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EP 2 :The Process of Decision Making with Eric Malzone Preview
Eric Malzone, a podcasting machine. Over 600 plus interviews on three different podcasts. He's also a cross-fit master and used to own a couple of cross-fit gyms. He's competed in cross-fit games and he is really a major influencer in the fitness and health industry.
Now Eric is sharing with us tips and tricks on how the process of decision-making has huge implications in our lives.
Don't be afraid to fail as failure is the learning process. Be Brave and Be Bold.
Episode Highlights
Eric [00:04:34] I wish I had a mentor earlier on that. Show me that. But I did. And so I just got the first job I can take, which was a sales job. And I sold recruitment services. And for a period about nine years, I sold a lot of things. I sold radio ads, I sold real estate finance, I sold legal publishing. And, you know, as the years went on, I got pretty good at it and made a decent living doing it. And there is definitely advancement opportunities. And there is kind of a moment around 07, 08, where I was sitting in a a national conference for our company and I was looking around and I just started my mind, started to wonder, what if I stay here and actually just presented on something as well? And I was thinking, man, I stand here. What's going to happen to me in the next ten years if I stay in this corporate track? And a couple things. I realized that I'll continually drive my sales managers or whoever my V.P., whoever. It is crazy because I don't do things the way other people do them.
Eric [00:09:24] Well, why don't we go? Great. Let's do it. Why don't we go move to a bunch of mountain towns? So I was like, oh, I love you. Great. Let's do it. You know, with trials and tribulations and net gain, the business is sold and exited successfully from those poor little cash in the pocket. Nothing life changing, but allowed us for the next chapter of our life. So we started hitting the road. We went through the Northern Sierras, up through Oregon, up through Washington and up to Vancouver Island, start coming back down with the goal of spending the winter in Whitefish, Montana. So we made it there barely by the winter, had a rental.
Ari [00:13:23] That's awesome. So this is a shorter kind of more like your blitz, right. So I have three kind of questions that I'll that I'll ask you about. But you've interviewed now, around 600 people. There must be some kind of theme, too, to those interviews. Everybody's in the fitness industry. So what is the overriding theme that you've seen both as far as obstacles as well as what it really, really works like nitty gritty? This works and it works a lot vs., you know, trial and error. So kind of give us a little bit of fear for all the fitness enthusiasts and trainers and people in that industry. What things have you seen as overwriting, you know, similarities between all of your guests?
Eric [00:15:14] I mean, I mentioned to you over a three year span, I had four businesses I would consider non successful. Right. They made money. They're profitable, but not to. My standards were successful. But that's OK. I just keep on marching on because I know it brings me one more failure closer to success I want. So I think that's freedom is people who have a good relationship failure tend to be more successful in the long term. Hands down, flat out. No questioning that.
Ari [00:15:41] So Fail Forward Fast is a statement that a lot of people have made in the self-improvement and entrepreneurial movements. And the faster you fail forward, the further you're going to get anyway. So you're on cheaper. Forward use. You say you've had four failed businesses, but because of your ability to pivot and adapt, you've been able to make those failures into successes in life. Right. So tell me, what are some of the successes that you've seen from some of your clients, some of the people that you've been able to coach?
Ari [00:18:27] So, you know, it's kind of interesting because I relate what you just said back to some of the broken system in health care and fitness and life, which is where a lot about procedures versus results. Right. And so the more we think that, the more we do. Well, the the better we should get as a result. But if we're trying to get south and we go one hundred miles north. The result is that we just did a whole lot of extra work. Going in the wrong direction. So it wasn't the procedures that mattered. It was where we were going. The goal that we were trying to achieve. So that's what that reminded me of when you were when you were saying efficacy versus efficiency, because so many times a business man, person who's trying to lose weight or anywhere in between get healthy in any way. There's so many procedures that we try in order to try to not do the hard work of doing the thing that's going to get us the goal right now. So how many quick fix pills can you try before they fail? When you could have been done, had you just put a little bit more effort into the planning and the processing of of that goal, right?
Resources and Links
- https://level5mentors.com/
- https://www.futureoffitness.co/
- https://www.facebook.com/eric.malzone.7
https://www.fitnessprofessionalonline.com/author/emalzone/
- https://CreateANewTomorrow.com
- https://www.facebook.com/arigronich
Full Transcription
Ari&EricMalzone1.mp3
Ari [00:00:01] Has it occurred to you that the systems we live by are not designed to get results. We pay for procedures instead of outcomes, focusing on emergencies rather than preventing disease and living a healthy lifestyle. For over 25 years, I've taken care of Olympians, Paralympians, A-list actors and Fortune 1000 companies. If I did not get results, they did not get results. I realized that while powerful people who controlled the system want to keep the status quo. If I were to educate the masses, you would demand change. So I'm taking the gloves off and going after the systems as they are. Join me on my mission to create a new tomorrow as a chat with industry experts.
Ari [00:00:40] Elite athletes thought leaders and government officials about how we activate our vision for a better world. We may agree and we may disagree, but I'm not backing down.
Ari [00:00:50] I'm Ari Gronich and this is. Create a new tomorrow podcast.
Ari [00:00:59] And welcome back to another episode of Create a New Tomorrow. I am here with a good friend, Eric Malzone.
Ari [00:01:06] He is a podcasting machine. Over 600 plus interviews on three different podcasts. He's also a cross fit master, used to own a couple cross fit gyms. He's competed in crossfit games and he is really a major influencer in the fitness and health industry. So I welcome Eric. I really appreciate you coming on and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started and what made you become you.
Eric [00:01:39] Yeah, thank you. All right. And first of all, I didn't say this prerecording, but you look amazing.
Eric [00:01:45] I haven't talked to you or seen you in, like, a year, year and a half. And, man, you look vibrant, healthy. You've obviously dropped a couple LB's. And I just want to bring that up to the audience that you've had quite a transformation yourself.
Eric [00:02:00] So I just want to acknowledge that you look really good, man.
Ari [00:02:03] Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. One hundred forty two pounds.
Eric [00:02:08] I feel like I want to interview you now, but I guess I'm the one on the seat, right?
Ari [00:02:12] Yeah. Today I've. I've been on your show. I've been on two of your shows. Fitness Splits and your future fitness. Now we'll do your new show actually. So but yeah. Go talk about. Talk about yourself. Bragg a little bit
Eric [00:02:27] Yeah. Yeah, man. Well, thank you for that. I appreciate the platform and I always go back.
Eric [00:02:32] I've never been across the games. I never qualify for those. I was kind of local competition guy. What I would call the perennial fourth place finisher who never made the platform. So I'll just start that. But yeah, my story, man, I guess, you know, tried to keep it too condensed, will form. But I've. I'm originally from Northern California, so I grew up in the Silicon Valley before. It really was a Silicon Valley to do it myself. I'm forty three now. So when I was born 76, I hadn't really done anything was orchard's. I got to ride my bike everywhere. It was easy. And then all of a sudden tech. Right. And then. All kinds of different migration into the valley, which really booms. I mean, give you an idea numbers. My dad bought the house and I was born for a little over one hundred thousand. When I looked on Zillow the other day is worth three point one million. So talk about significant change in an area. So I grew up there. I've been. I got into swimming competitive swing at an early age, mainly because I had really bad asthma. So it was the one sport that really strengthen your lungs. Loudy, breathe clean air. And it's really good for me. But I took a liking to it. I end up being a competitive summer for a long time. And more importantly, that springboard me into the sport of water polo at right around age 10 or eleven, which I played for over 20 years through high school, through college, on club teams after that. And so I've always been. Athletic, right? Always want to be part of a team that's part of my nature. That's part of my background and I'm grateful for that because it really did really improve the quality of my life. It still does today. So after college, I went to school back east. When I came back, it was nineteen ninety nine. The dot com bubble had just burst. So that coveted job at any dot com was no longer available.
Eric [00:04:21] I see you laughing because you remember what a case study that was. Right. So I kind of it was tough. I couldn't find gig. I didn't know what I want to do. I didn't really understand entrepreneurship yet.
Eric [00:04:34] I wish I had a mentor earlier on that. Show me that. But I did. And so I just got the first job I can take, which was a sales job. And I sold recruitment services. And for a period about nine years, I sold a lot of things. I sold radio ads, I sold real estate finance, I sold legal publishing. And, you know, as the years went on, I got pretty good at it and made a decent living doing it. And there is definitely advancement opportunities. And there is kind of a moment around 07, 08, where I was sitting in a a national conference for our company and I was looking around and I just started my mind, started to wonder, what if I stay here and actually just presented on something as well? And I was thinking, man, I stand here. What's going to happen to me in the next ten years if I stay in this corporate track? And a couple things. I realized that I'll continually drive my sales managers or whoever my V.P., whoever. It is crazy because I don't do things the way other people do them.
Eric [00:05:30] And also, I didn't really like what I saw myself down the road as far as health, as far as enjoyment of life, as far as chasing a paycheck. And it just it dawned on me, I realized, hey, I got to start I got to start figuring something out. So I started doing a lot of things. I start testing for fire departments, start looking at how to start a business. All these things. And serendipitously, in 2008, I got a text message from an old college teammate, and his name's Trevor Boehm, who's doing magnificent things now. And it just said, hey, man, do you want to open a gym? And he know and I've been doing Crossett for a while at Jacqueline's grandson's gym. Kristen Laine is only in fitness in San Francisco. He had been doing Crossfit for a while and he Petron Extreme and L.A. Fit at L.A. Crossfit and he and I just sat there and his back in T nine texting, remember that? So it wasn't like a flat board. So I was like I had a beer. I remember as I was in San Francisco, I had a beer and I wrote back. Yes, this is it. This is this is the opportunity I how do I get to work with a friend to build something in an industry that's growing? I get to do something that I really enjoy. And so we pulled the trigger. I picked up everything, left San Francisco, but everything in a trailer drove down to Santa Barbara, California, where we designated was a spot. We wanted to open the gym because back then it was a wild, wild west. Everyone was putting their stake in the ground of different territories. And, you know, I've never been to Santa Barbara. I didn't know anybody in Santa Barbara, but it seemed like a great place. Right. Seen on TV shows. And so we opened this little thing called Crossed the Pacific Coast is an eight hundred square foot studio. And this was in 2008 09.
Eric [00:07:12] So once again, it was like another, you know, economic crisis we are going through, which, you know, we didn't have much money. We were bootstrapped completely. No banks were loaning us money, that's for sure. So we did everything kind the old fashioned way. And this was before really social media took place. Right. So we just started walking around, introducing ourselves to people or getting to know other local businesses, trying to spread the word. And you get one client and two clients and three clients. And over a period of a year and a half was pretty touch and go. But as the economy picked up, Crossett start to get popular, the phone started ringing or ferral start coming in. And we grew and it was great. It was a really exciting ride. And over a nine year span, what I believe is probably going on the more the premier Gym's on the central coast to California Crossfit affiliates and.
Eric [00:08:02] It was going really well.
Eric [00:08:03] You know, I think I was investing in another jam that was opening. Was helping guide that process and then 2016 head and. It was rough, man. We had, you know, over a span of a year. It started off with a good friend, suicide to us being pregnant and losing the pregnancy. Lay in that kind of. Turns out wrapped up are a chance to have a family of our own with our own kids. My wife's father passed away at the age of 62 of a heart attack just done over at the end of the year. Our dog died.
Eric [00:08:39] So it's just a really poor year. And through all that stress and struggle, because there is a lot of it is very dark. Something changed. My chemistry changed. And I call it like, you know, it went from, hey, let's do some things. Let's do this thing some day, too. What if we did it today? So when I came home one night and I told my wife, Hey. We always talk about living in a mountain town, right? You're from. She's from Brazil. Like you want to learn how to ski.
Eric [00:09:09] Right. We talk about all these things. What if I sold the businesses and. And we just we found a mountain town move there. And she's like, first of all, are you effing with me? Because I know how much this business means to you. I'm like, I'm not.
Eric [00:09:24] Well, why don't we go? Great. Let's do it. Why don't we go move to a bunch of mountain towns? So I was like, oh, I love you. Great. Let's do it. You know, with trials and tribulations and net gain, the business is sold and exited successfully from those poor little cash in the pocket. Nothing life changing, but allowed us for the next chapter of our life. So we started hitting the road. We went through the Northern Sierras, up through Oregon, up through Washington and up to Vancouver Island, start coming back down with the goal of spending the winter in Whitefish, Montana. So we made it there barely by the winter, had a rental.
Eric [00:09:57] And, you know, over the next two or three years, we kept going to other places and coming back, coming other places, coming back. And now we're we're very excited say that we plants roots here and we're gonna be here for a bone at home. And it's it's been a really exciting ride.
Eric [00:10:13] And as far as business on that side of things over last year has been really interesting. And you've been kind of caught me in critical times, too, which is interesting that start out the digital marketing agency with my buddy Doug went OK. I think we both realized that it was a bigger task at hand and we didn't quite have the right formula. So we disbanded that. And I started a couple of mastermind groups and started a online slack community for fitness entrepreneurs, did a bunch of different things. But what I always started doing, it wasn't intentional. I've actually been doing it for 10 years was was coaching entrepreneurs and business owners started one started two very casual agreements like, hey, just pay me when you can or don't pay me at all. But I loved it. And it took a little bit of noticing to realize that that's actually what I really enjoy doing. And when I cross my travels up through British Columbia, I came into contact by chance and through a mutual connection with a gentleman in Canada trucco who owned a very successful he's been a very successful entrepreneur, bunch of successful exits, been coaching gym owners, hundreds of gym owners. And, you know, I was happy to be in the same town. He had his mount home. And when my someone said, hey, you should look up, Ken. Yeah, maybe I will. And ten minutes later, I got off that conversation. I got a text like, Hey, it's Ken, you should come over. I was like, What? This is nuts. So I did. And I came over and hung out his house for a while. We drank some bourbon. We talked about fitness and our stories and what we wanted to do, road some four wheelers, and really kind of bonded and decided that, hey, at some point we're going to work together.
Eric [00:11:56] I'm just not sure what that looks like yet. And took about six months to figure out what that looks like. And now we're full fledged and level five mentors and it's growing. It's great. We're we're doing one on one mentoring for entrepreneurs. We're doing consulting and advising for for larger brands. And it's really exciting. We're starting to bring on new associates now, too. And of course, we didn't mention this. I've also been doing a little bit of podcasting.
Ari [00:12:21] The podcasting the thing that you've been doing is no small thing.
Eric [00:12:26] Yeah, it's just.
Ari [00:12:28] You have three.
Eric [00:12:30] Yeah, I have three. Too active future fit is still active.
Eric [00:12:34] We're about to not. We're knocking on the door of 200 episodes. I did the fitness blitz radio, which was shorter, 50 minute interviews did about 360 of those. And now I just kicked up the Black Time and podcast this month, actually just did the official launch for it. So that's first month. It's going to be pretty good. I'm pretty happy about that, but I love it, man. It's funny because I don't even think about it as work. I just enjoy it. It's my favorite part of the day. I could get on conversations with people like you and just talk forever and it just doesn't feel like work. I guess I don't even worry about the numbers in my shows. I really like to focus on the learning that I attain, the natural curiosity that I'm blessed to have, and the relationships I get to form with my guests as well are really important to me. So yeah, man, I've done a lot. Almost six hundred total.
Ari [00:13:23] That's awesome. So this is a shorter kind of more like your blitz, right. So I have three kind of questions that I'll that I'll ask you about. But you've interviewed now, around 600 people. There must be some kind of theme, too, to those interviews. Everybody's in the fitness industry. So what is the overriding theme that you've seen both as far as obstacles as well as what it really, really works like nitty gritty? This works and it works a lot vs., you know, trial and error. So kind of give us a little bit of fear for all the fitness enthusiasts and trainers and people in that industry. What things have you seen as overwriting, you know, similarities between all of your guests?
Eric [00:14:25] So are you talking in the context of, like, business or what gets success for, like, the end consumer in their fitness goals?
Ari [00:14:32] Yeah. Mostly the business side.
Eric [00:14:34] Business.
Eric [00:14:36] Well, everybody gets stuck. You know, I think we all get stuck in doing the things that keep us busy and never really get lost. Occasionally we'll get on track with things that are productive. But that that's a big thing is is getting stuck. I also think, you know, speaking overarching entrepreneurial ism is that someone's relationship is critical to advancement. That's just not a non entrepreneurship. That's even in one's fitness, even in one's life. Failure is the learning process. It's not to be necessarily sought out, but it's.
Eric [00:15:11] Don't be afraid of it, like if you're just going to fail.
Eric [00:15:14] I mean, I mentioned to you over a three year span, I had four businesses I would consider non successful. Right. They made money. They're profitable, but not to. My standards were successful. But that's OK. I just keep on marching on because I know it brings me one more failure closer to success I want. So I think that's freedom is people who have a good relationship failure tend to be more successful in the long term. Hands down, flat out. No questioning that.
Ari [00:15:41] So Fail Forward Fast is a statement that a lot of people have made in the self-improvement and entrepreneurial movements. And the faster you fail forward, the further you're going to get anyway. So you're on cheaper. Forward use. You say you've had four failed businesses, but because of your ability to pivot and adapt, you've been able to make those failures into successes in life. Right. So tell me, what are some of the successes that you've seen from some of your clients, some of the people that you've been able to coach?
Eric [00:16:22] Yeah, yeah. I think on that, I think the first thing.
Eric [00:16:31] That people need to focus on is how they manage, first of all, understanding. Thinking about how you think it is a big thing.
Eric [00:16:39] How do you approach problems? Because you're always going to run into problems. And, you know, Ken and I actually just just talked out of this this particular topic yesterday. So it's fresh in my mind. As you know, I I always look at the way I prefer to do business because I'm very lifestyle oriented and fitness professionals will understand this. What is the minimum effective dose for business? Right. What is it that you can. What is the how do you get the result you want with a minimal amount of work and effort and time?
Eric [00:17:09] And that means you got to think you got to think on that. You don't just get do. People will always associate busyness with hard work and productivity.
Eric [00:17:19] It's not the case. And that's been a model for my life, is understand difference between efficacy and efficiency. Efficiency means just like how many things can you do per hour efficacy as well? What's the end result? Right. If I can pick up the phone to make one important phone call every hour and that gets me closer and I want to be versus 50 phone calls in an hour and maybe get me where I am. You know where I'm going. That's right. And I think that's the thing. And where you got to focus on. Which means that you guys spend more time thinking than doing. And you've got to focus on the win. W I n what's important now? What is the most critical thing in my business right now. And that thing usually solves one of two things, which is a who or what. So understanding that. You know, I think that Abraham Lincoln, if you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I'll spend four of it sharpening my ax like that's that's the kind of thought process you need when you're building your business. Like, hey, let's pump the brakes here. What if. What kind of collaboration can I search for? What kind of system can I implement? What is it that I need right now? And then how do I solve it?
Ari [00:18:27] So, you know, it's kind of interesting because I relate what you just said back to some of the broken system in health care and fitness and life, which is where a lot about procedures versus results. Right. And so the more we think that, the more we do. Well, the the better we should get as a result. But if we're trying to get south and we go one hundred miles north. The result is that we just did a whole lot of extra work. Going in the wrong direction. So it wasn't the procedures that mattered. It was where we were going. The goal that we were trying to achieve. So that's what that reminded me of when you were when you were saying efficacy versus efficiency, because so many times a business man, person who's trying to lose weight or anywhere in between get healthy in any way. There's so many procedures that we try in order to try to not do the hard work of doing the thing that's going to get us the goal right now. So how many quick fix pills can you try before they fail? When you could have been done, had you just put a little bit more effort into the planning and the processing of of that goal, right?
Eric [00:19:57] Yeah, totally and all. Here's one thing I believe whole heartedly to be true is that no matter what, in any kind of business or whatever you're in, relationships come first. If you focus on strong relationships and being a person who adds more value than you take in return, you're going to see success. If you just that basic principle in life, Ray, like always be seeking add more value than you take in return. It's from Bob Berg and the go getter who he's now become a friend of mine. And I think that's if I was gonna go back and say, hey, what's the fundamental thing that would be? Leads you to success would be a relationship of failure and in focusing on relationships first, because you never know where to go.
Ari [00:20:37] Absolutely. Well, you know, I really appreciate you being on.
Ari [00:20:41] I'm going to ask you same thing I ask everybody at the end of the conversation is give us give the listeners three actionable steps that somebody can take today, tomorrow to implement in their life that will move them forward, even if it's just a little bit. But we'll start that process of moving somebody forward.
Eric [00:21:02] Yeah. I guess if there is one that I would start with is had that uncomfortable conversation that, you know, you need to have. Because it is a weight on your boat that is dragging you down. Every day, whether you know it emotionally, physically, physiologically, do something.
Eric [00:21:27] Find what you truly enjoy. Pursue it every day and know how much sleep you need and get that every day.
Ari [00:21:38] Awesome. Sleep is very important.
Eric [00:21:41] Everything.
Ari [00:21:42] It's it's incredible how, you know, how often do you hear some of these big wigs say things like, I only need four hours of sleep, two hours.
Eric [00:21:52] Nonsense,.
Ari [00:21:54] And then you'll see them heart attack and crash a year later. You know, and sleep, we recognize, is probably one of the most important things we can do for our physiological health. And our mental health keeps us from sleeping for two days. And you'll find out who they really are. Right.
Eric [00:22:13] I mean, my know, my wife and I have never had kids, but when I see the transition of when people have their newborns, it's like I trying all of you right now, I'm going away to your kids four or five. So I'll see you in a few years.
Ari [00:22:29] Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Eric. I really appreciate you coming on. And this has been another episode of Create a New Tomorrow. Look forward to having you guys join us again. Thank you so much and have a good day.
Ari [00:22:45] Thank you for listening to this podcast. I appreciate all you do to create a new tomorrow for yourself and those around you.
Ari [00:22:52] If you'd like to take this information further and are interested in joining a community of like minded people who are all passionate about activating their vision for a better world, go to the Web site, createanewtomorrow.com and find out how you can be part of making a bigger difference. I have a gift for you. Just for checking it out. And look forward to seeing you take the leap. And joining our private paid mastermind community.
Ari [00:23:16] Until then, see you on the next episode.
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By Ari Gronich
4.9
4242 ratings
Eric Malzone, a podcasting machine. Over 600 plus interviews on three different podcasts. He's also a cross-fit master and used to own a couple of cross-fit gyms. He's competed in cross-fit games and he is really a major influencer in the fitness and health industry.
Now Eric is sharing with us tips and tricks on how the process of decision-making has huge implications in our lives.
Don't be afraid to fail as failure is the learning process. Be Brave and Be Bold.
Episode Highlights
Eric [00:04:34] I wish I had a mentor earlier on that. Show me that. But I did. And so I just got the first job I can take, which was a sales job. And I sold recruitment services. And for a period about nine years, I sold a lot of things. I sold radio ads, I sold real estate finance, I sold legal publishing. And, you know, as the years went on, I got pretty good at it and made a decent living doing it. And there is definitely advancement opportunities. And there is kind of a moment around 07, 08, where I was sitting in a a national conference for our company and I was looking around and I just started my mind, started to wonder, what if I stay here and actually just presented on something as well? And I was thinking, man, I stand here. What's going to happen to me in the next ten years if I stay in this corporate track? And a couple things. I realized that I'll continually drive my sales managers or whoever my V.P., whoever. It is crazy because I don't do things the way other people do them.
Eric [00:09:24] Well, why don't we go? Great. Let's do it. Why don't we go move to a bunch of mountain towns? So I was like, oh, I love you. Great. Let's do it. You know, with trials and tribulations and net gain, the business is sold and exited successfully from those poor little cash in the pocket. Nothing life changing, but allowed us for the next chapter of our life. So we started hitting the road. We went through the Northern Sierras, up through Oregon, up through Washington and up to Vancouver Island, start coming back down with the goal of spending the winter in Whitefish, Montana. So we made it there barely by the winter, had a rental.
Ari [00:13:23] That's awesome. So this is a shorter kind of more like your blitz, right. So I have three kind of questions that I'll that I'll ask you about. But you've interviewed now, around 600 people. There must be some kind of theme, too, to those interviews. Everybody's in the fitness industry. So what is the overriding theme that you've seen both as far as obstacles as well as what it really, really works like nitty gritty? This works and it works a lot vs., you know, trial and error. So kind of give us a little bit of fear for all the fitness enthusiasts and trainers and people in that industry. What things have you seen as overwriting, you know, similarities between all of your guests?
Eric [00:15:14] I mean, I mentioned to you over a three year span, I had four businesses I would consider non successful. Right. They made money. They're profitable, but not to. My standards were successful. But that's OK. I just keep on marching on because I know it brings me one more failure closer to success I want. So I think that's freedom is people who have a good relationship failure tend to be more successful in the long term. Hands down, flat out. No questioning that.
Ari [00:15:41] So Fail Forward Fast is a statement that a lot of people have made in the self-improvement and entrepreneurial movements. And the faster you fail forward, the further you're going to get anyway. So you're on cheaper. Forward use. You say you've had four failed businesses, but because of your ability to pivot and adapt, you've been able to make those failures into successes in life. Right. So tell me, what are some of the successes that you've seen from some of your clients, some of the people that you've been able to coach?
Ari [00:18:27] So, you know, it's kind of interesting because I relate what you just said back to some of the broken system in health care and fitness and life, which is where a lot about procedures versus results. Right. And so the more we think that, the more we do. Well, the the better we should get as a result. But if we're trying to get south and we go one hundred miles north. The result is that we just did a whole lot of extra work. Going in the wrong direction. So it wasn't the procedures that mattered. It was where we were going. The goal that we were trying to achieve. So that's what that reminded me of when you were when you were saying efficacy versus efficiency, because so many times a business man, person who's trying to lose weight or anywhere in between get healthy in any way. There's so many procedures that we try in order to try to not do the hard work of doing the thing that's going to get us the goal right now. So how many quick fix pills can you try before they fail? When you could have been done, had you just put a little bit more effort into the planning and the processing of of that goal, right?
Resources and Links
- https://level5mentors.com/
- https://www.futureoffitness.co/
- https://www.facebook.com/eric.malzone.7
https://www.fitnessprofessionalonline.com/author/emalzone/
- https://CreateANewTomorrow.com
- https://www.facebook.com/arigronich
Full Transcription
Ari&EricMalzone1.mp3
Ari [00:00:01] Has it occurred to you that the systems we live by are not designed to get results. We pay for procedures instead of outcomes, focusing on emergencies rather than preventing disease and living a healthy lifestyle. For over 25 years, I've taken care of Olympians, Paralympians, A-list actors and Fortune 1000 companies. If I did not get results, they did not get results. I realized that while powerful people who controlled the system want to keep the status quo. If I were to educate the masses, you would demand change. So I'm taking the gloves off and going after the systems as they are. Join me on my mission to create a new tomorrow as a chat with industry experts.
Ari [00:00:40] Elite athletes thought leaders and government officials about how we activate our vision for a better world. We may agree and we may disagree, but I'm not backing down.
Ari [00:00:50] I'm Ari Gronich and this is. Create a new tomorrow podcast.
Ari [00:00:59] And welcome back to another episode of Create a New Tomorrow. I am here with a good friend, Eric Malzone.
Ari [00:01:06] He is a podcasting machine. Over 600 plus interviews on three different podcasts. He's also a cross fit master, used to own a couple cross fit gyms. He's competed in crossfit games and he is really a major influencer in the fitness and health industry. So I welcome Eric. I really appreciate you coming on and tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started and what made you become you.
Eric [00:01:39] Yeah, thank you. All right. And first of all, I didn't say this prerecording, but you look amazing.
Eric [00:01:45] I haven't talked to you or seen you in, like, a year, year and a half. And, man, you look vibrant, healthy. You've obviously dropped a couple LB's. And I just want to bring that up to the audience that you've had quite a transformation yourself.
Eric [00:02:00] So I just want to acknowledge that you look really good, man.
Ari [00:02:03] Oh, thank you so much. Yeah. One hundred forty two pounds.
Eric [00:02:08] I feel like I want to interview you now, but I guess I'm the one on the seat, right?
Ari [00:02:12] Yeah. Today I've. I've been on your show. I've been on two of your shows. Fitness Splits and your future fitness. Now we'll do your new show actually. So but yeah. Go talk about. Talk about yourself. Bragg a little bit
Eric [00:02:27] Yeah. Yeah, man. Well, thank you for that. I appreciate the platform and I always go back.
Eric [00:02:32] I've never been across the games. I never qualify for those. I was kind of local competition guy. What I would call the perennial fourth place finisher who never made the platform. So I'll just start that. But yeah, my story, man, I guess, you know, tried to keep it too condensed, will form. But I've. I'm originally from Northern California, so I grew up in the Silicon Valley before. It really was a Silicon Valley to do it myself. I'm forty three now. So when I was born 76, I hadn't really done anything was orchard's. I got to ride my bike everywhere. It was easy. And then all of a sudden tech. Right. And then. All kinds of different migration into the valley, which really booms. I mean, give you an idea numbers. My dad bought the house and I was born for a little over one hundred thousand. When I looked on Zillow the other day is worth three point one million. So talk about significant change in an area. So I grew up there. I've been. I got into swimming competitive swing at an early age, mainly because I had really bad asthma. So it was the one sport that really strengthen your lungs. Loudy, breathe clean air. And it's really good for me. But I took a liking to it. I end up being a competitive summer for a long time. And more importantly, that springboard me into the sport of water polo at right around age 10 or eleven, which I played for over 20 years through high school, through college, on club teams after that. And so I've always been. Athletic, right? Always want to be part of a team that's part of my nature. That's part of my background and I'm grateful for that because it really did really improve the quality of my life. It still does today. So after college, I went to school back east. When I came back, it was nineteen ninety nine. The dot com bubble had just burst. So that coveted job at any dot com was no longer available.
Eric [00:04:21] I see you laughing because you remember what a case study that was. Right. So I kind of it was tough. I couldn't find gig. I didn't know what I want to do. I didn't really understand entrepreneurship yet.
Eric [00:04:34] I wish I had a mentor earlier on that. Show me that. But I did. And so I just got the first job I can take, which was a sales job. And I sold recruitment services. And for a period about nine years, I sold a lot of things. I sold radio ads, I sold real estate finance, I sold legal publishing. And, you know, as the years went on, I got pretty good at it and made a decent living doing it. And there is definitely advancement opportunities. And there is kind of a moment around 07, 08, where I was sitting in a a national conference for our company and I was looking around and I just started my mind, started to wonder, what if I stay here and actually just presented on something as well? And I was thinking, man, I stand here. What's going to happen to me in the next ten years if I stay in this corporate track? And a couple things. I realized that I'll continually drive my sales managers or whoever my V.P., whoever. It is crazy because I don't do things the way other people do them.
Eric [00:05:30] And also, I didn't really like what I saw myself down the road as far as health, as far as enjoyment of life, as far as chasing a paycheck. And it just it dawned on me, I realized, hey, I got to start I got to start figuring something out. So I started doing a lot of things. I start testing for fire departments, start looking at how to start a business. All these things. And serendipitously, in 2008, I got a text message from an old college teammate, and his name's Trevor Boehm, who's doing magnificent things now. And it just said, hey, man, do you want to open a gym? And he know and I've been doing Crossett for a while at Jacqueline's grandson's gym. Kristen Laine is only in fitness in San Francisco. He had been doing Crossfit for a while and he Petron Extreme and L.A. Fit at L.A. Crossfit and he and I just sat there and his back in T nine texting, remember that? So it wasn't like a flat board. So I was like I had a beer. I remember as I was in San Francisco, I had a beer and I wrote back. Yes, this is it. This is this is the opportunity I how do I get to work with a friend to build something in an industry that's growing? I get to do something that I really enjoy. And so we pulled the trigger. I picked up everything, left San Francisco, but everything in a trailer drove down to Santa Barbara, California, where we designated was a spot. We wanted to open the gym because back then it was a wild, wild west. Everyone was putting their stake in the ground of different territories. And, you know, I've never been to Santa Barbara. I didn't know anybody in Santa Barbara, but it seemed like a great place. Right. Seen on TV shows. And so we opened this little thing called Crossed the Pacific Coast is an eight hundred square foot studio. And this was in 2008 09.
Eric [00:07:12] So once again, it was like another, you know, economic crisis we are going through, which, you know, we didn't have much money. We were bootstrapped completely. No banks were loaning us money, that's for sure. So we did everything kind the old fashioned way. And this was before really social media took place. Right. So we just started walking around, introducing ourselves to people or getting to know other local businesses, trying to spread the word. And you get one client and two clients and three clients. And over a period of a year and a half was pretty touch and go. But as the economy picked up, Crossett start to get popular, the phone started ringing or ferral start coming in. And we grew and it was great. It was a really exciting ride. And over a nine year span, what I believe is probably going on the more the premier Gym's on the central coast to California Crossfit affiliates and.
Eric [00:08:02] It was going really well.
Eric [00:08:03] You know, I think I was investing in another jam that was opening. Was helping guide that process and then 2016 head and. It was rough, man. We had, you know, over a span of a year. It started off with a good friend, suicide to us being pregnant and losing the pregnancy. Lay in that kind of. Turns out wrapped up are a chance to have a family of our own with our own kids. My wife's father passed away at the age of 62 of a heart attack just done over at the end of the year. Our dog died.
Eric [00:08:39] So it's just a really poor year. And through all that stress and struggle, because there is a lot of it is very dark. Something changed. My chemistry changed. And I call it like, you know, it went from, hey, let's do some things. Let's do this thing some day, too. What if we did it today? So when I came home one night and I told my wife, Hey. We always talk about living in a mountain town, right? You're from. She's from Brazil. Like you want to learn how to ski.
Eric [00:09:09] Right. We talk about all these things. What if I sold the businesses and. And we just we found a mountain town move there. And she's like, first of all, are you effing with me? Because I know how much this business means to you. I'm like, I'm not.
Eric [00:09:24] Well, why don't we go? Great. Let's do it. Why don't we go move to a bunch of mountain towns? So I was like, oh, I love you. Great. Let's do it. You know, with trials and tribulations and net gain, the business is sold and exited successfully from those poor little cash in the pocket. Nothing life changing, but allowed us for the next chapter of our life. So we started hitting the road. We went through the Northern Sierras, up through Oregon, up through Washington and up to Vancouver Island, start coming back down with the goal of spending the winter in Whitefish, Montana. So we made it there barely by the winter, had a rental.
Eric [00:09:57] And, you know, over the next two or three years, we kept going to other places and coming back, coming other places, coming back. And now we're we're very excited say that we plants roots here and we're gonna be here for a bone at home. And it's it's been a really exciting ride.
Eric [00:10:13] And as far as business on that side of things over last year has been really interesting. And you've been kind of caught me in critical times, too, which is interesting that start out the digital marketing agency with my buddy Doug went OK. I think we both realized that it was a bigger task at hand and we didn't quite have the right formula. So we disbanded that. And I started a couple of mastermind groups and started a online slack community for fitness entrepreneurs, did a bunch of different things. But what I always started doing, it wasn't intentional. I've actually been doing it for 10 years was was coaching entrepreneurs and business owners started one started two very casual agreements like, hey, just pay me when you can or don't pay me at all. But I loved it. And it took a little bit of noticing to realize that that's actually what I really enjoy doing. And when I cross my travels up through British Columbia, I came into contact by chance and through a mutual connection with a gentleman in Canada trucco who owned a very successful he's been a very successful entrepreneur, bunch of successful exits, been coaching gym owners, hundreds of gym owners. And, you know, I was happy to be in the same town. He had his mount home. And when my someone said, hey, you should look up, Ken. Yeah, maybe I will. And ten minutes later, I got off that conversation. I got a text like, Hey, it's Ken, you should come over. I was like, What? This is nuts. So I did. And I came over and hung out his house for a while. We drank some bourbon. We talked about fitness and our stories and what we wanted to do, road some four wheelers, and really kind of bonded and decided that, hey, at some point we're going to work together.
Eric [00:11:56] I'm just not sure what that looks like yet. And took about six months to figure out what that looks like. And now we're full fledged and level five mentors and it's growing. It's great. We're we're doing one on one mentoring for entrepreneurs. We're doing consulting and advising for for larger brands. And it's really exciting. We're starting to bring on new associates now, too. And of course, we didn't mention this. I've also been doing a little bit of podcasting.
Ari [00:12:21] The podcasting the thing that you've been doing is no small thing.
Eric [00:12:26] Yeah, it's just.
Ari [00:12:28] You have three.
Eric [00:12:30] Yeah, I have three. Too active future fit is still active.
Eric [00:12:34] We're about to not. We're knocking on the door of 200 episodes. I did the fitness blitz radio, which was shorter, 50 minute interviews did about 360 of those. And now I just kicked up the Black Time and podcast this month, actually just did the official launch for it. So that's first month. It's going to be pretty good. I'm pretty happy about that, but I love it, man. It's funny because I don't even think about it as work. I just enjoy it. It's my favorite part of the day. I could get on conversations with people like you and just talk forever and it just doesn't feel like work. I guess I don't even worry about the numbers in my shows. I really like to focus on the learning that I attain, the natural curiosity that I'm blessed to have, and the relationships I get to form with my guests as well are really important to me. So yeah, man, I've done a lot. Almost six hundred total.
Ari [00:13:23] That's awesome. So this is a shorter kind of more like your blitz, right. So I have three kind of questions that I'll that I'll ask you about. But you've interviewed now, around 600 people. There must be some kind of theme, too, to those interviews. Everybody's in the fitness industry. So what is the overriding theme that you've seen both as far as obstacles as well as what it really, really works like nitty gritty? This works and it works a lot vs., you know, trial and error. So kind of give us a little bit of fear for all the fitness enthusiasts and trainers and people in that industry. What things have you seen as overwriting, you know, similarities between all of your guests?
Eric [00:14:25] So are you talking in the context of, like, business or what gets success for, like, the end consumer in their fitness goals?
Ari [00:14:32] Yeah. Mostly the business side.
Eric [00:14:34] Business.
Eric [00:14:36] Well, everybody gets stuck. You know, I think we all get stuck in doing the things that keep us busy and never really get lost. Occasionally we'll get on track with things that are productive. But that that's a big thing is is getting stuck. I also think, you know, speaking overarching entrepreneurial ism is that someone's relationship is critical to advancement. That's just not a non entrepreneurship. That's even in one's fitness, even in one's life. Failure is the learning process. It's not to be necessarily sought out, but it's.
Eric [00:15:11] Don't be afraid of it, like if you're just going to fail.
Eric [00:15:14] I mean, I mentioned to you over a three year span, I had four businesses I would consider non successful. Right. They made money. They're profitable, but not to. My standards were successful. But that's OK. I just keep on marching on because I know it brings me one more failure closer to success I want. So I think that's freedom is people who have a good relationship failure tend to be more successful in the long term. Hands down, flat out. No questioning that.
Ari [00:15:41] So Fail Forward Fast is a statement that a lot of people have made in the self-improvement and entrepreneurial movements. And the faster you fail forward, the further you're going to get anyway. So you're on cheaper. Forward use. You say you've had four failed businesses, but because of your ability to pivot and adapt, you've been able to make those failures into successes in life. Right. So tell me, what are some of the successes that you've seen from some of your clients, some of the people that you've been able to coach?
Eric [00:16:22] Yeah, yeah. I think on that, I think the first thing.
Eric [00:16:31] That people need to focus on is how they manage, first of all, understanding. Thinking about how you think it is a big thing.
Eric [00:16:39] How do you approach problems? Because you're always going to run into problems. And, you know, Ken and I actually just just talked out of this this particular topic yesterday. So it's fresh in my mind. As you know, I I always look at the way I prefer to do business because I'm very lifestyle oriented and fitness professionals will understand this. What is the minimum effective dose for business? Right. What is it that you can. What is the how do you get the result you want with a minimal amount of work and effort and time?
Eric [00:17:09] And that means you got to think you got to think on that. You don't just get do. People will always associate busyness with hard work and productivity.
Eric [00:17:19] It's not the case. And that's been a model for my life, is understand difference between efficacy and efficiency. Efficiency means just like how many things can you do per hour efficacy as well? What's the end result? Right. If I can pick up the phone to make one important phone call every hour and that gets me closer and I want to be versus 50 phone calls in an hour and maybe get me where I am. You know where I'm going. That's right. And I think that's the thing. And where you got to focus on. Which means that you guys spend more time thinking than doing. And you've got to focus on the win. W I n what's important now? What is the most critical thing in my business right now. And that thing usually solves one of two things, which is a who or what. So understanding that. You know, I think that Abraham Lincoln, if you give me six hours to chop down a tree, I'll spend four of it sharpening my ax like that's that's the kind of thought process you need when you're building your business. Like, hey, let's pump the brakes here. What if. What kind of collaboration can I search for? What kind of system can I implement? What is it that I need right now? And then how do I solve it?
Ari [00:18:27] So, you know, it's kind of interesting because I relate what you just said back to some of the broken system in health care and fitness and life, which is where a lot about procedures versus results. Right. And so the more we think that, the more we do. Well, the the better we should get as a result. But if we're trying to get south and we go one hundred miles north. The result is that we just did a whole lot of extra work. Going in the wrong direction. So it wasn't the procedures that mattered. It was where we were going. The goal that we were trying to achieve. So that's what that reminded me of when you were when you were saying efficacy versus efficiency, because so many times a business man, person who's trying to lose weight or anywhere in between get healthy in any way. There's so many procedures that we try in order to try to not do the hard work of doing the thing that's going to get us the goal right now. So how many quick fix pills can you try before they fail? When you could have been done, had you just put a little bit more effort into the planning and the processing of of that goal, right?
Eric [00:19:57] Yeah, totally and all. Here's one thing I believe whole heartedly to be true is that no matter what, in any kind of business or whatever you're in, relationships come first. If you focus on strong relationships and being a person who adds more value than you take in return, you're going to see success. If you just that basic principle in life, Ray, like always be seeking add more value than you take in return. It's from Bob Berg and the go getter who he's now become a friend of mine. And I think that's if I was gonna go back and say, hey, what's the fundamental thing that would be? Leads you to success would be a relationship of failure and in focusing on relationships first, because you never know where to go.
Ari [00:20:37] Absolutely. Well, you know, I really appreciate you being on.
Ari [00:20:41] I'm going to ask you same thing I ask everybody at the end of the conversation is give us give the listeners three actionable steps that somebody can take today, tomorrow to implement in their life that will move them forward, even if it's just a little bit. But we'll start that process of moving somebody forward.
Eric [00:21:02] Yeah. I guess if there is one that I would start with is had that uncomfortable conversation that, you know, you need to have. Because it is a weight on your boat that is dragging you down. Every day, whether you know it emotionally, physically, physiologically, do something.
Eric [00:21:27] Find what you truly enjoy. Pursue it every day and know how much sleep you need and get that every day.
Ari [00:21:38] Awesome. Sleep is very important.
Eric [00:21:41] Everything.
Ari [00:21:42] It's it's incredible how, you know, how often do you hear some of these big wigs say things like, I only need four hours of sleep, two hours.
Eric [00:21:52] Nonsense,.
Ari [00:21:54] And then you'll see them heart attack and crash a year later. You know, and sleep, we recognize, is probably one of the most important things we can do for our physiological health. And our mental health keeps us from sleeping for two days. And you'll find out who they really are. Right.
Eric [00:22:13] I mean, my know, my wife and I have never had kids, but when I see the transition of when people have their newborns, it's like I trying all of you right now, I'm going away to your kids four or five. So I'll see you in a few years.
Ari [00:22:29] Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Eric. I really appreciate you coming on. And this has been another episode of Create a New Tomorrow. Look forward to having you guys join us again. Thank you so much and have a good day.
Ari [00:22:45] Thank you for listening to this podcast. I appreciate all you do to create a new tomorrow for yourself and those around you.
Ari [00:22:52] If you'd like to take this information further and are interested in joining a community of like minded people who are all passionate about activating their vision for a better world, go to the Web site, createanewtomorrow.com and find out how you can be part of making a bigger difference. I have a gift for you. Just for checking it out. And look forward to seeing you take the leap. And joining our private paid mastermind community.
Ari [00:23:16] Until then, see you on the next episode.