Living The Red Life - Running 100 Miles & Building a Business From Your Passion w/Zach Bitter

Episode Date: October 17, 2024

In this episode, ultra-endurance athlete and coach Zach Bitter dives into the parallels between his experiences as a world-class ultramarathon runner and the mindset needed to build a successful business. He discusses the importance of data-driven strategies, balancing passion with sustainability, and the key role that feedback plays in refining both his coaching and business approaches. Zach reflects on the lessons he's learned from mistakes, explaining how reevaluating goals every few months has helped him stay aligned with his long-term vision. He emphasizes the need to appeal to a broad audience when creating content, while still offering value to more advanced clients, a balance he has honed over time.Zach also shares how big media opportunities, such as appearances on major podcasts like "The Joe Rogan Experience" and "Lex Fridman Podcast", impacted his career. He stresses the importance of being prepared for these moments to fully capitalize on them. Toward the end, Zach talks about his future goals, which include breaking his own 100-mile records and tackling a transcontinental run from San Francisco to New York. He reflects on his athletic journey, growth as a coach, and the evolution of his brand, offering valuable insights for both athletes and entrepreneurs looking to reach the next level.CHAPTER TITLES03:12 - Shaping Success in Ultramarathons Through Data-Driven Strategy04:26 - Transitioning From Elite Athlete to Business Leader06:07 - Balancing Passion With Sustainable Growth in Business08:15 - Leveraging Customer Feedback to Refine Coaching09:28 - The Power of Consistency in Athletic and Business Success11:33 - Navigating the Intersection of Ultra-Endurance and Entrepreneurship13:09 - Learning From Mistakes and Maximizing Positive Feedback15:42 - Reassessing Goals Every 3-6 Months for Optimal Results17:09 - Engaging Diverse Audiences With Tiered Content Strategies19:04 - Embracing Broad Appeal Before Diving Into Advanced Content22:00 - Preparing for Big Opportunities: Lessons From the Rogan Experience24:30 - Future Goals: Fastest 100-Mile and Transcontinental Challenges---Connect with Zach:WEBSITE - Zachbitter.comIG - @ZachbitterConnect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

Talk about the mindset of running 100 miles. Yeah, one of the biggest things I've learned, like at one of the peak seasons of my career was that all my good races, there's like multiple examples in there of things that I wouldn't have known to do had I not failed at them at one point. I mean, it sounds kind of cliche, but it's like failure is a lesson. But it really is. If you could go back to your younger self, what would you tell yourself if you could give yourself a few tips? Yeah, if I could tell myself something when I was younger would have been just maybe a little bit more forward thinking along like the what an opportunity actually presents outside of just the actual appearance of it and making sure you kind of have the right pieces in place so that when those do pop up, you're ready to hit

the ground running. My name is Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life podcast. I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life. Guys, welcome back to another episode of Living the Red Life.

Today we're gonna talk about how to turn your passion into profits. And one theme you'll probably recognize from me in this show is we have a lot of amazing, unique individuals. And something you'll also probably recognize is, you know, my athletic background and growing up in pro sport. I talk a lot about the connections between athletes, pro sport and success in business, and today is going to be one of those shows.

Zach, welcome to the show, buddy. It's good to have you here. Yeah. Thanks a bunch for having me. So guys, if you don't know Zach, uh, he's, you know, done exactly what we're going to talk about today, turning your passion into profits, uh, in a sport that I know very well running, but you know, in his case, uh, well I'll call extreme running ultra running, you know, he running, but in his case, what I'll call extreme running,

ultra running, he's done 100 mile races and has done a good job of taking a sport that's typically not super profitable. If you become an NBA basketball player or a soccer player in England, you make a lot of money, but sadly, endurance sports don't. I grew up in the sport of triathlon. My mom was a gold medalist and didn't make very much money from doing that. This industry has kind of not changed even from when my mom was racing 20 years ago. You have to be able to do something with that skill set and figure out how to monetize it. So if anyone's

listening and they don't know a bit about you, do you mind just kind of summarizing that journey? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I got passionate about running pretty early in like middle school, high school age. So I was always kind of something that was at least in the background in terms of like interest for me. Um, it wasn't until I got done with college though, that I was like really

sort of like sold on it as an activity I wanted to make time for. And at the time I wasn't heading in any direction that would suggest professionalism within, I was actually a school teacher. So it was a lot of work training, eating, sleeping, and not much else until summer vacation, essentially. And, uh, ultra running was kind of my vehicle at that point in terms of how I liked to like express my running interests. So as I got more interested in that, the sport also started to grow.

And also as the sport started to grow a lot of avenues towards building a business online and things like that started to pop up to like social media, podcasting, virtual coaching, which, you know, when I was in, when I was in middle school and high school, even that really wasn't even a thing. It's like you coach people locally at Bastia usually. And like all those things were kind of like these things that were kind of like picking up momentum. So when I started kind of racing competitively and like you mentioned, there isn't a tremendous amount of money to be made in kind of just the racing

and the results that is growing in the sport, but it's not something where I personally would feel comfortable just doing and then relying on that income upon retirement because as most sports go, athletics go, you just don't have a long career like you could for most other jobs where they're a little more cognitively based. So for me, it was like, well, what do I build? What do I kind of, kind of introduce here in order to make this both sustainable, uh, during and after the career when it's done and I'm no longer running

competitively and that was kind of like a few different channels between, uh, building up my presence on podcasts as a guest, develop my own podcast, human performance outliers, and, uh social media like Instagram, Axe, and those type of places, Substack, you know, all these different avenues we have available to us now to reach out to people and produce content in both long and short form, video written and that sort of thing. And then kind of a little cornerstones that I do too, that kind of has a little bit more of a personal expertise for me, given what I do is just a coaching

business. So, you know, you can reach and coach people online all around the world now. And as the sport grows and more people get into it, there's just a bigger thirst and appetite for gaining experience and knowledge within a sport that is still learning a lot as to like what the right and wrong way to go is in a lot of times, but it also has a big emphasis on people who've been around for a while, doing it for a while, experienced it, coached other people have really learned kind of how to go about certain things when you're getting into

distances that are oftentimes a hundred miles and further. Yeah. Yeah. So a lot I want to unpack on the episode, um, you know, and I'm sure people listening, like, uh, you know, the, they're interested on the episode, you know, and I'm sure people listening, like, you know, that they're interested in how you turned, you know, your running passion into business, but also probably equally interested in how the heck you ran a hundred miles, you know, and I believe you've got a couple of wild records to write over your time doing

so. So it's not just, you know, run walking a hundred miles and getting through it, but it's actually doing a pretty great pace, faster than most people could run a mile. So let's just talk about that for a second before we go back to the business strategy side, because I know people will be excited to hear this. I talk a lot about the mindset

between running an athlete, you know, athletes and business. Um, talk about the mindset of running a hundred, a hundred miles. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the, the thing I find really interesting about running a hundred miles is one of the bigger mistakes you can make is trying to wrap your head around that entire thing, because what ends up happening then is you'll start

the race and you'll be burning just a ton of cognitive energy thinking about finishing a hundred miles when you're still working on smaller chunks there. So you really have to kind of separate that. It can be being in the back of your mind, like goals for you, what you want out of the day, the fact that you're running a hundred miles, that's going to be there. But you want that to be like a very low hum, not eating up a lot of your cognitive energy, you really want to be focusing on what do I need to be doing to reach the goal within this next stage of the race and really just focusing on getting that done.

Cause that's going to be something that isn't going to be daunting. And having a range amongst how far out you plan and how narrow you do is also something you want to think about. And the more of narrow you do is also something you want to think about and the more of them you do, the better you get at kind of knowing where that range is. But there's times when you're feeling really good and you can allow your mind to maybe think a little bit further out because it's just, it's exciting. It's like, it's a promising perspective at that point versus a part where maybe

you hit a low patch. Now you don't necessarily want to be thinking too far ahead. You want to be taking a really small chunk. So you're getting like a win and you're, you're kind of keeping the momentum going, even though you're going through a hard point and all along that way, recognizing just like in training or in business development, every day isn't equal or exactly the way you want it. There's going to be really good days.

There's going to be bad days and there's going to be average days. And those all add up to what you get at the end of it. So knowing that that's going to kind of be the path throughout allows you to kind of navigate some of those spots that are maybe a little more difficult because you're thinking this is just where I'm at for this particular time. And then I'll get out of it and potentially have like a really good stretch. And knowing that versus thinking it's a bad spot and it can only get worse is a real powerful way to kind of like structure it mentally.

Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, it's the whole famous saying, which is true in your case, is that a Marathon, not a sprint or in your case, an ultra Marathon, not a sprint. Right. And that, you know, I had a friend back in the UK when I, my parents are triathletes and he had a lot of the Guinness world records in the like 2000s where he ran the whole of the UK and he ran across Australia and all these crazy things. And I always admired like the mindset side of that

because, you know, even running, you know, 10 K it's like when you're pushing it every mile is tough and your brain is constantly telling you to give up, you know, and I think being able to survive in business, like I've grown pretty big companies, 100 plus employees at all sorts, you know, people steal from me, IRS audits, lawsuits. I think it's the same, like, you know, it's so easy to get down and in sports too, like injury, you know, like it's so easy to get down when you get injured

or in business you get someone steals from you or this big project collapses or a big partner just pulls the plug at random leaks, they decided to. There's so much connection there. So how do you deal with that, which is the failures, right? That you mess up your hydration on the day or your nutrition, because that's a massive part of any ultra sport for those listening that don't know it's 50% of that, I think as well, or you get injured.

Like how'd you work through that? Yeah. Yeah. I would say that was like one of the biggest things I've learned like at one of the peak seasons of my career was that you have these bad races or these like what would look in the short term as like a negative outcome. But really when you do those or have those, there's a lot of lessons to be learned in there in terms of like, what did I do wrong and what did I do right? So it's like, what can I salvage from this that likely can be reapplied without

me having to make any changes, but what do I need to actually address to make sure that that outcome doesn't repeat itself? And like all my good races come to like, when I actually sit down and like unpack how it went and why it went the way it did, there's like multiple examples in there of things that I wouldn't have known to do had I not failed at them at one point. So there is a mindset to looking at it through the lens of first of all, do I enjoy the preparation of the sport enough to have a race result that is subpar from what my expectations would be if I'm still able to enjoy the learning

process, the development of the training, as well as pull what I need to out of that race, even though the time at the end maybe doesn't match or the position I finished and doesn't match. If I can take those, those lessons and those things and apply it to something in the future that produces a result that maybe I would have never dreamed of. So that's kind of how I look at it. I think it's like, I mean, it sounds kind of cliche, but it's like failure is a lesson, but it really is that is, is exactly what it is.

As long as you're, you know, as long as you're making yourself available and open minded enough and vulnerable enough to actually look at that versus kind of letting your ego get in the way and think like, all right, well, I just need to be more bullheaded and do better next time. It's like, no, maybe I can actually like create a path of least resistance by doing something a little bit differently and accepting that the way I went about at that time was, was not going to bear fruit for me and really keeping that open mind there.

Yeah. And I was telling one of my managers yesterday, cause he's took on a couple of new departments and starting to, you know, some, some problems arising and a lot of it was historic from the old managers we got rid of and he took over, but I'm like, you know, like you got it and it was getting him down and I'm like, you got to look at it as a good thing because these are new challenges for you and, and, you know, taking over these departments and fixing them like, yeah, yours is, you're used to yours running smoothly, but it's like training a muscle muscle, you know, muscles adapt and grow

from what's called progressive overload where you're actually stressing it. And it's the same for any income business. Like if you start into failure more and get into deep waters, you know, generally, as long as it's within logical reasoning and you're not doing something crazy, you shouldn't be, that's good. Cause it shows you're progressing. If you're always, you know, saying we're running, if you, if everything's easy, then you're probably never going to progress quite as well as you want. So I think that failure is so important as part of the

process. And, you know, coming back to what we were talking about earlier, like finding, you know, turning your passion into profits, you've got to enjoy the process, right? And that's kind of what you're referring to there, like in business too, I think everyone, you know, a lot of people set that I want to make a million dollars or whatever, but I truly love business. I truly loved running and biking and swimming and training for triathlon. And you obviously love running. You've got to, you've got to do enjoy the process. I mean, equally,

cause you're not always going to win. You're going to fail a lot. A lot of the times it's going to be doom and gloom, but you always kind of come out of it the other side. Yeah. And one thing I kind of learned about myself too is, you know, there's a, there's a limit of how much kind of physical exertion that I can produce on a weekly basis before the margin of diminishing returns start to kick in, in terms of like overtraining and things like that.

So part of it's like, well, what do I do with my body and my mind when I'm the margin of diminishing returns start to kick in, in terms of like over-training and things like that. So part of it's like, well, what do I do with my body and my mind when I'm not actually out there training? And knowing my personality versus maybe what someone else's would be kind of maps for me is like, I kind of need outlets that are still curious and interesting to me, but are not stressful to my body the same way. So like learning like, well, what else do I like to do inside of the sport that isn't the actual training and racing side of it?

And that's where like the coaching and the podcasting stuff usually comes in. Is it like, it fills a passion of mine that I'm legitimately excited to do that it's work, it takes a lot of time, but it's also something that doesn't create that kind of like negative stress where it's like, I'm doing this because I feel like I have to, and really kind of paying attention to where those avenues have been and then structuring them the right way. I mean, I think of my own coaching business, I've been coaching ultra runners for quite a while now, but about two years ago, I sort of like

just sat down and was trying to think, well, what do I actually want to do with this from a long-term standpoint in a way that I feel like I'm producing the best value for my customers, as well as having as much enjoyment from the coaching side in terms of like really feeling like I'm moving the needle for people and really resonating with them, helping them getting that kind of mutual like excitement when there's a good result out of it. And I kind of restructured things to be in a way that I thought it was going to be a lot easier for me and the customer to get to that spot.

And that was a big breakthrough for me. And that side of things too, was just kind of being able to kind of learn from like, well, what have I done in the past that maybe didn't yield those experiences that I should like avoid doing. And then what elements of that were things that are worth keeping around that I would get constant feedback on is I really liked this aspect in that. And then, and then also being open to talking to former coaching clients, all the people out there doing coaching to figure out like, well, what is

actually like, well, what's actually resonated well with the customers that are looking for that sort of a service. Yeah. And I mean, that's just, you know, the, the feedback from your customers as you grow. And I think also, like I often say every, you know, I don't have a set time, dude, but probably every three to six months in my life, I really recheck what I'm doing in my business. Like, did some meetings get added that I don't really enjoy anymore? Am I on too many meetings?

Am I not on enough meetings? I need to be checking some more things. Uh, is there a project that we launched that, you know, we just closed down a project that made a, you know, 120 grand in six, seven weeks. So it's pretty decently lucrative. Not crazy for us, but not bad. But we closed it down because it still wasn't like, it didn't fit with the vision or the longevity of where we wanted to go versus ROI.

So yeah, I think sometimes just con, and that's training too, right? You're always like listening to your body, looking at how you're performing and really surveying in your business, is this aligning with where I want to go? I'm going to get me the best results? And it sounds like you're constantly doing that as you are really building the business side out for your brand. I would love to also ask, what else are you doing coming from an athlete's background to really kind of grow the community, grow your brand and kind of foster your name online.

So you can start getting these clients. Yeah. I think one thing that, that I've learned over the years, that's really helpful. And as a sport grows and one thing I've seen the last few years is just the people coming into ultra running are different than maybe they were even five, six years ago. And some of that's just, I think, a lot of the drive between the pandemic, opening up the door to running to people that maybe otherwise wouldn't have done it.

Or you can, some of these non-traditional people like the David Goggins of the world, the KM Haynes of the world started talking about ultra marathon running to a group of people who otherwise would have never considered it. So it's like, for me, thinking of it from someone who's been an endurance athlete now for over 25 years, there are things that to me, I'm just like, well, that's just basic common knowledge. Like as far as my mind is concerned, you're born knowing it, but most people that are coming into the sport aren't like that.

So it's like, how do I produce content that is both engaging to someone who is already kind of a few levels in and they want that next step. They've already kind of refined the basics, but also produce content for people who are getting into it or new where saying something that I would maybe consider like normal information for someone who's been around the sport for as long as I have could maybe be a very big mover for someone else. Cause it's a, it's a, it's a small mistake or it seems like a small mistake, but it produces big outcomes if done right or, or negative outcomes if done wrong and kind of balancing kind of content around

those type of, uh, those types of things. And I think that's where maybe like the podcast and in more short form social media stuff kind of comes in, you can, you can get some pretty quick hitting, easy, like quick actionable items on social media that gets people kind of comes in, you can, you can get some pretty quick hitting, easy, like quick actionable items on social media that gets people kind of steered in the right direction. And then if you want to kind of go a few layers deeper, then maybe it's going to be better off on like a long form podcast type of a scenario. Yeah.

I, I learned, you know, about four years ago, I sat down my agency and really started regrowing my own personal brand. And, uh, uh, that's kind of how I grew this new company. And I really started putting more energy and focus into organic. I had run millions of dollars of paid ads before that. And I kind of had to switch my brain from like, because I was almost afraid of doing like more beginner content because I was almost afraid of doing more beginner content because I was very intellectual and advanced in my skillset. And I was like, oh, it makes you look so stupid, teaching this basic thing. But then I realized once you teach the basic stuff, that grows the foundational layer of,

if you imagine, a pyramid. And then all your top clients that, you know, are paying big money, like we have, you know, packages at 50, 100, 150 grand. Those clients still follow you on social media, but they kind of understand why you're doing that because you're hitting that more mass broad appeal. Um, and then you can still do the really high level consulting on the higher end. And so I think when it comes to learning how to teach, I always try and teach in layers like the free stuff. It's like more basic, mass appeal, more viral topics, more broad. And then, you know, as like you kind of said, you can get more specific when you've got the right audience in front of you and more advanced.

But I think one of the biggest mistakes most people make is they go too advanced when they should be going broad. Cause then it kind of switches off to 95% of the people. Yeah, no, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And it, it, it is one of those, those timeframes too, where it is like there's you almost have to be like mindful of the tools that you, you, you, you lean into it's like, I probably get like an email every like week or two from You almost have to be mindful of the tools that you lean into.

It's like, I probably get an email every week or two from some app that wants to do some sort of thing or some sort of interesting new way to reach a new customer or a community and things like that. At a certain point, you have to be like, I think you probably want to be open-minded so you're not missing opportunities, but you also have to be like, all right, where do I actually distribute this information in a way that's going to be the most impactful and, and not eat up so much of your time that you end up spinning wheels. For sure.

All right. Good. So I have a couple of last questions to wrap up. Um, you know, I've looked diamond into the mindset of, uh, you know, ultra running and, and everyone we've talked about and the connection between business and, you know, the mindset you need for what you do, which is incredible. I mean, it's even crazier than an Ironman, even though that's hard because at least your legs and body get to break up a little what you're doing. But I would love ask that. And I always ask this near the end of the show. If you could go back to your younger self, right.

Um, I would love to cover both sides, the mindset of success and then the business side too. Um, what would you tell yourself if you could give yourself a few tips? Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. I think like one thing, if I look at what I've gotten, maybe a little bit better at in the last few years that had I known when I was younger, I would have been more proactive is just like setting myself up for success when big opportunities do come up because like you just, you don't always know when

those opportunities that could really move the needle on your business will be there. And even though they do tend to have like a long tail that you can continue to capitalize on, they are way more impactful if you're set up and ready to go so that when they do happen, you can catch that first big wave. So, you know, for someone like myself, you know, I've been on like some of the biggest podcasts in the world, including the Joe Rogan Experience, Lex Friedman podcast and things like that. And, you know, I've certainly had a lot of success from that exposure, but they've also, some of them also came early enough in my career where I wasn't as finely tuned on the business side of things. And I was a little more kind of just the curious athlete still at some point. So I had, I think a fun story to talk about good exposure for my brand and things like that, but I didn't really have as much of the infrastructure to really like,

resonate with the person who actually wanted to engage with me as a coach or as a podcast host. So yeah, if I could tell myself something when I was younger would have been just maybe a little bit more forward thinking along like the, what an opportunity actually presents out of outside of just the actual appearance of it and making sure you kind of have the right pieces in place so that when those do pop up, you're, you're ready to hit the ground running. I love it. And last question is Solon wants to learn more about you.

Maybe you've inspired them to hire you and go and try and do a Maripan, at least a Star or Ultra. Um, where do they find you and where can they learn more about you? Yeah, absolutely. I love all the distances. So if someone wants to just get started, do a 5k first, I can help you out with that. But we can definitely get into alters if that's your goal as well. You know, the best spot to kind of find everything I'm up to from the podcast, social media channels, coaching and all that stuff is just my website at zackbitter.com. social media channels, coaching and all that stuff is just my website at ZachBetter.com.

Great. Zach, it's been a pleasure. Um, I do have one, one final question that I'm just more passionate and interested in myself, what, what, what excites you and revs you up now? Yeah. A couple of things, you know, I find that like one thing I've really focused on the most of my ultra running career has been like runnable hundred milers. And I think I still have my fastest hundred mile in my legs here. So over the next couple of years, I really want to kind of get things set up

in a way where I can take a good swing and trying to run my fastest hundred mile. Uh, but beyond that, I think there's a lot of opportunities with the sport for some of these longer stuff, like some of these like multi-day events or some of these interesting routes. Like at some point I want to do a transcontinental run where we run from San Francisco to New York and things like that. So dipping my toe into some of that longer kind of more historical, traditional ultra running type stuff is something I'd like to get into. Like as I get a little bit older and more experienced.

What about Ironman ever tempted by it? Uh, I'm always tempted until I realized how bad of a swimmer I am. Yeah. I mean, if you're not a born swimmer, you didn't grow up. That's always tough for a lot of people. Yeah. Yeah. I have a small background in biking as just like kind of like an

interest, interesting vehicle as a kid, I would like ride my bike everywhere. So that I think I could probably get myself set up for, but the swimming one is the one that's always deterred me from it. It's funny cause my wife is like, she wants to do a triathlon. She's also an ultra marathon runner and she's just like, Oh, I'll just do it off the couch. I'm like, ah, I don't know. So it's something about swimming with hundreds of other people in like open

water off the couch doesn't seem as appealing to me, but more power to her, I guess. Yeah. Well, one day, I mean, when a lot of runners and single sport athletes move to triathlon, you know, eventually. So let me know if you ever do it, but Zach, it's been a pleasure to have you on. Love diving into the mindset side and how you really transitioned into the business side. Congrats on all the records

and everything you've achieved. And yeah, we'll see you soon. Guys, that is a wrap. [♪ music playing [♪ [♪ music playing [♪ [♪ music playing [♪ music playing [♪ music playing [♪ music playing [♪ music playing [♪ music playing [♪ music playing [♪ music playing

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