Michaelangelo Gerardi | Measuring Success, Digital Marketing’s 7-second Rule, & Setting Goals that Matter
Hello friend! Welcome to this week's episode of RPP Plus, Hanging Out With David Pasqualone and Friends. This is part of our free community content subscription. So if you go to our website, davidpasqualone.com or the remarkablepeoplepodcast.com When you sign up to be part of our community mailing a once a week newsletter, you automatically get access to RPP Plus, which is a growing library of over two dozen episodes that are scheduled to be released in the next 30 days that are like the Remarkable People Podcast, but it either continues the conversation, highlights different guests you haven't heard from, or you can sign up Or continues the conversation in a way that's outside of the normality of our podcast.
And sometimes it's just me and a friend hanging out and you get to be part of it and listen in [00:01:00] and hopefully we bring you content that's not just inspiring and funny. and engaging, but you can apply it to change your life. So, with this time, you're about to listen to Michelangelo's episode. Michelangelo Girardi, right?
Great guy grew up in an Italian American home, played a lot of baseball, wanted to become a pro, got injured, and you're going to hear how from the injury, the course, how his life changed, and how as it changed, it just got So we're going to talk about success and what really matters. We're going to talk about the seven second rule that Michelangelo discusses with his clients.
And we're also going to talk about some personal training, some online training, some coaching ideas, Instagram, YouTube, the COVID vaccine. We're going to talk about a bunch of things right now and hanging out with David Pasqualone and friends. [00:02:00] Enjoy.
[00:02:10] Part 3 INTERVIEW Michaelangelo Gerardi 13 May 2024.mp4: Hey Michelangelo, how are you my friend? Fantastic David, how are you? Man, I'm remarkable. I'm ready for this interview. Looking forward to speaking with you.
I, just told the listeners about you, just a small piece of your story. But if someone's listening right now from anywhere in the world, first time listener, they've been with us for the four years. If they hang tight through your episode, what is one truth you promise they will get that they can apply to their life by the end of your story?
If you hang here till the end, I'll not only be sure that you are set up for success in your professional life, but also will be able to measure success outside of profession with family, friends, and ultimately what your dream is and legacy that you want to leave behind. Excellent. And that's such an important thing because a lot of [00:03:00] people, they live in the here and now and we're supposed to live like today's our last day, but we're also supposed to plan like we're going to be here a hundred years, right?
And what legacy we can live to our grandchildren and great grandchildren, four or five generations. So Michelangelo, something happened in your life that even though you're still a young man, this clicked and the focus of legacy and eternity became important. Bring us through your life, man, from your birth.
What was your upbringing like, you know, as you went through grade school, high school, college, not college, right to the workforce, whatever it is, just tell us your life story and we'll stop along the way and glean what we can. Awesome. So all started in Boston, born and raised Italian American family.
Grew up right in the city. And so. Had a lot of friends there. We were always doing, you know, what kids do. And I was always into sports and, you know, fast forwarding to high school, played baseball in high school, [00:04:00] came to second year of high school and I had an injury and prompted me to get surgery, which was Tommy John surgery.
So if you're not familiar with it, it's pretty much a surgery that baseballers get. That pitch, whether it's hard or just a lot of volume. So I went through lots of physical therapy and ultimately decided that, Hey, this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I want to be a physical therapist.
I'd loved my physical therapist really as kind of a support system and to get me back doing what I love. And ultimately took me all through college. I had like a 3. 9 GPA. I was ready to go, wanted to, you know, always be an entrepreneur. I was selling lemonades. I was selling sneakers on eBay. I was always selling something.
And then through college, my goal was to get into graduate school for physical therapy to get my doctor's degree. Come about 2018, I [00:05:00] think junior year summer, I started my Instagram page Girardi Performance, which was my fitness Instagram and started posted there providing value and just really falling in love with the gym once I realized the MLB probably wasn't gonna work out.
And so from there, ultimately got into PT school. And by this time, you know, I already have a business that's doing really, really well. And, you know, long story short, First semester summer of physical therapy school, I'm going through a clinical rotation and I hate my life. I'm working 40 hours a week for free.
I have this business that's doing 20, 000 to 30, 000 per month. Oh, 000 at this point per month. And I'm helping people just in a different modality through fitness instead of physical therapy. And then my last semester of PT school, I grinded it out. But ultimately ended up dropping out before getting that piece of paper to pursue online coaching full time.
And fast forward to today and [00:06:00] over a million dollars in sales later, I now also help other online fitness coaches build and scale their own businesses and making sure that they're leaving a legacy for their loved ones and their family. Awesome, man. Now let's go back a little bit. Let's catch up through the story.
What was your upbringing like in regards to family? Did you have brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles? What was your home like? Yeah so two siblings. I have a younger sister, younger brother. I'm the oldest mom and dad together. My dad had a construction company, has a construction company. My mom was a stay at home mom, you know, raised us kids.
I lived right next door. My whole family pretty much lived on my street. So my grandmother lived right beside me and that was a great, and in my grandmother's house, my aunt lived and then my uncle lived there for a little bit, but eventually moved out. And then up the street, I had, you know, my [00:07:00] great aunts, my great uncles, pretty much my whole family on my mom's side right there.
And, it was a loving family. Obviously everyone has their, you know vices in, in the family and people have button heads no matter who, who you are, but for the most part loving and a great, great upbringing. I really can't complain. Beautiful, beautiful. And then you get this injury, you have to have Tommy John surgery, but then you end up falling in love and physical therapy.
So at that point, when that's happening in your life, Did it just come so naturally you knew or was there a struggle and an inner dialogue that was going on? Yeah. So, I mean, I, and, and correct me if I'm misunderstanding your question, but, you know, I wanted to play baseball. I was going to go play college baseball.
I wanted to get that scholarship. Once push came to shove and I realized, Hey, you know, I'm not the player I thought I was and. [00:08:00] Injury kind of held me back a lot. I essentially went all in on the gym, fell in love with it, building confidence. You know, everyone wants big biceps in high school, get the chicks, people take you more, more seriously.
And so I fell in love with health and fitness. That ultimately led me to dive deep into bodybuilders, Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, and got really knowledgeable about anatomy and that whole nine. And so when I went into physical therapy, I would always be asking questions like, what's this muscle? Why am I doing this?
I was just super curious. And I remember going to PT was the best part of my week because I loved going in there and just learning and, and really talking to my physical therapist was an outstanding guy. So that transition was kind of seamless for me. It was like, Hey, you know, I think physical therapists make more than trainers.
So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to mend the both of them and open up my own facility was, was my mind. And then when you're [00:09:00] leaving college with one year left, you said, what was your parents and siblings, what were family saying? Mom definitely didn't let my mom and dad are like the, Hey, you know, always do what you want, but they'll let you know that they're worried about your decision.
If it's, if it's not what they would do. So ultimately it was my decision to leave, but my mom was very skeptical. My dad was less skeptical, but still put his two cents in, but my mom was totally against it just because you know, where we grew up, you don't, you don't see what's possible. You only, you know, you go to work, you work your nine to five.
Yeah. You can make good money. You get a pension and, and that's the end all be all. So she was very, very concerned, but ultimately knew that I would do what's best for myself. And, you know, dropping out the last semester was probably the best decision I've ever made. Because that freed you up to work on the business, correct?
Yeah. So the reason why I dropped out [00:10:00] well the biggest reason I dropped out is because I was having to decide am I gonna continue paying for credits? And mind you, graduate school credits are very expensive. And just skip classes because I had clients that had take sales calls, et cetera, or, you know, am I gonna drop out and ultimately just pursue this full time?
So it really clicked in my head. When I realized I was making more than the people that were teaching me and probably any other physical therapist out there unless, you know, that that's not having their own facility. So I up and left and I was very happy with the decision because it also led me to move down to Florida a little bit faster than I would have otherwise.
Yeah, and then what happened once you hit Florida? Well, this being an online kind of niche that I have I didn't take a giant hit but, you know, I had a pretty good in person clientele base back home. The big hardest part for me was saying [00:11:00] bye to my family and, you know, still is. I wish I can bring them all here.
But moving down here is pretty seamless. I think the hardest part about making a big change like that is ultimately just ripping off the band aid and committing to it because you're leaving your old life behind and it's kind of you opening this new chapter and being okay with the new beginning. And what do you say to people who are, you know, right now they're facing a decision?
What was kind of your process for making that decision? Cause that's a big life changing decision. And you mentioned some of it just straight up financials, like you're making more than any practitioner would, you know, making 240, 000 a year, let's say. That's more than the average physical therapy makes, therapist makes by far.
So was it purely mathematical? Were there other considerations? How did you come to that decision? Yeah. So the other thing that was persuading me was that my last clinical rotation had to be in an inpatient hospital. So for the people who don't know, outpatient is, [00:12:00] they, the patient comes to you for physical therapy.
Inpatient is in a hospital setting after a surgery or stroke or something like that. So. This was mid COVID and I had to go in a hospital and I did not want to get vaccinated. So that was the other piece that kind of made this decision a lot easier for me was, hey, I, because I was considering, I was like, all right, do I do it?
I'm this far. And if I didn't have the business, I probably would have done it. But the piece of it of like, Hey, you know, I don't want to do this. And it's already in the back of my mind that this probably physical therapy is more of an ego thing of finishing it and getting my doctorate at this point than it is.
I actually want to be a physical therapist. So that kind of helped me. Push out the door. It was not an easy decision, but ultimately, you know, it was a decision I felt I had to make. Yeah, so I can tell you right now YouTube is a horrible, horrible, horrible censored beast. They're full out communists at this point, so we've already [00:13:00] mentioned the vaccine, and I want to go wherever we're going to go.
Podcast, thankfully, is still a free speech platform, but this will be on Rumble exclusively. So, I have so much respect for you, Michelangelo, not taking the vaccine. I know a lot of people struggle. They were told you're fired if you don't take it. But you saying, I'm like, Hey, I'm not going to finish this because I don't want to do clinicals.
I have a great respect for you for that, because that's when people say, follow the science and you follow the science, that vaccine is toxic. So, I mean, I'm really happy to hear that you didn't take it now. So looking back, I am as well, cause I was very close to getting it. Cause like you said, they were kind of forcing your hand.
And so I was, I was close to it. If I didn't have this to fall back, like I can't imagine. And I was, I was talking to students that were in my cohort, like, man, what am I going to do? And they can't drop out because they don't have [00:14:00] something to fall back on. Like I did. So I totally get the people that did and kind of their hands were forced, unfortunately, but for me, I just, I wasn't ready to take that risk.
Yeah. And I, again, I'm not saying it's hard because I'm not, I don't want to look down on anybody or judge, like judge, quote unquote, judge anybody for taking it. But I think there's so many people that struggle in the new in their heart, not to take it, but they buckled because the pressure and like you said, so, you know, somebody else doesn't take the job.
Well, now what do they do? But to me, now you've got a consequence what's going to happen the rest of your life. So we can't change what's happened in the past, but from this point forward, we need to be, as a company. Got as a world, not just as a country, really aware of what the governments are trying to push on us and what the real agenda is, because that vaccine is poison.
It is poison. There's no data supporting it. It's a vaccines by definition is to stop us from [00:15:00] getting something and there's no clinical proof of it anywhere ever. So, yeah, I'm tracking with you and for the people that were kind of forced into it. Man, I feel bad for them. And but now hopefully they're healthy.
Hopefully they, they, they got the placebo one, right? Yeah. But yeah, but for you now, you're building your business and it's online. So talk a little bit, Michelangelo, about who your ideal client is and what your business does. Who do you serve? Yeah. So I have really two separate businesses at this point.
I have my fitness coaching business that really focus on weight loss and You know, sustainability in that weight loss, so no keto, no intermittent fasting, you know, no two hour long cardio workouts, anything like that. If you want to lose weight and you want to be able to keep it off, we can, we can serve you.
And ironically, I had, Problem putting on weight. So I'm [00:16:00] more of like a bulking in and of myself, but most people and in this world need to lose weight, not trying to put, put it on. So that's just more of the clientele we serve. And then on the business side I help health coaches, nutrition coaches, fitness coaches, build and scale their own online fitness coaching businesses without having to run paid ads and.
Really through content, which I'm really good at. Cause I've been doing every single day since 2018. All right. And then what are some of the things specifically that people can try from their home now, and then it works. I'm like, man, I want to talk to Michelangelo more. So this show is all about not just what did you achieve or what did you overcome, but how you did in the practical steps or our listeners can too.
So what are some practical, actionable steps our listeners can take? To gain some success and ground, and then they can contact you for more. Yeah. So I think [00:17:00] the first thing is getting started. It seems, you know, so super simple, but rip off that bandaid. Who cares what other people think of you and get your face in front of the camera, because if you don't have a personal brand, then you don't have a business in 2024.
So branding is going to be super important, getting yourself out there and then just providing value. So for two straight years, all I did was value, value, value. And I didn't ask anyone for a penny. Now I'm not saying you have to do that for two years, but if you provide value intuitively, people want more of you and they build trust with what you have to say.
So if you're a fitness coach, you go on, you tell people how to do a squat, how to do a bench press, what to eat, what not to eat, et cetera. And you're just giving them all this free stuff. What people are going to pay you for is the implementation of this information because any information that I give you, or you can give, or anyone else can give you is free and available on YouTube.
But there's a reason why coaches aren't out of business yet. [00:18:00] And then for the content piece of it, you know, you, you want to be a fitness coach and really scale that side, I think knowing the algorithm. So keeping your videos short. Not really talking in your videos, more like on hook screens kind of on hook, on screen hooks, excuse me.
And then a super valuable caption that kind of lets the algorithm keep replaying to push your videos out on the explore page, define that a lot of people don't understand that concept. So talk about that really quickly, break that down a little bit. Yeah. So if you go to my page, you will see my contents.
All of this all the time. So people's attention spans are shrinking slash they're more selective with who they give their attention to. So you have seven seconds max, probably about five seconds at this point to grab this person's attention and get them interested in what you have to say and offer.
So for example, do [00:19:00] the, this one exercise has helped me lose 20 pounds or, you know, more believable. Here are five things I did to lose 20 pounds in the last 90 days. Okay, that's your on screen hook. Now, down below, I call it a secondary hook, where you have the first line of your caption. And that first line of the caption will read something like, My exact strategy, with an arrow down.
Because that tells the viewer, Open up the caption, there's value in here. And now, you post a super valuable, in depth explanation of the five things that you did. And as this person is reading this, The video up above is replaying. And because the video is replaying, the algorithm thinks, Hey, this video is getting a lot of engagement and people keep rewatching it.
Let me push it out to more and more people. And think of a snowball rolling down a hill. Once it picks up momentum, it gets bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger till eventually you go viral. And then, you know, The world's going to come to you. [00:20:00] And viral is different for everyone, you know? So if you're a brand new page, viral may be 10, 000.
If you're someone like my page, viral may be a million. There's all different types of, of viral. Yes. And what is your page? If they can look at the show notes for this podcast, but what's your YouTube channel that you're focused on? So my YouTube channel is Girardi Performance. My main Instagram for business consulting is MichaelGirardi underscore.
And are you using the same approach on YouTube and Instagram? Yeah, so I don't pay much attention to YouTube. Truthfully, I really should more, but anything I post on Instagram as a short goes on YouTube, and over the last one and a half years, my YouTube's up to 20,000 subscribers Now, not much comes from YouTube, if at all.
It's just I'm building subscribers and just repurposing content because why not? So essentially I've just built up a bunch of subscribers. Need to figure out a way to monetize those [00:21:00] subscribers at some point. All right. So now you've built a business, you have your in person personal training, you get your online growing and scaling.
Where is Michelangelo today and where are you heading next? So right now, very much still trying to scale the business and kind of almost exit it. From a professional standpoint, really want to get into, you know, portfolio companies and private equity and all that other kind of stuff. And, you know, have this coaching business as a front end money and the other stuff more so passive.
And really in 10 years, man, I, I visioned this every single morning. I want my house up North in New England. I want my house down in Florida. Be able to bounce back and forth between the two with my family and be close and. Make sure that my family is set up for success. Immediate family, you know, family on the out branches.
I, that's, that's my [00:22:00] goal. That's, that's what I want to do. And I want to help as many people as possible, any way I can. Awesome. Now, if someone wants to get ahold of you, Michelangelo, what's the best way for them to reach out to you? Best way would be Instagram. So MichaelGirardi underscore would be my Instagram.
Or you can just shoot me an email, Mike at GirardiPerformance. com. All right. Very good. Now we've talked about your past. We've talked about your present and kind of looked at the future. Is there anything else we missed that you want to talk about or any kind of motivation or inspiration to share with our audience before we wrap things up for today?
Yeah, I think one thing that I wish more people would talk about is the kind of goal setting that you have for yourself and not having it be just a monetary goal. I fell into the trap of I can't wait to hit this number a month and then this much in revenue a month and then this much. I've got a lot happier and more fulfilled with [00:23:00] my work once I really truly cared about the impact I was having and.
What making that much money or impact that many clients would do for me and in my future goals. So if you're listening to this and you're trying to hit that moving target, stop focusing on the monthly revenue and start focusing on what you now have the ability to do with that money and purchasing power to help other people.
Because, you know, God put us here for one reason and one reason only, and that is to serve. There's no better feeling than helping somebody out, no matter what extent to it. Yeah, I think that's well said. I mean, people, they run a race and sometimes they do the race they're told. And they don't really think about, is it what God told me to do?
Or is it what I even want? And then they look back in life and it was worth nothing. And then other people are driven by money. A rich man and poor man take the same amount to the grave, right? There's no difference in their [00:24:00] bank account at that point. So the most important thing, like we say in our, our our slogan, Michael, is listen to the great content you're bringing our audience, do it, you know, take action, repeat the good each day.
So you can have a great life in this world, but most importantly, an attorney to come and loving God and loving others. That's what really matters. So when you work with clients, do you have an intake process or a beginning where you establish their goals right up front? Or where in the process does that come in?
Of course. Yeah. So for fitness, it's more cut and dry, right? Do you want to get here? And then I always ask, what's your why? Someone will tell me, I want to lose 20 pounds. Why? I want to feel more confident. I want to fit in my clothes. I want to be able to go vacation in Europe and wear that bathing suit, wherever the case may be.
So. You know, the moving target is the same for fitness. It's, it's just in weight loss and a number on the scale. [00:25:00] Ultimately, why do you want to change? What makes you the happiest and most fulfilled is really what we try to get into on day one onboarding. Like, why are you here past the superficial stuff?
And, to get his name, it might've been Tony Robbins or Dean get his last name, but he's like, ask why seven times and on the seventh, why you will ultimately have the answer. That you're looking for. Yeah. A lot of times that's straight out of the Bible. People, you know, every truth in the world that works short term and long is from God and you know, Jesus asked Peter the same question three times.
And that's just his standard. It gets people to think and digs deep. And there's, I'm sure other standards and other statistics. And, but yeah, I agree. If you ask the same person, the same question multiple times, like, why do you, why do you keep asking me that? It's like, you're here, this leadership when the boss says, is this your best work when they pass on a project?
And they're like, yeah, are you sure? Give me another day. And they [00:26:00] go back and then they bring, is that your best work? Yeah, 100%. I did another 24 hours. All right. So this is your best work. I know this is what represents you. I'll be back. You know what I mean? It's like questions help us dig and makes us to be better men and women.
So good brother. Well, Michelangelo, you're the second friend that I now have with the name Michelangelo. How did you get that by the way? Like, how did your family pick that? So my, we have a tradition. My grandfather's name is Michelangelo. My dad's name is his middle name. So I have to name my kid after my dad and my kid will have my middle name.
And it's just kind of something that's trickled down. Nice. Beautiful. Yeah. My family's from Italy too, but I have my father and I have the same middle name, but not the same first name. So every has their own little, little way to go. Yeah, that's cool. Good, man. Well, listen, it's been great talking to you, Michelangelo.
If there's anybody out there who wants to reach out to Michelangelo, he said his best avenue is [00:27:00] Instagram, but we'll put links to all his platforms in the show notes. Check them out. Check out his content, but more than anything, apply what you're learning, right? Or it means nothing. So, Michelangelo, thanks for being here today, brother.
Thanks for having me. This was great, David. Yeah, yeah. And anything, again, before we go, any other final words or anything else you want to say? Take action, everybody. Take action. Be doers of words and not hearers only. Or again, right out of the Bible. I love it. All right, ladies and gentlemen, I'm David Pasqualone.
This was our good friend, Michelangelo. Please share this episode with your family and friends. You think it can help. And then for you, if you need help, reach out to Michelangelo or myself. And like Michelangelo just said, do it. Don't just listen. Do. Take the steps. It doesn't matter if you're afraid. It doesn't matter if you're prepared.
And as long as God's not saying no, start moving forward. That's it. Catch you next episode.
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