Chris Johnson, the founder of On Target Living, shares his experiences with his clients and finding success with rest. Chris discusses the topics from his most recent book. Rest. Eat. Move: You Have the Power to Feel your Best. He elaborates on the connection between good sleep, healthy eating, and stress management to build a foundation for long-term wellness and success. 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1JkB0U4sYY

 
Brett Gilliland: I'm your host, Brett Gilliland. Today I've got the privilege of interviewing, again, for the second time, Chris Johnson. What's up Chris? How you doing? 
Chris Johnson: Hey, Brett. How are you? Happy to be back. I can't believe it's been since, I think you said April, 2018. 
Brett Gilliland: April of 2018 is when we chatted last. It's uh, it's crazy. I said time flies when we're having fun and, uh, yeah, we're, we're doing that. 
Chris Johnson: It's crazieness. 
Brett Gilliland: Uh, you are also probably the only person I know that, uh, on my podcast, uh, at least I've had your son, Matt. I've had your daughter Kristen, on the show. So we've had all three of you on and, and, uh, it's been awesome. I just love that Matt and I have stayed connected and I still gotta get Matt out on the golf course because I've, I've see he's a pretty good golfer, so we're gonna see who wins some cash from each other.
Are you putting your money on? You know, is he still playing ? 
Chris Johnson: Yeah, I play, but. You know, I'm like an A handicap and he's, you know, he's good. He's really good. 
Brett Gilliland: Okay. 
Chris Johnson: So yeah, it's amazing. He doesn't play that much anymore, but man, he's still good. Well, kids have a way of doing that, don't they? Yeah. So I don't, I don't really, I used to try to blame, you know, straight up and I always would lose, but as just my eagle getting in the way and then now I still stake take strokes and I still lose, so it doesn't matter.
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, those stroke things are fun. But they're frustrating too, aren't they? 
Chris Johnson: Yeah. 
Brett Gilliland: So you are the, uh, founder and CEO of On-Target Living. Um, author of, of numerous books. Uh, you've got a new book out called Rest. Eat. Move. Uh, you have the power to feel your best, so we'll talk about that. Uh, I read this book right here in 2018.
Capacity. Uh, you and your son Chris, wrote that, uh, I'm sorry, you and your son Matt wrote that. And um, it's just an amazing book. Amazing book. I love it. So we'll, we'll dive into your stuff, uh, as well, but if you could, for those that didn't hear us back in 2018, Chris, just maybe give us a little lay of the land on, on who you are, what's, what's made you the man you are today.
Chris Johnson: Well, Brett, uh, without getting into the weeds too much, uh, you know, I'm, I turned 66 this year. I've been doing this a long time over 35 years, but I was a business economic major at Western Michigan. So I'm here at our headquarters here in East Lansing, Michigan. And, um, when I got outta school, I was, there wasn't really a lot of jobs, but I had kinda thought about what do I really wanna do?
I was always interested in exercise and working out and eating right. I got into bodybuilding in the early eighties and then I decided to go back to grad school and so I went to back to grad school at Michigan State and exercise physiology. And when I got outta grad school, I worked at in a hospital doing stress testing, and I worked for a private practice doctor for a couple years.
But really the thing all started to change when I went to work at the Michigan Athletic Club as a director of Fitness and personal. and I did that for about 17 years and that's when I started speaking and I wrote a, a couple books and then I decided to take my, um, my deal on the road, uh, in 2007. And I've been full-time speaking and, and since then.
And then as you mentioned, my daughter and my son, my son Matt, runs our business and we have a nice team here. And we have a beautiful headquarters in East Lansing. So what we try to do is help organizations, uh, be their best and feel their best. So yeah, that's where we're at today. And um, we also have a very, uh, vibrant e-commerce business.
We sell wheatgrass and cod liver oil and things like that. So yeah, content, uh, delivery, training, and then our e-commerce. So that's our business. 
Brett Gilliland: And, and would you say that the, the bulk of what you guys are doing, like you said, really is, is around those three things, right? Rest, uh, eat, move, uh, and, and, and in what order, right? Because I think all three of them are equally as important. Uh, maybe you would, I would assume you would agree with that, but we'll dive into that. But let, let's talk about, if we can, for a while, there's a lot of business owners and people in sales that listen to this podcast. That, what, what was it like to grind for you?
So it, you know, you, you made it sound easy, which you guys have done an amazing, you got amazing business. But what, what were you doing during the early days when you didn't have, uh, uh, a well oiled machine running a business? What was it like? What, what were the day-to-day like for you? You were raising a family, uh, young kids and traveling and doing all those things. What was it like? 
Chris Johnson: Well, like many of your, uh, listener viewers that Yeah, it's a grind. When I got outta grad school, in fact, when I entered grad school, my wife came back to me and said, Hey, you know, honey, we're pregnant. And I go, oh, okay. Um, and then a couple months later, we found out we're having twins. So I'm working full-time driving a, a Frito-Lay truck delivering Doritos , and she's working full-time in a law firm.
And we're raising in two, you know, two twins. And then, uh, I'm in grad school full-time. So was it a grind? Absolutely. And so you look back and you're like, how in the heck did we do it? And then, uh, I think that work ethic, again, I'm, I'm old school, but when I worked in the Michigan Athletic Club, you know, I was working 60 hours a week every week, and we had one of the largest personal trainer programs in the world.
And um, and slowly over time, it was that bedrock of training that I realized, okay, how do I take this and scale it? And so when I started speaking full-time, my wife, I can't remember coming back to her. And I remember, uh, Merrill Lynch reached out to me and wanted me to do this training for their advisors.
And, um, they came back and said, we want you to do X, Y, Z. And I'm like, well, I have a full-time job. I can't do that. And then, I thought to myself, I'm like, Hey, time's, time's to go. So anyway, I started on Ontario living in 2006 and I went full-time speaking in 2007. It was just me and, um, Don Miller, and she scheduled my events and, and then, then Matt came on 12 years ago.
And, but yeah, it's, uh, it is like any business, you know, people say, well, I wanna do what you do, and I, well, do you really wanna speak for free for five years? 
Brett Gilliland: Right.
Chris Johnson: I'm like, what are you talking about? I said, well, you know, it just doesn't happen. So I think sometimes people, you know, nobody's a black belt, you know, to start with everybody's a white belt.
Yeah. And so I always tell people, you know, you do the Jim Collins thing, you gotta have the, kinda like your Circle of Success podcast. You have to have passion and. And you gotta feel like you can make a living at it. And last but not least, you need to be, feel like you can be really good at it. So I think that's the circle we always talk about.
But as you mentioned, it doesn't happen overnight. And um, I probably wouldn't do it any other way cuz again, the, the struggles we all face, whether it's our health or whatever, but some of the good, best stuff is through the struggles. 
Brett Gilliland: Yeah, for sure. And, and so do you have a, a defining moment? I was in a meeting earlier today and we're talking about uh, we're gonna have an event coming up in March on Inter International Women's Day, um, on March 8th. And I was talking to three of the ladies in our firm and I said, let's talk about a defining moment. Like I had a defining moment in my life in 2003. So I started the business in 2001, 2002. I was like the advisor of the year in, in our, in our, you know, in our area here in St. Louis, uh, for the company I was at. And then 2003. I, I should have been fired. I mean, I didn't do any production. I just, you know, I let this talent think that's just gonna carry you. And it was a defining moment for me, right to, to where I learned you have to work hard. You can't just show up and expect things to happen.
You gotta work your ass off to become successful. And even though it was the toughest year of my life, it, in looking back now, 22 years later, it was the best year of my. Right. So do you have a moment like that for you on the, on the way up on the journey that you said, man, that looking back, that was a defining moment?
Chris Johnson: Yeah, I think there, there is many defining moments, but one that I can really think about. Um, I had an opportunity to get on the biggest stages in the world. With Merrill Lynch, uh, way back in 2007, it was just before the market kind of imploded. Um, but I was doing this event for Merrill Lynch managers, about 3,500 people in the audience, and I didn't get a rehearsal.
And so before I was gonna get up on stage. One thing got pushed back, one thing got pushed back, and the next thing you know, when I get up there, this is not ready to roll in front of 3,500 people. And so the woman that hired me, I didn't know she was in the audience, and I talked to her about a couple days later and she said, Hey, how'd the event go? And I go, well, it's really tough to start with. And she says, um, she asked me a question, "Are you a professional speaker?" And I said, "Yeah.". And she said, "Well,

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