Turn Your Side Passion Into Your Next Business With This Week's #kajabihero
Today's #kajabihero, Chris Becker,'s been in the photography business for over twenty years, but he's actually a Kajabi Hero for his online health and wellness business. He was in town shooting a few weddings and I was thrilled to have him in the office for our interview.
As a single guy doing well for himself in the photography business, he was eating out a lot and traveling, and started to become concerned about his weight and his health. Having always struggled with his weight for many years, he decided to take the steps to do something about it. He started a Facebook group to get others involved and before he knew it he had an online following who were seeing results in their own lives.
Chris has lost over 100 pounds so far, and along with the physical changes Chris has also experienced internal changes as well. He feels better, has more energy, and is more confident about himself.
It's not just about losing the weight for him; It's about what is best for his body and he is passionate about sharing that with as many people as he can. Kajabi makes that easier than ever.
What Chris is doing online is radically changing people's lives. This all started out as his side hustle, but Chris is hopeful that this can be his full-time job, because he feels so strongly about helping people and getting them the results that he's experienced.
Typically people have to trade time for money. The more time you put into a career the more results you expect to see from your time. When you offer a course online, it frees up your time while providing your customers with something of value that will bring a solution to a problem that they have.
Being a wedding photographer, there are only so many Saturdays a year, and so the opportunity for time is very limited. Years ago, Chris was teaching and training photographers their craft and he had the thought to put his trainings online and offer it as a monthly subscription based program. He had hire developers to build the entire website from scratch which came with a large amount of headaches and an even larger price tag. Developing a custom website took twice as long as it was supposed to and cost him three times more than he was initially told.
Chris was doing interviews with other photographers and clients out of his garage and over the course of time ended up making about 500 videos for his subscribers. He was a high end photographer who offered a high caliber product to his clients, and he was eager to share his knowledge and success with other aspiring photographers.
Chris moved to St. Louis to be near his wife's family, and it was a humbling experience when his fame and prestige as a photographer didn't follow him there. He found that people in this new city didn't spend nearly as much on photographers as his clients in southern California, and so he decided to create some weight loss challenges online for his friends to make some extra income. His first challenge had 50 people and they lost over 1,000 pounds as a group. Chris also had a blog and a small email list.
He eventually hired a platform which helped him make his products available to anyone who wanted them, but it was limiting on the marketing side. He was having trouble reaching new people, and that's when someone happened to email him a link for Kajabi, where he found the possibilities and offerings to be exactly what he was looking for.
When It Clicked
I asked Chris to take us back to the moment where he realized he had a health problem and what that was like for him. He explained that he always knew he was a big guy, but it wasn't until he saw a picture of himself standing next to an Elvis Impersonator in Vegas that he thought, "I'm not just overweight. I'm obese." That's when it clicked mentally that he had to make a change.
Chris was no stranger to trying to lose weight in the past, and had bought into every fad diet and fitness gadget that was available. He didn't like that he was overweight, but he never cared enough to make any serious attempts at changing it.
Chris came to the ultimate conclusion that everything he had been taught about health and fitness was total nonsense. He had to start thinking about it and approaching it a different way. The fitness industry it a huge and lucrative business, and Chris realized there was some shadiness involved. He made a point about how some corporations want people to stay fat so that they can sell more products and make more money.
So Chris came up with a plan. He experimented on himself and then helped other friends implement the plan as well, and the results were obvious. He continued to research other people and methods and collect feedback from the people who were on his plan.
Chris marketed this brilliantly. He called it The Lazy Man's Challenge because he is a self-acknowledged lazy person. I think I would do pretty well on this plan! The foundation for the plan is a ketogenic diet and includes physical activity but doesn't emphasize it. It's more about getting back to the way that humans used to eat before the time of processed foods and commercials.
Chris went on to explain that fat is not the enemy. Sugar is what drives obesity and it is in almost everything these days. By removing the fat out of foods, the taste and satisfaction are also removed, so what companies do to compensate for that is to add loads of sugar to make it more palatable. Not only does sugar taste wonderful, but it's also incredibly addicting. Thus begins the cycle.
Chris stresses the point that it's about doing what's good for your body. He is an older dad and he wants to be healthy enough to watch his daughter grow up. His passion is to help people reshape the way that think about what types of foods they put into their bodies.
His eating plan basically follows a low carbohydrate, high fat model. He has cut grains and sugar completely out of his diet and sticks to mainly meat and veggies. He no longer suffers from blood sugar drops, mood swings, and perhaps best of all, food no longer controls him. He has complete discipline over what he puts in his mouth and he is more satisfied than ever before. He was motivated by his daughter's birth and how much focus and energy he had when he cut carbs and sugar.
His mission with his Kajabi site is to inform people of a new way of thinking and eating. At first it seems to go against everything you've ever been taught about food. For example, we've all heard the statement that fat is bad and that eating fat makes you fat, when in reality, it's the sugars and the high processed fats (like vegetable oil) that slowly kill you.
Chris brought up a really important point. Anytime you 'diet' you are going to lose weight. If you cut out junk food and fast food, you will see a difference in your body. The problem comes when you hit your goal weight or timeframe and you return to your normal eating habits again. All that weight is going to come right back. That perfectly describes Chris' whole life before making a true lifestyle change.
Chris offers a 100 day training course (not a diet) on his website. He says the real challenge begins on day 101 when the course is officially over and people are happy with their results but are tempted to go back to their old eating habits. After you do something for 3 months and have great results, you're much more likely to continue on in it. Every once in awhile Chris will see people slip up, and the crazy thing about that is that sugar and carbs are incredibly addicting and they mess with your hunger hormones. So once you have a little taste, your body immediately wants more.
He explains that the first two or three weeks of the plan can be uncomfortable because your body is switching fuel sources. He goes on to say that eating several small meals throughout the day can make fat burning hard, since when you eat your insulin levels go up.
Chris is having a really good time figuring out and planning tasty meals and one day dreams of opening a Keto restaurant, and I suggested that he offer a Keto Cooking Course on his website. Chris' goal is to dispel the myth that cutting carbs means cutting flavor. The reason that this lifestyle is sustainable for Chris is because he loves the food that he is eating, and he doesn't feel like he's missing out on anything. Chris is also a big believer in using grass fed meat and organic produce.
The key to making it effortless is to make it enjoyable.
Chris started on this low carb journey about six years ago and read a few books to help him understand the process of what he was doing to his body. He incorporated 'cheat meals' and in the first year he lost 70 pounds. But then life happened. He went through a breakup, was traveling a lot for work, and the cheat meals started becoming cheat days and weeks. It was no surprise then that he started gaining the weight back. So two years ago he started eating a strict ketogenic diet and has shed more than 100 pounds and kept it off.
People can sign up on the Kajabi site for the 100 day challenge and they have access to videos, lecture, downloads, and other forms of support. Chris also utilizes a Facebook group to connect with people and foster a community. Kajabi makes it really easy to deliver content to his clients. He has an orientation video, a video on how to mentally prepare and get through the challenge, and then Chris goes on to teach people how to unlearn everything they've been told. He also offers one on one coaching for people who feel like they need that or have special circumstances.
Looking to the future Chris is currently working on something for people after the first 100 days, as he wants to continue to support them on their journeys. He explains that the key to success is wanting it for yourself. He has some ideas about monthly accountability, emails, and checking in with his clients to ensure their success beyond the 100 days.
Chris also is very careful not to 'fat shame' anyone because he experienced that almost his whole life. He is also careful not to be too crazy and admits that there are times in life when he does indulge, when he's in New York City for example he will have a slice of pizza. What he typically finds is that when he does indulge, the food doesn't seem to taste as good as he thought it would.
His goal is not to be judgmental but to be an encouragement and a help anyone who is interested. He truly believes that grains and sugar are a form of poison to the body and that a lot of the health problems people face today would be eradicated if they changed what they put in their bodies.
What Chris is really working towards now is just spreading the message to as many people as he can. Weight loss is just one small benefit to changing what goes into your body.
Kajabi is just as passionate about empowering people to share their knowledge online. Just as Chris is changing people's lives with what he has learned, Kajabi is the tool that makes it so easy and so possible to do so.
You can find Chris and his awesome website, Ketology, here. Make sure to stop by and see what he is all about.
One of the most rewarding and satisfying feelings in life is knowing you are making a difference in the lives of other people. Kajabi wants to help you do that today. Share what you know and love online and watch what happens!
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