[Transcript starts at 2:07]
Hello friends, Maestro here and welcome to the final episode of 2022. Had to put a little pause in there for a dramatic effect, but y'all know I'm not going anywhere. As per, I think every single year I have repeat offenders. They've actually come on the podcast six times. I was gonna do the whole like once, twice, but I was like, I can't go past three, so I can't, I shouldn't do that.
They have come on, this is going to be their sixth time coming on. I bring them on every year just to hear what's going on in their lives, catch up on their business, and kinda lead us off into the, kick us off into the new year with goal setting, or maybe won't even talk about that. We'll see where the conversation goes today.
But I think the main reason that I bring them on is because they are truly living with intention and intentionally creating and crafting their best life, which is what this podcast is all about. We will also get into the online business side of things. They have a cat, and a dog, but they have a famous cat and it's just, I'm looking forward to the conversation. For the sixth time, please welcome my friends, Alex Parker and Meredith Root.
Welcome friends.
Thank you.
We have our, uh, fingers crossed folks. If, if this, if all goes according to plan, then some of you right now are watching this on video. God willing. We'll see what happens. We got, we have new technology that we're working with, so hopefully it's up. If not, I don't know. We'll do something else, but I want to pass this right back to you right away, and every time I that I do the episode with Meredith and Alex, I say this for the, for those of you that are listening around the edges, if you're running a podcast. If you invite more than one guest on to be a good host,
ask questions of the specific guests. So don't just throw the question out there cuz then they look at each other and they're like, you? Me? So if you are hosting a podcast and you have multiple guests specify who you want to answer this. So like I said, when we first started, they have been on literally, this is the sixth time,
so if you wanna hear like their backstory and all that stuff, please let's listen to those episodes. But I think I would be a bad host if I don't give like a little bit of a background. So, um, Alex, how do you feel about just telling us what exactly Tactic Functional Nutrition is and then we can go onto the rest?
Is that okay?
Yeah, for sure. Um, I also wanted to preface this podcast by letting you know how much more confident and comfortable I am now that it's my sixth time . I can't even explain to you how nervous I was for the first one. And the fact that you do ask a specific questions to specific people, I was like, shoot, I can't hide under Meredith.
Like, what if she asked me something I don't know. Because when we are on podcasts and someone throws a question, we have like a little, like, I'll be like touching her leg. Like, take this one. .
Nope, we're giving it to you .
Um, yeah. So what Tactic Functional Nutrition is, is it's basically a one-on-one coaching, remote coaching company, nutrition company.
And, um, oh, it's so hard to sum up. But basically we work one-on-one with clients all around the world, um, to help people improve their nutrition, improve their lifestyle, and live life to the fullest. And that looks differently for everybody. So it's very personalized.
Alex, do you folks actually market weight loss?
This isn't a trick question. I'm like actually legitimately asking.
It's kind of in the mix, but we've never, we tried to stay away from, like, if we do a post on weight loss, cuz that is a very popular goal, we will usually, we will usually qualify it with, now this may not be everyone's goal, or this may not be the best goal, but for weight loss, whatever, you need a calorie deficit, whatever the science is or whatever the purpose of the post is.
But we like to think of weight loss as kinda like the cherry on top of the cake or the icing on the cake. It's like you have to have the cake before you can have the icing. Like it's, it's the result. And we don't like focusing on results. We like focusing on the process.
This right here. I'm, I'm actually surprised that you say process, aren't you Canadian?
Process,
Not process? Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, that's a big thing. Process. They're actually folks, these two live in, I think it's Alaska. They say it's Canada, not quite sure. It's snowing all year. And then there's like one day that it's like beautiful. And they're like, look, it's so nice. And I'm like, I don't know,
It looks
Funny enough. I actually did, I have lived in Alaska.
Of course. Mm-hmm. Of course
They're both the same.
That's what it looks like. And I'm like, oh, this is real nice. They're like, “Come for Stampede.” I don't know about that. So with the actual, uh, kind of the segue there, talking about weight loss, but not at all, talked about cake.
Didn't you do, wasn't there a cake post in there somewhere? You folks have just really dove like head first. Meredith is like my, my comrade, my homie in arms for all things tech. Was there a, was there a cake post?
There was a baking. There was a baking post.
Yeah. It was, we, we like metaphors and so it was trying to ice the cake before baking the cake and it just doesn't work.
And that, that was kind of like focusing on the things that don't matter when you don't have the basics in place, which is what a lot of people in nutrition do. It's like, what supplements do I take? When do I eat? And like, well if you're eating crap food and you're not eating the right amount, it doesn't matter when you eat.
Um, it's coming as an example.
Yeah. It's coming back to me.
I was like, that was peak acting time for me.
That literally that was what I was gonna ask about. So I'm gonna pass it to Meredith and then I wanna come back to you to like ask what it's like being in front of the camera. Uh, you dove in headfirst this year,
Meredith. Like all in, $19,000 worth of camera gear. I'm sorry if you get a divorce now cause I said that. Bought all the things and you are all in. How has this been social media wise?
Yeah. I mean, I, you could, relationship-wise, it was a struggle. It was like every time a box would show up, I'd be like, I'm so, I'm so sorry.
We do need this though. We do need what's in this box, and I need you to not ask how much it costs. Um,
That's amazing.
But it was, yeah, I mean, Instagram kind of pivoted really hard in the spring, around the spring, early summer towards, um, video content. And I remember we were like, hey, we're gonna do one video per week.
Because prior to that, we were primarily a written content, um, page. And I think we did one week where we videoed like one on, we, like Wednesday was our video day, and then we went to videoing basically every single day. Because immediately it was like, wow, people really like this. And, um, it, you know, I, it's not like I had, I bought the camera, I bought the Gimbal, and I learned how to use uh, Adobe Premiere in a week.
I had actually been learning Premiere cuz I was like, well, maybe we should get into YouTube. And so I was learning that software already and then all of a sudden I was like, well, I'll just use it for Instagram. And so the, it was really, it was awesome from an engagement standpoint. And then also we get to stop creating new, like post topics.
We basically just went back into our catalog of three years worth of post and I was like, well let's just start remaking these as videos.
I love that.
Yeah.
I love that. Now, if people were to go and watch, we'll link all the things folks, you know, we always do. But if people go and watch initially, and I think the one that went viral and we'll talk about that, it was Alex, like doing the acting and seemingly Meredith doing a lot of the like, filming and I'm guessing the, um, I don't wanna say storytelling, but like outlining it and, and there was like phenomenal blooper in there one time. I think it was five minutes of a blooper of like, this is the line. What does this actually look like from a process perspective of like, this gets planned out, who goes, who's actually gonna be in the video? What does that look like?
We, we kind of try to sort of alternate. So it goes like a Meredith video, Alex video, Meredith video. We, a lot of the brainstorming we do together as far as um, what we wanna talk about and maybe kind of storyboard it out, like how we want it to look.
And then, um, the shooting process early on took forever and that's why there were so many bloopers cuz it's just such an outrageous activity. Yeah. Um,
It is.
And so the, but the shooting process, I would say like on the long end takes maybe an hour to get done. Um, And then, you know, kind of cutting. We've, and again, when you're better at shooting and you're better at managing your camera, it gets a lot easier to pull clips into post-production.
And, um, yeah, I use Adobe Premiere for that. And then it's just a lot of really creative editing, uh, bringing in B-roll, bringing in sound effects, zooming in, zooming out, all of that stuff that you can do in Adobe. And it just sort of yeah, becomes a complete masterpiece.
it is though. I, I love that Meredith just threw out there so casually that it takes an hour.
Like this speaks, this is why these, these are my people. You folks listening to this. If you've heard them before, if you know them, you know, they're my people. But this is why, where if you were to say that same amount of time to somebody else, they'd be like, what an hour? And that's actually really fast.
Um, but they'd be like, an hour per video. No, I'm not doing that. Adobe? That's the number one question that I have ever received on Instagram, is what do you use to make those captions? And I've only had one person, one, take me up on actually doing it. And that's Jackie Fenton, Dr. Jackie Fenton. And then she stopped because she had a baby.
So it was like, you should, you should probably rest and like sleep.
But one person…
Captioning, that's actually what takes the longest out of everything in.
So long!
You put the video together and then every time I drag the captions over I'm just like,
So long.
Yep.
So, so long. And your videos are a little bit longer and I'm like, dude.
Yeah.
More than 30 seconds. I'm like…
I did a two, I did a two minute video over two minutes today and it was, uh, like a podcast clip. So I'm talking a lot faster than
That's great.
I'm talking in normal video and it's just, I was like, man, this caption is taking forever.
Yeah. This is so, so long. So much work.
Mm-hmm.
Alex, how has it been for you being in front of the camera, jumping into all things, I don't know if you're jumping into all things tech, but jumping into really lean, jumping into the video side of, of social media.
Um, early on, so last spring, I was a definite, like hard pass and Meredith was kind of dabbling.
And then I did one on like motivation or something, and it was so bad. It was like, it was so scripted out that I basically would like read it and then like, look into the camera and, and just regurgitate exactly the line and then like, look down and then look up. And Meredith and it, you could tell. Like the video wasn't good and I think it's still up, but I like, I want, I, if it were my page, I would've taken it down, but Meredith won't let me.
Leave it up. Just leave up.
We're not about that.
Leave it up.
It wasn't bad, like the message was fine, but I just, I look back and I'm like, really bad. I get, I'm like a pretty nervous person already. And so if you put a camera on me and I have to say exact lines, like the, it's no longer becomes a language.
It's like I have to memorize word by word and then I just can't.
It's just sounds.
It's really brutal. And Meredith, like, she tries to be patient with me cuz she knows that if she's not, it just makes it worse. And then it usually we film these things at night cuz like, we have to work during the day and then we do these stupid videos.
They're not stupid.
They're not stupid, but it's like, okay, we just finished work for like, you know, eight hours, 10 hours and now we're doing this video. My brain mush.
Now the work starts.
But I will say, and I, I stand by this because it's something that, um, I've experienced my entire life with sports. When we learned our dance for our wedding.
Like if you, if you just keep at it, it will get better. It will get easier. And even, it was probably like a month ago, I did a whole a video without stopping. Like, it, there was no, it was straight through. And that, to me, that was like a big accomplishment for me.
Alex, that is a big deal.
And, um, I had, Meredith had to like, go upstairs and do, and I, I probably went through that thing.
It took me an hour of just like trying and trying and trying and trying.
Yeah.
Finally I got it and I was so proud of it and it turned out to be a great video. So I would say like, it was definitely difficult at first. It's still hard. Like you have to show up, you have to have showered, you have to, you know, look a… the lighting is a big deal. It's definitely a thing.
Meredith and I be talking about the lighting.
Yeah.
The light.
We have a lot of lights in our house.
Mm-hmm.
I have this big ass thing over here.
Yeah.
Studio light.
Um, but I would say like, it's been a fun challenge specifically for me and, and trying to impress Meredith and, and create things that are, are, um, interesting and fun to watch for our followers. I definitely am more of like, oh, let's make this funny cuz I'm more comfortable with that. And Meredith kind of, I ha I have to like dabble a little bit more into the more like nutrition based ones that explain things.
Yeah.
Studies and stuff and so that's kind of where I'm going. I'm like oh I should do a nutrition one. So…
okay.
Pushing, pushing, pushing myself.
I wanna go into that a little bit more, Alex. You said that it's been like fun and interesting. Was there a turning point? Was there a decision that you made that'll be like, I'm gonna make this fun? Was something you looked at more, you're like, I'm gonna focus on this part cuz that is more fun.
How did you make that switch?
I think when looking back in my personal Instagram, that's kind of where my growth happened. Like making things funny. Like posting videos of, or like photos of me naked even though I'm not actually naked, but like covered up and like making a joke about it. Like a lot of my Instagram was kind of funny and I feel like this was an opportunity to do that with the nutrition side, and I think it naturally just happened. It was like, oh, what can we make this video? What if we did it to a song? And it's like, as soon as you get like a lot of positive reinforcement from something…
Yeah.
You just, you start like, then it's like ideas are constantly coming. Like, how can we make this a video? How can we make this funny? Oh, I listened to this song. It would be perfect for this message. Um,
Totally.
It just,
You're like a true creator now.
Yeah. It took like one where I'm like, okay, people love this. Yeah. And, and then it, it was like, all right, let's, let's dive into this. I can see the return.
Before, I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna stay with you and then I have some questions for you, Meredith, but before you got the positive reinforcement.
Cause this is something I'm thinking about for my audience. We know as soon as you get over the hump, as soon as you get claps and you get applaud, applause, it's easier. But before then it can be tough and people are like, I feel like I'm doing, I'm talking to no one and I spent an hour doing this.
Did you have those moments? How'd you get through that if so?
Yeah. Um, it was you, you definitely have to kind of put yourself out there. And, um, there's something, and Meredith always tells me this too, it's like, and I, I can't remember if we heard it on a podcast. It's like, you wanna take things, uh, personal but not personally.
Like, it's not your, it's not you as a person, but it, it is your work. And so
Make it personal. Don't take it personally.
Yeah. Don't let it get under your skin. Don't let it stop you from pushing and trying again. Um, and don't let other people's, um, yeah, responses, I guess, dictate what you're gonna do next.
Like keep at it. Um, and so that was kind of a big one. Like, I've had to put my helmet on a couple times. Like I took some, some,
Yeah.
You know, slack here and there, and when you put up a video that you worked hard on, you don't get likes, it's hard. But it doesn't mean that it's bad, it's a bad message. Just maybe it wasn't delivered in the right way.
Maybe the algorithm didn't pick it up. So I think it was just not giving up. Obviously having Meredith just be like, nope, it's just one day. Let's keep doing it. You know? So… I would say it was hard.
Yeah. I mean, we still have that happen. Like, I, I remember one time I, like, I poured my soul into this video where I did a bunch of masking and it's basically about like how people get…
It was amazing.
Yeah.
With the people on sofa?
Yeah. The sofa video.
Mm-hmm. Amazing.
And, um, people who know what they're looking at are like, oh, holy cow, that's amazing. But just like someone watching on Instagram, so they're like, oh, there's four people sitting on a couch. They don't realize that I've like masked over.
How do they do that?
That one took way longer than an hour.
Yeah. That one was longer because I was like, you know, learning how to green screen myself in.
She was like, you need to change outfits and then sit in the middle of the couch now.
Yes.
Yes. Dude. Oh my gosh.
Um, it was really fun to make though. And that's a thing, like it didn't get a ton of, of action. I think number one, it just went right over people's heads.
Totally. Totally.
And then, um, it's just, it's like not the type of video that, that Instagram loves, but I was like, I love the process of making that video because it was so fun. I learned so much doing it. And it's something that I, I still watch that video and I'm like, damn. Like that's pretty impressive.
It was amazing.
Yes. So, I don't know, it's like sometimes you have to give a shit when no one else gives a shit. And that's, that's the key and that's the most important part of like, continuing to show up. But at first, like, you definitely have to give a shit because no one else is going, is going to.
Totally. Yeah.
You folks listening, the first episode that I had these two on was episode 44. I don't have the date of it. It was a million years ago. I think probably, I don't know, 2015 maybe. Uh, no, no, that's not right. 2018 and something like that. And the reason I brought them on was because they both went to what was was formally known as CrossFit Regionals. One of my favorite events to go to, and I thought it was like the most spectacular thing because they were dating at the time, and I don't think ever in history was there a couple that was actually competing against each other. That was, to me, was amazing. So they were competing and at the end it came down to literally them going head to head for a final spot, uh, to, to move on. Uh, and the reason I bring this up is because what Meredith was just saying about giving a shit when no one else gives a shit. And I think that that speaks to just how both of them are in terms of their inherent natures. Uh, and this is why I always give athletes like a leg up.
I'm like, ah, but you know, because this is when you're working out and no one's clapping for you. Uh, Meredith did a story, I don't know, two days ago? Three days ago? And was basically like the heater doesn't work in the garage. And I was like, this woman is crazy. But also, and then Alex is out. Alex is laughing.
Alex is out here fucking running, literally 97,000 miles and I'm like,
Mm-hmm.
Is someone chasing you? What's happening here? Out here doing these things when no one's clapping because they find joy in it. Find joy in it because it lights them up, cuz it means something to them. And it just transcends all aspects, right?
It's all the same whether you're looking at working out or looking at creating content, you have to be doing it because, you know, it does something for you. Meredith, can you speak to going viral?
Yeah, I remember this.
Anything
you wanna say about it.
You know what? Yeah, I, I could, I could talk about this all day. I remember on June 4th, um, June 4th, and I, I'm, I'm certain that I sent you a message on this day because it was when Tactic's followers surpassed my personal following.
So at the time, um, I had like 20,000 followers and Tactic clicked over to 20000.1 and I was like, it's finally happened. Yeah, it has finally happened. And that was, um,
And I was like, I'm still going strong.
Still, still had both of us.
I love the competition. Still winning!
Um, and then that was kind of right at the beginning of when we were starting to get into videos and by, by the end of June, so that was June 4th, um, by the end of June we had 153,000 followers.
So 130…
Yes.
3000 in less than a month. And I think that happened around June 20th. And it was, it was odd because it was a video that we had posted over a week prior. It was Alex's, you know, here are a few things that don't really matter. Funny thing about that post is it was a totally off the cuff, like, ah, we should post something tomorrow, but I don't want it to be hard.
And so we were like, we were, you know, prepping dinner. Sort of like, we'll just like, pick a few things, film it, I'll put it together, or whatever. Won't be, won't be a hit. And it was. And uh, I have no idea what made it a hit. It just took off. Um, but it's a, it's a, like, on one hand you're very proud and um, excited cuz it's obviously gonna do a lot for your business and credibility and that kind of thing.
But on the other hand, you just like immediately feel very seen and vulnerable cuz you're like, I'm into, I'm into uncharted waters. Like these people have no idea who we are.
That.
Like our 30,000 or or 20,000 followers, that took us, you know, four years to get. Everybody who was following us at that time,
they know who we are, they're curated, they're there because they want, they like our messaging. Um, you know, the, the 130,000 followers that followed us in June, it was scary. Cause I'm like, I don't know if these people are gonna like what we're about. I don't know if they're gonna like us as people. I don't know if they're gonna be mean. Um,
They were.
They seem, well no, they weren't even the mean people weren't even the ones that were following like that.
Yeah, that's true.
That video got like , that video has like 2.8 million views on it. There were some mean people that watched.
Yeah.
Never the followers.
I learned really quickly how to use, how to filter out certain words and comments.
So in your security you can, you can just put no no words. And so if somebody uses one of those words, it won't even po you won't even see it. Um, so did that kind of, uh, right away. And, but other than that, other than the, like, the hate on that video, I think because people just, they don't, they'll hate on women who look like they work out.
Yeah. Um, of course. Insecure.
Yeah. Other than that, it's, it's been awesome. And I think like, I mean, we get constant, like our, our engagement stays really high on our videos. It's really reinforced that we're our, the messaging is what I want it to be. And like the number of people who are like, you've helped me so much.
We don't even work with these people one-on-one. They're like, you have totally changed the way that I think about my nutrition, my body, my fitness, the way I move through my life. And that's the whole, that's our whole thing, right.
So, so, so, so awesome. I will interject and say, I remember like specifically, I remember when you first messaged me that like, that it had, the account had like rolled over and then I remember staying up one night to take a screenshot of when it went from 99,900 followers to 100,000 followers.
Like, I think they're gonna be sleeping, but this is like a pretty awesome deal and it was all actual people coming in. It wasn't a bunch of bots. Like you said, the engagement is super super high. And what I wanna highlight here and um, I guess congratulate you on and commend you on, is the fact that these people came in and the reason that the engagement stayed high and the reason that you got actual followers from it, it's cuz you had four years of content behind it.
Yeah.
And four years of using your voice. These two, they show up unapologetically, especially Meredith, the Meredith be out here with gloves on in the arena, in the comments, and I'm like, wow. Right? They show up unapologetically 100% as themselves. And what you're gonna get from that is, yeah, maybe some people don't like it, but you will ha literally build such a, an army behind that.
Alex, I wanna flip it over to you because you were, we're quick to say, uh, that some of the people weren't nice. How was that experience? We still having experiences with that?
Um, it's, I'm over it. I'm like, it was tough because the, yeah, the video, there was one piece in it where I don't have a shirt on cause I was, it was something about working out fasted and I was on the bike without like just a sports bra on.
And I think that maybe that scene specifically triggered a lot of people who are like, oh, she's a guy. Or, um, yeah, there was just a lot of like, are you a girl or a boy? And it's like, why does it matter also? And not, that wasn't necessarily the big one. It was just like a lot of… and I, I've had this kind of throughout my CrossFit career, not like super bad, but um, kind of accusations that I'm like taking performance, enhancing drugs or testosterone because like everyone who does CrossFit, who's female and has muscles, gets that at some point in their life and is still getting it most likely.
I mean, you see it all the time. And it was, this just was like all of these people who have no idea what I do, who I am, what we're about, um, coming on there. Like they were saying things like, you know, how can you preach good nutrition when it, it was kind of like, um, what's that primal guy, the meat guy?
Oh, Liver King.
Liver King.
Liver King. Like, how can you be promoting these like things when you don't even do, do them. You're just taking, you know, drugs. And it's like, I think like if there were one or two people who said that, it's like whatever. But it was the sheer volume. It was just like over and over and over. And like, at some, at one point, like, I was like, I can't and Meredith just kind of took over.
It's kind of hard. It's like a car crash. It's like you should, you can't look, but you also can't look away.
Totally, totally.
And it just didn't make sense. It was like, why are these people being so cruel? Yeah. Um, and yeah, it was just, it was tough. Like it was really tough to, to like to, to deal with that. Like, um, and…
What got you through that? Besides Meredith? Or was it Meredith and time?
Yeah, Meredith and time. Like it, I shook it off pretty quick. I think focusing on the number of really awesome positive comments was really helpful. Like, oh, you, it was just nice, you know, a lot of, as for, for every really negative comment there was, there were probably like four people who not only said like, wow, this is really helpful, or thank you,
it was like, and I, I don't, I'm not a superficial person, but when your, your appearance is being criticized so much, it is nice to hear like, wow, you're beautiful.
Mm-hmm.
And there were a lot of those, and I just tried to focus on that and remember that people who, who spread hate have insecurities. They is something going on in their life that makes them want, uh, to bring other people down.
Hundred percent.
Um, and that sounds kind of cliche, but I think it's the truth.
True. It's the truth though. It's the truth.
Yeah. And just, you gotta, yeah. Putting yourself out there, you're, you know, you're, that stuff's gonna happen.
That. That part there. Like I, when I was outlining, I use that loosely, when I was outlining this episode I was thinking about this and I was like, do I wanna bring this up? Because this doesn't seem like it would be pleasant. And so I was like, do I wanna bring this up and ask Meredith and ask Alex about this? But I was also like, but these are my homies and if anyone can speak to this and really, you know, one, just say for what it is cuz this can happen and probably will happen.
And if anyone can call it like it is and then, you know, give us tactical, actionable steps on moving through and, and just being a realistic voice, it's them. So thank you for sharing that cuz I was like, this is sucky. I was watching that happen and I was like, I was checking in on you via Meredith and I was like, are we, are we okay?
What's going on with this? Cause it's like fucking shitty. But how has it been? I'll stay with you Al. Uh, Alex, how has it been? So you got massive influx of followers. Have we seen things change in the business side because of that?
Yeah. This summer, which is surpris not surprising, but good is typically slower and be with the timing of the, the growth of our following the summer ended up being very busy so, it was, it wasn't like a giant influx, but it was a lot, quite a few people who signed up.
That's pretty amazing.
And then, and then, um, I think some of them just have continued to follow.
Totally.
A lot of people who sign up are like, I've been following you for a while, and I finally took the plunge.
Mm-hmm.
And you just have to curate and, and keep messaging and keep putting stuff out there, even though it's not gonna be directly correlated right away with signups or memberships. It's, it was interesting too, at first, um, a lot of people who came on, kind of back to what Meredith said, like compared to our 20 original 20,000 followers, a lot of people who found us and then signed up really didn't know what we were about.
Totally. Yeah.
And then they, the, the coaching, they were like, uh, this isn't a meal plan, or this isn't, you know, like I have, I have to try, like, what is this? It's like, and it just, there were some people who turned over quite quickly or it was very difficult for the coach to kind of like wrangle them and be like, hey, you know, I get where you're coming from, but this is actually a better approach, so I would love for you to give it a try.
So some people we were able to kind of wrangle, but then others it was like, you're, you gotta go.
Sure. For sure.
Yeah.
Huge business lessons there, folks. We talk about it all the time. Sales cycle. We know, takes time to build trust. And the majority of people that you, if you actually ask them, how long have you been following me when they make a purchase, it's months to years. Very rarely is it days to weeks. So if you do happen to go viral and you are, you know, you've done what Meredith and Alex have done with it, you've put in the work beforehand, and so you have this, you know, four years worth of content there. You may shorten that, that sales cycle a little bit, but you still see that it's very possible if you do get people, and one, they don't know really what you're about yet,
and the flip side is that you may get the eyes and now they just, they're basically, they went to top of funnel and now you get to nurture them and move them through, move them forward with things and you know, they'll sign up for things in the, a few months later. Uh, Meredith, I wanna flip this one to you.
Good segue, from Alex, thank you for teeing it up. I wasn't even planning on talking about this, but it came up. So you said some people were not a good fit. Uh, what are we looking at for your business model in terms of coaching? You do month to month, you lock people in, give it to me.
We do pre, predominantly month to month. So our, our main…
bless you.
Yeah. Our main offering is month to month. We do have a six month option that's like slightly discounted. Um, we used to do a three month option once a year, like after, after the New Year's. We stopped doing that cuz it was just, three months is not enough time to really see a lot of results and it just seemed to be like that three month mark when people got there was like a reminder that they hadn't made the progress that they really wanted.
So then they were like, okay, well I'm gone. I don't wanna do it again. Whereas like our retention on the six month is really good. Our re-up rate for that, for that particular membership. So, people will sign up for six months. Six months is a long time. Um, there is an upfront financial commitment to it. Um, people will probably make progress in six months and so people renew that membership.
And then obviously like the monthly membership works really well for us. And, um, I, I like that one cuz it's kind of a set it and forget it sort of, um, situation. I mean, we're not cheap, but um, we do offer, we offer a lot so people tend to just stick around for a while.
I asked that question, folks, knowing the answer because Meredith and I talk about these things quite a bit.
Um, you know, I have been thrust into, that sounds weird saying that word, but I am now in the nutrition space, which I don't love. Like growing up as a, or growing up, starting off in the physical therapy world we're actually quite divorced and separated from nutrition. And I was like, I'm fine with that. Um, I am in it now because of the online business stuff that I do and people I coach and because of Jill.
And that is like one of the number one thing that I see. Maybe you listening to this or watching this are a nutrition coach. And most people do what they, what's what's been done to them. So they're like, I offer three month packages. And I'm like, but why? And they're like, because my coach did. And I'm like, but you have to sell them again at three months
and we know that no one makes progress that fast. So why don't we just do month to month and not like, have to feel like I have to keep them in. Like if you're good, they'll stay in. And I can speak to the services offered by them because I actually was also a member and got coaching from Meredith for quite some time.
I was trying to gain weight and then I was like, this is too hard.
It is hard. This is a hard one.
Very common.
This is too hard. I gained it and then I was like, oh, I have to maintain this. I can't do this, Meredith. Yeah, I have to stop . It was so hard. I was like, I'm gonna stop this. But huge value in that. We talked about that in a past episode, and the value of pushing through things, getting your goals and realizing do I, you know, reevaluating, do I want to actually do this thing?
But I wanna stay with that. Meredith, in terms of the business model, because, and I wanna tie into social media because the team has grown and you're also seemingly having other people, at least one other coach on the socials with you. What's the team looking like now, and how is it?
Yeah, so our, we have 11 people.
Um, I mean, I guess including us, so nine people working, uh, with us, which is crazy.
Wow.
It's awesome.
Wow.
I know. It's like, you know, pinch me. It's like, wow. I mean, it's like a whole, like, man, you know, managing people and, and working with, with other people's really hard in different ways, but
Wow.
Um, I don't know. I really, I really like that part of it. I like that we can sort of share, um, what we do. We bring people on with different backgrounds and educations and skillsets that ultimately like diversify what we can offer. Um, which I, which, which is awesome because like somebody can come in, um, that's very like athletic performance focused and we can give them to Marissa.
Someone comes in, they're a bit more, you know, sensitive maybe from like an emotional eating background. And we have, you know, a couple of coaches that work there. We have Lindsay who is literally good at everything. So it's like, um, yeah, it's been awesome. Uh, Lindsay is our, our head coach and our sort of Queen Bee, and she's been with us for the longest and we're sort of like dragging her onto social media.
Um, she does, she's really like, I mean, Lindsay's incredible. She's so smart. Um, she makes me insecure with my intelligence sometimes, so I'm like, wow, you're just like brilliant. Um, so we, yeah, we've been trying to get her a little more like in front of the camera and like she's she's all right to look at too. Um,
She's alright.
She's okay. But yeah, so we're trying to get her more involved and more involved on like the business side of things too. So we're, we're, she's sort of our right hand, right hand man. So it, it makes the most sense to involve her in as many ways that we can.
Dude, 11 people, 11 person team now total.
Mm-hmm. Wild.
Did, did it grow? So during the summer you were looking to hire, is that when you were able to bring people on and did you just put out that call to action and then the people?
We've hired, yeah, we hired a few people at that time. And then you, we always keep our eyes open and if someone is, someone sends us a resume that's, uh, that's intriguing,
um, we will, we'll interview that, that person. And we've hired a couple people that way. So, um, you know, we're, our, our door's always open. We don't always need coaches, so sometimes it, the stars have to align for people. Um, but yeah, we're, we're pretty happy with everyone on our team at this point, but we hired, it's been pretty steady.
Like we didn't have to like, hire a bunch of people over the summer. Um, we hired a couple of people to, mainly to put them in place in the fall and that's, that's kind of how we, we hire, we hire people ahead of when we think we'll need them so that we can sort of get them up to speed on our systems and our process and philosophy and all of that stuff.
So. Good. Alex, I'm gonna flip back over to you. I said in the little intro portion about you, you know, curating your life and living very much intentionally with things. What does that look like now, kind of with the business? So we'll just make the question specific. Um, what are the roles that you two have now within the business?
Uh, we both still do way too much. There's still an issue.
It's your baby.
Yeah, it's, there's, there's still a problem del with delegation. Um, we had to go to af well, we didn't have to go. We went on an af a trip to Africa.
Had to go.
Um, so we had to leave the business with our team, um, which I think was helpful in us for like forcing us to finally like, get help because we, we tried to kind of keep everything going as if we were still at home.
We made all the Instagram videos that we were gonna need.
Yeah.
While we were away. Like we had Lindsay uploading them, doing the comments. We had someone else managing in, um, inquiries and intake. And that was super helpful. As soon as I like, got back, I was like, mine mine. Give that back, give it back. So I'm still doing like all of the intake, um, all of the inquiries for the most part.
Um, but we are delegating, like a lot of the plan only are done by our coaches now.
Cool.
And so slowly we're, we're getting people to, to kind of come and sit at the table with us and take o over different tasks. Um, but I, I still do most of the admin work. Um, the kind of front end, getting the clients in, making sure they're getting taken care of, matched with an, an appropriate coach.
And then, um, we both still take clients. And then, on top of that, Meredith, and then we both do, as Meredith said, the creative process of posts are done pretty much together. And then she does all of the editing and uploading and everything like the buying of things.
That part!
Yeah.
The buying of things. I love that she just threw that in there. The buying of things. Is there a desire, Alex, to uh, learn the tech side now that you like, know how to add music to Stories , or…
I've…I've considered it, but it's, it's like difficult to want to invest time in that when somebody is already so proficient at it.
Um, it would be like Meredith like trying to remember what we're having for dinner. It's just like, why? Because I do it. You know? And it's so hard for her.
You had said a little bit before Alex, about like, we still work too much. Too much. Do you want to be doing less? Like, I feel like there's this like, bullshit out there, especially when we are a solopreneur entrepreneur, you know, in that space that like, you're not legit until you've outsourced and then like you're supposed to outsource your whole business.
And I'm very much of the opposite school. I'm like, keep all the stuff you love. And then when you're like, I don't wanna do it anymore, give it away. Is there stuff that you don't wanna be doing? Is there stuff that you're like, uh, ready to give away?
I think our, our main priority always is taking care of our clients. As soon as I feel like I have number one, too many clients or number two, there's too much extra that I have to take care of that's taking away from the clients that I have, then I have to start giving it away. So it's like the plan onlies. Um, and then I feel like the fact that we have coaches, so many of them who are taking clients, that's a form of delegation for us.
It got to a point, like where before we hired Lindsay, it was like we can't be providing the same, the same service to our clients when we're taking them all. So we need to delegate that. Um, but to your point, in working too much, I think there are definitely moments where we're like, this is too much.
There are, there are weeks, there are days where it's like, I am, I'm overloaded. For whatever reason, check-ins are monsters and you're, you're going and trying to spend the right amount of time with everyone and you get to the end of the day and people are still checking in and it can be a lot. For the most part though, I love what I do and absolutely I love working.
When we were in Africa, I was like, I can't wait to get back because I miss work. I miss my clients, I miss being in control of clients coming in and clients going out and taking care of them. Um, I love opening my laptop in the morning and responding to emails, like, as silly as that sounds,
That sounds terrible. Not silly. Sounds terrible.
There are mornings where I don't have anything to do.
I hate email!
It's really weird. It's weird for me. It's like, I, what, what can I do? Meredith, you need help with anything ? Um,
Edit this video. Put the subtitles on.
Yeah, actually.
Um, but I, I think eventually and as we kind of get older and, you know, we're doing things outside of our business, trying to ski more, trying to do more extracurriculars, I think having more flexibility would be nice.
So with that segue, I wanna pass that over to Meredith and can you speak more about this being intentional with kind of creating some more of that space? Cuz like Alex said, uh, well actually she didn't say this part. She said that they went to Africa. The reason they went to Africa was for a honeymoon because they got married this year as well, which is like, oh just have a little wedding thrown in there, which is amazing.
Uh, congrats on that again, by the way. Uh, but I mean, I see you in the hot tub. Try and be in the hot tub. And this is usually after, you know, the last video you were in the creek. I think it was negative 97 degrees in that. And yeah. Anything for the Gram. Uh, but it seems like you, since, especially since last time we talked about this as well, you're being intentional with trying to kind of create space and do things, things. How does that, what does that look like?
Um, yeah, I mean, part of working really hard and having success is building and creating the life that you wanna be living. And for us, like, uh, that's gonna be a, a life where we can kind of pick up our work and take it wherever. Like, I, I don't think that non-working vacations are really for me right now.
Like, I just, I like, it's part of what we do and it also is the thing that allows us to do what we do. Um, so yeah, I mean, a, a big, like, we're, we're in our house in, in Furney right now, which is a ski, like a resort town. It's not our main house. This is our second house. And we try to like, keep the fact that we have a second house kind of on the,
the down low sometimes cause like, oh, like what are people gonna think if they know that we have this place? But at the same time, it's like we've been busting our ass for, um, four or five years. And, uh, the fact is like, yeah, we got a little bit lucky with how we got this place and, but, you know, we were in a position to do it.
And it also, it allows us to, in the summertime, we literally ride our bikes out the door and onto the mountain bike trails, which is what we love to do with our, our free time in the summer. Um, you know, in the wintertime we, we can't quite ski out the door. I mean, I guess we could, but we can, you know, we drive seven minutes to the ski resort and we go ski for the day, or we walk out on the back deck and get in the hot tub when it's not minus 30.
Um, so yeah, I mean, I, I think that that's, you know, we've,
Mm-hmm.
we've kind of, and what I really want is to set my life up in a way where I can enjoy living it every single day. And, um, that's, that's kind of what we, or at least my, my take on the way that we have sort of oriented our lives.
Ah, this is why I bring them on folks.
This is why. I'm cognizant of the time. I have like one or two more things I wanna talk about and then I'll let you go. Um, who do I wanna pass it over to first? Actually, let's stay with you Meredith. There's literally no segue here folks. None. But I wanna talk about this thing, uh, cuz it's important too.
Your foot fell off for a little bit in there and um, can you talk about that? I just think it's, you know, a tale of doing all the right stuff, but then getting an injury and then getting a setback and then working around it and like being the strongest and the fastest you ever were. And like, this was, there was just so much I was following the storyline, uh, and then I saw you on a bike.
So can you tell us about that?
Um, yeah, so actually it's been, uh, a year almost. Um, I was running half marathons or training for half marathons and ran a really quick one in September of 2021 and then kind of had set the goal, like I would love to run a sub 90. And so that was kind of where I was headed.
And went for a run with Alex. So I guess we can blame Alex if we're being technical.
I mean, yes. I was going to. So.
I had maybe like a, a 15 kilometer run. She had an 18, so I was like, oh, I'll just run your 18 kilometer run with you. Um, and we ran like from our house to downtown and then Alex's mom was gonna pick us up downtown. And the first like eight…
Very adult of us. Mom, can you come get me?
It's smart.
Can you come pick us up? It's like…
I was just like, yes, I approve of this.
Yeah. I mean, it's just nicer to run point to point. So, but the, the first 8k of that were on like, packed snow and I don't know what happened. Uh, if like my, you know, my footing wasn't good. There was more like strain on my foot than I, I thought there was, but the next morning I woke up just like with crazy heel and like plantar fascia kind of pain. And I was like, ah, that'll probably go away. And it didn't. And I, I tried to run through it for a little bit, but it became pretty, pretty evident that, um, it was gonna be an injury that needed some attention. And, um, so I took, I took time off. I got a cortisone shot.
I did some, you know, PT. I still work it a little bit, but it's, it's still not quite to the point where I'm like gonna start putting a lot of miles on it. So even now it's, you know, I'm not, I'm not back running. My gym training hasn't changed a ton, so still doing that. But I've sort of shifted my focus over to swimming, which is what I did as a, a youth athlete and my childhood and adolescence.
So I was like, okay, I can't really do a lot of running. I'm not gonna race bikes, but I can swim. And so I'm back in the pool and I signed up for a, a marathon swim event in August. Which is, it sounds, a marathon is, a marathon swim is a 10 kilometer swim.
I dunno how long that is. It's just too much either way. I don't, it doesn't…
Well, to make it even better, I signed up for the northernmost one in North America, which is in Alaska. So I'm doing 10 kilometers in Alaska.
In the ocean.
In the ocean.
I was gonna say it's an open water swim.
In open water, yep. Uh, in August. So that's my
On brand.
That's what I'm doing.
On brand! On brand. But it is so on brand. And I love that because you were like, cool, I'm gonna do this thing. Okay. It didn't work out.
Like maybe I feel sad about it for a little bit, but I'm still trying to find solutions. Right. Because feelings aren't solutions. It's like, all right, feel this thing. Let's go to the, to the PT. Let's go and get these things and see is it getting better? No. Okay. Still training and training around it. And then we're like, okay, I'm gonna do something else.
And then I'm gonna do the most at that. I, I was wondering, I was like, I know she's doing it for something cuz I see her in this pool.
Yep.
But what is it?
Yep.
Gosh, that's so on brand.
10 k swims. Yeah, and it's, it's just an example of like kind of the, you know, low level goal, mid-level goal, upper level goal, what you do, like what's at the bottom of the pyramid, what you do every day and what your, even your mid-level goals, like the things that you're trying to achieve, those can change and you can still be serving that, you know, that high level goal of I really value fitness and doing hard things.
And so whether I'm running a half marathon or a marathon or swimming a 10 K or doing an Ironman, like it's always gonna be something. Um, and that's, that's fine with me. It can just shift around. I can have fun with that.
I love that. I love that on so many levels. And one, I love that because I literally have a post that's going out, I don't know, I'm gonna put it up in like an hour or so. That is about that. I don't set goals. And I don't, I typically don't set things that are outside of my control. The last goal that I can remember setting was that I wanted to run a sub four, sub four hour, uh, marathon.
Yeah.
Cause I was like, is that in my control? And it was like, weather permitting. I'm not gonna like go and kill myself. But I was like, weather permitting, this is what I wanna do. But otherwise I'm not like a, a big goals person, but obviously to each their own with that. And it makes sense for me with sports. Cause I'm like, these are the controllables here.
And they're like, it's not, it's not, um, a like a, for me, it's not a goal of competition with like, I wanna win against this person. Cuz I'm like, that is not in your control. You can only control your attitude, your effort. So I really love when it's like, I'm gonna run this thing as fast, or oh my God, I'm never gonna have a swimming goal.
But things like that. Yeah. Uh, but speaking of running things incredibly fast, there's the segue for Alex. You went and crushed the marathon. Are are we still, I mean it's cold right now, but there, I feel like there was another marathon goal?
Yeah. I'm coming to see you in March in LA.
Okay!
Yeah. So I did Boston in March of last year. Um, and then I didn't do, uh, a, a fall marathon. I skipped that cuz there was so much going on with our trip and the wedding. And I did a, a fall half marathon and then signed up for a spring marathon. So I'll be doing the LA marathon March 18th, I think is the date. Um, so yeah, the, the spring marathons are difficult because you're training through the winter, but yes, they provide a little bit of incentive to get out the door and I'd be running anyways, so I might as well create some, something to kind of strive for while, while, I'm doing it.
Totally. What was the, like you're in it, you're like running and like the new shoes and all the things, like you're in it. What was the impetus with that?
Um, when I, I saw I'm not, I I get the, the year so confused, but I think it was about two years ago now. Is that correct?
Yeah.
I did quarter finals for CrossFit cuz I historically have been a competitive CrossFit athlete and kind of thought I would easily kind of slide into semi-finals and I didn't make it. In quarterfinals I had a bit of a back injury. I had been training by myself through Covid. I basically did all the workouts. It was really hard with work to like manage the actual event. Being on a Friday, being one of our big work days, I was like totally out of it. I did, I didn't even, like, I just did really poorly on the workouts and, and I didn't make it and I was kind of in this, this period in my life where, or at least in my athletic career, where I'm like, do I keep pursuing CrossFit it, even though it's costing a lot and I'm, I'm not really enjoying it anymore because it's…
mm-hmm.
it's so hard to do with other responsibilities in my life. Or do I maybe just like stop. And instead of just stopping, I found something else to pursue and I decided to sign up for a Marathon, Chicago marathon and I did it and I raised money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.
Um, and I ended up raising like $18,000. And then
Amazing.
I ran quite well there and ended up qualifying for Boston. And so Boston's kind of this like, really…
It's Boston!
Yeah
It's Boston. I think everyone listening knows, like it's a big fucking deal.
Yeah, you might as well. So I was like, I, I should go. And so I trained for Boston.
I should go.
And now I'm just, I'm really, really loving the running. I'm like it, I'm still doing like CrossFit strength stuff cuz that's important to me. But, and it's fun. But I've, I've really focused on the running and, and I'm, I'm running like, like, guess it'd be like 60, about 60 miles a week now. Um, like my volume's up.
I'm, I love, I love, I run almost every day and I'm, I'm really loving it so…
Dude. Yeah, I love this, I love this story around the story there of just your, your goals and your interests and your passions just evolving and going with it. And then, you know, it's so on brand for you too. Then you go all in and I love that.
Like, let's go all in. Meredith, question for you hearing this, cuz like you and I commiserate over this, like being Mr. Glass. Does it ever, it's the truth. I'm like, I literally hurt my knee doing nothing. I like went like this and my knee fell off and I was like, what? Cause I'm sure the people will be able to pull a lesson out of this.
Are, do you have feelings or feels about the fact that like, you know, Alex gets hurt for like 30 seconds, but is like okay, still, and you're like, what? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, I, I definitely do. Like, it's frustrating. Um, but again, it's like, I, I think that you're entitle, people are entitled to their feelings.
Like the, the last thing when people get injured and they immediately go to the like, well at least I have legs. You know? It's like, no, you can feel your feelings. Like you're allowed to be bummed out. You don't need to gaslight yourself here. Like, um, cause you know how people do that, right? They're like, it's so toxically positive about the situation.
No, like, feel, like, feel the feelings, but just like swish your feet in those feelings and then try to get away from them. Because like, you know, if you, if you dwell on what you can't do, if you dwell on the things that you wish you could do, but can't. Like, it'll, it will kind of suck you down and
Totally.
And it makes it difficult to, to get motivated to do anything else. Um, so like I, and I still, like, I have moments where I'm like, dang. I was like, I, you know, I wish I could, I wish I could be running right now, but I'm hopeful that like, you know, maybe I just have to take a year and a half off and, and really get my, my feet in order and then like really do a better job of PT and, and being a little more proactive.
And part of that is, is with, you know, with work, creating that time, um, and then get back to it. But even if I, you know, even if I don't, even if I can never run distance again, there's other things I can do. I can bike, I can swim, I can still workout, I can, you know, get, I can have more tech hobbies. I can get a drone.
I can do all of these things that still like, make me happy and, and serve my, I mean, I can drone Alex, like, you know, she can be running and I can do drone videos. That's gonna be sick.
Meredith does this thing where she gets hurt and she's like, I'll just do other things. Whereas like, I get hurt, I'm like, I feel a twinge and I like, I call up my doctor, like personally, I'll find their cell phone number. I will like call, I will DM my physio and be like, I need an appointment tomorrow morning. I call my, I text my physi or my, my ther uh, massage therapist. I'm like, what do you think's going on? I move around in every potential way, testing it and looking up it online.
So I'm like, I'm a little bit more proactive, so I've got that going.
Got it, got it.
It's not like I don't get injured.
It's, but it's you don't get injured as often as I do.
Exactly. I'm like, you don't get injured as often and then like, I feel like you're being proactive, which I love, but it's also like, I feel like as your physio, I'd be like, it's the twinge. Like you're gonna be okay. Whereas like Meredith, I think you tore your plantar fascia. You shouldn't walk anymore.
I'm like, do you think I tore it? Ok, I'm gonna keep walking.
I did do that to you. It was the day when I woke up in my hip and I was like, we have to text everyone we know. Maybe someone can tell me what's going on.
I was like Shanté doesn't, she doesn't, don't text Sh. I was like, you're gonna have to
I was like, Shanté, can I pick your brain about something?
Oh my God, the words, don't say those words. .
I did a whole post about it. I did a whole post.
I know (laughing).
A whole post.
Can I pick your brain? Like, well, I wish you wouldn't. But here we are.
I love podcasts for this reason because they, it allows, it's one of the time around it, but it allows you to just like get to see the people and really get to know and feel the people that are, that are on the podcast. And you can see you folks listening and watching this, can see and feel how this pair works and how they compliment each other and balance each other out, like in all of the ways. Even if we're just talking about like injury and how we deal with injury. It's really cool to just to watch that. So I got, uh, one more question then I'll leave you alone. I will toss this. I'm gonna toss this one up and whoever wants to catch it can catch it.
Okay? How has it been getting a dog?
Oh, I'll go . Um,
I'll go after.
Okay. Um, yeah, so the dog, it was like kind of a, a, uh, a decision we've been kicking around, but at the same time, a bit of a spur of the moment. We, uh,
No, I have to jump in here. I'm sorry. Meredith does this thing when she wants something, she plants a seed.
I do that.
A metaphorical seed.
Years in advance.
And she will nur, she will let that seed just bloom into a tiny little plant and then she waters it, she nurtures it and then all of a sudden, the plant is taking over?
She bought the plant.
And, and I knew that the plant was giant when she started asking other people with Border Collies where they got their dogs.
It's gonna happen.
I was like, well, she's done it.
It's in motion.
She's done it again.
She made the decision.
So anyway, it wasn't necessarily spur of the moment, but sort of.
It was a decision I had made a long time ago and specifically like, we are not getting a Boxer. I need you to stop talking about Boxers. Um, and so…
Decision was made. Okay.
Yeah, but it compromise. Ok we have this place in Fernie, we want a dog for like, for running and, you know, mountain biking. I was like, I started doing the math. I was like, we should get the dog soon. We should get the dog in like September. And then I started hunting around for the, the breed combination that we wanted, which is, Border Collie, Australian Shepherd, and, uh, found a great breeder up in Edmonton.
Contacted her, had a litter, had puppies available. We FaceTimed, uh, the, the litter. She told us about all the puppies we picked Rue. Um, her mom's name is also Rue but it really worked for her too. And I was like, ah, she's not gonna know. Um, so we, we, we, we stole that name for her. Um, and it's been great. I mean, anyone who has had a puppy before knows how nightmarish the first like couple weeks are, but like, we had her for two weeks and then gave her to Lindsay cuz we had to go to Tanzania.
So I was like, good luck. Yeah. But every time she sees Lindsay now, she's like super stoked. So actually I think she belongs to Lindsay and not us. We're just borrowing her. Um, but it's been, I don't know, it's been really, she's a really good puppy. Like she's smart. Um, really busy. Loves snow, which is great cuz it's where we live. Yeah.
Just all up in the snow. Yep. Um, how does Queen Ivy feel about this?
Obsessed! Obsessed with Rue.
Ivy loves Rue.
I know.
Ivy loves just watching Rue. She's always has an eye on Rue She loves playing with Rue. She always, um, provokes Rue and tries to get Rue in trouble.
Mm-hmm.
Like in a good way. She likes like getting Rue to chase after her.
Like she's always in the action. Like Rue's eating, so Ivy, they share a water bowl. So Ivy's like, this is a good time for me to go get water. Like she's in the mix. She there, there are moments where I think Rue gets a little too excited and Ivy's like abort .
Yeah. But then, then Rue takes claws to the face.
Yeah.
Abort.
Yep.
Is Rue scared of Ivy? Like, does Rue know that Ivy actually has claws?
Yes. And she'll get, I mean, Ivy will just like get a chunk of Rue's face in her mouth and that's Rue's like, oh shit.
Just going for it.
Mm-hmm.
All right.
Totally savage dog.
Were you concerned about the fact that you were getting a dog and you have a cat, or you were like, this is gonna work, we're gonna figure it out? It's gonna be okay.
I figured, like, I figured it was the best case scenario to have the cat as a young adult and get the puppy young so that the like boundary was well established. Um, and then Ivy's such a good cat, like just so well balanced and has a great personality. I didn't, I didn't really worry too much.
I was just more like, how is this gonna go in the early days? And then what, you know, at what point are they sharing a chair and cuddling? So that's all I really cared about. And we're there, so.
Yes. Are we shaving Ivy again to look like a lion or, that's a one time thing?
That's a one and done. Yeah. She didn't like that very much, which
I, yeah, she didn't like it. She became, was, she became very like, cold. Like she wouldn't sit on anything. She would only sit on me. And this was like at nighttime too. It was like she couldn't, it felt so weird for her, but once her hair grew back like half an inch, she was fine. And she, and it was great from like a like less hair. I was vacuuming quite a bit less, but then when her hair grew back, it grew back like gray, brown.
It was the wrong color.
So it took a year and a half for her to become white again.
So, because like so you know how Ivy has colored points, like her feet are dark, her face is dark. That's cuz there's less blood flow in those areas. So it's colder. And there's something with the way that the hair follicles are, there's like a gene in there that's temperature sensitive.
So when they're cold, the hair grows dark. When they're warm, like the middle of their body, it grows in white. So when you shave those cats, um, because they get, they're so cold when their hair starts to grow back,
Oh my god,
back, it's like, I'm gonna grow back brown.
The wrong, color! What?
Yes. Same.
It took a long time for her to finally become white again.
Yes.
She's she's a cotton ball again, but it took a long time.
We'll go back. I, I can find pictures of her during that time and like, she's a brown cat for like,
She's not like a tabby.
No.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.
But she definitely had like a dark, like a saddle.
She's so regal and white normally.
I know.
I don't think I even realized that. Wow.
Yeah.
Did they tell you that this was gonna happen?
No. I had a hunch because like I was in pre-vet for a long time and I knew that about, like a Siamese cat, if they ever get surgery or something, their hair grows back dark and then it changes. Or if you were to like strap an ice pack to 'em for a while, it would, their hair would darken.
And so, but I knew it was probably gonna change back. I was like, I just dunno how long this is gonna take.
Oh my god. I'm sorry I brought that up, Ivy. If you're nearby, I'm sorry, I brought that up. It was probably a really tough time in your life. I'm sorry.
Yeah. . .
Alright. I see the time. I got the final question. I haven't done a guest episode in I don't even know how long folks, you know, it's been all just, uh, the solo episodes, but had to bring my homies on.
So let's do the usual, uh, and how I wrap up the guest episodes, which is I ask is there anything that you would like to leave the people with? And I will once again toss it into the air and whoever wants to catch it first can catch it first.
She just tap tapped my knee.
Well, I went first last time, so I was like, you go first.
Um, I guess like a lot of your listeners are people who wanna grow businesses?
I don't know.
I presume or is it a, a mix?
I have no idea. You know how the podcasts are. It's the wild west. I don't know, really know who listens to this, so…
All right.
They are people who want to live their best life.
Okay. Um, this was a, a kind of a, a post we did the other day, but, um, I really like the message and it's, you don't, what was it again?
That you don't get ease, better at something. Things get easier.
Oh yeah. Things don't get easier. You just get better at doing hard things.
Yeah. That. And that applies for everything. Um, social media, like running a business, working with people. Managing people. Like, just because it's hard is no reason to just turn back.
Like, it will get better, it will get easier. Like, um, just to tell us a very short story…
Give it to us.
When we were, um, deciding if we were gonna do a dance for our wedding, we had decided to do like a full on dance. And like, if you watch it, it's like, eh, it's not that good. Because like you compare it to Dancing with the Stars and we're certainly not that, but it was a task to learn.
And I am so far from a dancer, I have absolute no dance experience. So we're,
Or rhythm.
Or rhythm. Like, I'm just, it was awful. And I started, there were, there were moments I was like, this is not working. Like, it was a week of just intense stress being like, we've dumped so much time into this, how are we gonna pull it off?
And I just kept at it and at it and I, we pulled it off. Like it, by the end it was like, oh, that was easy. Yeah. Um, but at the beginning it was really difficult and I, it's very similar to the social media stuff. Like you just have to keep at it and then making sure that you're not letting yourself off the hook or taking the easy route.
And it will, it will become easier and you'll get better at it.
I love it.
Won't become easier, it will feel easier.
I especially love how you, how you two work together. I love it. Alex is like, I know what I'm trying to say, and Meredith's like, but that's not the words. I got you though.
I wanted her to mind read when I said like, what was it before I gave her any context.
Oh my God. Every time she tries to like do a quote, like, just like from her brain, I'm like, oh God, that's not even close. .
I usually go like, what was that quote? Once? She's like, what? I don't know.
I mean
The saying, you know the saying.
I'm like, which saying
That one! The one.
Gimme a word.
The one, Meredith. You should know. Love it. I love it. What do you got for us Meredith?
Um, gosh, that's a hard one to follow cuz I like it so much. Um, I guess like have like, you know, have confidence and appreciate what you're doing, even if it's not where you wanna be yet. I think that's, you know, sort of generally when people are trying to improve um their health, their nutrition, their fitness, if they're trying to get better on social media, creating, business, at school, like whatever it is. Um, a big part of continuing to make progress is being willing to, um, recognize and accept the progress that you have made. And, you know, I've definitely been there when I've looked back at a final product that I've done and I'm like, that's not quite what I want.
That's, I wish I was doing this better. But, um, it's, it's what I can do right now. It's a hell of a lot better than what I was doing a month ago. And so I guess it's, there's a lot of value in, in being able to clap for yourself sometimes. Um, don't settle. Like never settle. I think, you know, when people think that they've learned everything they need to know it's time to move on to something else.
Um, everybody's a work in progress. We sure are. And um, but that doesn't mean I can't look back at what we've done in the last four years and, you know, not be incredibly proud.
Give you one of these.
Yeah. Yes. A lil' pat yourself on the back. Um, but you know, it's, I'm not gonna sit here and think that I have it all figured out.
I think four years from now, I hope that I'm sitting in this chair. I hope I'm sitting in a chair that's much nicer than this one actually. And, you know, I'm able to, to say like, look at, look at where we've come in the last, you know, four years since we were sitting here thinking that we had, you know, we had it all figured out. Or not all figured out, but we had, you know, made a great deal of progress. Which we have.
We can buy second house, but we can only afford the on sale Wayfair chairs, that regular place price are only $40.
That every time you sit in them you're like, oh, okay. It's good. Yeah.
I love it. I love that there's video and I pray that it all works out with the video so that people can see your faces while you are sitting in that chair and adjusting. And I love those messages. They, they compliment each other so well. I think there's so much value in, I'll go in order. Right. You said things don't get easier, you get better at doing hard things. And the kind of compliment to that that Meredith gave was, that I pulled out of that, was appreciate where you're at cuz we're on this journey of, yeah, I wanna, you know, I wanna do better, but that doesn't mean that I'm not happy with where I'm at now. It doesn't mean there's resignation in there and being like, ah, I'm just throwing my hands up.
Uh, but there's just the nuance in there. And these two are like the, the queens of of nuance, which I love. And, uh, go and look at their posts. Go look in that comment section. They'll be in there talking about that. The captions are long, the videos are long because there is a lot of nuance. Actually you just did a post about the fact that you can't really boil down, you know, uh, someone's entire season to a single tweet.
And yeah, it's all about the nuance there. So if you folks want to go check out more, we will link that in the show notes. Uh, but if you wanna shout it out real quick. Alex, what's your Instagram?
It's @aaparker2. The number two.
No, Alex!
It's number one.
I know. I was literally like …
Sorry.
That's, sorry., sorry. That's my, um, personal email. Yahoo.com.
I literally was like, it's absolutely not.
Oh my God. Oh my God. That is like the most Alex Parker thing that has happened all day.
My email is aaparker2@yahoo.com. My Instagram is @aaparker1.
One. I was literally like, but I know it's not, but I'm gonna, let's see where this goes. Gonna let it rock.
Somebody got it. Got to it to got to it first. With Yahoo. I was able to get in there on the Instagram. Yeah.
Do you still use, do you still use
I I do. Proudly proud.
Oh my God. Oh my God. Can we just, yeah, she uses yahoo.
How did you sign into that?
It's, it's like she..
If I get signed out, I'm done.
She uses the Apple mail. It's like, yeah. It's like she uses the Apple Mail app on her phone and computer and then she's like, why is it not working? And I'm like, because you're using Apple Mail.
Meredith will help me with anything tech, technological, is that a word? She will not help me with App or Yahoo Mail. She won't. No. Ever. Even. Any time i even say, if I say Yahoo, she just leaves.
Yeah. We're hoping that that just stops, because you're, you're keeping them in business single-handedly. Uh,
Safari also, and Apple Maps.
Safari? Okay. You know what? Do you.
Thank you.
Variety is the spice of life, my friend. So we got @aaparker1, and Meredith, what's yours?
@meredith_root
Are you sure?
Positive, absolutely positive.
And for the business?
Business is really easy. It's @tacticnutrtion.
And website for the business?
tacticmethod.com.
We will link all of the things, folks, and you can also just go directly to the page for this. It'll have the transcript and all the things.
That'll be themovementmaestro.com/436. Everything will be there. And with that, we are gonna wrap up the final episode of 2023 of you folks watching you, folks listening, we are all endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. It has been a tremendous year and it almost feels weird like trying to wrap it up cause I'm like, but I'm gonna have an episode next week for you.
But I do wanna say thank you to both you, Meredith and Alex for Jo for hopping on this episode. You folks for tuning in. I haven't had a guest episode in, uh, quite some time and I will see and I guess talk to you all in the new year until next year, friends, Meredith, Alex, Rue, who else we got? Ivy, Meowstro, and Maestro out.
NEW! Check out this episode on YouTube!
Check out Tactic Nutrition on Instagram: @tacticnutrition
Work with Tactic: tacticmethod.com
Follow Meredith: @meredith_root
Follow Alex: @aaparker1
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