Hi guys good morning. Dr. Loveleen here. I am interviewing Paul Wintergerst, one of the cofounders of Phatburn.
I can talk about this gym because it's one of my favourite places to come. They have helped me in my journey towards getting my weight goals and
and to be stronger as I get older, healthier. So, (uhh) welcome, and I'm so excited to speak with Paul.
Good morning guys, Dr. Loveleen here and, I already spoke to you about Paul Wintergerst, he is co-founder of Phatburn, here in White Plains
I've done already a couple of videos on fatburn, and I'm so excited to talk to Paul. Thank you
Look at this handsome guy! Ahhan nice to meet you. Thank you very much.
So Paul tell me. Yesterday I met with Shawn, I had great meeting, talked to him about health and fitness so (umm) like,
I'd like to thank Phatburn for putting me on a, a journey to healthy living, I mean I'm not perfect by any means (Laughs)
and you guys are so inspiring with the motivation that you (ahh) give your members, but (ahh) so, like I have a tag line now
So I just want, to my tagline, The trailer of my life, the tag line is "I just want to be a sexy old broad. (laughs) That's my tagline. "A Sexy old Broad" Yes. (Laughs).
[Cross talk 00:01:49], no because That's so big. Correct, coz I've been a dork all my life. So now my goal to be sexy as I get older. But, (umm), so,
So you are not sexy yet? I'm, I am working on it (laughs) We can say, you're better.
(ahh), well, yeah. Well I, I don't feel like it, I like that better. But thank you. You're welcome.
So what's your tagline? For myself or for business?
For, For, I feel like, as a business owner, you become so entrenched in your business, you can tell me whatever. Personal tagline or your business tagline.
So, our business tagline is really just the most convenient way to lose fat all under one roof with a trainer, nutrition coach and a chef, right. So that's all we do at Phatburn.
I really don't have a personal tagline I mean, if I've to think of a personal tagline …think of one.
I like, I really like, (uhh), just being able to have the freedom to do what you love every single day,
so, if I had time, like the problems of getting to a better sounding sentence, but I just believe that you know, If you want to be happy,
you know, most people wake up and do their job, (uhh), for the majority of their life, you spend more time with your job than you do with your family,
if you really look at the hours. Right so. Right? so just being happy, doing what you do every single day (ahh)
I guess would be my tagline, something to that effect. That's nice.
Yeah. You, you're good man charged around. Ohh oh, you're Paul Wintergerst, ok. Right.
So Paul, (uhh), I want to talk, I, I, as I have already said to Paul, I wanted to talk about, now what is healthy lifestyle but, (umm) history is an entrepreneur,
because that's all interesting to me because I've a business and, you know, all around from other people but, (uhh)
tell me what a close to perfect day for you in terms of eating and exercise, like what is, like when you're in peast mode, that's why I'm calling it.
Yeah, a perfect day for me just in terms of exercise or (F & Meals), Meals entire day, your morning rituals. What makes fall fall?
Yeah, so, a perfect day for me is, it starts with what I was saying, and by the way, our business tagline has been feeding,
we try and re school you, just that. Right. We say that in a short way.
I like it, like it. Yeah. Say that again. We feed you, we train you and school you. Right. Yeah. [Inaudible00:03:54]
So my perfect day is being able to wake up, I wake up early anyway, I wake up at 6am, but not having to wake up and rush,
to the job, to a train, I used to work in the city for 10 years you know, just the feeling of like waking up, running though the shower, running through the train,
walking as fast as I can, I hate that rush feeling in the morning. So, my morning which is, are, I wake up at 6:00 am, and from 6:00 to 8:00 am,
I read my journal, I meditate for 20 minutes and I get ready, wow, in a relaxed fashion.
So like, you, journal, you meditate, and, I read 10 pages every day, of whatever book I'm reading. That's amazing. Is when, I force myself,
the most books that have upto 200-300 pages, if you read 10 pages a day, you read a book a month.
So all I need to do is, read 10 pages a day. Start reading books now. Yeah. That's one. I also listen to books and, in the car, in "Audible",
so that's a great way to read two books a month. Right. Listen to one in car. That's so cool.
One thing I would say about Paul is that, Paul is like a person that whenever you meet him, I feel like he's always on.
Paul, Paul is on. (laughs), right? On something, you know? No no no … [Inaudible00:05:02] Yeah, yes he's always, thank you.
He's, you could see, you know like, I, when I'm opening his mouth, I know he's the first child, I could just, because, Andrew,
I've done up videos, Andrew is his younger brother and you could see, Andrew is a baby and Paul is the oldest.
You can definitely see that. You've got very much that, I'm the oldest that we've been going on for You. Gotch you.
So, (umm), well I didn't finish answering your question. I'm sorry. So that's my morning ritual, you know then I go about my day's working and I work a lot of hours
and they're a lot into this business, which is why I love every day, what I'm doing. But then, I always have a one, not at the moment, I just had the back surgery.
So, with the past 4 months, I haven't been able to do this. Yeah, the workout part.
But, I would always have a 1-hour workout, 5-days a week, (ok), and if I'm on my a-game, I'm eating 4 Phatburn proved meals every single day. Yeah.
And, during my life, I do that Monday to Friday, and then on the weekends, I eat whatever I want. If I'm going through an intense goal settings time,
then I'll also eat those meals on the weekends as Well. So it's basically waking up, relaxed, you know, having my work day which is what I'd love to do anyway,
having one hour workout and eating 4 healthy meals everyday keeps me in, in the shape that I want to be in.
That's great. It's just amazing. How did you come up with the concept of Phatburn, like how did that, well, what is the seedlings to that?
Yeah, so, I didn't come up with it. We just cook, (ahh) the idea, and Shawn is heavily responsible for the way we came up with it. I was working at Finance,
where I had to find working out huge amount of hours. Shawn was going through an infomercial for insanity, if you know Shawn T and TV.
So Shawn used to workout with Shawn T, ok, big Rock-e-feller Centre (hmm), to get ready. He was in one of their infomercials for insanity.
So, while he was working out with the group of people with Shaun T in Rockefeller Centre in New York, behind the scenes,
they also had a nutrition coach Jessica, if you remember, I do. Yeah, she was their nutrition coach and, they had a company in the Rochelle catering their meals. Okay.
So Jessica would coordinate the meals, then deliver the meals to the studio. They will all work out together
and it was going to guarantee that all these people were gonna have unbelievable before and afters, and (ahh) guaranteed a result by the time they had to.
So you know, being in fitness, or, not being in fitness but always live, living and, living a fitness lifestyle I should say,
I love that concept yeah, and then it doesn't exist, (hmm hm), so, that's what brought up on the idea for Phatburn, and, and then we started it that way.
That's really interesting. So when was this? Seven years ago? It was in 2011. Okay.
That was in, Shawn was probably going through that in the summer of 2011, he ran to show in a pizzaria
I might express this point or not, ohh. In order to show in, he told us that he was there in. Thats when the conversation started.
Thats super cool, so you guys (ahh) started in 2011, okay. Well we, we started building 2012. We did a pilot program in 2011,
before like Phatburn even had a name or was anything. Yeah. We just kind of started. Oh that's super cool, and why did this location open?
Ahh, The White Plains location opened in the summer of 2014. Yeah I think I joined 20 .. July of 2015,
well so maybe it was 2015 am I wrong? No, I think, I think, when, 2014, a ...yeah, I think it was 2014.
I think I've been coming here for a year and a half so, yeah so, but that's great, because I mean,
they opened a second location in Connecticut, like, like what an year gonna or 6 months,
Ahh, yeah, In August we opened in Connecticut. We're planning to open in New York city in November, Whoa,
yeah, congrats, that's a good news, Yeah we'll say. Wow. So see that's impressive, like, how you can do that. (ahhh)
So, I'm gonna ask you some business questions so, so the mission, the mission is,
the mission of our purpose is, as I was saying before, which is the most convenient way to lose fat,
(ahh) having your training and nutrition coaching and your meals prepared for you, all under one roof, yeah
So it's I feel, is, the part that gets in the way of lot of people which is being so inconvenient to do all the things you need to do. Yeah.
A lot of people just go to the gym. You need to have the right nutrition and you need to have the time to cook it, yeah. So, we're trying to make it that all easily accessible. Yeah
Super, It's yeah, it's great because (umm), the food is cooked right here at the errant tomato, which is the restaurant right down stairs.
The chefs are, down there, they prepare the food Ahh, yeah, daily?
Yeah our chef prepares the food, separate from Errant Tomatoes menu. Ok. You know, we use a little salt, no sodium no sugar on our ingredients
and recipes are different and we prepare twice a week right. So people pick up the food twice a week for 2 or 3 days and then you go on like that. It's, It's really a great thing.
We were talking about meal prep and all. I'm really bad about meal prep so, for somebody like me, that's a great option, to be able to get helpfully prepare food,
conveniently at the location I work out. And I did, I, I used to order food, I, I, I need to get back into it (laughs)
Or we change it now, so you can now order by meal, ok. Some of you'd like to order, make meal prep, some of your meals, and just get like a dinner (hmm)
You can do that now as well, it used to be after, what like a whole day, so probably, now you did it, right right, and now you can do it meal by meal, that's really cool, yeah.
And you know, I'll be providing the information for, on the links and stuff (ahh) in my,
So what, in your description? in a contact section, yes, that's yes, I'll be providing the links and contact information in the comments section. okay. So, (Umm)
So how do you guys advertise for your business? (ahh), we advertise primarily to facebook so we run a lot of Facebook ads, Social media.
(ahh) Social media, but not just making post on our walls, we actually advertise on Facebook. (Hmm) So, we put out in our post and then we'll promote it over the entire (ahh) month,
and we switch it up like that you know, we did, we blog, we have some YouTube videos, (ahh) we have email blast, that go out, (ahh)
we do a lot of networking events and booths, like we gonna do a fashion show in march (ahh), we're going to do a workshop coming up, yeah, stuff like that.
The Phatburn opened , yes yes, you know those are all different ways that we campaign. Yeah.
So, the thing with the Phatburn, which is really cool is that it's a community. I mean, like all these people on the wall, I probably know like 75% of them,
and they all continue to come here. (hmm hm), the majority. (inaudible) I know, she just started. Oh yeah, it's, it's so cool. So these,
these are before-and-afters and the people who come here, they stay here, That's you guys. That's, that's, that's that's, anything worth doing for,
for whatever reason the family like environment is just you guys showing up here every day, and putting in the hard work and using the tools, that we're giving you, it's all you. Yeah.
So all the success to be felt, I love seeing that because it's, you know it's gratifying for you that an action need putting forth and then to see you how great results become ahh hazzle free (laughs)
Okay, that no, but I'm, I'm just really, really happy to be a part of this community. So (umm) what do you attribute to your success, I mean like your openness or location.
Yeah, (ahh), there is one line that Steve Jobs always says in like one of his famous interviews and he's like, you know,
not a lot of people do it because it's really hard. Right, it's actually really hard to own your own business. Absolutely.
Like, it's something that coming from finance I thought I worked a lot of hours and done and you know stressed out,
so I thought coming into this life was going to be a stress release or a stress reliever.
But you know it's a ton of work, it's a ton of hours in the beginning, and if you don't love what you do and you don't do it for a higher reason,
then you're just gonna phase out, and I think that's why so many small businesses end up not working because, (ahh),
what this 2 reasons, one is the amount of work it takes and then second, most people going to small business coz they're good at something, right.
But then when you're good at something, so I'm good at fitness and getting people to great shape but that doesn't matter when you open a business because
As soon as you come up with business, you have to know how to market your business. Yes.
Word of mouth is not going to get you where you want to be, especially opening up new locations and growing at a rapid pace right? Yes.
So no matter what it is, if you make the best cupcakes in the world as soon as you open up a business,
you're now are the best cupcake maker in the world with no marketing experience. So nobody knows you make the best cupcakes. Right. So it's those two things,
it's a, combination of getting the marketing right and also just working out your ass off in the beginning until things, things get moving. Yeah. Yeah.
So (umm) you know I find as a business owner, one of the most trying things is dealing with different personality types, (inaudible) So, (umm) what do you look for in an employee?
Yeah that's a great question so, in the beginning when we were hiring, we always used to hire people based on the skill. We need a person to do this job, can you do this skill? Great, you're hired.
And we found that a lot of those people would stay here for a little while and then leave, (uhh), and I read a book called WHO, which I recommend to you, it's awesome. Okay.
(umm), and it's, they have something called the skill will, bull's eye. Right so, if somebody has the will, or they want to be in Phatburn or, they fit into our culture,
that's somebody who's gonna stick here. Right. The skill is something that can be taught. Yeah. So the answer to your question,
now we look to hire people, who fit in culturally here first, ok, first and foremost, and then the skill is obviously important,
but even if somebody doesn't have the skill, we won't hire them because they're such a good fit and teach them the skills that they need to succeed here.
Yeah. Yeah so for that reason now, we actually put people through Phatburn for three weeks before they even get hired, just to make sure this is something, some place they want to be,
It's been great for our trainers, because trainers coming here, and they say, they're all great and wanna train here
and we found that 80% percent of them don't even make it through three weeks of Phatburn and they just phase themselves out. Wow.
So It's like, it's been a great screen process, to ingrain them in the culture right away. Yeah, it's really cool. Yeah.
No interactions on with that, but that's interesting so, it's been working for you?
Yeah, so, that in continuance, actually was Shawn Smith's suggestions putting people through a 21-day kick-start here, that was his idea and
that book WHO, I don't know that author, but that's an unbelievable book to me, for the hiring process, doing it the right way. Cool, okay.
So for all business owners "WHO", for the hiring process, because that's this, I feel that's so much trying part in the business.
Yeah, that book was given to me as a gift by the CEO of a firm called MTE, which is in the Fortune top 500, (ahh), which is why it's probably such a great, really great (ahh) recommendation.
Yeah, so (ahh), so what made you choose (ahh), the locations you did, like what was, what were you looking for in the ideal location, be it here in White Plains or Stanford?
Yeah so, when we were starting off, I really needed a cheaper rent. We didn't have much money, right, to be honest with you,
but Phatburn is different in the gym, so this is not the kind, there's actually people who come here from 45 minutes away, yeah.
So you're coming here to get a result in a certain amount of time, so for that reason, I wasn't really concerned about being on the ground level, because we're on the second floor, (ahh),
but I do like the idea of being in a highly populated area, that it can still be seen. Errant Tomato right below us has tons of traffic. Yes, right? Yes.
So, us being right above them, forget the fact that our kitchen is right there, we get so many people just walking by here from there. Right. (umm), so those kind of 2 things,
and we have the same exact scenario in Stanford. Yeah. We're on the corner, of what I think is the busiest intersection in Stanford of all the McDonald's. I mean the f, and there's a Starbucks across the street,
so if you want a little hint, I actually think positioning yourself next to a "Starbucks" or any kind of business that has a ton of foot traffic already,
Just by all those people going there, they're going to see your business next to it. And that's something that I, plays in turn when I'm looking for a, area.
Yeah, the location is so important when it comes to establishing your business. Which place is city, have you found a location yet?
Yes so similarly in the city, we have not, but, the place that I wanted to, was above one of the old great [Inaudible00:17:11],
so it's funny how our fitness studios are all right, Ohh yeah, food establishments that are not healthy, but [Inaudible00:17:17] huge foot traffic, yeah yeah.
What, which, which [Inaudible00:17:20], yeah they, No, along Westside, they closed it now. So, along Westside [Inaudible00:17:25]
and the place that we wanted actually became a Bar Stephen house but we're looking for space, (umm), I have 2 friends who work for corporate and are looking for staff.
Wow its super, super cool. So, (ahh), what are your goals with Phatburn, I think we probably already addressed them, you know, it's the exercise, motivation and the food?
The goals for Phatburn as a business or for what we want our people to achieve? Let's talk about what your goals are as a business?
Yeah, (ahh), our goal for Phatburn as a business is to open up as many locations as we can. So, there's two ways you can go you know, there's the franchise model, which I actually don't really think I want to go towards,
(ahh) and then there's opening up as many privately held Phatburns as you can, and then having some cool conversations about, you know,
if you were, really want to get 10 years out going public or something like that. That's like my big area as they should call and cool, I think be head back, that happen in internet.
But, I don't know, right now I'm just happy, opening new locations, teaching a team of people to lead them and seeing them work this system
and have our members get unbelievable results and form their own families like you said, in, in each community. It's just really gratifying to watch. Yeah. Yeah. That's the business (ahh), I guess. Yeah thats cool.
(ahh), so, now in white, in the White plains area, there are tons of gyms. And, (ahh), what is it about Phatburn, that makes it different from the other gyms?
Yeah well, the mainly the difference is we serve foods right, and we have a, a structured, but nutrition system. Yeah.
(Ahh), In a lot of gyms, you might have a nutrition person who walk in and kind of like haphazardly give you a meal plan. (ahh), I believe ours is a lot more structured than the gyms.
We track you very often, (umm) we, I think we give pretty good support here and, and then you know just the food or saying you all the time that you need to actually get the result what you want. Yeah.
and have different cool things like the challenge you just went through, yeah, (ahh), to try to keep it interesting. Yeah. Also our workouts change,
so our, yeah, every two weeks, yes, that's another big thing that's, you know a little different agenda. Yeah, its cool.
I think one of the biggest things with Phatburn is, the fact, the trainers, and Paul (umm), are so committed, to motivating everyone,
I mean they're constantly on Facebook with the videos, (ahh) with these motivational type activities, like the challenge and, you've so many things going on.
So, one of the doctors I work with, she did the 21-day challenge, she was really far from here but, (umm), she I feel like,
it hit it right on the head when she said, the big thing with them is that, people are attracted to the motivation.
Yeah, motivation and accountability. that, right, yeah. And, anybody who's so like involved, with the constant videos and stuff like that. I don't feel like you've been treating like a business coz you, you're constantly on it.
It's funny because I actually don't even realize that we do it that often, yeah, and then sometimes that we did where I think I'm actually closing too much so, I really don't know, it, you know what it is?
Ohh I don't think it was too much but I, it's a, it's a big deal like, you guys are like, doing the research on it, you know presenting it constantly. It's a lot of work.
You know what it's actually less of work, if you walk the walk. Right, so didn't go back to your crazy amount people we hire.
One of our values is also walk in the walk. So there's nobody here, who doesn't live this lifestyle. And that's what makes it easy, because I do these challenges with you guys right, right. Writing programs with you,
so it's so easy for me to just sit there and post how I'm feeling in the struggles I'm going through. It's not like, I'm like everybody do a challenge, then I'll be here working on the self stretchings right,
and I have to think of like who's up the post. Yeah. It just happens naturally because we're doing it with you. Yeah, so that's, that's what, that its attributed to.
Yeah, so, (umm), ok so, now, if you had one piece of advice for starting out, let's do first starting our business and one piece of advice, if you're starting on your health journey.
What would be, a piece of advice if you're starting your health journey?
You're starting your health journey, (ahh), you should track what you're doing, because everybody starting out on a health journey gets really motivated, they get really excited.
They go 100 miles an hour for the first two weeks. And then they fizzle out and stop. They take two or three months off, until they feel horrible, and then they start the whole thing over.
They get, they pick a day, they get 100 miles an hour for two maybe three weeks this time, and then the next cycle just keeps going on and on. You need, I shouldn't say need.
You should commit to a plan that you know you can do for more than two or three weeks, and then track yourself because even if you do stop, by tracking yourself,
you'll know, you can't lie with the results, right. So if you track yourself, you'll see this is the result I got. Even if it was I gained weight, instead of saying "I worked out and I was eating this way. It didn't work for me".
The reality is you worked out, you eat this way, you gained two pounds right. So then when you start the next time, you have somebody compare it towards what you did, right.
So even if it just starting is the number of times you work out in a week, and then holding off for a month, and number of times you drink in a month, and putting out on a calendar.
The amount of healthy meals you actually eat in a day. Start with something like that, it's gonna really open our eyes as to what you're actually doing versus what you think you're doing.
So, that's my answer to that, and tracking into whatever diet or need more fitness regimen you're gonna start.
So we add that you use awesome old journals (umm), we talked about, we talked about this yesterday with Shawn, about the importance of having a food log, right? Yes, is that how do you track, is that, or you don't know what you're tracking?
I want to make it even simpler so, food log and, and writing down every single thing that you're eating, it, it's also causes a lot of people to stop, that's a very annoying process. I'm just talking about,
if you're supposed to eat 4 healthy meals, just writing down, I'll, I need a healthy meal, healthy meal, healthy meal, and then like in today I eat 4 healthy meals and seeing exactly how many healthy meals you actually eat.
You got the more simpler form of food logging. The, like we did in the challenge. Yeah, when we were on a working up.
What (umm), what, I like "My Fitness Pal", what apps do you like for our tracking …(ahh), we were using "Eat Simple" to track that. But if you want to track your exact food,
I used to use, (uhh), not "My Fitness Pal" the other one, definitely in.. Is it [Inaudible00:23:44], It's something, I forgot the name of it. I think Shawn, Shawn says me yesterday, and just, ohh well, I'll ask him again.
True something, I cant remember the name of it, (ahh), its slipping from my mind, but I'll email you, so can post it the comments.
Yeah, no worries, it's like, almost like "My Fitness Pal". Yeah. Yeah. Don't worry I'll edit out whatever, this little thing,
(ahh), and, what about, what's your, (ahh) advice for somebody who's starting out on a business? A business is a business right, whether it's a medical business, (ahh), a studio, yes, what, what would be your piece of advice to some starting out?
Yeah don't concentrate so much on, let's go back to the analogy of cupcakes. Don't concentrate so much on,
you're making your perfect cupcake and making everything perfect in your business but you have no one there to buy that right.
So as soon as you start a business, just realize that you are now a marketer, it's the other half of your business. And I would start…take no Loveleen Marketting.
Yeah, and I would start literally, concentrating on that first, more than you get what your product is. Because everybody's like, "I have the best product" and they just wanna everybody their product. Yeah.
And then they show all the friends and their family and word of mouth a little bit, and then it just stops right there, right.
So you have to, you have to concentrate on either getting a consultant to help you with marketing, a coach, you need to read marketing books and you need to try marketing activities,
because you're not going to get it right away, you have to try and fail in a marketing direction rather than using the best product ever and sitting there trying to figure out how to sell it after the effect.
So marketing right away, when you start. That's my advice, Got it. Yeah. Okay, so (umm), am I allowed to share some of your personal business? Sure, yeah.
So, because I'm like a nosy Nellie, Paul, it's like a, very exciting, (ahh), time of his life, [Cross talk 00:25:30], yes, so he's 2 things, he's engaged, yeah, and he's going to be a Fam, yeah, yeah, have fun
Got a good swimmer, they're good swimmer, anyway so it's a boy. Yes, thank you. What an exciting time of life, I appreciate that, God is, it is such a optimistic and fun time, that's, great time, enjoy your life. Thank you.
Ahh, so what's the plan for V-Day? Ahh, for V-Day, so, I woke up this morning, (ahh), Andrea, roses, trumpet and a car. She forgot, she thought, found like it was the 15th, (laughs),
but she, she works also, she's an interior designer so she works till five, then she has class tonight from 6 to 9 so we're going to supper, we're going to go out to dinner on Saturday night.
Nice, and since I was working today. Well, congrats for all the great stuff in your life, (uhh), into, I don't get to see you that often, but I do love being a part of this community,
I want to thank you. Thanks, I appreciate that, for making it, yes thank you very much, And, Thanks guys, this is Paul Wintergerst from Phatburn, (umm), have a great day. Thank you, it was fun, thanks Loveleen.
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