FULL TRANSCRIPT

The Lead by Relentless - Episode 2 with Erica Cordeiro. Hosted by Katie Ward. Lightly edited for readability.

Opening Highlights

Erica Cordeiro: Most of the people that called me obsessed, I would not trade lives with them. It took me 30 months to lose a hundred pounds. The mental transformation far outweighs that physical transformation.

Katie Ward: You think about only the finish line, man it's gonna be so daunting.

Erica Cordeiro: You have to be able to commit and do those small little things day after day after day. You are truly capable of more than you ever thought you were.

Introducing Erica

Katie Ward: Erica, thank you so much for joining me on The Lead by Relentless. We're just getting started here. And my vision with this podcast is to sit down with people who are leaders in the fitness communities, hear your stories, and learn how you were helping people realize what they're capable of. So thank you so much for believing in that in the early stages here. I'm really excited to sit down and have a conversation with you.

Erica Cordeiro: I'm super excited and honored, thank you for asking me.

Katie Ward: Of course. So we're gonna start by talking about you and your journey, and then we'll talk more about kind of what you've built here at Get Fit Studio. But quickly, in just a couple sentences, if somebody does not know you, tell us who you are, and if you want to say a little bit about your place here, you can, but we'll get more into depth that later. So who are you, Erica?

Erica Cordeiro: Is a good question. all right, to wrap it up in two sentences, I would say I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, and a firm believer that when you put your mind to something, you can accomplish anything. And if my one purpose here is to get through to others that's capable of, of what they're capable of, I think that's that's my mission.

Erica’s Fitness Journey

Katie Ward: Fire me up. Amazing. So we'll get more into like how do you actually do that as we talk? But if it's okay with you, I want to talk about your own personal fitness journey because the reason I met you was through social media and how you share have shared your story, particularly talking about your weight loss journey. So you have lost over 100 pounds. At one point, you were, I think, close to 300 pounds. And

you know, through your social and the stories that you've told, you talk about how you at times were maybe hurting physically but also emotionally. If you're comfortable, could you take us back to that point in your life? what was going on? And maybe it was there something that you were like, Okay, this needs to change.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, it's it's funny you say that 'cause I talked with some leaders in my other business a few weeks ago and some of them a lot of their feedback was, We know your weight loss journey, but a lot of people don't know the backstory of how you got there. so I feel like I share a lot about the story of and the journey of losing weight and the fitness journey and the journey to the studio and be becoming a coach and all that.

But a lot of people don't know the backstory of where it started and how I got to that point. summing it up in I mean, I could sit here all day and talk about it. I love this stuff and I would talk about my journey all day long if it was gonna inspire somebody.

Katie Ward: I think that's just it. It's like I give you so much credit for being willing to share it because there are people who are there right now who look at you and you're like, Wow, she lost all this weight and now she owns a gym but you know, to take you back to that time, it's like to the extent that you're comfortable, like what yeah, what was going on at that point and how did you get there? And then eventually I would love to know like what was the turning point, if it was a single moment or, you know, a culmination of a lot of things that were like, you know what, the time is now and I'm taking I'm gonna make that change.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, so starting way back, I had my daughter very, very young. I was pregnant at eighteen. We went through some tough times as a single mom and at one point we lost everything. I lost my house, had to file bankruptcy. obviously when I got pregnant at eighteen I dropped out of college. So at that point it just seemed like everything was failure.

Failure, failure, failure, one right after the other. in that time I did meet an amazing man. we got married, had a second child. That didn't automatically just change everything. there was still a lot of hardships and demons that I was fighting with myself. we lost our house in

2016 and moved back in with my parents and I just I don't know, I just couldn't dig myself out of a hole. I just I was working job to job and then at one point I remember on my lunch break I called my husband and was just like, I can't do this anymore. So he's like, That's all right. I left my job. for a few months it was just kind of like I could hardly get myself out of bed.

You know, I'd put the kids on the bus, I'd go back to bed. My daughter was very active and cheerleading, so those were s some of the good times we traveled. I would bring her to practices and stuff. but there was no focus on me and taking and then I was just gradually whatever it was, getting more depressed, getting bigger. I mean in the in the cycle

continued, right? Put on weight, get depressed. Eat, put on weight, get depressed. It was just this huge cycle. And I don't know if there was one moment in time. There is a specific point that I can remember. We were coming back from Florida. She competed every year at Disney. And we were coming back from Florida and I couldn't buckle the seatbelt. and I wasn't gonna raise my hand and ask for an extender. So I remember like tucking it, you know, under my sweatshirt and

And just kinda thinking to myself, like, how did we get here? Right. You know? and then shortly after that, we came home. I had a physical that June. That was April or May, we were coming home. I had a physical that June. It was probably the first time I had stepped on a scale. And I don't know what clicked, and people ask this all the time, like, what clicked? Right. You know, I don't know if it was the number, if it was just like those events leading up to it.

that was in the beginning of June and I circled June 17th, 2019 on the calendar. I don't know why. I circled that day and said, I'm gonna start this day and I'm never gonna look back.

Katie Ward: Heck yes. Yeah. And so was it like, first of all, amazing that you were able to kind of finally be like, no, I'm gonna do this for myself. And when you made that decision, was it like was it a complete overhaul where like everything happened at once or was it more like gradual, like, okay, I'm gonna start working out, then I'm gonna start doing the nutrition piece? Or was it like more all or nothing, or like, hey, we're gonna attack this, or maybe a little bit combination of both?

Erica Cordeiro: It was a little combination. It was more focused on nutrition. Funny story, my brother invited me to a CrossFit workout. and I remember we were warming up and I think like one of the warm-ups was like run a lap around the building. It was like a hundred meters and I was like I couldn't move. I couldn't breathe. and I think I was already had started my journey at the time. I really don't remember the timeline.

But I started specifically with nutrition. I went cold turkey with cutting out all fast food, soda, chips, candy, all the junk, and focused on my nutrition for a good six months. I think in that time was the time he invited me, and I was like, I was like, I gotta lose some of my weight. And I remember there'd be everyone, and I preach it now, is like, you can start wherever you're at, but I was an athlete growing up.

And there was no way for me like I was walking into the gym and like not being able to run a lap around the building. It was a big like, my God. So I did. I lost fifty pounds, about forty five, fifty pounds from June to that January. And that's when I joined the gym and really added fitness movement.

Katie Ward: I mean as you know, it's like it you need both. You know, I think some people they want to just work out the working out I think is the fun part, but the nutrition and the lifestyle pieces, like those are so important and they're foundational. So you know, I think of course it goes hand in hand. One of the things that you said was you felt you like you were going from failure to failure to failure. And I think that's something a lot of people can relate to, whether that be in their personal life or on their weight loss journey.

If you were to give to advice to somebody who feels like, man, I just maybe I keep trying and stopping. Or I'm like, okay, I'm gonna commit to my weight loss journey or commit to going to the gym and they start it and then they stop it. And then they feel like they're a failure. And it's they kind of get stuck in this cycle. Do you have any advice to somebody who feels like that's where they're at right now? Like they just can't get over that hurdle and they're just accumulating what they perceive to be as

Failures. How do they get past that and start to see those successes? Maybe it's little successes or

Erica Cordeiro: Or whatever. Yeah, and I think it goes back to not overhauling everything at once. I is trying to win one thing. One of my big things back in the day I did a lot of online challenges and stuff. And our motto was like, win the day. Heck yeah. What can you do today to win the day? And you have to start somewhere. You have to put one foot in front of the other. and give it time. I think we live in a society now where everybody wants instant

Katie Ward: Instant gratification.

Erica Cordeiro: Results, instant gratification. I mean you can have anything at the tap of a finger. and it's to give it time. I go back and I tell people, my hundred pounds, it took me thirty months to lose a hundred pounds. And I mean that's an average of three pounds a month. And a lot of people after the first couple months at that rate

Katie Ward: Only lost three pounds. You know, it's probably or it's like, it's only a pound a week. It's like, but that adds up over

Erica Cordeiro: You gotta give it time. I'm reading a book right now, it talks a lot about compound interest and not just in your finances, but in these things and relationships, in health and fitness and all the things and time is the secret weapon there. You have to be able to commit and do those small little things day after day after day.

Katie Ward: And the time is gonna pass anyway. Absolutely. And I think people want they want the quick fix right now, like you were talking about. They want it all at once. And sometimes I think don't value that little day to it's like just stack good days. Stack good meals. Stack drinking enough water every single day. And over time, that's gonna get you, I think, where you wanna be, or at least a lot closer. And I'm sure when you were in that thirty months, it seems like an eternity. But if you look back, it's like

Three thirty months of your life is really not that much if you can just commit to every single day. And, you know, I liked what you just said there. It's like I think about running a marathon or ultra marathon or anything. If you think about only the finish line, man, it's gonna be so daunting. You know, you just take one step at a time. And that's how I think a fitness journey is too. It's one step at a time. You can't do it all at once.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah. And I think you find out so much more about yourself in the process of doing those things and it kinda it changes your mindset. It changes who you are. You know, who do you want to be and show up as that person every day? You kinda you figure out what you're made of in those hard times. I mean, obviously weight los it like anything in life, nothing's linear. You know, it goes up, it goes down, it's state you go through plateaus. but in the long run, if you if you s if you stay consistent, it inevitably pays off.

Katie Ward: So true. And like I think James Clear talks about it, you just kind of reference it. He's he talks about habits a lot, but atomic habits. But like you have to do the thing before you become the person. Like you have to even if you don't feel like I'm the fittest person ever, well if I'm gonna create the habit that I'm gonna start eating well and I'm going to go to the gym three, four days a week, you create the habit first and then that's how you become that person.

Erica Cordeiro: And I think trying to when you're making decisions too, of you know, I want to be this person, I want to be a fit person, I want to be someone that works out every day. So when you're making decisions in your day-to-day, you know, whether it's going out to eat or, you know, you're long trips and you're in a car ride and you're stopping at the store, is like, okay, what would this person decide in this moment? I'm not saying you're gonna have be you're gonna be perfect 100% of the time, none of us are, but in order to get there,

You have to you have to show up as that person before you become them.

Finding Purpose in Coaching

Katie Ward: Yes, amazing. one of the things the way I researched for this, I basically looked at your Instagram and all this stuff that you post and I love it. And in one, you know, and a I apologize if I'm paraphrasing, but you said during your weight loss journey, people said you were obsessed. And they kind of looked at that maybe as a bad thing. And I actually think obsession is necessary in order to achieve greatness or achieve really lofty goals. So for me,

Like be obsessed or be average. So but I also see the other side where people maybe are looking at you and saying, You're too extreme or you're too obsessed with this journey. What was your response in that moment to people who maybe said, You're too obsessed with this?

Erica Cordeiro: So I think it's gone back and forth. In the beginning of my journey or towards the middle, I don't think I had the mindset of who I am now. So sometimes it would take me back and be like, am I, you know, am I getting a little too obsessed? Am I getting out of touch with like reality or what? But now I look at it now and most of the people that called me obsessed, I would not trade lives with them. So

Katie Ward: Be obsessed or be average. Yeah. Amen to that. Yeah. I think if you wanna do great things, like you have to have that little bit of obsession towards it. That's my personal opinion. So I love that you were able to like, you know what, that's your opinion and I'm gonna keep rolling and doing what I'm doing. How do you think your own personal weight loss journey and fitness journey has impacted you as a coach?

Erica Cordeiro: It did kickstart my passion back in into fitness. I played sports growing up, varsity sports. and my mom ran a gym pretty much my whole life. So I've been in I've been around fitness forever. So when I lost myself, it was like almost I lost my identity of who I was, the athlete, you know. And I think now getting when it propelled me back into the fitness and as a coach

It gave me another perspective and I always say like maybe it was, you know, my purpose, God's purpose of putting you through that journey so that you can now help others through theirs. I feel people find me relatable. And I when we talk about obsessed, I'm not there's nothing better and I am obsessed with watching people do things that they never thought they could do. No.

Building Get Fit Studio

Katie Ward: There is nothing better. And I think I think coaching is a calling. I feel really strongly about that, that coaches have the ability to impact people perhaps more than anyone in their life outside of maybe their immediate family, because you see people every day, you see them at their highs and lows. And you just said helping, you know, helping people realize what they're capable of

I think in order to do that, you need to push them a little and you need to give them a challenge. And then when they overcome that challenge, that's how they realize that they're capable of doing something. So we're sitting here in your facility. It's beautiful. It's amazing. Get Fit Studio. Can you tell me about how did this go from being a dream to a reality?

Erica Cordeiro: many hours of overthinking. my husband and I, we he joined me on this fitness journey about six years ago. He has his own little fitness journey too, which I'm super proud of. Little backstory on that. He I was probably about a year or so into mine and he was working a job and he was tired and complained of pain all the time and just, you know, wasn't working out, wasn't eating well.

And I remember saying to him, give me six weeks. Six weeks of doing this, this, and this. And if you feel exactly the same at the end of six weeks, I'll never bug you again. And we all know what happened, right? The rest is history. so we would drive, that's like one of my favorite times, whether it was on Sundays or road trips. We were heading out to the CrossFit Games in Madison back in 20. I'm gonna get the date wrong, 22, 23. And

I just, I my passion for helping people, I just, it's just one of those things you can't stop thinking of. And I'm like, I'm gonna open a gym, I'm gonna open a gym. And it was like, yeah, okay. You know, how are you gonna do that? What are you gonna that? And it became just like almost a weekly conversation when we were driving around. I would do this and I would do that. And then in November of 2024, I came home and said, I did something. I said yes to a space.

And he didn't even blink twice and was like, let's go.

Katie Ward: Heck yeah. I think having a supportive partner is kind of a cheat code. and also what you're saying is like you just couldn't stop thinking about it. You're in the car. It's like every week you're having this conversation. In my own life, I find that like when something's like on your heart like that, it's there's a reason that it's there. And for you, it's like opening this space has then allowed you to make an impact in so many other people's lives. I think when you have this vision for something, like you had this vision for

Erica Cordeiro: Hundred percent.

Katie Ward: this space or you know, or you have a vision on your weight loss journey, really any entrepreneur, it's like you have this idea that you want something, but you have to put in the work before it's real. And I think that is something people don't realize. And there's an uncertainty in that. And there's this element of like, I'm just gonna put my head down and work, work, work, because I have this vision and it's on my heart, but you don't know the end goal.

Erica Cordeiro: And I think that's exactly it. It's it's putting the faith into what we talked about of giving it time. Right. When I started my weight loss journey on day one, there was no guarantee I was gonna, you know, whatever it was, December of, you know, th 30 months from then that I was gonna lose 100 pounds. There's no guarantee. But you have to put some kind of faith in those small steps daily. You know, winning the day, day after day, I tell people all the time, I know you're not gonna see it.

Day to day, you're not maybe not see it week to week or even month to month. But in three years down the road, you're gonna look back and be like, Holy crap. Right, you know, look what I did.

Katie Ward: And if you don't put in the work, you're guaranteed not to get there. Absolutely. And like we said, time passes anyway. So, you know, in all areas of my life, I'm like, man, if I just put my head down and consistently work, what's gonna happen? Versus if I just keep thinking about this thing, well, it's never gonna happen. So you may as well put the work in, whether it's your fitness or your business, you know, whatever. When you opened this gym, what year was

Erica Cordeiro: We opened in March of twenty five.

Katie Ward: And it seems like almost right away there are people in here. Yeah. Which is pretty amazing. Like that's where we're going.

Erica Cordeiro: I mean, I remember nights before, just you know, it sounds cliche, but I just kept saying to myself, if you build it, they will come. Mm-hmm. You know, and you have to kinda just put that faith out there and 'cause there isn't there is no guarantee. Like what's gonna happen? Am I gonna sit here and twiddle my thumbs for, you know, months on end before someone walks through the door? but I have a great team that I've had since day one. I have amazing supporters at home from my husband, my dad, my mom, you know, and

they would, you know, go to bat for me anytime. And we were able to hire amazing staff from the beginning and it yeah, I'm I couldn't be happier with the way, you know, the last year and a half has gone.

Katie Ward: So why do you think that almost right away you had people here and then what keeps them coming back? As far as like members of the gym, like people who, you know, why did they walk why do people walk in the doors and what keeps them here?

Erica Cordeiro: I wanna say the biggest reason why people walk through the door is they see it as a safe place. we I try to take the intimidation out of walking into a gym or a group class and really having conversations with people before they commit and kind of showing them what we do and why we do it. I do believe my story has a lot to do with that. I kinda did put that on the forefront of

of the studio's mission. And then as far as people staying, I said our staff is amazing. I think we have incredibly talented coaches. Not only can they coach and know fitness, but they care about you. Yeah. and I think we get people results.

Strength Training and the Basics

Katie Ward: Yeah, let's talk let's talk about that because it's all touchy-feely, it's good, but people also want to see results. That is important. as much as I think all that other stuff is really important, I think that can be a differentiator. I think that's what gets people and keeps them in here so they can see results. But results matter when people are coming to a gym. I'm kind of a programming nerd. I just love programming. I've been working out consistently for over 20 years, and in that time I've kind of tried a little bit of everything and used myself as a as a guinea pig.

but that being said, I think the basics work. Variance is fun. I think if you've been training a long time, it you know you can add some of that stuff in. But it always comes back to push, pull, hinge, squat, carry, progressive overload, track your progress. And it seems like that's kind of what you guys do here. Which I love. and it's not rocket science, but could you tell me a little bit about either your training philosophy or what is it?

What is the experience like? Do you have a flagship program that you guys do here at your studio? Why is it that way?

Erica Cordeiro: so I started my coaching journey at a CrossFit gym. constantly varied functional movement performed at high intensity, right? And I loved CrossFit and I do love CrossFit. I then branched out and started doing a lot of personal training and weight loss coaching. And when I was doing personal training a lot with people in their, I would say, you know, 40s to 80s. And they're, you know.

Maybe their peak years are behind them, but you never know.

Katie Ward: Mine are still ahead of me, yeah.

Erica Cordeiro: I think that too. But you know what I Totally. So I was, you know, seeing eight clients a day, one-on-one, and I kept thinking to myself, is like, how can we how can I touch more people in a day? Right? As a as a personal trainer, you're doing one-on-one, you can only see so many people. I wanted a system and a program that could be useful across the board. and that's where I developed Fit Strength, and exactly what it is. We squat, hinge.

Push, pull, lunge, carry, core. and again, I opened the studio. I had followed the programming myself, it's kind of what I did. I did a lot of CrossFit and then I did a lot of [unclear]. But when we opened, it was kind of like, let's put the programming to the test. And immediately within the first few months, I was like, Yes, this works. This works. Yeah. And it The basics work. And it works.

mostly for everyone. And we do offer personal training. Of course, there are instances where people need like individualized coaching or programming modifications and all that stuff. But the basics work. And we have some I call them like fun classes in there. We run boot camp and a butts and guts class over the weekend. So you get your high intensity, you get your cardio. But we come back to like just that functional strength training and aesthetics is great. We all want to look great.

But I want you to be able to move when you're eighty years old. I want you to be able to drive to the grocery store and do your own grocery shopping and get up off the toilet and play with your grandkids and my eighty three year old client right now is in Egypt traveling the world. Like that's right what we want.

Katie Ward: to live. Yeah, I it's funny, like my background, I play college ice hockey, so I spent time in a weight room kind of learning about how to lift, the importance of strength training, how do you do progressive overload? But for general pop, I think a lot of people don't do that. They see, you know, I'm dating myself, but like P90X or whatever, whatever, you know, the flavor of the day is. How do you get people to buy into progressive overload basics?

I think it's beautiful, but I think some people want more bells and whistles or they think they need more. More is better, flashy is better. You know, so how do you have people to buy into what we both know and believe works, which is basic strength training with progressive overload, tracking it, fundamentals, doing it well consistently over time.

Erica Cordeiro: And that was one of the things is like, are people gonna find this boring? Right. Cause, and honestly, the community I think helps. You're showing up and working out with, you know, 12 to 15 of your best friends every day, now the people you see every day. And two, I think our tracking system helps because when you see results and you can see it, people might think, okay.

Yeah, this is working. There's something to it. And I and there's a huge difference. And people say it I try when we go through our consultation process when people are looking for results. You know, I've been doing this and I've been doing that and I don't see any changes. My body's not changing, this and that. Is there's a huge difference between working out and training. Amen. Right? You can you can go to the gym and burn a couple hundred calories doing a bunch of random exercises. That's great. Like that

Katie Ward: There's some to that.

Erica Cordeiro: I think it's awesome because it's better than sitting on a couch. You know, I you're moving, awesome. But when we talk about results focused, you know, system, you have to follow a training program. Right. And I think that's I think the results, the community piece and ha have the people have totally bought into it.

Women, Strength, and Progress Beyond the Scale

Katie Ward: Right. Yeah. When you see and you know something's working, you're like, all right, maybe I'll listen to this person. And you look around and you see other people who are on their journeys making progress. I think that helps a ton. All right. We obviously both are biased, I think, towards wanting to get more women strength training because we see all of these benefits for it. Erica, I am going to read some stats for you. Are you ready? And you're gonna just there's three of them and I just wanna kinda hear your response to them.

The first one, fewer than 27% of women over 18 meet weekly strength training guidelines. And only 17% of women over 65 meet weekly strength training guidelines. The second one, women lose about 3 to 8% of their muscle mass per decade starting at age 30, and that rate often increases to 5 to 10% per decade after age 50.

And finally, strength training two to three days weekly reduces cardiovascular mortality in women by 30%. So, we know all of this. There's a lot of good that comes with strength training and it's needed. But how do we actually get women strength training? And maybe what do you wish more pe more women knew about getting into a gym where they're actually doing real strength?

Erica Cordeiro: Strength work. Yeah, I mean, I know those stat statistics, but every time it's still Yes. Like, and I want to say to my ladies that are strength training, when we play the comparison game, you're usually comparing yourself to someone that's next to you in the gym. I want you to start comparing yourself to the people like what's this 27 per you're

Katie Ward:

Twenty seven percent twenty seven percent. Fewer than twenty seven percent actually are lifting. Yeah.

Erica Cordeiro: So you're in the top eighty seventy three percent or whatever it is.

Katie Ward: And it's worse, I think, because if you're anything like me and I think a lot of like people that work out, if you look at your social media, you're scrolling through and it's like the top point one percent. So then like you're comparing yourself to people around you and then you're going online and you're comparing yourself to CrossFit Games athletes or fitness models or somebody you know, whatever and

Erica Cordeiro: Absolutely. And I yeah, so I try to stick with that. Like, God, this you know, why am I not lifting this? And she's lifting that. I'm like, listen, you're in the room. Right. You're already ahead of, you know

Katie Ward: Not to mention lift clap for that person who's lifting.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, no, and I think I think we do and I think our community does a great job of that. the muscle mass, the I shout it from the rooftops of and we get in a lot of this, especially 'cause most women come to the gym 'cause they want to lose weight. Mm-hmm. But you know, I would love to hear what that st statistic is, is like what's the number one reason a woman walks through the door and I guarantee it's to lose weight, not get stronger. Right. but we try to flip that here. Mm-hmm.

I think weight loss obviously from coming from a weight loss journey is huge. So we do pay attention to the number. And losing muscle mass has a lot to do with why you can't lose weight. So it all goes hand in hand. I try to shout it from the like I said, shut it from the rooftops, whether it's through my social media, is that building muscle and maintaining muscle is the fountain of youth. Yes. If you want to have medicine can keep us alive a long time right now.

Right, but if you want to have life in those years, you gotta strength train.

Katie Ward: Heck yeah. So how do you feel about I think I'll say this, I feel like skinny is back in. Mm-hmm. And are you seeing that more as like people are like it's it's almost like I wanna get smaller at any cost. I don't care about muscle mass, like this is what's like, you know, in, you know, popular media and culture rate.

Erica Cordeiro: It's it's scary. Yeah. I think that if it keeps trending that way in a few years we're gonna have another epidemic on us and it's that everyone's gonna be severely under muscled. so I walk a fine line because I do believe, like I said, a lot of people n need to lose weight.

Katie Ward: Yeah, that's what it's like there's

Erica Cordeiro: The reality, when you when you look around, like the obesity rate and stuff like that, but you can also have a lot of muscle, be in shape, have good fitness and still weigh more on the scale.

Katie Ward: And not just chase that number or that certain aesthetic that probably is not realistic if you're not [unclear] and in good lighting and all of that sort of stuff.

Erica Cordeiro: And it's it gets crazy. We do use a tool here. I have a 3D body scanner in house when we talk about like I wanted the studio to be a results-based studio so we can show you what's happening. I just had a woman who's 59 years old, had never been inside a strength training gym, never picked up a barbell, and she started in May.

Katie Ward: Amazing.

Erica Cordeiro: We just sh we did a body scan when she started and we just scanned again last week and she was up two pounds. You know, all flustered. I've been, you know, doing this, this, and this and this. Right. Why is the scale up two pounds? Super frustrated at most ti most people at that point would quit. Mm-hmm. Like doing this. What's work and the scale is up two pounds? Well, we got her on the body scanner. She had lost four pounds of fat.

She was up six pounds of lean, down two percent body fat, which is no. And I think that's those are the numbers we have to pay attention to. Right. Right? Especially as we age. Fifty you know, in your fifties, sixties and seventies, what does your, you know, fat mass versus your lean muscle mass look like? What's your body fat percentage look like? What's your bone density and stuff like that? Rather than like getting hung up on what the damn scale says.

Katie Ward: Amazing.

Can't argue.

Heck yeah. Okay. Last question about strength training, at least for now. Obviously, so many benefits physically. What about mentally?

Erica Cordeiro: Save my life. Right? Yes. I it

I don't know if I could say this.

Katie Ward: Say whatever.

Erica Cordeiro: If Big Pharma could sell you a gym membership as the best antidepressant drug out there, you know, it would be a billion dollar right industry.

Katie Ward: And I mean I don't know the studies but I've seen them. It's like the best thing you can do is like go for a walk and look get some sunshine.

Erica Cordeiro: my God. Yeah. I tell people all the time when you look at my before and after picture, you see the weight loss, right? You see the muscle gain. my God. The mental transformation far outweighs that physical transformation, which is kind of crazy because it's a huge, you know, physical transformation. But the mental transformation going from depressed, if I hadn't started when I did, I wouldn't be here.

I guarantee it. I wouldn't be here right now.

Katie Ward: Yeah, I just think it's the one thing it's like you almost can't put it into words and you know, you're talking about like your gym and like wanting to like sell results, it's true, but like that other part of it, that is like your mental, the connection. You know, I think the need for connection is so huge for people too in an environment like this. There's a lot of amazing gyms, I think, that I've been to and around that like they're creating that community and connection for people. So it's like you get the physical, you get the mental, and then you get that other really important human need, which is connection.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, I think community is back in. It was kinda scary when I was thinking about open the gym as like, you know, is it is it phasing out or is it phasing in? I think we're on the up two. I mean, you can get a training program on

Katie Ward: I think.

Dime a dozen. ChatGPT cheaper than that, yeah.

Erica Cordeiro: For nothing. Right. Right? Like you can find training programs. You can't find community. Yeah. You know? And I always say, like, you can you'll skip your workout, but you're not gonna skip your people. And when you when the mental gains start outweighing the physical gains, I think that's what keeps you in the game. Mm-hmm. I'll tell you a quick story about my daughter. she was a all-star cheerleader for 10 years, always in

Great shape and gorgeous girl. And she went off to college and she was having a tough time not feeling you know great about herself and kind of always in kind of a mood. Before we opened the gym, she started going to Planet Fitness that January. And she would go every day. In about two months, I'm gonna cry.

Katie Ward: Let it out. Take your time.

Erica Cordeiro: And about two months in, she looked at me and she goes, I think it's working. And it wasn't about her abs coming back or anything. She goes, I just feel so much happier. I mean, what else can you

Katie Ward: Yeah, that's it. And I think, you know, for me when I see people in my life who are struggling mentally, what I usually tell them to do is, Hey, do you wanna start going on a walk? Mm-hmm. Can we get you to the gym? 'Cause it's not we know that the physical is certainly part of it, but what it does for your mental health, it just rewires things in you.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, it's crazy. It's it's absolutely crazy.

Katie Ward: When you think about your community here, whether that be like your family members coming in or the people who have become probably like family members, how intentional are you about creating that community, about making people feel welcome? Like you talked a little bit about that, but are there certain like things you do or is that like an organic process?

Erica Cordeiro: So I think it's it's number one on I would say like on our mission is to make everyone feel comfortable when they walk through the door, not to be intimidated and like you matter. Right. I don't know what my future holds of get fit and you know other locations or this and that. I would love to go on and touch millions of more lives.

But I never want to lose that connection to my people. you know, I wanna know your story. I wanna know where are you going, where do you wanna go, you know, whether it's in your fitness journey or just sharing, you know, stuff that's going on in your life. so connect connection and caring is really high up on the list. And if I could get you results, that's right.

Katie Ward: It's great. I think that's the part that people don't often consider when they think about going into coaching. Maybe people do, maybe people don't, but how important that personal side of it is. Like obviously you need to know how to train somebody, the programming, but knowing that like, hey, you're gonna be this constant in somebody's life is really important.

Erica Cordeiro: Absolutely. And when we built our team, I feel like we were really specific with that too, especially with the program we designed. Like if you have your certifications, like I can teach you my programming. Right. Right? Like I can teach you how many sets, how many reps, what we're looking for, what the mission of the programming. But you can't really coach someone's personality and their level of caring. Yeah. And I don't know why I

I don't know, I feel like I hit the jackpot with who we had.

Sharing the Journey

Katie Ward: That's amazing because getting right people in every industry is like I feel like the hardest part. And especially something like this where like you're really trying to make an impact on people's lives. Like you want somebody who understands that's also part of what it means to be a great coach. I wanna go back to kind of what we started about. I really know you through social media, which is a crazy thing to say. I actually only met you the other day when I came in for a workout, which was amazing. but I think you do a great job of sharing your story and

Erica Cordeiro: So yeah.

Katie Ward: also encouraging people to take action where they are kind of in their journeys. I think that a lot of people find it hard to share on social media, even when they have something worthwhile to share. But when people do it and they're genuine and they really care about why they're putting out that message, I love it. And I think we shy away or at least I would say, I have no desire to be like an influencer. My guess is you don't either, but to be a person of influence

And whether we like it or not, social media is a way that we can kind of tell our stories and hopefully have an impact on people. Because yes, you have your group here, but I think done well, social can allow you to touch more people. why do you share your journey publicly?

Erica Cordeiro: Honestly, in the beginning I think it was a way to kinda hold myself accountable. Mm-hmm. You know, if everyone knows I'm doing this thing, I better do

Katie Ward: It was like my like a cheat code again because I'm like once Tell somebody. Yeah. You know, there's very people think different things about that, but a man if I'm putting it down into the world or you're sharing your journey, it's like you have that internal and then also maybe people will encourage you on your way.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, and the responses I get are or that I have gotten throughout my journey have been ninety-nine point nine percent positive.

Katie Ward: And F if they're bad. Like it's like that tells me more about them than you.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, so you know, there are people out there obviously cheering you on. I think it like you said it's a cheat code kinda to put it out there to hold yourself accountable. But the big reason is that I usually get at least one message from somebody that says, Thank you so much for sharing. I needed to hear this today. And I mean that's all you know, if you can touch one person.

Katie Ward: That's what it is, man.

Erica Cordeiro: one person with a single post that gives them the courage to take that step and hopefully ultimately change, you know, their lives, then you're gonna see a lot of before and afters of me.

Katie Ward: That's how I feel too, you know, just in my own like sharing of social media and different things. Like sometimes I'm like, why do it or is it silly to do it? But I can't tell you the same thing. Like how many people have been like, You doing that crazy race inspired me to go do my five K and I'm like, wow. I don't care if there's thirty thousand haters, if there's that one person who you can make an impact for by just sharing what you're already doing, I think that's that's amazing.

Do you ever feel like because you're a coach and because you share your journey, that adds pressure to what you're doing or how you live your life?

Erica Cordeiro: Little bit. I try to lead by example and if I find myself

slowing down, I kinda have to take that look in the mirror and say, Hey, like, this is what you do. You know this is who you are and, you know, let's get back on track. Just because you're a coach doesn't make you make you perfect.

Katie Ward: Heck no. Also, you know, it's a little cliche, but pressure is a privilege. You know, sometimes I think a little bit of pressure for me can help me make better decisions along the way. So yeah, thank you so much for sharing, you know, your journey. I know that for me I see it and it and it and it's inspiring and I'm sure you're doing that for other people as well.

Erica Cordeiro: Thank you. And I try to share the good and the bad. I think it's important because you said I'm I'm not trying to be an influencer where, you know, everything looks like rainbows and butterflies. Like every day is not perfect. Some days are hard. Yes. You know, and you put life on top of it. So you're working on a journey or you're opening a business, you're going to work, you have, you know, four kids and you're running here to there and you f feel like you have no time for yourself.

Katie Ward: So important.

Erica Cordeiro: We get it. And I think that's where the like the relatability is that a word comes in. so I try to share the ups and the downs because I think that's important that people know that, you know, like, you know, here goes [unclear] again. You know it's, you know, yeah, you know, all smooth sailing and it's not.

Katie Ward: It is now.

And I think when you're a coach sometimes people think it's easy for you, you're always motivated, or you're always disciplined and that it's just not the

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah. I mean I have gotten those like, well it's easy for you, you work in a gym. Yeah. It's like, well, that's not where it starts, you know. and like I said, I hate to focus on the negative comments that have come out, but you know, everyone starts somewhere, you know, and it I like to share both sides 'cause I think y people need to need to hear.

75 Hard and Doing Hard Things

Katie Ward: Need to hear it, yeah. So we started this conversation talking about your weight loss journey of 100 pounds, but you're also now, I think, on day 73 of 75 Hard. So I just briefly want to talk about that. I actually, Andy Frisella, speaking of his social media, I listened to every one of his MF CEO podcasts back in the day, which was it was basically 2015 to 2019. I had a gym. I don't know if you know anything about that, but that was like before 75 Hard.

He and he it was all about like mindset and taking action and mental toughness in your physical, but also like really through the entrepreneurial lens. So I know Andy Frisella can be a little controversial, but I really give him a lot of credit for me like at a time where I needed that virtual mentorship. but I think most people know him through 75 Hard. So I if it's okay, I want to, you know, briefly hear about your experience in doing that. And if people don't know what 75 Hard is, maybe give them an overview and then your experience on it.

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, so I this is my fourth time Let's go Yeah doing Seventy Five Hard. so I've tried to do it like once a year. I missed last year. I know I had some stuff going on. But no Yeah, you know, something. But so 75 Hard, and I think it gets a lot of bad whatever you want to call it, because of It's too intense. Yeah, it's intense, it's restrictive, you know.

This and that, you know, but it's it's not a it's not a weight loss challenge at all. And they actually they don't want you to call it a challenge. Is mental toughness and I truly, truly believe that everybody should do it at least once.

Katie Ward: And what is it?

Erica Cordeiro: What you're made of. It is two workouts a day, two forty-five minute workouts a day. One has to be outside and they can't be back to back. Follow a diet, no cheats, no alcohol, take a progress picture every day, ten pages of reading. Reading has to be like personal development type and a gallon of water. Mm-hmm.

Katie Ward: And if you miss a day, you start at day one?

Erica Cordeiro: Start back at day one. So this is my fourth round. And there's also the live hard year. I don't know if you've heard about that. There are phases that go on after that. When I did it in 2024, I did go on to complete phase one and phase two. And then phase three was the month before we opened the studio. And I

set on day one, I looked at the list and I was like, you know what? Actually, this is gonna set me up great. Like for business wise, if I make all my tasks focused on business, like this is gonna be a great grand opening. And then it just yeah. And every day every time I'm like, I can't believe I got to phase three. And I it's always next time. but yeah, so I think it really is a mental toughness program. Most people will see some physical changes just because of like the diet and the water and obviously you're working out a couple of times.

Katie Ward: Well there's always

Erica Cordeiro: But for me, for this one, I tried not to make it as restrictive as I have in the past. I've always done it for weight loss. So I've always done like a strict calorie deficit. we're training for HYROX this coming weekend. You need a f so yeah, so fueling and that's pretty much why I did it. I wanted to make sure I was fueling properly, that at least twice a week I was working on mobility. You know, every workout doesn't have to be high intensity.

Katie Ward: Yes.

Erica Cordeiro: And I needed to get back into that mindset space of like y this is who you are and you can do hard freaking things. And I get away from the reading when I get busy and I feel like that's probably one of the biggest benefits of the of the whole program.

Katie Ward: I think for the people like I've heard they just it should be like there should be a seventy five moderate or like the point is like yeah it is hard and doing hard things is how you level up. I think the point that's missed sometimes is like, you know, I feel like if you do s at certain times in your life to have a block of like intense focus on something or be intentionally more disciplined towards something, yeah, maybe that's not a forever thing. But to have a block of time where you're like I am locked in on this, I think that's needed sometimes.

Erica Cordeiro: It I a hundred percent. And so I tell my weight loss clients too, when we talk about you know, obsession and a goal, do you wanna reach your goal? Because we have to have those blocks of time where there might be some restriction. You know, it's not n it's no for now, not no forever. But if we have goals to hit, like we gotta get through some tough stuff.

What Coaching Means to Erica

Katie Ward: Stuff. And if you just keep doing what you already did, you're not gonna see that. So yeah, like sometimes doing hard things is needed, sometimes challenging yourself, doing things that you didn't think you could do before. That's why you get a good coach because they're gonna help lead you and guide you in that direction. Absolutely. All right. This has been an amazing conversation. We're going to wrap up here with this question. Are you ready? What does it mean to you to be a coach and have the kind of impact that you do on somebody's life?

Erica Cordeiro: Yeah, for sure.

Maybe

It means everything.

in this profession as a coach, as a gym owner, your livelihood is based on people choosing you. And for my people who have been my clients or members to come back, you know, year after year, day after day, and choose us is I mean there's no greater reward, I don't think.

Katie Ward: Amen. All right. Is there anything else you'd like to share before we wrap up today?

Erica Cordeiro: I don't think so. I think if like I said in the beginning, if I had one message is you are truly capable of more than you ever thought you were. Mm-hmm. You gotta do it scared, do it tired, put one foot in front of the other, my grandfather always said. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

Katie Ward: Just keep moving. All right, amazing. Where can people find you? Learn about Get Fit Studio and take a class if they want.

Erica Cordeiro: Yes, you can find us on Instagram at the Get Fit Studio or our website www.getfitstudios.com. This was amazing.

Katie Ward: All right, awesome. Thank you so much. Let's go.