The Lifestyle Chase Transcript: Episode 100 - Carter Good (2/13/20)
Today’s episode is a very special one, episode 100 of the Lifestyle Chase. Look at how far we’ve come! Take a moment to check out an old episode after this one is done just to kind of see all of the different people that I’ve gotten to share time with; every last one of them, each of them special in their own way.
Today’s episode was with Carter Good. If you haven’t heard of him, I encourage you to look him up right away. He’s had his own weight loss journey of about 145lbs, which is no small feat. That’s huge! He’s had plenty of mountains that he’s had to conquer, metaphorical mountains of course, and tones of victories. He has come a long way in his career and has a long way that he can go yet.
We talked about some of his big goals for 2020 in growing his online business; things that have made him feel self-conscious; we’ve talked about times where he had to follow his intuition with choosing school or his career. We talked about finding time to be social and finding balance, understanding our strength, playing off of those and acknowledging our weaknesses and diversifying our skills in what we do for work. Trying new things, and being passionate about things outside of fitness and finding the things that we need to make our day; ending our day with journaling, self-reflecting, reading books, and all of those things. If you enjoy Carter Good or if you enjoy anything that I just mentioned you should definitely check this out. Please share on social media. Without further ado, enjoy!
[intro music & spiel]
[YEG Fitness ad]
CL: So welcome to episode 100 of the Lifestyle Chase, I am joined by Carter Good. How are you doing?
CG: I’m doing well man! I didn’t realize that I was episode 100.
CL: Ya, I saved this just for you.
CG: I should’ve brought one of those confetti guns or something.
CL: Or one of those gold balloons things
CG: Ya! You deserve it!
CL: Oh well, next time. So how are you doing today? Like, how did you start your morning?
CG: Man! Today specifically… my girlfriend trains 3 to 4 mornings every week in person and we have to get up crazy early at 4:45am just so that she can get ready and get to her gym before her training at 6:00am. Typically on most mornings I am waking up at 4:45am. I like to start my morning reading, coffee, and doing my own thing; unplugged. So, I did that again today but a little later, we woke up at 7:00am or something. Just to get the 8 hours or so. Same routine, just a little later in the day.
CL: Well that makes sense. That’s very realistic. A lot of people have that early morning one day and take it easy another day.
CG: Ya
CL: So, I am going to get you to get a little self-reflective here. What is someone’s first impression of you today? How would you describe it? What would they describe you as?
CG: Man! Let me think. I would say… man! I’m not even sure. I get a lot of times, which is funny because it’s probably a little different from my true characteristic, a lot of times a lot of people think that I am very [inaudible], just very talkative whenever they meet me in person. The talkative thing might be correct but I am definitely introverted, kind of stay in my own cubby kind of person.
CL: What about physical appearance and stuff? Because we are going to get to a point where I am going to want to remind listeners of. But today, how you are now, how would they describe you physically.
CG: I would say in shape. I’m not walking down the street with people saying “Woah that guy works out” but I am definitely in shape for sure.
CL: And like, how do you describe yourself? Like some of us have our self-talk where we think about our strongest characteristics or the things that we are most proud of. What stands out for you?
CG: Would you stay still physically or anything as a person?
CL: Anything that comes to mind.
CG: Gotcha. I would say very loyal, very hard working and very good at creating systems and routines.
CL: I like that. Alright, we hop into the time machine. 10 years back, what was life like for you then; what was first impressions; how did you talk about yourself?
CG: I probably wasn’t even thinking about how I would do that. I would probably say that back then I would say that I felt like I was smarter than everyone in the room. Just being honest. Like probably had a little bit of a… knowing that I wasn’t… always thought that I was thinking differently than everyone else that was here. I would say pleasure seeking in terms of always thinking about when I was done with school or something so I could play video games. Those are two of the bigger ones that come to mind.
CL: Ok. So, you’ve lost a considerable amount of weight. Do you feel like the video games correlated with that or was there something else that led to that weight gain for you?
CG: Ya, for me it’s like obvious. It’s one of those things that you can look back and say of course that was it. In the moment I would have never said that this was the reason. I’ve struggled. For anyone listening, I’ve lost a lot of weight like over 145lbs. For me, I’ve always struggled with my weight. I gained a lot of weight going into high school which coincided right with when my parents separated. Which was at the beginning a pretty nasty divorce but now a days I joke with my parents about how they are way happier with the people that they are with now. They are way more compatible. Back then it definitely played a big role into the weight gain.
CL: Was it just… you’d get home from school and eat or how did it go?
CG: I wouldn’t say that it was secret snacking or anything like that, but for me it was definitely after school. The whole time that I gained weight lined up perfectly with when I got my license. So, I had this freedom of doing anything I wanted. After school I would take my friends to fast food places or coming home and eating or snacking while watching Netflix or playing video games before dinner. That time between 3:00pm and 7:00pm is when I would get my snacking in.
CL: Honestly, when I learned that about you, it’s very relatable for me. I wouldn’t say that I ever got to the same weight or lost the same weight but I had a lot of the same habits for some very different reasons. It’s just honestly that you get into these routines, whether you’re unhappy with your marks or something is troubling you. You know that there is granola bars or pudding cups in the house and you eat them up. You know that there is a convenient place… even between 20 and 24… pizza… when I was living in the city and I could order pizza all of the time. I had to rewire how that worked. This is basically what you do now. You’ve created systems that work for other people. What is your best advice having lived the life that you’ve lived for people who are trying to get away from that snack behavior or that things go wrong and they go for food type situation?
CG: What you said… I would even take it back a step. I wouldn’t even talk to that person yet about implemental strategies yet. I would definitely dive into mentality. Especially, I think this is a very big one. People need to be able to forgive themselves. It’s ok that things have gotten to this point. I think that people are feeling lost in the moment of it and they are so far gone. They’ve been doing this for so long and are feeling guilty about it and embarrassed. Putting in effort to fix it gives them reminders about the mistakes that they’ve been making. My biggest piece of advice for those in the beginner stage is that if they are wanting to make that change is to recognize that it is not their fault. It is your responsibility now but it’s not your fault. You are in an environment that is driven to create that type of result. It is very easy to over consume or under exercise and not move. With the evolution of human beings, its almost like we’ve evolved faster than our biology. Food is no longer an issue, it’s everywhere. Your problem is a serious problem but it’s not unique or embarrassing to you. I start there. Once you are aware of that, you are setup to have more of an opportunity to take ownership and control of things.
CL: That makes sense. It corelates with that whole self-talk thing. Not being so harsh on ourselves to handcuff ourselves to making progress.
CG: Exactly. Completely agree.
CL: Would you have ever predicted that you’d be in this line of work with what you were focused on in high school? You described yourself as an academic from what I could gather. What was your career path? What did you think you were going to do?
CG: Ya, so honestly in high school I had zero idea. I didn’t have any idea about what I would move towards. There was the typical nursing and stuff like that. It was a popular major from my school that a lot of my friends did. Because I started to get into fitness in high school, I was already thinking about those paths going into university. Some of the basic paths that I was thinking through initially before running my own business was physical therapy, dietetics, registered dietician type of route. Just general health fields were what I was moving towards.
CL: What was the TSN turning point for what geared you towards the path that you took? Did someone influence you, was it a major moment in your life?
CG: Ya so, I was living alone in my own apartment, working for my step dad and going to school full time. I started to get into certain bloggers, like fitness bloggers, who were putting out information and selling program and everything. I had joined a small group where you paid a small amount to learn about making side income by blogging. One thing led to another and they reached out to this group about an opportunity to move down to Florida (I was in Ohio/West Virginia). I was there at the time and got the opportunity to move to Florida and work with this company who did a lot of marketing. So, I switched gears. Going into that internship I had to learn about email marketing, copywriting, and blogging or content creation and a lot of that because I was behind the scenes working for the company. That is what definitely put me on the path of realizing how things work and how you could theoretically create your own business.
CL: It’s cool because a lot of us have prior job experience. Anyone in the fitness industry generally has worked a lot of jobs that are completely unrelated to fitness. It has tied back in and helped us out more. Are there any other jobs that you’ve done that helped you become a better coach or role model for people?
CG: I wouldn’t say that there are jobs that I worked that has done that necessarily but I would say that I have worked jobs that taught me work ethic. I think it plays a role in creating consistency in your content which then delivers into becoming a better coach. Anytime that I worked for my step dad I was working full time and going to school full time. It was a job that you controlled your own schedule. I had 2 days off from school each week. I would work from sun up until literally it was too dark. I had to take photos of vacant houses and I would work until it was too dark to take pictures anymore. I think I learned a lot about what it means to work hard at something to get it done. It has transcended into a lot of success with coaching and helping other people.
CL: That’s great because it segways into a topic which I think is important to talk about. You’re good at working hard, a lot of fit pros are good at working hard, especially in the online space. How do you make it so that you still have your sanity and personal time? That ability to know who you are, not just what your work is?
CG: I would say 2 things: First, this is something that I’ve had to develop more recently. For a large portion of my business I’ve been single, I didn’t have a lot of friends and my friends worked a lot. It wasn’t an issue. It was the world that I was in. When I started to date my girlfriend Kaylin and honestly realizing that it would burn me out long term. Two big things have helped for me. One is scheduling. I’m very diligent about knowing how I work best. I am not a night owl. I never put myself in a situation where I have to work at night. Maybe once per month I need to finish something at night. If I have to do something at night it means that I did something wrong during the day. Something went off plan. I am big about scheduling each day and having a to-do list essentially. The other thing is, and it’s something I’ve been doing more recently, is operating from a No. Instead of being a Yes person who will literally say yes to everything, I am turning into a No person in terms of saying I would love to get coffee but I won’t on a Monday through Thursday. I’ll only get coffee on a Friday morning. If that works, then awesome. Monday through Thursday I work in those hours and I won’t break that up. It’s the same with podcasts essentially. I know that we are making this one up because I had my moment where I almost died and revived but I only do them certain days of the week because I need to protect my energy and my time. It’s not that I don’t want to do things for people, but if I do then I don’t get things done that I want to get done which makes me a worse person whenever I am outside of working. When I am outside of work I don’t want to be thinking of work. I want to be totally present in whatever I am doing. So those two things, scheduling and being protective of my time have been two of the biggest game changers.
CL: I like that and it’s so true. To have our boundaries and especially that point you talked to about when you’re done your fitness stuff you don’t necessarily want to talk about more fitness stuff. What are your non-work things that you do to fill your bucket?
CG: Ya, I really enjoy reading. Any form. I am also a huge… I love things that go along with connoisseur type of activities like coffee. I am a really big fan of pour over coffee, single origin that you get from one farmer. The same thing, with fitness it’s the opposite, I love wine. I love the whole thought process behind wine and why the artist side of wine and how it is created. Same with cocktails. I enjoy learning. For me it’s leisurely to either read or documentaries or stuff like that. Normally my free time revolves around reading, learning something or spending time communicating with friends or spending time with Kaylin.
CL: I love it. In your career so far what is the moment where you doubted yourself the most and how did you overcome it?
CG: I would say probably honestly in this season of my business right now. I am making one of the bigger switches that I’ve made. I’ve always done one on one coaching. I still do one on one coaching but I am putting a lot of effort into creating a coaching membership. Basically, changing models around which has involved dropping off with clients and not taking on more clients, making less money and to invest more time into this thing that is also an unknown. I don’t know how it’s going to work. I don’t know what is sustainable about it. Funny enough, I think it’s this moment that I am in right now.
CL: I love it. It’s so honest and real but when we’re going into things, we never know we just have to have that faith and stick to it. What is it for you that inspires that faith in yourself, that gives you that confidence to start each day as a self-employed individual?
CG: I always tell people that I don’t have very many entrepreneurial traits. I joke around that I would be the best widget maker in Mr. Widget’s factory. I’m not a quick start or head in the clouds coming up with thousands. That’s what my girlfriend Kaylin is like she can come up with fifteen ideas per day of different things that she wants to do and I can’t even come up with one. Sometimes that is what stresses me out. Not being someone who is constantly thinking about what is the next thing but I think it kind of keeps me grounded to know what my strengths are. My strength isn’t necessarily to be a Quick Start. I am using terms from this test called the Kolbe. One of the terms is a Quick Start which means that you have an idea and you can get started on it pretty quickly. The opposite of that is the Follow Through. I am the type of person when someone comes to me and says that they have fifteen ideas and I will say that three of them are actually realistic and one of those ideas we can start right now and I am actually going to do it and finish it. So, I think that is one of my skills. Being able to get things done and to keep moving the needle and not let things fall to the way-side. Reflecting back on what I know that I do best, and put myself in a situation to really succeed at what I do best, then that kind of keeps me grounded and calm in what I am doing.
CL: I like that and it’s something that I’ve heard a few times. When you hear five people say the same thing then you know it’s got to be a good thing. When you hear people say to play to your strengths, find the things that you’re good at, and do more of those things then that’s great. With how you overcame things when you were heavier vs. today, is there any differences or are they about the same but you’re in a different body?
CG: I think that it’s probably very similar. I think that even when I was overweight, I wasn’t doing many things and I didn’t have many responsibilities. I never got put to the test. Something that has changed a lot for me is to get away from thinking about things that I don’t like about myself. For example, I am naturally a pessimistic person. I look at the worst in something and it makes me feel like if I am ok with that then I am good to go. Whereas people who are more optimistic which tends to be most entrepreneur type people that I surround myself with, they don’t want to hear about the bad things that could happen. I think generally that is a good mindset to have. For me I was discouraged because I wasn’t looking at the upside, I was looking at the worst thing first. One thing that I started to realize is that it’s ok to have the thought. The thought is different than the action. Just because I have the thought means that I have to work a bit harder to think of the upside of things. It could be the upside of starting a membership and not worrying about the upside of it working. I operate from less emotion from the action I am taking and using more objectiveness. If this does work out then it will be totally worth it, and if it doesn’t it won’t be that big of a deal. Versus operating from if there was even a chance of something going wrong, I wouldn’t do it or I would have a bad attitude about it. I would never say yes to it. I wouldn’t want to do it or if I did do it, I would have a bad attitude about it if that makes sense?
CL: That totally makes sense. I think that it’s something that holds back a lot of people. Whether they admit it or not. Just not doing something that they inherently want to do because of the probability of it going wrong or not being able to see it go right in their head. No one really knows what is going to happen when you do anything. I could go out to my car and it might not start. You don’t know. It’s crazy.
CG: People kind of operate from that standpoint of how things are or how things normally work is how they should always work but that just isn’t true. From an entrepreneur standpoint I mean the whole idea of job security… there are some jobs that are more secure than others. I think back to my home town as a great example. There was a huge factory in my home down that was bumpin’. It was like the main thing for 50 some years. Everyone worked there. One day it shut down and everyone lost their jobs. Nothing is guaranteed. I come from the standpoint that you might as well do the things that excite you and give you the best opportunity to be happy. No matter what there will be the risk of it not working out.
CL: We are on the same page there. Who are three people that you look up to, in the fitness industry or in life in general?
CG: Three people… I’ll try to spread it out a little bit. One of the people that I look up to the most right now is Elon Musk. It’s probably a cop out answer for most people. It’s not even that I want to be like him, because I do not. I think that his refusal of not letting things not work and I like how he challenges the impossible so much. What’s to say that it’s impossible? Have we proven that it’s impossible or are we assuming that just because that is impossible and this is impossible that that must be impossible? In the fitness industry one of the guys that I look up to a lot is Layne Norton. I look up to him a lot mostly because there is not a lot of research or scientist who walk the walk or will stand up for things. You can tell that he’s very masculine and will come at you if he thinks he’s right but he doesn’t turn to belittling someone based on their belief in something. He’s been known for changing his opinion based on what is presented to him. Being able to change your mind is a huge characteristic. Another guy who ties into him is Joe Rogan. Like the Joe Rogan podcast. He’s probably one of your guys in that world. He is similar with some things. With fitness he’s got some woo-woo mentality with some stuff but in general I feel like I am him when he brings in these experts from certain fields. He asks good questions and is actually curious which I think is a great trait to have. A lot of people are trying to look good with their questions but he doesn’t care if he looks dumb because he is trying to get to the root of the answer. Those are the three big ones right now.
CL: That is an awesome way to put it. Don’t be afraid to say something dumb. If you don’t, you’re not going to learn anything new. It could be confirmation bias all day long where I could be trying to say what I think is right and get it to come out of your mouth but I won’t be able to prove myself wrong or to learn or to adapt or to change my mind because I won’t be asking for the question of you that I need. What is the advice that you would give to your younger self? The most naïve, most inexperienced version of you that you can think of and the advice that you would give or would you just walk away and not give any advice, and play the cards where they lie?
CG: Ya, I’m pretty Doctor Who. I’m pretty timey-whimey type of guy where I don’t think there is anything that I would’ve said. Especially if it’s going to change the outcome of what I do. Everyone has those lessons, you know. There are things that happened to me that if they wouldn’t have happened that way, I couldn’t have gotten to where I am right now. I could be above that but I would probably say the same thing 10 years from now because it got me to where I was. If I did have to say something though, I would say to trust your intuition wrong. I always questions if I am right or if I just think that I am right. I almost get too far into my head and I think is this actually it? So maybe just trusting my intuition more but outside of that I probably wouldn’t mess with that at all. I don’t want my pictures disappearing like in Back to the Future.
CL: No ragrets, not even a single letter.
CG: That’s it.
CL: So as far as intuition goes, because I love that. I love actually listening to your gut and that feeling that you have. What are some moments that you have that stand out to you where you’ve actually done it, it’s paid off and you remember it?
CG: Ya, I think one of the biggest things for me was that move to Florida. I mentioned it earlier. Doing that required me to drop out of college. I had a full scholarship and I was going to lose that scholarship by dropping out. Required me to move across the country to the south side of the country and move in with people that I didn’t know to do something that I knew nothing about. It felt so right to do it. My intuition was so strong that I couldn’t even question not doing it. I’m glad that I did it. It’s what propelled me to get to where I am right now. So, I would say that is one of the biggest things. It logically, if you look at it, would make a lot more sense to stay in school where I was and to finish out. I was in my first semester in my junior year. I had three semesters before I would have graduated. That probably is one of the biggest ones that came to mind.
CL: I’ve got a good question for you. You said that logically it would’ve made sense but I’m thinking about you and the things that you care about and what you care about and how you are wired. Would it have logically made more sense to be less happy or would it logically make more sense to feel more fulfilled and follow that intuition? I’m testing you. Sometimes its good to second guess what you think is right and whether that is based on yourself or based on what you think other people think are right.
CG: No, exactly. That’s what I think based on what if I were to poll 100 people, I guarantee that 80% of the people would have said to stay in school for at least the three semesters Carter, don’t drop out. You will lose your scholarship. If you come back to school after this, you’re going to have to start paying for it again. That was my fall back. I would be fine; I could come back but have to pay for it. I think that a lot of people would have looked at that as you are so close to being done, it’s not like you are just about to go to university. You’re over halfway done. Why would you drop out and waste all of that time and undo that hard work to go do something that you know nothing about. So logically, people would say that but internally I already knew that I would rather fail at this and know that I tried than to always question what if for literally the rest of my life about it. Thinking on it now, I would have 100% been saying what if I hadn’t had done it.
CL: Ya, so it’s just a good reminder for people to stick to their guns. Don’t worry about what the peanut gallery says. Just worry about what you want.
CG: And on that note, I think this is very important for people who are afraid to take action on things. Is, maybe for you it is good to play because this is what I do. Because I am naturally thinking about what could go wrong, whenever I do play the game of what’s the worst that can happen, and I’m being honest with myself, sometimes that helps me make the more optimistic choice. I look at that scenario. What is legitimately the worst thing that could happen? Like I have to end up paying, getting more student loans, that I’ll have to pay off into the future. Is that risk worth it? Is it worth taking the opportunity to do something that I’ve always wanted to do? I think a lot of the times the worst-case scenario people create in their minds is never as bad as you realize. It’s never horrible. It’s not like you’re going to end up in a ditch. You can choose to do this and nothing is going to work and you’re going to end up in a ditch, right? If you’re a person who is willing to work, you can get a job right? You can work at a fast food place. You can get back to school. You can take out your loans. You can try to get a job on the university, right? If you actually need to, you can get yourself back up on your feet. Just really analyze it and ask if the worst-case scenario is really as bad as you think? Is this opportunity worth it enough because you’re going to be fine no matter what if you keep putting effort into life.
CL: That is so true. When it comes down to honing your craft and continuing education and learning to better yourself what is your strategy. Do you do books, audio-books, podcasts, seminars? Do you learn from specific people?
CG: I’m definitely a big book person. I’m a big reader. I do like podcasts, but I am not as much into audiobooks. I can’t pay attention. If I were driving maybe I could but generally throughout the day I am not really listening to the podcasts because I am doing something else and I can’t split my attention and focus on anything. For me it really goes back to the scheduling thing of I put in time every day for further education for myself. It gets to the point with fitness and nutrition where I am not going to stop learning anything. There is so much more we can learn. You get to the point where it’s like choosing your religion. Your food religion. Everyone has got the best approach to fitness and nutrition once you get to a certain point. For me it’s a lot of self-development and growth. Right now, one of the things that I am really into is relationships. I will set time aside each day to both read about that and to engage more into it. For example, last night I got dinner. It would’ve been easy for me to say hey I am busy tonight, I can’t grab dinner, sorry. But I put time into my schedule to grab dinner with a friend who I haven’t talked to in a while which normally I wouldn’t do. I’m more of an introverted person and would just skip it but I am working on relationships. I want to get better at having stronger relationships and so not only have I read about them more but I am actively trying to do that and plan those things into my schedule. That’s how I make it happen. It always comes back to my schedule. Time is your most precious commodity. What you spend that time doing is what is going to determine the outcome. If something is going to be a priority you want to make it something that is important in your life. You need to set aside time for it.
CL: It’s so true and I like that you talked about the relationship aspect especially when it comes down to friendships and everything. That social interaction, making it stronger and getting a deeper connection. It’s something that I am working on myself too. As a fit pro, I know how to work. I know how to burry myself in projects and crush out a bunch of podcasts, read a bunch of books, train clients… but sometimes I step away from that whole thing and remind myself that it’s time to stop and smell the roses and just go bowling with a pal or something like that. Go for a hike. Did you ever have a moment in your career where you had that holy shit moment where you just had to stop and live a little bit?
CG: [inaudible] in dating Kaylin. It was the first time that my work had ever been challenged. We are both pretty good at managing our time. I never catch myself in a situation where I am not fulfilling my duty in certain areas because of work. IT’s normally planned but when we were on vacation in Jamaica at this resort and every day, I was waking up to do client work, which was planned, but throughout the day… I remember the first day I was thinking through if I should check to see if I have more check-ins and if I should answer those but I realized in that moment that I am allowed to check-out. I am allowed to not have to look at these emails. I did what I needed to do today and I can just be present and in the moment. That was probably the first time that I started to realize that once things are done and you go into fun mode, you can stay in fun mode. You don’t have to stress about not being in there.
CL: I think that is important. Work ethic and all of those things take us out of fun mode. It’s really easy to not be in fun mode. It’s not necessarily the healthiest way to allow fun mode to be tampered with in that way.
CG: Ya, for sure. You’re 100% right.
CL: You’re a fairly popular person. You could probably be recognized at a fitness event. For our audience’s sake, what is your social media following roughly?
CG: I would say that a large portion of it is on Instagram. Across all channels, probably like 500,000 including email, Instagram and blogs.
CL: Just by general formula of internet, you probably have some trolls. Am I right?
CG: Yeah.
CL: How do you deal with the trolls?
CG: You know, I actually don’t get a lot of hate. I think that there is a lot of people who are always dealing with trolls and haters. I think for me, one has always been because my information is so balanced and I don’t push an agenda, I don’t get very many people who are trying to fight what I am saying or who are in the other camp. If someone comments that they are vegetarian and that is what works best for me, I’ll be like that is awesome and I give them a thumbs up. The second is that, I don’t have a big following, but I always say that my Instagram is almost like a glorified modern-day blog more than anything else because it’s my name but I don’t really talk about myself as much. I’ll use myself to connect with in the stories and talk about content or certain topics but it’s not like a day in the life of Carter, lets go grocery shopping with me or do these things. I don’t really build up a lot of haters because there is not a lot for people to pick sides on about me. I have dealt with haters. For me it was after the first time I posted about keto and that got a lot of attention and it got a whole band of people coming in to bash me. I spent about 20 minutes responding, trying to make a logical argument with someone about something and in that moment was the first time that I realized you’re not going to win an argument on the internet. You’re not going to change someone’s opinion especially with something so emotional as living a certain diet or lifestyle. The more I realized that arguing with them isn’t going to do anything. They are not trying to hurt you; it is them trying to solidify their own beliefs for themselves. I will just drop my comment and make peace with it. Alright, this is my response and I don’t normally check their response. If I get a hateful DM, which is super rare, I immediately delete it. None of these things have anything to do with me but it’s a reflection of someone’s opinion or the negativity that they have in their life.
CL: To flip the perspective, because you have such an influence on people, what is a moment that you came across, where you had an effortless impact on somebody? Sometimes we put out these posts or we say one thing and it was a big moment for somebody. Its complete changes the way that they live their life. Can you reflect on one of them?
CG: I’ve gotten them when people say “you don’t know who I am but I started following you about a year ago and I’ve lost about 85 lbs.… you said this thing…” There is nothing super specific. I do think that one thing that has been really impactful for a lot of people is the ways that I explain the differences between good and bad foods. Talking about more nutritious and less nutritious. Coming at it with a more grey perspective vs this black and white perspective. I think that anytime that I share information that is furthering that or creating responsibility around being more towards the good than the bad. Having people realize that just because you eat this does not mean that this is a bad thing. This is not an optimal thing. Maybe you shouldn’t only eat donuts. That is probably one of the biggest things that have helped a lot of people. Eliminating the guilt that eating a certain way is being bad or good and riding that titer-totter back and forth.
CL: I just love how we can make it so attainable for people by creating different ways of seeing it or articulating in a different way that is just easier to absorb. Sometimes when material is more complicated or when its almost too systemized it becomes out of reach for some people who just want to make one positive little change for themselves.
CG: Yeah, exactly. I agree with you completely. It’s almost like paralysis by analysis where they don’t have any self-belief because they feel like it is such a large mountain to tackle that they are not going to start getting to the first checkpoint of the hike.
CL: Absolutely. So, when it comes to life in general, what makes you the happiest and what is your strategy going forward to put more of that into your life?
CG: I feel like I’ve used this as my cop out answer three times. I think honestly managing my time. Being in control of it. I only get upset with things when I feel like I am being forced to do certain things that I don’t see any purpose in doing. Granted, I know people are going to have jobs that they do not have control over, but I even fight back on that a little bit and I know that I am not in their shoes so I get lash backs by saying that I don’t know what it’s like. They’re right, I don’t but I also think that even in these situations you do have control over certain things. If situations are bad and you communicate those bad situations, the more that you can be in control of your schedule or your time, even if that means knowing that you have to go to work at a set time, I am ok with it because I’ve chosen this job and I’ve chosen to work. I’m going to go to this thing and do it and have more ownership. For me at least it makes me the happiest because then I can do the things that I know make me happy. At the end of the day when I know that I’ve done all of the things that I know that I needed to do for that day, that is one of the greatest feelings for me. Just that feeling of checking all of those boxes that I needed to check today. I feel great about it. That’s me. I think happiness for me is about making progress in different areas and being intentional about it and being able to be proud of the progress without feeling like I am being torn in different directions which is keeping me from moving forward in the way that I want.
CL: I totally get that. With your day to day, what are things that you need in your life outside of work that is a box that you need to check to make you feel better about that day?
CG: I would say definitely the period in the morning before I start working or whenever I am reading or journaling. I just love that reflection time because it does help setup the day. I think you tie that in perfectly. Or take that same activity and put it into the night too. I like to sandwich my days with me time where things can calm down. They can slowly ramp up then slowly ramp down and calm down for the day. For me, that is my big thing. Somedays I am going out to eat with people for having a conversation with them. Somedays I’ll be having podcasts like this. [inaudible] When I know I have this consistency around my self-development, I know that the day is going to be a good day.
CL: For the year 2020 what is your big hairy audacious goal that you just really want to accomplish this year that is kind of out of reach but you’re going to do it anyways?
CG: I think for this year it’s getting my membership to a minimum of 2000 members. It’s a lot. It’s a lot for sure. People might say “don’t you have half a million followers, isn’t that not a lot of members?” but it actually a lot of members. For me, the way that I am going about it and the way that I am creating it, I think that it is an opportunity to create something that is as impactful as one on one coaching without a lot of the fluff that comes with one on one coaching. While one on one coaching is great for a lot of specific things but for the general population that I want to work with, it gets to the point where once the information is there it’s about providing the support and accountability and having a strong framework and group around you. That is my big goal for this year. Getting to that point will one, make me super happy about this thing that I’ve created but also free up a lot of my own time because I am not doing a lot of one on one check ins with clients. From a business standpoint it frees up a lot of time for me to do that. A personal goal that I have for this year that I’ve actually already started is to get a lot more into investing in other areas. Something that I am doing is getting a lot more into real estate. Not trying to become like Grant Cardonne or Donald Trump level real estate mogul dudes but get more into other things outside of fitness because I do fitness for myself, for my business and I’ve learned a lot about fitness. Doing other things that I think are fun and cool that are kind of growing me and moving me forward.
CL: Diversification. I get it. It’s good. I think a lot of people benefit from that because there are applications from other industries that we can always cross over to the industry that we are in. We also don’t know what the future holds. We don’t know how our intuition is going to find us in the future. Maybe 10 years from now you’ll be done with fitness. Maybe I’ll be done with fitness. We don’t know.
CG: Exactly. Just being cognoscente of that and not having all of my eggs in one basket. I would hate to be in a situation where I resented fitness coaching. I can never imagine me getting to that point but like you never know. Maybe 10 years from now I don’t like it anymore and it’s stressing me out and I keep doing it because it’s all that I’ve put my time into. That is part of this membership though. Getting it where I am still heavily involved but there is a lot more ability for other people to add value too. It’s not just like me.
CL: Something else that you kind of reminded me of is a concept that I heard from my pal Andrew Coates and he was talking about it on a podcast that he showed up on. It’s that whole idea of everyone’s battling in the red sea… I think he got this from a book or something, so if I am misquoting somebody… but rather than that 20% of that super saturated market who are already those who already have their fitness guidance, they already have someone showing them the ropes but we are ignoring the 80% or 70% or whatever that are in our region of people who have no guidance, no direction, no idea what they are doing, no hope, no intuition, no confidence towards that thing and so anyway that one of us can get more efficient or gets better at communicating to their audience is a great way. As much as like I hope that people that listen to this are inspired and I hope that maybe the odd one will be like “oh yeah, Carter Good is a good fit for me. I want to be one of his 2000 people.” Then we shrink that large blue see, that 70% of people who need guidance and haven’t found it yet. There is something unique about each of us that lines us up with all of these different human beings. There are millions of people out there who all need help.
CG: Yeah, I think that anytime anyone ever tells me that fitness is over saturated, that’s like walking into a bowling alley and saying that there are way too many people bowling. Like yeah of course, you’re in the fricken bowling alley. It’s the same with fitness. [inaudible] talking about fitness. You’re going to see these similar hashtags. Whoever had that quote, but Andrew was spot on with that. There are plenty of fish in the sea. There is enough for any fitness coach who is out here doing it. I do agree and think there is value in separating yourself a bit. If you lead with your own beliefs you will kind of create that separation. I’ve done a lot of that recently. For me, it’s getting away from not caring so much that science will say certain things about certain things but I’ll sit back and say what’s the point. That’s not really that important. I don’t really care about the muscle hypertrophy different between the squat and the hip thrust. People are arguing right now about which one actually activates the glutes more. I’m like “I don’t give a shit. It doesn’t matter. Which one is the person going to do more of? What are they going to enjoy? Maybe it’s both.” It’s one of those things. I’m a minimalist. I just go all in on those. That is what my content has turned into. It’s actually kind of stationed me as people look at me as the simple fitness person. I intentionally did that because I actually do think that fitness can be simple. I’m not worried about optimization. I’m worried about what’s going to help you get lean and healthy but also get you to love your life and get you to live your life.
CL: It’s so true. If someone wants to dive down the rabbit hole of something, they are going to find it. But if they are looking at us and following our stuff and listening to podcasts that you appear on, they kind of know what they are getting and they just want more of it. I have a final question to wrap this up. If you could give one piece of advice to someone on how to live their life to the fullest in the most true to themselves kind of way, what would that piece of advice be?
CG: Journal & self-audit. Be someone. We talked about trusting your intuition which is really important but I also think that it is important to audit yourself. Think things through – am I thinking logically about certain things? One of the things that I love about journaling, and one of the journals that I love for those who are listening is the Five-Minute Journal, and it’s takes 5 min in the morning and 5 min at night. Once you buy the journal once you can write down the questions for yourself. You don’t really need to buy the journal again. I think that the more you can reflect on your life, and where you are going, it’s going to be important because that is what is going to set you up to make the choices going forward that are going to be more aligned with what you want to do. People get lost, right? That’s why people wake up at 40 and are like “holy shit! How did I get to this point?” They just went from one thing to the next to the next with no intention. They never really thought about what they are doing and why they are doing it. If they really wanted to do it, I say reflection. You have got to trust your intuition but definitely also reflect on it too. Things can change. They can be ok with that. Don’t just do something just because you’ve always done it that way. Journaling. Journaling I guess would be my simple answer. Create self-awareness and self-reflection.
CL: That was a great answer. I would like to thank you for joining me. It’s been a pleasure having you on today.
CG: Awesome, I’ve enjoyed it. Definitely not a… we hopped right into it. You started asking questions like rapid fire. I actually kind of enjoyed it.
CL: Thank you for supporting the Lifestyle Chase. If you enjoyed my episode with Carter Good, I encourage you to go to check out my episode with Jordan Syatt, Joe Coleman, Austin Kuran, or Dean Somerset. You can checkout my pals Dean Guedo and Andrew Coates who have also both appeared on the podcast and have their own podcast where they’ve talked to Carter Good which you may have heard on The Fitness Devil podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, tag me (@christianliddle and @thelifestylechase) on Instagram and of course, @cartergood and let us know what you liked or give us a shout out because it helps us to spread our message and helps us to talk to more people. It’s like scaling our talking. We only have one mouth and we can only talk to one person at a time. If you help us, then we can talk to like three people at once. You know? Thanks for listening, have a good one. Go give someone a high five today.