Podcast Transcription: Finding Gratitude in Your Hardest Moments: Powerful Lessons from a Challenging Year

Ted Ryce: So if I had to describe 2025 in one sentence, it was a year of growth through frustration, a year that tested everything. My patience, my business, even my sense of direction and where I'm going in my life. And in the end, it forced me to grow up as an entrepreneur, but also as a person. So we started strong.

Actually, let's do this. So in today's episode, I wanna share the lessons, the challenges, and the gratitude. I feel looking back on 2025. The wins that made me proud and the failures that forced me to evolve. And I love doing episodes like this because too often people put me on a pedestal because I have this podcast or social media following.

You think that maybe I have my life more together than you, or that because I'm in great shape that. Everything in my life is fine. Or if you look at the highlight photos on my Instagram, you're like, man, this guy, his travels everywhere. He's having a great time. Those are the highlights folks. Those are the highlights.

I don't put up those dark moments or even the boring moments where I'm mostly on my computer just doing work. So what is up my friend? My name is Ted Ryce, host of the Legendary Life Podcast, and I'm a health expert and coach to executives, entrepreneurs, and other high performing executives. Let's jump right into this episode.

So I want to talk to you about the high points of the year. 

So the year started on fire. We came off a strong 2024 best end of year ever, and 2025 kicked off with a lot of momentum. We signed some amazing new clients, some of the best people I've ever worked with. I mean, we're just attracting great people in my business.

The transformations were incredible. We even hit our best month early in the year, everything looked like it was gonna be financially the best year ever in 2025 until the algorithm Gods decided otherwise. So if you don't know, most of our clients have been coming from Twitter more recently, or X as it's called now, and I worked hard to build a following of 68,000 people.

Which in the health space is no small feat. And then almost overnight things changed. Now, this has been going on since 2024, but things changed at the beginning. Uh, I'm sorry. Things changed at the end of 2024, so I thought, okay, well, it, it was looking pretty rocky there, but then the election finished and then we had a strong end of the year.

So 2025 was looking. Promising, but what ended happening was politics flooded, the platform engagement dropped, fitness content got buried, and it wasn't just me. I watched every major coach that I know jump ship to LinkedIn or YouTube or Instagram, and that's when it hit me. I was living the same story I'd heard from other coaches over reliant on one platform.

In fact. I was thinking about a friend of mine, Jeff Sanders, a year and a half ago. We had a conversation and he was telling me about how he lost half his downloads when Apple changed their podcast algorithm. Now, I've been doing this podcast for 11 years, but the podcast hasn't been a major source of clients, so it didn't really matter to me.

I remember thinking, man, that sucks for him. I'm sorry that happened. But then it happened to me on, on X or Twitter. Fun fact, I still type in Twitter to go to X, uh, anyway, and they're still called tweets. So that was the lesson of this one year. 

Never build your castle on rented land. Or if you do build multiple castles so that if something collapses, if one of them collapses.

You still have other ones going, so let me talk to you a little bit because there are even more failures, right? Uh, even more setbacks. In fact, I want to share the $20,000 lesson that me and my business partner learned. So when we realized that e, even though we had a great beginning of the year. We realized that Twitter was not producing leads like it was.

So what we did is we went all in on running ads. Maybe you've even seen some of them, perhaps. We hired a respected coach, a business coach, one of the OGs of the coaching space, and I was, I was excited initially and so was my business partner, but something felt off after we got started with them. And to save you the long story.

Basically, we worked our asses off for six months, spent around $20,000 between coaching fees and ad spend, and we got one client. And we don't, we're not cheap. We're expensive. We're a premium business. I wouldn't say luxury, but we're a premium business. There's no way we're surviving, uh, if every time we, we have to spend $20,000 to, to just get one client.

Now, part of that was the coaching fee too, but here's the thing, that's when reality hit me. It doesn't matter what someone's reputation is, it only matters whether the strategy works. And I'm a big proponent of coaching, and I've talked about how coaching can change your life and change your business change.

You know, certainly we change the lives of our clients, but sometimes I forget to mention that there's a dark side of coaching. And some clients, I'm, I'm sorry. Sorry. Some coaches. We can talk about the clients another day, but some coaches, they don't deliver what they say they're going to, and I don't wanna name names in this case, but something you should be very aware of is like coaching.

Can it? It's the best thing you can do, provided you hire the right person. Okay? Provided that you hired the right person, so. After six months of working our asses off and spinning, spinning 20 k and only getting one client out of it. We had a conversation. It's like, listen, you guy, we like you, but at the end of the day, you guys didn't really deliver.

They didn't have, uh, there, there was a guarantee that they will continue working with us until we make our money back. But here's the thing, it's like, when is that gonna happen? How many clients will I get in the next six months if I'm dedicating all my time to this? Is it gonna be one client, two clients?

'cause that's not gonna be enough, right? I'm gonna go outta business. And what was really weird, it's one thing that they didn't have a refund policy. But it was another one they kept trying to get us to, they were trying to upsell us into their higher tier program and it's like, are you serious? There's no reason for us to do that.

'cause it's not like, and, and some clients, by the way, now I can talk a little bit about clients. Some people will join a coaching program, not do any of the work, and then get upset. And it's like, uh, we don't really have that in our situation 'cause we aggressive, I wouldn't say aggressively, but we are assertive about reaching out to our clients when they're not doing their work.

When they're not putting up their photos, weighing in, doing all the things they said they were gonna do, we, we reach out to them. So it leaves no. Question about like, okay, these guys tried to communicate with me. I just ghosted them. So nobody ever, at least to our faces, uh, say, oh yeah, you guys suck.

Because if someone's not doing well in my program, our whole team steps up to help comes up with solutions. We want our clients to say amazing things, and our clients do say amazing things about us. But in this case. They were just trying to upsell us, and there was like, well, if we look at the data, where are your ethics?

At least let us go. And not trying to keep the sales pressure going. It was a hard pill to swallow. And so the lesson was, reputation means nothing without results, and real integrity means owning it when your strategy fails. But we didn't get any of that from them. 

So we made a shift. Giselle and I regrouped, that's my business partner's name, Giselle.

We found a new business coach, and by the way, not only is this one better in terms of like listening to what they're saying, like, oh, I really feel we need that. There's some some issues, right? We definitely need to hire some people to help us, but they also had a money back guarantee and that alone told us we were in better hands and they also, they started asking us the right questions.

It wasn't like, oh, here, we're gonna run this. This is my one step, uh, three step process we're gonna go to, to build your business, to seven figures. It was, they started asking us the right question about data, numbers, systems, delivery processes, and they're helping us to tighten up everything because just like I preached to you about health and fitness, health and fitness isn't about the story you tell yourselves.

It's about the, what the data says. What's your body composition, what's your resting heart rate, what's your HRV? If you track that, your sleep quality, it's a, it's about the data. And so we realized that while we're excellent at client results, we were running the back end to reactively. The highs were high, but the lows were quite draining.

Because we hired the right coach. We're finally building something stable, something scalable, and data-driven, not emotional and reactive. Now, I'll be honest with you, is humbling. But the gratitude comes from what it forced me to build next. 

So one of the biggest realizations of the year was that while Twitter, when it was working, was excellent.

I don't actually love being on Twitter and writing tweets. I can do it. Now I'm good at it. Wouldn't necessarily say great, but I don't love it. You know what I love doing? I love talking. I love coaching. I love podcasting. I love connecting. And right now on social media, one of the other changes that have happened in business, everything's becoming short form.

Short attention spans. Dopamine hits, but what I do best requires nuance because I'm an expert at what I do. And I say that not, I say that because experts, I believe and, and let me know if you're an expert in your field. I mean, I've been doing this for 26 years. I, I don't think it's a stretch to call myself an expert, but expertise means you realize the nuance of.

Situations of, of what you're an expert at. And that's why every time I get interviewed on another podcast, 'cause that's one of the other strategies, it just, it hasn't only been about running ads, it's been, we've been testing, oh, well let's, let me get on podcasts again. Every time I get interviewed on another podcast, provided it's a show with enough followers.

People reach out and wanna work with me. They can feel my energy, they can tell I care, and they get a sense like, man, this guy seems like he knows a lot. He's got a lot of experience and which is true. And so Giselle and I decided we're going all in on podcasting again, but. Bigger, better. And we're gonna, the one of the mistakes we made earlier with our podcast and why it hasn't led, why it kind of dropped off as a way for us to connect with new clients is because we dropped the ball on, on video and turning it into a video podcast.

Another amazing thing happened is that I, I got invited to the Dylan Jam podcast. It's the number one health podcast in its category. We connected instantly because we share a value system. Authenticity over hype, and I'm actually flying out. I've always wanted to do a podcast in person and I'm flying out to Arizona in January to record it in person again is, this has been a dream of mine for years to do in-person interviews and now it's happening and I know when I get on his show.

Not only am I gonna get clients from being on his show, 'cause people are gonna listen to me and say, oh, I want to work with this guy, but I'm gonna get invited to other podcasts. People from his podcast are gonna start listening to my podcast and he wants to help me. I wanna help him too, although he is the number one podcaster.

So, uh, number one guy in, in the health, uh, podcasting. Not sure if that's on Apple or Spotify or whatever, but, uh, he just hit number one like two weeks ago from, from the recording of this episode. And another thing that I'm grateful for clarity around ethics. I've always turned down partnerships that didn't align even when they were potentially lucrative.

And I haven't played the game. Like you've probably seen podcasts and you see a lot of the same people on the same podcast and it's like, uh, pitch Fest where people are just selling, they're just trying to make money off you and selling you a product, a supplement. And it's, I, I don't look, there's great supplements out there, but.

I feel like a lot of what's out there, a lot of the people who are pitching, they're just like, man, just I, let's, let's make as much money as possible, even if this thing is not that amazing. They're more marketing and business oriented than ethical, and that's not me. Yes, I sell coaching, but it delivers real results.

That's why I interview my clients so you know exactly what the experience was. And if you work with me, it's because you're a serious entrepreneur. Executive ready to change or high performer. I never pitched something I don't believe in is what I'm trying to say. Money's great, but here's the thing, meaning lasts longer.

Reputation also is super important, and I feel like there's a big shift away from that nonsense that I've been seeing in podcasting for a really long time. That's helped me back in growth, by the way. 'cause a lot of people who were, let's say, popular on the podcast circuit, I thought they were just full of it.

And so I never had them on the show. And so, you know, looking back, I don't regret not doing that, but I re But I also see like, ah, yeah, I see. Also, that's another reason why we didn't grow as much with, with the podcast. 

So let me, here's what I'm grateful for, right? For this year I'm, I'm really grateful for my business partner.

She is an incredible person who I feel like we've stepped up not just as business people, but just as people. We have both grown a lot and we're just. I feel like we're growing together in a way, again, beyond just the business. Because if you run a business, I think you'll agree with me when I say business is a, a personal development, exercise, and personal development, you have to grow a lot from who you used to be if you're gonna survive in business.

You have to do that. You have to learn skills that you, maybe you don't want to. You have to think differently. You have to, right? So I just feel so grateful for Giselle, my business partner. I'm grateful for the lessons, the expensive ones, the emotional ones. I'm grateful for the amazing clients who trusted me.

Even though maybe if they were on X or Twitter during that time, they saw me just losing followers because of the, the way the algorithm was. And now I've kind of turned that corner. But it was like, man, this guy's just lo people aren't posts are getting like three likes. Right? It was so bad. So thank you if, if you're listening, amazing clients.

I'm grateful for the mentors who asked the hard questions and especially this new business coach who forced. Not enforced is the wrong way, but put us in a position where we're like, okay, we're really gonna be more serious about the backend, the numbers, the data being on top of these things instead of just like being more reactive and and just kind of flowing.

I'm grateful for realizing that my voice, like literally my voice is my best tool. And even though it's hard, I'm grateful that every setback this year. Pointed me back to my true strengths and the message was clear. It's like, stop trying to play the game that you don't like. Like writing tweets and threads on on X.

Like get back into where you feel in your zone being on podcast, which I love being interviewed 'cause I really feel like I'm helping the people who are listening. And I love interviewing people too, 'cause I love connecting with people. And I love learning from people. Some people say, oh, you seem a little cocky on, you know, you know, on Twitter it's like, yeah, but you only see a very, you only see my tweets that are 280 characters.

That's why I love podcasting so much. Like, it's okay if you don't like me. Not everyone will. But at least you know where I am, who I am. You, you get a better sense for it here for sure. So really grateful for all that. And, and just to give you the future vision here is we are restructuring everything, operations, marketing, client delivery.

The business is finally starting to feel smooth again, starting to feel more aligned instead of chaotic. And let me tell you, 2026 is gonna be our best year. Yet, not just financially, but emotionally, because it'll be built on alignment. It'll be built on connections with the right people. And coming back to something where I feel like we almost quit the podcast, Giselle and I both, both of us brought up the.

Idea, like this podcast is part of our business. It costs money to produce these episodes. We have a team. It's not just me clicking, uh, record and then just saying whatever comes on my mind, right? I spend time to create these episodes, including this one and to, um, you know, from the team that produces it.

Stan, who edits Alina, who manages the podcast and helps booking with clients and. We had these conversations where it's like, listen, the podcast isn't really delivering like it used to when it comes to the business. Should we stop it? I love doing the podcast, but this isn't, business is not about feelings.

It's partly about feelings, but it's about data. And if something's costing you money and not making money, you making you money. You have to really ask yourself, should I keep doing it? And despite having those conversations, Giselle and I both realized that podcasting is our future. It's the thing we first started 11 years ago now in 2014.

And it's the thing that now we're starting to realize like, Hey, maybe we're not gonna be number one because we don't play the games. Or maybe we will be, I don't know. But we need to get back into it because it's the thing where I ended up getting invited to speak at events and all sorts of things happened because of this podcast.

I grew as a person. I made connections that I would've never made all because of this podcast. And now it's starting to shift again. Of course, me being on other podcasts, but perhaps you heard me on a podcast and and now you're here. Well, we have big plans. For what's coming here. 

So to wrap things up, I'm grateful for the lessons that hurt because they forced me to grow up as a business owner.

It forced me to see like, Hey, you're not as good at business as you think you are, or as you kind of act like you are. Really, because I've, I've never been one to say, oh, yeah, I'm a, I'm like totally great at business. I, I have no problems calling myself world class when it comes to coaching, but with business, it's a different thing.

I've never. You know, I'm, I'm decent at it, decent enough for sure, but I've never like, yeah, I've never, I've never said, Hey, listen, you should really listen to me about business, even though I've done a little bit of business coaching, so I'll leave you with this. Uh, growth isn't what happens when things go right.

It's what happens when you're forced to rebuild from what went wrong. So look, this was a year of growth. It was real. It was messy. It was uncomfortable. I learned a lot what not to do. I learned. Who not to trust. Who to trust. I learned that gratitude isn't about saying thanks for the easy parts. It's about finding a way to be grateful for the hard parts that end up making you better, that end up making you stronger.

So if you've had a challenging year or two, I hope this reminds you, you're not failing. As long as you don't give up, you're evolving. So I am grateful for you, for listening, for sharing, for being part of this journey with me. And, uh, listen, if this. Episode resonated. Share it with one person who's had a rough year, someone who needs to hear that growth can come disguised as chaos.

And, uh, I'd love to hear from you. Message me what you're grateful for this year if you like to connect. So that's it for me. Hope you enjoy this and looking forward to 2026.