009 Is Your Passion Your Profession

John Mancuso, founder of JWM Wellness, has passionately been influencing people's wellness for over 12 years.  Specializing in large group training, John will talk with us about building your community being authentic & consistent during these ever--changing times. ​

John shares his journey from a career with no passion to finding the place where he is a catalyst to help people be the best they can be.  He shares how he has learned to take advantage of perceived setbacks like layoffs and pandemics to improve himself and his business.  John talks about the importance of will power and why power and how consistency and commitment are the foundations of any type of success.

​Links: 
www.jwmwellness.com
john@jwmwellness.com

Transcript

Hey everybody, Stephen Christopher here with my awesome co host, Laura Sanchez, and welcome to today's episode of the exciting, unknown podcast. As with every week, we have another absolutely amazing guest for you today. And not only today are we going to learn about some of the mental things that are important for us to know, as business owners and leaders in our industry. 

But maybe we'll even learn a little bit on the physical side, because our guests today in the importance of the, you know, the body mind connection. We're going to learn a little bit more about that today because our guest is one of the best people in the physical training, personal training niche that I've ever met in my entire life across the entire world. And this person, up until about 2007 was working in the mortgage industry. 

And that's actually where I ended up meeting him and getting to know this person. So I've known this person for quite a long time. So was in the mortgage industry until about 2007. And just wasn't really feeling fulfilled with it and chose to kind of take that leap to something that was much more in alignment with his passion and purpose, which that's a lot of what we talk about here. Because a lot of us are stuck in places where we're staying. And really, it's not really the best thing for us. 

And so this person chose consciously to take that leap and follow this passion of personal training, physical fitness, physical wellness, as well as mental wellness, and go into something that he's been doing personally all of his life but actually take the leap and make this now his profession instead of just a hobby or a passion that he was bringing into his life, personally. 

So when we when he, so he left, the mortgage industry, took about six months and just studied and I remember when he did this, I mean, he was at the library like all day, every day, I couldn't even get ahold of him. I mean, he really took it seriously. studied got certified. And then after that, starting around 2008 2009 started building this whole world of physical fitness a little bit differently started building it as this community perspective. 

So he was building these groups of people that, you know, works sometimes for the same companies sometimes in the same industries, and brought this whole new thing into fitness, and brought it into, brought it into these communities and was not only helping the individuals, but helping their community and even helping their businesses. So thinking about things so differently. He's just he's done amazing. 

And then just to give a little credibility to this guest as well. He's one of the top trainers here in Colorado, but he has still has personal one on one clients where he's training CEOs and business leaders of multi billion dollar companies. That's true with a beat. So this person definitely knows what they're doing and is very well respected because These these, you know, these, these leaders could choose anybody. So and now he's been doing this for years and years and years and just watching this business grow has been absolutely amazing. By far, I would consider him to be the mad scientist of physical fitness because I think like a crazy hairdo, okay, now like he might, we got a lot of time left. One of the coolest things about him is that I've been working out with him now for almost 10 years and I've done community camps with him. I've done one on one training. 

In the 10 years I've been working out with him. I've never once never once done the same workout routine, ever. So every single time it's different. And that's why I always refer to him as this mad scientist of this because he's so passionate, and so creative around it. And that's why he's, he's doing things

Unknown Speaker  3:49  

that are amazing at it.

Stephen Christopher  3:50  

Yeah, they're absolutely amazing. So, without further ado, one of the most committed disciplined individuals that I know john manku. So welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker  4:00 

Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. It's an honor to be with you both.

Stephen Christopher  4:04  

Yeah, absolutely. Man. So awesome, dude, I'm super pumped to, to have a conversation with you today about a lot of the things that you have done, and especially some of the things you've done recently with, you know, I mean, as as of the recording of this, it's like August 2020, you've been through COVID. Obviously, we know like, pretty much every gym got shut down for some period of time. So you're definitely one of those industries that got hit the hardest, but yet, you're coming out of this, and I'm sure we'll talk about it on the rise and you're actually growing your business and you're about to move into an even bigger space and take on more. And so I definitely want to make sure that we talk about what your mindset was right around that. So let's, uh, let's go here. This is actually I mean, I'm really curious about

Unknown Speaker  4:52 

this. It's gonna be there's gonna be a go I love these. It's kind of like Choose Your Own Adventure right now.

Stephen Christopher  4:56  

I love it. Let's Yes, it's not too often you know, I mean, JOHN, obviously, you know, we've known each other for a long, long time. But as I was writing questions for this, there's a lot of things that I was like, Man, I've never actually asked john some of these questions. So I'm curious to know today so we get to dive dive deep today. You know, we talk all the time about consistency and commitment and being disciplined and stuff like that. Right? And yes, you know, when, when people think about physical fitness, it's like, okay, you know, I got to go to the gym, I got to go do this. It's not always like a fun part for a lot of people. Mm hmm. You've been? I mean, how long would you say you've been physically fit? I mean, way before 2007. But how far back does that go when you've been dedicated to, you know, working on wellness, whatever that is?

Unknown Speaker  5:45  

I would say it's a great question for as long as I can remember. I grew up always around some sort of sport of field, a court, an event, a ball, whatever. I remember playing with my brothers growing up, we were always active. And, you know, we didn't really know what training meant, but we knew we like to stay physically fit. We knew we like to stay active. I remember in my previous life, so to speak before making this a career vocation, I was in corporate America, you and I are in the mortgage real estate world together. Before that I was working in the Coors Brewing companies sector for a couple years. I always remember no matter where I went, no matter what I did, I was always so dang passionate, even to this day, more so than ever, about staying true to your wellness. Now, wellness is obviously as you guys know, it's kind of taken a shape of its own in the last 15 years. But really, if we want to narrow it down, you know, to stay physically fit physically healthy, physically active, and that has always been a passion of mine. For as long as I can remember. The thing about is what was really funny, and this is a great point for listeners as I never looked at myself until probably 1340 10 years ago when I thought I can actually make this a profession, because it's always been fun to me, it's always been exciting to me. It's something that I've done every day, rain shine, winter fall, Vegas, Denver, where I used to live, it was part of who I am at the core root of my personal being. And, you know, when you think about what you love to do every day, you don't always translate what you love to do into what you can do for the rest of your life and make a good career out of it. And it took me a while to have this aha moment. And Steven, you and I talked about this back in the day, you know, there was this, this switch that said, john Mann, Cousteau, you can make this your vocation because you're so dang passionate, and you can be so dang good at this. And I think that's, that's when it clicked like, Hey, I can truly do what I love to do every day even before I made this vocation, and actually now make it my career. And that's the beautiful thing about what you know where I'm at and Oops. No. Can you hear me? Sorry. Now we got Tom. Yeah. All that being said, You know, I really truly believe that I have been so dang blessed more so than everybody else in this world about finding my passion and also making it my career.

Stephen Christopher  8:16  

So when you were when you were starting to make that transition, right, which one, I want to hit on this, and I want to make sure that I'm reiterating it to myself and right listening, you absolutely can make your passion your profession 100%. And that's something that I know I've worked on more I know you've, you know, worked on, and we tend to not, we tend to almost feel guilty, kind of, like you said, where it's like, wait, this is so easy for me to do this thing. So how could I, you almost feel guilty. But what I've learned over the years, and john is sharing is that it's actually it's actually very true, and we should follow that more than anything else.

Unknown Speaker  9:00  

You're 100%

Unknown Speaker  9:01  

right? You know, we we grew up and most of us grew up. Understanding work is different than play and we go into this mindset of life going through school whether what our what our parents teach us, you know, we compartmentalize, okay, this is work, you can't have much fun here you got to make money you got to survive. And then we go step away, we put our work hat down, we put on our play hat. I wear both hats all day long. And I told you this and you guys have both heard me say this. I haven't worked a day in 13 years and that's the honest to god truth. Because every day I get to help people become better with what I absolutely love, and will die on the cross out for which is physically fit and staying personally active and it's beautiful. It's amazing.

Stephen Christopher  9:46  

Yeah, when we were prepping Laura and I were talking, and I said what, you know, what's something that you recognize about john? And I remember what was it exactly I said, You asked me like, well, like, what was it one of the first things you ever like observed about john and i I was like, I don't think I've ever ever seen john be down. Yeah, like he's always up. He's always excited. There's this energy that comes with you that people like you can't like, you can't sell that shit. Like, I think now what I'm really learning is it comes from the fact that you do what you love. And it comes from deep in here and that is exuded in everything you do. Even if I see you outside of a workout, there is that still that same level of Wait a minute. I love my life and I love what I'm doing. And I think that that's what so many of us are searching for.

Unknown Speaker  10:39  

All right, well, I have a built in joy. I've always felt like I've had a lot of joy at the core of who I am. But unlike most people, most people will escape their work and escape their stress and go elsewhere. So a lot of their stress is based off the nine to five, eight to six, the work environment because they don't like it. They don't like The people they work with, you know, they're running into this, especially with COVID am I going to have a job, I actually go to work, if you want to call it that, to escape the the stress around life, you know, whether it's the bills or whatnot, there is very little work is the only environment and that I've experienced right now, or I can truly let everything go not even think about anything else going on around me and just focus solely on that person, that small group or that large group and just just sink into it, and literally just go to town on it. So it's beautiful.

Stephen Christopher  11:37  

So I have a question, john, was that the case prior to getting into what you do now? So when you were either at cougars or when you were in the real estate mortgage world? Was work still your solace from the rest of the crap or was it the other way around?

Unknown Speaker  11:52  

No, it was it was the opposite. So I've shifted when I was working for careers when I was working the mortgage real estate I could feel some of that stress walking into that environment versus walking out of that environment. And yeah, I think that's how it is for most, as I said, I think most people will experience some sort of stress. I'm not saying they don't have stress with their families when they go home, or the weekend stress with their spouses, wives, that's just life. But I really truly believe that when I was going through corporate America, and when I was not passionate, that's the only thing I wasn't passionate about. It was a means to an end. And it was a way to fulfill what I needed to do nine to five, Monday through Friday. And I think with that, when you're not truly authentic about what you love to do, you're going to find a way to limit the joy that comes from here and comes from here. And that's that's a great question, Laura. But I can tell you, it's it's been a complete 180 as to how I feel and deliver and handle and manage stress right now.

Stephen Christopher  12:57  

So we talk a lot about like consulting Since right, you know, you talked about how consistency especially when it comes to physical wellness is really important. You know, I've had a lot of conversations around. Same thing with like mental things, meditation, you know those right instanceid those consistent practices. So do you? Do you ever have days where you don't feel like working out? Like when you wake up in the morning? And you're like, like,

Unknown Speaker  13:23  

it was morning? Morning. I was like, I don't want to go.

Stephen Christopher  13:26  

Yeah, I'm really curious. Because I think that people are listening like everybody knows that physical, especially the people listen to the show. They they get it, they know how important physical human wellness is to their ability to do everything. But yes, not to the same probably extent. So do you ever have days where you're like, I don't want to work out today. Like are you human with the rest of us are not really and there's that's the true answer.

Unknown Speaker  13:51  

Ah, yeah, great question. I am human. And there are plenty of days where I don't want to get a workout. Now. Let me just say Also preface that by saying, Steven and you know this because I see four or five times a week, my alarm closed alarm clock goes off at 3:48pm. My first session is at 4:30am. And that's Monday through Friday. I get to sleep in on Saturday till 4:40am. I'm crazy. I know it. But again, it's the passion that drives me. And it's, you know, we've talked about this, I'm going to kind of segue a little bit. You know, we talk a lot about willpower versus why power, you asked me if there's days where I don't want to work out, of course, my willpower, it will, it will evaporate. There's days where I feel really good. And then there's days where I'm going on five hours of sleep and I am dragging ass. But I always know no matter how low my willpower is, my y power will never evaporate. It'll never relinquish. And I use that a lot to override that willpower because the willpower is finite and it comes and goes, but the why power and what I do and who I am What I truly believe in, is what gets me through those days where I want I want to sleep in like you like everybody else. It's easy to do the easy things. But I will tell you, I cannot remember a time and I work out at 430. And you know, I work out with, I cannot remember a time that I have gotten my workout at 535 35 and say, you know, I wish I wouldn't have done that today. I wish I wouldn't have spent an hour here. I always, always, always 100% of the time, feel better. And that's the consistency. It's doing the stuff day in and day out. When you don't want to do it doesn't matter if it's fitness or wellness. It could be meditation, yoga, reading, praying, you got to do it every day. Consistency will get you the success over the long time that you will not have if you just chop it up if you go in and out if you ride the roller coaster. A lot of people think success is finding this big grandiose plan and having all these things perfectly aligned. No, it is doing the day to day stuff sometimes super mundane and monotonous it's doing the day to day stuff every single day. Yes, you could take Sundays off but I'm talking every day

Stephen Christopher  16:13  

now so what's so I want to go just a little bit deeper on this so on those days when you don't feel like doing it right, and I love the the wide power versus willpower that's I don't actually know if I've ever heard you say, like I

Unknown Speaker  16:27  

wrote that down. It's got it's got Asterix on it. Yep.

Stephen Christopher  16:30  

So I want to know what in your mind like your your your self talk right okay, so your you know, your brain your ego, whatever says hey, you know, I I'm not really digging this this morning. I'm tired. Maybe it's share some of those excuses about well, you know, like, dude, you could sleep in or you could not do it. What? What's the conversation you have in your head? On a day like that because it's important. The reason why I'm asking is because if we can help both Myself, Laura and others start to have these little takeaways of like, okay, when you hear this, try this instead. Um, yeah. You know, we all know the concept of Oh, have an accountability partner, right? I mean, so sometimes for me, part of it is, oh, I don't want to go. Yeah, but Stephens going to be there, or Paul's going to be there. So I got to show up. But there's got to be more to it than that. Because not everybody has that situation where there's someone else with you. Yeah. What is the self talk?

Unknown Speaker  17:30  

Well, that's a great question. I would say the biggest thing is, is accountability. I mean, you have to find yourself, somebody's going to hold you accountable. I've got a 430 workout partner that holds me accountable. If I don't show up. I feel like I am going to let him down and that eats at me right here. If it's just you, and if it's just yourself a little bit harder. You got to work a little bit harder mentally But know this. It's a short short fragment of your day. Could be 15 minutes could be 20 minutes could be 35 4050 minutes. And I really want you and I tell you guys, this, but also the audience, think about how it's going to feel afterwards think about the end of the journey versus getting stuck at the starting line. If you think about the finish line, you're a lot more excited to get to that spot than you would be if you're like, Oh my gosh, it's 430. And we're just starting. No, I think about 530. I think about the laughs that are going to take place. I think about getting into that next session at 530. I think about the protein shake that's awaiting me at 535. I think about how good I feel just drenched in sweat with the endorphins, just blazing like pin balls out of my mind. That's what I look forward to. And I think that's what's going to drive you especially if it's just you individually to get to that stage that gets you through that starting line, not just getting that line, but hearing the gun go off and then taking off to that finish line. Hmm, I love that. Yeah.

Stephen Christopher  19:00  

Yeah, that's good. That's good. That's awesome. Okay, so let's switch gears just a little bit. And I want to talk about leadership. And here's kind of the path that I want to go down this. So a lot of the people that are listening are leaders, entrepreneurs, they manage teams, they oversee teams, or they are influential in their work and their personal life. Right. And so, I was thinking about this when I was preparing. JOHN has one of the most challenging leadership jobs, I think of anybody I've ever thought of, and here's why. So, you know, john, you're running camps, or community groups with you know, well over 100 people, maybe even well over 200 300 now, but, you know, you're running these groups of people, right? And every day, or at least a couple times a week, I bet there's a couple people, maybe they're the same, maybe they're different that aren't exactly always excited about being there. And I want to here's, here's where I'm going with this. Is it hard for you ever to deal with people that are like, you know, the little eye roll here or there or the, they're like, they're all you know, my knee hurts today or My back hurts or I didn't sleep or Oh, I just had a baby and that baby didn't sleep, or Oh, my husband had to get up and do this, or my wife this, you know, like the excuses, right? And as I was prepping for this, I was thinking about I was like, this is one of the most, you have to have the most energy in this leadership position of almost any leader because at work, if it's just a work leadership position, it's like, Alright, well, you know, we get to deal with some of that, but people I don't know, it seems to me that getting people into the gym, especially in this app is a lot more barriers to so. So you're showing up for work? Yeah, so you're one yeah, cuz work you have, you're gonna get paid and you're like, Oh my gosh, I really got to go to work. So, you know, from this leadership standpoint, like how does that impact you and what are you thinking about or like what's going on? through your mind, and how are you leading these groups consistently day in and day out? When sometimes they feel that way? Like, does it impact you? Or? Or does it not really anymore? Or just, I don't know. Let's see where that goes from your mind.

Unknown Speaker  21:14  

I'm gonna take this three different parts. Number one, you've made a comment just about 30 seconds ago where most people have to go to work, they have to make money, but it's to choice to go work out, it's a choice to take care yourself. So there could be a little bit of a eyeroll complain, bitch moan, I actually think it's the opposite. Now. I've been blessed. 13 years I've been doing this now. I actually am very in tune with my people that I see could be an individual session could be a group of 1520 people like I'm going to have in about six hours for five hours from now. I am very intuitive human being. And I know that the majority of my audience values wellness, they value physical fitness. So I think it's the opposite Steven and I don't want to discredit that because I think you have a lot of clout And credibility with that. But the people that come into my presence and our presence in our community actually get excited. There, there is a lot more of that than the the IRA. Of course you deal with that every now and then. But the people I see are super jazzed or motivated, they're excited. They know how important physical fitness and wellness is. And it's escape. It's an escape from their family, their kids, their job, all the other stuff they got going on. So I really try to make sure that they and they know this here, but I have to remind them, whether it's the way I act, how I feel, how I approach them, but also when I tell them hey guys is the best hour of your day. Hey, guys, this is going to be the greatest 45 minutes of your Wednesday. And I am fully confident in that. I'll go down and I'll go down swinging on that. Second of all, I'm a very energetic person. You've been watching me now for about 1520 minutes. You're probably thinking this guy's unbelievable holy buckets. Does he ever slow down? Not really. I hit the pillow at night and I'm like that I gave it All every day, and I take that kind of energy and I take that kind of passion, and it's my job to motivate and uplift people, you may come in here, I'm going to find a way to get you here, you may already come in here, I'm just going to top it off, he's going to give you a little extra shot there. You don't need a lot, that's okay. But for those people where they're there, well as empty and their cup is dry, I'm going to really pour some of that in there. And if it means taking time to really get involved with you, and to give you a springboard to get to that place, there are very few times where I've met somebody at six o'clock and they're feeling lucky and they're feeling just tired and grumpy and seven o'clock rolls around. They are never ever in that same mode, and they're never in that same mood. Now, granted, it's nice to get the endorphins up by movement, but there that takes a special catalyst to do that at all I've said I've always said I'm a capitalist, you come in, you show up, I'll take care of the rest and I truly believe that I do. I want to do everything I can give it my all to make sure that I motivate you. And I encourage you, I take you up that food chain, to where you want to be about feeling satisfied and feeling good about who you are.

Stephen Christopher  24:13  

I love that mindset. I mean, I think so many leaders can take a big page out of that book, right? It's like, hey, if somebody comes in here, your job is to kind of get them here. If they're already, you know, at a certain level, your job is to kind of get them to the next level. So I love that you're tuning into the individual. I think that's so important for any leader, I don't care how many people you lead. It's important to not think about these big blanket strategies like Oh, if I do this, it's gonna fix everybody. That's just not possible. Right? It's

Unknown Speaker  24:41  

one person at a time.

Unknown Speaker  24:43  

Yeah. There's no cookie cutter approach. Everybody's got their own personality and everybody's coming from different walks of life. I don't know if somebody's dog died last night, or if they got into a fight with their wife or husband, or if their kids getting F's in biology, but the fact of the matter is, is I'm going to put as much time as I think you need to just give you a little bump is get you on that little pedestal. And then you can start to progress on your own. You know, a great trainer and I say that from a, not only an individual standpoint, but especially in the groups and you guys have both seen me in the group dynamic, a great trainer, we'll make each individual feel like they're the only ones in the room when there's a group of collective 15 2025 people. And that's about giving that little extra TLC that time that love that care, that tender, loving kindness to say, I'm with you forget about everything else going on. And it's an artistry. It's an art form to it. It doesn't happen overnight. A lot of years of practice being in an environment, but I know what's going on here. I know what's going on here. I know what's going on here. But right now, it's just you and me, baby. That's all you need to focus on.

Stephen Christopher  25:53  

Did you I mean, I talked a lot about awareness. Right. And Laura and I just did a webinar about awareness and we I mean, really what one of the You just you just talked about awareness, right? Like this high heightened level of awareness about being able to know who to give attention to how much and still knowing everything that's going on around you. Hundred percent thing. Did you practice? Like, do you have some of that innately? Is it something that you kind of learned is are there any practices around that that you do?

Unknown Speaker  26:20  

It's both. Here's what I mean by that.

Unknown Speaker  26:23  

What?

Unknown Speaker  26:25  

What comes naturally for me is being engaged with a human being I authentically care. I ask a lot of questions. How was your night how'd you sleep? how you're feeling? Whereas you're not. And I'm not just doing that to fill space. We can fill space by talking about politics by talking about sports. I don't want to go there. If it comes up great if we have a connection and a common denominator, beautiful, but I really truly want to know how you're at where you're at how you're feeling, because that's going to help me intuitively plan Okay, do I need to put down the full court press a little bit more? Do I need to scale back? Do I need to push hard Do I need to lay off, and that is huge. Now the awareness piece comes from being in that same environment every single day over and over. And just learning how to adapt, and how to bring what I know and truly am good at, which is one on one with the environment. So I guess it's kind of a two part, Steven, I've always been really good at being engaged with the human being individually. But now when you start throwing more, you know, more people along the mix, that's where you got to practice knowing, like, Hey, you can't sit five minutes with somebody and forget about the 14 people behind you. That's not gonna make them feel special. You got to be on a swivel. You got to be on a dime, and you got to be moving and shaken. But when you're there in that moment, whether it's a second five seconds, 30 you got to be right there, you got to be present. You got to understand that you're going to get to these people, but right then in there, it's just you and them and that's what makes them feel validated, special and important. And then once you get that little tick of that validation and that important Boom, you're on to the next one. And they're like, there's that subliminal, warm, fuzzy feeling that says, alright, this person that I'm across firm cares for me.

Stephen Christopher  28:09  

I love that. And, you know, one of the things that I pull out of that as a leader and somebody that's practiced a lot of that thing, and I think I have, I think I also have that skill set of being able to make people feel felt, right. And one big thing that I pulled out of this is that for leaders that are listening, you can make somebody feel very heard special felt in a couple seconds, it doesn't take like, we don't have to think about it like okay, you know, 33 employee I have exactly Billy over here. Yeah, Billy struggling, so I need to give Billy some time but I don't have 30 minutes for like two weeks, five seconds or 10 seconds, just some direct eye contact. You know, maybe one or two good questions like like you mentioned, john, just it can be very, very short. It can be little message like I know it when I send, I just think about a person. And then I send them a little slack. Or I'll send them a little video of like, hey, just just remember like you're great today or Hey, how are you? We're asking you a question. That that's just as if not sometimes more valuable than spending 30 minutes and not fully being present with that person,

Unknown Speaker  29:19  

hundred percent, and it can be done outside of your body to body, belly to belly, or it can be done face to face, you know, and this is why right now, probably more than ever on August 19 2020, we live in a world that is so disconnected. We're always on our phones, our head is always down, our eyes are always here with the blinders on. And then this is what's chopping my ass and you can start to feel the passion. And then you start throwing on these masts that cover up the warmest part of your face is your smile, and when you start covering that up, so now you've taken away the warmest feature of a human being when they smile, which wipes up everything here and makes you feel good here. And then you throw in the eyes which are fearful or down. You got to take the time audience especially because you guys I know you too. And myself, we're good at that. You got to take the time to just give that little extra, that little extra feel good sensation right now because it is lacking immensely right now. I want it back. We want to back. But we're not getting that yet. And that's why it's so important to just take that extra 30 seconds because it is non existent right now. It doesn't exist.

Stephen Christopher  30:29  

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay, do you have a question? No. Okay, now, so let's do this. I want to switch gears a little bit again, and I want to move into creativity and innovation. And then we're going to talk about what john is up to next. And I have a couple specific questions around that. So you know, I mentioned in the intro, right, I've known you for I've known you for a long time, but I've been working out with you or in some capacity quite a bit over the last 10 years and I've never done the same workout. And I highly doubt that there are many, if any other trainers in the world that are doing that same thing. So, you know, I just want to know a little bit about this, from your perspective, like, how intentional was that in the beginning? And how important is that to what you're doing? And then maybe all this will tie together? Do you have practices around it? Right? Like a lot of people would be like, Oh my gosh, that's, that's just ridiculous. Like, how do you even do that many things. So I just want to know a little bit more about that innovative and creative process, why you're doing it and what you're seeing is the result from it.

Unknown Speaker  31:41  

Great question. I don't know if it was intentional when I started. It's become more and more intentional throughout the years. But we live in a world and I'm kind of just speaking to what's already been known. Everyone knows we live in a world that is so fast paced. And we get bored easily and we lose the attention easy. I blamed the microwave, the microwave essentially started that everything want, we want to quit. We want it now. And if we can't have it, we've already moved on. workout working out is a lot like that, that there it can become very boring. It can become very repetitive. It can become very mundane because we don't have a plan going in. And from a creativity standpoint, it is so important to kind of have that cracker jack mentality. Everybody remembers Cracker Jacks now. I don't know if they make them anymore. I haven't had a cracker jack in years. But

Stephen Christopher  32:39  

I wait. I'm sending you I am sending you a box of Cracker Jacks, john. Perfect. There's something amazing about cracker jacks.

Unknown Speaker  32:47  

Well, you know what's amazing about cracker jacks. I never bought the cracker jacks for the caramel corn. I bought it for the prize inside. I always want to know what I was going to get tattoo. A little creative notebook. Yeah. Whatever it was, that's how I view wellness. When people come into this environment and community, it's like, what what are we doing today? I can't tell you how many times people will come into the gym, and they would look around at the setup. And they'd be like, and I could just see him, they do this. And I'm like, Are you trying to figure out the workout today? We want to see we're doing and I think there's a creative almost Mystique behind that where if you can really become unpredictable, but no, it's going to be a lot of fun. That's cute and key. Now, let me just preface that by saying Of course, you're going to see a lot of this similar features and movements and patterns when it comes to movement. There's always still a rhyme or reason behind my creativity. You know, everybody's the primal movements of the body is squatting and lunging and cringing and pushing and pull, pulling in court. I'm always gonna find a way to adapt those type of primal movements. But how We do it and how we lay out the curriculum is what makes it fun, exciting, creative. And that's where I think from an intentional standpoint, Steven has become a lot more intentional over these years. Now, I kind of take pride in it before it was like, okay, we did this one on Monday. I can't do that one today. But now it's like, okay, we're really flowing. And now people are aware, like, I've never repeated a workout. And I see people six days a week, and they're still like, I can't believe how creative we always are. Yeah,

Stephen Christopher  34:30  

I love that. And I think I think this is an important point that we we don't always have to set out to create this perfect, amazing thing, right? You know, you've been doing this for well over a decade. And you didn't start it intentionally right. And so an important piece that I get out of that is that, you know, it's it's this doing things and then getting feedback and paying attention to Okay, this is working, or Hey, that's really interesting. I didn't even realize I was doing that but somebody commented on it. Great. Is that some One thing that I should integrate into my business, maybe I want to keep doing it or do it with a little bit more intention, and then a year later, okay, now this is a, this is a fact in my business or this is a core piece of my business. And and because I think when especially younger entrepreneurs or newer entrepreneurs, they're like, Oh my gosh, well, how did he know to do that? Right? And they're trying to build this business that immediately has all of those things. But we don't have to create all of that stuff. First. Just start taking those steps, paying attention, getting feedback, and seeing what's working and what's not. And then choose to carry it to the next level and choose to carry it into the next level each time. Yeah, get it right. awareness, right. Being aware of, okay, when I do this, I'm getting a lot of positive feedback. People are excited, like, oh, what's the workout going to be today? Ooh, john, I see you have some cards. Ooh, what are we going to do with those right? And then you know, now you're engaging with people, which is getting them to say, Oh, wait a minute, john cares about me. He's not because he knows that that's important to me. And it is taking that to be part of your brand to be part of why your business is successful.

Unknown Speaker  36:05  

Right? I mean, we, you know, from a creative standpoint, you guys know this, we believe we've used deck of cards we've used. we've drawn numbers, we've used dice. I mean, it is a

Stephen Christopher  36:16  

result of Vegas. Do we lose guys? Only with

Unknown Speaker  36:20  

me when I go to Vegas? Do we get the dice on what usually is about once or twice a year, but the fact of the matter is, it's exciting. I mean, last year, one of my favorite workouts last year was a game of war. We did this. We did almost like a speed dating war game. And we flip cards and then we worked out and we just went right I listed these and it was so much fun. And I remember Laura called the shots. She said, I'm winning this and there was like 1516 people, and I'm gonna toot your horn, Laura. Laura said, I will win and there was a monetary prize. And lo and behold, lorawan she calls it before we even started. So again, mindset, excitement, creativity. It all works together. I love it.

Stephen Christopher  36:58  

Yeah, I love it. Okay, so Let's, let's move into this kind of this is like the last little thing that I have here. And then Laura, if you have any other questions to add, that'd be awesome. So, john, you're so just depending on exactly when this episode airs, it will, it will probably be well, it will be public by this time about kind of your next, the next venture that you're moving into, or at least I guess I would say, the next piece of your business or the next evolution of your business, right. And it's happening, basically in the middle of COVID. And so I want to tie all of this, this together here. So I have you share a little bit about what you're moving into next. And then thinking back to the very beginning, right, you know, you had a job because you were in the mortgage industry when it was still, you know, you were still making money. It hadn't crashed and burned like it did on by the time I got out in 2008. And you made the conscious decision to move into something different. Well, you're making that conscious decision to move into something that I don't know. I I don't like the word. It's more risky, but it but it has a different level of risk to it just like we went out on your own. So I want to know, you know, once you share a little bit about what you're about to do, how are you making these decisions? And like what's going on in your mind? Like, do you have the little ego voice? It's like, Oh my gosh, don't do that. Like, it's crazy. You don't know how it's gonna pan out? Or do you not really have that? And how do you deal with that when making decisions like this, especially in more challenging times and average?

Unknown Speaker  38:30  

Yeah, well, let me take this to two different pros. Number one, any any challenging time in my life that I've experienced? It's been really hard mortgage industry laid off. You know what I know I, you know, at 30 years old, I was like, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? Did I just see the best days of my life passed me by my 20s. I had my pity party, which I recommend. Your emotional, you're human. Take the time to acknowledge those feelings. Take the time to be a little frustrated. Take It's time to be a little bit upset, take the time to feel a little bit lonely, because you're feeling it. It's normal. Nobody wants to feel rejected, nobody wants to feel left out. And then once that pity party is done, get your ass on that train moving forward. Again. I say that because the two biggest challenging times that I've experienced, at least from an entrepreneurial standpoint, number one was 2008. And right now was 2020. I can tell you what happened in 2008. I decided for the rest of my life, I'm going to follow my own passion. Now, again, as you said, Steven, the risk is different. We all take risks in life, but the magnitude of the risks is a little bit different. Right now as we approach 2020. We've gone six months now on COVID. You know, life is shut down, people are losing jobs. I have actually taken the risk to go out and pursue my own facility, my own complex the first time I'm ever going to say that I own my own gym. And this isn't just a little 800 square foot studio. We're going to be in a space that's about 4000 square feet. It's in a great part of Denver, Colorado, and I am taking this opportunity to say the strong are going to get stronger, and the weak are going to get weaker. If you believe in, you know, and you research and you look for opportunities in this, and your follow your passions along those lines, you're only going to get stronger. And I believe, although I haven't officially got the key to open that door up. It's going to be coming real soon. I truly believe that it's going to be the best thing I've done yet in terms of 13 years of owning my own business. If you choose to stay in a state of this sucks, I'm miserable. I'm not saying you can't have those moments, but you better rewire that brain immediately and say, all right, where can I start to find some good grateful things in what's going on? Because you cannot control what's going on in the world around you. But you can control what you do in the world. And, you know, from a from a from a feeling standpoint, I believe been blessed to have very good intuition. I usually go with what feels good and feels right. We always have that little ego that says you can't do it, you're going to fail, you suck, blah, blah, blah. But I have to make sure that I'm bouncing and leveling it out. Because every time you have those moments, here's what I tell you get control of it, but but are they reoccurring? Are they coming up all the time? Or are as those that are as that little guy comes on your shoulder, he gets farther and farther and farther back, where you got this empowering, overriding thought says, I am going to make this happen. I am going to succeed. I've got people that trust me, I've got people that love this community. I've got people that are going to support me because they've been supporting me for 13 years. And truthfully, I am not able to do this next stage of my business without you guys without the people that have put so much stock trust and faith into what JW wellness has been created or has created. So yeah, I mean, I go by intuition, I kind of shoot that little fly off. And then I just cry, does that fly keep coming back? If it does keep coming back, it's probably a little bit more of a reality than it is just kind of a figment of your imagination. But if it starts to kind of fade back, and you're waving to it in the wayside, and you're like, Hey, I'm riding shotgun with this guy right here, boom, we're going forward. That's huge. And that's what you need to ride with.

Stephen Christopher  42:24  

I love that. I mean, you, you know, you know, me, you both know me. I mean, I'm huge in like honing intuition and using emotions as a guide. And you know, we're just we have so much more capacity to tune into stuff than, than most of us have ever been taught or believe. So. That's awesome, man. Well, I'm very excited for you in this next next stage of your business. It's going to be absolutely amazing. I know. Well, it's just going to be amazing. So yeah, awesome. Awesome. Well, Lord, did you have any other questions or did we did we kind of cover everything and So as she's just grabbing that, john, why don't you tell people, if they want to find out more about you, if they just want to see some of the stuff you're doing? Maybe they're in some of the virtual online stuff they're working on? Where can people find out more about that?

Unknown Speaker  43:14  

Great question. So here's what's beautiful about speaking of making adjustments during COVID COVID hit and I transitioned a lot of my business or a portion of my business to zoom online group sessions. Within the zoom classes, we have six to 15 people, and we do it each day. So if you're not in Denver, and you're in Seattle or Florida, if you want to jump on these zoom classes, I want you to go check out www Yes, I know I'm still a little bit archaic, j w. m wellness comm you can get signed up for our zoom classes there. You can also go to my Facebook page, which is my personal page, but that also has some links on how to get signed up through the app to get you into that zoom class. If you are in Denver, we are going to be in the DTC. And if you find yourself whether you live on the DTC whether you work in the DTC, if you're down south, and you want to come check out our spot, our location, we'd love to have you again go to JW wireless comm you can drop a line and say, Hey, I'm, I'm Joe, I'm Bob, I'm interested in what you have to do reach out to me, there's a lot of different ways that I can help you. If you need a lot of hand holding on your guy from a one on one standpoint, if you want to just jump in and be part of a community and have a group of people that you work around with. We are also the person or that group for you. So there's a lot of different ways to get in touch.

Stephen Christopher  44:43  

Awesome, man, thank you and just for people listening, it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be at a certain physical fitness level. You can be I've never worked out before you can be I mean an elite athlete. And and there's still a lot here to learn with and I've seen john work with everybody. And the groups are amazing. I mean, if you've never worked out before and you want to get into it one of these groups is is a great way

Unknown Speaker  45:06  

to start. I've I've trained adolescence youth, adults, overweight, underweight athletes, non athletes, I always say my motto is, I will train somebody that hasn't done a pushup in 20 years to people that do 20 push ups a day and everybody in between.

Stephen Christopher  45:21  

Awesome. I love it. Yeah. Any other questions or you just kind of wrap up? Okay. Yeah. Awesome. So, john, thank you so, so much for taking time out of your day to join us we know how valuable Your time is. Thank you so much. I know I got a lot out of it. I got a couple pages of notes here. And yeah, thanks for the great mindset tips and also the physical tips or at least how to how to keep us in the gym because our physical fitness is just so important to to living the best life that we possibly can. So thank you so much. It has been my pleasure. I love talking to you guys and I love sharing myself. passions with the audience. So thanks for having me. Awesome. All right, Laura, you want to share a couple of your takeaways? Yeah, you know, it's interesting, you were talking about so much, so many of the reminders in terms of our wellness and what's important to us. But one of the connections I really made throughout most of what john talked about was how these principles applied to just living life. Right. You know, he started out by talking about, you know, make your passion, your profession. And I think we all know that. And, you know, the same you never work a day in your life if you do what you love, or whatever that thing is, but so many of us forget that it's really possible. So I want to thank you, john, for reminding us that it is possible and that it's worth continuing to seek that out because I think that that seen other people who do it and live it really does remind us of that.

Unknown Speaker  46:50  

Laura, can I just make a comment on that too. Real quick. I'll take 30 seconds. You know, if you're working in a corporate america job if you have a W two if you've got a nine to five place to BU everybody's passionate about something. And you're thinking, well, john, I'm 50 years old, I've got two kids, I got so many bills. I don't want to do that. But here's what here's a great example. If you love photography, then go find a way to say, guys, I'm going to do a little hobby on the side, and I'm going to film weddings, or I'm going to shoot senior pictures. If you love fly fishing, you know what, then you start creating a little bit of a business and says, I'm gonna go out, I'm gonna bring three guys and I'm gonna teach them how to fly fish, and I'm going to charge them XYZ. That's how you can incorporate whatever level it is your passion into making some kind of reimbursement a compensation for. It doesn't have to be both ends of the spectrum, either. It's all or nothing. It can find little subtle ways to do that.

Stephen Christopher  47:43  

Yeah, I think that's a great reminder, right? It can be baby steps for you to really say, Oh, yeah, I really do want to then go to the next level or maybe you don't maybe that's enough to give you that passion, which really then ties into that will pair willpower versus why power and I think for me, one of the takeaways was okay, well, what do you do when your willpower is not enough? I mean, I'm a pretty strong person. And if I commit to something, I'm like, I can do it. But when I do reach that point, really focusing on what you said, like, Okay, what are you gonna feel like after? And even if that's not about getting up to go work out, it's about I need to make a decision about my business, I need to make a decision about my life, I need to make a decision about a relationship. Right? Is it gonna feel like on the other side, you're going to feel what are the benefits of that? And then also recognizing that we all get hung up that this is the biggest decision I ever have to make. Yes, yes. You said, it's this many this many minutes of your day or of your life or of your week. Really, a decision is generally it's not the biggest decision you'll ever make. It's a important decision. And you want to give it the credence it deserves. But it's, it's just really a minor decision in the spectrum of everything in life. So that was a big takeaway for me. The other thing I loved was the whole Cracker Jacks thing about surprising. And really, that being unpredictable sometimes is a way to keep people engaged, which almost it's kind of an oxymoron, right of like, unpredictable, engaged. But it reminds us to have the unknown, right, and the unknown is unpredictable. And that's why some of us are drawn to it. Yeah, but yet, it's scary. But yet, if you step into the unknown, and you're willing to do that, sometimes the rewards are great. So those are just my takeaways. Thank you so much, john. It's been a pleasure talking to you in a more formal environment than I know.

Unknown Speaker  49:56  

I'm so used to seeing shorts and T shirts. So this is a free, fresh change of pace for me too.

Stephen Christopher  50:01
​  
Yeah, no, I have like makeup on my hair. Everything. Oh, look a great Laura looking great. Awesome, man. Well, john, thank you again so much. I appreciate it. Laura. I this was a fantastic episode. I got a lot of stuff out of it. I'm very grateful. Thank you so much for everybody listening to take time out of their day to listen to this to better yourself. I know that you got some really, really great takeaways from it. Don't forget to stay tuned here in a couple days for the connected dots episode that will release on Thursday, this week, where Laura and I are going to go back and forth and kind of share our takeaways share some of the things maybe that we've tested and tried or some of the ways that we've learned and use what john has shared with us today. So make sure to tune in for that. And thank you again and until next time, as always embrace the exciting unknown