Ready. Fire. Aim. Spotlight : Max Phillips

On this IG Live interview, I had the pleasure of speaking with Max Philips! He’s a Franchise Business Advisor for Fit Body Bootcamp, hes super young and full of experience. Enjoy this Ready, Fire, Aim Spotlight!

J : What is up! What is up! I am live here for the second installment of the ready fire aim spotlight, and I wanted to introduce you to somebody who has been a friend of mine as of recent, he is a Franchise Advisor for Fit Body Bootcamp, he’s a guy I’ve gotten to know over the past couple of months and really what this live is for, is to turn this Instagram live blog where we will take the best nuggets and gems and transcribe it into a blog for you to read and post shortly after. But this will be an interview you may or may not want to drop some questions in the comments, I’m going to bring him in and we are going to do this interview and have a grand old time! So let me invite Max in.

J : Max!

What’s up?

What’s up what’s up dude holy crap what an awesome background you have

M : Can you hear me good

J : I can hear you perfectly

Besides being a franchise advisor for fit body boot Camp he is a graduate of the project which is a pretty interesting thing to link up to your background there. You’re a dude who gets after it day after day and I would know because I sit about 10 feet away from you. I already explained what the live is going to be about. But to tell you a little bit about my blog, readers of my blog are looking for ways to build confidence and momentum toward their goals and whatever it is they are trying to achieve and what I try and aim at is what the truth is behind what it takes to get stuff done and work towards those goals and leave out all this fluffy BS that is so abundant nowadays.

M : Right

J : and here in there we will drop a little bit of gems of truth around that other stuff that you and I were having really interesting conversations about right before we went live.

Tell my readers and followers here a little bit about yourself and what you do

M : Max Phillips 26 going to be 27 in 11 days but I am a Franchise Business Advisor for fit body Boot Camp so Fit Body is a very large gym franchise specializing in high intensity interval training, but also combining nutrition with that. There are about 300+ locations throughout the US so awesome awesome place, but I help people, whoever is looking to open up their gym i’m the person that helps them so I actually handle the entire US we’re actually looking to expand into Europe so I actually can now say I’m helping in the entire world. Anyone in the world who wants to open a fit body can talk to me.

J : International!

So you actually got to California not too long ago what brought you to California?

M : Yeah so Its actually it’s an interesting story I was born and raised in Michigan went to school over there and got my business degree. I was in a bunch of different sales positions out there, I was doing business to consumer, business to business, all different kinds of sales phone sales you name it. I started working for a very large automotive company and the company was literally taking me all over the world. I’ve been to China multiple times, India, Mexico all throughout the US, so it gave me really great international business experience but in most peoples eyes I was living that “American dream” I was young 25 years old making six figures, six figures in Michigan is way different than six figures in California, so I was doing pretty well out there I had great insurance great everything I was traveling the world on the company’s dime, flexible schedule so everything was perfect. The problem was is I felt like I was in a cage, I felt like there was so much more for me to do and it was just a very weird feeling I remember sitting there one day and thinking this is not something I want to do for the rest of my life not at all..

J : Six figures traveling the world doing it all at 25 which is, we’re the same age it’s like man, that’s super young! I still feel super young.

M : It was a great experience I learned a lot but it didn’t feel right for me and where I wanted to be. So I’m just scrolling on and following Bedros Keuilian he’s the founder and CEO of Fit Body, just one of the top entrepreneurs of our time. And I on Instagram he ended up posting some thing called “The Project” and you know I’m like what is this.. I saw The Project and started researching it and was like this is really cool.
So it’s a 75 hour fully immersive experience designed  just for men, so it’s designed to really help you in four areas of your life, we call it the 4 F’s : Your Family, Fitness, Finance and Faith. Not so much faith in terms of religion, but faith in yourself, and really kind of what you believe in. So I saw this and thought this and thought “ah this is really cool and it looked really challenging.” There was a bunch of Navy SEAL’s running it, Marine’s.. I really want to get involved in this and see what it is, more of just a challenge for myself..

and then I found out it was so much more than that.. So I’m talking on the phone to the guy his name is Steve to do the project and he told me the price.. and it was $12,000.. and I’m like shocked this is way more than I expected it’s 12 grand for this? I thought it was going to be 2 to $5000 I thought it was something completely different-

J : Some fitness challenge thing-

M : Yeah!..

Steve says Max, you will not be a better man after this he will be a completely different man.. and I say OK and that really stuck with me so I hung up because I wasn’t going to do it right away, I needed to think about this.. I thought this wasn’t expected but I had this overwhelming feeling that I need to do it and if I didn’t do it I was going to regret it so I literally called my dad right away and told him and he said “hey you know that’s pretty expensive but if it feels right, you got to do it.” So the next day it felt right and I told him I’d regret not doing it, I know, I don’t care if I lose 12 grand I don’t care about it like I knew if I didn’t do it I’d regret it.

So the next day I gave the $12,000, the next class was 2 1/2 weeks away so I said screw it packed everything up and went out to California for The Project..

and it was hands-down the best thing I’ve ever done. It’s tough very mentally tough people think it’s a lot of physical it’s the things that they put you through that you cannot prepare for, you cannot train for it, I don’t care how in shape you are you can’t train for certain things in the project.

It brings you down to a point mentally where it just becomes all mental, and willpower and whether or not you’re going to stay. I pushed through and I was part of that 50% that made it. Literally 50% of people that join and say that they are not going to quit the , they end up being one of these axes on the wall. They end up ringing that bell that you see on the wall. 50% of people quit it is not some walk in the park like hey, like you said, it’s not a fitness challenge it’s a completely different ball game as part of that 50%. I went back to Michigan. I forgot to say this before I even joined The Project, I had in my mind “it would be really cool to work with Bedros directly.” and I said this can be my in. If I make it through, I’m going to talk to him about getting a job, so I made it through didn’t say anything about the job but this is something I want to do and I was constantly thinking about it. Before I knew it I got asked to help out with the following class, class five I came out helped out. Bedros just walked up to me, and asked if I ever thought about doing franchise sales and I said “I would love to” he said how much time do you need I said “two months”.. I packed everything up didn’t know anyone out here. I just moved out here. And here we are.

J : That’s crazy. Two months it took me maybe three weeks just to move 30 miles😂

M : It was a big change, It’s uncomfortable and that’s one thing I realized 1) you have to go with your gut and 2) just don’t play it safe. Like I knew this was right and I knew I wanted to do it, I didn’t know how it was going to happen and I didn’t know if I would have a place out here, I had to figure that all out within two months and I just figured it out and it was the best decision I’ve ever made.

J : Yeah that’s crazy. I think that that “figure it out” attitude, like I’ve never heard it not go right person somebody and kind of going back to that gut feeling you had before deciding, you know a lot of people get pleased with these opportunities, whether it’s The Project, a business opportunity, somewhere to put their money or energy or time and they get that gut feeling, what do you think is a line that resonates through everybody who’s made that decision? Not to jumble everything up, but I don’t know if you’re aware of last Instagram live, it was with Byron another graduate of The Project, the same situation of I have to do this and I have to do it in a sort of fashion, that I have to leave what’s current to get to the next level. Besides that, what is that line that strings through all the people, the higher achievers that makes them jump to that decision?

M : I truly believe that we all know what we need to do it’s just a few of us actually do it and the few that actually do it are the ones you consider to be the high achievers. Like people know what to do, you tell someone you need to eat healthy and people know how to eat. They might not know the details but actually doing it is a different ball game. It’s the same thing when it comes to a job or anything in life people know roughly what they should be doing and what they want to do now whether they do it or not is completely up to them.

So following your gut is what I suggest because your gut tells you. The way I look at it is if your friend came to you and ask you for advice you’d be able to get all that advice. You have the answers so pretend you’re that friend and put your own problem there, you know how to solve it, are you going to do it or not it’s really that simple. When you break it down so I learn to follow my gut take rest if you’re not taking rest you’re going to stay in the same position and that’s the thing that scares me, I talk to a lot of people that are 50 years old and stuck at a desk job for 30+ years and have always wanted to open their own gym and never did. They started making good money and got stuck in the rat race kept doing it and doing it and I am now 50 years old have all this money and I’m not happy and I want to do something now to make myself happy.
I didn’t want to be 55 and realize that I wanted to be 25 and realizing that.

J : That’s so interesting just that feeling of if I don’t I’ll stay where I’m at.
It’s almost like people almost have an out when their current is either decent or bad. You were living pretty great at such a young age and still decided to do something that was going to whoop my ass make me feel like shit, but you were aware of that pay out of what’s to come and made that jump.

J : Just curious, and speaking on fear, What was like the worst thing that you can remember about the project?

M : The absolute worst thing was being buried alive. I was literally buried alive, you dig your own grave and they put you in a body bag and they bury you alive.
It was the worst thing because I was claustrophobic when I was young and I’m still claustrophobic and I didn’t realize it until I was put there.

I straight up almost had a panic attack without actually having one I was sitting there without moving my heart was beating 1000 mph it felt like I ran miles, and every breath you’re taking here wasting the limited air and that’s in there so I’m breathing quicker and quicker.
They do this as a scare tactic but you don’t want to use all the air in the bag. So I finally got things under control I controlled my breath and I was able to calm down and then I made it through but what was interesting and this is a life lesson in general.

That was the hardest thing I went through in the project and then when I got out I felt like I can conquer the world. I felt like I can do anything. Whatever that adversity that someone’s facing, do that and that’s going to be a new breakthrough and people hit that adversity and a lot of people just stop and that’s when you figure out what you’re made out of through those tough times. When I got out I was like there’s nothing those guys can do to me now.

J : Stepping into that here that doubts and genuine fear physiological fear claustrophobia I’m sure through the project everybody has their thing but to step into it and come out there’s probably no other feeling.
What would you say was your greatest take away whether that was on the flight back home or after a couple years...

M : So a few things one is that, we have so much more to give. People don’t realize it , you hit a wall physically mentally you will hit a wall in The Project you will hit a wall in life that’s just how it goes. You have so much more to give and you can power through that you really can, not many people do though. That’s the thing so powering through that there’s so much more to what I believed and what I thought. The next thing another huge takeaway is, and this is key for the guys, is that guys are always taught don’t show emotion don’t show feelings that’s what makes you tough.
But that’s not the truth at all you have the Navy SEALs the toughest guys on the planet saying no that’s the weak thing to do and actually opening up and talking about issues and problems that’s a lot tougher.
And that what’s actually gonna push you forward in life.
When we’re young we’re taught don’t cry don’t show any emotion or your weak so it’s just put into our heads but that’s what it is but it’s the complete opposite truth I’m hearing that from high achievers multi millionaires and Navy SEALs the toughest of the tough seeing this opened my eyes to a lot so that was a big take away.

J : Joining that group of brotherhood that camaraderie is I’m pretty sure, priceless

M : It is, It’s cool it’s the ultimate networking group I was told that in The Project we have one of the worlds best poker players. The best entrepreneurs, multi millionaires that I get to call brothers and I at any time I can call and see if I need help with this and they would stop and help me. We all know that high up group and we all think how do we get into that group and The Project lead me into that group. If someone were to ask me hey Max can you get hold of Tony Robbins I am literally one person away from reaching Tony Robbins if I needed to get hold of Gary vee I am one or two people away from Gary V. How many people can say that? So that’s part of the reason I join too just the networking group is unbelievable.

J : Well let’s leave a little bit of a mystery to those interested in The Project follow you or Bedros Keuilian on Instagram or search The Project on YouTube. I’m sure you love to let them know. Besides that you’re deeply into sales and being value minded so let’s give our readers and viewers some value. I know you’re an extremely good sales person and by that I mean the way you talk, the way you present, it’s your work ethic, your organization and sequences of, I mean these are pretty high ticket sales…

What would you say makes a great sales person?

M : So this is going to be controversial to what everyone else says so it is not the tricky sales tactics, not how you do it. It’s just being a person, it’s communication. People don’t realize they’re doing all these tricky salesman things and it does not work. Here’s the thing, if you’re trying to sell someone and they feel that they’re being sold to, no matter what you say from that point, does not matter.

As people, when we feel like we’re being sold to, we shut down. No matter what facts, no matter what numbers no matter what promise it no longer matters.

So stop the “selling” and just be a person, talk to people. So I got a job in the past and they gave me sales training and I went out there and I’m doing the sales training and I went out there for the first week and I’m trying to do it and I was falling flat on my face for an entire week, like this is miserable, What you’re doing is not working I was literally in the shower and - as we know all the best thinking moments come in the shower- I said Max “how would you like to be talked to?”

I started doing scripts in my head that were so natural and just normal conversation and I came back the next week and did that and within the first month I was one of the top sellers in the entire state.
So I realize from that point just be a person just be real.
No offense to anyone that’s watching but you don’t want to be a car salesman that’s not the goal.

I always say that the reason people are buying from car salesman is because they already know the car that they want they’re just putting up with you.

It’s not the tricky Sales language that’s getting them it’s not. That is not gonna work outside of that anyways. The only time having that type of sales skills is useful is when you’re doing phone sales and you’re only on the phone with them for a few minutes, which I’ve done.

I once had a job where I was calling 60 to 100 people a day and during that time you needed to be very witty because you needed to be on it.

Other than that you need to be able to cultivate a relationship it’s knowing them it’s knowing their family. Once you connect to their life, people buy emotion.
Say for example somebody wants to open a fit body, they have two kids, they really want a better life for them… One fit body might give them that chance to give them a better life, two people and kids follow what you do not what you say. If they see mom out there following her dreams, going after her passion, doing what she’s going to do, the kids are going to want to do that too.
So, I would say that to whoever I was speaking to and connecting with them on that emotional level and that’s how people make decisions it’s just being real it’s just being human.

J : I think that one of your super powers is knocking out the reps of making calls and treating every call like it’s your last, treating everybody like they are the person that’s going to buy.
And obviously you can tell looking around at other Sales industries that that’s pretty rare. People want to qualify first and then have the conversation about the sale.

Is that some thing that you had to learn or did it just come naturally?

M : I didn’t have to learn it, It came natural because it came from being a person. Can you imagine if your dream was to open up whatever but you didn’t have enough money in that time and the person didn’t treat you like a human because you didn’t have money at that time?
Now can you imagine the same scenario they didn’t have the money you treat him like a person, obviously you don’t want to waste too much of your time but, you treat them with respect now they’re excited and then a year later or two years later they come back and now they have everything they need!

Think about the long-term. People in sales think so short term. If I go through all those people and even one of them comes back that’s worth the time. Especially because I am doing high ticket sales. That’s just worth the time. So treating people with respect people don’t want to be a number. Connecting with people that’s really what it is.

So the thing with Sales who is a need to have thick skin. If you’ve been on a phone call and in sales you’ve been through it I don’t care what industry calls just piss you off if a customer is rude you cannot take that into the next call. One thing that we learned is smile and Dial. Put on a smile before and it puts you in a good mood and start doing your calls but you can’t go in with an attitude because especially on the phone, how your tone within the first four seconds people are judging you you have four seconds on the phone to make an impact. You got to go in to each one fresh.

J : If you’re following me and I know a couple financial services agents, a hairstylist, maybe somebody who’s doing some high ticket sales you need to rewatch that rewind the video and take out your notepad and take out some notes from Max, seriously.
Moving on I think some readers, some listeners would be surprised to know that you’re a pretty frugal guy. You save money you invest money we had tons of conversations about what I want to buy this $30 T-shirt or throw $30 into a stock and watch it grow whereas this T-shirt is just going to be a T-shirt.

Where did you get that from?

M : It’s funny because I see Ray “Cash” Care is on here, One of the instructors of the project we were talking about. So Max “when are you going to get a new car when are you going to get this when are you going to get that?” So he’s trying to ruin that for me Julian haha! Once I graduated college I realize your education doesn’t start there and you have to start reading, I started reading a bunch of financial books and these books were all saying the same thing this is one thing I learned and if you surround yourself by enough successful people they all say the same thing it’s not rocket science.
I read an awesome book it literally said save 10% of everything you’re bringing in, if you do that and you won’t have to invest another day in your life at some point.

I had a professor in college that asked “guys how much are you bringing in right now and we said 10 grand 15 grand someone said 20 grand” we’re all working part time maybe just during the summer.
He said OK guys let’s say next year when you guys graduate you guys are now bringing in 50 or 60 grand you guys can still live the same lifestyle you’re living now what happens is you bring in more money you buy more stuff and you want to live a more expensive lifestyle. He said “what if for two years you said I’m just going to live at home. I know it sucks you’re going to have to listen to your parents and the rules but just for two years you live at home and you still spent only about $10,000 and the rest you invest”. He did the math and in two years you will never have to invest another day in your life. That blew my mind. I know people that are in their 50s and 60s that are still trying to save for retirement. Two years in my early 20s then I don’t have to invest another day in my life? That’s what I did. I started making good money and instead of going out and buying expensive things and I’m a young guy so trust me, I did want expensive stuff, the nice BMW to show everyone that I’m doing well, but what’s the point? No one cares.
I’m a big fan of Gary vee he always says why are you trying to impress people you don’t care about?

It’s true I drive by in that BMW and someone says oh that’s a nice car and then they forget about it 20 seconds later, but I still have that payment.

It’s stupid it makes no sense. That really open my eyes. I had all this money saved up so I started throwing it all into stocks. I’m 25 years old and I don’t need to invest another day in my life. Not many people can say that. I didn’t start buying stupid things. I started making more money and thought “well now I can go get that BMW” But then I said no, be smart. So I bought two rental properties so now I have two rental properties that are bringing in money every month and it increases in value.

J : Are you sure you’re 26? To your credit that is insanely moving that you play the game like a veteran.

M : I appreciate that. Like I said, it’s not easy at the end of the day I’m still a young guy I see a nice car I want to be doing that but I read Rich Dad Poor Dad and that blew my mind, and another book called Richest Man in Babylon, and what it said is Every dollar that you have is like an employee. Can you imagine having all these employees and they’re not working for you? He said you need to put those employees to work. Every dollar you put to work you do it to get more employees. And that blew my mind so that’s how you can make good money. This is key don’t go by that BMW or those nice cars unless your assets assets are making money. Then buy it. Two levels down.
That expanded my whole thought process I didn’t want to be 60 years old working every day. I don’t want to be 40 and have to save for retirement. I’m going to take care of that in my 20s.

J : Give yourself more credit. I know a few people that have been preaching that book to me and are still struggling with money taking on a new car note and just going out and blowing money. That 500 bucks can be put into stocks every month. The deploying those dollars as employees as opposed to taking on a paycheck and basically firing those employees.
Besides those do you have another favorite book?

M : Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins, big fan of his, big Navy SEAL fan. But that one is for mindset. It just talks about how he was so overweight and how he overcame that, became a Navy SEAL, did all these marathons facing all these issues and health problems and how he overcame those. That’s extra percent in our heads that we can flip to and we can tap into. You have so much more to give.

J : 100 percent, If you play 5 minutes of David Goggins you’ll run. Hahaha, He just has that effect. Im putting on running shoes I haven’t put on in 5 years and running.

To wrap this up, in your short life you’ve done a lot you’ve experienced a lot,

What is one message for the readers for the viewers of this live that you can give them to cut the BS and start on the path to their goals?

As far as the average person in my readers or viewers they are having trouble starting. It’s safe to say you were the average guy we are all the average guy, everybody was the average guy,

How do we actually get started and cut through the BS because we all have those socks that stop us from starting?

M : You have one life and that’s it.
Take the risk and the worst that can come from it is that you gain experience and learn from it.

Take a risk and go after what you’re going for. We’re all going to the same place we’re all going to die.
You can go through this entire life going through the motions and not enjoy what you’re doing or being too afraid.

People are so afraid to fail I promise you no one cares. No one cares about you that much that they’ll be laughing at you if you fail.
If they are those aren’t people you want in your life anyways.

Take that risk. If you fail, that’s how you learn. Keep moving forward just keep going.

You have that feeling and everyone knows what they need to do, it’s just whether they do it or not.
When you surround yourself with successful people, you learn that these people, they’re not really geniuses.
People think that Bill Gates is all that but there are many multi-multi millionaires that are not geniuses the one thing they always say is keep going you’re going.
To hit that point where it sucks but you keep going and you keep going because what usually happens to these people is they drop off.
Then you have the couple that are left and those are the people that become the overnight success.

It’s one life I don’t want to be 80 years old. Wishing I should’ve done this or I should’ve done that that’s my nightmare. That’s actually what scares me, I don’t want to do that.

J : this time has been great, Max to be respectfully of your time, We are going to cut it there. That was an amazing live!

Subscribe to the blog or rewatch this live here,

Max thank you so much I’ve had a great time!

M : I’ve had a great time, take care guys!

Thank you again Max, I know if you’re reading this you got a ton of value out of this. So stay tuned for more, and subscribe to the blog below.

Julian PR