Eric: John, I am definitely prepared to get ignite some fire to your audience. Thank you so much for the opportunity. This is a dream come true. So, once again, I am ready to go.

John: Fire Nation, Eric is one half of the dynamic duo with his twin brother, Chris. They operate a world-class online training nutrition and lifestyle consulting business by the name of Dynamic Duo Training. He’s also a business coach that helps fitness enthusiasts grow their online business. Eric, take a minute. Fill in some gaps from that intro and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Eric: Absolutely. Thanks again and really quick too just so your listeners know, I am an identical twin so if occasionally I might slip up saying we. It’s nothing personal. I don’t mean to do that. I’m just used to having my partner in crime, Chris right next to me on interviews. But I’m gonna do the best that I can here.

John: It is funny. These guys, Fire Nation tried so hard to get on this show together and I said, “Unh-unh. I’m bringing one of you one at a time because we’re going deep.” So break it down brother.

Eric: I love it. Okay, so just to give you guys a little bit of context on my story. I lost my father when I was 17 years old and if you kind of take it back to then, it was three days literally before Christmas. So, it was probably at the worst time that this happened. And I grew up in a really picture perfect family. Just my father was a correctional officer at San Quentin state prison. So, he was kind of like the role model, the provider, everything. He was a great father and my mother as well too. So, I was very blessed in that aspect and with my siblings as well too.

And three nights before Christmas, we get a knock on the door at three in the morning from a chaplain and a California highway patrol officer and that’s usually not a good combination. So, I literally thought I was in a dream, having a nightmare. But I never woke up from the dream and all I remember seeing when I woke up was my mother on the floor screaming bloody murder because they had told her her husband passed away in a car accident. So, right then and there our whole entire family and life just crumbled. And it’s very tough because I never got a chance to say goodbye to my father. So, even until this day that still eats me up.

So, for the listeners, if you can relate to that like losing a loved one, a parent, a family member, it is extremely difficult and it’s something that you never really truly get over. You can just move forward but it’s tough. So, after that, it was an uphill battle for myself, my siblings. Kind of went down a dark path for a little bit just getting into trouble just because I had no direction. I lost my mentor. I was still a kid and I just didn’t make great choices. So, after that, my mother lost her mother due to cancer three months after.

So, my mother pretty much started to just let herself go. She turned to alcohol, she turned to anti-depressant pills. Literally, it was tough seeing my mother do that because she was like a completely different person. So, I’d come home from college, I’d come home from work seeing her passed out intoxicated, pill bottles. So, it was very tough for me to just swallow that. So, again, I had a lot of anger in me, did some things that I look back at now and just I’m not proud of but it was part of my journey. And after that, there was a turning point where I looked at my brother and I said, “Look, we can either keep going down this dark path or we could sit here and turn this around, use this as a blessing in disguise. Maybe we won’t know what it is right now but later on, we might discover it.”

And we made a pact to where we just changed our life and got into fitness because we hired some mentors. They changed our whole life, got us fascinated with exercise science, physiology, changing the body. From there we went on to get all of our credentials, our Master’s in Nutrition, built our business, scaled it into an online business, did some life coaching, hired a life coach, and here I am now. Published author, speaker, business owner, and I am here today on EO Fire spreading some wisdom.

John: Dropping the value bombs. And Fire Nation, there’s one thing that I’m already taking away from this. If there’s somebody you love, tell them that you love them and especially if it’s been awhile because you just never know. I’m not saying you might be in a bad place with them or whatever. I’m just thinking I’ve had a few conversations with my dad over the last month or so and we ended up great terms. But if he died today, would I be glad that it’s been a little while since I’ve been like, “Dad, just so you know, I love you.” Yeah, so take away that. Tell somebody when you love them that you love them because you don’t want your last memory to be like, “Oh, I wish that I had.” Because you can, you have the power to do so. So, pick up that phone. Make it happen.

And Eric, you’ve already told us a lot about what your area of expertise is, so let me ask you this. What do you just see people like myself and other entrepreneurs who frankly are pretty health conscious probably, but just keep making mistakes after mistakes when it comes to fitness and wellness and health and nutrition? What’s the No. 1 thing you just wish if I could just hand you a megaphone, you could just let all of us know there’s one thing that we could do that would help us today? What is that?

Eric: That’s a great question, John. I see so many different things and especially being in high-level masterminds going to a lot of seminars, retreats. I really observe a lot and pick up on bad habits entrepreneurs have. And if there’s one thing I could give away, please remember this acronym. It is REF, ref. So, the R stands for realistic. The E stands for enjoyable and the F stands for flexible. Find something in the context of exercise and nutrition that is realistic. You can see yourself doing for days, weeks, months, years on end that you’re going to ultimately adhere to and turn to a lifestyle.

Find something that’s enjoyable to where you can see yourself doing a day to day basis. And then most importantly, find something that is flexible where you could pivot because in today’s society we’re extremely busy. Something comes up so we have to sit there and pivot. It has to be flexible. It can’t be so rigid so realistic, enjoyable, and flexible in the context of exercise and nutrition is so key.

John: Realistic, enjoyable, flexible. Make it happen, Fire Nation. Now, Eric, you were very vulnerable with us already and you’ve told us what likely is your worst life moment to date so thank you for sharing that and being vulnerable and open because I think it’s gonna help a lot of people. But the next step I want to talk about is your worst entrepreneurial moment. I mean you’ve invested in yourself, you have a life coach. You’ve invested in ads and this and that. I mean you’ve made a lot of mistakes. You’ve also done a lot of things that have been great. But what is the worst thing that you’ve done so far entrepreneurially? What’s your worst entrepreneurial moment?

Eric: Yeah, I was really looking forward to sharing this one too because I’m all about making mistakes and just kind of going back to the drawing board and moving forward and learning from them. But probably the worst entrepreneurial moment for myself and my brother was when we lost our home gym. So, if I take you back a little over two years now. We had a beautiful home in Orange County, California. And I always had this dream and vision to build my own home studio in the garage. And there’s a couple little pieces I’ll plug in there that I missed out. But I was so ecstatic and excited about this home we got because I had worked so hard for it. Our business was going in the right direction. We were making a six-figure income. Life was great. So, I was like, “Chris, let’s build a gym. Let’s have some seminars here. Let’s do some social media content, filming, train clients in here, hire out other personal trainers to have them pay us and utilize our equipment.”

So it was a grand, grand vision that we had. So, it all off of emotions though. And I really didn’t think about it at first and we were renting the place so that was a huge, huge mistake. And again, it was just based off of emotions and we invested $10,000 into this gym and built this amazing beautiful studio just loaded. And we had clients, we were training. We were doing great stuff and then once our lease came up, pretty much the guy said, “Look, I gotta sell my place. I don’t want to be the property manager anymore.” So, it was like a ton of bricks just crashed on us and there was absolutely nothing we could do. So, I had to sell all of my gym equipment literally in 30 days. And those things went like water because they were brand new and I lost probably half of that investment, five grand.

But most importantly, it was just really, really tough to swallow because I had such a big vision for it. But again, it was a learning lesson that you can’t make these big decisions based off of emotion. You have to kind of think it through, weigh out the pros and cons. And that would really be my worst entrepreneurial moment, John. But I’ve learned from it and it all happened for a reason.

John: Let’s give a real specific takeaway of maybe a lesson that you think maybe our listeners could apply to their life, to their business.

Eric: Absolutely. So, if you have some sort of a plan or idea, literally, maybe go to a drawing board and weigh out the pros and cons. Make two different sections, pros and cons to this and if the cons outweigh the pros, then it’s probably not a great idea to do that. So, for me, if I would have realized that look, we’re in a rental agreement. This isn’t my home that I own; I could have done whatever I want. But again, it was based off emotion so always weigh out the pros and cons when you’re making a business decision especially if you’re going to invest that kind of money in there.

John: One thing I’ll add to this, Fire Nation is find somebody who is currently where you want to be. I mean Eric wanted to own a gym and that was great or he wanted to create a gym and do his thing and run the gym. Well, go find a gym owner and then tell him what you’re planning on doing and I’m almost positive that gym owner would have been like, “Whoa, whoa. Wait a second. You’re just renting this place and you’re going to invest this much money into it? First red flag.” And then Eric would have been like, “Oh, yeah. You’re right.” Because he was going with emotion, with passion, with excitement. That’s us. That’s entrepreneurs.

That’s what happens. So, find somebody who is currently where you want to be in life. Let them reveal those red flags and roadblocks and pitfalls before they actually happen. So, Eric let’s shift to one of the greatest ideas that you’ve had to date. What is that story?

Eric: That would have to be our book that we just released about a year ago and that book is called The New Era of Fitness. So, with working over a thousand clients the last decade, having mentors, coaches, certifications, getting our Master’s in Nutrition, we’ve learned a lot of stuff and gone through a lot of trial and error to where we wanted to put this book together because we see five elements in the new era of fitness which is flexible training, flexible nutrition, developing a growth mindset, how do you incorporate personal development into exercise and nutrition which I think it is a form of personal development, and how, most importantly do you intertwine all this into a sustainable lifestyle that’s realistic, enjoyable, and flexible.

So, I saw the fitness industry being black and white. Things are always being looked at under a microscope. Everybody wants to have the esthetics, everybody wants to be physically fit, but nobody wants to sit there and be emotionally, spiritually fit. Nobody wants to have that six pack in the brain where it all starts. So, that’s where we kind of saw that aha moment that we could write a really good book on this and spread that out to people and change their ideas and change their thought process when it comes to exercise and nutrition.

John: The New Era of Fitness, a six pack in the brains, Fire Nation. Who doesn’t want a six-pack in the brain?

Eric: Right!

John: So Eric, I’m sure there’s a million takeaways from that book. Literally, probably a million. Just give me one, maybe random super-unique one that you think is just kind of funny that maybe we haven’t touched upon yet.

Eric: You have to think of your fitness journey as a marathon, not a sprint. So many people want to sit there and get the quick fixes, go for the quick gimmicky trends but it doesn’t work like that. It goes back to the concept of buying into a realistic, enjoyable, and flexible lifestyle that you can see yourself doing for days, weeks, months, years on end. So again, like even in the context of business, we’re trying to play the long game with our business. Slowly build upon that and level up. So, same thing with fitness. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

John: Fire Nation, if you think that Eric’s been dropping value bombs, oh just you wait for the lightning rounds when we get back from thanking our sponsors.

Eric, are you ready to rock the lightning rounds?

Eric: I am ready, JLD.

John: What was holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Eric: That word fear. Fear of failure but after that, I realized that action ultimately cures fear.

John: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

Eric: Stop playing small and be patient with things and patience plus persistence equals growth.

John: What’s the personal habit that contributes to your success?

Eric: Oh, this one I love. That would definitely have to be a morning routine because I’m such a big proponent on that and advocate that so much because if you don’t take care of yourself in the morning, then you’re ultimately not going to be able to go and serve others to the best of your ability. So, I really, really encourage the listeners to take at least 15, 30 minutes and do a morning routine that’s dedicated to you whether that’s journaling, listening to audio, going for a walk, meditating –

John: Well, let’s rip through yours real quick. What does that look like?

Eric: Oh, man. Great question. So, right now I wake up, I weigh myself fastly because that is just a habit I always do. After that, I drink a large cup of water because I am dehydrated throughout the night. After that, I need my coffee to get going. Specifically, I like the light to medium blends. After that, I will come in my room and I will do some sort of reading whether that’s some form of book, an entrepreneurial book, leadership, motivation book. Right now I’m reading Tribe of Mentors which is great. Or I’ll read a public research review on training, nutrition to keep myself sharp in that area.

After that, I will journal and I’m using your mastery of freedom journal which is awesome, man. And then from there, I do some sort of meditation for five minutes just to kind of just get in tune with my body, spirit, soul. And then from there, I am ready to go.

John: Fire Nation, how are you going to best serve the world if you’re not serving yourself first? I mean you’re not going to be putting your best self out there if you’re not actually your best self. You’re not going to be your best self unless you’re taking care of yourself in the morning with these morning routines. Super similar to mine for sure, Eric. Love what you have going on. The thing that I do is that I would say is in addition to what you’ve already mentioned, an infrared sauna for 30 minutes. I love it.

Eric: Nice. Nice.

John: Recommend one internet resource.

Eric: I would have to say right now Google Trends. I think that’s a big game changer just because it kind of keeps you up to speed on what’s trending and what’s not. And to me, it just gives me fresh ideas in the context of social media and what I can kind of put some sort of twist on whether that’s an Instagram post, stories, Snapchat, Facebook. So, right now I would recommend Google Trends. It’s pretty awesome.

John: So, besides your book The New Era of Fitness, what book needs to be on our bookshelves and why?

Eric: Gosh, there’s so many, John. But the one I really, really like and I honestly wish that they would have put this in some sort of education system and just for high school is The Magic of Thinking Big by Dr. David Schwartz. I think it’s a huge game changer just to think outside the box, develop a growth mindset instead of a fixed mindset, and just really overcome fear and even I love how he goes into the importance of attitude. It’s just a great book overall.

John: Eric, listen today on fire with you giving us a parting piece of guidance, sharing the best way that we can connect with you and then we’ll say goodbye.

Eric: Absolutely. So, I am always going to say live a badass lifestyle around the four pillars of life which is health, wealth, love, and happiness. Notice I put health at the forefront of that. Other than that, live a life worth telling a story about and choose faith over fear, guys. And where you guys can connect with us is theneweraoffitness.com or on social media. We are at dynamic duo training.

John: Love all of this and Fire Nation you know that you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with and you’ve been hanging out with EM and JLD today so keep up the heat. And head over to eofire.com and just type Eric. That’s E-R-I-C in the search bar. His show notes page will pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz. Timestamps, links galore. And of course, if you’re not going to get over there and get The New Era of Fitness, what are you doing? I actually just checked it out on Amazon. It’s free Kindle Unlimited if you subscribe to that. Otherwise, it’s the best investment of your life. The New Era of Fitness, 8 proven habits to double your strength, sexiness, energy, health, and living well-balanced dynamic lifestyle.

Personally, I think the six pack in the brains might be a better logo, but they both work pretty well there. In theneweraoffitness.com. Go check it out, Fire Nation. What are you doing? Health put it as a priority. Eric, thank you for sharing your journey, brother with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we’ll catch you on the flip side.

Eric: Thanks, John.