[00:00] Devan Kline: Push yourself, like, see how far you can take. You’re a lot more capable than you give yourself credit for. Even if you think you’re pushing yourself and you’re just going through the motions in the gym, push yourself, go to the next level, see what you’re made of, and then watch how much easier everything else in your life gets.

[00:17] Devan Kline: I think that’s the most practical and simple way to kickstart change or any momentum. Move your body, move it fast, move it hard, move it quick, but most importantly, move it. Okay.

[00:28] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Welcome to another episode of success for the athletic minded man, real talk on harnessing your athletic drive for clarity, consistency, and focus in business and life.

[00:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: This is your host, Jim Harshaw, Jr. And, uh, man, we’re only a handful of episodes or so into this new rebranded podcast success through failure, being the prior podcasts on this same feed for the new listeners. If you scroll back past January 1st, 2024, you’ll find success through failure, the prior podcast, hundreds of amazing interviews and episodes there.

[01:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: But Devin Klein is really. A perfect guest for this new podcast, because he was a division one baseball player played for central Michigan played in the San Francisco giants organization. And so he has this athletic mindset and you’re going to hear his athletic mindset pour directly out in this interview.

[01:25] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s frigging awesome. So a little bit of background on who he is. Devin is a co founder with his wife of burn bootcamp. And I don’t know if you’ve. I’ve seen bird bootcamp there. They’ve won in my town here in Charlottesville, Virginia, but there’s hundreds and hundreds of these across the country. They started with 600 in a parking lot with some women working out.

[01:45] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And now it’s a half a billion dollar enterprise. And he’s, he even says in the interview here today, he’s like, and we’re ready to take off. You know, it’s like, they’re growing like crazy. And when you hear his backstory, you’re going to be absolutely hooked into the vision of this business. So continue listening to this one to the end, for sure, because we go deeper and deeper and deeper, and I pull more and more value out.

[02:07] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And really at the end, the last five minutes or so, just really, really good gold that he shares there in terms of habits and things that he does on a regular basis to, to operate at his highest level. So here we go. My interview with co founder of burnt bootcamp. You started burn boot camp with 600 in a parking lot.

[02:29] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Take us back to that time.

[02:31] Devan Kline: Yes. My wife, Morgan, who her and I have been together since we were 12 years old. I got done playing minor league baseball with the San Francisco giant. She was working at Kellogg’s. And she was down in Southwest Florida, slinging pop tarts, slinging frosted flakes, selling into all the grocery stores and doing really well at it.

[02:47] Devan Kline: Kellogg’s because we’re from Battle Creek, Michigan, where we were born and raised together. Cereal City, if, if anybody’s familiar with, uh, Battle Creek. And so what happened was she excelled at that. And she got an opportunity to go to either Charlotte or Dallas. We chose Charlotte. I had played ball in the Southeast and the Sally league, and I loved it here.

[03:07] Devan Kline: We were going to live in the Lake Norman area, started burn boot camp with 600 bucks in a parking lot when we moved here and she was still with Kellogg’s. Eight months later, man, we’re doing the business full time together. And 18 months after that, we have 200 franchises sold. So there’s the, we can dig into all of that, but that’s, those, those are the quick milestones.

[03:27] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. You’re now like a, what? 500 million enterprise. What were some of the benchmarks? How did you go from 600 bucks in a parking lot to 18 months later, over 200 locations, and now where you’re at with even more,

[03:40] Devan Kline: well, I think the answer to your question is you don’t really know. Where you can go until you start really breeding that ambition through success and through evidence, you know, for us, it was about, you know, dominating North Charlotte.

[03:55] Devan Kline: Let’s have a fitness company in North Charlotte that really served local families and we could be a big deal here, you know, and we could really own where we lived. And that was great. And we did that really quickly. We subleased locations because we, you know, I played with the San Francisco Giants, Morgan was a sales rep for Kellogg’s.

[04:14] Devan Kline: We didn’t have a ton of money. She’s basically paying for my cell phone bill through minor league baseball, right? Like my signing bonus went to the little student that I had from central Michigan. And, uh, A car, you know? And so after we started becoming successful, you know, about eight months in, we started really growing that ambition.

[04:34] Devan Kline: And I can remember we were talking about franchising and went back down to Naples and sat with now our largest location, the Naples, Florida location, and our biggest franchisee, Holly Strickland and her husband. And I told her and Morgan that. Okay, we’re going to open 500 of these things and, you know, they looked at me like, okay, he does that, like, just let him, just let him do that.

[04:56] Devan Kline: Just let him do that. It’s fine. And we did, you know, and we’re at 555 now. Uh, that’s how we ended 2023 and, you know, success grows, our ambition grows with success. Right? And so. Now that we’re here, you know, we’re young, we’re all hungry. We’ve got a lot of momentum. We’ve proved unit economics, you know, to scale and we’re ready just to go.

[05:18] Devan Kline: Um, and we’re really excited about it. So now when I say, Hey guys, we’re going to put a location on every viable community on this planet, because I see what it does for people. And I see how important, important it is for those, especially those who are discouraged in the four walls of their home to have a, an amazing, wonderful place they can go to, to not only.

[05:38] Devan Kline: Like we were talking about off, not only focus on their body, but just see the rest of who they are through the workout. Right. And let that just be the spark that ignites the fire inside of them to answer the question. What more could I be? If I could be more. And I think it’s really interesting to, we were talking about like redefining, I think burn is like redefining.

[05:59] Devan Kline: What a holistic lifestyle is and doing that through the, the women and the families of our community. And so I would even bridge to say that it would be morally and ethically wrong for me to not expand. You know, you might say that as like a capitalist, but I’m, it’s been about money because we have to keep the doors open and we want to have a profitability and we want to be able to have a sustainable company where people can come in and make this lifestyle change.

[06:20] Devan Kline: And so we’ve always had this balance of people first and profit. And, you know, to be able to scale, you have to do that, but in our heart and our soul. But this is all about those workouts in the parking lot days and helping people in different countries and different states and different cultures get that feeling that we all universally need right to belong and be cared for and have people around that encourage us.

[06:42] Devan Kline: Yeah.

[06:43] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I feel the same about my business in terms of. When you have something that helps people and helps people live better lives, be more fit, make more money, have better marriages. Like there’s a moral obligation that you feel to grow that. And this is, you know, you and I talked off air about F3, which is why I’m such a huge proponent of F3, which started right down in your neck of the woods in Charlotte, but I want to go down that path with you, but first I want to go back to.

[07:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Parking lot, 600, you know, eight months later, you’re seeing success. You want to dominate Charlotte, North Charlotte, like you see so much more potential. You were a baseball player and your wife was a sales rep. I don’t think, I don’t know if you have your MBAs, but what was your business background?

[07:26] Jim Harshaw Jr.: There’s a lot of people trying to start side hustles. I shoot. I know when I was starting my, this business was a side hustle for me for several, it took me years to get to the point where I could quit my job. You guys did it in eight months and you went into this. So was it your mindset where, were there mentors or resources?

[07:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, what were the things that you did leverage use found that helped you go from parking lot to

[07:50] Devan Kline: success? You have to take it back to how we were all brought up and really start there and say, Hey, what are the dynamics of the environment that you were brought up in? And how did that influence you in a way?

[08:02] Devan Kline: And so, you know, I think about that a lot introspectively as the visionary of the company. Now, Morgan’s the CEO. She has, uh, all of our VPs as direct reports and. You know, Morgan and I work together and I work through her to integrate into the business. And so I get a lot of a lot more time even than I have in the past 10 or 12 years to go deep and to think about those things.

[08:24] Devan Kline: Um, and I appreciate that space. And I think what it’s taught me is that the disadvantages that I had grown up, you know, on welfare in battle Creek, Michigan, on the other side of the tracks from. Where Morgan lived, she had her own troubles and struggles like we all do, but her parents were amazing and I had to watch my dad beat his women and abuse alcohol and drugs and me and my sister and my brothers.

[08:49] Devan Kline: And, you know, it was an interesting environment, like a chaotic dumpster fire, you know, is kind of the best way to describe it. And when you go through that. Right. What it does is it normalizes hard things. And for me, some of the challenges that might be brought upon, you know, growing a company, scaling a company from a parking lot to a half a billion dollars in what 12 years weren’t that difficult because I’ve had context.

[09:17] Devan Kline: And to answer your question. That context is pain. That’s the difference. I felt a lot of pain growing up and, and it didn’t stop until I was early into my adulthood. And so it’s not like it’s for, was for a few years. It was a sustained, it almost felt like an attack at the time on my personal reputation because of the family that I was associated with.

[09:36] Devan Kline: Right. My, People see my dad, McDonald’s, all American basketball player, Detroit Tiger. He played in the minor leagues as well. Great athlete from a small town. And you know how it goes. Everybody knows you. If you’re putting those type of headlines out as a, even a high school guy, you know, and then, you know, years later, you’re still in the town, you’re still the man, you know, and so I’m his son and I’m kind of next up in the town.

[09:57] Devan Kline: And, you know, now all of a sudden I’m associated with all these things that come with his last name because of his choices that he made and listen. We’ve long reconciled, you know, and I’ve long told him that, thank you. You know, my adversity that I faced my whole life is ultimate advantage that I have.

[10:13] Devan Kline: And so going into business, going into parenting, going into, I mean, anything challenging, I just have this backboard that is one of like tough skin and callous, and there’s nothing that can really phase me. And I think a lot of things that take entrepreneurs down on the way up were much less difficult.

[10:31] Devan Kline: Then what I had to deal with being knocked out as a 12 year old, for example, you know, and having to deal with that. So that has been something in the last two or three years that I’ve really, I think, come to acknowledge. And then, you know, then you go through failures and as long as you are consistent and you don’t let those failures stop you, as you know, you just, you get to the top and you keep going.

[10:52] Devan Kline: And if you don’t quit, that’s the main ingredient. If you stay hungry and don’t quit and I won’t quit because I know the pain.

[10:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: A lot of people would look at that, that upbringing and use that as their excuse would, you know, you use the word normalize, right? Normalize hard things, but it also normalized welfare and normalized abuse and normalized alcoholism.

[11:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Like you didn’t use that as your crutch. I mean, what do you think is different about you? I mean, were there, there are people that poured into you or, or your mindset obviously was different. Then a lot of people who would use that as, as their excuse or, or just not even an excuse. I mean, that’s just how you’re wired a lot of times when you’re brought up in that environment,

[11:33] Devan Kline: you know, you build a business or you do anything great because of inspiration or desperation.

[11:38] Devan Kline: I don’t know if you’ve heard of that before. I think that’s real. And for me, it was totally out of desperation. It’s like, I got to get out of here. This isn’t right. You know, I, I’ve got to leave. I’m, I’m meant for more than this. I can do more than this. I am more than this. And I don’t, I’m not going to be defined by, you know, these indivisible shackles that kind of hold me down.

[11:56] Devan Kline: So as soon as I got an opportunity to sign with the Chippewas to, you know, I was a good baseball player. They, they, you know, they told me you’re too skinny. I was about 35 dripping wet as a freshman. I could throw hard and I had a live arm, but they said, son, you better gain 25 pounds, 30 pounds. If you want to go play division one.

[12:12] Devan Kline: So I did and I hit the weight room and that’s why I fell in love with fitness. I got that first offer to central Michigan. I knew that I was good at business because, okay, so I’ll tell you a story. And this is one that really, I think you can use to kind of define my mindset. So I started my first franchise when I’m like 12 years old, snow shoveling, quick snow removal, 20 minutes.

[12:36] Devan Kline: I’m in and out with a couple of buddies. I’m knocking on doors. They’re coming behind me with shovels. Okay. I, I roll that for a couple of winters, do some lawns in the summer and. The whole time I’m doing that, I’m working with my dad on the roof, you know, pitchfork popping out nails and tar and all types of stuff like hard, hard work, right?

[12:54] Devan Kline: Being his gopher as an electrician, odd and job. So I make like 3000 bucks. All right, I take it. I buy a car. I go down to Kissimmee, Florida to play a baseball tournament. I come back, my car’s gone, my mom’s gone and my brother’s gone. My mom takes my car, uses it as moving money and then. Moves to Arizona.

[13:12] Devan Kline: Okay. So I’m like devastated because I’d worked for like four years to get this car. Right. Just hustling, doing fun things. I go back to work a few more months. Make 700, 800 bucks. I don’t remember the exact number. I go trade a 1989 Ford probe for 750 bucks in my labor all weekend at a storage shop down the street from my house.

[13:35] Devan Kline: Well, you had to jumpstart this thing. Like literally had to jumpstart it. And you had the little pop of, I think they were like called frog lenses or something like that. Only one of them worked. Okay, so I have this and it’s dead winter. So I have this car and I fix it up. All right. I keep working, raise more money, get another car, Pontiac Grand Am, raise more money, get another car.

[13:57] Devan Kline: Then I find eBay. As soon as I found eBay, I learned arbitrage. And as soon as I learned arbitrage, I learned how to make money. When I was 16, 17 years old, I started flipping cars on eBay. I would sell a Ford Escape, drive it to Detroit Metro Airport, drop it off. Somebody would fly and pick it up and then drive it home.

[14:16] Devan Kline: I did this three or four times. Morgan actually went down to Ohio with me to a dealership on the last one, right before I went to Central Michigan. I brought it back, traded it up for a Mustang. And I went to a 2005 green Mustang, by the way. And then I went to college with a bunch of cash in my pocket and a green Mustang.

[14:34] Devan Kline: This was my mindset. It’s like, if anything happens to you, use it, flip it and go out and make your worst day, your best day. And so that was my first, the first time I realized I was good at business was around then, but then I set it all down to go play baseball. For the

[14:48] Jim Harshaw Jr.: listener, I want you to tune into what Devin’s talking about here.

[14:51] Jim Harshaw Jr.: He had every excuse in the book to say, woe is me. You know, I didn’t have great role models growing up. I had these challenges and, you know, mom left and dad was abusive and all these challenges. Everybody has their unfair advantage. You just have to open your eyes and look for it. If Devin was sitting here and said, I grew up rich.

[15:10] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It sounds like your wife, Morgan grew up maybe on the other side of the track she mentioned earlier. Maybe she grew up in a much different lifestyle. Like that’s her unfair advantage. Like we all have our unfair advantage. You just have to choose and it’s a choice. You get to choose how you look at your past, your history, your successes, your failures.

[15:30] Jim Harshaw Jr.: When I failed at a business years ago, software company raised angel capital, built a software, had no idea how to build software, failed at that business. And I thought to myself, and this is kind of me kicking myself, looking back, thought to myself. Gosh, I guess I’m no good at that. I guess I’m no good at building a software business.

[15:46] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s like, no, wait a second. Like I just got my MBA and how to do it. Cause some things worked and also how not to do it. Like you have so much capacity because of your history. So listen, I just want you to tune into what Devin saying there, figuring out what is your unfair advantage? Devin, this is much more than a business for you, right?

[16:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, you’re changing lives with this. It’s not just about. Helping people lose weight or get fit. I mean, there’s a burn bootcamp lifestyle you and I talked about before we hit record and tell us more about that.

[16:15] Devan Kline: Yeah. Well, you mentioned mentors and so like I always was searching for it. I know there was more.

[16:20] Devan Kline: And what I did find that I’m very grateful for, and I remember this, I used to ride my bike to school, and I found a Tony Robbins, um, I think it was Personal Power was the name of it, and it was a CD, and I had the Sony Walkmans, so I’m just old enough to be in like, the things. I think iPods were when I was in like eighth grade or something.

[16:42] Devan Kline: How old are you, Devin? I’m 36. Okay. Yeah. And so, yeah, so I had a Sony Walkman and I can remember playing and playing the personal power thing when I was a kid. And that was my first time, I think when I realized there was something more. And so, you know, I just listened, I just always like to shout out. You know, Anthony Robbins and everything he’s done for the world, because how many people like me need a mentor like that, you know, I think that’s what I’m trying to do here with you.

[17:08] Devan Kline: And, and, you know, as I’ve achieved successes to try to pay that forward, right, one or 1, million, it doesn’t matter. I think there’s kids out there that even adults out there that just need guidance, right. And need mentorship. And, and so, yeah, I, I found Tony Robbins and he, I think he, what he did is plant this like holistic mindset.

[17:30] Devan Kline: And then I think life from there was about, okay, I’ll, I’ll explain the eight, the eight pieces, okay. Body, mind, emotion, spirit, relationship, work, time, and money. And if you took all those eight pieces, you could say, all right. Through which lens, if you could only choose one lens, through which lens would I want to spend my life helping to mentor other people?

[17:53] Devan Kline: And to me, it’s obvious that owning a Byrne Bootcamp and, you know, having this company that, you know, my primary mode of communicating is through the body. And I really believe this, that Tony Robbins will tell you, emotion. Creates motion, right? And motion also creates emotion and vice versa. And so to me, it’s like, move your body.

[18:14] Devan Kline: If you want more energy, do a workout, go running, walk. If you’re not used to walking, but there’s a difference. I think people don’t necessarily always understand what we mean when we say. Go train training is demanding exercise, right? Hard exercise. Think about it like this, where you can’t talk like the talk test.

[18:30] Devan Kline: If you can’t talk, you’re working out hard enough and you don’t have to do it forever and you don’t have to do it every day, three to six times a week, 15 minutes to 45 minutes a day of demanding training is all we really need. And so. I’m so proud of those that get out and just start walking for the first time or join an F3 for the first time or take the first step.

[18:49] Devan Kline: The thing about progression and what the body piece of this pie teaches us is that we’ve got to keep. Layering on more responsibility, more stress, more demand to our body as we grow and as we progress, right? In order to do that, okay, the next piece of the pie, it’s your mentality, right? To be consistent, to be dedicated, to have this regimented lifestyle where, hey, no matter what, if I did only one hard thing today, I’m going to get my workout in because that’s going to give me the discipline I need when I don’t feel like doing the work thing today.

[19:23] Devan Kline: Or when I feel like maybe the relationship thing today is a struggle for me. I try to approach life that way. And I think part of what burn is doing psychologically for people, it’s not like we lead with the burn lifestyle and say, Hey, here’s this pie chart. And like, here’s the, it’s not scientific. It’s I think it’s scientific in a sense, but it’s also an art form of how do you find one ritual that works for you?

[19:44] Devan Kline: One habit that works for you in each area of. This approach really to life. And what you’ll find is your approach to business can be the same approach you have to your body can be the same approach you have to your spirit and your faith and things like that. And so my second half, if you want to call it that before I’m 40.

[20:05] Devan Kline: So then over the next four years, my goal is to really widen the net for burn bootcamp. We’ve got. Millions of people on our email lists and our following over a hundred thousand members will have by the end of this February. I mean, it’s going to be crazy. The amount of people that will be a member at our gym.

[20:23] Devan Kline: And I don’t take that for granted. And I just want to keep spreading the message. And, you know, this is why, you know, a year and a half ago, Morgan and I kind of changed our roles from she was COO and I was the CEO and I stepped into this visionary role and she stepped in to this CEO role because that’s what she’s gifted at.

[20:41] Devan Kline: She’s naturally talented at integrating detailed methodology and just kind of waking up every day and getting after it. And I need space. I need space to be creative.

[20:49] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Yeah. He wired differently. You got to have the right seat on the bus. Quick interruption. Hey, if you like what you’re hearing, be sure to get the notes, quotes, and links in the action plan from this episode, just go to jimharshowjr.

[21:02] Jim Harshaw Jr.: com slash action. That’s jimharshowjr. com slash action to get your free copy of the action plan. Now back to the show. You know, it’s interesting you mentioned like you don’t start off with, you know, sort of preaching the burn bootcamp lifestyle. You bring people in with the fitness and it changes every area of their lives and every area of their lives are impacted.

[21:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I think it’s so amazing. It’s one of the reasons why I wanted to bring you on Devon’s because like you’re so inspirational, but you’re changing the world by doing this. And this is. This is why I’m part of F3. And for the listener, if you haven’t listened to those episodes, we’ll have those linked in the action plan with founder of F3, Dred, and then another guy, Frank Schwartz, who is Dark Helmet in F3 parlance.

[21:42] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I interviewed him as well. We bring people in with the workout. People show up, the guys, men show up and they do the workouts. But they stay for the camaraderie and the impact that we have on their lives and the philanthropic impacts we have on our communities and volunteering. And, you know, their marriages get better.

[21:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I mean, we’ve there’s guys who their lives have been saved. There’s a story of a guy who literally woke up one morning after a binge with a gun in his mouth. And luckily he passed out before he pulled the trigger, but. It changes lives. And that’s what you’re doing. Devin, you’re like, you’re changing lives.

[22:14] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You’re inspiring people. You’re bringing them in, bringing them into a community and we need community and we need activity and fitness now more, more than ever. And so what you guys are doing is just awesome. And I want to hear about your baseball career. How did baseball influence you? You were a division one athlete.

[22:32] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I look back on my life as a wrestler. I had so many people. Pour into me through wrestling, through sport that inspired me, gave me these great lessons that I carry on and sort of try to live by. There’s just hardwired into me. I don’t even, a lot of them are just unconscious, but they’re hardwired into me through the people who impacted me.

[22:52] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And I also, like you said, like, I know I can do hard things. I know I can do physically demanding things and mentally demanding things because I participated in a sport like that. I mean, how has baseball impacted you? Now in your life, you know, long after you’re, you know, you took off the cleats,

[23:10] Devan Kline: I draw a lot of correlation, a lot of parallels.

[23:13] Devan Kline: But I think the angle that I’ll take for this question would be what I learned about a championship culture, what I learned about a team atmosphere and what it really looks like to pull a group of people together to win. I never really had that individual mentor who took me under their wing and said, Hey, listen, kid, you.

[23:28] Devan Kline: You’re more than what you’re giving me right now. Like I always gave a lot. I try to analyze why that is. Why didn’t I have that? Why don’t, why don’t I feel that I had that? And I think the answer is because I was pretty mentally tough and strong and strong willed, and I was a lot of times the guy that other guys would lean on.

[23:48] Devan Kline: You know, and so I own an assistant coach in a way. And so I always kind of had this coaches mentality. I always want the team to win. Like I want to be the superstar too. Don’t get me wrong. I want to be the Friday night starter for the conference championship. Don’t get me wrong. I also want us to win.

[24:04] Devan Kline: And so I was fortunate to be on two, two amazing cultures, right. And I think just transcend the players and the coaches. The Central Michigan Chippewas, I mean, we’re known in the, in the Midwest for, you know, as a smaller division one school beating up on the bigger division one schools in our area. We’re not winning the conference championship.

[24:23] Devan Kline: Like, what are we talking about? Right? Like this is our goal. Like it’s this or bust. And so you walked with a type of swagger and just confidence about you that. Didn’t necessarily have other schools, right? Especially those in your conference that you were in your environment. And then you go to the San Francisco giants.

[24:39] Devan Kline: Listen, I was there. I wasn’t on the big league team, but when you’re in spring training, the big league team success, it trickles down to the farm league, right? And so now I’ve got 2010, 2012. When I’m there, they won the world series both times. This is the most competitive farm league to get into. You know, if you have a beard and your hat sideways, they look at you.

[24:58] Devan Kline: Funny, no jokes here. Like this is about winning. This is about nothing else, but winning and respecting one another, respecting the game, loving the game. And I bring a lot of that into burn bootcamp for my leadership style. Watch Bruce Bochy with the giants. When I was there, just be an incredible leader.

[25:14] Devan Kline: Steve Jackson, my coach at central Michigan was a great coach. Jeff sovereign in high school. Like I’ve got a lot of great coaches that have helped me along the way. I just think the. You know, we want to stay championship as a high school team. So I’d always been on these teams. And so, yeah, championship culture and DNA.

[25:29] Devan Kline: And here’s the number one thing I think people should know about upholding a chick, because if you want to grow, like I’ve grown or anything remotely close to it, the person that’s at the top of it has to have a standard and can tolerate nothing below that standard. You know, sometimes you have to make decisions quickly.

[25:46] Devan Kline: Sometimes you make the wrong decisions, but you’re doing it out of. The love and adherence to the standard serving the business and what the business needs. I always had coaches that served the team. They never served themselves. They never served, you know, their reputation. They serve winning a championship for the organization, for the city.

[26:05] Devan Kline: And I just feel like we’re competing in this amazing arena called boutique fitness, where there’s orange theories of the world and the F 45s of the world and club Pilates and some great companies that, you know, we should really. Respect and we should learn from, but we should also go out and we should compete with them every single day.

[26:26] Devan Kline: And when we are competing, we’re going to kick their ass. That’s what we’re going to do. And there’s no other choice, right? We don’t have another choice. We got one way to go. And I think that came from. You know, think back to the way I grew up is like I had one way to go and that was just getting out, getting out, getting up and moving on to bigger and better things.

[26:44] Devan Kline: If

[26:44] Jim Harshaw Jr.: for the listener who’s saying, well, I, you know, I wasn’t on a championship team. I didn’t have that championship culture or like my experience. I wasn’t on so much. I wasn’t really on championship teams either, but, but I had a great experience and I found success. Like if you’re the listener saying, well, my, my experience, you know, I had terrible coaches.

[26:59] Jim Harshaw Jr.: I never found success. I never made the starting lineup and whatever. That’s your excuse. Yeah.

[27:06] Devan Kline: If you never made the starting lineup, it’s because you weren’t good enough. It wasn’t because even like in college, they’re putting, they’re even putting the guys who are bad teammates out there when they had to, to win the game.

[27:16] Devan Kline: Like let’s be honest. Like if you’re the best player, you’re going to play right.

[27:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And so for the listener, just understand that just like Devin’s backstory of his childhood, like your bad experience, if that was your experience in sports, if it was a bad experience, like that’s your unfair advantage too. So make sure you leverage that in.

[27:31] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And Devin, you are in a. Competitive, competitive space, you know, fit into health and fitness industry is you routed off a handful of your competitors and there’s even more out there. You are in such a competitive space. And, uh, I love the mindset, that competitive mindset that you bring to approaching your business.

[27:50] Jim Harshaw Jr.: You talked about. Morgan, she gets up and she’s got a plan and a system and she’s checking things off. I’d love to hear about your morning routines, morning routines, evening routines, things that you do every day or consistently, and even hers as well. Because two very successful people. It sounds like you’re wired differently.

[28:09] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And we, my listeners, myself, we can’t try to emulate just one person and think, Oh, they have the perfect routine. There’s different ways to go about success. Can you talk about your routines and maybe differentiate

[28:21] Devan Kline: with Morgan’s? Yeah, definitely. I mean, you talked about competitive space. It’s if you inherently, then you have to have a competitive routine because showing up to the field, doing the work in your case, getting the reps in, rolling around the mat, doing your conditioning, cutting weight, like all the things that comes with the sport.

[28:36] Devan Kline: You’ve got to do it. You got, I mean, that’s, that’s part of the game. And so, you know, for us. Waking up in the morning is important. I would say that every day we beat the sun up. I would say that we try to, you know, get up around between the five and 5 30 AM hour. Does that happen all the time? It doesn’t happen all the time, but if it happens 80 percent of the time, I think that’s success, right?

[28:56] Devan Kline: Especially with a. Chaotic lifestyle. So we, you know, you have three kids too, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, we got to get up before them or else, you know, then your day is completely dominated by your kids. And, you know, then you start off with them all pulling on you and jumping on you, daddy, daddy, daddy.

[29:10] Devan Kline: And that’s annoying. Like, let’s be honest. And so, you know, on a random Wednesday, that’s pretty annoying. So you want to get up and like, you know, get out in front of them a little bit. I think, and that’s, you know, that’s important to me. And I think it’s important because. We’ve got to maximize the amount of time that we’re spending thinking about the business in a day.

[29:26] Devan Kline: We don’t need to maximize the amount of time that we are sitting in front of a computer or writing a report or sending emails. We got to maximize the amount of time we can think about the business because the more space that you have to think, the better your behaviors, the better your actions are going to be.

[29:42] Devan Kline: Especially if you’re writing a lot of things down. So we write a lot of things down. We write our days down ahead. Both of us do ahead of. Uh, the next day, you know, to kind of marinate and make sure that I’m giving my opportunity, self an opportunity to be excited for tomorrow. And then you get up and you try to get that list done three times is three times faster than, you know, uh, you thought you could get it done.

[30:05] Devan Kline: And if you wake up doing that through the lens of trying to just improve one thing every day, you’re going to be somewhere in 10 years, right? And it’s going to be a place that you’ve designed. It’s not going to be someplace that you just end up because you got up and like mistake. Mistook movement for progress for your career.

[30:19] Devan Kline: And a lot of people do that. And I used to do that. I think everybody does that and that’s okay. And you should like to have those times where you’re working down to your freaking knuckles into your bones for 18 hours a day. I don’t do that nowadays. It’s more intellectual now than it was as a trainer doing 15, 000 camps, Morgan doing 10, 000.

[30:38] Devan Kline: We were in the gym at 4 30 AM and we were leaving at. You know, 6 37 30 PM with no kids, right? Living that lifestyle. So we had been through that. And one thing that I try to as an outcome that I try to. Make sure happens on the back end of all these daily routines is that our company is growing while simultaneously our jobs are getting easier.

[31:03] Devan Kline: And if that’s the case, then, you know, you’re going in the right direction. And so, you know, in a competitive space. We’ve got to evolve and, you know, I say competitive with an asterisk because yes, it’s competitive, but also the opportunity is so great, right? Think about, I mean, 70 percent nearly. It’s not quite 70.

[31:22] Devan Kline: It’s almost 70 percent of America today is obese or overweight, 20 percent of kids. So it’s like, yeah, it’s super competitive, but for great leadership and great companies who really understand The dynamic of the amount of opportunity that’s out there, the amount of inspiration that’s left on the table by other companies put together a great leadership team, a great management team, and a bunch of franchise owners who want to get after it and share the dream with you, share the culture with you.

[31:50] Devan Kline: You know, we haven’t found it to be too competitive so far for the

[31:54] Jim Harshaw Jr.: listener. I just hope you’re tuning in here. Like, are you listening to what Devin’s saying? Because, you know, I said, this is a competitive space. I said, yeah, it’s competitive, but like, think about the opportunity, like he’s looking at, at this the right way.

[32:06] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And so I want you to think about your life and you’re saying, oh, my, my boss sucks or. Whatever, whatever challenges you have in your life, whatever’s going on in your career, you’re trying to get that promotion or start that side hustle or struggling in your relationship or to get fit. Like, what are you choosing to look at?

[32:23] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Are you choosing to look at the, the challenge or are you choosing to look at the opportunity? And obviously Devin’s mindset is very much wired towards looking at the opportunity. And Devin also brought up a point here that. The, one of the key habits that you guys do, it sounds like Devin is thinking.

[32:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: It’s not doing, it’s the thinking, it’s the planning, it’s the writing down. And for the listeners, you’ve heard me talk about this before, about this concept that I discovered years ago that world class performers do. They, it’s a key habit for success is called the productive pause. And the productive pause is defined as a short period of focused reflection around specific questions.

[33:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That leads to clarity of action and peace of mind. And that can be on a daily basis. Like Devin’s talking about here, that can be on a yearly basis. Just recently I wrapped up a, I do a personal four to five hour goal setting session, productive pause for myself every year, do at least two hour session with my clients.

[33:17] Jim Harshaw Jr.: And this is the single. Most important block of time that they will spend all year long. And for Devin and Morgan, it’s this, this productive pause is probably the single most important time you’ll spend all day is the thinking, the planning before you step into the fray and the chaos of business and the busyness of life.

[33:36] Devan Kline: Yeah. And as you build your company, you should have to make less decisions if you’re building the company the right way. And so early on, you’re going to really have to work hard to build in those pauses, those clarity breaks, those times of reflection of introspection to answer key questions. You’re gonna have to build that in because you’re gonna be so damn busy trying to be the.

[33:53] Devan Kline: The janitor and the front desk manager and the, you know, key out retail and sign memberships and train camps and keep the people happy. You know that you’re not going to have much time for that. So it’s, you know, my opinion, that’s very important to build that in original thought time early on. And then as you progress and.

[34:10] Devan Kline: You have to make less decisions. Well, then more of your mental strength and power can go into each one of those decisions. And there’s periods of every day, you know, where you can sit and just think for 30 minutes and a notebook and a pen and a pencil. I have about, see, maybe 70 of these since I was 24 saved up.

[34:28] Devan Kline: And I write in it every single day, you know, so it’s always been a part of, even when I was busy, I always built in part time for original, original thought, mostly at night. So

[34:38] Jim Harshaw Jr.: what are you writing? Are you writing the plan for the day? Are you journaling?

[34:41] Devan Kline: So basically I call it my get shit done list, which is pretty common.

[34:46] Devan Kline: I picked that up a long time ago. I forget. From where, but I liked it because it sounds like my mentality. So I just write, get shit done. And then a day at the top of it. And I write down the time and that I have to do everything. And then if there’s nothing that has a time, then that’s just an outcome that kind of goes at the bottom.

[35:02] Devan Kline: And once that’s done, then I’ll just sit there. And I’ll basically think about something that’s bothering me, like a question, you know, in my notebook, I’ll have something that I was doodling in that I was a question that I’ll marinate on or on the plane I captured on my notes or whatever, and I’ll sit there and I’ll just think for 30 minutes with no aim, no direction, just.

[35:25] Devan Kline: Time to wander. I think we all need a little bit of time to wander, whether it’s built in five hours every quarter or five hours a year when you don’t have the affordability of time or you become successful, do what got you there more frequently, right, which is to sit down and think. And so for me. I’ll sit there for 30 minutes sometimes.

[35:46] Devan Kline: And most times it’s just a bunch of nonsense, right? It’s a bunch of nonsense, but every now and then a couple of times a month, maybe there’ll be a really good idea and I’ll really figure out the right decision to make, I think in my heart. And I’ll feel it. And then it’s like, ah, without that special thought time, we make irrational decisions, you know, based on emotion without thinking through, uh, the logistics of it.

[36:13] Jim Harshaw Jr.: That is so fascinating. Like I said, I’ve found that to be the, the single key to success that high performers do is some version of that, some version of thinking, stepping back, asking questions, getting clarity. And it can be on a daily, you know, we, we coach our clients to do it on a minimum, a monthly basis where they’re, they’re stepping back, evaluating their goals or progress and setting their goals.

[36:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Ideally a daily basis where you’re at least reviewing those and doing some kind of journaling and thinking on

[36:44] Devan Kline: that. So I’d add one thing to that. I think just on top of that is, so I kind of skim over this because I’m a writer and I’ve published a book and it’s seems more like part of my daily get shit done list than it is.

[36:57] Devan Kline: Something that’s a habit for me, but it’s writing. It’s taking those thoughts and then actually writing. So like sometimes if you don’t like sitting and thinking, you can sit and just write, just sit there for 30 minutes and write. And it’s crazy how much clearer, much more clear your thoughts get. If you were just to just start writing and scrap all that, but at least you’re going to get one or two clean thoughts from it.

[37:18] Devan Kline: So much clarity

[37:19] Jim Harshaw Jr.: comes out of that. It doesn’t come from waking up, stepping into the chaos, reacting, returning emails all day. That’s not where clarity comes from. And that’s not where high value work comes from. I interviewed Cal Newport, who’s a great author, written some great books. And he talks about the best value you can bring to the world is.

[37:41] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Deep work. He wrote a book called deep work in that deep work, that writing, that thinking, that producing, that is where the best work, the most impactful work that you’re going to do in the world is going to come from. It’s either going to come directly from that because you’re doing it, or the seed of that great work is going to come from, from the pause.

[38:00] Jim Harshaw Jr.: From the thinking, from the writing, Devin, fascinating. Love this, man. I think this was an amazing conversation and really we kept going deeper and deeper and boy, that’s some amazing gold at the end there that I hope the listener takes your advice on. So let’s wrap up with this. What’s an action item to the listener?

[38:15] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Something that they can do in the next 24 to 48 hours to start moving towards,

[38:19] Devan Kline: uh, achieving their goals. If you feel stuck and you’re not getting into my definition of demanding training every day, 15 minutes to 45 minutes, three to six times a week of hard effort. Like push yourself, like see how far you can take.

[38:36] Devan Kline: You’re a lot more capable than you give yourself credit for it. Even if you think you’re pushing yourself and you’re just going through the motions in the gym, push yourself, go to the next level, see what you’re made of, and then watch how much easier everything else in your life gets. I think that’s the.

[38:49] Devan Kline: Most practical and simple way to kickstart change or any momentum. Move your body, move it fast, move it hard, move it quick, but most importantly, move it. Okay. Move it. Even if it’s exercise or if it’s activity, I want you moving, but get into demanding training. You’ll thank me later.

[39:05] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Here, here a second that Devin, where can people find you?

[39:08] Jim Harshaw Jr.: Follow you by

[39:09] Devan Kline: your book, et cetera. Yeah. So YouTube is a great place. Uh, I’ve been making health and fitness content for the last 10 years, helping our franchisees, uh, our trainers and all of our amazing locations dial in their social media, and they’re just. It’s better at it than I am nowadays. And so it’s now my job to, to move on and to try to widen our net and to talk about the burn lifestyle and to talk about what’s made us successful.

[39:33] Devan Kline: So I do that on, on YouTube. And also it’s a podcast as well called the DK show, Devin Klein show. Check it out. Excellent.

[39:40] Jim Harshaw Jr.: For the listener. We’ll have all those links in the action plan. Devin, thank you so much for your

[39:45] Devan Kline: time. Thanks Jim. Appreciate you man. Likewise.

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