Insights From a Life Time Trainer: The Constants For Making Fitness Progress

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Transcript: Insights From a Life Time Trainer: The Constants For Making Fitness Progress

Season 5, Episode 16  | August 9, 2022

[MUSIC PLAYING] All right, everybody. We’re back with another Life Time Talks with the great Jason Stella. Super excited to have you on today brother. How are you doing? What’s going on in your world?

No, it’s awesome man, I cannot complain whatsoever. I Just love the life and being happy, that’s my big thing man–

[LAUGHTER]

–and how to work to be happy.

All right, Jason. So we’re talking about two things today with you. We’re talking about the future of health and wellness, where you see things going as somebody who’s been in this industry for a really long time.

And then as part of that talking, a little bit too about just personal training and how to find someone, if you’re looking for a personal trainer, how to find someone that’s right for you. So I want to just kick off right away with the future of health and wellness. And when you hear that phrase, I’m curious what comes to mind for you and what you’re seeing happening.

Yeah, to me it’s twofold. I think the first one is more and more people are conscious about their health. I mean, we’ve lived in this thing, and we’re working in clubs for 25 years or however long we’ve been there. And we see the people who are consistently there, but I believe that there’s a whole new group of people, especially with what’s happened with COVID, where health and fitness and just being able to move better and more efficiently is growing.

And I think that that’s really where, I think, more and more people’s mindsets are going. Is how can I do this, maybe I don’t need a full six pack. I want to be able to move better, I want to be able to pick up my kids, I want to be able to golf, I want to play pickleball, I want to be able to do the things that I enjoy to do without getting hurt.

And how can I potentially rid my body of some of these aches and pains that I have? That a lot of times, I think, good intentions go bad. We’ll talk about trainers later on and where good intent of me going out and getting ready and getting on the treadmill or doing long walks and all of a sudden, now we overdo it and we injure ourselves.

So I think the first part of this thing is the switch from overall, what I like to call it well-being, which is health, happiness, and comfort. Comfort, health and happiness is the definition of well-being. And so it’s how do I work on the mental side, which obviously there’s aspects of conditioning and training and cardiovascular and strength training that help that. But how can I be more intentional in that particular area?

And then obviously, can I do exercises and workouts that are fun, but effective that allow me to move better and be more nimble as I grow older? So I really think that is the bigger part of the population of where things are going. Now the second part is how do I get there as a client? And is that going to be working in a gym and with a trainer, or is that in a group session, or is that in a virtual session?

And to me, my answer is all of the above. It really, in some cases, there’s a cost that allows you to say which bucket can I play in? I mean, if I can’t pay $85 bucks a session, then that might not be the bucket that I play in for a long period of time anyway. And then there’s the virtual side, which I can do whenever I want, wherever I want.

And as the trainer, what I love about it is I have better access to the clients, to helping clients. Because I’m with them, really, all day long in some way, shape, or form if I have the right virtual platform. So I do believe that it’s this convergence of both, I don’t think it’s going to be all virtual. Just because I think people are going to get bored with it, and they need that human connection.

And when it’s gone and it comes back, I mean, you could say we’re seeing that with certain organizations who blew up during the pandemic, and now gyms are opening back up again and people are like, maybe I’m may even go back over here. And now, those memberships on the virtual side aren’t as big as they once were. So it’s that combination of both.

Yeah, I want to stay right there. I mean, you said something as far as well being, I definitely want to stick to that. I also know that commitment and consistency, regardless if you’re doing virtual or in-person, is huge. And I know that– I did a little bit of homework as far as your four P’s.

So I’m going to have you break down each one of those Ps. And those Ps are purpose, preparation, performance, and persistence. So for our listeners, if you can break down to detail for each one of those Ps and what that means and how it relates to being?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it really stemmed– that stemmed from, probably, one of the hardest times in my life of me going through moving across the country with my family, it not working out, living in a ridiculously expensive part of California, and not having a job, and going, OK, what am I going to do now?

And so it really made me soul search and the thing they kept coming up with people that I’ve talked to is excellence. And it really helped me try to understand what did that mean for me. And what I had a hard time with, whether it was playing sports in college, or even sometimes with clients or in the work environment, is the standard of excellence. And what is that?

And what I really came to find out is that everybody’s standard is slightly different. And so the whole thing came from this path to personal excellence of this journey that people should be on and what are the components in that journey that are needed to be able to really achieve it? And that’s where the four Ps came from.

So first and foremost, everything starts with purpose. And if you don’t take the time to understand what your God given purpose is, then I think– sometimes it comes from the worst times in our lives, obviously, that’s what– this awakening for me came from that. And really out of a long drive from California up the coast to San Francisco. That’s literally– I was in a Jeep driving, the ocean was on the left, and the mountain was on the right. And I just took it all in and that’s where this came to me. And so the purpose of first and foremost.

And that’s– sometimes where it skews is purpose related to work versus purpose related to life and how do we balance both of those? And so then once we identify the purpose, at the end of the day, it’s practice and preparation and going out there. And what I found through just watching and living it, and we’ve all heard it and seen it, is the preparation and practice is what ends up allowing you to get better at whatever that thing is, that skill.

And done consistently over and it’s the fundamentals where so many people want the sexy new thing and you can really get the training. They want the sexy exercise, but let’s get back to the fundamentals before we get to that. So there’s the purpose, there’s the preparation, and performance is really just more or less go out and do it. Don’t be afraid to fail. Actually, encourage it.

In one of the journeys that I took that I learned from this guy, his name is Bo Eason. And he said, the best in the world have a different relationship with failure. He said the best in the world almost encouraged the failure, and then they don’t look at it as a failure, they look at it as a learning experience and then they move forward. And that’s what I try to teach down to my kids and everybody that I reach.

And it’s funny. Again, going back to the training world, what do we do when we strike train, we go to failure, and then we grow. If we don’t go to failure– as we get in better shape, we have to get to that point. So the performance is just get out there and do it, and then learn, come back to preparation, and you live in those two buckets.

And finally, the fourth one is persistence. And without that– I think that’s the key to not letting the failure get to you and consume you or become identified by it. So it’s really just things that I’ve helped coach clients with, I’ve obviously helped coach my kids with. And I live by myself, and it’s your journey. It’s not my journey it’s your journey. What is your journey. But I think these four things are a must have in order to really achieve excellence in whatever it is that you want to go out and achieve.

It sounds to me so much like this cycle of just constant learning and education in your life. So when I think about it, I hear your four Ps, and then I hear try, fail fast, learn, try again. And that’s the whole– just continuing, and at any given phase in our lives where we’re at, and what we’re going to try and fail at and try again at is going to change depending on where we’re at, what we need, whether physical, mental, emotionally, socially, all those pieces. So I think that’s a really– I love those Ps and I love just the cycle that it puts you on in terms of self evolution.

Yeah. And within that really came the things that we’re up against. And that’s where it really baffled me. And when I say the things that we’re up against, it wasn’t until– honestly, I was probably 30, maybe even close to 40 years old, that it was either I read it and understood it finally, or it was just presented in a way that I got it. And it was about– the first thing was resistance.

And in resistance, being the stuff that you tell yourself to justify the situation that you’re in, and it keeps you comfortable. Because that’s– at the end of the day, what resistance is really all about is to keep you comfortable because the body wants to stay– the brain wants to stay comfortable. So it’s how do I identify what resistance, what thoughts and feelings, and what those things are creating within me, and is it getting me where I want to go or not?

And then resistance also has some fellow players that I say, and one of them being judgment and us judging ourselves. And then obviously, the more we judge ourselves, that usually tends to come out in judging others. And so there’s dealing with judgment, dealing with resistance, dealing with attachment. Attachment to the past really is the root of all evil. And you’ve got to learn from it, and let it go, and then move forward. And so there’s this combination.

And then obviously the brain remembering the negative over the positive, and the negativity bias. And what it came to me is, as I was reading one day, a book, and it talked about that’s actually the four things that create happiness, and really what they call the happiness set point. And so the ability to elevate that set point or come back down to normal or even go below, has to do with identifying and being able to work within those four characters is what I call them.

So I want to talk a little bit about your experience in the industry. Because you have seen probably a lot of trends come and go, different things that have happened. What has remained constant in all of your years in this industry? And how do you feel about that? And what do you want to see change, I guess too?

Well, the consistency is– what I think has been most consistent is how we, the industry as a trainer, has toed the line of several different scope of practices, if you want to call it that. When I first got certified, everybody was a bodybuilder. Trainers were bodybuilders and we trained people to get big and in order to lose weight. And really, it was more muscular development.

And everybody that I went through in my original certification, which was someone based out of Chicago, they were all bodybuilders, every one of them. And so what’s interesting is then, not too long after that, it was late 90s for me, is this whole boom of corrective exercise started to come about. And we were toeing the line of what is physical therapy and what is not. What can they do and what can’t they do.

And there’s a lot more we can do than we get, especially because we have more time with the particular client typically than the therapist does. And so then it evolved to nutrition. When I first got certified, you couldn’t talk about nutrition, it was like an RD has to talk. And now not so much. There’s a lot that, with specializations, that you do that.

And then behavior modification is really what I’m seeing now, which really when you look at it is the most important. Because at the end of the day, the best workout’s the one the person’s going to do. And if you can get them to do it, then you’re going to win to a point, is what I’ll say. Because that’s also the criticism of the industry, is that there’s a lot of people that are really good at getting people to actually do stuff that might not be long term beneficial for them in the science of the programming.

So the consistency, I guess, is that we keep tapping into different markets of people to be able to expand and help them, which is comforting to me because as long as you’re a learner at heart, in the industry you’re going to be able to work with different types of people and figure out what your specialization is. But I think that outside of that, the connection that you have with your trainer at the end of the day is the most important, or the person you’re getting your advice from.

And we’re seeing that with social media, obviously. Think about how that has absolutely changed the industry for the good and potentially for the bad. And how do I sift through all this information to identify who are the people that are worth listening to, which is really why I came up with my personal podcast.

Is because I’m one of the people that taught trainers for years and years and years and therapists for years and years and years to come to the forefront because a lot of times they’re not really on social media. And so again, it wasn’t specific, but I think that it has been a consistent theme within this industry, which is why I love it as well.

Well, and I just want to– before David you jump into your next question, I think what we’re seeing is it’s become more holistic along the way too. It’s more comprehensive. It’s moved in some ways from being really physically focused to being fully comprehensive, which is what we talk about at Lifetime all the time about healthy way of life. It’s all the factors. And that’s what you’ve shown from like the bodybuilding phase when you started up to behavior modification. That is really a holistic process.

Well, and even on the nutritional side and just the typical words when we hear “holistic” of alternative ways, natural ways to build up your immunity, to build up your resilience.

The one thing that I’ve seen in my years, and I’m going to piggyback off what Stella just said and we come back to social media. But as we’ve evolved, the US has become more unhealthy. And when we actually look at these stats, I’m going to throw some stats at you and I want you to react Stella, 50% of the US have some type of chronic illness or diagnosed with one, 2/3 or overweight or obese.

More than half of Americans rely on some type of pharmaceutical drugs. So when you hear that, and I know that you said now you’ve been in the industry for 25 plus years, and you go back to when you first started to see where it’s at now, with all these things that are readily available, how do we continue to decline as a nation in this space?

That is an amazing question. The first thing that popped into my head when you said that is, I was trying to go back in my mind of the people that I was working with or that I talked to when I first started, and again, it was mid 90s, late 90s. And honestly, I think the only thing that people said that they were ever on, or maybe they just didn’t say it, which is a possibility, was a cholesterol Med.

The amount of drugs that are in the market and how they’re pushed, I mean, don’t get me started, I battled COVID on Christmas Day and the first thing that I watched was the movie Dopesick. Oh my God, I didn’t know what to think. I was just like, oh my God, how can that happen?

And so I just think the amount of pharmaceuticals that are getting pumped in with the quick fix need, and part of that is, I think, personal responsibility. My dad was that way, he’s passed away. He was the guy that took a pill to better. And so I think some of that is part of the big issue and how can we get in front of people early on to–

And again, take them through baby steps. I think that’s the other issue, is that people jump into it, it’s January, I’m going to jump into it. And then they jump into it with great intent like you said, but then they injure themselves, overuse or something of that nature. So I really think that how we can help is the ability to learn in each one of those buckets that I talked about. And be able to understand the other person and where they’re at and be able to actually help them.

If they’re drinking 10 cokes a day, then just get them to 8 in the first week or two. So I think that behavior modification, like I said, at the end of the day that’s everything that it is. If you want to get healthy from being unhealthy, you got to change those behaviors. So finding people that will incorporate that slowly but surely over time. And giving yourself the time and the patients as well.

I want to go right back into the social media piece now after you answer that. So the social media beast as it will hold up, and it will continue to grow, in my opinion, in the years–

Yeah.

–to come. That’s also been readily available as far as pushing out so much different information. And you touched on it a little bit because you have some people who are probably not qualified to say, x, y and z, or prescribe x, y and z. They continue to have this massive following.

So somebody who is accredited and has history and experience within the field might only have x amount of followers, that’s below this number. And then you have this individual over here that has millions of followers. And the beautiful part about social is you can choose to follow who you want to follow, and also like what you like to like.

But what comes from that is now, is positioned to only filter certain things that you see daily, which now can create that bias to make you feel like it’s right. So when you look at social media and how that continues to evolve, what’s your thoughts there. Because I came into it in college, as far as the social media era, so I got a little of best of both worlds, I did not have it, and then I came into it.

What have you seen within that space that has evolved? And I know you touched on it already, but how do you see it as a value and also how it can also be something that’s devaluing what we do within health and fitness.

Yeah, the first thing that I see with a lot of the people that have a monster following is that they keep it simple stupid. And I think there’s something there. The problem there though, is that a lot of times it seems as though if, and this is what you’ll have to try to identify with this particular person, is are they keeping it simple, and are they coming from this is what I do?

Because if you’re catching everything is about what they do, how do we know that what they do is going to replicate or they know how to replicate it. And I also think that the simple stuff works. If you stay consistent at the end of the day, you said it earlier, I always say frequency plus consistency, and then I’m adding in most recently variety.

And variety is not randomness, it’s being able to take a squat and do it a few different ways, so that the person thinks they’re doing a different exercise. Because they’re not geeked out in the science like we are and things like that. So the more shape you get into– the better, I should say the better shape you get into, the more you have to adjust things, and the more you have to work, and the harder you have to work.

So the simple thing is good at an entry level, but I think those same people might fall off in time because the simple stuff, the most deflating thing is doing a bunch of stuff and not getting results. And so that brings me to another point of making sure that you’re keeping track of the little results along the way, not just the big one that– everybody shoots for the 20 pound weight gain, but you’re going to lose 1 pound before you get to the 20 and congratulate on that.

So getting back to the social media side of it, though I think that’s the biggest thing, is are they coming from the standpoint of what I do versus how do I adjust this for you? And are they taking what we call the holistic approach? Are they are they focusing on one area. And I’m rambling now a little bit because as I’m thinking through this, would you rather have a specialist or would you have rather have a generalist?

And I think that really ends up coming back to what is the client goal? And what are they really trying to achieve? If they’ve worked out for a long period of time and they never lost weight, it’s probably a good chance a nutritional thing. So you’re probably going to need to go get some help over there.

Well, in that same space, I know one thing we’ve been doing a lot at Lifetime is talking about virtual training. And I want to just talk about that trend because I’m personally a hybrid individual, I’m not a trainer like the two of you. So I use these programs and I use these offerings. And I do–

We do Tatigo.

I know, everybody does. Like we all do. But it’s a hybrid world, it’s not just a hybrid work world, everything is hybrid. How we work out and all these things. And I think virtual training specifically is one where in all training, but how do I find somebody who is the right fit for me when there are so many options out there? You can literally, because of the virtual nature, work with anybody potentially. But how do you find the right person for you? And those same lessons are going to apply if you’re looking for someone in person as well.

Yeah, I think it starts with trying to teach the consumer, or the member in our case, what does everything mean? Like what does a degree mean? What does a certification mean? What does a specialization mean? And I think it starts there. Obviously the– I know when I went to school, there were no degrees in personal training. There were degrees in exercise physiology, which really lent somebody to go to a cardiac rehab type of environment or research at the university.

And really, a lot of universities shied away and said, don’t get into what it was, personal training, you can’t make a career out of personal training. Which is– ironically, one of my main purposes is to create and help people create a career that they can retire from in this thing. So what are you looking for? The degree is great, but a lot of times it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re great at training. They’re really good, probably, at the science side of it.

And then there’s different certifications in what are you looking for? If your goals are weight loss and body composition, then there are certain certifications and specializations that you probably should be looking for in the trainer. Do they have a nutrition certification or, I should say, specialization? Are they more body comp related people. So there are certain certifications that have specializations in doing those particular things.

So I think those are some of the big things. And then at the end of the day, it’s functional and effective, is the way I look at it. And it’s funny because I was on social media and somebody was bashing, it shouldn’t always be fun, these trainers. And I’m like, who are you training? And how are you still busy if you are?

I mean, the drill Sergeant thing is only going to go so far. And if you’re not giving them variety in a way that’s effective and not random, then you need to work on your skill. And their bashing group training, so all these group training places, whether it’s the stuff that we have or the stuff that’s out there.

And I’m like, it’s funny how they say that that’s all ineffective, but yet the clients usually rave about those particular things and love the results they’re getting. So to me, finding a trainer is all about really educating the consumer on what are the right questions to ask. And I think personality has to do with it, I think their experience should have to do with it, their certification and specializations, are those there?

I mean, if you want– and everybody, if they’re going to treat you like a strength and conditioning person, then that’s probably not the person you want to go see. And that’s what I’m seeing now too as a not so good trend. Is that everybody’s telling you, you’ve got to do deadlifts, you got to do the bends, and you’ve got to do the squats. And and I’m like, OK, great. But the deadlift, even if I could do 225 pounds, is only 225 pounds when I’m picking it up off the ground by my knees.

What happens if I’ve got a 60 pounds kid that I have to reach now for as I’m bending? That’s different. Those two might not correlate because that’s totally different. SO looking for people who have movement specialties and movement efficiencies. And there are certain certifications that do a really good job. And you can tell by cost, a little bit, and time that it takes for the certification, I don’t want to call out any positive or negatives here.

But I would just say if it’s one that you can get over a weekend, that’s probably a specialization on a piece of equipment, which is fine. If you’re looking for certifications, there are certain ones that take a couple of months to do, 2, 3, 4 or 5 months, depending upon your speed. There’s other ones that will take you a year plus and a lot of hands on training that goes on to it. So that’s where I would ask those questions to the trainer as I’m trying to select.

Can I jump in here? I want to just keep going on this for a second. Because I know both of you, and this is a question for both of you, how does, when you’ve had successful relationships with your clients that you’ve been training, how have those relationships began? And why have they been the most successful, do you think? I’d love to hear a little bit from each of you on that.

I start from what you just said the relationship and building from there. Because I’ve said this as long as I’ve been in the health and fitness industry, as I continue to evolve within my craft is, workouts or workouts by the end of the day. How I start to shape your mindset around the workout is what’s going to get you from point A to point B.

I talk about consistency, I talk about commitment, I talk about curiosity. And when we speak to those elements, it leads to what I call the fourth see which would be the championship. And it’s forever going as far as within a cycle. What I usually start with, if you came to me with your goal as far as what it is that you want to accomplish, I go back to the why. where did that come from.

I also speak to the time frame. Let’s say that you wanted to lose, lets say 20 pounds because I heard that earlier from Stella. I asked the question, how long did it take you to put on these 20 pounds? And if they said over the course of five years, but yet they set a goal to lose the 20 pounds within three months. I always bring them back to that aha moment.

And when you create that relationship and you give them the aha moments and you go through that journey with them and allowing them to understand what we touched on earlier, that failure will happen, but taking that experience and building from it, that’s where you start to build that trust.

Because most people are coming to you because of you being a subject matter expert within that space. If they do not get the result within the time that they wanted but they’ve progressed, they’ve gotten stronger, they’re doing more than what they’ve done before, if you’ve established that trust, they’re going to stay with you.

But if you only worry about you have to do this, you have to do that, and you did not build any rapport or relationship and connection with this individual and that relationship has grown, then 9 times out of 10, they’re going to go to the next person and hope that they arrive at something to make them feel connected to build that trust. So that’s why I start out from a foundation standpoint, is the mindset, and I build from there.

I would say, I’ve had some of the best relationships mentoring in my life from the clients that I’ve been with. And I think that’s what I miss about not training as much as I used to, is just the people that you meet and the relationships that you’re able to build. But I think for me, the best way that I was always able to build relationships is finding– I always had a niche when I trained. My niche early on was golfers.

And I still remember the first guy that I ever had used to golf with Michael Jordan when I lived in Chicago for 25 Gs a hole. And literally, that was the only client I had. So I was before Lifetime and I trained him and his wife at his house. And I met him, I did a seminar on how to train for golf and how not to train, and he happened to be walking by at the place that I did it.

And then I trained his– I got his wife first and then I started training them in their home. And it was funny because I said, hey, can you give me another client? Like, you’re my only client. She was like, no, I’m not giving you anybody, I’m making too much money off all my friends. And so I said, I’m doubling your rate.

[LAUGHTER]

So he said, fine, he had a lot of money. But I think those relationships start with knowing who you jive with. I was a corrective exercise, I came up as an athletic trainer through college. And so I was a corrective in really golf-tennis specific. And those are the people that I found, so I had an instant connection with them.

And at all times, it ended up turning into, oh I’ve got this back pain, or I’ve got this wrist pain, or I’ve got this shoulder pain, and then I was able to help in those particular areas. So I think both from a trainer perspective and a member perspective is search that out. Find out really what you’re looking for in a trainer and go ask, is there a specialty? Because there’s a specialization in pretty much everything nowadays, which is good, bad. But I think that allowed me to create a connection with them.

And then the second thing that I would be diligent in, and I used to teach this to trainers, is let me see your phone. Meaning let me see when was the last time you communicated with your client? And if the only time you’re communicating with your client, is when you’re with them on two days a week, then it’s probably not going to build a great relationship with them.

I mean, I knew when their kids’ names were, I remember those. I knew when their kids birthdays were, I knew when their birthdays were. I would– there’s all of those little things that are just basic relationship trust building things that you should take into consideration.

Yeah, it’s building– some of my most successful relationships with personal trainers have been through building meaningful connection with them. It’s been even sometimes less about the workout, but because I connect with them, and I trust them, and I can be vulnerable with them. They know me.

Well, and I think that goes back to what I had said earlier, and for years I never said this. Because I was the, you got to have the science. And at the end of the day, program design is going to be, in my opinion, obsolete in the next few years. Because there’s going to be computers that can build better programs as you put information in or apps or technology, that will build the perfect program.

It’s how can I connect with the person and get them to do it, and how can I get them to come in and work through all the noise in their head of why they don’t want to do this, or why it stinks, and all of those things. And get them to actually enjoy it. So honestly, I believe that the human connection is key.

I do want to quote, Stella said this back in– you might have said it before, but I remember you telling me, David, I think you’re getting too caught up in the program and it’s going to be obsolete in a few years. So it was 2012, I think, is when I first heard him say it. And you can already start to see how it’s evolved in that digital space. So you’re on to something brother. I’m pretty sure if you were to make a bet, you probably would come out on top.

And that’s coming from a guy who spent a lot of time and money figuring out how to program design.

Well, Jason I want to be conscientious of time. So I want to give you a chance. Is there anything else you want to make sure listeners know or hear from you on this topic. Whether it’s about the future of health, about finding a trainer. Before I hand you over to David for the two minute drill that he always does with our guests.

OK. I just think trainers are very powerful, and they really can help. And I think finding out, especially nowadays and all the offerings that we have from virtual to in-person, find out which one is yours and give it a shot. Even if it’s a group, one of the group ones, and just engage in it.

There are so many people that don’t realize and they just go and do random stuff out there that they’re thinking of or that they’re seeing, and then they say it doesn’t work, or they get frustrated because they’re spending a lot of time in not getting the input. So having a coach is the key. And we’ve all had them, even the pros have them.

Yeah, there we go, 2 minute drill, 10 questions, hot seat questions.

Oh boy.

All over the place random. But it’s almost just finding out that personality. And some of the times you might shock yourself when you hear some of the responses–

[LAUGHTER]

–here. All right, so ideally under 2 minutes should be pretty easy. 10 questions, you ready to rock?

10 questions in under 2 minutes?

Yes.

OK, all right, let’s do it.

All right, here we go. First question, if you could be any animal for a day, what would it be?

Tiger

Tiger, OK.

As a kid, what do you want to be when you grow up– what did you want to be when you grew up?

Professional drummer.

If you can magically gain one skill without working for it, what would it be?

Professional drummer.

[LAUGHTER]

All right. If you knew you couldn’t fail, what would you do? Or even if you knew you would fail, you would do it anyway?

I couldn’t fail– I had this relationship back and forth between playing pro basketball because I played through college, and my dad was a musician, and I played the drums early on. So honestly, I think it would probably be the pro basketball at that particular. Point. Just be a pro basketball player, if I knew that I could do it and I can get there. That would be it.

All right. What was your favorite class in college?

I was a science guy, so I like the biological– the body science, I hated plant science.

[LAUGHTER]

All right. What’s one thing that you want to accomplish this year?

Honestly, my goal this year is a bit more for my kiddos. So I’m train my kids for the sports that they’re in, one specifically in helping him get to the goals that he wants. And the good thing is, he failed, he got caught last year. And within this past year, actually just last night, he got cut a coed, he got really mad, and it was a coed flag team. I’m like, dude, it’s a coed flag team, don’t worry about it. And he ended up making a high school freshman– coming in, he’s in eighth grade, seventh team–

Oh, wow.

–this year. So made big strides. So for me, it’s to continue to help him get to where he wants to be in the future. And then I’ve got my health, I just want to stay where I’m at. I like where I’m at, it’s just keeping myself on a healthy path.

All right, so this next one is out there. You ready?

Mhm.

If you were sent to live on a space Station for three months and only allowed to bring one personal item with you, what would it be?

Personal item– I thought you were going to say food and that was going to be easy. It would have been pizza.

[LAUGHTER]

But one item– it’s got to be not a person, it’s got to be an item, right?

Mhm.

I don’t know if it would work. And I would probably say, unfortunately, my phone.

[LAUGHTER]

If it works. If it’s still staying connected–

It stays connected, yeah. I got you.

Because anything weight isn’t going to matter up there because there’s no gravity, so–

[LAUGHTER]

This is true. OK. What do you do when you’re procrastinating? So I want you to name your go to distractions here.

Oh, my phone.

Your phone? OK.

Yeah, the biggest is my phone for sure.

OK. If you have one extra hour of free time every day, how would you use it?

I would probably be family time, time that I could spend with the entire family not with them being distracted by everything, but just altogether.

I like it. All right, here goes the last one. The legacy you want to leave this world with?

Oh man. From an industry standpoint, I created this personal mission statement when I started at Lifetime. It was the point at which I went from trainer to manager. And it was through the relentless pursuit of educating myself and others to change the reputation of the health club trainer nationally, and help people grow personally and professionally.

And that stayed for a long time, up until this more recent with the four P’s came out, which was probably five, six years ago. I’ve been in Arizona five years, so probably seven or eight years ago. Is where it was more to help people achieve their potential and achieve personal excellence.

And it’s just– potential was something, for me, that was always talked about. When I was playing basketball early on, my coach told me– my favorite coach told me and I didn’t understand at the time, he said, potential is the worst thing that somebody, a coach, can say about you. And I’m like, what do you mean?

He’s like, it’s because you’re not achieving it. If they’re talking about you not reaching your potential, it’s not a good thing. And ironically, my father dealt with it. Meaning he was on Epic Records, and he was in the– created the group Rufus before Chaka Khan came in. And he left and didn’t move to California with the band and then that’s when Chaka came in and a couple other people. And that next album that they finished was actually the one that they won a Grammy award for Tell Me Something Good.

So me moving to California when I was 40 was like, Oh my God, dad didn’t do this, am I going to do this? So he never thought that he achieved his potential even though he did make it to Epic, but he just never had the Grammy or he never had the big hit when he was in Man.

And then me playing basketball, obviously going through college and it went D3, didn’t go D1, obviously all that kind of thing. So it’s just something that has always been with me, this term and this word potential. And in my career, I believe that I’ve achieved a lot in my career, some things went great some things didn’t. But at the end of the day, I think achieving your personal excellence and getting people to push past their fears and do the things that they need to do to reach the potential is really, if I can leave that as a legacy in the training world or in life, that would be it.

Great job, brother.

Right.

Thank you.

Probably went under 2 minutes, but it was really good. So I’m glad we took the time.

I typically took the course up until that last one.

[LAUGHTER]

I love it, it’s good. Well, Jason, we’re really lucky to have you as a Co-podcaster at Lifetime. You’ve got your Lifetime Talks training. Where can people find you and follow you to make sure that they’re getting the latest from you?

Yeah, absolutely. My Instagram social media is actually a path to personal excellence. But we’ve got the Lifetime Talks training podcast that you can get on the website or on Bus Proud or on any of the platforms as well. And those are really the two big ones that I use right now.

Great. Well we’ll make sure to link to everything on the show notes page with that. So Jason, thank you for coming on and talking with us.

Awesome, thank you guys so much for having me.

[MUSIC PLAYING]