How Celebrity Fitness Expert JJ Virgin Built A Global Media Empire

JJ Virgin is a celebrity nutrition and fitness expert and a four-time New York Times best-selling author.

She is also the creator of the 4X4 Burst Training Workout and the co-star of TLC's Freaky Eaters. The contributions that she has made to the health industry are staggering.

I had had the opportunity to interview JJ Virgin about how she has been able to build a global empire.

Are you ready to learn how this powerful female entrepreneur has transformed the world of nutrition and wellness? Listen to JJ!

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

[smart_track_player url=”http://www.buzzsprout.com/9299/1202780-plm-682-how-celebrity-fitness-expert-jj-virgin-built-a-global-media-empire.mp3″ background=”default” ]

Ready to discover which online business is best for you? CLICK HERE for instant access to my FREE business quiz! 

Ready to reignite your health, energy, and well-being? CLICK HERE to learn more about JJ Virgin's work!

This description may contain affiliate links. If you purchase a product through one of them, I will receive a commission (at no additional cost to you). I only ever endorse products that I have personally used and benefitted from personally. Thank you for your support!

JJ Virgin empowers people to take control of their health.

In addition to her fitness and nutrition work, JJ is also a business coach. She is the Founder of The MindShare Collaborative, which is a premier community for health and wellness influencers and entrepreneurs from around the world. In our interview together, she and I talk about how she built a global media empire from the ground up. Here is a sneak peek of our chat!

Where did you start to get to where you are today?

I've always been into health and fitness. I can't imagine a time in my life when I wasn't. I started my journey with teaching calisthenics. Back in college, I became one of the first personal trainers. This was in the '80s. It was great. I was making 6-figures cash. Body by Jake, Mark Sisson and I were friends. These guys woke me up to marketing. At the start, I was charging $35-45 per hour.

Every time I got a new client, I would raise my price.

I remember going to a new client who had been working with Body by Jake and his brother. He charged $75 for 30 minutes. At the time, I was charging $45 for one hour. He was fully booked. I thought, “What is going on?” He didn't have the degree or the background that I had. I knew that I had to learn the marketing side of my business, and that's exactly what I did.

How did you transition from being a personal trainer to writing books?

I started to get frustrated because I wanted to help more people but didn't know how. My clients were getting healthier as a result of my efforts. However, it still felt limiting. I started doing public speaking. At the time, I was attending the University of Miami.

I had a client who asked me, “What are you going to do when you finish your degree in Sports Medicine?” My response was that I would go to graduate school. She said, “Okay, so when you graduate then what are you going to do?” I told her that I would go and get a Ph.D. She asked me why and I said, “Because I want to be more successful.”

This was a woman who grew up in a trailer park and who barely finished high school. Today, she is a multi-millionaire and is currently impacting millions of people's lives. She said, “You know those two things don't correlate, right? I can teach you how to be successful.”

I literally sold my personal training business and moved into her house.

The first week she put rubber bands on my wrist. She said, “Every time you have a limiting belief, I want you to snap your rubber band.” What is interesting is that, for six months, she trained me on mindset stuff. She taught me how to never trade time for money.

So many people think that they are an entrepreneur, but they are just a bad boss to themselves — which is what I was. It's fair to say that I was running myself ragged. I knew that if I was going to build a business, I might as well build one for myself. Over time, I took the principles that I learned from her and I put them into place in my own business.

Do you have any tips for how someone can get media exposure for their business?

Media exposure is really important but not for the reasons that people think it is. There is so much noise in the media. This is why it's so important that you build your credibility. As soon as I moved to Palm Desert, California, I knew that I had to build my business quickly.

Any chance I got, I would go on local TV.

I would simply write to publishers and editors of the shows I wanted to be on and say, “Here's my idea. Here's my credibility, here is what is being talked about, and here is my take on it.” By doing this, I had already created a segment for them. From there, I would follow-up. I still do this today.

What is your mindset for success?

I'm a single Mom. I've always been the sole financial supporter of my children. I had to be successful and make it work for them. Nobody has handed me anything in life. Everything that I have created and financed has been done on my own. This is true for all of my companies. I've always been hungry. That helps a ton. I also have a bigger mission and purpose beyond wanting to feed my kids.

My WHY is always expanding.

At first, I wanted to help one million people get healthy. The next thing I knew I was on Dr. Phil. From there, I started wondering how I could help ten million people. Then I thought, “What if I could help one billion people?” It's not that hard when you think about it. You always have to possess one thing that keeps you moving forward. If I'm not feeling an imposter syndrome, I know that I'm playing too small.

What were some of the challenges that you’ve faced along the way and how did you overcome them?

One month before my book, The Virgin Diet, was getting ready to be published I invested the entire advance that I was given into doing a public television special. I also borrowed some money as well. Four weeks before, my 16-year-old Grant got hit by a car while crossing the street at dusk. Literally, he was left for dead in the street.

They airlifted him to our local hospital. They told me that I was going to have to let him die.

He had a torn aorta which kills 90% of people on the scene. They couldn't fix the tear because they didn't have the right surgeon. He had multiple brain plates so he was in a deep coma with 13 fractures. We overruled the doctor and airlifted him to another hospital. He was there for 4.5 months.

I launched my book, sitting with my son, bedside. I knew that this book was going to save my son's life because if I didn't get the book, I would have been bankrupt. It was go-time. That's what I did. Honestly, it's a big reason why The Virgin Diet became the success that it is. Even better, my son is 110% better.

How does taking good care of your body amplify other areas of your life?

It's so hard for me to understand how someone could not make their health a priority. When I first started in personal training, exercise was viewed as a luxury. There is an old Zen saying that reads, “The way you do one thing is the way that you do everything.”

If you get up and exercise you will probably eat better. Once you do that, you will have more energy, which means that you won't need that 12th cup of coffee. If you've done that, you won't be so stressed that you have to drink alcohol at night, and so on. It all goes together. If you don't take care of your health, everything compounds.

That is why people get overwhelmed.

If you have yet to read Gary Keller's book, The One Thing, do it! It is the best book ever written for how you should live your life. When it comes to improving your health, pick one thing that you want to focus on. I have to remind myself of this all the time. Health is something that we are always working on leveling up.  It's not static. If you aren't constantly improving it, it's declining. Once I master one area of my health, I move onto the next area.

What is one thing that people could do immediately in order to improve their health?

Sleep is going to make the biggest change in your overall health. This is why I use the OURA ring. What you measure and monitor, you can improve. I travel and switch time zones a lot so I'm really crazy about getting my sleep in. It helps for being able to focus and think straight. Also, having a solid sleep schedule is one of the best things that you can do for losing weight.

What do you do to optimize your sleep?

I have a whole evening routine for the 30-60 minutes before I fall asleep. First, I dim the lights, cool down the house, and then I take a hot bath with Epson salts.

I use a product called, Sleep Candy.

This is a supplement that combines thiamine, 5-HTP, melatonin, B6 and inositol. After that, I read a good book. All technology is removed. My goal is to fall asleep between 9 pm and 10 pm at night and to wake up without an alarm.

How do you think someone should build their brand today?

I'm a big believer in putting on more events. I've actually never run ads before because I am always speaking and meeting people. You can still engage with people via social media, but it's not the same as interacting with people face-to-face.

If you build a solid business talking to people you will know what they want.

I brought my top customers from the JJ Virgin brand over to my house for the afternoon because I wanted some testimonials. It turned out to be the greatest thing ever. We hung out for the entire day. I now know what my audience wants. If you are not in love with your audience, then you've got the wrong audience. Be with people who you love and want to serve and don't stop grinding until you will get to where you want to go.

This is how JJ Virgin built a global media empire.

Becoming an entrepreneur isn't easy. It takes a lot of hard work, energy, and motivation to create a brand from scratch. This is why it's so important that you do the work to optimize your health and well-being. If your body isn't working efficiently, neither will your business.

In the words of JJ Virgin, “Your body is not a bank account. It's a chemistry lab.” Treat your mind and body with care because if you don't have your health, you don't have much of anything.

Ready to discover which online business is best for you? CLICK HERE for instant access to my FREE business quiz! 

Ready to reignite your health, energy, and well-being? CLICK HERE to learn more about JJ Virgin's work!