The Six Pack Dad Tribe
The Six Pack Dad Tribe
24: Client interview (David McKnight)- 47 years old, down 20 lbs in 2 months, business owner and dad
To learn more about The Six Pack Dad Tribe, go to www.thesixpackdadtribe.com
Hey guys, Tyson Johnson here with the six pack dad tribe. These are the, the interviews that we look forward to as podcasters, all along the way, being able to bring on a successful client and let them share their story and, and offer i nsights. S o I'm really excited today to have David McKnight on the line. You'll find him, to be, a successful, a w o rking professional and a dad and just a really dynamic guy. So, David, p l ease say, hello,
David McKnight:Thank you, Tyson, for having me on. And of course, for all your help, I' ve o we a lot to the six pack, a s ix pack dad tribe, s o far, and I'm looking forward to a great journey.
Tyson Johnson:Absolutely. And this is a little intimidating cause I'm a newer podcaster and, David, I look up to him. He has his own podcast. We'll get into that maybe towards the end, but, he's, he could definitely show me a thing or two about how to podcast, but I'll do my best here. So, D avid, why don't we kick it off? go ahead and just introduce yourself, fa m ily work, hobbies, age, and as mu ch, or as little as you want to share love t o.
David McKnight:Sure. Yeah. You bet. name is David McKnight, graduated from BYU, b ack in 1997. I'm 47 years old. I've got seven children. I've been worried, married to my wife for about 20 years. And I've been in the financial services industry since about 1997. I'm probably best known for my book, the power of zero, which I wrote back in 2014, wh i ch talks about the likelihood of dramatically higher taxes in the future and what retirees and pre-retirees can do to prepare themselves for that eventuality. and, actu a lly just this week we launched my followu p to tha t book. I t's ca lled tax fre e i n come for life. And so, I do a lot of speaking. I do a lot of writing and I have, you kn o w, an organization of about 250 advisors who use my sales principles and, we live as a family here in Puerto Rico. And so we're, we're ju s t really excited to be here. We're reall y exc ited to be talking to you today.
Tyson Johnson:Oh yeah, that's awesome. So, and I told, I told David, he is welcome to, give us kind of a taste test a s what he does professionally. And so he has my full authorization to do that. So, so let's, let's ki nd o f s tart with the fitness journey I had proactively reached out to you and apparently it was a message that caught your attention. And, a bout two months ago, you and I started working together. do you mind telling the audience just a little bit about your background as it relates to health and fitness and maybe why you, why you joined the tribe?
David McKnight:Sure. well like, like many of us, I, I was a lot lighter in high school than I am right now. I'm about six foot three and in high school I was about 175 to 180 pounds. And, w e all know that as time wears on, we, we pick up weig ht and we fill out a little bit and that happened to me. But you sort of get to this point where you, you know, in high school you can eat pretty much whatever you want and your metabolism metabolism is so crazy on overdrive that you don't gain any weight to show for it. And the problem is as we move forward in life and we continue to eat based on those same habits, our metabolism slows down and you start to pack on the pounds and you just get to the point where, you know, I've tried everything over the years. I mean, you name it, I've tried it. I could tell you the basics of just about every diet out there. Cause I've tried it and I usually have some success. I really just got to the point where I said, Hey, if I can stick at two 30, I'll be pretty happy because I had a really, really hard time getting past 230 pounds. I was, you know, two 30, two 37, something like that. And I'd, I'd go on a diet, I'd get down to about two 30 and then I'd revert back to my old habits and get back up to two 30, two 37. And so when Tyson contacted me, I said, look, what do I have to lose here by having someone hold my feet to the fire and really give y ou some coaching on how to punch through that 230 pound level. And now, I'm at about two 18 and I' m, I'm plateaued a little bit. So, Tyson, I'm g oing t o need y our, your help to, to help tighten things up. So I can punch through the two 15 barrier and really get down to 200, which is where I'm where I really want to be. But man, I haven't seen results like this. I mean, I'm as I'm as light as I've been in 20 years. I mean, I, I think that I was about this weight when I got married and I haven't been this light sc ent. So obviously, T yson, you have introduced into my life, a formula that is working. And so I'm going to keep, keep running with it here.
Tyson Johnson:Okay. So I'm going to deviate from our, our sort of penciled in agenda a little bit, cause we need to pause here and shine the spotlight back on David for a second. So yes, you're signed up for our one-on-one coaching. yes, you have the course a nd the community and we've worked closely together, but just to compliment you for a second, and this is going to lead to a question David has executed like a mazed as good as any other client in the program, just taking the information and going and doing it. And I've really admired that about you because for a lot of us, you know, we're breaking lengthy habits and you've just gone out and done it. yes, we're, we're only two months in. It'll be fun to maybe have you back on at your six month Mark and ye ar M a rk, et cetera, if you're willing, but tell us, b oth those in our tribe who are going to listen, who ar e do ing the program and for people who aren't in the program and are experiencing the rol lercoaster li ke mentally, how have you done this so well over the last two months bec ause it is unique.
David McKnight:Well, I think it's, I've settled into a routine. Number one, it's incredibly important in my mind to, to document everything that I eat i n the, in the diary. And then Tyson, of course you are able to access that on the, my fitness pal app. So just knowing that Tyson has access to that has been really, really helpful, but you know, I've really settled into a routine that, has become a habit and I'll tell you exactly what I do. I wake up every day and I have a shake. It's an organ shake. when I put a little bit of peanut butter powder in there with some spinach and I pu t a few supplements in there and I grind it all up and that's what I have for breakfast. And that usually carries me through until lunch. Sometimes I'll, I'll supplement mid, mid morning with a Robert Irvine bar. If I get a, you know, if I get hungry, but I noticed that if I wait until about eight o'clock, when I start that shake, that's plenty to get me by until noon. And then y ou're, this is g onna seem unusual. But, at noon, this is what I have for lunch. I have a steak and so I have no problem paying good money for good quality me at. So I have a New York strip. I probably have, gosh, I think it's four to six ounces, something like that. every lunch and, th e protein is I ha ven't gotten tired of it after two months. I mean, I look forward to my lunch every, eve r y, ever y day and it keeps me full. I, I don' t have that huge, you know, increase in my blood sugar that comes crashing down a mid-af t ernoon. So I usually will have, you know, either a Robert Irvine bar or, someth i ng, something else to carry me over to dinner time. And then in dinnertime, you know, what I used to do is what I would S I would simply eat whatever I wanted. And I just kept eating until, you know, as long as the food tasted good until like, I couldn't possibly squeeze any more in, and I've sort of gotten into the habit where I simply eat one helping, which is about half of what I normally eat. So whatever my wife cooks, I'm not going to tell her to cook a different meal for me, but whatever she makes, I eat about half as much as I normally do. And then, Tyson is often a r iver to me about this, but, afterwards after I ea t t hat I have, p recisely five Oreos and I have precisely five Oreos lately. We ran out of Oreos. I've replaced it with some other things, but precisely five Oreos. And that sort of puts a bow on the day. And I stopped eating at that point. It's almost like that the Oreos are that reward for having eaten, well during the day, and that sort of marks the end of eating for the day when I've eaten that last Oreo. And that is literally what I've done and it's become an ingrained habit. And, I've go tten t o the point where, y ou know, I went from about 237 pounds down to about 216, a nd now I'm back up to two 18. So, like I said before, I'm plateauing a little bit, which means I'm going to have to nip and tuck here and there on what I'm eating and with Tyson's help. I'm sure that's possible, but, t h at's what I've done to get to where I am. And, I' v e coupled that with, rea l ly following the exercise regimen that T aylo r, that, Tyson, advoca t es, which is, cardio e very other day, and then weightlifting every other day alternating between upper body and lower body. and that that's been great. I did that right up until I got shingles about a week ago. And so that's taken me out of my exercise routine a little bit, but, it seems l ike it's getting better. So I'm getting ready to jump right back into it.
Tyson Johnson:So I hope that people who are listening, there's probably a lot of what you shared that may have escaped some, but you've just covered a wide variety of it was fun to hear you verbalize that. I heard a lot of science come out of your mouth. And a lot of people, they don't even maybe realize how powerful that is, but, you're down 20 pounds. It's two months, you talked about being full and satisfied, which is like a secret weapon. If you can be full and satisfied and lose weight, that is like beautiful. You talked about protein, which, you know, in the tribe we teach how that forces your metabolism to elevate. That's called the thermic effect. I'm not going to go too deep into this, but also even enjoying some dessert along the way, like what, what type of programs are promoting that? So it was fun to hear you share t hat, that openly and letting out all your secrets like that. because this can be an enjoyable process. It can be a lifestyle, when you're not having to give up everything and have it run your life, et cetera. So th at w as really thank you for sharing that. you mentioned shingles and we, when we have a published author who has hundreds of agents, so to speak, people can easily read between the lines on that and know you're a busy, successful professional. So time constraints, health problems, the aging process, like you're dealing with obstacles that all of us in the tribe and our listeners are going through. Do you want to tell us a little bit more about over the last two months? Any other obstacles you feel you've maybe encountered if any, and how you've worked through that?
David McKnight:yeah. W one of the obstacles is, I sort of settled into this routine where I'm losing weight all throughout the week. And then I take Friday as a free day. And there was one Friday where I gained four pounds. I mean, I had, I wa s, I mean, if it moved, I ate it. I mean, I, I went to, you know, firehouse up. I went out to eat with my wife. I ordered a big dessert because this sort of he arkens b ack to the, you know, the bill Ph illip d iet of the early, the late nineties, early two thousands, where you get a free day. And, s o what I was doing was I was taking a free day at the end of the week, and I was literally erasing all of my gains. And then I would take three days to get back to square one and then start losing weight again. And then, so I soon learned that having, you know, a smorgasbord on Friday was okay within reason because I really got tired of erasing all of my losses because of that three free d ay. So that has been an obstacle that I learned to deal with. shingles. Yeah. I mean, I'm a we ek i n to i t. Sometimes they say that goes a lot longer. the re wa s a real obstacle when we ran out of Oreos, frankly. and way I h ad to find a way to say, it's my sweet tooth at a different way. So I'm, I'm pressing my wife hard to get more Oreos because that really was a great, a g reat little thing I had going on. But so far it's been, it's been pretty good. I have to content myself when there's some weeks where it seemed like I did everything I was supposed to do, and I didn't lose the type of way that I wanted to. But, tha t's how it goes. It doesn't always your weight. Doesn't always go down in a s tr aight line and, you k now, I'm just going t o kee p, keep, danci n g with the girl I brought to the dance and keep, keep doing exactly what I did to get myself here. And, hopefu l ly I can get down to 2000 and, you know, in anothe r two months, so 2,200.
Tyson Johnson:Yeah. Yeah, no, that's great. you mentioned your wife and, a nd at the beginning, you have a large family, y ou're down 20 pounds. you and I both know that this journey is not about pounds loss. There's, there's a lot of things that happen in addition to weight coming off and how that can lighten up life, ho w that can affect us emotionally confidence, things like that. I'm j ust curious. It might be premature for me to ask at this point, but I'll ask anyway. just any things that your family has shared with you or non-weight victories, so to speak on how maybe this is influencing other aspects of your life.
David McKnight:That's a good question. they certainly have made comments about how, skinny I look, a bout how loosely my clothes fit. I seem to have a lot more energy. they, they seem to be able to look right through my beard and t o, c la i m that I am, I am actually reclaiming my jaw line, which has been one of my goals, all a long. yeah, they, I mean, just, they just, they look at me and they, it just looks like I'm a lot healthier than I used to be. So that definitely all sorts of positive repercussions that STEM from all of it.
Tyson Johnson:Yeah. No, that's awesome. So I want to, I want to make sure we, you have a chance to, I've listened to your podcast and was amazed at just the brevity and the value you provide on there. And I want to give people a taste test if you don't mind a few nuggets there, but before we shift gears a little bit, off of this topic, a nd this has been great. Any other, I guess, final lessons learned or advice that you would want to impart as someone who has probably has every reason not to have done this two months ago yet you've chosen to, you're making this happen. You're executing, it's working, l i ke lessons learned advice for people. If they're thinking about this journey, or if they're already on the journey, words of encouragement, just anything you want to s ha re there.
David McKnight:Well, I think I really do think that the accountability is key and that I have gotten into the habit of documenting everything that I eat, even when I have a bad day and I'm ashamed of what I ate. Right. knowing that I am accountable to, t o you and that you are looking at everything that I'm eating that in the back of my mind, plays a role and there's, there's just no two ways about it. So knowing that I've got a coach, that's there, a nd you've made yourself available. I can text you, I can call you, I can poke Marco polo, you whenever. that's been, that's been fantastic. And so really getting into the habit of documenting everything that goes into my mouth makes me more conscious of everything that I eat and knowing that, th e re's that you're going to be looking at it and checking in on me periodically, hel p s really, you know, in a sense, keep my feet to the fire so that that's, that's a real key in, and we've often heard it said that it's almost impossible to lose weight if you're not tracking. I remember I used to be in weight Watche r s. They said the peo ple that track their food lose three times as much weight as the people who don't. And so that has really been a key for me tracking my food. And I just noticed on my little app said, congratulations, you have, you'v e tracked your food for 58 straight days or something like that. So that tells you it's become an ingrained habit. And I think that's, that's part of why it's working.
Tyson Johnson:Yeah. Oh, good for you. Well, awesome. So let's, let's shift gears. Thanks for all that you've shared already. let's, let's talk a little bit about knowing that ou r, our audience are working professionals, knowing that the tax clock is ticking. So to knowing that wealth generation and retirement is frankly, even on someone like my mind in my late thirties and wanting to invest and be wise about, y ou know, what I do with savings and, a nd that, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about, more about what you do professionally and, w h ere this is going is m ay be a few nuggets that, th a t you would want to share as an introduction to your podcast, your book. I just think that there's some lessons that people, they need to know who you are and what you do, becau se you' r e a gr eat resource.
David McKnight:Sure. Yeah. So B prior to COVID-19, I did about 90 speaking and engagements per year, and I was speaking to members of the general public all across the United States. a lot of people, a lot of financial ad visors h ire me because they read the power of zero and they feel like it's an impactful, massive message. And to give you an idea on the basic message of the power of zero, we believe that based on the fiscal trajectory of the nation, th e t ax rates, even 10 years from now will be dramatically higher than they are today. And that's because of unfunded obligations like social security, Medicare, Medicaid, and interest on the national debt that are just, yo u k n ow, driving our fiscal condition to unsustainable levels. And, you know, when I give these presentations all across the country, I will as k r ooms full of people. How many of you believe that tax rates in the future even 10 years from now will be dramatically higher than they are today? In every hand in the room goes up, they all believe it. And then I ask a follow-up question, which is how many of you have the lion's share of your retirement savings positioned in tax deferred vehicles like 401ks and IRAs, every single hand in the room goes up. So what I've noticed is that there's, there's a massive disconnect between what people believe about the future of tax rates and what they're actually doing about it. So what I found is that there's an audience for people who believe the tax rates are going up that want to reposition their highly taxable tax, deferred retirement vehicles, like 401ks and IRAs to tax-free investments. And so what I do and what I teach my advisors that I work with to do is to strategize with people on how to best reposition those tax deferred assets to tax-free, that's what this book is about. And the follow-up tax-free income for life. That's what that book is about as well.
Tyson Johnson:Yeah, no, that's awesome. so any, just t o, I guess what people's appetite, I mean, they could read the book, they can listen to your p odcast books, I should say, but anything else? I guess a few pieces of wisdom, or you could probably talk for hundreds of hours on this, but, a ny other nuggets that you would want to share, f o r those higher income working professional dads who will listen to this and okay, cool. That makes a lot of sense. So what do I do?
David McKnight:Yeah, I think that my, my one little piece of advice is that we be much more intentional about where we invest our retirement savings. Sometimes we invest in our 401ks and IRAs reflexively. It's easy to do. They take it right out of our paycheck and it's out of mind out of sight. It sometimes takes a little bit more effort and, a little bit more productivity to invest in the tax-free bucket. But what I would tell you is that there's three basic retirement, three basic types of retirement accounts. An d m y book, the power of zero, I talk about them in terms of buckets of money, ta xable t ax deferred, ta x-free i n a rising tax rate an d e nvironment. And we are in a rising tax rate environment. We have to have precisely the right mathematical amount of money in each of those first two buckets an d a nything above and beyond the perfect mathematical amount in t hose first two buckets needs to be systematically repositioned to tax-free. There's a lot of details that go into that, and you can find out about those in any of my books, but, y eah, just to be more conscientious, more intentional about where we're investing our retirement dollars.
Tyson Johnson:Yeah, that's great. So if, if someone listening to this, has interest in, they can go to Amazon, find your book, any other places y ou'd recommend like a website or just to reach out and learn more.
David McKnight:Yeah. If they want to reach out and learn more about how to implement these strategies in their lives, they can just go to David mcknight.com and we can connect them with, you know, one of our qualified and vetted and trained powers, ear advisors in their area, be happy to work with you.
Tyson Johnson:Awesome. Well, David, thanks for, I understand this as you, wrapping up a very busy week and yet you chose to be on here, away from your family when you've been gone a lot and just battled through, shingles and things. So, r eally appreciate your generosity, e x cited by your story and what lies ahead and, on w ard and upward my friend. Keep it up.
David McKnight:Thank you, Tyson. I appreciate you having me on,
Tyson Johnson:Okay. You bet.