Mark Bell's Power Project - Power Bite 4: John Berardi - What Building a 500 Million Dollar Company Taught Me

Episode Date: November 21, 2019

Today we're hitting up a Power Bite from EP. 251 with John Berardi. John, founder of Precision Nutrition, a 500 Million dollar online coaching company, discusses what he's learned from owning such a massively successful company.  Listen and watch the entire episode here: https://lnk.to/JohnBerardi Subscribe to the Podcast on on Platforms! ➢https://lnk.to/PowerProjectPodcast Visit our sponsors: ➢Piedmontese Beef: https://www.piedmontese.com/ Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 25% off your order plus FREE 2-Day Shipping on orders of $99 ➢Perfect Keto: http://perfectketo.com/powerproject Use Code "POWERPROJECT" at checkout for 15% off your order! ➢Quest Nutrition: https://www.questnutrition.com/ Use code "MARKSQUEST" at checkout for 20% of your order! ➢SHOP NOW: https://markbellslingshot.com/ Enter Discount code, "POWERPROJECT" at checkout and receive 15% off all Sling Shots FOLLOW Mark Bell ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marksmellybell ➢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MarkBellSuperTraining ➢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/marksmellybell ➢ Snapchat: marksmellybell Follow The Power Project Podcast ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MarkBellsPowerProject Follow Nsima Inyang ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nsimainyang/  Podcast Produced by Andrew Zaragoza ➢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamandrewz

What's up everybody it's Andrew producer and co-host of Mark Bell's Power Project podcast here with a Power Byte. In case you guys missed it a Power Byte is just a highlight clip from a podcast that happened in the past that we kind of wanted to bring back to light in case you missed it. Today we're going back to episode 251 with John Berardi. He's going to lay down what he learned from building a 500 million dollar online coaching business. This Power Buy is brought to you by Quest Nutrition. Head over to questnutrition.com at checkout, enter promo code MarksQuest for 20% off your order. And if you like hearing about what Jon Varardy learned and you guys want to learn more, make sure you check the show notes to listen and watch to the entire conversation on all

platforms. Peace. What were some of the biggest things that you've learned in the last few years from a business perspective? Because you've done a great job with precision nutrition. I actually mentioned these guys before we hopped on here. I'm like, John Berardi was kind of all over the internet back before the internet was cool. And then he just like disappeared. And obviously he didn't disappear. He probably, you know, dove into working harder than ever. But like from my perspective, I just didn't see as many articles and stuff from you. I didn't see you floating around the internet more. I was like, you probably went and decided, look, I need to monetize this. So how is it that you were able to build Precision Nutrition to being the biggest nutrition company that helps people with nutrition to the tune of $200 million, I believe, is the last number I saw. Yeah, yeah. You know, the disappearance was part like a personality, lifestyle choice, and then also part like a real focus on the business.

lifestyle choice and then also part like a real focus on the business you know I had watched the previous generation of quote-unquote guys like me you mentioned one of them you know the late Charles Poliquin Paul Cech was like guys who were like a little bit even a few years ahead of me and I noticed like a couple things happening one is for them to get their message out and be successful as well they had to travel all the time. These guys were gone 50 out of 52 weeks a year. I don't have it in me to do that. I'm introverted. I like being home. Now we have a family. I like being with my family a lot.

So that wasn't in the cards for me. And then I didn't really like the attention either. I'm not someone who's in public space and people are like, oh, John Berardi, I'm a big fan, whatever. And I'm like, oh, this is great. This really fills my cup. No, I mean, I appreciate the fact that, you know, people are willing to come say hi, but I would prefer not to be recognized at all, you know?

So part of it was like a business strategy. And then part of it was like a business strategy and then part of it was this personality stuff because on the business side i'm like you don't ever sell a company that's the john berardi company you know and if you look at paul quinn's career for example you noticed him reinvent himself like four or five times to stay relevant he was the strength coach then he became sort of like a functional medicine guy you know then he became a manual He's pulling your ears in an event. You're like, this guy was teaching me how to build biceps 15 years ago. Now he's pulling my ears.

What's going on? And that's what happens when it's the cult of you. You know what I mean? When it's an individual who's at the forefront of this thing. And so one is you can't sell that company. But even if you never want to sell it, you have to like disappear and come out with something new because people are hearing sick of hearing the same old stuff from you, you know. And so for me, it was all sort of all came together with this idea like, hey, I need to bring on some people who are young and want to and like to travel, you know, some great educators so that there can be 10 of me out speaking rather than just one. I need to bring on some help who can do all the other things that I'm not skilled or capable

and competent at. I need to fade into the background. And that was sort of the project, right? So I just remember it was amazing after a few years on this project where I'm like, people aren't asking for me anymore. They're asking for Brian St. Pierre or Adam Fyke or this team that I you know I grabbed you know who were like basically grad students and I'm like these folks have some potential I'm going to teach them how to get up in front of an audience and they're going to bring all the skills they have and then I'm going to send them out in my place and now people are asking for them over me it was amazing and then you know the other thing with P PN was we also had that beautiful confluence of great timing with the right thing at the right time. You know, people have written ad nauseum about like, you know, Steve Jobs and

Bill Gates. They're wildly successful and they're smart guys, but they were also born at the exact right time and had the exact right interests at that time, right? So that when things exploded, they could pursue their interest in computers and technology. It was the same. Like I wanted to educate professionals on fitness and nutrition long before it was allowed. You know, when we published the first ever precision nutrition certification, which we've had 100,000 students go through it now, every personal training organization in the world was telling their trainers, don't do a nutrition certification, you're not allowed to do it. So like at that time,

it was looking really stupid, what we did, you know what I mean? But I knew it was right around the corner. And I don't know if you guys ever had Gray Cook on the show, but Gray is the guy found in the functional movement screen. And so Gray was a guy who was teaching like physical therapy techniques to strength coaches and personal trainers before that was popular. really well. And all this happened maybe five, eight years before PN really took off. And so I was able to sit down and be like, Gray, this is what's going on for me. And he's going, oh yeah, that happened to me like six years ago. It's going to be fine. You know? And I'm like, okay, cool. So like our physical therapy associations writing you like legal letters saying that you're breaking the law by teaching your stuff to trainers. Oh, yeah, totally. Like, oh, great, because that's what's happening to me now, nutrition. So it was the same exact historical pattern repeating just like eight years later. And we knew this was going to be required.

Like coaches were going to have to talk nutrition. So we just so happened to have it before anyone else even thought it was a reasonable, sensible thing to do. So then when everyone was ready for it, we had it. a reasonable, sensible thing to do. So then when everyone was ready for it, we had it. We were the only game in town. We had so much of a head start on everyone else that it's been hard for anyone to catch up. So as you mentioned, in 2017, I sold 80% of my stake in Precision Nutrition. And so, I'm just a very small percentage owner of the company and I'm working on some other projects. The valuation was close to $200M. PN is continuing

to grow fantastically and will probably sell in the next few years again, bring another investment partner in for $500M. It's a super cool business venture that has been pointed in the right direction and is really sort of, I guess, fulfilling its potential now. Yeah. The hardest part of that for some business owners, I think is, uh, doing what you said in the beginning, which was, uh, you know, passing things over to other people. And I think a lot of times people have so much trouble with that, but something to recognize and something that if you're skilled at teaching people or being like a mentor is that you can help people. You can help people to kind of overcome some of their fears, like you said, like public speaking and things like that. You can give them some of the tools, you can put some spotlight on them,

and you can also recognize the fact that you have to be humble enough to understand that they might do a better job than you. And ultimately, that's really what you want, because you need a really good team around you in order to function the way that you've been functioning. It's true. You know, I think I think this particular skill of being able to hand off and, you know, loosen the reins a little bit of your grip on your thing, you know, is part of this thing that I think is the universal truth. Generally with new things, we think they're going to be harder than they actually are, but they're always going to take longer than we think they're going to take. That happens with fitness and nutrition and changing your body. It also happens with any skill in your business, right? So people are like intimidated by how hard it seems to be able to do what you just mentioned.

But it's actually not that hard at all. It just takes really freaking long. It takes way longer than you expect. And I think people tap out before the logical, normal timeline has run its course. You know what I mean? So if it's going to take five years to train someone to take your place, five years to train someone to take your place, that feels slightly unpalatable. Except it's amazing that you're five and six months because it's done now. You know what I mean? And it's done right. And again, this is one of these things I'm looking always for universal principles. I'm like, oh, is this true when it comes to fitness? Yes. Everyone thinks it's going to be hard, but they're never willing to take the time that it's going to take. And is it true with business? Yeah, pretty much true. It's almost, is it true with parenting and relationship? Yeah, pretty well.

You know, some of these big companies that you had opportunities to work with, were they pretty open, um, in terms of like maybe sharing information? Is that, um, did that help grow the company? Like if you rub elbows with Apple or some of these other companies, did you ask questions and stuff like that to these people? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of my style. You know, I'm someone who like questions everything and not in a combative way, but in a like deeply curious way. Like whenever I hear people saying something too much, I'm like, let me unpack me, let me unpack that. Like, uh, that seems too cliched to me. Like it can't be that simple. And so in these, and also like, I really like to give a lot of value. So if I'm working with Equinox or Nike or Apple or whatever, like, I'm just going to give, give, give, like, I'm going to give them an extra, I'm going to share data from our side. Um, and if they reciprocate great, and if not, then they just think I'm a really super cool guy who's great to work with.

You know what I mean? So it's always win-win for me. Like they either think I'm really awesome and my reputation grows, but I don't get any reciprocity in terms of like knowledge sharing or they share knowledge and they have. And I've learned some of the biggest lessons and I put them in the new book about this, like my most powerful lesson from Apple, for example. You know, when PN was a small company, I mean, compared to Apple, it's still a small company, but you know, when we were a small company and then throughout the middle years, I used to always have a tremendous amount of anxiety about resource constraints. You know, I'd always be like, oh, we're not doing this.

And I see these people crushing it with this. And we're not always anxious and always waiting for like that beautiful day in the future where we have enough money to do all the things, you know. And then I went for a trip out to Apple and we were working on a project with them. And I'm in the room at the wealthiest company in the world. And someone said the same exact thing i was saying to our team like oh in the future when we have enough resource and i was like okay this is the most liberating moment of my life right if the richest company in the world is still saying this then everyone needs to stop saying it like then it's simply not true, right?

You can't wish for that day where we all have more resources because I'm at the very top and they don't feel like they have enough resources. So this is a perception problem, not a resource problem. I can go back and fix that, you know? And so it's things like that have really been profound and shaped my whole trajectory.