Coaching : What Am I Doing Here?

I gave a bit of thought to being a Coach before I made the decision.  I’m sure many have.  Everybody has different reasons for wanting to do it.  Why someone else wants to do it is their private business.  Even if they are someone in my organization, it will still be their private business.  I respect everyone’s reason and I hope they respect mine.  I would like to share my thoughts on why I chose to do this.  Also, why Beachbody?  It all played a role in my decision.

I have chronicled my journey to fitness heavily through my blog.  Anyone can find it if they look for it but here it is:

Dick's Diet: The Tipping Point

First and foremost, I changed my life from a dangerous level of health to where I am today.  It didn’t start with Beachbody products…I didn’t use Shakeology or do P90X or Slim in 6 to get the excess weight off.  I had to go to a medically supervised diet to do it.  It worked.  It was also tremendously embarrassing.  For the first time in my life, I couldn’t manage my weight issues alone. 

All diets, applied with discipline and exercise, work to get the weight off.  The problem is that you can’t live your life on a diet and that is why diets fail.  You have to adapt to a new lifestyle.  A healthy lifestyle does NOT fail.  I am not Coaching to sell Beachbody products.  I am Coaching to sell that lifestyle…and that lifestyle is free.  It always has been…and it always will be.  If I try to sell that lifestyle, put a price on it and try to make money off of it, I then will feel like I am selfishly doing this as a pure profit venture and that will communicate loud and clear to all who look at my new role as Beachbody Coach.  I don’t think I can do that.

I had been maintaining my weight for better than two years when I decided to look at the Beachbody program.  It wasn’t introduced to me by a Coach…like many, I saw the infomercial one morning…and afternoon…and night.  That’s meant to be funny.  I have been blogging about my weight loss since 2008.  It became my life.  It changed me radically.  I blogged late in 2011 (and put on my Facebook page) that one of my 2012 New Year’s Resolutions was to do P90X.  In swooped my Coach, who was a Facebook friend.  I love my Coach dearly but I think even she will admit, I was an easy fish to pull out of the lake.  With her support, I joined the Challenge group and began to workout.  It was fun and the people were all great.  Some of us were on P90X, others did other stuff.  My Coach gave me guidance and encouragement the whole way.  But here is the bottom line…it worked.  The dedication to exercise and diet worked.

So why Beachbody?  Because the products worked and I got results.  Great results.  The DVD’s are very well put together.  The one thing I noticed was the way daily routines were sewn together to allow physical repair while working other areas.  The concept has been very thought out.  Compare Shakeology to some of the meal replacement shakes on the market.  It has no equivalent.  Just last night my wife received a complimentary meal replacement shake for a company called JuicePlus.  I looked at the nutrition guidelines and compared it to Shakeology.  No comparison, Shakeology blows it away.  I compared Shakeology to the shake I was on when I lost my 80 lbs medically…Optifast.  Honestly, Shakeology is better.  More nutrients and better quality ingredients.  That’s a fact. 

Are there other products?  Yes.  Zillions.  So, why Beachbody?  Because it worked for me.  That’s all you need to know.  People look at me and see someone who is using the system and changing himself.  You can look all day at the plethora of products on the market and try to decide which ones will work...or you can find the people who have had the results and use what they used.  One path is shorter and considerably less painful. 

As a Coach, I am giving away my knowledge on a lifestyle that changed my life…for free.  I have been doing it for years through my blog.  Everyone who knows me knows I will take fifteen to thirty minutes to tell anyone who wants to hear my story how I did it.  Beachbody products are the table legs that support that free lifestyle.  They make it easier.  In my mind, my job is to know when people truly want to commit to the lifestyle change and be ready with the products they need when that time comes.  I can only understand their readiness if I am making a real connection.  I can only make a real connection if I am sincerely helping them change to a new lifestyle.

Some of those people will want to help others like I have.  Why they want to do it is up to them.  I can explain the business opportunity easily and if that motivates them, great.  I can’t make the world do this…I can only try to find the ones that want to.  That’s how MY coach found me.

My personal opinion is that to truly do this well, you have to be living proof.  You have to be living proof of the system or the business.  I am proof of the former.  I think, but I don’t know, that by being the example, I may also someday be living proof of the business success.  I intend to always be proof of the lifestyle, and that is how I want to do this as a business.

As an Internet professional (my REAL job…lol) I know that every great offer or system has a “freemium.”  In my eyes, my “freemium” as a Coach is my knowledge and my Challenge groups.  I have never run one, my first starts June 1^st.  I will say this though.  I asked only a few people and almost all of them said yes.  A few asked to bring others.  Why?  Because every one of these people has seen me change my life and they want to know how I did it.  When I ask people verbally if they want to be in my Challenge group, they don’t look at me skeptically.  They look at me with guilt.  I have seen some of the saddest ‘no thanks’ you will ever see in your life.  They KNOW I did it.  They know I feel great.  They know I look great.  To say ‘no’ to me is embarrassing for many…but that is okay.  It really is, and I mean that.  In time, as I continue to be the example, they will seek me out.

The Challenge group introduces a free but exceptionally well designed Beachbody website for planning, execution and support in the fitness journey.  It's free.  The support from the group is free.  They are exposed for 60 to 90 days to all the Beachbody products.  If they are looking to change their lifestyle, you have two months minimum to point out the advantages with real live examples of success.  If they don't have an interest after that, you either have to reconsider your approach or let yourself off the hook.  Not everyone will want to change their lifestyle.

There has never been a better time for this opportunity.  If you do not understand how much of a national issue obesity is, then you need to do a little more research.  Offering a different lifestyle to counter the obesity epidemic for free should be a slam dunk.  There is no better time to offer this than right now.  If you can’t get someone to listen to the message, then you need to think about how you are packaging it.  Make sure you package your message properly.  This message is valuable and great…don’t wrap it in newspaper. 

This is not about selling Shakeology, it is about changing a mindset.  Once that mindset is changed, they will ASK you for Shakeology.

Here is an analogy.  The obesity epidemic is like a vast desert and nutrition and fitness are the water.  You are NOT selling the water.  You are giving it away for free.  You are selling the maps.  But, in order for anyone to believe they can find water with YOUR map…you need to look like you know where the water is.  You will have a hard time selling those maps if you are a dried out dehydrated mess.  You have to look like you found the thing that is free.  If you look like you make a trip to the oasis every day, they will seek you out.  Could they find it without you?  Sure.  The water is there.  But, the desert is large and you can die wandering around out there hoping to get lucky.  I’ll never sell the water.  I will, however, sell you a map.

I’m not looking for Coaches.  I am looking for Apostles and Evangelists who can be converted into Coaches.  I will know I have found a potential coach when I see someone embrace the lifestyle and exemplify the products.  Along the way, many will follow.  Some will continue to walk with me to the well and that’s fine too.

I love my new life of fitness and the opportunities that it presents.  Those opportunities don’t start OR stop at a business opportunity.  At fifty years old, I have been given years back.  I have been given opportunities to share more with my children because they won’t be carrying me or pushing me around in a wheelchair.  I have been given emotional freedom because I worry less about ailments and illness.  I have been given the ability to see things on this planet that you have to walk to and climb to truly appreciate.  No pictures for me…I want to touch the world.

I’m not selling that.  I can offer that to anyone for free.

Want to buy a map?

Four Reasons to be Fit Over Forty

“Yes, Dick, I get it.  You have been working out.  You are in the best shape of your life.  Good for YOU!”  And the next thought is, “Now leave me alone, I am fine the way I am.  There is no reason for me to care.”

Really?  I think there may be some things to consider.  Let me try because there are at least four good reasons to stay in shape over the age of Forty.

NOTE: if you are looking at the picture on the left...is this person truly 'old' or are they too big?  If this person were at a different fitness level...would they look younger?  Would they feel younger?

The first reason is:  The concept of ‘old’.

The mere “passage of time” does not make a person old.  If you saw a 1978 Pontiac TransAm (black with gold trim and a T-top of course…) that had only 3000 miles on it, it would most likely be in pristine condition.  Time does not make the car “old”.  If you had the choice between that car and a 1999 Toyota with 120,000 miles on it, you would probably take the TransAm (notwithstanding the idea that you might never be able to find parts for it).  It’s not the years, it’s the mileage.  An ‘in-shape’ fifty year old is no older than a thirty year old obese person, and he/she may in fact be ‘younger’…I found that out in Utah in the mountains.

‘Condition’ is what makes a person old.  It ages some before their time and gives others a lot more time.  Being fit over forty means you are in condition for the long haul.  

The second reason is:  Inactivity ‘ages’ the human body.

One of the key reasons that a body shows the symptoms of age is that our lives become sedate.  We stop moving around so much.  We are busy working and have families to monitor and parent.  So we sit at our desks, sit in the car (or train) to get home, eat a fast meal for dinner, plop ourselves into the car to drive the kids to their activities, and then sit there and watch them.  Then we go home to bed.

We sit.  We eat.  And sit.  And eat.

The symptoms of age in a human body are directly related to inactivity.  A human body regenerates most of its cells about every 6-7 months.  The body regenerates through metabolism.  As your metabolic rate slows, so does your body’s processes.  Your cells do not regenerate.  They hang around…literally.  Your skin begins to look older and wrinkled as it loses elasticity.  You retain less water.  You retain more fat.  All of your cells are getting older and staying with you for prolonged periods of time.  This leaves a nice nesting ground for illness and disease.

When you exercise regularly, your body rids itself of old cells and replaces them with newer and (if you are eating right) hopefully better cells.  New cells, and this makes sense to you, look younger than the old cells that you are metabolizing away.  Through proper conditioning, you can put the brakes on that physical perception of ‘old’ because you will be slowing all the ‘symptoms’ of what people think ‘old’ is.

The third reason is:  Inactivity increases the potential for illness…real illness.

Quality of Life.  We all have heard that phrase.  No one wants to think they will spend their last ten years in firmed or in a nursing home being cared for by others.  There are people who are there because they had an illness they couldn’t prevent, but there are many who just ‘let things go’.  As our cells stop regenerating, they become a breeding ground for illness.  They are great places for your body to store toxins that you pick up in everyday life from the food you eat to your environment.  Those toxins hang around those old cells and wreak havoc with the rest of your body’s functions.  Sometimes, those toxins become cancerous and they have to be removed or harshly treated.

A life of activity greatly increases the chances that you can bypass many illnesses that others suffer over the age of forty.  High blood pressure.  High cholesterol.  Type II diabetes.  Acid reflux.  Swelling of the limbs and joints.  Heart issues.  Knee and hip problems.  All of this can be directly correlated to a distinct pattern of inactivity.  You do NOT have to experience these things because ‘time has passed.’  That’s not how it works.  You don’t get these illnesses with the AARP card that you get at age fifty, they come to you because you have stopped moving.

The fourth and last reason is:  Being able to stay in the game.

Have you ever gone on a vacation or some kind of outing where some level of physical activity was required?  How many times do you see people over forty just look at it and say, “No, I think I will just stay here.”  Nothing ages you like simply feeling old.  And nothing makes you feel old like having to be left behind because you can’t keep up.  If you are ‘fit’ you can keep up.  Given the physical state of our nation, if you are ‘fit’ you can probably lead them, not simply ‘keep up.’

Life is a participation event.  You are either in or out.  When you opt for ‘out’ you have charted your own destiny.  We will live longer on average than any other humans before us.  We can either enjoy every minute with a high quality of life or we can painfully sit and watch others participate.

Is there anything worse than having to look at pictures of someone else’s vacation?

That’s what being ‘old’ really means.

Nothing will help you be ‘old’ more than NOT being physically fit.

Thanks for reading.  Have an awesome day.  Have a salad for lunch.  Go for a brisk walk or do a workout.   

You are here for the long haul.