“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.”

Winston Churchill

Our guest today is a New York Times bestselling author, former professional athlete, and the founder / CEO of Healthpreneur®. As one of the world’s top business strategists, Yuri Elkaim has helped more than half a million people to take ownership of their health.

And his pathway to health and business seemed inevitable. After dealing with a host of health issues as a teenager, Yuri eventually lost all of his hair at 17 years old to an autoimmune condition. This, along with his passion for sports (which led him down the path of playing professional soccer in his early 20s), propelled him into the health and fitness field.

Yuri’s authentic and caring approach allowed him to build a successful online health empire, while providing him the platform to write three bestselling books and share his message on major media outlets such as Dr. Oz and The Doctors. In 2018, after 13 years at the helm, Yuri sold this health business to focus on Healthpreneur® full time.

With Healthpreneur, Yuri and his team help health professionals and coaches leverage the internet to turn their expertise into high 6- and 7-figure virtual practices that create transformative results for more people without the grind.

Healthpreneur’s mission is to help health entrepreneurs make their dreams happen in the service of others and eventually leave a legacy where every man, woman, and child has the opportunity to become the best version of themselves so that they can wake up each day with purpose, contribute through meaningful work that feels like play, and live freely and abundantly.

Check out the YouTube or podcast version where Yuri Elkaim does the Win the Day Rocket Round, answering questions about his favorite quote, what advice he’d give his 18-year-old self, the one thing on his bucket list, and a whole lot more. 🚀

In this episode, we’ll go through:

• How a devastating medical diagnosis revealed Yuri’s purpose
• What the top 1% of entrepreneurs do to achieve 7+ figure income
• How holistic nutrition can change your life
• The problem with professional services that exchange time for money (e.g. 1:1 work), and
• How to find your passion and turn it into a profitable business.

Yuri is a super accomplished guy and I know you’ll get a ton of value out of this one.

Before we begin, remember that the right bit of inspiration can completely change the trajectory of someone’s life, so if there’s a friend or loved one who needs to hear this episode, share it with them right now. 

Let’s WIN THE DAY with Yuri Elkaim!

James Whittaker:
Yuri, great to see you my friend. Thanks so much for coming on the Win the Day Show.

Yuri Elkaim:
Absolutely James. Thanks for having me buddy. It's good to be here.

You've had some big wins in the holistic health space, and it's also what changed your life. But there's so much misinformation about health, particularly these days with the internet and the rise of influencers who mightn't have the necessary qualifications for the advice they're providing.

To kick things off, are there any myths that need to be busted about exactly what holistic health is?

How much time do you have!? We could be here for a long time. When I got into nutrition, the deeper I went into it, the more I realized I had no clue what was going on. And the thing is there's so many different approaches, and I think every one of them can work for different people. I found an approach that worked for me which was mostly plant-based, and I just felt the best. But I also know that there's a huge population of the earth that is very keto based, animal product based, and that's totally fine.

In my journey of having done that for so long, I came to realize that you need to do what's best for you. And part of that is experimenting with different things to find out what's going to resonate most with you. But I think even beyond our food choices is the energetic intention, or the energy that we feel in that pursuit.

Do what's best for you.

If you're sitting down and having a supposedly healthy meal, and you feel shame or guilt around that food because it's not organic or perfect enough, there's an energy around that's not going to be great for your body. Contrast that with someone who's going to have a beautiful grass fed burger with zero shame and guilt, and enjoying that. In short, it's not just what you eat, but it's how you approach what you eat. That was a big thing that I learned over the years, and that's how I approach a lot of my stuff now. I'm less fanatical about my diet now than I was back in the day, because I've recognized how important that energy and that intention is.

Just before your 17th birthday you noticed significant hair loss, and were subsequently diagnosed with the autoimmune condition alopecia. Can you take us into those circumstances and how it changed your mindset at the time?

Yeah, I think it was the Universe's way of giving me a bit of a kick in the ass to be honest with you! At the time, I was like the jock in a stereotypical high school movie. But I was nice to most people except my brother. I was a bit of a Grinch to my younger brother and I think the universe said, "Dude, we've had enough of this. Here's your payback."

My brother would tease me and he teases me now, "Hey, remember back in the day when you used to spend 30 minutes in the bathroom doing your hair?" And I was like, "Yeah. Good days." Just for context, my dad's Moroccan so there's a lot of hair, bushy eyebrows, hair all over. And in the space of a couple of weeks all of it was gone. And it was weird because I was in my last year of high school, and just seeing how people looked at me was kind of odd. They were like, "What's wrong with this guy? He looks like an alien or is he going through chemo, or whatever?" That really again was awkward, but I think I handled it pretty well. And I think I've always been very mature, even from a young age.

That experience really allowed me to recognize it's only hair man, come on, there's far worse that could be happening. I had friends and family members who were like, "Oh my God, is everything okay? It must be so hard for you." I was like, "Well, I mean, whatever, it's not the end of the world. There could be worse things." I think my perspective was really helpful. But it was also in retrospect a blessing, because that was the impetus that really got me into the health space. Because the solution the medical community had was, "We'll just inject your head with cortisone." I'm like, "Are you for real?" I didn't really get any solid answers medically. And that really prompted me into studying kinesiology, because I had a really big passion for soccer and fitness, and then nutrition to learn more about what was happening in my body.

And those two things really made a huge difference for me. I was able to regrow my hair back when I was 24, because of a lot of the changes I was making from a dietary perspective. I obviously don't have any hair now, that's because a number of years ago, long story short, took my son to the doctor, my doctor's like, "Hey, while you're here, why don't you just get a tetanus shot or a booster?" I was like, "Sure." I didn't even question her and within two weeks my hair fell out again. I simply mention that so everyone knows what's going on, but who cares!? I don't really think about it anymore. And I think it's a blessing to be honest, because it's allowed me to put things into perspective and approach difficult situations with a lot more grace and perspective. That's kind of how it all started.

That attitude to adversity is critical and, in my experience, it's the most important difference between ordinary people and extraordinary achievers. And what I love about your journey is you really had to take the reins yourself. You had to dive deep into the holistic nutrition and health space to start uncovering some answers.

How was that condition not really on the radar of all the previous medical professionals you had seen? Why was it on you as an individual at the end of the day to try and figure out what the hell was going on?

I'm sure there were some tremendous health professionals out there who probably did have a solution, I just didn't know who they were at the time. My mom exposed me to a variety of practitioners, medical doctors, immunologists, traditional Chinese medicine... I actually remember going to a traditional Chinese medicine doctor and I remember having this weird concoction of tree bark, and I made this huge vat. It was a tea and I still remember the smell of it, it wasn't pleasant. And I remember drinking that for months and I don't know if that helped. I don't know. We tried all sorts of different stuff, but I think being relatively young, 16-ish, it's not like I was living on my own, I had my own resources to go to find my own stuff.

I just started really introspectively doing some thinking and research. This is back in the day when Encyclopedia Britannica was still the main thing. Google didn't exist, I don't think. Now it would have been a little bit of a different scenario, but it really inspired me to want to learn more about why was this happening. Because I didn't have any answers. If I went to the doctor and they're like, "Well, there's not much we can do but we can do this." I had really bad eczema growing up as well. And I always remember the solution to eczema was just putting more cortisone cream on, and it was never dealing with the root issue. That never really made sense to me and I really wanted to figure out what was going on.

It was never dealing with the root issue. That never really made sense to me.

And that's kind what eventually prompted me to get into these studies, and doing a lot more reading, research, and experimentation. Then I realized for a lot of medical doctors, they know what they know, and they're very good at diagnosing and prescribing, in a lot of cases, medication. There's others that are a little more holistic and functional based, and they might have an alternative point of view. I traditionally resonated more with that because growing up my body was pretty much a toxic wasteland from just very bad food choices because I didn't know better based on what I was exposed to — antibiotics, vaccines, it was ridiculous. As I started learning a lot of this stuff I was like, "Huh!? Maybe this is starting to make sense."

Then I said, "Well, what if I were to do this, and maybe eat a little bit better, and remove some of these problematic foods." That was the journey. It was just kind of learning, and experimenting, and seeing how my body responded. And I quickly recognized that how I felt was a really important indicator of the overall health of my body. Because I was really tired for a long time, half my life I spent sleeping pretty much.

And that's why I went on to write the book The All-Day Energy Diet, because as I made these changes the most profound difference I noticed instantaneously was my energy level was through the roof. And it just so happened that as that energy went up, my hair started coming back, my health improved and I was like, "Huh!? That's good to know. Energy first, those other outcomes second." That was one of the really big discoveries in my dream for sure.

There are people who have come on the podcast who are very well-regarded professionals. And a big trend that I've noticed them saying is that you are your best scientist. We had Dr. Michael Breus, one of the world's top sleep doctors, on the show. On the benefit of sleep trackers, Dr. Breus said, "I would argue that how you feel when you wake up is much better than any sleep tracker." Being able to experiment firsthand, and see in real-time how you're feeling, made a big difference to you.

You mentioned energy levels. I worry there are people out there who don't know that a healthier life actually awaits because of their information, their lack of energy, and any other symptoms that they might have, or just what they are used to. And as a result of that they don't know any different. I know this seems like a bit of a simple question, but how should a healthy person actually feel?

Good. A funny thing is I never really used to drink coffee. And I was like, "Caffeine is the devil." And I still think it's not that great. I don't know what happened, but along the way I started enjoying coffee. I'm now one of those guys who has a coffee every morning now! But back in the day when I wrote The All-Day Energy Diet and I was going through this whole process, I recognized how does it make sense that people say, "I can't start my day without a cup of coffee?" I don't understand how that's normal, that shouldn't be a thing. You should wake up and you should feel good. And if you want to have a coffee it's not because you have to have one to feel normal, it's because you want to have one.

I think most people don't know how good they can feel because they've never felt that. It's almost like The Truman Show, the movie with Jim Carrey. He's in his own world, and at that one point in the movie he walks up the stairs, and opens the door and there's something on the other side. It's like this whole thing has been a set. That's kind of how most people live. It's like we don't even know what's on the other side of the wall until we've been on the other side of the wall. And then it's like, "Oh, wow! I feel a thousand times better."

That's really important because any one of us can say, "Oh, do this and you'll feel better." But none of us clue into that until we actually experience it. And I think one of the things that I was always really espousing with our clients was do this for two weeks, just see how you feel. And then you can go back to the way you were eating before or not.

And at that point it's your choice. Just like, "Holy cow! Why would I want to go back and do what I was doing before if I feel this good?" At least now you can make a choice from a place of power where you've experienced it, and now you have the choice to go down your old path or the new path.

That's really powerful because it's coming from a place of you owning that, and having been exposed to how good you can feel. And now the responsibility of the choice is up to you based on that. Most people haven't even scratched the surface of how good they can feel. And I don't even think age matters, because we've had clients that have been in their seventies who in five days are feeling like new people, which is amazing.

Most people haven't even scratched the surface of how good they can feel.

At the very minimum, give yourself an opportunity to cut away some of the distractions and vices. And if it's uncomfortable, it's going to be uncomfortable, but just give yourself that opportunity to feel how good you can feel. Do it for a week or two and then be like, "Well, do I want to go back to the way I was before? Or should I continue on this way?" And then you can make a choice from there, but I think it's important to at least experience it once.

There are teenagers out there who might be naturally lean or more active. How do we get teenagers to start to understand that their health decisions have very real consequences and the earlier they can implement strong health rituals the better?

There needs to be some type of technology developed that can fast forward them to where they're 50. Because I was that guy. I was that guy, and I worked as a coach at the University of Toronto with the men's soccer program for seven years, so teenagers 17 to 21. And every year it's the same thing. I was the guy who ate McDonald's to get ready for a game. That was me when I was a teenager, and I was still a really good soccer player.

When I was coaching at the University of Toronto, one of my proudest legacies — if I can call it that — is the fact that instead of guys coming to the stadium with gummy bears and McDonald's, they were coming into the stadium with green juices because there was a vegetarian restaurant not too far away.

And a green juice is $10 so for a student that's not cheap. And it was really cool to see these teachings start to resonate. I was like, "My work here is done." What's the saying? Youth is wasted on the young, something like that. And that's the way it is. We don't realize how good we have it until we don't have it anymore. And I think we're like, "We're invincible when we're young." I've got four boys under 10, they never get tired. I'm thinking they're like dogs I can just wear them out, they just keep going! And that'd be cool if you could do that forever, but I think by the time you're 35, 40, things start to change a bit.

We don't realize how good we have it until we don't have it anymore.

I'm not too sure... I think there's a certain aspect of maturity that comes with it. I think there's certain teenagers who are a little bit more forward thinking, they're a bit more mature. They realize because they're a bit more tuned into themselves in performance that they can't get away with that forever. But I also do think a lot of high level athletes that they look up to can be really good role models. Because if you're growing up in the '70s and '80s, and your role models are John McEnroe's and... I love John McEnroe.

John Daly on the golf course!

Yeah, totally. It's a very different role model than the Novak Djokovic's, or the Roger Federer's, or other role models who are maybe be a bit healthier in the way that they approach the game. Christiano Ronaldo, these are all great examples of guys who are not just great athletes, but they live a very clean life. Those are great examples for teenagers who want to emulate in their footsteps. Again, whether they're athletes or not, I think it's important to have good role models that really espouse that, because we become a reflection of our environments.

My kids are getting into skateboarding and there's a skate park by our place. And I'm very fascinated by the culture of skateboarding. I think it's a really cool sport, I'm terrible at it, but kind of sitting there and observing it, it's like they all dress very similarly. They all have their Monster energy drinks. One guy last week, he's on a skateboard, he's got a cigarette in his mouth as he's going up the halfpipe. I'm like, "This is a very different culture. Or hopefully not role models that my kids will be exposed to." I think it's important to look at who our role models are and what that environment looks like.

Yeah, and helping encourage the discipline that can lead to the goals and outcomes that people want.

We had Gabby Reece on the show earlier this year, and she had some amazing insights, but one of the big ones she shared was that the best way for people if they're truly grateful about something is not to talk about it, but to actually take care of it to the best of your ability. Yet people want that magic bullet to success. People want to be able to lose 10 pounds of fat overnight, or gain 10 pounds of muscle in a week, or whatever it might be.

How do we actually get through to people the importance of sustainable change in such a transactional world when everyone just wants that magic bullet?

The same thing happens in business as well. I think it's what people are seeing. They're seeing the 'after' on Instagram for instance, but they don't see the journey. And I think that's a major issue, and it's something I was actually speaking to my clients this morning with about.

Seth Godin has a really good book on this topic called The Dip. And the whole idea is that there's very few people who are amazing at what they do. And they're more valuable because it's more scarce, there's fewer people that are at that level, like the Gabby Reece's, the Laird Hamilton's, etc. And the difference is that everyone says they want to do that. They want to become that person, but as soon as the dip happens, which is that, "Oh, this is hard" they give up.

The difference is that the select few recognize that either before or during, so they say, "I'm just going to keep going and figure it out until I get through that dip." That journey needs to be highlighted in some way, shape, or form in a way that it's not right now. And to be honest I don't know if that ever will be, because humans want what we want. We're very compelled by things that are new, and shiny, and alluring. Although we're inspired by courage on the journey, that's not the thing that really grabs our attention right away.

And I do think if you look at the example of P90X, which came into the market at a time where infomercials were promoting six-minute abs, and sauna belts, which are these overnight magic pills. And here comes P90X saying, "This will be the hardest thing you do for 90 days, but it's going to transform your body."

They've done pretty well — about $1 billion in sales as a company. And I think that goes to show that there's always going to be a segment of the market that understands that the quick fixes don't work. At some level I think everyone needs to come to that epiphany, because they've done the diets, they've done the pills, they've done all this stuff. They've tried one business model, one tactic, and it hasn't worked out.

At some point, and where that point is in someone's life I don't know — it could be early, it could be later. Everyone will come to a realization: if you want to do something great, it's not going to be easy. And if you're not okay with that you should quit before it even starts, as opposed to quitting halfway through. And if you are okay with the fact that it's going to be challenging and full of ups and downs, then recognize that and find a way to get through that.

If you want to do something great, it's not going to be easy.

Whether that's through coaching, mentorship, being in a surrounding that's going to inspire you, have the right support, I think those are all really important. But it would be like someone who's never worked out before and the trainer's like, "You know what, we're going to help you get an amazing shape. You're going to feel amazing. It's going to be so good." And then the next day the client is so sore they can't even move, because they've never done half the stuff and they're like, "What's this all about?" You say, "Oh, sorry about that, I forgot to mention there's this thing called delayed onset muscle soreness."

I think it'd be a service to the client to be upfront and say, "Listen, here's what it's going to take to lose 20 pounds. It's going to be hard. You're going to have moments where you want to quit. There'll be times you want to cry, there'll be times you will be swearing at me, and there'll be many times where you want to give up. Are you okay with that? Because if you're not, you're not going to achieve the goals that you want."

And I think in today's day and age, hype and hyperbole, people see through all that stuff and it's just overdone. There's a lot of value in just the honest truth. Just being honest with your market, or your clients, or your messaging or whatever it is you do, yourself. I mean it just becomes so much more believable from a business perspective. But also as an individual pursuing a goal it becomes a lot more believable. Be like, "Cool, this is going to be tough. How do I prepare for the challenges and get myself okay with meeting those?" I think that's really important, because otherwise everything is a surprise and you're like, "Oh shit, I didn't think it was going to be so hard." I think that mindset shift is super important.

That's probably the perfect segue now for us to switch gears and focus on the business side more specifically.

Have you ever had any experiences where you thought that you were able to help everyone, but most of the people you were seeing just weren't committed to their goal and that journey? And as a result, you were not only unable to bring them up but they ended up pulling you down, to a degree?

Oh yeah, totally. That was one of my biggest crises as a health expert was that I wanted to help everyone. It took me a long time to swallow the pill that the people who need it the most very often want it the least. And I was like, "That sucks." But it's the reality.

Even now, when we help clients in the business front, we don't even talk about sales. For us it's interviewing. We're only going to hire this client if they fit our criteria, because we don't want someone's money, we want their transformation. And we're very clear with people upfront about how challenging it's going to be. But it's going to be challenging either way — the difference is that you're going to have guidance, coaching, and a proven model, versus doing it by yourself.

But I think it's a major disservice to people with a lot of over the top promises, like "You'll make 100K in a month" or whatever, and they focus on the shiny without the dirt along the way. It's like, "Hey, just go into the mine you'll find gold sitting there." It's really important to have that conversation with people before you even consider engaging with them. Because otherwise you're just taking people down a delusional path, and we want clients who are committed to the transformation.

It took me a long time to swallow the pill that the people who need it the most very often want it the least.

I think that is maybe a bit more applicable to a coaching type of environment. If you're selling widgets it's a little bit easier, a little bit different. But I do think it's honest communication and being transparent about the journey is in your best interest, but it's also in the client's best interest. Because you're going to have better clients who are like, "I understand that and I'm willing to sign up for this." And there's no surprises because you've laid everything out, you've laid the gauntlet in front of them.

And they probably appreciate that transparency. They might not like hearing it immediately in the present, but they also know then that you're focused on the transformation rather than the transaction.

You had seven years working as a trainer and nutritionist, working with people one-on-one but you hit a wall with that career. What was the turning point for you in recognizing that there had to be a better way than seeing people one-on-one? Which is essentially exchanging time for money.

Well, if I hadn't lost my hair when I was 16 I probably would have lost it after doing all that! Working from 7:00 in the morning until at least 7:00 at night, and then I was actually working at the university as one of the coaches with the soccer team, so that was an extra three hours on top every day. And I realized as much as I loved helping my clients transform, and hanging out with them was great. I realized there's a really low ceiling here, that I'm not even going very far in terms of impact, income, etc.

The big turning point for me was 2006 when I went to Europe with my girlfriend (now wife), and we were over there for six weeks. But trading time for dollars for so many years, I had to save up a bunch of money for the trip. And then when we took the trip, every single time we went out to eat or purchase something that money was going down and nothing else was coming in. And I'm like, "I never ever want to experience this again."

I was just committed to finding a better way. The questions I was always asking was, "How do I make more money? How do I help more people even if I'm not present with them?" It was never about how do I make more money without doing any work. That was never the conversation for me. It was how do I make more money in the service of more people, to help them get even better results but without relying on my time because I love helping people. And I remember toward the tail-end of those seven years, I was working with a client and he's huffing and puffing. He's like, "Why don't you put your voice on tape?" And I said, "Hmm, that's interesting!"

This is just when the iPod had come out and I was like, "I don't know what that means, but let me think about it." And what I eventually ended up doing was I thought to myself, "How would I help my clients get results if I were not with them, but kind of still with them?" And what I did is I actually recorded a full 90-day workout program, where my voice was on their headphones guiding them through their workout as if I was with them right there. And we were actually one of the first companies back in the day to even have that type of technology.

It was awesome because essentially what it allowed me to do is it allowed me to productize my service. And without even knowing it, that was my first step into extracting intellectual property, and creating value in transformation for people without me being present every step of the way. Is an audio guide to workout as effective as working with a trainer? No, but it's pretty darn close instead of doing it by themselves.

That was my first step into extracting intellectual property, and creating value in transformation for people without me being present every step of the way.

And that's kind of how things started with the online side of things. Even now with our clients all of our coaching is group-based. And we have hundreds of clients who get amazing results, but I don't want to spend one-on-one time with every single one of them every second of the day. And the reason, really, anyone's able to do that is by stepping back and really assessing how do I do what I do? What's the recipe through which I help people achieve an outcome? And really starting to extract it, articulate it, and then map that out in some type of curriculum that they can follow, but then you come on top with accountability, support, and coaching.

It's just incredible to see the transformation that people get. Because with my health the thing that I realized as I went from the one-on-one, which was just I'm like, "I never want to do coaching ever again." I went the complete opposite to, "I'm going to go online and live the laptop lifestyle! I'm going to sell eBooks, and all that kind of stuff, and kick my feet up." Didn't happen, it's a lot of work.

And what happened is eventually when that business took off, I got so disillusioned from it because we helped so many people on paper but I didn't know any of them. If someone purchased a workout program, or a book of mine, or a course, the likelihood of them actually doing it and getting the results? I don't know. They're on the other side of the world, are they actually doing it? And I became very disconnected from the people that we were serving, and I wanted a way to come back to really impacting people in a way where I actually knew them, where I could see their transformation. And with Healthpreneur, that's where we come back to. I went from one-on-one, kind of despising it all the way, to the other side which is very product based.

And now coming back to the middle, which is high-touch coaching in a leveraged format with those elements of productizing our service, and bringing the best of both worlds together. Again, everything happens for a reason, but I only if we learn from it and improve our future.

A lot of the stuff that you're talking about here is by going back and questioning the underlying assumptions that people had made; that you can actually have more of an impact and earn more of an income without having to exchange time for money, which I think is a really great lesson for people to think about.

Is it possible for everyone out there to be able to duplicate themselves so that they can scale?

It's both possible and impossible depending on how they choose to see it. We had a client this morning who was a naturopathic doctor. She loves traveling and she was just like, "I love the fact that I can help people when I'm in Hawaii, or Alaska, or wherever else." And she said this several times and I know this to be true. It's like her clients get better results virtually without the one-on-one, so in more of a group setting than they were coming in sort of a clinic. And I was like, "It's amazing. It's so cool."

We help health professionals, so chiros, naturopaths, health coaches, etc. That model is very broken, it is fundamentally broken because it's transactional. Let's say I've got a bummed back, I go see my chiro, he gives me an adjustment, I give him $50, and I leave. And then the next time I have an issue I come back, same thing.

It's very much tit for tat and there's no journey. There's no, "Here's what we should do between sessions, etc." It's not good for the patient, it's not good for the practitioner, and it's not sustainable. The thing is we speak with quite a few people who are like, "Well, I'm a bit different. My situation's a bit different because I do something that no one else can do." And I'm like, "Awesome, that's amazing. You've got two choices: you can let that story shackle you to the situation you're dealing with right now of low-income, no freedom and tell yourself you're a special snowflake. Or you can find a way to extract that magic and figure out a way to help more people."

You have two choices, that's it. Because we help practitioners build their virtual practice, we had a lot of chiropractors, physical therapists, really hands-on practitioners, especially during COVID who came to us who are like, "Hey, my clinic is shutdown. I got to figure out how to go online."

It's both possible and impossible depending on how they choose to see it.

And then they're like, "Well, I don't know how I can do this." And I'm like, "You've got two choices, you go out of business based on your current situation or you figure out a way to do this." And some people are like, "Let's do it." Charlie, one of our physical therapy clients, the most he made in a month in his clinic was $10,000 a month. Since he's been with us online, he's doing $30K - $40K a month regularly. And his clients get better results with sciatica and back pain.

In this fashion you have to change the way you help people, the delivery, which means the client has to show up in a different way. They become more empowered in their own journey as opposed to just kind of showing up, laying on a table, getting a crack and leaving. It really benefits the practitioner or the coach, it benefits the client because the delivery is based on the outcome. Not just, "Hey, I'll see you for half an hour" etc.

Every single person can help people in a virtual manner, but also in a way that's not necessarily one-on-one. Unless you're dealing with deep traumatic stuff, if you're a psychotherapist as an example. However, there are still ways to do that in a group setting because not every single interaction with your clients needs to be with you. If you brought 10 women together who are all dealing with the same issue, they have a community now. They're part of a tribe of other women who are like-minded and they're like, "You're going through this too!? Let's support each other."

Isolation kills, community heals. I think it's in our client's best interest to put them in a supportive environment. And then whatever way that looks like in terms of your support and coaching, there's tremendous ways to help people beyond the one-on-one. There's definitely ways, all it comes down to is being creative and willing to adapt as opposed to being very stuck in ways that may not support you.

What about those who want to serve an audience who don't have the capacity to pay? How do you provide the support that you need for an audience that you might be super passionate about, but you obviously don't want to burnout in the process? I mean if you're spending all of your time servicing clients for a dollar a day, you're going to reach a point where you burnout and you're not able to help anyone.

Who you choose to serve is one of the most important questions that's going to determine the success of your business and your life. Because if you want to help everyone who doesn't have money because you have a connection to that, that's amazing. But you have to understand that if they don't have money they can't pay you.

A lot of the typical marketing or business advice is start people low and then build them up an ascension ladder to a higher point. Our philosophy is the exact opposite. For people to get transformational results it doesn't come from a $7 ebook. It comes from a higher level coaching program where you work with them, they get an amazing result, you fill up your cup financially, they get amazing results. You now have more social proof that can feed back into your marketing and attract more clients like that.

Who you choose to serve is one of the most important questions that's going to determine the success of your business and your life.

If you fill up your cup first, let's just use dollars and cents as an example, then you have more dollars and cents to then give back to the 95% of those other people who would not be able to afford your services in the first place. It's almost like a Robin Hood type of approach. I don't even want to say you take from the rich give to the poor, but you work with people at a higher level who can afford your services, who signup because they see the value in it at least.

First and foremost you have to take care of yourself because, if you don't, you can't take care of anyone else. But then you'll reach a point in your business where you can take a portion and give it to charity, or you set up a foundation. I think so many people get caught up in all these little products, $10 here, $97 here. I was that guy, I had hundreds of products in a previous business.

And with Healthpreneur we have two: we have our coaching program and our mastermind. Pretty much everything else is free because we can give it all away, because we don't need to make sure that everything turns into some funnel or a book sale or whatever. It's like if it helps people we can give it away for free, mostly because we're ticking, we're good because of this stuff. That's my approach. It's worked tremendously well for us, it makes a lot of sense for our clients because a lot of our clients feel like martyrs in the service of others. And that's not a good place to be. I think we're all here because we want to help a lot of people, but you got to help yourself first.

You've worked with so many high achievers all around the world. What's the difference between the top 0.1% of people who might be 7- or 8-figure entrepreneurs, or at the absolute pinnacle of their industry — what do they do differently? Or is there a common trait that they have that other people don't?

Such a good question. I'll give you two very clear examples of this. We have a client who last February as the whole pandemic is just about to start, he's interested in working with us and I told him, "I think you're a little bit early." And he was making about $800 a month at the time as a health coach. And he told me, "I can do this. Watch me." And I was like, "Okay."

Twelve months later he's doing $100K a month, and helping thousands more people than he ever was. That statement says everything, "I can do this. Watch me." Embedded in that statement is a massive amount of self-belief. That is the single most important ingredient anyone can have to achieve success. If I see someone and their answer is, "Well, maybe." You're finished, it's that instantaneous. Versus someone who's like, "I'll figure this out, watch." That's the big thing right there.

Self-belief is the single most important ingredient anyone can have to achieve success.

Second quick example is we had a client who in November 2019 was on the verge of bankruptcy. He was a chiropractor, had six people in his office, five daughters at home. He had to take a $40,000 loan just to survive. He comes across our stuff at the end of November and he's like, "I need to do this, this makes a lot of sense." He starts working with us, and the first post he made inside of our Facebook group was celebrating that he was negative $14,000 in the hole.

I was like, "This guy gets it." He's like, "I'm so excited we spent $14,000. While we haven't seen a single return yet, we have 300 prospective client calls on the books for the next month and a half. I'm like "This guy's going to kill it." By July of 2020 they're doing $1.5 million a month.

And what's the difference? The difference again in his case was a belief in himself that he would do this and he would figure this out. The example of the first client I gave is the same thing. Self-belief is huge, and the second thing is courage. Especially as an entrepreneur there's no guarantee, if you're like, "Hey, what's the guarantee for this? I want to know it's going to work out." The very fact that you asked that question tells me this is not going to work out for you. Because people who have courage and belief in themselves know they're going to make it work, and that's a big thing.

The courage to step into the fear, to step into the unknown, because you believe in yourself enough to make it work with the right type of support around you. I think those two things beyond anything else make the biggest difference at least in my experience.

Check out the YouTube or podcast version where Yuri Elkaim does the Win the Day Rocket Round, answering questions about his favorite quote, what advice he’d give his 18-year-old self, the one thing on his bucket list, and a whole lot more. 🚀

The courage you mentioned there reminds me very much of faith, which is one of the principles of Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, which I'm sure you're aware.

That first one that you mentioned, self-belief, how coachable is that in your experience? Is that one of those things where it's like you have it or you don't?

I'm sure parenting has a piece in this, for sure. If you're brought up at a young age with parents who are like, "I believe in you, you can do this." That probably helps a lot. But I think the thing is if we really think about this, we all have many wins in our life. It's just those I think who have a little bit less on the self-belief side, they tend to focus on the things that didn't work out as well for them. Because self-belief I believe is something that you can dial up or dial down, and it changes based on the situation. I don't have a lot of confidence in dancing, but you put me on a soccer pitch and I'm very confident.

But the reason I'm confident in soccer is because I played it for so long, and I had so many wins and reference points. But I also had many failures. I also got a really good because of those failures and the mistakes. I tell my kids, "Guys, as a goalie, when I was 10 years old, I was playing on teams and we lost 15-0." That's 15 goals against me! That kills your confidence but again it's perspective. It's like, "Hey, I got the benefit of facing 25 shots. 15 of them went in but I saved 10." The other goalie maybe didn't have one.

I don't know. I think perspective is a big thing, it's like how we see a coin, is it this side or this side? I think makes a huge difference now into the future but also in the past.

Confidence is all based on momentum.

For those who are a little bit low on self-confidence or self-belief, try this simple exercise — and you can do this every day. Look back on your life and make a note of three moments that were, let's say, big successes for you. It could be a sporting success, it could be an achievement in school, it could be giving birth to kids — whatever it is. And don't discount those. Really think about, "Man, that's a big deal. That was remarkable."

Understand that if you do that there, that success leaves clues, and success is transferable. Building that success muscle I think is important, because the more you can do that, and then on a daily basis focus on what three wins you had today, it's going to build. Because confidence is all based on momentum. And if we focus on the right things, and we do it more, that's going to build our self belief, and we're more likely to have courage to take on more things in the future. That's what I would recommend for that.

Love that. Great advice.

You and I are both very much focused on continuing to grow. Is there anything that you include in your calendar to make sure that you're getting out of your comfort zone on a regular basis to keep growing?

Yeah. First thing I do every morning at about 4:00 AM is I jump in a cold plunge. Four degrees Celsius and I sit in there for three minutes. And I do that for the health benefits, sure, but for me it's like if I can do the most challenging thing of my day at 4:00 in the morning, everything else will be a little bit easier. That's the first thing.

I like putting myself in situations where I'm sympathetically challenged. In a cold plunge, it unleashes fight or flight, and that's where I try to find my calm. I call it the calm in the eye of the storm. Trying to center with my chaos. I've got four kids under 10. That's 24/7! How do I center myself and stay calm with the chaos? I'm not perfect, I lose my cool sometimes, but I think that's one thing I do. I like to get uncomfortable first thing in the morning.

In a cold plunge, it unleashes fight or flight, and that's where I try to find my calm.

The second thing I would suggest from a growth perspective is that I listen, or I read, a tremendous amount, or listen to a lot of podcasts. Growth is a major value of mine and our company in general, and so always learning and growing has been huge.

I'd say what's even more challenging by an exponential amount than sitting in an ice bath is having hard conversations with other humans. That's always been my Achilles heel and I've never wanted to ruffle feathers or whatever. And that's cost me a lot of time, frustration, and maybe some team members in the past that maybe should have gone a little bit sooner than they did. And I've really been aware of that and started to nip that in the bud to be like, "Hey, if I have to have a conversation with someone it's got to happen now, because I'm not going to tuck away this problem and expect it to go away."

That for me personally is probably more challenging than a tough workout, and more challenging than a cold plunge. Because of that I really have to be intentional about making that maybe not daily but a few times a week type of thing.

Final question, what's one thing you do to Win the Day?

I get my most important work done first thing in the morning.

Resources / links mentioned:

🌱 Want more Yuri Elkaim? Check out the YouTube or podcast version for the full interview, including the Win the Day Rocket Round.

⚡ Healthpreneur website.

📙 The Strong60 by Yuri Elkaim.

📝 Healthpreneur on Facebook.

📷 Healthpreneur on Instagram.

🎥 Win the Day with Gabby Reece (Ep 43).

🎢 The Dip by Seth Godin.

📖 The ONE Thing by Gary Keller.