Getting Healthy Made Easy... Ep. 7

Guest Host Marc Christian (@coach_doc_marc) of Intellisport Analytics (@intellisport_analytics) interviews Mejoria Founders Justin Andrade (@coach_jandrade) and Aaron Duvall (@jaduvall).  The Mejoria founders discuss how their game changing health and fitness coaching company began, how their coaching has evolved, and why they do things differently than most in the industry.  The episode concludes with insight into how Marc Christian is evolutionizing company cultures through his work with Intellisport Analytics.

00:11

Welcome to the busy fit podcast, episode seven. In our previous episode, we covered why motivation is not the answer to improving your health. If you missed it, go check it out. Today we have a special guest, Mark Christian. Mark is a former coworker of mine at the University of Pittsburgh, where we served on the swimming staff together. Mark is the founder of Intellisport Analytics. Later in the episode, we'll hear Mark's experience as a coach and how that led to him starting Intellisport Analytics. Today, Mark will interview myself and Aaron Duvall about how our.

00:40

Experience began with Mejoria and our mission as a leader in the health and fitness industry. So Mark, thanks for joining us My pleasure. It's great to be here Mark I I bought new golf clubs. You'd be proud to know now they're not gonna suddenly make me a better golfer, but I'm trying Well, just like you know anything like it's one foot in front of the other The last time I went golfing I shot

01:08

I, first of all, I don't call, um, it's going to be obvious when I go to my next sentence, I think I shot like a one 36 and I broke my driver. So that was about two and a half years ago and I haven't been back all things since I'm happy for you. Thanks. Mark has actually seen me break a driver. So he's, he's experienced those lovely moments. Yeah.

01:36

I don't have a good track record of being around people with breaking clubs. When I was in college, someone broke a drive or excuse me, a wedge right behind me and the wedge went flying over my head. And ever since then, I don't stand in front of people or to the side of people, uh, swing a golf club. So I make sure I'm good, good and far behind someone before they swing. That's not even a good idea anyways, cause if you're in front of someone, like the odds of them hitting you with the actual, with the golf ball.

02:06

Fairly high. Pretty high. I wasn't that close. I mean, I was, you know, 50, 75 yards in front. So I felt pretty comfortable, but yeah, it wasn't, it was still too close. I think you and I have almost killed each other a couple of times on the golf course. So hopefully that doesn't happen anymore to us or anyone we play with. I can't add too much to that. I'm the world's worst golfer taking up any new sports recently. He's playing pickleball now.

02:35

Now, my only connection with pickleball right now is in our town. There's a lot of complaints about pickleball because some of the courts are close to residential homes. And so there's a lot of complaints about the pickleball noise in the early mornings and late evenings. I mean, I guess it's pretty loud, the clunking of the power pole. So, noise, time restrictions for...

03:03

for pickleball. And I know this is just unique to Cranberry. I've read, I think, article in the Times or Wall Street Journal about the same thing. So it's like a national problem. All I know is Drew Brees is like one of the world's biggest pickleball enthusiasts and he's my favorite athlete of all time. So if, if Drew Brees likes it, I'm good for it. It's crazy how much it's like taking everything over. My wife loves to play tennis.

03:31

And we went to the tennis courts one day to play tennis and we couldn't play because everyone was using the tennis courts for pickleball. Right. Oh, that's good for them for doing something, you know, but also let us play tennis. Yeah. Way to do it. Find something that will get you there, but yeah, let people play tennis too. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, but picklebell pickleball, the court is smaller.

04:01

Oh, like a wiffle ball and a pallet that's her palette paddle paddle. That's not as hard. So you're not moving as much. Like it's not fairly nearly as much activity, right?

04:16

I think the appeal to pickleball is that it is accessible to all ages. So mobility is not as much of a limiting factor. It's like tennis, you have to be running. For pickleball, you can be shuffling. But I think that the rigor of it depends on your players and partners.

04:45

who you're playing with, which I think is the appeal. So it's more short, fast moves type of thing. I think, I don't know if this is a great comparison, but when I first started coaching at the University of Delaware, I was really into badminton. Every day over lunch, four to five courts were set up for competitive badminton.

05:15

faculty crew that would come in and play. And that's a pretty erotic game, but it's also quite technical in how you're placing the shuttlecock. And so I think to me it's probably similar to pickleball where you're trying to figure out where you're placing the ball pretty, not that tennis isn't that way, but there's a pretty interesting technical component to it, which I think is probably interesting. And just like, I never understood that about badminton. I thought you were just hitting it back and forth. But the touches are...

05:44

pretty important in how you're hitting it, where you're hitting it. So it's pretty interesting. I'm going to go play pickleball in badminton now. Actually badminton was one of the best workouts I ever did quite hard. And you're running a lot. I believe it. And Justin, it's a real privilege to be able to interview and learn more. Um, well, I'm really curious to know about, you know, what was the driving motivation behind starting male orient training?

06:14

Yeah, there's a, there's a fairly long story behind it. And I'll tell kind of up to when Aaron and I started talking about it. So I actually owned like an online health company back when I was in college, uh, started it, I think my junior year and did pretty well, you know, it took off fairly quickly. Uh, then I started coaching college athletics and very quickly found out I could not keep running that type of business, at least the way I was running it. Um, but the main reason behind.

06:44

It's starting up again was just my wife and I kind of talking, you know, day to day about just it's great being able to be in the competitive side of health and fitness, and if you want to call it health and fitness, like to me, those are two completely separate things because not everything you're doing in a competitive setting is necessarily healthy long-term, um, but there's so much misinformation out there kind of around.

07:08

that side of things and we're seeing it even more publicized today. You know, online health and fitness coaching is a booming industry that's growing daily. Uh, and there's all kinds of different things out there. You know, there's pharmaceuticals, there's supplements, uh, and just all kinds of different things that you see put out that aren't necessarily productive or the best way to go about things. And we just had that conversation daily. And so, uh, you know, we knew really the last year I was at Pitt.

07:34

You know, really thinking like we wanted to do something in that side of things. And that led up to Aaron and I talking and I'll let Aaron kind of tell that side of the conversation. Yeah. I think it's kind of two worlds that blended together with the same general goal. Like Justin alluded to, uh, up until the point where we really kind of formalized the conversation about it. Um, I, you know, I didn't have the experience of

08:02

doing anything online like Justin had prior to, but a lot of things I was noticing, and especially in the world of strait-creditioning, you see it, there's so much just crap out there regarding health and fitness and anything that pertains to either area, but there's also so much good information out there as well.

08:32

or the general population has to figure out like separating that substance from noise. You know, not everybody really has that. So I wanted to get into something that helped basically take some of the knowledge that, you know, myself and colleagues of mine had on that area of health and fitness, but make it more accessible to the general population. I think, you know, the training that we have,

09:01

The experience that we have is really good. And of course, I'm going to be biased on that. But I think that the product that we're able to give, you know, these elite athletes is really great when we're talking about working with, you know, athletes at a Division I Power V school. But not everybody really has the access to that kind of information or that kind of filter to help separate that substance and noise of all the good, but all the crap that's out there as well.

09:30

Justin and I were talking on the pool deck one day and I kind of mentioned something about like, you know, I'm thinking about like, very informally, like, you know, doing something like some sort of like online coaching, you know, some sort of avenue where I can train people that may not have access to people or, you know, trainers that have certifications or the experience that, you know.

09:58

people at the Collegiate Strength Initiative level have, but also help put out, you know, some good information and things along those lines. And that's when Justin had mentioned that he had kind of did something like that, similar to before. And he was like, you know, I kind of want to get back into that as well. And I just remember like, we both kind of looked at each other and we're like, wait, do we want to do that together? And it was kind of funny.

10:26

Both of, again, we both had these general goals of something that we had had in our minds and something we'd wanted to do. It just kind of came to fruition, again, rather informally at that point, of just kind of a conversation on the cold deck where we're like, no, this is something, I think, through the experience or expertise that both of us have, which in some ways is similar, but in other ways is very different, like kind of putting our two minds together and creating something that ended up being mayoria.

10:57

uh... something that we really wanted to do and uh... yes crazy to think that this kind of a small conversation we had on the pool deck has led up to the point we're at now which is great well you've clearly articulated you know the origin story here and part of that was an assessment of the marketplace and how there's really great information and also other bad information so how are you trying to differentiate yourself in the marketplace and really

11:25

good information for your potential clients? Well, I think we do that a couple different ways. I mean, I think even before they're our client, you know, our goal is to put out information that's going to be beneficial. Um, and you know, one of the reasons we started even this podcast was to put out information we know is going to be reliable and trustworthy. Um, but we can put out a ton of information on a daily basis. You know, we try to put out articles and research and kind of the base of knowledge that we have, but also.

11:55

You know, when you think about it from actually the service that we provide, you know, I like to think about it as, you know, you go to someone that has a background with, you know, specific diets, you know, whether it's like keto or Whole30 or something along those lines and like that's their wheelhouse. And they'll tell you like, Hey, stick to this plan and this will work for you. Um, but when you go into the college athletic setting, you know, I have all these people with this vast knowledge and we know on paper, like the X's and noses of what makes sense, but you know, when you apply that to a specific individual in a specific circumstance.

12:24

Um, you know, those exes knows kind of need to be manipulated a little bit for what's best for that person. And so I like to think about it. It's like our wheelhouse is putting, you know, basically building our wheelhouse to what's right for that person, uh, as opposed to saying like, yeah, you know, this is my area of expertise. This is the only thing I know how to do. And if you follow this one specific program or, or process exactly, you're going to get X result. And instead of making someone, you know, kind of fit their life to a specific program.

12:53

You know, we kind of reverse that model and say, okay, we're going to fit this process that we know is going to need to get this result to what actually goes into your lifestyle. So kind of just trying to flip the script on what that process looks like. Are you able to share any examples about designing a process and meeting someone where they are to meet their goals? I think one good example, uh, first one that comes to my mind, at least like we

13:24

one client that comes to us and is talking to us. And they actually, he has a pretty decent like one athletic base, but to knowledge base, uh, like, you know, general understanding of like what training should look like and you know, how to not eat a sleep of Oreos before bed every night. So the thing that he struggled with and where a lot of that, I guess more maybe like kind of general information might not have helped.

13:53

much to his particular circumstances. He was doing the job that he had when he came to us, and I believe he still has, is he will go offshore or work somewhere and be in an office or a small space where he has like a 10 by 10 foot area with a jump rope and a resistance band. And that's all he has access to for like a week. But then he goes back home.

14:22

And he has access to whatever gym, whatever equipment he may need. And so manipulating what he has available to him and not only like applicable to him or what his goals are, but being able to take, you know, kind of our, the strategies that we may get the level of problem solving that we see at the collegiate setting, we're having to apply that again to someone like in a general population setting that is a little bit more abnormal, like it's, I don't know.

14:52

There's too much information out there on like, you know, how to build a workout plan when you alternate weeks, having equipment and then not having equipment and no space and you can't run or do anything. So being able to kind of put our minds together, problem solve for that and create a solution for someone like that, I think is one good example. But you know, going back to one of the operative words of I think your first question there is like what, how do we differentiate ourselves with that?

15:20

uh, or, you know, working with these clients and are, you know, with the information that we're putting out and stuff and not trying to toot our own horns, but I think one of the, it's not necessarily how we separate that good and bad information it's because of the, because we're lucky to have the, the experience.

15:46

the knowledge, the coworkers, the camaraderie with not just Justin and I, but our whole staff as well that we've worked with Olympians, world medalists, professional athletes, but also youth athletes, geriatric athletes, and kind of that whole spectrum that we have that general knowledge, but we also have specific enough knowledge along that entire spectrum to be able to filtrate what is good information for...

16:15

those different different populations. And when it comes to us again, maybe in a circumstance where they have a problem, but we need to help the problem solve with and creating a workout plan that may be a little bit more adaptable, customizable to them and their circumstance that we have the team and the expertise that I think we're able to do that better than most for sure. Another person that, and I guess there's a lot of people in this similar, I guess, facet that we work with.

16:43

But people that, for example, are in a medical setting and they're working three 12-hour shifts or they're working long days and then they're on call for the weekend and they get called in for the weekend and how they may not be able to fit in a meal for 12 hours. If you know anything about the nutrition side, that makes things really difficult to get in what you need in a day and helping problem solve them and help them understand that process to still be able to reach their goals and still be able to improve from a nutritional standpoint and exercise standpoint.

17:14

Uh, Aaron made a great reference on one of our previous podcasts about, uh, micro dosing, you know, and thinking about how we're going to fit in. Okay. We're going to do smaller bouts of activity throughout the week to kind of balance out, you know, those longer days and kind of doing some of the same things nutritionally, but, you know, helping people look at their entire life. And like those difficulties where someone in that same situation can say, yeah, like exercise and being healthy and having a quality nutrition plan isn't really for me.

17:44

and helping them like realize that and breaking that mindset that it actually is possible. It's just putting together the best possible plan for you given your specific circumstances. I think having the team and I don't like accountability is one of the first words that comes to mind. I think it's a little bit more than just that, but I think when you're investing in yourself as a client and saying like, I want someone to help me

18:13

get to where I want to be. And you have that team of people working with you and checking in, giving you these plans, talking through these plans, explaining the what and the why. Like I think 99% of clients, like they're going to be a lot more prone to stick to something like that when they know they have this team around them that is holding them accountable and working with them versus like, okay, I'm just going to Google 12 week couch to

18:43

5k run program and go from there. And then it's like, they're their only self checkpoint. It doesn't encompass everything. It doesn't encompass like their lifestyle, their schedule, the nutrition, the recovery, the emergencies that happen. And then, oh, now I have to travel this week or do this or that. And, you know, it doesn't take into account a lot of the things that I think

19:13

and want to be able to take into account for our clients. So you've mapped out how you've worked with clients. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you do with your clients? What are some of the services that Mejoria provides and maybe provide a couple different pathways for clients who maybe have different needs or goals? So when we first start potentially working with someone, the first thing we have to identify is what, do they actually need help?

19:42

You know, with something to improve their health. Uh, you know, the nice thing is with us having that extensive background, you know, potential client isn't someone where, you know, they've been really fit. They've done a good job. They just need like, Hey, give me these three day program or four day program. I'm going to do it. I don't need any support. I don't need any accountability. You know, I know what to eat. Um, you know, no real specific goal, you know, things that we, you know, recognize when we're looking to work with the potential client is.

20:11

If they have a hormonal imbalance, if they have metabolism issues, if they have previous injuries that they don't know how to recover from or get back to the full ability level, if they don't necessarily know how to fuel themselves properly, they struggle with sleep, they struggle with stress, they're too busy or they have some problem there that they've been trying to solve and they haven't really been able to work through that, that's when we know we can help.

20:42

So when we know they have that specific problem, that gives us a goal and we know realistic time frame it takes to work through that problem. We really like thinking about putting everything together. So the exercise side of things, lifestyle habits, any mindset shifts that have to take place, how do we balance things out nutritionally and get you on the right plan for you? And then once we actually solve whatever problem they actually need help with.

21:09

We want to make sure we build time and consistency into that plan to where they can truly kind of graduate from working with us and be set up for the rest of their life. Um, you know, and so that can look very different per person. You know, it's helped you. Like if I say, you know, one thing to you, you know, it may inhibit a certain response from you, but if I say that exact same thing to someone else, it can inhibit a completely different response. And the same thing's going to happen with, you know, how we're coaching that individual, so it has to be tailored and kind of built for that person. And also.

21:39

You know, there's a big part of that process that's breaking down, you know, common, uh, common misbeliefs, uh, you know, limiting beliefs and, and things that can kind of hold them back. And so we all show up like we're the last coach they ever need. Cause we're the ones that like solve that problem and we're not asking them to, you know, saying, Hey, you're going to have to do this same process with this diet forever, but we're going to build it into your life. So, you know, six months from now, when you're done working with us, you know, what you have to do for the next five, 10 years versus a lot of the other programs, when you hear like they get them on the hook.

22:09

And like, yeah, you got to do this for, you know, the next 10 years and you're gonna, you know, or you're not going to keep those results and you hear it all the time with some of those plans where they're on it for whatever period of time, they stopped doing it because it was not sustainable and they just dropped back to where they were before. So it's just kind of building that plan specific to them.

22:29

Just to go off the last point Dustin had there, I think another priority for us is what I'll classify as the individual empowerment that we want our clients to have once they do finish their tether with us. It's three, six months or a year. Developing something right now that we're calling our continuity program. It's essentially just a course that, you know, if

22:57

Mark, if you were working with us and you're our client and you're like, Oh, wow, I got the results I need. Um, that's great. And then we don't want you to finish that period of time. And then three to six months later down the road, you're like, Oh crap. Like now I'm back where I was beforehand. Uh, so.

23:18

Again, empowering the individual, making sure that we're giving them the resources to understand like the what and the why behind both the training, the fueling and the lifestyle sides of things so that again, once they are done with us, that they can look and see and have these resources of like, hey, here's why you like, or here's what like, you know, certain strength training would look like. Here's how you

23:45

Undulate the days throughout the week for how you make certain days higher certain days more recovery years How you can build out, you know running program? from you know, whatever general fitness level you may have and tidbits of you know key points to make sure you're always keeping from Or keeping in your your fueling habits as well So and just going back to that empowerment of making sure that they have the tools Necessary to kind of keep that train going

24:14

once they are done with us as well too, it's important for us. Well, I thought it could be interesting to walk through a use case live and I was willing to use myself as the guinea pig here in the situation. So to bring you up to speed on my physical fitness, currently I would say my aerobic work is going well. I try to swim two to three days a week and we got a Peloton.

24:42

November, but we had a Nordic track bike for the last two years. So biking, this is part of my regimen, probably two days a week as well. So I would say in all, I'm doing five years at least of Arabic work. And what always falls off is strength, my strength side, and say core and flexibility. And I've learned as I've gotten older, flexibility has become more important.

25:09

Um, so how would you work with me to integrate more strength work into my fitness? It's a great question. Uh, kind of going off what you already said. First thing I want to do is make sure like if you have a certain training structure and you have these, or whatever types of sessions and in whatever frequency throughout the week, you have devoted to that aerobic work.

25:37

Um, if that's a couple of swims, a couple of bikes a week and you're like, no, I like that. Like this is what I'm doing. I want to keep that train rolling. Like my goal, it sounds like you're saying is like, I want to make sure that I'm not that I can still do that, but not lose strength, not lose flexibility and whatever else. So first step is just to get a really good understanding of kind of the stuff that you already rolled through of like, okay, well, what is your plan right now? Um, get a good understanding of that. How? Like what?

26:07

days look like what to try to build out like what a consistent micro cycle may look like for you. Um, and I think going from there, it's kind of like building a puzzle. Like, okay, well we have. Based off of what you just said, like we've got all the corner pieces, the edge pieces in line and we know what the picture is going to be of the puzzle. Um, that being again, like getting a little bit stronger, at least maintaining strength.

26:36

adding that flexibility without having a little bit, I guess, more specific details of like what the swims or what days and everything looks like. I mean, this is a little oversimplified, but it's just sprinkling in like where appropriate like strength sessions would fit in, where mobility sessions would fit in with the plan that you already have. Also important to understand like, you know, previous medical history of any injuries or

27:04

even, you know, maybe not severe injuries, but just some things that are kind of nagging that we want to make sure that we keep up with as well. Um, you know, generally speaking, I'm, I'm an advocate for like, we want to make sure we, we don't just have like a monotonous training week where it's like every day, like we just have, it's like kind of this moderate day, like we want some of our days to be higher and either higher intensity or higher volume.

27:29

We want other days to be lower, especially when we're talking about what you're saying, like, you know, five plus hours aerobic work a week and then wanting to add some strength and core flexibility work on top of that. We need those opportunities to recover. So once we have an understanding of where those different training days look, putting in the strength, the core, the flexibility to a point where within the week to where it looks like, okay, well, here's our high days, you know, we're, we're doing a lot of pulling or, you know.

27:59

Yeah, a lot of pulling in the pool, a big upper body day. Why don't we go ahead and try to match either that day or, uh, we can do one of two things. Sorry about some other places. If you have a high pull day in the pool, we can do one of two things. We can either keep that day high from an upper body perspective. And maybe that's where we put some, you know, upper body strength work as well. Um, but make sure that, you know, the day, two days subsequent to that, you're getting

28:28

plenty of opportunity to recover from that because that is kind of a combination of stimulus there between the swim and the strength work. Or we could do kind of a contrast of training. If we know that we're going to have a big whole day in the pool, then okay, let's try to put our lower body strength work in there. So it's not as conflicting of stimuli that we're working with through that. Again, and not to kind of have a top-round answer.

28:56

I think the biggest thing or the most important thing is just to understand like, again, what you're used to, what that week looks like, what your work schedule looks like too. If you're like, if I say, hey, okay, we're going to do this workout on Wednesday and you're like, well, I can't, I got to do this with my wife or I'm working on a project until late on those nights, I can't do that, then okay, that throws that part of the plan out of the window. So getting that good general understanding.

29:26

Finishing that puzzle by just, you know, again, using the expertise and the experience we have of knowing what's right and what makes the most sense from a training perspective to put the rest of that puzzle together. I guess a follow up I have to that is it also depends on like what's going on behind the scenes too. You know, we have an extensive process kind of diving into someone's life, but you know, you have a full household of kids at home. You know, are you sleeping well? Are there stressors involved?

29:54

Is there specific any like weight you'd like to lose or is it just building muscle? You know, is there, you know, things that we have to manage or work around that are goals as well? Because that can dictate what you're doing on top of that. You know, it may not be where we're just focusing on that strength side of things. It may be, you know, doing what you're doing because that's the right thing to maintain your cortisol levels or whatever that is. But are there any of those like side factors that are important for you, Mark? Well, I do have a nagging

30:24

I think that's up, you know, my, one of my left quad is trying to make sure I can strengthen that and continue rehab and then of course, sleep is always prime for me. Actually, you know, I really didn't realize how much sleep deprivation I was going through until I left coaching. And then, you know, having three young kids, one that's, you know, about a month old, you know, that reminds you of how much sleep.

30:53

continues to be important for me. So, you know, there's a great Seinfeld skit where, you know, night mark really likes to screw morning mark. And so, anything I can do to make sure I stay on schedule where I get to bed early so I can get up because my time to really work out is the morning, early morning or late evening. But mostly mornings is where I try to work out. So finding a good regimen.

31:22

I think accountability is important and having something to look forward to, where I feel like I'm getting progress, I think is, is important. So I think like taking those like logistical considerations are important and understanding like family life time of day that you have available to train. Uh, again, like lingering issues, like a left quad, it sounds like maybe a lot of different, uh, lower body, like

31:50

partial squat isos for very extensive time periods would be in their future to make sure we're strengthening that tendon, but yeah, just getting those logistical considerations, making sure we have the good awareness of what's feasible for you so that, one, we're keeping up with what you have done up until this point that you enjoy doing, and two, that what we're adding onto that plate is sustainable and enjoyable for you.

32:18

Well, I am curious more about the origin of Mejoria. And I was wondering if you guys could share, you know, what were some of the challenges that you had to overcome to start the business? And I ask that specifically because when I was thinking of questions to ask you and starting my own business, right, I had to lean heavily on some of the skills I learned as an athlete and the...

32:44

the methods I espouse as a coach. So I'm curious to know what you all have pulled on to get through building Mayhoria to where it is now.

32:55

It's, uh, it's been a journey. I think Aaron and I had a very different initial vision of what Meijore was going to be, uh, you know, we originally started off thinking, okay, we're going to put out like the best training programs. You know, people are going to jump to buy them because they're the best. Um, you know, we were the kind of that, like, just subscription model, you know, just trying to get people to sign up and more people are going to sign up. And I think.

33:24

In both of our minds and a little in the back of the mind was like, we still know with this specific model, it can be the best training in the world. And if there's not things to be coupled with that, that's specific to the individual and, and getting them to be accountable for those things and coaching them through their actual struggles, then we're going to have a ton of people that are going to be subscribed in our programs, but they're not necessarily going to be actually doing those programs or benefiting from them or getting the progress that they want.

33:54

And that's very like the planet fitness model. You know, they want a ton of people signed up. They want a ton of people to bring in revenue, but they don't actually necessarily want people in the gym actively using the space. And you're seeing that a lot right now. It's January. So you see, you know, gym membership surge 30 to 50%. And we could very easily do that, but that's just not going to be the best thing for the individuals that we work with. And we pivoted away from that about a year ago now.

34:24

Um, into doing like the full coaching, like I said, lifestyle, nutrition, accountability, exercise, diving into their life specifically and finding ways to help them. And that's a very different process and a lot more involved than what we were doing previously. And we had our meeting, our staff meeting last week and it was my wife, Erin and I, and we were sitting there like, this is so different than what we expected it to be and thank goodness it is.

34:54

Uh, cause we'd probably be in the exact same boat. We were on day one and starting the business, you know? Um, but it's challenged us a lot because, you know, when you're doing that process, you know, we didn't know anything about sales, we didn't really know how to market properly for this business. Um, you know, we all have our kind of personal brands and followings. Um, but as far as, you know, letting people know like, Hey, you can trust your health with us was a.

35:23

was a difficult challenge is something I think we're still learning. Um, but it's been a really fun part of the process. I think the part that's made it enjoyable for all of us knowing that like from day one, it wasn't going to be perfect and it wasn't going to be smooth was like our team, there's no one better for us to be doing that with, um, anytime we've like run into a challenge or run into a problem and there's been a lot, it's never been about.

35:49

Like who's right or who's wrong. It's just been like, okay, what's the best thing to continue to help people and, you know, help us grow the business and kind of do things the right way. Yeah. I'd add to that. It's, it's definitely been a humbling experience. Uh, like just to kind of start it out with like, you know, we kind of think like, oh, we can put the best training plan for anyone, uh, together then. Like who wouldn't want that? You know?

36:17

Uh, and that's just not the way the world works. And like, I think in strength and issue, we kind of laugh, like there's a lot of really, really great, uh, amazing coaches out there and you know, there's some that aren't so great, but, uh, there are also ones that aren't that great that hold like really high paying positions. Cause they're really good at just being like, uh, you know, the, the runner person and getting the people going. And.

36:46

getting people to buy into them and their system and maybe their training program isn't the most great or sound, but they'll have people that want to run through brick walls for them because of how they interact. But the other, it could also be flipped. I could have the world's best training program, but if we don't understand the market or the business of talking to people and getting them...

37:15

to be bought into what that program is and for them to want to do it, then we're completely missing the boat. So I think the humbling experience has kind of been trying to marry both sides of that, of like getting the people on board with it, as well as building that good product at the end of the day as well. Marrying both sides to it as best we can, not just being a good one-on-one like life coach type thing, but being a good...

37:44

coach and a good team for these people while also giving them a really exceptional product from the training and nutrition standpoint as well. I think one of my favorite things that we hear from every single person that might potentially work with us and the ones that probably haven't even reached out to us yet is, you know, they're on the side of like, can I even stick to this or can I even do this, you know, cause they don't even have faith in themselves that they're going to be able to do that part of the process. Um, and.

38:14

Our combat to that is we're not going to let you fall behind. We're not going to let you get off track. You know, we're going to build it to you, but that's, that can't be one of the negotiables throughout the process. It's like, yeah, you know, we're going to let them drop off. We're going to let them, you know, not figure things out. And that's the challenge we face pretty often with people with difficult lives and, you know, just a ton of things going on. It's like, all right, how do we go back to our drawing board and make this actually work for what's going on?

38:44

You know, and there's, and there's just too many things out there that say, well, like, you know, if you can't devote five hours a week to getting an exercise, then like, sorry, you're just not going to be in better health and it's like, that's not true, you know, and. You know, for some people it's three days a week and it's 20, 30 minutes, but we're really diving into the, you know, the nutrition and lifestyle stuff and improving the stress and like, that's our job is to find the things that make the biggest difference without having to make the, you know, biggest effort or difficulty.

39:13

added to their life. So that's the, I think that's the fun part of it. That's just been a unique challenge is every single person we work with brings unique challenges that are unique to their life and everything they have going on and, and making it fit to that. And, and not just saying like, yeah, you know, you might drop off in a month and we're not letting that happen. Um, which is, which is a lot of fun to kind of see that progress and also see that flip and relief when they're like, Oh, Hey, like, yeah, this can actually work for me.

39:44

Mark, I do kind of want to flip that question back to you and maybe get a little insight of your company as well. And I guess, Mark, I do kind of want to flip that question over to you just because I know your experience and your company is definitely unique as well. And just to get a little bit of insight as to what that looks like on your end and kind of, you know, here maybe growing pains from your side as well. Just curious.

40:13

Sure. So I started in Telesport Analytics about two and a half years ago and it was born out of my experience really being a coach and athlete and researcher. So, you know, along the way coaching, I got my doctorate in education and found an interest in research and thought there was an opportunity to really help partner with sports leaders to use data to inform their...

40:38

decision making, really in the people analytics space, that's really using information to better serve your people, give them what they need, help them be heard, and make strategic decisions to make your sports organization more efficient, have better outcomes, whether it's high performance outcomes or just cultural outcomes. And so we collect data in all different capacities. And I think the challenge was, I went in with a certain set of beliefs

41:07

probably because I was pretty much narrow-minded from being a coach in high education and college athletics. I really thought my marketplace was going to be specifically in higher education. And that really hasn't been the case. It's been more sports industry broadly from youth sports to professional sports, Olympic, national governing bodies to conferences. So it's been really all over the place. The

41:34

The work that we do, it actually really rests on the character, interest and perspective of the leader that we work with. And the key defining factor is their willingness to be self-critical of themselves and their organization. If an individual is not willing to be self-critical of themselves, they're really not going to hire us because they're not interested in making themselves or their organization better, really diving in deep into.

42:04

what they may be hesitant to find. And that's not to say that we come into organizations or teams and are looking for to lift up the carpet and air out any dirty laundry. It's really about trying to uncover what are some of the systemic challenges that our organizations are experiencing. It could be just poor communication, could be lack of resources, it could be...

42:32

something that we just don't know and can't define. What we do is we really try to find a research process to collect the data in meaningful ways. So whether it's designing questions to use a survey, doing one-on-one interviews, focus groups, or coming into the field and trying to see what's really going on. We collect that data, and using our sport experience, academic background, we interpret that data and we provide strategic recommendations,

43:02

turned out to be some of the more fun work that I was really not expecting. The research was expecting, but the consulting side has been really interesting to help see through that from the data that we find, how can we put that into practice? What can we really make? How do we make meaningful change? And that's been really rewarding being a confidant and a person to share ideas and brainstorm how we can help an organization.

43:31

move forward. A good example was we did a high performance assessment with an Olympic team and what we found was that there were structural problems, there were some organization communication challenges, so we really had to come up with a comprehensive plan for them to address each issue and think through how they can make change. The timeline wasn't

44:01

So thinking through how can we make a plan moving forward and make real meaningful change. So to go back to your original question here, the challenge was I thought I was selling one thing, it turned out I was selling something else. And really it was less about, we're not really a product company, we're a services and idea company in terms of how can we partner with our...

44:26

clients and try to help them understand what their challenges are, what's keeping them up at night and can we think about a way to address those? No, that's awesome, man. I love the idea of having that kind of, not necessarily self-audit, but maybe kind of third party audit system of having someone come in with knowledge and expertise that you have and being able to kind of help that, you know, help problem solve for whether it be...

44:56

the maybe the more hierarchical or just, you know, or kind of scaffolding structural stuff based with an organization. So that's really good. When you say you kind of started off with one thing and maybe evolved into something else. And I know you said like you really enjoyed the consulting side. What do you think has been, I guess, maybe the biggest thing

45:24

or area or aspect of the company that's kind of evolved since you started it based off of what your original plan might have been. I'd say the evolution was rather than having a a la carte, I'll say, services that I would present to prospective clients, it's really turned into more important to ask meaningful, thoughtful questions, understand where they are.

45:52

in their leadership and where their organization is currently? And is there a meaningful way for us to partner together to help them be more effective? Because I work under the assumption that if you're in a sports leadership position, you're at the higher education level, it's about having meaningful positive experiences where you can compete at a high level and also pair that with a productive, meaningful education outcome.

46:22

At the professional level, it's how can you create a really high level organization, high performance organization that's going to produce outcomes that are consistent with the people within your discipline. And so it's really trying to understand what are the areas that can be improved and can we access that? Can we... Because I also work under the assumption that organizations are primarily made up of really good people.

46:52

really smart people, but often they're not leveraged in a way that their best ideas are bubbling to the surface or they really don't have an avenue to share productive ideas or there's not an opportunity to work collaboratively, especially in a hierarchical structure where it's top to bottom structure instead of being a more of a flat organization where everyone can collaborate together.

47:18

And so we really serve to hopefully connect some of those dots, break some of those barriers where the best ideas we can bring to the service to help them understand, we do have really good ideas, but we need to uncover those and we can leverage those and we'll be coming back. That's great. That sounds like something we, you know, Justin and I, they have to have you come consult with us and figure out what we can improve on our systems.

47:48

even more fluid and even more helpful. So that's awesome. Yeah. We really appreciate you hopping on here and chatting with us. Of course. Just going to ask a few questions and let us fire a couple things. Yeah. I appreciate it. I did have a quick quick fire question for you guys. Okay. So try to answer these one or two sentences. So first question is.

48:15

What are your three non-negotiable behaviors for living a healthy performance life?

48:23

some level of discipline. Doesn't mean that you need to be like the David Dagens, like I'm gonna run 50 miles a day type discipline, but you need to have enough self-discipline where you're not completely relying on external motivation and you can keep whatever plan that you have put in front of you going on your own to some extent. I think it's definitely one for me.

48:50

I think the most important thing would be to live with intentionality when it comes to your health. You know, as far as whatever you know you need to do, actually just following through on that is probably the most important thing.

49:03

What advice would you give someone trying to make changes in 2024? I think the advice I'd give them is to... Sounds stupid, but just do it. If you have an inkling that you should or want to make a change, just do it. And that all starts by finding the first step of how to do that, whether that's finding a person, uh, looking into it, doing your own research, but take the first step, regardless of if it's a marathon, the end of the day, take that first step.

49:32

I think the most important advice would be to not try to change everything that you do all in one go. You know, take off a little bit of time and build consistency with that. So pick one or two habits, focus on those, build consistency over time, and then progressively add habits as you feel like you are able to actually maintain the habits that you started with. You know, consistency beats motivation every single day of the week. All right. Last question. What's your golden rule for achieving?

50:01

healthy lifestyle. Golden rule for achieving a healthy lifestyle. It's hard to summarize it into like one rule and I don't want to sound cliche or redundant here but I think it's to uphold a certain level of self-discipline and to find that self-discipline. If you want to live a healthy lifestyle there's going to be

50:27

some sacrifices that you'll have to make. It doesn't mean like the Justin's point that has to be everything all at once, but you need to be able to have some of the effort to get that small workout in, make that healthier meal, manage your time a little bit better, sleep where you can, whatever it may be, but to have that little bit of self-discipline I think is the golden rule if you wanna get to a point in a healthy lifestyle that you wanna be at.

50:57

focus on primarily Whole Foods as much as possible and move every day. I liked it, but that was two. Then Whole Foods as much as possible. That's it. That's all I got for you. Yeah, Mark. Thank you so much for hopping on with us, man. We appreciate not only your time, but having you ask us questions.

51:19

give us an opportunity to chat a little bit about the genesis of mayoria so to speak, but also chit chat a little bit with you and kind of learn a little bit about your side as well. Yeah, it's a privilege to be able to talk with you, man. And thank you so much for joining us. And thank you by everybody else for tuning in. And we will see you on the next episode.