From Bodybuilding to Jesus w/Isaac Miller

In this compelling episode, host Matthew Headden sits down with the prolific Professor Isaac Miller to delve into the powerful synergy between faith and fitness. Together, they explore how these two essential aspects of life can coexist and deeply support one another, fostering a more holistic approach to well-being.

Isaac Miller and Matthew share their experiences with faith, discussing how it has profoundly influenced their perspectives on fitness. The conversation candidly addresses the pitfalls of seeking external validation in the fitness industry, highlighting the importance of cultivating a guarded heart to protect one's spiritual and emotional health.

A central theme of this episode is the transformative idea of turning fitness into an act of worship. Both speakers discuss how viewing physical exercise as a way to honor God can lead to a more consistent and disciplined approach to health, enriching both the body and the soul. Matthew emphasizes that caring for our bodies is not about self-worship but a way to glorify God, calling for a balance of discipline and a reverent fear of the Lord in maintaining our physical health.

The discussion also addresses all aspects of biblical teaching, including often-ignored sins like gluttony, and challenges listeners to embrace the full spectrum of God’s word in their lives. By integrating faith into our fitness routines, Matthew and Professor Miller argue, we can bring deeper purpose and meaning to our journeys, ensuring that our actions truly reflect our commitment to God.

Transcript

Matthew Headden (00:00)
I mean, I honestly can't think of anybody better to help me kick it off. I do apologize for not having 11 to latte, but I wanted to be able to focus today. I love this new series is going to be all about faith and fitness. And I really can't think of anybody better to kick it off with me. Truly brother, I like, I don't know why I'm almost into your starting this, but if you will tell people who you are,

And we'll go from there. Yeah. Well, thank you for having me on, man. I'm excited. We, well, I guess first off, my name is Isaac Miller, aka the prolific professor. And no, I'm not a actual collegiate professor per se, just someone who really enjoys knowledge and teaching others.

how to apply that knowledge to better their lives and better the lives of people around them. So yeah, that's me and trying to do my best to glorify God in that process. I love that. Where did the prolific professor come from? Because even I don't know this one. Yeah, so honestly,

When I started, like restarted my business, I, it used to be a team Miller strong. And I realized that God was calling me to do something bigger than myself. And I didn't quite know what that meant or what that was. But I realized that it wasn't that business. And if I wanted to expand that and to make a greater impact and to do so in a way that didn't revolve around.

me, I had to kind of die to myself in that business. So I killed that LLC. And when I moved, I got out of the military and moved from LA back to Kansas City. I started working at this little, you know, local gym and met that guy who was kind of managing that gym. His name was Stan, who's now one of my lead trainers here and co -COOs for prolific.

and we just hit it off. He was a Marine as well, like me, and he just kind of really took me in like family and we just hit it off immediately. And, he had his business name, which was prolific strength go. the difference was he hated the business aspect. He loved the training. I found a love for the business aspect and was starting to kind of get bored with the training. and so.

I talked to him and was like, hey, if you let me take Prolific, I'll give you everything that you want in terms of just doing what you love to do. I'll take the risk. I'll handle all the business stuff. And does that sound fair? He's like, absolutely. Where do I sign up? So it became Prolific PT, which is Prolific Personal Training. And now we do have a physical therapy arm of our business as well.

And for me, I just love teaching. I love mentoring. I had the prolific academy where I actually just mentored other trainers and we partnered with TRM. So I would do more of the academic kind of research based training. And so yeah, people are like, you're like a professor and yeah, like I guess so. And so it kind of just dubbed from there, the prolific professor. That's amazing. I love it. Like, yeah, if you want to tell me that somebody

one person's going to handle like the business aspect and somebody else going to handle the training and like, I get to do the mental aspect and all that. Great. Let's roll. Cause we all do have our passions, right? Now for the really important part, how did you come to your face, bro? good question. honestly, a pretty weighted question. I grew up with a preacher father, by

small town in Missouri. And so it was always a huge part of my upbringing, like huge part of my upbringing. But in that process, I saw my family struggle a lot. Like we were pretty, my parents did the best with what they had, but we're always pretty low income. And whatever income came in, my parents were very quick to graciously give away.

And so I saw what the, not the Christian view of wealth, but what my family's Christian view of wealth did to us kids who didn't quite understand the servanthood aspect and just were thinking like, I have a popcorn for dinner again for the like fifth night in a row. And so that kind of already had me questioning

And then seeing my dad get kind of.

abused by the church and was really quick to like when something happened that like he was on the, he did special education teaching for a school as kind of a way to make more income and still make an impact. So he has like two master's degrees in special education and special education administration. And the school didn't like that. He was a preacher. Like some of the higher up people on the school board weren't Christians, didn't like it.

So they, you know, threw him under the bus and essentially got him fired. And then the church, the elders who were friends with those school board people, you know, small town politics, they decided to kick him out of the church. And so for him, he always stayed positive. But for me, as like a teenager, seeing all this happen, for me, it manifested as church hurt. And so when I left home, I left.

kind of my faith as well. And I kind of ventured my own path. And so going through the military and then after the military living in California, San Diego and LA and really kind of diving into the world of modeling and fitness and everything, I found myself living a completely different life than I ever would have imagined and knew something was wrong.

And so, yeah, that kind of brought me back home, back to my roots. And kind of God really gave me a come to Jesus meeting and showing me like, had a really good experience, good in a sense of what it did, not good in the sense of what it was, where, you know, I really got to go face to face with my demons and realize, wait, these are real. Like these are real entities, real things.

And if these are real, then God is definitely real. And that kind of opened my eyes back up and allowed me to do my own research, take away all the dogma and liturgies that I grew up with and actually read on my own and let the Holy Spirit open up what the word meant to me. And it brought me back. Well, I'm glad you're back. I can relate to that. I won't probe too deep because I know that if you wanted to put it out there, you put it out there. Maybe later.

Maybe later, but I know what that come to Jesus meeting looks like, but those resonate. So how did your life change? How did it change? Honestly, it was understanding. There's a lot of ways it changed, better relationships.

being a more engaged father, a more engaged husband, having higher frequency relationships with people who actually want to build someone up. You always hear it's, the journey's so lonely. The grind is, it's like, no it's not. Not if you have really good people who also align with your vision, but also align with your core values.

you know, my number one core value being Christlike character. So aligning myself with other people who love business and love growth and personal development and also have that Christlike character core value, it's not lonely at all. Like it's actually a pretty amazing journey. So I would say my life has changed a lot in terms of better relationships and better opportunities. But also that superpower of the Holy Spirit, like

I can't underestimate enough once you learn actually how to utilize the gift of the Holy Spirit.

you can do pretty amazing things. Share. What does that look like for you? So for me, it really is the gift of discernment. And I hate to use wisdom as a phrase there, but there's no way without like, because it's not my wisdom.

It's, it's God's wisdom that he kind of shows me things and I can put together things like, like a puzzle on a, on a board, but there's no way I would be helping coaches, you know, like you and, and like so many others in TRM make real life changing wealth at, I mean, I started coaching for TRM at 27 years old, helping people make real life changing wealth that were years older than me.

with a lot more perceptual life experience. But it's that praying through it and asking the Holy Spirit to actually open up and highlight the areas that maybe people wouldn't see. And so I think that's a huge spiritual gift that God's blessed me with of discernment and to see patterns in things and to kind of see the equation behind the curtain of what's going on.

kind of like sitting at a computer and looking at code. I kind of just get to be able to see that in the day to day. It's, it's, it's funny because in my head, I'm sitting here singing a song, you know, like way maker puzzle breaker. I'm like, when did puzzle breaker get in this song? Like I'm not going to sing again. Well, actually I can you promise that, but, that is it's cool how he uses the spiritual gifts, right?

It is funny because we do say, well, it's my spiritual gift. No, it's his. Yeah, 100%. And you don't choose the gift. That's one thing where we feel like when we, at least from my perspective, like I've talked to a lot of Christians who get down on themselves because they might not have a certain spiritual gift that they keep asking for. And they feel like when they read the scripture and it talks about these spiritual gifts that you should be able to tap into all of them.

And it's like, no, I believe God gives you certain ones. And like in entrepreneurship, we teach like, find your niche and dive into your niche. Because if you do, you become an expert in that niche. If you try and do everything, you can only go so deep. You kind of have this shallow superficial ability to serve. If God gave you every spiritual gift, how would you be able to use them all to the max efficiency to actually change people's lives? But if he gave you two or three that you can actually use to their max potential, you can

move mountains with the Holy Spirit. And so that's kind of one of those things where just recently, over the past probably two years, I've realized the spiritual gifts that God's really opened up to me and I'm starting to be able to better utilize those to their max potential. Love that, man. It's really powerful and it's so true. We don't get to pick. Because I think one of the most misquoted, misunderstood verses of the Bible is where it says,

He will give you your heart's desire. Well, but I want this. You're missing it. You're missing it. It's that he will change your heart and thus change your desires. Yep. 100%. It's like that difference between traditional Judaism and Christianity. Or it's like Judaism is you're saved because you do the good works and it causes you to change. Whereas Christianity is,

you change because, or you do the good works because you changed. Like you are so encompassed by your love for Christ and the Holy Spirit that the good works and the changes and the things that you do are a byproduct of that relationship and that love. Where traditional Judaism is kind of devoid of the love, but it's like you just, you do the good works because that's what you're supposed to do. It doesn't matter what your heart is behind it. It matters.

the outcome. I align more with Christianity where it's like, I love God so much and I love Christ so much that it ends up causing this natural shift in me where my behaviors naturally just change and good things come as a byproduct of that. It is interesting because if you're doing something out of just an absolute and utter, I have to do this or I don't get this, that's still not good. It's an obligation.

Yeah. Which honestly almost takes away the free will of it. You could say that. And I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day, very loving, great person, who is wicked. And they were like, they just asked how come everybody on the street was like, hey, Matthew, and I was like, you don't know who they are, do you? I was like, no, I've probably spoke to them at some point, or like bought them a coffee, I don't know.

So why do you do that because I'm to love my neighbor is myself you know when when I was an alcoholic drug addict I was very mean to other people because I hate myself. And so what we do it because of the law of three right the rule of three where whatever I put out comes back three fold so if I you know spiteful mean whatever it comes back three fold.

And she said, so if I'm good, then I get that threefold. Just kind of stopped and stared at her and said, that's kind of selfish, don't you think?

And she's like, what do you mean? And I said, well, if you're only doing good because you get good in return, wouldn't that thus be the definition of selfishness?

Yep. And I said, no, correct me if I'm wrong, but what culture considers selfishness good?

And she looked at me, she goes, where are you getting with this? I said, if that's the motivation, then none of the actions would be good because they would all be selfishly motivated.

Yep. And that kind of turns into that kind of Machiavellian worldview and kind of that Marxist worldview where everything is kind of a byproduct or everything that is put out is supposed to create some kind of return in the future. I mean, it will, but we don't control that return. 100%. Right. So wait, that was fun and a little unexpected. So tell me,

How? Right? Because let's get down to it. Let's be real here. Like you've been in the nitty gritty modeling. Like I've seen your stage photos, right? Like they may have stayed on my screen a little longer than they should have.

Yeah. Sorry, I'm picturing it again in my head.

Our industry as fitness professionals can be incredibly ego -driven, incredibly vain, incredibly idealistic.

How does how does this coexist now or did it change your view altogether of fitness of self of the way you treat your body? Yeah, so I would say it wasn't my faith that changed my views of bodybuilding. It was my ambitions that changed my views of bodybuilding. Now, I still coach bodybuilding. Some some very select few people.

I quit taking on a lot of bodybuilding clientele. And it was strange that I did that at a point in time in which I was actually gaining a lot of traction with my prep coaching. But I realized, you know, with I love bodybuilding because of the, you know, Christian belief that our body is our temple and that, you know,

We have to be able to die to ourselves. And when we do that, it creates discipline. Well, physically in sport, what's the like highest level of discipline that I know of in sport. And that is bodybuilding. Like you literally have, it's a 24 hour a day, seven day a week kind of pursuit of that goal. And so I loved it in terms of like kind of how it could apply to

What?

drove me away from bodybuilding because talking to 99 % of bodybuilders, I could tell that there was nothing behind. Like it was, it was, they were just waiting for the next moment to speak so that they could talk about their bicep pump or their meals or how their workouts are doing. And it wouldn't even be the conversation that we're having. Like we could have a conversation about, you know, socioeconomics and somehow they would relate the

you know, crash of the stock market, no way to the way their calves look. And it's like, dude, this is not helping me at all. And I don't want it to sound selfish. Like I have such a drive to build prolific, to grow and to help and impact so many people. And so most of my conversations are about like impact and, and serving others and building and growing.

that just talking to someone about how the split in their bicep peak looks just made me want to hit my head against a wall. And so that's what drove me away from Bach.

So you don't want to talk about the peak this way, right? I mean, I will look at yours all day, Matthew. But yeah, no, that's that's that's honestly it's just it's the vanity of it. And I lived it for so long. Like I was that guy. But my ambitions were only about me. Like my ambitions were about how much wealth I could acquire, how much fame I could acquire, how

many girls I could get. It was really all just centered about everything coming back to me. And as soon as I realized that God was calling me to actually build something that was way bigger than myself, and honestly, my goal is not even to be the face of my company. I want to kind of be the person behind the scenes and let everyone else be the microphone and amplification and get all of that return. So once I realized that,

It was like a switch. Like the next conversation I had was with a client who was competing and I just, I couldn't get into the conversation. I felt bad because like, I know that they've been looking forward to talking to me about like their training and stuff, but it wasn't actually pertaining to their prep itself. It was just them bragging about their workouts and I was just, I was losing it.

I was like, I can't do this. It's like being on a bad date where you're just like, there's not a lot going on right now, is there? 100%. Yeah, it really is, man. Self -admittedly, I was probably the really bad date for most of them, but like, you know, whatever. Same, same. 100%, man. If you had any bad experiences, yeah, it was me. Like, I don't...

Therapy so I love that so you do think that And you know my feelings on this but you do think that they can't exist at the same time They can coexist and not just maybe coexist but amplify one another Yes, but it's you have to be careful if you are a Like Christian that's that's competing you can't look for validation externally

That's where it starts to cause a decay. Too many people I've seen get into competing with the longing to reach their full potential or to take their journey to that next step. But as soon as they start getting a physical change that looks to others appealing, suddenly they start gravitating more to that external validation.

And now they're not doing it to get themselves to the next level or they're not doing it to create a body that's pleasing to their creator. They're doing it to get a body that's pleasing to the person that's, you know, sending them DMs on Instagram. And that's a very dangerous slope that a lot, a lot, a lot of young competitors go through because we grow up in a society that has completely

built a reward system on external validation. We live in a time where you get paid to be a content creator. That is completely an entire industry that's built upon external validation. How much do people like my stuff? Like in terms of the content, not any product I'm making to serve somebody, but how much does someone like my abs or think, you know, my butt is juicy enough to pay me. And they've created an entire industry that can pay millions.

for that external validation. And bodybuilding can, and I say this as someone who is, I love the sport, but bodybuilding can be that gateway drug that takes you to that path. And I've seen a lot of people who start competing with good intentions and then two years later they have an OnlyFans. And it's like, what happened? What happened? And they realize,

Like, well, I got a physique for me, but money's pretty nice too. And the compliments are really nice. The attention is pretty great. So it can coincide. They can work together, but you have to have a guarded heart. I love that. Guarded heart. Now, what about Becky or Jeff on the street? That's my niece. That's who I work with, right?

Air even self admittedly in a post recently where from most of my life my working out was either out of desperation.

or external validation.

and it never quite got there. And then when it shifted into worship, which is an odd foreign concept to most believers, everything changed. And it's a lot easier to be more consistent, in my opinion, a lot easier to say,

Man, I really don't want to do that thing today. I don't want to go work out today. it's not about.

or perfect even today. Man, I really don't want to eat that ground beef, sweet potatoes, green beans with dad gum buffalo wing sauce yet again.

I'm gonna go eat that meal that I don't wanna eat now because it's not.

It's not even about the look. That had to do with the fruit of the spirit, self -discipline, foresight. And the foresight being, if I don't eat that, then I'm not keeping my word to myself, and then I'm going to start to second -guess myself and lose my confidence. Do you think that, have you seen that approach? I don't know how well that would work. It could work in bodybuilding, but with the general population, with Becky, with Steve, with whomever. How do you think those

can work together, support one another, and do you think that that's a valid approach? Maybe not valid is not the right word, but have you come across that approach? Yeah, so turning your

It depends on the worldview they're coming from. And so if you're working with someone who is a

a self proclaiming Christian, then being able to explain to them that how you treat your body is a form of worship. Now, it's not self worship. And that's where people get confused. They think that, you know, having abs is a form of self worship. So I shouldn't have abs. But then there are subconscious tells them, well, if you're telling me not to have abs, I'm going to tell you to eat the pizza.

Like that's and that's false. That's that's complete lie. The truth of the matter is God calls you to take care of your body. He says it's good to be strong, but it's better to have discipline and fear of the Lord. And like it didn't say that it's bad to be strong and that you should only have discipline and fear of the Lord. He said it was good to be strong. And

I think people just ignore one and only to emphasize the other when in reality they're both a part of it. Some of the greatest men in the Bible were warriors. Do you think that they were fat and out of shape and were breathing heavy just after putting on their armor? No. The 12 disciples

walked with Jesus for miles and miles and miles for four years proclaiming his word. And they ate a pretty pescetarian diet, if you ask me. It was probably not full of a bunch of crap. They probably were eating a diet that was not for gluttony.

And so we tend to only think about the parts of the Bible that are easy for us to live out. And we ignore the small parts that we think, you know, that's not important. Like, we don't really need to worry about gluttony. Okay. Yeah. Maybe until, you know, you realize that you would much rather

skip part of the worship service because you're in line for the free donuts. You know, like there's a level there that you start to realize maybe if I just open my mind up a little bit I can see that what I'm doing is not actually glorifying God. I think I love all of that, like all of it. And it is that the Bible does say, right, cross -referencing matters, right? It's kind of like knowing how to read a study.

You know, a lot of people quote studies, but it's like, have you ever learned how to read a study? Which was a whole like separate study to start learn how to study. Right. But it is one of those. Yes. Like I did finally hear a sermon on gluttony and no, it's not only reason, referencing. It's anything that we take to extremes because in several places, the Bible says take nothing to extremes.

Nothing. So it's it also on the flip side of it all, in my opinion, I am no theologian. I'm just Matthew the mustard seed. Yeah. Right. Like we'll go with that. Right. Right. If you only eat those things and cannot allow yourself to have that slice of pizza with your children, is that that's that's not it either. Because that is taking it to an extreme.

And we do see the Bible say, you know, slothfulness, gluttony, and it goes back to the questions asked the other day. Is not working out a sin? No, I don't think so. But is it pleasing to the Lord for you to do it? Might it help you get closer to the Lord if you do it? And from a scientific standpoint, because you know we're both nerds here, like, take, how about this interesting, like your brain is going to function better when you exercise when you move.

Your brain is going to function better when you eat better. Like, let's be real, dude. If you ate donuts and pizza every day, would your mind function properly? Diabetes. And that's a funny one. So I had this conversation recently. Somebody said, well, don't you think it's rather vain? You know, the vanity because of, you know, your looks. And I said in the beginning, yes, 100%. It was all vain.

Now, am I going to say that it never creeps in? No, that would I would be lying. I would absolutely be lying with that being said, I would hopefully choose to say about 95 % of the time I consider it worship and obedience and self -discipline and foresight. And it's somebody to their point was, don't you think it's arrogant to push yourself that hard? No, it's allowing me to push my limits and allowing me to get closer to him.

when I want to stop, then I will stop in the middle and pray. Like in between sets, if you, when we finally do work out together someday, you will see me dancing around in the middle of the gym with my hands in the air. Like straight up. Today, I actually cried because a song hit me so hard in the middle of the gym.

It's just something we just often don't think about. They don't teach it in seminary. I've worked with several people that have been through seminary and they're like, dude, we've never gone over this. But I think that it's because many pastors can't speak on it with conviction. 100%. And you sent me a post about this exact thing.

I just sent it to my dad and he kind of felt called out. And he told you, I kind of feel called out. I was like, well, you probably should. That's called conviction. God uses that. And no, I love him. And he was like, there is some valid points to that. And it's not that ice cream is inherently wrong. Like that's not what we're trying to say, but it's the, you know, what's the reason behind it.

Are you turning to ice cream because you are trying to make yourself feel better? And if that's the case, God clearly states that like you should turn to no one but Him to, you know, fix those issues. So if your food is a coping mechanism, then that is, that is where the source of the problem lies. Like what is your coping mechanisms?

for some people training, like I hear this all the time, the gym is my therapy. And it's like, no, gym is not therapy. I've seen a lot of guys who say the gym is my therapy and they're still on like their third wife and they're depressed and anxious and they go to the gym to just escape from the problems that they create in their day to day. The gym is not your therapy. Therapy is your therapy.

And the gym is now how you be able to continue to strengthen that mental fortitude to stay healthy and to stay sharp. And so I love how you brought that up. It's like, sometimes when we do these things to ourselves, and then we ask God to bail us out.

Yes, God is a loving God. But, did he bail out Job? No.

but he knew that Job would continue to worship him through all of it. And sometimes God might be testing us. Like you got yourself into this. I want to see if you truly love me and will turn your life around and do the things that are required to fix it. And I will reward you 10 fold afterwards, but we don't get the immediate reward. So we feel like God hates us and he's given up on us or there is no God.

And that was me for a long time. It's like, man, my life sucks. God must not be real. And in reality, God was like, you're just, you still need to become the person that you need to that I'm planning on you to be. And you can't do that if I just fix everything for you. Why would God give us more gifts when we don't steward the ones he's already given us? Amen to that. Amen to that. And use one of my favorite phrases, the gym therapy is therapy.

The gym is an outlet and Christ is for comfort.

They all work together. There are three pillars when I coach. Physical, mental, spiritual.

Inside, outside and above.

And they're all necessary. And we do know that exercise is actually the most effective yet least prescribed for antidepressant and anti -anxiety. The gym will help you, your body relieve tension, relieve anxiety. But if there is a deep seated trauma, which let's be real, we all have them, that's where CBT,

That's where cognitive behavioral therapy, EMDR, things of that nature came from. Christ is your comfort. Come to me all you who are weary. For my yoke is light.

Right? That is what that looks like. We lean on Him and we say, well, it's just, you know, all in God's timing. That's not incorrect, but it is incomplete.

because we have free will, so we can put ourselves into situations he never wanted us in.

We say, well, this is just a storm of life. You stepped out from under the shelter.

God's right there. He's got the umbrella. Come on. Let's go. And again, it's right back to the biblical story to your point. I love it. When he, when was it? he called it in the middle of the storm to walk on water. He was walking on water until he took his eyes off Jesus. Back to your point about the spiritual gifts. There's nothing we can't do when God calls us to do it, but we have to keep our eyes on him. And it's very, very easy to take our eyes off.

Nothing, everything in the Bible. As I sit there and read, like, been on Psalm 34 for two days, and it's like three verses at a time, because it's so powerful. And it's so interesting, you think about it, people go, my thought on this is, well, we do have the trumps, and we do need to move on, and we do need to do these things. God, heal me, help me, deliver me. God told Noah to build the ark.

You've heard me say that God told them to march around the city walls of Jericho for three days. No, no, I wouldn't hit four days. No, I wouldn't hit right. And to keep doing it. And they probably look like idiots. Yeah. What is idiots doing? And you know what else he told them to do? He told them to shut up.

Keep your mouth closed. Do not say a word. Shut up.

and trust his plan and keep going.

And dude, I'm not great at it. Like none of us are, but we can try to be a little bit better every day and be a little bit more obedient. And it sounds like we pray the same prayer every morning, which is please allow me to die to myself a little bit more every day. Please allow me to be useful to you. Where do you need me and what do you need me to do? Yeah. But in Psalm 34, this is interesting. People say, I've told people

When faith can move mountains, but be prepared to wake up next to a shovel

That's not biblical. Here it is. Let's go to Psalm 34.

But you have to partake. That's an action. Praise Him. That's an action. There's 11 actions in Psalm 34 that we have to take. Yeah. Or my favorite is the knock and the door will be open for you. Ask and He will provide. But it's knock and the door will be open.

you know. I'm like I'm like I'm like I'm like I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I'm like. I

it's it's it takes action it takes movement - God. Hands and feet meaning we have to move we have to do

And it's, I'm going to hit this one last point, okay? Because it goes back to your bodybuilding, goes back to the coaching, goes back to all of it. Now, you know, we had this discussion last night. God is wisdom, right? God is love.

When we are working, going on stage, trying to lose body fat, trying to be the strong, happy, healthy Christians that God created us to be and desires for us to be, I truly believe that. We have a lot of examples.

I firmly believe and I love your thoughts on this, that acting out of love will eventually get us to be that strong, happy, healthy Christian that you designed us to be.

What does that look like to you and what are your thoughts on that?

Have you thought of that? I have, but...

I'll be honest.

In my personal life, I really think that Jesus was like the most OG stoic and all the other stoics just reframed and repackaged things that he spoke about in scripture. 100 % truth. 100 % truth. Yes. And so I'm very, very big on like being that person that's pushing the stone up the hill.

just for the purpose of pushing the stone up the hill. I don't care what the end result is. I care about the person I become once I'm there. And that person, I pray every day, is someone that, you know, at the end of it, whenever I've pushed it up the last time, and, you know, my time has come, the first thing I hear is, you did well, my good and faithful servant. Like, that's what it looks like for me.

And so whether it's my business or it's my training or it's the people that we've impacted in the business if it's TRM like no matter what it is like I I Just love the work Because I know it's creating the person that will hear that someday And constantly remind me myself that that happens through Christ like character

my number one core value. And at times I understand that I'm never gonna be a picture perfect representation of Christ. But if I can at least get close to Peter like that, I would be real happy with, you know, cause I have a little temper. I might be the one that would, you know, cut a dude's ear off if he starts talking to me wrong. But at the same time, understanding that even with my flaws, if I

I really try and die to myself and live a life of discipline and service and servanthood then at the end of the day, I'm going to hear those words. I love that. You know what, may I tell you what I hear? You're doing it out of love and reverence for God. You're doing it out of love and reverence for your neighbor. You're doing it out of love and reverence to leave the world a better place than you found it. And you're doing it out of all of those are love.

I'm just cheering it up in a different way. Yeah. 100%. It's God has blessed us. Like I've flatlined more than once. And so like I understand that I'm on borrowed time. This is not my time. I fail a lot. Fail a lot. More often than I'd like to admit. But at the same time, like this isn't

I shouldn't even be here. And when I did flatline, I was definitely not in a place where I would actually be saved. I mean, literally flatline or figuratively? No, like literally I've flatlined. So like I shouldn't be alive. And so with that, it's, it's understanding that God kept like, God gave me a second and third chance for a reason. And it took me a lot of mistakes and a lot of dumb decisions to realize like, I'm still here.

I'm not invincible. It's that maybe God actually has a plan for me and I need to start living in his truth and not my own truth. I hate that term. Live your truth. No, like I'm going to live God's truth. it took me a long time to figure that out, but that, that truth is be loved to everyone. Like I'm not one to judge anybody.

I'm not one to condemn anyone. I'm not like, I'm very libertarian in my views. Like you do you, I'm gonna love you regardless. I'll, whatever happens there happens, but I'm just gonna show you Christ -like love as much as I can. Can I be brash and to the point and a little abrasive at times? Yes, that's just the Marine in me that comes out every once in a while.

But at the end of the day, like, I'm genuinely going to try. I'm obsessive about serving and trying to help others. And that's what I really try and live. That Christlike character doesn't come out through saying scripture all the time or, you know, praying over people or laying hands on people. I wish it did. It's just something that I'm not. It's not me. I obsess over serving others the way I feel like.

Christ walks that extra mile with the guy who's hurting. That's how I live it out.

That is one of the most beautiful and powerful things I've ever.

obsessive about serving, obsessive about loving, obsessive about being closer to Christ. Imagine how much better this world would be and each one of us would be if we just started with ourselves by obsessively loving Him, thus loving ourselves, thus loving our neighbor. And how can we do that if we break to bring it right back around all the way back to our chosen, our given professions really?

If we break because we neglected it. Brother, I could do this with you all day. And we do have a lot of offline talks and they're amazing. And those of you all listening, you would think they'd all be about fitness, but he and I have never actually spoken about a workout. It's like 85, I'd say 80 % God, then some family and then like 3 % business. Like that's it.

But in those are, yeah, that's it. What is life without memes, bro? What do we do before those? If you had one piece of advice to give to someone that is a Christian, that is wanting to start glorifying God, caring for the temple that he, his temple that he's given us to steward.

What might that be?

that may not be obsessive, but is wanting to start.

or someone that's wanting to get closer to God, you can take any of those. No, I love that. If you really want to

start glorifying God.

Well, I mean, it's prayer. Prayer is the foundation of everything. Like, pray for God to actually give you wisdom over what it is that that looks like. But it's also understanding that

You can't, we're not Christ. We can't serve with an empty cup. And we hear that a lot and that's why people say go to church and 100 % agree. Go to church because it fills your spiritual cup. But you can't go out and serve and use that spiritual cup if you have nothing in your physical and mental cup. If you're not taking care of your mind and your body, your spirit can't go anywhere.

Again, we have to be the hands and feet and if you're not actually training your hands and your feet, you can't move. So physical fitness and physical preparedness are vital to living out the purpose God has given us because, you know, it would suck to be that preacher that is in the middle of a series that could truly change lives.

and you die of a heart attack.

Amen, brother. Be ready for the calling that God has for you.

so that you're capable and able to serve when he calls your name. 100%.

How powerful is that? Isaac slash the prolific professor. Love you, brother. I appreciate you. Where can people find you? Yep. The prolific professor on Instagram or

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Check out our gym www .prolificptgym .com. Other than that, that's pretty much it. Check out Trainer Revenue Multiplier and you can see how we actually impact other gym owners and training businesses around the world. I can personally testify to that, that my life is so much better in so many ways. And y 'all, if you're not prepared to do personal growth work, do not sign up for TR.

Do not do it because this is not one of those. They are not one of those get rich. I've got you 50 ,000 followers. And by the way, you got a thousand new leads in a month, but you're not personally capable of help handling them and you're going to break and they're going to get a bad experience. This is not it. But I firmly believe that your business can only grow as much as you do. And that's why I ended up with them. And I actually didn't even have any idea that I was going to end up with them when I met Isaac. Yeah. So.

And see, I can chill out a little bit when I'm not like, skied up on lavender lattes, bro. It's that lavender latte, man. It sucks. I don't know if it's the magic or the devil, maybe both. I'll talk to you soon, my friend. All right. Thank you, Matthew. I appreciate you, brother. Appreciate you. Bye.