You hear it all the time and can see it all around you: Obesity is on the rise, bringing with it a host of unwelcome diseases and complications. Physical activity and healthy eating are becoming the exception, not the norm. We're digging ourselves into a hole that has no precedent in human history, and where we go from here is frightening to imagine.
Is there an answer? There is, but it's a hard one to swallow. America—and increasingly, the rest of the world—needs more than a dietary silver bullet. It needs more than just exercise. It needs a transformation.
Bill Phillips & Ryan DeLuca Titans Of Transformation
Watch The Video - 13:49
At Bodybuilding.com, we like to think we know a little about transformations: what makes them work, and—just as important—what makes them last. Thousands of our readers and customers have successfully changed the way they live, and we relish the opportunity to profile them daily on our site.
Bill Phillips knows about transformation, too. The author of "Body for Life" and originator of its namesake challenge has helped countless people change their lives over the last 20-plus years.
Along the way, he also helped to inspire a young Ryan DeLuca, Bodybuilding.com's founder and CEO.
It was only natural, then, that the two should one day meet up and compare notes about their shared passion for self-improvement. Late last year at our headquarters, they did just that.
Meet the Titans
Vital Stats
Name: Ryan DeLuca
Born: December 9, 1977
Location: Boise, ID
Resume: Founder and CEO, Bodybuilding.com, creator and original member of BodySpace.
Ryan DeLuca
Vision
"We have this big opportunity, and I believe we can do it by changing lives—and become the best tool for fitness success that's ever been created."
Breakthrough moment
"In the beginning, it was all about bodybuilding and competition. Then we started to talk to our users, and we realized that they didn't want to compete. They didn't really want to become a professional bodybuilder. But they wanted to learn, and they wanted to transform."
Business philosophy
"Do something that you're passionate about. If you start a business to make money, you won't. If you start a business to create something that has value to other people, magically the money starts to come in."
Vital Stats
Name: Bill Phillips
Born: September 23, 1964
Location: Denver, Colorado
Resume: Author of the best-seller "Body for Life," as well as "Eating for Life" and "Transformation." Founder and former editor-in-chief of "Muscle Media" magazine. Former CEO, Experimental and Applied Sciences. Creator of the Body for Life Challenge. Member of the Fitness Hall of Fame.
Bill Phillips
Vision
"My passion was making the esoteric knowledge of bodybuilding exoteric, taking it out of the inner circle, and making it available to other people."
Breakthrough moment
"I was writing a muscle magazine and writing booklets, and you're writing as if your market is the big bodybuilders and the guys who are competing. I went to a bodybuilding contest, and the guys and gals who were watching the show … I saw that whether they get onstage or not, they wanted to do that. So I turned around and started to talk to them."
Business philosophy
"You've got to be passionate about something, and to be resilient, because you're going to fail a lot in business. You have to be resilient and passionate, because money won't get you there."
Stay tuned to Bodybuilding.com for more inspirational and instructional content with Bill Phillips in the coming months!
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