We were lucky to catch up with Ryan Read recently and have shared our conversation below.
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?
I’m Ryan Reed. I am a personal trainer who specializes in putting mental health first in order to achieve the best physical results.
I grew up in an all-athletic background and played basketball professionally up until I was 27. This is where I picked up hard work, consistency, and persistence through hard times. It all has helped me in my career now.
I had an injury that forced me to retire at age 27, which is typically the prime of most athletes’ careers. I was devastated. At the time I had no money, had no job, and I was living with my grandmother. It was a very dark time for me. I then chose to start training as something to get me out of my grandmother’s house and pay rent.
I ended up moving to Scottsdale about a year later and realizing that helping people is my passion, and what I was truly meant to do in life. This is why I encourage people to be patient in figuring out their passion because I did not find mine until I was 28. I’m also a prime example of the whole timing concept where people think they should have a certain amount of kids, a husband, or a certain amount of money by a certain age. I started late.
I now have online training where I train close to 1000 women all over the world. I also have multiple fitness guides that people can buy along with over 10 products that help elevate your training experience at home or in the gym.
My goal now is to make mental health and physical health synonymous in people’s lives. My mission now is to completely change everyone’s perspective on why they work out. I think people struggle with motivation. People struggle with quitting all the time. Many people are detached from their mental health which is why people will go through so many diets and so many workout plans. My goal is to identify these problems and attack them from a mental health point of view. I encourage my community to work out because they want the quality of their life to be better, period. That is all. If we keep that in mind, then it makes everything else way better.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Three years into my journey I went broke. I quickly had to learn that growth is not always linear. You don’t just go up in the upwards direction every day or every month. There are some times when you will drop and go back up. During this time it was frustrating for me because I was doing all the right things, but what I had to understand was that this was part of the process. You have to go through these valleys and you will be tested. I had to stay resilient during that time and just keep going and consistently do the right things over and over until I had rebuilt my business. I was able to beat 90% of my competitors just by doing small things consistently every single day. Consistency is king. Doing something every day will allow you to dig yourself out of whatever hole you may be in.
How did you build your audience on social media?
Over the years I have built my TikTok following to over 1.2 million and my Instagram following to over 173K. I grew my social media community by remaining one hundred percent true to who I am and then posting consistently without expecting anything in return.
A lot of times I think people get caught up in posting so that they can go viral. I’ve learned to let go of that idea and focus on what my community wants. Most of the time when something goes viral it’s because you are remaining true to who you really are and creating content that reflects what your community is seeking. Today, it’s very easy to weed through what’s real and what isnt when it comes to content and social media personalities. You can easily see who’s staying true to themselves and who isnt. I quickly understood that I am a unique individual. Nobody can be me and I can’t be anyone else, so it’s important to show up as the best version of my authentic self. I remain this way in my thought process, when I am authentic to myself, I am truly one in a billion so I try to add as much value as I possibly can to my content.
I want my audience to learn from me, and because I feel that way, I think it has allowed me to build a deeper connection with them. I’m real. I tell my followers when I’m having bad days and great days. I don’t pretend like everything is always rainbows and unicorns and I think that’s one of the reasons why they love me so much. They can relate to me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ryanreadthrive.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanreadthrive/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKRIt-P2cZ4TsU84viZWiWQ
- Other: Join me for online training: for just $3.50 a day: https://www.ryanreadthrive.com/pages/thrive-online-training