Details are the difference
In this episode, I chat with Kyle Masterpole, the founder of The Bay Fitness. Kyle shares his journey from working at Dairy Queen in high school to becoming a strength and conditioning coach for college athletes and ultimately starting his own mobile fitness business. We discuss the unique aspects of his business, the importance of detailed observation and personalized training, and how he maintains a work-life balance. Join us as we delve into the world of mobile fitness and learn from Kyle's experiences and insights.
Links & Resources:
- Kyle Mastropole - The Bay Fitness
- Jonathan Mahrt - LinkedIn, Instagram, Website
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of On the Flywheel! If you enjoyed our conversation, please rate, follow, and review the podcast. Share it with friends who might find it helpful, and stay tuned for more insights from inspiring professionals and entrepreneurs.
For feedback, email hello@flywheelconsulting.co.
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Jonathan Mahrt: This is on the Flywheel, a podcast where each week we talk to entrepreneurs and professionals about the practical things they do to build and keep momentum in their personal and professional lives. Hello and welcome to on the Flywheel, episode four. I'm your host, Jonathan Mart of Flywheel Consulting. And today our guest is Kyle Masterpole. Another guest with a difficult last name that I had to make sure I got right. Welcome to the podcast today.
Kyle Mastropole: Thank you so much for having me.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, glad to have you on. So we always like to start out with you explaining a little bit about yourself, your business, how you got to where you are today.
Kyle Mastropole: So I run Sonoma in senior fitness and the Bay fitness, both petaluma based, and we bring the equipment to the client. So whether it's a senior who just needs some bands and even a massage table, because it's wider table makes it more accessible for them to move around, or someone that needs a full gym with a squad squat rack up to literally 400 pounds, we've got you covered. We're bring it all for your session, set it all up, put you through your workout, and then once we're done, it's all gone. We take it back with us. So there's no more squat racks in someone's house that's a hat rack or has their coats and towels on it. They have that room to use it.
Jonathan Mahrt: I'm triggered right now.
Kyle Mastropole: You'd be surprised how many houses we go into and they're like, I don't have the space. And we just move a coffee table, and now we have a squat rack and a bench and kettlebells and dumbbells. And we have a whole shebang in there. And on just an eight by eight space is where we're fitting that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay, cool.
Kyle Mastropole: And my background leading up to that is kind of a wide range. I've always been in the health and fitness industry. The only job that I've had that hasn't been in the health and fitness industry was Dairy Queen, which was my first job in high school, worked up to being a manager. It was actually more awesome than you would think. The owners were phenomenal. I got more raises at Dairy Queen than at any other job.
Jonathan Mahrt: Really? Really.
Kyle Mastropole: That's kind of a side note.
Jonathan Mahrt: I gotta think, though, as a high school student, though, doing fast food jobs, especially if you're in a place where there's, like other people kind of your age, or it's kind of a fun environment. Like, I know lots of kids, high school and college love working in n Out. Like, it's a just because of the camaraderie and they treat them well.
Kyle Mastropole: Agreed?
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. So sorry, continue.
Kyle Mastropole: No, we're good. So from dairy Queen moved up a little bit. So I worked out a few physical therapy clinics. I was a strength and conditioning coach at three universities, most recently Seton Hall University, and then coast town University, University of Tampa. So I got to work with athletes of many different sports. I added up the teams at one point a few years back. I think, like, 50 different teams I've worked with.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, wow.
Kyle Mastropole: A few thousand college athletes and then high school and professionals scattered in there. I also worked in a sports science lab. So all the things that you see in like, Gatorade commercials, that is like they're hooked up to all this machinery, got to work in one of those. And it all comes down to every detail matters, which is something that has really helped me in being able to work with a diverse range of clients, from youth athletes that are eleven years old up to professional, from the mom that's super busy and her hip hurts, from always carrying a kid for five, six, even up to 15 years. I had someone with five kids all under 15 and being able to go all the way to seniors and figure.
Jonathan Mahrt: It out, I think. So I want to jump into that a little bit because I think details matter. I think unpack that. I mean, how does that play out in your personal life and in your business?
Kyle Mastropole: So in my business, it's my background, especially working at universities. And a lot of people say, why work with seniors when you worked with athletes? That doesn't make any sense. But my career was go up to the basketball court, football field, whatever it is, watch practice and be like, oh, this is how he or she changes direction. Let me get him down to the weight room. And I remember a soccer player goes, coach, my groin hurts. It's killing me. Practices, games. It's not getting better, but I'm not coming out. So I was like, all right, let's go on the field. Let me put you through some drills. And how he had his feet set affected how his hips were set, which put all this pressure on his groin, because how he set himself up to change direction, it wasn't efficient. He had to do so much movement that ended up hurting his hips compared to getting his feet in the right place, that would use a different portion of his hips, be more powerful, be more efficient, so faster and easier versus a longer duration to change direction. And now his groin hurts. So, all right, here's how these mechanics were. Let's work on these mechanics here and slow it down. Let's go into the weight room now. And the muscles that I want firing a little more. We're going to emphasize, though, we're going to do movements that emphasize how I want you to turn. So from ankle exercises to hips to even core, put all of that together. Now we're going to go back out onto the field and we're going to redo these drills.
Jonathan Mahrt: Interesting.
Kyle Mastropole: And over time, nothing happens within one session.
Jonathan Mahrt: I was going to say, how do you rewire someone's brain to start running differently or changing direction differently? That's got to be difficult.
Kyle Mastropole: That's a great question, because whenever we are human beings, we are faulty. We make mistakes. We all have a dominant and non dominant side. So first and foremost, everyone has differences between their dominant and non dominant side. And it's my job to start to correct those because we overcompensate so much when it comes to our athletes, especially college athletes who have their whole life played a sport, love it. They're dedicated to it. Think of how many repetitions they've done of a given task on the field, on the court. And now they're going to spend an hour, up to 3 hours, but it's usually one to 2 hours a week with me. This isn't even here. They're going to keep doing that drill a million times compared to a few times a week with me. So I have to rewire them, and.
Jonathan Mahrt: It'S getting them to the whole 10,000 hours thing, right. That you have to now overcome.
Kyle Mastropole: So what I pride myself in is that I'm not just telling you to do the drill, we're breaking it down so that you know why. And it's pretty great. One of my favorite moments as a strength coach, it was with Seton hole women's basketball. I was on the court for practice. There was one athlete that I just. She had dedicated herself. Before practice, she's with me. After practice, she's with me. And they were scrimmaging on the court, and her footwork on defense just didn't hold up. I walked up to the court and I just put my hands up and she purposely runs across the court towards me and goes, I know, Kyle, because she knew exactly what she did wrong. She opened up her hips and use the wrong foot to go in one direction. And we never had to talk about it. Yeah, because we had already talked about it. She had already put in the work and she yelled at me because she's like, I don't need it. I know what I did wrong. Yeah, but that's what I pride myself on. That split second moment. She knew exactly what she did wrong and essentially told me to shut up because we had been over it. She knew, and I'm there to guide her. But my clients ultimately know what they're doing wrong and how to fix it on their own, which, their longevity depends on that, because I'm only with them for one to 2 hours a week.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right. So how does that translate to your client base today in terms of details and helping them make adjustments? Like, what kinds of things are they dealing with, and how are you helping them through that stuff now?
Kyle Mastropole: So I'll take the complete opposite of my collegiate athlete and go to my 85 year old client, who. Her knee hurts like crazy when she walks. Okay, let's break this down. So I'm watching how she walks, and one leg kind of curves out, and that affects how her foot lands, which affects what's happening at her knee. So now I'm putting her through drills to get that foot to move a little straighter, but also doing exercises on the other side to strengthen not just the knee, but strengthen the ankle to get that to move the proper way. Because she was pushing off her ankle in a weird way, I needed to change that.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: So all those little details of a basketball player on the court, that happens in a split second, right. With all due respect, it slows down a little bit for seniors.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yes.
Kyle Mastropole: So I actually have more time to assess and it's easier to see, but that focus of I need every little movement to count in that split second has helped me in senior populations now to be like, all right, when you're doing stairs, what does it look like when you're walking? When you're walking over something, what does it look like? How does your gait change?
Jonathan Mahrt: Interesting. So I think that's really interesting because you're not actually a physical therapist, but what you're doing to me sounds like physical therapy. So where is that line? It seems like you're blurring it, but maybe I just don't have a good understanding.
Kyle Mastropole: I do blur it more than most because, like I said, I started off in. I worked in physical therapy clinics, so that was actually my base. That was originally what I wanted to do and ended up making the switch. I got an internship as a strength conditioning coach. Worked over 40 hours a week for free, got nothing but a t shirt. Once my internship was done, I never complained. Well, you were happy every day to do this unpaid 40 to 50.
Jonathan Mahrt: You brought me a t shirt today, so I hope you don't expect me to work 40 hours for free.
Kyle Mastropole: For you, it would be nice, but it's not expected.
Jonathan Mahrt: I don't know that I would be that great either.
Kyle Mastropole: You're reading between the lines what I'm doing here.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I would be. I'm the setup and tear down guy, so that would be nice. I know. I gotta imagine that's the only thing about your business. When I think about, I'm like, God, that's gotta be a lot of time and effort just to, like, set all that stuff up, tear it all down. Do you have, like, how have you kind of, like, come up with a system? Do you have special equipment that's, like, made to be easily taken apart and moved around?
Kyle Mastropole: Exactly. So, like I said, I could fit things on an eight by eight space. Squat rack, bench, dumbbells, kettlebells, everything on just 8ft by 8ft, which, when you think about that, that's really not much space.
Jonathan Mahrt: No, it's not.
Kyle Mastropole: So everything is designed to be able to travel. And when I started this business, I knew, and I get this all the time, people say, I can't fit that in my house. What do you have, like, a big van you have to carry everything in? That's not gonna work.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: And I have an suv, so I always point and I go, squat rack, dumbbells, barbells, kettlebells, bands. Everything you need is right in that suv right now. Bring it into your house.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. And you probably only take out what you like, you know, ahead of time, what the workout is for the clients. So you don't have to take everything out. Right. So you don't need a full set every time.
Kyle Mastropole: Yeah. So I prep the night before and I have my equipment ready of what I'm gonna need the next day, because not everyone needs a squat rack. And when I first started, I wanted to pull out the bells and whistles. Right. So you bring everything, find a way to use it. And now I'm like, needs a freaking squat rack.
Jonathan Mahrt: No.
Kyle Mastropole: So I plan around what I'm gonna need, and if I don't need a squat rack, I'm not gonna put it in my freaking car just for the sake of it. Looks cool.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. And I think that's kind of. That is what's unique about your business is that you're actually bringing all of the equipment to people. So people don't even need. Don't even need to have anything at all in their house. They just have to have an eight by eight space for you to set up. So what is that, to me, seems like a unique selling point. How do you, like, make that and come up, like, decide to. To take that approach?
Kyle Mastropole: Ironically, it was the rock, Dwayne Johnson. So I was watching something probably on Instagram or whatever.
Jonathan Mahrt: Doesn't he have a full gym in his house?
Kyle Mastropole: So he was on a movie set, and it looked like, at least from the cameras, it looked like he had one of those industrial tents that, like, companies have when they do, like, company parties at the end.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: Like a whole gala, whatever. But he had a whole freaking gym in there, like, all big machines and everything. And I was like, that's really cool. He doesn't have to leave the set for anything. Now he has that full gym right there with him. I can't. I can't do that. But how can I match that?
Jonathan Mahrt: Right?
Kyle Mastropole: And when I was at Seton hall as an intern the first time around, we didn't have a gym at one point because we had a whole new gym built, bigger one, extravagant. We moved everything from the top floor to the bottom floor, where that new gym was going to be. And the day that we were supposed to open, the fire department comes and, like, one of your alarms doesn't work, we can't do that, and we can't come back till tomorrow. So we didn't have that gym for, like, 72 hours, and there was no gym. So we were like, all right. Empty space, a few dumbbells. How do you make it work? It's, you know, fairing me well right now.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right, right.
Kyle Mastropole: Because it just helped me come up with everything. What's the most compact dumbbell? What's the most compact squat rack? And it just goes on and on from there, even down to the car of, I do want an suv. I don't want a truck because I don't want to send the message of, this is big and bulky.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, okay, interesting.
Kyle Mastropole: What's the length of a barbell? So the barbell does go across the center console, but let me buy a pad to put on top of that to do so. But, yeah, everything's very compact, and everything's strategic, how we bring it, because it has to be convenient for the client. The number one goal.
Jonathan Mahrt: And then back to the details. Right back to the details.
Kyle Mastropole: Even packing the car. I once had a client that he put the bench in my car trying to help, and I was like, man, I appreciate it what you're trying to do. Like, seriously, I know this is a lot, but I can't fit everything in. When you put the bench in like that. Eddie just laughed. He's like, okay, I don't know the system.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, exactly. Well, as a quick aside, I mean, I think this is kind of a stereotype, but I definitely like, if we're going somewhere, my wife and my family, I'm packing the car. Cause I got a strategy. I gotta play Tetris with it. Every bag has a place. Pride myself on the ability to strategically fit everything in. So I think that's clearly, to me, one of the differentiators between your business and other people's is that you're bringing the equipment to people. What else makes you unique as compared to the other guys?
Kyle Mastropole: I think it's. I'm a team of three. It's me and two trainers under me. And our education and experience, quite honestly, separate us immediately right off the bat. So we all want to know where we stand as far as our competition. So I did a deep dive into Marin and Sonoma county because those are our main territories. And what do the other trainers in the area have? And I found 66 trainers with Bios on themselves, their backgrounds, their education, their experience, where they've been, certifications and all that. You would actually be surprised how many had nothing. It was, just, come train with me. We're going to build strength, we're going to lose body fat. And that was something like 20 something people had zero information on themselves.
Jonathan Mahrt: Wow.
Kyle Mastropole: But I found 66 that did have information. Of those 66, 26% had a degree in the field, and they were working in a bachelor's degree or higher.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: Which was what? I think 26 people, four of those. So 6% had a master's degree or higher. So our team is all both bachelor's and master's degree in exercise science or something similar. Like, my guy Evan has exercise physiology.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: But it's all in the same field. So all three of us are in that top six of marine in Sonoma county. And then we've worked with collegiate and professional athletes. We've worked with. See, I've worked with everything from diabetics to osteoporosis, cancer survivors. Evans had people in wheelchairs that he's worked with. JB, has lived in China to work with Olympic athletes, worked at Purdue University.
Jonathan Mahrt: So experience makes.
Kyle Mastropole: It's our high level, and there has to be a standard of it and a standard of care because we have referred out when it's been like, this is out of our scope, but we want to be the best in the industry, and all of us are in the top 6% in regards to education, trainers, and Marin in Sonoma county. So I think when you pair our education with our experience, and the proof is really in the pudding. We've been in business for this month marks two and a half years, and between individual and business awards, there's six of them.
Jonathan Mahrt: Wow.
Kyle Mastropole: So I myself have been named one of the top personal trainers in Marin county by the Marin IJ, Marin Independent Journal twice, Marin magazine once, and then business awards in both Marin and Sonoma county. So one in.
Jonathan Mahrt: Congratulations, by the way.
Kyle Mastropole: So one in Marin and two in Sonoma.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome. So what do you think, then, that you've alluded to it slightly, but what do you think in your industry? Like, people tend to tend to get wrong.
Kyle Mastropole: It's kind of if they're a certified personal trainer, that they can do all, and if you don't have a degree in the field, it doesn't mean you can't do anything. And I want to say that up front, I, too, am a certified personal trainer. But it's kind of a guessing game at that point on the quality that you're going to get. So to be a certified personal trainer, you have a laptop in front of you. We could get that right now. There's no qualifications. There's no requirements.
Jonathan Mahrt: You don't have to take it. You have to, like, take a test or something.
Kyle Mastropole: You could just take that online right now, and I could help you through it. We'll get through it. In 2030, I can be certified. All right, we'll be a certified personal trainer. But for one of my requirements for.
Jonathan Mahrt: My staff, once again, I don't work for t shirts.
Kyle Mastropole: Just to be clear, one of my requirements was they have to have their CSCS certification, which means that they have a degree with the prerequisites.
Jonathan Mahrt: What does that stand for?
Kyle Mastropole: Certified strength and conditioning specialist, kind of the gold standard for training, because you have to submit your transcripts to sit for it. And the same goes, I'm a certified exercise physiologist and sports nutritionist. And for all three of those, I had to send my transcripts. Otherwise, I can't be certified.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: I have to show proof that I have a degree in the field.
Jonathan Mahrt: So if you had to sum it up, then it's that trying to be all things to all people. And why does that. Like, why does that matter?
Kyle Mastropole: See, this is kind of tricky because some of my best work has been with things that I've never worked with before that I just dig through papers and try to find the research behind what to do and how to help them watch their mechanics. But having someone that can navigate and understand is going to make a big difference than somebody going in blindly. And a lot of it is just having the background information. Did you go to school for four years? Six years, depending on whether it's bachelor's or master's. And did you understand the background information and be able to make the connections? Which is pretty vague and broad. And quite honestly, it sucks as an answer, but if I didn't have doctors teaching me how to look for certain things, I wouldn't be able to do the things that I'm doing today.
Jonathan Mahrt: So what you're really saying, so let me try and translate it. And what I'm hearing then is you're not necessarily trying to gatekeep, you know, doing personal fit, being a personal trainer with people, but it's that people maybe way tend to over promise and under deliver because they don't have the background understanding of what's actually going on. Not necessarily that you need because, I mean, I'd also hate to say, I'd also hate to think like, oh, you can only be a personal trainer if you have six years of school. Right. Because that's not what you're saying.
Kyle Mastropole: That's not the truth. No. There's one person, actually, because I'm looking to hire a fourth person and I'm probably going to break the rule for her. She doesn't have a degree, but I can tell you she applies things better than the people I graduated with for my masters.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right?
Kyle Mastropole: She's phenomenal.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right. So what do you think separates, like, a good personal trainer from a bad personal trainer then? Because it's not necessarily like you're just saying right here, it's not necessarily that they have a degree or, you know, what kind of creates that separation?
Kyle Mastropole: It's the work they're willing to put in, to be honest, because I know people who have their degree and don't know Jack, but then I have people who don't have a degree, but they are reading every day and they're like, how do I learn this? How do I learn that? And they're doing their research and learning from the right people, of course, and getting internships and things, but it's your ability to see things on the fly and adapt and be able to have a scientific basis for how you change and how you adapt.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: And a lot of times it's just, I saw this in men's health magazine. So.
Jonathan Mahrt: So I'm gonna do it.
Kyle Mastropole: This is Mike, Mike Trout's workout. So I'm gonna be a better baseball player.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, interesting, interesting. So let's. You're, you're running, you're dealing with scheduling people a lot, trying. There's, it seems like there's a lot of logistics in your business. You're now managing multiple trainers, including yourself, maybe adding another. So how do you, how do you stay organized in your business and kind. Kind of stay on top of all that stuff?
Kyle Mastropole: It's tough, man. It's tough because since I travel, it's not like I'm sitting at my desk and then a client comes in and then I'm back at my desk. I'm always moving around.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right.
Kyle Mastropole: A to do list is the number one thing to keep me organized. The most basic, simple thing. And on any given day, I have anywhere from six to 15 things that I hope to accomplish for the day. Almost never gets done, and I purposely put in more than I know I could do. But it's, what are the most prominent tasks at hand that I need to accomplish. And then some get pushed to the next day and it is what it is. My to do list is the biggest thing. If I don't have the to do list, then my mind's churning way too much and I start doing a million tasks without finishing them.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right. So it helps you prioritize and focus.
Kyle Mastropole: That's the most simple thing.
Jonathan Mahrt: Are you using any particular app? Is it just a piece of paper or what are you using to keep track of it?
Kyle Mastropole: I use the notes app on my iPhone.
Jonathan Mahrt: Beautiful. Beautiful. What about the scheduling part of it? Are you just doing it like in a Google calendar or you have some particular app that you're using for that?
Kyle Mastropole: So I use the Wix platform, which has been good. So everyone's schedule is right on there. If there's something I manually need to put in, it goes on their schedule. But then they also have their Google calendars links so they can see if I have a call. Granted, I always follow up with them if I added something in manually, but then they could always see what I added in on there.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, interesting. So, I mean, I'm familiar with Wix as like a platform for building websites, but then they also have some additional functionality for scheduling.
Kyle Mastropole: Yeah, scheduling and taking payments, which is cool. You know, I run in, I run a convenient business, so I need a convenient way to schedule things myself. And they were an all in one. So I think it is a little more pricey than doing it all separately. But at the same time, the convenience of it makes it easier for me to be able to, in one click, see everyone's schedule on one. Or I could see.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, yeah. You got who's where when. Yeah. I mean, you got to be able to leverage yourself and. And make that as frictionless as possible in order to keep all those balls juggling, because you're probably feeling a fair amount of calls and communication from clients on a regular basis. Right. Okay, so let's talk about. I want to kind of close the business section with, like, what's the best part about your job and what's the worst part about your job or your business?
Kyle Mastropole: I'm trying to think, who do I want to highlight here? Because it's a difference that you make with people.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: I'll say. One of my clients just got back from her third vacation since we started working together back in August or September, and.
Jonathan Mahrt: Wait, wait, she's already had three vacations? Oh, it's retired. Okay. I was like, I gotta change something.
Kyle Mastropole: She is just a wonderful client. I look forward to working with her every single time.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome.
Kyle Mastropole: And we started working together because her daughter was like, she was gonna go to Italy, which COVID screwed that. But anyway, she was gonna go to Italy, and her husband bought her a wheelchair that he could put on his backpack so that she wouldn't be hindered on their vacation, so they could go see whatever, and he will push her.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's pretty cool.
Kyle Mastropole: And maybe two months ago, she just got back from her third vacation. They've never used it.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, wow.
Kyle Mastropole: So we worked together for two months, and then she never needed it. And a couple months ago, her husband. Come here. Let me show you the wheelchair. And it's just in their shed, folded up. He goes, I've never taken it out.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome.
Kyle Mastropole: We bought that because we thought walking was a thing of the past for her. And I didn't want to wait for her to fall down on vacation. I wanted, I'll push her. We'll get to see everything.
Jonathan Mahrt: All right. That's powerful. I'm about to start tearing up here.
Kyle Mastropole: That's really the husband pulling me to the side to say thank you. Yeah, that's not the first one. And it's rewarding every time. And it's like, I never know how to react.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: I just say it's been my pleasure because I get emotional about it.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: It's like, wow. You notice the work.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome. That's awesome. Okay, so what's the worst part then?
Kyle Mastropole: I mean, we've already touched on it. It's the time and traveling around every day.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: And, you know, work and family. You know how that is. You have two kids. Yeah, it's tough. It's. I have a great, supportive wife.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: I've talked about my awards, and I can't talk about my awards without saying none of that is possible without my wife, because when I started from zero and even offered to get a second job just to make ends meet, she was. I remember she gave me this look of disgust when I offered to take a night shift during the day. I work on the business. Yeah, no, just you. You go do this. So I have a great supportive way.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome. Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: But the worst part is Monday, my first session was at 06:00 a.m. The last session ended at 06:30 p.m. And that. That was in Napa. The last.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, that's tough.
Kyle Mastropole: So I didn't get home till about 730 because I have to pack up.
Jonathan Mahrt: And so is that part of the impetus, then, for getting more people in the business, not just to, like, grow more, but also maybe to take care of some of, like, have people cover specific geographies.
Kyle Mastropole: Exactly. So, like, Evan right now, is the head of Marin. So anyone new that comes in from Marin, he takes because I'm based in Petaluma. He's based in San Francisco in the presidio. But it's an easy drive for him so that I could start narrowing it down because then I could take more clients in less time. And same for him. He didn't have to be driving from Sausalito up to Glen Ellen.
Jonathan Mahrt: And the advantage for folks coming on and working with you is that you're doing a lot of the marketing and helping bring in probably a lot of clients so they can just focus on. Not that they never have their own clients or bring clients in, but they can just focus on the training part of it. And you can do kind of all the hard back end work of getting people in.
Kyle Mastropole: They're high level coaches, and I want to take care of everything so that they could be at their best because the business will get a lot of recognition if they're at their best.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. So I think that's a perfect transition, is just, like, talking about the support from your wife, like, what it sounds like, and the question I like to ask everyone is like, how are you managing work life balance? What does that look like for you? It looks like part of it is you're trying to, like, bring on more people so you're traveling less. But is there anything else that's important to you to kind of maintain that balance.
Kyle Mastropole: I think something too with that is I'm still doing from Sausalito up to Napa, I'm taking clients. It's gonna take, I estimate about two years for me to just be in like Sonoma county.
Jonathan Mahrt: Like an additional two. Like an additional two years.
Kyle Mastropole: Two years from today.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: It will probably take for me to transition and make sure that everyone has the right trainer for them wherever they are, but then for me to be able to stay in Sonoma county.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay. Okay. So in two years you'll have more balance. That's what you're telling me.
Kyle Mastropole: And it's just the truth because, you know, we, we always, we know what our end goal is, but there are a lot of steps to get there. So I try to be realistic in my steps and what it's going to take to be, be there. But I'd say the biggest thing is getting home for dinner. I'd say maybe once every two months I'm not home for dinner. And my wife's amazing.
Jonathan Mahrt: She's very.
Kyle Mastropole: So, like, even if I get home at 730, she would prefer to wait for me to eat dinner rather than eating by herself and then I eat by myself. So getting home for dinner at a reasonable time is probably the number one thing because I do want to give my wife that time. So we eat dinner, maybe watch a show for half hour, hour and then we go to bed. But at least we've had that dinner and a show time together.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. I think that's really important. I know that starting a business is really difficult and it's a conversation I have with my wife. Is that okay? There's probably going to be like a couple years here where we're going to kind of have to like grind and work hard at it and put more time into it. But that's not, that's not the end goal, right? This is temporary because my experience is like, you can't do the six to six thing forever. Right. I think it's fine in short sprints, it's fine when you're younger, but once you start having kids it gets even more difficult. And then you get married, it gets more difficult and I don't think it's sustainable for long term happiness. I mean, granted, I've met people that like their life is their work and they're happy with that and it works for them. So I'm not gonna like completely knock that, but I would say that's probably the exception. I just think it burns people out. If your whole life is about work, even if you love your job. Cause it seems like you love it, right? So I think that's really important is to make sure you're prioritizing your family and then having good. Sounds like you have good communication with your spouse or whoever your partner is about, like, hey, like, this is temporary. This is what I'm doing. And then trying to prioritize, like, hey, we're going to have dinner together every single night.
Kyle Mastropole: Exactly. And, you know, I get asked the question a lot and I've talked about, and we talked offline about the standards of what, like a professional sports strength and conditioning coach needs. And even for college sports, it's the same standards and it is the coolest job. I got to work with basketball players every day. I got to travel the country with basketball players. I got to go on a private planes to go to and from games.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's cool.
Kyle Mastropole: But I'm working up to 80 hours a week. Don't really have time or days off. I'm missing weddings. My friends are having kids, and I'm not there to, you know, be there at that joyous time because I'm over in Omaha playing Creighton.
Jonathan Mahrt: Right.
Kyle Mastropole: So there is that kind of life balance and that's what I seek with this business is being able to kind of see the write in on the wall with college sports and be like, there's really no time to putting all this time in, but I am now getting paid for the time I put in. When you're working for someone else, you don't always get paid for those 60 to 80 hours a week. In time, it will allow me to have that work life balance where I can't have kids. My dad worked his butt off, but he was always there for my games. He was always present. So I seek to be there just like my dad was. And I knew in college sports it probably wasn't going to be the case.
Jonathan Mahrt: Was that a big part of the motivation for starting this business was to actually have a little bit more long term, have more balance and more control over your schedule.
Kyle Mastropole: Then kind of like I just reiterated, working 60 to 80 hours a week, I might as well do it for myself.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, 100%.
Kyle Mastropole: So if you have the work ethic, it's pretty much worth it. And, you know, over time, like you said, it's not going to be the same. You got to take a few years building it up to get it steady, and then you can figure things out from there.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's awesome. So I want to I think that takes us into kind of the bonus question time here. And the first question I like, I'm trying to ask everyone is, what are some of the books that you've gifted the most to people?
Kyle Mastropole: I'm not much of a book gifter.
Jonathan Mahrt: Fair enough.
Kyle Mastropole: But I do share a lot.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: So I still have my biomechanics book.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: From my, I think, junior year at sacred art university.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: I went back, like, damn near ten years later and reread that entire textbook.
Jonathan Mahrt: Wow.
Kyle Mastropole: And it helps me so much.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay, well, this is by far the nerdiest answer we've ever had. We've had so far on the podcast.
Kyle Mastropole: Okay, I'll just give two. So, number two is so I don't think I shared. I moved out to San Francisco to join a startup, and that was just more of 60, 80 hours a week. But when I did that, I was like, right. In college sports, I. These kids come to me because that's my job. This is your strength and conditioning coach. You go to him for x amount of times per week. You go to him when you need this or that. But now running my own business and then joining a startup where we have to get the clients, I started reading more on just conversation, how to adapt to the person and what are some things that make a difference. So both of my logos are blue.
Jonathan Mahrt: Okay.
Kyle Mastropole: And that was because, well, one, I noticed that, like, a lot of the fitness businesses were red, and red is a lot more intense.
Jonathan Mahrt: It's a very aggressive color. Yes.
Kyle Mastropole: Blue had was. It's a lot more one. Like, authority was one of the things, but also just calmness is another thing that a few books said. So I was like, all right, let me do a blue logo. So reading books like that, having big. And I've suggested that to other people, too. And just like, here's some basic tips.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: That can help you.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah, that's awesome. If you had. If you could put something up on a billboard right on the edge of the freeway, lots of people are going to see it. Like, what's the one thing you'd put on that billboard that you want everyone to know, think about, well, I'm still.
Kyle Mastropole: Building my business, so it goes right to business.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's fair.
Kyle Mastropole: My logos on there and just have all the awards there.
Jonathan Mahrt: That is totally fair. I'm thinking more like general life advice.
Kyle Mastropole: General life?
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: You know, and just whatever makes you happy, do it. Work relentlessly to find a way to keep that happiness in your life.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's great.
Kyle Mastropole: They're simple things and I think when people hear, like, work relentlessly, that doesn't necessarily mean work 12 hours, seven days a week.
Jonathan Mahrt: Mm hmm.
Kyle Mastropole: But what about your spouse? Did you do something to make her happy?
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: You know, did you do the dishes and fold the laundry just to make, make her day a little easier? Things like that. And that is working relentlessly to keep the happiness in your life. Sorry, seasonal allergies. So my eyes are going right now.
Jonathan Mahrt: All good. Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: So it's just understanding what's in front of you to try and keep you happy.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: And it takes a lot of work to understand what's in front of you to make you happy because we're solely as focused as entrepreneurs on the task of the job at hand.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And I think the last question I want to have is unique to you is what do you think that's the one thing everyone in their lives could be doing on a daily basis to be healthier. Like, one simple thing everyone should be doing or more fit or kind of something along that vein, honestly, move more.
Kyle Mastropole: And it doesn't have to be. Go run 18 miles today. I have a lot of people that I'm like, all I want you to do and I'll give them three to five exercises on your lunch break. Take five minutes just to do these mobility exercises and not anything that's going to break a sweat. Just simple movement because maybe they have low back pain. Do these couple movements and then you can go back to work, but take five minutes to do this. And for a lot of people, that goes a long way. Something like a simple walk before they start the work day. If you're answering emails and you can do it from your phone.
Jonathan Mahrt: Yeah.
Kyle Mastropole: Take a walk for that half hour.
Jonathan Mahrt: That's great. That's a great, that's a great thought, actually. Yeah. Answer emails and walk at the same time for take a little break. That's, that's great.
Kyle Mastropole: I do know a chiropractor. Shout out to Doctor Robert Adamitch of Adamitch Chiropractic. He, he suggests you have your phone up while you're doing it because he goes, do you know how many people I get because they are here.
Jonathan Mahrt: Oh, interesting.
Kyle Mastropole: On their laptops all day. So he goes, I get a lot of eyes on me when I'm walking like this. And it gives him a chance to say what he's doing and pitch himself.
Jonathan Mahrt: There you go. Always, always be selling well. Kyle, it has been awesome having you on the podcast. It was great learning about kind of the industry and what you do. Thank you very much.
Kyle Mastropole: I appreciate it. Thank you for having me.