How Jason Phillips Built a 7-Figure Nutrition Coaching Business
Today on the Healthpreneur Podcast we have an interview with the one and only Jason Phillips. Jason created a nutrition coaching platform that has been used to help tens of thousands of people. And he’s done some pretty amazing things along the way, like scaling his business to over $100,000 per month in about two and a half years. Just for the record, it took me about three years to crack $100,000 per year—he’s doing $100,000 per month.
So Jason is doing some really cool things with his business. But he’s also just a great, heart-centered guy. He’s in it for the long haul and he wants to impact a lot of lives. You’ll see that one of the big themes in our discussion is the journey. There’s no magic pill.
Jason is also going to talk about how he evolved from a scatter-brained, chasing-shiny-object type of entrepreneur, to being much more focused and driven based on his vision. Definitely worth a listen, there are a lot of great nuggets in here.
In this episode Jason and I discuss:
- How to get away from working 16-20 hour days
- Replicating yourself
- Why it’s called nutritional coaching
- Deadlines
- Speaking gigs
- Delayed Gratification
4:00 – 9:00 – Jason’s California trip and his certification program
9:00 – 15:00 – Replicating yourself
15:00 – 22:00 – The evolution of Jason’s certification
22:00 – 27:00 – Giving without expectation, the marshmallow study
28:00 – 36:00 – There’s no magic pill
36:00 – 40:00 – The rapid-five questions
Transcription
Hey guys, what’s going on? Yuri here. Welcome to the HP podcast—that’s the Healthpreneur podcast, not Hewlett-Packard. Today is the first of the month, which really doesn’t mean much… But I hope where you are there’s not a lot of snow and it’s not too cold, because things are gonna get pretty nasty soon in Toronto.
Today we’re talking with my main man Jason Phillips, who has helped tens of thousands of people achieve their goals through his nutrition coaching platform. He’s also created the first nutrition certification that will bridge that gap from knowledge to application, and this is gonna be an amazing interview.
Jason has scaled his business to over $100,000 per month in less than 30 months, so if you’re not so great at math like I am, that would be … two and a half years, right? I wish I had done that well over two and a half years—I was a very slow and stubborn learner, so it took me about three years, I think, to crack $100,000 a year. He’s doing $100,000 a month.
So he’s got some things that he’s doing that are just phenomenal, and the cool thing about Jason is that he’s such a great, heart-centered guy. He’s in this for the long game, he’s in this to impact a lot of people’s lives, and you’re going to see that one of the big themes of our conversation is the journey.
There’s no magic pill guys, there’s no secret. I mean, there’s a secret sauce, but there’s no overnight success. And we’re gonna keep hammering this home.
You’re going see some really cool moments, these reminders in our conversation. Jason’s going to talk about where he came from as a very scattered, chasing-shiny-object type of entrepreneur, to being much more focused and driven based on his current vision.
So there’s a lot of really good take aways from this interview. With that said, let’s bring Jason onto the show and let’s get into it.
Jason, my man, what is up? Welcome to the Healthpreneur Podcast.
Jason: Dude, what’s going on? I’m excited to be here, excited to chat again and see what kind of value I can add to everybody.
Yuri: Yeah, I’m sure you’ll provide a little bit of value, so not to worry. If you’re listening, get a pen and paper out. You may want to listen at .5 speed on this, or we can just speak really slowly.
Anyway, enough shenanigans. Jason, what’s new and exciting with you these days?
Jason’s California trip and his certification program
Jason: Dude, I just got back from California last night. I spent some time out there with some really high level dudes—some guys that are coming to your event next weekend, Ben Stelmani, and Ben Kapolski, Steve Weatherford—and we were all at Bedros’ event.
So that was really fun. For me, right now the really exciting stuff is getting the word out about the Nutritional Coaching Institute—which is my new certification program that just launched, super under the radar. But I truly believe it’s the next big thing in helping people get into the passion that is the career of nutrition coaching.
Yuri: That’s awesome. Let’s go down this path, because I think it’s a really interesting model with what you’ve done. But before we go there, for those listening—we’re talking to fitness professionals, health and wellness entrepreneurs. They might be thinking, “Well this sounds a little bit like PN,” like precision nutrition. What’s the difference?
Jason: Yeah man, and first and foremost, I have massive amounts of respect for PN. It’s not to say in any way that I don’t believe in what PN teaches.
What I started noticing, and the whole genesis of the project was—people were coming to me and saying, “Hey, I’m PN, but I’m still struggling working with clients.” And to be fair, I haven’t gone through their cert, but what I gathered was that the application piece is really what was missed.
And so even when I thought back to my personal trainer days—NSCA, NASM—it was a lot of knowledge but not a lot of … “This is how you actually work with a client. This is how you retain a client. When a client goes through really intense struggles, this is how you get them out of it. When a client goes MIA, this is how you approach it.” You know?
And so the certification is actually predicated on two unique pieces, and it’s a two day course. Day one is science, and obviously you have to be well rooted in the science and physiology of nutrition.
But day two is application, and it’s, “This is how you work with a client. This is how you intake a client, this is what you learn from the intake. This is how you build a prescription, this is how you adjust the prescription.”
This will show you how to ultimately get the client the results that, when we talk about having social proof, are so important to building an actual business.
Yuri: That’s huge, that’s such a big point for all of you guys listening. I mean, we’re in the day and age where, if you really wanted to learn about nutrition, you could spend the hours scouring the web to find the stuff. But I think where a lot of courses and certifications missed the boat, as you mentioned, is the application/implementation.
I think it’s the biggest value add, because you’re showing people how to build their business, right?
Jason: Absolutely.
Yuri: That’s massively important, so that’s great.
Jason: Yeah, and I mean if you’re not achieving results, then you shouldn’t be in the industry. And understanding science is great, but like applying science, that’s where results live, in my opinion.
Yuri: Yeah, there’s no point in debating over which methodology is the best if it’s not serving anyone. Just get out there and do it and help people.
Jason: Exactly, dude. And that’s it, I mean that’s been my being from day one—how can I help you?
And people are like, “Well what method do you teach? Do you teach keto, or do you teach carb cycling, or do you teach fasting?” Well we teach you about all of them. We teach you about every single method that’s out there and we kind of fill you in with, “Hey, it’s tools in a toolbox, and when you’re working with a client, this is how you know which tool to use.”
And I think it clears up a lot of confusion, which is really exciting.
Yuri: Yeah, that’s awesome. So the reason you’re kind of well-versed on speaking about this is because you’ve built a large coaching practice on the nutrition side. Now, talk to us about the model—like how you really built this out, because I think this is really brilliant.
Jason: Yeah, so it’s really funny—when I got in the industry and I started talking to all the “experts,” they were like, “Dude, your model, it’s not gonna work. It’s one-on-one, you’re trading dollars for hours.”
And I agreed with them, because that was the general premise, but it’s the only way my neurotic head knew how to work with a client. I cannot write an ebook to save my life. If you put 20 people in a room and you said, “Write a prescription for them,” the first thing I’m gonna do is I’m gonna want to interview each of the 20 people and I’m gonna want to find out as much information about each one as possible, and I’m gonna write 20 different prescriptions.
That’s just how my mind works.
And so it was never a money project, it was always a passion project. My goal was, “I’m gonna help as many people as I can and I will spend 20 hours a day coaching these individuals if that’s what it takes.” And sure enough, that’s actually what it ended up as.
At my peak, I was personally handling 167 clients, and my model is predicated on communication. And so my clients have full access to me, text and email, and I was actually having a 20 minute phone call with each client every 10 to 12 days.
Replicating yourself
When I say I was working 16 and 20 hour days, 16 of those hours were actually spent on the phone. I would be doing upwards of 30 phone calls per day. But again, it’s the only way I knew how.
Now, obviously that is not sustainable, burnout is inevitable. Even though I like to think I’m Superman, I’m not. And what I did then was I brought on my first coach. I had a client that was a really high performer, I could tell through our conversation that she was fascinated by what we were doing.
And so I just kind of brought up, I said, “Hey, would you like to learn what I do and just learn the methods behind it? And maybe one day, if it interests you enough, you’ll take on some clients.”
She’s like, “Oh my god, I would love that.” Awesome!
So I did a three month mentorship with her, which turned out to actually be a product in and of itself, but we did a three month mentorship, she really was comfortable.
At the end of three months, I was like, “Awesome, we’ll get you some clients, but I’m gonna oversee everything.” So basically she implemented what I was guiding. At the end of those three months, she was like, “Hey, I’m ready to do this on my own.” And so … The hardest part for me, admittedly, was that trust, right?
“Oh my god, I’m not gonna have my hands on this. I can’t believe I’m doing this. My name is on it.” But I had to have that trust.
Fortunately, she is a rockstar employee and she crushed it. So, because that first one went so well, I had more and more inquiries, because we’re just servicing more and more clients, and I needed to scale my team.
And that process was actually March 2016, so just what … a year and a half ago? That was my first coach, I now employ 10 coaches and three admin staff. We’re getting ready to hire an 11th coach, and so we now have a business that services around a thousand people every month.
Yuri: That’s awesome. So there’s a lot of different, kind of, injection points that I want to talk about here. So there’s a lot of people in the online space who are online trainers, right? So they’re very much like you were, I guess more on the fitness side, but even on the nutrition side as well.
Jason: Sure, yeah, it’s getting really popular.
Yuri: Yeah, totally. I think the first step in terms of replicating yourself or cloning yourself is having some type of methodology, a unique method or a framework that you can give to someone else to follow. So when you were working with clients, were you aware of that, that you had this unique methodology? Or was it something where you said, “You know what, maybe I should start to document how I work with clients, so that eventually I can teach someone else how to do this as well”?
Jason: So I was aware that I was unique—not that I had one unique method, but unique in the sense that I didn’t have one unique method.
And so when I looked around what I was seeing was people were saying, “Well I’m a keto coach,” or “I’m a carb cycle coach,” or “I’m a flexible dieting coach.”
What I recognize—and truthfully this comes from 13 years of being in the industry and being my own guinea pig—is that all of the approaches work when applied to the right client, and all of the approaches don’t work when applied to the wrong client.
And so my method was, “Hey, I need to match you up with the right approach for you.” And the real crux of it was … “I need to be there for you, man.” Because nutrition coaching is not about numbers, it’s not about food. Something else is driving the inability to be healthy.
If you and I surveyed ten people today and we put three meals in front of them, one was a Big Mac, one was a salad with salmon on it, and one was a pizza, they would easily identify that the salmon and salad was the right choice.
Yet when they go out with their buddies, they’re eating the pizza or the Big Mac. And so there’s something that’s driving them that’s not allowing them to make the right choices, and that’s really the crux of coaching . That’s why my certification is called nutritional coaching.
And so that was really the crux of it. Obviously the initial prescription … You had to learn about the individual, identify where they were at, and I knew that was the foundation of why my method was successful—identifying where the person is now, what they need to move forward.
So I was kind of teaching the coach the art, and then kind of teaching the coach, “Okay, this is how you do the identification.” The actual, real, tangible results-based stuff.
Yuri: Nice. So in some way, shape or form, there was some kind of secret sauce … Which is the way you’re able to duplicate yourself.
So, when you get to a point where you’re working 20 hours a day, you can’t do that forever. Was there a point where you kinda like just took a day off and you were like, “Shit, I gotta figure this out.”
Was there a thought in your mind that said, “How do I get other people to do this for me? How do I clone myself?” Was there ever a thought like that, that was the impetus to developing this coaching institute?
Jason: To be fair, the initial transition of hiring a coach was never based on my own feeling of, “Oh my gosh, I need to clone myself.” It was actually 100% predicated on me realizing that, “Hey, this person’s really interested in what I’m doing.”
I feel like I’ve built something that’s really unique, I feel like the methods that are out there are flawed, what if I build other people into my methodology? Because I genuinely want to see the world a better place.
The evolution of Jason’s certification
If I die tomorrow, I know that there’s people out there that are using my methods now and the world, the next generation, can be a better place because of that. I mean, that’s literally the root of all of my thinking, and so that was actually how and why I hired my first coaches.
Now, as the business has evolved over the last year, yes, that thought crossed my mind where I’m like, “Okay, is my business ever going to get to a point where I don’t need to coach clients and I can go out and change the world purely with the methods?”
Because I believe if people are certified in the methods, then the next generation is in a great place.
And so that was kind of a genesis of the certification. I’m like, “Great, I’ve got ten people on my team. We service a thousand people every month.”
Our goal as a team is to hit two thousand people … But that’s two thousand people, dude. The world’s got billions and billions of people, and most of them need nutritional help. Our team will never be big enough to service them. If I really want to create impact and I want to create legacy, then that means I need to create something that’s serviceable way outside of my team, and that was the impetus for the certification.
Yuri: Yeah, it’s smart though. I think it’s a really important thinking exercise for a lot of people, because … If you’re creating products, it’s a little bit different, because you have the leverage through those products.
But I think if you’re someone who’s doing the one-on-one, you have to really have to kinda step back—or in your case have someone be like, “Hey, I want to learn from you”—and really think about like … What is it that you’re doing?
This is exactly what I did when I first came online—I asked myself, “What am I doing with my clients, day in and day out, that I can turn into a product?”
And at the time—I didn’t even think about certifications—but it could’ve been, “How do I create a method around my way of training people that I could certify people in?”
So, maybe there’s a bit of ambiguity or maybe it’s just a little bit too big for people to kinda grasp, but I think it’s a really, really powerful question to ask. I mean, like you’ve seen, it’s massive leverage and you’re able to grow so much more quickly and transform a lot of people’s lives.
Jason: Yeah, it definitely is growth, there’s a lot of growth that comes with doing it. And if I’m being completely fair, it was a very daunting task. It scared the crap out of me.
I’ll be super candid, when I launched the whole idea for the certification, I made a Facebook post about it. And I was like, “Guys, here’s the foundation of why I’m building this certification. I’m thinking about doing it at the end of the summer. If you’re interested, let me know.”
And I really was trying to gauge interest. That was the whole reason I made that Facebook post, and it kinda blew up in my face. I legitimately thought ten, fifteen people maybe would write back, like “Yeah, super interested.” Because I don’t have a huge following, but I’ve got a very loyal following.
Dude—160 responses later, I was like “Holy crap, I need to build this yesterday,” because these people don’t have the solutions they need. And I was like, “Wow.”
So for me, I need deadlines. And I think that’s a good lesson for a lot of entrepreneurs out there, because we live in a lifestyle world and we don’t have deadlines set by other people, we have to set our own deadlines … And an infinite deadline, right?
You’re always going to complete something in the time allotted to it, and so if it’s just a thought and you’re like, “Well, I’ll get it done one day” … One day could be five years from now.
So I actually set the date. I booked out the facility and I’m like “This is the date we’re gonna do it, let’s roll.” And I built out the outline and that was how I ended up doing it.
But it was a very daunting task. I think every time I sat down to write it, I was like “Man, I could make this better, and I could make this better,” and I continued writing more and more. But I can tell you that the first time I delivered it … The response, the people walking away, seeing the excitement, I was like “This is what I was meant to be doing.”
It just reiterated the impact. And impact is 100% what I’m after , man. I want to see everybody succeed, I want to see the world a better place.
Yuri: That’s awesome. So you had 160 people. Out of all of them, what percentage of those people showed up to the actual certification?
Jason: Yeah, so we give two options. We do an in-person or a livestream, and starting next year, there’s going to be a home study version as well—where you will get access to the livestream videos, so you can watch me interact with the people that do attend, you can watch the actual lecture. And then I’ll be recording modules for each chapter.
So that will be the three options, and I’m hoping that the people who choose home study also attend the livestream. The cost is going to be the same across the board, because I don’t think any method is better than the other—I think it’s just dependent on your time and your willingness to travel.
So yeah, in Chicago, I want to say like 90% of the people that signed up attended, and it was awesome, dude.
I won’t lie, I was exhausted for four days because it was just a lot of passion that went into two days of speaking. I remember, in full transparency, I went back to my hotel room on Saturday night and I was in tears. I couldn’t believe that literally everything I thought this would be … it was more.
And seeing lives transform in front of my eyes, I was like, “Holy crap man, these people are really gonna create change in this world and we just built the catalyst for that.”
It was amazing.
Yuri: That’s awesome. And so these people that were being certified, were they just fitness enthusiasts, or fitness professionals? A combination of both?
Jason: A combination of both. I even had two or three people that were clients, and they were like, “Hey, I think attending your certification will help me understand the process of working with you better.” I thought that was pretty rad.
The test for our certification is actually application-based, there’s some case studies involved. So those clients that were working with me that are like “I just want to understand the process better,” they went out and started working with their guinea pig clients for the test, and they’re now loving it and saying, “Wow, this is really cool. I see why you’re so passionate about what you do.”
And now I think they’re wanting to dip their toes into helping more people, which hey—if you help two people or you help 200 people, the world is still becoming a better place, and that’s pretty cool.
Yuri: That’s awesome. So then they have this skillset that they can take back and utilize on their own, or they could become an employed coach through your company, is that correct?
Jason: So it’s definitely not going to guarantee anybody a job, because obviously we’re putting hundreds of people through this certification and I don’t even have the volume to employ hundreds of coaches yet.
I will openly and honestly say that if you want a job with my company, attending and going through our methods is probably a good first step.
Now we have multiple certifications within our institute, and what everybody has had access to thus far is the level one nutrition coach. On January 6th we have the level one mindset course, and that was actually built out by a clinical psychologist that we employ. And then we have the level one hormone course on January 7th—and that was built out by a clinical hormone specialist that’s worked in the clinical setting for, I believe, 15 years now. And then we have a level one business systems course as well.
So the whole level one module system is designed to give you the tools you need to be an entrepreneur as well, and then we have a level two system.
I think people that are interested in working for me will probably want to graduate to that L2, and that’s really when the conversations start happening about being part of my team.
Yuri: Awesome, nice. And going back to before you even had the coaches, or even now—you get to the point where you’re working 20 hours a day. I think that’s a good problem that people would love to have, at least initially, for awhile.
How are people finding out about you? How are people wanting you to work with them?
Jason: So this is where everyone’s gonna be like “Oh, he’s just lucky,” and blah blah blah.
Because the answer is far less than most people think. I’ve never spent a penny on advertising, I don’t have a very big email list, I don’t have any of the assets that I think most people would look at me and be like, “Man, you’re crushing it as an entrepreneur.”
But the one asset I have is that I add value to every single person I come across . So like when you told me about Healthpreneur, I’m like “How many people can I send that way?”
And I wanted to get my team there and my team flaked—they suck, whatever. But we’re all going to be there next year, I want to come to one of your live events. Every single person that I come in contact, I need to find a way to add value.
Now in my day-to-day life, a lot of people need health and nutrition advice, so I’m going to give. And I don’t give with any expectation other than, “Hey man, if I moved you forward a half percent, then I won. And you will remember that interaction one day and you’ll pay it forward to somebody else.”
But I genuinely believe that was the crux of all my success, was just adding value, adding value, adding value.
Now here we are, we’re generating a pretty good amount of revenue. Yes, I am about to get into the ad space. Yes, I’m building a bigger email list. Yes, I’m doing the traditional marketing things that will help me sustain that success and scale it.
Giving without expectation, the marshmallow study
But my growth came from being willing to work without expectation, and I think that people need to listen to the second half of that—without expectation. Because I get people that come to me all the time, “Well I post on Facebook every day and no one reaches out.”
Okay, well that’s great. post on Facebook and try to help somebody. That’s all. Don’t have the expectation—if they don’t reach out, cool. That’s not why you posted.
And I think that we have to get out of these expectations and just start living from a value-based proposition.
Yuri: Yeah, for sure. I think for a lot of people, myself included, it can be daunting when you do a Facebook live video and you see the number zero at the top of the screen … And it’s like, “Why is nobody watching this?”
But you have to really get over that and be like, “Listen, I’m gonna do my thing anyways. I’m going to add value, maybe one person will watch the replay,” because if you get hung up on the fact that no one’s here, no one’s taking action, you’re gonna give up by tomorrow.
So I think that’s a great reminder, to just give without expectation. Because at some level, in some way, shape, or form down the road, it’ll boomerang right back to you in spades, for sure.
Jason: Yeah. I mean, I’ve talked to Google and people are often like “Oh, they must’ve paid you so much.”
The very first time I talked to Google, I paid my own expenses there. They didn’t pay me a dime, and I offered to do two talks in the same day because I thought it was a really unique opportunity to talk to people.
Walking away from there, I think I helped five people completely for free, and I just didn’t really care. But now, people are coming to me and they’re like, “Hey, Google posted the video of you talking there, and I saw that video and I want to work with you.”
So something that I could’ve gotten hung up on, is that I didn’t make any money from it and I didn’t get anything from it. Well here we are, two years later, and that video is now generating revenue.
Yuri: Delayed gratification, my friends, delayed gratification. It’s something I try to teach my kids. I don’t know if you’ve heard about that study where they had kids at a table in a room and they offered-
Jason: The marshmallow study!
Yuri: Yeah, the marshmallow study.
So really briefly for the listeners who don’t know—basically they offered a kid one marshmallow now or two marshmallows in 20 minutes, I think. And they just wanted to test this whole delayed gratification thing.
So they found that those kids who were able to delay gratification were more success later in life, and I think it’s really true. It’s something I try to get my kids to understand—I’m like “Hey, you can have one Popsicle now or maybe two if you hang out for a bit,” you know?
Jason: Yeah. And the results were astounding. It really showed correlation. If they could delay gratification, the success of the people that delayed gratification was exponentially higher.
Yeah, dude. Delayed gratification in life in general, it’s amazing.
Yuri: Yeah, totally, for sure.
So when we first spoke, you talked about how when you initially came online, you were just doing everything. You were the typical squirrel chasing every shiny object.
Talk to us a little bit about that struggle. And then you kind of figured out that speaking in person to different venues was a really powerful platform, as you just mentioned with the Google story. So talk about the initial challenges that you had online and what you learned from that whole experience.
Jason: Yeah, so it’s really funny. Some of my mentors are Bedros and Craig, and they did a podcast and it was actually about me—it was a case study on what I’m currently doing.
Bedros refers to me these days as JP 2.0. And when he first met me, he told me all the same stuff essentially he tells me now, and I didn’t really do anything with it. And what I found and what I give people advice for is … If you go to live events, you go to Masterminds and you hire a business coach—you’re probably going to get 10, 15, 20 ideas, because everybody’s achieving success a little bit differently.
The problem is, you walk away from these groups and you’re like “Oh my god, I need to be Daniel Dipiazza, posting on social media 10 times a day. And I need to be Yuri and I need to be leading this amazing live event and these amazing groups. And I need to be Joe Rogan and I need to have a podcast. And I need to be Steve Cook and I’ve gotta have a great vlog.”
Like you think that you gotta do 10 things—the reality is you gotta do one thing and you gotta do it really frickin’ well. And when that one thing starts to gain traction, outsource it and then do another thing, and do that thing really well.
And so my success came from falling flat on my face from trying to do everything. I lived in a world that was very tactical in nature. I was doing tactics and I wasn’t really adding value—meaning like, “Write your opt-in.” “Okay, I’ll write an opt-in, but I really don’t believe in what I’m writing, but hey, it’s an opt-in and the gurus say this works.”
And now, I mean if you go to my website, there’s complete transparency. There’s no opt-in, right? There’s a box saying, “Hey man, get on my newsletter if you think that I can add value for you.” Because I don’t really have a guide that’s gonna do anything for you in 48 hours. That’s the truth.
And so I lived in a tactical world, it made me fall flat on my face, and when I came back, it was this proposition of, “I’m just gonna add value.”
And for the people that listen, that think it was this wild, successful journey—it wasn’t. Three years ago this Thanksgiving, I woke up, I was overdrawn on my bank account, I was on a ski trip and I couldn’t even afford my morning coffee, let alone the looming Thanksgiving dinner that I was meant to have that night.
And I call it my Thanksgiving miracle, because for whatever reason at 8:37 that morning, a check cleared into my bank account on a holiday. I don’t at all understand it, it shouldn’t have happened, but I had enough money to get my coffee and I had enough money to pay for dinner that night.
And I never went to the tactical world, I just said I’m gonna keep adding value, I’m gonna keep adding value. And I kept doing what I knew to be right and I lived in one tactic—which was coach an individual—and made it successful. And I obviously started outsourcing that, figured out the next piece—which was the certification—and I built the pieces around that.
But that’s the thing, man; I think so many people want to focus on the tactic and not really the value add.
Yuri: That’s so valuable. The thing is, people don’t want to hear that, right?
There’s no magic pill
Jason: No, they want a quick fix, dude.
Yuri: Totally! It’s so funny. That’s why I wrote this blog post/video about why I don’t want to win the lottery and why winning the lottery is for suckers. It basically talks about how, whether it’s business for weight loss or nutrition, it’s the same thing—people want the end result without crossing the bridge. They don’t want to go through the journey.
And just like you talked about—you can try out all the tactics, they’re the little quick fixes. It’s like “Oh, I gotta do this little thing on my blog,” or add this little thing to my website and everything’s gonna magically happen. It doesn’t.
Jason: I think so many people look at you and they’re like, “Why is Yuri so successful?”
Well dude, you added value to so many lives for so long, it was inevitable. And I get asked all the time, “What’s your one word of advice?” and my one word of advice is patience.
Patience is the biggest word—Gary Vaynerchuk preaches it endlessly—and another thing that I think is somewhat relevant, that Gary V talks about all the time is … He’s like “I’m scared of what my kids are gonna do when they grow up, because they’re growing up privileged.” They don’t have to fight for things, right? They think that there’s this tactic to success and that tactic is “We’ll ask Dad.”
Gary had to learn everything the hard way growing up and he figured out how to hack success, he figured out “This is how I sell, this is how I actually make money.”
So I think people that are out there—if you’re looking for that magic switch and you get a subject line, “Hey, I can make you $10,000 this week,” just delete it. Don’t even bother opening it, don’t read it, don’t click the link, don’t get caught up in that funnel.
Because if someone says they can make you that much money that quickly, they’re full of shit.
You’re probably going to lose a lot of money really quickly before you even make a dime, and that’s okay. Embrace that, because one day you’ll be in the position I’m in, telling the story of being really, really broke—and believe me, I remember that vividly like it was yesterday, and it absolutely drives me every single day.
But yeah—just be patient and still do the work. Do the work that you know to be true and right, and I think that success is inevitable.
Yuri: Yeah, that’s such good advice. And you have to enjoy the process—if you don’t enjoy what you’re doing, then you’re just going to jump ship to something else. So you have to figure out what it is you love to do.
And to your point … So I’ve had this idea for a product called The First Sell Formula—how to show people how to make their first dollar online. And the reason I haven’t launched it is because the advice, the process I’m gonna show them, is not sexy.
Jason: It never is.
Yuri: Yeah. I’m like “Get ready to spend several months doing this stuff every single day before you start making money.”
OR, spend a bunch of money on Facebook and hope for the best with a funnel that may not be tested. And I don’t people want to do that.
Jason: And to be completely honest dude, that’s why I have competitors in my space that are more successful than I am. They sell info products that make more money, their coaching can end up making more money, because they’re selling something like you said, that appears to be easy.
But I can tell you that I’m playing the long game, I’m playing the patient game—and if I’m being completely honest, in the last 16 months the people that have been to those companies ended up figuring out that they would inevitably fail on the “quick fix program” … They now work with me, and they’re now clients of mine.
So I feel really bad that they had to spend money elsewhere before they came and properly spent their money with us, but I’m gonna continuing doing it the right way, and I think that over the long-term, the quick fixes will phase themselves out.
We’re doing things the right way and we’re gonna stick around forever. And I would much rather have the security of foreverthan any amount of money on the front end.
Yuri: Yep, totally. Couldn’t agree more. I think like you said, if what you’re doing is not producing results quickly, it’s probably the right thing to be doing.
Jason: Amen, dude. And that sounds crazy to say, but it’s so true.
Yuri: You brought up so many great things in this interview Jason—the power of adding value to every person you come across, attending events, surrounding yourself with people. So many people have talked about finding a mentor, being surrounded by other people, playing the long game, and it’s so funny … Every single conversation has had that same message—”There’s no magic pill. Put in the work.”
So I want all of our listeners to understand this: It took me three years before I actually was able to make some decent money online—and I’m a little bit slower than most people, I’m not saying it has to take three years.
But just understand it’s not gonna happen overnight. And you’re gonna go through the hardships, you’re gonna have to put in the time. And if you don’t see results, if you don’t have anyone looking at your videos, just keep putting them out there.
Jason: Using Gary as the example, Wine Library never even got looked at for two years and then all of a sudden people started to notice.
Last night flying home from LA, I was listening to a podcast—Lewis Howes’ podcast with Julian Dean, the magician that’s on YouTube and Facebook and stuff. And to be completely fair, I had no idea who he was—which is apparently astounding because he’s everywhere—but even his story, he’s 23 years old, he’s been doing it for three years, nobody took notice. He had one video that finally went viral and that’s where everybody noticed him.
But Lewis asked him, “Are you doing anything different today?” he’s like “No, the magic is the same, the entertainment value is the exact same. But finally, I broke through and one video got viral and I got the share.” And he actually goes into his methods about how it went viral and it was pretty neat.
But even in his methods, it was preceded by 10 to 12 months of relationship building and work before the video went viral.
I sometimes fear going on podcasts and doing interviews, because I feel like what I’m going to say is not sexy enough to sell for the interviewer and I’m always really transparent about that. Because I’m straight to the point, I’m blunt, I’m just honest that, “Guys, it’s hard work, it’s a grind, but it’s a worthwhile grind.”
Because now you and I get to live in our passion, and we get the rewards from it, but it’s because we never gave up.
Yuri: Yep. It’s like a bamboo; the bamboo tree takes I think it’s like 7 or 13 years to even crack the surface, but when it does, it shoots up to astronomical heights like that. So many great analogies in nature. It’s awesome.
Jason: I love that, dude. Yeah, there really is. It’s pretty cool.
The rapid-five questions
Yuri: Obviously we can talk about this forever, which is a lot of fun, but I know that our listeners have stuff to do, you’ve got stuff to do, so are you ready for the rapid five?
Jason: I’m ready dude. I’m a little intimidated, but I’m ready.
Yuri: Yes, these are very, very tough questions to answer, so brace yourself. All right, you ready?
Jason: You’re not gonna ask me like what color my car is? Because that would just be easy.
Yuri: Exactly. “What’s your favorite ice cream?” No, that’s not … Well actually, just out of curiosity, what is your favorite ice cream?
Jason: Oh, I was like “Damn, that’s easy.” So the ice cream that’s in my fridge right now is half-baked fro-yo from Ben & Jerry’s. Favorite ice cream is peanut butter cup perfection at Cold Stone.
Yuri: Very nice, cool. So that wasn’t part of the rapid five. Now let’s just start with the rapid five.
Jason: Damn. I thought we had one out of the way. All right, here we go.
Yuri: Your biggest weakness?
Jason: People won’t believe it—it’s self-confidence.
Yuri: Your biggest strength?
Jason: Willingness to give and willingness to sacrifice.
Yuri: Nice. One skill you’ve become dangerously good at in order to grow your business?
Jason: Human interaction.
Yuri: What do you do first thing in the morning?
Jason: Go to Starbucks.
Yuri: Complete this sentence: I know I’m being successful when …
Jason: When people around me are smiling, laughing, having fun and living the life of their dreams.
Yuri: Awesome. Jason buddy, there has been so much value in this episode. Guys, remember when we started this? I said put this in slow motion and take notes, because if you didn’t—rewind it, listen to it again. There’s so much value in this episode.
So Jason, thank you so much for taking the time, for being here, just being yourself, sharing your awesome-ness, and for all the amazing work you do in the world.
Jason: Oh dude, it’s literally my pleasure. And I know I’ve told you privately and I’ll say it to your audience—I followed Yuri for a very long time and it’s very humbling and an amazing opportunity to be asked to come on such a great podcast. I know everybody that listens would probably echo the same thing and I look forward to a lot of people that are listening getting that opportunity. Just hustle, put in the work, build your business, and just keep adding value to the world. It’s amazing. So I appreciate you, sir.
Yuri: Thanks man. I appreciate that.
What is the best place for people to learn more about you, about the Nutritional Coaching Institute?
Jason: So as I told Yuri, the Nutritional Coaching Institute, it’s a relatively new thing—so he’s gonna list the website in the show notes. And about me personally, it’s just JasonPhillipsNutrition.com. That’s actually my coaching website, that’s where I put all my blogs. But yeah man, there’s that, and then Instagram is just JasonPhillipsFitness, Facebook is Jason Phillips.
The one thing I’ll say, and I’ll leave this with everybody out there, I answer everything myself. I don’t have assistants answering any of my stuff, so feel free to send me a message, send me an email, DM me, whatever you want.
I answer every last message, even if it takes me a day or two to get to you, I’ll do it. We’ll carry on a conversation, we’ll do what we need to do to help you move forward. So that’s an open invite to chit-chat with anybody.
Yuri: There’s another tip, guys. It’s part of the magic.
Dude, thank you so much for taking the time. Hope you guys enjoyed this interview and Jason, I hope to see you soon.
Jason: Brother, my pleasure.
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Now you know why I’m a huge fan of Mr. Jason Phillips. I don’t know why I call him “Mister…” He’s just a great guy, he’s a lot of fun, he’s doing some big things. And doing big things in a way that is going deep with people and impacting their lives in a tremendous way.
So yeah, I just wanted to thank him for being so awesome and for sharing everything with us in that interview. Hope you got some great nuggets out of that one as well.
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What You Missed
In our last episode were talking with Irene Drabkin, and that was a lot of fun. If you missed that episode, be sure to listen to that conversation—a lot of really cool, inspiring lessons you find you have a lot of naysayers around you as you build your business.
For anyone who is interested in writing a book or has already written a book, there are some excellent nuggets of wisdom in this episode you’ll want to pay close attention to.
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