#84 - Aram Grigorian: Healthcare Isn’t Coming To Save You—Time To Save Yourself - Choose Hard with Cody McBroom

Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
In this episode of the Choose Hard podcast, we have a ROM
Gregorian. I hope I pronounced that
correctly. ROM is a online coach.
He is also the host of the Real Coaches Summit.
And he is better known on Instagram as Four Weeks to the
Beach, which I actually learned in today's podcast what that
means and where it came from. And I love it.
I actually really, really love how he came up with Four Weeks

(00:21):
to the Beach. And I think you're going to
resonate with it and strive to be in a similar position as to
the meaning and core behind whathis name stands for.
But Aram has a a very interesting story.
He came here as an immigrant at a young age and watched his
parents struggle and grind just to meet ends meet.
But watching that grind I think really birthed a work ethic in
him that allowed him to get through school, college, build

(00:42):
his own career, then change past, move across the country
and start all over again in the online coaching space, building
his name and business up. And then after a few years of
that, he started the Real Coaches Summit, which is one of
the most well known and biggest coaching seminar summits in the
country that actually focuses on, you guessed it, real
coaching. So I'm really excited for you to

(01:03):
hear this origin story of a ROM who has become a good friend of
mine and to really understand what it takes to be a successful
online coach in today's space. Without any further ado, let's
talk to the one and only four weeks to the beach.
The greatest things in life all start with.
A challenge. You must accept that everything
is hard before it gets easy. Every, every, every, everything

(01:25):
you want in life begins with a hard path begins with a hard
path begins with a hard path begins.
With a hard all right, Iran man,I'm excited to have you on the
podcast for a couple reasons, and I want to say those before
you give yourself an intro. The first one is because the
first time we talked you told meand I just love how blunt you
are. You're like, I really just never
liked you and it. No, no, I didn't like you.

(01:49):
I thought you liked. Me after the podcast.
You did. No, no.
So your so your audience understands.
When I first met Cody, I met himat coaching con when I first got
into the industry and I didn't know anything about content
creation. And here I see this kid walking
around with a fucking camera crew and I'm like, wow, he must
think he's hot shit. Now Fast forward five years

(02:11):
later, or six years later, everybody walks around with a
camera crew and I have to hire people at my event to walk
around with us. So now I completely understand
why you did it. So yeah, my opinion changed
almost overnight. But yeah, that's that.
That was the initial entry into like the fitness world that I
didn't understand yet. And to be fair, I think part of
the reason why we get along is because I would look at somebody

(02:33):
doing that and think the exact same thing.
Honestly, at first I'd be like, what a douchebag, you know?
And so I love that you introduceyourself that way to me the
first time we talked. The second reason is because,
man, I just feel like we have a lot in common.
We get along. Not only are we covered in
tattoos, but we also believe in a lot of the same things.
We like a lot of same things. We're very, very transparent and

(02:54):
we're really focused on coachingfirst above all else in this
kind of shady industry. And that leads me to the third
thing which I really want to touch on today, and that's the
real Coaches Summit. I think that it is one of the
only seminars slash summits thatyou can go to live in person
today in the country that I mean, probably the world.

(03:14):
I don't know what's going on outside of the country really,
but inside the country that actually promotes real coaching
and is actually pushing people to be really good coaches.
And the guest speakers that you have on stage and everything,
it's it's all catered towards becoming your best coach.
And I think that's so man. Like that's how it used to
always be. And then COVID hit and then all
of a sudden when it came back, it was all marketing and all

(03:35):
masterminds and all this. Like you would pay all this
money to go to vent and the speaker sucked.
And then they're trying to lock the doors and sell you on
something before you leave. And it was just the most, dude,
it was terrible. I hated it.
So I really, really respect whatyou're doing with that and the
size that it's at and the risk you take to put that on man
'cause I know what it takes on the back end to do something
like that. It's a very stressful thing.

(03:57):
And I think it's so damn cool that you have this passion to do
it, man. So welcome to the podcast first
and foremost. And thank you for being here,
brother. And give us give us a little
intro of who you are for anybodywho's not listening that doesn't
know. Thank you.
It's I think the beautiful part about being a human being is
knowing that you can start off like that and have absolutely no
ill will towards each other. I mean, and especially now with

(04:20):
all the bickering and bullshitting online with
everybody fighting with one another because they don't agree
upon stuff. And it just doesn't make any
sense to me. It's such a waste of energy.
Like if, if I like you, I'll support everything you do until
you give me a reason not to. And I always hope that I conduct
myself in that way. Like, I think transparency and
authenticity are just dead. And everybody's trying to be
somebody that they're not onlineand they're putting up a front

(04:44):
that when you meet them in person, you know, they always
say, don't you don't want to meet your heroes.
And very often that has been true in this industry.
There's been a lot of people that I've looked up to and then
I've met in person and wanted torun away from them.
And almost immediately. And I'm just hoping that whether
it's my event, whether it's the way that I come off and people
meet me in person, they don't say the same shit about me

(05:04):
because I, what you get with me is exactly what you get.
The way that I speak on my Instagram is the way that I
speak in person is the way I speak in my podcast is the way I
talk to you. If I saw you at a bar, we're at
an airport. I, I, I just don't understand
why people feel the need to haveto filter themselves or
manufacture somebody that they're not.
It just doesn't make any sense. So thank you for the opportunity

(05:27):
and thank you for being one of the real ones.
And this this saying my grandpa had before he passed away and
then my dad would say it to me. You never have to remember a
story if you just tell the truthor if you just who you are.
And I always remember that 'cause it was like, if you get
in trouble and everything like that, like you're good.
You don't have to fabricate anything.

(05:47):
You just, this is what it is. And usually that helps avoid a
lot. And I think you do that.
Well, I have a random question that just popped in my head
knowing that we're online people, you know, and then we,
you have this event, we have podcast, stuff like that.
Have you ever ran into somebody you didn't know in public?
And if so, what would like, is there a reaction?

(06:07):
Cause I've always thought about this, what you just said, you
know, like you are who you are. And if we see you in person,
you're not going to be shocked, right?
Because this is, this is how it is.
Have you ever ran into anybody in person?
And then they're like, oh shit, like that's true.
You're actually what I thought you would be like.
Yeah, a couple times at an airport, once in Vegas, once in

(06:31):
Atlanta. Atlanta's always like the place
that I run into. I run into celebrities in
Atlanta all the time. I was just in Atlanta last
weekend, coming home from Miami.I saw Timberland on my flight
from Miami to Atlanta. Like, nobody recognized him.
He was standing right in front of me.
He's like 5 foot 7, very unassuming.
And I walked up to him like, dude, thank you for the years of
music you've produced. I appreciate every advance of

(06:53):
it. He was super cool.
And then I saw John Heater and John Grice, who were Napoleon
Dynamite and Uncle Rico, and they were trying to get on the
plane to go to San Diego. They were literally just hopping
around the airport trying to figure out a place to go.
And they're, like, buddies to this day.
I'm like, guys, you made, like, my favorite movie of the 2000s.
So like, they were cool. So yeah, it's happened a few

(07:15):
times where people, like, come up to me like, oh, you're 4
weeks to the beach because nobody actually knows my name.
And which is funny because AllieGilbert, I don't know, I'm sure
you know who Allie is, told me awhile back, back before I even
got on on Instagram, she's like,that's a stupid name.
You're going to want to change that.
And then lo and behold, six years later, I always make fun
of her and I say, hey, that was the one thing you were wrong

(07:36):
about. So I'm just going to remind you
of that all the time. But yeah, it's, it's cool to
like, I don't consider myself tobe an influencer or a celebrity
of any kind. I mean, listen, 50,000
followers. If I had 50,000 people standing
outside of my house right now waiting for something that's for
me to say something, I wouldn't even know what to do.
But it's crazy to me that like people are upset when they have

(08:01):
like 3000 followers on Instagram.
I'm like Can you imagine if there was just 3000 people in
your driveway waiting for you todrop information on them?
Like you would be so nervous andhere you are bitching to get
another follower. Just serve the people you have
like I'm a human being. I don't consider them followers,
I consider them an audience because I'm not Jesus.
I'm not saying anything revolutionary.
You can literally go on Internettoday to ChatGPT your way

(08:26):
through the entire monologue that I can have, and you'll
learn just as much as I'll teachyou, because the only reason why
my job exists is because you don't do it on your own without
help. That's why our career is here.
It's not because we're smarter than anybody or because we're
revolutionizing the industry or doing anything crazy.
We're just able to communicate science in a way that becomes

(08:47):
practical and applicable to youraverage person who's struggling
with it, and we're keeping them accountable to something that
they can do on their own. That's it.
Yeah, I love that it it's, it's so true.
And it's, I think the frame of how many people it actually is.
Like if anybody bitches and they're like, I only got 500
views, it's like just imagine 500 people.
Like I've spoken in front of a couple 100 people and almost

(09:08):
shit my pants before I started my speech, you know?
And then once you get going, you're like, OK and you're fine
'cause there's always that nerves.
And I love speaking, but dude, like I don't think that ever
gets like super comfortable to just walk out in front of.
And that's like the smallest fraction of of the views we get
on some of our videos that you don't think about.
And it's like, obviously it is different, but I think the
influence that you can have on people, when you look at it that

(09:30):
way, it just makes a way less intimidating and way more
impactful in your mind, you knowwhat I mean?
Absolutely. And then to me, I used to try
to, especially even recently I've had kind of these
existential crises of like, where does my career go and
where does my business need to develop?
Do I need more followers? And I talked to a bunch of
people that were social media and marketing and branding

(09:51):
people. And they're like, well, you
could start spending money on ads and start doing this and do
that and spend 3 to 5000 bucks amonth on YouTube content.
And I'm thinking to myself, I'm like, I don't need pedestrians
who just want to watch fun content show up on my page.
I want customers. Like, I used to always be very
afraid of asking for money and being a businessman, but now
it's like I'm giving you a service that you, I know you

(10:14):
need and you're going to buy it from some schmuck anyway.
So buy it from me because at least you'll have a service with
integrity and I know that you'llget what you need and what you
paid for. As opposed to if you keep
waiting for the sensational bullshit that you're following
to be the way that you do it, it's not going to work for you.
You're going to quit again. You're going to consider
yourself a loser. You're going to lose trust in
the industry that I love so muchand it's all because I was too

(10:37):
chicken shit to ask you for a dime.
So now I'm at a point my career where like I don't care about
getting another 50,000 followers.
I have 50,000 people that are looking at me right now and they
may not be ready to buy from me today.
But if I keep pouring into them and and giving them something
that they don't have and helpingthem for free constantly,
hopefully eventually when they are ready to spend money, I'm
the person they do it with. Yeah, and that's truthfully,

(10:58):
that's usually how it goes. People very rarely discover
somebody on Instagram and go, wow, I'm going to trust them
with my money and my health right now.
It's like you got to earn that over time.
And I love that you said that because there has been so many
influential figures, mentors, people that I've asked questions
and sought out business help from that.

(11:19):
I have way more followers then and they helped me tremendously
to build my business and help more people and make more money
because it's not all about social media.
I think a lot of people like, granted, that's not to say you
shouldn't try to grow your social media.
It's just that I think you hit the nail on the head saying like
it's more than just that, you know, and, and, and a follower
is not the same as a customer. It can become a customer, but

(11:40):
they are two different things. So dude, I want to backtrack a
little bit because I don't even know the origins of your story.
And I, one of the things I wanted to ask was, and I'm sure
we'll get there about the four weeks to the beach, because
there's been times where I, I read that and I'm like, I don't
feel like that necessarily describes what I see in him
when, when I think of real coaching and like long term

(12:01):
fixes and sustainability and like you're doing things the
right way. I also think there's a place for
a fast, hard, aggressive cut. So I'm like, where did that come
from? Where did you start?
Where like, how did this all happen?
Like give me the kind of background you said you're from
outside of New York. I think you said, so give me
like, where did you like start to transition into fitness?
Like how did that even start from the beginning?

(12:23):
So all the way to the beginning is I'm a Russian immigrant.
So I moved to the United States in 1989 with my father, my
mother, my grandmother, my brother.
My brother's 13 years older thanI am from a previous marriage.
Fidelity was not something that my parents took to heart.
So between my mom and my dad, I think they had my father had

(12:45):
four wives and my mother had twohusbands.
So, yeah, clearly practice did not make perfect.
And then when we got here, it was just a blur of just watching
my parents grind, man, like, andthat.
And that's why like, I, I, I work with women, I think because
I'm so close to my mother. And I watched her go from having

(13:06):
kind of a silver spoon in Russiabecause my dad had a lot of
money. My father was a cop for 20
years. And then he owned a bar during
communism, which just made him agangster basically.
So he just stole everything he had and everything we had.
He probably robbed off a truck somewhere.
And that's just how we lived andthat's how we survived.
So my mother never wanted for anything.
She never worked for anything. And then Fast forward to moving

(13:28):
to America with literally, I mean, when we came here, my all,
my father, my father had to basically give away every
possession he had. He gave away all of his cash.
My mother had to give away all of her jewelry.
We had to pay our way out because it was still communism
back at the time. So we had to pay all the upper
end officials to get our paperwork to get out.
So when we got here, my father was walking up and down the
street in New Haven, CT just asking for work with whatever

(13:50):
little English he can muster up.And then he finally got a job at
A at a car dealership servicing cars.
He had no fucking clue how to doit, but he lied to them and said
he can fix radios. No clue.
My mother was cleaning, doing night shift, cleaning funeral
homes, and my brother, who was 14 at the No 19 at the time, was

(14:15):
mopping up Ihops. And that was that was it.
Like, that's, that was where I started.
And that's what I watched. Nine years old, getting off the
bus by myself, cooking my own dinner, contributing to the
household because my parents were never home at that point.
They were working three jobs apiece.
So that was it. But like, I thought that was
life. I was a happy kid.
I lived in a fucking shitty neighborhood.

(14:37):
My father was the biggest racistin the world and we lived next
to nothing but black people. And I made a bunch of black
friends, so I never like even understood racism.
And because I, I'm just my father's in the same person.
Why doesn't he not like these people?
They're great, but he didn't know I didn't like them.
And Fast forward now, he's the sweetest old man on the planet
because I beat the, the racism out of him essentially.

(15:00):
Then I did the whole American dream thing.
I went to college and I got a finance economics degree because
that's what I thought I should do.
And then I went into finance forseven years and I sat at a
fucking desk and made other people money and snorted a bunch
of coke and forgot that I shouldsave any of that money at all.
And essentially 120,000 bucks a year turned into an overdraft in

(15:22):
my bank account every other weekend because I was spending
700 and 900 bucks at A at a bar every other night and flying
down to Miami. With every last chunk of change
I had to try to live the big dogWolf of Wall Street lifestyle.
And then I realized I can't keepdoing that anymore.
Now, I was a shitty athlete. I tried to play high school

(15:42):
sports, but I sucked at it. I basically was a really good
lifter, which is what got me into fitness is I joined the
football team and my, our our team was like nationally ranked
at the time. We were top 25 in the country
and they were jacked and they had all the girls.
So I'm like, cool, this must be the recipe for getting chicks.
So let me do that and I just, I took the weightlifting.
I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the grit of it.

(16:04):
I enjoyed the work of it. I had the work ethic.
I watched my parents grind for fucking 15 years of my life at
that point. So I knew what work was.
I didn't mind it. I liked doing it.
So it, it just kind of came natural to me.
And I was the kid that was shoulder pressing 225 seated as
a 16 year old kid when everybodyelse could even bench it.
And I don't know why. I just practiced.
And then when I was sitting in the finance world, I just

(16:26):
realized that like it was super toxic for my mental and physical
health. I was still working out.
I was still playing basketball in the mornings, but like
Thursday through Friday through Thursday through Sunday, I was
always high or drunk. So like basically my fitness is
what bought my quality of life back.
Like if I wasn't as fit as I was, and if I didn't eat as well
as I did, my body would have completely been destroyed

(16:47):
because I was spending essentially 72 plus hours a week
fucked up, malnourished. And and by the way, anybody who
doesn't believe in a calorie deficit, do coke for three days
straight every single week and tell me you can't lose weight
because when you're not, when you're not eating food, it's
very easy to be lean. And I was certainly not eating

(17:08):
any food. I mean, granted, I was consuming
10 to 15 vodka sodas a night, which is probably what, 1500 to
2000 calories of just booze, butdid I had no problem losing
weight, but it's just I got out of it and then I got laid off in
2012. I got my first gym job because I
went and got the NASM certification.

(17:31):
I just wanted something different.
I'd always been kind of like that person that people looked
up to in the office for like fitness and nutrition advice
because I'd always been in shapeor at least looked in shape.
So I've decided to pursue that as a potential careers.
I don't know what the hell I wanted to do.
I didn't want to go back into finance because I just figured
I'd probably die if I stayed there.
Got a job at Equinox in Greenwich, CT Went from making

(17:53):
literally 6 months before that 160,000 bucks to making $8 an
hour rolling towels and dipping them and you go up this water
and handing them to rich women on treadmills, which was a
really fun fall from grace. And then I realized that like, I
have to sell. Yeah, it's not like they don't.
They do hand you clients to somedegree, but they have to know
you and like you. And I was too new and I was too

(18:15):
controversial looking because I wasn't pretty and I wasn't their
norm. So they weren't just passing
clients off to me. So I would just walk around the
gym floor and I would pick apartpeople's forum and give them
other exercises to do or show them how to do them better.
And within three months, I had afull book of business.
And then after a year of being there and them charging 175
bucks an hour, I'm like, I can just go to their home gyms,

(18:36):
which are much better than most commercial gyms anyway.
I could charge them 120 an hour.So they're saving 50 bucks.
I'm making double and I just didthat and I developed like an in
person house to house travel to your place, coaching, you know,
in person training business and did that for a while.

(18:57):
I, I worked at a small little boutique gym to get AW 2 so I
can hide some of my cash. Did that for a year and then
they closed down during COVID. And at that point I, I just
basically took all the business I had and brought it to a little
industrial park gym that was under lock and key.
And I was making three grand a week in in, in training because
I was the only game in town. And then I saved up all that

(19:19):
money. I moved to California, lost
every single penny I had again and used that 40,000 bucks that
I saved up to start an online business.
And here we are today, OK? So I have a couple.
One is specifically about your background and I want to get
your thoughts on this because it's, it's your story.

(19:41):
But I find that there's, it seems like there's quite a few
successful entrepreneurs and I Iwould take just people with a
very strong work ethic and like a willingness to do what's
required to succeed and continually move forward that
are immigrants, but especially from Eastern European countries.
Like I feel like that's a very common thing.
Is there anything like, I mean, Lucas Juan Bedros is another

(20:04):
one. Like I can think of quite a few
and even just books I've read. I'm one of those guys that just
like if I'm running, which I runa decent amount, I'm listening
to an audio book. Usually I read a lot.
So it's like I'm always hearing stories.
I think it's very common, Like they're usually from specific
areas of the world. But this this idea of.
Actually, now I think about two,it's usually an immigrant's kid.

(20:27):
So like the son of like you moved here as an immigrant, but
you're a child. Watching that experience happen
is usually, I mean, even Tim Grover I think was the same
exact way. There's no stories about his
father being abnormally successful, but he's obviously
abnormally successful. Same thing with Baidros and all
these different situations. What do you have to say about
that? Like what is that?
Is that? Is there something about that
experience that just changes theway you see things?

(20:50):
Do you think it's something thatyour parents instill in you?
And that's a very cultural thing.
Like, is there anything that youcan point to that people can
take away from that? When you have the attitude that
nothing is really that hard because every day is hard.
Like when your default is alwaysyour back is against the wall
and you don't know what what where the next meal is coming
from or where the next dollar iscoming from because nothing is
promised. Like I grew up very quickly

(21:13):
realizing that I'm not going to get shit unless I work for it.
Like there's not going to be anything handed out to me.
There's not going to be anybody that's just going to be like,
here you go. I can't just go and get a job if
I feel like it. Like everything has to be like
figured out and earned and then nothing seems hard anymore.
Like high school wasn't hard, lifting wasn't hard.
College was a fucking breeze. I mean, college is the easiest

(21:36):
thing in the world. I literally just went to class.
I worked full time while I went to school and I graduated 3.9
GPA and got a got. I had a job for September of 20,
2002. No 2006 was when I graduated.
Yeah, no 2002 was when I graduated.
I had a job in finance the year before that already locked in.

(21:57):
So my senior year was could havebeen a throwaway year, but I
still got a four point O that year because to me it's like,
what else am I doing? Like I I drank my face off in
high school. I basically didn't party at all
in college because I already hadit out of my system.
I then found powder and all thatshit in my my mid 20s because I
had money and I was around that type of people.

(22:18):
But like I had no distractions. But I think that's the other
issue is like people are people are wildly unpurposeful.
Like they don't really have a vision or a direction.
Everything is a complaint or this is hard.
And that's hard when the realitylike what's like you live in
America, How, how, how hard is it really going to like if you
couldn't do anything at all and you had no skill set period, but

(22:40):
you knew how to drive a car, youcan get a job delivering food
tomorrow and you can at least scrape by and survive somehow.
Whereas in most other countries you'd be living outside on the
grass, and in America that's just not going to happen.
Like even the worst downtrodden people here have assistance and
aid and there's places to go to get free this and free that.

(23:03):
Like it doesn't work like that in any other country.
You just fucking die on the street like a rat and that's it.
And then you get thrown into a gutter and nobody cares about
you anymore. But here, like you have to
purposely fuck up and fail constantly over and over again
until the system finally gives up on you.
But you've probably given up on yourself before that even
happened. So I, I just don't understand

(23:25):
it's but I I don't want it to bea trauma competition either.
Like I'm sure other people have it hot, right?
Like the mom who's got three kids and is working for minimum
wage has a much fucking harder life than I'll ever have.
But it also is because maybe shehad shitty circumstances and
made some bad decisions along the way.
So is it hard for her because life dealt her a shitty hand?
Or is it hard for her because she fucked up along the way?

(23:48):
That's The thing is like, I think a lot like I just took
responsibility and I said, OK, my circumstance sucks.
I don't want to live like my parents lived.
I don't want to live this lifestyle of being in debt like
my mother was. My my parents went bankrupt 3
times as it when I was a kid. So like it was just always scary
constantly. You know, my brother's in poor
health. He fucking smokes cigarettes and

(24:09):
is a full time alcoholic. So I don't want to live like
that either. So it's like you just kind of
see examples of what you don't want to be and you work your ass
off to go the opposite direction.
That's all I did. And it's not like I really
worked all like I was. Like to me, hard work is not
standing in front of a computer answering text messages about
fucking macros. To me, hard work is like mining
for 12 hours a day or being on aroof for 12 hours a day or doing

(24:31):
a hard like that's work. Sitting in an office rotting
away for somebody else is not hard.
It's mentally draining and certainly not ideal, but like
that it's not physically difficult.
It's not a problem that you haveto solve.
And I just, I just think there'sjust not a lot of mental
fortitude anymore. I just, it's very, very hard to
see that now. And we had no choice.

(24:54):
So good. Literally why choose hard is the
phrase for this podcast and for our company and stuff is because
I always tell people like in those scenarios, even the lady
you you made-up and described, you know, was it the
circumstance she was dealt? Was it the decision she made?
Like whatever her answer is, theresponse to that is?
And because like what either way, you either have to do

(25:18):
something about it to improve and grow and succeed or not.
Like that's your choice. I think this is where it's it's
I mean in today's world, obviously it's crazy.
You know, there's I mean, This is why you shouldn't give
trophies to 2nd and 3rd and 4th and 5th and 6th and 8th place.
Like it just doesn't. That doesn't help them earn the
1st place one. It's it dude.
In Washington there's this renter's thing.
I don't know if it is in Cali. If a renter just decides they

(25:41):
don't want to pay, they just stop.
I'm like wait hold up what? And then the owner of the house
in the building still has to payproperty taxes?
Like that doesn't make any sense.
I think it's called squatter's. It's like squatter's rights or
something. We have that in California too.
Like they can stop paying rent for at least six months if not
more before they even get talkedabout eviction.

(26:02):
It's so crazy to me. It's like that is not going to
help people become better, you know, and.
In Russia, in Russia, they wouldliterally kick the door down,
drag you out and probably throw you in prison that day.
Yeah, there would. There would there would be no
second chance. I think This is why people need
to if you're not going to explore the world, which I'm not
a well travelled person, I haven't like gone all over the

(26:23):
world. I've never even flown overseas,
but I've had enough friends and I've had a lot of clients
internationally at this point that I talked to and you can
hear what it's like in other places.
You know, like one, one of my coaches is from South Africa.
He doesn't live there anymore, but like from him as well.
Like it's, there's such bad, hard places to live.
And it's like, man, this is thisis pretty good.

(26:45):
So anyway, we could probably go on a crazy tangent here, but so
you go through this and you experience what it's like to be
a child immigrant essentially, and watching your, your parents
struggle to survive. And that kind of creates this
urge to, let's call it, even though you say it, this isn't
real hard work. Work hard compared to the

(27:05):
average person and keep moving forward because of it, because
you took ownership and decided this is my life, my decisions.
I'm not going to be like them. I'm going to be my own person.
Went through the training phases.
You got to the online place. And at this point I have to ask,
is this where you just decided to come up with the four weeks
to the beach? Like I, I'm very curious as to
how that name came about and what made you stick with that

(27:28):
even when somebody was like, hey, you shouldn't keep that
name, which by the way, you're not the only person.
Somebody else told that to Brad Jensen about sober bodybuilder.
And he was like, no, I want to keep it.
Thank God he did 'cause I was very, very smart of him to do.
And somebody was like, this is astupid name, You should you
should get rid of it. Yeah, man said that.
But anyway, where did yours comefrom and how did that begin?

(27:48):
Cause the online space, I mean you started over again, moved to
Cali $0.00, let's get back to itkind of thing.
How did that start and kind of give us the the story on the
early stages 'cause there's a lot of early on coaches
listening to this? When I started my Instagram back
in 2015, my buddy from Miami whowas a photographer, who was this
really beautiful jacked black guy who is a friend of mine.

(28:13):
He's a designer, he's an artist.He's just a very creative person
and, and he likes the stylistic side of things.
So for he was like, just make a lot of very pretty content and
like just put yourself out thereshirtless, like just get people
thirsty. And that's what I did because I
didn't know any better. And it was like me laying on the
gym floor sweating with my ABS pop and just take the douchebag

(28:37):
content that now just makes me completely cringe and turn my
stomach. But I didn't get it.
I noticed I didn't know any better.
I, I, I almost wish I could justgo back and delete all of it,
but I feel like there's a level of history there that needs to
be maintained. If anybody has the chops to go
back 3500 posts, go right ahead and you'll see some really
cringy content. But then I realized I was like,

(29:00):
I wasn't really helping anybody.Like I didn't really like, like,
yes, like there nobody, first ofall, nobody cares about the
fucking caption anyway. So nobody's reading whatever
drivel you think is inspirational in the caption.
So if you can't capture somebodyin the post, you've already lost
them and they're already on to the next sensational
entertaining thing. It's probably going to be V
shred and it's not going to be you.

(29:21):
So I started just creating like the word tiles because I thought
like, let me give them quick advice that they can resonate
with and hopefully get somethingout of.
And that's where the word tiles came from.
And then I started realizing that like, I need to have some
because I mean, I understood a little bit about business
because I've been surrounded by some pretty smart people.
And, you know, branding and marketing was something that

(29:41):
I've been talked about to me. And I wanted to create something
that was catchy. And I thought 4 Weeks to the
Beach was a really cool idea because the idea is the way that
I live my life, Like I live my life somewhere between 11 and
14% body fat all the time. And if I have something going on

(30:01):
that I want to be more confidentfor, and let's say I'm going to
a Vegas pool party for a weekendand I know it's coming up in a
month, I don't have to like deconstruct my entire life to be
a little bit more aesthetically sound.
When I show up at that pool party, I just rain back my meals
out. I reduce my nightly snacking.
I may be up my cardio a little bit.

(30:21):
And boom, in four weeks, I'm I'mdown from 13% to 10%.
I walk into that pool party, I feel really good.
I feel confident. I snap a few pictures and the
next week I'm back at it. And I don't let myself go.
I just go. I loosen up on the reins a
little bit. So the idea of four weeks to the
beach is that you're always ready, like you're always
feeling good and you're always living a foundationally solid

(30:43):
lifestyle with nutrition and fitness as your pillars of
self-care. And then when you need to be a
little bit more dialed in for whatever reason, you're not
having to do this six month transformation that Missus Jones
is always worried about because she has to go to Cancun with her
friends and she's 50 lbs overweight.
So then she loses that 50 lbs aggressively, then puts all of

(31:04):
it on plus some. I just don't want people to play
that game anymore. So it's like, can we get you to
be just really good on average, but then know how to ratchet it
up when you need to? I love that dude.
It's, it's, it's being fight ready, you know, like working
with fighters and stuff and likekeeping them at a relatively
close fighting weight so that you don't have to do this insane

(31:24):
water cut and then you're weak in the ring or on the mats if
you're doing really jiu jitsu. Damn, I really like that.
I didn't know 'cause I never knew the background behind that.
That is that's dope. I like that a lot actually.
And I think that that's very similar to how I live my life
and I think how most people should strive to live their
life. Honestly, that's a really
healthy place where you're not. I mean, I've been I've done
bodybuilding shows, I've been shredded and you're just, I

(31:45):
can't even mow my whole lawn without fucking needing a nap.
You know, it sucks, but totally different ball game.
So you start this, you kind of brain yourself that way.
And that makes sense with even the content Journeyman.
Once Upon a time, you could posta picture of an apple and have a
long ass caption and it would sell 5 clients.

(32:06):
And now it's, it's so far from that.
You got to dance or do somethingfunny.
If you're going to capture them,keep their attention.
So you're getting into the online space, you're doing this
content thing. How, how quickly did you start
growing your business and your clientele?
And, and again, I want to explain this because I know
there's a lot of based on your audience and especially with you
being the, the person who runs the real Coaches Summit and I

(32:30):
know our audience, I think a lotof people get a lot of value out
of the stuff. How long did it take you to
start really transitioning into online coaching 'cause I still
to this day get people who are in person trainers or gym
owners, like I want to start doing online stuff and they,
they don't know what to ask, howlong it takes, what's involved.
Like, how big of a transition was that for you coming from
just always training people in person?

(32:52):
Well, I had to have something tosell, which I didn't really.
I mean, I had a little bit of anidea before I left Connecticut
to like, OK, like, I need to have a service that I can sell.
I need to have a place where they can view what that service
looks like and get some details on it.
And I need to have a way for them to pay me for that service.
So it's like if you have a payment system, a landing page
and an offer, you can get started tomorrow.

(33:14):
And that's kind of what I learned at NCI in passing just
by talking to some people because I did the NCI level 1
back in 2019. Actually Danny Matrango was in
my class, which is funny becausenow Danny blew up and then he
actually ended up speaking at one of my events.
And then Jimmy, my podcast partners who I met at my events.
So that maybe we've been thickest thieves ever since.

(33:36):
But that's another plug for events.
Like you go to events and you don't just learn about stuff
from the people on stage. You learn from the people that
are sitting in that crowd who are might be further along the
road than you are. And that's how I learned about
all that stuff. And I was charging.
What's that? Real quick, I just want to say
it's just to, to plug your eventand just encourage people
because we're going to get to itin a SEC.
But I do want to echo what you just said because I just got

(33:59):
back from North Carolina speaking at Sam's event with
him, Joelle, Dr. Sean. I met all of those people that I
shared the stage with except oneat an event where we were people
in the crowd literally 5 plus years ago, last year I spoke at
Brad's event. I met him at an event, Brad
Jensen, like it's so true what you said.
And like it's crazy how many connections I have in the

(34:20):
industry just because I was somebody in the audience
standing there and I wasn't afraid to go travel by myself,
sit in an audience and be like, hey, I'm Cody, let's fucking
talk. Since we're both here doing the
same shit in our lives and we live alone and we're here alone.
Like let's network, you know, it's unbelievably valuable.
And so I just want to make that point because you put on a big
event and there's such a good opportunity for people to do

(34:42):
that there. So anyway, sorry.
That's interrupting. That's How I Met Brad.
I mean, I met Brad at the same coaching time that I think you
were at. And then Brad invited me onto a
podcast. And this was in 2019.
I flew out to Salt Lake. I wasn't making much money back
then and that was it. Like people finally heard who I
was at that point. I already created the four weeks

(35:02):
to the beach account. I already started improving my
content. So that's where people found
found me. And I give a lot of credit to
Brad for my start of kind of getting into some notoriety in
the business And in back then, Iwas charging a hundred $100 a
month for nutrition and trainingwith weekly check insurance.
And it wasn't like weekly check insurance, like here's 24 hours

(35:24):
before you get a response. It was weekly check insurance.
Like if you text me, I'm responding in seconds.
I have no boundaries. Like to this day, I have AI,
have a roster of 125 people. And if they text me only, only
time I won't respond to them is right now on a Riverside.
I won't see the text come in obviously.
But like if I'm, if it's Friday night and I'm out to dinner with

(35:44):
my person, I'm responding. If it's Saturday morning and
it's 5:00 AM and I'm awake, I'm responding like I'm an
entrepreneur and I've paying service based business clients
who need me and they're going toget a response from me and
that's what they're promised andthat's what they're going to
get. So I'm sorry, like for anybody
new who's like looking for work life balance, you're not going
to find that for a very long time.
Like if that's if that's the illusion that you're under, go

(36:05):
back to your nine to five and and good luck there because that
this is not the industry to fuckaround with.
Like if you my I just a small tangent, but I cannot stand the
half in half out coaches. Like if either go full balls and
do this for a living. Stop using this as a fucking
side hustle. I I cannot fucking stand that.
If you're an assistant coach foranother person, fine.

(36:28):
Like you have your boundaries and you have your expectations.
But if you're trying to make this your career, make this your
career. Go and swim and water that
you're unfamiliar with and figure it out because the world
doesn't need more like fucking Octavia coaches who get
certified overnight because they're bored housewives who
have fucking 96 other responsibilities like you.
This needs to be your priority because those clients are going

(36:50):
to feel that you don't care. And if they feel that you don't
care, they're going to leave. And they not only are they going
to lose trust in you and you're dead in the water, but they're
going to lose trust in this industry collectively.
And I cannot stand that because that's why we're we're looked at
as a laughing stock and we should be the front line of
healthcare. That's what we are.
We were we are the soldiers on the front line of healthcare

(37:11):
that can prevent chronic diseaseand help people get their life
back. And I don't think people take
that seriously enough. They see this is a fucking dark
sports promotion. They see this as a young LA
sponsorship deal. They see it as a way to get
notoriety for themselves, to build their own bullshit brand.
And they don't respect the fact that this is really an important
industry to be in. And I'd take this life or death

(37:33):
seriously. And I just wish more people did
that. But yeah, I mean, I was charging
150 bucks, 100 bucks for coaching.
And I just tried to get as many people as I could.
I I would take anybody as a shotgun approach.
And at one point, I would think I'd, you know, maybe 20 people
that I was working with. And I was just doing the best I
could just, you know, refining my communication style and my

(37:53):
systems and what I thought I knew about nutrition, which is
Jack shit because I reversed dieted fat women constantly.
And that was the stupidest thingI can do because that's what I
thought was the right way to do it Because it was like, it was
like, diet culture is bad and people shouldn't diet.
And if they lift more, they should be able to eat more.
Well, yeah. Not if you're fucking 45% body

(38:14):
fat. And it's just, I didn't
understand the basics of human Physiology and then I had to get
more education on that stuff. And then I realized that
coaching is a hell of a lot simpler than people make it out
to be. And compliance is really 99% of
the problem more often than not.It's not because you suck as a
coach, it's because people don'tactually eat 1200 calories and
people don't really train that hard.

(38:35):
And that's really all it is. And when you can show them that
in the simplest way possible, byshowing them the old, the data
that they're responsible for collecting, the disconnect goes
away. And all of a sudden you do
become the trustworthy person and they're full of shit.
And not because they were lying,it's because they didn't know
any better. And it's because you as a coach
were too chicken shit to tell them that.
So I just realized very quickly that I'm not going to be the

(38:57):
person that lies to them and I'mnot going to be the person that
enables them. I'm going to be a person that
tells them the truth whether they want to hear it or not.
And if they want to stay with me, cool, they'll self select.
And if they don't, you know, go work with the fucking emotional
leading coach and see what happens.
Dude, that's so good. I, I mean, I resonate with so
many things you just said. I, I hesitate to say this to

(39:18):
certain people in person 'cause I just, I don't like telling
people how to do things. I have never done this and I
still don't. And I will never call any of my
coaches assistant coaches. I have people that have master's
degrees, way higher qualifications than I do.
Like, they're not assistant coaches, they're fucking experts
and I call them that, but I alsoexpect them to be real full time

(39:40):
coaches. Like there's no part time
hobbyist on my team. But because of exactly what you
said, even when it was a side hustle for me, I was working
graveyard shifts just 'cause I needed money.
It wasn't a side hustle. It was like the Community Center
that I cleaned shit up at. That was a side hustle to make
sure that I could afford to likechase my dream, you know?

(40:00):
But this kind of stuff needs to be said so much more because
people lose sight of that man. They lose sight of it and
there's. Like the whole even what you
said about earning, like work life balance, you know, even the
first four years of my daughter being alive, I didn't have any
work life balance. I don't even know.
Like my brain doesn't shut off. So I don't know if I do today.
But like I'm better about not responding to everything always

(40:21):
because I know she's watching and I'm with her and stuff.
But like that's a child. It is that is what it took for
me to be like, OK, this is like,I have to have this because to
be honest with you, like, if youreally, really, and I don't know
if this is how you feel about it, if you really, really love
the coaching industry, you don'twant like what they call work
life balance. I don't want to go meditate on a

(40:42):
beach and like do shit. I, I want to work.
I love it. You know what I mean?
Like, and I wish more people were that way and were
enthusiastic about what you're talking about right now.
Yeah, I mean, I don't feel like it's, again, I don't.
I don't find it to be. I've done some horrible jobs,
dude, like I'm sure you have. I did HVAC in the middle of the

(41:02):
summer and in the middle of the winter for 2 summers, and I
wanted to kill myself every day for 12 bucks an hour.
I was bleeding all day from my hands.
My hands were swollen. I was on my hands and knees and
attics and in basements with rats and spiders.
It was awful. And now I'm in an apartment in
Southern California in front of a laptop with a ring light and
my shorts on. And the only reason why I have a

(41:24):
T-shirt on is because I'm doing a podcast.
Like how hard is my job? And I get to sit here and help
and charge to almost 150 people for advice that they can find
online for free. And that's, and that's like,
that's what we forget. Like, like everybody thinks
they're so fucking important when they're online coaches.

(41:44):
It's like nothing that you have to say is saving anybody's life,
nor is it proprietary information.
You read it from a book, you learned it from somebody who was
smarter than you, and then you decided to take credit for it.
The only thing, the only reason why you exist is because human
nature is lazy as fuck and doesn't want to do it on their
own. That's it.
And if you can't respect the simplicity of that, this is not

(42:07):
the industry for you. Because again, like I do, I
mean, we can certainly get to a point where we're saving
people's lives in the long term or improving their quality of
life or getting their mobility back or improving their
musculature and their strength and their longevity, sure.
But we're not doing any of that.They're doing it.
They're doing the physical work.We're just guiding them along
the way. So even when I get people that
send me text messages and testimonials and they're like,

(42:30):
Oh my God, you helped me something.
Yes, I helped you, but you did the work.
Remember that You did the work. And that's, I think something
that like, there's got to be some humility in this business.
Like let's put it this way, three years now running and at
the event I don't even speak at the event.
Like I literally get up in the morning at 8:00 AM when we do
our first session, I say thank you to everybody and then I fuck

(42:51):
off. And then I walk around in the
event and ask people if they're good and they need anything.
I've been to events where the host spoke two to three times in
the same day and I'm like, why the fuck are you on stage 3
times to just make it your eventand don't even bring speakers
on. Just have it be a one day listen
to me mastermind and then watch who nobody comes.

(43:12):
And I there's just so many problems with ego and self
centeredness in this business. And I think it's just, it's
truly because people can get like, I mean, let's put it this
way, it's not that long of a time.
Like in 2021 I had just really started the online business and
now my revenue is somewhere between 20 and $22,000 a month.

(43:34):
Like where else can you do that?You know what I mean?
Where can you go from making Dick 5000 a month barely to
going to making a quarter $1,000,000 a year to wear shorts
all day in your apartment? Not a computer like that.
And people like now granted I never stopped.
I post content tirelessly every day.

(43:54):
I answer every DMI, answer everytext message.
I get on 15 to 20 phone calls for free every single week.
So, yeah, I give away all my time, but time is all I have.
Yeah, I have plenty of. I don't have kids.
I'm not married. Like what?
Why wouldn't I be doing this? Yeah.
Yeah, I'm gonna challenge what you're saying a little bit, but
in a way that's actually gonna give you credit 'cause I think

(44:16):
that there's a humility behind what you're saying.
And I think that. So two things.
One, where else could you do that?
I mean, 2025 in America, that's really the answer because I'm
sure I don't know where else I would do it outside of this
industry too. But I'm sure somebody listening
is like, well, actually fuck, I could do that online in my
industry too. And I didn't even think about

(44:36):
it. And like, I'm making it harder
than it is. And so there's probably other
industries that you could do, you know.
And then I also think that 'cause I agree with you, I think
that there was this way that used to drive me crazy.
So kind of does, but it's not asbad anymore of like people just
reverse dieting everybody. And like my client says they're
only eating 1200 calories, not losing weight.
It's like, no, they're eating 2500 calories at least.

(44:57):
And then that's not including weekends.
Like I'm the, I totally get that.
I think that this is where you, you accumulate a certain amount
of knowledge through learning, certifications, all that kind of
stuff, but also like experience.So you're smarter than the the
average person, but also there'san art to coaching that people
forget. I think so many people are

(45:17):
focusing on the science. They forget that there's an art
to being a great coach. And I think that it comes more
naturally to some people. And I think after doing it a
long time, it is really like, I have somebody on my team that's
really good about actually taking what I do that works and
making it into like a teachable system.
She's amazing because there's times where I'm like, I don't
know why this works, but I just,I'm, this is what I do and I do

(45:39):
it really well and they get results.
And she's like, this is what you're she has her masters and
then a minor in psychology. So she like, she came to, she's
like, this is what is working. Let's make a system.
And I'm like, oh, fuck yeah, that's dope.
Because to me, I'm like, this just comes out because I've been
around coaching and coaches since I was 18 years old.
That's all I've done. So but I know you're the same

(46:01):
way. And so people listening, I want
you to like take away like the art of coaching is like embedded
in him as he says this. And so that's why ROM, you're so
good at this part of it, you know, which brings me actually
to, to the event. Like I really want to like at
what point did you decide? You said it's been going three
years, you don't even speak at it, which I think is really

(46:23):
dope. I've done 2 seminars here where
I spoke the whole time. I didn't invite a single guest
speaker 'cause I wasn't a point.And you'll love this.
The funny thing is there was multiple people that were like,
hey, you didn't sell us anythingat the end.
I was like, Oh yeah, shit, I forgot about that part.
Like that's not what it was about.
This is about program design. Like I was actually just trying
to teach you shit to get better results, but you don't speak

(46:45):
there. You have phenomenal guests every
year. It's in Vegas at massive venues.
Like at what point did you just decide like I'm going to take on
this fucking Moby Dick sized project to attack?
Like what was that? Well, I like bringing people
together and I, I, I like Vegas,I like to party, I like to, I

(47:08):
like to have fun. And I went to so many events
like you did, dude where like pitchfest shit speakers, same
topic, sometimes the same speaker year after year saying
that literally the same thing they said the year before.
And it was always some ulterior motive for something else.
It was like, well, you're here, but you're not really here for
this. The education actually doesn't

(47:29):
matter. We're going to actually just
tell you this thing on the back end to make up for the money
that we lost because we had to pay dickhead $50,000 to get on
stage to say the same shit he says on Instagram you can get
for free. And then it's always theory
based. Like it's cool to talk about
mindset, right? But like, how do you framework
mindset and teach it to a personwho has an emotional eating

(47:51):
problem? So there was just no
practicality to any of this stuff.
Or I would go to like to performbetter conferences in Rhode
Island and every year they were fucking teaching the kettlebell
swing for the 90th time. And I'm like guys, or like, I
would go to ISSN and they'd be talking about the importance of
protein. I'm like, is there anything else
you guys want to teach us at all?
Like this was in, this was in the NASM book too.
Can you teach us something beyond what we already know?

(48:14):
And there just wasn't any of that.
So I'm like, OK, cool, what's the problem?
Celebrity talking head speakers who aren't really coaches
anymore. They just have a team of people
doing their work for them. So they don't, they're not even
boots on the ground. They're so disconnected.
They forgot what it was like to be in those seats.
Upsell Fest 2000 and fucking three and four and five,
whatever you want to call it. It's like if you want to get

(48:34):
next to the speaker, you got to pay an extra $1000 to get the
VIP ticket. People can't.
The mid tier coaches who need that can't afford it.
Nothing was included. You had an Uber everywhere you
went. If you wanted to go out to
dinner, it was 25 minutes away. The hotels are 400 and 500 bucks
a night. The flight to bum fuck Ohio is
another 600 because there's nothing direct there.

(48:56):
So I'm like cool, let's solve all these problems.
Let's bring real coaches that are actually doing real work.
I mean, I've had a couple of bigger names, but still real
coaches. Let's put it in Vegas where it's
easy as shit to fly into. Let's put it in places where
it's less than $200 a night to stay.
And let's give them all their food, coffee and water so don't
have to worry about going anywhere.
So solve all problems in one shot.

(49:16):
And then let's make it all aboutthe attendees.
Like the speakers are important.Don't get me wrong, the speakers
are what what attract people to want to show up.
It's kind of, but it's really more the event wouldn't exist if
the people didn't buy tickets. So if I don't take care of the
people buying tickets, I don't give a shit about like the
speakers already made their money.
Like like let's put like if I put you on stage in 2028, you,

(49:39):
how much money do you make? You don't need me to pay you
$5000 to show up. That's not that's not going to
be life changing money for you. And your job is not to be a
speaker on tour. You're a fucking coach.
So if I give you a hotel room and say here's 250 people who
will probably buy your course, if you have a curriculum, you're
welcome, and here's all the social media content to make you

(50:00):
look important also. That's all you need to show up.
And if that's not enough for you, fuck off.
Don't be on my stage. Yeah, I love it, dude.
I think it's the hard part aboutthat is this is where I see I
think a lot of people make this mistake and like an easier
example to explain it would be like so focused on, you know,
I've seen this person like shortform content versus never doing

(50:22):
long form content or never building relations, never really
focusing on customer service. Like things that are actually
going to cause word of mouth referrals, People's finding you
on Google and ChatGPT because they're searching certain things
versus just posting. That's going to be gone in 24
hours, which mind you, I do every single day.
So I'm not saying you don't do it, but it's the same thing
where like you're putting on this event not in a way of like

(50:43):
how much money can I make from this event?
Because truthfully, most people put on amazing events, don't
make shit at the event. Sometimes they lose money if
they break even. From the people I've talked to
that have hosted big events likeyours, most of the time they're
like, if I break even, I'm good.But the amount of relationships
they develop, the credibility they have, the trust they
instill in people because they're the one putting their

(51:05):
really like everything at risk to put on this event for the
people to gain value. You like that, man, that's
priceless. That is so much for you and your
career and your reputation to people and to speakers.
You know, coaches like myself who want to speak at places like
this, they like people who actually do it for the right
reasons, not people who, I mean,there's nothing worse than

(51:27):
getting an invite to speak somewhere and you're like, oh,
fuck, you know, especially if you don't realize they get
there. You're just like, you know, like
it's I just was at a smaller event.
It was more of a private event for Sam's group.
There's like 40 people, I think attendees.
But like, that kind of vibe is so hard to find in a large
setting. And there's really only a couple
people who've pulled it off, youbeing one of them, you know?

(51:48):
And I think that says like, that's so much worth so much
more for you and your career andyour person, like your, your
personality, your reputation than money.
You know what I mean? It'd probably make you more
money long term anyway. I'll make money as a coach and
if I don't then my model sucks and the guy I The first year I
lost 35,000 which I had to take out a loan from Bank of America
which I paid off. The second year I really fucked

(52:11):
up and I lost 75,000 because I mismanaged how much?
Because food and beverage alone cost me 100 like this.
This next year coming up, the bill for that was 157,000.
Now, you know, it's, it's three meals a day.
The, the food's awesome. It's, you know, I basically am
paying for double protein because it's all fucking fitness
coaches. But it's all like very good

(52:32):
food. It's, it's, and the reason why I
want it that way is because it's10 foot rounds.
So you get 10 seats in a round and you get people just talking,
They're eating food and they're talking to one another.
And Alan Aragon sitting with youand hanging out.
And Joey Munoz is hanging out with you.
And then eventually it's going to be coding Mcbroom that's
going to be hanging out with you.
And you know, it's, I've been toso many conferences, I'm sure

(52:53):
you have too, where the speaker literally speaks and then
they're nowhere to be found for the rest of the event.
They're gone. They might show up to the VIP
dinner because they're essentially being paid to do so.
Like I hate having to incentivize people to be people.
Like if, if you're too good to be a part of this thing, then
don't come in the 1st place. We don't want you there.
Like I don't want there was 1 exception.

(53:14):
It was because fan efforting is a fucking thing.
Was a single dad at the time. He was living in Vegas.
He was busy. He told me ahead of time he
couldn't hang out afterwards. I'm like, cool, thank you, thank
you for even coming. I know, I know your life is
nuts. He was about to move to Bali or
whatever he is now. So like he was the only one of
the only speakers I've ever had who never really hung out, but
he couldn't. But like, I've been, I've been

(53:35):
at conferences where you're likelooking forward to meeting these
people and then they literally Sprint off stage and it's like
they found a trap door somewhereand now they're back up in their
hotel room and you'll never see them again.
I just don't want that to be thevibe.
Like, granted, like, yes, you'regoing to mingle with all the
other coaches and there's coaches of all different levels
that come, but the speakers havea responsibility to that

(53:56):
audience, just like I have a responsibility to that audience.
So if I don't deliver and over deliver to you, why would you
come and spend 7 to $900 to comethe next year?
You're not going to and yeah, I mean, the second year I got
close to break even. I was like maybe $6000 down,
which that's totally fine with me.
I'll take that. Considering the year before

(54:17):
that, I, I literally was crying and calling everybody I knew
from the East Coast to borrow money.
And then Stripe actually gave mea loan.
I didn't realize you could do that.
But Stripe, by the way, if you ever need a loan, Stripe is the
best way to do it because they just take 20% of all your
transactions until you're paid up.
So it was awesome. So I, I had the loan paid off in
about 11 months, but then next year, like I already know what

(54:40):
my costs are to the penny. I overinflated all my costs by
at least 10% to make up for any inflation or any extras.
I know exactly what I'm going tocharge, you know?
And this was the scary part. I sold tickets at this year's
event for next year's event. And I was so worried about doing
it because I'm like, God forbid,God forbid something goes wrong

(55:01):
and I can't fucking host this thing.
I got a refund, 52 people, $648.And again, I'll do it like I'll
go on fucking Stripe and get another loan.
But I, I hopefully, I mean, everything is going to be OK,
but still like, yeah, you're talking about like massive
financial risk. And, and if nobody comes, you're
holding the bag and, and these are Vegas contracts.

(55:24):
This isn't fucking, I'm going tohost this at the local YMCA.
Like these people have you by the balls and they're going to
take you to court for every penny you owe them.
And it's a massive thing. And but again, like, if I don't
do that, who else is, who else is going to go do that?
Who else is going to do it the right way and give people gobs
of education and opportunity to connect and also, God forbid,

(55:45):
have a little bit of fun while doing it.
Because sometimes you go to these things and they're so
stuffy and people can't even be themselves half the time.
Whereas like on Tuesday night after the event's over, I take
people to a live band karaoke bar, you know, I'm up there
fucking hammered on God knows what substance at the time and
everybody's having a good time. There's 50 people there that
nobody has to worry about anything or paying for anything.

(56:07):
It's just it's. That's what I want it to be.
Yeah, Oh dude, it's so good. It's I often tell people that
are early on in their career too, that like, and I think this
is a good example of it for themto hear. 90% of success is
endurance. You got to be able to just like
basically get kicked in the nutsover and over and over again
before you finally go, oh wait, cover if you figure it out.

(56:30):
So it's which also is nice because it humanizes it.
It's like that means anybody really can if you're just
willing to get kicked, you know,and just that's how you learn.
You know, you don't learn through like just easily
crushing things and winning and be like that was simple.
Like it's not how it works. So man, like as, as we wrap up

(56:51):
this podcast, the the main thingI want to make sure that we
leave people with is the date, how to sign up all that because
this is going to air within as we're recording this within the
next few weeks. So I'm assuming they can sign up
for the next one in April. And I highly encourage it.
I'm planning on being there. I'm planning on bringing
whatever parts of my team can come.
So where can people find the information to actually go and

(57:12):
attend and be there? There's a the stupid thing I
didn't do was until this year was I finally started an
Instagram page for it. So there's it's at real dot
coaches dot Summit, which is theInstagram page, the website for
the event where you can get tickets and details and all that
stuff is real coaches summit.com.
I have 11 out of 12 speakers confirmed.

(57:33):
I'm just waiting on one more person.
So it's going to be 12 speakers.So the formats it's two people
concurrently speaking at the same time in two different
rooms. And then let's say you, you have
kind of a schedule that you wantto put together on your own.
If you miss one person one day, you can see them the second day
and they do the same presentation in both in on both
days. And then I give everybody the

(57:54):
recordings afterwards. So if you miss somebody, you're,
you're going to be emailed the recordings in about a month
after the event's over. And then also again, we have a
reception dinner Sunday night when you get in.
So we do dinner and a social that night.
The only thing that I don't pay for anymore is I used to pay for
booze, but now I just do a cash bar because not that many people
drink anyway. And it was costing me a fortune.

(58:15):
So now it's I, I do take care ofyour food, your water and your
coffee. But I, I, I, you're on your own
for drinks. Don't worry.
So am I. So we're all in it together.
But yeah, we do a social every night from like 5:30 to 7:00.
And then you can go out in Vegasif you want after that with
whoever you meet. And I do encourage people to do
that because I want people to like meet each other and go and
break off because a lot of people will show up to things

(58:36):
like in a click and they won't like separate themselves from
that click. So they'll sit at the same
table. It's like, we'll go meet some
other people. There's 280 people here, like
let's go and meet some other individuals.
And hopefully that happens. But I can't force that type of
stuff to occur. It's either you want it or you
don't. The sponsors that I get for the
event are all very practical andindustry specific.
So it's a lot of like like Bridge Athletic, turnkey coach

(59:00):
train heroic, like people like that, like companies that are
going to be synergistic to our industry supple, some supplement
companies spoken will show up most likely.
So yeah, I just if you're somebody who's like in that mid
to like low to mid tier, you don't really know where to get
that further level of education.You're in front of a fucking
computer for 12 hours a day and you have no connection to the

(59:22):
outside world. Like this is your opportunity
once a year to go and see who else is in this industry and
what they're doing. You're going to meet a lot of
people you probably connect withonline.
And it's just fun. Like it's not a boring 2 1/2
days. It's a very collaborative fun 2
1/2 days. And the, and the, and the, the
information on stage. And this is not like, because
it's my event. Like I, I'm a pretty smart coach

(59:45):
and there's like shit that I've heard on stage at my event that
I'm like, wow, I never actually knew that.
Like even like Alan Aragon this past year, like broke down
dieting adaptations to the molecular biological level that
I've never seen ever. Like he's never presented that
information anywhere else. Luca, great example.
Luca has been talking about business for the last five

(01:00:07):
years. Luca broke down hybrid training
to the point where he was handing you a program at the end
of that hour. Like he went back to his roots
and it was fucking awesome to see.
So like the people that come to my event are there because they
want to be there and they're going to over deliver because
they know I over deliver. So like it's just the spirit of
it is just so cool. Like eventually when I have you

(01:00:27):
speak in 20, because 2027 is going to be greatest hits if I
can survive. So that's going to be the best
speakers in the last five years and then 2028 will be the next
generation. So that'll be you if you want to
do it. And then so I already have like
AI have, I literally have a listof people for the next five
years after this. So maybe eventually I'll speak
at it. I have no idea.

(01:00:49):
I love that. It's good, man.
It's so good too. Because like, I mean, even just
Luke as an example, like I, I met him when I was 18.
He trained me, he taught me programming.
He, I literally worked out with him every single fucking day for
seven years. Yeah, like that.
I, I was a head trainer at his gym.
Like I, he took me on as an intern.
Then I built myself and then started running classes, then
small groups and then semi privates and like I flew around
and and did stuff with him to. Like I didn't know that that's.

(01:01:12):
Crazy. Yeah.
So like, it's sad that I've seena lot of younger coaches that
don't get experiences like that.You know, they didn't have to.
Like, I had watched DVDs about coaching internship because
that's what we had and I was starting so young, you know.
But like, it's cool that This iswhy I'm so passionate about
stuff like your event, because it's almost like non existent.

(01:01:34):
It's so hard for people to find the right people.
And when you say certain names and they don't know about them
or they haven't dug into what they've done, it's like this is
so valuable. You know, you gotta you gotta
listen to these guys. So anyway, man, this has been
phenomenal. I think this is a really good
example of really just real coaching, like what it's all
about behind the scenes, what people need to be focusing on.

(01:01:55):
Your event is such a great example and somewhere everybody
listening should be. So I'm going to put the link to
the event directly the Instagram, Aram's Instagram as
well. So you can check out his content
and his podcast and everything in the description of this
episode. So please do go check it out,
grab your tickets because every single time, every year I hear a
ton of coaches. I've had coaches on my staff go

(01:02:17):
and love it and like I've heard it from clients like 'cause we
coach a lot of coaches. Like it is a phenomenal event.
I can't speak highly enough about it and the way it's going
down. So I encourage everybody to do
that. Yudaram, thank you for spending
the the time with me today and Iappreciate you coming on bro.
Thank you. Thanks for the opportunity, man.
I really appreciate it.

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#84 - Aram Grigorian: Healthcare Isn’t Coming To Save You—Time To Save Yourself

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#84 - Aram Grigorian: Healthcare Isn’t Coming To Save You—Time To Save Yourself