Dez Hesson #17 Risk, Resilience & Reinvention

In this episode of Life is Limitless, host Cody Demerais sits down with local entrepreneur Dez Hesson, owner of The Studio, for an honest conversation about growth, risk, and building a life with purpose.

Dez shares her journey from cooking school, to working in corrections, to stepping into entrepreneurship and creating a thriving fitness community rooted in connection, accountability, leadership, and personal growth.

Together, Cody and Dez dive deep into the realities of entrepreneurship — the financial pressure, uncertainty, setbacks, pivots, and sacrifices that often go unseen. From starting with just 18 spin bikes to growing into a multi-offering training facility, Dez opens up about what it really takes to build something meaningful.

This episode explores failure, confidence, self-responsibility, leadership, and the courage it takes to chase the life you truly want. A powerful reminder that progress will always matter more than perfection — and that the best life is built by staying adaptable, owning your path, and doing what lights your soul on fire.

Success rarely starts perfect — Dez started with just 18 spin bikes and built from there. Start where you are.

Entrepreneurship is uncomfortable — risk, uncertainty, and setbacks are part of the process, not signs to quit. 

Adaptability is everything — the ability to pivot can be the difference between surviving and growing. 

Leadership starts with self-leadership — discipline, accountability, and showing up for yourself first. 

Community matters — real growth happens when people feel connected, supported, and challenged. 

Failure is feedback — every setback carries lessons if you’re willing to look for them. 

Purpose fuels persistence — when your work has meaning, it becomes easier to keep going through hard seasons. 

Confidence is built, not given — through action, repetition, and doing hard things. 

Taking responsibility changes everything — ownership over your choices creates real momentum. 

Progress over perfection — small consistent steps compound into massive change over time.

Thank you for sharing two of the most precious resources one human being can share with another: your time and your energy.

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Until next time, remember: life is limitless.

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Music Intro and Outro:

Track Title: City Of Angels
Artist Name(s): LNDÖ

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:21

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Life is Limitless podcast. Today I'm very thankful to have a friend for the past quite a few years, Miss Des Hessen of the Studio. Many of you know her as a force to be reckoned with in the fitness, self-development, better health game in life and in PA. And I'm thankful that I don't only get to have one conversation with Des the past couple days, we get to have two of these conversations. Now, some people are like, What are you saying two conversations for? Because me and Des did a full hour yesterday of catching up back and forth, and it was a lot of greatness. And I go back to hear the podcast and it did not record properly. Um, I'm not gonna point fingers, but there was some internet connections somewhere in the world that wasn't making us I'll point them, buddy.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I'll point them.

SPEAKER_03 1:18

Thanks, Des. I wanted to, I was like, this is aggressive, this is mean. I don't want to do that. But I'm so thankful because honestly, it has been a few years since me and Dez caught up. And you know what? We get another round at doing this, and it's only gonna be better for those who get to listen to this. So I'm thankful for it. Plus, I get a little bit more time to catch up with an old friend as well, too. So, welcome back to Life is Limits Podcast. I'm Cody Demery, your host, and we have Miss Des today. I'm gonna share a little bit of an introduction. Des Hessen, owner of the studio here in Prince Albert. After leaving a career in corrections, she took a leap of faith into entrepreneurship and has spent the last eight years building a fitness community centered around connection, accountability, personal growth. Fitness may be may be what she does, but people is what she's passionate about. And she's excited to chat with me today about business, leadership, mindset, and the lessons she's learned from coaching hundreds of people along the way. Miss Des, how are we doing today?

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Good buddy, good buddy. And we shouldn't have any issues today. So uh, like you said though, it's gonna catch up two days in a row. I mean, come on, what's nothing wrong with that? So, well, uh glad to be back for round two here. Ding ding ding.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Ding ding. And you know what? Just th throwing this out there, I have not had one single piece of leg between our conversations already. So we're this is recording, this is good to go. We're gonna be having folks hopefully hear it today, this afternoon. So I'm looking forward to it, Des.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Excellent.

SPEAKER_03 2:51

Yeah. So Des, let's just jump into it. Let's talk about the journey of the studio a little bit. Because I know we've connected for obviously over the last quite a few years since we both were in entrepreneurship. You started your journey a little bit before mine. But tell me the pathway from you living into the corrections world and then you jumping into the entrepreneurship world. Let's start there.

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Yeah, so I'll I'll uh one-up you a little bit more and I'll backtrack it even before corrections, just slightly. Uh so I actually went to cooking school out of high school. Um, so I was on track to get my red seal, um, you know, was hammering out hours, working in some great restaurants in Saskatoon. Absolutely loved that industry. It is still a passion of mine. Uh, love getting in the kitchen and doing all the things. Um but of course, money came into play. And as a chef, uh I mean, you don't make a lot of money and you do copious and copious amounts of hours. Um, at the time, you know, we wanted kids and all these things, and I just started second-guessing my career choice based on the lifestyle that I wanted to live, you know, in the future. So uh went to corrections school, right? Good stability, good money, good pension, good benefits, all the things that come along with that career. Um, got my certificate in corrections, got my bachelor's degree in justice, and worked um uh probably all set and done about eight-ish, maybe a little bit more than eight-ish years in corrections. Um lots of experience. It it was a a good career. Um, it just never gave me the purpose that I didn't realize I needed to chase until I started chasing it, really. Um so, you know, did a few years with uh provincial women and a few years with provincial men and about uh a little stint in probation and then jump ship to go to the feds, and I was only there for about a year at Sask Pen and then um Yeah, then took the leap at the time at the pen. I was commuting back to Saskatoon to teach spin in Saskatoon, and it kind of just hit me like, well, why am I commuting back? Why don't why doesn't PA have a spin studio? Shit, should I be the one to do it? Um, and then it was one of those like risk versus reward things, right? Where it was like, well, time out. Why hasn't anybody done this yet? You know, you start doing market research and stuff. And after a few months of kind of himming and hawing and going, oh, I should, I should do this, I should do this, I should, no, I can't, no, I can't, no, I can't. Um, I basically made a deal with myself that either do it or don't make the decision now. Um, I obviously decided to do it, and here we are. Now, eight years later, uh, the studio turns eight next month in July, so really excited about that.

SPEAKER_03 5:45

Beautiful. That's amazing. Eight years of an anniversary coming up down the pipeline. That's incredible. And yesterday we talked about the ups and the downs of the economy and life of an entrepreneur and all the crazy things that have happened over the last, you know, six, seven, eight years of our lives. Uh, you know, I had a friend that has had a business in their family for 90 plus years, and he told me that young entrepreneurs nowadays are facing things that I've never faced in our family tree for 90 plus years. And that's so true. 110%. It is very crazy. But you know, maybe 50 years back in the back in the day was also things could be said for the last eight years prior to that, too, right? So it is linear a little bit, but I mean the last few years are a little bit extra, a little bit extra, I find. So how yeah, I I know I told myself and I told my mom when I want to get into entrepreneurship, mom. I honestly, if I go bankrupt, I go bankrupt. And but at least I know I went for it. How'd you feel about that transition? Was there a lot of fear? Was there a lot of excitement? Was there a lot of nerves? What was that for you?

SPEAKER_00 6:56

For sure. It uh now I was very grateful. Um, at the time I was working at SAS Penn and I had the ability to take a one-year leave from there. So um in the world of risk, um, I had that kind of plan B safety net kind of always still there, which obviously gave me an upper hand in taking the risk, um, because if the studio would have failed in the first year, I would have just gone back to the pan and called it a day. Right. And and and much like you, I kind of said, well, if the worst reality here is I go really broke and I lose a bunch of money, but I have to go back to the job that I'm already at. If that's really truly the worst case scenario, that's not that bad. Like you can make more money, right? Does debt suck? Absolutely. I'm riddled with it right now post-COVID, right? Like, it happens. But if really, truly that was the worst case scenario that I have to say, fuck, I failed and go back to work and have some debt. Like, I mean, in the grand scheme of life, what what is what is even that? That's nothing. You know what I mean? So uh very grateful that I had the opportunity to take that one-year leave. Um, also very grateful that I have a very supportive husband who um we split everything 50-50. I I am firm and adamant on that one. Um, but a very supportive husband where starting out, you know, when things were tight and I didn't have a stable paycheck, um, I knew he had my back and um it both, you know, emotionally, mentally, and financially, which again gave me a little bit of an upper hand to take take that leap of faith. And um for anybody who doesn't know, I took this leap of faith at 30 years old. Uh so I turned 30 and a week later I started the studio actually, which is pretty crazy at 30, when it's supposed to be settling down, and here I am being like, ah, fuck it, let's take a chance.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

So let's mix up the world.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Right, right. And now looking back, like I'm 38 um uh in July, and um like I thought 30 was old to take a risk. Oh my god. Like now I'm 38 and I'm like just getting started. I've got I'm living to be 100, so I've got like 60 plus years to go. So I mean, uh you know, weighing all that risk reward, what I had to my benefit, what resources I had, uh, it just really seemed like a no-brainer at the time to say just go for it and see what happens. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:30

I love that. I and you know what? That all of that was great. See, and this is why yesterday's recording didn't work. I'm not saying that that juice wasn't in yesterday's recording, but today's juice for this podcast, for those who are listening, that is why we get a second try at this, Des.

SPEAKER_02 9:47

Yeah, buddy!

SPEAKER_03 9:49

That's fantastic, and you know what? I can't agree more. For anybody who's going to be in an entrepreneurial world, that partner who is not in the entrepreneurial world needs to be the hands down, the biggest supporter, the biggest, one of the best believers in whatever that person is doing, because it is hands down a team. Yes, and I can speak to that myself too. Like I know my wife, you know, it has been that for me as well, too. So I understand where you're coming from, where it's just it is so important to have that person that has your back, has your, you know, believes in your your crazy visions that you have up here. Because if if the person you care about some of the most in the world doesn't, it can make everything else in life tougher.

unknown 10:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

And that's why, like, honestly, it's hands down one of the most important decisions anybody in this world can make, whether you're in business or whether you're not, is the person you spend the rest of your life with.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 10:43

Yeah. I I mean, I remember like talk about like not having money in the first place. When I opened up the store, I was nervous that Valentine's Day was getting closer right around when I had the store open, because I was like, that means I gotta buy chocolates, flowers. I'm like, oh no.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

Yeah, oh shit, I have no money.

SPEAKER_03 11:02

Yeah, yeah, but it it all works out, and you know what? Life goes on. You know what? You don't stress as much of those things as you do down the line of the different things that maybe come into your world because you evolve as a person, hands down. We get older, we grow stronger, we evolve, and things move forward. And I love that you had that opportunity of being able to take a leave for a year because that's incredible. That's that's truly incredible. And I'm not saying that career, you know, isn't anything good because I know a lot of friends, family that work in corrections, the you know, federal stuff, the government stuff. A lot of them know my kind of schedule, my ups and downs in the entrepreneurial world, our entrepreneurial world, and they're like, no, I'm good with my two-week, you know, knowing what I'm getting. If I need, I work overtime here and there. But that's not for everybody. Just like entrepreneurship, honestly, I can say now after witnessing and experiencing for years, it might not be for everybody as well, too, right? You have to find that path that works for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Totally. I actually have one of my staff, uh, one of my instructors, the way she put it is I am like the birth control of entrepreneurship because she sees everything that I do behind the scenes and she's like, I don't want anything to do with that. Like, you have shown me that I want nothing to do with this. And again, like it's not for everyone, right? It really isn't. Um, and and I think we forget that entrepreneurship is something that you you don't know until you're in it. Like, like, I mean, uh, I was that girl, you know, back in the day, being like, oh, why is this business this? And this business's ours are stupid and they're too expensive. And this, I we've all been there. We've all said statements like that. And now being on the other side of it and going, holy shit, so there really is a rhyme or reason or or or whatever for why they're operating this way. And quite frankly, it's none of my business why they chose to operate this way. They've obviously found success in doing it. But until you're on the other side of that, and like you said, that's with any career, of course. But when you're when you uh have are walking into that big unknown arena of entrepreneurship, plus then have to navigate the unknown to put food on your table. I mean, it's just a whole other world that that you're not ready for until you're in it. And then even then, you're not really ready, but you just get really good at pivoting um through the bullshit, basically. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:41

Yeah, no, I'm with you on that. And yeah, same same thing again. I used to look at businesses, I always wondered why businesses did things a certain way. Like I I think remember one of the smallest details that I remember a business charging for like the brown paper bags or whatever, selling at craft shows and stuff like that. Now, not every business does it or doesn't do it. You know, whoever wants to choose to do that, completely up to them. Like you said, best best way to say it is that's their business. Literally. But now I understand that when I buy two thousand of those little brown paper bags, you know, and each one costs me 30, 40 cents each, and the bigger ones are sixty cents each. But if you're buying five hundred of them or a thousand of them, that adds up. And if you're going through them X amount of, you know, so often, that adds up most definitely. And now not everyone sees that kind of, you know, that small, small detail. But when you're doing it at the scale that you might be doing it at, it is a huge difference in somebody's life.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

Totally, totally, and all those hidden fees and the hidden costs, and the um that that was a big thing for me when I started because you know, and I think there's still a little bit of a perception of me of well, you're just some girl who's just you opened up a little gym and you're running spin classes, like ooh, you know what I mean. And on the outside, I'm sure that's that's how a lot of people look look at that, but at the end of the day, it is a business, and and as any other business in the world, there's payroll and rent and bills and PST and GST and income tax and accounting and bookkeeping and all the other things. Um, so that's the other thing about just business and entrepreneurship, is it's such a spectrum. Um, but at the end of the day, there's you know, those 10 or 12 foundations that happen in every single business, whether you're big or small, or um, you know, working out of your home or have a brick and mortar or you're online or whatever. And again, until you're in it, you don't understand all those added up costs. Like I think a lot of people would shit their pants if they knew what my break-even dollar was every month. Um, because you know, they see this membership at $185 and they just think, oh, well, Dez is putting $185 in her pocket from me every month. And it's like that's just not the case, right? Like you said, although a bag might only be 30 cents, well, when you're going through a thousand of them, I mean, again, that adds up, right? So, and it's all those tiny little things that you don't think about. You know, in my business, you're paying for uh an Apple account and a Spotify account, and um, you know, you need that iPad running with that number, and then you need your phone, and then you need to have, you know, Instagram ads and Facebook ads, and and I mean, those are all just very small-scale things, but you add up a buck here, a buck here, a buck here, and a buck here, and next thing you know, these tiny little things are equating to hundreds of dollars a month, right? So, and until you're in it, you don't know all that shit.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

So no, and that's that's just it. Uh, I mean, that's why I think people almost need to or should experience a little bit of a lot of different perspectives in this world. So we talked about being a server. That was one of my favorite jobs back in the day, actually. So I worked as a server myself before I got into the trades, and I loved chatting with most people. That was like one of my favorite jobs I've ever had. I don't know why. I just I knew I wanted to work with people one day. But doing that job has let me respect and appreciate every single server I ever come across now, more than I ever have beforehand. Not saying I treated people rudely or disruptly, you know what I mean? Yeah, but I remember running, running, running for this one person back in the day when I was serving a table. And at the end of me, like, I remember sweating buckets, like, because I was like, You good, man? Everything good? And he was still not happy. I was like, okay. I had to sit in the back room, like where the kitchen was for a minute. I was like, what could I have done different? And then I just thought to myself, I was like, I literally couldn't have done anything different. And I was like, okay, well, I guess I don't think that was a me thin then. And I think that gentleman just he wasn't as happy. Maybe and something maybe could have happened in his life. Something just could have happened the last week or whatever that just sparked that. But it just made me appreciate every single person who does a job like that so much more than I ever you know could have imagined. Same with trades, same with you know, a lot of things, corrections, you know, all these different perspectives that I've either have friends, family, or myself experienced, man, you you have a different different deeper appreciation for people who live on that side of things, right? Yeah, you know, and I think you can contest to that as well to working in many different fields in your life and different experiences, right? And entrepreneurship's one of those, right?

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Yeah, and you know, I've I've said for years, um because I yeah, high jumped careers and jobs. Um, I mean, I've I've done a honestly a little bit of everything. It it between volunteer work and work and careers and education and pivots and all and and everything. And I think more people need to do that. But you know, our our older generations were so ingrained that you you get a job and you stay there because you have to earn your keep and you have to work the ranks up there and you need to, you know, do this and do that. And again, like we said, back in back in the day, right, that might have worked really, really well. But in today's day and age, I think humans in general have lacked some open-mindedness or some diversity or or are choosing to remain ignorant just because they haven't got out there and and tried different things and different careers. And I I work a lot, much like you, I you know, I work a lot with schools and talk into classrooms about confidence and and doing the things and entrepreneurship. Um, lots of teams, hockey teams, volleyball teams come in. And so these young kids, I tell them quite often, listen, you guys are 16, 17, 18. Um, you know, do you know what you want to be when you grow up? And lots of them put their hand up, and um, the ones that don't, I'm like, just finish school and go get a job. And then when you get really good at that job, go get another job. And if you still haven't figured out what you want to be, try something else. Like, go and try and dabble different things. And if you're not happy where you are, change it.

SPEAKER_01 20:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

And and and that's um, if more people did that, I think um um we'd have a lot less ignorance in the world. I'll tell you, I'll tell you that much, right? Because like I think every person in the world should have to work as uh in a restaurant. Um as someone who's bartended, cooked, uh, you know, waitress, and I still waitress part-time actually, um, because again, I love it, and it it, you know, it very much appeases my ADHD to be around for eight hours, right? Um, and I think every single person on the planet should have to go do that because it literally gives you every foundational skill you'll ever need in any career. Time management, cleanliness, uh, personability, uh adapting to the client in front of you, communication skills, uh working as a team. I mean, literally the service industry is the industry that can set up anybody for any career that they want. And I 100% agree everyone should get into that at at least at one point in their life.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

Yeah, no, I agree. I think there there would be a lot more patience with other human beings if people did a little bit of everything what other people are doing. Because a lot of times people get upset because they see things through their own eyes, their own narratives. Um, and I've I've mistakenly done that by accident, right?

SPEAKER_00 21:35

We all have. We all have, and we'll do it again, and we'll do it again.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Yeah, we know what we know and we don't know what we don't know, right? Exactly. Yeah, okay. And once again, Des, this is why we get round two today and yesterday didn't work. So I'd like to know what are some of the plans for the studio moving forward?

SPEAKER_00 21:57

Okay, so um again, a Little bit of context from our past is I started just me and uh 18 spin bikes, and uh I had no method, I had no nothing. It was a speaker, I threw a rope light on the floor of a dance studio, and I hauled my bikes in, and that's how we started. Um then I built my first brick and mortar uh sept uh sorry, we opened November of 2018 in our first location. We outgrew that space like literally immediately. Um, and then a bunch of other issues arose that were not supposed to arise. So again, right out the gate, learning lessons, um, you know, the hard way. Uh then we moved into the location we're in now, um, October of 2019, and then March of 2020, we got shut down. So I had actually built two separate brick and mortar locations uh in under 14 months and then got shut down for COVID. So you want to talk about startup debt and then panic when you have no income coming in. Um fast forward now, um, you know, a handful of years here. We have our new baseline post-COVID. Um, you know, for anybody out there listening who's like, ah, we're sick of hearing about COVID. Well, a small business are still struggling because of it. I'm actually still down 28% when it comes to attendance and revenue in my business post-COVID. Um, there's a lot of reasons for that, I think, but to try to navigate a bigger space with less revenue has been quite the adventure. Um, but now we've diversified so much that we started out as just a spin class and now we're doing uh I do personal training, I do team training, we do strength classes, um, we do a ton of workshops, we I mean, we've just diversified like crazy. So in the space I'm in, I had built it as just a spin studio, and now I'm actually doing renovations as we speak to blow out some walls and redo our floor plan a little bit and expand, get some new equipment, um, you know, upgrade the equipment, upgrade the aesthetic, um, you know, and just try to elevate the brand to the next level. Um, you may have noticed on Instagram, uh, or maybe you haven't, I don't I did it very quietly. Um, but I swapped out our logos actually a few months ago um to just rebrand that we're not the spin studio anymore, we're the studio, um, and and I'd like our identity to become training facility. So we kind of um offer a little bit of everything. Um, and as I'm sure you've experienced, to kind of pivot a whole brand from one identity to another takes a lot of time and a lot of energy and a lot of small pivots that will equate into a big change later on. So we're right in the heat of it. Uh, you know, I've already blown out a wall and um I'll be moving my desk and I've got my wish list of equipment that I want. Um so lots of pivots coming. Taking taking my brand and the business, uh, you know, elevating it, um, you know, making it look a little prettier. When I first opened, um I think a lot of people get really hung up on aesthetic. Um, and they think it needs to look nice before it feels good. Whereas I did the other way around. I wanted to perfect our service and what we were offering, and now it's time to make it look pretty. So um I kind of did things a little bit, you know, backwards or sideways, or or whatever you want to call it compared to a lot of other people. Um, but now I'm so confident in our service and what we do that I'm literally not threatened by anybody. Like I'm really not. I I know that maybe comes across really cocky, but I I I'm just so confident in what we do and how we do it, and my team that I've built, that I'm really not threatened about any competition coming in for us because we're just that good.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

I don't think that's cocky. I think that's confident in your ability and somebody who has survived what we have survived over the last six, seven, eight years of life when it comes to the economy ups and downs and everything else, the external forces in life. Um, I think there's just a confidence level that gains from going through a lot of those situations. So I don't think that's cocky. I think that's the ability of growing the confidence of being able to weather the storm that you've had to weather over the last few years.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 26:21

And I honestly do understand about the subtle shifts that come across that maybe 10,000, a thousand people don't see, but it's small incremental shifts in the direction that you want to go. And that also calls for that adaptability and that pivot, you know, that you need to make from time to time with because the world is shifting always as we were talking off camera, that it's constantly changing with all the technology and everything that's happening. But I will be the first to say that I did attend one of your studio classes years ago now at this point, and I don't think it was not pretty back then. I think you had a lot of cool stuff back then. So a little vote of confidence for yourself on that end too, just so you know. But when it comes to like shifting things, I yeah, nail in the head. Like you have to do that. You either shift and adapt as time goes on with things that need to shift and adapt, or you basically go away and doing what you're doing. And I've yeah, I've learned that because my brand started, you know, nine years ago out of the trunk of my car. Then I realized I want to shift to speaking, and now the brand is just what it is. Now the speaking is everything that I want, and the coaching is that what I want, right? So that wasn't the first dream in the first place, but it became the dream, and that's what you're doing as well with everything. I'm gonna have to go take a look at Instagram because I haven't been on there in a minute. I'm I'm looking forward to seeing it, but uh, I think that is uh a great pivot and great shift from what I know in in the business world, you know, personal fitness and exercise. Like we were chatting on yesterday's conversations podcast that will never be seen or heard. Um it's one of the best things a human being can do for their mental health. I shared yesterday with you um that I know when I'm not physically taking care of myself for two or three days, I'm not the same person as I was two or three days ago when I was physically active for the three days leading up to that, or whatever it is, right? And we talked about how it is literally, you know, you take care of yourself physically, and even if you're going through a rough time, you know, say mentally, spiritually, whatever it is, you are in a better shape, better place in your life because you took care of yourself physically, which affects everything else that we do in our lives, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Exactly, exactly. And and and like I had said yesterday as well, is I love the gym exactly for that reason because it teaches you to be adaptable and it teaches you to fail. And you know, what I tell my clients all the time is hello, uh, working out, exercise, group fitness, the gym, whatever you want to call it, or whatever niche or identity that you know want to put that under, at the end of the day, fitness is failure. That's it. That that's literally the goal is to come in, start a fitness program, figure out where your failure points are, work towards those failure points, achieve those points, and then increase the difficulty and find the failure point again. So fitness is failure. And and within the gym, and whether it's a spin class or a one-on-one or strength or powerlifting or high rocks or crossfit or Pilates or whatever the hell anybody wants to do out there, is stop being so afraid to fail in the gym. That's the point of the gym. And then not only that, get really good at embracing failure in the gym because that's going to condition your mind and your body and your emotions to embrace failure in other places. And I think failure has become this like scary thing that, like, I don't know what happened to our generation and why we're so scared to fail. Like, heaven forbid we admit, ah, I fucked up, sorry, or oh, I failed, sorry, or ooh, this career didn't work for me. Oh, I'm such a failure. Like, when did this get such a negative connotation to it? Like, it just seems cra isn't that the whole point of life is to just trash it and fail at it, or or and then get better? Like, and and and that's I think one of the reasons why I've really, really, really fallen in love with the industry that is fitness, is because it's literally just all about pivoting and adapting forever.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Yeah. No, I do love that, and I agree with you. Anything that a human being does the first time, chances are it's not gonna be pretty. And that's okay, it's meant to not be pretty.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

I think it's the people who want to do stuff over and over again, knowing that it's gonna take some time to get to know it, get better at it, are the ones who are gonna do something good with it eventually. And it's not gonna be right away. Yeah. Most people are the not right away type of person, and that's okay. That's I think that's what it's meant to be. Anyone who does something one and you're just incredible at it, I applaud you. I I I'm so happy for you because that's never never been my case scenario in my life. And I everything I've ever done. Everything I've ever done, I multiple have multiple hiccups, screw-ups right off the bat.

SPEAKER_02 31:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 31:28

And but you you learn, you pivot, you shift, you get better as time goes on. You take a little percentage of what you did didn't do the greatest last time, and you move it and you put it to what you want to do next time. I think that's the ultimate life journey of some D, right? I think Totally. Yeah. I I love the quote that progress over perfection. Yes. You know, that's one of my favorite quotes. And because I think honestly, if you try and live your life as always trying to be perfect, you're gonna let yourself down, I think, time to time, and it's gonna be hard to get back up again. I'm not saying it's not a good goal to reach for, like, you know, reach for greatness. But at the same time, it's okay to reach for just good enough at this time being, and then grow into that greatness.

SPEAKER_00 32:14

Yes. I had a really good chat with a friend uh a few months ago, and I had made the statement that perfect doesn't exist. Perfect doesn't perfect is subjective, which means it doesn't exist as a definitive statement. So, and he said, Well, what are you talking about? Well, what about this being perfect? I said, Well, that's perfect in your eyes, yeah, but I don't like red roses, I like tiger lilies, so red roses are never going to be perfect in in my eyes, right? Um, you know, or you you see a beautiful lady walking down the street, and oh my god, she's perfect. Well, maybe to you, but but to me, I have different tastes. And so the this this striving and this pursuit for perfection, um while also being so fearful of failing is just a cycle that that is I I mean that mentality is literally setting you up for failure um because you're you're you're not willing to open your mind to go, hey, it's okay if I don't get it the first time, but I'll get it the second time or the third time, right? Um another thing that I always like to tell my clients too is I I really don't like the statement um fake it till you make it. I I just I really don't like it because my per my perspective on that is if you fake it till you make it, once you make it, you will not believe that you've made it because you've been faking it the whole time. That's not you, right? If you're faking it, that's not you. So by the time you do achieve it, I I still think the mentality is that you didn't achieve it because you were pretending you were somebody else to get there. What I like to tell my clients is practice until you are. Because it's you're gonna have to practice this over and over and over and over again. But with more practice and it becoming more of a habit and it becoming more of a habit, then becomes more of your identity, that means you've made it. And so just a little shift in verbiage and things like that, uh, that's a big one that I work with a lot. Um, and practice also uh openly implies that it's not going to be perfect because you need to practice it first, right? So a little shift in that I've found a lot of people go, oh, right, so it's okay if I'm not good at it at the beginning because I'll get good if I keep doing this. Right? So little shifts like that. Um, you know, like you said, you know, you get that saying or that phrase or that whatever that kind of sticks with you. Um, and that's one that I use a lot with my clients for that purpose, is hey, it's gonna be okay. Like, let's give it a try, and it's gonna be okay if you don't make it there today.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

So Yeah, I I've had some conversations with people that have really had some cool ideas and you know, of creating different things in their life, but they say it's not ready yet, or something's not ready. And my heart does like ache for a lot of those conversations I've had because I'll tell you right now, everything I've personally I've done has never been ready right off the bat. I know everything I've ever done has not been ready right off the bat, but you have to just simply start somewhere, right? It's always just a natural progression. If you ever look at like some of the biggest, like you know, corporate Coca-Cola Pepsi brands out there in the world, their logo, like I I used to watch like different things of you know, logos, how they transferred from year to year, year to year. They have had you know 20, 30 different logos in a lot of these companies that have been around for like 50, 100 years, and there's never like one that has just stayed. Everything has evolved, everything's shifted, everything's changed. I remember hearing, I think it was an Amazon um you know, talk that somebody was giving about Amazon, how they were building a factory or like a warehouse, and before they even had their blueprints finished, they started breaking ground. So they started building the factory or warehouse before the blueprints were even fully written out. And and for me, that's like there's a little anxiety there because that's like millions of dollars. But they just knew like we gotta start, we gotta start somewhere. I mean, take it for you what you want. I mean, if you have that kind of fallback like Amazon might have, you know, if things don't go that great, you can still recover very quickly, but it just kind of goes to show you like companies like that still believe in doing a process like that. And now I'm not saying just throw out stuff that's garbage, you know, in the world.

SPEAKER_00 36:53

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 36:54

But I mean, you know, take thought, take consideration, take you know, maybe feedback and regroup and then do it again, do it again, do it again, maybe then release it, you know. Wow. Um, I think that's a great way to kind of live your life moving forward on that with anything really in life.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

100% anything. It's it's and again, if you're looking at failures, challenges, um, you know, mistakes, you know, whatever you want to call it, like you said, is that's just data collection. Yes. And you need data to adapt and pivot. Well, you can't get data unless you try, and then you collect that, you adapt, you pivot, and you try again. And then if it, you know, and and it's up to the person, how many times are you gonna try? I mean, that's up to an i you know, each individual person. Because again, like you said, sometimes things just fail. Sometimes they just don't work. Sometimes the concept is, you know, you realize it was shit all the whole time. But again, until you go out there and try, you're never going to know. Um, and I don't know what happens in adults because we don't tell kids not to try. When kids are young, we're like, well, do you want to play soccer? Well, I don't know. Okay, well, let's go try it and see if you like it. Right? Oh, well, I don't like soccer. Can I try softball? Yep, let's go try that. And then all of a sudden, it's like what? We get out of high school and we forget that we can literally just try stuff. Like we can just do it, and I don't know where that pivot happens, but more adults definitely need to get out there and just take a chance. And and it doesn't need to be with business, it doesn't need to be a million-dollar Amazon thing. It can literally be like, oh, I've never I've never painted a wall before. Okay, well, I'm gonna give it a try. I mean, I mean, it can really be that simple. It's just all the mindset of going, eh, I'll give it a go, and if it doesn't work, I'll hire a pro and come do it. Okay, well, like it's it's in the grand scheme of life. If if your biggest fear is failing at taking a chance, I mean life is pretty fucking good.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

Yeah. That's definitely a perspective thing. I mean, you know, I think we need a little failure in our lives. It it humbles us, it keeps us grounded. You know, I definitely know how I feel after failing something. I'm like, uh it's not always a great feeling, but that feeling goes away. Right. I mean, yeah, I don't know how many things we can account to. Like, I've I can easily say there I everything in my life I've never been great at right off the bat. Like everything in my life. Yes. Whether it's business, friendships, relationships, uh, art, music, just anything in life. Never have I been somebody who has just been natural at anything, and I'm okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:36

But I also know that for me it might take a few times doing something to get the hang of something, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

Totally, totally.

SPEAKER_03 39:43

Yeah, so let's see where we're else here. I want to ask you, Des, what is one of the strongest leadership traits that has helped you in the studio to this point? I mean, we just chatted a good few 15-20 minutes about something pretty amazing. Uh is there another one that you have on mind?

SPEAKER_00 40:00

Um, yeah, uh admitting when I fuck up, um, I'm getting good at it. I honestly, it's it's it's again a thing a thing that humans, for whatever reason, that scares the ever-living shit out of so many people. Um and even when it comes to customer service, like like if a customer comes at you and says, Um, well, you were supposed you told me you, you know, um, am I still on your personal training wait list? And I go, Fuck, I forgot to put her on the wait list, you know, whatever. And and literally me going, ah, shit. Uh, yeah, I'll be in touch with you, you're on the list, you know, and correct the mistake, but being able to say, ah, I fucked up. Um, and I have learned that when you can own that and then take the behavior and correct it, yeah, you will get more respect from everybody around you than if you try to lie and cover it up because the truth will always come out. Um and and being able to say, I don't know, or I fucked up are two skills that I think every single person who wants to get into leadership uh needs to do. Um and I think people also need to remember that your job title and your status does not mean you're a leader. Leadership takes it it's it's not a title, it's not a manager, it's not a supervisor, it's not the CEO, it's not the boss. The best, some of the best leaders that I have ever met have been ground level employees, um, you know, for lack of better description, basically. But um leadership is is leading with integrity, with morals, um, you know, admitting knowing you're not perfect, but doing the best you can anyway. Um and if anybody's gonna get into a leadership position, those those are skills that that that you have to have, I think.

SPEAKER_03 42:03

Yeah, I would agree. I think it would be fantastic when a leader is in a role of people that they can admit, you know, sometimes that they might not make the best choices and decisions. When you kind of try and rule by an iron fist or like this is my level, this is your level, that's not a great, great way of doing things. The CEO should be able to pick up a broom and mop if they need to. Yeah. I do love that. Let's see. I want to know what's a quote or life lesson that someone has shared with you in the past that has made a big difference in your life, Des.

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Um, again, I didn't have a good answer for you yesterday on this either. So you think I would have done my due diligence knowing round two was coming, but yeah, round two. Um you know what? I again, like I said yesterday, it there's not one thing, it's more of a practice uh of being self-responsible, is is the biggest lesson uh of you know learned over the last even decade, let's say, is just being really responsible that your life is your responsibility. It's not my husband's responsibility to make me happy, it's my responsibility to keep me happy. It's not the government's job to keep me healthy, it's my job to keep me healthy. It's not my neighbor's job to take care of my house, it's my job to take care of my house. Um and I and I I I just think self-awareness and self-responsibility go hand in hand, and I think more people need to practice these things. Um, because again, and it just comes back to being able to fail, being able to say you made a mistake, um, and and like everything's going to be okay. You know, um and and just being able to say my life you might be your own problem. It's real easy to say, well, you made me feel this way. No, I'm allowing you to control my emotions, right? That that's responsibility to me. And and that that's something I've really had to practice over the years because I think humans have gotten very emotionally reactive because we take everything personally. And it's like like you said, with the angry uh customer when you were um serving him. He could have lost a loved one the day before. Does that give him the right to treat you like shit? Absolutely not. But can you still hold yourself responsible to act within your integrity and your morals and your responsibility to you? Just because you're treated like shit doesn't mean you need to treat them like shit, right? My mom growing up, the number one rule in our house was treat everyone with dignity and respect. End of story. Like, like just right, go out there and be a decent human being. Um, I've taken that concept and said, do whatever you want in life, just don't be a dick. That's that's my you know life motto. So you want to be tall, short, gay, straight, uh, you're black, purple, uh, pink with yellow polka dots. I don't, I don't care. Just don't be a dick. Like it's really that simple.

SPEAKER_03 45:13

That that's a good quote to live by. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

Right.

SPEAKER_03 45:17

But I yeah, I think living to your own responsibility in this life for your own happiness, your own well-being, your own, you know, health being, spirit, mental health, everything. We have to take care of ourselves because if we don't take care of ourselves, we can't take care of other responsibilities that we have to take care of.

SPEAKER_01 45:37

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 45:37

And it definitely does start with ourselves, you know, not in a selfish way or arrogant way or a cocky way, but you can't help anybody if you can't help yourself at that time being in life. And I've I've came short of that multiple times in my life, you know. Life can be great for multiple years, and then we go through a little dip, and that's okay. That dip taught us something, but it's time to come back up out of it. And you know, quite frankly, I told you yesterday I was just coming out of one of those dips, and that's okay. That dip taught me a few things, and now I'm gonna use it for that data collection, and now we're moving forward, and now we get round to today to have this conversation, right? Exactly. Yeah, uh I think one of the best things a human being can do is take responsibility for what they want their life to look like. Yes, whatever that plain simply means in their world, that's up to them, right?

SPEAKER_00 46:30

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 46:31

Yeah, not everyone's gonna do it.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

You know, there's a baseline for life, right? Like we we go to elementary school, we go to high school, we go to post-secondary, we get out of that, we get a career, we meet someone, we fall in love, we get married, we have kids, we work 25 to 30 years, we retire and we die. I mean, there is the baseline of being a human being, right? Um, I I think I think life does need to have a baseline because that gives us um, you know, you know, ups and downs to work off of that. But just because that's the baseline doesn't mean that you have to follow that. And and and you and me both, you know, dove into the entrepreneurial world um, you know, later than most of our friends who were out there uh, you know, just getting really comfortable with a decade into their career, while me and you were going, eh, that didn't really work out for me, so I'm gonna go try this instead. And I'm sure you had a lot of people who called you fucking crazy too of like, you're gonna leave stability, you're gonna do, oh my God, don't do it. Like, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. Um, but but I wanted to create a life that I was really proud of um and that gave me purpose, and that was my job to do for me, and that's exactly what I did. Um, and again, not without hurdles and not without challenges, and not without um days where you second guess everything you've done. Um, but at the end of the day, it was on me. And and and I think more people need to take that responsibility for themselves for sure.

SPEAKER_03 48:05

Yeah, no, I I agree, and that is what works best for us. Doesn't work best for everybody else, right? Some people work best that nine to five, that's you know, going to college, going to get a job after with that college degree. All of that beautifulness, that is great for those people who find that's their path. I know myself, I've always been chaotic, I've always been rambunctious, I've always been a person that wanted to talk in classrooms, I've always been that person. I've always been a person when life was going somewhat good, I would go and disrupt it because I want to get wild and do whatever else I wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 48:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:43

Now that works for me. Doesn't always work for everyone else. Um, but yeah, I the stability thing, I definitely remember hearing. So when I told people I wanted to open up my store, this was you know six plus years ago now, 2019. So 2019, October is when I kind of got actually things almost up and running. I remember working at a youth care job before that. And I was working as an educated assistant and also like a part-time casual worker, so I could pick up shifts as much as I wanted, and so there's a lot of times where weeks I'd pick up like eight, ten shifts in two weeks, and I'd work crazy hours, and then there's some weeks I wouldn't, but it's because I would want to focus on other stuff. And I remember a lovely person I used to work with, a co-worker at that time. I told her I was putting in my two weeks at this job because I'm gonna go do this. And she said, You don't want to keep your casual position, just like even you know, if you need 200 bucks here or there, 150 bucks here and there, working, you know, 10, 12 hour days here and there, and like, are you gonna work on this every day? I was like, I'm gonna try to. Yeah. And she's like, Really? You're just gonna go for it. I said, Yep, yeah. If I if I burn, I burn. That's what I told her. I remember telling her, I am taking everything that I accumulated in my retirement savings at this time. I remember going in my mother's basement and grabbing a basketball that I haven't played with basket or like shot a basket in like 10 years with it. So I was like, I'm gonna put this on marketplace and sell this basketball. And like I looked at everything in life at that time like that. And if it didn't work out, it didn't work out. I just remember seeing that person's eyes, and she couldn't believe that this is what I was gonna do. See, I don't always recommend that train of thought for everybody, it worked out for what I wanted. Yeah, I'm not saying if you have multiple kids or you know, house mortgage, you know, everything that people have in life and debt, whatever it is, that isn't necessarily the safest or the smartest path. But for me, that's what I wanted to take. And I remember taking uh an online virtual session with uh Tony Robbins like five years ago. And one of the things that has always stuck with me and has always stayed with me because it resonated so hard, is that every single human being has a different value that they that they prioritize, right? And some people love the stability of the nine to five two weeks, every two weeks you get a paycheck. You know what your retirement is after 25 years of doing this, and some people love variety. Yeah, I think we're part of the variety group. 100%, yeah, and I think that works for us, right? But it's not for everybody. I mean, I feel myself personally, I think this is one of the things I do for my own addiction, you know, recovery things, is I work on entrepreneurship. It's always a little bit of anxiousness, a little bit of not knowing, but that is almost like fulfilling for me in my life. And personally, that helps me. Now I've been clean off of hard drugs for years, but entrepreneurship was a big part of that and doing it full time because now I I have no desire to feed those other urges because entrepreneurship gives me quite frankly the chaos that I needed in my life for me to be normal.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

It gives you the dopamine that you want, man. I get it, I get it. Yeah, a hundred percent. And yeah, I don't blame, I don't blame anyone for wanting to do the baseline nine to five, uh, you know, or or nursing or corrections or or teaching or or any of that. That that is a hundred percent I agree with you. That's the smart way. Like it really is. It's there's nothing wrong with stability, and there's nothing wrong with having a paycheck and the support and the retirement and all the things. Um, and you know, like I always say to people, is that is totally cool if that's what you want. If you don't want that, well then just know that you're signing up for another side of things that's gonna have all these other things. So if you're ready to pivot, adapt, fail, learn, collect data, and carry on, then take the risk on yourself. And if not, yeah, go to school, become a lawyer, go work at Tim Hortons, go work at 7-Eleven, go work at Subway, go be a police officer, whatever fires you up, go and do it. My big thing is find that thing that fires you up and gives you purpose because that is what's gonna keep you the longevity of not only your stability, but your health, right? Like we humans need to feel purpose and connection, and so we need to find what fires us up in those world in those worlds. Because I was the girl who chased money. I chased the paycheck. I didn't care what the job was, I just wanted a good paycheck, had it, you know, um, you know, in corrections with overtime. Um I I could have I could have done 100k a year, I could have done six figures. Um now I make nowhere near that, I'll tell you that much. Um, but I'm way more happier, I'm way more healthier. I love who I am today. I love who I am today. Um, and and much like yourself, had my own issues of the party girl back in the day, right? Um so it's just finding that thing, whatever it is, whatever it is that fires you up, do that thing more. And that's that's my big thing. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 54:14

Yeah, I think that's a great, great way to, you know, almost wrap up our conversation. Right. People have to find what fires them up. And you know what? I think a person doesn't have to necessarily do it full time. You know, a person can do it very, very minimal. You know, if you have one hour a week to do something that you enjoy, that you appreciate, that you love, find that one hour a week to do it. Yes. I feel like that can be more fulfilling than a lot of people understand sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 54:42

A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

Yeah, but we also have to find the right path that's gonna work for you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We chatted, I think, yesterday, maybe with this podcast, I can't remember exactly, but you know, people who have that, you know, that regular pension that uh 25 years in and they have that retirement. Uh you know, I have buddies that just love that. They look forward to that 25 years and they know what's gonna happen. And I'm like, what are we doing next week? I have this event two weeks from now, three weeks from now, okay, and then we'll figure it out from there.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

Everyone's gotta find their place in this world.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

That's right.

SPEAKER_03 55:17

Yeah. Well, Des, this has been round two of our podcast. You guys! Yeah, you guys only get to hear this version of it. We had a great conversation yesterday, but I want to thank you, Des for opening up. Not only putting one hour away for me and whoever listens to this, but two hours. I got you.

SPEAKER_02 55:38

I got you, son.

SPEAKER_03 55:40

We got to have some great conversations, and I've been able to say this on a lot of the podcasts that I've had over the last, you know, only few months of doing this. That I think a lot of people are gonna grab a lot of value from our conversation today. So thanks, Des. I've been really, really thankful to have this conversation with you today.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Awesome, bud. Uh, feeling is mutual. So, like I said yesterday, let's not wait five years to to connect again. We can do it again sooner than later, and uh always down to be a guest on on your show here.

SPEAKER_03 56:12

So I like the hand signals there that you did. Yeah. For sure. Well, thanks, Daz. I it's uh it's definitely we'll do another one in the future for sure. But uh for everyone that is going to be listening to this podcast, thank you so much for the love and support that you have given this, whether it's on Spotify, Apple, you know, YouTube. There's over 600 watched hours on YouTube, which is incredible. Only you know, under 20 episodes that we've done so far, over 500 downloads on you know Spotify and Apple Music and stuff like that. So that's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 56:47

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 56:47

Um, I've had some amazing conversations of people text me. I really like this conversation with this person because of this, and this is gonna be one of those podcasts that people grab value from. So, Des, thank you. And for everyone who's gonna listen or watch this podcast, thank you for giving us two of the most precious resources another human being can give to another human being. And that is your time and energy. Okay, thanks everybody.