The Fit to Grit Cast
Fit to Grit is an audio/video/newsletter hybrid featuring in-depth conversations with leadership within the athletic space. Guests range from top executives within the athletic space to professionals in adjacent industries with a proven track record of success working in the athletic industry.
We explore visionary ideas and practical strategies driving the industry forward, covering areas such as marketing, finance, branding, equipment, product development, biz dev, and more. Join us as we share actionable insights and real-world experiences while embodying the "fit to grit" spirit.
The Fit to Grit Cast
Educating for a Healthier Future
What happens when a father witnesses his teenage daughter struggle with an eating disorder in a world dominated by Instagram-perfect bodies and misinformation? For Todd, it sparked the creation of EdiFit Education, a revolutionary approach to health literacy that's challenging how we think about fitness and nutrition education.
In this eye-opening conversation, Todd teams up with nutritionist Ronaldo and fitness expert Mitch to reveal the shocking reality behind our global health crisis: cardiovascular disease claiming 300,000 Australian lives annually, and the disturbing projection that one in two people will develop cancer in the coming decade. Their response? A ground-breaking online educational platform that strips away the complexity and confusion surrounding health information.
The EdiFit approach beautifully simplifies the essentials of nutrition and fitness into 37 accessible videos totaling about 10 hours. This isn't just another weight loss program—it's a comprehensive education in how your body works, what real nutrition looks like, and how proper movement can transform your life. Their biggest challenge? Translating expert knowledge into content a 15-year-old could understand and apply immediately.
What makes their story particularly compelling is how they've positioned their solution. Beyond helping individuals, they're targeting schools and corporations with a powerful value proposition: healthier employees mean reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, stronger team bonds, and ultimately becoming an employer of choice. As Todd puts it, "By taking an interest in the health and wellbeing of your staff, the bottom line looks after itself."
Perhaps most powerfully, their work connects physical health directly to mental wellbeing through their simple philosophy: "If you feel better, then you feel better." By empowering people with fundamental knowledge about their bodies, EdiFit is tackling not just the physical health crisis but the mental health epidemic that accompanies it. Ready to transform your understanding of health fundamentals and take control of your wellbeing? This conversation might just be the starting point you've been searching for.
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The reality is that the numbers are just increasing every year. Cancer cardiovascular. In Australia our biggest killer is cardiovascular. 300,000 Australians die from cardiovascular disease, number one killer For us here in Australia. One out of ten will develop a breast cancer. One out of two will develop all types of cancer in the next decade.
Speaker 2:Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of the Gym Break cast where we go through all those daily visionary type ideas that come to us during our normal daily gym break. Today I have a very special cast because we're going to have three people on. We're definitely going to see how this goes with all of us as we continue to go through this in this cast today for all of you. But three times the value of hearing some stories, hearing some history, and we'll just kind of dive in. Why don't you guys just start off? I'll let any of you choose who you want to start off here and tell us a little bit about you guys and your story. Yeah, I'll start off.
Speaker 3:I'm Todd. I'll introduce you guys. Mitch is our, I guess our head of fitness and we've got Ronaldo who looks after our nutrition side of the business. I guess the starting point for me was having we started a company called Eddie Fit education in fitness and nutrition. The idea is to try and educate all walks of life on the absolute basics, the fundamentals when it comes to fitness and to nutrition.
Speaker 3:For me, the concept was born through having a teenage daughter with an eating disorder and seeing her friends and talking to them and so on, and I just sort of realized that these kids don't even know where to start their education from instagram, and, and it comes from social media and so on, and and and everything on those platforms is picture perfect. Um, maybe now you're starting to see some people post you know, real pics and that sort of stuff, but still the bulk of it is doctored, um, staged, uh, and I I just don't think that they get that, uh, real education that they need and therefore they don't understand the basics. Um, and then that then also folds into the corporate world as well, I think. Um, I'm nearly 50 myself and when I look at the difference between, say, myself and other people that are of a similar age. I think there's a lot of education to be done for the adult world as well, and it is really around those basics.
Speaker 3:There's so many ideologies and stories around what you should be doing. How many fad diets do you find on the internet? There's hundreds of thousands of them. So my idea was okay, how do we give everybody the basic first steps and understanding and put it into a platform where they can digest it, pardon the pun and actually get an understanding as to where they need to start? And that's obviously where these two guys come in. Ronaldo's, you know, a world renowned nutritionist, the best in the business. So that's the food side of things. And Mitch is brilliant when it comes to the fitness side of things. Recently just made the world championships for High Rock. So put together the best possible team to try and deliver the best possible product.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful to hear. Yeah, I mean it is. You're running a tough, challenging, but I could tell, with a lot of passion and grit, like trying to get that information out, because it's true, right, I think that what was I reading about? You know, it was a little while back when I was going through another. One of my daily rounds of learning about the nutrition side is that the food pyramid is actually backwards, you know, and uh, it's the whole concept.
Speaker 2:You know, I, I used to be very big into my macros. I was very big into my macros. I was very uh, I I was. I'm not gonna say I was a, a weightlifter at heart, but, like I, I loved watching my food. It was one of the only things I had in my control.
Speaker 2:I feel in life is my health and who I am. So I got really big into it and then, over time, I realized that I was what I would call fake healthy. You know, I would like I would, for instance, eat that spaghetti, because I was like I need another 50 grams of carbs for the rest of the day. You know, and it's so easy to get caught up in what you hear, but don't actually work with with what's your body. So, with how you continue to move forward, forward with this company, in this brand, can you tell me a little bit about, about how? When was like the time that you guys were like let's just start this, let's do this, let's push this forward? And what are some of the challenges you are seeing as you continue to develop, um, and grow what you're, what you're growing?
Speaker 3:Look, it's not an overnight thing, it's. It's funny when new companies pop up, people think, oh, it's brand new. Well, it's not. I first spoke to Ronaldo uh two years ago about this Um. At the time he was uh in canada, um, so I had to wait for him to come back, um, so it's certainly taken us a long time to get off the ground, um, and I know it's probably boring, but it's the day-to-day challenges that we've had.
Speaker 3:Um, you know we've we filmed and refilmed and and filmed again and filmed again to try and get the right message across. So you know these guys are experts. There's someone else that actually has helped us out as well Isaac the anatomy side of things, of the course, and even with his, his understanding is so deep that once he'd filmed his, we had to go back and say the three of us are having trouble understanding what you're saying. So to try and build a product that is basic, I think that's probably been one of our biggest challenges. I need, or we need, a, you know, a 15 year old to be able to understand this, or you know we need that, that mum to understand.
Speaker 3:Um, you know we've got to. We had to continuously go back and look at it through the eyes of someone who, dead set, knows absolutely nothing about the field. Um, so that was probably our biggest challenge is actually how to deliver the message. Um, when you've got enough or so much knowledge in the room, so to speak, you can certainly get carried away. So we sort of devised a plan where we'll deliver the message in in basic terms, but then we've also got within the course as well. If you want more knowledge or if you want that more advanced, then there is pdfs and bits and pieces in there that you can actually go and read through. So we're trying to make sure and we'll continue to update that, but we're trying to make sure that that further. I guess empowerment is there for those that wish to continue with it.
Speaker 2:So is the course itself more of an online curriculum, or do you it's?
Speaker 3:100% online. So the idea, and ronaldo will speak this, I'll hand over to him in that. Um, we look at, probably australia has a very big tendency in all walks of life to follow you guys in the states, whether it's television, pop, cult.
Speaker 3:Whatever it happens, I feel like it should be the opposite, but well, well, you guys oh, I don't say too many people and say, perhaps in the gun control side of things but um, it, but outside of that, we tend, we do tend to follow trends. Um, and you know that's a responsibility, I guess, on the behalf of america, you guys do sort of set the trends. You know, worldwide, it's the two. Obviously. You know we're here, we want to, but then we look at the states and we think you know ronnie will talk to some stats, but the health epidemic that is in both countries is unbelievably prevalent. It's only getting worse and we really believe that it's.
Speaker 3:It's that foundational understanding of where to start that people don't have and there's no access to that information, I guess in one spot. So that's kind of the foundation of the business. How do we and it's it's, one could argue it's we have a moral obligation with the knowledge in this room or as as an industry, to really start to teach people the basics. If you think about it, if our government's decided to go down this rabbit hole and actually send this sort of message out from the get-go to parents and to kids, how much impact is that going to have on our health systems and things like that? So we all understand that governments tend to look at things from a fiscal perspective. How much money is going to be saved by each country by having a healthier population? And it's not rocket science, it is really simple and that's what we've tried to put together. Ronnie's done a bit of a few numbers around it.
Speaker 1:I think you guys spend over $4.5 trillion on just on health, right? So that's the thing. Our product is something that's going to save the government a lot of money, because the reality is that the numbers are just increasing every year Cancer, cardiovascular, all the chronic disease, what we call, but also lifestyle disease. If we can prevent by educating people on the subject of nutrition, fitness, lifestyle, we can reduce the burden on the public health system. So this should be actually a product that could go worldwide, because the message is the same. Like you said, the macros, right. The macros don't change from here to China. It's the same macros, calories don't change. The only differences might be kilojoules and calories, but pretty much the message is exactly the same from here to India to China. So how to get across it? That's the barrier. Some people might feel nutrition it's something that has to be linked to just diet, but it's not. Every single one of us need nutrition to live a healthier life. So the Adifit model is if we can supply people information to improve their health, we can reduce the burden on the public health system. So we have more money for other things, right? But that's something that we are trying to get on not only on the corporate, but on schools and on clubs to explain to them.
Speaker 1:Look, this is a product. It's not a weight loss product. It's actually a product for every single one to benefit from, which is knowledge around food, how to consume the right amount of food. But what is in each one of those foods you consume on a daily basis? How can you prevent diabetes? By understanding, you know the basics of nutrition. How can you improve your cardiovascular system by exercising? So it's a very simple product. Like we said before, the message was not as simple because we have to dumb it down, because we had, I think, too much knowledge. Now we had to bring it back to like a seven to, you know, 12 year old kind of knowledge.
Speaker 1:But the numbers, like in America, we just printed out straight from Chattopedi, like just to give us some stats, because we're based on Australian health system. Australia is not far off from US. Us is leading the charts on deaths on everything right, but in Australia our biggest killer is cardiovascular 300,000 Australians die from cardiovascular disease, number one killer. And then we have cancer, which is the second, and just for us here in Australia, one out of 10 will develop breast cancer, but then one out of two will develop all types of cancer in the next decade. So it's almost crazy for us like half of Australia population will develop some sort of cancer, from skin cancer, prostate cancer, and then cervical cancer and colon cancer, which is that's the major four.
Speaker 1:That's it's scary for us because I'm 40. So my, my wife, is battling cancer at the moment. So that's the 50, 50. But if I got cancer as well, then it's like what's going to happen? Right? So we're trying to reduce the burden on our system here in Australia, but if we can spread the message to US and to other countries, then we are doing our job, our mission really.
Speaker 2:I think that, going back to what you've kind of brought up a couple of times, especially when it comes to the very beginning of you growing this thing, is simplification, right, how do we get it? How do we get the information to a younger demographic? How do we simplify our positioning? How do we simplify who we are and really validate this thing effectively up front to achieve the best results that we possibly can and to grow this thing the way you want to grow it? I think that it's true. I mean most, most people. I mean we do content writing for a lot of studios, a lot of fitness brands ourselves, and you do have to kind of look at that whole concept of you know most Americans read at a fifth grade level anyway. So you kind of have you kind of have that aspect in there. And so what are some of the challenges that you're seeing as you're starting to get this information out there Really, yeah, just to get this information out there to people.
Speaker 3:Oh, I think that's that. That is the challenge. It is, you know, is having that voice is, you know and that's catching up with someone like yourself A great opportunity to to have a voice over in the States. At the moment, we are approaching locally, we're doing in Australia, we're trying to get into schools, into sporting clubs and things like that. You sort of touched on it a little bit there when you said the younger demographic.
Speaker 3:I think, whilst this program could be very beneficial for lots of different reasons in the corporate world, if we can get this into schools and I think to do that we've got to go through the parents. They do the shopping, they do the cooking, they they're the ones that drive the narrative at home if we can get this into schools and then the next generation sort of starts to come through with that knowledge, then we can probably start to reverse a lot of the damage that has been done. So, from a challenge perspective, we're trying to stand out from the rest of the noise. As I said, there's thousands and thousands of fad diets and do this and do that and don't eat this, don't eat that, and so on. We need to, I guess, just continuously try to push our message hopefully get some traction and then get other people to obviously drive our message as well, that there's look, we're a business, we're absolutely a business. But again I go back to what I said. I still think there's a 50% of the side of the business is a moral thing, uh, obligation bias, um. So I go back and and my, my eldest daughter still struggles. Um, you know she's uh developed some habits through her early mid teens, that you know she's nearly 20 now, but there's still that you know that burden is still there. Um, so, from an emotional and moral perspective, I I want to that kid out there that's 14, that's looking in the mirror, that you know hates what they see and that sort of stuff. I want them to be able to learn and understand what healthy actually is, um the fact that we don't all look the same. Um, you know some people, you know, are bigger muscly, some people aren't. It's everybody's different. Um, I want them to understand the basics, um, so that they can be happy.
Speaker 3:I think, strangely enough, zach, this sort of almost this whole thing funnels down into mental health. Yes, that's that's. You know everything that we do. You know we we have a saying we actually um, own a gym here in australia. We're trying something similar. We've got Ronaldo on site, we've got Mitch and so on is if you feel better, then you feel better. Whilst we talk about making people happier and healthier, I think it all funnels down to that mental health side of things. So it's not a very direct answer, I must admit, but the fact of the matter is, our biggest challenge at the moment is being heard. We would love someone from education departments or even councils or things like that, to reach out to us and start to have conversations. We need those sort of governing bodies to drive it a little bit, because it's not just about a business, it is about the, I guess the the moral part of the message.
Speaker 2:I would say that's your vision, right, and I think that that down to what is the vision, vision for what you want to take this with not just you and your team, but with, with your purpose and spreading it to the world. And how do you, how do you really get through some of those initial, initial challenges up front to try to get it out there? You said you own a, a studio too, so how are you integrating this into your studio?
Speaker 3:we're trying to keep it separate to be honest with you, the thoughts behind uh, um, what we're trying to achieve are the same. So we, the studio, started with um again being a pet PT, having a daughter, a wife that don't like big box gyms, and so on. I used to send my clients down to see Ronaldo. He's at the other end of the Gold Coast, so it can be a 30, 40-minute drive. Then I might send them to see a masseuse or something like that. So my trainer thought was okay, first of all, how do I get everything under one roof? And then, secondly, how do I create a safe, inclusive environment where it doesn't matter if you're a first time gym goer or an expert, you feel comfortable in the space. So I developed a facility where we have everything under one roof. We obviously have a 24 hour access to a gym floor, we have our classes, we have our onsite nutritionist, I have an expert from the fitness side of things with Mitch, but I also have an onsite masseuse, infrared saunas, ice baths, so ideally, same sort of thing. We also got an onsite juice bar. So, um, a very simple way of putting it is we will teach you how to eat, we will train you, we'll help you recover, um and we'll, we'll feed you, basically, um, and that way I can. Our prices are a bit higher than normal gyms, but what that enables me to do is actually to limit the membership um, which means that if you come in any time of any day, you'll be able to get onto something.
Speaker 3:We were very specific with our equipment selection, so there's eight to 10 options out there for any particular body part, so there's always an option. We've always got a trainer, whether it's myself or Mitch. We've got a couple of others that are here on the floor. You know, if clients need help, we're always there. So again, funneling back into that mental health side of things, but the businesses are two completely separate where our facilities is only one facility. We're based here on the Gold Coast, so I can't, can't do that. You know, maybe one day where we've got one in Arizona, but you know, we've only just started, we're only seven months old in that respect as well, oh, nice, yeah, so we are very new, but yeah, we want to keep them apart from each other.
Speaker 3:We just feel that we can look, we can, obviously, and we are having big impact. You know, particularly the nutrition side of things with Ronaldo. We've got one particular client here who was down to 25% kidney function on his way to, obviously, dialysis. He's been with us since the opening for six months. By following the training programs, by following the nutrition, he's back up to 34% kidney function. So it was really good living proof that the program works and, and in real terms, the crossover there between the two businesses is from a nutrition perspective, we've really just taught him what any fit would teach him, but done it face to face. So they, they do correlate, they do sort of join up, but um, they're, they're certainly separate.
Speaker 2:Well, it's interesting, yeah, because you kind of have and because this is a cast on on, you know, studios, marketing and all that stuff in general to help other studio owners, um, in some way, form or another it is.
Speaker 2:It is kind of cool to see that you kind of took that and you were able, uh to to separate it.
Speaker 2:Um, I think that you took an understanding of the market, you took an understanding of the location and you kind of said, hey, we're really going to focus on this here. We can also validate the product here if we want. And you created a sub product or what I would call a kind of like a sub brand, so to say that you can also kind of leverage within the studio side if you need to be, and you could be like that and I hate to say CrossFit, but that's like what comes to mind when it comes to hey, let's take a brand and then let's kind of productize it out within a program, and so you can take that program and hopefully start to possibly get it into the arms of other types of boutique studios around the world and then they can start leveraging leveraging it to help more lives and to help more people. So I think that that's amazing, that you took that probably a lot of hard work, because you're basically running two businesses right now.
Speaker 3:But it's not easy, but I look, I think I guess it's what we believe in as a team. So how do we drive that locally and how do you drive it globally? Yeah, and that's where I guess they've sort of offshoot and gone in their different directions. But I think if any other studio owners, facility owners out there have a real strong belief or a great idea in their facility, then yeah, it's. It's very much sitting we're sitting down and saying, okay, well, how do I drive this further afield? I mean, you know this is we're chatting to you in arizona from the gold coast. I know there's a. There's so much opportunity out there and there's so many good ideas out there and there's so many good people out there as well that there's definitely opportunity for this or for other ideas to go globally. And I think, if you go into it with the right mindset at our core, it's about helping people.
Speaker 3:I was lucky enough to spend probably two years putting both businesses or concepts together, but what it enabled me to do was take the time to pick the best possible people in their field. Now, it's not necessarily about being the best trainer or being the best nutritionist. That's great, that's the job, but it's the type of person, what they believe in and where they want to take it. That matters most to me, because if I've got the right people in the position, then the message will be right. So, whilst a lot of people, ultimately you'll start businesses to make money, I think if behind the scenes, if the foundations, aren't right, then it probably know it probably isn't going to work. But I believe that from our perspective, deep seated, we're about helping people. So if we can start with that and then build the business side on top of that, I think it's a really good formula for success.
Speaker 2:It's where a lot of uh of brands have slowly started to move away from. Is understanding the importance of that. True, would I like to call funny enough what we're switching the podcast name to, which is Fit to Grit, which is kind of taking that whole concept of passion and perseverance right, like, hey, you need to come in and you need to be able to understand that vision, create that vision, create those values which you have. You sat down for two years. You're like these are our values, these are what I really believe in, these are what I really feel like how we can make a difference. And you were able to hire these great other two people here to be a part of your team that have similar passions and have similar values, so that you can really try to expand the brand not just operations wise, but, you know, globally, it seems to to create these two offsets.
Speaker 2:And the fact that you were able to sit down and create both of these and realize, hey, my passions go beyond this surface level aspect of just trying to make money and it is about helping people, it is about community, at the end of the day, is where fitness and health and mental health I think we need to get back into. That's. That's what we need to get back into, right? I think you're very your message on teaching people how to eat better, eat better, have nutrition. Probably I'd love to hear a little bit about we're not on your side too about the fitness side, like how does that, how does it work with the fitness side as well, because I do know for a fact that you know a majority of of studio owners, studios out there, I mean they'll just throw free weights up and they'll say, hey, here you go.
Speaker 4:And, uh, collect a membership. Yeah, yeah's it. Um yeah, so pretty much with with the eddy fit, talking about eddy fit, with the fitness side of things, it's pretty much like todd mentioned I've been mentioned the whole time is just teaching the basics so what they're doing, why they're doing it. Because I guess, like you said as well, far too often people would just be like, hey, here, here's some dumbbells lift, or hey, here's a meal, follow this, but they're not actually understanding on why they're doing it.
Speaker 4:And if we can help people understand or get an understanding on why they're doing things, why they're lifting, why they're eating these certain things, then it might, I guess, give them a bit more buy-in into the program or into their goals, instead of just going through the motions.
Speaker 4:So Edifit will teach them the anatomy side of things.
Speaker 4:So they're going to understand the muscles, where the bones, tendons, muscles, where they are, what they do, how they're activated through movements, going through all the upper body, all the lower body, exercises and movements, and how you can program that into your training or put it into your training to help your goals, whether that is fat loss, whether that is athletic development, whether that is, you know, muscle gain.
Speaker 4:So it would just give you the broad basic understanding in how you can incorporate that into your training and how you can make that help you achieve the goals. And then it also has a module in there with posture how your posture can be affected through whether it's sitting, whether you're. You know what you do for work because that obviously plays a massive role in your lifting and your posture if you're seated all day or if you're a construction worker, for example. So it covers everything pretty much, from, um, yeah, from what muscles you use to the exercises there's also exercises in there the incorrect and correct techniques of all exercises, so you'll be able to see and read um the different cues you could use with all different, all the main exercises that you would normally use, both functional and um strength.
Speaker 2:I remember a couple of years ago I was working with this trainer and this is way past. This is way past my time of of my my biggest. It was probably when I was in pretty close to my best shape, but I had a lot of issues with my, my muscles and my joints and all that I mean. You know how it goes Once you start lifting more, you start compromising, you start compromising different muscles and and all that stuff. So I do know how important it is to really try to keep yourself on track, um, and make sure that you're not compromising certain muscles to get that vanity metric of just trying to make your chest look bigger, right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then it also comes down to, I guess, recovering, making sure you're as simple as taking enough rest between sets, you know, so we can, instead of just blasting out four, four sets of you know heavy bench press with 30 seconds rest. So it really does just teach them the basics and if we can get more people to understand that, then they'll have, like I said, a bit more buy-in into their goals and into what they want to achieve as you guys developed this program.
Speaker 2:I don't want to go too deep into the story, but I want to hear how this came to fruition with developing this program, because I know you have a studio now. I know part of your story with your daughter, but I'd love to hear how, how you guys came about like, really building this thing and perfecting it, not just for your studio, um, but what you saw other people doing that you were like, huh, maybe this wasn't the best direction, maybe this was a great direction, and how did you really? Huh, maybe this wasn't the best direction, maybe this was a great direction, and how did you really build this thing?
Speaker 1:All right. So first we had a concept of how can we educate people at the same time that we are providing the one-on-one service. So we thought let's do seminars for corporate. We thought let's do seminars for corporate, let's offer, you know, like a separate product, which is we go to corporates and we do a fitness side and nutrition, and we talked about the importance of health and nutrition. Then we faced a barrier. We're like man, we're going to have to travel, we're going to have to go to, you know, sydney, melbourne, we're going to have to bring the staff with us, which then it's not very convenient. How can we do that online? So then we thought, well, online is we're going to have to have a software. We looked into Kajabi and Kajabi is something I use for my other product and I like the convenience of creating a digital product that you can record or do you have to? You know, you got like a pretty much like a course. So we said let's create a course, let's put that online and let's offer that for a fraction of the price to the general population, not just corporate.
Speaker 1:So then the seed started as a corporate, because we thought we got a great studio, we can invite people to come and train with us as well as we provide the corporate service. But then we thought, man, this particular message it's not for corporate, it's for everyone. So then we thought Adifit is for everyone. So how can we spread the message through schools clubs? So how can we spread the message through schools clubs? And then I thought, you know, we thought, and Mitch, the easiest and the fastest way will be online, because then we can reach the whole world, we can add the value of, you know, videos and audio PDFs People can watch at their own convenience and the cost will be a tenth of doing one-on-one with us. Because reality is, if we're doing a PT session with Mitch, it's $80. If you do a nutrition session with me, it would be around $75 to $125 to do a PT session with Todd.
Speaker 1:So how can we combine all this expertise put on a product that is very affordable, put on a product that is very affordable and we can pass this knowledge that we have acquired for 20 odd years into a product that is easy for everyone, right? So then we thought Adifit, it is a mini course on nutrition and fitness. It is not a certification, but it's a mini course that in 10 hours. With 37 videos, you can really fast track your knowledge on nutrition and fitness. So then, looking into the like, like you said, you deal with a lot of other studios and owners.
Speaker 1:How can we trainers can put ourselves out there in the online world using the brick and mortar Because is we're still brick and mortar business, but how can we do a sister um company and how can we leverage this brick and mortar online to 10x, so 100x, our knowledge with you know, the facility of being in the business without moving. So that that's, I think that was the biggest shift for us. We had totally to remodel. We had to actually go for two, three months film. We branched out everything. We dismantled the business right.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:And we had to think, man, it was yeah, because we were ready to go. We had, like you know, the facility ready to go, we had the packages. Then I had to create license stuff which is like I can license this to any other gym that want to learn about supplementation, that don't know much If they want to know about performance nutrition. So we created also the licensing, which is other studios can, um license from us our product to offer to their clients. So now we're dealing with like alex harmosi kind of stuff like we can license to other studios, other business owners, if they want to learn, um, how to teach their clients what teach you.
Speaker 3:I think that's an important part is that it is available. So we go back to that moral side of things. A lot of people have gyms but they join, people join up and they basically you know this person just comes into the gym, they train, they go home. So for other facilities, if they wanted to use this as a product, they can deliver it to their clients. Now it has that um, I guess full circle effect where that particular client is now learning what we've got to offer so they have a better understanding of how to train and their nutrition, but then then sees them coming into that facility. So you talk about other studios, you start to talk about retention, because these people are getting results, because they do have the basic understanding. So I think for other facilities it can certainly help. I mean, our retention rate here is over 90%, you know, and I get we're on a short space of time, so you know, time will tell, but the fact is that because people are becoming educated and empowered and gaining that knowledge, they're getting results.
Speaker 3:I think that's one thing that fitness studio owners tend to forget is that you're there to get people results, you're there to help them. So if you do that, the bottom line will look after itself. You don't even need to worry about that. Just make sure that your clients are happy and they're actually getting results. How do you do that? You teach them, you educate them, you empower them. Not only does it result in bottom line improving and retention, but then it enhances your reputation. So you get to that point where there's people knocking on your door and you have to say to them sorry, we're full, you know it's. I think it's something that gets missed a lot around, particularly around owners of facilities and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, retention definitely is a is a huge player, especially after you know 2020. Here, you know, everyone thought, you know everyone's going to be working out from home and it was a bad. It was bad time. I feel like the exact opposite. There's a huge shift in the environment.
Speaker 2:You talked a lot about mental health. You know, I think, that a lot of people want to find their community, they want to find their home, they want a place to work mentally, they want to have those experiences, and a lot of that does come back to, like you said, those experiences do come back to the people on staff, the people that are educating them, even down to the experiences of, like you just said, the types of products and the types of services that they're providing. That's part of the brand, right? And so you guys seem to have found a way to smartly say hey, instead of having to have us open 50 locations and spend thousands and thousands and thousands a month on rent or unless you wanted to go the equity route, but that'd be more money, because then you'd have all these landlocked loans but how do you spread to a wider audience and you smartly decided to say hey, like we now no longer have a b2c market.
Speaker 2:We're no longer just focusing on the normal consumer here, we're starting to focus on the b2b market. Let's focus on other studios, let's let's bring them into the mix. Let's do schools, finding the actually the core audiences that could actually spread out to further audiences, that could help attract but also grow your brand or your other brand as well. And I think that that's I think that you thought very smartly over, really, how to leverage your brand exposure without necessarily taking as much risk as hey, let's just go out there and open. You know, we just don't have the funds to do that.
Speaker 3:So I mean that's the bigger challenges to build us right? You know, particularly the facility here we're providing. My overheads are three times that of what a normal gym would be. Um, you know I'm I'm paying absorbent wages, um, worth every cent. But you know what I mean. You have to pay above. I've, I've, we've got, you know the gym is, is is full of hammer strength equipment. You know we went for the best possible equipment. Um, you know I've got the best team. Um, I have to have those things in order to be able to drive that product. But, yeah, it's that capital.
Speaker 3:So, going back to what we were talking about before around ediFIT, our biggest challenge is exposure and ironically, zach, we've had the discussion about what the value is in the course. As Ronnie said, it's. You know for what you can charge one-on-one. It's an amazing price, like for you said it's. You know for what you can charge one-on-one. It's an amazing price, like it's for you guys, it's 99 US, yeah, and you've got it for life. And then, as we update it and as we bring things in so you know whether it's Mitch with his experience, he'll be over there in Chicago for the world championships in June, you know. So it might be something high rock space that goes on to onto the platform from the fitness side of things. Once you've got the course, you've got it for life. So anything we add to it, you're going to get a notification to say that there's something extra there for you. So we'll continue to build and add to the product.
Speaker 3:The challenge is and and the discussion's been around from a marketing perspective um, and and this sort of leads to other studios is we want to present great value, but at what point do you look too cheap? And people just no, that that can't be right or that's, you know, that's gabby ruck or so on. We we're trying to figure out a way to get out that message out there that no, we're doing this on the cheap side because we want it to go to the masses, we want everyone to be able to afford it. I actually just finished watching and whether you know it or not, a documentary on. It was called Algiers America and it was Bryce Brown, the high school coach down in New Orleans, and just watching these high school kids, but they've got nothing. Do you know what I mean? Like you can, it sort of got me thinking. You know these, these mothers or grandparents or you know this school for argument's sake, that's this program is is affordable to people like that.
Speaker 2:We want to be able to reach as many people as possible but we are having, I think, some challenges around that perception that, you know, too cheap, too good to be true, so to speak yeah, that that usually comes in the validation stage, and since you kind of, since you kind of are at that point where you're you're kind of in the validation stage of both your studio and your product, you now have two.
Speaker 3:You have two products that you're trying to validate, and so you know opposite end of the scales, one I'm charging, you know, premium, yeah, premium, uh, because of the style of studio.
Speaker 3:And at the other end of the scale, one I'm charging, you know, premium, yeah, premium, because of the style of the studio. And at the other end of the scale, I'm going, you know, we're going sort of cheaper because we're trying to cater to the masses, so to speak. But I mean, if you think about the value alone and I'm not sure over there, but you know, if you paid, what would you pay for just a meal plan done by a nutritionist? I mean, it would cost you, I imagine, a lot more than 99 US dollars. Yeah, so you get the whole program. And then at the end there's actually, I think there's 15 different meal plans, with recipe books on there, not to mention different training plans as well, so you actually get it all in one package. So how do we and that one of the the challenges for us is how do we let everybody know that, yes, it's cheap, but it's cheap in price, not in quality?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, well, I, I I do know this, you know doing this for a living myself. There's one thing I I do see a lot of studios which you guys are not doing, so don't take this the wrong way, but uh, I do see studios. You know they'll throw up like e-com products. They'll throw up like, hey, let's just throw some shirts out there, let's throw this, let's try to go to the masses, and it's like you have to remember, no one really cares about that stuff. Like, and it's two different marketing directions. You have your local brick and mortar where you yes, you should be focusing really heavily on our target market is really just a broad range, and you could have a little bit more audience insight if you went through and did you know audience development and stuff like that of like, who are the types of people in our local area? It's a lot easier to reach 1 million than it is 1 billion, right? So, yeah, you do have that perspective. And then you have oh, here's the world over here, online perspective.
Speaker 2:It's a completely, like you said, it's a completely different model. So you have to kind of learn to say, hey, you kind of have to separate it out. You can't market both the same way because once local, you have a certain amount of marketing budget. The other one you have much higher marketing budget because you're trying to get much more exposure to a larger audience, but then you don't necessarily have a brick and mortar. So it's kind of that sense of for the pricing perspective. It comes down from the fundamental side. It would come down to validating. You may have different price points for different sets of people, right, you would have the studios, for instance, would probably be a whole different price point and you probably bulk the price of using the course with their members to give them a discount. And then you'd have the schools which are going to be kids. They probably don't have as much of a budget. So I'm very happy to do that.
Speaker 3:That's exactly right. We've, you know we, you know we will be doing that in a sense. You know, if, if, if a school was to come to us and say, listen, we've got 500 students who want to get the course, and you know that's the beauty, we. And we've got 500 students who want to get the course, and you know that's the beauty, we can be quite fluid, we can give up quite easily. So, yeah, we can turn around and say, right, well, based on that, for that exact reason, you know, I would rather them be able to afford it, so all these kids get it. And it comes back to that moral side of things. Mate, it's not, yeah, I think you know, know, if you do the right thing, eventually everything else will work out.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it's, it's the, it's the why. It's like you said at the very beginning of this what, what is the reasoning in the the why that you're doing this? And it's people like you guys that have passion, um, have that passion for trying to make the world a better place, which is really where not just studios but business needs to go in general.
Speaker 3:And that's, and you know you go into the corporate side of things, mate, and that's exactly right. So my background is is um executive management in corp in retail, believe it or not. I left a uh, a pretty high position to start, for some reason, to create all this stress for myself. Um, at some days it's just, yeah, I wonder why. But, um, you know, I look at it from the corporate perspective and and you know you'd see people slogging away day to day and they're unhappy. But you know, from a corporate business. To take this up, you know they get their team the course number one. It shows that the business cares and they're trying to invest in them. So that you know straight away, tick for the business. Then you know the team does the course. Now they're doing something together. So it's team building, you know.
Speaker 3:So, all of a sudden, the talk around the proverbial water cooler is is you know, how are you going with this part of it? How are you going with that part of it? Next thing, you know these two over here are going to the gym together after work. So now that team building and everything is improving within the business, the next thing, you know you change, happier and healthier. So what's happening? Well, all of a sudden you don't have as much absenteeism. So now you're not paying sick leave. Now what's happening is because everyone's turning up to work. They're happier and healthier. Your business is more productive. You're getting better productivity out of your team. So all of a sudden, by you actually taking an interest in the health and wellbeing of your staff guess what? The bottom line's looked after itself because you've got a happier, healthier, more productive team. Not only that, but then you've got better people knocking on your door because your reputation as a business is these guys actually care about us.
Speaker 3:Look at what they're doing to us. You know an Australian term. You're sitting at the pub on a Friday and someone says mate, you were great. What are you doing? Oh, the place I'm working for they gave us this course. We're doing this. All of a sudden, now you're attracting, you're becoming an employer of choice. So Now you're attracting, you're becoming an employer of choice. So there's a huge advantageous aspect to it for the corporate side of the world as well, not just from the kid's side of things or from the you know, from the schools and the sporting club side of things. So there's a couple of different aspects to it, but they all come back to the basic of trying to help people. Yeah, I think it all come back to the the basic of of trying to help people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it. I think it all ties back to that mental health side, right. And I think the the younger you, the younger you are and understand, uh can kind of understand that there's a big thing in the States right now with you know, mental health and uh, more so, just the, the cringe, the cringy way of of trying to leverage it to get out of work and stuff. But there's the real emphasis around it, right. The real emphasis of like me, for instance, great example is, you know, it is pretty much my therapy going and working out now. I mean, it took me a while before I had to get past that stage of I was doing it for more for different reasons, but now I'm doing it for more my mental health.
Speaker 2:I have three young children myself. I want to teach them, I want to. My food is what I have in control. I run a business. As you are aware, most, 99% of everything is out of your control, so you literally have to find those things that are in your control so you could keep sane every day and you have food and working out and running or whatever you like to do is a mental health situation that can help you kind of improve your life in many different ways, and so taking a course, like yourself, for individuals that may have a you know, that are in the corporate world, or that parents have their own business, whatever it may be, could look at it as something as much more of a personal KPI of like, hey, taking care of myself isn't just going to have longevity for who I am and what I'm going to do, but it's also going to help me, um achieve greater things in other aspects of my life, because it's helping me mentally, because it's helping me physically, it's helping me sleep better, um things of that nature.
Speaker 3:Yeah, look, and you sort of touched on it a bit, there Is it. You know we're talking about going to the masses and, and you know grandiose, of helping the whole world. But at the end of the day, you know, zach from Arizona can get this course just to do it, so that he has a better understanding, so that he can do exactly what you just said, so an individual can go and do that. It's not just collectively for groups, you know we've. You know there was a lady that had done the course I spoke to the other day and she sort of touched on it a little bit there. She said I'm sleeping better. She said I'm, you know, a bit more energy when I, in order to get home now, I'm pumped up, I'm going to the gym, I'm, I'm, I'm learning. So you know it has a huge individual effect as well.
Speaker 2:That's wonderful. So you know we could keep this going on a lot longer, but let's kind of finish it off here and you can kind of tell everyone a little bit about where they could find the course, where they can get in contact with you, or even where they could possibly if they're in your local area and they want to head to your studio and do the course in person.
Speaker 3:Yeah, look, we're at edifitcomau, so it's E-D-I-F-I-T.
Speaker 3:That's our website. You can go onto there. You can literally just click on start the course. It's very, very simple to get into. As I said, us $99. It's there and thereabouts because the dollar, you know, I think it's well, I'm talking in Australian terms now. In US terms it's probably $30 or not even that $25 a payment. So we've tried to give that option as well to people that do want it but can't necessarily do it up front.
Speaker 3:If there are any businesses or schools that want to reach out to us, as I said, we're more than happy to look at putting packages together for people as well. For locally driven businesses. We are still happy to go out and do seminars. Ronnie loves being on a stage, so getting out there and actually presenting. We went to a school the other week. It was eight nine-year-olds and they had an absolute ball, you know. So we're happy to go out and do that sort of thing.
Speaker 3:But yeah, look, the easiest way and from our perspective, if they wanted just to reach out, the best way is probably just to email me directly, which is just Todd at eddyfit. T-o-double-d at eddyfitcomau. They at edifitcomau, they can reach out to me on LinkedIn, you know, jump on. Admittedly, a little bit like yourself, we don't the Edifit business. We haven't really focused on the social media as much at the moment, but again, we're edifit online on Instagram as well. Even if they just want to reach out and have a conversation, we're more than happy to do that. But, as I said, look, I guess our drive is to teach everybody and you touched on it a bit the how, the what, the why and the when. When it comes to everything to do with the nutrition and the fitness side of things, we truly believe that everybody can have a basic understanding get going a little bit, improve their health a little bit, um, and that will funnel down into, I guess, a happier, healthier day for everybody.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we can slowly start. We can slowly start changing the way we all eat, or maybe turn that pyramid upside down like it's supposed to be Right.
Speaker 3:It doesn't. You know, with a lot of people, mate, mate, it doesn't take a lot of change. You know, it's some simple changes. You know, there was one client we had in here who was drinking. He wouldn't mind me saying he was drinking three liters of milk a day. Oh man, I can't believe he wasn't lactating, um, but he, we, we, simply, and he had, but he had no understanding of the impact. Yeah, because he's liquid. So, and, jeremy, it's down to that basic level, it was something so simple. And that particular client, I think, with a bit of training and everything, he's 14 kilos down, which is well, 28, probably over 30 pounds for you guys, you know. So it's that rudimentary understanding of what they're doing.
Speaker 2:I'm in the I'm, I'm the in a weird phase right now because I know how I need to be eating and I know every single um, not down to the wire, but pretty much the macros of every single thing I eat on a normal basis. But I'm so used to having control over like a two to $3,000, uh, not dollar, uh, dollar, uh calorie, you know, diet of vegetables and uh, my macros and vegetables and and all that stuff that uh, now that I have my three young children running around, I maybe can only hit the hit my runs in my studio, my studio time, maybe two, three times a week, and so it's like all right, well, I'm not burning as much as I should be. Nothing's got to eat this way. So now I'm not eating enough. So, yeah, I'm kind of in that dad bod mode right now.
Speaker 2:I feel kids live on chicken nuggets. That's the says. Kids live on chicken nuggets. They don't eat the real chicken and then they end up not eating it and then I end up eating what's their leftover because I haven't eaten it. Leftovers are killers.
Speaker 4:All end up eating what's their leftover, because I've been eating it left over the killers.
Speaker 3:All right guys well it was great to have you guys on um.
Speaker 2:This was another episode of the gym break cast. I'm your host, zach coleman, and I'll leave all this stuff in the show notes for our guests and they can go down and get in contact you whenever they like. So I appreciate you all being on all right, thank you.
Speaker 3:Thanks very much, thank you much, zach, thank you.
