GETTING FIT MADE ME A MILLIONAIRE!
Howhe beefedup his profile!
When Josef Rakich looks at the sleek green sports car in the driveway of his West Auckland home, he can’t help but smile.
In 11 years, Josef has transformed himself from a skinny 16-year-old college dropout working in a freezer for his parents’ food-packaging firm to a social-media success and a self-made millionaire with rippling muscles.
In a true rags-to-riches tale, Josef, 28, is the man behind a global self-titled fitness movement that he boasts has 100,000 international clients, and that has earnt him four million followers across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
Sitting down between his two favourite women – Mum Sandra and girlfriend Maryam Matti – he tells Woman’sDay, “I dropped out of school because the only subject I passed was PE. I was a teenage skateboarder visiting car yards because I loved supercars and had a crazy dream I’d own a Lamborghini one day.”
Josef spent his days dreamily looking at a photo he kept of an orange Lamborghini Gallardo and wondering how he’d raise over $100,000 from his “terrible freezer job” to buy it. He laughs, “I used to sit at the traffic lights in my Mitsubishi Legnum, pretending I had Lamborghini paddle shifts. Every single day, I imagined myself driving that supercar.”
Then one day in 2007, his mum won a gym pass, which she handed over to Josef. “I started chatting to mates from school there and it became more of a social thing, so I joined,” he recalls.
Bodyblitz
It didn’t take long for Josef to discover that fitness was his true passion. As he lifted weights, he noticed his body changing, motivating him to create his own diet and workout plan. Eventually, he went on to qualify as a personal trainer through the International Sports Science Association.
As his physique was transforming, Josef posted updates on bodybuilding forums. Before he knew it, he had a following, making it easier to cope with the rigid, mundane diet that included a whole rotisserie chicken each day. Josef credits strict eating for helping him transform from 61kg to the buff 91kg he is now.
After receiving inquiries about his regime, Josef was soon selling his meal plans and exercise programmes on the forum. “No-one out there was offering it online, so it took off,” he grins.
In 2012, he left his role as a personal trainer to focus on his burgeoning web business, launching the Josef Rakich Fitness brand. By 2013, at 23, Josef had purchased his first supercar, his dream $140,000 orange Lamborghini.
The green version was a birthday gift to himself in November. “I look at it as the law of attraction because I’d visualised my goal,” he says.
Josef adds he didn’t just sit back and hope success would come to him. “I put up a lot of valuable content online and made sure I was consistent,” he notes. “Even now, I won’t go to sleep until there’s
something up on all of my social-media channels.”
Today, with his website gathering 2000 online weekly inquiries and the brand relying on a team of 12 staff, Josef’s 30-day and 12-week body transformation programmes are used around the world.
But Josef is not the only success story here. His Iraqi girlfriend Maryam, 28, is a social-media sensation in her own right, after documenting her 18kg weight loss on Instagram and gaining 22,000 followers. Once an overweight teen, she tried every fad diet before finding the gym. “Like Josef, I became addicted to fitness and realised I was pretty good at it,” she says.
Having witnessed her body transformation online, Josef got in touch and after months of bonding over their shared passion for fitness, they finally met at a health expo. He laughs, “It took six months for her to say yes to a date with me, but I finally took her to a restaurant and we talked for hours. We both knew then that we’ll get married one day.”
That was just over three years ago. Maryam laughs, “Some people say opposites attract, but I don’t believe that’s the case.”
Josef – who now has the bank balance, the body and the beauty – also recently launched a brand of vitamin supplements and, together with his brother Deen, 21, he’s started a streetwear range, Rakich Supply Co.
He credits his parents with his success. “Dad’s helped with my finances and investments – and I’m grateful he and Mum never forced me to study when I didn’t want to because it allowed me to have a healthy relationship with learning and work.
“Instead, I was learning about the things I enjoy. You do far better when you focus on the things you love.”