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put on this earth… walking into the grocery store and flashing a smile and making someone’s day a little bit better. If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be? My piece of advice would be something that comes from Todd Durkin, and that is that there are infinite forms of wealth. I say this not because I feel like I was focused narrowly on one kind of financial wealth in my life because certainly I have been raised with the unconditional love and influence of all the different kinds of wealth there are, personal and professional and spiritual and financial. But I’m not sure that I fully appreciated what that meant in the way you can live day to day and make choices and not be constantly striving towards what felt like one narrow kind of achievement, (i.e. getting good grades, going to the right school, doing and saying the right thing, etc.). I think I’ve always been true to myself as a person, but I also think that I have had such a richness added to my life in just thinking more deliberately about all the different kinds of wealth that there are and how we can help people to recognize that in themselves. In your opinion, what is the greatest opportunity in the fitness industry right now? The greatest opportunity in the fitness industry right now is for us to reinvent ourselves and reimagine ourselves. We have grown the awareness to health and wellness and fitness because we have grown an industry that provides people with thousands of ways for them to access and engage in sport and movement and exercise. But we have also created entire business models around the idea that people will own gym memberships that they never use. And if we really look ourselves in the mirror, we will recognize what that’s done is given people the sense of fitness as something they have to squeeze into a 45-minute period in their day. And I think in doing that, we have really led people astray in the way they should think about their strength and their health throughout their day. After a global pandemic, when people have realized the lifesaving power of a healthy lifestyle, we have a huge opportunity to engage with people and with each other in a totally different way and celebrate this. We have the opportunity to reinvent our business models, reinvent our messages and reinvent the way that we think about fitness.
The principle that remains my north star throughout my life is to bring my love, light and energy with me and sprinkle it everywhere I go. What is in your future one year from now and five years from now? In my future one year from now is focusing on two things. Number one, putting Steelhoses in the hands of a million people in this country. That’s a lofty goal in 12 months, but it’s absolutely doable — and to put this magic wand in people’s hands with the spirit of service that is in its roots is what then gives people this symbol of strength and this reimagining of strength. And once the Steelhoses are in their hands, then we have an opportunity to begin to communicate differently as people and as micro-communities of people that all share a
common long-term goal, which is to lead a happier and healthier life — one in which we can accomplish the goals that are in our everyday mission and care for the people who we love. I’d also love it if we were able to have an affiliation with some of the major enterprises and institutions in the country, such as the United States Army. I would love in five years to have an official affiliation between firefighters and the Army that establishes us as a leader in strength training for those who serve our country. Five years is a long time. But in five years, I want FitFighter to be a billion-dollar company, not because of the focus on the value but on the wealth that we will bring to people. Everybody aged eight to 80 should have a Steelhose in hand. And I believe that we will do that and will then start to develop other equipment, products and ideas that flow from our training philosophy and our movement applications. The other Fitfighter equipment that’s on the horizon is what I firmly believe will enable us to achieve that goal.
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