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we are on what is up everybody welcome
my friends to another episode of startup
Theory we are here today with my boy Rob
how welcome my friend thanks for having
me absolutely me on it is our pleasure
and we're going to be talking today
about fitor uh we'll be diving into
exactly what that is in a minute I will
let Rob do the explaining on that but
just wanted to welcome you guys to the
show um also if uh agent Smith will
allow it at the end of the episode today
it would be great to get some questions
from you guys if you have questions for
me or for Rob if there's something that
you want to know uh about his company
about what they're doing that we don't
go into in the show would be awesome for
you guys to chime in uh and really take
advantage of the fact that we do this
live everybody uh so yeah let's uh let's
get our questions ready and I know that
the um the one and only agent Smith
would would just Matrix me to death if I
didn't ask you guys to share this and
get more people into this so that um we
can build this community and also
hopefully more people will be able to
learn from what we're doing here today
with Rob and you guys will get some I
try to keep my answers as universal as
humanly possible um so while we do dive
into the specifics of a given company
within that context I'm always trying to
find the universal things that will
apply to any business so hopefully if
that's something that you're considering
if um you've always wanted to start your
own venture or already mid Venture that
will be able to um give some things that
are going to help you with that and um
Facebook live your world may be about to
shake a little bit I'll bear with us as
we make some technical adjustments but
um yeah so if we are ready if we've got
that audience and as soon as that camera
Finds Its home that's very clever boys
and girls to put the cameras uh
basically uh equal with each other so
that you can't tell if I'm looking at
the live camera or the for posterity
camera all right we good to go excellent
well then I'm going
to beep that bad boy and do the official
introduction now that I've welcomed the
beautiful and esteemed Facebook live
audience all right welcome everybody to
another episode of startup Theory we are
here today with Rob how who was smart
enough my man to wear his shirt in
blazoned with fitor which is his
business his application and we're going
to be diving into that he's got some
questions and before we get to those
though I want to give him a chance to
tell you guys all about what fitor is I
think this is pretty interesting and
it's a tech-based app so it's something
that I know a lot of you out there um
are contemplating doing so hopefully
we'll be able to get you some answers
that'll help you with your business as
well as help Rob so Rob take it away
tell us what fitor is all right so
inshell uh fit world is an instant
connection of Health and Wellness
professionals and resources to people
who need them uh so as a personal
trainer you know I I realized I could
only reach as many people as I could
touch as many people that were in my
jurisdiction and even if I set up morar
buildings I can only touch the folks who
are in our state or in our city so I
said you know what let's start an
organization let's start a movement
where we can connect folks through
technology and hey with Skype and
FaceTime you can talk to people anywhere
so why can't we train them so
essentially that's our mission is to
connect people to professionals and
resources so it's like Fitness on demand
I love that man and and one of the
things that is my absolute Obsession in
business is scalability and this is
something that I want you guys thinking
about look it's a it's a very individual
um answer it's something that you guys
are going to have to come up with for
yourselves but for me doing things at
scale helping as many people as I can
it's why I'm not a big fan of DMS I'm
always trying to have things uh I know
it's supposed to go down in the DM but
uh I prefer things to go down in a much
more public format so everybody can
learn from stuff and I know that means
um maybe an increased level of
vulnerability putting yourself out there
but at the end of the day if you're
trying to build a business or trying to
be successful in anything for that
matter um you're really going to have to
be willing to put yourself out there to
risk embarrassment and that but if we
can do things out in the open and each
learn from what's going on so much the
better so scale for me is uh really just
the most fundamental question that
you're going to have to ask yourself as
you decide to get into business is you
know what do you want to do do you want
to do something that is relatively small
what's traditionally referred to as a
lifestyle business where it's not
something that you're trying to make big
you're not trying to become a huge
corporation you may not even be trying
to sell although I know that we'll talk
more about that that's definitely on
Rob's um agenda
um but those are things that you want to
know ahead of time is this something
that you want to sell is this something
that you want to make huge and if you're
going to sell scalability is literally
going to be the first question that
they're going to ask and certainly in
the technology space um they're going to
want to know if the technology in and of
itself is going to scale but that's
really something that an entrepreneur
has to ask themselves right away at the
beginning is if I want this to be big
what is my path to scale and so robbi I
find that very interesting that you're
already approaching from that and if you
would um because I actually found this
pretty interesting in your story tell
them um a little bit about your
background what you were doing with
Direct TV and and how that realization
became so powerful for you sure so you
know I wanted to start an organization
where uh young people could come and not
just get in shape because the childhood
obesity percentage is just too high and
we're just it's causing too many issues
and it's affecting not just their health
but their ability to even focus in
school it's a a lot of indirect and
direct issues so I I want to start a
nonprofit where we could have kids come
we could pour into them academically
physically mentally spiritually and it
was going so well and we had so many so
many requests I said let's okay let's do
a primary focus and let's call this
program can't fit I love The Biggest
Loser model so I say let's do a a
program let's turn it into a TV show
we'll have kids come on we'll offer a
$1,000 grand prize for the winner and
we'll give them eight weeks where they
just get poured in by different mentors
nutritionists chefs I mean coaches
everybody that you can think of that can
Empower them andbody by the end of the
eight weeks somebody wins the money but
everybody wins and so I literally woke
up at 3:00 in the morning one day and I
was watching TV and I just saw this lady
exercising on TV I decided you know what
I'm going email the senior program
director she calls me back the next day
says we love the show we want to put you
on our Network I said okay that's great
and that was the birth in 2010 of can't
fit being on TV well that's great now
we're reaching more people but I had
Parents calling me and and people and
train called me wanted to be a part of
the program but the I think the biggest
issue that we wanted to solve was when
people would call and say okay I would
love to be a part of your program my kid
needs help or we need to get in shape
how can we do it we're in Chicago I'm
like okay well we're in Maryland so I
just Network and I would call somebody
in Chicago so whenever people would call
I would connect them with somebody in
their area it seems easy but a lot of
people don't realize that it's that easy
after about four or five times I
realized okay people are leaving we need
to create something where they come and
stay and we help them and that was the
app and that's when I came with the idea
of fit world and so people could
literally come to the application they
could find they could scroll through
profiles of health coaches life coaches
anybody looking for find their bio look
at their certifications get their
information and content and but most
importantly connect with them instantly
and that's how it fit where it was
birthed it was birthed through the idea
of helping people uh instead of letting
them be helped by somebody else right I
love that um you know when you're
scratching your own itch that's one of
the most important things for any
entrepreneur to do is if you're not even
solving a problem for yourself the
chances that you're going to be solving
a really large problem for somebody else
or very very slim so starting with
something that is a burning need that
you have um and and when we were at
Quest that was really the thing for us
was we said well I don't know if there's
going to be a big business here but I
know that there's at least three people
that are going to eat this protein bar
and uh you know we figured if we had at
least a market of three that our goal
was to go out and find the people that
were thinking like us so it's it's great
that you know you were starting from the
position of okay people are being aware
of what we're doing from an
entertainment Factor but now for us to
be able to help more people uh we're
going to leverage technology and and I
think that that's um you know we live in
the most powerful time for somebody to
be starting a company because even if
your company isn't technology you're
going to be able to leverage technology
in order to get the word out and if you
really think about Rob what your
business is your business actually isn't
technology right so your business is
helping um people get in shape right
it's connecting uh the dots between
somebody who has a need and their need
is that they want to get in shape they
want to learn how to exercise eat better
whatever the case may be whatever their
particular goal is um and then you've
got people that have free Cycles um and
so you've referred to this as the uh
Uber of the wellness world where you
know and and for those of you that um
maybe haven't thought about what Uber is
actually doing Uber sees themselves as
essentially right now anyway and I think
it'll change as they um automate
everything but they're selling spare
Cycles both of the car and of the driver
and so when those when you have somebody
who's got spare cycles and you have
somebody that has a need to leverage
those spare Cycles then you can bring
them together um so that's a a pretty um
powerful thing and and really is
something that you know didn't exist not
too long ago um this this whole thing
didn't happen but what you really can't
lose sight of is at the end of the day
and this really goes to your first
question at the end of the day it comes
down to what is the true value
proposition of the product so with that
I think it's a great transition um into
your first question so fire away all
right
right cool so um of course why we have
our our our plan for exiting we have our
plan but again we you don't know what
you don't know so in your opinion with
this kind of model what would be the
best way to plan um to set up
strategically for a nice exit for this
kind of model yeah for sure so let's um
Define terms cuz I know not everybody's
familiar with the term of an exit so um
what Rob is talking about is um building
the business to a certain level and then
finding either um a strategic uh who's
going to acquire it and use it to um you
know grow their own business and he has
some later questions that we can go more
into what a strategic partner would look
like um or you can sell to you know uh
private Equity or uh VC if they do um
full outright buys um and so that is is
really the the goal for a lot of people
is to build something to a certain level
and then they sell it and there's really
two paths and I think it's important for
people to understand that that isn't the
only model so selling a company um is is
what I'll call the standard model the
standard VC model where um typically in
um a VC exit cycle it's going to look
something like this um you're going to
get early traction so you're going to go
out you're going to build the app and
and this um there you have another
question later that really touches on
this but you're going to um build your
application to a certain level and then
you're going to go to a VC which just
stands for venture capitalist and there
are people that have access to um
usually a tremendous amount of money and
their bigger problem is actually finding
places to deploy that Capital so believe
it or not and this is really the
attitude that you have to walk in with
is you're walking into a VC as the
solution to their problem which is they
have all this Capital all these
resources they have uh what are called
limited partners who are essentially
pledging money to their fund and then
their job is to get a return on that so
you know let's get crazy let's say that
they have a billion dollars under
management they've got to deploy that
capital and then they're expected to get
a return and what they're doing is
they're investing in companies now it's
high-risk High reward most of the time a
VC is using a spaghetti model they throw
a bunch of stuff against the wall and
they see what sticks um and it's uh
what's more lovingly referred to as a
portfolio strategy so they know that
most of the companies in their portfolio
are going to fail okay so let's all
drink that in for a minute they know
going into it that most of the companies
are going to fail and that means you
have to be um really um
cognizant of how the model works that
you're going to want to make sure that
you understand that early wins get the
attention so if you go to a VC they're
going to give you and let's say that
they give you Capital they're going to
give you a time frame it's usually 3 to
five years um you might be able to
stretch them a little bit beyond that
but traditionally it's going to be about
3 to five years and then they're going
to expect you to exit either IPO which
is um an initial public offering or U
just outright sell to a strategic um and
that really does does put a gun to your
head and you have to think about that
and so you're going to want to um or you
will be forced to grow your company in
one way if you have a VC um and versus
the other model which is um called The
Evergreen model and this was really um
it's being spearheaded um I would say it
was started by but I'm very open if uh
somebody else you know uh started this
before him but a guy named Dave Wharton
um who is uh just a great guy and has
something called uh the tugboat
Institute which full disclosure I'm a
member of and I'm a member of the
tugboat Institute because I really
believe um in the Evergreen model at
least is people knowing that there's
both of these models that exist and the
Evergreen model is very simple that
you're going to keep your company
forever you actually have no intention
of selling your company and I think the
reason that I find that so appealing is
um one I believe that it makes for
better companies so many Acquisitions
fail because of um culture problems the
founder problems so you know Rob when
you think about it like you've got a lot
of energy enthusiasm passion for your
idea but if you sell to somebody else
they share that same passion energy and
drive for your mission and so when you
sell to somebody and I don't know the
exact stats but I remember them being
just ridiculously high the percentage of
companies that sell and then fail um so
while it it can be very very lucrative
for the founder and this is certainly
one of the ways to generate tremendous
wealth um but it's not always great for
the company and so um th that's really
sort of First Choice number one is are
am I going for a VC traditional exit
where I'm going to take money uh they're
going to help me accelerate the growth
of my company you know with however much
money I take from them which usually by
the way is a fairly significant sum of
money because if you've got a billion
dollars under management you can't be
messing around with 100,000 here 500,000
there um which is more sort of the Angel
um investor route where you're going to
somebody who's much smaller the smaller
um the amount of dollars that they're
going to invest is much smaller because
they just you know when you think of
somebody with a billion dollars under
management they don't have the time it
literally don't have the time so there
might be amazing opportunities amazing
that they pass on because they can't put
say 10 or 20 or $50 million to work
which may be a more comfortable number
for them given the size of the fund so
really understanding your VC what their
sweet spot is all that okay so we won't
derail too entirely on that but so those
are the two basic models and to give you
a little more color on the Evergreen
model it it assumes that you want to
hold the company forever there's going
to be a different structure where you're
going to be paying your investors back
in dividends essentially right and you
build a structure that allows you to
take free cash flow so here's what I
need to um grow my business here's what
I need for near-term cap X um but
there's you know more that I have left
over due to the profitability of the
company and therefore I'm going to pay
that out and it goes on forever which
can be wonderful for the investor
because unlike um a traditional VC exit
you get one hit it may be massive but
then that's it whereas with an evergreen
company you get the money more slowly
but it can actually end up being
significantly more um if you get a
portfolio that has a few wins in it
because it just keeps going keeps going
keeps going so anyway those are the sort
of two big models now to answer the
direct question um so what are the best
steps to prepare for a big acquisition
exit all right I want everybody to lock
in their mind what they think the answer
is Rob I'll ask you to do the same I
want it in one sentence or less because
mine is going to come that rapidly so
all right everybody have it locked in so
they can't give us hindsight yeah yeah I
knew that was the answer all right Rob
what's your answer what do you
think one to put to create a platform
where you have the most people in the
highest pretention I love that that
that's perfect so you know the answer
and I'll say it another way and
hopefully everybody at home had a very
similar answer uh said a slightly
different way build an awesome product
okay that is the answer that's always
going to be the answer there's no fancy
tricks you have to do you could do
everything else wrong everything you
could set your Corporation up as a a c
and they want it as an s or you could
set it up um in California and they want
it in Delaware I whatever none of that
is going to matter if you're crushing it
right if you have an application that
people love they're using You've Got
High retention you're transforming
people's lives they're all going on
social media and saying fit World
changed my life they're like crying and
they're like showing up at your house
because they've been so moved and so
impacted by what you're doing dude any
's going to want to invest at that point
anyone's going to want to acquire you if
you show growth you show that there's
room to grow more you show retention
that that at the end of the day that's
it and that doesn't matter no matter
what you're trying to do right whether
it's a physical product whether it's
technology whether it's an app whether
it's a clothing line the only thing that
matters is that it's a truly great
product that has adoption um and then a
little bit of growth rate doesn't hurt
so that that really is like everything
else will take care of itself and you
know there's a lot of fancy stuff like
where to incorporate your company and
all that honestly at the end of the day
it all pales in comparison to just
building a really really great company
so you know as a startup man I just
cannot emphasize enough that's where all
of your time and attention should be is
making sure that when you put these two
people together that both of them have
an incredible experience that you're
working on your UI and your ux to
facilitate these meetings that you find
a way to um and maybe it's as simple as
rate and review to find a way that the
cream Rises to the top um and that the
people that are rising to the top want
to stay in your platform because that's
really going to be your bread and butter
right the bread and butter is going to
be I want to gain muscle or I want to
lose fat I go on fit world and I rapidly
get a hold to somebody who motivates me
who uplifts me keeps me going and most
importantly delivers results if you're
able to do that by retaining your you
know top tier Talent uh then then the
rest will take care of itself yeah good
stff two words great product oh yeah
pretty simple indeed it is man I mean
look execution is everything and and I
don't want to um undermine how hard
execution really is but you know let
you've got to let something be your
guide and making a great product that's
really got to be just the at the core of
every decision you
make all right hit us up what's number
two number two
so uh influencers are is going to be
what what really drives us building this
platform consistently we're in a day and
age where there's so many stars
Instagram Stars Facebook stars and they
may have 50 million followers but I
think one of the other biggest things
for us is we want to partner with health
and wellness companies that I mean
there's obviously thousands of all there
but in your opinion for a Model A model
like this what would be the best healthy
wellness companies to align ourselves
with um for growth
well that's really going to come down to
the company's agenda right so um one
thing and you know thinking about what
it was like at Quest and people were
reaching out to us every day and they
wanted to partner and it's you you don't
say yes and no based on whether they're
a good company or whether they have um
something really amazing that they're
trying to offer the world because you're
getting hit up all the time by great
companies with something great to offer
the world so it really comes down to
what is that company's agenda right what
are they trying to do so Quest was
making huge plays into cancer right that
was really really meaningful to us and
uh really trying to do something
incredible there so understanding what
that company is trying to accomplish
right understanding that Quest was like
dieh hard about metabolic disease that
they really wanted to make just great
products that people could choose based
on taste happened to be good for them
like all of the things we were putting
out into the world we were telling
people this is what we were about it was
really astonishing how few people
actually understood that and so when
they're reaching out to us um not
showing a level of understanding about
who we are uh what we're trying to
accomplish was really the death nail for
a lot of people reaching out so you want
to find out like who those companies are
that you think might fit into the world
so obviously you guys are in health and
fitness um so partnering uh with
companies that that that's just like
their Leading Edge and it may be
different companies than you think right
so um it it's not always going to be the
obvious ones but certainly in the realm
of food there are some very obvious
players who clearly care about um health
and Wellness uh there's going to be
companies on the um Insurance Hospital
side that you know if you find an
insurance company that's making a huge
play in preventative uh medicine like
going to somebody who's all about
preventative medicine that that would be
a big big deal um but you know just
really going back to that what's
Universal about it is you guys want to
um really find people that they are
actually trying to do something that you
can actually help them with and that is
something I just cannot cannot emphasize
enough is don't try to get a deal done
okay don't try to get a deal done try to
help somebody like think about what's
really going on in their company and how
that you can get how you can help them
accomplish that and Jay samit talks a
lot about this in his book disrupt you
and he says always use other people's
money like you'll be shocked at the
things that you can get somebody else to
fund because it helps them accomplish
their goals and what they're if you do
it right what they're thinking to
themselves is oh my God I get Rob is
going to do all the logistics of this
all I have to do is throw money at the
problem right that will be amazing for
them if you're actually able to execute
and do something that helps and you know
I'm just off the top of my head if you
have somebody that has like really
Regional stuff or let's take a Kaiser
Permanente right making this up on the
spot I lit I have no idea what their
actual agenda is but from what I know if
you were able to do things for them like
create uh a branded version of your app
which is for Kaiser Permanente people
specifically uh to get them into the
program where you can actually track how
many um how many minutes do they spend
with their uh the the wellness
professionals um if the wellness
professionals rate their progress what
that rating is and then feed that data
back to Kaiser Permanente if they were
into preventative medicine again I don't
know if they are but if they were then
it's like whoa these guys are thinking
okay I want to fun a ton of money into
what you're doing I want to continue to
support you I want to be a sponsor
because you're actually helping us
achieve goals inside of our own company
and so now they don't have to build it
right so if they had a team and they
were imagine that you call them on the
day that they've just had a meeting
where they're thinking okay wait we've
got to build an app and somebody's
pitching that guys we need an app and we
need an app that connects him to
Wellness professionals and we need to be
able to track the minutes that they're
spending with these people and track
Weight Loss or Diet you know calories in
and then you come along and say hey
that's what I have I understand what you
guys are doing I understand your big
initiatives within the company and let
me tell you how I already execute again
that and here are our sponsorship
packages right so now you're really
solving their problem and that's
something that not enough people do they
feel that they're coming to um a company
with their handout right asking for
something if you feel like that you
either don't understand your own value
proposition or you're going to the wrong
companies because the moment you find
something that's truly aligned that
actually will help that company do
something like you're bringing value and
then you can come to the table really as
an equal and when that's authentic like
when you authentically know what I have
built solves a problem for you then it
can become really a beautiful
relationship and that's where you're
going to get those lasting relationships
where you're not constantly having to
like reinvent it right where you're you
have them for six months but then
they're like they have trouble pitching
it to the you know the committee that
approves it again and so it's like oh
God every six to 12 months you're having
to like redo this stuff versus somebody
who's like whoa you've really helped my
business man I Want to Hold On
Tight man that's a paradigm shift right
there wow yeah yeah that's a whole
different concept because you think when
you going to companies yes you don't
know me can I work with you and if you
have that approach as opposed to it's a
value ad so it's a no-brainer for you
let's do business that's a okay yeah and
the key there man is is to just really
find those companies for whom it truly
is a value ad and and I cannot recommend
the book um disrupted You by Jam enough
I did a book review have we launched the
book review on that yeah okay so it's
already live check out the book review
um Jay's coming on the show this week I
think um so by the time most of you
watch this unless you're in the live
audience uh it will be live so it should
be up probably in the next month um so
but his his book really rocked me man
and just really really really good
advice about how to find the right
partner uh and make your pain points go
away you make theirs go away I saw that
yesterday yeah nice I saw that yesterday
all right uh so influencers they're
they're everywhere but you know
obviously this is a very noisy world
again now that the par has been shifted
there's a value ad for influencers but
so it's kind of I guess the same thing
but my question was how do we what's the
best way to attract influencers to uh be
endorsers for fit world yeah it it is
very similar but there's there's a
flavor on this one um that's different
so influencers it's really about going
in and identifying an authentic
connection as people
so the most important thing is because
people are putting themselves out there
so aggressively on social media you can
really learn what they're about like you
can find out what they want what they're
trying to accomplish what their
communities all about their ethos um and
and once you have that then you really
can go and write them a letter and tell
them who you are it can be a DM but
think about how many DMS they get all
the time write them a letter which is
going to be way more rare and just tell
them like here's I see you right in the
avat way like I see you I know what
you're trying to do I know what you're
trying to accomplish I think it's
amazing I'm reaching out because I
actually believe in what you're doing
right and that's the key only reach out
to people you really believe in that you
can authentically like be um you don't
want to be a gross Fanboy but when you
can be authentic and show appreciation
like that goes a long way don't be a a
sycophant but show authentic
appreciation um that goes a long way
people obviously that feels good so
you're going to show that you really see
them you understand who they are that
there's perhaps a real authentic um a
sense of appreciation that you guys can
do something together you lay it out
keep it short like if it's multiple
Pages you've already lost like
influencers have people writing to them
all the time one of their jobs is to
read comments and reply like all day
every day so the last thing they want is
something really really lengthy so like
give it to them in a couple paragraphs
no run on sentences like get to the
point be succinct but let them know that
this is how you see it working this is
the value you think you can add to them
and then you've got to be persistent and
one of the best ways to be persistent
because people on social media man they
are all about building that community so
they're looking for comments they're
looking for likes they're looking for
shares like that's really really
valuable and if when you write them
you've already spent two or three months
as one of the most active and generous
participants in their Community dude
there's like a a world of difference
between that like there's probably call
it 15 or 20 people in our ecosystem that
if they wrote to impact Theory uh dude
in a heartbeat like I would listen to
them I would take them out to lunch
whatever
because they've been so generous with
their time and energies in our community
not just replying liking and sharing but
like supporting other people in the
community which is a thing for us it's
not going to be a thing for everybody
but that's a thing for us and so when
people are doing that like you get my
attention right I know who you are so
I'm reading all the comments I see the
people that are sharing like we pay
attention to that stuff because that's
the lifeblood of what we're trying to do
so if you've done that and you've really
been adding value consistently over time
I'm not talking for a week I'm not
talking about like you went gung-ho for
a day I'm talking I see your name over
and over and over for months then like
if you write to me and say hey this is
me this is my username and I really
here's how I connect authentically with
what you're doing and by the way I've
got this company and here's what I want
to do if there's a fit like I'm
literally it's 10 or 100x I'm more
likely to do something with them than I
would be somebody that hasn't been
contributing to what I'm doing so you
know just recognize that truth of human
nature yeah that's good that's good so
um the probably the the most solid uh
component of our business model in
regards to scaling is our professionals
because each coach or each trainer they
come on the application and then they
send an invite that says welcome to my
world to their clients their clients
then come onto the application so on an
average every coach or professional has
20 clients that means for our 100
professionals we have the 2,000 users so
our thing is making sure we have a great
experience for our coaches but we're
looking for the best route to actually
attract them now one of the biggest
attractions is uh right now if from
communication standpoint they're using
text messaging emailing Google Calendar
or Outlook um they're using PayPal for
merchant services and probably Google
Hangouts Skype or FaceTime if there's
any kind of virtual consultation all
that's inside the fit World app for our
providers but our thing is what's the
best way to attract providers to come
take a look into um be a part of our
movement yeah man that's easy so what
the providers care about is what you
already mentioned which is that you're
going to make all of the business side
of things really really easy so that'll
be huge for them but the thing that they
care about way more than that is users
so their big problem if you think about
them from a marketing advertising
standpoint is they're good helping
people they're not good at running a
business if they were good at running a
business then they'd already be thriving
and chances are they're not going to
come to you and by the way that's a okay
and I think that one of the greatest
things that's going to come out of um
what we're trying to do on the content
side is we recognize that if you want to
be a Content producer you have a choice
to make like you can either continue
making amazing content I don't just mean
social I mean writing a screenplay
writing a book whatever it is that your
is your content flavor of choice but you
have to decide like do I want to get
really good at that and spend all my
time doing that do I want to become a
great marketer or do I want to do both
and if you want to do both you're going
to be splitting your energies right and
so most people are never going to get
good at both they're going to get good
at one or the other and so what we're
trying to do is say hey we understand
the creative side well enough we're
putting all these business processes in
place to make sure that you get the
introductions that you need to actually
turn your content into something the
publishing and all that we're going to
take care of all of that um and what we
want to do is help those people that
don't want to do the business side of it
so you're going to get a lot of people
that are doing that they need the they
want somebody to handle the business
side side and then the other is they
want clients because they don't want to
have to figure out the marketing and
advertising so if you have a steady
stream uh and a torrent would be even
better of people coming into your
application who are looking for the
wellness um Enthusiast then then you're
really going to have a hit and if you
imagine what the nightmare scenario
looks like for you it's a whole bunch of
Wellness um professionals and nobody
asking for their services that will be
the most rapid way uh that people will
bail out of the service and so what you
always have to figure out you know it's
kind of like um club promoter right is
you don't just want a room full of dudes
you've got to find a way to bring the
young women into the club as well uh and
that's going to be your thing is how do
you manage that ratio right you've got
to get the ratio um and so that's going
to be the biggest problem that you solve
if you get that down like everything
else will take care of itself because
the fitness professionals will come for
um the people that you've got there and
then the best of the best will rise to
the top because it'll be basically um a
sell's market and so they're looking for
or um the people are looking for the
highest rated professionals because
there's you know a slew to pick from
you've got the best of the best you've
got high retention and then boom they
find those people they get results they
tell other people more people come to
the system it becomes self-fulfilling
yeah that's
cool wait
um what would be the the best way
obviously there's VCS there angel
investors there's a lot of different
Outlets to raise Capital but um for what
we have the platform that we're
providing uh our series one is 500,000
that's our goal to raise uh what would
be the the best route to raising that
Capital um so I'll get to the sort of
real mey answer in a second but the
first thing I'll say is understand the
amount of capital that you want to raise
so he already knows his number 500,000
500,000 is almost automatically going to
put you into the angel Camp um so you're
going to be looking at Angels if you're
looking at Angels get yourself well
versed with um Angel list uh Angel list
is is a app it's a technology platform
that's really done an amazing job of
aggregating um Angel Investors giving
them a platform where they can rapidly
sift through the business ideas and
people that are coming onto the platform
it's a great way to get attention um and
at the end of the day that's really what
you need now you're going to have to get
Angel Investors attention very quickly
communicate your value um show that it's
something that they want to invest in
the investors can also say the kinds of
things that they're interested in so you
can filter by that and figure out who
you want to approach um so that's just a
an amazing tool that is um you know only
I don't know five or six years old so
it's just again just an incredible
incredible time to be an entrepreneur
trying to bring something to the table
so check out Angel list um but the the
honest answer again goes back to the
first question which is build a great
company right so if you have an amazing
product and you show early traction like
here's here's the first rule of
money you can never get money if you
need it but you can get money in
abundance if you don't so what you have
to show people is that you don't need it
to get the early wins you don't need it
to to get people using your platform you
don't need it to get the platform off
the ground like people are going to be
super reticent to invest in an idea let
me tell you who they whose ideas they
invest in proven
entrepreneurs okay if you've got a
proven entrepreneur if um Zuckerberg
says Hey guys I've got a great idea for
an app you know what I'm breaking away
from Facebook I want to do my own thing
uh anybody want to invest dude he would
be beaten to death with like the lumps
of money falling on his head so uh it'
be very easy because of what he's
accomplished if you're not a seasoned
entrepreneur then you've got to show
early traction and so and yes that means
you've got to hustle yes it means you've
got to grind yes it means you've got to
win with no Capital but
look not having access to huge amounts
of money in today's age just shouldn't
matter that much not for early traction
for scaling for sure but like with
Amazon web services that that goes away
you can get somebody um overseas where
it's U much more costeffective to design
your website I mean there's just a
thousand ways to get this stuff done for
cheap you should be able to get a
website up and running um showing what
your app is about um for God even with
an app you should be able to do it for 5
to 10K right you may have to attract a a
a coder who will do it for Equity but if
they believe in your idea and your idea
is real and your ability to pitch that
idea like you're able to build
excitement and build a team like that's
part of what makes a great entrepreneur
so if you don't know how to do that yet
like then you have to start at that you
have to start at team building you have
to know how to get people excited to
Rally around your idea before it's
anything I mean that's like leadership
101 you've got to be able to get get
people to see your vision to Rally
around it so um getting the that early
win by showing traction by showing that
your thing works showing some growth
rate then go to the angel investor then
ask for money um don't do the brain
damage of going when it's still just an
idea and it's super nent and I've seen
the list that you guys have I mean
you've got uh a big team man so that's
super impressive but leverage that team
now to actually get traction and once
you have traction then go hit people up
for the cash yes good stuff
H how much how much time do I have yeah
where are we on time 10 more minutes
have a couple audience questions wow
this goes fast all right let's let's
hear some audience questions all right
first one is from Laura she says what
are the challenges and benefits of
spending your time building your own app
versus just building a large fallowing
on exis
platforms well so it depends on what
your app is going to do like for him it
it wouldn't work right because you're
not going to be immediately the people
that are the wellness um expert they're
just going to take people into their own
ecosystem he's not going to bring any
value to them they're not going to be
able to scale their business he's not
going to be able to retain his customers
so it's like the very value proposition
that he has is I'm going to make the
business part easy for you and I'm going
to create a sticky environment where
once somebody comes into the environment
they stay they may not stay with the
same Fitness professional but they'll
stay in our ecosystem and then you know
when they come available then you'd be
able to um get access to them so it's
really there aren't a lot of businesses
that can exist solely within the
universe of social media I mean if
you're just trying to be like a a paid
influencer maybe but even then like if
you're selling information you've got to
have some platform that uh you can point
people to to you don't need necessarily
need a full-blown app but you need a
website uh that can you know give them
the info that they're going to download
so yeah all right one more question this
one's for Rob um is fitor providing
guidance to trainers Andor screening
them to any predatory practices oh
absolutely so we have a a pretty deep
vetting process um where they have to
upload their certifications um we do a
cross analysis on the social media
platforms and of course then once they
are in the system we have a Amazon type
rating system to where you know once
someone uses their services they can
then comment about their
experience of course you know we can't
control everything but we'll do the best
we can to make sure that we're getting
dedicated professionals on the platform
cuz again that customer service Drive is
what's going to give us the retention we
need to
thrive all right makes sense back to Rob
all right Rob we probably have time for
like one more okay all right so me let
me go to a a John Maxwell question um
Tom you you you're in this industry you
built a an amazing company request
nutrition um and and I know your story
in regards to uh The Passion of why you
even got involved in this Wellness
industry in regards to your family and
your own life uh for what we're doing
who do you know that we should
know wow man there's uh there is a big
universe of people on Instagram on
Facebook that are influencers that are
really really touching people's lives um
I would start there I don't know that
it's um it's about building that
personal relationship because the honest
answerers you and I don't have a
relationship right so um it wouldn't
come down to me making an introduction
to you because I'd need to know you and
have a relationship with you first um
but it does come down to in the world of
social media that you can be delivering
value to those people right now doing
something positive for their Community
um finding out what it is that really
drives them and making sure that you're
delivering against that um and then that
becomes the the way that you're going to
meet that meet those people that you
need to be those early influencers that
are really going to help you take off
and one thing I I really want people to
understand is you've got to be playing
the long game in relationships and don't
make the mistake that I made I ass shoed
um uh networking forever that pause was
whether I should Define a shoe uh I I
didn't Network for a very long time and
I didn't do it because man I know it's
probably hard for people to believe I'm
introverted so I don't actually love
going out and uh networking and meeting
people from scratch but finally I had to
force myself to do it right do and
believe that which moves you towards
your goals and I just knew that I I've
got to get out there and I've got to
figure out how to get past this mental
block and so I started networking
probably about I don't know six years
ago and it has just turned into this
super super powerful thing in my life
and has become how I've met a lot of
amazing people but they never turn into
something in the short term right it's
it's the people that I met for four and
five years ago that I've consistently
proven um that I am who I say I am that
the person that I represent in social
media actually is the person that you're
going to see and meet off camera uh
delivering value to them over time being
consistent um actually caring about them
and getting to know them as a person
like you want to be doing all of those
things so you know I mean best case is
the people that you're going to meet now
they're going to plant seeds that will
help you um down the road and you
definitely definitely want to be
investing in that and going to um any
kind of Meetup networking event that you
can that's in the space that you really
care about and whenever possible meeting
somebody on the ground of really wanting
to be able to help them do something and
when you can do that authentically like
they're just doing something that you're
into uh then it then it really really
pays off so start networking now uh
these days man with Facebook and social
media it is so easy like there's so many
people doing like right now we have a
Meetup going in uh
Atlanta in Atlanta with Cindy uh so hey
anybody in the Atlanta area um so that's
you know the kind of thing that you want
to do there's just people are doing this
left right and Center start building
those relationships now um identify
those organizations when it's not just a
person identify the organizations um if
they have meetups uh or like find out
where I mean with LinkedIn like you can
find out like who's the person within
the organization who's going to have the
pain point that I can solve right
because it's not going to be just the
organization in general it's going to be
one person in the organization who's in
charge of something that you're actually
going to be able to help with see if
they're doing something if they're
involved in something and find that area
of real authentic common overlap where
you can go and and get to know
them common authentic overlap word got
it that's good awesome yeah I'm not sure
how how did got to end up in air quotes
put that in quotation that's I love it
honestly man know RS down to I guess two
main components from the one side of how
do we Thrive and how do we keep
retention good a great product and how
do we build relationships add value to
people I mean that's kind of what I got
out of this interview two easy things to
understand and and to uh to man manifest
appreciate it man thank you for sure and
it sounds like you took exactly the
right things and and that that'll be the
universal takeaway you know as many
times as we do the show I promise you
that adding value being consistent over
time making a great prodct product like
those are going to be the things you
hear over and over and over um because
those are the only things that are real
and that last and um I what I always
want people to understand is that value
is the only thing you can monetize
consistently over time so there are
other things that you can monetize for a
second like you can be a great marketer
and you can monetize a powder pill
potion snake oil you know what I mean
and you can get a quick win and those
wins confuse people and make people
think that that's the way to do business
uh and that is really the fastest way
especially in today's an economy for you
to really destroy your credibility and
not be able to do something in the
future so value sells value sells over
the long run you can always monetize
value creation so focus on that
everything else will take care of itself
Rob thank you so much for joining us man
uh is there any um where do you want
people to find you online so they can go
well fitworld wide. net is where they go
to register pre-register for the app
we'll be launching within next 30 days
right now we have our prototype we're
breaking it messing it up making sure
it's ready to uh MVP is ready to be put
into the marketplace but we're on
Facebook uh fit World app that's where
you can find us on all our social media
platforms fit World app perfect and uh
we love we' love to have you come by and
a