March 22, 2021 • 33 mins
Jillian Michaels is one of the biggest fitness entrepreneurs in the world, and she brings her expertise to the podcast to share how she turned her passion into a business. The celebrity trainer talks to Ryan about the setbacks that almost brought her career crashing down, the future of the fitness industry, and what advice she has for young women breaking into the business world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to another episode of Big Money Energy, where
we talked to super successful and self made people to
find out exactly how they did it, how they went
from nothing to something. I'm Ryan sert Hands and today
I enjoyed by none other than Jillian Michaels. She's a
fitness entrepreneur, TV personality, businesswoman, author, and so much more.
(00:23):
You probably know her from TV or maybe you have
her apps. We talk about overcoming setbacks so scary that
they almost bring you to your knees. We go through
advice for women as they break into the business world,
and we talked about how to turn your passion into
a multimillion dollar empire, which is really, really really hard
(00:44):
to do, but if anyone knows how to do it,
it's Jillian, So let's get into it. Welcome to another episode.
Today is a super super special day because I get
to sit down with one of the biggest fitness experts
in the work. I have a fifteen page intro here
to read, so I'm not going to even do that.
(01:05):
Uh and I cannot wait for you guys to hear
how awesome she is. So without further ado, the Chilean
Michaels thank you so much for being here. Thank you
for having me. So how are you? Where are you
at home? I am at home in my in my office.
And the bar you see growing out of my head
is the handle to the Murphy bed in the office.
So I have had a metal bar growing out of
(01:28):
my head now for almost a year in every interview.
How are you? I'm good. We're in our our new office.
We started a new company in the fall, and so
we took down a townhouse in t Rebeca and so
this is the dining room. It's also my office. But
it's like it's the way it's supposed to be now, right,
Oh my gosh, we're in full lockdown, and I you know,
(01:50):
I do the whole spiel in my head every day
where I'm like, you're lucky, be grateful, you have your health,
you're fortunate, you could get outside, shut the funk up,
you can work. But it's like, oh my god, Ryan,
it's getting so old right, Like it's just grueling, and
the kids aren't in school, and it's just like, but
we're gonna get through it. I think summer we'll see
(02:12):
like a genuine light at the end of this hell ride.
Seeing the way you just kind of framed that whole
moment because hearing you have to give yourself kind of
those inner mantras and inner monologues. I think it's kind
of an eye opener because everybody else has to do
the same thing, but to know that you do it
too and go through it is pretty humbling. Do you
(02:33):
have morning rituals, like when you wake up? Do you
have kind of a way that you start your day? Coffee?
Lots of it? Like I really should have some sort
of like first I do a morning meditation, but that's
just that would be bullshit. Like the reality is, my
ten year old wakes me up, and let's we know
(02:55):
that the cafe in the kitchen is open. I need
to get up. I need to start making the breakfast,
even though they don't have anywhere be I'm like, you're
not on zoom for another hour and a half and
leave me alone. But she's up, she's a crack of dawn,
she's at my door. So that's a ritual. And then
I caffeinate myself, beat everybody in the house, take my vitamins,
and then generally get the kids on Zoom or my
co parents. I hate to say X because it seems
(03:17):
to have some negative connotation, but the kids either Mom
is fantastic and me or her get them on their
zoom and then I begin my work day. Are you
organic all day every day? Or your organ or you
kind of like, yeah, you mix it up a little bit.
I eat out. I am guilty of eating out, so
that is where the non organic stuff would come from.
(03:38):
And when I do do that, there are certain things
I stay away from. So I wouldn't eat red meat
unless it was grass fed, grass finished organic. That's where
I get little nuts because organic isn't necessarily about what
you're getting. It's about what you're not getting. So I
don't want the fake colors, fake fats, sugars, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives.
(04:03):
I just I don't want it. So I have the luxury.
And I realized this is a very elitist, obnoxious thing
to say, but I have the luxury to afford organics,
and I spend money on organic food whenever I can.
Do you still, as I'm thinking about organic and thinking
about how healthy you are before everything the TV and
all that, you actually did my tie for a long time, right, I, Well,
(04:25):
it's actually a hybrid style. My teacher was one of
the original mm A pioneers. Mind you, this is a
long time ago. I started taking martial arts when I
was thirteen. Was that your choice to get into it,
or did your parents say, hey, you keep beating people up,
you should do this in a good setting. My mom
definitely saw that I needed an outlet and a place
(04:47):
where I could kind of belong and she was dating
a guy whose nephews were taking martial arts and I
showed an interest, so she took me to audit a
class and I immediately felt a sense of belonging, a
sense of empowerment, and it was a definite journey for
me over the years. But movie Tie was one of
(05:08):
the modalities that he pulled from. So I I say
movie tie because people, you know, you bring up this
name and no one's ever heard of it, and you're like, well,
part of its kung Fu, and part of it is
like quto, and part of so I just say I'm
white tags. It's easier, totally. It's crazy how big that
sport has become, given how sensitive everyone is about absolutely
anything right now. M m A. You know, you've got
(05:31):
some of the most sensitive people in Los Angeles paying
billions and millions to watch people kick each other's ass
with just with their bare hands, and then they leave
and they get really really sensitive. It's like it's kind
of like there's something there. What was that community like
to you, because you said you were looking for a
kind of belonging, right, especially as as a young girl
growing up kind of that what do you call it,
(05:52):
like the fighting community versus the fitness community. Are those
two communities totally separate? I think they are for sure
for me in particular because you know, my parents were
going through a divorce. I was a chubby kid. I
was gay and didn't know I was gay, but everybody
else seemed to know I was gay because I used
to get called all the names. I was like, there's
so dumb, I'm not even gay. They could call me
(06:14):
die but I'm not. Until later I was like, oh, ship,
I guess maybe this was a thing. But I literally
had no idea. But I was picked on a lot,
and so being put in this environment where quite honestly,
there were a lot of grown ups. Grown ups are
going to pick on kids, right. There were different belt ranges,
but there were different ages in those belt ranges, So
(06:36):
you would go to a fight night. You'd have a
thirty five year old guy and an eighteen year old
senior and then me, and so there was a wide
range of individuals from all walks of life and we
were a family. And it wasn't even about a fitness cult.
It was too long ago for that to even have
been a thing. And it wasn't about m M maybe
because that wasn't a thing. I remember John Claude Van
Damme came up with that movie but was a blood
(06:58):
sport and it kind of exposed and I was like,
what is this. I'm like, God, yeah it was. It
was so foreign to people, or as now it's so
incredibly mainstream. I just think of it as a very
accepting community that where we kind of had our own
little bubble and everybody was kind and that's what I
really needed at that time. And then martial arts helped
(07:20):
me get in shape, but it also showed me like, wow,
you you actually are strong, you you are capable, you
are It improved myself image and when I carried that
forward and other aspects of my life, I stopped being bullied,
like overnight. It was kind of fascinating, Like I changed.
I felt like I could, so all of you could.
(07:43):
And then I was like, all right, you know what,
like come at me, bro And the minute you sort
of have that mentality where you're carrying yourself different and
you're respecting yourself, it's very bizarre. No one ever messed
with me. I went kind of from loser to loaner,
but no one ever really mess after that. It was weird.
We just had a baby. She's about to turn to.
(08:06):
Her name is Zena. Everything changes when you have a
little girl. Like there was a little boy in the
playground who like went up to the slide and she
was trying to go up and he pushed her over.
And my edient reaction was like, well, I have to
kill him now, Like I'm sorry to his family, Like
I get it, he's probably like one and a half,
but like, you can't. That's that's that's my Amelia literally
grabbed me and she's like, listen, you can't. You can't
(08:28):
hurt kids here, you know, like Zina has gotta learn.
She's got to learn. And so, you know, I get
asked a lot of questions from women in business who
are either in sales like myself, or they're you know,
they're working in different types of jobs. They always talk
to me about having a lack of confidence in a
room that is surrounded by men. You know, like a
girl who's like a young analyst at a bank or um,
she's new in sales and she's coming in and guys
(08:48):
have their thing and they don't take the girls serious.
I kind of have my answer that I typically give
to them, but I'd love to know what you could
say to all those girls. I know a lot of
them are going to listen to this, especial women in
sales and a lot of businesses that are so dominated
by by men, and a lot of them are dominated
by white men. What do you say to those to
those girls? And that first job is it just know
(09:09):
your ship and talk up and don't be don't be shy.
Here's the reality. There is all of that um and
that's great, right. You don't have a choice but to
do that, and you know you must do that. But
my business partner and I have a running joke and
I call him my man piece. And what I mean
by that is I can say things like, for example,
(09:32):
we have an organic nitro Colebrow coffee company. We just
have a new line of these organic coffee these cans
and the wrap looks like ship complete chit. I got
the samples and I was like, this is this is unacceptable.
I've never even seen this before. This can't go it
or reach other So I call him and I was like, okay,
what happened here? We need to deal with it. He's like,
(09:52):
all right, I want you to send an email to
all the partners in the investor saying we need to
we need to call immediately. None of them responded, None
of them responded, none of them, do you no. Two
days later I called him and I was like, all right,
you're gonna have to uh, you have to get everybody
on the phone. And so he's like, no problem. So
he's like, hey, guys, Kathleen's gonna be setting up this call.
(10:13):
Sent times are available, and they all do. Now that
I've tried, I've said it every way. I've done the
whole calm, no emotion thing. I've done it all. And
the reality is that sometimes the world is not perfect,
the world is not fair, and you will have to
find a way around it. And and so I use
him period. It's like and it gets it done for me.
(10:35):
I need to get shipped done. I don't have time
to play games with your ego or your personality, or like,
why aren't you responding to me? So there are times
where you might have to push things through. You might
have to do it without permission. You might have to
get a little help from a coworker or a mentor
who believes in you. And I have in no means
I'm trying to shoot on guys. I think I've had
(10:56):
a tremendous mail mentors, and I've had men support me
in business far sooner than competitive cadie women have. You
know what I mean. But if you are dealing with that,
it is a very legitimate thing, just like other problems
in business, and find a way around it. That's one
of the things I do, and I don't care that
it's not perfect. It works for me and it's time efficient.
I get what I need done. The other question I
(11:23):
get a lot is with people trying to find their
passion right and they connect work to passion. They feel
that if they're going to take a job that they
don't love doing, they're gonna hate their life forever. Because
so many people say to find your passion, but then
you have other people who say, screw that. Don't find
your passion. You gotta make money. Fall in love with money,
fall in love with sales, fall in love whatever you
want to do, and then do a passion as a
side pieces your hobby. You tell me, But it seems
(11:46):
to the world like you really like fitness. It is
a passion of yours. And I don't think you'd be
where you are today if it wasn't something that you
actually loved. Do you find yourself to be incredibly lucky
or is that something that you actually worked on where
you knew that, Hey, I like fitness, I could be
good at it. I'm going to turn this into a business. No.
I fell into it by accident. I was training for
(12:07):
my black belt at seventeen. People saw me in the
gym and they would ask me like, oh, how much
do you charge? And I was like for what. I
don't know what they were propositioning me for, and there
really they were like, I want you to be my
personal trainer. I was like, oh okay, So I thought, like,
how much does this job pay? I think I was
(12:27):
making like five bucks an hour delivering pizzas, so I
can make like fifteen dollars an hour being a trainer
and Fortunately, my mom had the foresight to say, like,
I think you need some sort of credential, so she
got me my first little certification in training and I
fell into it and I did it very organically for
years until I was twenty four, and then I started
(12:50):
to get that pressure right, like what are you gonna
do with your life? You can't live like this forever?
You know where you can't just be Because I was
training during the day of partending a night making great
money superhap be and I was dating a person who
was Ivy League working in the television industry, so I thought,
I guess I need to get a real job. So
this is where you know you fall into the shoulds.
(13:11):
I should do this instead of what you think you want.
And I learned very quickly that the more security you
seek and like, the less you're gonna have. I never
got paid less money. I've never been more miserable. So
my twenty seven I had worked my way up to
being a motion picture talent agent and I ended up
being fired because I hated it and hated the people.
(13:32):
So I fell back into fitness and then realized, like,
wait a second, I'm waking up every day happy. I
love what I do. I'm great at it. It's authentic
to me. How can I turn this into a business
beyond paycheck to paycheck, invoice to invoice and then that's
a longer story, but it did have to be a
very real experience of like making the mistakes of going
(13:56):
down that you should path versus seeing the not to
use this very on trend term, but it's it's relevant,
the flow and the serendipity that came when I did
what I loved and at that point I was like,
all right, this is this is inevitable that I'm supposed
to do this. How do I turn it into a business.
There was a moment in the last sixteen years and
building your businesses in the various businesses from the apps
(14:17):
to the coffee company to everything else, the shows, when
did you think or did you ever think, hey, this
isn't gonna work out, or did you ever feel like
a failure? At any time people look to you and like, man,
she has her ship together. She has what I've always
said about people when I first came to New York
and had no money, ames like that person's got super
magnetic energy. And I would say that big money energy
(14:39):
and That's how this whole thing started for me. But
did you ever feel like kind of curling up in
a ball and just going and doing something else? Oh
my god, so many times. I mean, there were lawsuits
that literally brought me to my knees. There was one,
Oh my god. One of the most important pieces of
(15:00):
advice I could ever give an entrepreneur is be so
careful with your legal advice. Get multiple opinions. Make sure
you know exactly what you are signing. When the lawyer
had made a mistake on a contract, I don't know
why to this day, I don't know why. And he
did not disclose to this company that NBC had the
(15:23):
right to approve commercials. No idea why. So, to make
a long story short, it was actually a supplement company
that I was working with way back in the day,
and because the supplements did so well, there was a
class action lawsuit brought against us. It was all dismissed,
of course, as being totally bogus, but it destroyed the products, right,
So these guys were like, well, we don't want to
pay her, the products are destroyed, and we have a
(15:45):
multimillion dollar guarantee we owe her. So they found this
mistake in the contract that said you know that NBC
that we hadn't disclosed it in the contract. To make
a long story short, they sued me for fraud, fraud,
and they wanted every all they've ever spent on the products,
every dollar they've ever given me. Fraud means there's no insurance,
there's no declaring bankruptcy, you lose everything. And the amount
(16:08):
was like insane, this insane amount of money, and it
was hell I and I had to literally after all
the lawyers got done doing their thing, I personally had
to fly out and deal with the owners of this company.
And I was like, Okay, you're not gonna get blood
from a stone, Like what is it that you really want?
And I had to end up resolving and it cost
(16:29):
me millions of dollars, but I had to end up
resolving it myself at the end of the day. I mean,
there were moments like that that we're just absolutely insane,
huge disasters that I you know, hindsight, there were you know,
the public hater thing you adapt to that you know
in the beginning, you're like, oh my god, like I
had said in a women's health article, and at this
(16:51):
point I was a golden child. Right, everybody loved me.
All the like cool cats wanted to like get to
know me in town. You know. I was getting calls
from like all these aless celebrities and I was young.
I was like totally starstruck and I was like, oh,
this is so cool, and my popularity score was here.
I wasn't like, gosh, such a bitch. I hate her.
(17:12):
I was the opposite of that. Everyone loved me. I
was the golden girl. I gave an interview to Women's
Health and they asked me about having a child. And
this is obviously years ago, and I was like, I
don't know, you know, maybe one day. And they were like, oh,
would you carry a child or adopt? And I was
like I would adopt And they're like, oh why, And
(17:32):
I was like, god, I don't you know. And I
didn't disclose that I had. I have something called endometriosis,
which is a long story, but like I just never
and to be honest, like I don't really care to
see my own genetics. I'm five ft two. I had
to get a nose job. I had acne. I'm prone
to being overweight. It took a ton of money to
fix my teeth. There's nothing special going on with me.
I can adopt a kid and be perfectly happy, right Like,
I don't need a little Jillian running around. But oh
(17:54):
my god, it turned into Jillian Michael's never said it.
So the headline was Jillian Michael's thinks pregnancy ruins a
body and oh my I went from being like, oh
my god, you're a que scores insane. We want to
give you a daytime show. They pulled the daytime show.
It was a mess, And that was the first time
I was really got the public hate and it when
(18:17):
you first experienced it, it rocks you, like you just
feel under siege, like some like is a mob going
to break into my house and kill me? Like what?
It's the craziest thing. And then you survive it, and
you survived the lawsuit, and you survived the next thing,
and now I'm like, whatever, you get to that place
right where you're like, I've walked through hell and back.
(18:38):
Bring your hate, bring your crazy, bring your canceled culture,
and get fucked like nothing scared anymore, nothing because I've
been there, done that and lived to tell. But it
took a lot to get here, for sure. Thank you
for going into that and telling those two stories. Most
people wouldn't because they get embarrassed or shameful, but it
is a it's an important learning process, I think, one
(18:59):
as you go through those things, but also as you
talk about them, so that you can help prevent other
people from going through similar Like a very very different
level for me obviously, but you know, I was sued
for fraud um uh. And it was in all the
real estate trade magazines, which from my business, every developer, bank,
or lender. I sold an apartment to a guy in
two thousand fourteen when the market was really really hot,
(19:21):
and I got him. He got a great deal, you know,
and everyone was paying full price. I think I got
a for him for like five thousand off the asking.
I bought it, and then he wanted to sell it.
A couple of years later, the market has turned, a
building got built up in front of his window, and
he was losing money. And so million Dollar Listing New
York comes on the air, comes on tv UM, and
he comes after me. He's like, that guy defrauded me.
(19:43):
He should have told me, and so it's this ridiculous,
fraudulent lawsuit. But then the headline is Ryan Sirhans sued
for real estate fraud. Real estate's kind of my life, right,
and I sell a lot of real estate. And so
every developer, every client was like, dude, you're cool, but
what's this because people don't know and everyone reads the headline.
Everyone reads it. It was such as broken. But here's
(20:04):
how you know that you're successful, because what begot the
mess with the supplements was that they were so successful
the headlines where Jillian Michael's supplements kill people, Jillian Michael,
they were all organic and nowadays you would call it
a pre workout because it's so much more politically correct.
It was that and Jillian Michael thinks pregnancy ruins the body,
and everyone was like, oh, she's a piece of ship.
(20:26):
What a bit total fraud her and her diet pills.
And by the way, all the lossuits were dismissed, but
they never printed that. It wasn't like, oh, this is
all bog and it destroyed the product, destroyed my name.
And it's like, that's how you know that you're successful
is that people start suing you and you just become
a little smarter and a little wiser, and you don't
(20:46):
settle the lawsuits and you get like crazy litigators to
triple check contracts. But it's so hard. I can't imagine
what that must have been like for you. What would
you say your biggest professional accomplishment is then longevity. To
be honest, I mean I remember people be like her
fifteen minutes of fame, and I'm like, well, I'm about yeah,
(21:10):
like as a public figure sixteen years into it. As
a person in the business, I'm thirty years into it
twenty nine because I started as a teenager. So that's
that feels really good because you're like, yeah, you know what,
still on top, like still the go to still the
one that like gets the ask for Oh, we're doing
(21:31):
this article in blank, Let's get Jill. She's the expert.
Let's get Jill. Even though they're don't get me wrong,
they are tremendous talents um in this fields that are
you know, in fact, specialized in other things that I'm
not great at, like bodybuilding. I don't anything about bodybuilding.
Nobody would come to me for that. However, the longevity,
in my opinion, is a true testament to the authenticity
(21:53):
of your message, um, the efficacy of your products and
your programs, And that is my biggest pride is also
having weather and survived all of these storms for those
reasons I just mentioned. Yeah, endurance for the wind, right, Yes, always, always, always,
always good year for your businesses, especially for the app
(22:20):
and people stuck at home. Yeah, do you notice like
increased downloads and was it a good income year? The
apt did great? Um? And you almost still kind of
dirty saying that, right because you're like, oh God, I
don't want to say it profited off of this. It
certainly was nobody's intention. I have been an at home
fitness for the longest time. So fortunately that part of
(22:42):
our business did well. Other parts took a massive hit.
So for example, any television appearances, any public speaking, um,
all of that stuff where I made a good amount
of money, like lost all that. Obviously that was gone, right,
We're not doing any of that, you know. Then the
industries that required foot traffic, like the coffee just got smashed.
(23:03):
It's organic nitro cold group, like, we can't ship it
through Amazon, it's not shelve stable, it requires refrigeration. You've
got to find it at a retailer like that just
got absolutely murdered. But then the supplement company that I
invested in went to the roof because everyone's like, oh
my god. You know, I want to make sure I
got to take care of myself. I want to get
(23:24):
all my zinc and my you know, my D and
my K two and my C and it's like so
we I would say, we net it out even so
where we took hits in some businesses, other businesses did well.
And you know, I'm just glad to be working. I'm
not gonna lie, like work is such a huge component
of my life. Think it was Freud right who said,
(23:45):
you have these two essential buckets of meaning. One is
your work and one is your family and your loved ones.
And I'm very lucky that both are currently intact. So
I'm I'm grateful beyond and lucky beyond for those two things. Yeah,
you know, you about the investments that you make in
all these different companies, and I think in order to
make kind of calculated bets that way with your own money,
(24:07):
like your own cash, right, You're you're sweating for that money,
and you're like, it seems like a good idea. Here's
some money. Don't suck it up. You have to be
able to have uh like foresight into the future. I
know no one could predict a pandemic, but you know
it is now one. Right, We're looking into the future.
Where where does the fitness industry go from here? You know,
(24:29):
in New York the fitness industry looks a lot different
than it did even a year ago. It's pretty wild.
Do you have a prediction, Like, what are you what
are you excited about? I am so I can go
invest it. That's really to be. To be honest, I
believe there's going to be a hybrid model. I think
a lot of the things that people have taken up
at home because, for example, I actually didn't like to
work at at home because I was like, no, this
(24:50):
is my business. I want to go to the gym.
I don't want to gym in my house. I don't
want to see it. I want to go to the gym.
I want to be around other people. I want you
don't have a gym in your own house. I heeded it.
I was like, no, I want to. I want to
train with another trainer. I don't want to hear my voice,
you know. I want to learn their fitness philosophy. I
want to take an m M A class with this
guy because he's amazing and I want to take a
(25:11):
yoga class with her because she's amazing, and I like
this woman's spin class. She's amazing. Like and I also
believe that the best teacher is the best students, So
I'm constantly learning from other fitness professionals, doctors, registered dietitians.
I always want to learn, and I like the gym
for that reason. So then I forced to be at
home and all of a sudden, I'm I'm on a
(25:32):
road bike on Pacific Coast Highway and I'm like, well,
this is this is beautiful, this is weird. What are
these legs? I'm a hiking with the dog. I'm like, well,
this is very zen. I feel closer to nature. There's
no m in the background, the trees aren't thumping, right,
(25:53):
you know. I got a jump rope and I was
I always sucked at it, And all of a sudden,
now I'm like I was watching like did on prope
dudes on YouTube, and I was like practicing my skips
and I got kind of good at it, and I
was like, well, this is fun. So I'm not going
to give any of that up, but I will tell
you right now that the minute the gym opens, my
ass will be back and I'll be doing both. So
(26:15):
I think people will say, like, all right, I'm not
going to spend as much. Maybe I don't need a
you know, because I did save six thousand dollars on
a membership for myself and my girlfriend to our big
box gym. But I will take maybe a class or
two a week and then do my other stuff at home.
And I see the accessibility and the affordability going nowhere
being valuable assets that people have adapted to if they
(26:37):
weren't already used to it, because at home fitness has
always been massive. However, what I would do is scoop
up any of these struggling franchises right now, whether you know,
I don't know who's struggling, but like if there was
a rise Nation or a rumble, or any of these
boutique gym's that are looking to sell. I'm sorry this
(26:58):
sounds like bottom feeder and Nation, but it is business.
Scoop them up because that is going to boom again.
I mean, do you already know what concert you're going to?
Already know what concert I'm going to? My I'm like already,
I'm like, oh my god, his guns and Roses going
to be back this summer in New York. They're selling tickets.
Yes please, Yes, I'm going like I'm already planning, Like
(27:21):
when is I have not been doing nightclub in a decade.
I would have rather stuck needles in my eyes right now,
I'm like, I'm going to a visa this time. Get
out of my way. So I I think people will
be I think it's going to be the Roaring twenties,
and I would double down on, to be honest, both
of those components, with fitness being bigger than ever because
(27:42):
we've seen how powerful it is with regard to preventing
disease and optimizing health and performance overall. I think travel, travel,
and fitness, for sure, all of those stocks, all of
those companies are just going to destroy it a minute
it opens up, and people are gonna start traveling and
they don't even want to. They're gonna be on planes
and are gonna hate flying. They're gonna be in the
gym and they don't like working out, but they feel
(28:03):
they're gonna feel like they need to. It's like Field
of dreams, right, It's like that James Earl Jones speech
to Kevin Costner is like people are gonna get in
the cars. They're gonna come here, and they won't know why.
They're gonna stand on the baseball field and they won't
understand the reason, but they're gonna come. If you build
it come, It's like, that's what's gonna happen, and it's
a it's it's nuts. The title of this podcast that
(28:23):
I'm doing is called Big Money Energy. When your people
brought this to you and we reached out, what did
you think about when you when you heard that? I
loved it. To be honest, I've always been fascinated by
real estate and people who understand it because it seems
like the people that make the most money are in
that business. And I'm always like, oh, I have such envy,
but I don't really understand it. So I find it intimidating.
(28:44):
So people like you, I'm like, how did you do that?
Like the flipping and this and that and the role
of I don't even have the tax lot Like. I
find it to be so like alluring because I realized
that that's how you make big. Every billionaire I've ever
talked to is like, if you ever this is the
you know, other than the Bill Gates of the world.
They're all real estate modils. So I was already kind
(29:06):
of I knew you were already was a fan and
respected your energy, and I was like, oh fun, totally.
Part be to that question is how has money played
a role in your life? It's allowed you to invest
and build. But going from somebody who was delivering pizza,
I think you know all of us when we're in
our twenties where we're doing kind of these aud end jobs,
and I think it's important. It's character building ship, like
(29:27):
we all got to do it. But you put yourself
up based on a passion into um somebody who has
you know, who has the means to invest and to
build businesses. What does money mean to you? The one
thing I would say is just for anybody whose parents
aren't able to help them or did not help them,
don't be intimidated because it's easy to become a bit
(29:49):
of a curmudgeon and become bitter. And it's like, well,
sure you were able to do that because your daddy
gave me them and I get the bitterness, trust me,
you know, but but it's not serving you and you
can do it without that help. It won't be easy,
but you can get it. Done Bloomberg. I think it
was a parking lot attendant, right, I mean, like it
can be done. You did it, I did it. It
can be done, Jeff Bezos. Then you start that out
(30:10):
of his garage Amazon with a little like would sign
the internet? Yeah, right, Like it can totally be done.
So while money, you know, it takes money to make money,
you can get there without you know that that nest
egg in the beginning. Not easy, but you can do it.
So I what I find money buys me is freedom.
(30:30):
I can't tell you that it buys you happiness, but
it definitely buys you freedom. So I don't live in
fear of things like cancel culture because I'm like, if
I never worked again tomorrow, I'm fine, Okay, you know,
I you know, and it allows me because there are
people that I can't tell you how often I hear
like I agree with you, and it's like, right, but
(30:53):
you didn't come out and say shit because you're scared,
and I don't. I don't blame you. But like I
cannot tell you how many fit people like Keto, even Keto,
they're like, yeah, this is complete shit. You're totally right,
Like you're the one with the PhD say something, say something.
You know what it's like in the quiet d m
s because they're so scared of like the Keto crusaders,
like destroying their business, that nobody speaks. And it has
(31:18):
given me the ability to speak without fear and and
to tell what I believe is the truth. And if
somebody confronts me with information that changes my mind, I'm
totally open to that as well. You know, teach me.
I'm here to learn. If there's something I don't know,
I want to know it. But without money, I don't.
I don't know that I would be quite so brave.
(31:38):
I'd be scared because I think, like, how am I
going to feed my family next month? If all of
a sudden I'm quote canceled. And that's that's terrifying freedom
for sure. The harder you work, the luckier you get
right and the more money you can make and the
more free you can be in that way, you don't
give a shit. You know, some of the wealthiest people
that I that I meet, they walk into a room
and they literally just have that of I don't give
(32:00):
a ship. Whatever happens happens. It's self confidence. It's a
lot of different things. But this has been awesome. Thank
you so much for being here. You are so fresh
and so real like it's just such a pleasure to
talk to you, and I really appreciate you taking the time.
Go kick ass. I hope we get to talk and
meet again in person one day. Let's we'll let you
when I'm in l I mean, we'll go for a hike.
(32:22):
I would love our drink. O my god. By the
time the nightclubs will be open, we'll hike and go dance.
Things would be great. I would love it. Thank you
so much. It's been so much money. If you're ready
to take action today based on Jillian Michael's entire blueprint
for how she got to where she is, go to
(32:42):
Big Money Energy dot com slash podcast to download an
action plan and I put together for you, as well
as the show notes. That's Big Money Energy dot com
slash podcast. Find more podcasts like Big Money Energy on
the I Heart Radio app or are wherever you get
your podcasts. Big Money Energy is hosted by me Ryan Sirhint,
(33:06):
and it's produced by Mike Coscarelli and Joe Loresca, an
executive produced by Christina Everett.
Welcome back to another episode of Big Money Energy, where
we talked to super successful and self made people to
find out exactly how they did it, how they went
from nothing to something. I'm Ryan sert Hands and today
I enjoyed by none other than Jillian Michaels. She's a
fitness entrepreneur, TV personality, businesswoman, author, and so much more.
(00:23):
You probably know her from TV or maybe you have
her apps. We talk about overcoming setbacks so scary that
they almost bring you to your knees. We go through
advice for women as they break into the business world,
and we talked about how to turn your passion into
a multimillion dollar empire, which is really, really really hard
(00:44):
to do, but if anyone knows how to do it,
it's Jillian, So let's get into it. Welcome to another episode.
Today is a super super special day because I get
to sit down with one of the biggest fitness experts
in the work. I have a fifteen page intro here
to read, so I'm not going to even do that.
(01:05):
Uh and I cannot wait for you guys to hear
how awesome she is. So without further ado, the Chilean
Michaels thank you so much for being here. Thank you
for having me. So how are you? Where are you
at home? I am at home in my in my office.
And the bar you see growing out of my head
is the handle to the Murphy bed in the office.
So I have had a metal bar growing out of
(01:28):
my head now for almost a year in every interview.
How are you? I'm good. We're in our our new office.
We started a new company in the fall, and so
we took down a townhouse in t Rebeca and so
this is the dining room. It's also my office. But
it's like it's the way it's supposed to be now, right,
Oh my gosh, we're in full lockdown, and I you know,
(01:50):
I do the whole spiel in my head every day
where I'm like, you're lucky, be grateful, you have your health,
you're fortunate, you could get outside, shut the funk up,
you can work. But it's like, oh my god, Ryan,
it's getting so old right, Like it's just grueling, and
the kids aren't in school, and it's just like, but
we're gonna get through it. I think summer we'll see
(02:12):
like a genuine light at the end of this hell ride.
Seeing the way you just kind of framed that whole
moment because hearing you have to give yourself kind of
those inner mantras and inner monologues. I think it's kind
of an eye opener because everybody else has to do
the same thing, but to know that you do it
too and go through it is pretty humbling. Do you
(02:33):
have morning rituals, like when you wake up? Do you
have kind of a way that you start your day? Coffee?
Lots of it? Like I really should have some sort
of like first I do a morning meditation, but that's
just that would be bullshit. Like the reality is, my
ten year old wakes me up, and let's we know
(02:55):
that the cafe in the kitchen is open. I need
to get up. I need to start making the breakfast,
even though they don't have anywhere be I'm like, you're
not on zoom for another hour and a half and
leave me alone. But she's up, she's a crack of dawn,
she's at my door. So that's a ritual. And then
I caffeinate myself, beat everybody in the house, take my vitamins,
and then generally get the kids on Zoom or my
co parents. I hate to say X because it seems
(03:17):
to have some negative connotation, but the kids either Mom
is fantastic and me or her get them on their
zoom and then I begin my work day. Are you
organic all day every day? Or your organ or you
kind of like, yeah, you mix it up a little bit.
I eat out. I am guilty of eating out, so
that is where the non organic stuff would come from.
(03:38):
And when I do do that, there are certain things
I stay away from. So I wouldn't eat red meat
unless it was grass fed, grass finished organic. That's where
I get little nuts because organic isn't necessarily about what
you're getting. It's about what you're not getting. So I
don't want the fake colors, fake fats, sugars, hormones, antibiotics, preservatives.
(04:03):
I just I don't want it. So I have the luxury.
And I realized this is a very elitist, obnoxious thing
to say, but I have the luxury to afford organics,
and I spend money on organic food whenever I can.
Do you still, as I'm thinking about organic and thinking
about how healthy you are before everything the TV and
all that, you actually did my tie for a long time, right, I, Well,
(04:25):
it's actually a hybrid style. My teacher was one of
the original mm A pioneers. Mind you, this is a
long time ago. I started taking martial arts when I
was thirteen. Was that your choice to get into it,
or did your parents say, hey, you keep beating people up,
you should do this in a good setting. My mom
definitely saw that I needed an outlet and a place
(04:47):
where I could kind of belong and she was dating
a guy whose nephews were taking martial arts and I
showed an interest, so she took me to audit a
class and I immediately felt a sense of belonging, a
sense of empowerment, and it was a definite journey for
me over the years. But movie Tie was one of
(05:08):
the modalities that he pulled from. So I I say
movie tie because people, you know, you bring up this
name and no one's ever heard of it, and you're like, well,
part of its kung Fu, and part of it is
like quto, and part of so I just say I'm
white tags. It's easier, totally. It's crazy how big that
sport has become, given how sensitive everyone is about absolutely
anything right now. M m A. You know, you've got
(05:31):
some of the most sensitive people in Los Angeles paying
billions and millions to watch people kick each other's ass
with just with their bare hands, and then they leave
and they get really really sensitive. It's like it's kind
of like there's something there. What was that community like
to you, because you said you were looking for a
kind of belonging, right, especially as as a young girl
growing up kind of that what do you call it,
(05:52):
like the fighting community versus the fitness community. Are those
two communities totally separate? I think they are for sure
for me in particular because you know, my parents were
going through a divorce. I was a chubby kid. I
was gay and didn't know I was gay, but everybody
else seemed to know I was gay because I used
to get called all the names. I was like, there's
so dumb, I'm not even gay. They could call me
(06:14):
die but I'm not. Until later I was like, oh, ship,
I guess maybe this was a thing. But I literally
had no idea. But I was picked on a lot,
and so being put in this environment where quite honestly,
there were a lot of grown ups. Grown ups are
going to pick on kids, right. There were different belt ranges,
but there were different ages in those belt ranges, So
(06:36):
you would go to a fight night. You'd have a
thirty five year old guy and an eighteen year old
senior and then me, and so there was a wide
range of individuals from all walks of life and we
were a family. And it wasn't even about a fitness cult.
It was too long ago for that to even have
been a thing. And it wasn't about m M maybe
because that wasn't a thing. I remember John Claude Van
Damme came up with that movie but was a blood
(06:58):
sport and it kind of exposed and I was like,
what is this. I'm like, God, yeah it was. It
was so foreign to people, or as now it's so
incredibly mainstream. I just think of it as a very
accepting community that where we kind of had our own
little bubble and everybody was kind and that's what I
really needed at that time. And then martial arts helped
(07:20):
me get in shape, but it also showed me like, wow,
you you actually are strong, you you are capable, you
are It improved myself image and when I carried that
forward and other aspects of my life, I stopped being bullied,
like overnight. It was kind of fascinating, Like I changed.
I felt like I could, so all of you could.
(07:43):
And then I was like, all right, you know what,
like come at me, bro And the minute you sort
of have that mentality where you're carrying yourself different and
you're respecting yourself, it's very bizarre. No one ever messed
with me. I went kind of from loser to loaner,
but no one ever really mess after that. It was weird.
We just had a baby. She's about to turn to.
(08:06):
Her name is Zena. Everything changes when you have a
little girl. Like there was a little boy in the
playground who like went up to the slide and she
was trying to go up and he pushed her over.
And my edient reaction was like, well, I have to
kill him now, Like I'm sorry to his family, Like
I get it, he's probably like one and a half,
but like, you can't. That's that's that's my Amelia literally
grabbed me and she's like, listen, you can't. You can't
(08:28):
hurt kids here, you know, like Zina has gotta learn.
She's got to learn. And so, you know, I get
asked a lot of questions from women in business who
are either in sales like myself, or they're you know,
they're working in different types of jobs. They always talk
to me about having a lack of confidence in a
room that is surrounded by men. You know, like a
girl who's like a young analyst at a bank or um,
she's new in sales and she's coming in and guys
(08:48):
have their thing and they don't take the girls serious.
I kind of have my answer that I typically give
to them, but I'd love to know what you could
say to all those girls. I know a lot of
them are going to listen to this, especial women in
sales and a lot of businesses that are so dominated
by by men, and a lot of them are dominated
by white men. What do you say to those to
those girls? And that first job is it just know
(09:09):
your ship and talk up and don't be don't be shy.
Here's the reality. There is all of that um and
that's great, right. You don't have a choice but to
do that, and you know you must do that. But
my business partner and I have a running joke and
I call him my man piece. And what I mean
by that is I can say things like, for example,
(09:32):
we have an organic nitro Colebrow coffee company. We just
have a new line of these organic coffee these cans
and the wrap looks like ship complete chit. I got
the samples and I was like, this is this is unacceptable.
I've never even seen this before. This can't go it
or reach other So I call him and I was like, okay,
what happened here? We need to deal with it. He's like,
(09:52):
all right, I want you to send an email to
all the partners in the investor saying we need to
we need to call immediately. None of them responded, None
of them responded, none of them, do you no. Two
days later I called him and I was like, all right,
you're gonna have to uh, you have to get everybody
on the phone. And so he's like, no problem. So
he's like, hey, guys, Kathleen's gonna be setting up this call.
(10:13):
Sent times are available, and they all do. Now that
I've tried, I've said it every way. I've done the
whole calm, no emotion thing. I've done it all. And
the reality is that sometimes the world is not perfect,
the world is not fair, and you will have to
find a way around it. And and so I use
him period. It's like and it gets it done for me.
(10:35):
I need to get shipped done. I don't have time
to play games with your ego or your personality, or like,
why aren't you responding to me? So there are times
where you might have to push things through. You might
have to do it without permission. You might have to
get a little help from a coworker or a mentor
who believes in you. And I have in no means
I'm trying to shoot on guys. I think I've had
(10:56):
a tremendous mail mentors, and I've had men support me
in business far sooner than competitive cadie women have. You
know what I mean. But if you are dealing with that,
it is a very legitimate thing, just like other problems
in business, and find a way around it. That's one
of the things I do, and I don't care that
it's not perfect. It works for me and it's time efficient.
I get what I need done. The other question I
(11:23):
get a lot is with people trying to find their
passion right and they connect work to passion. They feel
that if they're going to take a job that they
don't love doing, they're gonna hate their life forever. Because
so many people say to find your passion, but then
you have other people who say, screw that. Don't find
your passion. You gotta make money. Fall in love with money,
fall in love with sales, fall in love whatever you
want to do, and then do a passion as a
side pieces your hobby. You tell me, But it seems
(11:46):
to the world like you really like fitness. It is
a passion of yours. And I don't think you'd be
where you are today if it wasn't something that you
actually loved. Do you find yourself to be incredibly lucky
or is that something that you actually worked on where
you knew that, Hey, I like fitness, I could be
good at it. I'm going to turn this into a business. No.
I fell into it by accident. I was training for
(12:07):
my black belt at seventeen. People saw me in the
gym and they would ask me like, oh, how much
do you charge? And I was like for what. I
don't know what they were propositioning me for, and there
really they were like, I want you to be my
personal trainer. I was like, oh okay, So I thought, like,
how much does this job pay? I think I was
(12:27):
making like five bucks an hour delivering pizzas, so I
can make like fifteen dollars an hour being a trainer
and Fortunately, my mom had the foresight to say, like,
I think you need some sort of credential, so she
got me my first little certification in training and I
fell into it and I did it very organically for
years until I was twenty four, and then I started
(12:50):
to get that pressure right, like what are you gonna
do with your life? You can't live like this forever?
You know where you can't just be Because I was
training during the day of partending a night making great
money superhap be and I was dating a person who
was Ivy League working in the television industry, so I thought,
I guess I need to get a real job. So
this is where you know you fall into the shoulds.
(13:11):
I should do this instead of what you think you want.
And I learned very quickly that the more security you
seek and like, the less you're gonna have. I never
got paid less money. I've never been more miserable. So
my twenty seven I had worked my way up to
being a motion picture talent agent and I ended up
being fired because I hated it and hated the people.
(13:32):
So I fell back into fitness and then realized, like,
wait a second, I'm waking up every day happy. I
love what I do. I'm great at it. It's authentic
to me. How can I turn this into a business
beyond paycheck to paycheck, invoice to invoice and then that's
a longer story, but it did have to be a
very real experience of like making the mistakes of going
(13:56):
down that you should path versus seeing the not to
use this very on trend term, but it's it's relevant,
the flow and the serendipity that came when I did
what I loved and at that point I was like,
all right, this is this is inevitable that I'm supposed
to do this. How do I turn it into a business.
There was a moment in the last sixteen years and
building your businesses in the various businesses from the apps
(14:17):
to the coffee company to everything else, the shows, when
did you think or did you ever think, hey, this
isn't gonna work out, or did you ever feel like
a failure? At any time people look to you and like, man,
she has her ship together. She has what I've always
said about people when I first came to New York
and had no money, ames like that person's got super
magnetic energy. And I would say that big money energy
(14:39):
and That's how this whole thing started for me. But
did you ever feel like kind of curling up in
a ball and just going and doing something else? Oh
my god, so many times. I mean, there were lawsuits
that literally brought me to my knees. There was one,
Oh my god. One of the most important pieces of
(15:00):
advice I could ever give an entrepreneur is be so
careful with your legal advice. Get multiple opinions. Make sure
you know exactly what you are signing. When the lawyer
had made a mistake on a contract, I don't know
why to this day, I don't know why. And he
did not disclose to this company that NBC had the
(15:23):
right to approve commercials. No idea why. So, to make
a long story short, it was actually a supplement company
that I was working with way back in the day,
and because the supplements did so well, there was a
class action lawsuit brought against us. It was all dismissed,
of course, as being totally bogus, but it destroyed the products, right,
So these guys were like, well, we don't want to
pay her, the products are destroyed, and we have a
(15:45):
multimillion dollar guarantee we owe her. So they found this
mistake in the contract that said you know that NBC
that we hadn't disclosed it in the contract. To make
a long story short, they sued me for fraud, fraud,
and they wanted every all they've ever spent on the products,
every dollar they've ever given me. Fraud means there's no insurance,
there's no declaring bankruptcy, you lose everything. And the amount
(16:08):
was like insane, this insane amount of money, and it
was hell I and I had to literally after all
the lawyers got done doing their thing, I personally had
to fly out and deal with the owners of this company.
And I was like, Okay, you're not gonna get blood
from a stone, Like what is it that you really want?
And I had to end up resolving and it cost
(16:29):
me millions of dollars, but I had to end up
resolving it myself at the end of the day. I mean,
there were moments like that that we're just absolutely insane,
huge disasters that I you know, hindsight, there were you know,
the public hater thing you adapt to that you know
in the beginning, you're like, oh my god, like I
had said in a women's health article, and at this
(16:51):
point I was a golden child. Right, everybody loved me.
All the like cool cats wanted to like get to
know me in town. You know. I was getting calls
from like all these aless celebrities and I was young.
I was like totally starstruck and I was like, oh,
this is so cool, and my popularity score was here.
I wasn't like, gosh, such a bitch. I hate her.
(17:12):
I was the opposite of that. Everyone loved me. I
was the golden girl. I gave an interview to Women's
Health and they asked me about having a child. And
this is obviously years ago, and I was like, I
don't know, you know, maybe one day. And they were like, oh,
would you carry a child or adopt? And I was
like I would adopt And they're like, oh why, And
(17:32):
I was like, god, I don't you know. And I
didn't disclose that I had. I have something called endometriosis,
which is a long story, but like I just never
and to be honest, like I don't really care to
see my own genetics. I'm five ft two. I had
to get a nose job. I had acne. I'm prone
to being overweight. It took a ton of money to
fix my teeth. There's nothing special going on with me.
I can adopt a kid and be perfectly happy, right Like,
I don't need a little Jillian running around. But oh
(17:54):
my god, it turned into Jillian Michael's never said it.
So the headline was Jillian Michael's thinks pregnancy ruins a
body and oh my I went from being like, oh
my god, you're a que scores insane. We want to
give you a daytime show. They pulled the daytime show.
It was a mess, And that was the first time
I was really got the public hate and it when
(18:17):
you first experienced it, it rocks you, like you just
feel under siege, like some like is a mob going
to break into my house and kill me? Like what?
It's the craziest thing. And then you survive it, and
you survived the lawsuit, and you survived the next thing,
and now I'm like, whatever, you get to that place
right where you're like, I've walked through hell and back.
(18:38):
Bring your hate, bring your crazy, bring your canceled culture,
and get fucked like nothing scared anymore, nothing because I've
been there, done that and lived to tell. But it
took a lot to get here, for sure. Thank you
for going into that and telling those two stories. Most
people wouldn't because they get embarrassed or shameful, but it
is a it's an important learning process, I think, one
(18:59):
as you go through those things, but also as you
talk about them, so that you can help prevent other
people from going through similar Like a very very different
level for me obviously, but you know, I was sued
for fraud um uh. And it was in all the
real estate trade magazines, which from my business, every developer, bank,
or lender. I sold an apartment to a guy in
two thousand fourteen when the market was really really hot,
(19:21):
and I got him. He got a great deal, you know,
and everyone was paying full price. I think I got
a for him for like five thousand off the asking.
I bought it, and then he wanted to sell it.
A couple of years later, the market has turned, a
building got built up in front of his window, and
he was losing money. And so million Dollar Listing New
York comes on the air, comes on tv UM, and
he comes after me. He's like, that guy defrauded me.
(19:43):
He should have told me, and so it's this ridiculous,
fraudulent lawsuit. But then the headline is Ryan Sirhans sued
for real estate fraud. Real estate's kind of my life, right,
and I sell a lot of real estate. And so
every developer, every client was like, dude, you're cool, but
what's this because people don't know and everyone reads the headline.
Everyone reads it. It was such as broken. But here's
(20:04):
how you know that you're successful, because what begot the
mess with the supplements was that they were so successful
the headlines where Jillian Michael's supplements kill people, Jillian Michael,
they were all organic and nowadays you would call it
a pre workout because it's so much more politically correct.
It was that and Jillian Michael thinks pregnancy ruins the body,
and everyone was like, oh, she's a piece of ship.
(20:26):
What a bit total fraud her and her diet pills.
And by the way, all the lossuits were dismissed, but
they never printed that. It wasn't like, oh, this is
all bog and it destroyed the product, destroyed my name.
And it's like, that's how you know that you're successful
is that people start suing you and you just become
a little smarter and a little wiser, and you don't
(20:46):
settle the lawsuits and you get like crazy litigators to
triple check contracts. But it's so hard. I can't imagine
what that must have been like for you. What would
you say your biggest professional accomplishment is then longevity. To
be honest, I mean I remember people be like her
fifteen minutes of fame, and I'm like, well, I'm about yeah,
(21:10):
like as a public figure sixteen years into it. As
a person in the business, I'm thirty years into it
twenty nine because I started as a teenager. So that's
that feels really good because you're like, yeah, you know what,
still on top, like still the go to still the
one that like gets the ask for Oh, we're doing
(21:31):
this article in blank, Let's get Jill. She's the expert.
Let's get Jill. Even though they're don't get me wrong,
they are tremendous talents um in this fields that are
you know, in fact, specialized in other things that I'm
not great at, like bodybuilding. I don't anything about bodybuilding.
Nobody would come to me for that. However, the longevity,
in my opinion, is a true testament to the authenticity
(21:53):
of your message, um, the efficacy of your products and
your programs, And that is my biggest pride is also
having weather and survived all of these storms for those
reasons I just mentioned. Yeah, endurance for the wind, right, Yes, always, always, always,
always good year for your businesses, especially for the app
(22:20):
and people stuck at home. Yeah, do you notice like
increased downloads and was it a good income year? The
apt did great? Um? And you almost still kind of
dirty saying that, right because you're like, oh God, I
don't want to say it profited off of this. It
certainly was nobody's intention. I have been an at home
fitness for the longest time. So fortunately that part of
(22:42):
our business did well. Other parts took a massive hit.
So for example, any television appearances, any public speaking, um,
all of that stuff where I made a good amount
of money, like lost all that. Obviously that was gone, right,
We're not doing any of that, you know. Then the
industries that required foot traffic, like the coffee just got smashed.
(23:03):
It's organic nitro cold group, like, we can't ship it
through Amazon, it's not shelve stable, it requires refrigeration. You've
got to find it at a retailer like that just
got absolutely murdered. But then the supplement company that I
invested in went to the roof because everyone's like, oh
my god. You know, I want to make sure I
got to take care of myself. I want to get
(23:24):
all my zinc and my you know, my D and
my K two and my C and it's like so
we I would say, we net it out even so
where we took hits in some businesses, other businesses did well.
And you know, I'm just glad to be working. I'm
not gonna lie, like work is such a huge component
of my life. Think it was Freud right who said,
(23:45):
you have these two essential buckets of meaning. One is
your work and one is your family and your loved ones.
And I'm very lucky that both are currently intact. So
I'm I'm grateful beyond and lucky beyond for those two things. Yeah,
you know, you about the investments that you make in
all these different companies, and I think in order to
make kind of calculated bets that way with your own money,
(24:07):
like your own cash, right, You're you're sweating for that money,
and you're like, it seems like a good idea. Here's
some money. Don't suck it up. You have to be
able to have uh like foresight into the future. I
know no one could predict a pandemic, but you know
it is now one. Right, We're looking into the future.
Where where does the fitness industry go from here? You know,
(24:29):
in New York the fitness industry looks a lot different
than it did even a year ago. It's pretty wild.
Do you have a prediction, Like, what are you what
are you excited about? I am so I can go
invest it. That's really to be. To be honest, I
believe there's going to be a hybrid model. I think
a lot of the things that people have taken up
at home because, for example, I actually didn't like to
work at at home because I was like, no, this
(24:50):
is my business. I want to go to the gym.
I don't want to gym in my house. I don't
want to see it. I want to go to the gym.
I want to be around other people. I want you
don't have a gym in your own house. I heeded it.
I was like, no, I want to. I want to
train with another trainer. I don't want to hear my voice,
you know. I want to learn their fitness philosophy. I
want to take an m M A class with this
guy because he's amazing and I want to take a
(25:11):
yoga class with her because she's amazing, and I like
this woman's spin class. She's amazing. Like and I also
believe that the best teacher is the best students, So
I'm constantly learning from other fitness professionals, doctors, registered dietitians.
I always want to learn, and I like the gym
for that reason. So then I forced to be at
home and all of a sudden, I'm I'm on a
(25:32):
road bike on Pacific Coast Highway and I'm like, well,
this is this is beautiful, this is weird. What are
these legs? I'm a hiking with the dog. I'm like, well,
this is very zen. I feel closer to nature. There's
no m in the background, the trees aren't thumping, right,
(25:53):
you know. I got a jump rope and I was
I always sucked at it, And all of a sudden,
now I'm like I was watching like did on prope
dudes on YouTube, and I was like practicing my skips
and I got kind of good at it, and I
was like, well, this is fun. So I'm not going
to give any of that up, but I will tell
you right now that the minute the gym opens, my
ass will be back and I'll be doing both. So
(26:15):
I think people will say, like, all right, I'm not
going to spend as much. Maybe I don't need a
you know, because I did save six thousand dollars on
a membership for myself and my girlfriend to our big
box gym. But I will take maybe a class or
two a week and then do my other stuff at home.
And I see the accessibility and the affordability going nowhere
being valuable assets that people have adapted to if they
(26:37):
weren't already used to it, because at home fitness has
always been massive. However, what I would do is scoop
up any of these struggling franchises right now, whether you know,
I don't know who's struggling, but like if there was
a rise Nation or a rumble, or any of these
boutique gym's that are looking to sell. I'm sorry this
(26:58):
sounds like bottom feeder and Nation, but it is business.
Scoop them up because that is going to boom again.
I mean, do you already know what concert you're going to?
Already know what concert I'm going to? My I'm like already,
I'm like, oh my god, his guns and Roses going
to be back this summer in New York. They're selling tickets.
Yes please, Yes, I'm going like I'm already planning, Like
(27:21):
when is I have not been doing nightclub in a decade.
I would have rather stuck needles in my eyes right now,
I'm like, I'm going to a visa this time. Get
out of my way. So I I think people will
be I think it's going to be the Roaring twenties,
and I would double down on, to be honest, both
of those components, with fitness being bigger than ever because
(27:42):
we've seen how powerful it is with regard to preventing
disease and optimizing health and performance overall. I think travel, travel,
and fitness, for sure, all of those stocks, all of
those companies are just going to destroy it a minute
it opens up, and people are gonna start traveling and
they don't even want to. They're gonna be on planes
and are gonna hate flying. They're gonna be in the
gym and they don't like working out, but they feel
(28:03):
they're gonna feel like they need to. It's like Field
of dreams, right, It's like that James Earl Jones speech
to Kevin Costner is like people are gonna get in
the cars. They're gonna come here, and they won't know why.
They're gonna stand on the baseball field and they won't
understand the reason, but they're gonna come. If you build
it come, It's like, that's what's gonna happen, and it's
a it's it's nuts. The title of this podcast that
(28:23):
I'm doing is called Big Money Energy. When your people
brought this to you and we reached out, what did
you think about when you when you heard that? I
loved it. To be honest, I've always been fascinated by
real estate and people who understand it because it seems
like the people that make the most money are in
that business. And I'm always like, oh, I have such envy,
but I don't really understand it. So I find it intimidating.
(28:44):
So people like you, I'm like, how did you do that?
Like the flipping and this and that and the role
of I don't even have the tax lot Like. I
find it to be so like alluring because I realized
that that's how you make big. Every billionaire I've ever
talked to is like, if you ever this is the
you know, other than the Bill Gates of the world.
They're all real estate modils. So I was already kind
(29:06):
of I knew you were already was a fan and
respected your energy, and I was like, oh fun, totally.
Part be to that question is how has money played
a role in your life? It's allowed you to invest
and build. But going from somebody who was delivering pizza,
I think you know all of us when we're in
our twenties where we're doing kind of these aud end jobs,
and I think it's important. It's character building ship, like
(29:27):
we all got to do it. But you put yourself
up based on a passion into um somebody who has
you know, who has the means to invest and to
build businesses. What does money mean to you? The one
thing I would say is just for anybody whose parents
aren't able to help them or did not help them,
don't be intimidated because it's easy to become a bit
(29:49):
of a curmudgeon and become bitter. And it's like, well,
sure you were able to do that because your daddy
gave me them and I get the bitterness, trust me,
you know, but but it's not serving you and you
can do it without that help. It won't be easy,
but you can get it. Done Bloomberg. I think it
was a parking lot attendant, right, I mean, like it
can be done. You did it, I did it. It
can be done, Jeff Bezos. Then you start that out
(30:10):
of his garage Amazon with a little like would sign
the internet? Yeah, right, Like it can totally be done.
So while money, you know, it takes money to make money,
you can get there without you know that that nest
egg in the beginning. Not easy, but you can do it.
So I what I find money buys me is freedom.
(30:30):
I can't tell you that it buys you happiness, but
it definitely buys you freedom. So I don't live in
fear of things like cancel culture because I'm like, if
I never worked again tomorrow, I'm fine, Okay, you know,
I you know, and it allows me because there are
people that I can't tell you how often I hear
like I agree with you, and it's like, right, but
(30:53):
you didn't come out and say shit because you're scared,
and I don't. I don't blame you. But like I
cannot tell you how many fit people like Keto, even Keto,
they're like, yeah, this is complete shit. You're totally right,
Like you're the one with the PhD say something, say something.
You know what it's like in the quiet d m
s because they're so scared of like the Keto crusaders,
like destroying their business, that nobody speaks. And it has
(31:18):
given me the ability to speak without fear and and
to tell what I believe is the truth. And if
somebody confronts me with information that changes my mind, I'm
totally open to that as well. You know, teach me.
I'm here to learn. If there's something I don't know,
I want to know it. But without money, I don't.
I don't know that I would be quite so brave.
(31:38):
I'd be scared because I think, like, how am I
going to feed my family next month? If all of
a sudden I'm quote canceled. And that's that's terrifying freedom
for sure. The harder you work, the luckier you get
right and the more money you can make and the
more free you can be in that way, you don't
give a shit. You know, some of the wealthiest people
that I that I meet, they walk into a room
and they literally just have that of I don't give
(32:00):
a ship. Whatever happens happens. It's self confidence. It's a
lot of different things. But this has been awesome. Thank
you so much for being here. You are so fresh
and so real like it's just such a pleasure to
talk to you, and I really appreciate you taking the time.
Go kick ass. I hope we get to talk and
meet again in person one day. Let's we'll let you
when I'm in l I mean, we'll go for a hike.
(32:22):
I would love our drink. O my god. By the
time the nightclubs will be open, we'll hike and go dance.
Things would be great. I would love it. Thank you
so much. It's been so much money. If you're ready
to take action today based on Jillian Michael's entire blueprint
for how she got to where she is, go to
(32:42):
Big Money Energy dot com slash podcast to download an
action plan and I put together for you, as well
as the show notes. That's Big Money Energy dot com
slash podcast. Find more podcasts like Big Money Energy on
the I Heart Radio app or are wherever you get
your podcasts. Big Money Energy is hosted by me Ryan Sirhint,
(33:06):
and it's produced by Mike Coscarelli and Joe Loresca, an
executive produced by Christina Everett.
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