Next question is from Soforall Training. Did you have any strategies in your personal training business to create efficiency or automation when working with and managing a lot of clients at once? This is a good question because in some ways automation improves your service and your value and in other ways I've seen trainers automate and it reduce the value that they provide clients. So I think it's smart if you want to be a really effective trainer. What I mean by effective is you really change people's lives. You really get them to create a lifelong good relationship with exercise and nutrition. If that's what you want to do, you should automate the business side of what you're doing which is managing their payments, managing when they're paying, they're scheduling, that kind of stuff but never automate their training or their nutrition because then you lose the individualization and you lose the on-the-fly ability to manage and change as people's feelings and attitudes and lifestyle type of change. I've seen trainers automate everything and then it becomes nothing more than just... I've seen a couple different strategies like in order to be more efficient a lot of times they'll end up doing small groups, they'll stack some of their clients together but you have to realize just inevitably your service is going to go down just a bit because you're not hyper-focused on the individual. Now you have a couple people to account for and it might work for a while but it just depends on your business model. Maybe that's part of your business model. Maybe even group training is something you're trying to lead into. I went the other direction. I went in reducing and providing more value and so I started looking at the price point that I was putting out for each client and that became sort of a barrier so that way I could slow down a bit, provide better service and then I got a better result out of my client because there's more buy-in and plus my business flourished. I'd love you to explain how you did it. I love the way you charged your client because the traditional model is clients buy packages of sessions so like 10 sessions for $1,000 or 20 sessions for whatever but you did it so that they paid you monthly, right? Yeah, they paid monthly a flat fee and basically I gave them two options so that way they're either part-time or they're full-time and so this requires them to commit to any of scheduled days that were marked in the calendar that they show up or they don't show up. I'm going to be there and if I'm not there I'm paying them back and I'm pro-rating it or whatever that is but it takes the accountability it puts it back on the client and that way too I can have consistent revenue each month that I can account for. So part-time would be like I pay this much and I can come see you two days a week. It's like two to three times per week versus full-time I was going up with four to five times a week. I think that's really brilliant. So I love this question and there's been like several things in my career that I think I got better at as far as my organization and how do I manage so many you know scaling up on how many clients from 10 to 20 to 30 plus. The best thing that I ever did and it took me along this wasn't even that long ago it was just shortly before mine pumps started did I really get this and the reason why I was able to do this is because we are now this is why I love all the tools and the apps and things like that. Now to Sally's point I agree fully automating some things like that that just they need a personal touch are so important and you may you know you may decrease the value in your service if you try and automate everything but what I used to do as a trainer is I used to do all the legwork the tracking the writing down the you know I was the one doing all that and I flipped that on its head towards the end of my career and I began holding them responsible to deliver all that information to me that was a huge game changer for me as far as time suck it also weeded out the not serious clients if you were not willing to weigh yourself in the morning at night you were not willing to add put your food in your in your food app every single night if you were not willing to track your steps every single day for me and you log all of that information and then deliver it to me then you weren't I wasn't going to train you if you did all those things it made my job extremely easy then I all I had to do was sit down a session a week see where where her weight has gone up or down and what she exactly ate look at her food logs and then we can in one session I could critique that entire week I could educate and teach I can drive the programming from there do I need to increase intensity do I need to lower and modify it do I need to increase steps from there do I need to bump up her calories and she had to do all the tracking for me I didn't do any of it and you bring it to me and then that allowed me to take on way more people than the old version where I'm writing everything down I'm measuring everything I'm weighing and doing all these things I'm the one who's like writing the diets out and the plans out like nah I got away from all that when we talked on the podcast a long time ago I talked about how I used to make clients track their food for a week or two before I would even start their session and that was first to get are you even serious enough to track your food for a week if you're even considering working with me and a lot of people honestly that weeds out like 50% 50% of people won't even and I always know they're not that serious like I'm not even charging you yet and I can't even get you to write out your food for a week and you're telling me you really want to learn and you really want to figure this out like no that client's going to cause is going to be so much work for me to try and help them if they can't even help themselves for the first week so that right there really really help now this this speaks to the experienced trainer who has a lot of value and has the ability to still have a business while weeding people out right now the new trainer might not have that luxury that's I mean that's that's the thing that's why a question like this I like a question like this but you have to understand there's there that's why I met there's when you first started yeah you took every everybody I took every it didn't matter the time become more efficient didn't matter how inconsistent you were I need I need the experience I need to build my book and that's a good thing too right like if you're just getting started as a trainer you don't want to come off as pompous and like oh I only take the serious people I don't know what you're doing yeah you don't know what the fuck you're doing anyways you need practice you need practice you need headaches you need all that bullshit you know like Gary V says each shit for nine years go through all that process for a while then when you get that down then you can start to do things like this where you like Justin moved to a super high class people that are spending top dollar not happened for a while yeah you couldn't do that and you're like everybody for years yeah you're one you can't say oh you can only work with me if you have five or seven grand budget a month like yeah get out of here no not a lot of trainers can do that you got to wait till you figure it out you get the timing you know all the nuances involved and then you you start looking back at what what's going to benefit my business the most how can I structure that how can I get buy-in from you know potential new new prospects and and and then you go from there I do believe though even if you're a new trainer you can move in the direction that I'm talking about you just might be a little more flexible on still taking somebody right so maybe where I'm more of a hard ass from so I'm sorry I'm not even going to take you maybe you still take them and try and move and move them along and you learn from them and they learn from you but you definitely can I mean we have all these tools now it's not that expensive to get something that tracks your steps there is my fitness pal fat secret apps that are super easy to use most everybody has access to like a scale I mean we all can text back and forth so easily so we can now and this wasn't like this 20 years ago 20 years ago we didn't have all this we had binders and files and we had to write everything down like a lot of this stuff can be tracked right in your phone and you should you put a lot of the responsibility because here's the deal well they learn from it and they also have to do this the rest of their life they can do this the rest of their life at one point or another they got to learn to start doing this yeah and what you mean by the rest of your life by the way for listeners like oh my god I have to add my food up every no no no you do for you do at first to learn what's in food after a little while though you can tell what's in the chicken breast and know where you're getting your carbs and you can it just to bring to have a baseline first yeah just you're going to school for a little while that's right yeah my strategy was a little bit different towards the end I similar though right I still took almost anybody who wanted to hire me but if they weren't consistent didn't show up I just took them off the schedule and I tell them that say look here's the deal you missed two workouts it seems like it's real tough for you to show up right now so I'm going to take you off the schedule but you because I have other people I can put I can put in that time you let me know when you're ready to come back and that usually would weed people out or they would start to show up and be a little more consistent the reason why that was my strategy was I tried to meet people where they were because I found that I actually found success when I would get the occasional client who didn't want to do anything else but show up once a week I don't want to do anything else but I'll show up once a week and over time I had a few clients that I did this with over time they came two days a week three days a week did it on their own and then they started to really make those changes but yeah if you're showing those signs of whatever obviously I'm not going to waste my time and so I just say well okay you know I used to do that text them listen you know you missed another workout or 20 minutes late I'm going to take you off the schedule you know let me know I'm going to put someone else there you let me know when you're ready to come back and usually they would come back sometimes they'd never hear from them again in which case you know you're weeding them out


It's 12 o'clock rock here on a given Monday. This is Think Tech. Of course, you knew that. And more than that, this is Marco and me. We're talking about energy here on a Monday. Marco joins us from Hilo, from Provision Solar in Hilo. Hi, Marco. Welcome back to the United States. We have to follow our energy. You know, it's like these national issues tend to, you know, take the 20 top stories in the New York Times, and the New York Times opinions, and the New York Times, you know, what do they say, things you need to know. And local news, you know, falls by the wayside. And there was, in fact, an article in the Civil Beat this morning by Brett Obergard, who is one of our contributors, to remind us that, yes, there is local news and we can't, you know, be completely distracted with the Trump news, which is distracting us. So I'm happy to talk to you, Marco. So let's talk about, let's talk about solar, because solar, you know, has been the big drama, and solar has been the big promise. It's the center of the promise. It's what we think of when we think of moving to 100% by 2045 or 2040, if you like. But solar seems to be in trouble. And that's what I want to talk to you about now. It's in trouble nationally, and worse, it's in trouble locally. What's the trouble? Is this going to, is this immediate effect of this going to affect our ability to do 100% by 2045? Or is it just a blip, you know, it's like this kind of a climate change approach by some people. Oh, it's just a blip, right? Or will it have a profound effect on our goals and reaching them by 2045? This, though, that I don't think we have a plan where you can say, well, this is where it's going to be in 2020, 2025, 2030, and so forth. We don't have a plan. If we had a plan, then we could at least have an aspirational track trajectory of where we're going. But without a plan, I agree with you that predicting is very nigh impossible. So I guess if we had a plan and then we did reality tests on each one of the steps in the plan, we'd be in a better spot. Still wouldn't be certain, big cone of uncertainty for the lengthy period involved. But, you know, we'd be spotting more issues, we'd be spotting more risks, we'd be factoring in more, you know, more of the realities, and we could make better prognostication. What do you think? I mean, is this going to drive government and the, you know, energy industry to make a plan? Right now that is only a proposed plan. That is not an approved plan. That's not being implemented or executed. It is merely what they wish to be the plan. Right? The thing is, this may be wishful thinking and not likely of success. I mean, do you feel these things can be achieved? And does the plan provide for ways in which they can be achieved? Not a single one has been agreed on. Not a single one has been actually in place, approved and implemented as once, okay, this plan was approved. I mean, I'm not particularly optimistic after all the years and years and all the efforts and opinions and meetings and, you know, that we have had without a plan. But let's assume it's approved and let's assume that we are ambitious and we want to sort of a 25 percent increase in the next five years across the board. I mean, by that time, you know, it's likely that a lot of people in the solar installation industry will be out of that business and we will not have the juggernaut we had a couple three years ago of solar installers who can put solar on a roof and while you watch, we won't have anybody with the, you know, who is in business or with the skill and the resources to do solar. And my question to you is assuming that be the case and it's happening, you know, it's devolving right now, that industry as you know is devolving right now. Assuming that we get to a plan which says, let's go for 25 percent next five years, how will we achieve that without an industry? We need to take draconian steps to rebuild an industry that has been mortally wounded, you know? Cliffhangers and on that note, we can take a short break, Marco, and we'll come back in a minute and we'll talk about the solution to all of that and there are solutions. Be optimistic. You'll see. We're going to take a short break now. Aloha, Howard Wigg. I am the proud host of Code Green Think Tech Hawaii. I appear every other Monday at three in the afternoon. Do not tune in in the morning. My topic is energy efficiency. It sounds dry as heck, but it's not. We're paying five billion dollars a year for imported oil. My job is to shave that, shave that, shave that down in homes and buildings while delivering better comfort, better light, better air conditioning, better everything. So if you're interested in your future, you'd better tune in to me. Three o'clock every other Monday, Code Green Aloha, and thank you very much. We're Think Tech, we're Marco and me on Monday talking about energy and we're talking about the health of the solar industry and the intersection between that and an incipient plan, a putative plan if you will, to have a dramatic increase in rooftop solar over the next five years. And so the question I put to you is what happens if the solar industry, the solar installation industry is wounded and right now it is already wounded? And one answer I want to throw at you is a possibility, Marco, is that we can do this if we really attend to it. In other words, if we say we're going to do this, we're going to have 25% increase across the board and we will do what it takes. What does it take? Well, it takes a tax credit. We go back to that. It takes incentives of one kind or another. It takes financing arrangements and I don't mean gems because that's not, in my view, not a viable financing arrangement to get this done. And whatever else. And if we focus on it, then the industry will come back, don't you think? We really don't want the state to get in business because the state can never do business as well as business can do business. And where did I see recently an article about gems, about how the really minimal amount of loans they made were to insiders, oh, that just makes it much worse. So you wouldn't use gems and you wouldn't have the state get in business. You try to incentivize business. You try to incentivize the people who would do installer companies. And that means that, to me, that's the challenge. We can make all the goals we want. It's all aspirational until we figure out how to get people to do those things. And we haven't done that yet. Now is the time for us to be thinking about that. That should be an inherent part of any plan, how are we going to get it done. And that means the legislature has to act. And it has to find creative ways to act. But looking at it on the flip side, yeah, it's not going to be disruptive. But if we don't do it, I think we'll have disruption on the downside. Because this project will not get off the ground unless we provide some kind of incentive. And for the lack of incentives on batteries, when they're going to have batteries. And without batteries, I think we've taken all the low-hanging fruit. It's not going to grow at 25% in five years. So I'm a little worried. And I hope the chairs get together and make a deal here and push that legislation through. It's not only the tax credit for the batteries. It's also, it's iconic. It's a statement. It's a symbol. We care about this, that we want this to happen, that it's a priority, that energy is a priority, that solar is a priority. We've got to make that clear. Teachers out in front of the Capitol today, there must be 1,000 of them in red shirts protesting. The schools are a big issue. But let me offer this last thought before we go to our last point. And that is, if we want to achieve these goals, we can't do wishful thinking. It's not going to come down from heaven and make it happen. It's not going to happen by some divine process. We actually have to make it happen ourselves. We have to find incentives to change the way to encourage people to take the action necessary to reach the goals. If we don't do that, it's the goal that's silly. And so I leave you with that thought. However we do it, we got to actually do it. But let's go to the last point. And that is the article in yesterday's Star Advertiser about thermal solar and about the exemptions. Can you talk for a minute about that? The office is $4,000 for the solar thermal system. They're trying to avoid the cost of it. It's as simple as that. The house is that much cheaper. But it is not a good idea. It is not in accordance with state policy. And what are the tests for the exemption? What do you have to do to get an exemption here? But what's interesting to go back to the point of who handles this is the energy office presumably in D-bed that is giving away all these exemptions. That office, formerly under Mark Klick, now they're looking for a new leader, that office is dedicated to reaching our clean energy goals. I do not completely understand from this story why they would give exemptions in this number. It doesn't seem to me to give any, appropriate to give any exemptions or maybe a few for special circumstances. But this is a huge number. And what it means is whoever is giving the exemptions doesn't care too much about clean energy. Sorry to say. Yeah. Well Marco, wonderful to talk to you as always. I look forward to every discussion with you. And I look forward today to a discussion two weeks from hence when I know there'll be other things come up that we will have a lovely time talking about exploring, philosophizing, romanticizing, and predicting, don't you think? Marco Mangelstorff, Provision Solar in Hilo.


Alrighty, so I have my prediction video for the Cedar Fair 2020 editions. Again, this is just a prediction video. I'm gonna go over what I think all the parks are gonna be getting. Some of the parks have already announced, so I guess that's kind of cheating. But also, if you notice on the screen, there's a money bag with $140 million on it. So throughout each slide, that money is gonna be subtracted from what I think the investment that that park's gonna get costs. So I'll take that out of the money bag, and it helps me predict for the parks further on down what they could be getting, or a rough estimate on what parks are gonna be spending. I thought I would add that little twist in there since I figured out the number value that Cedar Fair is gonna be spending in 2020. Again, that is approximate. It is not 100% $140 million. They just said it would be around that based off of what they spent in 2019. But obviously the first park we're gonna predict, so I'm going from least investment value to the biggest investment value. That's how I'm gonna rank this. So we're starting off with Carowins. Carowins is kind of a cheat for me. I know that they're getting a water slide, and it looks like that's all they're getting. And I estimate the water slide addition to be around, I put one to two million, but I overestimate the numbers here to be safe. So I put $2 million for the water slide complex that Carowins is gonna be announcing. It looks like it's gonna be Matt Racer's slide based off of what we're hearing. So you'll be subtracting $2 million from the $140 million to bring us to $138 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank. So again, Carowins is most likely announcing Racer's slides today. That's what most of you should be watching this video. So Carowins is just gonna be adding a water slide complex from what we're hearing. So nothing too, too exciting. But the next park on the list, Dornie Park. So Dornie Park is a difficult one. So Dornie Park is one of those parks that seems to be over teasing for a second year in a row. So their teasers have displayed the kids' drawings of a coaster and they're like, well, we'll try and make it happen as a teaser. And they're also announcing today as well, I believe. So $138 million left in the bank. I am going with that they are just gonna get a water park investment and I'm gonna estimate that to be around $3 million that could be overshooting it, undershooting it if they get restaurants in that with it. So $3 million for Dornie Park. I don't think they're gonna get a coaster. I think this is another year of them over teasing. I think there are other parts that are showing signs to get a coaster over Dornie Park. So again, in my honest opinion, Dornie Park is probably just gonna get a water slide valued at $3 million for their water park, which brings us down to $135 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank for our next park. So here we have Worlds of Fun, Oceans of Fun. And this is an easy one. I think it's very obvious that they're just gonna get a water park expansion. It seems to be the year of water parks for Cedar Fair. So Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun is probably just gonna get a water park investment valued at about $3 million. Again, these are very rough estimates. I am not saying that's what they're gonna cost. I am just putting up an estimate on the screen. So that will bring us down to $132 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank for the next park, approximately. Again, if at any moment you guys disagree or you have suggestions about what the parks could be getting, comment down below. So this is my home park, Canada's Wonderland. They already announced what they're getting. They've got a little water park investment with the cliff jumping and then they got a kid's investment with almost like the swinging Peanuts 500 suspended kind of flat ride. I'm gonna estimate that to be $3 million as well for Canada's Wonderland. So that'll bring us down to $129 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank. And that brings us to a very difficult park. So King's Dominion, we know they're getting a coaster in 2021. That's what the teasers are suggesting. We're not seeing too much construction to hint at but it's gonna be for 2020. So I'm going to assume they're either gonna get a flat ride or a water park expansion. It looks like they're gonna get some sort of water slide complex in the water park. So I'm just gonna put $3 million because all I'm getting for teasers so far is a water park or a water slide tower to replace the wave pool that they're removing. Hopefully there's a little more. So it could be three to $5 million. So I'm gonna put $3 million here for King's Dominion's water slide and that could be an overestimate if it's just literally one slide complex. But we'll put $3 million for all the water park investments to be saved. It seems to be the trend for 2020. And water park is definitely the biggest attention on Cedar Fair's list for 2020 by the looks of it. But this is where it's gonna start to get interesting. So Nantesbury Farm with $126 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank.  We know that they're, by the sounds of it, investing in ghost towns alive. So from what I'm hearing, it could be a multi-year expansion just like Canada's Wonderlands Frontier Canada. So you'll probably see 2020 and 2021 have investments made. So I'm guessing a flat ride for 2020 at Nantesbury Farm or investments in more events and buildings and upgrades. So I'm gonna throw $5 million at Nantesbury Farm. That number could go higher, that number could go lower. But to be safe, I wanted to throw $5 million at Nantesbury Farm just to be safe. So after Nantesbury Farm, we have CGA. So CGA is gonna have about $121 million to play with for an investment. And CGA has already made their announcement. They're getting a very big water park expansion. So they're getting restaurants, a kiddie area, a waterside complex. So very exciting for CGA. And for CGA, I think I had the estimate around $8 million for California's Great America. I may have bumped that up to $10 million. So we'll bring that number down to $111 million left in investment. And after CGA, we have Michigan's Adventure. So this is where it gets even more interesting. So Michigan's Adventure is a park that's removing their antique cars, something. I think that's what the attraction is. They're removing antique cars and it's a pretty big plot of land. And this is where things go different directions. They could be having a ride removal at one of the bigger parks and a ride could be moving over to Michigan's Adventure. Just for an example, it could be something like Time Warp moving over to Michigan's Adventure or it could be an all new attraction altogether. So for example, Michigan's Adventure it could end up with a Raptor, it could end up with a small family coaster or it could end up with a flat ride. So for Michigan's Adventure, I did put them down to spend around $5 to $10 million because I honestly think they're gonna end up getting a flat ride for Michigan's Adventure. I don't think they're gonna get a coaster. I think there's one more park that deserves it a little more that we'll go over in a bit. So I'm definitely predicting Michigan's Adventure is probably gonna get a flat ride in that plot of land if it's not a ride relocation or a coaster relocation to Michigan's Adventure estimated around $5 to $10 million. So that brings us down to $101 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank. Again, I'm doing overestimates to be safe and our next park is Valley Fair. So this is where it gets really interesting. So with $101 million left in the Cedar Fair Bank and Valley Fair being a park that has been called out on the stockholders call in the 2018 season for how well they were doing season pass sales wise. It's a park that's definitely been showing growth potential that it's definitely gonna catch Cedar Fair's attention and you're gonna see investments come in. Now, that being said, 2020 might be too soon for an investment considering 2018 seems to have been the first year that Michigan's Adventure, sorry, not Michigan's Adventure, Valley Fair was doing absolutely amazing. They've been called out on stockholders calls, but it may not. Again, Cedar Fair has shown to move investments around. If they need to put something in a park, they will move things around at other parks to make way for that. And CGA seems to be a park that seems to keep getting pushed back and back with that hyper coaster and even that launch shuttle coaster that's supposed to be going to CGA. So I'm definitely predicting Valley Fair is going to be the park that's getting a coaster in 2020. I know that's a very bold statement, but I just have a sneaky suspicion Valley Fair is gonna be announcing a 10 to $15 million coaster. So nothing too spectacular, but something still substantial to help that park grow. And if it's not Valley Fair that gets the coaster, I definitely see Michigan's Adventure and Valley Fair swapping. So the money price still being there. A coaster I do think is going to either Michigan's Adventure or Valley Fair. So, but in this slide, I'm definitely predicting Valley Fair is probably gonna get the coaster estimated around 10 to $15 million. So with 10 to $15 million taken from the Cedar Fair bank, that brings us down to about $86 million left. So that brings us to King's Island. We already know what King's Island is getting. King's Island is announcing the giga coaster. So King's Island's gonna announce the giga coaster. It's supposed to be around 301 feet drop. It's supposed to look absolutely amazing. I'm saying supposed to because I don't wanna confirm anything, but based off of the blueprints and renderings that we are seeing, it looks absolutely amazing. It looks like a blend of Fury and Leviathan and there seems to be an almost inverted part. That's the discussion going around now. So this could be one of the best gigas out there. So fingers crossed for King's Island. Your announcements at 10 p.m. today, super excited for you guys. Couldn't be any more excited to see another giga in North America. But that brings us, so with $86 million left in the bank, taking away $40 million. So a lot of you might be looking at that $40 million price and being like, Brennan, what are you doing? $40 million is not what the giga coaster is gonna cost. I'm estimating that they're gonna have an all new themed area. We saw that with Carowinds and Kenneth Wonderland. And I think that the coaster is probably gonna be around $28 million, $30 million, and then $10 million thrown in there for theming and enhancing the area, blah, blah, blah, overestimating just to be safe. So we're down to $46 million left in the budget and we only have one part left. Cedar Point. So this brings up a lot of questions. What is Cedar Point getting for their 150th anniversary? We know they're celebrating it over two years. A lot of people are saying they're not getting a coaster, they'll get a coaster in 2021. But I'm also realizing that there's a lot of parks lined up for coasters in 2021. So the lineup for a coaster is getting significantly long. I also do agree that it doesn't make sense for Kings Island and Cedar Point to both get very large coasters in 2020, but that's where it gets interesting. So I wanted to do this whole money in the bank and showing the investments and their costs to show you guys that it's most likely gonna be more than just Kings Island getting a coaster in 2020. With Cedar Fair confirming that they are spending around $140 million, and when you spread the wealth over, especially with the investments that have already been announced at these other parks, it shows you that there is definitely money being thrown at parks that we have not announced or we're not being teased for. So 2020 is gonna be an interesting year and I can't wait for the announcements to be announced throughout the day and throughout the week and throughout the month because it looks like there's definitely a couple of other parks getting some pretty big investments and fingers crossed that we see about two to three coasters being built in the Cedar Fair chain for 2020. That's definitely my prediction. I'm gonna go with two or three just based off of the dollar value and how much money is left in the Cedar Fair Bank. And a lot of people are saying that Cedar Point is just gonna be going down the sentimental route with kind of like back to history and a parade potentially or shows, more upgrades to restaurants, maybe a potential boardwalk or kitty expansion. Definitely a lot of money to play around there for Cedar Point with what's left in the Cedar Fair Bank. So super excited. Comment down below what you think it could be coming to your harm park or any of the parks listed in this slide. And hopefully you enjoyed this video. I wanted to try something different. So hopefully you liked it. I'm recording it super late. That's probably why my voice is super low right now. But yeah, hopefully you enjoyed it. Don't forget to hit the like button, subscribe if you haven't and share this video for others to enjoy. Thanks so much for watching guys and enjoy your announcement day. Bye.