Episode #582: Building Sustainable Health Habits with Dr. Joey Munoz-Education, Accountability, and Fit for Life

0:01 This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks nyc. I have the pleasure of bringing in, straight from Tampa by way of Miami, a Halo legend, Dr. Joey. How you doing, buddy? Good to see you. I'm doing great, my friend. Thank you for the introduction. So Dave and I have tracked you since your, since your Norton late lane days. And you know, we, we always view you guys as, you know, part of the way you should actually think about fitness and nutrition. And here's like cut through the, cut to the chase and actually what's really happening from a body composition. So how do you feel as the industry has kind of evolved over time? You know, does it get better or does it get worse? I tend to be a very optimistic person, Pete. I tend to think things tend to trend in a more positive direction. I think one of the really positive things of the industry overall is that so many more people are aware about the importance of living a healthy lifestyle and what that actually means in the first place as well. Because I think for so long we all understand being healthy is important. However, the things that we do to be healthy maybe aren't the most optimally aligned with that goal. And for example, now I talk to a lot of people who are just the lay public and they're like, I understand how important muscle mass is for health and I understand how important protein is. Things that you probably wouldn't hear that often about a decade, a decade ago. So I, I definitely think it's trending in the right direction. Yeah, that's good to hear. I think, you know, for, for, for as many new

1:33 protein bars that are out there and there, there's other things that have way too much sugar in it, but at least there's more protein bars that I could choose from. So I think net, net, I agree with you. So take, take our audience back to how you got into the industry, you know, what you're focused on now, and we'll, we'll kind of riff about where we think the future is going and how opportunities are going to kind of evolve for that. Yeah, great question. And I think this goes hand in hand with what you were mentioning earlier as well in terms of how the industry has changed. Because I've, I've been passionate, I'm, I'm 31, but I've been passionate about health and fitness since I was a kid, really. So for me it started living in a, like growing up in a household where both my parents cared about health and fitness. My dad was always into working out, doing push ups at home. My mom was into going to the gym. So I kind of grew up in the gym. Despite that, though, I was pretty overweight young teenager, around 12, 13 years old. I remember going to the doctor with my mom and the doctor telling my mom and I overheard that I was about 1 or 2% body fat away from being obese. Wow. And the reason was I'm a first generation American.

2:34 My family is from Cuba. And coming from a third world country where families struggled to be able to feed their kids. Now, being in the US and having, you know, like, food in abundance, my mom felt pride and joy in feeding me. And so as a young kid, I kind of just ate anything and everything. So that's kind of where my whole journey started in terms of learning about dieting and nutrition and went through all sorts of sort of like restrictive diets and the whole body image issues that I feel like a lot of people struggle with in early adulthood. And then for me, it was really education. That was a big turning point for me. Right. I obviously have my PhD in nutritional sciences. Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be a quote unquote Dr. Because I was a horrible student growing up. That's a completely other complete different story. But it was really through education, taking metabolism courses in college, taking chemistry courses in college, that I started to really develop a deep love for science. And then a big part of that was mentorship. You know, as business owners, I think we all value mentorship and guidance. And I've had two big mentors in my life that have really helped lead me to where I am today professionally. One of Those was my PhD mentor who really guided me through my PhD and taught me about science and how science should be conducted and how academia works and research and all that good stuff, which helped me develop my love for research and having an evidence based approach in our, in our company and what we do with our clients. But then professionally, more on the

4:06 entrepreneurial side of things. It was Lane Norton, right? We mentioned his name earlier. I know he's been on the podcast, but Lane is somebody who I've looked up to for man, well over a decade now. My connection with him is kind of funny because I was just listening to him on a podcast similar to this, and it was a very motivational podcast that he was doing. And he was like, if you want something, go for it. Ask for opportunities. And so I was like, I don't know if you can curse on this podcast. Yeah, of course you can. I'm going to reach out to link. Fuck it. Do it, baby. Got his email connected with him. After my PhD started working as a coach in his company, helping people with their health and fitness, nutrition training. You know, we have a very evidence based approach and about two and a half years ago I decided to leave that position and start my own company. Which brings us to where we are today.

4:50 Awesome. Hey, so. Well, look, having people like you, passionate, young and energetic and willing to run through walls to educate people in a tireless way I think is very important. I don't think any industry moves without evangelists and ambassadors. I can't think of any that have started without those or pioneers. Right. I want to touch on one that, that I went through as a child as well, because When I was 11, 12 years old, I used to have access to my dad's change bin. You know, it's like that little quarters where he put all the quarters from his pockets. And I used to eat a lot of big league chew grape, a lot of fun dip, candy, cigarettes, whatever else the, the ice cream man had that was not, that would not melt if you hid it under your bed before you went to sleep at night. So I was definitely, probably close to you from a percentage standpoint. Sure. But I was definitely a heavy shopper, as I like to say, in the husky department of Sears, which is not psychologically branded properly for a 12 year old to be like, where you shopping with your mom? Oh, the husky section, that was a little too close to heart. You know, they could have caught like the, like the big bear, you know, some a little nicer huskies, like dude, come on, man. Am I that, am I that thick? That's funny. So, you know,

6:20 as I'm, as I'm growing up, as I'm looking at kids grow up right now. And I've got a buddy of mine, one of my best friends, his son loves to eat, you know, anything to get his hands on, literally, you know, any kind of chocolate bar this kid could get his hands on. And I was trying to take him to like the nutrition labels and, and here's like Mr. Beast and it has 25 grams of sugar. And here's a quest bar and has one gram of sugar and here's one that has five grams of sugar. And I was trying to go through like this multiplication system. Like, is this one really 20 times better than the other? Is this one really 5 times better than the other? And like, obviously we got down to the quest bar as being the right, you know, trade off. As you're educating people on just simple labels and looking at serving sizes, are they I, I find it very confusing. I, I find that, you know, somebody's got a serving size on a shareable, you know, Reese's Peanut Butters cup that says share it. It says, like, three serving sizes for three cups. You know, how much of how, how much do you think we need to educate or. Or mandate some of the food companies from tricking people versus, hey, look, that's always going to be the way it is. Is tirade. I'm going here. Is it always going to be the way it is? Let me just educate people at the core level, and it's got to be grassroots. So you're in the mix here. I'm a big believer in taking agency and ownership over our behaviors. And would it be great if there

7:51 was more transparency or whatever term you want to use from the food company side? That would be amazing. Am I going to wait on that to happen? No. I think education is one of the most powerful things, and educating ourselves is one of the most powerful things that we can do to have clarity and not feel confused around things like food labels or what foods to eat and what foods not to eat. Right. Education is a huge part of what we do, man. So many of the clients that we work with tell us that the main thing they feel is confusion. Here's the thing. If we take a step back really quick. Yeah, yeah, most people want to be healthy, and a lot of people have the willpower to make some change. The issue is that they go from knowing nothing, potentially being overweight and unhealthy, to starting to go on social media and watch some videos and do this and do that thing, and you end up more confused than you were when you started. Right. Because everything you watch contradicts the previous thing you watched. And when you have that level of confusion, it's really hard to feel like you're in control of your own health. Which is, again, why I double down on confusion, to have clarity around what you're doing. I don't inherently think the way that food labels are presented are a problem because they're fairly transparent. If you have the skill of knowing how to read them correctly. Yeah, that's fair. Okay. Yeah. So we, we spend a ton of time teaching our clients around how to interpret food labels, what to look for, what not to look for, what's more important, what's less important.

9:23 Right. Because, for example, talking about hierarchy of importance, some people just go off labels like organic or not organic. Well, just because you have an organic candy bar doesn't mean it's necessarily healthy. Right. And I'd much rather have a non organic quest bar that's higher in protein and fiber and lower in sugar. Right. So understanding what to actually look for and what's more important, what's less important, it's huge to understand what sort of choices you should be making in the first place. Yeah. This is Pete Moore. I want to let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault. And what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and one month free or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value and that doesn't discount your own products and services.

10:19 So here's the deal. There's something called Rewards Vault. The Rewards Vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions, you are going to get those answers, you're going to be able to target those members and you're going to reward them inside your club, inside your spa and outside of the club and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues and to be rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault, your answer, trust me, this is real. I think you just gave me an aha moment that a lot of people spend time trying to lobby, you know, Congress or try and get things passed or, you know, the food labels need to be this and that. It's almost like everything out there is an advertisement. You have to decide if you want to read it or not. Right. So really if you just educate people at the core level, which I'm shocked actually to, to kind of go on a little bit of a soapbox here that my nephew and kids in school right now are not learning the, the core tenets of nutrition. Not, not, you know, not from a technical standpoint. But I, I'm just still shocked that this, this is not easily, you know, taught that there aren't like cooking classes, you know, that people have to do that as part of like a fundraiser or to have to do as like a nonprofit.

11:44 I don't know, maybe there's a problem with the education system or maybe we just need to get in there sooner. Yeah, I think that's a really important point to bring up, especially for kids. I mean, I'm assuming many of the listeners here are parents. I don't have all the answers by any means. I think it would be really cool if there was more education around what protein is, what fiber is, how do you cook basic things. But I also, again, taking ownership, like, I just feel like it's my responsibility to teach my kids those things. And for me, I take the perspective of teaching by modeling rather than teaching by telling my son's 3. I have a 1 year old daughter as well. And like all kids, they tend to be picky around certain things, but for me, simply just telling my son, hey, if you eat your chicken, it makes you strong and then flex your bicep. And he loves that. And then I tell him his vegetables give him energy and if he wants to play, he has to try them.

12:36 And then when he tries it, I celebrate it. And then I go outside and work out and he comes out and takes off a shirt and wants to work out with me. Like just modeling those behaviors. I've found to be extremely powerful to encourage the healthy behaviors that we want our kids to have. So talk about the fit for life and what you're doing there and how that is a full time opportunity for you and what people get as part of that program. Yeah. And maybe I can give a little bit of background info too in terms of why I decided to leave the last position that I was working in and start my own company. Um, so I started coaching people because I was really passionate about fitness and I started working with a lot of people who are very passionate about fitness, people who are already in good shape and want to get in better shape, which is great. Right. It's awesome that people want to achieve very high standards. But I always found it really rewarding when I was able to educate and help people who were potentially not in good shape at all and just wanted to be healthy and feel good and didn't even understand what a good food is and what a bad food is. So somebody who's in a position of pain to get them to feel good. I always felt like that was just very rewarding for me. And so at the previous company I worked with, just naturally based off the brand that Lane has developed, we tended to attract a lot more fitness focused people already. And I wanted to develop a coaching program that was more focused towards people who care about fitness, but who are struggling a little bit more. Right. So we tend to

14:06 work primarily with individuals who are between the ages of, let's say 40 to about 65. We have some clients in their 70s as well, by the way. It is incredibly awesome and the changes you see in a 60 year old or a 70 year old when they've never focused on things like lifting weights and protein, the amazing changes they can experience, that's what I find really rewarding. That's who we work with. And two big things that we focus on. One, having an evidence based approach, like actually using guidance to guide the approach and to help people make sustainable changes. And two is sustainability. Meaning I've realized a lot of people improve their physical health at the expense of their mental health.

14:49 Meaning that what I was saying earlier, when you start watching videos, first it's okay, I can't eat any sugar. Now it's okay, I can't eat anything that's not organic. Now it has a little bit of seed oils, now it's this, now it's that. And then by the end of a couple months, you're just eating meat and eggs and nothing. El Right. And the truth is that for a lot of people, these very restrictive approaches cause a lot of psychological stress in some ways cause a lot of yo yo dieting. This is why people lose the same £20 and then regain 25 over and over and over again. So it's really teaching people that this whole health and fitness thing doesn't have to be incredibly hard or incredibly restrictive. And teaching them how to develop a way of eating and exercises that supports their goals of losing weight, building muscle, being healthier, but also in a way that feels sustainable, enjoyable, and integrates into the context of their preferences and lifestyle. So as you give people access to your academy, how much of that is with you?

15:43 How much of it is online? I don't think it seems to me that you're not somebody that just says, go use my program. Good luck. I feel like you take personal accountability into everything that you work on. And touch it extremely personalized. It's extremely high touch. So I oversee the totality of the program. I have four coaches on my team who are working directly with our clients. All of the coaches on my team have either a Master's degree or PhD level education. We do everything online simply because we work with clients all over the US and we have clients that are not in the US as well. But it's a very high touchpoint service. Everything's personalized. We really take time, Pete, to understand the person. Right. I think if you are just buying a nutrition program or buying a meal plan, it can be helpful for a while.

16:29 But everybody's done those things and at some point you either can't stick to it or it stops working and you have no idea what to do next. Because you don't have any underlying information or knowledge. It's the whole concept of learning how to fish versus being given a fish. Our whole approach is really teaching people how to fish or teaching people how to be in control of their own health and fitness. So it's not just buy this program and follow it. It's very personalized and week by week we're updating things, depending on what's working, what's not working. If you have trips coming up, all that good stuff. And do you feel as if, because we run something called the Halo Academy and what Dave and I, from a continuous education, we're kind of making it seem now we're going to turn it into where it's every month and it never really ends. Is your academy somewhat.

17:20 Hey, you could come into the program, you could change your life and then you could continue to monitor that on your own. Or is. Do you kind of view this as, hey, look, you know, as long as you're going to continue to live and you're going to continue to eat, you know, I'm going to continue to coach you. Great question. Our goal is twofold. One is if somebody invests in our coaching program, which our initial program is six months in duration, we want to get you to the point where you feel confident doing it on your own. That said, we want to deliver such an exceptional service that you want to stay with us. Right. Obviously, for business, it's good to keep clients around. Yeah, sure. So we have clients that have been with us for. I have clients that have been with me for over five years. And it's because a lot. So people value different things. Right. People will value the education.

18:06 And some people also value. And I see this more in like busy professionals, high achievers. A lot of people value just not having to think about what they need to do and having somebody tell them, here's your nutrition plan, here's your training plan, here's where we're progressing, here's where we're not. And then not having to think about it. That type of person tends to stay with us for a longer duration. In terms of education, continued education is a big part of what we do. So we have a curriculum that people go through over those six months, but we do weekly calls with our community that are education focused. So myself or someone from our coaching team will present on an educational topic around nutrition training, lifestyle, how it relates to health. And then we do open Q and A sessions at the end of that. And we also do something similar to what you mentioned, or it Sounds similar. A monthly masterclass series where we bring in an outside expert to present on their expertise so that our clients are always obviously expanding on their education.

19:01 This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called higher dose. Higherdose.com they are the leader in workout recovery products. Infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers, and other products such as PEMF mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You got to get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your market. Having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for 200 bucks per month where they're paying 39 to you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery. If we are already an authority in workouts, Higher dose, check it out. There's a wholesale code and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And hey, let's get people happy, healthy and sweating. And the recovery should be just as good as the workout.

20:12 I, I, I went through a, a pretty severe change in like my eating habits and went, went in keto and dropped like 25 last year earlier this year and got somebody who was just kind of like an executive coach or therapist, whichever you want to call it. And the one thing that I realized that I didn't know was in my DNA was, was as I was trying to achieve certain goals. I also didn't want to disappoint the guy who was my coach. It was almost like I was back in high school where it's like, okay, like, like my basketball coach, like, I kind of report to that guy or like, hey, I'm goalie. Like, I've got a certain amount of responsibilities. And I didn't really, I, I didn't fully appreciate how important that intensity was of actually having a coach. People say, oh, you got a personal trainer because you're going to show up, you're not going to cancel, you know, all the time because the guy's waiting or woman's waiting for you. Yeah. But I didn't fully appreciate that as you go through, you know, kind of a real life change and the person that is coaching you, that, and I'm sure a lot of other people feel this way. Like, if you were my coach, I don't want to disappoint you. Like, I want to, I want to actually get the results. So do you see that. Do people tell you that? Do you know that that's kind of an underlying component to this.

21:26 It's the people that have gone through a coaching program before and then work with us are already aware of that. They know, like, hey, I know if I'm accountable to someone, I don't want to disappoint them. I'm more willing to actually show up and stay consistent. The people that have never experienced coaching go through a coaching experience like, wow, I didn't know how beneficial it would be to have somebody who's holding me accountable. So it's a huge part of it. The way that I explain accountability is like this, Pete. Accountability is very beneficial to help you stay consistent and do the things that you say you need to do. But I'm sure you would also acknowledge that you don't want to have to rely on external accountability for the rest of your life. Sure. In many ways, we want the accountability to help us with consistency so we can form habits around the behaviors that we're trying to implement. Because habits are automatic, we don't think about them. It's like brushing your teeth. Right. You don't think about brushing your teeth. It's second nature. But in order for something to become habitual, we need to stay consistent with it for a extended period of time. Accountability helps with that consistency. Once you're consistent, once you're seeing consistent results, and once the approach feels enjoyable and sustainable. The byproduct of that is habit formation. Right? Yeah. So that's why we tend to really focus on those three pillars there. It's almost.

22:36 And. And look, this might be rudimentary to some people or even to you at this point, but, you know, I've been involved in. Went to Harvard Business School. I went to. You know, I've been. I've had a personal trainer for periods of time in my life. I go to soul side class. So I've always had some. Somebody that I reported to in some capacity. Right. I run my own company now. So there's a level of external discipline that gets kind of launched onto you, almost blankets you. And then once you get blanketed, it starts to kind of reframe how your discipline is, because you've never actually, I mean, over the last 15 years, who am I reporting to? Myself. Right. And there's probably a lot of entrepreneurs out there that feel the same way, that if they work with someone like you on their nutrition and their health, it might actually help discipline even more facets of their life. I would say. Yes, I could talk about that for hours in terms of how I think fitness has allowed me to be more disciplined and effective in other areas of my life. But to keep it short, that is definitely a massive benefit. And I think as entrepreneurs, Pete, it's hard because we don't report to anybody. But accountability doesn't also just mean reporting to somebody. It sometimes mean the responsibilities that you have to serve those that are on your team. Sure. For me, I may be feeling down or don't want to show up or I'm being negative.

23:51 It's like that does not matter. My team still relies on me and so I still need to. Yeah, but it's almost like, I don't know what the right term would be. It's like discipline based on serving others and not necessarily serving yourself. And then from my standpoint, you know, I put it, put this guy on top of me and I'm like, wow. Like I kind of report to this guy and I kind of like it, you know, so. Yeah, well, look, we'll have all the show notes out here. We can talk for hours. We're going to start doing these in, in person. I've got a couple of deals down in the Tampa area and some family down there, so we should definitely meet up in person. And let's, Dave, let's get this blasted out to everybody so they know what, what Joey's doing. But, you know, great, great to, to meet you, you know, here and to give people a little bit of a flavor for, you know, why they should be working with someone like you or with your, with your crew. Oh, thanks for the kind words, man. If it's okay with you, do you mind if I share something with the audience? Yeah, please do, please do. Yeah. Two quick things because I know we didn't get too much into the logistics of what we actually do. If anybody here is interested in learning more about our actual approach, we have an ebook that I'm more than happy to give out here for free.

25:02 I'm guessing the link will just be in the show notes. It's just fitforlifeacademy Health blueprint. The link will be down below. And just as a thank you to Pete and Dave for having me on, if anybody's interested in working with us, we're happy to extend a $600 discount to our coaching program. Typically we charge around $4,200 for it. For anybody who's a listener, just tell us you came from the show. It'll be $600 off of that for the six month coaching program. And happy to discuss what? The details of that are perfect. Sounds good. All right, man. Well, thanks. We'll get. We'll get all the show notes out there. Love what you're doing and what you're committed to. I think it's important to have leaders like you helping out, not just at a broad level, but, you know, hey, 5, 10, 20, 30 people at a time like, like that. That's kind of the.

25:46 The way tribes get built. So we're, we're excited about what you're doing. Dave, thanks for sending us up. Absolutely. Thank you. Awesome. This is Pete Moore on Halo talks. Your captain speaking. I am the founder and managing partner at Integrity Square. We've been around now for 15, 19 and 1/2 years. We have been helping people like yourselves get capital, do mergers and acquisitions, consulting, strategic advice in the health, active lifestyle and outdoor halo sector, trying to help as many entrepreneurs as possible get to the next level.

26:28 Take that inflection point to be the force behind your growth. We are helping companies that have at least $3 million of EBITDA, around $10 million of revenue, and we are positioned to help you get institutional growth capital or to negotiate deals with strategic partners. If you go to integritysq.com isq you can see our capabilities. Deck, happy to set up a consultation at any time that is free of charge and we look forward to you helping solve obesity, loneliness, and diabetes. And go in.

27:28 Sam.