431 The Truth About Success in the Business of Fitness with Marc Fitt

"If you cannot generate money yourself, you should not take the money of others to play with." - Marc Fitt If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video, and more at http://lewishowes.com/431 Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 431 with fitness phenom Mark Fit.

• 0:07Lewis Howes?

  Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:33Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness podcast. I've got a good friend on today. His name is Mark Fit. He is taking over the fitness world personally with his personal brand. He's got almost 5 million fans on Facebook, almost 1.5 million on Instagram, and it's blowing up everywhere else online as well. And he's only 26 years old. This guy has an incredible style. He's got an incredible heart. He's just brilliant, bright. And the thing I love about Mark is he has no limitations. Here's a kid who was studying to be a cop in Quebec in Canada, and all of a sudden realized he wanted to get into the fitness space.

• 1:15Lewis Howes?

  He's built everything himself. He's learned design, coding, he's learned manufacturing, customer support, all the technical elements of building a business around a personal brand himself. From growing an audience to building everything he's done and learned it. Nothing has scared him off from trying something new. And I find it fascinating how he's built this massive personal brand, how he's monetized the personal brand, and also what he's done to build a separate massive brand that is blowing up apart from his own name.

• 1:54Lewis Howes?

  Where I think a lot of people in the entrepreneurial space with the fitness space or influencers don't know how to do. They don't know how to build a business separate of them, but also leverage it as well. So what we talk about is how to stand out in the fitness industry, but really in any industry. Industry at all, but what people are doing in fitness specifically that don't make them stand out. Why he started companies that are separate from his personal brand and how he's building them into massive brands right now. The truth about the grind and what success really requires of you. Also, how to balance relationships and work when you love what you do. You know, Mark and I talk about how sometimes we go weeks where we realize, hey, we forgot to talk to our

• 2:37Lewis Howes?

  family. We forgot to catch up with certain people because we're so passionate about what we do and we're building something, we're creating something. And how do we balance relationships, both family, friends, and intimate? That and so much more, guys. I'm super pumped about this because Mark's been a good buddy of mine. I've seen him transform over the last four years personally as a friend. I've seen what he's done in business. He's one of the smartest guys I know in terms of taking an idea and building it online, just based on his results alone. He's done some incredible things and it's just amazing. Again, he has no, no fears stop him from creating what he wants. He's afraid, he feels them, but he he figures

• 3:20Lewis Howes?

  it out and he's constantly failing. And I think that's cool about him is he learns how to fail quickly. Every single day he's failing and he grows so much faster because he's taking action, failing, learning, getting feedback, taking action, failing, and constantly doing that every day is a process. So I hope you guys are inspired by this. I hope it inspires you to realize that that idea you have inside of you right now, that thing you've been thinking about for the last 15 months that you haven't put out there yet. It's time to start putting it out there. It's time to start Googling and researching and learning how to take on new skills, the way Mark talks about here in a moment, and start taking action. You are wasting

• 4:00Lewis Howes?

  time on building your brand. You're wasting time on building your business and an empire and putting your ideas into the world if you allow fears to hold you back. So take these lessons, assimilate them, use them, breathe these lessons and learn and take action yourself. Let me know what you guys think. Share this out with your friends, lewishouse.com/431. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only Mark Fit.

• 4:37Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone back to the School of Greatness Podcast. We've got my good buddy Mark Fit in the house. Good to see you, man.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  Good to see you too, man.

• 4:44Lewis Howes?

  It's been three years since we came on the podcast.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, three years.

• 4:47Lewis Howes?

  You were what, 22 then? 23?

• 4:49Speaker 01

  Uh, 22 or 23, yes.

• 4:51Lewis Howes?

  23, you're 26 now.

• 4:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 4:54Lewis Howes?

  You, uh, we connected over, where was it? Facebook? Instagram? I can't remember where we connected.

• 4:59Speaker 01

  Twitter, I think.

• 5:00Lewis Howes?

  Twitter, was it?

• 5:01Speaker 01

  I think so, yeah.

• 5:02Lewis Howes?

  Four years ago, maybe.

• 5:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:03Lewis Howes?

  Like, right after, within a couple of months after I started the podcast, you were like, reached out to me and said, "I listen to podcasts all the time. It's my goal to be on the show," or something like that.

• 5:12Speaker 01

  Uh, I, I don't really recall it.

• 5:15Lewis Howes?

  I think you said something like that, like, "It's my mission to be on the School of Greatness," or something.

• 5:18Speaker 01

  I told my, my girlfriend Kat that one day I will be like on the School of Greatness.

• 5:22Lewis Howes?

  Yes, and you were on three years ago.

• 5:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, the OG.

• 5:25Lewis Howes?

  The OG, man. This is before the studio, before anything, before video, and I felt like people should see how good-looking you are. So if you guys aren't watching, go watch the video right now. Uh, you're from Quebec, Canada. You are, uh, started out as a police officer, is that right?

• 5:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:43Lewis Howes?

  You were in the Police Academy in Canada.

• 5:44Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 5:45Lewis Howes?

  For like a year.

• 5:45Speaker 01

  Um, it's actually like three years program, and I did two years, and I just...

• 5:50Lewis Howes?

  You did two years?

• 5:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, two years, and then I decided to take a year off. And, um, and yeah, I just went through the fitness and just trying to put my name out there. And then I came back to finish just two classes that I needed to finish, and I finished.

• 6:03Lewis Howes?

  So you finished the Police Academy?

• 6:04Speaker 01

  Yes, I did finish it. I could be a cop, yeah.

• 6:06Lewis Howes?

  You could be a cop right now?

• 6:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, I could, yeah.

• 6:08Lewis Howes?

  In Canada?

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:09Lewis Howes?

  Which isn't saying too much, because there's not much crime, right? Pretty friendly up there.

• 6:13Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's not like in the US. I don't know, it's different.

• 6:15Lewis Howes?

  It is different. So you, you could be a cop right now. Did you ever go into the, and become one? Were you ever like in the field?

• 6:22Speaker 01

  Um, no, I just enjoy too much what I'm doing, so...

• 6:24Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  I wish I could have like done maybe like a year or two because it's something that I I don't know I I find cool.

• 6:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 6:31Speaker 01

  But I mean.

• 6:33Lewis Howes?

  Just to have some photos of you in the outfit and be like a cop.

• 6:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, I've been a cop. Yeah.

• 6:38Lewis Howes?

  And you were like eighteen when you're nineteen when you're doing that, right?

• 6:41Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 6:42Lewis Howes?

  And you were living, were you living at home still?

• 6:43Speaker 01

  Yes, at my dad's house, yeah.

• 6:45Lewis Howes?

  Your dad's basement?

• 6:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, and I was just working, working and uh yeah, I mean, I just wanted like just to to do what I'm doing today. And uh yeah, the first time I was like on the show was starting.

• 6:57Lewis Howes?

  You were just.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  I don't recall, I don't recall like like what I was doing like at that time, but was starting like to to pick up, yeah.

• 7:03Lewis Howes?

  I remember you had like, I think you had like a half a million or maybe seven hundred thousand fans on Facebook. Now you have five million, almost five million. And you were a lot skinnier. You were like lean and skinny.

• 7:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, I was like super shredded.

• 7:16Lewis Howes?

  You put some more bulk on and you were just getting started. You had like some YouTube videos. You were you were growing with like content creation. I think you had um maybe a membership site, something like twenty dollars a month. And then you had workout programs and I think maybe some like supplements or protein powder that you were like getting sponsored or endorsed by.

• 7:36Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 7:36Lewis Howes?

  That was about the extent of what I knew you had available then, right?

• 7:39Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 7:40Lewis Howes?

  And three years later, you've created an incredible brand for yourself, personal brand. You know, your following has grown uh tremendously on Instagram, almost one point five million. Again, five million on Facebook and it's growing everywhere. And you've leveraged that to build a business around your personal brand, but also build other brands. And I'm curious, first off, what have you done to build your to build the personal brand? Number one, because I think there's a lot of people who are in the fitness space who are watching this or listening. Plus entrepreneurs who have their own online business that want to build their own personal brand. Because they know when they build a brand, they can generate more business and more income.

• 8:19Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:20Lewis Howes?

  So first off, what are the steps that you'd say a high level strategy that that you took over the last three to five years to build your personal brand? And how has that helped you?

• 8:31Speaker 01

  This is a great question. Uh the first thing is like be different. Because too many people just look, it's good like to see what others are doing and just you know, take a bunch of stuff that they are doing and just apply it. Anything that you do into your own business. But what I like to do is go outside the fitness industry and look what is happening like in the fashion world. Uh, in technology and just take some stuff and just bring it to my industry. Especially like the music world is pretty advanced compared to the fitness to any type of other business. Um, so that's one thing, just be different. Just don't try to do what everyone is doing.

• 9:08Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 9:09Speaker 01

  So that's one of the things, being French, I think have helped me. Uh, in the sense of like, oh, this is, that sounds different, you know? Um, but everyone is, is different and you need to understand that. And it's not because someone is liking a certain person that you need to replicate what they're doing and to be like them. Because you will find people that will relate to your story. They will relate to yourself, they will relate from where you're from, from uh, the way that you do things. And I think you just don't want to limit yourself by just saying like, ah, I'm not good enough, you know?

• 9:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  Um, and as soon as you take that ownership of yourself and just say like, this is me. And I will just be like me because right now it's just always videos, pictures, everything that you do, people will see it. And if you try to be fake or try to be someone else, at some point they will, they will see it. And you can also sense it in a video, you know, when you talk and if you try just to show off too much or try to show that you have everything or. I mean, it's, you connect less with people.

• 10:13Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  It's more cold.

• 10:15Lewis Howes?

  It's authentic or not.

• 10:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly, yeah.

• 10:16Lewis Howes?

  Okay, so first thing is be unique, be, be different. And one of the things is, uh, you know, three years ago, you could barely speak English. It was like a struggle for you to have conversation in English. And you learned English, you know, five years ago, I guess, because you spoke French your whole life. But you saw an opportunity to learn a new language to reach more people, right?

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 10:35Lewis Howes?

  So how did you, I mean, how did you do that? First off, just say, I'm gonna learn a language. And do you think having English in your repertoire has helped you build even?

• 10:43Speaker 01

  Yes, absolutely, because like in the business world, it's just English. Even like some, sometime I'm talking like to the phone and I know like the person can speak French, but because we talk about business, we speak English for. I don't know. I don't know what's the reason, but we speak English.

• 10:56Lewis Howes?

  Even if he's French.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yes, even if it's French, yeah. But yeah, I've learned English. I was really bad in English first at school. We learn English, but I didn't really care because I was like in Montreal and we don't really need it.

• 11:07Lewis Howes?

  No one speaks English really.

• 11:09Speaker 01

  No, my my parents don't speak English at all. It's just French. So I was like, I don't need, I know, I don't need like to speak English, do anything. So I just didn't want to learn it really. Uh, and that is just putting like a barrier, you know, on yourself. So I would say be willing to learn new things. That's that's the first step. And the way that I've learned it is by watching Game of Thrones. Yeah. I was like really bad until I was like twenty one or twenty one or twenty two and then I decided like, no, I need to do something. And the way I can do things, because I didn't have like the money like to hire like a teacher or something. I just decided to do something that I like to do, watch movies or watch like a series. Um, and I forced myself to uh go to the theater once every week. That was like kind of like my homework.

• 11:55Speaker 01

  And thirty minutes from where I'm living, because there's not that many theater in English where I'm from.

• 12:01Lewis Howes?

  Oh, so you went to an English theater?

• 12:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 12:03Lewis Howes?

  Subtitles or no subtitles?

• 12:05Speaker 01

  No subtitle. And I was just going there uh once a week. And I just started this way and then putting like Game of Thrones like on my computer. Uh, one episode every night and just because Game of Thrones is really hard when you don't speak English.

• 12:21Speaker 01

  I don't understand anything. So for for the first ten episodes, I was.

• 12:24Lewis Howes?

  You didn't know what's going on?

• 12:25Speaker 01

  No, I just, I was just like seeing like the images. I was like, oh, okay, I understand a bit. That's cool.

• 12:31Lewis Howes?

  Were you like researching during the week to learn like, oh, what are these words or just?

• 12:35Speaker 01

  Yes, uh, and Kath is better than than myself in English.

• 12:38Lewis Howes?

  Your girlfriend, yeah.

• 12:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, my girlfriend. So I was asking her like a bunch of questions all the time and how do I say it and just going like on Google translation and just figuring out like the words. I still do, you know, there's a bunch of words that I that I don't know. For sure, it's still a limitation, but at some time I'm getting better and better.

• 12:55Lewis Howes?

  And you feel like your your personal brand has grown online? Your your audience has grown because you speak English?

• 13:01Lewis Howes?

  If you just stick to French and you only use French.

• 13:04Speaker 01

  Could have been big as well. Yeah, uh, because the in the fitness industry, uh, it's blowing up right now like in France. But it's like, we are like in English, it's like four or five years ahead than in the French world.

• 13:17Lewis Howes?

  Right, right, right. Got it. Um, now, what else can people do? Do you have like a consistent content schedule? Are you posting?

• 13:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, in terms of social media, it's, I try to two posts every day. So on Facebook and Instagram.

• 13:32Lewis Howes?

  Two posts on each.

• 13:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, two posts on each. Usually it's the same picture or the same, the same thing. I just put the same thing on Facebook and Instagram. One in the morning, one at night. In the morning, I try to be between seven and eleven. And at night, it's between six and eleven as well, just to reach like both side.

• 13:49Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 13:49Speaker 01

  The, the east coast and west coast, or even like Europe as well, when they wake up, yeah.

• 13:54Lewis Howes?

  Where do you think you'd be without Facebook and Instagram?

• 13:58Speaker 01

  It's everything right now.

• 14:00Lewis Howes?

  Both those platforms.

• 14:01Speaker 01

  I mean, like, I've, there's many people come to me like, ah, I wanna have a sponsor and I wanna do things. And the first question is like, how is your social media? Because this is the exchange that you need to give to the companies to, to do something. I know it's sad, but this is the new world.

• 14:16Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:16Speaker 01

  It's not like, uh, doing a campaign with Calvin Klein anymore, and you know, just being on a billboard.

• 14:22Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:22Speaker 01

  You need to, to work on your social media. Yeah, exactly. Because it's your audience who will bring money to the company. And a company will never invest in you if they cannot make the money back, or even like, break even or make a little bit of money. There's no point investing in someone.

• 14:36Lewis Howes?

  So your social media following is everything right now?

• 14:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:38Lewis Howes?

  More than the email list, would you say? More than?

• 14:40Speaker 01

  Um, not for my personal brand, but like if I want like a sponsor or do something with a company, social media play a big role.

• 14:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. What about, what about for an entrepreneur? Do you think, uh, who's not in the fitness world but just has their own business? Do you think they have to be on social media right now, or can they?

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Yes, I mean, you need to be everywhere. If you wanna just have more chance to make a sale or just to reach people, depending on what's your message. Uh, but for sure mailing list is good.

• 15:05Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 15:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:07Lewis Howes?

  So what did you, what are all the different revenue streams that you have for your personal brand?

• 15:11Speaker 01

  Personal brand? Uh, there's Team Fit, the membership site where I put all my workouts, videos, tips, uh, Q and A's. There's over like five hundred videos in this section. Um, then there's the Limitless Camp. This is a camp on eight weeks that I built last year, and I will do the Limitless Camp two point O, and it's. All about unlocking your potential mentally, physically and just go after what you want and removing some limiting belief that you have. So this is Limitless Camp, then I have personal training program, but I will probably stop doing it. Not because it's not good in terms of money, but it's just my time is too much time right now. And when I do something, I like to give everything that I can.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  I don't know, for the service that I give, so I will probably stop it or just take really like limited number of people. This, then.

• 16:04Lewis Howes?

  Supplements or protein or?

• 16:06Speaker 01

  Yes, I'm sponsored by a supplement company and so it's commission affiliates. What else? I'm doing like campaigns for a big brand right now and modeling. So I think that's pretty much it.

• 16:21Lewis Howes?

  And then so from there, you can really only build it to a certain level with your personal brand, your own stuff, right? You can only make, I think you're limited, it seems like.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 16:31Lewis Howes?

  You can make.

• 16:32Speaker 01

  But it's just you always exchange your time.

• 16:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:35Speaker 01

  And you need to always be there, you know, because you're the brand.

• 16:39Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 16:40Speaker 01

  For sure, you can make a lot and it can be enough for a lot of people. But for my goals, I wanted to have my other brands that I can leverage.

• 16:49Lewis Howes?

  But you saw that you were limited essentially with that unless you build something separate.

• 16:52Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 16:53Lewis Howes?

  That didn't need you all the time, right?

• 16:55Speaker 01

  And if I die, I mean, you can still generate.

• 16:58Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. So you created Rise and when did this come out?

• 17:01Speaker 01

  It's been two years now.

• 17:03Lewis Howes?

  Two years. And what is Rise and why did you create it?

• 17:07Speaker 01

  Rise, it's the future of the fitness clothing.

• 17:11Lewis Howes?

  Okay.

• 17:12Speaker 01

  It is. I created it with one of my good friend, my best friend, actually. Tony. So we created the brand, it's a brand that we, we were like in school together, police academy. And five years ago, we said to ourselves like we need to create something that, because we just enjoy training, you know, and we enjoyed. lifting and we wanted just to create like our own not not even like we weren't talking about clothing at first was just like gear company so belts wrist strap lifting strap knee wrap everything that can support a person to perform better in the gym and prevent injuries so we started with three products in his in his room actually

• 17:52Lewis Howes?

  really

• 17:52Speaker 01

  yeah all the inventory was feeling like in one window so that's how we started and right now we have two hundred and something products yeah

• 18:00Lewis Howes?

  wow and he wasn't a designer he wasn't a product developer none of you guys had built a company on your own

• 18:06Speaker 01

  no

• 18:07Lewis Howes?

  so how did you start from like simple stuff like designing a logo to designing like the hats the belts whatever the concepts the website everything that you've done how do you

• 18:17Speaker 01

  as I said like in the beginning don't put limitation on yourself I put a video out like two weeks ago it's there's my my one secret for success and or it was like my one rule for success and the rule is there's no rules so when you understand that that there's no rules and everything that is created around you like Steve Jobs said everything that is created around you was created by people that were no smarter than you and that's just so true and even for anything that you can see like any building any like the iPad for example they just figure it figure that out they just wanted to create something that people could use with their finger

• 18:53Speaker 01

  so when you understand that you remove a lot of limitation and you just fail forward because there's nothing that will work the first time never never never and we say that and everyone say that all entrepreneurs but like the people who listen to it or watch it they don't understand that you will fail hard every day every day there's nothing that works the first time nothing

• 19:14Lewis Howes?

  and you I mean because you didn't have design you do all the websites yourself you do

• 19:18Speaker 01

  yes I've just learned everything

• 19:19Lewis Howes?

  everything you just said how do you learn it do you just Google it do you take courses do you have someone help you

• 19:24Speaker 01

  so at first because I started with three hundred dollars like in my parent basement I mean you just need imagination you you see something you see something nice like on a website that may be like a team build it and you just sit yourself like damn I need to do that and now you cannot hire someone to do it for you so you just need to learn it so I was just searching on Google YouTube tutorial and finding out to do it

• 19:46Lewis Howes?

  how to code how to do whatever

• 19:47Speaker 01

  yeah since day one how to use Photoshop After you did the video, after you did the picture and just non-stop researching.

• 19:55Lewis Howes?

  So you researched it all, you find the tutorials, you try it, you test it.

• 19:59Speaker 01

  Try, test it and sometimes it's just like moving just a small thing on my website could have taken me like ten hours. But when you do it one, once, then you get, you got it and then the next time you have to do it, then you know it.

• 20:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  So HTML, CSS, iframe code, whatever, uh, yeah.

• 20:17Lewis Howes?

  So you didn't know English.

• 20:18Speaker 01

  Didn't know English.

• 20:19Lewis Howes?

  You didn't know design, coding.

• 20:21Speaker 01

  Coding.

• 20:21Lewis Howes?

  You didn't know product development.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Nothing.

• 20:23Lewis Howes?

  You didn't know.

• 20:24Speaker 01

  No, I, I never studied like in business, I never.

• 20:26Lewis Howes?

  Any of this stuff.

• 20:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:28Lewis Howes?

  But you had an idea and you just started researching and trying.

• 20:30Speaker 01

  Yeah, I, I just told myself like if someone was able like to create Nike, for example, Nike.

• 20:34Lewis Howes?

  Nike.

• 20:35Speaker 01

  Uh, there's people who say Nike, I think in the UK they say Nike.

• 20:38Lewis Howes?

  The UK they say Nike, yeah.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  Um, so for example, like Nike, I've, I've listened like just to the book and I was like, I mean, like everyone starts with nothing.

• 20:46Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 20:47Speaker 01

  And they just figure that out. Um, so there's no, there's just no rules, seriously, and you can just learn it.

• 20:53Lewis Howes?

  So how do you have, uh, how did you develop the mindset to think like this?

• 20:58Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:59Lewis Howes?

  Where so many people, when they don't have the information, they feel like it's too challenging, they're like.

• 21:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't have the money, I don't have.

• 21:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I don't have the resources, I don't have the skills. How come you think differently and what is that?

• 21:10Speaker 01

  This is a great question.

• 21:13Lewis Howes?

  Are you not afraid or to fail or?

• 21:15Speaker 01

  No, I'm afraid to fail.

• 21:16Lewis Howes?

  You are afraid.

• 21:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, it's, but it's, it's good fear. I mean, you need to, to be afraid to fail. If not, there's no challenge. And, oh my God, this is a great question. Let me think about it.

• 21:31Lewis Howes?

  But why are you able to move forward in figuring out all these things and elements to bring together a business and a brand? Where other people don't go after their dreams?

• 21:42Speaker 01

  I mean, I started with nothing, so I have everything to gain. I mean, everything that I created, it's built from my imagination. So even if I lose everything, I didn't lose anything because.

• 21:55Lewis Howes?

  You didn't have anything.

• 21:55Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 21:56Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 21:57Speaker 01

  And I can just build it back and I've learned a ton, you know?

• 21:59Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Uh, so all the money that I have in my bank account, I mean, if I lose it all, I will just build it back. I just need a computer.

• 22:07Lewis Howes?

  Or an iPhone now.

• 22:08Speaker 01

  Yeah, even an iPhone. It will be long though. That's the thing, like people need to understand that for sure, if you don't have the money, it's.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  It will take like way more time than someone who have like all the resources possible.

• 22:19Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 22:20Speaker 01

  But at the same time, you learn a lot. And then when you have a team around you, you can teach them how to do stuff. And even leverage them because some people will be better like just doing accounting, you know, but then if you can teach them how to do other stuff, then your team's just getting like stronger and stronger. And because I did everything, I can, I know like the timeframe that it takes like to do a certain job and everything. So if it's not productive enough, then I can just be there and just to help.

• 22:48Speaker 01

  But, yeah, I mean.

• 22:50Lewis Howes?

  You haven't taken any investors with anything, right?

• 22:52Speaker 01

  Nothing, no debts, nothing.

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  I feel like, you know, give me your opinion on this, but I feel like I wouldn't have wanted to take money at any time until I felt like I'd been really successful and made a lot of money and had all the skills. And then maybe I could accelerate the money, but if I took money early on and been like, I wouldn't have known what to do with it.

• 23:10Speaker 01

  You just had more stress to yourself as well.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  So much more stress.

• 23:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. If you can not, that's just the way I think. If you cannot generate money yourself, then you shouldn't take the money of others to play with it. Even if it takes you five years to learn how to make money or how to leverage everything that you create, I would prefer waiting during five years and just learn a bunch and be solid if I have an investor after. Uh, because at some point when you know how to generate money and just to, to play with it, uh, if you have an investor, it's just leverage. It's just leverage.

• 23:44Lewis Howes?

  To help grow it.

• 23:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. Just faster. But don't, don't do moves that, you know, that will not work. And you can feel it. It's just, I think people don't follow the instinct. And sometimes they're, they have like opinions of others, ah, you should do that, you should do that. But if you don't feel it, just don't do it.

• 24:03Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. Now, there's a lot of, um, personal brands in the entrepreneur space, but also in the fitness space that people are building big followings.

• 24:14Lewis Howes?

  But they don't know how to build a business on the side or build a business off of their personal brand. Everything's evolving around them. And you started this company, Rise, and how many, how, how many would you, other people would you say in the fitness space alone have started other apparel brands or other fitness companies that don't evolve around their personal brand, you know?

• 24:36Speaker 01

  There's not that many.

• 24:37Lewis Howes?

  Not that many, right?

• 24:38Speaker 01

  Not that many, and that's, that's one of the thing, and I talked to you about that like before starting interview. I don't say that I created Rise.

• 24:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:45Speaker 01

  Uh, and I don't wanna say it, and even like-

• 24:47Lewis Howes?

  Except for on here.

• 24:48Speaker 01

  Uh?

• 24:49Lewis Howes?

  Except for on here.

• 24:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:50Lewis Howes?

  But you're not publicly out in your social media channels.

• 24:53Speaker 01

  Because we told ourselves like we'll not say it and we're just working on it and it's, it's our baby. Uh, it's, but we see it as big as Nike and be a top brand. Um, and why we don't put ourselves like forefront is just because I don't wanna be the brand to be around me. So if I'm in a car accident or if something happened, my family can still have something and my partner as well and there's no-

• 25:17Lewis Howes?

  It's not evolving around you.

• 25:18Speaker 01

  Exactly, yeah. If, even if I don't post on social media, it doesn't change anything to, to the companies that I build around.

• 25:25Lewis Howes?

  Right, it's still growing without you and your efforts.

• 25:27Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:28Lewis Howes?

  Now, how many, there's so many different pieces of this. You've got a warehouse, you've got, uh, shipping elements, you've got customs to deal with, you've got the design elements, you've got, you know, going to China, working with the manufacturers, you've got so many different elements to this. How hard is it actually launching an apparel brand from scratch? A lot of these fitness personalities wanna have like their own clothing.

• 25:52Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:52Lewis Howes?

  And they think it's cool, but I don't think they understand how hard it actually is to actually do something that looks good and feels good and is high quality and-

• 26:01Speaker 01

  It's hard.

• 26:02Lewis Howes?

  It's hard, right? You've been there for two years now, right?

• 26:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. Um, it's seven till midnight every day, pretty much. The, but it will be the same thing with any business, I'd say, even like my personal brand, I was working that, that, that many hours. Um, so if you're coming from someone who wanna bring value to peoples and not shitty services and, uh, we've seen-

• 26:23Lewis Howes?

  Cheap clothing or something.

• 26:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, we, we've just seen like a bunch of, of companies that, you know, they just wanna make the quick buck and after five years they're running out of business. So it depends like where you're coming from, what's your goal? Um, I like to build things that-

• 26:38Speaker 01

  I'm thinking like ten, fifteen, twenty years ahead. So maybe like the growth will be smaller.

• 26:45Speaker 01

  But it will be consistent.

• 26:48Lewis Howes?

  And how many different elements are there? I mean, there's a lot of moving pieces. How many people are on the team now?

• 26:52Speaker 01

  But any, any products, I mean, you will create like, even if you create like a tripod and you try to sell it to, to, to a market, you will have to.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  Oh my God, it's just the. Yeah, it's a bunch of work. I mean, you get the, the transaction on your website and then this, you need to bring it to another software to ship it, create the labels. And then there's a custom declaration, then you ship it to the person. And now if you're just. Starting like your shipping rate are not that great. So you try to maybe buff it.

• 27:22Lewis Howes?

  So you can make some more money. Yeah, yeah.

• 27:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. And. Then there's like the customer service. A bunch of people think about like creating the product, product, and then the service is not there.

• 27:35Speaker 01

  So there's a bunch of element, but you, you have to always have the mindset that you will learn something every day. And that you don't know all the answers and it's fine.

• 27:44Lewis Howes?

  And how important is it in finding like the right, uh, production partner to manufacture the materials, the clothing?

• 27:51Speaker 01

  It's really important.

• 27:52Lewis Howes?

  And how do you find that?

• 27:53Speaker 01

  Oh my God.

• 27:54Lewis Howes?

  Because you've tried lots of different manufact- samples from like all over the place, right? And a lot of people, it takes some months for them to get to you and test it. And then you gotta go back.

• 28:02Speaker 01

  Yeah, each product could take like between four, four months to a year.

• 28:07Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 28:07Speaker 01

  So.

• 28:08Lewis Howes?

  Till you get it right.

• 28:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 28:09Lewis Howes?

  Till you feel comfortable that to put it out in the market.

• 28:11Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly. Because you don't want to just sell something that people will. You know, just they get it and then they're just like, ah.

• 28:18Lewis Howes?

  It's crap, yeah.

• 28:19Speaker 01

  Yeah, because they want to be a repeating customer.

• 28:21Lewis Howes?

  So it takes time. It's not like instant. And there's a lot of these other people in the fitness space specifically who are. Just kind of putting their brand or like a logo on they're like white labeling someone else's materials already, right? And that's the other option is like you just have your own gear with some like some t-shirts or whatever.

• 28:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, but I mean, even like the musician musician world, like the the music world. Every artist have like their merch and like you went just like Justin Bieber, for example, the his tour merch or I don't I don't really know what's the the name, what's the name of the the tour of Justin Bieber?

• 28:55Lewis Howes?

  Purpose?

• 28:55Speaker 01

  Purpose, yeah, purpose is making like his clothes and it's just print.

• 28:58Lewis Howes?

  It's just printed, it's not like custom, where you're saying?

• 29:01Speaker 01

  I don't know if it's custom, but I mean, like, every artist like does that and it's fine because they need like to generate money and shows it's not, it's not enough like to sustain like the intense traveling and all that stuff.

• 29:11Lewis Howes?

  Ticket sales alone, yeah.

• 29:12Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly.

• 29:14Speaker 01

  But it's it's just depending.

• 29:15Lewis Howes?

  It's not building a brand, it's just merch.

• 29:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's just depend what you want to do, what's your goal, you know?

• 29:19Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. But it's not something you can build and sell one day. Like a brand that's not just like.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  No, because it's yourself at the end of the day.

• 29:26Lewis Howes?

  Exactly, exactly. So what's what's possible when you deal but build a brand separate from yourself then?

• 29:32Speaker 01

  Uh, what's possible, as I said, is just you just leverage everything, it's it's not you need to always work and be forefront for it.

• 29:41Speaker 01

  And

• 29:43Speaker 01

  it's just better for the long run, I think, yeah.

• 29:45Lewis Howes?

  How many people are on the team right now?

• 29:47Speaker 01

  Uh, we are all fifteen.

• 29:51Lewis Howes?

  Fifteen, yeah, and you're still like just starting, just just going, right? Amazing, man. Um, what do you see about the future of the fitness industry? I just feel like it's silver saturated in terms of fitness personalities, in terms of like the supplements and the protein world, there's just so there's like thousands of companies trying to take a piece. Because it's very profitable, it sounds like, if you can do it right. You know, we just got back from the LA Fit Expo this weekend, so where do you see the fitness industry going and and?

• 30:22Speaker 01

  It's it's been a lot about like vlogging last year.

• 30:26Lewis Howes?

  Yes.

• 30:26Speaker 01

  Everyone is just vlogging.

• 30:27Lewis Howes?

  Daily. It's almost too much, right? It's so much.

• 30:30Speaker 01

  But it it's like, you know, like in January and February, everyone is like signing up like to go to the gym. So there's a bunch of people will just fade away and I don't say it just because I hope. It's just it's just like that. There's a lot of people who try and then they just lose like their motivation, inspiration. And it's just fading away. Um, so in a sen- in in the next year or three years from now, I think it's all about information and bring value to people. Uh, it was that before. This year was more about like, this is my life and that's what I'm doing. It's fine.

• 31:05Lewis Howes?

  About vlogging like personal life, yeah.

• 31:07Speaker 01

  But I think like, just having like a topic about a certain stuff or like. That will be the future because people. Teaching, giving value, not just life. It's cool to to show your lifestyle and because you can inspire people like wanna do the same thing or have wanna have something similar or just. Um, have positive vibe, you know, in their life and just smile more because they see like other other people achieving things. Uh, but I think it will be all about information in the next three years. Because, yes, because.

• 31:39Speaker 01

  People want to progress and progression is equal happiness. If you feel that you stand and you're just there and that there's nothing that advance in your life, then you just don't feel happy.

• 31:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Who who's doing video the best right now, whether in any space in your mind, like in the vlogging space, but an entrepreneurship or?

• 32:00Speaker 01

  People on Vimeo.

• 32:02Lewis Howes?

  People on Vimeo.

• 32:03Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:03Lewis Howes?

  Is there a personality that you like who's in any type of genre? That's doing vlogging?

• 32:09Speaker 01

  A vlogging?

• 32:09Lewis Howes?

  Casey Neistat or like, you know, someone else in another industry? Is there any like a Gary Vaynerchuk or is there someone that you like? Who think is doing it really well?

• 32:19Speaker 01

  I'm really into the art of video, so and I don't have like one person in mind.

• 32:27Speaker 01

  But when you're putting out like a video every day, it's almost impossible to create like the best video possible because.

• 32:34Lewis Howes?

  To create something beautiful and inspirational.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Yes, exactly, because the workflow is just too intense.

• 32:40Speaker 01

  But for sure, you can create awesome visual and depending on where you are in the world and there's John Olsen who just crushed it this year. John Olsen.

• 32:50Lewis Howes?

  John Olsen.

• 32:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, you should have him like on your podcast.

• 32:52Lewis Howes?

  Is this the guy who does the drone stuff too or no?

• 32:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, he's partnered with DGI, I think, and he's just traveling and his videos are.

• 32:59Lewis Howes?

  Show me stuff, it's beautiful cinematic.

• 33:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's nice, but in term of like video and like quality of like if it's cinematic or not. It's there's people who are underground that's creating like awesome things and they're not putting themselves out there, but they should. But if you wanna watch like some sick video, Vimeo is the place to go. This is where like the the videographers and people with a bunch of talents are are on.

• 33:28Lewis Howes?

  What's gonna be more important in the next three years, having if you had to choose one photo or video?

• 33:35Speaker 01

  Video.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  Video.

• 33:36Speaker 01

  Video is the future, even like Facebook will turn into a video platform or.

• 33:40Lewis Howes?

  So if you had to do only videos every day on Instagram and Facebook, you'd do that over images?

• 33:46Speaker 01

  No, because images has been there like for the last hundred years, you know, it's it's was always be there, but video is where you create the relationship with people, is where you can show yourself more. Picture will never fade away, I think, but video will have a bigger place into social media and.

• 34:07Lewis Howes?

  Will you be doing more video than over photo sharing or will you be kind of?

• 34:12Speaker 01

  The thing is like you can do both at the same time. If you're like shooting videos, then you can take some still and like the cameras are increasing so much like the quality of it that you can take like just a screenshot of like you recording yourself like in 4K and this is your pick, you know?

• 34:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:26Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Who inspires you the most right now in the in the fitness space besides yourself?

• 34:34Speaker 01

  I don't really look up to people in the fitness.

• 34:36Lewis Howes?

  You look at other industries and kind of see what they're doing.

• 34:39Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't have any name seriously there. I mean, there's the top fitness model, but they're my friends more than I look up to them.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  No, I don't have any name, but I like people who think outside the box.

• 34:54Lewis Howes?

  Who's doing that?

• 34:56Speaker 01

  I don't have any name seriously.

• 34:57Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 34:57Speaker 01

  No, I just take a bunch. I like to learn from a bunch of people, so.

• 35:03Lewis Howes?

  Take ideas here and there.

• 35:03Speaker 01

  Yeah, and like you have awesome guests like on your podcast, so often I will just listen to it, but I'm more like into audiobooks right now and just trying to learn and learn more. But I don't really look up like to people like on YouTube. I don't have time like to look, to watch videos really, so.

• 35:17Lewis Howes?

  What was the biggest lesson you learned last year from your personal brand to building the business rise? What was like the biggest? Either financial lesson or mindset lesson?

• 35:28Speaker 01

  Biggest lesson?

• 35:31Speaker 01

  Take more time with my family, I would say.

• 35:33Lewis Howes?

  Take more time with family because you spend it all on the business and brand?

• 35:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. So just scheduling a personal time in advance instead of like just going with the flow. If not, you will not take time for yourself.

• 35:44Lewis Howes?

  I'll go like six weeks sometimes. I'm like, I haven't talked to anyone in my family or done anything because I'm just so focused.

• 35:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, last year I've seen my mom like maybe three times.

• 35:53Lewis Howes?

  Does she live in Quebec?

• 35:54Speaker 01

  Yes, she's like twenty minutes away from me. Yeah, even my dad is like, he's just coming to see me like at the office, but.

• 36:02Lewis Howes?

  But you're just so in the zone, right?

• 36:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:04Lewis Howes?

  What is that? How does it hard? Why is it hard for us to kind of like relax?

• 36:09Speaker 01

  It's just because we enjoy and we wanna, I think, I know that I will die. And I think that's my biggest inspiration because I never know when it will end, you know, so I just wanna make sure I can just create as much as I can. So when I'm gone, people can still have some stuff. That's why I also record a bunch of videos and they're just like on my hard drives and I don't put them out. Uh, because I, when I die, I know that people will be able to still release stuff uh and bring values to people. But just being like an eye achiever and just wanted like to create and create is just addicting, I think.

• 36:46Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 36:47Speaker 01

  Seeing people consuming and just, I don't know, that's, that's my drug, I would say.

• 36:52Lewis Howes?

  Right. What's the big mistake you made last year in business?

• 36:56Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 36:58Lewis Howes?

  Like, could you have focused on something a little bit better and spent more energy and, and, and had a better result than focusing on something you were doing or looking back, what do you see?

• 37:08Speaker 01

  Biggest mistake?

• 37:11Speaker 01

  I think it's that I forget my mistakes. I just move forward. So, I don't know, I've, I've made so many mistakes, so. I don't have like one that just stand out in particular. No idea, seriously.

• 37:23Lewis Howes?

  You're making mistakes every day.

• 37:24Speaker 01

  It's not, it's not imperfect or anything. It's, it's just I'm making mistakes like over and over and over again. Um, so there's not just one thing that stand out.

• 37:36Speaker 01

  You gotta be kind with yourself, I guess, and just learn and.

• 37:39Lewis Howes?

  What's the big thing you think you need to learn or grow into in order to get this brand where you want it to be this year? What's something that you need to take on personally, either information wise or skill set or?

• 37:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:52Lewis Howes?

  In order for it to get from where it is now to five or 10x the growth or beyond?

• 37:57Speaker 01

  It's, it's just doing things differently and doing like, I think it's just video wise now.

• 38:02Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 38:03Speaker 01

  Yeah. So just big production and stuff that people never seen before. So you just mark them, you know, mentally, they're just like, oh my God, this is just next level. Um.

• 38:12Lewis Howes?

  You think that converts into customers?

• 38:14Speaker 01

  Yes, that's for sure.

• 38:15Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 38:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:16Lewis Howes?

  The better the production value of the video, you think people buy or they just more appreciate the art of it and that's it?

• 38:22Speaker 01

  Some will just appreciate the art of it, but many will be like, oh my God, this is next level and this is the future. So I want to jump.

• 38:28Lewis Howes?

  They'll be inspired to, to feel something inside and then want to buy the brand.

• 38:33Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:34Lewis Howes?

  And who's doing all the video filming and editing?

• 38:38Speaker 01

  Um, I used to have like two guys who were doing like team fit videos now, uh, because I wasn't like focusing that much on my personal brand. Um, I'm not working with them anymore really. Um, so, uh, we handle everything.

• 38:50Lewis Howes?

  You edit it and tell.

• 38:51Speaker 01

  Yeah, but we will, we would, we will, uh, hire someone if we have like a particular project.

• 38:56Lewis Howes?

  How do you get it all done? How do you edit the video, shoot the video, work out, run the business, manage the team, design, code?

• 39:03Speaker 01

  It just.

• 39:03Lewis Howes?

  You don't have a designer.

• 39:04Speaker 01

  You sleep faster.

• 39:05Lewis Howes?

  You don't have a coder, you don't have a designer, you do it, you and Tony do it all yourself.

• 39:09Speaker 01

  It's just like for, in terms of like web design and like coding, if, just taking the time to explain what I want will be longer than just doing it.

• 39:16Lewis Howes?

  Oh man, I.

• 39:17Speaker 01

  Uh, but it depends on what's the job, you know, so if I see there's more value hiring someone, I will just hire someone. But for some stuff.

• 39:26Lewis Howes?

  It's quicker for you to do it.

• 39:26Speaker 01

  Yeah, and take me five, 10 minutes for one thing and then I just move to the next thing.

• 39:30Lewis Howes?

  It's crazy, man. What's the best skill you think you have?

• 39:35Speaker 01

  Um, being just, uh, someone who wanna learn every day. Yeah, that will be like the best skill, knowing that you don't know everything.

• 39:44Lewis Howes?

  That you have personally, what's the best skill, that one?

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, just be willing to learn new things every day.

• 39:49Lewis Howes?

  What's the best technical skill you have?

• 39:52Speaker 01

  Technical skill?

• 39:53Lewis Howes?

  Like coding or design or, you know.

• 39:55Speaker 01

  Technical, uh, it's maybe not technical, but I'm just willing to put the work into, you know, and just work non-stop. Um, it's not that technical, it's just, I'm just willing to grind, grind, grind and just fail, fail, fail, and then at some point we'll just unlock.

• 40:11Lewis Howes?

  Hmm.

• 40:13Lewis Howes?

  How do you deal with, um, keeping a close relationship? You've been with Kat, your girlfriend, for how long now? Five or six years?

• 40:20Speaker 01

  Five years and a half, yeah.

• 40:21Lewis Howes?

  Five and a half years. How do you handle having a quality relationship when you're working 20 hours a day?

• 40:26Speaker 01

  It's not easy and we have a close relationship, but like I'm working so much that there's some point it was not easy at all. Um, but communication is one of the big thing. So she will let me know when she needs like more time.

• 40:42Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 40:42Speaker 01

  And I will take the time.

• 40:43Lewis Howes?

  And what do you do? Do you just schedule like date night or?

• 40:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, we try to have like a date night every week. Uh, sometime like the, for the last like two months, didn't happen, but we went like into a vacation. We have been like traveling a lot. So vacation, just going out for like a week or two weeks, just being alone is like, we do that at least three times every year.

• 41:06Speaker 01

  But she support me a lot.

• 41:08Lewis Howes?

  And she's around, she works with you, so you get.

• 41:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's just involved in everything, yeah.

• 41:12Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and how do you handle, you know, since five years ago when you were really like just starting out essentially in the fitness space to being at these trade shows and girls always wanted to be around you and this and that. Do you ever feel like tempted or how do you handle that experience when you should get jealous because you're.

• 41:32Speaker 01

  No, she's not getting jealous, so that's.

• 41:34Lewis Howes?

  That's nice.

• 41:34Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's a good thing because I mean, if a girl who's just come out and under your pictures means nothing.

• 41:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it's not like you can do anything about it.

• 41:41Speaker 01

  But she travels most of the time with me, so I think maybe like two trips she wasn't there at the expo, so.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  I'm not tempting really.

• 41:52Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 41:53Speaker 01

  It's it's just like at the end of the day.

• 41:56Speaker 01

  It's if you do something like with another girl, you will regret it because it's just like one night and it's for sure it can be hard like because as a human being, we're not made to be like mono.

• 42:07Lewis Howes?

  Monogamous.

• 42:08Speaker 01

  Monogamous.

• 42:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:09Speaker 01

  I don't think we are made to be, but we want to because I mean, it's just like if you do. I don't know, you will just repeat, you know, the circle is. Sleeping with a girl can be, it's nice, but I mean, after you will be just like, holy shit, I just made like a huge mistake. Because at the end of the day, that's not the person I want to be like every day. Um, so. Yeah, try to focus just on myself instead of just focusing on like, oh, my God, that would be nice.

• 42:40Lewis Howes?

  Right, sure. What do you think people, um, what's what's the thing most people you think don't know about you?

• 42:48Speaker 01

  Hmm, my real name.

• 42:50Lewis Howes?

  Your real last name, right? Because it's not a fit. It sounds like a great name.

• 42:54Speaker 01

  Yeah, um.

• 42:55Lewis Howes?

  What's your real name?

• 42:56Speaker 01

  Mark Andre.

• 42:58Lewis Howes?

  Mark Andre?

• 42:59Speaker 01

  Andre Bernard, B E N A R D. Yeah, so in French will be Marc Andre Bernard.

• 43:04Lewis Howes?

  So why did you, when did you change it and why did you decide to change it?

• 43:07Speaker 01

  Um, I actually I started like a fitness page on Facebook first was fitness page for all. And then I decided that I needed like to put my name somewhere, you know, because it was more like.

• 43:19Speaker 01

  Was just like pictures of me and stuff, so why fitness page for all? So I decided to delete the page of like 10,000 followers back in 2012, I think, or 2011. And I was like, damn, I cannot call myself Mark Andre Bernard Fitness Page. People will not remember that, they will not even know how to write it down. So I was like, just Mark, Mark, Mark, Mark. Because everyone's just calling Mark, I never said like, Mark Andre. So Mark, and then I was like,

• 43:47Speaker 01

  Mark Fitness, or I was like, just Mark Fit. I will put two T because it looks like it's my last name and people will wonder. And it's like, I just said it to myself, I had The Rock and call himself The Rock because he was a wrestler. Why not, I cannot have like a show name or something.

• 44:02Lewis Howes?

  What has that done for you, you think, by giving yourself that name? Do you think that's helped you build your audience?

• 44:07Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's for sure because it's easy to remember. It's Mark Fit and then people were making the link like between like fitness and fit. And a bunch of people are just like, damn, this is like so weird that you have like Fit as last name. You are Fit. Yeah. It is weird. I'll probably add it like to my, to my record, I don't know.

• 44:26Lewis Howes?

  Your real name, you think you'll change it?

• 44:27Speaker 01

  I will keep it, maybe I'd fit at the end. You can do that.

• 44:31Lewis Howes?

  Amazing, man. Do you think like, that's just so cool that you thought of that at an early age, I guess. But it's really helped build your brand, I feel like.

• 44:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, that's for sure. Yeah, 100%.

• 44:40Lewis Howes?

  What if you're, what if you had your full name in Facebook and Instagram?

• 44:44Speaker 01

  I don't think we'll have.

• 44:45Lewis Howes?

  How big of a following would you have, you think?

• 44:47Speaker 01

  No idea, but not that much.

• 44:49Lewis Howes?

  Really? So you think just like-

• 44:50Speaker 01

  It's just too long.

• 44:51Lewis Howes?

  It is, huh? So you think the branding of your name is even important?

• 44:54Speaker 01

  It is important.

• 44:55Lewis Howes?

  Do you think you should change your name if you have like this long name that no one remembers? What about Schwarzenegger? He had a long name, but it's the most memorized name, most recognized name in probably fitness world.

• 45:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, but Arnold, it's easy to remember.

• 45:09Lewis Howes?

  No, Schwarzenegger is not. Now it is.

• 45:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, I don't know.

• 45:13Lewis Howes?

  Twenty-five years ago, it wasn't when people were like, what is a Schwarzenegger?

• 45:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, maybe people will say, ah, you weren't proud like of your name and all that stuff, but.

• 45:23Speaker 01

  If you feel that you have to change it, why not? There's nothing bad with it.

• 45:27Lewis Howes?

  You feel like it's definitely helped you.

• 45:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, and also it helped me because when I was calling myself Mark Fit, it was like, not a character, but Mark Fit is capable of doing anything, you know? Because at the beginning, I wasn't speaking English at all and I was putting videos out and it was really hard, like I was restarting like 10, 15 times the video because I was making mistakes all the time.

• 45:47Speaker 01

  So even when I did my first TV show live, I had like a segment that was a fitness column, Miss, and it was an English TV show that I was brought on and was like every morning, no, twice, twice a week at like 6 a.m. or 7 a.m. And I was like at the audition and they took me, I don't know why, because I'm not, I wasn't good in English, but they took me. And first time I was like live on TV, didn't know where to look at because it was just like too many cameras, I was like in a green room and I was just stressed out. But like the host of the show told me like, "You're Mark Fit, you can do anything." And I was like, "Yeah, it's true." So when I was like going in the room or just starting a video, it was like, "Mark Fit can do anything."

• 46:31Speaker 01

  So that was kind of like my affirmation.

• 46:35Lewis Howes?

  Do you have affirmation still today?

• 46:38Speaker 01

  Yes, I will do affirmation.

• 46:40Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 46:40Speaker 01

  Yeah, I use like the Five in the Journal, classic. So I like to just write down like my affirmation every day.

• 46:46Lewis Howes?

  Every morning you use it?

• 46:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, morning and night, yeah.

• 46:49Lewis Howes?

  What's a non-negotiable for you every day? Something you have to do to set you up to win and be successful?

• 46:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:56Lewis Howes?

  Besides listen to the School of Greatness?

• 46:58Speaker 01

  Going to the gym is one thing, not just because I want to lift and just be in shape, but it's just, it's my meditation. I told you I will try to meditate, I didn't meditate at all. But for me, training is the same thing. I can think outside the box when I'm out of the gym, when I get shit done, you know, when I'm able like just to work on myself and I don't focus like on my phone, I don't focus on anything and just like there just to work with my body and just perform. And I think it's the same thing when you were playing sports. I mean, you just have an eye and as you can get like while meditating, because I tried it, but for me, it's just when you're able like to...

• 47:38Speaker 01

  Because I don't know if you noticed, but when you talk, you can hear yourself. And it's it's like if you were like two person, I think. You analyze the way you talk and you hear yourself as well at the same time. So when you're just conscious about like the person you are, then you can make better decisions during the day.

• 47:56Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 47:57Speaker 01

  And also, uh, always analyze yourself, the way you act, you know? Was I like an asshole with this person or, uh, I don't know.

• 48:05Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 48:07Speaker 01

  I don't know if that makes sense.

• 48:08Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, of course. Um, if you could do, if you only had one picture that you could post on Instagram and Facebook, and you could say one thing.

• 48:17Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:18Lewis Howes?

  A sentence, and that was the last photo you could post.

• 48:21Speaker 01

  Will be a black and just written in white, everything is possible.

• 48:24Lewis Howes?

  Black, wouldn't even be a photo of you.

• 48:26Speaker 01

  No.

• 48:27Lewis Howes?

  Anything is possible?

• 48:28Speaker 01

  Everything is possible.

• 48:29Lewis Howes?

  Everything is possible. That's cool.

• 48:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:31Lewis Howes?

  I like that.

• 48:32Speaker 01

  That'll be it.

• 48:33Lewis Howes?

  What, um, what are you most excited about this year?

• 48:37Speaker 01

  I'm excited because I'm for, uh, two thousand fifteen, I was achieving a bunch of stuff, but I wasn't like present, really. I was just like going with emotion and just achieving, achieving, achieving. This year, I've I've been more conscious about like my success and realizing it and just appreciate it. So I'm just excited because I'm more conscious about the person I am and where I want to go. And I feel more alive than in two thousand fourteen and fifteen, which was just madness.

• 49:09Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 49:10Speaker 01

  It was good, but I mean, it was just like.

• 49:11Lewis Howes?

  You weren't present.

• 49:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. I I was at, you know, you achieve something and then it's just like, ah, next and next. And it's never good enough, you know?

• 49:20Lewis Howes?

  Now you're acknowledging your accomplishments.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 49:22Lewis Howes?

  Celebrating them for a moment.

• 49:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:24Lewis Howes?

  Not just going to the next thing.

• 49:26Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 49:26Lewis Howes?

  So that's what you're excited about now?

• 49:27Speaker 01

  Yes, I'm just excited because, I don't know, I feel like I'm growing as a person and.

• 49:32Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:33Lewis Howes?

  What do you think's your biggest challenge, your biggest obstacle?

• 49:36Speaker 01

  Obstacles, it's a hard question.

• 49:39Lewis Howes?

  Do you have any?

• 49:40Speaker 01

  I like to think about stuff like for a long period of time. I don't like to give just an answer like quick and it's not the right answer, but biggest obstacle.

• 49:48Lewis Howes?

  Or something you struggle with or Mark's invincible?

• 49:52Speaker 01

  No, I'm not invincible. It's just, as I told you like before, I fail all the time. So I have many struggles. And the biggest one will be, I really like to, I want to be better in terms of like speaking and being able to bring more energy when I speak English, because if you were talking French to me, I would make you.

• 50:11Lewis Howes?

  You're passionate.

• 50:13Speaker 01

  It's just fluid, you know, and.

• 50:15Lewis Howes?

  I've heard you in French with your friends and you're just like more animated in your.

• 50:18Speaker 01

  Exactly. And I can like just show more like emotions while I'm talking and I can just use specific word more and be more like into it. So that's one of the things that I want to improve like this year is just being able to do that, but in English. Uh, so people can feel it more.

• 50:35Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. Because in French, I don't know, I'm, I'm really into it, you know, it's just fast and.

• 50:42Lewis Howes?

  You're like me when you're in French.

• 50:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:44Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 50:46Lewis Howes?

  Awesome. Is there any question you wish people ask you more of?

• 50:51Speaker 01

  Um.

• 50:55Speaker 01

  I really like to talk like about business. And I feel like I'm branching out a little bit of like of the fitness world. But at the same time, as I told you, like, I don't want like the brands that I create to be like the center of who I am. So

• 51:12Speaker 01

  I would say I will make the sacrifice to not talk about business. We talked about it. I know that my partner will not be happy with it.

• 51:18Lewis Howes?

  Right, right.

• 51:18Speaker 01

  So I will not let him know when it's out and everything, but it's just, um, that's something I'm passionate about.

• 51:27Lewis Howes?

  But you're just not talking.

• 51:27Speaker 01

  Marketing and all that stuff and.

• 51:29Lewis Howes?

  Got it.

• 51:29Speaker 01

  I would like to be like, just to show everything that we do, because we do a lot and we achieve a lot and it's crazy what we do. But you gotta sometime remove yourself from like, maybe it's just ego as well. You just wanna it's, it's normal, but you wanna show it off like, oh, successful you can be and what I did and and it's not like just, oh, I wanna buy like a Lamborghini or whatever and just show I can buy a Lamborghini, but I like the process of creating and the growing.

• 51:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, that's cool. Well, uh, wanna wrap things up with the final few questions. Um, this is called the three truths. I don't think I had to ask this last time for you.

• 52:07Speaker 01

  No.

• 52:07Lewis Howes?

  Alright, so you've done the question.

• 52:10Speaker 01

  Yeah, everything's gone.

• 52:11Lewis Howes?

  Everything's gone, it's your last day many years from now. And you have three truths to write down on a piece of paper that would be your lessons or truths to the world.

• 52:21Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:22Lewis Howes?

  So what would you write down?

• 52:23Speaker 01

  First one, there's no rules. Second one, sometime you will feel like the king of the world, but life will always be there to slap you in the face. So keep that in mind and just be kind with everyone and don't show off too much. So that will be the second one. And the third one will be

• 52:45Speaker 01

  live in the present. A bunch of people will read it and hear it, but they will never really be in the present. And we go too much like in the routine of like, I'm going to work and I'm doing that, that, that, and coming back and then.

• 53:02Speaker 01

  But doing like the real- reality check every morning, like in front of the mirror and just talking to yourself like, this is who I am and I'm alive and I'll take everything that I can today and just achieve and just be the best that I can like at that moment. That's a good thing.

• 53:18Lewis Howes?

  There you go. I like it. I like it. Well, before the final question, I gotta acknowledge you, Mark, for being an incredible friend. I've known you for what, three and a half years now?

• 53:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:27Lewis Howes?

  And it's been a fun journey to see you grow, to see you evolve, to see what you've created. It's amazing. I'm always impressed by everything you do, but I'm, the thing I'm most impressed with, I'll shake your hand too. The thing I'm most impressed with is your generosity and you give so much to the world and your heart is big. A lot of people don't think, know you because, um, you know, they just don't have access to you or there maybe they just don't see you that much the way I do. We talk all the time. But you have such a giving heart and I know how pure your intentions are to create something meaningful for people.

• 53:59Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 53:59Lewis Howes?

  You wanna create a feeling for people that they can do anything also.

• 54:02Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 54:02Lewis Howes?

  Whether it be wearing a hat, it's more than just a hat for you. It's a feeling of I can create anything in my life.

• 54:09Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 54:09Lewis Howes?

  So in a lot of ways, you're giving inspiration, hope, you're giving motivation, you're giving uh, opportunities to people without them even knowing it because of the content you're putting out there and the quality of product you're giving to people. So I want to acknowledge you for your. Your intention for what you want to create, for the man you are and who you're becoming.

• 54:27Speaker 01

  Thanks, I appreciate it.

• 54:27Lewis Howes?

  It's been fun to watch you grow, man.

• 54:28Speaker 01

  Thanks.

• 54:29Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Make sure you guys follow Mark, at Mark underscore F I T T, M A R C, F I T T, on Instagram, Facebook, everywhere online, YouTube, you've got a lot of great videos there. Check out rise.ca, you can learn more about that brand. And where else should we connect with you or follow you?

• 54:50Speaker 01

  Markfit.com.

• 54:51Lewis Howes?

  Markfit.com. And final question, what's your definition of greatness?

• 54:56Speaker 01

  I don't recall what I said the first time.

• 54:57Lewis Howes?

  I don't remember. It's been three years, man. This is probably a new definition.

• 55:00Speaker 01

  Yeah. Be the best that you can be at this time. And always try to be kind with everyone. And not just think about like what you can get out from it. But just like give the experience to people that are around you and that they can just feel it and just be there and just have more energy because you're around them, you know, and just, I don't know, it's... People need to progress when you're around them, not just going back your... I think when you're able to inspire people, just because you are the way you are, then that's great.

• 55:44Lewis Howes?

  Mark Fit. Thanks for that.

• 55:46Speaker 01

  You too.

• 55:49Lewis Howes?

  And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this one. I always love connecting with my man, Mark Fit. And again, he didn't speak English a few years ago. He didn't have any of these technical skills. He didn't have the audience. He didn't have the physical body that he has now. He's learned how to build everything from scratch. Nothing holds him back. He uses it as an opportunity to say, what can I learn to better myself? How can I continue to grow every single day? How can I take action? And who cares if I fail? It's gonna happen because the most successful people in the world all fail. Every step along the way, they're constantly failing forward. If you're not failing every single day, if you're not creating something where people are saying, it sucks.

• 56:33Lewis Howes?

  Or they're not buying it, or they're not subscribing, or they're not sharing it. Then that's good. It's good because it means you're doing something and you're getting feedback. Now adjust, change, learn something new, become something new and someone different in order to get a different result. It's up to you. You have the power. Make it happen and don't allow your fears to hold you back. Be inspired by your fears and move forward. Again, the full episode is LewisHowes.com/431. Tag me on Instagram stories, on an Instagram post, on Twitter, on Facebook. Tag me anywhere on social media @LewisHowes.

• 57:15Lewis Howes?

  And then also tag Mark, M-A-R-C underscore F-I-T-T. Tag us both when you're listening to it. Share it out with your friends. Let me know what you think. Let me know what you enjoyed most about this and make sure to let Mark know as well. I appreciate you guys so very much. It means the world to me that we are on this journey together. We're learning and discovering something new every single day together by being a part of this podcast. It's my commitment to find the best, the brightest, the most inspiring in the world and what they do and bring you that information so you can learn because I'm learning also. But you gotta support by sharing the message with your friends. You gotta give back by giving this to your friends.

• 57:59Lewis Howes?

  So send them the link, post this on Facebook or social media. And as always, please leave a review if this has brought you any value. Just go on iTunes and leave a review about the podcast as those reviews always help us attract more people to the show. I love you guys very much. You mean the world to me and you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.