Month: January 2026

When I first heard the news that Joe DeFranco and Jim Smith were bringing back the SB911 Transformation Contest, it made me pretty happy.

It brought back memories of 2015 when I won the inaugural contest they ran when they pre-released the program on the DeFranco Insider. I’ve written about that plenty already, though.

I heard the news on Joe’s podcast in December when I was driving up to my dad’s house in Pennsylvania. It was gray and cold out and I had a long drive ahead of me, so I really started thinking about how that contest completely changed the course of my training journey.

And I mean completely.

My life would be entirely different if I didn’t win that contest. If I didn’t win the contest, you wouldn’t be seeing any posts on this site because it wouldn’t exist. I wouldn’t have a gym in the basement and wouldn’t have met all the great people I’ve been fortunate to meet in this industry.

Not only did that contest reshape entirely the way I view and approach training, but it’s the reason I’m still actually coaching. It’s a lot to process, so I boiled it down to three main points.

2015 SB911 CONTEST RESULTS

1-GOAL SETTING/VISUALIZATION

People that know me now know that I always set training goals. When I say out loud what my goal is, you know I’m going to do everything in my power to reach it.

That wasn’t always the case until I completed the SB911 program in 2015. The main reason I entered this contest wasn’t to look better, but it was to meet Joe and Smitty. See, one of the prizes for finishing in the top three of the contest was a one-hour consultation with them. There were so many people in the contest and I didn’t know what I was up against. I didn’t care about winning, I just wanted to place in the top three.

This was my opportunity to change my whole training career around and actually make something of myself. I was determined to reach this goal. But, as we all know, not every day is going to be perfect, especially over the course of 12 weeks. There will be pot holes that will try to derail progress. In the past, they would have gotten the best of me.

This time they didn’t. I continue to use the visualization strategy to this day. The rough patches don’t affect me like they once did. I’ve conquered them before and I know I will beat them again. I always keep my eye on the prize.

Whenever things were about to turn south, I just visualized myself at the end of the program. That end date is going to come whether I work for it or not. I didn’t want to live with regret. I kept thinking about how proud I would feel at the end knowing I did everything possible to succeed and how much fun it would be talking to Joe and Smitty.

2-MORE FOCUSED TRAINING

I ran programs and trained before the contest, but it was aimless. I never really had a big goal to shoot for and kind of went through the motions. I’d take more time off than I should have and never consistently stuck to a diet. I worked out, but I didn’t look like I trained.

The SB911 Contest forced me to see the whole process completely through and, for the first time, not stop when the roadblocks came. There was no way out. I had to do it or else my opportunity would be gone.

Once I saw the results at the end of the program, it completely changed everything. Being the strongest I’ve ever been and seeing definition that I never had before showed me what was possible. I believed everything I read online and set boundaries for how successful I could be training. This showed me that anything is possible if you put in the work.

I didn’t want to settle and wanted more. Every year since then, I’ve tried to see how far I could push things and strived for better and better. The intensity of my workouts was harder. There was more focus. I wanted to be better than I was the previous year. I wanted to see how much leaner and stronger I could get.

This led to me reaching out to Dr. Tom Bilella for nutritional advice, then Justin Kavanaugh for more training, then Scott Mendelson and, most recently, Ben Mayfield-Smith.

I used to think 10% body fat was a pipe dream. Now it’s something I shoot for each year. This focus wouldn’t have been possible without winning the contest. If I didn’t follow through, I would have seen it as the same old Charlie and probably stayed out of shape.

I definitely wouldn’t have been taking my shirt off at the pool.

Joe even got me tanning. One of the funny notes is made on his post when I won is that I was the only person to be less tan in an after photo. I have been consciously making sure that never happens again.

3-KEPT ME IN COACHING

I was approaching a crossroads in my coaching career before I started the contest. I was a trainer for about a year-and-a-half and didn’t have many clients. My main goal was to work with young athletes and I wasn’t getting any. My physique wasn’t changing and if I couldn’t get myself into shape, how was I going to help anyone else? My confidence was low.

I saw the opportunity to have a consultation with Joe and Smitty as my way to prove to myself that I was actually serious about becoming a coach. This was my chance to meet two coaches I looked up to and I couldn’t let it slip away. If this didn’t work out, I didn’t know what else I would do.

I was down on myself before the contest, but slowly started gaining confidence as I was seeing results with the program. Then, after I completed the program and took my pictures in June, I was proud of myself. They wouldn’t announce the results until October, but I felt like I did everything I needed to do to put myself in position to reach the top three. I started getting some compliments on how I looked and started to believe in myself.

With my confidence higher, I reached out to Joe during one of his weekly “Power Hour” Q & A’s to ask him about any seminars he would be speaking at. I always heard that you needed to go to these events to really learn how to coach and I knew he wouldn’t steer me wrong. I also got the confidence to ask because he had become more familiar with me after I spammed his Twitter and Instagram with my SB911 updates.

He told me was speaking at the SWIS Symposium in Canada, which was run by Dr. Ken Kinakin. Joe raved about the event, saying it was a must to attend. I didn’t realize I would be going to the seminar of seminars that featured all of the best coaches in the world. I haven’t missed a SWIS event since then.

SWIS 2015 was an eye-opener for me and very overwhelming. As crazy as it was for a first-timer, I still got a lot out of it by meeting Justin Kavanaugh. Kav, basically, took me under his wing, introducing me to the best coaches, showing me how pros train and putting me in rooms and giving me opportunities well above my pay grade. I was also able to use the money I won from the contest to sign up for Joe and Smitty’s live CPPS course.

All of these things helped accelerate my learning and put me on the fast-track to becoming a better coach without any of the educational pitfalls that most have to go through. My clientele grew and I truly believed that I could make it as a coach.

If I didn’t win this contest, none of this would have happened. I would have never been exposed to this world of training and would have eventually flamed out.

I have to preface this post by saying this is for athletes who are very serious about their sport and have very high goals. If you think it’s too much, I truly understand and that’s not a slight. This level of commitment isn’t for everyone.

Now, for those that are serious, I just want to give you a glimpse into where my views and expectations grew from.

We’ve all gone to some type of sporting event or show as general admission where you pay for a ticket and just sit with the crowd. Once in a while, probably through some sort of connection, we get blessed with the VIP treatment and seats. We can all agree when you get that experience once, it completely changes your view of general admission.

That’s what happened to me early in my training career. It completely reshaped how I view training and my expectations from it.

About two years into my career, I got my first invite to Virginia to watch Justin Kavanaugh work with his pros. That one weekend turned into years of watching the all-day, everyday process of watching one of the best coaches in the world work with his Olympic and NFL athletes.

After experiencing that in-person, the game completely changed for me. I got to see what went into high-level coaching and performance and it was extensive. Every day, from morning until night, I got to see the performance process that encompassed everything from nutrition, rehab, mental, stretching and mobility, lifting, position-specific skill work, speed and agility and beyond. No stone was left unturned.

When millions of dollars are on the line, the attention to detail is always present and the focus on every rep of every movement is laser-sharp. There’s no slacking off. There’s no time for it.

Seeing all of this showed me what’s possible when everything is dialed in. It showed me what the expectations are for me as a coach and what I should expect from an athlete who is serious.

I also learned what the grind really is. You see people talking about the grind every day and I wonder how many people really understand it. The grind isn’t a post with a shaky personal record, a workout or a practice. Training and practicing with your team are the minimum requirement for someone who considers themself to be serious about athletics. I also get parents who tell me their kids are serious about sports and the effort doesn’t match what I was told.

Now, I mostly work with teenagers. They see this and say, “I can’t train all day like a pro because I have to go to school.” I understand. I’m not saying you need to workout for six hours a day. But, if you’re serious, you can adopt that mindset of a pro. That means taking care of everything you can control, while also making sure you’re keeping up with your school work and pulling solid grades.

The grind is every day and it doesn’t stop. The grind isn’t one hard workout or a long day. The grind is doing what you need to do consistently, even when you don’t want to or feel like it.

The grind is making sure you’re eating properly and doing the necessary recovery work everyday. It’s getting those stretching and mobility drills done on your own time. It’s working on your skills outside of team practices. It’s being consistent with your training and not missing sessions.

The grind is majoring in the minor details where you treat the small exercises and drills with the same focus as the big ones. It’s not skipping the smaller things because you don’t find them to be as important. It’s making sure you do everything you need to do to be the best athlete you can while maintaining good grades. You can’t use your preparation as an excuse not to work hard in class.

You’re going to have to make sacrifices and it will be hard.

People will say that’s too much. Like I said, that’s OK and this post doesn’t apply to you. But, if you have big goals, this is the price of doing business. Your effort has to match your aspirations.