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Matt talks to Dave Tate about building EliteFTS. What were the struggles, successes, and untold stories that created EliteFTS?

Dave Tate & EliteFTS had a huge impact on Matt Reynolds & Barbell Logic, whether it be from introducing him to the Russian programming literature, to programming tips and principles, to recommending the e-Myth.

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Building EliteFTS - Before EliteFTS

Both Dave's dad and grandfather were business owners, who inculcated and demonstrated the value of hard work. Dave helped his dad as a teenager, and his dad stressed the importance of quality products (which Dave has stressed with EliteFTS' equipment).

As a teenager, Dave grew sick and tired of being "beat all the time," so he trained harder and worked harder and started to see benefits. His wrestling coach saw him running stairs one day and told him that if he worked harder than everyone else, he wouldn't be beat. This, paired with the benefits of strength, started to help him build confidence.

Dave also struggled in college, but ultimately decided to return, work hard, and brought up his GPA.

He was deciding whether to move to Columbus or Cleveland and ultimately decided to move to Columbus (in part) because of a girlfriend, which meant that Dave would train with Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell.

Dave had different jobs, including personal training, bouncing, and gym management, and describes in his story at a couple points where he did not want to continue on the track he found himself, so he made a change.

Helping Louie sell equipment and deal with customer service, paired with creating a Q&A website, ultimately created EliteFTS.

Building EliteFTS

Elite FTS began in the late 1990s, with the internet early and shipping times for gym equipment being 16 weeks.

He learned, from eMyth, that he needed to free up time to spend more time as manager and then owner of the business.

Dave and Matt talk about the importance of adversity and how it has refined them both. This aligns with Matt's voluntary hardship principle. Ultimately, as a business owner, coach, and human, you will face adversity. Prepare yourself by doing so voluntarily so that when the involuntary challenges come, you can handle them better and grow from them as well.

Enjoy Dave and Matt talking about building EliteFTS.

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We explore professionalism and why it's hard to be professional. Professionalism is difficult, but deliver values and sets you apart. Professionalism: Competence, Integrity, Benevolence

Andrew has delivered, through podcast and in-person talks, a deep dive on how competence, integrity, and benevolence make up a professionalism value equation.

Matt also has also delved into this here.

This framework or model to conceptualizing your coaching or business really helps you think more intelligently about where to improve.

Professionalism Sets You Apart

When you have built yourself some expertise and are above the level of amateur, you should respect yourself, expect a high value of yourself and ask a relatively high price of your customer (the price should be less than the perceived value).

Then, you need to deliver a high level of service consistently across the competence, benevolence, and integrity.

Plenty of people are delivering online coaching. Personal trainers and coaches abound. Professionalism sets you apart.

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Matt discusses that, whether in life or business, you should chase value not status. This leads to a successful business and happier life.

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Chase Value not Status

In a social media world, it can be easy to pursue status. In the world we inhabit, it can always be easy to chase money.

Pursue something else. Chase value.

Deliver value to your customers. When entrepreneurs talk about opportunities, unless they are discussing some loophole or morally questionable pursuits, they're talking about a clear area where a problem exists where business can provide value.

You provide a customer a new roof, they give you money. The value you provide should be more than the price point.

Chase Value not Status - Appearance Versus Reality

You don't have to have thought too much about social media to know that people don't typically put mundane tasks, boring events, or things they're not proud of.

People select, for their own purposes, what they present to the world via the social media site.

This is illusory (and might be fake).

Chase value and deliver it to others.

Yes, business have to make money, but the singular pursuit of value does not lead to long-term success or happiness.

Chase value not status.

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What does joyful self-improvement look like (and is it possible)? Today, we explore solutions sans suffering. Joyful Self-Improvement: Struggling & Floundering

People really struggle to make important changes in their lives (that they at least ostensibly want) such as to lose weight or gain more muscle.

Reasons abound for the difficulty.

People hear and see conflicting, extreme solutions or short-term, impossible solutions (e.g. 6 weeks to six-pack).

Furthermore, every person is different. People have different goals, preferences, body types, and reactions to training stimulus (e.g. you cannot become faster than Usain Bolt simply by trying really hard, though you will certainly fail if you do not try).

Joyful self-improvement also confronts the reality that change takes a long time. It took you a long time to reach the point where you have decided it's time to make a difference. The positive changes you desire will also take a long time.

Joyful Self-Improvement: Solutions Sans Suffering

Whatever solutions you (or a coach) decides on, they have to be sustainable. Can you really go the rest of your life only eating meat (or some other extreme diet).

Note that many of the people who follow a strict diet have quick feedback regarding when they eat a certain food (such as celiac disease).

Niki and Andrew recommend getting to a baseline before making changes. When you make changes, don't through the kitchen sink at your problems, but try one (or a couple) small changes. Consistently eating a couple hundred calories less than you have can make a BIG impact.

For joyful self-improvement, lean into what you like and embrace the long path to change.

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Mitchell Baldridge, CPA, CFP, talks to Matt about how to find the perfect accountant, something a growing business will have to do at some point.

He owns Baldridge Financial and Better Book Keeping.

Check out the Stupid Tax podcast, with Scott Hambrick and Mitchell Baldridge.

How to Find the Perfect Account - First, Don't

If you're starting a business, you first need to find clients and jobs. Start making money.

When it comes to tracking and handling money, start a business bank account or use a different bank account than your personal. Simply, you need to clearly separate business expenses from personal expenses so at the point when you or someone else needs to prepare taxes, things are easy to delineate.

Early in the year (when this podcast airs) is a great time to start a business, because you have the rest of the year (and really until taxes are due) to get your money in order.

Right now, though, it's just about not screwing up.

Another recommendation, which is unrelated to accounting but for business owners is to not expand your expenses to your new income.

If you make $80,000 at your full-time job and begin to make money from your company, at some point you'll have to quit the full-time job and take a paycheck. Save that other money, pay off debt - but don't increase your monthly expenses.

How to Find the Perfect Account - Use Your Network

The best way to find a accountant is similar to how you might find an electrician. Ask people you trust about who they use.

For example, Matt asked his trusted HVAC technician if he can recommend an electrician. He did, and the electrician provided great service.

Try to find business owners you can talk to and pick their brains with. It might be a group of people who are in the same industry, or not, who are all small business owners.

Similarly, you might reach out to someone who has done this before.

Mitchell, for example, reached out to Scott after hearing him talk about his experience with Diamond David Keesling on the Barbell Logic podcast.

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What is the goal of long-term strength training or barbell training? Muscle is the motive. It's your health & capability 401k. Niki & Andrew explore their changing mindset and training. The Motive is Muscle - Shifting the Goal

The measurement that is most correlated with force production (strength) is the cross sectional area of muscle mass.

Basically, more muscle means you're stronger. Strength equates to more capability.

At some point, though, if you only value force production, whether it be because of gyms closing or an injury or getting older, your PRs are behind you.

What is the goal?

You could say it's to keep your PRs as high as possible, but for many, that's is pretty unmotivating.

Muscle is the motive.

Aim to accumulate hard sets each workout, each week, and increase stress over time.

As you get older, it gets harder to add muscle mass (but not impossible - it's never to late to start training!).

Aim to build muscle and keep training.

Muscle is the Motive - Shifting the Mindset

This changing goal requires a changed mental approach. We have stressed PRs for year - and we still celebrate PRs.

Especially when someone begins to train, PRs help motivate as well as measure progress.

Gaining muscle mass and focusing on hypertrophy is harder to change. It takes awhile to measure progress, and it's even harder than with strength training to remember the goal of each training session because there is not necessarily a scheduled PR attempt lurking days, weeks, or months off.

Really, because at some point - whether it be a permanent shift or temporary period of life - you have to train knowing PRs aren't coming.

Hopefully, at this point, you've built up the habit. Try to ensure you enjoy training (understanding you won't enjoy every rep, set, or workout). And, worse case, take your medicine, because it's good for you.

Muscle is the motive. Gaining muscle mass is the goal. Go get it.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

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Matt covers the excuses that derail progress toward your goals, whether they be personal, business, or otherwise. Master and overcome these excuses. Excuses that Derail Progress - Valuable Things are Hard

We at Barbell Logic value voluntary hardship. Simple, hard, effective training brings you toward your goals. Voluntary hardship is refining, whereas involuntary hardship may or may not refine someone who experience the difficulty.

As we grow and encounter growing challenges, common pitfalls or excuses arise, where people can sabotage themselves, their goals, or their businesses.

You may have all or some of these to differing degrees, and even if you improve yourself in mastering them they do not completely disappear.

The Excuses that Derail Progress

Matt discusses the following four excuses:

1. fear
2. chaos
3. self-medication
4. stubbornness

Fear

We often consider the approaches to the flight or fight response. Maybe this excuse is someone who freezes.

Matt identifies 3 types within fear: the staller, the saver, and the micromanager.

The staller hesitates to make decisions, putting off the hard decisions as long as possible (or longer).

The saver never spends money or invests in needs of the business.

The micromanager lacks trust in his or her staff to get the job done correctly.

All these stifle and potentially end progress, maybe even to the point of failure.

Chaos

Maybe chaos is someone who fights in response to fear. Without consultation or consideration, he immediately makes the easiest, quickest decision.

This person often drowns in urgency, and whereas they do not stall, they also do not think very much. Some time, reflection, and discussing things over is warranted for most decisions. You have to spend time on the important.

Self-Medication

The third excuse that derails progress is self-medication.

Self-medicators rely on pleasurable activities to ignore or bury the stress. They may dive deep into vices such as gluttony, drugs, sex, or other pleasurable pursuits,

These behaviors can often wreck people, families, and business. Important, they do nothing to deal with the issues at hand.

Stubbornness

The stubborn fail to take personal responsibility, own up to their mistakes, and say "my fault."

If you're a business person, you have to be learning, and learning, often times, is painful. Yes, much of it is reading books and listening to podcasts and seeking out those more experience than you.

Ultimately, though, even with reading books, you have to see that a recommendation approach to solution in the book is better than what you are currently doing.

Many times, learning comes in failing or stumbling. You cannot ignore these. They hurt. They're not fun. Learning opportunities, however, exist from reflecting on these failures.

Excuses that derail progress abound, and we can't let these derail progress or lead to failure.

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

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Andrew & Niki talk sleep strategies & fluff updates: how snapping back after the holidays improves sleep, health markers, appearance, how you feel, and more. Sleep Strategies & Fluff Updates

It's January, post-Holiday period, and time to snap back. Andrew & Niki share their fluff updates and tips and tricks for improving sleep.

Niki has had a 19-day period thus far, which has included weighing and measuring, no alcohol, and reduced sugar. She is not trying to lose tons of weight, as she wants to support training. She wants to look good for an upcoming television appearance and feel good.

From this period, she has seen improvements to sleep (especially deep sleep each night) and improve resting heart rate.

Andrew has similarly snapped back with 3 (no 4) drinks.

The biggest thing he has noted has been improved sleep, especially deep sleep.

Sleep Strategies & Deep Sleep

Andrew has even had some drinks and still seen improved sleep.

Andrew and Niki have both seen magnesium supplementation before sleep helping sleep.

Andrew stumbled on the benefits of sodium before bed after eating popcorn and noticing he did not get up to go to the bathroom. Stan Efferding has actually recommended this (not eating popcorn but just the sodium) as well.

Andrew has also began to read before bed, not on his phone, and this has helped with his pre-sleep routine.

Let us know if you have any questions on sleep strategies!

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

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Do you own a job or a business? Does owning a business make sense for you? Either way, you need to approach this intelligently, thinking about the business you're in and the job you have.

Check out the Stupid Tax podcast, with Scott Hambrick and Mitchell Baldridge.

Job or Business - Should I Own a Business?

Not everyone should own a business. Probably, most people should not own a business.

It's not an insult: it's reality. Owning a business is too much risk and stress for some people.

You still may be an excellent coach or technician. You may provide a huge amount of value to your employer or to your customers.

If you're the right person to own a business, you probably find yourself unable to put up with some of the downsides to jobs and tend to naturally get after it.

Matt and Scott are great examples of people who are natural business owners.

Job or Business - Which Do You Own

You may want to consider simply owning your own job, rather than a business.

For example, you may want to be a coach, get as many clients, but not be a business owner. You may own a job.

You'll still have to be your own boss and complete certain functions that aren't simply coaching, but you may not want to have other employees, and may be happy with growing to a point, making good money, and not be worried about a business.

As a business owner, you assume the risk. You will likely, over time, hire employees - some will be technicians, others will be managers. You need to understand the nature of the business you are in.

For example, Scott talks about the gym owner business as a type of real estate.

Job or Business - How Good Can This Get?

Regardless of whether you own your job, a business, or you work for someone else, you need to think about what your options are.

What is important to you? Can you deal with the risk and stress of business ownership, or not? Do you want to grow a business, or are you okay with a smaller, steady income stream? Would you like to simply punch the time clock and not worry about things when you're off?

Understanding the nature of your business or job and whether it is really a business or job is important.

On the Stupid Tax podcast, Scott and Mitchell discuss thinking or your job, even if you work for someone else, as a service you are providing that employer. It may make sense, for some, to work for that company as a contractor rather than an employee, for example.

Do you own a job or business?

Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

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Looking to 2024, we predict, hope, and share our thoughts on what you can expect from BLOC and what we are looking forward to. Looking to 2024 - Smell What BLOC is Cooking Matt, Niki, and Andrew share their predictions and goals for 2024 - fitness, fashion, and more. Fashion Predictions

• Matt: traditional, classic forms of clothing (feminine dresses & masculine suits and outfits)
• Niki: onesies & swapping of normal gender styles
• Andrew: 2000s are coming back, with belly buttons

Goals

• Matt shared his here
• Niki: journaling every day; and being able to quickly return to the body she wants (after periods of more relaxed food & drink)
• Andrew: being more present & intentional (while acknowledging that these terms have become common, but that doesn't mean they're not admirable things to strive for)

Business Predictions

• Matt: First $2M quarter
• Niki: strength for life catching on and bolstering BLOC & TKC
• Andrew: another step-function increase in the organization of Barbell Logic

Looking to 2024? We share out thoughts, predictions, and hopes. Check out the Barbell Logic podcast landing page. Get Matched with a Professional Strength Coach today for FREE! No contract with us, just commitment to yourself: Start experiencing strength now: https://store.barbell-logic.com/match/ Connect with the hosts

• Matt on Instagram
• Niki on Instagram
• Andrew on Instagram

Connect with the show

• Barbell Logic on Instagram
• Podcast Webpage
• Barbell Logic on Facebook
• Or email [email protected]