We recently connected with Carl Koch and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Carl thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

In my opinion, we can prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career by incorporating more practical knowledge rather than the theoretical knowledge currently implemented.
The practical courses I would incorporate starting in high school would be meditation, sleep tracking, nutrition tracking, healthy cooking, exercise (strength and aerobic), budgeting, taxes, financial goal planning, credit management, parenting, arts (where the student chooses how they want to express themselves) and positive habit development.

The theoretical courses should be focused on human physiology, nutrition chemistry, child development, economy, finances, psychology, logic, and critical thinking.

For the students who are interested in professions that require more specific knowledge such as engineers, physicians, biologists, physicists, chemists, musicians, and attorneys, to name a few. The option of taking specialized elective courses relevant to their field should be available since freshmen year.

I believe the addition of the practical and theoretical knowledge base mentioned above would have a significant and positive impact on a student’s future of a fulfilling life and career.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Carl Koch, and I am a Fitness and Sports Performance Coach. I was raised in Mexico and played competitive soccer until I moved to San Diego. Because of my soccer experience, I got a coaching job at the local YMCA where I enjoyed coaching kids in different sports. One of my YMCA coworkers, who used to work at LA Fitness, observed my passion for coaching, and he recommended that I get a personal training job at LA Fitness. He thought I would be great at training adults, and he was right! I got the job and fell in love with helping people reach their fitness goals. After a couple of years there as well as training clients in my garage gym, my mentor Nghia Pham recruited me to coach at the new “Optimum Training and Performance” facility he was opening. I continue there to this day.

When working at LA Fitness, I was only required to have a personal training certification, but after one year of training my clients, I felt I could learn more and become more efficient in helping my clients get results by pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology. I completed my degree with an emphasis in exercise science. I achieved this in five years while training my clients at LA Fitness, at my garage gym, and at “Optimum.”

I currently train youth athletes to help them improve their mindset, health, reduce chances of injuries, and to enhance performance. I also work with fitness clients looking to increase strength, mobility, muscular endurance, and cardio-respiratory fitness, as well as to improve mindset and body composition.

I focus on teaching my clients with a holistic approach to reaching and maintaining their goals. This includes efficient ways to develop habits to optimize mindset, sleep, stress management, nutrition, and recovery. We of course have to continuously work on improving these things to optimize any kind of results that we expect to get in the training facility. However, I believe engaging in physical training is the foundation from which we have a better opportunity to improve in all the other domains of wellness mentioned above. It all builds on each other.

I’m very proud of all the results my clients have achieved. My clients have to put effort into every choice they make throughout their day to get results. The further along I am in my career, I realize that the 2-3 times a week my clients meet with me is only about a 5-10% impact on reaching their goal. The rest comes from the effort they put into developing and implementing positive habits.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele is ensuring that my clients enjoy the journey toward achieving and maintaining their results. I feel I must inspire and motivate my clients by believing in myself, practicing what I preach, showing up to every session with a joyful and positive energy, and by applying the latest methods to help them reach their goals. When my current clients enjoy the journey and see their results, they share this experience with others, then many * of those people contact me for an assessment.
Another very effective strategy for growing my clientele has been to show my clients on social media as they train and get results. I believe social media can be a great positive tool if used with a positive purpose, which in my case is to inspire and teach other people to take action every day to live a healthy, fit and happy life.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I love this question! I am always sending my clients information and/or links to the podcasts and books that have helped me. I’m very glad to have the opportunity to share those resources here.

Listed below are my favorite books (so far) that I think every human should read before graduating high school or having kids:

The Law of Success by Napoleon Hill
The Laws of Human Nature by Robert Greene
Psycho-cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Atomic Habits by James Clear
Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leif Babin
The Better Baby Book by Lana and Dave Asprey
Why Do We Sleep by Mathew Walker
Deep Nutrition by Catherine Shanahan
Behave by Robert Sapolsky
What Doesn’t Kill Us by Scott Carney
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
Sacred Cow by Diana Rodgers and Robb Wolf
Feeding You Lies by Vani Hari

Here are my favorite people to follow for health, financial management, entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy on podcasts and social media:

Huberman Lab (Andrew Huberman)
Valuetainment (Patrick Bet-David)
The Ramsey Show (Dave Ramsey)
The Food Babe (Vani Harri)
Meet Kevin (Kevin Paffrath
Aubrey Marcus Podcast
Heal Thy Self (Dr. G)
All Up In Yo’ Business (Aiden Durham)
TED Talks

Contact Info:

• Website: kochperformance.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/kochperformance
• Facebook: facebook.com/kochfitperformance
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/carldkoch
• Twitter: twitter.com/carldkoch
• Yelp: yelp.com/biz/koch-fitness-and-performance-san-diego

Image Credits
Patrick Koch aka Zevra