Nothing is more inspiring than a transformational story. One that involves not only physical but an overall transformation in health, personal, and business is Adam Schaeuble’s Million Pound Mission journey. Self-professed PHD, “Previously Heavy Dude,” Adam has turned his life around from weighing 327 pounds to losing 100-pounds in five years. Extending that feat to others, Adam has since become a transformation coach, podcaster, and author who helps others live healthily and make an impact. In this valuable episode, Adam shares everything he has been through while giving some great insights about taking risks and getting the results you have always dreamed of.
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Transforming Your Life A Pound At A Time with Adam “The PHD” Schaeuble
I’ve got Adam Schaeuble on this episode. He works a lot of hats. He’s from Bloomington, Indiana. I was introduced to Adam and his work through a mutual friend, Scott Carson. I happened to see something you were talking about and I saw this Million Pound Mission. I listened to some of your episodes and started checking it out and I thought, “This guy is cool.” What is a Million Pound Mission?
The story of the Million Pound Mission starts with me and my transformation. Several years ago, I weighed 327 pounds and I was at that rock bottom moment in my life.
How tall are you?
I’m 6’3”. I was a heavy person and it wasn’t just my weight. It was my relationships, my career, my overall attitude on life. I had a ton of credit card debt. I was circling the drain a little bit. Things weren’t going great. I got introduced to my first ever dose of personal development material and the DVD, The Secret and The Law of Attraction. I dug into that hardcore. I was attracting a lot of bad stuff into my life and I decided if I want things to change, I had to change. I went on a five-year journey of overhauling. I call it my lifestyle rehabilitation period where over five years I ended up losing 100 pounds. I ended up falling in love and getting married and starting a business based off of my weight loss. I started having other people ask me, “What are you doing? Can you help me?” I started helping other people in my hometown do the same thing. Over that five-year period, I helped fifteen different people lose over 100 pounds in my hometown, including myself.
We did a bootcamp. I started a fitness business, a fitness studio and over that five-year period, we ended up doing 35,000 pounds in my hometown here in Bloomington. We started looking at opportunities to level up and all my friends are like, “You’ve got to franchise this thing. It’s amazing.” Jason, I’m not a huge fan of being in charge of a whole bunch of people, so franchising was yucky but podcasting came along and I’m like, “This I could leverage and this is how I can impact more people.” That’s how we started the Million Pound Mission podcast. The legit goal is to produce a million pounds of results. We’re actually tracking it. People can go on the website. There’s no barrier of entry. Even if you are reading, if I say something that you can implement and you get a result like you lose three pounds, go to the website, donate those three pounds because there was no way I’ll ever get to a million pounds if you guys are not there donating.
I don’t ask for an email address or anything. Just donate your weight. You see the ticker go up. We’ve crossed 55,000 pounds. It’s going well. We’re off and running. I tried to think about ways to bring people in to feel like they’re a part of something. In any business adventure that I partake in, that’s one of my unique abilities. That’s something that I feel is important. It’s missing in weight loss. People feel isolated, they beat themselves up. I like to bring them in and give them a big bear hug, bring them into the community and make them a part of something special. That’s the short story of the Million Pound Mission.
You were already somewhat in the industry. You were a strength coach, a strong guy. I think you say a PHD?
To bring it full circle, the podcast, I introduced myself as the PHD, the Previously Heavy Dude. Have you ever heard the story about how I came to be that PHD thing?
Sometimes, we need the cold splash of water to wake us up to get outside of our comfort zone and move towards our dream. Click To TweetI don’t know the PHD story. I didn’t hear that one.
One of the things that we tried to do as podcasters is get on other podcasts that we feel like we could be a wheel-house audience, grow our show and level up. There was a health podcast that I listened to. I was like, “I know that these people need to hear what I have to say.” The kicker was that this individual only interviewed doctors and medical professionals. I filled out the application to get on their show and I just put PHD behind my name. I got through the little interview process. I was talking to the interviewer and things were going well. They were like, “We’re going to have you on.” I’m like, “I’ve got to come clean. I put PHD behind my name that stands for Previously Heavy Dude.” They’re like, “We love it. That’s awesome.” I’ve been on the show twice. I’ve got a good affiliation with them, but I snuck in there and then it stuck out, so I always put PHD. I signed my emails PHD, Previously Heavy Dude. It’s my thing and it helps people remember who I am.
Sometimes you’ve got to take a chance in life. It sounds like you were just a guy walking around the gym. In one of your podcasts, you’re like, “I was a meathead.” Turning that from just a guy walking around the gym telling people what to do one person at a time to transforming your own life, owning your own gym and then doing so much work online and in person. You’ve got to take risks sometimes. You didn’t get all that without taking chances.
There’s a big difference between doing something and accomplishing something, whether that’s in business, fitness and life in general. It’s very easy to stay busy. I was the guy walking around the gym. I was earning a paycheck as a strength coach. I was doing a lot but I wasn’t accomplishing much at all. I wasn’t making an impact. It’s very easy to go through the motions of life, whether it’s a day job, an entrepreneurial venture or a fitness journey. I see a lot of people at the gym that are walking on a treadmill, talking on their cell phone, then they go and hit the bar afterwards. They’re doing something but they aren’t accomplishing, they’re not moving that needle towards their goals. I feel like that’s something that people need that wake-up call sometimes of, “Am I being busy doing nothing and not accomplishing anything?” That’s sometimes the cold splash of water that we need in our face to wake us up and be willing to get outside of our comfort zone and take a risk and move in the direction that we’ve always dreamt of heading.
You talked about this transformation and then into ultimately your business, but you still have a ton of energy. What keeps you driving?
To me, it’s the impact. There are so many people out there that are so frustrated about their health. 100% I talk to people every single day, whether it’s people DM me on Instagram or people on the podcast, people at my gym. People are willing to put in the work. I 100% believe that. Sometimes people are like, “You’re out of shape. You’re lazy.” Sometimes, but I feel the majority of people are willing and they are wanting to put in the work. They’re frustrated because they are just spinning around in circles. They’re spinning their wheels because they’re putting in work. They aren’t sure if it’s working or not. They lose weight, they gain it back. They beat themselves up. They feel like, “I should be able to do this by now.”
I get a huge surge of energy and personal momentum out of grabbing somebody out of what I call the Black Hole of Fitness Doom, where that weight loss regained cycle back and forth. I grabbed them out of that and say, “This isn’t the weight loss journey. Let me show you what it’s like,” and just shining a big old light of clarity and saying, “Walk this path. I don’t care if you’re Paleo, Vegan, Keto, if you CrossFit, yoga, Jazzercise, I don’t care. Those are all the vehicles that we can drive. I want to show you the road to take.” That’s what I do and it’s awesome being able to help people from all different nutritional walks of life, all different fitness walks of life. People worry about what’s the best diet, workout regimen? It’s the one that you will stick with consistently. That’s what I help you figure out and that’s what it holds you accountable for doing. That’s how we get results. That’s why I get a kick out of and that’s the energy boost.
What I have found from myself, I can stick with the pizza and beer and cheeseburger diet. Aside from your energy and obviously your hard work. I’ve been going through some of this transformation myself. I stay busy. I’ve always worked hard, have a good practice and do well, but then I have a high-stress job. On and off, I never took care of myself. It started getting worse. I’m not 6’3”, I’m 5’8” and I was pushing about 290 pounds. That’s not where the guy whose 5’8”, I don’t care how broad your shoulders are and how much weight you can carry and all the bullshit I told myself. That’s not the place to be, but I still didn’t do anything about it. I was feeling bad. Long story short, I thought I was having a heart attack and ended up in the hospital. I was about to go into diabetic shock, my blood sugar was over 500. My A1C was over ten. I was drinking water and I’d throw it up. I spent three days in the hospital. The first day all they did basically is load me up with insulin and my blood sugar was still over 400.
It took about three months from that when I had to get on medicine to level things off. There are some other stuff that happened in that time and I wasn’t doing good. I’m not young, but I’m not that old. What’s sad is I’m capable. I went all this display. We mentioned Scott. We played high school football together. I used to kick his ass on a daily basis. I’m always active, just life got away from me. I was like, “I’m going to do something.” Since then I’ve dropped about 70 pounds. I’ve got the hard part. I’ve got the last 35 pounds. I’ve been 60, 70 and I got it down to about 75 down and then back to 65. It’s a direct correlation of how consistent I want to be. What are the big things for me? I like drinking beer. If you can imagine, I’ll do everything hard.
My friends, my wife and one of my good friends, he worries about me working out. He’s like, “I’m worried you’re going to stroke out,” because I’ll make myself go. I like that when I’m drinking beer or eating cheeseburgers. I liked some of the things you had to say. It gave me validation. In this last 30 that’s going to be happening, I will stay on. I’ll try to take it to 190 pounds. At that weight, I’m happy. Starting at about 215 pounds, I can move pretty good. I’ve got a friend that keeps saying, “On Halloween, we’re going to have a fight and sell tickets and glove up.” That joke started amongst a bunch of us and we’re not sure how it started. He’s like, “Why do you want to fight?” I said, “It will be fun.” He’s a lot younger and he used to wrestle. A lot of what you had to say resonated.
There are so many people out there that are on a similar journey. One of the things I talk about in the show a lot is that it’s very important, especially for men, you’ve got to find your why before your why finds you. It sounds like your why was finding you from your health perspective, but you started to nip in the bud. You correct the course quickly. A lot of guys ignore those symptoms and they have that stroke. They have that heart attack. They may not make it back from that. I had somebody at my gym, and it’s a sad story where he came in, signed up for bootcamp, “I’ve got to change my life. I’ve got to get my habits in check.” When people do a bootcamp at my gym, they have to be accountable every day. They have to send in a report to their accountability coach every day or we chase them down for it. Day three, he’s like, “I don’t have time to do this every day.” He sent an email. That’s what he’s saying he doesn’t have time. The guy had a heart attack and died five weeks later.
I’m not saying I would have prevented that but I would have loved to have a shot at preventing that. That guy’s why found him and he didn’t survive that circumstance and that’s sad. He has little kids. That’s what we have to be aware of. Who needs us to be around, especially as men, that male ego kicks in? We think it’s all about us sometimes, but it’s not all about us. Who needs us to be around healthy and active, whether it’s your pets, your kids, your friends, your business partners, your life partners or whoever? You’d be able to run around with your grandkids, walk your dog, get out and play a sport if you’re going to play a sport. Enjoy life and just sitting back in this body that doesn’t truly represent who you are at your best is a sad state to be in.
I’m inspired to help people escape that situation. I’m glad that you’re on that course to losing 70 pounds. That’s something else from what you said, I’ll offer up some coaching here. One of the important things on a larger transformation journey. We’re talking 50-plus pounds, 70, 80, 100 pounds. It’s important to set goals before we want to go and be driven by your goals. Whenever you measure, measure from where you started. Jason, I don’t want you to use the term, “the last 30 pounds,” because that gives you the thought of, “I’m not there yet.” It prevents you from being proud of all that 70 pounds that you’ve accomplished. At my gym, I’ve got a five-pound replica of Fat Blob and I show people I’m like, “70 pounds, that’s twelve of these.”
They’ve got one at the supplement store I go to and it’s incredible.
Just be proud of that. It’s very easy to check that next checkbox, “10, 20, 30, 40 pounds, but I’m not at 100 yet. I’m not at my goal weight yet.” Be inspired by that goal weight and drive towards it every day. Do a little something every day to drive you towards that. When you stop and measure, if you do a weigh-in and you’ve lost 30 pounds or another three pounds, don’t go, “I’m only 73 pounds. I’m not at 100.” Go like, “I’m at 73 pounds.” Just think about those fat blobs, all the progress you’ve made and be super proud of that and that’s going to help you keep pushing forward. That’s a healthier mindset to have.
I think part of why I do that is I’m so goal-oriented. Even if I’m down about it, I can trick myself into things just setting those goals. It’s old school machoism like, “You set a goal, you’ve got to do it.”
The best diet and workout regimen is the one that you will stick with consistently. Click To TweetDrive towards it for sure. Don’t beat yourself about it.
The easy part is over. When I just do a little bit, people say, “What’s your diet? What’s this?” I said, “I stopped being such a jackass.” They said, “What do you mean?” I said, “Whatever you want or whatever you see, you’re active whenever you want to be. I’m not going to the gym. If you drink beer three days a week, you’re going to be fat as a 42-year-old man.” That’s going to happen. I cut a lot of that out and it’s simple. It’s just doing it, but it sends a shock to my system. The first 40 pounds was easy, but the last 30 pounds was a little harder and the next 30 pounds or so. I don’t even know where I will end up. It’s more about getting to a consistent place. I may get to where I’m telling you and feel like, “I think I need a little here or there,” or I might say, “Get five pounds from there and say, ‘This is good.’” It’s about me being healthier and having to do it for the kids and my wife. That does drive me and it’s more of my responsibility for them that I feel, but I’ve had that for years. I had to decide and I had to do it for me first. Once I decided to do it for me, that’s when I started working.
It’s that whole self-worth conversation and you hit the nail on the head. We have to realize that we’re worth the effort. That’s a huge part of this leveling up. There are so many parents get into, “I don’t have time for me because the kids come first. I don’t have time for you because the business comes first. Once I get all that taken care of, then I’ll start focusing on me.” If we’re not around, we can’t do that. I see someone working themselves into an early grave or even themselves into an early grave. I spoke to a client of mine that has two seven-year-old twins and she’s like, “I’ve been sleep deprived for the last seven years because I put them 100% first.” I’m like, “We need to work on that because if you’re not around, a healthy, happy fit mom is better for everybody.” Same goes with dads. It’s something that we have to realize that we’re just as an important part of the equation as everybody else.
What’s sad too, as my wife got on this fitness kick craze and I used to make fun of her. She’s like, “You’ve got to take care of yourself.” I just laughed at her, but now I find myself doing a lot of stuff she’s been doing. If nothing else, she was a good example for me. We’ve been there. I’ve got three kids that are separated by four years. We didn’t sleep for a while. It’s easy enough. My daughter will be sixteen and the boys are eleven and thirteen. You don’t have to hold their hand quite so much or they won’t hold your hand. You’re rocking and rolling in Bloomington. You’re helping people on the internet. Where do you see yourself in this transformation practice for you and for others in five years?
The show is going well. I love the ability as a podcaster to be able to touch people. It still blows me away. I’m in my basement, which I called my podcast bunker in Bloomington, Indiana. I’ve got an email from a person that was from England that I’d never talked to, never physically touched or helped with a workout, never shown her anything. She has implemented tips from the show and she lost 70 pounds, and she’s like, “This has changed my life.” I’m mind blown. Just see that keeping going and growing. I love leveraging online communities and bringing people together from all over the world and getting them connected, like-minded people. I’m getting into some live events and workshops. We launched registration for our first-ever live event. We’re going to do it at the World Headquarters here in Bloomington at my fitness center. I got people sign up from Canada, California, Florida and people come in from all angles in North America. I was like, “This is crazy that people are coming.”
What kind of workshop is that? For individuals or for other trainers?
It’s for health-minded people on a weight loss journey. I’ve got speakers, I’ve got a bunch of the top health podcasters coming in. I’ve been planting seeds in my podcast, making connections, making friends, giving. I can ask them like, “I’m doing a live event. I’d love to have you in and speak.” They’re like, “You were there for me, I’m there for you.” I’ve got some great lineup and sponsors are giving away free products. I’m happy with that because I do love being able to see people and connect with people and look them in the eye and teach them something. That’s hard to beat for me. That’s where things are going. From a business perspective, there is a ton of opportunity there. I also started a second podcast about podcasting. I’m helping other podcasters do some stuff and that’s fun and we’re starting to monetize that a little bit. My main driving force is impacting people and their health. The sky’s the limit with everything going on with social media, the internet and podcasting. It’s pretty exciting.
Initially, that’s how I learned about you through Scott, but it was through a talk that we’re doing about your other podcast.
All I know is you were given some real-life tips for other podcasters and some basic promoting tips and using Instagram. It went right over my head fast. I got zoned out. I thought, “This is a typical middle-age, white-collar guy.” Because you started talking about something I have no background and you lost me. I got an Instagram because I was doing the podcast. I have friends who are on that and nothing else. I don’t fully understand it. For example, when I first got on Twitter, which I don’t ever use, I didn’t even understand it but then the light bulb went off and I thought, “This is so simple.” I thought it was more complicated than it was. I’ve got Facebook and I started there and I’ve only got so much bandwidth. I don’t like being online all the time. I’m sure they were great tips, but it was all kinds of stuff.
The funny thing about Instagram is that one of my clients talked to me starting on Instagram because I was active on Facebook and that’s pretty much it. She’s like, “The people you’re trying to reach are on Instagram. If you are driven by impact, you need to dive into this pool a little bit and see what happens.” I did and she was right. I’m over 11,000 followers on Instagram and active communication. As a podcaster, you have to look at that customer, client or that listener avatar like, “Who are you trying to reach? Who are you trying to impact with your show and find out as much as you can about them?” Ask your audience. You guys should email in and say, “This is who I am. This is what I’m interested in. This is my favorite part about your show.” People that are on your email list that you’re talking to, that you’re helping build that avatar and figure out where they’re hanging out and then dive into that. It might be Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook. That’s how the whole Instagram thing happened. I went into it and like you, I didn’t know the typical way that you attack Instagram. I formed my own little ninja moves and they started working. I started teaching other podcasters like, “This is what I did. It’s working as a podcaster so you can try it too.” Scott puts me in front of all you and promotes me.
Maybe it goes down to why I started my podcast. I selfishly started it for me. I don’t have any desire to monetize it. If someone would throw some money at me, it would be fine. That’s not what I’m doing it for. I find professionally my biggest impediment to moving that ball forward or staying engaged is me. I can get bored, so part of this was for me to help stay engaged. That’s another reason I loosely tie it to my profession is because it helps me stay engaged to learn new things, to hear from other people. If not one person engaged to it, I’d be okay. I’d be a little disappointed. At least my mom didn’t even engage or my kids. I did make my sixteen-year-old daughter give me a review on iTunes.
I think about along the same line is that the Million Pound Mission I put out episode 256. If I left this Earth, my kids would have all of those conversations that of, “Dad teaching and dad talking.” I talk about my life a lot. I would love to have that information chronicle to go back to people that I’ve lost that I wish I had more time with. That’s all there forever. That’s a worthy motivator in and of itself, is to have that chronicle of you speaking from the heart, experiencing things, learning things and your family and your children will have that to fall back on forever. It’s nice having pictures and videos. That’s a whole library of you.
I hadn’t thought of that way. My sixth episode, I had my eleven-year-old son on. He was very encouraging to start it. He said, “You started it, now I want to be on it.” He came on, he’s all in animals and reptiles. We had this whole conversation about herpetology. He’s an interesting precocious eleven-year-old boy, but that’s me. A few years from now, he may think, “I want to remember that time I talked to dad,” and he can get right to it.
My kids see me do this and they see my mic set up and they mess around with me. Sometimes I do a lot of live casting as well and they’ll pop and do that. They started their own YouTube channel. They’re all about like, “Let’s film some YouTube videos, dad.” We do healthy food challenges and little workouts. We get the Nerf guns out and having them running around and I fire away at them a little bit. It’s cool when kids take an interest in what we’re doing and want to get involved, especially if it’s something that we’re passionate about. You need to have another way to connect with them.
My two eldest started a YouTube channel and they fooled around with it. They were young. My daughter, she’s like, “I want to do this YouTube channel. I’ve got these ideas.” I think she’s worried people at her high school might give her a hard time or make fun of her, which I understand.
A huge part of leveling up is realizing that we're worth the effort. Click To TweetPut yourself out there, that’s the name of the game in social media, YouTube or whatever is authenticity. That comes with opening up your heart and saying, “Here I am.” Teenagers will judge you over that. In the adult world, people are like, “You’re authentic. This is amazing. I’m inspired by you.” The big thing in the health space is women talking about body image issues. A lot of moms are showing their pregnancies stretch marks and it’s amazing to see. Instead of hiding that and making these perfect pictures of the perfect angle and perfect light like, “Here’s how I look. Here are my stretch marks.” I bet if you do that in high school, people will beat you up over it. I can totally understand where she’s coming from.
You’ve got all this energy and I can see you running around your gym barking out orders of bootcamp, “50 burpees.” Inspiring people in the podcast. Have you found any challenge to the business side of it? You’ve got a history in this market, in the health and fitness, and the least weight training, even before the strength transformation. I think of it from my perspective of twenty years as a lawyer, “This guy knows how to handle the business side.” What do you do to take care of that and how do you deal with that?
There have been areas of my business and I have everything separated out in different LLCs. The online business is separate than the brick and mortar. The brick and mortar stuff, it’s very competitive. When we first launched in 2009 is when we launched the official bootcamp program. In my town of Bloomington, Indiana, it’s a college town. We were one of five programs that offered group fitness. There are over 50 that offer group fitness. It’s all the big boy franchises coming in with all the advertising dollars. It’s hard and it’s a noisy market. What I tried to do from a business perspective, let’s use Orangetheory as an example. That’s a name that a lot of people recognize. They’re out and about everywhere. It’s a big group fitness franchise.
They promote their brand, their studio and the vibe that they put out. That’s one thing. The way I differentiate is we promote me being an expert and saying, “They’ve got water rowers and orange lights and they’ve got all these things, but we have somebody that you can learn from.” We have somebody that’s walked your path. If you’re in a weight loss journey, he’s lost 100 pounds. He helped our hometown lost 35,000 pounds. He’s doing the Million Pound Mission. He’s a top-ranked podcaster. He speaks to the top health experts in the world and he takes notes and he relays that information and helps us change our life. You can’t get that at Orangetheory. You can’t get that at PHAROS boxing gym or Curves or wherever.
Those are all programs and nothing against that, but as an independent person out there promoting sweat local, it’s a different ballgame. That’s how we differentiate and that’s how we have a loyal base of gym family and people are connected and you have to focus on impacting and connecting people. I don’t want them to feel like a dollar sign. Every client I have, I know their history, their names. I usually know their kids’ names. The same thing with my online clients that are all over the world. I know their situation and that’s important to me. That’s even more important with the online thing, things like P90X or Shaun T’s programs, the Biggest Losers. Those are all good, but people miss out on the connection and they miss out and feeling like they’re a part of something. Somebody knows who they are and that their story matters.
That’s one of the things I try to do is to understand. These are real people with real stories and problems and you need to dig into that and help them out and connect. That takes eyeball to eyeball connection. That’s what we try to bring into the online space as well. The online community is an infinite possibility. As much time as you want to put into it, you can grow it. We’re getting some nice traction with that and it’s very exciting. It’s a nice balance. I get to work with people in person. I get to get my hands on them, but I also get to impact people from across the world, which is beyond anything I could have ever imagined.
How do you balance the in-person? Do you spend more time at the gym or more time working with folks online? How does that work?
As an entrepreneur, I assume that some entrepreneurs out there are reading because we’re everywhere. I have a very structured weekly schedule. I talked with Scott about this. My average workweek is Monday through Thursday. I take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. I track how many, what I call free days, which no work, no work email, no work texts. My team does not get ahold of me unless it’s an emergency, somebody is dead or the building’s on fire. I track those free days to where I tried to get hopefully my magic number is 115 or more every year. That is something that I have not always done, but that’s been the key. When I am feeling more refreshed and I’m investing that time in me to do family long weekends and trips and vacations and have days where I can do whatever I want. I’m much more effective on the days that I do put in work. My basic week is structured as Monday and Thursday are buffer days where I set up the week, all the marketing, whether it’s gym or online stuff. That runs through the funnel on Mondays. Thursdays, I put a cap on the week. I tie up the loose ends with everything.
Tuesday is more connection focus. That’s when I’m in the gym teaching classes. That’s when I do a lot of interviews on other people’s shows. That’s why I’m out there connection-focused. Wednesday is online space and podcast days. That’s when I do interviews for people on my show, load up episodes, do online community space things. I leverage teams. We got small teams, but they’re good and they know their role. I communicate effectively. As an entrepreneur it’s hard sometimes, you get that like, “Everybody, hang on tight, I’m sprinting forward in this direction. Let’s see what happens. Ask questions as we go.” I’m sure my team would enjoy a little bit more, “Let’s sit down and let this new thing marinade for a couple of weeks before we go to the next thing.” I’ve got systems and once people get on board with my team for long enough, they realize the flow of how I operate.
There are rhyme and reason to my week, month, quarter and my year. That took me a long time to figure that out. If you’re an entrepreneur out there and you’re feeling burned out, just take a 24-hour period where it’s just about you. You shut off the email, you shut off the phone and enjoy some you time first and then enjoy some time with your family, but fill your cup up first. That’s super important. That’s how the structure fits with that four-day work week. If I have a big project or something I’m trying to hammer out and finish up, I’ll work on a Friday. I work one Sunday a month where I do coaching calls all day long with my online community. I do fifteen minutes back to back, and it’s awesome and fun. Other than that, Friday through Sunday are the me days.
Explain to me how this online community works because I found this intriguing. I’ve done P90X and frankly, I think it’s a pretty helpful program. I’ve found that I still have it and I occasionally do one of the workouts to fill in or if I can’t make whatever. As far as the long-term, I’m going to keep doing it over and over. I go work out by myself in the backyard. I’ve got a heavy bag in my guest house and you can do all kinds of stuff at home. I’ve got a bootcamp class I’m going to. I’ve seen a lot of the different avenues but all of those, I’m trying to place on my mind, “How do I work out with someone online?” That’s the question that keeps popping in my head.
It’s hard to market. It’s hard to explain what I do. My main marketing is I give people a ten-day trial. I’m like, “Follow this regimen, try this and let’s come out the other end and see how you feel.” The thing I see most people missing regardless whether they’re doing online programs, DVDs or fitness is accountability, community and always operating from a rock-solid game plan. That’s what I bring to the picture. A lot of people, I feel like they’re digging around in a toolbox and they’re like, “I’ve got this workout regimen that’s like a hammer, and I’ve got that diet and that’s like a screwdriver.” I feel like you don’t need a better diet. You don’t need a better fitness regimen, you need a better plan. You need a better instruction manual and that’s what I provide.
With the online community, I call it the Transformation ReBoot program. We basically focus on always having a rock-solid game plan. We work on 28-day cycles. Everybody is on the same 28-day pace. Week one is week one for everybody, week two, week three, week four. We focus on nailing down what are you committed to with your nutrition? I’ve got all the resources there from weightwatchers to Paleo to Vegan to Keto to clean eating. We choose a fitness regimen, we choose a recovery regimen and then we talk about mapping out your danger zones for the next twenty days, what could throw us out of whack? What could keep us from accomplishing our goals? That’s that first step. We do that through one-on-one fifteen-minute chat. We’re up on Zoom, I gave you some homework, you fill out a little workbook and then we discuss it and put the fine-tuning elements into play with the chat.
On a weekly basis, we have small group chats of fifteen people or less and we stay in touch each week if they need them. We make sure that you have accountability. We have the rock-solid game plan, we’ve got weekly accountability and then the sense of community as well with those chats. You hear somebody else say something, “That resonates with me.” We’ve got a Facebook group where we have these chat go on all the time. We do challenges. We set up accountability partners so people within the community can partner up and report every day there. Then I built an online platform where I have all the resources and the nutrition programs. I’ve got all kinds of workout protocol, basically like a P90X side thing, the follow-along videos, strength training, bodyweight stuff, abs stuff. That’s the flow that we do and I focus on, “We have big goals, let’s chop that up into a 28-day cycle baby step and let’s take stairsteps every 28 days.” People are out there crushing it.
We have people all over the world, we’re bringing them in and it’s a cool vibe. That accountability, that community and that rock-solid game plan, those are the missing links and then consistency with those things that screws up parents’ schedules because the whole routine is thrown off. The workout gets put on the back burner and then a month later they’ve gained weight, they lost momentum. I stopped the bleeding as before it gets dangerous. Inside the community, we’re like, “We’re dealing with vacations. Let’s talk about how to have a better vacation situation. Let’s talk about transition periods going from out of school to in school. Let’s map out our calendar.”
I hold them accountable. I hold their feet to the fire. I give them homework. I’ve got to see it back. Just having somebody there to make sure you’re thinking strategically through your transformation process, just like you in business. As businessmen, I’m not going to go 28 days just covering my eyes going, “I hope everything goes okay this month or this quarter.” We’re going to look and know what could put us out of business as an entrepreneur, but many people don’t do that with their body. I make you think that way like a business person, the business of your body. Let’s not go out of business with our health. That’s how I operate as a coach in the online space. It’s a transformation strategy component. I make sure that we’re implementing effectively and consistently. That’s the magic bullet.
In social media, putting yourself out there is the name of the game. Click To TweetIs there something that effectively a new class every month or so is starting?
The first month of each quarter, we open enrollment. I do that because I like to have time to nurture that group. Everybody in the community is together. It’s not like this group and then that group. We launch people and we bring them into the overall mothership and nurture them for 90 days, and we open enrollment again. I just don’t want to be that person always promoting, especially on the podcast. I like being able to say, “If you want in, now’s the time. You’ve got a whole month to figure it out and decide. Try it out, ten days free. If you’re not into it, no big deal. There are no risks there.” I’m not going to keep filling it up. I am going to try to keep this at 100 people or less in our total membership just because I feel like I can nurture that community effectively.
You can talk to everybody.
I know their names. Every new person that comes on, I’m like, “I don’t want you to be a credit card payment that comes through on Stripe and go, ‘Thanks, Ashley K. from North Carolina. Thank you for your $97.’” I want to know who you are, what you’re about and how I’m supposed to be helping you. That’s super important to me otherwise I get bored. I’ve got to know the story and I’ve got to know the energy that I’m putting in that a lot of these people are borrowing my energy that you’ve talked about. I’ve got to know how that’s impacting people and what that whole thing is about.
If someone out there wanted to learn more about this online community, where would they find out about you?
Just go to MillionPoundMission.com. That’s the easiest place. That’s the main hub for all the connections. If for some reason you don’t see it there, then you can turn to Instagram. You can always send me a DM there or whatever social media platform you can find me. Just message me and there’s always that Contact Us on the MillionPoundMission.com.
What’s your handle on Instagram?
@MillionPoundMission. It’s easy.
I did want to know a little bit about the work you’re doing on Casting The Pod. I heard on another program, you struggled at first with your podcast.
With Million Pound Mission, the first 50 episodes were a grind. I’m like, “I’m going to put one a week out.” I did my first year and struggled. Casting the Pod’s initial episodes is I tell the story of my struggle to launch Million Pound Mission. Then I get into tips on being a better podcaster. I interview other podcasters. I know I’ve got this message burning inside of me, Jason. It’s annoying at a huge level if I feel I’m not connecting to the right people. I’m like, “I know I can help these people. The people out there that need to hear what I have to say.” That’s why I made up the PHD thing and snuck onto that show. It was like, “I know I can impact these people, I’ll do whatever it takes.” I do things like that because I get frustrated to the point of like, “I’ve got to do something to get in front of these people.” It’s worth it to me to do that. Podcasters get frustrated. The more podcaster I get connected to, I’m seeing that frustration. I’m seeing a lot of early quitting before you give it a clean shot. That’s why I wanted the Casting The Pod.
I love talking to podcasters, first of all, it’s amazing. I could do that all day. We are the most interesting people and we have a lot of interesting things to say. Just like you with your show, I want to learn from other podcasters. I want to see their low points, I want to see what got them to their high points. I want to share that with other people, and we all love each other up. It’s created a lot of great connections. People ask me, “Why are you doing it?” One of the most effective ways to grow your show is to get on other people’s podcasts like you’ve had me that you’re sharing your platform with me. One of the best ways to facilitate that is to make friends with other podcasters. I have people on my show. A lot of times we make friends and they’ll have me on their show and we traded interviews back and forth and it’s a great way to leverage that. That alone is worth it.
I’ve got the Instagram for podcasts course that’s out there. I monetize that a little bit because I love teaching Instagram. Even if people aren’t ready for it yet. We’re working on some other things to help other podcasters grow. I’m not interested in helping people launch shows. I’m more interested in making sure people stick with their podcasting journey long enough to get traction and realize that they are making an impact. That’s where I’m interested with, helping people bridge that gap because it’s so nice. Just getting emails from people that aren’t related to you that you’ve never met before and like, “I listened to your show and that episode made a difference.” You’re like, “This is worth it.” I sold a product that was $9. I remember the first time I got a $9 check, I’m like, “I made money online. This is amazing.” That’s the sweetest $9 I’ve ever made.
Honestly, my podcast costs me. I’m not worried about that because in relation to the expenses in my industry, the expenses are high. I’m doing it for fun. I’m in one of the conference rooms in my building here in Beaumont, Texas. The other side of the room, I’ve got a full bar. I like to do it in person and people come in and we have cocktail. It’s probably for my transformation process, but it’s not that often. I like to do them late in the afternoon here so there’s not too much disturbance going on in the office. I’ll stick with it. Knowing from people like you will keep me engaged that way.
I could come on here and talk about some real detailed areas of law. We can talk about insurance coverage and the history of the insurance coverage litigation in various states and how things have changed. I could talk to you about Civil Rights cases under 42, USC, 1983. Nobody wants to know that shit. We’re here to talk about that real person. That’s what we’re trying to do. I’ve had some guests who are politicians and those are interesting at times just to learn from them. I’m sure it helps you and your Million Pound Mission. You might actually learn something from talking to somebody else.
Just leveling up our ability to learn and learn from other people, that’s huge. One of the things I love to promote through both my shows is that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary impact. Like you and I, you’re podcasting, we’re out there reaching people and it’s us being authentic and going out and being willing to open up and bring other people on to hopefully open up themselves and talk or asking questions, doing solo episodes. That’s what I love about doing what we do. It’s why I keep doing it and why I keep showing up to make another episode.
I’m proud to know you. Based on what I was looking on the back end of my podcast, there are some people in Egypt and the Philippines and other places you’re going to get to know. It’s a significant number too and to learn a little bit about the law in the United States. The last question I have for you, how do you keep the drive? Every time I’ve seen you on the online space, you’re full of energy, seemingly happy. How do you keep that drive? You’re human, you have bad days. What keeps you going?
With me, it’s a personal accounting practice. I’ve got an eight-year-old and a four-year-old, so we’re big on Legos. If you’re going to stack up two stacks of Legos, the stack that represents your why always has to be higher than the stack that represents all the why nots combined. Whether we’re talking about showing up in life, in business, for your health, for relationships, the why has to outweigh all the why nots. The combined force of all the why nots because that’s how they show up. It’s not like, “I’m busy.” It’s like, “I’m busy. I’m sick.” What’s that why that gets me to wake up for my bootcamp class at 5:00 in the morning? What’s that why that makes me make that extra phone call to connect with somebody about a work project? What’s that why that makes me show up and take my wife out for a date night every single week because she deserves that, and we need that connection time? That why has to be bigger than the combined force of the why not. I’m always focused on that.
I have a process I go through every single day. I have a statement that I read in the morning and at night I’ve got a journaling thing. I’m very plugged in to what’s happening in my headspace. When I show up, I give my time to the person that I’m showing up for. I’ve got a business meeting and when I’m there, I’m present and I’m showing up for those people. I think, “How can I impact the situation? How do I maximize the time, the value to be able to put out there?” I’m going live a couple of different times. Each segment I’m thinking about that audience I’m speaking to. Why I’m showing up and how I can make the most of that time and what I can say and how I can say it to make the most impact. I’m not there to play around. I’m not there to see my face on social media. I’m doing it because I want to make an impact. I think that two-phase thing of you’ve got to have the why that’s bigger than the combined force of all the why nots. When you do show up in each moment, who you’re showing up for and how can you make the most out of that situation? That’s how you show up on fire, Jason.
I appreciate you, Adam. If I can ever do anything for you, let me know.
Thank you so much. I appreciate you sharing this message with your audience. Those that are reading, I need you to go on iTunes and leave a five-star rating and review, mention the PHD and that this is your favorite episode of all times. I love being the favorite episode. That’s a great way to put the tip in the old tip jar for Jason. You’re spending a lot of effort into this and he deserves that from you. Thanks for reading and thanks to you, Jason.
Thank you. I’ll catch you next time.
Important Links:
- Adam Schaeuble
- Scott Carson
- Million Pound Mission
- Casting The Pod
- Episode 256 – previous episode of Million Pound Mission
- Sixth episode – previous episode of The Byrd Chronicles
- Transformation ReBoot
- MillionPoundMission.com
- @MillionPoundMission on Instagram
- The Byrd Chronicles on iTunes
- http://TransformationCoach.me/
About Adam Schaeuble
Adam Schaeuble, aka The PHD (previously heavy dude), is the host of the top-ranked fitness podcast The Million Pound Mission. He reached a point in his life where he weighed 327lbs and was already having weight-related health issues in his late twenties. He decided to overhaul his lifestyle and his fitness and ended up losing over 100lbs.
Feeling inspired, he took what he learned from his own transformation journey and created a bootcamp program that produced over 35,000 lbs of results in his home town of Bloomington, IN.
Now Adam has set his sights on inspiring over one million pounds of healthy results through his podcast, coaching programs, and the Million Pound Mission Bootcamp.