MKJ (00:00.676)
Hey, hey, CEO Mischief Makers, MKJ here. Welcome to the conversation and welcome a new friend I’ve been able to make, a friendship, an acquaintance, and we’re gonna get a little deeper in that conversation to friendship, Ronnie Loaiza. Ronnie, how you doing? You ready for

RonnieLo Life Coach (00:19.689)
Yes, I am. Yeah, I’m really thankful for the friendship as well, because I’ve been following you on LinkedIn. So it’s kind of weird that you might not know that people think they know you because of your content, but we kind of do a little bit. we feel like, I know who you are, you

MKJ (00:35.271)
That’s amazing. I’m so glad you said that because it really that’s that’s kind of the power of being in someone’s ears Right because they hear your voice they hear your they they get to know you and I do the same with Everyone else I follow as well. It is it is kind of a friendship even though we’ve never met in person So let’s start this off. So first off kind of tell everyone who you are and what you do. Just start

RonnieLo Life Coach (01:01.413)
Well, it was started many years ago. I live in California, just South of you. live in Southern California in Los Angeles. just real quick. When my mom decided to have me, she was in love with New York city. They, my parents lived in South America and Venezuela. So she came and spent the last part of her pregnancy in New York city, became best friends with a lady who was the receptionist of her doctor moved in with her. Cause they asked her, you got to stay with us

There’s a point to this. My, my mom’s friend, Jean, had a really good friend from Brooklyn and, no, she, were living in Brooklyn. My, her friend lived in Queens. She was this Jewish lady who smoked like a fiend. name was Ronnie Munger and I’m named after her. Ronnie Munger. And she flew back with me when I was one week old. So I’ve been traveling ever since and love adventures. You know,

She showed me to my dad and she’s like, meet your daughter Ronnie. He’s like, okay. I was supposed to be named Celeste or something Spanish like that, you know?

MKJ (02:04.97)
And she just unilaterally decided, no, there’s this amazing woman I met in Queens. Her name is Ronnie. I’ve got to name my daughter Ronnie.

RonnieLo Life Coach (02:12.495)
And my sister, born in the sixties, was named after Jacqueline Kennedy. So her name was Jacqueline. but we all moved here when I was just turning five. So while my mother tongue was Spanish, I started kindergarten at the age of five, here in the United States. So I started speaking English right away. And like I said, I’ve loved traveling ever since. I don’t know that had anything to do with it. My parents were really the kind that you have to go somewhere every summer. We had to go somewhere, whether it was a road trip or on the plane. So I love

MKJ (02:16.42)
Jacqueline, there we go.

MKJ (02:28.42)
Yeah.

MKJ (02:38.836)
wonderful. And so tell everybody what you do for a

RonnieLo Life Coach (02:41.837)
I’m a habit coach. I help people. know you’ve heard that before, but I do help people really make the changes they want, whether it’s a small change, a big change, but usually that change they’ve been wanting to make many times and they may have tried, but things just go by the wayside or they recess, you know, whatever. I hope they make the changes they want and achieve their goals. One tiny action at a time that becomes

Instead of all the force discipline, all the to -do hacks and the constant revving up of willpower. It just leads to burnout. I know this because that’s what people have told me for decades. And that’s what I’ve been dealing with. And I finally saw the common thread of we are just a big blob of our habits every day. And when you do the research and you look at all the studies, 40 to 50 % of every one of our days is a series of our habits and how we behave.

is our habitual, the way I call it, our habitual way of thinking. So I became a certified habit coach. I am now up in the levels in life coaching. So I’m a, I always have to get this right, a master certified professional coach.

MKJ (03:51.187)
Okay, that’s fantastic because we are going to start with mindset and I know more about your background that impact and innovation is going to get into which is I can already start seeing the trickles of why you are doing what you’re doing because of what I know about you. So we’re gonna uncover a few of those things. But let’s start with mindset. Okay, so I understand mindset probably doesn’t fit into habits in that respect, but it does.

RonnieLo Life Coach (04:15.217)
Yeah.

MKJ (04:16.282)
It absolutely, and I probably, it looks like you’re agreeing with me. This is a mindset shift. Each of those little shifts are little mindset shifts. That’s why I’m just going to throw a statistic out here from my world of marketing. That’s why it takes 66 touches in order for someone to feel comfortable enough typically to buy. That’s the average now. It used to be when I started in marketing in 2003, it’s like seven or eight touches, right? Seven or

RonnieLo Life Coach (04:41.538)
Yeah,

MKJ (04:42.074)
impacts with your business before somebody’s ready to buy. It’s now 66. So that’s why it’s so many little micro commitments, little mini yeses. And that’s exactly what you’re talking about in habits. So tell me how, what, what shifted your mindset from what you were doing before you became a habit coach or, or mindset coach. I’m just using mindset as my word.

What shifted your mindset to allow you to start doing that? Why are you doing what you’re doing?

RonnieLo Life Coach (05:16.891)
Well, mostly because I used to be very, meditating just doesn’t work for me. I don’t get it. want, I wanted to work. I want to be in that Zen. And I just wasn’t, when I started really working with people as a personal trainer and I was not athletic at all. I came from the world of journalism and then public relations. And you’re right about the public relations. We used to say a commercial takes seven times to watch till somebody actually pays attention to it and acts on it. same with infomercials. Remember those.

MKJ (05:46.202)
Yes.

RonnieLo Life Coach (05:46.349)
so now it’s like, have so many, don’t let me go down rabbit holes cause I could, but we have so many distractions all around us, especially on our phone and our computers that it’s hard for our mind to focus because we’re focusing, focusing and we’re like refocusing constantly. So until we latch onto something, yeah, it takes a lot of taps and hits. So back to my mindset

MKJ (05:51.651)
I know.

RonnieLo Life Coach (06:12.721)
When I finally became a personal trainer because of health issues and I’d said, what do I want to be the next 20 years of my life? I said this to myself at 46. I’m like, who does that? And especially in LA, all the personal trainers were in their twenties, want to be actors or in the industry. I’m like, I think I will. Because my personal trainer at the time, who was a corrective exercise specialist, I was put with her by my insurance. I stopped hurting within two weeks. I learned how to train properly for my spine and my back and my hips.

And I was so into it because I asked a lot of questions that she’s like, you need to become a personal trainer. I’m like, why me? She’s like, because if women and men, but especially women, if they see you at your age in great shape and feeling good and you have herniated disc and you have this and that, you’re your own walking billboard and they’ll believe you and they’ll relate to you. So when I decided to study and become a personal trainer, more than just kinesiology and biology and anatomy, I realized

Every one of my clients, I wanted to make them as fit as that person could be, as fit as that individual could be. Forget the cookie cutter workouts. And it was 90, I’m making up this number though. I thought the majority of their, their issue or their success was their mindset. It really was. And I wasn’t all woo woo, but it was really about how do we change the way you’re always thinking? That’s really it. I now call

MKJ (07:37.852)
Yes.

RonnieLo Life Coach (07:38.863)
your habitual way of thinking, because we’re in the habit of thinking a certain way and reacting a certain way. So that’s how I got into the mindset. And back then I wasn’t into life coaching. It’s whatever it took to relate to them and connect with them to have them at least start changing their way of thinking about something or approaching something or about themselves. That now that I’m a coach, now I have the tools. People always say that, but I do know a great process. And of course we tailor it to each

But that’s how I got into the mindset. And I can’t, for example, I cannot do just affirmations that are not true. I’m a gajillionaire. Yes, I am. I am the goddess queen with the best body. If it’s not true and you doubt it, I don’t believe in fake it till you make it because that’s just it. It’s fake and our brain knows it. And if there’s any, even a sand of doubt or like cynicism, your brain will look for the evidence to prove your cynicism or your

MKJ (08:26.89)
That’s it. That’s it.

RonnieLo Life Coach (08:37.029)
So I believe in confirmation over affirmation. Give yourself a fact that is true or truth. Confirmation over affirmation. If you look up in the dictionary, when you’re affirming something, you’re confirming something. But really a confirmation is, I’m confirming this is fact. And when you say that out loud, you tell your brain that and your brain goes, noted, you’re right, you’re

MKJ (08:57.048)
Yes, and we do we do our bodies follow our minds. They just do it you it you manifest whatever you want, whatever whatever reality you really do believe in your mind, you manifest that in your body. So okay, I get it. I get where you came from. I get the mindset and I also get that most of us become

the or start the businesses or start the career trajectory that we have started because of our own needs. So from your own needs, from from your MPR and injuries and going to personal trainer and then going, I can do this. I do have the power to do this. I can change. I can heal myself through knowing what to do the right way to do it. And now, lots of people need this.

Okay, it’s not just personal training and the exercises. It’s the mindset I did the same thing when when I would teach people how to lose weight I Would teach people how to quit smoking and I would teach people how to lose weight and it was always a mindset issue Not what you eat It has to start with mindset. It’s not just what you eat. I mean

RonnieLo Life Coach (10:11.987)
absolutely.

And now the caveat is Mary Jane, I hate to interrupt you, but I have to do the caveat because you’re going to get listeners and audience people go, well, I’m addicted. And that is true. And there is a difference between addiction and a habit. Absolutely. There are people who smoke that can quit and some people do the willpower and that’s hard and kudos to them. But most people, if they’re addicted, they have to go, they have to wean off, whether it’s patches or some treatment, but other people use hypnotherapy. That’s mindset.

MKJ (10:23.3)
Yeah.

RonnieLo Life Coach (10:44.537)
And the same with eating. Yes, you may go to a diet, you may go to all these plans and courses, but they don’t work unless first of all, you’re willing to commit. But second of all, take the tiny, tiny actions. It is the process in that, in that account. It’s not just willing it. And so yeah, mindset comes into play that you can’t just wish it, wish it, wish it. You have to take action. Even remember the secret and the law of attraction. Everybody after that said, you can’t just wish and kick your heels.

MKJ (11:00.588)
It is basically complete.

MKJ (11:06.67)
Yes.

RonnieLo Life Coach (11:12.549)
you have to then do something about it. have to take action. So it’s not just mindset that you, yeah, you’ve, you want to will it. Okay. You want to will it first of all, but then you have to go through the process of how can I do it? And the way that I have found that works with people, whether you’re addicted or it’s a habit is really first, first, you have to take a tiny action to make it into a habit, a part of who you are. That sounds woo woo, but it really has to be who you are naturally without thinking about it. has to be in your subconscious.

MKJ (11:12.654)
Yeah. Yes. yeah.

MKJ (11:40.932)
Completely. Completely. Completely.

RonnieLo Life Coach (11:41.989)
that describes you. So to do that, I link habits to something or actions to something you already do because we already have enough in our busy days. And that’s the problem. And I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of solopreneurs and entrepreneurs and business people that take courses and webinars and plans and they go to these inspirational conferences and business conferences and they walk away with all these big plans under their arm, like I’m going to implement this. And then it all starts falling from under their

You know, or they take webinars and they put them into folders and then they don’t go through all the folders and all the modules because it’s a lot and it’s more than what you you’re used to doing. So I take it to what are you already doing and how can you link it to that? I call it habit chaining. Other people, since James Cleary now call it habit stacking. don’t like stacking because it sounds like you’re compiling on stuff. Just link it to something you already do and take tiny actions that are doable.

That they’re easy. So I go through a list of ideations, like ideas, what could you do? And people always, especially in business, want to do four five things that went, I can handle those new four things. Like if you could have, you would have. Let’s do one and start winning at that one and make it a habit. When you start proving to yourself confirmation and your brain starts going noted, capable, noted, you feel that win. You feel that triumph. You make a part of who you are. You can then progress.

MKJ (12:47.817)
That’s right.

RonnieLo Life Coach (13:06.693)
But to take on all these to -do’s and plans, that’s what fails.

MKJ (13:11.268)
Yeah, completely. anytime, anytime, the first step has to be that you are capable, you are able to do that. But some of the and we’ll talk more about that in strategy and tactics, all the specifics of what you can do. But number one, if you’re trying to lose weight, and there’s still a bunch of whatever your favorite food is that you binge on in the house, it isn’t going to work. I don’t care how much willpower you think you have. It’s not you’re not going to be able to stay away from

because habitually that’s what you’re using that food for whatever it is, the feeling that you’re trying to get. So completely. So what’s your next mindset shift you have to make? You’ve shifted from PR to personal training because you needed it to have habits because you needed it. What’s the next mindset shift for Ronnie?

RonnieLo Life Coach (13:56.913)
for me. Well, have had to, I have had to accept the fact that I’ve been a solopreneur since letting go of the paycheck, you know, um, because it’s hard to go from a W -2 to a 1099, especially when you’re not used to keeping up with the books. I forget to invoice people. I really do. I didn’t, when I was just a personal trainer, my clients would literally tell me when I went on my own.

Don’t I owe you? I’m like, yeah, okay. I have to look at it. It’s like, if I could have worked for a company and they got me all the, all the clients and they took care of invoicing, I would be the happiest thing. I don’t, I would even go for socialized medicine and socialized personal training. Cause I loved doing it. Just give me my cut. But it’s true. You have to get in that mindset of, wait a minute, this is a business as well. Grow up. so with me now, I really do have to keep reminding myself that I pay

I pay people for what I need and want. Same thing here. So no, it’s not true that it’s, you don’t want a transactional relationship. It’s part of it. So of course you have to have a real relationship with people. People want to connect. And also people know that there is going to be a transaction. So that’s been my mindset. like charging my worth. It’s hard. And then I look at other coaches that charge 300 an hour. It’s like, okay, I don’t charge that much, but

MKJ (15:21.018)
Awesome.

RonnieLo Life Coach (15:21.733)
You know, that was my biggest struggle. That really was.

MKJ (15:25.998)
Yeah, thank you for that because that I think for all of us as we start in business, that is that is all not all probably some people probably don’t have that. Some people probably have a different relationship with money. But most of the people that I have I have talked to, whether it’s on this show or in training or in masterminds or anything, money issues are a big deal. They are they are things we have to

change in ourselves. And there was there were some exercises that were so pivotal for me, some of the questions that I would ask myself, or some of the statements that you have to, to basically finish. And I don’t remember who gave these to me. I think this was one of the sales trainers that I worked with in the past. Just just finish these statements. Not for you. I’m thinking for the audience. Finish these statements.

RonnieLo Life Coach (16:20.357)
Yeah, yeah,

MKJ (16:23.108)
People who have a lot of money are… Just finish it with the first thing that comes to your head. If I had a lot of money, I would… Right? Just finish those statements. Rich people are… Right? If I had a lot of wealth, I would… So even just changing some of those words, if you finish that statement unconsciously, just automatically finish it, then go back and ask yourself, who taught you

RonnieLo Life Coach (16:26.87)
yeah, I see what you’re

MKJ (16:53.124)
Who told you that that was true? That people with a lot of money are one of the things that I thought selfish. You know, that was what I was taught. That was what I was taught. And see, it’s what I was taught. I was taught by my mother, people who have a lot of money are selfish. And I had to look at that and go, okay, I don’t want to be selfish. Maybe that’s why I didn’t have a lot of money when I thought that. But who taught me

RonnieLo Life Coach (17:01.347)
Well, I didn’t think that, but that’s interesting that you thought that. I thought go -getters.

RonnieLo Life Coach (17:09.669)
Wow.

MKJ (17:23.086)
And why is that actually and just who taught you that? And is it true? Is it really true? No, it’s not true. No, it’s not true. People with a lot of money are not selfish. I can’t judge them as selfish. I don’t know them. So those kinds of questions, that’s how you can shift your mindset from where it is and if there are certain barriers. And I have a feeling you go through some of those similar situations of asking people questions and getting them to to look at their world a little bit differently, but with minute.

RonnieLo Life Coach (17:27.343)
Right. Right.

RonnieLo Life Coach (17:40.794)
Mm -hmm.

RonnieLo Life Coach (17:50.952)
yeah.

MKJ (17:53.723)
small, small habits. And I agree with

RonnieLo Life Coach (17:55.995)
Well, that’s just it. When we talk, when we do life coaching, I don’t tell people what to do. I’m not a consultant and we don’t go back and lie on the couch and talk to me about your childhood. I mean, we could, but it’s not therapy either. I am not a consultant. We agree on that. understand that from the get -go. A coach really gets you where you are, the change you want to make, and you propel yourself forward.

And I think I told you this when we first met, I’m like, not to sound all Yoda -ish, but you do have the answers in you because you believe things, so you have certain beliefs. You have values. What do you value in this, in that, in your life, in your business, whatever. You have your core values. So you have the answers in you. Often we change what we do from what we believe because we’re following the company, we’re following society, we’re following what our friends advise us to do, whatever it is. So go back to your core values.

And I do pull these kinds of questions and answers out of people and they really do answer themselves. And then we come up with possible actions, possible results, and they get to choose what they will do. Now I can make suggestions that they ask me to, but I do not tell people what to do. I’m no guru. I’m a coach. Just like in sports, you’re already on the team. You’re on your own team. And then the coach watches from the sideline.

takes the video, hey, come here, all right, let’s look at this video. What could you do better? What were you thinking then? What do you think about that? So I really do coach people and there’s a difference and they are amazed at how much faster they go, especially when they’re willing to, okay, I’ll give it a try. I’ll give it a go. And when they’re really honest with themselves and they answer the questions.