The Thane and Friends Podcast-Episode 3-SAM

Thane and Friends-Episode 3-SAM.mp3

Thane: [00:00:01] Hello, welcome to the Thayne and Friends podcast. Episode three I'm your host, Thane Taylor. On the line, we've got Sam Kay, owner of Ground Zero Strength from Twin Falls, Idaho. Sam, how are you doing today?

Sam: [00:00:17] I'm doing great, man. Thanks for. Thanks for having me on.

Thane: [00:00:19] Definitely. Thanks for coming on. You're the second guest. First one was Joel the wife. Oh, sexual. So it's starting off strong. It's it's a killer lineup that we've got going on here already.

Sam: [00:00:29] Kind of an all star lineup already. Love to hear.

Thane: [00:00:31] I mean, only downhill from here. But, I mean, what can you do?

Sam: [00:00:35] Anybody else do you have on. Not even close to being as good. I feel following Joel up is hard. He drops to one liners in the last one where I was just like, man, I'm not sure if I can be as funny as him.

Thane: [00:00:47] So I thought the same thing. You know, he overshadows everything, but that's okay. I mean.

Sam: [00:00:53] Well, he came on and immediately said, This is going to be 10 minutes. This is exactly what I told my wife or something like that. Like been sitting here thinking all day trying to come up with something like that. So I got nothing.

Thane: [00:01:06] That's okay. I got to I got some questions for you. Okay. One of the things that I've been kind of louder about on Twitter and throughout life is showing people who you are with their actions and don't tell them what your acronyms. I really believe that. But it just so happens that I've got you on here and you've got the most acronyms I've ever seen behind your Twitter name. Let's talk about those for a second.

Sam: [00:01:34] Yeah. You want me to list off my whole list of acronyms, and then I'll get into the context of why they're there and why they're so definitely.

Thane: [00:01:41] Let's do it.

Sam: [00:01:43] Awesome. So like I said, I'm Sam Kay and I have a PH. D in as in a PhD. A PhD is nuts and RMS. So a master of science in strength and conditioning, a BS in biology. And here's the most important one is the C five PJ D's, which is the certified five plate Jefferson Deadlift specialist, followed by the C6, which is the strength and conditioning certified strength and conditioning specialist, followed by the CPT, which is the certified personal trainer. So everybody really needs to respect my authority there.

Thane: [00:02:30] I really, I really appreciate those and I respect all of those acronyms. Which one do resonates with you the most?

Sam: [00:02:39] Clearly it's the C-5 PJs. Whenever clients come into the gym and they see that one, they're just shocked and just literally throw me their credit card. Just throw it every time.

Thane: [00:02:52] No. Do you have a poster of yourself doing a Jefferson Deadlift mounted on the wall or a big mural? Something of that nature?

Sam: [00:03:01] Oh, yeah. And that's part of the certification process, is they are requiring you to send in a picture for them to put it on the little plaque that comes with the certification and as we discussed on Twitter last night. It's a rigorous process, an overall board practical exam, a written examination. As I say, 4200 on the platform, Jefferson Deadlift Hours coaching and doing it myself. Let's say $6,999.

Thane: [00:03:36] Oh, that's the only way to go.

Sam: [00:03:37] Monthly monthly fee to maintain the certification. So it's kind of a big deal.

Thane: [00:03:42] The numbers work out. I wouldn't have it any other way. I need to get this this for myself. Did you do this without a warm up? That's one of the most important questions.

Sam: [00:03:51] Yeah. Yeah, that's part of the certifications. No warm ups allowed whatsoever during those hours with you or your clients. Okay.

Thane: [00:03:59] Wow. So you train real clients at your gym, is that correct?

Sam: [00:04:05] Yeah, that is correct.

Thane: [00:04:08] A serious question here. Do they care about any of the acronyms that you got behind your name?

Sam: [00:04:13] Yes. So on a serious matter, like when I started joking with this on on Twitter, with all these things, a lot of people tie in. The coaches or trainers relevant to certifications or degrees. And then there's also people that time in their physique, and that's the definition of them being a good coach is how they look and. Both of those are wrong and really have zero indication of whether you can actually work with a client. Seriously. Right. Did you get a laundry list of certifications that literally can't keep somebody out of squat like their incompetent coaching? But you also get people that have the perfect washboard abs that got the greatest profile picture online. A lot of people follow them and they can also not even get a beginner client how to squat either. They just look good, right? So it's kind of that the point of me kind of sounding off on that yesterday anyway, but I've never once in the years that I've been coaching, been asked what specific certifications I have by a client ever. Okay. Um. Not even you know, they don't they don't care. First off, they don't know that there are certifications. Second off, you can just literally put on, hey, I'm a trainer. And if you can get people to results, if you can get them strong and it doesn't really matter right now, I have the only people that ask certifications are other coaches, so I've had some other coaches that come into the gym and train there and they'll ask me, Hey, what is your what's your qualifications? What's this? But they're not asking for training from me. They're just it's kind of like a size up thing.

Thane: [00:06:08] I think. I think you're on to something with that, you know, it kind of translate to other parts of the world where I actually have a formal, formal education in chemistry. You know, I got my masters, I was going on track for a PhD, and, you know, you only get a PhD if you want to teach, right? But that doesn't mean that you're going to be a good teacher or a good educator. Most of the time, people that get PhDs suck at teaching because all it is, all it incentivizes is your ability to get research grants and things like that, not actually perform the task that you're hired to do at a university. And that kind of like ties in to what you're talking about in terms of like collecting all these different certifications, different nasm credentials, different whatever credentials. So it really comes down with are you able to perform the functions of a trainer, Right?

Sam: [00:07:04] Yes, absolutely. That's the big thing is unlike you, I actually do legitimately have a master's degree and I do have a bachelor's degree. I have held the cscs. I actually let it run out and then the CPT. But the thing about the actual fitness trainer certifications is they're just a test and you go and you pay the money to get certified. And there is also a laundry list of practice exams that are exactly the same. So the Cscs, for instance, I bought like a $50 practice exam and it was like almost to a tee what the actual test was. It's so easy to memorize and take it and then go charge a a premium for coaching with that. So the big problem, a lot of people go through an exercise science type of degree and part of that is a shrinking in strength and conditioning course that takes you through the materials for the cscs. So you get a lot of people that are fresh out of college with the Cscs degree. But at no point was there any actual practical experience on a platform with a real client, like they get into a gym to train somebody and 44 year old untrained Barbara walks in, right? And they have zero chance of getting this woman moving correctly in a squat or in a lift or anything like that, because there's no actual progression for that. But one certification is that actually requires you to show your ability with coaching on the platform is just starting strength certification in that every single other one, you pay your money and you take the test and you can call yourself certified certification.

Thane: [00:08:59] I'm going to take a I'm going to take note of that. Sam, I've got 58 seconds with you left. So it is coming up.

Sam: [00:09:05] Bullshit, man.

Thane: [00:09:06] Yeah. So two quick questions for you. What is your greatest piece of financial advice?

Sam: [00:09:12] Just ramp up your credit cards as far as you can.

Thane: [00:09:15] That's what I tell people. They keep on free money. It's free money. You never have to pay it back. Once you get to the limit, it sets resets back to zero and starts over. Most people don't know.

Sam: [00:09:22] Yeah, and if you get the right card, you can even go over the limit without any repercussions at all.

Thane: [00:09:30] So that's that's one of the things that's on your on your premium services that people pay for that one. Right. Your advice like that?

Sam: [00:09:36] Yes, absolutely. Credit card debt advice.

Thane: [00:09:40] All right. And then 19 seconds left. What's your biggest life hack that you can explain to people?

Sam: [00:09:47] Oh, boy. If you're going to Jefferson Deadlift and you're a male, make sure to crunch your nuts at the top.

Thane: [00:09:55] All right. And that wraps up episode three of the Thin Friend podcast. There you go.

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