A Funky Yet Powerful Blog Post From Big Chris

Hey there, hope you’re doin awesome and welcome back  to Planet Kick Back, where the top 1% of the fitness industry chills out and has a good time making substantially more money ( while helping a ton of people), where success happens with ease and freedom is the standard

This is one of the most important blog posts I’ve ever done, and here’s why…

I have this philosophy I live by, I call it ‘Rise Above’ …

Old Black Flag fans will get the reference… but to me it means a WHOLE LOT more and actually has nothing to do with the music of Black Flag… even though I’m a huge fan of Henry Rollins… that’s just where I first heard those two words put together and it always resonated with me

‘Rise Above’ is away of life for me

It’s my code

It’s my “call to arms” when I slip into thoughts or actions that don’t serve me or the world in a positive way.

In fact, this code I live by means so much to me I go it tattooed an my forearm… as a constant reminder…

People are constantly asking me what the phrase means when they see my tattoo.

It’s really quite simple, in my twenties I “settled” for a mediocre existence at best… and less than mediocre by most standards… poverty, negative thinking, drug addiction, doin’ work I couldn’t stand ( that’s why I sold weed for so long, I could not stand regular day jobs.. still can’t), selfishness and letting my self-imposed limiting beliefs created by early conditioning hold me back from the living the kind of the life I really wanted to live down deep inside

I my thirties I decided to turn it all around and rise above the negative thinking, poor self-image, lack of money, drug addictions, trading dollars for hours, and the ego based selfish mindset of only being concerned of what’s in it for me… which has proven to me time and again to be a losing battle.

Now, life has ups and down, struggles, temptations, is constantly changing and I think that means one needs to constantly evolve and become better, or we tend to slip backwards.

Even just a year ago I was in a mastermind with Bedros, Hochman, Vince Delmonte and Craig Ballantyne and told the group that I was firing on 10 out of 10 cylinders in almost every area of life… like finances, spirituality, relationships… EXCEPT my health and fitness, and that I felt like a 2 out of 10 in that area, bringing my whole collective life down to like a 7 or 8… I was pretty outta shape, eating like shit and had neglected taking care of the physical for a few years… and that day I made a commitment to do something about it

So first I started lifting and making changes in my diet, then adding in cardio and finally plugging in carb cycling about 5 months ago.

Here I am about a year or so later after that meeting… firing on all cylinders in every area of life…

Right now I’m weighing in at 252 pounds ( at 6’6″ ) got about 5 more pounds to lose until I’ll be shredded SHREDDED… not just a six-pack but an eight pack… and then I’m gonna do a semi-clean bulk… add some muscle, and then rip back down… I’d like to be at about this same bodyfat as I’m in the pic but at 265 or 270 instead of 252

Heavy weights, fasted state cardio and hiring Shelby Starnes as my nutrition mentor ( he put me on carb cycling ) has been a pretty effective combo…. working Shelby as my nutrition mentor was one of the best decisions I ever made.. and wasn’t exactly sure how to rip up without being hungry, weak and cranky all the time, so I went to the worlds best… he told me what to do… and I did it… and I’m huge fan of hiring mentors and people who’ve walked the path I wanna walk to make my journey much easier and save me what could turn out to be years of frustrations… why not learn from them what mistakes to avoid and where the straightest line is between points ya know? It only makes sense and almost every single successful person that I know does this

Today, I Rise Above “settling” for anything less than what I truly want, Rise Above the status quo, Rise Above the naysayers and people who want to hold you back and see you fail because it makes them feel better about themselves and their lack of living a good life, Rise Above mediocrity, average pay and deadly self-limitations… Rise Above limited thinking and close-mindedness.. Rise Above selfishness…. Rise Above fear and a sense of lack… Rise Above what others think… Rise Above stagnation.

Rise Above the masses, the 99% who tip toe through life everyday hoping to make it safely to death…

Rise Above and be a 1%er who creates my own reality, contributes to the world in MANY positive ways, doing what I love for a living… on my own terms, and creating an amazing life for myself and the ones I care about… a life that the other 99% would say is impossible to achieve and doesn’t exist…

Well I’m living proof that it DOES exist.

One thing that most people settle for is an “hamster in a wheel” average work day… and usually a pretty lousy average workday where they just go through the motions to make a paycheck… getting up by the alarm, commuting, waiting for a break… waiting to get off… trading the hours of their day for dollars… now I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that for anyone else but me… I can only speak for myself here… but deep in my gut, I KNOW it’s not my path… I want to spend my time doin’ things that I’m passionate about, with lots of flexibility, helping the make the world the best place I can and having a helluva lotta fun in the process.

I refuse to trade my life away for money… working to make someone else rich… living by others values… and thinking that the only way to financially succeed is get up, put long hard hours in at some job I could care less about, go home and get up and do it all again the next day… living like a rat in a cage

I wanted to create a business that gave me the kind of work day and lifestyle that I really wanted deep inside… so a few years ago, I sat down and wrote out exactly what that day would look like, made it a goal, and figured out how many people I’d have to help get what they wanted in life to make the kind of money that would make this ideal work day of mine a reality… and how I could help them.

I got it set deep in my gut that I would make this happen no matter what… cuz otherwise… I’m just settling, and then my entire Rise Above philosophy is just a philosophy, and not a way of life.

But once I set my sights on something and lock it into my gut, and let my sub-conscious go to work putting all the right strategies, connections, mentors and steps in front of me for me to take action on… success is guaranteed every single time… provided I take those actions and persist like a true BMF.

Today, because of locking in on my target, working with the right mentors, becoming one of the modern days masters of direct response marketing, taking massive actions, and then learning and plugging in all the right systems to pull in all streams of income, my ideal work day that I set my sights on has become the norm.

Now, what is ideal to ME, might be boring to you…

…you may wanna jump out of planes into the jungle for a living, or guard the president, or work as a bouncer at a strip club for all I know… or who knows, maybe if you value family and freedom your ideal work day will look something like mine… it’s an individual thing.

My question to you is, what does YOUR ideal normal work day look like?

If you don’t have an exact CLEAR picture of EXACTLY what it looks like, do yourself a HUGE favor and after reading this entire post, create one on paper and and make a decision to make it become a reality

Ask yourself … and be as specific as possible…

• Where do you live?
• Where do you work?
• What time do you get up?
• What do you do when you get up? And what next? And what next? And what next?
• Do you deal or interact with anyone? Who? What kind of person are they?
• How many hours do you work? What else do you do?
• What’s important to that you get to spend time doin’ everyday? ( hanging with friends and family, training clients, working out… ???? )

The more specific you can be here the better

And if you already DO have a clear picture, I’d love to hear about it in the comment section below… or even if you wanna share what you come up with now, I’d love to see it.

Ok, here’s what my typical day looks like this day “used” to only live in my head, now it’s the reality I live in

And at the bottom of this post I’ll tell you exactly how it all become a reality.

Ok… come with me on a little ride…

This is my house in the hills of Orange County Californian, where I live with my awesome wife Sarah who’s 8 months pregnant and my two daughters Emma and Abby… I not only live here but I also work here… family is the most important thing to me, so I like to work at home and be able to spend lots of time with them…

Here’s the look on my assistant Del’s face when I told her that the next day she would be following me around with a camera busting out pic’s for a blog post ( this post right here actually) … this is the look she always gives me when I ask her to do anything funky… and believe me, I can come up with some weird shit for her to do sometime…

Now I USED to wake up at like ten or eleven, but since I started eating a lot cleaner I’ve a TON more energy and have actually been getting up between 5am and 8am.. weird, who’da thunk that eating healthy food would give you more energy, I thought only caffeine and methamphetamine did that…

First thing I do is bust out some fasted-state cardio… ( well after I pee and do a few funky spiritual habits like thanking my Creator for the day, my family and my businesses)… I have a stationary bike right there in the bedroom…

Usually while I do cardio I either check out a few of my favorite blogs, forums and websites on my ipad, listen to marketing audio programs ( learning how to market is key, and no matter how good at it you are, it’s the one kind of education you ALWAYS want to invest some time into ) … read a marketing book… or I’ll rock out to some Five Finger Death Punch or Vinnie Paz, catch up on Sons of Anarchy or Terriers or watch part of a movie… but today I just tripped out and looked out at the view from my bedroom balcony right in front of the bike… we got a nice little view I like to look out at…

Then after busting out cardio and taking a quick shower, I say good morning to my daughters and check all the sales that came through from my various products, websites and services in the middle of the night from all over the world ( damn I love world wide online commerce )… while I don’t take too many things in life serious, I do take making money VERY seriously… as you can see from the look on my face…

Next, it’s time for breakfast with the fam… my 8 month pregnant wife is getting cereal for the kids… by the look on her face it’s obvious she wants nothing to do with this little blog post of mine…

It’s a protein shake with oats for me while the girls chow down on their cereal…

Next, I spent about 30 minutes on a call with a coaching client who runs a bunch of boot camps and personal training programs in Australia, so since it was beautiful out, like it is probably 350 days a year here in The OC, I did the call out in the back yard, checking out the view again,, watching my daughters play and getting some good ol’ vitamin D… next I chatted with one of my closest friends Big Mike, who’s even taller than me, does $52 Million a year selling his line of Hydroponic Nutrients to pot growers ( it’s all legal btw )… and is one of the most giving, smartest, passionate marketing geniuses I know, I met him in a mastermind we were in together a few years back and we’ve been close friends ever since … and before goin’ legit and starting his nutrient line he was straight up gansta, running a giant marijuana growing smuggling operation for almost two decades making him over $20 Million a year with over 200 people growing and smuggling for him… man has he got some stories… and it’s all past the statute of limitations… judge him how you will… but I love the man like a brother…

At this point, I know Del is wondering when the hell this following me around with a camera is gonna end (=  … little does she know it’s an all day gig… I haven’t asked her to stay late yet, so let’s keep that between me and you for now… between shooting pics of me she gets some of her admin stuff done in her and Sarah’s office in the house… taking care of customers email, creating sales reports, making appointment with the trainers who work for us, handling any billing issues and so on… basically all the stuff I’m HORRIBLE at and have no business being involved in…

Now it’s time for to start working in MY office for a few hours on a coaching emails, the content for this blog post and the sales letter for my new Virtual Mentoring Program… my daughter Emma LOVES to come visit me while I work and ask me what things are… she’s SOOO inquisitive and hard to resist…

And then what happens every single day… nap time baby…

Until my daughters decide it’s time to wake up Daddy in the most obnoxious way possible… but I don’t mind… I got about an hour in of shut eye  (=

When I come out of the office a bit later the girls want to show me that put pretty princess dresses on… they have like 50 of those damn things and change in n’ outta them all day long…

Then I helped my coaching client Sako with a few of his online campaigns… BTW, when I first started working with Sako he was making an ok low-five figure income training clients one-on-one all day and working for a corporate gym chain, and while he still trains one-on-one, he does it for himself, kicking the corporate gig to the curb and I got him to set up multiple boot camps with other trainers working for him… and now he earns a nice six-figure income from multiple streams… in fact recently he ruptured his achilles tendon and had to takea few months off of training, but he actually MADE MORE MONEY while he sat at home recovering, unable to train clients, because his boot camps, which he outsources all the training in, almost doubled while he sat at home.. Sako is an action taker and true member of Planet Kick Back… and a joy to coach as well…

Next it’s time to take my Harley to hit the weights… the Iron is my meditation.. and I just got some loud and illegal pipes put on the bike… making it just that much more fun to ride…

Next, I said “hi” to Big Jimmy Spraggins, who owns one of the local gyms I like to lift at… I always tell Jimmy, with your physique, and my height, good looks, wit, charm, sense of humor and marketing abilities, we’d make the perfect human being…

While I was at the gym, a trainer I’ve never met, named Blake, who I guess has been following my blog for a number of years and seen me speak before, came up and wanted to get his picture taken with me… he was super cool… it still trips me out when I go to gyms, events, restaurants. wherever and trainers want to get their picture with me, and some even ask for my autograph… it really makes me feel humble and cool to be recognized… and nice to know how through the power of the internet you can helps tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people you’ve never even met… Blake was a super-cool dude and it was a privilege to meet him… I don’t think I’ll ever get used to people coming up and wanting to get their picture taking with me though

Ok, it’s time for me to hit the iron, I was already done with squats and deadlifts for the week so today was one of those super fun upper body workouts… alright, time to get my game face on…

Almost done, just finishing up with some curls…

After hitting the iron and purifying my soul a bit, I had nice BioTest Surge post workout recovery shake followed by a high carb meal about an hour later… oats and lean steak… now it’s time for my weekly two hour massage… but as usual as soon as the girls heard I was leaving they ambushed me by hiding in my Vette… or as they call it, “Daddy’s Pretty Red Car”… so they could lock in a giant hug and kiss as I left… which are some of the moments I truly cherish in life…

Ok, after the ambush and giving my girls a big hug and kiss it’s off to my regularly scheduled deep tissue steam roll and annihilation appointment… Being 40 years old and into lifting really heavy shit for a hobby… and after years of heavy powerlifting movements in my twenties and early thirties, I’m prone to lots of little kinks and aches and pains, but for about the last 8 or 9 months I’ve been getting a two hour deep tissue massage once a week without fail… what a difference it makes, cuts down on 90% of those “old weightlifter kinks” I usually get, so here’s my massage therapist Veronica who has working on my knots, adhesions and trigger points down to a science… took me a while to find the right massage therapist for me… lots of good ones out there but very few great ones… she better never change careers … that’s all I can say… otherwise I might have to make her an offer she can’t refuse and make her my private full-time massage therapist… I told her to pose out and smile for the camera, it came out looking so perfect I could license it out to istockphoto… when Del asked me what I wanted in the pic, I said I didn’t care as long as I don’t have any crack showing… mission accomplished…

After the massage.. and dinner with the fam… my awesome wife sarah gives me her mean look and makes me promise her that she won’t end up in “that stupid blog post” I’m doin’ … I say “no worries baby, if you don’t wanna be in it, of course I won’t put in it” … she’s gonna kill me when she see’s this post… they’re so sassy when they’re pregnant… (=

And then after dinner, I  checked on all the sales we made today, which always puts me in a good mood… and then put the girls in their jammies and helped brush their teeth.. I tell them that all princesses brush their teeth EVERYDAY…

And then I read them a bedtime story and tucked em’ in for the  night

And finally me and Sarah will usually kick back and watch some TV shows in bed… tonight it was Seinfeld… in fact these days it usually Seinfeld ( which I watch before sleeping almost every night and have done goin’ back as far as I can remember)... but there’s also East Bound and Down, Bored to Death, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Office, Parks and Rec, Modern Family or Entourage… and if Sarah falls asleep before me it’s Sons of Anarchy, repeats of The Wire ( best drama of all time IMO), Homicide Life on the Street, Terriers, Boardwalk Empire, Justified or Dexter.. she isn’t into all those gritty gangsta dramas… but I am (= … I AM MAN DAMMIT!!!

And last thing before falling asleep I thank my Creator for my family, businesses and life.

Well there ya have it, a pretty typcial day for me… nothing too exciting, but for me, it’s PERFECT.

Ok, so here’s what I would say are the biggest factors in me Rising Above and living the life I pictured in my head just a few short years ago…

- Having an exact picture in mind of what my ideal normal workday would look like

- Deciding to make it happen no matter what, with exception of stepping on others

- Figuring out how much money I would need to make that dream become a reality

- Figuring out how I could help a ton of people to get what they would want in life, to make that much money

- Taking massive action to help those people

- Dropping the “trading hours for dollars” mentality since it limits income and the amount of people you can help and usually leads to burnout, frustration and boredom, and adopted the “create systems that make money” mentality ( this shift in thinking was HUGE for me)

- Hiring the right mentors who’ve done the kind of things I wanted to do, and doing what they said

- Joining the right masterminds with other like minded and successful individuals, helping to support eachother on our journey and keeping eachother accountable

- Investing in myself and my business

- Learning direct response marketing from people who knew what the hell they were talking about and lived the kind of lifestyle I personally wanted to have

- Setting up all the right marketing systems

- Learning from my mistakes, scrapping what wasn’t working, doing more of what did work

- Setting up the right conversion systems in place to convert the leads I got from marketing into customers and clients

- Setting up systems to ascend the top 5% to 20% of customers and clients into high-end, high-value results producing programs

- Systematizing each new product or service so it would run on auto-pilot and I could continue to add income stream on top of income stream ( I have over 20 income streams now, some small and some pretty hefty by my standards )

- Continuing to systematize, allowing me to fire myself from as much work as possible while continuing to make more and more money

- Never, EVER, EVER Giving Up

I’d love to hear about your ideal normal work day… and remember, the main concept can be broken down to this long lost piece of classic art…

Ok, that’s really all for now, one last thing before you go…

If you’d like my personal help getting setting up all the right systems in your own business, from the marketing, to the conversions, the upsells, retention, systematization, outsourcing and so on… I have something you may be interested in

In a week or two for a VERY limited time I’m opening the door on my brand new Virtual Mentoring Program, I’m gonna be helping fitness pros plug all of the right systems into their busineses, not only getting clear on their ideal business and USP, all the marketing strategies I mentioned above including some that I’VE NEVER shared except with my most high end consulting clients, the conversion strategies, ascension strategies, retention systems, and systematizing every aspect of your business so it can literally run without you, you can get other trainers to almost all the work for you and train as little or much as you want on your own terms

This program is not about giving you information, instead it’s to MAKE SURE we put everything into action, not just fill your head with more “stuff”… o

So if you’d like some step-by-step mentoring, and even the opportunity to get answers to any of your questions from me personally, use my personal assistant to help set the systems up in YOUR business, use my proven done-for-you marketing campaigns and scripts and get every single thing you need to plug all this stuff into your business to get it up and running the way you deserve it to be…. then you’ll want to make sure and be part of this program

I’m gonna personally help you take your business from Point A to Point B in as realistically as short of time as possible… and like I said, it’s NOT about giving you information

If you just want information, there’s tons of it for FREE right here on this blog and even more in my information products, and the people who apply this stuff get results, you can see just of a few of them on my success stories page

But if you want proven systems plugged into your business, then there’s a damn good chance this program is for you

Since I mentioned I’ll be opening this program myself and my staff have been getting flooded with questions about it from goal-oriented business-minded fitness pros all over the world… and very soon I’ll be releasing all the details including answers to the most common questions we’ve been getting, but in the meantime, recently for another blog post I put my very professional and envied art skills to use and mapped out exactly how it will work for you, I’ve included this stunning blueprint how the program works here for you as well…

If see the value in this program and when I open the doors it feels right in your gut, and if you value investing in yourself and your business, you want help getting all this stuff set up, you have a good understanding of the value of a high ROI, understand that sometimes it takes a dollar to make ten, twenty or a hundred back, are willing to take a few simple actions on the front end to have a TON of freedom and your ideal life and business in the near future, then together we’ll plug my systems into your business so you can get it to the $100k to $500K level depending what your personal goals are

Until then, keep an eye on your inbox for lots of more super cool free stuff and business building tactics I’ll be sending your way.

Talk soon,

Big Chris (=