Welcome to The Success Code w/ Ben Silverman, hosted by entrepreneur, founder, Mr. USA, National Taekwondo Champion, and content creator Benjamin Silverman. Today's episode engages in an enlightening discourse on the essence of success through the lens of Eric Triplet, a seasoned entrepreneur in the niche business of aquarium and pond services.

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The conversation is rich with insights, as Triplet recounts his journey from a youthful fascination with aquatic life to establishing a thriving enterprise. He candidly reflects on the pivotal moments that shaped his career, illustrating the intersection of passion and perseverance. The dialogue delves into the intricacies of transitioning from a mere hobbyist to a professional, emphasizing the importance of timing and opportunity in entrepreneurship. The narrative serves not only as a testament to Triplet's resilience but also as a guide for aspiring business owners, illuminating the critical strategies that can propel one toward success in a competitive marketplace. Furthermore, the episode highlights the significance of diversifying business avenues, as Triplet discusses the evolution of his services in response to economic fluctuations, thereby underscoring the necessity of adaptability in the pursuit of sustained success.

Takeaways:

• Success in business often requires a deep understanding of one's passion, as exemplified by Eric's journey with fish and ponds.
• The path to entrepreneurship is fraught with challenges, yet resilience and diversity in business can lead to sustainable growth.
• Building a company necessitates not only passion but also strategic planning and adaptability in the face of adversity.
• Creating a supportive environment for employees can lead to mutual success and a thriving business culture.
• The evolution of a business often involves diversification, which can provide stability during economic downturns.
• True success is defined not merely by financial gain but by the ability to positively impact the lives of others.

Links referenced in this episode:

• thePeakPerformance.org
• PondDiggerPodcast.com

Welcome to the Success Code, the podcast where we crack the secrets to achieving greatness in business and life.

Join us as we dive into the strategies, habits and pivotal moments that have helped some of the world's most successful entrepreneurs and leaders to reach the top of their game.

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So let's jump into Decode Success.

Today's episode is brought to you by Peak Performance Fitness, the ultimate transformation program for busy businessmen, leaders and entrepreneurs.

We created this program specifically for high achievers who want to succeed not just in business, but in life.

So that means no fad diets, no end endless hours in the gym, just proven science based strategies designed to fit your lifestyle and deliver results that last.

If you happen to be interested, check out the Peak Performance.org today to take the first step forward because true success starts with you.

Now on today's episode, we've got a really cool guest, Eric Triplet.

Am I pronouncing that right?

Yes, sir.

The pond digger.

I love it.

So tell me, tell me a little bit about yourself, man.

Well, you know, I somehow chased my dream of just playing with fish all day many, many years ago, about, about, I don't know, 35 years ago.

Just so I was like, I was just, I just want to play with fish all day and somehow led down the path and here I am all these years later and I pretty much get to do that every day.

Were you always interested in like fish and like sea life like when you were a kid or.

I, I definitely had an aquarium when I was like five years old, which was cool, you know, but I was into sports and guitar and, you know, I wanted to be a rock star when I grew up.

I, I guess I kind of made rockstar status by building ponds with stone and rock.

And you know, we've done articles, we've done articles and YouTube videos and so like I, I can't, I guess I ended up being a rock star in some degree, but not, not with a, not with a guitar in my hand.

So that's, I mean it's not a unique business to me.

Obviously people have done like these type of businesses, but to discover that, that your passion sounds very unique.

Like how did you find out you wanted to work with fish and ponds?

So it's crazy.

So I was 19.

I remembered stinks with, I got an, I got an aquarium for Christmas.

And I was like, oh, this is cool.

I haven't had one of these in a while, right?

I was out playing Soccer.

And I mean, at this time, at 19, I was like, I was already had a day job, you know, I was already a framer and I was already, you know, making a living doing that.

Right?

And.

But I just went to the, went to the aquarium store and just like freaked out.

Like, I just gotta have every one of these fish, you know, and within a year or so, you know, like in my apartment, I had like nine aquariums, you know.

Oh.

And it was just like I couldn't get enough.

And then I overheard the guy at the, at the aquarium store talking about how people would go to people's homes and take care of aquariums and make money.

And I'm like, what?

That sounds like I could get into that.

And that, that was like, like my first in, you know, in.

Right.

It wasn't, there wasn't a big cost of entry.

I was like, I got a car.

I clean nine aquariums, you know, every week.

Anyways, I'll just throw all my stuff in the car and I'll drive to someone's house and, and you know, make 25 bucks in an hour.

And I thought I was rich, you know, so it was cool.

That's crazy.

And how, how did that evolve then into, into starting it as, as a company?

Because I think I, I've talked to a lot of entrepreneurs, I've talked to a lot of people that want to be entrepreneurs and want to start businesses.

And a lot of people just think that, that being passionate about something naturally evolves into a business when, you know, we all actually know that building a company is incredibly difficult.

Like, how did you.

Maybe this is a vague question, but like, how did you actually create the determination to make that transition from having a really cool job that you liked to deciding to make a business out of it?

So it's interesting because when I came onto the scene, there wasn't a lot of people doing that.

So there, there's an interesting factor.

A lot of times people today that they want to do something, there's already, there's already a lot of people in the market doing it, right?

So at the time there wasn't a lot of people doing it.

There wasn't Internet, anything like that.

Um, and it was interesting cuz I bought a service route.

I bought like 10 aquarium jobs from a guy that had a real job.

That was his side hustle, you know.

And he was kind of like getting old and didn't.

He was kind of getting burnt out.

But see, and he was like older, you know, he was like 37.

No, he was.

I know you told me 37.

I know you.

I was like, we're not doing video.

So I was like, I can give you a glare without anyone seeing it.

No, he.

I think he was.

I think he was in his 50s or something like that.

What do I know?

But I was, like, 24, you know, I was, like, so pumped.

Right?

Yeah.

And, like, I.

I didn't.

I wasn't married.

I didn't have a mortgage.

I didn't, you know, have kids.

Like, I was free, you know, I was really free at the time in my life.

And so I, I had the ability to, you know, take a pay cut and not have to worry about, you know, all this stuff.

So it, it, it just.

That was the.

That was the big thing for me.

If, you know, looking, looking fast forwarding, fast forward.

If I was in my 30s and, you know, I had a kid and, like, how can you make that move?

You know?

So I think timing was a big, big factor for me.

It's, you know, I starved for a while.

You did.

Okay, so tell.

So tell me about that.

So how, How.

How long was the, the getting started period before you transition to the, okay, this is working and growth period?

And, and tell me a little bit more about that.

Okay, let me fast forward.

It was probably a good five years, because in 96, I started, like, a more serious part of my business.

By 99, I was like, hey, I'm.

I'm a professional at this.

But by, like, 90, 91, 92 is when I was, like, making this whole move.

Right?

So, but by.

So by 99, I was like, hey, this is what I do for a living.

I'm a pro, and I'm making money.

This is good.

So it.

It took me a good six or seven years to kind of get off the ground.

I probably, I kept my framing job for, I don't know, probably a year, and then did aquariums on the side and then kind of developed it from there.

That takes guts.

Even young, even without having responsibilities, it takes a lot of balls to go in, go all in.

And five or six years is a long time to.

To stay focused without hitting that.

That click.

That moment where it's like, oh, I'm a pro at this.

You know, I think they say, like, what.

Most businesses fail within the first four years or four or five or whatever it is.

Like, what kept you going through that whole period?

Well, dude, this is what's crazy.

It's like, I love fish.

I mean, I would literally do the shit for free.

Can I say sorry Radish for the ass heads.

I would literally.

I would literally do.

Do.

I would play with fish for free.

You know, I remember being seven years old and being in Long beach at El Dorado park, like, climbing in the ponds and catching crawdads and mosquito fish and like, I just.

It just was cool to me.

Frogs and tadpoles and all that stuff.

So let me ask you, because I think this is.

You actually have a really fun story to talk.

I'm excited.

You're.

In the beginning, then being successful is just being able to do what you liked, right?

You like playing.

You're like, I would have done it for free.

So.

So being.

Being able to do what you enjoyed was success.

What is success for you now?

Success for me now is creating my dream big enough to where my employees can create dreams there.

You know, they can raise their families, they can buy their homes and cars and things like that.

I think that was a.

That was a big factor for me because I remember there was a time where I was like, you know, I could give a guy a good deal on a job, right?

But I.

It wouldn't.

I still had a good steak for dinner.

I still drove a nice truck.

I still paid for my mortgage.

I still had my business going and everything, right?

And I'd give a deal on a job.

But then all of a sudden, like, I couldn't elevate my team.

I couldn't elevate my staff.

And I remember there's.

There's been once or two times in my career where someone had to leave me.

They had a better job because, you know, I.

I wasn't offering them enough.

And that's.

That was a real wake up point for me.

That was a real, like, oh, if I'm gonna do this for a long time, I have to create a bigger space.

Otherwise, I'm gonna train someone for 10 years and they're gonna go somewhere else.

You know, that's a.

That's a long time to have someone that you really rely on and then you lose them.

And so that was a big factor for me.

Cool.

Cool.

So let me ask then, like, how has your business itself evolved from taking care of other people's fish to what you do now or tell.

Tell us a little bit more.

Like, what are you doing now?

And what was sort of the process of that evolution?

Okay, so.

So this is interesting.

You're 37.

2008.

That was what.

So that was 19 years ago.

So I was.

Yeah, you were still teen eight right.

18, 19, something like that.

You know, we're doing a million dollars a year.

2008 comes and we take a dive.

This is interesting.

I.

I had so much business building ponds.

Like, the economy was so crazy at the time.

Like, I couldn't handle anymore.

I couldn't handle the service part.

And so I was pitching all that stuff to other people.

I was like, you guys do the maintenance, you guys do the service repair.

I'm just doing installs.

And so that was a big part of my business.

And we were building a hundred pounds a year, two pounds a week, like putting two pounds in a week in the ground in people's backyards.

No service.

People kept my eyes going up, but it was.

It was insane.

It was insane.

Right at the time, as I was losing my lease on my building, and a lot of my.

My peers, my vendors, like, people I did a lot of business with, they were like, this is perfect timing.

Move.

Move your company back to your home.

I got goosebumps on my legs right now, bro.

Move your company back to your home right now.

This is the perfect time.

The economy's gonna be rough.

We don't know how long it's gonna be.

And I just refused to do this.

I was like, I'm not.

I'm not taking my company back home.

It's like do or die for me.

I got another building.

The lease cost me more money, more square footage, more cash.

And somehow I made it through losing 50% of my business and, and scaling up.

I still was able to pull it off.

Retail, wholesale, Internet, anything that I make a dollar with with my business, right?

For that had to do with fish.

I didn't go back to work for someone else.

I didn't go crying home.

I didn't do anything of that.

And so that's.

2008 was like the new era of me being really diverse.

Right.

That fell through because of distribution.

2012, I did it myself.

Somehow I pulled it off.

Like, so now I have a patented skimmer.

So I'm manufacturing.

So now I'm really diverse.

So if it gets a little shaky right now, I feel like I'm gonna be able to pull it off, you know?

See, you keep just saying somehow I pulled it off.

And part of me is like, no one says, anyone who says somehow I pulled it off multiple times.

There's more to it than.

It's not just luck.

There's.

There's something there.

Right.

Because again, 99% of people don't pull it off.

And, and the rest of them might pull it off once and then they don't again.

So what do you think allowed you to get through those hard times?

And what, what, what's the secret sauce like?

Was it just hustling or what?

What do you accredit getting through all those crazy situations to?

You said something that really struck me and I want to, I want to just touch it for a second and I'll answer your question.

But I did almost lose everything once.

Okay.

Million and a half, 2 million.

Yeah.

And I, I thought I was gonna die, bro.

A hundred percent.

I thought, this is it, it's curtains for me.

So all my team members that I had had for all those years, I had already lost members of my team.

Cuz I wasn't building a big enough business to have them supported, you know, like their families and dreams and everything.

So any everyone I had, guys have been with me for 15 years, for 10 years, for seven years.

I set them up with their own contracting businesses.

I set them up.

I'm like, let's get us contractor's license.

I'm going down.

My wife's going to send you all the business, you're going to buy shit from her.

And that was kind of like my game plan.

But lucky for me, I got healthy.

It took me a three years to rebound.

And then you said, and they did it again.

I Pulled it off because I'm passionate.

I had manufacturing, I had retail, I had Internet.

I still had service and repair and I kept a couple guys on while I was sick and that was helping support my business and my family.

Right.

Like, go take over the world again.

Do I want to build all that stress again?

Do I want to, I'm, I have nothing.

So I, I mean I've, I've rebuilt another world class construction company, Seven Figure Construction company from, from scratch again for that second time.

But I think it's because I am passionate and I went, I went really diverse.

And I do think, I think people like me, you know, I mean, I think I'm good to people and, and I, I want to take care of my people and they want to take care of me.

And I think that's a big factor of my success.

I definitely, I, I, I resonate with that.

I think being a good person isn't a prerequisite of success.

Let's say there's lots of bad people that are very successful financially.

Yeah, but I think it definitely helps.

Yeah.

Right.

But, but you said something really interesting, which is you're, the fact that you diversified as being also one of the core pillars of your ability to rebuild after each stumble, which makes the stumble makes sense.

Right?

All business owners.

I can't think of a single business owner who doesn't have a story of almost going broke or like, you know, being like days away from bankruptcy.

But if you listen at least to a lot of the modern, let's say business coaches and influencers and mentors who talk about it, they all say, focus on one thing.

Right?

Alex Hormozi loves saying his, this is like his favorite thing in like all of his podcasts.

I was like, had three, three bo, three companies.

None of them were doing well.

Then I focused on one.

Yeah.

And he tells everyone, focus on one.

What are your thoughts?

Why did diversify?

I stress about that all the time.

I stress about that all the time.

I'm like, should I just go really hard in one area?

But because I'm so passionate about this, I feel like that's a good question.

And Alex bugs the crap outta me when he says that.

I'm like, I Just, I know I get stretched too thin on a lot of things.

I got a book that's almost done.

Do I just, I just gotta take a week off and finish it, you know, But I'm all doing all these other things, you know, so.

It's a damn good question and I don't have the right answer.

I mean, maybe it's, I don't either.

I'm just, I'm just having fun now.

But maybe it's like pros and cons to both.

Like, I definitely can see maybe the, you know, having having the diversified skill set and businesses and products and different like angles allowed you to have more options when you stumbled, right, when, when the economy crashed, you weren't reliant on one channel to make it or break it.

Right.

You were able to get a little bit from here, a little bit from there and, and, and have that buffer.

And maybe that's the power of having a diverse product range.

Right.

You have more options if something doesn't go well.

But then maybe that's also the difference between being a seven or eight figure business and a nine or ten.

Yeah, maybe that's what Alex is all about.

I don't know.

I know, I know.

I think about that all the time.

Yeah, well, let's look, let's go down the rabbit hole.

Let's say you were going, you, you had to choose one to bet everything on to be the next, you know, nine figure business to take you to the next level.

What would you bet it on?

I don't, I don't know if my niche.

This is what's crazy because I know Brandon Dawson, I think his last name, he would be like every, every company can go to a hundred million, right?

But I don't think I can go to a hundred million without, you know, multiple phases.

It would be in construction currently.

Okay.

The, the tricky thing is I make 57 this year and so I'm looking like, okay, in, in eight years, where am I going to be?

Am I retiring?

And I mean I still want to do this stuff but like maybe pull way back, I'm not really sure.

But one of my peers, he's in his 30s and he just did 10 million this year.

So I was like, okay.

I mean he did that in last year and he's in my same business but he has seven store locations and he has two, three construction crews and service and maintenance division.

So he is very diverse.

It's still in the same, it's still in the same business.

Does that make sense?

It's just it's like leveled up.

It's like, you know, like, look at Andy Frisella in first form.

You know, first they just buy supplements, sell them, they white label them, and now they're manufacturing them.

And then they're, you know, now they're integrating higher level stuff where they're like growing the product that they sell to their manufacturing.

So it's still within the same realm.

Right, so it's more of like the vertical integration.

Yeah, right.

Where, where you, you take over the whole vertical.

Interesting.

Well, so you, you, you brought up an.

I mean, I loved this episode today where like, because everything is coming naturally.

So you said, you know, eight years from now, what are you going to be doing?

Are you retiring?

You.

Are you still doing it?

And I think that's a, I want to talk about that more because again, success is in stages, right?

And depending on where you are in life, success has completely different meanings and has different meanings at different ages, has different meanings for different people and different, different places.

And so what do you see success at 65 looking like for you?

And granted we don't have the answers for the future, but if you were to like, guess where you think you.

Want to be at 65, coaching, consulting, still running like my manufacturing divisions.

I mean it, it gets even more twisted, bro.

We have a wildlife rehabilitation center that we founded, the Pond Dicker Ranch Wildlife center.

Right?

So we have wild bobcats come through with burnt paws from fires and we rehabilitate them, get em back out into the wild.

It's my wife's passion.

It's my wife's dream.

So like I, at 65, I want to be doing more of that.

I want to like, I, I have a coaching group for my, for contractors as well.

So I teach sales communications and you know, how to, how to not be a douchebag when you're talking to a process.

You know, there's so many contractors that are douchebags, right?

Like, so that, that's, that's something that I see myself doing.

And my podcast, I love my podcast.

I work really hard at it.

Currently we're dropping three episodes a week.

I put a lot of time and effort into it and it's my, my way of like giving back to my community and it's my way of getting better.

Like you, you were like, how are, what's, what's part of your success?

What's, what's the code, dude?

It's like I'm constantly looking to be better every single day.

You know, I want to be better human being A better communicator, you know, a better consultant, all that stuff.

So at.

At 65, I'll be doing coaching, consulting, manufacturing, and rescuing animals and playing with fish.

And still playing with fish.

And still playing with fish.

Yeah.

You talk about always kind of.

Of learning and growing and improving what are some sources or, or what has been some impacts or influential books, people, seminars that have triggered growth more than other things for you.

So the very first one was Awaken the Giant within.

I was 21 years old.

That's when I started my business.

Right.

Tony Robbins, 21 years old.

I remember I read the book and I was just driving down the road and I was like, I have to start a business.

I need to do it now.

And I drove past the Chamber of Commerce and I just drove by and I.

I flipped a bitch in the middle of the street, drove back into the Chamber of Commerce and walked in the door and I was like, I want to start a business.

I don't know what to do.

Who do I talk to?

And this old lady's like, get over here, son.

You know, she's like, hooked me up.

She's like, you gotta do this.

Here's how you get your business license.

Here's what you gotta.

It was really, really cool, and I'm very grateful for that.

So Tony Robbins started it all for me.

I love Dan Martell, Andy Frisella, love Ed Mylett.

I, you know, I'll read Stephen Covey, anything that time management needs, stuff like that.

You know, conferences.

My podcast is all about interviewing people because, like, my podcast is unique because I want to help contractors.

So once a week I'm doing something for contractors and entrepreneurs, but it's really for me, bro.

Like, I make it sound like, hey, I'm trying to make you guys better, but I'm just trying to get better.

And if you can learn while I'm getting better, then it's cool for you, too.

Same here.

That's.

That's what all this is about.

Exactly.

And.

And then I do something for, like, all the fish freaks.

So I do.

I'm putting out the content for, you know, everything.

So I don't know.

Oh, that was the question.

I was like, so, like, yeah, I'm constantly reading.

I mean, I'm on 75 hard right now.

I know you're.

You're a fitness specialist.

You know, I think that's amazing.

My question to you right now is, is, do you have a six pack right now?

I do.

Okay, good for you.

Awesome.

Actually, I think.

I think I'm back to an 8 might be.

I used, I used to be.

I was at 4% body fat when I was in my 20s.

Cause I, I was a professional fighter first.

And then, and then the past two.

Past two years I did a bulk and cut experiment.

And how was.

Was bulking was fun.

Cutting has, cutting is like.

So I finally, I got back to an eight back now.

But it's, it's been, I've been cutting for about five or six months.

Wow, that's a lot of work, man.

It is.

I mean, let me.

Well, I mean obviously you look like you're in shape as well, so I'm, I'm.

I know I'm preaching to the cry, but I think it's a lot of discipline and it takes a lot of self control.

I don't actually think it's a lot of work because when I think of work, I think of time multiplied by energy and effort.

Right.

And staying in shape doesn't require that much time, energy or effort.

Well, it requires effort, just not a lot of time.

And energy just requires your ability to plan ahead, make good decisions about your food and take about the amount of time I spend every day to exercise.

I take a lot.

That's a long.

Jeez, that's like my private space.

The bathroom is like.

That's right.

I thought I'm going into the weird a little bit.

But I mean, I think a lot of men are like that though.

Now.

You take your phone, you go into the bathroom, you close the door, you're like, it's quiet.

No one's, no one's talking, ask you for things.

You just have your own space.

You get lost.

I get lost in blogs.

There you go.

So I probably spend as much time exercising as I do in the bathroom, which is not that much.

Okay, so what.

So tell me about, tell me about 75 hard and how it's affected your business.

Do you think it's helped your business cause people want to get in shape or do you.

Is like people trying to do it themselves?

So I have mixed feelings about 75 hard.

Personally.

I mean I'm, I'm grateful for it because I think it drives a lot of business to me in the sense of it's incredibly difficult to do.

And so.

But as a fitness professional, I think 75 hard is one of the worst things to happen to the industry.

Not because it doesn't work, but because it sets the barrier so high.

And because it's so popular, it's created a, this concept that fitness is hard.

75 hard.

That unless you can be hard, you can't be fit.

And while there's a lot of value in doing 75 hard.

Yeah.

It builds crazy mental toughness.

Like, if you want to get tough as nails, do 75 hard.

But if you want to get fit and you don't want to feel like a piece of crap because you couldn't spend two hours a day working out through the soreness when you can't walk upstairs or sit down.

Well, no, it doesn't actually encourage the larger population to be fit.

It just raises the barrier.

Okay.

But if you, if you can get through it, you will be in, you will be like, you will be in shape for the rest of your life, probably, because that will build you insane discipline.

And I know because when I was a professional fighter, my whole life for three and a half years was 75 hard.

Except it wasn't two workouts a day, it was seven workouts a day.

So I, absolutely.

It's weird.

I have mixed feelings, like I said, because I lived that life and it, it, that was one of the reasons I attribute a lot of my success to.

But if I see the 350 pound guy who can't say no to the bag of potato chips, does 75 hard give him a better chance at fitness and success?

No, because that's a huge barrier.

Okay, so here's the thing for me, I mean, it's not a, it's not a physical fitness challenge as much as it is, you know, a mental toughness challenge.

Right.

So, but I think, I think 75 hard is.

Helped me put more time in the gym, help me, you know, communicate more with people who are into fitness and, you know, get, get some physical training on my shoulder, my shoulder's injured, so I was like, okay, I'm gonna go to physical therapy.

Right?

So, like, I think it's good for the industry in that regard because I, because really, that guy just has to go for a walk, you know, twice a day for 45 minutes exactly.

And you know, that's not.

It is hard for some people, but like, just go for a walk.

You don't have to do squats and then, you know, and then work through another workout the next day.

It's just go for a walk for, for Christ's sake.

Go for a bike ride, you know, do some yoga, do Pilates.

Yeah, well, that's what, that's what I.

Mean, I think 75 hard as a program is, is great for a very specific niche, though.

Yeah.

Now, but for, for the health and wellness and fitness Industry as a whole, if we look at, we call it gen pop, general population.

People who need to lose weight and get in shape.

Okay.

It's not the solution for 99% of it, but it's one of the most well known solutions.

And that's where the problem lies.

See, it's interesting, bro.

Cause you just said that.

Cause it's like I, I look at 75 hard more as for business owners, you know, like.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

If you're an entrepreneur and you're a business owner, like the general population, the general.

Do you call them gen mob?

Gen pop.

General general gen population.

I like mob better.

Like gen mob is the general type.

Yeah.

So like the, the gen mob to me that is like they're, they're not running their own businesses, you know.

No.

Yeah, yeah.

So yeah, I mean that's, that's an interesting point for business owners.

For anyone who, who is trying to do something difficult in their life already.

Absolutely.

I mean 75 harder or any of those, you know, mental focus building, habit focused programs.

Yeah, they're, they're hard as fuck.

But they will, they will make, they will build you up for sure.

Yeah.

But as, again like I come from a, as a fitness professional.

Not specifically true.

From a business angle for most people, it's not the answer.

And I've had a lot of clients come to me who probably would have been healthier and fitter much sooner if they hadn't encountered 75 hard.

Because they were not, they weren't, they're not business owners.

They're, you know, their nurse at the hospital who's got, you know, maybe 15 minutes a day of free time.

Yes.

Doing 12 hour shifts.

Right, right.

They're doing 12 hour shifts.

And, and they, their best friend or someone told them, oh, do 75 hard.

It'll get you in shape.

And they were like, this is the most insane thing.

I can't do it.

And it created this mindset, oh, I can't be fit.

Because being fit means doing this.

And there's not enough, there's growing.

There's more people that are talking about fitness in a more general like gen 4 gen pop.

But this is still like prevalent.

And so for business owners like you or people who already have a certain level of control and focus and discipline and want, actually want that level of discipline.

Want the benefits of side of heart.

Oh yeah, it is amazing.

It will, it'll improve your performance in every aspect of your life.

Like you said, you'll be a better communicator.

You'll, you'll probably be way more productive at work because you're going to have to like, oh, yeah, it's fantastic.

Just for 90% of the people I coach to lose weight, it's like, don't do it.

It's like, yeah, you want to be, like, miserable and, and think you're never gonna get in shape.

Go do 75.

Yeah, there's some rough nights on 75 hard, that's for sure.

There are, there are.

And, and like, when I was, when I was training professionally.

So basically when I spent the past 18 years living in Asia, so I just moved back to America and I was there.

No kidding.

So I was there doing taekwondo professionally.

I was on, I was on Team Japan.

I was the national champion.

And we, we actually, when I was on the team, we got number two in all of Asia, which was cool.

But the way I got into that is I did a discipleship or an apprenticeship for three and a half years.

And I literally, I signed a contract saying I would train seven, eight, seven days a week.

I would compete every weekend.

And it was, I literally signed a contract saying, I'll be your slave.

And so my training schedule is, I would get to the dojo at 7am, open it up, clean it.

I would do an hour of training with one master in the morning.

Then I'd go for a 10 kilometer run, which is like what, like seven miles?

Six.

Seven miles, come back, you do another hour of training, have a quick lunch.

Lunch ends.

You immediately go into the afternoon training with the general class and you help teaching and you train with them.

They have a break.

Then you do the kids class.

You teach the kids class, have a short break.

Then there's two and a half hours of adult classes, and you train and teach with them, and then you finish.

And in Japan, people stay and keep practicing relatively late.

And so as the apprentice, you're the one who stays when all the masters leave and keeps the dojo open until every last person.

And you, you sign a contract.

I will not tell people to go home.

You keep the do.

You had to keep the dojo open until everyone left.

And in my case, there was a caveat because I didn't live in the same area.

So they're like, you can go if it's the last train.

They're like, if you're gonna miss your train, you can kick people out.

And so I would go 7am until midnight six days a week.

And every Sunday was a competition.

And so I was so sore in the beginning.

I was trying to climb up the steps to the.

I don't know if you're familiar with Tokyo.

The Shinjuku station.

It's one of the largest train stations in the world.

And there's this huge stairway and I was, I couldn't walk because I was so sore.

I was like pulling myself up the rails and someone called the police on me.

They're like, the police show up and they're like, hey, we got a call that there's some like, weird drugged out foreigner crawling around the station.

And they come over to me and I'm like, I've got my, like my, my sports clothing on.

And they're like.

And they're like, are you, are you high?

Like, do we need a rescue?

I'm like, oh, sorry, no, I'm just really, really sore.

I can't move my legs because I worked out so hard.

Oh my God, that's amazing story.

I got the police.

They let me a shoulder and helped me get up the stairs to the station so I could get to the dojo.

But yeah, so, I mean, like, I love, I love the 75 hard mindset, but it's, it's.

It's a professional athlete mindset, you know, and that's a business owner is an athlete, you know, you are, you're a professional.

Yeah, 100%.

So it's perfect for that.

Everyone else, God, no.

All right, well, good to know.

But anyways, um, I know we're, we're.

We've been jamming for a long time.

Um, there's so many more questions I want to ask you, so we might have to do another episode if you, if you have the time.

But let's wrap up with.

We've already talked a little bit about what you do, but what are some of the services that if people are listening, they should.

If they're getting interested.

What they should.

Where.

Where should they contact you?

How should they contact you?

And who can you help the most?

Okay, so who I can help the most is of course, anyone who's into fish and they want to.

They want their aquarium better, their pond better, or that's.

That's my expertise.

Right.

Um, but if you really want to get in contact with me, my podcast is my favorite thing to do right now.

So it's the Pond Digger podcast.

Like I said, we're currently dropping three episodes a week.

And you know, I'm on, on TikTok and Instagram and all that Facebook and stuff, but one of my specialties right now is helping contractors not be douchebags.

Right.

And that's.

That's through my Facebook group as well, and I talk about that on the podcast every week, so that's the best way they can connect with me.

So I'm helping contractors.

So if you're on listening to the success code and your contractor needs some support, that would be a way to get a hold of me.

Love it.

All right, so we'll make sure to get those links down in the notes.

So, guys, if you're a contractor, you're looking to get some help and not be a douchebag.

Yes.

Tune into Eric's podcast.

Everyone.

Everyone.

Even if you're not a contractor, you should listen to that, because the world needs less douchebags.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And more fish.

More fish tanks and more ponds.

There we go.