A Conversation with Hitch Fit’s Micah Lacerte

By: Jacob Elyachar

 Micah Lacerte can transform your life.

The WBFF (World Bodybuilding & Fitness Federation) champion and his wife, Diana Chaloux, own Hitch Fit, the world’s number one online personal training system and a 1-on-1 transformation gym in Kansas City, which has helped thousands of people from around the world change their lifestyles and bodies. In addition to his accomplishments in the online fitness world, Micah has graced the covers of countless magazines and brought the WBFF US Central Championship to Kansas City.

In this exclusive interview, Micah talked about his passion for fitness, Hitch Fit’s growth and how social media played a part of his career.

Jacob Elyachar: When did you first get into fitness?

Micah Lacerte: I first got into fitness in 1997.  I was an athlete growing up but I was really skinny.   Being skinny was something that I was really insecure about.   While I was growing up, my mom used to take me to a lot of action movies included Rocky, Kickboxer and a lot of (Jean-Claude) Van Damme films.  I looked up to those guys (Sylvester Stallone and Van Damme) and I wanted to have a body like that when I got of age.

I went to Pittsburg State University for college and I did not have a lot to do honestly.  I found my love for fitness simply because I needed something else in my life.   I was a 140 lbs. skinny kid and fast forward 16 years later, I am a WBFF (World Bodybuilding & Fitness Federation) champion, muscle model and I have been on tons of covers.  It is absolutely amazing and the one thing that I can tell anyone out there is if I (a skinny white kid from Kansas) can do it, than anyone can get to any level.

JE: How did your love of fitness lead you to the world of bodybuilding?

ML: I looked up to guys like Arnold Schwarzenegger and a lot of magazine cover models.  However, I wanted more dates as any 18-year-old boy does.  I wanted to be attractive and lose that insecurity.  When I did transform my body, I got a point where I was more focused on  “How I could make this into a business?” and “How I could make money waking up and doing this every single day?” and ultimately, I found the passion of transforming people’s lives for the better.

JE: What were some of the risks and challenges that you first faced in the first couple of months of Hitch Fit?  How did you overcome them?

ML: Diana (a two-time WBFF world champion) and I worked really hard for years to get our business where it is today.  I met my wife five years ago and we have been married for over a year-and-a-half.   When we decided to combine forces, she took her past experiences as far as the business that she tried to start and combined it with all of the ideas that I had with Hitch Fit.    We came out of the gate full steam; we have had literally no challenges at all just didn’t have a ton of money to work with so we started small and worked very hard.

JE: How do you find time to schedule a workout?

ML: Workouts have been such a staple in my life regardless if I have been really busy or a college student with a ton of time.  It’s been an acquired lifestyle and it is something regardless what I do or if we have children, workouts will always be a part of my day.   I always schedule an hour a day to workout five to six days a week.

JE: Do you expect your clients to workout that much?

ML:  Absolutely.  I do not expect anyone to be at the level of intensity that I am at, unless their goals are to get to the same type of place.  Our biggest passion in teaching during their transformations is to help them learn not only the nutrition side and the workout side, but to help them learn better choices each and every single day.   So there is a lot of life coaching aspects to the transformations as well.  The biggest thing that we expect is to follow the plan.   If you follow the plan, you are going to look and feel the best that you have ever had.  It is Life Changing!!

JE: Recently, you have made a transition from training clients one-on-one to only training clients online.  Why did you make this transition?

ML: It was a business choice. To help the business grow Diana and I could not be spending long hours inside the gym, we needed to be on the outside helping it grow and building our trainers. We also had to manage our online business that was growing rapidly.  We initially took a hit because with every change there is a transition but as the months went by it was a very important move and each year since we have seen it grow!!

JE: What are some of your proudest accomplishments that you achieved as a personal trainer?

ML: We hit over 30,000 pounds of fat loss this year (online and in person).  Diana and I started the online side of Hitch Fit four years ago and the one-on-one training three-and-a-half years ago.   When we started one-on-one training, it was just the two of us at 100-hour weeks for a year, which was really intense.   Two years ago, we started to bring a lot more trainers and currently, Hitch Fit has 11 trainers.

Once we got to a place where we were financially leveled out some, Diana and I stepped down from one-on-one training and took over training people online full-time.  By doing that, we were able to let the business grow tremendously on the online side.   Hitch Fit has globally online 3,000 clients from 70 countries.

However, our biggest struggle has been dealing with the 3,000 clients. You can imagine the amount of content that we are creating to match their personal systems.  We send out a lot of e-mails weekly, but with that level of accountability, we see some amazing results.

JE: In addition to your responsibilities with Hitch Fit, you are also a fitness model and muscle model.  How did you get interested in modeling?

ML:  I started my fitness model career in 2002.  I really loved taking pictures and working with magazines.  However, it was really difficult for me because I lived in Kansas City and most of the photographers that shot with the magazines lived in LA, New York, Chicago and Miami.  In order to work with them, I saved up some money and traveled and worked with the photographers in hopes to get into a magazine.

Around 2004 and 2005, I shot for a reality show called Manhunt.  It was America’s Next Top Model for men.  I did not fare well because I had more of a fitness model body and it was a fashion model show.  So I was eliminated fairly soon in the competition, but I met a producer through the show and he told me that I needed to get into fitness modeling.   He gave me the name of a photographer and I shot with that photographer and a couple of months later, I was on the cover of Men’s Workout.   Since that cover, I have been on over 10 covers with the magazine since then.   I have also appeared in over 100 publications worldwide too.

 

JE: You are also a Fitness Competitor. Could you talk about your first show?

ML: I did not get into competitions until 2009.   My first show was with WBFF and the real reason why I did it was I started dating my wife, Diana, and she was gung-ho about competing and Paul Dillett (the WBFF President) wanted me to be on stage in the Fitness Model category.   I had a really rough comp prep leading up to my first competition.   I had a really bad staph infection and we were trying to open the gym.  I got onstage and was not prepared or in my peak condition; I think I finished eighth that year and I was embarrassed.   The next year I came back and got fifth in the Fitness Model category then in 2011 bulked up and won the Muscle Model category and became the 1st Muscle Model World Champion for the WBFF.  It was the absolute pinnacle of my time on stage.

JE: In addition to all of your accomplishments, you and Diana have been instrumental in bringing the WBFF’s Central US Fitness Show to Kansas City.  Could you please tell my readers about the event?

ML: This will be our third year.  Diana and I have hosted the show since its inception in Kansas City.  It will be May 25 this year at the Midland by AMC.   We wanted to show a different type of competition in Kansas City because if you go to the typical bodybuilding shows, they are very similar across the organizations.  If you go see a WBFF show, it is rock meets fashion meets fitness.  This is an awesome event and we love doing it.   We expect over 200 athletes from around the globe to be on stage.  There is simply nothing like it out there.

JE: Social media has played a huge role in your career.  How has it helped your career?

ML: Without social media, my career would have not have happened.  I was a business-marketing guy with an entrepreneurial spirit.  My strengths were always creative.  I always asked myself: “How can I get here when I am in Kansas?” When I learned about social media and how it worked, I first started on MySpace, where I used my strengths in marketing to potentially build a brand.  I think I got over 60,000 friends or something on MySpace.   About a year into MySpace, I switched my name to Hitch.

Back in the day, you would put a nickname as your name on MySpace because a lot of people did it.   I did it because I thought it was funny and my best friends used to call me Hitch for different reasons.  Little did I know at that time, it would turn into a gigantic brand and day and day out, I knew I had to get more friends and post more stuff so people can see me.  I remember sending out so many bulletins daily that some people got very irritated; they had no clue why I was doing this.  Fast forward years later and the plan became reality!!  All it takes is just one person to see it and that was my attitude towards spending the time working to be seen online.

During that period of time, I got to really influence and inspire a lot of people, which is the most important thing to me.  Social media has helped me build a business but it has helped me directly and indirectly change a lot of people’s lives.

JE: What are some of your goals for Hitch Fit?

ML: Our first short-term goal is to hit 100,000 lbs. of fat lost for 2013.  We are well on our way of reaching that goal.  We have a supplement line coming out and we are going to try to have the highest quality of product in the market.  We are building a membership site as well, just so we can reach more people.

Diana and I also love doing charity work.   She does a lot of stuff in Haiti and our goal for Hitch Fit is to build an orphanage in Haiti.   We have 50 kids that we support every single month and it is just awesome.   Diana and I also do Big Brothers and Big Sisters and we have a little brother in Kansas City.  We want to give back as much as we can.   When I was growing up, I had very little and I guess I always told myself that if I would ever got to a place, where I was capable of giving more, then I would.

JE: Why should people join Hitch Fit?

ML:  Most people think Hitch Fit is just personal training.  That is just an aspect of it; Hitch Fit is a transformation system that truly customized.  It is not a P90X, it is not a DVD that you put into a player and follow, you are getting real live communication with the trainers either myself or Diana online or one-on-one attention here at Hitch Fit in Kansas City.   Clients are getting top-level education from over 20 years of experience from Diana and myself.   When it comes to transforming lives, Diana, the Hitch Fit trainers and myself are some of the best in the entire world.

JE: If you had the chance to meet with aspiring personal trainers or fitness models, what pieces of advice would you share with them?

ML: Set goals.  It is all about setting realistic goals and then setting goals that are do not seem even realistic at this point.  Diana and I took a $10,000 investment four years ago and turned it into grossing over $1,000,000 a year from Hitch Fit brand.  Anything is possible! Set goals and stepping-stones for yourself day in and day out.  Make the best choices that you possibly can with every controllable choice.  There will also be hurdles in the road and I think setbacks are what help us grow in the long-term too.  I got in a car accident and lost everything in two years, but I came back stronger because of it.   Get mentors that will help you be successful.   They do not have to be in the same industry, but should be successful, positive-minded people that will help you along your journey.

To learn more information about Hitch Fit, visit their website: http://hitchfit.com/

You can also connect with Hitch Fit on their Facebook and Twitter pages!  Also, do not forget to check out Micah’s YouTube channel!