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[Music] Sam wood welcome to the Davy podcast thank thank you so much for having me
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and H great to meet little Kanye oh yeah Kanye he will be um he will stand here with us for the duration of this chat at
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some point he might jump up on your lap uh you might look around and think he's
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not in here but he'll just be under my seat he's um he's never far from my side
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I other way how are you welcome to New Zealand M I'm great and it's so beautiful to be here of uh I'm from
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tazzy originally and the amount of people have said to me oh New Zealand and tazzy there's a lot of similarities
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and we're staying down there by the by the water and uh yeah went for a big run
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this morning and I can see what people are saying it's got hobot Waterfront Vibes that's for sure right what else
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what else are similar the incest no no no comment no comment no no I moved to Melbourne 20 years ago and I
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caught plenty of that early on so um where did you run this morning just along the um uh just along the dock
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there yeah not nothing uh probably nothing compared to what you do I did 8ks so oh that's a good that was that
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was a nice little nice little druck yeah that that's one thing that Drew me to to
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running just the Simplicity and ease of it like wherever you are in the world you can just um I mean You You Shoes
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aren't even medat Tre you can go without shoes if you want um but it's so simple
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so easy great great way to see in New City as well best best way to see a place and it's uh I don't know we're
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soing at dogs as well dog walking my dog and running in my two meditations are reckon I don't not really typically do
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the the meditation thing but those two things and just switching off my two things for sure yeah yeah hey I'm so
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excited to have you over really looking forward to cracking to this chat I thought we could um do it structure in
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sort of three sort of chapters okay um chapter one The Bachelor stuff sure sure your you're your dark reality TV past uh
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chapter two we'll go back to Sam pre-bachelor sure and then uh chapter three post bachelor which is where we're
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at now absolutely no that's a good way of doing it a lot yeah yeah yeah so I
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mean there's probably some people listening to listening to this or watching this that know you from um The
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Bachelor that'll be excited about that um but with what you've done since then
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it's it's really just like a footnote in your story isn't it yeah a very important one I mean
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people sort of say to me flippantly a little bit like oh do you regret doing The Bachelor and that kind of stuff and
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the answer is absolutely not it's without doubt the best thing that I've
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ever done I didn't I didn't enjoy the experience that much it was a bit a bit
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contrived and you know you're you're filming for 16 17 hours a day most days
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7 days a week 16 uh weeks hours away from home and uh you know TV for those that have experienced it behind the
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scenes is you know there's a lot of fluffing around for not much content in the end it's it's it's you know it's a
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pretty painful process but wait wait a minute are you telling us the rose ceremony isn't done in real time no
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everything is rung right out and there were some seriously late nights and a lot of times I think go surely we can
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just wrap this up but you sort of just have to suck it up and it was a it was a brilliant learning experience it was a
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really good test for me of sort of patience and getting to know myself a bit better um you know really getting
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out of my comfort zone really getting comfortable talking about things that I typically wouldn't talk about even with
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a mate let alone in front of millions of people and you know 20 cameras so I'm I
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really feel like I evolved enormously from that experience as a person comfortable with vulnerability talking
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about my relationships and and feelings and all that kind of stuff stuff that BLS are typically not that great at and
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most importantly I met my now amazing wife we've got four daughters so for those that uh have no idea what I'm
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talking about I was on The Bachelor in 2015 it was the third season of the Australian Bachelor I'd never seen the
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show before and uh client of my gym would pest to me about being single and getting a girlfriend and all this kind
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of stuff and she basically said I'm going to I'm going to apply for you I'm
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going to start filling out your form and you're going to go on this show and I
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was like I don't be ridiculous Kelly I'm not going on this show I've seen the ads
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on TV but that was as far as my knowledge went and she came around behind reception of my gym Googled how
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you apply for the bachelor started filling out this form you know asking me questions then she went and train said
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you make sure you filled the rest of these details out and lo and behold the phone rang the next day and I sort of
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you know private number and I answered it and they said oh hi we got your application for the show we're really
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interested in talking to you can we do a Skype interview I was like oh yeah sure
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and we did a 60-minute Skype I think it was two days later and then two days after that Sam
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we really lik the Skype interview we want to fly you to Sydney and uh we want to interview you and I was still a
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little bit naive about it all it's all very fast moving very fast and I said of
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I don't know how many people there'd be flying into Sydney I guess yeah so I
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flew up had my flip flops as you guys call them my thongs on M jines MAA I was all pretty relaxed about it all and I
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walked into this room and it was full of all these suits TV exx big cameras on um and it was about 15 people in this
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room and they spoke to me for about an hour and a half with the cameras on and I was like oh this is far more sort of
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advanced and full on that i' baps anticipated and as I was leaving I remember one of the heads of Channel 10
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in Australia sort of uh he sort of grabbed me by the arm and as I was leaving he said don't go doing anything
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rash and you know getting any crazy mohawks or anything and I said I think you I think it's pretty safe F and sort
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of gave him a wink and walked off and caught a came back to Melbourne and um about 10 days later I got a phone call
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saying mate you're it we've chosen you but you've got to pack up your life in
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Melbourne moved to Sydney for 4 months and you can't tell a soul why you're
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going there and where you're going and I was like oh Jesus I had a gym I had a
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kids Fitness business um so that was it was that sort of really that was the poignant moment
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of well what do I do here I don't really know what I'm doing I didn't ever think
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I'd get accepted now there's a decision to make it's a long time to put your
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life on H day yeah and it was also then I did start to think about God what what
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is this show what are the consequences of this show the guy that had done it the year before it had been an absolute
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balls up oh I was going to ask you about this where you fit into it so you were on in 2015 was the one before you with
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um Nick cumins honey be no no he was well after me he got slaughtered he did a similar sort
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of outcome the guy before me was a guy by the name of Blake who chose someone and then the shot that
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went to Air and then he backflipped on his decision and broke up with that girl and started texting the girl that came
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second for want of a better expression and was voted most hated man in Australia was basically banished from
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the country and so I'd sort of heard these stories like Jesus if it goes pearshaped it really does go badly so
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you know you start to have these not not not doubts but you you you got to realize scenar yeah a little bit a
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little bit but more more for me it was like if I don't do this now I will forever wonder what if and I'll just
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it'll be really hard to sort of live with that what if so I jumped in I called my best mate and uh I called my
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dad they were the two people that I told and um and off I went and I remember uh
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about a day before we started shooting the executive producer Shan great guy um I really got a lot of comfort by sort of
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spending time with him and chatting with him he said mate I've just heard you've
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never seen an episode like you've seen some bits of some episodes and said M I
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promise you I've never seen one minute of the show outside of an add-on that
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comes up on the ad breaks and he was like oh [ __ ] that's that's that's risky
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anyway he said let's just let's just start filming tomorrow as scheduled and
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if it's a total dogs breakfast we might have to pause filming and you might have
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to do a bit of homework to understand exactly how the show sort of flows and what actually happens on this thing cuz
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he said mate this is a big beast once it goes It goes I don't think you quite
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realize the enormity of it all anyway we started filming and it got to the end of that first night of you
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know a cocktail party where 22 girls walk down a driveway and I get out of limo and I meet them all and have to
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remember everybody's name and there's lights and cameras everywhere it was
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full on by the way that would give me like so much anxiety do you have someone in your ear reminding you of names or
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yeah a little bit but it's there's a lot going on you know girls are coming up to
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you and grabbing you and want to have a conversation and they're trying to you're trying to remember not only their
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name but where they're from and a little bit of information about them and it's a
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lot and uh it got to the end of filming the first night and Sean said mate that's the best and I said what man he
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said you got no preconceived ideas you're not trying to be here to be famous you just you're a bit of a dog
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and you're here being your like in meaning it as a compliment I think and um and he said he said you're not going
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to watch an let's just let's just roll with it and then you know you know the
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bachelor's The Bachelor it's a crazy circus but snana this Macedonian girl from Perth
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who had a 9-year-old daughter I just clicked with and really started to fall for and um and yeah so all I wanted to
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do was spend more time with her that was really hard because you've obviously got
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to do what the show requires you do go on different dates with different girls and different dates with different girls
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you know and I think because of the Season before me they they thought oh we might change his mind and I I was sort
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of saying guys I'm not going to change my mind I like I'm I'm pretty decisive
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once once stick to something and they uh they were like oh I will be the judge of
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that after last year you know you all this kind of stuff and uh yeah I started to fall in love with SN and find out
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about her little nine-year-old daughter eie and um and yeah the rest is history we're now married we've got four kids
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and it's uh been been a crazy adventure ever since it's a it's a brilliant Love
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Story there's actually um a New Zealand Bachelor couple who have a similar sort
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of story art and Matilda oh there's a lot of parallels with you and him like he's he's mad into the fitness
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scene um but yeah there she um sneeze yes is that how you say snana yeah she's
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Macedonian yeah so she was first out of the car on the night she was and did you
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feel something then or you just like over stimulated and well I did but I was I mean you said the anxiety about the
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names I was I was a little overwhelmed at that stage like it was kind of you know tuxedo on lights camera action and
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this car pulls up and bang and I was like oh this is this is how it works I didn't know if it was five girls I
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didn't know if it was 10 girls it turned out to be 22 girls so I was really trying to compute what the was going on
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here it was a lot to take in but even amongst that Madness I was like oh there's something like about you that
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you know intrigues me yeah that's the same sort of thing with art and mat said to the producers ear on oh yeah
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she's the one they're like no no no hold your horses this is episode one we need
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to go through the process yeah but he sort of he that must make it hard doing a show like that when you've sort of got
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this um idea in your mind that that's the one I like well I hated it from the
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other girls perspectives because I felt like they never had a shot yeah and you you're not being fully honest you know
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and they sort of say look just have a great time with this person you don't have to overcommit anything that you say
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but you know you they're here you've got to sort of be fully present when I said
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absolutely of course i' would be terribly disrespectful not to do that but I really had sort of worked it out
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in my head that you know nothing's going to change here that sort of changes my
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mind and uh yeah that's how it panned out you said of giving um sneeze like a
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a nudge and a wink like don't worry you're getting a rose tonight well they
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were very quick to pull apart when the cameras weren't on you should have seen
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it it was just like get them away from each other like the the all the producers and stuff had rushing at a
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million rate of knots to pull you apart yeah yeah and did you throughout the process did you like hook up or kiss
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with any other girls well you do because it's sort of what the show is you have
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to you have to well it sounds horrendous even saying that doesn't it but the the
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hardest thing was watching the show back and you know I I sort of I'd get together with my mates so I was still in
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Melbourne SN was in Perth and perth's 2 hours behind um or 3 hours in daylight
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savings uh Melbourne time so it would come on at 7:30 in Melbourne and be two hours behind and so I'd watch it and I'd
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see what comes out on that episode and I'd text and you probably don't want to
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watch tonight's episode and she'd be like why why don't I want to watch this
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there's a weird sort of point in time when that's happening it's like you're being unfaithful in a
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way yeah but it's already happened it happened before we got together but it's
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sort of it's playing out after we've gotten together it was it was a nice
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thing to watch yeah same sort of thing with art and Matilda here yeah FY crazy and how um how did life change change
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afterwards in terms of like the level of Fame and stuff I mean I suppose you're
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in a good position to handle it cuz you're a 35y old man you you've been
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through a lot in your life so you you're well equipped to deal with what's
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happening next but the the Australian media they can be quite Savage right oh yeah it was I agree with you I I'm very
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grateful that I was a bit older and sort of bit bit more comfortable in my own skin perhaps I think it could cheer you
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up and spit you out pretty quickly but like I literally went from complete obscurity
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to walking down the street and they'd be 20 M Billboards my face would be on
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every bus every tram every train every TV ad every radio ad couldn't walk down
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the street without 50 people asking me for a selfie Paparazzi be camped outside my house camped outside my gym they'd
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follow my friends around like it was full on and it's really full on in that
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there was a bit of a there was a thre Monon delay between when we finished filming and when it went to air so that
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period is really hard because they're so desperate to get a scoop on who you
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shows by somehow seeing you together or it leaking that you know they follow you
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around very intensely to try and sort of crack it crack it open and get paid all
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this money to break the story so how how did you um keep the relationship going at that time was it just like remotely
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with phone calls yeah it was yeah a lot of phone calls the the studio um would let us catch up every four weeks in
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person so they'd fly me into Sydney on one day they'd fly SN into Sydney from
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Perth on another we weren't allowed to fly in on the same day in case people
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sort of tracked the flights so so they managed the whole Logistics yeah it was like born identity type stuff she'd get
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in a car with tinted window she'd go through a car park there'd be a car swap
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they'd drive us out I'm not even making this [ __ ] up it was crazy they'd drive
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us out to a Airbnb at in complete remote country Australia we'd spend 24 hours
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together and then they'd fly her back and they'd fly me back it was like a
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4-day uh stealth operation for 24 hours together just so we could see each other
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and keep in touch in in the flesh but it was um yeah it was Madness yeah so and you you mentioned before she had um she
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or she's got a daughter Eve who so Eve's like 17 18 now 18 yeah so she was like
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10 at the time nine she yeah she was nine and when uh when SN and Eve moved to Melbourne she just turned 10 right so
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did she did she watch the show was she allowed to watch the show well it was actually her idea that snares went on it
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so she sort of pushed mom to go on this show and you should do it bit for a bit of a laugh I think for both of them more
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than anything I don't think they ever quite envisaged it could have worked out
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how it did but she'd have to go to school and everyone was watching the show and saying has your mom still has
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your mom come home yet oh what's going on oh she must do well like she was a
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vault e was an absolute Vault she' get pested by the teachers pested by the other parents at school drop off like
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what's going on with your mom it was it was was uh yeah she sort of retells the
00:18:01
story that it was like a really full- on time for a 9-year-old kid to just be bombarded with these questions as people
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were just so obsessed with the show but um yeah she's now my little girl and
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yeah we're great friends and she's a ripper oh that's amazing God that's it's
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such a cool story a just the way everything's panned out yeah CHR I mean um yeah Married at First Sight is is an
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absolute laugh I love watching it but anyone that goes on there thinking they're trying trying to find true love
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is is delusional but I feel like The Bachelor they they have had a reasonable sort of
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success rate and it makes sense right like if you put you in a room with 20 other people there's bound to be someone
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that you have some sort of connection with yeah I don't know what the what the
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success rate is in New Zealand but in Australia there's been God I think there's been 10
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seasons and it's been three success stories so that's pretty good really I
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mean i' hoped I would meet someone but if you'd ask me really honestly do you
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think you will I would have said well probably not you know it's it's it's a
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long shot still but um yeah three there's something something really funny about going through that experience
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together like it's it's an experience that so few other people could really
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understand or you can even explain to them it's incredibly unique isn't it
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yeah so the fact you go through it together and then you you kind of got to sort of draws you really close as you as
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you sort of navigating your way through it and there there was something really sort of special about that I know some
00:19:34
people go one way and they they love the new found Fame and they go to the opening of all these EV like I was sort
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of the opposite I was all I just want to spend time with my family my close friends who know the real me and snars
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and and so it sort of it sort of brings you brings you the other way how how did
00:19:51
you not get wrapped up in the um in the the trappings or bobles or whatever you want to call it of celebrity life oh uh
00:19:59
it it was never really you know there's bits of it that I like don't get me wrong you know it's
00:20:05
you know I never sort of forget where it's all come from and um you know it I don't know yes it can
00:20:13
be good for the ego a little bit but I maybe it's that age and maturity thing
00:20:18
yeah maybe a little bit I don't I don't know I don't know I just I just wanted
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to spend time with SN obviously get to know Eevee you know we haven't been going out
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in we've had three more kids so you know like it's been staying home and partying
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yeah yeah it's been you know it's just it's been such a wild ride and and also
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then the business stuff happened and um you know I already had businesses so for
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me you kind of craved the normality a little bit and um because we were doing the remote thing for that first three
00:20:50
months that was that was sort of challenging in itself but once once has moved to
00:20:55
Melbourne I don't know I was just really ready to set settle down and and for the
00:21:00
three of us to become a little family that's what I was looking forward to yeah that's really cool why why had you
00:21:05
not found love on your own as you a personal trainer for your entire life you're 35 when you gone The Bachelor
00:21:12
were were you a Manor were you were you an F boy no I wasn't I look I dated girls and i'
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had girlfriends you know particularly in my 20s I uh you know some longterm I I don't know that broke up with a girl in
00:21:29
my late 20s and sort of that was a bit of a I need to maybe be by myself for a little while and get to know myself a
00:21:37
little bit I'd kind of I I hadn't really realized it perhaps at the time but I'd
00:21:42
always sort of had a girlfriend you know from sort of 18 to 30 and it was maybe not wanting to be by myself and I was
00:21:51
pretty much single you know dated a couple of girls for a few weeks here and there perhaps you know through that sort
00:21:57
of 30 to 35 period but I was sort of really enjoying being by myself for the first time in my life and I think that
00:22:04
was pretty good for me and then um and then you I think it was just the perfect thing with SN and I think the other
00:22:10
thing is SN is the same age as me and she's mature and strong and comfortable
00:22:15
in her own skin and all qualities that really attracted me to her and there were younger girls on the show who were
00:22:22
very different to talk to and approached the whole sort of environment and situation very very differently and
00:22:27
there was something about SN being you know a lot of them were complaining about I don't know being away from their
00:22:35
favorite Cafe for weeks or something and SN had left her 9-year-old daughter for
00:22:39
the first time in her life as a single mom and I'm like the only person here
00:22:43
that really should be stressing about what they left behind as you and you seem to not be you know like you're
00:22:48
really calm and strong about it and that was something that I really admired from
00:22:52
the start and I think the fact that we were both 35 and both knew what we wanted was was a really big part of why
00:22:59
we sort of withd drawn to each other yeah it's funny that Serendipity thing just right place right person right time
00:23:04
because you're a personal trainer she's a scientist and a solo mom the chance of
00:23:09
you meeting otherwise never would have happened your paths never crazy yeah yeah I've never been to Perth she'd
00:23:16
never been to Melbourne like we were never meeting her without the show that's for sure yeah okay so let's go
00:23:21
the way back so that that's enough of the um the bachelor paints are really good by the way you I can see why they
00:23:27
um they gave you as Zoom call the next day and then flew you to Sydney the day after you're a perfect Bachelor material
00:23:33
I'm guessing they had like a like a like a c or something no I'm guessing they
00:23:38
had a maybe a coffee table with like 10 guys and they were like yeah they're all
00:23:42
good possibles but we don't have the right guy yet and then your entry came in and they're like yes oh that's nice
00:23:47
of you this guy takes all the boxes so um so why why personal training What attracted you to
00:23:52
that I've loved it um I've loved it since day one Dom to be honest I so I'm
00:23:59
from tazzy I came over to do my human movement degree to Victoria um because you had to a lot of people leave tazzy
00:24:08
to do University or get a job so I I did that when I was 19 and um I was actually
00:24:16
up in balarat at of country Victoria doing my first year of my degree and a guy came up and did a talk to our first
00:24:23
year uni students and he painted this picture of this personal training Studio that was 1,000 square m and had a 200 M
00:24:32
running track around the outside of the gym he had 30 personal trainers and this
00:24:37
was in 2000 so personal training wasn't that big then anyway it sort of he he
00:24:44
was a brilliant guy and painted This brilliant picture and I was like wow I've got to check this place out so I'd
00:24:51
ring i' I called him up and said can I do some work experience in the next University holidays
00:24:59
and he's like oh man I haven't had a great track record with with this work
00:25:03
experience people to be honest I said I appreciate you know you're being so honest said but promise I'll I'll be
00:25:09
different and he said you're in balarad I'm here in Melbourne I don't really see
00:25:14
how it's going to work anyway I kept ringing him I didn't take no for an
00:25:17
answer and he's like oh God you're like the opposite of the bachelor yeah ex
00:25:22
you're a persistant little bugger anyway I uh he said all right come down you can
00:25:27
do a week in the the next holidays so I went down found a place to crash on a on
00:25:32
a family friend's couch and uh would go in there at 5:00 a.m. every morning worked till about 8:00 at night just
00:25:40
kept my mouth shut absorbed as much information as I could scrubbed toilets did whatever was necessary and at the
00:25:45
end of the week he said if you're happy to transfer Unis to a Melbourne uni um
00:25:52
you there's a job for you next year I said consider it done and I sort of walked in there and I still pretty young
00:26:00
and and fresh but I just I just knew this is something I'd really enjoy doing
00:26:05
I love working with people I've always loved sport um you know I was a really
00:26:10
skinny kid I was the same height that I am now and sort of 30 kilos lighter and I was just done to enjoy getting into
00:26:17
the gym and seeing what changes it could create for me and how it was helping me
00:26:20
build my confidence and all that kind of stuff loved weight training and loved learning about it and um yeah he gave me
00:26:28
gave me a crack and it just I just sort of took off I just got really busy really fast and fell in love with it and
00:26:35
you did that did about 80 appointments a week for six years and then I started Australia's first ever kids gym because
00:26:42
i' so I'm going to pause you there 80 appointments a week yeah for six years
00:26:47
yeah yeah I Wass 0 appointments a we how many days a week are you working uh six
00:26:53
six yeah so I was busy so like 1 hour appointments uh 45 minutes usually yeah so you're starting starting when like
00:27:02
5:00 a.m. 5:30 and I do I do pretty much till midday and then I'd have lunch and
00:27:09
train myself and then what happened by accident was I started training kids I'd
00:27:15
have a lot of parents and they'd say oh you don't do kids do and I said yeah
00:27:20
sure and they said oh I've got a little boy who needs to lose a bit of weight
00:27:24
and gain some confidence or wants to get drafted into the or play cricket or whatever it was you
00:27:31
know some were sort of athletic Pursuits and others were a bit more aesthetic and
00:27:36
next thing I'd have parents bring their kids out of school at midday 1:00 2:00
00:27:41
and see me for 45 minutes or an hour and so where most trainers that have that Gap in the middle of the day because we
00:27:48
were in a CBD location we were sort of on your way to work after school drop offer on your way home um I'd have kids
00:27:54
in the middle of the day so instead of sort of having a ceiling of 50 appointment a week I'd do about 30 kids
00:27:59
a week so the the the money's the the money's good I guess but um but it's
00:28:04
it's limited to your time isn't it yeah absolutely how much are you making on a
00:28:08
good week 5,000 6,000 yeah five grand a week as a 21y old at University I was doing un online at the same time oh [ __ ]
00:28:16
so yeah she was busy times but I loved it I love I couldn't get enough I was
00:28:20
this kid from Tazia who came over with that with about eight bucks in a crappy old Camry and all my life possessions in
00:28:27
the boot and my dad uh is old school kind of you know once you're 18 Sam you're on your own mate type thing you
00:28:33
know like don't ask me for another cracker that's kind of how dad is and I
00:28:36
always thought he was a bit hard at the time but I'm really grateful now and I
00:28:41
just loved it I'm like I can't get enough of this I'm earning great money
00:28:44
I'm meeting great people I'm learning lots I'm fascinated about having your
00:28:49
own business and all that kind of stuff so yeah I was fully immersed in it you you can't of had any sort of social life
00:28:55
to speak of well when you're 21 you still find a way you know like you you'd
00:29:01
do that for six days and you'd still go out with friends on a Saturday night and
00:29:06
you hang over on a Sunday and you know Monday morning the alarm goes off at 4:30 5:00 and you do it all again it's
00:29:12
amazing how resilient you are you kind of bulletproof in my late 20s it starts to catch up with you a bit but yeah in
00:29:18
those first few years it was it was full on but I it didn't seem to slow me down
00:29:23
but I I just loved it and then that kid stuff I was just fascinated by how many children were benefiting from personal
00:29:31
training but personal training is obviously quite expensive and not accessible for everybody so started um
00:29:38
Australia's first ever kids gym and we did after school programs and birthday
00:29:42
parties and holiday programs footy camps yeah yeah yeah Geo that was Geo G yeah so um that was 2006 so so this The Story
00:29:50
Goes um one of your clients uh very wealthy family you're training their kid
00:29:57
for like 300 bucks a morning five mornings a week well that was you've done your research D I'm impressed that
00:30:04
so that was actually the mom so I had a there was a very uh wealthy um surgeon and he was a surgeon who had about 150
00:30:14
other surgeons working for him he was very wealthy man he's a we wealth man and just the loveliest guy ever anyway
00:30:19
he he called me out when I was still doing the adults and the kids and he said oh I've got my son's a tennis
00:30:25
Prodigy I need um I need you to start training him I've done my research and
00:30:30
apparently you're the guy said uh yeah I said oh wonderful I can probably find
00:30:35
another train to look after him I said but I'm I'm full anyway he said well what do you
00:30:41
charge and I said I don't know $100 a session and he said I'll pay you 200 and
00:30:47
I and he needs to see you four times a week this is his nine-year-old son and I said oh Jesus I said okay I'll find a
00:30:55
way it's a bit too hard to turn down as a 24 year old I said all right so Daniel
00:31:01
came in great kid and I started doing you know footwork and conditioning work and rotation work for his tennis and um
00:31:10
great kid and David beautiful man lovely gu pushy as he was at that sort of first
00:31:16
um meeting great guy and we just developed a real friendship I became really close with his family um I'd
00:31:24
train him sometimes um I'd train his wife sometimes in in the mornings and um then I I started gecko I
00:31:34
started in an old garage but it was a short lease because they were ultimately knocking that garage down to build
00:31:41
apartment so I could go get a pretty sort of quick cheap lease for a couple of years to get gecko off the ground and
00:31:47
when gecko was going quite well um but we needed a new location he invited at that stage I was
00:31:55
training um Lena his wife uh every morning she'd sort of said oh Sam I want to come in on my way to work and I
00:32:03
wasn't training all the adults in because I was focing on on the kids stuff and um and I said oh yeah I can
00:32:09
see in the mornings before I sort of start my gecko day why don't you come in
00:32:12
so I'm training in a kids gym uh but there's adults you know sort of you can
00:32:17
be versatile she wasn't you know powerlifting 100 kilos or anything so there was plenty of equipment that would
00:32:23
would suffice to give her a good workout and over time I'd sort of say look I can't train you anymore because I
00:32:32
just I've got too much too many commitments with the gecko stuff and I really need to focus on it and she she'd
00:32:40
put her own prices up just so I wouldn't stop training her So eventually got to
00:32:45
the point where I'd see her at 7:00 every morning and she'd pay me $300 a
00:32:48
session she'd pull into the car park in her convertible Ferrari she'd always be
00:32:53
15 minutes late so I'd only train her for 30 minutes she'd pay me 300 $ then
00:32:59
she get back in the Ferrari and she'd go off to work it was ridiculous but but
00:33:03
they were so beautiful to me as boo I remember I was really stressed about finding a new location when that lease
00:33:10
was coming up they had about six months left and I was go where am I going to where am I going to house this business
00:33:15
and where are all these kids going to come and train and they invited me around to
00:33:19
dinner and so I'd never been to their house before they've got a $40 million
00:33:23
house in turac it's like something you've never seen before you know your
00:33:28
eyeballs get scanned and this big door opens up it's pretty it's it's it's
00:33:33
crazy so suddenly you're thinking 300 bucks a morning I'm being under didn't actually think that but
00:33:38
perhaps I should have but they um they invited me to dinner and they said Sam we've been talking and we know how
00:33:46
stressed you are you've been so good to our family and we see you as part of our
00:33:51
family and if you need um a building uh to move gecko to will buy one and I said what do you mean and they
00:34:00
said oh you know you can rent it off us but we know there's not that much out
00:34:04
there in the commercial rental space so sort of what you need where you need it but you're probably easier to find one
00:34:09
to buy so two weeks later I found a building for 2 and a half million bucks and they bought it with that like side
00:34:16
unseen charged me 100 Grand rent which is way unders on what it should have been and let me keep my business going
00:34:23
and even later down the track they invested in gecko to help sort of gecko EXP expand into uh franchising and all
00:34:30
this kind of stuff though yeah personal training thing I loved about personal training almost the most was the people
00:34:36
that you make they're successful business people they really care about you they're just a wealth of knowledge
00:34:41
and you know you've just got this incredible Network that genuinely cares about you and I think the fact I didn't
00:34:47
come from money and I was kind of this kid that had come over from tazzy having a bit of a crack they really liked that
00:34:53
and I'm pretty open person I'd you know if I was doing well I'd tell them I was
00:34:56
doing well if I was not doing well I'm telling I wasn't doing well and I think
00:35:00
they always liked that openness and that vulnerability and it's I'm still
00:35:05
Incredibly Close with that family and probably 10 others that I see on a regular basis you know 20 years later
00:35:12
yeah well I mean you're a very you're you're very handsome and you're a very
00:35:15
likable person so I'm guessing that's a lot to be part of the key of being a
00:35:20
successful personal trainer oh yeah you're being good company and having good chat yeah it's so much I mean what
00:35:26
trainers don't get is it's a lot less about biceps and abs as it is about
00:35:31
emotional intelligence and caring and good communication and you know I think the biggest mistake personal trainers
00:35:37
make is they you know they're a bit selfish and they they care about you for the two
00:35:43
hours of 168 hours a week that you're seeing the client but they don't follow
00:35:47
you up they don't you know work with you on your nutrition they don't you know i'
00:35:52
I'd go and watch my kids in their school and you know into sport cross country if
00:35:56
I was available you know I'd always you know take a real interest in what these
00:36:01
families were doing outside of the sessions that we had together and I think I think they really could see that
00:36:06
that was genuine and appreciated it for sure I can see why you were so successful um but you you had this um
00:36:12
this this Hunger for More it seems like this entrepreneurial Spirit or call it whatever you want so um Geo that we've
00:36:18
talked about the first kids JY in Australia um you expanded that ended up with 14 40 in 18
00:36:25
months yeah but it wasn't a wasn't a nice linear growth it was an expensive you know roller coaster we
00:36:33
actually started we licensed it the program and the equipment and the the manuals and you know uniforms all that
00:36:40
to existing gyms similar to Les Mills but for kids mhm obviously much smaller um and that was awesome at launch but
00:36:52
then these gyms have such high turnover of trainers that what would happen is you'd go in to check and that trainer
00:37:01
had now left they' going oh you can run the kids programs to someone new someone
00:37:06
knew had never had Direct contact with me the quality of the programs had dropped right off the equipment was
00:37:12
banged up and not packed away properly in the corner or the store room and you could just sort of see the writing on
00:37:18
the wall that this is you know we'd bought 100 equipment kits and brought them in from China with little rowers
00:37:24
and little bikes and little boxes like we I I tend to get a bit carried away so we' going this is going to be huge we're
00:37:31
going to have this in 300 gyms around Australia and Asia and New Zealand oh God I really got ahead of myself and
00:37:39
then it just it just wasn't working I was like oh no and at this stage this beautiful family was still investing in
00:37:46
gecko they but but I had to pay them back they' said to me saying we'll bank
00:37:49
roll you but if this thing falls apart you got to pay us back and being sort of blindly optimistic let's call it
00:38:00
that perhaps not even stupid depends what what you want to call but I saw it as sort of just positive optimism it's
00:38:08
all going to work out I I can see that what this needs needs to be to help all these kids that I want to help but also
00:38:15
bit stubborn you know like if it's not working you just keep keep charging your
00:38:19
head hammering yeah and yeah I remember I had another client and he was a real sort of business guy and I'd sort of
00:38:27
show him the numbers and I remember it like it was yesterday he'd go mate you're [ __ ] and I was like anyway I I
00:38:36
then got home and I was a bit rattled and his wife rang me up who I also trained and a long time ago and she said
00:38:43
oh bloody hell Glenn's just told me they were real Loa family but he's a super
00:38:48
Savvy business guy and he said oh Glenn's just told me what he said to you you know you have dinner with him he
00:38:55
pisses all over your barbecue that's what she said and I I remember like was yesterday and
00:39:00
I was like yeah well he did but he's probably right you know cuz we went down
00:39:05
the route of Licensing and then we franchised and franchising actually did work a lot better because you had the
00:39:12
direct contact with the coach and that coach had skin in the game so we turned things around but not before we'd sunk
00:39:20
way too much money into it and kids Fitness is a beautiful thing to add on to a personal trainer or a PE teacher
00:39:27
but it's not life-changing amounts of money you know you might make an extra
00:39:31
30 or 40 50 Grand maybe at at at your Peak it's not a you're not making them
00:39:36
it's not a McDonald's franchise so you know we were never going to recoup that money so when I
00:39:43
when I launched my online fitness program I know we're jumping around a bit D with the timeline but when I
00:39:48
launched my online fitness program I had a really sort of hard decision to make that I probably should
00:39:55
sell Gecko and there was one of there was an aming franchisee who was desperate to buy the whole business cuz
00:40:00
she could sort of see how busy I was getting with other things because this was now post bachelor and I owed this
00:40:08
family $900,000 oh so you sold it for like 20% of what it was worth or what I sold it for 100
00:40:16
so I put a $100 dent in a $900 headache and I then paid the family back $200,000
00:40:25
a year for the next four years once my online program took off right and you say you so had another gym that you
00:40:30
owned the the wood The Woodshed The Woodshed which I still own to this day profitable little business but not not a
00:40:36
McDonald that that that that pays me for me to live you know like that that wasn't that didn't have excess cash
00:40:42
being sped out that was this will allow me to now live with my new wife and nine-year-old you know like so there
00:40:49
wasn't an excess of money flying around that's for sure so um how was how was
00:40:54
your mental health at this time what what's it like being 35 years old having
00:40:59
worked your worked your ass off like from from the Dark of the morning to the dark of night in this industry you love
00:41:05
and you find yourself like 3/4 of a million in dead do you know what it should have been worse but it wasn't
00:41:11
like I always have thought it'll be everything will be okay I where does that come from I don't know maybe my dad
00:41:18
a little bit I I don't know I I mean I'm I'm even more he thinks I'm a bit mad
00:41:23
how positive I am and how you know how I sort of have this you know just keep keep going everything
00:41:29
will sort of work itself out I mean I that being said never in my wildest dreams that I think it'll work itself
00:41:36
out as well as it has both from a family and a you know business perspective like
00:41:41
I that's still almost a daily basis pinch yourself situation but I just I knew I knew I had something when it came
00:41:52
to Fitness and people I really did like I I could I could just tell the way I clicked with people people like very few
00:41:58
do I just hadn't worked out the way perhaps for that to get that to work yeah just like an unwavering sort of
00:42:05
self-belief yeah yeah perhaps I mean the the thing that always had sort of was said to me by people that were much
00:42:11
smarter than me was right the problem with Geo is you know it's not like McDonald's
00:42:18
you're it's so personal personality and People based based on the coach that
00:42:24
unless you can clone yourself it's just never going work or never going to work
00:42:28
to that level and I as much as I hated hearing that they were right what's happened with my now online Fitness
00:42:36
business and I know we're jumping to chapter three is you I can clim myself you know I can
00:42:44
genuinely transport myself into tens of thousands of people's Lounge rooms on a
00:42:49
daily basis I can send them advice on water consumption sleep recovery planning goal setting whatever
00:42:59
you know I bring them into my world they get to know me my family you know it really is an extension of my my personal
00:43:05
family the 28 family and Technology allows you to do that and I'm not a technology guy I can barely send a text
00:43:12
message yeah but um my question would be and I'm probably projecting here on
00:43:16
behalf of myself and a lot of people listening to this so after that Geo incident where you get burned pretty
00:43:21
badly yeah um why don't you just go nah nah n I've tried business didn't work
00:43:27
for me wasn't for me oh I'm going to go back to what I know pay the debt off and
00:43:30
then go never again well I sort of went the opposite cuz I sort of my psychology
00:43:36
was well now to get to where I want to get to I'm not starting at zero I'm
00:43:41
starting at800 so the next thing's going to have to really be a success or I've got Buckley of getting
00:43:51
to where I want to get to let alone paying this poor family back you know like I think David deep down was like I
00:43:57
have no chance of seeing this money like how is Sam going to pay me back $800,000
00:44:03
like it's going to take a thousand years for Sam to pay me back that much money
00:44:08
and to be honest who probably right in you know 99% of cases did you do you guys have like a written contract or
00:44:15
anything or was it just like a gentleman's agreement just a gentleman's agreement [ __ ] this is so cool all
00:44:19
around it's cool from the family um and it's it's cool from you as well because
00:44:23
I did have some shady friends I go [ __ ] that don't worry about it I was like no
00:44:27
M they didn't know the backstory they were just like he doesn't have an agreement I said no he doesn't and they
00:44:33
said they said oh you don't need to I said no I donate I know it's a moral
00:44:37
compass thing isn't it it is but it's I I find that whole story wonderful on on
00:44:41
both on both sides on their side having the trust in you and then you repaying that trust yeah it's nice when it has a
00:44:47
happy end that's for sure it's cool I've put I've put Kan to sleep oh he's he's
00:44:53
very relaxed and comfortable okay so um yes that's a lot of I don't know I
00:45:00
suppose it's a lot of baggage that you're going into the the The Bachelor
00:45:02
and then ultimately into this new relationship with yeah well when I went into the
00:45:07
bachelor I was I was still bullish about gecko like almost I even though the debt was there
00:45:16
I I shelved it a bit in my mind I think probably to to maintain that positivity and to protect my mental health a little
00:45:24
bit it was just more of a subconscious thing but I was like God if I focus if I fix out
00:45:29
on that how am I going to ever turn this business around I'm not going to be able
00:45:32
to get out of bed and you know charge ahead every morning it's going to really
00:45:35
drag me down but uh but yeah I I yeah I mean when the bachelor's happening that's the furthest thing from your mind
00:45:45
you know there is so much going on in that world that the debt that you owe this investor way back in Melbourne was
00:45:51
not something that got a lot of lot of thought I got to admit yeah at that time that family must have been like oh he's
00:45:56
yeah not worry about paying us back he's swanning off for four months reality TV
00:46:00
show they might have that thought initially and then they probably saw how big the bachelor was and thought
00:46:07
actually this might help Sam eventually be able to pay us back because there's
00:46:11
uh he's definitely growing in popularity that's yeah so so then after the
00:46:15
bachelor that's when you started um 28 by Sam what yeah so i' always there was
00:46:19
only a couple of online fitness programs in Australia at the time there was Michelle Bridges and there was Kayla at
00:46:25
cenus who sweat oh yeah um yep and I'd always sort of looked at them and admired them and you know sort of God
00:46:31
look how many people seem to do their programs and they seem both seem fantastic very different to me um not
00:46:38
not better or worse but just different with their sort of approaches um and then after the
00:46:44
bachelor you know soal I'd had no social media following Dom before the show and
00:46:48
it just went bananas you know went from 20 followers to 250,000 in a number of weeks and SED
00:46:58
snares and I'd get DMD a lot can you write me a program are you ever going to
00:47:02
open a gym in Sydney which was never on the cards um and so yeah we created 28 and it was um it was it was sort of like
00:47:14
how do we how do we be different to those other programs and I looked at those programs and they were still
00:47:21
really full on like very intense workouts 60-minute workouts C your calories all this stuff that I didn't
00:47:28
really believe in I was much more about you actually get far better results and most of the clients I'd
00:47:34
worked with were sort of 30 plus females um or family people you know males as well but family people and understanding
00:47:41
even though I wasn't there yet in my sort of late 20s early 30s the challenges that they were facing were
00:47:48
time convenience um the fact that I need some help with my food as well and so I was
00:47:54
all about making sure that if I did launch a fitness this program online it it catered For as much about what they
00:47:59
do outside of their sessions it does inside their sessions and we called it 28 cuz we made the workouts all 28
00:48:06
minutes or less why what was the reason for that I just I just think the amount of people i' I'd spoken to that the
00:48:13
second they hear it's too much of a commitment they don't do anything you
00:48:17
don't even get them in the door so I just knew that that 30 minute psychological barrier was real and if we
00:48:24
could do something to make that a bit more comfortable for people that would be a good way to help people get started
00:48:31
like you know why not 29 then great question I also liked working with people in 28 day blocks I found if you
00:48:39
work with people in four- we blocks it's long enough to get a result but not so
00:48:42
long you become a bit disenchanted and lose your way so that it sort of it had two really sort of powerful meanings to
00:48:49
me but you know not a great deal of thought went into the name 28 by Sam wood and let's launch a website and see
00:48:55
what happens and we launched on when did we launch first of Feb 2016 and we had 5,000 people sign up in the first
00:49:02
month wow and I was like holy [ __ ] paying $50 a month hang yeah I'm just going to open
00:49:11
my calculator here yeah so what was that 50 time 5,000 yep yeah yeah 250 Grand a month Revenue knew and
00:49:27
it was me and a few Tech Guys in an office and I was filming the videos in my gym something like that I suppose you
00:49:34
launch it and you hope it's you hope that's going to be the result like an
00:49:37
instant oh but never like I'd had him ahead imagine if we had 500 signups like
00:49:42
that would be amazing by the third month we had 10,000 yeah yeah just absolutely
00:49:51
exploded and i' so who did you who did you have on the 28 by samood team then
00:49:55
so you did it with yeah I did it with a little Tech group um I sort of partnered
00:50:01
with them and they uh they handled the website side of things and I I was very involved in how the website needed to
00:50:09
look and feel and function um and then I'd create content every day every week
00:50:15
new workouts we'd get nutritionists and recipe creators to do the food stuff
00:50:20
we'd get psychologists and people that I'd sort of built in my little network
00:50:23
over the years to do some mindset stuff and motivation goal setting stuff and um
00:50:29
yeah we didn't know who our customer was going to be and it ended up being 90%
00:50:33
female and lots of mum so then we launched pregnancy programs and pilates and post noal and then and I know we're
00:50:41
sort of fast tracking but it it continued to grow to get and it sort of it sort of level was starting to level
00:50:46
out around 20,000 members and then um then Co hit and because we were just an atome
00:50:55
program Co was you know horrific in Australia as it was here in New Zealand and Melbourne was the worst sort of hit
00:51:02
from a lockdown perspective but at home workouts just went bananas so I was doing live free
00:51:11
workouts streaming to I think 2.8 million Australians did my live workout I I got on and thought lockdown was
00:51:18
going to last for a fortnite and I said hi guys I'm here going do live workouts
00:51:22
for everybody at 7:00 a.m. every morning my wife's rolling her eyes going we've got a one-year-old and a
00:51:28
three-year-old throwing their breakfast cereal against the wall and you're committing to doing a workout at 7:00
00:51:33
a.m. every morning I'm saying H lockdown will go for a couple of weeks this is
00:51:36
the right thing to do people need it lockdown lasted for 11 months in Melbourne oh yeah Melbourne had it it
00:51:43
was excited that at 7: a.m. every morning we had 2.8 million Australians join us for our live workouts but then a
00:51:49
lot of them would join the program afterwards and um yeah it was just it was an amazing sort of growth period for
00:51:56
us and you know sort of feel a bit guilty doing well in such a shitty time but um yeah we were really well
00:52:02
positioned to help you can't like can you perfect perfect storm right place right thing right time and we have a
00:52:07
great product and we had a great product it wasn't wasn't a fluke but you know
00:52:11
when so many people are losing their jobs and can't work and that kind of stuff you know and you're you're
00:52:16
actually going better yeah it felt a bit it felt a bit weird yeah yeah gez it must have felt good that last payment
00:52:23
that you made to the family for the G stuff did it did I delivered that one with a hand with a a hand delivered
00:52:30
check and dinner and a big hug and uh and yeah we we still catch up regularly yeah how good and then um so 28 by say
00:52:38
what it just kept on kept on growing postco or is it sort of play uh yeah no we've we've still done really well I
00:52:45
mean we we peaked in Co because we did a lot of Partnerships with working from home people and that kind of stuff we
00:52:51
did a big partnership with berer um health insurance and uh so we definitely peaked I mean at one at one point during
00:52:58
Co we had 140,000 people on the platform at once cuz we offered a free membership
00:53:03
to berer members as part of a partnership that we did so that was sort of a peak of active members on the
00:53:09
platform but you know now we've got a team of 30 people that work on the program I love going to work every day
00:53:17
um very very excited to be here in New Zealand um to sort of spread the word a little bit we've we've already got
00:53:23
thousands of new zealanders who have done the program but it's just been through organic word of mouth and
00:53:28
they've gone on a holiday or their friends in Australia s The Bachelor whatever I don't ever know there's a
00:53:33
myriad of different ways I could have found out about it but I'm catching up
00:53:37
with a few 28 this afternoon to have a hug and a coffee and um and see them here in Orland which I'm really excited
00:53:42
about but uh I just I just thought it was time to get over here properly get to see the
00:53:49
place um I absolutely love what I've seen so far I'm definitely going to
00:53:53
bring the family over next time and uh do a do a a big trip around but um yeah I just I think there's so many
00:53:59
similarities between Australia and New Zealand I know sometimes we can be a bit competitive with each other in the
00:54:04
sporting context or whatever it might be but I feel like that's more from New
00:54:09
Zealand towards Australia it's like especially with rugby like austral no one gives a [ __ ] about rugby in
00:54:15
Australia um yeah well we yeah we've got so many football codes the union doesn't
00:54:22
doesn't hold the same place as it does over here that's for sure but um oh I think the way New Zealand
00:54:29
perform in a sporting context for their population's unbelievable you know you
00:54:33
know cricketers and everything yeah yeah I appreciate that so so you had um you had a few offers over the years to sell
00:54:39
um the business yeah the phone started ringing well at the very start actually and as a guy that's not you know I'm I
00:54:52
think I'm entrepreneurial in nature but I'm I'm not a finance guy so that was a
00:54:58
that was all a new learning for me but it was interesting you know like people sort of say to a you should always you
00:55:05
should always know what your exit looks like and you should build your business always to sell your
00:55:12
business those sort of sentiments didn't really resonate with me I'm like why
00:55:16
would this is the best thing that's ever happened to me I love I love this you
00:55:20
know I'd walk to work with my dog and we'd go to the office and this great
00:55:24
team of 20 people it's a High I loved it I still love it so selling the business
00:55:30
wasn't something that I really had planned on doing well I suppose if if it's if it's humming along and it's
00:55:36
growing and you're making a good income and you're providing a a purposeful job
00:55:41
for so many people it's a good reason to get out of bed in the morning yeah exactly exactly but these offers were
00:55:47
coming in and they were they were crazy you know like like what oh $50 million plus yeah and how many years had you
00:55:55
been doing it at the Point uh five years holy [ __ ] so you took that one you took
00:56:02
the no you didn't take no well we ended up selling the business for 71 so yeah crazy so but to the right
00:56:11
people and I'm still fully invol I didn't get $71 million the business was
00:56:16
valued at 71 I took a little bit and a little bit uh oh 15 15 mil yeah [ __ ] that's good money amazing and you you so
00:56:28
you still have a stake in the company or oh massive I'm still as involved today
00:56:32
as I was then nothing's changed I still go to work every day I uh I only agreed
00:56:38
if it meant I stuck around and we we just the thing that appealed to me about selling or it was a merger was
00:56:50
security for my family but future opportunity to them what we could do with sort of a a powerful Big Brother
00:56:57
behind you you know like when you when you've gone from nothing Orga 800 to something like that there's a bit
00:57:05
of impostor syndrome a fear that one day something could happen the bubble could burst and
00:57:12
the the dream could be over you know like it doesn't feel real I had some really it's funny I had more anxious
00:57:19
moments with money than I than I perhaps did with this sort of optimistic youthful enthusiasm when I had you know
00:57:26
cuz I was like you have something to lose it was a really weird um ju position for me to get my
00:57:33
head around I like [ __ ] imagine if I lost all of this now or something happened or this wasn't real or I stuff
00:57:39
I somehow stuffed this up or it was a weird it was a weird sort of stress that shouldn't have sort of been there I
00:57:46
should have been relishing in the success and the excitement and the future but I always it did really worry
00:57:54
me I was like what if this all sort of especially as I was having kids like I I don't know as my family was growing that
00:58:00
sort of stuff became a lot more top of mind but um but yeah I mean look it it was all about getting some security for
00:58:09
my family we paid off our mortgage you know well and truly you know it's been
00:58:14
lifechanging and um and now it's about yeah seeing what we can do with 28 we've
00:58:20
launched a supplement Range in Australia which is launching here in New Zealand in the middle of the year into a into
00:58:26
woolies and um kemist Warehouse called 28 go we're looking to see how we can
00:58:33
grow 28 first of all in New Zealand then hopefully around other parts of the world um and yeah see what else we can
00:58:40
do because it's just I don't know when you when you get literally 20 emails a
00:58:46
day from people telling you how they've how your program has changed their life
00:58:50
and I never take credit for it because it's the people that have got to do the
00:58:52
work to have changed their own lives but it's a pretty beautiful feeling when you
00:58:56
wake up to those emails every day yeah yeah you're making making um a good living for yourself by doing something
00:59:03
that you know is uh creating positive change world and thanks for being so open and honest about the money stuff I
00:59:09
I get I normally don't and I actually I'm sitting here going [ __ ] have I
00:59:14
spoken too much about money I shouldn't talk about money but no no no I'm I'm
00:59:18
I'm I'd rather be open and honest about I've got I've got I mean it was publicly
00:59:22
announced you know Sam wood SS business for 71 million which is not correct so better to probably tell the right numers
00:59:31
no but so um okay so so that day that you get you know your $15 million payout is it um is it less exciting than what
00:59:39
you thought it would be well the process of selling a business is so slow it's not like one
00:59:46
day you agree and then the next day you shake hands so I think I think the F like it took a year and a half from the
00:59:55
when we first had a conversation with this company to when we first did when finalized the merger so I think that
01:00:01
sucks the life out of you a little bit but my CEO um was my be one of my best friends
01:00:09
from school and he he went into corporate life and I remember I caught up with him for a beer when 28 was 6
01:00:18
months old and he said as's your online fitness thing going and I said oh we're
01:00:22
going well and he said oh how many members have you got and I told him that number it must have been I don't know
01:00:27
11,000 or something and he spat his beer out literally and he went and he's a
01:00:32
super smart guy he's like Woody that's 500 Grand a month turnover that's $6
01:00:38
million and I said I know and he's like what and he didn't s of he thought
01:00:44
I'd made a mistake and I he goes would he and I go yeah yeah yeah and you know
01:00:51
the thing with those businesses is you you spend a lot of money on digital marketing so the profit margins are not
01:00:56
as high as people perhaps think I suppose you can always reinvest we established before you
01:01:01
didn't start with 30 staff members so as you was very big on that you know we
01:01:05
took very little money out of the business for the first three years it was like no we're got to make this thing
01:01:11
this can't be a flash in the pan it can't sort of disappear as quickly as it
01:01:15
arrives that we have to invest in great trainers and build an app because we're
01:01:19
just a website and you know improve the tech and great customer support and build you know bring this team in house
01:01:26
like unless we do all this stuff this thing will you know not not stand the test of time but I had that conversation
01:01:33
with with Jacko and um about two weeks later the I I was running the business and I had no idea I was a personal
01:01:44
trainer so I was it was it was getting a bit out of my depth but I loved it and there there was certain things I loved
01:01:50
and you've obvious got a good sense of um I don't know just instincts just
01:01:54
following your gut well I the customer I've always cared about the customer and
01:01:59
everything was sort of done as been is that what the customer wants and needs I and I quite like marketing so I liked
01:02:05
marketing I was obviously the face of the business did the pr and bits of the marketing and was heavily involved with
01:02:13
what new content and features we added based on the customer but I didn't really get Tech God if someone said to
01:02:19
me had do you seller business I wouldn't have known up from down so Jacko came
01:02:24
across as the CEO and gave him equity in the business um and we ran it together so when you say
01:02:32
it must have been enjoyable to do that with one of I mean he'd been one of my
01:02:36
best friends since I was 13 in tazzy and to do that with him and then to get a result like that was really special tear
01:02:43
and your day ones yeah it was amazing yeah how good and and um so you pay off your mortgage what else have you done
01:02:50
you you just got the money invested or uh no we we I've you call a batch no no
01:02:56
a beach house so I love property I love renovating we renovated SN and I renovated a house together and we bought
01:03:03
a very ugly yellow um yellow Shack or batch down the down the morning to Peninsula in Melbourne and we've turned
01:03:11
that into we'll retire down there one day it's we build a beautiful house down
01:03:15
there that the kids can run around in with plenty of space and go to the beach and yeah that's that's our happy place
01:03:20
to get away from the city that's great yeah it must be nice but like being a
01:03:23
being a dad of four knowing that um there's this certain level of security for the family moving forward yeah there
01:03:29
is but I'm still very conscious not giving them too much I I really I really
01:03:33
do think the way my dad was with me helped me so much and you know everyone's a genius in retrospect but
01:03:40
how do you yeah my question would be like how how do you do that because you don't want to you punish yourself and
01:03:44
sneeze but you you don't want to spoil the kids too much so I've heard you say
01:03:48
you're going to have um like a European holiday uh potentially this this winter
01:03:53
or the next win oh next year when On's three yeah I mean you fly everyone business class or put them in economy or
01:04:00
that's a good question I don't know if I could have my kids in economy while I was in business
01:04:06
class and I'm 6'4 and I think I can afford it so I don't know I I'd love to
01:04:11
just tell you would all like Hy D but I'd be bullshitting you and your audience so I I think we'll be in
01:04:16
business what I mean is I want him to go out and get a job I want them to know how hard it is to earn 18 bucks an hour
01:04:24
I want them to scrub dishes or work in a cafe I think that stuff's really important you know like I don't want
01:04:31
them to have a $50,000 car for their like I hate that [ __ ] so I think you know spoiling them them by showing them
01:04:40
the world you know the thing that is top of my bucket list is taking my kids on a
01:04:43
safari I can't wait till my littlest is six and taking them to Africa that's
01:04:49
absolutely top my list but life experiences are perhaps a bit different it doesn't mean we need to stay in
01:04:55
festar hotels and all that kind of stuff but I I want to show them the world I think that'll be really good for them
01:05:02
but um yeah I don't think I don't think you know private schools from day one
01:05:08
and um you know not having to work for pocket money and that kind of stuff is going to be how it goes that's for sure
01:05:15
yeah oh how how good mate this is such a good success oh one question of I would
01:05:20
have about the um the the company that um bought the business so it is he heavily personality based like they're
01:05:28
buying they're investing in you it's 28 by that's very true what what happens
01:05:32
say if you and me go out after this um we we get on the cans I get a video of you doing a doing a bubbl I know you
01:05:39
going to say I got hit by B something oh we're having a Bender's what's a oh bu
01:05:49
the guy so he urinated and got the stream so high that he got in his own I guarantee
01:05:55
you there be no bubbles from me okay but hypothetically speaking so oh this is a
01:06:01
new term that I leared when we were in The Boardroom to having these sale negotiations called keyman risk or key
01:06:07
person risk and that is we pull the value of your business down if it's too heavily based on you and it's more I
01:06:16
mean they I don't think they thought I might do something like that you know if
01:06:19
you do anything incriminating or you get hit by a car or you know you're playing
01:06:23
business and your kids are an economy yeah a bad dad yeah what happens so like there is a lot of pressure obviously
01:06:30
around that but I think because of the deal that we did and because of the fact that I'm staying as involved with the
01:06:37
business now as I was before the deal that gave them a lot of peace of mind and it was exactly what I wanted to do I
01:06:43
think like they'll ask you what will you do Sam after the deal it's like what do
01:06:47
you mean this is my job I'm not you know it's 28 by Sam wood Sam Wood's not going
01:06:51
anywhere so I think when they hear that gives them a little bit of comfort but but they always use it as a negotiating
01:06:58
tactic you know oh your business would be worth X but it's probably only worth
01:07:01
half X because you're about to go and do a bubbl you know yeah it's interesting though I I
01:07:07
suspect you won them over in the boardroom in a in a lot of ways it's a a huge huge scale of that family that you
01:07:12
talked about earlier the the Geo family yeah I'd never thought about that analogy but probably buying into the man
01:07:19
well there is that yeah I mean they they say they invest in Founders you know like the business can look good on paper
01:07:25
but you know the person who's got it to where it's gotten to and needs to
01:07:30
continue to get it there is is who we invest in and my our boss um is a wonderful guy very entrepreneurial and
01:07:39
and he he likes that in me like he he compliments me on that and so of says man I love that you you care so much I
01:07:47
love that you're a risk taker I love that you know the drive that you've got
01:07:52
and it doesn't seem to have waned at all even though the fact you now come into
01:07:56
our office so like there's you know we we get on really well yeah and I mean
01:08:01
the fact that you're in New Zealand now trying to grow the business even further
01:08:04
I think that speaks volumes you know you maybe just as driven if not more driven
01:08:08
now than what you were pre-sale yeah yeah I mean when when you start selling your business it's actually the that
01:08:16
that 18 months was the worst because the advice you get given is don't do anything too radical while people trying
01:08:25
to buy you because it sort of it could distract you from the way the business has been growing or you don't really
01:08:32
want to try to thing new in case it doesn't work and I hate that that sort of goes against every grain in my being
01:08:39
so now that that deal is well and truly behind us and we can focus on what next I love that with you know with a bit of
01:08:47
a safety net without you know I love that it's fantastic what what would your
01:08:52
advice about anyone that's listening to this that is um from the perspective of
01:08:55
someone someone that's um been in business and has had a a failed business and also a wildly successful business
01:09:01
someone that's thinking about starting something well look I always used to listen to you know
01:09:09
business podcasts and read business books I was always really interested in other people's success stories and I was
01:09:16
I was a little bit cynical because I was like oh it's all very well for the you
01:09:20
know your Richard Branson's of the world to say you know you've just got to not
01:09:25
focus on the money and the money will come like that's all very well for you
01:09:28
to say you're a billionaire or or you know like you've just got to keep if
01:09:32
your first idea fails it might be your second idea or your third idea I'm like
01:09:37
oh you know again easier said than done but both are so true you know like if you focus on the B the right facets
01:09:47
of the business it will become valuable and if your first idea like mine wasn't
01:09:54
you know the the success that you'd hoped it had been or you visualized it was going to be
01:09:59
don't give up you know and you know I was in a position where not many people
01:10:04
would have begrudged me I think for giving up and you know taking the safe bet and going back to personal training
01:10:10
and grinding it out for the next 40 years but I don't know I just you knew there was something more
01:10:17
well I hoped I hope I hoped and there was a bit of me that that thought there was and you it's panned out really well
01:10:22
thank God yeah and I mean you anyone that's a detractor of you which I can't
01:10:27
imagine there is anyone but if there is that it'd be simple to say oh you know
01:10:30
he was on The Bachelor then he capitalized on his profile to but you look at the the previous 20 odd years
01:10:36
behind that like it was all sort of building up to this moment all the personal training the gecko stuff the
01:10:42
lessons that you learned along the way like it was a very long apprenticeship true I mean there was some luck there
01:10:47
was some great timing um and I don't take that for granted I I'm so grateful
01:10:53
for it but I think the thing that has always I think the thing that helped me so much was people do these reality
01:11:00
shows and then they get some popularity and some notoriety and they just go what
01:11:06
can I do I'll launch that business I have kept doing what I've always done
01:11:11
and in particular in this explosion of online programs and fitness influencers most of them have no idea what they're
01:11:18
talking about so the fact that I've got so much experience is so helpful with working
01:11:23
with people I think people now have this choice where do I spend my money with an
01:11:27
online program or CH which personal trainer do I choose you know half of them got their accreditation on the back
01:11:33
of a serial box or they're an influencer with 50,000 followers but don't know
01:11:37
they're asked from their elbow and you got to be really careful to who you listen to so I think the fact that I've
01:11:42
trained so many people I've been to University and all this kind of stuff I think I think people can see that and it
01:11:49
and they see that it's genuine and I'm just doing what I've always done just
01:11:52
now to more people but yeah it's it's a good way putting it Dom it was definitely a long
01:11:57
apprenticeship yeah it's a hell of a story um yeah I love a success story like this especially when it happens um
01:12:04
yeah sort of later in life not later in life you know sort of getting towards middle age yeah I think it's really cool
01:12:09
would you describe yourself as an Aussie betler is what does an Aussie betler mean and uh someone that keep keeps
01:12:16
giving it a crack and gets knocked down and gets back up or is it a derogatory to it can be it can also it can be a bit
01:12:23
der like Aussie batler can be never seems to find a way to get ahead you know like
01:12:30
so you could use it in the other context in some cases you know like keeps having
01:12:35
a crack but it's more a bit derogatory so I probably was an Aussie batler and
01:12:41
i' I've now hopefully broken you know broken through that but yeah I mean that
01:12:47
that persistence part definitely has been a key yeah there's some some great
01:12:51
lessons in there that I think anyone can use persistence being the key one yeah definitely not an Aussie batler there's
01:12:57
there's never been Aussie batler that that looks similar to David Beckham I don't know about that I don't know about
01:13:03
that hey M it's been a pleasure having you on the podcast today it's been it's
01:13:07
been great it's been wonderful to pick your brains and um even though I never
01:13:10
saw your season of of the bachelor um just fascinating insights into the reality TV and business so thank you for
01:13:16
having me I mean it I've uh I've never listen to your podcast but I promise I
01:13:20
will moving forward and I'll go back and listen to some and uh I've when we we're
01:13:25
asking who should we talk to when we go to New Zealand you're one of the first
01:13:29
names that popped up so thanks so much for having me I appreciate it and all the best for the future cheers
01:13:34
[Music] man