The Real Reason Your Body Is a Business Card with Mauro Stara, Founder of Six Pack CEO

(Mauro at 00:00:00) This guy's been working out twenty years on his own, running marathons. He's like top 0.01% in business, like absolute monster and high achiever. And he reached us like, "Hey, like, I realized I can't outrun or out-train my diet." And he didn't have a bad diet, but it was not customized to him and really dialed in. So that was the main thing. We dialed in his diet. And then when I made the post, people would comment like, "Oh, I just gotta work harder." And it's like, man, if there's one thing that I want you guys to take away from this post, it's not working harder.

(Mauro at 00:00:40) And then he commented and said, like, "Hey, hard work is always important. But you know what? In my case, it was actually that I worked less." Like, he worked out less with us than he did on his own.

(Mauro at 00:00:53) Recovery was better. Therefore, appetite was not jacked up into the roof, and it allowed him to stay longer in a cut.

(Joel Beasley at 00:01:09) Mauro, man, it's good to have you back. I love what you do with your life. I love how you spend your time. For the people who didn't hear you on the last episode we did together, can you give me an overview of what your mission is and what you're setting out into the world to do?

(Mauro at 00:01:25) Absolutely. And, you know, it's great to be back. The last conversation was one of my favorite appearances on pretty much all the shows I've been on over the last twelve months. But, yeah, I used to work in banking and, you know, worked my ass off there, eventually hung up my boots and transitioned to running my own business where we coach and lead men to get six-pack lean, but really achieve a top 1% physique. Most men that come to us are in the top 1% bracket when it comes to their financial life and really any area of their life except their body.

(Mauro at 00:02:07) And we help them get to that top 1% physique, which ultimately, the six-pack is the outside, you could say, manifestation or representation of that success and really what excellence looks like. Right? In a world where, you know, mediocrity is celebrated and everyone gets a participation trophy, we work with a different group of people who don't want that participation trophy, but want to, as I said, represent the standard of excellence.

(Joel Beasley at 00:02:43) Yeah. And by the way, your content—so I think I've connected with you on Facebook. I think that's where I see your stuff. But you and your marketing team are so good at taking whatever the current event is and connecting it back to the health thing. I get to see all these people and look at all this marketing all the time, and I think you're really good at it. You and your team is awesome.

(Mauro at 00:03:04) Thank you. It's just me.

(Joel Beasley at 00:03:05) It's just you?

(Mauro at 00:03:06) Yes.

(Joel Beasley at 00:03:07) That's good. It's good. Every time there's any breaking news or anything, you always tap into that and then bring it back, and I love it. And I think it's cool that you also do events, so you get all the guys together that are part of the group and they all have their shirts off and you can see there's newer members, there's more experienced. It's like the whole spectrum, and I like the camaraderie you built around it. You connected me—who was that guy you connected me with down in Florida?

(Mauro at 00:03:33) Oh, Dr. Joey.

(Joel Beasley at 00:03:34) Dr. Joey.

(Mauro at 00:03:35) Dr. Joey, yes.

(Joel Beasley at 00:03:36) Yeah. He looked at my blood work, and the whole experience was fantastic.

(Mauro at 00:03:42) Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, the in-person stuff—the whole post-COVID world where everyone works online and everything is remote, I felt like the human touch got not just a little bit, but very much so lost. So bringing that back, connecting with people in person, showing that, hey, there are really humans behind the machine. It's not just a bunch of AI agents or AI bots is great. And, you know, with the live events, we've had clients who became best friends, opened businesses together. So it's always a pleasure to meet current members, but also newer members from the community in person, you know, get to know them and help them and go beyond really a client relationship, but more so a friendship.

(Joel Beasley at 00:04:34) Tell me about the actual moment when you were in banking and you're like, I—did you know you were gonna do this? Were you already fit? Did you know that this was the exit, or did you just not wanna do banking anymore and then you found this?

(Mauro at 00:04:47) It was kind of like a meetup of different events. So I was working out and training. And after my own transformation, I had people, mainly friends or people at the gym, reach out and say, "Hey, you used to be like a spaghetti stick. Now you've put on some size. Can you help me? Can you help my sister? Can you help my brother?" Like, it was just like a bunch of people wanting training plans. So that's really how it started.

(Mauro at 00:05:22) And then I saw, okay, if their diet is not dialed in, then the training ROI is not going to be that good. So then the diet part came in. And then it's like, okay, well, they have the diet and they have the workout spot. They're missing the accountability, the feedback implementation. Right? So that's how the product was slowly built, and it was more like a passion. I didn't think like, okay, this can be my main thing. And, you know, there's this image of like, oh, personal training, fitness—not paid really well when you compare it to banking. Like, who wants to trade that? Right? But then in 2015, I went to an event with two friends where there were different career opportunities, and they presented like, hey, if you study this, you get here, and you do this, you get here.

(Mauro at 00:06:15) So they showed all the career paths. And my two friends signed up immediately for that three-year business—not only bachelor, but very similar—business course, mentorship, so to say, education. And I said like, "Yeah, let me take the paper home and I'll have a look at it." And on the way back home, there was something in my stomach that said like, "I don't know, man. Like, yeah, I'll make more money and I'll lead a team, but it's like, I'm just gonna be trapped in that office working for someone else."

(Mauro at 00:06:48) And I don't wanna do that for the rest of my life. Right? And that's where really I made the hardcore decision to, or plan to, leave banking. I didn't know exactly how, and I didn't know how the numbers would play out, but that was like the first strong decision. The buildup was already there before. Like, hey, let me try this. I tried like a supplement company. Didn't really work, but that moment was like a very strong decision. And then around three years later, I had issues with my heart, went to the cardiologist. Did I ever tell you that story, or did you read the story on Facebook? I don't think so.

(Mauro at 00:07:28) Okay. So what happened was one morning, and I was very, very stressed and overworked, you know, from banking, from training people on the side, trying the online thing. Like, there was a lot on my plate, so my health took a little bit of a back seat. My sleep was not great. And one morning I woke up and I had some pain in my chest, and I thought like, okay, maybe I pushed the workouts a little bit too hard. Right? And then I was like, man, that's like a strange feeling. Like it doesn't go away. It's really strong. So I was like, let me call the doctor just to see, you know, have them do a quick checkup.

(Mauro at 00:08:04) I called, like an hour later. I went into the doctor's office and, you know, she looked at it and said like, "Okay, let's do some tests." And then I had to wait a few minutes, later. You know, said, "Okay, everything is fine. Like, you know, you can go back home. There might maybe just some muscle tension." I was like, "Yeah, that's what I thought." But, you know, peace of mind is important. So I go back home and, you know, I was sitting at a table eating something, and then the phone rings. It's the doc. And she's like, "Yeah, I looked at it with my boss and like a panel of doctors. Like, I think they sat together. We just revisited the test and we found some irregularities in your heartbeats or the heart test." And I'm like, "Okay." And then she's like, "We booked you an emergency meeting at the cardiologist closest to your house in thirty minutes. Like, you gotta go now." And you know, like, that message delivered over the phone. I'm like, "Oh my god."

(Joel Beasley at 00:09:01) She got your heart racing. That's probably—

(Mauro at 00:09:03) I'm gonna die now. So I grabbed the cab, went there. And as I walked into that office, like the waiting room, a bunch of guys in their seventies, I was the only guy in my early twenties. And I said like, "Okay, there's something wrong here. You know, I should not be here." And as soon as I came in, they're like, "Okay, come with me. The doc is waiting." And I had to go on a treadmill, put on a mask, you know, lay down, they checked everything, and yeah, just a state of panic. And then they're like, "Okay, we initially thought maybe you have a heart attack." I'm like, "Shit, like a heart attack, early twenties." But it was just an inflamed heart muscle. Right? And I said, "Okay, from what? What is the issue?"

(Mauro at 00:09:52) Like, I was not at my healthiest, but I was also not like obese or fat. Like, I had some excess fat, but that couldn't be it. And he's like, "Yeah, you know, tell me more about your life." And I told him. He said, "Yeah, stress, you know?" And that kind of was the final nail in the coffin. I drew the line and said, "Okay, I gotta get out of there." And I think ten days later or so, I pulled the trigger and I left banking. Yeah.

(Joel Beasley at 00:10:24) Saved your life, and now you're helping other people. Right?

(Mauro at 00:10:28) Yep. Yeah. I knew, like, if I continue like that, it's not gonna help me. And then there are many other reasons. That's why I said, like, a lot of things collided together. But from that strong decision to that other point there, that was like the rough timeline. Again, it's like a buildup. Right? It's not like you wake up one day usually, but those are like the main milestones that I have most clarity on.

(Joel Beasley at 00:10:55) And so you get to work with a lot of executives, even some technology executives. What is the thing that's pushing them to contact you? Like, why are they—did something happen? Did they eat one too many donuts? Like, what is the moment in their life where they said, "You know what? Now is the time that I'm gonna take care of this."

(Mauro at 00:11:15) Yeah. Great question. It varies from person to person, you know, and I think people don't always like to admit it straight out of the gate. They're just like, "Oh, I wanna be healthier. I'll be fitter." But I would say majority of the guys that come to us, usually it's a comment from their spouse or kids. So one guy was laying on the couch in summer, or like not really laying, but like, you know, those chairs that are like, you kind of—not like a hammock, but similar—you lay in. And his daughter like grabbed him there and said like, "Oh, daddy, you know, you're soft," or something like that. I can't remember the exact words, but it was something like that. And he thought like, "Man, after lifting, after dieting, but I'm still a soft dad."

(Mauro at 00:12:04) And another guy was just like his spouse. Right? Like, she was not anymore that attracted to him. And there was also a moment there where she said, "Hey, I don't think you look that healthy." Right? That really hurt him, but it was the truth. And that pain pushed him or moved him forward. Right? So you have that. Right? Like, a lot of times, they're doing really well in business, and they're on top of their game. But when they come home and take their suit off, they're like—by taking that suit off, their status disappears, so to say. They're just a regular dude and not anymore the top one percenter or the beast as they are in business.

(Mauro at 00:12:54) And I think a lot of times that's the reason, but you've got also others who, you know, they are doing really good. They look better than their peers, but they just wanna take it to the next level. And for them, it's frustrating because they put in a lot of effort. You know, they hit the gym. They have a trainer. They do blood work. They eat healthy, but they just can't get to that next level. Like, just this week, we had someone like that. He's like, "I never thought I would need your services, but here we are. I saw what you did with one of my friends. And when I saw his results, I'm already very good, but I saw his results and I said, okay, I know I can take it to the next level." Right?

(Joel Beasley at 00:13:37) That is awesome. I wanted to say a couple of things. The biggest change for me when I lost most of my weight was just how I felt, just like feeling better. And I was like doing well in life. In my mind, I was beast mode, but my body wasn't reflective of what my mind was. There was this disconnect, and so aligning those things is something that I aim to do. Right? And so are you seeing, like, identity change as these men change? Is that happening?

(Mauro at 00:14:16) Yes. Yeah. Usually after a year working together, you start to see it. So let's say someone doesn't wanna do something or doesn't like to do something. Like, they're not the biggest fan of tracking their food or hitting the gym, whatever. And then a year in and they go on a cruise or whatever happens, and they're like, "Man, I miss the gym." And that's the moment I tell them, like, "Look, if you miss it, it's like it's part of who you are." Right? Like, you miss something that is part of your routine. So there's that identity shift in terms of being a man that makes his health a priority.

(Mauro at 00:14:58) But there's also the identity shift of if within, let's say, eighteen to twenty-four months, you can become top 1% with your body in such a short amount of time, it opens up your mind to the idea of, okay, where have I been playing short and where could I do much, much better? So it ultimately raises the floor and raises their standards across the board. Right?

(Joel Beasley at 00:15:25) Yeah. Yeah. Also, getting off of sugar is really helpful.

(Mauro at 00:15:30) For sure.

(Joel Beasley at 00:15:30) That stuff is addictive. My wife, she's really into it. My kids are into it. I have cut it. It's like 99% out. And then every time I do eat it, I'm like, "Oh, this is horrible." But if you keep eating it, you become like addicted and need more and more of it.

(Mauro at 00:15:45) Yeah. Yeah. I think a lot of times, like, even for me when, let's say, you go on vacation, you have like a dessert every day, you get back into that sugar roller coaster. But if you stop it for like two weeks and then have it again—and if it's a high-quality dessert, it's very different, but if it's just like something cheaper, like, you know, cookie or KitKat or Mars, Twix, like, something like that, like some processed stuff, then you have that and you realize like, "Man, I don't feel great after having that." And you appreciate so much how good you feel that you just don't wanna give that up.

(Joel Beasley at 00:16:24) That's exactly—well said. Well said. Now for people that don't know, what is exactly the way that you bring in people? Do you meet them, they come to your website, they say, "Hey, I want—I have a top 1% mind. I have a top 1% income. I want a top 1% body." And then what is the process from them doing that until them being enrolled in your platform?

(Mauro at 00:16:49) Most of the people that come to us are usually referrals. So we work primarily with men, but we also have a female program. The spouses of our guys, like, want to see how their husband looks just ridiculous. It's like, "Alright, I gotta up my game now as well," and, you know, they join him along in the program. But majority is referrals. The rest is organic content, whether it's a podcast like this one. Like last time we did this one, I had a few guys reach out. And then social media marketing—those would be the main channels. And then, you know, they either send an email, send me a message, or fill out the application on the website. And from there, you know, I review it, I have a chat with them, and we decide together if it makes sense to move forward or not.

(Joel Beasley at 00:17:42) And what's the website?

(Mauro at 00:17:44) 6packceo.com. So six, letter six, packceo.com.

(Joel Beasley at 00:17:51) Okay, so I'm on the home page right now. I love that the home page is mostly before and after photos. So these dudes, dude on the left at age 39, like that level of being shredded, is he hungry all the time?

(Joel Beasley at 00:18:11) It's just a trick your mind tells you when you see that.

(Mauro at 00:18:16) I don't know if it's a trick, but I think it's just the common belief that people have. It's like, alright, if I want to look like this, I have to live in the gym six, ten days a week, and I have to starve myself, where it's truly not the case. Most of our clients work out three to four days a week, and they're not hungry. Maybe they're hungry the last one, two weeks of the cut, and that's pretty much it. But if you set up your diet, and I think we talked about that a little bit last time with the carbohydrate back cycling or back loading where you save most of your carbs for later in the day.

(Mauro at 00:18:55) You basically, if we think about it, right, the number one rule, and this is why the GLPs, whether it's GLP-1, 2, or 3, they're so successful, is they remove the food noise and the verbal of you being hungry, which by removing that, it allows you to be in a caloric deficit long term. Right? And if you're in deficit long term, the fat will melt off. So you can achieve that, not the exact same effect, right? I'm not saying your diet can surpass or mimic the drug, but you can get pretty close where you're not that hungry by setting your diet up the right way, as I said, by moving most of your carbs later in the day and therefore having more protein and fats during the day, which keeps your blood sugar level stable again so you don't have the sugar spikes. And because of that, you don't have the hunger spikes. You're not that hungry, and your energy levels are stable. Right? And as a byproduct of that, you can be in that deficit longer.

(Mauro at 00:19:54) And the longer you can be in that deficit, the more body fat you lose. Right? Now there's going to be a point where you reach 12% body fat and you want to get down to 10, yeah, you're going to be a little bit more hungry. You're going to go a little bit hungry to bed. That's just normal, but it's not like you're starving yourself and you can barely walk and just think about food all day. It's more like, okay, I had my lunch and I think I could have another 25%. Right? I could have another small portion. That's just normal. Right? And part of the game, but usually comes at the very, very end and not the entire journey.

(Joel Beasley at 00:20:32) Yeah. Like this guy on the right, he already looked pretty good before, but then he looks unbelievable on the after. What is this?

(Mauro at 00:20:41) That's just recently.

(Joel Beasley at 00:20:43) That's recent. What is this body fat on the left, and what is it on the right if you were to guess?

(Mauro at 00:20:48) I need to double check his DEXA from the left one, but the right one is 8%. Okay, so that's 8%. And when I posted that, I don't know if you saw the post, I think it was on Friday or Saturday, so barely a week ago. Oh, wow. A lot of people comment like, oh, I want to look like that. And what they miss, right, is like, this guy's been working out 20 years on his own, running marathons. He's like top 0.01% in business, absolute monster and high achiever. And he reached out like, hey, I realized I can't outrun or out-train my diet.

(Mauro at 00:21:31) And he didn't have a bad diet, but it was not customized to him and really dialed in. So that was the main thing we dialed in, his diet. And then when I made the post, people would comment like, oh, I just got to work harder. And it's like, man, if there's one thing that I want you guys to take away from this post, it's it's not working harder. And then he commented and then said, like, hey, hard work is always important, but you know what? In my case, it was actually that I worked less. He worked out less with us than he did on his own. Recovery was better. Therefore, appetite was not jacked up into the roof, and it allowed him to stay longer in a cut.

(Mauro at 00:22:14) Right? So he lost 20 pounds.

(Joel Beasley at 00:22:16) That's the difference between the left and the right is 20 pounds?

(Mauro at 00:22:19) Yes. 20 pounds. People have a lot more weight to lose than they think.

(Joel Beasley at 00:22:24) Yeah. And well, most guys do, right? Because you also store fat in your thighs and your glutes, chest. We look at the abs and think like, oh, that's five, ten pounds. Sure, it may be only five, ten there, but if you calculate the total fat accumulation across the body, usually you can double it. Right? So if someone thinks like, oh, I've got 20 to lose, add another 20, 30. Right? That's usually the case. Yeah. But 20 years of training, and there was no amount of extra hard work or extra discipline that would have gotten him to the next level. It was more like, look at his blood work, look at his training, looking at his diet, looking at all the data and seeing, okay, here's what we need to change to move in the right direction.

(Mauro at 00:23:13) And people would think like, oh, it's just 20 pounds. Wait, wait, wait. If you're running a lot and you have a high stress lifestyle, you can just say like, okay, I'm just going to cut out carbs. You crashed your entire system. Yeah. You need to do it strategically, and it took him six months. Right? People think that, oh, 20 pounds, I can lose it a month. Well, at that level, you're not going to lose 20 pounds in a month. You'll ruin your body and lose all the muscle you built. Right? But most of the muscle that he built was underneath that. He didn't put on all that muscle in six months. It was already there. We added a little bit and removed the fat and just fine-tuned things to, yeah, uncover the beautiful body that he already had.

(Mauro at 00:23:58) Right? Yeah. And he looks amazing.

(Joel Beasley at 00:24:01) Yeah. I'm on the left right now, this age 39 on the left. I would like to be on the right, but I haven't been working out for 20 years. Alright, this is good. I love that you have all these people that post all these things on there. It's just like, you just let the results lead. And is the Kinetic Method where you do the blood testing?

(Mauro at 00:24:25) Yes. Yeah. That's exactly the, you know, getting blood work done is really a big piece of what we do and last three years or so. There's been a lot of trends around labs and blood work and DNA testing. And you see a lot of companies pop up. Everyone does a quick panel. They put out peptides and supplements and just say like, hey, take this. But I haven't seen a lot of people use blood work to customize macros, diet, and lifestyle and see like, okay, your labs show me this, this, this. You may benefit from a diet that's high in carbohydrates, lower in carbohydrates, more in fat, less in saturated fat. Making those changes as well versus just creating a template of a few supplements and peptides. Right?

(Joel Beasley at 00:25:14) I've got kind of a different question for you. Now, I know you've focused a lot on the physical body and health and all that, but from a mindset perspective, one of the things I've noticed, because I go out in public and I'm around unhealthy people and I'm also around healthy people just depending on what environment I'm in, and I noticed that I always feel more comfortable if I'm around someone who's fit. I feel like I trust them more. I feel like your body is almost a business card for your level of discipline. Is that something that you've ever come across research-wise? Is that a psychology thing, or am I just imagining this?

(Mauro at 00:25:58) No, you're not. I can't recall the research on top of my head, but if you think about it, there's, I think, two ways or reasons why. The first one is the fitter and healthier you are, unless you're really ugly, then nobody can save you, but yeah, let's say you're not really, really ugly.

(Joel Beasley at 00:26:18) You can grow a beard. Yeah.

(Mauro at 00:26:22) The fitter and healthier you are, the more attractive you are. And people that are attractive, they're magnetic. They're just more magnetic. Right? We have studies that show people that are more fit and healthy, they make more money. And again, part of it is just attraction. If you put, I mean, if you put a hot girl on our podcast interview title cover, I'm pretty sure it will get more clicks. Right? There's a reason they use hot women for certain movies and for certain ads. It just sells. Right? So you have that part. Right? And the same goes for guys.

(Mauro at 00:27:09) And then from, I think, an evolutionary perspective, right, if someone says, I'm going to take care of you and your business, but they can't take care of themselves, there's a little bit of incongruency. And I think that plays a pretty big subconscious role. So those two things together, I think, create that dynamic. And maybe to clarify, but I'll say this, context is always required. So even though that's my business, I'll still feel comfortable around someone who's out of shape, but they have good hygiene versus someone who is in shape, bad hygiene. So I would say that goes even more on top than looks. Right?

(Joel Beasley at 00:28:00) Hygiene's very important. Yeah. Yes. Hygiene's non-negotiable for me. It has to be there or I'm not going to be around you. No. That's interesting. Yeah. You mentioned in one of your posts this thing, the body fat thermostat and social groups. Is that kind of what we're talking about, or is that a whole different idea?

(Mauro at 00:28:21) No, that's more the idea of, you know, when you live in a household or you have a friend group or just the people you spend most time with, there's a thermostat on a lot of things, right? On income, on health, or body weight and so on. And if the average weight of your friends is, you and your, let's say, I don't know, it can be family. Maybe weight is the wrong number, but body fat is 30%. You're all obese. Now you're the guy that's getting leaner, you know, getting shredded. You jump out of that crab bucket and you know how it goes. Right?

(Mauro at 00:29:05) They want to pull you back in. So you start to hear comments. A lot of our clients hear that like, oh, you're unhealthy. You're obsessed. You just care about yourself. You're selfish. You know, you're taking it to extreme levels. Where imagine a society where the health is going downwards telling you that it's not healthy to be healthy. Right? How crazy is that? So the thermostat is more like there's that temperature that is obese, and you're breaking out of that obese temperature, so to say.

(Mauro at 00:29:42) And it's not a reflection of you and your work ethic, but about them and their work ethic and knowing that they could do better. But it's easier rather than changing yourself to pull others back because that gap is the reflection of the change that they could have made themselves. Right?

(Joel Beasley at 00:30:02) Yeah. I, you, you live in the world of people making the transition out of bad decisions and into good decisions. So you're more hardened than I am because I've just designed my world to where that's virtually not, like, as you're talking about that, I was like, yeah, I just have curated my world to be as healthy as I possibly can. I don't want to go back to Fat Town. That's just not where I want to live.

(Mauro at 00:30:30) It's hard, man. You know, in the sense of, if you look at how today's world and society is engineered, we live in an unhealthy world. So being healthy automatically means you have to work a lot harder and there's a lot more obstacles. Right? And so it's not just, people think it's just the meal plan or diet or the macros, and if they have that, then everything else will fall into place, but it's a big identity shift. There's a lot of mental discipline that will be required. And sometimes you have to let go of people. And because if you think about it, what I know people don't like to hear that, but what connects a lot of people may just be drinking. Right?

(Mauro at 00:31:13) Let's say alcohol. And you think you have some drinking buddies. If you take the alcohol away, would you still be buddies? And a lot of times, again, people don't want to admit that, a lot of times the answer is no, we will not be friends. It's like, so the only thing that keeps you guys together is the alcohol. So if you still go there and you don't drink, then you start to realize that it wasn't that great. Right? And by changing, by becoming healthier and therefore changing certain habits, you remove, of course, certain habits. And by removing certain habits, you may risk removing part of your identity. You're not anymore the beer guy, the cool guy. Right? The guy with the beer belly. Right? The funny, you know, the funny Joel. Right? The beer Joel. And now you're just like, oh, you're more serious. You know, not really cool. We'll have a drink. Right.

(Mauro at 00:32:11) And it's like, man, okay, I could have a drink and go back to where I was, or I could say, you know what? I may have to give up that group of friends. And I think a lot of people are not ready for that. So I'm not encouraging people to be, you know, the lonely wolf and move on an island with the gym, but sometimes you just have to let go. Right? And it's just like in business, it may have been very similar with certain friend groups that were no longer serving you. Right? I know for me, when I started my business, you know, I used to go out and party and come home at 2, 3, 4, 5 a.m. And eventually I stopped drinking, and that already caused friction. And eventually I stopped going out, and it's like, man, I'd rather stay up to maybe 12, 1, build, work on my business and move forward there rather than going to a nightclub, right, or going to a bar.

(Mauro at 00:33:05) And it has nothing to do with them, but eventually, because that is the lifestyle that connects you, and by choosing a different path, you also, every time you say yes, you say no to something else. So, yeah, you just have to let go of certain people. It's the price you pay for moving forward. And I think life is like island hopping, you know. You start here with maybe your school friends and then you have some other friends, and if they don't evolve, you just jump to the next island, like the next level. And unless someone jumps with you and they evolve as well, and most people are not into personal development, you just jump, jump, jump, and you constantly meet new people at different levels. And then when you level up, maybe, let's say on that island, there are ten people, three level up, seven stay behind, and now three are with you of the three of you, so two are with you on a new island. And now you jump again and only one of them is with you. And then you jump again and maybe none of them. And then from the new island. Right? So that's how life is. Very rare that you have the same person with you all your life, let alone five people. Right?

(Mauro at 00:34:19) So I think once you see that, then it's just easier to accept that, hey, I'd rather let go of those people and those bad habits than just staying that person.

(Joel Beasley at 00:34:31) And that's the beauty of family. You know? Wife and kids, you get to island hop together. I mean, my family is the people that will be with me as we hop through islands. You know? Mostly.

(Mauro at 00:34:43) Mostly. We've had guys who there was a lot of conflict in their marriage because their spouse didn't want to change, didn't want to get fit, and...

(Joel Beasley at 00:34:52) Oh, really?

(Mauro at 00:34:53) We've had some divorces over the years. Yeah. Wow. So I shouldn't say that, but it's the truth.

(Joel Beasley at 00:34:58) It's the truth.

(Mauro at 00:34:59) There's nothing to hide. I'm not saying everyone who joins the program will get divorced. Yeah. That would be crazy.

(Mauro at 00:35:06) But you get a very expensive program. But yeah, we've had a few, like maybe two, three guys that I can think of that it just caused a lot of drama in their marriage. And, you know, it's not the program or anything. It's just them becoming healthier made them realize a lot of unhealthy habits and, you know, their failures and so on. And they share that goal, let's say, with their spouse, and she keeps coming every day like, "Oh, I baked you cookies," and "Here's the carrot cake," and "Here's the chips."

(Mauro at 00:35:39) And it's like, "I'm happy to have a few, but I can't have the same thing." It's like, "Oh, you don't want my stuff?" And so then it starts, right? But a lot of times, it's more about control. Maybe she was in control of the meals, and now he took back some of that control, and that caused a lot of chaos. Sometimes there are other emotional reasons for that, but that's for each person to solve on their own, and we can give them the resources and support them. But we're also not therapists, right?

(Joel Beasley at 00:36:15) Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, there's a ton of reasons. It's back to the crab thing. You know, smokers, they want people to smoke around them. You know, if you're into desserts, you want people around you who are going to eat desserts. And then, you know, especially if you think that that's how you're caring for someone is making them food, I could totally see it. But being married for, you know, over ten years, it's never one thing. It's never one thing, you know. I guarantee you, you take a hundred men and you give a hundred of them six-packs, 98 of their wives are ecstatic. They are so happy.

(Mauro at 00:36:53) Yeah, in most cases for sure. Also, I have one thing to share with your audience that I shared recently, and I thought it may be really helpful. Someone asked me a really good question. It kind of goes into the desserts. And they said, "Hey, you know what? I have a really hard time when I'm in business meetings, business dinners, or business lunches. I know what to order, but I don't want to be the salad guy or the steak and veggie guy when everyone orders that." And we kind of helped him. "Okay, where do you go? Let's customize it. You don't have to order that all the time. That's not the case. You don't have to live by super, super strict times."

(Mauro at 00:37:26) But one thing I've personally found, and when I told him that, it blew him away and it changed everything for him, was: if you place the order first, it puts pressure on the others to live up to your standard versus—if you think about it—if you, me, and five other guys are in a restaurant and you order steak, burgers and fries, and the other guys say, "Make that two," "Make that three," and someone says, "Oh, I'll have a double cheeseburger with extra cheese, extra sauces, and two portions of fries," and then me, I'm the last guy, and then I say, "Yeah, I'll have the chicken salad." Everyone will turn back and say, "Dude, come on. It's guys' night out. Have something cool," right? It's going to be a little bit weird, right, when you're at the end and all the attention is on you.

(Mauro at 00:38:18) But when the waiter comes and you say, "I'll start," and you say, "I'll have the filet mignon with Brussels sprouts," or the burgers, then the other person right after you will think, "Now I've got to break that pattern because you've set the frame of healthy." He has to break the frame of healthy and go more into the processed stuff. And so a lot of times what you see—not the entire table, but it will be a little bit different—and people respect you because you took the lead in that regard, right? So it's much easier to place your order first and say, "Hey, I'll have this and this." And it's going to be not flawless, but it will be dramatically different.

(Joel Beasley at 00:39:18) What's your biggest—you talked a lot about one-degree course changes in your content online. What's the biggest one-degree habit that you've seen the busy executives either ignore or put into practice?

(Mauro at 00:39:34) I would say tracking your food the day before. So I like to call this concept nutritional budgeting. If you think about it, right, if you run a company, you have a budget for marketing and sales and whatever other division you've set the budget for. And if you say, "Hey, we're going to spend a million dollars on advertising—500 on Facebook and 500 on YouTube. Okay. Over the course of twelve months, let's go and spend it," right? You set the budget before you spend it. Would you spend it first, just start spending your company's money, and by the end of the year see, "Okay, let's see what the budget is if we landed at the million or not"? Of course not. You've got no idea where you land, right?

(Mauro at 00:40:24) So a lot of people will eat their food and then track it. And I always say, "How do you know you're going to hit your target?" And they look at me like they saw a ghost. It's like, "Well, I don't know." It's like, "Right. I don't know it either." But if you track your entire day—sometimes you don't know what you don't know, but usually you can track pretty much most of your meals ahead of time—you're going to know if you hit your carbs, your fats, your protein, and your total calories of the day, right? So by putting it in the day before, you automatically see, "Oh, if I have shrimp for lunch and steak for dinner, I'm actually a little bit low on protein. So let me have one and a half steaks. That's going to get me to my target. Or let me have a protein shake in the morning or a Greek yogurt or some eggs."

(Mauro at 00:41:23) Or, you know, you say, "Hey, I'm going to have this and this. I'm going to have some pasta. Oh, with the pasta, I'm going to blow my carbs. So I'm going to skip the rice for lunch, and I'm going to skip the banana for breakfast, and that will allow me to have the nice pasta for dinner." So you just put it all in there, and you have exact precision and predictability and certainty on your outcome. And if you don't do it, it's like you're just spending before you budget, but you've got to budget first for the next day, and then just hit what you told yourself you're going to do the day before.

(Mauro at 00:41:55) And it makes it very easy because I had a chat this week with a guy in our program, and he was not hitting his protein. And I said, "Why don't you track it the day before?" And he said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well," and I gave him the budget analogy of marketing and sales, and I said, "Do it the day before." And, you know, he did it and it's like, now the numbers were green, right? It's like, "Yeah, because you were not just eating and then tracking and seeing, 'Oh, I came short. Let me do better tomorrow.'" No. "Let me track it and know exactly how I'm going to hit it tomorrow." The end. So it takes five minutes, right? Everyone says, "Oh, I'm too busy to track." No, you're not.

(Mauro at 00:42:32) With ChatGPT, we've programmed a bot, a robot for our clients. And there's also apps. You can just take a picture, literally a picture of your meal. So if you eat three times a day, you take three photos, you put it in, it will spit out the macros, and that's it. Of course, that's you first eat it and then track it, but that would just be an example. It really doesn't take that much, and you can go to any restaurant menu page website. Whether you eat out or eat at home, with the technology we have, it was never easier to get that tracking done. So it just takes three to five minutes a day, and then you're good to go.

(Joel Beasley at 00:43:14) Yeah, it's so easy. And those little food scales are, like, eight dollars, and they're my favorite. I love the food scales because I get really hungry and, you know, sometimes I'm hungrier than others based off of activity, but I want to stay consistent with my consumption. And so it's just so easy. You just put the plate on there and then you put your meat on there and whatever you're eating on there, and you just log it in the app. It's one of those things where it obviously takes a lot of activation energy to start it, but then you just don't think about it. I started it for health reasons, like, four or five years ago, and I just didn't stop. I just kept doing it, and I don't even think about it. And it's funny because my wife doesn't think about it, I don't think about it, but if somebody comes over, they're like, "What are you doing?" Like, "I'm weighing my food before I eat it."

(Joel Beasley at 00:44:06) This has been fantastic. Mauro, for people that want to learn more about the program, see some of those pictures, maybe reach out to you, where should they go?

(Mauro at 00:44:15) 6packceo.com. Six with the letter, 6packceo.com is the main website, but you can also find me on Facebook and Instagram. Just type in my name, and you can reach me there.

(Joel Beasley at 00:44:30) Awesome. Thank you so much for listening. And if you found this episode useful, please share it with a friend or colleague who you think would get value from it. And if you have topics that you would like to hear discussed on the podcast, either add me on LinkedIn or send me an email, [email protected]. Every time I get an email or LinkedIn message, it absolutely makes my day and inspires me to keep going.