We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Eric Sierra Marrero a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Eric, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
Well that’s an easy one.
Back in 2020 I was coaching some people on the side, but my main career was teaching college clases in Sagunto, Spain.
I had already started a small blog and instagram account to share fitness tips, workouts and information, but I still saw it as a side hustle, while I kept on focusing on my teaching career.
In fact, in 2019 I was in the process of becoming a PhD candidate.
But when 2020 started, I felt like the impact I could have teaching in a specific location was way too small. I started dreaming about the possibility of starting my own business, and having a much bigger impact, reaching and helping more and more people.
And I won’t be the typical entrepreneur that tries to make you think I’ve always done everything for others. I also craved location freedom, since my family, friends and my then new-girlfriend, now fiancé, were all over Spain, and I was totally dependent on the faculty’s schedule to be able to see them.
So I started taking my side hustle more seriously to the point that just one week before lockdown, I decided to invest in a business coach.
His coaching was way over my budget (in fact I only had enough money in the bank to pay for 3 months of coaching and his program was a 12 month commitment) but made the decision to take the risk and figure it out later.
And it paid off.
I decided to make the most out of that risk and started working on my business every hour I was not teaching, grading or preparing for clases.
I got my first online client about a month after starting to work with my coach, and one way or another I always found a way to make ends meet.
Just about 6 months later I had a business breakthrough and ever since I’ve been able to build The Real Fitness to multiple six figures a year and having members in over 13 countries.
In less than one year I submitted my letter of resignation on the faculty and started working in my business full time.
None of this would have been possible if I hadn’t taken the risk (that seemed brutal back then) of hiring my first business coach, even when at the moment I couldn’t possibly afford it.
That’s why I’m so bullish on the importance of investing in yourself, because I know that even when seems like a huge risks sometimes, there’s simply nothing that has the potential to change your life more.
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?
We help guys over 30 take their shirt off with confidence without having to sacrifice their lifestyle or spend ridiculous amounts of time working out.
It bothers me to see so many people who just aren’t proud of their physique, their lifestyle and what their bodies can do. And most importantly, I want to give those around them the opportunity to enjoy the highest version of our members.
We focus on a holistic approach that considers that our members are ordinary people.
With lives, families, careers, and duties, they cannot afford to spend the amount of time that other programs require to get results.
We get results because we don’t follow a one-size-fits-all approach.
We understand that every person is different and has different needs, and we don’t pretend that we can help everyone cause that’s not the case.
That’s why focus on guys over 30 because we know that’s the demography we have shown time after time that we can deliver head-turning results to. We know how to maximize their time, optimize their metabolism and craft strategies that are not only effective but also sustainable for them.
It’s all about helping our members work smarter instead of harder. We teach them how to use food instead of being used by it, so they can keep on having a social life while getting incredible results. And most importantly, we offer them a world-class accountability system to hold them accountable and guarantee results.
One thing that separates us from any other program is that we’re not here to give quick fixes.
Our goal is that The Shirt Off Project is the last program any of our members will need because we focus on making everything sustainable.
If you don’t see yourself doing something for 10 years, it doesn’t make sense to do it for 10 days, so we focus on methods that adapt to our member’s lifestyles. And we’re results-driven. That’s why we have a 100% money-back guarantee if a member follows the program and isn’t happy with the results, because at the end of the day if our members don’t win, we don’t win either.
In terms of results, we know that in many cases is not only about the before and after photo (as there are other metrics such as health indicators, stamina, sleep improvements, etc that we track and work on) but let’s be honest, those pictures are why people come to us in the first place.
At the end of the day, we run a transformation program, and to this day, out of the guys who follow the program 69’1% get incredible before and after pictures and an extra 20,6% get what we call mind-blowing before and after pictures.
And something that’s funny, at least I find it funny, is that out of the members who don’t follow the program (who do less than half of the workouts and don’t control their nutrition), we still get 17’6% of them achieving head-turning transformations.
Probably the metric that I’m most proud of in my entire business is that we have an 86% renewal rate among our members, which for us means that they are happy with the service provided beyond just the results.
If your readers want to learn more about what we do and see if we can help them transform their bodies and life, head out to @ericcinhofitness_ on Instagram, check theshirtoffproject.com website, or check out our podcast, The Real Fitness Show, where we bring some of the best coaches in the world to talk about workouts, nutrition, habits and anything related to a fitness transformation.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
We’ve always been members focused.
From the very beginning of my business, I knew I wanted to build something that was really life-changing for our members, and I still have that vision of making The Shirt Off Project the best transformation program in the world.
That’s why our programs are fully guaranteed, because is not about getting more clients for us, but about getting more and more results.
With that in mind, we keep on reinvesting in the business to make the product better, to be able to support our members better, and constantly execute on our member’s feedback.
I think we have created a great community where when a new member comes in they instantly feel like they’re a part of a community that’s gonna root for them no matter what.
The fact that our members know they can trust us, even if we’re in different parts of the world is really weird to find in the online world, outside of the big corporations.
Obviously, this would mean nothing reputation-wise if we only made our members feel good, but didn’t deliver the results, so the fact that we have such a higher success rate compared to the industry average has helped us stand out in the online world for sure.
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Not gonna lie, business is hard, and leading a team is harder haha.
I think the main thing is making sure everyone is on the same page and that everyone is clear on what the goals are and what their role is.
We are blessed to have a really high-functioning team that is moved by the same mission: Changing lives through fitness.
With that being said, there will be tough periods and you just have to learn to embrace them and as a leader be still.
Luckily, we do have a lot of positive feedback from our clients, on top of the visual results, about how the program is impacting their lives and those around them, so I make sure to always keep handy the folder with the screenshots of those messages, the audios, and videos, to help boost the team’s morale when we’re having a bad week or a bad month.
We know we can only do so much, and sometimes social media will be on our side, and sometimes we will be nowhere to be seen, but at the end of the day we know our job is in the trenches, with our members, and that’s what we try to focus on.
One thing that I try to involucrate into our culture as a company is the “Never too high, never too low” mentality.
We know business is a roller coaster, and especially in our industry, one good day can cover a bad month, which can make it very emotional if you don’t learn how to manage it.
Being transparent about what’s going on in the company, from the top to bottom, at least in our case, has been one of the best strategies we’ve implemented because everyone knows what’s going on, and if we struggle, we struggle together and try to find solutions, and if we thrive, we thrive together as a team. x 
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theshirtoffproject.com
- Instagram: @ericcinhofitness_
- Facebook: Eric Sierra Marrero
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-sierra-100357249/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealfitness
- Other: The real Fitness Show Podcast! (On every platform) https://podcasts.apple.com/es/podcast/the-real-fitness-show/id1534309561