Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Burgett.
Hi Scott, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Rewind back to 2013. I’m fresh out of college, moved back to Arizona from Washington state, and starting in the world of working for myself. I graduated with a degree in Exercise Science and wanted to become a professional strength coach in the NFL. I played football my whole life, through college, and felt that was my calling. To help athletes perform at high levels. After working a couple of odd jobs right out of school, I landed a small role as a performance coach for the Seattle Mariners baseball team.
And during that time, I was first exposed to plant-based eating after watching a documentary in 2014. At the time, I didn’t think anything much other than, “that seems interesting, but it’s not for me.” A year goes by and I realize that I felt unfulfilled in my personal life. Working in professional sports was fun but also exhausting, with very little pay. So I decided to switch gears and landed a job at a bank as a Wellness Administrator in San Antonio, TX. My girlfriend at the time and I picked up our life and hauled our things across half the country to Texas.
During my time at this job, I really started taking a greater interest in health and documentaries started to become really popular on Netflix. In particular, docs about plant-based eating and veganism. I started to take more of a liking to them because I resonated with the message: take care of yourself, the planet and the animals.
It was April of 2016, and I started to experiment more with plant-based eating. I’d pack a mason jar salad for my lunch at work but started to swap my chicken for chickpeas. I’d start small at just one meal for a couple of weeks, then two, and so on and so forth until all meals were plant-based. Then my dinners became more plant-based and so did my breakfast choices. I felt great and was having a lot of fun with this new way of eating. And during one night I’ll never forget in January 2017, my wife and I were watching the critically acclaimed documentary Cowspiracy. I remember vividly I was washing the dishes in our two-bedroom apartment, my wife Cally was on the couch, and the scene came on the TV that showed the fate of baby male chickens.
I’ll spare you the details, but it’s horrific. Tears rolling down the both of faces and a sense of horror, I paused the documentary, looked at Cally and said: “we’re done”, making an “X” with my hands. And swinging them down to my sides. That night, we chose to go vegan, cleared out our fridge and pantry of all animals products and started fresh the next day.
As I dove into the lifestyle, I decided to start a food blog called plantbasedscotty.com. My intention from this was to share how delicious eating vegan can be and the amazing health benefits of a plant-based diet. The first year was heavily focused on recipes and blog writing on health topics. But as I kept creating, my itch for fitness returned. And because community is so important for fitness, my wife and I moved to Austin.
I had started a new job as a Wellness Coordinator for Whole Foods and continued to build my blog. Fitness started to become more of a front seat, and I was brainstorming ways to include it in my content. Coaching kept coming to mind, so I took the initiative and started coaching people I worked with at Whole Foods on the side. And as I grew more excited about the opportunity, I received the worst news of my life. I was fired.
It felt terrifying in the moment as my wife and I just bought a condo a couple of months prior. We were now a one-income household barely hanging above water. And after the sting of the firing wore off, two days later, I went into action mode. I started sourcing ways to make money in the interim just to keep us afloat when a friend reached out to me and told me about this program he was in. He said that he was able to build an online coaching program and thrive. I found that idea a bit farfetched as I was new to the online coaching space, but trusted his word. One month after that conversation, my life changed forever.
I made the largest financial investment I’ve ever made into a mentor who would teach me how to build an online coaching program. I had an emergency savings fund that I used to make the initial investment that was supposed to cover the job loss but was now at risk. At that point, I made it my mission to make this work and today, over three and a half years later, Evolution Vegan Academy has helped over 350 vegans in 23 different countries across the world. And I feel like we are just getting started.
We are a team of six that is continuously growing to help serve more vegans to help them lose up to 20 lbs in their first four months without sacrificing the food they love. I’m incredibly proud of my team for the work we do. We transform the lives of our clients and the generations they impact too. Looking back, taking the leap of faith, and making an investment in myself was the catalyst to making my dreams come true. Which is helping vegans reach their highest potential and create a lifestyle they love.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. It’s been the most challenging journey I’ve ever embarked on; while also being the most rewarding too.
Building a business is not easy. There are so many moving parts that sometimes it feels overwhelming to try and keep them working efficiently. And when I don’t, they break. One of the biggest challenges is creating systems in my business. More specifically, repeatable instructions my team can use to execute. After three years in business, I finally feel I’m gaining traction with the systems in my business.
Also, dealing with people can be challenging at times. Especially when communication gets muddled or misinterpreted. I’ve found that the only way I can continue to be successful in my business is if I look at every ‘negative’ outcome and ask myself, “what can I learn from this?” This has helped me continue to evolve for my clients and my team members.
Overall, the biggest challenge that will always be number one is how I respond during tough times. Your mind is always ‘on’ when it comes to your business. And that can be detrimental at times because you tend to hyper-focus on the problems. And while problem-solving is necessary, too much focus can bring down your confidence. So learning how to adapt in this area has been instrumental in our success.
As you know, we’re big fans of Evolution Vegan Academy. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We help vegans lose up to 20 lbs in their first four months without sacrificing the food they love. We specialize in fat loss and teaching our clients how to keep the results they created through a lifestyle approach.
In other words, we are building the next generation of vegan leaders in multiple industries around the world. They learn how to take care of themselves and reach their own goals so that they have the ability to replicate that in their life and career.
Our leadership and mindset focus sets us apart from all other programs. When I do interviews with my clients, a reoccurring theme I hear is “the physical results are great, but the shift in my mindset is what has been most valuable.”
I am most proud of serving vegans in 23 different countries. That’s almost 12% of all the countries in the entire world. Our program knows no borders.
I’d like your readers to know that if they are vegan (or willing to eat a vegan/plant-based diet) and want to get in shape while becoming a better leader for their family, friends, team members, or anyone else in their inner circle, we want to help! Please follow me on IG @coachscottyb_ and @evolutionveganacademy to learn more and on Tik Tok @coachscottyb_.
Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
They say, “follow your passion” and “do what you love.” And while there is truth to that, I say “do what you love in a way that helps you AND others thrive.”
If you love what you do but constantly struggling to make ends meet, you won’t ever reach your highest potential. Find a way to deliver a skill that you genuinely enjoy, but in a way that meets your goals too. I am a big believer that if you consistently grow and reach higher for your own goals, you will be able to impact others at a higher level too. There is enough abundance in this world for everyone.
More specifically on mentorship, hire a mentor who has the results you want that can teach you how to do what they do. Mentorship has changed my life forever. I drained my emergency savings account to pay my mentor and that lit a fire under my butt to get to work. Hard work is part of the equation, but working hard on the right thing is more important.
The things that worked best for me are: hiring mentors (multiple at different points in my journey), finding a community of others who have similar goals as me, accountability through coaching and self-tracking seeking out opportunities to add value to others and asking for what I want.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.evolutionveganacademy.com/apply
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/coachscottyb_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scott.burgett13/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@coachscottyb_
Image Credits
Girl flexing is Kortnie, a mom of one, who lost 25 lbs and built abs The other girl is Tori, Director of Marketing at a bank, lost 33 lbs and received a promotion to her current position as Director The man is Darin, he lost 90 lbs with us, and also received an unexpected promotion on the spot
