Surviving the Side Hustle

From Retail Management to Transformative Fitness Coach: Steven's Journey of Resilience and Lasting Change

• Coach Rob • Season 1 • Episode 79

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World-renowned personal trainer and nutrition expert Steven Box joins us to reveal the surprising secrets behind his incredible 80-pound weight loss journey. Imagine being stuck in an endless cycle of yo-yo dieting, then unlocking the mindset shift that catalyzes permanent change—not only in your body but in your career and life. Steven’s story is one of resilience and transformation, as he ditched retail management to pursue his passion for health and fitness, showing us the power of small, incremental improvements and the importance of truly understanding the 'why' behind every exercise.

In our conversation, Steven shares his insights on the crucial role of nutrition and how breaking away from unhealthy habits is more than just a physical challenge—it's a mental one. He opens up about the valuable skills he carried over from retail management, such as time management and organization, that now bolster the success of his coaching business. Hear about his innovative strategies, like the unshakable implementation framework, which categorizes tasks into quadrants, making it easier to balance productivity and well-being, while challenging the notion that you can out-train a poor diet.

For those with ambitious fitness goals yet daunting schedules, discover how Steven manages to maintain a stage-ready physique and simultaneously expand his coaching empire. He provides a sneak peek into his plans, including new courses, a book, and more frequent podcast episodes, all while maintaining visibility and engagement during busy seasons. If you're curious about what it's like to work directly with Steven, he shares the transformative journey clients can expect—a commitment to clarity and habit improvement that lays the foundation for lasting personal change.

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Speaker 1:

today on the show we've got steven box. Mr box man, how is it what's?

Speaker 2:

going on.

Speaker 1:

Hey, rob, thanks for having me man doing uh great today awesome, awesome, um, so I'd love to just kind of dive in and, uh, hear a little bit more about your story. I know we were talking pre-show about a week or so ago. Um, a little bit on your story and I'd love to just kind of dive in and have you kind of take it from there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I guess a good place to kind of start would be kind of how I got into what I do now 2008, 2009, kind of that period. I went through a lot of trying to change myself for the better, and I think something that a lot of people could probably relate to is, you know, I would see success with things like weight loss and then I'd put the weight back on Right, or I'd get some good habits going and then things would go crazy and then they wouldn't stick and I'd kind of go back to my old habits. And finally, in 2010, I kind of made these changes that actually stuck and I lost 80 pounds, I started my own business and just really like complete upheaval in my life, right. But at the same time it was this fresh opportunity, a different way, a time to approach things in a different way. So I ended up becoming certified as a personal trainer, uh, got into doing that, then realized, like you know, you need this nutrition thing too, right, because exercise alone is not enough. So I became certified in nutrition and I was getting great results for people who were able to stick with it. But I noticed a lot of people weren't, and so I started looking at okay, what are the other factors here? So, looking at management, I'm looking at sleeve, I'm looking at all these other factors and then, okay, I'm getting some people better results, but there were still those outliers. So then I started looking at things like behavior change and really understanding the way that people go about that process.

Speaker 2:

So, fast forward to 2020 and you know, some big event happened that you know all of us experienced together, right, and kind of shut things down and I was already kind of moving online anyways, but it kind of really forced me to fully go online.

Speaker 2:

And then I realized that created a lot of new challenges. At the same time, I was kind of shifting the focus of what I wanted to do, because I realized it doesn't really matter if I give people the best workouts, the best nutrition plan, help them get sleep, help them manage stress, if I don't also teach them how to manage their time effectively, they're not going to do any other right, because that's the biggest obstacle for most people is their time. And so I started doing that. And then that kind of transitioned into now where I actually specifically work with other coaches to develop their coaching skills and give them the systems that they need to create a business that is profitable but also doesn't cut into their personal time. That way they're not having negative effects on their health, their relationships and their personal growth. The short version. If you want to dive into any specific parts of that, happy to do so.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, actually, I would love to kind of bring it back a little bit to you and your situation, because you said you were kind of like doing that yo-yo, dieting, kind of losing a little bit of weight, gaining it back. What was it that really? What was the switch that flipped that you were like, okay, boom, what really? What helped you? Keep it off? I?

Speaker 2:

guess it's kind of an interesting way that I came about this. It's stubbornness is really what it was. I kind of got to this point where I was like you know what? I've tried the diets, I've tried all these things that everybody tells me to do. I was doing cardio, the stuff that I didn't enjoy doing and I was like you know, I see results from it, but it doesn't stick. So clearly it doesn't work.

Speaker 2:

You know, I just kind of got to that point of like, if it's not lasting, then it doesn't really work, because what's the point of losing weight if you're going to regain it right? I got to a point where I just wanted to prove that you could lose weight without doing those things and I stopped counting calories, I stopped looking at the specifics, I stopped trying to hit macros, I stopped overly obsessing with trying to eat only certain foods and I just started making smaller, better choices, like, as a easy example, that I went from getting like a double cheeseburger every day to getting like a single, to going you know what, sometimes it's okay to get chicken to you know what, sometimes I can get grilled chicken Right, and it's just like low progressions of better choices over time and I ended up losing 80 pounds in 10 months.

Speaker 1:

Better choices over time and I ended up losing 80 pounds in 10 months. Wow yeah, so small incremental wins. I love that. Now, were you certified as a personal trainer and in nutrition? Did you get certified and then you started losing the weight? Or were you losing the weight yo-yoing and then you were like, let me get certified and then so talk to me a little bit about that. Where did you? What was that kind of like?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So I actually, like I said, I went through kind of a period of trying different stuff, then starting to do it on my own, and at the time I didn't really know anything about exercise. So I did decide to start working with a trainer uh, terms of exercise stuff and me and him really hit it off and became good friends and it developed this kind of passion for me, because one cool thing that he did was he didn't just give you workouts and that was it. We actually would talk about why we were doing them, what you know what certain exercises were for, what the benefits were, why we were doing it the way we were doing them, what certain exercises were for, what the benefits were, why we were doing it the way we were doing it. And that developed that passion for me.

Speaker 2:

At the same time I was going through that process, I was stuck in a job I didn't like. I was working in retail management at the time and I knew I wanted to get out of that environment. But the only thing I really still loved about that job was training people. I've just always been very passionate about coaching people up and training them, and so it's like that light bulb went off and went wait, I've got this new passion here for health and fitness and so I decided to get certified Now. At that time I had maybe lost about half the weight, so I was down about 40 pounds or so at that point when I decided to get certified. So the answer to your question is kind of both right, like I started on the process but I was certified before I finished the process.

Speaker 1:

And when you were going back and forth, when you were like kind of yo-yoing with your weight, did you lose like a whole 40 and then you gained back another 40, or was it smaller and you weren't really making enough progress to like catch on, or what did that kind of look like?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think for the most part my limits of where I could kind of push things to are around about two to three months. Uh, so it was a cycle of losing about 20 to 25 pounds and then regaining it.

Speaker 1:

I see, I see Now how does so? Because I'm hearing a lot of like awareness and intentionality with what you're doing, and I love how you kind of brought up the fact that like can't out train a poor diet, and how important that is to just bring in the nutrition and bringing that awareness there, that awareness there, and so I'm familiar with precision nutrition as well. So I want to ask you like so how did getting that I guess education in the nutrition change your person? Because I know it's a lot more than just the nutrition, there's also like the behavior change, there's the mindset and things to that. So how did that change or how did that affect you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So for me personally going through it, I think it was a lot of mindset shifts that kind of happened as a result of changing my nutrition. You know, before you know me and a buddy of mine, we used to always have this running joke of we're going to go to Taco Bell and we're going to order the left side of the menu, starting at the far right side. And that was just our running joke that we would always tell.

Speaker 2:

And I realized at some point in that weight loss process that I had always used kind of this self-deprecating humor, that I had talked down about myself, that I put myself in a situation where I made it okay to be the way that I was, even though it didn't match up with the identity that I had as someone who had always been active and played sports and things like that. And I made it okay to be that way by being like well, you know, that's how my friends are, all of my friends are also overweight and out of shape and so it's okay to be that way. And so as I started going through that process, I started to realize I didn't need to eat that way, I didn't need to do certain things, I didn't need to go out and eat fast food all the time and I realized that eating healthy quote unquote doesn't have to be boring, it doesn't have to be grilled or boiled. Chicken and broccoli, right, you can. You can actually add seasoning to your food and you can do different things like that.

Speaker 2:

So there was just a lot of mindset shifts in there for me uh, yeah, there's nothing worse than just plain like grilled chicken.

Speaker 1:

Where there's like it, it's dried out, it's like a day old and there's no, no flavoring or anything. It's, it gets. I mean you can, everyone could do it, but it gets old really quick. So now, now, as you're kind of grown and evolving and changing, you said you're working with a lot more coaches. Now how does the intentionality from where you were first starting and started with the diet and everything and moving, how does intentionality show up now with your business, with working with your clients.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think there's a lot of parallels, right? Because a lot of the things that I started doing in that weight loss process actually came from skills I developed in retail management. Actually came from skills I developed in retail management. And, you know, because people don't stop and think about you know, especially in a, I was in a smaller store, so I would be in the most of the time by myself, from the time we opened the store until like five, six o'clock, when I had an assistant manager come in to take my place.

Speaker 2:

And when you're alone like that, you're having to help customers, you're having to count inventory, you're having to get all your paperwork and stuff done, you're having to do everything.

Speaker 2:

And so I developed really good management skills in doing that. Well, a lot of those helped me in terms of getting in my workouts, making time to meal prep, things like that, of getting in my workouts, making time to meal prep, things like that. So now you know, I've kind of transitioned into this, you know next level of my coaching, but those same skills are still showing up, right, it's knowing how to do it. And now I've taken it a step further because I've been more intentional about what do those processes actually look like, and so, for example, I actually have seven different daily routines that I utilize to kind of chunk my day off, and that's really easy for me to stay constantly aware. We'll say of what I have going on and what needs to be happening every moment of the day, because I have certain non-negotiables that happen in certain blocks, and then I also have flexibility built into my schedule to where, if I need to move things around, you have seven different daily routines, so you basically have a certain routine for each day of the week.

Speaker 2:

So it's not so much that way. Way so it's. I can just kind of run through them here real quick. Yeah, when I get up, I have a morning routine. That is like from the time I get up to, just like getting my day started. Then I have a pre-work routine. The pre-work routine is just like a very short like for it's maybe about three to five minutes long of my time that I used to transition from home life to work life Because you know, working from home you need that separation. And then I'll have a midday routine, which I kind of use as a break, and it's also an opportunity for me to reset, evaluate how my day's going. Do I need to make any adjustments, things like that. Then I have a post work routine, which is the routine that allows me to shut work off for the day and move it back into my personal life. And then I have a evening routine and then I have a bedtime routine.

Speaker 1:

Interesting, yeah, yeah. Yeah, as you were kind of running through that, I I was kind of thinking about my own self and my own um daily schedule and yeah, I pretty much kind of have very similar type things, how it's kind of broken into those, those like blocks, I guess, yeah, um, but I don't have like a set specific kind of routine to kind of transition or set those things differently. That's pretty interesting that you kind of have all those. So how do you help your clients with stuff like this? Now you help them just kind of develop their own rules and routines and blocks.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So what we do is we separate things out into four different quadrants. This is what I call my unshakable implementation framework. So the first one is to create awareness. So this is things like your visions, your goals, you know, just having kind of that general awareness around how you're spending your time and what you're focusing on. Next part of it is all about systems. So this is the execution block. Right, this is time management, it's task management, it's creating all your processes. So if you're a coach, you know things like your coaching process kind of go into this.

Speaker 2:

Block two are both related to health. So it's productivity and health are the two main focuses. Productivity is the first two. Health is the second two. So when we get into the health thing, there's physical health, which a lot of people just think of as exercise, but I consider physical health to be exercise, sleep and nutrition. And there's the resilience block, which is stress management as well as cultivating a growth mindset and having an optimistic mindset. So when you put all of those together, what you end up with is a lot more awareness about what you should be working on, the tools to get things done quicker and the energy to do it. And if you don't have all those things, what ends up happening to you? You're very unproductive. You kind of struggle through your day. You're relying on coffee or energy drinks just to get through. You're not sleeping well and you're probably neglecting your health and your relationships because you don't have the time or energy for those things. When you finally do put work away for the day, yeah, that's so true.

Speaker 1:

Um, it's very easy, and when you're not, when you like, you don't need like you should shoot for having all, everything all optimized and squared up and um, but you don't necessarily need to be like for everybody who's listening. If you're listening now and you're like, oh my god, my life's a mess because I don't have everything all squared away, um, the best thing, though, is is just getting it started right. A couple of things to start to kind of optimize and get rolling, because that's what I try to do, also with myself and other individuals that I'm working with is like hey, what's the low hanging fruit? What can we tackle? First, get that down, start habit stacking, building things up, and then, eventually, we can get to a spot, kind of like where you're at and we've got all these different tools and tips to kind of make sure that our days are moving smoothly.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I love that. Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up too, because I want to highlight here that one thing I always tell my clients is we're not actually going for optimal, we're going for aligned. You know it's like do your systems need to be 100% optimized or do they need to be aligned with the life that you want to live? You know, if I'm someone who my alignment, if my main thing I really want to focus on, is like business growth and I want to be like super rich and I want to have all these clients, then I'm going to have to work harder, right. I'm going to need bigger systems. I'm going to need bigger processes. I'm going to need things to be more dialed in. I'm going to need things to be more perfect, right. Same way, if I want to have six pack abs and be stage ready year round, then my exercise and nutrition and sleep and everything has to be a hundred percent dialed in, right. There's not a lot of room for that.

Speaker 2:

But if I'm someone that's like you know what, I just want to be in good shape. I don't need to be in super great shape, I just need to be in good shape and I just need to make sure that I have enough money in the bank to take care of what needs to be taken care of and be comfortable. I'm giving myself a lot of wiggle room, now right, so it's really about finding alignment. Lot of wiggle room, now right, so it's really about finding alignment. And that's why that awareness block is so important, because if you don't understand the life you want to live, it's very easy to chase the dream that other people are creating for you.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that is so true. So so true. Yeah, that's some powerful stuff, dude. That's really helpful. Let me ask you, though, so are you now, are you still doing personal training and nutrition coaching, or are you basically solely on personal development, business development type stuff for coaches, or like, who are the people that you're working with nowadays?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so in some instances it's just the same person, right. But I do offer individual coaching for health coaching, which includes all those areas that we talked about of health, sleep and nutrition, fitness, all that good stuff, and the other thing is the productivity coaching. But I do also have programs where if somebody really needs both and they're trying to find that alignment between all four, then we can do that. So it's one of those things. If you're, nutrition and sleep and exercise are already dialed in and you've got that good, but you just need to be more productive in your business.

Speaker 2:

I can help you with that without sacrificing that other stuff, with that, without sacrificing that other stuff. And if you're really good with your business stuff but you're struggling to make time for your health, then I can help you with that side of things.

Speaker 1:

Nice. So I want to ask you a question, because you had said before that you shoot to try to keep things for individuals. You try to keep things aligned and not optimized. Couldn't you have both? Couldn't you have your routine optimized and be aligned?

Speaker 2:

Sometimes, yes, but the thing is what I have found from most people if they're trying to optimize every single aspect of their life, something's going to fall apart, because optimized really means you're getting the absolute most out of something, right, and that's just not a realistic ideal for most people, you know it's like. Again, I'll use that example of you know, going to the extreme here. Say, you're trying to be stage ready to be a bodybuilder and have six pack abs year round, but you work 70 hours a week. That is possible. Yes. Are you probably going to drive yourself to the brink of destruction and end up in a hospital somewhere? Also, yes yeah, um.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, some some things. You just can't have everything with, right, yeah, um. So so, as I want to ask you this, because I've been asking a lot of guests lately um, 2024 is almost over, so we got 2025 right around the corner. I know this is a perfect time. You're you're very aware of yourself and everything you've got going on with your clients, and that's what you help them do is bring intentionality and awareness into their lives. So I would imagine you're kind of diving in on goals and expectations and things you're shooting for for next year. What could we be looking forward to hearing about? What are you working on and stuff you have for the next year.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, one thing I will tell people right is that you have to kind of find this balance of thinking about the future but also making sure you stay in the present. So for me, I have a lot of different things going on right now. I have a couple of programs that I'm working on that are going to address some very specific needs for people. So I got a couple of courses I'm looking at working on. I'm also going to have plans to be working on a book for next year, get my first book published. And then I have my podcast, which we actually just hit episode 100. So a huge accomplishment there. So right now we're doing one episode a week. The goal is, at some point in the next year I want to get to two or three episodes per week, which I think will probably be where we would stay once we got there. I don't ever see myself going to like five days a week, but you know, that's kind of where I am right now in terms of some of my goals. But at this moment I'm also like hey, I know, you know, 2025 is coming up. A lot of coaches out there right now. They need to be focused on what do I need to be doing today to get ready for 2025?

Speaker 2:

Right, it's holiday season coming up. It's easy for us a lot of times. You know this is a great time just to take off, and especially if you're in a space where you help people with any kind of improvement. So, whether you're a life coach, health and fitness coach or just any other field that actually is helping people to improve themselves, january is when those people are thinking about hiring somebody, and if you wait until January to start marketing yourself and you haven't posted anything in three months, you're already behind, and now you're just gonna overwhelm yourself because you're trying to play catch up in January. So it's how can you take those small steps today to do that? And that's you know, I'm modeling that myself. Even if it's something as simple as posting a 90 second reel every day with just a thought or solving a specific problem for people is just that way to keep you top of funnel for a lot of people.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. If you're not getting in forefront of everything and get out there marketing and stuff, you're a little bit behind. You heard it there first Now. So I gotta ask you um, are you, are you taking on new clients now? And if someone's interested in reaching out, do they like? I know you have a couple different programs for different things, so how do they reach out? Email, social media where do they get in touch?

Speaker 2:

with you. Yeah, it's so. It kind of varies. I do have a couple of slots right now. Uh, I usually only take on a small number of clients because they usually work with people one-on-one, and so I need to make sure that I'm leaving lots of room to give them the full attention that they need. But the best thing for people to do is go to my website, unshakablehabitscom. You can book a free call with me there and we can just talk about it.

Speaker 2:

I know a lot of people when they say, oh, a free call with me there and we can just talk about it. I know a lot of people when they say, oh, free call. It's like, oh, I'm really just going to sell you on this call and what I like to do is go on, we'll talk about your habits, we'll look at what your daily routines are, we'll identify areas where there might be opportunities for you to get better and if, at that point, you think that it could be a good fit and you want to work with me, we can certainly discuss the pricing and the programs at that point. But if you're like, hey, you know what, I don't know if it's the right fit, cool, no pressure, I'm not going to hard pitch, anybody love that, uh, pressure free, right, it's perfect, perfect way to attack it.

Speaker 1:

Um, and before we kind of wrap up, I'm curious what is it? What is it like working with you? How, like, when an individual does sign on, they're loving everything that you're talking about and they're like yeah, I need to dive in a little bit more. What is it? What does it look like on a day-to-day, week-to-week kind of basis? What are the expected results? Do you just cure burnout and confusion and just get them straight on track, or is there a process? How long do people typically work with you? Sorry, I got a lot of questions.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're good. So typically I will start people off on a minimum three-month commitment. A lot of people end up staying with me for over a year, so that three months is just kind of like an initial period of time that we agree to. But the first thing that I always do when we start is I help people get clarity, and for coaches that can be everything from clarity around who their target audience is, how to do their messaging and I'm not a marketing or messaging coach, but I am really good at helping people figure out the direction they want to take, that stuff. So then if they do want to work with somebody who specializes in those areas, they're not just going to them with a blank slate. They already kind of have a good idea of what they want to do, but I help them get clarity around that kind of stuff. I often get clarity around what they want to accomplish. I help them get clarity around where they're currently struggling at, what the opportunities are for us to get better, and then you know from there.

Speaker 2:

Everything is individualized, so it depends on are we just focused on your health? Are we focused on productivity? Are we focused on both? Are we doing more mindset work? It kind of depends at that point and I know you're familiar with this term from PN is client-centered coaching, which a lot of people, when they hear client-centered coaching, I think they think of it as, oh, you're just going to have the client tell you what they want to do. But what client-centered coaching really is for those who are not familiar with the term is I am the expert on productivity and health. You're the expert on you, so it's not a you're just hiring me to tell you what to do. We're two experts working together to solve a problem and you ultimately know what you can handle and what you can't handle, and it's my job to help you figure out the best solutions that fit what you can handle right now and meet you where you are and then together we can move through that process Boom.

Speaker 1:

I love that, love that, love that, love that. And so, dude, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know busy schedule, time of year right now there's a lot of things that kind of pop up between personal life and professional life, so I want to thank you for coming on and taking the time to spend with me. So this was awesome, this was great.

Speaker 1:

A lot of good tips and tricks for a lot of listeners and I know a couple of people probably going to want to be reaching out to you that kind of touch base, especially for that free call, without actually having that pressure to kind of like buy or do anything. But before we kind of wrap up, I got to ask you the cliche kind of question here, because you got a lot of tips, you got a lot of tricks and knowledge from all the coaching and things that you've gone through. If you were to boil it all down and if you were to leave one piece of advice for a young entrepreneur just kind of starting out maybe he's kicked off his side hustle what would your one piece of advice be for that person to help them not only survive the side hustle but to thrive and grow? Ratsworth's business.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I remember there was a quote that I heard years ago I don't know if he ever actually said it, but it was attributed to Abraham Lincoln that if he had to chop down a tree in four hours, he'd spend the first two hours sharpening the ax. And to me, the sharpening your ax as a new business owner is getting clear on what your priorities are and where you actually want things to go. I see so many new coaches that get caught up in details that don't really matter, right? Oh, how much should I charge for this? What you know? What should I include in the package? How should I say this? Or, you know, do I need a website or what?

Speaker 2:

It's like all these things that they get overly concerned with, and it's like. That's not the important thing. The important thing is who do you want to serve, what problem do you want to help them solve, and how are you going to do it. That's all you need to know. Everything else will work itself out. Pricing can be changed, program names can be changed, business names can be changed, all that other stuff inconsequential until you have absolute clarity on who you're going to help, what you're going to help them with and how you're going to help them on who you're going to help, what you're going to help them with and how you're going to help them.

Speaker 1:

Oh, beautifully said, man. That was awesome. Thank you, thank you, thank you, and again, thank you so much for hopping on today. It's been a blast. Yeah, man, my pleasure, man, thanks, and that's all we got today, guys, make sure you check in next time and reach out to Steven and tell him hi, and tell him you heard him here on the show and check him out on that free call. Take advantage of that, all right, guys. Peace, peace, peace.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker 1:

Sweet Smooth.