get super lean or working towards a goal, and you kind of just focus one day at a time, execute next day, execute next day, and you look back and you're like it's kind of a blur.

Speaker 1:

It's kind of like it's kind of like a blur where you were just focused on these things every day and all of a sudden you get there yeah and it's lies and uh, I, I know for myself, I I need a priority to make sure that I reflect on a yeah, time flies and I know for myself I need a priority to make sure that I reflect on a lot of different situations and projects that I'm working on, because I have to shift a decent amount between the different things and if I don't spend a little bit of time at least reflecting on what I did and how I did it and how it went, it just gets brushed under the next project that I've got going on. So how important is it for you to reflect on your business success or business growth, and how often do you do some sort of reflection or kind of like reassess it, I guess with your clients? Is it only relatively the same? Are you checking in with your business and your clients on the same kind of a schedule or what does that look like?

Speaker 2:

It's a good point. I check in with my clients once a week how's your progress? And emphasize that your progress is going to be determined. It's going to be based on how well you're executing. Every day For me it's the same thing how well am I executing on these key things that I've identified that are going to move me forward? And analyze, like, why did I miss these certain things this week? How can I improve that next week? Same thing with people in fitness. Oh, what happened this week? Why did you miss these days here with your food? Did you not prepare properly? Did you not um prep in the beginning of the week so you had things available? You know, analyzing what caused myself or, um, my clients, to not execute on what's in front of them properly is key, and I kind of do the same. For me in business, it's really a mental once you're working for yourself and it's really like you versus you. Like you hear that it's kind of cliche, but every single hiccup I have is just me getting in my own way.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and that certainly goes right back to your, your, um, when I said on ownership too, because a lot of times people can pretty easy for fitness and business to just look at other people and where they're at success wise or and compare yourself to them and that, right there, is discouraging and then that that hurts the whole mindset and motivation and things and you really do it. It really is you versus you and if you're not spending that time to reflect on how you did, how you can improve, it makes it up to the battle, like the entire time, and that makes things really challenging and I think you check in, I'll go ahead.

Speaker 2:

I like to reflect on what you did well as well. I was going to just throw that in there, you know. Reflect on. I like to start every single check-in with my clients. I would share some wins that you had this week. Like, don't start off with the negatives. How did you do this week? What did you do this week? That's good, and then we'll get into how we can improve. Same thing with yourself. Like it's easy to just be like crap, I didn't do this right, I didn't do this right, I didn't do this right. All right, what did you do right this week? How did you move forward in other ways? Like stuff, like that is important.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm going to ask you a little selfish question, because I deal with it sometimes how do you handle or navigate a client or situation where they just generally feel like they didn't do anything well in the past week?

Speaker 2:

hmm, client specifically, yeah, I, if they can't identify it themselves, then I will find something to to boost them up with. You know, you got to find something. Um, if they honestly didn't do anything, then we'll talk about that, like, what's going on mentally? What's going on? Do you have an issue that we need to talk about? Are you dealing with something hard at work, hard with your family? Or mentally, personally, like we're here to make a connection and and grow and um, help people like this like you. Gotta be real and talk about like the actual struggles, not just, you know, eat this train like this like you gotta connect.

Speaker 1:

Problem solving progress that's, that's like, uh, that's like your tagline, if you like problem solving progress, moving forward um, but I love that you do go ahead. I was just gonna say I love that you uh have your weekly check-ins. Is that what you is um? Is that how you do with all your clients? Or? Or, how do you even work with your clients? Are you just in person? Do you work with people remotely, online? What is that kind of like?

Speaker 2:

uh, my main business is remotely online, so I have my own app and, um, that way it's in my company's, called in the arena and I haven't talked a little bit about that, um what that means. But I have my own app for coaching. Everything's in there. Check-ins um, check-ins we just do through zoom, but, um, if you're online, sometimes I'll meet up with clients that are local. We'll work out on the weekend and check in and see how their week went, but, um, mostly online. That's how my business is set up to help anyway very cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, a lot of businesses, people turn shift online if possible and uh, yeah, you mentioned in the arena. Can you talk about what does that mean?

Speaker 2:

yeah, absolutely so. It's a tough journey. I think back to working in a career and thinking about the goals and the other things I wanted to do while working in this job. That wasn't getting me closer and that's tough. I was doing like the work on myself before I left that career too and just had like blind faith that, okay, this work I'm putting in on myself is going to, is going to, it's going to play out, it's going to be beneficial down the road and to do that.

Speaker 2:

It's a lonely journey when you get up every single day and make it your mission to be the best version of yourself in the situation that you're in. And there's a Teddy Roosevelt speech. It's called the man in the Arena and I read that years ago and it stuck with me and quick kind of quote from that was it's not the critic who counts, it's not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or whether the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man that is actually in the arena and that stuck with me. Credit belongs to the man that is actually in the arena and that stuck with me On my journey of just getting up and trying to be better.

Speaker 2:

Every day you're showing up and getting in the arena, like in your arena, wherever you are, you get up and put in that work every day. That's what that's what being in the arena means and it's a mindset to kind of have and take pride in and take confidence in. When you do get lonely, when it gets hard, recognize that you're still showing up and putting in that work every day. You're still getting up and stepping in the arena and other people out there are just on the sidelines. Someone's talking shit, Someone's saying oh, rob's doing this, so who does he think he is? They're not even in the game. You're in the game, putting in that work every day, and they're even talking around the sidelines. And I wanted to start a brand and a movement and we're just in the beginning stages but a movement around people who are just getting up and trying to be that best version of themselves and they feel like it's lonely as well. I want to start moving in the arena like there's other people out there doing it too.

Speaker 2:

So wear that with pride, and that's kind of what In the Arena means to me and the message that I'm trying to spread with it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that little backstory and the quote itself. Yeah, I feel that I can see that whole line of play. That's pretty cool stuff. I like that. It reminds me of another brand. I don't know how they're doing it all, but there's a clothing brand and it was called few will hunt, and the whole thing behind that was everybody wants to eat, but only few will actually hunt. That's cool. I thought that was pretty powerful too, so that's cool. So let me let that's cool. I thought that was pretty powerful too. That's cool.

Speaker 1:

So let me ask you, though so business is online. It comes with a lot of different challenges and obstacles you've got to overcome. Things are growing. You're working constantly, a lot of things going on, but where are you going to? We talked about goals in the beginning of the episode. What are your goals for the business when you try to grow it too? You just hinted a minute ago about a brand and about the whole movement and things. So, yeah, maybe a picture of what that looks like when, when you're getting there, what does that destination look like?

Speaker 2:

so there's a couple big things that I have um as my vision. I want to grow a brand and a movement and start an apparel brand around England in the arena. In the arena, I want to be that next cool apparel brand with a message and a meeting that when you wear that logo you feel that connection to other people and you feel that lack of loneliness on your personal development journey. So I'm in the process of building that out and parallel with if you don't know how to get in the arena, here's our coaching side of things. You know your nutrition, your mindset and your fitness. That's how you start to develop that best version of you. So that's the other side of um. In the arena brand is the apparel brand side of things and then the coaching side of things, which will be like get in the arena. Um. That's my big vision for that and we're just going to be getting stages there.

Speaker 2:

Like I said, talking with some vendors on um, I really want to make the best quality thing I can produce with the apparel side of things. So I'm taking my sweet time with it and finding the right resources for that and then down the road, I really want an in-person gym, maybe attached to the headquarters for the business, but I love being in person and impacting a small community around me and I want to be that wherever I am living. I want to be that little hub of positivity, of of greatness, of higher standards that people can come and relate to. These people that are getting after after it every day and, um, you know, I'm sure you can relate um, I don't know if you've ever worked a nine-to-five, but there's a lot of people with average mindsets and sometimes it's very tough to be around, and I want a physical hub that the people who want more can come to work on themselves and be around like-minded people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, man, I love that, yeah, and I think that's some powerful stuff Growing the community, growing the brand, just helping the people left and right and just bringing feedbacks that really differentiate from that average. That's where everyone just kind of falls comfortable and they're like, oh, get me some hand gear. No, what do I need to do more? I'm happy with my kind of type job, and making my paycheck and finding my little things here and there keeps me happy. I love that. Maybe the real hope, mindset and vibe around it. You're in there, you're the one being the work. Just show up and make sure you chip away and keep going with that awesome stuff. I do want to hear your reasons to sign, because I know you are currently busy. You've got a lot of projects and things going on. Tell me, how do people stay in touch with you? How do they stay up to date on the latest updates with the apparel, with coaching, are you taking on new coaching clients? If so, how do people? How do people inquire and reach?

Speaker 2:

out to you yeah, my main um way of getting contact with me is my personal instagram. Right now it's austin, underscore uh, ita and um. If you're interested in coaching, shoot me a message there. We can hop on a talk about your goals and figure out if I'm uh. If I feel like I can help you, I do have a coaching application there as well. And then, um, I have a a website, um, itafitnesscom, um. Just with. That's basically a brief landing page with a little bit of what we do and you can fill out a application there if you want. I am working on launching a free summer challenge in the next few weeks or so just to help people get started with some healthy habits for free, so look out for that on my Instagram as well.

Speaker 1:

Cool. So right there, austin underscore ITA. I'm guessing the ITA stands for in the arena. Cool. So right there, austin underscore ITA. I'm guessing the ITA is from the arena. Yeah, yeah. So at Austin underscore ITA website was ITAFitnesscom. Correct, correct? Yes, all right and cool. So reach out to him, ask him, get on him. So hold him accountable for the payroll for when that comes out. Talk to him about coaching. He's very, very open and easy to communicate with, shares a lot of great information and content. So if you've got questions, shoot a DM, hotline a call with him. Show him some support. Got a challenge coming up. Make sure you get enrolled and get ready for that. Austin dude dude, thank you again so much for being on, but before I let you go I gotta ask you which is number one piece of advice for survival side hustle have a vision in your head every single day, every single day, every single day.

Speaker 2:

I put in that work with that vision of what I'm getting to and don't quit.

Speaker 1:

Love it, have that vision, keep it in front of you, talk with mind and don't stop Keep going. Awesome, powerful stuff, great conversation. I'm excited to see where you go with the brand in the arena, how you develop coaching and uh, looking forward to connecting more in the future, and I'd love to have you back on the show in the future, man thanks so much, rob.

Speaker 2:

Really appreciate um you having me here and connect.

Speaker 1:

I'm again of course dude. All right guys, peace, peace, peace.