Join host Greg Boulos on The Boulos Beat as he sits down with Mike Foley, owner of Foley’s Fitness in Scarborough, Maine. In this episode, Mike shares his journey in the fitness industry from overcoming back surgery in the 1980’s, to locating a site for a gym, to launching Foley’s Fitness in 2019. Today, Foley’s Fitness serves 3,600 members and employs a team of 60 professionals. Mike also discusses his recent loss of sight in one eye and how stem cell and exosome treatments significantly improved his vision. Tune in for an engaging discussion on location strategies, health, entrepreneurship, and resilience.
Join host Greg Boulos on The Boulos Beat as he sits down with Mike Foley, owner of Foley’s Fitness in Scarborough, Maine. In this episode, Mike shares his journey in the fitness industry from overcoming back surgery in the 1980’s, to locating a site for a gym, to launching Foley’s Fitness in 2019. Today, Foley’s Fitness serves 3,600 members and employs a team of 60 professionals.
Mike also discusses his recent loss of sight in one eye and how stem cell and exosome treatments significantly improved his vision. Tune in for an engaging discussion on location strategies, health, entrepreneurship, and resilience.
Greg Boulos 00:00
Greg, we'd like to welcome our listeners to the Boulos beat podcast. I'm your host. Greg Boulos, Boulos company's northern New England's largest commercial real estate services firm with offices in Portland, Maine and Portsmouth in Manchester, New Hampshire. We've been selling and leasing real estate in Maine in New Hampshire since 1975 we're now celebrating the 50th year in business. This podcast is designed to provide insight into Maine's business movers and shakers. On today's podcast, I have the pleasure of speaking with Mike Foley, owner of Foley's fitness located in Scarborough. Maine, not only is Mike the owner of Foley’s fitness, he's also a nutritionist who counsels people on their nutrition and weight goals. Mike started offering nutritional advice in 1989 and in 2019 open Foley's fitness in Scarborough. Mike is 57 years old and has three children, Lauren, who was 29 Sylvia, who's 22 and Ava, who is 20 Welcome, Mike. Mike, got you interested in fitness. I read somewhere that your journey to health started with back surgery in the 80s.
Mike Foley 00:58
Yes, yeah. I always played high school sports and enjoyed being competitive in sports. I wasn't. I was certainly a very average athlete, nothing to stand out for. And then I got into working out, and then I ended up having rupturing my disc and having back surgery. And when that happened, my body really got really incredibly small and just kind of frail, and so I got back into working out, and it just got really passionate about it.
Greg Boulos 01:28
So did the rupture to your back happen because you were perhaps doing weights improperly. It's
Mike Foley 01:33
hard to tell No, maybe a little bit, but it was just kinda I was doing a job where I was working at, like a airline and lifting, putting luggage into I lifted this army bag, and I felt it and then, but I didn't take any time off. Went working out, and who knows, it's not, not really, like just one of those things that happened,
Greg Boulos 01:54
probably a combination of things. Yeah, Mike, when I met you, I wanted to take control of my health, and I first met with Dr Mike bedix At the age Management Center. He recommended you as a nutritionist. Highly recommended that I go see you. That was about 20 years and 40 pounds ago, and I've been seeing you weekly weekly ever since I know when I come in and my weight is up a little bit, and I give you a lot of very good excuses. You call me on it. What are some of the better excuses you've heard from your clients? Well,
Mike Foley 02:26
you know, I think everyone can kind of find a reason why they gain weight, you know. And you know, sometimes they're excuses, and sometimes they're things that happen, and it is difficult, just because when you look at like society, it's probably no one in society wants to be overweight, but it's a journey that most people struggle with. You know, I remember when I got into nutrition in 87 it was one of those things where they said, the one thing most people are unhappy about is their parents. And, you know, and sometimes parents goes with health too. So it was kind of one of those things where it was, I felt like I had a broad audience. When you figure you go into a field, and it's one thing most people aren't happy with, and you can offer a service that can help improve their life, you're pretty lucky.
Greg Boulos 03:15
But what about some of the excuses? Yeah,
Mike Foley 03:19
the excuses of many, you know, and like, I tell people is, I just think it's one of those things. If there was a reason why you put on weight, there's a reason why I can overcome it. So I always look at like, when someone gives me an excuse, like, well, you know, it was my wife made me this food, or my, you know, my husband, you know, took me out to dinner. Usually, if you go to dinner, there's going to be one or two choices on the menu most people, most places you can eat. And you know, even if they're legit, they don't really matter, because the way you look at it almost is like you have to look at your body as basically, like a product of all those like, if you're on the beach and overweight, no one's gonna listen to all your excuses. They're just gonna go, oh, Mike's overweight. If you're in shape, they're not going to look at all the stuff you overcame, either. But I think it's one of those things where, I mean the excuses, people have a million different ones, and they're funny, and that's why I like it one on one, because you can kind of, you know, be serious with people, but in the way, like, tell them that I'm not I'm just not buying that, that excuse,
Greg Boulos 04:23
yeah, you've done that with me many times. I'm starting to resent it. Several years ago, I suggested to Nayla, who's my significant other, vote we should get together with Mike Foley for dinner. Her reaction was absolutely not. I asked her why, and she said, because at dinner, Mike is going to judge everything I order and everything I put in my mouth. Do you get that reaction from a lot of people? They think you're judging them. Yeah,
Mike Foley 04:52
I do hear that quite a bit, where, when you think of it, it would be like, kind of like you in a looking at a building you're aware of. It. But you're probably not judging if someone bought a building, what it's in and out, right? But it is one of those things, like, I remember many times people said, You're the most popular, unpopular person I know when, if I go out, I'm always like, kind of, at a wedding, people go, Oh God, I'm sitting with you. So it's kind of, and I would never say anything, you know, no, no, but you're thinking it well, when you do it for a living, you are aware of what people put in their mouth, you know, but not if they're happy, if they're complaining about, like, if they're eating bad and they're complaining about their body, it's kind of, you know, it's pretty easy to call it, but if they're happy with their health and happy with their body and they're not eating bad, it's why we live in America. We have great choices, right? You can choose to do what you want. You just can't complain if you're not getting results.
Greg Boulos 05:46
At some point, on one of my weekly visits with you, we started to discuss a dream you had. The dream was to own your own gym. When did you first start thinking about owning a gym? Walk us through how that dream manifested into what we see have fully fitness today.
Mike Foley 06:01
Yeah, it's funny. I started working for our goals gym corporate in 1988 and I and I just love the fitness industry. I love everything about it. And more than anything, I love all the different types of people, you know, because you have people with different goals in different environments, but like when they're working out, they all have one calming they're all trying to improve, or they're all doing things that will make them lives better. No one ever looks back and said, guys, I wish I didn't exercise that year, right? They always regret not exercising, or things happen health wise, not making right choices. So I always love the idea of opening a gym. It's just basically, so I started training people, and I started to build up a pretty good name, and then finished up my school and got into the nutrition, and I was thinking of it, and then all of a sudden, like, we're having, I'm having kids, and I was just afraid, you know, basically, like I had plenty of opportunities to own a gym, and I went on my own in 1994 and doing nutrition where I was no longer working for goals. I was I opened up my own place, and I was doing it out of the Portland Athletic Club, and I had a little back room, and I started doing it there. Then I went to a lifestyle fitness center, and I had two locations, a couple employees, and kind of going back and forth. And then worlds gym, Steve CO was a friend of both of ours, gave me a great opportunity to go over to his place, and I went there. And basically, that was our marginal way. That was our marginal way. Yeah, world's gym, it was a again, I've always worked at different facilities, but all the places I worked at, I always really enjoyed in the you know. I always thought I could learn from each different member, a different owner, and just get different people's opinions. And me and Steve were talking about me buying world's gym. And the more I thought about I just wanted to kind of create my own culture, you know. And I think when you buy a gym, if it's yours, you want to be able to do it your way. And I don't know, got it, and then it just kind of remember, we're looking at different places, and we're looking at like Marshalls, and it was like 10,000 square foot and then, and I was still getting turned down by the banks at that point. And then it was kind of like we just kind of, I went for it. I got my brother involved, who helped make it happen. My brother Jim, and he helped me get some investors. And I got some investors. He got many investors, and we ended up getting about 10 guys involved that were investors. And then we ended up getting a loan from Alex Lopes at Bangor savings, and I really feel blessed
Greg Boulos 08:45
with so many investors. Does that create a problem in terms of managing the place? Or
Mike Foley 08:50
no? Investors are great. So basically, like Jim and I are the owners, and the guy that, Joe Dougherty, runs the gym for me, he bought out some of the investors. So basically, like, what happens? But with the investors, I let them know that I put everything I own on the line. You know, where they put in maybe 50,000 or 100,000 which I'm so thankful for. But it was just basically like an investor, and some of them had expert opinions on certain things. I would definitely take the advice. But on the gym, I definitely wanted to do what I was involved in, you know, and I, when I approached the bank at that time, I had done over 23,000 clients. So I felt like, in this small area, I built up my name and but in the end, it's like, with the gym, I just feel like you have to keep getting better. You know, there's a lot of competition. There's always gonna be competition, so you just gotta keep putting money in the gym and doing little things to improve it.
Greg Boulos 09:47
You asked me to help you find the location for Foley's fitness, and we ended up with the Haigis Parkway site. Tell the audience what challenges you ran into developing the property the actual bill. Lee and land and getting it to a point where you had the opening day? Yeah,
Mike Foley 10:04
well, when we're looking at like my kids, we all my kids grew up in Scarborough, so I was a little partial to Scarborough, but I had done all my my business has always been out of Portland for the most part. So when I was looking at Scarborough, the thing that really in teased me. There was rumors about the downs. And now look how amazing the Downs is when we first were looking at it, you know. And then when you also look at it, I just felt we had to be off a highway. Because I always feel like, if you're driving some way and you're driving to a highway, when you go in the gym, you kind of amped up, but if you're driving on a highway, it kind of relax. You're listening to music, where, if you're stuck on traffic, it kind of, you know, like, say, where I was at on Warren Avenue. A lot of times, coming from downtown, people see me, they'd be like, God, it took me 50 minutes. You know, we're here. They know it's always going to be around 20 minutes, give or take. It's never going to be quick, but it's never long, you know. So and then trying to develop it was just so much I didn't know, you know, like I had no idea about wetlands and what I was getting into, and different things and with the town, different parking so I really had to just realize I don't know this part. And and Dave latuli by him to represent me, and then Jason Fauci was my civil engineer, and I just had to get a lot of help. Truthfully, I did very little, because it was like one of those things, like, I can't go to the town and talk about what we're going to do for wetlands. I did. I would go with them, but I wouldn't say much, because I don't know much.
Greg Boulos 11:37
Well, you say you did very little, but you did write the checks? Wrote the
Mike Foley 11:41
checks? Yes. And with the gym, I put everything I own on the line. So, you know, that's what I was kind of like with the investors. It was like they were really good about understanding, you know, they basically knew what I put on the line. So they kind of believed in the project. So they were great.
Greg Boulos 12:00
What the town of Scarborough in the parking requirement they wanted to impose on you? Yeah, that was
Mike Foley 12:07
the thing that was, overall, I think Tom Hall, the manager of Scarborough, just a great guy and just so wonderful, you know, I can't think anything, you know. I just think he's a great guy in whenever I had issues all along, he's always been a guy I just enjoy seeing and talking to. When you go before the planning board, they all have different opinions on parking, and that was one of the things. I had to go back three or four times. And each time you go back, you know, it's cost me about 4000 I'm thinking, God, I didn't do a family vacation for years. And here's 4000 you know, we had to just get more parking, more Park, because I knew what I needed for parking.
Greg Boulos 12:48
They didn't want you to have a lot of parking. Yeah, they
Mike Foley 12:51
didn't want me to have much parking. And, you know, because they were worried about it impacting the wetlands and feathers to them. But in the same respect, if you open up a facility and you do it right? It was, we're doing the best we could with the wetlands and making it. We're doing everything through DEP. So they were approving it. But for some reason, it was just kind of one of those things. They wanted me to have less and less parking. And I find I wanted 190 spots. I wanted at least 175 end up settle on 158 but it was like, Yeah, I wish we had more parking now,
Greg Boulos 13:26
every time I go over there, parking lots pretty full, yeah, but you always find a space, but it's
Mike Foley 13:31
pretty full. And we actually not through Scarborough, but through the turnpike. We have to put a turn lane in and makes sense. There's just too much traffic. So when's that gonna happen? That's gonna happen this spring. Yep, yep. We got Shaw Brothers doing that, so that'll be good. Your
Greg Boulos 13:51
facility is 28,000 square feet, which I believe is one of the larger gyms in the area. You have over 3600 members and 60 employees. How do you run a nutrition program, seeing a client every 15 minutes that also run the gym? Is it Joe Dougherty, who helps you out with that? He's a partner,
Mike Foley 14:10
correct? Yeah, yep, yep, Joe. Joe bought out six investors, so yep, and Joe runs the gym, along with my manager, Dana Benger. She really controls all the staff. So really with the gym, like, I'm kind of like a figurehead, but I'm not running the gym, but I love working with the members, so if I don't have a client, I really enjoy being on the floor helping people. But like, say, if people have issues with their membership, Joe and Dana are so efficient. I'm just blessed, wonderful people, and they just do a great job running the gym. Because
Greg Boulos 14:43
you do see somebody every 15 I do, yeah,
Mike Foley 14:46
and before, when I used to, when we first opened, I was in the gym pretty much all the time. I start seeing clients to seven. I wouldn't get out till seven or eight. Now, I've had some different health issues come up, so I'm working eight. To six, and it's just a real busy day. So I'm not even a lot of times available for my brother, Jim and Joe get on a lot of the meetings with different things, like with We're redoing the steam rooms, for example. And I probably met with the contractors once or twice, where Joe and Jim have met with them several times. Yeah,
Greg Boulos 15:21
that's more their expertise too. Yeah, yeah. Besides, Joe, I know your brother, Jim, which you had mentioned, has been a tremendous help to you on the fitness side of the business. I know he was an early investor, but in an owner of the facility. Does he help you on a day to day basis? Because he doesn't live
Mike Foley 15:40
here. Yeah? No. Jim lives in Tennessee, but he comes up every couple months, so, but I would say, most days I talked to Jim at some point, and we're always busy, so it's always quick, but, and I would say Jim and Joe probably talk to each other several times a day, you know, so, so even Though it's distance, he's heavily involved in the gym.
Greg Boulos 16:02
And how many brothers and sisters.
Mike Foley 16:05
We're a family of six. I had a my older brother, Kevin actually
Greg Boulos 16:12
passed away. Yeah, yeah, he did, yes. And then who the pecking order? Where is Jim? Kevin Z
Mike Foley 16:17
was the old is was the oldest. Then my sister Linda, Maureen, Jim, and then I've got a twin brother, Patrick, who's out in LA and he's actually an investor in the gym too.
Greg Boulos 16:28
And so you two were the youngest. Yes, yeah, babies,
Mike Foley 16:32
yeah, yeah. My dad had me when I was born. I believe my my dad was 44 and my mom was 41 so back then, that was pretty that was pretty old. Yeah, yeah. My brother, Kevin's like, 19 years old, and me, Jim's 10 years yeah.
Greg Boulos 16:47
Have your children expressed any interest in fitness or going into the business with you?
Mike Foley 16:51
Not, well, two of my girls, Sylvia and Ava, my two youngest, work at the gym and but I think, you know, like Sylvia is graduating from St Joe's, she's going to be a elementary teacher, and I just think she'll do a great job at that. Ava is looking at possible things like more criminology. Lauren works for a company called Rapid seven in Boston. They're actually she works in the TD Garden. She does marketing for them. So I think if you know, you always feel like public you with your kids, if your kids want to be involved in your business, that's always an opportunity for them. But you also want them to live their dream, not
Greg Boulos 17:34
yours. That's right, yeah, you don't want to force them. No,
17:39
definitely not. Plus, I hope they all retire
Greg Boulos 17:43
at Foley’s fitness, a member who walks into the building can make an appointment to see you for nutritional needs work out in the expansive, 28,000 square foot gym. But other other offerings here at Foley’s fitness, yeah,
Mike Foley 17:55
we actually have quite a few. Because when I opened the gym, I wanted to be basically a mall of fitness. I wanted to offer everything. We have about 20 personal trainers that just do a tremendous job, and they're actually developing their own names. You know, they're trainers for us, but they are, they are top notch, and they are really building a good career. We have probably about eight that just stand out as far as they just do an unbelievable job. And then Jen Lawrence has been working with me off and on for, like, I don't even know, maybe 30 years, but Jen's probably as good as you'll ever see as a trainer, and continues to just absolutely do amazing job. And we got Noah's been with me for about four years building an unbelievable business, and we've got August, who's came on, who's just doing well, and wells continues to do well. So we got a lot of Andre we got a lot of really good trainers. And then our classes are going very well too. So we offer a lot of we have for I think, 54 different classes, including spin and different aerobic programs. And then we have the Juice Bar, which we offer different, you know, smoothies and different snacks and pre made meals from top set and hungry gains. And then we have med matrix, who actually, well, you actually found this their main spot on
Greg Boulos 19:17
198 meanwhile Road, well, yeah,
Mike Foley 19:19
198 meanwhile road, they just do a great job carrying Cole run it, and they're just wonderful. And then we have Jeff Thibodeau, who's a physical therapist, and
Greg Boulos 19:29
what is med matrix is it's kind
Mike Foley 19:31
of like they're like an age management facility with testosterone. Testosterone. What they really do is they check your hormones, and they're really good with the peptides. And now everyone's into the semi glutide they can offer you that they just but they also do, like, IVs, you know, like the basically, like all the different vitamins you can get. They do skin care. They they're kind of a full service one stop shopping. Yeah, they're really good. And I'm blessed to have them. And then we have Whitney bean, who's a massage therapist, and she's awesome. And then we have, you know, Dr Jess, and He's unbelievable. He just does a great job. He's a chiropractor, yeah?
Greg Boulos 20:15
That is full service, yeah. What do you think sets you apart from the other gyms in the area. I mean, your array of offerings, obviously, is one of them. Well,
Mike Foley 20:24
there's a lot of good gyms in the area. So, you know, there's a lot of gyms. I think everyone brings a certain value to it. What I like is just different things like, say, if someone wants to go see Dr, just mean for chiropractic, then they can come to see a trainer after done to do training. So we just kind of offer a wide range of facilities. And the biggest thing is, when you open up a big gym, and our gym is pretty big, it's, you know, when you walk into a gym, if you're not used to it, I always found out, like I've worked with people, I've never worked out, and I got a feel for it, because I've always been so comfortable in a gym that's my home. But when you walk into a gym, what you have to do is get people comfortable. So what I really want my staff to do is the person that walks in that's been a gym their whole life. I feel we got great equipment. I feel we have a top not facility. I feel we can sell them. But what we have to do is get the person that's not a gym person and get them comfortable. Because if you get that person comfortable, they will they will be a lifetime member. It's almost like a golf course. If you get someone comfortable going the golf course, but they never golfed. It's hard, but once you get them comfortable, as long as you do the little things, you keep up the facility, you keep it really clean, you keep it keep the equipment up to date. People
Greg Boulos 21:40
will keep coming, because it can be intimidating for somebody coming into a gym.
Mike Foley 21:44
It is intimidating, you know, and whenever you walk into any place that you're not comfortable with, or you haven't been in, it's naturally uncomfortable. So what we have to do is really do a good job at showing them the equipment over and over again, because we have, like such a wide range of people, I think, you know, our reputation is kind of like a really fit gym, but we make a living is off everybody, you know, just the reason why a reputation comes over and goes, Oh, your gym so fit because they see what's on Instagram or Facebook. But you got to realize, like, fit people do more the posting than the people that are Silver Sneakers coming in, they're not flooding our Instagram. But if you came in, if we went to the gym right now, it's about probably 930 we'd see a wide range of people, all different sizes, all different ages, Silver Sneakers. Yeah, we do Silver Sneakers. Yeah. Is that something you coined? A phrase you coined, no, no. That's actually like a program from the insurances. It's like a Medicaid insurance where they basically it's part of your insurance, so they don't have to pay for their membership, and we get reimbursed.
Greg Boulos 22:46
And what age does that start?
Mike Foley 22:49
It's 65 but there's also they have a lot of things, if anyone that has any type of disability can qualify for it. And there's bunch of different insurance programs, and we basically, Joe Dougherty does a great job of setting those up. And it's kind of one of those things where you're doing it because, again, you want to improve people's health, yeah, you know, and it's like, you know, like insurance is like, I think most dogs will tell you, aren't the easiest to deal with, to get reimbursed or to get but Joe does a great job on it. But you kind of do it because you want to improve people's
Greg Boulos 23:21
health, is there an upper limit? I mean, what happens after silver?
Mike Foley 23:25
Yeah, so silver sneak is basically, like, like, you know, like, you get reimbursed, but it's not what it's a it's you don't get they don't pay a normal membership. You don't get reimbursed a normal membership. So, but it's one of those ones where, um, you know, people are paying it through their insurance, and like again, most of people doing it, you have an opportunity to change lives, and then you can get them to do other services, like train, or they might do nutrition with me, and insurance
Greg Boulos 23:56
wouldn't pick that up. No, no, no. How did the COVID 19 pandemic impact your business? Didn't the state mandate the gym should close? Yeah,
Mike Foley 24:07
that that was a kind of a frustrating time. We opened up in 2019 Yeah, December, 2019 and my goal was to have 2000 members by the end of 2019 and we got shut down, I think was March 13
Greg Boulos 24:27
of 2020 Yeah. And my months later,
Mike Foley 24:29
yeah, we're already at 2500 members. Then, wow. So it was going incredibly well. And just when we shut down was it was a real scary time, because it's one of those things where the uncertainty right, when you don't know, and you shut down, you don't know when you're going to be reopened and and truthfully, we know so little about it, there's all the fear and everything. I think, I think probably most people, when they look back on it, probably would have done things differently, but at the time they you know, everyone. Did the best they could with it, but it was, it was really frustrating as a gym, and then even once we're able to open, they had mandates that just weren't practical, you know, like six foot separation, you know. And I always felt like everyone's wearing masks, which, again, some people still come in the gym with masks. So everyone has their own opinion of what should be done or but I just tried to follow the rules, you know. I just didn't want to get shut down. I didn't want the bank. Alex Lopes was a bank from Bangor savings, and he was just really good, you know, like he wasn't, he goes, Hey, we know this isn't your fault. There was no pressure, like, when you're going to open. My investors were great, you know, that's when you just know you have quality people, you know, because, like, they could have been like, you know, like, I don't even if you have a lot of money, no one wants to lose 50,000 or 100,000
Greg Boulos 25:49
and everybody's a great investor, until there's a cash call, yeah, and then you find
Mike Foley 25:54
out, but they've, but they really were, like, I was so lucky. Because, you know, obviously I felt awful, but they were just really patient. They go, huh? So how long were you shut down for? We were shut down. I believe we were able to open back up in like June. So it was a period of time was about, you know, three to it was over three months. And
Greg Boulos 26:12
did they when you opened up? Did they restrict? How many people would Yeah, they had restrictions.
Mike Foley 26:16
And in the thing that was kind of didn't make sense to me there. They'd say, like, no more than 20 people in but they didn't take the account your size of your facility. So say, if I had a little studio and it was 20 people, it'd be like, well, you don't get more than eight in anyway, where it's like a gym, where you get 200 people in the gym at a time. So I kind of had to negotiate that a little bit. And when I called the state, it was this Johnson. I think her name was Lisa Johnson or Karen Johnson. She was like, you can have more people in on your facility. So it wasn't anything official, but she was one of the people in charge, so I felt comfortable letting more people in. And
Greg Boulos 27:01
so you've got a new gym, you know, like, within four or five months, you have to shut down. Members typically paid monthly. Did a lot of the members continue to pay? That was the
Mike Foley 27:13
amazing part. So many kept paying. And I certainly understood why people didn't, because other people, you know, you gotta realize too, like a lot of people, in situations where their financials weren't great, you know, so so, you know, we had a mix, but so many people were supportive, and I even had, I just remember this Marty ash, who was a me and his I grew up with Marty. I was a little bit younger. I was real good friends with his brother, Sean. He called and bought, like, two or three memberships, and he wasn't even in the area at the time, just for some to give me to someone, you know, nice, yeah, just, you know, just as a lot of really nice people.
Greg Boulos 27:57
Here are some questions for you, Mike that nobody asked, but everybody wants to know, what's the heaviest of any of your clients ever weighed? Yeah,
Mike Foley 28:06
I've had clients that were my scale goes up to 536 and I couldn't weigh them. And also heavier than heavy, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Greg Boulos 28:19
What's the most amount of weight any client has lost?
Mike Foley 28:23
I have one person I've lost over 300 pounds. But what I'm really proud of I've been doing it so long, so this is gonna sound kind of if I have 789 people that have lost 100 pounds that I know of and kept it off at least seven years, that's huge. Yeah, you've got 100 people like that. Yeah, I got 789, yeah, they've lost 100 pounds. Yep, they know of Yep. And
Greg Boulos 28:45
last question on this subject, who's better at following your advice? Men or women?
Mike Foley 28:50
Women, they really are because they care more. Also, like, what happens is men drop easier, you know, like, just because, like, like, say, when you're a man, like, if you're overeat, and you're 15 and you're not overweight, you're not really thinking you over eight. Well, I think most of the time, women have so many better instincts than men on most things, like, if this is safe, or women have better instincts, but not with food. You know, that kind of thing they're taught basically, like, if I overeat, cut back, and so they kind of mess up their metabolism. And when you look at like, the key is not just losing weight, the key is to maintain. And then, you know, when you work with people like, what I've always enjoyed, I don't love group talks on nutrition, just because I feel like, then you're all being motivational. And I feel with the diet, you can't be motivational. You got to be regimented, you know, because you can't live on hype, like, when you're training people, you can kind of get them hyped up, but that's an hour of their day, or half of their day, and then they're done, then they go on with their day. But with the diet, you got to be really even, you know, it's like someone like, you know, it's like the person running your office, right? You want them being. Even you don't want if they were hyped from 730 to 530 they would burn everybody out. They got to be even, you know, and I feel with the diet, you just got to be really structured and know what you can't do. Like a lot of people, people have different fat cells and people have different sizes. But so many times when people don't have good genetics, what really makes them go really overboard is they have bad habits, and you have to just convince them that, you know, we're all dealt different cards in life, you know, like, some people are like, I feel so fortunate to be doing the gym because, and this is not a knock on me, but like, there's, I don't do a lot of things. Well, like, if you said, Sell this, I'm not a very good salesman. My brother Jim, he could sell that, you know, whatever it was. I would bet on him being Jim
Greg Boulos 30:50
could sell a birth control to nuns. Yes,
Mike Foley 30:52
yes. Increase, yeah. He, Jim can sell and, but he's genuine, you know, he, but he'll know a product and he can sell it where I have to really, like, I love, like, really believing in something like, and then not that he doesn't believe in things he's selling. But like, I like, really doing the service more than selling. Yeah, you know, so, like, a lot of times, most of my clients aren't from me, going out on the floor, getting them. They're from use you sent me so many people over the years, and I've been so fortunate where someone's coming to me, so I have to deliver the service, which I really like,
Greg Boulos 31:29
you know, you talk about losing weight, isn't it really a lifestyle change? It truly is, yeah, and that's not easy,
Mike Foley 31:38
no, because I think we've become so. But if you can get someone to change their routine, you know, like so many times, people get in the habit of getting home having cheese and crackers and a couple glasses of wine, and they're like, oh, this will relieve stress. And in actuality, it's not. And you know, it's not cause them to get to their good sleep and and you know, and you know, you gotta everyone says, like, everything in moderation, but like, I'm all Irish. There's a lot of people I know that aren't gonna be moderate with drinking. They're either drinking or they're not. So we all gotta know what we can be moderate with and what we can't be.
Greg Boulos 32:13
You know, a lot of people think nutrition is only concerned with losing weight. However, I'm sure you have some clients who have the opposite problem. Perhaps they need to gain weight, gain
Mike Foley 32:22
weight. Yeah, and I think anyone when you look at like whether you're trying to gain weight or lose weight, it's really about giving your body the proper nutrients at the right times. I'm a firm believer in eating throughout the day, because the body is amazing at surviving. That's why, when you look at little babies with cancer or young young people with anorexia, if or older people, and they get old and they stop eating, if the body wasn't amazing at surviving, they wouldn't have they wouldn't be able to keep going on. So the body becomes so efficient at surviving, I think the whole key is getting your body burning, and then if you're trying to get bigger, you got to give your body the right nutrients. Because when I first started after back surgery, I was really lost a lot of weight. I was incredibly small, and I was eating so much food, trying to get bigger, but I wasn't eating good food, so I wasn't, oddly enough, I wasn't getting overweight or fat. I was just nothing was happening. And then when I changed with my nutrition, it was like, oh, did I feel better? And it was just amazing to me, you know. And, you know, sometimes, like, I look back on it, and it was kind of like, with, like, working out, like a lot of times, like, when I was in high school, I would go play basketball, but I wouldn't do the things to really make it better. And I in, you know, I was easy to say, Well, God, I didn't know. But you kind of know, like, if you're doing foolish things, that's probably not going to make you a better player. And if you're working out, and you're not working out really hard, you're probably not getting your results. Or, like, I'd be in the library talking to every girl but not studying. I probably knew that wasn't going to help me. Yeah, exactly. I
Greg Boulos 34:00
remember you once said to me that having a drink after work. Say, when people do that, it's the calories, obviously are an issue, but more so it slows your metabolism. Yeah, it's the worst time of day. Yeah, because
Mike Foley 34:11
like, what happens is like, and again, drinking in moderation, you know, is a lifestyle, and there's nothing wrong with that. But when you what alcohol does is it slows the rate in which you burn calories. That's why we like it. It relaxes us, but when it relaxes you, it slows down your metabolism. So then when you eat on top of that, it makes you quite very efficient at storing Yeah, yeah. And you know, I think the easy way is, like a lot of times, like when you talk to people that struggle with their weight, the one thing that always amazes me is, especially if there's a significant amount weight, the first thing is, they want to tell you what's worked for them, and then you kind of have to point out that, like, Well, where were you 10 years ago or five years ago? And they'll say X amount now they're significantly higher. So you kind of have to let them know that what they were doing wasn't working for them. They were. Losing weight, but it was probably bad weight. Now they gain back more. So you got to get them to buy in, because, like, anything, they got to be coachable, right? You know, like in your line of work, like, everyone can look at a building go, oh, that's a nice building, but do they know the specs? Like, you're so amazing at, like we saw so many places, and you'd be like, well, let me get the number of people in this area, because, like, if you're doing a gym, you have about 15 to 20 minutes at the most people going to travel for, you know, from work or or from home. So, so what happens is, even if you love the place you not, probably gonna drive 45 minutes to work out demographics. Yeah. But yeah. So good about getting that right to you and saying, This is why this is a good spot or not a good spot, right? Well, not a good
Greg Boulos 35:44
spot, right? Um, what advice would you give to a new client who's just starting their fitness journey? Yeah,
Mike Foley 35:49
make it unconditional. You know, I just think it's kind of one of those things, like, like, when you look at your life, like, say, like, over the 20 years, if you look at like, how many workouts you've got in, and then just changing the body. You look at food,
Greg Boulos 36:03
how many I got in, or how many I told you,
Mike Foley 36:06
either. But you feel it like you use truly made working out an unconditional part of your life, right, right? And, you know, when people look at it and they'll be like, Well, it's hard, and I'm like, It's hard if you give yourself a choice. But you know, like you look at most people is, you know, I don't care how busy they are, they all have an hour a day or 35 minutes to get some type of exercise in every day. And what happens is, in as much as I believe in fitness, in the gym, you know, like I said, I'm living my dream. I love my gym. But if your Bible change by just working out, and you could eat whatever you want. Everyone would work out. They say, like, 20% of the people exercise. But if your body changed by just working out and having bad eating habits, it'd be 99% people would be working out, and everyone would do it. So it really comes into a lifestyle. And sometimes, like, I think I got caught up into a strategy of, you know, like, it's almost like, when you're young, you don't eat well, but you still look good. Well, I got in a habit of not even being young, but living on two, three hours sleep. I knew it was kind of foolish, but I kind of thought it was like the one thing I was really talented. I thought, hey, I can live without I worked out every day. I was never tired. But then eventually you get certain health things that come out. And I'm not saying it was sleep related, but it could have been
Greg Boulos 37:23
speaking of health. You recently had a health challenge with your eyesight. What happened with your eyes, and how did stem cells and exosomes help you?
Mike Foley 37:31
Yeah, it was. It was kind of odd about it's been about two years ago, my eyes started to get blurry, and they couldn't really figure it out. And I went to my doctor, and he was great. He put me in some glasses, but it just didn't really help. And I was doing drops and and then about a year ago, in March, I had cataract surgery, and I could see perfect after that, so I felt really good. But then right after that, I ended up touring my retina. And how'd you do that? I don't really know. It just happened. I didn't it wasn't like one incident. I just felt I was at work and I could see all kinds of, like polka.it was just a weird feeling. I thought it was just my was getting the pressure again, and I needed, I was getting shots in the eyes, so I thought I needed another shot. And I went in. There they go. No, this is bad. So I went down to I had emergency surgery down at Mass, eye and ear, and this, Dr McKay was able to restore it, but I wasn't having very good eyesight, and
Greg Boulos 38:30
so he was able to put the retina back. Yeah,
Mike Foley 38:33
yeah, it was detached, and he attached it and but I had to lay like face down for a week. I wasn't able to work out because of any pressure. So after working out pretty much every day, forever, going six months of doing no exercise was kind of odd and but your eyesight did improve. Did improve, and then I was looking how bad was it? One eye. My good eye was 2040 my bad eye was 2370 so it was pretty bad, but that's legally blind, yeah? Well, yeah, I think so. But I could see enough out of one eye where I wasn't legally blind, but I also had astigmatism with it, so everything was blurry. Like, if I look down, it was, like, every it was an oddest thing. Like, you really feel unconfident, you know, like, like, you know, when people, like, walk into a gym, but like, say, like, if I was walking even into a small store, like Walgreens, I couldn't see if this was where the raises were, you know, like, yeah, it was, you know, it was, it was not, couldn't drive at night. It was a pretty challenging, you know, you continue to work, though I worked, but I wasn't really taking on new clients because I wasn't real confident, you know, like, like you, like you, but I could have sent you your brother's diet, you know, like, it was, like, just kind of, one of those things like it, it was kind of, it was a challenging year, and fortunately, my family was great. I have a girlfriend, Sherry. She was great. So I was pretty fortunate to have a loss. Port and in when a marriage first, I go bad. I always was looking at different things. And you know, what, as always kind of interested me is performance, you know. So I came from a world of Gold's Gym where, you know, you saw like the best athletes, and they were performing, and I knew I wasn't going to be a great athlete, so they made choices that I probably wasn't going to do at the time, but when you look as you get older, you know, I think the body gets worn down. And I've always been interested in stem cells, you know, it's just kind of one of those things, like, it's kind of like allows you to keep pushing your body. And I got introduced to exosomes while I was researching different things with the eyes. And exosomes on stem cells. They're like molecules, but they're healing molecules. They're part of the stem cell, though, right? They're really not. They're a molecule that's in a stem cell, but they're separate, you know? And but a lot of times they use together, and much smaller, much smaller, right? And so what happens they're actually they're used together. So a lot of times, like when you do a like a stem cell, they'll put exosomes in it, because the exosomes work faster and the stem cells work over like you do a stem cell, they'll say, proven a month to six months, the MOG, the exosomes work quick,
Greg Boulos 41:17
and exomes can go through the, what they call the blood brain barrier, yes, exactly, whereas the stem cells cannot, right?
Mike Foley 41:24
And what they did with me is I ended up looking at the different options. And, you know, there's controversy of whether they can do what they can in the United States to different places. But, you know, I know a lot of places do it now, they say they can do the same thing. So it's something for people. Look, if I end up going to a place called r3 and Tijuana, and they were kind of known to be very efficient with the stem cells in the exomes. They've, they have places in the United States too. So
Greg Boulos 41:55
was the clinic set up in one of the bars down there? Yeah,
Mike Foley 41:59
it was a, was a wild night. No, I was actually guys so afraid of getting any stomach thing, I just ate Turkey sticks for about two days and didn't do much exercise. It was just kind of a weird time. But on a Friday, yeah, I flew down on Thursday and had the procedure Friday, Saturday, and flew back out Saturday night. And what did they do to you? They did I had 150 million stem cells in my shoulders and my right bicep, which was torn back in like, the mid 90s, unrelated to the eyes. Yeah, unrelated in the eyes. And then I did some IVs, which I hope would help my body recover. And I did several in the lower back. And then I did the exosomes right under the eye. And it was kind of amazing. It was like, like, when I went, when I flew down, like, there's no way I could have looked at the monitored and see what flight I was flying. And I get to the airport, and I'm like, I'm seeing, you know. And I'm like, you know, it was kind of instant, you know. And then I went to my eye doctor, and my good eye was at 2025 and my bad eye was at 2030
Greg Boulos 43:04
So it went from 2375 Yeah, to 2030 Yeah. And how short a time?
Mike Foley 43:11
Well, like I had the thing in November when I went to eye doctor before I left, and I did it the week when I got back. So I think it was like December 21 or something like that very short period of time. Yeah. And it's one of those things, like, I can tell I have to be careful, like I'm back walking out, but I gotta be careful not straining too much, you know. And because it's all pressure, even though I have low blood pressure, so there's nothing like I'd never get swelling. That's why they can't figure out why I get pressure in the eye I have. My levels are all good, you know, I get blood work done. Everything's good there. But for some reason I get pressure, and I don't really know what caused it, and they don't really know.
Greg Boulos 43:51
So didn't you went to the your eye doctor here in Maine initially, then to a specialist, back to my doctor in Boston, yeah, but didn't the the eye doctor here. He came to the preliminary results. She said, she said, I think I can see again. Say, Oh, you're such an optimist. That was
Mike Foley 44:07
actually my specialist in Boston, yeah, really, he's because, like, you know, like, he just didn't really want to hear about the exosomes. Like, I told him I was gonna go do it. And he goes, I wouldn't do that. Nothing about them, no. But I think that, like in fitness, to them, he's a wonderful surgeon. He saved my eyes. And I just think they kind of skeptic. It's just different personalities, you know. And you know, my doctor in Maine, Dr Anastasia, was kind of interested about it. But, you know, again, it's not what they specialize in. And I can't even say, like, if you said, I wouldn't say, Run down there and do it. I don't really know, you know, and but, like, I was willing to take a chance. Well, didn't one of the docs say was just coincidence? Well, the guy in Boston was Dr McKay, again, I just think he's a wonderful surgeon, but he was like, You're so positive. And I kept thinking, Well, I'm not really being positive. I can see, you know. Don't think I was being negative when I couldn't see and but, you know, like, I think again, they're skeptic, you know. And they'll be like, I don't know how long that will last, and I have no idea either, you know. So I am just trying to get more sleep. I'm not working such a long day. But like, now, like, I can work, I can drive at night. I went down and saw my daughter and boss, and I can drive.
Greg Boulos 45:22
And what was the name of the clinic in two? One, it was called our
Mike Foley 45:27
three stem cells, yeah, yeah. And it was, you know, you research them. They're basically the no thrill stem cells, you know, like a lot of times you go to the different places, and it's much more of a retreat, where they send you, and they will do like, the, you know, like the different IVs, and though I got IVs, but they'll do like, the cool plunge and the saunas. You were focused on your eyes. Yeah, I just wanted to get back to work, and I just wanted to do it. I don't love traveling. And I like my routine. I like being near the gym. So it wasn't like a vacation.
Greg Boulos 46:03
You know, your problem with your eyes, Mike interrupted your daily ritual of 3am workouts, yeah, prior to this, you once told me you had worked out without interruption every single day. How many years? Just about
Mike Foley 46:16
28 years. Yeah. 28 Yeah, yeah. And I, before that, I always worked out, and I ended up turning my bicep and I couldn't work out, and then I came back from that injury. I said, I'm never missing a day of working out. Is it healthy to work out every day? I really believe so, you know. And the reason why, here's my argument. When people say, your body needs rest, right? But like, say, if you look back, you go back 1000s of years, how'd you get somewhere? You had to move to get there, right? Everything. Everybody's job was physical. They wanted to they wanted to sleep. They had to build their place. They had to set a camp up there to hunt for their food. We live in a world where, if we don't work out, we do very little activity. We're sitting at a desk, sitting at a desk. My job, even though I'm in the gym, I could wear a suit and tie, there is absolutely no activity. You know. I'm sitting there talking to people. It's pretty much every 15 minutes, a different client. And so many times, like people our age will say, Well, I wish my job was more physical. And I guarantee if we sent them out on the roof, they'd come down about 10 minutes, you know, yeah, you know it's physical. Labor is hard, but we live in a world where we're doing nothing physically, you know, you know, it's kind of funny. It's like, I just feel like the body's meant to move.
Greg Boulos 47:30
What 5657 almost 58 any plans to retire?
Mike Foley 47:34
Never, you know. Like, I honestly think, like, maybe with the nutrition slow down, but I love being in the gym. So like, like, say, like, even if I was in Florida, like, I love the beach. I love going away for a couple days, but truthfully, like, I wouldn't even want to go away for two weeks not be in the gym, because you like the interaction. I love the interaction. And I like, like, just talking to people about various subjects, different things. I love working with different type of people I like working. I've always enjoyed people that think differently than you, and getting people's different perspectives. And I think sometimes that's because you can learn from you can learn from them, and what happens is, you know, and again, I think, kind of like one of those things, like, I don't have any other hobbies. I don't I don't fish. I've hardly ever fished in my life, if I ever have, maybe once when I was little with my brother, I've never hunted. I don't snowmobile, I don't ski. I like to work out. And it's like, you know, like, I enjoy day at the beach. I could see if my kids have kids, I'd love to take their kids to Disney or gym. Yeah, take, I hope so, right, that would be mandatory, but yeah, I like being in the gym.
Greg Boulos 48:47
Hey, Mike, last question for you, what's your vision for fully fitness in the future? It's
Mike Foley 48:52
funny, we were on the path to open up a second location. It fell through about a year ago, and that was in Cumberland, and I'm kind of open to the idea, but right now, I really want to just get as healthy as I can and really try to build the best gym I can. And I really feel I'm a spiritual guy, and I really feel some things happen for the best, and things you built you have to overcome, you know, like, for example, like me with the eyesight issue, I'm thinking, well, now we know so much about not enough sleep is cognitive. And also maybe this was a blessing that maybe I can't change it, but I just think we have to keep evolving, you know. And as a gym like, you know, like, well, think of it like the thing. I always think of it like texting. When texting first came out, I was like, I would never text anyone. Now, if I didn't text, I wouldn't communicate with anyone. It's like, kind of like, even kids, right? Yeah, you text. So it's like, you got to keep evolving. And I just feel like, what happens is, when you look at making people's lives healthier and more fit, they can enjoy it. Because all of the benefits, you know, it's like, I really feel like people don't mind working hard, and if you get them in a habit of exercising, eating, right? It's no longer hard, because it's daily, part of the day. You know, it's hard if you do it once in a while, it's going
Greg Boulos 50:15
to be extremely gratifying when you have a client who really performs and, yeah, and loses the weight and becomes healthier.
Mike Foley 50:23
Yeah, it's and it's kind of gratifying in a way. Like, like, you learn from the people that you couldn't get through and they didn't make the changes, and you gotta go, Okay, what could I have done better? Because, like, you know, we talked about, like, the people I had that were assessed, but I've had plenty of people that weren't successful, and what could I have done better? Or just like, we have a gym member that drops out. Okay, we can say they dropped out, because this is this, but we have to look at, when you lose a member, what did you do that wasn't better? Or what could you have done? Exactly, that's what I meant. Yeah, what could do better? And you know, like, like you can't always be successful, but like you wanna it, I think so many times in gyms, you always look at getting new members, but the key is keeping your members, in my opinion.
Greg Boulos 51:09
Well, Mike, thank you for sitting down with us. I appreciate it, and I appreciate your
Mike Foley 51:12
friendship over the years. Greg, you just been great about sending me different stuff and just wonderful. And I don't know when we're looking at, I think me and you went driving, looking at homes. And as busy as you are, you'd spend Fridays with me for, I mean, no, was it five years? I
Greg Boulos 51:26
thought it was like 25 but at home, my homes were looking at land. Well,
Mike Foley 51:33
yeah, we were looking at land and different, but we looked at, like, a lot of, there's a lot of little strip malls we looked at, yeah, yeah.
Greg Boulos 51:41
But it worked out. I'm happy for that. Happy for you. Yeah, very lucky. Thank you, Mike. Thank you. That's it for today's episode of The Boulos beat a bullish company podcast special. Thanks to Mike Foley for being my guest. You can learn more about Mike and Foley's fitness at the company's website, Foley's fitness center.com, on Facebook and Instagram at Foley's fitness center. And if you'd like to learn more about the Boulos company, please be sure to visit us at Boulos.com you can find us at the Boulos company on Facebook and LinkedIn, and at the Boulos CO on Instagram and X. Lastly, if you want to know the secret to know the secret to owning real estate, it's pretty simple, just be sure to outlive your debt.