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#87 - Choose Hard Things with Cody McBroom (Legacy Episode)
00:43:40
You need to choose hard things to crush your goals, become a better person, and live a more fulfilling life. Cody McBroom joins us to discuss the importance of choosing hard things. Check out the Tailored Coaching Method.
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- [00:00]
Matt Reynolds
Build you'd Business listeners. This is Matt Reynolds, your host for the podcast and you are listening to what we are calling the legacy episodes. And really these are the pre episodes that really led to this podcast, the Build your Business podcast. This is really my life's work and my brother's life's work in building your business. And so they were originally published in the Barbell Logic podcast as part of the Principles or coaching success series. But really touch on similar topics to the Build you'd Business podcast. How to improve your productivity, how to set and accomplish your goals, deprioritize urgent tasks to focus on what is most important to you and most importantly, to become a better person and leader and business owner. Overall, I'm proud to bring you these podcasts again, many years of life's work, several years of podcasts and several decades of business ownership. Hope you enjoy them and learn from them. You're listening to Barbell Logic, the podcast where we talk about what it means to experience strength and how you can use simple, hard and effective strategies in training and nutrition to improve your life. It starts with meeting you where you are right now and finding lasting solutions. Welcome to the you're listening to the Barbelogic podcast. I'm your host. Matt Reynolds is another episode of the Coaching Success series. I have a very special guest today. Cody McBroom is the host of the Choose Hard podcast or I would say formally, but all those are still out there. And now the Tailored Transformations podcast. You're the founder and CEO as well as strength and nutrition coach at the Tailored Coaching Method. Is the nickname Boom Boom, which we have to come back to here in a minute. Is that that right? Boom Boom is the nickname. So we'll dig into that. But I'm excited to have you on the show, man. Welcome to the Barbell Logic podcast.
- [02:05]
Cody McBroom
Thank you, man. I've heard the name Barbell Logic so many times over the years and when I saw the email come in, I was like, oh, this is going to be great to have you on mine, to get on yours to connect, because I think there's a lot of synergy here.
- [02:16]
Matt Reynolds
So let's just go ahead and knock out. Like, how did you get the nickname Boom Boom? Where'd that come from?
- [02:21]
Cody McBroom
So funny enough, it came from soccer, so I actually stole it from my brother. So my brother's Vinnie and he was Vinnie Boom Boom McBroom, the soccer announcer. Just. That's just what he called him one day. And then I was younger than him when I got into high school and Started playing varsity soccer with my brother. It was the Boom Boom Brothers.
- [02:41]
Matt Reynolds
Love it.
- [02:42]
Cody McBroom
And I just kind of rolled with it. I started a blog called Boom Boom Performance before social media was around writing fitness content. And that became my coaching business for a while, until I realized that it doesn't make any sense for fitness, and I should probably change it.
- [02:56]
Matt Reynolds
It's got that rhyme with your last name, so it works. How long have you been doing this? I mean, so when did you start that blog? How long you've been doing kind of the coaching world and diving into that fitness space?
- [03:07]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. So just over 13 years now. This is. It's really all I've ever done. I graduated high school at 17 years old, and I was always a chubby kid, but I had two knee injuries in soccer in high school, leading to a meniscus tear, ACL tear, and then some surgeries that I just weight piled on. And I never stepped foot in a gym, so I didn't rehab it right or anything. After I graduate high school, I started getting into training and then got into my career path with that, and I really just never looked back.
- [03:37]
Matt Reynolds
You know, that makes sense that, you know, you're eating like a typical high school kid, probably lots of calories, lots of junk, but you're also relatively active playing soccer and sports. And then you tear your knee up, and now you stop the activity, but you keep eating the junk, you start getting fat. So is that the impetus, really, that you're like, I'm not really happy with my body and what I look like or how I feel? That transitioned you into becoming really just passionate about fitness? Where did that passion kind of come from? Was there a mentor? Was there a book? Was there a class? What was the thing that kind of started that?
- [04:11]
Cody McBroom
So I was never really a good student. I didn't enjoy school until I found fitness. And so when I was in, I was going to community college for just business school, because that's what my. Basically, my dad was like, hey, I'll pay for this. Do this. You'll be a salesman for something. It'll be good. I'm like, all right, well, got nothing else planned, so I'll do that. And I started trying to lose weight, and I tried every diet that I could possibly find, most of which were fad diets. So I just gained the weight back. And there was one day that a guy named Tim Vagan came into the college gym. He saw me with a knee brace. I was doing knee extensions. And I remember him telling me, giving me a couple tips and I was like, hey, you should swing by my class. I direct the fitness program here. And I kind of just brushed off my shoulder. But eventually I ended up sitting in class, asked my teacher how many businesses he owned. Cause it was a startup class. It was about starting up businesses and such. He had never owned a business before. He was just there to teach. And I thought that was weird. And so I just.
- [05:03]
Matt Reynolds
Those who can't do.
- [05:04]
Cody McBroom
Yep. So I just got up and left, actually. And as I was walking back to my car, I saw the class that Tim Vegan was teaching. And there was a baby on the projector. And he had all this, like, lines point around. It was in a quadruped position, crawling in a, you know, a contralateral pattern. And I just remember sneaking in, kind of listening the back, like flying the wall. And it was just so fascinating to me. So I ended up deciding I was going to shift careers. Both my parents said, no, you're still overweight. And you just started working out. That doesn't make sense, understandably. So I forged my dad's signature, changed my degree, and just dove right in. And I love it. Ended up losing about 45, 50 pounds. Just being obsessed with training. And he introduced me to a lot of people in the industry. That led to me getting an internship for a guy named Luca Hosavar, who owns Vigor Ground Fitness and Performance just south of Seattle. And I worked there after my internship for six and a half years, just training people until really, that whole time too, I was actually writing blogs and doing content because I wanted to do something online. And I told him that actually in my internship interview. And his question was like, how are you going to make money? I was like, I have no idea. There's John Berardi, Jason Fruggia, Nate Green. I see these guys, they do it. I don't know what they do or how they do it. But back then, I mean, that was 2012, 2013.
- [06:22]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah, you had like elite FTS and T Nation was TMAG at the time, and Zach Evanesh and guys like that. But yeah, there weren't very many. Joe DeFranco.
- [06:31]
Cody McBroom
Yeah.
- [06:32]
Matt Reynolds
Doing stuff. So that crew. So, yeah, we kind of came up in the same world.
- [06:35]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, all those guys were like, who I was watching and looking at and really aspiring to be, like, learning a lot from as well as Luca. And then, yeah, six and a half years later, found out I was going to have a kid. And I was like, this is my only chance. So I gave up 100 of my clients, started training the other coaches. How to work with these people that I had there, started my online business, which I called Boom Boom Performance at the time, and just started growing it. That was 2017. And so it just grew rapidly. I started bringing on coaches, changed the name to tailored coaching method and now we're here.
- [07:04]
Matt Reynolds
So yeah, yeah, man, it's wild how much how similar our stories are. I started Barbalogic online coaching in January 16, so about the same time. And it was the same sort of thing. I'd been a gym owner for eight years. That gym grew to be one of the largest strength gyms in the country. But I saw all this, all of these issues and challenges with the in person coaching model. Like it was exorbitantly expensive. You, you were locked into a schedule and a location both for the coach and the client. And I thought there has to be a better way to do this. And so while I was personal training coaching at the gym and it was going well and my clients were doing great, I couldn't take a vacation if they left, they didn't train. And I thought there has to be a way to do this online that's something better than. It's still like more relationship based than what your typical like sell me a cookie cutter template is.
- [07:48]
Cody McBroom
Yeah.
- [07:49]
Matt Reynolds
And so that's why I made the switch as well. And so really quick, before we dive into online thing, I do want to because we've talked about this a lot on the podcast too. One thing I've heard you say before is you love that quote from Socrates that he talks about that no man has the right to be an amateur in the matter of physical training. It is a shame for a man to grow old without seeing the beauty and strength of which his body is capable. And I see that kind of in your story of here's this kid who just played soccer in some sports, got hurt, got fat, wasn't happy with himself. And then you've really now kind of walked the walk. Not just talk the talk. How is that mindset or even that quote really affected your life moving forward. Is that something that really you just have experienced in real time over the last 10, 15 years?
- [08:33]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. So the first kind of, I would say point where that really, really hit home. And I could feel that be something that I was going to kind of guide the principles of my life with, with physical fitness and everything was just how many other things in my life got better once I got in shape, you know, it was like all of a sudden I had more self control and discipline, which just applied to everything else. In life, all of a sudden I had more confidence in the room, I was getting attention for more girls and I'm a young dude, you know, everything was just getting better. And when I started working with people, I started seeing the same thing. People would get a raise at their job and they would tell me it's all because of what we're doing in the gym. And I'm just thinking, man, I'm just helping you lift and you're just getting in shape and getting strong. And I've always had a passion for physique sports. So I competed in bodybuilding early on and that taught me so much about nutrition because that's all I changed. Was sure dialed in my diet and I got shredded for stage.
- [09:21]
Matt Reynolds
Just trained hard. But yep, that's it. Differently.
- [09:23]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, exactly. And so that taught me a lot. And as I started helping people really transform their physiques and their bodies and just like we, I don't work with a bunch of bodybuilders, I get to work with some pretty cool people now. But I mean it's always just been everyday people but seeing their lives change as well. And so it kind of, you know, relating to that quote, I've always just looked at it as fitness is the catalyst for change in everything else in your life. Because you know, and you mentioned the choose hard thing. I started saying that to clients and then it kind of took ground and then people who followed me started saying it and so then I trademarked it and because choosing hard is making a decision to do a challenging thing. And when you do that you develop self control and self discipline and you develop work ethic and grit and those things lead to results which develop self belief and self belief contributes to more confidence and self respect. And it's like this never ending success cycle. And so I've always just loved the idea of helping people choose hard in the gym first or with their diet because it's the safest and easiest thing.
- [10:20]
Matt Reynolds
That is hard to do and extremely general and works for everybody.
- [10:23]
Cody McBroom
Exactly. And then it applies to everything else in your life. And so that quote was kind of the start of it all is like I remember reading that and being like man. And I was always really into Greek mythology and like these Roman statues. I have multiple Roman statues tattooed on me and I just always thought that whole thing was cool and it really just stuck with me as like I said that catalyst of like this is how the rest of your life is going to be better.
- [10:45]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah. And how crazy is it that we're talking about 2,300 years ago at that.
- [10:50]
Cody McBroom
It's so wild.
- [10:51]
Matt Reynolds
This is, it's to the test of time for sure. Well, dude, you're speaking our language for my listeners. They will certainly resonate with this. We have the term that we've coined, voluntary hardship, which is the same thing. And really our focus is on helping people experience strength to improve their quality of life. It's the same sort of thing. There's lots of stuff you can do to improve your quality of life. You can learn how to budget your money, but I'm not Dave Ramsey. And marriage counseling and work on your marriage. What we found, same thing, is that nobody's going to make you put a bar on your back and squat. It's voluntarily hard. It's not the most important thing in life. And yet when you choose consistently to do hard things in the gym, the way you eat, nutrition, we found the same thing. That it's not that it changes just your physicality, but mentally, socially, emotionally, spiritually, whatever that is. It depends on the person and I think their core values. It's also not a guarantee. Right? Because especially you coming out of the bodybuilding world, we've all seen the guy that's the D bag in the gym who lifts and lifts hard and just, it doesn't seem to improve his quality of life. I was a professional powerlifter and then professional strongman, trained on the world's strongest man circuit for four years. I can remember the best powerlifters in my gym, which wasn't me. I was strong for sure, but we had some crazy strong guys, dude, they hated it. They hated it. And so it was just like, how much weight can I put on the bar? How many drugs can I take? So lifting alone is not the thing that is always the impetus or the catalyst for the change, but I think doing it for the right reasons. And I think that's probably why you and I both gravitated towards more of a general population group of people. When you've got that business executive or soccer mom or whatever who can't keep up with their kids, when they bend over to tie their shoes, they run out of breath. I got to change something, man. And you don't hear that from 19 year old kids and 20 year old kids often. And that doesn't mean that you can't. But it's much more common, I think, for that general population sort of audience. And so when you can teach them how to do the basic lifts and how to eat correctly, they get pretty quick changing both in their body and in but even before that in the way they feel. Right. So I'm sure you've seen this, like in the first week or two of lifting and eating. Right, they're like, I just feel better. Yeah, my sleep is better, this is better. And so it's.
- [13:07]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, I love it also too, in like, if any of them are listening. I love working with you, but I've had the chance to work with really cool people and even right now, I work with quite a few WWE wrestlers.
- [13:17]
Matt Reynolds
Oh, nice.
- [13:18]
Cody McBroom
And I don't want to say it's not as fulfilling because it's really, don't get me wrong, it's pretty, pretty damn cool. Getting to work with some of these guys.
- [13:23]
Matt Reynolds
Sure, of course.
- [13:24]
Cody McBroom
But also, they're paid to look good and be strong. And they came to me and they were already pretty strong. They just need to tighten up some things. Or like one guy had a really bad shoulder. So like, it's different versus the example you gave or the everyday person who literally changes their entire life. We had a couple of people come out, so you mentioned the Taylor Transformations podcast. One of the people on my team run that. And it's just. We just interview clients and like we had two people come to the headquarters last week and. And seeing these people walk in that have both lost 70 plus pounds, I don't even recognize them. They're not even my clients. They're one of my coach's clients. And hearing them talk about how different life is is just. It's so fulfilling. And it is that everyday person. Choosing to meal prep, choosing to go lift weights, choosing to go do cardio while still having their kids and still having a job and doing all these things. And there's something about. It's actually a lot of science around it, but there's, there's something about the decision to do it versus, you know, doing hard things is good. And I think that's a good statement too. But we like to say choosing just like you said, voluntarily, like you're choosing to do it because if I gotta do something hard that I don't care about or I gotta do something hard, I have no choice. That's different than having the choice to step into the difficulty because, you know, one, it's gonna get you the result or the desired outcome, but two, you know, you're gonna come out a different and better person from it.
- [14:43]
Matt Reynolds
That's right. Choosing hard things and. Or voluntary hardship is, I would say, guaranteed to refine, but involuntary hardship or just doing hard things and often because you're forced to is not guaranteed to refine. Now, I will argue that the more we choose hard things voluntarily, then the better prepared we are when the involuntary hardship comes to handle it. So handle it and actually be refined by it. So, I mean, we know guys go to prison, they don't come out better, but some do, Right? For those that choose voluntary hardship, they are better apt to handle when they get fired, when they get the divorce, when they get cancer, when there's a tragedy in the family. These are the things that we're preparing for, and that's why we're preparing the average person often for these lifestyle changes. And we don't live like our granddads did, and our great granddads. Right. Like, these guys worked hard jobs on farms, mechanics, tractors, that kind of stuff. We sit at a desk all day. We've never needed this more in human history than now because that's what we do. We sit down in a chair all day. And that's often. Even for me, the most physical thing I do in my life is train, because I don't bail hay. And I kind of wish I did. Right. I don't cut wood. I just have a truckload full of wood dropped in my. It was dropped in my driveway. And I mean, the hardest thing I have to do is take it from there, to stick it on the wood pile, you know?
- [16:12]
Cody McBroom
Yeah.
- [16:13]
Matt Reynolds
So that's a big piece of it.
- [16:14]
Cody McBroom
It is. I think there's so much there, man. I think if you choose hard more often, if you do the voluntarily hardship more often, you have that attitude or you don't, but you start choosing hard, you will begin to have that attitude where the involuntary stuff that happens to you, it's easier for you to stop and go, why is this happening for me? Not happening to me. Which is a very difficult perspective to have for a lot of people.
- [16:35]
Matt Reynolds
Sure.
- [16:35]
Cody McBroom
But the more I have done difficult things, the more I found that and even, you know, this is why. So I actually. I'm running a half marathon Saturday, and I've always hated running. I never liked running, but the more I said I hate running and the more I said I suck at running.
- [16:48]
Matt Reynolds
Show's over.
- [16:49]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. No, I was like, okay, well, I have to do it now because I keep saying I suck at it, and I'm not a natural runner and I don't like running.
- [16:56]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah.
- [16:56]
Cody McBroom
And bodybuilding is always hard. But I've done multiple shows and, you know, men's physique is the category. I do. I'm pretty good at it. I'm. I kind of have a stature for it. So it doesn't challenge me or scare me.
- [17:08]
Matt Reynolds
But like running 13 miles, you're like, this is going to suck.
- [17:10]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. And I had a friend challenge me on it and I was like, damn, I got to do it. And so. And then that escalated. Now I'm doing hyrox. February next year.
- [17:19]
Matt Reynolds
Wait, what is that?
- [17:20]
Cody McBroom
So hyrox is. I would say it's like the safest version of CrossFit you can do. It's a high intensity kind of thing.
- [17:28]
Matt Reynolds
But lower impact, whatever, something or.
- [17:31]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. And you're not doing snatches and stuff. You're doing like a wall ball. You do a burpee broad jump. That's probably the most dangerous thing. But it's very aerobic based. So you run eight rounds and you run a th.000 meters. Then you do. I don't know what order it's in, but 100 wall balls is one of them. Sled push is one of them. Sled pull is one of them. Walking lunges with the sandbag is one of them. So, like these grueling exercises that you do, a high rep counter high, far distance.
- [17:52]
Matt Reynolds
Sounds like a lot of vomit.
- [17:53]
Cody McBroom
Probably a lot of vomit. But again, it was just like, that's not my thing. I like lifting heavy and I like lifting for hypertrophy. I've always done that. So I'm like, hey, let's do these challenges. Let's show people that you don't have to be gifted or talented or genetic or anything, because I'm not any of the above. But I'm choosing hard and all these benefits are going to happen because of it. And I want to display that, you know, and it's been cool. We actually have, I think three or four of my coaches end up signing up and we have like 20 members now that are going to fly to Vegas and do it at the same time.
- [18:22]
Matt Reynolds
Nice.
- [18:22]
Cody McBroom
And they're all normal people, they're not athletes, which is really cool about it.
- [18:26]
Matt Reynolds
Right. That's super cool. I want to talk a little bit about the transition you made recently on the podcast. So you had the Tailored Life slash choose Hard podcast. You did a thousand episodes of that. Which, by the way, is. That's a bunch of episodes. I was joking with you before we got on the show. We have a little bit of technical difficulties. I was like, we probably have 2,000 plus podcast episodes under our belt between the two of us. I know. I've done over a thousand at this point as well. Why did you stop that podcast and start and move towards the Tailored Transformations podcast.
- [18:55]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, so we had. So basically, I had the Tailored Life podcast, and then I had shifted that to choose hard. And Taylor Transformations is a completely separate podcast.
- [19:04]
Matt Reynolds
Separate, right, Exactly. Completely separate feed.
- [19:06]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. So we started that just to One of my coaches. She's director of coaching now, but she does reviews with clients. She talks to them a lot or members. So it was like, hey, you should do this so we can let them share their stories. The Tailored Life podcast actually started as it was called Mind versus Muscle. And this is. It was myself and another trainer at the gym that I was friends with. And it was just this really cool dynamic where he's my best friend, he was in my wedding, and he's like this tall, skinny, black dude that got jacked. I was this short, chubby, white kid that got really lean. I love the science. He loves to poke fun at me. It was like this funny dynamic because we would do these Facebook lives, and somebody who's like, you should start a podcast. We're like, okay, let's do it.
- [19:44]
Matt Reynolds
So what year was that that you started the podcast?
- [19:47]
Cody McBroom
Oh, my gosh. So long ago. It had been 2014 or 15.
- [19:51]
Matt Reynolds
Wow, that is really early, dude. That's.
- [19:53]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, it was way in the beginning.
- [19:55]
Matt Reynolds
You got in early. Yeah, we started at 17.
- [19:57]
Cody McBroom
Yeah. And we would do, like, one episode every couple weeks or something like that. It was very.
- [20:01]
Matt Reynolds
Oh, so it wasn't even that. Gosh, a th. Yeah. Well, that makes sense, I'd guess, of 2014 and doing a thousand episodes, which you wrapped up, what, a few months ago, right?
- [20:09]
Cody McBroom
Or. Yeah, probably a month or two ago. And so, like, we did that, and it ramped up to, you know, be like, two times a week. And then he moved further north, I moved south, and it was so hard to meet up. And then I started my company outside the gym. And so he was like, man, this is. Content's always been your thing. Like, you should just take it. And so that's when I took it over and I just made it the Tailored Life podcast, which is really just because Tailored Coaching Method is a company. And the idea of Tailored Life is you can create a life that you deserve and that you want by design based on, you know, the decisions you make and the goals you said. Yeah, I just named it Real Quick because it was like, Tailored Coaching Method Podcast is really long. I don't want to do that. Tailored Life. Let's do that. And the thing was, though, is I didn't feel this, like, people resonated with Tailored Life as much as I did as an entrepreneur. And unless you were an entrepreneur, I don't think you really. You didn't get it as much. You just assumed it's like, well, tailored coaching, tailored life.
- [21:02]
Matt Reynolds
Yep.
- [21:02]
Cody McBroom
And when I was getting closer to episode 1000, I had noticed, and you probably noticed this just being in the industry for so long too. You start talking about more than just lifting weights and rep counts and macros for me and stuff.
- [21:14]
Matt Reynolds
Oh, yeah, for sure.
- [21:16]
Cody McBroom
I found myself talking about science of building and developing self discipline and self belief. And we call self formation is like this process we take people through and we teach them self control, then self discipline, self belief, which leads to self respect and confidence. And it's this transformation process. In the conversations I'm having with people is this story of difficulty and these journeys they've been on. And I had interviewed so many fitness people about fitness stuff that I was just getting to a point where, although it'll always be the backbone, I wanted to be able to use a name that described more kind of a bigger umbrella term. And choose hard was just picking, kind of getting traction with a lot of people who follow me and all of our clients, they would do stuff and send me a DM and, you know, hashtag choose hard in the dm. And I was like, this is so cool. They're sending me PRs and saying, like, look at the hard I did today. And so that's cool.
- [22:05]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah.
- [22:05]
Cody McBroom
So I was like, you know what? I'm gonna change the podcast. I'm gonna shift it. I wanted to get a better. It was just, you know, after so many episodes too, I was like, I want a new intro. I hit up this music composer and I was like, hey, I want a Wu Tang vibe for this intro. And I want some, like, karate chopping in the background. And he put it together and it was just. It was cool. And a rebrand is exciting, you know.
- [22:26]
Matt Reynolds
So I think one of the things that I've dealt with for the past almost 10 years now is when you are the subject matter expert, it doesn't matter. And it sounds like, dude, I've read everything there's to read. I've taught, you know, anatomy and physiology 1 and 2 and kinesiology, biomechanics at the college level, all that stuff. I'm a sponge for knowledge. I don't care how much you know about any individual topic. You can only talk about that topic so many hours. And so for me, it was the same thing. It's why when I first started the Barbelogic, podcast. It was just same thing, me and my podcast partner and we had a good riff going back and forth and I was the play by play guy and he was the color man, would insert the jokes and we did every podcast, every topic you could possibly think about about fitness, everything I knew, everything, I didn't hold anything back. And then you start getting to the point where you're like, I don't know what I'm going to talk about for the next several weeks. It gets difficult, right? And so yeah, you bring on guests, they can tell story. And so again for us, what we found is that we map our clients life cycle in the online coaching business. And we saw that there were hundreds of people who had been clients that were in the process of becoming coaches. Going through our academy or other academy, getting other education or certifications, becoming coaches. At first they thought of it as, I just want to be able to coach my spouse or my kids or my neighbors or my people I go to church with or whatever. And then they started to really love it and do well and the business would take off for them. But then they were like, I don't know how to run a business. And yeah, that's how almost every CrossFit gym goes bad is you get some accountant who. And maybe accountant's not even the. Well, accountants works fine there too. They do perfectly good at their job and as an accountant, they fall in love with CrossFit and they think, you know what I should do? I should stop being an accountant and I should own a CrossFit gym. It's like, no, it's not the same thing. You're now a business owner. So what's happened over time for us is that I've stepped away from co hosting the lifter based podcast. And my CXO and COO do that. They're fantastic together. And my passion's in the business side, like how do I help up and coming young coaches succeed in business when we've grown to an eight figure business at this point from a completely bootstrapped business in 2016. And so that's where my passion is now. I'm going to tell every lesson that I know how to tell in business and at some point there will be an end date to that as well. Right. And so that's the thing. I think one of the nice things about what you're doing with the transformations piece is there are always more people to transform and every person has a unique story. And so you could do this forever telling that story and transformations are powerful because People will hear a story and maybe for somebody it doesn't resonate well with them, but it completely resonates with somebody else. But then next week you have another person on the show and it's the opposite, right? It's like, whoa, this is, that's me. I'm listening to me, I'm hearing a story. Only I haven't made the transformation yet. And so I imagine that's got to be a pretty good marketing tactic without making it. I don't wanna make it sleazy at all for your business. Right. I assume, like, as people see the number of clients you've taken through transformations, that has to be a great lead generator for the business. So let's dive in the business a little bit. How has the podcast helped there? And then what does the business look like for you today, day in and day out?
- [25:34]
Cody McBroom
You know, it's a great lead generation source and it's a great way to sell people into coaching. With us, we started it because one of the director of coaching on my staff, she's a phenomenal coach and I had her on the podcast. She loved podcasting and so she came up with the idea because she was like, I really want to do podcasting, but I'm not going to start my own podcast. So like, what do you think about this? And I'm like, yeah, that'd be great outlet for you. And then it started really shifting because funny enough, the person who so perfect example, the lady who came in last week to do it live in studio, she was riding her electric scooter down the road in my neighborhood. And my truck, I actually sold the truck a year ago, but I had a black matte black wrap with like, I took all the Chevy logos off and put like red tailored on. It was really sick. So she saw the truck in my driveway, I'm going on my night walk and I just hear Cody and she's like just mobbing on this electric scooter. And I'm like, hey, have a 30 minute conversation with her in the dark. And sent her a text. I was like, hey, no rush, no pressure. Go listen to this podcast of this lady, her name's Janie. And she listened to that. It completely gave her the self confidence and belief to even start the path that she needed because she's a shift worker, breast cancer survivor and she has three kids. She was like, this isn't in the cards for me. I'm like, just listen to this podcast. She ends up signing up year later. Now she's here doing it right and so it's a really powerful thing. And even the podcast that I have in, I have found that people rarely go to the show notes on Apple or Spotify and click Apply for coaching. Sure, usually they go to Google and type us in or they go to my Instagram or whatever. But the amount of people on the call with the coach initially joining our program say it was the podcast that sold me, it's insane. And it's not because we have this like constant call to action. It's because I'm educating on the podcast for up to an hour, sometimes more. And if you're a coach out there and you can riff on nutrition and training for an hour straight, episode after episode after episode, you know you're. And that's something that gains trust with people and they see that you have expertise and authority.
- [27:38]
Matt Reynolds
Exactly right. Yep.
- [27:39]
Cody McBroom
And this is where I love podcasting too, because on instagram and on TikTok and we do have to do more training, nutrition, bite sized stuff because that's what reels them in. That's what they think they want. And then the podcast gives me a chance to explain and educate them on what they need. Right. And that's what ends up selling them because you have a chance to show your authority and expertise.
- [27:58]
Matt Reynolds
I also like it when guys like us, when our business is a service based business, we don't have to make money off content. And I'm sure we both have made some money off content, but because that's not the main driving force of the income is not content, then you can put out all this content for free. That does exactly like you said. It establishes you as an expert in the field. You gain trust over time. I mean, I think about the podcast that I listen to. I've got a handful of podcasts that I listen to every single week. I feel like I know the hosts. I've never met the hosts. As a matter of fact, I actually went to a big summit just a couple. The All In Summit. There's a podcast called All In. It's like three tech billionaires and one guy that's worth a couple hundred million and they give him a hard time for being the poor guy on the show. And then I got to go to this summit and I'm dude, Elon Musk was there. Peter Thiel was there.
- [28:44]
Cody McBroom
Crazy.
- [28:44]
Matt Reynolds
It was. Now I'm in the same room with those guys and I'm going up to the hosts. We're having Back to the Future night. Everybody's dressed up like Marty or whatever and we're having Back to the Future night. We're having drinks and hors d'oeuvres, and I'm making inside jokes to the hosts, and they're laughing, but they're looking at me. And I'm sure you've had the same. I get the same thing. Like, I'll be at a Delta lounge in an airport, and somebody will come up and make an inside joke to me about my life. I'm like, I don't know who they are. And then I reckon I realize, well, they know exactly who I am because I've done this for a thousand hours. And you can't fake it that long, right? Like, you can come in and fake it for 20 episodes, you can't. But you can't fake it for a thousand at all.
- [29:23]
Cody McBroom
And it's really cool with, like, when it happens and you're just being a normal person. Like, there's a couple of situations for me, I mean, it's happened at the grocery store. It's happened at. There was one time we were at this random grocery store, and we were walking out, and a lady came up and noticed me and said she listen to podcasts. My daughter was with me, and my daughter thought it was the coolest thing in the world. She was like, how does she know you, dad? Like, and the lady was thanking me. It was really, really cool. There was another time I was at my wife's big country fan, and we went to a Luke Combs concert because I was really good friends with his trainer. And so the guy brought us down to the backstage and everything. And. But when we walked in, we went to get beer, and she went to the bathroom. So I'm, like, holding two beers, and this lady walks up to me and she's like, I listen to your podcast, and I'm sitting there with two beers, and she's like, you're such a normal guy. And I'm like, absolutely. That's the cool part about this.
- [30:13]
Matt Reynolds
Also. What are you doing with these two beers exactly?
- [30:15]
Cody McBroom
It fits my macros. Don't worry.
- [30:16]
Matt Reynolds
That's right. Made it work. I counted as carbs. Tell me a little bit about the business model now that you built this really giant content library. I'm sure you're like me, very proud of the content library. That's our life's work, right? You've been able to put out this amount of content that you know the stats of people that start podcasts, and they make it 10 episodes. And it's just so hard to be sustainable long term. You've Been able to do this. You've done it for 10 years on podcasting alone. What does the actual business look like now? What's the business model for you guys?
- [30:46]
Cody McBroom
I mean, choose hard. It's a hard business model in some ways. It's completely, I mean, hence the name tailored. It's a completely individualized coaching experience. Training and nutrition or just nutrition. A lot of our clients do just nutrition. It's probably the majority. And there's been so many times where, you know, I could have gone the cheaper route or the group fitness route, and I've just always stuck to this highly individual, a little bit more expensive, but very personable one on one coaching model. Because when I first shifted, it was, you know, similar to you. You got tired of the in gym space. It was so expensive, all this stuff. One of the things I experienced a lot of was Groupon came out and was this big thing and there was all these boot campers that would pay for a Groupon and then $25.
- [31:27]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah. Leave in 30 days and then you.
- [31:28]
Cody McBroom
Wouldn'T see them for a month. And then another Groupon comes out and they come back.
- [31:31]
Matt Reynolds
That's right.
- [31:31]
Cody McBroom
And I was just like, I don't want to do any of this because I have to program for this person. Like, this person has a different stature, a different posture, longer femurs, you know, bigger wingspan, whatever it is. And then this person's diet needs to be different than this person and their lifestyle or their culture. And so I wanted to be able to do something so tailored to the person that it spawned the company. And so now we have eight coaches. We're getting ready to bring on another intern. We have a Chief Science Officer, Dr. Brandon Roberts, so he's actually a fitness and researcher for the Army. And then he works with us as our chief science officer. Kind of like a backbone of, you know, stamp of approval of everything we're doing. He does some content with me and such as.
- [32:06]
Matt Reynolds
Well, sure.
- [32:07]
Cody McBroom
And then just some people on the back end that help me with things. But it's really just focused on 100% individualized coaching, as much as we can deliver that and not overfill rosters. My coaches have been with me, I mean, some of them for years now. It's, it's a family. And I'm kind of in this middle place. I feel where there's these companies, I'm not going to say any names that are very massive. A capital investor comes in, puts a bunch of money on it. Very cheap coaching. They cycle coaches that work for them. In and out. And then there's the one off influencer people that just have a handful of clients. But there's not that many people doing what we do at a high level and scaling beyond a certain point. And I had to realize at a certain point that we scaled pretty high. And then it was like, just stuck. And I'm like, I have to break the business.
- [32:52]
Matt Reynolds
Yep.
- [32:52]
Cody McBroom
I had to get new systems. I had to give people raises, hire new people and really change the way we were doing things to be able to break through that and continue moving up. You know, it's been a journey.
- [33:03]
Matt Reynolds
But when did that occur, by the way? How long ago was that where you kind of hit the wall and had to sort of reorganize everything? And is that in the last year or two or.
- [33:11]
Cody McBroom
I would say two years ago. And me being the stubborn entrepreneur and male that I am, I. I sat in that for a little bit, just thinking grinding and grit would get through it.
- [33:20]
Matt Reynolds
Sure should have been three years ago.
- [33:22]
Cody McBroom
Took me a while. Yeah, exactly. And then we start shifting. We started making a lot of changes to systems and all that stuff to really grow through that. And this year is really where we're starting to grow through that finally, because we implemented those systems and we tracked those systems and I had put some people in places and we had some new offers. And so now we have this coaching model. We have our tailored collective, which is a cheap group that you can be a part of for educational purposes. And then our clients get it for free so we can educate them on the discipline and the self control and those things as well. And then I actually have an app as well called the Tailored Trainer, which is just daily workouts. And that's kind of like. It started as a WordPress portal for people who worked with us on nutrition that couldn't afford to do both training and nutrition. And I was like, I want you to do something other than Orange Theory. Like, let me give you something to do.
- [34:09]
Matt Reynolds
Right.
- [34:09]
Cody McBroom
And. And that grew. And so then I ended up investing with some developers and actually creating an app and a code and all that stuff to have that running. And now for me, I really just, I look at it as like my main role is being the brand, you know, ambassador, the poster boy, the content creator, kind of leading the pack. And then I have people on my staff that really help me keep the coaches educated on the latest research and doing this coaching thing the right way.
- [34:34]
Matt Reynolds
If somebody signs up at the website, do they get paired with a specific coach for them or does the team of coaches. Do the team of coaches work with every single client or does a client work with one particular coach?
- [34:45]
Cody McBroom
One particular coach, yeah.
- [34:47]
Matt Reynolds
Same for us.
- [34:47]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, everything is one on one. We have like, obviously like our group community and group chats and stuff like that for. I mean, really, we just have. We have one group chat just for women. And it's just like absolutely insane. It's like a cult in there, which I love, but.
- [34:57]
Matt Reynolds
Right.
- [34:58]
Cody McBroom
Everything else is just. It's strictly one on one. Because I just think that, you know, although we can share similar principles, like there's methods that are going to shift and change depending on the person, whether we're talking about them physically or psychologically or their environment, their lifestyle experience level, all that stuff.
- [35:13]
Matt Reynolds
So then when somebody signs up, how do you pair them with the right coach? Is there a questionnaire that they fill out and are you trying to figure out, like, okay, what are their goals, what coaches have openings. This coach seems like the best fit for this person. There's some process there, I'm sure, to get them paired with the right coach.
- [35:28]
Cody McBroom
So there's a few things that make this really easy. The first thing is, yes, they apply and we have a questionnaire. And I can read through this application with a couple of other lead roles on my team and decide who is probably the best fit and who has room on the roster. But then also, too, we're gonna actually start doing this soon because it is time for that. But we've never ran ads before. It's all been organic growth over time. Which means that if anybody's applying for coaching, it's because the content really resonated with them. Or they Google searched reverse dieting something and I'm all over Google with reverse dieting. So they saw the case studies, they read my articles, and that trust has already formed. And because of that, it's a lot easier to pair them with really anybody on team because my team has really just in. Yours might be the same. Some of them were clients, some of them hired me for mentorship and then became coaches of mine. But all of them sought out being on the team. You know, I've put out, you know, we're hiring a coach and we've gotten countless resumes and stuff. But the people that are with us on the staff are all people that sought us out because they agreed with my values, my principles. The mission of Taylor coaching method. It wasn't because they were like, well, I just want to be an online coach and you look like you're popular. Let me work for you, you know, and so if the person applying likes me or likes the brand, likes the values, and we try to be really authentic with that. So it's obvious. I know they're going to like anybody on my staff. So it makes it really easy.
- [36:47]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah, I think we have like 60 coaches, 65 coaches that work for us. Now, on top of we license out our software to other professional coaches as well, we've got another 300 coaches or so doing that. But I think one of the things for us, it's the same thing, the core values and what they believe in. And that sort of stuff is not just a poster that gets hung on the wall. It's what we live out every single day. And that part is the same. One of the things that's been helpful for us in the strength world, and I think in strength, it's a little bit more difficult than nutrition because there's lots of injuries and there's different equipment to work with. And I don't have a barbell. I just have dumbbells and kettlebells. Or I've got barbells at home or at the big Box Jam or I've blown out my back or I've got a bad knee or whatever. Okay. So we have coaches that specialize in certain demographic types. Right. So we have a lot of wives that join after their husband has completely changed his life for a year or two, but they're still kind of terrified of weights. So we've got female coaches that walk through that with them, or we have coaches that focus on postpartum moms. I don't have any idea how to coach a postpartum. And I do, but I don't know what it's like to be postpartum. Or we've got a surgeon that only works with clients over 50, 50, 60s, and 70s, and he's the best in the world at it. And so I think that's the point where there is a real continuity to the way we coach and the core values we use when we coach. I think really what you're looking for is coming back to what you talked about earlier, is that what we're really trying to do is build trust and relationship. And so for us, it's like, I want my client's coach to be the type of person they would want to go have a beer with or a coffee with or whatever. And so that they genuinely like the coach. And so. And we do a pretty good job of that. And so it's, you know, and we do the same thing. Like, there's a survey. And we actually, at this point, you can kind of get matched with a coach. You can pre see like, here's your top eight matches. And you can kind of go in and read their bios and do that. It's pretty cool.
- [38:38]
Cody McBroom
That's cool.
- [38:39]
Matt Reynolds
And then we also have an incredible customer service team that also does the same thing, like pours over. I used to do that every single time. And every time we had a client sign up, I would look through the read the entire questionnaire and figure out what coach they get. I'm really glad I don't do that anymore. But I have a great team that does that. Actually probably does it far better than I did back in those days, so. And it sounds like you got a really similar system to us with probably a little bigger focus on nutrition. We have nutrition as well. I'll just be honest. We don't do it as well as we do strength and conditioning. It seems like you found a very similar niche as usual, that it's this kind of white glove, concierge, personalized coaching that people can get. And I think the thing for me that drives me nuts in this industry is that the general world, when they hear the term online coaching, they still just think like, give me a template, give me a program, give me a diet, give me a thing. It's like, dude, that's not what we do. That's not what you do.
- [39:30]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, well. And you know, like to your point of the trust thing, there's actually a really good book. I think it's called Just Trust, but it's by a. Some doctor psychologist. After reading through it, like, it really just boils down to make them feel. Feel like you understand them. Like you actually understand them. So with my coaches and your coaches, as you're saying, like our values, principles, they all align, but we all have different experiences. And the experiences are what makes somebody feel like you can relate because you actually do relate.
- [39:56]
Matt Reynolds
That's right.
- [39:57]
Cody McBroom
And so that's what helps build that trust.
- [39:58]
Matt Reynolds
That's one thing. It has to be authentic still.
- [40:00]
Cody McBroom
It does.
- [40:01]
Matt Reynolds
Right. So you don't actually have to truly understand a person yet, but you do actually have to care.
- [40:06]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, 100%.
- [40:07]
Matt Reynolds
And they have to believe that you care.
- [40:09]
Cody McBroom
Yeah.
- [40:10]
Matt Reynolds
So we have the same thing kind of this trust equation that we use. We look at ability, integrity and benevolence where people are like, do your clients believe that you have the ability to get them to their goal? And one, you better be able to do that. Will you do what you say you're going to do. So, like, can you get them there? Will you? And then do you care? Those three things build trust or erode trust over time.
- [40:32]
Cody McBroom
And so, yeah, one of the things that I see in the industry, especially from my perspective, because nutrition is really what we've kind of niched down on. It's our main thing is that even for myself, I've used macros so many times, but anybody can calculate macros. And if somebody looked at me and was like, well, do you want to weigh your food and track macros for rest of your life? I'd be like, hell no. There's no way. Like, that doesn't make any sense. So why would I expect my clients to continue doing it forever? And so we really use this kind of hybrid model where it's like, it's a roadmap. It's learning how to track and become aware. Because you need to have the understanding and awareness of food.
- [41:01]
Matt Reynolds
Sure.
- [41:02]
Cody McBroom
And not just the calories of it, but the psychology around why you're choosing certain things, why you have certain cravings, why, you know, as we go through that fat loss phase, we use these metrics and macros and tools, and then eventually we're going to slowly weed them out so that you can be truly. I don't like the word intuitive, but mindful and intentional. Because intuitively we all just want beer and Ben and Jerry's and whatever.
- [41:22]
Matt Reynolds
Sure.
- [41:22]
Cody McBroom
Of course you can be intentional and make the right mindful decisions without having to weigh your food or track. And we can kind of stay in these ranges and let it fluctuate. But there is a lot of psychology aspect to that. And so we really focus on that aspect because our clientele is fat loss. Like, we work with people who want to lose fat. That is the primary thing.
- [41:40]
Matt Reynolds
Yep.
- [41:41]
Cody McBroom
A lot of it is trust. A lot of it is understanding and relating to them and knowing their experiences and. And where they're at in their life so that we can mold it to them. And that's why we called it tailored coaching method. But I think there's so many nutrition coaching companies online that unfortunately make a bad name. We get a lot of people that come to us after have trying at least one, if not more. Right. And they've been trying to diet for three or four years.
- [42:02]
Matt Reynolds
Yeah.
- [42:02]
Cody McBroom
And it sucks because they come to us with this guard up at first because they had this terrible experience. And sometimes I hear about the experience and I'm like, that's not even coaching. That's not coaching at all.
- [42:11]
Matt Reynolds
No, that's Right, that's right. You're just selling a program, selling a template, selling a diet, the same thing. So.
- [42:16]
Cody McBroom
Exactly.
- [42:16]
Matt Reynolds
Dude, thank you so much for being on the show. Tell people where to find you and, you know, what do you want to promote? I'm sure you would love for people to consume the content again. That's a great place to start. Where's the best place to send them tailored coaching?
- [42:27]
Cody McBroom
Method.com is the website. And then on Instagram, Cody McBroom. The podcast is Choose Hard now, but you can also type in Tailored Life. Podcast will pop up, but if you go to Google and type in either the company or my name, there's so much free content. I'm not promoting anything. I'm not like launching anything. I don't have anything like that. We coach and that's what we do. So we always tell people, go consume the free content. There's so much out there and go learn.
- [42:49]
Matt Reynolds
I just said that so many times. I love it. It's just like we're cut from the same clothes. Yeah, for sure. I love it. And yeah. And you win the trust, right? And they listen to your content. Win the trust, and then some percentage of those people will filter down and become clients, which is pretty cool.
- [43:02]
Cody McBroom
Yeah, that's exactly it.
- [43:04]
Matt Reynolds
Awesome, brother. Thank you so much for being on the show. I hope you guys have a great weekend. I'll see you next Friday. And I think if you start listening to Cody's podcast, I'll be on it as a guest on his podcast here in the next few weeks as well, so.
- [43:16]
Cody McBroom
That's right.
- [43:16]
Matt Reynolds
Thanks again for being on the show, brother.
- [43:17]
Cody McBroom
Thank you.
- [43:18]
Matt Reynolds
Have a good.