FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT. Matthew Januszek 0:28 Welcome to this week's Escape Your Limits Podcast and today we speak to a fitness entrepreneur, whose global fitness ventures include a health club chain, a Sports and Nutrition business and an online training company. We talk about a number of different subjects including how the Coronavirus is impacting the fitness industry, how to create an online fitness business and also how to stay strong and resilient both mentally and physically. So I think you'll really enjoy this episode. He comes from it on a very different angle from a lot of people I've spoke to And please leave us your comments if you like it. Thanks for listening. Matthew Januszek 1:05 So Kris Gethin, thank you so much for joining us from your home. Yeah. Are you in? Is it Idaho you're in or Is that right? Or Ohio? Kris Gethin 1:13 Yeah, yeah, Boise, Idaho. Yeah, the weird accent comes from Wales, but I've been transplanted over here as the only place so I'm not I don't think I've done a podcast interview with anyone actually on a on a treadmill. Now, what about a Welshman Welshman with his you know not many of us get out so there could be a good hybrid of uniqueness. Matthew Januszek 1:34 Yeah. So for those who don't know you, and I'm sure there's I know there's hundreds of thousands if not more, that do know you but but give us a little bit of a background on yourself. Chris, you know, how did you how did you sort of spring out of Wales and what you know, what was that story all about? Kris Gethin 1:53 Yeah, well, waltzes in Wales. I was racing motocross for many years for about 14/15 years. I was racing motocross and I succumbed to a lot of injuries and it was a back injury that kind of put an end to my career. But it left me you know, almost bed bound, you know, I had a very bad curvature of the spine and I was dealing with a lot of pain went to a lot of specialists. And it wasn't until I went through rehab through physio with resistance training has alleviated the pain because now it's taking the stress away from my spine and onto my muscles of my back. So with that, I I started looking into weight training a little bit more and I actually enjoyed not only how I felt with the alleviation of the pain, I just got over the depression that I was dealing with because of the pain as well. And I noticed what you know, through this activity, I felt better. I started retaining content that I was learning because I flunked at school, I hated school. But this is something that I really enjoyed. So I had a passion for it. So I wanted to learn more. So I went and studied international health and sports therapy for several years and with those international records, Nice qualifications, I went and worked on cruise lines for a little while as a massage therapist and a personal trainer. And then I moved over to Australia, had my own personal training business there, which was mobile. And then I opened my first gym facility over there and I wanted to reach more people than just a one on one that I was teaching within my gym. So that's when I picked up Merriam Webster's book on journalistic writing and taught myself how to write and how to shoot physique photography. And I started working for publications and magazines, and then I decided to risk it all and sell up the gym, fly to Venice, California and try to get a job for Weider Publications. And after six months of annoying them at Woodland Hills, I got a job as the editor at large and the writer and photographer for the publication. And then after that, I got recognized because I published my own magazine called caged muscle for a while. for about two years. It got wrecked. ignited by the den founder of bodybuilding.com, Ryan DeLuca. And bodybuilding calm happens to be in Boise, Idaho. So that's what brought me up here because he needed an editor in chief. So as the editor in chief of bodybuilding.com, from 2007, up until like 2012. And that's when I moved to India, and started training some celebs over there because I'd authored a book by this time and one of the celebs that actually read my book, and Jag Chima, as you know, mutual friend, flew me over there and started training these Bollywood stars and then could recognize that there was definitely a missing link within health and fitness community with adequate gym facilities. So we decided to open a gym franchise which we call academies because we'd like to teach people there as well as the trainers, more than anything and, and then, during that time, I actually opened a supplement company here in the US which brought me back to To the US, and I love Boise, Idaho, my affiliate with in relationship with bodybuilding.com knows that I'm a vendor. So I have a supplement company that I sell to bodybuilding.com. I just love Boise, Idaho, but my headquarters are in Huntington Beach. They're in LA. So that's kind of where I am right now. So a long way from a long way from Wales and now yeah, exactly along, but I appreciate Wales. Yeah. Well, now, you know, when I was there, I just wanted to get out, you know, I want to get away I want to travel the world. But now every time I go back, and I see my family, which is usually a couple of times a year, I appreciate it a lot more. I think it's because I'm getting longer and Matthew Januszek 5:39 I'm the same I was I was I lived in a very small village and anything I could do to get out I did and you know, now I'm like you when I go back every now and again, you sort of you realize that the bits you can suddenly appreciate a lot a lot of obvious. I suppose whether that's to do with that you're going to leave in a few days or not. I don't know but you certainly certainly appreciate it either, anyway. Kris Gethin 6:02 Yeah, yeah, I think it's because it's kind of what do you go back? It's kind of new, it's fresh, and you have a different perspective. You know, but when you're there for a while, and it's raining all the time, maybe another different perspective. Matthew Januszek 6:13 So your your progression was was very interesting, what what would you say, was one of the sort of common threads that connected all the dots and allowed you to go from platform to platform, you know, it, you know, where you're now into a number of different businesses, but was there a philosophy or something that you identified early on? That that's sort of taking you to where you are today? Kris Gethin 6:42 Well, it's not one thing, but I could tell you that the pivotal role definitely came from bodybuilding. Because in 99, a year and a half after I'd given up motocross and started weight training, I decided, Hey, I'm going to compete in a bodybuilding show, even though I knew nothing about it. It wasn't as if there's anybody On my farm that I could go and speak to and talk to, I just look at magazines alert everything that I could from there. And it was given my sense that that sense of urgency, that sense of urgency led to discipline, militant discipline, and living by numbers and schedule and punctuality. That's what kind of led to a lot of the other things you know, I am very punctual. My Word is my bond to myself, even if it isn't to anybody else. And having the discipline that you get from bodybuilding with waking up at a certain time doing your cardio, having your meals, counting your macros, living by those numbers, has really helped have a transcendent effect within my businesses because, you know, I wake up early in the morning I make sure that everything is dictated by a schedule. And you know, if, like I said, even if somebody else cannot live by those numbers are shows up late, I'm still going to be early. And that's definitely had a positive effect and bye bye. Being active within bodybuilding. And when I say bodybuilding, I don't mean just, you know, standing up on stage in your posing pants, I mean like building your confidence building in bone density building the blood flow. I feel like a better person to be around so I can surround myself with people that are better than me or have strengths in areas where I can recognize my weaknesses. So, you know, it's just like if you if you look at yourself in a mirror, you know, you know if you're right latter's weak over the left.