Scaling Your Behavior For Greatness w/ Mark Bell

Mark  00:00

What’s up everybody? This is Mark Bell and you’re listening to the Airborne Mind Show.

Misbah Haque  00:36

Hey guys, Misbah Haque here. Thank you so much for joining me today. And welcome back to another episode of The airborne mind Show. Before we get started, there are two places that I would love to point you to number one is the home base, the airbornemind.com, check out some of the free tools and free sample programs, training videos, and things like that. If you’re somebody who is struggling with strict pull-ups, strict handstand push-ups, pistol squats, and things of that nature, check out some of the free resources. And if it’s relevant to you, give it a shot, and let me know what you think I would love to hear from you. 

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So once again, that is the airbornemind.com forward slash reading list. So today, my guest is Mark Bell. And the funny part about this conversation is that as soon as we got on the video chat I typically let my guests know that we’re about to record and we chat for a few minutes beforehand, we get to know each other and do things like that. And so we hit it off real fast and we got deep real fast. And so a few minutes in I realized oh my gosh, I think Mark thinks that we hit a record and we just kind of jumped right into it. So I didn’t want to interrupt the flow because it was so freakin good. I just let him keep going and I hit record for a few minutes so that you’re gonna get a firsthand look at this laid-back conversation where we talk about business and life. If you don’t know Mark Bell is an American powerlifter who I hope I’m getting this right as totaled 2,551 pounds. So 1025 Squat 854 bench and 755 deadlifts set a California record and he was featured in the 2008 film bigger, stronger faster where it took an objective use ATS steroid use and was directed by his brother Chris. 

He’s the founder of Power magazine and super training gym and invented a weightlifting accessory that you may have seen around called the slingshot. He’s got over 2000 videos on YouTube. He has his own podcast called Mark Bell’s power cast. And man so many nuggets in this one. Just to give you a little bit of a highlight. We talked about the key to being good consistently. We talked about greatness, we talked about value versus giving what Mark would do if he had to start over with $500 in a laptop, and how to create habits and things like that. What an insightful conversation I had so much fun with. So, hope you enjoy this episode and more importantly, hope you do something with it.

Mark  05:01

And that’s not even really that much diet advice. That’s healthy! Now you can take that a step further and say, I’d like you to drink the only drink that I want you to have is water. I want you to replace any soda, no diet soda, no regular soda, no extra calories. So there are so many ways, and a lot of times I’ve recommended that stuff for people, they’ve lost 10 pounds, usually for men. And I say women because women just have smaller frames. So it’s always harder for the ladies anyway, but so you can implement small changes like that into your diet, you can implement small changes into exercise, you can start walking once a week for 10 minutes. What if you walked once a week for 10 minutes for a year? It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it will add up to something that is 10 minutes times 52 days, and it’ll add up something. What if you added a second day and you walked 15 minutes? 

It’s just a very minute thing. I don’t think you could find a person in the world that would say that they don’t have 10 minutes or 15 minutes, you probably wouldn’t find a person well, that would say that they don’t have 15 Minutes two times a week to go for a walk or two, just a tiny change in their fitness. 

So you can take the same approach to your life. And you can say, Okay, well, it’s gonna be really hard for me to be the rock I can’t figure that out. I can buy the same sunglasses. And I could do the same poses him right, but I can’t figure out how to get the rock worth $125 million, or whatever it is. And he’s just killing it. But I can work on being better every day. And if I can figure out small things, I kind of share with people all the time. It’s a big dream, but I take small steps. Because it’s those little steps over a long period of time. If you want to be great, you’re probably going to fail. If you have the right mindset about being great, then you may be able to achieve it. Being great is weird, because what’s the definition of being great. So I think people talk about being rich, and they talk about being great. 

But they don’t even know what being rich means. And they don’t even know what it entails. They’re not sure how to get there. They’re spinning their wheels. They just know that they just want to be great. They want to be known for something. And I think that if you have goals like that, then the first thing you need to organize, you talked about organizing your thoughts? Well, that’s exactly what you’re gonna have to do. Do you have to organize your thoughts? I want to be great. I want to be a name in fitness. industry. All right, I’m going to shoot a viral video tomorrow. You can’t can’t like you can’t shoot a viral video, I’m going to make a post and I’m going to make a viral post. You can’t really just happen. Like they are just not sure what controls it? It’s a weird thing to try to figure out. Right? So you’d have to define greatness before you ever think about even getting there. 

Because what is it going to mean to you to be great? Or what would it mean to you to be rich? Would being rich mean that you live in a mansion? Would being rich mean that you have expensive cars and cool sunglasses? Or would it mean that you can afford to pay for your kids to go to a private school? Or would it mean that you can afford a home for your parents? There are just all things that you’d have to think about. And that way, once you think about it, what does that actually mean to you, then you can start to put plans towards that. And you can have plans to try to execute whatever it is that you’re thinking of. You’re thinking about ways of being great. Well, greatness isn’t just going to happen overnight. In my opinion, what makes somebody great is the act of being consistently good. And my dad is a great representation that my dad is not world-renowned and he’s known by some people because bigger, stronger, faster. My dad is about as average American as you can get. 

He’s got similar concerns to every American and he’s patriotic and stuff like that. Like normal guys, somebody that inspires me and he’s very motivational to me but The reason why I admire him so much is that he’s been good for a really long period of time, he’s figured out a way to support his family, he’s figured out a way to love his family. And when I say support, I mean, in every way, in every sense of the word financially, mentally, physically, the best way to in the way that you spell love is TIME. And he’s always had enough time, he’s always invested enough in us, in our, in his children. And he’s been somebody who’s just always been there for us. 

And so I think that, for somebody, if they’re trying to be somebody in the fitness industry or any other industry, for that matter, you’re going to have to kind of define what it is that you want to be, you’re gonna have to figure out what your goals are. So you can make some plans and start to make some plans towards those goals. If you want to have the best body in the history of fitness, then you can’t go to bed at two in the morning, you can’t eat Snickers bars every night, you can’t get drunk all the time. So there’s going to be some trade-off between the plans that you have and the goals that you have. And that’s going to be the way that it has to be.

Misbah Haque  11:15

So that behavior has to scale.

Behavior has to scale

Mark  11:18

100%, you have to your behavior has to match what you’re talking about. And then on top of that, I think another important thing to do is to start to put it out there in the universe, of some of your goals. Now, if you say, I want to have $100 million, your company by the end of 2017, and you don’t even have a company yet, well, that’s asinine, and no one’s going to support that thought process. Even if that is a goal, it’s in the back of your mind, probably shouldn’t share it with everybody else. But your more immediate goals, the things that are closer to you, I want to lose 10 pounds, I want to gain 10 pounds on my bench press, I want to have bigger arms. 

Sharing those things with people is great, because when they see you not doing that stuff, then they’re gonna be like,  what are you doing, especially your good friends, when you’re telling somebody, Hey, man, I want to be ripped, I want to have a six-pack, I don’t want to be, I want to be shredded, and then they see you eating peanut butter cups and cupcakes, they’re gonna be calling you out, you already recognize that you already told that person, what your goals were. And so you’re going to feel uncomfortable, doing something that’s completely against the grain of what you just said that you’re going to do.

Accountability is huge

Misbah Haque  12:33

So that accountability is absolutely huge. Because if you rely on just yourself to be accountable that could wear off within a couple of days.

Mark  12:48

They talk a lot about motivation and inspiration. And a lot of that’s gonna have to come from within. And also, maybe the kind of surroundings, maybe the people that surround you. But in order to have any sort of longevity, this is where you hear so many people talk about passion, what you’re passionate about, and it doesn’t always make sense to lean too much towards what you’re actually passionate about. Because life bounces around a lot. And you’re gonna have to be smarter than just going towards what you’re passionate about. Because you like for me, when I was a kid, I was passionate about football, I love football. But a certain time I realized like, I can’t play football anymore, like this is just going to run out. Even an NFL football player has to stop playing football at some point and think about other things. So even though that was a passion for me, it was also the realization of like, Hey, I can’t and I can’t be a pro athlete. I’m not tall enough, I’m not strong enough. I’m not good enough mainly, to get the job done. And so I think there’s going to have to be mixed in with your passion, there’s going to have to be a level of being realistic with yourself on what it is you’re going to be able to execute. 

When it comes to passion, where passion can come in handy, is the fact that you can do something for a really long time. Again, going back to what I said earlier about being great. If you’re going to be great, then you’ll have to be good for a really long period of time. Michael Jordan, Walter Payton, Jerry Rice. Any of these athletes that people put on a pedestal as being great, weren’t great one time. They weren’t great for a year. They were great for a really long time. That’ll be like Lebron James. His legacy. Like how long can you be? How long can you be a great forum, I would say that Tom Cruise is great, right? Because he’s been doing it for a really long time too. 

People don’t like him or whatever. But he’s been doing it for a really long time, he’s been putting up points on the scoreboard. And for years and years, he’s proving to people that he knows how to draw money at the box office. Time and time again, over and over again, he didn’t just do it one time, he just won’t have one movie, that was great. And so I think, when you’re excited about something when you really want to do something, then I think that that could be something that allows you to have some drive every single day towards your goals.

Key to being good consistently

Misbah Haque  15:33

So what would you say is maybe the key to being good, consistently, because what comes to mind for me is that many people talk about how happiness lies in the process, right? It’s not in the results, because as soon as you have achieved whatever it is you want to achieve. Within minutes, there’s another achievement, right? There’s always another level for you to shoot for. And so being happy and being fulfilled lies in that process. But what would you say is the key to being good consistently.

Blocking out the noise is the key, blocking out the noise and doing what you set out to do doing a little bit of each and every single day. So, um, the happiness of the journey, like the journey is painful so, there is a lot of like, there’s a lot of like, fruits involved in the labor of it all. And there is great reward, with there being like a little bit of pain and some change associated with all these things. But in my opinion, the main thing is, just to have blinders on. The other day, somebody shot me a text message. They made me aware of something that was going on, kind of like with our company, and I just send them back an image of a horse with blinders on because I didn’t need to worry about the noise.

There’s certain things you have to attend to, but I’m vertically focused this way, straight up in the air, right? And if I’m ever going to expand outward, then I can’t just go upward and out, right? Like, what kind of structure would collapse, right? Right. So have a go this way. And work on that and build that up as much as I can. And I have to move to the next thing and build that up vertically as well. I can’t be in two different spots at one time. And I can’t be confusing myself with all these different things that are going on. If you ever heard of the book as a man thinketh It’s ancient, it’s from forever ago. But that book, basically, in a nutshell, talks about being a good person and consistently making the right decisions. Now, that can be really hard. A lot of things out, there’s a lot of chicks out there showing their asses on Instagram. But if you’re caught up in that, you’re also caught up in a relationship that’s healthy. It’s just it’s not that it’s necessarily wrong. I don’t want everybody listening to be like, all men. Busted. 

We’re all like we’re all guilty of it. Right? We all love seeing beautiful women, there ain’t nothing wrong with that. But at the same time, it’s pulling away from your focus of what it is you should be doing. Pornography can be viewed the same way,  we all have these guilty pleasures that we whether it’s drinking or whatever, right? Like it’s, there are all these things that are better, they’re, they’re gonna have to be blocked out most of the time, in order for you to focus true focus isn’t necessary to have like a laser beam, focus on one thing is more the ability to block out all the other stuff, especially in this day and age. The world is moving really fast. There are tons of things going on via social media. Using that you definitely get a lot of stuff done on your own. Don’t need anybody else. How many people are involved in this podcast that you’re filming right now? 

Relying on yourself

Misbah Haque  19:15

Just me. 

Mark  19:18

That’s it, man. Why to because you can’t rely on anybody else like you, you could possibly have somebody else on the show. But then it’s like, you’re both part of it. And you both kind of own it. And then you have to wait for him to show up at the right time or girl or whatever it is. And then it’s just like a whole thing that you’re like, I just want to have a podcast. I just want to do it this way. And I’m gonna, I’m gonna start it and I’m gonna start it tomorrow. And you just started? Did you get a big loan from the bank to start it out?

Misbah Haque  19:45

Not at all. Man. When I was thinking about starting this podcast. I remember I was scared to death for the longest time. And I just decided one day that I was because I knew maybe five years down the line. I wanted to have my own podcast, but I was like, well, why am I gonna wait Five years like what am I really waiting for. And as soon as I started letting that marinate within two weeks of that thought kind of originating, I had my first three guests that I recorded, the episodes, people told me to have six in the bank before I put it out. And I was like, nope, don’t want to do that, I put three out. And then I started finding more guests. And really, I’ve just kind of done it my own way.

Mark  20:22

That’s the way you do it, you just have to get started. And I share this a lot with people. I think people need to start replacing the word work with opportunity, you saw an opportunity in this, right, you’re like, you there wasn’t, there wasn’t a paycheck, like being sent to you like the second that you started, what I mean? Like there was, you weren’t, like all this gonna be fucking sick, I’m gonna do a podcast every day, and I’m gonna get paid five grand per episode, it’s gonna be awesome. And the money’s gonna be rolling in and I can just kind of sit back and I can lift and eat some steak and some sushi and hang out, and then occasionally do a podcast once in a while, but life just doesn’t work that way. And there’s gonna be, you’re gonna have to learn to jump and spread your wings on the way down, you can’t just always have everything set up perfectly, you’re going to have to just start and that involves, these are things that you should have some plan for. But that involves, buying a house, buying a car, having children, all these different things, you’re not going to really ever be ready for a baby. 

An infant. I have two kids, a 13-year-old and a nine-year-old. And I will guarantee you that anybody that has children they’d say, hey, what’s the perfect time to have a kid? They’d be like, I don’t know. Because there’s no, there’s no such thing. It doesn’t exist, kiddo haven’t had a child is a huge thing. It same thing with a business, though. When should I start? When would I know to start my business? Well, when you feel like it just started, what are you waiting for? I know too many people that are relying on too many other people. The only person you can usually really rely on is yourself. Occasionally, some family members. And if you’re one of the lucky few like myself, you find a significant other that you can rely on for I can rely on my wife for anything, which is unbelievable. But I also recognize that not everybody has that. The only person you’re gonna really be able to truly rely on all the time for everything, it’s going to be yourself. And I think that people don’t understand that they have the ability to make some great changes. And they can just start doing it one day at a time. It’s overwhelming if you kind of think of the grand scheme of things. Overwhelming if you think about how you look, I don’t know-how into the fitness space you are.

But like, if you look at Bradley Martin you look at some of these guys. Calum Von Moger. You look at some of these guys, like, man, I guys in crazy shape, looks like that guy’s got money, he’s got chicks. Like he’s got his shit together, he’s got shit going on. Looks like he’s having fun in the gym. And he does have all those things going on. But you can create a lot of that yourself, you may not be able to be them. Because a huge factor in being successful is going to be knowing who you’re not, you got to know that the only way to truly know who you are is to know who you’re not. And when you look at some of those people like, that’s not me. That’s not me, doesn’t mean you can’t be inspired by what they’re doing. It doesn’t mean that you just give up and say shit, man, I’m not gonna do anything with fitness, because these guys are killing it. What it means is, you’re built a certain way, you have certain genetics, I’m not seven feet tall, I’m not playing in the NBA. 

There are just certain things that aren’t going to happen, I’m not going to work for NASA, like there’s just like, there’s going to be things that you’re just not going to be able to obtain. But if you stay in your lane, you block out the noise and you focus on the things that you can do and you can achieve then you can continually work towards your goals. If you’re not worried about relying on other people waiting, I hear so many people say I’ll just as soon as I move out of this apartment I move to the other one things are going to be great. Or as soon as like, as soon as once I get rid of my girlfriend like I’m going to be like on this like cool diet like it’s gonna I’m going to be like shredded. They’re always waiting for that next thing. As soon as the holidays are over. 

Then I’m going to really buckle down and get in crazy shape. That’s like you’re not you’re not going to because you have in your mind now sounds like your mind is already kind of made up for you. You should act on that and stop allowing yourself when you hear somebody say something that they’re not acting on. Currently, who’s holding them back.

Misbah Haque  24:55

That person

Mark  24:57

They’re holding themselves back. We’re our own worst enemies. We’re all guilty of it doesn’t matter how successful somebody is. Even Bill Gates is talking himself out of should I guarantee you?

Value vs Giving

Misbah Haque  25:07

I want to unpack this a little bit. So you talked about work versus opportunity, right. So this reminds me of something I heard recently, I heard Ben Bergeron talk about this. And it’s such a simple, I think, a mindset shift. But it’s so profound it’s turning things from I have to versus I get to write. So you don’t have to go pick up the kids, you don’t have to have your coffee in the morning, you get to go pick up your kids, you get to have your coffee in the morning, right? There are 5 billion people in the world who are living on two and a half dollars a day, but you get to have your coffee, there are 784 million people who don’t have access to clean water, but you get to have a shower.

So it’s simple. Like, you don’t have to write anything, you don’t have to do any journaling like that is something I’ve been thinking about for the past couple of days since I heard it. And I’m like, wow, it is a whole new perspective and a whole new experience that you will have going day today, as soon as you trick yourself into switching it from I have to versus I get to. So I have to assume that somebody at your level has come across how important gratitude is to kind of get to where you are now. Is that something that you practice on a daily basis in some way, shape, or form?

Mark  26:23

I love to be (inaudible). And I think it’s a trade. I’m not like to toot my own horn or the horn of my family. But I think it’s a trait that’s deeply etched into my DNA. And I think a lot of it comes from my dad. The ability to give to people something I’ve recognized over the years is that during the I can really give you, using these Versace sunglasses, these fancy sunglasses example, if I give these to you, that’s cool, you’ll have them for a year or two, you probably lose them, maybe you’ll scratch them, you’ll keep good care, maybe you’ll have them for a while, but probably lose them, someone will steal him whatever, something will happen to him, it doesn’t really matter. It’s just like an object. The only thing you can truly give somebody is information. And being able to the only way I can give information is to share with people and is to continue to kind of give and put stuff out there. 

Right now we’re uploading two videos every day and we’re doing so for the next two weeks. I to be honest with you on a fucking time for that I don’t at all, I do not have time for that. I’m making time for that. And it’s not a half two situation though it’s a GET TO situation just as you pointed out, I like being happy. The only way I’m going to be happy is to make other people happy. I can go to the gym, I can act like an asshole. And I can hit a PR deadlift. And I can be like, Fuck, man, I was great. But who else is going to join me in that journey? Who else is going to be excited for me? If I’m an addict, I’m an asshole. Like who else is gonna care? So I want to have fun. And what I have recognized over the years is that through all the social media stuff, the people that have the biggest impact on social media are the people who are your average people, your people that don’t have a following, your people that might be sub-1000 followers.

And the reason for that is those people, the interaction that they have, the traction that they get is more real like they might have. So like percentage-wise, somebody with 1000 followers might have 20 comments. Those 20 comments are really powerful because those 20 people most likely actually know that person. Whereas 1000 followers I have on my Instagram, I don’t know all those people, all those people may kind of know me, but maybe a small percentage of them have met me, a small percentage of them actually know me, right? And so the point is, when you think about a word like gratitude, a lot of times where you see people giving is where they can trade. And I have done that myself of course because you’re always trying to level up and so I will associate with Gunnar Peterson and Ben Bruno and CT Fletcher and these people that are important in the fitness space, Jan Wieder strims, and so on. 

To kind of level up, because you’re like, shit, these people are here. I’m gonna hang with them and we’re both going to kind of rise up to the top together. But also,  I’ve given people like literally the shirt off my back before somebody, like that’s a cool shirt. I’m like, dude, take it and I give it to him. Hopefully, I have a shirt underneath that I’m not walking around naked. But I’ve given people my hat, I’ve gone through every time I go to the gym, I’m like, I need a new hat like shit, man, you gave another one away, Excellency, somebody in the street that wants to take a picture with me and like, do that hat is sick, and I’ll just go boop, and I’ll pop it right on their head. And the big impact right there. I’m not trying to suck off somebody who’s more famous than me to continue to level up. I’m also hanging out with just whoever is a fan, whoever’s with me, is with me. 

And those people matter to me a ton. And that person is going to freak out and that person is going to go to their friends, or their friends or even just going to see it. Him like dude, Mark Bell posted a picture with you like, what the fuck dude that was sick. And all,  50 of his buddies in the gym, or 30 of his buddies in the gym are gonna freak out. And that’s going to create a buzz for a few weeks is going to create a giant tsunami of positive energy that you wouldn’t get like if I give CT Fletcher. Sure. He is excited about it. But he doesn’t really care that much. Like, when I podcast with him recently, like, I gave my hat and he wore it, I took his hat and I wore his hat like it’s just like a friendly trade-off type thing. But I don’t care that much. He doesn’t care that much. His fans don’t care that much. My fans don’t care that much. Is because we’re famous in this fitness space. 

That it just has less of an impact. But if I’ve had people come here to visit the gym, and I’ll say when they visit the gym they will get done with training. I’ll say hey, reps, someone. I’ll go buy him lunch. And they’ll be like, what’s happening? Why am I hanging out with you? Like this is sick, like what’s going on? I’m like, Well, this is a way for me to repay you. You’re a fan. Like you’re pushing those buttons, you’re commenting and you’re buying my shit all day long, like this kind of least I can do is buy a sandwich.

It sounds like I guess what you’re differentiating between value, which would be an exchange versus giving, when you’re giving, there’s no expectation for return on anything, you’re simply giving because you want to, it’s out of love. Whereas value there, there’s a little bit of expectation attached to it. Am I on the right track there?

Mark  31:59

Absolutely. As an entrepreneur, I kind of hate that word. It’s like everybody that doesn’t have a job as an entrepreneur nowadays. But as an entrepreneur, you can’t be, you can’t be afraid, you can’t be hesitant, and you can’t. I’m never gonna worry about being transparent about what my goal is. My goal is to make fucking money. And my goal is to make a lot of it. I want to make 50 million, I want to make 80 million, I want to make 100. Like, I want to make this company as big as I can. And I want to buy other companies to swallow them up and blow them up too. There’s nothing wrong with transparency. And I’m going to try to squeeze value out of every situation that I possibly can, whenever appropriate, though, to if it’s inappropriate like if I’m going to do something for a charity or something like a lot of times that stuff’s like that’s on the download, I don’t talk about a lot of that kind of stuff. 

If it’s stuff that’s just personal between me and a good friend, even if they are kind of higher up on the ladder then I’m not gonna film stuff with them. That happens quite a bit. I hang out with guys like Kelly, stir, and just all these different people that are famous in this industry. And we literally just hang out. And then when we leave, it’s always funny because we’re like, Dude, we didn’t take like one picture. And nothing like we didn’t do anything for social media at all. Like, all sometimes it’s better that way. But you’re 100% right about the value. I’m not even going to hide the fact that even if you’re a friend, even if you’re a fan, and even if I am giving you something, I am giving it to you out of love and appreciation for that particular fan. I’m also kind of sending a message to other fans, so I’m getting a lot of value out of it. People like, I’d love to be in that situation. It would be really cool to meet him. 

So I’m getting tons of value out of it. I don’t think there’s anything wrong with just being. I think it’s when you’re trying to hide it. That product could be a problem when you’re trying to hide it. And you’re like, I’ll do let’s take this picture together. And then you kind of find out like, That guy would give a flying fuck about you at all. You DM him a couple of times like hey, man, I was cool meeting you. You said I can hit you up and then you get no response from him and shit then you’re like, I guess like he was just kind of taking a picture like the kind of using me for that thing. I do my best to try to communicate with fans as much as I possibly can and to try to give back to them as much as I possibly can. There are going to be times where I’m going to suck value out of it for sure. 100% and there’s gonna be other times where I’m just DMing people back and forth just because I want to.

Money

Misbah Haque  34:58

Now that I’ve listened to it, I’ve watched your session with Gary Vaynerchuk. And I remember you saying that crush, it was a pretty impactful book for you. And your father gave that to you. And it just seemed to resonate with you. If you were to kind of get specific. What lightbulb moment kind of went off for you? Where you were like, I need to go do X? What kind of came up for you when you were going through that book?

Mark  35:30

I think there were a few. There are a few turning points there. Number one was most blown away about how he found so much impact and value from the internet. And I was like, shit, man, like he’s talking about a billboard versus something that he did on like Twitter and the impact that had and I was like, Shit, I’m like, yeah, man, things are moving fast. Like things are changing. He’s this guy is writing, talks about people. You talk about regular people filming the news and how like the news, as we know, it now is not going to really exist the same way. 

There’s going to be people sending in photos and videos from their phones. And I was like, what in? And now he’s a fuckin 100% Correct. All that shit has happened. So that was kind of blowing my mind. And that was, that was something that was kind of in my head because I was like, he’s talking about this internet thing. And I think like, it doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor or rocket scientist, or a politician, no matter what you are, who you are. Or if you’re a powerlifter. You can utilize this as a fucking awesome weapon to gain to monitor gain money, right to earn money. He talks about all kinds of different stuff in the book. But one of the major turning points for me was how he was talking about how he’s making money off of selling baseball cards to kids and I did a lot of that same thing. I used to raise the totem around this wagon around my neighborhood just to sell random shit to people. As a young kid, probably eight, nine years old, something like that. Just like I was always fascinated with money. 

I always thought it was cool, to figure out different ways to make money. So when he talked about those baseball cards, I was like, Should I do that? I did some of that too, not to his level. But I was like, I did some of that as well. And then he was talking about how when somebody came in to order a certain amount of wine, and a certain type of wine, and they didn’t have it, he went to like, take like a pre-order for the guy. And the guy’s like, I want four bottles of this, four bottles of that, and four bottles of that. And so he wrote it down. They don’t they didn’t have pre-orders. They weren’t supposed to take pre-orders. But he took one anyway because people kept asking for these certain types of wine. He was like, we’re missing out on a lot of money. And so he takes down the order. 

And he asked the guys yesterday at a restaurant or something or like, he’s kind of wondering why he ordered so many bottles of stuff, and they’re all crazy expensive. And the guy’s like, No, I collect wine. And he likes being like a lightbulb in his head. That the wine was the vintage Chardonnay that the guy was ordering or the Cabernet or whatever the hell that wine was, that was representing the same value that those individual baseball cards had in his head, and the people that he was selling it to. And everything just sort of clicked for him. So when he kind of said stuff like that, I was like, I get it. There’s like, there’s just money everywhere, like literally like he’s selling basses doesn’t matter. He sold baseball cards or wine. How different can they be? They’re pretty different, right? So there’s just money everywhere. And so it just got me thinking and at the time I already had a super training gym. And it wasn’t like, it wasn’t like, boom, you flip the switch. And all of a sudden I’m making a slingshot, I’m off the races. It was a much longer process and all that. 

But the book had an impact on me to the where I was just kind of looking around a lot more. And I was like there’s money there. There’s money there. There’s money there, like what can I get into or go into. And it just had me thinking all the time. And I was constantly thinking about and I still do but constantly thinking about powerlifting and I’m like, I can run seminars, I can run classes, I can coach people, I can train people, I can have a gym, I kind of merchandise and just like, just kept kicking around ideas. I could sell hats, I could sell shirts, I could sell hoodies. And I’m like, none of that’s really gonna really, really make a real change and so it took a long time to come around to the slingshot. But the point is, is that book really motivated me a lot and made me just understand like, even just if you were just to look around your house, and you would write down 10 things that you see your house, each one of those 10 Things is like an industry, your bed, your toilet, your sink, like fixtures right like your mirror, your windows,  the blinds like how weird is it you get a window so you can see outside, but then you also want to block out the sun. And somebody made something that can block out the sun. Somebody made a shade, but guess what? 

Somebody is a multimillionaire if not a billionaire off of making shit that blocks out the damn sun. So there’s literally, there’s money everywhere. And I think people just need to, they need to pay attention and they need to see it a little bit better. Next time you walk into a chain restaurant, look at the art. Just look at the arrangement of stuff when you go to Applebee’s. Or you go to something like Texas Roadhouse just look on the wall. That stuff’s not free. Somebody had to purchase that from somebody or from somewhere. So as weird as the cowboy boots with the Spurs are that are on the wall at Texas Roadhouse are somebody makes that and somebody probably specifically just makes it just for that it’s probably just some sort of accessory thing. But weird, it starts to get really weird, you start thinking about all the different ways that you can make money.

Having substance behind what you’re talking about

Misbah Haque  41:16

I think this is something Gary has also talked about in context. So like, if you don’t have context behind why you appreciate wine, right? If you take that same 12 bottles, and you present it to somebody else who just has it once a year, on occasion on holidays, it’s not going to get the same reaction, and you’re never going to be able to sell that wine because that person isn’t sellable. And they don’t have the context that the other person does.  So I’m assuming you had to do the same thing with the slingshot, right? You had to find people with who it resonated and who wanted to use it. I’m curious, did you wait for people to come? Or did you go out and get them?

Mark  42:02

The short answer is go out and get him but you always have to have substance behind whatever it is, you’re saying he’s talking about context, I’m probably talking about the same thing, basically. But you need some substance behind what you’re talking about, if I’m going to sit here and preach to you about a specific diet, then I better be also somebody who’s able to get the rewards of that diet already be in really good shape. If I’m talking to you about the best way to get shredded, it probably is not going to look so good. If I’m 350 pounds. 

Like it’s just the message is going to be lost. In like, it’s kind of cool. Like I don’t, I didn’t really take the time to get cleaned out. So you’re gonna need substance behind what you’re talking about. And Gary Vee talks a lot about how he studied wine, and how he became, I don’t like this whole thing that I’m involved in. But this is what I’m involved in, I’m gonna make the best of it. I’m going to learn as much as I possibly can about it. And so he did. And then he became somebody that had substance behind him because he can speak about all the different types of wine, even though he wasn’t, it wasn’t his favorite, wasn’t his favorite business. And so I think that you’re gonna have to have substance behind what it is that you’re doing. And I think that right now, with the different things that you do see on Instagram, sometimes I think that’s where people start to kind of get upset, and that guy doesn’t have much substance behind him or that girl. All she does every day is think of a thon picture with her hips torque backward, so she’s got her butt hanging out. And people can gain a lot of views, and they can get a lot of eyeballs on them through some of those things that are sexy and trendy to do.  

But you also don’t really have any substance and you don’t have a lot behind you. The people with a stronger stranglehold on whatever it is they’re trying to execute within a certain space are the people that have a YouTube channel. Because the people that have a YouTube channel can speak freely, or even podcasts, they can speak freely about whatever topics they want for as long as they’d like. So a lot of times you’re gonna see stuff, see stuff that’s disconnected. It’s just not connected to the person enough and you’re like, not buying that not into it, if you were to look up  go around, you can. It’s all information that’s out there, go around and look at the net worth of some of these different people that are in these different industries. 

I don’t know how accurate everything is, but at least it gives you a ballpark figure. It gives you an idea of where people are. And you can see why certain people are more towards the top. Because I think there is some authenticity to what they’re doing. Not that you have to be authentic to be a monster in business. As at all, I’ve probably plenty of people that aren’t. But I think in this day and age, where there are so much media, if you’re going to be somebody that’s attached to your business, then I think the more authentic and transparent and the more substance that you have behind you, I think the stronger that you can become for a longer period of time. 

If you’re not attached to your company, then that’s something totally different. There’s a lot of people that do things like that, where the company is a separate entity of who they are. Rogue fitness is a great example with Bill and Katie when injured, they run it, everybody knows they run it, everybody knows they own it, but they’re not the face of the company. And in my company being the exact opposite of that where Slingshot is Mark Bell, it’s intertwined with me.

Starting over with $500 and a laptop

Misbah Haque  45:47

Now, let’s say this. In today’s day and age, if everything was kind of taken away from you and you had to start all over again, and all you had was $500. And a laptop, what would you do?

Mark  46:07

500 bucks on a laptop. I would probably subscribe to as many different porn sites as I possibly run off into the, on my own with a laptop, let’s take that scenario and say that that scenario, which would be actually amazing, could be a good TV show, let’s say that scenarios a game, right? Like, you got, like 20 people that do that, all right, everyone’s gonna start, same time, we’re starting to clock and you got three weeks to do whatever you can with this 500 bucks or a month, right? 500 bucks in a laptop, that could be the name of the TV show, we’re making TV shows. So if given that scenario, I would, if the objective was to make money, then I would, I would lean towards trying to figure out the quickest way to generate some cash. And that would probably be to flip stuff on like eBay, or some other format like that. And I would probably try to generate the money quickly through that I buy stuff for five bucks, and I’d sell it for 10, and so on, I try to flip that money and increase it that way. 

If I was trying to almost like you said, start over with my company. That wasn’t a competition where we were in a time crunch or something then.  I would probably take the 500 bucks and just hold on to it. Because it doesn’t cost you anything, make sure I’m accurate. All this doesn’t cost you anything to have a YouTube channel. It doesn’t cost you anything to have, I would just use my phone for the YouTube guide, be resourceful. And then it doesn’t cost you anything to have an Instagram doesn’t cost you anything, have Twitter, and Facebook is also free. So I’d hold that 500 bucks in my pocket. And I would sell some sort of product that’s associated with me, probably through Amazon. So for example, let’s just say I didn’t even invent the slingshot, what I would do is I would take products that are associated with what I’m currently doing. And it would be things that I like and things I enjoy. And I would take those items, and I would have them for sale probably through something like Amazon. 

Even though my company deals with Amazon, I don’t know what it entails to have an Amazon account. But I’d rather I’d imagine it’s either cheap or free or something just to have the account itself probably. But that’s what I would do as I would start through that. And I would try to promote people to go to those different things. Right now I’m doing a Keto-style diet. So I would quickly pick three items right off the bat, and I’d start I’d probably have fiber, I’d probably have an MCT oil of some sort, and maybe a multivitamin or something like that, and boom, I’d be done. And I would try to sell some of those items. And in the meantime, I’d be talking about the diet as I naturally already am that way. I’m tied to the products that I’m selling. I’m authentic, I’m transparent like this is what I’m doing. If you guys want to find a quick, easy way to get a hold of these products, they’re right here on my whatever the hell it would be. Amazon page, whatever.

Embracing your fears

Misbah Haque  49:40

The business idea right there. Awesome and easy. Yeah. I also want to touch on what you posted about this on Instagram. The other day, you said that your biggest fear Growing up was public speaking. And I was in a similar boat. It wasn’t necessarily public speaking, it was just being authentic and expressing myself 100% of the time, right? So I was able to do that with certain people and then wasn’t able to do it with others. It proved to be toxic later on. But eventually, when I was able to express myself, I realized that being in the gym coaching people, connecting with people, was a way to fully express myself, and of course, then eventually that trickled into every other aspect of my life.

But I want to know, how did you go from being afraid of public speaking to now having your own podcast having a vlog, you have hundreds of 1000s, if not millions of people who are listening to you, admiring, and are entertained by you. And if I didn’t know that public speaking was a fear of yours, I would not be able to tell right now. So could you rewind a little bit and tell me about that.

Mark  50:52

I share with people all the time to embrace your fears, and to follow through with your dreams. And what I mean by that I feel it’s a little bit of a different message than to just tell people to follow their passion, because I think that following your passion can sometimes be harmful. And sometimes there’s not a realistic approach to the passion, and then there’s not many, there are not any plans behind any of it. So embracing your fears would be What are you afraid of, like, I’m going to start a podcast in five years. No, don’t start a podcast in five years, maybe you do need a little planning, it’s got to buy a microphone and stuff, I get it. Start winning in two weeks, you got to get your headphones and a couple of things in order. 

Make sure you can communicate with a few people, get a couple of the videos in the can, and all that kind of thing. But you don’t have to wait five years, right? And that’s part of embracing your fears is to jump and spread your wings as you go as you fall down. And when it comes to, when it comes to following through with your dreams, that’s putting your plans into action to reach your goals. A goal without a plan is really just a wish. It’s just a, it’s a wishful thought, this is what I’m going to do. Talk about how you’re going to do it. John F. Kennedy had some of the most monumental speeches in American history. And I think his speech about putting a man on the moon is probably the craziest, if you’ve never seen it, look it up on YouTubes. Unbelievable. But the confidence at which he talks and what he actually says during that conversation is why he has gone down as one of the most talked-about presidents of all time, whether he’s the best or whatever, I don’t want to get into all that. But he’s definitely one of the most talked-about presidents of all time, right? What he said in the interview was, we’re going to put a man on the moon. And I think he might have kind of set a date or something, I can’t remember exactly how he said it. 

But he basically during his time, they was going to put a fucking guy on the moon, right. And he said, we’re gonna, he said, in detail how he’s going to do it. So he talked about this dream and this goal. But then he also had a plan. And his plan was fucking crazy, because he’s like, we’re gonna use data that hasn’t even been invented yet. We’re gonna use steel that we don’t even know is available. Like, he was just like throwing shit out there. And you’re like, holy crap. But he’s throwing this stuff out in the universe because he knew that if he said it, it was going to happen. And he knew that all the people that work under him, and all the people at NASA, everyone’s going to get fucking fired up. And everyone’s going to make sure that that shit comes together and to make sure that stuff happens. So somebody like that who’s setting such a high goal of putting a man on the moon. 

And he’s talking about doing so with a rocket with metal that hasn’t even been, they don’t even know, like if the metal can handle the heat and the energy of what the rocket can actually do. And he’s talking about how it’s going to happen. And he’s saying, so matter of factly. He’s obviously somebody who has a plan and has some actions that are going to match up to the dreams that he has. And so for me, embracing my fears was on a much smaller level. It was simply learning, learning the skill of communication, and being able to talk to people and I’m still working on it. I’m not a great communicator. I can be at times I probably communicate with the masses better than I communicate with individuals. And I’m working on it, but uh, like, sometimes I’d rather just leave the gym rather than go up to somebody and say, Hey, man, see tomorrow but I’m learning that that’s not a great way like just ditch and everybody’s not a great way to do it. Communication is key. 

They say that when it comes to communication the worst thing about communication is thinking that it ever happened. And that’s why there’s miscommunication all the time. Be like, Dude, I told you that you’re like, no we didn’t talk about it. No, I told you. I was gonna be on the podcast today. And you’re like, No, we didn’t discuss it or whatever might happen, right. And so I think that all the things that you want to do have to match up with the things that you’re trying to do, the things that you’re trying to execute on a daily basis. For me, overcoming the fear of public speaking. Do it, get in front of the class in school, and hate it. I didn’t like school, I didn’t do well in school. I was dumb in considering in comparison to the other kids and how they got grades and how they learned and how quickly they learned versus how slowly I learned. 

But when it came to getting up and giving a speech, I got so much anxiety, I was so fearful of those situations. And looking back on it, I’m not sure. I’m not sure what I was afraid of, I can’t even really define it. But I was just scared. I was somebody that was popular. I was somebody that had a good amount of friends and stuff. And so I don’t know what the blockage was, I think maybe the fact that it was in school was a big block, just because I had a lot of great positive experiences in school because I didn’t do well in school. So it was kind of negative, more negative reinforcement rather than anything positive. 

But forcing myself over a period of time to get more comfortable with that. That is what has made me a multimillionaire’s ability to be if I didn’t have this ability to be able to communicate if I never worked my way through that. I wouldn’t be because there are other companies that make knee sleeves or other companies that make elbow sleeves and wrist wraps, right? They’re not able to execute on my level because they’re not able to communicate the way I am.

Misbah Haque  57:16

So if you were to take a look at all the mediums that you’re on, and video, written audio for podcasting, what is most aligned with you? Where do you feel most comfortable and most natural?

Mark  57:31

I missed a little chunk of your question.

Misbah Haque  57:33

So when you look at maybe podcasting, versus vlogging, versus maybe blogging, or microblogging on Instagram, so written video, and audio, what for you feels like is most aligned with you? Where do you feel most comfortable? Is there one you enjoy in particular more than the rest?

Mark  57:56

I like the challenge of making a good post on Instagram, it’s interesting to me and to watch the way that it all kind of comes together. I like YouTube because YouTube’s where it’s all where it kind of all began. For me. I love kind of where I think I have a leg up on some people too is the fact that I’ve been around for a long time. And the fact that I’ve made videos and given people stuff before I ever had a product to sell. I think it’s very important. Gary Vee kind of talks about that Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook type deal. And that’s kind of the same mentality, like you want to give, give, give, and then you can actually like, ask or receive something. So when I was talking about powerlifting, for years and years and delivering videos, I’ve had videos up on a thing called put file, which doesn’t even exist anymore. 

That was before YouTube, in 2004. And 2005. There was no message of hey, you can go here and buy this. And all the way through all the way until 2010. So nearly a decade of giving people information for a good eight years or so. There we go. You back. I remember your last question. You talked about the different types of media and which one I liked the best and stuff you want me to kind of just start over.

Misbah Haque  59:15

Now you can continue from where you’re putting out content for eight years or so. I’ll just bridge it in later.

Mark  59:21

I put out a bunch of content for a long time before I ever sold anything to anybody. And then once I had products to sell and excited to learn more about like, what it was, I had to say and how I was utilizing these wrist wraps and knee sleeves and knee wraps and slingshots and stuff to continue to lift and continue to stay healthy.

You don’t need money to make an impact

Misbah Haque  59:42

I got two quick rapid fires for you. Number one is let’s just say that you’re a billionaire, right? You have a couple of billion dollars. You have a staff of 40 people, right and these 40 people can be whoever you want them to be. They can be the top performers in whatever it is that you are recruiting them for, and you want to use that to make some type of change or some type of impact? What would you do with it?

Mark  1:00:12

I’m definitely not there yet. So I don’t know, I’m trying to have, I don’t think you need money to make an impact. So I guess that’s in my head, that’s kind of the block. I’ve learned that giving people money doesn’t really do what you think it would do. And actually does quite the reverse. When you give people money, and you are when you display a lot of gratitude, and you give people money, a lot of times all they want is more money. And so it doesn’t do doesn’t have the impact that you think. I think what money can allow you to do is it can give you some convenience. And so I think, with more money, I think it may possibly free up some of your time, since you’ve since people are kind of trading time for money, mostly, they’re putting an X amount of work to make X amount of dollars. 

So I think if you have an abundance of wealth, and you maybe don’t have to, you don’t have to work as much. And what that can do is I can free up your time, they go into some better things, in terms of like causes and stuff like I’m not, I’m not a humanitarian that is not waters that I have threaded into yet. But when it comes to charity, and it comes to that kind of thing, that’s definitely all a bunch of stuff that I want to learn more about. And I like to get more and more into it. I don’t think it makes any sense to hoard your money to just make millions and millions of dollars, billions of dollars and, and to not share it with people. So for example, some things that I’m doing come up, kind of they’re kind of personal, but I’ll share them anyway. Because I think it’s just worth noting, like, I’m trying to talk about a legacy and I don’t my quote-unquote, the legacy will be determined by people like you, and by fans, like I don’t have a lot of control over that exactly. I have control over my own actions and what I can do on a daily basis. 

And if I just keep kicking ass, and people will keep telling me that I’m a legend, right. But to leave behind a legacy, what I want to do is I want to have such an impact, I want what I’m doing to have such an impact that it’s felt by generations and generations. And so again, it starts with my own household, a way to positively impact the world. And the way to make changes in the world is to love your family. And so what I’m doing is I’m starting with my own household, and, and just outside of that with immediate family, any kids in my family, every single year that they have a birthday, I’m going to give them 1000 bucks. And then when a kid reaches 10 years old, I’m going to give them 10,000 bucks. And that’s not to it’s not to throw money around and to say, what I want to do and when trying to do is leave something behind those that money that I’m giving them, they’re not going to be able to do anything with it for 10 years, it’s going to be a bond of some sort, they won’t be able to touch it for 10 years. And so when they’re 20, that money will be sitting there and it will have accumulated from however many dollars they got, right. 

So that’s the kind of stuff that’s where my mind is at right now. That’s wrong thing is I’m thinking about the protection of my own family, and how to continue to build them. And I would love for them 20 years, or 20 years from now, 80 years from now, 100 years from now to say grandpa smelly was a badass, he had these houses. He had this sick gym and he had this and that. But it’s not like just what I had, it’s what I have left behind and what I have shared. And so those are the things I think about. Those are things that make it more important to trademark stuff to get a patent on stuff, because that’s ownership of different things. And like I bought my parents the house next door they live, they live right next door to me. And I bought this house and like I’ll have stuff to leave behind when I’m gone like when I’m gone. There’ll be nothing left. I won’t be here anymore. But I’ll have shit that to leave behind that hopefully will last decades and decades.

Misbah Haque  1:04:49

That’s profound, man. That’s a great answer. I definitely. Typically the answer you’ll get is people kind of just enhancing what however it is that they are already doing, which there’s nothing wrong with. But the idea behind that question for me is like, money is not an issue. Energy is not an issue because you’ve got all these people. So it’s like, alright, what would you do with that? But yeah, that’s a great answer, man.

Mark  1:05:16

Money is never a thing for me. And it never has been like, even without it. Even with the absence of funds. I’ve looked at my ATM plenty of times, and it said insufficient funds are overdrawn. And that’s never impacted me or who I am. Of course, it doesn’t make you feel good. But there have been many times where I’ve stretched my money. beyond its means, there have been many times where I’ve covered stuff at restaurants for other people. When I didn’t know if I, my card was going to get turned down. And I bet a lot of the places that many of you guys maybe the listeners of this podcast have probably been in before. But I’ve, I’ve always been the same. So like the money. It allows a lot of conveniences. 

Now, when I go out with my friends, and when I’m getting lunch, and we’re at work and stuff, it’s just kind of like I just tell people Look, man, I got it every single time. It’s not it’s, and it’s not again, it’s not to throw the money around at people, what it’s for, is just to make people more comfortable. Like I, this $180 bill doesn’t mean anything to me. Also, it never has meant anything to me with or without money, it’s never made a difference to me. So I have the money now and the added convenience just allows me to pay for it. I’ll get it every single time. And then there’s times when people want to pay for stuff. And I’ve learned that you have to let people do that, it doesn’t, because they feel disrespected, they don’t feel good. When you pay for it every single time. So occasionally, as you kind of climb that ladder, hopefully many of you will get there, you’re gonna have to let people kind of sounds funny, but you’re gonna end up fighting over the bill with some people, but the people that want to do it, and they want to do it out of the kindness of their heart, just take it.

Misbah Haque  1:07:02

That’s amazing, man. Is there something you feel like you don’t get asked enough about something you wish people would ask you more.

Mark  1:07:12

I get asked all kinds of stuff I get asked quite a bit about like business stuff. And the business stuff is an interesting one. Because in my opinion, business is more general than it is specific. And the things that you would practice on a daily basis are things that end up being great business decisions anyway. Just being courteous, being transparent. Not being an asshole, communication, right? If you and I are going to do business together. And, and I and we, you and I have a conversation and I tell you to flat out exactly what my expectations are 100% and you communicate with me on what it is that you’re looking for to get out of as well. Well, then we can kind of move forward and start moving in on a project. But that doesn’t really have much to do with business details or going to business school. That’s just what you want? And what do I want? I guess it’s pretty simple. 

I do get asked a lot of business, I think people think there are tricks, I think they think there are tricks and there’s not really, I guess the same with the weight room. The same with the gym, I think people think there are tricks and there are no tricks, goes back to what I said in the beginning, you want to be a monster in business, then you’re going to have to be good for a really long time. Some people it happens faster than others. But you’re gonna have to, even if you’re good at something else, and it’s unrelated to what you’re doing, it’s still related to what you’re doing. Because you’re still going to be able to put yourself in a good position to be able to execute on whatever that is you sometimes hear these guys are 25 or 28 years old, and they sell a company for $280 million. 

It’s some app or whatever. You’re like, holy shit, that’s crazy. Even those people, even if they don’t have a long career, were doing something right for a long time that allowed them to get in that position and allow them to do what they want to do. So I think communicating with people is crucial. Letting people know where you stand and just always being upfront about what it is that you want to get out of it and what they should be getting out of it and expectations.

Developing multiple habits with small steps

Misbah Haque  1:09:33

And I want to circle back to the first thing that we were talking about. And you mentioned that having that laser focus, right, but you also mentioned that you do a couple things every day to try to be good consistently for a long period of time. So what came to mind for me was, okay, somebody who wants success in athletics, right? You could put the blindfolds on and Whatever, you could block out everything else, and you can become really successful in athletics. And that may come at a cost, right? Whether it’s short term or long term, there are certain things that you may have to sacrifice, maybe it’s time with friends and family, or whatever that might be. 

But you also seem to have, you’ve had success in athletics, you’ve had success in business, you’ve had success, mentally, spiritually, psychologically, however, you want to kind of frame that. But in all those areas, would you say that it’s possible if you go small enough to be good in all of those areas? If, because here’s what’s coming to mind for me. So BJ Fogg is a behavioral psychologist, right? And he talks about how people talk about building habits, he said that you can build 10 Habits all at once, if you want to, they just have to be very, very small. So he said, for something like flossing. He’s like, I floss one tooth per day. And it sounds ridiculous. But he’s like, I know that one tooth per day is so simple that while I’m doing it, I might just do the rest of my teeth, or it gives me an excuse. It doesn’t give me an excuse to not do it. Like if I don’t floss one tooth, then I’ve lost credibility with myself, like, what the hell it’s one tooth, right? So if you were to go that small, do you feel you can have success in other areas? Or do you have, like, certain things that you do on a daily basis in different areas of your life? It’s a loaded question I know.

Mark  1:11:38

So I think, circling back to what I said in the beginning, about getting rid of soda, drinking more water, and getting more rest, you can simplify anything. Don’t let anything overwhelm you. And don’t let anyone ever tell you that you can’t do something. Those people that tell you that you can’t do something have not figured out a ship for themselves yet. And that’s why they’re telling you that that’s why they’re sharing that with you. Because they may have tried something that fell flat on their face, it doesn’t mean that you can’t figure it out. It doesn’t mean you can’t do multiple things at once. at a similar time. I don’t believe in multitasking, I think it’s ineffective. I think if you’re trying to do two or three things at once, that something is going to really suffer. 

I also don’t believe in balance, I don’t think that you can truly be balanced. I think if you want to be great at something there’s going to be a loss, there’s going to always be a risk to reward ratio, there’s going to be things that you may miss out on, there’s going to be some missteps, they’re going to be some really bad decisions that you make. And it’s going to be because you’re trying to do too many things at one time. If you take small steps, though, you can have quite a bit of shit going on at one time. I think a lot of people think they don’t have time for stuff. And it’s an easy excuse to say, but I think if you like for myself to make myself better out of this, I watch a lot of YouTube videos. How hard is that? Who doesn’t have access to YouTube, a large percentage of the world has access to YouTube. And we live in the United States here, or at least right currently, we’re not worried too much about our foods, food supply, our water supply, and all these different things. We live in a great country where we have a lot of freedoms, and we have a lot of opportunities. 

So I take advantage of a lot of those opportunities. And I spend an hour or two every day, just trying to watch something that I can get something from again, going back to what I’ve said earlier, the only thing you can truly share is information. Well, that’s the only thing that you can truly receive as well. And so I receive it all day long. I suck it in and try to obtain as much information as I can about as many different things as possible. And it inspires me, it motivates me. I can watch somebody on TED Talks, talk about depression. I don’t have depression, but I want to learn more about it. What if I run into somebody who is depressed? Or what if I just want to just learn more about it because I know that there’s gonna be something in there that maybe we’re. 

I have a bad day that I might be able to spin it onto myself, and I might be able to feel better, I might be able to help somebody else out. So I do a lot of stuff like that. I call it going to school, I go to school every day for an hour or two and just zone out, hang out by myself and watch some different things. Flossing, one tooth is a little crazy. But I understand the principle of it. If you take the same approach to a diet, and you just say, what I hate dieting, it’s noticed. It’s not for me. I love cheeseburgers and french fries and stuff and milkshakes are okay, that’s cool, but like could. Do you eat well for one day? No. Could you work on eating, eating good, once a week, I’m sure that anyone can get that done. So you start carving it out, you start chipping away, you chip away, and you chip away and you chip away. And as you’re chipping away, chipping away this debris, you’re also taking that debris and building something. 

So you are doing things simultaneously because you’re trying to obtain several goals at one time. Because when you are trying to create a new habit, you’re trying to create that new habit, so that you can reach a lot of your goals, the goals and the habits are going to shift back and forth. And they have to represent each other really well. There has to be synergy and unity between the two of them. Otherwise, you’re never going to be able to get to where you want to be. I think you can handle a lot more human body, the human mind, and hand a lot more than we give it credit for. There is enough time in the day where you can get shit done. And you can do it by yourself. You don’t have to rely on waiting around for other people to get things done. But I do a lot of the stuff that you just mentioned, I do it all the time. I talk quite a bit in seminars and different situations on different podcasts. 

I’d like to be on more podcasts. By the way, anybody listens, this podcast, hit me up. I love being on podcasts, I love communicating this way. But I think it’s really important that people just embrace, they embrace the style of taking small steps, and having big dreams, you need to have those big dreams. So you can have some big goals and you have some things that may or may not even be achievable. They’re a little bit off the realm of possibility, maybe a little bit. But at the same time, you’re gonna continue to make those small steps toward those goals each and every day.

It’s not hard

Misbah Haque  1:16:55

That’s perfect. So the last question is what would you like a coach or athlete to take away from this podcast? How can they kind of make themselves better today by listening to this?

Mark  1:17:07

Show boys away each and every day chip away? It’s not hard. The main thing I’d like people to understand and to get from this podcast is to understand that it’s not hard. Um, I used to have people that would tell me, it’s not that easy. Like, it’s, it doesn’t work that way. It’s not that easy. And then I found out the truth. And the truth is, it is that easy. Change can be really painful. But what’s involved in staying the same hurts worse. So you have to continually work on getting better, you have to continually work on change. If you mistreat somebody, if you cheat on somebody, if you are doing things that go against your own moral fibers, you can change those things. And you can create new habits. If you are eating bad all the time, and you’re feeling bad about it and you’re feeling guilty about it or you’re being an idiot, you’re being mean to other people or whatever it may be, you can change and fix a lot of these things. 

And you should be very straightforward with people, all they need to have is they need to have their expectations managed. The way I acted the other day was to add a line. I apologize. I’m sorry, he looked a person in the eye and just told him how you feel and said it won’t happen again. I’ve just been under a lot of stress. And I didn’t mean to act like a dick. And then things are washed under the bridge, right? Things are easy when it comes to relationships when it comes to business when it comes to things that people want to try to make complex and hard. It’s not that hard. You have enough time to do it. Put the time in, get the work done. And don’t be a bitch. 

Misbah Haque  1:19:00

Get out of your own way.

Mark  1:19:02

That’s right.

Misbah Haque  1:19:04

How can we support you? Where can we point people to? Where can people learn more about your journey?

Mark  1:19:09

Go to howmuchyoubench.net you can get a slingshot, you can get a hat, strong hat boom. You can get all kinds of different gear, all kinds of different apparel, howmuchyoubench.net. It’s all stuff to support your workouts. It’s all stuff to make your workouts more comfortable, make your workouts easier. We have the best powerlifting belts in the world. The belts are already broken in. And you don’t have to spend three or four years wearing them. In addition to that, you can find me at Mark smelly bell on Instagram and Twitter. Every morning I’m doing something called marks minute where we’re doing some giveaways. 

So make sure you tune into that throw on your notifications and make sure you’re ready. Because we’re giving away prizes. Sometimes we’re giving away issues of power magazines and other times we’re giving away bigger prizes like today. We gave away a slingshot and, and a pair of wrist wraps autographed by myself. So we’re doing fun and unique things there all the time. I’m also sharing with you the Keto diet that I’ve been doing, and just sharing information and sharing the fun. Also, you can check me out on YouTube youtube.com backslash Super Training. Oh, six. I have more videos in the fitness industry than anybody else in the industry. Over 2000 videos at this point, make sure you check some of that shit out.

Misbah Haque  1:20:30

Thank you so much for doing this. I really appreciate it was a blast chatting with you.

Mark  1:20:34

Iit was a lot of fun man. Have a great day.

Misbah Haque  1:20:37

Thank you so much for listening, guys. I know you’re probably driving right now, you’re probably eating, cooking, working out, you’re doing something else. But make sure you head over to airbornemind.com, check out some of the free coaching videos, warmups guides, checklists, all the things that you can use to make the best use out of your training time. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review on iTunes and let me know we think I love hearing from you guys. And it would really help me out so I can continue creating awesome stuff for you. And remember, the greatest compliment you can give is by sharing it with somebody else who might enjoy it or somewhere on the web. So once again, thank you so much for being a listener and supporting the show. Until next time