(upbeat music) Thank you for your evolution podcast. My name is Jane Erbacher and I’m your host. Hope this podcast finds you happy and well and enjoying everything that’s going on. I’ve arrived back in Salt Lake City today, which is pretty exciting because I absolutely love this place. And I spent last week, the start of last week in Austin, Texas. So I made it back to Austin and that was where I recorded this week’s podcast, which is with the owners of Of The Lion Fitness, OTL. That is Dave and Courtney De Leon and they are absolute guns.

I love them both so much and I’m really excited to bring you this episode. I’ve been on them for over a year now to be on the podcast because they’re just those people that you meet that you know are going somewhere and you know have a really interesting story and they did not disappoint at all with this week’s podcast and we talked a lot about so last week on the podcast we had Jo and Dan from Varsity and we talked a lot about how to turn passion into profit and that kind of seems to be this a similar theme with Dave and Courtney because they are absolutely living out their passion in the gym that they run and own and the people that they’re meeting and affecting and changing their lives really.

And so I’ve called today’s episode the recipe for success because it was so great listening to Dave and Courtney talk with absolute surety that what they are doing is what they’re here to do and they’re doing it with every ounce of their being and I love when you talk to those people and they’re not just killing it in terms of business and doing great in terms of their career but they’re in a great relationship these two are married and they’re running a great business together and they have one of those relationships that you’re around them and it’s what you want to.

They never put each other down, they don’t bicker, they have absolute respect for each other and they both think the other person is the greatest person in the world. And you can sell that by the way they look at each other and the way that they speak to each other and the way that they speak about each other. And so, and the other way that they’re super successful is in their health and fitness and bodies and the attitude they’ve got in their bodies. So I always love learning from people like that about if there is a system that they apply to each of these areas, their life to make themselves do so well and be so happy and feel so good and look so good and perform well.

And sure enough, David definitely delivered in terms of the fact that there was a recipe for success. And so you’ll have to listen into that because it’s absolutely hilarious. And you will love these guys. They are just such great people. And if you’ve got any questions for them, absolutely look them up. Get in touch. David De Leon and Courtney De Leon from Of The Lion Fitness. I hope you liked the episode. Bye! mission of betterment. Each week on the podcast you’ll meet game changes who have created extraordinary lives and you’ll listen to stories and lessons to empower you to make the changes necessary to your life.

The Your Revolution podcast is committed to fitness, health, nutrition, mindset, community, education, empowerment and betterment and we hope that you can take what you learn here and apply it to your very own revolution. Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the Your Revolution podcast. My name is Jane Erbacher and I’m your host. I am back in Austin, Texas and I say lots of things are my favourite. Everything’s like the best. I’m always so excited but Austin is my favourite. It’s like nowhere else in the world.

But this we were just having this conversation. Apparently everywhere is now becoming like Austin. Yes. Yeah. Everyone. We’re just becoming like everyone else. I think we started. No, this is not like anywhere else I’ve been in the world. So I love it. I’m here with Dave and Courtney, the owners of Of The Lion Fitness. And this is easily one of the best gyms the world. Like it actually is. Like it actually is. And I’m like, I hold myself up as somebody who gets to say that because I mean, when I travel, I go to all the gyms.

– You get to visit a lot of gyms. It means a lot. Then it means more coming for someone who actually, it’s like a chef coming in and being like, your restaurant is the best. – Yes. – Like, oh, well thank you, ’cause you’ve been to a lot of restaurants. – It’s like French chef. – It’s a new good. – I know, I was like, welcome to rest I was like welcome to show But I’m so excited to have you both on I am excited to be back in Austin So we were here I was here two weeks ago running project row and I was only in town for 28 hours I did add about and I was so disappointed in myself as I was leaving that I only allowed that amount of time to be here because it’s not just Austin that brought me back.

It was to have you both on the podcast and it was to immerse myself in your gym because I could not believe when I ran the workshop what a great community you have. And the people are like the people here are so nice. I’ve always said that about Texas like it’s the manners are like nowhere else. We need to run lessons in Australia for the manners, but it’s like they’re genuinely nice and good people. And something that I loved about the culture that you have at the gym is everyone is open to getting better. And that comes from you both.

And it comes from also Travis, like one of your coaches, like it’s you were both here at Project Row, open to learning. Neither of you stood in the background thinking, oh I knew all this, why I haven’t people listened to me, you were both like, you know what, I’m gonna pick up something today and I’m gonna take that and make me better. And that was the culture that you have. And as I was driving out of here, I was driving to Houston and it was in a big Texas storm and I was on the wrong side of the road and I was a little bit like, please no one drive anywhere near me.

I’m not like safe here. But I was thinking, I can’t believe I didn’t stay longer because it’s people like you that we can all learn so much from. So thank you for having me back. – Yeah, well, we’re glad to have you back. – So thank you. And this time I didn’t crash your house. – No. – Which I’m more than welcome. – So you think you’re so much. – Yeah, anyone can always use our house. – You know, an urban farm, I guess. – Yeah, I do. You have two dogs, one cat, three chickens. – Three chickens. – And two iguanas. – And two lizards.

– Lizards. – Not quite iguanas, but they’re two lizards. ” (laughing) They’d be iguanas, no lizards. Anyway, it’s taken me a really long time to get to the point, but I’m so excited to have these y’all as in the podcast. I think that I may have asked you about a year ago to be on the podcast. – You did, it was probably a five year ago. Yeah, which is great. So it does take me a while to get things done. But I think that it’s great. You have such a great energy and message to share. And I have learned so much from you both.

So I’m really excited that everybody actually gets to hear from you. So I would love you to tell us a little bit about who you are, like what’s led you to now. So either of you can talk I might direct lots of questions. Yeah, David is the talk. Sportsman. So Courtney and I, as far as our relationship goes, we met in high school when we were 17 years old. Fitness wasn’t a huge part of her life when we met. We was more. I played sports sports here and there, and moved around a lot, so towards the end of high school I was definitely excited about it.

– Yeah. – That was about it. – Athletics were definitely part of our lives. Fitness though, and exercise was not a part of her life as much as it was mine at the time. And we tried to get to the YMCA together and work out, didn’t work out all the time. It’s kind of, you’ve already started, you’re not doing this right, you’re not doing that right. But it was okay. And Courtney and I spent our, you know, half part of our senior year together. We started dating a little bit in college. We weren’t together, we got back together afterwards.

And by that time, I was already fully involved in fitness. I started running a garage gym when I was probably, you say, 20, 19, 20 years old. I started, I cleared out a garage and this is still on YouTube by the way. There’s a YouTube video of me putting together my first ever garage gym and here’s a little side story on that. If you know what bumper plates are like rubber plates in the video, I’m like, yeah, and I got these new bumper plates and literally they’re just metal weights that we bought at the local. Yeah, the local Sears and they’re just like coated in rubber, but they’re not actual bumper plates.

So I obviously have no idea what the hell. So funny. Do you do any videos when you’re dropping it and it’s just like crash? I don’t know if we have there a few videos from that gym and on YouTube I was already I was like yeah, we need to be online and do all this stuff so I was in it. ” – Oh my God, do you know what I heard from the sword? – Yeah, so I was already deeply involved. Got out of college, graduated for a while, I thought, I have to go work a regular job, regular job. I applied for both board of patrol as a board of patrol agent and as a police officer officer didn’t get into either one of them.

And I started working at a gym here in Austin about a year and a half in. There were just things that I didn’t appreciate about. I’m not not appreciate that I didn’t think were right. I thought could be better. So I opened opened up OTL Fitness Courtney at the time. That was 2012. Courtney at the time was already back in Austin. She had an internship in Hawaii right before that. But she was back in Austin working as a vet tech. I opened up OTL fitness in about 650 to 750 square feet of space. Totally run down. You’ve seen it before.

Yeah. It was just the perfect starting perfect starting place. Yeah. It was the imperfect, perfect starting place. I mean, the smell there was terrible. It was tiny. And when I say it was rundown, like it was rundown, but we made it look good. We try to keep it organized. But we knew that at the foundational level, if we kept quality there and we really cared about people, we could really create something great. And there were just that foundational group of people who believed in that. And we continued to bring great quality.

And they continued to follow us. It didn’t matter where we were because they knew that our vision was to grow from there. And they believed in that vision. And they believed in us. And we were able to grow go from there and that was with the help of people who one of our clients owned a card dealership down the street and he let us use the big parking lot of the it was empty at the time so like start boot camps and to run what were they called community workouts we did all that type of stuff but we asked those resources were there and we asked for those resources I think a lot of think like, well, you got lucky you had someone that was there to help you do that stuff.

Well, everybody has these types of opportunities, but not everybody actually opens their mouth and mounts and ask these questions. But we asked and it wasn’t, please, please, please. It was, hey, if you don’t mind, we’d love to do this. And we did. And we went after it every single day. We worked super hard and we Were so fortunate to run into the into the space that we have now that this gym now Totally random. I always had this vision of what I wanted the gym to look like and we found this place It wasn’t even available.

We were looking at a different gym just to Right in front of our gym or a different space front of our gym. And I was like, I want that spot. And the guy that our real estate agent that was helping us was like, well, it’s not even available. I don’t know what to do. And two weeks later, he called week or two weeks. He’s like, you’re not going to believe this. My client just bought all of that land and they need a tenant in the warehouse. Oh my god, that’s a dish. ” – Yeah, yeah. – And that’s what we led to this. But you can change locations.

– Yep. – But if the quality changes, doesn’t matter where you are. ” This and that, equipment doesn’t matter. Weight is weight, if you can’t get strong using things you find on Craigslist or at a garage sale or with your own body or with your own body weight Then you just can’t do it. You can’t be creative enough to figure it out So for us it wasn’t always top of the line everything it was top of the line quality and belief in the people that were here and once we instilled that then they began to believe in us Yeah, and then here we are now at the space wreck And I’m not saying that, you know, we’re the most successful genie.

We’re successful in the sense that we have a great tribe of people who believe in us and they know that we believe in them. And to me, that’s one of the best things you can have. – 100%. And everything that I’m hearing from you is complete. This is what you’re meant to be doing. And you’ve been doing it since you were 19. And it’s and it’s really interesting seeing the different patterns you see of Success so you see different people and it’s like this was ingrained in you for such a long time And I think that so many people in our industry and in other industries put the focus on external like I need this I need this space I need this equipment to be good at what I do and it’s like you ran it in a place And you showed me the place that you ran it.

It’s not like a welcoming place like it was not like but people follow. >> I’m pretty sure like a 100 pound dog was like one I was like are these at the doors blocked because that dog could just like jump up and get me like it was. >> And just to add to that Jane I the other part of this is. You have to have a liking for business. You can’t get into this industry just having a passion for fitness. You can gain the knowledge for business, which is what I did. It was hard knocks. I didn’t study leadership in school. And I had a minor in kinesiology.

I think I should teach leadership. And it’s not about just having the passion for working out. Like, oh, I like to work out. I think I should own a gym. When I was 12, I got a loan from my dad and I bought gumball machines at the local Sam’s Club, which is like our wholesale club. And then I went to different hair salons and I put gumball machines up because at the time, I already had that entrepreneurial itch. I knew that I wanted to do stuff for myself, and it was always a service to others. Some people like to go into product-based businesses, business to consumer, which is kind of like what we do.

And we also have shifted to business to business, but I just have always known that running a business is what I wanted to do. Fitness as the vehicle came in later in life. And that’s just where the direction it took us. – Can you just give me a little bit more detail on the gumball story? Because it’s like I’ve told so many people about this story. Yeah, I love it So tell everyone what you actually did so you got given a loan from your so my dad gave me a loan at 12 and they were two gumball machines They were sixty five dollars each to start out and I went to the local salons that I knew if a 12 year old kid is going to approach you you’re going to say yes.

How do you say no to 12 year old kid. >> I was like hi, you know can I put my got absolutely. >> And I would my dad and I put it in there the the Sam’s Club had all the gumballs we get the gumballs poor man and then on, I think it was Sundays because some of these slons were open on Sundays. We would drive around and we’d collect the quarters. I’m sorry. Those are Saturdays. Saturdays we would go and pick up the gumballs. B. bag. B. is like our local grocery store and I would scoop out the coins and I would walk around and I would make like $30 per gumball machine.

But at the same time it was a lesson because I’d get calls in the middle of the week saying, hey our gumball machine is stuck. Someone put a penny in it. How do we get the penny out? So at a very young age you start to realize like there has to be systems to this, which at that age I wasn’t thinking systems, but I was like, oh, how do I? I’m at school. I can’t go drive over there and help. I didn’t even play and help I didn’t employ it. Yeah, it didn’t last a very long time, but it was definitely the introduction to business.

Yeah, and my dad was Totally for he loved the fact that I was and my mom as well. They were like, oh my god. It’s a great idea. Yeah, so and sometimes I still think like what if I would have kept doing that could I have been like? I know, if only. I feel like what you’ve done is better. Yeah, exactly. But it’s really interesting, like everything that you’ve said, because I wanted you on here as a part of this series that I’m doing, which is how to turn passion into profit. And I look at you both as you, you’re not settling, you’re not complacent, you’re always working for what you need to work for and I think that in the fitness industry there’s such a fear of business and what I’m constantly having conversations with people about is the better you run your business the more people you can impact.

So if you’re getting into this industry because you want to help people, guess how many more people you can help when you can afford to help them. And there’s advertisements on the radio in Australia for certificates in fitness and it’s’s like, do you want to get paid to keep fit? And every time I hear it, I’m like, I get so upset because I’m like, I hear those too, they have those here. And it’s like, that’s not what it’s about at all. That’s not even the start of it. And I love what you’ve talked about because what you’ve talked about is that you’ve created from the very beginning of what you both started is you’ve created an incredible product.

You’ve created an incredible product that’s researched and it’s constantly evolving and getting better and it’s not based on a new piece of equipment or anything. That just fits into what you’re doing. You deliver it in a way that builds a culture. So you’ve got a great product, you’ve got great systems around it and you learned that at 12 years old with a gun-ball machine. ” I didn’t know anything about franchise tax, I didn’t know anything about sales, I didn’t know anything about anything. And I’m not being dramatic about that.

I didn’t know anything about an LLC, I didn’t know anything about a DBA, I didn’t know anything about insurance. But we live in an age where we have the internet. ” It’s to me that is the person that’s so easy to beat. ” That I think about other people doing it. ” So that’s what makes it easier to win in the long run is like, “I’m willing to fail and learn and then learn from those failures every single time. And Courtney knows, I mean I get I don’t even know what that means. But then you remember like you can call people, you can Google things, you can ask people, hold that’s there and that’s how you learn.

I when I tell people I have a leadership degree, they’re like, oh that was probably like the easy classes. And like, it absolutely was a much easier way a route to go. But I wasn’t gonna take a business class and learn business from someone who’s never ran a business before. And then you find mentors, I started finding, not mentors, but people I could go to and ask questions that were running legitimate businesses. – Totally. – And had tried and failed at other businesses. – Exactly. – ‘Cause that’s the greatest thing, I think that failing, the term failing is our greatest heat job, but so many people are so afraid of it, they just never take a risk.

– Well they see this failure. – Yeah. – And I call it failure, but it’s like, to me, I don’t even see, it’s just a hard knocks education. – Totally. – I would rather have to pay a fine on something that I didn’t know I was supposed to pay because that’s me paying my tuition towards my grad school. Right? Like, not an actual grad school. But like, to me, this is grad school. I’m learning all my business degree stuff right now. And I’m paying for it by mistakes that I made in the beginning. But like, that’s the way it works.

Totally. And we live in such a strange culture where people stop learning after they leave school. Like it’s like you leave school, you go to college and then you just sit on your butt for the rest of your life. – Well you talked about it, you said when you were here at the seminar that we were so engaged and willing to learn. That’s what everything is about. I do not know everything, Courtney does not know everything and Travis does not know everything. We tried to pretend that we knew everything. We would be the most stagnant fitness facility in Austin.

And boring is that and and how ego-centric is it to believe that you know everything and I see I go to these seminars these training seminars and there’s always that one or there’s one or two people that they’re just kind of in the back like I know everything and they move the worst yeah they don’t know anything it’s like lose the ego drop that and yes yeah yes. Exactly. And that whole thing of asking for help, like it’s ego is such an interesting area in both fitness and in business. And it’s like, if you see anybody that succeeded in either, they’ve asked for help.

You don’t see Roger Federer has a coach. Like, I don’t know why I went straight to tennis then, but I mean, I did and it happened. But it’s like he has a coach that still helps him even though he’s been the best in the world for so long. And it’s like, so this whole idea that you know everything is crazy. Richard Branson still has a business coach. – It’s totally crazy. – Like it’s like if there’s anybody better at business than Richard Branson. – You know what is an excuse? – Yes. – Everybody just uses it as an excuse.

Like they use everything else. Like they say, well I don’t know how to get my LLC, that’s an excuse. Well I heard you had that’s an excuse. Like, you just have to do these things and you have to be open minded and you have to know that to evolve constantly as a human and allow our minds to evolve. We have to continually continuously get new forms of education. It would be like coming into the gym every day and doing one exercise over and over again and thinking, well, I don’t need to do anything else. So, you’re not you’re only you’re only gonna get a certain result and then eventually the body starts adapting to that form of training, just like it adapts to what you already know.

You have to read books, you have to watch documentaries, if that’s what you like to do or listen to podcasts. – Have conversations with people. – Have conversations with people, whichever one’s so afraid to do. – Yeah. – Don’t be afraid to go into a situation where you’re called upon. – Yeah. – Of something you don’t know. – Totally. – Because then someone, the person asking you these questions either already know and they’re going to help you or then your exposure you go oh I need I need I need to learn that kind of totally.

Oh it’s so interesting I love listening to him. You have your own podcast. You need to talk about it right now because everyone’s going to be like Googling you right now. So we have a I run a podcast called GarageGym startup and it is not a how to get 150 new members in your gym. I actually, my most recent one, it was like how to get 100 new members in your gym and ruin your business, right? So it’s the anti of all of that. – How to build a six-figure business out there at the back of your house. – Everybody wants to sell that gym because people are dumb enough to believe that that’s how things work.

– Totally. the grind. Yes, by my six by my six step way to success. And the guy that’s doing it has that all they’re doing is writing an ebook. He’s sitting in the bathroom right now. Yeah, exactly. But the garage in startup is all about the grind and what it has taken and the steps that we’ve taken that have worked, things that we’ve done that haven’t worked, our goal is to get people on and to interview people not only in the fitness industry but outside of because business is business in the sense of everybody has typically the same foundation of how things should run, especially in a service-based business, which is what we’re in where we’re having to serve other people.

But it’s just that. And we have old episodes from what the podcast used to be. And it recently was transitioned to the garage gym startup and it’s on iTunes. So that’s where people can find it. But it really is just me documenting things that we’ve gone through. I’ve talked about– – It’s spread from the old gym. We’ll move on to now. But it’s kind of like stories and recommendations and maybe some things that he doesn’t recommend. Yeah, and it’s like your learning experience over the time. Exactly, because when we were starting the gym, there wasn’t really a podcast out for us to listen to to help us with the small things that, you know, do I pass out flyers or do I put up signs?

How do I market? Is it all paid ads on Facebook? And it no. – So we’re, like I said, the most recent one I did is literally about when you have your first 15 people, what do you do next and what kind of marketing did we do? And then on one of our next episodes, probably the next one or two, I’m gonna literally go verbatim of how I break down just creating a Facebook advertisement. And it’s not an easy process. And it’s very long and people will probably think, well if you’re going to give it away, what if someone in your area uses it?

It is such a long arduous process that I guarantee 98% of people who hear it are going to go, oh, I don’t know. Or they’ll do it once and never do it again. Because it’s not easy. And that’s what the whole thing is about is that this stuff isn’t easy. It’s not just showing up to the gym and working out all day long. There’s a high stress to it sometimes in the sense of, I want to take care of all these people how do I take care of everyone without totally destroying myself? – And do I have time to do that? This is the question that so many people ask me is I talk to people who run a fitness business and they’re willing to put like two hours into their training a day and it’s like, but then they get to the business stuff and they’re like, I just hate the tech stuff or I hate the communication stuff, I hate writing emails and it’s like, do you wanna run a successful business?

– worked out a lot more when I wasn’t work running a gym. Yeah exactly the more time you spend in a gym the less time you have to work out and it’s so interesting because it’s like people are willing to put that time into their own training but it’s this exact same tools required to put it into your business it’s just out of your comfort zone. It’s out of your comfort zone. market and he was like, I’m just gonna do some social media. And I was like, who to? Like people you know, people don’t know. I’m just gonna pay for some ads.

And I was like, you need to be speaking to every single person you come in contact with. And I heard this awesome podcast recently, I actually saw this guy live, his name’s Matthew Hussey. You would love him. He’s loosely a dating coach, but he talks a lot about business. And his whole thing about sales is I do this awesome thing. You should go to it. Like as like as in it’s like and that’s basically it. It’s like when you believe so wholeheartedly in what you do. It’s not selling. And you’re so passionate about delivering it.

Every single person that walks out of the door here is telling everybody in their life about how great you are. It’s not about you then just getting home and doing a post. Everybody come to my gym. It’s like you’re living it and doing it. And so, and that’s so interesting because it’s like, if people were to listen to what you do and in your podcast, it’s like they would learn so much from it, but it’s in the application phase. – It’s all about execution. – Exactly. – And execution is hard because everybody’s afraid that they’re gonna fail.

– Totally. – Or they’re afraid of what someone’s gonna say about them. They’re afraid that their wife doesn’t have their back. They’re afraid that their mom or dad is going to be mad at them. And they’re so concerned about what everybody else thinks that it’s hard to execute because of that fear of what can happen. And I’ve just, she’s known me a very long time and that’s what makes this a lot easier work to you. I was like, I really don’t care what you think. Totally. And it’s so interesting, we were talking about, before the podcast, we were talking about identity and how quick people are to attach themselves to an identity external to themselves because it is really scary being your brand or living what you do and you’re both always in the OTL clothes.

Like you don’t walk down the street and you’re not OTL, you’re not caught in your daily on. Like it’s like, did I say that right? – Yeah, yeah. – But it’s like you don’t walk down the street and you’re not OTL, you’re not Courtney Dillion. Like it’s like, did I say that right? But it’s like you believe so wholeheartedly in what you do that you’re a part of everything you put out there. You’re not then attaching yourself to an external identity that explains you. – We are us. – Yeah. – And everywhere we go, people understand that.

Like that’s our brand. ” But in the long run, it’s so much easier that way because we have to live that lifestyle every single day and it holds us accountable. – Totally, and you believe in it and that’s why you’ve created it. – Yeah. – Something I want to know is you’re married and you work together. Partnerships are like hard, like people, no matter what, how do you find working with each other, like and running a business together? – Yeah, I’ll let court answer first and then I’ll answer. I should not listen to her.

– I think that you’re pretty amazing. I think she’s gonna say good stuff. – We’ve been together and been around each other for so long that it’s really easy to be around each other And I think that that helps a ton. But don’t get me wrong, there’s ups and downs in relationship and business even if you’re not married, even if it’s a friendly relationship. People have ups and downs. So we go through those normal things. But it’s so helpful because people always say,, oh, like, do you separate business and pleasure your relationship?

And yeah, I mean, to an extent, but we never turn off. Like, this is how we pay our bills and this is how we eat at night. m. he’s not like oh my god are you doing working? Yeah it’s like okay I understand that nine needs to be done. Like maybe he’s dead so 11 o’clock. Make that even better. Yeah it’s the same for him if he’s like I need to go report a podcast and it’s 10 30 and he has to wake up for 30 I’m like okay I understand that. Yeah you need to go do it online. You’re not gonna get on his back. Exactly. Yeah, she’s spot on.

The thing that I would add is if anybody is getting into business with a partner, whether it’s someone you’re married to, especially if it’s someone you’re married to, you have to have communication upfront and the communication leads everything. If there’s a lack of communication in your business with your partner, whether, like I said, whether that’s someone you’re married to or not, you will fail every single time because everything is exposed at some point in time during your business. So if you don’t communicate out in front of all of that stuff, it catches up and then you’re in a hole.

So anytime something comes up, we communicate. And there’s been times when Courtney and I will start arguing about something that’s generally related and we have to remind ourselves, right now we’re talking about this like business partners, not as a married couple. And I’ve had a response with Courtney, it’s like, but we are married. And I have to remember that like, yes, you are still, I’m still your partner in life and in marriage. And that is, I think the one thing that can crush most people who are married and start businesses, because if you met someone three years ago and then you started a business with them, you may not know them at their deepest root when things get really crazy.

The fortunate thing for us that we’ve known each other so long that she’s has seen me at my craziest and she has seen me at my happiest or my lowest low and my highest high. So there was nothing new to her. And when we come out and we communicate things with each other, we understand this communication right now is going to be civil. It’s going to be about Without that communication you just throw everything off totally so that’s the communication has definitely been the key and and I See a lot of people go into business too with like their girlfriend or boyfriend and I just really think Too soon is too soon sometimes we had we were just dating when the gym started We were just we were’s so different for us.

We were still dating. We were already at the point in time when people were like, are y’all ever going to get married? We had known each other so long. So that was so much different. Because money involved in anything can change anyone. And Courtney knows we can go on vacation and she can sit on the beach and lay in the Sun and not think about anything Yeah, I’m at the beach thinking okay. What can we do for the business? How can we how can we improve our business? Are people gonna be upset that we’re gone like it’s never off.

Yeah, he’s very right like I could be saying they’re doing nothing But if you want to talk to me, I’m totally right about talk to him about it. But I think that also balances us out. – Oh, it’s perfect, yep. ” – Totally, and that enables the conversation to happen properly. – Right, and it’s not as if you got manic too, it’d be cranking. – Exactly, we were both, that you’re exactly right, we balance each other out. – Yeah. – And I’m highly aware of how I am and how I act in my emotional state because in I think in business like depression is a huge thing in business that a lot of people don’t know that it’s there and they’re very not self-aware and you have to really be self-aware as a business owner because you’re gonna go through ups and downs and states of depression and states of high anxiety and if you’re not aware you don’t know how to control that and Since I’m highly highly aware of it.

I’m very open and not ego driven and I’ll tell Courtney Hey, like I’m having problems right now. Yeah, like this is how I’m really feeling I almost feel like I’m depressed or I feel this way But it’s the people who hide it because they’re so ego driven that that can really crush people completely and if the people around them don’t know how to deal with that then they don’t know what’s going on exactly and if they don’t know what’s going on they don’t know how to deal with so it’s on both ends of it completely it’s so interesting because watching you both even how you interact and what you just said about balance is you actually need both of these personalities to run a good bit business because it’s not that you’re closed off to ideas you’re open to them just as much as he is exactly and you’re just not as and it’s it That’s what he needs and then like and to the other side.

There is absolutely no such thing as work-life balance Yeah, I think people get obsessed with this PC culture. Oh, so, you know your work life My dad worked extremely hard when I was a kid but when between the ages of when I was born to five I don’t remember anything like at all right not because like I just don’t remember that part of my… Who really remembers what happened when they were two years old? You’re from that working environment. I don’t remember where I was going with this. What were we talking about?

Balancing each other. Oh, they’re work life-outs. I really believe work is just essential, I love work. I love getting up early. It’s have to come to work because that’s what’s been ingrained in me from a very young age. Like you work. You have to provide for your family and people. This is what I was going towards too. It’s like there’s so much focus on like, are you going to be able to, your daughter’s one or your kid is one and like you’re supposed to be, have to be there all the time for this one year and it’s like, well what I’m doing now is setting ourselves up for when we have kids and then beyond that and people just get cut up in like I said the PC world of the way things are supposed to be and the people that are talking about it that are like oh yeah you know I get to spend all my time with my kids they’re at home on their phone on Instagram and Facebook anyways yeah and say yeah is it quality time like so and I completely agree with you and I think that people forget that all your time is all your time and it’s also precious and so if you’re wasting time in a job that you don’t like but but then you’re going home and you’re all, you know, oh, but I’ve got balance.

I come home and I watch for hours. – It is an excuse to not have to do any more work and go watch it. – Exactly. And to not, like, accept, acknowledge the fact that you don’t like the job that you do. And it’s like, that’s where the issue lies. If you love your job so much that you come home and you want to keep talking about it, and then that is balance because your life is, you’re’re actually valuing your life. I would hate to be at a job that I just can’t wait to go home. Same and it’s Friday’s. Yeah. Oh my god.

That’s like my worst nightmare. Oh, Mondays. I’m like, oh, what is that? And it’s really interesting since traveling around so many people are like, oh, so you’re working while you’re traveling and I’m like, I love what I do. I can’t Like, I get out of bed and I start doing it because I can’t stop. And it’s the same as you guys. It’s like, it oozes out of you. Like, why wouldn’t you want to find something in your life and create something in your life that you can’t wait to do, even if you’re in Austin and people are swimming in Barton Springs, which is– – Well, I told you yesterday, I was at the bank and the girl was saying that she’s going to go to school and she was going to be a part of an entrepreneurial program.

” And I like, you are going to crash and burn because you can make money doing anything. But if you want to make it your life and your business, but you don’t absolutely love it. And I’m not saying that you’re going to love every aspect of it. But as a whole, if you don’t love it, you’re just going to bury yourself very easily. And you just won’t make any money. Like if that’s what your focus is, it’s like money is an exchange of energy. It comes along with the other changes that you create. And so it’s money’s just such an interesting thing to focus on.

It’s like you’ve missed the point. – And we all spend it differently. We all save it differently. So how much you make for us, it may not be very much. But like the way we spend money and the way we use it is so much different than other people. And you need to enjoy your time and it’s like and value your time and then it’s like money is alongside that. So I want to ask you the one thing I was actually going to say about that is though is that you both are based on the same intention with your business and I think that that’s a really core ingredient to run a successful business that you have the same intention with what you deliver and you also have a mutual respect for each other and I still remember the first time I met you David, our very first conversation was about how amazing Courtney was and I was like I need to meet this girl like I was like looking her up on Instagram and I was like to meet somebody who speaks so highly of the person that they’re with is just like I can’t even believe it’s rare like it that kind of made me sad after when I reflected on I was like wow that that made a real impression on me that should be the norm and I think that since when I met you you had the exact same feeling about David and it’s like there’s this incredible respect you have for each other and you genuinely both look up to each other and you both see value in what you contribute to the relationship and also to business and that is so key and it’s so real though it’s not like you’re trying it’s not like you’re like what did you squat the other day was it 340 or something?

No, 3 or 4. That was still like, counts don’t mean anything to me anyway but I saw a lot of plates on that and it’s like in kilograms, I think it might be like 145. – I have no idea. – It was a lot. And it’s like, and it’d be like you’re not respecting what you can do, but you’re like, look what you can do. And look what she says. And she’s amazing. – I think a lot of it too comes from like, if people didn’t know Courtney when she was 17, they don’t understand the transformation that she’s gone through. And like seeing that is really inspiring because like she was super quiet.

Yeah, I didn’t talk to anyone. I remember the first time she was like what we like She had like this very emo vibe, right? So she had like her hair face and it was such a it was and it wasn’t a style that it was very much a thing of like it was her comfort zone like it was her way to kind of put herself back from everyone and hide herself right So she comes to my house one day my grandmother’s there my grandma only speaks Spanish and she leaves and she said she’d be a lot prettier if she put her face out of her She put her hair out of her face and like I’ve ever tell and like after that Courtney never had in her face again like it was a toy and like that was almost I always go back to that is like the starting moment when Courtney starts come out of her shell and people now can’t believe that she was ever that person because she’s so open to people and yeah and I think that being that person allows her to have much more empathy for people and empathy is like yeah patient she has empathy and I think that really drives good leadership.

– 100%. And I want to talk about your lives now, like in terms of how you live your life, in terms of nutrition and rest and training yourself and exercise. Something that I’ve noticed since being around you is how many people comment on your body. And I’m talking to Courtney. David, I don’t know. – No one. – Yeah, come into my body. – And it’s like, I remember meeting you and I was like, she has the best body ever. But I found it a really strange thing that strangers comment on your body and it’s like, does that happen a lot?

And I also wanna know why you think that is and what you do to look as good as you look. Basically, sorry, David is now in the day to really go to the stage. You’re coming up next. – I’m here to look as good as you look. – Go ahead. – You know, I, yes, people say a lot of things to me all the time. I was running around the pond with the dog the other day, like two ago. Yeah, and someone in the middle of me running past someone they’re like, hey, do you cross fit? Yeah. I was like, no. Yeah. Someone always says something about like, Oh, you’re like, you’re a hostel.

You’re so jacked or your legs or this or that. I had a few people say like, Oh my God, your legs are so beautiful. Yeah. Thank you so much. Yeah, did I say that to you today because I was thinking it? A lot of people say stuff and I understand why yeah, but it’s like the way that they give me totally Yeah, I’m like is this a compliment. Yeah, they just saying something that they were thinking yeah, and I did a filter it Yeah, but no I do I get tons tons of comments on the way that I look. Yeah, and I’ve gotten very used to it Like as far as what I do to make my body look this way Obviously I work out we do a lot of strength and conditioning in here just basic weightlifting Breathing all that kind of stuff.

I mean, that’s what I do to work out. do what our classes do here. I don’t do anything special but People are like what did you do to get your legs like that? And I’m like well she was born of the right mother Yeah, this is about 90% genetic. Yeah, so I’ve always always had big legs and a big book like I’ve always had that but I’m pretty sure it’s the best spot I’ve ever said I’m pretty sure it’s the best but I’m pretty sure it’s the best but you’ve ever seen. We weren’t talking about someone else. It’s helped shape them in a different way but they didn’t just like grow overnight.

Yeah but it’s taken a word to get up to it. Exactly. And you live it every day. And I think that we were talking the other day about your attitude to training at the moment is to enjoy it. Yes. And to have fun. And I loved hearing that because in so many of the circles that I roll, people are performance focused. And it’s like this whole idea, and I think that CrossFit really did bring up this idea of the kind of the everyday athlete. And your ego needs to be attached to numbers. And it’s like’s like for me I want people to exercise for the rest of their life.

I want them to move and appreciate their body and value it in a way that they treat it with respect every single day and it’s like if that is a performance goal then go for it. But we get so focused on numbers and you know constant improvement in that area that we forget about what our body is here to do. And I think that it was so refreshing when you said that because I was like, that’s clearly what most people will connect with you on because they want to feel great about their body. What do you eat? What’s your kind of nutrition or what do you recommend other people that you did say before that you do programming for people, nutrition programming?

I was like, there’s no one size fits all as far as what people need to eat. I know people are like fruits and vegetables and meat only. But it’s different for everyone. I think if you don’t have an intolerance to a food, you don’t have to cut it out. You can still eat it, maybe eat less of it if your goal is weight loss. So, I mean, that’s what I do. I count my macros. Not everybody loves it. But I try to stick with a calorie goal and I split up my macronutrients throughout the day. And that’s what I try to hit. I do 40% protein, 30% carbs, 30% fat, and I try to stay between 1800 and 2000 calories.

That’s what I try to do. Totally. And I use my fitness pal. There’s no there’s no secret. Totally. That’s what works for me. It’s execution. But if David was eating that, he would probably. I probably don’t I probably don’t even eat that. I just try to go to the day go through the entire day with at least getting a second meal. I can’t survive. I’m like, yeah. Oh my God. What is my next meal? Totally. It’s like I said, everyone’s different. Yeah. Second I mean that what I do is healthy. I could be better at what I’m doing.

But genetically and the way I go about my day is so much different. I think if people met my dad, they would– – Yeah, who is the greatest. – He’s really cool guy. But I’ve seen that guy work for nine hours straight when we were moving into the old gym. It had this saggy stuff from the ceiling. And he literally sat on a ladder putting nails in. No AC in the middle, it was July, right? When we moved in there around July. and most of the day, but it’s just like this thing that’s instilled in you. – Totally. – And you’re like, I can keep going.

– Yeah. – I don’t really need anything right now, but like I said, I’m not saying that that’s healthy. It’s not healthy. I could be much better at everything if I fueled myself better, but to Courtney’s point, something works for everyone. It’s something different for everyone. – 100%. – So many people get real strapped down on. I gotta be a keto diet, or I gotta be paleo, or I gotta, you know, car back in car blower. – It’s like I’ve had people come to me for nutrition stuff and they’re like, I’m a vegetarian. And I’m like, okay, well you’re not gonna be eating 40% protein.

– Yeah. – Like that’s gonna work for you. – Yeah. – Unless you wanna eat like meat or you wanna do a lot of supplements. – Yeah totally. – So it’s, I don’t only like, this person is only gonna get this or not this person. Like everyone’s gonna get this for for always. If I get a client, it’s scratch. I don’t go and just like copy and paste someone’s. I create a brand new thing and maybe there may be some similar meals on there that I’ve been playing in the past, but everyone’s different. – And everyone’s needs are different and they have different daily activities and it’s interesting because I’m not I don’t have a nutrition background.

I just know what’s worked for me. And it’s like, so I know I don’t write other people diet plans, but it’s like, what works for me is eating when I’m hungry and stopping eating when I’m full. And when I tell people that they laugh and I’m like, it’s much harder than what you think because it’s like we’ve eaten when we’ve been told to eat. Like at school, the bell would ring you’d eat. Like it’s like you’d come home, you’d sit down and say, well you’d eat. you you’d have another butter with chocolate and peanut exactly I used to say like at home the morning break at school is called play lunch and I used to trade like lunch because my mom had wrapped me like a pear or like a banana or like you know slice of cheese or something and someone actually traded you for that oh my god you’t understand.

I could sell. Like, these kids would have like, – I wanna start to bring in like five pizza. – I know what you would have done. – You have five fairs and sold them. – Totally, I’d be like, have you seen this delicious juicy pear? Like, it’s like, it’s actually amazing. I mean, if organic was in fashion back then, I’d be like, it’s organic. Anyway, I’d be like, I’d be eating junk food at school and I’d come home and wouldn’t be hungry in my mom and be like, open your mouth. Like, what have you been eating? Like, some sort of cheese chips or something?

– I’d be like, I’d be eating junk food at school and I’d come home and wouldn’t be hungry my mom would be like, open your mouth. Like, what have you been eating? Like some sort of cheese, chips or something? ” And now I carry a toothbrush everywhere. But it’s interesting what you said about how it’s not one size fits all. And that’s the same with everything. It’s like, it’s different people have different needs. And you balanced the class really nicely last night, is it’s, we were talking about this and I was in your class and there were people in the class that had to do different things for whatever reason, movement, restrictions or whatever and it’s the same thing with diet.

It’s like a nutrition, you need different things on different days and it’s like it’s understanding when to adapt to that. So I love that. Would you like to add anything about anything? I did in terms of your body. – No, I’ve just, and actually it’s just been a small, like I’m not a tall person, I’m not a big, I mean, I just, I just constant maintenance all the time. – Yeah, yeah, yeah. – But I love how you said I can do better because it’s like– – Yeah, no, I can’t. – I think I’m all this can. Exactly. Every single day, like I’ve come to the US and peanut butter is so big here.

Like as in, it’s like, we do not have the same appreciation of peanut butter at home and I love peanut butter. I’m like, oh, I love peanut butter. And it’s like it’s I definitely eat too much peanut butter, but it’s like every day there’s something that you can do better. – But the quality of foods that we get is very, we prep all of our meals on Sunday. We have every – We have on Instagram on Instagram. – Yes. – Yeah. – Our Instagram every Sunday, trying the same. The coach Travis here. He does the exact same thing.

He’s, you know, he’ll show you and like it’s cool because we’ll share recipes and people get the idea and it’s really awesome because what I’ve noticed is that people are starting to prep their food more now. Like people in classes like I can do this. Yeah. So you kind of get it set in their brain, but I don’t really have anything else to of that. I mean, the reason I actually asked you both wasn’t necessarily just about the nutrition thing, but it’s about how you apply what you believe into your everyday life. And the way that you both answered it is it’s so normal.

It’s not like a thing. You’re not like, I’m on this new diet. I’m doing this. It’s like, this is normal feeling. But everybody talks so much about what they want and what they’re gonna do yet their work ethic and what they’re doing every single day never weighs More than that totally and like for me if I like said if I was walking around talking about how much I want it’s away and all this but my work ethic’s not so I’m like I know what I want totally like I’m cool with where I’m at and I’m maintaining what I’m doing Yeah, yeah, like be happy with your body.

Mm-hmm. Don’t look at yourself in every day like shame yourself. Yeah Totally. – If you’re just never happy with what you’re doing. – Yeah, and then there are some things that we just have to know that we are not, if I look at Courtney every day and I was like, I want legs like Courtney’s, my legs will never look like Courtney’s, ever. – That’s true. – All right, that’s just the truth. So there are some things that we just have to realize that you just won’t have. Now that’s not an excuse for most people. I’m not saying that doesn’t mean you can’t lose weight or anything, but don’t go looking at magazines like I want to look like this guy on the cover or this girl on the cover because you probably have totally different to me.

And don’t forget it’s 2017 just as… Even compare yourself to people totally. Yeah. Totally. Of course in everyone’s different totally. Just as easy as we can Google things we can Photoshop things. Yeah. Don’t believe what you see. Exactly and I think it all comes back to what you just said Courtney about actually loving what you’ve got like and that’s not like something that I had to really teach myself was every single day say I love my body. It does everything that I ask of it and it was such an interesting little mantra that I shifted in my head because I was like if I eat bad food my body reflects that if I don’t move it the way that it wants to move my body reflects that if I disrespect it verbally it verbally and in my thoughts, it reflects that.

And so it’s like, if you want to change something, verbalize it, and then follow through. And that’s actually what it is. And if you want something badly enough, guess what you’re going to do. You’re going to do it. And so– – And it’s going to be hard. And you’re not going to see results. And you’re not going to see results. And then you’re going to have to make a change. And there’s going to be a lot of adjustments. It’s not going to not gonna be easy. – Totally. So I’ve kind of been thinking throughout this podcast that there’s been a really clear theme in what you’ve both talked about and it’s like it’s this idea of having a recipe for success and it’s like in kind of any area of your life.

So we spent a lot of time kind of talking about business, we’ve talked about lifestyle stuff, we’ve talked about relationship. I wanna know if you feel like there is some sort of a recipe for success and if and what it actually is if there is. It’s hard work and then more hard work feel like I’m ready. And then you do more hard work and yeah don’t complain and you find people to ask questions to and you stay as authentic as possible the entire time and you stay consistent hard work hard work work, ask questions, be an authentic person and actually care about people.

If that’s something that you say that you’re about, then actually care about people. Even if you think that what you do in business shouldn’t be about other people, if you care about other people, it opens up opportunities to everyone. But that authenticity is a very important part about caring because you can fake caring about people and you’ll be exposed and it’s gonna be really embarrassing or ruining it. But the hard work hard work hard work and consistency part is the hardest part of all of it. I love this so much and anybody can do that.

They can. Not everybody’s willing to. Yeah. And not everybody will and that’s part of the game. Totally. But we understand it’s there and there’s no time when it stops. Hard work is forever. You just have to. And people are like, well, you got to work smart. But working smart without working hard is nothing. Working smart is important, but you must be willing to work extremely extremely. And when things don’t go right, you got to get back up and do it again. And do it better. I’m so happy I met you both. I can’t even begin to tell you that.

I’ve got two more questions. Something I ask every single person on the podcast is, what do you feel is your purpose in life? And it’s never an easy question to answer. So feel free. I can play some like waiting room music. But what do you each feel is your purpose in life? I know everyone always says it, but I’m helping people has always always been something that I’ve done when I was younger. It wasn’t necessarily in the best way with the people that I grew up with, like trying to help people who didn’t want to be helped, but as a kind of leader and as I’ve met Dave, I have been able to turn that around and channel that into positive energy and start to help people who actually want to be helped.

– That’s okay. – That’s why I really would come to like, recognize. – Yeah, totally. – I think she’s right on point with that. – I think my purpose is to create a business that supplies people with everything that they need to go do onto others that we’re trying to do. We want to give them the strength, the longevity that they need to continuously add to others. And I want it to be like a pyramid scheme effect, where you help that person and they help and are like, I can pay it forward. – I pay it forward, that’s a much better way to say.

– I don’t want to create a pyramid scheme. – We’re now selling Tupperware. – I don’t want to create a pyramid scheme. – I want that, what’d you call want that what you call it? Pay it forward. If we can give you this, give it to someone else. Give it to your kids. Give it to your grandkids. And when they learn it from you, they’re going to take what they learn at the youngest age that we refuse the most from our parents. We end up taking those ideals that we originally thought were stupid because we were young and we pass it on to someone else.

And I want to have something large enough that I can affect enough lives here that then those lives go on and affect other lives and other lives and other lives. And then I also want to help people build amongst along their passion. Like Travis is our only coach here right now and he has passions in other fields. And I always feel like it’s part of my duty to help him as best I can do with the things that he wants doing like I feel pride in that I like to help people do those types of things so very specific way of helping people but I think that’s definitely our my focus absolutely love it last question is what’s next for like Dave and Courtney individually together OTL the line, what is kind of the direction you want to go in your life?

– I think as a couple, there’s always that next step of being closer and closer. And you’re always learning something about the other person, even when you do know them really well. And then as far as the business goes, 2019, our leases up in this location, we’re already looking ahead as to what we’ll do next. We always are, we’re constantly providing new tools for everyone here. So that’s just always happening for us, but it’s hopefully being in a space, not hopefully we’ll be in a space by that time, whether it’s an expansion here or a new location where we can run more than one program at a time because you eventually limit yourself to just one thing and we realize that what we do here may be intimidating to some people so being able to create new programs that are less intimidating so we can reach a new demographic and it goes back to like Courtney saying to inspire more people and to give them more so we have to create new ways to do that that are more inviting to more people.

I love it and Austin’s such an interesting place because there’s two million people is that right in the city? Someone on the airplane told me that. There’s not even one million people in us. Yeah, so I don’t know who this lady was she was a bit like you better not move to Austin. We have too many people. There’s not even there you you go. Two million people? No. I mean in Australia we have to see. We have a million. Like we just recently hit one million people. There you go. Okay so it’s not only things we hear on the airplane.

But it was really funny because… So let’s look up the population of us. Yes. But I cannot believe how many fitness spaces there are here and how active people are. Like it’s like we were making a joke yesterday that everyone was in activewear, but it’s like it was the truth. And so you live in such a competitive area. Like you really do in such a quite a small population and quite a small space. And it’s I just love hearing that you’re not a fate for it to grow. And it’s like, and it’s just like so many people hate on competition and stuff.

And it’s like, you know what competition does? It forces you to that’s what you both do which is great and then you have your podcast which we’ve like everyone should be have subscribed to you right now pause this and subscribe it’s the best what’s the population okay I’m 147,000 people are not even 1 million people and and and one, I am now moving to the 2016 zone. – His lady was just– – We’re moving in that direction eventually, but two million in Austin. Austin’s not that big. – No, it’s small. And it’s like, I am in court in any traffic jams.

I’m like loving it here. I’ve been driving around in Ubers as well though, so I’ve been driving. And you do programming online, Courtney. – I do. ” And I think that it’s really great because you have avenues where people who are interested in expanding their business can go to and have contact with you with your podcast. And then it’s like nutrition and training as well, which I really like because not everybody will make it to ask them, but they can still have contact with you both. And I love it. And they can follow us on Instagram @Otseel Fitness and just see some entertaining stories and some chickens and some cats and some dogs and some workout stuff.

Yeah, it doesn’t like sick experience. I don’t! It’s the best and like I love it. You guys are the best. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you, Zane. Thank you for having me. I don’t want to leave. You don’t do it. Thank you for listening. Bye!