For most people, body transformation is all about physical attributes, like losing weight and trying a certain diet. But bigger and rewarding changes cannot be attained by these strategies alone. Steve Farber sits down with Angelo Poli to talk about how true body transformation can only be achieved by making significant adjustments not only to your eating habits but also to time management and daily routine. Angelo presents how his lifestyle coaching MetPro works, debunks the lasting medical myth about metabolism, and explains their company culture that transcends a simple coach-client relationship.
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The True Meaning Of Body Transformation With Angelo Poli
My guest is Angelo Poli, who’s the Founder of MetPro, which is a health, nutrition and fitness company with a very unique approach. They are a concierge level coaching company in the fitness world. They work one-on-one with their clients with a mix of live coaching, apps and technologies. Angelo’s story is interesting. Like most human beings, he overcomes some significant challenges and obstacles in his life. In his role as a fitness expert, he’s worked with Olympic athletes, NFL players, business executives, even the occasional podcast host and business author. He’s a super energetic and inspiring guy. Angelo, it is a pleasure to have you here on the show.
It’s awesome to be here. I’m excited knowing I was going to get to talk to you. I’m loving it. I’m excited to dive in.
Let’s start with your story. I mentioned in the intro that you’ve overcome some interesting challenges in your life. I want to start with that. There’s something in particular I was referring to. I love the story.
I was known for many years as the trainer who walked with a cane. That’s not a good look, but I didn’t want to throw in the towel. I love the industry that I was in. I got into health, nutrition, and fitness when I was in my late teens. In my twenties, I suffered a debilitating back injury that had me laid out. Silver linings.
How did that happen?
Stupidity, thinking I was young, immortal and everything would bounce off of me. The human body doesn’t quite work that way. I got a front-row seat to that whole train wreck. I ended up making a decision that, “I’m not going to be pumping iron and handing people dumb bells 24/7.” I can do a little bit of that nowadays, but back when I was dealing with this injury, I couldn’t. It forced me to focus on the strategy and science of transformations. I was still passionate about that.
That’s what I did. I built a team of healthy fit people to do the physical part. I would run the strategy, nutrition, metabolic pieces, helping people figure out why weight loss is frustrating, what their body is and isn’t responding to, all that stuff. It’s been an awesome journey. I can’t tell you how fortunate I’ve been to be able to be around the people that I work with, the experts that I get to work with. I have the greatest clients in the world, inspiring individuals who are genuine in their desire to improve themselves. We’ve been able to work with many incredible transformation stories, fun stuff and motivational stuff.
Transformation is a word that is tossed about nowadays. I hear it from my CEOs all the time, i.e. become a transformational leader and there’s the whole body transformation. There are TV shows where people go in home makeovers. We all think we want it. How do you define it? What does transformation mean?
Setting a goal can be used as a stepping stone to adopt a broader value. Click To TweetIt’s a motivational lingo. Transformation doesn’t have to be a 150-pound makeover or a reveal where your friends and family don’t recognize you. When I say to someone transformation, I do use that word purposefully because I want them to know that this is a thing. There are lots of places you can go for general advice, eat less sugary, less fried foods, exercise regularly. You don’t need me or my company for that. When somebody works with me, we go over five key foundational elements that are going to interact with how their body, health, fitness, nutrition and the whole nine yards is going to play out. What we want to do is recognize that if we take action, we have a strategic game plan. We’re willing to put in a little time and effort. We’re going to get the results out of it. Most people want to feel like they have a full transformational program. That’s what we do because no rock is left unturned. Science is the key, and do you know what the other key is? It’s love.
What do you mean by that?
I always wanted to have a company where we could interact more on an individual level with people. I know your audience is intelligent. They get it and understand the dynamics that we don’t live in a fairytale world. There are economic scenarios, business models and we have to fit everything within that. When somebody comes to me and says, “I want to get in shape. Here’s what I want to do. I want to lose a few pounds. I want to transform my life,” I tell them, “I need to work with you for 60 to 90 days doing an intensive makeover. We’re going to detail out your nutrition, exercise and strategy. We’re going to parse your metabolism. We’re going to baseline test you.”
This is stuff that you have to have a more open-ended intimate relationship with someone. People are surprised when they first call us up and talk with one of my consultants. They’re expecting like, “My height and weight is this.” They’re like, “We’ll get to all of that. I need to find out the things that matter. Are you married? Do you have family dinners together? How often do you travel? Tell me about your work schedule. Does the boss call you after hours? Are you on the clock? Are you working 24/7? How do you sleep? Tell me about your friends and how you like to spend time with them.” Those are all the pieces that ultimately are going to dictate what scientific protocol we implement and what strategy we use. The key is when you care about someone and you can take the time to get to know them, you can figure out what strategy is going to work best for them to transform.
When you talk about transformation, you’re saying that in order to merit the term transformation, it’s got to be more than losing weight. That’s more than losing body fat. It has to involve all of those elements. You tell me what it adds up to. If I’m a client and I’ve worked with MetPro for a while and I say, “I’ve worked with you guys for six months. I feel transformed,” what has happened? I know people come to you for different reasons. Some people come to lose weight, come to get stronger or train for a particular sport. Is there a pattern that you hear that somebody says, “I’m transformed?”
Yes, absolutely. What you asked was fundamentally the difference between goals versus values. I’m a big fan of both goals and values, but values are superior to goals. Once your lifestyle, health choices, fitness choices, and personal culture of wellbeing are matched by those values you’ve adopted, they’re yours forever. A goal is a tool to use as a stepping stone to adopting a broader value. I’ll give you a classic scenario. We’re a makeover company. I get calls all the time like, “I got this high school reunion.” I got classic, “I’m getting married in six weeks. I want to look like a stud or a studette for my wedding day.” We are like, “Let’s get you super healthy and super fit. Let’s get you looking great.” If I can’t get someone to adopt what we’re doing as a life value, what happens a few weeks after the wedding day?
That’s where the transformation when somebody is successful. I define it this way. I don’t want this to feel all touchy-feely motivation. That’s a part of it, but it also boils down to the right science. If you have all the motivation and all the umph in the world, but you don’t have the right strategy, that’s going to be disappointing. It comes back to the moment in time where all of your strategy, motivation, efforts had led you to a point where inertia is going to cause you to continue to get healthier and in better shape versus if you let go of the steering wheel, inertia is going to cause you to drift off the embankment. If you ask yourself that question, you’ll know. I have lots of clients. I’m like, “Johnny, you don’t need me.” He’s like, “I like shooting the breeze with you. I like you bossing me around.” I’m like, “I’ll work with you as long as you want. You got this.”
I have clients like, “I lost the weight on there. I appreciate it. We’re going to wrap up at the end of this month.” I say, “No, you’re not. You say goodbye to me and it will be five days before we’re having trouble.” I’ll level with people. I’ll tell them because you’ll know when you’re at the point where inertia is going to carry you. That point is you’ve adopted the lifestyle as a value. I can’t have this conversation without circling it back to dovetailing into the science. I know this is cliché, but if you’re following a meal plan or a workout strategy or routine that is not sustainable, do you see why we’re going to have problems there? It’s cliché, but it’s true. It has to be something that’s sustainable. That’s where the science comes in.
Body Transformation: When you care about someone and take the time to get to know them, you can figure out the best strategy for them.
One of the things I’m hearing there is that transformation equals permanence. When somebody says, “I lost 60 pounds. I am transformed,” then you talk to them six months later and it’s like, “I’m not as transformed as I used to be.” That wasn’t transformation. That was weight loss. That sounds like the difference to me.
I’ll tell you one of my tricks. Sometimes when I’m first talking with someone, I’ll do personal wellness recalls. I said, “Talk to me about your journey thus far. What have worked and what haven’t?” Usually, people will have a story for me of what’s worked and I have to correct them. Not always, but here’s how this plays out. “I did this X, Y, Z juice fast and it worked well. I did this super restrictive low carb, high protein and it worked well.” I said, “That’s great to know. I’m going to make some notes on that.” I draw on the chalkboard. “How well did it work?” He’s like, “I lost 35 pounds.” I said, “What’s your current weight?” The gentleman is like, “200.” I go, “You used to weigh 235 and now you’re 200.” I pause. He goes, “No. I’ve gained it back.” I’m like, “John, I asked you what’s worked for you in the past.”
You’re telling my story. I have done a lot of things that have “worked.” For example, back in the late ‘90s, I went on Atkins and lost weight. It was like unzipping a fat suit. Many years ago, I said, “I need to lose weight.” That transformation didn’t stick. I said, “I’m going to do Atkins again because that worked before.” Nothing happened. It was weird and frustrating. I know I got to cut out the carbs, unzip the fat suit, and the fat was going, “I’m not going. I’m not leaving.” It’s confusing. I tried some other things that worked. I am telling the most common story. What you’re saying is that transformation equals permanence, and that you guys have been able to achieve that. That’s a huge statement.
It’s a tough sales pitch because it like, “Why should I do it? Is your program easier?” “No.” “Is it faster?” “No.” “You’re selling me here.” When you do it right, you get is permanence out of it. I don’t look at anything through rose-colored glasses. Life happens for anyone. It’s a little bit on my background. When I started in the industry, I spent years in physique sports. That’s not me personally. I was the guy with the cane, but I would train the physique competitors, bodybuilders, bikini, figure, all of that. These are people who are in their paycheck. This is what they do for a living. It is their physique on stage.
No rock is left unturned with them. I did that for many years. It was rewarding. The science that we use for that is still the science that we use now. It’s the application of those learnings. Most people can’t relate to something at that level of structure. It’s not sustainable for most people. That doesn’t mean we can’t apply the 80/20 rule. Why can’t we get 80% of the benefits out of that? Here’s what it boils down to. People ask me all the time and say, “Angelo, I know the celebrities and athletes you’ve worked with. I’ve seen the transformations. What’s the secret food or exercise?”
I’m going to tell you the secret. It’s not a special food, not a special diet, not a special exercise routine, Time management is the key. A lot of people say, “I know what I need to do.” I bet you do. I know you do. In fact, my job is to help you execute on what you already know quicker because speed is king. If you can get into a routine where you can execute quickly, sometimes that means you have to have a strategy for when you’re going to be traveling, on the road and busy. You have to have a strategy for food prep. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of, “What do I eat? What is the right approach for me?” You can google fat loss and get ten million strategies. They’re not all a bunch of snake oil. They all work.
I’ve seen every approach where I’ve been doing this. I’m in the ‘80s, there were stunning physiques, sweatpants, brow sweat band, running club, low calorie and higher carb meal plan. In the late ‘90s, Atkins came on. That was a copy of what an Arctic Explorer did 100 years ago in discovering all these diets. There is nothing new. This is all old stuff circled back around. We took all our cars. We marched them out back and shot them. All of a sudden, we’re dropping weight like no business. Every mid-40s female that are starting to hit hormonal triggers in her life at that age is going to the doctor and saying, “I think I’m carb sensitive.”
The doctor says, “Yeah, I think your carb sensitive.” Now we have an entire society of people who are carb sensitive. There’s a small percentage that is carb sensitive. What’s happened is they’ve got their body into this biological state where their body is handling carbs a certain way because it’s been trained, and we don’t know how to get out of that. We moved from the ‘90s into the 2000s. In the 2000s, we had a good movement going where a little bit of good mojo or people are thinking, “Maybe it’s not any one food groups. Maybe it’s needing quality foods.” That was great. We’re eating organic and clean foods. We’re stripping out processed and chemicals.
Real transformation lies more in time management than food or exercise. Click To TweetI started getting different phone calls. They’re like, “I’ve been eating super healthy. I’m drinking my water out of glass jars. I eat everything organic and I’m juicing but I’m not losing any weight.” I’m like, “I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but we have two topics here. It’s not that one’s more important than the other, but there are energetic pathways, macronutrients, calories and energy balance, and then there’s health.” They’re both important and can coexist, but they’re two different topics. I’ve been doing this for years. I can tell you lots of people who eat highly processed chemical and synthetic foods as most of their daily diet. I know because a lot of them are bodybuilders and physique. I don’t recommend this as a great healthy meal plan, but they look shredded onstage.
There has to be some meeting, some blend of the two. I don’t want to accuse, but we’re all guilty of it, the medical industry, fitness industry and weight loss industry. It is this mentality of, “You got to want it bad enough.” Most people don’t get the results they want because they’re not willing to put in the effort. I’ve been doing this for many years. I’ve done it with 20,000 people. Let’s talk reality conversations with some people. By and large, that has not been my experience. Most people I’ve worked with are willing to do what it takes.
It’s that they have to be met with some results. It doesn’t have to be some extraordinary like, “I’m losing 10 pounds a week.” They have to see some progress. One of my personal mentors and coaches had a saying that’s rung true for years. He said, “There is no greater human motivator than progress. If you’re seeing progress, you’re going to be willing to do what it takes.” That dovetails back into the science. You have to have the right science.
It reminds me of one of my mentors about progress. This whole notion that people resist change and they don’t like change, “People don’t like change, but they love progress.” If you’re having me change up my diet and lifestyle, and I’m not feeling like I’m progressing, then what’s the point of all that change? Progress is change. It’s change in a direction that feels meaningful and beneficial. I want to turn the focus a little bit inward for a moment on MetPro as a company. How long ago did you start the company?
I owned a private training gym. We would do the fitness, nutrition and the whole nine yards. It’s been many years. The methodologies that we were using for our nutrition coaching, I wrote a book on it. It’s called MetPro, which is short for Metabolic Profiling. I’ll share the high levels of what that process looks. What we were doing is, I had identified that the biggest factor in predicting how someone’s going to respond to a particular nutrition strategy or exercise strategy is what they’re used to eating. We’ll say nutrition because that’s the more mysterious of the two.
Keep in mind, I was injured. I would travel, give seminars and lectures to hospitals, clubs and colleges. I would have this little intake form. It’s all these height, weight, gender, activity level. I would have this little nutritional intake form where they would write down what they’re used to eating. This is going back now years and years. It dawned on me that I quit looking at height, weight and gender, and went straight to what they’re used to eating because it was more indicative of how their body would likely respond. Yet our medical science go to, “What’s your BMI? You need this many calories.” Even the doctors know that’s garbage. They’ll tell you it doesn’t work that way.
I wish it did, but if you’ve ever got on one of those treadmills, and it says you burn 500 calories or you went on a diet and you did the math, at the end of the week, you’re scratching your head going, “What the heck? This isn’t right.” That’s how the Metabolic Profiling process which is a series of identifying where a personal unique metabolic rating is at. We don’t waste time with a strategy that isn’t going to work or a meal plan that isn’t going to work for you. I’ll give you an example and a story that I think you’ll like. When I would go to do these seminars, I’d usually pick one of the girls out of the front that was fit and healthy.
We’ll call her Julie. I would ask her, “Julie, here in the front. Clearly, you take care of yourself, you exercise, you eat good.” She says, “Yes, I eat good.” I say, “I believe we are all the experts on our own bodies. We’ve lived in our own bodies for quite a while. We know what’s up. What would happen if we changed nothing about your diet or exercise, but you ate a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream every night before you went to bed?” She laughs and tells me something about how her life would be beautiful again.
Body Transformation: Even if you have all the motivation in the world but not the right strategy, results will be disappointing.
She says, “I’d gained weight.” I say, “I am an expert on metabolism, nutrition and I concur, you will gain weight. You are correct. Let’s do a little math here. How much weight would you gain in 30 days?” Every seminar I would do, I would ask this question. Invariably, the 100 times I’ve asked this question, the girl will usually tell me, “I gained between 5 and 15 pounds in a month.” While everyone’s individual and there are some outliers, that answer roughly holds up. If you go home and you ate a pint of ice cream every night before bed, you’re going to gain about 5 to 15 pounds in one month. Here’s something interesting, “How much would you gain, Julie, if you continued that in a year?” “I’d gain between 20 and 30 pounds.” This is the girl that weighs maybe 125 pounds. There’s a problem with that. The problem is she’s right, which means that something is wrong with our medical science, fitness science, nutrition, methodology, and understanding of how calories in and calories out works because a pint of ice cream is about 1,000 calories. A thousand calories a night is 7,000 calories a week. What is factual? There are 3,500 calories in 1 pound of body fat. Therefore, a week would equal 2 pounds. There are 52 weeks in a year.
“Julie, are you going to gain 104 pounds in a year? Anyone at the seminar raises your hand if you think Julie’s going to gain 104 pounds?” No takers. I got intelligent people at these seminars. A lot of times I got doctors, nutritionists, and people in the industry at these seminars, yet I don’t ever get any takers. We have to answer why. She would gain 20 or 30 pounds. She will not be happy with that. That will be miserable, but she won’t gain 104 pounds. The math says she would. That means that Ben & Jerry’s ice Cream speeds your metabolism. Am I doing the math wrong on that? Where am I going wrong? “Mr. Poli said I should be at Ben & Jerry’s because it speeds my metabolism.” Trust me, you’re not going to like the outcome, but you’re not going to gain weight in ratio to your transgression.
You’re saying that the body adapts.
That’s exactly it.
Having Ben & Jerry’s, at first, it’s like packing it on. After a while, there’s something that happens in the metabolism that accounts for that.
The function of metabolism is misunderstood. Most people think it’s something there because it has to keep them humble in life. It’s there to torment them and to make them irritated all the time. The function of your metabolism is to keep your body in homeostasis. A state where you are neither gaining nor losing mass quickly. If it can no longer do that, if it cannot regulate to acclimate to your nutritional environment, we die. It’s that simple. Whether you’re eating too much or too little, the job of your metabolism is to acclimate to it. Weight loss and weight gain is not something that happens that’s triggered by some mythical BMI, caloric intake chart.
It is simply what takes place during the time interval that it takes your metabolism to adapt to its new nutritional environment. What we define as a fast metabolism versus a slow metabolism is simple as this. It’s someone who is predisposed to acclimating quicker to a reduction in the intake or acclimating slower to an increase in intake, but you will acclimate or you die. If you keep gaining weight, you’ll die. If you keep losing weight, you’ll die. You never go on a diet and say, “I did this diet that worked good, but I had to stop because soon I was going to waste away and ended up in the hospital.” You don’t hear that story. Whatever diet you go on, unless it’s something absurd, your metabolism adapts. “I lost this weight, and then the weight loss slowed down out of nowhere after about three weeks.”
The challenge is to be able to measure the metabolism and make adjustments along the way, it’s doing what it needs to do for whatever goal you have. If you’re trying to put on muscle or you’re trying to lose weight, “I’m going to go on a Keto diet and I’ll do that forever because the body’s going to adapt to it. I might do that for a while, but then I have to change it up.” It’s knowing what to do to change it up that leaves us all in the dust. It’s not understanding that we need to do that. That’s like me with, “I’ll go back to doing Atkins. I’ll do that again,” and that didn’t work. Your company is built around the idea of helping people to make those adjustments in various ways.
We are all experts on our own bodies. Click To TweetIt’s built around those exact metrics.
You did it on your own at first, then you built the company around you. How many people are on your team?
We have about 30. They are fabulous. In that number, we have phenomenal tech support and developers. We have the whole architecture of how we’re blending nutritional science and coaching with technology. We have both a high touch concierge handheld approach. Somebody who wants to work with a consultant day in and day out can take that approach. We also have our technology, our tools that anybody can download, start using, and at least get the benefit of tools to track their metabolism.
The tool will show you everything. These are the metrics we’re looking at. I often joke with people, if you work with MetPro, I can’t promise you good news or bad news. What I can promise you is accurate news.” I’m going to put you on a baseline testing meal plan, where I know the macronutrient breakdown, the calories, the glycemic load, and all the details that go into the meal plan you are on. It’s going to be a boring meal plan, nothing fancy, simple.
Here’s what’s magical about this meal plan. I have had thousands of other males in their early 50s, females in their late twenties, whatever demographic you are, I have thousands do the exact same meal plan first. I have definitive data on averages. What I’m going to get is your average. Based on this, in 72 hours, you gained 1 pound. You lost 2 pounds. It might be good news. It might be terrible news, but it will finally be accurate news without any guessing. Based on that news, now I can come back to you and I can say, “John, you were right. Your metabolism stinks. Here’s what we’re going to do about it,” or, “John, your metabolic rate is fine. Here are our next steps.”
Once I have that data, then I build some their meal plan, not before. First, that’s the testing, a parsing agent once I have the data and how their body’s responding because this is my pet peeve. There’s a lot of intelligent people that go wrong in the industry. They say, “I’m going to help you eat healthily and get in shape. I want to get to know you, but first let me give you your diets.” You did it backward. Here’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to see how you respond and then based on that data, not my experience with anyone else because that’s frustrating. You know how it goes. You’ve got your next-door neighbor who’s eating cheeseburger and fries. He was trying to figure out what shirt to go with his washboard abs. It’s not fair.
What matters is figuring out where your body is at. The whole model is based around baseline testing. I trick people into it because they’re like, “It’s 72 hours and you get a baseline test.” Don’t tell anyone, Steve, but the baseline testing never stops. Whatever meal plan I designed for you next is an extension of that baseline test where I’m going to watch and go, “Time to change it again.” At least I know what you can and can’t get away with.” I am more aggressive for a few days. There are few gurus out there who are saying, “This sounds good but in 72 hours, you can’t figure out what somebody needs or doesn’t need.”
Your right, big picture, but technology is cool these days. Technology is amazing with what we can do. The metrics we can evaluate real-time now. Using a simple app, if you’re willing to participate and enter some data, gives us real-time feedback. Within 3 or 4 days, we can’t get enough data for me to go, “My name’s on it. This is it. Once for all time, right for you.” I can get enough data to say, “It’s time to make a 10% recalculation.” I can get enough data and go, “We need to go in this direction.” Over the course of a few weeks, I will have you dialed.
Body Transformation: Losing weight and being healthy can co-exist, but they are still two different topics.
I want to take the methodology and put it on the shelf and we’ll come back to it. I have more questions about that. I want to take a look inside the company. You’ve got fitness coaches. They’ve been trained by you. They’re using the technology. How would you describe the culture of MetPro? What’s it like to work there? What is the vibe of the company?
We are genuinely like a big family. Each morning, all of the coaches get together. Now we’re doing it over Zoom, but we all get together. We share our wins. We communicate often. There are other coaches within the team that are following the journey of specific clients. We’re talking about how they’re progressing, what their obstacles are, and what strategies we might come up with to help them. Much of what we’re going to do is going to revolve around making your life easier. Once we dial in, “We’re tracking your metrics. We’ve got your metabolism.”
We’re back to the methodology. I’m still on the culture. You say you’re like a family, but nowadays everything is remote. We keep calling it the middle of the pandemic, but that is a long middle. You’re based in Chico, California but you have people that live remotely as well. If I were to ask you, “Give me a few qualities or characteristics that describe your culture,” what are some of the words that you’d use?
Passion, you can’t fake it. It’s not a job you go, “I want to try this industry out. I want to do this. I heard I can make a few dollars.” You have to love it. That’s specifically in the coaching department. Everyone at our company has to be moving forward on the same boat with what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to innovate. I’m not interested in doing what’s already been done in the area of body transformations. That doesn’t keep me excited. What keeps me excited is forging new ground and finding new innovations.
I was going to pull that around so those morning meetings when we get all together, we talk about a client and then we figure out what attributes and what qualities are going to best help them. We do something that’s called our metabolic profile or personality profile. What we have learned is though every coach on our team, whether they’re overseeing our technology or our app and our tools for tracking the metabolism, or working with clients one-on-one, every coach will communicate based on the filter of what our client’s psychological profile is. It doesn’t mean that there’s right or wrong. What it means is we all respond differently to different types of touches.
There’s a lot of great personality tests out there. We’re not that technical in that department. What we do is we put everyone into three basic communication buckets. There’s the person that responds best in a culture of support, congratulatory, feeling like they always have someone there. That describes every single person on planet earth at some point. That’s not just one type of person. Everyone is that way to a greater or lesser degree. There are people in the middle who are the “tell me why.” They’re the, “I need an instructor that’s going to teach me. I’ll do anything you tell me. If you can explain why and I can understand it.” That’s the boat I fall into. That’s how I respond. I’m the why guy.
There are people that, “You don’t need to bore me with that stuff. I want you to tell me what you did this morning and I’m going to beat it.” That personality type. The science is going to dictate what I tell you to eat. That’s all science. How do we present that? “Johnny, I saw you nailed that lunch we talked about yesterday. Great job. Talk to me. What have we done to make sure that you’re not scrambling last minute to get this tomorrow? Johnny, great job at hitting that lunch. Remember we talked about why we decreased your carbs by 15 grams? We’re doing a little extra protein for the next week. Remember we talked about since we made this adjustment to your training and your breakfast. Great job following through with that. Johnny, I saw you checked off your meal now. Let’s see if you can do it for dinner also. Get with the program.”
It’s all the same science, but we respond differently and that’s not theory. When I first started in this industry, I would travel from club to club. I would oversee the nutritional coaching for the entire facilities, clubs, private coaching departments, and then the trainers would handle the exercise. It was amazing how I would see the same exact science, though implemented by the different trainer, different style, a different approach, all of a sudden break something loose for someone. Motivationally, psychologically, they were able to relate. There was a trigger in that relationship that gave them what they needed. That can make all the difference. We did an exercise that you’ll love, Steve. I had all of my coaches write down a list of their favorite five clients.
The trick in getting great clients and enjoying working with them is love. Click To TweetI asked everyone, “What’s the commonality between them. Are they all super athletes? Are they all this and that?” I had the privilege years ago. I got to work with Aaron Rodgers. Talking about an athlete. What a privilege. He’s amazing. A reporter interviewed me and she said, “What do you look for in a client? Is it someone that is stellar, raw talent and genetic, and has all this potential?” I laughed and I said, “I don’t care about any of that stuff. I’m going to be spending hours of my life with you. All I look for is to be interesting, be someone I like talking to.” She got a kick out of that. It’s the same thing I asked my coaches. Why did you pick these people? Do you know what the answer was? It’s the people that they felt loved them and appreciated them the most.
I said, “What’s the commonality?” It all boiled down to the clients they loved the most. Do you want to know the trick to having great clients that you enjoy working with and that enjoy working with you? Love them. I have learned so much about lifestyles and cultures I knew nothing about. I knew nothing about equestrian. I knew nothing about submarines. I knew nothing about a race to Antarctica. I do now. I got to go on these little journeys with all of these awesome and interesting people that I’ve gotten to work with. I’ve learned something new from every single client I’ve worked with. The team that I work with has that same sense of wonder and excitement with each new person they get to meet. It’s that interactive passion that is critical to a functioning team for our industry for what we do.
What you’re describing to me is this wonderful cycle that happens with the dynamic of love and fascination, love and curiosity. If I love you, I’m more interested in you and your life. The more I learned about you and your life because I’m interested in you, the deeper the relationship and connection get. This is simple human nature in the context of it, but it’s as if not even more important there. Around these parts where I come from, we call it, “Do what you love in the service of people who love it.” You’re doing what you love. You wouldn’t have people on your team that doesn’t love this. They love it, otherwise they wouldn’t be working with you.
They’re doing what they love. They’re using that to serve the client. They’re not sequestered in the cave somewhere working on their own fitness because they love it. It’s the transformation piece, which is helping somebody else change. That is service in a very high form. When you’re doing what you love, therefore, serving people, using your expertise, techniques, technology, methodology because you love it. You’re serving them to such a large degree. What happens is they reciprocate. They’ll love you in return.
You go down and say, “Who are my top five clients? What is it about them why I love them and they love me? We have a great time together. I’ve learned so much and they’ve learned a lot.” That’s the dynamic that we should all be striving for in whatever business that we’re in. You just happened to be in a business where the nature of it is the person. It shouldn’t be as hard to get there because you’re already dealing with people’s fundamental, personal aspirations, goals, frustrations and lifestyles. You’re uniquely positioned to operationalize love as a business principle.
It sounds like you’ve done this a time or two.
My passion is finding all kinds of companies in all kinds of industries in various parts of the world that are experiencing that to some degree. It’s not so much that I go out and teach this, although I certainly do, it’s about uncovering it where it’s already happening, finding light on it and saying, “Angelo and his team are involved in body transformation. These guys over here are in shipping and logistics. These people over here are in the collections industry. These people over here are in financial services. These people are in manufacturing. What do they all have in common? Love.”
You get together in the morning, get that sense of comradery, but it’s not just for that. It’s to make use of the brain trust on behalf of your clients. You are all focusing on various clients, even though one person might be more the coach or be responsible for that person. All of that comes to bear on all of your clients because I would imagine that because as a team, you are focused on one particular client as a case study or an opportunity to offer ideas, that becomes part of the overall knowledge-base of the company that everybody will be able to apply it to all of their clients. Your knowledge-base is growing over time and you’re capturing that also in your technology.
Body Transformation: If you teach people what you know, it’s never going to hurt you. It’s always going to come back and bring you more.
We’re also a little bit nerdy. We geek out over data. One of the unique things that metabolic profiling has allowed us to do is answer some of the more challenging questions when it comes to metabolism. I talk so much about metabolism and nutrition not because it’s more important than exercise or any other piece that we address daily and head-on, it’s because it’s more mysterious. There’s more confusion around it. People know, “I got to exercise regularly.” Now, we can dive into the nuance. We’re going to do resistance training, endurance training, interval training, circuit training, cross-training, straight-up strength training. How much of your week is going to be split up into it? I get these hotshot executives that will call me up and go, “Angelo, I know who you are. I know what you do. Here’s what I want. I want to bench 300 pounds. I want to run a sub-6-minute mile. I want to lose 50 pounds. Are you the guy to get me there?”
I say, “I can get you there but here’s what you got to do. Of those three things, which do you want to accomplish first?” If you try and do all three at once, it’s not going to happen. We know now. We have the data. We’re big nerds when it comes to that. We’re always sharing with one another. For some reason, in some areas of the industry, there are people that are like when they learn, they want to hold it to themselves. Drop all that. I’ve been trying to shout this from the rooftops for years. I get people that will tell me, “Angelo, your company is an overnight success. Congratulations.” I’m like, “I’ve been yelling and doing this for twenty years. You weren’t around.” You share it.
If you try and teach people what you know, it’s never going to hurt you. It’s always going to come back to you and bring you more. That’s the principle we live by. Within the company, we have exercise physiologists. We have people that have an incredible stock in a certain area. We have brilliant registered dieticians. People who come from more of a medical background, fitness background, coaching and psychology background. They all support one another so that way we can love all our clients. That’s one of the things we say in our company is, “What are we doing today to love all our clients?” We use those words.
What does that end up looking like? What answers do you get? “What are we doing to love our clients?”
One of the things that we request as part of the coach’s job is even though we’re texting and talking on the phone, sometimes video if a client wants but it’s texts and talking on the phone all week long with a client, we ask our coaches to find outside of the box ways to interact with their clients. Here’s usually what form that comes in. It’s sharing something about themselves, “Johnny, I want to send you this picture. It was in the store and I saw this. It made me think of you.” Make them part of your life. I’m not talking about inappropriate crying and things. I know people hire us for a job, but when you get to know someone, you work with someone and there’s a familiarity, you care and think about them.
This comes back down to practicality. One coach is not working with 10,000 clients. That’s the business model and how it’s laid out. You have a coach that is not on a first name basis with their client. It’s way beyond that. They should know their client’s kids’ and pets’ first names because these conversations come up. You’re going to win together and lose together. I don’t like to lose. I don’t know if you’ve got that yet. You and I have been talking a little bit. This is why when people say, “How do I know that you’re going to get me the results?” I said, “It’s because I don’t like to lose.” There’s a little bit of that in our coaches too. That’s all part of it and that’s all good. That’s what makes it fun.
We’ve got a good overview of your approach, culture, the thinking behind it and heart behind it. I want people to know that you may have inferred from my intro that we are working together on the project Farber. I’m getting started with you. The plan is I’m going to work with you guys for at least another month or so. It’ll end up being a lot longer than that. We’re going to do another show and we’re going to let people know what has happened over that month with my experience with you guys. That’s the plan. I’ve already started down this path. I’m using the app. I’m working with one of your coaches and we’re off to a good start. What I would like to do is invite anybody who’s reading to come along on this ride. This is the way that I started with it.
I learned of your work through another show. You were a guest on my brother from another mother, Adam Markel’s show, The Conscious Pivot Podcast. I heard you there and I go, “This sounds interesting. I’ve been on a freaking roller coaster in my entire life. Let’s give that a shot.” My experience before you and I even met, I reached out to the company anonymously and I had a good experience talking with one of your intake coaches. Here’s my invitation. You can take an assessment online and you can book a call with Steve, the same guy that I talked to. Rate your own experience on that. You guys have an app that people can sign up for. They can do it for free for a short period of time to get a sense of that.
Make sure it’s a good fit for you.
The URL is MetPro.co/lovebiz, then we’ll know that you follow this show. We can compare notes together for anybody who wants to hop on this journey, which I would highly recommend that you at least explore. If it’s for you, great. If not, great. Wouldn’t it be fun to try this together? I know a lot of people in the nutrition industry and network marketing industry. This is not that. There’s no product to be sold. It’s a service, but it’s not for everybody. It could be powerful. I’m going to find out for myself if it is. So far so good, but we’ll see. I invite you to come along with me on this. Angelo, your passion for your work is evident. I love that you take on your client’s challenges as a personal challenge. It feels good to have somebody saying, “I’m not going to fail.” That’s a nice thing. Any last words for this time around until the next time we meet?
I want to express my gratitude. This has been awesome. Thank you for giving us a shout out, inviting your audience to come and talk with our executive coaching, Steve, and for experiencing it because you have an energy about you. I’m not going to share all your details, but let me tell you the coach you’re working with. He’s one of my best friends. You’re working with Jared. He was a client before he worked for MetPro. He’s one of those stories. He played for Vanderbilt and he was a big boy. After he was done playing, he said, “I’m going to get in shape and drop some pounds.” You ask Jared what his experience has been, why he now is a coach and this is years removed. Ask him what his journey has been. Everything he’s asking you to do, he’s walked that path. He’s done it. He’s taken those steps. This is going to be great. Thank you for letting me be part of your journey. It’s been an honor to be here with you.
Thank you, Angelo. Thank you all for tuning in to the show. Next time, do what you love in the service of people.
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About Angelo Poli
After spending years walking with a cane, I discovered the blueprint to restore my health and re-define athleticism. Now I spend my days rallying awareness for the growing epidemic of postural dysfunction. As a motivational speaker and transformation expert, I pioneered the concept of “daily motion assignments” to combat the effects of modern living. Today I carry my cane as a reminder of just how vital a balanced body is for life.
I am a Huffington Post Blogger, TEDx presenter, and Wellness Consultant for multiple universities and hospitals around the country. My clients have been featured on the cover of everything from Sports Illustrated to Forbes and seen everywhere from MTV to ESPN.
My latest venture, MetPro, is an all-encompasing fitness system that can transform the way you look, feel and perform. You can find out more about MetPro here: http://www.metpro.co/
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