How You Can Be Fit and Busy as a Content Creator, with Daniel Yores

Do you struggle to find the time to stay fit amidst a busy schedule as a content creator?

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Join us as we discuss how to incorporate workouts into your daily routine with fitness expert Daniel Yores ( @danielyores ). Daniel is a personal trainer and online fitness coach from Toronto, Canada. He teaches people how to build muscle, lose body fat, improve mobility, and enhance quality of life overall. 

He's also the host of The Daniel Ys podcast, a health and fitness podcast focused on providing actionable fitness and health advice from some of the industry's top experts.

In this episode, we explore how to prioritize time better to make space for physical exercise, create structure and accountability to help reach fitness goals, and build and maintain momentum with the right mindset shifts.  Additionally, we talk about the parallels between client acquisition in the fitness industry and content creation, offering tips for content creators for that as well.

*Sorry about my voice during the interview. I was recovering from a cold.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Tim: Hey everyone, my name's Tim, and this episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Riverside FM. You know, as a content creator, I'm always looking for ways that I can make my processes a little more efficient. And one of the ways I've been doing that with Riverside is through the use of its AI tools such as Magic Clips.

[00:00:16] With Magic Clips, I can identify a bunch of potential clips for repurposing to social media with the click of a button. This is a great way to help your podcast or YouTube channel get more reach via the whole range of platforms that accept short-form video posts. 

[00:00:30] And the best part of this is that you can do so much to prepare the clips within Riverside by changing the layout, adding captions of different styles, adding text, or even adding images. And once you put it all together, the final result looks great.

[00:00:42] If you want to try this yourself, check out the link in my description and use the code mytogblog for a 15 percent discount. And now, on to the show.

[00:00:51] 

[00:00:56] Tim: What if I told you there was this thing that could give you more strength, energy, creativity, and might even help you to live longer? Well, there is, and it's available to most of us right now. 

[00:01:05] The challenge is that to see the benefits, you need to set aside 45 to 60 minutes three times per week, expend some energy to do it, and do that on a reasonably consistent basis. Of course, I'm talking about physical exercise. 

[00:01:18] And, I don't know about you, but whenever I get super busy or stressed out about something, physical exercise is one of the first things that will be tossed overboard in my effort to save time or energy to deal with whatever immediate issue that I'm dealing with at that particular time.

[00:01:34] And somehow that's true, even though I know that exercise is one of the things that will help me the very most at that time. And of late, I've found this to be particularly frustrating. I'm ready for change. 

[00:01:45] And if you're ready for change too, then this episode is for you. Because today we're going to speak with fitness expert Daniel Yores about how content creators and other super busy people can incorporate physical exercise into their daily routines so we can overcome the barriers to doing that and reap the benefits that I was talking about at the beginning of the episode.

[00:02:05] Daniel is a personal trainer and online fitness coach from Toronto, Canada. He teaches people how to build muscle, lose body fat, improve their mobility, and enhance their life overall. He's also the host of the Daniel Yores podcast, a health and fitness podcast focused on providing actionable fitness and health advice and insights from some of the industry's top experts.

[00:02:26] And in our discussion, we're going to go deep about how we can better prioritize our time to make space for physical exercise, create structure and accountability to help us to reach our goals, and build and maintain momentum with the right mindset shift. 

[00:02:40] So sit back and relax and let's get into it.

[00:02:43] 

[00:02:45] Tim: Daniel, welcome to the show. 

[00:02:47] Daniel: Thanks for having me, Tim. It's a pleasure to be here. It's going to be fun. This will be my first podcast, I think, that's sort of outside of the fitness space specifically, so I'm looking forward to this. 

[00:02:56] Tim: Yeah, yeah, I thought it would be really interesting to talk with you because you're kind of outside the content creation space.

[00:03:01] So it's like a crossover episode. 

[00:03:04] Daniel: Yeah, I guess so. It's an interesting point that you bring up in that because I don't consider myself to be a content creator. Although, of course, I do create content. Like I'm a coach. I'm a personal trainer. That is what I do. And, I also create content to support that, but I don't create content for the sake of creating content.

[00:03:24] Tim: Right, yeah. And, it's interesting you mentioned that because in one of my earlier episodes, I talk about how a lot of creators start as content creators, and then they try to find a business that can support that. But many other people like yourself actually start with the business and the content creation supports the business.

[00:03:43] So. I think that's more of a right way to do it if they're trying to go full time. 

[00:03:47] Daniel: Yeah, I mean, who knows what the right and wrong way is and, you know, different things will suit different people. But, I think it does make sense, just because it's so hard to play the content creation game. It's like you're competing with all the megastars, all the big companies, all of the big influencers, and, you know, butts and flash and glam and all that stuff. And then, you know, anyone has like a regular person who doesn't have that thing, it's like, you're competing with that. And so what are you going to do to possibly stand out?

[00:04:15] Well, you've got to be able to compete on the glitz and glam or compete on, like, being such an expert in something that people want to tune into what you have to talk about. And if you don't have that, that's cool, that's fine. But you're playing a very difficult game. 

[00:04:28] Tim: It's definitely challenging. And one of the things I think that is tough about content creation is that a lot of creators do have a full-time job outside of content creation, or they're running a business and content creation is something that they do outside of that. So how does somebody you know, with all that going on, find the time for physical fitness? Because you might know, intellectually, I think we all know that physical fitness is important, but it's still, you know, it's still another thing on the to do list.

[00:04:59] Right? So what's your advice to clients to make it happen? 

[00:05:03] Daniel: I should hope that everyone by now knows that physical fitness is important. Physical health is vitally important. But, you know, the advice is not going to be drastically different for someone who is a content creator and has a job is because everyone is busy, right?

[00:05:17] I mean, ask if, ask 10 people if they're busy in their life and they'll all tell you they're busy and you know, but busy is relative, right? So we've all got lots of things going on and that's totally okay. I think the biggest thing is really taking a hard look at like auditing your calendar. Where do you actually have time for this?

[00:05:35] Now, before we kind of figure out where to slot things in, is understanding that fitness doesn't have to take up your entire life unless you are trying to go to the Olympics or, you know, step on a bodybuilding stage or something crazy like that. It doesn't have to take up, you know, 10, 15, 20 hours a week, 3 hours a week, maybe for workouts, 3 times 1 hour workouts.

[00:05:55] And, you know, some little tidbit time for food prep, sneak some walks in the day. And so once you understand that, okay, this is not going to take a crazy amount of time. Great. Do you have three to five additional hours in the week and not in a row, but spread out over the week that you can allocate to taking care of your health and fitness via workouts, via walking, via meditation, via food preparation, grocery shopping, all of those things, which a lot of those things, especially in the food department, like you're doing anyways.

[00:06:22] We just need to optimize that a little bit. So, the reality is you've got to look at your schedule, figure out where you can fit things in because this is crucially important to your health and wellbeing and is going to make everything else in your life better. So there's kind of a cliche quote to wrap this up that if you don't make time for your wellness, you will be forced to make time for your sickness later on.

[00:06:42] Tim: Yeah, that's very true. And it's interesting what you mentioned about, you know, it doesn't have to be crazy time and I think that does become one of the barriers. It's almost like an all-or-nothing attitude, right?

[00:06:55] You start making those gains, keep that going, but then sometimes things in life happen, and they derail our plans. And, and I find, too, like, if you've got an emergency at work, or if the content creator's got, like, a sponsorship deadline, or a video you're trying to get put out, that's the stuff that's gonna get done, and one of the first things that's gonna be tossed overboard is your fitness routine.

[00:07:18] And then what happens to that is you, you think, well, okay, I didn't make it to the gym a few times this week, so, like, why make it 2? I'll start again next week. And, like, that mindset tends to take hold. How do you counsel clients to, to get away from that? 

[00:07:35] Daniel: So it's understanding what you're trying to do and ranking it in your priority list. Are work emergencies real emergencies? Sometimes they are, but at what cost if the workouts are making you feel good, they're making you perform better, they're making you happier in your, your personal life and just generally healthier overall. That should be pretty high up the priority list now.

[00:07:55] I know that that sounds, oh, of course it is. You know, the fitness guy talking about how fitness is so important. It's same as like a, like a realtor telling you that it's always a good time to buy a house. Like, I get the bias, but I've never met anyone who regretted, you know, going to the gym, getting fit, getting, getting healthy.

[00:08:12] This is just a truth. I don't make money from you going to the gym, so there's no like, you know, inherent benefit in this for me. So understanding the, the level of priority that it has in your life is extremely important. 

[00:08:23] And number two is just having some plan of attack to incorporate structure and accountability into your fitness. Accountability can come from hiring a coach, can come from just having a gym buddy that you're expected to meet at the gym, you guys work out together or, you know, a friend who you, you know, you're going to text them and talk about workouts. And it's one thing to let yourself down. It's one thing to drop the ball on yourself. It's another thing to kind of drop the ball, so to speak on someone else. You always feel worse about that. 

[00:08:51] So when we have that built in accountability, via any of those, methods, or any of the other methods that you might come up with, you're far more likely to stick to it. And even if you have, you know, crazy week things happen, you know, it's chaos and you miss one, two, three workouts. That's fine. Cause at least you're not going to let that one week or that one bad week downward spiral into, you know, three bad weeks and then three bad months. It's like, okay, we had a bad week.

[00:09:16] Great, shake it off. Dust yourself off and, and back at it the next week. And then you're good to go. So structure and accountability are the, are the real keys to this. 

[00:09:24] Tim: Yeah, yeah, I think that's where some of those apps can be kind of handy that you know, they show you progress and it's almost becomes gamified by it.

[00:09:33] It's funny you mentioned about, like, a kind of method of accountability. I once bought this calendar and it came with these stickers you could put in it. You know, I had a doctor's appointment or, you know, lunch, also had little barbells for workouts. That was like one of my best accountability hacks I had for a while, because I would actually think well, if I don't work out, I'm not going to be able to put the sticker on my calendar.

[00:09:56] Daniel: There you go. I mean, it's a bit of a funny thing to say and, you know, it's gamified or childish, if you will, but the reality is that the calendar, your Google calendar on your phone, or whatever calendar you use is one of the best fitness tools you have. 

[00:10:09] If you schedule that thing in, okay. I, you know, Wednesday at 7 PM, I'm going to the gym. You are far more likely to actually make it to the gym at that day and time, rather than if you just leave it open and say like, Oh, well, one day after work this week, I'll make it to the gym because you can always push it off to tomorrow when it's set. In your calendars written down, you're way more likely to stick to it.

[00:10:29] So calendar is actually an extremely underrated app or piece of technology to use to increase your fitness. 

[00:10:36] Tim: Yeah, I love the calendars. But also, I found it's it's good to have that date, but you also have a bit of flexibility. So you kind of set that general target. Like I'm going to the gym three times this week, doesn't happen Wednesday, you know, morning for whatever reason, it's not a disaster. You can just move it to the next available slot in the calendar. 

[00:10:56] Daniel: Exactly. There's, there's always got to be some room for flexibility because things are going to happen, right? You should don't drop everything else in your life at the expense of going for a workout.

[00:11:05] Like, that's not right either. But understand that fitness is a forever game. There's no winning. There's no losing. There's no even failing at your fitness. Like as long as you don't totally give up and never go work out again, you're going to fail and you can start again as many times as you want. 

[00:11:20] So you miss a workout today. You miss workout next week. You miss workouts for a month. Not Ideal, but okay. And you just get back on the horse and you get back going at it. So you have to get out of that mindset as best as you can, where one missed thing or one misstep is not a failure. You didn't ruin anything and you can always keep going because there's no finish line anyways.

[00:11:40] Like once you go to the gym every single day for a year, like you don't just, you don't just win the gym and never go again. Like you just keep going forever. It might change and morph, but you keep going for forever. 

[00:11:50] Tim: Yeah, yeah. That's a great philosophy because I think that's a major challenge is, you know, because it's never ending, you kind of feel like you have to keep it up to keep up your fitness level.

[00:12:02] And then when you have those this time, you know, maybe it's a couple or 3 weeks for whatever reason and then getting back to it. It's like, oh, I was here. Now I'm down here. And it's like, it's the fight to get back, but it's not as hard once you get back in. You know, I think people overestimate that sometimes.

[00:12:18] Daniel: Yeah, that is, that is very correct to say. I mean, I think define one thing for people is that it's much harder to get in shape than it is to, you know, maintain your level of fitness. To maintain your level of fitness takes relatively very little work, right? But if you're trying to lose, you know, 40, 50 pounds and build all this muscles and like make a huge body transformation, that is difficult.

[00:12:41] But once you get there to that point where you're happy, it's actually pretty easy to maintain that. So know that it's not going to be that difficult for forever. Plus, you'll also learn to love it and learn to love the progress and find happiness in that. 

[00:12:55] You mentioned, you know, apps that, that might help in tracking your progress in these things. And any of the apps that exist are fine, like as long as you're tracking things. So one thing that I've come to realize this past week really is that the, the fun part of working out is the results. Nobody really wants the, the working out part. You don't want to go to the gym. You don't want to do the work, but you enjoy the results.

[00:13:16] Now, in order to get those results, you have to. Of course, to make that work less boring, we have to find ways to keep ourself interested, keeping track of your progress. So, you know, this week I lifted 100 pounds for 10 reps next week. I want to try and lift 105 pounds for 10 reps, right? And you're always having these little tiny wins just like week after week, day after day, and this is a way to keep chasing that next thing keeps seeking that next, that next little win, that next little highlight. 

[00:13:45] Through content creation, you hit 100 subscribers and you hit 500 and then you hit a thousand like you're never going to get to a point where it's like, okay, good. I know I've got enough subscribers now. I'm good. Mr. Beast is still chasing higher subscriber numbers. So for the rest of us, like, you know, that's never, it's never going to end. Mr. Olympia and, and, you know, the current Mr. Olympia, Chris Bumstead, and, you know, all the, the best powerlifters and everyone of all time, you know, they squat a thousand pounds and like, Oh, I wish I could do a thousand and five pounds, you know, like there's no, there's no end to this.

[00:14:14] So the progress is the fun part and the, and the more you can keep track of that using even literally just Google sheets, or like an Excel sheet or a note on your phone. There doesn't need to be a fancier app and there are millions of them out there. None of them are particularly better than the other, but as long as you're tracking something, just so you can say like, Hey, I am making progress and I can see that I'm making progress to put something tangible to it because it is such slow burn all the way through.

[00:14:38] And if you're not paying attention, you might not even notice that you're making progress. 

[00:14:42] Tim: Yeah, yeah, I do find those apps very helpful just to see the you know, the increase, let's say, over time, and it does become like a bit of a game. And it's fun at some point to look back at where you started. That's definitely, I think, part of what makes working out fun. 

[00:14:57] I think there is a flip side to it, though, where you mentioned about progress. And I found at periods when I was going at it harder working out a fair amount, I would get to a point where I would plateau.

[00:15:10] Just like you deal with content creation, you get to a thousand subscribers or twenty thousand, whatever, wherever that plateau level is for you. And then the growth stops and then it does become kind of harder. You know, it is easy to maintain. But it's very hard to make gains at some point. 

[00:15:28] How do you maintain your motivation in those periods? Because I find that's, like, the most dangerous period in a way for your consistency outside of when you're just getting started, trying to get into the habit. So it's like, okay, I just cannot, I cannot increase this even by another five pounds right now. 

[00:15:46] Daniel: Definitely true, that that is a difficult part to maintain consistency through.

[00:15:50] So I think that the solution to this is understanding that it's very easy to make progress at the beginning. In fitness. And I'm going to kind of tie this in with content stuff because, obviously, this is relevant to me as well. It's, it's easier to make gains at the beginning and the percentage increases are larger, right?

[00:16:08] Going from a hundred subscribers to 200 subscribers is a two X of your subscriber count, right? That's a, that's a big gain, right? But it's also only, it's only quote unquote an additional hundred subscribers, right? So it gets more difficult to make gains in the gym as you go along, right? If you could just put on five pounds to the barbell every single week. There'd be people out here, you know, squatting 70, 000 pounds. Like it would be insane. So the thing to understand is that what got you from A to B is not necessarily going to get you from B to C, and that's okay. You just have to understand that that's the truth.

[00:16:41] And now you have to ask yourself, am I willing and able to do the things that are going to get me from B to C? And you might not know what the answer to those things is, right? And this is where you have to look for more information and, you know, look into mentorship groups or coaching, or an app or a program or something, of that nature to find out what you don't know so that you can implement that.

[00:17:04] And then you decide, Hey, am I willing and able to do this? If yes, then, then great do it, you know, run the program or whatever it is. And hopefully it works for you. And if you're not, then you have to just be content with like, Hey, I, now I know what it takes to get to the next step. I'm not willing, I'm not willing and/or able to do that.

[00:17:22] And so therefore you'll be content with staying where you are. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. Like as far as health is concerned, it's probably totally fine. But the difficulty comes from expecting something that's not going to happen. The reality of what you're doing is just not going to get you the results that you're expecting. And so there's a disconnect there. 

[00:17:40] Same as again, with content, right? The thing that gets you to a thousand subscribers is not going to be the thing that gets you to a hundred thousand subscribers or a million subscribers. And every level you go up. Not that I know what it's like to have a million subs, but every level you go up there has to be more, there has to be different, there's a different expectation. There's a different thing that takes you to get to that next level. And so again, you just got to understand what that is.

[00:18:03] And are you willing and able to do that? 

[00:18:05] Tim: Yeah, for sure. And you know, I'd have these theories that, you know, sometimes it's nutrition, sometimes it's like, the amount of times you're going to the gym, the sleep you're getting, all those things in that. Like you say, something probably fairly significant has to change.

[00:18:19] Daniel: Yeah. I mean, there it's, it's hard to say what it might be because it could be so many things, right? Like you said, it could be your sleep, could be your nutrition, could be your stress level at work. Could be you know, the, the way that you're actually training. There could be something that needs to change with your workouts or your program or the structure of your workouts or the form that you're using to work out or the amount of water that you're drinking during the day. Like it could be any number of things and, and maybe multiple of those things. 

[00:18:44] But you've got to, you know, understand that like, okay, something's got to change because obviously you can't just keep, you can't keep banging your head against the wall and expect it to work. Like that's the definition of insanity, right? So yeah, you've got, you got to look into these things and probably get some external help or at least look external to yourself because you know, why would you know how to do that stuff?

[00:19:01] Like I, don't know how to, you know, change the engine out of my car. If I had to do that, I would hire a mechanic, like, because I don't know how to solve the problem. I know that much. And so if you're at a plateau and you're just can't figure it out, oftentimes the solution isn't all that elaborate, but it's just something that may be overlooked because you know, you didn't think about it.

[00:19:20] Tim: Yeah, and very true that there's parallels with content creation there, like if you're stuck at a certain subscriber level. That's where you have to look at, you know, okay, what do I have to do differently? You have to upload more, you have to significantly up the quality of content.

[00:19:33] It's there somewhere. And like you say, sometimes you actually need outside help in order to figure it out. 

[00:19:38] Daniel: Exactly. And there, and there's different things at different levels, right? Like probably for any beginner or content creator, again, your biggest problem is you just don't even know what you don't know.

[00:19:47] So you got to go out there and just make like a hundred posts or videos or, you know, whatever platform it is that you're creating content on. Just go out there and spew garbage out on the internet and then see what sticks and what doesn't. And probably it's going to suck, but that's okay. You have to learn about the platforms and how people interact with them and how you interact with them and what you like and what you don't like and what you're good at and what you're not good at.

[00:20:07] Like you need to learn these things. So same thing in the gym is like, just go in there and do stuff and see what happens. And then, Analyze that. And this is the part where people get stuck, right? It's like go in there and do stuff. Fine. But then analyze it like, okay, what is actually working? What is not working?

[00:20:21] Same with content creation. You can't just put out a thousand videos and be like, oh, it doesn't work. But your thousandth video is just as bad as your first video. Because that means you obviously didn't learn anything. That that's extremely unlikely to happen. I mean, that's a bit too big of a number example, but you have to pay attention to what you're doing and then try and iterate a little bit along the way and just learn a little bit more each time. But at some point it's like, okay, we got to optimize thumbnails. The posting time needs to, you know, be more aligned to my audience or whatever thing it is. 

[00:20:51] So there's different things at different levels that we get you a different place. The same advice that I would give to someone who's been in the gym for nine years who's stepping on a power lifting stage is not the same advice that I would give to someone who's walked in a gym for their first time. 

[00:21:06] Tim: Figure out where you know, like you said, where the gap is and do you fix it. 

[00:21:10] Daniel: There's only a few buckets. So the, you know, the nine-year professional powerlifter, there's training, there's nutrition, there's sleep, there's the mobility. There's a few things. And the same thing is true for the beginner. It's just, what is their ability and willingness to do these things at, at what level of intensity and what level of that advice is, again, same with content creation, it's going to come down to your, you know, your posting frequency, the quality of your posts, the quality of the equipment that you're using, your ability to attract attention, your ability to retain attention, these kinds of things, and that advice, it comes from those same buckets that you need to continue to improve.

[00:21:46] They're just going to be different levels within those buckets all the way up the. The rankings, I guess.

[00:21:50] Tim: It is, it is a lot like that. And then like we were saying about progress and progress levels off, and maintaining motivation. I did find there were a couple of strategies that were helpful for me in the period where, you know, I started listening to podcasts, for example, during my time in the gym, or sometimes I plan content creation as well. And I think you find things like that to make the process itself more enjoyable as well. 

[00:22:16] Daniel: For sure. I mean, you know, put your favorite playlist on your favorite music, your favorite podcast to listen to a YouTube video, you know, think about other stuff. Like any of those things are good.

[00:22:25] And these are just, you know, find ways to make it suck less for you. And I say that very deliberately because I don't expect that. I obviously love going to the gym. It's not, it's like my favorite part of the day is when I get to go work out. Right. If I could just stay there all day, I would. But I understand that that's not everyone.

[00:22:42] And I don't expect everyone to be like that. So saying like, Hey, you've got to fall in love with it and fall in love with the process and find like, that's, it's, it's a nice goal. It's nice, but I don't think it's going to happen. So it's like, we've got to find ways to just at least make this suck less.

[00:22:57] How can we remove barriers to you going? Is it, is it motivate you again, having a gym buddy, joining a new gym, even just like just to switch the environment for the sake of, you know, new faces, new equipment, new music, new, whatever, new energy. 

[00:23:11] These kind of little things, having your workout clothes packed in your bag, in your car, so that you don't have to go home. And when, before you go to the gym after work, and by the time you get home, you'll find an excuse. It's like, ah, I can just skip it today. Right? So it's these things, removing the barriers to make fitness just a part of your life and understanding again, that you're not going to love every aspect of this, but you are going to love what it gives you.

[00:23:34] And so if you can just wrap your head around that, you'll be able to stick through those, those tough times a little bit better. 

[00:23:38] Tim: Yeah, that's so huge, what you said about removing barriers, because that was, that was my best setup when we lived in a apartment that had a fitness center in the basement level. Right? Because it's like, I'll get home from work, all I'll have to do, after I have dinner, it's just head down the elevator.

[00:23:53] Daniel: It's, it's a big one for a lot of people, right? There's even some people who like, they will purposely sleep in their gym clothes, so that they, remove the barrier of like changing into the gym clothes.

[00:24:02] So they wake up and they're like, Oh yeah, I'm supposed to go to the gym now. And they do that and you know, it's their own, it works. Right? 

[00:24:08] Tim: Yeah. So one of the things about that, though, is we're talking about removing barriers. Right? And let's say you have a one-bedroom apartment and you're living in a small space. Just got small space. Would you recommend? 

[00:24:21] Daniel: You can definitely still get in shape with minimal equipment. I would say it's very hard with like no equipment. If you haven't even got like a set of resistance bands to work out with, you can do, you know, a bunch of pushups and squats and stuff.

[00:24:39] But the issue with that is it's extremely boring because it's so repetitive because you've only got like a handful of things that you can do. It's also, not easier. Like when you go to the gym, you can do a bench press with 10 pounds, right? And at home, if you don't have any weight or external resistance to use, like you're stuck with pushups and pushups for a lot of people are very difficult.

[00:25:01] And I, and I want people to know that, because everyone knows what a pushup is. Everyone's, you know, maybe done pushups in gym class in high school, but like, now, that we're not children anymore, like pushups are difficult. So if you struggle with pushups, I promise you that you are not alone and they are difficult, but at the gym, you can like use less than your body weight to do that pressing motion. Right? 

[00:25:20] So the real strategy is one, and I always bring things back to like, setting expectations accordingly. You are not going to become some super jacked, shredded, big meathead monster by working out at your, at your house with 20 pound dumbbells. That is just not going to happen. 

[00:25:36] And, and, and that's okay. You don't have to do it that way. Right? Most people don't, don't want to be that way. You can certainly be healthy. You still have the outdoors to be able to, you know, walk or run or play. Perhaps cycle, or whatever, but you know, again, no equipment. So not even a bike or anything like that. Walk a run. You can still do that outside.

[00:25:53] You can still do plenty of strength training exercises with dumbbells alone and getting slightly creative using, you know, chairs or couches or doorways and various things that are already in your home. There's infinite videos out there with, you know, these kinds of, these kinds of tips and stuff like that.

[00:26:12] You've just got to understand that it's going to be a little bit more monotonous than if you had more equipment to play with. So again, this is a trade off that you're willing to make, right? Or you must be willing to make where if your situation is that you don't have access to a gym and don't have access to more equipment or what have you, it's going to be a little bit more monotonous, but you can make significant progress and can be very healthy. 

[00:26:32] And that is the most important part. Health first, all the other stuff is second. So I wouldn't shy away from doing it or not do it. If you don't have a ton of equipment, you just, you do what you can and you've got to spend the time to be a little bit more creative with using the equipment that you do have access to.

[00:26:49] Tim: That's good, because I think, you know, it's a situation a lot of people might be in, if they're not super into fitness, right? They may not have access to a gym, and they've just got what they've got at home. They can buy an elliptical at Canadian Tire or whatever their equivalent is. 

[00:27:04] Daniel: Yeah, I mean, so I've trained a number of people who started out exactly like you're saying. It's like, okay, I want to work out on, you know, I want to work out with you online and you know, I've got these dumbbells, I think they're somewhere in the house. I got them a long time ago. And like this, like one stretchy band that's like kind of ripped and like, you know, whatever. 

[00:27:22] So like, okay, you know, let's, let's start with that. That's fine. And every single time that that's happened, the person gets the, the, cause when you train intelligently, even within that, those limitations, you'll start to notice positive benefits.

[00:27:35] You feel better. And it's like, oh, okay, well, how can I do this better? It's like, okay, great. You can, you buy, you know, these other pieces of equipment, right? Yes or no. Or can you join a gym? And so people always want to get more into it and they become fitness people. Or, you know, more like fitness people.

[00:27:51] So, it's a great place to start. I just think that you are significantly likely that if you start seeing positive results, which you should, that you're going to want to invest more in terms of time or money or energy into your fitness. And you'll probably end up joining a gym at some point or buying a significant amount of home equipment.

[00:28:09] Tim: Sure, I do find that as you get. more into working out, definitely you want to do more of it. I've definitely I've seen that. Yeah, and this might seem like a weird question, given, given what we've been talking about. But I think sometimes we do think of it this way, especially when we're in that period of getting started and haven't seen the benefits yet. People might be thinking, okay, what's the kind of, amount that I should be doing in order to see some health benefits. 

[00:28:35] Daniel: Yeah. So this concept of the minimum. One, I think it's a, it's a flawed way of thinking. I know that's not what you're asking me, but like, but it's a, it's a flawed way of thinking.

[00:28:46] Like, it's not, not about how can I do the most, but how can I do the least to get the most results? Like, you're not going to get the most results by doing the least amount of effort. So like, that's just like, we need to get that out of the way, but to get some amount of results, I would say like the, the least you could do is probably two hours of workouts a week.

[00:29:05] Now. Honestly, it could even be less than that. Cause it depends on what you're starting. And if you literally do like no exercise and your step count on the day is 1500 steps on the whole day, like increasing the amount of steps that you're taking in a day could be the minimum effective dose to start seeing some positive results. So taking 1500 steps a day, like can we increase that to 3000, which by the way, on average is like 30 minutes of walking.

[00:29:31] Like, this is not a crazy thing to ask cumulative throughout the day. So the minimum effective dose is like just a little bit more than whatever you're doing now. Now, assuming someone is not having a very, very low step count, their diet is more or less okay, I think two strength training sessions is, in my experience, it's been the minimum amount to start seeing some like pretty positive results as far as like muscle building and mobility and feeling good and increasing your energy and just like increasing your body's ability to do stuff. 

[00:30:01] For beginners, one time a week is like, it's, it's, it's just, as soon as you adapt from the workout, there's so much time passes that you then like de-adapt. Yeah. I don't know, that's not even a word, but you de-adapt from the workout and then you just like restarting every single week. So twice a week I'd say is like kind of minimum if you're, if you're at that level, but, again, if you're not at that level, like making some better food choices and not thinking about your exercise at all could be the starting point and that could be enough to, to snowball a giant cascade of positive events going to bed 30 minutes earlier, drinking, you know, two extra glasses of water, drinking one less glass of wine a night, like all of these little things can be starting points.

[00:30:45] And I've had clients who, you know, we, we do almost nothing on paper and they have tremendous results. I know I'm ranting a little bit, but I'll tell a quick story to, to just to paint the picture. There was a client of mine a while back, and he drank a lot of soft drinks, soda, you know, whatever. And in the beginning he was very overweight, had some injuries and these things. And so all we did in the first two weeks of working together was I said, okay, he was drinking four, four to five, like Cokes, which is obviously a lot, right? And everyone knows that conceptually. I said, okay. We've got to reduce this. This is like our biggest needle mover. And it's not like the rest of his diet was healthy either.

[00:31:25] I said, like you can still eat out, do whatever you got to do. We've got to cut these sodas down. So I said, can you do one a day from five? Can you do one a day? He said, I'll do you one better. I'll do one every other day. Phenomenal. And that was all he did for two weeks. He lost about 12 pounds, started feeling better, really started like having some major positive results.

[00:31:44] And then that cascaded into much more weight loss, and more time in the gym, and a bunch of other positive things from there. But, you know, the long answer to your question is like the minimum that you can do to get results is a little bit more than what you're doing right now.

[00:31:58] Tim: Great. Yeah, and I ask that because I think sometimes people don't realize that small changes do matter and that you can see good improvements from that. And, like you say, it cascades, you start to want to make better choices because of the already better choices that you've been making.

[00:32:16] Daniel: Exactly. Even the, the upper end of the amount of time that you're going to spend is also not even that high. Like, if you went to the gym to lift every single day, which for most people, I don't even recommend doing that, but so that's, seven days, let's call it an hour workout, which is on average, that's seven hours.

[00:32:33] And if you did that plus like a few hours of cardio a week, let's call it 10 hours. And out of 168 hours in the week, like that is a crazy amount of exercise. It's still not like that much. So when you know that, and this goes back to what we were talking about, like very early on in the conversation, like when you know that you can say, Oh, this is actually not as overwhelming as I thought it would have to be.

[00:32:57] You don't have to be in the gym for two, three hours every day. That's ridiculous. You don't need to do that. So can you get away with a lot less than that? Absolutely. You can, and have tremendous results. 

[00:33:06] Tim: Yeah, absolutely. And I think sometimes to o, what happens is we go to the gym and it takes longer than it needs to because of time between sets and like the pacing. I guess there's probably whole ways you can work out programs to keep that on track too.

[00:33:23] Daniel: Yeah. And again, I hate to keep bringing it back to this, but this just comes into everything. It's just being aware of what you're doing. 

[00:33:30] So the reason that you waste time in the gym is because you went to the gym without a plan. If you made a plan, you said, okay, I've got 45 minutes to get in and out of the gym. It takes me, you know, 10 minutes to drive there, 10 minutes to drive home or back to work or wherever you're going. Fine. You got 45 minutes in and out. Well, write a workout. Or have a workout written for you that will take about 45 minutes.

[00:33:50] And then also know within that, how to adjust that. So, you know, you need to use that piece of equipment. Well, that piece of equipment is busy. Can I do this exercise fourth in my rotation instead of second in my rotation? If yes, then great. Make that switch. 

[00:34:03] Or I can't get to that piece of equipment. It's too busy. You know, two people are using it. What other exercise can I do instead? And then you stick to your 45 minutes. So when you start dilly dallying, texting on your phone and, you know, doing different stuff and pacing around the gym and talking to people and, you know, all these other things, then you end up spending an hour and a half in the gym and you still had a bad workout.

[00:34:24] So, so it's like, you didn't really solve any issues, but, but then we claim that like, we didn't have enough time. And it's like, well, we did have enough time. It was a misallocation of that time. So again, we've got to be really clear on having structure in what we're doing, a reason why we're doing the things that we're doing, and then hold ourselves internally and externally accountable to follow through on the things that we said we were going to do.

[00:34:46] Tim: Yeah, that's super important because you definitely had those days where it's like it was an hour and a half in the gym and I didn't accomplish much. 

[00:34:54] Daniel: Yeah. And we all do, as long as that's not, you know, happening more often than not, then you're okay. 

[00:34:59] Tim: Yeah, cause then you start thinking, well, I don't have two hours or an hour and a half to go to the gym, but your workout shouldn't take that long.

[00:35:06] Daniel: Exactly. Yeah. I mean, a solid workout is 45 minutes to an hour. You don't, rarely will you need more than that amount of time. 

[00:35:13] Tim: Right. All good points for, for people who are looking to get into this, and I was thinking too, as you're planning for this episode, another kind of interesting parallel between content creation, and a lot of content creators, they are also coaches. That's their monetization strategy, you're a coach and a content creator.

[00:35:32] So there's, there is this kind of similarity, challenge with client acquisition. And I was just wondering if you had any tips to offer for content creators from your industry. How do you approach the challenge or the process of client acquisition? 

[00:35:46] Daniel: Yeah, great, great question. I mean, client acquisition is the, the toughest part of any business ever, right?

[00:35:52] I mean, most of us are like, if you're becoming a coach of, of something or offering a product or whatever, like doing your thing is actually pretty easy for the most part, right? Like, the coaching part of my job is the easiest part of my job. The hardest part is acquiring new clients and customers and whatnot.

[00:36:10] So I use my content to help drive traffic and to get clients, acquire clients. Except I would say that I use it more as a way of displaying authority in a thing, rather than just trying to go viral. Because, you know, while that's possible, like it's not a strategy, right? If I could just, you know, formulaically do that, I would have already done it and that would be done.

[00:36:35] But, it's possible, you know, you cross your fingers and hope every single day, but it's not, it's not a real strategy. So you use this to say like, Hey, look at this library of stuff. I know what I'm doing. I've got a podcast, 150 plus episodes. So people find that and listen to a few and they hear me for free and they're like, Hey, this guy knows what he's doing.

[00:36:53] Like there are hundreds of hours of me demonstrating my expertise online to sit so that a potential client who finds me can accurately and confidently make a decision that, Hey, this guy knows what he's doing. I like his style. I like his vibe. I like the way he talks and you know, all this stuff. And so it's more of like it's an authority builder rather than client acquisition machine at this point for me, because of the size of my audience, I think that that will change as, as things grow.

[00:37:23] Because even to this day, like most of my clients still come from referrals and, like my personal network of real people that I know in real life. But then again, it's like, Oh, that Daniel guy from high school is doing such and such a thing. It's like, Oh, you know, who is he? Cause they don't remember, you know, 10 years ago doing this stuff.

[00:37:42] But, Oh, we go see his social media or his podcast. Oh, wow. Like he's legit. Like this guy actually knows what he's talking about. I'll reach out and, and, you know, consider hiring him or do a consultation or whatever. So, so yeah, I think that. Using the content. And again, we talked about this earlier. It's like, it's tough to play the, to play the content game.

[00:37:59] So, not to forget to use your real world, like connections and like real world, regular marketing, going out and talking to people and meeting your community and then your, your content is the is the authority card to point people towards to say, look at me, look at the things that I've done, look at the things that I talk about, look at the things that I know. It's a free trial of your services for, you know, whatever coaching you're offering or whatever thing that you're doing.

[00:38:27] Tim: That's such a great way for content creators of all types to think of their ability, especially when you're a beginner. Because, well, I think a lot of creators that I see online are trying to approach it that other way, like they're putting all of the eggs in the basket of, like, I'm just going to create some viral videos and that's going to be my acquisition process.

[00:38:48] Not even thinking that. Okay. What happens if you did have a viral video? Some had a hundred potential clients. Could you serve them? Well, probably not. 

[00:38:57] Daniel: Exactly. So again, it's, just not a real strategy. If you could do that, then, then do it. Great. But, but you obviously can't do that on the flip of a switch. Just to create viral content to be an overnight sensation.

[00:39:09] The other thing to consider with like using only content as the only thing you use to acquire clients is think about. You know, for people listening, like, think about how many hours, how much time you've already spent. On creating content, like you are working for less than minimum wage by a lot and it's like, not even close.

[00:39:29] Right? So continuing, you know, back to our gym example, continuing to bash your head against the wall, trying to do that. Like, yes, keep going, continue to do your thing and whatever. But that can't be the only thing that you rely on because obviously it's not supporting itself enough up to this point. And so if you're struggling with just one more video, just one more tweets, one more Instagram posts, one more, whatever, like, yeah, maybe, maybe, but it's, it's not a good ROI on that.

[00:39:55] So keep doing the thing, but you've got to find other ways to do it. So. Just give, like, give lots of value. Show people that you're intelligent and competent and good at what you do and personable and all of these things. And then when they find you, then they're more likely to hire you. If you're just posting stuff to try and be viral.

[00:40:11] When, when it comes time to hire you, people are, people are gonna be like, oh, this guy or girl or whatever. It's, they look cool. They make cool videos. But they don't seem like they know what they're talking about. I know people in the fitness space who have hundreds of thousands of followers. And they'll post and say like, Hey, I'm looking for, you know, 10 clients to sign up for blah, blah, blah, blah.

[00:40:29] And they get zero customers and it's because they have lots and lots of followers, but their posting is not about education or showing expertise or anything. It's about look at my abs, look at my butt, look at this, look at just like flashy, this fashion, you know, these kinds of things and fine.

[00:40:47] So you've gotta give value. Give, the people a reason to think that you're good at what you do. And then when they're ready, they'll, they'll find you.

[00:40:53] But you've gotta use some, you know, off internet marketing channels as well. 

[00:40:57] Tim: Yeah, and I think the point you made about displaying authority is an important one for content creators too. To understand that that can be the role for the content because. The other thing some creators do is they, they wanna put all the good content behind paywall, and I'll just, you know, I'll just post generic stuff out there that, that people could Google anyways.

[00:41:19] Yeah. It's like, well, how are you gonna acquire clients on that basis? Right? Like, the more successful creators are often ones to put out their best stuff and give it away for free. 

[00:41:29] And I was like, well, then why do you work with that person? It's because then you get the tailored, customized, attention program kind of thing. 

[00:41:38] Daniel: Exactly. And this is extremely true in fitness and across the board and all, you know, service and coaching and whatever, like, with the internet, there is no shortage of knowledge. You can learn anything, any piece of knowledge in, in one second. And so trying to gatekeep that is like, who are you gatekeeping it from?

[00:41:56] Like you didn't delete all that information off of Google. So just because you didn't say it doesn't mean like 8 million other people didn't say it. So you're not preventing anyone from like knowing the secret knowledge. And the fact is like, there are no secrets. So give everything away for free. And then what people pay for is the structure of the accountability and the personality that you bring to them to be able to tailor that approach.

[00:42:16] And like, what works for me, right? And like in, in the context of a podcast, we can give all kinds of fitness advice and stuff, and there's, you know, hours and hours and hours of fitness advice and stuff on my podcast, but is it directly applicable to every single person who listens? No, of course not.

[00:42:31] Because I'm just talking to, you know, the, the audience or the guest. And so we don't know the exact context of that individual. But when you work with a coach and again, fitness or any industry, they'll be able to be like, okay, well, here are the rules. And here's how we bend those rules to be applicable to you, the individual.

[00:42:49] And that's what people are paying for. 

[00:42:50] Tim: Absolutely. With your own business, do you, do you see a point at which you might, might go the route of, of using I guess, more digital strategy? Like I don't know if you have a lead magnet that you're attached to your website and then. Okay, lead magnet, it's a funnel to you know, your, your service kind of approach. I mean, have you been doing that or is that something that you're planning in the future? 

[00:43:13] Daniel: It's something that I've been lacking on and because I haven't really needed it, you know, you say that it's like, well, could things have been better if I was using it?

[00:43:21] Like, yeah, probably. So, so I guess I have needed it. I've been slacking on that a little bit, but, but yes, definitely I will lean into those things more and the more like traditional internet way of doing things. Yeah. And as the business like grows and morphs, that will become more important. And as the volume increases as well, right?

[00:43:41] Like, not that this is something that personally is like on my radar, but if I was going to ever sell like like a product, like a t shirt, I don't know, some gym t shirt, you know, Like, I can't just go and sell that to people like my neighbors and like, you need some volume for that.

[00:43:53] Right. But at the same time, like, it doesn't make sense for me to start doing that right now because like, it's going to have, you know, only a handful of sales, like it's going to be losing me money by a lot. So, so I think that, yes, like those, those more internet lead magnet to, to like sales page to you know, subscription service or physical product or whatever coaching service, does does make a lot of sense. 

[00:44:16] But, for now, all I'm doing is the one-on-one online training, and that is so personable that it's like to have that whole system set up. It's not like I'm making sales every single day. If I was doing that, I would be so completely overwhelmed with clients that I wouldn't be able to like service them properly.

[00:44:32] So there is a, so there is like a soft cap on the number of people that I can service at once, but when I change what I offer or add an offer that is like a much more low or like much more hands-off from me, that is more scalable then yes, of course, those things will, will, will play a larger role in my marketing efforts.

[00:44:52] Tim: You know, it's a great point. It's really about figuring out what's the return on investing because if you've already got, you know, enough clients that you're adding lead magnet, sales funnel, all of that. And it's just leading to the service you're currently offering. It's like, well, you're just adding a cost.

[00:45:09] Daniel: Yeah. And, and a cost of time. Like, you know, it was, I'm going to put three days of work into like create a lead magnet and create this and create that and create all these things. And, but if I just, you know, talked to two more people, like I could assign two more clients and that would have only taken two hours versus like three days of work.

[00:45:25] And so there's a cost-benefit to it. Now, those things, like I'm behind on those and, I've been putting them off for too long, but it's because I always find something that's like, well, this is more actionable right now for me to do this. This is not having this lead magnet set up in this funnel.

[00:45:41] Yeah, it matters, but it's not immediately important. And so I always find things like, Oh, I'll just next, next week, next week. 

[00:45:48] Tim: I think it's perfectly okay. Because I think that's where some sometimes creators forget that they could you know, if you're a video editor or if you're offering some other kind of service, you could build a significant business through referrals.

[00:46:03] And I think sometimes people feel they have to build that digital marketing infrastructure. You only need it when you like, you need it. 

[00:46:10] Daniel: Yeah, exactly. You're competing with everyone on the internet, like the downside to, you know, you have access to the whole world, but the whole world also has access to a lot more people.

[00:46:20] You're not competing with the, the other content creators in your neighborhood. You're competing with other content creators across the world, across languages, across everything. So, you can't discount like, you know, your personal network. And the other thing is understanding what is it that you are selling or offering and how many people, how many clients do you really need?

[00:46:39] Like, I don't need 500 clients. Like, there's no way that I could service 500 clients in the way that I, that I service now. It'd be insane. Right. So, so I don't, I don't need 500 or 5, 000 or whatever. Like if I had 50 clients, I would be, like that's rammed full. Like I'd barely be able to keep up with that. That's 50 people. Like there's 8 billion people in the world. I don't need all of them to be a customer. 

[00:47:03] Tim: Right. Yeah, it's only if you're like, if you start building a team and you're really scaling and that's, that's where you think about like, what, what is scalable for me and what do I want to do?

[00:47:13] Like, I, I think do you want to lead a team? If not, you probably don't need those hundreds of clients. Maybe use something else, like create a book, you know, write a book, sell that, outline, create a book. Of course, like you say, there's all these other options. You got to think about the right strategy.

[00:47:31] Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. Just think about what, what do you actually want out of it? How much money do you want or need to make from it? And, and, you know, be reasonable. Of course, you always want to, you know, make millions of dollars, but like, again, are you willing and able to do the things that it takes to do that? Like, maybe not.

[00:47:46] So understand what it is that you're actually trying to get. And then think about, well, what's the easiest way to get there? What's the minimum effective dose of things that I need to get there? Like if I have 30 clients for your service of you know, editing videos or whatever it is that you do.

[00:48:04] And you're a one man show and you have like, you know, you have your software that you use and your ongoing expenses, like the beauty of content creation, internet kind of businesses is like we have very low operating expenses. We don't have to pay rent. We don't have to pay staff for the most part. We have, you know, some expenses of your website and maybe some software that you subscribe to, or, you know, a microphone and whatever these things, but in the grand scheme of things, like they're not that expensive compared to like, you know, buying a warehouse and buying tons of merchandise and renovating, like these are crazy expenses or operating expenses are very low for the most part.

[00:48:39] So. You, if you're just working for yourself, like you don't really need all that many clients because like 90 percent of that is just coming to you, you know, minus some for the tax man, but, but 90 percent of it is coming straight to you. So, you really need a lot less than you think for, for most people.

[00:48:55] Tim: Yeah, well, you've told us a little bit about this, but in closing, you tell us you know, what you do and how people can connect. 

[00:49:03] Daniel: Yeah, so best way is probably through Instagram. I mean, check on my website. Everything is just Daniel Yores like at danielyores.com . 

[00:49:09] But what I do is one-on-one online fitness coaching. So I work with people to get them healthy, strong, lean, fit, feeling good in their body. And my approach, as I say, is that I don't really have an approach. Everything is customized. So yes, we're going to work out, we're going to work on your nutrition. We're going to work on the lifestyle factors, but I don't have a system to say that, Hey, I do this for everyone.

[00:49:33] Now, I meet you where you are. And then get you a little bit further from there, and get you a little bit further from there, and get you a little bit further from there. And we can keep pushing the envelope as long as you're happy. As long as you're continuing to set and reach goals and, and continue to, to be more fit, and just make fitness a part of your lifestyle.

[00:49:48] So that's, that's really, that's what I do. That's, that's a, that's the best way that I can sum up what I do. And you know, I run the podcast and whatnot as well. And that's super fun, but it's kind of like, that's not really the business. 

[00:49:58] Tim: And then the name of your podcast? 

[00:50:01] Daniel: Very creatively.

[00:50:02] Also, just my name, the Daniel Yores podcast. And maybe this is an interesting thought. I get, get your thoughts on it and just put it out there for, for the listeners. But the reason that I named it, that is because I looked at the top podcast when I started it. And actually the third birthday of my podcast was actually yesterday that we're recording this.

[00:50:20] Thank you. And, and so. I looked at top podcasts and most of them are like named after the person, right? At the time when I was looking at Joe Rogan experience, Tim Ferris show, you know, they're, they're just named after the person. And I thought, okay, well I can spend a bunch of time coming up with a very creative and unique and something or other fitness kind of title.

[00:50:41] I said, well, okay, but I don't have any names that are coming to my mind. And if I make it fitness, like then I'm tied to only fitness stuff. Forever on the podcast. And of course, like the podcast will always be like fitness and health focused, but I want to give myself the latitude to explore some non fitness topics and go off topic a little bit in like fitness adjacent topics.

[00:51:05] So, so yeah, so I think that that was a good move. On my part, because even friends and other people I have that, that I know who have podcasts, I know that it's their podcast, but I forget the name of the podcast. It's like, Oh, it's Joe's podcast. His name is the, you know, whatever, but I forget. So if people know, like they know you.

[00:51:25] And again, but when people are buying your services, like they're not buying you know, the, the brand name fitness. They're buying Daniel Yorris coaching, they're not buying like some brand that I am because it's just me, I'm the brand they're buying me.

[00:51:39] And so that's what people, that's what people want. And so I think that that's a pretty good tool for people who are thinking about naming and branding and stuff. Like just call it yourself. You can always change it later if you want to or need to, but name it after yourself because people are buying you, listening to you, tuning into you.

[00:51:55] And then, you know, you kind of, you kind of branch out from there and you give yourself more flexibility to do that. Do whatever it is that you want.

[00:52:00] Tim: I think it makes a lot of sense. For a business like yours, like you say, you're the, you're the expert and that's what you want people to remember.

[00:52:08] And it's so hard, frankly, to come up with those names, like, you know, you can brainstorm for hours and think, okay, well, noone's thought of this before. You go to the internet, there's 15 of them. 

[00:52:17] Daniel: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I came across that too. It's like, I had a couple of names and I looked them up. It's like, oh, they're all, there's all something, you know, like, okay, no one's going to have my name.

[00:52:26] So I'll just use that.

[00:52:28] Tim: Yeah, well, thanks very much for being on the show, Daniel. It's great spending some time with you. 

[00:52:32] Daniel: Yeah, thank you for, for having me. This has been it's been fun. So hopefully it was you know, helpful to, to the listeners and I'm glad that you enjoyed it as well, but thanks a lot, Tim.

[00:52:40] Tim: Very helpful. Thank you.

[00:52:41] You know, I got a lot of great takeaways from this episode with Daniel yours, but in this segment, I want to focus on the one overriding theme that I think makes the biggest difference in terms of our ability to fit fitness into our daily lives, and that is calendar management. Even with a super busy schedule, there's probably time in there somewhere where we can make time for exercise.

[00:53:04] If, and this is the big if, if we're willing to reprioritize fitness over other stuff, recalibrate how we're fitting it into our busy schedules, and reconceptualize the way we think about exercise itself. Because as I've been thinking about my conversation with Daniel, and my experience with fitness over the last three decades, I've really come to think that these three areas hold the key to making a positive change for myself, and I hope it's going to help you too.

[00:53:31] So let's talk about each of these three things in turn. So the first one is just a hard truth that part of the reason fitness doesn't get prioritized is that there have been times when I have valued other things more, work, school, content creation, what have you. Now there is a reality here that sometimes it makes a lot of sense to reprioritize our schedules and put something else ahead of our workouts.

[00:53:56] Sometimes there is an early morning meeting we have to get out and rush to and can't afford to miss. And Or there's a time sensitive piece of content that does need to get done by a certain date. But, in my experience, we often have a lot more latitude in these things than we might tell ourselves that we have.

[00:54:13] Maybe because these other things feel more important to us in the short term. Or we're not enjoying the process of working out as much as we could. So we take these other things and we use them as excuses for not working out. So my challenge to myself is to think harder about how urgent some of these things really are, and whether or not I can actually squeeze in an hour or two here or there for the workouts.

[00:54:36] Knowing that this is critical to the long term sustainability of everything else. Second thing is to reduce the reliance on routines, which can get disrupted too easily if you have a hectic schedule, and then that leads to frustration and giving up on working out altogether. Let me give you an example.

[00:54:54] One of the times when I was in the best shape was when we lived in Toronto and had that gym in the basement of our apartment. I would work out every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday, and I hardly ever missed a day. That's because it was after work, there was hardly anything in my schedule that could disrupt my ability to work out, and it was also easy to get to where I was going to work out.

[00:55:16] So this workout routine just became an unquestioned habit. I mean, when I have a routine and I can just follow it But then what happened is we moved away from the location, the routine got busted up, and I've never really been able to get it back on track since then. And therein lies the problem with relying too heavily on routines to help achieve your goals.

[00:55:37] Because routines can be disrupted, and if they can be disrupted, so can the thing that you're trying to achieve through the routine. And you know, for the longest time, I thought that the answer was to just try and find some ideal, unbreakable routine. Sometimes that would never be disrupted, and then that was the path back to where it was before.

[00:55:57] And in my experience, though, that's actually not the answer, because you do get to a certain point in life where Those kind of predictable routines are not possible to create. There's always going to be something cropping up. And so, we gotta find another way. So after a lot of trial and error, I realized that the best way to deal with this is to set a weekly goal rather than trying to adhere to a weekly routine.

[00:56:22] That is just not likely to be maintained. And so what I try to do is say that I'm going to work out three times a week and then block specific times in the calendar as appropriate for that week. And because I'm blocking times that I know are less likely to be disrupted, I have a much better chance of making the workout happen.

[00:56:38] It's not necessarily going to be the same blocks of time every day, every week. We're going to have to be flexible and change it according to managing our time and managing our energy. Um, In those particular weeks, and that's okay. Just take a flexible, adaptable approach, but even to make that work, there is one more critical thing here, and I'm gonna call that the enjoyment factor.

[00:57:01] And I would have to say that like having a set time, I tended to usually have a very set workout routine that I would do pretty much every time that I went to the gym. Like I said, I'm a routine based guy. Now that makes it easy to decide what to do for the workout, but it really also makes those workouts kind of boring over time, because you're always doing the same thing.

[00:57:21] So we gotta mix things up in order to make things more enjoyable. And you know, that's not even a great way to build fitness and strength over time, either, because as you do the same routine over and over again, your body adapts to that routine, and that's why I would hit these plateaus, where it would be really hard to progress with.

[00:57:40] above the level that I had reached. It's like Daniel says, what got us from A to B isn't necessarily going to be what gets us from B to C. And you know you can apply that to content creation and many other things in life. That makes it all the more ironic that part of the reason for doing the same routine over and over was in the hopes of seeing faster progress in those particular muscle groups.

[00:58:00] But as we know, that is ultimately self-defeating, and maybe, just maybe, I've got to the point where I can take a more holistic view of fitness. Try mixing different fitness activities together at different times and make better progress overall. I'll let you know how it goes, and if you're interested in connecting with Daniel to get his help with your fitness routine, I've linked his information in the description.

[00:58:23] And to help you with creating that system, I made this video here, which is about the video content management system that I've created to help myself make more videos in less time and with greater consistency than ever before. Thanks for watching, check it out, and we'll see you in the next video.