Steven Nhan
Healthy Habits for the Busy CEO : In Conversation with Steven Nhan
Nutrition
Are you a busy CEO or business leader struggling to balance your demanding schedule with your health?
In this episode of Biz Bites, we dive deep into the critical link between optimal health and peak performance. Our guest, Steven Nhan, founder of the Ultimate Health Project, shares his inspiring journey from battling rheumatoid arthritis to becoming a leading health expert for top executives.
Discover how Nhan transformed his life and career by prioritising health and how he’s helping countless business leaders do the same. Learn practical strategies to overcome common challenges like time constraints and the all-or-nothing mentality. Nhan breaks down complex health advice into simple, actionable steps that fit into even the busiest schedules.
Offer: View their website . We offer a free 30-minute discovery session where we’ll map out a simple, results-driven plan to reach your health goals quickly. This is backed by our money-back guarantee! Don’t forget to mention Biz Bites when you make contact.
TITLE: Healthy Habits for the Busy CEO: In Conversation with Steven Nhan
Coming up in Biz Bites, healthy habits for the busy CEO. Unlocking success with Nhan Nhan. He’s the founder of the Ultimate Health Project. And he’s going to talk about how maintaining health is pivotal to achieving business success. Nhan shares his inspiring journey from battling rheumatoid arthritis to becoming a health expert, specialising in business leaders.
Learn practical strategies for integrating healthy habits into a healthy Hectic schedule, avoiding the all or nothing mentality and enhancing productivity and decision making CEOs and business leaders. You won’t want to miss this one. Boosting physical health can lead to peak performance. We also have a bonus segment.
You won’t want to miss with five essential elements of success details of that in the show. Of course, here’s a sample of what’s coming up. Your body can fight cancer and I’m not saying that I cured rheumatoid arthritis or anything like that. There’s no cure for that. I’m not saying that I did, but I had a belief first that I had a belief in myself that I’m going to figure out a better way.
Business owners that are, you know, like really mindful of that, they understand that like the number one thing I’ve got to do in my business really well is to make decisions. And in order to make great decisions, I’ve got to be in the right state of mind. And in order to be in the right state of mind, In order for me to change my psychology, I’ve gotta change my physiology.
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Now, let’s get into it.
Well, hello everyone. And welcome to another episode of Biz Bytes. And I’m, I’m actually really excited about the episode today because we’re going to talk about, um, probably some stuff that I’m not that great at, which is, um, how health benefits work. affects your business. Um, and, uh, what better person to talk to than Steven who, uh, has done it all in the past is his own gyms.
He’s, he’s learned all of the stuff about health and fitness. And now he’s working more specifically with business leaders, uh, to help them improve things. I’ll let Steven, uh, explain exactly what it’s all about, but welcome first of all, to the program. Yeah. Hi, Anthony. Thanks for having me. I’m excited to chat.
So why don’t you give me a little bit of a, uh, an intro as to what you’re doing these days. Um, that’s, you know, yeah, give us, give us that feedback. Yeah, yeah, sure. Sure. Anthony. So, uh, uh, so I, uh, I run the ultimate health project and, uh, really what it is, is it’s a, um, you know, a company’s philosophies about designing nutrition programs that are results driven.
You know, with a money back guarantee and, uh, the, the audience that we’re trying to serve is, is business owners, business leaders, and business professionals trying to teach them that, you know, like they can be the best and be world class at what they do, which is scaling their, their business. You know, growing their wealth and things like that, but they don’t have to sacrifice their health at the same time.
So, um, and, uh, it kind of goes back to my own, you know, and this has been through my own experience, you know, in, uh, growing a business as a business owner or being involved in multiple businesses and, and paying some price for my health. So, um, yes, I’m passionate about, you know, like that’s, that’s really my focus right now, our focus, and we’ve been doing it for 12 years now.
Servicing, you know, like working with thousands of people in helping them find that breakthrough. So I love that. I mean, it’s, it, and I think the important thing that, and I don’t want to completely gloss over this is that there’s plenty of people out there that I’ve heard in the past that will, that have had a, You know, fitness focus all their life and they come in and they tell people, Oh, you should be doing X, Y, Z.
The difference of what you’ve said there is, is that you’ve been there and done that in terms of running a business and understand what it’s like to, to be that business owner, to, um, be managing teams and to not be managing yourself. And I think that’s an important starting point because you’re coming from a place of knowledge, uh, in what it’s actually like.
Yeah, totally. Yeah. I’ve had to go through, uh, I’ve had that typical story, Anthony, I had to go through and experience the struggles, you know, of the price that you pay, you know, of, uh, when it comes to your health. And I think the thing that, uh, I think about as a business owner, Anthony, I really think about is, I think, You know, I think business owners go through two stages of their life, right?
The first stage of their life, um, you know, and this is my personal experience is you go through an accumulation stage of your life where you accumulate wealth, you accumulate things, and then you go through another stage of your life, which I believe as a business owner, which is contribution, you know, and I think, you know, where those two intersect is, is really my passion, you know, is making sure people realize that, uh, You don’t have to sacrifice, you know, like other areas of your life, just because you’re going through the accumulation stage.
And we all go through accumulation and I, I’m still going through it, you know, and it’s not that I’m not, you know, but it’s the question for a business owner, a business leader, a business professional is at what price. And do you really have to sacrifice other areas of your life? Is that a dominant thought that you have right now?
You know, because most business owners or business leaders I work with, That is a story they tell themselves that it’s okay. You know, like I have to make sacrifices and yes, you do have to make sacrifices, but at what price are you willing to pay for your health? That’s the question. And is it worth the trade off?
Yeah, it’s, it, it absolutely is a, is a real question that, um, business owners, uh, ask themselves. I know I’ve certainly done that myself where you are, um, In the midst of wanting to do a whole lot of things with your business. And so it means extra hours that you’re, you’re putting in. It means you’re sacrificing, you know, time and other facets of your life.
And usually the first thing to go is worrying about. Whatever has making you healthy in the first place. There’s, you know, barely leaving your, I feel like I’m, I feel like I’m reading my diary of just today. Uh, it’s barely leaving, it’s barely leaving your desk, um, and eating, you know, probably not the best food.
Um, in, in order to think that you’re achieving more by, because you’ve eliminated that, you know, that time that could have been spent on there. And I guess that’s, that’s the, The big question is as well, going, if you’re eating better, if you’re exercising and doing other things to help in terms of your mindfulness.
Are you getting more out of your day as a result of sacrificing, if sacrificing becomes the wrong word, of, of utilizing your time, uh, to make sure you’re doing those things in the first place. Are you getting more out of the rest of your day? And I think the answer is yes. Isn’t it? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That’s, it’s like an, an analogy that I.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like a lot of clients when they come to us that I ask them is like, what’s more important in your business right now? Right? Because it’s business leaders that I’m talking to. Is it more important to, to sharpen the saw or to keep soaring? You know? And both of us, you know, both of us, we know the answer to that.
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com. au details in the show notes below. Now back to biz bites. You can’t keep soaring, right? And that’s the way they look at scaling your business or being your wealth or, you know, like, you know, business leaders, what they’re focusing on, you know, but, um, But I might, Anthony, I don’t know if this is going to be helpful, but maybe I can share a little bit of backstory in my own journey because it was really my, you know, this was really the aha moment for me, you know, so a little bit over 12 years ago, before we started this business, you know, like before we started the ultimate health project was, Um, I got diagnosed with a health condition.
You know, I got diagnosed with, uh, you know, at a very young age in my early twenties, I got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. Now, for some of the people listening, if you’ve never heard of rheumatoid arthritis before, it’s an autoimmune disease. It’s, you know, like, uh, it triggers inflammation. Your immune system sends the wrong message to your brain.
It triggers some sort of inflammation. And as a result of that, you know, I had inflammation, you know, I had chronic pain in my neck, in my hip, in my ankle. And I went from someone in my early teens that was, you know, um, very ambitious, very driven. You know, I, I was brought up in like an entrepreneur family, just say an average class, uh, family, um, nothing extraordinary, but my father came as a migrant with nothing and built his own small business.
So he told me a lot about entrepreneurship. So my focus was really, I was really driven and ambitious in my early twenties. And, uh, I was working out a lot at that time because I understood that, oh, you know, to be a great entrepreneur, I always had the thought that, okay, you’ve got to make sure you take care of your body right now, long story short, um, my friends were partying, you know, at what most young 20, something I would do, you know, you know, And at that stage of my life, I graduated from university.
I got a really high paying corporate job and I thought that was the dream for me. You know, that was what I always wanted to find something to either have a high income paying job or start some sort of business. Long story short, uh, within a couple of weeks, um, I got diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis and I was debilitated.
I got to the point where. I was barely able to walk without a walking stick. And, uh, to me at that stage, it was the lowest point in my life that I thought, you know, like, you know, how worse could this get? You know, I was driven, I was ambitious. I was career focused. I was focused in building wealth. My friends were partying.
I was, you know, trying to stay active by working out. And, um, and then I get diagnosed with this condition and, uh, it, it really debilitated me, not just physically, but mentally at the same time, I got to the lowest point of my life. I ended up leaving that job, that corporate job that other people would have said it was a dream for them to get that kind of job, like straight out of university, but it’s just because I worked really hard for it.
That’s the truth of the matter. And, um, I spent a couple of months not really doing much, Anthony, and it was so not in my character, you know. And, uh, you know, being really driven and focused on, you know, learning and growing and everything like that. And I really got to a stage where I felt like a victim, you know, I felt like I’m doing everything I can.
And, um, you know, like that why me mentality. Right. And I got to a stage where I realized that I, you know, I can keep taking, you know, These really strong medications and it was really just a band aid and at one point, my doctor did say to me, my specialist said to me, okay, Nhan, you’ve got to take these medication, but you’ve got to get a blood test every single month.
And I was like, why do I have to get a blood test? And he would say that, you know, because these drugs that you, that I’m on, that you’re on, they could potentially, you know, like they’re very harmful. They could potentially damage your liver and kill you. And so it just didn’t make sense to me, Anthony. I got to a point where this was the tipping point for me, where I realized.
Yeah. I keep going down this path, which I’m not sure where it’s going to lead me. Well, I’ve got to do something about it. And I made that commitment that day that, you know what, I’m going to try and figure this out. I’m going to see if there’s any other ways that I can figure this out, you know, without, you know, um, taking these strong medications.
Anyways, long story short. I, I went on a bit of a journey and I made a commitment first. I decided in my mind that, you know, your body can fight cancer. And I’m not saying that I cured rheumatoid arthritis or anything like that. There’s no cure for that. I’m not saying that I did. But I had a belief first that, I had a belief in myself that I’m going to figure out a better way, you know.
And I went on a bit of a self discovery journey. It was a, it was a, It was a personal growth journey for me really was, you know, and I went out there and I seek the best in the world. You know, I went and I became a part of, um, you know, like a Tony Robbins, he’s got a mastermind called platinum partners. I became a part of that, you know, like he’s coaching mastermind and I spent a lot of money doing that.
And, and I did that because I realized that if there was one person that’s going to help me get through this, it was myself and my mindset. And I got around people and as they say, you know, like who you hang around with is who you become. I got around really extraordinary people that forced me, that forced my hand to think bigger, you know?
And I made a commitment that I’m going to go and figure this out. And I understood that, you know, like as you feed your body more good, you know, as you feed your body good nutrition, you’re You naturally move towards wellness. Like your body was made to fight all sorts of diseases. It can and it will, you know, so I went on a bit of a journey and, you know, through trying all different things, I discovered ways that, you know, like I started to, you know, feed my body with good nutrition, follow different modalities and my body and naturally I started to move towards wellness.
And then I started to regain my strength and my mobility and everything like that. Now, huge disclaimer, I’m not saying that I’ve got the cure for any sort of disease. Um, and this was just my own experience. And through that, Anthony, as well as that, I started to get incredible results, you know, through that, and I developed a passion and uh, you know, that, uh, and then this became my calling, you know, and being an onshore, you know, like, and then I got involved in, you know, a business and I started to scale that business.
And then I started to go back into a bit of a, you know, like remission because of the stress and my focus and just scaling a business again. And this was where the intersection happened for me. Where I learned that, you know, like fulfillment is really about you finding that intersection between your health and your wealth, you know, and I think sacrificing that is the biggest mistake that you can make, you know, hence why I mentioned that at the beginning.
And so fast forward now, you know, we’ve, you know, we, um, We’ve had months where we would service over 500 clients a month and teaching them that like success without fulfillment, which is your health could be the ultimate failure for you, you know, and so now it’s become a part of our mission and the ultimate health project is to find and teach people again that you don’t have to sacrifice your health, you know, if you really want to reach your potential.
You know, so I love that. I mean, thank you firstly for sharing that, uh, sharing, sharing that story and that personal journey. I think it is often over the, these hardships that we encounter that some of the. best things happen. And, um, that must’ve been a, an incredibly difficult, um, realization to, at such a young age to have something, uh, as an autoimmune disease, and then to work out what you wanted to do about it, because you’re right.
I think one of the things I want to pick up on that you talked about is, is this idea of victim mentality. And it’s something that occurs in lots of aspects of, of business, isn’t it? I mean, we’re, um, I know we’re at the point where we’re Um, you know, there’s, uh, there’s lots of talk about interest rates, there’s lots of talk about, you know, the economy going, you know, not as great as it could do and all those kinds of things.
And if you, you can easily play the victim of all of that, or you can look for the opportunities. And, and I think that’s a very important lesson to be able to learn out of that. Um, you know, as much as anything else, isn’t it? Yeah, totally. Yeah, of course, you know, um, and we can all, we all go in that space, you know, like, so do I at times, you know, but I think being mindful of that is very important, right?
It’s like, you know, are you focusing on the things you can control or you can’t control? And at that point when I was being the victim, I was focusing on the things that I can’t control. You know, like most, you know, so, and I think that’s the, the, the, the important part of that is, uh, the mindfulness, the, the realization of the space that you’re in and, you know, having, as you have spoken to many, uh, and work with many, many businesses over the years now, um, How often do they actually have, do they need to have that realization before they come to you?
Or is there a way that you can provoke that? I mean, how are we, you know, I’d love it if people are sitting there and listening to us, listening to this conversation right now and sort of nodding to themselves going, hang on, this is, this is me. I’m in this situation right now. Um, but you know, how easy is it to get people to switch that on and to understand that they’re playing the victim, that they’re, they’re not putting their health and wellbeing first.
Yeah, that’s a good question, Anthony. And, and the reality is this, here’s the reality, right? Like, I think most people take massive action in their lives for two reasons only. There is only two reasons, right? Um, number one is because of desperation. You know, desperation, which is usually most cases, you know.
So the two reasons are desperation or inspiration, and, um. I wouldn’t say my audience, but I would say majority of people that when it comes to health, because health is one of those things, you know, if you look at like the time management theory, it’s like urgently important. Health is one of the things that’s important.
We know it’s important, but it’s not urgent, you know? So unless you’re desperate, like unless you’re, you’ve got, you know, you’re about to be diagnosed with some sort of terminal illness, like cancer or something like that, all of a sudden it becomes urgent and important, you know? But most people. You know, so most people are acting because of desperation, not inspiration.
Inspiration is when you meet someone, and I would say that, you know, because I don’t work with, you know, like that kind of audience, the people I’m, not that I don’t work with, but people don’t come to me when they’re at that stage. I would say most of my audience that I work with, uh, at the inspiration stage, they’re a business owner, they’re overworked, they’re overstressed.
Um, or they understand, like they understand that to be a great business owner, you’ve got to make great decisions because your decisions shape the destiny of your life. And to make good decisions, there’s a mind and body connection, you know, like think of a time where you’re not functioning at your best, right?
You don’t feel your best because you’re, you know, like, or your, your mind is not where it should be. The decisions that you make, it’s very foggy, you know? And so most people, you know, really, um, Business owners that are, you know, like really mindful of that. They understand that like the number one thing I’ve got to do in my business really well is to make decisions.
And in order to make great decisions, I’ve got to be in the right state of mind and in order to be in the right state of mind, you know, for me to change my psychology, I’ve got to change my physiology, which is the way that I move my body. Hence why, you know, but how much, but how easy is people to make that leap, right?
That’s what, that’s, um, because that’s what I’m trying to understand for is, is in your experience, is it, uh, is there enough of a percentage of people that are for you that are, you know, obviously you’ve built a business over this. Are they coming to you because they’ve had that realization and that’s where they’re there?
Or do they need to be. Prompted into that realization. Yeah. Uh, I think a lot of people, they have to, they have to get to a point where, uh, they’re a little bit dissatisfied, you know? Um, it’s, it’s totally true. They have to get to a point where they’re carrying too much weight. For example, it’s a common thing, you know?
We have business owners that are just, you know, they’re sick and tired of like not hitting their goals and carrying excess weight that makes them feel tired. And, um, but, um, yeah, most people have to get to a point, you know, and it’s usually like some form of desperation where they feel like, okay, that’s enough is enough.
You know, like, you know, I need to take control of this, you know? So, um, most people don’t act out of inspiration. That’s the bottom line, you know, especially when it comes to business leaders or business owners that we’re talking about, right? So, because their priorities elsewhere and I get that, you know, like they’re trying to be world class at something else, you know, they’re not trying to be world class at their health, you know, they just know that it’s important or I’m biased.
But it is an extension of their, their business. There’s no question about that, you know, so if they want to become a high performing individual, they can’t pour garbage into their body expecting it, you know, like expecting their body to drive like a Ferrari pouring ethanol. That’s the, you know, that’s the mentality.
Yeah. I think it’s, it’s, um, It’s interesting to me because when I reflect back on, on my career, I certainly have some, uh, visions of the early days of my career where, uh, people would sit, for example, with a bottle of a two litre bottle of Coke on their desk and would polish off that bottle. By the end of the day by themselves, um, you know, if they’ve barely left the desk, in fact, in those days you could still smoke at your desk, which obviously not advisable for anybody anywhere.
But, um, I certainly wasn’t, but it was that were the, that were the, uh, that were the days when people would smoke inside and, um, you know, so they’d be smoking and drinking Coke. And, and so that was kind of an extreme that I’ve seen, um, you know, in, in, uh, in a work environment, but it is. It is difficult to, uh, to pull yourself out because I think that that mentality is.
Of, well, do I go for the walk or the one hour fitness session or hang on, I’ve just got to do this first. And suddenly that hour has disappeared. Right. And that opportunity, that window that you had isn’t there anymore. And I think that must be the trap. And, uh, you know, again, I’m speaking from my, for myself here that I know it’s the trap that you can fall into very easily.
Um, you, you lose that sense of time and suddenly you’re trapped in and suddenly you found that excuse once, twice, three times, and suddenly it’s a permanent excuse. Yeah, that’s correct. And I think, I think the biggest challenge is this, Anthony, that I’ve experienced, right, is business owners seem to have this all or nothing mentality, right?
Um, it’s just because it’s served them, you know, they’ve gone all in, in like running their business or committed to this, you know, or, you know, like being a, like high performing business leader or executive. They have this, like, I find with my clients, the biggest mindset shift that has to happen. It’s taking away that all or nothing mentality, like Nhan, if I commit to this, it means that I have to dedicate, I have to take out an hour of my time, which I don’t have time anyway to dedicate in whether like my food or my nutrition or I have to meal prep, I have to do all these things or I shouldn’t do it at all.
You know? And I think that’s the biggest shift that’s going to happen first. You know, that’s the story that they tell themselves that I, like, is it worth an hour of my time, like an hour a day to go and work out, for example, now I don’t focus on working out. Um, but that’s the mentality they have when they come to me.
That’s the story that they have. Like, is it going to take me a lot of time? Because naturally these people are time poor. Most people like yourself, Anthony, you’re time poor. So expecting you to manufacture more time is not the right mentality. Rather the right mentality you’ve got to ask yourself is what’s better?
Is 50 percent of something better than 100 percent of nothing? Right. And so what I mean by that is, you know, like, you know, like you’ve got to find a way to simplify it, you know, simplify, automate, you know, we like to say that, you know, like we want to try and I don’t want to say that I’m going to outsource your health because you’ve got to put in the work, you’ve got to do the exercises, you’ve got to change your eating habits, I can’t physically do that for you.
If I could, I would produce some sort of product that would do it for you. But, you know, You’ve got to find the balance. The balance between that is to simplify that process, you know, and you can do that in all different ways. You know, for example, a lot of our clients, when they come to us, the first thing I’ve got to do with them is you’ve got to simplify one of your meals.
Okay. Now this is not going to take you more time. It could actually generate more time for you and I’ll just give you an example. If people just had the mentality of, you know, like picking one meal of the day, let’s just say breakfast, right? How you start your day is really important. It sets the momentum, the tone for the rest of the day, right?
If you start your day by eating horrible food like pizzas, donuts, you know how it goes down, right? And the same with your attitude, right? If you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, that day seems to go downhill, right? So a lot of our clients, we say, okay. You know, like the biggest lever you want to pull, if you want to, if you want to change your body and your physical wellbeing and getting better shape is pick one meal of your day and try and simplify it, simplify it in the sense of make it so that it’s quick, right?
Make it so that you don’t have to think about it, which reduces decision fatigue, but more than that, make it so that you don’t have to. Tempt yourself to eat the wrong kinds of food. So you prepare yourself. That’s really what it is. And it’s as simple as that. And some of the people, they realize that, oh, okay, if that takes five or 10 minutes, I can do it.
You know, that’s possible, right? So for example, like having a smoothie for breakfast, that’s such a great way for you to get in a lot of nutrients in five minutes, and you don’t have to think about it. And if you automate it, as in automated, as in pick that and make it every single day, you’re less likely to leave room for error for you to have a bacon and egg for you to eat, you know, to have a coffee and have a muffin or whatever it is, a toast for breakfast.
If you automate that meal and you’re actually simplifying your life, that’s what you’re doing. You know, but the mentality of most people that I’m working with, the audiences, it’s not that they have a all or nothing mentality because they’ve applied in other areas and they’ve been successful. There’s no questioning that, you know, it’s worked for them, you know, but that mentality doesn’t work when it comes to transform your health, because you really will do all or nothing, you know, and most do nothing.
You know, cause they’re time poor and yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s absolutely true, isn’t it? And it’s that, and it is that all or nothing mentality. And the problem is as well that with that all or nothing mentality is that if you go all in, if you make that decision, right, I’m going all in on my health, um, It’s often not realistic because things happen in your life that put a bump in the road for that, for, you know, it could be as simple as you catch the flu.
And so you’re in bed for a week. Um, so therefore the things that the habits that you were forming and whether it’s going to the gym or a walk or whatever it is, those habits can suddenly, they, they take a break for a period of time. And. then it’s easy. It’s, it’s more difficult to go back to those solid routines, particularly if you’re feeling fatigued because of health or other things.
So it’s that. All or nothing mentality. That’s why I imagine that so many diets fail as well, because they go all in and then there’s a point where it stops and unless it really, truly has psychologically set in and it is something that you enjoy and, and cannot see yourself changing. It’s so easy to fall back to those old, old habits.
Yeah, totally. Yeah. Like, and we know this, you know, we know that the, the most important thing when we do something is adherence. Can you adhere to it long enough, you know, and the person that can adhere to it, it works, you know, there’s thousands of diets out there. It’s not that there’s none, like the strategy is there.
Like you can’t say the strategy is not there, it is there, but I think the different, the biggest part is the implementation. No question, Anthony, implementing it first, getting it going. And number two, can you keep it going? How important is, is habit forming? Because I mean, that’s an idea that extends beyond, you know, your, your health and fitness.
It is anything that you want to change. It’s changing it. It’s changing a habit. That’s not an easy thing to change. And how much time do you have to spend from your perspective on trying to make people come to terms with that concept? Yeah, I think the first, like, uh, I think the first thing is, you know, like for, for most people, because especially in my space, there’s just so much noise.
Like when you talk about like all different protocols in order to get in better shape, in order to improve your mental performance, there is so many different things that are trending, you know, so number one is people really need to first, you know, identify like the right path for them. And as we know, when it comes to getting in shape, there’s no one diet for everyone.
So that’s the hardest part first, you know, number one is figuring out what is the plan that’s going to fit into your lifestyle. And the one thing that I hate, like, you know, I want to make sure that I, that, you know, like you’ve got to make sure that, you know, like you’re not working for the diet, that the diet works for you when it comes to nutrition.
You know, so it has to fit into your lifestyle and if it doesn’t fit into it, because the name of the game is adherence and consistency. It’s like in business. It’s like in anything like that is the person like slow and steady is going to win the race, not implementing lots of things, fasting, cold plunge, whatever’s trending.
There’s so many things, so different, many different modalities. Now, most people that come to me, they have this tool belt of all these sorts, like everything, Anthony, they’ve got a bit of everything, you know, and they’re not even doing. The basics, right. You know, and if you can’t even get the basics, right, don’t worry about the advanced stuff and all the other things that other people are trying, but you hear, you know, other people trying.
So I think spending, like the way that I look at it is the first, like we take our clients through stages and the first say 21 days, it’s really just habit forming. Anthony, I want to give you the least amount of things to do. Right? And to see whether you can adhere to those things first, right? Because if you can’t do that within the first 21 days or whatsoever, it is right.
There’s no specific, like, I don’t believe like there’s a fixed rule where it’s 21 days to form a habit. Um, but I think the first stages is trying to do getting back to basic and doing the basic things to get you to build momentum, like that two minute rule. You know what I mean? Like just. Make a commitment to do the very little things first until you build up the momentum.
And then I think after that, the second stage is the execution of the implementation. To be honest with you, the biggest thing that stops someone from continuing is because they get distracted with something else. There’s another shiny object, there’s another diet, there’s something else that someone else is doing.
And now they’re deviated from that strategy. So I think having, You know, like being able to implement and continue to implement and see it through is the hardest thing, which is, and I think the only way to overcome that is, is either, you know, you try and figure out yourself or you have some level of accountability because the person that breaks the most amount of promises is not to other people.
It’s to ourselves. How many times have we told ourselves that. This year is the year that we’re going to change our health. We’re going to change our relationship. We’ve said that many times to ourselves is because as human beings, we can be self destructive sometimes. And the reality is if we don’t have any accountability behind that, it’s very easy to let ourselves off the hook.
Like you and I, Anthony, how many times have we said that there’s an area of our life that we know we need to focus on, but we’ll start it next week, or we’ll start it next month, or we’ll start it next quarter. And before you know it, like Christmas is around the corner and you’re like, I’ll start it next year.
And that’s when the new year’s resolution rolls in. Right. So, yeah, it’s, it’s interesting, isn’t it? I mean, I, I, I’m, I’m betting that everyone’s sitting there listening into this right now. We’ll be thinking, gee, there was something I said I was going to start last month and now we’re into the following month and, um, I haven’t started it yet.
And it, and it is, um, it is a difficult thing. Personally, but you want to what then, uh, and, and I’m interested in your perspective on this and how that translates across to what people are doing in business. Because if you get your own, uh, habits, uh, wrong in a personal sense, forget the fact that, you know, if you, obviously if you’re eating, as you’ve said before, if you’re eating badly and not exercising, then the chances that you’re going to be performing at an optimal level and business are very small.
But putting that aside for the individual, what is that also saying about how people are treating the mentality of their business itself? How is that then translating across in terms of expectations of team of clients? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I’m, I’m biased, Anthony. Like I really believe like, you know, like how you do anything is how you do everything.
And it’s kind of like, you know, it’s kind of like the way that you show up, for example, Anthony, it’s very hard for any business leader to show up. And it’s the same as leadership, not even in your business. It’s like leadership in raising kids. You know, it’s like, you know, for me, when I raise my kids, you know, Anthony, I try and bring them up and, you know, like any parent, we try and instill good habits in them.
And then they come home from like, you know, like school and they bring these habits home. And then you wonder to yourself, like, Where did you learn that from? Oh, you know, I learned that off my friend. So I spent all of these years instilling these habits and then because of the influence of the people around you.
So, and as we know, you know, like as any parent would know, you can tell your kids what to do, but I don’t get like, they, they’re not inspired by that. They’re inspired by you showing them what to do, you know? And I think that’s really important is the same when it comes to how they raise your life. You know, which is like, how are you showing up?
And is there a version of how you do anything is how you do everything in your life? You know, like, are you showing up to your team members and the people around you like high energy, like driving, you know, like being a person that’s got, that’s holding themselves to a high standard, you know? And I think that’s really important because if you want to elevate, you know, like certain standards of your life, you’ve got to make sure you, you don’t compromise this area, right?
Because it’s very hard to, to be successful. And the way that I like to see these. Like you’re swimming against a current if this is an area of your life that you don’t have control over yet, you know, and I know that it is and it’s about, you know, like you taking control of this area of your life, which is your health because it’s going to shape an aspect of your life of who you’re going to become at the same time, right?
The discipline, whatever it is, the mentality, the commitment you make to yourself to becoming a better version of yourself is very, very important, you know, and especially as anyone that’s a leader, right? Is showing up as your best version. I wanted to just, uh, remind everyone before we move on that, um, we’re going to have a bit of bonus content, uh, at the end of this, so there’ll, there’ll be links as to how to access that.
But it’s the, uh, five elements of success that, that, uh, Nhan’s going to talk to, but that’ll be in the bonus content. So we’ll talk about that a little bit later on, but, um, what I did want to ask you about was this whole idea of this is a, as a, as a business, um, I The personal journey, how do you turn this into a business that resonates?
Cause clearly you’ve got team and you’ve got people that, and you’ve been doing this for a while now. How, how easy was it to turn that into a, into a business itself? What are the obstacles that you come, that you come over? Because we talked to some extent about them in that you need people, you know, like any business, you need to make people realize that they need you, um, before, you know, for the business to be a success.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good question, Anthony. So I think, um, I think for my journey, it was a little bit, uh, you know, like, uh, it was, uh, it was very organic for me in a sense that because I had to go through my own personal struggles and I had my own personal transformation. So I think that was the real advantage for me, but it really taught me something in business as well.
You know, it really taught me the difference between like, Um, you know, someone, you know, being very good at trying to sell something compared to someone that is a very good storyteller at the same time, you know, and what I mean by that is, you know, when it comes to even training some of my own guys, like, you know, where I pinpoint, you know, that that’s allowed us to scale our business was, you know, Um, you know, at the very early stages, I started to get a, you know, like amazing, you know, like personal health results at the same time, you know, within a very short time from like, I think my, my, you know, I went from, you know, being over 20 percent body fat, being a business owner to like, less than, you know, like getting to like under 15 percent body fat and, you know, My, my, my journey, my results alone, like was really speaking volume for a lot of people, you know, and I did that within 12 weeks and people around me, my circle of influence, they really knew me like working out for like 10 years and they never see me get those results within 12 weeks, let alone the last 10 years.
And so that’s really where my journey started to take off when people around me, they started to reach out to me to ask me for some help with some coaching and some advice and everything like that. And that’s really where our business started, you know, we started working with the people around us. And eventually, you know, because the nature of especially our business, it’s results driven, like it’s very noticeable once you start getting results.
And what really helped me was I just became an ambassador of my own business. You know, I went out there and obviously I experienced amazing results. I knew that, like how important it is to optimize your health and the benefits it brought, you know, towards your business, towards other areas of your life.
That, uh, really allowed me to really scale my business. I don’t want to say naturally, but it allowed, it made it easier for me to go out there. And I really felt like I was going out there telling people a story, sharing my experience, you know, and I think that’s the difference. That’s what separates. You know, someone from being good and great in our business definitely is, are you a great, you know, like, are you great at going out there and sharing stories and inspiring people through your journey and through your client’s journey, or are you really out there just trying to sell a product or service, you know?
And I really look at us and our team as storytellers. We’re going out there inspiring you through all the stories that we’ve accumulated, you know, and, and that is our goal right now is to help, you know, transform the lives of other people. And people naturally buy that, to be honest with you, Anthony, I don’t care about what we’re bringing to the marketplace, not that I care, but really what they care about is like, can I get those results, you know, and can that be me?
You know, that’s really what we’re selling. And it’s such an important idea because it’s where I see so many businesses fall over is that they’re selling someone else’s dream. And if you’re not selling a dream that resonates with the potential client and they can’t see themselves in it, then you’re not going to be very successful.
And I think it’s, um, too often that we put obstacles in the way of people not seeing the vision. You know, there’s being them and, um, and we also get confused by perhaps what we, particularly in the way of health that you see on, on TV, you know, there’ve been. health and fitness shows of various natures over the year, but they’re usually very narrow, narrow focus.
And they’re usually about melodrama, um, in, in order to create that. And most people don’t see themselves in that situation. They might be entertained by watching it, but they don’t see themselves in that situation. And I think that whole idea of storytelling is, is such an important one, isn’t it? And, and being able to continually create those stories that are relevant to the individual.
Um, And, and having that bank of stories that you can tell to people, because I imagine that’s being a part of the process for you is, is identifying the right stories to tell to the right people. Yeah, I, um, I, I think that’s so true, you know, and I think, like, I think especially you Anthony, what you’re working on, what you’re working towards, like, you know, the value you bring to business owners, I think there has to be a platform where you can really share your message, right?
And I’m a geek from marketing, Anthony. I think, you know, you have to be able to be a great storyteller or market your business in a way in order to, in order for it to scale. And that’s played a crucial part in terms of our business, you know, because we’re, you know, we’re all storytellers, you know, storytellers and building relationship.
That’s the business we’re really in. So, um, So tell me, tell me this as well, when you’re working with people, um, yes, you’re coming in and you’re, you’re working with people and you know, you’ve got them to the point where they’re talking about their personal health journey, but how much time do you spend talking about the business side of things for them as well?
Yeah, I, um, I’m not going to lie, Anthony. I, uh, even though like our business is focused on like nutrition coaching, coaching them with their nutrition, but I think 80 percent of, you know, like 80 time at the beginning is, uh, really focusing on mindset, you know, and like their mindset affects everything, you know, and obviously after speaking about mindset, it affects, you know, we’re talking about their business and everything like that.
And most are driven by. You know, most of my audience, they’re driven by what is it going to take for me to become, for me to get, you know, like for me to reach like my peak potential, peak potential in my business, peak potential in other areas of my life. And, uh, to be honest with you, health is important again, but it’s not usually A priority at the beginning, you know, because I don’t see the benefit of that yet, you know, so to answer your question in short, um, a lot of the times we’re talking about business, a lot of the times because I have to, I have to, um, a lot of the times they have to see the benefit of how is this going to affect Are there areas of my life and is it, is it worth my return investment?
You know, no question. We know the answer is yes. You know, but how is it going to amplify my life? That’s really the question, you know, AKA business, you know? And so, um, yes, half of the time or even most of the time we’re talking about, you know, like, You know, what kind of ROI are they going to get in their business and in their relationship, in other areas of their life, in their ability to make good decisions.
For example, how is that going to be affected before they really commit to playing all out? You know, because people need to, like, they need to have a strong why, like I can give them the how, you know, but as you know, you know, like without that strong, why you’re not going to do it. That’s just the bottom line.
I love all of that. And, uh, we’re going to wrap things up for the main podcast in just a second. I’ve got one more question that we’re going to ask you, but just a reminder to everyone to stay tuned and look in the show notes, because we’ve got a special little bit of extra bonus content, some five critical steps that you’ll want to follow, um, I guess, um, we touched on this a little bit earlier, but I did want to, uh, to wrap up this discussion by asking, um, what is it that people need to, they do get this realization after they’ve have been working with you, that you need to transfer that to now.
So people realize what is it that they should be, what’s the reason they should be coming to you? What’s the realization that, you know, they’re going to have when they start working with you. Yeah, I think the most important thing is, you know, like if someone has a desire, like someone has a desire to, you know, like, um, you know, to like, they have a desire in terms of, you know, they want to achieve like a different level of, like, in terms of their mindset, they want to get in better shape.
They have a desire that, you know, like most of the people that come to us, they, uh, you know, they, They’re already driving, you know, like working really hard, you know, like doing more hours than they need to in their business and they’ve got a desire that they just want to, they want to achieve more. So most people, if they’re struggling with their health, I guess really what we can do is, you know, um, we’re hoping to bring is we’re hoping to bring, you know, like, uh, simplify, offer them a simplified approach.
And the great thing about what we do is, you know, like, you know, like we’re results driven, you know, and most business owners like that. They like the idea of being results driven. Give me the shortcut, you know, and I don’t want to say shortcut, but sometimes I have to use that term is because that’s what, you know, like that’s, what’s going to get their attention.
It’s going to get them to take action. But I guess if someone that is looking to, you know, like shortcut and find the fastest path in terms of getting in the best shape of their life, and they want to do it in the most simplified way and have an approach to do it. Um, then we can, you know, we can bring some value in that sense, you know, someone that’s that understands that look, certain areas of my life, unless I want to become a health expert and I want to spend all of my valuable time in studying health and nutrition and all the different things that I need to implement.
If you’re looking for someone that can really help you shortcut that, there’s no better way than having someone else coach you through that. Just like any other area of your life, you know, either you figured out yourself or you have someone. You know, that’s been through all the mistakes and help you figure it out.
So, um, I think that’s the one thing that business leaders and true business leaders do understand is that just because you might have the, uh, the ability to go looking for something or to try and learn it yourself, you’re much better off more often than not than finding out, finding someone else. Who is an expert in that particular area to lead you through it.
Uh, it’s like I often say to people just because you have a camera in your pocket in your, with your phone does not make you a photographer. And I think all of us have experienced that because you’re only gonna look on your phone and realize how many thousands of pretty ordinary photos there are. Does compared to what a professional will do.
And I think it’s the same with all of these kinds of aspects as well. So, um, you know, a really important point there at the end. Uh, and, and thank you. We’re going to go to the bonus content in just a moment to get again, everyone. So please follow the links in the, in the show notes to get that, because there’s five steps that you’re not going to want to miss, but for now, uh, for the main part of the podcast, thank you so much for being an amazing guest on Biz Bites.
Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Hey, thanks for listening to Biz Bytes. We hope you enjoyed the program. Don’t forget to hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. Biz Bytes is proudly brought to you by Podcasts Done For You, the service where we will deliver a podcast for you and expose your brilliance to the world.
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