Points of Failure
Points of Failure is a podcast about what actually goes wrong, and the part people don't want to look at.
Most conversations about failure happen after it's been cleaned up, framed, and turned into a lesson. This one starts at the breakdown and works backward. Through guest interviews and solo episodes, we examine the patterns behind failure in work, relationships, identity, and decision-making, with a bias toward what people are avoiding rather than what they're processing.
If you're noticing a pattern you can't explain away anymore, you're probably in the right place.
Questions, topic ideas, or guest suggestions: failurepointspod@gmail.com
Points of Failure
S2E13 - The slow build
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On this episode, we talk to Dustin Williams, Owner, and Head Coach for Precision Fitness, Northwest Arkansas' premier group and personal training studio. Dustin attended one of the most prestigious boot camp training sessions in Las Vegas and has also trained with 4X Mr. Olympia, Jay Cutler. He has been studying functional neurology through Z-Health since 2014.
In addition to personal training, Dustin is co-author of the best-selling fitness book, “The Fit Formula”, and was invited to Hollywood, California, to accept a Quilly award for making the Best Sellers list on Amazon.com. He has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX affiliates as well as Newsweek, Men’s Health, USA Today, Yahoo! Finance, and CNBC.com. Most recently he was selected by the Arkansas Business Journal as a 40 Under 40 recipient for the state of Arkansas for 2016. We discuss tracking, family, and the benefits of building slowly.
You can support the show by going to: https://pointsoffailure.buzzsprout.com
Coming up on points of failure. There's days like if I just use myself, and I know one person's anecdotal, but if I use myself in this scenario, there's days that I don't feel as good. I don't really feel like working out. I'm not as motivated. It happens to everybody. But whenever I look at the sheet and I see what I did the week before, I'll be damned if I'm going to go down and wait. Right. So there's a lot of times that I will end up pushing a lot harder just simply because I tracked what I did the week before. And I think that's why tracking is super important.
SPEAKER_02Welcome to the Points of Failure podcast. I'm your host, Steve Kaufman. On Points of Failure, we discuss all kinds of failure from inaction to impulse. We have conversations with guests who share their knowledge, their successes, and of course their failures. Our hope is that you'll find something useful in each episode to help you understand the areas in your life where you feel you have failed, are failing, or fear that you will fail, and how to manage those feelings and potentially mitigate future failures. On this episode, we talked to Dustin Williams, owner and head coach of Precision Fitness, Northwest Arkansas's premier group and personal training studio. Dustin attended one of the most prestigious boot camp training sessions in Las Vegas and has also trained with four-time Mr. Olympia Jay Cutler. He has also been studying functional neurology through Z Health since 2014. In addition to personal training, Dustin is co-author of the best-selling fitness book, The Fit Formula, and was invited to Hollywood, California to accept a Cooley Award for making the bestsellers list on Amazon.com. He has been featured on ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox Affiliates, as well as Newsweek, Men's Health, USA Today, Yahoo Finance, and CNBC.com. Most recently, he was selected by the Arkansas Business Journal as a 40 under 40 recipient for the state of Arkansas in 2016. We discussed tracking, family, and the benefits of building slowly. I hope you enjoy this episode. All right, we are here with Dustin Williams today. So Dustin, just give us a quick background, where you're from, you know, what's kind of brought you here, and then we'll uh we'll start working our way backward.
SPEAKER_00Well, I grew up a combination of Arkansas and Oklahoma both back and forth. Uh dad was in Oklahoma, mom was in Arkansas, so I kind of bounced back between the two. Um, you know, and whenever you're in a little town in Oklahoma, you either go to Northwest Arkansas or Tulsa, you know. There wasn't there's nothing else in between those. So though at least when I was in my my 20s, so chose Northwest Arkansas. It's a little safer than Tulsa. So I felt like the better decision to make. But you know, I graduated college, got my degree in finance, sat behind a desk for 50 hours a week, and hated it. Yeah. I mean, when you're when you're on your way to work and you literally want someone to run into your truck so you don't have to go to work, yeah, it's time to find a new job. I think so. And uh so it, you know, it really got me thinking and and pushed me into, you know, what do I really want to do with my life? And, you know, health and fitness had always been kind of uh at the forefront, but I wasn't sure how to make money or make a legitimate living off of it. And uh, yeah, like I said, I was only about a year out of college, so I made the decision it was time to to take the leap now because it was gonna be a lot harder to do if I was in my 30s or had kids or anything like that. So um made my way into fitness and here we are.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so that uh that leaves you right in because that's kind of how uh I think that's how we met, I think, is through uh some other folks that kind of QA' me where to go for personal training and whatnot. And uh so yeah, so tell me, tell me about that. How did you uh how did you get that started and what what uh I mean, you know, there's the successes and the failures and the things that bring you along.
SPEAKER_00So sure. Uh so I started off working for a big box gym. You know, that's kind of what you do when you become a trainer. You you work for a big box gym and I stayed there for about two years. And once I got into it, I realized that I did enjoy the job. I didn't enjoy working for someone else. I've never I've never been someone that likes being told what to do. It doesn't work well for me. So it uh it it pushed me into realizing one, if I wanted to make more money, I had to do something else. And uh, you know, that that I didn't like answering people. So at that point, I made the decision in 09 to start Precision Fitness, just a personal training studio and and see where it went. And that's kind of the direction it led me. And uh, you know, I've been here just over 13 years now, so I'm very glad that that was a decision that I made.
SPEAKER_02It worked out well. No doubt. So tell me a little bit about personal training, because you know they're they're I hate to say they're a dime a dozen, but you know, you can find them everywhere. And and you know, you go out to Instagram and YouTube, and there's a hundred people telling you 15 different ways to do this exercise. And so what what are your what are your thoughts on that? I'm picking the right one.
SPEAKER_00Uh I mean, that's tough, honestly, because you're right. They they are kind of a dime a dozen, especially with you know, online becoming so big, social media becoming so big. There's so many different people out there, and it's really can be hard to find the right coach. Um, you know, part of it is how long have they been in the industry, how long have they actually been coaching people? I think that's part of the big thing because you'll see a lot of people online and on social media that have done very well coaching themselves, right? Which is wonderful. Um, but just because you look good in a bathing suit doesn't mean that you understand the basics of nutrition or how to coach other people, you know, or to individualize the training or individualize nutrition or, you know, understand how things work together. And so in that scenario, you know, you've got people out there that are telling you eat this, eat that, because that's what they do, not because they've actually worked with clients. So, you know, the big thing if you're gonna work with somebody online is make sure they've actually coached quite a few people. You know, I think back whenever I first started training back in, I don't know, what was that, 07, I think was what when I uh first started coaching. I was, I was dumb. You know, I mean like I have no problem admitting that. Like I had only coached myself uh in order to get a personal training certification, which isn't even legally required, is kind of a joke. I mean, it's a it's a weekend certification, and now all of a sudden people's, you know, health is in my hands.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so it takes a lot of learning. There's a lot of extra stuff that people need to go through, you know, finding out if they're doing extra training and what they're doing. I mean, in 15 years of doing this, I've never had anybody ask me, where did I get certified? Am I certified? What training have I had? What's my education? Nothing. Um, and I get that, you know, a lot of people don't know any better, but I think really just kind of vetting out what people have, what they have to offer, what their background is, what their history is, the people they worked with. Um, you know, I'm not saying they had to have been doing it for 15 years. You've got some people that maybe have only done it for a few that are are really good at what they do, but having a good understanding of their background and and their education and and the people they worked with, I think would be a good start.
SPEAKER_02What uh so I'm gonna I'm gonna do the uh the the forbidden question here. Because you know, you hear all the things and uh different trainers, I've heard different people say different things, and and I did CrossFit for a bit. What do you what is your take on CrossFit? Somehow I knew that's what you were gonna ask. I can sense it.
SPEAKER_00I am more of I'm more of a basics coach. Okay. I I like sticking with the very basic exercises that most of the time when I say that the term, even your your individual average gym goer or somebody that doesn't go to the gym knows what it is. If I say a squat, they know that. If I say a deadlift, they know that, or a push-up, or you know, dumbbell chest press or overhead press. You know, and you start to say those basic things and they know it. And that's mostly what we work on. I am very much risk versus reward, the lowest amount of risk and the highest amount of reward. Um, you know, if we talk about CrossFit, because I really don't want to just sit here and say bad things about sure because not all CrossFit gyms are created equal, not all personal training gyms are created equal. Right. You know, you've got your good coaches and you're not so good coaches. I think that I think Olympic lifts can be great. Um, I think doing high rep stuff can be great. I think there can be a lot of positive aspects to what they do. Um I just know if I if I generalize, which is not fair, right? But if I generalize, um part of the downsides to CrossFit is they allow a lot of people that don't have any training backgrounds, that don't have a good mind muscle connection, they don't fully understand how to move certain joints properly, and they put them into doing some of the most complicated exercises in health and fitness, which is Olympic lifts, within a few weeks to 30 days. And it's just way too soon. And that's why you see a lot of times, again, not all coaches, but why a lot of times you see injury rates very high. And I mean, I've been doing this for 15 years, knock on wood somewhere, not to toot my own horn. We are injury free. Exercise should make you more resilient to injury, it should not create it. And I mean, I know there's times like, oh, you know, maybe I have a nerve issue or you know, I strained a muscle and I hurt for a week, right? I mean, that kind of stuff can be normal working out in your garden.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Um, you know, I'm talking about, you know, the people that need surgery. My back is out, I can't walk. I have to have rotator cuff surgery or, you know, input whatever aspect you're looking at. And so again, I think a lot of the exercises are great. I don't do any Olympic lifts in here. And it's not because I'm against them. I think they're great exercises, but they are so overly complicated that your average individual has absolutely no need to be able to move that way. I can create people to become more explosive if that's what they want. Most people just want to be more explosive so that it's not so hard to get out of a chair, right? Not because they're trying to go compete in something. Now, again, if you're working with high-level athletes that actually want to compete, whole different ballgame. But the majority, not all, but the majority of the people that go to CrossFit, they see the people that do the CrossFit workouts and what they look like, um, the people that compete, and they're in fantastic shape. I mean, they should be at their at the top level and what they're competing for. And a lot of times they go, oh, you know, I want to look like some version of that. And they think that CrossFit is what it takes to get there, which is couldn't be further from the truth.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that's um, I follow your line there because I I did CrossFit for gosh, when did I start? 2019. I did it off and on, and then I finally got serious about it for about a year. And uh yeah, I just it took me probably a full year to really get to the point where I feel like I could actually do like a power clean the right way, like that full movement the right way. But I still, you know, in that time, I only I think I only increase my weight maybe 20% in a year. Yep. And so now that that may be good, maybe bad, I don't know, but it's and maybe 20% might be too high, but but uh but you know, it's yeah, I think the I think for me that's the the biggest thing. And I I'm beginning to read up a lot and getting to be my age, and I'm 46, gonna be 47 this year. I probably need to stay away from the those kinds of crazy movements and stuff. And so I mean I'm I'm already getting surgery for an injury that I don't think is CrossFit related. I've had it for a while, but probably aggravated it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it may have, and that's that's kind of the whole point, right? Is it's again, I think a power clean is an excellent movement. It really is. But for me, risk versus reward, I can give people the same reward that you're gonna get out of a power clean with less than half of the risk that comes with that movement. Sure. So if that's the case, why do it? Now, I mean, if you're trying to make an Instagram or TikTok video and you want to get views, you got to do stuff that's out of the ordinary, right? Nobody cares to see someone, you know, pick up a lightweight for deadlift and do five or six reps. Nobody cares.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but in general, the people that I'm working with, your general population people that want to look better, feel better, they want to be around longer for their kids, you know, we don't need it. That's that's the biggest reason why we just we avoid it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I think that uh that's what I've discovered is it's a very ego-driven sort of environment. And not ego in the sense of being douchey or cocky, but ego-like, like every time I go in there and I think, okay, I'm gonna start small and work my way up. But I do deadlift, I'm like, I I know I'm strong enough to do more than this. So I stack on this weight, and that's that's actually how I injured myself. I was like, I'm gonna push my PR today and try to pull a big heavy load, and and uh yeah, I got halfway up and felt like somebody was stabbing me. So I mean that shouldn't feel that way when you do deadlifts.
SPEAKER_00No, that's not normal people that do deadlifts. So just so you know, yeah, that's yeah, I'm I'm not uh uh advocating for injuries, but and it's it's very competition driven, which honestly is a great aspect and also part of its downfall.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_00You know, um the competition aspect is fantastic because motivating people consistently is probably one of the hardest things to do in my industry. And a lot of people thrive on competition, which is wonderful. But at the same time, people become competitive and overlook proper form, doing things right, you know. And and like you said, they they don't really check their ego at the door. Uh and that's whenever it starts to become a problem because that's whenever injury starts to creep in. Yeah, for sure.
SPEAKER_02I found myself doing that. Like when I would go to just a gym and lift, I would look at these guys come in and pick up this big barbell and try to do like, you know, the backswing curls where it's not really a curl. And I would laugh, but then I find myself in the CrossFit gym, I'm just gonna fire through these. Like, what happened to form, Steve? Yeah, exactly. So exactly. Yeah, but I mean, not to dog on CrossFit either myself, because my CrossFit family where I was at and that that gym was they were great. They're fantastic people.
SPEAKER_00I know quite a few CrossFit coaches, some locally as well, that I've met that are fantastic coaches and have a really good understanding of the fact that people need time to be able to move through a lot of these exercises. So, you know, same thing here. I'm not trying to dog CrossFit either. It's just I'm talking about them as a generalization. You know, there there are a lot of really good coaches that have a good understanding of how the body works and moving people into the exercises at the pace they need to be moved. Sure. And whenever they're having them do like a clean or a snatch or one of the complicated exercises, they're not having them do 50 reps. Right. You know what I mean? So so there are definitely some some some good boxes out there, I think.
SPEAKER_02So staying on that sort of track there, do you think that um would you say that one of the probably biggest failures for somebody's personal fitness is moving too fast?
SPEAKER_00I think so. Um I think it definitely can be, especially if you it depends on the environment that you're in, right? I mean, whenever people walk in, I tell them from day one, hey, this first week for sure, I'm not gonna push you real hard. You know, because I have people that'll come in and just expect me to crush them on day one. And uh I'm not gonna do it because it's it's just as much of a learning process for them as it is for me. Whenever I start working with people, in order for it to be personal training, I have to learn you. And I I mean, I can do assessments on people before we start. I mean, I did that for years. Um, but there's only so much you can learn from an assessment. I learn the most when we actually get out there and we start training and actually watch you do the movements and see what you look like. You know, because I don't, when somebody walks in my door, I don't know how strong they are, I don't know how mobile they are, uh, I don't know what kind of endurance they have, muscular or cardiovascular. These are things that I have to learn as we start training. So, in order for me to learn each individual, we have to start off slow and we have to guide you and we have to start moving you in the right direction. You know, because if people walk in, I don't want them to be any more sore than they have to be on week one, because there's no benefit in that. So we have to kind of ease into it. And I think if people, whether they're working with trainers or doing stuff on their own, I think they're kind of like what you mentioned. They go into a big box gym, they see all these people doing this stuff, and maybe at one point in time they have done that and they just assume, oh, I should be able to do that again. Maybe, right? Probably not. You know, uh, you know, the the muscles are very much a use it or lose it organ. So if if we're not constantly using it in the in in the way that that we were before, you're probably going to blossom. It doesn't mean you can't get it back, but um, you know, we I think as a society, we like instant gratification. No doubt. Which I get. I, you know, if I could give people instant gratification for fat loss, there'd be a line at my door right now on a Sunday, right? But I cannot, unfortunately. It takes a little bit of time. And and yeah, I think you're right. I think people, they're very motivated in the beginning, which I love. But they're so motivated that I have people that have never worked out a day in their life that come in here and say, All right, I want to strength train five days a week, I want to do cardio three days a week, and I want you to put me on X diet. And I'm like, You're gonna make all these changes for the rest of your life in one day? No, you're not. Right. If you are, you'll be the first person I've ever met that did it. And again, I love the fact that they're motivated and that they want to do this, but I'm like, the level of motivation you have is gonna come and go. We have to figure out what you can do now that you can still be doing in 10 years and 15 years and 20 years. And uh, you know, so kind of scaling them back without costing them any of that motivation is kind of a fine line to walk.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I, you know, it's uh I think about that. There's two things I think about from what you just said. One, it must be frustrating as a personal trainer to have somebody come in and tell you how they want you to train them. It's not my favorite part, but I'm used to it. Yeah, it's kind of like hiring an attorney and saying, This is how I want you to defend me. Like, well, uh, but the the other thing that I think is is realistic goals. I think for me, I know personally that's a one of the biggest things is I haven't really stopped and for most of my life, I haven't stopped and said, okay, let's build a plan out that says this is what I want in say 30 days, but something realistic. Like, am I gonna put on 20 pounds of muscle in 30 days? Not naturally or healthy, but so let's not make that my goal. Right. So realistic goals, I think, is is one of those things. And and what are your thoughts then also on progress? Like, um, I'm trying to say tracking progress, like photos. Like, I think that's a key for myself. If I can't see something happening, then it just it's discouraging. Like, I've been doing this for six months and nothing's happening. You know, clearly that's probably because I'm doing something wrong. But, you know, those having realistic goals and then actually tracking your results and seeing something happen has a motivator.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think tracking is an extremely important aspect, regardless of what your goals are. I think you need to be tracking when it comes to fat loss or muscle gain, whatever your goals are. And I think you need to be tracking in the gym. I think they're equally as important. Um, you know, if we look at, say, tracking your workouts, the biggest thing that that drives is one, most people that walk in here, now granted, they're they're a little bit used to me keeping track for them, so they tend to forget, but a lot of times people don't remember, okay, we're gonna repeat this workout we did last week. They don't remember how much weight they used.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so we track it, and I can't remember every single client how much weight they used either. So I have to track it for that purpose too. But we'll come in here and a lot of times I'll tell them what they did and they're like, I did that much. And I'm like, yep. So we're gonna at least match it today. And whenever you're tracking stuff, there's days like if I just use myself, and I know one person's anecdotal, but if I use myself in this scenario, there's days that I don't feel as good. I don't really feel like working out, I'm not as motivated, it happens to everybody. But whenever I look at the sheet and I see what I did the week before, I'll be damned if I'm gonna go down and wait. Right. So there's a lot of times that I will end up pushing a lot harder just simply because I tracked what I did the week before. And I think that's why tracking is super important. And also part of the reason that I'm not a fan of just doing a random workout. Right. Um, I mean, okay, if if it's a well-designed program and you're doing random stuff, it's way better than doing nothing. But if you really want to get better results, you have to repeat some stuff so that you know that you're actually improving upon what you're doing. Because I'll have people that will come in here that want to lose weight, they want to get stronger, they want to feel better. And we all know, we all know the diet's the hardest part. We know this, right? And there's a lot of people that because the diet's the hardest part, they'll struggle with it for months on end, which is completely normal. And they'll get discouraged by it, which I understand. But then whenever we can look over the progress that they've made and say, look how much stronger you are compared to this exercise, what you were doing several months ago, and look at what you're doing now. Then they start to understand, even though the biggest goal was fat loss, not to let that overshadow all the other benefits that they're getting, you know, or the other goals that they have. Because I'm like, hey, remember, you told me that whenever you go to Silver Dollar City, you can't walk up the hills because you're exhausted. And now you are walking around and you're chasing your grandkids or your kids and you're having no problem with it, right? Now you may not have lost the weight you wanted because you're not controlling your diet. But at the same time, you know what I mean? So it it helps people to not quit, right? Because that's, I think that's, you know, without trying to get too much off topic, that's kind of one of the big issues that I see with a lot of people is especially if their main goals are fat loss, which is 95% of the clients I work with, that they get frustrated when they don't see fat loss because they're not sticking to the nutrition guidelines or plan or whatever we put down for them, that they just quit altogether. You know what I mean? And we're not always gonna lose weight every week. It's just not how it works. Um, you know, we're gonna mess up, we're human, we're gonna fall off. That's okay. The the only way you're gonna get where you want to be is by not quitting. You know, I I think that's why the tracking in that aspect in the gym becomes so important. And the same with the diet too, because, you know, like you said, depending upon how lean an individual is, the scale starts to not matter as much. Right. Now, if you've got 50, 60, 70, 100 pounds more to lose, yeah, the scale's gonna tell you. You're not it, you're not gonna be one of those people at that point that says, Oh, well, I've lost inches, but the scale hasn't moved. Uh sorry, that's not how it works. Now, if you're if you're a male and you're at 10% body fat, yeah, it's possible you can lose body fat and the scale not move much. Sure. You know, the pictures start to become more important, measurements, you know, whatever way. But yeah, the tracking portion uh I think is it's important for a lot of factors. One, to make sure that you are moving forward, right? Uh also looking at it as data, because then if you're not moving forward, but you're doing everything you're supposed to be, then maybe your plan needs to be adjusted because you plateaued. Um, if you're not tracking what you're doing and you plateau as a coach, I don't know what to tell you to do different because I don't know what you've been doing, right? So the tracking becomes important in that aspect too. Um, you know, so I think it's it's good for helping people on all fronts. I I think the tracking is probably one of the most important yet overlooked aspect of reaching any goals that you have in health and fitness.
SPEAKER_02So uh without this being a uh but a quick caveat here, without it being a recommendation or a promise, what is your favorite go-to? Like you just got a day, like I just need one good sweat on, I gotta get good heavy lift, whatever it is. What's your favorite exercise?
SPEAKER_00You know, it's changed. It's never, um, there's never been just one. You know, I'm gonna go ahead and and say the meat head thing right now that I don't want to. And it's only been recent, and I'm gonna say bench, but that's right now, right? Um, I took, I took close to two years off of doing any bench pressing at all for a while and just did dumbbell presses for the longest time. Um, if you asked me three or four years ago, I would have told you it was deadlift. Deadlift was my favorite exercise by far. It just, you know, but now it's it's never been squat, you know, as much as I wish that it was. It's just I hate squats. Oh man. Good exercise. I wanted to. And whenever I, you know, when I when I trained for a powerlifting comp years back, I got to dislike squat less because I got good at it, but I just never enjoyed it. I just, it just wasn't. It was, you know what I mean? That one just was not the exercise for me. Um, I think for me right now, the the reason that it's been benched is because I took years off of it and I have just seen my strength explode in it in the last like eight to ten weeks. So I think that's why I enjoy it because my bench is constantly going up where my other lifts aren't quite moving as well as that one. So it makes it a little more exciting to see the results in that.
SPEAKER_02Easy pick there. Yeah, I'd have to say mine for the longest time was was deadlift, also until it, you know, put me down. Now I can't do anything. So I may may hate it going forward. But yeah, with you, I never liked squats. I tried to get good at them and doing and so that's why I I always gravitated to the cleans because they had this clean complex thing they did. And so that felt like I was getting my squats in. Yeah. So what are the what are the things have you uh you got going? Because I know uh actually years ago when we met, um, you were Working also for a uh a media company, right? And uh so tell me about that. If you can, whatever you can talk about there. I don't know if there's anything. No, no, not at all.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I worked for the Arkansas CW uh television network for a little while as an entertainment reporter. I did that for a couple of years. It was just it was fun. Um, it started off as a joke, uh kind of. I used to, I used to do on Saturdays uh with 4029, I would do like a little fitness segment every Saturday for uh I think it was like a year and a half, something like that. And at that point, you know, because they're affiliated with the Arkansas CW. So this uh there was an opening for one of their entertainment reporters. And my buddy that was a uh an anchor that I did the the the fitness segment with was like, hey, let's let's do a video and put this in. And we made it's such a dumb video. So dumb, so cheesy. And we put the video in and it got voted on, and they had me come in and interview, and I won. And they were like, we want you to take the job. So I was like, okay, nice. Um, and it was a lot of fun. Um, I did it for it, it was probably close to two years. I got to have some really cool experiences. I mean, like they flew me out to to LA to interview some people for a few different shows. Um, like some of the CW shows I did, uh, like the remake of Dynasty. I got to interview all those people. Uh Jane the Virgin was a big show for a while that was on CW. I got to interview everyone that was on that show. That was fun. Um, you know, so I got to do some pretty neat experiences, and then it just kind of got to a point where I was paying my coach that works for me to cover my sessions more than what they were paying me when I would go and do stuff for them. Oh, wow. So it got to a point where I'm like, you know, I'm losing money in order to do this, and it was fun for a little while, and then it became a little bit less fun because it started to be repetitive. So that's when I decided it was time to just kind of stop doing it.
SPEAKER_02I I spent a little a brief period of time in the entertainment sector. I I worked on a couple of movie sets and TV show, and then I um did the I was the Arkansas Music Pavilion. I did their um, what they call it, artist coordinator for their first three years. Oh, nice. And, you know, it's funny that people look at the entertainment business and they're like, oh my gosh, what how easy that must be just to make a movie and make $20 million? I'm like, yeah, no, I worked for, I think one of those, one of the days I worked on, it was an independent film and I volunteered and didn't get paid for it. Uh it was, I think it was like an 18-hour day. I think we started at 6 a.m. and didn't finish until 3 a.m. or so the next day, somewhere around there. That that math may be off, but it was a long day.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, it was just uh it's such hard work. It's fun, but it is, it's hard work. It really is hard work. So what else have you got going these days? You are you still doing the personal training, obviously, but what else you got going?
SPEAKER_00So I still run the gym. Um, I also have for a little over a year now, I've been a um mortgage loan officer. Okay. Yeah, so I've done that for a little bit over a year. It was something that just kind of fell in my lap. Um, worked out really well. It's something I can do on my own time. Um, I mean, I actually went to school and got my degree in finance, and my original plan was to be in banking, you know. So this kind of fell in my lap. So I took it. One thing I haven't actually made an announcement on yet, I just started a construction company. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. So I'm a uh I'm a licensed residential contractor. Very cool. Yeah. And so I've closed on one lot a few weeks ago. We're folks fixing a close on a second lot next week, and I'm about to build a couple of spec houses out in Bella Vista. And so very nice. It's one of those where, you know, you you run your own business. You don't have anyone that matches your 401ks. You know, I don't have that. Yeah. Um yeah. And then whenever I had a kid come along and I hit 40, and I'm like, huh, my retirement account is quite low. So I'm like, I look back at all the things that I did and I spent money on when I was younger, and I'm like, man, that was fun and some great experiences. And now I'm starting to realize that should have gone into a retirement account. I heard that. Uh yeah. So so and as much as I love health and fitness and I don't have any intentions on quitting it, I don't I don't love being a manager. Um, I have one employee that's worked for me for seven or eight years, and she's great. I've got an advent assistant, and he's great. I don't want more employees. Yeah. So for me, in order to actually make more money, I'm gonna have to find a way to do it elsewhere because I don't I don't have a desire to have a second location. That to me, that just sounds terrible. I think I would I would no longer enjoy the health and fitness industry anymore if I was to do that.
SPEAKER_02So so that's what I'm doing, the other stuff instead. Well, yeah, and sometimes franchising the the heart and soul gets lost when it you got 400 locations and you can't touch them all. So yeah, I mean I was just thinking two, not, but you know, but even that, that's still a little much for me.
SPEAKER_00So two, yeah, two, four hundred was kind of right.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Then you just gotten started with the uh the construction.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, literally I just I just got the the DBA name back um last week. Very cool. Yeah, so I just got the DBA name back last week. I just got my license about two months ago. Um, so yeah, this is something I've been working on for a while. I mean, I've been involved in and out of construction for a while, just kind of on the side doing stuff. So um I was able to to get approved for that, which that took a little while um to get the license to be able to do it. But yeah, I'm I'm really excited about it. You know, it's one of those where, you know, something small, build, you know, three, maybe four houses tops in a year, uh, sell those and just have money for retirement. So that's kind of the goal.
SPEAKER_02I'll uh wrap up with some uh some fun questions I like to close these out with to make it interesting. So uh if you could be any animal, you could be.
SPEAKER_00Uh oh man, I don't know. Tell you what, I should have had a list of these questions before. I could have thought, been a little bit more intelligent on my responses, right? That's the idea. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Catch me off guard. Any animal, what would it be? You know, honestly, I would say probably I said probably a house dog. Okay. Yeah, I think about our dog. Um, I think about other people that are dog people that literally I think like some of their dogs more than their children. Um, so I think maybe if I was a house dog, you know you're gonna be loved, you're always gonna be fed, you know. Um, I think that'd be the route. So yeah, it's not a bad life, right? No, it's really not. I think about my dog, like he has a great life, you know. I mean, he just chills on my couch when nobody's home waiting, and he's always got food and water sitting there, he don't have to worry about nothing. I mean, his whole his whole stress is you know, when are we coming back home? That's that's that's his stresses in life.
SPEAKER_02No doubt. That's that's that's a good choice, actually. All right, so if you could live anywhere in the world for a year, what would where would you go?
SPEAKER_00Oh man. If I could live somewhere for a year, you know, that's that's a tough question. Um, and the reason without trying to get like all depressing or anything, I'm sure, I'm sure you're aware that you know, a few years back I lost my little brother. And that changed a lot of my outlook on things.
SPEAKER_01Sure.
SPEAKER_00Um I think because you know, when when you lose someone and they're only 24 and it's completely unexpected, you realize that friends, family, anybody could be gone at any point.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00I don't know that I would want to live anywhere else. Um I love to travel and I love to visit, right? But we're talking at that point an extended weekend or a week or something like that. I think I would honestly probably just stay here. Um because I like spending time with my friends. I like spending time with my family. And, you know, let's say if my wife and I and my son went somewhere for a year, I wouldn't see anybody. Yeah. And who knows that they'd still be here when I came back. So no. Visit and travel, I'll do that all day. But to live, I think I'd stay here.
SPEAKER_02All right, fair enough. So if you could hang out for a day with any cartoon character, who would it be? Or which would it be?
SPEAKER_00Any cartoon character. Honestly, I would probably say Johnny Bravo. Nice, okay. I think he's hilarious. Johnny Bravo's good stuff. I used to love that cartoon. It's so funny, yeah. He cracks me up. Uh, I I don't I don't even think I would probably be involved. I think it's more just to kind of watch watch everything that he does. Nice. Yeah. All right. Are you a morning person or a night owl? I'm definitely a morning person. Okay. I used to be more of a night owl when I was younger, definitely not anymore. Um, you know, I I grew up a little bit on a dairy farm. We were up at 4 a.m. every single day. That was part of it. You know, now that I'm in the personal training business and you know, we start pretty early. I don't start near as early as I used to. I used to get here around five every day. Now I don't come in until about 5 45, so it's a little bit better. But even on the weekends, especially like whenever it's it's summertime and we have long hours, man, I don't know what it is, but for me, there's something about like on a Saturday or Sunday, and I know this is gonna make me sound old, but you know, getting up at like 5:30, 5:45, my wife and I getting up. Well, we may go somewhere, grab some breakfast, I'll come back, I'll shower, I'll clean up. And it's like seven in the morning, and I've already eaten, showered, cleaned, and I have the entire day ahead of me. The sun's already up, it's already warm outside, and it's like, man, I got all day and I'm ready to roll. Like I, you know, I don't know. It's it's is I like that feeling.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I love going out and doing stuff on occasion and staying out a little bit late, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but uh yeah, definitely, you know, with with my lifestyle, I have to be more of a morning person because I did the whole sleep in on the weekends and get up early during the week. And after a while, man, you know, if you're in your 20s, that works. But you know, you start to get a little bit older, you gotta, you gotta find that circadian rhythm and just go to bed and get up around the same time all the time.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, that's uh that's a challenge for sure. As I've gotten older, I think I've beginning to prefer mornings. I prefer getting up early enough to be productive. I think that's my thing. It's like kind of the your train of thought there. I I like the feeling of I've got all this accomplished and it's only you know 8 a.m. Like, man, like oh, this is amazing. I'm and now I'm on a I'm on a rhythm, you know, and I start knocking stuff out. Exactly. So when you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I bounced around. Um, I man, it was I wanted to be boring stuff when I was a kid. Um and I I mean I apologize to anyone that hears this if you happen to do the things that I'm about to mention. But you know, I remember being in like sixth grade and for some odd reason I just knew I wanted to be an architect. Nice. I don't know why. Um, you know, to me, I I know I couldn't do it now. You know, sorry if you're an architect, to me, that would be boring. Um I mean, I appreciate you, right? I worked with an architect the other day because I'm building houses, you know. So I'm thankful for their positions. I just couldn't do it. You know, originally that's what I wanted to be. I never wanted to be anything exciting. You know, you have some that's like, oh, I wanted to be a doctor, I wanted to be an astronaut. And I I don't know, I just didn't uh it wasn't something I put a lot of thought up in, I guess, when I was a kid. Um, you know, but I remember wanting to be an architect. Uh uh, then it changed. I wanted to be in computer sciences. And then whenever I got a little bit older, because I was working in the banking industry when I was in college, that's what pushed me into finance and I said I wanted to be in banking. Nice. So that was to have boring answers for you on that one.
SPEAKER_02No, that's all right. Yeah. You know, it's it's actually it's funny because when I was a kid, uh, and I think up until about yesterday, I don't think I ever really knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I I for the longest time in my life, I chased down all the things that looked exciting, the exciting things, oh, that's gonna be, yeah, I could do that, I could do that, I could do that. But when I reached the point of the hard stuff, like, you know, um, Mark Manson likes to say that we think we know what we want until we see the work that goes into it. And that's how you decide who really wants what. Yep. Because, you know, you want to be the guitar player in the Eddie Van Halen, but Eddie Van Halen didn't wake up one day and start shredding guitar like that. So, you know, it's that's the thing. And I think that was what steered me away from a lot of things growing up, is like I look at this, but oh, I could do that. And then the work came and it was like, that's a lot harder than I thought it was gonna be. Like, I don't have a problem with hard work. I did construction for 20 years. But yeah, just looking at the, you know, I want to be the big guy on stage, but I'm terrified on stage and I'm not that talented yet. So it's uh oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I get it, especially with you know with what I do in here, because I was the the regional head judge for the Natural Bodybuilding Federation for four and a half years. So I mean I worked with a lot of fitness competitors, bodybuilders, bikini competitors, and it's kind of the same thing. You'd you'd be surprised how many people come in here and say, I think I want to get on stage until we start actually prepping. And then they're like, maybe I don't want this as bad. Yeah, because it's a lot of work. Yeah, it's really hard. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, those and those bikinis are small.
SPEAKER_00So they're but yeah, they are. Yeah, and the man kinis, right? Those are small too. So that's and they really should make those bigger, I think. I don't disagree with that statement.
SPEAKER_02They should really cover more. Uh okay, so what is your earliest memory?
SPEAKER_00Hmm. Earliest memory. And you're like really, I mean, for a Sunday morning, man, you're putting a lot of a lot of a lot of deep thought process here towards the end. You know, I d I'm trying to think. It's probably, I don't know if I was three or four, but I remember uh we had one of those old stoves in our house. And I used to apparently, I don't remember this part, but apparently according to my mom, I used to climb up on top of it and dance around.
SPEAKER_01Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_00And every time that I would, my mom would get onto me, don't do that. And I guess my mom went into her bedroom at one point. So then I climbed up on top of it, danced around, fell off, and busted my head open. Oh, yeah. And I don't really remember that part as much as I remember going to somewhere, the hospital, something. And I remember two nurses on each leg, my mom on one arm bawling, and my stepdad holding my other arm down while they were stitching me right above my eyebrow. Oh, because I've still got a little bit of a scar there from it. Very little. And uh, yeah, because I know I wasn't in school yet at that point. So I think that one, you know, having to be held down and awake for stitches, yeah. I think that was it for me. That was my earliest memory. Stuck with me a little bit. I think they have to hold me down now anyway. Like, can you just knock me out?
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, can't why can't I just be under for stitches? Yeah, exactly. Such a man. Yeah. Uh so what was or is your favorite game? Can be board game, video game, whatever, whatever you like to play as a kid, or if you still play it now?
SPEAKER_00I would say for me, and and here's the thing like I'm not a gamer. Like, I, you know, I I like I loved Nintendo when I was a kid. I think we all did, right? Um, anybody around my age, I love Nintendo, Super Nintendo, 64, all that. And I've you know, I've got like a Switch and an Xbox, and I hardly ever play. But for some reason, I have been obsessed with every single Zelda game that has ever come out in my life. I have I have played and beat just about everyone. There's one or two that I haven't because for whatever reason I just didn't buy them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, but yeah, that's it. So for me, like the the most recent one, the the Breath of the Wild, I beat that one like four times now. Wow. Um and I don't, I mean, like I said, I'm not a gamer. There's, you know, every once in a while, if I have, you know, like if we've got nieces and nephews that come over, we'll play some Mario Kart with them, stuff like that. But but I'll go through phases where I won't play any games for five or six months. And I'll go through a phase where it's like every time I've got a little free time on the weekend, I'm sitting there playing Zelda again.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I feel you there.
SPEAKER_00That's that that would that that would probably be it for me.
SPEAKER_02Nice. I like that. Yeah, I grew up a Zelda kid. I uh when I was 10, that's when the Nintendo kind of came out in the US, and my parents got me one for Christmas. I'm I'm totally dating myself here. But uh I've got grey in the beard. You can see it. Yeah, you and me both. You and me both. The uh I my dad and I play when that first Zelda came out. They didn't have you can't, you couldn't go online. There was no interwebs kids. There was no cheat codes to find, you just had to figure it out. Yep. And it was hard, man, because it was a big exp for that time, that was a big map. And all you got was a paper map. Yep. Oh man, so my dad and I, I remember spending months trying to beat that game, but now I have my 64. I w I bought a 64 again and bought uh Oak Green of Times. That's my favorite one. Oh yeah. But I've played them all except for the ones on um the Wii. I didn't play the Wii games and none of the Game Boy games. Yep. But um my girlfriend now, she has a Switch. And so I went over there one day. I was like, oh, let me play this. And she had Zelda on. I was like, oh she's like, oh great. So she's like, please don't play that right now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, because that's one if you get into it, like Oh, you're gonna be playing it for a while. Oh, yeah. They're long games. They are, they take a while to get through.
SPEAKER_02Oh, they do. It's it's so much, but I love them. And now, now I'm uh I've got a PS4, and so I'm an Assassin's Creed guy. I love the Assassin's Creed games and the God of War games, and of course Skyrim. Skyrim is my this is my Christmas game when I just want to waste time. That's awesome. Yeah. So all right, last one.
SPEAKER_00What's uh what is something new that you want to do this year? Well, I mean, I'm kind of already starting one of them, right? Um a lot of it has been kind of focusing on construction, building something out for that. You know, the I named the the company JDW Construction. I wanted to name it JW, but apparently in Arkansas, uh JW Construction, JW Homes, JW Builds, they're all taken. So I wanted to name it after my son. Okay. Um, my hope, I mean, ultimately, whatever my son wants to do, I'll support him. My hope is that if I can actually build this construction company out, that's what he'll want to do and he'll take it over. So I I put because his name is Jax. So I I the J is for Jax, so that you know, kind of did that. So that was the route that I I went with that. Um, on top of that, man, I just I enjoy learning new things, even if I don't keep doing them. Um, you know, I've kind of gotten into woodworking a little bit over the last few years. I like to do a little bit more of that. Um, you know, like I built, I built my wife's desk. Uh whenever we I'm in the process of building a house for us right now. And whenever it gets done, I want to build some of our furniture. Like I want to build our our coffee table and end tables and a few things like that. Nice. Um, that's what I would like to do. Um, the problem is I tend to I get bored with things easy. So I tend to have a lot of things going on and only a few of them get completed. I feel that pain. I'm real bad about starting projects and not seeing them. Or if I do see them all the way through, what should have taken me a month took takes me like eight until I finally get it done. I feel that pain. And then I get it done and I'm like, I should do another, you know?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, right. Yeah. That's uh, yeah, I've got I'm doing this podcast. I'm a co-host on my company's podcast. And then my girlfriend one day was I was telling her something about, I don't know, I think witchcraft or something. And she's like, Have you ever thought about doing a show, you know, and talking about you know that kind of stuff? And I was like, huh. No, I hadn't. So I was like, Great, thank you. Yeah, now I have another project. Maybe we should, yeah. Yeah. So now I've got that one. I'm trying to, I've got all these things I've got going. I'm trying to start this other podcast, you know, and I'm trying to write, and you know, it's yeah. So I I think it's the ADHD in me. It's uh it's very easy for me to go, oh man, that'd be awesome and get started and really go strong. And then months later, it's either fizzled or I'm still only maybe a third of the way through it.
SPEAKER_00You know, so oh yeah, my wife will give me a hard time, and I I my biggest thing for her is I always tell her, go, at least you didn't marry a lazy husband. Right. You know, at least I'm married. I'm always involved in something.
SPEAKER_02So I remember uh my one of my exes one time would came home and I told her she had to go do something and I was gonna be home all day. And so I was like, Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna get the house cleaned up. She's like, Great. And uh she came back and she's walking around the house. She's like, I I thought you were gonna clean that. Oh, I did, I did. I came in, look at here. I said I did this. And what I did was I started cleaning up my my bedroom, and oh, this doesn't go in here, it goes in the kitchen. So I take it to the kitchen, like, oh, this kitchen's a mess. So I start cleaning the kitchen. Well, this doesn't go in here, it goes in here. So I had these little things I started in every room in the house, but nothing, but then I was like, man, that's a long day. I'm worn out. Yeah, I didn't actually do anything. And the house is still not clean. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's uh it's very much uh I need some medication, I think. I get it. I get it. Well, all right, man. You got any any of the any questions you feel like I should have asked or anything you want to wrap it up with? Any plugs? Uh nothing that I can really think of, man.
SPEAKER_00Um, I'm pretty good. Okay, and plug the business? Yeah, sure. Uh Precision Fitness here in Bitonville. Um, you know, you can look us up online, precisionfitnessnwa.com. Uh you can reach out, you can call, you can email, text, Snapchat, anything. Yeah, pick pick a way, right? You know, there's a way to get a hold of us. But yeah, I mean, we've been uh to my knowledge, I mean, we are the longest running personal training studio in Northwest, Arkansas. Nice. So I think we've been around longer than anybody else. Um, I'm proud of that. And I don't plan on going anywhere for a while. So very good. Yeah, we got we got we got a little room. We don't have a lot. Um, you know, because in order to keep personal training personal, we have to limit our our sessions. Sure. You know, so like because we do small group and semi-private. My small group is like two to ten, semi-private is like two to six. My semi-private is full. I can't take on any more people. Yeah. Um, but yeah, some of our small group, we've still got some room in it, and I'd love to have it filled up.
SPEAKER_02Nice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Very good. All right. Well, Dustin, appreciate your time, man. Yeah. Happy to be here.
SPEAKER_02I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please share it with anyone you think might also enjoy it. And if you like the show, please consider supporting it. It's the support of listeners like you that keeps us going. If you'd like to help, there's a link in the show notes. I'd like to thank all of our guests who've taken the time to have these conversations and share their insights on failures, both personal and professional. If you want to follow the show, the website is www.points of failure.buzzsprout.com. And you can find us on Facebook and Instagram as FailurePoints Pod and on Twitter as failurepoints. Please like and share, and remember to rate and review the show on whichever podcast platform you use. The ratings and reviews really help and keep us going. If you'd like to contact us directly with questions or guest suggestions, you can email us at failurepointspod at gmail.com. Again, thank you for listening. We'll see you next time on Points of Failure.
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