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021: Ken Canion | How To Create a Professional Speaking Business and Get on Reality TV
Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, episode number 21. This is John Corcoran, and if you've ever wondered how someone can make a living as a professional speaker, then this interview is for you. I talk with professional speaker and reality TV show star Ken Canyon. Ken tells us exactly how he got his start as a professional speaker and how he's managed to do it for over 10 years. We'll hear his stories right after this. Welcome to the Smart Business Revolution revolution, revolution to say you want a revolution. The revolution, it's going on right now. Welcome to the revolution, the Smart Business Revolution Podcast, your source for how to grow your small business without working 24/7. Now, now you're host for the revolution, John Corcoran. All right, welcome everyone. This is John Corcoran. Ken Canyon got his start in the most mundane of ways. He actually started a small little balloon making business in the mall, and he found he was a natural entrepreneur, and he actually went on and founded a number of other businesses in addition to the balloon making business, including an identification card business, and most significantly a watch and clock business that received just tremendous national media attention. Unfortunately, it didn't last too long, and it didn't end well. So Ken very candidly shares a story of the disputes that happened with his partners and what led to the downfall of the business, but the long and the short of it is Ken basically lost it all, and he had to reinvent himself from the very bottom. So he'll share those stories, and he'll also tell about how he went into becoming a professional speaker, how he's managed to do that for all these years, and how he eventually ended up going on the TV show, The Biggest Loser. He was on episode three, and what that was like. Ken and I are in a mastermind group together, so I've actually gotten to know him a bit better over the last couple of months, but I feel like I got to know him even better from doing this interview because he was quite candid with some of his experiences, so I hope you'll enjoy it. I think you'll enjoy it. I think it's very interesting how often do you hear from a business perspective how you make money as a professional speaker? So finally, if you liked this episode, I hope that you will please subscribe by going into iTunes, and that way you will receive future episodes of the podcast instantly without even having to think about it. And also if you sign up for my email list at smartbusinessrevolution.com, I will send you all kinds of goodies. I won't bug you too frequently. We never spam free reports and webinars that we do from time to time. And finally, if you're driving or if you're at the gym and you want to look up some of the resources that we mentioned, we're going to put links in the show notes, which will be at smartbusinessrevolution.com/podcast21. So here's Ken. All right. Welcome everyone. This is John Corcoran, and today I'm really pleased to be speaking with Ken Canyon. Thanks. Welcome, Ken. Hi, John. Good. Thanks for joining us. So, well, today, Ken, it's interesting to reflect backwards on where, how far you've come because, you know, you've been on national TV with a reality TV show in The Biggest Loser. You've been a professional speaker for about 15 years or so. You started a bunch of different companies, but even though you and I actually are in a mastermind group together, I don't know too much about your upbringing and how that affected who you are today. I'm sure it plays a significant role. So tell me about where you come from. Well, John, I'm glad you asked that because, you know, I truly believe that our upbringing, you know, has a profound effect on us. And I'll say I was born in Atlanta, Georgia, and probably pretty much to a middle-class family. But the one thing that I had, I always tell people that I had a dad who was driven, who just told me I could be anything, do anything. He was always in sales. And it's funny. Now, when I grew up, I didn't really think about it, but he was the first one to get me involved in self-help type stuff. I remember I would get in his car and he would be coming from work, he was a car salesman. And he would have all kinds of tapes playing from Brian Tracy Zig Ziglar, people like that at the time. And I would hate it. I'd hate it. Like, why do you listen to all this boring stuff? And I remember him saying one day, he said, "Listen. If you get this stuff in your head, you'll be able to work for yourself, you'll be able to call your own shots, and you'll be able to make as much money as you truly want." And that kind of stuck with me. I was like, so I thought about listening to these boring guys to get you that. But he also said this. He said, "Stop worrying about, you know, how they're saying what they're saying, but get, learn what they're saying. It's the content that matters." And so, from that, I just kind of believed that whatever he would say, I believed it. Because I would always see him win awards and selling and things of that nature. And he always said, "Just work, you work hard, get the knowledge and apply the knowledge you have, you know, that's what would happen for you." Kind of just stuck. And he told me, he always said that, "You're just as smart as anybody else. You're just as smart." And I believed it. So that's kind of how I started with my mom. She was the kind of person's. I always tell people I get the best of both worlds. My dad was driven. He always wanted to be, you know, more than he was in terms of, "Here's where I am today. I'm focused. I'm goal oriented." But my mom was a little different in that she was a humble lady. Had a humble job at a hospital helping people. But she always told me, "No matter how much money you get, it's important that you help people along the way. Did you sow in the people's lives and that you?" Because everybody is not as fortunate as you are. And that kind of stuck too. So I became the best of both worlds in that I believe I could be all I could be in helping people in writing books and starting businesses and helping other people's businesses, but making money. But all in the way, giving back and mentoring young kids like I do and then helping people with the homeless shelters and things of that nature. So that was kind of my upbringing. I had two parents who showed me those particular things. And I think that those things have molded me today. That's really interesting because it seems like there are a lot of qualities in both of your parents that come out in you today that definitely shaped who you are today. But what point did you decide to become an entrepreneur and start your own companies rather than working like your father for a larger company? Well I would say this much. That happened later in life. And I'll give you this story, it's funny because I played football and I was pretty good at football. Like a lot of people, when you're really young, you think you're going to play professional football. That never happened for me. I went to college and I played, I got on a football scholarship, but by the time I was a senior knee surgery and I'm just tired of football, I'm like let me do something that's going to give me the same zest, the same desire to compete, but it won't be in football. So I look forward and I thought it would be in business. So my story starts kind of like this. I remember I had graduated and right after I graduated, I'd applied to grad school. I had a degree in public relations and I went to a school in North Carolina, North Carolina A&T State University and I applied to graduate school to Northern Illinois University. I never forget this because I didn't really want to meet, you know, I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I applied and they gave me a full assistantship. I mean they said okay, we just want you to come get your master's degree. We're going to give you 1,800 bucks a month, we're room and board paid for tuition paid for. We're going to give you the $1,800 stipend. We just said come and wow, I said okay, but about a week before going, I decided that I wouldn't go on and you know sometimes when you make a tough decision, you know how it is. I didn't say Mr. Sir, I said a tough decision and a decision that sit well with people sometimes. So I decided not to go and I can remember I told people I wasn't going to grad school, I was going to start my own business because I believed that business would give me the same zest for life, that competition because I looked at business as well, I had to think it was strategy involved, I had to drive myself much like football. So I decided not to go on, I decided with a partner we would start our own business. Now that wasn't received very well by my friends and family, but I just decided I would do that and my mom told me she said look son, follow your dreams and if this is what you want to do, do it. My dad was much like that, although he was more like do you have a plan? I didn't have a plan, so he was kind of disgruntled about that, but he said look, if you're serious about it, do it. So my friend and myself, we decided to be real estate moguls and we read all the books, 90 days this day, 90 days no credit necessary, good credit back credit, but you can be a real estate mogul, but that's how we got started. I was living on his floor, but I just got that entrepreneurial bug and the rest was history. Although we never became real estate moguls, we did start our own business and several of them. Okay, so how long did you work in the real estate area before you switched to a different kind of business and what was the other business that you started? I actually didn't even work in real estate, I just bought the package, I think it wasn't called and sheets off at the time, it was Robert Allen, it was on television, the infomercial, I saw it, but that's not how I started, that gave me the bug, I was living with my roommate and every night we talk about a business that we're going to start. At the time, he was going to take a job and he decided he would leave. So let me tell you what I did, I was working as a security guard. Now think about it, I just had a full assist in shipping go to grad school, but I'm working as a security guard, but I'm looking at businesses I could start, so I would buy entrepreneur magazine all the time and I was walking through the mall one day and during that time, what was popular was the balloon wrap businesses that just come out. I'm not sure if you're you for me with that, John, where they could put you could put stuffed animals and things inside of the mall. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember that the distance, I was in the distant path, but I saw that business in the mall and people were lined up, I had never seen anything that lined up at the mall to do it. I was like, what is this? How do they do it? And so I researched it and to get started in that business was $3,500. I never forget it. I went to a guy at a bank who went to school with me. Yeah, I never call his name, but he wrote it up as a, I think it was a credit card loan or some whatever it was, it was like a loan for school or something. Okay. I ended up using that $3,500 to start that business. He made me swear I pay it back and I paid it back and I started then it was during the Christmas season and I worked out a deal with Sears in my area. They got 20% of the business and I worked it out where I sat up there and actually the company worked it out. It was the Bloomberg was a company. They worked it out with Sears and they got 20% of the money and a lot while I was in business and the first time we did it, I made $5,000. I mean, I worked like a dog putting stuff, putting balloon and confetti and it was fun though. And they got there 20% and valentines they came around and we got better at it. And my partner who was gone, he actually came back with me and we started together and then rest was hit through history. So we made four valentines that we made $14,000. And man, we thought we were just you kidding? Just so happens that that business was only a seasonal business so it would only Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Christmas. And so we had to find something else we would do during the meantime. And so we started another business called identity services of America and he actually had started that up there, he brought it down and we merged our companies and we would go into schools and we would do identification badges like licenses, those type identification cards for parents, for their kids because most people didn't have a recent photo, height, weight in case they were to come up missing, but we would go around to schools and that's what we would do. And we got the bug and we would do a balloon wrap on the special occasions and we would do the identity services during the week. And so we were in business. Do you ever combine the two like we'll sell you an ID card and this stuff teddy bear? Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, we never combined the two because the identity was for schools and they never, no, we never combined the two and the balloon wrap was mostly malls and areas like that. So we went off from there. We got the bug and what we did was we started a company after that we became, we felt like we were putting too much work into both businesses. So we kind of graduated. We started taking what we knew because we grew the businesses and we formed an advertising agency called avant-garde advertising because what we didn't, what we learned along this time was we learned how to market, we learned how to get people out there. I knew how to sell and we started helping other businesses during this time. We didn't quite know everything, but we knew enough to, we knew my partner was good in design. We would design brochures. We would show them how to do mailings and things of that nature during that time. And the advertising agency, we started picking up and we were getting business and we were doing well. And all of a sudden my life changed and I'll bring you quickly to the point where I came up with an idea because I would always look in the entrepreneur magazine and I saw an ad one day of this guy's story, of this guy who had done a watch and it was a caricature of Dan Quill who was the vice president at that time and he had sold, he had sold close to a million dollars. The name of the company was VP Artwatch. I'll never forget that. And I said to myself, man, that's a great idea. And I said, what if we could do something similar, but the Cosby show was hot at the time. And I said, what if we could do something similar and we could take fine black art because it was emerging at the time and why don't we put it on the faces of watches and plucks. Well, I decided to do it. We were still running the advertising agency, my partner kind of handled that. So it was my mission to look into this and we started contacting the artists and finding the manufacturers and it was tough at the time because the technology wasn't really out to do it well. But we found somebody that could do it and we took that idea and it ended up being a hit, seer, Spiegel, I mean, black enterprise, Ebony. Everybody started doing it. We started selling stuff like crazy. So next thing you know, we become these whiz guys, whiz kid guys, young guys who knew how to take business, how to take these ideas and turn them into something special. And so that's what happened to me. Wow. Okay. So it's funny that you went from the identity badges to the advertising agency. How'd you make that jump? Because what happened was my partner would design flyers and brochures and things of that nature. I see. Just to help people out because we were in business, we had a computer, he was just good at it. And we were always thinking about what's our next step? Where are we going after this? Because that was important because we knew that we couldn't really make a great living doing that, doing the kid badges in the balloon route because I was still working as a security guard officer. We were making money though, and most of the money we put back into the business to see whatever we wanted to do. I was good at sales. He was good at design. And so we just looked into it and we said, hey, I think this could be our next step. And voila, that's what happened. And how was it working with a partner? Did you guys get along well? Ah, glad you asked that question. We got along well when it was just the two of us, okay? And I think what happened was someone once told me, you know, it's always easy to stay together when you're not making money. Now I'm thinking, hey, we were good friends in college, we played football together. Hey, we'd make good partners. Well, for a while we did. But what he wanted to do was, I mean, bring in other partners, bring in other people who went to school with us and because, you know, I'm a team player at the time, I'm like, yeah, let's do that. Okay. I'm thinking the more people we have, the more people could put equity in, the more guys we have out there doing what we need to do, more sales we could bring in that that was my thought process. Well, didn't quite work like that. What ended up happening was as the black our gear started growing, we kind of came to separate companies. We had the advertising agency, we had black our gear, since it was my baby, I was running it and it was getting all this publicity. And the other two guys that we brought in didn't quite like that. You know, they were saying, well, you know, he's getting the publicity. It's all of us and animosity came in and man, I tell you the truth, it just tore us apart. And I guess, and I'm part to blame too, because I was young and I was like, well, you know, you guys, you're complaining but you're not putting in the work and that wasn't the best way to handle it. So everything started going awry and it was kind of like it was me just them. And what ended up happening was the company was growing, growing, growing, growing, growing. And I felt like they just wanted to be on the gravy train. Well, what ultimately happened was that we stopped growing the way we were growing. I wanted to take the company into becoming a direct sales company, kind of like Tupperware, Mary Kane, because I felt like, hey, we've got a great idea. Let's turn it into that type of company, take our message and take it directly to people. Well, they didn't quite like that. We ended up long story short, losing it all. We lost everything. I'll never forget it. I mean, it was terrible. The banks came and got our computers, tables, everything. It was a total catastrophe. I'll never forget the last day when the bank came in and got my last table and I sat there in tears and say, how did I get to this? How did I go from this whiz kid making, you know, $100,000 a month to nothing? Well, and it took me a couple of weeks. So we split up, I kind of went my own way, took me a few weeks to just stay in my house and with the curtains drawn and I just kind of was in a depressed state. But I realized something. I realized with my dad, so again, going back to what he conditioned inside of me, he would say this, you know, son, there's going to be rain in everybody's life. And he said, it doesn't matter what happens to you. It matters how you react to it. And he said, and I never forgot that. And I thought after about two or three weeks, I said, look, I got to get up. I hope I did once I could do it again, but I've learned in the process what not to do. I've learned how to build a business, I learned how to sell, I've learned how to market to people, I've learned how to influence people. And I said, my passion was speaking and helping other people anyway. So why not take what I knew and start helping other people? Because that was the beginning of the professional speaking career. And that was the beginning of that. And so in 2000, I think it was 1999, I decided after I got up, I'd say, what would be the best thing I could do right now? Could I have a penny, what they didn't repossess my car, the lady was so kind, I'll never forget that I had a brand new Volvo A50. And I was leasing it. She was so kind. And she said, ma'am, you know, I'm going to get, and I told her my story. And I said, I'm going to come back from this, but I don't need a repossession on my credit. I said, can I volunteer, we're in the last year of my lease, can I voluntarily turn this in? And she said, listen, here's what you do, son, she can hear the distress of my voice. She said, take the car up to the Volvo dealer, leave the keys under the mat, and I will instruct them that you've done this. And I will not put it on your credit that you had a repossession. And she says, I pray that you get yourself back together. And I'll never forget that random act of kindness that she bestowed upon me. And I didn't have a car, I didn't have anything. But the one thing I knew was, I've got to walk in the, I've got to do something. So I joined Toastmasters. I said, let me, let me think about how can I become a professional speaker? I love speaking. I thought about it, but I knew Toastmasters would help me. So that was my first step into becoming a professional speaker. And you'd already done a lot of promotion of your business at that point, so you'd been on TV and done interviews and whatnot, correct? Correct. But not professional speaking. Right. I had not done professional speaking. But I had done the interviews, and I just wanted to go on Toastmasters to learn how to perfect what I did, what I wanted to do. Well, what about your family? Were you married? Did you have a family at this time? No. I didn't have a family at this time. I had a girlfriend at the time. We went bankrupt. Who ultimately became my wife. Okay. So she stuck with you? She's the only one that stuck by me doing that time. And what was that like? What did that mean to you that she stuck with you? I admit everything. And I tell her to this day, I said, because I think what it was was, I realized she wasn't there just for the fame and fortune. She wasn't there just because my name was in the paper or because I had money to buy things. She was there because she genuinely loved me and had my best interest at heart. And that meant everything to me, everything. So what's kind of interesting here is that you made the decision to become a professional speaker very shortly after this very public and very painful failure. How did you feel comfortable turning around and talking about that most recent failure? So quickly. Well, I didn't become a public speaker that quickly. I started speaking, but I never really talked about what I did much. I just talked about, I just perfected my craft of speaking. It was probably a year or so later while I was writing my first book that I was really comfortable even sharing the experience. It had to be a year, year and a half because I wasn't comfortable sharing my experience for quite some time. But what may be comfortable is during the process of I was always a reader. I was always listening to tapes and books because my dad had a planet that seeded me. But I realized many of the speakers who were very good, who were good at their craft and who were big time speakers had gone through a similar situation, they'd lost companies or at firstly. And what I realized that the adversity wasn't unique to me. It was common to everyone. And what they did with that adversity was the reason I started talking about it. Because they talked about it readily. They said, "Hey, this adversity helped me become this." And I realized at that particular juncture that everything I had gone through was building me, was preparing me for who I was going to become. Okay. So, as you kind of transition made this career change into becoming a professional speaker, I know that you've talked about a lot of different topics. You talk about leadership, you talk about youth issues, you talk about branding. What did you start talking about first? And how did you make a living? I think this is the key point because there's probably a lot of people listening to this or maybe some people listening to this who are interested in how do you make a living as a professional speaker? Great point. Great question. So, when I went to Toastmasters, I just started and most of the people in Toastmasters are not professional speakers. They're just people who have regular jobs and they have to do presentations. They want to get better at public speaking. So, I met a public speaker who actually came to my Toastmasters meeting and I asked her the question that she just asked me. And what she said was, she said, "Number one, perfect your craft." Okay. She said, "Number one, understand how to speak." Then she said, "Learn the business of speaking." She said, "Because most people say things like, 'I want to speak about, what do you say? I want to speak.'" And they asked them, "Well, what do you speak about? Anything." Most people say anything and I always tell them that you will not make a living at public speaking. She says, "Number one, you can't be all things to everybody." And I understood that from marketing. She says, "Pick something that you're passionate about, develop it, develop your talks, develop your program around that." And if it's nothing but one talk, develop it. And I didn't know anything else but I knew leadership. I said, "Well, you know, I could influence people." I remember John Maxwell, John Maxwell, noted author, coach, reading his books. He says, "Leadership is the ability to influence others." And I said, "Well, shoot, I can influence people." That's what I was good at. People would always listen. I could always give people to do stuff. So leadership seemed natural to me and so that's I developed a program centered around leadership. And I'll tell you why, because our company, the company that we created, Black Art Group, the way it grew was, I had multiple people, four or five people working with me. And I couldn't pay them. And I would always tell people, I got them to work for me because there's something bigger that people want and it's not money. People think money is the people's sole motivation, but it is not. And I said, "Once you tap into a person's intrinsic motivation, you can get them to do anything." and I would tell people and I started teaching people how to do that in companies. And next thing you know, voila, I said, "Now you can get your team to do it." I got my team to do it. So I started doing team building, started doing how to motivate your team, not a motor. So that was how I took my talk and I called it leadership in the real world. And I took that and I took it and developed it into a program which ultimately got me into corporate America, companies around America. They were hiring me to teach their managers because once I got in and did one, it was so effective that they became testimonials, they would tell other companies. And then I would get multiple plants within a company. And so that's what happened. Okay. So was your income coming from the fees that the company would pay you or from sales of this book that you'd written? It was coming from both, once I realized I learned from my mentor again, you need product. If you're speaking, you need product. People want to take something home with you. So they want to take you home with them is what she would say. And so I started writing the book and then they allowed me to say this. So I'll tell you what Mr. Stepp. Once I started speaking at Toastmasters, I wrote my first book. And the first book was about the whole adversity, you know, building, losing everything and all of that. My first book was called God, I ain't trying to hear all of that. And the book was about everything that happens, you're good, better, ugly. It's a way that your character is being shaped. And that's when I was openly admitted, talked about what happened to me. But as a result of that book, I sold, I mean, thousands of books because as a result of that book, I got to speak. I wasn't speaking on leadership. I was just speaking on being all that you could be, I was speaking on empowerment, self-esteem, those kinds of things. But as I was talking to my mentor, that was when she said, if you're going to make this a profession, she said, specialize. And that's when I started specializing in leadership because I could influence people. I could show people how to motivate others. I ended up writing a book called Leadership in the Real World based off of the training I developed. And they were about the training and the books as well. Okay. And this is kind of touching on a subject that you and I and the other members of our Mastermind group talked about recently, you gave a presentation to the rest of us and I wish we could share the entirety of it because you just had some brilliant ideas about creating products and selling them. But so for you personally, you started with the book and you had the speeches and you had the programs and eventually you spread out into audio programs and I blaked DVDs and whatnot. DVDs and then I did custom programs for them and then I've done ebooks. Okay. All right. So let's flash forward a little bit. So, you know, a number of years ago in season three of The Biggest Loser, you decided to apply and you actually became a contestant. So how did that come about? How did you go from being a professional speaker to deciding that you wanted to go on a reality TV show and actually quite candidly share your weight loss? Well, I'll tell you why because everything that I do from the time that, you know, I had my first company, I believe in being authentic. I believe in being honest. I believe that everything we do can help someone else because that's my mission in life to empower others. So when I went on Biggest Loser, I was traveling around the country, I was making money. I always thought that, you know, because my thought process was, Hey, I'm out here doing what I love to do. I'm making a lot of money doing it. I'm good. But the problem was my thought process was flawed. And I'll tell you why. I used to think that money was our number one asset. If you had enough of it, you could get whatever you wanted. But I didn't realize that during that time I was close to 400 pounds. My health was terrible, fading, you know, I had gone to the doctor and the doctor told me that my glucose level was 320 and that I was a diabetic and high blood pressure. All of this. And here I am, a young guy. And there was something in that thought process that made me see, there's something wrong. I'm a hypocrite. Here I am going around telling people that you can change your life, that you can be all you can be. But yet I wasn't being all I could be. I had tried to lose weight and, you know, I failed miserably, but I never would talk about it. And I came to the realization that, you know what, I was a hypocrite. And I realized that if I didn't have my health, all of this money wouldn't matter. All of this other stuff didn't matter. So I truly believe that if you want something different, you've got to do something different. Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. And I decided, and I can tell you the whole story of how I came to this, but that, but for you, for the sake of your audience, I'll just say this. I made a decision, a conscious decision to do something different. My wife had told me about the biggest loser because a friend of hers was going to go on it. I had seen the show like once or twice. And I remember when she told me, she said, "Tiny, our friend, Tiny is going to go on the biggest loser." And granted, Tiny's 555-505. And I'm thinking to myself, how the heck is Tiny going to go on the biggest loser? But I just planted a seed in me, and I started looking at ways to lose weight and doing something different. So I looked up the biggest loser, and I realized they had a casting call coming up in my area. Well, it wasn't quite in my area, it was in the driving distance. It was in Norfolk, Virginia. I'm in North Carolina. It was four hours away from me, and I thought about it, and I told my wife, I said, "You know what honey? I'm going to drive four hours to this casting call." I said, "I've got to change my life. I've got to do something radical." And I did it, and there were 7,000 people in line, and they told us. And I think I was the only one chosen that day to get on the show. And now, you know, I think my brother actually works in reality TV, which is kind of funny, and I think he's worked on the biggest loser at some point. And yeah, yeah, probably not the same season, but I think he did a little bit of work on it. I'm out in the area near where I'm from, which is Calabasas in L.A. County, or on the L.A. County. Is that where you went to? I know it was kind of in the Valley area. Yeah. Is that it? Yeah. Yeah. To this day, I tell people, they bust us from Manhattan Beach. They bust us from all the other Manhattan Beach all the way to some beautiful place that, I mean, I'm like a place on Earth, this beautiful. It was like, it was way out, and they said it was the, I didn't, of course, I didn't know much about California, but they said it was like the Valley area, but it was outside of L.A. Yes. Okay. They could have had you at a hotel, a heck of a lot closer, so I don't know why they had you stay so far, except Huntington Beach is really nice. The reason why is because it was near L.A.X. Okay. That makes sense. And so what happened was when it was time to go, get your stuff and get out of here. I think it was near L.A.X. at the time, and the way they set up the season, it made sense to be in that hotel near the airport. Okay. So tell me, what was it like being on the show? Well, I was on the season that they had, it was the only season they did this, where they had 50 contestants. Well, because biggest loser at the time, and it had been out two seasons, it was getting great reviews, but you know, some of the naysayers were saying, look, it's unrealistic. You got people on a ranch, and you got, you know, cameras everywhere, and you've got, you know, people bringing them food, no family, nothing. And who couldn't lose 150 pounds or 100 pounds and eight, nine, much, whatever it was? So the biggest loser decided to do something different. So what they decided to do was, okay, let's have this contest. Let's invite one person, have one person represent every state. So we're going to help America lose weight. And the way they did it was, they brought us all out there. We didn't know. And some of the people, 14 of them were supposed to do it on the ranch, and 36 were supposed to do it at home. And they had this big thing where you never knew who was going to get picked, and then they had us all working out with the cameras, and they ended up picking the 14, and then they had the other 36 to do it at home, and they would kind of compare the results. But so I ended up being one of the at-home people. It just so happens, though, that I was actually on, my story was on for episode. So it worked out real good for me. And I'll tell you why that show, at the time, I got to tell you listeners this, John, and I want you to hear this. A lot of times we look at things from our naked eye, and we think that things are negative. They still perceive negative at the time. But I thought to myself, man, I need to be on this ranch because I need everything that I need is out here. Well, I ended up going home, but one thing that I ended up finding out that when I went home, I learned how to lose weight with my family around. I learned how to lose weight with my children around. I learned how to lose weight with work, and traveling, and all of those things, and it helped me to be able to keep the weight off. So to this day, I think the biggest loser for that, but that was what the show. So the show was fantastic, though. I ended up staying out there about three weeks. We filmed, ended up meeting some friends and people who helped change my life. So the show was unbelievable. I will say this much, though. I think you see on reality TV, it's not reality. Just remember this, biggest loser is not a weight loss show. It's not a weight loss show. It's a show where they lose weight. It's inspirational, and it's good, and most of what you see is what you get. But it is a show where you lose weight, and I will always be forever grateful, though. So looking back on it now, I mean, you lost some weight, which is great. And so there are the health advantages to it. But professionally, were there any unexpected results? I know that now you've turned towards doing some weight loss coaching, so that it's shifted you in that way. But how else has it changed you in unexpected ways? Well, I'll tell you the most of the way it's changed me. I've taken the same skill set that I have in knowing how to influence and motivate people. And I've just turned it to health and wellness. I tell you, 50% of my business now is health and wellness. I have a passion to help people in health and wellness. I never knew I would have it, and it's funny. If you'd have told me this 10 years ago that you'd be helping people, the same fat kid that grew up, you know, who eaten everything would be helping kids, helping people lose weight, change their lives, transform their lives in that area, I'd say you're crazy. You're nuts. But that's what's happened to me, and that's been the unexpected benefit of what I've done. And so now I have a tremendous program that changes people's mindset, because I know that in every outward manifestation, the body, all of that, it's just an outward extension of what's going on on the inside, inside our brains. And I teach people and show people and condition people on how to change that. And so now I go around corporations doing similar health and wellness, and I go to individuals and all of those things. So if I had to be honest, that would be the unexpected benefit of what I've done. And you're enjoying that now. So I think destination transformation, is that what you were referring to, the program that you have now? Yes. Destination transformation is a program I've created, and it is phenomenal. Yep. But that's the one I'm referring to. Okay. Well, great. Well, thank you so much, Ken, for taking the time to talk to us. And it's really interesting hearing about all these different companies that you've worked on, and it's such a great story. Yeah. And I appreciate you for having me. If I can give your listeners just one piece of advice, and it would be this, no matter what happens to you, good, bad or ugly, it's a way that your character is being shaped. And I will say this, it's not what happens to us in life. It's how we react to it. So you might have got knocked down in the past. It might not have worked out exactly how you thought it would, but just keep going. And keep dreaming, keep believing. And one day, one day you'll get there. Tell us where we can find out more about you, Ken. Hey, here's what you go to my website. I have two websites I want you to go to. Number one, the first one is my main website is www.KenKENCanyon, C-A-N-I-O-N dot com. And the other website is destination transformation dot org. That website again is www dot destination transformation dot org. Put your name and email address in both of those sites, and you'll receive some very informative, cool stuff, inspiration, motivation, and education. So thank you so much, John. I appreciate you. Great. Thank you, Ken. Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com. And while you're there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution and be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution podcast. (dramatic music)