040: The Power of Persistence with Vince Del Monte

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, Fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Known as Skinny Vinnie, Vince wanted to make a splash in the personal training space. He knew how to build muscle, but not quite how to brand or sell himself. In fact, he had hundreds of YouTube videos live and published before getting any decent type of traffic. But persistent was in his blood and before the age of 30 he had a seven figure online fitness business dedicated to skinny guys. Vince sustained a multi seven figure business for more than eight years until he realized that he wanted to impact more men to help them build a successful and profitable online 7 figure fitness business while mastering the 5 M's of manhood, muscle, mindset, money, mission and marriage. Now don't worry, ladies. Vince Almonte has great information for you too. Join in today and learn how Vince continually levels up and creates everything from nothing. Let's see, today I'm here with Vince Del Monte. Vince, I'm so excited to bring you on to leveling up and creating everything from nothing. I've been wanting to talk to you for quite some time. I've watched you online, I've seen you built this empire, help so many others create these magical businesses and I've been dying to talk to you. So thank you for being here today.

Hey, the pleasure is all mine, Natalie. It's quite an honor to be speaking to you. I've been watching you from a distance as well. Finally got to meet your husband recently and what an amazing empire you've built yourself.

Well, thank you. So, okay, I want to take people back because if you look at you online and you see this, that you help these people create these seven figure and higher businesses, you look like this amazing coach, you've got this significant following, you look like you have this just incredible brand. But I know that that wasn't. It didn't just happen overnight. It didn't just come from nowhere. Can you take us back, let us know. Like who were you before all of that?

Yeah, well, first things first, if you want to go back and see the YouTube videos from the first two years, they're all on YouTube.

Oh, nice.

So, I mean, it took hundreds of YouTube videos before I consider anything that's up there actually decent. So that's from the online side of things. But going back, you know, I used to be nicknamed Skinny Vinny all through high school, all through university, I grew up in a Christian home. My father was a pastor. He got me and my brothers into endurance sports. So I was a competitive runner all through high school, all through university, I was a competitive triathlete. And, you know, long story short, I ended up living in a house with a number of guys in university who basically would be considered the Instagram stars of today if we were ranking them by how ripped and how good looking they were. Those were my roommates.

Oh, okay.

And this is when I was Skinny Vinnie. So I was living vicariously through these physiques that brought these guys. All these seemed to be, you know, confidence and attention and things that skinny runners don't get.

Yeah.

So I always had, you know what I'm saying? So I had this fascination through my college years, my university days, to transfer everything I did in the gym, so everything I did with my running in the gym and see if I could transform my body and get rid of the Skinny Vinny nickname and pursue a career as a personal trainer, which is what I ended up doing after my exercise science degree after four years. So those were like the early days of Vince. You know, I would say I found my identity and my success as a runner and I. But that ended at the end of university.

So was it originally like when you first wanted to get more into fitness and personal training, Was it really like just based on appearances, like, I don't want to be Skinny Vinnie and my, these roommates seem to have it all because they got the confidence and they're built and everything. Was it originally just that?

Yeah, the initial, the initial things were quite external and I would say also curiosity based and then also practical based too, because I had to start a career, my eligibility was over and I needed to start making money. After 50 years, thousand dollar university degree, I didn't look like a personal trainer. So it wasn't great for business. And yeah, had to, you know, essentially create a new identity. And I think a lot of people can relate to that. Being good at one thing and then starting something all over. And even now as a business coach, even though I have a big following from my fitness world, I mean, if you go check out my YouTube views, I mean, we're struggling to get 2,3000 views on our business videos. I'm telling my own business coaching. So I'm Like I'm starting all over just like you guys are. Because I've built a reputation for helping skinny guys build muscle. When I post those muscle fat loss videos, I mean they'll get the 10,000, 30,000, 50,000 views in a short window. And now we're struggling to get a couple views and a couple comments. So I can totally relate to somebody starting all over and re branding themselves, reinventing themselves. I like that word a lot more and just pivoting to a literally new chapter in life which is unchartered and unwritten.

Yeah. And it's, you know, I can totally relate to what you're saying. Cause like I can post like how to tone your butt or how to get a six pack abs and those go like through the roof. But I say like, let's talk about something mindset or let's actually like teach you how to make money. And people are like, ah, they don't want to view that, but they want to know how to get a button, a six pack. Right.

Just today I literally right before this call, I got off the call with my podcast manager. We're looking at our top podcasts and our business podcasts are getting the lowest number of listener. And the top three podcasts have been three fitness podcasts, which I'm trying to get away from.

Yeah, isn't that interesting? So, okay, so let's talk. I want to talk a little bit more about that because that plays into the ego. Right. And I think of what a lot of times within someone's gap and making a shift is their ego. And you easily could have said that like, okay, I'm owning the fitness space here. I've got the credibility, I've got the views, I've got the numbers and the likes of. So how do you make that decision to shift and go after something where you have to start over like that.

You need outside eyes. Typically it's hard to see this yourself. And what I, what I characterize as my time in fitness is my career. I really feel like that was my career, but I don't feel that that was my calling. I feel like I've shifted from career to calling, but it took 15 years. What do you think helped you shift that outside eyes? You know, I feel two individuals, Craig Ballantyne and Bejos Kulin, who were individuals who, you know, coached me in the past. And in fact I was a part of their business coaching program many years ago and I was their top student. I dropped out, I dropped out into after Bedros helped me take my business from 750A K, 750K a year after four years and then to over a million dollars. Like you would think that I would sign up for another year, right? You think I would renew? I dropped out and I went my own way for a number of years and we did okay, but I got lost in the weeds and I, you know, I would say that I built a promotion based and you know, we did fine but we were plateauing and we weren't growing and it was because I wasn't evolving. I mean, 10 years in, I'm still teaching videos on what's better, the leg extension or the squat.

So the coaching you were doing where you were making the 750, bringing to a million, was it all fitness right there?

Yes, 100% it was all fitness.

Okay, so to help us understand too, listening. Because a lot of people in fitness that are listening or that's a lot to them, so they're like, okay, wait, we're skipping a step here. How did you even get to the 750? Take us back a little bit. Like what was the mindset it took to get you to be that successful in fitness? And then I want to dive into how you made this decision to change after.

Yeah, for sure. I mean it really started off with base needs. You know, it wasn't like I wanted to change the world. It wasn't like it was, you know what it was back in 2005, it was to pay my bills. I simply was curious to see if I could start this online business. I saw other people selling ebooks, other skinny guys who built muscle with 12 week and six month transformations. And they were marketing fitness information products, long form sales copy using, you know, article marketing, video marketing, affiliate marketing to get traffic, SEO back then. And I was simply curious to see if I could replace my expenses with an online source of income. And I pursued this out of curiosity. You know, it wasn't like I never used the words, I'm going to blow up a brand, I'm going to have a massive business, I'm going to crush, I'm going to be. I never used, I didn't even know those words. It was just, I wonder if I could cover my expenses with an online business. And I had a coach. And the coach broke the steps down one step at a time. And he wouldn't even tell me. Here's a little note to any coaches out there, he would not tell me what step two was until I was done. Step one, I love that.

Good coach.

Yeah. So the first 30 days, all he told me is we're doing market research. I didn't know next step was to make the product. I didn't know the step after that was to do sales copy. I didn't know the step after that was to do SEO. I didn't know the step after that.

He might not have known either. Maybe he was just playing. That's a good game there. Let's do it for 30 days and let me figure out what's next.

He underwhelmed me. Yeah. And.

Also that you said 2005, so you also were in that spot before everybody was online doing ebooks and Internet marketing. It seems like too. So you got there ahead of the curve.

I want to tell you something, my coach, after we did the market research in 2005, he said, Vince, I think it's a really bad idea to launch an online fitness business in the muscle building space. He said, it's way too saturated.

But God, it wasn't yet. Oh my gosh, that was great timing on your mind.

But there was a dozen guys who had online fitness products marketing to skinny guys. And I was just going to tell you, it's always saturated. And he said, you know, the thing he said to me is it's saturated with a lot of bad information, which is true. It's saturated with a lot of me too products. And to be honest, he reframed it for me. Said it's, you know, first he said that, but he said, well, then on the flip side, it's good because people are investing in this space and there's never going to be a shortage of skinny guys who want to build their muscles. So he introduced to me this concept called a ravenous marketplace. There's always people. I mean, even today, there's just as many people who want to build their biceps as there was in 2005.

Yeah.

So that's what we are looking for.

So. And I also, from what I'm hearing, you really stayed sort of narrow and went deep with that. Like, you focus on skinny guys that want to build muscle versus, like, I'm going to help everybody in fitness.

That I really did a good job at that. I pat myself on the back now. I did pivot a bit to fat loss, but I came right back to muscle building because, yeah, the opportunity I discovered was to take the beginners, which was what my first program was for skinny guys who wanted to gain their first pounds of muscle without drugs, without bogus supplements and in less time. That was the tagline right from day one. And then we launched Maximize youe Muscle, which was a continuity program at 69.95amonth, which was a workout of the month program, physical newsletter, physical DVDs. And at one point we grew that to over 5,000 people a month.

Wow.

And it was simply because I had singularity of focus on the muscle market and taking the muscle building my customers on a what I call a transformational journey. And it wasn't about what's the next thing in the Ascension model for my bank account, but what do they need next? And they told me they wanted an advanced workout and they wanted a new one every month and they wanted some mentoring in some other areas of life. And that's where I got to talk about more than just fitness, which is what I wanted to do. And that's when I quickly realized that people come for the fitness, but they stay for the life advice.

Yeah. It's so true. And I. You just said so many little gold nuggets. I hope people are picking up this. That one. You really did focus narrow and deep on the skinny and the building muscle. And you quickly shifted when you went into fat loss and realized, okay, no, I need to stay. I need to stay very specific. And what I love is you didn't lead into it with how am I going to make money? You really did get to know the customer and listen to them and then had solutions for them. And that is such the key to success in whatever field people are in.

And I'll add another thing that everyone needs a flagship product. And mine was no Nonsense Muscle building. The tagline was Skinny Guy Secrets to Insane Muscle Gain. And it was a 12 month program. It wasn't a 30 day because I knew skinny guys aren't going to gain a lot of muscle in 30 days. They need a six to 12 month workout program. And I sold that thing for three years straight. I didn't have anything else. There was no upsells, there was no cross sell one program and the re. And I want. The reason I'm emphasizing that is to give. I'm a huge, huge believer that when you're comparing yourself to somebody else, clarity requires context. So to give you context to the five, those 5,000 people who came into a recurring revenue program, well, I had literally tens of thousands of customers who'd already bought no Nonsense Muscle building. So there was a lot of people ready to take the next step. And I feel one big mistake a lot of people are making is they're launching way too many things way too fast. They burn themselves out, they burn their team out. And they burn their fan base out and they don't know what to do. And.

Yep. Oh, that was, that was totally me. So a lot of people that have followed my journey, that was definitely me. So I can relate to that. How to flagship product 7 day jumpstart and then got way too big with too many things and exactly what you said. So I concur. Huge.

It's tough because you're a visionary. I get you. You got so many ideas. The good idea every hour of the day.

Yeah. Okay, so you're doing this, you're successful, you've nailed it with this market, but you realize it's not your calling. You've got outside people pointing this out to you and so talk about that journey so other people are helping you see, this is really not the right thing. How did you decide to go to that next step and move over and start over again in the business coaching space?

Well, you know, one, fitness views were good, but they were going down. They weren't like, it was like the channel wasn't exploding, numbers were going in the wrong direction. You know, the fan base wasn't like, you have to kind of. I'm a huge believer in this quote and I heard this from my pastor. You can't fix what you fake.

Love that.

And too many people are in denial of what's actually happening. And someone will say, hey, what's going on? Over crushing it when they're not. I'm like, well, oh, well, I'm not going to lend any advice. And it sounds like things are great. And so that was one thing I had to be in tune with that two, I had to become in tune with like, I was 36 years old, I've got two kids, I'm married, and I'm more than just a muscle building expert. And what I realized was the guy at the top of his game in my space, Jeff Cavalier Athleanx. 5 1/2 million subscribers. Now he had something that I didn't. And what he had was singularity of focus on fitness. I'm like, I kept comparing myself to this guy saying, why am I not growing like he is? And when you go to his channel, he's not talking about marriage, he's not talking about business, he's not talking about anything but how to be the, you know, look like an athlete. Yeah, one thing. Singularity of focus. And that's where I realized that this isn't a negative. Like, that's not me. I can't talk about fitness, fitness, fitness. And I realized this. I don't have to keep feeling guilty about not being able to talk about one thing. And I started reinventing myself around the M5 brain, which are the five M's of manhood. And I told my audience that I'm going to start mentoring you around the five M's of becoming the best man you can be, which is muscle, mindset, money, mission, and marriage.

I love this. So good. So good. And when you started doing this with your audience, did you turn some people off? Was it easy to have them all come with you? How did you handle that? Or did you care?

Yeah. Well, you have to let people know that we're growing and we're growing with or without you. And this is the new mission, and this is why we can't stay where we are. And a great leader doesn't just say, this is where we're going, but he explains why we can't stay here. Here's what's going to happen if we keep doing this. And for one, Vince won't be here in a year from now if we keep talking about what's the most effective bicep exercise. I've already shot a hundred of those videos.

Totally.

So, two, it's not honest with where I'm at in life. I'm a product of developing my mind, building a business, also getting clearer on a mission, and now being a family man. I'm doing this in the context of having young kids and a lot of following. My top 5% were just basically a few chapters behind me. They weren't that far behind, and they were trying to keep up. And I realized the questions I was getting more and more was, hey, Vince, how have you built this online business? It wasn't my idea.

Yeah. And I think that, you know, everyone talks a lot about being authentic online now, and I think that this is something you are also maybe feeling deep down, too, like you have. It's really critical to be authentic with your audience at all times. And if. If you're not feeling one specific thing or you feel like you're hiding another part, that is the time to shift. Yeah, sorry, go ahead. You were becoming another person, so, yeah, you had to share it.

And I did get some slack. I'm like, oh, Vince is shifting to business coach because he can't make fitness work anymore. And I said, you're 100% right. I can't make fitness work anymore because this isn't who I am. If you and I were hanging out, Natalie, I bet we talk about fitness maybe five minutes.

Yeah.

In the span of a day.

Oh, I'm, I'm with you. I like, I cringe sometimes when I get the same questions over and over again in fitness. Not because I don't want to help, but I feel like I've made a thousand videos on that topic. Like, it's like we're over it. You want to get to the next thing. Right.

So I encourage people. And this has been the thing that has made the fitness business brand so successful in a short period of time is because I'm challenging people to pivot and to evolve and to lead. And a great leader is always setting an example. So for me, I simply had to just do it and say what's happening regardless of, you know, sure, we've got segmentation and we've got, you know, the people interested more in fitness. You know, we've, we still create some fitness stuff, but we do it in a different way now. And the vision, the problem was this. I didn't, I wasn't crystal clear on any vision with my fitness business. It was more just like, let's run another promotion. Nothing was scaling. There wasn't any one thing in my fitness business that I was like jumping out of bed to do. And that was also another bigger sign. And Craig and Bejo said, why don't you have your own mastermind? Why aren't you coaching people? Vince, you've been doing this for 10 years. You've had a seven figure business for over eight years. And I'll tell you what happened. You know, Natalie, number of years ago in 2010, launched a business coaching program. And it was from two individuals who sought me out because I was in a mastermind. And they said, hey, you drop more bombs than anybody else. Would you be willing to run a coaching program? I said, I have no interest in teaching my competition how I do what I do.

Sure.

And that was back in 2010. And they said, well, what if we find the people and we'll collect the money? We'll put the okay, patience you need to do, show up and teach us. And I did that. And there was 10 guys that signed up and half of them all went on to literally go. They're all those six figure earners. And the 10 went on to become seven figure earners within a year.

Wow.

But I was literally just showing up teaching. It wasn't organized. I wasn't have.

Were you getting paid for this? Was it your own or were you just like basically their talent?

They all paid me 10 grand ahead.

Okay.

So it wasn't like anything, you know, crazy, but they all had massive success. But I dropped the ball. They said on the third Mastermind, when I went to renew, everybody, I said, hey, guys, I'm gonna increase the rates this year. And they all pulled me into a hotel room that night. And these are dear friends of mine. They're also great friends to this day. And they said, hey, none of us are signing up for the next year, long story short. And they broke the news to me as, you know, you know, gentlemen and friends. And it was a huge blow. And they said, you just blew us away in meeting one. You blew us away meeting two. But I think you just kind of. And they all, like, kind of caught up to me, you know, they caught up in a short span of time, and they didn't see any value in doing another year with me. And that was my first big lesson in the leader always needs to stay ahead.

Wow. Yeah.

And.

I would imagine that's a really awkward spot right then.

It was. Because it was in a hotel room and we were down in a floor. Where were we? The keys. We were supposed to be out having fun, you know.

Yeah.

Celebrating.

And it crushes your ego.

Right Then all of our ladies were with us. And, you know, they gotta go tell, you know, my wife, you know, how the meeting, what was going on in there. Nobody wants to renew for another year. And that's why I never did business coaching again. And when Craig and Bedros, you know, told me that you need to. You need to offer your own mastermind, I was scared and terrified. I'm like, well, if I pitch it, what if no one signs up? What if I can't stay?

Wow, that's a really interesting perspective because that. That is what happens to so many people. They have like a one failure like that. Like, you could perceive it as a failure. And it's like they. They just get scared and they don't do anything else with it now because they don't want. They want to prevent the pain again. Right?

Yeah. And back then, it wasn't my calling to be a business coach. The steps weren't sequenced in that order. It was. I wouldn't say I'm going to use this word just because it's an accurate descriptor, but I wasn't where my heart was at. But it was a cash grab. It was like, yeah, they orchestrated, they organized everything. And I'm like, yeah, I can show up and teach, no problem. This is good side cash. There's zero expenses on it. So I'm like, yeah, why not? I was pretty young, so.

But looking Back at that. What do you think really went wrong with that? Was it that it wasn't truly your passion?

No, no. I had no coaching. I was doing it by myself. I had no. Like I've got Bedros and Craig now, you know, I pay them 50k a year to coach me. I've just renewed for a second year and I bring every single problem and question to them. Hey, Bejos, how do I set up the meeting? What do we do on day one? What do we do on day two? How long do the guests speak? How many guests?

That's amazing.

Do I pay for dinner? Do I pay for lunch? Should I, how do I get, how do I script the pitch? You know, what do they get each month? So whenever I had, I did this with zero, zero alignment or focus or any, any input from people to already walk that path. And that's why it fell apart. I had no help.

You know, it's so funny because even the best of the best have coaches and what you're speaking into right now, like somebody would say, oh my gosh, $50,000 or a lot of masterminds are 25,000 or whatever it is. But like what that saves you and what that advances for you is just enormous. And it's. But why do you think so many people just want to go on and on their own? They don't want to do that.

Yeah, they're thinking of what it's going to cost and not what it's going to cost. It's really, you know, the way the middle class think it's. The middle class don't see things as an investment. They don't see things from the context of an roi and, and that's the number one trait I've met amongst rich people is they understand that success is their responsibility. You know, steal a one liner from Grant Cardone, success is your duty. So even though there is, you know, a price to be had, it's an understanding that you're paying this price today so that you can pay any price tomorrow. And it really is. We're not talking about the abundance mindset and just understanding that there is more than enough for everyone in the world. I mean, heck, there's 7 billion people in the world.

Yeah.

And to just understand that, you know, you can carve out your place and you're meant to be serving a specific person. And I think, I think environment is big. You know, I know you're connected with a lot of successful individuals and I mean I'm a part of a mastermind and I'm the small guy. Everybody are eight and nine figure earners. And I mean, heck, the last meeting I was at there was a dozen of us. And I kid you not, over 8 of them all served females over 40 selling a different spin on weight loss. And they're all running eight and nine figure businesses. And when you're in a room and you see multiple people.

Yes.

Ultra successful marketing to the same person, you just quickly realize like you're just thinking way too small and you. You're not around people that are crushed. Like legitimately doing well to expand your belief and see this is possible for me if I stay the course. And the only reason you're marketing and branding and your promotions and your funnels and your whatever efforts you're making don't work is if you quit.

Interesting. Yeah. Yeah. But people get beat up and financially time and then they look for that out versus, like what's the solution? The solution does sound like it's looking outside of you and getting that outside help.

And I'll give some encouragement to people. You know, I've been doing this for 12 years. Oftentimes the people that rise to the top are just simply the ones that don't tap out. It's almost like just don't quit. And within two to three years from now, there'll be people that you considered your competition or who were ahead of you that you just start wondering, where did they go?

Yeah.

What happened to them? They. So your competition is your friend. You know, let them pull you along. Your competition isn't your enemy. You want to let them help you run your best race, if you will. They'll pull you to your best time. Your goal is just to hang on and understand that proximity is power.

Mmm.

And when you get around people that are successful, they'll transfer their energy and their belief into you and they'll have you start acting differently. Most importantly, before the acting is thinking differently.

Yes.

You know, I discovered that, you know, in our coaching programs. $1,900 a month to sign up and it's 12 months. It takes just as much time and energy to sell a $1,900 a month coaching program as it does to sell a $47 ebook.

Yep.

I mean, what I'm saying on the Instagram stories, the amount of time it takes to write the sales copy, it's the exact same amount of time. It's just. And knowing that this is what I'm able to do, this is what I'm meant to do, and it's literally just thinking differently. And Then acting in accordance.

Totally. But I also want people to hear that like you didn't make this transition or change for the money. You changed because you were evolving and then you had outside help that got coaching. And that's an important message for people because I think if people just think, okay, I'm going to follow the money that doesn't lead to like that's what you did the first time with the coaching. Really?

Yeah. If I was just following the money, I would, I would just be focusing on blowing up my wife's business, you know. You know, because the guys, guys are idiots. Guys don't spend money. Guys are cheap. You know, guys want to figure it out themselves. I would not be selling how to build muscle to skinny guys if I was just in this for the money.

Got it.

And business coaching is, people might think, oh, it's easy. It's the same stuff that you deal with in fitness. You've got churn, you get a lot of flaky people. The first year is the hardest. We have the highest drop off rate. Like a lot of people commit for 12 months and don't finish. And for various reasons and they see that, oh, online fitness business, oh, online coaching, oh, I'm going to do information products. This is not easy. In fact, most people would be better off just sticking to their job increasing, you know, rising in the totem pole at their place of work, putting some money aside into real estate and not even contemplating doing an online business. Because you know, I've noticed everyone wants to be a boss but nobody wants to write any checks.

That's true. That is true.

Now you got to invest in a tech and then you need graphic design and then you need sales copy. Now you got to go on these people platforms. Now you got to create content, now you've got to get them to buy one offer. You're in constant sales mode. More importantly, you got to constantly closing. You've got to build a team. All the risk is on your shoulders. There's zero guarantee. It's a long, long Runway. You might not even see takeoff. You might put in one or two years, two or three years, you might sink a ton of money into this and not make anything back. So one of the things I think I do a really good job at setting expectations early on and letting people know that. In my first year online, I invested $7500 into a business coach and all it involved was one 60 minute phone call a month, nothing else. There was no mastermind, no webinars, no Facebook group, no networking and my first year, I only made 10 grand. I made 10 grand online, and I hardly paid back. I hardly paid off the two credit cards. I had to scramble together to do this. Yeah, I really. I think the big thing that people get, you know, really connected with is consistency and not outcome.

Yeah, that's a really good, good point. All right, I've got a bunch of questions for you because you have really weathered that storm and stayed motivated and constantly invested in yourself, and you do keep going and growing, and it's incredible. So I want to know a few things, like, because I do find some commonalities with people, and I'm curious if you've got this, like, do you have a morning routine you stick to?

Yep. Yeah, I have a morning routine. I train first thing, I wake first. Well, you know, now with kids, it's not as, like, rigid. Three kids, I guess. We got. We got our third little girl. She's only 12 weeks now. Thank you. I mean, you never know. Like, you know, I was supposed to train in the morning and the baby was up, you know, every two hours. And, you know, Flavia normally lets me sleep and I just had to get up and help out.

Right. Like, so you're like a 90% morning routiner. Like, it happens 90% of the time.

Yeah, if it's, you know, I wake up at 4:30 to 5. I come downstairs, I train. I do have a routine from 5 till 6:30. Amelia, my daughter, will come downstairs, she'll play in the gym with me, and I get her ready for school. And then my son wakes up and I get them. I get them ready, make breakfast, and then my day starts at 9am so my day starts from 9. I work from 9 to 4:30. I have a hard stop at 4:30 Monday to Friday, and I haven't worked weekends in over five years.

Yeah.

And that's my schedule. So, you know, and, you know, my wife's been really. She's one of the most supportive people, but she's also got a backbone and she's not a pushover. And she'll push me if I'm not, you know, out of love, foreseen me be present for the kids. And this has been one of my biggest challenges. You know, she'll tell me to get your shit together if you can't do what you want to do within the timeframe you have. And, you know, sometimes I'm not receptive to that message. And I get, you know, frustrated. But then at the end of the day, you know, if I strip my ego I'm like, this is what I need to hear. She wants me to be successful, but not in the confines of kicking everyone to the curb. And that's been my. I think that's another reason a lot of people have come into the coaching program because they've seen me grow. This in the context of a family and showing that this is attainable, you know, you don't have to sacrifice your health. Are there times where I work longer than 4:30 and I say I have to get permission to get the blessing to, you know, are there times I work on the computer after everybody goes to bed? Of course, yeah. And. But we do have those boundaries, if that's what I'm striving for.

It also seems like when you're really in your calling and your passion and what you love, it doesn't feel so much like it's work to like check in on one thing after 4:30 or the weekend. Like, I think if people hate their job and what they're doing, that's when it starts being an issue.

Yeah. Well, my issue is that I could work 24 7. My issues that I could have.

Drive is not your problem.

Yeah. My issue is that I could go through life with no real relationships. You know, I could literally go through life with just transactional relationships. And I've, you know, doing some, you know, research and, you know, getting some, you know, help with that and just trying to figure that all out. But that's my problem. I could, you know, I'm starting to discover I don't, I do need deep relationships, but I've found, you know, I'm trying to figure that one out now.

You just opened up a whole new can I'm going to ask you about. So. So, because I love that and I, and I can relate to that. I'm a recovering serial worker 24 7. And then I really dove into personal development and I just like you would say I don't like connecting people. I'm an introvert. I don't want to talk to people. That's shifted for me because I do realize how it's important, how important it is and how that really is living. So how did that come about for you? That you. Because you're. It's interesting you just said that. You said I would naturally just work and not actually connect and do these things and be transactional. What made you realize that? That. That there's more to life and that you need more?

My faith. I'll be honest, you know, I was, I was raised in a Christian home and you know, I think just really understanding that my identity isn't my numbers, you know, my self worth isn't my net worth. Just really trying to look at what my valuables are.

And this came from your faith, really?

Yeah, yeah. You know, getting plugged back into church, but also, you know, allowing, you know, people that I respect who have, you know, are walking in their faith speak to me and just, I've never been in denial of it, but sometimes, yeah, you just get caught up in like building and going and not with like, not even from a greed standpoint because I've never, you know, do I like money? I just, I just bought myself a Bentley. I, you know, I don't get me wrong, I'm not gonna fool anybody. I like things. But more out of curiosity of what's possible, I'm just, I'm just truly fascinated with what is possible. If I continue to remove these limiters that I know are verily are, you know, are built in my mind. And you know, what if I give? You know, now even with my faith, I'm starting to even wonder if I let, you know, God come in even more, how much more will he give back? And this has really forced me to realize, like, you know, we don't own anything. You know, everything, everything is on loan to us. Our health, our relationships, our business, our skills, those are all gifts. And you know, I believe that we are gifted with more to manage only if we manage what we've already been given, because none of it is ours.

In the first place. And I, you know, I love that you're sharing all this because I believe that one of the big reasons you are having so much success in your business coaching and in your mastermind, everything is because you've opened up to this. Because you've really. Because having a mastermind, for instance, does require you connecting and relating to people. It's not just transactional. So by you shifting from just being online and selling programs and being a marketer to that, I mean, I think that just opened up so much for you.

Yeah. To be honest, it is actually interesting you just said that because I do feel that this has been one of the best things for me. You know, meeting up with over 100 people every 90 days and spend like the day. My days now are all spent on the phone. Whether it be team calls or podcasts or prospect calls or one on one coaching calls. You know, that's the bulk of my time. It is engaging now, face to face and servicing and helping, which I bet.

5, 10 years ago if I had asked you, you'd say, I don't have time for that.

Oh, yeah, no, it was just, you know, you know, low dollar. Customers. Customers, you know, we can just look at everything on it on a screenshot, you know. Yeah, it's now it's flipped because this is how my career started off. Personal training, one to one, face to face. Phone, sorry. Fitness consulting, you know, closing in the office. So it's kind of funny. I've come full circle and I think there is a desire, as your business evolves, to start contributing more on a deeper level to people's lives.

I love this and I feel like that's really what we are here for. And this really does tie more into why you're feeling like this is your purpose and your passion. Because we're not here to do it all alone and just compete and be transactional and just make money and just live like that.

Yeah. And, you know, you know, and not to make anyone feel guilty or anything at all, but I think maybe there might be, there might need to be. You know, life only makes sense when you look at it in reverse. Wouldn't you agree?

Yeah, I like that it does. Yeah.

Life never makes sense when you're, you know, looking forward. But if you look back, I have to ask myself, like, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing right now if the first, you know, the last, you know, five, 10 years. The first five, 10 years of the business was purely just focusing on customer acquisition, selling, selling, selling. Because now where do you think all are coming from for the next level of business growth and personal growth? They're all coming from my fitness world. They're all people that have said, I've watched you grow your fitness business for the last 10 years. I want to do what you do.

Yes.

So you can't say that that was the wrong thing or that wasn't the right thing. It was a waste. That happened for a reason.

Yes. I believe everything happens for a reason, but I also think that being fully present with things is also serving you well. So like you being, you're listening to your clients in a mastermind, being present. You're very aware with your family, your faith, all of that. I think so many people are so caught up in the future and what they're trying to create or stuck in the past that they forget that whole present piece.

Yeah, yeah. And I think there's got to be something said too about, you know, enjoying the process and process or profit? I think we say process in Canada. I Think you guys say process.

You do say. I knew you were a Canadian as soon as you said process.

A. Yeah. You know. You know how that. You know where that A came from, by the way?

Where did it come from?

Well, there was two Canadians talking and one guy said, we need a C A and we need an N A and we need a D A. That's how they came up with Canada.

Oh, boy. I love it.

That's great.

That joke there.

Yeah. No kidding. Yeah. I forget what we were saying, but.

Yeah, about being present and then. Yeah.

And then in the moment. Yeah. I think one thing we really need to embrace is that, you know, back to the. You're getting everything you deserve based on the person you are and the person who you're becoming. I think we really need to take that to heart and realize that, you know, where you are right now is exactly where you're supposed to be. You're not supposed to be further along and you're not behind schedule. And I truly believe that. Again, everything in life is a test. Everything is a trial. And the reason we're here on Earth is to grow and to mature. And if we understand that, then we can start putting things in perspective and reframing everything, and we can understand that. You know, I'm being prepared for something bigger. You know, I'm in this battle right now because I'm not built yet. I'm not armed enough. I'm not experienced enough to go into a bigger battle. You know, we all want to get into a bigger battle, a bigger launch, you know, more followers. You're not ready for more followers. You know, you're not ready to manage more money. You're not ready to grow your team. And I think that we really need to understand that, you know, there's other factors at play here, and you're exactly where you need to be. And things will unfold as the big guy upstairs will unfold them for you. And we don't need to be able to see the full picture. We need to just be focusing on managing what we've already been gifted. And we need to be managing it. Just not managing it, but managing it well. There's a. Well, great advice.

Yeah.

Or else here's what's going to happen. It's going to get given to somebody else who's doing a better job.

Yes. And appreciating where they are. That's a gratitude part of it, I believe.

I love that 100%. And I always say. What? Appreciate what you appreciate. Appreciate, appreciates. And don't take for granted where you are today, and it might not seem like much progress. You need to appreciate that, or else somebody who is more appreciative, quickly, they'll take ownership of that because they're being a better steward. So I truly feel there's a big piece here to your progress, our program, everybody's progress, everyone who's listening needs to understand they're not behind schedule. They're exactly where they need to be because there's another battle just around the corner and the one they're in right now, they need to first win. They have to learn from, and then they'll be prepared for the next step along the way.

That's great advice, Vince. Okay, I've got a final question for you, and this is something I ask everybody, and I'm dying to hear your perspective on it. So if somebody's listening right now and they're in their own personal rock bottom, maybe what's coming up for me is like when you did that first business coaching round, that Mastermind, and you had the 10 people in the room saying, we're not renewing with you. Like they're feeling that this. My world just collapsed. Or maybe their business has failed. Or maybe they. They're at the beginning. Beginning, like where you were initially with the personal training when you had to borrow the $7,500 to pay for a coach and you just didn't have anything. Somebody's in their spot right now where they don't see a path right now, but they're just feeling down. What are three things you could tell them to do right now? To start leveling up and creating everything from nothing.

Yeah. I mean, you don't have to hire me. You know, you need to hire somebody, though. You need. They need outside eyes.

Outside eyes. Like it.

Somebody who can one, orchestrate their steps and orchestrate them in the right order. It's one thing for someone to tell you what to do. You likely have an idea of what you need to do, but you need to know in what order.

Okay.

And people need. So you need those outside eyes to be able to see where you are, identify where you want to go, and give you the steps. And then the second thing they need are specific marching orders, which is kind of like the first one. So here's what you're going to do. First. The second thing people need is accountability. You know, if there's no skin in the game, there's no game.

That's good.

You know, there's got to be a threat. There's got to be an Outside threat, where if you don't put something at stake, it's got to hurt if you don't take action. You know, you might have to scramble credit cards together. You might have to have a tough conversation with your spouse and say, hey, listen, babe, I'm going to be stealing time from you and the kids for the next year so I can get us out of this situation. And it's being really honest about what you're about to get yourself into.

That's great.

Yeah. And hey, it's going to be tight. I tell people, like, are you ready to live tight for the next two years? Like really tight. And again, getting really honest. And then the third thing is to don't quit. I mean, everything works. Whether you want to do high ticket coaching, ebooks, if you want to sell clothing, if you want to do a membership site, it all works. All these different marketing and promotion and branding. YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, email marketing, LinkedIn, it all works. The only reason it won't work is if you quit.

I love that.

Be prepared to invest into you. Invest more time, more money into yourself. And if something isn't working, that's not a sign to quit. It's a sign to invest even more time and even more money into the same thing and just realize that you're trying to move a rock and just appreciate what you're trying to do. And that it is a very, very long Runway, oftentimes with no gratification, no instant gratification for a long, long time. And you might not take off. There might not be liftoff. You might have to go back and do what you were doing. But I think, you know, just finally, I just want to encourage people to ask yourself this, what's greater? The pain of that or the pain of going the rest of your life wondering, well, what if?

Oh, that's so good. That's so good. Oh, yeah, that's great.

What if I had pulled the trigger?

What if?

And then just at the same time with all this being said, holy cow, for crying out loud, we live in the United States and Canada. Like, what's the worst thing that can happen? You know, if you lose some money, I'm sure you'll recover. And that's how I made my investment when I was scared. I'm like the worst thing that can happen. I stay at Phoenix Fitness in Hamilton, Ontario, and I sell gym memberships and train people five days a week. I get some weekends off. What's so bad about that?

Yeah, yeah. If you really go down that, what's the worst that can happen. It's a really good thing to do because you really see that the worst is really not that bad. So.

Yeah, exactly. Here's the boogeyman. It doesn't exist.

Good. Vince. Okay, where can people find you? Where are you most active? On social? Where can they find you? How can they apply for your coaching?

Yeah, absolutely. Just follow me on Instagram. That's where we put up quite a. That's where I put up the content myself. Vince Del Monte or the YouTube channel, which is also Vince Del Monte.

And watch the business videos there.

Yeah, watch the business videos and yeah, just send me a DM if you're interested in starting or scaling a successful online fitness business and be happy to jump on the call.

Do you. Do you have people that aren't in the fitness space that want coaching too, or just fitness?

90%? I've got some real estate guys. Actually one of my top success stories. I don't even know what he does. He's a DJ. He helps DJs mix hardcore music and helped him go from literally zero to over 600k a year in under two years. So the majority, 90% of our group are fitness influencer.

But you don't have to be. So if they're relating to you and they like what you're saying, they don't have to be fitness. They can still reach out.

Correct.

Amazing. Thank you, Vince.

Oh, thank you, Natalie. It was a pleasure finally connecting. I can't believe it's taken this long for us to link up.

Thank you. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram @nataliejelfit. I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.

Sam.