The Visionary Planner - Vito LaFata

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, where we talk with entrepreneurs, researchers, and practitioners in fitness, wellness, and the health sciences. I'd like to give a big thanks to our sponsors, Level 5 Mentors, helping entrepreneurs achieve the highest levels of freedom in time, money, relationships, health, and purpose. Also, Certified Course Creation, helping entrepreneurs create accredited online certifications that are not only lucrative but highly scalable. Go to level5mentors.com or certifiedcoursecreation.com and learn more. I am your host, Eric Malzone, and once again, welcome to the future of fitness. Boom.

We're live.

Vito, my friend, welcome back.

My man, always great to be here rapping with you because I know some heat's coming.

Yeah, this is the Italian power hour. So buckle up.

I like it, which means it'll be raw and unedited.

Yeah. And maybe some cursing. So Vito, man, it's been uh it's been a little while since we've had you on the show. I think it's been like almost a year, year and a half.

Something like that.

Why don't you like me?

Fine. If you don't like me now.

I've I've been trying. I try to, you're a busy guy. I've been trying to nail you down for a time. It's like, man, it's interesting.

I know, but we're always on each other's radar, so it's good.

Yeah, yeah, it is. And it's uh it's always a pleasure when we do catch up and you know, talk to a lot of people as you do too, and your name comes up quite often conversations, which is a good thing, which means you built a brand, right? Right? Hopefully. We're gonna talk about branding, what that means. But do give us give us an update, you know, in the last year and a half, what's what's been going on, what's new in your world.

Uh, kid, kid, the new thing for the world. And really recognizing like that that little man and the life and everything, or or the reason why you built brand and business and that kind of stuff and got out of service and job. Because if I was still in just service and job, I would not be able to have the ability to wake up every day and have breakfast with him and torture him during the middle of the day, and then screw around with him at the end of the night, aggravating my wife every day. I would be missing those things, Eric, because I'd be at work. I'd have to leave at 5 a.m., come home at 9 p.m. And I'm glad that we figured out just how to sit down and build businesses and brands methodically so that we can have lifestyle. And that's been just um the pleasure of the last year and a half is just seeing the fruits of what we started in 2010, bearing fruit, like now. And I see a lot of people not willing to start that work to have that life later. So then years are just ticking by, ticking by that it's really been kind of part of also why where we've been with our message about how do you start getting out of that and start doing this thing, having a legit business and brand that can give you lifestyle. Otherwise, you just wake up one day where the years go, and the regret and the guilt and the missed opportunities and missed moments. But enough enough, it's 2019, right? Like the process is there. You guys gotta choose to dial into it. So that's been going down, and the vineyard is a year under the belt. That thing is not the vineyard, man. Vineyard's going like we had a good first year. We've uh like we we got Syrah planted and we just were like this close to inching the deal with the winemaker that we want and the experience that we're gonna create for our membership of our wine. So it's just that's been going, but that's a that's a long process. Like you gotta look at four years before we really have something that you're gonna take to market. And I always use that as a parallel to people in their lives. I'm like, are you willing to plant seeds and sow and toil and water to then be like, I ain't gonna see the fruit for four years. But is your vision worth that? Is your vision worth that when you decided I'm I'm about something, I'm gonna stand for something or an experience, whatever the hell the thing is. Are you willing to do that? So we've been just clocking that, but we've been building each part of the vineyard, like we just dropped in this amazing infinity pool, this outdoor entertainment area. Because when our guests come to vision in the vineyards, we're like, well, now we have the pool in the jacuzzi dimension for relaxation. We have an outdoor thing that I'm like, we could do the power, we could do stuff out there. We gotta like it's just we're building the retreat more and more and more. So we've been uh like my wife and I were talking about because we're like, you ever have those moments in life where you're like, we're just on a fucking tear? We're on a tear right now. And you're like, you gotta take it and you gotta run with that momentum. So V V has been, we are sold out through 2019. We're already just selling into January of 2020. That find your like workhorse offer that gives you your dream life and the dream impact that you want to make, you can you can build a brand just around that one thing. But everyone's looking for dozens of things. You're like, you better get known for something today. Because to stand out in a crowded market, if you don't get known for something, stand for something. You can't rise up out of the noise that's in the market.

So that's kind of what's been going down. Yeah, just a few things I like and I I really enjoy the analogy of the vineyard because it's um, you know, I I found this to be, and every time I recreated myself, I always have to remind myself, you know, whether it was, you know, going corporate to gym owner from gym owner to online entrepreneur, that you have to you're gonna have to have a lot of faith and belief in what you're doing because it's really easy to quit, you know. Um in in the first year after gym ownership when things didn't go my way and some some of the things I was doing, I was like, you know, a cozy job, and I got offered once, you know, nice little cozy job, nice paycheck, right? Um yeah, that sounds pretty good, right? But the thing that drew drives me and drives the people I talk to is like what you said's powerful. You started in 2010, right? And this is 2019, and you're you're really like you're really seeing now the the the fruits, right, quotes, right, of your labor. And that's that's a powerful message for people to understand is like, hey, even in Grant Cardone's book, um, he said it took him three years after making the big leap, get to the income level he was making in his corporate job. Three years. But everyone thinks nowadays, maybe we talked to someone on a previous podcast that if I just wanted funnel away, right? Oh fuck. You know my pain about that.

Not that I don't love I I love funnels. It's a twist. Right. That's correct, correct. It what it can do is give you automation and lifestyle back because you take what you constantly keep repeating over and over and over and finally automate it to do education, edu and entertainment, empowerment, whatever the hell you're doing in your in your messaging to get you the best qualified people into your stuff. But it's bullshit to think that that's the that's the only thing when it comes to building a business or a brand, because you'd have to reverse engineer and be like, in order to have a winning funnel, do you actually have a winning methodology? Do you have a message that captures attention? Do you actually have an audience that would go into that funnel to make it go? And do you have a reason why and a vision and a mission to it? Otherwise, forget your service and your product. There'll be nothing flown through the funnel. So I just find it's a it's easy to sell that dream, and I get it, and I understand why that's good marketing. But it's like, you know, we've been getting a lot of people into our visionary planner and our vision in the vineyards program and whatnot. And I think the number one thing that they're always like, thank you for being realistic about the timelines, realistic about how long it takes to make money, realistic about the costs. There's no hype marketing. And I'm like, yeah, but I'm also not gonna like sugarcoat it and be like, it will be work. The best thing about it is you'll have a blueprint to follow versus fucking trying random shit the way we all did back in the day. But if you ain't strapping in for the fact that this is work and it takes time, that's probably why you belong at a job. Yeah, yeah.

You know, and you know, I I found, you know, with with mentoring and coaching people too that if the vision doesn't excite me as a mentor, then something's off. Like if I'm really excited about it, I'm like, okay, you know, why why do you want this company? Why do you want to sell widgets? Right? What what's well I want to make, you know, I want to make a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. Okay. Why? What are you gonna do with that? That's right. What's exciting about that? So let's dive into that. Let's talk about vision, right? I mean, you you probably I mean you you help people pull out their vision as UID on it probably in a daily. Yep, yep. What what are the keys to understanding one's vision, having something that's so emotionally driving that it makes you get you through that that rough period of getting started?

Yeah. Well, I I got I always tackle that from a couple sides. Number one, I I always talk about like, are you clear on the lifestyle that you want before you get all excited about I'm gonna go out and serve millions and I'm gonna do this massive impact thing, which are all fantastic things by all means. But I'm like, first, before you build a damn thing, get clear on what matters most to you and the values that you have. And that's sitting back and being like, what the hell do I actually want my day to look like? Because if somebody had done this with me back when I was in 05 before I opened up my studio and said, like, what kind of life do you want to live? And let's make sure that before you open this brick and mortar business, does this create that in your life? It would have saved me hundreds of thousands of dollars, a lost house and all the freaking nightmare shit that I went through. Because I'm like, I don't want to leave at 4:35 a.m. every day when I have a kid or when I'm married. I was single back then, so who gave a shit leaving at that time? But if I had future forecasts, what I'd wanted, I'd have been like, okay, this is not what I'm looking to have, and come home at nine o'clock at night, every night. I'm like, this will not give me the lifestyle ambition that I want. Because my dad was never there for me growing up. He was a great man, did all this stuff, provided for the family, but he never saw a game of mine, was never there to freaking talk about girls because he worked from sun up until sundown. And I was like, when I become a dad, those things aren't what I want from my kid. So what's the vision of the business I need to create and be the role that I want to be great at? I also want to be a great husband. I'm not, I'll be passing ships in the night with my wife. So I was just like, I when I started to learn how to do that kind of visionary work, I then started to be like, well, what models give me that? Because then I was like, oh, online, oh, network marketing, etc. These are gonna be better choices for the vision of the actions and directions and investments I'm gonna make because these are aligning with the life that I want. Does that make sense? Makes total sense. So I'm often there first. And then being like, like, what values and what roles? I'm like, start with these things. Y'all you you think it's about I'm gonna serve these people, which obviously it is. But like, first, serve the life that you want, the roles that you want, the values that matter most. And literally asking yourself like, I'm like, when we decided, uh, you know, my whole life growing up was always around wine, kind of obvious. But I started to be like, one day, wouldn't it be badass to be able to be like, I work like from home and I got gardens and a Tuscan villa, and I started dreaming about all those things where people put those into dreams, I put them into intentions. And there's a difference between dreams and intention. Dreams is wishing and hoping. Intentions is stuff that you've declared, declarations and promises that you're gonna go make happen. I'm like, without those emotional anchors, when the shit gets tough and the things aren't going, it's so easy to be like, I'm not working anymore today, or fuck, this business isn't working, or this thing isn't going. That fucking funnel isn't working. Let's bag it and close it up. I'm like, you you were not anchored to the life that you want to live in a short life. You didn't have clarity of that. That's why you do not have the emotional like wherewithal and resilience and perseverance to chase down a dream and turn it into reality. So I'm always there. I make people spend a week on that before we even go deeper into anything because I'm like, if you think this shit ain't gonna get hard and you ain't gonna have ups and downs, then once again, business ownership and entrepreneurship are not for you. And sometimes isn't it better to tell somebody sooner that you're like, it I'm giving you the honest traits and characteristics of an entrepreneur and a business owner. I remember this little punk ass kid that I knew once was hearing me talk about entrepreneur, and he was so, he's just like, he was like 25 at the time. He's just like, you realize, Beetle, that not everybody was made to be an entrepreneur. And I'm like, fucking that hashtag, I was like, truth there, motherfucker. I'm like, I can't even argue, you little punk ass bastard. But I was like, that's true, and we need to stop pretending everybody is meant to be an entrepreneur and a business owner. And if you can figure out sooner rather than later it's not your thing, at least you can go forward in what you're doing with excellence and happiness as compared to always feeling like I can't get after this thing. Well, you're not building the skills and the capabilities to get after that thing. I'd rather save you that investment now. So that's where I kind of start with vision before we dive into like who you serving, why do you like why does that matter to you and get into the the anchors because you gotta have like your life anchors, then you can have the mission anchors. And like I'll often like there turn around to being like, you you uh both you and I almost had the same journey. We got we struggled within our fitness businesses, and then when we figured out breakthrough, we started to be like, well, hold on, like we believe that fitness can really change the world. And I had like my commandment. I'm like, one of them was thou shalt reverse the trend of obesity. And that was I ain't a religious person. I make up my own commandments, and I'm like, those suck. I like my own. So I was just like, that's one of them. And I was just like, okay, so if I can help pay that mission forward, I'm serving the life that I want. So in my vision to build my business, part of it has to be anchored in this idea of how do I help what's happening with obesity. So maybe make choices about what vehicles, what modalities, what things I did, because I'm like, it serves this mission. When I was broke, like a motherfucker, and I figured out how to then go make a lot of money, I was like, being broke sucks. So that became the next commandment. Thou shalt help reverse the trend of people living broke. Then I'm like, how do I pay that forward? And when I'm like, the world is better for every person that's not struggling with finances, not struggling with their health care, not struggling with their food or their shelter or their ability to go chase down a dream. I'm like, the world is better. That's the difference between lip service to it, and you're like, I'll fight, I'll scrap, I'll claw. My way to make sure that that happens. I'm always like the person, I'm like, what's your thing that you will fight, claw, scratch for? That your journey could be reaching back with your hand and helping the other people behind you get through it faster because then you'll be like, this has meaning, this is significance, this can be part of my legacy work. Those are the places that I'll always start when it comes to the vision. I know that was long, but hopefully I covered both sides.

Yeah, there's so there's so many things to expand on there too. And I, you know, I've noticed, you know, the entrepreneurship is not for everybody topic, right? Um, I've noticed that, and Brett Click and I talked about this in about 10 episodes ago from Spider-Fit Kid. That scoundrel. Yeah. Yeah. And I just noticed this parallel between entrepreneurship and celebrity chefs. Like all of a sudden both seem to be very popular. This is what I think about in me. And I was like, well, they're both seem to be very popular, but no one wants to talk about the how hard it is, right? To get started and how much you gotta spend. Like a chef has to spend years on the line chopping and you know, cleaning and doing all this crap and then you know just eating it, right? For years. And then they get some recognition, right? And then they get, you know, their first, you know, uh chef gig. And then but they also gotta go to school, they gotta lose things. And I think entrepreneurship is the same way is people are, you know, it's easy to dabble in both. Like I can be I can dabble, I can go to culinary school and dabble in chef them and still have my primary thing. People can be an entrepreneur and still have, you know, make it their side hustle, right? So you get all these people getting into it for reasons that they're unclear on why they're doing it. And I think that's a big part of it. I mean, I I try to talk people out of entrepreneurship all the time. Like, listen, you know, I self-selected because I can't have a normal job. I'm just not that kind of person. I'm terrible at that environment. So this is kind of my path and I'm on it, right? Right. Um I think more people will come in come to that realization too. Is there's a big difference between entrepreneurship and a side hustle. And there's a big difference between, you know, really understanding your why within that. And, you know, when I look at a vision, you know, there's gotta be something, it has to start with lifestyle. Like if you really want to make an impact, here's what you do get rich and don't be ashamed of it. Because then you don't want to really make an impact. And there's nothing wrong with that, you know. Um, people want to sacrifice themselves all the time on this martyrdom thing that we have in the fitness and health industry.

Wacky, right? I'm always just like, listen, if you can't fund the mission, there's no way to perpetuate the message. Stop preaching that you want to go out and impact the world, but yet you're afraid to sell, you're afraid to market. That's why you have no money, because the money's in the freaking marketing, and that's why you're not getting it. So it it's not that it's not impactful that you're helping your 30 or 20 or 50 or 100 or 200, but boy, could you help 10,000, 100,000, a million, if you had more funds coming in to start doing the outreach that you need to the scale that you need to. But people have money mindset shit. And I'm like, man, if you're 25 and you haven't figured out your money issues, get a therapist. Go do that. There's no shame in it. And then grow up and be an adult and decide that if my thing really does matter, no way nobody's gonna sell it better than me. And I need to go shout it from the mountaintops if it truly is your vision and your mission. Otherwise, I think it's just a good idea, and that's it. It's not your vision.

How often do you revisit your vision?

Shit. Every like almost every day, because like literally I walked into my my wife's room before this, and like Luca is in a little like onesie and he's got his two little stick legs out, and I'm just like, look at the fact that I get to come in here in the middle of the day and see him and he was doing something and he looks up and he's just like, Did I get caught doing anything and whatnot? And his little and I'm like, that's my vision. I'm like, I built a life to be able to be here to see that moment, and I engineered and architected my life to make sure that that's so I don't ever get away from it. Same with my wife, same with every conversation. I built a brand called the Visionary Planner about freaking being able to go build your visions into the world because I'm like, I want to anchor myself in my in the things that I have to testify to all the time because we can get complacent, we can get lazy, we can be like, oh right, what was I fighting for again? Then I'm like, dude, I gotta put triggers. I gotta put triggers around me. So I'm just like, I'm like, I got them all around, all around. Why we decided to architect life this way is so that it's it's there. So I think it's up to us to engineer that in our life and not let it get away because it's too easy to do that. So just build.

Yeah. Yeah. I re I revisit mine every morning. First thing I do, you know, and I do it in multiple ways, but it constantly changing too. I'm always updating it, I'm always shifting it. And realizing some of the big realizations I've had the last year is that the monetary goals are important, but they're not nearly as important as my lifestyle, right? That that just drives everything. And the lifestyle is a big part of it. And then you get to this point of like, well, how much do I need, right? And then, you know, and then you start to getting into the fact, well, you know, what's the difference between earnings and wealth? And that's another thing people don't seem to understand. There's a big difference between that's a big difference, right? Like I want to live um with, you know, a very minimal lifestyle expenditures so that I can accumulate wealth, because that's the true freedom, right? And I think people attach that's a big one too, is they're attaching income to freedom when it's it's wealth equals freedom.

And that's a big major distinction. Yeah, made do you know who's one of the my funnest people to talk about that with is uh Mark Fisher. Oh my god. Have you ever interviewed him yet?

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, you gotta get that dude. That dude's freaking like him and I over a good bottle of wine and whatnot, we're always just like, let's talk wealth because it's different. And not a lot of people know how to have that conversation about assets and investments and distribu and like just how you're thinking about things. Like we're in the process right now of just being like, we're gonna start our investment portfolio in real estate because we're like that's true passive, where you're like, I can take a hundred K, buy four or five houses, start building that off, buy the next five, and just keep on going. But people like California, no, good God, no. Good God, no. That's why you have to know the markets. Um lucky to have a freaking great friend that that's her gig. That's her freaking gig. Yeah. Um, but that goes back to, you know, those sound like such sexy dream things, and that sounds so but I'm like, yeah, but you missed all the fucking ten uncool years are longer than that, longer than that. If I go all the way back to Wall Street days and Calvin Klein days and trainer days and all that, it goes freaking way back. And I'm like, all that to learn how to accumulate the ability to make the kind of income that can relate to wealth and allow us to leverage that. But how many books have you read? I can probably look around here and be like, how many books are on finance, wealth, economics, where most people like no offense to it, but like girl wash your face and this fun thing and all great stuff, all great stuff. I may I make slight jokes about it, but I'm like, pull out the books that are on like speak to sell, how to freaking get clients to buy, how to I'm like, I'm like, I'm studying the shit that generates like financial independence because I've lived broke, I never want to go back there, I never want to accept a check from anybody ever freaking again. And I think those kind of also like demarcation lines, when you're building vision, are you clear on the demarcation lines that you have? Because I remember when I got fired from Calvin Klein because I would refuse to follow their dogma. I was just like, yo, somebody took my income away because I stood by my principles. I don't like how that feels. And then when that happened with me at Crunch as well, that was the last time that was like, no one is ever taking my income away when I can prove that I'm the best at what I was doing. This is just like corporate dogma bullshit that I shouldn't have to be subject to in some jackass world. That demarcation line is I was like, I'll always build my skills to know how to generate my own money, write my own ticket, because I don't ever want to feel that in control in my life again. Those are things that drive vision as well. They're not as sexy as being like, who do you want to serve? How do you want to serve them and all that kind of stuff? But those are the things that remind me, even like when I'm watching there's dips in our business and things like that. And I'm like, mm-mm, no, we we figure out what's gonna happen right here because I don't like where that thing is going. But that's also why we build and diversify and do these other things. Get clear on where what in your life you were never allowed back in.

Yeah, and growth, business growth is rarely linear. Seeing that's something people need to realize. It's it's squiggly up and down. You mean it doesn't always go straight up all the time? Yeah, no. No, no, it doesn't. Let's kind of take a step further into this conversation too and talk about brand because that's um it's an interesting thing. I think it's you know, a lot of people talk about creating brand. I think a lot of people don't even know how to define it, right? It's kind of some it's ubiquitous sometimes of of how to define it. So before we talk about it, let's let's define it. What does it mean to be to develop a brand in your mind?

I don't know. You know, I struggle with like laying it that down as like a pure definition. I look at it as just like, what will I stand for? What will I stand against? What will I be known for? And what's the meaning and the legacy of what I'll leave behind? I don't give it some technical business thing. I'm just like, our thing that we believe in is that visionaries are the future of the world. If we can get more visionaries that are and people that are going from ordinary to extraordinary, and they can take their message and go out and impact lives with it, that will shift the economies, that will shift families, that will shift communities. So our idea is it's the time of the rise of the visionary. And if we can help create a plan for them, give them the visionary planner, we're making our difference. So I'm like, I stand for those things. I believe in that. That's my message. I've created a method around it, and we then go out and serve it in the world. To me, that's how I view brand as compared to just some like business definition. I'm like, just what do I stand for? So what do I stand against? Like I stand against people living broke. I stand against people not being able to live into their dreams and make them real. I define it those ways. I know it's not the most like business savvy way of doing it, but I don't think it needs to be.

It's a tough thing to nail down. And you know, sometimes things are best told with, you know, an example. And I think, you know, if you look at Apple is a great brand.

Yeah.

Right? Does Apple have if you when you look at an actual Apple, does it have anything to do with computers? No. No, but what it has is a story, right? When you think of Apple, you think about that origin story of them sitting in their garage, right? Creating a thing. And it's like it's it's a story and it's it's this thing that people find relatable. And and that's that's the thing is like you're known, I guess. You're known and you're just part of the you're part of the the normal conversation, right?

I mean, if you think about them, right? What were they what do they stand for? Creativity.

Yeah.

That's their whole thing. They're like, we, you know, we weren't gonna be the PC super tech out people. We're just like, you're a creative and you want to get your idea out in the world. So they stand for that idea of creatives who want to get their thing out in the world, and we're providing the tools to allow creatives to go do their thing. That's just picking this what you stand for, what you believe, how you see the world, and then creating the things to serve that vision. To me, that's brand.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And it's you know, when I think of when I think of Apple and just to have an example, I think of like that classic, you know, advertising they had when it was like, you know, you saw a bunch of people, and then all of a sudden there's one person who's different, right? Yep, think different. People want to be the different person. They don't want to be part of the masses. At least I don't. That scares the shit out of me. That's like being normal is my worst point.

Yes.

Um but that's I think You're not, you're not, don't worry. Yeah, I'm not. No, no. So I'll never interview my wife. Be like, he's the most normal guy ever, actually. He just goes through his yeah, he's toy normal. Um yeah, man, I think branding's really important. So how does someone take steps to actually to to build a brand? A, it takes time, right? What are the steps you you initiate for people with that?

Uh I mean, I'll usually go back to we we kind of follow five steps that we usually coach a person through. And well, we talked a lot about vision, but the second thing, I'm like, you you you better get clear on an audience and who is going to buy into this brand belief process, whatever goes on there. So if you take what you were saying about Apple, it's people that say, well, I want to be different. That was their audience. So you better figure out who the audience is that you're going to go out and serve. Otherwise, don't worry about the products and the things yet. You got to build the audience. Because first of all, no audience, no one to sell to. So there is no business, no brand on the back side of that. So choose the audience that is meaningful, purposeful, significant for you. Like for us, it was like even in the fitness industry, I tried to be like in the fitness and health industry, it was one of the major audiences I chose because of that. Remember that commandment of thou shalt help reverse the trend of obesity. I'm like, they're the best people on the front lines of that. So if I can serve them, and that's when I had the fitness pleneurs like that whole brand and whatnot, I'm like, I'm gonna serve that audience and helping them move forward and that serve that mission. Now we're like, okay, if we want to build the visionary planner, it's visionaries that are stuck and overwhelmed and confused how to get their their message out and how to monetize it and go out. So we're like, that's our audience. Great. Now we can go start talking to them. We can go build content and provide service and value in order to then say what's the next thing that we have to do for them. So start with audience.

Yeah, yeah. So knowing the audience and then having the messaging, I know is a second part of it. How does one and what tactics do you have for people that need to build their audience? I mean, I've had a number of clients who have great products, but they have no audience, right? So where where do you sell it? You can't just throw all your money on ads when no one knows who you are, right?

You gotta Yeah, I mean I mean, so that that begs to ask the question, like, where's your messaging? And did you create the marketing to position whatever your service or product was? So you gotta reverse engineer who is this product right for? And I would never I like as best as possible, I try not to ever start with the product. I'm like, ah, if we have to do that, we gotta really pull back and see where did this really come from. But you have to get out there with your content today. But what a lot of people I watch do wrong with their content is they just put out content for content's sake, which is not like you can go wrong with that. That's fine, but it's just not as intentional. Where I'd be like, if you took that service and you're like, okay, what problems does this solve in the market? Okay, if I can understand those problems, I can scale back and be like, hey, what content do I need to talk about to a person and say, hey, have you been struggling in your marriage and feel like you're constantly struggling and maybe you're on the verge of divorce? And if you don't start creating better connections and intimacy, you're gonna end up in divorce. Hey, my name is Eric Malzone here, and I've been a relationship coach for the last 10 years. Now you can be like, I can talk about the three biggest reasons why your marriage is struggling with intimacy are bop, bop, bop. Great. Somebody can watch that and be like, oh, I'm learning about what I'm doing wrong. This guy, Eric, is the guy that's teaching me about this. And then you being like, that's why I teach my people there's three steps to greater intimacy. Now I'm positioning my method and then being able to say, oh, hey, did you know I have a program? I have a service, a product, a court, whatever the frick it is, and whatnot. It's the content and message match to what you have that positions the authority that makes the freaking sale. So get out with your content, get out with lead generators, but make sure that the ship that you're making for your opt-ins and your training videos specifically speaks to the problem and your method if you want them to buy your ship. Otherwise, you're just gonna be like, it's great content. People hit likes and heart, likes and heart, but they ain't gonna freaking register with their credit card.

Yeah. It's gotta have an emotional pull.

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think it has to have positioning.

Yeah.

It has to have positioning to method. Otherwise, it's just it's great content. But I'm like, you're never saying like uh it's the example about like we can do a webinar on the five steps to kickstart your online business. And we can show them, well, these are all the things that you're doing that are not working. Well, we found this method of five. You can go figure this out over the next ten years on your own, or we can coach it for you in a blueprint in the next one year, and you go from no online business or brand to having a fully built business or brand. You want that? Great, because now you know all the shit you're doing wrong. Now you know the shit you should be doing. Do you actually want the blueprint then? We got it. You need to do some version of that with whatever the hell you're selling out there.

Yeah, yeah. Okay. So we got creating a vision, having an audience and identifying the audience, having your messaging that uh calls the actual audience to take action besides clicking a button, like substantial action, right? Yep.

Uh you better have a method. You gotta have some way of creating a duplicatable, replicatable result that you can be known for. So you know how you ever watch how people have a million services, and you're just like, oh my god, those are all just a bunch of services, but what's the thing that you're known for? What's that thing? It's just literally being like, I was working with this guy, and he's telling me about what he's coaching, and as and as we're getting it down to him, like, what's that real thing? And I'm like, and he's like, I elevate people beyond their success. I'm like, elevate beyond your success. There's the message, there's the coaching program. Do you actually have a method for elevating people beyond? It's like, well, yeah, I've got this, da-da-da-da-da-da. I'm like, well, here we're forming a method. So you can go get known for that methodology. Look at the best people out there. What are they known for? Darren Hardy, the compound effect, Brendan for High Performance Academy and High Performance Pillars. All of the best brands and business out there are like, I have a signature way. And that's also why they can get duplicatable results. And then that's why all of them have even a scale. Because at some point, seven habits are highly effective people. It's a method. Why is it scaled and lasted for decades after Stephen Covey is dead? It's because it's a method that other people can teach. That's legacy shit.

Yeah.

Build a method. Stop trying to make a bunch of shit. Build one method. You can scale that later on and cut that up into a lot of different things. But you better have some way that you can honestly say, like in the fitness industry, I my biggest pet peeve used to be trainers that sell weight loss. And I'm like, what's your program? They're like, I sell 20 sessions. I'm like, that ain't a motherfucking weight loss. That's just 20 sessions. That's not weight loss. Stop positioning that as weight loss because you're not doing all the other things that they're really struggling with and dealing with and whatnot. That's just 12 sessions with you. 20 sessions with you. That's not a method. That's why you're stuck trading dollars for hours. That's why you got people always having to go. That's why people aren't staying with you. They're not renewing. They're not they're not coming out at the end of that and being like, oh my God, I can I can I'm that guy that can consistently help people that lead to lose 50 pounds or more. Stop yo-yo dieting, never diet again, and finally feel that they've got the health, confidence, and courage to go out there and be their best self. That's a different promise in the market than would you like to buy 12 sessions? Right, right.

Yeah. Well, the nice thing about having, you know, that structure, and I call it a unique mechanism, and it can be whatever. I mean, you name it, I think a couple of different things. You name it whatever you want. But the fact that what it also serves out, which is interesting, if you have like, you know, let's use the weight loss, if you have like a transformation process and you show people here are the steps that I take in doing this, it allows them consciously or subconsciously to walk themselves and their future self through the steps. And that's critical, right? Because a lot of times people are like, well, you know, I'm a business mentor, what do you do? You know, I help people break free. Well, how do you do it? Well, you know, I I uh well, we have some conversations and you know, we meet every other week and uh, you know, we'll just keep kind of chipping at it. Well, no, people don't want that. They want a process, right? They want, well, I'm gonna start with my I'm gonna start with your vision. We're gonna get really crystal clear on what that vision is. And then after that, we're gonna move on, you know, to the pro like, you know, like what you have is the five steps, and that's critical because it allows that mental vision for people and people want that. People want that roadmap in order to get there. But it's it's really important. And you know what? The unique mechanism doesn't even have to be that unique, let's be honest. Does it have to be what? That unique. Like it can just be it just needs to be unique to what you're selling, right? That's right. You know, the seven pillars, whatever it is, there's very few original ideas out there, but what you gotta do is make whatever it is yours and practice it over and over again and show people that it works.

That's right. That's right. It's you you hit on a bunch of things that like it sounds like you've read flow and you understand the process of flow and whatnot, which is that whole idea of can you see the big picture, but then break down into steps because the big struggle today is the overwhelming confusion that is paralyzing people. So when you're the person that can show the big picture, but then say just start here, and then after that you move to here, that allows a sense of calm and being like, okay, I'm moving towards large destination or faraway destination, but I only got to focus here right now, and I only got to focus here. That removes overwhelming confusion in a person's life, and that allows them to trust in their ability, start getting into a sense of flow that's a little bit nerdy, but if you're just like nerdy is neuroscience, yay, it works to your advantage, do it. That fit and I remember I'll never forget when I remember just back when I was started studying under Brendan, and he's like, Oh, you guys want to charge more? He's like, the premium is in the process. Make a process and you can charge more. I was like, son of a bitch, that's it. And I never forgot it. And I'm like, that's why we built what we did and turned around. Way our revenue's gone and whatnot. That build a process, market the process. You'll change your freaking business and your brand like almost instantly. Yeah. Almost instantly. Because your confidence in your ability to deliver will skyrocket and then you'll demand what you're worth. And demanding what you're worth is what's going to be needed to really go build a brand, because without that, you'll never make the income or the revenue to really grow. Then you're just a small business, and there's nothing wrong with that. Um we we are talking about a larger thing here, so I don't want to make it sound like I'm being flippant about a small business, but my dad had a small business his whole life. We never learned how to make more than $75,000 a year running a restaurant. We've learned how to do that monthly type thing.

Yeah.

Different just different skill set, different ambition.

Yeah. And I have to give um, you know, a colleague of mine, Art McNermott. McDermott. I've heard of him, yeah. Totally. Yeah, yeah. Art was really good. I mean, we had him on a mini podcast a while ago and we talked about how to become authority. And one of them was, well, A, become a speaker, put your content out, right? Get on stage, do those things. But one the most obvious was that, whatever you want to call it, your your process y, right? Your your mechanism, something that you can explain easily and that people can grasp, but yet they need help. It's like building a house, right? I don't know how to build a house, but I knew if I was gonna build a house, I would go talk to somebody who's built a house before, and they're probably gonna tell me, well, first of all, I'll go buy all the wood. You're like, okay, great. I'll go buy the wood, and I'll run back, what do I do next? Right. And that essentially is coaching is you take one step at a time, you have this monstrous goal. This is your vision, you have a house, is your vision, and then how do you start building it? Well, you need it, you need to understand the vision for the foundation, and then you can go out and buy the wood, and then I'll show you what to do with the wood.

Yeah, and would you ever would you ever go work with somebody that's just like, uh, yeah, but we have no blueprint. I will tell you by feel how to do all these things. Or would you be like, Where's the map? Because how's this thing gonna look? Which one which one of those people are you working with? The guy with the blueprint, or the guy that's just be like, hey, today I'm gonna tell you this. And then tomorrow we'll do this. Which one are you gonna go with? Yeah.

I'm gonna go with the blueprint. And that's easy. But the thing is the blueprint also allows me to get into the work that people don't realize they need, which a lot of time is mindset. You know, into that. I mean you you it's kind of in ah, this is a terrible analogy, but I was gonna say when you know like a a weight loss challenge, you know, you know people need more than six weeks, you know, to do it. But that six week get them in, gives them access, okay, and shows them, and that six weeks will work, it'll get results, but they're they're gonna need to fix the habits, they're gonna need to fix the mindset, they're gonna need to have confidence, they need to do all these things where you know sometimes um you know, I was talking to one of a client about, I'm like, Well, when are you gonna get out and and tell your story? You know, when's that gonna happen? She's like, Well, what do you mean? I'm like, I know you got a story. What is it? Tier start, right? And the story comes out, I'm like, holy shit, that was amazing. When are you gonna start telling that? Tell that more often, right? That wasn't part of the blueprint, right? It wasn't part of that. So but but you know, as as a coach or a mentor or whatever it is, you see things sometimes that other people don't see. And the perspective, right, is really key too. Is a lot of people are sowing weeds. And I'll admit I'm the first one to get in the weeds all the time, right? And that's why I have a great mentor or two that I can always do. Like, what do you did you not listen to what we talked about last time? You're in the weeds again. Right? I'm like, ah yeah, yeah, I know. I know. I just need someone to tell me that and see it. So I think there's a lot of value outside of processes too that people can bring in, but you need that to get them hooked.

And people pay for perspective. I love that you brought that up. But when you can provide perspective to the process, oh, you're in the fucking juice, man. Because now you bring in the both. Yeah. And that's the thing. But if you you if you bring perspective without aiming it at something and then being able to be like, it's right here that you're off. And I'm trying to start give you this insight and this perspective at this junction, it it it it it doesn't create the connections that the people need. And that's clarity. And I think above all things, where people struggle in today is clarity because of how much goes on. So anything that can keep on fine-tuning clarity for you and focus, it's gold. It's gold worth investing and paying in.

And social media, I mean, I've talked about this so many times. Social media is is uh such a double edged sword. I mean, it it does get you connected with people, um, you know, in some level, I guess.

At some level, I think it's now I think people are now just starting to tune out of it because it's distraction and focus.

I don't like being on social media anymore.

I I I think I think the world is coming back to experience and connection. It's why Bish in the Vineyards is our top thing. People just want to come spend two and a half days on a vineyard, not in a conference room, not whatever, connect with two people and just be like, hey, I'm here, I'm getting attention, focus, I'm having experience, great dinners, great wine, white like whatever our thing is that we do, that I think we're going back into the experience and connection economy versus just the frickin' social media shit that's going on today. I think it's it's doing damage. It's doing damage.

It is. It was really it's such a good timing because the interview that's gonna get released before this is Amber Billhower, and she talks about she's writing a book on the connection crisis that we're having. I love it, love it. Yeah, it's it's brilliant. And the way her story behind it, it all it all piles on great. And you know, how we are seemingly more connected with more people and we have bigger networks, but everyone's alone, right? Everyone feels a little bit diffused. Yeah, it's a wild thing. And I think if people can see that trend coming and they can find a way to capitalize on it. Um, just talking to Ken, my my business partner today, and we're like, you know what? I don't think social media is part of our strategy for growth in 2020. You know, we're just gonna you know, we're gonna how many how many conversations are we gonna have?

Right, right. I mean uh the the the majority of the way that we're selling now is getting people onto strategy calls where I can create connection, add value, position the method and the thing and do like, especially when you're trying to sell high-tech. I mean, if you want to sell a fifty-seven dollar course, you don't need to do this. But you're selling five thousand, ten thousand, twenty-four thousand dollar up programs, you better connect with people because ain't buying that off just some cold video on that, yeah, we'll we're going back there. It's gonna be uh interesting. I still think social media has its play, but I'm like it's to capture the funnel and move people into the process of a conversation that gets you the qualified people that are serious so that you're starting to spend more time with the people that are of meaning for what you're trying to accomplish to deliver on the vision of your brand.

Yeah. Yeah, and that's why I love what you're doing too, with you know, bringing people out to a location. We have we have a workshop coming up next week and and it's way out in British Columbia, right? Um I was impressed and surprised with how many people of our clientele want to come fly into Calgary, drive three hours through the mountains, get to this place, and and but people want that connection, that's why. You know, they want that thing, and what you're doing in your vineyard is really, really powerful because maybe it's only how many days is it when people do the two and a half two and a half days, right? Not a super long time. Ours is two, right? But that that memory and that experience and the bonding and all of that is so critical that it gives people so much clarity, it's all they need for the next ninety days, six months, whatever it is they have. And I think that's a critical thing too, is you know, um as online entrepreneurs, you can't forget about the in-person.

You gotta make it's never gonna go away. And I think that's such a uh that's like a such a misnomer that people have because I'm doing online business, there is no offline. You're like, no, you do back to what's the vision of lifestyle. You're like, I still like to connect people live. You're still doing coaching like this. If you still want live, it could be experiential the way we're doing one. That doesn't mean I have to work one-on-one on one with people, live standing somewhere, doing it that way. Get clear on the life that you want, the level of impact, the level of legacy, and design the business to do it that way.

So Mio, what uh give me some insights. What is what is the next two years look like for you? What are you up to?

Yeah, I mean we're our our main focus is keep scaling the V and V so that we can take that to the next level and form our legacy builders mastermind on the backside of the people that are coming through vision in the vineyards. So those are the people that are really gonna be about like we're not we're we're having these level conversations every day, every time, type thing. So we're we're scaling towards that, continue to grow what we're doing with the vineyard and just expanding what we're doing. It's I wish I could be like, oh, we're thinking 10 different things. No, we're thinking three things. We're like our vision in the vineyard to create our legacy builders, visionary planner feeds all of that. The vineyard's my my pet passion project. That's doesn't fit into our visionary planner brand as compared to making wine, but that's it. Three major focuses that will honestly be there for the next five-year plan. Not a million things. Focus, singularity, and what moves the needle. Yeah, that's the last thing I leave your piece with. Figure out what moves the needle, start focusing there. And if you don't have things that are moving the needle, you're doing the wrong things.

Yeah, that's awesome. Vito, always a pleasure, man.

Always freaking amazing to connect with you, man.

Where uh where do people find you? Let's plug that too.

Yeah, just uh head over to the visionaryplanner.com. Tons of free trainings and stuff that they can get there. So if they're really like, I want to build a visionary brand and how to do that, got great trainings there. If it's your peeps, I'll even give you a little webinar link for you guys and whatnot. But visionary pl the visionaryplanner.com.

Right on. Ladies and gentlemen, beautiful fada.

Thank you, my friend.

Hey, it's your host, Eric Malzone. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Future of Fitness. If you enjoyed it, please do me a huge favor by going to the website and signing up for our newsletter. Website is futurofitness.co. Again, that's futurofitness.co. We've got some big, big announcements coming down the pipe, and we want you to make sure that you are on top of it. Thank you again. Signing off.