Meeting Tony Horton & Chalene Johnson At The Beachbody Coach Game Plan Event

I just got back from a truly amazing event. It was so great that I could not stop thinking about the things I learned and experienced from it for the entire flight back to Detroit. The event I am talking about is the Beachbody Coach Game Plan Event at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point, California.

You had to be a qualified Diamond Level Coach to be invited as I was. As soon as I got the e-mail from Beachbody that I made it I could not stop thinking about it. I never would of thought I would be going to an event where I promoted living a healthy lifestyle through a business I had to sign up for. The only type of businesses I have ever known are the kinds where you show up to work every day, put in 8-14 hours, and in exchange receive a check and hope that you still have a job in a month from now.

The itinerary sparked my interest right from the get go. Business meetings on Saturday and Sunday mornings with two workouts put on by their celebrity trainers. The best part was that Beachbody was picking up the tab for the room and they were going to feed us the whole time we were there. All I had to do was get there. So a plane ticket and a rental car were my only expenses.

So I leave Detroit's 40 degrees weather behind Friday morning and land in Orange County at a nice 85 degrees. A 30 minute car ride later and I am at the Ritz Carlton. Holy shit, this is the nicest hotel I've ever stayed at. The employees are super friendly and helpful. I could not stop looking around the place. Then I saw the Pacific Ocean. The last time I had been in it was when the fam went to Hawaii when I was younger. I stepped into my room, (amazed with how nice it was) threw on my bathing suit and made a bee line to the ocean. After spending 15 minutes in the water I went back up to the pool side restaurant, ordered a $17 Chicken Ceasar Salad (Yikes!), and headed back to the room to rest up for our afternoon workout. 

Our first workout was with Chalene Johnson who is known for her Turbo Jam and CheLean Extreme workouts. We were going to do her new "Turbo Fire" workout. It was my first time doing one of her workouts and it was tougher than what I expected. It was fast paced and intense. The majority of it was choreography type moves and of course I looked like an idiot trying to keep up. She punches so hard that if somebodies head was there she would hit it right off. Beachbody filmed the whole thing and I know I am going to stick out like a sore thumb because I was the only person wearing yellow and was always off cue.

Chalene did call me out as she noticed my Central Michigan shirt. I knew she went to Michigan State but she reminded me that she in fact was a "Sparty." I did not have time to remind her how CMU beat MSU this year in one of the best football games I have seen in years. When the workout ended I was able to get a photo of her and tell her how jealous my girlfriend was that I got to meet her.

After the workout was over I went back and got cleaned up as Beachbody was going to serve us dinner. It was a very nice dinner as the CEO Carl Daikeler and John Congdon gave some quick speeches about the future of Beachbody. It was mainly a time to meet other people who were a Beachbody Coach.

I was talking to the people at my table about Beachbody and other things when I looked over and saw the P90X man himself Tony Horton. I knew I had to tell him thanks as P90X has changed my life. It took a couple minutes to get to him as every body was doing the same thing as me. When I got my turn something funny happened. I stuck out my hand and said "Hi Tony, my name is Brad." Tony then looked me over. I think he took a quick glance at me to see if I had the results somebody should have if they do P90X. One could assume he has seen a million peoples results and knows what each person should look like. Anyways, we shook hands, I told him thanks and we took the picture. I had a great time at the dinner and met a ton of great people.

Saturday morning started out with a yoga session administered by Tony again. It was pretty cool as we faced the Pacific Ocean. Doing Yoga at home is a lot different then doing it in a group of people and also when Tony is critiquing every thing you do. He did applaud my straight arms when doing the "Crescent Pose." He switched up a couple things from P90X Yoga X to make it fresh and fun. At the end of the workout I had to go in for one more photo as I was wearing my P90X T-Shirt.

After the workout Beachbody treated us to a nice breakfast including some of their Shakeology recipes. From there it was time to get to business. We were in meetings for about 6 hours that day and I learned a lot of great things about the business aspect of being a Beachbody Coach but one thing kept coming to the fore front. Every body who was there was there because the Beachbody workouts changed their life. Whether it was P90X, Turbo Jam, Slim in 6 or any of the other 25 workout programs Beachbody makes. It some times got a little emotional as people were talking about how they were before they found Beachbody. Very moving stuff. I went out with a couple other coaches on Saturday night and got to meet their families and talk about what Beachbody has done for them.

Sunday was only a half a day. It began with some more business building tips from the CEO Carl Daikeler, Larry Zimberg, and a host of other coaches. There was a pretty emotional point in the meeting where one coach read a letter from another coach who unfortunately could not attend the event as he had to deal with the death of his father from cancer in the last week. In the letter the person wrote how even though he is saddened by his father passing away he was happy to at least get the opportunity to be with his dad during the last days of his life as the Beachbody Coach opportunity has given him the freedom to work when he wants and not have to worry about showing up for a job. It really got me thinking about the people in my life.  Even though I have only recently started to be a Beachbody Coach full time it made me appreciate the freedom I have to work as hard as I want or take time off when other things pop up.

The last hour and a half of the event had a special guest speaker. Darren Hardy is the CEO of Success Magazine and was brought in to get us motivated about the opportunity ahead of us. Unfortunately, I had to leave 2 minutes after he started speaking as the only flight I had back to Detroit left an hour after he was supposed to finish. Not enough time to check out, drive back to the airport, return the rental car, and make it through security. I wish I could have listened to him speak as I read some of Success Magazine on the flight back. All I got was a photo of him before I had to go.

The Beachbody Coach Game Plan event was awesome. I had such a great time and met a lot of great people. After leaving the event I felt really excited to be apart of such a unique opportunity. It gave me the motivation needed to go and tell other people about Beachbody, their products, and about being a Beachbody Coach. Thanks Beachbody. Look forward to seeing you guys at the next event.

Here is the video from the event that Beachbody taped. You can see me at 2:20 doing Yoga. I am in the top left of the screen wearing a black shirt and blue shorts with white stripes. Then I am at 2:45 doing Turbo Fire with Chalene. I am in the yellow Central shirt not keeping up with every body. Then at 3:25 I am standing behind President Jon Congdon waiting in line for my photo with Tony Horton. You can see my head over his shoulder going in and out of the picture.