Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / From Tragedy to Triumph: Building Resilience Through Health and Fitness with Ted Ryce

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From Tragedy to Triumph: Building Resilience Through Health and Fitness with Ted Ryce · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:04
  Through data.
• 0:05
  We don't do it through tough talks or anything like that.
• 0:09
  Right.
• 0:09
  Because data, data tells you the truth.
• 0:13
  Numbers don't lie.
• 0:15
  Today we sit down with high performance health coach, entrepreneur and veteran podcaster, Ted Rice.
• 0:22
  Over the past 11 years, Ted has grown his coaching business to work with some of the world's biggest, biggest names, including Richard Branson, Robert Downey Jr.
• 0:32
  And Ricky Martin, all while hosting the legendary life podcast with over 500 expert interviews and millions of downloads.
• 0:40
  In today's conversation, Ted opens up about his personal journey from tragedy to transformation.
• 0:47
  He shares actionable insights on optimizing health and fitness for entrepreneurs over 40 and reveals how data driven coaching helps high achievers reclaim their vitality.
• 0:58
  You'll hear the inside story of scaling a coaching business, lessons learned from working with elite performers, and advice on building a podcast that fuels both personal growth and professional success.
• 1:10
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:16
  All right, Ted Rice, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 1:19
  Hey, Dave, thanks for having me on.
• 1:21
  Excited to dive into today's conversation?
• 1:25
  Yes, sir.
• 1:26
  We are happy to have you.
• 1:28
  So, Ted, you are a high performance health coach and a podcaster, and you've got an incredibly successful podcast with millions of downloads.
• 1:38
  You've been doing it 11 years and you've all also with your coaching business.
• 1:43
  You've worked with some of the biggest celebrities in the world, high achievers, high performers, CEOs, which we'll get into.
• 1:50
  But I mean that, that's an amazing career that you've had.
• 1:54
  How did you get into this line of work?
• 1:57
  So a lot of people.
• 1:59
  So first of all, thanks Dave.
• 2:00
  That's a great intro.
• 2:02
  And a lot of people know me from what I do now, the podcast, my social media accounts.
• 2:09
  I frequently mention the celebrities I worked with, Richard Branson, Robert Downey Jr.
• 2:16
  Ricky Martin.
• 2:17
  Also I have some other fun celebrity stories as well.
• 2:21
  But what a lot of people don't know is that I got into health and fitness through a family tragedy.
• 2:28
  I don't know how much you want to get into it, but my younger brother.
• 2:31
  When I was 19 years old, my.
• 2:33
  My younger brother was kidnapped and murdered.
• 2:36
  I was in college at the time, studying neuroscience because I was very fascinated with the brain, with behavior.
• 2:46
  Wanted to start off in psychology or started off in psychology and quickly realized there was something really powerful about physiology and neurophysiology in creating behavior, in creating, you know, psychological states.
• 3:01
  But I dropped out, man.
• 3:03
  You know, I couldn't focus in class.
• 3:07
  My whole worldview was shattered.
• 3:10
  My physical health, I wasn't the most healthy guy at that time.
• 3:13
  I had some healthy habits.
• 3:15
  I also partied a lot.
• 3:18
  But what ended up happening was I serendipitously found myself in fitness a few years later in Miami beach at the age of 22.
• 3:29
  I got.
• 3:30
  I got into personal training, and I was working in the Eden Rock Resort and Spa.
• 3:36
  It's not a hot place now.
• 3:38
  I don't think it's really the fountain blue, which is right next door, which was kind of a dump when I was working at the Eden Rock.
• 3:46
  But my career took off.
• 3:47
  That's where I ended up meeting, creating the network there in Miami beach, where I went on to meet, you know, all the celebrities and a lot of people you wouldn't know the names of that were, you know, very
• 3:59
  popular in Miami as well.
• 4:00
  But that's how the fitness journey started professionally.
• 4:05
  Okay, all right.
• 4:06
  So you're in college, you have this fascination with neuroscience, and then neuro physiology.
• 4:12
  This unimaginable tragedy strikes your family, like you said, and you couldn't focus.
• 4:17
  You dropped out and Sounds like, you know, took some time to really even just bounce back from that and get to a stable place where you could.
• 4:27
  You could actually focus and pursue your.
• 4:30
  Your career.
• 4:31
  So you.
• 4:32
  You wind up in Miami, and then you basically start working as a personal trainer at like, a hotspot, like, hotel or fitness place.
• 4:42
  Is that right?
• 4:44
  Yeah, I'm.
• 4:45
  I'm born and raised in Miami my whole life, but health and fitness was the way to get myself back to a good place.
• 4:58
  And I started learning that you may have a story about what's going on in your life.
• 5:06
  For example, so many people listen to me and, and please don't look.
• 5:10
  Only look up my story.
• 5:12
  Jimmy R.
• 5:13
  You know, the Rice family, It's very famous in Miami.
• 5:17
  The story of my brother, what happened.
• 5:19
  Or maybe infamous is probably a better word.
• 5:22
  My parents went on to meet with presidents, get laws changed, but it's a really horrible story.
• 5:28
  But how that relates to where I was and why it's relevant to you listening right now is because I had this narrative about what was going on in my life.
• 5:38
  My life is over.
• 5:39
  I'm going to feel terrible for the rest of my life.
• 5:41
  There's no way out of this.
• 5:44
  And then I found myself in the gym, and I started noticing that even though the external circumstances didn't change, I started feeling better.
• 5:54
  And then I started making connections with what I was studying in school with neuroscience and saying, like, okay, what's going on here?
• 6:03
  Why do I feel better now?
• 6:04
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• 6:13
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• 6:18
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• 7:00
  The 90s were the year of the brain.
• 7:02
  So there are a lot of explosion in brain science.
• 7:05
  Neuroscience wasn't even like a degree you could study.
• 7:08
  It was multidisciplinary.
• 7:10
  So you had to meet with an advisor and put it all together instead of just like, oh, I'm studying neuroscience, right.
• 7:20
  So I started putting things together and noticing like, oh, there's something very powerful about this.
• 7:25
  So whether you're going through something like what I went through, where I hope nobody has to go through, what my family went through, is horrible.
• 7:32
  And the, the story actually gets worse.
• 7:36
  I don't know if you want to go down that rabbit hole or not or, or that, you know, hear that story or not.
• 7:43
  But the point is this.
• 7:45
  In life, you're going to endure hardship, very best situation.
• 7:51
  You're going to endure the passing of your parents.
• 7:56
  And you'll also endure getting older and having to.
• 8:02
  Right, go on that journey, the journey we're all on.
• 8:05
  So whether you're going through a divorce, whether you're maybe in the best time of your life, a lot of my clients, it's the best time in their life in so many ways.
• 8:14
  They've got a successful business or they're at the pinnacle of their career.
• 8:18
  Their families are doing well, their kids are in college, they've done the work.
• 8:23
  And then they look in the mirror, they're like, man, I feel like my best days are behind me.
• 8:28
  I don't like what I see in the mirror.
• 8:30
  And I'm not even sure if it's possible if I can change this.
• 8:35
  And so health and fitness is the way you can bounce back from any place, whether that's post divorce, post filing for bankruptcy in your company, whatever it is you're going for.
• 8:52
  Through parents passing away from cancer.
• 8:56
  I had a client, both of his parents got cancer at the same time while we were working together, you can get through it with health and fitness.
• 9:06
  In fact, a lot of the things that happen during stressful events.
• 9:10
  Again, whether you're working hard in your career and something goes wrong or something goes wrong in business, it.
• 9:18
  Health and fitness is way to bring your system back to baseline as well as building up your resilience so you can deal with whatever life throws your way.
• 9:35
  Okay.
• 9:35
  And that's powerful.
• 9:37
  So like you said early on, you have this tragedy.
• 9:40
  You found yourself in the gym and you kind of had this epiphany that even though things hadn't changed externally because you're putting in this work and you're, you know, and again, right this 2025, so we have so much
• 9:54
  more data on this, but you're, you're feeling so much better from, from, from working out and putting in this health and fitness that you start to connect the dots.
• 10:04
  And then like you said, your, your, your career started to take off as you're in this club, this spot in Miami, the Eden Rock.
• 10:13
  Can you just talk about like once you made that connection and once you really started dialing in like what was the process like of scaling this business and how did you get into coaching?
• 10:24
  Personally coaching these celebrities?
• 10:28
  Yeah, well, I'll, I'll answer the first question first or, sorry, the last question first.
• 10:33
  Where I got into coaching entrepreneurs, celebrities.
• 10:37
  I don't work with any celebrities now.
• 10:40
  Not celebrities in the way I, I work with some best selling authors and people who, you know, are kind of have some, they have some per, they have a high profile in certain areas.
• 10:53
  But the way I ended up working with like meeting Richard Branson for example, or working with Ricky Martin or Robert Downey Jr.
• 11:02
  Was all through connections in that gym.
• 11:05
  It's not, you know, it's like, oh, how'd you work with celebrities while I was in Miami Beach?
• 11:10
  That's not going to happen in the, you can go to the most high end place in Boise, Idaho and nothing against that, you know, location, but celebrities for whatever reason flock to Miami and la, right, Whatever reason they're
• 11:25
  into.
• 11:26
  So I, I just met people also, you know, by being in the right place but also developing a good reputation for myself.
• 11:34
  I don't have any, I never signed any NDAs, so I can talk about whatever nobody asked me to.
• 11:41
  Not, not the ones that I mentioned, celebrities that I mentioned, nobody ever asked me to do that.
• 11:47
  But growing the business, it's just about, I was really committed to.
• 11:52
  We haven't started diving into the physiology of things, but I was really committed to learning at a deeper level what really is health, right?
• 12:01
  Is it just lifting?
• 12:03
  Is it just the physical side of things?
• 12:06
  And depending on how deep you want to go there, there's different facets to what makes up health, physiologically, psychologically, socially as well.
• 12:20
  So I had a really good reputation.
• 12:23
  I was.
• 12:23
  I studied a lot.
• 12:24
  I spent tens of thousands of dollars taking courses, learning from the best experts.
• 12:30
  And yeah, I developed a good reputation.
• 12:33
  And the rest is kind of history there.
• 12:36
  Okay, all right, so some very key intangibles, right, because this shows about entrepreneurship and the journey.
• 12:42
  But so you were clearly committed to your craft.
• 12:44
  You developed a good reputation or like a personal brand, so to speak, where people, you know, you had, I guess, reputation for getting good results, and you were curious to keep learning and evolving about this question of what
• 12:56
  is health?
• 12:57
  Right, and let's just dive into some of that right now too, because, you know, there's so much, especially today, right, so much marketing, and it can be confusing and contradictory about what, what makes up health, whether it's the
• 13:12
  number on the scale, the way you look in your clothes, mentally, and, and all, you know, that's a whole other subject.
• 13:18
  But I mean, let's.
• 13:19
  Let's talk about your, some of your core tenets, you know, with, with what you teach about on your podcast or some.
• 13:28
  And those things.
• 13:28
  What, what would you say is.
• 13:30
  Are the important cornerstones of, of good health and good fitness?
• 13:36
  Yeah, it depends on who we're talking about.
• 13:39
  Right?
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  And it goes back to what you were saying before.
• 13:41
  There's so much information out there.
• 13:44
  What's really missing is context.
• 13:47
  For example, are low carb diets good or bad?
• 13:51
  Depends on the person.
• 13:52
  If you put someone who's very sedentary into or on a low carb diet because they have a belly, they've got visceral fat, um, it's messing up their ability to process blood sugar.
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  In other words, they have some insulin resistance or metabolic dysfunction.
• 14:12
  That person is probably going to benefit from that.
• 14:15
  You take a person like, well, you know, I, I don't mind going back to my journey, but I was a competitive jiu jitsu athlete in my late 20s and early 30s.
• 14:27
  I was on a low carb diet.
• 14:29
  It was horrible for me.
• 14:30
  I, um, I was gassing out.
• 14:32
  I didn't even know why, because again, new.
• 14:36
  The level of nutrition knowledge that we have now, I feel bad for people who are confused, and I totally understand.
• 14:43
  But if you know how to interpret, if you know who to listen to, you know who or or rather the right research to pay attention to.
• 14:52
  Like, it's never been easier to figure it out if you know what to look at.
• 14:57
  I mean, I'm not confused.
• 14:58
  I'm.
• 14:58
  Some things I'm confused about and some things we don't have the answers to.
• 15:02
  But man, you know, so it starts with context, right?
• 15:08
  What is right for that individual?
• 15:10
  And to that point, there are some, there are some like foundational stuff.
• 15:16
  For example, I focus on people who typically run businesses or they're in a high level position in their career.
• 15:24
  Attorneys, doctors, so.
• 15:29
  And they're over 40.
• 15:31
  Why do I specialize in that?
• 15:32
  Well, I've always worked with entrepreneurs.
• 15:34
  I never chose them, they chose me.
• 15:36
  And it just has evolved.
• 15:37
  And then I kind of, I never saw myself as an entrepreneur.
• 15:41
  I always saw myself as a, you know, personal trainer and health coach.
• 15:45
  But now these days I, I don't fully see myself as a business owner or entrepreneur, but I'm more like 50% there, you know, But I very much like, my passion is in health, fitness, physiology, coaching.
• 16:01
  So.
• 16:01
  But I'm, I started running into the same problems that a lot of my clients ran into.
• 16:07
  So, so context is really important.
• 16:11
  As you get over 40, you have to realize.
• 16:14
  I'm 48, for example.
• 16:16
  You have to realize you can't do what you did when you were 20.
• 16:21
  There's C.
• 16:22
  Certain things.
• 16:22
  Age is just a number, is something you should tell yourself if you feel like it's limiting you and holding you back.
• 16:29
  But it isn't just a number, right?
• 16:32
  It isn't just a number.
• 16:33
  There's something called chronic low grade inflammation that increases with age.
• 16:39
  Even if you're super healthy, doing all the right things haven't changed at all.
• 16:42
  Never got out of shape.
• 16:43
  Well, guess what?
• 16:46
  20 years ago you were, if you were doing the same thing, right, you're, you, you have more chronic low grade inflammation going on.
• 16:54
  Another thing that happens is we start to lose.
• 16:58
  And again, this is.
• 16:59
  If you're, if you're like peak shape, you never stop training.
• 17:04
  You were, let's say, an Olympic cross country skiing athlete, you never stop training.
• 17:12
  Your VO2 Max, which is a measurement of your cardiovascular fitness, will start to decline.
• 17:20
  Another thing that happens, and this is something that we can do something about, is if you do take a bit of a hiatus from resistance training, you will lose muscle mass.
• 17:32
  So there's these things that happen due to age.
• 17:35
  There's these things that happen due to the changes in our lifestyle.
• 17:41
  And so we need to focus on those specific things.
• 17:46
  And I know I Didn't answer your question exactly right.
• 17:49
  With like, here's the step process.
• 17:52
  And I do have a process.
• 17:53
  I call, call it the metabolic reset sequence, specifically for guys over 40, because if you're in your 20s, you're, you're probably not going to need that.
• 18:04
  Although that, you know, I don't really work with guys in, in their 20s, but that population has high rates of obesity in the United States, so they could probably benefit from it as well.
• 18:16
  But so we need to understand, like, what's right for who we're talking about.
• 18:23
  We have to understand what are the things we're facing physiologically and what are the best things to do to counteract or even reverse some of those changes that happen due to one, your, your age and two, the changes
• 18:42
  in your lifestyle that have happened as you've transitioned.
• 18:45
  A lot of my clients were athletes before they started a business.
• 18:48
  And they took all that athletic drive and put it into growing their business.
• 18:53
  And it worked, but they got out of shape along the way.
• 18:57
  So I'll, I'll stop there.
• 19:00
  Okay.
• 19:01
  No, appreciate that constant context and like you said, right.
• 19:04
  It all depends in terms of the, the specifics of the training and whatnot.
• 19:09
  So I mean, let' just talk about the client base that you work with.
• 19:12
  So it's entrepreneurs over 40, typically high achievers, high performers with the business.
• 19:18
  And like you said, oftentimes they're, they're former athletes and they put that drive into growing their business.
• 19:24
  Like what, what are some of the common challenges that you're seeing with these clients you work with to where they got out of shape?
• 19:31
  Or, you know, maybe they're working a lot of hours and they're not sleeping right or the diet is, is, is not right.
• 19:39
  Like what, what are, what are some of the common challenges that you're seeing with, with that subset of people?
• 19:45
  Yeah, and the first is that they're relying on a story about their health, that it's okay versus using data.
• 19:54
  So in my coaching program, for example, the first step is our precision health assessment.
• 20:03
  You need to know what the data is.
• 20:05
  Just like, if you ask me, hey, how's your business doing?
• 20:08
  Oh, man, the business is great.
• 20:11
  It's going great.
• 20:12
  Oh, cool.
• 20:13
  Like, what do you mean?
• 20:14
  Are you growing?
• 20:15
  What are the numbers?
• 20:16
  And.
• 20:16
  Oh, I don't know, but I feel great.
• 20:19
  It's like, ah, that's no man.
• 20:21
  Let's have a conversation about what's going on numbers wise.
• 20:25
  Right.
• 20:26
  Although there's some nuance to that conversation.
• 20:29
  Business, at least for me, isn't all about making money.
• 20:32
  But it certainly you need to keep score in some ways.
• 20:36
  You need to be on top of the metrics and health is the same way.
• 20:41
  So the story that we tell ourselves isn't, oh, I feel okay.
• 20:47
  Well, a lot of people realize they have heart disease because they have a heart attack or they realize they have a diabetes because they finally get to the doctor, have their blood taken.
• 20:57
  They have diabetic hemoglobin A1C level, so A long term marker of blood sugar.
• 21:04
  You need to know your data.
• 21:05
  Do not rely on the story.
• 21:08
  If you really believe that, right?
• 21:11
  Get your data.
• 21:12
  What is that?
• 21:14
  Get a DEXA scan.
• 21:15
  That'll tell you your body fat percentage.
• 21:17
  If you're over 20% as a man or 25% as a woman, you, you've got work to do, right?
• 21:24
  Metabolically, you're not healthy.
• 21:26
  I don't care that your doctor said you, oh yeah, your blood score looks great.
• 21:33
  They're looking for disease, not health.
• 21:37
  Get your blood work done now.
• 21:39
  Going to your doctor is fine.
• 21:41
  Just if you have, for example, hemoglobin A1c is like, is how a doctor would diagnose you for diabetes.
• 21:50
  And 5.7 and above is pre diabetic.
• 21:54
  But if you're 5.6 or 5.5, doctor might not say anything about it.
• 22:01
  So get your blood work done.
• 22:04
  Understand that they're looking.
• 22:06
  I love doctors, I work with doctors.
• 22:08
  I think people toss them under the bus far too easily.
• 22:13
  Instead of understanding what doctors are really great at, which is diagnosing and treating disease.
• 22:19
  I'm not a doctor, I don't pretend to be one.
• 22:23
  But if you're in those higher normal ranges, you need to take action because if you do have some change like the one we're mentioning, you've had problems for years.
• 22:35
  It's just starting to build up and, and show up as higher normal blood sugar levels.
• 22:41
  So get your data.
• 22:44
  Another thing we love to do, depending on the client, if you have heart disease in your family, you better get a CAC score, right?
• 22:52
  Your calcium score, or in extreme, more extreme cases, maybe a CT angiogram.
• 22:59
  So get those things to prove that you're healthy, right?
• 23:04
  We also do VO2 max testing with our clients and we want a big picture like what, what does your health really look like?
• 23:14
  And that gives us the opportunity to say, okay, well, your resting heart rate's a bit high.
• 23:20
  Your hrv, which is a measurement of, let's say stress, is a bit, is a bit low.
• 23:27
  Like these are things that we can work on and need to work on before we get you into the gym and give you, like some killer program.
• 23:35
  So it starts with data.
• 23:38
  The second thing is exercise is king, right?
• 23:43
  Exercise.
• 23:44
  Everybody loves diet.
• 23:45
  If you want to make a lot of money writing a book in health and fitness, you write a diet book.
• 23:50
  You don't write about exercise.
• 23:53
  That said, though, the reality is what the data says, the data, the best research we have, exercise is the most powerful thing that you can do for your health.
• 24:04
  And it's also the easier thing to do.
• 24:08
  Nutrition can be.
• 24:10
  Getting people to change their nutrition habits can be a little bit more complicated.
• 24:14
  But with, and the, the payoff, you can eat healthy for a day.
• 24:20
  Unless your diet is really bad, you're.
• 24:21
  You're probably not going to feel a big difference from that.
• 24:24
  Right?
• 24:26
  Most people don't eat that bad.
• 24:27
  They don't eat that well either.
• 24:29
  We can talk about what that means if you want, Dave, but, you know, you need some sort of exercise.
• 24:36
  And the issue is a lot of people struggle with time.
• 24:39
  A lot of people struggle with not knowing what to do.
• 24:42
  A lot of people, or a lot of my clients are in the gym, but they have no idea.
• 24:47
  They've been doing the same thing for years and there's been no change in their physique.
• 24:51
  And they feel like they're putting in the work, but they don't see the results that they feel like they should be getting based on the work.
• 25:00
  And typically they'll, they ascribe that to like, oh, it's my testosterone levels.
• 25:05
  It's like, well, your T levels might be low, but it's because you're out of shape, not because you're not doing it.
• 25:11
  That's not the, that's not the cause of why you're not gaining muscle.
• 25:14
  Okay?
• 25:15
  There's studies to show that as well.
• 25:18
  Guys with low T can build muscle.
• 25:20
  Again, if we're talking about people who aren't on TRT or on TRT plus, you might call it right, steroids.
• 25:27
  In other words, like, you can build muscle.
• 25:31
  The, your testosterone level isn't.
• 25:33
  If we're talking about non people not on drugs or testosterone replacement therapy, you can build muscle.
• 25:41
  You're not doing the right things.
• 25:43
  There are some differences genetically.
• 25:46
  Some people build muscle faster than others.
• 25:48
  They're called hyper responders.
• 25:50
  You have medium responders and low responders.
• 25:53
  But that's not a, that's a genetic thing.
• 25:55
  That's not, that's not your age.
• 25:58
  That's not your testosterone level.
• 26:00
  So we need to focus on the right plan for you based on how you're responding.
• 26:07
  Right.
• 26:07
  Test some things, make sure that it's dialed in for you and that you're seeing results.
• 26:14
  And then, of course, diet plays a strong role as well.
• 26:18
  I mean, I.
• 26:18
  I feel like I could keep going here, but I wanna.
• 26:21
  If you want me to keep going, I'm happy to.
• 26:23
  But if you want to stop there for a second and.
• 26:27
  Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, let's pivot a bit.
• 26:30
  So we appreciate all that context, like you said, as far as the different elements that you work with people and even some of the stories you hear.
• 26:37
  And, like, one of the key themes I'm hearing is it, like, so many challenges and roadblocks that people have are based on the story them telling themselves.
• 26:47
  And so clearly, you help with the technical aspects of the fitness regimen and the diet, whatever the situation calls for.
• 26:53
  But it sounds like a big part of what, you know, do is get people to change their story and really take responsibility and accountability for their actions and.
• 27:01
  And the results that.
• 27:02
  That.
• 27:03
  That creates in their life.
• 27:05
  Absolutely, Dave.
• 27:06
  And we do it through data.
• 27:07
  We don't do it through tough talks or anything like that.
• 27:11
  Right.
• 27:11
  Because data.
• 27:13
  Data tells you the truth.
• 27:15
  Numbers don't lie.
• 27:17
  Right.
• 27:17
  They can be misinterpreted.
• 27:19
  It's another story, but they don't lie.
• 27:22
  For example, oh, I'm doing everything right in the gym, but I'm not gaining muscle.
• 27:27
  And then I look at the program, I'm like, I don't think you're doing.
• 27:30
  Why do you think you're doing everything right?
• 27:32
  It's way too much volume.
• 27:34
  Are you, you know, taking each set to this.
• 27:36
  Way too many sets, way too many exercises.
• 27:39
  Right.
• 27:39
  So there's.
• 27:42
  What we do is we help dial in each of these aspects, including diet, in a way where we can track the data so we know that it's working.
• 27:54
  Love that.
• 27:55
  Okay.
• 27:55
  All right.
• 27:56
  And so, Ted, another thing that we mentioned at the very beginning that you had a very successful run with is your podcast, which is called Legendary Life.
• 28:07
  And so you started that 11 years ago.
• 28:11
  I think you're at close to, like, 800 episodes, something like that.
• 28:15
  Can you just talk about what that process has been like and how important the podcast has been to growing this.
• 28:21
  This coaching practice of yours?
• 28:23
  Yeah, it's been amazing.
• 28:27
  The story behind the podcast was that I wanted to do something online.
• 28:34
  I knew it was the future.
• 28:38
  And.
• 28:39
  It was not just the future of health and fitness, but it was my future.
• 28:43
  I felt just like, I want to do that.
• 28:46
  I want to reach more people, educate more people.
• 28:50
  And so I started a podcast.
• 28:53
  I was going to start do an info product or something else.
• 28:57
  And so I quickly realized that a podcast isn't a business model.
• 29:01
  I was paying money at the time to, to get it off the ground and invest in all the equipment.
• 29:09
  Now, you know, I'm on the road and I just have this shure mic which is, you know, good mic.
• 29:14
  But I don't have the setup that I had when I was back in living in Miami Beach.
• 29:19
  And so I was investing in all this stuff.
• 29:22
  But it's kind of a funny business moment there.
• 29:26
  But it became the way to network with instead of the more local people that I was associated with in Miami Beach, I started networking with some of the people that I looked up to that I learned from.
• 29:43
  I've had it not quite 800 episodes.
• 29:47
  Well, maybe to be honest, I don't even know what episode we're on, but it's over 500.
• 29:53
  I think some of the, a lot of them we named separately.
• 29:57
  If there were solo episodes, there were a ton of episodes on the show for sure.
• 30:02
  But I've done over 500 episode or interviews rather with health experts.
• 30:09
  Guys.
• 30:10
  When I first started out, yeah, sure, I worked with some celebrities and I was well known in Miami beach at the time.
• 30:16
  But you know, people don't care, right?
• 30:19
  It's like I'm busy.
• 30:21
  But this was a way to connect with a person, have them on my show and learn from them.
• 30:26
  And also I chose people who I felt like more people need to hear this person's information.
• 30:32
  They're not the best marketer even though they're successful in their own right.
• 30:37
  But I, I really tailored my show around science based information.
• 30:44
  The best people I could find, the best people who I learned a lot from.
• 30:48
  And I also had a lot of people where at the time I didn't know that much about them.
• 30:54
  I have some people who I interviewed on the show who I'd never want to talk to again based on what I know about their views on health and fitness now.
• 31:04
  But I didn't know better at the time.
• 31:06
  So it was an incredible opportunity to, to network with people.
• 31:11
  It was an incredible opportunity to learn from experts.
• 31:15
  I'm such so much better educated after having all those conversations.
• 31:21
  And as far as growing my coaching business, it became the way that people found out that I was, that I could be hired for coaching.
• 31:32
  And so it was just an amazing experience.
• 31:35
  And as I told you before we started recording, I shifted away from the podcast a bit.
• 31:41
  I think this is a good lesson in Entrepreneurship.
• 31:46
  And I was focusing on Twitter, now known, now renamed as X.
• 31:52
  And I like writing and I'm grateful for the years that I've spent growing a following on Twitter.
• 32:01
  It's the biggest following I have with over 60, 000 people, which is not a lot for, for social media.
• 32:07
  But on Twitter, it's really hard to grow a following compared to Instagram where you can kind of, you know, it well, it's a lot easier, let's say.
• 32:17
  But I really like the quality of the people.
• 32:20
  Got some amazing clients from Twitter, but it's not the thing that I love to do.
• 32:26
  I love having conversations like this one right now, so both being interviewed and also interviewing other people.
• 32:34
  And yeah, it's been an amazing 11 year ride.
• 32:38
  Okay.
• 32:39
  All right.
• 32:39
  And so when you started, right, 11 years ago, I mean, podcasting was not what it was today.
• 32:46
  Right.
• 32:46
  I mean now it's really easier than ever.
• 32:48
  There's so many resources.
• 32:51
  AI is so helpful in so many ways.
• 32:53
  Like technology has evolved, like you said with the mics and what you can do.
• 32:57
  But, but so when you started back then, right, like how.
• 33:02
  Because you still had to get the setup, you invest in the equipment and then.
• 33:07
  Right.
• 33:07
  Clearly the podcasting was so nowhere near what it was today.
• 33:12
  I mean, how did you.
• 33:14
  Was it just a labor of love in terms of you just enjoyed having the conversations, you were seeing results, you were learning?
• 33:19
  Of course, curiosity fueled you because it was, you know, just a totally different world in terms of podcasting back then.
• 33:28
  Yeah.
• 33:29
  Well, I mean, how do you mean it was a different world?
• 33:32
  It.
• 33:32
  People said at the time that podcasting was saturated 11 years ago and that, you know, you shouldn't start a podcast and everybody's starting podcast now.
• 33:42
  That's just amplified.
• 33:43
  Right.
• 33:44
  Eleven years later there's even more.
• 33:47
  But yeah, I mean, the thing is, I think you need to focus when, when it comes to, when it comes to business, I really think you need to focus on what speaks to you and what gets results and
• 34:04
  maybe what has potential.
• 34:06
  For example, I get more client.
• 34:07
  We run ads, we.
• 34:11
  To get clients.
• 34:11
  We write on Twitter or I write on Twitter rather than, um, and we get clients from Twitter or X.
• 34:19
  But man, podcasting, it just is the thing that I love to do.
• 34:24
  I feel like people know me when I talk to a client who listens to my podcast.
• 34:29
  They feel like they know me.
• 34:31
  When I speak to someone for the first time on Twitter, they.
• 34:35
  They might have never heard my voice before unless they've done a bit of research, googled my name because we don't promote the podcast as much as we should there.
• 34:46
  So.
• 34:46
  So, yeah, it's just the connection.
• 34:49
  And also, I see it being more of my future.
• 34:54
  It's.
• 34:55
  It's the best medium.
• 34:56
  And also, one other thing I'll say about that.
• 35:00
  I don't know how you or your audience feels about my speaking ability, but.
• 35:07
  But it's improved a lot from podcasting.
• 35:11
  And so I ended up getting invited to do.
• 35:14
  To be on speak at events and do presentations, things that would have never happened or would have been difficult to make happen had I not done podcasting.
• 35:26
  I got my first keynote speech from someone who listened to the podcast and wanted me to go talk at an event they were having.
• 35:35
  I spoke to other people who.
• 35:37
  Yeah, I spoke at their events as well.
• 35:39
  So podcasting is an incredible networking.
• 35:44
  I'd say if you want clients, it's better to be on podcasts because you're featured as the expert, but you can still get clients or business, rather, from your own podcast.
• 35:56
  But having the podcast and making connections with people also opens a lot of doors if you, you know, make the right connections.
• 36:07
  Yeah, yeah.
• 36:08
  So many great points you hit on, and so many benefits.
• 36:10
  Right.
• 36:10
  It's a powerful networking tool.
• 36:13
  It's great for.
• 36:14
  For visibility.
• 36:15
  The content you can repurpose in so many different ways.
• 36:19
  And, you know, like, one thing I find it's just a lot of fun is having conversations with people that are in a different industry and have understanding their journey, what makes them successful, and then using that data and
• 36:33
  applying it to your own life, even if you learn one new thing, you're.
• 36:37
  You're.
• 36:37
  You're better off, and you can take those lessons and apply them to.
• 36:40
  To continue to make progress in your own life.
• 36:42
  So, yeah, so, so many benefits to podcasting.
• 36:45
  Glad you highlighted all that.
• 36:47
  Okay, so.
• 36:48
  So, Ted, so with everything you've done, you've had this incredibly successful coaching career, you've a great run as a podcaster, you're continuing to thrive physically in your late 40s.
• 36:59
  So what's next for you?
• 37:03
  Well, we're continuing to grow out the business, and the focus is on more on longevity.
• 37:11
  Now, my coaching offer, if you will, it's on body transformation, which is really the foundation.
• 37:19
  A lot of people are like, oh, I don't really want to see my abs.
• 37:22
  It's like, well, listen, metabolic health has to do with how much body fat you have.
• 37:27
  So.
• 37:28
  So building muscle, getting lean, those aren't just things that are.
• 37:34
  That's not just vanity.
• 37:36
  It's really like, again, there's some nuance here because there's a lot of guys taking testosterone and all types of peptides now and with no long term studies on what will happen to them as a result, hopefully nothing.
• 37:53
  But, you know, so there's some nuance here.
• 37:58
  But if you're not, you know, off in that world and taking any sort of TRT or drugs or peptides, which are drugs by the way, they're just G.L.P.
• 38:10
  one is a drug, it's also a peptide anyway.
• 38:13
  Or like Manjaro and Ozempic.
• 38:15
  But you know that you're in better health by lowering your body fat and building muscle.
• 38:20
  That said, it's not everything.
• 38:23
  So my focus is going to be more on longevity, being known for longevity, interviewing experts on longevity and really, really bringing science based information.
• 38:38
  And when I say that like again, going back to your point, there's so much marketing out there, people are just, you know, you can be an ex.
• 38:47
  I'll use air quotes for those not watching this, but you can just talk to chat GPT like hey, prompt.
• 38:54
  The prompt is, hey, I'm a longevity expert.
• 38:58
  You know, research the best information on longevity and give me 30 tweets to write about longevity.
• 39:07
  But you really don't, you've never talked to any experts.
• 39:11
  You've, you haven't looked at blood work.
• 39:14
  You haven't learned from anybody with experience.
• 39:17
  And so that's kind of the world that we're in.
• 39:19
  And I want to make sure the people who learn from me, the people who come into my world, the people who, you know, trust me to give the right information, to share the right information with them, like they
• 39:34
  know that I'm heavily vetting for that and not just playing the marketing game which a lot of people are playing in the health and fitness space just to kind of sell, just to sell products.
• 39:44
  I want to make money too.
• 39:46
  I care about money.
• 39:49
  Yeah.
• 39:49
  But I have a conscience.
• 39:50
  I have ethics, so I can't play that game.
• 39:56
  Yeah, well, you know, like you said too, probably more so than any other other industry.
• 40:00
  Right.
• 40:00
  Is the health and fitness where you can have, like you said, people that maybe aren't in it like that and they just want to sell a product and can just, you know, do that type of stuff with the
• 40:11
  marketing and not really be about that life as someone like you are, who's, who's been in the industry for, for decades and you've trained incredibly successful people and you have a podcast where this is your core focus is
• 40:26
  talking about these things.
• 40:26
  You interview experts and yeah.
• 40:29
  So your resume speaks for itself.
• 40:31
  And that's, that's just a great point too in terms of, you know, for whatever business you're in, it's so important to work on your craft, get better, develop expertise.
• 40:42
  And when you do all those things and you truly are curious and care about what you do, I mean, so often the numbers will take care of themselves.
• 40:49
  When you're doing good work and people know you can get results and you're seen as someone that, that is credible, that people can trust.
• 40:57
  Yeah.
• 40:57
  Put in the work and don't be afraid to share what you know now because there's someone who's going to resonate with that even with my resume, which, you know, I appreciate that, Dave, the way you, you know, frame
• 41:11
  me and my success.
• 41:12
  But some people aren't going to like me.
• 41:15
  Or maybe, maybe they like me, but they don't feel like that connection like they want to work with me.
• 41:22
  And there's going to be someone who, with not as much experience without the resume, but for whatever reason, they connect with you.
• 41:31
  So be true in what you're, you know, if they're, if I'm giving advice to like up and coming, you know, entrepreneurs or people who are growing their business, it would like, don't be afraid to share where you're at
• 41:42
  and be truthful, ethical.
• 41:44
  And I would even say this, at least in my industry, it's, it's becoming harder and harder to get away with BS because now what's happening is, is a lot of the people in my industry are actually calling out
• 42:00
  people who put out nonsense and it becomes content that actually does very well.
• 42:10
  So those days are going to become right.
• 42:14
  Because the Liver King.
• 42:15
  I don't know if you know who that is.
• 42:16
  Do you know who that is, Dave?
• 42:18
  Yeah, the guy.
• 42:20
  Super.
• 42:22
  I mean for me, I never like I saw him, I was like, that guy's taking a lot.
• 42:26
  Like he's not just taking steroids, he's taking a lot of steroids.
• 42:30
  But Ivan had a very successful, smart public speaking, public speaker friend running a seven figure public speaking business.
• 42:40
  He was like, yeah, I was following that guy.
• 42:43
  I was like, are you serious?
• 42:46
  Because we did talked about it after he got caught, but the guy was taking a ridiculous amount of steroids.
• 42:53
  But people wanted to believe that he was just living this primal lifestyle and it was all from all the raw animal meats he was eating, which is just total, total nonsense.
• 43:04
  You know, there's some benefits to eating organ meats, but you know, raw testicles is, it was just a total clown show marketing fiasco.
• 43:14
  And it worked really well and the guy made a lot more money than potentially all ever make, you know, but, but he came crashing down.
• 43:23
  I don't know financially what happened to him.
• 43:26
  But there's more and more people like that and they're going to, they're going to be caught and called out and kind of the.
• 43:33
  Again, the way that health and fitness has gone and I think is relevant for other industries as well.
• 43:40
  But in the past you could say these outlandish things, they would perform well on social media.
• 43:45
  But.
• 43:46
  And that social media is what.
• 43:48
  Right.
• 43:48
  What goes viral, build your business.
• 43:51
  But now what's going viral is those people getting called out.
• 43:56
  And of course I don't want to name names but.
• 43:59
  Or let, let's keep going with the liver king, right?
• 44:02
  He's still going to have people who kind of believe in him and like him and support him financially by buying his products.
• 44:09
  But I would imagine it's a lot less because people felt betrayed.
• 44:14
  And so that's an example of, I think, how the future is especially more transparency.
• 44:21
  Everyone's more lacking trust more and more.
• 44:25
  How do you even know that I'm not AI?
• 44:27
  Right?
• 44:27
  Like it's, it's.
• 44:29
  You have some of these people like, oh my gosh, did you see this video?
• 44:32
  It's like, that's not even real.
• 44:33
  That's a sora.
• 44:35
  Do you see the SORA watermark?
• 44:37
  So it's wild times.
• 44:38
  And I think it's going to be even more important to keep a good reputation going forward.
• 44:45
  Yeah.
• 44:45
  And that's a great point you hit on that I think other entrepreneurs can really learn from.
• 44:49
  Because especially today in this age of AI and there's so much fake stuff out there, let's say that, you know, it's like the pendulum swings back even further where people like the are.
• 45:02
  Are looking for what's real and are resonating with what's real and it's, it's authenticity, whatever that is for you and your business is.
• 45:10
  I guess the lesson here is lean into to your what's authentically you and the right people are going to resonate with that and that'll help you because with so much fake stuff out there, people are looking for what's
• 45:23
  real.
• 45:24
  You still have to have the copywriting skills, but definitely when you apply those skills, it better be your story.
• 45:33
  What's real, what you've learned, how you can actually help people.
• 45:38
  Yeah.
• 45:38
  I mean, I even had a bad experience with a business coach this year and I was just like, man, I really want my money.
• 45:46
  Back from that guy right in his team.
• 45:49
  And then, anyway, so the point is, like, it's going to be, yeah, it's, it's focus on your reputation, develop the skills, but focus on the rep.
• 46:03
  You know, don't put anything out there that's nonsense.
• 46:08
  All right, so, Ted, with everything you've done and this incredible entrepreneurial journey that you've had, what would you say has been the best part of it for you?
• 46:18
  Best part of it?
• 46:19
  Oh, gosh, I'll, I'll answer that in two ways.
• 46:22
  One is entrepreneurship is a, it's like personal development disguised as running a business.
• 46:32
  You'll have to shift your identity in ways that you never.
• 46:37
  I'm a different person as a result of running my business.
• 46:41
  When my business was making less money, I was a different version of myself.
• 46:46
  And again, right, it's, it's, it's knowing how to.
• 46:54
  What would you say it was?
• 46:56
  It's knowing how to have the right mindset.
• 47:00
  They're developing the right mindset.
• 47:02
  It's knowing how to be honest.
• 47:04
  In your assessment, another way to say that is data driven.
• 47:09
  Right.
• 47:09
  In your assessment of what's working, what isn't, versus what you like, how you feel about it.
• 47:15
  And I would say also learning from others.
• 47:19
  I'm, I'm not world class health and fitness expert, at least in my niche.
• 47:27
  Right.
• 47:28
  I'm not going to help you win a gold medal if you're, you know, in your 20s and looking to do that.
• 47:32
  But if you're, if there were an Olympics for getting guys in shape in their 40s who are also running businesses, I, I think I'd be an Olympic contender for that medal if that was a sport.
• 47:47
  But, but yeah, kind of lost my train of thought there.
• 47:55
  But.
• 47:56
  Yeah, sorry.
• 47:58
  Lost my train of thought.
• 48:00
  All good.
• 48:01
  No, so it was just about what's been the best part of it, but clearly.
• 48:04
  Oh, the best part of things.
• 48:06
  So what I would say, I would say is just growing as a person.
• 48:10
  How I've had to grow as a person, as I said, you know, and you having to shift your mindset, having to be more data oriented, a lot of things that you don't want to do and maybe even resist
• 48:26
  doing is exactly where you need to grow, what you need to do to grow as a person, but also for your business.
• 48:34
  And so that's, that's been a hard part of it, but it's also been very valuable.
• 48:39
  The best part, you know, the most, the most pleasurable part of entrepreneurship, I'D say, is like, we didn't talk about this, but I've I've tried.
• 48:47
  I've lived around the world.
• 48:49
  I've lived in Thailand, Vietnam, Bali, Portugal, Colombia, Mexico.
• 48:55
  I'm in Brazil right now.
• 48:57
  So I've had the it's the freedom, I would say, to do what you want, especially if you're running a virtual business.
• 49:04
  So there are some setbacks for that.
• 49:07
  Right now I'm in Brazil in the capital, Brasilia.
• 49:10
  Probably most people have never heard of it, but it's it's the freedom.
• 49:18
  Okay.
• 49:18
  Love that.
• 49:20
  All right.
• 49:20
  Well, Ted, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing all this valuable wisdom from your journey with our listeners.
• 49:27
  We greatly appreciate it.
• 49:29
  Yeah.
• 49:29
  Thanks, Dave.
• 49:30
  It was been fun.