In this ardent episode, Derick Johnson, Owner and Life Coach at Fit with Derick, shares how he helps his clients break old patterns to thrive and not just survive in their professional and personal lives.
You will discover:
– How to exercise for success (not just a six-pack)
– The cost of not being present for your own life
– One simple step to get your physical and mental health goals back on track
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast and I am here with yet another high demand coach. And that is the one the only Derick Johnson who is a US Army veteran, a life coach and a trainer. He’s helped over 500 clients and 50 companies go from just surviving to thriving through his coaching. Now, Derek was awarded soldier of the year for his battalion three times. And he’s used his leadership skills, his certification and the his life experiences to help people to take control of their minds and bodies. Now working with him is like nothing his clients have ever experienced before because he consistently offers his clients with the proven guidance, support and accountability that they need to accelerate and succeed. Well, Derek, I’m so excited to have you here. Love to dive into what this looks like, particularly from a whole life standpoint for for entrepreneurs, right? entrepreneurs themselves aren’t businesses, they lead businesses, they’re people with, you know, mental health and physical health and all of that. Before we get to all of it, though, I’d love to just hear a little bit more about this story. So you come out of the Army, how did that ultimately lead you to getting into life coaching and training?
Derick Johnson
I appreciate it, Scott. It’s a pleasure being here. So what got me into it was at the age of 15, I became a personal trainer. And so I was also an Army ROTC and a martial arts. So I was always leading soldiers or cadets, at the time, I was always leading my teammates in sports, I was always a team leader. And so naturally, I was always pushed and guided into leadership roles. And so I really fell in love with helping empower other people, meet them where they’re at, and slowly build them up, whether that was fitness related sports classroom, or just in career. But with that experience, I realized that my crazy childhood and upbringing was a gift. So it helped me a lot to communicate with people better. And so that’s what got me into the camaraderie of sports, nutrition, fitness, and then also with the military. So then once I got in the military, I learned how to deal with different personalities, ethnicities, cultures, colors, all these different walks of life. And I realized that the best leaders, they know how to speak to different people, and build them up and speak to them differently as well. So like, drill sergeant for per se, they always do the knife end, or the football coach that works to an extent, but you can be stuck in that mode. 24/7. And then also, you can be reserved 24/7 Some leaders are not good leaders, and people walk all over them, or they don’t take him or her serious because they’re too soft spoken. So got to have a good mix and approach people with where they’re at. But definitely my experience in sports, military. And then with my upbringing, my father was US Army for 20 plus years. And my mother, she was a kindergarten teacher for 30 plus years. So my mother’s German father’s a former African American, he’s from Mississippi. So like, the best of both worlds got the work ethic. So brought that into what I do today, with life experience in education, but definitely just meeting people where they’re at building them up and seeing how you can become a better leader, which helps the team as a whole.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s fantastic. So fast forward, then to today, what would you say some of the most important work you’re doing for your clients?
Derick Johnson
I would say to get rid of traumas and break old patterns. Patterns could be bad relationship with food, with alcohol, not being present with family, they crushed it and sales, I got a six figure month, but they’re never present or just swipe, swipe, swipe. There are stripe and PayPal, they’re looking at Chase business are doing that. And it’s hard for them to be present and tap out sometimes. So definitely breaking old patterns that aren’t serving them. So that way they feel like they’re thriving and more than just one area. So another example could be the common guy who dominates sales, but he can’t keep a relationship to save his life. Or the person who has amazing relationship lacks the finances. There’s always one small thing and maybe they lacked the fitness. Maybe they lacked the confidence. They’re great behind the scenes in tech, but they can’t public speak. So those are the specific things that we work on. And we figure out, where did that thing come from? Where did it start. And usually they got bullied. Something happened at home, something in their past that got dumped in the past some type of heartache failure or mistake, and they carry that with them. So if they feel stuck, and they’re hitting the ceiling, we figure out why they feel stuck. And then we face it work on that. So they feel like they have their power back and they can fully breathe again. So they’re not like, Man, I’m doing well here, I have the family, have the car, have the wife, etc. But they’re still not fulfilled. And there’s something in their past that they still have to fix and work on. So those are the main things that I noticed they’re doing well in career and in other areas, but they just still feel a constant pressure from the outside or maybe internally.
Scott Ritzheimer
So there’s this, there’s this tension that I think exists a lot of times when you look at folks who who achieve great things, oftentimes they’re unbalanced in some way, shape or form right So the there’s there’s a greatness that can come from that. But it comes at a cost as well. So how do you how do you make sure that you’re focusing on the right things? What’s your take on? Should you really go after one thing? Or should you look at it from a more holistic perspective?
Derick Johnson
I would look at everything from a holistic perspective, starting with the mind and body, especially in business entrepreneurship, is when you’re in better physical shape, and not in regards to having six pack abs at the beach, or the perfect physique, but more so performance wise, if that person has mental clarity, focus, self confidence, looks like you’re in a suit today. So if you have a fitted tailored suit, that confidence the same thing with women, when they put on a certain outfit, and that resonates with many people, even if they feel like they’re not in the best shape. If they’ve put on a suit, or she’s put on a gown at a high ball or high value events, or Chamber of Commerce meeting or whatever it was, they walked in confident. And maybe that’s one or two times a year, where they have that level of confidence, because how they’re dressed. So definitely, mindset body and how we present ourselves. And then besides that, looking at the person’s routine and schedule, but always start with ourselves first, what are your dominant thoughts? How do you present yourself because the inner world just shines to the outside? No matter if they’re in a suit or not? Sometimes people can be dressed nice, but they don’t give off the confidence because they haven’t worked on this.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So this is going to ash early in, in 2024. And by about this time, you know, folks that haven’t been at the gym a couple of days so far, right, the New Year’s resolution started to wear off a little bit. And one of the things if you look in the health world, there’s lots of stuff around you get your six pack abs increase and increase your lifts. But what does working out look like? What are some good goals for physical fitness for an entrepreneur, right? You talked about this, this confidence or that clarity, what would be some good goals for someone who doesn’t necessarily need the six pack abs but wants to be able to put their best foot forward each day.
Derick Johnson
I would aim to have a athletic physique in regards to general movement. So let’s just say he or she is a parent, and they have kids, can they go in the yard and do side cuts on the football, soccer ball and all that without thinking they’re going to throw a hip out, or pull a hamstring like, those are usually the moments who will get injured is just playing with their kids with their family with their dogs. But all they do is like they sit up, they stand out. If they lay down, they sit up, they stand everything straight and forth, back forth, up down. So they rarely ever cut to the side or anything. So I would highly suggest they work on their mobility and flexibility. And even if they’re not playing basketball, or soccer or sports in general, but they’ll less likely have injuries doing normal things at home, reaching for the cabinet. And it’s been a while since they reach across their body and to reach for a cup and something pops here. Like those are usually things that I’ve noticed is the injuries don’t happen so much in the gym, or on hikes or walks do you do just do in day to day things, right. But the majority of those people, they lack mobility and flexibility, and they’re really stiff. And especially in business, we store stress or trauma in our body, some hold it in their neck, you can sell some of their shoulders, and and they’re working all day and like they haven’t released it. So they try to mask it with alcohol, naps and whatever their vices, but definitely mobility and flexibility to be more athletic and to feel like we can go hike for 30 minutes, then I can go give a presentation then tomorrow, go swim at the pool, or at the beach, whatever the case may be, but not feel exhausted because they’re just in better, holistic shape from the inside out. And they just attack business even better. So they’re not too worried about what their end goal physique is, is more so performance. And they feel like they can do anything. They feel strong. They have the endurance, they look good and close and their team respects that are like wow, he’s always doing something like are you just at the airport, and then I saw you swimming. I saw your Facebook post now you’re here at the meeting. There’s like shit he’s so on it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, it’s, it’s a little crazy. But one of the things that I work on with clients, especially in teams, is just the idea of stamina, right? Like being able to stay in the meeting in the moment. Because there’s times when you gotta get down and do some just dirty fingernails work, right? From a business standpoint, it can be taxing, and oftentimes I’m working with clients is full day sessions. And so about two o’clock, right, that is the kind of you can hit that wall. And and I literally had a guy who fell asleep every single time at two o’clock. And, and you know, it’s a little extreme. It’s, you know, one person out of a whole bunch. But I mean, you can you can just see, like, if it’s going to be that visible, how much are we losing just as entrepreneurs and executives in India decreased performance because we’ve not taken care of some of the stuff that you’re talking about here.
Derick Johnson
Exactly, and it’s really common to see so we’ll use the example of the CEO here. He has been in the company or the business for years, and they dominate the industry. A lot of them not all, but a lot of them are out of shape physically. And then that leads to binge drinking, that might leads to drugs on paper, they’re successful. But you see him or her, you could tell by their skin, that they don’t take care of themselves, they barely sleep. And there’s a difference between the young sales guy who also barely sleeps, but he takes care of himself, she takes care of herself. They just have a different level of energy, but a lot of corporate, a lot of business owners, a lot of the older guys and women. They’ve had bad patterns and bad habits for years. And they’re successful on paper. But outside of that, you start to really notice like, Oh, he’s had two or three divorces, oh, we had this had that. And it’s usually stems from they don’t take care of themselves. And then they start to get angry. So like they start to project. So that’s a whole nother rabbit hole. But that’s usually a pattern that I noticed is they neglected themselves, because they went all in on business. But then things around them started to slowly crumble.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, I actually had another client in a separate session and asked genuinely concerned, like, I thought he was going to have a heart attack. You know, it was like, he started getting like heart palpitations. And and I was like, physically sick in our meeting, we had to cancel it early. And that happened more than once, actually. And again, I think he goes back to it. And this was the next question that I had for you is, you as a life coach, as someone who’s looking at this thing, just saying, hey, success is not just about your sales number or your revenue for your business, or how much you know, you’ve been able to generate in the last round of fundraising. It’s, it’s, it’s deeper than that. It’s more than that. What are some aspects of of entrepreneurs, founders, leaders lives that you see them tend to overlook? And what would you say are some of the costs?
Derick Johnson
I would definitely say they overlook the power of being present. It is hard. And sometimes it’s nearly impossible when they’re managing a team. And they have slack. They have WhatsApp, they have Microsoft Teams, whatever CRM they have, and nonstop notifications. And that’s not even counting their friend group chat and sending you means and like their mind is everywhere. So nowadays, I noticed the biggest this issue, especially with business owners and entrepreneurs, is they’re rarely present, because they’re always in go mode, which is good, which is why they’re successful. But the friends family, wherever they’re around, start to notice that even if they don’t say something, you can’t have one one hour dates without sending that email. It’s like if we can’t do that. So an example my girlfriend, I and today’s Friday, as we’re recording this, every Friday, we have a non negotiable lunch date, I take a picture video of my food because like I posted macros and do all that, but we make sure that word is there and present. And we force ourselves to just have a conversation or we just look at nature we like to eat at the ocean. And this sometimes you don’t say a word because we speak all week long to people and manage teams, elite peoples who are just like, complete silence. And then we slowly start a conversation 30 minutes later, but we’re present taken in the beach, whatever wherever we’re at. And then we start to have a real conversation. But being able to be more present, it’s way easier said than done. Especially somebody has kids and a massive company. But that’s a huge issue. And in their personal life, it can be affected because people don’t feel respected. People don’t feel loved or acknowledged. And at the end of the day, every human just wants to things we want to be heard and understood. So of this CEO, entrepreneurs always scrolling, always running people’s cars, etc, etc. That’s great. That’s why the family is in a beautiful home. But it slowly starts to create issues. And what I’ve noticed is that is an increase in business of marriages leading to towards divorces because they’re all in on business. And it’s hard for some nearly impossible to be present. Because within 10 minutes, or like, I need my phone in my laptop, like they think of these worst scenarios. It’s like, alright, let’s look at the historical data. How many times has x scenario happens when you laid your phone down for 10 minutes? And they’re like, well, probably never or once eight years ago and your assistants a care of it. But they really just have to look at it because they’re running about the they’re running on the what if scenarios, sometimes like, well, what if this happens, or what if that, but that’s a huge sign that they’re liking, effective leadership, because a leader they should be able to trust their team. They’re second in charge, whatever the process or setup is, or chain of command, and be able to say, You know what, I need two days with family. Take my grandma somewhere, the team will handle it. The trust and confidence is there. And that’s rare to see. Usually the CEO is like, I need to do this. Nobody can do it better than me. I work 15 hats, and I get home. I don’t know how to take the hats off. Now my kids like can we play ball? And I’m like, I’m not President. So those are definitely the trickles and the side effects that I see of not being present.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So let’s just let’s take a moment here before we wrap up and I just want to make this practical for folks. So again, are about a month into 2024 here and this is the time when you know some of those New Year’s resolutions start to falter This is where the busyness of all those big goals you have for the business really start to hit, you know, the fan, if you will, and and as again, as entrepreneurs leaves, we’re kind of felt left with this choice of, do we do we spend that extra time in the gym? Do we spend that extra time preparing the right food? Do we? Do we take care of some of these non business things in our life? Or do we really just double down on those business goals again? So what are some what are some just simple steps that folks can take to start to get a more holistic focus in their life? And and, you know, chip away at even some of the trauma that you mentioned at the the outset.
Derick Johnson
Great question. So the first thing that I always recommend is people grab a sheet of paper, and they create an eliminate sheets, eliminate sheet. So the question that they could ask themselves is, what is something that I can eliminate? Or replace with something better, that will help me make more progress? So we’ll start with food and what people drink, always recommend starting with that maybe she has too much sugar, and she doesn’t notice how much sugar she hasn’t. So she tracks and she’s like, 85 grams a day, I had no clue. No wonder I can’t lose weight. But it gives them clarity, whatever it is. So what are they consuming? Food wise? What are they drinking? And then slowly going deeper? Okay, what is another thing that I do, hey, I’m addicted to some of these apps. Everybody has a cycle that they do, they get bored, they go to Instagram, and they go to Amazon cart, then they check Dick’s Sporting Goods for the new gear. And then they check this, everybody has things that they go to they do a loop, they’re bored, or trying to kill time, they don’t want to do the task, they start their little digital loop. So if that’s the thing that distracts them, and gets them off of their focus, then write all those things down and then they’ll slowly start to gain clarity and they go deeper. You know what, I want to get rid of that anger that I felt since I was 16. Because XYZ happened with parents, whatever that individual has, but once they write down every single thing, and just being neutral about it, not being angry about it, not being sad, not self judging, and just having full transparency and looking at it, okay. foodwise What can I do? Hey, I can get rid of this I can replace that drinkin wise, what is this anger? What is that, Hey, maybe I don’t know how to get past this, I need to find someone that can help books, podcast coaches, mentors, but starting with eliminate. Because if they can get rid of some things first, psychologically or physically, they can open to the doors, new opportunities, feel calmer, and most importantly, had like a nice calm, deep breath. Like most business owners, they don’t breathe like that. They rarely do that. They’re just like shortness of breath. And you can see it in their body language. So I highly recommend people get rid of some things first, or simply replace them. And it’s not like you have to go cold turkey on everything. But you could slowly starts to take it away. The guy went from drinking a pack, excuse me smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. Now he’s down to two. And he’s making progress. And eventually he’s like, Oh, it’s been three days, I haven’t even touched one. And he starts to surprise themselves because they’re just building and working on the compound effects. So definitely step one, what can you get rid of? Or replace that I help you make more progress?
Scott Ritzheimer
I love that. I love that. All right. So question I love to ask all my guests. And it’s this what is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What’s that one thing that you wish everybody listening or watching today knew?
Derick Johnson
Start to visualize more and have stronger faith. We’ve heard it before. But nowadays, especially in an information overload age, people are just trying to confuse people to sell them courses. servoz I don’t know if this works. If that works, I go to YouTube, everything contradicts itself. But if they realized the power of faith in whatever they believe in God, the universe, whatever their thing is, and also visualization and fully immersing themselves in their dream life that they want. How do you want your marriage to look your physique? What do you want to see in your eyes, when you look in the mirror, really closing their eyes and going slowly, every single portion, from the inner to the outer, to the success to the material things. There’s nothing wrong with material things. And so really painting the vision. And using all five of their senses. Like I want to live on the beach, feel the wind, he sees his son playing his second breath, he checks his phone, just close a big deal, just like putting himself there to get a rush to get tears adrenaline and taken advantage of visualization. And then also the faith. Those combined obviously, with the hard work, some people only do the other two, and they hope wish and pray that things will happen. But those two things will definitely help because they’re just reprogramming their subconscious. They’ll start to dream about their goals more, and their self worth and their self respect starts to go up because they’re just immersed with positive empowering thoughts close to the negative because as you know, as everybody knows, it doesn’t take any effort to think negative or like Hey, I gotta build do in 48 hours. I got this. I got that we got to do taxes soon. Like F I gotta pay Uncle Sam. So yeah.
Scott Ritzheimer
One more question. And then I want to make sure folks know how they can get in touch with you. But before we get there, I’m gonna have you jumped down into the ring with the rest of us. So take off your coat Have for a moment put on your, your CEO hat a few well, what’s the next stage of growth look like for you and your business? And what do you need to overcome to get there?
Derick Johnson
So definitely scaling the coaching business. So it is set up as one on one. And then there’s group coaching, there’s one on one and group coaching. And so everything has been going well been growing every year, but I’m ready for in person masterminds. So that is the focus for 2024 in person. My girlfriend and I, we just lived in Panama for two years, Panama City, Panama, and we moved back to South Florida. So it was amazing being out of the country for a bit, but now we’re back in it. So I really miss the in person, camaraderie. I’ve seen some clients and some friends. And I didn’t realize how much I needed that because 99.9% of the business is via zoom via my training app. We crushed it, but I miss that in person. So creating a mastermind with a lot of my veteran buddies that are experts in their fields in different industries. But what we envision is a three day getaway. And it’s not a pitch fest. By the end, they don’t have to buy package level B or the diamond package and all that it’s more so they learn what to do. So day one, we go hiking, we get to the top of this mountain, we start doing breath work, we release trauma, we bond together, males and females are they’re all executives, business owners, entrepreneurs, and we just released whatever needs to be released. And so myself and other experts, we teach them things, we walk back down, we have that camaraderie. And then the next day, we dive deep on to what we need to work on a business mentally or physically. And so we have a round robin and a banquet room. And then day three, we have some fun, but they all go home with tools at their disposal, they can utilize long term. So it’s not just like we’re gonna sprinkle one thing. So you buy the next package. We’ve all been to those events, teach your own, but I don’t want anybody to feel that way. So definitely having a lot of those retreats or masterminds where we take advantage of having time in nature pushing ourselves. And then on day two, diving deeper into mentality because at that point, everybody’s more comfortable with each other. And in the army, we say embrace the suck. So we embrace the suck together. Some people have never hiked to the top of mountain. So that’s what we see doing a lot of those. Excuse me nationwide.
Scott Ritzheimer
Fantastic, fantastic. So we’ve got some folks listening. Maybe their goals are slipping. Maybe they just didn’t even bother setting goals this time. But they’re hearing every word that you said like yes, like I want to show up better for my family. I want to show up better for my friends for my business. I want to be a better me how can I find out more about you and the work that you do?
Derick Johnson
They can find me on social media @fitwithderick2 as the number 2 or on my website at fitwithderick.com on there, they’ll see real people with real results. Social media gets sketchy, so a lot of fakers out there so I like to have videos and pictures. And so I just like clients who talk about their experience. She bounced back from a divorce. He used to have crippling social anxiety. Now he’s crushing presentations at work, all these deep things that people don’t generally post all out or really talk about. So I could do that. And the social media. I’m just the guy that plant seeds. If somebody hits snooze five times, they’re gonna see my video. They’re like, Oh, yeah, he’s calling me out in that video. But I’m just making sure they don’t waste potential. So that’s what I love to do. So you get the message. You’re like, Hey, I needed that. So just trying to build people up.
Scott Ritzheimer
That’s awesome. I had a chance to visit their website and it’s just packed with just unbelievable testimonials. If you want to get inspired to be the best version of yourself. Just listening to a few of those will be enough. So check it out fitwithderick.com @fitwithderick2 and we’ll drop both of those in the show notes so you can get them. Well Derek, thank you so much for being here. It was an absolute pleasure having you and for everyone watching, listening today. You know that your time and attention means the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did and I cannot wait to see you next time. Take care.
Contact Derick Johnson
Derick Johnson is a US Army Veteran, Life Coach, and Trainer who has helped over 500 clients and 50 companies go from just surviving to thriving through his coaching modalities and marketing efforts. Derick was awarded Soldier of the Year for his battalion 3x. He used his leadership skills, certifications, and life experiences to help people take control of their minds and bodies. Working with him is like nothing his clients have experienced before. He consistently offers the proven guidance, support, and accountability he will provide his clients to accelerate their success.
Want to learn more about Derick Johnson’s work at Fit With Derick? Check out his website at https://fitwithderick.com/optin.
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