Rosie Gregory: How to Build an Engaging Online Fitness Course and Community (#258)

Rosie Gregory How to Build an Engaging Online Fitness Course and Community.mp3 – powered by Happy Scribe

These World podcast helps independent creators live their creative and financial freedom. I’m your host, Fei Wu, and I’ll be taking you through a series of interviews with creators from around the world who are living life on their own terms. Each episode is packed with tactics, nuggets you can implement origin stories to make listening productive and enjoyable. We’re not only focused on the more aspirational stories, but relatable ones as well. We also have none interview based miniseries releasing throughout the year to help Deep dove into topics such as freelancing, marketing, even indie filmmaking that would benefit creators like you.

Show notes, links and ways to connect with the guests are available on FX WorldCom. Now onto the show. Hi there, this is Fei Wu from Fais World podcast, our show has been around since October 2014. I cannot believe it’s been six years at this point really. Time flies and 20-20 has been a phenomenal year for us. And I want to say this on so many levels, because I know that I don’t want to say that with ease, because so many of us, my friends, my family and the people I don’t know, probably will never get to know their families have also suffered from the pandemic.

And I want to say that, you know, there are so many reasons that I felt like I was stuck. You know, I I wasn’t so sure if I want to continue pushing for this podcast, but because of all of you, I want to reunite our voices and give us an opportunity to really share our stories, because I don’t think only the top one percent. However, people are defined by their financial status or whatnot and decide that their voices can be heard or even worth hearing.

What have we can be so open to each other and and try to learn, especially during a time like this, that we do have more time on our hands and more time spend at home and more comfortable with places or systems such as Zoom, Google Hangout and what’s up? So, you know, in a way that these technologies have really had a way of connecting us all together a lot faster, a lot easier. But I urge you to not only use them to talk to colleagues alone, I want you to reach out.

So, again, I feel I sound so demanding right now that you should be doing this. And that’s not what I really mean is what I do mean is that I think right now is a perfect opportunity for you to reach out to say unbounded and to get a little uncomfortable under your skin, reach out, because guess what? Everybody else is uncomfortable. You know, some people feel like right now it’s it’s an opportunity to experiment, even though they’re a little bit scared.

But that’s them. That’s honestly most of us, myself included, doing a lot of these podcast right now through Livestream. And, you know, I’m not always comfortable and I really wasn’t comfortable in front of a camera on videos for many, many years. And that’s really originally why I didn’t want to start a YouTube channel. Instead, I became a podcast. But please, if there’s no other takeaway, I really want you to reach out because there is so much goodness out there.

Once you curate and select the people you always wanted to learn from, doesn’t matter. Their skin color, their origin, doesn’t matter how old they are. Interview, have a conversation with them. Well, today I welcomed Rosie wait. And I keep calling her Rosie. Wait. She got married in twenty nineteen. So her name right now is Rosie Gregory. And Rosie is someone I got to know through my a director and my project manager for my documentary, Dan Cooper, as well as Ed Gregory.

So, you know, Ed and Rosie, they’ve been married for about a year now and they live in Vegas. So but today I really want to focus on Rosie. Ed is someone that I absolutely adore and interviewed. Previously on Face World View. Rosie is a sweet soul and has so many talents and most recently as a dancer, as a long term performer. In fact, she’s been a performer all her life and she had to stop because all the shows stopped in Vegas.

Right. But instead of kind of sitting at home and trying to figure out where she needed to do, she shared her entire story since January, since before the pandemic, she always ready contemplating what she wanted to do with her life, with her career. She felt really lucky to be a dancer. I had a wonderful career, but she she knew there’s something more she won more of her life, more more of her look, her voice to be, you know, combine into creating her own brand.

She said in this in this interview, very frankly, that she struggled with that for many years. But it just kind of came together. You know, how she did this. She had a YouTube channel for a while for at least a few years, and she stopped doing that because she was traveling on tours, being a dancer. And then since January this year, twenty twenty, she revamped, revitalized her YouTube channel. And she really just has done a phenomenal job finding her son or her creative energy.

And the is called dance toned. But she didn’t just stop there because not long ago, a few months ago, I saw her starting a challenge and challenge our social media insta. Graham, Facebook and people start signing up. I was also super intrigued. I signed up for her newsletter. I was getting all the updates and it was just so thoughtful, like wasn’t anything too hard, too easy. But she created that. And I as a friend, I couldn’t be more proud of her.

And just one or two months after that, I sort of sense what was coming because I’m natively a digital marketer. That’s what I’m trained on. I knew she was going to come out with a program and which she did. And it’s called Dance Tone Dotcom. This program looks phenomenal. It took her, as I found out, four days to record everything she launched. Did she solve launched it. The official launch is going to be September twenty twenty.

And in this interview, she walks us through the entire creative journey, talks about where or how she got stuck, how she was able to pick it up again. You know, she’s a woman in her 20s. So if you are currently living with self doubts to think that, oh, my God, I’m not good enough, I can never do this or someone has done it, why am I not being original? By the way? Nobody is original anymore, right?

You just have to remember, like Sarah Cooper said, it hasn’t been done by you. So without further ado, please welcome the lovely Rosie Gregory to the First World podcast. I am so glad you’re listening. And I know many of you guys were new listeners, so I thank you very, very much. And please remember that I always want to hear from you. I can be reach on social media pretty much anywhere at Fais World, and that is obviously our world.

And by the way, you can also find me as a teacher on Skillshare. And if you’re new to Skillshare Dotcom, you can actually get 60 days for free premium account for free and they’ll give you plenty of time for you to take this class that I started just a couple of months ago in May. Twenty twenty. I’m really proud so you can search for me Fei Wu or Face World. And the course is really about how creative and fitness entrepreneurs can start their business online, in which I walk you through a lot of the things that Rosie is doing and has embraced and exercised.

But there you can also find how to build your website, how to build a following, how to manage social media, how to be able to charge on Zoom and all that jazz. So thank you so much for listening. I’ll see you at the end of the show.

I am live here with Rosie Gregory from Thanh’s Tone, which is an online fitness program, and if you’re watching me here live for the first time, well, I’ve been doing this since the middle of the pandemic and I’ve had the privilege to interview a lot of people. And I’m super excited about Rosie for a variety of reasons. You can find out when you were a long time.

Yeah.

Including documentary.

Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of stories to share. She started her own online fitness program and she’s been a dancer her whole life. And just a quick heads up for Thursday. I’m also going to go live with Dr. B.J. Miller, palliative care doctor. And in September, right now, as of September 10th, I’m going to be live streaming with Chris Brandon Voss and Derek from the Blackstone Group. So also someone I interviewed on the show. So. All right, Rosie, you’re finally here.

It took us months to book this.

I know. I know. I’m super excited to be here today with you.

Finally got me to meet you. And you’ve been very, very busy. And I I’m so super doped because, you know, you’re you’re here. And right now, a lot of my my followers, the people that I’ve been speaking with directly on YouTube are fitness and dance instructor. So I would love for you to maybe a little bit about your origin story story, where you’re from and how you became a dancer in the first place.

Yeah. And so I’m originally from England. I live out in Las Vegas right now. And so I began my dance journey and started when I was about five, six years old and dancing every single night of the week after school, living at the dance studio absolutely loved it. That’s all I wanted to do. I from what I can remember, all I wanted to do was dance. I didn’t want to be at school. I wanted to dance.

I left school at 16 and went to three full time professional training on a dance program or dance course and graduated from there. And and then my career started and I was traveling the world to cruise ships and tours, European tools, tools in America, TV. I’ve done TV as well. So much so you just loved it and then landed here in Las Vegas and performing on the Las Vegas Strip and currently in the longest running show. Or what would be if the shows were still open, of course.

But yeah. And the longest running show bringing about Showgirls and. Yeah, so that’s my dance journey and ended up in Las Vegas and. Yeah. Well I wanted to do with that was that was all I ever wanted to do. I think it’s incredible. I mean before the before you and I started working on the documentary, I remember constantly going to your YouTube channel at the time was focused on choreography. I mean, you design a lot of that yourself.

And I was just so fun to be able to dance to you who’s a friend, but who’s also a professional dancer. There are some, you know, Justin Bieber choreography and there’s some you know, it’s Ed Sheeran. I remember there are different workout routines. And today still most people don’t know those that I would try to take these 20 minute breaks in between my day, my meetings, and I will just go to my Apple TV, turn on your channel and just work out to your routine.

And and it just so thoughtful the way that you created these programs. So I was wondering, like, who did you have in mind? Who did you have in mind when you created the programs for Beginners Intermediate and folks and not just people like yourself who’s been dancing all your life?

Yeah, so well, back on when I was working on cruise ships and performing on the ships, I was the entertainment department would always be like, hey, we’ve got these unexpected days. We need these some some entertainment for the the passengers. Like, what can we do? And I’d always be the first person to be like, um, I teach a class, I’ll do something. And I ended up doing like, you know, dance aerobics classes and just absolutely loved it and and doing that.

Teaching complete begins on the ship. And then about five years ago when YouTube started six years ago, YouTube celebrity taking off. And my husband, he is a YouTube, a very successful YouTube. And he kept pushing me, pushing me. Come on, you’ve going to get on the YouTube train like this is. I could see how well he was doing. And I also wanted to be a part of it. And I was like, yeah, let’s let’s do it.

Like, I was doing research of, like dance classes on YouTube, what what people were searching for, what people wanted. And I, I could see that was just like opening for people want to learn like what Beyonce’s doing in her music video or what Justin Bieber is doing in his new music video. And so I was like, I’m just I’m going to do that. Like, Yeah, let’s do that. So it was not necessarily for dancers, it was just for anyone like people that just enjoy dancing but don’t have the opportunity to take dance class, can’t go, can’t afford to go to dance class and have the time to.

So, yeah. So like, I’m going to I’m going to do that. I’m going to do it for the people that can’t go to a dance class and get that training. And so I would spend so much time having to concentrate, focus on a section of the dance, you know, nail it, get it, get it right. Because there’s people out there that can point you to something slightly different to what Beyonce is doing and then and then film.

And of course, I had to mirror it. So I was learning. I’m looking at the screen and obviously they’re using their their right arm. But to me, it looks like they’re left on. So I have to flip it over and then film it for the YouTube. And it was doing really well. I was I couldn’t believe how I was doing, like quite fast. And it just it just took too much of my time to to really focus and learn it.

And I then got busy with life because then I was back on tour. I was then I’d have to draw YouTube for a while and then pick it back up later and then come back on. And then every time I would not go on YouTube for a while, like a couple of months, and I’d go back home and see all these comments and see the views. I was like, oh my goodness, I can’t believe I’ve not been doing this like people wanting this.

And I hadn’t realized how well it was doing. And so then I’d jump back on it and then life would take over again. And and then I quickly realized that, OK, this is awesome. I want to progress on this. My husband was doing awesome with his YouTube. He was then turning his YouTube into an online product. So he was taking it to the next level. He was like, there’s a future from just YouTube. And then we were basically like, OK, what can we do with me?

Like with my channel? And basically we realized the thing into the the research of the audience that I had and things it it was younger people. It was mainly children and younger, which was my idea of people that can’t go to dance class. And unfortunately, there is no way that I could progress from the outside like that of making money from Joachin, which had hoped it would always have to be the parents and things like that. So then I was like, OK, well, what can we do from that?

And then I, I got disheartened from it and, and dropped it for a while and I lost my confidence for big time because, you know, you get you get some comments that aren’t very nice like everybody does because nobody’s perfect. And I took it to heart a little bit I guess. And I was just like, I’m not good enough. I can’t do it. Like, you got into my head a little bit and I was too busy anyway on on tour with my career.

And and then it really hit me. Like how? Well, like how big YouTube is and how big like this whole online market is for the membership’s and the courses and programs, and I was like, wow, this is this is I want to I want to be something. I want to be someone and what what can I do? And then I was on the side already teaching and then teaching fitness. I just fell into it from just people needing some teachers or whatever it was like.

I can do that. Yeah. Like I’ve got a whole background of my training. I can I can do something. And so I was already naturally doing my own workouts with people like just in person and just taken from my training and using like my dance technique, mixing it with the the the theory of dance and mixing it with the technique of fitness, kind of putting it together. And I basically had dance toned. I didn’t know. And then how did you come up with a dance toned like as a name with a name.

Yeah, it was actually add that to my husband. We we went through so many names. We because originally my YouTube channel was called something different. And then we finally we were racking my brain for ages and we we had less and less. We were like, no, that doesn’t work. That’s already been taken. But that’s so awesome. Owner like going through so many different names. And then we were a bit worried, like for using the dance time.

People are going to think it’s only four dancers. And so we were like, we have to be careful with that. And then we he finally he just all of a sudden it just came to him just like that. He just came home one day and he was like, So I’ve come up with this really awesome name and I can’t believe it’s not been taken. And I’ve just got it everywhere on social media. And I’ve just bought the domain just in case you like it, because that was another thing we would see on things.

And then they’d go because but think of awesome things and then not like commit to it. And then a week later they’d be gone. And he’s like, so I’ve just taken all the names and yeah, he just, he just thought of it. We were just playing around with like dance this something, dance, dance, blah blah blah. And then we were coming up with really long names and we were like, it can’t be long, it has to be short and sweet something.

Yeah.

And I can already and I can already see, because I know Ed fairly well for people who don’t know, Ed was a director for Faizal documentary. You know, Rosie traveled with me and I had my project manager, Dan Cooper as well, and probably will watch this now. And we’re if not and it just been you know, I can tell just how driven and how focused Ed is with his YouTube channel and just how he is in general. I could picture exactly how you came up with the name, ran home and already purchased, ready to go.

And I love the name because coming from a martial arts, coming from martial arts background, I feel like everything has to have a purpose and reason to function as opposed to we’ve seen people who have done weight training and they’re always in pain. They can’t really move and everything is really stiff. And I just love the idea that you combine dance with fitness and toned in a way that you’re still flexible, you’re happy, you’re smiling, having fun. I think it’s perfect.

That’s exactly that’s exactly what it is. So, yeah, like it it you do not have to be a dancer. You don’t have to have rhythm or step in your life like it. We’re not we’re not dancing. That’s great. Dance courses and programs fitness out there. It’s not like Zumba. It’s not like that. It’s the the theory of dance which which is you go into rehearsal for your training, you learn choreography. Day one, you’re not you’re not good.

I’m no good. On day one, you’ve got to learn that part of your body is going to sink into your body and then it’s going to marinate, as we call it. And then you by day five, they starting to feel the choreography more. It’s in your body. You don’t have to be thinking about it. You’re just doing it and you’re enjoying it and having fun. So that repetition and the musicality of, like, I’m I’m putting it to to music, to awesome music.

So is cardio. It’s going to be upbeat and high energy. It’s going to and it’s really going to push us to keep this energy up. And then like a cool down, it’s going to it’s going to be more slow paced. It’s going to bring us down comis down and and like a killer app work out, it’s going to be like Beyonce. I also think that that’s something that’s going to push us forward and make us feel really good about ourselves in the moment and then mixing it with the technique of fitness and the movement of fitness and combining them, combining them together and the everyday movement of fitness.

So you’re taking that. Taking it into everyday life, you know, and think about your everyday life, your posture, and, you know, you’re carrying your shopping bags because you don’t want to do so many trips. It’s like things like that and the. He said it’s time to strap out of my head happens and the belt, so the technique of fitness, I said about the choreography with fitness is on day one. You might not be able to do a plank or you might not.

You might be able to do a plank that your phone, your technique is not good and you can’t hold it very long. And by day 10, day 20, how long the program is your your form is solid, you’re strong. You can do something you never did on date, you could do on day one. And you know, and you take that confidence because you gain confidence because you’re doing you’ve achieved something that you haven’t been able to do.

And that confidence naturally comes into everyday life and you’re feeling good about yourself. You’re loving the spin you’re in and you feel great. It’s like a mental switch. That’s just you just happened. Yeah. So, yeah, the progressive approach is really something I’ve experienced. And for people who have not seen anything rosy is created, it’s really, again, very progressive approach. You make it very clear whether this is beginner intermediate or advanced micro level one, two, three, how your heart rate is going to work.

And even if you go to our website, Advanced Home Dotcom, you’re not ready to commit. Just definitely check out on YouTube under the same name. So speaking of which, I love the fact that we’re getting into sort of the productize Asian part of the conversation. And I you know, I think you talk a little bit about differentiation as well. You know, you versus we’re talking about like a lot of right now, there are a lot of very athletic people from Circus’s, from the Cercas world, from the performance world who are without jobs.

And I’m friends with a lot of them. And at the same time, you know, there are a lot of fitness instructors who may not have a performance background, but they work full time for certain gyms, whether it’s Equinox, Lifetime, twenty four, seven, whatever these gyms are, a lot of people are out there. You know, you said that everybody’s living through the pandemic right now. You know, you were in the long running show and that had to close.

So what can you talk a little bit about the mindset shift to, you know, like, whoa, what’s happening now to transitioning to OK, let’s sit down and plan this out. Like, what was that shift like for you?

So so from the beginning of the year from like of January, I had already told myself, OK, I’m committing to my to my audience and I’m going to grow that and I’m going to figure out what, because back then I the air dance turn wasn’t a thing. I was still figuring out what my YouTube channel was and what I wanted to do something. So I knew that I wanted to do something. I just didn’t know what. So I was like, OK, cool, I’m going to throw myself into it, really focus on it.

And which I was doing. And then. Yeah, and then it happened. Hit us and my show closed on a Sunday within on the Sunday I lost like all of my jobs, my all of my gig work, my teaching work and the show found out all in that same day, obviously absolutely devastating. And I, I just went to Ed and I was like, cool. So that’s just happened. This is just opened up my whole time to just figure out what I’m going to do.

And so day one of the pandemic or the lockdown out here in Nevada, I started working and from like seven, eight a.m. in the morning till midnight and I get up and dance honed on dance tones. Yeah. Oh, wow. With the support of Ed, we were just together figuring it out and. I like a lot of people know some people thought of it as a vacation, it was just like, cool, I’m going to take two weeks off work.

And I was like, no, this is an opportunity for me and I need to I need to take this opportunity. And so, yeah, day one, I threw myself into it and didn’t we didn’t we didn’t take a day off and we were working endlessly and and and yeah, we just it was kind of just like I didn’t allow it to. To to stop and think about it, I was just like, cool, let’s just go, let’s keep let’s move.

And I’m me and we’re the same and we’re the same. We we can’t sit still. And if something like that, which was huge, was happening all around us, like our world was crumbling. If I just sat there and did nothing, that would have been very good for me mentally. And I need to keep moving. I need to meet folks. I need something to do so and so I just threw myself into it. And we we we just were figuring it out.

We we we were like, OK, we sat down, we made plans. That’s not going to work. Let’s do this. What about this? And then we were building the the system and building the structure of it, testing it. Just me and him not posting it on YouTube right away because we were like, that’s not going to work. No way. And then constantly building on it and then putting it out to you to to test it.

And and people were liking it and it was it was working.

So what are some of the things I mean, there are a lot of dance instructors and people in the content creators are familiar with the process of recording and recording their Zoom lessons or designing classes in general. But I know there’s something more unique in terms of YouTube, like what are some of the things you avoided to say? Oh, that that’s not going to work. That’s not exciting enough. Like what? Specifically? Like, for example, for me, I realized the first 10, 15 seconds on YouTube is important that you have to get right into it.

And I think you’ve done a good job on your channel. But what are some of the tips that you’ve learned, maybe looking at the analytics to say that, oh, that I thought was going to be something we think is going to work yet didn’t work.

But what are some things that are really working for you that can be as a take away software for our viewers?

And so I think it’s anything now with with social media. It has to look it has to look good and it has to look like I was in my guest bedroom filming my YouTube videos, but it didn’t look like my guest bedroom. You know, I didn’t all the plug now. I pulled all of the plants in from the from the house everywhere from the house. I had brought them in, brought a mirror in like I made a set. And you you you have to think of it like think of it like that.

You can’t it does have to look good. People are looking and watching you and they they don’t want to be watching a cluttered bedroom or a bed in the background or it, as we call it, Instagram about what has to look Instagram. Well, it has to look good and it has to I think now with where YouTube is, it has it has to be a certain standard. And the thumbnail is is so important because that’s what’s going to catch someone’s eye.

The way you watch things we were figuring out like the Fonz and figuring out like the the titles of the videos, we were like, oh, that doesn’t work. Like, OK, so how about this? And then and like you said, the first like ten, fifteen seconds. That’s the most the most crucial part because that’s what someone is going to be like. I don’t want to watch you or the other. You’ve got to throw your personality in there and and try and be really captivated and and not talk too much, because at the end of the day, people are clicking on my videos because they want to work out or they want to learn a dance routine or whatever.

And, um, I have to get straight to the point really quickly. And because people don’t want to stick around of life and things as well, like the the quality of the video, the the and the audio, the lighting, like the the people that are doing really well and successful on YouTube now are all the people that they’re turning their living rooms or the bedrooms into into sets. And that’s basically what we were doing. We were building a set and we I think I change the look of it three times.

And I think it was about three times. It was once I wanted it. We’ve got a swimming pool in our backyard. We’ve got like these really beautiful sliding doors across the back of the house. And I was like, I have to have that in the background. Let’s look so good. Like, look how awesome that looks. And Ed, who is the filmmaker? Photographer, he was like, your lighting is not going to be great because the lights behind you, you’re going to be like the lighting is going to be blown out behind you.

The windows are going to be just bright white and you’re all going to be dark. And I was like, no, it’ll be fine. It’s going to look good. And I was so determined that I wanted the fall in the background. So I thought that would look really awesome. He was totally right. It looked terrible. Then we moved into the guest bedroom and it was just a plain wall, plain white wall. And I was like, I just wanted to get videos up and I just wanted to have a quick.

And instantly, we would just like it doesn’t look good, it doesn’t look you to bubble. It doesn’t look it’s not going to stand out for them. We were having to look at the plants and grow from it. And you. And you do. You just got to keep working on it. You got to keep changing things up and then consistency as well. Consistency was a key because I felt I was changing a little bit so that people like to see that that’s the person that I’m watching that looks the same all the time.

And then over time, you can start to change it and have a completely different background or whatever, because people do get bored. But it is all about consistency as well. And the my motto and its motto is, you just keep moving and get get it done. Yeah. Yeah. Done is better than perfect. Perfect. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. If, if you’re waiting around to make it perfect and you’re like, oh not just I’m just three months down the line and you still haven’t moved forward and, and I don’t have patience for that.

And I just yeah. I completely agree with that because I look back to when I decided to take YouTube seriously and so funny, I felt so embarrassed knowing you and Ed are so pro at this. You already took a very seriously I know you took a break, but prior to that you had a channel close to ten thousand followers. I couldn’t even announce it. I felt so embarrassed. And then now looking back to those videos, how like how stiff I was like the lighting.

I’m really glad that I did it. So I think to as a some of the key takeaways, I think Rosie gave some really great lessons and kind of reflections on the things that you did. But I think now during the pandemic, definitely exercise and check out if you have if you have a guest room, if you if you have a bigger master bedroom, maybe there’s one side of the wall that’s usable. And I love Rosie’s kind of play on these different plans that there are different kinds in the background.

But there are currently plans behind you where you are. And I think it looks super nice, right. When you think about. Yeah, yeah. Visually, like different plans and different photographs are in there. You can get really creative with, like, limited things that you have embraced the constraints and recording and then improve from there for sure.

Yeah, I think just to jump on that with YouTube, Joan, I mean, it’s good to do your research and think, oh, this is obviously working for that person, blah blah, but someone’s already doing that. So like, don’t I found myself, I was comparing myself a lot like we all did. But as soon as I stopped comparing and watching how someone else would would, would speak and how their personality was, I was like, oh, hang on a minute.

This is that’s not my personality. This is my personality. So I was watching my videos back and I was like, OK, what I need, I can open up more. I can be more more like this or I need to talk more during this or talk last year and this and like really watch your own videos back and study you and your producing and what you’re putting out there and grow from that because and I think that the comparing because when you’re comparing someone else, you’re putting yourself down.

And and that’s not that’s not good for you. Yeah. Yeah.

So I love that. It’s just such a it comes with such a level of maturity as well, because I think of you, I mean, you’re still clearly a very young person, but you’re like the youngest member of our film crew, right. Yeah. And and I think about like the your life has been about dancing and performing and coming from a world that is, in our eyes, incredibly competitive, physically look wise and all that. So to hear you coming, like you kind of just break away from that world and creating something on your own, it’s just so exciting and it’s just worth celebrating.

That’s why I was like, this is so exciting. We get to build. So there something I’m not sure of. It’s like I actually have so many questions. So I will start with the fact that there is one strategy that I love watching you go from YouTube to dance tone dotcom. Now there’s something in the middle you did a few months ago. I was like, wow, this is brilliant. Which was a challenge, which when you send that that landing page in the email, I couldn’t be more proud of you because I was thinking, I want to send that example to all my digital marketing friends and clients to say, this is how you do it.

So could you talk to us about that, like how you form the idea of a challenge? Like how what type of people were how many people approximately signed up for, you know, the journey?

So. So, yeah, we did. The challenge we had, I think, less than a week, a week, but we decided we were going to know we had we had a week that we were going to do it, which meant we had to film all the content for one, finalize the strategy of what the system was going to be, which then progressed into downtown dot com and do the marketing for it to get people to sign up.

So we had to throw together a quick little commercial and then the the email sign up, then the the email, the emails that went out every single day, like we had to figure out how we were going to do it and if we were if if we were going to keep it on YouTube, then we would like it to be on YouTube because that’s where the audience is and all that. So I’ve been doing it and going from and it literally wasn’t like, OK, we’re going to do this like starting tomorrow.

It was it was a process. And so much like do so much work and planning goes into it, people don’t understand or realize on myself, didn’t really understand in real life. So so yeah, we were like cool from the best of. June, it was we’re going to we’re going to do a whole month, 30 day challenge. OK, so how’s that going to look? So basically we put a commercial out there. We were writing everyone on social media and it was going to be shared across the board.

And I the seeing of the sign ups coming in, I was just mind blown. I was I couldn’t I couldn’t believe it literally. It was every time I would look, it was just more like tens and tens and tens of people and hundreds and hundreds. And then I just I couldn’t believe it. I was just like, oh, my gosh, people actually want to do this with me. Like, this is crazy. And I guess because I really wanted to do it, I wasn’t thinking about the the people, actually the community I was starting to build and like and so it was super, super exciting.

And so we did, like I touched on before, building the strategy and the method, how we were going to do it and testing things out. And then we finally were like, OK, cool, this is this is how we’re going to do it. And so people signed up and then they they got every day a link to a private playlist. And that playlist was every day was carefully created by me of the the the work out like the twenty five to thirty minute workout and and.

And so the workout was broken up in sections and that those sections is the the core of dance toned, which is the the repetition and the you repeat it not so every every single day. It’s a brand new workout. You’re never repeating the actual workout like the base of the workout. It’s the sections that, OK, every day there’ll be a brand new section switched out or everything will be completely different. But they’ll be one workout, the one section sorry, that will be repeated the next day.

Throughout the 30 days, it will be thrown back into like, oh, I remember this one. OK, so this is where she talks about the side I need to engage on the side and things like that. And so building that theory and seeing if that worked and then that’s how we will cool. This is this is going to be the the base of dance terms. This is how we’re going to grow to the next level, the next level.

And so, yeah, I, I started the Instagram, the Instagram account for balanced tones, like finally getting that going because of the app challenge and seeing this community growing. And it was it was so exciting. And the the results like the it’s one thing for me doing my own workouts for so long because it’s that I know it works for me, but seeing like someone who’s never worked out before, someone that doesn’t work out, doesn’t like to work, how they have no core strength seeing them progress from day one to day thirty one like it was it was mind blowing and seeing the emails at the end of the challenge that I was throughout, but especially at the end because everyone was sending me that before and after photos, seeing the results, I couldn’t believe it.

And these are the same people I knew sharing them. Are you asking if you’re on the Instagram?

Wow. So I’ve been I’ve been positive. You go into Instagram, you can see there’s a highlight I’ve saved before and after. And every now and again I post a new one or things that I always save them enough people to see. And and the results were just amazing. I couldn’t I was so overwhelmed and the the like. I had paragraphs and paragraphs of emails, like hundreds of emails from people. And I just this one took me like, I don’t know, like a probably a full day going through.

And I couldn’t answer all of them right away. And I was just sat there crying, just crying because just because the way people reacted to it like that, not only just the results, but the people’s words, like the the how people were saying, like how I’ve changed their lives and how like they hate working out, but they love doing dunstone they they they’ve been really depressed for such a long time and they’ve had such a struggle with things going on in their personal life and how I’ve helped them through that.

And I I’ve always thought, like, I want to help people, I want to help people feel good about themselves. But actually really sitting there and listening to someone say, like, hey, I, I this is my journey. Like people going and opening up to me, telling me about that journey. And they’ve had a really terrible journey with their bodies or with just mentally and and then saying to me, like, I’ve changed their life.

Like I yeah, I had an amazing career, like I love my career. But hearing someone say that or most people have people saying that, I was just like, wow, nothing can be that feels like that’s that’s the ultimate goal, really. Think about it like if you’re on stage, like Rosie dancing on stage for the super famous show. And I didn’t you didn’t necessarily work for Cirque du Soleil, but like, when does it ever come to the somebody is in charge?

They say, you know, someone on stage is Rosie. Let’s all celebrate her. It’s more right. You’re behind a mask. You’re behind this character or whatever it is. But now you come through. As a result of that, you can’t really hear direct feedback from the audience. Like I know I do that as a podcast or as of great. I reach out and I research and, you know, go after anyone. But most people, they’re like, oh, that’s really great.

But now you’re hearing that feedback because prior you’ve touched people’s souls and you’ve changed their lives. But you will know that now the feedback comes straight back at you, I think is more beneficial for you and the and the people who benefit from that because you learn what you’re going to do and make better for them. Yeah, I’m kind of surprised. I wonder people are probably hearing at this point to say, wow, like tens or hundreds of people rushing in like.

Who are these people, if you might not know all of them, but do you think is because you’ve been in the industry for a long time, you have friends who are interested in fitness or know like I I’ve no idea who have worked like three quarters. The people even are like, where do they come from?

Yeah, most of the people I don’t know I honestly don’t know. All of the friends and family jumped on and did it. And I’ve still got like my my sister. I love her dearly, bless her heart. She’s like my guinea pig test. I always been the something first. And I’m like, hey, like when we were testing out get down started, I had like 20 or something. And I was like, hey, can you just try this for me?

Just let me know what you’re saying. Give me feedback. She always is one hundred percent honest and brutally honest. Sometimes I love it. And yes, of course I had some family and friends and I had the support system was like people were just sharing friends and friends of friends were sharing. And I was like, I don’t like, you know, and you can see on Facebook all like who shared it? And I’m like, who is this person?

I don’t know who this is. And then all these emails coming in for the sign ups and the downs turned as well. And I yeah, I don’t know who they are. And that that’s also like a thing like a like, wow, I’m a complete stranger. Is that was my response to everyone after the challenge. Like literally I made sure I told these people like, hey, like thank you so much for supporting me and believing in me because these people were believing in me.

They they they spent 30 days with me and now moved on to continue that journey with me, with Dunstone dot com. But they for that challenge specifically, like they they were believing in me because they knew I was just a YouTube, but just just trying out like, you know, and that that was so like so humbling and overwhelming. And that was that was that was a really big deal for me that I was a complete stranger. I would tend to like complete strangers.

Like what? How blackout would be amazing. Like this is this is the only with the the community that was growing. That was that was what I wanted was a community and the community was growing. I was like, OK, this is what this is what I want to do. This is I want this to grow more and more. And this is you know, I have people that that are on the Get Dunstone workout program that they’ve started and they’ve started a group, a group message.

So they all encourage each other and I guess sometimes call each other to empower each other and and do or see or just feel just like a just like a private group message. And I don’t know where I don’t know if it’s for where it is, but they yeah, they and they share each other’s journey and they’re all but they’re trying to all go through the same day together. And that’s another thing like with and get dance time like coming from the times like we were.

That we could see the system was working. OK, cool, so now we need to make this like we want to we want to open with or like we open get down stones for launch dance and come up with a soft launch. And we we were like, OK, we’re going to go into the market with a high quality, polished look. And that was so important to us. Like we didn’t want to be like, OK, we’re just a small like, you know, we are just a small little company.

It’s just me and Ed, but that is just us and it but we were like, OK, we’re going to enter the market, though, at the level of like Les Mills, at the level of like Nike workouts. And yeah, we don’t have the audience that they have because it’s Nine Inch Nails, whatever, and they can go for years and the the biggest brands. But we were like, OK, we want to put the quality out there just as high and then all we’re going to grow the community like that’s all.

The growth is the community and we’re going to grow that. We’re going to do that through challenges. So that’s what the whole Dunstone Dotcom is. It’s a program. It’s challenges. It’s I I’ve scheduled your workouts for you. You don’t have to think about anything. You just log on and you know that it comes up next year on day 20. And it’s is all carefully structured. And I’ve made sure everything looks like I’m not going to kill you and put like three leg workouts back to back and things like that with three high level cardio back to back, like it’s all carefully planned out to make sure that you’re going to grow within your fitness journey and you’re going to achieve your goals.

And and that was that was our plan. So during the AB challenge, I was going up every day at seven o’clock, taking the challenge in the morning because I wanted to make sure I still do my own workouts every day to make sure it works. And I want to be on the journey with everyone. And then we’re heading to the studio and we’re filming the content. And we I my body was exhausted because I’m filming so many workouts one day, plus doing the workout.

And, you know, I’m trying to create the White House and plan them at the same time and then filming them and finding the right music, because that’s really important to me. And yeah. And so we within two weeks, we had filmed a three part program, which is Get Dunstone, which is in three stages. So you’ve got your two week start up course to start a program, then the forty five day challenge and then the three week next level program.

So it’s in three stages.

You know that in three weeks. How many videos.

I filmed all that and I filmed all that. And one day three, three or four days we’ve created the content and filming and then the following week and then the following week, which will be released and launched in September, September 1st is the next challenge. So that’s in three stages as well. So we soon as we finished filming in production, forget we started the next challenge, which is in three stages and that comes out September 1st. So basically the idea for that is that every every year I will release full.

Big challenges and then maybe a pop up little little one here and there or something like that, the full, big challenge is that basically everyone is working on the thing. And then when it comes to obviously I announce it and let everyone know when it comes to September 1st, everyone stops what they’re doing and we all jump on the new course together and we all take it together. And that’s how we save the community and we we grow together. And that’s that’s what Dunstone is about, basically.

Do you think people have.

Do you think people have the ability or do you want people to get in touch with you and to be able to engage with you? If so, how is it through Zoom or is it through like a Facebook group or some sort?

Yeah. So well, at the moment it’s all on Instagram really. So people always message private messaging me on Instagram and I contact them for my Facebook page and people ask me for advice or like, hey, I’m struggling with this. What do you suggest? Or things like that will win some tips or just just in general, people just like, Hey, Loving Day 20, this one is great or oh my God, what a day that was.

And that’s that’s where the contact is the community. But soon that will be on time, dot. That is going to be forums. So we can we can go from there and do that. But but yeah, at the moment that that’s what it is. But I always let everyone know my email, like email me. It’s all but I it’s really important to me that it that I’m personable and I’m reachable. I want to help you and I’m we on a big company.

And even as we grow, I don’t I want people I still want to be involved heavily like as me. Like a little child to me. Yeah. Like I want to help you personally. And I’m I’m all about motivating. And like, a couple of weeks ago, I guess, when everyone during this pandemic’s been up and down, everyone’s on this roller coaster like we all are. And I could really feel like with my my community on Instagram and a couple of people messaged me and they’re just like, hey, like I’m finding it really hard to jump back in, like my motivation is lacking.

And so I was like, cool, OK, people need me right now. I need to motivate everyone that’s round everyone up and jump on and do some live quick workouts, just like I’ve been doing some workouts. But the trouble with live workouts on social media is everyone’s in different time zones and not everyone can do it together. And I have a lot of members in the UK and in Europe and the time difference for me is like eight hours.

So it’s so hard because my morning is been getting ready for the evening to settle down. And so that I find that a challenge with everyone that’s going live, which I think is awesome. And I want to keep doing it just to keep the community growing and keep people motivated. But there is that challenge, whereas the actual challenges, the Dunstone is what we’re all doing it together, like we’re doing day one together. But I might do day one and.

Ten o’clock, my time in the morning, but which is like one o’clock your time. Oh, it’s funny you might do it.

Yeah, it’s funny that you mention this because I’m going to release my next YouTube video on how to go live with recorded videos. And that is a huge challenge, like you said, like time zone difference. But also Zoom is limited ability in terms of using multiple audio channels, like I know you’re going live on your own, but I also work with a lot of clients in the music industry and orchestras like people, literally no one can be in the same room too, because they’re apart.

Then the music and audio won’t even sync up. So I think maybe just an idea that maybe you could go live with some recorded videos for people in Europe and Asia and you can just schedule them to go live automatically. Using Stream is one of several salver. So I’m just mentally noting that for myself to maybe send that to you.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And we so when we we we’re in the process right now of building. So right now it’s just a website, dancer’s website and you can stream it onto your TV or whatever. But we are in the process of building an app, so which is just going to be awesome. So excited about that. And who’s building it is doing this.

Yeah, it’s a kind of a company as well. But it takes time. It’s process. It it is a whole, a whole thing that I, I don’t, I don’t know and understand a lot of work but I don’t. Yeah. I don’t know what the, the technical, the, the tech side of things, but it is like a whole different level and so. Yeah. And with the app I will be able to do exactly that which is really awesome.

So I’ll be able to do it live but it’ll be recorded and everything like that. So it would be really cool as well. Yeah.

Well you’re building I didn’t even know that you’re creating an app. I, I was going to say that what I have learned with even just my small YouTube channel and releasing videos on a weekly basis, I notice in the comments section within YouTube, I would be repeating a lot of my answers to different people and over again. So the moment I started the Facebook group, which I’m I’m not actually not that active on Facebook, but I feel I just find Facebook group as a as a community management tool to be really useful when it’s done right and people start to post their questions.

And all of a sudden, you know, 17 people jump in with answers and they build their relationship. To me, it’s like just like you, I always say, hey, email me, find me on social media, and then I go to social media. My personal page is like, oh my God, there are 50 comments on. I will literally one day I think I didn’t leave my desk for two hours like fast typing. And I wasn’t even a third way through the comments.

So I got to like at some point you’re you’re seeing that break through as we speak. But for people who are watching this and you’re building whatever brand content, your dance videos, once you get past that point where you can personally support your folks, put them in a group. Facebook group is a great idea. Rosie’s building a community directly on her website, which is I I would love to check back in with you because that requires an additional login that requires people to engage on a new platform, which I haven’t seen, like pros and cons.

I would love to like that with you on that after it’s been launched.

Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

Well, people also like I think the pros of that approach, I think is not to be distracted because imagine people are on Facebook. Next thing you know, they’re looking at some puppy videos. Well, they should be focusing on your dad’s tone lessons, OK, right. Yeah. This is so OK. Last question. Last question. I notice that you went through like a personal transformation as well. I don’t mean like the fact that you got married, but that is awesome.

We love it. And I notice, like you went from your blond hair to now your brunet and your I love how natural your makeup is in these videos. Very minimum. Still very much you like. And for people who didn’t know you before, I mean, you’re like full blond and, you know, like you have to put on makeup because you went to dance school, you were in shows all the time. What was that like? Was that like, you know, what was that decision process like?

Do you feel good, liberated and all that?

Yeah, I guess for me it was I had to I had to be blond four years ago for gig and then offer a show and then because the director decided that I would look good with like some blond highlights. And then it just it grew from there. And then every time I went to a next show or next job, I was like, hey, I’m going to go back to my this is my natural color. I’m going to go back.

I know we love you at this color like. This and so that’s how it got so blond and I was finally just like, you know what, like I I love going on stage that I always have and always will. But going on stage, I’m not Rosie. I’m I’m full. I’m Rosie, the performer. I’m not Rosie me. I’m I’m someone different. I’m a character. And I think for me it was really important that I was just like, I’m I’m just going to strip everything back.

I’m not going to do full face makeup. I’m not going to wear fake eyelashes and and and things like that. And it was really important to me that I look natural for Dunstone and I’m me because I think I’m more personal, I’m more reachable. And there’s people out there which they look awesome. And they they have all the face of makeup and these like fitness instructor, the line and the extensions and things like that, which I’m like, you look so great.

But the people out there that are watching you, I want them to see that I’m dripping with sweat like my sweat is dripping into my eyelash, like I’m down my eyes. Like I’m I’m just as sweaty as you. And I’m real. I’m I’m real. And I’m not I’m not just the face of dance. Like, I’m doing it with you and I’m real. And this is what I look like. And we all look we all look different.

And that’s the whole thing. We’ve we’ve danced time and again, like just taking that the the theory of dance toned. And it isn’t that isn’t based on dancing. It’s dances look a certain way and dances all have discipline and commitment. And that’s what I’ve taken that theory of. And dancers come in all shapes and sizes. They come in all different looks or different hair colors. You’ve got big advances. You’ve got tall dancers, small dancers, you’ve got curvy dancers.

But we all have something in common, which is we all have tight lean muscles and bodies like we all have tight muscles. We all have strong calls. We have lean long legs and muscles. And we have commitment and and the commitment of of of working on us and working on our body and and that that was what was really important to me to bring forward. And it’s like, this is this is me. I’m not going to be someone else.

Yeah. Oh, look at that.

I love how you I love how we ended on this. And this is super lovely. And in the end, if you’re watching this and the description in the videos everywhere, I did include, again, links to dance tone, dot com and to its dance tone everywhere. So Rosie made it really easy for us on Instagram. On Facebook, it’s all the same, too. So definitely check it out. So we have a seven day free trial as well.

So check it out. Give it a try.

After all right, so we’ll conclude this. All right, I’m going to take us offline.

Bye, guys. Bye. Thank you. Thank.

This episode of the First World podcast is brought to you by Fey’s World LLC, our marketing service agency created for independent creators and businesses. We offer website development, video production, marketing, mentorship to people who want to tell better stories, level up and create a profitable brand phasor podcast team. Our chief editor and producer, Herman Silvio’s associate producer Adam Lefort, social media and content manager, Rosta de Leon, transcript editor Allena Almodovar. And lastly, myself, the creator and host of Face World.

Thank you so much for listening.