The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
From Broken Ankle to $100K Months — How Ted Stern Turned Police Work Into a Fitness Empire
11 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Wow.
You thought you were the man.
You're like, dude. Yeah. I'm like, we just made dollars in one day, babe. I was in law enforcement for 11 years. I was on the job and I snapped my ankle. That's when I started to put more time into Fit Responder, which is my online fitness coaching business for first responders. I was already doing that on the side.
I just put more effort into social media, finding clients, learning business, and things just exploded. We had more clients than we knew what to do with. I was making more money than I was as a cop. And that's when I started to think, You know what? I'm not going to go back to work. I made six grand in a day. And I remember telling my wife, I'm like, this is going to change her life.
Hey guys, and welcome back to Love Love Podcast. This is Paul Alex. And today we have another guest. Who? shares similar backgrounds as me, guys. All right, he's a former police officer, now turned fitness enthusiast. I wanna welcome Ted to the show. Ted, how you doing, my man?
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Chapter 2: How did a broken ankle lead to a career change for Ted Stern?
Hey, Paul. Good, how are you? Thanks for having me. This is super cool. Dude, how's Miami? It's humid. I'm from Utah. Well, originally from Southern California, but Utah is super dry. And when I got off the plane here, I'm like instantly soaked in sweat.
Yeah, yeah.
And I am sweating now.
Yeah. No, completely different. I mean... Mind you, dude, when people come in, they're like, there's a lot of lights in here, bro. It's a little bit too light. But hopefully the AC hits you, dude. And, you know, we have a comfortable conversation. So, Ted, you jumped into the online space directly from law enforcement. Or actually, you know what? Let's go ahead and get started. Law enforcement.
When did you start? How long were you in law enforcement? And then what would you say was the biggest game changer that happened to you during your years of service? Wow.
Yeah, that's a great question. So I started in 2010. I was just turning 21. I was in law enforcement for 11 years. I did a bunch of different assignments, not far from where you were. You were in L.A., right?
I was in Oakland.
Oh, you were in Oakland? Sorry, my bad. So I was in Ventura County. I don't know why I thought L.A., but I was in Ventura County, Southern California. Did a bunch of different assignments. It was a great career. The reason why I got started is I was going to be a lawyer. I was on track to do that. And I didn't grow up in the best household.
I'm not going to say it was terrible, but my mom had run-ins with cops. And any time she would act up or – You know, I was scared whatever like cops would come and they were like a source of comfort for me. I'm like, oh, thank God the cops are here.
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Chapter 3: What mindset shifts are necessary for first responders to succeed in business?
But I officially pulled the plug in 2021. So I healed up, I went back to work for a little bit.
So you were doing it as a side hustle while you were just healing up with your ankle and you were on medical leave? Yes. Yeah, you were on medical leave. So dude, that's actually very similar to my story. Back in, you know, 2019. Well, except I got in trouble over some shit.
No, but I got in trouble and then I got sat down and I was just like, dude, I got to do something else to stimulate my mind. Right. Yeah. So did you always know about digital marketing or like, is this something that you just like you were researching? Like how did that come about?
Yeah, my wife and I had done a bodybuilding show, amateur, and we had a fitness coach, you know, and he was coaching me through it. And not to throw shade at him, but I honestly thought I could probably do this better if I was a coach. Like, you know, just seeing some of the things he did with me, I'm like, I could be a better coach than this.
And my wife and I already had backgrounds as personal trainers previously. So I was like, babe, why don't we do some fitness coaching? And she's like, no one's going to want to work with us. We're not professional bodybuilders. Come on. So I had a website made for 500 bucks. She's like, this is a waste of money. I love telling this story, by the way, because I keep telling her.
Limited beliefs, dude. It happens, right? What's your wife's name?
Emily.
Shout out, Emily. But no, it's a great story because it's as real as it gets. Most people are like, well, how'd you get started? Well, it all started where we had a dream, right? No, dude, you got to be real.
Right. Yeah. Yeah. So she, what she's like, fine, do whatever you want to do. Go ahead. And you know, at first I'm charging pennies, like 50, 150 bucks. And I remember, um, I brought on 10 clients in one day, uh, with a black Friday deal at 150 bucks a piece. So I'm like, Wow.
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Chapter 4: Why is niching down crucial for fitness coaches?
No, it's very, very possible, guys. I mean, Alex Ramosi, one of the biggest digital marketers right now, he did $100 million in a day, right? And people think it was just off books. But realistically, I like to call it an undercover funnel, meaning that, yes, the books was the front of it, but on the back end is the masterminds. It's the upsells. It's the processes. Right.
But I like your thought process, Ted, because you're like, dude, what you don't know is what you don't know, right? Like, how are you supposed to go ahead and sell a fitness offer if everybody around you has the limiting belief that number one, it's not gonna work. Number two, you can't sell it for 3K.
I think I had the same conversation with my health coach that helped me trim down, dude, last year or this year where I was like, dude, you know you could sell this for like six, seven grand what I just paid. And he's just like, there's no way, bro. There's no way. People won't pay. Oh, yeah. Dude, he actually – I had him move to Puerto Rico 60 days ago to be mentored by me.
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Look at what you can do to make your Windows experience better. You can find out more at twit.tv slash H-O-W. Dude, he's been continuous 30K months for the first time ever in his life. He's just like, what did you do? I was just like, kept you accountable. And I was just like, hey, did you generate anything today? And that just every day, dude, is just keeping him accountable, right?
But to go back to your story, man, did you ever end up investing with Tanner?
Later on, later, later, I had his ads team run my ads for a period of time. But no, I found another business coach at the time, someone I just kind of click resonated with, right? Watched his social media stuff. And he, I mean, that was huge. It was a 13K investment. It was 15K, but I got a cash discount because we actually lived close enough. So I
brought in 13K and within a couple of months, I went from $20,000, $30,000 months to $100,000 plus months. I'm going to not give him a shout out because he's changed. Honestly, he went through some mental health stuff and I don't want to throw shade at him, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't support him or recommend him now. It is what it is. But at the time it was a great investment for me.
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Chapter 5: How can accountability reshape your life and business?
And I was with her for seven years throughout my 20s, bro. And I reflect back on all this, dude. Now you get to a certain stage in life. You have family. You have kids. You're able to buy whatever it is that you want. But now the purpose is not even the money anymore. It's more purpose, dude. It's just like, okay, how can I get to the next level just because, right?
It's the principle behind it, right? So for you, did you have like – I guess, those experiences with people?
Oh, yeah. I mean, I don't know about you, but at work, especially, you know, when I would tell people like, oh, I started this online fitness.
Oh, dude, they're like, what scam did you start?
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it's just, you know. Oh, so you're trying to be an influencer and people making fun. And especially back then in 2019, 2020, you know, TikTok was hot.
You know, people are like, oh, you're going to do it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I'm like, I'm not doing it for the clout or to try to be like Insta famous. I'm not trying. It's for my business. Like social media is a tool. We've talked about this. But yeah, I mean, so many negative naysayers. Oh, you know, that's not going to work. Oh, especially when I decided to actually leave the job. People are like, oh, but you're gonna lose your pension. Why are you doing this?
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Chapter 6: What are the fitness warning signs that first responders often ignore?
But you went directly online, which is fire.
Yeah.
Right? Yeah. What would you say is the couple of needle movers, Ted, that took you from those 20, 30K months to 100K month in the fitness coaching?
Oh, that's, yeah, that's a good question. Um, you know, learning, man, it's hard to pick out like the one or two things. We're always looking for that. What's, what's the big thing. It's a lot of little things too. I mean, it's just like improving the processes on, on a lot of different fronts. Like, okay.
Being intentional with my social media posting, you know, I learned from my business coach at the time that every post has a purpose. So if you're posting, think, is it to show my clients that I'm credible? Is it to bring followers because it's entertaining? Is it to, you know, share my story so I'm relatable? Is it to, you know, show my offer so people know that, you know, I'm selling something?
There's that. And then learning sales skills, learning how to grow and build a team. You know, I mean, that was a huge jump. Probably one of the biggest needle movers. As you know, it's scary to delegate. You take your baby, this thing. It's your baby. Yeah. You know, and it's like, OK, like, just represent us well, please. But that was huge, too, because my wife and I were maxed out on clients.
And, you know, even when I was off work and I was doing it full time, so to speak. we couldn't take anymore. I mean, there was people who wanted to join the program and I couldn't even service them. So I'm like, okay, like let's get some coaches on my team. Let's get some people to help, a virtual assistant, all that. And that's just, yeah, things started taking off massively then.
I think the niche helps, you know, because as you know, like cops tend to be skeptical people. We do like to work with our own a lot of the time. I mean, I think a lot of first responders appreciate that I'm gonna understand their schedule, their stressors, their lifestyle. So that was huge as well. I think the COVID boost was helpful for us.
I mean, you've probably heard a lot of businesses didn't do well during COVID, but some took off. And I think for us, people didn't have the gym membership a lot. So like, okay, now I'm, I guess I should work out at home. Oh, here's this, you know, this online fitness program. They're not looking at in-person trainers, a lot of different factors altogether, I think helped us blow up then.
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Chapter 7: Why is investing in yourself the best decision for growth?
I mean, look at what other successful people are doing, but also invest in a business coach by, by that. I mean, cause when you put skin in the game, you're going to take it more seriously. A good, a good business coach or consultant is gonna, is not going to be cheap. So prepare to spend five, 10, plus thousand dollars.
And the way I look at that too is like, if you scoff at that, I would never spend 10 grand on a business coach. Yeah, but I'm sure you would and probably did spend more on your wedding, on a wedding ring, on a vacation, on your fast food bill during the year. you're spending that money somewhere. So why not invest in yourself in a way that's gonna reap humongous returns later?
And as we were talking about your program with the credit card processing machines, I mean, they invest a little upfront and make that back and then some and then some and then some. So it's like, Why wouldn't you? And again, it comes down to skepticism, limiting beliefs, negativity.
But I mean, hopefully people listening to this podcast and networking with other successful people will realize what's actually possible for them.
No, it's huge, man, and I loved everything that you said. I resonate with that.
It's a longevity play, and I always tell people it's just like you can never lose money by investing in yourself because at the end of the day, from everyone that I've invested in, from mentors to conferences to courses to books, I take a piece of every little aspect of what I've learned throughout the years, and, dude, I make it my own. And I always tell people this. I didn't reinvent the wheel.
I didn't. I'm not freaking Jeff Bezos. I'm not Elon Musk, dude. I literally just went to somebody who is highly successful in what they do and literally asked them for them to mentor me. And I pay them a lot of money. And guys, but it's the same thing. You want to charge a lot of money? Guess what? They're going to ask you, have you ever spent 5, 10, 15, whatever amount for coaching?
And if you haven't, How does that come off, right? When you're trying to charge people. You're asking people to pay you, but you're not willing to pay yourself. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. And I met quite a few people like that, man, where I'm just like, how does that even make sense, right? And this time, guys, you got to think about it like this.
For majority of coaches, because now you're starting to see quite a few people in the online space, right? In different industries. To me... If a coach who is validated, who is legit, who can actually bring results, isn't charging high enough, I think they're a scam. I'm like, dude, you're only charging how much and you're going to give me what type of results?
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Chapter 8: What strategies can help first responders build a winning culture?
So I've always been a big believer. to find smarter people than myself to rent certain sections of my business, right? The finances, the operations, the revenue, right? So, no, I agree with you on that, man. Is that a trait that you came into the business world with from law enforcement or did you learn that beforehand?
The trait of delegating? Yeah. I think I mostly learned it from, I mean, probably from some law enforcement experience, but I didn't really trust it in business till my business coach at the time was like, You got to do it. You got to just hire people. You can't do it all. Yeah. But, you know, in 23 and when we were doing the best and the biggest, you know, I think I had 25 people on my team.
Yeah. But now I think seven or eight. Yeah. Because we've streamlined a lot. You know, you learn over time that like maybe it doesn't need two people to do this job type deal and whatnot. But yeah, culture is really important. And, you know, I did hear that. I don't know if you agree with this or not, but I heard this quote that said,
expect people that work for you to do 75% as well as you could do it. Oh yeah. I agree with that. I will say there are things that I, that people do better than me. Like, like the nice culture relationship stuff, I would say running the ads, actually doing the ads, not, not, not my forte. So anyone I hire pretty much is going to do better than me. But in general, you know,
This may sound bad, but I think if you delegate, expect people to not do as good in a lot of ways, which is hard. But if you start at a high enough standard for yourself, like, and, and that's, I would say I do like really shoot for excellence, like not, not, not a hundred percent, but like a thousand percent, like do the best, then they're 75% will still be excellent, you know?
So I don't remember the original question, but yeah.
No, no. It's more talking about, you know, where'd you learn that skill of delegation and becoming a leader, right? Because I feel like, especially in digital marketing, dude, I mean, majority of your employees, are they remote? Yes. Yeah. I think that's harder within itself. You know, we were talking about how this Miami office I'm having my entire sales organization moving here in December.
But for a reason, right? Because I see the trends, right? Why certain months are slower than other months. Well, okay. All right. They're not taking as many calls. Oh, the dollars are not dialing as many calls. Oh, okay. Why is it inconsistent? And what ends up happening, dude, even with performers, right? Because I've always considered myself decently good at things that I do.
um we're human dude sometimes we need encouragement sometimes we need to be around other performers in order to stay at the top of the game right do you agree with that yes yeah i mean that cliche saying that you are like the i don't know what they say six or seven people you surround yourself but absolutely true whether remotely or not but like i think in person is better because we have that human connection you're seeing them eye to eye huge um
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