Breaking Past Plateaus | Andy Morgan

Andy Morgan, the founder of Ripped Body and Athlete Body, has been coaching serious lifters and bodybuilders in Japan and from around the world, to train and get to competition ready level.

Our conversation was more about his business than about physique –why he started, what’s been his MO to maintain business growth for a decade, and what’s working best right now as a foreigner in Japan.

If you’re in fitness, coaching, or both, this one’s gonna hit home for you.


Follow Andy Morgan at:
https://andymorgan.com/
https://www.instagram.com/andy_rippedbody/
https://x.com/andyathletebody
https://rippedbody.com/
https://athletebody.jp/

Follow Ken Okazaki at:
https://www.instagram.com/kenokazaki/
https://www.youtube.com/c/KenOkazaki
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-content-capitalists-with-ken-okazaki/id1634328251
https://open.spotify.com/show/09IzKghscecbI7jPDVBJTw

Content Capitalists YouTube

Transcript

Andy Morgan: Life is going to come and kick you in the ass. When those ass kickings happen, are you then going to fall into doing nothing because you can't do it all? Or are you going to learn to walk in this gray area where you're going to still do what you can and be okay with that? The Content Capitalists Podcast.

Ken Okazaki: Hey, welcome to another episode of the Content Capitalist podcast. Today, I'm interviewing someone who is actually right here in Japan with me. Most of the time, I guess, are going to be Australia, UK, Canada, US. And I have the privilege of having someone who I think about a month, a month ago, or maybe five weeks.

I met him in this outdoor area where a bunch of dudes were hanging around having hot dogs and beer and we got on chatting. We were introduced by a mutual friend and since then we've gotten to know each other a bit and I invited him on the show because I think he's got some really cool insights about social media. about marketing and about entrepreneurship. That's going to be a lot of fun to discuss. Andy Morgan, welcome to the show. Ken, thank you for having me on. Honor to be on. It's a pleasure. Andy, have you ever heard it said that when you say something with a British accent, people perceive you to be more intelligent than Someone say who is speaking with an American accent like I am.

Andy Morgan: I have heard that, um, I actually, put that down to all of my success because most of my customers are American. And I think if I was American, I wouldn't stand out at all. I would just be one of many people in the fitness industry. You see, what my dirty little secret is, I'm from a place called Birmingham, which is where Peaky Blinders was filmed.

and that the accent that I have when I'm at home with my friends, is probably un understandable, uh, to you guys, or very tough. however, the beauty of it is, because the accents kind of all merge, you would still perceive me as being intelligent, yet it is seen as the, ugliest accent from the UK.

Ken Okazaki: So if I was to speak like I'm from Birmingham, then I'd be talking like this, and everybody would think that I'm a bit of an idiot if you're from the UK. However, the Americans are said to think that this accent is very intelligent. Could you hear the difference? Yeah, one was just a lot more 

Andy Morgan: slurred, 

Ken Okazaki: slurred and slow, can never get the hang of it.

When you're speaking with a British accent, then you pronounce every T, I want to go to the bathroom. And in American English, they, the T's are all silent. And I didn't realize that until I heard myself speak. And I was like, Oh yeah, that's a thing. but accents aside. Uh, you've got a couple of things going on.

You've got RippedBody. com and then AthleteBody, which are In the fitness realm, and you produce a lot of stuff online. Could you give us an overview of your businesses and what is it you do? 

Andy Morgan: Sure. Yeah. Two businesses, both in the fitness industry, both primarily in the coaching space. That's where we make most of our money.

Uh, the. Japanese business is mainly focused on working with bodybuilders, so we, or rather I should say my coaches, they have a very good reputation at helping, natural bodybuilders achieve higher, podium placings in their shows, and on the, English language site, that's ripbody. com. we work with serious recreational trainees.

They are not looking to get on the stage at all, but they have, already been working out, they've been looking after their nutrition, they've got to a place where they've hit a plateau, they're frustrated and they're ready for some more tailored one on one advice. They may or may not have ventured out into the deep dark world of the internet.

Or the deeper, darker world, more specifically of social media, and tried to find helpful information there for themselves, and then got them scammed a hundred times, and by some miracle, they haven't decided to quit yet, they've decided, I'm still going to look for some good information, and they've perhaps stumbled across us.

So really, that's where we position ourselves. 

the branding of our Japanese company on the back of our t shirts in bright yellow letters, we have fight the BS.

And so we kind of position ourselves as look, most of the industry just tries to scam you. We're not. Right? We're not going to sell you any supplements. We're not going to tell you that there's any shortcuts. You're going to have to put in the work and the shortest cut is actually to figure out what's wrong.

Dial that in, dial down everything else that is just a distraction and focus on that. That's going to be the shortest path to get to your goal. And, you know, it's the same thing on RipBody as well, except we don't have that in the tagline. It's a no nonsense diet and training guides. And we've been doing that for 13 years now.

The Japanese website, AthleticBody. JP, we're widely considered to be the most trusted website when it comes to nutrition and training information. So actually, yeah, sorry. I skipped over that part. The place where we get our customers, the place where we really nurture our customers is on the websites.

They come usually via a Google search, perhaps from social media, and then come to the websites to have the long form articles, they really stand out. We try and make them exceptionally good. And then they start really falling in love with the writing, the website, because it's so helpful. unlike most of the other stuff that they have stumbled upon up until that point that usually has a and now buy my, super secret powder that's going to get you abs in six days or whatever, right?

So, yeah, that's kind of where we are in the market. 

Ken Okazaki: Yeah, that makes sense. I feel like being in Japan and being bilingual is a bit of a cheat code because I realize almost everything that's being marketed and sold in Japan is either like somewhere between a three and seven year lag between the U. S.

market and this, you know, paying for online coaching for fitness or, you know, even the proliferation of gyms all over Japan in the last five years. That's. happened after the U S and after Australia. So almost everything happens a little bit later, especially when it comes to marketing on the internet.

Have you seen that too and taking advantage of that? Like, Hey, that worked over there, but nobody's doing Japan. Let's see if we can, you know, make a Japanese, localized version of a business model. Is that something that you've Noticed and taken advantage of? 

It's something 

Andy Morgan: I've noticed, tried to take advantage of and failed. 

so we started in 2011 and I was doing, I still am, we do coaching, right? This was on, RipBody, which was a different named website, ripbody. jp. and it was in English and Japanese at that time. And we offered coaching both in English and in Japanese. And none of the Japanese were interested. All of the Americans were interested, so I was like, great, fantastic.

So the English side of the business made money. I thought, oh, it's a problem that the website is not purely in Japanese. Frankly, the website was a mess. So that was a problem anyway. So then I split off and bought. athlete body, because no Japanese person understands what ripped means anyway, even if they were to Google it, it would come up as torn.

Yabureta, right? Yeah, right. So, so this is just like, uh, my total branding screw up from the start anyway. So then I, then I made athlete body on JP and I hired Ken. Ken came on and he worked, another Ken, all the Kens, they're great. My father's called Ken as well. so Ken came on and he started working full time.

for me translating articles there. And I thought, yes, this is going to make a difference now. And no, it was crickets for years. And the athlete body website made nothing. I didn't pay myself anything. I refused to take any, like, we had traffic, but I refused to take any, Ads on there. Um, I didn't want to do any affiliate stuff.

I really wanted to be Switzerland on this and just put out what we truly believed in and not have any kind of compromises on there. and we made no money because very few Japanese people wanted to do online coaching. So I would take the money that I was making on ripbody. com and I would use that to pay Ken's salary and whatever the other miscellaneous stuff was.

And because I really believed in that project, and it was only, I think, five or six years in that we got to a point where we had then had enough, money to, hire, another coach. and build from there. And it's still not a massive business. We're, low in terms of coaching revenue. We are low, maybe grand US a year. Um, something like that for coaching on that website. but it's building and we have a very good reputation there. A rock solid reputation there. So I'm happy and I'm happy with the trajectory of it. But that is that principle in practice. We were just way too early to the market, but fortunately we didn't die because while I was, funding it from elsewhere, we were making losses, but I was able to fund it from elsewhere because I believed in it and wanted to keep pushing forward with that.

I thought it was essentially the right thing to be doing. Building that website out to be a trusted, unbiased resource. 

Ken Okazaki: Can you give me a rough time frame from when you started that to when you felt it was at least breaking even in terms of cash? 

Andy Morgan: It may have been three years, that Japanese website, to the point where it was covering Ken's salary.

and then maybe it was the five year mark when they were covering Ken and Naoto's salary. And then we hire, I started paying myself, I think it was two and a half years ago from that website for the first time, from that business for the first time. 

Ken Okazaki: So when you paid yourself from when it started, how many years is that?

Eight 

Andy Morgan: years, 

Ken Okazaki: eight years, Ken. 

And did you recoup the losses that you made in the formative stages? Or did you just write that off? 

Andy Morgan: Yeah, no, I just wrote that off. I haven't paid myself a big lump, but it's an investment. And ultimately, like I sleep well because of it. and I'm saying that just to anyone who's like listening, like, I'm not a content marketing genius.

I feel like a little bit of a fish out of water. here, I just, kind of went with my heart on this one. I know short that it was. a good thing that we had the opportunity to do and I trusted that good things and good opportunities would come from that. And many other things have in that business, not just the coaching.

because we started out, focusing on great content and I didn't compromise it with ads. I was fortunate in that I could afford to do that. 

Ken Okazaki: I love that. Do you think that the reason most people fail when they get into. marketing or business in general is a lack of patience. 

It's very difficult for 

Andy Morgan: me to say because I I've been successful, but these were my first two businesses, right? 

and so we have the success bias here and I also don't see here of all of the failed stories, right? But what I can say is, a very good friend of mine, Greg Knuckles, he runs Stronger by Science and Macrofactor, the app that I was showing you the other week, he said to me, you know, you know, Andy, like, he didn't say it in this harsh way, but it was, I'm going to paraphrase it.

It's easy for you to sit on this pure pedestal where you're very choosy about your clients and you refuse to take ads and you don't do anything that compromises your. very high, ethical standards. When you're in that position where you have enough clients and you have enough money and you don't have a family to feed and a rent to pay for, and you're struggling. So just bear that in mind. And I was like, yeah, because if I was in that position, if I was doing it later and I had two kids or 10 kids, like as you decided to repopulate, Japan, right, Ken, it would have put me in a tough position. I wouldn't have been able to be as patient as I had. So do people need to be more patient?

Ken Okazaki: Perhaps. I don't know the metrics for that. I'm certainly less judgmental though, about those things. I'm curious about, if you could break down for us, what isthe marketing model? You said things like you've put out content forever without seeing a return. you want to, you know, cut the bullshit and get to the real solutions.

Andy Morgan: You're not selling potions and lotions. You're talking about, you know, real results. So how do people, let's talk about the Japan side first. And then we can talk about the other one. How do people find you and then end up investing money and working with you? Sure. Um, both sides are similar, but there are nuances here.

the way that people have found us in Japan has been through Google search and then word of mouth. and word of mouth on the internet is Twitter, certainly in the fitness community, that's where everybody is. and so we will try to write articles on a specific topic, for example, creatine.

It doesn't matter what that is, it's just a supplement, right? That is very popular. And we will try to write an article that is one and done. That is the article on the topic, and we go back and we update that whenever there's something further to say. And so when somebody has a question about creatine, we want to have a resource where the community, the fitness community is able to be like, yeah, yeah, boom, just check out this article on athlete body. And so we've tried to do that for very specific key topic areas. We've done some debunks, but we try to stay away from debunks because this can draw you into kind of a negative headspace and a negative kind of, community, right? We want to. As much as possible, try to, build up and be very helpful, but not coming too much from a debunk position, despite the fight the BS kind of, mantra that we have, right? 

now what happened was because the website got very popular and was very trusted within the community, we then had the opportunity to bring across Starting Strength, which is a book on barbell training and get that out into Japan. and so. We brought that over here and we promoted that and our main job was, translation and then promotion and, and that became popular.

Uh, I don't quite know how to quantify it. I don't think it was quite a number one bestseller on Amazon, but it did well. And then we were able to bring over my, my muscle and strength pyramid books, that I co authored, and these sit somewhere between a GenPOP book, and a textbook that someone would read at university.

So they're more targeted towards personal trainers, other coaches, and also serious bodybuilders and, weight class athletes like powerlifters, etc. So these are on nutrition and training. we translated those and, bought those across one by one as well. And we managed to get those to number one on Amazon.

And part of that was because we've got a good email list. And so we had the velocity of saying, Hey guys, we're about to release. We're about to release, bam, go buy it. And then that velocity of sales kicks us up into number one. And of course, then screenshot that, put that on, um, not advertising. We don't do advertising, but you know, put that in a newsletter, et cetera.

Right. Social. and those two books now are kind of considered to be the bibles of nutrition and training in the industry, which is very flattering. you could ask your brother, he'd know more about that. Um, he'd be able to verify that, right?so we've now got a very solid reputation in terms of website content, and we've got a very solid reputation in terms of those books.

We're able to Present our,before, afters, so to speak, but also our competition placings for our bodybuilders. And then we kind of become an obvious choice, for people who are looking for, bodybuilding coaching. If they're open to it online, and they can afford it, of course. So that's really the Japanese business.

And the most recent thing that we've done is we've brought over a, we've localized a US, nutrition logging app. It was called MacroFactor. MyFitnessPal would be the most similar thing, but it's a lot better.And that's run by some friends in the US and our job has been translation, customer support, and using our industry connections to help, market that and push that.

So that's, uh, that was from the start of May we've had that. So this is nice because now we've got some sweet SaaS money, right? We haven't had any recurring revenue before. that hasn't had time attached to it, like coaching. So this is,a very exciting point for the Japanese business there. 

Ken Okazaki: I got your history apart and I think I understand it, but if you were to put into one sentence, the most efficient and likely way that somebody is going to first hear about you, then become a paying customer, what do you think that would be?

Google search to email list to a customer, that route. 

So they buy straight from the email, for example, there's an offer every now and then in the email and like a promotion or something where you directly say, Hey, you should work with us and they go to some kind of signup site, put down their credit card, and now they're your client.

Yeah, exactly. 

Um, this 

Andy Morgan: is a much clearer flow for the, English language business. So I'll talk about rootbody. com, if I may. so the kind of the awareness funnels, social media. people may stumble across us being recommended on Instagram, or Twitter. or it could be, let's say I'm a, guest on a podcast.

and I say, Hey, if you're interested in nutrition, go to RedBull. com, enter your email address. We'll send you the best newsletter that you've ever been on around this stuff. right? 

Ken Okazaki: And I love that you got a 

pitch right there. we'll put that in the highlight. So go to ripbody. com and coupon code Ken Okazaki.

Andy Morgan: I mean, if, if this is of interest, obviously, right? so these will be kind of our awareness engines. Right? And then we will have calls to action. Like, frankly, you can get snippets of information from our social media, but the good stuff, the gold, is on the website or in the email list. So really you want to go there because if you've got a problem, getting snippets of it without the broader context is not going to solve it.

So let's go a little bit deeper. Free stuff on the website, free stuff in that email list. You go to the website. They read through, there's then a pitch for like, one of our lead magnets, which will be like, here's our free nutrition setup book and the seven mistakes that people typically make, or here's a five free training programs and a seven day course on how not to screw it up, right?

something that's, you know, really tempting, they sign up and then we deliver them,obviously that week long course, and then we follow it up with our evergreen newsletter there, which will be interspersed with pitches. for coaching or books or whatever. 

Ken Okazaki: Is most of this automated, the emails and the pitches and everything?

Andy Morgan: So, the pitches are not yet automated. No. but I'm working towards that. The Evergreen newsletter, is, it's a sequence of about a hundred emails. that is sent out once a week. So then if someone signs up, they'll have emails for two years. I'm looking actually to switch that to twice a week. so that will be stuff for a year.

So you're telling me that I should, and yeah, I think I should be in their brains. 

I'd recommend it. 

Go on, please 

Ken Okazaki: tell me why. 

The reason I recommend it is because the clients who are in my, you know, my clients and other people in the marketing space, a lot of them are, hesitant to push out too many emails because when they see annoying emails in their inbox, then it drives them nuts.

Genuinely, if somebody had something that was interesting to you, and it was that phase in your life where you're interested, then it's not going to bother you. The reason too many emails bother you is because it's not relevant to you right now. It was at some point, otherwise you would have never subscribed.

So you're going to get people not opening and unsubscribing, but they were not going to anyway. It just takes longer for them to unsubscribe because they don't remember you as often. And it's good that they do unsubscribe because then the quality of your leads will go up. Like the people make a decision quicker, like, is this for me now or am I going to unsubscribe? So that's number one. Number two, you know, Andy, when you want to buy a new car, or if you, get the, urge to go take a vacation in Fiji or to get your abs, you know, showing, that's a phase. And you heat up for whatever reason, but then there's a slow cooling period and you got to get them as, you know, while, before they completely cool off.

So that's, my thinking behind that. and that's where you see, you know, better conversions, I think. 

Yeah, that makes sense to me. 

The unsubscribe rate will go up, but only because they weren't interested in, interested enough in the first place. And, yeah, the quality targeting will go up too.

I can't say it'll be across the board for everybody, but generally, that's what we're seeing. 

Andy Morgan: Yeah, that makes sense to me. I found that, even when I email more, the unsubscribe rates stay about the same. So it's about 0. 2%. So over 25, 000 person email list, about 50 unsubscribe each time. 

and that doesn't really change unless it's just a direct pitch email. And those direct pitch, I try and do value first emails, but those just, hey, coaching spaces are closing today, get in. At that point, if someone unsubscribes, they're probably just needing a nudge to unsubscribe anyway, because they weren't interested, right?

So actually I don't see it as a bad thing. And then that won't be 50, that'll be like 80 people or something like that. so I'm thinking of moving it from once a week to twice a week. Because when I do pitch, I'm using a 10 email framework so each month I will send, moving forward in the first week, two emails, pure value.

Second week, two emails, pure value. Third week, it's going to be, hey, we're talking about, the importance of finding accountability this week and what that's going to cost you if you don't. so the. format will be Monday. It'll be talking about the pain of not solving this particular issue. Wednesday it will be agitating the issue.

Friday we'll be talking about the solution. that I'm giving them some tips on how they can solve that, but also hinting at something that we do that can solve that we'll tell them more about next week. so in this case, our coaching offer, and then it will be, gain, fear, logic, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, going, going, last chance, gone, right?

So then the five or six emails there, and I did that for, this specific framework. I got it from a fellow called John Ainsworth. Datadrivenmarketing. co. I think it is. Great website. Great dude. I did that just this last week because, or this last. Two weeks, because I wanted to clear my calendar later in the year to create space to write the third editions of those books and to work on another project, and so I wanted it to just be full and then closed, and it's worked great, 

And how long after are you doing this like once per quarter, or. 

So that was the first time that I'd ever done this in particular style of pitch. And I'm embarrassed to say, this is why I feel a little bit out of place here on this pod. I feel like the people listening are going to be like, Oh, Andy, you're such an idiot.

And like, you're right. Yes, I am an idiot. If you're thinking that I have never really pitched my coaching before. It's always just been a Yeah, we've got some coaching spaces available, click here if you want to sign up, but usually we've just had people stacked in just waiting to get in because we've got such a good reputation.

Ken Okazaki: Oh, if you don't need to pitch, then you don't need to pitch. Like if you have, if you don't have a problem with leads, then there's no reason to. Here's the thing. Once you start pitching, then there's a much more delicate line between, remaining the authority or acting like you're desperate. And this is where you, if you don't ever have to pitch, then you get to remain the authority and you don't, and people come to you, or the second way to do it, if you want to remain the authority is, you know, do likethe rock stars do it, they have promoters promote their event and they just show up and get on stage and then you never have to be in that desperate type of, you know, framework and you can pitch hard, but with someone else's face.

Right? So the promoters are going to be, you know, whatever, the local venues, whatever PR firm they hire, they promote the heck out of you. And you separate yourself from being the face of promotion. You're just the face of authority and of knowledge and entertainment or whatever it is that you're providing. 

and that's pretty much why I had to learn this because I was the promoter for, you know, people like Tony Robbins and people like Robert Kiyosaki and Jordan Belfort. When I was supporting them here in Japan, they weren't the ones out there peddling their tickets. I was, and they just show up on stage that I set up for them that, you know, like, so it was, there's that relationship.

So there's nothing wrong with pitching, but some people get too wrapped up in that identity and they don't realize that their brand is changing and people's perception of you starts changing because of that. And that's something that it could hurt you in the long run. It might not. or you can become known for being, you know, the top sales guy, the pitch guy, for what it is that you did if you're wildly successful.

Andy Morgan: Can we talk about this a little more? I don't know if this would be of interest to listeners. so the reason that I'm now having to pitch is because it's not just me anymore. It's me and another coach, Matt. And actually I want to build the business from here. And so we're going to build out a lower tier offer.

Our coaching high ish end in this nutrition and training coaching niche. So it's five to 800 a month, and LTV something like seven months. So this already cuts out a large part of the market. And we're looking at building out like a lower ticket, some kind of, offer that like a, done with you offer rather than a done for you.

which some of your previous guests have talked about. now when it comes to that high. Kind of the VIP coaching that we're currently doing. How would I get, how would I promote that without looking, without changing that dynamic, because I can't just hire, you know, I'm not a rockstar getting on stage.

Ken Okazaki: I can't just hire, a person to sell my spaces. Right. Well, I'll use an example. I recently joined. It's Dynamite Circle, it's a, very low cost entrepreneur's community. And, now to come in there is not a huge commitment. We meet once a month, we collaborate online, and we have.

Like annual international events, but for me just to be able to keep in touch and kind of feel like I'm, I've, you know, paid my, like I own a seat at the table instead of like tagging along, you know, it, it feels good and it's not a high cost. Now if someone came to me from, let's just say, uh, somebody who's at a higher tier taps me on the shoulder and has a one-on-one chat and says, Hey, you know, we noticed that you're really good at A, B, C, and D and I think that you'd have a lot to offer at this other.

Tier. I'd love to give you a free pass to come and as my personal guest and check it out and meet the community. No talk about price, no talk about anything other than we see unique value in you. And these people who are at a different tier that you have not been exposed to yet, I think that you'd be able to add value to them.

Now I'm flattered. Now I feel like, Oh, they noticed me. Like, what did they notice? You know? And of course there's a bit of research done to make sure, You know, that it's not insincere and because of that, I'm going to get in there and either I'm going to love the community or I'm going to feel like it's not for me. It's literally a gift that you're going to give them. And there's a high likelihood I would, if they've researched me and they know my financial, you know, standing, I can afford it. They wouldn't have tapped me on the shoulder if I didn't. so number one, money's not a problem. They're qualified.

Number two, are they a good fit? Are they a culture fit? And if yes,

Now, this is a model that works really well in this two tier type of system when it comes to coaching online communities and things like that. And so what you do is you sell everybody. You only promote one thing, which is the low ticket low tier one, some people, me included with other communities have done my own research.

I realized there's another level. And I would just. the talktowns the you know, the paddling pool, right? The baby pool. Now, there are people who will go in there, spend a few days and it's like, Hey, I love what you're doing, but I need something more personalized for me. And those are the kinds of people who will raise their hand.

Now the majority of people they're going to take your. what is it? 500, 700 a month type of membership. They're going to go through it. They're going to be happy. And then afterwards, they'll be exposed to the other community. Now, you might have like a 10 to 15%, ascension rate, but it won't be the majority. But what's happening now is the lower tier offer is cheap enough that you can profitably run it. And what it is, is it's becoming, lead generator in terms of word of mouth. So you're going to have a lot of word of mouth. you're also going to be able to elicit testimonials and case studies and it's raising your authority for you while being cash positive. Let's say 10 percent of those guys go up to the upper tier where you probably charge at least 10 times more than that or 5 or 10 times more. And that comes by personal invitation or by people taking the initiative to, you know, ascend themselves. The problem with promoting two things to a cold market is it gets confusing, right?

So. Unless they're a Walmart, you've already had some contact with them, then it'll be difficult to get them straight into a, multi thousand dollar a month type of deal. If you're promoting to the general market, that's going to raise your authority. It's going to raise your exposure. It's going to, you know, raise awareness about who you are and what you do.

Andy Morgan: okay, so I like all of that. That sounds great. And I can totally see how We could end up with mixed messages if we are promoting two things. Is the theory here then, that because we are not, promoting the one on one or being pushy with the one on one, Hey, we've got a few spaces left.

Hey, you know, we're not being too openly pushy with that, that then it's not turning me publicly into this sales guy. And it's okay to promote this lower tier community slash, group, slash done with you product. Because it's not this VVIP stuff. Is that, 

that's how I 

Ken Okazaki: see it. Yeah. Do you remember when Billy Blanks got really big in Japan? Yeah. Yeah. I've been there a 

long time ago. So think about it like this. Anybody could buy his DVD or VHS. Was it? I think he even did VHS sets, right? Anybody could buy it. But he did have Japanese celebrities who he privately coached. And, I don't know what his fees are, but I can bet you it's more than a VHS tape. 

So, think of it like that. 

Yeah, that makes total sense. Thank you. Yes, 

Andy Morgan: yes. See, this is, this is turning into a coaching call. Billy Blanks, that's us from the past, 

Ken Okazaki: yeah. From the past, way back, way back. Way back, 20 years. 

I'm actually, to tell you the truth, transparently, I'm restructuring my business. a bit too, to follow this model more closely.

And, there's a, it's a book really changed how I think about things. It's called the five ones. I think you've already mastered this, but when you're doing a new marketing or business initiative, then you got to think of what are the five things that you're going to focus on. And the first one is number one, you got to stick to one target market, like one avatar. And the second thing is. There's one market, one avatar, one offer. So this is, you know, instead of offering two different things, only promote one thing, one channel. So you can have multiple ones, but it's got to be optimized for one channel, whether it's going to be your YouTube channel, your blog, and then repost for everything else, and then one conversion mechanism.

So the conversion mechanism can be an online forum where people pay, or it might be a sales conversation or a live event where you recruit on the spot. So, I've only done four there, and the last five is one year. A minimum of one year of dialing in just these four things, and refusing to add any bells and whistles or upsells or downsells, or, you know, other things to confuse your audience, or to dilute your focus, is going to negate the focus, that laser focus you need, to get that one thing working.

And, that's called the five ones. And for me, that's been 

Andy Morgan: playbook. 

The playbook that has been your playbook. Or that's going to be the playbook that you more rigorously implement from here, because you started out saying that you were looking at repositioning. 

Ken Okazaki: That's the principle I use wheneverI'm doing a new business venture, a new offer. And I'm re implementing it now as I'm going into changing up a few things, my business and changing my offer. 

Got you. Thank 

Andy Morgan: you. I've just written that down in the, Ken Okazaki, ideas, uh, note that I have. Oh, I can't take credit for that. Within my Apple notes. No, no, you absolutely take credit because you positioned it to me at the right time where it was something I needed.

and you're saying that it's not your idea, but Yeah. Oh, here. So, um, dear listener, Ken has just gone off to his very large bookshelf. Ah, The One Thing. 

Ken Okazaki: I like it. 

It's called The One Thing, and this is absolutely brilliant. And then inside of here, we extract, like, within different levels or areas of business, there's got to be the one thing.

And for me, those were the five areas where there's just one thing to focus on. This is actually a really easy read, but excellent book. if you're in business. 

Andy Morgan: Thank you. I'll buy that today. I've got here four things written down. One offer, one channel, one conversion mechanism, and one year.

Do not dilute your focus before that. what was the other one? 

One 

Ken Okazaki: audience, like one target market. Ah, yes. Okay. So is it the salaryman? Is it the expat? Is it the Gakusei, and you just got to decide who that one is. Hopefully the most profitable one, and then just dial all your messaging and all your marketing around that one person. Yeah, that makes total sense. Get as many of these as you can. What's the biggest difference you see between Japanese and international or English speaking marketing that you've experienced? Because you're on both sides of the fence. Or let's just say business in general. 

Andy Morgan: 

people are slower to agree or come to terms.

Once things are agreed, things tend to move fast here, in Japan that is. So, it's harder to get people to say yes, but once they're in, they're like, no, I'm decided, I'm in. it seems more with Americans, they're happy to dive in and give something a shot, the flip side is, they're also very happy to dive out, because they're like, yeah, well, that didn't work.

Or, they're diving into five things at once, and yours is just one of them. Yeah, so, I'll tell you one thing that's kind of funny. Japanese readers will read everything that you write to them. Not everything and not always, but like our customers, like, we will send them instructions, and they will follow the instructions. Our English speakers, you send stuff to them, you have to have stuff bolded, you have to have like bullet points, like summaries, like, and you know that people are just going to skim read the shit out of everything, and it's,It's kind of annoying. You just can't take for granted that someone's actually read what you've said to them.

But with our Japanese customers, 99 times out of 100, they'll read everything. Uh, so that's, that's good. This is true. This is true. Another funny one,we were talking about this the other day, actually, and you were giving me some advice, um, when it comes to teaching,live, whether that be online or in person, Westerners, very happy to put their hand up, ask questions, cool, it's all good, Japanese, much more hesitant to put their hand up and ask questions because they fear embarrassment in front of the group. 

so then you need to kind of come up with strategies for how you're going to deal with that and create an environment where people feel comfortable where they can ask questions, because, you know, you want to have that warm vibe where people feel that they can,Ask questions and they're part of a community and this is a non judgmental zone because we're all just looking to learn here. 

so that's another difference that, that we have. 

Ken Okazaki: but when you get people in the right environment, I'll give you the context around this. There was an event where I hired a very, very, influential speaker from the U S to coach my clients on sales.

and what's the sales specifically from a stage? Like how, if you're in a room of 1000 people, how can you get 200 of them to buy your 10, 000 product? Right. So that's what this guy is about. And a big piece of that was completely, the term he used as dying to yourself, where like you're not doing anything for yourself.

It's as if you don't exist. It has to be a hundred percent about the needs, the desires, the fears, the unspoken thoughts of your audience. And so there was some, very, confronting exercises where he helped the Japanese audience that we brought there have these breakthroughs. and in order to do that, we had to put them, reassure them over and over it's a safe space and that they can really do, you know, play full out.

And I was surprised to see how far, he took my audience. well, it was his audience definitely when he's on stage, but. These are people who are business owners, they're shachos, they're sarariman, you know, they've been in companies as Cheyenne for years and years and they're executives and now they've turned into something completely different and that completely amazed me.

So if you do a good job of setting the context and giving them very clear instructions and reassurances of why this is important and how it's going to work, how it's going to play out, then. They'll follow. They really will. you got to win their trust, but they will follow. 

Andy Morgan: So what's the phrase?

Saishouba kanjin? Is that the phrase or did I get that wrong? 

Ken Okazaki: Yeah. Where'd you hear that from? 

Andy Morgan: You know, it might've been about 15 years ago. I think I picked it up, uh, in the martial arts, or maybe I was talking about in school, maybe it was lesson planning. and it was talking about the importance of setting the tone in that first lesson I used to teach in high schools.

know how, I'm kind of this, uh, business idiot, where I built the Japanese website, not really seeing, what the profit centers could be in the future, but just believing in the project, right? an example of another opportunity that has come up, because of this is, running a monthly seminar series and kind of community membership.

and that happened because we had a deep amount of trust in the community and we're able to partner with a fellow called Suzuki Masashi. And if you Google Suzuki Masashi bodybuilding, you'll see he's like nine time all Japan JBBF champion, like until he got injured, when he couldn't compete anymore, so absolute legend.

but he's prepared to team up with us and do this because of the reputation that we've built. I mean, that would never happen if that. If we hadn't have stayed, you know, kind of apolitical, so to speak, right? Like Switzerland, we're. 

Ken Okazaki: Another thing too, I think is as an expat, a lot of Japanese are wondering, are you just going to take off and go home as soon as like, like what's your staying power and because of the time you spent here, I think that's another reason why people trust you.

Yeah, this is a good point. Versus, um, like when COVID hit, do you remember how many of your expat friends just took off? like, probably more than half, right? 

Andy Morgan: more disappointing. I can understand COVID. I have quite long term friends, but, uh, if I had been in more of a, the English teaching world or more new to Japan world, then I can see a lot of people leaving.

Um, more disappointing was when the earthquake hit, how many people just left? That, you know They were like, come on, guys. What? You're just leaving? You're just begging your companies to just transfer you back home? Like, and you could see it from the Tokyo American Club membership dip. how many of these high level execs that were just like, off they go, back home.

anyway, just to tie up that thread, the reason I mentioned about Suzuki Masashi and the opportunity there, the business opportunity there, like another revenue stream that we can, we're now looking to create, and I think we have a good shot at it.We have to from the start create this, feeling of you can ask questions.

Yes, this guy is a legend and you look up to him. And yes, you look up to our coach, Naoto and Kousei, as, Very, very knowledgeable coaches in bodybuilding, but there are no stupid questions. If you're thinking something, 10 other people of these hundred are probably thinking it, and it's okay to ask. So strategies, how do we bring people out of their shells, given that we're delivering this online?

How can we make it a really fun community? How can we make it friendly? We think we're having to think through these things right now, because we want to hit it. Like we want to knock it out of the park right from the get go, because the is important. The how we start, What's a phrase we use? You've got to start as you mean to go on.

We've got to set the tone right from the start. so yeah, that's kind of another thing that's, come out of this. 

Ken Okazaki: Um, and it's, and how's that gone so far as far as getting people to engage and ask these questions? 

Andy Morgan: So we haven't actually got it live yet. we're in the pre promotion stage.

Um, so it's just been setting up the tech, deciding, what tools we're going to use for that. what lessons we're going to do, but we're fairly confident. 

Ken Okazaki: Sure, please, because you're in prelaunch. you can get your active community to help you build the program in the sense of saying, Hey, we're gonna launch this thing in X amount of weeks.

Now we want to make sure that we don't put anything in there that you're not actually interested in. We only want to put what you, the listener, or the reader is most interested in. So. By replying to this email with your top question, you're helping us to build a curriculum. So now, they feel ownership, partly, of this project, because they contributed to it.

Now, you might want to, you know, tweak your curriculum a bit based on what they put in there, and then you're going to find out what they really want. And you also know what to put up front in your marketing. This is what people actually want. Now, the second thing you're going to do is after it's launched, you're going to keep drilling that in as the core message if you decide to adopt it, which is We only teach what people want answers to, and the only way we can get better is by you telling us what's the thing you want the answer to, what's the solution you're looking for.

So, let's take a minute right now, everybody anonymously fill out this form, you send out a form, and then all these questions come up. It's anonymous, so nobody has to feel embarrassed. And then you throw all the questions back to the community to vote on which ones that, you know, which questions to answer first in which order. So This gives the community ownership of both the creation of the program and the way that it evolves. And now they're going to be much more likely to invite their friends. They're going to be much more likely to refer people, much more likely to stick around because now they co created this with you.

it's not you being the encyclopedia. It's them having, part in creating what's actually important to them. Does that make sense? 

Andy Morgan: Beautiful. Beautiful. I love it. In fact, as soon as we get off this call, I'm going to call up Ken number two, I'll call him and we're going to have a chat about exactly this, how we can do exactly this.

It's so obvious, but like, it's, it's nothing, you haven't said anything there that is, mind blowing, but like, it's just so right, that that is the right thing to do. Cause just.

Ken Okazaki: And then of course, when you pitch it, you're going to say, thanks for contributing to this course that we made for you based on what you told us. And this is what, this is the list of the things you told us is most important to you. And like, there might be 12 pillars or something like that. And let's get you inside. You know, that's the message, you know, let's see the house that we built for you. The house that you helped us plan. And you tour them inside, they look around and by the time they've checked out everything and that's when you get them to sign on the dotted line and buy the house. I love it. Nice. Yeah. Thank you. That's a really good idea. So we're going a bit over time here, but I want to ask one last, well, I got two last questions. Second to the last question is going to be, what's a common misconception about fitness that you're finding people have in Japan uniquely compared to other countries?

Or fitness in general, not necessarily online. 

Andy Morgan: I think that if you're going to get into shape, it has to be very, very hardcore. this is kind of a cultural thing with the Japanese. They tend to think of their hobby, not their hobbies. They will have one or two hobbies, but typically one, and they will do that all out.

That is the thing that they do after work and on the weekend. And so, when you position, or when people think about getting in shape, or not getting in shape, I like it. bodybuilding, for example, a better body, right? Losing a bit of fat, gaining a bit of muscle, which is what kind of everyone wants.

They don't think of, okay, I'll make some small tweaks to my diet, maybe no desserts, and I'll cut out like the whiskey in the evenings, and I'll, I'll start going to the gym twice a week. They think, okay, well, you know, I'm going to have to carry around my protein shaker, I'm going to have to go to the gym five times a week, I'm going to have to start doing that tanning that I see these people do, and I'm not sure I'm really into that, and like the fashion that a lot of these kind of physique competitors have, I'm not really sure I want to do that kind of baggy pants, but I guess that's what I'll have to do.

It's all or nothing, right? It is. when it comes to the clients that we work with on the English language site, who aren't the bodybuilders who are literally all in, right, for everything. Right. when it comes to the recreational trainees, the thing that separates those who are successful in transforming themselves from those who are not, is the people who are successful have learned to avoid the all or nothing mentality, because life is going to come and kick you in the ass.

At times, and when those ass kickings happen, are you then going to fall into doing nothing because you can't do it all? Or are you going to learn to walk in this gray area where you're going to still do what you can and be okay with that? Be okay with making half the progress rather than regressing.

And people find themselves really stuck there. So if a client has learned, if we've managed to teach them to walk in this gray zone, to avoid this all or nothing mental trap, I'm no longer worried about them. I know they're going to be all right when they go on vacations, when they, you know, when things happen, we have to dial things back for them.

and it's a really,really good place to be to see the transformation that someone goes through as a client mentally. Like the mental transformation is what it's all about because, they think they come for the nutrition and the training advice. Actually, what we're trying to give them is a set of habits of this mental transformation so that the gravity of their habits and environment now pulls them towards being in shape, whereas previously it was pulling them out of shape.

Because then I know they're going to be long term successful. And then I know they're going to become a walking billboard for our services. So yeah, it's really that all or nothing. It's even more extreme, perhaps, in Japan. I think so. I mean, the 

Ken Okazaki: whole, I it's actually kind of got international.

We'll talk where. It just describes somebody who's obsessed with their hobby, extreme obsession, whether it's going to be comic books or whatever. Okay, last question here. you've built a successful business in online training and a lot of people are trying to get into the space. And it's been a period of years. If you had to start over again, without the recognition or the authority that you've built up over the last decade or so, you're at zero. How about you here in Japan? How would you do it differently? 

Andy Morgan: Um, the fact that I'm in Japan, it wouldn't, change anything. I would still go for the American market, because it's just going to be me.

I can't now afford to hire a Japanese person. And my language ability is not good enough, to work with the Japanese. it's good, but it's, it isn't fluent. And so, or rather it's not native. And so we can't. I wouldn't try and work there. I would still try and work with Americans. Americans are most open to coaching. Okay. How am I going to capture my customers? Who am I good at working with? Well, first, I'm going to work with people in my circle, in person, and I try to work with them for free, but have some kind of buy in, so maybe they pay me, but they get a refund if they follow through on everything, and I may give them cash if they allow me to use their testimonial at the end, and I try and work with five very dedicated people.

So then I'll get their testimonials and I'll start talking about, actually, I would create videos of how I'm working with these people, but not publishing them as we're going along. And for the ones that were successful, I would then publish those videos later on as if I'm working with them at the time.

So I'll tell a little bit of a white lie. here's my client, Tom. We're going to work together for the next 12 weeks. Join us. Let's see how he does. The transformation has actually already happened. And the reason I do that is because I want the security because not everyone is going to follow through.

and I would do that via YouTube. I would get really good at YouTube, um, because I got good at writing, but that's because I just practiced. But now I think things are shifting more over into video. You've talked about this on your podcast before. Um, so I would do that via YouTube and I would stick to a fairly niche demographic and try to learn.

everything about these people's pain points and then I would tweak my offer from there. I would try and get referrals. I would then try and build that channel out from there. That's how I would go. it's essentially what I did at the start. but instead of writing video and tweaked, yeah. So that you're bringing people along for the journey.

And I would still do what I did from the start, which is maintain this, one of us feeling. that, Chris Brogan and Julian Smith talk about in their book, Trust Agents. It's a 2011 book, I think it is. It's really good, still. and this is talking about how, don't position yourself as a sensei. Don't position yourself as like, better than them.

Just try and be one of them and build trust. And position yourself as just someone who's got a little more experience and is a little further ahead of this than you. I think people respond to that positioning better. Sure, some people respond to, like, this guru. and student, kind of situation and sure that can be very powerful.

Um, 

Ken Okazaki: That's harder to do if you're starting from zero and you don't have the track record. Exactly. Yeah. And it's not really, I don't see that as your personality. You know, so soft spoken. I like, I don't see you, Andy, as being someone who. I mean, maybe you can, like, could you put on a drill sergeant type of attitude when you're training people or is that just not you?

Would you feel so gross doing that? 

I'd feel 

Andy Morgan: a bit gross. I think romantically, I like the idea romantically of that, um, full metal jacket, like tear down, but I, it's not 

Ken Okazaki: me. Stick to who you are. Andy, thank you so much for that. I appreciate, everything you shared here. It was a really insightful conversation.

And, you guys know where to find them. Rippardi. com. AthleteBody. jp is it or com? Yeah, 

Andy Morgan: so jp or com will redirect. 

Ken Okazaki: Okay, AthleteBody. com, RipBody. com and as a side note, you said For the beginning, you said if RIPBODY were translated to Japanese, then it would sound strange. if you take the Japanese version of that is, which is right?

Which literally means cracked. So it'll be like a cracked body if you translate the Japanese version of RIPBED to Japanese. And the way I kind of, every time I hear that, the way I picture it is like, in Japan you have these things called senbes, which is like a rice cracker. And they're very brittle. They're kind of like pale.

They're your skin color. And if you were to like crack it, then it might look like a six pack if you arrange it just right. So, uh, that's how I pictured it. The first time I heard someone say waratere, because then you could see the lines, you know, between your abs, but, uh, that would be the Japanese version.

If anyone's interested. Uh, Andy, thank you so much for being on the show and everybody who's listening, please go check out his sites and I will see you next week.

No hassle, worship here, we're a different breed. Action is what we got if action is what you need. Us content capitalists, we're breaking the flow. Cuz the old ways stay, new stories to be told. So content capitalists, get to the press.