IAM2185 – Sustainable Health and Fitness Coach Shares the Happiness of Being Healthy and Fit

Title: Transcript - Mon, 29 Jul 2024 12:22:11 GMT

Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2024 12:22:11 GMT, Duration: [00:16:58.36]

[00:00:00.10] - Marcus Watts

So now what we do is pretty much we help to identify what your current problems are. What are the things that you are struggling doing? And can you be first, can you even be honest with those things? Then we're gonna try to fit you into a program that is best for you.

[00:00:15.19] - 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 Harkness 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.

[00:00:40.39] - Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresham from the I am CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Marcus Watts. Marcus Watts of the Watts Guy Fitness. Marcus, it's awesome to have you on the show.

[00:00:50.00] - Marcus Watts

Thank you so much for having me, man. I'm I'm really excited and, honored to be here to share Anybody?

[00:00:54.39] - Gresham Harkless

Well, super excited to have you on the show. And what I want to do was just read a little bit more about Marcus so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. And Marcus Watts is a former professional basketball player. He stands at six eight, two hundred and forty pounds, and he turned sustainable health and fitness coach. He is also vegan and has been for some time. He ended his pro career in twenty eleven and opened his first gym in twenty thirteen and his second gym in twenty sixteen. There were lots of highs and lows, including a massive growing gym and community to losing his vehicle and going days without eating. His passion is sharing the happiness that being healthy and fit can bring to anyone of any journey. Currently, he's transitioning to mainly online systems allowing him to reach and support even more people. Marcus, are you ready to speak to the I'm CEO community?

[00:01:41.29] - Marcus Watts

Yes. I am. I'm so excited, man.

[00:01:43.40] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Let's do it. So the first question I have was just to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business.

[00:01:49.40] - Marcus Watts

Yeah. You know, I have to say that since I was younger and just kinda trying to figure out what it is that I wanna do. I remember being in high school as a senior at senior day, and, you know, they're saying the bios and they're saying, you know, all the things you plan doing. And and my goal was, and it still is a long term goal of creating a community center that's focused for the youth around linking athletics and academics.

[00:02:12.50] - Gresham Harkless

I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear, like, exactly how you serve the clients that you work with. Tell me a little bit more about what you guys do.

[00:02:18.00] - Marcus Watts

Yeah. So with the Watts Guy Fitness, with TWG Fitness now, I've moved primarily online, and I'm really not involved in the day to day operations with the businesses. It's just more back end and be and it's because we put the right people in in the right places. It's you know, when you have a business, scalability is not you being there to do everything. It's you having the right people in the right leadership and finding the right standard operating procedures. I could reach a lot more people online. You know what I mean? You know, I've got a really big following. You know, it's it's growing online, and people that don't live around me, I can help them. So now what we do is pretty much we help to identify what your current problems are. What are the things that you are struggling doing? And can you be first, can you even be honest with those things? Then we're gonna try to fit you into a program that is best for you. And that goes from busy mom, dad, entrepreneur who only has twenty minutes or fifteen minutes or even less than that sometimes. But understand that in order for them to be the best business that I've done has been when my body's been performing at its best, literally. The ideas, everything. So, you know, how can you put yourself in that position? But it's coupling training with nutrition. I do offer them separate, but I explain to people that you need both worlds. Whatever level you're starting at, you need both worlds. And I have programs that range from sixty seven dollars to, you know, twenty nine hundred dollar packages.

[00:03:36.80] - Gresham Harkless

Okay. Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Yeah. Great that you have, like, all kinda all those place pieces in place so that depending on whatever and wherever somebody is as far as their fitness goes and what their goals are as a whole and where they are and how they're performing, they're able to kinda find a package that kinda fits them and it's customized based off what it is that they're looking for. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And this could could basically be something that you feel kinda distinguishes you or sets you apart. But do you have an example of a secret sauce for us?

[00:04:02.09] - Marcus Watts

I would say, and I I tell this to all the interns and people that would come from you know, that wanted to be inside the industry, that would come to my gyms and and work with me in The human connection. The human connection is the most powerful resource at your disposal, and it costs absolutely nothing for you to be kind, for you to be honest, for you to be genuine, and for you to put the effort into holding conversations with people. I I guess that's probably the best way to put it. But I've kind of learned to really try to connect with people. So I'm putting out dope quality in-depth content to grab you and connect with you and give to you as much as I can. And that human connection, whether people hit that buy button now or they hit that buy button in two years sometimes, it doesn't I got people now that have been following me for, I don't know, man, eight years. Mhmm. Just now hating the buy button. You know? And it's because they trust me. They need to trust you. They need to know that it's not just about a dollar. Hey. Listen. I need to support myself. I cannot do this for people if I'm not able to do that, which is at the time that we spoke about before where, you know, I didn't have money and I was, you know, you know, not eating for days at a time and when I was sometimes eating dummy bears. I didn't understand that. So I wanna serve. In order to serve, I need to be able to support myself and live comfortably so I can be creative and do all those things. And all of that starts with me giving that that human connection.

[00:05:24.39] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. Being able to do that is definitely something that's super special that you've been able to do. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this could be an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but do you have an example of something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:05:38.60] - Marcus Watts

Okay. I'll I'll give a couple. Number one is let's go over some books. Raving fans. If you haven't read raving fans, you need to read raving fans. It's a very short read. It's one of those one dumb reads. But it's it's about customer service and true customer service. And too many times people are doing the bare minimum, and they're not going that extra one percent. And then the other, I would say, is, Seth Godin's tribes. And, I mean, just I continuously read. I probably bought it, like, ten times. I purchased the book or multiple books at a time of that book at least seven or ten times. And I'd and I don't I don't have one copy now if that gives you an example. Because I read it and I give it away and I tell somebody, hey. Listen. Someone I literally every time I buy, like, three copies, or I give it to my team members too. Every time I buy, like, three copies, literally someone would walk up to me at my gym, and I would be standing at the desk with the book in my hand, and I would be like, here. Just take this. And then I'll be like, really? And I'll be like, yeah. Hey. Read it. Highlight all the notes in it. Do not keep this book. Give this book to someone else, and then go buy two more copies. Because I really think that that book made that type of influence on me. As far as, like, applications and hacks, there's a ton I could go into. And, honestly, if you want, we can make a separate downloadable just about this because I was going through the list the other day, and there's so many apps that I use. And when I mean so many, it's I've tested twelve times that. No joke. But for different avenues of business, you're gonna need I've got different apps for you. So number one is overall outsourcing. Like, stop trying to do everything yourself. Stop trying to fall into this speed that they taught us in college where you need to do accounting and financing. No. I don't. I'm a creative. I'm gonna create. You know? If I'm the math person, then I'm gonna do the math. You know? Outsourcing. So the website that I use is the online jobs dot p h. Now I have two virtual assistants. I'm not gonna say what I pay them on here, but it works very, very good for me. It's pennies on the dollar, and in their country, it's actually very, very good pay. And they work for a handful of people at a time. Onlinejobs. Ph is phenomenal. I have no complaints. The people I have found have been fantastic. I actually offer a service where myself and my assistant will help you find assistance. And if there was another app, I would say Iconosquare, but it's starting to be a little bit up in the air because they just sent a message out the other day that I'm not sure by the time that this is is out if that may be fixed, but they're currently experiencing problems auto posting to Instagram, which is a problem for me because I do not have time for that. There are a couple other ones, but the technology is, like, always changing. But Iconosquare is gonna let you auto post to Facebook pages, auto post to Instagram pages, and any app that you can find will do that for you is massive because now like, Friday's a creative day for me. I'll go and create blog. I'll go and create Instagram. I'll go and create, and I'll schedule them to post so I can be free to interact. There was one more that I wanted to share with you. Oh, creation. If you wanna create beautiful content, Canva is a really good app. Now PicMonkey is also a great one for creating graphics, but I like the way that Canva lays out where it's like Instagram post, ads, pins, YouTube thumbnails, all that. You need to create beautiful content, and you need a place to do it that simplifies it, that gives you templates, and you don't have to be Einstein in order to do it. Canva is on your phone. I love to create more on the computer because it's, like, five times as fast. But having it on my phone, I I just made a thumbnail for a video. Boom. I posted it. And there's one last one, and this is, like, a super, super hack. ContentSumo. I I don't know how you use ContentSumo before.

[00:09:10.70] - Gresham Harkless

I haven't. I have not.

[00:09:11.89] - Marcus Watts

Okay. ContentSumo lets you take a script. So take your blogs, upload it into a system, and then this tech is dope. It automatically recognizes keywords and brings up photos to match this and make slides.

[00:09:29.20] - Intro

Nice.

[00:09:29.60] - Marcus Watts

Then you can then I then I record my audio over. So I go over, I change some of the words. If I don't like the picture, I can use another keyword and find a picture of someone doing pull ups or push ups or, marketing or a blog. It's gonna bring stuff up. And then I record it, and it creates it. And it makes beautiful layouts for for social or when I say social, I'm talking Instagram, Facebook. I refer to YouTube as YouTube because YouTube's videos need to be different. If you're in Facebook, you need to be in portrait. If you're in YouTube, you need to be in landscape. And I mean, as far as creating content for people, it's out of this world. For either yourself or for your clients, you can make beautiful videos. So that's actually a new one that I that I just found, but I would say I would say those those two books in in those hours.

[00:10:09.70] - Gresham Harkless

And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

[00:10:18.29] - Marcus Watts

If I could hop into a time machine and tell my younger self something, I would say that done is better than perfect. You don't need to have a logo. You don't need to have a slogan. All those people that told us that stuff, you need to have a mission statement. You need to work there none of them are millionaires. For real. Like, none of them are millionaires. So why am I listening to what you say? Like, what you need to have is an idea and a willingness to put in the work to get listen. The shortest distance between two points is a a straight line. I don't need to be doing all this. So who can you hire, and how can you raise the money to hire them? It don't matter what you have to do. Like, there's some programs that I want. They cost about three thousand dollars. So I'm trying to get somebody to actually pay for it, and then I'm telling them that I'm going to create content for them until their money is made back. And if it's not made back in a year, I'll just pay them their money back. But be resourceful, man. Don't let copywriting and all this stuff. Don't let that stuff get in the way. You don't like writing blogs? Don't. Go on Fiverr and find somebody. I got somebody right now that'll write twenty five blogs for two hundred fifty six dollars. Outsource it. Don't let the procrastination hold you back from being excellent because done is better than perfect. People will be like, oh, they'll, like, comment on my emails. Oh, that was misspelled, or hey. I saw this. I'm like, hey. I'm glad that you have the time to spend that. Thank you for the feedback. Number one, legit. Don't be asked. Thank you for the feedback. I will go back and make those changes, but I am proud that I did the work. And now I have something to build off of and improve. People you know what people love more than, something that's perfect? I found this out in the gym business is when I started my gym. You know, you don't have a ton of equipment. It's not the most beautiful gym. People like seeing progress. They like feeling a part of your progress. Two point o. You know, when you, you know, you relaunch a program, give it for free to the people that did the first version, and get their feedback and win them on your side and let people see the like like, like, when people follow me, that's one of the things that they say people that I've been following for a while. Man, I see the change. I see the growth. It's so people like to see that. So, yeah, man. Done is better than perfect. I wasted so many years, I think, because I didn't feel adequate enough in what I was putting out. I didn't wanna be judged. I didn't want people to say I was a fraud. Man, I don't care. I really just don't care. I'm gonna work to create something, and I'm just gonna keep on making it better.

[00:12:54.89] - Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition for what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on the show. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:03.89] - Marcus Watts

It doesn't mean having a LLC, and it doesn't mean having a website. I'll tell you that. It means being able to accept the fact that you have a vision and then scale yourself back and be able to say, I don't really know how to do this stuff. You you have your listen. I know basketball. I know track. But being able to say that I don't really who can I surround myself with? And in what ways can I grow? I think that's what a real CEO is because you have to be able to adapt in mold. Facebook is changing. YouTube is changing. Instagram is changing. I mean, platforms are changing. Tech is changing. The market is. You can't just be this person that says, well, I'm a CEO and I do no. You're gonna have to be someone that's malleable and that can be formed to inform others because I think that's something that maybe there's something else to touch on later or people to keep in mind is that you're only as strong as your team that you have around you. I mean, my assistants are everything to me. So, yeah, I would I would say that, man.

[00:14:07.29] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. I love that, and that's a great reminder. I heard something a long time ago that said that the true sign of strength, it used to be like the rock because it was, like, hard. But then I heard that it changed recently to water because it's malleable to just like you said, where it can kind of, you know, go throughout any divots or it can surround stuff if needed if need be, but it's very, kind of malleable like you mentioned. So think that's a phenomenal definition. And, Marcus, I truly appreciate you taking some time out. What I wanted to do was pass you the mic just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and then how best people can get ahold of you.

[00:14:38.70] - Marcus Watts

Yeah. No. I actually I I just wrote those down. So thanks. I'll so a couple things. First, if you guys wanna check me out on Instagram, I'm at the Watts Guy. On Facebook, you can search the same thing, the Watts Guy or the Watts Guy Fitness. I have a private fitness page on Facebook that's Destination Fit. But if you hit me up or just ask me, I'll send you the link. And then I'm I'm vegan. That's my thing. Am I right? Social club. So I have, like, a vegan private plant based support group for people that wanna learn about not vegans. It's for people who want to learn about how plants can do more for them in their lives and their health and wellness. That's called the vegan transitions. You can look that up on Facebook. There's a private group as well. Now for your audience, we've created a program, a fourteen day free this is a free program. It's fourteen days. And over the fourteen days, what it is is we're gonna teach you how to, number one, interact with your audience. Right? How to get meaningful engagement. And if you have engagement, how to increase it or learn to continue to duplicate that. And then we're gonna also talk about how to with that focus of interacting with your audience better, how to turn those into leads and then turn those leads into people that are gonna click the buy button. So we'll have that as a opt in. You guys can get that. That'll be daily emails for fourteen days. There will be blogs with each one of those. There will be actionable steps for you to take with that as well. And, yeah, we'll we'll do that, and we'll try to help as many people as we can.

[00:16:03.79] - Gresham Harkless

Well, awesome. No. I truly appreciate that, and I appreciate the time that you took. And we'll have those links in the show notes just so that anybody can follow-up and take action, which is, as we talked about, the most important thing. So, Marcus, I truly appreciate you. I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:16.29] - Marcus Watts

Thanks, man. Likewise. You as well.

[00:16:18.10] - Intro

Thank you for listening to the I am CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue sixteen Media. Tune in next time and visit us at I m c e o dot c o. 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 Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five star rating. This has been the I am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless junior. Thank you for listening.