Building Authenticity and Impact: Insights from Fitness Industry Veteran Aram Gregorian

Discover how Aram Gregorian, founder of the Real Coaches Summit, champions transparency, education, and authentic connection to elevate your coaching career. This episode explores practical strategies to stand out, serve your clients better, and build a sustainable, impactful business in the fitness industry.

In this episode:

• The importance of practical, no-nonsense coaching rooted in science and real-world application
• How to develop a clear, transparent client communication and expectation-setting process
• The role of culture, networking, and community-building in business growth
• Why giving away free valuable content builds trust and long-term client relationships
• Insights into AI tools for behavior change and data interpretation
• The real behind-the-scenes of organizing a purpose-driven coaching summit
• Overcoming industry noise by focusing on education rather than clout
• Strategies for scalable, affordable coaching that retains client accounta

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Check out this weeks special: Nutrition Essentials Bundle, registered with NASM, AFAA and Canfitpro. Click here to learn more: https://fitnessceus.com/nutessentials-email

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome back to the FEO podcast. This is Lindsay Passimani, and today we are joined by a guest who has spent over 15 years cutting through the noise of the fitness industry to deliver some much-needed reality. Aram Gregorian is the founder of Four Weeks to the Beach and the driving force behind the Real Coaches Summit. After a successful career in finance, Aram pivoted to fitness and has become one of the most respected voices in coaching. He's known for his no BS approach and his ability to help clients, particularly women, untether their emotions from the scale to build lasting, sustainable health. Today, we're diving into his commitment to radical transparency in the industry, from why he believes in an open door approach to coaching education to how he's dismantling the traditional VIP barriers in fitness networking. Aram, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 0:49

You lied. You said I was successful in finance.

SPEAKER_00 0:51

Is that a different story? Is there a different story to that?

SPEAKER_03 0:54

How do we define success? I made it I made it six years. I didn't save a penny of any of the money I made. I put most of it in this G strings and up my nose. And then I got laid off in 2012, and that was the end of it. So it was an experience for sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Did you enjoy it? You know, did you pick up any any skills while you were there?

SPEAKER_03 1:16

Yeah, I mean, listen, I was reconciling 1,500 bank accounts a day. I was getting up at, you know, I used to live in Cheshire, Connecticut, which is right north of Hamden, where we both went to school. And I was driving every morning down to Stanford, which was without traffic an hour ride, but I had to leave my house at five in the morning. So did I learn anything? I mean, I learned how to be an adult, I learned how to work with adults, I learned time management skills, I learned you know, communication and business 101, you know, how to respond to an email in a timely fashion. Like shit that a lot of coaches and fitness professionals don't know because they've never spent that time in either a corporate setting or a structured setting. So they're just kind of like, oh, I'm jacked and I can do the fitness thing and teach and coach people. It's like, yeah, but like it's more than just counting reps and giving out macros. Like you have to understand human psychology. You have to know how to speak to Mrs. Jones, who might be, you know, like I'm very abrasive. I can't speak to all my clients in the same way that I could speak to my clients who can handle that type of abrasion. So just even understanding little stuff like that, a lot of fitness professionals are just not prepared to go out into the world and do it the right way.

SPEAKER_00 2:25

Right. And how do you think that has helped you? Because right when you left, you got laid off. And then what made you actually go into fitness?

SPEAKER_03 2:32

I would al I was always like the fitness guy at the office. Like people always ask me, like, what we're eating, what I was eating for lunch. Like I would go to the gym in the morning before work. So people would like want to work out with me. I would play basketball two, three times a week in the morning. I would go to the gym after work to beat traffic. On the way home, it was very much a part of my identity, but it was part of my identity for a lot of the wrong reasons. I was wildly insecure. I was an immigrant, you know, America getting made fun of by kids my whole life because I was living in an upper middle class city where, you know, it was like go back to Russia, you know, your food stinks, your fucking parents are weird, like, you know, just general kid shit. So I just never really found my footing. And when I finally started to like take care of myself and lift, and I got strong and big pretty quickly, and then all of a sudden I started like getting respected and and uh and people were starting to talk to me that normally wouldn't. So I'm like, oh, maybe there's something to this fitness thing. And it was really the vehicle that I used to build up my confidence, and I think it kind of went a little bit in the wrong direction for a little while because I did use it almost too obsessively and aggressively. Um, and it took me a long time to get myself out of that place, which I think a lot of people suffer with today. But I mean, listen, like, I'm happy I started lifting weights at 15 years old, and I wasn't afraid to be a beginner, and I wasn't afraid to suck at something, and I wasn't afraid to piecemeal information because this is 2000 and not even. I mean, shit, I was I graduated college in 06, I graduated high school in 02, so this is way before social media. You know, I bought the Arnold Encyclopedia. I was asking meatheads at the gym about workouts and about nutrition. So, like I was exposed to bro science very early, and now it's funny because we're seeing a resurgence of actual science that's corroborating bro science. Right. So it's like all the stuff that these guys were telling me was real and it was true because it was lived experience. And I think right now we're living in this very interesting dichotomy in fitness and nutrition, whereas there's a there's almost like the left who is the evidence-based, if it's not in a peer-reviewed article, I'm not doing it. And then there's the anecdotally driven side, which is like I'm just gonna try it and see if it works, and there's just no middle ground. And I feel like we have to be able to use both methodologies to get our clients the results that they are paying for.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

For sure. So I depict you as more of like a bodybuilder style coach, and I'm just doing that purely based off of your looks. But what got you into the weight loss and working with women?

SPEAKER_03 4:49

I grew up in a very matriarchal household, so I respected and was very close with my mom. My father and I didn't really have a good relationship. I spent a lot of time at the makeup counter at Macy's because that's where my mother worked. So I was around women my whole life. Um, and I liked I liked the company of women better. I didn't like hanging around guys. Guys were very shitty to you and they were very judgmental. And I just never found like my place with men, which I think also contributed to my insecurity and a lot of my identity issues. But I just was more comfortable around women. I I liked bantering with women. I was exposed to gay men very early because like, and my father was like super bigoted, so like God forbid that was a conversation. But like I just I just liked that environment. I liked girl chaw talk and chit chat, and I started to understand that women thought a little bit differently than men did. There was a lot more of an emotional component to women than there was to men. So I just think it lended itself naturally to me being able to communicate with women better and understanding them better. And it's also the demographic that's getting lied to the most in our industry. Like women, especially as they enter perimenopause, like the amount of bullshit that they're exposed to is wild. And the amount of money that the industry is making off women, because women are more sensitive to their appearance, and there is a societal expectation of a certain size, and it's a lot of bullshit, but it's it's very much present and true. So I just decided that that was going to be the demographic I would serve because there's just so many of them that are worried about body composition and fat loss, and I wanted to give them a direction that they never saw before because it's either they're being coddled and being told that they're all fine and everything's dandy, or they're being buried into the ground with protocols that are not sustainable. So, like again, where's the middle ground that I found it?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Yeah. So how do you balance the you're, you know, you come off no bull, no OBS approach and you tell it how it is. How do you balance that with women who are a little bit more emotional than men? How do you balance that relationship and being sensitive to, you know, a client's emotional state, but also telling them, you know, how it is and being radically, radically transparent?

SPEAKER_03 6:42

So we it starts with really clear expectation setting right off the right off the get-go. Like, this is exactly what you're paying for, this is what you're gonna get, these are the deliverables, these are my expectations of you as a client, this is what I'm gonna tolerate and what I won't. And then there's obviously leeway, like you have to treat humans like humans. There's gonna be times where Mrs. Jones is freaking out, and there's gonna be times where she's having a shit day because her kids are being assholes and her husband's not helping out at home and she's taking the weight of the world on her shoulders, and she is having the worst day of her life by her perception. And I'm not gonna invalidate that. So I'm gonna listen to what she has to say, but I'm also gonna tell her, like, yeah, you had a shit day and a lot of stuff bad happened all at once, but nothing's catastrophic. Nothing bad's gonna really occur, it's not gonna persist. And maybe this is an opportunity to find better ways to communicate and get more support from your spouse and communicate with your children to have them do their part around the house instead of you having to do everything. So it's just it's reframing because again, I grew up with a mother who, you know, survived two cancer diagnoses, worked three jobs to put food on our table, and I never saw her complain. Like I never saw her bitch about laundry or how hard her life was or why the dishes had to get done. Like she just did stuff, she just executed. And she did it with a smile on her face, and she had all the reasons in the world not to. So to me, women are so much stronger than they give themselves credit for. And I think there's this massive fragility narrative that exists in the industry towards women. You know, it's like you have a menstrual cycle, so two weeks out of the month, you're useless, which is bullshit. Like you're not, like you don't, you're not useless. You can be well prepared for these things because you know they're coming. No, does it invalidate, does it make the problem easier? No, it doesn't. But if you're aware that these things are coming, if you're aware that during certain certain parts of your menstrual cycle, there are certain susceptibilities you're gonna have towards food, you're gonna lose some energy, your sleep's gonna suffer, maybe digestion's a little bit worse, and then as you enter into perimenopause, that these hormones are gonna start to decline and it's the natural part of aging. But if you're prepared and you understand these things and you understand that like stomach contents being higher is gonna increase the number on the scale, and you shouldn't freak out about that. So it's like mixing science and reality, and then being able to disconnect the emotion from the data, and then being able to just use the data to lead their way. Now, granted, I don't want to treat people like lab rats, but at the end of the day, like they're they're they're not hiring me as their therapist. And I always tell my clients like if you have a wildly disordered relationship with food, if your body image is in the toilet completely, if you have emotional dysregulation that you have not dealt with, if you have trauma from your past that you're still living with, and you have not spoken or used a you know a CBT or a guy in a behavioral therapy or any type of therapy, period, you don't need a nutrition coach or a fitness coach. You need to get into therapy, you need to figure out your shit, especially if you're in your 30s and 40s and you have children. God forbid you pass that down to your kids and make them as problematic as you have to be. It's just it's sad to watch, but it's messy. That inner work sucks. But it's such a crucial part of the of the nutrition and fitness process because it is the glue that holds compliance together. Because if you're able to manage stress and manage your emotions, you're just gonna keep plugging away. Like day sucks. Okay, cool. I'm gonna cry it out on the elliptical. Day sucks, I'm gonna cry it out while I'm doing my meal prep. Days hard, I know I can take a rest day today. Nothing bad's gonna happen. Days even harder, maybe I take a few days off. So it's just it's managing people through their different ups and downs of life.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Yeah. And you know, you talk about data-driven um coaching and uh pattern almost pattern recognition within a behavior. So behavior change, everything is patterns. Our brains are patterns. I talk a lot about this. I I'm really into AI when it comes to patterns, because all LLMs are our pattern um recognizers and and producers, and they just they they guess based on um, you know, millions of of research and and the web. And so our brains are the same way. We recognize patterns. And so I actually love looking into how AI can help with behavior change by looking at the patterns and then seeing what the actual cause is, the reason why they're experiencing that pattern, what emotions is it triggering, and then creating because you don't you have to replace a bad pattern with another pattern. So you can we can, as coaches, I'm very interested in how to use AI to teach pattern recognition and be able to use this patterned intelligence of AI to help to help clients work through their behaviors, especially when it comes to nutrition.

SPEAKER_03 11:13

Yeah, I mean it's it's a wonderful tool. I I was very resistant to it at first because I'm like very analog, old school. Like I use I use Google.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

You like data. I'm surprised.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

So I but I I'm so Excel, like I I lived in Excel for so many years in in finance that like that's what I'm comfortable with. So like I use Google Sheets to track all my client stuff. And I I use chronometer for food tracking, which has a lot of data delivery and a lot of data consolidation. With the AI thing, what I've been actually using it for a lot is on the behavioral psychology side of stuff. So what I'll have my clients do is actually use it as their like as their therapist. So once a week I have my clients, the ones who need it, whether it's Friday, Thursday, whenever, towards the back end of the week, but I have them prompt it and start talking to it as if it were their therapist. So I basically say, like, talk to it about the stuff that went well this week, talk about to it about the challenges you had this week, and then tell it how you responded to it, the things that you were proud of responding with, and then the stuff you were not proud of responding with. And then ask it to analyze that stuff and then give you some best practices that you can use for the following week. Knowing that stress is around the corner and is coming back, you know. I mean, life is I've I don't know if you've ever heard the principle of uh the law of thirds, but basically, like a third of your life is amazing, a third of your life is gonna be absolute dog shit, and a third of your life is about as middle of the road as it gets. And I think the problem that we have, especially now, because of how dopamine-driven our society has gotten with all the social media and the instant gratification and the Amazon Prime, everything's at our fingertips. So we just we don't have the attention span, the critical thinking skills, or the emotional regulation to handle the pace at which technology is outpacing human cognitive function. So we need like we don't have those slow down moments to to check in with ourselves and even ask ourselves, how am I feeling? What's going on? Am I happy? Am I not happy? What do I want to feel? How do I want to do this? So by using that AI tool to just gather their thoughts and then be able to give them some type of direction, that's almost more valuable than going into Chat GPT and saying, hey, I'm a 48-year-old woman who wants to lose 30 pounds, how do I do it? Like talk to it and make it learn who you are as a human being. And then it might actually start to reveal some stuff that you didn't see before.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

Yeah, absolutely. And it's it's non-emotion, it's non-bias, and it's a great reflective partner. It's a good thinking partner because it it will ask questions that you didn't really think about and dig deeper into the psychology of it all. I'm I'm a big, I love AI when it comes to using it as a thinking partner and a sounding board, whether it's for your clients or for your own business. And so, you know, creating these clarity prompts to, you know, from a business perspective, figuring out what is your biggest constraint. And then once you find your biggest constraint, then you got to check your ideal client, your offer, your messaging, and AI can really help you do that. So I think it's very beneficial and it's an exciting time to be a coach in 26 because of the availability of LLMs and to be used for clients, but also for your own business growth. So I'm Yeah, I am.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Um there's a guy that's going to be speaking at the event in April. His name is Isaac Miller. He used to, he was part of the a business coaching group that I was attached to called the training, uh, trainer revenue multiplier group, or run by Matt Park. And Isaac was one of their team leads, and he kind of broke off away from fitness and started and got his master's and uh I believe the the field of study was like prompting AI in ways to increase like performance within companies.

SPEAKER_02 14:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

And it's wild the stuff that he's learned in such a short, like I think the master's program that he was in was like like a year and a half long, and within like within that year and a half, he came back as like a completely different person. And like Rand, he was always an intelligent guy, but like the depth to which he understands it now is so cool. And I can't wait to hear him present on how to be able to streamline the coaching business for people. That'll be interesting to me. Like, isn't that the value of all networking, right? Like, you you find people that are better at stuff than you are. You are friends with them, they're in your corner, they're in your back pocket on your phone, and when you're having problems, you have a resource to reach out to. And that's why I'm so fortunate. I am where I am in this industry because of the other people in this industry. I would have never gotten to this level of following on Instagram. I would have never had this many clients. I would have never had this kind of clarity with my message. I would have never had the confidence to speak with conviction the way that I do and know what I know. If it weren't for other people propping me up, if it weren't for continued education, and if it weren't for networking. And I think so many coaches right now are standing in front of their computers trying to figure it out. Maybe they're on the floor as a trainer and they're counting reps and they're essentially just wondering what's next and they're trading time for money. And they're just not thinking any bigger because it's a very, and I remember what that was like when I was, when it was a side hustle for me, given it wasn't given my full attention. You know, I was working in a deli, I was doing sales. I was, I had, I worked odd jobs for a long time after I got my initial training job because I got lured away from training again. I spent like five to six years just kind of floundering trying to figure it out. But it wasn't until like I literally stepped over the line with both feet and just jumped in the fucking pool to where like everything started to make sense. I I there was no going back. There was no reinventing myself. It was like I am a fitness professional, I'm just not a good one yet. I'm gonna be the best one there is, and the only way I can do that is by being around people better than me and further along than I am. And I, you know, I maxed out three credit cards back in 2018 to, you know, I went to perform better. I went to this summit, that summit, this event, that event. I paid an ex-coach for this case study. I would get on an hour Zoom call with another coach to figure this problem out. And I just did it the downright dirty old school way, and it worked. And I just I don't see that level of resilience or or creativity in our industry anymore. I see quickest way to 10K business coaching, I see bullshit tactics, I see regurgitated content that doesn't even make sense. I see a lot of misunderstanding of science and physiology. I think the clients unfortunately are getting a disservice, and like this industry is the front line of healthcare. Like, yeah, we're not doctors, but we're pretty fucking impactful in people's lives. I mean, we can change the course of somebody's life, and we have so much influence over them because we have so many touch points that their medical professionals will never have. And we should we're not replacing those people. We should be working in conjunction with them, but they don't take us seriously. And then we have a tough time trusting them because they're passing our clients off and they're and they're invalidating their concerns. So that divide grows bigger, and then every time a client gets burned by another shitty coach who doesn't know what they're doing, they lose faith in this industry. And the whole purpose, like I want this industry to be better off when I leave it than when I found it. And I I feel personally responsible for it. And maybe that's an overly romanticized vision of who I am and what my responsibility is. But I mean, this this industry puts a roof over my head and it allows me to hang out in shorts all day in my apartment and and live in Southern California and travel and be around some of the most amazing scientific brains in the world. And I just don't think that like your average trainer or coach thinks that big.

SPEAKER_00 18:19

Yeah. Do you think it's that they don't think that big or they just don't know what the hell to do or where to start?

SPEAKER_03 18:24

Probably both. And you know, maybe it's because they're they're they're following the wrong like because I was already an adult who had professional experience entering into the fitness industry, I knew how to filter out bullshit. So like I wasn't looking at the 290,000 follower accounts for information because I knew that those people were sensational, they were in it for themselves, it was all about the money. There are exceptions to that rule, of course. I don't want to paint everybody with a broad brush. I mean, there's there are the joint Jordan science of the world who have a million followers and they're most alt-of-the-earth people. But more often than not, influencers are influencers, coaches are coaches. We can be influential coaches, but we're not influencers. That we're not peddling discount codes where we know how to solve complex physiological problems. We know that if we can't, we know where to refer out to. We have professional training and professional development consistently. And it's not just about clout. Like I post on Instagram because I'm trying to change people's minds and get them the help that they need for free. I'm not asking for anything in return. My coaching is fucking dirt cheap, even to begin with. And if somebody doesn't buy or isn't ready to buy, I'm not gonna push it on them because I don't want to work with somebody who isn't truly ready to do the job. And there is work involved, unfortunately, on the on the client side. But I just I don't see a lot of confidence with coaches because I think the problem is they post something and then they're like, oh wait, I just saw another coach say something completely the opposite of what I said, so that must mean I'm wrong. It's like, okay, well, d do you understand the context of what you said? I've had to change my mind a lot. Like I used to be a huge proponent of body recomposition. I'm not anymore because it's such a slow and arduous and hard to measure process that like I would rather just have you pick either muscle growth or performance enhancement or fat loss, and let's just drive down that road and be as granular as possible because we're gonna get to that outcome noticeably a lot faster, as opposed to you floundering and trying to chase two rabbits at the same time. Reverse dieting was another one that I was convinced was gonna be the universal answer for everybody. But then it's like, well, if you're 35% body fat, do I need to be feeding you more calories? Probably not. Cardio, not good. Dieting, not good. It's like, why how are these things bad? Like, dieting is is not a dirty word. Cardio is something that is absolutely essential for every human being on the planet. Now, obviously, again, dose dependent on everything, but it's just there's so many parrots in our industry, and it's you it's almost like you're watching coaches create safe content that other coaches won't tear apart. And I I don't give a fuck.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah, it's very true.

SPEAKER_03 20:45

I'm not gonna do stitch content, I'm not gonna rip up like there's so many people that I don't agree with who even I follow, but I'm not gonna tear them apart. How they make money is their business. Like, there's plenty of people that I follow that are in the functional health space, you know, and they're talking about how calorie deficits don't work for women in menopause, and I'm like, you're you don't know what you're talking about, or you're just blatantly lying to women because you're trying to become the all-encompassing solution to their problem. And and I'm sorry, but like if a client comes to me and tells me that she's eating 800 calories and not losing weight, I'm gonna call bullshit on it. Like, I want to see the fucking data. Show me the numbers because I promise you, your 800 calories is what you consume before you left the house before you had breakfast this morning.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:23

We have so much evidence and we have so much data and we have so many examples of what works, but people are still trying to reinvent the wheel and be unique, and there's nothing new out there. We have no new information. The newest thing that we have is GLPs and peptides, which GLPs have been around for fucking 20 years anyway. Who knows where peptides are gonna go, but they're not the answer now, nor are they the first frontline solution to any problem. It's all gonna be rooted in the boring basics that people don't want to believe in.

SPEAKER_00 21:50

Yeah. What it what about when we start getting exposed to more data because of AI and the information that will be out there? I mean, I know that they're Developing a Chat GBT health that a person can connect all of their um doctor or um their blood work and testing and AI can now read it and interpret it. Like, how do you think that's gonna change for the coach to have access to more data that the doctor that was locked in the doctor's office but now will be exposed to?

SPEAKER_03 22:24

Is that within your scope of practice? You know, I mean, let's be very clear. Like, we're not doctors, we're we're not formally educated in this stuff. We we're not endocrinologists. I don't I do you know the amount of blood work classes and hormone classes I've taken? I've never once claimed that I'm an expert at any of that stuff. Do I understand it at a relatively deep level? Yeah. Can I talk to clients about it and and quell their concerns? Absolutely. But I'm not gonna make prescriptive advice decisions based on any of this stuff because that's not my scope of practice. That's not what you're paying me for. That's that's up to you and your OBGYN and your gynecologist and and your endocrinologist and your medical professional. You have to learn how to advocate for yourself, unfortunately. I mean, I was dismissed by the medical industry at 31 when I was hypogonatal. They told me for two years, like, yep, it is what it is. You're fucked. And I'm like, well, that's not a good enough answer for me. Like, I am doing everything right. I do track my food, I am sleeping eight hours a night, I stopped drinking alcohol, I'm trying to reduce my stress. Like, you can't tell me that me feeling like shit is my fault, and there's no remedy to it. So, like, I literally learned as much as I could. I found testosterone out on the street and I started medicating myself because I couldn't get a prescription. And then finally, eventually, two years later, I was able to get a script for TRT, and my quality of life wildly changed for the better. But that was only because it spent I was doing everything right, and I spent two years educating myself on what the problem was. But your average person doesn't have an a lick of data about what they're doing, they make sensational claims about what they think they're doing and how they feel based off of what they see on social media. And then when they're being presented with an opportunity to make a change, all of a sudden that change is too great magnitude for them to make. So they want the easier solution and the quicker path. And when you have to undo 25 years of poor behavior or neglectful behavior or inappropriate behavior, don't expect that to change in the next year or two. It might take three to five because you have to, you know, you walk 10 miles into the woods, you gotta walk 15 miles back out. And I think there's a lot of coaches that are being pressured into feeling like they have to understand the functional side of stuff and they have to understand blood work and they have to understand hormones and they have to start talking about these things. But I tell people, like, yeah, sure, do you want do you should you be aware of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone and TSH and T4 and reverse T3? Sure, fine. Can you control any of that? Not directly. So, what can you control? You can control how much and what you put in your mouth, you can control how well you sleep, you can control how much you move, you can control downtime and rest, you can control a lot of things within your environment, but those will not directly impact hormones. They will indirectly impact hormones. And if you're truly concerned, then yeah, go talk to a professional who's an expert at this. But you know, just because some coach has a weekend certification to read blood work, are they equipped to now be able to feed that information to Chat GPT and make prescriptive decisions on the on the client's behalf? I think that's irresponsible.

SPEAKER_00 25:10

Well, I I mean that's ethics of of AI. You you're never gonna prescribe things, it's just it's not you gotta stay within your scope. And that's gonna be the dangerous part. But if you don't create those parameters.

SPEAKER_03 25:22

The crazy part is it does a good job. I mean, I I get blood work done every four to six months. And there's been times where I've just been curious and I fed it into Chat GPT. I'll take the PDF and I'll drop it in there and I'll ask it some stuff and I'll have it pull from some resources that and that's the other thing is like what resources is it pulling from? Are you telling it to just do a general Google search, which is a good dog shit idea to do? Or are you giving it actual resources? Because I'll feed book PDFs into it and say, read this and then extrapolate from that, because these are trusted resources and professionals that I would I would find credible. But again, like you have to understand, like if you don't know what you don't know, you gotta learn something first, and then you start to understand what to filter out and what makes sense. But your average coach doesn't know this stuff because beyond PN1 or NCI or NASM or ACPTs, that's all they got, and that's all they get. And then that's all that's the only way they know how to think. There is no critical thinking, there is no problem solving, there is no pursuit for further education, there is no connection with other coaches to ask them how they do things and see if it makes sense. It's it's the wild west out there.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Yeah, and I just bring a point when it comes to using Chat GPT, is like it it can hallucinate and it pulls from data that should not be accurate, but it says it with such conviction that it sounds true. So you're right about that is like the the coaches that are going to be using Chat GPT, they better understand what they're what they're taking in because that could be really problematic.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

Yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 26:51

So uh talk to me a little bit about the real coaches summit. Why did you start it and what makes it different than other summits? Because I I saw a post where you said, you know, summits are are junk. So what makes yours not junk?

SPEAKER_03 27:05

I just went to so many that I was always disappointed at. Like I think a lot of them end up being talking heads and motivational speakers and like kind of Tony Robbins style bullshit. And if we're professionals in this industry, we don't need to be motivated to do our job. Like, I think we need to be reinvigorated every once in a while, and I think having those shared ideas and shared spaces is important. But to have some like I I've been to conferences where like they come up and talk about how much money they make and the cars that they drive. And like I've seen Alex Hormozy speak, and it was so fucking uninteresting to me. Everything I needed to get from him, I can get from his Instagram page for absolutely free. I don't need to watch him speak with his nose strip and his t-shirt on. I I have such a disdain for people that chase clout and find themselves to be so important when they're really not. Like, I don't give like if Huberman walked into a room, I wouldn't give a shit. If a Tia walked into a room, I'd probably throw fucking gasoline on him. I I I don't care about any of these influencers and longevity experts. The second you start to climb onto the diary of CEO's podcast, you're no longer a professional to me. You're sold out. You you don't work with real people, you don't have real clients. These people are paying you $2,500 a fucking hour for a consult. Who has that kind of money to spend? And those are not the people who need our help. The people who need our help are the people who are on your average individual who's never flipped over a nutrition label to see what's on their in their food. So the conferences I was going to, I'm like, the education is recycled. Like, Perform Better literally puts the same fucking 20 people on stage every year. Like, I why am I learning the kettlebell swing in year five of my career for the 19th time? Like, find somebody else who has some other thing to say. The red velvet rope around everything. Like, if you want to get access to the speakers and you want to have a meal at night with them, you got to pay an extra $1,500 for that. And then it's this fucking $25,000, $30,000 boardroom bullshit mastermind offer at the end of it that you know they've basically suckered you into because they just tugged on your heartstrings for 48 hours and made you feel like you needed it. I mean, I've been at conferences where I saw 25-year-old kids pulling out their credit parents' credit card and buying $20,000 coaching. And I'm like, you don't even have any money. You don't have a business, you got nothing. That's not the way to get there. But people got to put their hand on the hot stove. So what I tried to do is I tried to remove all that stuff. Like at my event, every coach that's on stage, by the way, it's all new people every year. I don't recycle any speaker ever. Um, I might do a greatest hit next year. Like I might put like the best 12 people over the last four years on stage next year just for funsies. But I'm I'm pulling real people out of the like half the I would say uh out of eight, out of 12 speakers this year in April, eight of them were in the crowd the last two years.

SPEAKER_02 29:41

Nice.

SPEAKER_03 29:41

So they're they're real coaches who work with real clients, solving real problems, who use real tactics, and it's a mixture of anecdote and science. And that's who I want to learn from. I don't like do I like knowing Lane Norton? Sure. Do I want to listen to him talk about the fucking protein recommendations for the 90th time? No, I don't. Like we like we're we're beyond that already. Like, teach me something that I don't know that I need to know that will help me be a better coach. And then, like, even just logistically, hotel rooms at a lot of these things are like three, four hundred bucks a night. In Vegas, 120 bucks a night. Why do I do it in Vegas? Because it's the easiest airport in the country to fly into direct for most major airports. So it's logistically a lot easier for most people to get to, even across the country. I include all meals so that way you don't have to worry about where I'm gonna go to eat for breakfast and for lunch, and I gotta Uber here and there and figure that out and spend more money. And then I want people to stay together. I want people sitting at round tables talking to one another, exposing themselves to one another, as opposed to like showing up with like your little four-person click and then never separating yourself from that click. I want my speakers to be people that I don't pay that show up because they want to show up so they can immerse themselves into the crowd and they don't just disappear after they speak and run up to their hotel room and they're never found again for the next two days. So I think I've created something much better than anything else.

SPEAKER_00 30:52

Yeah, that's it's incredible. You know, the networking part, we underestimate the power of networking. And I have grown all of my businesses because of the people that I've connected with. And when I shut myself down and put myself in a little hole, it all goes away. Networking is is just as important and beneficial as as the speakers.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

So I I would say almost more so, to be quite honest with you. Like, of course, I pitch the education and the CEUs and stuff like that as part of the sales process. But unless you put yourself into those rooms and have those conversations at those tables and grab a drink with somebody at night and pick their brain and really immerse yourself and expose yourself to all these different ideologies and perspectives, that's the stuff that you can't even put an ROI on that. There's no number that you can assign that would ever make any sense. But anybody that's done it within the next six months will come back and tell me, like, everything is easier for me. My clarity is there, my offer is better, my delivery is better, I have people I can confide in when I'm having a shit week, and I don't feel like I'm gonna spin off the planet by myself. They're just not doing it by themselves anymore. Like, this is this is a very isolating job, especially as an online coach. Different story in person because you are communicating with humans all day long. But as an online coach, it is very, very isolating. You sit in front of your computer, you're connected to people through Instagram, and that's about it. You might do a couple Zoom calls here and there, but it's just you. And it's a very lonely place to be. And I think by having a place to go to once a year at least, to where you can immerse and expose yourself to other people in this industry who might be further along than you or they might have seen problems that you haven't seen yet, you're just gonna accelerate your learning curve and then start to be able to operate better.

SPEAKER_00 32:32

Yeah. You mentioned about your pricing. Your pricing is pretty affordable. How do you balance offering affordable coaching with building a fruitful business?

SPEAKER_03 32:43

I mean, obviously it's gonna be volume-based. Like I work with 115 people. My high price is 298 a month, my low price is 98 a month. But because of my expectations being as clear as they are and my deliverables being as clear as they are, my clients know exactly what they're gonna get. You know, I I the people that pay me 195 a month and and 298 a month are getting either two check-ins per month or weekly check-ins. So obviously they're gonna have more interfacing with me. They're gonna have more ability to they need more hand holding, and that's what they pay for. Then I have the people that come in at 98 a month and they're one check-in per month. And for those people, they're still gonna get daily text messages from me. They're still gonna be able to text me as often as they want with questions, but but people don't use that. I think coaches think like they're gonna get like battered all day long by people. I'm like, I have 115 people, and if I hear from five of them a day, that's a lot. You know, on my check-in forms, they have the ability to schedule a phone call with me during a check-in period. 10% of them do. So maybe I'm doing 10 or 12 calls a week, tops. So it's you put it out there, but you like I over-deliver. I send out multiple resource emails per week. I'm doing a Zoom call with everybody on Wednesdays, and I'm educating on some very relevant practical topic that they need to know about. I'm never not answering a text message within 20 or 30 minutes of getting it. I'm just staying ahead of the curve. And I think a lot of coaches don't understand that part of it, like the fulfillment side of coaching. So they feel like they know how to get somebody to in the door. But like I want this to be a long-term fruitful and good experience for them. I tell people, like, don't expect this process to be any less than six months.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:10

Like, right off the bat, plan on spending money with me for at least six months because you're not going to learn shit inside of that month inside of that time. Ideally, more like a year. So by pricing it accordingly, you're allowing people to stay in an ecosystem that's supportive and educational for long enough for it to finally stick. And the problem with these five and seven hundred dollar paid in fulls for the next six months is that you have to now resell somebody every six months. And if they haven't gotten what they wanted out of that six months, the likelihood that they'll resign is very low. And now you're fighting tooth and nail to keep this client. And you're also doing it in a way where it's not really conducive to their growth. You're basically just doing it for yourself. Like, are you actually getting somebody further along? Like yesterday, I had a Zoom call with all my clients. Not all of them show up. 115 people don't show up on a Zoom call at 4 p.m. Pacific time on a Wednesday. 30 people did. And we talked about training in depth. Like, these are lay people, but I'm talking to them about mechanical tension, and I'm talking to them about joint angles, and I'm talking to them about exercise swaps and what the difference is between knee and hip dominance. And like, I don't want my clients to look at Instagram content and be like, oh, what's that mean? I want them to know exactly what makes sense and what doesn't. And it gets to a point where like some of my clients within six or eight months of working with me, they can program all their own training. They can program all their own training. They know exactly what stuff on Instagram that they're looking at makes sense. They can dismiss what doesn't. They have a bullshit filter that's better than it's ever been. And it's because I spend so much time treating them like adults and giving them autonomy. Because at some point, if they have to stay for any other reason than accountability, then you haven't done your job.

SPEAKER_00 35:41

Absolutely. What does your system look like for trainers that are listening that maybe want to transition to online or just have no idea where the hell to start? What does your system look like in terms of like your onboarding process? Do you have one offer? And what is your delivery system? Just like a little overview of how that works.

SPEAKER_03 35:59

So, yeah, so I'll just kind of walk you through. So I have three, it's all one-on-one coaching. So the only thing that I do that's group is that phone call on Wednesdays, which everybody's invited to. And I do that as a group format. But everybody interfaces with me individually and they're allowed to do so. Not through WhatsApp. I mean, WhatsApp if they're international, but if they're look if they're United States or Canada, they have my they have my cell phone number. So I'm I'm getting direct communication with them. But depending on what their bandwidth is or however much money they want to spend, it's either 98 bucks a month, 195 a month, or 298 a month. At all those price ranges, they're gonna get customized macro and calorie targets based on what their goal is and their current body composition. And I used to have like a pretty extensive onboarding process where I would have them fill out an intake form and I would send them all the shit. I don't even do that anymore. You tell me what you want, you tell me what problem we're trying to solve. Let's go to work today. Like I had a woman sign up with me this morning for 98 bucks. I saw the payment come through, I saw her email, I saw her cell phone number, I shot her a text, I said, Hey, saw that you just signed up. Welcome aboard. I need these four pieces of information from you. Like, did you download Chronometer, which is my food tracking app that I use? Did you download Heavy, which is the app that I use to deliver training through, which is free for them? I pay for it. She's like, Yeah, downloaded those. Cool. Okay, so she already she she's like one of those clients who you already know is gonna do well because she's already reading instructions and she likes just follow following along.

SPEAKER_02 37:18

Love those people.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

Few far in between, but when you get them, you're you're so excited. And then I just said, Hey, I need to see a picture of your body composition because I want to determine where body fat percentage is approximately, because that helps me determine where our calories and macros are gonna start. Do you train at home or at a gym? And if you're at home, what kind of equipment do you have? What's your main goal? Fat loss, muscle gain, and performance enhancement. You have one choice, not three. Do you have any experience tracking food? And if so, how much? What's your weekly cardio if you're doing any? And what is what are you doing at what heart rates, if you're even monitoring that? And what are your daily average steps? That's it. That's it. Like that's all. You tell me that information, and I will give you a direct, clear plan on whatever your goal is. So it takes me about 10 minutes. Like I was actually gonna do it right before you and I hopped on, but I wanted like an extra couple of minutes. But I'll go into her chronometer, I'll set her calories based off her body comp, which we know is a guess until we watch the rubber meet the road. As a fat loss client, I'll give her two days of strength, full body, both days. I'll give her 120 minutes of cardiozone to three a week. I'll have her meet 7,000 steps on average as a minimum. And I'll say nutrition is going to be the driver of all your fat loss. Everything else is a sidebar. I'll send her a couple of resourced emails on tracking food. I'll send her a resource email on some ways to hold on to data. I'll send her a resource email on what the expectations of my coaching are and what I expect of them as a client. And then I say, Do you have any questions? And if you have any questions, read through everything today or tomorrow and shoot me a message back. And if you have to hop on a phone call and clarify some stuff, I'm happy to do it. I'll I'll hop on a phone call with anybody at any time. Like I, if I'm not doing a check-in on my computer, I got nothing going on. Like I'm not like I don't understand when I I hear coaches, like I have a Friday call that I do with coaches uh 8 a.m. on Pacific time on Fridays. I call it the Real Coaches Network. And it's like basically a free thing I establish for people just so I can hang out with coaches once a week virtually. And we talk about case studies, we talk about marketing strategy, business, we talk about shit like that. And it's funny because I hear so many coaches that are just like overwhelmed and freaked out. I'm like, you have 30 clients. How is that overwhelming? Like, this is your full-time job and you only have 30 people. Like, to what depth are you like? And but then I start hearing it's like, well, I'm customizing all these programs. I'm like, these are fucking fat loss clients. Like, they just need to push, pull, leg their way through it and then eat properly so they don't get fatter. Like, we don't need to like they don't need to.

SPEAKER_00 39:29

Coaches overcomplicate it so much.

SPEAKER_03 39:31

Oh, like the RIR, like who like Mrs. Jones doesn't give a shit about like what that like, just give her a very basic plan to follow that she can barely fuck up if she tried and just do it consistently. Progressive overload takes care of itself if she understands what that means. As long as she's going up in weight or training to failure, she's gonna have a chance at growing muscle because she's got no exposure to it before. So it's like just get out of this complexity that you think everybody needs. Like, these people are not high-level app. Now, granted, I do have some people that are, you know, I have a I have a strong woman who's competing at the Arnold in March. Totally different story. I have an ultra marathoner who's competing in April, totally different story. Yeah, we're gonna get real granular with those individuals. And they're gonna have warm-ups, they're gonna have dynamic warm-ups, they're gonna have very sports-specific exercises, but that's a totally different ballgame. That's 1% of my clientele base. But I think I think coaches, like you said, they're just overcomplicating life and making it way harder for themselves. And then they're also overwhelming their clients with the complexity.

SPEAKER_00 40:30

And then they're not following through.

SPEAKER_03 40:32

And that's the other part is like, if it's the more complex it is, the harder it is gonna be for them to comply, and then their head's gonna spin and fall off their head, off their shoulders, and then it's over. And to me, like I always tell people, I'm like, you're you're gonna suck at all of this stuff. You don't know how to train because all you have is orange theory under your belt. Nobody taught you shit. You have no idea where your lats are, you don't know what your quads do, you don't know what your hamstrings do. Let's teach you all that stuff so you at least have some bodily autonomy. And then once we get past that point, like maybe within the next two months after seeing your videos, you can stop sending me your training videos because at that point, maybe you do know what you're doing. But I still have clients to this day who've been with me for seven, eight months, who they don't need to send me videos, but they do just for hey, check this out. How am I doing? Has it gotten any better? Cool. I'm looking at how's your form? What's your ability to control tempo in both directions, and what's your proximity of a failure? That's all I'm looking at. And that that's it. Like, I don't need to change workouts every fucking 12 weeks. I don't need to give them a periodized program because these are fat loss clients, they're body calm clients. Like, this is not complicated shit.

SPEAKER_00 41:31

Yeah, and I think coaches are just they think that that's how they stand out is by feeling like they have to overdeliver or you know, create something new, and it's actually the exact opposite, and it's it's really uh not allowing them to grow.

SPEAKER_03 41:46

I've seen some of these plans that like I've had co clients come to me with other coaches' training programs, like out of this on this massive Excel document. I look at it and I'm like, I would rip this up in three and a half seconds. Like, how did you follow this? And they're like, Well, I'm like, You're do you you realize you're doing 38 sets of glutes a week? No, I didn't see that. I'm like, did you ever ask why you're doing this much volume? Was there ever any moment in which you're like, why am I training five times a week? And there's just again, because there's no education being delivered. It's like just here's the plan and good fucking luck. And it's just like, I just don't understand it. If you think about conceptually how odd a public gym is, think about it this way: it's a public facility that has relatively complex equipment that nobody knows how to use and nobody's taught how to use, and then you have an open gym membership to walk in and fuck it all up with no oversight, no feedback, nothing. You're just expected to walk in there and figure it out. Would you walk into an auto-body shop and know how to use a lift? No, you wouldn't. Like you there's a professional for that. So it's just it's such a wild concept. People don't have any idea about food at all. Like I did a I did a free coffee talk yesterday in a coffee shop, and I sat with three women. Two of whom were relatively professional when it comes to fitness, and the one was completely novice. And she's talking to me about like milk alternatives and what's bad and what's good. I'm like, you're missing the forest for the trees, man. Like it doesn't fucking matter. You're not going to the coffee shop to improve your nutrition. You're stopping here because you didn't make like feel like making coffee at all. Whatever you put in it is probably not going to be a problem. Worry about the other three meals a day.

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

And coaches just don't know how to use like I talk to people like they're human beings. I talk to people like I'm talking to them at a grocery line. Like I'm just giving them the shit that makes sense, and I deflate a lot of the stuff that they're concerned about because it's not relevant concern.

SPEAKER_00 43:30

Yeah. What I'm hearing too is that coaches need education because that's the only way we're gonna stand out from influencers rambling bullshit on social media is if we actually teach rather than deliver programs. And that's why I'm so passionate about education because that that's gonna always be the differential education and community. And um, but my question you work with it sounds like you work with a variety of clients. How do you get clients into your space? Is it by referrals or Because if you're messaging, what's your messaging? Because it seems like you do have a couple different niches that you work with. What is your messaging or niche?

SPEAKER_03 44:08

I mean, most of my where I source most of my client acquisition is social media, like 99.9%. Um referrals every once in a while. You know, some of my diehards will certainly refer people. But here's the thing my clients, they get results. Their friends don't want to do what they do.

SPEAKER_00 44:22

Right.

SPEAKER_03 44:23

Their friends don't want to track food. Their friends don't want to send training videos to a coach. Their friends want a fucking diet plan that they'll follow for two and a half weeks and then quit. So I don't get a lot of referrals because people don't want to do the work. Because my clients are so transparent about how they got to where they got that once they start talking, you know, like I've actually funny that you mentioned that because one of my clients, Jen, awesome lady, lost like 40 pounds with me since the beginning. And she's been with me for a year. So she's been with me for a long time. And she'll go, she's very social, she's a real estate agent in Dallas, and she has brunches and lunches with her friends, and they're always like, Jen, you look so good. How'd you do it? And she starts saying it, and then their friends are like bitching about sugar and carbs, and well, I don't eat bread. And she just laughs at all of it because none of them have any fucking clue. And she's not gonna be the person that changes their mind, and neither am I. I like I'm not in the business of convincing you that you don't know what you're doing. I'm gonna put out thought-provoking content, I'm gonna put out practical content, I'm gonna make you start thinking about this stuff slightly differently. And when you're ready to move out of your own way, you know that I'm a resource that you can use. I post my pricing at least once a week in my stories. I create content every single day. I haven't missed a day in four years. I do one wall post every day at least, and I do at least three story posts every single day. Everybody that comments gets a comment back. Everybody that DMs me gets a thoughtful response every time. And there's people, and I don't push coaching on my DMs. Like if people ask me about it, sure, but I will answer with context and voice notes. I'll give people my phone numbers so they can access me directly. Like I give out so much free information on a weekly basis, it would make most coaches' heads spin. Like I give out more free advice than most coaches give out paid advice for. Why? Because what I want to do is I want to build trust and authority. And when they are ready to finally get out of their own way and spend some money, they know where to go because they know I haven't bullshitted them. There's people, a woman with that just that's been with me for about six months was a follower of mine for four years, asking me advice constantly. And I would just give her advice all the time. And then finally she's like, I don't want to keep asking anymore. I think it's just gonna be better for me to pay. I'm like, cool, let's go. But like I didn't push her.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

So at the end of the day, you your job is the accountability part. And I think that's one thing that coaches forget about is like, oh, I don't want to give away my secret sauce.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

There is no secret sauce.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

There is no secret sauce. Education, they're not going to not work with you because you're providing all the education. They're gonna work with you because they need someone to implement the education. I think coaches don't do that because they don't want to give away all you know, they don't want to give away everything. It's just so give it all away.

SPEAKER_03 46:49

It's your that I mean the thing I tell most coaches who are struggling, I'm like, give it all away. Give it all away to the point where like you're you're just dumping it to them on a fire hose and they don't know what even what to do with it. Like, I I post constantly, like, if you send me a picture of your body composition, your weight, and your goal, I will give you exactly the macros I think make sense for you. I know in two weeks you're not gonna be following them. It's not gonna make any difference. I can give you, I I have 45 templates built out in the heavy app that I can send to you at any time. Within three weeks, you're gonna be bored not doing it, not getting any feedback. You don't know if you're making any progress, you don't know when to increase your weight, you don't know when to increase reps and sets, like you don't know anything. So you're not, we're not, we're not our job doesn't exist because of a lack of information. Our job exists because human nature lends itself to people not giving enough of a fuck to do it on their own. That's it. And once you can reconcile that fact in your own head as a coach, you become completely unstoppable and it's a peaceful road to making money. Now, obviously, we have to weather the ups and downs and the economic declines and people wanting to spend money. But here's an idea maybe don't charge $700 a month for fucking macros and workouts and think that you're solving cancer problems. Like you're giving people rudimentary shit that you don't need to be charging an arm and a leg for. And your time, I'm sorry, coaches, is not that fucking valuable. You are a commodity that can be replaced tomorrow with a chat GPT search in three and a half seconds. So don't ever feel like you're bigger than this industry, and don't ever feel like you're bigger than what you're putting out. And for me, I know that. I know that my my clients have options, but I'm the best one there is.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

Right, right. I love that. Uh, you talk about big rocks. What is what are what's one big rock that a coach can focus on tomorrow to actually move their business forward?

SPEAKER_03 48:33

Is your content practical and help helping anybody? Or is it a picture of your ass and another video of you doing a deadlift? I I watch, like I don't follow back a lot of coaches. A ton of coaches follow me, but I like I've I've made the mistake to follow a few, and it actually drives me crazy. I'm like, of course you're not getting any business. Nobody gives a shit about what you ate in a day or get ready with me. How the hell is that gonna solve Mrs. Jones, who's 48 years old with three children, who's 40% body fat? How is you putting makeup on your face in front of the mirror gonna help her? And I make fun of all that content constantly. Whenever I feel like you do on top of funnel shit, I'll make fun of other coaches because I find it to be hysterical, the shit they think is important. I'm like, did you have a conversation with your client yesterday? Yes, what did they say? Well, they said that they were having trouble getting in enough protein. Cool, that's a piece of content. How do you get in enough protein? Well, here's your protein target, here are the lean protein sources you can use, here are the approximate portion sizes in grams of how to put them together. Isn't that a much more effective message than this is what I ate today? Like nobody cares.

SPEAKER_00 49:33

And I I talk to a lot of coaches that are just overwhelmed by producing content. You say you post one a day once a day, and I think that's important. The consistency is important because you have to get in front of people, but you post content where it's just text and it seems like it gets a lot of engagement. I feel like coaches feel like they always have to be front-facing and create these extravagant posts, but it seems like unbeorganic and just talk in front of the camera, and two, just put up a freaking text and say what your your thoughts are. It doesn't have to be complicated.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

I think like the reason why I use black and white, because it's the human brain can relate to that quicker and they can read it faster. That's the easiest way to put it. Like I see a lot of people that do text, but the text is too small, the colors are too blended. It doesn't pop. Like what we're trying to do is we're trying to get people to stop scrolling and read what the fuck we have to say. If it's too long, people don't care. If it's too, if it's too muddy, people don't care. We have we're we're placating to an attention span that's being devoured by Netflix and 30-second reels and minute and a half pop songs. Like, we're not living in the time where anybody has any patience for anything. So if you're not punching somebody in the mouth and sledgehammering them in the face with information, they're gonna bypass you just like they did with everybody else.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

Yeah. And trends are dead. So if your coach still trying to find the next like trending audio, like stop, you're wasting your time. Like it's dead. It's dead.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

So I the the you if you see the audio or if you hear the audio I use on my post, because I used to never put audio to any of my text posts, but now I have been because it showcases my personality. Like I'm a child of the 90s. What am I gonna put on in sync, Backstreet Boys, Christina Aguilera, Tool, Biggie, shit that I listen to that probably my 45-year-old clients listen to. So when they're in their car and they open up one of my posts and it's blasting through their radio, they're having a nice little morning while also getting a little bit of food for thought. And it showcases who I am. Like I don't ever like today, I posted a picture of my abs in the mirror and I said, Can you imagine if this was all that I posted every day? Most of you would unfollow me, except for some of the thirsty ones that wouldn't. But like I did it as an example because I never post my face or my like I'll do talking head videos, but I'm not posting my body. Every once in a while, I'll post workout videos just because I'll show differences in form. But the content that people create is it's such bullshit. And I'm just like, how is anybody learning anything from you? Nobody's gonna read your caption. Nobody, nobody's gonna like 3% of your population is gonna read your caption. So first of all, stop using Chat GPT for your fucking captions because we know immediately when I see Yeah, when I when I see all the little icons on the side and it's perfectly spaced out, I know that you didn't write that. So be organic, be authentic, be who you are, talk to people the way that you would literally talk to them in person. And I think that's the thing that like the way that I speak to you on this podcast is how I would speak to you at my event if we were having a cocktail. It's how I would speak if I was on stage, it's how I would speak if I was talking to a client in person or on the phone. I don't change who I am because I want my clients or my audience to understand this is exactly what they're getting and it's predictable.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

And I think that's an important note for people listening is like, especially with everything going on with technology and AI, people are more so than ever are craving human connection. And so if you want to be a great coach in this era, human connection, keep your human connection, show your personality, be authentic. You can use AI and Chat GPT for ideas and structure and systems, but be authentically you and build your community and worry about you and and don't do scroll and look at what other coaches are saying.

SPEAKER_03 53:06

I don't care what other coaches post. Yeah. The other day I saw somebody who I follow, and she's in the functional space and she talks to a lot of like women who might fall into the category of over-exercising and under-eating, but that's always a muddy road to talk about because again, food recall and habit recall for most pedestrian people is not good. But she had said something like, Why calorie deficits are a myth. And like it took every ounce of my effort not to just rage in her comment section. But I'm like, you know what? How she makes money is none of my concern. She's got her audience, I have mine. We're both probably trying to do net good in the world. She does it her way, I do it my way. I'm just I'm done policing people because I used to do it a lot. And I I've been blocked by like Stacey Sims and Mary Claire Haver because they say the dumbest fucking shit on the planet, and they're fucking doctors, which drives me absolutely crazy. And I hope they're listening to this. They won't be because they'll they won't listen to anybody but their own shit. But the stuff that they say, I'm just like, how like you're a you're a medical professional who's parading around as an advocate for women's health, and you're gonna disempower them and then sell them three thousand dollars worth of supplements. I don't know how to stay silent when that kind of shit happens. I will blow completely up and I will call people out. I don't give a shit because at the end of the day, two things will happen. Either my engagement goes up, I lose some followers that weren't meant there to be to be and I gain followers that do resonate with my message. Net positive all around.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

Yep. So be authentically you, and you know what, if people don't like it, then it's yeah, they're not your people.

SPEAKER_03 54:35

So and your and your following count does help. Like, is it easier for me to sell a coaching with 49,000 audience members? Of course it is. But let's say you have two or three thousand. Imagine you had three thousand people in your driveway right now listening to you talk. What would you tell them? What would you tell them? Would you show them your ass or would you do a bicep curl in front of them? No. You would start to ask them questions about what problems they were having. Use your stories for that kind of stuff. Like post question boxes. How can I help you? What are you struggling with? Every time somebody sends you a DM and responds to a uh a story or a post with either emoji or whatever, be like, hey, you haven't any problems right now? Like I'm bored right now. I want to help. Like, just solve problems. Like, that's what we're here for. We're solving, or at least learn, at least learn what problems exist. Because 99 out of 100 times, all the problems are the same you've already seen a thousand times. But when you start to hear people articulate them in different ways, you start to think about solving them in different ways. And that's all it is, is you're saying the same shit that anybody else with a brain is saying. You're just saying it in your own voice.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

At the end of the day, everyone wants the human connection and they want to be, they want significance. Like that's part of the the six needs of human fulfillment is they want like they just want to be listened to and just ask them how they're doing. So I agree. I love it. Now, uh, for people that are listening, where can they find out more information about the Real Coaches Summit?

SPEAKER_03 55:54

So the event website is Realcoaches Summit.com. That that could be where you can see all the topics, the speakers, the features, the tickets, everything there. Um, the Instagram page for the event is at real dotcoaches.summit. So you'll see video testimonials, you'll see clips from last year, you'll see promo videos, you'll see a ton of content from last year's event. Yeah, I mean, if you're a fitness professional, like the fact that I have to beg people to come to this thing is is so sad to me because it's like, why am I asking you to better yourself as a fitness professional? I'm putting this opportunity out there on my own dime. And like, granted, again, my choice, I'm not gonna sit here and bitch and tell you how hard it is to put on an event. The fact that I have to like, I'm a 148 tickets sold as of yesterday, as of today. I need another 75 or so to break even. Um, because it's a $220,000 endeavor that is completely crowdfunded. And if I don't get enough seats sold, then I come out of my own pocket for it. And I have $106,000 over the last three years, which I didn't have and I had to take out loans for. But like, if I don't do it, who else will? If I don't, if I don't put on an event like this that has nothing but upside for everybody in the room and nothing but downside for me, nobody's gonna assume that risk. Because you go to a lot of these events and people do lose money, but guess what? They make up for it with that $20,000 mastermind on the back end, which I'm not ever giving anybody. I was so embarrassed and so nervous last year because I created a $648 early pre-sale for this year, and I put a coupon, I put a QR code on the screen on the last day, and I'm like, guys, I don't even I hope that some of you buy this, but I kind of almost hope that nobody does because if God forbid I can't host this event, I have to now refund you 648. And I was shitting my pants with that Q car QR code up, and 52 people bought a ticket. So 52 people out of the 260 that were there bought a ticket on site for this year, which was like 30 grand. And I'm like, holy fuck, if I can't get this to work this year, I now have $30,000 that I have to refund to people. But like it's money, it's money, like money will grow back. If you have a work ethic and will, money should never be your concern. Like, I just like I don't plan on not being good at my job. I don't plan on being lazy. I don't give a fuck what the economy does. Like, we are about as recession proof as it gets because we dictate what the market does. The market doesn't dictate our job. Because at the end of the day, everybody wants to lose fat, everybody wants to change their aesthetic. Most people are not happy with how they look and feel. We're never gonna run out of customers. We just have to be priced accordingly. So with the event, I sent out, I don't know, 250 DMs over the last three days because I posted a lot of very coach-based content. A lot of coaches repost my stuff. And my strategy is I thank them for reposting and then I send them a link to the event and say, hey, hope you make it in April. I don't have the money, you know, I don't have the time. But I'm sure if I followed your story, I would see you at a fucking music festival next weekend. I would probably see you at a restaurant with your friends, I would probably see you doing a photo shoot that doesn't fucking do anything for your business. I would see you spend another three grand on business coaching that tells you to DM people cold. But I don't see you coming to events, but all I see is you bitching about your business. So it's like the people that know know, and the people that don't will never know. And until they until you actually take the risk and put yourself in that room, you don't know what the ROI is gonna be. I didn't until I did. And then I'm like, holy shit, there's power to this. And it's not like I'm telling you this because I'm trying to steal or swindle your money. Like everybody in that room but me wins. Everybody. The sponsors win, the speakers win, the attendees win. I'm the one holding the bag, not anybody else.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

Yeah, I think what you talked about the one-third, what's it called? The one-third rule. The rule the rule Yeah, where part one third of your business or one third of your life sucks, one third is great. In order for you to get that greatness, you have to go through the suck. Things aren't great until you go through the suck, you know. So it makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 59:45

I've been I've been through a lot of suck.

SPEAKER_00 59:47

Yeah, yes. Everyone who has seen success have been through suck. So keep pushing through because things aren't easy. And it's it's what you see on social media with people bragging about their businesses. They they went through shit too. So just keep, you know, keep working hard, have good work ethic, be authentic, and just keep doing what you're doing because it's it's a great time to be a coach. It really is.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:09

I think so. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

Well, thank you so much for being on today. Uh, this was a a great conversation. And I will put all of the the links to your social media and to the real coaches summit in then the show notes so that they can grab it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:23

So thank you very much. I appreciate the opportunity and I appreciate the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:27

Of course. And thank you to all of the listeners, and I'll catch you next week. Take care, everyone.