Thirty Minute Mentors Podcast Transcript: Interview with Gold’s Gym CEO Adam Zeitsiff

I recently interviewed Adam Zeitsiff on my podcast, Thirty Minute Mentors. Here is a transcript of our interview:

Adam Mender: I'm excited to have the CEO of one of the most successful and prominent companies in the history of the American fitness industry on the show this week, the company actually predates the modern fitness industry. Adam Zeitsiff is the president and CEO of Gold's Gym. Gold's Gym was founded down the street in Venice beach in 1965 and put on the map in the 1970s by its most famous member, Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold actually still works out at the same Gold's gym in Venice today. There are currently over 700 Gold's gyms across 29 States and 29 countries and over 300 million members, three 3 million members worldwide. I wish my businesses had 3 million members or 300 million members. I would take either one of those numbers. One of those members, by the way, is this week's guest, Gold's Gym, CEO, Adam Zeitsiff. Adam, thank you for joining us.

Adam Zeitsiff: Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

AM: First question for you, did you need a pass a one rep backs test to become the CEO of Gold’s?

AZ: No, thankfully I did not. I did not, although I spent quite a bit of time in the gym, but that was not one of the tests and I'm, I'm, I'm certainly glad.

AM: Okay. I wasn't sure about that. So I'm personally often asked, what is it that you do on a daily basis? And as an entrepreneur it's a really challenging question to answer. What is it that you do on a daily basis and what are the most interesting aspects of your job?

AZ: You know, and that's a good one. I think you're right. As an entrepreneur and as a, as an executive in a business, I think the, I think the most interesting aspects of what I do every day is that every day is different. And for me and my personality as a former serial entrepreneur and now an executive and an operator, I, I love the fact that things are different. So for me, every day starts out pretty similar with my, my own personal routine. And then, and then, but really when you get to work, it's really everything is different. And I, I, my kids, when they were much younger, always asked me, Hey, when you're the boss, what do you do all day? Like, what are you doing? I said to them, and I don't think they got it when they were younger, they get it now, but I said, I, I, my job is to solve problems for people and my team so they can keep doing their job, right.

Help them solve problems, work with them on a daily basis so we can get over the humps that we have in the business in areas and keep going and executing it and growing the business. And that's my job is to help them solve problems. So jumping, you know, jumping from one meeting to another and obviously, you know, we, we, as you mentioned, we're, we're the legacy brand in fitness. We're not just a fitness company. We are a gym operator. We are a franchisor. And because we have that legacy brand, we are licensed or so we license our brand in many places. So for me, I jumped from meeting to meeting and helping solve problems with my team and growing our business in those three areas. And so it's cool because it's diversified and it makes it exciting and it certainly keeps my entrepreneurial mind and, and, and hunger going on a daily basis.

AM: Can you talk a little bit more about your daily routine? You'd get up at a certain time. You mentioned that you hit the gym, which makes sense. Could you talk a little bit more about what you do day in and day out? Just on a personal level?

AZ:  Yeah. Yeah. So for me, I'm a much to my wife's chagrin, I get up at four 40 every morning and it's not because I'm one of those guys who, he read a lot about some of these CEOs. I'm up at three, I'm doing it. It's not because of that, it's because if I don't work out in the morning, I won't get my workout it. And it's a long day and I like to eat and just like everybody else. And so if I don't, I'll pay for it. So for me, I get up at four 40 usually lift the dog out, try to be quiet. I have a newborn at home as well as teenagers. And so, and then I'm out the door by five and then I, I get to the gym either for a class or do my own workout or I've been running more.

So I'll get out and do a run and then usually done showered and that my desk, little after seven is shoved the daily basis. So from a morning routine, that's kind of the morning routine. Then you get the work routine and then the time, I probably don't leave the office till about 6:30 it's a long day, but it then takes about a half hour to get home. And the first thing you do is grab the infant from the wife's while she's strangled and spend some time. But, but if I don't get up that early and interest, it's just habit. Even on the weekends, I probably don't get up quite that early, but my body will wake up and then I'll, I'll doze off and get up a little later and worked out. But it's just one of those things that kind of stuck.

AM: That's impressive. Something that I hear pretty consistently from CEOs and other leaders who have made it to the top, like you, I'm having a routine that starts early and is managed consistently. So you became the CEO of Gold's gym about a year ago. How did you get here? How did you get to where you are today? Can you start by sharing some of your most formative experiences from your early days as a kid, maybe all the way through your time as a student in college

AZ: Yeah, I, you know, for me it's interesting. You know, you're, you're an entrepreneur, successful, got a couple of different businesses you're growing. And I started out as an entrepreneur, but I really, what got me there was she has a kid, was kind of my grandfather, you know, he was in, in multiple Wars, world war two and other Wars after that, and came back and had a business city, had started before he went to war, came back then continued to operate his business, one of the largest manufacturers of custom lighting in the country. He was located Massachusetts. And I grew up with him as an idol. Someone who gave me the experience of seeing somebody who started their own business, you know, from the ground up, who grew it, who had people who relied on him every day for their income and put food on the table and to pay for their kids' colleges and who respected him.

And it really stuck with me. I would spend a lot of time in his shop and meet the people and just saw how they admired him and respected him but also cared about him. Right. And I always wanted to have an experience like that. Whether I was the owner of the business running the business, I wanted to have people who relied on what we did and the decisions we made in our business in order for their own personal income and success and, and just livelihood and, and that was, that really stuck with me. I always wanted to do that. It was, it was the reason why after school, when I got my first job, within a few months, I just left, started my first business and I went through about a 12 or 13 year period of your serial on entrepreneurial ship because, because of him and it really drove me to do that.

AM: What do you do right after college? Can you talk about your first job and did it make a difference in your career trajectory or not really?

AZ:  It's, you know, and it's funny you say that because to me the actually the, the, the, there's the first job after college. People always say, don't make you, that'll get you going and it'll get you in the right path. Actually for me it was my first job in college. I had just just about done with my freshman year, met a gentleman who was going to my college. He was going part time, a little older than me. We had the same class together and he was working back then, you know, I'm in my mid forties so this is back when computers and networks and local area networks and technology was still very new and expensive and he was working in sales at a small local computer systems integrator and they needed some help building computers cause back then you had to build them.

So you built them and they were clones and you built the motherboard. And so they went down there for an interview and hired me on the spot. I started working the next day. My first job was doing with them was helping with an audit they were doing at a company with some of their older technology. And next thing you know that I'm building computers and helping them build things and I learned how to build them from the ground up, brand new ones. And then next thing you know, I'm selling and it was a small company, about 15 people, two owners, two partners. And as much as my grandfather taught me that I wanted to run a business, be an entrepreneur, they taught me what it's like these guys live and breathe it. I ended up working there many way more hours than my mother knew about in college.

I made a really good living as you know, as a, as a, as a, you know, as, as a kid in college. And I worked there right through the end of college before I moved away to New York with, and that was probably the thing that taught me how to run a business from all aspects. You know, what's, what's a purchase order? How do we do these things? How do we manage cash flow as a small business? How do we take care of our employees? So the two founders of that company took me under their wing and taught me a lot. And that was probably certainly made the difference in my career career trajectory in terms of that aspect.

AM: Well, you kind of alluded to the theme of the show, Thirty Minute Mentors, and talked a little bit about some mentors who are important to you. Can you talk a little bit about mentorship and the role it's played in your career and how you try to act as a mentor today as the CEO of a really prominent company?

AZ: Yeah. Well, I always have people who've just looked out for me in one way, shape, or form, even if it was just indirectly giving me advice. I mean the gentleman who started that company were always there for me. We stayed in touch for years afterwards. Yeah, super helpful. When I, when I got out of college, moved to New York, got my first job there for six months before I even then left and started my first business. That gentleman who ran that company who hired me and Paul, we still stayed in touch for years afterwards, gave me some good advice. And so I, I think it's really important that people who w you, you try to emulate and look at, especially as an entrepreneur, which is not an easy thing. They were, they were, they were super helpful in that area. And it's actually, it's moved into the role today. And we have this program at Gold's gym, we called our lift training program.

And it's funny you mentioned it cause I literally for this two meetings before this one and it's our leadership program and you go through a program for three months and we can mentor people. So I mentor one of the participants and these participants, you don't have to apply for the program, they have to be approved by different levels of management. And we're there to kind of help them grow in their roles and they go through some education programs here in training and then they also go off to Harvard or Stanford or want a prominent university for a couple of those quick courses that they offer. And we send them up there. And I take a lot of what I learned from the folks that taught me and mentored me and apply it to that program. And it's really helped these people. And it's something that we try to do here at Gold's and help provide this mentor, mentee relationship. And it lasts way past the program, which is about three months. I may know the person I mentored in the last program in the spring when I got back and the one this summer. We talk regularly and I still try to help them as much as I can. So it's really important both historically, but also to get these leaders of the future in our company to to grow.

AM: That's awesome. What are the most important skills that you think people should develop early on in their careers and what advice do you have on how they can develop them?

AZ: Yeah, I mean for me, I think a variety of things are important. I think, I wish someone taught me this when I was obviously younger, but I think for me it was the first thing is, you know, don't be afraid to fail. It's something you're doing and it is a skill, you know, I think, I think it really is, and I think people don't realize that you have to fail to learn and it's a skill in order to bounce back from that. Right. And, and we, we, you know, unfortunately in this day and age where everyone gets a trophy and everyone wins, it doesn't work in the, of the business to be able to gracefully take a failure and to learn from it and to build on it for the future and to look back on it a year or two later and go, I made that mistake, I'm going to apply that lesson here even in the most simplest way.

I think that that's really, you know, really important and I try to teach our people here that when I talked to them, I said, we, we, we only succeed if we fail first. As silly as it sounds, I'm not trying to, you know, be some philosophical leader here, but it makes sense. You've got to fail in order to get to the right solution and, and, and some people don't handle it well. And I think for me, if I had learned that a little bit earlier in life, it probably would've even helped in some other situations halfway through my career. But I think it's certainly important and people need to understand that you only grow if you fail and only learn from those failures.

AM: It sounds like you weren't as fortunate as I was because I was the captain of the worst baseball team in the history of baseball and probably in the history of high school. So my baseball team, actually my senior year of high school, we literally lost every single game that we played and I was the King of failure. So talk about learning the hard way. I learned the hard way and I got that experience and I think you are probably probably better off not having had that experience yourself.

AZ: Well it certainly, I'm sure it was a tough lesson at the time, but I'm sure you at least you can look back on it now and laugh, that's for sure.

AM: I learned that I wasn't going to be playing in the show pretty quickly, but I still love watching it. What would you say was the greatest failure in your career and what did you learn from it?

AZ: You know, I think it's hard to, you make, I mean, I still make small mistakes every day, every week we all make mistakes and do little things and learn from them. And it is certainly hard to pinpoint who those, I think in one of my earlier entrepreneurial startup days, I think probably in one of the businesses we had, I think I always looked at that business. And as an entrepreneur, as you know, you try to look to the future and always see the success. You see the startup actually executing and you see the product and market and people buying it and customers happy and that's what drives you to get from nothing to that vision. Right. And you look at that and I think early on I had that maybe that too. Yeah. Too much of that glean in my eye and one particular startup that we had and I just, I didn't think enough about what could happen and what could happen if this didn't work.

And I, in my mind, it was already working with, sometimes as an entrepreneur that's a good thing, but sometimes it makes you not think of the failures. And if that particular business we just, I was already way ahead of my head. Everything was going great in my mind. In reality, it's not that it wasn't going great, it was just, it never even got there. And so for me, I look back at that one, I think about that startup often and I try to apply those lessons to business because you've always got to have a plan B, C, D and E and and, and that's a big lesson I took from that.

AM: Can you maybe dig a little bit deeper and talk about how you bounce back? Because it's very easy for those of us looking on the outside. We see the CEO of a highly successful company and we see someone who is clearly at the top of his game. But what we don't see is the journey and what we don't see are the ups and downs. And you know, everyone has struggles big and small. And you know, one of the things that I think would be really inspiring to listeners would be to understand how you really came back from deep setback. It could be personal, it could be professional, but just the process of bouncing back and how you did it.

AZ: Yeah. And as you know, as an entrepreneur, there's not always a, there's not the eight stages of dealing with that, right? Like there is with other things in life. And I think for me though, I think the first part was just actually coming to grips with the fact that it wasn't going to, and that that's hard. Because you always want to see why there's always a bright side, you know, like in the movie, then somebody always finds a way to save the day. Well that doesn't always happen in business. And the end of the day you can't wait for the hero to come in. At some point you just got to kind of call it a day and say, you know what? So not going to work. And I think that was the first piece of it. And then for me, the second piece was really I had a good support system around me, whether it was both professional and personal and just diving back in whether what's the next project, whether it's a new, a new job because you weren't good in the other one, whether it's a new business because this one didn't go well.

For me it was just diving right back in. Taking what I learned probably with eyes wide open a little more, you know, after that one and just diving back in again and that in that particular case I was able to do that pretty quickly, dive back into an exciting young company that I was part of, you know, as an investor and then became a, came on to as, as the operator and it, it, it, it, it how it will allow me to apply those lessons I learned and then just keep going. And sometimes the best way to do it is just take your logins and dive right back in.

AM: Very, very well said. What are your thoughts on how to build a winning organizational culture?

AZ: Yeah, that's interesting. It's the people who figure that out in our worlds do really well. Right. And that's just an executive. People who deal with culture every day and chief people, officers who are dealing with culture. And I think, I think the biggest thing for me that I, I look at here at Gold's is number one, I'm super transparent, probably a little too much. Sometimes my head of HR will kick me under the table, but I'm just, I'm pretty transparent and I want people to know that here we're all in this together. We're not trying to hide anything. And I think your culture and your people would respect that. And the culture builds because they feel that you consider them part of your circle of trust in your environment and you're not just sitting back with the executive team and coming out in there. They're hearing what to do, right?

They're part of the decisions, they're part of those things. So transparency certainly helps. And I think for me it's also making sure people know that. Yeah. I'm just like, am I get up out of bed or a couple of feet on the floor, get going every day just like them. Just because we happen to wear certain titles in the company, it doesn't mean that we are just regular human beings like them. And I think I find that to be a very important part of building this culture here. Then making sure, like I walk around two, maybe three times a day, I say hi to people, give the knuckle punches, see what's going on, walk by the payroll team, talk to the ladies, whatever's there. Just just to chitchat to know that you're not just sending in the officer meetings all day. You're just, if you just like them, you know you're part of that. Yeah.

AM: Yeah. That's great to that. And I mean in your view, what do you believe are the key characteristics to a great leader?

AZ: I think for me it's involving your team and a lot of the decision making if end of the day you are the boss, whatever role you're in, if you run the teams big or small, you are the boss and maybe you have the ultimate decision making. But what I think the best leaders are the ones who involve their team in the decisions who get most of them. You're never all going to agree, but get most of them on board because usually those who don't agree will, they'll see that the team is on board and they'll jump in. And I think it's, it's the team. If you lead a team and they're all on board and they feel invested in the decision and they're part of the decision and they're part of the projects and the plan of the company's vision, I think that's the best way to get people, you know, not only be proud of what they're doing, but also just be really fully engaged in whatever project or whatever plan or whatever project your company's working on and, and, and really be part of a, a culture that works. Right. And if you're just not, you're not listening, you're, you're, you're, if you're not transparent and you're more making decisions, whether it's in a bubble or not, even if you're listening to them and they don't feel like they're involved, it's, I think it's detrimental for us.

AM: Who are some of the greatest leaders you've been around in your career or who you've maybe even admired from afar, and what is it about those leaders that you've learned from them and that you admire?

AZ: Yeah, there's a couple of folks. I mean, from someone I wish I had met, but I haven't, but I admire from afar. I'm a big fan of Elon Musk. I admire his, I'm going to do this. This is my vision. I'm going to do it my way and my team and you know, the team gets on board with that and he creates some things and no one else can create because he's not going to be swayed by what everyone else thinks. Right. And I certainly admire that, that tenacity and that diversification. So it's always someone who I enjoyed tracking, following, reading about the things he says and times certainly controversial. But listen, he's doing things that no one else has done. And I, I really admire that. And, and then for me, you know, I've also had some good people that leaders that I've worked side by side with.

You know, I've, I've, I had the pleasure of working for about six years at a constellation software, which is a big publicly traded software holding company in Toronto. They acquired my company from my partners and I, and I went to work for that group and I worked alongside some amazing folks who understand business, who understand culture well, understanding how to build value in companies and treat people well, which they really did. And, and, and you know, the CEO of that parent company as well as the CEO of the Jonas division where I worked were two people that I still, I still keep in touch with it admire because of their longevity and the rope. They were their ability to build something from literally an idea, an investment in three people and turn it into a, one of the most you know, darling stocks on that exchange and, and a great company. Sure.

AM: What can anyone do to become a better leader tomorrow?

AZ: I think re really just listen to what your people are saying and they're looking to you whenever they speak and they give you an idea. They are looking to, they're looking at your reactions and I said, and they're looking at how you're going to answer that and how you're going to comment and how you're going to contribute. So I think listening, number one, and then I think just be genuine in this day and age, people can see through anything, right? They can really see through it. And if you're not genuine, they know it right away. They'll go home and talk about it to their spouse and say, know I said this, and I could tell he said, great idea, but I could tell you he didn't mean it. And I think that people really need that and there's too much opportunity in this world for people to go. There's so many great companies, so many places they could work competition for, for our team has never been greater, especially in our markets. And if you're genuine in your care and you're and you listen and I think you have a shot at being a really good leader,

AM: What do you look for in the people that you hire?

AZ: I think more so lately I think I look for personality. I look for people who can fit into this environment. You know, obviously they've got to have some level of domain expertise in what you're hiring. But I think more importantly, I think a lot of that you can teach if they've got some of it, but somebody else has a little bit more than them, but they have the personality and they can fit in and they can engage in the culture and they can be part of the organization and they believe in the mission and vision, not just for the paycheck. I think that that to me is the most important thing because those are the people that will stick through it. With you, thick and thin,

AM: What do you think are some of the things that companies overvalue and undervalue when it comes to hiring?

AZ: Yeah, I think this might be a controversial subject, but I think they overvalue how many degrees you have and how many letters are after your name and I think they undervalue real world experience and undervalued. Being able to look and say, this person, what are they been through? Not only the career they've had and people they work for, but what do they go through there? You know, somebody who worked at a company who was good at what they do, but that company was going through a turnaround and that person stayed there and helped them through it and was part of it. The end of the lessons that person has learned is so much more valuable than someone who's just been in. I've been in a similar role. So I think they certainly, you know, try to overvalue some times though the degrees and undervalue really with a real world experience they have.

AM: Sure. No, I actually agree with that completely. I think that's extremely well said. You obviously have a ton going on in your day and your week and just on your plate. How do you most effectively manage your time and manage all of your competing priorities?

AZ: Yeah, well as a, you know, certainly a former CIO and technology guy, I still at heart, I, I I certain certainly need that technology piece. And do you know if it didn't happen, if it wasn't in my outlook? Right. So always tracking my calendar. I'm a huge Evernote user and I'm always tracking my notes in there. So I really keep a history of what was, what we talked about, what's important for me. So between those, those aspects are certainly important and I live and breathe by those every day. And I think also for you know, priority. I think it's just a matter of unfortunately, as you know, when you're running businesses and times it's, it's whichever fire is the hottest and, and which you have to, you can't argue with it. Sometimes you have to go address those. But I think for me it's, you know, we built, when I came back here, we built as a team, we decided what our kind of core pillars we're going to be for the evolution of this brand.

And I look at those pillars and what I, what I did animals, I printed them out on a nice piece of paper and my graphics guys make them look all pretty with some logos. And I put them on every manager's desk and I said, this is our pillars. I want you to look at them every morning when you come in. And if you're working on something, and this is what I do for myself, that is not on this list, meaning it's not helping. One of the things on this list these minute as it may be and you're not focused and you're not prioritizing on the right thing. And that's kinda how I focus every day, is obviously dealing with urgent issues. But if I'm not focused on something that highs to those pillars and I'm not in the right direction,

AM: I love that. That's great. That's great tangible advice that that I, I think I can apply and become a better leader by following. Can you talk a little bit more about Gold's brand strategy? How are you capitalizing on your historic brand? I'm actually curious, you know, this is a marketplace that seems to reward companies that are trendy and fresh. You know, and Gold's doesn't necessarily seem to fit into either of those categories, but it does have this incredible history to it. How do you square that circle and can you talk about just sort of the thought process behind it and what's going on behind the scenes?

AZ:  Yeah. You know, it's interesting. You come and you work for such a brand that is iconic like us. And I always tell people, I mean I go to countries on business and I see people wearing our tee shirts and we don't even have gyms there. Or when you look at movies and there's a, you know, it's a talk about a gym membership half the time it's about goals or just a brand that people recognize, you know, and it's good and bad, right? Cause you do have that recognition. But to your point you also, it's historic and it's, is it trendy and fresh? And there, there's a lot of things out there. Fitness is a cool industry. There's always new concepts, there's always new segments. There's technology disruption, there's a ton of things happening here. And our strategy really is, you know, we were getting back to what we're good at and we're good at a couple of things, many things.

But with the core things we're known for, we're good. We're good at making people strong. You know, and strong back in the sixties seventies and eighties used to be because you want to be strong for bodybuilding or whatever reason. And, and that's, you know, and plenty of people who want to be bodybuilders work out at our gyms and other gyms alike. But now it's about being strong for life, right? And that's kind of where we're focusing. Whether you're a dad who wants to be strong, you can hang out with your kids and play and, and, and not pass out in the backyard. Or you want to go grab the groceries and hold a kid in one hand and bring them inside, whatever it is, you want to be a stronger grandmother, whatever it is. We Gold's gym is focusing on making people strong for life and helping them get success.

And so we've kind of refocused our brand strategy on that. It's what we're known for, it's what we're good at and we're really good at getting people results. And at the same time, we were known for being, you know, helping create the segment. Like you said in the opening, we were known for helping create this segment. And we need to get back to that. And that means really focusing on becoming the best franchise or a full service, full amenity fitness out there. And we've been known for that for years and we kind of shied away from that for a little while and we were really refocusing on that global franchising and building our brand that way.

AM: Can you kind of talk a little bit more broadly about some of the key marketing and branding lessons that listeners can take away from what you're doing? What are some things that you think the audience would find valuable that they might be able to apply to their businesses?

AZ: I think one of the things for us is if you have, you know, we for a while we kind of shied away from, you know, what our brand was known for and what we were good at, even our brand. And it kind of made, it wasn't as prominent with it. And I think we realized that we needed to refocus back on that. And yes, here's the brand, but the brand has evolved and you didn't kind of like the old saying, it's not your father's Oldsmobile, right? I mean, we're not not your father's Gold's gym anymore. And you know, we're probably some of the few gyms in the world that can say that probably had multiple generations working out in it. And so we, we don't want to shy away from that number one. And I also think that, I think from a brand strategy it is focusing on results and tying it back to our brand.

So whatever your brand is known for, focus on those results. And you know, our, our, we do a challenge every year. It's, it's a global thing and we get a ton of how's it of feedback and response and recognition and lead flow from, from focusing on the results of what we did in the challenge. And people came in severely overweight and, and, and, and you know, in terms of not be conditioned and helping them just get back in shape for life, not to be a, you know, bodybuilder or fitness model just to get back in shape for life. And that's what we focus on and those results resonate when we talk about that with our brand and I think showing the results, not your product but the results of your product can give is something we've learned a good lesson on. What are the most important things that you've personally learned about health and fitness since joining golds?

Learn number one as you get older, you know the food doesn't burn off faster. Number one, I learned that at age 31 yeah, I know I'm learning it. That's why, you know, that's why that four 40 wakeup call happens. I think what I've learned and this I've learned especially in the last year and we just put a press release out about this and, and we're focused on it and you'll see some exciting things on the outs from us next year. I think what I've learned is that your body needs to recover and recovery is just as important to the fitness journey that you're on as much as the fitness journey in the fitness workouts itself. What do I mean by that? I mean pushing yourself four, five, six days a week in a high intensity workout that's designed to burn, burn, burn and give you more points or whatever it is is is, is not a good longterm solution for someone who wants to lead a healthy and active active lifestyle and somebody who wants to maintain consistency with that because you end up burning out both physically and mentally when you do that and but somebody who comes in together with maybe one or two high intensity workouts a week and wanted to low intensity type workouts a week and mixes some recovery elements into that, whether it's percussive therapy or compression or or massage or cold therapy, whatever it may be, that's what really will give you optimal fitness and wellness routine and journey.

And for me, I've learned that and I've, I've changed up my workouts. I used to work out way too high intensity too often. And now I do maybe a couple of those a week. I mix in some strength training, I do some light jogs. My wife pulled, dragged me into yoga a few years ago and I am not very good at it and nor my flexible. But I enjoy it because it really helps me recover. And so I think that's probably the biggest thing I've learned is it's not all about push, push, push. You've got to balance it. If you want to maintain that fitness journey and keep consistent longterm,

AM: Great advice. And when it's coming from the CEO of Gold's gym, it should be noted. So I hope everyone's paying attention and taking notes. How important is mental health to you as a leader?

AZ: Certainly very important. And I, I'm as an entrepreneur, I'm watching what's going on out there. I think you're seeing a lot more, well, I'm a lot of new startups and a lot of new lot of the companies out there who are focusing on, on the mental health. And I think that is a really big part of both the recovery piece, mental health as well as just your overall journey, especially as it comes to the leader fitness journey, your, your leadership journey. And so for me, I think it's super important and I, I, it's something I actually have noted to myself. I do not pay very good attention to it and I need to do a better job of that. I've had many people tell me to try up some of the top meditation apps and just get yourself centered and get yourself back in a good place every morning. And I certainly need to try those things. But I think it is important as leaders we go through, I don't know about you, but I go through a myriad of 20 different emotions in a daily basis from I'm super excited about someone who's super stressed to super concerns, angry all within like a 10 11 hour period. So some having your mental health and checking, being able to manage that as a leader is certainly important.

AM: Absolutely. But ask one final question and it's going to be a pretty open ended one. What advice do you have, and you can take this in any direction you want. What advice do you have for listeners on how they can get to the next level professionally, whether they're entrepreneurs, whether they're students, whether they're executives, whether they're fellow CEOs? What are some things that you think are universally applicable that anyone out there can do to really take their game to the next level?

AZ:  Yeah, I mean, you're right, open-ended, a lot of places to take it. I think for me, I think the biggest thing is don't be afraid to put yourself out there. And there's this kind of a home that's an anonymous actually that I've had sitting on my desk since I was probably 2223 it's on my home office and it's called only a person who risks is free. And I'm not going to read the whole pumps here because I don't know if my heart, but it ends with, you know, a variety of things about people. It talks about people who risk nothing, do nothing and, and they can't be, can't risk a little bit and you can't deal with a little bit of sorrow and suffering, then you can't learn and change. And it ends with only the person who risks is free. And I think for it to be free to grow in your leadership position, to be free to grow in your company.

Don't be afraid to put yourself out there. Obviously don't, you know, don't risk it all without calculating and being smart about it. But put yourself out there. The people who aren't leaders aren't there because you know they're not good people that maybe they just don't want to put themselves out there. The people who get in leadership roles, in my opinion, are the ones who are not afraid to put themselves out there. Take a bit of a risk calculated at times, sometimes a little more than they would want and, and, and show what they can do because that's usually when people get noticed. That's usually when other leaders see them and they see the qualities and the tendencies and that ability. And then sometimes the risk will pay off, sometimes it won't, and then you'll learn from it. And the next time you make a, make an attempt to put yourself out there and put a little risk on the table to advance in your career or in your business, it'll pay off for you. So I think for me, that's the most important thing is don't be afraid to put it out there. Take a little risk from time to time, because that's how people get ahead.

*Note that the transcript is not 100% accurate, as it was captured through an automated transcription service and lightly edited. For the interview in its most accurate form, please listen directly at www.thirtyminutementors.com.