Joey Yochheim is the Co-Owner & COO of Default Kings, a company that helps family-minded men achieve permanent weight loss by changing their subconscious habits. His company has helped over 252 men drop an average of 27 lbs and is projected to surpass $1.5MM in annual revenue in 2023. Additionally, Joey and his partners Jack Bly & Gabe Pluguez have surpassed an audience totaling over 150k followers on Twitter.
Joey started his entrepreneurial journey in late 2020 while studying exercise science at John Carroll University and working as a personal trainer. After 8 months of making $0 online, he signed his first client in September of 2021. Four months later, in January 2022, he left school to take on entrepreneurship full-time. He then partnered with Jack Bly & Gabe Pluguez of Default Kings and they have since more than tripled their top line.
For more details, visit their website!
Today, we sit down with Joey to learn more about his journey as an entrepreneur.
Q. Tell us a little more about your journey in fitness and entrepreneurship – how did you get started? What inspired you?
Joey: My fitness journey has been very organic. I grew up playing soccer and even played in college. Both my parents are physical therapists as well, so getting into fitness came very naturally to me. It stemmed from a desire of wanting to be better at the sport I was playing and be on the highest possible level. I wanted to be as athletic and strong as possible, and also feel good about myself and grow my confidence.
One of my teammates from college happened to know Alex Heiden and he connected us. Alex inspired me and my buddy to start a business together. That’s how I got my first experience in online coaching. That business made no money for 8 months and eventually failed. However, over the course of working on that, I met the men who would become my business mentors – Jack Bly and Gabe Pluguez.
I worked with them for 4 months and they brought me on as an affiliate partner for their business. After a couple of months, they saw my potential and positive attributes, so they gave me a role and had me take over the entire fulfillment and operations departments, which eventually led to me getting ownership of the company. I’ve been doing that for the last year. So, I had a pretty organic fitness journey that led to my entrepreneurial journey.
Q. What about your background has helped you accelerate your business?
Joey: I think I naturally have one of those obsessive personalities. I’m obsessed with improvement and making things happen, so when I find something I feel like I have potential in, I go all out and leave nothing in the tank. Otherwise, I feel like I’m disappointing God by not giving it my all. That’s what I did with sports.
I remember when I was 14 and a coach told me that if I wanted to be the best, I had to touch the ball every single day. I carried that with me ever since and it’s the way I approach everything. I applied that concept to business. I just give it everything I have and strive to get better every single day by applying the same discipline I applied to sports.
Being so involved with sports from a young age, I spent a lot of time with high-quality coaches and I learned a lot from them in terms of leadership and people management. I’ve applied those things to business as well, so I’m very involved with that. There’s a lot about what I learned from sports that bleeds into who I am as an entrepreneur.
I think that a lot of the people who are successful don’t have any kind of limiting beliefs, and I’m like that. I feel like if somebody before me has done it, then so can I. I don’t let any barriers come in between me and what I want to achieve.
Also, I used to hate losing, but the further I got into entrepreneurship, the more I understood losing is a part of business and it leads to growth. I’ve learned to embrace the failures and say, okay, we took an L, what can we learn from it? How can we get better? How can we prevent the same failure in the future? And go from there.
Q. What role does faith play in your life?
Joey: Oh, it plays a huge role. I grew up around it. When I went to college, I sort of questioned it, which I think is normal. When you’re in your late teens you think you’re smarter than everyone else, but I’ve matured and I’ve gone further along in my faith.
So much has happened in my life that I just can’t explain in any other way except divine intervention. It’s the most logical explanation to me; God made things happen for me by moving me in the right direction and sending me lessons. Now, I’m the most faithful I’ve ever been.
It’s funny to say that it’s logical because faith is inherently illogical. It’s not tangible. But for me, there’s no other way to explain the series of events that have led me to this point in my life. I truly believe that’s what God wanted to happen. So, yeah, faith is a massive part of my life.
Q. What do you think is the main mistake you think people make whether in their fitness or entrepreneurial journeys?
Joey: I think the most common mistake people make is they base a lot of what they do in the day on how they’re feeling. For example, if they don’t feel like going to the gym or completing a business-related task, they just don’t. But there’s stuff that needs to be done regardless of how you feel in the moment if you want to reach your goals.
You know, it’s so common for people to get started on something, give up, and get started on a different thing. So, there comes a point where they have 8 unfinished things on their table because they just didn’t feel like it anymore. I’ve seen a lot of people both in fitness and business operate purely based on emotion.
But the reality is that if you want to get somewhere, you have to do what needs to be done regardless of your emotions. I always say to my clients that if I only went to the gym when I felt like it, I would go maybe 40% of the time. There are people who never feel like going, but how are they going to reach their goals?
Q. What would you say is one of the most worthwhile investments you’ve ever made?
Joey: Investing in mentors is, by far, the best investment I’ve ever made. Recently, I’ve also been investing more into all kinds of retreats and mastermind events. Not only to become better at business, but also to improve my health, my relationships, and any other aspect of life.
There’s something I heard from Daniel Fazio, also known as the Cold Email Wizard, that really stuck with me. It’s the idea of ascension by osmosis, which consists of being around the people you want to be like and spending time with them in person. That’s the best way to learn and that’s why I think investing in mentors, retreats, masterminds, etc., where you can spend time with those people is extremely worthwhile.
Q. What advice would you give to people starting out on their fitness or entrepreneurial journey?
Joey: The best advice I can give is to make it unreasonable for you not to succeed. Do the things that other people aren’t willing to do and set yourself up to the point where it would be unreasonable not to have the success you’re aiming for.
Things will feel uncomfortable sometimes, but you just have to do what you have to do. Stop operating based on emotion. Otherwise, you’re probably not going to get to where you want to be. Whether it’s fitness, health, or business, stack as many chips in your favor as possible.
To keep up to date with Joey, connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter!
