Episode 271 – Jesse Benson

Jesse Benson: My childhood was an adventure every single day but unfortunately my parents marriage starts to fall apart my entire world. I think that you have to find your superpower. I don’t think we’re born with it I think it’s something we need to find within ourselves and that’s kind of the process that I underwent when I found some old rusted weights in my father’s shed in the backyard. I dug those out sanded them, painted them and set up in my parents basement. I found solace in those weights and just started lifting themand building all this muscle and armor as I like to refer to it to more or less protect myself when my parents were fighting it was very very tough on all three kids unfortunately my sister Coped with that stress by eating her emotions my brother did the most innocent thing a child could do in the world and blamed himself and I took on a role of protector if you will so as the eldest male I started to lift weights and try to fill that father figure void in the family which of course you know a kid child can’t is not equipped to do so I got really jacked at 13, 14 years old. I began putting on muscle all naturally of course I didn’t go to class but I did spend a lot of time in that gym learning the fundamentals about weight you know all the different weight training principles and what have you so that’s where I really started to harness a lot of valuable invaluable work ethic and principles and values and things like that.

Richard Matthews: [00:00:00] Oh, and welcome back to the hero show. My name is Richard Matthews. And today I have live on the line with me, Jesse Benson. Jesse, you there?

there? 

Jesse Benson: Yes, I am. Thank you, Richard.

Richard Matthews: Awesome. 

to here, Jesse.

I 

know we’ve a couple of times before you a really cool company. We’ll get to talk about a little bit more here, but I always like to start off before we get into anything.

Where are you calling in from? Where are you from?

Jesse Benson: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. So we’re over on the West Coast. 

Richard Matthews: Yeah.My understanding is 

British Columbia. the Vancouver area is very nice from a weather standpoint. Like it’s like Southern California, except on the north of the border. 

Jesse Benson: It’s tropical, we got lots of rain but we also got a lot of sun, but everything here is very green. It’s beautiful, the mountains, every single sport you can think of, it’s all here.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. And you guys are just on the other side of the Oh man, I’m going to forget the name of them, all the islands that are there.

Jesse Benson: All the gulf continents. Yeah, there’s a ton of islands. So we’ve got Victoria Island, which is, it’s massive. It’s a big island. It’s bigger than Japan. Like, it’s a massive island. It’s kind of a nice shield that we’ve got over on that West Coast and some of the most [00:01:00] beautiful hiking trails you’ve ever seen.

It’s definitely a spot. if people can make their way out here, it’s worth the trip.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. We got to go up into that area. And we didn’t get to cross the border cause it was during COVID. But we got to like go to the international park that’s right there on the South side there. And you know, go through all the Bay and see some of the, what do you call them, see some of the forecasting in that area

Jesse Benson: Yeah, there’s so much wildlife here as well. Yeah, there’s something for everyone here. The West Coast is is the land of opportunity is what I like to call it. There’s something here for everyone.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. One second. My camera just turned off. I want to make sure it comes back. I don’t know what just happened with my camera. Did I disappear?

Jesse Benson: No, you’re here. I actually got engaged on one of those islands. Beautiful spots. Yeah, more people need to come out here, but we don’t want more people. There’s so much more traffic now and it’s just getting nuts.

But eventually they’ll become a much metropolitan, you know, we’ve only got a million people here. There’ll be [00:02:00] 10 million people here one day.

Richard Matthews: That’s crazy.

Jesse Benson: We’ve got the best air, water and healthcare system. So there’ll always be a need for that.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Yeah, I know Canada’s got definitely, it’s definitely a really cool place. I mean, we haven’t got a chance to go over the border in our travels because every time we’ve tried, it was all during like the COVID season and a couple of years after. So we couldn’t get in. 

But we’ve been, we spent a couple of times going through like the international parks. So we got to go in and over up there. I’m really looking forward to get up there and trying what if I’m understanding correctly, are the best donuts in the world. 

Jesse Benson: We’ve got several friends of ours own a donut shop called Lee’s donut and they’re franchising and they’ve got amazing. Actually, these things have got lineups like every single day. 

Richard Matthews: Like Krispy Kreme down here in the States? 

Jesse Benson: Yup. 

Richard Matthews: Awesome. So before we get too much further, I want to do a short bio for you. So our listeners know who you are. So I’ll go through that real quickly and then we’ll dive into your story. 

So Jesse Benson is a renowned figure in the fitness and wellness industry. And he’s the owner of [00:03:00] Fit Integrated Wellness and the National Personal Training Academy, the NPTA. 

In 2024, Jesse was honored as Canada’s top Fitness trainer in the whole country, which is pretty cool. A testament to his dedication and expertise. Additionally, Jesse, he celebrated for his athletic prowess, having claimed the title of art Enduro champion in 2022 through his leadership at fit integrated wellness and NPTA, Jesse has transformed the landscape of fitness education and training, inspiring individuals to pursue healthier lifestyles and achieve their fitness goals. 

His passion for wellness and his commitment to excellence continue to leave an indelible mark on the industry and those that he serves. 

So with that introduction, Jesse, what I want to do is start off with what you’re known for now, right?

Really sets up who you are and what your business is like now. 

So basically what I want to know is who do you serve? What do you do for them?

Jesse Benson: Yeah. So thanks, Richard. So now what I’m serving mainly as trainers, I’m mentoring. That’s what I’m spending most of my time doing now that I’ve more or less retired from the client facing training side.

Completed over [00:04:00] 50,000 30 minute training sessions more than anyone in North America. So I’ve reached a high level of mastery there and now I’m just really glad that I get to work hands on with trainers. Primarily empowering them so that they in turn can empower others and I can have a greater impact and reach that way.

So now, you could say that I am a mentor and I’m doing a lot of things on the business side. So opening new businesses and expanding things that way.

Richard Matthews: So 50,000 training sessions?

Jesse Benson: Yes, 50,000, 30 minute training sessions, more than anyone on the planet, possibly the universe. That’s not confirmed, but I have done a ton of personal training.

Richard Matthews: That’s an insane amount of training sessions. And just out of curiosity, what kind of training is it? Is it weight loss, strength training or all of the above? Like what martial arts, like where are your sort of areas that you train in?

Jesse Benson: Yeah. My [00:05:00] my craft is the 30 minute training model. So that, I more or less created. And it’s hit primarily. So high intensity interval training is what I would most refer to it as.

However, once you reach a level of mastery like that 10,000 hour type thing, you start to rely more and more on your instincts, more and more on your intuition, and you’re able to effectively tailor an experience for each and every client given their unique challenges, goals, likes, dislikes, injuries, etc.

And so you’re almost basing the workout more on feel as crazy as that sounds. But again, that’s the type of thing that can be done once you’ve attained that level of mastery.

Richard Matthews: And then I know you mentioned, you sort of switched from being the personal trainer to training other trainers, which is what you do now.

And so about that for a little bit. What is the difference there and why are you doing that?

Jesse Benson: Yeah, so we’re starting to certify trainers. So we are [00:06:00] NASMs. There’s several certification bodies out there, NASM being one of the largest. They’re based out of the US, but we’re their official Canadian partners. What this means is that we’ve got distribution rights to all of Canada.

And so we certify trainers, hundreds of trainers and aspire and soon thousands of trainers across this country, empowering them with the latest and greatest in education and tools and opportunities to reach more Canadians. You could refer to them as heroes in the making. Each trainer over the course of their career on average will impact up to 500 lives. 

So National Personal Training Academy’s goal here is to impact a million Canadian lives. And when I set out on this goal, I quickly did the math and realized, wow, like I can’t do this alone. I need to obviously empower others.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, you about 2000 trainers or so that you’ve trained.

Jesse Benson: That’s correct. Yeah.

Richard Matthews: So how many trainers do you guys have now? Just out of curiosity.

Jesse Benson: [00:07:00] So out of our physical gym locations, at one location, we’ve got about just under 15, the other one, we’ve got 3. Currently, we’ve just opened that facility, but we’re aspiring to expand online. This is where the opportunity truly lies.

But we’re certifying again trainers across Canada. So we’re certifying them in every single province. And from there they can continue on their own path and careers or they can go ahead and join any one of our career opportunities that we offer as well.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. So, you got your work cut out for you. If you’re going to get to 2000 trainers over the next few years.

Jesse Benson: I absolutely idea. Yeah, that is one thing that I am very good at is working.

Richard Matthews: So what I want to go over next then is your origin story, right? Every good comic book hero has an origin story. It’s the thing that made them into the hero they are today. 

And we want to hear your story. Were you born a hero? Or were you bit by a radioactive spider that made you want to get into the, you know, personal training business?

Or did you start out on a job and eventually become an entrepreneur? Basically, where did you come from?

Jesse Benson: [00:08:00] I came from a small rural town community called Timmins, Ontario. It’s a boom and bust town, mining and forestry. You might know this country singer, Shania Twain. 

So Shania was, she got the key to the city. She was actually born in our hometown. And we had a museum there for her and everything else and whatnot.

So we it was a great place to grow up. I would not trade it for anything in the world. My childhood was an adventure every single day. But unfortunately my parents marriage starts to fall apart, my entire world. And I fell into kind of, Well, there’s only so many ways that you can respond to adversity, right?

I think that you have to find your superpower. And I don’t think we’re necessary. My personal opinion is I don’t think it’s innate. I don’t think we’re born with it. I think it’s something we need to find within ourselves. 

And that’s kind of the process that I underwent when I found some old rusted weights in my father’s shed in the backyard, I dug those out, [00:09:00] sanded them, painted them and set up in my parents basement.

So while they were, arguing and fighting upstairs, I found solace in those weights and just started lifting them, building all this muscle and armor, as I like to refer to it to more or less protect myself. When my parents were fighting, it was very tough on all three kids. My brother and sister included. 

Unfortunately, my sister, Coped with that stress by eating her emotions. My brother did the most innocent thing a child could do in the world and blamed himself. And I took on a role of protector, if you will. 

, as the eldest male, I started to lift weights and try to fill that father figure void in the family, which of course, you know, a kid, child can’t, is not equipped to do, but that was what I made that attempt. 

So, I got really jacked at 13, 14 years old, I began putting on muscle all naturally, of course, I didn’t go to class, but I [00:10:00] did spend a lot of time in that gym learning the fundamentals about weight, you know, all the different weight training principles and what have you.

So that’s where I really started to harness a lot of valuable, invaluable work ethic and principles and values and things like that. All that good stuff.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, that’s fascinating. And I know especially like 13, 14, mostly because I have a 14 year old son that we’re working out together and watching him, like, just, his transformation over the last year has been impressive and we’ve just been doing martial arts training, which is a lot of calisthenics and body weight training and you know, he’s rippling, right?

I have like 30 years of decisions to overcome, but he’s just like rippling with muscle because he started at that age.

Jesse Benson: That’s awesome. And there’s never a too young an age. I always say like the earlier, the better that the whole, I think it’s a misconception when it comes to like stunting growth and all these types of misconceptions. I think it’s completely safe for youth to get into weight training. It’s so awesome that you guys are doing that [00:11:00] together.

I think that’s also very cool and when it comes to building muscle, it’s on one hand, it can be extremely complicated. It’s like this big black box. There’s so much conflicting information these days. Whereas, you know, you keep it really simple. If your son’s eating, he’s sleeping, he’s working out, then that muscle will surely you know, he’ll keep rippling up.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. And so you started doing your weight training as a young teen. When did you start to become a trainer?

Jesse Benson: Yeah. I became a trainer when I was 19 years old, when I moved out West to Vancouver which is Canada’s fitness capital of Canada. Unfortunately, in Shania Twain town, there wasn’t much opportunity for personal trainers at that time, but I knew that was something I wanted to do given the I was actively involved in my local high schools with the training programs.

I was constantly in the gym, helping other guys out and honing in on those skills. And there just was no opportunity there. So I had to make the move and come out West. And that’s where I landed a construction job. And then eventually worked [00:12:00] my way up at a local facility in Vancouver.

I started at the very bottom of the ladder with toilets and towels which turned out to be an absolute advantage and blessing in disguise given that I had ownership was going to be an option for me in the future. 

So that really did help me set me myself up for long term success.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, that’s really cool. And it’s also funny, you grew up in Shania Twain town and you look like you’re about the same age as I was Shania Twain was my teenage crush. So,

Jesse Benson: I’m sure she has a lot of teenage crushes. Yeah, she’s a great singer.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, my favorite thing about Shania Twain, other than like her meteoric success, was it like she hit the top of her game and then she was just like, I’m out, I’m going to go raise my kids. And like, that’s just the coolest thing ever.

Jesse Benson: A 100,000% agree. You know, most important job in the world, be a good parent, good mother, your father, so

Richard Matthews: Yeah. I heard rumors that her kids are now officially grown. She’s going to come back into the music scene shortly, is my [00:13:00] understanding. So

Jesse Benson: Oh, that’d be awesome.

Richard Matthews: It should be cool to have her back. Maybe you get a new album or something. 

What I want to talk about next then is your superpowers, right?

That you’ve developed over the course of your career, right? Every iconic hero has a superpower, whether that’s, you know, a fancy flying suit made by your genius intellect, the ability to call out thunder from the sky, or maybe in your case, you know, giant muscles, right? 

Super strength in the real world heroes have what I call a zone of genius, which is either a skill or a set of skills that you were born with, or you developed over the course of your career that really energize everything else that you do.

And the way I like to frame this superpower is if you look at everything, all the skills that you develop over the course of your career, there’s probably a common thread that sort of ties all those skills together that have allowed you to build what you’ve built so far.

And so with that framing, what do you think your superpower is?

Jesse Benson: Well, I’m just going to flat out come out and start here and say calm, a sense of calm. So when the pandemic hit and I had already gone through a ton of adversity from relocating facilities, opening facilities, what have you. But when the pandemic hit, it was kind of like [00:14:00] everything was being thrown at me.

Like every single type of adversity was getting thrown at me. And I pulled the whole team aside and I said, okay, guys, what’s the one thing you’re all going to contribute here? You know, the world might be coming to an end.

Possibly we might have to close the gym. We might have to lose people on the team, our clients. We don’t know what’s going to happen with them. And I had a whole bunch of other things on my plate at the time as well.

I was undergoing a divorce. My father was passing away. You name it, it was happening. It was my storm. And the one thing I said I was going to contribute to the team and everyone was a sense of calm because as a leader or superhero in this case, if I’m panicking, if I’m freaking out, what stability can I offer anyone else? Right?

And so I knew instinctively that I had to be that sense of calm and foundation or reason for everyone if we were going to get through this thing.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, that calm in the middle of the storm kind of thing. It reminds me of the the, I know it’s been going viral over the past couple of months, [00:15:00] but the fastest way through the storm and the bison are those creatures that like they stand and they just face the storm and they just walk into it.

Cause I know the fastest way through the storm is straight through. Yeah. And it takes a special kind of person to be able to just stand in the face of adversity and be like, Nope, we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing.

Jesse Benson: Absolutely. And I think with that is a good accumulation of many battle scars and things that you’ve overcome in the past. And with time, obviously, that’s where that skill can more or less be honed in on. 

And it’s something that I’ve just always had. It’s just I’m able to stay calm. And I think in a world today that’s just filled with anxiety, it’s filled with stress and mental health issues.

Calm 2024 is actually I think can be secret.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. It’s funny, but it’s also true. Right,? Like it reminds me of a story my wife and I travel full time with our audience would know because, we always mentioned where we’re at on our podcasts. 

And one of the things that’s interesting about the traveling full time is that like, the shift breaks all the time, like just in the most inopportune times [00:16:00] and like all sorts of problems and so much so that, like, we actually named our YouTube channel about our travels days without incident, right?

And the number is always zero. It’s always zero days without incident. Someone’s always injured. Something’s always broken. But if we go back like seven years when we started traveling, the first couple of times that things broke, it was like, It was like major stress and there’s all these like problems trying to figure out how to do all this stuff.

And it would like mess up all of your schedules and all of your planning and all this other stuff. And it would just, you know, it would ruin the week sometimes, or maybe a couple of weeks, cause you’re trying to figure things out and then this last, you know, we’ve been doing it for so long now that like this last big, long trip we did over the winter, we like on the side of the road, we had like, our awning ripped off the side of our RV while we were driving down the freeway. And then at the same time, the water pump broke on our engine.

And so our engine is just pouring radiator fluid out on the whole thing. And we didn’t even lose four hours. Like we had the engine fixed. We had the awning off, we had everything back up. We made it to our destination a couple of hours late, we didn’t have to change anything. 

And like, my [00:17:00] wife and I were laughing about it afterwards. We’re like, seven years ago, us would have just, been ruined by that and it was like and we’ve got so much experience just being calm in the face of these things that we just took care of it, we got it done, we moved on we got the engine fixed we moved the things and just at the end of the day and it does feel like a superpower, right?

To be able to just face the kind of adversities that would stop a lot of other people who are you know fellow travelers doing those kind of things to just Not even have it be barely a bump in the road.

Jesse Benson: Exactly. I love it. I love that you guys were able to just roll with it. You’re right, like everyone else could have been completely derailed and turn the whole thing around trips over. And you guys, like you said, it was hardly even a bump in the road, despite pretty much every single thing that could go wrong, went wrong.

So, yeah, it sounds like a good one. And it takes a really good partner for that as well. It sounds like you’ve got a good one in your do. 

Richard Matthews: My wife’s amazing. But yeah, it’s definitely a superpower to be able to stay calm in spite of all the things that are going on. And I know this show is focused a lot on entrepreneurship and it’s a thing that happens [00:18:00] all the time in business. 

And I’m sure you’ve got plenty of stories about this, but like every, it seems like every single day or every single week, you’re like, there’s something new that’s breaking or you, like you achieve a new level of success and that new level of success comes with a whole new set of problems.

You don’t know anything about, and you’re like, well, I guess we’ve got a whole new set of things to learn.

Jesse Benson: It is a 100% about attitude and how we choose to look at these things and whether we’re not we are able to recognize the opportunity and problems or challenges like I just see every single problem as an opportunity. 

You try to keep super positive about it. My dad was really good about keeping positive mindset and, yeah, I think we just got to keep going. That’s the goal.

Richard Matthews: Move, keep going. What is it? I’m going to forget his name, the guy from world war two, never, ever give up. Winston Churchill. It’s one of my favorite quotes.

Jesse Benson: Absolutely. Yeah. Like that’s one thing we can’t do. Right? There’s a million other options. So

Richard Matthews: So let’s talk about the flip side then of your fatal flaw, right? Every superpower has their fatal flaw, right? Just like Superman has his kryptonite, or Wonder [00:19:00] Woman can’t remove her bracelets of victory without going mad, you probably have something that’s held you back in your business.

Something you struggled with for me, it was perfectionism, right? And I still to this day, sometimes I struggle with like, Hey, you know, we can make it more better before we ship it to the public or use it in the team or whatever. 

And that’s kept me from, you know, actually shipping stuff and getting it out. But I think more important than what your flaw is how have you worked to overcome it so that you could continue to grow your brand.

Jesse Benson: Yeah, good one. I would say one of my fatal flaws like I alluded to earlier is I did not really, I just barely finished school. I barely finished high school. I never went to college university. Not saying that is like the way to go, but I never really learned to write the power of the pen. I think is critical and the power to communicate your thoughts effectively to others, I think is a very powerful skill.

Unfortunately, I didn’t develop early on. The people who have this skill, I think are able to move up ladders very quickly. They can take on leadership roles, management roles very well. People can’t read our minds, [00:20:00] unfortunately. And this forces us to be able to effectively communicate through mediums like writing and these types of things.

So French being my first language and then English, I lost French, never really got good at English. It kind of left me at a weak point there. And I strongly believe we’re only as strong as our weakest link. That’s one of my philosophies is in trust and in life in general.

And so, yeah, shoring that up is been very tough, but thanks to AI and chat GPT and all these wonderful new and exciting.

Yeah, I’ve been able to express myself much better and get things out much more efficiently, and that is just having anything bottled up inside us. I think it’s just the worst. 

And so being able to just flush out all those thoughts and ideas and be able to better communicate that across all my different teams has been awesome.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, it’s definitely a superpower and I could see not having it being a thing that you struggle with because one of the things I tell my kids all the time, I got four of them and my oldest one is, you know, [00:21:00] he’s 14. So he’s in the point where he’s like writing essays and doing other things like that.

I’m like, listen, if you could, the most developable superpower in the world is your ability to communicate. Right? Because you can learn to speak, you can learn to write, you can learn all these things. It’s a learnable skill.

And not all superpowers are like that, right? Like empathy and you know, there’s a lot of other things that are like, they’re easier if they’re innate, if like they’re a skill that you have as part of like who you are.

But communication is one of those that like, we all start off not being able to speak and communicate. 

So communication is exclusively a learned skill. And being an exclusively learned skill means that you can work on it and you can improve it. And the more you do it, the better, like the more superpower you get out of it, right?

The more powerful it becomes in your life.

Jesse Benson: Absolutely. When you combine all of those things, like you said, it just that awareness and understanding alone, because I’ve always seen the greatest thing on this planet is the collective mind, and it’s something that I was put onto a couple of years ago where it’s like, Hey, let, [00:22:00] like the more diverse the group, the more differently we all think. But if we’re all aligned and working very much towards the same goal, it’s incredible what can happen. 

And so tapping into that collective mind, understanding how it works. It’s not a super brain. At the end of the day, it’s not just this super brain that’s going to figure out every single problem in the world or in the organization or team.

It’s really harnessing the power of that collective mind. That’s always seen me through and been able to help me get, you know, from A to B or like you said, to that next level. And I find it way more fascinating than just trying to go it alone and figure everything out. So,

Richard Matthews: And it’s fascinating too, you mentioned you brought up some like the AI tools that are coming out that really help with communication. And like , one of my favorite things has been my, I started letting my son play with them and using them for school ,and using them for work and stuff like that.

And so him and his best buddy have been writing novels. using ChatGPT. And we, you know, just teach him how to use it. So it’s actually producing like stuff that he [00:23:00] wants for it and gotten to read some of his stories that they put together. 

And you can definitely tell we’ve got a couple of, you know, 13, 14 year old boys with a wild, cool imagination with all the things that they’re coming up with that have access to language capabilities that are years beyond where their peers are because of the AI tools. 

And that’s really cool because it’s like, you were talking about, it’s like an unlock, right? Where you have access to communication skills that you previously would have been years of study to get to, right?

And years of work. And so it’s like making communication as a superpower. Something that is more accessible to more people, which can only improve the world.

Jesse Benson: Absolutely I can. And, as we get to learn these tools, and further engage with them and everything. It’s from my understanding, it’s like the internet’s reversed itself. So once upon a time we went to the internet for information. It’s now coming to us for that information. 

So I think that the value that people now need to [00:24:00] bring, because even personal training, the landscape is going to completely change.

Like I actually see it in the next two to three years. Online personal training, that’s going to be an avatar. It’s going to be able to correct form. It’s going to remember what you ate the day before. Like, it’s going to change the entire fitness landscape. 

And so we need to really understand it, where it’s going, how to use it and how we’re going to effectively engage with it.

And, where the value comes from. And what I’m seeing is it actually comes from the instruction side, from the educational side. With the cost of living going up, groceries being 50 to 100 per bag.

What we’re going to be seeing now is trainers offering more instructions. We’re looking at fitness scholarships. Clients would come to us and say, you know what? I don’t want to think, tell me what to do, show me how to do it and I’ll pay you whatever your fee is, right? 

That was kind of personal training one on one, you can almost refer to that as like back in the day now or pre AI or pre all this stuff.

In the future, it’s going to be very much like, Hey, show me how to do this. And I’m going to do it. I’ll do it. I’ll keep doing it [00:25:00] myself. 

So, I think the clients are ready, willing, and eager to learn, which is fairly new.

Richard Matthews: And the thing that’s been, that’s blown me away is just the technology we have available now, like, I mentioned earlier, my son and I are doing martial arts training. We’re doing that virtually, I have only met my trainer in person one time, two years ago. 

And we get on and do our training over video chat four days a week and using a camera and a little tripod.

And we train together as we travel, which is crazy. And the access to technology and stuff is changing the landscape for what is possible because, you know, five years ago, even if you wanted to, you know, in my case, we’re doing martial arts. Your martial arts training options are the ones that are within driving distance of your house.

And we have a martial arts trainer who’s an eight times world champion, right? Like, you can just work with the best of the best because of technology. 

Jesse Benson: Yeah, we’re still 40% online ourselves and we’re looking to expand that again. We’re aspiring to become Canada’s most affordable [00:26:00] online training option. And we’re going to make it as little as $20 right and make it actually accessible to people. 20 bucks, 30 minutes. Who doesn’t have that?

So, and we’re looking to try to make it even cheaper from there. I actually see a subscription model being possible online and really, yeah, it’s just making it more accessible to people like what you guys are doing. I think it’s great.

Richard Matthews: Absolutely. So let’s switch gears a little bit and talk about your common enemy. Right? Every superhero has an arch nemesis. The thing that you constantly have to fight against in your world, right? So in the world of business takes on a lot of forms, but generally speaking, we like to put it in the context of your clients, right?

The people that come to you to, you know, in this case learn their personal training and it’s a mindset or a flaw that you constantly have to fight to overcome so you can actually get them the result that they came to you for in the first place. And I guess with your business, since you actually serve, two different avatars, right?

You serve the people who are wanting to become trainers, and you serve the people who are wanting to be trained. Maybe you could talk a little about what’s your common enemy with both of those camps?

Jesse Benson: Yeah, good [00:27:00] observation, Richard. You’re right. We do service both both sides. So on the client side, unfortunately, we have got these little forms people fill out when they come to the gym and most gyms have them. So it’s like your first name, last name, phone number, email. And then we’ve got a little line there, a little question says your fitness goal.

And what everybody puts down is their fitness goal. It’s just the most vague. Kind of like the lowest bar. They don’t want to like expectation that they can set and everyone just says get fit. That’s what you’re going to see nine times out of 10. What’s your fitness goal? I don’t know. I guess it’s just to get fit.

And really what that person is saying is that they’ve tried a bunch of times, they don’t want to set themselves up for failure again, they don’t even want to get their hopes up. They just want to go in there with the minimal amount of expectation and hopefully get fit, whatever that means. Right?

And unfortunately that mindset is set into place for several reasons, but we have to inspire these guys. Like the root of motivation at its roots. [00:28:00] Motivation, you will find one of two things, either inspiration or desperation, both equally powerful, which I find interesting. Like desperation will drive a mother or person to do just about anything.

If you’re starving, you know, for your child, you would do anything. But inspiration is equally powerful. And perhaps this is what ties into the training side of things on the trainer side is that we have to inspire our clients, right? 

We need to inspire them. Like the bar just can’t be set that they’re coming to the gym and they feel safe and they’re getting fit.

We couldn’t lower the bar any more than that.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, that’s like the minimum required to show up.

Jesse Benson: And yet, I think, unfortunately, today it’s actually viewed as the biggest win that we could have, right? Is that people have showed up, they’re 1% better, they feel safe. And that’s the goal. 

And that’s the highest thing that we can achieve in the facility and in the gym together. And I just think that is just overall really sad the end [00:29:00] of the day.

Richard Matthews: So it reminds me, you know, because I mentioned we’re working with our martial arts trainer and he asked the same question, which I imagine is similar. He’s like, what’s your goal with your fitness and all of this? And I remember my response because it was really like, I had thought about it ahead of time because I knew they were going to ask because the fitness people always ask, like, what’s your goal?

And I thought about it for a while and I still think about it all the time. And Cause it’s what makes me want to continue putting in the effort. And it’s a lot of effort. And the effort just continues to get more the stronger and more fit you get. You’re like, the effort doesn’t go down. So you have to have that inspiration. 

And for me, it was, I want to be fit and young forever. And what that actually means for me is like at this point in time, I’ve got one teenager and three more coming up. I want to be able to keep up with them, right? You know, we want to learn to windsurf and we want to go sailing around the world and we want to hike all over the place.

Like I want to be able to not just keep up with my kids, but enjoy the adventures that we get to have. And, you know, we push ourselves 10 years into the future. I’m gonna have grandkids, I want the same thing. I want to be able to keep up with them. And I feel like getting [00:30:00] old is a choice and it’s a choice I don’t want to make. Right?

I want to do the other thing. Right? I want to be fit as long as possible and be able to, you know, maybe not Jack Delaney level of like swimming the English channel when I’m 90, but like, if I wanted I could,

Jesse Benson: This goal be Jack LaLanne. Oh, I love that. It’s got longevity written all over it. You’re doing it for all the right reasons. You’re going to be an inspiration to your children, your boys, you know, your girls. 

I absolutely love that goal. And of course, getting fit. It’s just the start line, right? And not the finish line. It’s the start line and the hardest part isn’t getting fit. It’s not losing 10 pounds or gaining 10 pounds of muscle. That’s not hard. As hard as we might think it is, the real challenge is doing it for the rest of your life.

Richard Matthews: Yeah.

Jesse Benson: I think a very common misconception is that we all think that, okay, I started this new fitness program. I started this new thing. I got this new membership and I’m just going to do it forever. [00:31:00] 

Well, not how it’s going to go. Like if we play out this storyboard and this storyline, we play this movie out. That’s not how it’s going to go. In all reality, we’re going to see it all right.

We’re going to, the honeymoon phase will run its course. It’s not going to be fun, exciting anymore. And why are we doing this thing? And we’re going to, injury is going to happen. Sickness is going to happen. Life is going to happen. There’s going to be all kinds of obstacles that we need to overcome family life obstacles, like, It’s all going to get thrown at us.

And then what’s going to happen to this new fun, exciting fitness thing. Right? And so, that’s where the real thing starts. And what I always tell trainers is like, look, just because our clients are no longer here, they’ve taken a pause or a break or they were forced. It doesn’t mean they’re no longer a client.

It doesn’t mean the relationship is no longer there. And we got to check in with them and care and all that kind of stuff. Because the fitness journey, it’s not a straight line. It’s on an A to B thing. It’s updown, [00:32:00] backwards and all over the place, right? 

And so that’s where the fitness goal really comes into play is we got to drill really deep. We got to revisit that goal several times. We got to revisit that why several times. 

Richard Matthews: Yeah. And I know for me, one of the things I told our trainer was I wanted to change my identity, right? From being someone who, you know, I wasn’t unfit for per se. I was like, accidentally fit, if that makes sense. Like, you know, I had good genes and lived a fairly active lifestyle, but I wasn’t intentionally fit.

And I was like, what are the things I want to change is I want my identity to shift towards someone who like knows how to take care of myself, how to teach myself to be and stay fit constantly that it becomes the default or the baseline, so to speak.

And so that it’s not something that you come into and out of right where like fitness is a thing that you do every once in a while. But like being, like I said, the whole fit young for everything only happens if it becomes part of who you are, [00:33:00] right?

Jesse Benson: I like that. Yeah. I would totally agree that it needs to become. Yeah. Your identity makes perfect sense. And then also empowering yourself. Like this is something that not a lot of people are aware of. The number one purchaser of certifications isn’t personal trainers, isn’t these like perfect beings or whatever.

And those are the only people who become certified and learn this stuff because fitness doesn’t matter what sport it is. It’s a learning thing. It’s not just a doing thing. It’s not a sweat thing. it’s a learning, everything that we learn, apply, learn, you can’t unlearn. Stuff, right? And so, we’re encouraging people, our clients to become certified.

In fact, I’ve helped two of my clients reach their highest potential that we could, right? It’s not just do a pull up a push up. But hey, what if you become a trainer leader yourself? And what if you get paid to help other people with this kind of stuff? That’s one option. Then that becomes obviously a part of your identity, right?

This is who I am. I live, [00:34:00] I breathe. And not only do I do this stuff myself, but I also help others. One of the ways that we’ve done this is by Matt Devine is a local hero that we have here in Canada. He cycled across Canada, 13,000 kilometers. He cycled across Canada for charity two years ago, and he’s doing it again. And we sponsored him. Both my companies have sponsored him.

So he’s, I would, I refer to this guy as like the Terry Fox of 2024. Right? He is literally doing 100 miles a day. It’s going to take him over 120 days and through everything you can imagine on these dangerous highways with his wife in tow in the van.

And we’re sponsoring him because right away we knew the alignment was there. We knew what he was doing was going to impact a lot of Canadian lives. We knew and so we proposed this to him. He loved the idea. I said, Hey, why don’t you get certified? 

So. Picture this, while he’s biking 13,000 kilometers [00:35:00] across the biggest country in the world, he’s also getting certified as a personal trainer to help inspire and empower other Canadians to do the same.

To basically take health and fitness into their own hands, right? Not rely on all these external things, but actually learn the stuff themselves. And so his wife’s doing the nutrition certification. And so she’s doing all of his nutrition and supporting each that way. And he’s doing online training with one of our trainers across Canada, helping to offset all the cycling that he’s doing and strengthening his pelvic floor and all these kinds of things that go into.

You know, it’s sitting on a bicycle seat for all those hours. So once Matt completes this 13,000 kilometer journey across Canada, he’ll be a certified personal trainer and he’ll be able to start helping other Canadians with their health and fitness. And Matt, speaking of identity was a 300 pound CEO who was going to die.

His doctor [00:36:00] told him, if you do not get your life right, you’re going to die. Plain and simple. You choose. 

So he quit his high paying CEO identity and started cycling and decided that he would cycle across Canada for charity.

Richard Matthews: That’s really cool. Yeah, I love that story. And I love the idea of him becoming a trainer because it’s going like, I imagine he’ll get a lot of press attention and seeing him sort of just take ownership of that and build it into the identity is really cool. 

And yeah, I think we’re sort of on the precipice of making a major shift at least in America and Canada, and maybe some of the other English speaking countries that have gotten I don’t want you to say over the last 50 years, you know, we’ve gotten a lot of fat and dumb and happy going on and you know, we’ve got to make some shifts culturally towards fitness if we’re going to survive and thrive.

Jesse Benson: Agreed. I agree on all fronts. And Matt’s doing something really exciting. You know, his thing, his initiative, his thing is called Heroes Unleashed.

Richard Matthews: I like that.

Jesse Benson: And so he’s seeking out local [00:37:00] heroes and who are, where’s the best way places to find heroes? In the fitness industry. Right? These are people who have empower, who have unlock their inner superpowers.

Not only are they able to care for themselves, but they’re able to take on other people, help lift them up. Right? 

And so he’s seeking out people in every single province across Canada, putting on all these events, raising all this awareness and money for charity. The charity in which he’s supporting is called Little Warriors for Abused Children.

And that’s another thing that, you know, we need to. There needs to be more people talking about. And so how can you not get behind a guy like Matt, right?

Richard Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. Which I think makes a great segue into my next question, right? So if your common enemy is what you’re fighting against, then you’re driving force is what you’re fighting for, right? Just like Spiderman fights to save New York or Batman fights to save Gotham or Google fights index and categorize all the world’s information.

What is it that you’re fighting for with your couple of companies, your mission, so to speak?

Jesse Benson: We’re fighting for [00:38:00] lots of things. Well, what are we fighting for? I think that we are fighting for all of those things that you said, like the enemy. What was the enemy that you just described?

Richard Matthews: So your common enemy that you talked about was the inspiration and not knowing, not building their identity and fitness being just a thing that they come and go from. 

Jesse Benson: Yeah, but you mentioned that we were fighting against a lot of obesity and those things. Right? And I think that’s what we’re fighting against. And what are we fighting for? Right? We’re fighting for Canada. We’re fighting for families. We’re fighting for the household. We’re fighting for the future.

Especially like we go through to hire a personal trainer to find a hero. Let’s think about this, to find a hero. You know, how many heroes are there out there? Like if we had to put it into what percent of the population, right? Like when we hire a trainer, when we look for a hero, right? That’s going to take on 100 of our clients and help them with their health and fitness.

How many resumes do we have to go through? How many interviews do we [00:39:00] need to conduct in order to find a hero? a lot, right? And that is what we’re fighting against that by creating these educational systems, platforms and elevating the industry as a whole. Like it’s just the excellence is what we’re trying to build on because it is scary out there, right?

On all fronts. And so, that’s what we’re fighting against. It is not an easy task at all. And I don’t think I’m alone in this, especially as an employer, but elevating anything in this world is not easy.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, it reminds me of like one of the things I’ve been thinking about lately, and it just goes right back to the identity thing we were talking about, and you know, I know you’re talking a lot about Canada, you know, I’m obviously American but we have the same issue in that.

We are with technology and health stuff that’s happening, you know, the amount of time that people are living is getting longer and longer, but the amount of enjoyment they’re getting out of their life is getting less and less.

And it’s because we’re not [00:40:00] capturing that identity of fitness from the youth, right? And I was like, I know I’ve heard this before, and you probably know way more about this than I do, but I have heard it is significantly easier to stay fit your entire life if you get fit before you’re 20.

And we have generations of people that are moving into their retirement years that they can’t keep up with their grandchildren, they can’t get up and chase them around the backyard or their great grandchildren, because they’re just, you know, they’re, they haven’t, they didn’t do the work to take care of their bodies.

And so we have brain problems and body problems and sure you live an extra 30 years, but it’s 30 years that you can’t do anything. And man, if you can change that, if you can change that for the next generation, that’s a big goal.

Jesse Benson: You’re right. You’re absolutely right. It does start with the kids. But it also starts with the parents, the home, all of it. The sooner you build that foundation, the better because then it’s much easier to maintain longterm. You’re right in that, that we do need to start at a very young age.

However ,you also said there that we’re living longer, but we’re sicker. We’re more out of shape and everything else. People, obesity rates are [00:41:00] going up despite, there’s more gyms now more than ever. There are more trainers now more than ever. In Vancouver alone, we had one spin studio 15 years ago.

Now there’s hundreds. Like I can’t even count them all. And despite this explosion of health and fitness, we’re sicker, we’re more out of shape, we’re more overweight, everything else, every single disease is on the rise. Why is that? Right? And the interesting thing with our clients in particular, I had a trainer recently come up to me, he’s like, our nutrition materials don’t work anymore. 

And I’m like, what? I’m like, those things are like 10 years old. How can they not work anymore? And he’s like, they don’t understand. They can’t read the first sentence. They don’t understand the first paragraph. And I’m like, what are you talking about? He says, well, I got a client. He hasn’t cooked a piece of protein in over two years.

Richard Matthews: Oh man.

Jesse Benson: They no longer own the pots and pans post pandemic. The convenience factor, the Uber Eats, the fact that people don’t even cook, [00:42:00] right?

So we might have all this information in the world, but what’s actually going on, what’s actually happening, right? It’s two different things. And what I find so ironic is that, we think we’re going forwards, but in all actual reality, we’re going backward. If I have to dumb down my learning materials, my nutritional materials for our clients, we’re not going forwards.

And I side with this for a very long time because it was really disturbing to me and what is going on here. And then I realized several things have happened over the years.

And I remember very distinctly when the information overload, First presented itself as a major challenge with our clients. And it was when, again, once upon a time, we were a trusted source of information for our clients.

It was us, a magazine and the newspaper. That was it, right? Maybe the television, but in comes the internet. And suddenly, there was another authority, there was another source, there was conflicting information, and we knew immediately, and we saw the [00:43:00] confusion start to take hold of our clients, and we said, oh, this is going to be a big problem.

And fast forward 10 or 15 years later, and it is. And the damage is done.

Richard Matthews: And information overwhelm problem. That’s a convenience problem. You put those two things together and you have people that are like, I don’t want to make decisions. I can just push a button and get poor decisions delivered to my door.

Jesse Benson: You got it. That’s where we are at, Richard.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. It cracks me up a little bit when you’re talking about like not knowing how to cook protein. Because the other day was the first day that, or the first time that I ever learned how to base a steak. 

And the only reason I’ve bring that up is my wife and I are both, alongside of the fitness journey for myself has been really learning how to cook, but like blow people’s socks off with food, like high level cooking and plating and like learning how to infuse foods and like really learn how to treat food well because it becomes like a whole positive experience for yourself and your family and your kids and your friends.

And you’re right. It’s the whole other side of the thing. Like your nutrition is a [00:44:00] massive percentage of your fitness. And I know for me, part of that was like cooking needed to be something that was fun and exciting for me. And so I started like learning the craft alongside learning the fitness.

Because I was like, if I don’t learn how to cook, I like, it doesn’t matter what I do from a fitness workout stand standpoint.

Jesse Benson: The most important piece of furniture you have in your home is your table, right? And the most important equipment you’ve got is all those tools in the kitchen. 

So if you’ve got an incomplete kitchen, you never prioritize or make time to sit at the dinner table and enjoy a meal with your family.

Like, what are we talking about? We’re going to get fit and healthy? Like, how? Like, what are we, you know, like, how, explain to me how that’s going to work. Because, clearly it’s not, right? And everyone, it’s all over the place. 

Like, we take clients phones, for example, and everyone’s fitness program is a couple of random videos from this influencer, and a couple of random recipes from over here, and a [00:45:00] couple of random things over there, and, oh, now I’m going to hire a trainer twice a week, and, oh, you know, maybe I’ll drop in and do a class, and this is my plan. Right? 

This is my program, this is my plan, and this is how I’m going to get fit and healthy. Well, that doesn’t work. And we do need fitness professionals out there, we do need heroes out there that can essentially take these people and say, No, we’re going to take all that, and we’re going to throw it in the trash, and here’s what we’re going to do. Right? 

Based on my knowledge, my experience, you’re going to listen to me, I’m going to guide you, and we’re going to make some things happen. That’s what we’re up against.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, and then I know like one of the things that’s really pertinent right now and I’m not sure if it is as common in Canada is in the U. S. right now, but we’re having like a major recession where, you know, food prices are going through the and like the cost of everything are like insane.

And you know, combine that all together with the convenience of all the other stuff. And It’s fascinating to me and my wife feeds a family of six on a budget of less than $800 a month. 

And it’s all home from [00:46:00] scratch cooking. Like we make everything from scratch. And it’s part of that was like just building the skills in the kitchen, but like, it’s cheaper and it’s healthier and it helps like it sets us up for all the fitness goals that we have.

And man, yeah, learning, learning how to take care of your kitchen table. And your kitchen tools has been a major boon for our family.

Jesse Benson: It’s so important. And you’re right. You do save money and cause like Canada is honestly, I think the living expenses here is even more. I think we’re getting gouged everywhere from, and so the cost of living is going up, which is why people are more ready and willing to learn this stuff. Right?

It’s like, okay, we got to learn how to shop. I don’t learn how to cook. We got to learn how to do these things. And maybe I got to learn how to do this gym thing myself now. 

And I think overall, that’s going to be a positive in the long run for us. But when it comes to that stuff, you know, there’s also a way to do that as well.

Like we, you got to find a local farmer’s market. You got to source all this stuff. [00:47:00] You know, we haven’t stepped foot in a grocery store and I don’t know how long, like you got to go to the butcher. You got to source all this good, quality stuff and then you’re going to learn how to cook it. 

Richard Matthews: Yeah.

Jesse Benson: I guess on one hand it’s a lot of work, but it, we got to get back to basics.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. We got to get closer to our food. We got to get closer to our bodies. We got to get closer to what we’re doing. And man, I know it’s interesting. I know I’ve got a book thing on my shelf here from Alex Hermosi. And I know one of his first companies was a gym launch similar sort of vein what you are.

And I know like reading through his book on marketing, he was talking about like, I had to learn what the problems my customers had and he’s like, fitness is only one of them. And the other one was like. How do I make food? Right.? And how do I grocery shop? Am I going to make food? And then like, how do I cook that food? Right?

Cause they’re like, if nutrition is, you know, 80 percent of the battle for fitness, he’s like, I realized as a trainer, I had to have solutions for those. And you realize that like what you guys are talking about, if you can successfully create the demand for fitness, [00:48:00] it will create the demand for the food, it’ll create the demand for the farmer’s markets. 

It’ll create the demand for the kitchen stuff because it’s all going to start with, do we actually want to be fit and young forever as a species, right? Do we want to survive all of this? And it’s going to start with that fitness and the cooking and the food and like getting closer to our food, I think.

Jesse Benson: That is an interesting question. Yeah, absolutely. Do we even want to in the first place? You know, that question actually has to be asked. Like you have to really get down to why does a person want to do this? And once upon a time I used to interview clients and You know, of the five clients I interviewed, I maybe took on two, right?

It’s like, are you willing to give up alcohol? Are you ready to make these lifestyle changes? And sometimes they get upset because they’re like, well, they wanted to get started, but more often than not, they would thank me and say, you know what? 

You’re right. I’m not ready. I’m not ready to make these changes. I’m not ready to start. But, I know where to come once I am and I that’s another thing I think is a lot of health coaches were afraid to do and we’re more focused on like [00:49:00] wanting to become friends with our clients than anything else and I think it’s important that we develop the right tools and systems, one of which was a point system that I developed.

It’s all habitual habit, lifestyle based, but it basically awards points. I gamified it for sleep, sitting, standing, walking, and it ties in your food intake along with your activity in relation to one another. 

So that’s what makes this system very unique. In fact, it’s actually a mathematical formula for weight loss and it’s transformed hundreds of lives, stripped tens of thousands of unhealthy pounds, a proven system I’ve been using for 10 years.

It’s the foundation of the gyms that we have today is we put all of our clients on this point system, this journaling point system. So

Richard Matthews: And it just sort of covers all of the aspects of, you know, food and walking and sleeping. I imagine hydration, that kind of 

Jesse Benson: stuff.

Correct, that is correct. And we distill it down. It’s interesting. So every day gets a point, a score out of 10. And because each day gets a score, each week can have a score. And so now you take something [00:50:00] as complex as all these weekly nutritional and activity habits, and you distilled it into one number.

So it’s very efficient as a trainer where we can just tell our clients, okay, You’re busy. You’re going to be away this weekend. The in laws are in town. Let’s aim for 52 points. And based off that one number, you’ve just coached your client on every single habitual habit they need to have planned and figured out for that week.

And the important thing with this stuff is that the client’s wheels are turning. Everyone always seeks out the easiest thing, right? Where they want, give me the recipes. I want to be told what to eat at what, you know, expel it all out for me. And unless the client is the one figuring out, okay, I got to get nine points today.

That means I need to pack this snack. I need to eat it at this time. I need to make sure that I’m standing, my standing and walking ratios are on. And I got to, I’m going to walk to this meeting. Unless person is actually figuring this stuff out themselves. Then there’ll be [00:51:00] no change because the moment they stop that program, whatever that program may be, they’re right back to square zero. There’s been no 

Richard Matthews: They have their actions, like the decisions they make to the outcomes is what you’re doing, right? So like the decisions they make day to day, am I walking to this meeting or am I taking the Uber? Am I eating this snack or am I getting the Uber Eats, right? Like you’re connecting the decisions they make to the outcome they want to get, which is really powerful.

Jesse Benson: It’s very powerful. It’s the only thing in my experience that will work. And once the client understands that they love it and the fact they earn points and everything else, you know, it can become a lot of fun and it rewires their brains effectively. And that’s what needs to happen at the end of the day.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. So I want to take a few minutes. I know this isn’t really in my questions that I normally ask, but I think this is just a really important topic. And I want to talk about some of the benefits that come on the other side of getting fit. Right?

And not just the, I’ve got muscles benefits, but the whole lifestyle change that you’re talking about of [00:52:00] owning your own health and owning the, I know how to sleep. I know how to make my own food. I know how to basically run all the things that make this engine work. 

And there’s a lot of benefits that come with that. And I’m just curious as a trainer, what are some of those things that you really call out for people? Because it can change everything in your life.

I know it has for me.

Jesse Benson: Yeah, it’s the foundation. I always look at it as a deck of cards and if you take that fitness nutrition out of there, the whole deck of cards just comes crashing down and it’s not like person’s just going to wake up and start craving salad or you know, I’m going to wake up and run a marathon or I’m going to drink more water. Like you need to create a stimulus. 

So that activity is super important for any kind of change to happen in any area of life and it will, it will spill into every single facet. Like everything you overcome in that gym physically, it’s going to help you take on other challenges in your life. 

So, if it’s something where, for example, if you’ve got addiction, right, well, here’s a healthy addiction that you can swap [00:53:00] out those other addictions for.

You’re going to get that hit, that adrenaline, like a lot of very consistent gym goers are because they battle with other things and it’s the gym that helps them get those hits and overcome some of those other addictions and overall It just brings out a better version of ourselves, right?

Like I know myself, if I just sat at home and I didn’t take care of myself It would not be good for me or for anyone around me, right? And so what fitness does for me, it’s that’s why it’s a non negotiable like for me, it’s that’s why I have to do it because it’s again who I am, who I want to be, right? And so fitness will impact every single area of your life. It’s foundational. We have to do it. Ideally connect with something that you enjoy doing like a passion. 

you guys have connected with martial arts. I connected with the dirt biking. It doesn’t necessarily have to be in the gym, pumping [00:54:00] weights. But it does need to be physical enough where it creates some type of internal adaption in your body.

Like, it needs to be strenuous enough that your body needs to adapt to meet that imposed stress or demand. So if it’s, if it, the higher intensity, the quieter the mind. If it’s not challenging enough, it’s not going to change anything. Nothing’s going, that’s called moving. 

And unfortunately we see a lot of that in the gym, but it requires intensity.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, I know for me, just give the audience a couple of things that I’ve noticed benefits in my life. Cause I started really focusing on my fitness like 2019. 

So right before the pandemic and did all sorts of things, started working with a functional medicine doctor and like learned how to do some like liver cleanse and like just get my body to the right spot and then started working on building muscle.

Cause I I was the chronically scrawny kid, right? That like, I was 119 pounds until 2019 when I was like 35, right? And [00:55:00] so like, I could never put on weight for anything.

You know, you hit your mid thirties and it was like, you just see a lot of changes in your life if you’re not fit. If you haven’t taken care of your body the way that you should and I hadn’t, right?

I said I accidentally healthy kind of thing, but not my highest and best. And I have noticed a lot of things shift. So like a couple of things I used to have insomnia, like, take me forever to fall asleep. I couldn’t fall asleep. Now I sleep eight to 10 hours every single night. No problem. 

I can fall asleep whenever I want, which is like, it took a few years to do that, but like there was a major shift there, the ability to shift focus from work to home, to school, to the other things that we do, like to the play, like you’re just the mental clarity to be able to shift focus is dramatically improved over the last several years.

My ability for ideation, right? We’ve eight X star company over the last couple of years, right? Since starting to focus on my fitness, which is crazy. Like we went from, from in 2019, I had two employees. We have 18 employees now. Right. And like, it’s nuts. 

And like, those are just surface level [00:56:00] things, but also, Like your ability in your body to do things changes, right?

Like we’re, you know, of course we’re doing the martial arts now, but like my son and I are, you know, we’ve learned to wind surf, we’re learning, you know, we hiked 14 miles down the Zion Canyon up the narrows, that kind of stuff. 

And we do that kind of stuff all the time where we’re, you know, we’re hiking and we’re biking and we’re water skiing and like we’re learning to wakeboard and like, you have the fitness to do the things that you want to actually, like, live this life, to play to have that sort of joy and fun that comes out of like, why are we living anyways? 

Like, what’s the point, right? You gotta actually, like, do something other than watch Netflix and, the other one that was, you know, I know it’s real important for us guys in our thirties, as you start to see that drop in testosterone that they say is natural, it doesn’t have to be natural, but I saw it happening.

And, the commiserate like drop in sex drive and all that stuff that happened and started working on the fitness and getting all that and getting the nutrition, right?

Complete 180 degree change in how all of the things function. And just [00:57:00] how your testosterone levels change cause you’re starting to work everything like the benefits are just nuts.

And I almost looking back five years ago, I’m like, why wasn’t I doing this in my twenties?

Jesse Benson: Some really good insights and you’re right. Like, it makes me think, we’re all capable of depression. We’re all capable of mental health issues. We’re all capable of those things. I get all of us, it can happen to absolutely any one of us, but we’re equally capable for all these amazing adaptions to happen as well, right?

Like whether it be, and if we don’t, if what I find interesting is we all need to more or less do the exact same thing. So on one hand, we can make this thing super complicated. On the other hand, it’s like, look, eat, write, sleep, do all these things. And if we don’t, then she’s going to suffer with this problem.

He’s going to suffer with that problem. Our bodies will respond differently. If we don’t do the things that we need to do, but they’re all completely treatable, reversible and then can help us live a much more rich, experienced, filled life. I think you’re right. [00:58:00] Like, but why wouldn’t we? I don’t know.

Maybe people don’t know where to start. Right? They are overcome with all these things. And again, I always just come back to, it’s not a thinking thing. It’s a doing thing. And people love to overthink the fitness thing. There was a guy who did a study. He found the minimal amount of activity required to see change.

And what he found in this study was one minute per week. If we do one minute per week, we will see improvement. And so like, and the time that it takes for you to like think about all the reasons why you can’t do it, like just one minute,

Richard Matthews: Get up do one push up, 30 seconds down, 30 seconds up, once a week, it’ll change your life. 

Jesse Benson: Right.

Richard Matthews: What’s funny about that is one of our previous guests if you’re on here listening, looking for it, Lucas Root talks about talks about this. He was talking about he’s like, if you want to like get started on a fitness game and he actually runs this as a fitness program for himself.

He’s like, he does one minute long push up every day. 30 seconds down, 30 seconds up. He’s like, if I do nothing else, I’ve done that. It’s [00:59:00] takes me a minute and it keeps him fit. So it’s just one thing.

Jesse Benson: I love that. It reminds me of the old school dad workout. Like, you know, I just remember like dad’s like, wake up in the morning, they just do some push ups, you know, you do some sit ups like every morning, you just wake up and you do a push up. Like, I think that’s awesome. And again, that’s as simple as this thing can get, right?

It can be really easy.

Richard Matthews: Yeah, absolutely. So I think that brings me to the last question when I ask you here, which is about your guiding principles, right? One of the things that makes heroes heroic is that they live by a code. 

For instance, Batman never kills his enemies. He only ever brings them to Arkham Asylum. So as we wrap up the interview and I’ve talked about the top one, maybe two principles that you use regularly in your life, maybe something that you wish you knew when you first started out on your own entrepreneurial journey.

Jesse Benson: Yeah, I view them as core values. So I think everyone, especially as we age, we can’t be about everything. We actually need to, like, really figure out. This is what I’m about. These are my non negotiables, and those start to solidify with time. But some of the core values that we’ve implemented in our organization, [01:00:00] like one was care, but it’s the measure of care.

So, of course, everyone cares, but, You know, how much do you care? Like, what are you willing to do? Like, what do you know, are you willing to visit people in the hospital? Do you go to funerals? Are you active in your community? Like, do you actually care? Like,, it’s all fine and dandy to say or think, but it’s another thing to, I guess, act on.

And so I think care is something that I’m really about. And again, it’s about the measure of that word. And the other thing that I value is effectiveness. And that’s something that as a core value, again, it’s insanity can set in real quick where you’ve said something several times, you’ve done something several times, you’ve tried something several times.

And effectiveness is where, you know, it’s not always sexy. It’s not always by the book, it’s not always, but it can be quite often unorthodox or outside of the box, but it’s effective. And I think that is something that we need to bring back and it is how can we be effective in anything that we do.

And by default, we’ll [01:01:00] become very efficient. If.

Richard Matthews: I really love the whole measure of care thing. It’s one of the things that I’ve been talking a lot about and just my own community circles realizing that there is and maybe it’s just my age and like where I’m at in my community is you realize that there’s a point in time where like you have a responsibility to your community.

Whether that’s like as a father or as someone who’s just showing up for your friends or showing up for the people that are around you. And you know, it’s one thing to say, Oh, I’ll pray for you or whatever, you know, insert meaningless gesture here. Right? Versus like, Hey, your friend’s struggling, you show up. Right?

How can I like actually show for you instead of, and like, there’s an interesting sort of thing in that whole measure of care where we often are, we’ll ask someone who we see in need and be like, how can I help you? 

And when someone is in that sort of need space. You have just placed another burden on them for them to figure out how you can help them.

And I think part of that measure of care, at least in my life has been figuring out how to see someone is in [01:02:00] need and then come on, show up and help them with that without any sort of like ask or interaction for it, just be like, Nope, I see you need this here. I’m, this is what I’m doing for you. And I think that really fits into that whole like measure of care.

And it’s something that I’ve been trying to figure out how we add more of that into our life and build that into like our values as a company and our values as a family. So I love that a lot.

Jesse Benson: That’s very cool. And it’s so easy. Once you tap into it, you realize just how easy it is. Like, we do these free or by donation community classes. We’ve been hosting them for many, many years at our facilities. And so we invite the local community because somebody asked me one day, Oh, you’re a gym owner.

Like, what do you do for the community? I’m like, Oh, we got a newsletter. Like, Oh, shoot, we got to figure this out. So that’s actually why we’re here. Our purpose, go figure. 

And so we have homeless people, every single thing under the sun. I’ve attended these classes. community classes, all the money raised and food gets donated back to the local community, local needs and all of that.

Of course there’s all this stuff, but we do, we do tons of charitable work and serving is not [01:03:00] selfless by any measure. You know, once you start helping people, you very quickly realize your problems, your things are very small and you quickly realize everything that you’ve got to be grateful for.

And we also support local churches. We’ve got one in Edmonton actually is where our churches that we support there and they of course have a local pantries where they feed people and close people. And so we support all of that. And honestly, it’s so easy. Like it takes no, almost no work, no effort whatsoever.

And I think that we’ve kind of lost that as well. Right.? Is how do we like to think, Oh, well like let’s appoint this politician or we’re

Richard Matthews: I want to solve all it.

Jesse Benson: Yeah. Outsource.

Richard Matthews: Outsource our care to the government, to the politicians,

Jesse Benson: Yeah. And I think as men, like when I honestly, Richard, when I look at a big, a gym of guys lifting all this stuff and flexing the mirror, I say, what a waste. What a waste of energy, these guys could be like planting gardens, they could be helping landscape, [01:04:00] elderly woman’s homes and instead they’re taking pictures of themselves, you know, in the mirror.

It’s such a waste of I think, what men are built to do, right? Why do we have these muscles in the first place? Is it to help people?

Richard Matthews: To carry other people’s weight.

Jesse Benson: That’s a good one.

Richard Matthews: To carry their weight for them them up.

Jesse Benson: Exactly. Right? And we’ve got all this energy and we’re just wasting, especially with the youth too. They’ve got all this energy.

They’re not doing anything with it.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. Well, measure of care, I think, is a fantastic core value to run your life and your company by. And I think that’s a great place to sort of wrap our interview. I do wrap all of our interviews with something I call the hero’s challenge. And basically it’s a simple challenge to do this, to get access to stories that we might not otherwise find on our own.

So the question is simple. Do you have someone in your life or in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they? First names are fine. And why do you think they should come share their story with us here on the hero show?

Jesse Benson: I’m going to nominate, [01:05:00] I’m going to nominate my mentor, one of my mentors. So his name is Roger Proctor and he’s a self made guy as well. He moved from east to west like myself and he’s got such an interesting story. 

He now owns a jet and he does all these incredible things. I think he’d be an awesome, interesting host, a very dynamic host, guests to have on your show.

Richard Matthews: Awesome. Well, we’ll reach out and maybe see if we can get him to come on the show. They don’t always say yes. When they do, we sometimes get really cool stories out of it. 

So, you know, in comic books, there’s always the crowd of people at the end who are cheering and clapping for the acts of heroism. So our analogous that as we close up the interview is I want to know, where can people find you if they want your help?

Where can they light up the bat signal and say, Hey, Jesse, I’d love to become a personal trainer. I’d love to get trained by one of your trainers. And more importantly than where are, who are the types of people that should? Reach out the ones that should be lighting up the best signal and asking for your help.

Jesse Benson: That’s awesome, Richard. Yeah. I think anyone that, you know, if they’ve listened to this talk and it’s invoked and they feel something in them, they know they’ve got that inner confidence [01:06:00] that they’re like, you know what, I can do this. I might not look at yet. I might not have all the answers yet, but I know deep down that I want to become a personal trainer. I want to help, or I’m ready to make a change and get fit. Then absolutely reach out. 

And the best way to do that would just be to go to NPTA.ca., if you’re looking to become a trainer or get certified or empower yourself and wanting to make, take on that hero role within your society, within your community and then if you’re a client who’s ready to make a change, then we’ve got FitIntegrated.ca where you can get access to online trainers in person trainers, physiotherapists, RMTs, all the rest of it. 

Me personally, if somebody wants to come out and reach out to me for mentorship, for help, for support, guidance, or anything like that, then we’ve got my Instagram account. That’s Jesse official. I believe it’s just the official something, there’s also.

Richard Matthews: Jesse, the description in the blow thing. You can send it to us afterwards.

Jesse Benson: Yeah, [01:07:00] thanks. It’s a new thing that we’re doing, but yeah, you know, now that I am making myself more accessible to people if they want to reach out to me directly.

Richard Matthews: Awesome. Well, Jesse, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your story and sharing what you guys are doing over at FinIntegrated and NPT wow. N P T A. I can say that it sounds like you guys are on a really cool mission that I think is going to be very helpful for a lot of people. 

And I really hope you do hit that goal of infecting a million lives in Canada and hopefully beyond, right?

And you start, you know, expanding your programs in other countries and whatnot. My, last question for you. 

Do you have any final words of wisdom for my audience before you hit this stop record button?

Jesse Benson: Do that pushup today. One, 30 seconds down, 30 seconds up. We can do it from the knees or from your feet, but let’s get a pushup in today.

Richard Matthews: Yeah. Well, they said one minute a week. That’s all it takes, right? It is, you’ll see a little bit of change and you see a little bit, you can start moving on. 

Jesse, thank you so much for for sharing your story today. Appreciate it.

Jesse Benson: Likewise. Thanks for your help.