Ep. 12 Farshad Sarrafi | Building a Fitness Community: Strategies for Partnerships and Retention

Andres Sanchez [00:00:00]:

Building communities are tough. It is not easy. It is very momentum driven. And the beginning is some of the hardest part, when there's not a ton of people organically adding noise and chatter and different things to keep things going.

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:00:13]:

So you really have to think about what creates an emotional connection and what brings people together and how you do that. And like, you have to think of that as like, one person in different iterations. So, like, for us was always huge. Is like, the question I just ask is like, how can we give how can we get people to believe in what we do and engage? And what does that look like? A big part of that is like, understanding what kind of lifestyle do they live? How does their life look like day to day? What kind of jobs do they have, what do they believe? And when you start to understand what they believe specifically, it becomes considerably easier to create an emotional connection and create a place where people want to connect.

Andres Sanchez [00:00:59]:

To the Virtual Ventures podcast. I'm your host, Andres Sanchez. Today we have a really special episode. We have Far Shod here on the show, the co founder of the Beyond Built Community, somebody who's really into fitness and personal fitness. So I'm really excited. It's a little bit different than the episodes we've had previous, but it's something I want to shed some light on. I think fitness is extremely important and there's also a lot of amazing businesses that wrap around fitness so far. Shai, thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate you being here, dude, absolutely.

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:01:29]:

I'm glad we got a chance, in fact.

Andres Sanchez [00:01:31]:

Yeah, for sure. So just rolling right into it, tell us a little bit about you, where you're from personality wise, like, all these good things about yourself, and then we'll kind of start rolling from there, of course.

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:01:41]:

So I'm born in Iran. I grew up in Toronto for a period of time. I was in New York for a large portion of my time, and then I ended up moving out west. I kind of am a nomad. Like I float between Vegas, La. And then I'm up in Vancouver, Canada, a little bit too. But a little over three years ago, my business partner and I met at the La Fit Expo and I was in corporate consulting at the time and I was also coaching, doing online coaching. And it was still relatively new then, but I'd been doing it for a while. Kind of had done it on my own. He's very hungry for growing his online business, but he also wanted a lot of bigger things with the brand. And I was just kind of helping him out just as friends, like two people. And then COVID kind of happened and he asked for some additional support and I was just kind of helping him out and it turned into a conversation on what would it look like if we were to be business partners? And I said, Look, I'd love online coaching, but just being in corporate consulting, having the experiences I did, working different jobs right out of college, I'd seen some of the biggest and craziest businesses, and it really opens your eyes to just how simple things are. Some of the biggest companies in the world are not people who work there aren't, for lack of a better term, the most intelligent. But things are so simple and straightforward that it's pretty hard to fuck it up, right? So I always told him when we were kind of having the conversation, I was like, I couldn't just do coaching. Like, I want to build a brand, I want to build an experience, have a gym, have components to it that are far more than just physical, which is our tagline, which is more than just physical. So we got into a conversation and we became business partners during COVID And the business really started to grow. I ended up moving away from New York and being on the West Coast, and since then it's been like something I spent a lot of my time on, like building the business, working on training, working on fitness. It's taken me places I never imagined I've gotten the chance to work with a few guys in the NFL, the NBA, just get a lot of experiences that I wouldn't have had otherwise. We have events every we actually just had our event about a week ago, but we have an event every May. Since the beginning we've had ten total events. And people fly in from all over the world just to be at one of our little four day retreats. So it's cool to see something that people come in and like, oh, I want to get in shape, I want to get stronger, I want to be bigger, or I want to be shredded. And it turns into this journey of realizing fitness is a lot more than just physical. And I promise I can teach you and give you the best program design. I can fit you the perfect diet. But if internally there's no understanding of why you're doing the things you're doing, it doesn't matter. I can't make you anything more than you are. Like, at the end of the day, you have to be good with yourself when you're by yourself. And that's something that people realize in their fitness journey is like, I can be shredded, I can be 4% body fat, I can be super jacked, I can deadlift 600 pounds. It won't fulfill you. And it's really learning the journey and the experience. So a lot of our time now, at least now for me, is like, we have Chad and I, we have our own roster. We have also coaches who work with us as well, who have their own roster, clients. But we're very focused on building the business, starting to get into like building a gym, getting into apparel, things of that nature. So it's starting to become a little bit more business oriented. We still do the coaching, still super involved, but that's kind of what my life is at this point.

Andres Sanchez [00:04:41]:

That's amazing and thanks for giving me a bunch of stuff to unpack there. Let's maybe start from the beginning and then build up to what the business is now and what's going on. You mentioned that you had a friend and you guys became business partners. Feel like this is something that is always on people's mind but not talked about so much. Going into a partnership with somebody is sometimes the best thing you could ever do, but it's always tough. How is that experience on trusting somebody and going through and being willing to create with another mind involved?

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:05:10]:

So I think it's really easy and I understand why it fucks up a lot of relationships and I see why the ones who are successful, like the two people that come to mind that I think are incredible business partners are Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger. There has to be a foundation of values and there has to be very clear understanding of what we're doing, where we're going and how we're getting there. And I find that that's not a conversation that is had as intimately as people think it is with their business partner. And I can tell you I have some of my close friends from growing up that we tried to do business right out of college and just didn't work. And initially there was obviously some frustration and then I was like, you know what, we weren't clear on things. So when we met the first time I ever met Chad was the La Fit Expo. So just to paint a picture, this was January of 2020. By April of 2020 we were business partners. But I didn't really start helping him too much or supporting him in any way until the beginning of March of 2020. So the turnaround between just supporting him and helping him, really helping him until becoming business partners was a month, three months into having any supplements of understanding each other. And I think you have to value your values to an extreme, to the point where it is your relationship, like your relationship's foundation is on values. And so the level of transparency, the honesty, the unconditional love, the difficult things that people think are difficult conversations but frankly I think they're pretty simple. Those things have been true right off the bat. And he'd probably tell you first is like I don't ever waver in my belief in how big this is going to become and it's continuing to evolve as and I don't have a doubt in my mind what we can create. I am fully aware that we have to practice being transparent, we have to practice being honest. Work ethic is in practice, everything's in practice and it's an ongoing conversation. And I think for anybody listening, if you're going to become business partners with someone, you have to dissect every component of what you value where you want to go, how you want to live, how you want to get there before jumping in, understanding that even doing those things, you could still end up not having a great partnership yet. You will alleviate a lot of the challenges. And for me, what personally made it easy was I was super clear on what I personally was invested in when it comes to business building, there are things in the business that I'm good at, but do I think it's the only thing I should be focusing on? No. Sales and a lot of content and front end stuff is like his side of the business. And I have my experiences, I've done well in those things. I also understand that those aren't the only components of a business and having a really good and evolving understanding of that is important. But you have to divide and conquer in a lot of ways in a business. You can't have two people doing the exact same role across the board. And I'm very brand and experience focused, which to some people they think is like, oh, that's sales and marketing, it's product, it's the experience, the delivery of it. And those things trickle into sales and marketing for sure. But you don't have anything to sell and market if you don't have an experience, if you don't have an exceptional service product. So that's where a lot of my time is. I am still involved in the front end. It's not like I'm not because there's other components of the business that have to evolve for the bigger mission. But it's being super, super clear dividing, letting people be stars in their role. And it's an evolving process. Like we're three years into this, it doesn't look like what it did three years ago and it's not going to look like this in three years. So it's being able to accept and appreciate that journey.

Andres Sanchez [00:08:15]:

Yeah, I think there's so many great things that you mentioned there. And I just think some of the highlights for people listening are you need to be very accountable and very crystal clear on expectations. What you want?

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:08:26]:

How?

Andres Sanchez [00:08:26]:

You want things to go because that's where you think start to get a little bit dicey when there's just a disconnect between the two partners. So that's extremely important. And like you said, which I thought was an amazing point, is understand what you're really good at and be able to divide and conquer, be able to give away some of those responsibilities that maybe were yours at the beginning or when things were smaller to other people who are more capable, which is actually extremely hard to do. Some people think it's easy just to delegate a bunch of work, but it's tough when that's something you were doing or something you think you need to be doing and you really don't. So I think those were some amazing points before we kind of dive into the business and all that good stuff. Where does the passion come from? Like, what got you excited about personal fitness? How did you end up in this world? You went from? I think you mentioned consulting. Now you're all about fitness. How did that happen? Where did that come from?

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:09:20]:

So I grew up playing sports, right? And so I got into weight training and stuff pretty early. Like, I just turned 30 recently and I've been training since I was 13. And I've gotten a chance to interact with some of the best minds in sports, bodybuilding fitness all across the board. I went through a series of injuries growing up, and as I went through them and they impacted playing basketball, particularly as I went through high school and into college, I got to a place where I was like, I just want to learn. There's got to be a way to help people get stronger, better, healthier, and for the long run, not just in the short term. And so, obviously, being super into basketball, I'm super into sports in general and performance as a whole, I just went down that path and I realized as you get into the fitness space specifically, I don't find most people understand sports performance. I think most of the fitness industry is lift weights, eat more protein, get more steps in. That's all they talk about, which is true. And that's foundationally really good habit building it's. Once you get into the nuances of what does that look like, person to person, and what are some general principles we can create to succeed, that's where I don't find most people do well. And some people will argue that it's unnecessary. And I would just look at it and say that seems pretty flawed. So obviously the fitness space has a ton of benefits, but there's also a ton of misinformation. I think in the fitness space, everything's like do keto, do this, diet do if it fits your macros. And it's like everything is context dependent. And even looking at the biggest brands in fitness, there's like the Gym Sharks of the World, there's the Alpha Leads navigation. There's tons of these clothing companies, even them, I'm like, none of them to me stand out to the point where even from a clothing standpoint or standpoint, I'm like, I fucking love this. I think this is the best. And so being able to see that and seeing how integrative of an experience it is, for me, it's always been, what can we create, why is it different and why does it matter? And how does it play a role in the world for the time that I'm here? Because I'm not going to be here forever, right? So that's really where my passion is. I just enjoy the process. Fitness is a big part of, I think, everybody's life when you welcome it to be. And I think life is very mind, body, spirit, integrated. It's not just mental, it's not just emotional, it's not just physical. It's all of it integrated. And so being able to see the totality of it, much like a business, is what makes and creates the bigger picture. And I just enjoy that process. And so for me, it's just the passion of evolution. It's not just fitness. To me, I have other businesses that I'm helping build and evolve and own. And to me, it's a game. And it's just so much fun to do and be the person and evolve as that person. So that's really what drives me.

Andres Sanchez [00:11:41]:

Yeah, that's great. And from an outsider's perspective, I agree with those points. Like, I played sports all my life, had to train, didn't love it, stopped playing sports in college. I'm still on my I've been training for the last 15 years. Let me take a break. Five years later. So I'm definitely someone who wants to get back in. But I agree that there is a lot of misinformation. It is extremely confusing. There's a new diet trend, way to lose weight, gain weight, all these different things every week. So I think that's really cool and I'd love to just roll right into it because I think you're really doing a great job of teeing it up for us. Tell us about the business. What is it centered around? How does it operate? And then, like you just mentioned, why are you different? What are you guys doing that's making you stand out within the Space 100%?

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:12:23]:

So it's online coaching is like the primary offer, right? You come into beyond, Bill. We have a community. We give away a ton of free shit, resources, experiences, everything. Our community is full of value. Teaching, insights on training, nutrition, even psychology to some degree. All of it all encompassing. It's coaching. Every client that comes into Beyond Build, they get a one on one experience. They have access to our app. They have the opportunity to really immerse themselves, not only in the one on one part, but we have a whole community of people from across the world, all walks of life. Business owners, everyday people, VPs at major companies, athletes, bodybuilders powerlifters, like, you name it, they're there. And everybody has a desire to get better in some aspect of their life. And I think the reason it works so well and it's so different is like, a lot of people think, oh, well, this person is an athlete and I'm just a stay at home mom, or this person's a VP. And I just work like, I'm in college and I work like a desk job. It can't be that much similar, but it's like the way you live, how you see the world is very similar and you have similar outcomes. You might just be in two different places and just have two different things that you may be focused on, but because there's commonality in the way you live and approach life and the things you value, it makes it a lot easier to find commonality and find support. And I think for us, support is the big thing. Like, you have a coach to help keep you accountable. And you have a community of people who've been in all aspects of the journey from just beginning their weight loss and having to lose 300 pounds to the person who's going to step on stage and compete at a high level in bodybuilding to anything in between. And because of that communal aspect, you will get educated, nutrition and training. You'll be able to contextualize it to your own specific life by kind of zooming out and seeing principles that help you understand how to create the lifestyle that not only sustains, but helps you become a better human and a better body with age and with time, but also like a community of people to support you through that. And I think that makes it extremely unique. We have events that we host. We literally had the most amount of people show up to an event this past last weekend. It was like 40 people. Next year, we're already coordinating like 65 potentially. And I can tell you people love to stay here. It's not cheap. But I can tell you people, once they're in, they're like, I get the comment a lot. I should be paying two or three times this. And it's a very immersive experience. It will change your life. If you want, just go to the Beyond Built training page on Instagram and just look at the transformations, look at the information. We post people very much. It'll speak for itself. That's all I can tell you. And join our community. Those two places are easy places to see how it works, but that's really kind of what goes on inside of Beyond Built.

Andres Sanchez [00:14:57]:

Yeah. So someone listening right now. They're on the fence. Maybe explain a little bit of, like, let's use me, for example. What if I wanted to go beyond the Beyond Built member right now? What does my experience look like right off the bat?

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:15:10]:

Well, if you want, you can join the community for free. So much of what you're going to experience behind the scenes, we just put out in the public. You get the trainings, the access to the coaches resources, people in the community. We made the community public and free for everybody to interact in because they realized, like, oh shit, there's so much value being given. It's funny, so many people who are in that community will end up becoming clients just because they're like, you guys give all this stuff away for free. And I'm like, yeah, I'm not interested in hiding the truth behind any of this stuff. I'm a big believer in the implementation part, is the part people need help with. That requires context. And so that's probably the thing that people are going to want to pay for, having a community support, et cetera. That's stuff that I think we can just do better as a society and contributing to the world. And so once you're in our experience, you get a very immersed experience working with your coach one on one, taking a look at your movement patterns. We also understand, and I'll tell you this, training comes before nutrition. I love the fact that the fitness space thinks it's the other way around. But I promise you, no matter how many pieces of fruit you eat and how many pallets of chicken you eat, you'll never have ABS, you'll never have muscle tissue. Sorry. You have to create a demand for your body to change shape. But they'll tell you in the fitness space, nutrition is 80% of it. I don't think a single professional athlete and the way they move got there because they were eating better. Eating is important. This is not discrediting that. So we take a very immersive experience from the psychological and personal component and how that's impacting your decision making, how you move, how you operate. Training is a big part of it. Obviously diet plays a role and it's very, very immersive. And then you have a community of people to interact with and people along the journey can relate. People along the journey have faced similar challenges, whether it's how to improve a squat pattern or struggling with simple meal ideas because you travel or work on the road all the time. So it's really cool how you have this massive community support and then the tailoring and the customization is very one on one. And I think the beautiful thing with Beyond Built is people come in, I think a lot of times they're like, oh, I think I'll stay here for like six months, maybe a year. And they end up staying longer because they realize like, oh, the timeline to my goals is way shorter. A lot of people set themselves really short and even the things that sound lofty, they don't take as long and they get there in less time and then they're like, well shit, if I can do this, sustain this and get to here, what else can I do? So I've seen people who never thought about wanting to even compete end up testing bodybuilding or powerlifting purely because they would just love the process and seem like, hey, I can do this. Or some people are getting ready for tough mudders or other different kind kinds of competitive things just because they realize there's so much more I can do. There's some people who are like, yo, I want to spend the next three years and see how much muscle I can build and what that looks like. For me, it's so cool to see people who learn and experience what we do and then all of a sudden they're like, I can do way more. And when you realize it's the journey that's honestly going to be one of the things that makes their experience inside beyond Bill valuable. And we make it imperative that people see like, it's a long game. It's not like, hey, you lost ten pounds, then what? It's like? What's the point of losing those ten pounds? What's the longer vision of who you become in this journey? And I think that's super important.

Andres Sanchez [00:18:02]:

I love that. And you've got the business part of me turning because like you said, you're able to build these long lasting customers because let's be honest, fitness goals don't happen overnight. And once you get people bought in on that journey and you get to prove your value throughout it, it's a great way to continue to retain customers. And I think that building a community and having a successful community is going to be one of the key differentiators of businesses in the next ten years. I think communities are super important. My businesses prior to this were community oriented and I really see the value and I actually think it's something that I'm going to put some time into. I've got a business partner of mine who's telling me to get off my ass a little bit and go build this offer to create communities for companies because I think it's going to be super powerful. And I've seen this now for four years and I love that you're doing that and that's at the core of this business. Maybe let's talk a little bit about that. What was it like creating a community? How was it when there was only a couple of members in there that you had to constantly keep engaged to what it is now, where there's a ton of members constantly in there talking? Because I know for people listening, building communities are tough. It is not easy. It is very momentum driven and the beginning is some of the hardest part when there's not a ton of people organically adding noise and chatter and different things to keep things going. So I'd love to dive a little bit into that.

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:19:24]:

So I actually think if you don't follow two of the guys that I've been able to interact with on Twitter, Coltie and Marco, they run a company called Kill Crew, but they do a great job talking about this. And they were honestly the only people I've seen on the Twitter specifically that truly understand this. It's actually refreshing to see their stuff, but you really have to think about what creates an emotional connection and what brings people together and how you do that. And you have to think of that as one person in different iterations, right? So for us, what was always huge is the question I just asked is how can we give, how can we get people to believe in what we do and engage and what does that look like? And a big part of that is, like, understanding what kind of lifestyle do they live? How does their life look like day to day, what kind of jobs do they have? What do they believe? And when you start to understand what they believe, specifically, it becomes considerably easier to create an emotional connection and create a place where people want to connect. I think Kilcru does that better than anybody. Their tagline literally says, we kill PTSD, depression, et cetera. But that idea or that perspective of we're going to overcome is what they're telling you. A lot of people believe in the idea of overcoming, and so it creates a culture. And so for us, it's like, can you see that people believe that fitness is actually more than just physical? Because if it wasn't, we wouldn't have this issue in the fitness community where people are constantly jumping from program to program. Right? What we've also found is we've had clients come from other coaching programs or other experiences, and they're like, this is so different. We want to stay here. They've stayed here for, like, two, three years now, right? It's because we understand and we continue to refine and evolve our experience as, like, what is that journey? What does that look like? How does that play a role? And if you look at the biggest companies in the world, the only reason more and more people buy is, yes, you need new buyers. That's true. Yet you need to be able to retain and deliver an exceptional experience. And your best customers often come from the people who keep investing in you. I can look at our team and our client base, and some of our best clients just came from referrals from other clients that were already really good clients. And Apple does that really fucking well. And Nike does that really fucking well. And I think people are so focused on acquisition and like, oh, I got to build visibility 100% important. It's not a great idea to not market. I don't think that to be a great opportunity either, but really fucking evolve and develop a product. Your best customers and are the people who actually just go out and they fucking chariot. What you do? Like, I can sit here and look at the iPhone, for example. I talk about this a lot. I don't think it's the best product. I worked in tech for a period of time. It's not the best product. There's tons of things I can look at and say these other phones can do, but it's the most user friendly experience. It looks the prettiest. The experience is so thought out across the board. It's why they're the biggest company in the world or one of the biggest companies in the world. Right? And when you start thinking that way and playing a really long game and just taking step by step, man, it's just different. It's just super, super different. So that's kind of like our outlook. On things. And if you're building a business, really start intimately understanding the people you have and drawing parallels of how this is what people experience at scale. Right. When you start to understand why they are the way they are and how that plays out, you start to realize how you can give to those needs at an emotional level, and people become very invested in what you do.

Andres Sanchez [00:22:33]:

Yeah, I think what you said there is super important to highlight. And referrals are huge, and most major businesses were built off of putting a good product in front of the right people and then allowing referrals and the world we live in where things can naturally go viral if you put out something really good that hits to a lot of different people. And I think that's something that people are disconnected or maybe that don't do a good job at focusing. It's always like, all right, how can I get the most people and the most eyes on my product right now so that I could be a millionaire, like, overnight? But building your champions and your really important quality customers right off the bat are what will make or break your brand in the long term. Because compound interest is a beautiful thing, and compound works on anything you want it to. So one referral equals another person, which equals two more people, and you know how that goes. So I think that's just a great thing to highlight. Overall, something I want to do to kind of take us away from all the business aspect of things is just ask a very, very simple question. Answer this how you want it can be literally anything, but I think it's a great way to get to know you a little better as well. What are you excited about in the near future?

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:23:45]:

Man a ton of planning to do for next year, and I think our event just ended. And every year the events get better and they get bigger, and then obviously there's like, planning towards a gym and all that kind of stuff. So I'm just excited to be able to take those next steps. I love everything we're doing right now. Like, we're working on an event for the fall as it is. We have some clients competing, so I'm super excited about that. But it's this continued appreciation of everything that's happening in the moment and then realizing it can only continue to evolve and grow and get better. And honestly, that's what excites me. I wake up super excited to do things. Don't get me wrong, I sleep in. I do things like that all the time just because I'm human. I understand my body needs rest, but once we get going, we just keep going. And it's so much fun to be able to kind of create. Honestly, most of my day, I feel like a kid that's like, figuring out, what can we create? And we get to play and it's a lot of fun for me and that's what's exciting is, like, every day is just an opportunity to grow, learn and experience the moment. And I think that's, honestly, like, you couldn't ask for more in life.

Andres Sanchez [00:24:42]:

That's amazing, and I love to hear that from you and I love that you're very excited about what you're doing because I think that's extremely important and something that people need to really prioritize in their life is do things that you really enjoy that will make life so much easier. Is there anything special that you want to shout out? Anything big coming up within the company or anything about the company that you want to shout out here? Before we kind of wrap things up.

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:25:06]:

I would just follow us on Instagram Beyond Built Training. We're doing some giveaways coming up if we're going to be opening some spots to take on coaching clients because we limit it, we get a lot of requests and we do have a waitlist, but we're going to be able to with some of the increased capacity that we've kind of developed, adding members on the team, we're going to be able to open up a little bit pretty soon. So if you're ready to change your life, I strongly recommend it. If you don't believe me, just go look on the page or check on the website. There's a lot of people who share that sentiment, so keep following along. If you need help with anything, reach out. I'm super open to helping people all of the time, even if they're not working with us one on one, gladly just support people in the way they can or put them in the direction. So a lot of good things coming up on the page, you won't want to miss it.

Andres Sanchez [00:25:50]:

Awesome. Everybody make sure you guys are following them and we'll have all of the information linked in the bio below. You're going to get some shameless messages from me, I'm sure, down the road as I try and become more fit and fix myself up a little bit. So just a heads up from that perspective and then for anybody listening, if you made it this far, make sure to, like, follow, comment, subscribe, do all that good stuff. And then, like I said, all of this information is going to be a link in the bio. Make sure you guys go check it out. He's doing amazing things. All of this is positive. Make sure that you are prioritizing your health, mental and physical, and this is a great way to start and go do that so farshad. Thank you so much for coming on the pod. It was a pleasure meeting you and I'm looking forward to this relationship going longer.

𝗙𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗱 [00:26:34]:

Yeah, of course. Happy to be here.

Andres Sanchez [00:26:36]:

Thank you.