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Jason Hadeed: So we could water it down maybe a little bit based on where the fitness level is but I just thought that training like an athlete was always something that former athletes wanted to continue to do and I always use – I don’t – I’m a Nike guy but Under Armour did very well early on. They were marketing football, football, football, football and they still captured the fitness market, the female market and eventually came to start marketing specifically to those markets but they’re obviously operating on a larger scale. But the concept was everybody wanted to affiliate with that cuff, that brand that Under Armour was developing locally.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Oh, yes. I mean that’s really one of the other things I wanted to ask you about. It seems like as a trainer, you kind of have these two faces. Like on the one side, you’re dealing with the strength, the power and the speed of the NFL athletes and that brutal sport. I mean it doesn’t get any more intense than that and then on the other side, you might be training a housewife. It might be a very fit housewife but it might be someone that is not in that type of situation at all.
Now what’s the core relation? I know you went into a little bit but is it from really a financial perspective or – I mean what’s the reason why you still serve those two such different markets?
Jason Hadeed: Well, I kind of go back on – we really don’t deal with many NFL players. Our market really is high school, college. We will get the occasional free agent.
Kaiser Serajuddin: No. But I mean it’s still – I mean like you said on the high school level, it can just get just as intense as …
Jason Hadeed: Yes, it is and …
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes, yes.
Jason Hadeed: But as far as the reasoning for dealing with the general pop, one, for my mental stability. I’m dealing with young guys all the time and gals and I don’t want to talk about Eminem and my face or my book, whatever, MySpace. But that just seems to be the common theme.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes.
Jason Hadeed: Although there is [0:02:01] [Phonetic] a lot of talking. I can learn a lot. I have some very special clients. Some of them are lawyers or doctors or accountants and you can kind of get some good advice and on the flipside, developing a business like we have here. I’m very honored. Sometimes I’m offering my advice to them but also what I like to see too, these people have the same needs. The performance criteria is different but it’s still performance needs to life and they’re very serious when they come on because they understand the type of trainers we are.
We’re not going to hold your water bottle. We’re not going to fill it up. We’re not going to go get your dumbbells for you because you are here for your workout. It is manual labor and I think some people do like that. I think also the type of trainers we are, people want to associate with us, knock on wood. And not to be arrogant but I think we’re very blue collar on our approach. There’s nothing fancy about it and I think people like that. We work you hard and if you’re going to come in twice a week, you’re going to get two hours of quality training.
Kaiser Serajuddin: OK. All right. I’m starting to see how the two fit. Now besides growing EATS, I know you held a training conference recently and you speak at a lot of them and you’re all over the media both for training athletes and the general pop. Now what do you see yourself doing in the future? Where are you going next?
Jason Hadeed: Really what I want to do is continue to maintain the company where it is. My intentions for the company, which have changed – one of the things that happened recently, I bought out my business partner and our vision became distinctly separate. My goal is to keep it small, what I like to call boutique size and not grow too large but maintain the highest level of quality control.
I do think that maybe national camps for combine prep or football prep could be in the future but ultimately, making sure that the staff really makes the company what it is today. I think I just kind of lead them in the right direction by making sure that they’re happy, that they have [0:04:09] [Indiscernible] and they’re getting paid and they’re getting [Indiscernible] and hopefully they’re on a platform that I’m on now for media exposure and doing the things that they want to do and satisfying their goals. That’s what’s important to me for my company because my staff is really my family, my extended family and my goal is to make sure that they are taken care of and we are all moving in the same direction.
As far as me personally, I would love to see more movement and more branding opportunities with Nike. That’s obviously one of my jobs is to make sure that – especially in the football market, that that is being taken care of locally and then other than that, speaking engagements, good speaking engagements; not ones you have to speak.
I just don’t – I don’t want to go anywhere just to get paid because ultimately I have to be back here to develop my athletes, which is one of the bigger mistakes I see with trainers as they become successful. They tend to lose sight of what got them there and that’s our client and athletes and then they go on to other things and the athletes and clients here aren’t being taken care of and so eventually that [Indiscernible] end up where they started from.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes. No, that’s totally true. You still always have to keep that integrity to the core business, don’t you?
Jason Hadeed: Absolutely. And one of the things I often tell trainers and – especially there are a lot of trainers that do a lot of presentations and [0:05:31] [Indiscernible] presentations and I call them frauds. Because how can you talk about something you’re not doing?
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes.
Jason Hadeed: And that’s where the Mike Boyles will come into play. Not everybody may agree on how he does it but he does it.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes.
Jason Hadeed: He speaks and he trains.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes. No, absolutely. I mean yes, I just want to finish off Jason. Yes. I mean when it comes to being a Super-Trainer, you pretty much do it all. You can’t get a – I mean really anymore widespread than that with the speaking engagements, with the professional work you’re doing and also I mean you’re doing something you’re passionate about. It must come easy at times, doesn’t it?
Jason Hadeed: Yes. I mean [0:06:07] [Indiscernible] passion about something. Yes, it does come easy. I think one of the bigger problems for me is knowing when to stop at the end of the day.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes.
Jason Hadeed: And go home and sit with the kids. I think it’s like any coach. You’re always looking for something better to take your athletes to the next level but it is. It’s [Indiscernible] completely dedicated to them. But at the same time, I think it’s a very blue collar job and our approach is very simple. It’s diligence, consistency and persistence and if you have those three main ingredients, developing an athlete over time shouldn’t be a big problem.
Kaiser Serajuddin: All right. Sounds awesome, Jason. Thanks a lot for spending this time with me and just getting this word out to all the other trainers out there. I think it’s going to be a real big inspiration to everyone listening.
Jason Hadeed: I really appreciate the time and it’s really an honor that you gave me a call and …
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