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Kaiser Serajuddin: Kaiser here on another issue of Super-Trainer. This week, I have an unbelievable guest. I may need to retire this series after today because there’s no way to follow this one up. I don’t have to say anything other than the name. Welcome, Mr. Gunnar Peterson.
Gunnar Peterson: Thanks for having me, man. That’s quite an intro. Maybe I will retire now.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes, all right. Well, you’re on the road right now actually. Is that correct? With one of your clients?
Gunnar Peterson: That’s right. I’m on Long Island so I’m working away.
Kaiser Serajuddin: All right. They’ve hired you to go on the road. I mean it must be a pretty big name. Are you allowed to share who you’re training?
Gunnar Peterson: Yes, I’m here with Jennifer Lopez.
Kaiser Serajuddin: I think I heard of her. Cute Puerto Rican girl from New York?
Gunnar Peterson: I don’t think cute is a bit [0:00:50] [Indiscernible]. I think stunning, beautiful, devastating, world-rocking. You can put any of those objectives [Inaudible].
Kaiser Serajuddin: Now, I know who you’re talking about. All right.
Gunnar Peterson: Yes. Glad I was able to jog that memory.
Kaiser Serajuddin: All right. Well, I mean that’s really what you’re known for, as the trainer to the stars, so to speak. Now I don’t think anything happens by accident. So was that a position that you consciously went for and is that one that you continue dominate?
Gunnar Peterson: No. It’s funny it happened. A lot of it is by virtually where I live. I mean I get emails from trainers all around the world. I want to do what you do. I want to train celebrities.
First of all, that’s a little awkward because really if you say you want to train celebrities, I’m not sure what you mean by that. Are you saying you want to become a celebrity yourself and you think that the way to do that is by associating yourself [0:01:42] [Indiscernible]? Are you some star-struck person trapped somewhere outside of a major metropolitan area and this is your way of launching yourself to one of those areas or are you just enamored with the idea of rubbing shoulders with people on a personal level that you only normally see on the [Indiscernible] screen?
I started this by training people. Now [Indiscernible] fitness without being too dramatic and without citing any specific epiphany, fitness turned my life around in a lot of ways and through just regular workout and nutritional choices on a fairly consistent basis and trying to get adequate sleep, I see fitness as improving every aspect of everything I do in my life. So I was into sharing that and if I could have other people catch that buzz, get that jazz, then [Indiscernible]. The celebrities just happened upon me because of where I live.
Kaiser Serajuddin: OK. Oh, yes. I mean, no that’s a really interesting story. I mean that’s – your motivation can’t be just to make the money or train celebrities. It has to be something much deeper than that. Is that right?
Gunnar Peterson: Well, I think if you’re getting into fitness or training and you think that this is the way you’re going to strike it rich and buy your beach house and stuff and retire when you’re 55, I think you’re – two things.
One, I think you’re going into it for the wrong reason and two, I think you’re clinging to the wrong field. As a rule, I would say 85 plus percent of trainers work on an hourly – strictly hourly basis. So depending on how many hours you think you’re capable of working over X amount of years, you can pretty much see your financial ceiling. If you’re looking to parlay that into product design, gym consultation and nutritional [0:03:40] [Indiscernible] while you’re sleeping so you can have an ongoing – create an ongoing revenue stream, that’s a different thing. If you’re just going in to train people, then that’s – I didn’t want to do other things. I wanted to do things where you could get things out to more than just the people that come to you hourly.
Kaiser Serajuddin: Yes. Yes, that’s the next thing I was going to ask you actually. Besides all the clients you see, your business is much more than that. We all know about the Core Secrets exercise series that you did with Guthy-Renker and your best seller, The Workout. Now can you tell me about some of the other business projects you’re involved in?
Gunnar Peterson: There are a number of TV projects that come along again because of where I live. I mean if I were in Sioux Falls or Orlando or Nashville, these things may not come my way but because of where I am and because of who I am directly or indirectly associated with or perceived to be associated with and come my way from a television radio standpoint [0:04:38] [Indiscernible] probably more lucrative but I have walked from some of the projects just because I don’t want to sell out. It’s just like when I did the Core Secrets.
I had probably seven different products that came my way before that. I chose Core Secrets because I believe not only in the product but in the programming that I got to put behind it. As far as a one-muscle part machine you think you’re going to crank away and turn around and truly have a great body, I can’t be associated with that because A, I don’t believe it and B, I’m known for doing the work that goes into the result and not some fly by night or magic bullet.
So the same thing with the TV. If the right thing comes along and it’s something that can be realistic in terms of its approach and something people can maintain over the course of their life as opposed to fix it now and then kick back and [0:05:33] [Indiscernible] and let it all go to [Indiscernible] I will do it but if it’s one of those other things, I can’t step up to that.
Kaiser Serajuddin: OK. Yes, I can definitely feel that. Now you still own a gym. You put in a lot of one-on-one training hours. Is that right?
Gunnar Peterson: Yes, I still do between seven and eight …
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