Transcription:

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

You are listening to the Spicy Chai podcast. I’m your host, Mahrukh Imtiaz. And my mission with this podcast is to bring you the voices of content creators who are just a bit ahead of you. People you can relate to. You can hear about their struggles and wins and learn from their mistakes. So you don’t have to make the same mistakes. My hope is that this podcast inspires you to start putting your voice out there and creating content consistently so that you can make the impact you want to make with the skills you already have, and start creating the life you want to live. 

So grab your cup of Spicy Chai, and let’s get this show started. 

Hello, beautiful. What’s up? This is episode 28 of the spicy Chai podcast. And in this episode, I talked to a creator who’s lost 100 pounds, got out of a toxic relationship and then started using the power of content to help others with their fitness journeys. We talk about how to get started with creating content as a fitness influencer, staying authentic with so much noise out there. And what are some things that truly suck about content creation. 

And if you’re listening to this podcast right now and are inspired to start your own podcast, then DM me the word podcast on Instagram and I will show you how you can start one today. All right, back to the episode. 

Welcome to the Spicy Chai podcast. Today’s guest is someone who’s been overweight, depressed and anxious for most of their life. And they finally decided that enough is enough. So five years ago, they were 400 pounds in a very toxic relationship. Today, they have lost over 130 pounds. They’re with the woman of their dreams. There are dedicated life coach with over hundreds of paying clients. They have a community of health and fitness coaches, they are successful speaker. And on top of that they have 3000 plus followers on Instagram, talk about transformation. So excited to have you on today. Craig, how are you doing?

Craig Daigle  

I’m doing great. Thank you for having me.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Awesome. I want to start off with asking people like what is your story? And I kind of covered a lot of that. But do you mind going into like, how did you know enough was enough? Like what got you started the whole thing? You know, I

Craig Daigle  

I don’t think that there’s ever a time where we actually know enough is enough. You know, I think that what we see out there in social media and in the world, when we see people have that that moment where they’ve had enough. I don’t think that they actually realize it because I personally I didn’t. Eight years I spent in a relationship that was filled with domestic violence, drug abuse and alcohol. And, you know, I could have left at any moment. And I think that I continued to stay there for reasons why I told myself, one of them was for our children. And at the time, I had a son that I had full custody of that was in the relationship, she had a daughter, and we had a child together. And, you know, I was stepdad for eight years for this little girl. We had a child together who was three at the time, I had my son, who was seven at the time, and it’s like, I couldn’t bring myself to do anything. I just I accepted it. And it’s this realm that I call and I describe to people as the comfortable struggle. It’s almost like you get so comfortable struggling, that you don’t know what else to do. You don’t realize that you could have a different life, you could have a different situation. You deserve happiness. You know, we almost feel like what we have right there is what we deserve. And that’s all we’re gonna get. And that’s not the case. First 2015 You said you mentioned five years ago, I was 400 pounds. I was going through divorce. I was going through criminal cases stemming from domestic violence. And that morning of December 1, it was about 330. In the morning, I woke up and I was choking on acid reflux. I’ve literally thought I was gonna die. I thought that that was it. And at the time, I had severe sleep apnea. And I had a CPAP machine I had a mask on which you were to breathe basically, right in your sleep. It keeps us alive, right. And I’ve made it to the bathroom. I I was on the floor and it was almost like the last thing that you have. And I remember praying to God. I literally remember kneeling on the floor and saying things like, God, just let me live. Give me a second chance. And I often think that when you have nothing left that’s when people pray whether they’re religious or not. They feel like that’s all they’ve got right and I sat on the floor. I ended up pulling myself up on the vanity of the sink. I grabbed a full sleeve of antacids, I ate the entire thing, which is crazy to think about. I can’t breathe and now I’m putting things in my mouth. But I had to get the fire from the acid reflux to stop so that I could breathe And I finally started drinking water from the faucet, I finally took my first breath after the water and antacid, like the breath that I remember where my lungs were filled. And in that moment, I had remembered that I was waiting until January 1, which I think this is great that you and I get to talk at the beginning of the year. I think that a lot of people, they put this expectation on New Year’s, they put this expectation on a resolution and to change things in their life, because they know that they want things to be different. They just don’t know how. And they assume that the momentum and the excitement of the new year is going to propel them into their new life, right. And for weeks, I had been telling myself, you know, I’m going to take care of myself, January 1, I’m going to start it’s going to be my baseline, right? And December 1, my life I felt was almost taken from me. So there wasn’t going to be that moment for me to reset. I was going to need to do something then. So that morning, that was when I started doing at home fitness. I started with a program, it was a DVD I threw it in it was probably the hardest 25 minutes of my life. I thought I was gonna die for the second time that day. But immediately finishing that 25 minute cardio workout that I did, I thought to myself, you know, yes, that was hard. But my entire life up until that point was hard. And it wasn’t even in that moment that I realized that I had had enough. It wasn’t until probably three years later through my journey and through reflection and understanding forgiveness and working through my whole thing, because I mean, weight loss, anybody can lose weight, in my opinion, anybody can eat healthy, if you’re not going to work your heart and your mind at the same time, you’re going to be the same miserable, depressed, anxious person you were before just in a healthier version, right? So I realized, for me, it was it was a combination of things. It was me realizing that I was in control. It was me realizing that everything that had happened to me up to that point in my life was my responsibility. And taking ownership of it. The hardest thing I ever did was I took ownership of the fact that the domestic violence that I went through was my fault. I taught my ex wife how to treat me, I taught her what I was willing to accept. I taught her what I was willing to put up with. And some people they don’t fully understand that I you know, I’ve had conversations with people like No, it’s not your fault. She did it. No, it is it is my fault, because I could have left it anytime. And I know that everybody’s situation is different. And people stay scared and in fear and trapped in in lifestyles like that. And I want them to know that your life doesn’t need to be like that. I think that we get too scared in the details of how we’re going to get out. Right that we don’t actually do it right. Yeah, we’re too we’re too worried about, Well, how am I going to do this? And how am I going to do that? Forget about how just do it will work itself out? It? It did for me, you know, and that was probably the biggest moment that I had. I think that the most successful people in the world have had a their backs against the wall. They’ve had people doubt them. I know when I first started being a online consultant coach and entrepreneur in the fitness and health realm. When I first started, I was still a very heavyset man. People laughed at me, people told me that I was too heavy to coach people that I would never be successful and in that space because of my weight or what I was. But what they didn’t understand was at the time, I wasn’t asking people to give me permission to tell them what to do. I was asking people to time to come be with me be accountable and be supported while we do it together. Yeah. Exactly. Until I earned that experience in being able to give intentional advice and, and advice on how to overcome adversity. And that’s, that’s really where my baseline is, is when people ask me everybody has their their elevator speech, right? Like, what do you do? When people ask me what I do? I tell them, I help people overcome adversity by not being a victim of their circumstance. And then people are like, wow, that like that’s profound to say to people, they say, Well, how do you do that? That gives me that conversation piece because how do you do that is a very broad,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Like, you can go down that exactly like and there were a couple of things that you said there first, like how so many people when they get healthier, they’re still miserable. And that right on like, it’s people who lose weight. They go through these transformations and because they think oh once once I have my dream body or once I have this thing that I really want that’s it and I do agree that they forget that no, there’s this whole mental piece I heard somewhere if you’re not happy right now, with your body, you’re not going to be any happier. When you’re fitter. The happiness has to start right now you’re obviously going to be fitter. And that might have other ripple effects. But you’re right, absolutely. The mental game has to start right now. And I really liked the second thing you said is that you took complete ownership even being in an abusive relationship. And I will acknowledge that we don’t hear a lot about men being in domestic abusive relationship. And it’s a new concept, even for me, and I’ll be very honest about that. Thank you for that courage for sharing that and saying, Hey, I took the blame. And it’s for everyone listening. We’re not trying to victim blame here, but it’s just kind of more so about, hey, if you take ownership over it, and if you take control, then you’re able to take the right actions, you know, you take control away from the abuser. And I think that’s an important point for people to get. There’s another thing that I would like to go through, like when you went through this whole transformation, how did you know that some of the next steps were trying the online space? Like what was that journey, like? So?

Craig Daigle  

So for me, when I first started to go through divorce and everything, I had been a single parent at the time for the second time in my life since August, okay. So August 11 2015, was the final domestic, I never did anything with my health all the way until November. So So in November, in the very beginning of November, what ended up being the catalyst for you know, just prior to that, near an end, it literally was a near death experience for me. My stepdaughter of eight years was taken out of our life, she was removed through a guardianship case. And as a step parent, I had no rights. So I was actually removed from the court hearing that day, I was asked to leave, I never even got to hear what was said or what went on. And a few days later, or maybe a week, I got, you know, confirmation in the mail from the court order, saying that she was going to live with her maternal grandparents. And that was kind of like, what really started my depression. That was what really got me anxious was I was like, wow, like, children can be removed from my life at any moment, you know, and trying to break out of that, and to break out of that momentum was difficult. And for me to look back on it, it’s been almost heartbreaking to realize you know, how things can happen. And that rock bottom moment can transpire, basically, for you in your life. And I don’t want to get too far away from your question, remind me.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Like, what made you want to online like I, you know, definitely the pain of like, being the child being removed, like what made you be like, alright, Craig, this is now it’s time for me to try to do something online.

Craig Daigle  

Well, I initially when I first started, I wasn’t planning on helping anybody. It wasn’t even going to be a thing. But going through all that stuff, and financially strapping myself in all those court cases, and everything that was happening. I was unsuccessfully evicted from my apartment every single month, from August until then. And I started to take back my life in December of 2015, by January of 2016. And I was sharing my my life basically on social media. And I started to garner a following. And by a following, I don’t mean anybody I had about 300 friends on Facebook at the time I had, I had no Instagram at the time, I just had people that would message me and say thank you for what you shared. Thank you for what you’re talking about. Thank you for bringing light to XYZ thank you for being so honest.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So were you always a person who was posting on Facebook and then you continue doing that? Or was it like, Alright, maybe I need to start posting what was that moment? Like, where did you start posting even on Facebook or Instagram, or even like for your own self or for your friends? I

Craig Daigle  

I was always posting before but it was more of like, negative context. It was very, it was just stupidity and mindless. It really was. And you know, and I look back at you know, your Facebook memories or whatever. And I’m like, wow, like what was you know, like, wow, what was I even talking about? You know, but at the more that I posted, the more that I shared, it was keeping me accountable. It was keeping me honest with myself more so than people watching me it was me being able to be authentic and say, Okay, I did what I set out to do today. And it started with me just sharing that I was taking back my health. It was basically like my video blog,

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

It was basically like my video blog, like your scrapbook? Yes. For your accountability. Yeah, that

Craig Daigle  

That was all it basically was. And then I remember, you know, I started utilizing programs and supplements from a company that I that I work with independently right now. And in order for me to afford it, I had to figure out something right. And that was what kind of brought me into the space of, you know, coaching people was, I had signed up as a distributor, a coach through their network. But I only did that for a discount, because I would get 25% off at the time, right. And then what ended up transpiring was January of 2016, the people that watched me the month before, they realized that what I was using, I offered other people and that we could do it together. And then the next thing I know, I had about a dozen people working with me right off the bat. I mean, that was in between the messages of people telling me that I was too fat to coach people, people telling me that I would never be successful in an online space, helping people through fitness and health, that there were so many things out there that the market was saturated. And I was, I’m very fortunate that I was able to tune out that white noise, that I wasn’t doing it for money at the time, I was doing it for myself, and for the discount for me. And I was doing it to show other people what was possible. And I think that that’s what made me stand out so much in my network and in my space was. And that’s where my my authenticity and my name and my brand came from. And I say that I’m just raw, honest, and unfiltered. And that was when I became that unfiltered person. And I just stopped beating around the bush with people, I stopped dragging people and trying to convince them and I just started working with people that were ready people that were at the point where I was, and it made my life so much easier to not try to drag people like the former me, who is depressed and anxious and wasn’t ready to do things than to drag people that were like at the rock bottom, and to really lift them in their life. And that was really become, you know, where I realized, hey, you know, I could make a sustainable living, helping people do that I can literally help people. And that was that moment. Yeah.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And I think what’s so interesting about it is that your why was really clear and your why wasn’t I’m going to make money out of this, or I’m going to go viral, it was very much I’m going to help myself stay accountable. So like, how do you think like, for for people who are starting off today? How can they get to that level? Because there’s so many people starting off today? Because it’s a popular thing to do now, right? Like, you want to be an influencer. You want to be you want to have 1000s of followers, you want to go viral, like you know, and being authentic in a world like that is tough now, and that’s when people like us appreciate it. Like how would you say people like that could start and make sure that their y is actually aligned to something a bit more meaningful than followers and fame? Well,

Craig Daigle  

Well it starts with solving a problem in your life, in my opinion. And it starts with having a passion for what you’re representing. Because if you have those two things, literally nothing else matters. Because if you’re passionate about it, and what you’re doing solves a problem in your life, you’re going to be able to offer that problem solving tool to someone else. For people that are just starting out, my biggest recommendation is find something that you enjoy, and do it with someone that you would want to have as a co worker, because there are so many people in this space, that you can literally just connect with anybody and work with anybody. I think that what happens is, is a lot of people end up in the wrong system, I like to call it they end up aligning with people that don’t necessarily align with either their morals or their expectations for where they want to go. And I feel that that sometimes takes away from the momentum that they could gain in this space. Because I feel like everybody should be doing something online. I don’t care. I don’t care what your full time job is. I have multiple streams of income this day and age, especially with the climate of the world and realizing that at any moment your business could be closed or shut down. You need to have something you need to have some type of backing for yourself and why not back yourself, right? Why not have something that you can fall back on that’s yours rather than someone else. But there are so many opportunities out there i i see them all the time. And the beauty of what I do which is which is absolutely wonderful is I have a foundation with a company that I used. And what I do is I also work with people and other networks. So what I do is I help them you know basically get out of their own head by them realizing how to do it. I don’t do anything other than ask the right questions and you know It’s stuff that I learned, I have a coach myself, I feel like everybody should be mentored. I feel like everybody should always be learning. I always have this saying, if you’re not growing, you’re dying, like, you need to be, you need to always be evolving, right? And, you know, as we talked earlier, that’s where personal development plays a big role, even not just in weight loss and health. But if you’re always making yourself better, and people always ask me, they’re like, Well, you know, as far as what for personal development, and I tell all new entrepreneurs, make sure that you’re doing some type of personal development, because I don’t know what it looks like in your life. But whatever it is, in your life that you need to make better, maybe it’s parenting, it could just, it could be something, it could be something as simple as parenting. I tell my clients that and they’re like, Well, how is parenting going to help me coach? And I tell them? Well, because if you learn how to parent better, your kids are more well behaved, which opens up more space in your life, which makes you abundantly more available across all areas. And they’re like, Wow, I never really thought about that. And I’m like, Well, you know, they everything works together, right? Everything, everything in your life serves, in order to make sure that they all serve a purpose, you need to be always working on them, you need to always be readily available to adapt, because everything can change you. You don’t have control of outside events, right.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And that’s true. And like speaking of like, trying to be online nowadays, I noticed that you are very active on Facebook, you’re very active on Instagram. And so those are two that I kind of want to dig into a bit like, why did you decide to stick to those two, aside from like, just starting there with a personal? And was there a reason that you stuck to those two.

Craig Daigle  

So I turned 40 Next month, and I like to think that I think I like to think that Instagram is for the younger crowd. That’s something that I’ve been trying to flip and change. But Facebook has really always been my more authentic jam. Because when I started doing this five years ago, that’s when Facebook Live came out, that’s when you know, video content became more relevant, relatable, or more relative in our space than, say, a written blog. I use Facebook a lot, because a lot of people find it easier to just navigate. I have groups on Facebook, everything that I have is basically there.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Your audience is pretty much on Facebook. Yes,

Craig Daigle  

Yes Facebook and Instagram. So the last two years, I’ve really upped my game on Instagram, I’ve really tried to honestly, it’s the same content, right? Both platforms are literally, a lot of times, it’s a copy and paste for me. I mean, I need to save time, I need to save energy and space, right. But it’s a different audience. So it’s not the same people viewing the same content. Correct. So what’s great about it is I may go live say on Facebook. And if I feel like I just judged by how it makes me feel if it if I get off of a live and I feel fulfilled, and I feel like it helped people and you can tell you can tell by what people are writing. As you’re alive, I do a really good job of not reading all of those. And I just don’t I don’t respond to them in the moment because I like to get out the content that I’m getting out. And then that’s it, but I still see them I hear you know the inflection in the text of how it’s making people feel. What I’ll do is after that Facebook Live ends, I save it, and then it’s an IG TV. And I will just share it across share it. But like I said earlier, when I started with Facebook, I only had a few 100 people on there. I always stay maxed out at about 5000 people on Facebook, I am constantly dumping people and adding new people. I mean, as an entrepreneur, I always need to be recycling my audience and having people to come in to work with I have a business page on Facebook that has you know, 2000 followers. And then like you said, my Instagram I have I think almost 4000 followers on Instagram. So across all networks, I mean, I probably have 10,000 followers, maybe some some of them are the same.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Would you say you prepare a lot for those Facebook Lives? Is that prepare for or do you just okay? And you know, you said like, there are times when you don’t create the comments and you’re just kind of you know that it has made an impact. What happens when you do go live and nobody views it and nobody comments? Well, how did you deal with that?

Craig Daigle  

See, for me, it’s it’s never it’s never mattered, and I know that it matters for some people. So my biggest piece of advice is this. You show up whether there’s one person or there’s 100,000 people, if you’re going on to share something that’s important to you. It’s doesn’t matter because the people that you end up working with are not the people that like, comment or say anything on your posts. The people that you help the most are silent.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

Yeah, the the Peter ones just like lurking around. Yeah, the people

Craig Daigle  

Yeah the people whose lives that I’ve had the biggest impact on who I work with now, they never commented or messaged me or said anything on any of my lives. What would end up happening is, I mean, some of them they’re different timeframes, but stay, they followed me for a year. And they always wanted to change their life because I gave them hope. But they never told me they never told me they’re, they’re embarrassed. They’re, they’re scared, they’re depressed, they’re anxious. Me as an entrepreneur, I know that I need to constantly be reaching out to people. I know that network marketers and multi level marketers usually give the industry a bad name, because I get them all the time. And I know it annoys me I get the hey girl message that, hey, come join my group. We have $1,000 raffle? Oh, yeah, hey, I’m looking for testers, my team and I, we don’t do that when you’re people focused the business and the income comes when you focus on people. So typically, when we’re reaching out to people, and that’s why I’ve been so successful with help helping people is I literally leave it in their court. I asked them, hey, I don’t know if you’ve noticed what I’ve been doing. I help people online with health and fitness. If you’re willing to check out this opportunity, I’d love to talk to you. I wouldn’t know unless I asked you. And if I don’t ask you, somebody else is going to anyways. Right? But if but if you are willing, let me know. And I’d love to chat. And that authentic message really opens up the door for me to talk to people and to get to know people because that’s where I strive like I’m a people person.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

I granted I liked how you said like there are there are people who are always lurking around. And it’s an important message because you might be thinking that there’s no one looking, there’s no one commenting this, but there are always people that are listening. And so like, there’s something else that you said to me, which made me think like, when you started off, you obviously had didn’t have skills that you have now because you’re consistently posting on Facebook, what would you say like aside from even like, let’s say, Craig didn’t even build this online business? Let’s say nothing worked? What were some of the skills that you learned just by posting consistently for the past few years? What are some of those?

Craig Daigle  

That’s such a broad, great question.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

That allow you to be a better content creator today, because I bet you didn’t I I’ve read some of your posts. They’re so great. Like they’re so articulate, they’re so engaging, and I really I do feel the authenticity. I’m like, Okay, this guy really knows what he’s talking about. But I doubt when I go scroll down to three years ago, that’s how you probably I don’t know if that’s how you started, you know?

Craig Daigle  

No, I didn’t. So from for me in the beginning, did what all other entrepreneurs online are doing I just, I basically followed the mold that followed the I was a cookie cutter at the beginning. It wasn’t until like a year of doing it that I flipped the script for myself. And I realized that I was doing not only my audience and injustice, but myself and injustice because there was almost like I was chained down to a perception or persona that wasn’t me. I learned in a you know, it all ties back to personal development. It all ties back to reading and growing as an entrepreneur, there are many books that I’ve read, people always ask me, What do you read? What are you reading? There was one one author and an individual author that that really met me where I needed to be. Back in 2017. I read one of his first books, it was called on resolution. And the author’s name is Tommy Baker, which I also work with him. He is my mentor. He’s my my paid coach that I work with, but I haven’t I’ve been working with him for just over a year personally now on a one on one space. But in 2017, I read his book, didn’t know him, wasn’t connected to him. didn’t have anything to do with them. But on resolution, the idea the title, it grabbed me and the book itself grabbed me because that was basically what I did. And the premise is that you don’t make a resolution because let’s be honest, a resolution is a promise to ourselves that we intend to break two weeks after the year starts, right. I just found this time. Yeah, you know, it’s 80% of Americans stop right now. And it really grabbed me because it helped me understand what happened to me in 2015 Because I was making a New Year’s resolution. But I didn’t start on January 1. I just started on December 1 And my resolution was out the window. I didn’t. That was the first time in eight years that I didn’t make a resolution and it’s it’s stuck, but reading books and you know, over time, he had another book, the 1% rule. And then I, you know, I’ve read all the entrepreneur books. You know, I love Brendon Burchard. I love high performance habits I love. I love you know, Tony Robbins stuff. I love the Jhansi Maxwell team, I mean, all the leadership things that you hear from everybody. And I always tell people like personal developments, personal, right, right people like, what should I read? And I’m like, Well, you could borrow my underwear, and it might be comfortable. But it’s my underwear. It’s personal, right? So like, same thing goes with books like, what do you want to change in your life? What do you want to grow? What do you want to learn? That’s what you read. So it needs to speak to you. It’s personal to you. And you know, being in this space, I’ve realized that there are a lot of great books out there. Some of them just reverberate the same things that we hear, but maybe a certain author will say it a way that you need to hear it, right. Correct. Yeah, maybe, maybe that’s why

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

That’s why it’s important to have your own voice out there, too. Because people might have said the same thing again, and again, but someone might need to just hear it the way you say it, like, you know, so I completely completely agree with that. Yes, absolutely. Yeah, and

Craig Daigle  

Yeah and just learning all that stuff. And learning that you could do that. That’s really what’s helped me develop myself because like you said, if you scrolled my Instagram, or my Facebook back three years ago, you’re just you’re gonna see cookie cutter stuff, you’re gonna see me, you know, sharing a supplement online that I’ve been using, that’s helping me but I don’t do that anymore. I don’t share my programs and my products like that, yes, they helped me save my life and change my life. But I don’t represent that. When people sign up to work with me or register to be on my team. They do so to work with me, because I help them have that hope or to believe in themselves. It’s it has zero to do with the company that I’m with, because the company that I’m with, you know, has already established themselves. It’s me that’s establishing me at this point as an independent person who works for them. And it took me a couple of years to learn that it took me a couple of years to really find my voice. And it’s funny, because when I started out, I was just this single dad, who was this potty mouth guy who was just out there on Facebook, just sharing his wild, crazy life. And my following has changed over the years. My lifestyle has changed over the years, and everything’s changing. And remember I said in the beginning, if you’re not growing, you’re dying, right? So for me, I’m always, I’m always adapting. And I’ve I’ve changed over the years, I’ve dropped the cuss words more shareable, right on on social media, because the language isn’t there, people are more likely to share a message without 10 F bombs in it. Right. I also learned that people relate to your authentic story people relate to and like I said before, like solving a problem, everybody has problems in their life. And when I share about problems that I saw, like when I make a post about severe obesity, or not being able to tie my own shoes on my feet, like that’s an authentic story from me that hundreds of 1000s of people relate to, there are people that cannot reach their feet. You know, and when people read that they don’t comment or message because they’re embarrassed that that’s where they are. But it opens up that that possibility and that door for me to reach out to them. And typically, that’s when the connection happens. It’s it’s never you never know who’s watching you. You literally don’t you just never know. But yeah, like you said, like three years ago, my social media, my life does not look like it looks. Now. It has changed. And like you said in the beginning when you introduced me, my wife and I, we met through our space through our network, and I literally moved halfway across the country. I’m from New England. Originally, I grew up in New Hampshire. I was born in Massachusetts, and I live in Oklahoma now. So everywhere yeah, yeah, it’s been it’s been a crazy ride. It’s been an absolutely crazy ride. And

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

And throughout those like three years where you learned a few things like you know, making it a bit more shareable or being more authentic when you’re telling your stories at this current moment, what would you say are some of the metrics you use to know okay, you know what, Craig? I think I’m doing pretty well. I think I’m doing I’m sending the right message like what are some of your own metrics on Facebook that you use? So

Craig Daigle  

I’m I now I’m very intentional with my business. I do a lot I do a lot of tracking. I track my business. I track people coming in I track. I’ve tracked everything for me. I know that success is measured differently for everybody. So I’ve honestly not changed this perception of success for five years. If I help one person, I’m successful. If I can get one person out of domestic violence, I’m successful if I can get one person feeling healthy and confident about themselves, I’m successful, if I can get one person able to physically do things that they’ve never been able to physically do in a long time, or ever, I’m successful. For me, my success has never been measured by the amount of people I work with, or the amount of money financially that I make residual or not or commissions. It’s more how Am I successful in my life. And I often tell people that I strive to be the coach that I would follow. And I think that that really helps keep me humbled and grounded because it keeps me relatable. I asked myself, you know, before I post something on line, and especially nowadays, and I wish more people would do this, I truly wish more people would do this, I think to myself, is this positive? Is this going to help anybody? Is it kind does it bring value on these are questions that I asked myself before I post and you know, you had mentioned before that when you read my posts, you can see that I articulate my words, and that I share intentional when I when I share something, it’s very intentional. And the reason being is because I’ve learned that that’s where people get get moved, when somebody reads something, and it hits them in their home, in their heart in their, in their mind, that’s when more likely they’re going to open up to you. One of the books that truly helped me was the stories that stick by Kyndra Hall. And if you’ve not read that book, if you’re an entrepreneur, and you have any type of system where you share yourself authentically or you want to be sharing yourself authentically, that book needs to be read, you need to read stories that stick because the way that Kendra Hall describes, you know, just human beings in general and how when we read something, and how it evokes emotion in you, she really lays down the groundwork for you to express yourself better. And, you know, doing this for five years, I still know that I can work harder on on myself, I know that I can work and be better. And one of the things that I think that has really helped me across all areas, even back to talking about how it helped me gain confidence, how it helped me emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and everything was just having having these these ideas that my words are powerful, okay. And I think that a lot of people don’t understand this. But the most powerful words are the ones that you speak to yourself, language. And a lot of times and my mentor, he I hate getting called out just as much as other people do. And he couple years ago, when I started working with him, he was like, man, we got to change that weak language that you surround your life with. And it was things like, you know, I’ll try and see if I can do that tomorrow, or I hope I can. And when you use words, like try and hope and maybe and you give yourself an hour, but more importantly, people aren’t even using those words, they’re using even more negative words for themselves. They’re calling themselves ugly, they’re calling themselves fat, which I despise that word like

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

You’re a loser or the like, you know, yeah, yeah. Those are words that are being used. Yes.

Craig Daigle  

100%. And I even have clients now that are on my team that that are coaches and entrepreneurs. And as I navigate them through their business, they tell me oh, well, I would have got that. That done. But I’m a procrastinator, and I’m like, No, you’re not. You’re no longer that label that was put on you in high school by your physics teacher, you’re not that person. You used to be a procrastinator, but we are changing it say that instead, because you’re not a procrastinator, you, you literally just chose not to do it. You chose what you wanted to choose. And when I learned about changing my language, and I learned and you can read it in my post, I really tried to be intentional with it because it holds so much power upgrade our words holds so much power. So it’s in the

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

So it’s in the other end as well. It’s like when people say, I can’t do this because I don’t have video editing skills. Well, I always say add the word yet. You don’t have a yet right you will eventually develop them. So it’s the same thing about the way we talk. I can’t do this because I mean, I won’t be able to write like Craig, you know, or I haven’t lost 130 pounds like Craig, well, don’t tell yourself these bullshit stories like you know, it is it’s about getting yourself started and everyone you mentioned earlier, like there’s this problem that people want to solve and there has to be passionate around it and I truly believe that most people have solved Some problems in their life that other people would gain a lot of value from knowing how to solve that problem. And we just don’t know it. We just don’t know how we what that problem was what we solved. And I think that that’s very powerful. You’re absolutely right. Like, it’s about telling yourself the right things. And that’s one thing I really like about social media, like I’m pretty sure you just mentioned it to having an impact on one person having an impact. That’s honestly feels really great when that one person message you saying they love you, or the love that you post and or they love that the one thing you said that made a huge difference in their day. So I’m curious to hear what are some things that you don’t like about content creation? What are some things that you don’t like about putting yourself out there? Because there must be some things that you’re like, I hate this part about it.

Craig Daigle  

Well, in the beginning, for me, it was very hard for me to talk about domestic violence, it was hard for me to talk about some of the things that I went through I was I’ve been in that realm where I mean, some of it’s embarrassing, right. But what I learned was that you don’t have to share everything to be authentic. Number one, I love that you need to continue to post who you’re supposed to be and not who you post to be like, That’s what I call it, who you post to be like, don’t just show the highlight reel. But you don’t always have to show all of the downfalls and the negative things that go on in your life. But at the end of the day, for me, it was I had a hard time overcoming things. And in the beginning of my journey, there was a lot of things that I couldn’t share online because of court cases and the way that things were going. So it’s funny because I always have, you know, people that come onto my team, and they’re like, oh, I don’t want to talk about this. I’m not ready to talk about this. And I’m like, well, don’t you don’t, you don’t have to share everything to be authentic. But you can share enough to be relatable, if that makes sense. Right? And, you know, I always tell people that I am the most public, private person that you’ve ever met, okay, back when I had met my wife, you know, everybody on my social media knew me as the single dad. People knew that I was talking to a woman, they knew that I was talking to someone, but they didn’t know. They didn’t know the story they did. People wanted to know the story. But I that was that was personal. That was for me, right? We literally got engaged and got married, I didn’t share any of that on social media. Nothing got shared real time for me. And I think that this is really important for entrepreneurs to understand, you can share things real time, which is fine. Some people do, many people do. I don’t. If I’m out to to dinner, or in a moment with my family, I’m not automatically uploading photos of the aquarium trip on my Instagram, or on my Facebook or whatnot, maybe in a story or something as I’m doing it, because it’s a real quick thing, right? I don’t I don’t detract my life from my family. I don’t take away from my content creation. I don’t, I don’t take away from my family to make content. What I try to do is live in the moment, enjoy that moment and share it later. So my wife and I, we had a baby, we did not share pictures of the baby or anything we didn’t share. We did a gender reveal with our family, which we shared like four months after we had done it. You know, it’s it’s stuff like that, that people and what’s great about it is if you are an entrepreneur, and you are an influencer online, if you do have an actual following this, this is how you figure out if you do you share a little bit. And you see if people stick around to find out, use use you share a small piece, and you don’t give everybody everything that I don’t because like I said, I’m the most private public.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

It’s not that important, either. Like I don’t know if you’ve heard of Gary Vaynerchuk. Yeah, he that’s mean, he puts everything out there. But I don’t think anyone knows anything about his family. I don’t think I’ve ever seen his wife or his kids. That’s exactly the same thing where you share what you’re comfortable with sharing. And I agree that is one of the downsides of content creation. Sometimes you’re like, Well, I don’t want to share that. Cool. Don’t share it, just share with Absolutely. No, I really, really liked that. And what I also really liked about your journeys you started when you didn’t have all the results, you know, you kind of really just started saying, okay, you know what, I don’t have all the results, not the fitness yet. But you know, I want to start and you want to get people around me to do this with me. And that’s when people forget to you don’t you don’t even have to be the person who’s gotten the results. You can be somewhere in the middle person who’s still achieving the result and people will follow your journey because they want to see what you’re doing, how you’re learning what mistakes you’re making. And I think that is what makes you you and that’s what makes people follow you because people just want to see okay, what’s Craig up to now? Now, what is he doing? How is this going to think all of that is extremely powerful. And just to kind of wrap all of that up, Craig, what would you say you would want written on a billboard? As one of your final questions.

Craig Daigle  

That’s a good one you threw out me right there. I think that I would want put on a billboard, just simply impact people’s lives in a positive manner by any means necessary and not so much from an aspect of what I do for people. But to remind other people to just do that just impact each other positively. Because people need that people need that impact in their life. Because not everybody is ready for change. Not everybody is determined, like some of us are not everybody is ready to dive in to doing something to better their life. But just know that if you impact somebody’s life positively, that might just be enough. That might be enough for them to find that and to get that push into to go for it. You know, I always tell people that people’s opinions of them are not facts. And I think that that fear of what other people think keeps people stuck right. So underneath impacts people’s lives in a positive manner, no matter what subtitle would be in small in small things is people’s opinions and are not facts. You will be judged for the rest of your life anyways. be judged on what makes you happy, right? be judged on what makes you happy.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

I love that. I love that. And Craig, where can people find you?

Craig Daigle  

I am on just about every social media platform that they have. I know new ones keep popping up everywhere. And I’m trying to be everywhere that I can because you never know where we’re going to be but unfiltered life coach on Instagram, unfiltered life coach also on Facebook, that’s my business page. I also have a personal page people are welcome to follow that page as well. It’s just Craig Daigle. If you if you search Craig Daigle it usually pops up. Unfiltered life coach.com Is my website and on my Instagram there is a link tree you can literally fill out a free evaluation to see if we would work good together and I’m not for everybody. I’m for people that are ready and that’s how we figure out if we would be a good fit.

Mahrukh Imtiaz  

That’s awesome. Thank you so much, Craig. 

I loved this conversation and I’m sure many of you that are listening. If there’s anything that I have said or Craig has said that has inspired you, please feel free to share and feel free to leave a comment below thank you again and we will see you next week. You got this beautiful! 

If you are listening to this episode and are inspired to create your own podcast. Then DM me the word podcast on Instagram . You will see it in the show notes as well. And I’ll be happy to point you to some resources. Well Until next time, lots of love from your favorite. You got this beautiful!