Pete Holman is a man of many talents. With 5 inventions under his belt, and one more on the way, Holman’s entrepreneurial skills have served him for decades. As a founder, creator, coach, and now author, Holman has proven to be a successful pathmaker in the world of athleticism and invention. Selected as 2022 IDEA Fitness Leader of the Year, Holman’s career, life path, and passions are all explored on the newest episode of The Circuit of Success with Brett Gilliland.
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
Brett Gilliland 00:01
Welcome to the Circuit of Success. I am your host, Brett Gilliland and today I’ve got Pete Holman with me, Pete, what’s up, man? How you doing?
Pete Holman 00:08
Fantastic.
Brett Gilliland 00:09
Love it. We’re gonna have some good conversations today. Man, you’re coming to us from Aspen, Colorado. How is Aspen treating you today?
Pete Holman 00:17
It is one of those days. So it’s 74 degrees 10% humidity, like clouds. I just had lunch with a buddy that I hadn’t seen in a long time. We’re at the park and there’s ducks floating on the pond. I mean, it just, it’s magical up here. I’m kind of high right now. So you got me at a good time, buddy.
Brett Gilliland 00:36
That’s awesome. I love it. Kind of high right now. And in Colorado, that may mean different things to different people.
Pete Holman 00:43
I well, I’m high on life.
Brett Gilliland 00:47
That’s funny. Well, man, you are a I wrote down here entrepreneur, a founder, a creator, a coach and educator, an author now, man, you got a lot of good stuff going on. And we were connected by a little deal that you just created called Golf Forever. And I think before we started talking, I was telling you that I get this accountability group. And one of my goals with it is to golf well into my 90s. And golf on my 100th birthday. When you type in Golf Forever on Google, this thing shows up and then you guys do a great job and the ads show up on Instagram. And then I ended up buying it right. And so now we’re on a podcast together because I’m a believer.
Pete Holman 01:25
Hey, so my funnels are working is what you’re saying?
Brett Gilliland 01:28
That’s exactly what I’m saying, Man, because you literally I typed in golf forever like workouts thinking I would find like, Hey, do these 10 things. And then I didn’t know there was a product. And then once you click on it, and then your funnels work, and that’s something about business and sales that we could obviously talk about as well.
Pete Holman 01:43
Fantastic. Well, so the founder of the company is Dr. Jeremy James. He’s a chiropractor up in Aspen. And he worked with golfers for years. And he just kept finding out that they were broken down their back their low backs, their shoulders, their hips weren’t mobile, the thoracic spine wasn’t mobile. And he it almost pissed them off to the point he said, I’m creating a program for this. And he ended up getting some funding. And it came became known as back back forever, meaning healthy backs. But then he realized that golfers are in specific need of this. And they you know, they tend to have a higher disposable income than just your average folks. And so they’re going to be more apt to, and they love playing golf. So I came along and he said, “Can you provide some content because I’m a strength coach and physical therapist,” I started creating content, I created a product called the TRX Rip Trainer, which is an asymmetrical bar training device. It’s great for all sports. And TRX, you know, they did some good things with it. They also did not iterate it over a decade. And that upset me because products need to evolve and right. Dr. Dr. James said, “hey, could we get an affiliate membership with TRX for the RIP trainer because it’s great for golf.” And I said “we should make our own and do it better.” And I was joking. I was completely being facetious. And he just glommed on to that. And the next thing you know a year later, we’ve got the Golf Forever Swing Trainer. It’s the world’s first two in one training device for for overspeed training, there’s a weighted ball on one end that you can load up and almost like a donut on the end of the bat. If you’ve ever swung a baseball bat in the batter’s cage and you get that kind of that heavy load and you take the donut off and then when you go to swing, you move like you know, Barry Bonds or somebody. And then if you take the ball off, there’s an elastic resistance cord on one end, that creates a symmetrical load and balance challenges and activates your core and helps you with rotational power. So that’s the Golf Forever Swing Trainer and it’s got an app that takes you through all the workouts and you find folks like myself, top top notch strength coaches from around the world and top notch golf pros from around the world like Scottie Scheffler and Justin Leonard. And I’m really excited. We just got a review. We’ve got over 1000 reviews, we got to 4.9 stars out of five, which is kind of unheard of.
Brett Gilliland 04:11
Right. It’s incredible man because it’s certainly I wanted to get on here to learn about your story and all that stuff. And but I definitely want to talk about golf forever because just this week, I think before we started recording, I told you I’ve seen videos posted by Max Homa. He just won the tournament. And like the next day was using it and put it on social media. Scotty Scheffler got it on social media. There’s a picture of Jordan Spaeth carrying it in his hand while he’s going to the golf tournament and he’s shown his baby off to like Trevor immelman and some people and so you got it in the right hands, man. And so then you just say me and my buddies back here and you know in O’Fallon, Illinois are using I mean, what else do you need?
Pete Holman 04:48
It’s fantastic and you know, really what it’s designed it’s great that the pros are using it don’t get me wrong and that’s a real you know, ego biscuit, but the fact that just kind of your your weekend warriors in your everyday Joe’s, I’m not calling you an everyday Joe. But but you know, I’m saying like not professional golfers. Those are the folks that that they haven’t stretched out for three, four weeks, they haven’t done core exercises, and then they’re gonna go to the driving range and crack balls with their driver. And the next thing you know, their back goes out and they’re at the chiropractor for the next five weeks. So we’re trying to break this cycle, we’re trying to get people involved in their own health and wellness and vitality, not just so they can feel good about themselves and feel better in their own skin. But so they can golf forever.
Brett Gilliland 05:34
Yeah. And obviously, you can take a spin on that and call it just live better forever, right? I mean, this thing is going to like I was telling my kids or soccer players, I mean, like, even though you’re not, you know, swinging a golf club, you are swinging with your hips and your legs and all that stuff. And just if you want to be more flexible in life later, which is I know a lot of people listen to this show, they obviously care about their health, they care about their business, their family, all that stuff. And so this is important for them to know that it’s out there.
Pete Holman 05:59
100% our, you know, the last couple of years has proven categorically that if you don’t take care of your health, and if you don’t watch your your, your fitness levels, and your dietary intake and, and your mobility, just all the stuff that we need to do to be strong and face everyday challenges, you’re going to be in trouble. And, you know, we saw that, you know, the statistics don’t lie. I think it was like 80 some percent of folks that died of COVID were obese, were diabetic, had congestive heart failure, had some kind of multi faceted dysfunction, pathology that led to and I know there was some, you know, there’s outliers that just were totally healthy and had a rough time with COVID. But, you know, man, you got to prepare yourself.
Brett Gilliland 06:49
Yeah, absolutely. So let’s, let’s kind of go back to the beginning then and talk about what made you this entrepreneur and founder and creator and coach and because you don’t just wake up and start creating new products that are taking the world by storm. So what is it about you kind of your backstory that’s gotten you to do this type of stuff?
Pete Holman 07:06
Well, I mean, I got in the fitness industry, I was always very athletic. I mean, I wanted to be professional athlete. I just didn’t know what sports so I, you know, I was really good at soccer, and I played competitive soccer. And then I kind of had a weird growth spurt, and I was uncoordinated. And I played baseball, and I played football and basketball and lacrosse. I was out in Denver playing lacrosse, and I grew up skiing. I thought I was gonna be a professional ski racer. And long story short, it wasn’t until I was like 19 or 20 that I really developed. I was very late developing in high school. I graduated when I was 17. And so just my high school sporting career wasn’t that great. And then I fell in love with martial arts and I, I started training in Taekwondo. I was at health club, I was working maintenance at a health club. And they had a taekwondo class. And I was it was like a Chinese kung fu movie. I’m like mopping the the racquetball court across from weather training in the tech window. And one day, the coach finally just literally walked across the hall and said, “Why don’t you put the mop down and come train with us?” And that was the start of my taekwondo career. And five years later, I was on the US national team, I was the team captain, I was traveling all all over the world competing at a very high level in Taekwondo. And, and that led into my career, which I always wanted to be the fastest, most powerful, the most well conditioned athlete on the mats. And so I started training in personal training, I started wanting to understand the human body and exercise physiology and anatomy and kinesiology. And so I got a personal training certification. Then I was constantly injured, which led me into physical therapy, wanting to learn how to rehabilitate myself. And so I got my master’s degree in physical therapy. And I started to realize that if there’s a problem in your life, if you search hard enough, and you’re inquisitive and creative, there’s a solution. And so I got this chronic product bug in and when I was working in my first physical therapy clinic, and we had all these medicine balls and BOSU balls and elastic resistance cords that were strewn all over the room, and a segment there’s gotta be a rack or something that contains all this stuff. So it can be organized so you can find it efficiently and effectively. And I searched on Google, there’s nothing around. And so I said, I’m gonna make my own and I literally went down to a fabricator in Carbondale, which is a kind of a suburb of Aspen. And I had something machined up, and I brought it into the clinic and people were blown away, they’re like, oh, my gosh, I can find my Bosu ball, I can find the medicine balls and it was organized and, and so then I thought I would be an entrepreneur which I you know, I’ve got no business background at all. And I launched this thing in 2009, which was the worst possible time, you know, for folks that are old enough. You guys remember 2008-2009 economy collapsed real estate, you know, junk loans and everything collapsed steel prices went up, gas prices went up. And my product was so expensive to create that I kind of walked away with my tail between my legs. However, I got experience and I got knowledge about products. And I haven’t stopped since I’m now on my sixth product. I’ve done a loaded carry machine for grip Pippins core strength, I’ve done a hip thrust to plate loaded hip thrust machine called the Novice Glute Drive, which is for posterior chain glute strength. I’ve done a TRX rip trainer now the Golf Forever swing trainer for golf training. And, and I’m working on one that’s very exciting for in home and commercial glute training. The glutes are the powerhouse of the core if you haven’t gotten that theme. Yeah, got to train your glutes.
Brett Gilliland 10:52
We’ll have to get on that. So what let’s talk about that for a second by training your glutes, but just go for on anything anybody apart, but even just habits rituals, take the 40 something year old, rather the 35 year old, a 55 year old whatever it may be, let’s just pick on the 40 year olds, just because I’m 44 years old. So that’s what we’re gonna do. But what what is it that the weekend warrior, the average Joe that use your language from earlier? What is the things that we need to be doing that, you know, they don’t have the luxury, or the habit builds or the desire to go to a gym for you know, an hour to an hour and a half every single day five to seven days a week. But you know, they’re doing something three or four days a week? What should we be focused on as business leaders of our leaders of our family and leaders of our business? So we can be in peak performance? Or peak health?
Pete Holman 11:39
Yeah, I mean, first of all, if you’re not doing something to keep your physical vessel charged up, you’re missing the boat. Even the great you know, Tony Robbins, who’s kind of the CEO whisperer and an incredible if you’ve never, you know, some people think of Tony Robbins as this kind of, you know, flamboyant salesman and motivational speaker. And I know that he’s got a history. But if you look at his story and what he’s done and what he’s accomplished, he’s quite a remarkable guy. And what he does, before he even lectures and goes out to present, he gets on a committee tram that does lymphatic drainage and bounces up and down and he does push ups and sit ups. And he gets his body charged up. He’s a black belt in karate, I believe. So high end business leaders need to focus on number one their own physical health, if you don’t have the vitality and the energy of bring it every single day. How are you going to? How are you going to lead a team? How are you going to make seven figures? How are you going to expand and evolve and grow your business into something better if you don’t have that energy and that vitality, and that comes from daily physical exercise. I don’t care if you take a walk every day for half an hour, get out in nature, just get your heart rate up a little bit. Ideally, you’re doing something that’s geared towards Holistic Health, meaning Hey, you’re eating healthy, nutritious meals, you’re getting in some flexibility, mobility work, if you’re a golfer, I don’t need to tell you how important it is to have flexibility and mobility in the hips in the thoracic spine, you need to do some kind of core strengthening exercise, as I think 85% of people that are in their 40s have had one episode of serious low back pain that has caused them to go to the doctor, orthopedic doctor, chiropractor or physical therapist. So you got to do something for your core strength. You got to do something for your heart and lungs. Your vascular system is everything that delivers blood and oxygen to your muscles into your organs into your brain. So you got to do something that raises your heart rate. So whether it’s a bike or a rower, or a skier gunner, or maybe just calisthenics. And then finally, you want your you know, your lower and upper body to be strong. You don’t want low bone mineral density, you don’t want osteopenia or osteoporosis, which I’m dealing with a lot of seventy year olds and Aspen now that are they’re getting reports. They’re very much into their health when you got disposable income, and you got time on your hands all of a sudden, what do you focus on? Health. And the problem is they’re going to these, the Mayo Clinic or Santa Monica wherever they go to get these workups total body workups and they’re finding that they’re osteopenic or osteoporotic. Well, it’s some it’s not I’m not saying it’s too late, but you don’t want to be seven years years old and be told that you’re osteoporotic, you want to be 40 and start doing some strength training. When you do resistance training, it strengthens your bones and your connective tissue. So it sounds like a lot but really, it’s not that much, you know, 20-30 minutes a day, four or five times a week you’re gonna be in great shape. If you want to take it to the next level if you really want to be competitive on the golf course. Or if you want to play tennis at a high level if you want to ski the Alps or whatever it is you want to do. You might need to up your game and add some agility drills in there some balanced training as you age. So, I mean I look at, I train everybody like they’re an athlete. And Bilbao Roman said this best if you have a body you are an athlete, meaning everybody’s an athlete. So you need to train some mobility, some strength, some cardio respiratory system response, you need to have some balance and you need to have some overall conditioning. And again, it sounds like a lot but if you don’t take care of your body, where are you going to live?
Brett Gilliland 15:30
Yeah, so let’s break this down if we can, I think it’d be fun to do for people’s I’m a big fan of just the meat and potatoes right? There’s somebody can walk away from this this episode of The Circuit of Success and have a plan right? I mean, how cool would that be if Pete Holman and Brett Gilliland can give that person listening a plan? So let’s do this in a perfect week? It’s Monday. Okay, we’re gonna walk through Monday. So what are we doing Monday? What am I doing?
Pete Holman 15:54
I, now let’s assume that folks don’t have a lot of gear and a lot of equipment.
Brett Gilliland 15:59
Okay, perfect.
Pete Holman 16:00
Okay. Because I don’t know what folks have. I would love to see somebody do a five to 10 minute warm up of any kind of it could be jumping jacks, it could be a brisk walk around your block. It could be anything to get your heart rate, you know, jogging in place, anything to get your heart rate up that primes the central nervous system, it gets your body ready for more aggressive exercise. So there’s a warm up. The next thing I’d like to see, as people do a couple basic stretches, if you don’t know what the world’s greatest stretches, Google it is a stretch will come up which will stretch your hips, it will stretch your upper body, it will stretch your thoracic spine. It’s called “the world’s greatest stretch.” So you just in one stretch, well actually Can I can I add two? Let me give you one.
Brett Gilliland 16:04
This is our plan man.
Pete Holman 16:25
Okay you got the world’s greatest stretch, and you got the downward dog. That’s a yoga pose that everybody that’s done yoga has done the downward dog, especially for men, we tend to get very tight and what’s called the posterior chain, the calf’s the ankles, the hamstrings, and this downward dog addresses that and it starts to build some core strength. Alright, so we got to warm up, we got some core strength. Now, or I’m sorry, we got some flexibility. Now I would like to add a core strengthening exercise. And I would like to see some type of a side plank, maybe 30 seconds on each side, and some type of a front plank, maybe a minute, that’s going to help help activate your core, it’s going to strengthen your spine. Okay, so now we’re warmed up, we’re flexible, we’re mobile, we got the core activated. Now we got to do some exercise and work the body. I love three basic moves, a push a pole, and some kind of change in elevation. So we’ll start with the easy one the change in elevation, you can do a squat 20 squats. Simple, right, maybe you want to add a little balance challenge, you split your stance and do lunges, you know the left legs forward, the right legs back, you go up and down 10 times you switch sides 10 times, if you want to get stronger and build more condition you do you add multiple sets to this kind of given the basic basic basic, do some kind of squat or lunge in your workout, you should also do some kind of pushing exercise in your workout. So maybe it’s a push up or a modified push up. You know, if you’re not strong enough to do a full push up, you could go on your knees. If you’re still not strong enough, you could get up on a countertop. And so you’re kind of just at a slight angle, right, and you’re doing a pushup off your off your kitchen countertop, or off of a chair so it’s easier. So you’re strengthening the chest, the shoulders and the triceps. Those are important muscles, then you should do some kind of a pull. Now pulling is a little bit harder, because typically you need an elastic resistance cord, or a TRX Suspension Trainer strap or a pull up bar. Now most people aren’t strong enough to do pull ups, but there should be some kind of a pulling motion. One thing you could also do would be if you have dumbbells is a one arm dumbbell row, which is where you get horizontal and you’re dropping the weight towards the floor and then driving your elbow up towards the ceiling. So now and you know if you want to finish off with some kind of a balanced drill, which I think balance is very important in life, not just philosophically, but for our physiology. You stand on one leg and you lift the other knee up to 90 degrees, and you try to balance for 30 seconds to a minute. It’s a great exercise. I use it with all my clients.
Brett Gilliland 19:36
Yeah, I was gonna add to that we’ve been doing that and that Tuesday, Thursday, I’ve been having a group of guys over from an accountability standpoint, and it’s so simple but yet we’ve been doing that and then you stand there and then shut your eyes. Oh, we laugh man every morning. It’s like It’s like something just pushes you over. And so I think what I’ve read I don’t know if this is true or not. I’m not a doctor. But I mean that’s going to help the cognitive side too. Right? If I’m having to focus on multiple things standing there my oh arms out one leg up, my eyes are shut trying to keep my balance. It’s extremely difficult.
Pete Holman 20:05
Yeah, well, actually, so there’s three components to balance. One is your visual system. And that’s why if you ever watch a high level athlete and you look at their eyes, I mean, they’re locked in on on targets on a boxer, their eyes are wide open, they’re trying to respond and in milliseconds, so your eyes are very important to balance, your proprioception, which are sensory cells in your, in your muscles and in your joints. And you know, those get deteriorated with age and injury. And those are important. And then finally, your tympanic membrane, which is part of your inner ear. So if you have you’ve ever heard of vertigo, or suffered from vertigo, it’s a terrible in your ear dysfunction, where you feel almost like you’re really drunk and you can’t, the room won’t stop spinning. So when whenever you challenge different parts of those systems, you help improve your overall balance by closing your eyes. Now you’re honing in on the appropriate sectors and your inner ear. So that’s a great practice to do that. And then obviously, yeah, you cognitively up to kind of go take a deep breath and up your game because otherwise, you know, if you enter that drill nonchalantly, you’re gonna fail.
Brett Gilliland 21:13
Yeah, yeah. That’s awesome. All right. So we got our Monday done. Now, what are we doing Tuesday?
Pete Holman 21:20
Well, to be honest, so there’s variations of all these drills. So for instance, maybe Monday, you did squats, maybe on to Tuesday or Wednesday, let’s call it you want to do the split squat or the lunge. Maybe you did a push up with your bodyweight on Monday, maybe on Wednesday, let’s call it you want to do some dumbbell presses. You know, a lot of folks have free weight, dumbbells press. You know, maybe you did a normal plank on Monday, maybe on Tuesday, you want to do what’s called a shoulder tap plank, where you’re in a push up position, and one hand reaches across and taps the opposite shoulder, you pause for two or three seconds. So you’re on like a tripod, right two legs didn’t want to, and then you put the opposite arm down in touch with the opposite shoulder. And so now you’re you’re entering into some some rotational stresses in that plank position. So just varying these drills, but we only really have six or seven foundational movements, we can push, we can pull, we can squat, we can lunge, we can rotate, we can hinge which is if you’ve ever seen a deadlift, or let’s say you had a really heavy box, and you’re trying to lower it to the ground, you don’t want to round your back, right? You want to kind of hinge from your hips, like like the Australian drinking bird, you know if you’ve ever seen, yeah, everybody gets that reference. I love it. So, so you know, you want to do those basic movements in your workouts. And you can use free weights, you can use elastic resistance, you can use, you know, pneumatic resistance, there’s tons of different you can use stability balls, you can use yoga, Pilates reformers, you know, yoga machines, but it’s some point you’re doing all those basic moves.
Brett Gilliland 23:05
Yeah. So basically, what I’m hearing is a Monday through Friday plan is the five to 10 minute warm up, stretch, which if you just did two, it’s the world’s greatest stretch and the downward dog planks on each side, and then a normal one, variances there. And then the push, pull, and then change in elevation. I did that every day, right? 20, 30, 40 minutes a day, I’m in peak performance.
Pete Holman 23:27
Yeah. And basically, the way you want to look at it is if you did a mild workout, you could do it every day, if you really went gung ho to the point, let’s say, instead of doing one set of 20 squats, you did four or five sets of 20 squats, and the next day, you’re gonna be sore, and you’re gonna be fatigued. And you might be a little cranky, your body might be a little cranky, you might say, You know what, today, I’m going to take a late swim, or I’m going to do just a brisk walk, or I’m going to ride on the bike and just spin because your bodies do need recovery. And, you know, I don’t want to get too deep into the philosophy of strength and conditioning. But there’s an ebb and flow. And if you’re not letting your body recover after vigorous exercise bouts, you’re actually doing yourself more harm than good.
Brett Gilliland 24:12
Yeah.
Pete Holman 24:12
You see that sometimes people some of these ultra endurance athletes, they you know, they’re running 20 miles every other day. I mean, you can’t recover from that. And so I’m not saying that’s not healthy, but it’s not something I’d recommend to my clients, you want that recovery time. And by the way, recovery can be active, it could be a light swim, it could be a walk, it could be you know, rolling on the foam roller, or using a Thera gun, you know, a percussive massage tool, getting a massage or getting a stretch. You know, there’s the stretch zones and stretch labs now, where you can go in and somebody will actually manually stretch you it’s, it’s magic, I mean, for your body.
Brett Gilliland 24:54
I walk out there like I’m six foot four, you know, I’m six foot tall, but I feel like I’m about six, four when I walk out of those places. You go to the stretch labs? I do. Yeah, we’ve got a guy, a couple guys here in town where I go and do that. It’s amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Pete Holman 25:09
It is. And what happens is, when you’re stretching on your own, there’s a component of exertion, where you’re in an uncomfortable position, you’re having to kind of pull yourself down into position to stretch your hamstring, for instance. Yeah, well, that’s not allowing, that’s not facilitating a nice calm, relaxed, breathing method. And, and, and just cognitive state of relaxation. When you’re lying down and somebody else is doing the work for you. You just let go, and you kind of melt into the table. And that’s where you can get the most benefits out of stretching.
Brett Gilliland 25:42
I couldn’t agree more, man. So talk to us on the business side. I mean, for you personally. But then also, I mean, just let’s just pick on Scottie Scheffler a year round. You know, the number of world’s number one golfer guy won the Masters this year, like, what do you see is the difference between you know, the world’s number one golfer versus again, use that word average Joe I mean, what do you what can you learn from that guy to share with us?
Pete Holman 26:05
Well, a couple of things. I mean, number one is passion. Like I, passion should really drive your life. Sometimes you got to search for what you’re really passionate about. But when you’re doing something you’re passionate about, it’s an organic, authentic thing, and you’re going to be able to show up with much more ferocity and excitement and exuberance towards what you’re doing. Scott is extremely passionate about golf, he’s been that way his whole life. That’s kind of a gift. I was very passionate about martial arts, I’m now passionate about innovation and progression in my business career, and that helps me so you got to be passionate. The second thing you got to do is you got to immerse yourself, and whatever it is you’re trying to achieve or accomplish. I liked this guy, he’s passed away, but Dr. Wayne Dyer, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen some stuff or watched PBS special, he’s just a really amazing guy. He’s been able to kind of bridge all these different religions, he talks about spirituality, but he does it in a way that’s kind of non exclusive to any one religion. But anyhow, one of the things he talks about is the power of intention. And I’ll never forget he I watched this PBS special of his, which was brilliant. This was years ago, and he was talking about, I forget what his example was, but in my head, it was I was trying to purchase a house, I had a condo, I wanted to have like a real house. And he said, surround yourself with people and things and images and whatever it is paraphernalia that will remind you of your goal that you want to achieve. I mean, put it out there, tell other people that, “hey, I’m really looking to buying a house, put a picture of a house that your dream house, on their fridge,” you know, have a morning meditation, where part of it is, you know, I’m really excited about this day, and the ability to to earn and grow and evolve and eventually get my house for my family. And that power of intention. It works. It’s I mean, this isn’t Wayne Dyer, by the way. This is Psychology 101 It’s self fulfilling prophecy, if you think, you know, you’re gonna be a failure, whatever it is you’re doing, you’re right. You know,
Brett Gilliland 28:23
We talk about all the time and even at work in my personal life, you know, it’s called the expectancy, the Expectancy Theory, right? Well, that what you focus on expands. And so, I mean, I’ve lived for the last 20 something years of my life thinking about that, I mean, I could go out this door right here and show you 15 years of stuff that I’ve written down and read, you know, maybe not twice a day, every single day, but damn near right where I’m reading it every single day and, and you look back on those things from 20 years ago. And it’s kind of like, it’s funny that that used to be a goal, you know, but then as you as you grow, those things are still scary. What might have been scary back then. And the things that I want to do and focus on today are scary. But I’m a believer that you go public with it. Right? You tell yourself that you can do it every single day you write it down every single day, literally every single day, I write down my goals of what I want to accomplish. And then I read it and then I believe it. And then those things happen. It’s not by accident.
Pete Holman 29:23
It’s not it and what’s funny is it doesn’t cost you anything. It’s not rocket science.
Brett Gilliland 29:28
No.
Pete Holman 29:28
I remember watching. I forget which Olympics this was but if you’re old enough, you remember this Olympic diver Greg Louganis. Louganis was kind of a breakout us diver back in the day. And he was competing. He was a high level diver. I mean, he people thought he had the ability to be on the podium. And so he’s on the 10 meter platform. He does a dive and and he hits his head. On the actually maybe it was a springboard he hits regardless on the springboard. I mean, as a diver that is like the worst possible case scenario on a dive. Not only are you scratch that dive, but you’re concussed, you’re bleeding, it’s traumatic. So he’s got like one dive left. And he’s standing up on this Springboard again, he’s got to nail his dive, it’s either podium or not, and what’s going through his mind, I mean, 99% of the population would be, oh my gosh, if I hit my head again, if I embarrass myself in front of my country, my family and my friends and my my partners, and, and if I’m gonna lose scholarships, I’m gonna lose sponsorships, I’m gonna, it’s all gonna go down. I mean, that’s what most people think. Greg Louganis, think, you know what, I screwed up that first time, but I’m not screwing up this time. I’m gonna go out there. I’m gonna do what I practiced for my entire life. And I’m going to execute, and I’m gonna be standing on that gold medal podium. And what’s he do? He goes out and he gets a gold medal. I mean, that’s, that’s a different mindset. But you want to, you want to be a winner. You want to look at winners, when you gotta be your best when your best is needed. And you got to have that constant belief that you can do it even if you screwed up 20 minutes earlier.
Brett Gilliland 31:09
Yeah. So one of the things for you, I would like to call them anymore. I call them unwritten rules, right? They may not be written down. You can’t Google “what are Pete Homan’s rules of life?” What are those unwritten rules that if I followed you around, I had a camera system I hired for a week, what am I seeing every single day in your life?
Pete Holman 31:27
Well, one of my favorite quotes of all time was made by a famous clergyman by the name of Henry Ward Beecher. And he said, “Hold yourself to a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Hold yourself to a higher standard than anybody else expects of you, if you can do that.” Now, granted, it’s hard because you put a lot of pressure on yourself, right? And I think high achievers, they, they they put a lot of pressure on themselves. And when if you fail, there’s a huge burden to bear. But I’d much rather be that guy or gal that puts pressure on myself and aims high aims for the stars and fails now and again, then somebody that’s just, you know, resigned to mediocrity. So that’s one thing I hold myself to a higher standard, by the way that comes in my, my personal life, my interpersonal relationships, my relationship with my daughter, my my relationship with coworkers friends, and obviously comes in business. I’m trying to excel at business and and be the best you know, product and vendor I can be the best representative of health and fitness that comes when I when I look at my own personal physical well being and spiritual well being, I’m holding myself to a high standard and it sucks because there’s days that I don’t want to work out or days that I don’t want to eat a salad or days that I don’t want to stretch and all that stuff. So you know, execute on that. And, you know, when I grew up in I think I mentioned my martial arts background. One of my favorite martial artists was Bruce Lee. And Bruce Lee has this famous quote, you can Google this. And he says, “empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You can put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put into a bottle, it becomes the bottle you put into a teapot, it becomes that teapot, water can flow or water can crash, be water, my friend.”
Brett Gilliland 33:25
Love that.
Pete Holman 33:26
And I know he was talking about athleticism and athletics, but he was also talking about, you know, in his time, when he was coming up, there was a huge conflict between the East and the West. You know, he was coming from China. And he you know, he spoke Cantonese and Mandarin. And he was trying to assimilate into San Francisco. And he got it coming and going from you know, your basic white Caucasian people. And then even his own community gave him a hard time because he was teaching kung fu to the gweilo to the white people. So everybody hated him. And what did he do? He flowed like water, that ability to adjust and adapt and adapt in life, I think is critical. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. You know, it’s like the old you know, the big willow tree and a massive storm, right? If it’s brittle and rigid and holds position, it’s just gonna snap in half. What’s it do? It just flows in the wind, and it can get through 100 mile an hour gusts. So, you know, that’s one thing I tried to do to the best of my ability every day is you’re gonna hit hurdles, you’re gonna have adversity, you’re gonna have heartbreak and loss. But you got to be that willow tree and just bounce back and be resilient.
Brett Gilliland 34:41
I love that. I call that the bounce back theory. I mean, the most successful people I’ve seen in their lives, they bounce back quickly from rejection, right? I mean, we all get kicked in the shorts every single day, you know, maybe not every day but you get kicked in the shorts and I think the more you expect of yourself, the more you are going to get kicked around a lot. Have it and the faster we bounce back, the faster you’re gonna be successful versus going home and having a pity party and laying in the fetal position and cried about it and feel sorry for yourself. It’s like, okay, have the pity party for a couple minutes. But then let’s get out a piece of paper and an ink pen. And let’s write down how the hell you’re gonna get out of this problem.
Pete Holman 35:18
Well, you bring up two good points. And the first is that, I think, you know, we’re really extreme in our society right now. And people take very hard lines, and I get it. But there’s, there’s an in between, right? There’s someplace in the middle. There’s a famous book by the called Tuesdays with maurey by Mitch album, great. And it’s a great book. And there’s the I don’t remember a lot of the book to be honest with you. But I remember one part. And Mitch album is this journalist. He’s he’s come back to reunite with his mentor who has a journalistic professor at his college and the journalistic professor who is Maury is dying of ALS. He’s he’s got a terminal diagnosis, and he’s dying. And Mitch comes over. And he says more you got to tell me something. I don’t understand. Every time I come over every Tuesday. You’re upbeat. You’re cheery, you’re bright. You bring you know, you bring light into my life. And here you are. You’re dying. I don’t understand how you do this. And he looks to Mitch and he says Mitch, you should have seen me 10 minutes ago. And Mitch, his ears perked up. He says, What do you mean, he’s like, I was crying, sobbing buckets. He said, I woke up, I was having a rough day, every joint hurt, I couldn’t my motor system wasn’t functioning. And I just I started crying. I thought I’m dying, like my life is over. And then after five or seven minutes of crying his eyes out, he kind of recovered a little bit, he opened up the blinds, he saw some birds flying in the horizon, the wind was blowing gently, the clouds hovered beautifully, the sun was rising. And he took some deep breaths. And he said, I’m going to make the most of this day. And I just like that kind of attitude. I mean, it makes me want to cry right now. Like, you’re, it’s okay to embrace that pain. And, and, and give it some time and give us some energy because it’s a real human emotion that we go through when we have a failure or success or loss. But at some point, you got to open up the blinds and you got to look outside for a sign from I don’t know, if you’re religious from the heavens, if you’re whatever naturalist from, you know, I was riding my bike the other day, it was kind of starting to rain, I was tired, my joints hurt. I didn’t really want to be out there. And all of a sudden, this this eagle, I never see eagles and Aspen. They’re here, but I never see him. I see red tail hawks all the time. I see bears. I see deer I see Fox, I see. I see all this wildlife. I never see an eagle. And this thing comes out of a tree like I must have spooked it as I rode by. And I could tell like that’s not a hawk. I mean, it had this massive wingspan, and it had like a barrel kind of chest. And you could tell it was really working to get loft. And I’m like is that an eagle and my cadence on my bike started picked up and it was kind of flying right in front of me. So for I don’t know, 15 seconds, I can’t following this evil. And I thought, Man, I don’t know what that is. But that’s a sign from above that I’m meant to be here. I’m meant to enjoy this life. I’m meant to take take this life and and experience it and look for things every day. That make me understand that there’s something greater out there. And that there’s a purpose for me being here.
Brett Gilliland 38:40
But I think the key right there, and I’m sure you know this, or I know you know this, but I think I want to draw people’s attention to it is you got to be willing and open to look at that eagle up there and see something good from it, right? Because you could easily just write and then just put your head back down and start pedaling your bikes, but I think it’s embracing that eagle. Seeing that ego and knowing that there’s a reason that damn thing is there.
Pete Holman 39:06
Oh, man. I mean, I what I’m not a big–– I love movies. I’m not a big old time movie fan. But there’s this movie. And I can’t even tell you the name of it. It’s like Fred Astaire, you know, back in the day, and there’s a scene where it starts dumping rain, right?
Brett Gilliland 39:23
Yeah.
Pete Holman 39:24
And everybody’s downtrodden and melancholy. It’s raining. Goo his dark sky. And here comes this is a Ginger Rogers. I don’t know somebody’s gonna crack. But they go out in the street and they’re dancing in the rain and they’re having the time of their life. I mean, you want to talk about living life. Like it’s it changed your perspective. If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. That’s another Wayne Dyer thing, quote, and it’s couldn’t be, you know, more true on a daily basis. Another thing I wanted to mention about my daily ritual and habits, and this is probably the hardest thing Is professionalism. I always whenever I do a project or submitting a proposal or typing out an email, and you know, you got to take this with a grain of salt I mean not every single one but the important ones. I mean, I reread that thing three or four times I changed the verbiage I proofread it. I want to come across as a professional and everything I do. And I never forget the story a client told me I’m up in Aspen so I trained like these Uber wealthy, you know, Gulfstream owning clients who of the world and one of them lives has a house and mystique. Mystique is an island in the Caribbean. And it’s where like all the rock stars and actors have places and and Mick Jagger has a place on Mystique island of the Rolling Stones, at least circle the Rolling Stones. So now there’s a bar called Basil. It’s on the silent and everybody it’s there’s only one bar restaurant. It’s called Basil. So everybody goes there, and you hang out like even people that are just super wealthy hanging out with all these rock stars and actors. And Mick Jagger is in this bar. And my clients very friendly with the house band at the bar. And they talk to them all the time. And so my client goes up to the drummer during a set break and says, Why don’t you ask Mick Jagger to come on stage? Songs? Right. So so the drummer is like “Hunter No,” and she kind of goats him and she says, “Come on, you know, you can eat. You guys are so good. They love you.” And so the drummer kind of gets his nerve up and he goes up to Mick Jagger. And he says, Hey, would you ever want to play with us? And Mick Jagger says, “yes, I’d love to play with you.” So the drummer said, “Great, we know all your songs.” And and he expects Mick Jagger to step up on stage, Mick Jagger never shows up. So at the end of the night, the band’s kind of wrapping up and the drummer kind of goes up to Mick Jagger and says, “Hey, is everything okay? Did I do something to offend you?” And he’s like, “no, no, I just want to rehearse before we play.” And drummer looks at him like, rehearse? I mean, your Mick Jagger dude your Mick Jagger. And he says, “Well, no, let’s let’s get a couple of rehearsals.” And so they rehearsed two times, maybe three, I forget what the story was. They went through like a three song set. Keep in mind, Basil’s bar. There’s nobody there. There’s like 120 people maybe in any given night. So 120 People in the middle of nowhere. This is Mick Jagger, the best rock star ever. He wants to rehearse with the band to do a couple covers of his songs. And of course, he comes back later in the next week. And he plays and my clients got pictures of her dancing and Mick Jagger is like right there, you know, three feet away from her. And that story resonated with me. There’s a reason Mick Jagger everybody knows who Mick is. And it’s that reason right there. He is the most professional rock star you’ll receive. He eats well, he trains and conditions himself, he takes care of his throat. And he rehearses and rehearses and rehearses. Steve Jobs did the same thing before a keynote address. I mean, there’s a reason these people are high performers. So if you want to get to the next level, be professional.
Brett Gilliland 43:18
I love it. I love it, man. So what keeps you up at night right now in your life?
Pete Holman 43:23
Well, I’ve got this new product, it’s called the Glute Slide. And you know, I’ve kind of been geeked out on the glutes. As a physical therapist and strength coach, I always know that the glutes are important and you know, kind of yada yada, but I’ve really honed in on this. And if you look at the gluteal muscles, there’s some basic muscles on the top, the gluteus maximus on the side, there’s something called the gluteus medius. But then deep inside there, there’s seven rotators, that rotate the hip externally, there’s internal rotators. I mean, there’s a dozen muscles in that, in that gluteal area. And it’s the powerhouse of the core. And not only for sports and athletics, but everybody that kind of wants to look good on the beach, you know, you want to get your wedding dress or you want to look good in your jeans. You want to have a nice toned firmstrong glued. Well, fast forward to if you’re 70 or 80 years old, which is a lot of my clients right now, guess where they’re weakest in their glutes. Guess why they fall down the stairs because their cool glutes aren’t able to decelerate their next step. Or if they miss a step, the glutes can fire and have enough strength to hold them in position. So I thought there’s got to be a machine I could create for the in home and commercially that would train specifically train the glues. And that’s what I’m working on right now. I’m on my third prototype, and it’s going to happen so keep your eyes and ears open for the Glutes Slide sometime in 2023.
Brett Gilliland 44:47
Well, we’ll buy it. We’ll buy that as well, man. Why not? We’ll just keep it going guys stay to peak performance. So where can our listeners find more of Pete Holman?
Pete Holman 44:57
I am at on Instagram @PeteHolman1, the number one, h o l m a n. Pete Holman 1. I’m also at Twitter @PeteHolman1. I’m on Facebook at Pete Holman. I have a couple of different accounts. I’m not as good at Facebook I, you know, Zuckerberg, the guy’s brilliant, but he changes stuff everym every two or three weeks, there’s some new algorithm or some new formula, some new interface and it’s very hard to keep up with this. Plus, I’m not 17 years old, like my daughter, she she has to coach me up and upskill me on this.
Brett Gilliland 45:28
Look when you were 17 you wouldn’t be on Facebook. Anyway, my son told me that my 16, 17 year old son the other day told me he goes, you know, “Daddy’s I don’t mean to be mean, but Facebook’s for old people.”
Pete Holman 45:38
Yeah. And all that. But which, by the way, if you’re in business, and you’re in you’re wanting to capture younger audiences, by the way, even 30 year olds are still on Tik Tok and Snapchat, if you’re wanting to hit that marketplace in that niche, you better figure out that that stuff, you know, don’t don’t be so entrenched in your old ways. And I see that in business now especial, especially with digital marketing, right now you’ve got to execute on all cylinders. To capture that audience. By the way, I also have a website called PH1performance.com. PH for P. Holman one the number, just the number 1 performance.com, PH1performance.com. And there’s, you know, there’s all my contact information on there, I think my emails even on there, if you want to reach out to questions or anything I can do to help you out. I’m all about like, my whole mission in life is to help other people execute and, and reach their human potential. As far as their health, wellness and vitality goes, I think if you can do that, you’re much better husband, wife, father, daughter, son, business partner, etc. But it all starts with you and your own internal physiological health, and your spiritual wellness and mental wellbeing.
Brett Gilliland 47:05
We’ll put all that stuff in the show notes. But I think you agree with us with what you just said right there struck a chord in me is, I think that’s why I’m so focused now at 44 on fitness and health, and what we’re doing to stay vibrant is, you know, I own a wealth management firm. So all day long, I’m talking about people’s monies, their dreams, their goals, their aspirations. But look, you got to start when you’re in your 20s, start saving some money, and then save a little bit more in your 30s. And a little bit more in your 40s. Right? For the time when you’re 55 and 65, and 75 and 85. And you want to go live the life you want to live and go the islands and do all these things, right. But it took 20 and 30 years for you to get there. Well, now at 44. I’ve got to invest my time today that’s going to help me when I’m 64, 74 and 84. When I’m out there playing golf, still taking my buddy’s money, I hope, right? I gotta put that that investment, if you will, in today, for the future. Because who knows how long we’re gonna live man with modern technology.
Pete Holman 48:02
What you said is probably the most profound thing of this entire podcast. And that is you better invest in your health savings account. Because it is just like your financial savings account. If you get into retirement and you haven’t done your job on the front end is too late folks. And I sick all the time, because I’m working with 60, 70, 80 year old folks. It’s when I say too late, I’m being a little dramatic, but you know what I’m saying?
Brett Gilliland 48:29
Absolutely.
Pete Holman 48:29
And you’re late 60s And you’ve got congestive heart failure, and you’ve got diabetes and your diet is terrible. And, and also the doctor says you need to change. You need to stop smoking, whatever it is. It could be too late. And like you said, people were like I’ve got a client that’s 94 years old. Wow. And he’s a billionaire. Like, especially if you’re doing well in life. I’m not saying everybody wants to live long but especially if you’ve worked so hard to this wealth. And now what you can’t play with your grandkids on the beach, you can’t take a trip because you’re too tired and weak. Come on.
Brett Gilliland 49:04
Yeah, that would not be good. Not be good. Well, this has been an awesome conversation man on a Friday afternoon. Love the time together with you, Pete and thanks for being on The Circuit of Success.
Pete Holman 49:13
Appreciate it so much, keep the dream alive everybody.
