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Jay Shetty Podcast

Fitness Coach Nimai Delgado ON: How Failure Is A Part Of Success

Are you unsure about your career path? Are you trying to build financial stability? This conversation with fitness coach Nimai Delgado offers fresh insights and valuable life lessons.

Nimai DelgadoguestJay Shettyhost

Jun 26, 20231h 3mWatch on YouTube

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CHAPTERS

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Chapter summaries

Introduction and Nimai's Morning Routine
Jay Shetty introduces Nimai Delgado and his background, then asks what keeps him happy and healthy today. Nimai describes his morning routine of waking around 6:00, water, meditation and red light, and stresses that it isn't perfect every day.
- •Nimai was raised vegetarian and became the world's first vegan IFBB professional bodybuilder, according to Jay's introduction
- •Waking with purpose and tending to himself first keeps him feeling good
- •Routine built over 10-15 years: same wake time, water, quiet meditation
- •He doesn't want to preach perfection; some mornings are 20 minutes, some five
- •Red light is used for ATP production, recovery and skin, though he says he's not an expert
Being Ashamed of Plant-Based Roots and Finding Purpose
Jay asks what Nimai set out to prove through his plant-based athletic journey. Nimai explains he was once ashamed of being vegetarian in Mississippi, embraced it in his mid-20s, and found his purpose when people asked how he won bodybuilding shows.
- •He was raised vegetarian through his parents' spiritual belief in ahimsa
- •Growing up in Mississippi, he felt withdrawn when questioned about his beliefs
- •Leaning into his beliefs in his mid-20s led to his purpose
- •Winning bodybuilding competitions made people curious and led him to teach online
- •As a child he understood that meat meant an animal would suffer, and he trusted how he felt over what others said he needed
Protein, B12 and Iron on a Plant-Based Diet
Jay asks which nutrients Nimai had to be proactive about. Nimai covers protein, B12 and iron, emphasizing education, and both men share that they went from vegetarian to plant-based overnight and would do it more gradually now.
- •Plants provide protein, and the key is educating yourself about how much you need
- •B12 is mostly supplemented and fed to animals, so supplementing is wise for anyone
- •He says up to 40% of the population has suboptimal B12
- •Iron gaps can be covered by eating a diverse range of vegetables
- •Jay would have transitioned more gradually, mindful of B12, omega-3s and iron
Growing Up in a Hare Krishna Community
Jay asks about growing up in a spiritual environment. Nimai describes his parents' conversion, their move to a Mississippi community, and feeling like an outcast both inside and outside it, which taught him compassion without judgment.
- •His parents converted from Catholicism to Hinduism in Argentina and devoted themselves to the temple
- •They immigrated to the U.S. with about $200 and lived in a spiritual community in South Mississippi
- •He went to public school and felt different from his peers
- •He felt like an outcast within the community and outside of it
- •Being judged taught him to observe others and have compassion
From Financial Anxiety to Engineering and Selling Out
Nimai explains how his family's poverty drove a desire for financial stability and an engineering career. He knew on the first day of his oil and gas job that it wasn't right, yet stayed five years.
- •The family was spiritually rich but materially poor, so money was a source of anxiety
- •He pursued mechanical engineering for security, not connection
- •He took the highest offer, in oil and gas, despite wanting renewable energy
- •He knew on day one he didn't want to do it for 40 years
- •It took five years of discomfort to build the courage to leave
Jay's ESM Decision Framework and Redefining Career
Jay shares his own sell-out story and his ESM method: energy, strategy, money. Nimai responds that he once thought passion and money were mutually exclusive and now defines a career as a profitable source of pleasure; Jay cautions against forcing everyone into entrepreneurship.
- •Jay also traded art and design for a business degree
- •ESM asks about energy first, then strategy, then money as the third metric
- •Nimai says engineering drained him and he looked for reasons to leave
- •Nimai defines a career as a profitable source of pleasure
- •Jay says doing what you love needn't mean being an entrepreneur; there is a spectrum
Escaping Through the Gym and Building a Business
Jay asks how Nimai coped during the five years. The gym was his escape and therapy, and he later used an engineering approach, building a platform with a software engineer, to make coaching financially viable.
- •The gym gave him peace and taught discipline, sacrifice and attention to detail
- •He says the contrast of a job he disliked gave him clarity
- •He partnered with a software engineer to systemize training and meal planning
- •Their first program launch earned more in a week than he made in a year as an engineer
- •He recommends a risk-averse plan and timeline rather than simply quitting
No Experience Wasted and Challenge as Growth
Jay reflects that Nimai's spiritual upbringing, engineering and fitness all combined into his work, and that no experience is wasted. Nimai adds that challenges happen for our benefit, comparing them to squats that build resilience.
- •Compassion, working out and engineering came together in Nimai's work
- •Jay says passion comes from collecting and combining experiences
- •Nimai believes experiences are called in by the soul to develop strength and perspective
- •The thing he was most ashamed of is now what he leads with
- •The gym parallels life: pushing through discomfort builds the capacity to handle more
Bodybuilding, Ego and Retiring from the Sport
Jay asks where bodybuilding came from. Nimai describes starting from insecurity and ego, growing to love training, winning his first show, going pro, then stepping away in 2018 as his identity became tied to his appearance.
- •He was the small kid growing up, so ego and insecurity played a part at first
- •He shifted to training because he loved taking care of himself
- •He won the first show he entered after someone in the gym suggested it
- •He saw a chance to show others that bodybuilders don't need animal protein
- •He retired in 2018 after attaching too much of his identity to how he looked
Validation, Online Pressure and Knowing When to Quit
Nimai explains how growing popularity exposed him to comments and a need for validation, and how being made a poster boy for veganism pushed him to reassess his message. Jay praises knowing when to quit as an underrated skill.
- •Focusing on negative comments revealed he was seeking validation
- •Ego shows up in new, trickier ways once you become aware of it
- •He was pedestalized by the vegan movement and pulled into online arguments
- •He wanted to lead with compassion and avoid being polarizing
- •Jay says we celebrate how long people do something rather than how quickly they let go of what no longer serves
Coaching with Compassion: Slipping Up Isn't Giving Up
Asked what he's learned coaching high performers, Nimai says coaching is about helping clients discover their own power. Jay shares his experience being trained by Nimai and a contrasting golf coach, and Nimai explains meeting people where they are and that failure is part of the formula for success.
- •Coaching is about helping clients uncover the power within them, and language reveals beliefs
- •Jay says Nimai's training was supportive and helped him break mental blocks
- •Jay's golf coach, who corrected every half swing, left him feeling criticized
- •Nimai starts with small incremental changes and self-compassion
- •Using a child and a calculus problem as an example, he says slipping up and giving up are different
Process Over Outcome, Reflection and Inner Mastery
Jay says fitness is really inner mastery, and Nimai urges focusing on the process and intrinsic motivation, noting many forms of fitness exist. They close by discussing reflection versus overthinking and listening to your inner knowing.
- •Fitness is an internal journey of overcoming the inner critic
- •Motivation based only on results will tank if they don't arrive on time
- •Intrinsic motivation comes from the feeling of being at home in your body
- •Fitness can be tennis, hiking, biking or paddleboarding rather than just the gym
- •Jay distinguishes reflecting from overthinking; Nimai finds stillness in movement
Final Five and Closing
Jay runs the Final Five questions: Nimai's best and worst fitness advice, his purpose, something he no longer values, and his one law. Jay then wraps up the episode and thanks Nimai.
- •Best fitness advice: be consistent
- •Worst fitness advice: that you have to go to a gym to get fit
- •His purpose is to inspire people to lead with more compassion
- •He no longer values the amount of weight lifted and urges lifting with intention rather than ego
- •His one law would be to be kind to others and accept people where they are

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