Hello and welcome to the Your Revolution podcast. The Your Revolution podcast is a collaboration between Revolution, Personal and Performance Training in Melbourne and the MePer Project. The purpose of the Your Revolution podcast is to inspire you on your mission of betterment. Each week on the podcast you’ll meet game-changers 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.

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As well as this, Lalo and I would love to give away some shoes. erbacher. Then you’re going busy, stuck in the hamster wheel, barely making ends meet without the energy to do anything about it. And no idea where to start, even if you did. Six months ago, I started working with entrepreneur and systems coach, Jake Loonas, and the advice he gave me changed the way I do business and turned my life upside down. – The reason I chose the fitness industry is that a coach saved my life. Since 2014 I started what became a very successful business and unfortunately the better my business did the worse my health became.

I gained 35 kilograms and was on a fast track to dead at 50. I chance meeting with a coach called Mount Murphy turned that around and set my life on a totally different path. Unfortunately, fitness is a hard business to be in. It means early start some late finishes. It means sacrificing your personal time for the time of others. It means constantly giving away your energy for other people. And too often it means struggling to make ends meet prioritizing others over yourself and constantly chasing your tail but never getting anywhere.

My way of giving back is to take everything I’ve learned over the years in business and use it to save the lives of fitness professionals, to give you your time back and to let you live your life on your own terms and to make the money that you deserve. com and see how a systems coach can give you more time to do the things that you love. (upbeat music) Hello and welcome to this week’s episode of the Your Revolution podcast. My name’s Jane Ervacher and I’m your host. I am so excited. It is the last day of my US tour and I am in LA.

I’m actually in Echo Park, which is a really cool area. This is amazing. It’s very up and coming. I really like it. I found like my favorite coffee place around the corner, but I am sitting here with Peter Vodden and I only met Peter a month ago, but I’ve been following him for probably a couple of years. I came across him through Jim Jones and he is just so great and I met him a month ago because I came to his new gym that he is opening kind of in the next week or two. Faras. And it is amazing. The first thing that strikes me about this place is it’s such a beautiful space.

It’s like a, I’m going to say it’s an old barn, is it a barn or like a stable? You know it was originally an old window factory and then we’re not quite sure what it was. It may have been a brothel at some point. Yep. It has, it has like story and heart. Yeah. But there’s like first walked in with the light, you have so much natural light beaming through. And that was a huge appeal for us because I’d worked in space before that we’re kind of like either underground, like in the UK or what things are underground that we’re dark.

And that after a while, that kind of space becomes very oppressive. – Yeah, it’s not somewhere you wanna go. – It’s not somewhere you wanna go. So the idea for us was, we wanted to build a space that people would think of as in, oh my God, I wanna go there. It’s like, it gives me energy. – Yeah. m. and I’m trying to motivate myself to go to the gym, I don’t wanna go somewhere like dark and dingy. I wanna go somewhere filled with light and that’s gonna give me energy. – Yes. – You know, I’m gonna have a better experience.

So when we were looking for spaces, that was one of our main thoughts. And then when we saw this space, it’s like, oh my God, it’s perfect. It’s actually perfect. I love it. And at the funny part of “Outabbeats,” it’s the kind of space I actually don’t want to leave. Like, I’m looking around at the equipment and how many different things there are. And I’m like, I could spend all day here. class, whatever. You know, they were going to all these different spots, playing a different premium, every different space and paying for the travel in between.

To us it was just, you know, this doesn’t make any sense. Why not build a space that can house all of these things, coach them all to a really high level and build somewhere that people want to come and they want to stay all day. You know, we had a club lounge where people can just sit and work and chill out and have juices and drink coffee and that kind of thing. Then they can attend a yoga class and they can attend a strength and conditioning class or an indoor cycling class. You have all these different variations available to you and all within the same space without any additional costs.

So immediately, we’re not a cheap gym by any means. If you look at the look at the costume, the gym are relatively expensive. But, we’re certainly cheaper than going to all these different spaces for these independent businesses. Exactly. And what you’ve captured is the most important element, I think, in fitness, which is the community side. And that’s one of my favourite things about you, is that this is so deeply ingrained in you in having an impact on people’s lives. And what I noticed running an urban heartbeat to California is there isn’t any one place you can go to that you can get a membership.

Like everywhere that we were going like really reflects a non-committal consumer of fitness. So it’s like you buy a five-pack or you buy a 10-pack and you do your spin here and you do your yoga here and you do your strength here. And there’s nobody that’s checking up if you’re coming and there’s nobody that misses you and there’s no way for you to stay and just spend time with the people that yeah which is strange because you know America is kind of built on the search for community just by nature and I think I think LA is kind of evolved that way because it is such a transient place people come here for a reason and once that reason expires they leave.

So it can be a very, very, kind of, kind of place. But I think there’s a real demand need for something like this that rebuilds that community. I have seen it in some gyms around to be fair. I think one of the biggest gifts that the CrossFit community has had to the world of fitness is that rebuilding of a community. It’s something that was lost in the global gym era. It has resurfaced, we’ve grown. And our train of thought was always to take the best things that we’ve seen over the years and put them all into one space.

Because no matter what your loves or your criticisms of gyms or spaces or anything that you’ve been to, whether it be a boot camp style class or whether it be a spin class or even a global gym, there are good things to take from all those spaces. And if you can just draw on that goodness, and forget about the stuff you don’t like, draw on the goodness in one space and just do it as well as it possibly can be done, then you’re gonna have a winning formula. – 100%. – I think people tend to be very negative about things.

Like, this is bad because of these reasons. This is bad because of these reasons. Without thinking about the positives. Okay, yeah, you can say that these things aren’t correct or these things, you don’t agree with the principles this space But if it’s successful and people are enjoying it then there’s something good to be learned from that totally You know and often it goes back to what you’re talking about it goes back to people having a sense of belonging a sense of community a good feeling you know It’s one of the you know the the primary things of business is it’s about how you make somebody feel 100% 100%.

– And if those spaces are making somebody feel good, then they’re onto something. So if we can do that, if we can make people feel good, if we can give them that sensation, and we can give them correct training protocols, and we can grow them in the right way, and we can give them the right information and empower them with that knowledge, then you have something very special, which is what we’re trying to do here. – I absolutely love it. You’ve touched on everything that drives me in my life. And one of my favorite things to discuss with people is the human element of everything.

And I think that we’ve come out of the digital technology age and people are really craving human connection. – Yeah, for sure. – And you’ve recognized that in even how the space is set up in the product delivery but how the absolute foundation and core of what you’re doing is to make people feel valued. Exactly, exactly. And put the emphasis back on that. I think a lot of the time people get caught up in the sport. Performance. Yeah. And it isn’t really about that. It’s about making people feel bad and making people feel that they belong, making people happy.

Totally, we don’t get up every morning, go to work, have an amazing day, go home, go to bed. We all have our troubles, we all have our woes, we all have our problems. But if you can build someone that feels somewhat of a sanctuary, like it gives them pleasure, it gives them happiness, it gives them joy, it gives them community, it gives them successful interactions that they don’t necessarily get in their daily lives. Some people, they might not necessarily go on with their work associates or their family or their time at home might currently not be the best.

But if you can be a light in someone’s life, if you can be a light in someone’s day and make them smile about something, make them feel like they’ve achieved something, give them that sense of joy, then you’ve changed someone’s day. – Completely. – What’s better than that? – And you don’t know exactly what you’re saying. You don’t know what people have come from to come into this space. And I think that there’s this movement in the fitness industry where we focus on like our programming as if it’s an art or a craft and people just have to follow it blindly.

And it’s like what you’re recognizing is that someone’s coming in here and this is potentially the best day of their day. And results will come from the application. Like the results will come from them showing up every day, not necessarily at being the most perfect program. But that’s not saying that the programming is neglected. – Yeah, and I think motivation is such a big thing. And that’s why we wanted to offer a multiplicity here or like a hybrid gym. We want to offer these different disciplines because different people enjoy different things.

And as much as you believe in something, if you try and force it down someone’s throat, who’s not into it they’re gonna give up pretty quickly. Yes, but if you can give them different avenues. Yeah, this might not be right for you But this might be right for you. Yeah, and then that gives them You know it lessens the barrier of entry it gives them a way in then once they experience that it might leave them to experience something else and then experience something else I think that as that confidence builds They start to to become something, they start to grow as a person.

Totally. They start to have that kind of like more ambitious, more adventurous spirit, which might lead into different places. Yeah. And then, you know, a lot of what we talked about when we first conceived the project was, you know, how do we, how do we reduce the barrier to entry? How do you make people feel more comfortable for the moment they walk in the door? If you’ve been in a gym your entire life, which I have and I don’t really suffer from intimidation or anything but gym just to my experience is, you have to remember that many people do feel that way.

They do feel intimidated. If they walk into a space and immediately there’s a million barbells for learn around it, people are running and shouting and that kind of thing, then it can be a daunting prospect. But if you can reduce the barrier to entry, if you can give them a way in, and then once you’ve given them a way in, you can show them these different things that helps them just step by step, grow, grow, grow, grow, grow, and then eventually they become something completely different from the person who walked in the door in the first place.

– 100%. – But you have to give them those avenues, you can’t throw them in at the, throw them in at the meat heads at the end of the gym because, you know, it’s not gonna work for them in that way. So that whole thing of motivation becomes one of the most significant things in programming. Like you just said, like you can the best scientific programming world with all the like percentages and all the right movements and all of those stuff. Which is of course, as coaches, what we try and do. But the most important thing, or what’s going to give someone the biggest result is consistency, motivation.

If you can get someone to come to the gym consistently, and if you can motivate motivate them daily then you’re going to have a much bigger chance of success. Totally. And that’s what we’re all about really. 100% I love it and it was so funny because before we started I was saying how I really love when conversations just go in a direction and they just go and it’s funny because usually I would give my guest on the podcast a proper introduction but I didn’t we. We just jumped straight into it, which is kind of what we did when we first met a month ago because we’re in total agreeance in what we do.

And so we get really excited and both of us just keep talking the whole time. But you have a really interesting past and you have a really interesting story that has led you to Faros. And I think that that adds even more value to what you’re doing here. You have been training a bunch of movies on a bunch of movies and the most recent one is Wonder Woman and you’ve also done Suicide Squad and Prepped for Justice League. What did you learn from those experiences? You know I learned a lot. It was, I’ll backtrack a little bit to have it all kind of started great I originally was working in London for a long time.

I lived in London for like 14 years I Became a trainer kind of out of You know originally it was my bead job. I was I was an unsuccessful actor in London for about six years and I’d always trained. I grew up in gyms, I grew up with sport, it was my kind of always my passion and you know it was actually a girlfriend at the time said why didn’t you become a personal trainer? Why didn’t you get on that road just as a way to suck when you’re in trouble? You know and I did, me being me, when I decided to do something, you know, I kind of throw myself into it completely.

So once I did my UK, get what’s called diploma and personal training, so I had to go to school for the best part of the year. It’s a different system these days, but then this was the system. I got a diploma in personal training and then I just kept studying. So I did a lot of stuff with Charles Poekwinn, you know, I read all the classic tech, like Satya Sogelsky’s The Science and Practice Strength Training, Melzev Super Training. Like I was throwing myself into all these like like incredible old school texts that kind of paved the way for training now.

And I was always interested in gaining more knowledge. I started working at Jim Cook, Jim Botts in London, which at the time was one of the pioneers of the modern gym and that it was it was the first kind of like hybrid facility in that it was originally a kind of boxing and Regular gym gym and then they started introducing more functional CrossFit type stuff as they grew and that that became the trend and so I kind of saw that evolving and I I remember a friend, what became a friend of mine, Darren Brown came in for an interview because I kind of built myself up to be like the head of personal training at Jim Botts.

And I would interview different trainers to come and work there. And this guy, Darren Brown, came in, I asked him about his background and what he was studying and that kind of thing. And he mentioned this company, Jim Jones, and I said, who are Jim Jones? ” Now, I’d seen the 300. And a lot of people’s reaction to that movie was, God, I’d love to be a Spartan warrior. – Every guy I know. – My reaction to it was, oh my God, wouldn’t it be great to train those actors actors? – Yeah. – Wouldn’t it be amazing to be involved in that project?

– Yep. – And that fascinated me. Just the process of transformation of taking a bunch of people, changing them, transforming them, and then having this immortal thing on screen, no one could ever take away from you. Like, you did that. You made that happen and it’s a big, live on screen. screen. Totally. So it was amazing. It was an amazing, like, just thought for me at that moment. So I remember, you know, straight away, I booked a seminar in London. It was the first time, you know, Mark and Rob had come to London, went to that seminar.

And that would kind of the start of my journey with those guys. And I just fostered that relationship over a number of years, became the first certified instructor in Europe and continued to work with them and eventually, I trained a few actors here and there while they were in London for various projects for the second 300 movie and a couple of others and then the opportunity came up to work on suicide squad. And I just got a phone call from one day on actually I was in Florida. And I was about to go and work on a different project.

I’ve been hired to open up a strength conditioning gym in Kuwait. And I was always like excited by travel. It was a very, very exciting, daunting, completely different opportunity for me. And I’d accepted it and I was gearing up for it. And I think I was like, I was about three weeks out from moving to QA pretty much apparently. And I remember I was in Florida and I get the phone call from Mark Twi and he’s like look we’ve got this project coming up you know, which would be interested. Yeah, this is what I’ve wanted.

You know, kind of what I always dream would happen with that relationship. Yeah, and of course I accepted I turned the Kuwait thing down and before I knew it I was training the Prince Blattress, you know, initially in London, then in Australia, and then ultimately in the States and Toronto. And it just was an incredible journey. And it started out just working with one actress and then another actress and then another actor and then just a whole group of of actors and then I ended up sort of training the whole class and crew on the project and we talked a bit earlier about building community it was it was the first time for me I mean I kind of done it before in jimbox like I built like little communities through classes and group training and that kind of thing but it was the first time time I really took a project and was able to build my own team community thing successfully in a space.

And it wasn’t people who signed up to a gym. It wasn’t people who suddenly thought, I want to transform into a fitness person. It was people that were working on a project, it wasn’t their job to train, they didn’t have to train. It was people that just wanted to feel better. Usually when you do a film project, you start the film off and gradually you kind of get worse and worse as the project goes on because you tend to eat worse and worse food, you tend to sleep less and less, you get to tea, you get kind of like you miss your family, all those different things come in that deteriorate your experience.

And what we managed to do during the suicide squad was reverse that process. So people actually got fitted, healthier, stronger throughout the filming process just by turning up every day and doing something good for themselves as opposed to setting up every day and doing bad things themselves So we managed to reverse that that process, you know and that that was just a shoes sign to me of like, you know What’s really achievable? When you when you get consistency you get good feeling when you get good people who genuinely just turn up because they want to learn and they want to grow They don’t have to be there don’t have to be there, they’re not being forced to be there, they’re just doing it out of…

And you don’t have to do it either, this is the favorite part about this story, you actually did it because you wanted to make everybody’s day better. And that sounds so like Mary Poppins rainbows, but you genuinely cared enough about people to invite them in on that. Yeah, because like anybody I need motivation. Yeah, and that motivates me. Yeah, yeah, having an impact on other people’s lives. It motivates me as a coach. And you know, when a movie project sometimes, you know, if you’re just seeing a principal artist one or one or two hours a day, a day, you know, the rest of the day can be a little empty unless you fill it with good stuff.

So my whole thing was let’s fill it with good stuff. Let’s open the doors and give all these other people a journey. When people think of movies, they think of the people on screen and the heroes and the principal. But really there’s all these other people behind the scenes. The stunt people, the producers, the makeup artists, the costume people, everybody involved in that project is on their own journey. And it’s a why not give them a positive experience as well. So that was that experience. We wanted this incredible journey together.

It really was like a family. I felt very emotionally close to those people. And when the project ends, you’re kind of like kind of torn because you got so close to this group. It became such a meaningful thing on so many levels that when it ended, you’re kind of a little bit empty. But in the back of my mind, I kind of knew the Wonder Woman project was coming up. So I was kind of just treading all of them until that, that kicked off. So I had the suicide squad experience and the positivity of that. So I went into the Wonder Woman Project guns blazer.

And you know, the Wonder Woman theme was incredible for a different reason because it was the first time, you know, really in Hollywood that you were gonna put a bunch of women on the screen that had that physical prowess together and an amazing, you know, new kind of vision of them and then into it. So when we first started, when I got there, we first started speaking to people who we thought would form the Amazon’s which they eventually did You know we were trying to communicate this this sense of you involved is something very special.

Mmm. This is the first time. Yeah, it’s really redefined Let’s remind the vision of family in Hollywood. Yeah, previously, you know women had this this thing in Hollywood as you know to be thin and skinny Yeah, I live up to that old stereotype. And this kind of wanted to rewrite all the screw that. Let’s present a different vision. That’s a strong, powerful woman on screen who we’re going to show the generation of tomorrow. What women can be? What women can be? What women can really present themselves? How strong they can be, how powerful they can be.

So when you’re communicating that to this group of women, I mean, they’re suddenly filled with this, oh my God, this is amazing. – Totally. – And then you’re all on that journey. So as hard as training was for them, it was very, very hard. We did it. And eight week boot camp in the beginning, it was full on. And every day, they were with us four hours a day of solid training. Then on top of that they’d have stunt training and prescribed diet and all that kind of stuff and it was very, very hard on them. But in the back of their minds they knew they were involved in something very special.

And so all the hardship kind of goes away because you know you’re involved in something special. So as that project grew and grew and grew again the same kind of feeling of, you know, being involved in something, you know, that is building a community that is building that deep, that deep, like, deep a human connection, that kind of same kind of spirit of change and transformation and adventure and strength. Just grew and grew and grew. And we started in London and then we were in Italy for a period of time. You know again it was just an amazing, amazing group of people who really came together and enjoyed this incredible experience.

You knew you were involved in something that was going to be groundbreaking. – Totally. – Just from the way it was being done, the way that Hattie was, the way that the women were performing, it was just a very, very special experience. Something that changed me being old, I’ll never forget it. So yeah, both of those projects in different ways revealed to me again the power of the human spirit, I know it sounds kind of– – Yeah. – In use, but no, I did. – I love it. – The power of the group dynamic, like when you have people that come together on a similar journey and throw their passion into these workouts, it’s a very special thing to observe and to be a part of.

And especially when you had a lot of these women came from like even a dance background or a gymnastic background or not necessarily the kind of stuff we did, it was new to them. It wasn’t like they were familiar with them, but it was all, they had to learn and then once they learned they had to actually do it and see it through. So it was all a very positive energy that was created just through this learning process, this educational process, this practice process. And I think we all learned a lot, like both about ourselves and each other.

And it was amazing to be a part of. And the suicide squad thing was great because it was my first time building something and then the Wonder Woman thing was just an extension of that. I knew what was possible and then being up to really enhance upon that and create this whole new thing was an amazing thing to be a part of. I love it. One of my favourite things about everything you’ve said is one of the cause of what you do is to create connection between you and a person and them and what they’re doing, which is such a powerful gift to give somebody.

And I’d be really interested to know, have you stayed in touch with people from Suicide Squad that were more on the crew side of things? Yeah for sure. – Yeah, and have they continued what you started with them? – Yeah, it’s amazing. So, actually one of the producers on the SUSO squad, who is Sabine, Sabine Graham, she came to me and she was sort of sick. He was happy, like the way her training was going, the way she was feeling. Both from a performance standpoint, also two degree from an aesthetic perspective as well.

And when I was there, she went through this amazing transformation, this amazing journey. Not just in terms of the way that she changed physically, but the way that she changed mentally. And it was the most incredible thing was the effect she started to have on other people. Yeah. So it was like a pay it forward kind of thing. I love it. She went through this transformation. Once she’d gone through this transformation, she wrote to me like a year later telling me about the effect she’d had on her children, her friends, all this stuff.

She’d now like doing all these different Spartan races and running events in Canada and affecting other people, encouraging other people to go into fitness journey. So it’s this great like, when you have someone like that, it takes him, it runs with it. – Totally. Because what, if you’re somebody who’s here that’s driven and motivated by having an impact on others, like what better reward for having an impact on others that other people are then having a better life. Exactly. Yeah. And that’s what it’s all about, which is so great.

I always ask everybody that’s on the podcast at the very end usually what they feel their purpose in life is but because we’re kind of on this tangent right now I want you to articulate for us the best you can what What do you feel like you’re here to do? – First and foremost, coach. I love coaching, but really I wanna build these communities. This virus project is gonna be the first project, and then we wanna continue to grow it. So it really is to affect as many people as possible in this positive way, Give them tools to give themselves a better life and better experience.

And keep affecting as many people as possible. And then hopefully in time they will pay forward and they will pay forward and they will pay forward and they will just keep growing. Where do you think this came from? Like what has driven you to have this mission? Do you feel, or is it just something you think you’ve just always had? I think I had a very good mother and father. I had a very good family growing up. You know, my dad instilled this kind of hard work ethic in me. I’ve always been very hard working. That comes from him.

You know, he was a very hard worker. He’s an engineer. You know, and my mom, you know, same kind of things. She worked every day when we were kids. They provided the best life possible for us. So I had really good role models. And I just remember from a very young age, I liked helping people. I remember, you know, kids in the playground that were really there were the unpopular kids I kind of sided with and dropped out and that kind of thing. I always wanted to be this kind of protector and guide I don’t know I don’t really know where it comes from.

I did and then I think that’s probably what you need to become a coach and trainer not necessarily because I mean because I love fitness but also because I was always able to build connections with people I was always able to was always able to find a common ground and communicate with people and find something tangible that you could work with. And I think that helping build connections and those connections have helped me build a career essentially. Two people do the same course on one person, excels on one person, doesn’t excel.

I think a lot of the time comes down to communication friendships and the way that you relate to people. And for me, I’ve always kind of, I think I’ve always had that skill. I could find a common ground with somebody, even if you come from different walks of life in different places, if you can find just one piece of common ground that makes you relatable to them and they can totally see something of themselves and you and life in vice versa then you’ve got something to go forward with. And I think I’ve always had that and I continue to be inspired by that.

And the ambition of making the idea of making someone else’s life just that little bit better is enough to keep you going and keep you wanting to build what you need driven because it’s incredibly rewarding. It’s the best. Like we said before, what’s better than making, giving someone’s day a little bit of happiness that they may not otherwise have had. And yeah, and I think to his degree as well, the performance side of things still fascinates me. I’m so fascinated by sport performance and strength conditioning as a discipline.

So I want to continue to improve as a coach, you know, I know a lot, but I don’t know everything. I want to continue to learn and learning stuff that’s against me. We actually are currently working on an educational program so as well as Farrah’s being a gym and also working on an educational program to go forward with because essentially what we have here with me and my business partners Emi and Jeff we have this kind of mechanics strength conditioning protocol so everything is built on a foundation of mechanics right so I’m only gonna be as strong as my mechanics are yeah and my wife Emily is a mechanic specialist her whole thing is integration so how my ability and how my mechanical structure can enhance my sports performance and you can take take kind of like, you know, old school kind of yoga and stretching and that kind of thing.

It’s a basis of it, but it’s a lot more than that. How can I prime my body to do movements that I’m about to do? So, in fact, we had this repair and pre-pair kind of system where we pre-pair people for the work that we’re about to do in these sequences and then we repair from them and we are only ever going to be as strong as our structural house. And I know for my own myself, my one-round max is not necessarily where they need to be, not because I’m not strong enough, not because of my sexual nervous system, but because my mechanics aren’t going to run.

And that just comes from using the del Yes, you thought I’d gone through this mechanical correction a lot earlier. You know my ability totally and you can start that now like as in it’s like Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so we have this mechanical foundation and then we have you know an emphasis on you know Because we should be getting stronger as human beings and that doesn’t have to be in the sense of everybody wants to lift a car. But more in the sense of everybody wants to be stronger because if you’re stronger you’re going to have a better life, a longer life, you have a good degree with muscle mass.

If you have strong tissue, you have strong ligaments. And it reduces the risk of injury, like in normal life. – Exactly. – Yeah. – Yeah, reduce the risk of injury, healthier. All that stuff with combs, with lifting and performing well and taking your body through those movements and being more functional, whatever it’s happening. – Yeah. – And then the conditioning side of it is, we also have an even good deal of conditioning. So I think a lot of the time, you know, gyms tend to focus on one or the other. You had those gyms that just focus on strength, which is great.

And you have gyms that are more kind of conditioning bias. And we like to think, again, of ourselves as a hybrid, so we value conditioning hugely, which is why we invested so much money in the skills mills that we here from technogen, the skier, which we love and you love and the roads and the bikes and all that kind of thing and we do a lot of running outside. Those skills are awesome to rely on. Yeah, so we have a high value on conditioning as well. So we’re currently building this educational program based on those foundations.

We’re gonna educate people in mechanics, educate people in strength, educate people in conditioning, and then educate people in how to tie that all together and build this kind of like better athlete through those foundations. And at the beginning, we’ll start with how we build and train our coaches and then it will extend into the greater community. But yeah, that’s an exciting thing for us because we’re all very, I choose the word teachers but we are all teachers. We love education and we find education in the hand for us and we know it can be in parent or others.

And the gym shouldn’t be some of you just come do some shit and go home. – Exactly, and just do what you told. – Yeah, some of you come and you learn and through that learning. – Totally, and people get so excited by that. And that’s something I’ve really noticed in the last few months running my project, “Rosen’s Project Ski” is that people want to know why they’re doing what they’re doing. And so it’s funny because I think that it just comes out of laziness that people aren’t educating because we care enough to know and the people that come in the door care enough to know and that’s what’s going to keep them coming as well because then they want to keep getting better too.

Yeah, yeah for sure. And you know, I’ve seen it so many times I know you have like the empowerment people get from just a little bit of knowledge and realizing that It isn’t rocket science. No, it’s just a little bit of yeah, you know a little a few pointers here and there like this is what you’re doing This is why you’re doing it. I mean the why is Yeah, this is what we’re doing today – No. – But if you can tell them, like, we need Jeff to sit down to do our programming every week and our whole thing is, okay, what’s our purpose?

Why are we doing this? What’s the point of it? What’s the purpose? – Speaking my language. (laughs) – We don’t know what the purpose is. – Yeah. – I can’t expect them to know what the purpose is. – Totally. – So we talk about that and we make sure that the workout fits in with that purpose. So yeah, that’s a big part of what we’re doing and what we’re interested in doing. And the other thing is with this community at Barras is, we don’t want to fit this to exist in a vacuum. We want it to be part of someone’s life and how it ties into their other aspirations So we have this kind of clubhouse in the front world and have like music nights and film nights and that kind of thing so people stop thinking of fitness as a completely separate thing.

It’s part of their experience. Totally. Just as if they’re an artist, a film painter, a film buff, if they’re a media guru. Whatever they are, it’s all part of the same experience. And it all ties in. I think that’s the beauty of my fascination with film and training, is it’s all tied in. The art of creating the movie is the same as the art of creating a character. My whole thing with training actors is always like, you know, film is the world of make-believe, right? But if we can build these people in the gym, believe they are strong and believe they are powerful and believe they are warriors or whatever they meant to be, then that persona on screen is going to be more believable.

Totally. If you just build some hundred percent, can’t really do this stuff and can’t really move and doesn’t really believe in themselves, then the character on screen is less believable. If you can give someone that empowerment, when they get on screen they feel like a million dollars, then they’re going to be more believable. Sometimes people get it and some people don’t. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t. – Totally. – That should be the ambition. – Totally. – To make people believe in themselves. – 100%.

– To agree that they’re just. – Because why can’t they be? – Because why can’t they be? – Yeah. – There’s no reason why they can’t be. – Exactly. It’s amazing you’re like passion oozes out of you. I absolutely love it. But one of my favorite things about you is that you’re so genuine. Like you genuinely care so much about whoever it is in front of you. And it’s just, it’s amazing. I think it’s, it’s really, it shouldn’t feel so revolutionary, but it really does. Meeting somebody like you and it’s amazing. Just a tiny bit longer.

I am one of the interesting things I picked up on is you said you’re an unsuccessful actor and you came into this kind of career from that and I think it’s so interesting like the name of the podcast is your revolution and I talk a lot about people’s turning point in their life and how you can use a turning point or a challenge as a real precursor to success or failure and I think it’s amazing that that didn’t work because part of the reason it probably didn’t work is because your mission in life and it’s come from a place that you can’t even really define is to have a positive impact on people.

I mean I think for me it’s been a couple of big, big moments in my life. The first was that transition where I wish a very unhappy place in my life. The active stuff, I was working a job that I hated. I felt very insecure. I didn’t really know where I was gonna go from there. And the training thing kind of happened, like I said, as I said on someone else’s suggestion, and as soon as I went down that road, it was right. And then there was another point in my life where I had to really dig deep and do a lot of self searching and embark on what I now know as a growth mindset.

But at that time, you know, those definitions weren’t apparent to me. But a growth mindset was like everything that happens to you, you can learn from whether you’re a little bad you can learn from it bad you can learn from it and from that point I’ve always kind of had that that growth mindset like whatever happens to me I’m gonna take what I can from it learn and grow and improve and that can be really really hard at times and it can it can be very scary and very dawning it can fill us with like insecurities and all these ugly things that exist inside of us but I kind of I kind of reached a point of resilience like like and we’ve all had it at times in our life what we think of the world like everyone thinks against us.

You know the world’s against us. It’s so hard. Totally. It’s because of them. So yes. I’m trying to ruin my career or whatever it is. We’ve all been at that point and we can either sink or we can swim and the whole whole world mindset is like I’m going to be a swimmer. Yeah. There’s no way that this is going to destroy me. There’s no way that it’s going to pull me back. I’m going to just take it and go. And that’s what I’ve tried to do. And to this point, it’s going pretty well. But yeah, we’re super excited about the Faros project.

And finally, we kind of touched on this a bit. I had been to be with the journalist the other day. And she said, how long have you guys been working on Faros? And it’s like, I think it’s been 10 years. Because it really is the culmination of all of these experiences. Whether it was in Jimbox back in UK, whether it was on the Su-sad’s board, whether it was in Wonder Woman, whether it was everything between, whether it was Emily’s experiences, whether it was Jeff’s experiences. It’s really everything we’ve learned in the last 10 years is going into this space to create this kind of hybrid facility that takes into account people’s needs, people’s feelings, people’s motivation.

What people really need to get them engaged and to give them an experience, this fulfilling, meaningful, transformative, and all those positive things. When we started on this project, we all listened to three podcasts a day. Whether it be a business podcast or whether it be an athletic education podcast, we all went in with it as well. – Covering all bases. – I like Switch time because we need to know this stuff. – 100%. – I think often the mistake is when you’re when you’re a coach or you’re a trainer you think it’s all about the training yeah, but it is Yeah, I think a lot of businesses have failed Because they thought yeah, yeah, and if they just had the best equipment and they just had the best.

So for us it’s like, let’s go and with our eyes. I understand the process. It’s educate ourselves and the business side of things because we know we can do the training. Yeah. Yeah. The business side of things needs attention and needs to be understood because of one side of the equation you have your principles and you have what you believe about training and your ideal facility and what should happen. And then the other side, a lot of like competition of all different things. Yeah Totally exactly Exactly. I And what’s the price that someone’s willing to pay to change their life?

Like this is the thing, this is what I’m always thinking. Yeah, you know, it’s funny because you got an A, you can spend easy $100 on a meal. Yeah, easy. $50 for parking. Exactly. So the cost of a gym membership is relatively low. Yeah. Or the experience that you get. Yep. Totally. How much effect did that one meal affected that one meal? How about yep exactly and alcohol or yeah exactly Exactly and it is only a dollar to park me here. I found It’s perfect What is the cost related to the value it adds to your life?

It isn’t much And it can be be, especially people aren’t used to it. They’re walking to a gym for the first time, they don’t really understand what it is or what it can do for you. They just think it’s like just giving you some abs or something. That kind of thing. Then, yeah, it seems expensive, but if you consider what a bajani with us for you on a daily basis, – 100% – How positively impact your life and what that can lead you in your own life, in your own journey. – Totally. – And Pharos is a culmination, like you just said, of yours and Emily and Jeff’s learning experiences, your entire life.

You said the last 10 years, but it’s like, what price is that? – Yeah, exactly. – Which is, that’s who you’re training with. That’s who has created this community. – Yeah, I mean, it needs to be like, when are we going to cross that open to Jim? – Exactly. Which is that’s who you’re training with. That’s who has created this community. Yeah, I mean, it needs like when are we then forced and open to June? Exactly. This has been a lifelong enterprise of like education experience. And like I said, like we have gained a tremendous amount of knowledge from other people’s excellence.

Totally. So whether it be,, whether it be June Jones, whether it be a global gym, a lot of these people have done things very well, and we’ve had the privilege and the fortune of them from them. But you’ve opened your eyes up to learning from them, you’re not too proud to. I’m not exactly proud to. Like I said before, we’ve been very dismissive of other people’s projects or other people’s value. But it’s worked for a reason. But it’s worked for a reason. And it has value and you have to draw value from what they’ve done.

A lot of positives have drawn from those projects that have come before us and we’re very lucky to have seen that, have witnessed that and have had experiences in that. It’s so exciting because I am like, I have to move to LA and train here. I’m like, I’m so excited by you and I’m so excited being in this space with everything that you’re doing. And I cannot wait, we were talking right before the podcast about, you know, what you want to be doing in six months and 12 months and everything with Faros. And I think it’s really great because so many people I talk to that are in the process of or have just opened a gym.

It’s like they open the gym and then they go, huh, it’s done. And it’s like this, you’d find it perfectly with a growth mindset. You’re like, how is everything that I’m doing going to help me grow even more? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. How can I continue to learn from these processes? How can I continue to grow as a person? I think we’re all in that mindset. You know, our ambition isn’t just a habit. No, it’s a brand, but it’s not just a brand that sits on its own legs. It’s a brand that wants to continue to educate, to grow, to improve.

Totally. Help. Totally. And that’s the way we’re going forward, always like growing, learning, educating, helping, you know, just always seeking, you know, always looking forward. I mean, the whole harvesting came from, it was the first lighthouse, the parasite that you in, you know, eight years and so on. ” Because we had this image of the lighthouse in our heads, of being that kind of guy. You know, that guy is either, you know, helping people on their journey or helping people come back. So that was our thing, we wanted to be that lighthouse.

And then as you’ll see the way that we’ll present social media and website and all that thing going forward, you’ll see more and more imagery of this kind of lighthouse thing because the light that comes through the map is like a beautiful. – Yeah, it’s cool. – Because’s this huge like analogy for us with life and knowledge and, you know, experience and if we want it to be that, that influence in people’s life, that’s the light. Yeah, the light. So, yeah, it’s funny that old Farrah’s Farrah’s Farrah’s Farrah’s Far’s just going to become far as it will become far as it will be.

Totally. You feel like you have to re-educate people. Totally. And you don’t always want be explaining things but you know what a cool story it actually is. It’s like in even a correction of pronunciation you get to talk about what your mission is. Which opens it up whereas if it was a word that people could you know images of the island is the lighthouse. It was growing up, it was always paramount in my mind. And then when I was on the island a few years ago it kind of came back into my consciousness. went back into my consciousness like I started blogging in UK called the lighthouse and then it reached a connection with Jack and said like what about this?

The lighthouse thing and then you found Barras and you found Barras and then we like okay it’s Barras. That’s it. Barras is the first lighthouse. This is the first gym. This is the first you know this is the first Barras – I love it, it is so great. It is so incredible to meet you. I love hearing everything that you had to say and I’m so excited to see what you do. – Thank you, well you too, I’m so thrilled to see everything that you’re doing and it’s very inspirational to see other coaches doing these amazing things and traveling so much.

And you know, I think from what I see of your projects, it’s the same kind of thing, like you’re traveling the world to help people. And I think that’s incredible. And it’s, like I said, it inspires me to continue to land and to get better. I’m somewhat amiss of your travelling because I used to travel all the time. Totally. Now I have this space, I can’t travel as much anymore. Dora, I’m in peace with this. So you can do a little trade for a few months. It’s so great. Thank you so much. Thank you everyone for listening.

Oh one more thing. I want to know how people can work with you. So tell us where Ferris is and tell us if there’s any capacity that people have to work with you if they’re not in LA or if they can just drop in when they’re visiting because a lot of people visit. Yeah we love people dropping in. We’d love to see you here. We are in Echo Park in Los Angeles. We’re at 1316 Glendale. You can check us out on Instagram at @ferrisacopark or you can check out my personal Instagram at pvtlighthouse. fit. And just head us up.

We’d love to see you, we’d love you to drop in Echo Park or we’re just online if you’re interested in remote programming or need any help with anything and we’re always happy to help. And one of the first things that struck me is when I walked in the door how welcoming everybody here was. Everybody came up introduced themselves, there was by no means was I like an imposition and I did go into equinox this morning because it was right next door to my hotel and I did not stay long because it was very interesting because the people there were just kind of like I was I was an annoyance to them and we talked about it before in terms of how intimidating a fitness space is and whether you’re intimidated or not I still get extremely intimidated going into space.

Even if I’ve worked in the industry for probably 15 years now and this was not like that. Yeah for sure. I mean we said from the outset, I mean at the beginning it’s obviously me, me, Jeff and Emily pretty much all the time and it’s kind of our baby so we’re we’re very you know very upbeat about it obviously. But in conversations we have about potential employees, we’re always like, we would rather hire good people than excellent, really well qualified coaches and Sarah. Because to us it starts with a good person. Because a good person you can teach stuff to, you know, like you said when someone walks in the door they’re going to be nice and friendly and you can really work with that good person and educate them and improve them.

If someone comes in with the best coach in the world but they’ve got a terrible attitude, very hard to change that. Totally. Very hard to change that. So our whole thing is to hire good people, good on the inside and then help them work. I love it. You’re the best. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening.