Gunnar Peterson - World-Class Strength Coach

Gunnar Peterson is a Beverly Hills-based personal trainer whose clients include celebrities, professional athletes, and everyday people. Gunnar is also the Los Angeles Lakers’ Director of Strength and Endurance. He is widely recognized for his expertise in functional training and his commitment to developing and implementing innovative fitness techniques. He has worked with athletes from the NBA, NHL, NFL, MLB, USTA, professional boxing, and various NCAA sports. After piecing together countless gyms for clients over the years, in 2016 he officially launched his Gunnar Gym Design company in order to bring his training style to life worldwide, as it is in his Beverly Hills gym. His residential as well as commercials gyms are well received in the US and abroad. In 2017 Gunnar partnered with the Dream Hotel Group and designed a Gunnar gym in their Hollywood location. Gunnar resides in Beverly Hills with his wife, 4 children and 3.5 dogs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it. Waiting weeks on a big bank for capital? Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over 12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and the Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a minute without parent.

• 1:36Speaker 03

  You need a wake-up call? You're in the right friggin' place. Welcome to the Ed Mylett Show.

• 1:50Ed Mylett?

  Welcome back to Max Out with Ed Mylett. Very excited to bring you this gentleman to my left here today. He is a wonderful husband, father, and friend. He also happens to be probably the most successful personal trainer in the world.

• 2:04Gunnar Peterson?

  But I'm not a good businessman. That's the part you omitted from that. When you paraphrased me, he's a wonderful one. I didn't walk in saying wonderful that. I say, "I'm not a good businessman." But then I counter that with, "But I'm good at husband, friend, father."

• 2:16Ed Mylett?

  You are. You are good at that, and I think you're good at more than that. And I think you've built an unbelievable business. He doesn't give himself enough credit because I think it's because of who you compare yourself to also a little bit.

• 2:26Gunnar Peterson?

  Years ago, I had a great... Arguably greatest football player of all time, I'll leave that out so you guys can all figure that out.

• 2:32Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 2:33Gunnar Peterson?

  Who said, "It's always better when somebody says it about you."

• 2:35Ed Mylett?

  It's true.

• 2:36Gunnar Peterson?

  Right, you walk around saying it about yourself, you kinda look like a goof.

• 2:39Ed Mylett?

  A fact, and so I'll look like the goof and say it about you, so.

• 2:42Gunnar Peterson?

  No, you don't look like a goof, I look like a goof if I say it.

• 2:45Ed Mylett?

  Alright, so, we both look goofy. I, uh, you know, I think you all probably know a lot about Gunner, there was a lot of kind of anticipation about the show here today, and I don't want to go down this direction, so I just want to get this out of the way in the beginning, if you don't know, Gunner trained some of the most successful business people that walk the earth, some of the most successful entertainers and athletes, anyone from J-Lo to the Kardashians, to Sampras, to NBA players.

• 3:07Gunnar Peterson?

  But I'm also in the right zip code, in fairness, I'm in the right space for that, I get, people reach out, trainers, "I want to do what you do," I wanna, I live in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, I live in Scotland, I'm like, nothing, those are great, wonderful places, but the demographic of the potential clientele.

• 3:24Ed Mylett?

  True.

• 3:25Gunnar Peterson?

  Is just not there to do what I do.

• 3:26Ed Mylett?

  Yes, but, so he's gonna do this the whole interview, just so you know, the whole interview, he's gonna aw shucks it and not give himself any credit, and I will force him to tell you some of the things he's great at.

• 3:36Gunnar Peterson?

  Humility is a lost art.

• 3:37Ed Mylett?

  It is, and I, and I, and I appreciate it and respect it, but there are other trainers in your zip code who have not become as prolific and as successful as you have.

• 3:46Gunnar Peterson?

  I have way better parking than they do.

• 3:47Ed Mylett?

  You have better parking.

• 3:48Gunnar Peterson?

  How am I doing?

• 3:49Ed Mylett?

  So that's the key.

• 3:50Gunnar Peterson?

  Duck, parry, duck.

• 3:51Ed Mylett?

  You personal trainers that are watching this that wanted all the keys, evidently it comes down to just parking. He also just got a great new gig, you're the strength and, is it the strength and conditioning coach for the Lakers? What a wonderful, exciting job, being a life, you're a Laker fan too, aren't you?

• 4:03Gunnar Peterson?

  Oh, of course, I'm a basketball fan, it's hard, you know, I'm a fan of the sport.

• 4:07Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 4:08Gunnar Peterson?

  Of the sport that I cannot play, and that's not humility, that's been proven.

• 4:10Ed Mylett?

  I believe that one, that one I believe, that one I believe.

• 4:13Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, uh, yep, uh, head strength and conditioning coach for the L.A. Lakers, which is, it's, uh, it's an ironic twist, I, I wanted that job back in the late 90's and, and it wasn't there, and I went on and did other stuff, and then things come full circle, and I was asked, and it was a perfect fit, we have a young team, a great team, uh, a lot of young potential, and I love working with that.

• 4:32Ed Mylett?

  Congratulations, man, we'll talk a little bit about that as we go. I want to go back and talk about you a little bit too, because I always fascinated how someone ends up in a chosen career, so I'm reading about you, you were, were you really an overweight kid, is that true?

• 4:43Gunnar Peterson?

  I was in Weight Watchers when I was 10 years old, I was, I was a fat kid.

• 4:47Ed Mylett?

  You were in Weight Watchers?

• 4:48Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, I was a fat kid, like, full. Boobs, the whole thing. And I used to complain to my mom about it, you know, probably while eating something I shouldn't have been in. And my mom said, one day, do you want to keep complaining? Or do you want to do something about it? And I go, well, I want to do something about it as soon as I finish these cookies.

• 5:04Gunnar Peterson?

  So she said, we were in Houston, Texas. I was 10 years old and she took me to Weight Watchers. I still have the car. I should have brought you that. It's pretty funny.

• 5:10Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 5:11Gunnar Peterson?

  And she took me to meetings, which I don't know that it would be the recommended course of action, especially in today's overly PC world. But it was important. It was a nice jump off for me because I saw other people who were way heavier than I was. And

• 5:27Ed Mylett?

  Are there a lot of 10 year olds in Weight Watchers?

• 5:29Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, there are none.

• 5:30Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, there are none.

• 5:31Gunnar Peterson?

  And there were, there were a lot less than none in the 70s. So I was there and it was just, it was information, right? So I'm getting information. And then as my mom packed my lunches, the lunches became different, right? The tuna fish didn't have mustard, it didn't have mayonnaise in it, it had mustard. I didn't have a Coke, I had a Fresca. And I know these aren't all perfect health choices, but when you're looking at a 10 year old who's at the end of the day, taking in too many calories. Those are at least certain places you can make changes.

• 6:01Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 6:01Gunnar Peterson?

  And I started dropping weight and then I started cheating and you know, the whole thing. So

• 6:05Ed Mylett?

  But is that what sort of set the course for like your, I don't know, your proclivity or your interest in fitness and?

• 6:10Gunnar Peterson?

  No, I got interested in fitness. I mean, I think, didn't we all get interested in this age range because of like Arnold and stuff?

• 6:16Ed Mylett?

  Because of Arnold, yeah.

• 6:17Gunnar Peterson?

  Arnold and, and you know, it's, it's not unlike Bigger, Faster, Stronger, Chris Bell's movie, you know, you look up to those guys on the big screen that are, you're like, that's cool, I want to be that guy. I think as a, as a boy that you look at that as men and, and you want to lift weights and you want to be big and strong and I mean, heroes, right?

• 6:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. What's fascinating about it for me though is like, I often meet people who came from a dramatic, like, people ask me to coach them on self-confidence sometimes, right? And I'm like, one of the reasons I'm pretty good at that is because I was so insecure as a kid, so bad at it, I had to find like these tools and resources to actually just get to a baseline of confidence. I think it's interesting.

• 6:57Gunnar Peterson?

  Didn't you just use sarcasm and wit? That's what I did.

• 7:00Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I did a lot. And you use that when you train people, which I want to talk about too. Like levity is a big deal when you're training somebody, I think. We'll, we'll visit about that too. But, but I just think it's interesting like that you started with that. Now then you end up going to Duke, which we won't completely hold against you, but did you?

• 7:13Gunnar Peterson?

  Oh, you must not have gotten in.

• 7:14Ed Mylett?

  Did you? I did not get in. They didn't take.

• 7:17Gunnar Peterson?

  Red flag.

• 7:18Ed Mylett?

  What was weird was I thought with a 760 SAT and a 28 GPA, they would die to have me. But they don't have a lot of those.

• 7:25Gunnar Peterson?

  Both sides of the SAT? That's a combined score?

• 7:27Ed Mylett?

  That was the combined, 760.

• 7:29Gunnar Peterson?

  Well, look, SATs do not make the math.

• 7:32Ed Mylett?

  Evidently, right? Yeah, so I was, I didn't even apply, to be honest with you. So you go to Duke, this is about you, not my educational and intellectual deficiencies.

• 7:41Gunnar Peterson?

  Don't worry, I'll help you build up your confidence about not getting it.

• 7:43Ed Mylett?

  Build me up, please. So, what did you study at Duke?

• 7:47Gunnar Peterson?

  Oh, that's a great question. It was in exercise science.

• 7:51Ed Mylett?

  It wasn't?

• 7:52Gunnar Peterson?

  No, French and Spanish. Look, I grew up overseas.

• 7:54Ed Mylett?

  French and Spanish?

• 7:55Gunnar Peterson?

  Hold the phone. We left Texas, my father moved to the Middle East during the boom years. Working for a Saudi Arabian businessman and we were put in boarding school in Switzerland. And came out of there and went to Duke. But, so you're a product of your environment, right? People say, oh, you speak languages. But we lived there. I had to speak the languages in order to understand what was going on in the classroom, in order to get lunch, in order to ask a girl on a, you know, on a date. You had to have the language. So you learn the languages, you were taught the language in school every day in boarding school. We had two hours of French to start the day. So you're gonna pick it up. And then you leave, it's not like you leave and it's just done. You leave and you have to use it on the bus and you have to use it in school.

• 8:40Gunnar Peterson?

  So the language is a product of your environment. And there are a lot of people out there that speak a lot of languages, so.

• 8:46Ed Mylett?

  How do you speak?

• 8:47Gunnar Peterson?

  English, French and Spanish.

• 8:48Ed Mylett?

  And do you think, do you think that experience helps you in even training?

• 8:52Gunnar Peterson?

  Every day.

• 8:53Ed Mylett?

  Just the language piece or being able to relate to different types of people?

• 8:56Gunnar Peterson?

  So the exposure to the different cultures, the different types of people, the different socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as the languages because all Latin-based and you just, there's certain words you pick up that you go, oh, I know what that means. Or I can understand what part of the language that word fits in. So language is a key, to me, for the kids. Travel is a key, languages are key. And I think they're two of the best forms of education. Nothing against sciences and math and all that's very important as well. But to me, of becoming a well-rounded person.

• 9:31Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 9:31Gunnar Peterson?

  And, and being respectful of other cultures and understanding that America's a great country, phenomenal country. There are other countries that do certain things well. Let's not just discount them because they're not American.

• 9:43Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, that's so true.

• 9:44Gunnar Peterson?

  I have more American flags in my home than than most people.

• 9:49Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 9:49Gunnar Peterson?

  We're very pro-American, but at the same time, very respectful of other countries and other cultures. And I think, you know, there's more harmony that way.

• 9:57Ed Mylett?

  I love that. So, so fat boy growing up a little bit, right? Overweight, Weight Watchers.

• 10:02Gunnar Peterson?

  Overweight, like when it was shirts and skins going down the line. I would count that out and go, oh shit, I am going in front of you. Yeah, that's just, we're not doing that. And at the beach.

• 10:16Ed Mylett?

  That's a great visual.

• 10:17Gunnar Peterson?

  At the beach, like right now, I started sweating when I got here. At the beach, I go, I would wear a T-shirt because I was fat. And because I'm fair, I could just say, well, I don't want to get sunburned.

• 10:27Ed Mylett?

  Right. I think that that's funny, yet there are a lot of people who are watching this right now who relate to that or have children who relate to that. And so.

• 10:36Gunnar Peterson?

  I'm not saying I handled it the right way.

• 10:37Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 10:38Gunnar Peterson?

  Maybe I should have owned it. And today it might be like.

• 10:40Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 10:41Gunnar Peterson?

  And what?

• 10:41Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, but it affected you for sure, right?

• 10:43Gunnar Peterson?

  A hundred percent.

• 10:44Ed Mylett?

  You know, there's no question it had an impact on you. You've scaled your business, but you've also built one heck of a brand. Like you are a brand. When I, when people knew, people in the fitness business especially, if I say your name, they know you. Talk, let's talk a little bit. Let's go to the fitness stuff a little bit for a second and we'll talk business. So part of you, one of the things when you're training people, I'm curious, some of them are very success. Not everybody that you meet is a celebrity or that you train is a, is a, is a necessarily a famous person. But most of them are pretty successful people. What have you learned from them?

• 11:13Gunnar Peterson?

  Oh, so that's the whole, that's the funny part that, that's the part that people don't get. Talk less, listen more, right? You're, there's so much you can glean from those people that have different jobs that cross over in, in different fields. If someone's in, pick my zip code, it's easy, right? Nine oh two one oh. You might have someone who does movies, TV, they have a, a music branch or they have another product line. And you just go, shit, if that guy can do this, I can do that. And that's also why when, when some people said, how are you going to take that Laker job? How could I not take that? First of all, I sat with my wife and kids, right? Note to self, and I said, should I do it? Well, we'll lose this much money in the beginning because it's not like it's a high paying gig.

• 11:58Gunnar Peterson?

  But so there will be. A financial loss at the outset. But here's what I see. Tell me what you think. And hands down around our family table is take it, take it, take it. And then it was, how are you gonna do it?

• 12:12Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 12:12Gunnar Peterson?

  How can you manage your time? You can't just, you know, I have, I have hard costs every month with my, my gym and, and there's certain things that you're, and your kids and your life and you, if you're gonna say no to XYZ finance, you better have a way to shore that up, right? So, how are you gonna do it? I said, it's gonna come down to time management. How, if, if, if Dwayne Johnson, Khloe Kardashian, Ryan Seacrest, LL Cool J, and Jennifer Lopez and so many others can have multiple jobs, can I?

• 12:44Gunnar Peterson?

  And I'm not by any means saying I'm who they are, but if I'm able mind, able body, and I can map it out and I have a decent support team, meaning wife and kids really, and my brother and my parents, and I have people who say, you can do it, you can do it. If I take the time to sit and map out, okay, I'll wake up at this time, I'll train at this time, I'll be at my gym at this time, I'll be with the Lakers at this time, I'll be back at this time, family time at this, and I have a structure because to me, without structure, there's nothing. I had this conversation with my wife yesterday. So without structure, we lose it. And then we're losing the one thing we can't replace, which is time.

• 13:21Ed Mylett?

  And so seeing these people, it's interesting, there's a lot of lessons right there, like, one, talk about it with your family. Not every entrepreneur tells you to do that, right?

• 13:28Gunnar Peterson?

  And I'm not saying every entrepreneur should, but I know I should.

• 13:31Ed Mylett?

  It's your formula.

• 13:32Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, and I know that when I come in at night, or if I'm, you know, I go to all my kids' games. So if I'm not gonna be at your game, there has to be a reason, and I don't want the kid, my son or my daughter to look at me and go, you're not at my game? I wanna be able to say, remember sweetheart, I took that job and I'm gonna be at the Utah game that day, so I won't be able to make it, but I'll be at the next one. I wanna have answers and I want them to understand that they all. We're in on this.

• 13:57Ed Mylett?

  What a wonderful lesson.

• 13:59Gunnar Peterson?

  They shouldn't be victims of my choices, right?

• 14:01Ed Mylett?

  What a wonderful example. The second thing you said that is something that people that are already successful have a hard time doing. It's easy to take steps back when you're at the, you know, really already struggling, but when you've already reached a certain level, do you have the guts and the vision, is the word you use, to maybe take a step back financially to propel yourself further into the future? That's a huge lesson for business people, man, that because there becomes a level where people go, okay, now I'm comfortable.

• 14:26Gunnar Peterson?

  They become more risk averse as they do that.

• 14:29Ed Mylett?

  I think so.

• 14:29Gunnar Peterson?

  And I think in becoming risk averse, not that you need to take unnecessary risks, but I think in becoming that, you might start to play it safe. Let me give it top of my head. I go to a lot of basketball games, even before this gig, I went to a lot of basketball games, and I would say this to whoever was listening, something happens, you'll notice it in sports, a team builds up a lead, and then they start changing how they play because they start playing safe, they start playing, and obviously defense wins championships, we all know this, but they start playing not to lose versus playing to win, and you end up, you've changed your game plan, your game plan was serving you, and I'm not all

• 15:10Gunnar Peterson?

  for running up the score, but if I'm a coach and we practice this play, and this play is supposed to get us a touchdown every time, or a fast break basket every time, and I can keep executing that, why wouldn't I execute that during a game just like it? And if that means the score is 100 to 20, then that's what that means.

• 15:26Ed Mylett?

  That's, that's.

• 15:28Gunnar Peterson?

  And hopefully the coach of the other team can find a way to take a positive and give a lesson to his team on how they just got spanked like that.

• 15:36Ed Mylett?

  I love that. And I tell you, I think it's also like a pathway to being happier. The amount of kind of uncertainty you can deal with at any given time is actually connected to how happy you are. Like, some of the happiest times in people's lives, if they look back on them, they were the most uncertain. Like, it's when you were scrambling for finals at Duke, or, and you had a job, and you had to do this, and so you should chase uncertainty. I think, I think not taking unnecessary risks is absolutely right, but I see so many people get to a pretty good place, or even a great place, and then they do start playing not to lose. They start, defense wins championships, but playing defensively always is a formula to lose, and there's a difference, there's a subtle difference between those two. I love that. Such great feedback. For being in a world that has so much... Stuff on it that you and I both know that world.

• 16:20Ed Mylett?

  How much of a family man you are and how grounded you are. And I think it's important that more and more entrepreneurs see family men succeeding. Cause there's images and messages that, you know, you can't have a great family. I mean, his wife and little boy are down playing on the beach right now, right?

• 16:33Gunnar Peterson?

  We're actually gonna go up to the playground in your neighborhood and, you know, put it right back on you. He said, have them come down. I said, no, no, they don't want to intrude. He said, have them come down. There's no one here.

• 16:42Ed Mylett?

  We would love that.

• 16:43Gunnar Peterson?

  So, yeah, but I wouldn't have done the trip down here. She said, let's make it a day. I said, let's do it. So you packed a little guy up. It worked out perfectly.

• 16:51Ed Mylett?

  And Zane's like your twin, by the way. I was reading that, like, for example, Kim Kardashian, she'll drive an hour one way to come train with you. So clearly it wasn't the zip code necessarily, right? But when they approach their workouts, do you see something different? Like, I have this theory that people that they're that kind of that 1% thing. I don't know, do they attack differently? Do they approach a training session different? What do you notice with, whether it's a successful CEO or an entertainer or someone like that? Actually training them, is there anything you notice with them that's different?

• 17:19Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, the, what I see almost across the board in the successful people who've come there to work out is the single-minded focus, the focus. And that doesn't mean that there's like hyper-intensity, max weights, let's go, let's go. But there's, we're definitely getting through something, start to finish. They get their own time. They leave when it's over. They have somewhere to go after. So it's a piece of their day, right? And they're not gonna be denied. They rarely cancel. This is funny. I keep, I use a program to log all my workouts, right? Two programs, one to log the workouts themselves. So I know what anybody, oh, God forbid, anybody says their shoulder hurts.

• 18:02Gunnar Peterson?

  I can look back on the last two workouts and say, well, we did this, this, this. I don't know how that would translate, but maybe. But I use another one to log hours. And I've used that program, I've been doing this 29 years. I've used that program now for 25 or 26 years. I have, I checked it two days ago. I have an 8.7 something percent cancellation rate. Over that many years. And to me, that, that means I have 91, 92 some. How's that math thing again?

• 18:33Ed Mylett?

  There's that Duke thing.

• 18:34Gunnar Peterson?

  How am I doing? Right. Percent attendance, that's, I look at that and I go, that's not credit to me. That's credit to them. But more importantly, that shows you what kind of people they were anyway. This is just proof that they were those people.

• 18:48Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 18:48Gunnar Peterson?

  Right? It wasn't, it wasn't a fluke that they became successful in their careers. Because look how they executed at the gym. They showed up 91 and a half percent of the time.

• 18:59Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 19:00Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, that's, that's an A dude.

• 19:02Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, it's an A. And some of the highest identity, most busy people on the planet, right?

• 19:06Gunnar Peterson?

  And pulled, and that's what people say, well, if I had a trainer. I, no, you wouldn't. You wouldn't. It's not about having the trainer. It's about having the ability to commit and to compartmentalize and to say, I'm doing this for that time.

• 19:19Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 19:20Gunnar Peterson?

  Because they are pulled in so many different directions. It's not like, you know, Chloe just gets a jeans line.

• 19:27Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 19:27Gunnar Peterson?

  Right? It's not like Dwayne Johnson just gets a TV show.

• 19:30Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 19:30Gunnar Peterson?

  Those are meetings and ideas and brainstorming sessions and texts and those things take on, not just, it's another, it's another time channel, right?

• 19:43Ed Mylett?

  They clearly keep coming back to you though. And I'm curious, from a business perspective, I've heard you say this before, because you're a trainer. But you approach the business, I just, I thought this was awesome because it's, it's true of almost any business we would describe. What business are you really in? So you're a trainer, but you, what business would you say you're in above all?

• 20:02Gunnar Peterson?

  I'm great at connecting people. I can't monetize it for shit. I wish there were a way to say, let me introduce you. Oh, you need a contractor? Well, oh, you're looking for a car? Oh, your wife needs a new OB-GYN? Oh, you want, I can connect to so many things that have nothing to, and, you know, we all, in our trade, we develop certain go-to lines. And I always say, I can't get you into any restaurants or clubs, but anything in health, wellness, medical, I got you. I know the top shoulder surgeon. I know the top knee surgeon. I know the top nutritious, the top dentist. Dentist, I got dentist, I got orthodontist, and then I have just, yeah. So, but it's been years where I am.

• 20:45Gunnar Peterson?

  And I can also call them on their cell and connect you like that. Right? But I'll tell you, clubs, I don't even know what clubs are hot now. Restaurants, I got a couple go-to restaurants, but it's nothing that you'd probably want to go to. And I, and it makes me happy. Nothing makes me happier than someone, I had a call two week, yeah, a couple weeks ago, somebody said, I chipped my tooth. What can I do? And it was a Friday afternoon, and I go, stand by. Yep, and they were in the chair within two hours, getting the, and I thought, yeah, that's what I can do.

• 21:17Ed Mylett?

  Because you approach it like a, I'd never heard this before. You approach it, this is such a lesson, because a lot of trainers watch this, how do I grow my practice, right?

• 21:27Gunnar Peterson?

  That goes both ways. If that dentist gets someone who's lying there going, you know, I feel so fat when I lie in this chair, it makes me really see my stomach. Well, I mean, the analogy I would use is a restaurant analogy, right? It's, you pull in, you pull into the gym, you pull into a restaurant. Is there a place to park? And I goof about parking, but in LA, parking's a very real thing. Is that difficult? How much of a headache was that? Getting into the place, you walk in, is there someone who stops you, greets you? Do they remember you? Is there a rhythm and a flow to, to what you do when you get there? Or is it a whole check-in, who are you again? I mean, little things like that can, can slow the roll, and it's a lot less fun overall. And the next time the person has to go to that, they go.

• 22:12Gunnar Peterson?

  I'm not going and then to me then your cancellation rate goes up. Even if you're charging for cancellations over time, that goes away too. You won't go back to the same restaurant if, forget the food, the food I take for granted. If the whole experience that preceded the meal was a pain in the ass.

• 22:32Ed Mylett?

  Bro, I had one of those last night. The food was great. The experience was crap. We'll never go back.

• 22:37Gunnar Peterson?

  Experience can be bad on either end.

• 22:39Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 22:40Gunnar Peterson?

  Right? Usually we tend to selective amnesia. We tend to forget what happened in the middle if the food was good, right? But if you ask for the bill and it's 20 minutes, puts you in a bad mood on the way out. You get to valet, 20 minutes and valet is a real thing in LA. Every restaurant is valet or a lot of them. Right? That kills the whole vibe.

• 23:01Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 23:01Gunnar Peterson?

  Right?

• 23:01Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 23:02Gunnar Peterson?

  Or the waiter just disappears and you can't even ask. You're like, we've been here 15 minutes.

• 23:06Ed Mylett?

  You were at my dinner last night. All of those things. No, but I think as you're an entrepreneur, if you are one watching this, how conscious are you from the entire experience the client has with you? Are you in the service from the minute they got there?

• 23:18Gunnar Peterson?

  Cold water, room temp.

• 23:21Gunnar Peterson?

  Some of my clients like cold, some like room temp. We have water and towels out for every person. That's a service. Well, I don't provide it. Well, you should. And if you don't, we can't afford that, but raise your rates. If I ran a hotel, the minibar would be free. Now, the room would cost a lot more, but the minibar would be free all the time. Yes, you're going to get a couple of jerk offs who emptied the minibar out as they leave. Okay, fine. But you're also going to get people who don't touch it. And you need to find that sweet spot in your price point to make that work for you. Because nobody at the higher end of any service wants to be nickel and dime.

• 23:56Ed Mylett?

  I 100% believe that. And I think you entrepreneurs, listen to this. I don't care what you know. I don't care if you have a bakery, a dry cleaners, or you're a software engineer. All of these things are so important as an entrepreneur. See, these are the things like, and I mean this with respect, you know this, it's not just the zip code. Because for someone to, they have to want to come back. They have to want to keep coming back.

• 24:16Gunnar Peterson?

  It's their disposable income. Watch this. It's their disposable income, their limited free time.

• 24:24Gunnar Peterson?

  For something that is arguably painful.

• 24:29Gunnar Peterson?

  How are you, how are you making that, hey, wanna come back?

• 24:32Ed Mylett?

  Right, right.

• 24:33Gunnar Peterson?

  You have to make it as fun or as positive as it can be. There should be so many, and in fact, only, positive associations with their experience with you that when training comes up, when cold water comes up, or room temp water, or your name comes up, there's a positive association that happens. That is the best PR machine you could ever create.

• 24:55Ed Mylett?

  You were saying earlier, we were talking, I hope you don't mind me saying this, but you're very well-known that you don't have a publicist.

• 25:00Gunnar Peterson?

  I've never had a publicist.

• 25:01Ed Mylett?

  And I think the reason you're so well-known is what you just described. When your name comes up, there's a positive association and your clients are raving fans about you. What's it like then, now I'm being trained by you, okay? And I think trainer is like an odd, it's a partner, but it's also a leader. And so I think there's some principles in being a trainer that also transcend other businesses. My sense of you is, people that are trained by you, this is really a unique balance. They gotta be accountable to you to an extent because you're being trained by them. Correct me if I'm wrong, yet you make them comfortable in your presence and they enjoy your presence.

• 25:35Gunnar Peterson?

  Accountable, what do you mean accountable?

• 25:37Ed Mylett?

  Well, um, we're gonna, I don't know, we're gonna, we're gonna do squats now, or we're gonna do this. And so they're, they're with you in their presence. We're gonna do six of these, or eight of these, or 12 of these. There's a, there's a relationship between what you've asked them to do and them doing it. I think they're accountable.

• 25:49Gunnar Peterson?

  And I get this question, I go, oh, you're gonna make me do that? I go, I'm not gonna make you do anything. We can, no, we can do whatever you want. You wanna do something else? What do you wanna do? Let's just do what you wanna do. And then they go, oh my gosh, so hard. I go, do you just wanna do the easy stuff? And anybody who's worked with me will go, oh my gosh, that's exactly what he says. I go, do you just wanna do the easy stuff? We can do that, what do you wanna do? You wanna, should we, should we fuck it? Let's just go get breakfast? Wanna do that? We can do that, you wanna do that? I just have to be back at nine, I guess I have somebody, you let me know. And then they look at you and they realize, they brought me in to this equation to, to map out, right, to steer clear of any of the landmines in the fitness world? And now they're gonna counter it? I mean, we can, but...

• 26:31Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 26:32Gunnar Peterson?

  Right?

• 26:32Ed Mylett?

  So you do, so you check them. You check them, you're gonna set their own standard.

• 26:34Gunnar Peterson?

  But in a fun way, I don't admonish. The stuff you see on TV, yelling at people, degrading, doesn't work in a gym.

• 26:41Ed Mylett?

  It doesn't work outside of the gym. I used to be a business guy like that when I was young. People ask me all the time what were mistakes I made, like as a young businessman. I didn't treat people like they should be treated periodically. I learned that as I got a little bit older. And so, I'm curious, to get me through a workout, I'm making it up. I'm an entertainer, doesn't matter which one of them. It's a lot of work there. What do you use to get them through? Do you use levity? Do you use humor? Do you use distraction? Like, what do you use? What's a tool you use to help someone get through a tough workout?

• 27:10Gunnar Peterson?

  So, I write, I have every workout written for everybody. I write them up the night before when my kids do homework. I do my homework and I print them out. And I start with, "This is a template, it's not a bible." Right? So, you have that trainer who goes...

• 27:27Ed Mylett?

  That's open.

• 27:28Gunnar Peterson?

  Alright, we're over here. You should leave that trainer. Because that person's making it up as they go, and you should make it up as you go yourself and not pay that person. That's just bad for our business. So, I map it out. So, I have a plan. That's the first tool. The second tool, I ease them into it, not meaning we don't do, like, there's a formula, right? There's things they can count on, their rituals, right? They start with four, five, six, seven minutes on a piece of steady-state cardio equipment. Not that I don't believe in dynamic warm-ups and I'm for all that, but these are people who need to get out of the outside world and get into what we're doing. It allows them, and all the stuff, by the way, is facing the window. So, they can look out, blue sky, just think about, okay, alright, bump, I'm in the gym. Here we go. And that's, right?

• 28:13Gunnar Peterson?

  So, everything outside of the gym is outside, inside the gym is in. And then we get to work. And we go through eight, nine, 10, 11 movements.

• 28:20Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 28:21Gunnar Peterson?

  Two, three, four times, depending on what the movements were, how many of them were unilateral, da-da-da. And we sequence them in a way that takes you up, like that. So, we create a cardiovascular experience for your body.

• 28:33Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 28:34Gunnar Peterson?

  During, doing what would be maybe more traditionally viewed as anaerobic movements, right? So, if I sequence push-ups, squats, crunches a certain way, you're gonna get a different cardiovascular response than if you did them set after set after set, old-school training. So, there's that. And the way to work us through all that is levity, callback. Those are little things. You have to remember, you have to listen. Remember the person's spouse's name. Remember the person's kid's name. Remember events in that person's life. You say, "Well, that's a lot to remember." It's not that much. People are more likely to engage with someone who they feel cares about.

• 29:14Ed Mylett?

  I totally agree with you. And I also, it's really interesting that you say that because that transcends just being in the fitness business. Almost every other business, these things matter, particularly my business and the financial business. You better know some of those details if you're going to keep a client long-term because every other dude, every other lady out there is trying to get your client, right?

• 29:32Gunnar Peterson?

  But your job as a trainer is not just to crush people. It's just such a, it's bad for business. The person leaves and I've heard trainers say, "I destroyed that dude. He won't walk tomorrow." And you just think, "What are you thinking?" He has a negative experience and somebody in his, he's going to get up, "Ah, the next day like that." And somebody in his inner circle is going to go, "What's the matter?"

• 29:57Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 29:58Gunnar Peterson?

  "Ah, my trainer just destroyed me." And they're going to go, "It's not really good for you." And they planted the seed, you actually planted it. They watered the seed that you planted.

• 30:09Ed Mylett?

  Is there an exception to that? If you have a guy who says, "I want you to obliterate me every time I come in here. That's my standard." There's an exception. You must train a guy or two like that, right? But that's their standard.

• 30:18Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, and I think some of them don't know what that is, right? I mean, you can have, we have a puke bucket in our gym and it's painted pink for obvious reasons. Because puke is colored pink, please.

• 30:29Ed Mylett?

  You don't want those letters.

• 30:30Gunnar Peterson?

  Right. But you know, it's used infrequently. I bet you it's been used less than five times in.

• 30:39Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 30:39Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah.

• 30:40Ed Mylett?

  So let me ask you a couple of things. I'm someone watching this and I get access to Gunnar Peterson for a minute here. And I've not worked out much. I'm not in shape. I want to turn my physical life around a little bit. And I get a minute with you. I can't come to your gym. I live in Des Moines, Iowa. What would you tell me about changing my life from a physical standpoint? My fitness journey, my health, my wellness? What would you tell me?

• 31:04Gunnar Peterson?

  I'd say you probably need help. Meaning, don't be shy. A lot of people think, "Well, it's a gym. I mean, it's obvious, I know how to do it." You probably don't, right? And... And you go farther, the people who've been in gyms for a long time, that doesn't make you a trainer. Right, it's just because you've you've commuted from New York to DC every week. After five years, you're not a pilot. Okay, you just, you know, you're not, I'm sorry. I know you're on the plane a lot, but you're not a pilot. And you're in the gym a lot, but you're not a trainer. It's just a different skill set. Doesn't mean everybody can't be a pilot or a trainer, but you gotta, you gotta learn it. Um, but for that person, hire someone, whether it's, and I also think, don't try to overhaul your whole life in one go. Right, don't make Monday the day you quit smoking, quit drinking, commit to eight hours of sleep,

• 31:47Gunnar Peterson?

  and five workouts a week with a trainer, and you're gonna go vegan. It's just, it's a lot.

• 31:51Ed Mylett?

  That's so true.

• 31:53Gunnar Peterson?

  It's something, start slowly, add on. Uh, I go back and forth with my good friend and nutritionist, Dr. Philip Goleo, and he's like, diet's 80%, but I go, diet's not 80% of it. When you're, when you're 100% away from the goal, anything that you start with is gonna be the biggest part, and then you start adding. When you get down to within 10% of what your, your, your ultimate you, yeah, diet is probably a bigger, more important, from an aesthetic at least, and performance too, but it's gonna be a bigger part of it. But when you're starting, don't just tell them diet. Wherever they're comfortable. I get some people who say, I don't even wanna look at my diet right now.

• 32:34Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 32:34Gunnar Peterson?

  I just wanna start working out. I go, okay. And then as they leave, give them two quick diet things that maybe they may or may not, you know, put to use.

• 32:43Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 32:44Gunnar Peterson?

  If they say, I really wanna get my diet under control, and then I'd like to come to you, okay, great. You should call this guy. Don't just pull it out of a magazine. If you're not doing something that looks at your blood, I mean, can you have results? Sure. If you blindfold a monkey and have it throw a dart, can it hit the bullseye? Eh, sure. Not likely, but it could, it could. So, use a professional. If you're looking to get better at a sport, hire a tennis coach, hire a soccer coach for your kid, whatever it is. And then, that's what that person should do.

• 33:11Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I, I have a book that I'm gonna be coming out with pretty soon, and one, one little chapter on it's fitness, max out your fitness. First thing I recommend is hire a trainer.

• 33:18Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah.

• 33:18Ed Mylett?

  And then the second thing I say ironically is, it's interesting that you said that. Start with something that is maintainable from the very beginning.

• 33:25Gunnar Peterson?

  I have a quote written in my window. My wife is putting it on the back of sweatshirts now. It says, if it's not sustainable, it's not successful.

• 33:30Ed Mylett?

  I love that.

• 33:31Gunnar Peterson?

  It's not.

• 33:32Ed Mylett?

  I love that, yeah.

• 33:33Gunnar Peterson?

  Well, can you, can you get there? Yeah, sure. Can you live there? No chance.

• 33:38Ed Mylett?

  Roughly speaking, in general, for a non-professional athlete.

• 33:43Ed Mylett?

  Generally speaking, how long should a workout be? Within a range?

• 33:47Gunnar Peterson?

  Secretary of Health and Human Services, I think they said between 30 and 90 minutes a day. And people went, 90 minutes, impossible.

• 33:53Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 33:54Gunnar Peterson?

  Okay, so go with the 30. And maybe Saturday, you're free, go to 45. Play with it. But let's see, can you do, you know, what was that Jorge Cruz book? Six minutes in the morning, eight minutes in the morning?

• 34:06Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 34:06Gunnar Peterson?

  Six, five, four, three, where are we?

• 34:08Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 34:08Gunnar Peterson?

  But, I mean, something is better than nothing.

• 34:11Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 34:11Gunnar Peterson?

  Matthew McConaughey says, just break a sweat every day.

• 34:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 34:14Gunnar Peterson?

  So, everybody has their thing and a sweat through activity. Like, sauna doesn't count as a workout.

• 34:19Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 34:20Gunnar Peterson?

  So...

• 34:20Ed Mylett?

  Sauna doesn't count as a workout. Do you think, it's interesting, I don't cut you off there, but I, I think people ask those questions as a mechanism...

• 34:29Gunnar Peterson?

  It's a pushback.

• 34:30Ed Mylett?

  That's what I think, too.

• 34:30Gunnar Peterson?

  It's starting, it's...

• 34:31Ed Mylett?

  That's what I think.

• 34:32Gunnar Peterson?

  Okay, how, okay, and they're keeping you. Just embrace it, whatever it is, it is. Go do a workout. What does that mean? That means go to the gym and pick six exercises and do them three times through and then get on a piece of cardio for 30 minutes.

• 34:43Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 34:43Gunnar Peterson?

  Well, which ones? I don't know. Now you gotta hire a trainer.

• 34:46Ed Mylett?

  Now you hire a trainer, or at least just start the process, too, right? Exactly.

• 34:49Gunnar Peterson?

  But also, what are your goals? If you get someone who's looking to, that weighs 400 pounds, they're looking to knock off 200 pounds, that's different from somebody who's 200, wants to be 180. That's different from a woman who's 110, wants to be 125, or 125, wants to be 110. Those are all weight, you know, numbers. Then you go, what about a different species of biped who's not completely, you know, mastered by the scale?

• 35:12Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 35:13Gunnar Peterson?

  Ah, so, oh, so you're gonna be that guy who doesn't let the inanimate object tell you how good you should feel about yourself? Love talking to you.

• 35:19Ed Mylett?

  Love that, yeah.

• 35:20Gunnar Peterson?

  And let's go. They're willing to try this, this, this, this.

• 35:23Ed Mylett?

  So about the Lakers, you gotta be excited about this.

• 35:24Gunnar Peterson?

  Love.

• 35:25Ed Mylett?

  This is cool, right? So, I'm fascinated by the diversity of your training. Like, you know, you do have a Chloe, or a J-Lo, or someone like that. Then, once in a while, I see there's a Tommy Brady workout, or... Now it's NBA players, though, right? These are the greatest athletes in the world to me. And so, and you're a basketball fan, and so, are you, are you nervous about this? Are you excited about this? And what do you, what exactly are you gonna do these guys?

• 35:51Gunnar Peterson?

  No, so I did a whole, all last season, it was my first year.

• 35:53Ed Mylett?

  Okay.

• 35:53Gunnar Peterson?

  Apprehensive, eager, probably all better words for me.

• 35:59Ed Mylett?

  Is it the same with them, Gunnar? Like are each of them, it's funny, now that you've been talking about this, I'm just curious. So you, they're all different guys too. One guy's seven foot, one guy's 6'1". So not all of them.

• 36:09Gunnar Peterson?

  And some of them, and they range in age from 19 to 35.

• 36:14Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 36:14Gunnar Peterson?

  And they have X amount of experience and some of them are known only to go to their right side. Some of them work very well to both sides. Some of them don't have the lower extremity strength that they need. Some of them have trouble taking a hit. And you know, basketball, when you grow up, you're taught it's a non-contact sport. Basketball is very much a contact sport, especially at that level. Very physical, a lot of contact. So it's a challenge. And I look at it like that. It's fun. Yeah, there were days when you'd drive in and go, okay, what are we doing today? I mean, I've mapped it out.

• 36:44Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 36:44Gunnar Peterson?

  But how are we going to get this going today? And I have two great dudes who work with me, Josh Wright and Adi Vase down there. And we put together programming that a lot of the guys, while they're lifting, they're learning to lift. Because they're not coming from a formal lifting background, right? What they do on court with our coaching staff is terrific. That stuff's handled. That's not my domain. But the weight room is, and you want to make sure that, that you're, you're two things. You're keeping them engaged in it, right?

• 37:12Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 37:12Gunnar Peterson?

  Because I want this to serve them through their entire careers. Because I know it can. And I want them to want to do it. So, so there's a bit of a sell to it. And there's also, is it something that's going to translate directly to their success on the court?

• 37:27Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 37:27Gunnar Peterson?

  Which means it has to be consistent.

• 37:29Ed Mylett?

  Do you work with them in the offseason too, or just during the season?

• 37:32Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, this offseason, we split it up where we're at the facility still. So guys who are here get all of us. And then guys who travel will dispatch either one of the guys who works with me, or I will go and just be there for a couple of days. More to see who they're working with. And we gave them exit cards, you know, to say, here's what we, you know, broad strokes stuff. Here's what your focus should be on. Share this with whoever, you know, you worked with in the offseason. And, and all of our phone numbers are there in contacts. Have the guy text. And one of our, our young guys, Aditza Zubek, the center, the Croatia center right? Great kid, great guy. was already in Croatia for a couple of weeks and I was on with his trainer every three days. What's he doing? How's he feeling? Yeah, you gotta keep up.

• 38:17Gunnar Peterson?

  It shows him we're interested and we are. And it shows that we have a hand in his development.

• 38:24Ed Mylett?

  That's so cool.

• 38:25Gunnar Peterson?

  What you're supposed to do. A lot of these guys, they check out, they're gone and they don't, there's no contact anymore.

• 38:30Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, right.

• 38:31Gunnar Peterson?

  That's not the kind of Laker culture that we're trying to do. We are there for these guys all the time. All of ourselves, text us anytime, we're there anytime. And we'll talk to whoever you have in your circle, whether it's a trainer, an encore guy, a nutritionist, whoever it is, they'll connect with the Laker counterpart of that department.

• 38:48Ed Mylett?

  That's so cool.

• 38:49Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah.

• 38:49Ed Mylett?

  I'm excited for you. They got some cap money. I'm gonna be curious who you get to work with next year.

• 38:52Gunnar Peterson?

  Oh, it's gonna be big.

• 38:53Ed Mylett?

  I think there's gonna be some big time dudes coming in there. So a couple more things. I'm really enjoying this, by the way. There's people watching this and the reason I ask you it, let me give you a context is, people find these messages at different times of their careers, of their lives, right? Like, it's not been 29 perfect years of doing this, right? Has there been a time that was not great? And you don't have to say specifically what it was if you don't want to, but you can. And then what did you do to get out of it?

• 39:18Gunnar Peterson?

  So, um, I'd had my own gym for a while and when, um, when I got divorced, the gym went away. It was attached to the old house. And my manager at the time said, look, I was riding high, I had an infomercial that was doing well. I had a book that was killing. And I had speaking gigs, not like your stuff, but you know, smaller, same thing, just miniaturized. And she said, you don't need a gym. You should just, you can do the speaking thing. And I said, yeah, yeah, but the gym is the mothership. The gym is my lab, that's my, that's one of the, that's one of the ways that, you almost sound corny saying you express yourself, but I can do things in that gym

• 40:02Gunnar Peterson?

  that can translate to what my clients do and make them better. Give them better workouts, provide better training protocols. I can, I can test things, I can try out equipment. So, did I think about it? I mean,

• 40:15Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 40:16Gunnar Peterson?

  Sure, you thought about not opening a gym? Oh, no more overhead. There go those insurance costs.

• 40:24Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 40:27Gunnar Peterson?

  Then it'd have to be at somebody else's gym. That's not gonna work.

• 40:30Ed Mylett?

  So you, you chased your own vision though, during that time?

• 40:34Gunnar Peterson?

  I had to. No, she wasn't, nobody was poo pooing it, but, but, but from a practical side, and I think also my manager probably saw the stress it was taking on me.

• 40:43Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 40:43Gunnar Peterson?

  I, I went from when I first started doing a lot of in-home people, right, 29 years ago, and then I was driving along and I started humming the news jingle to an AM radio station, and I had my cooler with like a yam and chicken breasts and distilled water, and I was literally going, K F W B. And I went, I'm becoming a weirdo. I literally had the thought, I'm weird, I'm humming a news jingle, it's not even a song, I mean, it is a song, no disrespect to jingle writers, but, I'm that guy now, and, and everything I say is true and accurate because shit, I just said it. So there's no, I'm in a vacuum. I gotta, I gotta get out.

• 41:25Gunnar Peterson?

  And I started going to all the gyms around where I lived and say, hey, I'm a trainer, here's my resume, here's what I do. Can I train here? Can I train here? I was on the road, you know, 110 miles a day in LA traffic. It was too much. So I found a place to lock down, and I was there for eight years. And then the guy had a different vision than I did, and he, and he said once to me, you're upset because I don't fix this or do this at the time you would like it. If I'm the number three gym in the city, I'm fine with that. And I thought, ooh, I'm not, I'm not, I don't even know what the number gym, I didn't know, we ranked them, I don't know what number one looks like, but I know I'm not cool just taking the bronze. Not just gonna take that and say thank you.

• 42:05Ed Mylett?

  I love it.

• 42:05Gunnar Peterson?

  And so I left. And I opened my own. And then when that went away, I went back to just five people in their homes.

• 42:15Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 42:16Gunnar Peterson?

  Right, so I was seeing five, all huge stars, but boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. Done at 2:30, 3 o'clock, that kind of thing. And I thought, I'm doing the same thing I used to, and it was fun, of course, it's like a new, it's like a new chapter. And then I thought, I'm doing the same thing I used to do, I'm just doing it in a better car. Is that news station still here? I mean, and I don't wanna be that. And I was at the same time, of course, looking at buildings to open a gym, but it was proving difficult. You know, cost, parking, everything, and I just, there were times when I thought,

• 42:50Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 42:50Gunnar Peterson?

  I just stick with this. Infomercials still running, books still selling. I'm good.

• 42:56Ed Mylett?

  I love that.

• 42:57Gunnar Peterson?

  But I'm not good. I need a mothership. I need a, I need, plus I got a shit ton of equipment.

• 43:02Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 43:03Gunnar Peterson?

  Right? And I don't want to just have it in storage in Gardena somewhere. I mean, I want, I like it. I play on everything I have. I do have a few storage units with equipment in it, but, and eventually when I wrap it all up, wherever I go, I will still have a giant barn with equipment because that's just who I am.

• 43:19Ed Mylett?

  That's your deal.

• 43:19Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah.

• 43:20Ed Mylett?

  I love it. A lot of lessons again, man. I gotta be honest with you. Like I'm eating this up because one, entrepreneurs are super self-aware. You're driving in there, you're like, I'm becoming a weirdo, right? And-

• 43:29Gunnar Peterson?

  Fully. And I went that day and started-

• 43:32Ed Mylett?

  Immediate action.

• 43:33Gunnar Peterson?

  I had to. But also where I am, where I lived at the time, um, on La Cienega in West Hollywood, there were a ton of gyms around, right? So I could, I must've hit four the first day. I went in, here's my resume, and some of the guys were like, what's this? I've never seen a trainer with a resume. And, you know, that was a long time ago. So-

• 43:53Ed Mylett?

  That's awesome because I think also, Gunner, I think Malcolm X has this quote that I use all the time.

• 43:57Gunnar Peterson?

  By any means necessary.

• 43:58Ed Mylett?

  Well, that's, that's-

• 43:59Gunnar Peterson?

  I use that all the time with clients. By any means necessary.

• 44:01Ed Mylett?

  Any means necessary. And that which you do not hate, you will eventually tolerate. And so you got to this point, you're like, I hate this.

• 44:07Gunnar Peterson?

  I have it written in my window. It says, if you tolerate it, they will perpetuate it. It's written in my window, at the gym.

• 44:14Ed Mylett?

  I knew I loved you.

• 44:14Gunnar Peterson?

  Yep.

• 44:15Ed Mylett?

  I knew it. Isn't that crazy that you have that?

• 44:16Gunnar Peterson?

  You can't, you can't allow that. So you have to, you have to have certain boundaries.

• 44:21Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. Bro, you're be- I think I love you.

• 44:28Gunnar Peterson?

  Honey, we're moving!

• 44:29Ed Mylett?

  I'm telling you. All right, one more thing. Man, I'm really impressed. And there's so much more down- I wish we could go longer. I'm curious, though, I kind of get your transition. I'm fascinated by people that are the best at what they do, you know, like in whatever it is. It just fascinates me. Do you know what drives you? Do you know what it is?

• 44:51Gunnar Peterson?

  Also, I go back, this is you're gonna go, oh, humility, full humility. It's not. The best at what you do. I think that's so subjective because there's so many people out there that love their trainers and, and that's exactly who they should be with.

• 45:03Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 45:04Gunnar Peterson?

  If the trainer is, in any field though, if the trainer is passionate and detail oriented, but those are also qualities that I like in, in, in friends and people I'm around, right? You're detail oriented. You don't have to be, you know, sleeping with the enemy OCD guy, but you gotta be, there's a rhyme and a reason and things go a certain way in life and that's just how that sets and look, ah, we should change that.

• 45:28Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 45:28Gunnar Peterson?

  Not just the, not just the aesthetic and the visual, but there's certain things that happen in a certain way, right? We sit, we do family dinner every night at my house and, at our house. We work on manners, table manners.

• 45:40Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 45:40Gunnar Peterson?

  And that's a lost art.

• 45:43Ed Mylett?

  It is.

• 45:43Gunnar Peterson?

  But they gotta know because they're gonna go out and, and I've had my middle son text me and say, "Dad, I'm so glad I know the manners. I know I was at a dinner and so and so ate like a pig." And I'm like, "You're welcome."

• 45:55Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 45:55Gunnar Peterson?

  But because you're gonna go and maybe not every, maybe everybody at the table has bad manners, maybe, but maybe the one guy who you are trying to get a job from or who you were drawn to, watches you eat and goes, "My God, this guy's a pirate. I've never had..."

• 46:09Ed Mylett?

  Got it.

• 46:10Gunnar Peterson?

  You know?

• 46:10Ed Mylett?

  You got it.

• 46:11Gunnar Peterson?

  So, little things. So, you practice it and we talk about it. That's practice. When they're out in the real world, when they're, when they're at a restaurant, I don't say a word because that's a game, right? So, practice. Watch Phil Jackson's old coaching. He said, he used to sit.

• 46:25Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 46:26Gunnar Peterson?

  He goes, "I don't yell during the game." He did, he did very little actual coaching on the bench because he said, "We've been over this."

• 46:32Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 46:33Gunnar Peterson?

  "I shouldn't have to coach." And I think that's brilliant.

• 46:35Ed Mylett?

  It is brilliant.

• 46:36Gunnar Peterson?

  He doesn't have to.

• 46:37Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 46:37Gunnar Peterson?

  Not that that doesn't work for some guys and, and some coaches who have younger teams or who have guys who are still meshing. That's all valid, but when you have a machine that runs a certain way, right, you're not...

• 46:48Ed Mylett?

  Isn't it interesting about that, by the way, my favorite compliment is if someone tells me something about my son or my daughter when I'm not there in their presence about how they behave or their manners or they conduct themselves.

• 46:57Gunnar Peterson?

  I've gotten those emails and I just go, "That's way better than you sending me an email about something I did."

• 47:01Ed Mylett?

  A hundred percent. I totally agree with that. And the other thing, it's interesting about coaching and what you just said about practice and the game, arguably the greatest NBA coach of all time is probably Phil. He's getting in the conversation and arguably the greatest college coach of all time is probably Wooden. And both of those guys behaved almost identically on the sidelines.

• 47:17Gunnar Peterson?

  Did you just not even mention Coach K in that?

• 47:19Ed Mylett?

  I'm sorry, brother.

• 47:20Gunnar Peterson?

  Wow. That's gonna leave a mark.

• 47:22Ed Mylett?

  He's, he's on the list, but he's, he's not, he's not Wooden.

• 47:25Gunnar Peterson?

  It's a super short list.

• 47:26Ed Mylett?

  It's a short list, but we're in Southern Cal, so I gotta acknowledge the UCLA guy. So, I'm curious to finish with that though. Do you know what drives you? 10 or 15 great years in front of you right now, right? Longer than that, but 10 or 15 years, like you're in your go zone right now. Do you know what drives you and do you know what you want out of those years?

• 47:44Gunnar Peterson?

  No, you want to be able to provide financially for your family. You want to make sure that you're, you know, you see, what is it Warren Buffett or Bill Gates? I'm only leaving my kids 10 million bucks. Like, okay, I mean, that's nothing, that's not, that's not nothing, but, okay, that's what you want to do. I think as long as they're on the right path and they're doing good things and they're pursuing passions and they're, and they're contributing to the tapestry of the world and not just taking, then I want them to have, you work so, so they, I get up at 3:45. I work so that my kids can get up at 4:30. Now, if they start sleeping till 6:30, again, that's if they have that kind of job, right? A front-loaded job. If they're DJs, then by all means, please sleep till noon.

• 48:26Gunnar Peterson?

  But, you know, you get up so early. I don't get up, I get up at the right time for a trainer.

• 48:31Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 48:32Gunnar Peterson?

  You know, I'm also home every night by 5:00, bam, home.

• 48:36Ed Mylett?

  Right, right.

• 48:36Gunnar Peterson?

  So, and I've gotten my own workout in, in that time.

• 48:40Ed Mylett?

  In that window.

• 48:40Gunnar Peterson?

  Yeah, so I don't get home and then go work out. When I'm home, I'm home, and I mean, I have a little bit of work with the writing of the workouts, but that's it. Other than that, I'm there for the family.

• 48:48Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 48:49Gunnar Peterson?

  So financially, you want to be set, you want to be, you want to be able to provide for your family, right? You don't want anybody to want for anything within reason. No, I still have some things that I'd like to see happen in the world of health and fitness. I'd still, I would like the training game to be elevated. I would like trainers to be better. I see it, I think as we go, it's an age of specialization. I think more and more people are hiring trainers now, all right? So the, and I want those people to be able to get what they deserve to get for their disposable income. You're spending money for someone to shepherd you through this, you know,

• 49:32Gunnar Peterson?

  unsolvable mystery of fitness. Whether they do or they don't, at least the journey should be pleasant and they should give you what you deserve. So I would like the training game to be raised, right? Not that there's not room for all different levels of trainers, you know, the hotel analogy.

• 49:50Gunnar Peterson?

  It could be a Best Western, it could be a Hyatt or Hilton, it could be a Four Seasons. All are good hotels, all are good business models, all do well, but you kind of know.

• 49:59Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, you know what you're getting.

• 50:00Gunnar Peterson?

  Wouldn't you be super surprised if you got the reception from the concierge?

• 50:07Ed Mylett?

  Right.

• 50:08Gunnar Peterson?

  Or the person at the desk at a Best Western that you got at the Four Seasons? But I think if you're going to rent a room that they should want to give you that. And I'm sure that they teach that to their employees. I would just want that lesson to be ingrained.

• 50:20Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, I think the most fascinating thing about you, man, is that your people that win have big old reasons, right? Everything I ask you comes back to your family.

• 50:32Gunnar Peterson?

  Oh, yeah.

• 50:32Ed Mylett?

  And you take for granted.

• 50:34Gunnar Peterson?

  Not just my wife and kids, my brother.

• 50:37Ed Mylett?

  I know.

• 50:37Gunnar Peterson?

  And my parents, that's everything. My parents, my brother, my wife, and my four kids. That's, you know, you get that question, ah, you made me start crying on your little podcast here, I gotta go.

• 50:51Gunnar Peterson?

  You know, if you could have dinner with anybody over any space of time, alive or dead, who would it be? I just told you.

• 50:57Ed Mylett?

  You just told me.

• 50:58Gunnar Peterson?

  That's who I'd want to have dinner with.

• 50:59Ed Mylett?

  I love that about you. I love that.

• 51:01Gunnar Peterson?

  There's nothing I want to ask Christ.

• 51:04Gunnar Peterson?

  I mean, nothing I want to talk to Einstein about. There's no lyric of princes that I would want to go into depth on. If I could have one dinner with anybody I wanted, it would be my parents, my brother, my wife, and my four kids.

• 51:18Ed Mylett?

  I love that. And by the way, everybody, I want to tell you something. This is the exact same conversation we had off camera. This isn't for show. This is who this man is.

• 51:27Gunnar Peterson?

  I don't know how to, I'm not an actor, I can't be one way.

• 51:30Ed Mylett?

  Everything we talked about off camera, and the other thing too, is I think it's most fascinating that in a guy who's in the center of the world, that's sort of everything, sometimes not that, right? It's sometimes everything away from those things, whether it's material or fame, or, by the way, and those things are wonderful too. That in the center of that universe, there's such a deeply seated family man, and that's been the key to his success. And I think, that's everything he just said, and I think that's just such a takeaway for everybody watching this today is to have these big reasons. These big old houses and watches and all that stuff are completely meaningless without what he's got going on right down there with Zane and his beautiful wife.

• 52:08Gunnar Peterson?

  And the phone call with my brother yesterday and FaceTiming him and then talking to my mom and you know that's you know my son from college calling me, my other son going to college, my daughter, are you gonna make my field hockey game today? Those calls, those things gives, all this stuff fuels that fire.

• 52:26Ed Mylett?

  I love that, brother. I hope that everybody saw this side of you today, then they didn't know all of these things about you.

• 52:32Gunnar Peterson?

  So I don't think I was just a sarcastic asshole?

• 52:34Ed Mylett?

  Well, yeah, no, I think it's amazing that, I think it's amazing the breadth of what we went through, but the part that probably is the most meaningful to me is just to know who you are and to know what's really made you successful and I really, I really do respect you, I really do admire you.

• 52:48Gunnar Peterson?

  And you, that's why, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have come down here if I didn't feel the same way, so mutual admiration and society.

• 52:53Ed Mylett?

  Thanks, brother, so much, thanks Gunner. Hey, everybody, I hope you enjoyed today's program. I bring you some of the best people in the world, even the ones who won't admit they're the best people in the world at what they do. All I ask you to do, if you're watching this on YouTube, give the thing a like or make a comment. If you're on iTunes, give it a review and don't forget, everybody, the two-minute drill on Instagram every day when I make a post. You got two minutes to make a comment with hashtag max out. We pick a daily winner, get you a book, coaching call with me, maybe you meet some of my guests as well, so go ahead and take advantage of that. God bless you and max out.