[JOE]:
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This is the Practice of the Practice podcast with Joe Sanok, session number 521.

Well, think about big scary decisions you’ve had to make. Maybe it was your first hire, or maybe you invested a bunch of money into advertising or maybe even signing up for Next Level Practice or something that you bought through Practice of the Practice. I mean, those are scary things to decide to do, your hard earned money going to someone else on the gamble that it’s gonna work. You know, I mean, with our Next Level Practice people, they’re paying 99 bucks a month. I mean, that’s a nice takeout meal. I mean, really nice one for a family for $99 a month. And so for us, we here at Practice of the Practice, we take that super seriously, that we’re taking your money, we want to give you a good ROI. But when you’re on the other side of that decision, whenever I’ve signed up for consulting or we’re having someone do Facebook ads, specialists kind of things right now. That’s super scary to think through oh, my word like, what if this doesn’t work? What if this person’s just taking my money? What if I spent all this time on something and it just doesn’t work out? Today, we’re talking with Eric all about how to make big scary business decisions. And what I love about this is that he’s been through it, I’ve been through it. We talk honestly about just all the things that we think through when we are approaching a big scary business decision. So without any further ado, here’s Eric.

________________________________________

[JOE]:
Well, today on the Practice of the Practice podcast, we have Eric Malzone. After nine years of owning multiple gyms and a deep analysis of his own ideal day, he decided to successfully exit his brick and mortar businesses to pursue the life he and his wife wanted while creating a bigger impact on the fitness industry as a whole. Eric, welcome to the Practice of the Practice podcast.

[ERIC]:
Hey, thank you, Joe. I’m really excited to be here, man. I’m excited about your camper life right now and what you’re doing. This is fun, this is gonna be a lot of fun.

[JOE]:
Yeah, you know, I always love seeing people in different industries that at some point had the same realization of what is my ideal life, what do I actually want to do, rather than just follow the typical script and as we were kind of prepping before we got recording just now I’m just like, we got to start recording because we’re gonna talk about all this stuff without it even like being recorded.

[ERIC]:
We don’t want to miss all the good stuff. I’ve had that so many times in my podcast, it’s like, you start talking. And then five minutes in the conversation be like, that was so good, why weren’t we recording? And then you try to recreate it. It’s never as good the second time, it’s like a second ice cream cone. The first one’s always better.

[JOE]:
That’s so funny. I just the other day, there’s something about ice cream that our kids will eat just like half a scoop. And they won’t go any more than that. Like, they’re just like, my tummy is full. And I feel like we didn’t really train them to do that. But as kids go, I’m kind of glad that they are wasting ice cream rather than being like, I need four or five more, bounce off walls.

[ERIC]:
I was a chubby little kid, that was not me.

[JOE]:
A chubby kid that became a fitness guy. Okay, let’s start there.

[ERIC]:
Okay. Yeah, so I was a chubby kid. Really between probably the grades five through eight. You know, so a little bit of background is I was born in Silicon Valley, before it was a Silicon Valley, like I used to ride my bike round and there’s orchards everywhere and then you know, to date myself it started to, you know, blow up in the early 80s. So yeah, I was you know, started in sports and athletics early on, I was a swimmer, competitive swimmer starting at age five, and then found water polo, a sport that not too many people know about or play.

[JOE]:
That’s an intense sport.

[ERIC]:
Super fun, really enjoyed it, dove, oh, God, I was all in for about 20 years. So I started like 10 or 11 and played all the way through until my early 30s. And it was a lot of fun, man, I really enjoyed it and you know, just having that sport, that uh, that being around athletes and teams and gyms and all that, it was just kind of ingrained in me. Yeah, I just went through school, went to college, back east. Came back. The first thing I did, I think it was, so that was 1999, the dot com bubble was bursting when I got done with college, so there wasn’t, the job market wasn’t so great, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

So, you know, I took the first job that came to me and it was a sales job. And I started selling recruitment services. Aerotech was the company and it was good, you know, it was a decent amount of money for that age. I did well, I got promoted early, and did a lot of different sales jobs for about nine years in San Francisco. And it was, let’s see, I did radio ads, I did recruitment sales, I did real estate finance, I did legal publishing, I did a lot of them. And, you know, made good money, did well. But there was a moment, Joe, there was a moment when I went to a national sales conference for the last job I was in. And I was actually awarded for a certain ranking. And I looked around, I was like, man, if I stay in this role for 10 more years, I don’t like what I’m seeing. And you know, I just saw myself in a suit, stressed out, traveling too much, overweight, probably bad health. I don’t know, probably smoking cigarettes, I had a really negative future of what this was going to look like.

So I made a decision there. It was time. And the serendipitous part of it was within a couple weeks, I got a text message for an old college teammate, Traver Bone that said, hey, man, do you want to open a gym? And it took me one beer at happy hour and a text back and this is T nine texting too. So it was like, I don’t know if you remember that. But I said, yeah, I do.

[JOE]:
Is that when you have to like click, you know, like, one three times?

[ERIC]:
3, 3, 3, 2, 2, yeah.

[JOE]:
Oh, man. Yeah, I remember, total side note, has nothing to do with the interview. But I remember my friends that all lived in big cities would like, text each other. And I felt like it was a step back in evolution. Because it’s like, we had spent all this time to move from the telegraph to like emails, to like, phones in our pockets. And then they’re like spending five minutes saying, can you pick up a gallon of milk? And like, that’s ridiculous. Like now it makes sense when it’s a quick voice to text. But back then, I still would not do that text. I don’t mind talking to people on the phone.

[ERIC]:
Well, I remember at that point too, Joe, I don’t know how old you are. But I remember I had a pager previously. And then we started texting on [unclear] I’m like, isn’t this just a pager? I didn’t really get it, right?

[JOE]:
Yes, I have one friend that had a pager and it was because he needed to make some deals. So that was in high school and he was the friend that my parents didn’t want me to hang out with very much.

[ERIC]:
A young entrepreneur.

[JOE]:
Yes, exactly. He was learning skills, actually he ended up opening a gym.

[ERIC]:
Yeah, there you go. There you go. I don’t think that would be the first time someone with that occupation moved into fitness actually. Yeah, [unclear] variation.

[JOE]:
So then, when you start to open this gym, I feel like gyms and private practices oftentimes can be very similar in that you’re trying to attract clients and want to better their life in some way. A lot of people that listen to this have private pay practices, so people aren’t paying through their insurance. So they have to make that buying decision to put down money. You know, you’re doing marketing and all these things that you like a gym, you like working out, you want to get the equipment, but then there’s probably that whole business side of it that a lot of gym owners don’t consider. So take us through just a couple of those things and how you thought through that. And then I’d love to get into more of the exit story too.

[ERIC]:
Yeah, you’re spot on. It is very, very similar. Most of the people in the fitness industry get into it because they’re passionate about helping people. And that’s what makes it amazing. Unfortunately, a lot of them, you know, don’t learn what they call, you know, quote, unquote, the business side of things. And I really don’t like that term, because I don’t think there is the business side of things. It’s just your business. That’s it. It’s just your business. It’s what you do. Your product or services, what you do to help people, there is no business side of things. It’s all tied in. So it’s very similar. And you know, when you look at, here’s a pretty normal path into the fitness industry or gym ownership, I should say, is maybe you become a trainer, start helping people, you’re getting them results, they’re referring you people, you’re starting to get a reputation for being a good coach or trainer. And then somebody whispers in your ear, like hey, you should have your own gym. And that seed gets planted, and maybe a couple weeks later, they’re like, hey, if you need some startup capital, you know, I’m happy. I’ll do that for you. And they go, yeah, all right, great. And they do it. And then six months later, they realize that they’re not really doing as much of the work that they loved. They have to do this business side of things. They’re mopping the floors, they’re doing all this stuff that they didn’t even see themselves doing and they end up being really frustrated with it and they don’t seek out help. And that’s pretty common.

Where I lucked out is I actually had the sales and business side and I had to learn the fitness side, which actually wasn’t that hard. Because you know, you do some certifications, I had an athletic background. And as long as you don’t break the number one rule of don’t hurt anybody, you’re going to be okay. You know, if you can get people to move, eat a little better, drink more water, sleep a little better, have fun, have a great community, then you have a good service. So yeah, there’s a lot of similarities. In fact, I had a lot of strategic partnerships in Santa Barbara, which is where my gyms were, with health practitioners and, you know, therapists and chiropractors, and a lot of people like that. And it was, we had a lot of good working relationships with them.

[JOE]:
Wow. So then, when did you start thinking through your ideal day and start to leave that? Because I think and I think a lot of practice owners feel this way too where they spend all this time working on their business. They use terms like it’s my baby, I put so much into it. And then they start to feel guilty that they don’t want to be there as much as they are. When did you start to decide, maybe I’m not going to be a gym owner in this way anymore. Like, how did that shift start?

[ERIC]:
Yeah, it was, man, there was a lot. There’s a lot to that, you know, when we started the gym, Traver and I, you know, we strategically picked where we wanted to live and therefore have the business. We created a list. My first vote was actually Lake Tahoe. His was Santa Barbara. Lake Tahoe had a CrossFit gym already established. And this is back in 2008 or 9 when CrossFit wasn’t really on the map yet, it was kind of wild, wild west for CrossFit. And, you know, we decided on Santa Barbara and to me, it was like, okay, here, I had this opportunity to go start a business with a friend of mine, live in Santa Barbara, be a gym owner and be my own boss, like everything, checked all the boxes, man, it was beautiful. And then I actually achieved it. Right? We were doing it, you know, five years later, the gym was doing well, we were growing, expanding. You know, I was living in Santa Barbara, I had a good lifestyle, a great community, tons of connections, very fulfilling, met a beautiful woman, and married her, all the things, right?

But then things changed in 2016. It was a very challenging year, my wife and I suffered a lot of loss from the loss of her father to a suicide of a good friend of mine, we lost a pregnancy late that really kind of stopped our hopes for having a family of our own. And at the end of the year, my dog died. And then I also had to buy out my business partner, right at the beginning of the year. So it was like stacked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 all these things happened, right? And I call these types of events, you know, cage rattling events, right? Where it’s just like, if you’re listening, and you’re like, huh, I don’t really have one, well, it’s gonna come. If you’ve had one, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Something that just changes your chemistry, something that adds a bit of urgency to your life, maybe just your interaction or your relationship with our own mortality tends to change. I know, these are deep subjects, but it’s really what led me to shift.

And then I just walked home one day, and I was stressed out and you know, I wasn’t enjoying it anymore. And I come home and I just told my wife, I said, you know, hey, we always talk about living in this mountain town someday, right? She’s from Brazil, she always wanted to learn how to ski. I’m like, well, what if I sold the business, you know, the primary one and sold shares in the other one and we went and lived in a mountain town somewhere? And she looked at me and her first reaction is do not eff with me. Are you serious? Right? Because she knew this was my identity and this is my baby. This is what I poured everything into. And then right after that, I’m like, well, no, I’m serious. I think we should do it. You know, you know, I’ve already been thinking about it a lot. And I think it’s time. She said, well, why don’t we go live in a bunch of mountain towns and go explore? I’m like, that sounds great. Let’s do that.

And, you know, took many steps to get to, you know, selling the gym and then selling the shares of the other and all those things that go into, and that’s all that’s a whole podcast episode within itself, but it worked out successfully. You know, selling a gym’s not going to set me out for life. But it did give us some runway and some ability to move on to the next chapter. And we just, you know, we took our trailer, which was a little teardrop trailer, probably not as large as the one you have. But we started hitting the road. And you know, we stopped in Lake Tahoe and then we went to Bend, then we went to Washington, then we went to British Columbia and Vancouver Island, and then we swung through Whitefish. And we did do a lot of different areas over a span of two and a half years. Now we’re firmly planted in Whitefish and bought some property here right before COVID hit, and we just started building a home. So yeah, there’s a lot to the decision making process of going for it. But I think we can even talk about a framework on that, that’s a little bit more of the story.

[JOE]:
Oh, that’s so awesome. So you had told me that you have a big scary decisions framework. And I mean, having hit the road as a family and traveling and all that, like, there’s very few times in your life as an adult that if you do something wrong, it could potentially kill people. And me having a 37 foot trailer off the back of my truck. And I, before we got this, like, I’d never backed up a trailer, I’d never backed up a boat, we live in northern Michigan, the first time ever driving a trailer of any sort was when I picked this up from across town, drove home with my father in law in the front seat, and then backed it into our 90 degree angle driveway. So there was a huge learning curve. Just every little thing took forever to learn. So how do you frame up these bigs? You call them big, scary decisions.

[ERIC]:
Yeah.

[JOE]:
How do you think through those? What’s that framework? Because I, I love hearing the story of, hey, hon, you want to go to a mountain town? Hey, don’t mess with me. But I feel like there’s so much more that’s probably in there. If you guys are anything like me and Christina, where Christina overthinks things and doesn’t bring it up for oftentimes years, and I want to take action right away, and often poopoo ideas that are unsafe, and maybe waste a whole bunch of money. So how do you frame out big scary decisions? How do you work through that? Yeah, take us through that.

[ERIC]:
Yeah, it was complex. I mean, the decision to sell the businesses and, you know, go nomadic and leave this community that we had in Santa Barbara with all of our friends and beautiful weather and our home and all that, there’s a lot of detail to it, it wasn’t an easy process, for sure. But here’s the framework, I call them BSDs, you know, because it’s big, scary decisions, and we’re all going to face them. And it depends, of course, on how adverse you are to risk. But let’s use the first one, you know, which was pull the corporate ejector seat, leave San Francisco, drive down to Santa Barbara and open a gym in a town I’d never been to, nor did I know anybody, in the worst economic crisis up until that point in our lifetime, right? And it doesn’t make a lot of sense on paper. But here’s my decision.

The first question I asked myself was, well, what’s the worst thing that can happen? Right? And then you just, you know, it’s kind of a piece of stoic philosophy, what is the worst thing that can happen? And at that point, with that decision, I was like, well, the worst thing that can happen is really, you know, I have this much savings, I have to live and work and eat at the gym for a period of time. And if it fails, then I have to go get another corporate job or I go live on a friend’s couch. Right? That was it. Like, well, that’s actually not that scary, you know, when you think about it. And so once you boil it down to what’s the worst possible thing can happen and just be real, you know, like, what is the worst possible thing that can happen? Usually, it’s not as bad as you think. So then the follow up question to that is…

[JOE]:
Well, let me pause you there. I remember, I interviewed Shenandoah Chefalo, it was probably the first 50 episodes of the podcast, this was 2012, 2013. And she had been in foster care and ended up, you know, losing almost all of her possessions as a little kid. And she asked that same question. And she said, most people will say I end up homeless. And I loved what she said, where she said, are you saying that if you saw your life heading towards homelessness, you would just sit there and let it happen? Like, you wouldn’t go get a job, you wouldn’t reach out to friends. Like, even if you were homeless, you probably have 20 people that you could go stay with temporarily to figure things out. It was just such a good thing to think about because she had been homeless, she had lost everything as a child. And to say, like, you just watched this happen. And that just changed so much for me. Because once you realize that you never, like if you notice that all of a sudden, like, your sales in your business are half as much as they were last month, you would take major action. And so I love that you start with that question, because I think it’s such an important question for being able to reshape the kind of future you want to build for yourself.

[ERIC]:
Yeah, it’s really powerful. And we just we come up with these stories in our head, that you know, something awful or terrible is gonna happen if we take this risk, you know, we’re gonna blow through our life savings or you know, you just set stop guards, be like, okay, well, this is when I’m done. This is my point where I move on from this venture and try something else. So you know, you can manage your own risk. So once you ask that question, what’s the worst thing that can happen? The next question I always ask is, well, 10 years from now, will I regret not having tried? And that one’s really powerful too, because you kind of put yourself in a future self. And you’re thinking, you’re questioning how much you value this maneuver, right? If I had stayed in the corporate sector and not try to open my own business, I knew for sure 10 years down the road that Eric would have been like, dammit, Eric, why didn’t you try? You know, why didn’t you go for it? And that’s that’s a really powerful question, too. So there’s a lot to that one. But you know it, the secrets of it is really important.

And the final question, which really helps simplify things and put into action as well, if you decided from the first two questions that you’re starting to move forward, what’s the tiniest first thing that you can do? Right? In the case of me selling the gym, what’s the tiniest, first step I can take towards selling that gym? And it was a simple thing. I just sat down one day, and I wrote five names of people that I think I could sell that to, maybe, right. And then I, you know, what was the next thing I needed to do, the next day? Well, let me talk to somebody who’s actually sold a business, so I called them up and asked them, and they gave me one more direction to do, well, what’s the next thing I need to get an NDA and start approaching people, and then you start working your way through it. And all of a sudden, this big thing that seems really scary, just becomes a matter of tiny steps. And then you get through it. And next thing, you know, three months later, maybe a year later, whatever it is, maybe a week later, right? You’ve moved forward with your decision, and you’re actually taking action. And it’s a very, it’s a very good feeling.

[JOE]:
Yeah, and what do you think that does to stress, overthinking, being paralyzed by perfection to say, what’s just one small thing I can do? Like, interview someone who’s sold a business? What do you think that does to the brain and your stress level?

[ERIC]:
I think it reduces it, you’re still leaving yourself an out. You know, if I’m just writing down five names on a piece of paper, I’m not, I haven’t made any major commitment yet.

[JOE]:
You’re not selling your business.

[ERIC]:
No, no, I’m just taking a little incremental step forward. And, you know, if we take things, you know, it’s the old adage, right? It’s like, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. That’s it, you just take little tiny steps, and it does a lot mentally, because you can do a little bit every day. And you know, it’s the base of health and fitness, right? It’s not about taking huge chunks in your health and fitness and moving forward. It’s just, you know, changing little habits that you stick with over a lifetime. And you can do amazing things just by doing that.

[JOE]:
So at the time of this, when this goes live, it’s early 2021. People are kind of in that early year, probably thank goodness, it’s not 2020 anymore. When you, and I’m sure you’ve seen the cycles, especially owning a gym, of people doing new year in different ways. When you think about big, scary decisions, when you think about leveling up, creating your ideal life, all these things that you and I care passionately about, because it’s totally transformed both of our lives to think this way. When people are entering a new year, what mindsets would you push them to think about?

[ERIC]:
Yeah, you know, being in the fitness industry for so long, I find new years to be amazing, right? It’s just a flip. It’s just one more circle of the sun, right? It’s not that much, really, it’s just a specific day that we all decided was more important than all the other days. And I don’t know, I’m fascinated by it, it’s a powerful thing. You know, I guess flipping a number on a calendar tends to create this vision. So I, to be honest with you, I’m fascinated by it. I’ve been trying to look at it for many years of why it’s such a big thing. I mean, right now, today’s November 3rd, it’s Election Day, right? I think there’s a general sense of anxiety all across the nation. You know, I woke up this morning at 4:15. I didn’t know why I was anxious. I’m like, huh, it’s really like, I’m not outwardly anxious about the election. But I think there’s a lot of anxiety. And I think, you know, when we talk about this particular year, going 2020 to 2021, people are hoping to God that that magical day, when we flip a number at the end of our date, changes things that we can just package it up, 2020, put a ribbon on it and sail it down the river, and move forward.

So there’s a lot of psychology behind it that I’m not really qualified to understand, nor do I understand it even after trying for many, many years, but I think it’s going to be a powerful one. I think people are ready to move on from this year. And they’ve learned a lot. Right. One thing we have done in 2020 so far is people have learned a lot about themselves, about health, about what’s important to them.

[JOE]:
Baking bread. I learnt something about baking bread.

[ERIC]:
[Unclear]. Bread is amazing. I am so grateful. That’s one thing I’m grateful for COVID is now I get… There’s two loaves rising right now, as we speak.

[JOE]:
Oh my gosh. So we don’t have room in the camper in the oven. Because we, I have a Le Creuset Dutch oven, French oven thing, and it was just too heavy and bulky to bring so I was like oh, I guess we’ll have to buy nice bread on the road.

[ERIC]:
I’ve really taken this opportunity to increase my bourbon knowledge as well.

[JOE]:
You and my wife would have plenty of conversations there. I am more of a tequila guy.

[ERIC]:
Yeah, maybe that’ll be 2021 for me. We’ll see, I can hold out hope.

[JOE]:
So yes, I think that’s a good point to think about how we think that there’s just this flip of the calendar. And it’s, it’s totally arbitrary as to why we decided that day. And actually, in the book that I’ve been writing with HarperCollins, even just looking at seven day weeks, the only reason that we have seven days in a week is because the Babylonians thought there were only seven major celestial beings, which was the sun, the moon, Earth, and then Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, what they could see. And so it’s totally arbitrary. And I think that’s the big lesson, at least as I’ve been working on that book is just that we can design our lives how we want and that most of what we’ve been handed, it’s not like it was well thought out. And so even just saying, great, like the calendar flip, that’s a big deal. But now like, what are we going to sustain for this year rather than just have be a January goal?

[ERIC]:
Yeah, let me illustrate that point with one of my favorite stories. So this young man gets invited to his girlfriend’s family dinner, right, it’s Christmas, they eat a ham every year. So he sits down, they bring out this beautiful ham, and the tips are cut off. And so he asked, his girlfriend’s like, well, why do you…? Why are the tips cut off? She’s like, I don’t know. I don’t know. Let’s ask my mom. So they asked the mom and she’s like, well, that’s the way that we do it in our family. That’s the way, you know, my mom did it. So they go find grandma, and they ask grandma like, well, Grandma, why do you cut the tips off the ham? She’s like, you know, that’s the way Great Grandma Jo did it. So great Grandma Jo is over in the corner. So they go over to her and they ask her after dinner, Great Grandma Jo, why did you cut the tips off the ham? To fit it in the pan. And that’s it. That’s why they did it for generations after time just to fit in a pan for generations ago. And that’s why, why do we eat three meals a day? Why do we flip the calendar? Why did we do it? Why are there seven days in a week? Why do we do all these things? Well, it’s time to question it. I agree.

[JOE]:
And I think that COVID and 2020 has made people question so much in a positive way. We were doing this event in October in Colorado, it was a socially distanced outdoor event, we had a handful of people there, called The Art of Dreaming Big. And it was really interesting. One person said, you know, it’s almost like we need to burn it all down to say, what do we actually want to build back up? And, you know, whether it’s institutions or politics or the way we live our lives, I mean, every aspect of 2020 was disrupted. And so to say, well, now we have a chance, do I want to go back to in person counseling, do I want to keep doing an online counseling practice, do I want to fill in the blank? It’s like, it almost took the burning down in order to say, wait, I don’t have to live this type of life, does it even take 40 hours to do my job anymore? Probably not. Because you just ran Zoom for only 20 hours last week, and you also helped manage your kids during the pandemic and all that. So that idea of just kind of burning it down and saying, well, what are we gonna build up? It’s dangerous, because we don’t know how it’s gonna play out. But also, it’s quite an opportunity.

[ERIC]:
Yeah. And I think it’s necessary, man. I really do. I mean, so, you know, the fitness industry. So I’ve been, you know, almost at every level in the fitness industry for, you know, 13 years now. And, you know, I started The Future of Fitness podcast three years ago, because I wanted to help modernize the industry. I wanted to use the, you know, Wayne Gretzky quote, you know, skate to where the puck is going, not where it is right now.

[JOE]:
Oh, my gosh. Okay, last week’s podcast that I just recorded two hours ago. That exact quote is what he just quoted. I love when that happens. Sorry.

[ERIC]:
It’s really good. [Unclear].

[JOE]:
Go ahead. We haven’t said it for like, 400 episodes, and then two times in one day. [Unclear].

[ERIC]:
Yeah, it is. And that’s, you know, that’s what I wanted for the fitness industry. I just saw this archaic model, you know, people still trading their time for money, low margins at gyms, it was just, it just wasn’t working. And, you know, technology was really starting to come in from 2017 to 2018. And now, man, full blown disruption, you know, just full blown disruption. It’s crazy, and it’s forced to change really fast. And I think overall, you know, for the fitness and health industry, I guess you could say, the consumer will win. So we just have to figure out how do we adapt to the consumer needs as they shift and change so rapidly during these times, and people who figure that out, are going to come out of this on the other side in a very, very nice position.

And for people who are entrepreneurial or maybe you know, have been waiting for their break, this is it, like the status quo is shaken. It’s different now. And you have every opportunity. If you’re in the fitness industry, the big establishments, the 24 Hour Fitnesses, the Gold’s Gyms, all of these, they’re going away, and they probably won’t come back, at least in the form that we know of traditionally. So go get yours, now’s the time. And I think it’s really exciting. If you look at it that way as like, well, how can I meet the consumer where they are and help them win? If you can figure that out, then you can, you’ll be highly successful on the other side of this.

[JOE]:
Well, Eric, the last question I always ask is, you sort of just answered it. So you may have more to add to it. Or you may just say ditto to what I just said. But the last question I always ask is, if every private practitioner in the world were listening right now, what would you want them to know?

[ERIC]:
I would ask them to ask themselves a question. So those plans that you have for someday, someday I’ll do this, someday I’ll travel that, someday I’ll buy this car, whatever it may be, whatever that someday is to you, what can you do to make it today? And that’s all I want you to ask yourself, because we put these things on ourselves. We’ll, you know, we’ll do like, hey, someday we’ll live in a mountain town, someday my wife from Brazil will learn how to ski. Well, what if we just did it now? Because tomorrow is not guaranteed. So go and try to make your someday today. And that’s the only thing I request. You don’t have to do it, and maybe it takes more than a day, of course. But at least start thinking that way and living life with some more urgency. And I think you’ll find a lot more fulfillment out of it, too.

[JOE]:
So awesome. Eric, if people want to follow your work, listen to your podcast, learn from you, where’s the best place for them to go?

[ERIC]:
Yeah, thanks for asking that. So you can go to level5mentors.com. That’s my current business coaching practice with Ken. I have two podcasts live, I have The Future of Fitness, where you can go thefutureoffitness.co, you can do The Black Diamond podcast, which is more, you know, broad entrepreneurial businesses. I interview a lot of Montana businesses because that’s where I live now. So get to learn what’s going on up here. That’s on the level 5 mentor site as well. And then I’m really active on LinkedIn so people can find me there. That’s probably the best social media place. I try to stay off the other social media platforms as much as possible.

[JOE]:
Awesome. We will put all those links in the show notes. Eric, thank you so much for being on the Practice of the Practice podcast.

[ERIC]:
Thank you, Joe. You’re doing great work, man. Keep it up.

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[JOE]:
So what big scary business decisions are you going to address now? Like, what are you going to take on this year? January is the month that people get all worked up over their new year’s resolutions and, but what are you going to sustain? Like what can you do that’s going to form a habit, form a lifestyle, form a direction for yourself? Because right now is the time to kind of take that New Year inspiration and just knock it out of the park.

And also, if you didn’t get your payroll setup in 2020, now is the time to get it all set up with Gusto. Gusto is one of our sponsors. They are amazing. It’s what I use for my own payroll. Head on over to gusto.com/Joe. You’re gonna get three months for free of Gusto, and it is amazing. All the payroll, all of the taxes and all that stuff that I don’t want to think about is just done automatically. It’s amazing. You’ve got to check it out over at gusto.com/Joe. And thanks so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. The next four episodes are going to be Killin’It Camp speakers from Killin’It Camp. I can’t wait for you to hang out with these people. And thanks so much for letting me into your ears and into your brain. Have a great day.

Special thanks to the band Silence is Sexy for your intro music; we really like it. This podcast is designed to provide accurate, authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical or other professional information. If you want a professional, you should find one.