Irvin John: Business Body Elite | The Business Blast Podcast #910

Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Irvin John with us. He is the founder of Business Body Elite and the Fitness Journals LLC. Business Body Elite provides wellness programs to the employees of corporate corporate companies, small businesses, and government organizations. So welcome to the show.

Thank you, Tyler Wagner.

Of course, grateful to have you here. So first one I got for you, Irvin, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Well, what I would say, I mean, as far as what has helped me develop personally, a couple years ago, probably 2013, I ran into some health complications. I got a staph infection, which got pretty severe. And during that time, you know, I couldn't go to school. I had to leave school. You know, everything was kind of just like at the bottom, bottom point at my life right there. I actually, for the first time ever, because of all the things going on, I actually thought suicide might be a good choice. And it just got that bad. You know, I went to the doctors, the doctors are like, Yeah, well, you're going to have to live with this pretty much for the rest of your life. There's nothing that we can really do. You can keep it at bay by using these antibiotics, but you can't really get rid of it. So sure enough, I mean, based on at that time what they were saying, it was true. I couldn't get rid of it. It would come back. It would be recurring for probably 3 years after that until I started doing my research on natural stuff. I started eating garlic, you know, drinking, blending garlic, onions, olive oil together and drinking that. And that taught me what, at that point, that's where I realized how important, you know, health is. Health and wellness is, I mean, without it, you literally cannot do nothing. You can't do anything, you know, and that's what really drove me to, you know, share that mission and vision with everybody else. And really that's why I do what I do today. And for that, you know, uh, what— like they say, you never really understand how important health is until you're about to lose everything. So, yeah, that, that was one of— that is one of the biggest, you know, most valuable lessons and experiences that I've ever gone through, uh, personally, which obviously that translates over into business as well.

Absolutely, dude. Health has to come Uh, first, um, there's no doubt about that. So my next one for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Okay, well, as far as, uh, we'll talk about Business Body Elite. As far as that's concerned, working with, with people, you know, having a line of communication and being a good person. Like when they say People do business with you if they trust you, and that is the bottom line, you know. Chances are, if you're in a competitive space, there has been other people who have offered, you know, similar services to your client before, and you have to be able to fulfill what you say you're going to do, you know. So that's where the trust comes in. If you say, look, we're going to do this, but then you're like, oh man, I'm I'm hanging them out to dry, I know I can't really do that. Either you better find out how you're gonna do it quickly or just don't say you're gonna do it. So it comes down to like that, don't overpromise and then underdeliver. So what I found is asking as many questions as possible. So when we go in to do the consultation with these organizations to understand what is the major problems that they have, whether it be, you know, with the employees, okay, non— '90 of our employees out of 200 have diabetes and this keeps them out and, you know, our company's suffering because of that.' We need to be able to formulate by asking as many questions and understanding what's going on, formulate a well-designed program and plan in order to combat those issues that they're experiencing. So number one would always be communication. Ask questions. Don't be afraid to ask the questions. It might sound— the question might even sound like common sense and like, oh, there's a stupid question, but if you have any bit of doubt, you know, ask the question. You're never going to get everything perfect. That's, you know, just how things are. That's how life is. But the more you understand, the more likely you are to be able to deliver and give them what they're looking for.

Mm-hmm. And then what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.

Start. If you're in a, whatever, if you're trying to start a business and you're like, I need to have this, I need to have that, I need to, and you're just, you keep analysis paralysis. You keep trying to find more ways to not get started. You're like, I can't start until I do this. The bottom line is you will never be able to, you'll never be able to get everything right, you know, until you start. What I used to always do is take, you know, kind of the most minor things and say, okay, I need this before I can even do that. And the bottom line is that's not always true. You know, of course you want to have a product or a service that does meet someone's needs at least to the minimal requirement, but you're never going to be able to excel past what you believe you're going to be able to do unless you start. You got to start, you got to get in the door, and then once again, just like that, like I said earlier, asking the questions. You got to be able to ask questions, and then that's how you'll be able to make a product that fulfills, you know, the needs of your clients.

And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Be patient. I think the number one thing would be be patient, and definitely enjoy the process. During the process you learn everything you need to know in order to sustain or even reach success. So my whole thing is a lot of the time, you know, we see other people doing really well and we look at them and we compare. We're like, oh, that person's the same age as me, they have, you know, not every, everything compared to what I have. They're like, I don't even have anything, but look at what they have. They have everything that I want, you know? And the whole thing is you don't know what they've gone through. You don't know when they started their process. You don't know if it was given to them. At the end of the day, in order to— if you're like, I want to build a successful business, you have to be able to learn certain things. And the only way to learn that is to go through the process. You have to You have to take chances, you have to risk, and then you have to be patient. So, you know, being patient isn't just waiting and like, ah, I've been waiting for so long. You have to have a good attitude about it while you're doing that, while you're working, all those things, you still have to remain, you're like, I know it's gonna come, I just have to pay my dues and do what I know is necessary in order to achieve and then sustain success. So, my number one thing would say for myself, my younger self would be, be patient.

Mm-hmm. And then so kind of going down a little bit of a different path, in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Ah, the key to happiness, in my opinion, I would say is, is growth. Uh, it might sound a little bit of a, like, an abstract thing, but every time that I feel like, especially for me, I've, I've hit like a plateau or stagnant, I kind of feel unfulfilled, you know. I'm like, I don't, you know, I have almost like, I don't want to say depression, but kind of like an anxious feeling. And I'm like, I know I can do better. And every time I, you know, I set a goal and then I'm able to achieve it, that genuinely gives me happiness. And that could be in any area of life, you know, as far as fitness. Fitness is so synonymous with business because I feel like when in order to get to that next level, you have to increase the resistance, you have to increase the challenge, and there's no way that you're going to grow unless you increase that. It simply can't happen, you know. Your muscles, your body only gets stronger if you give it an incentive to do so. So as far as happiness for, in my personal opinion, I would say growth, you know, that genuinely gives me happiness. I, you know, if I'm growing in the area of being able to help my family, if I'm growing in the area of being able to, you know, provide better services to clients, uh, that gives me genuine, genuine happiness.

And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?

Oh, this is probably the toughest question. Um, Let's say one book, especially as of recently, that I've really, really been, you know, influenced by is, uh, No Limits: Blow the Cap Off Your Capacity by John C. Maxwell. That book has, you know, really helped me understand almost every principle really of life and business, but discipline, you know, discipline. It's really taught me a lot about discipline, you know, doing what you have to do no matter how you feel. You know, when you feel like, look, I literally can't go anymore, that is the time when you absolutely need to ramp, you know, bring things up to the next level. So as far as, you know, something that's really stuck with me from that book, I would say it's the discipline factor.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

My favorite quote, there's a couple, but I'll stick with this one right here. Your true worth is determined by how much more you give in value than what you take in payment. So, for me, that's profound, mainly because, especially like when starting off in business, providing value, you know, as much value as you possibly can. You're like, oh, I need to be charging way, way more than this, but but is the value that you're providing, you know, worth it? So giving a lot of things away for free, you know, like when they say that, giving things away for free, showing that you provide, you're giving something that is life-changing, something that will enhance someone's life in some way, and then, you know, you don't really have to worry about the payment and whatnot that you'll receive. So, because it will, it honestly will come naturally, and from my experience, that has definitely been true. You provide the value, you provide the value, and you might seem like, man, I've been providing value for so long, but nothing's happening. That's where the patience comes in again as well. So that quote right there, I think that has a lot of meaning because, you know, being patient and putting the time and energy into providing a valuable service and product It definitely, uh, helps you stay focused as far as that's concerned.

Absolutely, man. I could not agree more. Um, so dude, thanks for coming on. The last one I got for you: where can our listeners best connect and find with you on— find you online?

So you guys can always find me on Instagram. That's probably the best way, uh, tfj_ceo. Uh, and then you can always just head over to my, my website where all my other links are. There is called thefitnessjournals.com. So that is where you'll best find me.

Perfect. Thanks again for coming on.

Thank you, Tyler.

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