Live All Your Life
Live All Your Life
047 Are You Sacrificing Your Health For Work Life Balance?
Our society is sick, largely because we don't take good care of ourselves.
Some of this is due to our work culture of "more is better". But what if, instead of trying to work more, we focus on increasing our value?
How can we contribute more to others in such a way that allows us to take better care of ourselves?
The right mindset can provide us with more opportunities...let's explore these ideas to help you Live All Your Life.
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one of our clients is my mother. my mom has worked so hard my whole life. She's always been busy. She's always been working. And that's kind of what she's famous for. There was one particular day that we were checking in with her she said something like this week was just crazy and like the wheels fell off and whatever. And I. I started to cry on the call. Gosh, I, it was embarrassing because I didn't think she could see me, but I guess as my mother, of course she would but I got really emotional about it because it made me sad to think that my mother's work was standing in the way of what she wanted in that instance or in her life. But of course, this is not the only time we've ever heard this. We've had many people, whether they're prospects or clients that we currently have, or have had in the past, where their work life is so demanding that there are these huge sacrifices that, could be really hard on a family, or that could be really hard on your body. And so I wanted to talk about that today because I think this is an area of our business and of our coaching that we don't want to shy away from
Cody:I think it's even beyond work culture. It's our society in general. It's kind of odd because you hear a lot about self care now self care self care self care But As with most pop culture terminology, it's very ill defined what does self care mean? And I think there's sort of an emphasis on self care in some ways because nobody's taking care of themselves. I mean, just on a basic level people don't take very good care of themselves. It's pretty apparent when you look at society I'm Tali Zabari.
Tali:Hi, I'm Cody Limbaugh. Welcome to the Live All Your Life podcast.
Cody:Hi, honey. Hey, baby. How's it going? It's going great.
Tali:I have an iceberg for today and it piggybacks off of what we were just discussing, which is re certifying as coaches. is not. A part of philosophy of fitness, but of course it has a way of working itself into every conversation we have. So Cody and I are both up for re-certification through CrossFit. And I've been certified for a little over 10 years. How about you?
Cody:My first certification was in 2004. Okay. And then CrossFit in 2007.
Tali:Okay. So I. Wanted to ask what the story was behind Your first level one cert because I know it's a good one. And I think mine's pretty good, too
Cody:The story you mean the gym? Yeah peeps. Yeah so Yeah back in Hmm. Where do I start this story? So if I started with nothing and was like, you know, we had three kids at home and kind of barely making ends meet. I was working restaurant jobs, trying to get my first cert through NASM. And then fast forward a few years and I had been working for Bally's Bally total fitness and then went out on my own. So everything was just bootstrapped and like we were just barely making ends meet and I wanted to become a CrossFit affiliate. And in order to become a CrossFit branded gym, you have to. be certified first and then through them. And then you pay an additional fee for the sort of, for the affiliation. And so it scraped and scraped for my level one and got it, but I couldn't afford the affiliation dues. And so, yeah, I think I may have misspoke that one time, but I think I got myself to the level one. But it was just like a barely by the skin of my teeth kind of thing, making payments, calling CrossFit, like, Hey, can I pay half now? You know, that kind of thing. And then got that, but we couldn't affiliate still. And so my members came together and they threw me a party and it was, I think somebody's birthday in the gym. We did a lot of those kind of like get together birthday things. And then they gave me a check for enough to cover the affiliation dues. No, I think I have that wrong. No, that was the level one. Yeah. They paid for the level one because it's kind of another cool part of the story I was remembering. So they paid for my level one and I went and took it. And then I was not an affiliate and I met Greg Glassman,
Tali:right? Yeah,
Cody:I can't believe I forgot this. Yeah. So they paid for my, for my cert. Then when I went and met Greg Glassman at a, some kind of conference, he asked me why I was not affiliated. And I just sort of paused. I didn't say anything. I was just like, well and he goes, is it the money? And I go well, yeah, it's kind of tight right now. And he called over and his, his assistant and he gave me a complimentary. First year of my affiliation, he's like, you need to be an affiliate because yeah, he and I were having some great exchanges at the conference. And so he set us up. Yeah. That rain is sudden. I wonder if our windows are down anywhere.
Tali:I know I rolled my window up and all the cats are inside. So they just went out. Oh, fuck. Maybe not. I love that story. Every layer of it. I think it's so great.
Cody:Just the community coming together. Yeah, that was cool.
Tali:Maybe lightning can strike again because I just reached out to CrossFit just now telling them that I don't think I'm going to recertify. It's just not great timing. Not just financially, but the travel I think is what makes it really hard for me to conceptualize and it all has to happen in a really short amount of time. But. My story isn't quite as great as yours, but it is meaningful. I was lucky enough to receive, I think it was 5, 000 from a deceased family member, and several people in the family received this money, and it was meant to be for school. So whether it went to like your living expenses, or your Books or whatever, you know, 5, 000 doesn't go that far when you're talking about college. And so I had it in my savings account and I, I don't remember what we decided it was going to be for, but I remember really wanting to become a CrossFit coach. And I was in my junior year of college and without consulting anybody, just one night I made one of my many impulse purchases of A thousand dollars certification. So that money was not meant to be used for CrossFit coaching or anything like that. But that certification has given me far more in return than my degree that I got at the time.
Cody:And it was education.
Tali:It was, but think about like the time that was put into it, you know or how much money in comparison. Sorry, I just kicked you. Anyway, thinking about that story, I'm like, Oh, maybe I should recertify because it was so meaningful, but I don't know. I don't know. Maybe I'm still on the fence.
Cody:Yeah, it's a little hard to cough up a couple grand for certifications when we've been doing this for years and years and The amount of takeaway knowledge we're going to get from a weekend seminar is going to be pretty minimal.
Tali:But that's not really where it
ends.
Cody:No, but that's my point. That's all you get out of that thousand, you know, 1100 bucks each is just the weekend. That's all you get from it. You know, that's all you get for it. So it's a little, it's kind of a tough pill for me to swallow.
Tali:Not maybe the first time around, you were mentioning the other day that one of the pros was that to be eligible to work in a CrossFit gym, you had to have it, which was the case for me.
Cody:Yeah, it's a good place to start. I just, after this, this is my 19th year coaching. I just feel like paying another thousand dollars to assert I've already taken before and. Many iterations of the first level. I don't know. This doesn't seem very worth it to me.
Tali:Well, I guess I'm still thinking about it. Not really the topic of today's conversation but I will tell one more story that does introduce today's topic. So Cody and I, we've been doing some remote coaching this year and one of the things that we offer as a part of our coaching service is a weekly video call with the both of us where we get to discuss. You know, how your training went, what's going well, what's not going well, what can we adjust moving forward? And one of our clients is my mother. And I love the work that we've been doing with her so far. Not only has she been benefiting and hopefully we'll get her on the podcast so she can tell everybody herself, but I can tell that she is. Getting a lot out of it. And you two are strengthening your relationship through this process, which is meaningful for me to be watching. And you know, I've been a trainer for years and it's taken this long for my mom to kind of take me up on my offer of being a support to her. So that's really cool. And there was one particular day that we were checking in with her that even before we got on a call. I remember just saying something like, you know, my mom has worked so hard my whole life. She's always been busy. She's always been working. And that's kind of what she's famous for. And when we got on the call, you know, she said something like this week was just crazy and like the wheels fell off and whatever. And I. I started to cry on the call. Gosh, I, it was embarrassing because I didn't think she could see me, but I guess as my mother, of course she would but I got really emotional about it because it made me sad to think that my mother's work was standing in the way of what she wanted in that instance or in her life. And she was very quick to say that she wasn't suffering as a result, you know, this is something that she's chosen for herself for her industry is really there's an expectation from the beginning that there's an element of self sacrifice and that she has been okay with that. But of course, this is not the only time we've ever heard this. We've had many people, whether they're prospects or clients that we currently have, or have had in the past, where their work life is so demanding that there are these huge sacrifices that, you know, what was reflected in that conversation that was, you know, that could be really hard on a family, or that could be really hard on your body. And so I wanted to talk about that today because I think this is an area of our business and of our coaching that we don't want to shy away from because you and I have been really well aware of this concept and even though maybe our life doesn't reflect it all the time, we're moving towards that finally. And I think a really tangible way. So that was a lot to say, why don't you respond, take
Cody:a sip of coffee. Well, this work culture, I suppose is to sum up what we're talking about here, but I think it's even beyond work culture. It's our society in general. It's kind of odd because you hear a lot about self care now self care self care self care But
Tali:I actually met somebody the other day whose company like allots them a self care hour once a week. Oh,
Cody:that's funny. Yeah But that is very, as with most pop culture terminology, it's very ill defined what does self care mean? And I think there's sort of an emphasis on self care in some ways because nobody's taking care of themselves. I mean, just on a basic level people don't take very good care of themselves. It's pretty apparent when you look at society where, you know, over 70 percent of the population of in America is overweight, 70, over 70%. And
Tali:it's not a crazy judgment. I'm probably considered part of that
Cody:70%. So yeah, there's not, you know, it's almost like we have to give a disclaimer every time we talk about anything these days, cause it seems like there's like this air of sensitivity and in the world, certain things you're not supposed to say or whatever, but This is not a judgment call on any one person's ethics or their beauty standards or their worthiness as a person or love or anything like that. I'm just talking about health and, and literally just taking good care of yourself. And if you look back in on videos that are 50 or 60 years old, And you look at a beach or a downtown scene in New York city or something like that, 50, 60 years ago, you don't see hardly any person that's overweight. Hardly anyone is overweight. And that's not a very long time ago. You know, it'd be one thing if it was some sort of evidence of how our ancestors were or something like that. But we're talking about like, Our grandparents, our grandparents did not work live in a generation where young people were overweight very often, you know, it was a very small outlier of people and So obviously some things have changed in a dramatic way, and I don't think it's as simple as just to say it's one thing. There's obviously a lot of politics that have influenced this in our culture because the corn industry and the lobbying that took place and the idea that we should be on low fat diets. And somehow grains is like the first thing that we, the foundation of our nutrition. That's kind of a ridiculous notion at this point. But that was sold to the American public as the food pyramid. And. But that's just one thing and I don't think it's just that one thing.
Tali:Well, we're talking about a different thing today, which
Cody:is, we're culture. Right. Well, I was circling back to that though. It's like there's a culture now of the idea that physical activity, working out, taking good care of your body is something that you do if everything else in your life is done. It's like the last thing that people do. I used to be A little frustrated when I first entered this as an industry, like as a profession, because when when economic Issues would come up with clients, you know, firing their personal trainers, like one of the first things they do. And I used to think of myself as, yeah, well, yeah, but I'm talking about individuals like their priority list. People's priority is like, well, that's not necessary. Like the gym membership. I can let that go. And there's the great lie
Tali:that we all tell ourselves that. I can
Cody:do this on my own. Oh, yeah. I can do this on my own. And then like, how's that going for you? The But I've really shifted my thinking on this because I used to think, well, I'm in a luxury business. Like not everyone can afford what I have to offer and not everyone can do this. And I'm going to have the time and the money. And now that I'm a little more experienced and I've been around and I just look around at our society and their list of priorities, the way that we prioritize things, it's a very important message for me to get out to people that this is not a luxury business. That if you don't have, if you're not fit, you need to get help. And if you, if you can't make the changes on your own, you need a coach. And it's not a, you should get a coach. I said you need a coach. People talk about this all the time for therapy and mental health. But if you are struggling with your health, you know, whether it's, you know, I see people in their fifties getting like, Starting to talk about shoulder replacements and stuff and and they're kind of like being put on hold or given medication or take it easy or whatever until they're in their sixties and then they get a new shoulder. There's a different way to handle that, and that is to, you know, really learn and take care of your body. And for some reason it's looked at as some sort of luxury or nice to have thing. I think it's really the foundation for being healthy in every aspect of your life, your relationships, your mental wellbeing. We are not, we are not like some soul walking around in a meat sack. That's just not how it works. We are us, like we're in our body and our body, it really affects everything we do. In fact, including the way that we think that, you know, when you. There's just study after study after study to prove this, but anyone who's experienced it knows that when you work out and you're fit, you're also thinking clearly. You have more ambition to do other things in your life. It's easier to eat healthy when you're active because when you're active. It makes you want to eat healthier instead of just junking out cause you know how drunk food makes you feel. And it's just, it's like this big, big snowball effect that when you start taking care of your body, a lot of other things go right in your life. So it's not a luxury. It's not a nice to have. People need to take this fucking seriously. And I'm, I'm really getting riled up about it. Not, not, not in this moment, but just like over the past few months because of the statistics that I was talking about, like It's not a joke anymore, like we can't have something like COVID come through and most of the people who died from COVID. We're overweight and obviously most of our population is overweight. So there's like some correlation there as far as the statistics go. But it was, it was obvious and stated very early on in the pandemic that one of the most dangerous comorbidities that you could have that COVID was extremely dangerous for elderly people and overweight people. If that didn't wake people up to the importance of this, I don't know what would, but it's frustrating for me to. See a society that looks at this as some sort of luxury that getting in shape is just something that some, you know, health nuts do or athletes, or it's just a certain part of the population that should be doing this. Now, we all really need to take our health seriously and make it a priority. And this ties into our subject today. I'm sorry to keep, well, it does, because we're talking about work culture and part of the culture that. It says that working out as a luxury is the idea that your job comes first, above everything. Your job comes before your family, before your health, before your sleep, before everything. It's the priority that you build your life around, and I'm not convinced that that's ethical and I'm not convinced that that's really a natural thing either. I think this is a societal
Tali:thing. It's not, but it's also come to be something that feels really necessary for folks. I mean, I haven't looked at... A chart like this in a long time, but I remember seeing within the last 10 years, a chart of the amount of time that people are working and how that has been increasing, like, significantly since the 70s, but wages haven't you know, taking inflation into account. And so, you know, in order to keep our lives afloat, there is always this. Pressure. I need to work more. I need to be doing more. And that means that all those things that you were talking about, our well being, our health, our families, that all gets pushed aside to the end. And, you know, we, we don't necessarily have the answers for this, but this is just something that we keep bumping up against in our personal life and our professional life that I'm really hoping more people become aware of. Because it's really fucked. Like, it's kind of funny to feel this way about it because being the daughter of a workaholic I always saw myself doing the same thing. I started doing the same thing very early in life, you know, working 60 hour weeks. I was really proud of that. I thought that's how you got ahead. I thought that that's what a rich life was like. And Honestly, I think I could have kept going if it wasn't for you you have a really different set of values around that. And I think I would have been really happy moving forward in that way, but there would have been a cost. There would have been something that I would have had to give it a give up. And so, you know, what I'm hoping to really. Breakdown today is like how that becomes normalized and what are some things that we can think about to dismantle that because it's so deeply ingrained that more is more is more. And the thing about our workplace is like they are designed, it's like very archaic at this point, but like they're designed to reinforce, you know, working more. You know we get a pat on the back or a pay raise or whatever when we are investing more and it's not necessarily just quality based, but just how much more are you putting into it? All of your energy, all of your time. Yeah,
Cody:yeah, that's one thing when it's a passion. If somebody are, you know, is following some calling that they have in their life to devote long hours, you know, I don't think that. Okay. Okay. We're saying that that kind of commitment is not a good thing, but that's not most people. Most people have jobs that they tolerate at best, and many have jobs that they fucking hate. But they just do because they, they have to pay the bills,
Tali:you know, and also it's not maybe meant to be a state of being forever, you know, maybe, you know, my mom also got her PhD. And so I saw what that process was like. And so she had to just push. Extra hard for an, a handful of years and then it's kind of like, okay, I get to apply this, whatever, but it's It ought not be expected to maintain that high level of functioning all the time, you know, we talk about seasons. We talk about training periodization all the time as really important things to implement in our lives. And unfortunately, when it comes to our jobs, I, you know, I think nine to fives that if that is going to be that many hours a day, you know, I think nine Till you're 65 or whatever the, the, the going age is that's a lot of time missed. Mm-hmm. elsewhere. And I guess maybe it's easy for me to say that because I am in my first week. Being out of my nine to five in two years. So that's pretty cool. Yes. But it was not easy to get here. And it's not just saying it wasn't easy to get here because of all the logistics, like, you know, making up the financial deficit that it would have been. I have a lot of like guilt around it, you know, leaving work the last two days at 2 PM. I felt bad. About it. I knew that if I stayed longer my co workers Workload would have been easier. I know that I would have been like another helping hand and That's really hard. That's like a part of this conversation though is like there's just that expectation or there's this Pavlovian response to like Being asked to work more like I would always say yes when people ask me to cover Their shifts or like when I worked at the restaurant when we first moved here I could just tell they were struggling and so I was like I can work another day You know, it might not have been in my best interest, but it was in their best interest Yeah. And that's, that's the difficult part. You know, I really started to feel that being away eight hours a day and you and I became like passing ships and all of my best energy was being given to other people than my partner. It made me really sad. And I'm going to assume that's happening everywhere.
Cody:It could be pretty widespread, but I think a lot of people try to numb out to it because they don't think they have a choice. For sure. You know, and I think that one of the problems that we have with work culture is not so much the idea that you, you know, shouldn't give a lot to your work or to your job. I think part of the problem though, is that people. are not generally taught how to increase their value. So rather than increase their value, they increase their work, right? And so let's work more. Let's work harder. Let's work longer hours. Let's take a second job. More, more, more, more, more.
Tali:Even though there's so many studies that support if you condense that time, that efficiency, productivity, and all of that goes up.
Cody:Yeah, but people don't. Think about that. They just see that. Well, I'm making this much per hour Therefore I need to work this many more hours to get this bill paid or whatever Instead of thinking how can I increase my value my contribution to the world so that I can Demand a higher price for my life, you know, for the life I'm giving, because that's what you're doing. People don't maybe think of it in these terms, but you are giving your life to whatever you're spending time on. Cause that's all you have in this life is time. And so it really should be something that's great, you know. And I think there's just so many instances of people who want to add and add and add instead of thinking about how they can deepen, deepen,
Tali:like a difference between like expanding and deepening. Yeah. It's like a different
Cody:depth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I think that's a cool way to think of it. That's one of the things that I think is the problem with our work culture is that And it's probably not just work, it probably goes to a lot of the ways that we just think in our society, is that more equals better. Whether it's more hours, more time on the job, more cars, more... That's a huge myth too. Yeah, more of whatever, if it's working, then more must work more. And There might be a way to strategize so that less is better so that less is more so that you can thrive in other ways like
It's
Tali:not intuitive And
Cody:even if you go into a deeper level rather than just think of like how can I increase my contribution or my value? You can also think of like well if I scaled back so that I'm getting an extra hour of sleep more than I've been getting For the last, you know 10 years. I start working out and So I'm actually working less, but if you are healthier, if you are well rested and fit, then you can safely assume that you'd have the ability to contribute a higher value to your work than just putting in more hours depends on what the job is, of course, but like if you're in a job where that doesn't matter, maybe That's another conversation to try to look at a higher value job for yourself or business. I kind of this isn't to shit on it,
Tali:you can like add more value to yourself, you know, whether that's education or experience or whatever relationship, yeah, that's going to allow you to take a different direction that might serve you better. I mean, it, it's still going to be work, you know, these are not simple Yeah,
Cody:and I feel like a lot of these ways of thinking are Like I said, this is a really complex issue as far as all these societal things. That's not just like the corn industry that fucked us over. There's like lots of different things, but part of the industrial age too, is if you think about what that meant, if people were coming off of farms and going into factories and think about how a factory operates, you know, if you are on an assembly line and you're putting a widget on this box. And the only way to increase your value is to do more widgets. There's no change. You're not going to change anything. Until, unless you're somebody who can invent a machine to put the widgets on, you know, then all of a sudden you've increased your value, your contribution. But there's, I think, a mindset that's very deeply ingrained in our Western culture of trading dollars for hours and trading. You know, time for money or a certain action for money, and then to make more money, you just need more of that. You need to do more hours, more, more time, more widgets.
Tali:Just leads to burnout, don't it? Like that you can guarantee.
Cody:So, but I don't think it applies anymore. That's the thing is we're not really in the industrial age anymore. We are in the information age. We're in the who knows what age now. AI and all the craziness that's happening. But I think we really need to shift our mindset of how can I contribute more to the world? How can I increase my value rather than adding the time that I'm putting in? Because we have this assembly line attitude that's been ingrained for a few generations.
Tali:Well, so let's take that idea and let's apply it to our own business. I think we should workshop this. Sure. So how does this apply to what we were talking about earlier when it comes to our certifications?
Cody:Well, I don't see the certification as adding any value. That's why I'm having a hard time paying for it because to me it's almost like an ego thing. Like, Ooh, I got this level too. I can put this little thing up on my wall and look at the certification. I just went to, aren't I cool? And, and they're fun. I mean, I'll admit like every sort of been to, I've They're a total kick. I love being there. I love being in a learning environment. I like seeing the light bulb come on for other people, but it's up in there done that for you. Yeah. And I, and I'm not to say that I wouldn't learn anything cause of course I would. You're surrounded by a room full of coaches or want to be coaches and a staff of five or six instructors who have, who are really fucking good. Like their instructors are really, really good.
Tali:If Todd Winman's doing this one, then I would be,
Cody:you might just need to go to flirt.
Tali:But I'm just saying it would turn the table a little bit or a tip the scale
Cody:a bit. Yeah. So it's not that there's no value there. I just don't see how it's going to contribute to any change in our business
Tali:whatsoever. A good point. So you've done that certification already. I have not done my certification that I've been done the level two yet. And so I feel like that could add depth to. My current coaching abilities. However, I've had. A lot of incredible experience and wins with lots of clients over 10 years with having just done the level one cert and then, you know, some little things here and there and then being certified through USA weightlifting. But I can't say that I attribute all the success that I've had to those certifications. No, they opened doors because of. Necessary qualifications to do X, Y, or Z, but that isn't, you know, how I've taught people to, you know, push through challenges or to rise to the occasion or to, you know trust in the capabilities of their bodies like that was not anything that was ever explicitly taught It was through the experience of coaching right that I really learned the things that I find to be most valuable Right the
Cody:deeper most important things are not taught in the cert and even even your ability to cue people into a good position Which cert? Right. Covers. You've all, you've also come up with your own language around that, your own methods around that. The experience of coaching has made you a better coach far more than any weekend certification possibly could.
Tali:Right. Yeah. It's tricky to think about how to add value because like you said, we're in a different age. It's not the industrial age where more is more. How do we add value? To our coaching, and it's really tempting to just be like, Oh, get more clients, get more clients. But then we just find ourselves into another job. So what you think? I mean, I've really asked myself this question. I wrote it down because it's genius. I'm going to put it. On my desk where I could see it all the time because it's not an obvious answer, but it's something that I'd like to ponder. I'm going to assume that you have already for
Cody:the increasing my value. Yeah. So I'll give an example. Of a recent consolidation that we did in our business and some of my clients might be listening to this. So you know, you are so I started coaching some people one on one and two on ones mostly married couples that I would train two on one. So married couple comes in, they train together and they're getting a certain amount of value out of that exchange based on. I think one of the highest values that a coach has is the accountability factor. You know, if, if you have an appointment that you're paying for and you, you already paid for it, you're going to, you're way more likely to show up and just showing up as most of being fit, just showing up for it. So I'm providing accountability and I'm providing knowledge because I've nerded out on this stuff for 19 years now and have experience and have seen people move well and not well, and I've seen people get results and not get results enough that I. can provide a lot of guidance to people coming in. So they're, they're getting my knowledge. And what else? We're building a relationship together. So I'm just trying to think of all the ways that we're creating value for that hour. Well, recently my, my schedule was filling up to, to more hours than I really want to coach. And this goes back to the quality over quantity thing too, because I could coach and I have coached in the past seven sessions a day, easy, like three in the morning, one at noon, three in the evening. You're there for like 17 hours and you're coaching seven of them. I've done that before and I'll tell you that it led to burnout. Long term, it led to burnout. But even on that day, I'm sure the last class was not getting the same me as like the second class. The second class was like a sweet spot. You get warmed up with the first class, and then the second class gets the best coach. And then the last class gets the The last class is like, yeah, I know you don't want to be here. I kind of don't either. Let's just go, you know, like, and so I want to keep my coaching hours very short and high value by keeping high energy and that kind of thing. So anyway, I was starting to get to the point where like, I think three back to back sessions in the morning is kind of my limit because when you're, if you're not into coaching, you, you may not. Realize this, but there's a lot of energy output as a coach because you're not only, like I said, you're, you're the accountability guy and trying to really offload knowledge, but you're the hype guy. Yeah. You're also trying to make sure that people are being led through at a proper pace and, and there's an energy about it and there's a bit of a performative aspect to it and that I don't mean to be inauthentic cause it's not that people are not getting the real me. I'm the real me all the time. I strive to be, but there is a bit of a performative nature and that I'm trying to put some energy into that hour so that they're having the best experience that they can. And so after three hours,
Tali:that is so important, by the way, seen coaches who don't do that
Cody:at all. Oh yeah. What a drag. I've seen coaches that look to the side and yawn as their client is like doing reps and I'm like, Oh, you poor thing coaches sitting
Tali:down before
Cody:So anyway, I'm getting a little rambly, but to increase my value, I kind of. I think the next step for me was to be able to maintain my energy, but serve more people. So we consolidated a few of those couples and a couple of individuals and that kind of thing all into one class. And so now. Tim, in my opinion, I've increased my value. Some people look at that as a decrease because, Oh, you're not getting the one on one attention, but let me tell you in an hour of coaching, if you're one on one with somebody, the total time that you actually need that coach to be watching your movement is probably like 15 minutes max. The rest of the time you're resting between sets, you're talking about how to log things, you're talking about you're, you're demonstrating things. You're, there's lots of stuff that happens in that hour besides just correcting form. Well, there is a
Tali:sweet spot because if you were to sir, you know, From one people to a group of six, and then onto a group of 20, there is going to be a tipping point where you are spreading yourself thin and that quality might not be there. I also feel like six is
Cody:a sweet spot. But I think that with six people, they're getting as much individual attention as they would on a one on one. It's just not all, it's just spread out a little differently. And so I don't think there's any diminishment in the service that they were getting, but now there's an added value of greater energy in the room. I mean, people work harder, whether you want to admit it or not, whoever you are listening, you work harder in a group than you do by yourself. Period. Like, I've never seen an exception to this. You get in a group of other people who are working hard. You're not going to be like. The person who's dogging it in the room, you know, and if you are, then it's probably even worse on a one on one. So there's always a greater energy in the room and there's a, a depth of relationship that's possible in getting that group together. There's this camaraderie and it starts to become this thing where these are my people, you know, this, and this is something culture. It's creating culture to do that. And this has been a topic that's been around in CrossFit circles for 15, 20 years now, like since the earlier days is that one of the reasons why CrossFit took off one of the many reasons, there's lots of cool things about it, but One of the reasons CrossFit took off the way it did is because it became people's third place. People talk about a third place. Like Starbucks. And third place used to be church for a lot of people. Oh. No, I'm talking about intimate, like, friendships, like, culture. But that was something
Tali:that I heard about Starbucks. Like that, that you wanted to be the
Cody:third place to be. Yeah, that's, that's just marketing, I think. Because, like, what's, what is, like, I don't know, you get to know your barista, but. It's not like you meet the same people there every day. I don't know,
Tali:I've had so many meetings, so many meetups. Oh yeah. At Starbucks. I mean, have you met my dad? But I don't
Cody:think that's the third. He loves Starbucks. Like the third place was some place you went to regularly and, and, and you created sort of like a second, second family situation. I get it. And. So by putting people in a class situation where they're struggling they're working hard, they're overcoming challenges. All these things have been proven to, you know, greatly enhance relationships when you overcome things together. This is
Tali:why I always drag my friends to the gym. Like I feel like I get to know them on a very human level. Because I see them learning things. I see them trying things, facing fears, facing fears and failing triumphs, all of it, like you get to see people in a really real way that I deeply appreciate. And you don't get that in every scenario, you know, at work, we're all trying to be buttoned up and like, not say the wrong thing. And, you know, not get in trouble or whatever. But the gym is a really unique space. Mm hmm.
Cody:Yeah. And I think just to circle back around, you were asking about this like process of increasing value. That to me was a way of increasing value. So not only did it free up some of my time where I can consolidate some of my hours into a single hour. It is a higher value experience for them. They can each pay less, but because of the way the math works out, even though they're each paying less, I'm making more for that hour. But I, yeah. I feel good about making more because like I said, I believe it's a higher value experience. They're getting that third place experience. They're getting the depth of relationships. They're getting faster knowledge even like, because if one person has a question, the person next to them was like, Oh, I didn't even think about that. That's like, you know, you see more of those epiphanies happen in a small group environment like that. So that's one example of increasing the value. To take it to another level, you know, you and I are developing online workshop type programs that could reach thousands and thousands of people. So we're increasing our value by being able to touch more lives, but without spending you know, 17 hour work days in order to
Tali:do it. So many in the day. Yeah. And I think it's important to note that even as an entrepreneur business owner, even though it's not a quote unquote job of another employer, nine to five, you can still experience these pitfalls.
Cody:And I feel like self imposed guilt.
Tali:Absolutely. And I feel like you and I are really paying attention to that. As we're in this transition, like how cool that you are consolidating these classes in the time that I've been able to pull back, you know, there's a lot that we want to do in our lives. And we've got lots of projects and things that need attention other than work. And I very quickly notice that that time can evaporate so quickly, especially in the pursuit of. You know, being more financially well off or being able to, you know, it's money is definitely a motivator, but like when we are serving people in the gym and they're having a great time, my immediate response is like, we have to give them more, we have to offer more classes, we have to be able to serve everybody at every hour of the day because some people can't come to our 7 a. m. Class 6 p. m. Class, whatever. And I think it's super. Noble to want to serve everybody, but I also know what it's like to, you know, sacrifice your own well being, your own life. And if you don't do it smart, then it doesn't necessarily have that if you're not thoughtful about the process in which you're creating these structures, then you might be giving more than you're
Cody:getting. And altruism can be a sticky philosophy, really, because it seems like always the noble way. But. I hear such mixed. If you start to self sacrifice, then people are getting a lesser version of you. Like in this scenario, if we were to offer more and more class times, more and more just to try to accommodate people, then people would get a burnt out, drug out, tired version of us. And I even fell into the trap in my, Previous gym life of being the coach who never fucking worked out. I was not working out because yeah, because I was getting up at 4 30 in the morning, commuting 20 minutes to my gym, coaching the early morning classes. I'd be there all damn day. And after the last class. Sometimes at eight, eight 30 at night, then I'd get to mop the floors, you know, and it's like, holy shit. You know, you can't, you can't expect the people who are coming in the next day to get a good version of me after working days like that. And so you also, even on an altruistic way, you have to think, well, how can I give people my best? How can, how can we provide the best experience to the people who can show up? And for the people who can't, maybe we can offer some guidance on other resources or something.
Tali:Totally. And energy expenditure, I think is just an easy thing to point to because it's such a. Keystone to our quality of life. And I know that that's something you struggle with. I struggle with, you know, you have a time that you crash each day and I have a really hard time waking up each day. And I, I think something that has been kind of plugging me in my own personal life lately is feeling like I have a lot of family that I can't seem to keep in touch with everybody. And this isn't like, family. This is like my immediate family. I have a surplus of parents. That's for sure. But yeah, like I have a standing appointment when I talk to my mom once a week. And then with my dad's, it's just kind of like, whenever somebody feels like calling and It's something that I have to, like, put on a schedule to make happen. I don't have boatloads of free time to just, like, shoot the shit. Or just even, like, catch up and say hi. And it feels terrible. And the excuse is always that I'm busy. And that makes me really sad. Like, I'm glad to be experiencing the sadness because it's making me motivated to build my life in a certain way that doesn't make it so. Yeah,
Cody:for sure. Yeah. What you just said is the key that I really want to communicate to everybody when they say, oh, I can't make that class time. I can't make this happen. I can't be consistent. I don't have time to work out three or four times a week, whatever. I'm not saying that those are excuses. Those are legit reasons. I get it. My message that I want to put out into the world is that if you are so busy because of your job, whatever you want to call it, your business that you are unable to do something like work out three hours a week. It's not a matter of finding a better workout, a better way to get fit, a way to squeeze it in a more efficient thing. That's not what you need to do. You need to change your lifestyle to allow yourself some time to take care of yourself and people look at. As an optional thing, and it's like, well, somehow you managed to eat, somehow you managed to breathe, your heart is beating, you poop, you eat, you sleep, right? Those things. It's like your body has a really immediate. reaction to not doing those things. You can only hold your breath for a few minutes at tops. You can only go without water for a few days tops. You can go years without working out, but it is just as necessary. It is just as fundamental to your body. And you being a human is to be able to move well and continue to move well as long as you can in this life. And if your job is in the way you know, I just. This is a really strong message. I want to get out to people like it's not the workout. That's the problem. You need to change. You need to get the time off of work. You need to change your job. I mean, that sounds dramatic. But if you can't work out, change your fucking job. You have to change something because in 20 years. You will be struggling. You will be getting your artificial joints or you'll be getting diabetic, diabetic medication. You'll, you'll be on five drugs. You'll be going to, you're going to pay for it now or later. And it's a much more pleasant experience to stay fit. Yes.
Tali:If you're worried about the money, put the money in now as opposed to when you have to pay for
Cody:medical bills. Yeah. Pay 200, 200 or 300 bucks a month for good coaching and carve five hours a week. Or not even
Tali:coaching. There's so many online programs. There
Cody:are. But you need some accountability too. Like you need somebody to hold your. hand to the fire until it's a lifestyle
Tali:that is affordable.
Cody:It's really not. Yeah. I'm just saying, I'm just saying it has to be a priority. People spend that much on Starbucks every month.
Tali:Yeah, you definitely can put yourself on a budget. You can definitely see, you know, it takes some research to find the right situation for you. Cody and I have kind of two tiers of services. Those. Those one on ones, those two on ones, those are higher end. And then the group rates are much more affordable as we, as we mentioned. And
Cody:even if you don't have a coach, you know, like. Put together a co op of your own people, you know, maybe you have two friends that want to get in shape with you. Go in and say, okay, we're going to each chip in 20 bucks a month. And then if we each chip in 20 bucks a month, we'll buy a set of dumbbells. And then the next month we buy this or whatever, and start building your own garage gym and have those buddies. And they're like invested, have some skin in the game so that there's some accountability. I sincerely
Tali:hope that you and I get on a level with our coaching that we don't. Shy away from this topic with our clients and that we are okay with being more straightforward about like. Look at your life, please. And is this really serving your needs right now? Like physically, obviously, we're, we're athletic coaches. So that's the, that's the motivation for us, or at least that's the expertise that we have that people are seeking out. And, you know, I would never, I've never said this to my mother, but maybe because I'm, we're recording on the podcast now, it's easier for me to say, love you, mom. But, yeah. I mean, I could be incredibly naive for assuming this, but, you know, she's a very high level executive. If she wanted to cut back or make room for this part of her life, I think she could. I think... My theory is that she probably experiences what I experience. You know, the job that I'm talking about, that I'm leaving early every day. This is not like a hospital. This is not like a make it or break it, changing lives, changing the world. You know, one jar of skin care at a time. But there's such an identity that we hold. To our professions, and that's the same conflict that I have with the CrossFit coaching certification. I have been a certified CrossFit coach for the last 10 years, and to not be so sounds weird. It feels like I'm taking a part of my identity away by not reinvesting, and that's kind of the brilliance of it, right? You can make it a really expensive product that, you know, is valuable, but like. 1, 000, you know, 1, 000 for like two days. Yeah, I don't know. We could break that down and see if it's really necessary. But you know. There was a time where I needed to recertify and I couldn't afford it and I was just like, man, it would be really great if there was like, some help that I could get because this is my livelihood. Like, this is something that I've being told that I need to have for my job, but my job doesn't pay me enough to keep this going. There's a lot of like, mismatches there. Like, there's a lot of kind of like that irony that we were talking about with you being. And so when we were talking about looking at our lives, and if our job is preventing us from being healthy people, that is an inherently broken system. That's a really hard place to build from. And I think it's okay if we have clients who are like, yeah, I'm not going to do that. I think that's fine. But I don't necessarily want to feel like I have to shy away from pointing that out. Yeah. Because... It's obvious, but it's something that a lot of us don't want to look at. Maybe it's not obvious But like you like you said there are people who are gonna be who are stuck in jobs for years that are incredibly unfulfilling Or they're still living paycheck to paycheck. I've been one of those people kind of one of those people And it's really hard to see a way out. It's really hard to see a way out and our job is not to Rub your nose in it But our job is to advocate for your health.
Cody:Yeah. I'm not trying to shame anyone. I've struggled, I've struggled a lot in my life with all of these issues. And that's one reason I'm so passionate about it, I think, is that, you know, I've kind of made decisions that I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to do that anymore. And Transcribed by https: otter. ai So I just kind of want to like shake people a little, like grab them by the shoulders and shake them a little and say like, like, look, you have, you have choice, you know, you have choice in this life. And I realized that some people feel like they don't have choice and they come from different places. You know, I want to be sensitive to the fact that we're all not all starting at the same place in life and we don't all have the same privileges, but even
Tali:you and I are an example of that. You know?
Cody:But we've had help from time to time and sometimes people don't have help at all. And so, you know, I'm, I'm sensitive to that, but I also don't respect the defeatist attitude of, well, this is how it is. This is my life. This is who I am. The kind of statements to me is just like giving up autonomy, giving up any responsibility. And so I just, I kind of want to talk tough about this a little bit, you know, because I was up with insomnia pretty bad, a couple of weeks back and. I was a little stoned, but I just kept getting up over and over and writing notes about this and realizing that this is a big deal. This is, it's hard to have the conversation with one person, you know, a prospect or a client who's saying, Oh, you know, I don't think I can make this work because my kids is. Soccer schedule, my job schedule and this schedule, like all these conflict to the point. So I can't work out it's, it's hard to have that conversation with that one person, but I think it's necessary because if you zoom out again, like I started this podcast with, we have a crisis in our society. We have a sick society. Like our culture in the West is sick and it's not because of. Circumstances, it's because of lifestyle choices and so I don't want to tolerate. You know, while, while being sensitive to the fact that not everybody has the same resources and all that, I also don't want to tolerate the no win scenario of, well, this is my job. This is, I have to do this. I've got the kids that got it. It's like, well, let's, let's, let's look and see how you can increase your value so that you can decrease your time commitment so that you can start taking care of yourself. And it's not a, it's like a chicken or the egg kind of thing, because if you actually did cut back and you actually did it. Spend more time getting as fit as you can following some intellectual pursuits growing in, in practicing, you know, building your mind and your spiritual life and your relationships. That makes you a more valuable person for the hours that you are giving away or selling. Yeah.
Tali:It's like filling your cup. You got to have it run on something. Yeah. Yeah, those kind of dead end statements of like, I don't have enough time. Can't, I won't, I am, whatever I think what's problematic about statements like those is that they are not open to possibility, right? And without possibility, the rest of your life is determined for you. You know what that road looks like. And that is not as good as like, I don't want to use words like it's a waste, but it's, there's so much more to our lives than that. There's so much possibility. A defeatist attitude cuts you off from all of that. And that is what I find to be so brilliant about being in athletics is that you learn what you're capable of. And it's. Amazing. There's a, I've had a few moments in the last few weeks being like, man, am I in the right place? Like doing this all over again? Because as you know, I've had a lot of struggle with you know, flaky clients or, you know, things of that nature that are kind of easy for me to attribute to like my value as a coach. And like, am I in the right place? Am I doing the right things? It's easy for me to kind of spiral when those things happen, and I was wondering, like, you know, am I in the right? Industry. Like, there's so many other things I could be doing. And one thing that always validates that choice is that it's going to put me in a place where my body is moving all the time. And as somebody who was not active for a lot of their life, I almost feel like this is my curriculum. This is like, it's not that I just hire a coach. I had to make it my damn job to. be a coach to be active.
Cody:Yeah. Same
Tali:with me. Just all. Y'all could be a coach. And he's fitness if you really want
Cody:to be, yeah. Yeah. I mean, when I ultimately accountability, right? Yeah. It's the same story for me. I was so out of shape all my life that I got a free pass on P E. I was like, The kid who threw up so many times that eventually the teacher was just like you can just sit it out. All this past you watch and you'll get an a, you know, like whatever and I had to become a coach in order to like get the lifestyle necessary. I thought to get the lifestyle necessary to take care of my body I wanted the knowledge and then I figured if I'm in the gym, I'll, you know, I'll be practicing what I preach and that kind of thing. And then I got so out of balance that still, I still wasn't working out.
Tali:Oh yeah. It's not like a guarantee
Cody:by any means. It's not magic. It's just cause you have the knowledge. But that's
Tali:because of this conversation, like there is a tipping point where the giving, giving, giving. Doesn't like there's nothing for us left, right? Yeah, and to be healthy able bodied people gives us and can give others a hell of a lot more. Yep. Yeah. It's funny that I really didn't intend this to be like a gym conversation. This definitely like fits into philosophy of fitness just fine. Because I mean, I guess that's just, that's just. The world that we live in. It's really easy to
Cody:see it. It is. But it also I think has to do a lot with what we see the imbalance in job culture and work culture is that well, that's how
Tali:we know about it with so many people.
Cody:And when I was saying earlier that, you know, the job comes before your sleep and your family and everything. I don't think most people think of it that way, but really, really stop and think about how you structure your day. It is around your job. What time do you go to bed? It depends on what time you need to get ready for work in the morning. Right? Your sleep schedule is determined by your work. Your time with your family is determined by what you can get away with from your career, your occupation, that kind of thing. I just have a little bit of a problem with that because I think it's a little bit of a double speak when people say, Oh, my family's my top priority. My health is a priority and these kinds of things. But if everything is being based upon your career, then really your career is the priority above yourself, above your family. It's not nice to hear that, but it's totally fine. Yeah. Well, look, I don't, I'm not trying to put a moral judgment on this as far as people's individual choices. My problem is that most people don't make the choice. It's just a default. They're just there because this is the expectation in our society. And I think there's a lot of people who would probably not prefer that if they thought they had a choice or
Tali:posing the question. Yeah.
Cody:Yeah. And so I guess my My, my real hope is to start to get people to have these conversations with themselves, with their spouses, with their employers, maybe or, or start some sort of side hustle where you can make some more money at a higher value point on your own so that you can cut back on the trading dollars for hours scenario and, and make some room in your life for things that really are important. Yeah. Yeah.
Tali:Yeah. Like I said, I could have been one of those people who is very happy. Working all the time, but to be with you is not to be one of those people.
Cody:I realized that. Unfortunately, yeah, I've been in a scenario, you know working three jobs. And so my life was work. That's what I did was work, but. I was struggling financially, even with that. And that would
Tali:be the same thing for me because it wasn't not only did it not serve the kind of relationship that you and I want to have, because we have worked full time alongside each other and our relationship, you know, it wasn't like on the verge of breaking up or anything, but it sucked for a while there. Like it was just hard to be on the same page. You and I both are kind of people who retreat. And kind of like shut down when
Cody:we don't feel good,
Tali:right? And so there was not a lot of like high quality time spent together in those years. And you know, it's not in line with the vision that we have for our future either. However, I think as a single person, I Was totally cool with working all the time, but I wasn't, you know, adding value. I was just adding more to my plate and I wasn't able to support my lifestyle. And it was a very like low overhead, you know and it was really troubling to me to be like, why? Like, how? I remember crying to my parents being like, I am working my ass off. I am tired all the time. How can I not afford my apartment? Yeah. It's devastating. Yeah.
Cody:It's rough. Yeah.
Tali:I've been there. But it's an important lesson. It was such an important lesson to me is like learning that more isn't. More like you and I building this for ourselves. That's been I mean, it's not only the best money I've made maybe aside from Nike, but You know the life balance. Mm hmm. Like I refuse to work at 5 a. m. I know that for so many years Not only because I was asked to do it, but I also felt like I should be doing that, or that was the way to get ahead. And all it did was make me tired. Yeah.
Cody:Yeah. Yeah. I think you know, some of my biggest regrets was just that time away from family. I feel like I missed out on my kids growing up. And I think that's a pretty common thing. I mean, obviously it's a common thing because, you know, cats in the cradle and all that. It's like everybody knows the story. But I think that. I think a lot of people, like I said, they either think they don't have a choice or they just don't think about it at all. And so they look back, I think my biggest fear in life is Groundhog's Day. I've never even seen the movie, but I know the premise. And I think that's the biggest fear is to live so many days that look alike that when I'm old, I look back and think of the five or six experiences I had. You know, I don't, I would, I want to have so many experiences that It's a plethora of memories, you know, that that's the life I want. And you can't have that if you're doing, if you're going to the same job every day, every day, every day for 40 or 50 years. Some people want that. It's fine. Again, this isn't a moral judgment on people's individual desires, but most of us have a choice. I was going to
Tali:say, check in with yourself if it is a desire. Yeah.
Cody:Yeah. Was there other things you wanted to discuss on this topic? I don't think so. Okay. Yeah. Work culture. Work culture. I think I think I have a lot of criticism for our Yeah. Culture at large, like in America,
Tali:it's not just an individual thing. There's a lot of demand that we have to live up to. Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah. And there's a lot of like old ways of doing things, you know one of the things my mom always says is like, I love working with younger people. They have such strong boundaries around their work life balance and I'm like, yeah, yeah. Take
Cody:a note. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tali:Again, love you so much, mom.
Cody:Yeah. Oh man, I was just going to say something and I spaced it out. So no, that's okay. Yeah, maybe I'll get it next time. Shall we wrap up? Yeah. Okay. It's fun to be back on the mic with you. It is. I love you. I love
Tali:you too. See you next time. Okay.
This episode was produced by Tali Zari and Cody Limbaugh. Check out our writing coaching services and homesteading adventures at live all your life.com. For show notes, resources mentioned, or to submit a question or contribution, click on the podcast tab.
