GOING TO CALIFORNIA
by Nick Holtzmen
“Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams, telling myself it’s not as hard, hard, hard as it seems.”
-Robert Plant, Going to California
I titled this writing “Going to California” after the great Led Zeppelin song, and even though Robert Plant’s lyrics about his pilgrimage to the West is for reasons of heartbreak and love, on April 16 I’m setting my destination for Chino Hills, California for different reasons, although rooted in my love for self, family, and the Fit Pro community.
On April 17 and 18 I will be attending the Fitness Business Automation Workshop in Chino Hills, California. It is a 2-day workshop with the intention of perfecting and 10x-ing every aspect of your fitness business systems, so that you can run a better & more effective fitness business, thereby being able to reach and help more people. It is being run by the leaders in the fitness business industry: Jeff Sherman, Carlo Bernoni, and the GOAT: the undisputed heavyweight champion of Fitness Business, Bedros Keuilian.
For fitness entrepreneurs such as myself, Bedr
os is a legend in the field. I have been following him religiously since 2005, when I first bought his PT Business Course. Bedros specialized in teaching personal trainers how to effectively generate leads and ultimately turn those leads into dedicated personal training clients. Even back then, Bedros gave me the tools to build up my client base and grow my training business to levels far beyond what I ever thought possible. He was the first guy to show me that fitness can be a career, not a hobby. As a result, I still have many of my clients dating back to 2006, and he has put me in a position to help and change more lives than I could have imagined. Since then Bedros has evolved from working with just fitness trainers to helping the highest-level entrepreneurs, CEOs, thought leaders, and best-selling authors- taking their success and impact on the world to new levels.
For me, the thought of working with and learning first hand from Bedros is the equivalent of an up and coming boxer working directly with Freddie Roach, a basketball player working directly with Phil Jackson, or an actor working with Denzel Washington. He is the man, and his picture is on my office wall next to other giants I look up to like Bruce Lee and Muhammed Ali when I need inspiration to keep pushing- Rocky Balboa style. One of my goals of 2019 was to meet one of my heroes, and now that opportunity is here.
So if I have been following Bedros Keuilian since 2005, and he has been consistently elevating my ability to reach and help more people and grow, then why did it take me almost 14 years to finally take the plunge and attend a workshop to work with him directly? To be honest I don’t have a good answer for you. I preach to all my clients, as do all our trainers at Fit Pro, that a consistent and effective workout routine WILL make you your best self in everything you do- in your career, as a parent, as a spouse, and as a friend. Yet I wasn’t living up to my own teachings- I was skipping meals and workouts, getting 5 hours of sleep a night, and drinking at night to cope with the stresses of life. I told myself I was doing this out of “sacrifice” for my family to get things done, not realizing that what I had been teaching this whole time was that if you take care of yourself you put yourself in the best position to be effective as a leader in everything you do.
So, in order to mentally prepare myself to work with and learn from the best of the best, I had to clean myself up physically as well. I began what I called the “30 Day Holtzman Challenge” (not to be confused with Andy Frisella’s super intense 75HARD challenge which my brave wife Myra is doing as a tool to help her recover from her car accident), which may be simple to some, but for me breaking bad habits isn’t as easy as for some people. For 30 days before the trip:
- No cheat meals, only healthy meals & snacks.
- No missed workouts, and increase the workouts to 2/day.
- 7 hours of sleep a night, no exceptions.
- No alcohol (again, no exceptions).
So far, so good! One week before my trip, I am feeling stronger, more alert, happier, looking better, and ready to dominate in Chino Hills. Like I mentioned earlier, me going to California is a pilgrimage of love: for myself, my family, and all of the Fit Pro family who will benefit from a BETTER gym, BETTER performance from myself and our team, and BETTER results for all of those brave souls willing to look in the mirror and make the hard decision to just do better.
I look forward to doing another writing detailing everything I learned on my trip. Not so much the business tools I will implement, but the overall growth as a Fit Pro and a man that I will achieve.
Until then, keep your mind and body strong.
Nick