The Modern Digital Nomad - Matt Walrath

Hey fitness fans, welcome back to the Future of Fitness podcast and interview series. I am your host, Eric Malzone. This is episode number 39, and I'm talking to Matt Walrath. He is the CEO and founder of BeyondMacros.com. And my favorite thing about this episode is that he is taking the recording in a van in Australia as he's cruising around exploring the country. And we'll talk about how we got there in a second. But before we do that, I want to ask you for a few things. Number one, there's a special offer for you waiting at the end of this episode, so please claim it. Number two, if you like what we're doing here and you see the value in it, please go to our YouTube channel under Fitness Marketing Alliance, and it's the Future of Fitness episode series. Subscribe to that. If you listen to the audio version, please go to iTunes or Stitcher or whatever outlet you're listening to and subscribe and rate us favorably. That would be fantastic. Lastly, if there's an episode that particularly resonates with you or you see a lot of value in it, please share it on social media and tag me, Eric Malzone. I want to start dialogue with you guys. I want to find out what you're valuing and where we can provide even more. So that would mean a lot to me. And like I said, in 2018, we really want to blow this thing up and make this a very powerful thing within the industry and for people's lives. So, Matt, uh he started as a CrossFit coach at Paradiso, uh, which is in Los Angeles, and actually good friends of ours as well. And he started growing his nutrition practice organically. And now he's got multiple nutrition coaches who work under him. Um, he's traveling the world, living a completely nomadic lifestyle, which is uh warms my heart. I love it. It's what it's all about. It's the opportunities that we have now in the digital age to do so. And what I really liked about it is he talked about how he generates leads, which is really solid search engine optimization. So when I say that SEO, most people tend to their eyes roll back because either they don't understand it, they think it's boring, they don't think it works. Tell you what, it works. And it's not crash diet marketing, it's the real deal, it's what helps you build an evergreen business that will be around for a long, long time, but it takes work and it takes time. Things that people generally uh will shy away from if they don't understand it. So he gives us some insight in how he's doing that and how important it is for his business, but he also doesn't give away a secret sauce. So uh without further ado, let's get into it. This is Matt Walrath. He is the founder of Beyondmacros.com, and I hope you get a lot out of it. I certainly did. Hey everybody, welcome back. Eric Malzone with the Future of Fitness Podcast, and today I have a nomadic uh guest on the show. His name is Matt Walrath, and he is with me on macros. Uh welcome to the show, Matt. Thanks for having me, Eric. Cool. Um so tell everybody here where you are at this point of recording.

Yeah, so I am sitting in my camper van at a park in Amadale, Australia, which is the highest city in Australia at a whopping 1,000 meters, so about 3,300 feet up. And uh so far, what I've seen is it's a city full of old people, what they call oldies in Australia, and uh college kids.

Yeah.

Okay, cool. Um how are you blending in over there? Oh man, I think people see the camper van and they're like, what is this? But they're probably used to it. It's the end of a street called the Waterfall Way, which is supposed to be one of the most scenic drives in Australia. So I'm sure they get plenty of uh passerbys.

Right. Cool. Well, we're gonna get into how you got there in a few, but let's uh let's talk about um let's talk about business, right? Let's talk about um, you know, give a moment a little history on who you are as a coach, um how you started into Beyond Macros and um how that that business is evolving.

Yeah, absolutely. So I got my start after college. I studied business, so I thought I had to jump right into doing something with my degree. So um I had jumped into starting a marketing agency with some friends, and I just realized that I was spending all my free time focusing on this nutrition certification I was doing and my fitness and CrossFit. So once I started getting a little bit over doing marketing for marketing sake, I decided, okay, I'm gonna actually give this fitness industry thing a go. So really I'll started out just coaching CrossFit and taking PTs to make some income while the uh the nutrition coaching was kind of still a very, very much a side hustle. That was back in 2012. And then over time I was just able to grow my personal practice to the point where it was a wait list practice. And I started thinking to myself, you know, why do I have all these people on a wait list? They usually don't wait. So maybe it's time for me to hire and train some other coaches. And that's when Beyond Macros was started in uh in mid-2016. I hired my first two coaches, got them trained up, got them some clients, and it's been rolling ever since.

Cool. Yeah, it sounds like it. I mean, I I was referred to you by somebody else, which is always a good sign, right? If you're getting referred in, especially within the highly competitive field of nutrition, which is getting more and more competitive every day. Um so I'm curious, Matt, um, you know, we had we had talked priorly, uh, like how do you how are you differentiating yourself in the world of nutrition? How are you going about that? Is it intentional? Is it kind of happened just due to who you are? Or, you know, give me some insight.

Yeah, absolutely. So from a business perspective, you know, we are really limiting the number of clients we take on to maintain that personal connection. Because what I've found over time is that you can get somebody a transformation in the short term, but what I'm really looking to do, because I've seen that diets fail over and over and over again, is to create that long-term transformation. And that's really what I'm on this path of is how do we break that yo-yo dieting cycle. So, what I've come up with so far and what I've seen to be the most effective is when you're working with a client to really put the focus on the long term and make sure that you take a habit-based approach. Because if somebody understands how to make good food decisions and they understand the underlying principles behind, like if you're doing a meal plan, which we don't do, if you're doing a meal plan, if they understand the choices and why they were made, then they'll be able to make those choices on their own when the meal plan's not there. For us, since we give one-on-one coaching, we want to make sure that people's habits are in place and super solid so that if the coach isn't there and they're not getting checked in on or the accountability is no longer there, that it just feels like second nature. You know, it's just a foundation that they've built for themselves. And even if they kind of go off the rails, they're not going too far off because they have a nice solid foundation of habits.

That's awesome. Yeah, I love the message. And I think uh I don't think you're gonna find too many fitness professionals that really disagree with you. I think the challenge, right, is giving people what they want so you can earn the right to give them what they need. That classic uh psychological phrase. And so how do you, I'm curious how you communicate that upfront. How do you set those expectations with people uh without giving too much away?

Yeah, absolutely. So every client that is considering signing up with a Beyond Macros coach has to go through a 15 to 30 minute meeting with me where I'm really going over with them, um, I'm getting to understand them. So right off the bat, if they're gonna sign up, we already have some really good information about them, like what their big picture fitness goals are, what their nutrition goals are, uh, where they've been struggling, and then what they do well, what are those strengths that we can leverage, um, as well as what their training looks like. And once I understand all that, then you know it's really a matter of, okay, like can we help this person? Have we helped people in a similar situation? And if so, you know, I talk them through what our coaching looks like, what the expectations are, and really make sure that it's something that lines up with what they were looking for. Um, and then that way when they get started, they're excited about it, they're ready to go. We already have some great information about them to hit the ground running and we can we can start building from there.

That's awesome. Do you uh out of curiosity, do you do you guys do contracts with people or is it a month-to-month-speaking?

Yeah, so initially all new clients have to commit to 90 days because, like I said, this is a long-term thing. And you know, if somebody doesn't see results in the first month and quits, then that's an issue because sometimes it takes a little bit longer to figure out what you need to do. Uh so you know, you really need to make sure that you're committed for at least 90 days because if you can't commit to 90 days, you can't commit to a lifetime of these changes, which we really don't vibe with.

Yeah, I totally agree, man. I totally agree. Uh so I I'm guessing that a good portion of your your practice, right, evolves around life coaching because generally food is is the symptom of something deeper in someone's life, right? How often uh do you find yourself getting into deep into someone's life, uh, whether you want it to go there or not?

Oh man, it happens all the time because the thing is there, like you said, there's so many emotions tied to eating. So when somebody can be vulnerable with you about the emotions around eating and really such really an emotionally charged topic, then they're going to open up about some other things because really the stressful things that are you know an issue, people having parents who are ill or you know, they're going through a divorce or something like that, they're gonna talk to you about it because one, they've been emotional and vulnerable with you before, and you're able to listen and be responsive, but you know, not not tell them what they should do. Um, so you know, you're an ear for them. And it's also relevant information for you as a coach because I've found that people are on either end of the spectrum, they're stressed eaters or stress non-eaters. Like for me, when I'm stressed out, I don't eat enough. There's other people when they're stressed out, they are taking comfort in their pantry.

So Yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's true. So uh a couple things as far as growing your business. How first question is how do you find new coaches? And then um do you have like a marketing or uh like a roadmap to get where you want to be in a year? So let's start with that. How do you find coaches?

Yeah, so with coaches, so far I've been lucky. All of them have been through referrals. Uh just talking to other people in the fitness and the crossfit industry, asking them if they know anybody who is a good coach and uh you know really empathetic. I I usually, if there's somebody I trust in the industry, I'll just ask them because I'm always looking for talented coaches. I can always find a new client for a talented coach, is kind of my my mindset on that. Um I've been really, really lucky so far. I've had some really great referrals. Um, you know, I always take people through an interview process and due due diligence. Um, but yeah, I've been pretty lucky in that regard.

Awesome. So where do you uh where do you where do you see the business in two years? And then how how do you plan on getting there? Is it are you gonna do is it completely organic growth or or what does that look like to you?

Yeah, so for me, one of the things that I've been realizing while I'm on the road is that every new coach that I bring on is like having 10 new clients for me. So what I really need to do is make sure that I am creating a scalable training platform for all of the coaches, as well as putting all the resources in place to make sure that the coaches can actually help themselves more than relying on me. Uh, because it's just like working with clients. You get some questions that every client's gonna ask. So you need some systems in place that are gonna address those problems. Same with the coaches. Whenever I hire a coach, every new coach usually has the same issues. So now that I've identified them, it's just a matter of putting the systems in place so that they understand how to work through those things on their own. Um the other thing that we're doing right now is we're launching a group program, which I think is going to be very effective because it's really going to allow us to spread the message in uh of this long-term approach and really make sure that we can help a lot more people than just these one-to-one interactions. Because, you know, it is a relatively high price tag to work one-on-one with a coach, especially when people are paying for their CrossFit membership or gym membership as well. So it's something that'll be uh a little bit more affordable, but really allow people to dive into that mindset and really have all the support in place. So in the next two years, that's really the area that I want to grow a lot faster. Uh the coaching, my goal is just to have 10 really amazing coaches who are getting consistent results for their clients. And through that, we're just creating these resources and this body of knowledge about how to effectively coach a client and give them results in the long term.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's I think it's such a great idea. I think, you know, uh building the tribe, right? Is what we're talking about. And doing exactly uh and doing that through the groups is is really important. And uh yeah, it's it's that sense of community that we've gotten to know through CrossFit, right? If you can bring that to the institution world, uh I think is really, really uh a great opportunity. Um so that's great. I I love what you're doing, man. I think it's cool. And I think most of all, um, and this is where you and I are similar, uh, besides having both having great beards, uh, we both are uh digitally nomadic is what I call it, right? Yes. So talk to me uh about that journey because I feel um you're you know you're a little bit younger than me, but I I don't know if it's you know, to me and the people in my generation especially, I think the thought of of doing something like what we do with our lives is very uh intimidating and scary. But I think for people younger than me, it's almost uh it's very inviting and enticing and kind of the way to go now. So um talk to me about your path and how when you started uh Beyond Macros, was it your intention to build something that you could you could work from anywhere, or did it kind of happen secondary?

It kind of happened secondary, actually. I so originally when I built it, I was like, oh, this is really cool. I can work remotely, but at the time I was in a in a relationship living with a partner and she had a nine to five and five days vacation as is typical in the US. So like I didn't really get to travel much. So my working remotely was just having a table out in my backyard that was shaded about eight hours per day. So I could hang out, work outside in beautiful Southern California, and you know, if I wanted to go do something in the middle of the day, I could do it and have a flexible schedule. And that was amazing. Um I absolutely loved that. But as soon as that relationship ended and I decided that I wasn't going to compete in CrossFit this season, um, and really things started to take off with Beyond Macros in Australia. Um, I decided, all right, I'm gonna hit the road. And for the last about four months, I started by traveling the US with a cross-country trip. I ended up in Indonesia for almost a month, and I've been in Australia for a little over a month as well. And the business has only grown and I've only become more productive because I have to be focused in the time that I'm working. Otherwise, it's at the opportunity cost of travel experiences. So for me, it's really made me focus, laser focus on the things that are the most important for the business, prioritize and really cut the fat in terms of there were things that I was doing just because I had the time, but they weren't effective.

Yes. Yes, I think you nailed it. And uh, you know, when when you do um when you do focus your life around your values, right? Which is new experiences and things like that, when you really take an an honest and uh effort to do that, it's uh it's just a matter of choices. But I love what you say there because it's true. If you if you are somewhere and you know, like I gotta get all, I gotta have four hours to do the most quality work I can, right? Yeah. Versus kind of the other thing where people go into the office, right, grab their cup of coffee, or they walk across the street, chat with somebody, maybe do a little work, right? Wait till lunch, and then they hit out, then they come back, and then they just watch the clock tick until the end of the day. Uh it's it's just it's almost crazy that you don't do this, right? That you don't do something digital nowadays, because you and I are sitting here literally thousands of miles away, right? You're in Australia, I'm in Montana, and we're still having a conversation almost as if we're in the same room. Now that's that's available to everybody, right? That's available to everybody, so why not? I so from your experience, Matt, I'm curious, you know, what what has been have you had any downside or anything that's been unexpected to to the travel lifestyle that you didn't see coming?

Hmm. See, the thing is I don't know if any of it's a downside because all of it's a really important lesson. Um but you know, the thing that immediately came to mind is just like I was in a city and I had booked, this was the only Airbnb I had booked for a week uh and had done it in advance. And it was in a city, it was in Brisbane, and like I enjoyed the city of Brisbane, but it rained the whole time, and I was just like, I don't want to be here. The place that I just was and was exploring was so much more fun. And as soon as I finished the nutrition seminar that I was set to teach three days in, and I had four days left in the city, I was like, what am I gonna do? I want to get back to nature. Um, so it was just that initial process of like, oh man, like I tied myself to a place I didn't necessarily want to be. And now I've realized, okay, that's a lesson. I'm only booking Airbnbs the day before I get there, and I'm not gonna book them for an extended period of time. Like, I'll extend it if I need to.

Yeah, hashtag travel problems, right?

Yeah, right.

That's great. Um, you know, if you uh so let's say there's you know, Johnny Fit Pro is is listening and he's uh you know he's a personal trainer and he's got clients and he's he's kind of strapped to a gym. Um but he's hearing what you're talking about, he's hearing about your lifestyle, and he wants that. And what would you tell him to start with? What do you think?

Yeah, so if it's Johnny personal trainer, the thing is you've gotta you've gotta differentiate. Like whatever you're planning to do, like if you want to just go online and start targeting keywords like personal trainer and these huge things with tons of competition, like you're gonna get lost in the noise. Absolutely. You need to figure out what your thing is. Like, as far as trainers go, I think about Brett Contreras and he just cornered the glutes market. Like he's the glute guy. Like, that is such a great thing because at the time there was probably very little competition for it, maybe like some Jane Fonda Buns of Steel. But you know, he was the strong glutes guy. And I mean, if you can just pick something that there is a segment of the population that wants it and just focus so much on that, you'll be able to make a name for yourself a lot easier. Plus, you'll be able to be targeting um essentially lower competition keywords, or even like if you think about it in terms of like the principles of marketing, like there's only so many people that can occupy people's mind space. There's only so many glute guys that can be out there, only so many abs guys that can be out there. So it's like if you can get into one of those things and occupy that space in people's minds and be one of the first people to do it, then it's gonna be a lot easier to live this lifestyle. Um, but if you're just you know trying to do the same thing that everyone else is doing and market harder, it's probably not gonna work out. Somebody's probably gonna out hustle you.

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. And the differentiation is is uh, you know, it comes in so many ways. It's not only what you do. You know, I had a couple people come to mind who've been on the show, Mark Fisher, uh, who I haven't released his recording yet, or um Sean Zetlin has core of the market on the push-up, right? He has, he has, but that's all he does. He just does push, he's the push-up guy, right? Yeah, he's he's really uh laid out a case for why the push-up is like the most fundamental movement that you should be doing all the time because it actually develops glutes, right? Obviously, core stabilization, all these things. Uh so it's it's pretty interesting. Now, um, because I'm I'm a digital marketer, I heard you say keywords. So is there things that you did you particularly go after some keywords with your business? And how how did you structure that or how did you choose that?

Yeah, absolutely. So the just speaking generally, so I don't give away my secret sauce for my business. I I really think that the most important thing is to understand what the keywords are for somebody that is looking for what you do but is motivated to buy. So you you target those keywords first and you create a piece of content, uh, preferably a blog, because that's still what Google looks for, is text, and you just make it the best one out there. Um, you know, if you're using WordPress, get a SEO plugin like Yoast and just make sure that that uh that article is optimized for whatever that keyword is, but at the same time is readable for a human. So that when somebody actually gets on the page, they're interested, they want to read it, and then you need to give away a lead magnet, which people should know is just essentially a piece of content that gets people's emails. Um but getting someone's email is not enough. You also have to have some type of funnel that they go into, some type of afterwards nurturing to get them to actually convert into whether it's a one-on-one with you in terms of like them giving you your time, or whether it's them giving you your money for something like a tripwire, which is just a product that's really cheap, high value, and gets them up to your your premium. So that's kind of the way that I think about setting the funnels up. And as far as the keywords, I'm not doing any crazy Google AdWord spend. I'm just looking for those low to mid competition keywords that are very indicative that the person who's searching for them is about ready to buy. And then, you know, I'm making sure that I've got articles on my website that are that are targeted towards it. And then you'll see within about two months, uh, if you use Google Search Console, you can see which keywords you're ranking for, where your position is on average. Um, and you know, if you're if you're ranking for those, awesome. You'll be able to see that traffic coming in. If you're not, see if you can tweak some things on that article to get it to start ranking or see if you can get some links to it.

Oh, this is awesome. Yeah, yeah, so proud, man. I've I haven't had anyone out on this show yet who we could talk search engine optimization with. So that was that was that was very thrilling for me. That was really good advice. So if you guys want, you know, if you want more information on keywords, all those tools that he mentioned here um are excellent and we recommend them too. It's kind of the basic stuff to to get started with search engine optimization because it is the long game. You know, we talked about you know, in nutrition or in fitness, uh, you know, kind of getting Back to we always talk about like people are really into crash night marketing right now. You know, they're really going to do the quick fix of lead generations over Facebook or whatever it is that they're doing and they want a hundred leads in two days, right? But then one game is doing what you're talking about, but people don't do it because it takes a little bit more work. And you mentioned too much, right? And if you say, if you tell someone, hey, in too much, you may start getting some leads on for what you're looking for organically. Yeah. Too much, man. I need them yesterday. And that's you know, you gotta be patient. So um that's a great lesson, man. And it's hear someone like you using those tools and really optimizing it and reaping all the benefits, because I think people need to hear that.

Definitely. And I think for the people that are impatient on the SEO thing, like SEO is my number one referral. Like I have anytime somebody signs up with me um for a one-on-one meeting, they have to let me know where they came from. And most people are saying Google or online. From there, it's referrals. So if somebody is really impatient with the search engine optimization, because it can take up to four months or more for the higher competition keywords, just for you to get on like the second page, which is not gonna send you much traffic. So for somebody who's like a little bit impatient with those things, I would say in the meantime, figure out how you can hustle and use your network to start finding clients to work with and really iron out your processes because if you can start getting referrals because you're just providing so much value to those people, then you're gonna be getting those clients in the near term and you've kind of invested in the long term. So in four months from now, all of a sudden you're gonna be getting a ton more juice into your business. And especially if you've put the systems in place to be able to manage a higher client load, then you know you're really you're really gonna be in a good place four to six months from now.

Yeah, and then you could be traveling to Australia, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Do the work. Uh that's great, Matt. So give me uh give the people at home a little bit of insight where they can find you uh if they have questions for you, if they want to use your service or if they want to partner with you.

Yeah, absolutely. So beyondmacros.com is our website. We also have a podcast, which you can find on the website on our podcast category. Um, you know, we we've been posting some transformations and funny memes on our Instagram at Beyond Macros. And if you're interested in following my nomadic journey, you can follow me personally. I'm at Grocery Ninja on Instagram, and I usually put some nice little stories in there of wherever I'm at and whatever I'm doing.

Yeah, I love it. Uh man, keep up the great work, man. You're you're doing uh you're doing it right. I appreciate it. So thanks, brother. Yeah, thanks for your time. We'll uh we'll be in touch soon.

Yeah, man. Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

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