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On this episode we talked to Oscar. He is a not only a gym owner, but he has a unique ability. Uh, and what that is is he comes from a different country. He comes from Sweden, him and his partner Carl, uh, who was also a mentor, work with gym owners that are unique in their own country, especially in the Europe community.
We jump into what it was like growing up in Sweden, uh, going through his MBA in finance and we get into him going across continents to adopt his daughter where he was supposed to spend three months. That actually turned out to be 11 months in country. How he quit his job to open up a gym. And why he became a mentor. Enjoy.
Okay.
All right. I'm on another edition of our two brain mentors series with Oscar. How are you sir? I'm really good. How are you? I'm doing well. So as we continue on with this series, um, we're getting every single mentor on here to talk to you about, uh, your journey to mentorship or being able to, uh, become a mentor within two brains. So let's start at the beginning. Um, let's start with where you kind of led from a to kind of bring you along this path.
All right. So I grew up in, in Sweden. Uh, throughout my youth I was being active, playing sports. Ice Hockey was my main sport and I played it at a decent level until I was about 20. Then I decided that I'm probably not gonna make it to the NHL. That was my goal. So I shift gears and went to university, got an MBA in finance instead, and kept doing that for quite some time. And then I, in 29, I played a kind of a beer league pickup soccer game and I tore my ACL. Oh, wow.
Uh, so, and then I bumped into an old buddy of mine that I played hockey with and he said at this gym that he was working out, uh, they were doing crossfit and crossfit was really good for, for rehabbing injuries. So I shot that they were doing, they had a program at this specific gym called called crossfit. And he said that it's just like what we've been doing in off season because we had a few Russian coaches when I grew up.
So we were doing a lot of weightlifting and gymnastics and, and cardio with that and in combination. Uh, so he said it's basically what we were, uh, we were basically doing crossfit. So I say that, that sounds cool. So, uh, I, I started doing crossfit at the specific gym to Rehab my knee. I've been doing some, you know, working out by myself, but I kind of enjoy working out in, in a group, right. Cause that's team sports is my background.
And then after about six months, I figured out that this crossfit thing was bigger than at the specific gym. Cause over one weekend they shut down. And some guy from the u s was going to come over and taught a seminar and, and that was pat sure. Within some other people. So that I figured out that does crossfit was kind of a cool thing. And uh, I enjoyed it. But I also enjoyed being a banker. Uh, I like numbers. I like spreadsheets.
Uh, I don't man, maybe I don't have Dominican friends, but uh, you know, like I like, like number of spreadsheets and, and finance. So I enjoy banking. I was doing a commercial banking, some foreign exchange trading and so on. And everything in my life kind of took a big turn in, in 2012 because in 2012, me and my wife went to Zambia to adopt our daughter.
She was, uh, three months old at the time and we were going to be there for three months and they said it probably gonna, you know, you're not going to have that much access to internet or TV. So bring books. And I'm like, cool, I'll just download everything from this cross the journal thing. Cause that sounds, you know, being by myself and no, no TV, no Internet. So I'll download everything from the journal and you should watch and read, sat for three months now we'll be home.
It's not going to be the, the Twitter version of that whole, uh, experience. But we're going to be there for three months. But eventually we ended up being there for 11 months. Not really no one if we're ever going to get home with our daughter. And we were kind of living on a day to day, uh, um, uh, no day to day situation and I was running around the sand again, um, uh, capital trying to figure out who to talk to, to finally get us home.
And for the first two extra weeks it was kind of Nice to be in San Bernardino. It's cool with Africa and, and you know why and outfits not really far away from where we were living, but it became kind of a stressful to, to, uh, walk around and try and figure out who to talk to, to finally get home if possible. So in order to find strengths, I watched the crossfit Journal, a movie, uh, the videos and read all the articles, you know, for like 8:00 PM till midnight every night.
And then I woke up in the morning and started walking the streets of, of Lusaka Zambia to try to figure out who to talk to. And that gave me motivation, uh, to, to, uh, break the monotony of just sitting around and waiting for people. But it also sparked my interest in, in, in fitness and being in Zambia to see the poverty and seeing, no, I think about more than 20% of the population in the country are HIV positive, very friendly country, but very poor.
And I felt that I need to do something else with my life. I can't just go back to be in a banker and, uh, you know, count money. Uh, 24, seven. So I decided I need to improve the world and not, and I'm not a scientist, so I'm not going to figure it out. They a vaccine for something or not a, you know, a, a writer like, uh, you know, Dostoyevsky or someone that's going to, you know, create a movement. And I'm certainly no Gandhi, but I think that I have a decent understanding for, for sports.
And, and, uh, so I said, well, that could maybe be my path to at least help a few people in life. So fast forward, everything else will. So when I got home, I, uh, decided to quit banking and, uh, open a gym. I took my level of one and I, um, uh, open zoom. I actually bumped into an old friend I haven't met for 10 years, carves. He's also now a mentor, uh, in, he had had a kind of a similar journey like me, you know, office guy, and then decided that that was not the path you wanted to go.
So we decided to open up a gym here in Stockholm, Sweden, and, uh, really focus on health and quality of life for, for a normal people.
Very nice. So, uh, throughout this process, um, now that you've, oh, you guys both decided to quit your day jobs and open a gym. Um, what was that process like? I mean, uh, for contacts with, with people that are in the u s it's $3,000 for their affiliate fee. Now they have their level one, which is not a thousand. They get their insurance, they buy some equipment. Um, and they kinda hit the ground running. Um, being in a different country is, is it similar? Is it different?
What's kind of that process
like it's kind of similar. I think Stockholm is, you know, cost of living is, you know, like any bigger sit in us I guess. So it, it's no big difference there. I think, uh, one difference that your Carla had, that's that when we open in 20 2014, uh, both of us have business backgrounds. So we didn't come from a a, we need a place to train then make it a job. We kind of came from a different angle, like we be, we're pretty dialed in on finance.
That would need to, cause we were leaving good paying jobs. So we needed, we got families, we understood how much money we need to break in from the beginning. So on the circumstances we opened, we're not that different from most gym owners, but we had a slightly different, uh, approach going into it. Like, we knew that a space we opened up in could not cost that much. You know, it was a 2100 square feet of maybe 1400 square feet of workout area. It's say a nine foot ceiling.
Uh, we figured, we found out two days after opening that the Red Cross, the center for tour chewed refugees are two stores above us, uh, which is not good for dropping barbells. Uh, just outside. We are, uh, you know, uh, it's, it's, you know, there's a homeless shelter not far away from us then.
And so this is a pretty, you know, we had, uh, we had some, some challenges, not the most attractive area in Stockton yet we need it out because otherwise we couldn't afford to pay the rent that for other places that we want. Gotcha. Okay. Uh, so what, what was the process to kind of navigate through to, uh, to get you to the point where you guys are today? Well, it's, it's, it's like most people, it's been a long journey.
Uh, when we started in that, uh, that room, so to say we kind of grew, you know, we didn't really, we, well we came from it from Ashley, a corporate health perspective. First we wanted to run a, like a cross it for an individual, it's more for fun. And then we're going to focus more on, on corporate health. Cause we have, you know, come from pretty big companies, both of us. And we knew that corporate health where, where, uh, at best mediocre.
Uh, so that was, you know, the angle we came from when we were doing, starting to good in beginning. Uh, but then we started out there. It's harder to break into the corporate market then just attracting people because in 20, 2014 in Sweden was kind of like, you know, 10, 11, 12 of us were where if you just had to cross, did sign on the door, you became fairly successful in terms of attracting people.
Yeah. So after two years in, or are actually in three years, we had, you know, 200 members, we were maxed out. We couldn't fit more people in. Uh, we got a 93% rates from a landlord, which is kind of steep, uh, and inside the entire, you know, and where we are housed, uh, at the bottom of this, you know, office space, there is a small basketball court, not full size, maybe 1500 square feet or something, maybe 1400. So with the help of a real estate lawyer, we eventually got that room as well.
Uh, so we got, we got two rooms now, but not more than, you know, two rooms. So maybe 1400 square feet of workout area. And we pay newer, some $10,000 a month in rent.
Wow. Okay. So it's, it's definitely not cheap.
Not cheap at all. Uh, but we are center of Stockholm. Where does senator, Stockholm and uh, here in, in a bigger cities in Europe. Oh, I can only speak for sweet as the majority of people are dependent on public transportation. People having cars, but they use public transportation to get to and from work. So therefore you need to be where people either work or live. And we are trying to be bolts and nuts. The reason why we have to, uh, we have a fairly high rent.
Gotcha. So you have to, it's, it's not like people, you have a ton of members that just drive to you guys. Um, it's, it's more of you have to be closer to two, what their, what their occupation is. Um, so that it's, it's easy for them to come in and get a workout and then go home or come in and get a workout and then go to work.
Yes, exactly. So, uh, the majority of our members, either lids around our box, but did you know, 10, 15 minutes of walk, either work, 10, 15 walk minutes walk or we are in between, you know, we have a pretty, you know, the computer station for trains not too far from us then and a big, you know, a sub. We stay, she has started close to us. So people are either going to and from work and then obviously we have some people that have moved or less, you know, change job.
They still like us, but we don't attract people. We don't look to how to get people from, from, uh, you know, if they're not either living, working or passing by or gym.
Gotcha. Okay. Okay. Um, so now that you guys opened your facility, you guys are where you are now. Um, I know there was a, there was a little bit of, um, some changing, uh, within your structure here at, uh, about midway through last year and then, uh, finishing up all the way through the end of the year. Can we talk a little bit about that?
Yeah, of course. Uh, so we, we, uh, you know, for the first two years, Carl and I were coaching most of the classes. We enjoyed it, but at some point we figured out that, you know, this is not a sustainable, this is not sustainable in terms of, of the commitment we have to our families. This is not sustainable to the commitment to our members that we coach every class cause we going to burn out, we're not going to be around forever. That's happened.
So we then, this was probably a year and a half before we maybe hear before we started talking to Chris activate. So we figured out we need more coaches and we would like to make, help them become a full time coaches. So over a about a year and a half, we attracted a few coaches. Then at some point we had three full time coaches and they were, they were good, they were young, but they were really good.
And they were about coaching about 85% of our, our fossils, uh, personal training in and group and because of different reasons, uh, you know, no big conflict to bed, but in a very short time span, they all quit. Uh, so, uh, we were left with a pretty much no, no full time coaches and uh, you know, just before the summer where, you know, in Sweden we take at least four weeks vacation off. So it's kind of hard to scrambled to get new coaches. So that was quite an interesting situation.
And that was, that was what, 85% of your classes that were being staffed basically gone from underneath you? That's, that would be
the, uh, you know, in terms of revenue, they probably dropped, brought in, uh, 40, 40,000 a month or so. So it was quite a big dent in our, our, you know, to the members didn't leave with them. But just to put that in context. So 85% of coaches, uh, of classes coached on personal training and specialty programs kind of over three and a half week span kind of literally walked out the door. Wow.
Wow. What was, what was the process to get you guys to, um, getting back to staffed up and kind of where you guys are now?
Yeah. Well at first we said that we were not going to compromise our summers. Carla has made to commit those to our families to, to take the summer off for our family. So we said that we could easily go back and coach, but that's not, that's not sustainable. We see if we can make this, we had a decent program to develop coaches and I have to, we take coaching pretty serious. We think that coaching at across the gym should be, you know, it's, it is actually the core product.
And I've been on the Crossword Level one seminar staff now for about a year, year and a half.
So, um, we take coaching series, we have a very, uh, we develop, our cultures are continuously, and then we decided that we had to essentially take anyone that has been a member and turn them from a a couch to a crossfit coach in amongst that was our plan and we had the constraint of we could not expect anyone to spend more an hour of work and you know, you know, being trained because they had other jobs.
So what, uh, what was the outcome of, of that process?
Well, now, uh, so we, we found three new full time coaches or they weren't full time coaches then we, we, we, we took three people for three members essentially and turned them into full time coaches, uh, within a month and a half. Wow. That's, that's quick. That's very quick. Yes. And, and I'd like to think that our members did not really experienced that big of a, um, quality, uh, shift. You know, the hands, the personality of the three other coaches have been there forever.
A lot of people started to win one of the three cultures to left, which is obviously unfortunate. Then, you know, you kind of pull away their, their safety blankets in a sense. But our, our session plans are very well written. So if you can read and have a decent understanding of how we on our classes, you're like 80% clear. And then we gave them some pretty precise specific instructions on how to coach class. So we had it pretty uh, uh, detailed Sop for actually coaching.
So right after they got the level one, one of the mash it out of the level one before. Yeah. And so we wrote very specific slps on how to coach fastest and then we evaluated them pretty much daily to make sure that they first focused on safety issues and when they could see that all the safety issues are there, then we started making sure that the coaches then we're improving the movement and the mechanics of the athletes. Wow. That's awesome.
That's awesome to hear. And very, very quick process. Do you get quality too? It's not like you just threw a bunch of people in there and said, hey, can you help start coaching classes? You had a quality product of a, of what you were going to deliver and there was no way you are going to a
be subpar in that whatsoever. No, I got, and I think we, we, uh, we have a very average, you know, um, our, our members are pretty average. I think, you know, we're 35 plus maybe even 40 now, uh, in the open, 90% of them are scaling at least one workout. Probably the majority of more than 50% of our members scaling more than 50% or more than all. Pretty much all of the workouts in the open.
So they're not, they're not good athletes by any mean, but they expect a level of, of care and quality coaching and, and consistency's very important for us. Uh, so we made sure that they were coaching at a very consistent, high quality, consistent, uh, level. Yeah. Yeah.
What, uh, so now that you, I mean, you had a very successful gym and it's still doing well. Um, what has kind of, what was the conversation that kind of led you into mentoring and being able to mentor at two brain, but even outside of that?
Well, so when I was reading all the journals from, you know, 20 Oh from all too and forward, there was a journal, there's article from Chris about, I don't know about people with, uh, ms did it CSMs and we had some relatives, I have some brothers names back then that had ms. So that shot, that was an interesting piece. I read that and this name stuck out to me. And so I had in back of my mind all the time, I didn't know anything about two brand new thing like that.
But then when we opened the gym and we were doing well, but at some point you understood that we need help to take this further. We're doing well, we pay ourselves and pay the rent. You know, we can take five weeks vacation, all of that, but we need to grow it. So then Chris's name kind of pop up somewhere on the interwebs, I guess.
And, and we, uh, we, you know, we, we read, we read up on this stuff and we have a conversation with him and you know, it's the first week you obviously became to brand ourselves. And at some point I think that our, our, our, our, our stories causing in my stories are slightly different from philology and motors that we have a business background to begin with.
And we are obviously from, from Europe that has a slightly different um, uh, aspect of, of uh, how we see things and how we can hopefully help other gyms now. Cause we are between four and five years behind, you know, in North America. And the trend is now like when you were five years ago, that's kind of where we are now. So people are now understanding that, you know, you can't just run a hobby anymore and people are not just going to come through the door with the money.
You have to actually make this to a business where you really take care about your members and then treat your staff well and have your papers in order. So there was a greater demand. I sank in in Europe. And that's probably how the conversation started with, uh, Chris.
Yeah. And from that point, you guys, you and your partner Carl both, which we will have, we'll have here, um, to talk about his story and everything. Of course in the mentor series a, but you guys then from that point, um, started the mentorship process, is that correct?
Correct. That's, that's, that was about a year ago, so I was in probably more than that. You don't have to go I think so I was interning at the, a level one seminar staff at the same time as I was interning at [inaudible].
Oh, wow. Heavier. You have your, uh, your plate kind of full there with, uh, doing that plus running the gym or at least, uh, overseeing it.
Yeah, it was, it was probably not something I would recommend to anyone, but you know, when, when, when situations occur, you kind of have to step up. And I think I was, is it Jim was running fairly well by itself, so, uh, I, I could step up and, and do those things, but they were, I probably had a slightly higher cortisol level and a slightly less sleep than what would be recommended. Uh, but it all turned out fairly. One last drink.
I can believe that. Now, throughout this process, from the very beginning when you had, I mean, when you started in the corporate world and kind of built out from there, um, do you feel like everything that, that has led you through your personal path has, has helped you become a better mentor?
I think so. I, I do think I have two strengths. Uh, one is I have a decent understanding. I'll finance numbers, uh, uh, like that. I like spreadsheets. I like to, you know, look at the numbers are pretty deep, pretty good at seeing connections between numbers and how they actually can materialize. That's one thing that up and also being stuck in a complete, the foreign country would pretty much on your own.
You know, we, we were living, well, you know, there was not a problem, but we're left to my own devices and we were trying to figure out how to essentially get home and, and I have a, you know, we in Scandinavia tend to be slightly stoic and I think that also helped me and, and you know, I didn't get too frustrated over his situation that I had limited control over external all external conditions.
I'm not something that I spend too much time thinking about and eve, even during all those months that kind of reinforced that, that it doesn't really help me to spend time on things that I cannot control. Gotcha.
Do you, do you feel like with now being a mentor, uh, that you still learn from the people that you mentor your mentees?
Oh yes. Uh, it's, uh, it's a very humbling experience to talk to other people because, uh, our gym is not perfect by, by, by no means and I'm not perfect and cartilage not perfect and we all can improve on everything. And, and it's, it's, it's very invigorating to talk to someone that is, you know, I haven't been t right now in hall and she has about seven members in her garage. She wants to expand.
And as someone who sings, she's saying to something, I write down and I'm going to implement that. We have a slightly different setup for our gym, but her thoughts, if I can just look at the Metta, what she's talking about, that's something that's going to improve my gym, my relationship with Carl, my family, and also high can mend through other gyms. So it's, it's a, it's a, you know, learning on the job as well. Gotcha.
Yeah. No, I agree with that. If, uh, if somebody is out there, whether they're going to rain or not, um, and they're thinking, getting a mentor, uh, what's one thing you would tell them?
I think there'll be status is, you know, yes. But I actually think that it's a bigger question is that are you willing to expose yourself? And I mean that by, by, you know, are you willing to drop your ego and be open and vulnerable for, for feedback? Because that's essentially how it is. I think the coaching and mentoring are, are, are slightly different, but all the ultimum stems from it from health first perspective.
But in, in mentoring, you know, if, if I, if I am a mentoring you, I, you tell me, you know, your, your situation and I tried to, you know, do my best to, to kind of, you know, step into your shoes and then, you know, see the word from Your Eyes while coaching in a gym is more of I kind of have the answer and I'm going to tell you how I want you to move based on, you know, certain set of criteria, you know, if you look to the extremes.
So I think there's a greater sense of trust that is required if you're talking about mentor, mentee relationship. And in there I think you have to be vulnerable to open up for, for, for feedback. It's slightly different than if you're being coached, if that makes sense.
Okay.
No it does. That, does, that makes perfect sense. And being understanding that, um, that one way you may look at it may or may not always be 100% correct or right or wrong even for that matter, um, that your mentor can kind of, uh, let you look at it from a different point of view in a way. Right. And being willing to change.
Yes. And actually that, you know, I don't know how many times do we have changed our no sweat intro process. You know, it's, it's essentially the same. You come in and sit down and was talking, we give you a recommendation, but over the years we've probably made changes to it. Like 50 times, not bay changes with mine changes I would think it's going to improve it, you know, based on mentors, seeds back or you know, feedback from someone else in the two brain or you know, from God knows who.
And if you're not willing to, to change and especially having someone tell you that your beliefs are, are sub par, which you know, a mentor role awfully do. Cause obviously I haven't meant to her as well. Then if if you don't understand that they're doing that from a first perspective and they want to really improve, you know your quality of life, then I I I wouldn't recommend anyone have a mentor if they're not open for that.
Yeah, no, I agree and I think that's a perfect place to wrap it up. Oscar, thank you so much for your time. If somebody is out there listening to the podcast and said, hey, you know what I really resonate with with Oscar says I want to get a hold of him, what's the best way somebody to contact you? It would be to email me@oscarwasaktobringbusiness.com or find this somewhere else on the hitting to the webs. Awesome. Thank you so much Oscar.
I greatly appreciate your time and ability to jump on here. I know the time zones are a little different here from the u s to over in Sweden, but thank you for taking the time to be able to jump on here and tell us your story. Thank you very much buddy.
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