Balancing the Grind With Daniel Gullo, Personal Trainer and Owner of The PT Coach

Daniel Gullo is the Head Trainer at the Fitness Forum Health Club, and the Founder of The PT Coach, a new business he launched that provides workshops for newly qualified personal trainers.

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1) Welcome back to Balance the Grind! It’s been 3 years since our last conversation and you’ve been busy. What’s been happening in your world?

Thank you! It’s great to be back having another chat. Well, last time we spoke I was juggling personal training, running an outdoor bootcamp business and also playing football. Since then, things have changed quite a bit.

Firstly, I got married! This meant that I had moved out of my parents’ home and now had something extra to balance within my life.

I decided to sit down and work out what was most important to me. I realised I just couldn’t balance all of those things effectively, meaning the quality of each thing I was doing would be compromised, which I couldn’t live with.

I made the hard decision to stop playing football at an elite level and to also step back from bootcamp. I truly believe that doing fewer things at 100% is far more effective and satisfying then doing many things at 50%.

Once I freed up that extra time and settled into my new routine, I was ready again for more. I have always taken on students studying personal training to do their practical hours. I love helping them with real life experience and teaching them things they may not learn in the classroom.

So, I started up The PT Coach, which is a business where I run workshops for newly qualified personal trainers. I chose to do it like this as I can work with 10 students at once and have a high impact without sacrificing the time like I was with bootcamp and football.

2) What does a typical day in the life look like for you? Can you take us through a recent workday?

A typical day in my life begins with a 4am alarm clock and I’m out the door before 5am. I’m doing personal training most of the day, but block an hour of my day out for my own workout. This is really important and something I’ve learned to do, as previously I would plan my training around my working day.

I normally finish up by 4-5pm and head home. Once home, I spend about an hour on professional development. This includes doing work for my new coaching business, reading books and doing research. By 7pm, I sit down to dinner with my wife and then we spend time together for the rest of the evening until going to sleep at about 10pm.

3) Do you have any tips, tricks or shortcuts to help you manage your workload and schedule?

People often ask me how I juggle everything. The most important thing is planning. I will set out the things I want to achieve at the beginning of the week so I have a plan of attack. I found that before I implemented that, I spent far too much time each day trying to figure out what I needed to do and then ended up getting easily distracted or just procrastinating.

4) What does work life balance mean to you and how do you work to achieve that goal?

I believe I’m able to achieve it due to how early I wake up. By the time the average 9-5 person wakes up and is at work I am already 4 hours ahead. This means that I can get so much more done before the “5pm home time.”

Once dinner time arrives at about 7pm, I can switch off and spend some quality time with my wife, family and friends, or just spend time recharging. This keeps me fresh and ready to tackle each day.

5) What do you think are some of the best habits you’ve developed over the years to help you strive for success and balance?

As I mentioned earlier, the number one habit is planning. This sets you up for success. Another thing is replicating what brings success. If I am doing something well and it’s bringing me success, I repeatedly do that and it becomes easier and less time consuming. Setting up models that are easy to follow frees up valuable time to do what I enjoy, so that I don’t feel so overwhelmed and overworked.

6) Are there any books that have helped you improve over the years?

• Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is a great book on the power of mindset.
• Sell Like Crazy by Sabri Suby is one of the best sales books I’ve ever read.
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change by Charles Duhigg is also extremely interesting and goes into the human psyche.

7) What is the number one thing you do to make sure you get the most out of your day?

A workout at 7:30am as that’s “me time” and without it I feel flat for the rest of the day and find I’m not as productive. Too often we focus on what’s good for our business or family and neglect what’s good for ourselves.

8) Do you have any last thoughts on work, life or balance that you’d like to share with our readers?

Don’t hit snooze on the alarm, wake up early and make the most of each and every day! Include things in your week that you enjoy and are passionate about and you will get through the less enjoyable things a lot easier.