Mondays with Matt

Essential Tools for Productivity: Time Saving Products, Services, & Hacks For both Matt and Chris, noise-cancelling headphones help them focus, at home or on the road, and get important and urgent work done efficiently. Matt loves the Jabra elites Chris loves Sony's over ear headphones Too many look myopically to save money, when they eat up too much time (which loses them money) and have things done poorly. Matt and Chris both recommend hiring people for the menial tasks (shoveling the driveway, cutting firewood, grocery delivery, lawncare) and the high skills tasks (building a website, designing a logo, etc.). Intelligently investing money in these areas saves you time in the long-term and makes you more money in the long-term. Ultimately, in both case you will see more value, in your life and business. Essential Tools for Productivity: Leverage AI If you're not using AI, you need to. Lots of cool AI tools exist, that help save you time in different ways. Fireflies: great notetaking service for video calls Reflect: Chris uses as a one stop shop to reflect, keep notes, and improve his productivity Claude: can upload different documents that can inform the AI - great way to have complex code explained to you ChatGPT: best for quick general knowledge responses, web search capability, and quickly writing things based on prompts Essential Tools for Productivity: Books & Podcasts Matt and Chris both love to use the combination of Kindle and Audible to consume books. They synchronize, so if you listen to a book in Audible and then later read it in Kindle, you will pick up where you last left off in Audible. If they book is excellent, they buy a physical copy as well. Below are some of their favorite books: Founder Brand - discussed on Build Your Business #2 Never Enough - how someone transformed his life $100M Leads - effective marketing Buy Back Your Time - just like it sounds E Myth Revisited - best book for beginning business owners The Hard Thing About Hard Things - better book for more seasoned founders on the crappy parts of being an owner Below are some of their favorite podcasts: Founder Podcast All In Invest Like the Best My First Million Essential Tools for Productivity: Sleep Matt cares about sleep. You should too. Below are some of his favorite gadgets (general and branded). Eight Sleep: expensive, but you spend 1/3 of your time sleeping and this transformed his sleep quality; if you can afford it, buy it Manta Mask - great for naps and sleeping on the road Black out shades Weighted blanket Coop Pillows Essential Tools for Productivity: Health & Fitness Whether it's fitness or hygiene, taking care of yourself helps you take care of your business. Don't short yourself here. Invest in a home gym - start small Might Patches blemish patches Alcohol wipes Breathe Right Maximum Strength nose strips Toppik hair fibers Renpho body measure tape Renpho smart scale Hello Tushy bidets Essential Tools for Productivity: Food, Coffee, Cooking If you regularly do something (drink coffee, cook, etc.) then you should spend some money making that task easier and more pleasurable. This applies to the kitchen as well. Buy good, locally-roasted whole bean coffee Whole Latte Love - For really nice espresso and coffee equipment, check out Nordic Ware big bake sheets Essential Tools for Productivity: Content Creation If you're going to create content or regularly be on business video calls, you need to invest in high-quality microphones and cameras. It will make you stand out. Shure MV7 USB Microphone Sony ZVE 10 camera Sigma Contemporary Multi-Layer lens Herman Miller chairs PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Building a compelling Founder Brand rooted in authenticity and storytelling can help entrepreneurs attract clients and grow their businesses. Follow these actionable strategies for overcoming fear, creating consistent content, and shifting focus from price to value to stand out in a crowded market. The Concept of Founder Branding People connect with people, not brands. A founder's personal story serves as the essential bridge between the audience and the brand, helping to build trust and relatability. Examples such as Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos highlight how a founder's narrative creates a lasting impression that draws people in. Authenticity and Vulnerability Sharing personal challenges and failures, such as overcoming setbacks or navigating struggles, allows others to see the human side of the business. This openness fosters deeper connections and builds trust.Overcoming Fear of Visibility Many business owners hesitate to put themselves out there due to fear of judgment or criticism. The episode stresses that confidence comes with practice and consistency. Facing those fears head-on is the only way to grow and establish a meaningful presence. When it comes to choosing platforms for content, the discussion outlines strategic options: LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) are ideal for B2B, while Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X work well for B2C. The recommendation is to start with one platform to ensure consistency before expanding to others. Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms Content creation strategies are also a major focus. Drawing inspiration from daily activities, customer interactions, and common questions provides a steady stream of relevant material. Long-form content, such as podcasts or blogs, can be repurposed into shorter clips for social media to maximize reach. Repetition is encouraged, as most audiences won't see every post, and consistent messaging helps reinforce key ideas. Finally, the episode addresses the importance of being selective with your audience. Having a clear point of view, even if it repels certain people, ensures alignment with the right clients and saves time by filtering out those who aren't a good fit. Trust, built through consistent, value-driven content, ultimately leads to stronger conversions and long-term success. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Focusing solely on price can lower the value you receive, cost you money, and harm your business. As a business owner pricing your services, you do not want to be on the low-end of the available prices. In this episode of the Build Your Business podcast, Matt and Chris Reynolds dive into why focusing solely on price can ultimately harm your business. They illustrate how prioritizing value over cost leads to better outcomes, using examples of hiring experts versus cheaper options and how paying for experience can save both time and money. As a business owner, it's essential to avoid competing on low prices, as it leads to a race to the bottom. Instead, they emphasize valuing your time, delivering exceptional value to customers, and working with companies that bring true expertise. Excellence, not cheap rates, drives long-term business success. ------------------------------------ Barbell Logic Links Website: https://barbell-logic.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbell_logic/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbelllogiccoaching/ X: https://x.com/BarbellLogic Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See how much you could be making at https://turnkey.coach/5x Check out our Coaching Kickstarter eBook to accelerate your coaching career If you're interested in improving your coaching practice and making 5x your current dollar-per-hour earnings, go to https://turnkey.coach/coaching-rediscovered/ ------------------------------------ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - Intro to Build Your Business Podcast 00:00:28 - Purpose of the Podcast and Hosts' Experience 00:02:00 - Value vs Cost in Professional Services 00:05:10 - Expertise and the True Cost of Inexperience 00:09:48 - Investing in Quality Services and Long-Term Value 00:12:12 - Mispricing and the Market's Correction 00:16:57 - Professional Services and Cost Efficiency 00:21:35 - Online Coaching and Efficiency in Business Models 00:26:19 - Transitioning from Personal Training to Online Coaching 00:31:03 - Efficiency and Increasing Hourly Income 00:33:23 - Scaling and Empire Building Opportunities 00:35:39 - Differentiation in Pricing Strategy 00:38:02 - Outro and Contact Information #BusinessGrowth #CoachingTips #ClientSuccess Show Notes (Streaming Platforms) Focusing solely on price can lower the value you receive, cost you money, and harm your business. As a business owner pricing your services, you do not want to be on the low-end of the available prices. Focus on Value Delivered not Price: Value Equation Chris offers a simple example of why only looking at hourly rate makes no sense. Someone hired a business to perform a task, and that business offered a low hourly rate. After 150 hours, they had failed to complete the task. To fix this, they went to a different business with a higher hourly rate. That new business was unable to use the work the earlier business had performed, but after 30 hours they had completed the task. The "more expensive" solution ended up costing less, both in terms of time and money. Focus on Value Delivered not Price: Value Your Time With the example above, not only could the business have paid less if they had not only looked at the hourly rate, but they could have solved their problem much earlier, letting them make more money sooner. You cannot save money by attempting to learn everything a lawyer learned at law school and in his years of experience to serve as your own attorney. This is really true of any professional service you hire. Value your time, and focus on delivering value to your customers (and growing your business) as opposed to trying to spend time on what other professionals can do better than you. Focus on Value Delivered not Price: Fly From the Low Price Game As a business owner, you do not want to have to offer low prices. Why? Because you will ultimately have your services judged on price, and this means a race to the bottom. You want to pursue customers who are looking at your value and expertise. You similarly want to seek out companies that offer great value to your business. Focus on Value Delivered not Price: Excellent Value Means High Price This means, of course, that you must pursue excellence. You must become excellent at what you do. You must seek and use companies that deliver great value. Of course, you should want to do this. Early on, you may offer lower prices, as you learn your craft and build credibility. Your prices should increase as you do this. Focus on the total value delivered not price. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

10x your productivity with these 6 non-negotiables. Building these habits into your daily routine increases your output & effectiveness. 10x Your Productivity Habit #1: Work When Everyone Else Sleeps Working when everyone else sleeps gives you an edge over your competitors and gives you time to knock out urgent work and complete deep work without interruption. For Matt and Chris, the best time is early morning. Chris wakes up and immediately works on deep work. Matt knocks out urgent work, then transitions to deep work. If you are a night owl, that is okay. Take advantage of the late evening time when you are up anyway and your brain works at its best. 10x Your Productivity Habit #2: Prepare to Work Train your brain to know work is coming by taking advantage of the Pavlov response. Create and perform the same series of tasks before you work, especially before you complete deep work. Chris does the following: Puts on noise-canceling headphones Plays the same playlist Wipes his nose with alcohol wipe Puts on a nose strip to open up sinuses Puts eye drops in eyeballs Pours gigantic cup of coffee Matt's prep to work routine includes getting dressed for the day, making coffee, letting the dog out (skips on the road), sitting down in the same chair, and turning on the computer. There is a chance you already have one. You need to make it more intentional, and might add things (similar to Chris). 10x Your Productivity Habit #3: Work with Absolutely No Distractions Distractions destroy productivity, causing you to lose focus. They prevent you from completing deep work. Turn off your phone and computer notifications. Go to a room where you no you will not be disturbed. Then, when you are done with your deep work, you can respond to the notifications and urgent tasks all at once. 10x Your Productivity Habit #4: Leverage Artificial Deadlines Create & hold yourself to artificial deadlines. Parkinson's Law describes how tasks will fill the time allotted to them. Barring extremes (giving yourself one second), you can get tasks done much faster than you think if you give yourself less time. For example, creating a PowerPoint slide that is not that important might take you two weeks (or even two months) if you let it. If you give yourself one hour, however, you'll find you can get it done in an hour. Chris uses time boxing, where he assigns a value to a task and then allots the time for the task. Bringing this intentionality of value makes how much time it should take more clear. Most people take too long to do things. Occasionally, for truly important, high-value work, they do not spend enough time on it when they really need to ensure high quality. 10x Your Productivity Habit #5: Focus on 1 Task at a Time You've been lied to: multi-tasking is fake. People serially task (context switch), and they context switch poorly. Instead of bouncing from one task to another, performing both poorly, intentionally serially task. You focus on one thing at a time. When done, move onto the next thing. Matt and Chris both use the Pomodoro technique. This involves allocating a certain amount of time (try 25 minutes) to completely undistracted work on 1 task. You don't go to the bathroom, you don't get more coffee, you don't look at your phone. Then, take a break to complete those urgent tasks, go to the bathroom, and get more coffee. You will learn that you are incredibly distracted. That is okay. Do it badly and you will improve. You will be able to do longer pomodoros with greater focus over time. One tip Matt has for this is if something pops up into your head, such as the need to thaw meat for dinner or take out the garbage, quickly jot down a one-work reminder and keep work. For example, write down "meat" or "trash" and put it out of your mind. That way, you do not worry you forget about it, but spend no time on it. You do not context shift. 10x Your Productivity Habit #6: Leverage the Eisenhower Matrix General Eisenhower developed a quad chart based on the urgency and importance of tasks. Tasks can fall into the below categories: not urgent and not important - remove urgent but not important - delegate or automate urgent and important - pomodoro technique important but not urgent - create time for these and defend You should remove tasks from category 1 and delegate or automated category 2 tasks. Use the pomodoro technique for category 3 tasks. You may use the pomodoro technique for category 4 tasks, but the most important thing is to build time for them by reducing the time you spend on other tasks. These tasks tend to not get done, but they are where the most value comes from, whether they are important tasks for you or your business. Barbell Logic Links Website: https://barbell-logic.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbell_logic/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/barbelllogiccoaching/ X: https://x.com/BarbellLogic Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=

Choose Hard Things: The Transforming Power of Fitness Cody had been an overweight youth but decided to begin to take his health and fitness seriously. When he wedded his nascent health and fitness journey with a passion for learning as he changed his major in college, he never looked back and pursued a career as a strength and nutrition coach. Cody found that by simply doing hard things regularly and improving his health and fitness, he improved all other aspects of his life. Truly, embracing voluntary hardship can alter the course of your life for the better. The decision to do the hard things matters. Choosing Hard Things in Business & Life Cody, like Matt, saw the downsides of the in-person coaching model. He started an online coaching business in 2017, the year after Matt began Barbell Logic Online Coaching. He has focused on tailored nutrition and fitness coaching, prioritizing normal every day people looking to avoid the tragically-too-normal slide to obesity and disease. He has had to learn about business (again, embracing hard things) to help his business grow, which ultimately helps more people transform their lives. Choose hard things every day. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Moving Your Personal Training Clients Online: Online Coaching Business Model Successfully transitioning your clients from in-person to online makes a ton of sense for your quality of life and business model as a strength coach. The biggest value of in-person training comes primarily during those initial sessions, when often drastic technique changes need to be made and you develop a relationship grounded in trust, expertise, and benevolence. As the relationship progresses, however, the value of in-person coaching decreases. Form correction becomes less frequent and less drastic, whereas programming changes become more complicated and necessary. Asynchronous online coaching allows the client to lift wherever and whenever is convenient, and then the coach to respond within 24-48 hours wherever or whenever works for the coach. It increases the dollar-per-hour pay to the coach while decreasing the cost to the client. How to Move Your Personal Training Clients Online: Make More Money & Improve Your Quality of Life Matt Fever has made the transition from personal trainer and leader of group classes to professional coach. Attending an in-person lifting seminar with Barbell Logic was a turning point, as Matt Fever signed up for the Academy, started receiving online coaching from Matt Reynolds, and really honed his knowledge and expertise and learned about the online coaching business model. He has been transitioning his clients from in-person to online. This has allowed him to spend more time with his family. It has also led to his clients having higher compliance, as he can coach when he is on vacation (whereas previously he could not coach and did not get paid). His clients can also lift and receiving coaching if they travel. Moving your personal training clients online dramatically improves your quality of life and helps you develop a successful online coaching business model. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Time Audit: Why It Matters – Know Where Your Time is Going You are your biggest time waster. You may feel that others (e.g. your boss, kids, etc.) waste most of your time, but a couple things in response to this notion of your. One, you cannot fully control these things. Two, insofar as you can control them, it often comes with how you react to them, approach them, or major life overhauls (e.g. changing jobs). C. Northcote Parkinson describe in a 1955 essay in the Economist what has called Parkinson's Law – works expands to fill the available time. If you give yourself a month to complete a task, it will take a month. That same work could have taken you a week or day if you had assigned that amount of time. Ultimately, this has limits (you cannot assign a nanosecond to something and assume it will get done), but this law has value. Instead of considering it a negative reality, give yourself less time and hold yourself accountable. Work to develop better habits of time management. Just like nutrition or budgeting, worst knowing what you are consuming or how you are spending helps you begin to modify your actions. Time Audit: What It Is & How To Do It A time audit is a method to track how you spend your time over a given period. It helps you identify non-urgent, non-important tasks you can eliminate and urgent tasks you can delegate. Additionally, you will likely fine that the simple act of completing the time audit will improve your time management actions. Track blocks of time down to the 15 or 30-minute increment for one week. If something takes less than that time, you can write that down. Matt has a 15-minute timer that he uses. When it goes off, he quickly jots down what he did. Matt uses Clockify, but you could use a spreadsheet or pen and paper. You can read an article Matt recently wrote about the time audit here. You may also be interested in reading Dan Martell's book Buy Back Your Time. Matt recommends, even if you have done pretty well with time management, doing this annually or bi-annually to check-in and continue to improve your time management. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don't Be Lazy: You Can Do More Most people do not do enough. The evidence for this is all the time people waste performing non-important, unurgent tasks such as watching TikTok, doom-scrolling through Twitter, or binge-watching Netflix. Do not build walls around your time that should not exist. "It's unhealthy to work on the weekend" or "I deserve to not work on the weekend" can be the difference between your business succeeding and growing or failing. You have more time than you think. You can do more than you think. This does not mean that you do not enjoy time with your family or in leisure activities. People, however, by and large, are too lazy. People generally do less than they can. Don't Be Lazy Because of Your Freedom Business owners and the self-employed enjoy the freedom to set their own schedules and choose how to spend their time. This may be the single greatest aspect of starting a business or being your own boss. If you give in to your worst tendencies, however, you will not do enough. You will choose laziness. Matt, for example, gets up early to complete urgent tasks when no one else is awake. He does this on the weekend as well, which leaves him ready to perform on Monday as the CEO. He does not begin work Monday morning having to catch up on email. Don't let freedom lead to laziness. Don't be lazy, but rather do the work. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pick Your Battles: Cool, Calm, Collected Someone in the All In conference Matt, Niki, Andrew, & Josh recently attended said "that's below my line." What does this mean? It means certain things should be below "your line" that stirs up your anger. Of course, anger is an emotion, and emotions arise sometimes whether you want them to or not. That being said, you should avoid outrage culture, and if you find yourself dominated by your passions, you should step back and deal with it. Matt has identified that addressing a situation in anger almost never works out well. This does not just mean yelling or punishment, but even talking in anger – it usually does not come off well. If accomplishing the goal is the goal, and anger does not help, then don't lean into the anger. Acknowledge, overcome, and try to make peace. Pick Your Battles: Assume the Best One component of picking your battles is assuming the best in others, especially others who have built up a level of trust with you. You cannot be in a healthy relationship with your spouse or really any other important person in your life if you assume the worst possible motives for their actions. Reach out to the other person and listen. Winning an argument or seeking to dominate conversation is not a good way to reach understanding or peace. Pick your battles, seek peace, and overcome anger and other passions. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Client to Coach: Fitness to Strength Barbell Logic has identified a somewhat typical progression among a cohort of its clientele. These folks go from fan to strength client to Academy client to coach using TurnKey Coach. Micaela Bickel followed this path. She began more in the fitness space, programming circuits and endurance. Barbells were sprinkled in. Despite her skepticism and fears, training with barbells produced the results she wanted and not only did not hurt her back but actually helped her back. She attended a seminar and left humbled but ready to pivot to strength-based training for both herself and her clients. Client to Coach: The Business of Coaching She soon found the Academy and learned many of the practical and academic things it teaches. Despite having an exercise science degree, she derived a huge value from the academy. She opened a gym in February 2023. That was a steeper learning curve. She learned as she went, though the Academy also not spends more time addressing the business of coaching. Her first important transition was from charging per session to charging monthly. Soon thereafter, she moved to a hybrid model of coaching, where clients receive usually 2-3 months of in-person coaching from her and then are moved to online through TurnKey Coach. This has increased her ability to coach more clients and decreased her time at work. The way TKC measures progress and PRs has encouraged compliance, and clients are able to train while away from the gym (and Micaela can coach away from the gym). Learn about Micaela's story from client to coach and how she crushed the client life cycle. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Burnout: Definition & Identification This is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. It comes from doing too much for too long, especially too many urgent things. Some people have performed some great feats of endurance in their lives, but they often focus on the important, not the urgent. You will experience a lack of desire to work, even with things that used to motivated and excited you. It will affect all areas of your life. There is a clear parallel with overtraining. Overtraining is actually less common than most people think, but if you become overtrained it is debilitating. Overtraining and becoming burned out are better to avoid than dig yourself out of. Burnout: Avoidance versus Digging Yourself Out This is one of those instances when important things become urgent. You drown in an overwhelming amount of urgency for too long, and you will have to confront it. It is better to get out in front of it. Ensure that you are making time for the important. You are taking days off and there are things you do unrelated to the urgent every day. Take care of your health always: physical, medical, spiritual, psychological, social. Do not medicate with activities that can exacerbate the problem, such as alcohol or other drugs, unhealthy foods, empty pleasures, risky behaviors, or excessive spending or gambling. To dig yourself out will require more work and greater effort than if you had never found yourself burned out in the first place. And, of course, some people never dig themselves out. Avoid burnout, but reach out for help if you find yourself burned out. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When to Break the Rules: Increase Speed & Decrease Costs In many industries and organizations, there are general guidelines, rules, or ways of doing things. You may learn, early on, that generally, for example, employees should have one manager only or that you should never divide your forces in the face of a larger force. Great victories and advantages, however, lie in consciously not following these rules. For start up companies, your advantages over larger companies come from nimbleness and low costs. When you start your business, you are the technician, the manager, and the owner. You wear all the hats. You will hire employees, and they will begin to take some of those hats. Do not, however, force your people and processes under principles that slow you down or increase your costs. As you scale, you will reach higher level nodes where payroll will increase. As you do this, profitability may decrease as you take on more people, but then it will improve as you improve and grow at that node. Move fast and move cheap. Know when to break the rules and knowingly break them for the good of your business (when it makes sense). PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Leverage Education: Put Insights Into Action As a Content Consumer You almost certainly consume content in some form. Free or cheap content abounds: podcasts, social media, YouTube, reels, articles, books, audiobooks. You should be consuming and encountering meaningful, challenging, useful content. You should constantly be learning. That being said, too many people do not put lessons learn into action. Don't be one of these people. Then, your education is really just infotainment. You do not improve yourself or your business by knowing more but by improving yourself and your business by changing your habits and applying the insights you learn from these educational resources. Leverage Education: Build Trust to Create Leads & Conversions as a Content Creator Some businesses focus on monetizing content and making money through content. That is not Barbell Logic, and that is not most businesses. Content is a means to build trust and demonstrate value and expertise. Potential clients (leads) consume your content, they become warm leads, and eventually some of these people will purchase your products or services. For example, Matt has purchased Alex Hormozi's books (which are cheap) and watched some of his free online content. Because of the value he has gleaned from this, he was willing to pay more to attend an intensive in-person seminar. Why? Because the free and cheap content, and Matt and Barbell Logic's application of the lessons contained in that content, have provided value. Matt was willing to invest more deeply in a higher level of service with a higher price point because of this trust from previous experiences with the content. How are you building trust with your potential customers? Leverage education and build trust. Leverage Education to Identify Your Constraints Barbell Logic used the seminar, and has used free and cheap content from Hormozi and acquisition.com to identify constraints within the business and levers to pull that will provide the most return for the least effort, time, and money. Sounds a lot like MED (not on accident)! MED does not mean do the least you can. It means valuing your time, money, and effort to get the biggest return on investment you can. It applies the law of diminishing returns. It asks, if you can add 5 pounds to your squat every 2-3 days with 1 set of 5 repetitions of the deadlift, why would you do a program that involves 3×5 or 5×5? Leverage education to identify constraints and improve yourself and your business. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Strength Training at West Point: Simple, Hard, Effective Greg Hess is an instructor and athletic trainer at West Point. In this role, he has a host of responsibilities, including immediate treatment of injuries, overseeing mandatory physical training of all cadets during their cadet basic training, and leading an elective course on compound barbell lifts. Really, what he is doing, in his roles, is trying to spread the benefits of simple, hard, effective training. During basic training, he exposes cades to the deadlift and bench press, despite the limited time. In his elective, however, he has more time to instruct technique on the four main lifts, along with the power clean and power snatch. Cadets also learn how to coach other cadets. This is a good thing. Cadets at the United States Military Academy (West Point) are being exposed to simple, hard, effective strength training. Learn about something exciting that is going on at West Point. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Not All Metrics Are Created Equal: TTIs & KPIs Two main categories of metrics exist to help measure progress toward strategic goals and gauge the health of the company: targets to improve (TTIs) and key performance indicators (KPIs). TTIs are your top set of metrics, which have to directly impact your strategic priorities. Your strategic priorities need to align with your tenets and core values. If these metrics improve, you have moved closer to or met your strategic priorities. These are not monthly or quarterly (though you measure them monthly and quarterly and probably more often than that) but likely annual priorities and TTIs. KPIs are snapshots of the health of the company. If they improve, they should help your TTIs and strategic priorities (for the most part). Often times, these are metrics that lower-level employees may care about. The CEO does not need to get into the weeds of Instagram post performance, for example, but the social media manager does. Some metrics will likely not move, but if they do move you need to identify why they moved (either to understand the success or address the underperformance). For Barbell Logic this might be churn. A good example in another industry is engine temperature in an airplane. This should remain constant, but if it starts to go up you need to address it quickly. Not All Metrics Are Created Equal: Hierarchy of Metrics What you measure focuses your attention, so pick your metrics carefully. The CEO should not be looking at 100s of metrics. Improvements in your TTIs must actually move you closer toward your strategic priorities. For example, if a strategic priority for you is to earn $50k in coaching revenue this year, revenue is a TTI. KPIs that align with this may be churn, clients, cold calls, and life time value of clients. Make sure your metrics align with your priorities and your priorities align with your values and tenets. Prioritize metrics: do not measure metrics just because you can. Not all metrics are created equal. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Struggling to Identify Your Core Values!? Matt has heard that, despite his discuss on developing and defining your core values, and its importance, many are still struggling on how to actually get this done. Matt was working with leadership at Barbell Logic years back on a business trip, and he and the team identified that they needed to work to identify 5-year strategic priorities. They had extremely limited time, but using some simple techniques, they were able to establish Barbell Logic's tenets quickly, using a bottom-up approach and the pomodoro technique. Helpful Hack to Identify Your Core Values The team had hundreds of sticky notes and a blank wall in the AirBnB they were staying in. Separately, they each wrote down as many important tasks as they could think of. Once done, they stood back, and began to group them together. Groups became larger groups, as patterns emerged. What emerged from this process was the 4 tenets that Barbell Logic still has to this day: serve, grow, teach, steward. Another tool you can use to really identify which tasks you should stop and which you need to prioritize and protect, write down your tasks in the four quadrants of the Eisenhower matrix. These tips and tricks can help you if you are struggling to identify your core values. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Prioritize Thinking: The Importance of Thinking Taking time out to think matters. Why? As Matt has discussed in recent podcasts, and his his upcoming book Undoing Urgency, we need to set up habits and systems in our life that help us actually spend time with the most important things in our life. How do we spend time with these most important things? Thinking helps ideas arise, whether they be things we need to stop, do better or different, or start. How does one do this, though? How does one actually take time to think? Prioritize Thinking: When Do You Think Best? Matt has identified a few conditions that need to occur for him to think well, and then a few different environments where he tends to think well. Matt things best after: he has slept he has cleared urgent work The first may seem obvious, but it is truly critical. You cannot think well if you are tired. For Matt, this occurs after a good night of sleep or nap. Of course, Matt does not immediately wake up and start thinking, but rather after taking care of some quick tasks, making coffee, and clearing his head, he can think. Critically, he eliminates urgent work. It is difficult to think about the important when urgent tasks are pressing on your mind. Some of the best environments for him to think include the following: walking (alone or with wife) long drives manual labor vacation sauna or similar quiet times Matt tends to have an initial brain dump when an idea arises, and he makes sure to take quick bulleted notes down (don't worry about spelling, format, etc. just get the ideas down). Later, when he has more time, he fleshes the ideas out. On a long drive, following this method, he developed the idea for Barbell Logic Online Coaching. Prioritize thinking! PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When to Embrace Urgency: The Occasional, Short-Term Galvanizing Power of Urgency Woah, I thought we were about Undoing Urgency!? Well, typically, yes. This is one of those rules that serves you well most of the time. You want to avoid useless or counterproductive urgency. If you fail to get out of the knife fight of the urgent, you cannot take care of the artillery battle of the important. Let's discuss some examples of when embracing urgency makes sense. impending lawsuit requires drastic changes and rebranding not able to pay the bills and overhaul of business or family expenses needed As you can see, these examples are both urgent and important. They both really come with the real prospect of impending failure. These times are crucibles. Do you live or thrive or die? Lean in and embrace the galvanizing power of the urgent. These times periods, however, burn people out. They must be short and infrequent. They can totally transform, however, relationships and organizations. These periods often come with nostalgia as we look back on them. Learn when to embrace urgency. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Important Becomes Urgent: Faith, Family, Fitness Those things that are important but not urgent, such as family, health, and religion, can become urgent when unattended to (or minimally attended to) long enough. You find yourself bickering with your spouse or family more than normal, clothes unable to fit and feeling physically and mentally worse, and falling short of the standard your faith holds you to. Now, your family, your fitness, and your faith are urgent (and, of course, still important). It is time to clear your schedule, pull the weeds, and take care of what is most important. Life is signaling to you that you need to spend more time and effort on these things. This might be scheduling a vacation. It could be a spiritual retreat. Maybe you clear off a time to train every day and start every single day (today) training. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Extreme Gratitude Matt goes through and thanks many of the people that have helped bring him and Barbell Logic to the point it is today. Having just submitted the book to Forbes, about to go on vacation, and halfway through the year, Matt takes time to thank the people who matter to him. He recommends doing this if you have not. We want to appreciate the pursuit, not the outcome, and taking time to be thankful is a great way to enjoy the pursuit. Opportunities have arisen that, whether you call it luck, fortune, fate, or grace, you did not deserve in any real way. You found friends and colleagues, co-workers and jobs that you did not expect but mattered. Take time to be grateful. Have extreme gratitude. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How to Write a Book: Tips & Tricks for the Process Matt has been writing a book for Forbes with Nick as the editor. This process has worked especially well, as it has allowed Matt to do what he does best: verbally process ideas and tell stories. Nick has been able to use his strength, of writing and editing to ensure not just correctness of grammar, syntax, and language but clarity of thought. As a lawyer, he is good at identifying issues, organizing thoughts, and finding gaps in thoughts. Matt and Nick worked on an ugly but extremely functional outline. It is not pretty, but it has enough detail to actually help describe what will be written. Matt then records what he wants a chapter to be verbally. He might also share some old podcasts that also describe the issue. Nick was able to get the transcript from the audio using this service. AI has made transcriptions inexpensive, quick, and easy. How to Write a Book: Developing an Idea Not everyone should write a book, but likely some people who should never do. Matt had burning ideas that he had been developing for years and decades, and the opportunity arose and he seized it. Before this, remember, he had been writing articles, recording podcasts, and discussing things on YouTube for years if not decades. Start getting your idea out there. Talk about it, write about it, share it with people. Get feedback. Don't expect to go from idea to book. Some ideas should just be a podcast or article. Some ideas are books. Similar to how Matt would recommend starting a business, don't go from nothing to book, but start organically developing the idea. You may eventually publish or self-publish a book. Nick recommends this needing to be important to you and your values divorced from its success. You have to want to get this idea out there and see the benefit in developing the idea. Learn more about how to write a book. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transition to TurnKey Coach: In-Person to Online Anthony Diehl is a highly successful coach, who provides both strength & conditioning coaching as well as nutrition coaching for clients. As with most coaches, he began fully in-person and began to experiment with online coaching. Online coaching, however, comes with many frustrations and inefficiencies if done poorly. 2020 and the Covid lockdowns, however, forced him to take all his coaching online. He developed systems and improved his efficiencies, but still realized a limit of about 90 clients that he could not go beyond. Transition to TurnKey Coach: Software Transition Anthony recently transitioned to TKC. Despite the big change, and the fear and resistance change brings, he hammered out his programming and accomplished the transfer in two days. Initially, for both him and his clients, it was a little weird to relearn the process, but the App itself is extremely intuitive and very quickly he was saving two hours of work a day. Two hours of work a day, gone! Transition to TurnKey Coach: More Time, More Clients, More Money What could you do with two more hours a day? Well, now Anthony plans to take on more clients, which means more money. As Matt and Anthony discuss, he could also consider taking on more clients under his name and hire some coaches. Of course, if he were fine with his current income, he could have pursued a different side hustle or spent more time with him family. The point is, TKC frees you up to do more that is important to you. This could be acquiring more clients, working on your business, working on a different business, working on your hobbies, or doing something else that is important to you. Learn about the transition to TurnKey Coach from someone who went through it recently. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Flywheel Not the Funnel for Marketing Success Matt discusses two different analogies when it comes to marketing and acquiring clients. The traditional paradigm is the funnel. This idea is not wrong, but fails to emphasize certain aspects of successful marketing. Generally, you create a funnel to capture as many leads as you can, they build trust over time with you and eventually become clients. The flywheel emphasizes certain aspects that this fails to capture. It takes awhile to get a flywheel going. Once it is going, however, it is much easier to maintain the movement. This highlights the need to continue to feed the flywheel. It points to the benefits of consistency and content over time. The Flywheel Not the Funnel: Consistency & Content are King Consistently create high value content and put it out. 90-95% of it should simply bring value to your clients. Your CTAs should generally be ways to provide more value to your clients. Some examples are below: subscribe to our weekly newsletter subscribe or follow a social media account get a free eBook by providing an email This not only solidifies the growing trust but helps these leads receive more content from you if they have decided they want to receive more content from you automatically. You put content out through output media (your own website or newsletter), rent media (on other platforms such as social media sites), and earned media (appearances on others' channels). As you become more successful, and as the flywheel builds momentum, a couple things happen. First, your clients become promoters, helping bringing you more clients. Second, you should be invited to do more earned media, such as Matt's recent appearance on Dave Tate's Table Talk podcast. Apply the flywheel not the funnel to your marketing concept by starting with people you have already provided value for and built trust with and expand from there. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Road Trip Analogy Matt shares an analogy he picked up from Niki Sims regarding how long-term goal achievement is like a road trip. Your destination is the desired end state. You envision where you want to go first. Before you set out or plan your route, you must know where you are going. You next decide on your route. Maybe you want to get there as quickly as possible, so you plan the shortest route on the main highways because you have small children. Matt, describing a great road trip he did with his family to Telluride, CO a few years ago, took another approach. He and his family did not drive more than 5 hours a day. They planned fun stops along the way and picked more scenic ways, even if it added time. They got to their final destination and enjoyed the way there. Major stops along the way are like the goals in the GAMEplan. Those shorter stops are like the actions to get to the goal (e.g. gas station stops). We hope you enjoy and learn from the road trip analogy. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Introduction to Undoing Urgency Ryan Matt Reynolds reads the introduction to his forthcoming book Undoing Urgency, which will be available for pre-sale on Amazon in August 2024. Forbes is publishing this book. Nick Soleyn, Barbell Logic's editor-in-chief, has been critical to the writing and editing of this book, making Matt's ideas and thoughts more clear and beautiful on the written page. Undoing Urgency is, like the title suggests, about getting out from under the tyranny of urgent tasks so you can accomplish what is truly important to you. Because many of the most important aspects of our life are important but not urgent, pressure will never exist to complete these tasks (unless we fail at them so bad that they too become urgent, e.g. a failing marriage or bad relationship with our children). No matter what your goals or values, this book lays out an approach and practical tips to pulling the weeds out of your to do list. The book is not simply theoretical, though. Matt shares some of his insights learned the hard way from his biggest failures and hardest hurdles. Enjoy the introduction to Undoing Urgency. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When to Hire Out: The Eisenhower Matrix The Eisenhower Matrix groups tasks into 4 categories: Not urgent and not important Urgent, not important Not urgent, important Urgent and important Urgency deals with a close due date. These tend to be someone else's priority (bills, taxes, work tasks, household chores). Important tasks are important to you. Tasks can overlap in terms of urgency and importance, but often important non-urgent tasks get ignored because you have to motivate yourself to do them. You need to maximize efficiency on urgent and important tasks. Stop doing non-urgent and non-important tasks. Now we come to urgent but non-important tasks. When to Hire Out: Urgent, Non-Important Tasks These tasks have to get done, but tend to be relatively unskilled. When they are skilled, someone else can typically do them for you. Initially, as a business owner and young person, you have to perform these tasks. At some point, though, you have to be able to spend time working on the business, not in it, and you gain that time by automating and delegating these tasks. One option is to hire tasks out. Matt sometimes uses Upwork or Fiverr for tasks like artistic renderings. Not only can Matt as the CEO and founder not perform these tasks well, but even the marketing and design team within Barbell Logic needs to be focused on more important work. Their time is worth more than these relatively quick tasks. When to Hire Out: TurnKey Coach for Personal Trainers This is what TurnKey Coach offers to coaches and personal trainers. Instead of using a dozen apps, use one that delivers communication, programming, metrics-tracking, screen recording, scheduling, and payment processing. The App is build for efficiency, to maximize not only quality of life but enable you to study your craft and acquire more clients. Work on your business, not in your business. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Take a Sabbath! Rest, Recharge, Refresh If you are like Matt, someone who works long days, enjoys work, and can tend to overdo work and grind yourself away, you need to take a day off. This does not necessarily mean you do nothing. If your job involves mental work, you might do some manual labor and turn off your phone. If you read, you might read fiction. If your job primarily involves manual labor, you might enjoy boardgames, intellectual reading, or other more intellectual pursuits. Similar to how a change in training can help you enjoy training more, a major change to activity can help you recharge. Get outside. Go for a hike. Spend time with family or friends. Slow down. Turn off your phone. Pursue the truly important, not urgent. Take a sabbath. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Swing for the Fences! – Aggressively Pursue the Urgent & Important A single decision or event can change the course of your life. Regardless of life, philosophy, or religion, this is true. When presented with a big opportunity, you need to swing for the fences. Hyperfocus your life and efforts on this. This is when urgent and important overlap. This is when you put your sleep, family life, and other things on the backburner to aggressively pursue the opportunity. You don't get the outcome if you don't swing for the fences. You don't even get to swing for the fences if you don't swing at all – if you fail to show up. Swing for the Fences Regardless of the Outcome This does not mean you succeed. You may fail. You will fail often. Another opportunity will come. Work hard, prepare yourself for those opportunities, and be ready to show up and wing for the fences when the opportunity falls in your lap. Don't leave life with regrets about what you did not seek, what you failed to try. Swing for the fences! PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Enjoy the Pursuit Not the Outcome We find joy in the pursuit of hard things. The process of doing hard things refines us, not the outcomes. Jasen Huang shares how he would not do it again if he could do it again. He did not know how hard it would be but often asks, "How hard can it be?" Andrew Schulz discusses with Joe Rogan how Joe enjoys hard things. You have to come to love the hardship and pursuit it voluntarily. Hardship is coming for you, one way or the other. You can choose it, or it can choose you. If you pursue comfort, hardship will find you. You almost certainly know someone who seeks comfort too much. What does this lead to? Pain, things being taken from you, inability to physically or emotionally do things. Enjoy the pursuit, not the outcome. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Uniquely Hard, Uniquely Successful If you set challenging goals, expect (and demand) hard efforts. Alex Hormozi said on the Modern Wisdom podcast, the following: When things get hard, this is where most people stop. And this is why they don't win. And hard feels shitty. This is what hard feels like. And this is why most people can't do it. People who succeed work hard. And, guess what, in those rare circumstances and outliers you can think of, where everything falls into someone's lap, they don't value the wealth or whatever else they received. You don't respect them either. We look up to the Michael Jordans, the Larry Birds, the Rudys. We look up to those who put in the work, day in and day out, for weeks, months, and years. Uniquely Hard: Walking Through the Valley of S#%& What are you going to do TODAY to move you toward your goal. Do it – TODAY. Don't just listen to Alex Hormozi or Jocko or me. Do. Get in the arena. Take the first step. Know that you'll have some initial motivation and the honeymoon phase. Before it becomes a habit, you'll want to quit. Don't. Persist. Walk through the valley of suckiness. Accomplish something uniquely hard. Accept your circumstances and the outcomes, but put in the work. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Applying MED to Coaching Beyond Programming (Some Principles) Matt and Scott developed the principles of MED programming, which approached programming by keeping as many variables constant as possible. Change as little as possible. This does not mean easy. Simple and hard is wildly ineffective. The approach focuses on intelligent resource allocation. For example, if you can get stronger and add muscle with 1×5 deadlift, why do 3×5 or 5×5? Keep things simple. Don't do complexity for complexity's sake. Applying MED to Coaching Beyond Programming – An Approach Toward this approach, Matt has revised the 3 principles of MED for coaching. simplicity over complexity economy over excess effort over easy The approach needs to be client-focused. It needs to be personal and flexible, simple and frictionless. The Barbell Logic & TKC approach values clients' and coaches' time and money. This system is flexible in 3 ways: does not force client into inflexible schedule does not force client into one location does not force client into limited equipment The fitness industry needs to be reformed. We aim to do that, one coach and client at a time. Applying MED to coaching beyond programming. It's simple, hard, but effective. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Should I Leave My "Safe" Job? – There Is No Safe Job Totally safe, secure jobs do not exist. If you're an employee, whether it be at a small or big company, you could lose your job for countless reasons outside your control. If you work in the government, a shutdown or change in law could spell the end of your job. Furthermore, even if you have a job that has a lower chance of loss, what is it costing you? Do you find satisfaction with it? Do you get to spend time with your family? If you own a company, it is true, it is all on your shoulders. But, in reality, things are on your shoulders any way. If you like the idea of being your own boss and have the temperament and ability to do so, this is worth considering. First, you need a side gig. When Should I Leave My "Safe" Job? – Go For It, Prudently If you have a side gig that is making good money and want to make it your main job, you should probably go for it if you've met the following conditions. You have paid off all debt (excepting the mortgage) You have saved up enough money to pay for at least 3 months of bills Your spouse (if applicable) supports you One critical note here is that before you come to this point, you need to ensure that you do not raise your living standards to the income from both jobs. Save the side gig money, do not raise your monthly expenses to your temporary monthly income. When should I leave my "safe" job? If you are ready, you should probably leave it. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Online Coaching Success Story: Before Coaching Adam Skillin worked various jobs, including banking, but always knew he did not want to go down the typical 9-5 path. Adam lives and grew up in New Jersey. He worked in the banking industry and also did various jobs including bartending. More than once he picked a job that did not align with good macroeconomic timing. He became interested in BJJ and MMA, and thought that this would become his side hustle. He planned to open up a gym and tried to get a professional fight. In 2010 he saw someone in his weight class (he was 5'6″ and weighed 130 pounds) deadlift 405 pounds and did not think that was possible. Further, he immediately saw that getting stronger would provide benefits to his strength. He began training, got stronger, it improved his BJJ game, and others grew interested. Suddenly, he was coaching other people. Online Coaching Success Story: Quality of Life Adam saw that this could become his side hustle. He got stronger, got certified, and as he started to coach people in his free time outside his 9-5 job, online coaching became a thing. He immediately saw the benefits. A few months later, Matt offered him a job at BLOC to start coaching online. Adam now coaches over 50 clients making 6 figures a year and works an average of 75-100 minutes a day. He has 100% on-time feedback and extremely high retention. This is his online coaching success story. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Reliability Costs Nothing – Integrity over Time Andrew Jackson shared his value equation a couple years ago, which includes ability, integrity, and benevolence. Reliability is essentially integrity over time. Do you show up each time, on time, and do the thing you said you would do. This costs no money. It takes time and effort. It means you will show up when you're sick, tired, and for whatever reason do not feel like it. Reliability Costs Nothing but Changes Everything Reliability brings tons of value to those you interact with. You likely have been in a situation, as a parent, supervisor, or friend, where you know whom you can rely on with a difficult task and whom you cannot. As a manager, it is wonderful to know that you have an employee (or multiple employees) you can rely on to get the job done each time. You can fake benevolence for a short period time. You can probably fake integrity for a short period of time. Over months and years, however, your character reveals whether you are reliable or not. Decide to be reliable today. Consider if you are reliable. Think about how others (your spouse, friends, supervisor, etc.) perceive you. Would they say you're one of the most reliable people they know? How can you become more reliable? Reliability costs nothing but changes everything. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Defining Your Core Values: Brainstorming & Reflecting Matt discusses how to identify and list your core values. These should reflect your personality but also be aspirational. For example, for Matt, quite reflection would not be a core value. He verbally processes ideas, and he would be working against his natural tendencies. Rather, lean into your personality, though work on addressing your weaknesses and bolstering your strengths. Notice what attracts you on social media, literature, podcasts, movies. Which characters and actions attract you (and which repulse you)? What are your natural tendencies and preference that you have no problem with? Start listing these out, thinking about them, and you can move on to refining your list. Defining Your Core Values: Refining & Defining As you create your list, think about different aspects of your life, such as family/relationship/interpersonal, business/professional, religious/spiritual, etc. Once you feel you've taken some time and reflected, identify the top 5 core values. These help underpin your goals and actions and all your decisions. They help avoid chasing shiny objects and help you avoid the lesser, easier, more comfortable paths that clash with your values. Defining your values is useful, whether for just yourself or your business. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When One Teach Two Learn: Importance of Teaching In order to become an expert coach, or to master any subject, you have to coach, or teach, when it matters. You may have found at some point that you had read or consumed a lot of material on a subject. When you tried to explain it to someone else, the apparent coherent thoughts were not there. Technique coaching in person is important to mastering technique coaching (you can simulate that, to some degree, online). This goes for teaching as well. Taking your ideas and trying to turn them into an article, podcast, or speech helps the knowledge not only deepen but also cohere. Many times, you have unordered ideas in your head – you need to order them. When One Teach Two Learn: Matt's Teaching Process Matt has a process he has followed to go from interest to refined speech, presentation, sermon, etc. Dive deep into a topic of interest Organize major thoughts Speak it or write it Before the first action, you have to find something that interests you. It could come from a book, podcast, YouTube channel, thoughts – whatever. Something peaks your interest and you want to learn more. Matt starts at a general place, such as Wikipedia, and goes from there. Look to the sources from those initial places, dig deeper, and learn as much as you can. As you do so, take notes. As you take notes, you'll start to see certain patterns and major points or thoughts. Consider these major bullet points and how they related to each other. Try to put them in a coherent order. Next, speak it (or write it) and share with someone else. For example, if you have to talk in front of a group of 20, first talk to your spouse or a friend. This rehearsal helps you better organize your thoughts and refine your speech. It is, however, a critical step. When one teach two learn. Go learn (and teach). PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Building EliteFTS – Before EliteFTS Both Dave's dad and grandfather were business owners, who inculcated and demonstrated the value of hard work. Dave helped his dad as a teenager, and his dad stressed the importance of quality products (which Dave has stressed with EliteFTS' equipment). As a teenager, Dave grew sick and tired of being "beat all the time," so he trained harder and worked harder and started to see benefits. His wrestling coach saw him running stairs one day and told him that if he worked harder than everyone else, he wouldn't be beat. This, paired with the benefits of strength, started to help him build confidence. Dave also struggled in college, but ultimately decided to return, work hard, and brought up his GPA. He was deciding whether to move to Columbus or Cleveland and ultimately decided to move to Columbus (in part) because of a girlfriend, which meant that Dave would train with Louie Simmons at Westside Barbell. Dave had different jobs, including personal training, bouncing, and gym management, and describes in his story at a couple points where he did not want to continue on the track he found himself, so he made a change. Helping Louie sell equipment and deal with customer service, paired with creating a Q&A website, ultimately created EliteFTS. Building EliteFTS Elite FTS began in the late 1990s, with the internet early and shipping times for gym equipment being 16 weeks. He learned, from eMyth, that he needed to free up time to spend more time as manager and then owner of the business. Dave and Matt talk about the importance of adversity and how it has refined them both. This aligns with Matt's voluntary hardship principle. Ultimately, as a business owner, coach, and human, you will face adversity. Prepare yourself by doing so voluntarily so that when the involuntary challenges come, you can handle them better and grow from them as well. Enjoy Dave and Matt talking about building EliteFTS. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Chase Value not Status In a social media world, it can be easy to pursue status. In the world we inhabit, it can always be easy to chase money. Pursue something else. Chase value. Deliver value to your customers. When entrepreneurs talk about opportunities, unless they are discussing some loophole or morally questionable pursuits, they're talking about a clear area where a problem exists where business can provide value. You provide a customer a new roof, they give you money. The value you provide should be more than the price point. Chase Value not Status – Appearance Versus Reality You don't have to have thought too much about social media to know that people don't typically put mundane tasks, boring events, or things they're not proud of. People select, for their own purposes, what they present to the world via the social media site. This is illusory (and might be fake). Chase value and deliver it to others. Yes, business have to make money, but the singular pursuit of value does not lead to long-term success or happiness. Chase value not status. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Excuses that Derail Progress – Valuable Things are Hard We at Barbell Logic value voluntary hardship. Simple, hard, effective training brings you toward your goals. Voluntary hardship is refining, whereas involuntary hardship may or may not refine someone who experience the difficulty. As we grow and encounter growing challenges, common pitfalls or excuses arise, where people can sabotage themselves, their goals, or their businesses. You may have all or some of these to differing degrees, and even if you improve yourself in mastering them they do not completely disappear. The Excuses that Derail Progress Matt discusses the following four excuses: fear chaos self-medication stubbornness Fear We often consider the approaches to the flight or fight response. Maybe this excuse is someone who freezes. Matt identifies 3 types within fear: the staller, the saver, and the micromanager. The staller hesitates to make decisions, putting off the hard decisions as long as possible (or longer). The saver never spends money or invests in needs of the business. The micromanager lacks trust in his or her staff to get the job done correctly. All these stifle and potentially end progress, maybe even to the point of failure. Chaos Maybe chaos is someone who fights in response to fear. Without consultation or consideration, he immediately makes the easiest, quickest decision. This person often drowns in urgency, and whereas they do not stall, they also do not think very much. Some time, reflection, and discussing things over is warranted for most decisions. You have to spend time on the important. Self-Medication The third excuse that derails progress is self-medication. Self-medicators rely on pleasurable activities to ignore or bury the stress. They may dive deep into vices such as gluttony, drugs, sex, or other pleasurable pursuits, These behaviors can often wreck people, families, and business. Important, they do nothing to deal with the issues at hand. Stubbornness The stubborn fail to take personal responsibility, own up to their mistakes, and say "my fault." If you're a business person, you have to be learning, and learning, often times, is painful. Yes, much of it is reading books and listening to podcasts and seeking out those more experience than you. Ultimately, though, even with reading books, you have to see that a recommendation approach to solution in the book is better than what you are currently doing. Many times, learning comes in failing or stumbling. You cannot ignore these. They hurt. They're not fun. Learning opportunities, however, exist from reflecting on these failures. Excuses that derail progress abound, and we can't let these derail progress or lead to failure. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Job or Business – Should I Own a Business? Not everyone should own a business. Probably, most people should not own a business. It's not an insult: it's reality. Owning a business is too much risk and stress for some people. You still may be an excellent coach or technician. You may provide a huge amount of value to your employer or to your customers. If you're the right person to own a business, you probably find yourself unable to put up with some of the downsides to jobs and tend to naturally get after it. Matt and Scott are great examples of people who are natural business owners. Job or Business – Which Do You Own You may want to consider simply owning your own job, rather than a business. For example, you may want to be a coach, get as many clients, but not be a business owner. You may own a job. You'll still have to be your own boss and complete certain functions that aren't simply coaching, but you may not want to have other employees, and may be happy with growing to a point, making good money, and not be worried about a business. As a business owner, you assume the risk. You will likely, over time, hire employees – some will be technicians, others will be managers. You need to understand the nature of the business you are in. For example, Scott talks about the gym owner business as a type of real estate. Job or Business – How Good Can This Get? Regardless of whether you own your job, a business, or you work for someone else, you need to think about what your options are. What is important to you? Can you deal with the risk and stress of business ownership, or not? Do you want to grow a business, or are you okay with a smaller, steady income stream? Would you like to simply punch the time clock and not worry about things when you're off? Understanding the nature of your business or job and whether it is really a business or job is important. On the Stupid Tax podcast, Scott and Mitchell discuss thinking or your job, even if you work for someone else, as a service you are providing that employer. It may make sense, for some, to work for that company as a contractor rather than an employee, for example. Do you own a job or business? PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

New Year's Resolutions Done Well New Year's resolutions have really been dismissed in recent decades, likely because of the high failure rate they have (especially when you consider fitness or health goals). It's true, New Year's resolutions can be done poorly. If this is the only time of year you make big, bold goals and you find yourself never having achieved them, you may need to reevaluate how you create and pursue goals. If, however, your built more like Matt, it's simply a way to make goals for the upcoming year. It takes advantage of the down time during the Christmas and New Year's holidays. It also makes sense because it simply follows the natural calendar year. You should have goals you're pursuing. You should be improving yourself. Having an annual time where you evaluate the past year and make goals for the upcoming year is not foolish. Matt's New Year's Resolutions Matt ultimately broke his goals up into 5 categories, with over 20 goals. His categories are listed below: physical business material spiritual family You might have different or fewer categories. That's okay. Some of Matt's physical goals include reaching a 225 pound bodyweight and 35-inch waist. He wants to complete 250 workouts in 2024 and track macros every day in 2024. Having at least 80% of meals be homecooked and reducing alcohol consumption by 90% are also included. For business, there are some big projects he would like to include, such as a Series A funding round, a book deal with Forbes, and a couple TV shows. In the realm of spiritual goals, he wants to hit 0 debt (including mortgage), make some home renovations, and go to Europe. His spiritual goals include reading the entire Bible and preaching 10 times. Lastly, his family goals include having a date night once per week with wife (barring travel) and have bi-monthly daddy-daughter dates with his youngest daughter. Your New Year's Resolutions might be different. But, if you're someone who makes goals and accomplishes them, don't be afraid of New Year's Resolutions. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Don't Prioritize. De-prioritize. Remove Things That Provide No Value If you're looking to create your GAMEplan, first remove those tasks and goals that do not provide you value. Remove the unimportant and non-urgent. One way Matt has identified these tasks is by how he creates his daily to-do list. He has a to-do list that populates on his tablet or phone every day. He simply renames it. When he notices the items that consistently don't get done, it's probably time to reconsider them (and likely remove them). Don't prioritize. De-prioritize. You can think about this with nutrition too. There are so many calories you can eat (or want to eat). What on your plate is not moving you closer toward your goals and does not matter to you? For nutrition, this can help you identify your non-negotiables – those foods or activities such as a small dessert in the evening, pizza on Fridays, etc. that provide you value and you desire to remain in any nutrition plan you follow. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coaching is Secondary for Business Success Consider this scenario. Someone becomes an expert in creating a certain craft or providing a certain service. Maybe this is butchery, baking, or candlestick making. Because friends and family love what this person does, their friends and family encourage this person to become a butcher, baker, or candlestick maker and start his own business. It fails. Why does it fail? Because the technical aspect is secondary. Business is first. If you decide to start your own business, you are a business owner, manager, and coach. Coaching is secondary to business success. You must spend time managing and owning the business. Coaching is Secondary: How to Be an Owner The E-Myth Revisited discusses the three different roles in a business: technician, manager, and owner. When you start your business, you must do all three (unless you happen to be rich and can hire people from day one). You cannot delegate any tasks. Over time, you can begin to delegate first the technician work and then the managerial work. If this bothers you – if this sounds like the opposite of why you signed up – you may want to reconsider starting a business. You may want to see if you can work for someone else. That's okay. Why? Because coaching is secondary, being a manager and owner is primary for business success. Learn how to be an owner. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Know Who You Are You don't need to have a mission statement, business plan, or core values to begin coaching or even start a business. Get customers now. As your business grows, you should sit down and knock these out. And there really is no better time to complete these then over the holiday season, when work tends to lesson and you look back on this past year and forward to the next year. Spend a few days creating these. Once you have a draft, step away and think on them. You might show them to someone else you trust. Below, we give some example that Barbell Logic has created. They may be a good starting point for you. Know Who You Are If you're going to spend some time knowing and defining who you are this holiday season, the below may help you as starting point or reference point for comparison. Barbell Logic is redefining traditional personal training by delivering a superior experience of professional coaching through your smartphone to anyone, anywhere, any time, and at a fraction of the cost of traditional personal training. Our Mission We are professional strength & nutrition coaches giving the world access to personal coaching, educational resources, and opportunities to help other improve their quality of live through strength. Core Tenets Tenets are the underlying principles and beliefs that make us who we are. Serve our clients & staff Grow our company Teach the community Steward our resources Our Vision We create connections for the world to experience a life improved by strength. Core Values Growth: As individuals and as a company, we believe in growth through setting goals, tracking progress, and demonstrating success. Connection: Coaching is a window into people's lives. We value authentic interactions and real relationships with everyone who trusts us enough to open it. Consistency: Trust and consistency are the hart of our professionalism. Every interaction is an opportunity to build trust, and we hold ourselves accountable to the expectations we set. Know who you are. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

All In! It's time to be all in. It's time to execute. It's time to complete that task or project or goal or dream or aspiration that you've been putting off. No more. Of course, you should complete a GAMEplan so you can define your goals, the actions you take to achieve them, and the metrics you use to determine if you've succeeded in meeting your goals. But that's just the beginning, not the end. Don't use your GAMEplan as a procrastination tool. Be all in right now. As a coach, this might mean creating lists of potential clients (cold leads and warm leads). Then, calling, texting, messaging, or emailing these people. Swing for the fences. If you have 4 clients, don't aim for 6, aim to get 20. Schedule the time and do the work, even if you don't want to. The impact on 2024 and beyond will be incalculable, beyond the confidence you gain from having done the work. It's time to be all in. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Strong Life with Zach Evan Esh Replay Matt and Zach have interacted before, passing along business advice and Matt coaching Zach when he ran into some issues. Matt jumped on the Strong Life podcast to discuss why online coaching is better than in-person coaching. For many gym owners, they feel tied to the gym, without the ability to leave and get paid. A hybrid model of online coaching and in-person coaching can help. For example, instead of losing money during vacation periods or, even if you charge the same, not providing any value to your clients, gym owners can program for clients using TurnKey Coach. If desired, the coach could provide technique feedback on the application as well. For many long-term clients, whose technique is perfect, moving to online coaching allows a more affordable option while still receiving technique coaching and programming. TurnKey Coach is perfect for those coaches and personal trainers who are bad or not interested in business. Get your clients, coach your clients, let TurnKey Coach handle the backend that you don't want to deal with. Enjoy this Strong Life with Zach Evan Esh replay. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

How to Structure Holiday Promotions: Black Friday & Pre-Christmas The lead up to Thanksgiving and Christmas is a time people spend more money. Because you believe in your product or service, and in the case of fitness your service is clearly helping improve your clients' quality of life, it is better they spend money on your service than something they don't truly need. This is a great time to offer things such as annual subscriptions, gift subscriptions or gift cards, and limited-time or urgent sign-ups (e.g. 5 spots at a reduced rate). People are looking to spend money and give gifts, so encourage them to spend money on physical fitness and quality of life. Also, avoid those times you'll likely be drowned out. You should likely have your promotions ready early the week of Thanksgiving. Pre-Christmas sales need to be out after Thanksgiving. Black Friday, and that entire weekend of American Thanksgiving, is a weekend where your ads will be drowned out and your potential clients will be inundated with offers. Deliver your promotions (ideally) before or (less ideally) after that. You will see sales dry up around a week before Christmas. This calls for a change in strategy. How to Structure Holiday Promotions: Post-Christmas and New Years' People tend to find themselves less fit and having gained weight after New Years', but they tend to have less money to spend. Now is the time to make signing up as frictionless and painless as possible. You might consider offering the first month free or some other type of free opportunity where you can deliver value and have them see how their life could be better with your service. This is also a great time for referrals, as clients can secure free or reduced coaching as they bring their friends or family to enjoy what they have enjoyed and found value in. Another time people are more fitness-minded is mid-to-late-Spring, when people begin to think about wearing swim suits and how they'll look with the less clothes people tend to wear in the summer. How to structure holiday promotions? Consider the timing, what people are looking for, and likely hurdles. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

What is Your GAMEplan? Prioritize the Important Matt shares how he discussed the business metrics that matter with Cody Miller, BLOC Coach and owner of the great gym The Strength Parlor. Cody dug in, got a hold of those metrics, and then talked more to Matt. Well, what's next? Next, you need to identify the goals that move the business in the direction you want. Likely, you've identified areas of weakness in the metrics. These goals need to be important. They can be urgent, but they should not be urgent but unimportant. For example, if you fail to address something in the next couple months that would cause the business to fail, that is both important and urgent. You should create goals for that. Establish goals for the month. You should be able to easily say, with a yes or no answer, if you accomplished the goals. What is Your GAMEplan? Get After What Matters Once you have set up your goals, identify actions you believe will accomplish your goals. For example, you may aim to reduce churn from 4% to 3.85% in the upcoming month. Below are some potential actions to get after that goal. Identify indicators of clients who are likely to cancel Identify time periods of elevated cancellation risk Could be in the life of the client (e.g. first 6 months) Could be in the calendar year (e.g. summer) Establish SOP for high risk clients e.g. Send them an email to schedule a call Establish SOP for high-evelation time periods Have automated onboarding & follow-up process for early clients Schedule fun events during the summer (e.g. lifting meet followed by barbecue) These are some example, and they might not actually accomplish the goals. You'll need to be able to measure progress toward the goal with metrics. Let's move onto discussing metrics. What is Your GAMEplan? Did You Accomplish Your Goal? Metrics help you determine if you're moving toward your goals or not. They help you answer whether you've accomplished your goals or not. As you setup your GAMEplan, you'll need to schedule a time at the end of the month to assess the past month and then create a new GAMEplan for the next month. You'll also need to schedule time to accomplish the actions items. A good way to complete these is using the Pomodoro technique. There are many ways you can err with the GAMEplan, but don't stress it too much because you'll never achieve perfection. Keep striving to get better. You may have overly ambitious goals or far-too-easily-achievable goals. Your actions items may not have moved you toward your goals or far less than you thought. You may have put too much on your plate (or not enough). Keep developing ambitious goals, pursue them with actions you believe will accomplish them, and measure them with metrics. Then execute and assess. What is your GAMEplan? PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Business Economics: Know the Health of Your Business You cannot go off how you feel about your business to know if your business is doing well. The reality is real, and if you fail to know the economic realities of your business, the economic realities will confront you when abject failure slaps you in the face. It's okay, though. Even if the metrics are bad or trending in the wrong direction, have a true, clear picture helps you identify problems and where you need to put your energy and effort to turn things around. If your waist goes up month after month, you're getting unhealthier, whether you're measuring it or not. These metrics give you an objective measuring standard to assess your business' health. Business Economics: Metrics that Matter for Your Business Matt goes through each metric one-by-one. First, though, here are the metrics, organized into macroeconomic or business-level and microeconomic or unit-level. Macroeconomic (business-level) top line revenue cost of goods gross margin or gross profit operating expenses net profit Microeconomic (unit-level) churn rate (or retention rate) number of subscribers average ticket price lifetime value of client (LTV) per gross revenue per gross margin/profit customer acquisition cost (CAC) CAC:LTV ratio (as gross margin) monthly recurring revenue (MRR) Business Economics: Macroeconomic Metrics that Matter The first and easiest metric to calculate is top line revenue. This is the money that is coming in over a period of time, typically calculated monthly (and eventually quarterly and annually – though quarterly and annual numbers matter more for larger businesses). Whether you're looking at Stripe, ACH, the business bank account, this is simply calculating all the incoming money in a month. The cost of goods is the cost to produce the good itself. So, for producing a product, this is the cost of materials you purchase that go into the item and costs such as shipping. For a service business such as Barbell Logic, this looks like the pay to the 1099 contractor coaches per client. You calculate gross margin or gross profit by subtracting the cost of goods from top line revenue. Next, you need to identify operating expenses. These are things that are required for the business but not directly related to producing the individual service or good. This might be payroll for full-time employees, printer ink, paying for a new computer, squat racks, or taking a client to lunch. The last critical business-level metric to determine is your net profit. You calculate this by subtracting your operating expenses from your gross profit. This is truly how much money the business is making each month. If you're a one-man team, then you get paid from this. If you lose money, you don't get paid. As the owner or CEO, though, while you get paid last you also get fired last. Business Economics: Microeconomic Metrics that Matter Calculate your churn rate. This is the percentage of clients you lose each month. The retention rate is the opposite (100% – churn rate). Next note your number of subscribers. Matt says subscribers, because a customer who makes a one-time purchase (a one-time coaching session or purchases one widget) does not lead you to know what your recurring revenue is. You don't have recurring revenue in this situation. Next know your average ticket price. What are your subscribers paying each month on average. The number of subscribers multiplied by average ticked price equals your monthly recurring revenue (MRR). An important statistic to calculate is your lifetime value of client (LTV – especially at gross margin). The first thing you need to do is calculate the average customer lifespan. Divide 100 by the churn rate. So, for example, if you have 10% churn your average customer lifespan is 10 months. Below are more business economics metrics. MRR x average customer lifespan = LTV (at gross revenue) LTV (at gross revenue) x gross margin = LTV (at gross revenue) Calculate your customer acquisition cost (CAC) by adding together all efforts to acquire customers. This includes marketing, sales, ads, and content you produce to market (e.g. you create a weekly newsletter, podcast, or maintain a YouTube channel). The CAC:LTV ratio is important. 1:2 ratio is considered unhealthy or unsustainable. 1:3 is considered healthy. If your ratio is significantly less than 1:3 (e.g. 1:28) you should likely spend more money to acquire customers. These are the metrics that matter to your business. These are your business economics. PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Excellent Customer Service for Online Coaching (Not Just In-Person) Customer service sets your business apart. Many coaches and gyms provide excellent customer service. Matt sees three common gym types: boutique gyms with excellent customer service but poor training, black iron or CrossFit gyms with hard training but poor customer service, and big box gyms that have good customer service with laissez faire training (you can train hard or not). Coaches who follow something akin to Barbell Logic coaching, with high-quality, 1-on-1 coaching, know how to provide an excellent customer service: show up on time, be prepared, greet your client with enthusiasm even if you're in a bad mood, dress well, etc. You need to have excellent customer service for online coaching. Don't treat your online coaching differently. Take the principle of high-quality, high-touch coaching and apply it to your online coaching business. Excellent Customer Service for Online Coaching: Set & Maintain a High Standard How can you set and maintain a high standard of service for your online coaching business. Look at the list below for some basic things: programming done in advance (always) communicate where programming is going technique feedback 24-hour feedback screen recording, not just text well-dressed high-quality microphone Think about the online coaching experience like you would the in-person experience. As opposed to your client walking into the gym, how does the client interact with you, receive feedback, upload videos, ask questions? How do they pay? Can they expect consistent, high-quality customer service from you? PS - Coach Smarter, Earn More: https://bit.ly/3X4ixOX Matt's Links Website: https://ryanmattreynolds.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reynoldsstrong/?hl=en Chris's Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismreynolds/ See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.