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Joe Villegas, tell me about your vision, man.

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Yeah, my ultimate vision is really to be able to connect with people and help them to realize

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like real actual strategies to improve their health and wellness in a sustainable way.

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So I think, you know, we had talked about this previously, right, where there's a lot

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of BS information on the internet and all kinds of, you know, it's all true, a little

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bit.

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There's a lot of products and junk out there that gets peddled.

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I want to help people kind of cut through that stuff and realize like, hey, if we just

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get to the fundamentals and figure out how to make it work for them and their lifestyle,

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like meet them where they are, but they can make this a long term sustainable approach

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to their health and well-being.

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So that's my mission to connect with folks and help them do that.

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I love that.

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Okay.

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So super, super ideal.

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You won the pageant on that one.

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And let's see here, which way do I want to go with this?

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What's the story behind your why?

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We'll choose that one.

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Why don't you get to this point where you care about this?

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For sure.

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How much time do we have to go for the elevator pitch version still?

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Yeah, yeah, we'll keep it the bridge version.

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So you know, I didn't grow up an athlete at all.

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That was my brother in the family.

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I'm like the band kid, math nerd of the family.

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But basically like the typical story got out of college.

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I had gained a lot of weight in school, you know, shocker.

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And basically had a visit with my doc and he was like, hey, man, like, you know, you're

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300 pounds.

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Like you need to like get your act together basically.

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And so, you know, sort of had that, that, that moment, like that defining moment, like

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I need to make a difference and do make a shift, you know.

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So I joined a CrossFit gym that had just opened up near me and down here in Princeton and

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started training and had really great results.

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Like within six months, I had dropped like 60 pounds.

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I was getting stronger.

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I'm more confident, all those things.

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And the owner actually approached me and he was like, hey, man, he's like, you're here

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all the time.

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He's like, people seem to like you a lot.

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Would you have any interest in coaching, like becoming a coach and working on staff here?

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And I really, I was like, yeah, absolutely jumped right on it and just sort of fell into

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the position of being coached.

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So I didn't, you know, I didn't grow up with the, the dream or desire of coaching people.

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It just is something that happened organically and I just fell in love with it.

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So I started coaching folks at the physical brick and mortar location.

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And then I had clients that, you know, were like, hey, man, like I see what you're doing

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online.

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Like I can't be there in New Jersey.

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Is there a way we could work together like over the internet?

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And so I joked that I started coaching people online, like before it was cool.

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This is like years ago, spreadsheets and email.

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That was, I started coaching across it in 2011.

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Okay.

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So it was like shortly after that.

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That's fine.

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I had just learned about CrossFit as well, cause I was a lifetime fitness representative

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and some guy came in talking all about it.

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He's like, you're so cool.

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And like, I mean, like you, a Kool-Aid drinker, he was, you know, like, but it, you know,

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it was, all of a sudden I saw like, wow, what everybody else in the world now knows.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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No doubt.

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Yeah.

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So, so I started kind of growing like an online base of, of clients outside the gym.

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And then that progressed to, I had like a smaller contingent of that group were like

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business owners, entrepreneurs and things.

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And they were saying, Hey, can you come in and like talk to my staff?

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Like your approach is different.

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It's been working great for me.

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And that's how I got into like kind of doing seminars and talks.

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And from there I was like, you know, I really like being here and serving these people,

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but it would be cool to help them for longer than an hour, you know, like just this one

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seminar.

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And so that's what kind of spawned like the corporate wellness side of Paragon, which

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is my company.

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So we work with like small mid-sized groups, typically companies that, you know, are forward

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thinking, they care about their employees, but they're not afforded like the access to

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these bigger vendors because they're a small organizations.

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Yeah.

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So, you know, we'll do like wellness challenges and like kind of ongoing programs for them.

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And then I have the one-on-one online coaching side of it as well.

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So I, I joke, I retired from coaching CrossFit like a year and a half ago now, but my wife

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and I moved a little too far away from the gym, but, but I've kept up with the online

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stuff and I do that now.

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So that's how I got here.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time

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and attention.

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I hope you have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro

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yourself.

