This time celebrity trainer Mark Jenkins has joined us on the Exit The Rat Race Podcast. Mark is one of the hottest personal trainers in the business. His clientele consists of Mary J blight, Beyonce, Puff Daddy and Miss Elliot to name a few. We are going to dive deep into Mark’s personal story. You are guaranteed that Mark is sharing success formulas that you can literally apply to your own life. We will also take a better look at the mindset of his clientele. What is it that sets them apart from the wannabe artist? What makes the difference that makes the difference?
Mark is from the USA. He grew up in Brooklyn, New York in de the ’80s. Times were very hard back then. It was even called the crack era. Mark had to step over crack vials when he went to school. He had to run from his house to the bus because otherwise his sneakers would get stolen or someone would beat him up. Looking back, this is a big part of the man he has become. One of the reasons he relates so well with people is because of all those experiences.
From very early on, he was influenced by multiple voices that he could listen to. He was living in a tough environment but he had a warm and loving family that rooted for him. They told him that he always had a choice, it was up to him to choose his future. After his dad died, his mom sent him to dance school where he learned different styles of dancing. Once his neighborhood found out, he started to get bullied and stopped dancing. After that, he gained a lot of weight and was bullied
even more.
Mark realized this couldn’t go on any longer. He couldn’t protect himself, he was too fat, he couldn’t get a girl while two years before that he had a dancer’s body. He knew he had to change because even at his fattest, he knew what he could be like. He himself had a reference point of how things can be. Today, he is a reference point to other people. Like kids that get bullied or people who grew up in the hood.
He decided he wanted to join the army to lose weight and help his mom financially. He was too fat for the marines, he was too fat for the military and he was too fat for the army. It was between the air force and the Navy. The Navy recruiter told him they had McDonald’s on the aircraft carrier and he signed himself up immediately. It was a completely different world for him. He was getting in shape, handling million-dollar equipment and working with grown men. It was a growth and empowering experience for him.
He asked high-level colleagues to help him lose weight. They were happy to put some energy into him because they felt sorry for him but they also saw he was hungry for progress. He had different people helping him in multiple aspects. It was a life-changing experience for him. As he was developing physically, he wasn’t getting the same development socially. His physique became so big, people were afraid to talk to him. It was years later after he shrunk down a little bit people started to approach and trust him.
He has noticed that there is a lot of insecurity in the fitness sector. There are a lot of people out there that have or have had an eating disorder. Training your body is so much easier than training your mind. It is a life
long game and you have to really get in there to get your mind in shape. It never stops. By building those perfect bodies, people are just masking their insecurities and putting a wall up. When you are able to get through those walls, you will propel yourself into a better mindset.
When you are a personal trainer, people come to you and want to buy motivation. Motivation is something that is inside of you and it is what pushes you to the next level. Everybody has it, it’s just that some people listen to it and some people don’t. There are people out there that are scared of their own potential. Motivation allows you to pursue your wellness and this is something you have to incorporate into your lifestyle. Chasing superficial looks is not going to work in the long run. It’s exercising, eating well, sleeping well, meditating, visualizing and breathing right. You have to do it all in order to effect change. It has to be a part of you and your business plan. Mark’s goal is to help people and empower them by giving them all the pillars they need so they can go and effect change. This is what keeps him motivated.
How you see yourself can have a real effect on how quickly you will see results. He worked with people that have never heard the word no in 15 years. When he starts out with them he wants to be able to connect and relate to them. It’s important to first have that honest connection because only then he can get the most results in the shortest amount of time. His clients have to reach out to something inside themself to get the task done.
This often leads to Mark ge
tting fired, even on the first session. His clients get a sniff of what they have to do to accomplish their goals. He gets fired all the time but they all come back because Mark can deliver results. It also made him work harder. It encourages him more than anything.
The gym he was going to was filled with executives and important people. He asked them for advice and in turn, he would train them for free. It took him 7 years to implement all the advice and for all those projects to manifest because he didn’t have the resources. Every time he wanted to take a step forward, he had to train someone for free. He was very young but he had seen a lot so he felt very empowered to accomplish his goals.
Throughout his life, Mark has surrounded himself with the right people. People that gave him the right advice. He helped them up for free while they told him how to pursue his dreams. Put in the willingness to soak everything up like a sponge and you have the perfect formula for success.
It takes 10.000 hours to master something. People these days don’t want to put in that time, they all want a shortcut. You need to be working and putting in the time. When taking on clients, he trains them until they achieve their goals. He gives them all the tools so they can incorporate them into their lifestyle. After that, he tells his clients to go and explore different types of ways to stay in shape. Your body is way too important to be depending on someone else. He is happy to assist you, but there will be a moment when you have to take care of yourself.
Mark is 51 at the moment and his goals are to get into MMA for the next years. He said he need a year or two to actually have a chance in the ring. It’s not about winning but he would love to have an honest experience. The victory is him getting into shape to be able to go in there and do it. It’s a journey and it has to be fun. He is not thinking about his age, he is just trying to be better every year. It would be really easy to coast through his life, but he keeps himself surrounded with people that are in better shape mentally and physically.
From all those years of being exposed to high performers, he has learned so much about pushing through and overcoming fear. Most of the time fear is just something that sits in your head. You are able to reprogram yourself and let go of that fear. There are no limits. As much as he gives to his clients, he is also getting so much in return. All the information he has learned for himself, he tries to pass on to others.
Mark is a father of 2 kids of 15 and 18. The biggest lesson he wants to pass on is that you can do stuff that makes money and helps people at the same time. You don’t have to join the adult world and hate your job or don’t make enough money. Have fun with the things you do. At 51 he is coming home to a life that’s still vibrant. He has so much more to give. Both of them speak fluent Mandarin, as it is the second business language in the world. Both of his kids speak fluent Mandarin, as it is the second business language in the world. He wants his kids to have the freedom to explore the world for themselves.
According to Mark, the reason not everybody is healthy is that they don’t have a reference point. Most people around them are not in shape. There is so much obesity in the US, people think they are normal when they are actually
overweight. It is very hard to get in shape in the modern world with big pharma and junk food. Mediocracy is normalized and gets awarded nowadays. The more mediocre your life is, the more friends you have because it makes other people feel better. If you want to get in shape and do something about your mindset, you have to accept the fact you will be different and not everybody is going to like it.
So, do you want to stay grey or do you set yourself apart?
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