In this engaging episode, we delve into the life and insights of Steve McKinney, a prominent figure in the fitness industry with over three decades of experience. The conversation emphasizes the profound connection between physical health and one's inner journey, underscoring the notion that personal development must precede external achievements. We explore Steve's innovative 3W approach to fitness, which advocates for a harmonious balance of weight training, walking, and dietary mindfulness, particularly as one ages. As we navigate through Steve's remarkable journey, we uncover his motivations, the challenges he has overcome, and the invaluable lessons he imparts to those seeking to enhance their well-being. This episode serves as an inspiration for individuals at any stage of their health and fitness journey, encouraging a holistic perspective that integrates body, mind, and spirit. The discourse presented in this episode intricately weaves the narratives of personal transformation and professional dedication, centering around the remarkable journey of Steve McKinney, an esteemed figure in the fitness industry. With over three decades of experience, McKinney's insights reveal not only his expertise in physical training but also his profound understanding of the psychological and emotional underpinnings that drive individuals towards health and wellness. The episode dives deeply into the philosophy espoused in McKinney's seminal work, 'The Gospel of Fitness', which advocates for the empowerment of individuals to reclaim their health and vitality as they age. Through the lens of his personal experiences, listeners are invited to explore the intersection of physical strength and mental resilience, emphasizing that true fitness transcends mere physicality and taps into the core of one's being. A salient theme of the episode is the acknowledgment of the adversities that shape our journeys. McKinney candidly recounts pivotal moments of trauma and loss that have indelibly marked his life, illustrating how these challenges have forged his character and propelled him on a path toward helping others. The narrative is punctuated by his reflection on the importance of community and support in the pursuit of health, underscoring that the journey toward fitness is not solely an individual endeavor but a collective one. By sharing his struggles and triumphs, McKinney embodies the essence of resilience, inspiring listeners to confront their own challenges with courage and tenacity. The dialogue also delves into McKinney's innovative 3W approach to fitness, which encapsulates the principles of weight training, walking, and dietary mindfulness. This holistic method is not merely a regimen but a philosophy that encourages individuals to embrace a sustainable lifestyle that promotes longevity and well-being. As the conversation unfolds, listeners gain valuable insights into practical strategies for integrating fitness into their daily routines, dispelling myths surrounding exercise and aging, and fostering a mindset that prioritizes health over mere aesthetics. McKinney’s commitment to authenticity and integrity in fitness serves as a beacon for those seeking to navigate the often convoluted landscape of health and wellness, making this episode a compelling exploration of what it truly means to build a life that values both physical strength and spiritual growth.

Takeaways:

• The conversation emphasizes the significance of building inner strength before achieving external success, underscoring the duality of personal growth and tangible accomplishments.
• Steve McKinney shares his extensive experience within the fitness industry, highlighting the transformative power of strength training on health and longevity.
• The podcast discusses the importance of a balanced approach to fitness, advocating for a regimen that includes weight training, walking, and mindful dietary choices.
• Listeners are encouraged to embrace a lifestyle of gratitude and positivity, framing one's daily mindset as a vital component of overall well-being and success.
• The dialogue reveals how personal tragedies can catalyze profound life changes, illustrating the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.
• Steve's unique training methodology, which focuses on high-intensity, low-frequency workouts, challenges conventional fitness norms and promotes sustainable health practices.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Max Strength Fitness
• QuickBooks
• Kmart
• Alcatraz Weights
• Gospel of Fitness
• Gracie

This is Adam Marburger.

And this is humans that build real conversations with real people.

Not just about what they've built in the world, but what had to be built inside them first.

No hype, no shortcuts, just humans doing the work.

Humans that build.

Real people.

Real work.

What's up, everybody?

Welcome to Humans that Build.

I'm your host, Adam Marburger.

And today we're going to celebrate and share a story of a wonderful human being.

Today I'm joined by Steve McKinney.

Steve has spent more than three decades in the fitness industry, helping people get stronger, live healthier, just ultimately better lives.

He's the bestselling author of the Gospel of Fitness, which focuses on how people can take control of their health and age with strength instead of decline.

Steve, welcome.

I'm great.

How about you?

You doing good?

No complaints over here.

It's a Beautiful day.

It's 9am over here.

In the morning, it's.

The sun is shining.

It's, it's, it's going to be a very.

It's not going to be a great day.

It's going to be a product totally productive.

I got tons of stuff going on today, so we're just moving forward.

That's.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to, I'm looking forward to this.

This will be fun.

Always left.

Always love talking to you, man.

Yeah, same here.

No, and I've got a lot of.

I can't wait to share your story.

I can't wait to really, to dig deep into this because we have some commonalities and we're both in business.

We both enjoy Jiu Jitsu and we both.

Jesus.

So I think, I think, I think this is going to be a fun show.

So, so before we get going, any new projects, what are you up to right now?

What are you doing?

Okay, so right now it's a great question.

Okay.

So a couple of weeks ago, I.

Let me take that even further back.

I was on vacation in Florida.

It was late last year sometime.

And I'm driving down the road and I look over and I see this sign and it's Max Strength Fitness.

And I'm like, oh my gosh, I know that sign right there.

I know that brand.

And I'm like, they.

This my buddy Jeff, he was in Ohio.

He's franchising his business.

He's in, he's in Florida now.

So I went in and did a high intensity session with them.

I wanted to look at their equipment.

Anyway, it was fantastic.

I loved how they had it set up and so Two weeks ago, I'm listening to a podcast in my high intensity business group, and Jeff was being interviewed and he said something that was really interesting about marketing.

He said, the problem, and he's talking about franchising his business.

Because I was just looking.

I'm just kicking some tires there.

But he said, when you're marketing, and he says, I teach my franchise owners this.

You don't put one pole in the water and try to catch 10 fish.

You put 10 poles in the water to try to catch one fish.

And I thought, okay, that's my line right there.

So since then, I'm migrating all my stuff over to a new platform.

All my clients, trainers.

I'm going to have an app.

I've been working on that for weeks now.

I'm closing out QuickBooks because I think they have a monopoly or close to a monopoly.

They, they raise my prices every year.

Just annoys me.

I know that's a negative, but it's just, I'm just, I'm taking control of my data and I don't want anyone else to control it.

So I'm migrating that over.

So today we're starting to do some backups and go from there.

And then I'm also kicking up.

I have a YouTube channel, so I'm kicking up my YouTube channel to talk about how to train when you're over 50, 60, 70.

So a lot of things going on right now.

Yeah, so, yeah, sounds like.

And we're going to dig in.

I'm going to dig into some of those things that you just talked about on the show here, because I'm going.

To open up for sure, man.

But there's a few things I really want.

But I want to go back, back beyond that.

So you're real big into fitness.

You train professional athletes.

You're training your everyday person.

You're training, you know, folks of all ages and sizes.

When you were younger, like, where, where, where did this health fascination come from?

Tell me where that started.

I've never asked.

That's really funny.

Okay, so I go back to St. Mary School.

I'm like, in grade one, and I had watched a bodybuilding show and I was just fascinated.

Like, these guys are big and strong guys.

It was just, it's really interesting for me.

Right then I was talking to one of my friends and we, we, you know, we both play baseball, but I was fascinated.

I thought I was telling my buddy about him like, oh, man, these guys were just big and strong.

And.

And I remember.

I remember him saying he was so offended by it.

I remember him saying, well, they can't throw a baseball.

And then I was offended because he didn't like what I liked.

And I'm like, well, neither can you.

So we got this argument, but it literally started that long ago.

Then my grandfather, I was probably.

I don't even know how maybe nine years old.

It was on my birthday.

He took me to Kmart and bought me a set of weights called the Alcatraz Weights.

They were a big.

Yeah, they were a big old K Tron.

They had a big K in them.

And then I just.

I just loved lifting, man.

I just.

I always say that, you know, sometimes the iron bug bites, you know, and once it does, you're hooked.

So, yeah, that was just my whole journey right there.

And then I just started figuring out how to train, how my body responded to training.

And I.

And I. I am not a very good recovering person, very slow in recovery, which is both a blessing and a curse.

And what I mean by that is the blessing is it allows me to understand how bodies actually work.

The curse is that there are people who are genetically gifted that gain more muscle and recover faster, but overall, it's been more a blessing than a curse for me because I understand how bodies work now.

Yeah.

And we're going to.

I'm going to continue to talk because you are.

I want to talk about your jiu jitsu journey because you are a high level black belt.

It's just an honor and a privilege to be on the same team with you, which is awesome.

But what I want to talk about next is let's talk about when your life really changed.

Right?

You want to kind of piggyback off that allude to tell us a little bit about what happened.

What changed in your life at that point than what was.

Yeah, Adam.

You know, the thing is.

And I. I don't think that we.

That we recognize this enough as human beings, but the world places war on your soul every single day.

From the day you.

From the time you wake up until the time you go to bed, there's just things that come at us, traumatic things that come at us.

And for me, when I was younger, we did have a lot of trauma in our family.

A lot of our.

A lot of loss, a lot of death.

My dad died at 49 years old.

He had a long Bout with cancer.

My mom died at 49 years old.

And that's kind of what you're alluding to was a Christmas Eve.

Had went to bed and she woke me up.

She had been struggling with Hodgkin's disease and had been cured, but she woke me up and said she wasn't feeling well.

We jumped in the car, the driver to her doctor over in St. Louis, to the emergency room.

Actually, that's where she was connected on the way over.

We're driving over McKinley Bridge, and when she looked over at me and she just, she's kind of her hand on me and just said, serve Jesus and tell your brother to serve Jesus.

And I'm like, whoa, what in the world?

And then right there, she just kind of died.

And so, yeah, it was pretty crazy.

And I didn't even know what that meant at the time.

You know, I grew.

I'd grown up in church.

And the thing about church though, Adam, is, you know, you can go through church your whole life and never hear the gospel.

You know, you hear a lot of church stuff, you know, a lot of thing times which people think church is, is behavior modification and it's simply not.

It's.

It's not that at all.

It's faith in Christ alone.

So anyway, long story short, I tried going back to church and none of that stuff just worked for me.

I remember this.

I remember exactly where I was.

I got on my knees and I just, you know, my life was kind of falling apart at this point.

You know, that grief thing is very real.

And that trauma, when you're dealing with that on a, you know, in that close of a, of a circumstance.

So I got on my knees and I just said, you know, Jesus, I've heard a lot about you, but I don't know you.

If you're real, please show me.

And nothing changed that moment.

But I just noticed a few weeks later my heart had changed and it changed.

That prayer was my rock bottom moment.

That was the prayer that changed my life.

And Adam, I think also in those situations, I think those are God initiated prayers that God puts in your heart so that he can answer them.

That's the way I look at that.

Amen.

So you basically, you live your life right now.

You're.

You're saving souls, but then you're also, you're helping save souls.

You're leading people to Christ.

You're a teacher, not a preacher.

I like to say that to you.

And then you're also saving people's lives in the form of, you know, Health.

So let's talk through this a little bit.

So, you know, helping people take control of their health so they can live longer, healthier lives.

Yeah.

Well, I, Why do you just.

It's.

What's, what's the, there's just the one word is passion.

You know, just have a passion for it.

The other, the other thing is I really sincerely do care about people's health.

You know, I look at, like you look at the stuff that goes on in social media and the influencers in the health and fitness field.

It's insane.

Some of the stuff that people do.

You know, my thing on exercise is I don't exercise to be the best at exercise.

I exercise so I can do what I want.

Does that make sense?

You look, you look at all these people who are exercising so they can be great at exercise.

What an absolute.

What?

Well, I mean, if that's what they enjoy, then feel free to do that.

But over time, that just wears your body out.

It just, it's really, really crazy how that kind of stuff works.

But for me, I legitimately care about people and I do think that there is a connection and there's.

You can't separate the spiritual aspect and the physical aspect of your life.

I think that they go together, and so that's why I kind of go in that direction.

And, man, I just love feeling good.

I'm 65.

I can still do stuff.

I still train regularly.

I get to hang out with my young guys like you.

I get to hang out with people who, you know, who are in great shape.

But I enjoy it.

I can still roll around, have fun with that.

I have a grandson that I love taking for a walk.

So I think it's just, I, I think it's just looking at life and saying, man, life has a lot of great stuff to offer and I enjoy it and I want people to enjoy that as well.

That's a legitimate thing for me.

So, yeah.

And I will say for the listeners, the viewers, some will watch, many will listen.

Steve is a high level black belt.

So let's make no mistake.

I mean, I don't care if you're 30 or 35, if Steve wants your bike, he could probably take your bike.

I just want to, I just want to throw that out there.

So with that being said, let's talk about your approach.

You have a 3W approach to your system.

And this is a system at scale that you, I mean, you've got, you train a lot of people.

So let's break down this system.

Let's talk about what it is, why is it beneficial and why should somebody consider.

So what I do is I invented a system years ago.

It's called weight training, walking and watch your Dice 3W approach to fitness.

The most important thing is weight training.

Weight training is the only the, or I would say the best anti aging pill because as you get older you lose your strength and you lose your muscle.

The big thing for anti aging is to keep that strength and muscle.

That's really what it comes down to.

There are a lot of caveats in the middle of that because as you get older you lose your energy as well.

So you have to know how to train in the middle of that.

And those are the things that I teach people.

Walking is something that I think is so beneficial for you mentally and physically.

I suggest 30 minutes of walking after dinner.

You don't have to do it every day, but five out of seven days would be ideal.

And you don't have to walk for long periods of time.

30 Good minutes helps.

There's a reason it happens after dinner is because it helps with your, it helps with your digestion, it helps with your metabolism.

It actually kicks up your bmr.

And the third part of that is watching your diet.

I was just having a conversation yesterday with someone who had hurt their back and I, what I told them was and they're older, they're over 65 and I told them as I might, I said, let me explain what's going on.

I said, what you're trying to do right now is you're trying to out exercise a bad diet and it never works, especially as you get older.

So what I mean by that is you're trying to increase your activity because you're overeating, which eventually breaks your body down because you can't recover because you lose that energy.

As I said earlier, you lose that energy as you age.

So what you have to do with diet, if you diet really what it does, it controls body fat levels.

You do that by controlling caloric intake.

And you have to let the diet do its work.

Does all that make sense?

So that's, that's how I approach it.

So I just, you can't out, you can't diet.

You hear people say, yeah, and so I just teach people how to age gracefully and how to train properly.

Because I think one of the biggest tragedies is having people go to a personal trainer and get hurt.

And I've had, I've seen that over and over and over again, you know, busted shoulders and knees.

I'll have people come to me and say, hey, I'm real skeptical to try a trainer.

You know, I was at one of the local big box gyms, they had me flipping tires and, you know, and I ended up hurt myself.

Yeah, yeah.

That's insane.

Why would you flip tires Unless you're going to go work at a tire company, which you're not going to do, you know, makes you good at flipping tires.

And so in the industry, there's just so much insanity out there and it just harms people rather than helps them.

So one of my passions is to teach people to train properly.

Yeah.

And so you said it.

Five days a week, minimum walk, 30.

Minutes, two sessions a week in the weight training, in the gym.

Yeah.

And it's now when you're walking, I mean, are you allowed to have an overfilled glass of wine when you're walking or a beer?

It doesn't unless you're chasing it.

Unless you're chasing that.

You have an in front of you.

That's your motivation.

I just, I had to throw that out there.

Okay, it's so two weight training sessions a week.

So you're saying you got your walking and then you said two.

So two weight training.

What does that look like?

So it's high intensity, low force training done in a very slow fashion.

To give you a classic example, a few weeks ago we had this big thing.

You were there at our, at our gym and it was a jiu jitsu thing.

It was a experience that my son had put together for his podcast.

People came as a fantastic.

That was a great weekend, man.

That was just a fun weekend.

Part of my weekend, though, is to actually bring people in to train them, personal train them.

And so we had some guys, some big guys that trained five days a week.

And here's the fun part for me.

I'll bring them in, I'll take them through my, you know, give them my idea.

They'll go through two or three exercises, which is about, let's say if you're using two exercises, it's about three minutes worth of work.

You're kind of looking at a minute to a minute and a half under load.

After those two exercises, I would have people look at me and go, holy cow.

I've never felt anything like that before in my life.

That's because you're training in a different level.

So what I do is, like I said, you only have so much energy to use.

My thing is to optimize your weight training session to use the least amount, amount of energy needed to provide the best Response possible.

And to do that, you stimulate muscle very deeply.

You train to muscular failure.

Now, here's the thing.

I generally suggest two sessions per week, but Adam, I literally get people results as they get older based on their recovery time with one 15 minute session per week.

And I do it all the time.

People don't believe that, but I do it all the time.

I get people stronger.

It's just, it's, it, it just.

Because this is the way to train.

This is the proper way to train, in my opinion.

Yeah, I love it.

And if you think about it too, the, the excuse is I don't have time.

I kill that excuse every time.

It's not relevant to your program.

Right.

So I want to, before we get into entrepreneurship, I mean, this show's based around, you know, entrepreneurship, those making massive impacts in their communities and across the globe.

You're definitely doing that.

But I want to talk a little Jiu Jitsu.

Absolutely, yes.

Before we move on to the entrepreneurial stuff.

So you know, you're, I think technically you were, you were Kyle's first fighter.

That's correct.

Yes.

You were Kyle Watson.

So for those that don't know, Kyle Watson, world renowned high level black belt, was on the ultimate fighter, fought in the ufc, in my opinion, best coach.

I would, I wouldn't have, I probably wouldn't have gotten my black belt had he not been my coach.

He was very, very smart in the way that he coached me.

He was super helpful.

Yeah, let's back this up.

Before, like, okay, you know, for those that don't know what Jiu Jitsu is, Jiu Jitsu, just picture wrestling with chokes and arm manipulation, shoulder locks, leg locks.

You're basically making your opponent quit.

So that's what Jiu Jitsu is.

It's pretty wild.

And Steve, what, what was that thing?

What happened?

Where were you just sitting in your living room one day saying, I want to go do Jiu Jitsu?

No.

You know, you probably don't even know this story, but yeah, back there was, I had a, where they started, had a really good man.

This is years ago at a roommate and his name was John Frank Lewis.

Super high level wrestler, incredible athlete.

Incredible.

He could, we would go out and punt.

He, he could punt a football 70 yards in the air.

It was crazy.

He would say, hey, stand on the 20 yard line and I'm not kidding, he did this and he was, he was on the 10 at the opposite end of the field and he would punt and it would come to me.

It was crazy.

But anyway, he Said, hey, let's go over to Dave's movies and more.

And you rent these VHS tapes.

We'd start watching them.

And that's where it kind of started.

Like, this is crazy stuff.

So I bought the Gracie VHS tapes.

We had, bought the house next door, and my wife.

We had a massage studio in there, and in the garage, there was free space.

So I got some mats, I bought those tapes, and I start teaching Josh and Kyle, my kids, Jiu Jitsu.

We had kids come from the neighborhood, so that's where it all started from, from there.

And it just kept, you know, growing.

From one time, I had 20, 25 kids in that little thing.

I was teaching Jiu Jitsu to kids.

And so that's how I learned.

And I learned it through those VHS tapes.

And then the hit squad came into town, and so Jen took Josh over and signed him up for Jiu Jitsu.

And that's kind of where I. I would take him in.

And I asked Watson, I said, hey, is this, you know, legit for me?

Would I be okay doing it?

So that's kind of where it started.

So, yeah.

So that's where it came from.

Been a. Yeah.

Wonderful journey.

Yeah.

You're a happy.

It's a.

It was a God moment, too, with the Watson thing, too.

It's just, you know, he's a member of our church now, and so.

Yeah, just really cool.

It's really cool.

So, you know, I mean, Kyle.

Kyle Watson is.

Yeah, he's.

He's a blessing, no question.

So that's one thing I always tell people.

You know, I get asked a lot.

Lot.

Like, there's Jiu Jitsu for everyone.

And I just say yes.

I mean, if you have the right team and the right affiliation with the right culture, it's a family is what it is, you know.

Yeah.

On the mats, it can be a lot of people from the outside looking in.

They can be kind of gnarly, like, wow, that looks really tough.

But, you know, you work your way into that and you build these relationships that are just.

I know.

I love it.

Absolutely.

Praise God for Jiu Jitsu.

You know, I. Yeah.

I couldn't imagine my life.

And I.

You and I have.

We could talk off there, because I don't want to.

I don't want people to know how weak I'm getting.

But as I age, I'm on the back half of 40.

I mean, it's not the same.

Jiu Jitsu is not the same as it was 30.

I mean, it's so true.

And, you know, people don't understand until you get there.

For me, at 65, I've changed my, my routine pretty much.

I lift a couple days a week.

I teach one day a week, and I train hard one day a week.

I'm not training a lot like I used to.

I'm just very careful because it is really hard on your body.

You know, I mean, I'm 25 years older than everybody in there.

So, you know, I.

That, though, you know, you do those rounds and, man, there, you know, it takes me a while to recover.

I. I'm very careful and very selective on how I do things now.

But, you know, like I said, I can.

And for those that don't know, I mean, yeah, yes, you are.

You're going to relate to what I'm about to say.

Yeah.

You are 20 years older.

Right.

And I, on, on.

I'm about 10 years older than most of the people on my team, but because I have that little black strap around my waist, I have a.

They.

They come after me, man, everybody wants take the title.

For me, it's like.

And I'm just trying to go 50%.

And it never, it never works like that.

I totally agree.

Okay, let's.

Let's get into some fun stuff.

All right, the second half here.

I want to.

Let's get into entrepreneurial genius, you know, before I.

And I've got some.

I'm going to kind of put you on the spot.

Like I do all my guests a little bit.

It won't be too rough, but let's talk about your path on entrepreneur or your entrepreneurial path.

Like, when did you know you wanted to be in business for yourself?

Did you ever work for somebody else?

And that just quite didn't work out.

Tell me a little bit about your.

The beginning stages of your walk on being a business.

I would say yes and yes.

I'll tell you when I knew when I wanted to be business owner when I worked for someone else, and I'm like, oh, I can't do this.

I couldn't do the eight to four.

I couldn't do the nine to five.

I just couldn't.

I just.

I hated it, you know, the traffic, the people.

I'm an introvert.

Just too many people for me.

I can't do it.

And so what I would do in those situations, I would try to get off hours, work afternoons, work midnights.

I would just try to.

I.

Because I couldn't stand the regular, you know, things that you did and so what I did was, I'm like, hey, I want this gym.

I'm going to start this gym.

So I started my gym, we took my garage, converted it to a gym.

I had monthly members, and So I had 20, 30, 50 people coming in a month.

The neighborhood was mad at me, but, you know, I had a business going.

We were rocking.

It was late night, we're lifting heavy weights, and, you know, all that kind of stuff.

Well, then I realized, hey, I can't do this forever.

This is becoming a nuisance to the neighborhood.

But what would happen, Adam, is I would.

Everyone in there would ask me, hey, write me up a routine, write me up a diet.

And so I'm like, man, I need to.

I need to figure out this is.

This needs to be more personal training.

And back then, personal training wasn't a thing.

So I out of the back of a muscle and fitness magazine, there was a $5 section, a section where I could buy how to be a personal trainer.

I sent a $5 check and got a book on how to be a trainer.

That's where it all started.

So I started shifting the monthly memberships to one on one training.

And I'd be like, this works like a charm.

Well, then I started looking at it and I started trying to figure out, how can I make this more efficient?

Will people stay with me?

But it started coming together.

I reduced my sessions.

I do 15 minute sessions now.

And I know that sounds crazy, but if you think about, if you go to the gym, you look at someone do a 45 minute session, or what you'll see, Adam, is you'll see them do a set of weights, they'll be under the load for like 20 seconds.

Then they'll rest and they'll go back and be on there for like 20 seconds, doing again and again, three or four sets of that.

Well, if you look at the actual time that a person's working out in an hour session, it could be anywhere from 9 to 12 minutes.

The actual workout time, the time under load, does that make sense?

You understand what I'm saying there?

So what I did was I removed all of the rest times.

I do antagonist muscle groups.

You do a pushing movement to a pulling movement.

So you're getting both cardiovascular benefit and muscular benefit in the middle of it.

So I just made it efficient.

The interesting thing is it's an absolutely fantastic business model.

I was listening to a podcast the other day and what this guy said was, whenever people, whenever business owners get an idea of what this hit business model looks like, you're going to see way less high intensity trainers running businesses.

You're going to see more business owners, people who aren't interested in the hit circle running a business because it's such a good business model.

And so, yeah, so I have everything kind of set in place.

I have five trainers that work for me now.

And so it's just kind of all set up to where it works pretty well.

And I do a lot of online training as well.

I just trained a lady in the Netherlands this morning before we got on.

Yeah, I haven't.

I have people in Hollywood, I have people in Los Angeles, Maryland, Alabama.

So I have people all over the, actually all over the world that we trade now.

It wasn't easy.

Always, right?

You know, it still is.

Like you had a passion.

You always love lifting.

Sounds to me like you had a following in your neighborhood.

So it wasn't, you know, it didn't seem like it was always difficult to find clients.

But what, what was some of the biggest struggles or challenges along the way?

Yeah, I lived in, I lived in Madison where it was nice for a while, but then it began to decline.

The neighborhoods began to decline.

It became really drug and fest.

It was really a challenge that was really, really hard trying to get people to first of all come there and then try to keep them there.

But here's the beauty of that.

I learned so much on how to, how to sell business.

I had a self fitness in the middle of that.

I literally do not sell fitness.

What I do is I just offer benefits to people.

When people come in, you just, I explain what I do and I just let people know, hey, if you want to do it, here's how we go about it.

But bringing people into an area that was really, really declining really allowed.

It made me figure out marketing, it made me figure out sales, and it made me figure out retention.

So that was a, that was the biggest struggle.

And then when we moved to where we are now, well, we moved out to Pontoon and that really kind of blew up.

And then we bought a building.

You know, so all those things, they just go hand in hand.

But I'll tell you what, this business has been super stable for 36 years now and it still really, really works well, it's still an amazing business right now.

There are people in there training and, you know, so I just love it.

Yeah, you've done a, you've done a wonderful job too in the fact that you've taken it and you were in the hustle, you were in the house.

But now You've scaled it to where, you know, you and Jen can.

Yes, absolutely, take some time off and your, your business.

And the thing is, you know, I know people talk about scaling and walk away for your business, but I love what I do.

It's how I connect to people.

And so I still enjoy it.

I still do it, you know, regularly.

I work Monday and Wednesdays, so.

And then I'll throw.

And I'll work Saturday.

But yeah, I, I still love what I do.

So before I want to get in, I want to talk about your book.

Sure.

You know, we'll finish off because I want to, want to dig into that a little bit.

But before we do that, I want to put you on the spot.

I always ask my guests to finish my sentence.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna start with a short sentence and then I want you to finish that sentence.

Okay.

So, you know, entrepreneur, sometimes we're in our own way, sometimes we're the problem.

You know, sometimes there's circumstances.

But along the way in our entrepreneurial journey, it's just this beautiful, beautiful journey.

There's ups, there's downs, there's peaks, there's valleys.

So just that's behind us.

Think about where we are right now.

And I want you to finish.

Okay, so the first one is this.

I hit the wall when I, I.

Hit the wall when I realized that not everybody is going to have the passion that I have for training in, in my business.

I'm talking about my business.

And so what I mean by that is like, I want everybody to see things the way that I do, and when they don't, I become the bottleneck in my business.

And so I hit the wall when I expect people to think like I do.

And it never works.

I'll add more to that though.

I hit the wall when I don't get enough rest.

And I have a tendency to just grind and, and then all of a sudden I'll, you know, and I.

So how I fix that is I let my wife objectively handle my sermon schedule and objectively dialogue with me on my personal training schedule.

I love that one follow up question.

So when was there like that aha moment to you when you realize the world was doing training?

When was that?

Where, where was that?

Aha.

Oh my God.

Everybody else has got it wrong.

What it would have been, it would have been 30 years ago when I read the Education of a Bodybuilder by Arnold Schwarzenegger and he's training an hour and a half a day, four, five, six days a week.

I'm like, this is impossible.

And everybody's looking at Arnold and saying, oh, we have to train like this.

We have to train, you know, five days in a row and you have to do all this stuff.

Well, he's a genetic freak and he's chemically enhanced.

No one can do that.

And so when I see that, I re.

And for me personally, as I said earlier, I'm a very slow recovering person.

But I have a lot of fast twitch muscle fiber types, which means that I'm more explosive.

I'm fast, but I don't recover well.

So I train accordingly.

In the middle of that, I train according to accordingly and I realized, oh, this works better for the majority of the population.

Does that make sense?

Yeah, that makes sense.

Now.

Now we're going to talk about change.

You know, we can think about, well, maybe we hit a wall or maybe, you know, we're at some of a plateau.

And you know, the first thing I changed was I.

Well, I go back to allowing my wife to handle my schedule.

That was, you know, because I just came off of a two and a half year and you know, this illness that I was fighting with, it's called silent GERD or lpr and it was triggered by, by too much stress.

There's no question in my mind.

But it took that long once that thing happens, to try to get it controlled in proper medicine and lifestyle changes in the whole nine yards.

So that it really made a difference when I allowed my wife to help me and to actually listen, you know, because I'm just like, we're grinding forward, we're moving forward, you know, and, and that is just not the wisest thing to do.

So having voices that kind of help me in the middle end.

I mean she's pretty objective when it comes to, you know, my schedule.

So she's super helpful for me.

Perfect that you have that.

And I'm going to follow up question because I talked earlier about the, the 3W system.

What was it though that kind of led you to.

That I was going to ask.

I forgot to ask questions.

What was it that led you to.

I, I will.

I read.

So it, it all started with the.

And I could just point to the books that I'm going to reference right over my shoulder.

But it started years ago when I read a book called.

It was by Arthur Jones and it was on high intensity training basically.

And then his, his.

One of the guys that he trained was a guy named Ellington, Darden Ellington.

Zarden's written over 70 books on fitness.

I actually paid $500 to, flew to Florida and met with him and went to his home and sat with him for like three hours.

Then we just then talked and he trained me and we looked at fitness and I looked at what he did and I'm like, oh, I can categorize that a little bit better.

And then I tested what he did and then I figured out, oh, this works better for my clients.

And so I began to blend those things together.

But that was a big part of it, just reading those books.

And there's a group of high intensity trainers that all kind of do the same thing, but I think more in categories than it helps with my thought process.

And so when I put those 3W approach to fitness I can.

And I could do that all day long because I run it all through that framework and I understand how, how health and fitness works.

So I could answer those questions all day long.

I just did a, I just had a group of older ladies have a Christian book club and they read my book for their club and then I sat with them at a zoom meeting and answered questions with them and I just, I thoroughly enjoy that.

So love it.

So last, last on the spot type questions here we're going to talk about some non negotiable.

So this first sentence I want you to complete is now I don't, oh.

No, I don't overwork or let me just put it this way.

Now I, I don't go off on my own.

I listen more to my, the people who are objective around me.

So I have a tendency to go 100.

You understand this because you're.

Yeah, I have a tendency to go all in.

I have a tendency right now I'm.

Oh another thing I'm doing in my business right now I'm working with a marketing group in the uk.

I just had a meeting with them last week.

They're big into Google and so they're going to get back with me.

So that's my, that's another poll that I'm putting, putting into water as I just hired another trainer to fill in new power.

So yeah, beautiful.

And the last one here is.

And I always, and I always wake up every morning and I have a journal that I, That but in this, in the, in this journal I always wake up and I journal my thoughts and you will you understand this And I've been doing this for years but I start my day With Bible reading, listening to you reading some good stuff and then being thankful.

I always live my life being thankful.

Every day that I go into my.

Every time I drive into our church, I take a big loop around the parking lot and I just thank the Lord every morning that I walk into the gym, I will say, hey Alexa, play It's a great day to be alive.

That's my first song in the morning.

I just, I'm just thankful.

I'm thankful for my gym.

Every time I walk into it.

I'm thankful for my home I live.

Thankfully.

I think that is the key to life, to living with gratitude.

That what you just said in.

You know, for my younger listeners and viewers you will hear and see a common theme with my guest on the show is the highest producing the superpowers.

The superhumans have.

One common thing is there's structure, there's discipline, there's gratitude, there's grace.

And their morning routines are very similar.

So Steve, I'm glad you just said it because it's having gratitude in the morning first thing.

Because here's the reality.

If God allows us to wake up, we have a decision to make first thing in the morning.

There's actually two decisions.

It's really.

I can make a decision to be in a good mood or I can make a decision to be in a bad mood.

A lot of people choose to be in a negative mood or in a bad mood.

It takes less energy to be happy than it does to be bad.

Right.

So just starting that day with gratitude is really the, the, the first baseline step anyone should take that's trying to just live a better.

Would be my.

Here's what I would say.

The secret of your success is in your daily routine.

It's just day in, day out, you do stuff that is productive.

You know, I have a to do list in there.

I'm gonna, you know, go from this to that and I will also.

I'm usually Matthew comes over on Tuesday so we spend a lot of time with him, but there's out of town.

So today I'll get with Jen and we'll probably just go hang out a little bit as well.

In the middle of the day.

Super important as well.

I love hanging out with my wife.

So she's.

Yeah, she's fantastic.

So we can't, we can't finalize this show without talking about the gospel of fitness.

So what best selling book, you know, you, you did a nice job writing it, but you really did a great job.

There's a lot.

It seemed like there was A lot of good, positive energy that surrounded the whole campaign.

So tell us why a.

What inspired you to write it?

What's changed in your life since you've written it?

I just like, okay, let me just.

Give you credit, though, because one day I said, adam, I hate marketing.

I'm an introvert.

It just sucks.

And you go, hey, you got to switch.

You got to change your mindset.

You have a product out there that people need to hear.

You're giving, you know, in Adam's energy level.

You're giving.

You're giving your information.

I'm like, okay, I'm going to do.

And I took that advice and I did it.

So I just said, I don't care.

I'm just going to do it.

And, man, that thing blew up.

Okay, so what inspired me to write it?

I write.

I still, like right now.

As I met with that group the other day, they said, hey, do you have a second book that you're going to write?

I go, yeah, I actually do.

It's going to be 101 questions on how to train.

That's my.

And I'm collecting those questions now.

So I'm always.

I'm always looking forward in those particular situations.

But here's how that one came about.

I have a friend, I trained him years ago, went to a pastor's conference.

We were in Florida, trained him, and he said, man, he's a workout guy.

He goes, I've never felt anything like that.

So I have a private group.

I added him to the group, and he would ask me questions, and I told his name, Speed.

I said, pete, listen, I have a book.

I've written 90% of it.

I go, I can just send over the.

The, you know, manuscript that I have, and you can just read through it.

It'll answer all your questions.

He goes, well, that's interesting.

He says, I have a publishing company.

So that was a total God moment there.

So that's how that came about.

They were fantastic.

We did a book tour in Florida.

I got an.

I actually have a. I got something coming up here in July.

I'm going to do another book tour.

I'm going to go to San Francisco and I have a. I'm going to speak at second or third oldest Rotary club in the country.

And then I.

There's an hit studio.

I'm going to do a seminar for their trainers out there.

I think that's in June or July.

So I'm still working it just have a lot of other things going on.

I still have it out there, but the Inspiration came from there.

And then what I did, Adam, as I, as I looked at it, he said, man, I'd love to work with you on it.

But as I looked at it and I thought, oh, man, this is actually going to be a book.

And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I really don't know how to write a book, but I do know how to preach a sermon.

So what I did was I, I wrote that book in a form of a sermon.

And you've been to my sermons.

And you know how.

I kind of think.

And I, I put the, you know, I put those things together, and as I was writing it, I put spaces between a lot of my sentences or thoughts.

And the, the editor said, hey, you're, You're.

The way you have it structured is that every sentence is super important the way you have it structured, because I don't know if that's going to be the best thing.

I go, but every sentence is important.

I don't waste words.

So we just stayed with that, and that was super helpful as well.

So I have my writing conventions now.

I know how I do it.

Then I kind of go from there.

But the inspiration just, it goes back to that passion of, hey, guys, this is the.

The best way to train as you age.

It's just the best way to keep muscle and not get hurt.

So where.

So how do the listeners and the viewers.

How can they.

It's on Amazon.

You go to Amazon.

You can go to my [email protected] and there's a.

You can.

There's a link there.

I think there's even a place you could download part of the book there as well.

So that's another place that you can get it.

It's on Barnes and Noble as well.

But Amazon's the easiest.

It just comes.

It just comes right up there.

So.

So how do people.

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure there's three people that want to.

So what's the best way on socials?

What's the best way to get a hold of you?

Where are you most.

Okay, I'm most active on Facebook.

So it's Steve McKinney on Facebook, but I also have a private group on Facebook.

It's the Gospel of Fitness Inner Circle.

Okay, so that's one place my.

Anybody can join?

Yeah, you have to answer a few questions to get here, but anybody can join.

I put a lot of information out there.

I'm @Steve McKinney Fitness on Instagram or steve.mckinney on Instagram.

And then the one I'M building right now is @Steve McKinney Fitness on YouTube.

I'm just starting to build that.

I got a new camera so I got some cool stuff there and on that I, I just, it's kind of a cheesy little channel channel right now.

But what I use that for, there's a bunch of rehab exercises for my older clients on there.

I just set, I set that up and then I would have clients say, hey, I got this injury.

There'd be, they'd be maybe, you know, online.

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to shoot you a video and I'm going to show you how to fix that injury.

So low back pain, shoulder pain, knee pain, anything people need any, I can shoot videos on any of that kind of stuff.

And so I'm going to start showing people how, how to train as they age.

And that's going to be my next project.

It's take me, it'll probably take me a few years to build that, but I'll probably put out one video a week and you know, kind of go from there.

So I'm working on that as well.

So I'm once again just putting new poles in the water and going from there.

And if any, you've always.

Yeah, absolutely.

And if anybody wants to, you know, do a kumite to the death, I'll be at the head, not HQ, at 11 o' clock every Saturday morning going full bore.

Hey, so let me say before we let you go because first of all we'll make sure we get all your links and people can find you Steve.

But yeah, one thing Steve does, first of all, thank you, thank you.

I know you got a busy pleasure.

Oh hey, let's add this though.

Let's have this at Grace at Grace Church East Campus.

If you.

At Grace, if you need to hear this, hey, I'm.

If you need the gospel, it's not, it's not fancy.

I'm not a preacher, I'm a teacher.

But you will learn.

You will learn.

I will teach you exactly what the Bible says and how it applies to us, my family.

We love coming to your.

But here's what I want to say, you know.

Hey, again, thanks for coming on.

I know you got a jam packed schedule today I wanted to share you with.

I love it.

Thank you.

You've been my mentor for a very long time.

I mean there's three people I call with crap.

It's the fan and you're one of those three.

You're typically the last one I call because I need to hear your stuff last because it's typically the best advice.

And you always, you're somebody that I've never seen not smile.

You know, you've always got such a good, positive mindset around everything and there's a reason you're successful.

Everything that you talk about, you stay true to the word.

You stay true to your non negotiables and you have a beautiful life and I'm proud to call you a friend.

Friend.

I'm Cloud.

I'm proud to call you a brother in Christ.

I'm proud to call you a Jiu Jitsu fellow.

I love it, man.

I love it.

I am thankful.

I'm so thankful for you.

And you know what?

Life is good.

It's good.

I'm so thankful.

I'm so thankful every, every single day.

You know, I'm just, I live my life thankfully, even though I have people who tried to steal from me next door.

We could talk about that in another.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

Yep.

Grace and mercy.

Do me a favor, stick around for just one minute for me, Steve.

I want to talk off air for just one minute, pretty please.

You know, for my people that are tuning in here at Humans and Build, here's my commitment.

My commitment is to continue to evolve.

My commitment is to become a better version of myself every single day so I can pour into all of you.

My commitment is to bring folks like Steve McKinney onto this broadcast so we can share some wisdom.

It just takes one little nugget, one little idea, one little thought to change the trajectory of your life.

You know, what got you here has no bearing on where you're going to go.

Right?

Forget the past, learn from your setback and let's get to work, my friends.

Humans that Build, we'll see you soon.

Humans that Build.

Real people, real work.

See you next time.

Sa.