IAM1255 – CEO Helps His Clients Achieve Body Transformation without Starving Themselves

Russ Yeager is a body, health, and life transformation specialist who helps men and women create a life they love in all areas by first getting the body, health, and abundant energy they desire without starving themselves, doing fad diets, or having their lives revolve around working out.

Russ runs three businesses, has 3 young children, and speaks all over the world, yet still can keep visible “abs” 365 days a year while still eating foods like pizza and ice cream, and helps his clients do the same.

Russ owns two private personal training studios in Atlanta, GA, is the author of “Live Longer, Feel Better, and Look Great Naked”, has spoken on Grant Cardone’s 10X GrowthCon stage, and appeared in numerous fitness publications.

• CEO Story: Realised as a young boy that he wanted to transform his body from fat to muscle man. Started exercising with his dad, and progressed. Went to college and graduated with a master's degree in Accounting. Got serious in Gym Training when he was 27years old thru a 12-week training program that made him famous and garnered clients seeking advice on how he did it. He left his Accounting work and 16 years now, he has 13 staff and 2 studios.
• Business Service: One-on-one personalized training. Virtual Zoom training. Online body transformation university – workouts, recipes, mentoring, and support group.
• Secret Sauce: One-on-one attention, customized program. Corrective exercises. Comprehensive plan – cardio, nutrition plan.
• CEO Hack: Working out, taking care of your health.
• CEO Nugget: Finding a mentor and coach is the fastest ways where you want to go.
• CEO Defined: Being the leader of the organization. Being able to inspire your team to grow the business and help them achieve their personal and financial goals.

Website: russyeager.com

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00:20 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:43 – Gresham Harkless

Hello, Hello, Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Russ Yeager of fitness together. Russ, it's great to have you on the show.

00:51 – Russ Yeager

Gresh, great to hear, buddy.

00:53 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, super excited to have you on and it's super excited to hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. But before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Russ so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Russ is a body health and life transformation specialist who helps men and women create a life they love in all areas by first getting the body health and abundant energy they desire without starving themselves doing fad diets or having their lives revolve around working out rest, runs three businesses.

Has three young children, speaks all over the world, yet is still able to keep visible abs 365 days a year while still eating foods like pizza and ice cream, and helps clients do the same as well. Russ owns two private personal training studios in Atlanta, Georgia and is the author of of live longer, feel better and look great naked, and has spoken on Grant Cardone's ten x growth state growth con stage and appeared in numerous fitness publications. And of course, super excited that he is here on the Imco podcast. Russ, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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01:49 – Russ Yeager

Grass. Great to hear, buddy.

:01:50 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched a little bit upon your bio and your background. What I wanted to do is rewind the clock here a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story.

02:01 – Russ Yeager

Definitely. So my story starts when I was eleven years old and my dad had just gotten our first home camera and it was a vhs for if you're old enough to remember those giant things. And he's taken home movies and he tells me to introduce myself. And so I can see it. Sometimes I can't remember what I did five minutes ago, but I can see this in my head, you know, clearly, you know, 36 years later, whatever it is. And, you know, I say, my name's Russ. I like soccer, I like basketball. I love my dog Rudy. And then I just kind of get quiet, pause, look down.

I said, and I'm fat. And, you know, my parents both look at each other, they don't know what to say. Awkward silence. Then finally my mom says, russ, you're not fat, you're just husky. And she said that because going back to school, shopping, if you were bigger, you can relate. I had to get the husky pants. And I hated it. Just, I hated that word. I wish this called them the fat pants. And I remember I decided, like, damn it, I'm going to figure out how to be one of those, you know, fit, muscly guys, you know, the app guys. And I started running.

That's all I need to do. I started running with my dad and, you know, I guess I got healthier, but I was still chubby. My body didn't change. I love to eat. I still, you know, love to eat. I'm sure we'll get into that. And finally, you know, start got introduced to lifting weights. I played basketball for lifting weights. And then I got into it, really, my late teens, early twenties, and I liked how it made me strong, you know, and I was getting some muscles. I was like, oh, I kind of like this, you know, had some decent success of my own.

Went to college, you know, got my undergrad master's in accounting. So I'm, you know, working a long hours as a CPA, you know, late night business dinners. You know, I'm in my twenties. I'm drinking and partying. I'm working out consistently, but I never, like, really figured it out. And so at 27 gresh, I was like, you know what, Russ? You said, you're going to do this. You never did. And I just got inspired. I saw this twelve-week transformation program. You know, they've been around for a long time, right? Twelve weeks, transform your body.

And I said, I'm going to do that. I need something to get me motivated and I'm going to hire a coach to tell me what to do and to really get in the best shape of my life. So I did, took my body fat from, you know, over 20% to 5%, which is, you know, basically bodybuilding, stage ready, got totally shredded, had the abs, won the contest. I got sponsored by supplement company, got to be a sponsored athlete at the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic, started writing for some of the bodybuilding and fitness magazines.

And people that work in the gym were like, dude, what happened to you? And can you help me do it? And I started getting more questions about working out in nutrition than I did accounting. And I knew, like, okay, this is what God put me on this earth to do. Quit my job. I mean, pretty much immediately. That's the kind of guy I'm going to make a decision. I do it, and, you know, ready, what they call it. Ready.

04:27 – Gresham Harkless
Fire.

04:27 – Russ Yeager

Aim. And for the past 16 years now, you know, have helped my team. And I have a team of 13 people now. I have two personal training studios here in Atlanta, Georgia. And we do online. I do online coaching all over the world. We actually do online zoom one on one personal training now, which, you know, we added last year with COVID just to hold us over, you know, until we could open. And it actually, people really liked it. It's exploded.

And, yeah, man, that's how I got started. So I guess I'm like a lot of entrepreneurs. I'm like a shark, always going forward. But as I say it out loud, I'm very lucky to be able to do what I love. You know what my passion is? Help people make a positive difference in the world and get paid, you know, really well, much more than I did as an accountant.

05:07 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I know you touched on it a little bit and how you're serving your clients, the two gyms, and all the online things that you've been able to do. Can you drill down a little bit more and tell us a little bit more about that, how you serve your clients and how you're making that impact specifically in their lives?

05:20 – Russ Yeager

Yeah, definitely. So in Atlanta, Georgia, we have two private personal training CEO's here. We do, you know, small group and semi private training. But our specialty really is one on one personal training, you know, very customized, very individualized, comprehensive. And then, as I mentioned, we're doing Zoom one on one training, you know, throughout the US or in three countries now about to expand into Australia. And then I have my body transformation university, which is an online platform.

I took all of 2018 created, you know, basically what I believe is the transformation program in the world. Everything, you know, gives you your workouts, give you nutrition, recipes, you know, little videos on mindset motivation, a support group and Facebook. But I couple that then with weekly group Zoom mentoring and coaching so that I can, you know, number one, help customize things to each individual. Because everybody is different. People have different needs. You know, some people are working out at the gym.

A lot of people are working out at home now. They may or may not have equipment. You know, people might have injuries, that kind of stuff. And then just providing that weekly check in that accountability, which is one of the biggest, you know, keys to success, especially in the beginning, is being accountable probably to a coach. What I recommend, you know, having a trainer or a coach that you're paying money to, right, to make sure you're actually doing what you're supposed to, but at least having, you know, a friend or a group of people who are going to say, hey, did you do what you said you were going to do last week?

You know, because if we're just accountable to ourselves, there's really no accountability. It's too easy to just fall off when things get hard or life punches you in the face, so to speak, which is not if, it's when.

06:52 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. So what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? This could be for yourself. Individually, the businesses are a combination of both. What do you feel kind of sets you apart, makes unique for our business.

07:03 – Russ Yeager

With my trainers, it's definitely. It's the one-on-one. I mean, I touched on it briefly. It's the one on one attention. It's, you know, creating a custom plan. A lot of our clients are in their, you know, forties, fifties, sixties, and, you know, just throughout life. So a lot of us have had injuries, but just throughout life, most of us have, you know, muscular and or, you know, skeletal imbalances that have happened. And so it's important that you, you know, do a plan.

Yeah, that's going to make you sweat and burn calories and lose fat and gain muscle, but also doing, you know, corrective exercises and or staying away from exercises that might aggregate your imbalances, cause pain because working out, believe it or not, should make us feel good, not bad, and then, you know, really creating a comprehensive plan consisting of not only the strength training, you know, the cardio, having a nutrition plan, again, that is going to get the person, the results they.

Want, but something that actually uses foods they like and is sustainable and even enjoyable, or at least not miserable for their life, holding it and then really holding them accountable to that, with that, you know, consistent one on one attention. For my online coaching division, I'll say the secret sauce is me because I am a guy that's now turning 47 next month that knows what it's like to be fat, that knows what it's like to eat large pizza and a bag of chips and a gallon of ice cream and then feel guilty, try to work it off and then go back and do it again.

I've struggled with overeating and binge eating my whole life. I'm transparent about that. I'm a normal guy. I don't have unbelievable willpower or discipline or anything like that. I don't have amazing genetics, but I am almost 47, arguably in the best shape of my life, you know, feel great, still keep the abs, you know, and I do it enjoying things like pizza, ice cream. Tonight is Friday. We're going to do pizza night with the kids. My wife and I have a couple of glasses of wine. So it's, it's really being able to and you can do that and that's my thing.

I want to inspire people to do that and you know, knowing that you have to have the right information. You can't eat as much as you want or whatever you want. Probably the biggest piece of advice I can give on nutrition. Everybody talks about the what in the when, what you should eat, what you shouldn't eat and when don't eat after six, you know, eat every 2 hours. No, don't, you know, do intermittent fasting.

That's all minimal in terms of the results. Nobody talks about the how much, how much is the problem. We friggin eat too much. So I'm a real guy who practices what I preach and have done so consistently for the past 20 years.

09:19 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, well I appreciate you so much in sharing that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be a little bit more of an apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:32 – Russ Yeager

Man theres a lot but man ive got to go with my biggest one. Its working out, its taking care of your health and specifically for me, I tell people theres two types of workouts that should do something you like so you actually do it. And strength training. And strength training. The reason for that is its the only thing thats going to transform your body. Its the best. Fat burning exercise increases your metabolism, makes you burn more fat, good for your posture, good for your bones, skeletal, all that stuff.

And there's no doubt about it, im just lucky that lifting weights is what I happen to love. I tell people it takes three months. You can transform your body if you do it the right way. Six months. You can just make it a habit or it's almost like brushing your teeth. It's a lifestyle now, but you're one workout away from a better mood and one workout away from walking into that in person meeting or zoom meeting a different man or woman. I'm a pretty high energy guy.

I feel pretty good most of the time. But when I get a great workout, like when I lift weights and then I go into a meeting, I feel unstoppable. And I know that other people feel the same way. And your clients, your prospects, your team members, they respond to you differently. I call it magnetic attractiveness. So that's why a lot of people, a lot of business owners, I'm too busy to work out. I don't have time. No, you don't have time not to.

If you had a billion dollar piece of equipment that ran your whole company was their biggest revenue generator responsible for making everything happen, you know, would you run it 24/7 redline it, you know, never do maintenance on it and hope it doesn't break down? Well, of course not, but that's what we're doing to ourselves. And for most business owners, you are your most important asset. So it's not optional to take care of your health. It's one of the most important things you can do for your business.

11:04 – Gresham Harkless

I absolutely appreciate that. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. It's something I like to say. If you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger.

11:17 – Russ Yeager

Business self, find somebody who's doing what you want to do and get them as a mentor. I mean, mentoring, coaching is one of the fastest ways and best ways to get where you want to go. With enough determination and commitment, you can, you know, just figure it out. Keep throwing things against the wall and keep grinding. And I've taken that route, but especially again, and the older I get, realizing time is not infinite, I want to get there faster.

So finding a coach, a mentor, multiple coaches, you know, mentors and making sure you find somebody. There's a lot of people giving advice, right, on business and money, but find someone who has actually, again, getting into what is your dream life, what do you want? Find someone who has that or very close to that and just learn from that because, you know, success leaves clues. As Tony Robbins says, it's, you know, there is a pattern of success.

12:04 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And I feel like there's a lot of nuggets within that. So I want to ask you now, my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different, quote unquote, CEO's on the show. So, Russ, what does being a CEO mean to you, man?

12:17 – Russ Yeager

So I know there's an official definition. I don't know it by heart, but I will tell you, to me, being a CEO is being the leader of the organization, being able to inspire your team to grow the business, and helping them reach their personal, professional, and financial goals. That's something I learned from Brandon Dawson, who partners with Grant Cardone. And I did it for so many years, man. My business hit seven figures through a lot of hard work, grinding, and determination. We've grown a little over time, but it was just very incremental.

And I'm like, man, I don't want to have a $10 million business or a $50 million business or $100 million business because I'm going to have to work 1025, 5100 times as hard. And I just. I just didn't get it. And so, you know, within the past, you know, about a year and a half working with coaches, okay, people have scaled their business way bigger than mine, and they've done it without dying or killing themselves.

And so I found, you know, some of those people and started to figure out, I got to get systems implemented, first of all, super tight systems. And I've got to get, you know, find great leaders, develop them, and then have them develop my team and, you know, have them, you know, grow the organization. So, you know, the past couple years, we've grown, you know, significantly. We're going to grow close to 50%, you know, this year, 2021.

And so, yeah, man, I mean, making sure that you're the one that's leading the organization, but that it's not all about you. You've got to make it about the team in the systems as opposed to trying to do it all yourself, unless you want to be a one-man show, which, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. But as my, you know, mentor Grant Cardone says, nobody who ever did anything great did it on their own.

13:52 – Gresham Harkless

Truly appreciate that definition. Of course, and I appreciate your time even more, Russ. What I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best people can get a hold of you on about all those things you and your team are working on.

14:06 – Russ Yeager

Before I forget, seven years ago, I wrote live longer, feel better, and look great naked. I just turned it into an ebook I added 2021 updates. Like over the past seven years, I'm continuing to learn and adapt. And like I said, seven years ago, I was, you know, single, no kids, not completely, still obsessed with body building, but I was, you know, my life kind of revolved around it. So again, for the past seven years, I've been trying to figure out, I want to be healthy, fit, energetic, I want to be there for my kids.

I want to live to 100, I want to grow my business, and I still want to have the abs and eat pizza and ice cream. And can you do that? And so that's what I share in the book. So I'd like to, you know, give that to your audience. They can go to freenaked.com to get the book for free. Just be careful typing in the URL. You might get something you don't want. And in terms of final, you know, parting words, I would just say that, you know what I started with, like, I believe goddess unique gifts and message in every one of your hearts.

And as a CEO, you know what that is. If you don't know what it is, that's okay. Be great at what you are now and you will find it. But if you do know what it is and you know that it's helping people, then it's your obligation to get it out to the world. You know, co life and the freedom and the money and all that stuff. And all that stuff is awesome and great. But also, you are helping people in a way that nobody else can. Even though there's other people in your industry.

People want to do business with people that they know, like, and trust. And your message, you know, can only be delivered by you. So keep going. Don't give up. And, and remember why you're doing that, what you're doing and who you're helping.

15:40 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. And to make it even easier, I have the links and information in the show notes. We'll make sure we'll type it out and put it in correctly, too, just so that you won't send you in down any wrong trips or anything to any site. So truly appreciate that last tidbit as well. Russell. I think so often I say if you run your own race, you can't lose. And often we were reminded that too much is given, much is expected.

And I think when you say that, it really resonates with me. Because when you start to lean into your race, as I like to say, and run it only as you can, because it's only your race, then you truly reach a really phenomenal place. So I appreciate you for running your race, reminding us of how important that is, of course, taking some time out with us today, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:22 – Russ Yeager

Absolutely. Greg, thanks buddy. Really enjoyed it.

16:24 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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