Episode Transcript
Speaker 2 (00:01.537)
again.
Welcome everyone to the Makers Business Tribe podcast. My name is Nina. I'm the founder of the Makers Business Tribe. I'm a business growth strategist. I'm a founder of a three-year-old toddler that is super in love with my latest business venture. It's not just the Makers Business Tribe, but it's called Trimtonics. And in today's episode,
I changed this topic last minute, by the way. Yeah, because it's not just me. It's Haleah on the call. But guys, in this, in this episode, I like, I've been dying to somehow share this story and business that I've gotten myself into that has been costing me weekends and long hours and blood, sweat and tears and a lot of frustration recently because
Get it off the ground. We're trying to get it off the ground. And in today's episode, I Hayley here. Yeah, she's been. Hi, Hayley. Hey, Hayley. We, like, Hayley used to be actively coaching in the Makers Business Tribe, but she also runs her own business, which is called the Wholesale Hub. So she helps take.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:28.984)
that burden of managing your wholesale relationships of companies. And then Hayley and I, said, hey, even though she's now super busy with her own business once a month, she's going to be here and be like the co-pilot or full ass pilot or whatever you want to call it based on the roles that we want to play. And I said to her, hey, Hayley, can I give you an
everybody who's listening a live update on what I've been up to because I think I have a hunch it's going to turn into a super cool story very soon. Right now there's a lot of rumble and friction and stress but I think it's worth a really cool story for you guys to listen to and hopefully get some inspiration from and kind of like see my gosh this is what it's like to be in the thickest of it.
because it's very, like, it's not cosy right now, okay? Let me say it as that.
That's where you've to get the hustle from though. I'm so excited to hear these guys' story because it's a team that has a lot of passion behind them and the way they work as a team, it just blows my mind how they get stuff done so, so well. So I'm very excited to hear Nina's update on what's been happening.
So yeah, so first of all, so anyone who's kind of like seeing it on a video, I'm showing the product, showing some snippets, okay? my gosh, I have a bit of blur going on because my office looks like a shithole. Starting with that, okay? So there's of boxes and stuff everywhere and it's gonna go. We're finding better storage space, but right now it's here, that's why I'm blurring it. But you guys can see, it's kind of cool color, cool branding, okay?
Speaker 1 (03:30.246)
And it's called Trimtonics. And here's the story on Trimtonics. And we've been working really hard to kind of really crystallize why Chris, was the original founder, created this product in the first place. And kind of first lesson, he was pretty a bit unaware of the actual story behind the product. But we teased it out.
And this is a really inspiring one for me. I'm like, honestly, I'm this story every day because I'm the person who loves this product and needs it the most. So Trimtonics is a protein as a base. Yeah. But it's supercharged with fibers and probiotics, which means you do not get bloated from the base. Anyone who has taken protein in the past, it's a very common thing. You keep getting bloated and I hate it.
Because if you live an active lifestyle, you need a really good protein in your life because otherwise your energy is down and you struggle with your weight and stuff. Now, the protein together with the fiber and probiotics are already amazing. 25 vitamins and minerals in it. So if you have this as a shake, it's awesome to have as a lunch. It's awesome to have as a breakfast. It's awesome to have whenever you are hungry.
But it's not just the shake, it's that you could mix that with your yogurts and create these really dense meals too behind it.
yeah, yeah, you could. But the base of why I love this product, it's been developed for the hangry person. And what that means is like, here's my story. Yeah, in the mornings, I'm looking after Tio, I get him ready for kindy, we're doing everything else, I rush outside the house, I'm at work for two, three hours, and they're getting hungry. And I got nothing. I haven't meal prepped. Yeah, as much as I keep trying to do that, but I don't.
Speaker 1 (05:32.002)
And then you need to rush to different places. I don't eat. I'm at energy slums, all this stuff, right? I'm at a cafe. Man, what do they have here? Okay, some fricking loaded chocolate cookie. Yeah, gets really tempting at like 2 p.m. Because that will get me through the day because the sugar high is gonna be amazing for my brain, short term. Yeah, long term, what does that mean? Your weight can get out of control. You feel like shit. You have, you're impatient with your children.
big roller coaster effect if you don't look after your nutrition. But for most people, it's freaking hard. OK? And to me, honestly, since I started taking this product, and Trimtonics just used to be one of my clients, yeah, it's really been helping me out because it's freaking delicious and it feels very nourishing. I don't get bloated. I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm zen. I'm taken care of.
think we can go to this product. That was last year. And when Chris first worked with me, was like, look, Chris, you're going to need to get this product into retail shows. Because he was trying for a while to just sell this product online. If you are an unknown brand, and
in a saturated market as well.
Exactly. In a very saturated market, and you're trying to get the business off the ground, and you're trying to be successful in e-comm off the bat without any following, you have to do a lot of things right, consistently for a long time to build up a large enough following for then maybe 10 % to go to your website, and then maybe like what, like a small morsel of that to actually buy your product. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:27.286)
So and building up that amount of following and also your email list in order to sell enough takes a long time. And most people then just spend a bunch of money on ads, which is what he did with very mediocre results. So that was pretty daunting. So these guys kept spending money and money and money, and they're just not making any sales. So when Chris approached me, and then I taught him how to get his product into retail, and then
Haley also helped a little bit with that, but still at that time.
And this product, think, has huge potential in retail if you have the dedication, the passion for it. Now, this is just a real story. Chris didn't have the passion to just get this product into retail. And that's where at some point I was like, Chris, how do you want to do this? You have built an amazing product.
I love it. I can vouch for it. It has so much potential. And actually the niche that you've created in this product isn't there because there isn't any anything else in the market. But everybody either sees your product as just another protein or just another meal replacement. And that's you're playing in the wrong.
People just weren't giving him the time of day.
Speaker 1 (08:53.368)
Yeah, which I think, number one, the lack of the actual story, to really set it apart, as this is the part for the angry person. Yeah. Yeah. Just dozen meal prep. Fuck, go home. I don't do it. OK? And then, of course, we're shooting ourselves in the foot. There are millions out there doing that. But really,
when we started stepping back, and here's the crux of it. He had built a really successful doggy grooming franchise in the past, over 10 years, and then sold them. His passion and expertise lies in that space, not in e-com, not in social media, and not in building retail distribution network.
but in a different arena all together. when I was putting this out, it was like, so what did you love about franchise? And he was like, well, when you bring franchisees on board, they promote the brand. They buy from your wholesale. They do this. And you become the person feeding everything to the franchisee. And that sounds like,
That's what you can do with this product. You can do that with this product. And the more we were talking about this and also me being like, I am so in love with this product, I can't even. Yeah. It very much turned into, well, why are we not coming together? And I get my business brain skills because I can see this path and you get your skills of
building a successful franchise to see how the heck do we get this product off the ground because we can. Yeah, we absolutely can. But we haven't found the right mix of your skills, your passion, and how it can be brought into the market in a way that you're not competing with 1,000 other products.
Speaker 2 (11:15.501)
Yeah.
And so yeah, that was in October. And since then, I've been
He's mind blown when you were having these discussions because it was he making like a you know those aha moments you have in business.
Hmm. I think so a fair bit. And I think this is for for anyone who's trying to get into business, you have to lean into your passions and your skills. Yeah. Yeah. You have to honor that. Like, yes, a lot of people are like, Well, you know, I just, you know, I want to find and do my own thing. But your own thing needs to light you up. You want to keep wanting to figure it out. Yeah.
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (11:59.968)
Yes. Exactly.
You can't just be going down the e-comm route, for example, because everybody's saying do e-comm.
Yeah, but if you don't love ecom and you don't love to learn about ecom, it is too late to you're so far behind the game to even start being that if you don't love it and want to, you know.
You have to with anything because it never stops. That's your job. That's your, it comes every day, every day, whether it's Ecom, whether it's retail, whether it's this franchise route that we're going down, which is more closely connected to retail, anything. You have to love it. You have to love the essence of it.
And e-comm is a lot of data, it's a lot of digital, a lot of hanging about on your computer, a lot of content creation. know? Absolutely. We know wholesale franchise is more being out and talking to people and inspiring them more with yourself, your essence, your presence, your words, your structures. Yeah. And selling your product. That's either those.
Speaker 2 (13:15.009)
All of that is his strength.
Mmm.
And even the branding behind Trimtonics, it's a very social branding that like, it makes people talk, it draws you in. You know?
Yeah, yeah, it's super fascinating. And I think this, that was a big aha moment in end of October. And then what we did was we're like, right, okay, so what we can do with this. So this was my first sort of like genius idea. Yeah. Without to do my own home. But it's like, you know, we have like, I just put some bold ideas on the table of here's what I would do.
So here's what we did so far. Now I don't know if everything's gonna work out, right? But you gotta need to put bold vision, bold ideas onto the table and then test it. And that's all we're doing. So first of all, it's like, look, this protein is a really great base. We can supercharge that. High protein, superfood smoothies. Yeah, have not seen it at many events at many markets. Yeah, most smoothies.
Speaker 1 (14:30.638)
that I can find is just fruit. Fruit and more fruit. And if you want a little bit of protein, you need to pay extra for it. But it doesn't have a strong base of something that is actually nutritious and wholesome. Yeah, it's just ice and fruit and milk and yeah, cool. But it's not really nourishing. It's not nourishing. It's not really like something that just like really fuels you. So and
So what we did was we set up a store, Burle Markets was the first one we came in. And we developed seven superfood smoothie recipes and we started selling smoothies together with the pouches. So the smoothies was the entry point for people to buy protein pouches. Yeah, so we had our protein there to take home to super tart your day. We started selling smoothies. First week. Okay. Second week.
already getting some traction, right? Third week, really good. Yeah, started selling pouches, decided to get gathering some feedback. Okay, cool. So we're like, okay, cool. Markets, first of all, we get put the product into people's mouth. They are loving the smoothies, they're coming back. And in terms of revenue and profit, that like, in terms of profit, I think we are sitting at a good
$500 to $600 day for people to take home after costs. That's good. smoothies at a market, yeah. Still for an unknown brand. I'm pretty happy with that. Yeah. That's a decent salary for someone who does not need to be very skilled at all. Yeah. Just making smoothies, being out there. Cool. So we're proving that now we have consistency running not just in Burley markets, but also your Monday markets.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (16:26.102)
So we kept applying Sunny Coast and a bunch of different markets. Now we got to spot Sunshine Coast. Sunshine Coast had the opportunity for a trailer. We bought a trailer, much better setup than just we had a gazebo on Burley markets, you know, with our setup. So we invested into a trailer that we can pull. It still needs to be branded. But the trailer means that I myself can hook up the trailer on my car
Pack it with everything, pull it there, start selling smoothies, one person. Early markets, because Ebo's setup needs two people. Now imagine if you turn a business that like $500 profit from two into one. Amazing. Now we had some killer days at your Monday markets where the profit was sitting more at $1,200 for the day. Selling smoothies.
Pretty decent, hey? So that was the model proven. Now, but I was like, well, think fast as sales for me, I want to test gyms. And I've been saying this for the longest time, but where are people going that with 80 % of people consume protein?
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (17:52.12)
They're constantly after what tastes better, what doesn't get me bloated. I want better quality and to do some price. And after gym class, what do I do? I rush to work. I'm not going home and having wholesome breakfast. And I'm also not going to cafe and spend $25 on a meal every morning. I don't. So high chance these people are going hangry. Yeah. Yeah. So in January, I approached the gym that I'm going to.
and kind of said, hey, should we do a bit of an activation? Because ultimately, here's the deal for you, gym owner. And I think this is the real crux that not many people have explored. Please don't explore it where we are doing it, by the way, anyone who's listening. But hear me out. So what is the biggest challenge that a gym owner has?
capped revenue per member. What do they charge us? $20, $25 a week, depending on what gym. Revenue is capped. Maybe some sell some bars here and there, but unless they have plenty space to unsell me stuff, the revenue is pretty capped. A gym has really high costs when it comes to rent, equipment maintenance, buying equipment, and other stuff.
It's really high. So it's very calculatable how much profit they are making if everything stays even. But they need to continuously need to work on attracting members and maintaining and keeping members, right? And the revenue is kept. So that's why I was like, that's what we can play towards and create win-win partnerships. So because without protein,
We got options to include protein as a free thing when you join. 30 day challenge, free of charge. If you join for six months, you get two bags for free. my gosh, amazing. Much better than a free towel. Yeah. Yeah. But number two, creating provided a member likes it because I'm coming in, I want to improve my health, right? Yeah. So what about my nutrition?
Speaker 2 (19:52.278)
Bye, yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:13.816)
but to offer them a subscription of gym plus protein at a better price than I could buy this protein from, which means the gym owner is going to increase their profit margins because they buy wholesale sale as retail to them. And doing it on a subscription basis, have revenue efficiency ongoing. Yeah. Yeah. And because
they cannot increase their weekly price from 20 to $30 for me without working a whole bunch of members. They can totally add more value and increase it by giving them an awesome meal replacement, right? So that's where Michael from Coulomb Fitness was like, that sounds interesting, but how do we get people to want to buy his product? like, well, I got a trailer.
So how about this? When is your busiest day? said Monday morning. said, cool. OK, Monday morning, I'm going to be there 6 to 9 when your house is freaking full. And we're going to hand out free samples of the protein. We're going to sell protein post-workout smoothies. Yeah? We had music playing. We got chairs outside. We got the trailer there. Within three hours, yeah? We made $600 profit.
That's fantastic.
First time, nobody had heard about our product. Yeah, we sold a bunch of product within three hours. Several members have said you guys are coming back, right? Because my partner wasn't here today. He would like he would love a smoothie that way we don't have to all this meal prepping. Michael was there was like, yeah, I think it will be great if you could come back on Friday. That is tomorrow. And Michael was also saying, well, this is actually really great.
Speaker 1 (22:14.222)
to keep members hanging around the gym. Probably most likely, more people will join classes not because of the class, but because of the atmosphere after.
Yeah, it's the community that you build.
Yeah, exactly. The community about conversation and good food and all of that stuff. So we are now Kindershoes here. literally, by me, being like, cool, let's set up this deal with Michael. We now got our trailer booked for Monday and Friday every week at his gym. We're doing Wednesday, you Monday markets. So we're like in the thick of proving
the business model for this franchise. And I've just, because I need help, freaking help to do this because I'm running the Makers Business Tribe, right? To find someone who can take over my role of setting up, putting down, pulling the trailer, and working with my colleague, Alex.
Great.
Speaker 2 (23:22.478)
It's a big role to fill.
is big round of film. But it ultimately means I think we are super close on selling our first franchise. Because what I want to do next, anyone who listens to this who's excited, message me. I would love to bring someone on, takes on my role, who's much more of like an independent, like running the show for three days. We can fill you up with more work.
You can learn everything from myself and Alex. And if you want to take over that joint, you can have first choice on where you want to run this business. And you've done it.
How good is that?
We are already having conversations with the University of Sunshine Coast. Yeah. Because how many frequent sports events do they have on? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:16.434)
And also through this week, I signed up a...
A Pilatus studio in Brisbane. great. Yeah. Because she saw it she was like, I love your brand. Like, how can I get involved? And I was like, well, let's run challenge together. Here's what we're going to do. Here's how we can activate your members to get this and you can sell subscriptions. She was like, music to my ears. Yeah.
That's so great.
So good.
So.
Speaker 2 (24:51.896)
So creative.
We're getting someplace. And of course, we're not at Seven Figures yet. And this is freaking stressful. I can tell you this. Yeah? Because we need to get the warehouse sorted. We need to get the trailer somewhere. I need to get a bigger freezer and all of these things. But what I'm really hoping is anyone who's listening to this, yeah, you have to put in the work. Yeah.
but let yourself be guided by your creativity and just go for it and see, like test and learn and see what resonates with people.
And I think there are a lot of products out there, Hailey, where people only think, well, classic retail or classic e-comm without thinking about who could I partner up who would love to sell my product for me. Yeah.
I think too sometimes franchising can seem like a very old school model that people don't really think about.
Speaker 1 (26:09.474)
Yeah, but it could also be licensing the product. But really, even if we didn't do that, just if you have a product, in my mind, the protein works well with gyms. But if you have a product that helps me with anxiety, that helps me with sleep, for example, who are all the different people in the industry
That's exactly right.
Speaker 2 (26:32.226)
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:38.136)
providing a service to people in that space that you could partner up with and increase the value of that service, yeah? So for them to let the selling do for you. Who could be people that sell other products that are in a similar range that your products could be such a match and haven and do partnerships with, let them do the selling for you, and you support them in the background with the additional
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:07.938)
But also by that, people will start checking you out. Yeah. Another really classic example, and I think it would be right, like all across Australia, how many freaking cool bananas do you see on the beach? Yeah. my gosh. It's a magnetizing brand. They've already made it. Yeah.
Why are they not selling sunscreen? Why are they not selling sun clothes? Why is nobody partnering with these guys? Yeah. There's so many brands that could be piggy bagging on them and kind of be like, your mission, our mission, everything is aligned. Why don't you offer my product at checkout? Yeah, here's a juicy wholesale margin for you to do that. Yeah.
That one's really during that.
Exactly, exactly, because I think this idea of partnerships.
I think too it's one of those things, partnerships, whereas people are looking at competitors and avoiding competitors and trying to beat competitors rather than partnering and working with people.
Speaker 1 (28:20.716)
Yeah, and I think this whole idea of like
We're leaving money on the table by not really being clear. I mean, Amazon has been doing this forever. This product is frequently bought with this one. Yeah. Yeah. They are showing me this. Now, they have a different model. But if you get really clear about what else is being used with your product.
How else could it be combined? who could be the partners behind it? And if they are already giants, you could be standing on the shoulders of those giants. Yeah. Absolutely. Or they are just a bit taller than you. But by doing that, we can tap into those people's, into their audience. And at some point, they might not want to buy another cool cabana, because how many cool cabanas do you have? One. Yeah.
Yeah, but you have to buy sunscreen all the time.
So then then I might come over to my website and buy it Yeah, that's really Yeah, yeah franchise is a way of just finding a partnership network So you're building the brand together and you're supporting people want to be on the front line you on the back line but it's also what I've just mentioned in when it comes to the gyms because also
Speaker 2 (29:28.449)
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (29:33.07)
complimenting each
Speaker 1 (29:51.436)
My idea is we're going to, I'm proving the business model of gyms for franchisees to then really do that. And yes, because you even like what, whatever product you're selling in like a smoothie bar, you can, where else can that be moved into? Yeah. And that's what we're looking at right now. University same deal. How big is the campus man? Yeah. So many people and their students who are hungry to make money.
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:21.51)
We set up a student model for them to have a trailer on a campus. Those movies, you know, make money.
I'm sure a whole heap of them are working in smoothie bars at the moment as a casual or a part-timer anyway.
Exactly. And the surprising thing was when we were approaching a few universities, they were like, we haven't been approached about this before. Yeah. What? What? I was like, for me, this was just a no brainer. I thought.
Even for them, even if they didn't have a student to do their own business, they could do that as a university and that could be a fundraiser.
Yeah. But the universities have so many different events going, sports events, and people are into smoothies there, you know? Because everybody is a bit more health conscious, sort of that way. So yeah, it's exciting. I want to touch on the struggle side, because this is real, right? So I had dedicated two days per week to this business. And right now, I'm slogging probably four days, like really early mornings.
Speaker 2 (31:20.578)
Really?
Speaker 1 (31:33.686)
late nights. And I've been like, so, like, internally frustrated and trying to, like, solve it. And we are in the midst of solving it. Thank God to an amazing team, Chris and Sam, and now Alex as well. Because, like, our processes are too, are too manual. we don't have proper storage space. So stuff is here in my office. I have a little freezer that's too small.
So now every second day I need to chop bananas and freeze it someplace because we need bananas and berries frozen. Yeah, it's freezer space. Now that we got three events going a week is a lot fasting. You know, we need to have other dry ingredients. We need water. We need ice for the base. And all of it is kind of everywhere. So with growth, there's growing pains, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
And that struggle, man, I think it's good that I'm personally there again, because maybe it gives me also more empathy with everybody in the tribe, because it's horrendous. But I think the important thing is, and that's what we are doing here right now, like I said from the start when this happened, I was like, I'm not doing it. And I truly believe that.
has to be the mindset for anyone who's going through these growth spurts versus just working longer and longer hours and trying to make it work to be like, this shit isn't happening. I do not want all this shit here. I do not want to spend my time constantly chopping bananas. Yeah? stacking it in different freezes, we need a better solution.
Speaker 2 (33:17.826)
Yeah, absolutely. But you've got to feel that pain to fix it efficiently.
Yes, but I also believe there are lot of business owners who just sit in the pain for way too long.
Absolutely. And sit in the, this is what it is to have a business and it's not.
Exactly. Or, well, now, I mean, three stalls a week. It's not because what we did at the start of this business journey, we committed we are not going to go through this struggle. As soon as they struggle, we put it on the table. We solve it. Yeah, we expand.
And we're doing that. Yes. So it's exciting. It's exhausting. I haven't been to the gym all week this week. It's crazy, but we're getting there. And yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:02.178)
That's sorry.
Speaker 2 (34:16.088)
That's good.
Yeah, so I just wanted to share that story in the hopes it inspires people, if anyone has any suggestions.
I'm really excited to hear the development of from this stage to your first, second, third, fifth franchisee and how that's grown from there. I mean, I think anyone listening to the story and if you've listened to this story and you don't see this path, I don't understand how you can't see this path, but I think all of us can see where it's going to go and the path is very clear.
going up forward. I think it's very exciting and I look forward to hearing about what happened with the first franchisee and that growth because you can see it in so many different avenues and it's exciting.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:13.846)
Really good.
So yeah, well, thank you. Thank you so much, Hailey, me letting give you that update. But you need to hear that update too, because you were part of.
Absolutely, I love seeing a brand because I mean you and I both sat in the wholesale space with them and it's not that it wasn't working, it just wasn't working at the pace that it needed to go, especially being a product with an expiry date and it needed to go a little bit quicker and it was just being lost in the mess of the crowd. So it's not really lovely and great to hear a story about a brand that's seen that
and pivoted rather than satin it.
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:01.836)
because that's what makes a brand.
Exactly. that's like, so it's, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool. Stubbornness, think it's a really, really big part of like stubbornness to wanting to figure it out.
And I think there's a bit of grit in there that you've got a business model you think is going to work or you know that's going to work and instead of sitting back and going, so find someone to show us that that's going to work, you've gone, I'll show you. I'll show you how it's worked.
Yeah, exactly. And we're doing it together. And now it's about expanding the team and
It's very, I feel like, step by step in the journey. It hasn't gone that, oh, we're going to do this, build these franchises and we're going to start marketing that. And now we're not getting traction on any sales for getting another franchisee. You've gone, no, we've got to have proof first. Because otherwise your marketing means nothing when it's down the track. Let's have proof and let's have really good proof.
Speaker 1 (37:06.478)
Exactly. Well, we need to it because otherwise we can't sell it for value. So we're proving it right now. And yes, not easy. It's a, you know, I'm constantly worried about my hair. Let's stay blonde. Yeah, but we can do it. And yeah, I keep you updated. I keep everyone updated. Please cheer for me. You know, I need it. I'm tired. But yeah. That's great.
And check out Trimtonics. It's such an amazing product. Follow us on social media so you can see where we are popping up because, yes, fun.
Awesome, thank you so much for the update, Nina.
Thank you, Hayleah. It's been awesome. I see you next month.
See you next month.
