Dr. Len Lopez is a nutrition and fitness expert who has preached ‘Eat Right – Train Smart’ for better health and fitness for over 25 years. He has also been an avid student of personal development and believes that if you are what you eat and what you think, you get to decide what goes in your proverbial pantry for your body, mind, and spirit.
This served as the basis for Five S.T.E.P.S. a Day, his just-released journal that helps people track and build healthy habits. This journal taps into your visual and kinesthetic learning centers to help users improve their STEPS (Sleep, Think, Eat, Physical, and Spirit).
What is Eat Right – Train Smart all about?
My company, Eat Right – Train Smart, is all about helping people who keep hitting plateaus and sticking points with their diet and exercise routine. Any diet and exercise program will give you results — but for how long? Eat Right – Train Smart is all about helping you get the most for your TEAM — your time, energy and money.
Burning calories isn’t the problem! It’s burning calories from stored body fat that is key! Knowledge is everything and the wrong diet, the wrong workout for YOU could be why you haven’t received the results you are looking for. So, if we can help you understand how to Eat Right and Train Smart, so you can look better, feel better, sleep better and have better intimacy with your TEAM, I’ve done my job.
How do you separate yourself from your competitors?
I just released Five S.T.E.P.S. a Day, a journal that helps people track and build healthy habits. It provides a visual To-Do list to track how you feed your body, mind, and spirit. This must-have journal taps into your visual and kinesthetic learning centers to help users improve their STEPS (Sleep, Think, Eat, Physical, and Spirit). This journal makes a wonderful gift for anyone who is always looking for ways to live healthier and happier.
I also invented BrewMins, a convenient, zero-calorie, and natural way to improve the taste of coffee and tea! BrewMins is a blend of minerals and marine minerals that help neutralize the acidity in coffee and tea — simply add 10-15 drops and enjoy a better-tasting beverage! Whether you like your coffee black or with all the fixings, BrewMins will help.
What would you say are the top 3 skills needed to be a successful entrepreneur, and why?
First and foremost, you need that vision. What do you want? What do you want to achieve? Simply saying you want to be successful or happy is too generic and not specific enough. What’s your definition of success or happiness? What do you see yourself doing?
What if you don’t know what you want or where you want to go? You may not find yourself in the land of milk and honey, but instead, find yourself in the land of headaches and heartaches. So, get that vision as to where you want to go.
How have the pandemic and Lockdown affected you or your new business?
It hurt and helped in various ways. At the start of the lockdowns, I was selling a lot more of My Portable Pullup Bar, a piece of workout equipment that allows you to do pullups and pushups anywhere. However, we eventually ran out, and getting inventory was a challenge because they were manufactured overseas. To compound things, I was completing the Five S.T.E.P.S. a Day journal and was getting ready to start marketing and promoting it, but everything was about COVID-19.
But things balance out, and you just have to keep chugging away. Sometimes the wind is behind your sails, and other times it is blowing against you. This is why it is important to know what your destination is and what your goals are, because that gives you direction.”
What were the top three mistakes you made starting your business, and what did you learn from them?
My mistakes are many and kind of lead back to the simple basics of what every entrepreneur needs. I initially started out wanting to be a good chiropractor who specialized in health and fitness. But opportunities came my way, first through public speaking and then through radio and television opportunities. I was conflicted between running a practice or using the opportunities to expand myself and write books, speak, etc. I was being approached by various people and didn’t have enough smarts or understanding of what I wanted or where I wanted to go with my practice professionally. Maybe that is why I hit the various highs and lows in my professional career.
I believed in myself and what I was doing to help people, but I lost focus regarding what I really wanted to be doing. I lost my vision and wondered, did I want to be a doctor, speaker, writer, or an inventor?
Tell us a little bit about your marketing process, what has been the most successful form of marketing for you?
For me, the best form of marketing or return was me speaking in front of people. It didn’t matter if I was selling or promoting my practice or various products I was marketing — it all came back to me being able to convey my thoughts about whatever in a positive light.
Years ago, a friend of mine who graduated with me as a chiropractor told me, ‘It’s too bad the school never taught us how to speak and present our ideas and/or business to others.’ It’s so common to spend all your time in school or in a trade or whatever learning how to do your trade or craft, but then you get out in the real world and now you have to figure out how to get paid for your trade or craft.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
For me, I didn’t come from a chiropractic background — my father and other family members weren’t in the business — so I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I graduated and went out and started working for someone else, and I hated it. It wasn’t fulfilling and, most of all, it wasn’t the type of doctoring I wanted to be doing.
It took me about three weeks of hating what I had gotten myself into until I finally said, ‘this ain’t going to work.’ So I got the courage to step out on my own and hang my own shingle. The fact that I was in a ‘sink or swim’ scenario was maybe what got me out there doing public speaking to attract patients.
If you started your business again, what things would you do differently?
I would do a better job of outsourcing some of the things I don’t know how to do, as opposed to learning how to do every little task that comes my way. It takes a lot of time and energy, that is for sure. However, it also comes back to time and money — do you have the time or resources to pay for some of the other things you need help with?
If you only had $1000 dollars to start a new business, knowing everything you know now, how would you spend it?
What’s great about the time we live in today is online sales. In years past, not only did you need a product to sell, but also you needed a store to sell it for you. Now there’s Amazon, eBay, Etsy and so many other avenues that allow a small guy like myself to get my product or idea on the market. You never know, your idea may blow up and make millions or it may make enough to pay the bills and live comfortably. That is so different than the way we did business 25 years ago. And the same concept applies to information and sharing your information to help others.
What helps you stay driven and motivated to keep going in your business?
My business is only one part of me. Having a successful business is one thing, but even better is having a successful business that allows you the freedom to go and come as you want, and take time to do the other things in life that bring a smile to your face.
What is your favorite quote?
My favorite quote is:
‘I’m a big believer in LUCK – seems like the harder I work, the luckier I become!’
– Thomas Edison.
This quote has helped me stay focused and driven in my business journey.”
What valuable advice would you give new entrepreneurs starting out?
Working for yourself is not for everyone. You may have a great idea for a new business or service, that fulfills a need. However, having the idea is only a small part of the game. Now you have to execute and think about what is really involved.
- Can I afford to go without X amount of income for X amount of time?
- How long will it take before I can actually make money?
- How much is it going to cost to get started? Rent, Inventory, Employee’s, etc?
- Do I need an actual business location or is this an online idea?
- Is it going to be a partnership or me alone?
- Is it a side-hustle that I can do while I keep my job or do I have to go all in?
- Have I bounced the idea off others I trust?
I’m only scratching the surface, keep in mind there are a number of intangibles as well that needs to be answered. Don’t forget, that we all have different personality traits. Some people are more introverted than others, the same goes that some people work better working as an employee, rather than as the boss. We’re all different.
How can readers get in touch with you?
To get in touch, you can visit my website at drlenlopez.com. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
