I made 6-figures learning from my mentor before paying him a dime—or even meeting him.
Years later, I spent over $100K in a single year on business training.
Here’s how I went from living in my gym to building a thriving business—and why investing in mentorship unlocked everything.
The Modern Mentor Problem
The “coach of coaches” market is full of big promises and overpriced programs.
The space is so noisy that it’s hard to tell who’s actually worth learning from.
Social media and YouTube offer endless random advice. Feels productive. But if it’s not tailored to your situation, it’s just dopamine hits with no real results.
And then there’s the hesitation most coaches feel—maybe you know it well:
- What if I spend money on the wrong thing?
- What if I get pressured into something I can’t afford?
- I’ll just keep grinding and figure it out myself.
I told myself that last one for years.
And it cost me more than I want to admit.
Rock Bottom: Living in My Gym
In 2009, my gym was a year old. I had no idea how to run a business.
I was burnt out. Broke. Living inside the gym because I couldn’t afford rent.
My meals? Whatever was cheapest at Aldi.
My shower? The gym bathroom.
Laundry? Barely.
I had two choices:
- Get a job at AutoZone across the street. The safe move. Pay bills. Keep the gym alive, barely.
- Swallow my pride and figure out business.
The second option felt disgusting. I wasn’t some entrepreneur. I just wanted to coach. Learning business felt like selling out.
But after a week of thinking about it, I made my choice.
I was done being a broke coach.
The First Mentor—Before I Could Afford One
This was 2009. No one was selling mentorship on Instagram.
I started talking to the business owners at my gym, hoping for some real-world advice. But none of it clicked.
Then, out of desperation, I called my college roommate Doug Larson and asked him to be my business partner.
No plan. Just instinct.
Doug flew in from Australia, walked into the gym, and handed me a pirated business course he had downloaded from Pirate Bay.
It cost $1,500—we got it for free.
That became our daily ritual:
- Mornings: Watch the training.
- Midday: Fill out the exercises.
- Evenings: Train clients until late at night.
For months, we did this.
Then, one lesson changed everything.
The instructor started talking about what it actually meant to be an entrepreneur.
Not just someone who owns a business. Not someone who makes money online.
He described an E-type Entrepreneur—the kind of person who synthesizes ideas, builds innovative solutions, and creates new opportunities from scratch.
An entrepreneur wasn’t just a business owner. An entrepreneur was a visionary, a problem solver, someone who saw gaps in the market and filled them in a way that no one else had.
That definition sounded cool as fuck.
Doug turned around in his chair, smirked, and said, “That’s you.”
I laughed. No way.
But Doug didn’t drop it.
“Think about it,” he said. “You hate the way gyms are run, and you’re trying to do it differently. You’ve already been experimenting with new ways to attract people. You’re always questioning the way things are done.”
I sat with that for a while.
And over the next week, something shifted.
I owned it.
I wasn’t just a gym owner—I was an entrepreneur.
That single identity shift changed everything.
From The Gym to My First House (2010)
Within a year of studying that course and actually implementing what we learned, I had enough income to rent a house down the street from my gym.
It wasn’t a dream house. Bars on the windows. Drug deals across the street. And a homeless encampment just a block away.
But I was out of the gym.
And I was finally starting to understand how business worked.
By 2012, I had launched a podcast and a YouTube channel, but neither was making money yet.
I knew we could do more. I just didn’t know how.
The $7K Decision That Changed Everything (2013)
Fast forward to 2013.
I had moved my gym into a bigger, better location and had enough income to buy a house in a better part of town.
But I still had that itch.
I wanted to build something bigger than just a gym.
That’s when I saw an email.
The same guy whose course we had pirated was hosting a live event.
I wasn’t planning to buy. I just wanted to see how he sold.
But halfway through the webinar, something clicked.
I had to be in that room.
Price? $7,000.
I didn’t have it. My credit card was maxed from the trip I was on.
But I knew this was the next move.
So I made calls. Borrowed money. Scraped together enough to pay for it.
Three months later, I walked into that conference. Ready.
By Day 2, I had a new perspective.
Before the event even ended, we created a new offer and sent it to our list.
People signed up immediately.
Within a month, we had made more than the event cost.
And 90 days later, our online business was making more than our gym.
How I Spent Over $100K on Mentorship—And Why It Was Worth It
That event was just the start.
A few months later, the same mentor invited me to a $5K mastermind. I didn’t hesitate.
That led to a $25K think tank with Marc Gafni, John Mackey (Whole Foods), and Ken Wilber.
Over the next 18 months, I spent:
✅ $57K with my mentor.
✅ $25K to be in high-level rooms.
✅ $30K on a leadership coach.
Total: $100K+ in one year.
At that point, our business was making $100K per month.
Why Finding the Right Mentor Isn’t as Hard as You Think
You don’t need to drop $10K just to see if someone’s legit.
That’s exactly why I built CoachFlow—to remove the guesswork.
I’m not here to pressure anyone into a high-ticket program based on a couple of YouTube videos.
You can:
✅ Join the community, learn something, and improve your business without a huge upfront risk.
✅ Test the waters before going deeper.
✅ Decide when (or if) you’re ready to level up.
Which one are you?
→ Join CoachFlow here.
See you inside.
—Mike Bledsoe