Welcome to my new website!
What better way to kick off my blog with the only post I do every year.
At the bottom you’ll find a link to all of my previous year’s lessons and it’s crazy to see I’ve been doing this for 13 years.
I normally organize my lessons into the categories of Muscle, Mindset, Money, Mission, and Marriage but this year I’m going to share them as they come to mind.
In no particular order…
1. Freedom is no longer free.
It cost me $26,000 USD to get a private jet from Toronto to Miami to escape the illogical lockdowns in Onterrible for a few months.
We wouldn’t fly coach because I refuse to put masks on my children.
2. Departure tax is expensive.
If you have assets in your business, becoming a non-resident of the country is like leaving an abusive relationship. Your partner (aka the government in this case) is not going to let you leave without paying a steep price.
3. You don’t have as much influence as you think.
If you want to have an impact, focus on building closer relationships.
The only people who are reflecting on your rants are people who already like, know and trust you so the question begs, what was the point?
4. You need to decide if you’re going to die on this hill.
First 6 months of the year I worked with a publicity team from NYC.
They were very expensive and near the end of the contract it came to my attention that A LOT of high end media publications ( I really wanted to be on and which would have been good for my brand reputation ) DECLINED.
I asked my team, “Why did they decline the interview they originally agreed to?”
“Vince, your content is too controversial.”
5. You must decide, “Do you want to make a point or do you want to make a difference?”
Tying into the last point, I had to decide where I wanted to direct my influence and voice. While I like to share my thoughts on the political and social climate I realized I’m not a cultural warrior, I’m not a politician, I’m a business coach.
By polarizing people, I’m making my points, but I’m losing the chance to make a difference in their life with my actual gifts… building a successful online business.
6. By far, VERY early morning is the #1 productivity hack in the world.
I have accomplished so much this past year by waking up at an uncomfortably early time at least 5-6 days a week.
7. People hire me more for who I am rather than what I do.
People are hiring me for my views, values and vision more than my tactics, templates and techniques.
I can’t tell you how many people tell me that they are joining or joined one my three coaching program because I’m a family man, a man of faith and don’t require colourful language to communicate.
8. People would rather get served a $2,000 check from the government than actually work and earn more.
As a man who finds his identity in my work and effort I put into my work this just leaves my dumb founded.
Countless times I was in towns that were NOT open despite months of lockdowns because they can’t find workers.
9. The power of ONE man.
When we left Onterrible being run by Dirty Doug Ford and entered a state run by Ron Desantis I was blown away by how ONE MAN can make all the difference in the world.
Here in Florida I’m being treated like a human being and back in Ontario I can’t go into Dairy Queen with my kids to get an ice cream without feeling like I’m contaminated.
10. My lack of presence was rooted in too much responsibility.
Earlier this year I started looking at my core issues in my life.
A lack of presence and focus. Always working. Always reacting.
The root issue is that too many people were responsible to me.
Since restructuring my team, new hires and delegation I was able to travel for 3 months this summer and only work 3 days a week.
11. One of the BEST disciplines you can give your family is putting your phone in a lock box when you’re not supposed to be working.
Not sure what those hours are? Ask your wife. She will TELL you. Listen.
Put the phone away. Set a timer on the box. You’ll enrich your life immediately.
The first few are hard because you cut the “dopamine hits” but the peace that you’re not constantly reactive is worth 10X the reward.
12. The best gift you can give your kids is your attention.
I won’t lie. I sometimes struggle playing with my kids. I catch myself enduring them vs enjoying them and have a feeling of boredom and “unproductiveness”.
I had a coach tell me, “Vince, STOP judging how you’re spending your time with your kids and realize your greatest gift is being truly present in the moment.”
13. Delaying caffeine 90 minutes in the morning.
Sleep coach Angus Buckle taught me this, it’s been huge to increase my energy to the later half of the day and not needing an extra hit of caffeine to get through the evening time.
I never knew adrenaline and cortisol are “natural hits of energy” in the morning so caffeine upon rising immediately is pointless and redundant to your system.
14. Cold showers for mental toughness and discipline.
I have mixed feelings on these. I don’t feel they are necessary but they are 100% effective and beneficial.
The 60 second cold shower is a great way to forge an identity of someone who commits to hard things and doesn’t ‘squeal’ when it gets uncomfortable. They force you to find your breath and be present in the pain.
15. If you want TRUE mental toughness, you don’t need more physical feats, you need to sit down with your spouse and sort out your last fight.
I’m seeing too many men pursue physical challenges to “get tough”.
You don’t need more ultra marathons, spartan races and cold tubs, you need to learn how to swallow your pride and start saying, “I’m sorry, I screwed up… again, will you forgive me?”.
Sitting down with my wife when I’m in the wrong and saying, “Alright, lets talk…” and not running away when I start getting uncomfortable… THAT will make you mentally tough.
16. I have a new found affection with country music.
Who would have thought my music of choice would be country when I couldn’t name 1 or 2 country singers 1 year ago.
The music is real, emotional and connects to your soul… even when they are talking about trucks, fishing and drinking, this music soothes my soul.
17. The country look is totally underrated.
I can’t wait to get back to Tennessee to wear my country boots… Note, I have not graduated to the level of cowboy boots or hat.
I feel like I need to live there a few years before I earn that status. Ha
18. The Honky Tonk aka Broadway in Nashville is a hidden gem.
I had no idea this place existed.
I spent two weeks this past year downtown, enjoying jack and diet cokes past midnight, listening to country music, dancing with my wife and listening to some of the best live music ever.
19. Two things Tennessee doesn’t have… wine and water.
I won’t lie, I appreciated the great lakes of Ontario when I returned. I didn’t see a ton of water/lakes etc on our trip. I also appreciated the wine from Niagara region 10X more.
We make some of the BEST wine around here. Maybe we’ll open a winery of our own in Tennessee.
20. Coordinated Action!
This is a concept I learned from Larry Yatch & Unstoppable Teams. We hired one of their recruits who’s now a part of my senior leadership team, Nick Hamm.
Teaching team members how to effectively hand off responsibility has changed who I do everything in life now.
21. Organic marketing is where it’s at, not ads and fancy funnels.
We hit a record revenue year by 75%! Our 7FM membership is over 280 members, a 35% increase. My Elite 1-1 program grew 1110% and my profit increased 118%
We did this primarily through Outreach and Organic marketing.
22. Build your business in THIS order:
Team members winning!
Clients succeeding!
Revenue as a company!
Think about this… this order will change the way you do business forever.
23. Three things threaten my business in 2022:
I’m still too involved in the tactics.
Not running my own race and using OUR data to guide our decisions.
Not clear enough roles and responsibilities for all my team members.
24. The biggest needle movers in our business in 2021:
Dialing in our renewal system.
Adding in my Elite 1-1 private coaching offer.
Empowering my team with clear roles and responsibilities, compensation scale, standards of performance and reports for them to own.
25. Alex Hormozi’s advice to me to hit 10M:
“Make your product better.”
This past 6 months I built a NEW program: The 90 Day Fit Pro Accelerator.
It’ll be a five figure program to the public soon but my 7FM members get it for FREE.
My next task is rebuilding our entire 7FM back office. It’s already INSANE but just like Nike and Apple do every year, you can always make it better.
26. Nick Bare’s advice on content:
“Be the guide, not the hero.”
While this has been a core approach in my content for a decade I’m thinking of how I can connect with my audience even more with past struggles and stories.
27. Scaling high ticket comes down to 3 simple things:
Scheduling more calls. Receiving more calls. Closing more calls.
Your job is to scale outreach specialists, closers and coaches in specific ratios.
28. A mentee blowing up will light a fire under your ass.
One of my mentees, Richard Yu, who lived in my home for 3 months and whom I personally mentored for over a year, rapidly grew his own coaching business to $500-700K/month… 100% organically.
Watching him take everything I taught him, build his own following, carve out a niche and take relentless disciplined action was quite a humbling and eye opening experience.
We reconnected this past summer (after a little drama) and decided to race to the 7 figure/month level and I think he’s proud of his mentor who beat him 🙂
Richard will build a 30-50M company in the coming years, mark my words.
29. I need to find a new Richard in my life! Ha
On a serious note, I’m looking for a new Head of Marketing (job posting coming soon) to work (literally) alongside me.
Currently I’m CMO and need someone who understands building an offer, copywriting, landing page flows, funnel metrics and marketing initiatives.
Private message if interested. This will be a FULL TIME role and you’ll need to be from Toronto and ready to move to the US with us in the New Year.
30. Data studio led to predictable growth.
I had an uncomfortable night with Joel Marion and Rudy Mawer back in Florida when they were trying to help me with my numbers revealed I’m not ever going to really scale until I take this seriously.
This past year my team (Dave and Michelle you rock!)finally built a tool that answers all the questions we need visibility around in order to scale.
It’s been a 9 month project and we can finally make decisions with confidence.
31. None of this would be possible without Flavia.
You may not know but she is the ULTIMATE leader. Flavia is juggling 30 things at once and still figures out to drive them all forward.
From building our dream home in TN; to our visas, to navigating the departure tax; to keeping our home in order; to calling me out on my BS; to giving the kids a HOME (and not a house); and managing my payroll every month… oh yeah, to get her deadlift to 275lbs at 117 pounds… I ask her, “How do you do it?”
“I don’t know. I just do.”
Best answer ever.
32. You all need a “Mother Hen” Shari in your life.
Shari is easily my entire team’s MPV. She’s been with me for over 5 years and has what we would call on the street, “She gives a FUCK FACTOR!”
You’ll never scale your business unless you hire people who TRULY care.
33. You all need a Coach Korby in your life.
Another blessing in my life is my brother from another mother, Coach Korby; who may have changed your life too.
Korby is a marketing savant. What does that mean? He has more sales and marketing knowledge and expertise than any one person needs.
34. You all need a Big Frank den Blanken in your life.
Frank is the ultimate GO GIVER and generously gives to our mastermind knowledge, training, talks and swift kicks in the ass to members slacking.
What’s Frank’s fee? $0.00 Frank is just beyond grateful for me showing him what an Opt In page is back in 2015. LOL
A big lesson is that when someone becomes financially successful, money doesn’t motivate them. That’s a huge lesson.
Frank, I got you a nice Christmas gift… can’t wait for you to ‘open it’.
35. You all need a Nick Hamm in your life.
Nick is my COA, a term that’s changed my life: Coordinator of Action.
This past year he helped me pull my entire company together with this cool thing called an “Org Chart” lol, Roles & responsibilities for my entire team, detailed Standards of Performance and Standard Operating Procedures.
He’s also helped me build ‘leadership structure’ and taught me how to properly run team meetings and helped remove me from Day to Day operations dramatically.
He’s also taught me the power of…
36. A small High Functioning Team will beat a big poorly led team any day.
I don’t have 50 team members. I actually have a pretty small team thanks to Nick.
Just around 20 team members but everyone is so clear on what they OWN that we move with speed and agility.
If you need help building a small but highly functioning team that effectively coordinates action, message me “TEAM” and I’ll know what that means.
We should talk!
37. Let God guide your giving.
Recently I have partnered with Charity Water; an organization that helps families who don’t have safe and clean water.
I have been praying all year for a cause to tap into and when I discovered the founder is from the same city we’re moving to I started doing some research.
This is a cause I’m truly passionate about and look forward to having more impact with.
38. Document, don’t create.
My most fulfilling work this year was the Road to 275 series documenting my company’s journey of growing my coaching business.
It’s on my YouTube channel. I just focused on sharing what was happening instead of “teaching” and it was really well received.
Some of the most influential content you’ll make is when you let people see your personal struggles and fears.
39. Sorry I got to just say it, CANADA SUCKS!!!
I can’t tell you how much I HATE this country and province.
I didn’t realize how bad it was until we spent 3 months in Florida and Tennessee.
And then when we went back to the US in October and returned.
You won’t know how BAD it is here until you actually leave and see how other places around the world don’t even know what’s going on here.
No masks. No social distancing. No mandates of any kind. Just normal life.
I strongly recommend you get out of this country before it goes FULL Communist.
It’ll only be 2-3 more years before they mandate a microchip in your arm that reveals all your medical and financial information.
Mark my words. That jab was the gateway to getting this all done quickly.
40. High ticket coaching is the BEST opportunity for anyone who wants to make more money and impact.
This past year I’ve had the honor and privilege to mentor more than 1,000 students between three of my programs.
I’ve see more than 200 students grow past 6 figures a year and more than 18 members pass $100K months which is INSANE!
I’ve been SO impressed by seeing our students run their race, serve, learn and share their struggles to keep growing.
If you’re interested in growing your fitness business, message me “GROW” and we’ll connect on messenger.
To all my 6FC, 7FM and Elite 1-1 students… YOU ROCK! Get ready for a HUGE 2022!
In 2022 I have plans of expanding into some other health and fitness markets… stay tuned!
(BONUS) “Trust me.” – God
Despite my inability to “stay silent” on political and social issues on social media which likely appears that I don’t trust God… I do.
I do NOT believe this is God’s plan… God’s plan doesn’t include fear and manipulation but I do believe He’s in control.
Proverbs 3:5-6. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”
I’m still young, immature and a “doubting Thomas” in many ways but I don’t hear God telling me to, “Stay quiet.”
God is pushing me to focus on what I can focus on and take care of the people who’ve entrusted me to take care of them. This is where I’m directing my energy.
What was your favorite lesson from 2022?! Drop the #’s below. I’d love to know!
Thanks for reading. Please tag a friend and share with anyone you think would enjoy.
To a positive and productive 2022! Level up or level off.
Top 40 Things I Learned in 2020
