Industry Power Players: Insights from Top Online Business Innovators

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode 226. Today we're highlighting seven episodes from the last six months of the show in a special episode called Industry Power Insights from top online business innovators. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner and this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance and movement, package and position their products and services and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast.

Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. The intro for this episode is unique in that we're using artificial intelligence. This is the overdub feature Chris Little talks about in episode 223 titled Unleashing the power of AI in your business. This episode was also edited with assistance from AI. We used AI to curate some of the best moments of hours of content to create the most value possible for you, our listeners. Today we're going to be exploring the art of creating powerful presentations and sharing your message online. We're highlighting past episodes to feature key experts in various fields about how to captivate your audience and turn your passion into a successful business. Our guests include Colin Boyd and Jenny Rearrick who will share the stories about presentations and speaking. We are also showcasing past Dan Feldman, Ollie Kershner, Randy King, Rico Incarnati and Drew Manning as they share their experiences in professional development, setting boundaries, motivation, content creation, storytelling, inspiration, willingness to do hard things and self love. Join us as we delve into topics like conquering, the fear of failure, the power of video content, self love and vulnerability, and much more. Get ready to be inspired and take your online business to the next level in 2023. And of course, if you love this episode, please head to Apple Podcasts, search for the PT Profit podcast, leave a five star rating and review and send a screenshot to Chrisimpsonfitness.com let's dive in.

Colin, I'd love for you to share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

So I help people to craft and share a message from a stage so that people get clients rather than just collapse. And so a lot of the people that I help are very good at what they do. They've got a solid skill set, they've done the research, they've done the learning, but they have trouble communicating that in a way of absolute certainty to their audience. Where the audience doesn't just go, that was great information. They actually go, wow, how can we take this next step? And so that's, that's how I help people.

Tell us a little bit about the journey.

I started out as a life coach. So I was studying life coaching. This was 13 years ago. I was in Australia at the time, we live in California right now. But I was, I'd come out of training and development. I was in the corporate world. And then I heard about this, this idea of life coaching. I think my, my grandma said like, how on earth can you be a life coach? You're like 20, 28 years old. And I look back now and she had a, she had a point. So I'm studying life coaching and, and I'm learning all about the structure of how to create change in people. And it was just phenomenal. Really enjoying the process. The problem was, was that I didn't have any clients. And so I'm sitting in my two bedroom office. I was newly married with my amazing wife. We've been married for 16 years and where. But I'm like a year into my marriage, I'm wanting to like, you know, be a great husband and make a difference. And I've got this like business that's basically, I had half a client, let's call it half a client because they would sometimes show up and sometimes pay me. I'm sure no one can relate to that. And so I'm sitting in my two bedroom apartment on the wrong side of the railway tracks, literally. And my phone rings of my landline and I pick it up and it's one of my buddies from the coaching space I was in. And he said, hey, I've got this presentation coming up that I can't do. He said, I was given it from one person and it was given to me. And he goes, I can't do it either. Can you do it? So obviously this is like a really high quality lead, right? So everyone's playing hot potato with it, no one wants it. And I go, sure, I'll take it. And I remember I spoke with the event organizer, I got really nervous about it and I came into the evening, it was literally a dark and stormy night. I'm walking up the stairs, the event organizer comes over to me and he's like, Colin, you wouldn't believe this. Biggest event we have ever had. We've got 137 people in the room and this is bad news. This is bad news. I'm just like way to deliver bad news. Because in my mind I'm just thinking I'm just going to look like an absolute idiot in front of more people.

Right?

That was the meaning I'd created from this experience. And I get up there, I share. It was actually at a university event, so it was a master's program graduation night. It's like so random. And I speak and I share. And then at the end I made an offer. Now what I didn't realize at the time, it was an irresistible offer because out of the 137 people, 125 of them gave me their personal details. To follow up, I had a little fishbowl jar that I got from the 99 cent store at the back, but I literally had 125 pieces of paper with people's names and details on there. So I followed it up and did a whole bunch of like free coaching. And from there I ended up signing 12 full time paying clients. So I'm from zero to hero in my own mind of like building my coaching business. Four days later, my director from HP calls me and says, love the presentation. Can you come and speak at our next global training day? And that ended up having five and a half thousand people at it at my first paid speaking event. And for me what happened was I had this like revelation. Literally in one presentation. Your entire business can change. Your entire life can change.

So think back to your origin story of like when you had half a client and now you had to go into this, you know, share this story, share your expertise, perhaps without some of the evidence or the clinical work behind you to really make a case for why they should trust you. So what would you say to someone who's maybe like writing at the beginning, how would they craft their origin story or their conversion story?

Well, I think like, first of all, if you're right at the beginning, that's just part of your journey. Like you can't be at the end if you're at the beginning. And so sometimes people wish that they were more developed than they were. So first of all, I just want you to realize, like, it's okay to embrace that and to, to do that. And one of the, one of the ways you do that is when you make an offer or when you take on the next thing, you do it from the sense of you actually pitch it as. This is a beta experience.

If someone wants to learn more about working with you and going down the storytelling world.

Yeah. So I have my own podcast which is called the Expert Edge, so you can check me out there. We do a bit of stuff On Instagram is kind of my main platform, which is just Hollenboyd. And if people have really resonated with this content and they're like, I really want to get my conversion story really clear, they can go to conversionstoryformula.com conversion story and, and that's a like, it's like a small little program that we do, but it will get your conversion story promises within 48 hours if you do it.

Oh, so good. And we'll make sure that we link all this up and you have to go and watch his reels on Instagram because they will have you laughing.

Yeah, we have a bit of fun.

Yeah, it's fun. It's such a good time. Thank you, Colin.

I appreciate it.

Thanks, Beverly.

Jenny, I'd love for you to please share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Great. I'm Jenny Rerek. I own a company called Fit to Speak. I am a communication and presentation skills coach. For the last five years, I've been doing this full time. I work in the corporate space with professionals at every level, teaching them how to communicate more effectively, speak more confidently, and then how to end. To end create and deliver presentations. And then I've created Fit to Speak to bring that same level of professional development into the fitness, sport and health spaces. So currently, through Fit to Speak, I work with sport coaches, personal trainers, group trainers, physical therapists, athletic trainers, chiropractors on their speaking skills, because many of them at the level that they're at, they want to speak at conferences, they want to participate in panels, they want to simply increase their presence across their professional network. And as people in the corporate space have found, one of the key things to distinguish yourself amongst other professionals at that level is how well, effectively and confidently you can communicate.

I think there's so many things to unpack when it comes to levels and layers of communication. Because I'm curious, in your perspective, are you teaching the what the how like, are we talking about, like what we say the voice timbre is like. Can you just dive into a little bit of your process and how you begin this?

Yeah, it's all of the above. When we're thinking about communication, we're thinking about what I call presence, which is when you are speaking with somebody, whether that's one on one or you're speaking to a group, you have an effect on them simply by your body language and the way they hear you speaking your voice.

I don't.

I think I've maybe met one person who had actually had any formal training on that because they were in theater. And that's unfortunate.

That's me. That's exactly. Yeah. I mean, that's why I'm like, this is. It's interesting to me. I mean, it just circles back. This is total side note. But it's like, what you think is so easy is not easy for your clients. I came out of the womb presenting, dancing, singing, had formal training. So when someone said, go live on Facebook, I was like, oh, yeah, easy.

And so many people really struggle to do that, and they think that they're just naturally not good at it. When that's not true. It's a skill. It is a learnable skill. It's crazy to me that we don't. We have yet to have integrated that type of professional development into what we do, because I always say communication is the tool that we use to do our job. And a question I often ask groups that I work with is, think about a time. Have you ever met somebody and in the first minute of speaking to them, you sit, you think to yourself, I don't really like them.

I don't know.

There's something about them I don't like. That is what I mean by presence. When there are other people you meet and you're enthralled with them within a minute, and you think, wow, I could be around this person all day. They're really interesting. They seem so present and charismatic. Now, at some point, we have to back that up with competence. But you want to have that immediate impact on somebody, and that is something you have control over is how you're showing up physically and vocally.

So for those of you who want to go deeper with your work, learn more about what it is that you do, connect with you, what are the best places that I can send them?

I post almost daily on social media, on Instagram, it's fit, Underscore two, underscore speak, and all of my links are listed there.

What's up, Dan? Thank you so much for joining me in the show today. How are you?

I'm doing very well. How are you?

I'm doing so good. I'm really excited to dive in today. So for those of us who have not had the pleasure of your work, I'd love for you to share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve, and how you got there.

I am a registered dietitian and a personal trainer. I have my master's degree in human nutrition. I am located in the United States in the New York, New Jersey area and I have a private practice that's kind of what the bulk of my time is spent doing. That's my career and I have clients that mostly see me via telehealth online over zoom and most of my clients actually use their health insurance so most of my clients don't pay anything out of pocket to see me. I bill their health insurance companies and health insurance companies pay me which is very, very cool. So that's kind of my main gig. I also do some part time work for a website called examine.com a nutrition in a health based research company. I assist with the examine.com monthly study summaries research review so. So that's pretty fun as well. I have a pretty active social media following on Instagram where I post a lot of evidence based nutrition and fitness stuff when I'm not doing that. I'm also a competitive powerlifter so I compete in usapl. So I'm fairly decent at that. And that's kind of my, my general background I suppose.

So is that all? No, I'm just kidding. I think that there are three main resources that we all have access to that live synergistically together and post. And most people, this is people, not just coaches. I think most people miss it in terms of the relationship to our relationship to time, our relationship to money and our relationship to energy. In terms of our mental energy and our effort. And we tend to undervalue energy and time. We think we have plenty of it and we just don't. We're. They're actually finite resources. And the ones that I feel that people spend so much time focusing on is one that is, is more accessible depending on your circumstances, even, even depending on any circumstance. Especially if you're listening to this podcast. It means that you are creative. You automatically have a skill like you, you are a coach or a dietitian or a personal trainer and those you can monetize. We can't invent more time, we can't invent more energy. And it's just, it is what it is and that's all there is.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And thinking about what your priorities are and I'm not trying to say like oh, social media is useless for some people. They're really trying to build their brand, really trying to market, really need more clients, etc. May pay to to or they have a particular product that they want to sell to their social media audience, then it may pay to focus more of your energy on that. But at least not, not necessarily chasing it just because you feel like you should because you don't want to focus all your time on that and at the expense of your current clients or, or, or what's, what's going to be most lucrative for you. Not that everything's about money, but, but it's an important aspect for a lot of people.

One of the things too, you were talking about was just doubling down on your practice and doubling down on your client base. What are some of the ways that you continue to stay motivated, stay inspired despite doing all, despite doing this for long periods of time?

How do I stay motivated and inspired? I mean, honestly, it's just something that I do. You know what I mean? It's not really, I don't really seek motivation from somewhere. I mean, I think I try to keep my why, my kind of personal why in the forefront of my mind. Just, I want to have a positive impact on other people and I want to have a good living while doing it. You know what I mean? And sort of continuing that. I think another point that I try to keep in mind is the general idea of delayed gratification, which I know is something we probably hear of a lot, but just kind of reminding myself that oftentimes the great things are on the other side of discomfort.

Right? Dan, thank you so much for pouring into us, sharing your insight, sharing your journey. I really appreciate it. So for those of us who want to learn more about your journey, learn from you. Where are some of the best places I can send them?

Yeah, well, well, thank you so much for having me on. And probably the best place is my Instagram, which is at Powerlifter Dietitian. And if you want to get a hold of me directly, you can also email me@danfeldmanrd.com what's up, Ali?

Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm good.

How are you? I'm doing so good. I am super pumped for today's episode. Before we hit record, it was just I was word vomiting on you. So I can't wait to hear what you are going to share with us today. So for those of you who are listening and haven't had the pleasure of learning about your work, I'd love for you to share a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there.

Great question, right? Everybody's favorite question introducing yourself. Yeah, I mean my background is in sports performance or strength and conditioning. I was in the collegiate space for nearly in my entire sports performance career, which was about seven years. I want to say I was at The University of Kansas. I was at Stanford and got to work with basketball and golf and swimming, soccer and all the good sports. And from there I have since transitioned to my current role, which is at Art of Coaching with Brett Bartholomew, who I know you know, and I am sort of a doer of all things. But my official title is Director of Creative Strategy. Now what that means is part marketing, part facilitating. I teach our workshops, I do our mentoring online, one on one coaching. So I have my hands on a little bit of everything. And I've had to learn pretty much any skill. And I'm sure these are all skills that you talk to your audience about all the time. But whether that's copywriting, sales, marketing, graphic design, I've had to pick it all up. And I from just a strength coach till now, it's been quite the journey, I will say.

So there must have been this moment for you where a sticking point where you knew you had to make a decision about betting on yourself and going all in on you. What was that process that you went through that led you to finally say, okay, enough is enough, I'm ready to go down this path?

That's such a, such an interesting question. I had so many moments of self doubt when I was about to make that transition because I, for all intents and purposes, I was really at a peak of my career. And I think that's also what led to the decision that I made when I made it. Because I was 27 at the time. I was at my dream school back in my hometown. This is actually where I grew up and I was working with the best team in the nation. We had just won a national championship and I felt like I love what I do, I love what I do. But I'm 27 and I've accomplished every goal that I've set out to accomplish. And I don't necessarily have aspirations of being a director of sports performance because I wanted to stay involved in coaching as much as possible. That was the part that I really loved. So I took that, that was one piece of data and then the next piece of data was I'm somebody who has an insatiable thirst for learning and self growth and self development. And it wasn't that I wasn't going to get that if I had stayed, but it was like, hey, if I have aspirations of going out and starting my own business or expanding my reach or who I'm able to help in the future, I do need more skills that I'm not going to be able to dedicate as much Time to. So I wanted a place where I could help build something, where I could impact more lives, where I could teach myself new skills that I wasn't necessarily going to be exposed to. And then there was. The last piece was I'm somebody who needs to pursue the uncomfortable because I can very easily slip into routine and consistency and tell myself, convince myself that that is progress, when in reality it's security and it's safety. So all of those things combined, I was like, it's time. If not now, when? Because I'm not. I'm only getting older. Right. So I was ready.

What is the number one question that you love to answer but rarely get asked?

I love that question. I think one question, I actually don't love to answer this question, but I think it's the most important question that we should all be asking ourselves, and I don't think that we talk about it enough is where am I the problem? Because we, as coaches and leaders, we are so in this fix it mindset, often of other people and of problems, we like to jump in and get our hands dirty and fix things for people. And we've talked about why that might not serve us in the long run anyway. But I think at the end of the day, we need to be able to ask ourselves, where am I the problem? Because we're all the problem. If we say somebody's stubborn, our client's stubborn, or parents are stubborn, they're not willing to exercise. Where are you stubborn in your life? And I know that I am very stubborn in certain aspects, and I know that I am definitely a problem in many relationships that I have. And I think bringing awareness to that can completely revolutionize the relationship that you have with somebody and with yourself, too. And it's not to. It's not to break yourself down, but it's rather to just bring awareness to the fact that we're all human, even as leaders and as coaches. And if we've taking care of the downside, the upside will. Will take care of itself.

So good and so powerful. It's interesting and I love that question. And I think that we can also use it too, in terms of the positive. Meaning if there's something you're admiring about somebody or that you love about someone, wish that you had, where is that? Like, where is that in you? Because you can't recognize it unless it's in you.

Absolutely. It's why all of our. The things that we judge people on are often the things that we are insecure about ourselves. And that. That gives me almost like, chills to think about because I think about all the people that I've like, not so subtly or maybe subtly been like, like that person's so annoying. Or like, God, I can't stand when they do that. And I'm like, I either envy that that they're able to do that, or I don't have that skill myself or I, I truly am just. I'm the problem. I am the, it's. It says more about me than it does about that person.

So true. Amen on that. So amazing. So for those of you who want to learn more about you, go deeper with you, connect with you, what are some of the best places that I can send them?

Well, first of all, I would say artofcoaching.com is where you can find a ton of free resources. Brett has a podcast that he runs for Art of Coaching. Sometimes I quarterback that with him. So you can definitely catch me there as well. But me personally, I'm on Instagram, Kirschner Al and Twitter Ali Kirschner.

What's up, Randy? Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm doing awesome. How are you?

I'm doing great. This is going to be such a fun conversation. I cannot wait to dive in. Thank you so much for joining me. So for those of you who have not been introduced to your work, Randy, can you please share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there?

Absolutely. Who I am is Randy King. I am a former bouncer, current martial artist and former VIP security specialist working with some D list celebrities, nobody of any importance. And I turned that career into a martial arts self defense business. I ran a gym in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada called KPC self defense for 15 years and through that platform I jumped international. And now my full time job is public speaking and talking to people all around the world about self defense, self protection. And mostly my focus is all of the skills that lead up to a physical encounter and ways to de escalate ahead of time. Because the people I serve are not just martial athletes and fit people. Self defense is for everyone. So Whether you are 75 years old or 13 years old, your self defense strategy shouldn't rely on being a young fit human.

So now something you, you talked about and I want, I'm curious about this because it kind of goes on in with this conversation is this idea of boundaries.

Yes.

Right. It is a very complex experience for me, at least personally.

Right.

Sometimes people will be like, I have great boundaries. And then Come to recognize. Oh, actually I don't.

Yeah.

So. Right. Because these are hard because in, in community situations, we want to please, we want to. We want to serve people. Nobody gets into this industry or like usually to be. To be a jerk. Right. We want to connect and we want to belong. So what are some of the ways that you recommend people start getting present to what their boundaries are and how do we increase that? And like and be and belonged.

So number one, I have an online boundary setting course. I recommend that. But outside of that, here's all the free information I'm going to give. Obviously, because you don't actually have to take the course, you should. It's great. But here's the information. A lot of our advice on self defense and self protection ends up being what I call thought ending cliches. So I would just run away and then you stop thinking about it. Right. Or I would just carry a gun and you stop thinking about it. Same thing with boundaries. You should have good boundaries. Okay, I should have boundaries. What does that mean? What are boundaries? What areas do boundaries exist in? Right. And this is what the course breaks down. So for me, when I first started exploring boundaries, I've always had pretty decent ones. But again, I'm a, I'm a big guy. I'm not unconfident. I'm loud.

Right.

I'm like 68% chest. Like, I'm not a person. Like that one's I'm going to pick on. So for me, boundaries are easy. But that's not for everyone. And especially to work with the, the First Nation. So that would be our native. Our indigenous people here become first nations in Canada. When I work with them, like because they're taught to be so meek, it's very easy for people to break their barriers, but the reason they break through is when you say set boundaries, you need to set parameters of what boundaries are. What does a boundary look like? How does a boundary sound? What areas do we need boundaries in? I break boundaries into six categories. You need boundaries and physical boundaries. So how I like to be touched, how I want people to interact with me. So for example, I'm not a big hugger. It's known all of my social media. I don't like hugs that much. I don't like hugs from strangers. I travel the world and I see hundreds of thousands of people a year. I don't want to hug every random human that I. It's just, it's too much for me. So that's a physical boundary I have. Right? We have Sexual boundaries. What's your orientation? How do you identify? What do you like, what you don't like? Also those go around sexual conversations. Are you okay with dirty jokes or you're not okay with dirty jokes? Right? So we have physical, we have sex, we have material boundaries. How do you like people interacting with your stuff? Do you like to lend money? We have time, boundaries. How do you set up your day? Do you burn out all the time? If you're an entrepreneur, I guarantee you do, right? Because I do. Right? Then we have intellectual boundaries, how we think, our spiritual views, our political, all those sorts of things. And I'm forgetting the sixth one right now. So we have time, material, intellectual, emotional. We have emotional boundaries, right? Like how I want to interact, how I want to be spoken to just by alone. Thinking of those six, we call them boundary pillars. You can then start creating a strategy, right? It's like somebody, it's like you just saying to somebody, right? Like, eat less calories. Like, yeah, that works. But like, how do I eat less calories? What am I doing wrong? Right? It's when people say, just have boundaries. You need to have metrics. You need to have measurement points and metrics for success. So when I built the course, I it kind of put a mirror in my face. I was like, oh, I'll build this boundaries course. I'm super good at boundaries. And I'm like, oh, I suck at times boundaries. I suck at material boundaries because I didn't know those even existed.

Right. So I'd love for you, if someone wants to go deeper and connect with you, where are some of the best places I can send them?

Sure. So two best places, social media wise, Instagram at Randy King Live, if you're a tick tocker. My daughter and I have a channel together called Defense Talks with dad. So at the fence talks that, but defense spelled the Canadian way. So D E F E N C E with dad, where we do content and then other than that, the website. Randykinglive.com what's up, Enrico?

Thank you so much for joining me on the show today. How are you?

I'm doing well, thank you.

I'm really excited to dive in. So for those of you who have never heard of your work, can you please share with us a little bit about who you are, who you serve and how you got there?

Yeah. So long story short, I wanted to become a pediatrician in college and early high school. And so today what I do is I'm media strategist. I'm videographer for predominantly the fitness Space and fitness coaches, fitness entrepreneurs and businesses. And so that is a very quick story in a small nutshell of, like, where I'm supposed to be to where I'm at today and what I do and who I serve.

I would love for you to share with us with a little bit about how you learned these skills. And what would you say to someone who wants to use video very powerfully in their business to acquire new leads, to share their content? Like, what are some of the things that they can just start doing right now?

Yeah, so I'll. I'll give context before, like, when I started working with Zach, mind you, I had started on a GoPro and I had started on, like, a Canon T5. I. I go to film with him and he's like, hey, man, I have a Sony A7S III, like, or A7SII, whatever. He's like, you know, can you use it? I'm like. I'm like, I've never used this, but I'll figure it out, right? And I'm like, there's YouTube tutorials. I'll figure it out. While I was, like, filming with him in LA on that trip, I was watching YouTube videos at night of how to work this damn camera. Because for me, I'm serious, because for me, I've always been in the mindset of, like, just say yes, figure the rest out later. Right? Meaning if you're someone who's brand new to making videos, if you're someone who has no idea what to do, the number one reason most people get crippled is because, like, I have to have the perfect plan. I have to have the right lighting, I have to have the right camera. Like, you have an iPhone, you have a Samsung, whatever you want to say, like, these cameras are machines now. These phones are machines. You have something in your pocket to start making content. Like, I don't want to hear any more bullshit excuses. You have a window that you can stand in front of for good lighting, right? Your issue is you're just scared of what Debbie from fucking high school is going to think. Well, Debbie is not paying you, right? So it's like, stop worrying about that. She's never going to be a lead from you. But you're so worried about her or your Aunt Sally, who you don't even like, at Christmas is going to judge you. Like, you got you. You have to stop getting out of your own way with that. And I think most people are afraid to fail in public, when in reality, when you fail in public, you're kind of like going through A growth transformation. You're kind of going through like a, hey, this is my starting point and I'm gonna document all of it, right? Like, there's a reason I keep my old YouTube videos up because I'm like, I'm gonna leave it there because I want to show, like, this is where I started. It was, it's it. To me, they're terrible videos, but for anyone starting to like, oh my gosh, if this is how he did it, so can I, right? And not that I'm like a perfect example, but I, you never know who's going to look at your stuff and be like, oh my gosh, like, this is where you started. Like, I know where I can be or I see where I can go, right? And I think most people, when they want to start making videos, they think it's a lack of knowledge they have, when in reality it's actually a lack of taking action, right? And I think a lot of people, like, well, what action do I take? Just start filming and speaking to your, like speaking to a friend on camera about a problem you have or about a problem that they have, like, focus on helping one person. Like, if you're making content for yourself, you're feeding your ego. When you make content for other people, then you're actually feeding of higher purpose, right? And so most people, like I said, when they want to start making videos, they're like, well, I need, I need all the right things. I need the right plan, the right strategy. Like, no, you don't, like, you need to get out of your own head. I made a tweet post recently on like a swipe through and I said, building your audience, building your business, like content, anything, 95% of it is mental. 5% is all tactical, right? The getting out of your own head. The Do I look, I have this pimple on my face. What's this person gonna think of me? I'm worried about that. Like all this other stuff we tell ourselves, the other 5% is, is the execution of it. The 95 is what people really struggle with. And that's the mental side.

I, I, I mean, I couldn't agree more. I, I also think too that toddlers who learn to walk for the first time, they're not expected to run a marathon, but they're not going to learn the skill and, and get the knowing until they practice standing up and walking. I don't know if you've ever learn how to walk, but they fall down 500,000,000,000 times. And it's not like they sit there and be like, oh, my Aunt Sally is judging me because I fell down and hit myself on the corner. No, they get up and they get up again with bruises.

Yeah, I was going to say, like, that's why I always say I'm like, baby steps are still steps. Like, they're still steps. Right? Sure, we can complain about the algorithm. Sure, we can complain about how other people are lucky, right? But you don't see a toddler being like, oh, I'm just gonna quit. Like, I'm just gonna sit here and complain and moan. Like. Like, I'm just curious, like, where did we go wrong from being a toddler to getting up, standing over again, and, like, having resiliency and being strong and, like, figuring it out to then just becoming complacent to where we're at right now and just accepting mediocrity. Like, where. Where has that. Like, what. What's happened with that? Like, you learned how to walk, right? You had to fall so many times, but now when it's 2022 and you're a. You're a big boy, big girl now, and now all of a sudden, something doesn't go your way, you want to pout and just sit and complain. What. What happened to that? That's what. That's my question. Sure, you probably cried and hit your knee when you were a baby. So what? You had some bruises, right? You had some. Some. Some learning scars. Because you, like, you scraped your knee when you felt. When you fell on your bike doesn't mean you didn't go get up and try again, right? But now, whenever something happens or whenever something doesn't go our way, we immediately want to play victim and just immediately be like, woe is me. The algorithm, the this, the that, the whatever, I'm shadow banned, whatever. No, you're not. Like, your content sucks. Make better content.

You have any simple, like, tactical things that we can do in our video content for, like, documenting that will help us keep the attention of people to actually watch the full content in addition to, like, get to the point. You said get to the point, so I'll take that number one. What else do you have?

I would all say, start treating your Instagram story like a vlog and not an infomercial, right? I think too many people on their Instagram story, they're like, oh, here's my link. Buy this, buy that. Oh, I'm doing, like, you sound annoying. Like, use your Instagram story as a vlog. You can include that in there as a pattern interrupt of like, oh, by the way, I have this going on, or here's my face cream or whatever leggings you want to push, whatever all these influencers do, start treating it like a daily vlog. Why? Because it expires in 24 hours. What are you doing throughout the day? Like, you have to. You have to position yourself as the interesting character, right? Like, what are you doing? Like, I post the other day about my coffee creamer that I use, and people love that. And I'm like, I know why? Because it's relatable. Like, how many other people do you use coffee creamer in their coffee? A lot. Like, most people think my life is boring. I have nothing to share. No, you do. It's just you. You think to other people, it's boring. But, like, someone that might look you and that might be something they resonate with. Like, oh, my God, you use the exact same coffee creamer I do. That's cool. Like, it's another touch point, right? Start using your Instagram story as a vlog. Even your TikTok story, if you want. When it comes to specifically content, like, tactically, you have to have a compelling hook. You really have to. 80% of your video should be focused on the first three seconds. And I know a lot of people, they complain, oh, my God, our attention spans are so messed up. It is what it is, Kurt. Okay? It is what it is, bud. Like, I get you're frustrated. I get you're annoyed by it. But, like, we can either complain and what are you gonna go do? Go fight TikTok and Instagram. Like, be like. And complain about the attention span. It is what it is. Like, that's how people consume on that platform.

It's so funny to me, because everyone wants to blame Instagram and the algorithm, and I'm like, look, yo, it's people. They're adapting to what the human beings are doing. And. And to me, I. You touched on this, and I want to just reiterate it. Is that, like, listen, I always talk about how complacency is where dreams go to die. And let me ask you, do you want to be like Blockbuster, or do you want to be like Netflix? Because I don't know how many Blockbusters are available to you. I think there's one left in the country. And look at periscope. Look at MySpace. Look at. Look at Snapchat. The truth of the matter is that the only thing that stays consistent is change, and you have to learn how to.

Well, and. And that's the thing. When TikTok came out they put every other platform on notice. What do you notice? Instagram adopted reels. Exact same same platform of TikTok. What did YouTube do? YouTube was a long form platform for 17 years. TikTok comes along and starts dominating the watch time. We have to have a shorts platform now on our, on our channel. Like you have to adapt and yes. Oh, by the way, like Instagram still is losing the attention to TikTok, but like they had to adapt because why they would have lost. What did Facebook do now? They have reels. What is Pinterest doing? They have like a short form section. Like the name of the game is adapting. And I know a lot of people like to complain, but it's like, hey, when something new comes along like that, that starts pulling the attention. That's where it goes. Gary Vee always talks about this all the time. He's just paying attention to where the, where the attention's going. I know I said attention like seven times, but like that's the name of the game is where is people's attention going to, Right? When you're consuming content, are people more consuming content in short form or long form? Both. But for right now it's more on the short form because they can get the dopamine hits all they want. And it's quick, quick, quick. The way that you separate yourself from getting people to stop the scroll is have a very compelling hook like I said, right? You have to have a really compelling hook within the first 30 seconds. What I will say, 3 seconds, 30 seconds on YouTube. What I will say to this, pay attention to how much you're using you versus I in the video. If you can call someone out right away in the beginning, they will pay attention first, like, oh, I did this. Oh, here's how I. No one cares, right? I, I. One of my most popular videos on all channels is I literally started the video out by saying, you need to stop starting your videos like this, right? That's calling you out immediately because it's like, oh, am I doing something wrong with my videos? And then I, I go into showing what people are doing wrong. I literally said, hey, Instagram, what's up guys? Hey, TikTok. Like all the stupid shit people say. I'm literally calling you out within the first five seconds of like, stop doing this. You need to stop doing, I'm speaking to you. But then B, I'm showing you what you're doing wrong, right? And then how to correct it. But immediately I do that immediately. And you have that, that's what I Mean by showing is you have to show people what they're doing wrong or what, what they could be doing right. And that's the key is show that right away, immediately. So the flow of this and tactically that I'll end on is the what, why, how, Right? What's the problem? You're starting your videos wrong. Why is it wrong? Because you're wasting time. I say that. I'm like, you're wasting time and it's missed opportunity. What's the why behind it? Because, well, people want people to watch your videos and they. And they want to watch it longer. Cool. This is destroying your watch time. So that's the why. How. Here's how to fix it. Now start doing this. Pay attention. How much you say you verse. I like, keep it casual. All the things that help you fix it. So following what, why, how, format and you will win.

Hey, guys. Hey, Instagram. I'm just popping on here real quick.

So annoying. I. I can't stand it. And, and I, oh, my God, I can't. Whenever people, like, on their show, like, hey guys, just wanted to pop on super quick. I'm like, I don't care. I'm like, I don't care versus like, if, if I literally hopped, like, whenever I hop on story, like, I'll just. I won't even say that. Like, hey, I just wanted to update you super quick. I'll literally. I'll literally pop on and I'll be like, have you ever wondered, like, why? Like, like I'll literally start as if it's just a conversation, as if I'm talking to one person. Why? Because it's not like people are watching your stories all huddled around. Like, it's one person usually on the toilet watching your story or in. In between work. Yeah, exactly.

Anyway, so thank you so much for hanging out with me today and pouring into us. So where are some of the best places that I could send people if they want to go deeper with you, connect with you, work with you?

Absolutely. So on Instagram, TikTok, it's just Rico and Carnatti. I also have a free Facebook group that's called Video Content Made Simple. And the reason I called it that and have that is because I want it to be a home for people who struggle with. With this whole game of video and just feel intimidated by it. And it's a great community where a lot of other people that are not just fitness coaches, but other entrepreneurs bounce ideas off each other and just. They share their wins with their videos.

What's up Drew, thank you so much for joining me. How are you?

Doing fantastic today, Beverly. How are you?

I'm doing great. Where are you in the world?

I live in Hawaii.

Oh, nice. We're. We're freezing over here in New York, let me just tell you.

Yeah, that's quite. Quite a difference versus Hawaii, but it's still beautiful time of year out there, I'm sure.

For sure. For sure. So, honestly, right before we hit record, I shared that this is truly a pleasure and a privilege. I've been following your work for years now. It's this, you know, social media is a blessing and a curse because I'm like, oh, my bestie, Drew. Or just hanging out. I know you.

I know how it is. I know how it is. So.

So for those of you who have not had the pleasure of being introduced to your work, can you share a little bit about who you are, who you serve, and how you got there?

Yeah. So most people know me as the fit to fit to fit guy. Right? So back in 2011, I had this crazy idea to do this very interesting experiment where as a personal trainer and someone who grew up my entire life in shape decided to become overweight on purpose to gain a better understanding of what it was like for my clients who were overweight. Because you have to understand, I grew up in a family of 11 brothers and sisters. We all played sports. I was very active. And so being in shape with something that came very easy to me, as, you know, most personal trainers probably can, you know, you know, they can relate to that in a lot of different ways. But. So I decided to go on this crazy experiment for six months of letting myself go completely. Ended up gaining 75 pounds in six months. It was one of the hardest, most humbling things I've ever done. Luckily, fortunately, was able to lose the weight, but with a totally different perspective. It totally showed me how wrong I was and was one of the most humbling things I've ever done that fit to fat to fit journey of gaining £75 and losing it then went viral, you know, landed me on a bunch of TV shows and, you know, created my own TV show and wrote a book and all those things. And so that's kind of a little bit about my backstory.

Yeah. And then you did it again.

I did it again in 2020 as a 40 year old. So the first time I did it, I was like, 31 years old, you know, and I wanted to do it again second time as a 40 year old to kind of give people in that age demographic Some hope and kind of saying, hey, look, I know it's harder as you get older. Yes, it can be harder, but it's still possible.

You were sharing about the mental stress and the mental, like, impact that was coming from doing this. Even though you knew better, it was still like, I'm sleeping like crap, I feel that I'm stressed, I'm anxious. Like just things that you don't normally feel were coming up.

Yeah, I wanted to show people, this is why I wanted to do it a second time, to kind of show people from like my insta stories and my live streams of like, what goes on behind the scenes, things like, and, and paint a picture for people. When you eat, when you live an unhealthy lifestyle, you eat lots of processed junk foods. You don't, you know, you're not exercising. How that factors into you as a human and you as a father, as a mother, you as a spouse, you as a business owner, you know, in all your relationships and how it all stems from living an unhealthy physical lifestyle and how that carries over into other aspects of your life. Because a lot of people don't realize that. They think, oh, I'm just gonna eat these cheap cheeseburgers and fries. I'm not doing anyone any harm. You know, maybe I'll get in some body fat. But if that's all it did, was just make you gain body fat, it wouldn't be that bad. But what happens is it's a vicious cycle where you, you know, eat this junk food, you're not exercising, maybe you're drinking some alcohol, you know, you're, you're consuming too many calories, which factors into your ability to sleep efficiently. And I tracked all that in my whoop device, showing people the differences in my HRV and how it just plummeted. And so now I'm not sleeping well through the night. And if anyone, like any new, any parents of newborn babies know if you are not sleeping well, you're not the same version of you. You're not your best self. You're in survival mode constantly, your cortisol's through the roof all day long. Your ability to handle stress is severely diminished. Where your fuse is so short, anything might set you off. And so dealing with kids, dealing with, you know, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, whatever it is, your ability to handle little stresses of life is severely diminished to where, yeah, your, your fuse is a lot shorter. And so, and then from there you're stressed out and we're more insulin resistant, which then makes us crave this, the processed junk food even more. And then you eat that food again and you create this vicious cycle and you get these spikes in blood sugar and these crashes and these spikes and crashes, spikes and crash, which is exhausting to the body over time to release that much insulin. And just time and time again, multiple times per day, affecting your sleep, affecting your hormones, affecting your ability to show up for you, for other people. And even though, like I said, I'm a very self aware person, I knew what I was doing. You know, I would still meditate, I would still journal and do my gratitude list and try and bring my stress levels down, but it was like pouring buckets of water on a burning building. And so, yes, it helped out, but it, you know, it didn't fix everything. It still, there's still these problems going on. And that kind of really was showcased in this journey. Like, you can see my demeanor, you can see my personality change. You know, there's clips of me on YouTube with like my girlfriend at the time and you know, I, I definitely was not my best self. And I'll totally admit that even though I was aware of what was happening, it's kind of like, it's kind of like out of your control in some, some cases. And this is why I have so much empathy for people that struggle with living healthy lifestyle, because I understand how powerful our emotions are in those moments when we're sleep deprived and our hormones are out of balance and you know, we're just reaching for the, the, the cheaper, more affordable processed junk food that's available to us. I get why people gravitate towards that because it's the path of least resistance. And to be healthy, you know, it's gonna cost more, it's gonna cost you a lot more. It's more of an uphill battle, you know, go out of your way and get uncomfortable in the gym and do hard things. And you know, we are creatures of comfort. We've been so conditioned to be as comfortable as possible. Like anything that makes you uncomfortable, there's a pill, there's some type of technology that can alleviate any kind of discomfort. If you have a headache, you take a pill, you're cold, you turn up the heater, you're hot, you turn on the air conditioner, you have warm water, you have soft clothes, a soft bed, you have a car with air conditioning and heating and food in your fridge, pantries, doordash, anything you want, you know, and so we gravitate towards the comfortable lifestyle and people get stuck there and they're like, okay, this year I'm gonna do it. I'm just gonna willpower my way out of it. But now you condition your brain and program your brain to be a creature of comfort. At some point it's gonna become super uncomfortable and people are like, this is too hard. And I only lost a pound this week, so it's not working. So screw it. Give me the pizza, give me the beer. Me self love doesn't mean just eating whatever you want to and Netflix and chilling all day long. Because I'll tell you that, you know, living that lifestyle where you do eat whatever you want to and you never do anything hard or uncomfortable doesn't lead to long term happiness. And you ask anyone, as humans, we were designed to make progress in this life and, and, and to progress forward rather than staying stagnant. And it's really, really difficult to be happy and not progress in this life. I think, you know, whether it's financially, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically to not make progress, I think leads is, is a trap that we fall into. I think real self love is this. When you love, when you truly love who you are and you love your body, you want to treat your body with kindness, you want to do nice things. And, and we know that eating healthy food, sleeping, you know, efficiently through the night, managing our stress, doing some form of movement doesn't have to be bro lifting in the gym doesn't have to be, you know, deadlifts and squats and bench press and bicep curls, it doesn't have to be that. But some form of movement that gets you into an uncomfortable state temporarily in the short term, but then brings long term fulfillment and results. That right there is true self love where you realize, oh, I love myself enough to do hard, difficult things in the short term, that will suck, that will bring me long term happiness. And you know, Brene Brown talks about vulnerability breeds vulnerability. And so stepping into the arena like she talks about is scary as hell. It's so scary to like take your mask off and just show like you're stepping out naked to the world for the world to see and saying, I don't care anymore. And that right there is so freeing. It's so scary, of course, but it's so freeing once you, you're on the other side of it and you're like, man, I've been missing out my whole life because I've had to wear this mask to, you know, fill this void, to kind of, you know, that's been, you know, there my whole life. And so I used to think If I have this healthy, fit, ripped body, then people will value me. And yeah, society puts a lot of value and emphasis on, oh, you're a ripped, lean guy, okay, we value you, like here's attention. And it feeds your ego and it never quite fills that void, though it temporarily does. People think, oh, if I have this body, then it's all my problems will go away. People will love me and then I'll love myself. But you realize, oh, wait a second, I still hate myself even though I have this awesome body, there's still something missing. And then once you learn how to take your mask off, which is scary, you can finally be authentically you and you stop caring what other people think about you. And that right there is that, you know, it was the spark for this journey of learning how to love myself and, and then from there, life experiences of, like I said, divorce, leaving my religion, doing the inner work that I mentioned and, and learning how to live that as a lifestyle really plays into. And that's how I shifted my whole brand, my fitness brand to where it's so much more than just helping people transform their bodies. Because now I realize like, oh, I could, you know, help someone try and fill this void by giving them this body that's gonna feed their ego. Or I could help them learn how to love themselves as they go on a physical fitness journey so that now their self worth isn't in their body, their identity doesn't get wrapped into this body as their self image and they, I give them the tools that I learned from this kind of self discovery journey.

So for those of you who want to connect with you, go deeper with you, learn from you, what are some of the best places I can send them?

Yeah, right now it's super simple. It's just fit number two fat number two fit. So fit to fat to fit on all social media channels. It's my website, it's my podcast, it's my first book. And yeah, I appreciate it you, I appreciate you having me on Beverly.

Cool. Thank you so much.

Thank you for listening to the PT Profit podcast. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would please leave us a review and share with your friends on your social media channels. When you leave us a review, be sure to take a screenshot of it and email that screenshot to my team at Infoest and, and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that will show you how to create compelling content so that your ideal clients come to you, and you go from wanting clients to a wait list of clients ready for your services. Thank you so much for listening, and we'll see you on the next episode.