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00:00:00
00:00:01
This Counterintuitive Coaching Strategy Built a 6-Figure Business
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In this episode, Ken Freire sits down with Cody Lutz to unpack how giving away your best ideas—freely and publicly—can actually accelerate business growth. Cody shares his journey from nonprofit leadership to fitness coaching to fast-scaling business coaching, revealing how stewardship, courage, and a relentless focus on value helped him pivot, grow income rapidly, and build momentum on LinkedIn. The conversation dives deep into fear, identity, faith, content strategy, and why human connection will matter more—not less—in the age of AI.
Resources Mentioned
• Prosperous Coach (Rich Litvin) – https://richlitvin.com/prosperous-coach/• LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/• MyCoachCody – https://mycoachcody.com/• ChatGPT – https://openai.com/• Claude – https://www.anthropic.com/claude• YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/ Connect w/ Cody - https://www.linkedin.com/in/coachcody/
Timestamps
• 00:00–03:40 – Cody’s background: nonprofit leadership, sales, and discovering coaching • 03:41–07:30 – From fitness coaching to business coaching: the pivotal mindset shift • 07:31–10:30 – Letting go of sunk costs and making the hard pivot • 10:31–14:15 – Stewardship, faith, and aligning business with calling • 14:16–18:10 – Fear, courage, and breaking down worst-case scenarios • 18:11–24:30 – The growth strategy: volume + value and giving everything away • 24:31–33:30 – LinkedIn strategy & the ACE framework (Attention, Connection, Expertise) • 33:31–37:30 – Scaling toward 7 figures, YouTube, books, and brand building • 37:31–42:45 – AI, the future of coaching, and the rise of in-person experiences • 42:46–47:45 – Legacy, faith, fatherhood, and final reflections
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Transcript
From Sharing Tips to Business Success
00:00:00
Ken Freire
Most coaches guard their best ideas like secrets in a Knox vault. But Cody did the opposite. He gave everything away publicly, generously, and without holding back.
00:00:13
Ken Freire
And that counterintuitive move turned a small coaching experiment into a fast-growing business. Today, we're breaking down how giving more actually helped Cody grow more and how this mindset can unlock momentum.
00:00:27
Ken Freire
for any expert-led business.
Coaching Entrepreneurs and Executives
00:00:30
Ken Freire
Cody, thanks for coming to the show, man.
00:00:32
Cody Lutz
Bro. Awesome. Awesome to be here, Ken.
00:00:35
Ken Freire
Yeah, absolutely. So Cody, real quick, before we do a deep dive, tell everybody a little bit about your business, and then we'll walk into kind of like your origin story.
00:00:38
Cody Lutz
Yeah.
00:00:42
Cody Lutz
Yeah. Yeah. My business is Coach Cody. MyCoachCody.com is a website, but don't go there. It's lame. Websites are like, connect with me on LinkedIn. That's where like all the magic happens and friendships are formed. But I coach men who are entrepreneurs and executives and I help them make more money, have more fun and have more impact in the businesses that they lead.
00:01:04
Ken Freire
Yeah, I love it, Cody. So before you got into that, you used to be a fitness coach. All right. But like, just kind of walk us through your journey. Like, how did you even get into the coaching world?
Past Roles and Leadership Experience
00:01:16
Cody Lutz
Yeah, so I've been doing this thing called coaching for years, actually.
00:01:21
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:01:34
Cody Lutz
It's like ridiculous. And it feels illegal that I should have this much fun and get paid to do it. so I, spent eight years at a nonprofit called answers in Genesis, running conferences and events for Ken Ham travel all around the world around the country with him, uh, running of his events.
00:01:43
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
00:01:50
Cody Lutz
And I would do, I would sell and like book events and stuff do contracts for that. And I would like do all the retail and like leadership of like all the volunteers and stuff. So we had like a big retail at all the events that we had run.
00:02:03
Cody Lutz
And I loved selling like the resources and the books and DVDs and all stuff. I loved selling. And didn't realize that selling was just coaching. It's understanding what people need, listening and asking good questions and understanding their problems and their challenges.
00:02:19
Cody Lutz
And then, guiding them towards the resources that are going solve their problem, right? Which is a product in that case and sell in sales. I just love selling. And then I went and I worked for an organization called accountable to you, which makes accountability software for people struggling with sexual addiction on their on their devices.
00:02:40
Cody Lutz
And I led like the customer experience customer support side of things in that business, and led a team and grew the team there. I did that for four years. And really, you know, gained experience in management and leading a team of people was just something I love doing and pulling that thread of like, what is the thing in that job that I love the most was one being on the executive team of the business and just getting to see all the aspects of business I just love the game of business, but also leading a team and guiding them to
00:03:18
Cody Lutz
you know, high performance and accomplishing things that they want to accomplish and helping them grow and develop. And what is that? It's just coaching, right? It's leadership and leadership is just coaching.
Transition to Business Coaching
00:03:30
Cody Lutz
And so then actually got fired from that job last summer after I had started building my own like fitness business on the side, building this fitness brand.
00:03:34
Ken Freire
Oh.
00:03:41
Cody Lutz
And I got into fitness coaching. And I was like, well, I'm good at coaching.
00:03:51
Cody Lutz
I've built this. actually was building this fitness brand called Backyard Shreds where the business plan started as I'm going to run a YouTube channel and sell digital IP of downloads for how to build home gym sheds like the one that I'm in.
00:04:06
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:04:07
Cody Lutz
And so I'm going to sell these building plans. It'll be passive and digital IP and do like, just focus on building YouTube channel. Great business model. takes a long time to build up a business like that though. And then halfway through my business plan, I lost my job. And so that timeline got cut short. So before I had any money or any revenue, I lost my job and I was like, okay, I think entrepreneurship is the next level.
00:04:30
Cody Lutz
And so I wanna, I'm not gonna go look for another job. I'm just gonna build this thing. But selling a hundred dollar business building plans was not working.
00:04:38
Ken Freire
Ha ha ha.
00:04:39
Cody Lutz
I needed to sell something more expensive. And so was like, well, I've already built this audience selling around like home fitness. And it's bunch of men, it's bunch of dads. And what can I sell them that I can charge $1,000 for $2,000 for instead of $100. And a lot of people that were following me around the fitness content was producing were like, hey, like, they just had questions about working out. How do I get in shape? How do I work out?
00:05:05
Cody Lutz
Like, I want a home gym, but I really just need, I need help getting in shape. So I launched a fitness coaching business, fitness coaching offering through the fitness business, Backyard Shreds.
00:05:16
Cody Lutz
Started doing fitness coaching. That started working really well because I'm like, I know fitness. I'm good at coaching. Cool. Like, this is what I'm going to do. And so I started doing fitness coaching and that started doing really well. Guys were getting results. The business was growing. I was like learning like know, the sales and the marketing and build all this. And I spent, you know, months and months growing this fitness business.
00:05:38
Cody Lutz
And all the while was working with a business coach, I'm like, man, what I really love doing is just coaching.
00:05:45
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:05:47
Cody Lutz
Fitness is just something I know, but business is the thing that I love. And I look like that's the game that I love playing. And what I really want to do is I want to coach people in their businesses.
00:05:59
Cody Lutz
And my own coach helped me see that I had these limiting beliefs around like, oh, well, I can't, I can't go help people in their businesses though, because you I've never, uh, built a built and scaled a hundred million dollar business.
00:06:12
Cody Lutz
So how can I help somebody else, you know, at that level that I've never been to yet. So I have to go like build my own business first, and then I can go and help people.
00:06:16
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:06:21
Cody Lutz
And through working with a coach, kind of put all the pieces together of going, oh, coaching is this adjacent skill. Like, yes, it's good if you have business skills that you can consult on, but coaching is this adjacent skill to business, which is asking good questions that lead to insights, even if you have zero experience in their realm of business. And so that was like the unlock for me where I started offering business coaching back in February of this year.
00:06:52
Cody Lutz
when I realized, oh, I can go do this now. Like I thought someday, like 10 years from now, once I get enough business experience, then I'll be qualified to like do what I really wanna do, which is help people grow their businesses. And so that was the unlock that happened for me in February where
Pivot to Full-Time Business Coaching
00:07:07
Cody Lutz
started doing that. And then things just kind of exploded from there.
00:07:10
Ken Freire
That's awesome, man. And I think it was, what, three months that you went, like, you've replicated your income or even more. Is that correct?
00:07:16
Cody Lutz
Yeah, well, so even, yeah, so, The fitness business was trending to be able to replace my income.
00:07:27
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:07:28
Cody Lutz
And so after spending months of building that fitness business and the marketing and the engine and the delivery and the coaching and like the results that guys were getting that I can now leverage to sell more of and all of that and like thousands of dollars and it was making me money.
00:07:43
Cody Lutz
Then I was seeing the opportunity grow for the business coaching and I was wrestling with this because I was trying to build both. this coaching and the fitness and I was splitting my offering. was splitting my, my brand and my content.
00:07:58
Cody Lutz
And it was confusing my audience. And my coach was like, Hey, like you're killing both of these by trying to hold on to both of them. Like you need to focus on one thing for like 90 days and just do that.
00:08:10
Cody Lutz
Like, I can't like, I can't just kill this. I've spent like all this time.
00:08:13
Ken Freire
like I love both of them.
00:08:14
Cody Lutz
Yeah. But I knew that I knew that like where I was going, my, my calling, my gifting, my ability, my passion, all of that. And like the upside of the opportunity was in the business coaching.
00:08:27
Cody Lutz
But it was so hard to let go of that thing that I had built, that I had put my identity in and that had invested in at some cost of the fitness coaching. But eventually was like, you know, he's right. And I had to actually like gave like a thousand dollars in refunds to client.
00:08:41
Cody Lutz
I said, Hey guys, I'm shutting this group program down.
00:08:45
Cody Lutz
And I, and I went all in, think that was in July, actually. went all in, business coaching, rebranded my entire like social media and like just completely like set the fitness coaching
Rapid Growth in Business Coaching
00:08:53
Cody Lutz
aside.
00:08:55
Cody Lutz
was like, this is what we're doing. And then the last, like, yeah. And then like the last six months, it lasts like really the last like three or four months, I've, I've created like a hundred thousand dollars in coaching clients, uh, more than that actually, but yeah.
00:09:08
Cody Lutz
And, uh, so like it just skyrocketed.
00:09:13
Ken Freire
Wow. You know, a lot of people would not have made that pivot because they're like, I've put so much blood, sweat and tears into your initial thing.
00:09:25
Cody Lutz
Yes.
00:09:26
Ken Freire
It's finally growing. And you're like, man, if I could just put more gas in the fire, this thing can grow. But you pivoted. heard you say there was some passion. the thing you really wanted.
Faith and Stewardship in Business
00:09:35
Ken Freire
I'm curious, how did your faith, you and I are both Christian believers, how did that impact or shape the way you decided, yes, I'm going to go all in on business coaching?
00:09:46
Cody Lutz
That's a good question. Ken.
00:09:48
Cody Lutz
The number one priority for me in starting this entrepreneurial journey and the thing that I hold closest as a belief that drives me is the concept of stewardship, right? Which is everything I've been given, my abilities, my passions, my skills, my personality, even like the opportunities that exist before me in the world are gifts from God.
00:10:22
Cody Lutz
And they are not for me to use for myself, but they are for me to use to the fullest extent possible to steward for the glory of God and for the good of others.
00:10:35
Cody Lutz
And so I cannot, I do not want to hold back
00:10:41
Cody Lutz
and stay in a place that less than the full stewardship of those gifts and abilities and potential and opportunity simply because that's comfortable or easy.
00:10:57
Cody Lutz
And, and so I think that's that concept of stewardship really was the thing of like, okay, like what is the most valuable use of the passions and the gifts and abilities that God has given both in the value that it creates for other people and the value that it creates in my own life monetarily and opportunity, like growth, which by the way, if you're an entrepreneur, like that is how you make more money is by that's our entire job, right?
00:11:28
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:11:34
Cody Lutz
And money is just a lagging indicator of value and impact. So our job is just to go out and use what we have and our knowledge and our skills to go create value and impact. And then money happens as a result.
Handling Fear in Business
00:11:44
Cody Lutz
We flip that around sometimes. We get backwards and we chase the money and then everything goes wrong. But yeah, that was it, Ken. It was the insight about stewardship that this is the greatest area of impact for me to make.
00:12:00
Cody Lutz
and so i need to be willing to do whatever it takes and whatever it costs to go pursue that and also like there was this isn't a spiritual uh thing but practically was stepping back a little bit from just the immediate emotional investment and financial investment and time investment of that first business and going oh yeah remembering what i had said like 18 months prior which is The realization when I started Backyard Shreds, I said, this is probably not going to be my last business.
00:12:38
Cody Lutz
But this is going to be the first one that I like seriously pursue. Because I had done like some side stuff in the past, like some side hobbies, side business kind of things. But was like, this is I'm going into entrepreneurship. And I know that where I start is not going to where end.
00:12:49
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:12:50
Cody Lutz
And so like, I just, I like, I have to get started and I don't know where this is going to lead, but I know that most of the successful business owners I know, like have multiple, like kind of small businesses before they really figure out the thing that makes them successful. So I'm like, cool. Like, even if this fails, like, cool, it's going to just a stepping stone. So once I like stepped back and I was like, oh yeah, like I never intended this to be like the end goal anyways. And now I have this other opportunity, which is better.
00:13:16
Cody Lutz
The cost of getting there seems to make sense.
00:13:19
Ken Freire
Yeah, man. And that's where I think most coaches and consultants, they falter actually in their businesses that they're holding on so tight to one methodology or one framework or this is the way I have to do it. And what you were saying is like, hey, no, man, this is my business right now. And it's going to evolve. It's going to shape into something different.
00:13:39
Cody Lutz
Mm-hmm.
00:13:39
Ken Freire
And two years from now, it might shape into something different. We don't know, but you're just saying, hey, I'm going to be a good steward with what God has given me today and what I have right now, and I'm going leverage that to the best of my ability.
00:13:52
Ken Freire
With that, Cody, how do you take some people, and I'm sure you've coached men who have struggled with this, that they might be like, hear you, Cody. I know I'm supposed to use these God-given gifts.
00:14:05
Ken Freire
I'm passionate about certain things. But to be honest, I'm really afraid to go all in on that thing. Because if I fail, that feels even more like an identity issue or more of a rejection issue than if I just tried this other thing that I know could make me money.
00:14:21
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:14:22
Cody Lutz
Yeah. Fear is like a huge thing, right? That we deal with in people as coaches.
00:14:29
Cody Lutz
There are like, there's two sides of fear. Like when you're dealing with fear and people, one is, one is logistical. And one is emotional.
00:14:41
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:14:41
Cody Lutz
So there's an emotional fear of like this identity thing.
00:14:46
Cody Lutz
And then there's fear of like the consequences of like, well, what if I lose money or what if like all these bad things happen? there's like the identity piece and the identity piece is the solution to fear is courage.
00:15:02
Cody Lutz
And courage isn't the absence of fear. Courage is choosing to act based on conviction rather than fear. Because if you know that there's something right for you to do, even if you're afraid to do it,
00:15:18
Cody Lutz
Conviction creates courage to say, have to do this and I'm going to do it despite being afraid. And there's this quote that love, which is, I would rather be failure who tried than a coward who didn't.
00:15:32
Ken Freire
Oh, that's good.
00:15:35
Cody Lutz
So if I know that I'm supposed to do something, then like that is settled in my mind. then like whatever happens doesn't matter because I know that like the outcome, the identity thing, like you said, of the identity of failure, the identity of coward way worse than the identity of failure.
00:15:53
Cody Lutz
So I would rather be a failure.
00:15:53
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
00:15:54
Cody Lutz
I just pick that. Like if I fail, great. Like, oh, well, at least I wasn't a coward. That's like the emotional piece. And then the logistical piece is fear exists in the vague, not in the specific.
00:16:07
Cody Lutz
And so like everything that is big and scary and seems impossible, when you actually like break it down with people into like realistic, detailed, what would actually happen, it always breaks down into a series of very solvable problems, very answerable questions, very findable people and learnable skills.
00:16:30
Cody Lutz
And so when you actually break it down into, okay, like worst case, what's actually going to happen? And then you unpack that fear and you realize, oh, a bunch of that fear is like totally unrealistic.
00:16:40
Cody Lutz
It's not even gonna happen. Okay, let's throw away all that stuff. That's not gonna happen. So like all stuff you're afraid of doesn't even exist. Great, it's just the boogeyman.
00:16:46
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:16:48
Cody Lutz
And then the stuff that's like, okay, well, like that actually could happen. Well, what if that happens? Then what? Then what? And you just realize, oh yeah, like that's, is that like, is that an unsolvable problem that we can't like figure out if that, even if that does happen?
00:17:01
Cody Lutz
Oh no, like, We're probably good. Okay, great. What are we afraid of now?
00:17:08
Ken Freire
You know, for business, I have found that to be the case so much for a lot of people. If you just start walking through like, all right, let's walk through worst case scenario.
00:17:15
Cody Lutz
Yeah. Yep.
00:17:17
Ken Freire
Let's say you get bankrupt. Let's say you get the lawsuit. Let's just say it. Let's just talk it out. Let's just face it head on. I remember the first time this was, I mean, I was like, what, 21. was a director of a summer camp and got a cease and desist letter.
00:17:33
Ken Freire
For the first time ever, I got sent one of these and I am panicking.
00:17:36
Cody Lutz
Right. Yeah.
00:17:38
Ken Freire
I'm like, oh my gosh, what have I done? And then I went to my boss. I was like, what do I do with this? He's like, dude, this happens all the time. What did you do? like, I don't know. I copied the cease and desist letter.
00:17:47
Ken Freire
I took a picture from Google and I just posted it on this. I thought it was blog, but it was a paid site. And that's how I got flagged. So they're like, just take it down. I'm like, I took it down and I was fine.
00:17:57
Ken Freire
But I remember the fear that took over in that moment. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going get fired. I'm going to get, you know, my job is gone. I'm going to get arrested. Like all these worst case scenarios. I had to throw some of those out. And then I had to just say, practically, what can I do in this scenario?
00:18:12
Ken Freire
And was solvable within minutes as soon as I went to my boss. Because he had the insight to be like, dude, this happens sometimes when you make a little mistake. It's not the end all be all.
00:18:24
Cody Lutz
Right. So, so it was a solvable problem, but maybe not a solvable problem for you. So it's a, therefore it's a findable person, right?
00:18:32
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:18:32
Cody Lutz
Which is okay. Even if it is a challenge or a question that I can't answer or that I can't solve, Is there someone else in the world who I could find that could help me with this problem? Yes, then it's not unsolvable. It's just a findable person.
00:18:44
Ken Freire
Yeah. And that's why I love the coaching world because I'm like, I may not know the answer. ChatGPT may not know the answer, but I'm going to go find someone who knows the answer. And I'm constantly always like texting people like, hey, who do I know that might be able to help me solve this problem? Right. And they're like, oh, I know this guy. I know this guy. I know this guy, you know, and and so much of my freedom in my personal life and then also in business has come because I've talked to the right people.
00:19:11
Ken Freire
So for you, Cody, I'm curious for your business, what's been the biggest strategy that's actually helped you grow your business? You know, as we're talking about like taking away the fear and moving forward, this is the thing where most people struggle the most is growth in their business. They're stuck getting one client, they're in that feast or famine cycle, but you started one business, you pivoted and just in a few short months, you were able to recoup your investment and start gaining more money.
00:19:38
Ken Freire
What was kind of the strategy
Growth Through Content on LinkedIn
00:19:39
Ken Freire
behind it? What did you do and what would you give other people to say, start doing this?
00:19:44
Cody Lutz
that.
00:19:45
Cody Lutz
Volume and value. Volume and value.
00:19:49
Cody Lutz
Create an immense volume of work.
00:19:54
Cody Lutz
I spent, don't know, 400 some hours in coaching sessions, in coaching conversations with people in the last like six months.
00:20:00
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:04
Cody Lutz
And I've coached, you know, like 100 And I've made hundreds of offers. And the volume of that has grown my audience of like, and I've posted hundreds of pieces of content that post like three times a day LinkedIn.
00:20:24
Cody Lutz
And for a long time, it was like daily on LinkedIn, but I've been posting daily on LinkedIn for like two years. And Obviously, you can't just have volume without value.
00:20:35
Cody Lutz
Like it has to be good. Think about music, right? Like turning up the volume if the music sucks just makes it worse.
00:20:45
Cody Lutz
Right? But if the music is good, then you turn up the volume and like people start listening.
00:20:46
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:20:50
Cody Lutz
And so that's what I did was like, want to make it insanely valuable. Every post that people see needs to be insanely valuable. And then they need to see tons of insanely valuable posts from me.
00:21:01
Cody Lutz
So I'm just gonna give away as much value as I can. And that's like one of the biggest things, the biggest thing that slows down so many entrepreneurs across so many different types of businesses, coaching is no exception, is that people wanna get straight into making tons of money and they don't wanna give anything away for free.
00:21:20
Ken Freire
Love
00:21:21
Cody Lutz
And so they're so afraid that like, if they give it away that people won't pay for it. Or especially if, or they're in a place of neediness where they need the money, bills are due, and they're just trying to like get money. And that's like just the worst place to serve someone from as a coach. It's the worst place to sell something to someone from. have it written on my computer stand in front me. So I look at it every time I'm talking somebody. Needy is creepy.
00:21:48
Cody Lutz
Needy is creepy, man.
00:21:49
Ken Freire
Yeah, it is.
00:21:49
Cody Lutz
And people can feel that from us. In our content, they can feel it. If we're just trying to always just trying to get something. If in our sessions, in our sales conversations, needy creepy, man. And we don't like it either. And that's why most people are like, oh, I don't really like sales. I don't like doing sales. Because what they mean is it feels gross to be needy and try to get something from people.
00:22:14
Cody Lutz
And so I don't believe that you have to do that. I think you just create, as an entrepreneur, like I said, my whole philosophy is You create value and impact in the world, money follows as an inevitable result.
00:22:26
Cody Lutz
And so in my content, I just wanna create immense value and just give as much away for free as possible. Because the reality is it's all out there anyways. All the information in the world is available chat GPT, you know, AI has made this, the internet's made this true, but AI has only made it even more accessible.
Value of Offering Free Value
00:22:47
Cody Lutz
So if people are going to get this stuff out there somewhere anyways, they might as well be getting it from you. And if you're the person that people get insane value from, and you're the source of that value every time, then like, you're going to be the person that they buy from as well.
00:23:02
Cody Lutz
And so, man, I've just given tons of value in the posts and then made free offers for people to spend time with me. This is the biggest thing, too, I learned from Rich Litvin, which is you don't sell the idea of coaching. You sell the experience of coaching.
00:23:17
Cody Lutz
And so people are not going to be ready to spend money with you before they spend time with you. And so having a free offer of a way for people to spend powerful time with you and it's life changing for them, then they're going be ready to spend lots of money with you.
00:23:32
Cody Lutz
The right people are. So that's been how I've built my business.
00:23:35
Ken Freire
Yeah. For those of you who have not read Rich Litman's book, Prosperous Coach, highly recommend.
00:23:42
Cody Lutz
Yeah.
00:23:42
Ken Freire
I think he has a new one. I think it already came out.
00:23:45
Cody Lutz
I haven't read it.
00:23:46
Ken Freire
I haven't read newest one, but Prosperous Coach. It's funny because I have it in my nightstand. I literally have it. And then I'm listening to the audio book again.
00:23:54
Cody Lutz
Very good.
00:23:56
Ken Freire
it's such a powerful book because it talks about that. Like give them the experience and even almost give it all away for free. For those of you, especially who struggle with sales, because you're used to the high pressure sales of a used car salesman or just the high ticket coaching space has a lot of that.
00:24:11
Ken Freire
he kind of flips it on its head and is just like, how do you just give away the experience and share and then you're serving people? That's ultimately what you're doing there.
00:24:20
Cody Lutz
You walk through Costco. What it have everywhere? Free samples, right?
00:24:24
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:24:25
Cody Lutz
For products that you didn't know existed and didn't want. even if you did know they existed. And then you go from, didn't know this existed to, wow, that's delicious.
00:24:35
Cody Lutz
Where can I get some more of that? Right?
00:24:37
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:24:38
Cody Lutz
That's what we got to do as coaches. And like your content is a sample. Like people got to find you somewhere where it's ads or content, right? Alex Ramozzi calls it the core four of lead generation. Like spend the first four hours of your day solving the biggest problem, which is people don't know you exist.
00:24:48
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:54
Cody Lutz
So make that free sample in your content extremely delicious.
00:24:58
Cody Lutz
And then give them another sample and make that one even better when they spend time with you on a call or whatever. And then you're like, here's the menu. Would you like to order? It's like, yeah, please.
00:25:08
Ken Freire
You know, one thing I did this past November, I literally was posting three times a day on LinkedIn. I normally post like once or twice a day, but I was doing the volume game. I was like, hey, I'm going to test something.
00:25:21
Ken Freire
And as I was doing volume, I was trying to give immense amount of value.
00:25:25
Cody Lutz
Uh huh. Yes. Yeah. Interesting. Yes.
00:25:26
Ken Freire
But then I had another V there just for the alliteration purposes, but like I was verifying it, right? I was verifying, did my value lead to more impressions and more followers?
00:25:37
Ken Freire
And I started to track all this information. Literally every week I started to look at it and I'm like, oh, this is where I'm losing people. This is where I'm not engaging enough people.
00:25:47
Ken Freire
And I was able to tweak my content accordingly. So then I could say like, oh, I want more people to comment.
00:25:55
Ken Freire
Well, what need to do to get more people to comment?
00:25:57
Cody Lutz
Yes.
00:25:57
Ken Freire
oh, I need to leave a better engaging question or I need shorten up the content. I need to do different things. And that's what I think you're saying, you're preaching here. And for all of you are listening, as you are creating content, make sure as you're doing the volume, the value is there for people to start engaging, growing. Because if you're not growing that part of your business, you're never going to get clients. It really is a volume game. You need enough people to see you, to trust you and to want experience you. And if that's not happening, it doesn't matter how great your product is.
00:26:27
Cody Lutz
That's a great point. And I kind just assume that, but thank you for pointing it out, that you can't just assume, know, practice doesn't make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect.
00:26:30
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:38
Cody Lutz
And so volume isn't enough. You've got to be a student of your craft and just constantly be studying in that volume every time that you post something, every time you do a call, that is a data point.
00:26:51
Cody Lutz
and you are religiously studying the heck out of that to go, okay, like, did that work? Did I'm not what was good? What didn't? What can I shift? And then that's what gets that. That's what exponentially grows you as a coach as a content creator, and grows your your business.
00:27:07
Ken Freire
Yeah, you know, it's fascinating.
00:27:08
Cody Lutz
Yes.
00:27:10
Ken Freire
I'll just give just a little anecdote here for those of you like, does this really matter? You and I both are on LinkedIn. That's how we got connected.
00:27:17
Ken Freire
Someone recently, this happened yesterday, right? They posted that they're looking for a job. They've been trying to find a job for two years and nothing.
00:27:25
Cody Lutz
Yeah.
00:27:26
Ken Freire
So I just commented. I said, hey, here's the best strategy have used to get any type of job I want. And I posted it. And within 12 hours, this was last night at 10 o'clock. It's 10 o'clock this morning, right?
00:27:41
Ken Freire
Literally, I had like 8,000 impressions on that comment alone. And I was like, oh my gosh, I was not expecting that. I was just kind of like, and then I'm looking at my network. All of sudden I got like 20 people inviting me and I'm like, whoa, what happened? What did I post?
00:27:56
Ken Freire
And it's because I was commenting on someone else's thing and I gave immense value in the comments as well. So that's another way that for those of you who are thinking about this, you're posting, you're giving great value, but comment on other people's stuff.
00:28:08
Ken Freire
I think, Cody, I think a couple of weeks ago, you and I were just joking around about the best Christmas album. Do you remember that?
00:28:13
Cody Lutz
yeah, absolutely. Oh.
00:28:15
Ken Freire
And I was just like, I like to joke around with people too much on LinkedIn sometimes. I'm like, ooh, I don't know if you'd find funny, but you did. And we're playing around about that. But that engagement, that provides value too.
00:28:29
Ken Freire
for people because now they see you as human. They see you as authentic and they're like, oh my gosh, I could actually hang out with this person. And I think you do this really well on social media, the way you post.
00:28:39
Ken Freire
I'm like, oh dude, I would love to grab coffee with this guy. I'd love to hang out with him outside of the social media sphere, which was part of the reason why I was like, I need get him on the podcast because I love just the authenticity you bring to the table.
00:28:52
Cody Lutz
Have I told you about my ACE framework for LinkedIn for content?
00:28:55
Ken Freire
No, no, share, man.
00:28:56
Cody Lutz
I think you'll love it. I think people listening will benefit from this too. So this actually is one of the things that has really helped grow my LinkedIn over the last six months.
ACE Framework for LinkedIn Content
00:29:08
Cody Lutz
So basically it's like kind of like content pillars, but it works as a, as a funnel, if you will. there's like three core types of content that I create for LinkedIn and it spells the word ACE, right? Attention, connection, expertise.
00:29:23
Cody Lutz
So I'm writing, and there's some blend, like you can have kind of two in a single post, but I kind of, I have attention posts, which are the widest appeal.
00:29:26
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:29:32
Cody Lutz
And it's just like the Christmas music, right? I was like, hey, like, I think this is the best Christmas album ever. And like, you can fight me over it, right? Like it got like hundreds and hundreds of comments of people like, Oh, like, I agree, disagree.
00:29:38
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:29:43
Cody Lutz
Right? And what is that? Like, it's not selling anything. It's not deep or anything. It's just it gets lots of attention because people are it's fun. It's funny. And it builds a relationship people like you.
00:29:55
Cody Lutz
Then I have another type of post which is connection, which is values. Here's what I believe. Here's how I see the world. Here's what's important to me.
00:30:06
Cody Lutz
My faith, family, my view on money, my view on people, relationships, et cetera. And again, I'm not necessarily selling anything with those posts either.
00:30:18
Cody Lutz
But then people go from, wow, I like this guy to, wow, I trust this guy. We view the world the same way and we are deeply aligned. And it is a narrower funnel.
00:30:30
Cody Lutz
So there's a lot more people who like Reliant K or whatever or chicken wings than there are people who agree on.
00:30:30
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:30:36
Cody Lutz
the type of things that I post about theologically or spiritually or values or relationship-wise. And some people go, they opt and they go, yeah, it's not for me. But the people who are your people are gonna like, dude, I am with you on that.
00:30:49
Cody Lutz
And then you have the third type of post, which is the smallest niche, the smallest part of the funnel, but it's also the most effective at converting people. They like you, they trust you. The only thing that they need left to buy from you is confidence that you can solve their problem. And that's expertise posts.
00:31:05
Cody Lutz
So then that's the third type of post that I make. And that's like the thing that a lot of people do on LinkedIn is they just do expertise posts and they talk about the thing that they do and the problems they solve for people in their business. And like, you know, they teach stuff.
00:31:16
Cody Lutz
And those are like the best to make an offer on because it's directly related to how you serve people in your business. So but once people kind of go through that funnel of like, wow, I like this guy.
00:31:26
Cody Lutz
Wow, I really trust this guy. I feel aligned with him. wow, this guy really knows how to solve my problem and he's making me an offer that seems too good to be true, I gotta take him up on that.
00:31:37
Ken Freire
Yeah. On the attention and connection ones, do you ever have like a PS, follow me or join this newsletter or even a free lead magnet? Or you typically take, keep that off on those two?
00:31:47
Cody Lutz
Great.
00:31:50
Cody Lutz
That's a great question.
00:31:52
Cody Lutz
Call to actions are still valuable, even if it's not paid by my thing. Even like, and people will even make the jump from an attention or connection post to opt into whatever you're selling.
00:32:03
Cody Lutz
And that's where your profile itself becomes a funnel. If your profile is optimized as a funnel where it's like, this is who I am, this is who I serve, this is how we do it. This is how the call to action of how to work with me.
00:32:14
Cody Lutz
Then like people will go from, saw this cool, you know, funny post about Christmas music or chicken wings. I really liked this guy. Let me check him out. Then they read your profile and now they're in that funnel.
00:32:23
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:32:24
Cody Lutz
So there's sort like two different things happening there. So you can move people from a post funnel to a profile funnel and still convert them. But yeah, like other call to actions could be like a comment or something like that.
00:32:39
Cody Lutz
Like do agree, do you disagree? And that just creates engagement. And that the goal of my call to action there might be to just blow up the post, right? With engagement. Or maybe it is like, hey, repost this. Like if you found this valuable and like just repost it, like,
00:32:54
Cody Lutz
So different call to actions, kind different, depends on your strategic goal.
00:32:58
Ken Freire
Yeah, cool. Cody, as we wrap up here, talk to us, you know, business is always fluid. It's always growing. So what's one challenge you've been trying to solve lately as your business continues to scale?
00:33:12
Cody Lutz
Ooh, love that question. I'm feeling this tension and it's just clarifying in my mind right now, like this week, thinking through like my goals for 2026,
00:33:24
Cody Lutz
And I really, know, there's part me, I'm like, I really wanna hit like a million dollars in revenue in 2026.
00:33:29
Ken Freire
Love it. Yeah.
00:33:31
Cody Lutz
But there's this other thing that I think is probably more valuable long-term, but I'm going to have to sacrifice some of that revenue goal to do, which is really think I need to invest in YouTube and build a brand.
Expanding into YouTube Branding
00:33:48
Cody Lutz
And I know that if I spend a lot of time and money creating content on YouTube, and they're not necessarily mutually exclusive, they could be, but I may have to sacrifice some on like the coaching side of things, on like just the time and volume of coaching and creating clients to spend more time building brand on YouTube.
00:34:09
Cody Lutz
But I think over the next two or three years, that's probably be the most valuable thing. So just see like this trend where is not the people who are the best at what they do or have the best product or the best service or the best skills or whatever that get the most attention and get the most opportunity.
00:34:32
Cody Lutz
It's the people who are best that are the best known for what they do.
00:34:35
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:37
Cody Lutz
And I just see all sorts of big names on YouTube who are just big creators they're just prolific in content. And they're just showing up everywhere and getting all these huge opportunities and people are hiring them and people are working with them. they're like, because I read this guy's book and I watched all of his videos.
00:34:56
Cody Lutz
And so like, okay, by the end of 2026, I want to have a book ready to publish or an outline of the book, at least in a publisher lined up. And I want to have a YouTube channel that has three to 5 million views and like growing. I don't care about the revenue side of things, but I know if I get the eyeballs and I get the, like that creates massive amount of opportunity on the other side of that to charge whatever I want to charge for coaching to easily create clients, you know, and have unlimited leads and opportunities for podcasts, media, et cetera.
00:35:27
Ken Freire
Yeah, bro, we should, if you want, can chat later. But the thing we talk a lot about is going from video podcasts. Like if you start a video podcast, it automatically goes into YouTube.
00:35:37
Cody Lutz
Yep.
00:35:38
Ken Freire
Right. But one thing my business partner just did, we did a podcast to book challenge.
00:35:43
Cody Lutz
Oh yeah, sure. Yeah.
00:35:44
Ken Freire
And we weren't sure if it was going to work. To be honest, we're like, this book is going to be super lame. But like, and we've been on LinkedIn kind of sharing our like story and our process.
00:35:55
Ken Freire
But literally we just started like every chapter was a book video podcast episode. And about almost 2,000 episodes later, it fleshed out this whole podcast, this whole book. And then we used Claude to clean it up, to do the first draft and different things like that.
00:36:12
Ken Freire
But surprisingly, it's come out really well. And you're just like, oh my gosh, the book that we've been talking about for years to create, we did in 30
00:36:21
Cody Lutz
Yes, I love that.
00:36:22
Ken Freire
So I could share with you like the whole blueprint, man, and just like, hey, man, go have fun, go do it. If that's something you want to do. Cody, one of things that I love to do with every person that I chat with is this expert-led trend report that I'm building.
00:36:37
Ken Freire
So I'm basically every coach, consultant, expert-led business owner that I have on, I'm asking the same five questions to see what do they see is going to happen in 2026.
00:36:47
Cody Lutz
Okay.
00:36:48
Ken Freire
Right. In 2020 years. So these are rapid fire. You don't have to like have like all complete insight. Some of it you've already answered a little bit, but we just want to see very quickly what are you thinking about these things. So question number one is what's something in your business you're experimenting with right now?
00:36:58
Cody Lutz
Let's do it.
00:37:05
Cody Lutz
Scaling video is one of the biggest things for scaling relationships.
00:37:10
Ken Freire
Cool. Question number two. Which part of your business feels the most in flux these days?
00:37:17
Cody Lutz
of lux these days.
00:37:22
Ken Freire
That's great.
00:37:23
Cody Lutz
I feel things feel pretty locked in, pretty dialed in.
00:37:29
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:37:29
Cody Lutz
for the system. I would have said like revenue, but now like that's, I've got a pretty consistent system for that. I mean, as a coach, like that's still maybe revenue is, is not perfectly consistent.
00:37:44
Ken Freire
Yeah, but you got enough going, you got enough momentum going that you're like, I think if I could just double down, it'll work.
00:37:50
Cody Lutz
Yeah, I know the system. I've got enough data where I can say, know if I coach this many people, one of them will turn into a client. And I know the average amount of a client is this much. So like, great, go find 10 people to coach, right?
00:38:02
Ken Freire
love it. What goal are you building toward this year that you're really excited about?
00:38:09
Cody Lutz
$1 million in revenue. Or and YouTube channel that's, you know, three to 5 million in views in 12 months.
00:38:18
Ken Freire
Yeah, I love that one, man. Those both, I'm like, okay, how do you make both of them happen?
00:38:22
Cody Lutz
It very much could because YouTube, not as a revenue stream, but YouTube could very well become the biggest lead generator for me, just like LinkedIn has over the last six months.
00:38:23
Ken Freire
Yeah. Yeah,
00:38:33
Ken Freire
exactly. All right, question number four, where do you see the industry shifting and how are you preparing for it?
00:38:42
Cody Lutz
Okay, the industry, like coaching industry, Yeah. I think AI, everyone is talking about, you know, AI and everyone's creating like AI versions of their coaching and stuff. And it's lame. It's just super lame.
00:39:01
Cody Lutz
It's gross. It's yes. Like you, you can get some really creative like challenges and stuff like that of like in your thinking with things like Claude or chat GPT, but
00:39:13
Cody Lutz
but it just it totally misses the the human element of coaching which which is that je ne sais quoi like it is that thing that is there that makes coaching life changing where people spend time with you and say that changed my life and you don't get that from chat gpt or claude no matter how valuable the insights are and so one of the biggest things i think one of the the
00:39:34
Ken Freire
Yeah.
Future of In-Person Coaching Events
00:39:40
Cody Lutz
most valuable things we'll see in coaching is in-person, in real life events. Because the better that like AI video generation gets, even like YouTube and stuff like that, it's not gonna hold the level of credibility with people as it used to, because it's too easy to fake.
00:40:03
Cody Lutz
So in-person events is something else that I'm really passionate about and experimenting with next year.
00:40:11
Ken Freire
Yeah. I 100% agree with you. I mean, one of the podcasts that my business partner runs is the AI driven marketer. And it's literally one of things we've been talking about. Like there's going to such a growth in AI, but people still want connection and it's going to be deep.
00:40:26
Cody Lutz
Yeah, yeah.
00:40:27
Ken Freire
So I'm with you on that.
00:40:28
Cody Lutz
Yeah, it has its place. It's absolutely valuable.
00:40:31
Ken Freire
Oh, yeah.
00:40:31
Cody Lutz
But I think the people who double down on creating these powerful, like, in person events, people will pay premium for that just like people pay, you know, a premium for vinyl now.
00:40:43
Ken Freire
Yep.
00:40:43
Cody Lutz
Right? Or like, and it's like that vintage, like, we're gonna go back to that with in real life stuff, the IRL.
00:40:50
Ken Freire
Yep.
00:40:51
Cody Lutz
For sure.
00:40:51
Ken Freire
All right. That's it. Cody, you and I are building a live event.
00:40:56
Cody Lutz
Let's go, baby. World-class coaches.
00:41:00
Ken Freire
World-class coaches, entrepreneurs. It's going to be awesome. It's going to epic.
00:41:04
Cody Lutz
Yes.
00:41:05
Ken Freire
All right. Last question. What do you want to pass on to your kids when they grow up?
00:41:11
Cody Lutz
I mean, above all, that they would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
00:41:15
Ken Freire
Yeah.
00:41:15
Cody Lutz
that they would repent of their sin, that they would repent of their good works and count all of that as loss for the sake of knowing Christ and being found in him and his righteousness. Because we can't earn our way to God. There's nothing that we can do to cleanse our filthy hands, so to speak, and the sin that we've committed against the holy God.
Passing on Christian Faith
00:41:33
Cody Lutz
But Jesus Christ came.
00:41:36
Cody Lutz
And he died on the cross. He paid the penalty that we deserve. He lived the perfect life that we can't live. And by faith in him, that we can receive salvation and be made at peace with God. So that's the thing that I want for my kids more than anything, that they would know and love Christ, that they would see that their dad, imperfect as he is, loved Christ and strove to follow and honor Christ.
00:41:59
Cody Lutz
That, and then in a business sense, I would rather that they be failures than cowards. And so want to encourage them to go do things, to do hard things, scary things, exciting things that maybe you do it with a lump in your throat and peed pants, but you did it.
00:42:16
Cody Lutz
And that's better than wishing that you had done it or wondering what if.
00:42:21
Ken Freire
Yeah, I love it, man. You know, when you said, pee your pants, I just immediately thought of Adam Sandler's Billy Madison. But you're absolutely right, man. I want to pause here because I think it's really important before I make too many jokes.
00:42:35
Ken Freire
I love how you started the whole conversation. It was almost instinctively where you were like, I want my kids to have faith in Christ.
00:42:42
Cody Lutz
Yes. Yeah.
00:42:43
Ken Freire
I mean, you could have said anything. You could have I want them to be great salespeople. I want them to have a wealth generating business. I want them to have all this. But you and I both know that the most important thing that we could ever give our kids is an opportunity to come to faith in Christ.
00:42:58
Ken Freire
Because their eternal soul matters way more than a business that they could inherit. And man, I just want to make sure that everybody hears that because that really is important to us. And that drives everything else that we do.
00:43:11
Cody Lutz
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Like I said, that stewardship, that was the thing that caused me to go into entrepreneurship that caused me to go into coaching all comes through belief and faith in Christ and wanting to honor, honor him and live worthy of the sacrifice that's been paid so I can, so I could live. And so, yeah, what is Was it profit man to gain the whole world to lose his soul? Right.
00:43:32
Ken Freire
Yeah. Amen. Amen. Cody, what is the best place for people to reach out to you if they want to learn more about what you do?
00:43:40
Cody Lutz
Yeah, man. LinkedIn, for sure. Like if people really want to get into what I'm doing, learn from the stuff I share that, you know, just give it away. All the insights that I get in these coaching calls that coach entrepreneurs on every single day, hours a day.
00:43:55
Cody Lutz
I just post all that stuff on LinkedIn. So if they want to learn all those stuff, they can connect with me on LinkedIn. If you're not on LinkedIn, you can reach out to me, connect with me on mycoachcody.com and find me there. But you should be on LinkedIn anyway. So go create LinkedIn. I'll be your first friend. It'll be a party.
00:44:10
Ken Freire
Yeah, I'll be your second. So
00:44:11
Cody Lutz
Yeah. Ken will be second friend. Just let me know that was first. Ken was second. I can just talk.
00:44:17
Ken Freire
I mean, that's typically my life, but that's fine.
00:44:17
Cody Lutz
Yeah.
00:44:20
Cody Lutz
Love you, bro.
00:44:22
Ken Freire
Cody, thank you so much. For those of you listening, man, go check out Cody. He's been great. He really is phenomenal. Someone to follow if you're trying to figure out how to crack the LinkedIn game, but also how to just live authentically within your faith and your business.
00:44:32
Cody Lutz
Yeah. it's an honor to be here, Ken.
00:44:35
Ken Freire
Man, check that out. And then for Christian entrepreneur men who are listening to this and you might be wondering like, I think I may need a coach to get me to the next level. I'd encourage you to check out Cody and all his offerings and everything he's doing because truly he's making an impact. I don't like bringing just random people onto the show. I'm like always like, oh, who really can provide value to other people? So Cody, thank you for that, man.
00:44:57
Ken Freire
Yeah, until next time, I hope you guys have a great day and God bless.