April 28, 2010

6:30 - 7:30 AM - And it begins…time to wake up and check e-mail. This is mostly redirecting and deleting, got a couple e-mails on new shirt designs that need approval, a couple sponsor e-mails updating me on product testing. I also get sales e-mails from several dozen retailers, so I delete the ones that don't catch my attention and save the ones that do. I then check messages on the EliteFTS Facebook page, my Facebook page, the Q & A, Twitter, etc. After this, I review nightly sales and traffic reports. We have monthly forecasts to meet and I have to keep a close eye on where we are in relationship to what we have on the marketing plan. Right now, this month is looking very good, so I made an adjustment to back off the sales for the rest of the week.

New Devil T-Shirt Design

7:30 - 8:15 AM – I help get my kids ready for school and spend time with them. That means Gorilla Munch cereal with goat milk for one, and cinnamon brown rice bread for the other. While they’re eating, I review my daily agenda and make any necessary adjustments. I was told I had to be home by 4:30 PM, so I had to move a few things around, but not that big of a deal. By 8:15 AM, I have a very solid idea of how the day will breakdown.

8:15 - 8:30 AM - The mad scramble to get the kids out of the house and on the way to school…those who have kids know what I mean. Regardless of how ready you have anything, they still fart around. Then you realize at the last minute they don't have their shoes on.

8:30 – 10 AM - Shower, breakfast – what I call meal #1 - and time to catch up on my reading. I read the Wall Street Journal everyday and have an iGoogle page set up with feeds from over 50 different sites. These include, but aren’t limited to: Socialmedia.biz, Mashable, the Economist, Business Week Inc., Practical eCommerce, Fast Company, eMarketer, Forbes, strategy+business, msnbc.com business, Google Finance, Bloomberg, success magazine, drudgereport.com, etc. There’s no way for me to read them all, so I go with what catches my eye, or what’s most relevant to what I working on right now. If I find anything that I think is of interest to others, I’ll tweet them out of Twitter, which automatically shares the article on Facebook, too.

I check the article traffic and send out some reminders in regards to the Make-A-Wish drive, that will begin today. This will include a newsletter, Front Page banner, article and social media support. This is very important to because this is a foundation I believe in, love what they do and have supported for years.

Meal 1 – 9 AM

1 cup egg whites

4 omega 3 eggs

3 slices brown rice bread

low sugar jelly

Supplements: Rhodiola rosea x 2, Flameout X 2, Curcumin x 2, Alpha GPC approximately 20 minutes later 900mg with 16 oz water

I return two calls. One was from one of our manufactures in regards to a specific change on a new item - that really isn't a big deal, but it can help keep the cost down. The second was from a contractor that has been doing some research for me.

Today is a training day and I didn't sleep well at all, so I’ll spend 15 minutes in the hot tub, followed by a cold shower and then get ready to head into the office and warehouse.

10:27 AM - After a few more e-mails, and one more phone call, I mix my pretraining drink and head out the door.

10:30 AM - On the way to work, I always stop off to pick up two lemonade Rockstars.

10:30 - 11:54 AM - My usual routine when I get to the office is to walk through the warehouse to get a feel for what’s going on. I already know what the order count is for the day, so I know before I get there how many orders should be packed and who should be where. While I'm not big on micromanaging, I do use small indicators for just about every system to determine if we’re on par, ahead, behind, or if a system needs to be totally changed. Usually within 10 - 15 minutes of walking through the warehouse, I know where we are on orders, back orders, returns, shirt production and inventory. Today everything was awesome! I have to commend the warehouse staff on this because we just had a mega blow-out sale that definitely could’ve pushed the limits. At the same time, it's also great to know management has developed new systems that's allowing for much higher limits to be pushed.

While finishing my walk-through, I received a call from a prospect letting me know he was taking the job. This is our sixth new employee since December and brings the count up to 19. After this call, I had to have a meeting with our office manager and communication coordinator so they were aware and so we can begin getting everything ready for when he arrives. I also sent off a quick e-mail to my Apple rep letting him know I was going to need another workstation.

I spend the next 20 minutes talking to a couple lifters that stopped out to pick up some Metal gear.

12:00 PM – Training. So much for the pre-training mix! The plan was to train at 11 AM, but things don't always work out the way as intended. My current training split is:

Monday - Back and biceps

Tuesday - off

Wednesday - Arms and calves

Thursday - off

Friday - Shoulders and traps

Saturday - Quads, hamstrings and calves

Sunday - Chest and triceps

• Abs to be done on non-training days with cardio.
• Any day with multiple body parts can be split into two sessions (double split day)

Training Shake: 3 scoops Anaconda and 3 scoops Mag 10 sipped throughout the training session.

Warm Up Session

Arms and calves

1:15 PM - Meal 3 isSubway flatbread with 3 chicken breast, lettuce and green peppers. No sauce or cheese and a Coke Zero. I count the training drinks as a meal 2 thus why this is called meal 3.

Supplements: Flameout X 2, Curcumin x 2

1:40 PM – It’s time to meet with landload and check on the progress of our expansion. We’re taking over another 3,000 square foot of warehouse space and have been waiting for the former tenant to move out. Now that they’re out, I need to know how much time we have until we can hire contractors to go in and get it ready. I still don't have a definitive answer, but it looks like sometime in the next four weeks.

2:00-2:20 PM - Back out to the warehouse to see if our new apparel has arrived and to make sure we’re ready for production and getting the items loaded on the Web site. Half of what we need is already here, so we can begin the first part of the new item-loading process. I'm very happy with the new designs so far and think they’ll go over very well.

2:30 PM - Just read a few new sections from the book Bob Youngs is writing. A few days ago, I read the first version and thought he could do better. He also knew he was holding back, so I just got a new version that is far better. I'm not sure what he will do with this and I'm sure he feels the same way right now, but the most important thing is for him to keep writing - all the rest are just details. I’m very happy to see him doing this and feel honored to be one of the few who gets to read it.

3:30 PM - We have a few items that were returned for inspection. One item was jacked up in shipping and will end up in our weight room, or donated. There was nothing wrong with the other two. One got bent in shipping and just needed a smack with a rubber hammer, and the other…well, we’re still trying to see what the problem is. These will also end up in the weight room, but might make a cool prize for a contest. We just need a cool contest idea now. Any ideas?

3:45 - 4 PM - Just answered all of my e-mails for the day.

4 PM - Meal 4

2 scoops low carb Metabolic Drive

¼ cup almonds

Fiber & Superfood

4:15 PM - Cardio: 30 minutes on the treadmill at 3.3 mph on a 10 percent grade. Heart rate is to stay between 115-120.

4:50 - 5:30 PM – Home-bound. One of the best things I've ever found to free my mind up, is to go out and drive. I took the Jeep today and it was a nice day out, so I took the long way home to get my head out of all the administrative work I spent the day doing. Most of the real work I do is from home and more strategic-related. I need this time to switch modes and go from a "reaction" mode to a "strategic” mode. I can say with 100 percent certainty it’s very hard for me to be in a total strategic mode while in the office. I can help other positions with their strategic planning, but this is focused on one position, or system of operations. I need to be able to focus without distractions when thinking and planning how all these units work and interact with each other.

As an owner/founder/CEO or whatever you want to call me, I do feel it’s very important to be involved in some of the administrative functions of the business. Don't misunderstand, I don't mean these should be your job, but I do feel you need to jump in and help out for a few reasons. It will give you an idea of what your staff really does, you can see if the system is working, and it keeps you grounded. For most of us, all of these jobs were ours at one time or another, and as we grew, we hired others to do them. If we hired smart, those people who are now dong these jobs are far better than we ever were, so it's only smart to try and learn from them and see if we can find ways to make their job easier, so they can perform even better.

5:30 - 6:30 PM - Played with my boys outside and helped them with their homework

6:30 - Meal 5

10 oz Lean Ground Beef

Organic Sweat Potato Tortilla

Hot Sauce

Supplements: Flameout X 2, Curcumin x2

6:30 – 9 PM - Family Time. With the exception of checking e-mail (via phone), this time is 100 percent devoted to my family. I have several remote staff members and contractors that do most of their work between 6 PM and 2 AM, so there are times they have questions, or need my feedback on what they’re doing, so they can move forward. These positions are more strategically-oriented and include: programming, marketing, design, etc. These are also the staff that I'm responsible for managing, as my office manager is responsible for all internal staff. Most of these guys have been with the company for over eight years, so they’re very self-sufficient and need little direction.

9 PM – 12:30 AM – This can sometimes be as late as 2 AMand is my most productive time of the day. So, I’ll just explain what I normally do, so I can be done with this article and move on to the work I have to get done. Tonight I need to relook at everything we have going on in May, and see what - if anything - needs to change from my original forecast. The original forecast was established using profit and loss statements from three months prior and were all last year to date, including my key strategic indicator reports. Tonight I need to look these over in-relation to what transpired this past month. This being, current web traffic, our conversation rates, and what promotions we have planned. This will take most of the night. When I begin to lose focus, I’ll check the Q & A, and our other social sites to see if there’s anything of interest. All of my e-mail accounts, except the one my staff uses, will be turned off while I do this.

Normally this time will be used to follow up, develop and delegate assignments associated with any and all of the projects I’m managing. Currently, there are four main projects in the pipe that require my attention. As stated before, I’m very fortunate to have a great staff, but I still have to help make sure the highest priority items are addressed first. We’re in another growth phase and I know everyone has a lot on their plate right now, so it’s very hard for them to know what needs to be done ASAP, and what can wait. Many of these assignments build on others, so if one thing falls behind, the entire project falls behind. If I have one main role in the company this is it – project manager.

10 PM - Last Meal – Meal 6

2 scoops low carb Metabolic Drive

¼ cup almonds

Fiber & Superfood

Here is the text to add....

1:15 AM - Just saw this posted in Brian Schwab's Log that he ripped off Joe Jordan's facebook page that I'm sure he ripped off somewhere else so I just ripped it off and posted it on my facebook and twitter page and am now posting it here.

Now I'm off to bed and looking forward to the morning.

Bed Time Supplements: ZMA x 4, Z-12 x 4, Pro Minerals x 8

That’s it. This is pretty much how most of my days work. We’re not open on the weekends, but my early morning and night hours are pretty much the same.

Diet & Training Credits

These are the people who are doing my programming right now.

Diet: Shelby Starnes

Warm Up/ Rehab: Dr Ryan Smith

Supplementation: Tim Patterson

Oversight: Dr Eric Serrano

December 01, 2004

I thought this would be interesting to add. Here’s the same type of article format I wrote in 2004.

A Day in the Life
By Dave Tate
For EliteFTS
12-01-2004

6:30am

The alarm goes off signaling for me to get my ass up and moving. Today is dynamic squat day and I have to be in the gym by 8:15 to begin the session by 8:30. As I roll over, I feel the tightness in my lower back and think I should just stay in bed and forget training for the day. Plus, I did not sleep well; causing me to wake up at least three times during the night with my right shoulder feeling like it was being pounded with a heavy spike. Twice, I could barely move it and had to use my other hand to pull it to a comfortable position. Fifteen minutes goes by and I am still debating in my head if I should stay in bed, or go to the gym. I finally decide to get up and move to the hot tub to loosen up. As I sat up, the tightness in my back became more intense. Then, as I sat on the edge of the bed, I noticed my neck was killing me. I must have slept wrong on it again. I try to adjust it, but the muscles are too tight to get it to move where I want it. My next challenge will be standing up. The best way I have found to accomplish this is to rock back and then forward as I move into a standing position. The act of standing up builds enough pressure in my head to cause a killer headache. I try to crack my neck again with little luck.

As I make my way to the stairs, I notice my calves and hamstrings are sore as hell from something. What did I do to cause these muscles to be sore? My last lower body training day was last Monday. Now it’s Friday and I am still tight. But, I was not tight yesterday. Now I'm thinking that there's no way I'll be able to squat today. With the use of the hand rails, I make my way down the stairs and out to the hot tub. Still half asleep, I walk out into 30 degree weather and remove the top cover and drop my ass in the tub. I know from past experiences that 15 minutes will be the maximum amount of time I can spend in the tub without having ill effects on my squat session. After five minutes, my body begins to feel better. The pain is still there, but I am getting some of the movement back. After another 5 minutes I finally get my neck to crack. Finally the headache disappears, and I can move my head from side to side. Fifteen minutes pass and I make my way back inside to shower off and get ready. While in the shower, I am still telling myself the training day could not do anything good for me. I feel too damn beat up. Training could only make me feel worse. I notice the time.

7:20am

I realize I better get my ass moving if I am going to make it to the gym on time. I grab my gym bag and head to the door. I do not have time to make something to eat and will have to stop on the way and pick something up. Twenty minutes later I find myself at McDonald's getting a large coffee and a few breakfast sandwiches. I am trying to figure out what I will do in the gym. I still feel drained and beat up. Maybe if I just go in and do some light reverse hypers, glute hams and ab work, I'll feel good enough to make it through the rest of the day. It then hits me that I also have a ton of work to get done when I get back to the office. More work then I would be able to get down in 8 hours - let alone spending the first half of the day in the gym. As I get back on the road all I can think about are all the deadlines I have to make, the work I have to do, and the meeting I have to go to. This, along with two weeks of low sales, starts to stress me out to the point I think I should turn the car around and get my ass to work. I see the next exit and am convinced that I better pull off here and turn around, so I can begin my day at the office. Then, I think of the guys in the gym that may be counting on me being there. I have missed too many sessions because of work so far this year and the guilt takes over. I pass the exit and tell myself I will be out of the gym by 9:15 at the latest. This will get me back to work by 10, if I do not shower and go straight from the gym. The next ten minutes in my head is filled with the tasks I can move around to a different day and time, so I can still get my training session in. Ten minutes from the gym, I realize I really do not want to train today and have to find some way to get motivated. I toss in an old Black Sabbath CD and turn it up as loud as I can. This begins to make me feel somewhat better but I tell myself who cares if I am only going to go light for the day.

8:15am

I finally roll into the gym. I sit in my truck a few extra minutes still debating if I should leave and go to work or get out and head in the gym. I know I can’t leave, I am already here. So I open the car door and step out onto the pavement. As I step out, I feel some crazy stuff in my right hip flexor and think, "Great! This is all I need..." I grab my bag and head into the gym. Chuck Vogelpohl, Big Tim Harold, Jim Wendler, Jeremiah Myers, JL Holdsworth, Chicken Hawk, Will Ramsey and Mike Ruggeria are already there and seem to be excited to train. Right away I feel left out. I am not ready to train and do not plan on doing anything hard. My plan is to just do some light hypers, and abs. I then decided it would not hurt to do a few sets of squats as long as I keep it easy and keep the weight down. I decide to squat with Will and we will be the first to go. This way I will be able to get out of the gym by 9 or 9:15.

8:20am

I begin to go through a series of mobility movements to help me get loosened up for the squat. After 10 minutes or so, I begin to put on my squat suit and make my way to the monolift. It takes me a few more minutes to be able to get under the bar. My shoulder is still lacking the flexibility from the last surgery to get under the bar without stretching first. After a few sets with the bar and one plate, we are ready to go. Today we are using a straight bar without bands and chains. I have been using the SSB for my dynamic work the past few months to let my back and shoulder heal and have not tried to use a straight bar in many months. We begin with 135 and I knock out three reps. My hips and back still feel tight, so I make my way over to the 45 degree back raise to stretch out a bit more before the next set. Then, 225 pounds is loaded on the bar and I knock out another two reps. My plan is to go up to 315 and do five sets of two reps. This is not much weight and would be a good introduction back to the straight bar and most definitely would not beat me up that much. I perform two easy reps with 315. I notice that my motivation is coming back and I am fired up to finally be back under a straight bar. Screw it! We are training today! Next, 405 and the 495 is loaded to the bar. We knock out two sets of two reps with 495 and it wasn’t that bad. I can’t believe how strong the SSB made my squat. I feel the aggression building and feel like ripping the bar in half. Two more sets are completed and I feel like the bar is empty. I am blasting the weights up. My form is a bit off, but this is to be expected as I have not used a straight bar for the past few months. A few corrections are suggested to me from Chuck and I begin to feel like my old self. It has been a long time, but I finally feel like I am getting back on par. We finish four more sets without much problem and I can honestly say that next to my family, these kind of squat sessions are what I live for. To use 495 for my sets three years ago when I was not beat up was a great training session. Here I am doing it today and I know my squat is nowhere close to 100 percent. For the last se,t we toss a light band on the bar and rip out two more reps. This was one of the best squat sessions I have had in the past three years!

I go onto sumo pulls against bands, Glute Ham Raises, Straight Leg sit ups, 45 degree back raises and Reverse Hypers. During my supplemental work, I also helped run the monolift and coach the other guys the same way they did for me. The next thing I know, it is 10:30am. Screw it, so I won’t get to the office when I wanted to. There will be much time for work later, times like these last a life time. Work is over when the task is completed.

10:45am

As I drive from the gym, I realize that I still have a way to go to get back to where I was before, but now I feel that I am back on the right path. It has been a very hard few years for my squat and deadlift training. I have a million excuses from a business I’m trying to grow, multiple injuries and the birth of my two sons. All and all I would not change anything, but it would have been nice to avoid all the training injuries and set backs. However, that's not how the world works. I used to take training sessions like this for granted because I was too focused on the outcome and did not take the time to enjoy the process. For the rest of my drive, I contemplate what adjustments I will need to make to my training so I can keep moving forward. I go through at least thee different training plans before decided on what the best plan of action will be. I also know this will change many more times before the next squat workout. Part of the process is learning how to adjust your training program from session to session. If you set out on a prescribed plan, you will not be able to adjust for the good sessions and bad sessions. You have to work from a general template and let your training determine the rest.

11:30am

I arrive back at work jacked up from my training session and find I am able to knock the work out at twice the speed I would normally be able to do. Within the next three hours, I have completed what I thought would have been eight hours worth of work. If I would have blown the session off, I would never have been able to get the same amount of work done. I know this for a fact because there are many days where I decided it would be better to skip the session. The key is to know when you can press on and when you need to take it easy or skip the session. This is more an art than a science, and there is no way to tell when one is right or wrong. This is something we all have to learn from trial and error. I am sure there have been many sessions I have missed that would have been great sessions, if I had decided to train. I also know there are many sessions that I have trained, when I should have taken it easy. I have the injuries to prove for these mistakes. Maybe someday I will figure this all out, but until then, I am sure I will make many more mistakes. I chalk this up as being part of the game.

1:30pm

If you are a lifter, you all know what I mean about getting the call. You always have a small network of friends you keep in touch with that call you every few days, or once a week to check in with you to see how your training is going. The call may be more for the caller to let you know what they have just done, but either way the call is coming. On this day I received such a call around 1:30 in the afternoon. “So how did your squat workout go?” I proceed to outline the highlights of my squat session and explain that I finally feel like I am back on track and should be ready to begin training for another meet soon. I then asked how his session went. He told me he had to take the day off as his hips are bothering him. All I can think is "What a sissy!" The law of training states that I have to rag him about skipping a session. So, I lay it out how he is scared to lift the heavy weights and on and on. This is the funny thing about the call. You just about skipped your session, but you can never tell anyone else about it. It just would not be the “strong” thing to do. You have to pretend that you are this hardcore dedicated lifter that will suffer through it all to gain one more pound, while the other guy is weak and does not have the courage to press on. That is unless you are the one that took the day off. Then the wise thing to do is not make the call, or avoid taking the call in the first place. This is why it is so hard to reach other lifters after bad meets or bad training sessions.

8:00pm

By this time, my body begins to tighten up again and I make my way back to the hot tub to loosen up enough to be able to fall asleep and with some luck, make it through the night without waking up in pain. While in the tub, I ask myself the same question I have been asking for years. I have asked this question thousands of times and even wrote an article about it. Why the hell do I keep doing this? Why do I beat my body to hell? Why do I take so much time out of my day? What effects will this have on my body in the future? Will I be able to move when I am 60 years old? Will it really matter when I am on my death bed looking back? Will all the time it takes away from my family be worth it? Will the business survive if my focus is not there? Will all these sacrifices I am making , in the end, be seen as a regret? I guess in the end it’s only up to me to make sure the time I am using is worth the sacrifice. Because in the end, if it’s not, only I’m to blame.