This Was The Moment My Business Collapsed...

I can see it as vividly as a picture painted on my wall.

When I close my eyes I’m instantly transported back to that office. My body trembles and my eyes swell.

This was the moment my business collapsed.

My trash can was overflowing with empty cans of Monster Energy drink.

4 empty cans on my desk — my typical daily fill. And 3 cases on the floor under my desk buying so many that I had a wholesale account and had a weekly delivery.

It shocked my employees as they walked into my office.

What they didn’t see was the drinking.

Champaign Thursdays. Date night Fridays. Fancy dinners on Saturday. All socially acceptable excuses to drink — To numb.

On the surface, I looked like a successful business owner.

Spending $500,000 building a 5,000 sqf private gym, a team of 8, hosting internationally recognized conferences, partnering with Lululemon, and writing for local magazines.

And a happy marriage to boot. Working side-by-side with my wife. The “Power Couple” as we were referred to with weekly date nights and local magazines doing pieces on us.

Except behind closed doors, we were buying time till our next escape to Mexico.

We thought people didn’t know how we really felt. And for a long time, we didn’t accept it either.

Until the circles under my eyes were so dark that I looked like I walked out of a scene in Fight Club. Our clients started to ask what was going on.

That’s when my body started to fall apart.

In my last bodybuilding competition, I could no longer lose weight. No matter how little food I ate. My hormone levels had plummeted, my energy levels were destroyed, and my hair began to fall out. Then ensued what looking back upon I realize was depression.

And as if in the snap of a finger, our identities vanished. Along with our friends, colleagues, and everything we knew in our hometown.

In one painful video and email to our community…

We closed the business.

I was building something that wasn’t aligned with my core values. I realize this now.

The old me had to die to birth what I was going to become.

For a moment, we were legit.

In the eyes of our friends and family, we were real entrepreneurs. They knew what we did. We had a tangible business they could walk into. They saw what we built and for once we felt understood.

Except I felt suffocated by it all.

The overhead expenses. The 16-hour days on the gym floor. Being tied to a physical location. The stress of managing a team. The lack of autonomy of a brick-and-mortar business.

Fast-forward to today.

My expenses are less than $1,000 per month. My profit in a single month is more than we paid both of us in 2-3 months. And my days are relaxed. I control my schedule. I have the control, autonomy, and everything I once lacked.

It didn’t happen overnight.

It took years to recover, rebuild, and rediscover who I am and what I want in life. And if I am being honest I will say I am still recovering.

But I don’t believe I would be where I am today without this experience.

In my opinion, this is something people don’t talk about.

We’re sold the shortcut.

Through courses and masterminds learning from people who’ve done it so we can avoid their mistakes and accelerate our way to success.

Except it’s largely a lie.

There are some things you can’t shortcut. There are some things you will never learn without going through them yourself. And when you try the shortcut it may never be or feel the same because your path was different.

Here are some startling facts I recently read…

• Less than 12% of coaches are making $10,000/Month.

• Less than 1% of coaches are making $100,000/Month.

• And 76% of coaches aren’t even making a full-time income.

But you’re bombarded with ads selling you the exact plan and blueprint to replace your income. Build your dream business. And make $10,000 or even $100,000 a month.

“Want to know what the 1% are doing differently.”

It’s manipulation at its finest.

And it’s why I struggled with business coaching and stepped away from it for many years.

Are the 1% doing something different? Yes.

I also believe many of those things and attributes of that same 1 % cannot be replicated, or taught in a 6-week course.

It’s not because they followed a sales script.

Built a secret sales funnel that “only the 1% knew about.”

Or used special ad strategies.

No one talks about this. They place all the success onto the plan. Ignoring all of the other factors that played a role in success.

Everyone who joins a program hopes to achieve the $10,000/Month milestone.

The ones that struggle are often shamed for not working hard enough — But most often I don’t believe that’s the reason. I don’t think it is their fault.

I fell for all of this too.

I joined masterminds, bought courses, and hired mentors, all tallying up to over $100,000 invested over the years.

When you view the wall of testimonials you never realize that if you throw enough darts at a dart board you’ll hit a bullseye. And no one tells you the truth on a sales call — Most people won’t be successful. Just re-read those stats, ~1/10 will replace their income.

And now as a marketer who’s had the opportunity to work with dozens of “7-figure businesses” I’ve peaked behind the curtain.

This directly contradicts what they tell you…

• People making $50,000/Month but can only pay themselves $7,000/Month.

• People doing multiple 5-figures who haven’t paid themselves in months.

• People making $100,000 in revenue with a 5% profit margin living their lives one month away from not being able to pay their employees.

Even my gym had months doing multiple 5-figures — And there wasn’t a penny left over to pay myself.

Today…

I work as a solopreneur paying myself more than folks making $50,000/Month while my top-line revenue is a fraction of theirs. And I have a fraction of the daily stress and responsibility they do.

Egos can drive us to make funny decisions.

Striving, grasping, greed, and the desire to fit in, have people look up to us.

It doesn’t help that social media perpetuates all of this. When we’re only exposed to the highlight reels it’s easy to fall into a state of envy. Never realize the person on the other side of your phone might envy what you have.

There’s a beautiful TV commercial out right now.

A person is sitting at a restaurant envying a person driving by in a fancy car.

The next shot is the person in the car looking envious of the person relaxed in the restaurant with their partner.

This is easily missed.

Something you only hear over a few cocktails when the lips loosen is the quality of life. Quick to brag about top-line revenue. No one discusses their happiness, how much their work, or the quality of their relationships.

Nowadays when I mentor people I’m brutally honest.

It took me 18 years to get where I am today, I don’t have a shortcut, and I cannot guarantee anyone $10,000 months.

What I can guarantee is that I will be honest, I will do my best to help you build a business that reflects your values and supports you in living your best life.

That’s the best I can offer. For some, that’s not enough. I’m at peace with that.

I’ve watched people who’ve worked with 5 different mentors.

Never achieved their monetary goals until they started with the 5th.

Here’s the unfortunate reality of these all-to-common situations…

They may not think the first 4 mentors were “good.” The first 4 mentors may say the same about them — They didn’t work hard enough. Then the 5th mentor takes all the credit.

But this may have been the path they needed to take.

I recall reading “Dotcom Secrets” by Russell Brunson in 2016. Did nothing with it.

When I re-read it in 2018. It clicked. This had nothing to do with me or Russell’s book. This was my journey.

It begins when we change our relationship with failure.

A shift from being afraid of failure to befriending failure or understanding that if we don’t stop it’s not failure, it’s purely part of our journey. Some may even call it necessary.

A quick Google search will provide you with an endless list of cliches on failure.

• You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

• Michael Jordan missed more than 9,000 shots in his career.

• Thomas Edison was known for saying he didn’t fail he just found 10,000 ways that didn’t work to create the light bulb.

Maybe there is a shred of truth to all of this.

Almost 2 decades ago after I made an unwise investment in a tax shelter that cost me thousands of dollars, my first even mentor told me it was tuition.

Throughout my professional career, I’ve invested a lot of money in tuition over the years. Including the $100,000 of debt that my wife and I took on to close our gym. I should have multiple degrees by now. Except this tuition comes in the form of battle scars and therapy sessions not letters behind our name.

Do not be afraid to fail.

It is an inevitable part of our human experience. We cannot change what happens to us nor can we predict the future. But we can change our relationship and reaction to the circumstances that we are in.

Aligning what you do with your core values can be a guiding light.

Over the years, this has begun to influence my decisions more and more. It’s allowed me to inch my way closer to my ideal. A balanced life. A successful business on my terms. Overall happiness and quality of life.

It’s become a north star and my guide to making difficult decisions.

With practice, I can now sense when I am drifting away from it. Or, when they are changing. This is a gut feeling.

Don’t be afraid to follow your values.

But at the same time, don’t be afraid if you don’t know what they are. This again is a journey. And your values change as you grow and evolve. Again this is part of the human experience.

I closed my gym because it no longer aligned with what I wanted in life. It affected me in the most literal sense.

My values have continued to change and evolve in the years since then. I routinely evaluate them. When things feel off, I explore why, I sit with it, and I open discussions with my closest friends (or therapist).

We travel through various phases in our lives.

Values often change in different phases. Our needs change. And most importantly this is 100% unique to us.

The “Groupthink” effect of masterminds can cause us to adopt the mindset, values, and lifestyle of the leader.

This can happen without us even realizing it. Subtle persuasion. We slowly drift away from our core values or adopt theirs until one day we realize it’s no longer what we want. Maybe, it’s not what we ever wanted.

It’s the power behind massive personal development events. What makes cults so powerful. On a smaller scale, it can cause everyone within a small group or mastermind to adopt the lifestyle of the leader.

This drove me to burnout in one of the first masterminds I joined.

Something I realized multiple other members experienced before leaving as well. We all began to live a lifestyle and adopt business practices against our core values.

There was a time when I wanted to travel the world and live nomadically. That evolved into wanting a home, a bookshelf, and no longer live life out of a suitcase. This has evolved since.

Each phase served me and provided me with what I needed.

Life and business out of alignment don’t feel right. At least not for long.

Finding alignment isn’t always easy. Or fast. Nor constant. But the more I’ve fought for it the happier I’ve become.

Contrast can act as a beautiful thing.

Contrast has helped me shine a light on my values. Such as there is now black without white. Up without down. Rich without poor.

Each experience provided me with the circumstances to understand what I valued. And shined a light on the path I needed to take to inch my way close to it.

Nothing in my 36 years on this earth can beat the heartwarming feeling when I am sitting alone in silence and can whisper to myself “I’m happy.”

Following the path of others left me striving for more. Constantly feeling inadequate.

Except… It led me to the path of understanding I valued in my life. Both personally and professionally.

If you’re seeking the shortcut? The secret?

This is mine.

It isn’t fast, easy, painless, or 3-simple steps.

And I won’t charge you $10,000 to give it to you either.

Some of the greatest wisdom bestowed upon me by my Buddhist Psychologist who has forever changed my life. Showing me that I do not need to take the traditional path or do what everyone else is doing. I am unique and my journey can be as unique as I am.

That is written on a reminder that is shown to me every morning.

You are also unique.

Your experience is likely to be vastly different than mine.

My hope is…

You can find kindness and compassion for yourself throughout your journey. Keep fighting for and searching for what truly matters to you. Do not fear failure. Do not blindly follow or accept the status quo. Never hesitate to question when things don’t feel right.

Let your quality of life and happiness be a guiding light.

Landon