Beachbody has had a contest going on for the past 3 months where you had to qualify to go to a business event meeting at the Ritz Carlton Laguna Niguel in Dana Point, California. The place looks pretty sweet. Its right on the ocean and does not look that far away from the Santa Monica Pier. The only time I have been to California is to go skiing at Lake Tahoe a couple years ago.
To qualify you had to sponsor a certain amount of new Beachbody Coaches and make it to Diamond Coach rank yourself. Well, I did it. As soon as I got the e-mail from Beachbody that I made Diamond rank I could not stop thinking about it.
Beachbody is calling it the Game Plan Event. Its a weekend event with 3 different meetings talking about the business aspects of being a Beachbody Coach. They are going to have Darren Hardy of Success Magazine come in and speak along with some of the top earners with Beachbody there. From a learning point of view it should be very informative.
The best part is Beachbody was picking up the tab for the room and they feed us the whole time we were there. All I had to do was get there. A plane ticket and a rental car were my only expenses.
I Get To Meet Tony Horton & Charlene Johnson
When I took a look at the itinerary I was excited to see that we will be doing a group workout on Friday night with Chalene Johnson to her new “Turbo Fire” program. I have never done any of her workouts before so it should be fun. My girlfriend has been doing ChaLean Extreme for 45 days and really likes it. I can see the results she’s getting from it.
When I told her I would get to meet Chalene she was so jealous. Chalene is from Michigan and went to Michigan State. I will have to remind her that my Central Michigan Chippewas beat her Sparty’s last week.
Saturday morning is what I’m looking forward to. We get to workout with the P90X man himself, Tony Horton. I am so pumped to meet him. I have told a couple of my friends already and they can’t believe it either. The itinerary says we are going to be doing P90X Yoga X.
I was hoping for something more intense like P90X Chest and Back so I could churn out some pull ups with Tony but this will do. Probably best as he will show me up anyways. I have not touched the pull up bar in 2 months because of the Insanity workout.
I had to sign a waiver stating I will probably be on a recording of the event so they can publish it later for people to see. Should I get new fancy workout clothes for each workout? Nah, gotta support the home town teams. Probably going to bring a CMU and Detroit Tigers shirt. Have to represent.
It will be my first time going any where with a business like this. I hope to learn a lot from it to keep the momentum going with it. Beachbody has started a new website called Coach Destinations to show people the places Beachbody takes its contest winners. I plan on having my name up there very soon and to be on their next trip.
On My Way
So I leave Detroit’s 40 degrees weather behind Friday morning and land in Orange County at a nice 85 degrees. A 30 minute car ride later and I am at the Ritz Carlton. Holy shit, this is the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. The employees are super friendly and helpful. I could not stop looking around the place. Then I saw the Pacific Ocean.
The last time I had been in it was when the fam went to Hawaii when I was younger. I stepped into my room, (amazed with how nice it was) threw on my bathing suit and made a bee line to the ocean. After spending 15 minutes in the water I went back up to the pool side restaurant, ordered a $17 Chicken Ceasar Salad (Yikes!), and headed back to the room to rest up for our afternoon workout.
Our first workout was with Chalene Johnson who is known for her Turbo Jam and CheLean Extreme workouts. We were going to do her new “Turbo Fire” workout. It was my first time doing one of her workouts and it was tougher than what I expected. It was fast paced and intense.
The majority of it was choreography type moves and of course I looked like an idiot trying to keep up. She punches so hard that if somebodies head was there she would hit it right off. Beachbody filmed the whole thing and I know I am going to stick out like a sore thumb because I was the only person wearing yellow and was always off cue.
Chalene did call me out as she noticed my Central Michigan shirt. I knew she went to Michigan State but she reminded me that she in fact was a “Sparty.” I did not have time to remind her how CMU beat MSU this year in one of the best football games I have seen in years. When the workout ended I was able to get a photo of her and tell her how jealous my girlfriend was that I got to meet her.
After the workout was over I went back and got cleaned up as Beachbody was going to serve us dinner. It was a very nice dinner as the CEO Carl Daikeler and John Congdon gave some quick speeches about the future of Beachbody. It was mainly a time to meet other people who were a Beachbody Coach.
I was talking to the people at my table about Beachbody and other things when I looked over and saw the P90X man himself Tony Horton. I knew I had to tell him thanks as P90X has changed my life. It took a couple minutes to get to him as every body was doing the same thing as me.
When I got my turn something funny happened. I stuck out my hand and said “Hi Tony, my name is Brad.” Tony then looked me over. I think he took a quick glance at me to see if I had the results somebody should have if they do P90X.
One could assume he has seen a million peoples results and knows what each person should look like. Anyways, we shook hands, I told him thanks and we took the picture. I had a great time at the dinner and met a ton of great people.
Saturday morning started out with a yoga session administered by Tony again. It was pretty cool as we faced the Pacific Ocean. Doing Yoga at home is a lot different then doing it in a group of people and also when Tony is critiquing every thing you do.
He did applaud my straight arms when doing the “Crescent Pose.” He switched up a couple things from P90X Yoga X to make it fresh and fun. At the end of the workout I had to go in for one more photo as I was wearing my P90X T-Shirt.
After the workout Beachbody treated us to a nice breakfast including some of their Shakeology recipes. From there it was time to get to business. We were in meetings for about 6 hours that day and I learned a lot of great things about the business aspect of being a Beachbody Coach but one thing kept coming to the fore front.
Every body who was there was there because the Beachbody workouts changed their life. Whether it was P90X, Turbo Jam, Slim in 6 or any of the other 25 workout programs Beachbody makes. It some times got a little emotional as people were talking about how they were before they found Beachbody. Very moving stuff. I went out with a couple other coaches on Saturday night and got to meet their families and talk about what Beachbody has done for them.
Sunday was only a half a day. It began with some more business building tips from the CEO Carl Daikeler, Larry Zimberg, and a host of other coaches. There was a pretty emotional point in the meeting where one coach read a letter from another coach who unfortunately could not attend the event as he had to deal with the death of his father from cancer in the last week.
In the letter the person wrote how even though he is saddened by his father passing away he was happy to at least get the opportunity to be with his dad during the last days of his life as the Beachbody Coach opportunity has given him the freedom to work when he wants and not have to worry about showing up for a job.
It really got me thinking about the people in my life. Even though I have only recently started to be a Beachbody Coach full time it made me appreciate the freedom I have to work as hard as I want or take time off when other things pop up.
The last hour and a half of the event had a special guest speaker. Darren Hardy is the CEO of Success Magazine and was brought in to get us motivated about the opportunity ahead of us.
Unfortunately, I had to leave 2 minutes after he started speaking as the only flight I had back to Detroit left an hour after he was supposed to finish. Not enough time to check out, drive back to the airport, return the rental car, and make it through security.
I wish I could have listened to him speak as I read some of Success Magazine on the flight back. All I got was a photo of him before I had to go.
Here is the video from the event that Beachbody taped. You can see me at 2:20 doing Yoga. I am in the top left of the screen wearing a black shirt and blue shorts with white stripes. Then I am at 2:45 doing Turbo Fire with Chalene. I am in the yellow Central shirt not keeping up with every body. Then at 3:25 I am standing behind President Jon Congdon waiting in line for my photo with Tony Horton. You can see my head over his shoulder going in and out of the picture.
An Amazing Event
The Beachbody Coach Game Plan Event was awesome. I had such a great time and met a lot of great people. After leaving the event I felt really excited to be apart of such a unique opportunity. It gave me the motivation needed to go and tell other people about Beachbody, their products, and about being a Beachbody Coach.
I never would of thought I would be going to an event where I promoted living a healthy lifestyle through a business I had to sign up for. The only type of businesses I have ever known are the kinds where you show up to work every day, put in 8-14 hours, and in exchange receive a check and hope that you still have a job in a month from now.
It was so great that I could not stop thinking about the things I learned and experienced from it for the entire flight back to Detroit. Thanks Beachbody. Look forward to seeing you guys at the next event.