Just forgive me for our podcast. What Up? I'm Jizzo. That is John Magic and we are back another special guest in the building joining us on the pod. This guest has over twenty years experience in the fitness industry. He's trained entertainers and pro athletes from the NFL, NBA, UFC, pro boxers like our very own Jose Ramirez, and much more. He's creating a concept that brings fitness and entertainment together. Today's guest on the podcast Michael rivera
hashtag strive for Greatness. Yes, sir, I'm ippreciate you guys having me. We see your name on Instagram as strive for greatness. What can you tell us a little bit about that? That little hashtag that yeah, yeah, actually patting the hashtag so Lebron hashtrive for greatness. So I couldn't really touch that, but that came from just me trying to do batter in football. Actually, my dad should tell me. Why don't you strive strive to
be great? Strive to be great and everything you do in your movements and waking up in the morning, you know, making your beds at your first lesson of the day. From there, making your oatmeal as my dad had me structured like he was in an army, but he wasn't. So that's where he came up with strife for greatness, and I just took it and run with it when I started training. So all right, well, you know, we've had this common thing where we asked for the first question because
we've highlighted people from the valley doing big things. So are you originally from the five five to nine? So I was born in Santa Cla, raised in East Palo Alto in the eighties. When that kind of went a little haywire in the eighties, and when the crack epademic, you know, kind of went ran rapid. I saw some stuff I shouldn't have saw back then, you know, at six years old, saw the somebody get murdered. My mom said get under the dash and there was a shooting of two people
right next to us on the sidewalk. So after that, my dad said, all right, well, time to move to Fresno, California, And so we came out here. He started teaching at Riverdale High School in the mid mid to late nineties, and then from there I went to Kasner Intermediate Clovis West, and then played ball at Sanuel State. Oh wow, and then and it's like the black hole. It always brings you right back. Yeah, yeh yeah, Presno. So did you leave Presno for a minute
or I didn't? After high school, I went from here to cost for a year and then transferred over to Sanuel State. You know you're by or you were telling us twenty years of fitness experience. When did that start? How did that even begin for you? I was a senior in high school. I was eighteen years old, and I was always going to the gym. We started going to Valley Total Fitness when we were in junior high and I started asking around to different instructors and people, how can I do what
you guys do? And they said, well, we're looking for instructors to teach aqua aerobics to seniors. Mind from an eighteen year old kid in high school, I'm like, all right, is that old people? Does sound like something like that? What is that? What is that? What is that? Where they're in the pool and they got like those those foam My god, exactly think of Jamee Fonda back in the day, right, the
James Fond little suitor size. Yeah. Yeah, so we have you know, the three pound weighted ankle weights on the side of the pool and they're lifting it up and down, up and down to you know, to work your hip flexures and all that stuff. And aquaerobics is actually the best way to do things for seniors, I believe, as far as functional movement and mobility. So yeah, I started there from an older lady named Pam Help. She helped me out do that and kickboxing. So this is back in
the day when Billy Blanks's tyebo was the ship. I remember that. I used to love it in school. Yeah, and so I basically adapted that kind of a style, made it my own, and and started doing kickboxing classes. Can I just go a side note real quick, because you brought up you being eighteen years old high school going to the gym side not real quick. What I've been noticing at my gym that I go to. I go to GB three in town, and I see a few high school kids
in there, or they could be young college kids. But you know what drives me crazy is the gym ethics. No etiquette anymore. No etiquette is what I meant. The etiquette. Well, what I noticed because I go to GB three too. It's become more of like a socialized event more than anything. You see like the high schoolers you see there and you're like five six of them deep, all around one machine and all kind of just taking
their time and chopping it up. I ain't doing nothing. I like to go to the gym by myself, getting get off, get out, I mean. And it's just a whole different vibe now. Now I don't want to sound like an old head, you know what I'm saying, get off my grasp, but it is definitely a different vibe now. But mineus just more about etiquette. So this just happened yesterday. There's two incidents. Well yesterday, while I was doing my squads, they just grab waits from you
know, the weights that I'm about to you. They just grab it without asking, Yeah you done, you need this? Yeah yeah, at least asked at least, but no, they just grab it while I'm working out, like takes away from my focus. And then there was another one where well it's the cables. I was in the cable machine and in front of me has a bunch of stuff like different bars, and I was in front
of it. A kid literally just scoots over where he has to like bump into me and grab stuff right in front of me, like point or something that excuse me or like can I use these? Nope, just squeezed in front of me, grabbed it and kept moving. And it boggles my mind, like where's the etiquette? So when they do stuff like that, you have to remind them. But I'm maybe using that at least next time, you know, can you acknowledge that I'm existing in your Yeah, exactly right,
you got me. And and so the biggest thing, it's funny you say that. So back in our day, So after I came back home, I started at golds gym. Right, this is probably back in five o six, and we had no phones on the floor and no gym backs. That was the thing because guys would be on their waits just on the phone. Now mind you. That was the sidekick air and the razors. Right. Yeah, we didn't have all the internet accessibility and the camera USh and all that kind of stuff in the gym. It was it was more
base to get in there, get your workout done and go home. Yeah. Now these kids be chilling for two three hours chopping up with their girlfriends, you know, on a machine. I literally see people holding their hands from machine to machine, and I'm like, Yo, what are we doing here? You know what I'm saying, Like, this is my escapism. I'm here to do one thing and that's sick. We could do that shit later, yes, but it's different times. Yeah, so let's continue the
story. So, yeah, eighteen years old, the pool, exercising, and then what happened. Yeah, so eighteen, you know, doing all that kind of stuff, teaching kickboxing classes, and then I got a scholarship to well, then I went to see West I needed some credits and all that kind of stuff. Then from there I got a partial San Diego State where I played ball a little bit. I say a little bit because I
got stuck into the party theme. Oh I was partying. We hear about San Diego and back in our day, it was it was excessively wild because Mexico was cracking. We were always going across the border. And when you're not going to class and you're not going to practice, you will lose that scholarship. And so after there for two years, and I was going when I first got there, it was great, got playing time as a truth
sophomore, all that good stuff. But I started getting hurt again. I got hurt in high school a lot for my hamstrings toward both ham strings toured again when I got to San Diego State and got very discouraged. So I started partying a lot. I started doing bonfires and blah blah blah, bah blah. So lost my scholarship. So my dad said, all right, we'll come back home. I said, I don't want to come back home. He said, well, I'm not fundy your party your parties. I
said, all right, cool, and mind you. You know we come from humble background. So he was like, you know that partial scholarship was huge for us. Uh. So I said, all right, screw it, I'm going to act. And he said, okay, you go ahead and do that. So mind you, I'm a young guy and I'm like, all right. Well, MTV was picking up big time at that time, and so I auditioned for a show called Next. It was remember that they come off the bus and Next. Okay, so we did Next.
Then I did a show called Roll Rules, Rollers, Back to Australia, Back to Sydney and stuff like that. Mind you. This was with Shavon Torres and and this is right before Tech did worl World, Hawaii, and it wasn't a challenge at that time. It was just you're in a woman bagel you tore a little bit, you know. It was like the early days. It was the early It literally was. Now it's totally different from
MTV. But did that did a little show called Passions. Now Passions was a soap opera back in the day, but it wasn't It was cool, but I didn't really have any like speaking roles, so I was more of a sitting and there. Yeah, yeah, it was an extra but I remember I did that for one season and I would say, yeah and literally that was my So did those things. And then again in that industry, you have to be making money. If you're not making money, man,
you're sleeping on your boys couches, you're just hanging out. You're chilling until the next job, right, right. So that lasted for a good year and a half. And then after that I was completely broke and my dad said, I told you wasn't funny. So came back home. Ended up finishing a little bit of stuff at first on state as far as degree goes, but then that part of schooling wasn't format. I got sucked back into
the party thing. I was still training at the time at Bally Total Fitness, I was working at Champs Sports. I was doing all these different things to make ends meet, and it just, uh, it wasn't flowing for me. So I did online. This is when the University of Phoenix was getting going right a high school. Yeah, So I ended up finishing my Bacheler's on there and then end up finishing my Masters when I was thirty on
there. Also. It's a little bit expensive, but for me, that was it was just I was able to focus, you know, I was able to uh steer away from uh going to the frats, going to Row nightclub, venue nightclub. The bedroom, the room we had, man, that might have been one of my favorite eras of clubs during that time, and that was like when I just started getting into clubs and that was a good time. The bedroom, it was they literally had beds in there.
They literally had beds in there real quick. Well, during that time in your life, was was there a goal that you were trying to get to, right, So it's funny you said that. So at that time, I was an assistant manager at cham Sports in the mall. I was still working at Valley Total Fitness and uh a guy, My goal was to be able to train athletes. That was my goal when I was training. That's what you wanted to do. Wanted to train athletes to a certain extent.
And that's not going to detour of I trained a lot of professionals, now, I you know, I trained doctors, lawyers, judges, all all all sorts of professionals. But my whole goal was to train athletes or be on our training staff in the NFL team. Yeah, did you want to be into like sports medicine and be those guys that run out into the field. So I was a canice major and that was the goal. But then I looked at exactly what they made, and they didn't make a lot of
money, right unless you were the head guy. Now that that guy getting paid, but unless you were that. And I'm like, okay, well do I want to do that or do I want to help out athletes and make a residual you know, income off of maybe their contracts or maybe you know, pricing per ho or whatever. Right, So I said, all right, cool. I was managing at back to this, managing a sports and a guy named Jervis Cole came in so Jervis. I met through my
boy terrell I Day. So terrell I Day in Fresno's a legend, and basketball played overseas in Russia. One of my good friends and that's his cousin, So Drew was helping managing Chuck Ladell at the time, and I knew that. So he comes in the champs and I start chopping up. I said, I met you through like day for you know, a quick stint a couple of weeks back. Probably don't remember me, and blah blah blah. But I've always been interested in how can I get into what you guys
are in. I just want to be around your world. That's the scene, by the way. Yeah, I mean that's how we did it. Yeah, you know, be around people that do the thing that you want to do. Yeah, exactly, ask questions, learn you know what I'm saying, you know, I you know, and my dad used to tease me at a young age before they started putting this and they call it means now or something like that. Your your your network, Your network is your
net worth, you know. And my dad, you know, my dad started in high school football, football officiating and then from there, went to college and then from their NFL. He's along with us, but he gave me that whole you know outlook on it's all about who you were around, right, And so back to what I was saying, Matt jerv he chopped it up. Really good dude to talk to a twenty one, twenty two year old kid, you know, just you know, from not knowing me
from nothing from Adam. And he's all, you know, what you really want to get into this? Meet me at Starbucks over in fig Guard and tomorrow. I said, well, I gotta work, so all right, well how bad do you want to get it? You know? And I said, all right, cool, made it happen. Met him over there? Mind you I don't know this cat, not like that, right. Yeah. So he's like I said, so we'll start chopping up. He's also, what do you got going today? Nothing planned? Because I get
in the car, I said, where are we going? Hold up? I said where we're going? And he's like, oh, we're going to take a ride. But he wouldn't tell me where we're going, right, So it was the trip. So we get on the road and he probably doesn't remember this story. He's gonna listen to this, like, damn, Mike, you remember that. But we were driving and now now we're getting towards you know, Cap Poliar. You know. I was like, oh man, I was just out here party and blah blah blah blah. He's
oh yeah, cool, cool, cool. So we keep driving and we go up to the mountains and slow and I'm like, man, all right, this is getting kind of weird. So we get there and it's uh, Chuck's camp where he trains out of right, and they're doing an ESPN photo like magazine shoot. And so it was Chuck, Chuck Udell, Josh cost Check, you know, uh, Young Kane Velasquaz lights out, Idol.
Uh. They're just a bunch of cats, like the early great era of UFC, like our era, I'm telling you, our ara UFC, you know, from your Riot faber to to to those kind of cats. They don't I don't think they have anymore personally. They've made it too accessible. It's on every every week anyhow. So I so I met all these cats and it was unbelievable. But at that time too, I met Dwayne Zincin. So Dwayne Zincing is Chuck's agent, so zinc in Entertainment's huge.
Know, they've had every type of fighter you can think of, from Daniel cormierated from Chucky, all the all the champs at the time. And so me and DZ start, you know, chopping it up and says, you want to do some cold calls for Chuck. You know you can and cold calls, you know back in our day. I don't know. It's where you get on the phone and you're calling for these different companies where these guys are going to go fight. Yeah for sales, right, yeah, you're
calling for sales, but for patches for their shorts. So when Rebok came in their little ads on their correct correct, the fighters were able to make good money in the early two thousands, and then Dana said, no, we're going to hire one company and we're gonna take away a little bit of money from you guys, you know, and so it took away from the fighters to make extra income. I think personally that's just my personal view, but I would cold call these companies and say, hey, we got Chuck
coming to town. You know, it's going to cost this such and such to get you know, a placement on his shorts or his shirt whatever when he walks out, and so I started doing that for him. And then from there I started meeting different athletes. I was still I was able to train different guys like Lorenzo Neil. You know, I met low through through DZ I started, you know, I met Quincy through my boy like day, I started training Quincy. I met Jose when he was young, right
from just around the way when he was like twenty one twenty two. And from there, me and Jose started hanging out and then I was he let me start training him outside doing explosive stuff. Then he started trusting me with this pliametrics and functional movement. And I say trust because trust. When an athlete is worth millions of dollars and they're trusting you to do their mobility training and not hurt them because a lot of people, you know, are trusting
them for income and certain things like that, then it's huge. Yes, when an athlete at a professional body is their asset, you know what I mean? Yeah, you know, you know I helped q after his knee injury. You know, when Lorenzo with the Raiders for the last couple of years. You know, these guys for me, they trusted me with their bodies and I've always appreciated that. But it helped me build my client tel base because you're a reflection of your client and the client's reflection of you right
here. So you can't be at the club taking your shirt off, acting all crazy. You know, when you're training a sergeant, you're training a lieutenant. You know, they'd be like, hey, Mike, you know I know everybody over here, I'm my bad bruh. You know you can't be doing that kind of stuff. And the same with when you're training athletes because now you're a reflection of them. So that that's how I got my
little start. And it was just from networking. Now, mind you, all this ship, all this stuff I was doing, so this all this ship I was doing for almost ten years with the athletes I was doing for free. I was just gonna ask, that's how you got to do it? At first? You know what I'm saying. It's essentially an internship. I mean we did it. Did you say ten years though? Bro? But but well the athletes. Yeah, for a long time, from my twenties to thirties with the pro guys I was doing for free. I would
do you know. I'll tell you this though, Low Low, I love Low still this day. I still talk to this cow all the time. But oh game. One of my first opportunities at that football camp. He had an seven out there in San Diego and he did a little Charger camp every year and blah blah blah. But he put me on as the strength coach for all the kids. He gave me for two days. He gave me six hundred bucks and for me, that was a lot of money at the time. Now did I spend it that weekend? Yeah, I probably
should have saved it. But he gave me an opportunity, and that's all it took. These guys were giving me opportunity, as you know, when Rodney was here, Rodney Terry or coach for our former coach Friland State and now he was coach of the Year at Texas, right he you know, he I he gave me another opportunity to train some of the guys that were coming in before they started season. You know, I met him through different you know, people around the way, and again he gave me an opportunity.
And that's all it takes, you know. And I did all those guys for free. You know what I'm saying. So my bread and butter, of course was my profession, you know, paying me hour lead and stuff like that. Actually, the way I structure I go three months, six months, and twelve months. I don't do month to month or session and session because in the grand scheming things, there's no money to be made
that way. You put that three months, you put that in the market, right, and let that money work, and then within three to six months now your money crawl drooped. You get what I'm saying. So when somebody's re upping, you've already made back that money and some not to mention like doing a month to month, Like, what's the month going to do for them? You know what I'm saying, Like, it needs to be a little bit longer. It needs to be more than a centive for the
client for the trainer exactly. That's why I try to tell young trainers, don't play yourself by just saying, oh, yeah we can go session and session. Well it wasn't the sending for the client to get out of bed. Yeah exactly, paid you yet? Yeah? Literally, but i's I go one day and then cancel the next. But if somebody's giving you four to five grand up the front. You get what I'm saying. We were
just and I were just talking about like money stuff like that yesterday. Yeah, real quick before we continue, because there's a lesson learned about opportunities that you just said. Jizo's done it. I've done it where you do things for free because number one, you gain the skill. Also the opportunity of the network you've made. You know, your name recognition, you get passed
on, I mean to other people. Jizo and I think this is something that's happened in our past where Jesso and I will offer an up and comer, you know, can can you do this for us? You have this skill that you know we want to use you for and to get in the building and do something for us, and they'll say like no, no, no, like or how much you guys charging like and we're trying to give you the opportunity. Yeah. Yeah, you think the mindset is different with
like a younger generation, bro, Like what's going on there. It's funny because I was just having this conversation this morning with a young trainer. He's an in house trainer over at Fort Washington. Yeah, really good kids, knows his stuff. But he's not very aware of his surroundings and cautious of how to present himself in a professional manner, and everything is is perception, right. So these young kids want things. They want the instant gratification.
It's the instant gratification generation. It's the credit card generation. They want it now now, now, you know. And the thing is they don't understand longevity. Right, if you're trying to make this career and not scam people out of money like a lot of these online trainers do at times. There's some good ones, there's some great ones, but some of them are just
scamming people out of money to get that short income, short fast. They don't really care about making a connection with the client in front of them because some of them don't have the skills of having you know, eye contact, of having a charismatic conversation of professional professional all that. And so back to what you were saying, Yes, the younger generation at times will short themselves because they don't want to do what they have to do to get the long
money. They're not playing the long game. They want it they fast now and okay, cool, I give you one hundred dollars now, but you're not going to see me next month. Yeah, yeah, exactly. You get what I'm saying. Like, whereas like, if they put into work with you, I could be a long term exactly. It's like and now I see how you move. And so I was telling the young kid, I said, all you have to do is learn how to build rapport with your client. Be honest, be on time, don't be on your phone,
and focus on them for that sixty minutes. That is it. And now from there it's hygiene. Make sure you clip your nails, because if you're binge pressing and you're spotting, I don't want to see some dirt underneath your Yeah that's just me personally, right, you know, I don't want my clients to see that. I don't want, you know, make sure not to have your hands in your pockets, don't fold your hands when you're talking to somebody, have your hands behind your back, you know, look
appropriate. You have your hair cut a certain way, don't wear ear rings all the way down. You know. It's the stuff that we grew up with that they have gotten very very loose on the younger generation and you and and that has nothing to do with politics. That has just straight to do with mannerisms that sometimes our parents forget to teach because parents are getting too used
to being friends with their damn kids, and it's mind boggling. My dad used to always say, I'm not here to be your friend, you know, I'm here to be your parent. We can ben friends when you turn twenty. And he was right, because he was an ass at times.
But he needed to be because after him my mom divorced, he had me and my sister raised on his own, and he was on the road, you know, on the weekends for his football games, and so my sister would try to watch us, but it was tough because I was a little party boy, and so we'd be having parties at the house and blah blah blah, and it was all bad. But I'm just saying he would get back home and with my butt and I mind you, I'm a sixteen year
old teenager, and he wouldn't. He wouldn't be a shame we pull out the belt, you know. Now, kids, Oh, I'm assume you mom and dad. You know, well, it's just not teaching you that you have to respect your parents, respect the boundaries, respect your elders, you know, respect people around you, like we were talking about earlier respect people's bubble, the young kids, and now you're saying, we sound like
an old head, but you know I am forty. Now. It's like I get tired of the etiquette when it comes to not seeing that, not really realizing that there's people around you and be you know, be courtious, Like I apologize. You know, I didn't mean to get in your bubble. You know, can I grab this? You know, I apologize. I forgot to wipe down the machine. Do you have a towel on you so I can wipe it down something? Just the littlest things, you know,
cost the long Yeah, they cost nothing. But yeah, so I was telling that young man that, you know, that's all it takes once you do that. And sometimes you'll have to give sessions for free when you break out from the gym and do stuff on your own to build your brand and build your clientele base. You know, sometimes it's okay to coach at different schools. You know, I started when I was in my mid twenties. Mind you remember, I'm doing a lot of stuff for free, So
I'm like, how am I going to get some extra income? So I, uh, one of my one of my good mentors and coach. Coach Lafour was the principal at Clothes North, Okay. One of my guys that I knew, Corey Hall, was the football coach. He was the football coach, and so I talked to Lafour. Lafour got me hired on to help out with running backs and explosive applied metrics with Coach Hall. From there, coach ended up leaving a couple of years after they won valley championships and
stuff like that. He ended up going to a different venture, but they kept me on as the sprints coach for the closed North High School track and so I did that for about nine years. Me and Josh Norman did that together and Josh you know, shout out to him over at ap he We we both created a dynamic there where we won state. We want a bunch
of valley championships. We had a bunch of great athletes. But it helped me build my brand with the community and my parents in the community, which is very very important that kids don't really see that are coming up as far as trainers because training, the training uh I guess filled right now is so oversaturated with so many people and kids that just think you know what, let me write a diet plan for somebody and saying this is what you do,
it's how you train here, follow this app or whatever. Follow this app. Okay, what was your degree in? All right? How did you come up with that? Uh? Did you just get it off online? We didn't have any of this when I was coming up own research. Bro. To get a certification, to get certified back then, by I was certified back in asm National Academy of Sports Medicine. We had to go to San Francisco, San Francisco, LA, or in New York for four days.
It wasn't online where you get certified. Take it all right, Bro, It wasn't like that. It was rigorous. You had to have that back in our day and our gym at goals at the time, you need at least two years. You need a lease associate, right they that's what they require. Now they don't require anything. Wow. So you have young people trying to get into the field. You know, Yeah, I lost a lot of weight, which is which is great. You know I did this, this and this. I want to go in the training. All
right, Well cool, do the right stuff to get there. Because a lot of them. They want to go quick, and that's why I say they go online. So online you can you can fool anybody. You can say anything without showing any proof in person. Now you have to show. Okay, these are the certifications I have. This is my liability insurance. You know. This is so to show you that I am. I am capable enough to put your body in my hands and I am not going to
hurt you while doing so. Does that make anything right? And because I've had I have current clients that they've trained with past people that have hurt them and you know the L five L six lower back slip disc putting too much
weight on their back when they're underneath the rack. Uh. One of my old clients, she was pregnant and an older trainer, you know put uh you know they were underneath the squad rack and put it underneath the rack her second try, master, I'm like, bro like just that impact on the spine, those little, the smallest minute things you have to be aware of.
How to spot people you have to be aware of. And so I try to educate young trainers on that, you know, and that's ultimately what I want to end up doing here to five to seven years down the road is create a camp for future, correct for future, doing it the right way and building that rapport you know of reliability, networking, UH, showing
them how to price point correctly, don't price gouge people. Don't have sex with your clients or people in the gym ship like that, the little ship that is huge because trainers are already have a reputation of fucking their clients right, and so you don't want that to be your rep as a trainer, because your rep is all you have, and that's in any city, in any town, in any state. Once your rep is gone, it don't matter how good a trainer you are. You ain't getting my wife or my
daughter, that's for sure. You dig and then teaching them that you should be able to find a niche in the training aspect, because any trainer can teach someone how to push and pool, meaning how to pushways and pull it down lap pools or bench press. Any trainer can do that. Any app can do that. Right, But I want you to teach me mobility. I want you to teach me how to get in and out of a car when I'm sixty five years old with a hip replacement. How to train my
youngster without hurting him. And he's ten to twelve years old but wants to get more explosive. You know, how to teach him in the blox. You know how to teach a young lady how to hit correctly for softball with her hips, you know. And then and then go teach a pro box like Jose Ramire's how to work on his stability and balance at the same time to throw an overhand right to knock somebody out, on what to use correctly
as he do as he's doing that motion. If a trainer is able to do those sorts of things, he'll never ever be without work because he can work from anybody from any age group all the way up. And people, I think neglect a lot of the seniors too. They the seniors need help too. Man sixty five and up. You know, they don't understand a lot of young trainers don't understand that that is an untapped market that nobody's touching.
And why do you think do you think because it's not cool to say you train older people or is it just it's not maybe in their eyes it's not cool, but there is money in it, yeah, exactly, and not to mention you're just helping somebody, I mean, but true. You need to know what you're doing for one. But you know, in a market like we're in right now, it's time to teach yourself something new to
survive. And if you're dealing with seniors in an untapped market and you understand what you're doing in your educate, screw cool, Like cool's not going to fucking pay the bills, right, So you need your bills paid. So now make that a new niche for yourself and create an environment for safety for them so they feel safe around you, and learn how to train seniors. I always tell young people that's a great market to start in if you want
to build a capital to invest your money because they can help you. My clients over the last twenty years, and I love my father to death Rest in peace has helped me more with my finances and longevity of my life. On at what a raw Thira was a step on money marketing on how to buy a home, you know, because we're very we were very humbled growing up, so my dad wasn't able to purchase a home until his fifties,
you know. But by talking to some of the doctors that I've talked to over the years and and t phrase, you know, big up to Terrence Fraser to teaching me about cryptocurrency and these certain things helped me to purchase a home at thirty. You know, so those things were huge for me, you know, growing up and mentoring me. Dwayne's thinking mentored me a lot
when I was in my young twenties. You know some different people, Johnny Titillian, you know different people in the in the community that are that are very I guess you would say versatile with with different commercial real estate and and to know how of making your money go longer, I guess you would say, right. And so yeah, building that rapport with different people will help
create uh substance with personal training and not just quick money. Man. The running theme of this whole episode that I feel it's the networking surrounding yourself. It's that it's that saying, you know, surround yourself with millionaires to be a millionaire. Yeah, yeah, it really is. And training is only one aspect of it. Yes, I've been very blessed to train a lot of different athletes, a lot of different entertainers. Gretchen and Rossi from the
shout to gretchi Rossi from the house at Orange County. UH, former client of mine. Also shout out to Miss Peru Camilla out there in Miami. Different people of that nature have have again trusted me. But it's not just about the client, tele It's not just about the money, it's about the report. It's about the family that you create with these with these people their family. Now you know the Continos, Amber and Jojo Contino. Uh,
they have trusted me for the last ten years, you know. And with that trust they they've given me, uh, for instance, their home for my client appreciation night, I was able to do it at their home, so things like that, to trust that I'm not going to trash your house and trash your home, and and to to make it a respectful and classy outing for my clients them for everybody else. Again, it's family, Yeah,
you know, family is gonna help you with that. The doctors that have helped me along the way situations in my life, the well my dad passed, you know, the different judges that I want you to say, Hey, guys, my stepmoms, you know she can't deal with this. What do I do next? You know, who do I call? What funeral homes do I take care of? How do I get you know, his his house stuff settled? You know, people like that. Again, my clientele on my network has helped me along my life. It's not just
training. Training is only one aspect of what it's like to be a personal trainer. Because as a trainer, you're a therapist, you're a counselor, you're an educator, you're a designer. You're helping them with their outfits. You know, you're you're educating them on their their diets as far as what they're putting in out of their stomach. Then, you know, and then all of a sudden, you're a doctor, Mike, what do you think I should do? Man, I've been having some stomach issues. I'm like,
well, why is the stomach acid? Okay, it's something on your on the inside of an ulcer, on your something, you know, stuff like that. So there's there's so many different realms of personal training that I've gone in. And on top of that, after twenty years, you get to a point of where not you're burnt out, but all right, what's next? Right? And so feeding into the concept that that we introduced earlier that we were in the show it's called band Academy. So band Academy started
with an idea. I was driving in the car and me and your guy Marcus Anthony, we were chopping it up. We just left it was the point. We just left the Point Patio and we were driving over season for dinner, and I was talking about this sort of deal. I said, Man, I've been doing this for a long time now, and I want something else. He's all, man, why don't we why don't you do uh something like in the in the club atmosphere, And I said, yeah, that could be that could be lit. You know, I've been trying
to do my band thing and I was thinking of doing outside. I think to do about the gym, but I want to change it up. He's bro dude at the club. And that's why I'm giving him credit right now. He ain't gonna get no resistance. Resistance, yeah, the resistance bands. And so that's where band Academy came from, you know. And then I had a license to name and all that kind of stuff. But that's where it came from the idea of it. Right. So this is April
of last year, okay, And so we started. We came with that idea, and I said, man, we were driving the car and so I said boom, so click, and this is when the network comes in. So so I said, all right, I need to call Lewis. So I called Lewis Everick over at Vixen. Shout out to Lou. I said, look, I got this crazy idea about doing a resistance band fitness clash at Vixen. He's all dope, he's all let's meet. So we met up. We chopped it up. Literally a week later we were able.
We started the first band class at Vixen night club right, and it was lit, bro, it was lit. It was cracking, he let me. And this is why I loved Okay, this is why I love the network I built. And Lewis Everick, right, he let me do this in his nightclub free of charge. Nice yeah for the you know. And he said, Mike, I just want you to build a network. I want I want you to build it. There's nothing do with me. Man, known you for twenty years, my guy, he said, let
me just help you out, you know. And so he helped me. And I will always give him credit for him to give me legs, you know, to run with it. Right. So he gave me legs, he gave me content. I was able to film some stuff and from there, uh it got to a point where the cleanliness thing of in the nightclub and and uh it would get hot in the summer, you know, not the AC. I didn't want to turn his AC on because he wasn't. Yeah. I didn't want to be like bro, so now you gotta pay
for AC, yeah, I just want yeah. Yeah. So but now I had content to present to the owner at Fort Washington, right, So I presented to him and he loved it, and he's all, all right, Mike, so let's let's do it. Mind you. The own owner of for Washington shout out to Chris Montoya. He owns all Valley Fitnesses, so all nineteen Valley fitnesses from Attaxadaro all the way down to Gilroy and not everything in between with Ford. So he let me do it over there,
right. So I'm sub beliefs in the room. We're get the girls popping, right. So now, mind you, we started this in April, okay, so it's going it's going. It's going hot now. And since we've had over three hundred and twenty girls that have tried it out hasn't even
been a four year yet. So before I came here, I just got out of the meeting with Chris. So I've been I've been trying to sit him down because I've had I've had a huge concept and idea to push this because now it's it's Kane Steam and you got to hit why it's hot. Right, I'm trying to be the next Billy Blanks. You know what I'm saying, Tybo Becker. There's been a void in this market since P ninety
X and Billy Blanks. There's been a void. So I want to fill that void with band Academy, with with with a high intense entertaining class. And but let's go baby for you for all that vibe built in. So I said, bro, let's make it a live stream Google Accessible nine ninety nine a month subscriptions. With that subscriptions, you get the bands, you get you get me, you get pre recorded videos, you get training, you get nutrition on an app and Google Accessible every Wednesday night at six thirty
pen from Fort Washington Fitness in Presno, California. You get it all boomed right there, right, and he said, let's go. So we just we just finalized that deal, so we're gonna start having this. We're gonna start chopping it up right now, so hopefully it airs by the end of June early July of this year. We're gonna start live streaming at that point, so everybody can get on board for nine to ninety nine a month, right and then hopefully in the January of twenty five it blows up congratulating.
That is the goal. So this is gonna be at Fort Washington. We're gonna be filming the ad for Washington. We're gonna have cameras in the in the group X room, in the group fitness room. Am I bo goalpro on my head? Baby? You know when you were doing that Vixen, is there a DJ involved? Because is it a nightclub workout? So the lights off? So it all depends. So the lights are out. I want you get a visual. It's the lights are oute. Uh it's a
nightclub vibe at for Washington, right, color all like those lights? Oh yeah yeah, oh yeah. So it's DJ lights and all that kind of a vibe. DJ music. Uh, you know DJ dom Soto, he'll come out and do like a little guest spot every now and then you got bands on and you're sweating your average calorie you know, burns five to six hundred calories. It's a it's a it's a high intense workout with great music. But then boom the second half. Now we're doing abs and gluts on
the ground. We're doing different low plank to high planks, different shoulder taps, not a lot of breaks. You can take breaks on your own, but it's it's built towards, uh, something different. Like that's why I say there hasn't been an insanity and tybo vibe and I want that vibe with my personality on top of that. And that's that's what I'm trying to push. And I'm trying to open up people's eyes to something different. And it's
necessary. Yeah, it's necessary. Always needs to be something new to come around. Oh yeah, like you said, it's been a minute since something news came around. And it sounds like a fun idea. I know a lot of people especially that are trying to get into workout. They're always trying to find something that's fun or relatable to them. And you know, you got these like dance classes or whatever, and just just seems like something that
is dope that could really work. They want to be entertained. Yeah, exactly, have a very short attentions fan, right, so they want to do an exercise, get to it, burn, burn burn, and get out for the for the the grand scheme of things, you know, and actually have some results from it. You know. Another great thing that came of that is got in contact with Lululemon. We're going to be doing a class there in July seventh at nine am that Sunday. They're letting us use
their facility. Nice which is going to be another avenue that we're going into, which is gonna be great. I'm also going to ass for apl So a pl is a shoe It's a shoe line I currently have on right now. These guys right here, they're based out of La Shout out to Adam Goldstein, the owner they're there. They were tied in with Lululemon for a long time and then broke off on their own and and they're huge in in that type of market, you know. I guess you would call it ath
leisure. They're they're gigantic with that. So again, all these opportunities came from the time I was young networking till now. Remember it's twenty years later. That's what people don't get. You know. You have to strike why the fire is hot, and it's been hot the last two years. So I've been striking hard, you know. Carolyn shout shouts out to Carolyn Collins. Caroline Collins out there. She's out there in Houston right now, Fox
twenty six, but she was the anchor here for Casey twenty four. Oh we're gonna, We're gonna actually rewind that I've had the opportunity. Alex Dell God started me on KC twenty four in two thousand and eight. I was there on Central Valley Today as their little fit guru guy. I used to come on on her Central Valley Today show. I remember that, yeah, And so she started me there, and then Fabuola started me after that,
and then Caroline Collins me and her. That was my girl right there, and it sucked that she left, but she put me again in that platform with social media because she's huge on TikTok, zero point two million people on TikTok, three hundred thousand on Instagram. She does her thing. So she helped me brand my brand and helped me grow. So I always love her for that and give her love. She helped me put me in that position. And then now I'm on with Brody in the morning on KC twenty four
also and I do stuff with them. We'll be on there April eighth doing some other stuff from five am to seven different segments on fitness and stuff going into the summer. So again, it's about networking, and that's where it started. Just being in the right places at the right time, showing people
respect, showing up on time. Mind you, I have to be at k twenty four or five am. That means I'm up at four, you know, to get there on time, be lively, and then just just be with it and create different avenues, different avenues constantly, because if you don't keep evolving, you will be lost. Get lost. I'm four years old trying to create content all the time on social media. You know. I hated that in the beginning and my third time, like, ah,
why do I have to be on social media? Something else I gotta worry about exactly? But now it flows and it becomes a part of your professional life, you know, it really does. It sounds like you need a nap. So we're gonna wrap up that. No, no, no, we love the story. We appreciate everything that you shared with us today. Any last words, like any plugs of where people can find you on social which you got coming up? Yes, sir, yeah, sure, sir.
So again, you can find me on April eighth, Casey twenty four from five am to seven Strife for Greatness on social media, Strife for Greatness twenty three dot com or Strife for Great's twenty three website, Strife for Greatness dot com. And for Washington Fitness. I'm there every day, seven days a week. But class is every Wednesday six thirty pm for Band Academy and we'll be there. Boom, awesome man it is man well continued success.
Yeah man, thanks, and now we could say that we're gonna network with Michael, so we kind of now I got like a fitness question from there we go. Yeah, thank you, yes, sir Man, I appreciate you guys. Thank you for having me, man, thank you for stopping by until next time. This could give me for our podcast