Sep 28 • 55:45

In this episode, I sit down with Mason Bendewald.

Mason is the man behind the scenes, and his most popular fitness production was P90X.

The reason that P90X was so sensational? Because he broke all the rules.

Mason shares his advice on how to stand out in a crowded fitness coaching market by excelling at video and what mistakes to avoid.

He actually flips the script and walks me through an exercise to show how to be vulnerable and build a connection with your audience.

Tune in to hear other topics such as:

• Why I think the Rock is just like you and I

• Personal Branding

• How Coaches went from $50k a year to $200k+

• Paying prospects in a "challenge" or "scholarship"

Tune in to hear us discuss these topics and more! Also, stay until the end to hear the most emotional money decision Mason made and his one financial question for me.

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FULL UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT

[00:02:42] Justin Green, CFP®: Mason, thanks for coming on.

[00:02:46] Mason Bendewald: My pleasure. Great to be here, Justin.

[00:02:48] Justin Green, CFP®: Absolutely. Why don't you let everyone know where are you calling in from?

[00:02:51] Mason Bendewald: I am in sunny Los Angeles at the moment.

[00:02:56] Justin Green, CFP®: Awesome. That makes perfect sense for kind of your background. Why don't you dive into it a little bit? Give us a quick brief overview of what your background is and what you are working on now.

[00:03:07] Mason Bendewald: Uh, I was born and raised in New York city. And the reason why I even start there is because. I went to the high school of performing arts and I was an actor and a dancer growing up and it fast forward, I ended up going to film school because I had directorial ambitions. And then I ended up in the fitness industry and that's, uh, a fun, longer story.

But in a nutshell, that's how I got to where I am today. And I've specialized in fitness production and working with trainers for 20 years.

[00:03:40] Justin Green, CFP®: Cool. And I think I saw you had worked on some popular sets, you know, such as like P 90 X, right. Is that correct?

[00:03:47] Mason Bendewald: Yeah, that's about as popular as they get. And daily burn. I was a chief production officer there, but I produced and directed P 90 X. That was a, a pivot in the industry. And, uh, a lot of things I did differently, which is I, you know, I can look back and understand. Why it was successful, but at the time, all I knew was I really don't like, uh, fitness, certainly not in video content.

I, I, uh, I equated it to doing a, a wedding video or a porn, to be honest. I was like, there's just no artistic value merit in, in any of it. And, uh, but I needed to make a living. And so I had this, this opportunity I said, well, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do everything differently. And in short, I approached it as entertainment.

And so I told stories, I made sure that the star had a roadmap so that he could, his, what he was really great at could shine and not just be, you know, overcomplicated by just what, what is a complicated workout series P 90 X. A huge part of its success is that it was fun. People really enjoyed watching it, not just doing it and getting results.

And if the, the secret here, uh, that most of your viewers will not be surprised to hear is that if you, if you keep showing up and working out, you'll get results. But the secret to showing up is not what most people think. Um, most trainers think I'm gonna create some sort of. some sort of series or workout that hasn't been done before.

Well, nobody's gonna teach Mason or Justin, how to do a push up or a sit up or a squat. We know how to do those. What you're doing as a personal trainer is entertaining me, inspiring me to keep showing up. And then when I do that, it, it doesn't feel like work. It actually becomes fun. And then the results follow as a byproduct.

[00:05:59] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, absolutely. I totally agree with that point. It it's, it's, it's unique because you've been doing this for so long that I just wanna mention. So the audience doesn't forget that like, so P 90 X, I looked this up, came out in 2005. I think it's really important to remember, like in 2005, the iPhone did not exist yet.

So we're not talking about, uh, an era where we all had cameras in our pockets and we could all, you know, video is just so prevalent and dominates, you know, social media nowadays, but this was like revolutionary. This was a sensation that kind of just took over, you know, the fitness market for a while, because video had never really been used this way.

I mean, this is one of the. Uh, not one of the first programs. I mean, you have the, the, I can't think of his name, but the, the silly guy with the Afro back in the

[00:06:49] Mason Bendewald: Richard Simmons

[00:06:50] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah. Richard Simmons. Thank you. My friends are gonna, they're gonna make fun of me for forgetting his name

[00:06:55] Mason Bendewald: Or Jane Fonda, Richard Simmons. They were.

[00:06:59] Justin Green, CFP®: exactly. And so I, I, you know, I just, I say this to remind the audience that 2005 was a different time period, right? Like not everyone could just create these fitness video. But fast forward almost 20 years and anyone can right.

[00:07:18] Mason Bendewald: All you need is all you need is a phone and you've got, you've got you. You've got a power as powerful a camera as my. Gosh, I was using cameras that were probably $80,000 one, one camera at the time, it was just mind blowing. Um, it is, it is a different, uh, scene today just completely different and we're bombarded with free fitness.

So if you're a, if you're a trainer looking to get recognized and you are. You're struggling cuz you're you're you look and you're like, what's the difference between me or any other trainer out there. There, the real difference is you. That is the, that is the hardest thing to understand and to tap into, but it is the only way that you'll actually become, uh, stand. and P 90 X that's what it did. There was, there was competition. There was plenty of competition for videos. You could buy videos everywhere, but what P 90 X did my contribution to? It was, I did everything differently and I truly was speaking from my heart. I was not excited about doing a fitness video. I said, if I'm gonna do a fitness video that I would wanna work out to. How would I make this more enjoyable? And so from, this is one of the biggest things that I changed, which is almost silly to mention today, cuz everybody goes, why, what do you mean? They used to do it that way. I said, we're gonna shoot it in one take.

These were like hour long workouts and all the producers and everybody at beach body was like, what do you know? That's not how we do it. And I said, Said, well, we know we gotta shoot it in these blocks because we need them to have breaks and we need to be able to touch up makeup and we need to be able to make sure that everything's perfect.

And I said, well, that's exactly why we're not gonna do it that way. And I was like, I, we don't understand. And I said, I wanna tell the, this is supposed to be extreme. This is supposed to be the hardest workout anybody's ever. I wanna tell that story because failure can be fun if you're, if you're, and then I broke the third wall with the camera and I had Tony, I said, Tony, I'm giving you permission to call the camera in as opposed to pretending like we're on some perfect, beautiful set. If somebody is struggling and you're telling them to push out that 40th pushup, whatever it is, call the camera. I wanna see the sweat. I wanna see the pain. I wanna see the grit and it made it more fun and we added our original score to it. And then there was also characters within the show. So I. I also hired an original cast.

Most of them were people who had been through the process of P 90 X in a test group. So they were real people who had a story to tell, not just Hollywood, uh, models that were also athletic, which is still today, how a lot of things are cast. And so all of those elements. Made this incredibly original and entertaining.

And to this day, it's incredible. I just was at techno gym in Italy, leading a masterclass for their trainers. And I hadn't done this. I mean, I hadn't looked in P 90 X in, I don't know, 15 years probably. And I pulled it up because we were talking about lessons of entertainment in fitness and so on, and we pulled it up and we watched just.

You know, two minutes of it and it still held up because it was just like any other, any show that you love watching, you can go back and watch, you know, a Seinfeld or a hill street blues, or a law and order, and they'll still hold up. They might be dated, but in terms of entertainment, if the right elements are there, they will still be entertaining.

And people still do P 90 X to this day in incredible 20 years.

[00:11:29] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah. I mean, especially considering as you know, the competition out there is a, is crazy. Like you said, there's a lot of free fitness out there, which I think we're gonna dive into here in a second kind of, you know, how, how an everyday online, like health and fitness coach can use video and, and not on the technical side, but to your point, like how do you make it entertaining?

But then, you know, there's the other side of, you know, what would I would say would be like today's version of a competitor. P 90 X, which is like, you know, the Peloton, right? So the Peloton obviously uses video because why else would they have a massive screen in front of the bike? Um, and it's entertainment because there's music blur.

My wife has one. It's like, you know, you hear like these nineties playlists, which, you know, sometimes I'm like, Hey, that's. That's a pretty fire playlist. Um, but like, you know, you got, so you got them yelling at you and, and so, you know, I I'm like, you can go two different ways with that. Right. So we've got like, I, I would call that like the modern day, P 90 X, where they've kind of combined the video with some home equipment and you could also do at home.

Like, I think even Peloton has like a, a, a catalog of, uh, non bike workouts, if I'm not

[00:12:31] Mason Bendewald: Now they do.

[00:12:32] Justin Green, CFP®: And then, yeah. And then, you know, you've got like apple, um, is it apple fitness? I don't know what they,

[00:12:38] Mason Bendewald: Apple, apple fitness, plus I believe is

[00:12:40] Justin Green, CFP®: Okay. Yeah. And then, but, but then, you know, going exactly going the other way is, you know, just like someone like you or me who was like, Hey, I wanna be an online health and fitness coach.

We've got the certifications, I've got the expertise. I really enjoy helping people. Um, you know, I don't wanna make $12 an hour working at the local gym, So I'm going to online. And if you're gonna do it online, then you need to market yourself. You're gonna market yourself in 2022. You should probably be using video. But everyone's using video and it's flooded. So I wanna hear from you, the expert is how do you stand out? You know, how does Mason stand out from Justin? If we're both online health and fitness coaches, we both have an iPhone. We're both recording every single day. Like what's gonna make people tune into you rather than me.

[00:13:23] Mason Bendewald: Yeah, it's a great question. And there is, and I believe there is tons of room to be successful and make a really great living in the fitness space. Still as a trainer using video. The secret is, is good production. First of all. So you gotta know how to use the tools, but then when it comes to the actual content, what most people make the mistake of doing?

And I've done this in my past too. And I'm smiling because I'm already thinking about all the times I've done. It is you cannot copy what other people do. The worst thing you can. Is, if Justin's doing great as a personal trainer online, and I go, I'm gonna do what Justin does. It's the worst thing you can do.

People used to hire me all the time and say, we wanna, we wanna be like P 90 X. And I would literally say to some of these people, why do you wanna do that? And they're like, well, cuz it made hundreds of millions of dollars. And I say, because it was different. Did everything different. That's why P 90 X was successful.

I said, it's been done. That was done years ago. What you have to do is be unique and original and the easiest way to do that is to be yourself. So there is a ton of skills to learn how to be a great on camera performer, but at the core it's been. Yourself and it's being, having the courage to be vulnerable and share with your audience because unlike group fitness, where you have an audience that's live and you've got the music, as you pointed out, which is produced and popular.

[00:15:10] Justin Green, CFP®: Mm.

[00:15:11] Mason Bendewald: You have all of those elements that help give you an atmosphere, the community, the energy of the people there and the music, when you're on camera, it's completely different. You are now shut off from all of those things. And I'm so for instance, right now, I'm not even looking at myself or you, which most people do when they're on camera.

I've trained myself to look into the lens because if you are watching this, you feel more connected to me. If I'm looking at you and. In my head. I'm constantly thinking about who's the audience out there. I don't think about how do I look? Is Justin? What does Justin do? I think, okay. There's an audience that's listening.

And to give them value, I need to give them my full attention. And so that's looking into that lens right there. So when you get a trainer in front of a camera, Usually they don't have the tools. And all they're doing is thinking about group fitness or one-on-one training and they start doing what everybody else does, which are all the wrong things.

Hey, what's up everybody? Well, there's one person listening and you shouldn't be asking them questions. So right away just eliminating, eliminating those two things. We'll take you further than most trainers have gone, but

[00:16:26] Justin Green, CFP®: All right. So what's a better example of that. So, Hey, what's up everybody. Cause you hear, I hear that all the time. I'm also very guilty of it too. So I'm gonna just admit that

[00:16:34] Mason Bendewald: I, I want, I wanna, it be like little daggers in your ears now. Cuz you hear, Hey, what's up guys or Hey, what's up everybody. It's horrible. It's and, and, and if anybody's listening, who does that already? Don't be upset. Just go. Great. Nobody's told me that now I've learned. Just eliminated.

So you can start off with I'm Mason Bendewald you and I are gonna have a great workout. There you go, that's eliminating the clapping. Hey, what's everybody like, you're in a group fitness, cuz it's not group fitness. It's one on one. And the other person can't talk to you. So you have to ha develop a whole new set of skills.

So it feels intimate. And the, the, if, if you'll be our, uh, example today, Justin, I would love to cut to the heart of it. How do you get people really engaged on camera? And it's very hard to do unless you learn how to become a good storyteller and vulnerable, because I go back to this idea of a pushups, a pushup you're not gonna do.

You're not gonna somehow miraculously do a pushup that blows my mind. it's a pushup and, and everything in fitness. Fairly basic. It's the messaging of it. So, Justin, I'm gonna ask you to share with just me as if we were good friends, a a, a short story, really short, like a minute or two, just the highlights of something of a moment in your life where everything changed.

It could. An obstacle. It could have been a challenge. It could have been a birth of a child, but where there was like some real, you know, cathartic change. And hopefully there was some struggle involved there.

[00:18:25] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, this one's, uh, absolutely. This is a fairly. Easy one for me. Um, I actually lost my mom in college, so I was only 19 and I was going away to school about three and a half hours away in, um, central New York. So small, small school called, uh, Cortland university. And, um, My mom got diagnosed with, uh, stage four lung cancer in November of 2011.

And within six months she had passed away and I was the first one in my family to go to college. So this was like a really tough time because I wanted to come back home and she wanted me to keep going to school because she wanted me to be that first one. To graduate college, um, in my family. And, and I did.

And, but what happened was that that makes you grow up pretty quickly. And so I went from being a 19 year old kid. Who probably partied too much to, you know, six months fast forward, a 20 year old kid who realized I'm gonna have to figure out everything in life a lot quicker. And so I actually graduated, uh, college early and kind of went off into, you know, what is the real world?

Uh, really quickly, which, uh, was accelerated compared to my peers and kind of looking back on it might have skipped a few steps and kind of had to later on kind of back it up a little bit to figure out what I truly wanted to do in life, rather than like going down the path of this is what I feel like I need to do.

[00:19:58] Mason Bendewald: Um, I'm sorry, you lost your mom at such a young age. That, I mean, that hits home. Uh, just that alone. What was your mom's name?

[00:20:07] Justin Green, CFP®: Michelle.

[00:20:08] Mason Bendewald: Michelle. And what, what, tell me a favorite memory that you have of you and your mom. What are you doing? Like a conversation or cooking something or something you used to do?

[00:20:20] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah. So one of the ones, um, and this was when she was sick. And I just remember cuz it was kind of funny and I, I always growing up, I was kind of the funny guy in the house. Um, she was pretty down, obviously she was sick, she was going through chemo. So she wasn't feeling well. And so I just, you know, I took what.

Wasn't really as nice of a beard back then, as I'd like to think it is now. And I shaved, you know, a funny little pattern in, I just went down and acted like I was actually gonna wear that moving forward.

[00:20:49] Mason Bendewald: Uh,

[00:20:49] Justin Green, CFP®: And she was like, didn't even care. She was like, yeah, I think it looks great. And I was like, mom, I'm, there's no chance I'm actually gonna wear this out in public.

And I always liked that. It was it's very simple, but it was just kinda. She was pretty carefree, uh, not judgemental at all. And, um, that story always kind of sticks with me. And, and it's, you know, one of the simplest stories I have kind of looking back on my 20 years with her.

[00:21:15] Mason Bendewald: That that's really touching and thank you for sharing it, cuz it's not easy to share the things that, um, about loss and things that have hurt us. But one last question about your mom's passing. It, it sounds like it really drove you to be successful because she meant a lot to you and you had a lot. You were holding a lot of her hopes and dreams as being the first child to graduate college.

So how did her passing you? You said you kind of moved forward faster, but how does it affect you today in terms of your, uh, drive to be successful?

[00:22:00] Justin Green, CFP®: Uh, yeah, it's always in the back of my mind. And, and, you know, I think one of the ways it really impacted me was that I had to learn about. And I realized if I was gonna be successful, I had to learn about personal finance cuz when I graduated undergrad, my my degree was in sport management. It wasn't, I didn't know anything about personal finance.

I had to learn it all on my own. And after doing that for a couple years is when I decided like, Hey, I really like this and I want to do this. Um, for others. And I had a passion for fitness and that's when I combined the two of them, but that, you know, having to learn about that on my own, because I wanted to be successful and honor of her.

Really still guides the learning process for me, learning more about personal finance now. Um, I would've never probably gotten so interested in learning about it if it wasn't for that experience.

[00:22:47] Mason Bendewald: did she have anything to do with personal finance? I'm just curious.

[00:22:51] Justin Green, CFP®: No, no, not at all. I come from very low income family. Um, it was just more so. When she passed away, health insurance went away. My dad was disabled, so, um, we didn't have health insurance. It was through her employer. So I was, I was on insured for a couple years. Um, I was out on my own very quickly. Like there was no one there to support me, had to support myself.

So it was more just like with her passing, I had to figure it out essentially. And, and my father was there. Um, he was there. It was just, you know, he was disabled. He didn't have the means to, to, uh, He, he could provide a basic necessities, but you know, not much more than that.

[00:23:31] Mason Bendewald: and what did your mom do for a living?

[00:23:33] Justin Green, CFP®: Uh, she worked in the, uh, kindergarten schools in the cafeteria.

[00:23:39] Mason Bendewald: So here's how a, if you're listening, you're probably going like, where's this all going, Mason, it's great story. They feel more connected to you by the way. So your, your listeners, anybody who's on here right now goes, holy cow, they feel more connected to Justin, which is pretty cool because that's what we're all trying to do.

What humans do is we, you know, in our communication, 60% of it is through telling a story. So this is the first time Justin and I have met and we've met you. And yet I feel now, like if we were to meet up at a conference or something, I would much easier, easier. Be able to have a conversation with you about anything, because I feel like I know you more, so here's how a trainer on camera.

Imagine if you were just, or if Justin was a trainer, how he could turn this into a part of his workout and I'm making this up on the fly. So forgive me. It's not gonna be perfect. Hey, I'm Justin. And today we're gonna do a hit workout. Let's get started with a little warm up. I'm gonna tell you a short story while we're jogging in place here.

Cuz I was shaving and I did a little slip and it, it reminded me of a funny pattern that I made while my mom was going through chemo. And so I was shaving this morning and I decided to go ahead and do the, the whole face. Just, just like I did it there. And. Was getting a, a bit emotional about it because I wouldn't be here today, leading you through this workout.

If it wasn't for my mom, my mom, and then you continue to go on and you're just threatening the story about your mom, what she meant to you and how it's made you successful. And by the time you get to the end of your workout, and this is just a thread, it's not like you're talking only about your mom for 40 minutes.

You get to the end and you say, so. So I remind myself on my toughest, my toughest days that I can always put one foot in front of the other. I can always take that next step to improving myself. And it's because of my mom that I'm here today. And I'm looking forward to seeing you again tomorrow. It it's, it can be that simple.

And like I said, could do a better job of that. Certainly. It's a little, because we're so connected. I lost my father when I wasn't quite as young as you, but I was certainly young. And as soon as you said that, like I was like, oh right. I'm not the only one who's lost a parent young and it, there's more of a connection and I'm more liable just to push through those pushups or squats or sit ups or whatever it is if I'm more connected to you.

So that is one of. Biggest things trainers can learn how to do, which is have the courage to share some of your stories. And that's a, an extreme example of the loss of a loved one, but it is universal. We've all lost people. It can also be as small. As a universal somebody cut me off in traffic and this is what went through my mind.

And this is how I've dealt with it because we've all had that, you know, you're, you're a really nice person. Normally somebody cuts you off and you turn into a, a maniac that wants to kill him, you know?

[00:27:13] Justin Green, CFP®: I live in Massachusetts, you know, I resonate with that.

[00:27:17] Mason Bendewald: well, LA, everybody, everybody says everywhere you go, this is univers. People don't know how to drive here.

I swear. Everywhere I go, I go, what do you mean? And they're like, no, they're crazy here. And I go, that's what everybody says every everywhere.

[00:27:31] Justin Green, CFP®: Everywhere.

[00:27:32] Mason Bendewald: universal too.

[00:27:35] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's really powerful. So, you know, when we started to do that example in my head, I immediately went, well, do I want to go this fold the world? Do I want to go this deep? I don't really wanna derail the conversation cuz this, you know, doesn't have a whole lot to do with fitness, but I mean, your question was pretty clear.

Like what's the biggest, one of the like most challenging times in your life. And I mean, if, if I'm gonna stand out from, you know, a line of a hundred different people. Then I have to tell the actual story, which that is the story, right? So I, you know, I could have made up some example to make this easier and more resonating to the audience, but the actual story is what makes me unique.

Right? And you were saying earlier is like by being original and yourself, and, you know, authenticity is probably like the buzzword of the last couple years, but it's so true. If you truly figure out who you are and what stories you have that make you who you are, and then you're vulnerable vulner.

Vulnerable enough to share them, uh, with people you are going to be surprised by how many people, one resonate with it, because they've been through something very similar or two appreciate in our empathetic to what you went through because they have a completely different experience, but yet they had these same feelings that you had during your experience.

[00:28:51] Mason Bendewald: Yeah. And, and for anybody who's listening, who might be a little bit reluctant or hesitant or go, nah, I don't know if that's true. I I'll bring up the example of Dwayne Johnson, the rock, one of the most famous people on the planet. Just look at

[00:29:05] Justin Green, CFP®: favorite person in the world.

[00:29:07] Mason Bendewald: Yeah, he's pretty

[00:29:08] Justin Green, CFP®: Oh, I love the

[00:29:08] Mason Bendewald: What tell, tell me what's one of the, tell me one thing.

Why, why do you think he's cool outside of his looks and his successful career?

[00:29:17] Justin Green, CFP®: yeah. So.

[00:29:18] Mason Bendewald: already. Yeah.

[00:29:19] Justin Green, CFP®: I grew, I'm a big rock fan. My wife would be laughing. She was, you know, just a flat on the wall right now. Um, I once tweeted at him back in, like, I don't even know what year it was, you know, if the rock tweets me back, I'll buy my fi or my girlfriend a rock

[00:29:33] Mason Bendewald: Uhhuh. Uh,

[00:29:33] Justin Green, CFP®: know, like I proposed to her, like he, he had to sign off on it jokingly, but no, uh, I grew up watching wrestling with my dad.

Um, so stone cold, the rock, all those people. You know, I still kind of go back to those childhood days when I, I hear them. But then the rock has kind of just taken over as like the most prolific actor and superstar to come from

[00:29:55] Mason Bendewald: Tell me one per what I'm looking for is one personal thing. Why you connect to.

[00:30:01] Justin Green, CFP®: um,

[00:30:02] Mason Bendewald: career. What's one personal thing. Think about his social media.

[00:30:07] Justin Green, CFP®: yeah, I don't. I don't know if this answers what you're looking for. What I love about him is he seems like an everyday dude. Like I hear, yeah. I hear stories

[00:30:17] Mason Bendewald: you specifically, give me one. What do you mean by that? He's not an everyday dude. He's massive. He makes hundreds of millions of dollars. He's he's twice the size of you and I combined. He's nothing like us. What do you mean I'm leading you to,

[00:30:32] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah.

[00:30:33] Mason Bendewald: he's an everyday dude.

In what way?

[00:30:36] Justin Green, CFP®: I don't know if I have a specific example. I just love the way, like you hear stories about celebrities. When people meet them, they're like, oh, they're actually like a really big jerk in person. Like they're not friendly, but then I've heard stories and I, and it feels like authentic through his social media is that

[00:30:54] Mason Bendewald: This is what I'm looking

[00:30:55] Justin Green, CFP®: people.

[00:30:56] Mason Bendewald: Justin. What I'm looking for is his social media pick one thing out of his social media that made you. Go. Oh God. If I bumped into him, I'd feel comfortable. I'd feel comfortable with him because he's an everyday guy, one thing in his social media, cuz I got a bunch, but I'm trying to let you be the hero here.

[00:31:14] Justin Green, CFP®: Probably the joke. He's a jokester. Right? So he, when he started doing movies with Kevin Hart, that came through a lot on his social media, he's a jokester. I feel like I could walk by him, kind of make a joke. He might, he might just kinda laugh at it and be like, Hey, that was funny. And, and, you know, we'd be able to connect.

[00:31:30] Mason Bendewald: He's self deprecating. So, so here, so, so by the way, Justin has all the answers. I'm just gonna give some of the, the examples. If you're not a, a Dwayne Johnson, uh, fan like us, is. Adonis. He's a man's man. No, you know, anybody looks at him and goes like, he's perfect. And he's got a career and he's got a beautiful wife and everything else, but he shares all the things that are imperfect.

[00:32:00] Justin Green, CFP®: Mm.

[00:32:01] Mason Bendewald: And for one, this is not imperfect. I I'm a father of two beautiful daughters. I resonate with him because he's very much. Passionate about being a father of women. And he's you'd think, oh, he is gotta have tough sons that are out there, you know, in the ring. Tough, whatever. No, he's got three daughters that he loves.

And one of his last posts was him sitting and had plain tea, you know, with his, like, he's huge hulking over his little daughter and he's sitting there with a TEAC cup or he'll post showing his Fanny pack and his awkward size and weight and haircut and talks about being poor. When he, you know, was growing up in Hawaii, like he is, he makes you connect on all sorts of levels, just like Justin did.

Talking about the loss of a, a parent having to grow up really fast and all of the, uh, pressure you felt about having to prove yourself. So Dwayne Johnson does that too in his own way. And there are plenty of stars out there that you were kind of bringing up that are not, that are assholes they're they are, um, they're, it's usually because they're insecure and instead of sharing.

Stories about their insecurity. They put up a wall and they don't share it. And then that gets translated into, Hey, that guy's an asshole when they're probably just insecure about their lives or themselves. And then you find somebody like a Dwayne Johnson who shares about things that are, that you might think would be ridiculed.

And instead you get more fans and you have more people like you and I. Man. That's a really cool guy. I would love to hang out with him. So

[00:33:50] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, I'm also not ready to admit that he's much bigger than I am in person. So I'm, I'm not ready to admit that yet. I, I do love, have you ever seen the picture of him standing between? I think it's Shaquila Neil and Charles Barkley.

[00:34:02] Mason Bendewald: oh, no, I haven't.

[00:34:04] Justin Green, CFP®: You gotta look that up. I'll send it to you after he looks tiny compared.

So you, you see that picture of him and you're like, okay. I can't resonate with shack and, uh, Charles Barkley, but the rock looks like a normal human being, um, in that picture. And my mother-in-law has actually ran into shack at target one time when he was playing for the Celtics, he, he was at the local target and she was like that, that man is, is massive.

Uh, but the rock, his height and weight is actually it, this is gonna, it's actually only 6, 5, 2 60. I mean, I, my

[00:34:44] Mason Bendewald: How big, how tall are you?

[00:34:45] Justin Green, CFP®: uh, I'm, I'm not that tall. I'm six foot on a good day. I'm five 11. But

[00:34:51] Mason Bendewald: I'm only five nine. So I'm a small guy,

[00:34:54] Justin Green, CFP®: but I look at that. Right. And, and my best man in my wedding just a couple months ago is six, five, uh, two.

So I look at that and I think, well, no, I hang out with a guy his side. Now this could be wrong. Right. I have a feeling he's a little bit heavier than that. Um, but so I, you know, to your point, I actually haven't accepted. I actually still think when I look at him like, ah, he could be like one of the gym guys I run into.

Uh, so I haven't even, so even that resonates with me of like, nah, he could be one of the guys.

[00:35:23] Mason Bendewald: Well, certainly when he is around, uh, Kevin Hart, like I love

[00:35:26] Justin Green, CFP®: He looks

[00:35:26] Mason Bendewald: hits too. he looks like he could chew him up.

[00:35:31] Justin Green, CFP®: Absolutely. So I wanna pivot away from that, cuz we, you know, we'll start wrapping up here in a little bit, but what are so, so storytelling being original. What are some other, uh, what are some of the other, you know, quick tips for, um, an online health and fitness coach who is trying to use, uh, maximize video in their marketing to reach, uh, future clients.

[00:35:52] Mason Bendewald: Yeah. Uh, smile a lot. Talk to one person and learn the professional. Protocols of what it means to be great on video. Some of 'em are as simple as hair and makeup, your wardrobe, your lighting, your audio, how you, how you pose on camera. So many people just go, oh, I'm just gonna kind of wing it. And I'm not talking about, uh, influencers of social media.

I'm talking about people who are actually leading a workout on camera. All of that is important. And. It's worth investing in yourself and studying it versus just, I'm just gonna copy somebody.

[00:36:36] Justin Green, CFP®: I wanna challenge that a little bit and see what you think. So, you know, I want, and I kind of wanna pivot more towards like, not leading a group workout, but more so like a, a coach who's just on, you know, let's say Instagram, real posting a single workout. Like, Hey, here's how you do, uh, squats. Right? Um, What if they haven't done their makeup and their hair is a little bit messy.

Wouldn't that, isn't that kind of similar to a combo we've had about the rock. Like wouldn't someone kind of see that and be like, oh, I've seen photos where she has her makeup done. Her hair's done. She looks amazing, but she's squatting right now and she's not perfect. And I'm not either when I go to the gym and squat,

[00:37:16] Mason Bendewald: well,

[00:37:17] Justin Green, CFP®: your thoughts on that?

[00:37:19] Mason Bendewald: If, if you have a real established brand. So if we're gonna go back to the rock as an example, we've seen him in action movies. We've seen him in WWF. We've seen him like we see that side of him, the performer, the professional on camera. So then when you pivot and see him in social media, Where he's less polished, where it's improv, where he's posting a picture of himself as a awkward teenager.

That's very different. First you have tote. It's kind of, it's kind of like most great musicians, not all, uh, same with artists. Learn, learn all the techniques before they start breaking the rules. That's what I did. He's like, you learn how to do everything. Conventionally, and then you start breaking rules, but to kind of go, I'm gonna learn everything and of get by and hope that it catches fire.

That's a little harder to do. So your example of somebody having messy hair and no makeup, look, that can be a brand. I mean, if you that's a, if that's a choice, but what I mean is. I make sure that I look, I've got the lights, I've got the right microphone. I put on a little bit of makeup for zoom calls and stuff, because it looks more professional.

There's times where I show up, look at somebody on a call and I'm like, wow. Act as if you care about being here. Like you don't have to be a model, but you know, some people literally roll outta bed and look horrible.

[00:38:54] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:38:56] Mason Bendewald: Just do the dial in call then. So being presentable on camera is important, too. Male, female, whatever.

And you can break the rules as long as you understand the rule is show up professional. So you, I'm gonna go back to Richard Simmons for a second because you brought him up. If you're too young and you don't know who Richard Simmons is, please Google him right now. It's worth it.

[00:39:19] Justin Green, CFP®: That's what youtube is for..

[00:39:21] Mason Bendewald: Richard Simmons. And I, I can tell you without asking, I'm gonna ask Justin this question, but I know the answer is no.

Justin, have you ever done a Richard Simmons's workout?

[00:39:32] Justin Green, CFP®: No.

[00:39:34] Mason Bendewald: okay. Everybody knows this guy from a certain age, John, most people have not done a workout. He wore as hard on his sleeve. He was flamboyant. He had an Afro he's a little. Squeaky white guy. He wore a very patriotic tank tops like stars and stripes and Bengals, white sneakers, big thick socks.

And he was over the top. But the thing that you really, I never forget about him is how passionate he was about his audience, which. People who were obese. I mean, to the point where he would cry on camera often with, uh, some of the people he was working out with leading through workouts, he was different on, in every way, shape or form from a Jane Fonda, for instance, who was very much a contemporary, his appearance, his Afro. Outfit that was, I mean, you look across the decades, he almost always wore this tank top short shorts and these, these sneakers,

[00:40:43] Justin Green, CFP®: short shorts are the signature for sure.

[00:40:46] Mason Bendewald: that's that's who he was. And like it or not, you never forgot it. And that's my point is, so even if you're, I want you to be prepared and show up for your job, the way you're supposed to, which. Your hair and makeup and wardrobe done, but that can be very much whatever you want it to be. I just mean don't roll out of pen and be like,

[00:41:14] Justin Green, CFP®: that's a good point. Unless you wanna be known as the person who just rolls out bed, like, unless that's your thing, like then don't do it because whatever it, you know, if you do it once you do it, You're gonna become known as that's gonna be the impression, whether that's, and if that's not what you want it to be, then don't do it right.

If that's so be intentional, I guess about it, right. It doesn't have to be the makeup and everything, but if you wanna be known for someone who's polished, then you, then you better do that. Um, I wanna pivot

[00:41:41] Mason Bendewald: Yeah, I'll just finish by saying it ultimately breaks down to you wanna be as specific as possible about who you are, your brand, your niche and your name. One other thing you should always say is what your name is because your name is your brand. If you have a brand called, like if it's just you and your brand is, you know, X, Y, Z fitness, I'll tell you right now it's pro unless you have a brick and mortar gym.

If you're a personal trainer, your online persona, your brand is your name. It's not some made up name. I made that mistake. These are all mistakes that I know that I've made. And

[00:42:15] Justin Green, CFP®: Personal brand's 

huge

Mason Bendewald is, is my brand. And so I make sure I, that's why we introduce each other on shows like this.

Absolutely. And I kind of wanna, uh, I'm gonna piggyback off that and then we're gonna pivot real quick. Cause I wanna talk about kind of the, the financial upside of, of using video. Um, but you know, kind of talking about that on brand, like I'm a, I'm a financial planner, right? What is the first thing you think of when you think of a financial planner?

If you're gonna go into an office and you're gonna meet with a financial planner, what do you think they're gonna.

[00:42:45] Mason Bendewald: Uh, what do you think? What do you think that meeting's gonna be like,

[00:42:48] Justin Green, CFP®: No. What do you think when you reach out your hand to shake that individual, what are they gonna look like?

[00:42:54] Mason Bendewald: physically look like

[00:42:57] Justin Green, CFP®: Stylish. What are they gonna be wearing?

[00:42:59] Mason Bendewald: Wow. I mean, you, you typically think of fi or I think of finance as somebody who is in an office wearing a suit and tie

[00:43:07] Justin Green, CFP®: Wearing a suit and tie. Exactly. I know that's the tradition. I knew I wasn't gonna do that. so I don't show up on calls. I don't show up in my marketing. I don't show up in my brand ever wearing a suit and tie, right. One, I work with the fitness industry, so they don't wear suit and ties either. Um, but I knew immediately when I was creating my brand suit and tie was not gonna be a part of it.

It's on my website. I do not wear suit and tie. Like you should never ever have a call scheduled with me. And. Hey, he's probably gonna show up wearing a suit and tie. No, I literally put in some of my marketing materials, most days I wear gym clothes, just like you.

[00:43:47] Mason Bendewald: I love

[00:43:48] Justin Green, CFP®: I'll wear T I'll wear t-shirts on calls and stuff, but, um, I, I, you know, I, I try to look like I've actually showered that day.

I don't, you know, just roll outta bed from the gym. Um, so, so I don't take it to the extreme of, like, I just got out of a workout and I'm, you know, here I am, but, you know, that's, that's my brand. Right. And so, um, I think that's, you know, I think that's kind of resonates with what you were saying, um, financial upside.

So I'm the money guy. Let's talk about real quick before wrap this up. Why? Like, what is the, how is video going to impact your total revenue slash profitability? Like what, like, why is it gonna change the game for your business?

[00:44:29] Mason Bendewald: I was a theater major. All I wanted to do was be in theater in New York city, growing up at a very young age, I realized, wow, that is not. I'm not gonna also be able to make a living doing this well, some people do, but it's very hard. J just think of it as simp, as simply put, as you need to show up every day for a job to get paid.

It's very similar to a trainer in person. When I pivoted to film, it was like, oh, I'm exponentially creating more revenue for myself by being able to do. Bigger jobs in less time. And so for a reach, more people, it's that simple. So for a trainer, an entrepreneur, you know, you are your own brand. You are your own company. If you are sick, you don't make money unless you have an online product. So there's all sorts of buckets of ways to create revenue as a personal trainer today that didn't used to.

[00:45:33] Justin Green, CFP®: mm-hmm

[00:45:35] Mason Bendewald: You had to have won an opportunity through auditions with me and, and clients and stuff. And then hopefully you become a star.

Well, now you can truly create, you don't need to have millions of. People viewing your stuff. You only need a few hundred and you can be very, very successful. So being, being very unique, I love that. Justin is the, I'm the, I'm the, uh, I'm your finance guy who doesn't wear a suit. Like that's a great brand and that might make me more comfortable.

There's gonna be plenty of people who go, no, I want a suit.

[00:46:16] Justin Green, CFP®: Yep.

[00:46:16] Mason Bendewald: There's a ton of competition over there. Justin only

[00:46:20] Justin Green, CFP®: go find one.

[00:46:21] Mason Bendewald: right? So Justin only, Justin only needs X amount of people for him to live very comfortably and do a good job. And that's what every trainer should be thinking of. I don't need to get everybody to like me is the more niche I am. The better I can hold on to a very loyal audience. And so let's just do, you would do a better job of this, but back of napkin numbers, if you're making, you're working in a gym and making, you said $12 an hour, Justin, I think it's higher than that these days. But

[00:46:55] Justin Green, CFP®: Hopefully, but I've heard some man I've heard some horror stories, but I would hope I would hope it's

[00:47:00] Mason Bendewald: you can't make a living.

I mean, that is literally you have to, personal trainers are ho. In the gym and they wanna help people and there's never enough time. And then they still don't make enough money and then you're exhausted and you can only do it for so many years if you go on. So think of it this way. When you're in a gym, it's literally your hours are being traded for dollars.

When you go online and have a virtual community create content that you can sell, create a zoom workout, where you can have. 20 people in the room where they're paying you directly. So let's just use that example, if you can get 20 people, which is not hard, if you're good, people into a zoom class, and let's say you're discounting that class to $10 and it, and it's a semi-private.

So you can even do less people than that versus going into a gym and working for 20 bucks an hour or 30 bucks an hour. In that same hour, you can quadruple what you're making, and then you can either do it again. Or you can take that time and go work on something else. So tho those are real examples, by the way, these are trainers I've worked with, who have come back and shared their stories.

I'm not making it up and it's mind blowing. The trainers that are we're making, you know, 40 or $50,000 a year are now making two, $300,000 a year. It's it's very scalable and possible.

[00:48:33] Justin Green, CFP®: the best coaches I work with are really good at video. Storytelling and making people relate to them, right? So if, if there's one takeaway from this, this, uh, conversation, it's get better at video you'll impact more lives, which will lead to more revenue. And that's, that's the name of

[00:48:55] Mason Bendewald: You summed it

[00:48:56] Justin Green, CFP®: So two questions I hit everyone with, uh, what is one of the, uh, most emotional slash irrational money decisions that you've ever.

[00:49:07] Mason Bendewald: It can be at any time.

[00:49:09] Justin Green, CFP®: Anytime.

[00:49:11] Mason Bendewald: Oh, God, this is embarrassing, but it's a true story. So back when I, uh, decided to this is really embarrassing when I decided that I was gonna move into video, video cameras were really expensive and I was, I was living in New Jersey at the time and I was working in used office furniture and I was trying to figure out, how am I gonna start this production company?

I know it's gotta have a video component. And I was, as I was driving through, into the Holland tunnel, uh, there was a guy. Selling, which of course now in the back of my head, I was like, well, this was this. Stolen material, a video camera and shrink, shrink, wrapped. And I was like, no, I'm not. I was like, how much is it was like, I, it was payday.

It was Friday. And so I had money in my pocket and it was like $200. And these cameras were normally like, you know, 900. I drove all the way through the tunnel in rush hour. And it was just burning in my brain. And I drove back into Manhattan, got back in line, praying this guy was still there and there he was.

And I, oh my God, I got this, paid him in cash. Got this box. I was so excited. Put it in the passenger seat, drove all the way back, carried it in unpacked. The rest of my stuff got out. My Exacto knife opened it up. I. Like on pins and needles. I was so excited that I was getting my first video camera and there was some newspaper on top and there was a little more newspaper and the entire box was filled with newspaper

[00:50:41] Justin Green, CFP®: Uh,

[00:50:42] Mason Bendewald: so it was the most impulsive.

And one of the hardest lessons I ever learned, of course, I knew there was something wrong with that deal. A, it was probably stolen. That's why it was so cheap. That was the idea. But my. My greed, my enthusiasm for trying to move ahead faster than I knew, probably I could, which would be saving up for several months.

and so I sh I share that story because, uh, yeah, we've all learned hard lessons like that.

[00:51:12] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, absolutely. The lesson I would take away from that is if it's too good, if it sounds too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true. That's a life that's a, you know, as old of a lesson as there is, and yet we all still have to do it. The hard way to just kind of be reminded. So final question for you.

What's one financial question you would have for me as you're sitting in front of a financial.

[00:51:32] Mason Bendewald: What stock should I buy today?

[00:51:34] Justin Green, CFP®: So I cannot answer that. Um

[00:51:38] Mason Bendewald: High, low sell. Hi.

[00:51:40] Justin Green, CFP®: exactly. Yeah, you should be buying stocks right

[00:51:42] Mason Bendewald: Okay. I have my own answer. I'm a little, I'm a little older here, but I'm curious to hear what, uh, you would say to somebody today in college who wants to be financially set in their future. If, if you have one bit of advice, one vehicle that they should be thinking about now, not, not when they're 30 something, what would you tell 'em to do?

[00:52:06] Justin Green, CFP®: This is going to, I think, be different than what anyone's expecting. Invest in yourself. are so young right now, the biggest return on any investment is gonna be your future earnings. So you probably already started it by going to college. You're probably, you know, hopefully you're in a specific degree and not in like a degree, that's not gonna get you anywhere.

But invest in yourself in those early years. And you are going to enhance your future career earnings, which is way more important than finding the best stock to put $5 in because you're a poor college kid.

[00:52:44] Mason Bendewald: I love that. You're right. That is not what I thought you were gonna say as a financial planner. Good advice. Good advice. I think it was Benjamin

[00:52:52] Justin Green, CFP®: was.

[00:52:54] Mason Bendewald: Benjamin Franklin, who said. Um, which I don't know is true today. Nobody ever went broke investing in their education.

[00:53:03] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, I like that. You said you had a, an answer in mind right before you asked it, you said, you know what you would say?

[00:53:10] Mason Bendewald: Well, yeah, because, um, I mean, I would say for sure, one of them is, and it's harder today, but is. Property and like, don't, don't wait until like, you're like having a family like today, you, you can't save money the way you used to, you have to in, you have to have assets. And for me, property is, uh, whether it's, I don't care if you buy a small condo or you, I mean, ideally you buy like a duplex, but I started investing when I was younger only cuz my parents had kind of done that.

And even though I've been very successful in fitness, It's it's property, it's investing in assets. It's things that, um, you never think you're gonna need that all of a sudden become very important to you later on in life.

[00:53:58] Justin Green, CFP®: Yeah, absolutely real estate can be really beneficial to a lot of investors. I would even simplify it. You kind of started to say it and, uh, I don't think you finished the sentence, but saving is not enough. Investing into an asset is what you need to do. And that might be property that might be the stock market.

Um, it might be something that I can't even think of right now, but, you know, Saving will not be enough to make you wealthy. You do have to invest it into something that's going to either appreciate and value over time, or that is going to enhance your cashflow that allows you to diversify it into more assets.

So, Mason, I appreciate you coming on the show today, let everyone know where they can find you to learn more about video and storytelling. You know, I really, really love this conversation. So let them know where they can learn.

[00:54:48] Mason Bendewald: Uh, my company website is mega mace that's M E G a M a C e.com. And uh, if you're, if you're looking for some corporate help, you can contact me there. There's also a. Trainers only portal go in there. You can download a top 10 things that on camera trainers are doing great today and, uh, feel free to reach out to me.

I'd love to help you if I can.

[00:55:11] Justin Green, CFP®: Awesome. Thanks so much, Mason.

[00:55:13] Mason Bendewald: Thanks Justin. Appreciate it.