October 8, 2025 • 50 mins
Meet Lexi & Brett Johnson, co‑partners in life and mission. Lexi is the founder of Lexi J Wellness®, a thriving online fitness & wellness brand built from her basement in 2020. Certified in multiple NASM specialties and with a degree in Health Sciences, her goal is simple: help women reclaim strength, health, and confidence in just 28 minutes a day.
Brett, by her side as husband and partner, plays a supportive and active role in their shared vision. He works a full-time job while being both the CFO and COO of Lexi J Wellness. Though not as publicly profiled yet, he shows up in event campaigns, community support, and the “behind the scenes” muscle of Lexi’s growth. Their dynamic pairs business acumen, community focus, and personal drive.
Website: https://lexijwellness.com/
Instagram: @lexijwellness
This episode was sponsored by Matthew Stevenson Insurance.
Website: https://matthew-stevenson.ca/#work
This episode's Dad Jokes Sponsor is Spicer Landscaping and Snow Removal.
The Clothing and Swag Sponsor of the show is OneBone Clothing.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:03):
This Shit My Dad Taught Me episode is brought to you by an
amazing sponsormatthew-stevenson.ca.
He's wealth strategy, tax smart,estate smart, legacy smart.
Thank you Matt. Shit My Dad Taught me.
Shit my dad taught me. Chris Carter.
Jamie Cozen. We're live with some VIPs in the
house today. Let me introduce Lexie and Brett
(00:24):
Johnson. Thanks for having.
Us. Yeah, we're excited to be here.
I don't know about. Traveling here, man.
Yeah, you. You guys probably wouldn't like
possibly distance traveled, but for sure same day distance
traveled. So how'd you start your day
today to get here? We had what it was a 4:00 AM
wake up call from Kansas City, had a connection in DC and we're
here. This is actually my first time
in Canada in general, so I'm excited.
(00:47):
Let's go how first impressions of Canada.
What do you? Think Welcome to Burlington.
Burlington, ON. A lot of people have that high
up on their Canada. List Well, we're here at what,
beginning of October? I expected it to be cold.
I didn't know anything I know about Canada.
It's always cold. It's beautiful here.
Well, I didn't. It was suggested that I show up
to the airport wearing a big hat, Plaid jacket, probably
(01:10):
carrying a what, like a Beaver and Maple syrup and be like hey,
I didn't have time to pull it off next time.
So far, the very polite Canadianstereotype is held up.
Yeah. Couldn't find the Maple syrup
even it was. Fine.
Yeah, that's right. I got.
We have a tradition on the show where we like to introduce our
guests with Chachi PT. So that's our way of kind of
being formal about phoning it inat the same time.
(01:30):
So maybe I'll start with that and introduce both of you guys,
which by the way, first husband,wife duo on the show.
Nice. That's a true story.
I'm. Gonna be really interested to
see it when you read what I am might.
Be the first ones that aren't allowed back over the border
when you read their. Yeah, yours.
I have to kind of go. We're gonna we're gonna fill in
some blanks cuz. I'm off the grid.
We. Also have very generic names.
(01:52):
Johnson is like the most popularlast name, yeah.
Yeah, for sure. And it had like it kept it was
funny too, because you can watchit as it runs right.
And it's like trying to cross reference thing.
And it kept going associated with a Lexi great Wellness.
Yeah. So it it had to work pretty
hard. But I'm excited to fill in the
blanks with you in real time. So here let's go with the
ChatGPT intro. And I think it's going to want
(02:13):
to start with. Well, it does say both, but
maybe we can just start with yeah, let's just do kind of both
all together. So our guest today, Lexi and
Brett Johnson, Co partners in life and Mission IT, wrote that
that's cute. It's pretty good, right?
Lexi is the founder of Lexi J Wellness, a thriving online
fitness and Wellness brand builtfrom her basement in 2020.
(02:37):
Certified in multiple NASM specialties with a degree in
Health Science, her goal is simple.
Help women reclaim strength, health, and confidence in just
28 minutes a day. That holds up so far.
So far. So good.
So far so good. OK.
Can you help guys get their wives to?
Gain confidence in 28 minutes. A day, 28 minutes a day, Brett
(02:58):
by her side as husband and partner, plays a supportive and
active role in their shared vision.
Though not as publicly profiled yet, he shows up in every event
campaign they've done. He's a champion of the community
and he is behind the scenes. He's an integral part in the
business's growth as Lexi's partner and their dynamic.
(03:18):
This dynamic pairs business acumen, community focus and
personal drive has LED them to the success they are today.
Wow, that's pretty good. Not bad, right?
Pretty flattered. Did we get the the details
right? 2020?
Yeah. OK, so let's go.
I want to do 2 things. I want to tell the story about
how you and I met first. OK, so I had a piece of your
(03:39):
content sent to me by a friend and they said it was basically
like a Oh my God, you got to listen to this story because
they know I'm a dad and if you send me a reel and it's a daddy
daughter thing I'm watching, I'll stop.
What I'm doing like that is that's my content.
So I remember watching it, and Idon't want to butcher it.
I'm going to let you tell the story.
But imagine me sitting there watching it.
(04:02):
You're on the exact piece of content.
I think you're doing a keynote or something, like you're on
stage talking about it. And it was a perfect time for me
just because of something I'm going through right now.
So I want to start there. Tell me the story about your
dad. Tell me where all this passion
for fitness comes from. Yeah, I'm excited, especially
knowing that you guys have such a dad audience.
I think this pulls it a lot of heartstrings, specifically when
(04:23):
I work with so many women, without fail, when I share that
story, I always get out of the woodwork.
Some men message me and they're like, man, this, this hit home.
I need to do something. So for back story, my dad, he's
a firefighter. He's been a firefighter for 30
years. That's a very demanding job.
You know, physically, emotionally, mentally, it's it's
a tough job. And he had been overweight my
whole life when I was in elementary school and he was
(04:46):
probably like 36. He had his first heart attack.
And this dude hung the moon. Like he's the toughest,
strongest guy I know. I looked up to him so much,
still do. And he I walked into that
hospital room and I'm scared. I'm in elementary school.
And that was the first time I remember realizing that he was
breakable. And he's hooked up to machines
and he's in a hospital gown and just thinking that, you know,
(05:07):
that that man that I think is like a superhero is actually
pretty breakable. And as much as I would like to
say, you know, that that really like jolted everyone, we changed
our lives. He he went a different path.
But I was in junior high. He had a second heart attack.
Same story. I was in high school and he had
a third heart attack. And when I was a freshman in
college, he had a fourth heart attack.
And I was becoming an adult at this time and realizing, like,
(05:30):
the consequences of your actionsand, you know, just how fragile
life is. And I didn't have the tools or
the confidence to really have that conversation with him up
front just because I got emotional about it.
I'm, I still, like, get a lump in my throat when I tell the
story because it is. It's so scary to see someone
that you care so much about be on the verge of life or death.
And in my head, I'm like, you know, very few people survive
(05:51):
for heart attacks. And if the fifth one comes, the
other shoe is going to drop and he's not going to make it.
So I cowardly. I'm like, I just need to write
everything that I'm thinking. I'll leave it on his his night
stand and I'll just go back to school.
I was home for Thanksgiving break.
So I write in this letter and init I'm like, I am in the bedroom
right above your bedroom right now.
I'm writing this and I just selfishly, I need you to take
(06:12):
care of yourself. I want to see another World
Series. I just I understand how how
unappealing you know of taking care of yourself, working out,
eating right that sounds. It sucks.
It's not what everybody wants todo.
But I said walking down the aisle without your dad would
suck exponentially worse. And I just said, if not for
nothing else, do it for your selfish daughter.
And I left that note. I drove back to school and he
(06:33):
called me, He read the note and it was a super, super emotional
call. My dad is very tough, but he is
very, you know, especially when it comes to us, he's very
emotional. So eventually it got to the
point where we kind of came to ahead of why, why it was never
happening. He said, I'm just scared to, to
try. I'm scared to try.
And then everyone, your mom, your siblings, and you see that,
(06:54):
you know, I didn't do it. I, I tried and I failed and we
had decided to know that if you don't try, then the end is, is
definite you're going to die because this just, it feels like
suicide by lifestyle, the way that you're living right now,
the way that you're, you know, you're sedentary, you're eating
poorly. And it's, it's obviously come to
a head four Times Now and I'm just scared.
So he gave me that letter back when I, he lost 100 lbs, ended
(07:16):
up losing about 120. And through that, I got to just
see his life flourish and I got to watch not only the physical
transformation because losing 100 lbs is, is evident.
Like the, the pictures are so cool to see.
But beyond that, he got a promotion at work and his, his
fire department got a more reliable captain.
You know, he was a, an empty nester for the first time.
(07:36):
And him and my mom, just like they're best friends.
They have so much fun together. He's actively playing basketball
and riding bikes with my nieces and nephews.
So he's an active grandparent. And that's just, that was
something that was not present before.
And when you look at him now, it's just a completely different
guy. The way he carries himself, he's
so much more confident. And I was watching that.
And at the time, I was a dental hygienist.
And I'm from a teeny tiny town in the middle of Missouri that's
(07:59):
in the United States. And I graduated with 20 kids.
I was in a, my hometown has 400 people.
So it's itty bitty. And I just, when you come from a
really small town, a lot of times you just don't think that
making a big difference at scaleis possible for you.
And I remember thinking that like, he changed his life, but I
got a better dad and my mom got a better husband and his friends
got a better guy out of that. And in doing so, it just made me
(08:22):
believe that if I helped one other person, it was going to
ripple from there. And that was kind of the mission
in starting my business and how I got started.
Just lit the fire under me because that it was proof of the
domino effect. When you impact one person, it
just ripples out. Who?
That's crazy. Let's.
Go Where do you want to even start with that one man boy that
hits all the mark you. You all from one of your buddies
creeping her Instagram, right? Unreal.
(08:44):
What's your daddy name? Greg.
Greg shout out, Greg, what an accomplishment.
I think that that's one of thosethings too, where on this show
we talk a lot about men's mentalhealth.
We talk a lot about leveling up,right, being that better dad,
being that. So when you say he was probably
scared of it, guaranteed he was like we hear that all the time
where guys are like, well, you know, somebody going to feel
some type of way or well, I can't do that because this buddy
(09:07):
counts on me to go drinking every Friday or I can't do that
because like. There's I'm the funny fat guy.
Yeah, that's I wouldn't be funnyanymore if I lost weight.
Always. Been right, so they hold off,
but. Imagine me in that moment
though, reading that. Like I know you were telling
that and I was looking, you know, I've got girl dad times
too with my girls and my girls are fierce like you.
Like they would. They do check me on my stuff,
(09:30):
but it's nice to. Especially your new outfits.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
I don't know if you seen, but yeah, stepping out with that
comfort zone is a big theme. So then that so amazing.
So happy for Greg, so happy for everybody else.
So how did that start to translate into your fitness
journey? Because you were a dental
hygienist when you were telling that story.
Yeah, I was a dental hygienist. I've just been active.
(09:50):
I was really big into sports. I just enjoyed exercise.
And I don't know if that was kind of a subconscious thing of
just going a different Ave. but I've always liked fitness and I
was a dental hygienist and we just worked out on our own at a
gym in our town. But when the pandemic hit, it
actually shut that gym down. So with most of the world, like
things just came to a close and we started working out from
(10:10):
home. I was still working as a dental,
dental hygienist and I had aboutan hour commute, but we got
Facebook marketplace dumbbells and we were like, well,
everybody's in the same thing. But that's the one thing that's
kind of like keeping our head above water mentally and just
staying in somewhat control of, you know, our habits.
So we, you know, made that a constant regardless of, you
know, the unknown circumstances of the world.
We were going to continue with prioritizing our fitness and
(10:33):
just in having that perspective of my dad and he would have
never walked into a gym because especially if you're you're
intimidated by when you walk into a gym and you're overweight
and you're a beginner, you assume that everyone in the room
knows what they're doing and everyone in the room is going to
talk about you. And although that's not the
case, that's kind of the mentality.
And then you also have women, especially are it's tough to,
(10:55):
you know, justify allocating thetime, allocating gym membership.
What are you going to do with the kids when you're gone?
So I'm like, this is a a shitty circumstance overall, but we're
all in the same one. And it's a way to people can get
their foot in the door with exercise and if nothing else,
have some sort of social interaction with someone outside
of the walls that you're kind ofconfined to.
So I was still working at the dental office and I just started
(11:16):
posting 28 minute dumbbell workouts in a Facebook group and
I made it women only. So you press play and I'm doing
them right alongside. It's basically a podcast because
I just talked the whole time I'mdoing the workout with them.
And my goal was to just make them feel like they were doing
it with a friend because so muchof the pandemic and the
isolation, it just mentally morethan anything.
People needed that connection and they just needed movement
(11:37):
because movement does so much for you physically and mentally.
So that's how I started. I had probably like 2 to 3000
followers on Instagram. And I was truthfully terrified
of putting myself out there on Instagram letting anyone know
that I thought that I could helpthem.
That felt so cringy. And I was just, I was scared
that I was going to be like floating around in a high school
group chat and be like this, this chick is cringy.
(11:58):
So I would like post something, delete it 20 minutes later, like
God forbid anybody see that. And eventually I just got to the
point where I had a little bit of that validation where I was
helping someone, someone would message me like I did that
workout and I I could tell I wasn't a snappy with my kids or
something. It just kind of feeded fed into,
you know, just the confidence building overtime.
So I got a little bit more bolding bolder posting just more
(12:20):
conviction because I I had proofthat I could help someone.
I helped my dad, I helped these other ladies, so that picked up
traction and I did that full time as I was a full time
hygienist for about a year and Iquit my hygiene job the
following year. And I've been doing Lexi J
Wellness for 5 1/2 years. So I record 6 dumbbell only
workouts in my basement every single week.
(12:43):
Yeah, so simple, but like it's so changing for people.
But that we've and we've had that theme of that imposter
syndrome kind of come up a few times where people are like,
well, I think I could. But like, and there's there's
10,000 butts that you got to overcome to actually do it.
But those success stories, your dad, the fact that you had a
community and even when you say a couple thousand, think about
(13:03):
that as a starting point, right?Like there's your proof that
somebody's watching. Yeah, 1000 people.
That imposter syndrome just getsovercame by just by evidence
like that's how you build confidence in anything is just
the stacking proof because when you start something new you have
no evidence in your brain. Like the memory file has nothing
to pull from to say hey I survived the last time I was
scared. But the more that you do it the
(13:24):
more reps you put in. I'm sure the first podcast you
were, you know, a little nervousjust because you'd never done
it. And then every time you have a
new guest and you're nervous, you can reflect back on the last
time and you're like, well, thatthat turned out well.
That was not nearly as scary as my brain came up with it.
Yeah. And just do it, you know, and,
and Jamie gets all the credit inthe world for that.
He was the one where I had this registered about two years
(13:44):
before we did anything with it. And he was the one that he's
like, like, what are we doing here?
Man shit together. Go, go.
What the hell did your dad teachyou?
Ain't that some shit? So then, yeah.
So then then we did that. And that's that's sometimes.
Here's how it goes, man. So you got a front row seat to
this. So my first question for you,
Brett, how'd you guys meet? We met at Mizzou, so University
(14:05):
of Missouri. I know that we're in Canada, so
I can't just say that and assumeit's known.
But yeah, we, we were a couple years separated by year class
and it just so happened that I was in a frat and my pledge
brother actually went to high school with Lexi and we were
having like a parking garage party, you know, just kind of
dudes being dudes frat lifestyle.
(14:27):
It's kind of funny to reflect onthat time of my life.
But yeah, he actually, my, my pledge brother introduced me to
Lexi that night at this parking garage party.
And I like to think that I was being a responsible guy because
I was the frat president. So I was kind of monitoring
things to a certain extent. And I was kind of making my exit
from from things and she was walking in with him and we just
(14:51):
kind of instantly hit it off there.
What do we bond over? The Chiefs.
What a great Segway. Yeah.
What a great Segway. Really Talk about the Chiefs.
Yeah. So we got we got at least a
couple hours to do this one. Yeah.
Get ready. So obviously we're all huge KC
fans on the show. You we there.
(15:14):
So there's a couple questions. Well, here, let's do this.
And and not to pull it away fromyou, Brett, but you just.
I know a cool story that you cantell about our boy Patrick
Mahomes. Tell me a Mahomes story.
So my childhood best friend, andit's so funny just that because
we grew up such big Chiefs fans,like my family vacations were
going to River Falls, WI to their training camp.
(15:35):
That's where I fell in love withPriest Holmes.
He was the running back. And so my childhood best friend
went on a mission trip and I don't even remember where, but
some were very random and she met this boy from Texas.
They fell in love, they got engaged.
And he so happens to be first cousins with Patrick Mahomes.
So I got to walk with Patrick onor at their wedding.
(15:56):
And it was so funny because I was working at the dental office
when she called me and she was like, hey, I think that out of
the the bridesmaids, you'd be the one that would play at the
most cool. And I'm like, yeah, of course,
of course. And I hang up and I'm like
doctor dickheads. Like I'm screaming down the the
dental office hall. So Patrick Mahomes walked you
down the aisle. Yes.
So take that, Brittany. Yeah, so when they announced the
(16:18):
the pairings for the bridal party, he threw me a beer and we
shotgunned together and that wasthe catch of my life.
I would this my palms were so. Sweaty from Patrick Mahomes
Let's. Go yeah, we were we were gun to
be. Yeah, we were shotgun, we were
game planning. And I'm like, this isn't a big
deal to you, but this is a really big deal to me.
Like if I drop this my family will never let me leave it to a.
Bigger deal to her dad. Yeah, that's in the crowd.
(16:40):
Hold on, he was like. But this is Lexi J.
Yeah, your dad's just like posting the picture of you
walking down the aisle with no context.
Yeah, exactly. Hey, big day for the family.
Photo. You got to send that pic to
Miles. We got to put that in there.
Absolutely. For a couple reasons.
One, let's talk about how chirped I got about starting
(17:03):
season with two losses. We're just getting over that
now. This is a good.
I saw what happened. I said going into the season, as
a Dolphins fan, I would be very happy if the Dolphins and the
Chiefs had the same outcome after three games and they did.
I just wasn't expecting that they were gonna be that way.
And then we were talking about sports down there versus sports
(17:23):
in Canada. And I was trying to answer the
questions the best I could. And the conversation in the car
came up is like, give me like CFL versus NFL.
And I was like, well, they're different.
Like, that is two different worlds.
And I saw you got to go to Arrowhead just recently, but it
wasn't for football. Tell me that story.
Yeah, so we rented out ArrowheadStadium for a 9/11 memorial
(17:45):
stair climb. As I mentioned, my dad and
brother are both firefighters, so I'm in the fitness world.
I grew up in a first responder family, so it was a really cool
cross section. And we raised money for, it's a
charity local to Kansas City, but they cover 12 counties.
So it's thousands of first responders and it's called the
Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment.
So if any first responder, police, fire or EMS, if they die
(18:06):
in the line of duty, then the director of that organization is
at their family's house within 48 hours with a check for
$40,000 to take care of immediate, you know, just
financial needs. They also cover the funeral.
They have regular Christmas endowments just to take care of
help with kids. It's it's really, really
special. And unfortunately, Kansas City
has been hit really hard with line of duty deaths.
(18:26):
Just in the past 18 months, they've had five.
Yeah. So we raised $60,000 at that
event. You climbed the equivalent of
100, 110 stories in the lower bowl of Arrowhead Stadium.
And we had about 750 people comeout.
And my dad climbed it. I climbed it with my brother.
It was. It's really, really special.
It's incredible. It's my favorite event.
We do, yeah. And your dad did it in gear.
Yeah, and Brett and I also did it in gear.
(18:49):
Oh yeah, yeah. That's a workout.
It is yeah. I had posted because we go to we
went to 51 different fire stations just to promote it and
just, you know, shake hands to Iknow what that means.
And I, I had a dad that was goneevery 3rd day, like they're,
they're either gone for 24 hour shifts or 48 hour shifts.
It's a huge sacrifice, not for just them, but for their
families also. So it's really neat to be able
(19:10):
to bring out the civilian community and just tie those
together. Because if you don't have a
direct tie to the first responder community, it's kind
of out of sight, out of mind that, you know, those are
husbands and those are wives that are deeply impacted by it.
But I had, I was posting about it and I had tried on gear at a
couple of the stations and I posted, you know, should I,
should I do the climb with gear?And then I got some people
chirping me. So of course I had.
(19:30):
I had to put my money where my mouth was.
To be careful which put on the Internet.
I'm running a half marathon thismonth that I probably shouldn't
open my mouth about, truth be told, but here we are.
Although kudos to like the shapeyou gotta be in to be able to do
that. Yeah, Jesus.
Yeah, well, we were talking too.We should probably give Ryan a
plug. I think this is gonna come out
in the same. But I was telling you about our
buddy Ryan, who's also a fireman, who's doing 21 half
(19:53):
marathons in 21 days, and he's day six or seven, I think he's.
On Now 9 now. Is he nine?
Yeah. So he's, he's 9 days in and he's
he's he's smashed his fundraising goal too.
We're so we're so proud of you, Ryan.
He did such a good job and his is all in support of men's
mental health. And we were out at their golf
tournament for on the benevolentside, on the fireman side just a
couple weeks ago, too, so. Yeah, Shadow first responders,
(20:15):
we don't do enough for them. And I got so excited when you
told me that it's a real check and it's real fast.
Yeah, that's like for our community stuff like we see the
delay, the gap between need and solution is is it can be weeks,
months, years before insurance kicks in or before, you know,
any kind of reparations kicks inor anything.
Like it can take a long time. Yeah.
(20:36):
And if you, if you lost not justa paycheck, if you're losing the
most important person in your life and you're grieving, the
last thing you need to think about is how you're going to pay
your mortgage or how you're going to take care of, you know,
tuition or anything like that. So just that immediate need and
just the gap that the, the fundsavailable to them don't often
come until months or years. So the fact that they have that
turn around time, it's incredible.
(20:57):
And they only they're able to provide and deliver on that
based on funds and donations. So that things like that are
crucial. Yeah, for.
Sure. Our goal next year is 100K.
Yeah, if anybody wants to make atrip to Kansas City, there you
go. We'd come down, but it's
Canadian money. I don't know.
Do you guys play monopoly though?
Yeah, that's right. So I want to talk a little bit
(21:19):
about you guys as a as a couple and and doing all of these big
things that you guys are doing. What does that look like?
How do you balance that off? What's what's the priority?
How do you guys huddle? How do you stay on the same team
you. Want to go first?
Let me answer that for you, Brett.
Yeah, you do so. I want.
(21:43):
To hear what you're going to sayfor my business, I am the CEO
and Brett is the he, his role has evolved so much because he
started just as, I mean, he supported me through it like
never doubted. It's a scary thing when you say
you want to quit a very stable job to do this starter that when
Covid's over is are people goingto go back to gyms?
Are they going to keep doing these little dumbbell workouts
(22:05):
from their basement? So he started as that and then
his role has evolved as we've grown.
So Brett is now the COO and CFO.So he he plays a huge role in
like today Wellness, just behindthe scenes.
He does so much. Yeah, it's kind of a loaded
question. It's, it's a tough balance
honestly. You know, that's, I think that's
the honest answer, balancing being, you know, in a, in a
(22:29):
committed relationship plus the business side of things.
Because a lot of times whenever we get home, we're talking
business. We're not talking about how did
your day go, the stuff that husband and wife typically talk
about. So I won't pretend that it's
easy and it's something that we continually are working on.
So we are by by no means perfectat what we do, but we're just
(22:53):
always looking to to continue toget better and better at it.
But from the business side of things, yeah, I mean things have
taken shape a lot over the past five years.
So I guess whenever it started out, it was almost a set and
forget a thing for me. I kind of got to plant a seed so
much, so to speak, just like I helped build the website.
And then from there, you know, whenever you start a small
(23:15):
business, you don't know what you're getting into.
I mean, nobody knows what they're doing whenever they
start a business, especially whenever something that has, you
know, you have no roots and whatsoever, it's just, it's an
idea that was born and then you just run with it.
And so, you know, I, I built outa website and it was semi
functional and then things were just kind of on the, I don't
(23:36):
know, I, I, I deal with some stuff on the back end, or at
least I did deal with some stuffon the back end.
And then this can things continue to grow and evolve, you
know, just kind of glazing over a lot of fine details.
Now, my day-to-day, I would say is I have two full time jobs at
this point between like stay honest with my full time work is
so it's a blessing. You know, I'm extremely thankful
(23:58):
for it and I'm extremely grateful for the road that we've
gone down on on this whole path.And there's a lot of the things
that are TBD at this point with where things are going to head.
But we have a lot of big, big goals, big dreams.
And honestly, I know that we're going to get there.
We're wherever we want to take this and we're going to get
there because Lexi's an incredible leader.
(24:19):
She's an incredible community builder.
There's certain gifts that certain people have that they're
hard to to teach. You know, there's some some
people that just have that charisma.
And like, I can tell that you guys have charisma.
It takes a little bit of charisma, you know, to, to
captivate an audience like on a podcast like you guys have
(24:41):
that's doing so well. So kudos to you guys also also
that's really cool to see. But she's got that, that it
factor and it's, it's been really cool to see evolve.
And I don't think she knew she had it to begin with, which is
one of the really cool things to, to look back upon because
she just to circle back to what she said a little bit ago, she
(25:01):
was talking about how she used to put stuff up on her story,
you know, and then she'd take itdown pretty shortly after
because she was scared of what people would say, what people
would think. And that also took place to a
certain extent within our household.
I wasn't allowed to be in the same room as her whenever she
was getting ready to post something on her story.
So she would start recording herself And, you know, she do
(25:25):
whatever she was doing, you know, just making some some sort
of piece of content to put on her story.
And she'd be like, no, leave theroom.
Like you, you can't be in here while I just, I would like to
walk outside or something just like stay on the front porch,
kind of look around for a while,you know, whatever it was just
to make it look like I wasn't some doofus, just kind of like
browsing my own house. So just find a side job, I
guess. But yeah, that's the way it was
(25:47):
for a while until she got comfortable with it.
And that's, I think that is kindof like a microcosm of what
business is and like the imposter center thing that
you're talking about, like not feeling comfortable with
something because you haven't put in the reps.
And then once you put in more reps over time, you start to
gain credibility not only with your, your people that you're
(26:09):
interacting with, but also with yourself.
And I think that that is a, something that is overlooked a
lot of the time. It's like building credibility
with yourself. And I mean, that's the
definition of confidence is knowing that you are a credible
source and knowing that you are a, you're worthy of talking
about something that you're talking about.
So far for you guys, it must have been like when you are at
(26:32):
home though, like, you know, andthe day's done at 6:00, it's
like you want to have that off switch though, where it's like
it's not about work anymore. You don't want to talk about
work. You don't want to talk about
what you're going to be doing tomorrow for work.
Like that's got to be a tough balance to find that off switch
and just like let that stuff go.And it's like, hey, this is just
us time now. This isn't about like us trying
to work on the business or work on our plan for next week.
(26:52):
It's just us time. Yeah, that's, that's also got to
be, that's a tough part to teachyourself and like try and talk
to each other about too. It's very tough and especially
we don't have kids yet. So that I mean the business is
our baby and that consumes 95% of our thoughts and our
conversation. So it is sometimes we'll be at
dinner, we're like, OK, let's let's try not to talk about like
(27:13):
Shay Wellness and then we'll sitthere for a second and we're
like, OK, but what should we talk about?
Like what? I'm going to go with my
girlfriend tonight. You go out with your buddy
tonight. Like just so we get a little bit
of like. Not work talk going on.
Yeah, it's hard. Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's not like shutting off a light switch for
sure. You can't just flip it off and,
you know, just be like, OK, business time is over.
(27:34):
Personal time has begun. It's very difficult because my
it's kind of in our nature at this point, You know, we're very
driven people and you're, you'realways thinking about ways to do
things better. You know, that's, that's
business is you're, you're trying to constantly.
I mean, it's just, it's a never ending thing.
As soon as you accomplish one thing, it's to the next, you're
(27:55):
like, OK, what about this next thing?
And it's, it's a little bit selfdefeating because you never take
a second to really reflect on onwhere you've gotten.
So gratitude is one of those things that we have a hard time
focusing on just because we're always thinking about the next
thing and it's hard to turn on that officer.
And you turn off the headers, you're probably pushing each
other so that you're both going to be better and the business is
(28:16):
going to be better, right? It's hard to turn that off too,
right? For sure.
And the nature of what I do because, because it is fitness,
like a lot of people, though, ifyou're an entrepreneur and
you're a business owner, you canescape and you're like, I'm
going to get a workout in. Just clear my head.
But my workout is my job. So I'm I'm clocking in for that.
And my workout or my job is on social media also just to
continue promoting the business.My personal account is one with
(28:39):
my business account also, so there's there.
Everything is Gray really. There's no black and white.
And the funniest part is the I'mgoing to dote on her a little
bit. There's so many people still to
this day. The thing that her her work day
begins with the workout and endswith the workout.
And that's all there is I. Only work 28 minutes a day.
(29:00):
Yeah, she's got the easiest gig in the world.
She she just records a workout and then voila, wipe her hands
clean of the day and go do whatever she wants.
If only, right if only. People, if you don't have any
experience having your own business or running a business
or even just being involved in like the actual workings of a
business, you just don't necessarily understand it.
(29:20):
And it's so unorthodox. It's a very different, it's not
traditional whatsoever. So Brett's dad actually they,
they work in insurance, which isa very traditional stable job.
But I work from home by myself. SO11 day over the summer, I had
went up to their office and I was like, I'll just work in
person with Brett that way I have someone to talk to and I,
his dad and him work together. And I was like, he was like,
(29:41):
what are you doing here? And I'm, I said I was going to
work with Brett today and he's like, we're going to record the
exercises. I have to work on my laptop.
Even my dad, even my dad, he. Was like, you haven't done your
28 minutes yet. What's for those that might be
introduced to you for the first time today?
What is the ecosystem around Lexi J Wellness right now?
(30:04):
So we're primarily women. We actually do have men.
You had mentioned that we we do work with some men and most of
them are husbands that have justjoined in after seeing their
their wives live chains, but primarily moms. 25 to to 45 is
my main demographic, especially just because the workouts are
quick and effective. You can do them from home.
So when you're working a full time job and taking kids to
(30:26):
extracurriculars, you can carve out 30 minutes in your living
room or in your basement, wherever you have dumbbells and
Wi-Fi. You can put that video on and
you don't have to think about the workout.
You don't have to worry about doing them correctly or not
because I'm right there doing itwith you.
I'm talking to you the whole time.
I'm giving you cues on, you know, mechanics and also just
telling you what's up. I always, I refer to it as like
(30:46):
my digital diary. It's kind of cool because I have
5 1/2 years of just my own evolution.
You can see my confidence changeon the screen, but I am, I'm a
yapper to my core. So I can talk to myself for 28
minutes as if there is someone on the other side of that screen
and I'll hold a conversation. I'll tell them, you know, an
insight I learned in a podcast or a book or, you know, how
that's affected me or something that I'm going through.
(31:08):
And I think the biggest thing that has drawn so much and makes
people feel so bought in and committed to Lex J Wellness is
the fact that is more of a, a relationship.
We have a connection because I'mlike, their kids recognize my
voice. They know who I am.
I'm on their screen. I, they talk back to me often
like they will message me on Instagram.
They're like, man, it felt like you were talking right to me
(31:30):
this morning. And just having that connection,
especially in the fitness industry, when the fitness
industry is, there's a lot of bullshit there.
There's a lot of empty promises and fancy marketing where you
can lose X amount of pounds in avery short window, but not a lot
of actual promise and follow through on it.
So to have someone that you can put trust in and you can have
faith that they are the person that they say there are that
(31:52):
that goes a long way in the fitness industry.
And that's the the biggest thing.
And the most thing I'm, or what I'm most proud of is just the
trust that I've been able to build in our community.
And I think that's why people are so bought into me because I,
I am the the same person that's on their screen 30 minutes a day
is the one that they'll meet at events or they'll run into in
the grocery store. And I pride myself a lot on that
because it would be even more exhausting to put on a facade
(32:14):
for 30 minutes and pretend to besomeone else.
So if I don't want to do the workout, if I'm unmotivated, I'm
going to share that because there's someone on the other
screen that they're having a rough mental health day or they
didn't want to get out of bed, they wanted to snooze their
alarm or they are not feeling motivated.
But that is the human experience.
And when you're looking on Instagram or TikTok and you have
these people that have the curated aesthetic morning
(32:35):
routine where it looks like theyare so excited to work out every
single day. And that's, that puts an
unrealistic expectation for everyone.
You're not feeling like you wantto work out and you're like,
well, it's something wrong with me because that person that has
the six bag, like they always want to work out.
They're always excited to do it.So when I share that, I think
that it hits home and they really, they, they respond
really well to it just because it is a human thing.
(32:57):
And in a world where everything is curated and polished, it's,
it's nice to have just the unedited raw version of when it
is a vulnerable experience. Like someone wants to change
their life, they're unhappy withwhere they are.
And to have someone that would be picture perfect on the other
side that always is excited to be there.
It's just not realistic and it'snot well received.
It's not as relatable. So when I share those things and
(33:19):
I'm telling them that, you know,the Wellness side of things, I
was very, very intentional when I named Lexie J Wellness because
it is so much more than just fitness and just getting the
perfect body because being healthy and taking care of
yourself is, is well beyond justthe, the aesthetics and the, the
physical side of things. So I just, I feel like that's
what's really drawn and what's allowed us to, you know,
(33:39):
continue to grow over the years.You must have some pretty cool
stories from a few females or a few women that you've that
you've worked with that you know, hit home pretty good
probably and keep you motivated to do this.
Absolutely. I actually have a bad day
folder. I, I will keep screenshots or
messages or things that they send me just to kind of, I mean,
on those days when you don't want to do it, it's just a, a
recollection of the, the good that you are and what, what
(34:01):
you're doing and why you're doing it.
So I had shared this on a podcast recently and it's not a
story that I had shared publiclybefore, I don't think.
But there was a woman that had, she had sent me a, a picture of
a suicide note that she had actually written and she was in
the worst spot of her life. She had a just she felt like
that was the best option for herat the time.
(34:23):
And she went to work the next day and one of her Co workers
was talking about doing Lex J Wellness and just had just
organically didn't know what that woman was going through
privately and said that I I don't know if I was running a
promo at the time or just shareda workout with her.
And she was like, well, why not I'll I'll do it, whatever.
And she sent that it was dated and it was like 10 months later.
(34:43):
And she said, I have missed, youknow, less than a handful of
workouts. This is what my family looks
like right now. I got a promotion at work.
It just like this didn't just change my life, it saved my
life. It's incredible.
Boom. Like makes it all worth it.
Absolutely. The realness, the authenticity
piece, right? Yeah, good for you.
What's So let's talk about Wellness, kind of that holistic
(35:05):
circle around what you do. What are some of the other
things outside of the workouts that you do to help people make
that kind of change? So we have, I have an excellent
staff also we have and we're growing.
So we'll we'll soon have 10 staff members.
But I have a really cool team and they've actually all come up
with in Lex J Wellness. I'm very partial to the people
in our community and when I wantto hire and bring in someone on
(35:26):
my team, I want them to be well acquainted to the our processes
and our values and be on the receiving end of, you know, the
good that we're doing. That way, when they do work with
someone that's brand new, they can have full confidence that,
you know, I was in those shoes. I was a postpartum mom.
I have lost this this much weight and this is how my life
is transformed. So that's I'm very partial to
that. So my art entire staff is
(35:47):
actually like stay Wellness clients that have just grown
within and join the team. So they, we have a team of
nutrition advisors and they workone-on-one with, with clients
and just working on fueling their body.
And through that they, they havean excellent relationship with
them. They'll send them videos and I
we it's kind of discounted as nutrition because half of it I
swear it's therapy. We'll, we'll have a team meeting
(36:09):
and our advisors are like, man, so and so is she's going through
a divorce or she's she's having a really hard time with her
boss. And they just have that
connection and that, you know, deep rooted relationship,
especially when it's hard to make friends as adults, it's
hard to have genuine connectionsas adults.
And we have this Facebook group of the Facebook group is women
only. You can do like J Wellness if
you're a man, but you just can'tcome in our Facebook group.
(36:30):
So. We have a Facebook group like
that. Boys only but there is one of
our you had mentioned authenticity.
One of our core values is uncompromising authenticity and
in that Facebook group, there isso much shared and just so much
vulnerability and relatability because I have never seen
anything like it. The Internet can be just a scary
shitty place. It's it's if you scroll through
(36:53):
Instagram comments, it gets negative fast.
But we call it the Unicorn of the Internet in the Facebook
group because there is so much support from perfect strangers.
They want to see you win. And I think the coolest thing
that has been adopted just throughout that community is
that, you know, if someone else's success is not going to
take away from mine. So you'll see someone else, you
know, just cheering on a a perfect stranger.
(37:13):
And that now it's just the the domino effect is what we really
pride ourselves on. And we'll all see the ladies tag
each other on Instagram and they're Venmo in someone that
they have never met in real lifefor a coffee and just through
meeting to the Facebook group and they meet up now we do an
event about every month and theyhave anywhere from like 200 to
750 people that they'll come in from all over.
(37:37):
And one of our anniversary eventis one of my favorites and they
will get like a giant Airbnb. There will be several of them.
And it's like 20 women from all different states that get in
this Airbnb. And they make friends just just
through a Facebook group. So yeah, we always when I first
got started and I still get trolls on the Internet, but one
(37:57):
of my favorite screenshots and Ialways refer to it.
So if you see me on Instagram referring to the silly little
dumbbell workouts, and this was when I first got started, I
didn't have very many followers,but someone had mentioned or
responded to one of my stories when I was checking in after a
workout and they said I don't think these silly little
dumbbell workouts are catching on like you think.
So I have that screenshot and atour anniversary event, I made
stickers for everyone with that screenshot.
(38:18):
Perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Haters become motivators. So, so hubby's the COO and the
CFO. Does he get to scroll through
this ladies on the Facebook? Not even me.
No not but what's the case? So now you gotta put on your
husband hat for me for a second.How do you deal with the trolls
when you see them on your wifes hard work doing her thing and
(38:41):
bringing that noise? It's not always the easiest to
disengage, I guess, you know, I mean, there's whenever you put
it out there, you can't take it back.
So it's just like either you're gonna engage or you're not.
So I every now and then I'll engage if somebody's like she
can handle herself. She's a big girl, you know, I
mean, honestly, she, she's wittier than me.
So different. When somebody's chirping you
(39:03):
versus chirping your wife. Yeah, I mean, if it was in
person, you know, people are keyboard, keyboard.
Warriors different man. Yeah, they are total keyboard
warriors. So somebody will never meet in
your entire life. And somebody that honestly put
zero thought into what they said.
They they just wanted to ruin someone's day.
That's all they wanted to do. And, you know, digitally it,
it's different. Yeah.
Somebody approaches my wife in person like that, I'm probably
(39:26):
going to drop them. Yeah.
So different story. But she can, she's a big girl.
She's she's tough, she's strong.So I just kind of let her handle
her own battles there. And honestly, she can ruin
somebody just like, just like that.
So quick. Yeah.
So. Learning how just a scroll by
happens. Yeah yeah.
Why even engage? Mostly people, honestly, if you
if you start looking for it, it's just going to get you down.
(39:46):
So you just kind of have to glaze over it because there's
trolls everywhere. Every now and then I'll, I'll
respond like via a reel, via another video.
And it's so funny because we do the Lexie J Wellness community
is a pack. They have a pack mentality.
And there was one guy because I'm also, I'm very transparent.
I think that's important, especially for your women
(40:08):
listeners, that I, I think you grow up in a society where you
think that the body that you're going to be in is going to weigh
a certain amount and especially like early 2000.
That number was like no more than £130, whatever, no matter
your height, no matter your muscle mass.
Like if you were over that, thenyou were probably overweight.
So that was kind of the thought process I had growing up.
And I was always an athlete, so I had more muscle.
(40:30):
And I remember in high school I weighed 150 lbs and all my other
friends weighed a lot less. And I thought that was like
there was something wrong with me.
So now I'm like 170 lbs and I am, I'm stacked like I, I'm
strong, I'm fit, I'm very happy with my composition.
So I'm, I'm very transparent about that.
And I like posting that because it is, there's, there's a high
(40:50):
school girl like me out there that needs to hear that and
needs to say, OK, like the body that I want and the muscle that
I want and the performance I want to perform at is not
necessarily going to match the three digits on my bathroom
scale that I think are going to validate me.
So I post a lot as just being transparent about that.
Be like, this is what my body looks like and this is what the
scale says. That number is not going to,
(41:12):
that's not going to define you. That's not a realistic or a
realistic representation of you know, your worth, which I think
a lot of times we get trapped in.
So those videos always take off and it's either women feeling
like seeing or, you know, being glad that they they see it, or
it's men that don't believe me or are calling me overweight
because of that. So there is one man that he had
(41:33):
called me fat or something like that in response to this video.
So I had responded to it and I pretended like I was reading it,
but I just, I was like, oh, I can't even remember what it was.
I was like, he said I was overweight and ugly or something
like that. And I was pretending to read it
and I said, you're so strong, Lexie.
I wish I could be as strong as you.
And I was like, Rob, that was sonice.
You didn't need to do that. And he was fighting for his life
(41:57):
in the comments because all of my ladies were coming at it.
It was hilarious. So if I put it out there, then I
mean, if you're in my comments, just prepare for him because
they'll come and get you. He came back digitally swinging
for like a month too, so really it's just kind of like.
Also hilarious to think about how much time this guy invested.
What you said on your first response about engage or not,
right. Yeah.
(42:17):
Engage is a that's a commitment.Yeah.
Because once it's out there, man.
And I think too, you got to go back to that story about that
life you saved. Like if you need any more
validation than that, I don't know what to tell you.
Like, yeah, because often it isn't money.
I mean, monetary comes, but man,that's success right there.
Yeah, absolutely. We got a few that we like to
cover off. Do you mind if I just kind of
(42:37):
rapid fire a few things at you guys?
So this is one of my favorite questions and I know you work
with your dad and obviously you've got a super close
relationship with your dad. So the question is, what's the
best advice your dad gave you? Oh boy.
And we purposely don't let guests think on this or tell
them we're going to ask because it's usually the one that comes
to the top of mind. So what is the best advice your
(42:57):
dad gave you? I'm trying to think of like a
specific phrase, but I think it's more just my dad work has
still worked so hard. He showed me work ethic and I'm
so grateful for that. Like he he and my mom got
pregnant in high school. They worked so hard to support
for kids and to build up their life and just in viewing them as
(43:20):
a unit. So I won't just put this to my
dad because my mom is such a hard worker and went back to
school with kids and now she's an elementary principal and
she's she's such a good leader also.
So they're both excellent at what they do individually.
But I just think modeling that work ethic and you know, habits
are caught, not taught and beingable to watch them in real time
(43:42):
work to provide for their familyand with with very little to
start out and just being the thefamily unit, like they, they are
huge family people. My family is super close and we
have such a good relationship with them.
So I think the work ethic and just the prioritization of your
family first. That was just the the biggest
thing that that I want to model when we have our family.
(44:03):
Love awesome. How about you, Brett?
I don't think there's like a specific phrase that comes to
mind. It's kind of like what's almost
unsaid to me. My family is a little unique in
that we're not always going to like her family is very direct.
They're going to tell you exactly what they think you
should. Have seen our group chat this
morning my dad had a hit a milestone at work and my mom
(44:26):
sent a message and my brother thumbs up it and I was like Cody
that's passive aggressive I don't like that and so he
changed it and then he said something like well Ashton
hasn't liked it. My older sister and she hearted
it and she said I just did dickhead.
Like where does he? Do you know that about the
thumbs up thing? I had one of our younger team
members point that. Out.
I don't like the thumbs up. Thumbs up is like good job, but
(44:47):
she's like, no, it's passive aggressive.
It's just like a OK, like I'm like, is that what that means?
Thumbs up. I use thumbs up if it's like
affirmative, like I'm I'll be there at three 3:30 to pick you
up, thumbs up. But yeah, if it's a, if it's a
milestone, you better hard it. Yeah, OK.
Yeah, there's a lesson right there.
The tides have changed, OK, You can't.
You can't just use the thumbs upanymore, assuming it's cool.
(45:09):
You got super direct family and then not so.
Much. Yeah, Yeah.
Fewer emojis used a. Lot less emojis used.
Yeah. No group text where people are
calling each other Dick heads. Yeah, that doesn't happen.
But what I was going to say, I think that I'll it, it's a lot
more what's unsaid and more so in just practicing lifestyle and
(45:32):
practicing a way of living. And I didn't read, you know,
there's some things you, you seein hindsight, looking back at
your childhood, you know, you asyou grow up and you mature, you
realize that. Well, this is now I understand
why things the way they were. Whereas whenever you're a kid is
(45:53):
just like you're just doing yourday-to-day, you know, you're
just doing life. And fortunately, she and I both
had lived in a household where, you know, there was no, there
wasn't a broken household. We both had a a very present
mother and father figure. My mom lived at home.
She was a housewife for all my life.
Actually. She retired.
(46:13):
I say retired. She was correct on that.
She stopped teaching whenever, whenever she had me.
So I had a mom at home the wholetime.
So she was a constant presence. But my dad was the sole provider
essentially, you know, in the monetary sense.
So something that he continues to do this day, and honestly,
almost to a fault, is he, he takes so much pride in being the
(46:39):
provider and dedicating himself to his craft.
And in a, to a certain extent, I'm like the exact same way.
And I will, I've also kind of start to draw the line a little
bit because I've, I, I find myself trying to replicate what
he's done. And I'm very grateful for the,
the way that I've basically beentrained to be in that, you know,
(46:59):
it's just day-to-day, like you're, you're showing grain in
your craft that you want to be the best there is at it.
And you're dedicated to your people that you're also, you
know, that you're taking care ofin the insurance world.
You know, it's your clients making sure that that they feel
like they are, you know, the thesole priority.
So I think that he taught me those things, whether or not he,
(47:20):
you know, it was something that was said, it was, it was the
unsaid, you know, just getting to, to witness him do those
things. So I'm grateful that that I got
to witness him be the way that that he was.
That's awesome. You guys both seem like
incredible people, so you must have incredible families behind
you. That's great.
We do. Yeah, we have a little segment
on this show that is a crowd favorite.
(47:41):
It's called Bring Us a Dad Joke.So I'm going to put both of you
on the spot. Who wants to go first?
I'll go first, this is this one is one of my puppet Jean.
So my puppet Jean actually passed this summer.
So this will be a good one if myfamily listens to this.
Have you ever Have you heard about the one legged waitress at
IHOP? Her name is Eileen.
(48:04):
Yeah, that's yeah. She's all the boxers.
Yeah, OK. The stage is all yours, but.
It should hit home too, because pancakes.
Canada, I mean. I assume you guys have IHOP?
I was carrying the audience. We so do we have IHOP it's.
International House of Pancakes,not the United States of
Pancakes. OK.
So it's international. It's gotta be, Actually, we do,
yeah. So I was, I was thinking I'm
(48:25):
like, man, every dad joke I tellis or every joke I tell is
essentially a dad joke. So I just don't know it.
And that's, that's solidified bythe fact that Lexi very rarely
laughs at my jokes. So.
But man does it hit home when I do.
I'm feeling you're a big win. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did you smile? Did you get a laugh?
(48:45):
High highs. So, all right, are you guys fans
of The Office? I see a Dwight.
There's a Dwight bobblehead over.
There, there we go. I I actually had that same
bobblehead until somebody knocked it off my desk and broke
it. Devastating.
Devastating. But anyway so I actually looked
up a a dad joke office related because I thought OK what better
way to perfect. Bring it all home.
(49:07):
Bring it all home with the office.
So, all right, why did Dwight bring a stapler to the farm?
Because it was time to beat the competition.
That's funny. You got another show.
Yeah. Fruit farms.
Bee farms, baby. Shout out the office.
We for sure. And then we always just ask is
there anything we didn't cover that you guys want to do?
Any shout outs you can certainly.
(49:29):
Where do people find? It yeah, feel free to plug.
Yeah, so it's Lexi J wellness.com.
I'm on Instagram on Lexi J Wellness and like I said, if
there's anyone looking to build confidence, looking to, you
know, just improve their mental health or get great habits under
their belt, change their life physically, then I'm I'm
confident that myself and my team can can do it.
So if you have any questions, you can always reach out to us.
(49:50):
There's a contact form on the the page as well.
But that's truly and I think what God put me on this earth to
do is to help change people's lives.
Yeah, looks like it. Keep doing good things guys.
You guys are awesome. Thank you.
Good luck tomorrow at your competition.
Yeah, we got to get you guys outof here.
We got to get you back to Toronto.
Thank you. Thank you guys very much for
having us. Yeah.
It's been awesome. Appreciate.
You guys.
This Shit My Dad Taught Me episode is brought to you by an
amazing sponsormatthew-stevenson.ca.
He's wealth strategy, tax smart,estate smart, legacy smart.
Thank you Matt. Shit My Dad Taught me.
Shit my dad taught me. Chris Carter.
Jamie Cozen. We're live with some VIPs in the
house today. Let me introduce Lexie and Brett
(00:24):
Johnson. Thanks for having.
Us. Yeah, we're excited to be here.
I don't know about. Traveling here, man.
Yeah, you. You guys probably wouldn't like
possibly distance traveled, but for sure same day distance
traveled. So how'd you start your day
today to get here? We had what it was a 4:00 AM
wake up call from Kansas City, had a connection in DC and we're
here. This is actually my first time
in Canada in general, so I'm excited.
(00:47):
Let's go how first impressions of Canada.
What do you? Think Welcome to Burlington.
Burlington, ON. A lot of people have that high
up on their Canada. List Well, we're here at what,
beginning of October? I expected it to be cold.
I didn't know anything I know about Canada.
It's always cold. It's beautiful here.
Well, I didn't. It was suggested that I show up
to the airport wearing a big hat, Plaid jacket, probably
(01:10):
carrying a what, like a Beaver and Maple syrup and be like hey,
I didn't have time to pull it off next time.
So far, the very polite Canadianstereotype is held up.
Yeah. Couldn't find the Maple syrup
even it was. Fine.
Yeah, that's right. I got.
We have a tradition on the show where we like to introduce our
guests with Chachi PT. So that's our way of kind of
being formal about phoning it inat the same time.
(01:30):
So maybe I'll start with that and introduce both of you guys,
which by the way, first husband,wife duo on the show.
Nice. That's a true story.
I'm. Gonna be really interested to
see it when you read what I am might.
Be the first ones that aren't allowed back over the border
when you read their. Yeah, yours.
I have to kind of go. We're gonna we're gonna fill in
some blanks cuz. I'm off the grid.
We. Also have very generic names.
(01:52):
Johnson is like the most popularlast name, yeah.
Yeah, for sure. And it had like it kept it was
funny too, because you can watchit as it runs right.
And it's like trying to cross reference thing.
And it kept going associated with a Lexi great Wellness.
Yeah. So it it had to work pretty
hard. But I'm excited to fill in the
blanks with you in real time. So here let's go with the
ChatGPT intro. And I think it's going to want
(02:13):
to start with. Well, it does say both, but
maybe we can just start with yeah, let's just do kind of both
all together. So our guest today, Lexi and
Brett Johnson, Co partners in life and Mission IT, wrote that
that's cute. It's pretty good, right?
Lexi is the founder of Lexi J Wellness, a thriving online
fitness and Wellness brand builtfrom her basement in 2020.
(02:37):
Certified in multiple NASM specialties with a degree in
Health Science, her goal is simple.
Help women reclaim strength, health, and confidence in just
28 minutes a day. That holds up so far.
So far. So good.
So far so good. OK.
Can you help guys get their wives to?
Gain confidence in 28 minutes. A day, 28 minutes a day, Brett
(02:58):
by her side as husband and partner, plays a supportive and
active role in their shared vision.
Though not as publicly profiled yet, he shows up in every event
campaign they've done. He's a champion of the community
and he is behind the scenes. He's an integral part in the
business's growth as Lexi's partner and their dynamic.
(03:18):
This dynamic pairs business acumen, community focus and
personal drive has LED them to the success they are today.
Wow, that's pretty good. Not bad, right?
Pretty flattered. Did we get the the details
right? 2020?
Yeah. OK, so let's go.
I want to do 2 things. I want to tell the story about
how you and I met first. OK, so I had a piece of your
(03:39):
content sent to me by a friend and they said it was basically
like a Oh my God, you got to listen to this story because
they know I'm a dad and if you send me a reel and it's a daddy
daughter thing I'm watching, I'll stop.
What I'm doing like that is that's my content.
So I remember watching it, and Idon't want to butcher it.
I'm going to let you tell the story.
But imagine me sitting there watching it.
(04:02):
You're on the exact piece of content.
I think you're doing a keynote or something, like you're on
stage talking about it. And it was a perfect time for me
just because of something I'm going through right now.
So I want to start there. Tell me the story about your
dad. Tell me where all this passion
for fitness comes from. Yeah, I'm excited, especially
knowing that you guys have such a dad audience.
I think this pulls it a lot of heartstrings, specifically when
(04:23):
I work with so many women, without fail, when I share that
story, I always get out of the woodwork.
Some men message me and they're like, man, this, this hit home.
I need to do something. So for back story, my dad, he's
a firefighter. He's been a firefighter for 30
years. That's a very demanding job.
You know, physically, emotionally, mentally, it's it's
a tough job. And he had been overweight my
whole life when I was in elementary school and he was
(04:46):
probably like 36. He had his first heart attack.
And this dude hung the moon. Like he's the toughest,
strongest guy I know. I looked up to him so much,
still do. And he I walked into that
hospital room and I'm scared. I'm in elementary school.
And that was the first time I remember realizing that he was
breakable. And he's hooked up to machines
and he's in a hospital gown and just thinking that, you know,
(05:07):
that that man that I think is like a superhero is actually
pretty breakable. And as much as I would like to
say, you know, that that really like jolted everyone, we changed
our lives. He he went a different path.
But I was in junior high. He had a second heart attack.
Same story. I was in high school and he had
a third heart attack. And when I was a freshman in
college, he had a fourth heart attack.
And I was becoming an adult at this time and realizing, like,
(05:30):
the consequences of your actionsand, you know, just how fragile
life is. And I didn't have the tools or
the confidence to really have that conversation with him up
front just because I got emotional about it.
I'm, I still, like, get a lump in my throat when I tell the
story because it is. It's so scary to see someone
that you care so much about be on the verge of life or death.
And in my head, I'm like, you know, very few people survive
(05:51):
for heart attacks. And if the fifth one comes, the
other shoe is going to drop and he's not going to make it.
So I cowardly. I'm like, I just need to write
everything that I'm thinking. I'll leave it on his his night
stand and I'll just go back to school.
I was home for Thanksgiving break.
So I write in this letter and init I'm like, I am in the bedroom
right above your bedroom right now.
I'm writing this and I just selfishly, I need you to take
(06:12):
care of yourself. I want to see another World
Series. I just I understand how how
unappealing you know of taking care of yourself, working out,
eating right that sounds. It sucks.
It's not what everybody wants todo.
But I said walking down the aisle without your dad would
suck exponentially worse. And I just said, if not for
nothing else, do it for your selfish daughter.
And I left that note. I drove back to school and he
(06:33):
called me, He read the note and it was a super, super emotional
call. My dad is very tough, but he is
very, you know, especially when it comes to us, he's very
emotional. So eventually it got to the
point where we kind of came to ahead of why, why it was never
happening. He said, I'm just scared to, to
try. I'm scared to try.
And then everyone, your mom, your siblings, and you see that,
(06:54):
you know, I didn't do it. I, I tried and I failed and we
had decided to know that if you don't try, then the end is, is
definite you're going to die because this just, it feels like
suicide by lifestyle, the way that you're living right now,
the way that you're, you know, you're sedentary, you're eating
poorly. And it's, it's obviously come to
a head four Times Now and I'm just scared.
So he gave me that letter back when I, he lost 100 lbs, ended
(07:16):
up losing about 120. And through that, I got to just
see his life flourish and I got to watch not only the physical
transformation because losing 100 lbs is, is evident.
Like the, the pictures are so cool to see.
But beyond that, he got a promotion at work and his, his
fire department got a more reliable captain.
You know, he was a, an empty nester for the first time.
(07:36):
And him and my mom, just like they're best friends.
They have so much fun together. He's actively playing basketball
and riding bikes with my nieces and nephews.
So he's an active grandparent. And that's just, that was
something that was not present before.
And when you look at him now, it's just a completely different
guy. The way he carries himself, he's
so much more confident. And I was watching that.
And at the time, I was a dental hygienist.
And I'm from a teeny tiny town in the middle of Missouri that's
(07:59):
in the United States. And I graduated with 20 kids.
I was in a, my hometown has 400 people.
So it's itty bitty. And I just, when you come from a
really small town, a lot of times you just don't think that
making a big difference at scaleis possible for you.
And I remember thinking that like, he changed his life, but I
got a better dad and my mom got a better husband and his friends
got a better guy out of that. And in doing so, it just made me
(08:22):
believe that if I helped one other person, it was going to
ripple from there. And that was kind of the mission
in starting my business and how I got started.
Just lit the fire under me because that it was proof of the
domino effect. When you impact one person, it
just ripples out. Who?
That's crazy. Let's.
Go Where do you want to even start with that one man boy that
hits all the mark you. You all from one of your buddies
creeping her Instagram, right? Unreal.
(08:44):
What's your daddy name? Greg.
Greg shout out, Greg, what an accomplishment.
I think that that's one of thosethings too, where on this show
we talk a lot about men's mentalhealth.
We talk a lot about leveling up,right, being that better dad,
being that. So when you say he was probably
scared of it, guaranteed he was like we hear that all the time
where guys are like, well, you know, somebody going to feel
some type of way or well, I can't do that because this buddy
(09:07):
counts on me to go drinking every Friday or I can't do that
because like. There's I'm the funny fat guy.
Yeah, that's I wouldn't be funnyanymore if I lost weight.
Always. Been right, so they hold off,
but. Imagine me in that moment
though, reading that. Like I know you were telling
that and I was looking, you know, I've got girl dad times
too with my girls and my girls are fierce like you.
Like they would. They do check me on my stuff,
(09:30):
but it's nice to. Especially your new outfits.
Yeah, that's right. Yeah.
I don't know if you seen, but yeah, stepping out with that
comfort zone is a big theme. So then that so amazing.
So happy for Greg, so happy for everybody else.
So how did that start to translate into your fitness
journey? Because you were a dental
hygienist when you were telling that story.
Yeah, I was a dental hygienist. I've just been active.
(09:50):
I was really big into sports. I just enjoyed exercise.
And I don't know if that was kind of a subconscious thing of
just going a different Ave. but I've always liked fitness and I
was a dental hygienist and we just worked out on our own at a
gym in our town. But when the pandemic hit, it
actually shut that gym down. So with most of the world, like
things just came to a close and we started working out from
(10:10):
home. I was still working as a dental,
dental hygienist and I had aboutan hour commute, but we got
Facebook marketplace dumbbells and we were like, well,
everybody's in the same thing. But that's the one thing that's
kind of like keeping our head above water mentally and just
staying in somewhat control of, you know, our habits.
So we, you know, made that a constant regardless of, you
know, the unknown circumstances of the world.
We were going to continue with prioritizing our fitness and
(10:33):
just in having that perspective of my dad and he would have
never walked into a gym because especially if you're you're
intimidated by when you walk into a gym and you're overweight
and you're a beginner, you assume that everyone in the room
knows what they're doing and everyone in the room is going to
talk about you. And although that's not the
case, that's kind of the mentality.
And then you also have women, especially are it's tough to,
(10:55):
you know, justify allocating thetime, allocating gym membership.
What are you going to do with the kids when you're gone?
So I'm like, this is a a shitty circumstance overall, but we're
all in the same one. And it's a way to people can get
their foot in the door with exercise and if nothing else,
have some sort of social interaction with someone outside
of the walls that you're kind ofconfined to.
So I was still working at the dental office and I just started
(11:16):
posting 28 minute dumbbell workouts in a Facebook group and
I made it women only. So you press play and I'm doing
them right alongside. It's basically a podcast because
I just talked the whole time I'mdoing the workout with them.
And my goal was to just make them feel like they were doing
it with a friend because so muchof the pandemic and the
isolation, it just mentally morethan anything.
People needed that connection and they just needed movement
(11:37):
because movement does so much for you physically and mentally.
So that's how I started. I had probably like 2 to 3000
followers on Instagram. And I was truthfully terrified
of putting myself out there on Instagram letting anyone know
that I thought that I could helpthem.
That felt so cringy. And I was just, I was scared
that I was going to be like floating around in a high school
group chat and be like this, this chick is cringy.
(11:58):
So I would like post something, delete it 20 minutes later, like
God forbid anybody see that. And eventually I just got to the
point where I had a little bit of that validation where I was
helping someone, someone would message me like I did that
workout and I I could tell I wasn't a snappy with my kids or
something. It just kind of feeded fed into,
you know, just the confidence building overtime.
So I got a little bit more bolding bolder posting just more
(12:20):
conviction because I I had proofthat I could help someone.
I helped my dad, I helped these other ladies, so that picked up
traction and I did that full time as I was a full time
hygienist for about a year and Iquit my hygiene job the
following year. And I've been doing Lexi J
Wellness for 5 1/2 years. So I record 6 dumbbell only
workouts in my basement every single week.
(12:43):
Yeah, so simple, but like it's so changing for people.
But that we've and we've had that theme of that imposter
syndrome kind of come up a few times where people are like,
well, I think I could. But like, and there's there's
10,000 butts that you got to overcome to actually do it.
But those success stories, your dad, the fact that you had a
community and even when you say a couple thousand, think about
(13:03):
that as a starting point, right?Like there's your proof that
somebody's watching. Yeah, 1000 people.
That imposter syndrome just getsovercame by just by evidence
like that's how you build confidence in anything is just
the stacking proof because when you start something new you have
no evidence in your brain. Like the memory file has nothing
to pull from to say hey I survived the last time I was
scared. But the more that you do it the
(13:24):
more reps you put in. I'm sure the first podcast you
were, you know, a little nervousjust because you'd never done
it. And then every time you have a
new guest and you're nervous, you can reflect back on the last
time and you're like, well, thatthat turned out well.
That was not nearly as scary as my brain came up with it.
Yeah. And just do it, you know, and,
and Jamie gets all the credit inthe world for that.
He was the one where I had this registered about two years
(13:44):
before we did anything with it. And he was the one that he's
like, like, what are we doing here?
Man shit together. Go, go.
What the hell did your dad teachyou?
Ain't that some shit? So then, yeah.
So then then we did that. And that's that's sometimes.
Here's how it goes, man. So you got a front row seat to
this. So my first question for you,
Brett, how'd you guys meet? We met at Mizzou, so University
(14:05):
of Missouri. I know that we're in Canada, so
I can't just say that and assumeit's known.
But yeah, we, we were a couple years separated by year class
and it just so happened that I was in a frat and my pledge
brother actually went to high school with Lexi and we were
having like a parking garage party, you know, just kind of
dudes being dudes frat lifestyle.
(14:27):
It's kind of funny to reflect onthat time of my life.
But yeah, he actually, my, my pledge brother introduced me to
Lexi that night at this parking garage party.
And I like to think that I was being a responsible guy because
I was the frat president. So I was kind of monitoring
things to a certain extent. And I was kind of making my exit
from from things and she was walking in with him and we just
(14:51):
kind of instantly hit it off there.
What do we bond over? The Chiefs.
What a great Segway. Yeah.
What a great Segway. Really Talk about the Chiefs.
Yeah. So we got we got at least a
couple hours to do this one. Yeah.
Get ready. So obviously we're all huge KC
fans on the show. You we there.
(15:14):
So there's a couple questions. Well, here, let's do this.
And and not to pull it away fromyou, Brett, but you just.
I know a cool story that you cantell about our boy Patrick
Mahomes. Tell me a Mahomes story.
So my childhood best friend, andit's so funny just that because
we grew up such big Chiefs fans,like my family vacations were
going to River Falls, WI to their training camp.
(15:35):
That's where I fell in love withPriest Holmes.
He was the running back. And so my childhood best friend
went on a mission trip and I don't even remember where, but
some were very random and she met this boy from Texas.
They fell in love, they got engaged.
And he so happens to be first cousins with Patrick Mahomes.
So I got to walk with Patrick onor at their wedding.
(15:56):
And it was so funny because I was working at the dental office
when she called me and she was like, hey, I think that out of
the the bridesmaids, you'd be the one that would play at the
most cool. And I'm like, yeah, of course,
of course. And I hang up and I'm like
doctor dickheads. Like I'm screaming down the the
dental office hall. So Patrick Mahomes walked you
down the aisle. Yes.
So take that, Brittany. Yeah, so when they announced the
(16:18):
the pairings for the bridal party, he threw me a beer and we
shotgunned together and that wasthe catch of my life.
I would this my palms were so. Sweaty from Patrick Mahomes
Let's. Go yeah, we were we were gun to
be. Yeah, we were shotgun, we were
game planning. And I'm like, this isn't a big
deal to you, but this is a really big deal to me.
Like if I drop this my family will never let me leave it to a.
Bigger deal to her dad. Yeah, that's in the crowd.
(16:40):
Hold on, he was like. But this is Lexi J.
Yeah, your dad's just like posting the picture of you
walking down the aisle with no context.
Yeah, exactly. Hey, big day for the family.
Photo. You got to send that pic to
Miles. We got to put that in there.
Absolutely. For a couple reasons.
One, let's talk about how chirped I got about starting
(17:03):
season with two losses. We're just getting over that
now. This is a good.
I saw what happened. I said going into the season, as
a Dolphins fan, I would be very happy if the Dolphins and the
Chiefs had the same outcome after three games and they did.
I just wasn't expecting that they were gonna be that way.
And then we were talking about sports down there versus sports
(17:23):
in Canada. And I was trying to answer the
questions the best I could. And the conversation in the car
came up is like, give me like CFL versus NFL.
And I was like, well, they're different.
Like, that is two different worlds.
And I saw you got to go to Arrowhead just recently, but it
wasn't for football. Tell me that story.
Yeah, so we rented out ArrowheadStadium for a 9/11 memorial
(17:45):
stair climb. As I mentioned, my dad and
brother are both firefighters, so I'm in the fitness world.
I grew up in a first responder family, so it was a really cool
cross section. And we raised money for, it's a
charity local to Kansas City, but they cover 12 counties.
So it's thousands of first responders and it's called the
Surviving Spouse and Family Endowment.
So if any first responder, police, fire or EMS, if they die
(18:06):
in the line of duty, then the director of that organization is
at their family's house within 48 hours with a check for
$40,000 to take care of immediate, you know, just
financial needs. They also cover the funeral.
They have regular Christmas endowments just to take care of
help with kids. It's it's really, really
special. And unfortunately, Kansas City
has been hit really hard with line of duty deaths.
(18:26):
Just in the past 18 months, they've had five.
Yeah. So we raised $60,000 at that
event. You climbed the equivalent of
100, 110 stories in the lower bowl of Arrowhead Stadium.
And we had about 750 people comeout.
And my dad climbed it. I climbed it with my brother.
It was. It's really, really special.
It's incredible. It's my favorite event.
We do, yeah. And your dad did it in gear.
Yeah, and Brett and I also did it in gear.
(18:49):
Oh yeah, yeah. That's a workout.
It is yeah. I had posted because we go to we
went to 51 different fire stations just to promote it and
just, you know, shake hands to Iknow what that means.
And I, I had a dad that was goneevery 3rd day, like they're,
they're either gone for 24 hour shifts or 48 hour shifts.
It's a huge sacrifice, not for just them, but for their
families also. So it's really neat to be able
(19:10):
to bring out the civilian community and just tie those
together. Because if you don't have a
direct tie to the first responder community, it's kind
of out of sight, out of mind that, you know, those are
husbands and those are wives that are deeply impacted by it.
But I had, I was posting about it and I had tried on gear at a
couple of the stations and I posted, you know, should I,
should I do the climb with gear?And then I got some people
chirping me. So of course I had.
(19:30):
I had to put my money where my mouth was.
To be careful which put on the Internet.
I'm running a half marathon thismonth that I probably shouldn't
open my mouth about, truth be told, but here we are.
Although kudos to like the shapeyou gotta be in to be able to do
that. Yeah, Jesus.
Yeah, well, we were talking too.We should probably give Ryan a
plug. I think this is gonna come out
in the same. But I was telling you about our
buddy Ryan, who's also a fireman, who's doing 21 half
(19:53):
marathons in 21 days, and he's day six or seven, I think he's.
On Now 9 now. Is he nine?
Yeah. So he's, he's 9 days in and he's
he's he's smashed his fundraising goal too.
We're so we're so proud of you, Ryan.
He did such a good job and his is all in support of men's
mental health. And we were out at their golf
tournament for on the benevolentside, on the fireman side just a
couple weeks ago, too, so. Yeah, Shadow first responders,
(20:15):
we don't do enough for them. And I got so excited when you
told me that it's a real check and it's real fast.
Yeah, that's like for our community stuff like we see the
delay, the gap between need and solution is is it can be weeks,
months, years before insurance kicks in or before, you know,
any kind of reparations kicks inor anything.
Like it can take a long time. Yeah.
(20:36):
And if you, if you lost not justa paycheck, if you're losing the
most important person in your life and you're grieving, the
last thing you need to think about is how you're going to pay
your mortgage or how you're going to take care of, you know,
tuition or anything like that. So just that immediate need and
just the gap that the, the fundsavailable to them don't often
come until months or years. So the fact that they have that
turn around time, it's incredible.
(20:57):
And they only they're able to provide and deliver on that
based on funds and donations. So that things like that are
crucial. Yeah, for.
Sure. Our goal next year is 100K.
Yeah, if anybody wants to make atrip to Kansas City, there you
go. We'd come down, but it's
Canadian money. I don't know.
Do you guys play monopoly though?
Yeah, that's right. So I want to talk a little bit
(21:19):
about you guys as a as a couple and and doing all of these big
things that you guys are doing. What does that look like?
How do you balance that off? What's what's the priority?
How do you guys huddle? How do you stay on the same team
you. Want to go first?
Let me answer that for you, Brett.
Yeah, you do so. I want.
(21:43):
To hear what you're going to sayfor my business, I am the CEO
and Brett is the he, his role has evolved so much because he
started just as, I mean, he supported me through it like
never doubted. It's a scary thing when you say
you want to quit a very stable job to do this starter that when
Covid's over is are people goingto go back to gyms?
Are they going to keep doing these little dumbbell workouts
(22:05):
from their basement? So he started as that and then
his role has evolved as we've grown.
So Brett is now the COO and CFO.So he he plays a huge role in
like today Wellness, just behindthe scenes.
He does so much. Yeah, it's kind of a loaded
question. It's, it's a tough balance
honestly. You know, that's, I think that's
the honest answer, balancing being, you know, in a, in a
(22:29):
committed relationship plus the business side of things.
Because a lot of times whenever we get home, we're talking
business. We're not talking about how did
your day go, the stuff that husband and wife typically talk
about. So I won't pretend that it's
easy and it's something that we continually are working on.
So we are by by no means perfectat what we do, but we're just
(22:53):
always looking to to continue toget better and better at it.
But from the business side of things, yeah, I mean things have
taken shape a lot over the past five years.
So I guess whenever it started out, it was almost a set and
forget a thing for me. I kind of got to plant a seed so
much, so to speak, just like I helped build the website.
And then from there, you know, whenever you start a small
(23:15):
business, you don't know what you're getting into.
I mean, nobody knows what they're doing whenever they
start a business, especially whenever something that has, you
know, you have no roots and whatsoever, it's just, it's an
idea that was born and then you just run with it.
And so, you know, I, I built outa website and it was semi
functional and then things were just kind of on the, I don't
(23:36):
know, I, I, I deal with some stuff on the back end, or at
least I did deal with some stuffon the back end.
And then this can things continue to grow and evolve, you
know, just kind of glazing over a lot of fine details.
Now, my day-to-day, I would say is I have two full time jobs at
this point between like stay honest with my full time work is
so it's a blessing. You know, I'm extremely thankful
(23:58):
for it and I'm extremely grateful for the road that we've
gone down on on this whole path.And there's a lot of the things
that are TBD at this point with where things are going to head.
But we have a lot of big, big goals, big dreams.
And honestly, I know that we're going to get there.
We're wherever we want to take this and we're going to get
there because Lexi's an incredible leader.
(24:19):
She's an incredible community builder.
There's certain gifts that certain people have that they're
hard to to teach. You know, there's some some
people that just have that charisma.
And like, I can tell that you guys have charisma.
It takes a little bit of charisma, you know, to, to
captivate an audience like on a podcast like you guys have
(24:41):
that's doing so well. So kudos to you guys also also
that's really cool to see. But she's got that, that it
factor and it's, it's been really cool to see evolve.
And I don't think she knew she had it to begin with, which is
one of the really cool things to, to look back upon because
she just to circle back to what she said a little bit ago, she
(25:01):
was talking about how she used to put stuff up on her story,
you know, and then she'd take itdown pretty shortly after
because she was scared of what people would say, what people
would think. And that also took place to a
certain extent within our household.
I wasn't allowed to be in the same room as her whenever she
was getting ready to post something on her story.
So she would start recording herself And, you know, she do
(25:25):
whatever she was doing, you know, just making some some sort
of piece of content to put on her story.
And she'd be like, no, leave theroom.
Like you, you can't be in here while I just, I would like to
walk outside or something just like stay on the front porch,
kind of look around for a while,you know, whatever it was just
to make it look like I wasn't some doofus, just kind of like
browsing my own house. So just find a side job, I
guess. But yeah, that's the way it was
(25:47):
for a while until she got comfortable with it.
And that's, I think that is kindof like a microcosm of what
business is and like the imposter center thing that
you're talking about, like not feeling comfortable with
something because you haven't put in the reps.
And then once you put in more reps over time, you start to
gain credibility not only with your, your people that you're
(26:09):
interacting with, but also with yourself.
And I think that that is a, something that is overlooked a
lot of the time. It's like building credibility
with yourself. And I mean, that's the
definition of confidence is knowing that you are a credible
source and knowing that you are a, you're worthy of talking
about something that you're talking about.
So far for you guys, it must have been like when you are at
(26:32):
home though, like, you know, andthe day's done at 6:00, it's
like you want to have that off switch though, where it's like
it's not about work anymore. You don't want to talk about
work. You don't want to talk about
what you're going to be doing tomorrow for work.
Like that's got to be a tough balance to find that off switch
and just like let that stuff go.And it's like, hey, this is just
us time now. This isn't about like us trying
to work on the business or work on our plan for next week.
(26:52):
It's just us time. Yeah, that's, that's also got to
be, that's a tough part to teachyourself and like try and talk
to each other about too. It's very tough and especially
we don't have kids yet. So that I mean the business is
our baby and that consumes 95% of our thoughts and our
conversation. So it is sometimes we'll be at
dinner, we're like, OK, let's let's try not to talk about like
(27:13):
Shay Wellness and then we'll sitthere for a second and we're
like, OK, but what should we talk about?
Like what? I'm going to go with my
girlfriend tonight. You go out with your buddy
tonight. Like just so we get a little bit
of like. Not work talk going on.
Yeah, it's hard. Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's not like shutting off a light switch for
sure. You can't just flip it off and,
you know, just be like, OK, business time is over.
(27:34):
Personal time has begun. It's very difficult because my
it's kind of in our nature at this point, You know, we're very
driven people and you're, you'realways thinking about ways to do
things better. You know, that's, that's
business is you're, you're trying to constantly.
I mean, it's just, it's a never ending thing.
As soon as you accomplish one thing, it's to the next, you're
(27:55):
like, OK, what about this next thing?
And it's, it's a little bit selfdefeating because you never take
a second to really reflect on onwhere you've gotten.
So gratitude is one of those things that we have a hard time
focusing on just because we're always thinking about the next
thing and it's hard to turn on that officer.
And you turn off the headers, you're probably pushing each
other so that you're both going to be better and the business is
(28:16):
going to be better, right? It's hard to turn that off too,
right? For sure.
And the nature of what I do because, because it is fitness,
like a lot of people, though, ifyou're an entrepreneur and
you're a business owner, you canescape and you're like, I'm
going to get a workout in. Just clear my head.
But my workout is my job. So I'm I'm clocking in for that.
And my workout or my job is on social media also just to
continue promoting the business.My personal account is one with
(28:39):
my business account also, so there's there.
Everything is Gray really. There's no black and white.
And the funniest part is the I'mgoing to dote on her a little
bit. There's so many people still to
this day. The thing that her her work day
begins with the workout and endswith the workout.
And that's all there is I. Only work 28 minutes a day.
(29:00):
Yeah, she's got the easiest gig in the world.
She she just records a workout and then voila, wipe her hands
clean of the day and go do whatever she wants.
If only, right if only. People, if you don't have any
experience having your own business or running a business
or even just being involved in like the actual workings of a
business, you just don't necessarily understand it.
(29:20):
And it's so unorthodox. It's a very different, it's not
traditional whatsoever. So Brett's dad actually they,
they work in insurance, which isa very traditional stable job.
But I work from home by myself. SO11 day over the summer, I had
went up to their office and I was like, I'll just work in
person with Brett that way I have someone to talk to and I,
his dad and him work together. And I was like, he was like,
(29:41):
what are you doing here? And I'm, I said I was going to
work with Brett today and he's like, we're going to record the
exercises. I have to work on my laptop.
Even my dad, even my dad, he. Was like, you haven't done your
28 minutes yet. What's for those that might be
introduced to you for the first time today?
What is the ecosystem around Lexi J Wellness right now?
(30:04):
So we're primarily women. We actually do have men.
You had mentioned that we we do work with some men and most of
them are husbands that have justjoined in after seeing their
their wives live chains, but primarily moms. 25 to to 45 is
my main demographic, especially just because the workouts are
quick and effective. You can do them from home.
So when you're working a full time job and taking kids to
(30:26):
extracurriculars, you can carve out 30 minutes in your living
room or in your basement, wherever you have dumbbells and
Wi-Fi. You can put that video on and
you don't have to think about the workout.
You don't have to worry about doing them correctly or not
because I'm right there doing itwith you.
I'm talking to you the whole time.
I'm giving you cues on, you know, mechanics and also just
telling you what's up. I always, I refer to it as like
(30:46):
my digital diary. It's kind of cool because I have
5 1/2 years of just my own evolution.
You can see my confidence changeon the screen, but I am, I'm a
yapper to my core. So I can talk to myself for 28
minutes as if there is someone on the other side of that screen
and I'll hold a conversation. I'll tell them, you know, an
insight I learned in a podcast or a book or, you know, how
that's affected me or something that I'm going through.
(31:08):
And I think the biggest thing that has drawn so much and makes
people feel so bought in and committed to Lex J Wellness is
the fact that is more of a, a relationship.
We have a connection because I'mlike, their kids recognize my
voice. They know who I am.
I'm on their screen. I, they talk back to me often
like they will message me on Instagram.
They're like, man, it felt like you were talking right to me
(31:30):
this morning. And just having that connection,
especially in the fitness industry, when the fitness
industry is, there's a lot of bullshit there.
There's a lot of empty promises and fancy marketing where you
can lose X amount of pounds in avery short window, but not a lot
of actual promise and follow through on it.
So to have someone that you can put trust in and you can have
faith that they are the person that they say there are that
(31:52):
that goes a long way in the fitness industry.
And that's the the biggest thing.
And the most thing I'm, or what I'm most proud of is just the
trust that I've been able to build in our community.
And I think that's why people are so bought into me because I,
I am the the same person that's on their screen 30 minutes a day
is the one that they'll meet at events or they'll run into in
the grocery store. And I pride myself a lot on that
because it would be even more exhausting to put on a facade
(32:14):
for 30 minutes and pretend to besomeone else.
So if I don't want to do the workout, if I'm unmotivated, I'm
going to share that because there's someone on the other
screen that they're having a rough mental health day or they
didn't want to get out of bed, they wanted to snooze their
alarm or they are not feeling motivated.
But that is the human experience.
And when you're looking on Instagram or TikTok and you have
these people that have the curated aesthetic morning
(32:35):
routine where it looks like theyare so excited to work out every
single day. And that's, that puts an
unrealistic expectation for everyone.
You're not feeling like you wantto work out and you're like,
well, it's something wrong with me because that person that has
the six bag, like they always want to work out.
They're always excited to do it.So when I share that, I think
that it hits home and they really, they, they respond
really well to it just because it is a human thing.
(32:57):
And in a world where everything is curated and polished, it's,
it's nice to have just the unedited raw version of when it
is a vulnerable experience. Like someone wants to change
their life, they're unhappy withwhere they are.
And to have someone that would be picture perfect on the other
side that always is excited to be there.
It's just not realistic and it'snot well received.
It's not as relatable. So when I share those things and
(33:19):
I'm telling them that, you know,the Wellness side of things, I
was very, very intentional when I named Lexie J Wellness because
it is so much more than just fitness and just getting the
perfect body because being healthy and taking care of
yourself is, is well beyond justthe, the aesthetics and the, the
physical side of things. So I just, I feel like that's
what's really drawn and what's allowed us to, you know,
(33:39):
continue to grow over the years.You must have some pretty cool
stories from a few females or a few women that you've that
you've worked with that you know, hit home pretty good
probably and keep you motivated to do this.
Absolutely. I actually have a bad day
folder. I, I will keep screenshots or
messages or things that they send me just to kind of, I mean,
on those days when you don't want to do it, it's just a, a
recollection of the, the good that you are and what, what
(34:01):
you're doing and why you're doing it.
So I had shared this on a podcast recently and it's not a
story that I had shared publiclybefore, I don't think.
But there was a woman that had, she had sent me a, a picture of
a suicide note that she had actually written and she was in
the worst spot of her life. She had a just she felt like
that was the best option for herat the time.
(34:23):
And she went to work the next day and one of her Co workers
was talking about doing Lex J Wellness and just had just
organically didn't know what that woman was going through
privately and said that I I don't know if I was running a
promo at the time or just shareda workout with her.
And she was like, well, why not I'll I'll do it, whatever.
And she sent that it was dated and it was like 10 months later.
(34:43):
And she said, I have missed, youknow, less than a handful of
workouts. This is what my family looks
like right now. I got a promotion at work.
It just like this didn't just change my life, it saved my
life. It's incredible.
Boom. Like makes it all worth it.
Absolutely. The realness, the authenticity
piece, right? Yeah, good for you.
What's So let's talk about Wellness, kind of that holistic
(35:05):
circle around what you do. What are some of the other
things outside of the workouts that you do to help people make
that kind of change? So we have, I have an excellent
staff also we have and we're growing.
So we'll we'll soon have 10 staff members.
But I have a really cool team and they've actually all come up
with in Lex J Wellness. I'm very partial to the people
in our community and when I wantto hire and bring in someone on
(35:26):
my team, I want them to be well acquainted to the our processes
and our values and be on the receiving end of, you know, the
good that we're doing. That way, when they do work with
someone that's brand new, they can have full confidence that,
you know, I was in those shoes. I was a postpartum mom.
I have lost this this much weight and this is how my life
is transformed. So that's I'm very partial to
that. So my art entire staff is
(35:47):
actually like stay Wellness clients that have just grown
within and join the team. So they, we have a team of
nutrition advisors and they workone-on-one with, with clients
and just working on fueling their body.
And through that they, they havean excellent relationship with
them. They'll send them videos and I
we it's kind of discounted as nutrition because half of it I
swear it's therapy. We'll, we'll have a team meeting
(36:09):
and our advisors are like, man, so and so is she's going through
a divorce or she's she's having a really hard time with her
boss. And they just have that
connection and that, you know, deep rooted relationship,
especially when it's hard to make friends as adults, it's
hard to have genuine connectionsas adults.
And we have this Facebook group of the Facebook group is women
only. You can do like J Wellness if
you're a man, but you just can'tcome in our Facebook group.
(36:30):
So. We have a Facebook group like
that. Boys only but there is one of
our you had mentioned authenticity.
One of our core values is uncompromising authenticity and
in that Facebook group, there isso much shared and just so much
vulnerability and relatability because I have never seen
anything like it. The Internet can be just a scary
shitty place. It's it's if you scroll through
(36:53):
Instagram comments, it gets negative fast.
But we call it the Unicorn of the Internet in the Facebook
group because there is so much support from perfect strangers.
They want to see you win. And I think the coolest thing
that has been adopted just throughout that community is
that, you know, if someone else's success is not going to
take away from mine. So you'll see someone else, you
know, just cheering on a a perfect stranger.
(37:13):
And that now it's just the the domino effect is what we really
pride ourselves on. And we'll all see the ladies tag
each other on Instagram and they're Venmo in someone that
they have never met in real lifefor a coffee and just through
meeting to the Facebook group and they meet up now we do an
event about every month and theyhave anywhere from like 200 to
750 people that they'll come in from all over.
(37:37):
And one of our anniversary eventis one of my favorites and they
will get like a giant Airbnb. There will be several of them.
And it's like 20 women from all different states that get in
this Airbnb. And they make friends just just
through a Facebook group. So yeah, we always when I first
got started and I still get trolls on the Internet, but one
(37:57):
of my favorite screenshots and Ialways refer to it.
So if you see me on Instagram referring to the silly little
dumbbell workouts, and this was when I first got started, I
didn't have very many followers,but someone had mentioned or
responded to one of my stories when I was checking in after a
workout and they said I don't think these silly little
dumbbell workouts are catching on like you think.
So I have that screenshot and atour anniversary event, I made
stickers for everyone with that screenshot.
(38:18):
Perfect. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Haters become motivators. So, so hubby's the COO and the
CFO. Does he get to scroll through
this ladies on the Facebook? Not even me.
No not but what's the case? So now you gotta put on your
husband hat for me for a second.How do you deal with the trolls
when you see them on your wifes hard work doing her thing and
(38:41):
bringing that noise? It's not always the easiest to
disengage, I guess, you know, I mean, there's whenever you put
it out there, you can't take it back.
So it's just like either you're gonna engage or you're not.
So I every now and then I'll engage if somebody's like she
can handle herself. She's a big girl, you know, I
mean, honestly, she, she's wittier than me.
So different. When somebody's chirping you
(39:03):
versus chirping your wife. Yeah, I mean, if it was in
person, you know, people are keyboard, keyboard.
Warriors different man. Yeah, they are total keyboard
warriors. So somebody will never meet in
your entire life. And somebody that honestly put
zero thought into what they said.
They they just wanted to ruin someone's day.
That's all they wanted to do. And, you know, digitally it,
it's different. Yeah.
Somebody approaches my wife in person like that, I'm probably
(39:26):
going to drop them. Yeah.
So different story. But she can, she's a big girl.
She's she's tough, she's strong.So I just kind of let her handle
her own battles there. And honestly, she can ruin
somebody just like, just like that.
So quick. Yeah.
So. Learning how just a scroll by
happens. Yeah yeah.
Why even engage? Mostly people, honestly, if you
if you start looking for it, it's just going to get you down.
(39:46):
So you just kind of have to glaze over it because there's
trolls everywhere. Every now and then I'll, I'll
respond like via a reel, via another video.
And it's so funny because we do the Lexie J Wellness community
is a pack. They have a pack mentality.
And there was one guy because I'm also, I'm very transparent.
I think that's important, especially for your women
(40:08):
listeners, that I, I think you grow up in a society where you
think that the body that you're going to be in is going to weigh
a certain amount and especially like early 2000.
That number was like no more than £130, whatever, no matter
your height, no matter your muscle mass.
Like if you were over that, thenyou were probably overweight.
So that was kind of the thought process I had growing up.
And I was always an athlete, so I had more muscle.
(40:30):
And I remember in high school I weighed 150 lbs and all my other
friends weighed a lot less. And I thought that was like
there was something wrong with me.
So now I'm like 170 lbs and I am, I'm stacked like I, I'm
strong, I'm fit, I'm very happy with my composition.
So I'm, I'm very transparent about that.
And I like posting that because it is, there's, there's a high
(40:50):
school girl like me out there that needs to hear that and
needs to say, OK, like the body that I want and the muscle that
I want and the performance I want to perform at is not
necessarily going to match the three digits on my bathroom
scale that I think are going to validate me.
So I post a lot as just being transparent about that.
Be like, this is what my body looks like and this is what the
scale says. That number is not going to,
(41:12):
that's not going to define you. That's not a realistic or a
realistic representation of you know, your worth, which I think
a lot of times we get trapped in.
So those videos always take off and it's either women feeling
like seeing or, you know, being glad that they they see it, or
it's men that don't believe me or are calling me overweight
because of that. So there is one man that he had
(41:33):
called me fat or something like that in response to this video.
So I had responded to it and I pretended like I was reading it,
but I just, I was like, oh, I can't even remember what it was.
I was like, he said I was overweight and ugly or something
like that. And I was pretending to read it
and I said, you're so strong, Lexie.
I wish I could be as strong as you.
And I was like, Rob, that was sonice.
You didn't need to do that. And he was fighting for his life
(41:57):
in the comments because all of my ladies were coming at it.
It was hilarious. So if I put it out there, then I
mean, if you're in my comments, just prepare for him because
they'll come and get you. He came back digitally swinging
for like a month too, so really it's just kind of like.
Also hilarious to think about how much time this guy invested.
What you said on your first response about engage or not,
right. Yeah.
(42:17):
Engage is a that's a commitment.Yeah.
Because once it's out there, man.
And I think too, you got to go back to that story about that
life you saved. Like if you need any more
validation than that, I don't know what to tell you.
Like, yeah, because often it isn't money.
I mean, monetary comes, but man,that's success right there.
Yeah, absolutely. We got a few that we like to
cover off. Do you mind if I just kind of
(42:37):
rapid fire a few things at you guys?
So this is one of my favorite questions and I know you work
with your dad and obviously you've got a super close
relationship with your dad. So the question is, what's the
best advice your dad gave you? Oh boy.
And we purposely don't let guests think on this or tell
them we're going to ask because it's usually the one that comes
to the top of mind. So what is the best advice your
(42:57):
dad gave you? I'm trying to think of like a
specific phrase, but I think it's more just my dad work has
still worked so hard. He showed me work ethic and I'm
so grateful for that. Like he he and my mom got
pregnant in high school. They worked so hard to support
for kids and to build up their life and just in viewing them as
(43:20):
a unit. So I won't just put this to my
dad because my mom is such a hard worker and went back to
school with kids and now she's an elementary principal and
she's she's such a good leader also.
So they're both excellent at what they do individually.
But I just think modeling that work ethic and you know, habits
are caught, not taught and beingable to watch them in real time
(43:42):
work to provide for their familyand with with very little to
start out and just being the thefamily unit, like they, they are
huge family people. My family is super close and we
have such a good relationship with them.
So I think the work ethic and just the prioritization of your
family first. That was just the the biggest
thing that that I want to model when we have our family.
(44:03):
Love awesome. How about you, Brett?
I don't think there's like a specific phrase that comes to
mind. It's kind of like what's almost
unsaid to me. My family is a little unique in
that we're not always going to like her family is very direct.
They're going to tell you exactly what they think you
should. Have seen our group chat this
morning my dad had a hit a milestone at work and my mom
(44:26):
sent a message and my brother thumbs up it and I was like Cody
that's passive aggressive I don't like that and so he
changed it and then he said something like well Ashton
hasn't liked it. My older sister and she hearted
it and she said I just did dickhead.
Like where does he? Do you know that about the
thumbs up thing? I had one of our younger team
members point that. Out.
I don't like the thumbs up. Thumbs up is like good job, but
(44:47):
she's like, no, it's passive aggressive.
It's just like a OK, like I'm like, is that what that means?
Thumbs up. I use thumbs up if it's like
affirmative, like I'm I'll be there at three 3:30 to pick you
up, thumbs up. But yeah, if it's a, if it's a
milestone, you better hard it. Yeah, OK.
Yeah, there's a lesson right there.
The tides have changed, OK, You can't.
You can't just use the thumbs upanymore, assuming it's cool.
(45:09):
You got super direct family and then not so.
Much. Yeah, Yeah.
Fewer emojis used a. Lot less emojis used.
Yeah. No group text where people are
calling each other Dick heads. Yeah, that doesn't happen.
But what I was going to say, I think that I'll it, it's a lot
more what's unsaid and more so in just practicing lifestyle and
(45:32):
practicing a way of living. And I didn't read, you know,
there's some things you, you seein hindsight, looking back at
your childhood, you know, you asyou grow up and you mature, you
realize that. Well, this is now I understand
why things the way they were. Whereas whenever you're a kid is
(45:53):
just like you're just doing yourday-to-day, you know, you're
just doing life. And fortunately, she and I both
had lived in a household where, you know, there was no, there
wasn't a broken household. We both had a a very present
mother and father figure. My mom lived at home.
She was a housewife for all my life.
Actually. She retired.
(46:13):
I say retired. She was correct on that.
She stopped teaching whenever, whenever she had me.
So I had a mom at home the wholetime.
So she was a constant presence. But my dad was the sole provider
essentially, you know, in the monetary sense.
So something that he continues to do this day, and honestly,
almost to a fault, is he, he takes so much pride in being the
(46:39):
provider and dedicating himself to his craft.
And in a, to a certain extent, I'm like the exact same way.
And I will, I've also kind of start to draw the line a little
bit because I've, I, I find myself trying to replicate what
he's done. And I'm very grateful for the,
the way that I've basically beentrained to be in that, you know,
(46:59):
it's just day-to-day, like you're, you're showing grain in
your craft that you want to be the best there is at it.
And you're dedicated to your people that you're also, you
know, that you're taking care ofin the insurance world.
You know, it's your clients making sure that that they feel
like they are, you know, the thesole priority.
So I think that he taught me those things, whether or not he,
(47:20):
you know, it was something that was said, it was, it was the
unsaid, you know, just getting to, to witness him do those
things. So I'm grateful that that I got
to witness him be the way that that he was.
That's awesome. You guys both seem like
incredible people, so you must have incredible families behind
you. That's great.
We do. Yeah, we have a little segment
on this show that is a crowd favorite.
(47:41):
It's called Bring Us a Dad Joke.So I'm going to put both of you
on the spot. Who wants to go first?
I'll go first, this is this one is one of my puppet Jean.
So my puppet Jean actually passed this summer.
So this will be a good one if myfamily listens to this.
Have you ever Have you heard about the one legged waitress at
IHOP? Her name is Eileen.
(48:04):
Yeah, that's yeah. She's all the boxers.
Yeah, OK. The stage is all yours, but.
It should hit home too, because pancakes.
Canada, I mean. I assume you guys have IHOP?
I was carrying the audience. We so do we have IHOP it's.
International House of Pancakes,not the United States of
Pancakes. OK.
So it's international. It's gotta be, Actually, we do,
yeah. So I was, I was thinking I'm
(48:25):
like, man, every dad joke I tellis or every joke I tell is
essentially a dad joke. So I just don't know it.
And that's, that's solidified bythe fact that Lexi very rarely
laughs at my jokes. So.
But man does it hit home when I do.
I'm feeling you're a big win. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Did you smile? Did you get a laugh?
(48:45):
High highs. So, all right, are you guys fans
of The Office? I see a Dwight.
There's a Dwight bobblehead over.
There, there we go. I I actually had that same
bobblehead until somebody knocked it off my desk and broke
it. Devastating.
Devastating. But anyway so I actually looked
up a a dad joke office related because I thought OK what better
way to perfect. Bring it all home.
(49:07):
Bring it all home with the office.
So, all right, why did Dwight bring a stapler to the farm?
Because it was time to beat the competition.
That's funny. You got another show.
Yeah. Fruit farms.
Bee farms, baby. Shout out the office.
We for sure. And then we always just ask is
there anything we didn't cover that you guys want to do?
Any shout outs you can certainly.
(49:29):
Where do people find? It yeah, feel free to plug.
Yeah, so it's Lexi J wellness.com.
I'm on Instagram on Lexi J Wellness and like I said, if
there's anyone looking to build confidence, looking to, you
know, just improve their mental health or get great habits under
their belt, change their life physically, then I'm I'm
confident that myself and my team can can do it.
So if you have any questions, you can always reach out to us.
(49:50):
There's a contact form on the the page as well.
But that's truly and I think what God put me on this earth to
do is to help change people's lives.
Yeah, looks like it. Keep doing good things guys.
You guys are awesome. Thank you.
Good luck tomorrow at your competition.
Yeah, we got to get you guys outof here.
We got to get you back to Toronto.
Thank you. Thank you guys very much for
having us. Yeah.
It's been awesome. Appreciate.
You guys.
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