John’s Blog: Scotland & Toronto

by on November 22, 2015


John-KiltGood day everyone. I hope training is going well and you are demolishing some hard earned post workout pancakes!

I recently was able to travel to Scotland to present and do a 3-day workshop. Now one of the things I was most looking forward to was getting a kilt, as they had one custom made for me! Well here is proof I got it and wore it! HA! You wouldn’t believe how heavy they are, and yes I did it the chicken way and wore underwear.

This was a really cool trip. On the first day I did the usual training lecture in the morning and nutrition lecture in the evening. The next 2 days were nothing but workout brutality. We did legs in the am and arms in the pm on day 2, and then on day 3, we did back in the am (50 sets) and chest and shoulders in the pm. As I expected the campers trained like madmen and madwomen! It was awesome to see so many people just going all out yet doing it with an intelligent plan. I went a little overboard on the sets, but that was done purely to show them as many exercises as I could in the given timeframe.

My hosts, Andy, Dean, Dawn, and Paul from Prep by Pro’s were really good to me. They took a few days and took me sightseeing afterwards as well. Of course we had to go see Edinburgh castle.

Castle

It was amazing how large the castle was and it was neat to envision a village living in there. I also saw a massive canon called Mons Meg. Of course I had to take some pics, as this is a meme dream come true. I’ll be able to slap all kinds of funny memes on this pic.

Mons-Cannon

We also went to the William Wallace monument in Stirling. From the top we could look out and see the battlefield where the battle of Stirling was fought. Check this pic out.

Battlefield

Of course when we got home my wife and I had to watch Braveheart again now that we had seen some related landmarks in Scotland.

All in all it was a fantastic trip and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The group bringing us there, Prep by Pros, was absolutely awesome and I am sure I will do something with them again!

On to Toronto

I also had the recent pleasure of lecturing at the Swis Symposium held in Toronto. It was great for me because some of my biggest mentors were there to hear me speak, Dr Serrano and Dave Tate, as they were presenting as well. I had a standing room only crowd and got a really nice ovation when I was done. What a humbling experience. Dr. Serrano gave me a big hug and said he was proud of me. This really made me weekend.

DaveTate

There were many great presenters here and getting to meet and chat with them was really neat. It was my first opportunity to really chat with the world’s strongest ever IMO, Bill Kazmaier. His lecture was standing room only also and he had some very funny stories he shared about his days in wrestling.

Group-Kazmaier

Being in Toronto I got a chance to hang out with Fouad as well. Fouad and I get along really well, as I appreciate the kind of honest hard working guy he is. We talked a lot about business, and not so much about training. We talked a lot about my plans at some point to do a coffee shop. I was relating to him how I go to places over and over, and once they get to know you, and make you always feel welcome, it really makes you want to come back. The converse side of it when staff isn’t overly friendly, often times you will not come back. We shared stories about places that we know like this, on both sides of the fence. If I do this coffee shop in a few years, I want this place to make people feel so at home, they won’t even think about going somewhere else. I want their experience to be first class, and for them to feel like close friends with the business. Remember that in your business adventures! Treat people like royalty, and they will be loyal. Royalty equals loyalty. Yes I Just made that up.

That’s it or now – talk again soon!

John Meadows