Heroes in Business - Tony Horton, creator of P90X, author Bring it, Crush it, Power of 4

Episode Date: June 18, 2022

Tony Horton, creator of the most successful fitness program in America, P90X®, world-class motivational speaker and author of top-selling books “Bring It, Crush It!” and “The Big Picture." supplement line Power Life and fitness brand “Power of 4" is interviewed by David Cogan host of the Heroes Show and founder of Eliances entrepreneur community.  

Welcome back to Alliances Heroes, where heroes in business align. To be part of our super community and find out more about Alliances, visit www.alliances.com. That's right, and welcome back. Again, we have an exciting morning. Just so many incredible people to talk and interview with because, you know, we always learn something from each and every one. And thank you, too. I really appreciate the feedback we continue to get. When I recently had on the co-founder of Netflix.

So please make sure that you continue to go and see those past interviews by going to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. Because as you know, it is the only place where entrepreneurs align. I'm super excited about our next guest. He's got more energy, I think, almost than anyone that I know. And you'll know why when I introduce him to you. Welcome to the show, Tony Horton, creator of the most successful fitness program in America. Are you ready for this? The P90X, world-class motivational speaker, author of top-selling books,

including Bring It, Crush It, and The Big Picture. We're gonna be talking about his fitness brand today, The Power of Four. Welcome to the show, Tony. David, pleasure to be here, man. Thanks for having me on. Absolutely. Okay, so let's talk about what's this now. And by the way, you could reach him at mypowerlife.com.

So let's talk about now the fitness brand and what you're doing now, because you're involved in a lot of different projects. And again, you created the P90X that almost everybody knows. So talk to us about the latest project. Well, I'm very busy with three things right now. You know, I left Beachbody a while back and the doors opened up. So my project, you can see my little hat. I got all my brands. I'm wearing all my brands on here in case people get confused. But, you know, we have this neat project called

the Power of Four. You can go to powernationfitness.org and check it out. 25 workouts. It's exercise and supplementation and mindfulness and everything a person needs to really get themselves in great shape. And, you know, it's kind of a unique project. And people know me from P90X and P90X2 and X3 and 22 Mid Hardcore. But this is sort of a pet project that my wife and I started during the pandemic. And we went through three beta stages. And now it's out there in the world, PowerNationFitness.org. Check it out.

Great. So PowerNationFitness.org, you said? That's. So PowerNationFitness.org, you said? That's right. That's right. PowerNationFitness.org. So what are the things that they're going to find when they go there? What's like some of the key areas? Well, you know, we have a lot of live workouts that you can do live or you can actually do later at some point. You know what I mean? They all sit on the platform. You know, when I did P90X, it was 12 routines and 12 was considered a lot for, you know, for a lot of folks who are used to doing just like maybe three or four or just doing yoga or just doing martial arts or

just doing, you know, kind of, you know, riding their Peloton or something. What I wanted to do, and we called it muscle confusion, which is really a made up term for giving people a lot of variety so they can avoid the boredom, the injuries and the plateaus that happened from kind of doing the same things over and over and over again. And so I learned a lot from that. And I thought, well, you know what, through the beta stage, we had 47 routines, which is a lot of routines, you know, because that was the pandemic was almost two years long. And so we kind of pared it down to the 25. So they see that you'll see a 400 page nutrition guide, which they should not be intimidated by. It's really easy to navigate, but we really wanted to make sure that we sussed it out, make sure that people were eating the right foods because everybody's different. You

got keto and paleo and vegetarian and vegan and all these different things. So you kind of, kind of figure out where you want to live there. And, and so there's, you know, there's also the mindfulness component, which I had never really, you know, really sussed out as much as I did in this program because I got sick in 2017 and And it really was my mindfulness practices and my meditation practices that really helped me kind of find balance, you know what I mean? And so when you're exercising pretty hard, you're burning the candle at both ends sometimes. And so it sort of helps to be able to find that, you know, find that other end of the spectrum a little bit. And so, you know, there's a body scan meditation. There's a three-part meditation that has, you know, box breathing.

And, you know, I do it every morning and every night. I do it while driving. I do it anytime I can when I'm just kind of chilling and I'm a little stressed out. And it's really helped people. It's that little extra piece that helps people, you know, get through the program and not quit, which happens so often. Yeah. In fact, talk to us about Tony. I mean, you're a good-looking guy.

You look extremely healthy. Well, thank you, David. You know, look extremely healthy. I am 64id you know look i am 64 you know i mean good god what are some of the top like three secrets three secrets of what can we do now i mean some of us that maybe haven't exercised in years or the biggest exercise we have is moving our mouse around what are some of the things three secret tips right now that you could share that we could do to get healthy? Well, you'll be shocked and surprised to hear that none of them have to do with actual exercise. That's part of it, obviously. But you need a reason why, you know, you need your purpose. I wrote when I wrote the big picture, finding your purpose was was everything. And I think a lot of times people are exercising for all the wrong reasons. They're doing it based on their ego. They're doing it based on how they want to look. They're doing it based on how they want other people to, you know, comment about them.

It really has to be this internal drive, this force, this desire to feel good, to be healthy. Because, you know, it takes 30, 40, 50, 60 days, 90 days sometimes to see any kind of aesthetic change. But if you really want to feel good today, you move today. You know what I mean? And so whether it's yoga or martial arts or weightlifting or body weight or core or plyometrics or whatever it happens to be, just a simple act of moving is going to change not only your physical later, but it's going to affect your mental and emotional state now. And when your mental and emotional state is improved based on the norepinephrine, the dopamine, the serotonin, the brain-derived

neurotropic factor that happens inside your temporal lobe just by moving your bootay. You know what I mean? That just means you have a better shot of having a more productive day. And it also gives you a better opportunity to show up the next day. That's one, your purpose. The other one is your plan. You got to know what you're doing and when you're doing it. And you got to let the world know that that's priority number one, and if you don't do that, then chances are, you know, you're going to wing it, and when you wing it, it just doesn't happen, so also schedule seven workouts a week. That's right, because if you miss one or two, you still get in your five. If you schedule five, you miss one or two, you only get three, and that means four days are off, and you're never going to get the results that you want.

I schedule seven every week, and I always miss one or two, and it changes from, you know, workout to workout from day to day. That's really important, and last but not least is accountability. I don't know who these people are who live in Minnesota, and it's, you know, 18 degrees outside, and they go into their basement, and it's 43 down there, and they do yoga plyometrics by themselves in the dark before they go to work. Those people are superheroes. Me, I need a tribe. I need my posse. I need my crew. And so if they're not in your house and they're not in your neighborhood and not at work, then you got to find them online. And that's how I stay accountable. I mean, there's people here at my house almost every day because I have a pretty good setup here. So that's it. You really have to figure out your you know as the as the french say your

raison d'etre your reason for being and when you do those three things the likelihood for you to succeed long term not just temporarily so you can look really good at that wedding or your high school graduation or your reunion the idea here is to sort of come up with those three basic things and if you can do that you'll probably probably succeed. Your odds will go way up. Excellent. And again, you're watching, listening to me, David Kogan, host of the Alliance's show. We try to keep up with Tony with his energy level here and all that. And we're honored to have him here today. Again, Tony Horton, he is well known, obviously, for the P90X, bring it, crush it, the big picture. He's doing a lot of activities. Make sure that you go ahead and check out his website.

Again, Tony, why don't you do another shout out of your website also? TonyHortonLife.com. That's TonyHortonLife.com. You got so many websites. Yeah, well, you know, I've got Power Nation Fitness is a separate website for that project. You know, and then I also have, you know, I have Mypowerlife.com, which is my supplement line, which is something we haven't even spoken about. I'm also on Tonal, and Tonal is blowing up like crazy. LeBron James and Serena Williams and got all the big shots on that. But I have the number

one and number two program on that platform right now, and it's an absolute blast. That piece of equipment is from the future. Hey, David, I'm just trying to pay my bills and help the people, man. And that's where I'm at. That's why I'm busy doing so many things. I love it. Again, so check them out too at mypowerlife.com. And of course, make sure you go to alliances.com. That's E-L-I-A-N-C-E-S.com. The only place where Entrepreneurs Alliance, so you can check out his interview right here. Again, that'll be posted on that website. In fact, Tony, I'm going to share a little secret with you because i'm not sure if you remember a number of years ago we had you on the alliance's hero show and i need to tell you something i do a lot of interviews but i remember one thing that you said and it stuck with me and it was david you're on fire something along that phrase like you're on fire or we're on fire

and i want to let you know is that since then tony we have done just celebrated our 1200th interview wow man 1200th interview since we had you on so i figure now that i've got enough experience after now I can do another interview with you. So it's been just exciting, but let's talk about congratulations. That's, that's spectacular. Thank you. I appreciate it. Appreciate it. And you know what, just as is, uh, the energy level that you had then is just as now. It hasn't changed 64 years young, my friend, you know, I walk the walk, I get my sleep. I hydrate. I work out all the time. You know what I mean? I'm vegan now, which I don't think I was then. My inflammation is way down.

I meditate now, which I didn't do then. You know what I mean? I'm always adding in new things because you get older, it gets harder, right? So you have to add that new stuff to stay as young as you can for as long. So do you recommend then the vegetarian diet? I mean, you know, why did you change? What motivated that? Well, you know, I mean, I had some friends that went plant-based and I just noticed that their strength went up and their inflammation went down. And I was like, dang it, can it really be that you're just eating plants all the time? And you know what I mean? All you need is that evidence right in front of you, because these were guys that were not as strong as I was, that were having shoulder and knee and back pain. And, you know, is that related to, is that kind of inflammation related to your diet? There's a lot of inflammatory foods, right? And then I learned

that when I created Power Life, you know, I, the folks over there, the nutrition scientists over there are all about, you know, foods that cause inflammation. So I got off the wheat, the soy, the corn, the dairy, no meat, no fish, no chicken, no seafood, not easy at first. Right. But then I found substitutes, you know, and my wife is a tremendous cook. And so, you know, we loaded up the spice rack because, you know, steamed vegetables are about as much fun as eating wax. Right. So I just figured it out. You know, I just figured I made these really phenomenal salads and I have I have healthy. I with fire road i don't know if you've heard with fire road but they're a um a vegan home delivery food service just you know what i mean stick it in the steam oven or the microwave or throw it on the stove and it's in its food instantly so you got to find all the tricks

to the trade you got to find your top 10 vegan meals that you love and you just keep them in rotation and i've been doing it for over a year as of March. And man, I've just never felt, my shoulder pain is gone. I don't need PRP in my knees anymore. It's crazy. So I'm going to stick with it, man. And I don't say, hey, everybody's got to go Venga. You got to do what you got to do, right? But just for me, that's working. That's a big change. So tell us what we're going to find when we go to mypowerlife.com. Talk to us more about that. Well, you know, when I got sick back in 2017, you know, all the king's horses and all the king's men could not put me back together again, David. I mean, you know, I did the tinctures and the acupressure and I went to the, you know, the physical therapist and the otorhinolaryngologist. You know, I mean, it was, I mean, Ramsey-Hunt syndrome is not something you want to mess with.

It was basically shingles in my ear, which went into my brain, which affected my sight, my smell, my taste, and my balance. These are things that we like to have, and I didn't have them. So I couldn't get out of bed. I couldn't drive. I couldn't work out. I lost 25 pounds, and I was desperately ill and vomiting all the time. So I did all that blood work, and I discovered that a lot of these foods were causing inflammation.

I had leaky gut. Didn't even know what that was. And I worked on that, got my intestines working properly. And then I met with the folks over there at the parent company called Golden Hippo. And they, you know, they've been in this world for a long time. And they said, hey, you know, you've kind of got an accelerated version of something called sarcopenia. You know, what the heck is sarcopenia? It's basically age-related muscle loss. You know, you don't see guys in their 90s that are jacked. You know what I mean?

It's just very rare. And so we came up with these really cool formulas. One's plant-based. One is whey. And then this one product that has just saved me, saved my nephew. My nephew had major issues with his gut. It's called Foundation 4. So we have chocolate, vanilla, plant, and whey-based protein.

We have Foundation 4. We have a pre-workout formula called Performance. And then we have sort of the fruit version of Foundation 4 called Phytonutrients. And then on top of that, we have, you know, very specific things for digestion and for energy. And right now there's 12 SKUs and two or three more coming. So it's been amazing. And we've been two years at it,

you know, since I've spoken to you last. And these products were basically designed for me, based on what I was dealing with. But then we discovered, hey, I'm not the only one, right? There's there's millions of other people who have the same the same leaky gut issues or irritable bowel syndrome, or, or, you know, having trouble building muscle and stuff. So I shot three different segments, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday of this week, and we're going, we're going strong. Mypowerlife.com, check it out. Incredible. All right. I want to do some snooping, because we're in your office right now, and I see a number of books, pictures, and that. What's something most

memorable in your office? Something that really stands out, something like, let's say, God forbid, there was a fire or that and you needed to- Oh my gosh. What would that be? Well, maybe some of you may or may not know, I worked with Ewan McGregor, got him ready for Obi-Wan, which is coming out, I think, in a couple of days. Here's a little shot of Ewan and I. Let's see.

We'll go back into the archives. There he is. He's just one of the most spectacular. Can you see that? All right. Wait, where are we? Right there. Yeah. the archives there he is he's just one of the most spectacular can you see that all right wait where we are right there yeah wow there he is and just an act like you know you meet certain people and you go oh they're pretty cool this guy is so impressive it's amazing i mean you know long way around long way down long way up i mean the guy's ridden his motorcycle around the world up up the world down the world and you know i mean the first time i saw moulin rouge i thought oh my god this guy is so incredibly talented and he's just he's just great company he's just a

really nice inviting human being uh i don't know what else is back there uh the first movie i ever went on was a movie called 13th warrior and i'm back there that's a little shot of me one of the producers and some cast members that have remained friends. That was, that's 25 years ago. And that little thing here, this Tom Petty gave me this. He would always give me, every time he'd walk into a show, he, this like a pen sits right there like that. Isn't that cool? A little, little muscle man there. So yeah, you know, all kinds of trinkets, you know, and on my other shelf, I've got some of my awards and stuff, but a lot of the books behind me, these are all personal development stuff. I mean, I, I, you know, the reading, writing and arithmetic that I got in school wasn't quite enough to help me be the man I wanted to be. And I was, I was, I was going through depression and, and, and hungry. And I lived in the same

crappy apartment for 21 years. And, and it was really the personal development stuff, those books from Deepak Chopra to Tony Robbins to, you know, Andrew Weil to Gary Zukav to M. Scott Peck to, you know, Victor Frankel. You know, these are all, you know, well-known. You know, I just finished James Nestor's book, Breath. Here's a classic, man. If you really want to know how to meditate, man, Full Catastrophic Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. That thing is a monster. You can see this thing had such an impact on me that I, you know, I took notes, man. And, you know, you can see what I had little things, little, I highlighted and rabbit ear and everything else. So I'm just a very curious guy. And a lot of people, as they get past high school and college, just stop learning.

And then the world gets smaller and smaller. And then they end up with early onset curmudgeon disorder. You don't want that, David. And then it becomes chronic curmudgeon disorder. And then it's terminal. You know what I mean? Like, get off my lawn. You don't want to be that guy. You want to be upbeat. You want to invite new people into your life. You want to keep learning. And that's what keeps me young. Excellent. Well, we've got time for one more question. I think this is important too, Tony. What kind of advice can you give to parents out there to be able to get their children healthy, motivated? You talked about the mind, the body and all that. You know, how can they instill those things into their children and have them grow up and make an impact like you have on everyone?

You know, that's a great question, David. And they have to live by example, period. I mean, they have, you know, if you want your kids to be healthy, and obviously if your kids are exercising or moving in any way, whether they're just playing out in the street or they're playing wiffle ball or tag or something, that also stimulates their brains as well, that norepinephrine dopamine. They just become better students. Their GPA goes up, you know what I mean? And so you have to live by example. And you can't force any kid to do anything because they're just going to resent you you know you don't want to do that so you have to just do it yourself and you bring him into the room come on check out this this tony horton routine or something um and usually what happens is kids will be a little bit skeptical at first like what

are they doing in there you know mom and dad are doing this fitness thing like all the time and especially the youngsters i can't tell you how many videos I've seen of parents who are just doing it, not inviting their kids, but the kids are obviously watching what they're doing. And the kids will kind of jump in and do it their way. You know what I mean? And I also, I would tell parents, if your kids do, you know, see that and they want to participate, but they're not doing it right, leave them alone. You know what I mean? They're not going to get hurt. Just let them do it goofy or let them do it wrong. Or just the fact that they're actually moving in the room with you is a big deal. So

yeah, live by example. You've got to walk the walk before your kids can. Well, excellent. I got to tell you, Tony, Tony Horton, you find the ways to make being healthy and living a fulfilling life accessible to anyone. That's a hero. Tony Horton, creator of the most successful fitness program in America, P90X, now doing so many things. Make sure that you check him out at mypowerlife.com. This has been David Kogan with the Alliance's Hero Show.

But you've got to dance with me now, Tony.