[00:00:01] Speaker A: Want to protect your business. The time is near. You've given it heart, now get it in gear. It's passage to profit with Richard and Elizabeth Gearhart.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: I'm Richard Gerhardt, founder of Gearhart Law, a full service intellectual property law firm specializing in patents, trademarks and copyrights.
[00:00:20] Speaker C: And I'm Elizabeth Gearhart. Not an attorney, but I work at Gearhart Law doing the marketing, and I have my own startups.
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Welcome to passage to profit, everyone. The road to entrepreneurship, where we talk with startups, small businesses, and discuss the intellectual property that helps them flourish. Now we are going to turn to Derek Johnson. Derek is a fitness guy and he's.
[00:00:41] Speaker D: Got all sorts of good advice for us. Derek, welcome to the show.
[00:00:44] Speaker B: Tell us what's going on.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: I'm a us army veteran. I was in the US army for ten years, and so is my father. So growing up, seeing all the changes that happen to military families, to their kids, and to the general public, I was always inspired to help people in a deeper way. So my main thing, my main mission is help people identify patterns that are not serving them so they can go from just surviving to thriving. And what I mean by that is the individual that crushes it in sales, but they can't keep a relationship to save their life or the person that has had multiple divorces. But they're amazing at other things. So there's always one thing that all of us want to attack, and we bring that into the light. Rather than wait till January 1, it's holiday season, we want to say, no, I'm going to get around to it. We face it and then we take control of that thing. Because there's usually one main thing, and it usually starts from their childhood, whether it's bullying, whether it is something with family, a physical trauma, mental. But we pull those things out so that way they don't carry that thing into everything that they do, so they don't feel like they hit a ceiling in their life. That's the main thing I do. I help people identify what that pattern is so we can break that, so they can start to thrive. And they feel like I can breathe again. That thing, I've been carrying that into every friendship, relationship, business, presentation, and they're just like, can I just get rid of that? So that's what I help people get rid of. So they feel like he or she has their power back.
[00:02:07] Speaker C: I love that because I think sometimes we just get focused on the physical fitness portion of our lives and being in shape or eating healthy, right? But we don't really dissect the inner stuff that's going on that could be leading to why we can't master being healthy in other parts of our lives. So you do everything. So you got the fitness stuff, you have the mind body stuff?
[00:02:26] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:26] Speaker C: Yeah. That's awesome.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: I appreciate it. So the whole intense. I was a personal trainer since I was 15 years old, so I'm 34, but fitness was always my passion, performance, helping people with nutrition. But when I got around 21, I realized that people that I work with that wouldn't see me for months or years. Like after our program duration, they lost progress. Younger version was like, oh, they just got lazy. But mature. Older version said, you know what, it's my fault. I didn't give him or her the mental tools they needed to break those patterns. So that's what got me deep into life coaching and psychology. So nowadays, people less likely ever go backwards, even after the duration because they know their mind and body and they got rid of that thing.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: So what are the tools that you use to uncover this? If I were to come to you and say, all right, assess me, what would you do?
[00:03:16] Speaker A: The first thing I'll do with anyone is create a eliminate sheet. And what I mean by that, we grab a piece of paper, grab a pen, and we ask ourselves the question, what is something that I could get rid of that would help me get more progress? So the most common thing nowadays is attention span. People's attention span, all humans is lower than ever. Emails, texts, TikTok media, Drake has a new song. This is happening economy this that. My dog needs me, my girlfriend needs me. Like, all this stuff is happening. People's attention span is all over the place. So it's hard for them to make much progress in their life. But that's one example. So that person could say, you know what, I need to eliminate mindless scrolling. That's their eliminate. For someone else, it's like, hey, 10:00 p.m. I'm always on Uber eats or I'm in the kitchen and they don't realize it till eleven. They're like, let me get my butt to bed. So whatever their thing is, write out their eliminate list, but be honest and transparent with themselves, but neutral opposed to saying, oh, January 1, I'm going to start my resolution. We just face it. And it's usually the small thing, what we consume, what we eat, what we drink, how we speak to ourselves, and most importantly, what we're looking at online. A very common one that I see is people wake up and they just start scrolling or they wake up and they hit snooze five to ten times and they're like, man, why am I so foggy? Caffeine is not helping. My motivational video is not helping.
[00:04:31] Speaker B: It's a really good point, because if you look at all the things that you do as habits, you spend a lot of your life doing that habit. If you go to the refrigerator every time there's a commercial on tv, you're spending a lot of time at the refrigerator. If you do that for five years.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: Right, exactly.
[00:04:49] Speaker B: And so it really does make sense to take a look at what your habits are and make sure that they're.
[00:04:54] Speaker A: The right ones, 100%. And so that's what we face. We face what that pattern is, and we look at a default setting. So default setting is like, what is your automatic level of operation? So in the military, we could see by someone's physicality what their normal operation level is. So in life, it's like, we have a friend that's always kind of negative. Oh, it's not going to happen. Oh, holiday season. I'm still single. They always have these little side comments, but they say it so much that 80% or more of their verbiage, they text it, they post it, they speak it is something that is not empowering. And they don't realize it because that's just their default setting. And then the other friend is, like, always upbeat, life is amazing. We're blessed. You woke up, be happy. And that's their default setting. So they're not actually using more or less energy. That's just where they operate. So what we do, we identify where's your normal operating and how can we raise it. And step one is first to get rid of things. So my intent is not to show me your schedule. We're going to flip it. Show me your fridge. We're going to throw away the top two shelves. And we were just, like, overwhelmed. The person. It's more. So what is the main thing that you feel you could eliminate?
[00:05:59] Speaker C: Right. I'm glad you mentioned the military because I was going to ask you, was there anything that you learned from being in the military that has helped you develop this type of a programming for the people that you work with?
[00:06:11] Speaker A: Yes. Great question, 100%. And it's mainly working with different cultures. So working with such diverse cultures, also myself, my father's African American and my mother's German. So as a child, I grew up in Germany. So being around the german culture, being around different people, I realized that military brats, which are just kids that have military parents, they're more open minded only because they traveled or they've been around so many people that once they come back to America or wherever they're at, they can click with anyone so easily because they're so used to it. So I'm bringing that up because being mixed, being military and just living in different places, and also, like, my own childhood trauma, I was just always that quiet kid reading the room.
[00:06:53] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:54] Speaker A: I would just absorb, absorb. And the older I got, I could just speak to people at a different level because I realized that everybody that's been through trauma, what you were not getting as a child, you give to others. I was not getting the love and support as a child or teenager. So that's why I give it so much opposed to continuing the negative cycle. So that's what I challenge people to do, is like, what were you not getting as a child or teen? And usually we're searching for that in people when we should actually give that thing to others. So that is ultimately what got me into the path, because drugs and alcohol run on both sides of my family, and I was just on the physical, verbal, mental brunt of it for most of my life. But I was always calm. And they're like, how are you so calm? But I would just work out and just try to help others instead of just being angry.
[00:07:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:07:41] Speaker B: So do you find that the exercise piece is sort of central to your program, or is it now sort of a partnership between the mental and the physical?
[00:07:50] Speaker A: It's definitely a 50 50 partnership because an example, some athletes that I work with, they're amazing in sports physicality. They do marathons. They have the local five k, whatever they want to do. But maybe mentally, they're lacking in public speaking, confidence, or social settings. And then on the flip side, the person, they love the social settings, but they don't know what to do in the gym. So I see a 50 50 based on the person, because once we can get them in alignment with their goals, their mind, their body, and to give them their power, where they're like, the light bulbs are going off, they have the clarity. That's my whole intent with anybody is to give them clarity. Like, I'm not the keto guy. I'm not the liver king guy. I'm not this. I'm just. What is your schedule? What is something we can get rid of, learn about their upbringing and all that, and then we tailor it to that person. So nothing is just like a one size fit all. But the whole intent is to break those patterns that aren't serving them, and they get rid of those things and it usually stems. I go back to bullying a lot, and you mentioned it earlier, bullying is a huge thing because that can dictate why people have a lot of eating disorders. Yes, there's other medical things, but in that person's mind, they might still feel like that heavy twelve year old and dad and aunt talk to them a certain way and they carry that with them. So even if they do lose weight in their brain, they're still that twelve year old obese kid, no matter how many round of applauses they get from people. So we really identify that and give them their power back because the power is within us. We're just overshadowed by stress, mindless scrolling or whatever else is going on.
[00:09:19] Speaker C: It's a good point. I do want to pivot to Dr. Radka, though, because this is in your wheelhouse. So do you have anything that you wanted to ask or contribute?
[00:09:25] Speaker E: Derek, just hit the nail on the head if you don't address all the patterns that come about, because we hear a lot of excuses, but you're looking at reframing that.
What can you do? Because a lot of people tell you what they can't do and they're not being empowered. And that's our job, is to coach them to be empowered. And just to add to that mindless scrolling they actually found in high performance, there's studies that have been done that if you scroll within the first 30 minutes of waking, your performance goes down. So you should at least not scroll for that.
[00:09:58] Speaker B: Give yourself 30 seconds. Okay.
[00:10:01] Speaker E: One of the things I was going to say about entrepreneurs is prioritize yourself. And what I do is, and what helped me through the pandemic was I really had to shut out the noise and focus on taking care of myself first. And one of the talks I give is, moms, put your oxygen mask on first. But it should be, everyone, put your oxygen mask on first. And what I do at home is what I do here and how I eat at home is typically how. That's how I stay healthy because I'm keeping similar routines in it. If I have a busy day, I might be just taking ten breaths in the morning and reflecting on what I'm grateful for. And instead of hitting the snooze, looking at what's that joy I'm going to find today? I started Friday fun day a while back, and it really initially involved taking my daughter out after school and we just walk around, get a tea. It was nothing big. Spend time together. But I'm like, hey, why don't we make every day a fun day?
[00:10:51] Speaker B: So, Derek Johnson, I wanted to get back to something that you had to say, and that was people tend to kind of lose some of the training over a period of time, and you feel that this approach helps to keep them on track. So maybe you could talk a little bit more about that.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: So the whole intent is to give somebody long term results. I'm not the 60 day shred guy or the five week boot camp and all that. Those things do work, but it's not going to give somebody long term results because usually that extreme training or eating, they can't sustain that more than one or two months. And after that they jump to the next thing. So what we look at is their current life, their career. If they're a mother, a father, or if they're not, we look at everything. And longevity is the key to give them their power back in terms of mental health and physical health so they can live a better life and thrive. So when they do get stress from life, from work, from whatever happens in the world, they're proactive because they took care of themselves. Because when we're selfish, it's not selfish, we're selfless. So like my example, I wake up early every morning to have an hour or 2 hours to myself. I work out, spend time with my girlfriend, my dog reset my mind, and then I could speak to anybody because the rest of the day I'm just calm and controlled. But the intent is to be proactive in your morning. We've all done it. We've hit snooze five times. Stress and anxiety goes up. Everyone on that moment needs you. Emails, texts, calls, you're like, can I get ten minutes to myself?
So we just try to have a proactive morning to take control. But everything is longevity. The more aha. Moments and clarity that they have, the more they're like, that's why I did that in relationships. That's why I couldn't public speak. Whatever it was. The more moments they have of that long term, they make better progress and better results.
[00:12:34] Speaker B: So do your clients find these moments themselves or do you help unlock them?
[00:12:38] Speaker A: We work together. So essentially we do two things. One, I have a private coaching app, which is all fitness, nutrition. And two, we do Zoom calls. Or if we live in the same area, we do it in person. And on the zoom calls or conversations, that's where the quote unquote magic happens. Because we dive deep into the topics. You can usually read the person. So an example could be Susie. Susie's overwhelmed and I can tell. So today's topic is relevant. She just needs to vent. And as a coach reading that person, she's not going to absorb the information of today's topic. So I let her vent for 20 minutes, and I say, you feel good? How long do you want to feel this way? She's like, five minutes. And we release it and we go from there. And after she released, she's open to absorb the next information. So it's more so looking at that person where they're at to assess the situation, opposed to just saying, well, today this was on the agenda. It's like, no, they're human. I'm human. Identify where they're at and then go a different approach. So approaching it that way, it's a 50 50. We meet each other in the middle and they're like, wow, nobody really let me rant. And sometimes this goes for anybody. We just actively have to listen because every human just wants two things. We want to be heard and understood. Heard and understood. Family usually doesn't do it. Friends sometimes don't do it because they're busy texting and scrolling. Oh, yeah, I was listening.
[00:13:52] Speaker C: So what was your reading of me as I was inhaling a plate of macaroni and cheese and walking around? I forgot you were a fitness person, by the way. I'm like, oh, my God. It just dawned on me that I did that. So hopefully you weren't judging me because I do work out, and I only work out so I could eat.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: I wasn't judging.
[00:14:06] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:14:07] Speaker A: I don't know your routine.
[00:14:08] Speaker C: I can't believe I did that. But it's okay.
[00:14:11] Speaker B: So what are your plans for the future in building your practice? And what is it that you want to accomplish?
[00:14:17] Speaker A: In 2024, 99.9% of the business is online, so I have a Coaching app, and then I'll do all the calls on Zoom. But in 2024, it's to bring the in person workshops and masterminds to it and not a pitch fest. So we've all paid for a ticket before, and we want to learn that one thing, but then we got to level up to the diamond package and the gold package, and you're like, how many packages do I got to get before I learn that thing? Nothing like that. It's a three day thing. Day one, we go hiking to the top of a mountain and we release trauma. We're at the top. We do breathing exercises, we move the body. A lot of natural modalities. No drugs or anything. But basically, imagine 20 to 100 people hiking up a mountain together. And we're not climbing it, we're just hiking, pushing each other. You get to the top and we have this level of energy. We're proud of each other. And then from there, we start to build up. Somebody might need to release tears, which is totally fine, to cry for a couple of minutes. Somebody else might just need to yell. Somebody else is excited. But imagine all those people at the top. Then from there, we walk down. The rest of the day, we have some food and all that. Day two, that's where we dive deep. And the reason this is so effective is because we've already embraced the suck. We say this in the army, we embrace the suck together, meaning we hiked up it. His back was hurting. We helped her. So day two, we dive deep into their traumas on what they want to get rid of. And then day three, we have fun, have camaraderie, but they all go home with tools that they can use long term. There's not like another level or package. So it's the team aspect in person.
[00:15:45] Speaker B: Again, that sounds great. I think a lot of people would benefit from that, and it sounds like it could be really motivating. What else do you have in store for 2024?
[00:15:54] Speaker A: Honestly, just continuously getting better as a person and as a coach. So I can help people in a deeper way. Because anytime that I learn something new that could help somebody, even if it's a stranger, not just a client, I'm excited to tell them because I can sense where they're at and they're like, thank you. That's that one golden nugget that I needed. So just giving people that, because I know what it feels to not have that. So again, I feel like we just give what we didn't receive as a child or we continue the negative path.
[00:16:17] Speaker E: That's good.
[00:16:18] Speaker B: Derek, where can people find you?
[00:16:20] Speaker A: People can find me on social media at fit with Derek two, the number two. And that's Derick, the only right way to spell Derek. So it's fit with Derek two, or on my website, it's fitwithderk.com on there. I just like to show real people with real results. So pictures and videos, they tell their story, and it's not just fitness, but I love showing the videos so they can sense the person's calmness, confidence, and so, like, from the outside, they just see the fit military guy, but when they see the people, they're like, wow. We focus on deep trauma, and that's what it's about so going from just surviving to thriving.
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Derek Johnson, thanks for joining us. Before we go, I'd like to thank the passage to profit team, Noah Fleischmann, our producer Alicia Morrissey, our program director. Our podcast can be found tomorrow anywhere you find your podcast. Just look for the passage to profit.
[00:17:08] Speaker D: Show and you can find us on Instagram and threads at passage to profit show and Twitter. Or if you're even more up to date, x at passage to profit and on our YouTube channel, please also join us on our new Facebook group, search for passage to profit show. Listener Community a new community space for our listeners and guests where you can post questions that you would like answered on the show and interact with the passage to profit team.
[00:17:34] Speaker B: And remember, while the information on this program is believed to be correct, never take a legal step without checking with your legal professional first. Gearhart Law is here for your patent, trademark and copyright needs. You can find
[email protected] and contact us for a free consultation. Take care, everybody. Thanks for listening and we'll be back next week.
