Tanner Chidester
A tough upbringing and relentless bullying at school can sap the morale of anyone. For Tanner Chidester, it made him more determined to do well.
And as the founder of two successful businesses, online fitness training company Fit Warrior, and Elite CEOs, a provider of online coaching for entrepreneurs, he did.
Chidester grew up in a large Mormon household, and as the eldest boy in a family of seven, he felt an obligation to be able to take care of his entire family if needed.
He says: “We never had much money growing up and I can still remember the feeling of never wanting to worry about money, or not being able to buy something because I couldn't afford it.”
Because of his Mormon upbringing, at school he was also the target of bullies. His parents did their best to help him, but he realized that they couldn't protect him. “Because of that, I decided I would create my own destiny; it was like a light switch going off,” he says.
At 12, he started weightlifting as a way of coping with his ordeal. “That helped me gain confidence in myself and how I looked, and I made a lot of new friends,” he says. “It also made me realize that working hard gets results, and wonder what else I could do with this mindset?”
In college, he began studying for a degree in petroleum engineering and played Division 1 football as a linebacker, but several shoulder injuries put paid to his dreams of playing pro football. And despite doing well in his studies, he also decided engineering wasn’t for him. On the advice of his mentor David Frey, he dropped out in his senior year.
“He told me I could achieve what I wanted by doing something else, and that I had the drive of an entrepreneur,” says Chidester. “I had no idea what kind of business I wanted to start, but he recommended a fitness business, as I’d been doing it my entire life.”
At 23, Chidester started with just $2,000 in his bank account, living in his parents’ basement. He paid a coach $5,000 on a credit card, using money he didn't have, and took part-time jobs, from fitness modeling to door-to-door sales, to raise the cash to create his first business, Fit Warrior.
He also signed up for various coaching programs on how to grow an online business but realized what he needed was guidance. “The best support tool was having my mentor David Frey, whose voice was constantly in my ear saying ‘don’t quit’ and kept me going over those long hard years.”
The turning point came when he tapped into social media to market and sell ‘high ticket’ services, typically anything over $3,000, such as a one-to-one coaching session or a ‘how-to’ series. Fit Warrior boomed into a seven-figure business in less than 12 months.
“High ticket sales have the highest upside with the least amount of risk,” says Chidester. “For example, let's say you are selling a $3,000 product versus a $37. If you are running $1,500 worth of Facebook ads, you only need one sale to break even and make a little profit.”
Other fitness trainers were soon contacting him, wanting to know the secrets of his success. Keen to share his expertise with other entrepreneurs, Chidester launched a second business, Elite CEOs, consulting on how to start and scale a business fast. His audience quickly expanded from fitness trainers to business owners, nutritionists, digital marketing experts, video producers photographers, and real estate experts.
“I had made mistakes, I lost money, and I tasted failure, but ultimately I succeeded, and I wanted others to learn from my experiences, especially as I felt the coaching I’d received was poor at best, and avoid the same pitfalls.”
Elite CEOs quickly surpassed the $1 million annual revenue of Fit Warriors, and this year is on course to turn over $15 million. Chidester is proud of the fact that he hasn’t needed to seek any external funding. “I plan to keep it that way,” he says. “While I want to be a shark on Shark Tank, I would never want to be the one giving away part of my company. It makes me cry inside.”
He is currently developing an app, ‘ptmode’, aimed at helping trainers to coach, market, and make sales online, and writing a book ‘Infinite Income’, on how to create an online business with little-to-no experience at a rapid pace. He now has a team of over 40 employees, all working remotely.
His advice to other budding entrepreneurs is to develop a mindset that focuses on the end result and to be resourceful in finding the right business coach. “It can be scary to pay someone a large sum of money and lose it, so vet your coach by expertise, for example, look at who made the most money in their business and who made the most doing what you are trying to do,” he says.
Chidester is also very clear about his thoughts on money and destiny. “The only difference between those who have cool experiences and those who don’t is money, and I didn’t want that to hold me back,” he says. “Can you be happy without much? Sure. But money buys experiences and makes life so much easier, and I’ve always wanted that, not just for myself, but for my family.
“I believe that everything that happens in your life is in your hands. Where you are right now is because of every good or bad decision you have ever made. If you're not happy, then you need to take it upon yourself to put in the work and turn your situation around.”
