Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Tony Stephan: Get a Mentor NOW - 142

Episode Date: March 30, 2020

Do you have a mentor? On this episode of Inside Look, one of my coaching clients, Tony Stephan, stops by to let us in on what he’s learned throughout our years of knowing each other and how he has started to help other entrepreneurs do the same! Stephan says that one of the best decisions he made was getting coaching from a mentor. That has given him the tools and the edge he needed to rise above the rest and become an authority in his industry.   “You can have anything you want in this world, as long as you’re willing to go get it.” “I was more afraid of taking these dreams, these goals, and these ambitions I have to the grave, than I was afraid of failure.” “As long as I never quit, I’m never going to fail.” “For every new level, there’s a new devil.” - Tony Stephan   Here’s what you’ll discover: 03:07 - Why Stephan chose to trust Bedros 08:17 - Keep going even when you’re sore 10:08 - What Stephan had to learn at a young age 16:36 - You have to step up if no one else will 19:44 - Come with a giving hand 24:04 - Look at debt like an asset 29:15 - There is value in the inefficiencies of business 35:47 - Don’t just try to extract money from clients   “People will always buy from someone who is considered an authority in their industry.” “If I understand your pain, I might be able to solve your pain as well.” - Bedros Keuilian   --   Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @tony_stephan_   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’ High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Visit: https://tonystephandietitian.com/   Subscribe to My Channel for weekly videos: http://www.youtube.com/bedroskeuilian/?sub_confirmation=1 Youtube:https://youtu.be/6v-_xvG48CM

But I realized if I didn't step up for our industry, who would? Who would? Hey, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show. My name is Bedros Kulian, and this is an inside look. And today we've got someone very special to me. He's actually one of my youngest coaching clients. Quickly became a friend and a seven-figure producer. And that has a very special place in this episode. And you'll understand why as we get along. So let's welcome Tony Stephan. Welcome to the show. Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. So you and I met in a strange way.

Most of my coaching clients don't end up on the Empire show. But I think you've got a very unique story, which is why you're here. And I think your story is really going to empower many people watching and listening to the show to go and be a coach, a mentor, a life coach, a strategist in the lives of the people that you want to serve. And really, you decided that you're going to become a registered dietitian. and you had no intentions of coaching, which is what you're doing now. Right. You were a registered dietitian selling gym memberships in what city in Michigan? Yeah, so I was in Novi, Michigan, about 45 minutes outside of Detroit where I grew up.

So Novi, Michigan, you're selling gym memberships for Lifetime Fitness. Yeah, yeah. And you have this education as an RD, and obviously there's some debt probably involved with that, right? Your student loans. Yeah. And you signed up for my coaching program because you wanted to get, more clients so that you can leave your gym job. How did that pan out for you?

You know, it's crazy. I still remember. I had to lock myself in my office so no one would come in as I was on the phone with you. But yeah, I still remember that call quite vividly. I was in that little office in Michigan. And I always kind of envisioned for myself. I don't want a boot camp studio or I own a personal training studio and do nutrition coaching with it.

And right away, you said two things to me. You said, number one, you need to come out here. We need to do this. And you need to go online with your business. And then number two, you said, you're an old soul to me when I was 25. Yeah, when I was 25. I didn't know what that meant, so I had to Google search it afterwards.

Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so no, it's been a world-went since then. You know, only three short years later, it's mind-blowing to be here. But it all really started that pivotal moment. Sure. And by no means, guys, listen, if you're watching the Empire show, you know it's about building empires.

And an empire doesn't just mean financial wealth. We know that it means experiences in life, being able to donate to the charities and the causes and the churches you want to donate to. And you've done one hell of a job. job with that because money does move the needle in life and impact and meaning and significance. And what kind of money were you making when you were working in a gym? Like what was your monthly salary or commissions? Sure. Yeah, I think my best month ever, I did like $4,000 or $5,000. So when we're on the phone and I'm telling you like, man, you can make like $15, $20, $30,000 in a month.

Sure. And you're like, my best month was $4,000 or $5,000. How do you blindly trust me or was there any faith in yourself? You know, it's both, but it's everything you preach. of no like and trust factor. I did my research first. I think I told you this. I was 18 years old trying to sell personal training, and I'm on YouTube how to sell personal training. Bejro's cooling videos come up.

I started watching and indoctrary and learning all that. So at this point, I already had a high level of trust in you. But I think something that's always helped me is I did my research. You know, I saw the people you worked with, saw the people like Jason Capital. I saw the results they had seen. And so to me, it was a combination. I trusted you, but I also trusted myself

that whatever you told me to do. do. I knew success was in my hand. I never looked at you and said, make me successful. I said, hey, please give me the roadmap. Give me the marching orders. I'll execute. Bingo. And guys and gals watching and listening to this, that was something that we talked about right before the cameras and microphones started to roll, which was, I was like, hey, what do you think your superpower is? And you're like, well, I can help people see the vision that they're going to go at better than they can or even a bigger vision that they can achieve. I was like, yeah, that's one. But your biggest superpower is singularity of focus. Like, you have gotten so good.

and focusing down on one thing and doing that until you cross the finish line. And that is a very rare skill. Most people get sidetracked by the idea fairy, by shiny objects, start asking too many people for opinions. Could you imagine if you had four or five other coaches? Sure. And they're like, dude, no, you shouldn't be online. You should be offline with your own gym. And you're like, well, fuck, they told me this.

And you're telling me that. Right. That creates confusion. For sure. And so where that's concerned, that's a big takeaway for our audience. And obviously you're here because I want them to experience that someone in their 20, And one thing we talked about was you were like, hey, man, I want to hit seven figures before I turned 30. Yep.

And you did that in three short years. Yeah, yes. Going from four grand a month, we're selling gym memberships. Yeah. Right? To now seven figures. But your journey, when we kind of took you online, you were doing online nutrition coaching. Yep.

How quickly did that scale and what did that work look like? I want the audience to hear from someone who was recently there. Yeah, of course. for that first year was always the hardest year. I think you always explained like year three and five or your big breakout years. So that year one was really tough. You know, I had to learn to be an entrepreneur. And, you know, I started building up success. I started having a lot of successful in nutrition coaching. Funny things started happening, though, I saw other dietitians started following me. Other dietitians started hiring me to be their nutrition coach, which something

kind of was off there. I was like, you have the knowledge. You know exactly what I know. Why are you hiring me? I started realizing they wanted to learn how to kind of do this on their own. even at college students who were soon to be RD start to do this. It was in our half day of coaching, I believe in 2017 or 2018. One of the last things you said to me, and it was one of the most profound things you've ever said to me. We were right about wrapping up the day in the office right upstairs here. I was exhausted because you dumped a bunch of knowledge on me.

And you're looking through my Instagram and you were trying to help me find leads for nutrition coaching. And you're like, oh, no, this is an RD. You're like, oh, hey, what about? You're like, no, no, this is an RD? And you go, have you ever thought about helping other RDs? So you have a lot of RD followers and I go, no, I don't have a successful business yet. And you say, yes, you do.

Yes, you do. And you just kind of set it off on a whim. You're like, give it a shot, do it with one person. See how it works out. About like a year and a half later, 16 people in our mastermind. Here we are. So that's really how it started. That's just the value of someone who, a powerful mentor who can see things that you don't see

or where you cut yourself off. Like you saw that bigger thing and it's been amazing. And so that journey is pretty neat because I remember your questions. And again, we're in our fourth year now of working together, right, of coaching you. And I got to tell you, one, you're just an absolute delight to work with. Like, I literally want to, like, levy a aggravation fee on all my other coaching clients because they irritate me with the amount of, like, are you sure I shouldn't be doing this? Like, if you're going to fucking coach yourself, then why'd you pay me 50 Gs, right?

And then part of that is you've made coaching you so easy because you just follow the rules and then you put your head down and you do the work. but there had to be some level of doubt either in the process or in yourself because I remember our coaching calls recently have gotten very sophisticated. For sure. But in the beginning, there were some calls that where I was talking you off the cliff sometimes. So what did that doubt show up as so that people who experience that as they're building businesses, they go, aha, Tony talked about this.

You know, in the beginning, it was a bit of doubt that can I do this? Is this really going to work? I couldn't see, you know, the big, big picture. You mentioned like in our first half day coaching, which was February 2017 in your old office, not even in this one. You said one day you'll have weekend retreats and people will fly to you. I mean, you might as well have just told me I'm going to Mars on a shuttle. That's how far it felt, you know, but there was a bit of doubt, but I was more afraid of taking these dreams and these goals and these ambitions I have to the grave than I was afraid of, you know, failure. And I truly trusted the process.

I trusted you had already done it. So you had the wisdom. And I just said, as long as I never quit, you know, I'm never going to long-term fail. I did. I truly believed in myself. And that's what helped. And it's just I took every adversity, every challenge. And you helped teach me this.

You always use the muscles in the gym analogy. You're like, how do you grow in the gym? You have to go put time under tension, time under tension. So every time everything went wrong, I was like, oh, this was just a tough workout today. That's it. I'm growing. It hurts. I'm sore.

I'm tired. I'm exhausted. But I'm going to grow. And I'm not going to stop going to the gym just because I'm sore is the same thing with business. I'm not going to stop showing up. And I was committed. I was committed for a year of coaching. I had no, I couldn't stop.

I had to keep going. Sometimes having your feet held to the fire in the form of, in this case, financial commitment for 12 months really helps you like, well, it's like someone's going to drag me to the gym, put the weights in my hands, I got to lift it. So I might as well get in shape. But you said something very profound. I don't want it to have fallen on deaf ears, so I'm going to say it again. You said, you had greater fear of having these dreams, goals, and ambitions end up in the

grave with you in other words taking it to your grave and never really accomplishing it than the fear of failing yep and then you know you talk about like man you said I'm an old soul like that is a very old soul for a guy here in his 20s like right yeah as a very old soul statement how do you develop a wherewithal to even have that feeling because so many people are like I'm just afraid of like what if this fails I'm going to get embarrassed I'm going to lose money my my well your fiancee at the time yep now your wife like what is she going to say right so many people are worried about that, but you're like, man, I don't want to take all this to my grave and never see it come to fruition. Where does it come from? Yeah, you know, I learned at a young age what loss really feels like.

You know, when I was 14 years old, my mother battled with a drug addiction. And, you know, she left home. I came home one day from school, my father sat me down and he said, you know, mom's gone. We're a few months behind on our mortgage. We're going to file what's called Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Things are going to be really tough. And he taught me two really profound things in that moment that helped create that mindset. He said, number one, you're going to grow up quickly, so I guess that's probably where the old soul came from. Sure. But then number two, he said, you can have anything you want in this world as long as you're willing to go get it. He said, I'm not going to be able to help you get it because we're going to go through some very tough times here. But he said, as long as you're willing to go out there and pay the price, you can have anything you want, you just have to go get it.

So that really instilled into me at this point that, one, time is not guaranteed. because I always thought I'd had time to have a relationship with my mother. 18, so four years later I turned 18, she overdosed. She was found dead on a apartment floor about a mile from our home. So I always thought I had years to have a relationship with my mother. That was taken away. That was taken away. But that's where my father instilled into me that, you know, you can have whatever you want.

There's a price that comes with that if you're willing to pay it and you're willing to go get it, not wait, not wait. but go get it. Yeah. That's where it came from. That's so powerful, guys. And one of the best things we can do is learn from other people's successes, right? They say success leaves clues.

And, I mean, what a horrific experience to think that, man, you're supposed to outlive your mom. That's how a parent-child relationship is supposed to work. And you think that, you know, I've got plenty of time to build a relationship and build memories and experiences with mom. And then, boom, she's taken away. And in such a way that obviously leaves. That has to be traumatic. There has to be a level of trauma there. And your dad's like, dude, listen, you got to grow up fast.

And know that nothing's guaranteed. Unfortunately, mom wasn't guaranteed. And if you want something, go and get it. You can have it, but you've got to go and get it. And that does explain a lot of what I see in you. You just have this, like, intensity, this driving you that I can resonate with. I always talk about the chip on my shoulder, the fire in my belly, and the rage in my eyes. And people are like, well, you should go.

go see a therapist. I did see a therapist. And I was like, do not take that away from me. Sure. That is a superpower. Like what you have, what you experienced there. And guys and gals, I don't want you to have experienced what I experienced as a kid with the, you know, molestation and the child abuse and then fucking being bullied here. And I certainly don't want anyone to experience what you went through losing a parent so quickly in having to grow up. But you can learn from experiences and go, holy smokes. Like I realize time is not guaranteed to us. Neither is is opportunity unless we go out and grab it and that's what you did. So you're starting to coach people on their nutrition, on their diet,

and we see very quickly that other RDs are following you, hiring you to coach them on their nutrition, and you're like, well, what the hell? Like, I would think the same thing. Like, you know this stuff. You know what I know. Why aren't you coaching yourself? Right.

Unbeknownst to you, they were trying to just figure out, like, what is he doing to gain his clients? Now, when was your first, like, holy crap, I'm making more money, like the aha moment where like, I can't believe I'm making this much money. Do you remember when that was? Yeah, I would say it's probably about now, about a year and a half ago. It's when the income from the mentorship, which is what we called in the beginning, the income from the mentorship greatly exceeded that of the nutrition coaching.

And it's also when I started to realize that, you know, not only was it more lucrative to help more RDs. I mean, B2B is a little bit more lucrative than B to C, business to consumer. more fulfillment. I mean, to coach the coach, because I'd spent years as a personal trainer as an RD coaching Mrs. Jones, right? Now it was really turned on by the fact that if I helped an RD in her lifespan,

I say her because it's 90% women. Sure. But in her lifespan, if I get to help her help 1,000 clients, I indirectly helped way more people than I could ever get to. So it was really that fulfillment turnout. Once I started seeing them see results

and helping more people, it was like that I was the catalyst to more and more change. than I could ever get to just doing one-on-one coaching myself. Now, this is so profound, right? Because everyone watching and listening to this, you need to understand that when you get good at something, you get so good that others in your industry

want to hire you, not as a coach, to learn how you're doing that, but, you know, well, they're hiring you for the skill set that you have, obviously, the thing you're offering. You might want to consider coaching and consulting because not enough people think, well, I'm not qualified to be a coach and a consultant. I didn't go to college.

There is no college education. You can get to be a coach, mentor, consultant, to run a mastermind. And so we saw the writing on the wall that these RDs were signing up for nutrition coaching from you, but what they really wanted was, how's Tony doing it? Right. How can I do it? Right. And so you were like, hey, look, I became an RD because I wanted to impact more lives.

I want to help people with their nutrition, their health, their mindset, their fitness. And how many people am I going to reach by myself versus how many can I reach by having, what, almost 60 members in your mastermind now? right yep yep and when you have 60 members in your mastermind like you said if throughout her lifetime each person helps a thousand people 60,000 people just just if we stop now and your mastermind's growing right right right I mean think about the impact so make no mistake about if you're in an industry to to deliver an impact ask yourself this question how can I 10x that grant cardone that and then how can I 100x that which is really where you're headed to doing because you're 40 people or so away from having 100 people in this mastermind, and you will truly 100x the impact that you

were going to make solely individually. Yes. And so let's shift gears now. So when I'm like, hey, dude, and this wasn't by the way overnight. This was like maybe in year two, two and a half. Yeah. I'm like, dude, you might want to consider starting doing coaching and consulting. Was there any self-doubt that came up? Was there any kind of inner self-talk that we need to address? I think for any time you change, right? Anytime you grow to a new level, like I love the expression for every new level. There's a new devil. There always is. There always is. But you helped me realize I had a winning formula. I knew what I was doing. I was producing success. I was doing it. I was living. I wasn't just someone who like read a book or research some things online and then started

selling it. I was living. I was living in the trenches rep for rep for what I was preaching. And you actually helped me realize I would be doing my industry a disservice because there's so much, there still is, but there's so much bad information out there for registered dietitians. There are people who never built businesses or never really lived it out there just trying to capitalize on a marketplace. So I kind of realized if I don't step up for my industry, if I don't step up to serve these dietitians, because I would get a lot of messages because I would talk about you or I'd show like our half day coaching.

People like, would you mentor me? I would say no at first. Because I'm like, no, I'm not a business mentor. I'm like, go to Bejros. I'm like, I can't afford that. So I'm like, okay. But I realized if I didn't step up for our industry, who would? Who would, right?

And the industry that I love of registered dietitians would continue to struggle. So I felt the internal pull towards it and focusing more on them because I hated seeing these messages of people. I spent 10,000 in coaching. I got nothing from it. I got more from watching your content than I did for what I paid for there. So it was more about the need. I did have fear, but I think when the Y is powerful enough, you can endure anyhow. And for me, the Y was really to serve the industry that I loved and not to see.

them get hurt and harmed by unqualified or uneducated, just business coaches that didn't care about them. There's so much right here that I want to unpack for a moment. One, the fact that you care so much about the industry that you're willing to be the guy, I'm going to step up and I'm going to do this. So many people take the position of kind of crossing their arms and standing back and going, someone should do something about our industry. Sure.

Well, how about you be that someone? Sure. Right? That's thing, number one, that you were willing to say, like, I'm going to step up and I'm going to be that guy who does this for my industry because I give a shit. Number two is this, and to me it's very profound, and we know that social media produces so many charlatans, so many fakes. Like you can just, you can go buy a blue check mark, you can go buy fake followers, you can literally go rent a mock jet and Lamborghini. It's like $2,500 for like a six-hour period to do and bring a whole bunch of clothes within you, the photo shoot.

Like, you'd be surprised the shit that goes into my DMs and go, hey, do you want to do this? I don't know. I actually fly on private jets. I don't need to fake it. Sure. And but I share this with you because there's so many charlatans and fakes out there promising a service, promising a unicorn delivering a donkey. And I know exactly how it is because your fitness, your industry and my industry are very similar. Like the fitness industry and the nutrition industry, there's a lot of crossover. And it doesn't matter if it's real estate, if it's finance, if it's like apparel supplements. There's always the fakes and then there's always the grates. The grates are the people that are in the trenches doing it, and they go, you know what?

Now I've done it. I've got a track record. I'm going to get up and teach others. And so I'm asking all of you, like before you go and become a coach, the consultant, the mentor, before you try and have a live fucking event, go and actually produce the results, make the money, like get the entrepreneurial scars on your body so that you could show someone, like, hey, here's how I got this to this place, and here's how I'm going to help you get there as well. Because there's nothing that I hate more than someone reaches out to me and says,

look, I paid X amount of dollars to this coach, and they promised me the moon and the stars, and I got nothing for it. And so definitely go get the training first, go get the clients, make the money, make the impact, and then come back and serve your industry. So what have you found, now that you're coaching and consulting, what have you found is the secret, if there is a secret, to gaining coaching clients the way you have it? I mean, because in a two-year period now, you've really grown this thing. Yeah, and we do it all organically, too, so we don't spend a dollar on ads back.

and, you know, not saying we won't in the future, but it's all been organic. You know, honest to God, and it's, again, it's something that really just reiterate something you've preached for a while. Come with the giving hand. You know, I create a free Facebook community, and I poured into this. I created this with three people to start, three registered dietitians. Every week I poured into this. Free live trainings. I was showing, I was showing the real, you know, behind the scenes of my business.

Any mistake I made, I went right in there and I taught. I didn't try to be the perfect mentor. I tried to be the mentor that people could connect to by being really, and authentic and showing failures and mistakes. Over time, people started bringing people to this group and started indoctrinating in there, started to get my coaching clients and maybe at the time I had two or three, sharing their wins, sharing their takeaways from coaching sessions there. It's something very powerful.

I discovered when you talk about you, it's good, but when someone else talks about you, it's even more powerful. So really, it all built up from there. And I demonstrated so much value and so much social proof. At the time, you know, it just became a no-brainer. Like people start slowly signing on and the objections were there at first. What can you do? You know, but now, you know, I'm very fortunate to say we have so much irrefutable proof of the

process that if someone comes in, they're interested in it. It's usually a no-brainer. So it all started with free value though. Just give, give, give, come with the giving hand. And that's so contrarian, right? Because like I remember when we talked about this, like, all right, dude, you know, create a free Facebook group. And in the beginning, you're literally giving and getting nothing back.

So you're like, wait. So not only do I have to like work and make money. Yeah. I then have to teach the skill sets that I'm learning. from you and because you're paying me, you know, an obscene amount of money, which, by the way, all of you should pay me an obscene amount of money and let me help you as well. Good investment. Yeah, but you're not only paying me.

You're now having to work, obviously, in your craft. But then I'm telling you like, hey, go pour into this Facebook group and just get as many people into that group for free, show them the good, the bad and the ugly, how you're making your money, how you're getting your leads, the process that you're putting people through, how much you're charging, what your sales pages look like. And it's so contrarian, but by coming with the giving hand, you did one thing, you did it really well. You build authority by building the no like and trust factor. And people will always buy from someone who's considered an authority in the industry.

And, you know, our goal from day one, soon as we decided that you're going to shift gears into coaching and consulting was, you're going to be the authority and you're going to stay the authority. Yep. And ultimately become the celebrity in this industry, which you're doing a fine job of doing. And the funny thing is, here we are, what month are we in February? Yeah. And I don't know what the temperature is in Detroit right now. It's cold.

It's cold. It's not as nice as this. Yeah. And it's 75 degrees here in Southern California. You guys are living out here in Newport Beach for how long? For three months. Three months. And the thing that I told you almost two years ago, that imagine you're going to have a retreat.

Yeah. Like this Saturday, you have a retreat. At the house. At the house in Newport Beach. Yep. And I'll have a good fortune to come and speak to your, to your, attendees. But when you set out for this, when you set out to do this whole thing, you didn't have the money. So we're going back to that gym. Sure. Right. Because people are like,

hey, that's great. Now you've got the money. You keep paying Baderos. You're good for you. You're probably flying first class. You're living in Newport Beach while it's snowing in Detroit. Yeah. That's great. Yeah. But I don't have the money to invest in a Baderos or whoever the bedroast of that industry is. I don't think. you had the money laying around, did you? Nope. How did you get it? What was the inner conversation to want to part with that money with me? I think it goes back to you again what my father taught me. You can have anything you want as long as you're willing to pay the price. I think successful people from what I've learned from being around

you and just going through my own journey, successful people don't say, I can't afford this. They say, how can I afford this? So to me, it always started with the right question, right? A question well phrased is half solved. So to me, I said, how? can we afford this? You know, how, and for me, is my, just myself at the time, but I always talked it over it with my, you know, now wife. And so I maxed on my bank account, and I was willing to go into debt for it. I had to, because we had to come out here. Well, I had to come out here. But I was willing to go into debt for this. I had to charge up my credit card for the flight, the hotel. And then you said, you have to come to fitness business. So which was a month later,

so doing that as well. Because I didn't view debt as a liability. I viewed as an asset. I said, you know, he has what I need. He has the coach. he has the wisdom, he has the mentorship. I am willing to go into the red because I trust so much in myself and in this process that I'm going to leverage debt as an asset. I'm going to go, I think it was a few thousand dollars into debt at the time because I trust myself to do the work and I trust once I receive the knowledge, I will be able to 10x, 50x, 100x, that investment.

So for me and I think for anyone listening, it's like if you're saying I can't afford it, you're shutting yourself off to not only your internal resources, but the resources that are out there to be successful. Because if you look at any successful person in the history of time, they've leveraged things that they are maybe outside their means, but they can tap into to go out and get what they want. So the question really is not,

I can't afford this, but it's how can I afford this? And that's exactly what you've done. And you're willing to put yourself into debt and look at that debt and investment into coaching, mentoring by buying, basically you're buying time. Your time collapsing, right? Instead of what's going to take you, I don't know, five to 10 years,

took you two to five years to get there. And so that's a very, again, contrary in mindset to most people because, well, the mindset is, it takes money to make money, Tony. And you're saying, no, I didn't have the money. And the average American, by the way, you're going in debt anyway.

You're going in debt buying something stupid. Shoes you can't afford, clothes you can't afford, watches, cars, travel. You're buying something that you can't afford putting yourself in debt to impress people you don't even like. I got an idea. Put yourself into debt

in a form of an asset where you're investing in a mentor or coach who can actually get you there. And that's exactly what your coaching clients are doing when they're investing in you. Because let me tell you, I very much doubt that all 60 of your coaching clients were like, oh, yeah, I got the money. Let me just, you know, send you a bag full of money and start coaching me, right? Sure, sure. And it's very, like you said, it's very contrary to what we're taught, but especially from an academic background.

Yeah. Because you're taught in school that, you know, you come out, especially as a clinical dietitian, come out, make your $40,000 to $50,000 per year, invest in a $4,000. 401k, retire when you're 65, and maybe then you can go to the beach. So it's kind of funny that debt is considered, you know, okay when it comes to student loans, when the average RD, to become an RD, we're talking 40, 50, $75,000 in debt. But to invest in a coaching mentorship that I was able to, say very humbly, but make that amount back so much more rapidly, that's risky.

So it's also like, who are you getting your advice from? Right. People with small minds only see their version of reality. And that truthfully has been one of the most powerful things that I've received from this coaching. Not only has it just been the tools and the taxes, like, oh, that's great, but it's the mindset of an entrepreneur and understanding things like that, like debts and assets and like vision. And remember one time you told me like you're on a highway. You're on a highway. And behind you is Normalville.

It's nine to fives. It's complaining about the weather. It's talking about the sports team. But you're on your way to this journey of entrepreneurship talent. It's very small. It's very remote. It's very isolated. but this is where people talk about ideas,

not talk about gossip and people. This is where people say, I want to create something, and they go on and do it. So again, it's just having someone, a mentor or whoever, to give you that vision,

because coming up, especially from formal education background, you don't have that. Right. No, formal education does not teach that. So that was a real good explanation. So let's dive into, I don't know, the lightning round,

not that we have a fucking lightning round, but I think it's going to be a really good point in time to start sharing some tactical stuff. Sure. Right? Since we have a lot of, obviously my background being fitness with Fit Body Boot Camp and the literally tens of thousands of gym owners and trainers I've coached and consulted, many of our listeners and viewers are either from the fitness, nutrition kind of background. But that doesn't mean that if you're in, you know, washing, you own several car washes, one of my private coaching clients

owned several car washes. Another one owns restaurants. That doesn't mean this stuff doesn't apply to you. So, but let's talk about, you know, nutrition, fitness, health coaches that are doing specifically online coaching. Let's give us some tactical stuff. If someone's like brand new, hey, I only have like, I don't even know how I landed this person, but I've got one online client and I'm a nutritionist or a trainer. I want to do more of this. I really like it. What is the first piece of advice, the coach you are going to give them? Yeah. So we always say go send 100 messages a day. Start with your low hanging fruits and your low hanging fruits, generally with an online business or people who already know you like you and trust you. Friends of friends, old high school friends, distant cousins, like third cousins.

So literally, and this is how I started, this is literally how I started. I went on my Facebook, maybe had 300 people at the time, sent every single person a personalized message, not a copy and paste, a personalized message. Hey, Susie, haven't seen you since high school at Centerline High School. Hope All as well. By the way, I'm a registered dietitian now. I'm sorry, this online nutrition coaching. If you ever need anything, please don't hesitate to come to me or if you know anyone who ever needs anything, please let me know. I will help you for free.

Like that's the key there. I said for free. And I did that every single day. So no copy and paste. I think in a world of automation, you know, because I get these messages, what's the best Facebook ad to run? I'm like, I don't know. I don't even run them.

But there's values in the inefficiencies of building a business. So really doing that, the one client you do have, deliver an absolute amazing service for undercharge and over deliver. Under charge over deliver. And why is that? Because you have to build up social proof. Boom. Right? You have to have that irrefutable proof. To me, I was willing to charge clients dirt cheap. I went to start mentoring. It was like dirt cheap because I wanted the video. I wanted them on a camera and something like this saying, Tony transformed my life because I knew if I could stack all those up, then I could charge what I was worth because it was irrefutable proof. We're more persuaded by the movement of others than we are towards our own thoughts or actions.

So, so Tony, this is something really awesome. So you're like, hey, go talk to or send a private message. Very unique and original private message to 100 people. Yep. And obviously, and remember how you finished off that message, you were like, and I will help you for free. Yeah. And our audience is like, what the hell? This person only has one pain coaching client and you're saying, I'll help you out for free. Yeah. In case it went over their head, why are you offering to help these people out for free? You just want enough people talking about that. I think there's nothing more valuable than real people who have seen real transformations telling your story and spreading the message for you. That will be so much more impactful than just good content, things like that. Like literally, really, really. humans because let's say if you help Mrs. Jones produce a transformation, right? You coached her for free for three months. She changes her body drastically. She works somewhere. She's going to go in that office looking drastically different. They're going to say, what are you doing? Especially for most

Americans, they start and stop their perpetual dyers. The average American in terms of weight loss four times per year. So quarterly. So something finally works for Mrs. Jones. Everyone's going to ask, what did you do? And she's going to be so compelled because the law of reciprocity. You gave to her, So I would also say in the beginning say, hey, I'm going to produce amazing results for you Mrs. Jones. So all I ask is at the end of our three months, you tell any friends, family, or coworkers about me if you're thrilled with the service I deliver. So then she tells people, now you have people flooding in. So it's also like understanding that three months in business is nothing, right? You have to have the longevity.

You have to have the vision of like, hey, I'll work for free to get really good. And you also have to hone in on your craft too, right? You have to perfect your own process. You're going to make mistakes in the beginning. I think, I mean, we all make mistakes every single day. And people are a lot more forgiving when you're not charging them as you're making mistakes. Right. Because like you always say, you don't want to charge for a unicorn and then deliver a donkey.

Right. Right. Because there were even transitions I had to make from in-person nutrition coaching to online. I had to get, that was a different environment, not sitting face to face with someone. So here you are perfecting your craft. They have the law of reciprocity there. That's how you start growing and growing and growing. Yeah.

And that social proof factor is so important because you're competing now, not with just local gym owners or nutritionist or RDs, you're now competing against RDs and nutritionists worldwide who have tens of thousands of followers, fake or real, it doesn't matter. Because the person, Mrs. Jones, can't tell. Like, I can look at someone's account, social media account, and be like, those are all bots because the engagement's weak and you can tell by the way the comments are left,

like a thumbs up or whatever, right? Mrs. Jones can't tell the difference. And so she's just looking for irrefutable proof. If you're the guy or gal pumping out before and after pictures better and more than anyone else locally and online, they're going to be like, what is this person doing that no one else is? And maybe I want to work with him or her. And yeah, so you do have to come with a giving hand because that law of reciprocity says that when I do something for you, you're going to want to do something back for me, which is refer clients to me who now will obviously pay.

Yep. All right. So let's say I'm getting referrals. And oh my God, I'm getting leads, Tony. What do I do I get on the phone? Do I send them a link to pay? Like how do I convert leads or prospects into paying clients? Yeah. Yeah. So conversions come from conversations, right? I think Craig might have said that. That was Valentine. There you go. So conversions come from conversations. And you know, what's really lacking on the online nutrition coaching or fitness coaching space isn't information. It's connection. Right. So people are used to clicking. Like everyone says, go click the link in my bio. Go click the link in my bio. What we teach our students is have a conversation with them first. And we give a very detailed blueprint for them to follow. But get a very detailed blueprint for them to follow. But get. to know them, add value to them, like learn about them and then move them through a process, but you want to have people apply for your coaching. If you try to serve everyone, you end up serving no one, right? So you want, and you also want to feel that positioning of you do now at this

point have a valuable program. What you do is amazing and it really works. So you have to put in that law of like exclusivity and have people feel like, oh, okay, well, do I qualify for this? I want to work towards this. I want to be part of this. They apply. And then you absolutely want to get them on a phone call. You want to get on a phone call, get to know more about. them but also that's how you demonstrate value right that's how you demonstrate the value of your program of your services of what you can offer and then you want to close them so we look at it as a three-part process like a DM a text message or an email conversation so someone just reached out and they're like hey I want to

work with you how much does it cost don't ever just say the price because they're gonna just qualify and be like oh I can't afford that no thank you no they can they just haven't seen the value yet so you want to move them through a process move them through that get them to apply like what you what do you always call it the the velvet rope right the position with the velvet it rope, right? Oh, I'm special. Here I come. Like, let me come in. And then on, yep, and then get them on the phone, qualify them. A lot of NLP in there, a lot of mirroring, pacing, rapport building, which when you know what you're doing, 30 minutes, because I almost feel like, I've known this person

my entire life, right? So you do that, and then you make a direct offer, you make a close, and that's it. Yeah, it really is that simple. Now, I know we simplified it here, but believe it or not, in all levels of coaching, there's a process to it. And that conversation, by the way, that you talk about, right? That conversation that happens either through DM or text. That's not just by the way, someone says, well, hey, how much is this? And you're like, well, it's $29. Or you're like, well, Tony told me I shouldn't say a price. So you might want to ask questions like this. What is it that you want to achieve? What are your goals? When do you want to achieve it by? Right. Right. What have you done in the past that didn't work? Right. What are you looking? What's going to be

different this time? Especially if they're like, well, I've been trying in my own. How has the progress been? Bad. What do you need in terms of help or resources to help you overcome that? And then, Here's like a really powerful one. Just ask, do you want help? Like, say that. That's like what we call our money phrase. So just thank you for everything you've done for me, giving that to your audience.

Literally, do you want help? Yes. Can I get it on the phone with you? Learn more about you and your goals, explain more about what I do in my program, see if there's any way I can add value to you? Yes, you can. Go to my application, book a phone call.

There you go. And that's the power of it, right? Because when you think about those questions that he asked before he got to the, do you want help? That's at least eight or nine DMs or text. going back and forth. Who's willing to do that?

But Badros, Tony, you guys are crazy. I don't have that kind of time. What did we just say earlier? Success is found in inefficiencies. That is a very inefficient process. But if you can begin to get good at that process because you are so disciplined with your productivity and your schedule

and your daily activities, that is the process when people feel understood and heard because you're going back and forth with them. They go, you know what, Tony, I'm willing to actually, yes, I do need help and I will get on the phone with you. Yep. So they first have to feel understood and heard.

That only happens when there's a conversation and not just here it's $29 a day or a week or whatever and then go click this link. It's like, well, fuck, you're just trying to extract money from me. So in that process, now when you say, do you need help? Yes, I do. Well, can I help you by getting on the phone with you and seeing if we're going to be a good fit? The velvet rope. I'd love to send you the application. And of course, that application page always has testimonials before and afters, all the great stuff that position us, make us look larger than.

life and they're all real by the way don't go stealing other people shit I've seen that too where people literally have coaching clients who are like dude this guy stole all my before and afters I'm like you're going to hit them with a massive lawsuit that's what you're going to do right now and so that's very important and of course once they fill out the application the the closing process over the phone isn't more than 30 minutes but you nailed it they end up feeling like I'm talking to my best friend and this person understands me and part of it is you have to get so good at your craft that you are able to describe the pain, the frustrations, and the things that are keeping them awake at night better than they can.

And so when I was coaching and consulting gym owners, I'm like, dude, you probably are leasing a location right now that's three to five thousand feet, like yes. And you thought that if I build it, they will come, yes. And then you built it, you bought the equipment, you're now in debt, and no one's coming, right? Yes. And there's probably cheaper gyms around you that are charging less. And you're like, oh, my God. They're like, yes.

Like, if I can explain their pain to them better than they can, they're like, yes, B, you got it. You got my pain. I go, you know what? There's a solution to this. If I understand your pain, I might be able to solve your pain as well. And that's what that call is all about. So now let's talk about this. As you gain a coaching client, you put them in your mastermind program.

It's a 12-month mastermind program, just like I've structured all my masterminds and obviously being your coach. That's kind of how we structure this because that's what fucking works. the goal is to help them. How do you set their expectations? Because that's the last piece I want to talk about here. Because I know there's a lot of people who are getting into coaching right now, watching this or listening to this. Client might come into,

and the only way I can describe this is, sometimes you get a nutrition or fitness client, and their expectation of their head is, well, I want to lose 30 pounds in the next, like, 60 days. If you don't know that false expectation, and you help them lose 20 pounds in 60 days, which is pretty fucking awesome.

It's amazing. They're like, I didn't get the results. Yeah, they're disappointed. I didn't get the results as expected. Yeah. So you're not the exact coach that I'm looking for. Sure. So do you find yourself having to set expectations for them so that you can give them the results they want?

You know, it's like, have you ever played the game Monopoly? Yeah. Would you ever just intuitively get the Monopoly board and say, I know how to play this? Never. No. You need the rules, right? You need the rules. Your clients need the rules as well.

And this is probably one of the biggest thing we see with newer dietitians who either are brand-newer, come into our mastermind from other programs, they are expecting exactly that. They're expecting their clients to understand. Most people hire a dietitian. They think, oh, you're just going to tell me what to eat all day. That's not what you do because there's behaviors, there's mindset. There's so much. Same thing with an entrepreneur.

It's like, oh, you're going to give me the magic key and I'm going to go make $100,000 online. So you have to give your clients the rules. In our first 90 days, so everything we do is curriculum-wise. So in their first 90 days, it's really just about the mindset of being an entrepreneur. A lot of the things you instilled into me early on, I then gave. then gave back to my clients as a power of coaching, right? But it's about instilling the mindset that this is a journey,

that failure is feedback. You're going to use failure as feedback, that it's about dirty reps, imperfect action, beat standing still, action cures, anxieties, all these things. It's just teaching them. So they understand that they know like, okay, wow, something didn't work today. Oh, wait, Tony said that's a good thing. So good, I'm going to use this.

It's giving them the rules and the roadmap. Something else I would say, too, give them a flow chart. So have you ever been lost somewhere and you go, you're kind of like starting to freak out a little bit, right? Like, where am I? Then you walk up to the mall or the zoo and it's like, you are right here. Immediately your anxiety is relieved because, oh, I'm right where I'm supposed to be. Give your clients that flowchart.

Like in the first 90 days of working with you, the first six months, what should they have accomplished? Behaviors, not outcomes. You can't say lose 30 pounds because you can't force that outcome. But what are the behaviors, what are the skill sets? What are the accomplishments they should have achieved? And let's give like a checkbox. And that's what we do for our clients. So they're like, oh my God, it's been a rough day.

It's been a rough week. But wait, wait, I'm right where I'm supposed to be. So this is okay. Yeah, that is very powerful. That is very powerful. So if someone's a registered dietitian or a nutritionist, and they're like, holy hell, I had no idea that, one, I could do this online. And two, that I could make money a lot faster than I am now

and make a bigger impact than I am doing it. How do they reach you? How do they connect with you? Yeah, so online on Instagram, Tony Stuffin, and our mastermind's called the I Believe Mastermind for registered dietitians. We have a free Facebook community. You can also go to Tony'suffin Dietitian.com. That's a really good resource.

And guys and guys, I don't give a lot of my recommendation. In fact, I can probably count on one hand and still have a couple of fingers left over. The number of people that I've referred and recommended as an expert and an authority in an industry, and Tony is without a doubt 1,000 percent irrefutable, the expert and authority where a nutritionist and RD is concerned. And that's because you've put in the sets and reps. We've had the conversations where sometimes they're a little panicky, sometimes they're a little bit like, holy shit, I can't believe I did this. And look what I'm going to do next. And then you do it.

And so you've really forged yourself into one hell of a mentor and coach in the RD and nutrition space. Is there any question that I should have asked that I didn't ask that would help our audience of entrepreneurs? I think you nailed it. You know, you're amazing what you do. I think just the value really is is get a mentor. I couldn't, and I'm not just saying this because you and I are here. But I couldn't imagine I've ever trying to do this on my own. And I'm a pretty resourceful person.

I can put things together, but to me, time is their most limited resource, not money. So if you're making the mistake, like, I hope my story is powerful and teaches someone. You know, I thought I had the rest of my life to have a relationship with my mother. I didn't. So if you're kind of playing this gamble of gambling your time away, well, I'll figure it on my own or I'll do it on my own or I'll get to it soon enough. You know, tomorrow's promised to no one. And so hopefully my story, because it's hard to tell, but hopefully my story can serve as an example to say,

you know, go take action, go start today and go get help because it's not the money. A good mentor is going to make you 5, 10, 15 times your money back and the time. So you can actually enjoy it. I didn't want to be 70 and enjoying it. I like being 29 and out here and enjoying it. And no, just thank you to you. Thank you for all you've done for not only myself, my wife, our family,

but just, you know, thank you for you for bringing me out here and giving me the opportunity. Yes, sir. I appreciate you being on the show. And guys and gals listening to this, watching this, listen, the best thing you can do is to take action on the information that we shared here. This is not a suggestion to make money. This is a prescription to make money from people that are in the trenches actually doing it. And what I want you to do is make sure to leave us a five-star review,

leave a comment on Facebook, or not Facebook, I'm sorry, on Stitcher, on iTunes, and all the different platforms. Take a screenshot, share it, and be sure to tag Tony Steffin and myself. And most of all, remember to tell your mama. We'll see you later.