Latest / Harder Than Life / 105: Leadership, Fitness, & Overcoming Addiction w/ Bryce Henson

Transcript

105: Leadership, Fitness, & Overcoming Addiction w/ Bryce Henson · Harder Than Life

• 0:07
  I'm Kelly Siegel and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living.
• 0:23
  Today's episode is going to be hit home run because my man Bryce Henson grew up in Michigan in a broken home riddled with addiction and first started his career at age 11. Sounds familiar. Working multiple jobs and selling blood plasma to fund his Michigan State education. Go green. Go white. Bryce is globally recognized leader, a leadership expert, and CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp. Welcome to Heart and Life, my brother. Welcome.
• 0:51
  My dude, Kelly, thanks so much for having me. Very excited to connect today. I want to begin with your story and why your story matters. And because it's just like I said, it's you mirror me. You're a brother from a kindred spirit. I had a paper route at 12, bro. Yeah. Worked on my own here. You know, Michigan, I don't know what the hell is going on with people in Michigan, but tell us your story and why your story matters. Yeah.
• 1:13
  Love it. Well, I come from very humble beginnings for first world standards. And I always say first world standards because I was 25. I decided to move to South America and I saw what real poverty was. And if you're listening to this right now, we all go through hardship in life. That is for sure. But there is a difference between first world problem and third world problems. My first mindset lesson is never confuse the two. That in mind, my father was a drug addict addicted to alcohol and gambling, not the trifecta.
• 1:40
  for a good family upbringing. And my poor mother, you know, managed that particular situation. And my first 10 years was spent in the South. Actually, Atlanta, Georgia was where I initially was born and raised. But my mom originally was from Detroit, Michigan. So the verbal abuse, the challenges, the fights and all that were growing and mounting. My father's alcoholism was growing and mounting. And then there became a situation where it became very clear
• 2:06
  we need to get out of Dodge. And my mom grabbed all the courage and strength that she got herself and three kids, myself and two siblings, out of that chaotic mess, thankfully with her life intact. And we moved to the state of Michigan. But it's interesting. I had a very volatile childhood. And if you're listening to this right now, if you've been a part of a family with addiction or gambling,
• 2:26
  volatility is the name of the game. Sometimes things were good. Sometimes things were not, but overall it was a really challenging situation. But what I found in life is even if you're a bad situation, why people are resistant to move is because while we moved to a better environment in Michigan, it was a very rocky landing for the first five to 10 years. And the reason was my mom was out of the workforce for, you know, 15 years by the time she divorced my dad. Um,
• 2:50
  And for the better part of 10 years, we used to run out of money before we used to run out of month. Thankfully, my grandma took us in. Otherwise, we would have probably been on the streets or a shelter. So we had a very rocky start. However, Kelly's similar in that we come from the same cloth. It taught me work ethic. It taught me grind. It taught me hustle. And I always had this feeling of like responsibility, responsibility for myself, for my siblings, even for my mom.
• 3:14
  And when I realized at a young age in the state of Michigan, and there were some loopholes delivering the paper, which I did as well, was one loophole in terms of the hiring age. But in the state of Michigan, you have to be 14 to legally work as a W-2, et cetera. But there's a loophole. You can deliver papers. You can also referee soccer games once you get accredited. And you can start.
• 3:36
  the accreditation process when you're 11 years old. So I was always hungry and a scrappy guy. So I asked my mom when I was 11, hey, mom, can you enroll me into soccer school so I can start refereeing, which I did. So I did that for a couple of years and just hustle it out. By the time I graduated high school, I had 17 jobs
• 3:55
  within that period of span. And as you heard, or you read in my bio, I ended up donating blood plasma, just scrappy to put myself through school. So all this to say, Kelly, that was my foundation. It was volatile. It was challenging, but it was literally for me. Life happens for you, not to you. And it really shaped my mind and the philosophy that I have, which is turning adversity to your advantage. I'm the man that I am because of that experience.
• 4:18
  Oh, man, dude. I got to say, you know, the funny thing is if Michigan was an upgrade, it had to be really bad down in the South because there's parts of Michigan I grew up in where we're not good. But I had a, you know, my loophole that we used in Michigan to work young. I lied. Yeah.
• 4:35
  I lied and said I was older. That's how I put food literally in my mouth. My parents were never around. So that's why we get along well. I went to Western Michigan University instead of Michigan State. And most people that went to Western or Michigan State are working at McDonald's, but not us, right? That's it, buddy. That is it. I love the leadership, man. I'm always aspiring to be a better leader. So you...
• 4:59
  You put in here my personal mission. I teach leadership, promote capitalism, and defend free speech. Say more.
• 5:07
  Well, I'll first start from the tactical perspective of leadership. So what I've learned in life is leadership is always the problem and always the solution. In fact, my leadership framework is lead yourself, lead your family, lead your empire. Before you can lead an empire of tens of thousands of people, which I do right now with Fit Body Bootcamp, you need to be able to lead your family. Before you do that, you need to be able to lead you. Yeah.
• 5:30
  And I think for me, there's a lot of different ways you can be a better leader. And really, leadership is a learnable skill, just like learning a language or riding a bike. So the good news is the empowering news is if you're listening to this right now and you want to be a better leader of yourself or leader of others, you can develop those qualities and characteristics. I would say, though, factory installed, one of the things...
• 5:52
  the characteristics of strong leadership that I see in some of the best leaders are the feeling of responsibility. Because at the end of the day, leadership, there's a famous adage saying that leadership or the burden of leadership, leadership can be a burden. And therefore you have to accept full responsibility for yourself, for your family, for your team, for your clients, your community, in order to be a strong leader. But more than that,
• 6:14
  From a skill set perspective, discipline is at the forefront of strong self-leadership. And I believe, Kelly, we are at a huge leadership deficit right now in the world. And you can see it in two ways, the physicality of our population and the emotional intelligence of our population. Boom!
• 6:30
  So I'm going to hit emotional intelligence first and then we'll go to physicality. Emotionally, if you just log on any social media site, you just see victim mindset, blame game all over the place. It's just a lack of accountability and leadership. So you can just sense that emotionally, secondarily, physically.
• 6:47
  80% of our population, Kelly, is either statistically obese or overweight. What this shows me is people are having a hard time leading themselves. And you can't lead an empire. You can't lead your family. You can't lead your community unless you can lead you. And for me, fitness is the highest form of self-leadership. So my framework on this is...
• 7:05
  And while that's challenging and bad news, I think for you aspiring leaders listening to this, it's actually empowering news, which shows me that if you lead a healthy and fit lifestyle, if you just maintain a healthy weight, by definition, you are qualified to lead over 80% of our population who has a hard time self-leading themselves.
• 7:24
  But if you want to take us a step further, which we all should take a step further, if you are on the harder, harder than life podcast, if you're developing personal growth and self mastery, take it to the next level. And if you want to separate yourself to be the one percenter, look like you work out. You should never be asked, oh, do you lift weights?
• 7:42
  People should just know that by your appearance. And when they do, not only do you have all the physicality, the psychological, the physiological benefits of being fit, but also when you walk into a room, you command a level of respect, not only for others, but yourself. And that's an incredibly powerful leadership tool. So I want to start there in the leadership framework. We can talk a little bit about the capitalism and then also the free speech, but I don't know if you have anything to add.
• 8:06
  Perfect. We're in a deeper dive in this. Do you have any cheat codes too? I just recently turned on this magic mind. Have you tried these little things out? They're so good. I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I don't take Adderall. I don't take anything, but these magic mind things, they just sent these to me. And I take them and I'm extremely focused. I have energy and I'm dialed in. You should try these out if you haven't. I don't know why. I just like sharing them with people. They look...
• 8:34
  Crazy, but they taste delicious. And all of a sudden, boom. So the reason why I say that, just grab one because I got still meetings upon meetings. And it's literally I just take a quick freaking shot. You try them out. I'll send you some. Is it nootropic? Exactly. It's good. It's called Magic Mind. I think it's out in L.A. too. I don't know. Try it out. It's delicious. Now I'm going to be focused for the next freaking five hours, which is beautiful. And it's all natural. Yeah.
• 9:02
  So having said that, what I saw this amazing, by the way, everybody follow him. Real Bryce Henson on all socials. Real Bryce, B-R-Y-C-E Henson, H-E-N-S-O-N on all social media handles. You can already hear the intensity and is we're going to get into this in a minute, but I'm
• 9:22
  He hangs out with Big Bad Bedros, who's, he and I just have so much fun with the haters talking about steroids and whatnot. Everybody wants to hate on it. I embody what you say about self-discipline and leading yourself. Everybody gives me so much crap about it. And you know what? How we started this was I used to get beat and, and.
• 9:50
  That's how I got big and tough. So everything happens for you, not to you. And now I walk in a room. Heck, I walked over to you and you're two seconds. Okay, come here. I want to talk to you because I'm a big boy. So he is onto something. And this EQ, emotional intelligence and physicality is very, very important. So what are the three? I saw a reel that you put out, the three costs of leadership.
• 10:14
  Can you enlighten the listeners on that? Oh, shoot. Yeah, I just created this framework, actually. Let me pull up that quote. We just had our annual World Conference, which is a giant conference. All our franchise partners are coaches in the Fit Body Boot Camp brand, and we had our biggest one in franchise history. We had over 550 attendees in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it was just an epic event.
• 10:39
  and poured into our franchise partners and coaches and really the backbone of our culture of our entire organization because culture, in the famous words of leadership expert Peter Druckert, will eat strategy for breakfast. But I received a thank you note from my entire team because I spearheaded the event. And there was a quote on the three costs of leadership. The quote was cited by Kirby Smart, who is the University of Georgia,
• 11:04
  as football team's head coach. And the three costs are this. You'll have to make hard decisions that negatively impact the people you care about. You'll be disliked despite your best attempts to do the best for the most. And then you'll be misunderstood and you won't always have the opportunity to defend yourself.
• 11:21
  And it's the truth because leadership, it's interesting. It is sometimes it can be a very thinkless job and there's a dichotomy to it. Many times you won't be liked as a leader, especially when you make a hard decision that's going to benefit the entire organization. And if you think about if you're listening to this right now and you have children, you know this to be true. If you're a good parent or a good leader.
• 11:42
  For your children, there's many times you have to say no. You put guardrails. You have to compliance and really discipline your kids. And guess what? Your kids do not like you in the moment. Do they not? They do not. They do not like you in the moment. However, long term, they will appreciate you. They will have gratitude for your level of leadership.
• 12:00
  So I think that's really important to understand when you're making hard decisions. And then the cost of leadership is you will be disliked. And the last thing, especially as your organization grows, many times you'll be misunderstood, especially if you're creative, if you're bold, if you take big action and you have a larger organization and you have a duty, obligation, responsibility to communicate, to over-communicate, and really use social media and video to communicate differently.
• 12:23
  to as many of your following as humanly possible. But there is an element where a lot of your following will not be able to connect with you or at least dialogue with you on the decisions made. And ultimately that's just part of the cost of leadership. You will be misunderstood. You just have to accept it and move on. But I love that that particular framework was provided to me and I said a mindset quote both on my social media and also to my franchise partners with those learning lessons.
• 12:51
  Yeah, Real Bryce Henson on all socials, people. I went down a rabbit hole of the website yesterday, BryceHenson.com, and just there's so much freebies on there and inspirational leadership that it's phenomenal. But do you find that those three things, specifically the one about not being liked, disliked, is why it's so hard to lead yourself? Because you see people leading their families successfully, leading an empire successfully. Yeah.
• 13:20
  But their personal life is a mess. That's what I see a ton of. I think that's the most popular one to leave out is to not take care of yourself. Is that because of that being scared of what people are going to think and not like you?
• 13:38
  I mean, I think it more has to do with like lack of self-discipline, but it's interesting or lack of self-accountability. And I think it's wired in human nature. When we make a commitment to someone else, we feel an internal tug to honor that commitment because of the social pressure, the way we evolve as humans. I mean, think about it. We evolve as humans to be the dominant species on the planet for two primary reasons. Number one, for intelligence, of course, which many times is focused on solely. But the second aspect
• 14:07
  is our ability to collaborate from a teamwork perspective. And there's an element of trust. So when you give someone else your commitment, okay, we feel an internal tug to stay committed to or consistent to that commitment. And that is a weapon of influence that I learned from a PhD called Dr. Robert Cialdini, who is,
• 14:24
  is a PhD teaches at Arizona State University. In fact, he studied human nature and identified six weapons or six principles. He calls them weapons of influence. And one of them is consistent commitment and consistency. So because of that, though, because of the social pressures, we don't have that social pressure for us. So many times we will not disappoint other people when we make a commitment, whether it's our family or empire. But a lot of times, Kelly, what happens is at the foundation of that, we will disappoint ourselves.
• 14:51
  We will not hold ourselves accountable. And that's just something that we all need to understand. So this is why the best leaders, the best visionaries of companies in the world, they also have accountability coaches because coaches need coaches to not only to hold the team accountable, but most importantly, going back to your initial thought about self-leadership to hold themselves accountable.
• 15:12
  Yeah, I was just on my leadership or my coach's call just before this. I'm coached by Dan Martell, and he's the best in the business. And it's like he just said that. He said, if you're not being coached and you're selling coaching, you're a fraud. I was like, wow.
• 15:27
  Dude, amen though, man. Amen. And look at you. I mean, this literally quantified that particular feedback. You're an incredible, strong leader of yourself. Look at your physique. You're dialed in. You have a coach, an accountability coach, and therefore you can lead yourself, lead your family, lead your empire. That's the framework. And that just highlights a specific point. Dan's awesome. So hats off. How did you meet Bedros?
• 15:51
  Oh, incredible story. So, you know, kindred spirits coming from the Midwest. Even if you can believe I was not a fitness guy, I was hustling, I was grinding to put myself through school and all that. But Michigan, amazing place, salt of the earth people, but not the fitness capital of the world. I think we can all agree to that.
• 16:11
  So fitness was not in my culture, my DNA. Also too, coming from first world standards, very humble beginnings. We used to run out of money before we used to run out of months. So nutritious food sometimes can be a little bit more cost prohibitive than the sugar or the fast food crap they serve. So that's all to say, I moved out to Southern California for an internship, which turned into a full-time sales gig back in 2005.
• 16:32
  And I was here for a couple of years and I was excited to be in LA, the palm trees, the blue skies, all the beaches, all the beaches are the things that California has to offer. But coming out to Southern California, I had more dark days than good. I, you know, was 3000 miles from home, didn't have any professional skill sets, but I didn't have fitness in my life. I didn't have the energy and enthusiasm that I do now. And a fortuitous situation happened.
• 16:57
  about two years in my journey, a Michigan guy, one of my best friends from college, went to Michigan state with me. He was my first fitness mentor. His name was Adam. He had the six pack abs, the glistening muscles, all the girls loved him. I certainly looked up to that. So we ended up living together for the better part of two years. And after a few months, I finally mustered up enough courage, Kelly. And I was like, Hey, Adam,
• 17:15
  Can you show me a little bit about this fitness thing? And he turned to me and said, Bryce, I thought you'd never ask. But if we're going to do this, we're going to do this right. I'm going to put you on a 12-week program. You're going to lift what I want you to lift. You're going to train how I want you to train. You're going to eat what I want you to eat. And after that 12 weeks, if you're like, let's go, awesome. If not, that's okay too. But at least you didn't waste anyone's time. And I'm so glad, Kelly, he made me commit to that initial program because we all know starting a fitness regimen, it's hard. It's very challenging to begin with.
• 17:41
  But I pushed through and over a period of really two years, I trained with them. But for six months, I dropped 20 pounds of body fat. I put 20 pounds of lean muscle on. But way more important than that, I changed my life. So after that particular experience, I went from the highest or excuse me, the least performing sales rep in the company all the way to the highest performing sales rep in the company.
• 18:02
  And there was one thing that changed. It wasn't the sales script. It wasn't the follow-up process. It was literally, Kelly, just the way I showed up, my energy, my enthusiasm. So I'm kind of giving the foundation. That was really my start getting into the fitness, I guess, having my own transformation. But after that experience, I was firing all cylinders. I never thought I would go into the fitness industry. But about two years into that journey, some dude walks up to me at the gym. He said, hey...
• 18:26
  I've been seeing how you lift weights. I was curious how you eat. And after that conversation, this light bulb came on. I was like, holy shit. What if I can give this gift of fitness back to other? So I decided to enroll myself in the National Academy of Sports Medicine, which is this gold standard of certified personal training. I got my certificate. I thought I was going to train clients in the nights and weekends to start, which I did. But after going through that process, I think I updated my Facebook profile to a personal trainer.
• 18:54
  And I started receiving ads from this gentleman who you just referred to named Bedros Koulian. And Bedros was talking about how to launch a fitness business, how to grow a fitness business. I certainly was interested in that. So I opted in. I started following on his list. But if you can believe, for two years, I decided to take a sabbatical where I moved to South America, a little island in the very south of Brazil for a couple-year period, just with my newfound confidence of fitness and exploring the world and travel and all that.
• 19:22
  And then in 2012, when I knew I was coming back to Southern California, I started paying attention a little bit more closely to Badris's emails. And he started talking about this little thing called Fit Body Boot Camp that was transferring from a licensee program to a proper brick and mortar fitness franchise. And.
• 19:38
  And I put in expressive interest. There was only about a dozen owners in the brand at that time. But I went through the application process in the summer of 2012. I ended up scheduling a meeting with Bedros at our Fit Body Bootcamp headquarters. Not the exact building I'm in right now, but one about two miles away. And meeting him within five minutes, I was like, this is exactly what I want to do. Kindred spirits, we locked arms. And I signed the franchise agreement for the first five years. Our relationship was he was the CEO and founder of the brand. I was one of his most successful franchise partners.
• 20:07
  And then in 2018, when our brand Fit Body Bootcamp was really starting to experience some exponential growth, he reached out to me initially with the vice president and then the CEO offer. So that's how we met. And actually, that's the whole story of how this broke out of shape guy from the Midwest came up to Southern California, got into shape, and then eventually became the CEO of an international fitness brand and partnering with an entrepreneurial giant the likes of Pedro Scullion. How old are you?
• 20:33
  I just turned 41. So was Adam, it couldn't happen to be Adam Speck from Michigan State, was it? No. Okay. Adam Hartwell, but if you're listening, shout out to you, buddy. God, good stuff. He may be, because we're here in Michigan as well. I love what you started, meet people where they are. So Adam met you where you were, didn't force himself on you. You were watching, and then you asked. I love that. And now I'm really seeing the similarities between you and Bedros, because I love his content where,
• 21:02
  He says, hey guys, I take testosterone, but it's irrelevant because you could take the same things I do and you won't get the results. And it's well documented, I take testosterone. I'm 48 years old. When I turned 40, my test dropped to under 200. So I, and I was like, but then I always invite people to come to the gym. It's like, hey.
• 21:23
  But you meet me at the gym at 5 a.m. I'm there every day. So come in here. I may be taking testosterone, but I'm on this thing called consistency and discipline. And then I add a little bit of intensity with it. And most people couldn't keep up with me. So I welcome that. I'll come out to California and train with you guys sometime. So I love that story. The little Midwest kid.
• 21:46
  Yep. Down in the dumps, all against them, adversity, adversity, adversity, and boom, here you are. Now you're on the Heart of Life podcast. So we're going to deep dive a little bit into, since last night was the debate, and this is being recorded on September 11th. So hats off to anybody who was affected by that horrible, horrible tragedy. But I like to say that on the other side of bad things, good things happen.
• 22:10
  You know, the one thing about this country that drives me insane is that when there is a foreign issue, we will unite like there's no tomorrow. So you think the most united this country's ever been was at nine was nine twelve. And it's like, why do we have to wait for this to happen? So. Right.
• 22:31
  We are big on leadership. I am big on accountability and about leadership. And we just watched the debate last night. And I don't care what side you're on or anybody's on. This isn't meant to be. But I just want to say, what could we do as a nation to build better leaders when we look at the two prospective leaders we're going to have and they leave a lot to be desired? If you're the president tomorrow, what would you do
• 23:00
  Ooh, that is an amazing, very challenging, but loaded question. But I couldn't agree with you more, man. Holy smokes. September 11, 23 years ago, I was actually in Michigan State, East Lansing. It was my freshman year in college. And this is back in the day without the technology, the cell phones and all that. I walked into my 8 o'clock class. The first tower, I think, got hit like 8.15.
• 23:21
  Today's day and age, we would have known that immediately, but I didn't find out until 12, 30, or one o'clock in the afternoon after my four hour class, going back to the dorm rooms and then seeing the world has changed. So to your point, a moment of silence and respect to everyone who was affected by that, but it's just part of human nature. We can respond to adversity well, and it's absolutely a shame to your point. I mean, I would say in my lifetime, Kelly, this is probably the most divided that I've ever seen us been.
• 23:50
  And leadership is actually, you know, collaboration. And it's about uniting and building and teamwork and collaborating with each other. So for me, you know, being fitness is my focus and being that I think it's the foundation of self-leadership. I'm a huge fan of RFK specifically on his initiatives. I mean, there's a lot to unpack there, but specifically his initiatives on, you know, chronic disease and the processed foods and the lack of health care in our country right now.
• 24:18
  And I think, you know, our population, I mean, we're the richest country in the history of the world, but our population right now, I mean, we're obese, we're sick. There's just a lot of chronic disease. So for me, first and foremost, to answer your question, going back to my leadership framework, before you can lead an empire or, you know, the richest and most powerful government in the world, you need to be able at the unit economic level, keep your citizens healthy. Yeah.
• 24:44
  So I would support a lot of the initiatives that RFK has put forth specifically to clean up the nutrition in our schools, to remove processed foods, to remove a lot of the chemicals and the big pharma and all that kind of stuff. Because, I mean, from my perspective, that is crushing our health. That is crushing our health.
• 25:02
  our vitality and vibrancy as a nation. And you can't continue to, you know, be the best in the world and have strong united front if we're sick people. So to answer your direct question, I looked at from a leadership framework, I looked from a health and fitness framework off my first principle of leading yourself. That would probably be some of the biggest initiatives that I would make if I was appointed to one of the most powerful, I guess the most powerful and probably the most challenging job on the planet.
• 25:29
  So I have an easy cheat code for us all. And here's a, maybe Bedros and you can put this together with your power. Why don't we put gyms at airports? I spent so much time at the airport. If there was a gym there, I don't care. I'd pay a hundred dollars cash every time. Amen. I would, I would work that into my, I'd get there early and I would go in, I would work out, I would shower and get on the plane and be a happy man. Isn't that a brilliant idea? Let's go. Let's go.
• 25:58
  We're going to deep dive into fitness body boot camp, but we'll do it right now. Heck, let's get into that. I just barely touched on the thing because, you know, we could talk politics all day and every day. And, you know, I'm a firm believer that there's ways to fix this stuff. But until we actually do real meaningful change, we're going to have more of the same. And this division and distraction is a part of the problem. And yeah.
• 26:27
  As long as there's the right and there's the left, it's divided states of America. So if we actually unite, we would see what's going on and that these guys aren't really serving us. This isn't a public service any longer. When they're spending $2 billion apiece to get elected, this isn't about us. And when I'm in the IT business, I have several ways to guarantee our elections work.
• 26:54
  You know, if we're even thinking that our elections are illegitimate, we've got a problem in our society, in our country that cannot be in a democracy. You have to have elections be sacred. And when it becomes the most popular, the most the most what is it? Money funded person wins. I mean, look what just your boy JFK.
• 27:18
  He broke from his family. Five of his family members came out and said, we don't back this. Talk about courage. You tell me if a Kennedy breaks off and says, I'm backing a Trump. I'm listening. But it's so frustrating. I stayed up. So you want to talk about that? I'm going to ask your daily routines, too. It's like I have got to sleep. It's a non-negotiable for me.
• 27:41
  And I was up late and so fired up, I had to turn and I like to see everybody's reaction. So I'm flipping from CNN to ABC to everyone to hear what their summary was.
• 27:52
  And it's just, it was sad, man. I hope we don't have another one. But I tell you what, even when we do, I won't stay up for it. It was a waste of time. They said nothing. Right from the get-go, are we better off than four years ago? I got a newsflash for you. Gas prices are double. Price of food is, go to the gym. It's gone. Everything we do has gone up. How can we be better off? And I'm not trying to say I'm for Trump.
• 28:18
  So frustrating. Do you want to expand on that at all? No. I mean, well said. I agree with you 1,000%. The answer is we're not. And I hope for strong leadership because, as we talked about earlier in the show, leadership is always the problem and always the solution. And I do think there's a leadership void not only in our society but from our government for all the reasons and more.
• 28:39
  Starts at the top, man. It starts at the top. And it's going to be somebody that comes in that's not a part of the system that's going to come in and change it. I've always said I'd like to see Matthew McConaughey run. I just, when you ever hear him speak, he's just very, he understands people. And he reminds me of, and you're old enough still to remember, it's Ronald Reagan. Oh, yeah. The actor. The great communicator. There you go.
• 29:07
  All right. Fit Body Bootcamp has a unique approach of fitness. What do you believe sets it apart from every other fitness franchise?
• 29:15
  Number one, nutrition coaching. It's interesting. So many gyms and fitness franchises, they don't actually support nutrition, don't have a really robust nutrition protocol. And we know this to be true, Kelly. I mean, I'm on TRT as well, right? So just because you're on TRT or testosterone hormone replacement therapy doesn't mean that, hey, you go to the gym and all of a sudden you'll be Hulk. You need to put in the work. You need to lift weights. You also need to make sure that your nutrition protocol is very cleaned up because most people,
• 29:44
  In our country right now, 80% of them need to lose weight. And the best way to change your body composition is through clean nutrition. So I always like to start there. That's probably one thing for sure that is our unique selling proposition. The other aspect at play, and it's going from a leadership framework, Fit Body Bootcamp is a franchise system. So my business partner, who just referred to, Bedros Cooley, in 2012 made the decision to franchise our system. So instead of all of our locations being corporate,
• 30:11
  owned, we recruit franchise partners then who recruit their own teams and then they replicate the process. And really what that means is we have a strong replicable process, but that requires a lot of leadership and a lot of development of coaches. So our client experience is everything. If you think about the coaching and the fitness industry, our industry at Fit Body Bootcamp and fitness.
• 30:31
  Our coaches are our products. So their ability to connect with a client, provide a great coaching experience, form correction, and also get a client a great result. But not only that, give a client a great experience more than anything. So I think for us, the second unique selling proposition is just our development of people. We have a robust two-year training protocol for all of our new coaches coming in.
• 30:54
  In the industry where the average coach, they only stay at a location for six months. They only stay in the industry for less than six months. So I think from that perspective between nutrition and our internal development, it really translates amazing to the client experience and the results. And really, our brand is known for sustainable weight loss results. So that's our secret sauce.
• 31:16
  My biggest issue, Bryce, is eating. That's literally nutrition is my hardest one. So I supplement with protein shakes, protein bars. I'm so busy. My day starts at 4.15 and doesn't end until 9.15 at night. What advice do you have for busy entrepreneurs who struggle to find time for not only the fitness, I get that in the morning, but also the nutrition portion of it?
• 31:41
  Well, coaching for me, I'm in the coaching business. I mean, yeah, I run gyms and Fit Body was a franchise model of fitness locations or transformation centers. I like to refer to them. But more than anything, you can break it down. It's a coaching program. And we talked a little bit about this earlier. When you lead others, when you lead yourself.
• 31:57
  you need strong accountability. And the vast majority of times people will be accountable to other people, but they'll lose the accountability themselves. So my big go-to is if you're struggling with anything in life, I'm going to talk a little bit about me. I'm struggling with my flexibility. That's my weakest part of my fitness routine right now. And I can try until I'm blue in the face, but to do this on my own, the best way to go about this, I just hired a stretching coach.
• 32:21
  So now I have accountability, a guide, if you will, who's going to take me through. And that's going to be the same recommendation, Kelly, for you and your audience who is listening to this. It's like, hey, I struggle with flexibility. I struggle nutrition as well. Get a nutrition coach. They are going to exponentially help you be able to provide you guidance, first and foremost.
• 32:41
  be able to provide you the blueprint that you need to find success. And they're going to be able to hold you accountable, which are three important pillars to success. So that would be my strong recommendation. If you're listening to this in any aspect of your life, the second very tangible thing would just be, you know, I invest in meal prep services because similar to you, I mean, we're cut from the same cloth. I'm up at four. I'm usually bad by eight 39 every single day. So I just run it hard. I'm basically running all the way, all the way through. I grabbed two protein shakes. I have some snacks, but I also have some meal prep as well.
• 33:10
  to help me aid, aid me in that process. That's more of a tool, but those are some examples that I've used in my daily routine to level up my fitness that I know your audience can also get value.
• 33:20
  Do you guys have somebody that you recommend? We partnered with Clean Eats. Do you guys have anybody? We don't from a food service or food prep perspective, but Bedros has our sister nutrition company, Truly Nutrition. So we have our protein shakes and our greens and our immune shots and all that. But specifically in terms of a food partner, we don't. And what we found from a national level, that's a little bit more challenging. So a lot of our franchise partners partner up with their local, I guess, food preps to be able to provide that service to their clients.
• 33:47
  I became good friends with the CEO, husband and wife. They're really good people. If you ever want an introduction, he's a good dude. You talked about flexibility, though. You ever want to laugh is watch me at a golf swing. I have zero flexibility. Even tying my shoes is difficult. I'm with you, man. Only smokes. Is your shirt flip the switch? Is that Coach Burt's book?
• 34:09
  No, this is actually Bedros' kind of tagline for his new book. He runs an event called BK Live or Bedros Cooling Live, which the first one of this particular branded event happened in fall of 2013, which is where this shirt came from. But ironically, I'm flying out to Phoenix tomorrow to give a keynote for the second annual BK Live in Scottsdale, Arizona this year.
• 34:30
  That's very nice. So besides the online evolution of fitness, how has the fitness industry evolved in recent years and what trends are you seeing that business owners should pay attention to? Well, it's interesting. I think the biggest trend that will just always continue is technology. So technology is advancing at a very, very rapid rate. So I think if you're, it doesn't matter actually what industry you're in, you need to understand and need to be open-minded to adapt
• 34:59
  and implement new technology because technology creates efficiency, it allows you to time collapse, and it allows you to create more income and impact, which is the name of the game. But for my industry, interestingly enough, while it's changed so much over the last even 10 years, especially group coaching and group fitness, technology's an incredible tool, but for my business,
• 35:20
  My business, first and foremost, more than the nutrition coaching or the fitness coaching or the fitness industry, I'm in the people industry. I'm in the people business. And there's something super magical about humans connecting with humans. I mean, we're tribal. You know, when we met at an event, Amber Lelago's event earlier this year, I mean, kindred spirits initially were connected, right? And that's just the value of human connection. Yeah.
• 35:41
  For me, what I've seen from a technology front is a lot of evolution, but I've also seen other companies focus too much on the technology, specifically in the fitness coaching space, and they lose sight on the real value, which is the relationship, the connection. So for me and my vision of leading my organization,
• 35:59
  Technology focus will always be there. Shoot. I mean, we've developed a few different pieces of software to help with our coaching, but by far going back to your initial comment about, Hey, what's the separator for Fit Body Bootcamp? Aside from nutrition, it's team development because we need to continue to develop our team so they can be better connectors and coaches of people. So that's what I've seen specifically, I guess, industry agnostic and also specifically within the fitness industry.
• 36:23
  Yeah, I'm going to, besides your social media is the real Bryce Hudson, I want a bigger call out. And it'll be in the show notes. But you guys are part of this Legacy Tribe coaching program. It is extremely affordable. It's $2.99 a month. Join the wait list. The link will be in the show notes, guys. It's too funny because I was looking at it.
• 36:45
  And it's almost verbatim of what our coaching program. So this isn't rocket science. It's just different spins. You guys got a better people or further ahead, but we're teaching the same thing. And that's why we're, as you said, kindred spirits. So the show notes to join the wait list, to work with Bryce, to work with Pedro will be in the show notes. It is called the Legacy Tribe Coaching Program. Don't forget the real Bryce Henson on all social medias. And he's also got this fitness CEO podcast. How'd you start that?
• 37:15
  What was that? Oh, dude. Thank you, by the way, first and foremost. And yeah, man, kindred spirits and everyone needs coaching going back to the accountability. So that's the foundation right there. So if you're listening to this right now and you don't have a coach, you need a coach for whatever your bottleneck is in life. Let me jump in there for a second. Guys, there's coaches for 50 bucks a month all the way to freaking 50 or 50,000. So there's somebody out there for everybody. I see your advertisements less than $10 a day.
• 37:43
  So there is somebody out there and I highly recommend getting a coach. I have probably three of them right now. Amen. Well, forget me. I'm all fired up about that. What was the direct question again, Kelly? It was just, it was, geez, I got all excited too. We were talking about how'd you start the podcast.
• 38:00
  Oh yeah. So back in 2021, I mean, you know, following and working with Bedros for a long period of time since 2012, understanding the value of platforms and podcasts and content creation, not only from a leadership perspective, but from a marketing perspective as well. So if you're listening to this right now and you're, you know, the CEO of your business or a watch for already start your business, yeah, you need to focus in on leading yourself and becoming a strong leader, but you also have to understand the marketing game as well, because marketing allows your message to get out.
• 38:29
  So, you know, having this context in mind back in 2021, I knew I wanted to launch what was initially launched as a fitness CEO podcast, which is a podcast where I taught leadership and some other business development aspects, which is really, really powerful. And we had a lot of success with the show. We just crossed 1.5 million downloads.
• 38:48
  But in July of this past year, I had this big aha. And you talked a little bit about earlier in the conversation about the three pillars of my mission in life, which is to teach leadership, because I believe leadership is always the problem and always the solution.
• 39:03
  Number two, I promote capitalism. And number three, I defend free speech. And I came to that different branding for quite a few reasons. And I'd highly encourage you to check out my podcast, the new branding of the show. It's called The CEO Show with Bryce Henson. The episode where I give the backstory just dropped on July 3rd. It's episode 177 of my podcast, but the first of the show.
• 39:25
  And Kelly, from my perspective, why rebrand the show and the message that I want to teach? Number one, teaching leadership is foundational to the human success. No matter what, if you ever, even if you're not an aspiring entrepreneur, you're not an aspiring leader, you never want to be a CEO of a business. That's okay. You still need leadership skills to lead yourself. So very practical and very valuable to all. But Kelly, the last five years...
• 39:49
  Looking at the craziness with COVID and the media and just the victim mindset of our population, it became very clear to me that capitalism, that profit has gotten a bad name. And I don't know if it's, you know, indoctrination from, you know, college and universities and all this craziness going on. But holy smokes, the United States of America, we have our fair share of problems. We clearly understand that. However,
• 40:13
  If we take a 30,000 foot view, it is we have the most richest, the most successful country of all time. And it's based off a economic system of free market capitalism. And I believe that capitalism is the best way of servant leadership. You have to add value to others first. And when you do, you get rewarded.
• 40:33
  It's rooted in incentive, which works really, really well with human nature. So I'm hugely passionate about the free market capitalist system. And this is why I'm a franchisor. I support small businesses. Being the CEO of Fit Body Bootcamp, yeah, we have hundreds of locations across North America. And the vast majority are independently operated by our franchise partners who operate small businesses. So huge passion for that. And then, Kelly, to put a bow on this, the last pillar, if you will, which we've seen in spades...
• 41:02
  with censorship from COVID, with Elon Musk showcasing the Twitter files, with Mark Zuckerberg just coming out from Meta last month showcasing that the U.S. government, the freaking U.S. government pressured Mark Zuckerberg and all of Meta, and I'm sure other platforms as well, Jack Dorsey formerly of Twitter. So for me, what I've realized is...
• 41:24
  Freedom is my core value. And these three principles of my podcast are three principles that promote human prosperity. So I'm extremely passionate to showcase those from a tactical and a logical perspective and leadership and a more of emotional perspective of supporting capitalism, supporting small business, and really defending free speech. Because if we don't have free speech, bad things happen. And if you study history, it's very easy to see.
• 41:50
  Oh, boy, we're gonna have to have another friggin podcast. Just talk about history and capitalism. I could go on and on about that, but I'm here to inspire the listeners. But what you're really saying here, leadership, capitalism, free speech, emotional intelligence, it's really, it's the art of communication. Because if you listen to the debate last night,
• 42:12
  the adjectives that they used. And I'll tease Trump. He's this guy's a multi-billionaire and the small adjectives that he used, the best, it's like, really, you can't articulate anything better than it being the best and they're good people. And,
• 42:29
  What does it mean to people? And so I had Amy P. Kelly on John Gordon from John Gordon's company. Yeah, I saw. She talked about and she was at the event, too. She talked about what's their latest book?
• 42:44
  Difficult conversations don't have to be difficult. And so we got to go in and realize that these are all growth conversations. So you can be a not so great leader, but have the conversation and lead into it and grow from it and become a better leader. So what you're really talking about is communication communication.
• 43:03
  communication and communicate some more. And that's what we're missing in this world. And that's the tenet of strong leadership is the tenet of really for us being successful as humans. It's the foundation of what connects us, which we just talked about is strong leadership as well as the opposite of divisiveness. So man, we are speaking the same language. Love this.
• 43:22
  Bryce, I just adore you, man. In any way that I can help you in any way, shape, or form, man, always reach out. You have my cell phone number. But let's take that communication, that leadership, that capitalism, that free speech, that emotional intelligence, and put it all into personal branding. How important is personal branding for entrepreneurs, especially in the health and fitness industry?
• 43:43
  I mean, it's everything these days. And the reason this is, is people do business with people over faceless companies. That's just the fact of the matter. People, we are attracted to other human beings. We are tribal. We talked a little bit about this evolution.
• 44:00
  There's two factors at play. Our intelligence and our ability to connect and collaborate with other people is really the foundation of that. So I just think that from a tribal connection perspective, that's extremely, extremely important on the way I look at things.
• 44:18
  I'm going to give you more advice that I know you know. God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. So listen twice as much as you speak. Seek to be interested rather than interesting. And you will get your farther. Always, always, always lead with love and try to do it a win, win, win for everybody. Not if anybody loses, we all lose.
• 44:40
  So I'm going to get into some fun questions. I know we got a small time crunch and I'm going to have you back on because we can talk forever. Love it. If you could have, these are funny ones, I'm so sorry. If you could have, if you could choose one cheat meal for the rest of your life, what would it be and what would you still make?
• 44:59
  And would you still make your foot fit body bootcamp class the next day? Yes, I would definitely make my fit body bootcamp session. Let's go. We're professionals here. So a hundred percent. And I'm a sweet tooth for sure. So I'm going to do some like frozen yogurt ice cream all day. And twice on Sundays is my cheat meal. My favorite thing is my favorite song is for I only came for the cake. And I was at Craig Siegel's wedding this weekend in Hollywood.
• 45:25
  They fed us so late. And my girlfriend's like, let's go, let's go, let's go. And I'm like, I am not leaving until I get cake. And the second I got cake, I was out the door. I left at midnight. So, yeah, I'm like you. But I'll burn that stuff off in my sleep, I think. So, yeah.
• 45:43
  What's the most ridiculous fitness myth you've ever heard? And did you have to really try hard not to laugh when somebody told it to you? Oh, man. My business partner, Bedros, is just absolutely hilarious. He talks about the shake weight back in the 90s or whatever the case may be, the infomercials. He's like, you just like getting hold of this thing. People got to go Google that shake weight, guys. It looks – all right, I'm going to be –
• 46:06
  earmuffs if there's kids in the car it looks like you're performing you know a head job the old shushing it is so funny the video sorry shake weight go ahead so i would say i mean it's probably borrowed from bedros but dude like so hilarious and you know you gotta love human nature we're always looking for solutions but holy smokes man sometimes innovations and we can be gullible for sure and that is a huge myth that you want to avoid like the plague
• 46:32
  Exercise, train, mean, train with intentionality, clean up your nutrition, put away the processed foods, whole meals. If you drink water and sleep, I mean, just doing those few things, you will dramatically change your fitness in your life. It literally is that simple. Eat, sleep, drink, eat, sleep, drink, train and eat. I said eat, sleep, drink and train. That's it. We all have that one exercise we secretly hate. What's yours and how do you convince yourself to do it anyway? Yeah.
• 47:01
  Well, I go to boot camp, which I absolutely love because that's my business. But our program is designed for middle-aged men and women who their biggest focus isn't necessarily getting jacked in the gym. It's sustainable weight loss. So we do some bridges and bird dogs, which is just are not my cup of tea. But I do them as part of the process. I know mobility is very important.
• 47:21
  But for me, that's my least favorite exercise. On the flip side, my favorite exercise by far is like a cardio burpee because I like the strength training, focusing my chest, my arms and my upper body, but getting the burpee in there and you do like two minute circuit of that, you are dying. So it's a little bit of strength and cardio all wrapped up in one.
• 47:40
  Have you done Ben Newman's 444 workout yet? No. Yeah. If you ever see him and he asked you to do it, just punch him in the face. It sucks, dude. He does everything at 444 because 44 was his favorite number. So we're doing it at that event, as a matter of fact. Yeah. At 4 a.m. in the morning or 430 in the morning. And I'm like, why is it 444? He's like, that's my favorite number. I go, so we're doing it. And he's sitting there talking to me. And it's.
• 48:05
  It's like 44 seconds or four minutes, 44 seconds of plank and then followed by 44 jumping jacks. And it takes about a little over an hour. I couldn't walk for a couple of days. But the one story is I'm sitting there doing it. He's just talking to me, getting to know me, asking me questions. And I said, why can't your why couldn't your favorite number be 11? It's like. Yeah.
• 48:28
  Bryce, I'm telling you, it was nothing but our body weight. And Eric Rock was texting me the night before. He's like, dude, I'm telling you right now. He's like, you're a weightlifter. It is going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. So if you ever have a chance to do it, do it. But don't say I didn't warn you. So.
• 48:44
  Well, Kelly, dude, that's a great point too, because people think they need all the machines and like all the stars need to align to have the perfect training environment. You just talked about like a four, four by four, whatever, what it was body weight, literally with some intentionality, even like a 20, 30 minutes, if you have in your day, because people always make the excuse, oh, I don't have time to work out. Well, maybe you don't have time for a two hour CrossFit workout. That would be good for you, but crush you. But if you have 20, 30 minutes a day, get your workout in, do some body weight workouts. Movement is the best medicine. Yeah.
• 49:13
  I was in New York at the, at the Long Island and I couldn't, the gym was horrible. So I just went into the, uh, into the hotel room, did pushups, situps or pushups and crunches and knocked it out. And Hey, I had to get it done. Cause if I don't move my body, I don't feel right. So what's one thing about you that people might be surprised to know?
• 49:36
  I would say, I mean, I'm a recovering drug addict and alcoholic. So interesting. It was very humbling. As I shared with you, my story, my father, and we got out of Dodge when I was 10 years old, which was so grateful on one hand, because I saw a little bit of the chaos, but I was too young to fully understand it.
• 49:56
  But it was a very humbly moment in time to know that that chaos caused with addiction to drugs and alcohol would resurface in my life. It's a very genetic concept, genetic, I guess, situation. So for me, that's probably a surprising thing. But also to going back, things happen for me, not to to me. Things happen for you, not to you. You're listening to as the audience member.
• 50:19
  Um, so what I've been able to do is take that addictive personality and then move it away from the drugs, the cocaine, the alcohol that he used to do, and then shift it towards the positive baby. And I've shifted it towards the positive. And I tell you, it's been actually a superpower for me.
• 50:35
  So you like the cocaine, and I don't wonder that you do fitness body boot camp, because it's like you get tomorrow's energy today. That's why that stuff was so good. How long have you been free of that garbage? So December of 2016. So at the time, this recording is seven and a half years, and if I stick through it, on December 31st, it'll be eight years of sobriety against alcohol. Wait a minute. You quit on December 31st or January 1st? No, it's December 31st. Yeah, that's my...
• 51:03
  That was my last day too. Mine was 2017, 2018. 119 was my sobriety date, January 1st, 2019. So again, kindred spirits. And you know, it wasn't that I just, it's well-talked, but I just wanted to try it out. And boy, is this the best way. I wasn't really hurting anybody or hurting anything, but I just knew I was putting an artificial ceiling. Like you said, addicted to chaos, man. It's the way we grew up.
• 51:33
  It's just a chaos, man. So two more questions. Number one is, is there something I haven't asked you that you feel compelled to share? So thank you for sharing that. And I didn't, we only got a quick hour. So I just, I was hitting the highlights. And so is there anything you want to share that I didn't ask you?
• 51:50
  I love it. No, I mean, probably my message that I want to leave the audience with is just adversity is your advantage. And, you know, Kelly, you know, coming from a very similar background, 100 percent. And I look at today's day and age. I mean, you know, you can be victimized, but never be a victim.
• 52:07
  Never be a victim. And there's a difference on that. Victim is an ongoing way of thinking about poor me, the I don't have any luck. What was me, et cetera. You can have bad things happen to you. We all do. This is just a sign of being alive. You know who doesn't have bad things happen? Dead people.
• 52:24
  So the fact that if you have adversity and challenge, it means it's a sign of life. You got some life in you. You got some fight in you. Keep moving forward. But look at that and then reframe it. And, you know, Kelly, from my perspective, if you look at the most, the worst moments in my life, you know, from...
• 52:40
  you know, growing up with my father, the getting out of Dodge and the chaos that ensued there, but it made me tough. It made me resilient. It allowed me to understand what work ethic was. The worst decision or the worst moment in my life in December, 2016, when someone who was near and dear to me that I loved to a T had a problem with alcohol as well. And I certainly did as well. And I realized there's probably nothing that I can do
• 53:02
  to physically remove alcohol from this person's life, but I can level up and I could lead myself so I can lead my family, live my empire. It was the worst decision of my life, but it ended up becoming the best decision of my life because I removed alcohol and drugs from my life. So the commonality of my life experience, every big breakthrough I've had, every big level of success I had, there's always a catalyst of being the lowest point in my life. So my strong, passionate, please reframe
• 53:28
  whatever adversity and challenge has happened or hit your doorstep and make that your advantage, which is my passionate plea. Good grief. Thank you for that. I always say adversity just left, it is here or it is on its way. So you're absolutely right with that dead people. It's the only people that aren't stressed or, or live in life. I think you just nailed this question, but I'm going to ask it one another way. What's it mean to be harder than life?
• 53:58
  I love the quote and I just, when I learned of the pot, your podcast name, I was like, dude, that is crazy because life is hard. Life hits hard. And it reminds me of what the famous Rocky Balboa movie quote, like life hits hard, it's coming at ya. And I can't recite it specifically, but you know that quote. But at the end of the day, it's you gotta hit harder than life. Life's gonna hit you, but you gotta get up. You have to walk with tenacity and realize
• 54:28
  you're going to get hit, but you got to keep moving forward. You're going to hit again, but you got to keep moving forward. And that's where success is found.
• 54:36
  Yeah, we didn't dig into how many failures it took to get you. So you got to believe in invisible progress and move from failure to failure with no less enthusiasm. I'm getting my teeth kicked in like there's no tomorrow right now because I own a company. But I just know that it's all paying off. I own an IT company that just were slammed because of all the cybersecurity issues. And it's like...
• 54:59
  I'm buried and I didn't get to the gym and it's one day. I can't like, and I got to go to another meeting after this, but I get to spend time with you. I am blessed. I am fortunate. Guys, the real Bryce Henson on all socials. Don't forget. We'll have the, the, the tribe membership. It's on a wait list right now, but it's super affordable. I highly recommend you jump on it. There's also includes two events that they throw per year. It'll be in the show notes price.
• 55:29
  um thanks for playing man fit body boot camp doing good for everybody follow bryce and uh check out his uh fitness ceo podcast appreciate you brother man this was an awesome show it's great to connect earlier this year and uh love to continue the relationship appreciate your time
• 55:51
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.