Athletes in Motion

Ep 007 Gerell Webb

June 08, 2021 Tom Regal and Kenny Bailey Season 1 Episode 7
Athletes in Motion
Ep 007 Gerell Webb
Show Notes Transcript

“He didn’t surrender, he died fighting.  That’s the legacy I want to leave”  For Gerell Web, this is the way he lives his life every day. From his early days trying to make a career in professional football, to how he motivates others to do their best, Gerell infuses this attitude into not only his life but how he mentors others.  This episode will inspire you like no other.   


@thegerellwebb
https://www.itrain365fit.com/
https://www.tritomrendurance.com
https://www.therecoverylounge.co

On the Web:
www.athletesinmotionpodcast.com

On YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@AthletesinMotionPodcast

Episodes Sponsored by:
TriTomR Endurance LLC
www.tritomrendurance.com

Narrator:

Welcome to the Athletes in Motion podcast From Race to Recovery. With your hosts, Tom Regal and Kenny Bailey.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Hey Tom.

Tom Regal:

Hey, how's it going, Kenny?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

I am going well, how are you?

Tom Regal:

I'm fantastic.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

I want to introduce you to Gerell Webb, he is I Train 365, Is that right?

Gerell Webb:

That is correct,

Tom Regal:

Hey Gerell, Welcome.

Gerell Webb:

Thank you guys for having me. What's up Fit Fam?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

We are going to talk today about sort of, you know a few things about motivation, how people kind of get and stay healthy. But I think let's just cover the elephant in the room right now........ Which is, are, you are one jacked individual!?(laughter) Are you mad at the weights? Is it something you're angry with? Did they piss you off in an earlier life? What's going on?

Gerell Webb:

It's my magnificent obsession! So I'm actually in love with the weights. I'm not, I'm not mad at them at all. right? You know?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah. That's funny. And you're a new father! So congratulations!

Gerell Webb:

New father, Yeah. So if you guys got any a, any any tips, man on how to get through this thing? Please? Let me know.

Tom Regal:

I got nothing......I got dogs. That's all I got.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I got three kids in their 20s. And I tell you just doesn't, it just gets more expensive. So it's not

Gerell Webb:

So keep working.....?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

That's not going away....... Yeah, it's just yeah, it's less plastic, more more expensive. That's kind of kind of the way it goes. Yeah. So credibly, you know, you're a coach, you're a lifestyle brand. You're You're a lot of things. Did you start out as a kid as an athletic kid? Or is that something that you developed over time? Tell us kind of how you, was it something that you were just your family did? Or is it something that you decided this is your journey?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, so so funny enough, but I'm actually one of the few athletes in the family. But I've always, I've always been an athlete, I've always loved playing outside. I've always loved football, I've played football since I was seven. That turned, you know, into collegiate career a little bit of Pro, and then kind of naturally transitioned into you know, what we're doing now. Never been the biggest, fastest, strongest guy. But I love I love the background. I love the work. I love the work ethic. So that's kind of how I got into this. And so my thing was always because I'm not the biggest, fastest, stronger, strongest guy, I have to work harder. And because you may be faster, stronger, better athlete athlete than me. Then I'm gonna outwork you to get where I want to bed. So that's, that's kind of always been my mindset.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

What's positions were you doing in

Gerell Webb:

I played cornerback and free safety. football?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Ok, Where did you play collegiately?

Gerell Webb:

I played collegiately at THE Middle Tennessee State University.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Like Ohio State, right? (Laughter)

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. But it was smaller. Yeah. Yeah. Right.(Laughter)

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So what did you get out of that? I mean, it's like you said, you were you weren't the fastest, you weren't the strongest. When you, you know, it's an ethic thing, but the same at some point in time. It's also a size thing, too, right?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

When you started, how one of the things we want to talk about is sort of that fear that thing that that stops you from doing stuff, right? So you're lining up against a person that's, you know, 60 pounds heavier than you or can run you know, half a second faster than you you know, they're gonna you know, you know, especially you know, corner right. Yeah, yeah. So you got a receiver that's, you know, six inches taller than you. How did you how did you kind of mentally make sure that you were in that game? How did you make sure that you're like look, you may be taller, you may be faster, but I'm still gonna beat you. I mean, how did you develop that?

Gerell Webb:

I mean, that was that was exactly it. Nobody no one believes me when they when they when they meet my mother, my mother is probably the biggest shit talker. Like literally, she taught me how to how to how to talk shit. And I grew up in Florida. And so if you know anything about Florida cornerbacks, you got Deion Sanders for one. We talk a lot, right? And a lot of the times is you talk and then you back it up, you have to back it up.

Tom Regal:

You have to.

Gerell Webb:

And so I've always had that mindset of I can do anything. My mother will tell you that. Like he's always had the mindset of he can do anything like so. Why are you on the roof Gerell? I'm going to jump off, and I'm gonna let.... No! you can't do that. No. So I'm the guy that when you say I can't, that's all I think about....

Tom Regal:

That's what get's you fired up!

Gerell Webb:

Okay, let me show you...... Right. So let me show you that I can. So to answer your question. When we played this...... so my first three collegiate games was University Alabama, University Tennessee, University Kentucky.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

That's all....... (Laughing)

Gerell Webb:

Right? At MTSU. So I remember like being in Rocky Top and looking around like man, this is what 100,000 people looks like, they're all screaming Rocky Top at you. And you're like this is crazy, right? But once you settle in, like these are the moments that you were created for. These are the moments that you you play in the backyard for like, these are the times that took........So a lot of it is you rehearse it in your head. Right? So I've been here before, I've already created my success mentally now I'm just literally walking into it. So if I see a guy who's bigger, faster, stronger, stronger than me, everybody has a weakness. What is that? How do I how do I figure out what that is? And a lot of the times is, you may be all of these things, but so am I. Right. So a lot of times when we when we run into situations, we downplay ourselves, right? You magnify the obstacle. Right?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Absolutely.

Gerell Webb:

Like, Oh, my God it's 26 miles.... How can I ever do that? One mile at a time. Right?

Tom Regal:

Exactly.

Gerell Webb:

It's literally that easy. That's one mile down, it's two miles down. Right. So those things are behind you. And then not, not forgetting who you are and what you've already accomplished. And so if you are, you know, starting out and, you know, you find things are getting difficult, remind yourself of who you are. What have you already done, right? And if you've done nothing else, you've survived, right? If you have a super long resume, you survived right? out of 4 billion sperm, you were the fastest! You started your life off as a winner! Right!? You started life as a winner!

Kenny Bailey<br>:

We found our quote...... Out of 4 billion sperm you're the fastest....Gerell Webb!(Laughing)

Gerell Webb:

Right!? (Laughing) So just think about that. All right, you started off as a winner. And you have to keep doing that.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yes. I mean, yeah. So I had, so I did my first Ironman, I thought it was you know, I thought it was hit, right? I'm gonna be an Ironman. I'm going to do this. Right? in the next year. For some reason. Fear got to me. And one of the things that's really, that I wanted to kind of explore more this, by the way, this is a therapy session for me(Laughing).

Gerell Webb:

Let's do it!(Laughing)

Tom Regal:

That's why we do these.....

Gerell Webb:

It's not really a podcast.......(laughing)

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Help me, help me...... But one of the things was, I did a, I did a do not s art at an Iron Man in Arizona, a d I'm embarrassed to say it, a d I freaked out. Because I'm l ke, I didn't earn my way here. I didn't train enough. I'm not, y u know, I didn't I didn't put t e hours I should be putting i to it. And I'm like, I can't d this. I'm like, I literally h d my wetsuit on, this is a c nfession, by the way, had my w tsuit on, ready to go and I'm i a panic attack. And I'm like, I don't I don't deserve to be h re. Yeah. And that's the part t at I'm trying to figure out. Y u know, you've you've got a s rong mother and a strong will a d you just leaned into it. For t ose people that that face that s rt of thing. And I you know, I s nce what I did is I backed up I want to sprint triathlons, r minding myself why I was doing t em and sort of did short c urse one so I can figure out y u know, I deserve to be here, b t how do you? How do you help a person that kind of, you know, y u get a lot of clients that c me in. And they're gonna have a lot of self doubt. There's g nna have a, I don't know if I s ould be doing this. I don't k ow if I can doing this. I look a everybody else before I show u to a race. I think everyone l oks like they're 6' 3", 8% bo y fat. And you find out real pe ple show up the same probably Sa e thing for football. You kn w, Alabama's a name, man you sh w up, it's like, oh wait a mi ute that's a human like on th other side. How do you, how do you help people sort of get th ough that? that sells? That's th part that that cripples me to be honest with you.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, so yeah, fear. Fear is paralyzing. And so I think I think it was Will Smith that said it best. So I got to give him this quote, is "Fear is not real. Danger is real. But fear is not real". Think about think about that whole experience. No one ever came to you and say you don't you're not supposed to be here. You told all that stuff to yourself.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Exactly.

Gerell Webb:

Right? You had a whole conversation in your mind, of I don't, I didn't train enough. I didn't do this. I didn't do this. But we're here now. Right? So that so what are

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah.... we going to do about it? Yeah. So that's always my thing is yes, life happens, right? This is just be honest..... We've all been, we've all had hills to climb in life, right? Life happens. Now. What do you do about it? Right? Are you going to stop? Are you going to let fear paralyze you? If If, for instance, if I was on my way out today, I tripped and fell. Right? And when you came in tomorrow, I was still laying there. What would you say?

Tom Regal:

Exactly.

Gerell Webb:

Are you dead? Right? You need to get up. Right? And so as a saint, yes, this happened, Kenny this hurt when I fell. But now what? Right? So so so it's the same thing in life with obstacles with fear is you're afraid so you have to the only way to conquer fear is to conquer fear. Right? That's literally the that's the only way you get over fear is by going through it and figure it out. You know, it wasn't really that bad. You know what, you know what? Yes, he has an A on his helmet. And yes, he goes to Alabama. But guess what? He has two feet. Yep. He has two pair cleats. He puts his pants on one leg, one leg at a time. Just like I do. Right? Yes, he has. You know, muscles. Yes, he's bigger. Yes, whatever. But guess what? He's human. At the end of the day he's gonna bleed.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

You're gonna find out.....!

Gerell Webb:

Yeah or not! Or'm going to bleed! And then som

Tom Regal:

Or don't finish

Gerell Webb:

They're not gonna let you drown. times that's sometimes that's the case. And then you realize t at your the worst case scenario isn't really that bad. Right? So what's so let's get to the end What's the worst case scenario What's the very worst case you finished last in the triathlon? or don't? don't finish. But one, you, you started....that's more than the majority of us. You were there, you showed up. Right? So that's more than 90% of the world who, who will go out and and do a triathlon. Like so, so we've already that we've already there you got off the couch.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah.

Gerell Webb:

So now so now what? No, that was my question. You can't What are we doing?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah.

Gerell Webb:

Now what? get your ass in the water. All right, so start swimming. We'll figure the rest out later. Let's let's start swimming. Right?

Tom Regal:

I try to encourage athletes to keep a journal. And then the training log. And in the in the the training log, it has all the data and everything else that they kind of track all of that, but also get them to put down their emotions, how they were feeling. What was going on a little bit. It just has to be short stuff. And then sitting on race morning, flipping through that book. And that helps get over that I don't deserve to be here kind of attitude. Because you you've seen it. We forget about the work that we've put into it. to understand that, Yeah, I do actually deserve to be here and I'm gonna take that guy. I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna beat him.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. And and remove your feelings. Get your feelings out of the way. Your feelings don't matter. Right? Like, I'm scared. Good. Right. I had a coach who always said if you're not nervous before the game, that means you don't you don't recognize the magnitude of the moment. You don't know what's happening right now. Right? Like you don't you like you're somewhere else? So if you're nervous, that's a good thing. Right? Like literally before I go on stage before I speak before I came here, I got nervous. What if I mess up? What? You know what I mean? Like, what am I don't give them what they're looking for. But that's good. That's that makes sure that you understand what's happening. You understand the magnitude, when I go for a run? Like I get nervous. I get little butterflies. Okay, I'm gonna go I'm gonna run five miles. What if I don't make five miles like, nobody knows. What am I doing? So I think a lot of the times is get rid of your feelings. Your feelings don't matter. And just start doing the work. Right? The way you run a race is one mile at a time, one step at a time.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I love it.

Tom Regal:

Yeah, for sure.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So you started coaching, is it, it was kind of naturally fell into that. Was it just so you started sort of.... was it an intentional thing? Or was it an accidental thing?

Gerell Webb:

It was not intentional at all. So the funny story behind this is I actually actually was a criminal justice major in college. And I wanted to work undercover DEA, that was my that those are my aspirations if football didn't work out. So when I got back from Atlanta, I started working in the criminal justice industry. And I was still training for football. So I was to go to the gym. I still looked like I played football. And one of my co workers at a time asked if I would just take her to the gym and show her around. Like she was like, I'm trying to get in shape. Can you just take me like show me what this machine does whatever, I was like, cool. Somehow that turned into personal training. Somehow that turned into me training her, then she ended up losing over 60 pounds together. Well, we lost 60 pounds together. And so this was actually her idea. She was like, I don't know how you're going to do it. Right. But I feel like you should be training people like that's it. That's kind of you have a natural gift in this. And at the time, I didn't you know, I didn't know any that trainers can make money or you know, I gotta make money, number one. The only, like, especially black trainer that I knew was Billy Blanks. And I'm totally different from Billy Blanks. Like, I'm not a Tae Bo guy. Yeah, I'm not a Tae Bo guy at all. I'm not like, dance aerobics guy, right? And so I was like, how can I monetize that? and then I took that out of it. I was like, Yo, I love working out. I love helping people. I really liked helping see her like she turned to a whole nother person, confidence on aother level like she just, whole different person.

Tom Regal:

It's kind of magical when you see that happen.

Gerell Webb:

It is, right? It is. And then so I'm Okay, I'm just gonna jump into it and let's just figure it out. And then so of course I was still working another job. And then naturally I just kind of progressed and progress progress progress and started working fitness full time.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Alright, so how long ago was that?

Gerell Webb:

Over 10 years ago now? 12 years now?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Has it all been in the Nashville area?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, actually, yeah, Nashville and a little Murfreesboro.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Okay, so what kind of know you've got a wide variety of sort of people that you train Who do you who comes to you and trains with you? What is that average person?

Gerell Webb:

Um, I mean, I have everybody from professional athletes to Sally soccer mom. So I think that the great thing about who I am and what I do is that I can literally train anyone. My passion is for general population. I love just training. People who don't think they can do what they see me do or what they say you guys do. So that those are my passion people. I still train athletes because it's fun. I get it, pull out all the tricks and all that great stuff like that. But I've had opportunities to go in you know and do a collegially to be a strength conditioning coach, but it's just not a passion for I mean, those guys that you're going to do that anyway, yeah, that's your job. And it's all in so much, like Derrick Henry comes in is only so much better I can get Derrick Henry. My job is really not to hurt Derrick Henry. That's literally our job. Don't hurt him. Don't mess it up. But Sally soccer mom. She can

Tom Regal:

Don't mess it up.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I like that. come in at one level. And I can take her to a whole nother level. Right. I have her somewhere else.

Tom Regal:

You certainly see the biggest returns on that. Working with athletes that don't know they're athletes.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah!

Tom Regal:

Right?

Gerell Webb:

And I think you know, for for me, I think everybody's an athlete. That's j st my personal opinion. You j st don't know it yet. You have't experienced that yet. And so they see, you know, they ee even other clients that h ve been with me longer do ng certain things like, Oh, I co ld never do that. She couldn't e en when she first got he e. But now, we've progr ssed, and we've gotten, you k ow, further along. And so, in si months, a year from now you s ick with it, you'll be doing the same stuff, and someb dy will coming in looking at yo saying, Oh, I could never do th t, you know, so that's what t's about.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So when you when you get those folks, there's Do you see kind of a natural? Is there sort of a they start out nervous and afraid. And then they could lean in? How do you see that progression occurred? I mean, is there a kind of a traditional, like you, you know, it's it's progressing? Or you can you can almost see this ahead of time, like with Sally soccer mom, she comes in and it's gonna be okay. I'm nervous. I'm gonna look around, I don't know what I'm doing. I'm gonna feel embarrassed that I'm not lifting the weights correctly or not enough. And I'm sort of leaning into a little more. Can you talk to us about that progression of what that looks like, from sort of? Crap, what did I think I was doing? Now and fears?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, I mean, I think I think it's like, it's like going to the doctor, right? You go to the doctor, because you don't know what's going on with your body and you're trying to figure it out. You go to see an expert, whether it's a doctor or a health coach or psychiatrists, whatever, somebody who that who's more knowledgeable in that area, then you are. And that's the whole point. That's why I remind them like you're here because you don't know what you're doing. Like, right. And that's okay. Everybody's

Tom Regal:

And that's okay is the key.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah,

Tom Regal:

it's okay not to know,

Gerell Webb:

yeah, you're in the hospital because you're sick. Yeah, guess what, everybody in the hospital is sick. Yes. As doctors, right. It's not just you. And so, understanding that this is what this is, everybody has a day one. we all we all have a day one, right? We all have a starting point. And

Kenny Bailey<br>:

That's great, I love that. that's why you're here with me, like I'm gonna make sure that you are doing it correctly, tha you're not gonna hurt yourself, but I'm gonna push you. The biggest thing is people don't un erstand what it feels like to be pushed. Right? You've never bee pushed before in life like t at. You know what I mean? And s

Gerell Webb:

Right? There's a difference between being tired I have a saying, like, yo're not tired, you're out of breath. There's a difference, t ere's a difference. and out of breath. When you're out of breath you start to panic. Right? Like, think about swimming. Right? Yeah. Think about like, like, when you swim, right? Well, they tell you just relax. Slow is smooth, smooth is strong. Right? Just keep just keep going. It's when you start to fight the water that you get in trouble. And then so if you slow down, you're not tired. You can keep swimming. You just out of breath. You gotta you gotta breathe. Right? And so it's the same thing. Most people don't know what that feels like. And that's when they get afraid. That's when the fear kicks in. And you have to constantly remind them that you're okay, you're fine. It's doing what it's supposed to get just right. Just freeze. Yeah, just breathe. Just keep doing that. You're gonna be just fine. Right? If you just keep breathing slow every now remind yourself and you know, learning to, to talk yourself through things, right? Yeah, mentally. You guys have enjoyed this. I did a sprint triathlon. It's been a year ago now. I think two years ago. The swim kicked my ass. Yep. Right. I'm, I'm one big muscle. I'm not moving. I'm going to the body. Yeah. And so you know, I trained I did everything I was supposed to do. For whatever reason that morning just wasn't my morning right now. And so my coach at the time, like he was there, my wife was there. She, you know, she knew I was doing it, but it's totally out of my realm. Like, I've never done it before. She's like, yeah, I'm gonna do this driveline thing. And so my wife is watching me, right. And so I'm struggling. I'm struggling on the back half of the swim. And she's like, she's telling my coach, James, you got to get him, because if you don't he's gonna die out there. Right Like if you don't get him he's ot gonna quit. He's not gonna s rrender. He's gonna die trying o finish, right? And James is l ke, He's fine. Like, he'll p sh through. Yeah, but my wife ha never seen me struggle. Like sh physically she's never see me trugg

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, we're a guy. That's always been the guy that doesn't, right.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. Yeah. And that and now, so that's why she freaked out. Like physically. She's like, oh, he can do it. I'm Superman. Until I'm not. I'm in the water drowning, right? She's like, yo, you gotta go get him. And so like when she was telling me the story, it you know, my coach was like they were they were talking about it afterwards, and they're Of course I finished. Okay, let me make sure, I finished, I got out. Yeah. I didn't have to get rescued or anything like that I finished my swim. It wasn't pretty. But but but I finished. And when she was telling me the story I said, I was like, yo, that is how if I die today, that's how I want to be remembered. He didn't surrender. He died fighting. Right? And so the fact that she knew that about me, that was a personality trait. Was was big to me. Like, yeah, he's whatever I do. That's, that's the legacy that I want to leave, is that he didn't surrender. He died fighting. So whether I get to be, you know, this huge training star, or whatever, whatever, wherever my life takes me. When it's all over. That's what I want her to stand up and say, as a eulogy, he didn't surrender. He died fighting, but on the but on the backend. The coach at the time was like, He's fine. He's been trained. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, it's fine. Like, I think he's good. All right. So a lot of the times it's outside noise. Right? Everybody's saying

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Absolutely.

Gerell Webb:

Why are you doing this? Why? Oh, my God, he looks like he's killing you. When I post a video on Instagram of me training. Oh, my God, you look. And so you start that gets into your head, and you're like, Oh, I was kind of dying a little bit, but maybe I shouldn't go back.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Well the interesting part too, is what you're saying is, is she said it's not Hey, he's giving up and that he's gonna drown. It's like, he is going to either finish or die. Like there's no other. Like, it's black and white. Right? It's funny, because, you know, most people are like, Oh, my god, she's given up and, you know, we need to go save them. You didn't give up? It was it was, you know, you're going to finish or die.

Gerell Webb:

There was no other option.

Tom Regal:

But that's, that's why you had a coach, right? You're a coach that had a coach.

Gerell Webb:

had a coach,

Tom Regal:

right? A coach has seen all of this. That's why you bring that expert in that kind of helps you get through that. You know, it's in the triathlon, you brought a triathlon coach in that I had seen this with with hundreds of other you know,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

We did have to save them that time. (laughing) athletes. Yeah, no, no, it's far, far worse than this. Trus me, you did't see him last Tu sday! (l It and I have a theory, I want to run it by you. I was thinking about this yesterday is I had to do Hill repeats. And I don't know why I thought 16% grade was a good idea. But I did, to which by the way, I called my coach last night. And he was like, Don't do that.

Tom Regal:

Don't ever do that.....

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Just don't do that. I'm doing this for a reason.

Gerell Webb:

There's a method to the madness.......

Kenny Bailey<br>:

But I was kind of think there's sort of this. You know, people ask about endurance, and like, how do you become an endurance athlete and all those things? That's crazy. And I think there's kind of like three phases. And I'm going to run this by you tell me if it's correct? You have that first phase, which I think most people stop at. And I think this is what you're talking about that first phase is, I'm going to have to get to uncomfortable, right? It's going to be painful, it's going to it's going to hurt that first part is generally where either people stare it down, or they walk off, right, and then you get to that phase where you're uncomfortable. And for endurance athletes, this is my theory, that you just stay in that uncomfortable zone as long as humanly possible. You just plateau right there. It's not going to get any better. But it's probably not going to get much worse, right? If I can stay in that spot that plateau, for as long as you know, for as long as the race and I'm gonna have a good race. The second I move off that plateau, and it gets into oh shit mode. You know, that's when people start crumbling. And that's when you get the, you know, I bonked and I do whatever, it's sort of that I kind of saw. I mean, I guess I'm asking you when you get new folks that come in, or folks that are returning that have an expectation, because that's another thing is athletes that, you know,

Tom Regal:

realistic expectations?.....

Kenny Bailey<br>:

like a year and a half, especially now, right? They're coming back and they're like, I used to bench this or I used to run this speed, or I used to be this fast and no longer that. Yeah. How do you get them past that sort of first off to believe in the theory that there's that kind of once you're uncomfortable, you say uncomfortable? And then secondly, is that the part that you just got to get them through to say, yeah, it's gonna hurt but you're gonna be hurting only for this amount of time.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Trust me on this one, right. Let's get to that plateau. It's not going to get better. Until the end of the workout. Yeah. And once at the end of the workout, you're good, you're really gonna, like you said, you're gonna get much, much worse or you're going to be done and you'll be happy. Is that kind of?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, I think I think you're definitely on track there. I think I think the biggest thing is, you know, is being uncomfortable or being comfortable being uncomfortable. Right? I think I think that's the biggest thing and at some point in doing... okay, don't take it. Don't take this the wrong way. endurance athletes are crazy. Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

no, no. Yeah.

Tom Regal:

We know that!(laughing)

Gerell Webb:

So what I'm saying is a mental thing. Right? It's no difference right? 26 miles is 26 miles, right? But it's not that you can't do it is I don't want to run for three hours. Yeah, right. I don't want to do anything.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

or four.......

Gerell Webb:

Or four..... I think what I think that's the biggest thing is like when you look at it at the end, I was like, man, I can't run for four hours like I don't do anything for hours like there's nothing in this world I want to do for four hours straight. Right? But, but run right. So you want to go run and then bike and then swim or swim, bike run like all at one time? Like, that doesn't sound like a good time to

Tom Regal:

Most people think that way.

Gerell Webb:

Right? right! And so it's a mindset. And the mindset is where we're so comfortable in life. And that's great, right? That's great. But if you really want to be great, you have to be okay with being uncomfortable.

Tom Regal:

Totally. Yeah,

Gerell Webb:

You have to you. It's not, it's not who you are.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, exactly. And things are going well. It's who you are. When when the shit hits the fan.

Gerell Webb:

Right? Like when you have when you have blisters on your feet. Right? When when it is pouring down raining outside. When it is 100 degrees outside, right? So you don't allow your conditions to dictate what the goal. Your goal is the goal and it takes what it takes, right?

Tom Regal:

Yeah,

Gerell Webb:

It takes whatever it takes. That's what it takes, right? The goal is the goal that if it takes you right in the rain, it takes you running in 100 degree weather. That's why we have the Recovery Lounge! Right times flood, you come here you get your recovery and hydrating, and then you take your ass on the run and next day, right? There are resources for you along the way. And so what I tell people is it's a process, and you have to trust the process, right? It's gonna get hard. It's not it's not going to get any easier. But you have to understand as you get better, so do I. Right? So as you progress, right? as you progress. So do I.Think about your coach, like as you progress, okay, you're killing this. So now I had to give you more in order to put, That's how I get to get you out of out of a plateau. You want to be better? I gotta turn it up. I got to turn up the heat on you. Right? And so it's the same thing in life. Right? God, universe, whatever you believe. When you say, Yo, I want to be better. I want to be a better dad, a better businessman, a better husband, whatever. turn up the heat. Right? So we turn up the heat. And now it's like, okay, it's forcing you to push to another level, it's forcing you stay up an extra hour, so that you can continue to get your work done after you put the kids to bed, wife is on the bed. Now you're up alone. And it's quiet, and I can do my work, right? It's forcing you to come in after you open and then it floods. Okay, you really want Do you really want to own a business? Right? You're like I could stop now. Or we can clean this stuff up. And we can have another opening? Right? Like it's going to life is going to force you whenever you go for something, right? Life is gonna punch you in the face. Right? And now, who you are is how you respond to being punched in the face. All right? So so that fear going back to the football thing, right? So even in like in practice, in two a days, things like that, our coaches would take biggest guy, smallest guy, line them up. Right? And we just want to see, A, is the big guy who we think he is. Right? And who is a small guy, right? Because we don't know yet. So maybe he stronger we think he is and he knocks the big guy out. Or maybe the big guy kills him. Will he get up and do it again? Right? And so that was my biggest thing is yes. You may hit me. You may knock me down. Are you willing to do it again? Are you willing to line back up and do it again

Tom Regal:

and again? and again?

Gerell Webb:

And again, and at some point one of us is going to is going to is going to give in. It's not gonna be me. Right? And so if you not if you're not who you think you are, you're going to find out. real quick

Tom Regal:

That tenacity is that carries all through life. Because life is that constant knock you down, knock you down. And that's the stressors that you add. I mean, we add that in training, but life adds stressors as well. And that's where we grow. The stress and then we respond, we grow.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, the stretching the stretching is how you grow right. So even as a coach you think about you know, when day one athlete, let's just go for a run and see what you got. Right? Let's see where you are mentally. Right? Okay, I'm gonna set the pace. Right? Keep up with me. Right? Do you try to keep up? Will you? Are you the guy who will pass out to keep up with me? Or do you say Oh, forget it, but I can't do it. Right? So who are you? Now let me know how to write your program. Right? Because that now I know, okay, if I tell Kenny Hey, Kenny 6% incline. Kenney's the well I'll do 16. Now I know Okay, he's that guy. Right?(laughing)

Tom Regal:

If 5 is good....25 is better! (laughing)

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Exactly. Very logical, by the way.....

Gerell Webb:

Right? So you know that, you know, more is not always more. More is not always better. So now I need to dial back cuz I know Kenny is that guy, right? So now I know. If I tell him do something hard. He's gonna do something hard. Right? So I don't have to worry about checking in every every 10 minutes. But hey, are you did you go for your run today? I know he did it. Right. So it tells you how to coach people.

Tom Regal:

And I'm sure you've seen that with your with your athletes as well. You're coaching there's four or five different personality types.

Gerell Webb:

Oh, yeah.

Tom Regal:

Right? And you can almost by the conversation, you automatically know which group they fit into. Now that you've coached for long enough that you go Oh, yeah, I know how to handle this. I know how to handle this one. And I know how to handle this one. Yeah.

Gerell Webb:

So even my calls, even my consultations, I call them a fight or flight workout. Right? And so like that first, like I'm gonna kick your ass. Yeah, right. And I just that's only to see who you are when you get tired, right? I just I believe that you are who you really are when you get tired? You're tired hungry? sleepy, right? Yeah, that's when you become who you are. Right? My wife is when she gets hungry. She's a horrible person.(Laughing)

Tom Regal:

My wife says that about me! She just hands me some food....

Gerell Webb:

if you're hungry, babe, just tell me, we got money we can get some food. Tell me that you're hungry you don't need to be upset. (laughing) You don't need to be upset with me just tell me that you're hungry! Just tell me. So when you're tired, that's, that's when you that's when you are who you really are. So that's why I push people. And always at the end of the work, I say, yo, if you finish today, it gets easier now. Right? I just want to see who you are when you get tired. Will you push yourself? Or will you quit? Will you? Would you curse and push? Do you complain and push? Do you just complain? Like, who are you? When you get tired? That's what I want to see. Right? And that lets me know, One, if you're a good fit to be a client. Two, how to how to program for you, for your off days. Because if you won't push yourself when you're not. When you're not with me, then that means you need to be with me more. Right? So that's my suggestions on how often we should train. Alright.? And then just what kind of personality? You know, I have some clients that need me to be you know, a jerk, need me to yell, curse?

Tom Regal:

Some people like that.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. Some people that, some people that drives some people. Others, I need to talk to you put them aside, Hey, you got it, you know, real worse off real, you know, encouraging, like you got it. Don't worry about it. Just take a deep breath. And you're gonna push through that work for some people. It's all about learning how to communicate to people and what flips their switch.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So are there do you see a particular? So you're kind of you're known? Right? I

Gerell Webb:

I guess you can say that! (laughing) don't think there's people.......

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So is there a personality type that already comes? Are they pre selected before they come to you? And then are there some that you're like, Look, you either? When do you say no, I guess at that point, is it some it's probably kills you to do that? Because you know, they need to help but they're just not ready to help themselves. Is that generally, the theme on when you say no?

Gerell Webb:

Not Not always, I think, you know, like, understand, as a trainer, i'm around long enough that I'm not for everybody. Right? I'm not everybody's trying as much as I want to help everybody like, clearly would save the world if I could, right? And my wife tells me that all the time I get I come across with this big, tough, intimidating guy. But really, yeah, I would. I would save the world. Right? But at the same time, I can't say the world and lose myself. Right? And so you have to understand that you're not for everybody. Right? You're not everybody's trainer. Okay. Because our personalities don't match. Right? Is is I it's like dating. Right. That consultations like he first date? Like, are we a ood fit for each other? Right

Kenny Bailey<br>:

For context, Like we opened Like, it was fun, but I don't really see us going any further Right? And it's really it's bout having those being okay ith having those hard conve sations like, You know, I don' know that we'll fit, right? Yeah. And because of what I do, and I, and I train a lot, a d I am known that I do I get a ot of people that reach out. A d once we meet if it's not a ood fit, I don't want to waste ime. I can't get time back Right? I can get, I can make more money. I can, you know, get more clients, but I can't get ti e back. And so I don't want t be three months in and I knew day one, that this wasn't going o work. Because Because of what because you weren't ready becaus of whatever you know. An so that conversation is usua ly either I don't think you re I don't think you're ment lly ready for because every ody wants to lose weight. verybody wants to, you know, bu you don't understand what it takes to actually achieve that g al. Even if you take weight lo s, just goals in general. Lik, I want to be a millionaire Do you know what it take to be a millionaire? How much m ney can you make a day to Be a Millionaire? Right? Yeah. Like, ow much do you have to save? R ght? How much sacrifice How m ch? How much extra time? Do you need to stay up at night? Yeah just become a millionaire. Righ? And so understanding what the oal, the understand the goal and what the goal will take, rig t? And everybody's not not entally ready for that. It sound cool to say, Hey, I'm a millio aire Kenny. Right? Sounds cool Right? I like saying it out lou. I'm not there yet. But unde standing like, like, I want to b the CEO. I want to I want to ow a business, right? Until your usiness floods. Now you're like do I want to own a busines? I could be doing some othe stuff right now? literally seven days later, we had a flood. It's like seven days old. We had a flood. It's like, Are you kidding me? And then a tornado and then a pandemic? You know? usual? Yeah, acts of God

Gerell Webb:

Just the regular stuff, you know, regular stuff. But again, you're still here. And that says a lot. Right?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Well, yeah. And I think I told my wife two weeks ago, three weeks ago, I said I'm either same thing, right? I'm either going down swinging, you know, if I go down, it's going to be last breaths, swinging. You know, that, I know I left it out there that I know that I scraped that I you know, and I think anybody that starts their own business, you're not thinking that way, and when you're not......

Tom Regal:

And when you do it that way, it's not a failure. Yeah. You experience something and If you could take that into the next venture, whatever else goes on after that. You take all of that learning that you that you've got.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, so you said something early. That I that caught me and I wanted to get back to it is, is when you said you did your first training session, we lost 60 pounds. And you said the word we and I'm assuming that was her not necessarily you?

Gerell Webb:

Yes, Yes.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So underneath all this big rough exterior, this big hunk of man you are, all that prettiness....

Tom Regal:

All that trash talking......

Kenny Bailey<br>:

You take this stuff very personally. I mean, because you said that it wasn't it, you didn't pause for it. I mean, you truly think it was a we. I mean, when you take on these clients is is sounds kind of corny, but it's kind of a piece of us going with them. Right? We're doing this journey together.

Gerell Webb:

I mean, absolutely. I think it's this is a very intimate thing. Right? Personal Training is very intimate. That's why we call it personal. Right? And, you know, it's, I'm giving a lot right? I'm giving a lot to the to my clients, right. So whether that's encouragement, whether that's energy because I'm a high energy guy, right? And so like, I got in trouble, I'll tell the story. I got in trouble with my wife because I will come home and like, just crash. I want to talk. I've been talking all day. I haven't talked to 25 people today, okay. Like, but then when I get home, she's like, oh, how's your day? It's good. I don't have a lot of energy, right? It's good. But she wants to tell me all about her day. And so she just got fed up. And she's like, yeah, you gotta say some for me. You have to save some for me, right? And so that's, that's what I say is personal. And, you know, I rather have a conversation up front, because I'm getting up at

3:

45am. I'm leaving my wife at 3:45am. She would love for me to, for my alarm not to go off and for me to lay there with her and us wake up together. Like that's the best thing about the pandemic that we got to wake up together like that. We're never gonna wake up. Right? Like, I'm always gone. And I'm coming home, I'm showering. I go work out, go to bed, right? Like, I'm doing it over and over and over again. And so understand that I'm sacrificing just as much if not more than you are, right? And all I'm asking you to eat right, show up on time, give me effort, when you come, I'm gonna give you all those things back. Whatever you give me, I'm gonna give it back. I'm gonna give it to you regardless, right? Because I haven't set the tone. Like if I'm a low energy guy, then when you come in, you're going to be low energy, it's five o'clock in the morning. None of us want to be here. Right? Just be honest, nobody

wants to get up at 3:

45am. Right? But you do it because of what your goals are. Because I want to help you. And so it is a we because we are sacrificing, I'm spending an hour in the gym plus the time I have to program your workout while you're asleep, right. Plus the nutrition part of I have to make sure that this matches this is a working the energy that I have to give you when you show up the energy that I have to give you when you come in and you tell me about your wife, or your marital problems, your boyfriend cheated on you or the psychology part of your personal training that people don't, that we don't talk about. There's a huge emotional hit that we have. Because you know, you come in and you're doing whatever is going on in your life. Right? Work is hard today. So you come in with the attitude with me like I haven't seen you all day. It's not my fault. But I had to deal with that. I have to find a way to work around that. Yeah, that takes a lot of energy and emotion. And so so we because we sacrifice together, we push through together. We we have those hard conversations together. We you're dependent on me like I'm dependent on you, right. If I went and robbed the bank in a recovery lounge hoodie, yeah. Right. You're gonna see the recovery line. Yeah. And so I tell people all the time that you are, you're my Billboard. Yeah. Like if you're a client of mine, when you say I train with your rail that has to say something. Yeah, right. Yeah. People, the first thing people do is look at you. Like the same drill? Right? Or like, oh, wow, you're trying to drill like, yeah, was that like, you must be worrying or whatever. And so if you're my billboard, and it has to be a weed, because we're, I can't I can't go any further without you.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah, I think that's it as coaches and you know, I'm not a coach. I'm just a guy that leans on coaches and cries and I'm the one that tells everyone about that. And that happens at the Recovery Lounge, by the way, when people come in. Like, it's like, Hey, what are you looking for? And they're like, Hey, we need cryo, and then they give us like, the 15 year medical history on everything that's wrong with me Why? You know, and like, you know, my husband left me and I'm like, I don't....do you want cryo? I mean,

Gerell Webb:

This three minutes isn't going to bring them back

Kenny Bailey<br>:

But yeah, so it becomes that because I think(laughing) to your point, because that's intimate people's physicality, or fitness is a very intimate thing. So as a coach, I like that his conversation is similar to what we were talking about, on an earlier podcast about how triathlon, folks that put on triathlons, it's not..... the easy part is the actual triathlon. It's all the work ahead of time. It's all the, you know, it's not the hour that they're with you. It's the six hours of putting the training program together that you're trying to do the nutrition program, and then you have to be the one on point, right? You're always have to be with every client. To there. They don't care that you've had a bad day. you have to. They don't. Yeah, yeah, you can have a sick day. Are you can but you're gonna have to, but you're gonna have to really be sick, so yeah,

Gerell Webb:

really? Oh, you're sick. Okay.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

I want to see the vomit in the bucket!(laughing)

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, so that's what that's the hard part. Yeah. Is that that you can't have an off day a client come in have a horrible day horrible workout. If I come in I put together trash workout they're looking at me different right? Yeah, like it's different.

Tom Regal:

I'm paying for this?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, yeah, me and my wife fight too. (laughing) Yeah, like clearly just hung out with her like you gotta have to do like I can't do echoboy or, you know, like I do a lot of on camera stuff and so I even tell you know, like my wife like we have to be in a good place before I go on camera or go on a trip and and shoot content or whatever. Because if I'm not, my mind's gonna be with you. Right? And I'm not gonna be able to do the job that I'm being hired to do. And so a lot of the times is I'm really good. I'm football ex football player. So I'm really good at compartmentalizing, like, I can put things in their place. I think as men, we can do that pretty, pretty good as well. Like, I can put this in the back of my mind to get through this 30 minute meeting. And then, right? but it's still in the back because I'm my energy guy because I'm a you know, a face of certain things like you can still tell when some..... It was good, but it's not quite where it should be. You good? everything's okay? Like everything okay at home? like I can feel something's up I see you pushing through but I can feel something's off. And so sometimes, right we have my A) compartmentalize, put stuff in this place. Right? Don't carry everything with you. And then 2) be able to push through regardless of circumstances, right? So yeah, I'm tired. Yes. Um, you know, the baby was up all night. Yeah, I still had to

get up at 3:

45. Yeah, right. Still have to deal with you at five. I still had to, you know, stay up in and, and write programs or? Yeah, me and my wife are fighting because I dropped some breast milk and she's pissed off with me right now. Because she spent all night pumping that, right? So now I'm like, I don't know what to do. right?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

By the way to drill five o'clock client, he really loves you. Right? I have a lot of them and I do love all you guys...

Gerell Webb:

I would rather, you know, I love being there at 5. I'm not gonna lie. I'm an early morning person. But, you know, but you have to understand like, it's, it's a sacrifice for everybody. We're sacrificing together. I think that's what brings us closer. You see my sacrifice. I see your sacrifice. That's why it's important when I asked you to do something, you know, whether that's, you know, just stop eating trash. Start there. Start there. Right? Not even going to we're gonna do a nine hunger year, this year laid out meal plan. Everybody wants like, Oh, no, just stop eating stop going to McDonald's every day. Start there.

Tom Regal:

They're just gonna look at the menu! (laughing) Justt show some respect.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, like just just, you know, show that show me some effort and that your trying. Effort is between you and you. Nobody can judge your effort you but you know, again, like you said, you know, if you left everything out there. Right? Or the, the haunting part is knowing that you did it. And you're like, ah, if I could do it again. I would, right?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

that right? Yeah. And that's, that's what's nice about endurance training. I think that's why people do that to reason, I think, my opinion on why people do endurance, because it's not just crazy, but you're trying to set this goal, like, I need something to scare the shit out of myself. Right? That's what gets me up in the morning. And I have to I'm, it's like climbing Everest, right? I want to see if I can do it.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, you need a mission, right?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

And then the other thing is you when it gets to a certain distance, you can't hide from the stuff that you decided not to do. Like sleep in or I'm just not going to do it. Like I decide not to get up at 3:45 and me Gerell at five o'clock. Right? And that will expose itself at some point in time. So the truth to your point, you're going to you're going to find truth out there at some point in time. Like, ah shit, I did eat McDonald's when when I shouldn't have been doing that. Or I I spent three days on vacation and I said I was gonna do at least a couple of runs. I did nothing, right? That that will haunt you at mile 18 on the marathon. It'll haunt you when and I think that's my problem was getting back to me again. It was it was like, I felt like I just wasn't there when I should have just said hey, I'm gonna have the race I'm gonna have

Gerell Webb:

Yeah,

Kenny Bailey<br>:

it's, I'm gonna get the race I trained for and that's okay. It may not be a PR or may not be a good one. And I'm probably going to suffer but that's the one that it that's the one that I made. So......

Gerell Webb:

There is no perfect race. I get about a perfect like perfect race. Never never had a perfect race. Right.

Tom Regal:

I've had the perfect plan. Went to hell real quick!(laughing)

Gerell Webb:

I was gonna say yeah, everyone has a perfect plan until you get punched in the face. Right? We all get punched in the face. Yeah, right. We all have a plan. I have a plan for my life. How to plan for that race. I wasn't planning on swimming like that. I was gonna go through there sho my wife what I've been doin every day after work, right Yeah, here I am struggling on swim. Yeah. It's so like a part A part of that is you know understanding again, who are yo when you get punched in th face, right? Even if you had i you did every single thing a you were supposed to do in you training plan. You checked of every box that your coach sen That's that's really selfish. you. At some point, at mile 18 t's still gonna kick in. It'll e mental. Yep. I've been unning for two and a half ours, man. godly like I just ant to be over. Yep. All right,'m ready to finish like, then o have a beer with my friends. ight? But then you have to, ike the music doesn't matter nymore. Like I tell people like nce you started running for a ong time, your playlist doesn't atter. Like first 3, 4, 5 mil s. After that. It's all, it's al your inner dialogue, right? nd what you what you tell yo rself is how you perform Right? And so if I tell myself, Ali, I am the greatest. Right? Then when I go out there and I've said it, right? And everybody so he said, you eith r want me to win. You want me o lose either where you're atching? I've already said I' the greatest. So now I have to go and prove myself right. I it' not my fear was always was a ways never was never about doub ing myself. My fear was lett ng the people down that that are dependent on me. Right? nd so understanding that brings me to this point, I'm saying you Why? What's your WHY? Right And so why are you running hese 26 miles? Why? Why? Why d you want to be a millionaire Why? Like what, like, whatever your goal is, what is the why, like, the real reason not li e the fit? like yeah, I want to I want a Bentley, cool. But t at Bentley isn't like I on't want that much to get up f r. Like, I would love to hav one. But I'm not really tr ing to sacrifice for a Bentley. But let's be honest, right? So what's the real reason th t I want to be a millionaire I wanna take care of my mom, my sue my mom's good. Make su e my family's good. Make sure my daughter doesn't ever have he worry, grow up worried abou money. Like she's never s e'll never be impressed by a g y that says I have money. Cool, ut dad has money. Right? Yea. And so and so like, what's you what's the real reason? And so what drove me, what motivate me, was my family. The fear of letting the people that believe in me down, right? And so when people believe in you, is ver selfish for you to be lazy, ri ht? It's very selfish for me to or me to sacrifice on my end an say, I'm believing in you. L ke you, you got it. You got he potential. I got it. I'm elping you to get there. And you re like, I don't really want to do it. Right?

Tom Regal:

That's perfect motivation is to have that greater cause something outside of that, you know, I get to race day. And I think back of all the people that have supported me. While I've been training, I've been out all that other stuff. And that's what drives me to the finish line is not so much just yeah, I finished it great. But it's to give respect to my coach, give respect to the people that supported me through there and give them a reason to want to do it again.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, yeah.

Tom Regal:

Right?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. So one of the big like, my wife never seen, we started dating after I started after I stopped playing football. We actually went to the same college, but she never saw me play football. You know, she's more of a basketball guy. Let you know what she was dating.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Those guys!(laughing)

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, that's the tall guys. (laughing) But one of the biggest things like, the thing that drives me is if I'm running, see my wife, see my wife on the course, like running by her. She's like, Fuck, I gotta finish. Yes. Let's go back. Like I kick another gear just because she's watching.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Please tell me you tried..... Right? I knew I couldn't die or drown or quit in the pool ecause my wife was right there watching. I know that when I g on TV, when I you know, do con ent or whatever, my wife is g nna see, so I'm representing her And and so when they say, oh you're married to Gerell, I wa t her to be with smiling lik, yeah, you know. So that', that's my wife, like my mo, like sending her stuff that I do. And she's like, it blows h r mind. Like my grandmoth r doesn't have any clue with a personal trainer is right? She s like, people pay you to wo k out? Why don't they just do t on their own? But, you kno, like, she's in her 80s th t wasn't a thing when she was y u know growing up. My wife's dad asked me before we got mar ied, when you get a real job? So when you going to stop play ng around and get a real? Thi is it brother! This is it! Ha e to be that guy. But then but h also is coming from his experie ces context what he sees on acebook or Instagram he ees me go workout so you thi k I should go to the gym and wo kout? That was just highlights n my day. That was one, th t was an hour that, so he do sn't see the all the behind the scenes that, well he does n w. But initially, he didn't. And so a lot of it is you kn w, like, showing people that A) it's possible, right? Like, l ke, where I'm from that we don't have personal trainers that ma e it. Like you're either ath ete or you're a rapper. As as a lack guy, right? You're athlete r a rapper. That's how that s how you that's how those are he people that we knew that m de money. Yeah, right. I didn't now doctors. I didn't know the M llionaire's that. I knew, th y came back and said I just got rafted. Right? Just made to th NFL. Right? And so those were o r goals. Those are, those are as irations growing up. So the only

Gerell Webb:

What!? Yes Absolutely! Absolutely(laughing)

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Is there some hidden gem someplace?

Gerell Webb:

Threw it away....... I did it on cassette......

Kenny Bailey<br>:

anybody listening? If you know Gerell Webb's earlier works.....

Gerell Webb:

Man, I tried it, but a

Kenny Bailey<br>:

We will pay big dollars on this

Gerell Webb:

Right!? I'll pay you big dollars. Not podcast...... to......Yeah. But yeah, but you know, so football was always my thing. But it was also. It was always bigger than me. Which, which brings me to another point like when it didn't work out, right? And sometimes things don't work out, especially right now we're in the middle of pandemic and a lot of people had to pivot. Right? And so it didn't work out. And, and this just hit me like two years ago, right? It wasn't because I didn't make it in football. It was because I wasn't able to do the things that I promised my mother I would do for her. That's why that's that was the hard part for me. Like, I didn't call my mom right now. She'll tell you that I had one goal, my whole life was made to league. The only reason we're not the only reason but one of the main reasons I could retire my mom, mom and mom, three kids. So you can imagine what that struggle was like?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Absolutely. That don't sound like a good time to me! (laughing)

Gerell Webb:

My only goal was to make sure her life got easier. And because I didn't make it, she had to continue working. Right? And so that's the part that I took hard. Right? That's that's the part that I internalized is that, that I let her down. Right? She still has to wake up and go to work tomorrow. She got she still has to quote unquote struggle even though she you know, she's not she's definitely in a better place than where she was when we were growing up. And so what happens when when you when you're in the dark place? Right What happens when? When you d n't you don't have the answe s? Like, okay, I'm pretty much aging out of going to league t at. So that's, that's not gonna appen. Okay, what am I going to do now? Right? Do I want to wa e up and go to work and work a nine to five? Maybe make $70,0 0 a year? Yeah, getting sh That doesn't sound like a good time to me, right? And you don't t at? always come home? That's the hard part. Right? So some of those guys, you know, I appreciate all the you know, the men and women that that wear the badge and I understand your your sacrifice and your risk. You don't always get to come home, right? It's different. Right.? And you don't get paid enough to get shot at, right And that's where I was like, I don't really want to do this but I don't have any other options. Right? Did I did everything right? We went to college, right? I followed my dream follow my goals, I did everything the right way. And I'm still in a dark place of what, so what do you do when you've done everything the right way? And you still end up there. And that's the part of the story that that I share with clients. That's the part of the stories that you have been where you are. I've been depressed. I've been, you know, I've been where I don't see any ways out. Right? I've been I've been lonely, right? So coming from Florida football player always had a pack mentality. I was always surrounded by people. Right? So what happens when all of that is removed from me? Right? And I still don't know what's next. How do you push through then? Alright. And so that that's the part of story that I share. Because people see you now they're like, Oh, it's easy for you to say because bla bla bla bla bla, right? right? And that's what I tell them. Like, even when working out. He was like, well, easy for you to say because you do it all day. You do it all the time. Does that make it easier or harder? I'm asking you do for an hour. 60 minutes, you just admitted I do this all day!

Kenny Bailey<br>:

And you're complaining......

Gerell Webb:

you're complaining about 60 minutes, right? And so it's that's that's life people, though people see the end result, and not what you had to go through to get where you are now, right? They don't understand you had to push you had to you had to face that darkness. As well as like, you know, your son, he was scared of the dark. At some point we got going there. Right? At some point we're gonna figure out. So you can see there's nothing in the dark that's not in the light. So whatever's in there, we got to go face it and figure out how we can defeat it. And that's, that's the biggest thing about life is people are still afraid of the dark. They're afraid of going to those those dark places of their personality, the dark places in their life and dealing with their trauma, whatever. And, and a lot of times, that's what it is. That's what's holding you back. Somebody in the fifth grade calls you fat. Yeah. And now you you've been carrying that around, you're insecure every day for the last 30 years because Bob in fifth grade said you were fat. Right? And so now Okay, let's deal with 1) Okay, if you are fat, what we're gonna do about it? Right. That's, that's my next question, 2) Are you really fat? Are you just telling yourself that you're fat? Right? Are you really these things? Or is that a mental thing? So let's, let's fix it up here in the mind first.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah. When.... You know, so you had that sort of epiphany moment where you, you're like, I don't know where I'm gonna be.

Gerell Webb:

Yes.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

And so you started training. Was there you know, going back to the business aspect. You're you're doing a good job now. Right? Yeah. I mean, you were you can tell I mean, you're working your ass off, right? I mean, there's no like I said, there's gonna be nobody on the planet that says lack of effort. Right, with their shades of that kind of oh shit moment in 2020. When when sort of The pandemic hit because your business model relies on actually physically seeing people. that was starting to get taken away. Was there a moment where you had shades of that? Oh, crap. I don't know what I'm gonna do. Or was it you already? You had the plan or you just its power through and figure it out? I mean, how did you go from sort of everything was great in '19? You know, the the the bottom fell out in 2020. As a business, how did you continue to move forward?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, so crazy thing is, the pandemic was probably one of the best things that happened.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Really?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. And here, and here's why. And, and some, this is gonna resonate with somebody, and maybe maybe with you guys as well. I was putting off things that I knew I should have been doing prior to the pandemic, right? And so one of my mentors told me, I always remember this, and it clicked again, is that don't spend so much time in your business, that you're not spending time on your business. Right? So a lot of times we spend so much time I was working, I was literally training 14 to 16 hours a day. Right? And so there's so much more other stuff that I need to be doing, for the business. Right? To help the business grow, but I can't because I'm in the gym, training people, right? And so like, same thing, you sitting there all day, you don't go out and you don't reach out to people, like I'm just sitting here waiting people come in you spending time in the business, but not on your business. And so I have a you know, I have a gift that I wasn't that I was sitting on. And that's, you know, being in front of camera, right? That's, I knew that I was made to train more than, you know, 20 people a day, right? It should be a national global thing. I knew that, right? But I wasn't sure how to how to push that, how to make that happen without losing what already had right without losing the clients that already had. And so literally, right before the pandemic started, I reached out to a company that I'm now working with, you can find me on an Nordic track machines, Free Motion, Matrix, anything that ifit, that ifit, powers. And so ifit, It's kind of like the other version of the other bike that people like...... Peloton is kind of so is a is more infotainment, infotainment. Right? So it's like you're being entertained while you work, man. Right? And so I knew personality wise that this should be bigger than what it is. But I will sitting on that gift. The pandemic forced me to start putting things on tape. I start putting things or I say, I say on tape that shows, that shows you my age, but start recording things. And so the pandemic forced me to start recording things, everything went virtual. And so more people saw, oh, this is what he's like, right? Okay, this is fun. Tough Love with some humor, right? This is fun. Send out some audition tapes. They loved it. Call me right back, right? So now I'm doing that. So now that's taking it to another level. And so a lot of the times we're sitting on our gifts, because we're doing and not that I don't like personal training. I love Personal Training, but also that I could be doing more. Right? And so yes, I'm doing well in personal training, but also know I could be doing, more and that's the hard part. It's like I'm doing a lot now. I should be doing more like Yeah, tell me more. Like, I ran the 10 miles you told me to run and now you want me to run 12 tomorrow!? I just ran 10!, like so. So is is understand that there's there's always another level right? We never we never reach, there is no finish line. Right? In life there is no finish line. That's what I that's what I preached. I tell people that's the case. Okay, when do I get to done?

Kenny Bailey<br>:

When am I done!? Yeah, what am I?

Tom Regal:

When do I finish?

Gerell Webb:

Yeah, you're not you're like, I still will work out every day. I still train like, like, like, my phone's gonna ring. And someone's gonna call me to come in training camp, right? It's not going to happen. But in my mind, that's how I like to train. So I still train that way. And so understand that there's always another given you're never there. Right? You're doing good. Yeah, you're doing great. You're successful. But guess what? There's another level of success. Jeff Bezos showed us that we thought it was right before Yeah, pandemic happened. He was like shit, gave my ex wife 18 billion dollars! It's nothing. I'll make that back. That's nothing, right? (laughing) That's always another level.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

So so you hit iFit now. So that's, uh,

Gerell Webb:

yeah. So that's the thing I'm on iFit now. Like I said, you can find any NordicTrack

Kenny Bailey<br>:

That is freaking cool. Yeah. All right. Great. You know, it's kind of interesting is the analogy almost is like, like you said, you were in your business and you were every day you kind of wake up and all sudden, it's like Wednesday, right? And you're like, man, I told myself, I was gonna do this this week. And it's getting towards the end of the week. And I think that's a similar analogy to people that are trying to get ready to, you know, like, I think I want to change my life and get more fit is they look up and it's, you know, Wednesday, Thursday, and I've been meetings all day. I said I was gonna do that and it's kind of an interesting thing. How how that that analogy kind of applies, right? But every once in a while, you just got to take stock yourself and figure out okay, is this really where I want to be? This is not where I want to be. Change it.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. Even if you're doing well, even if you're not like you can be doing well, like, I want to do want to kind of pivot and this is the perfect time to pivot. Like, you can't allow so many people just sat around. Oh, it's a pandemic. I can't do I can't you know, but you can't allow the circumstances dictate your goals, right? Some is never going to be the perfect time. Yep. It's never gonna be the perfect time to call me and say I want to lose weight. It's never gonna be a perfect day for that. Because you're gonna have to face that, right? It's not gonna be a perfect time to open a business to launch something. A new product is never a perfect time. You got to do it. And you figured out that you figured out a way, right? Yeah, I just never. There's never gonna be a perfect race to figure out and maneuver through that race. Whatever that is today. Oh, my swin was a little slow, or my legs is just filled. Okay, now what? But I'm out here. So I gotta go ahead and push through it. We'll just figure it out while we go through it.

Tom Regal:

Yeah. That's awesome. I mean, that totally relate to all of that. Now, I'll share that, that. That's why I love endurance sports is fact that it never goes, right. You have everything going solid. And it's like, I like operations. I like workflow. I like things that flow through. So I figure out what's the next step? Okay, this didn't happen. How do I make a change to that? How do I go here? I forgot my nutrition, or I was throwing up in the in the swim. What do I do now? I need to get that calories, and how do I get to the finish line? And and that translates across the life. So people like to, they want the they want the finished product, but they're not always willing to put the work in.

Gerell Webb:

Absolutely.

Tom Regal:

So and it's just about one step at a time figuring out what it is you need to do and just doing it.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Well. And I think I think the theme too, is just start. Yeah, you don't just go You don't know. Like, I had no idea like, Look, I'm gonna do a triathlon. I'm just gonna start. Right? And, you know, if I go well, I go well, if it doesn't pivot change and figure out how to move forward. Yeah.

Gerell Webb:

And and like, I understand that I love challenges. So yeah, like, the fact that it didn't go perfect, right? Yeah, it's like, Okay, I got to do that again.

Tom Regal:

And then you got a good story.

Gerell Webb:

Yeah. And I got a great story, some live lessons, look for lessons and everything, you know, like I said, like, surrender or die.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Yeah. And if you want to change start it, and, you know, you don't have to have to know what the finish line has to be because the finish line may not be a finish line. Like I mean, we're trying to make this a lifestyle, right. But that's what we want to talk about is wellness and fitness isn't something that you're done. Like, hey, I've done I know that sounds exhausting. But you know, at some point in time, you need to make it into a habit.

Gerell Webb:

It's like Jack LaLane, exactly like he did until he died. All the way to the end. If that doesn't inspire you know,

Tom Regal:

That's my goal........

Gerell Webb:

You know, is is look at Jack. Yeah, consider Jack LaLane. He was like 80, 90 still waking up swimming miles and not like, bro, like, man's a machine! is there there is no finish line and just understanding that there's always another level to whatever it is you want. It was always a new level.

Tom Regal:

Yeah. So how do we how do we find you on social media? What we watch you got great videos out there.

Gerell Webb:

Thank you! Yeah, it is I it's not I train I actually changed it. It is @thegerellwebb on all social media platforms that I changed it because of everything that's going on, because I'm more of a brand than a business. Yeah. And so now is@thegerellwebb.

Tom Regal:

Okay, cool. Awesome. Great. Check it out. Thank you so much for being on here.

Gerell Webb:

Man, Thank you!

Tom Regal:

I really love it. Appreciate your time. Everyone, if you if you like what you're hearing, give us some ratings, thumbs up comments that helps with the algorithms and share with all your friends. So thanks a lot, Kenny. Great.

Kenny Bailey<br>:

Thank you. Yeah, man. It was awesome.

Gerell Webb:

Thank you, guys.