978 Amanda Tress:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP978—Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Amanda Tress

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Amanda Tress:

I was running my own program at the time called Faster Way to Fat Loss, and I thought, you know what, why don’t I build a certification around my methodology, which was very unique and, uh, incorporated intermittent fasting, cycling carbohydrates, tracking macros, and then pairing the food cycle with effective 30-minute workouts. And so, I built a certification around my programming and had it approved by all of the biggest organizations in fitness. And I decided to create essentially a digital franchise model for my agency clients. And so overnight I went from 0 certified trainers to 85 certified trainers who were my agency clients. You can plug into my platform with your own book of clients. In 2017, I did like $2 million revenue, just this little kind of side hobby. 2018, we did $12 mil. 2019, we did $34. And accelerated our percentage of year-over-year growth every year since 2020, when many of my competitors were struggling or crumbling. 

Melinda Wittstock:

We all know about franchising business models, but what does it take to build a multi-million-dollar digital franchise? Amanda Tress shares today how she scaled her innovative “business-in-a-box” model for fitness and nutrition professionals, giving them the tools, technology, and community to succeed online. 

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m your host Melinda Wittstock and I hope you’re doing well this week, undoubtedly juggling a million things in business and life, while trying to stay sane while the world keeps getting just a bit crazier. Ok, a bit, was maybe an understatement. So another gentle reminder from me: take time for yourself – quiet time, time with your kids, your dogs, your cats, time with friends, time doing things that bring you joy and peace.  Most importantly, don’t isolate yourself: Be in community and service to others, and remember all that you have for which to be grateful. Ok now to the show, and if you’re new here, this is the place where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb. If you’ve been listening to any of the past 977 episodes, please help us get the word out about the show. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Tell your friends and colleagues, share the episode and leave a quick 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We really appreciate it. Thank you! 

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an inspiring entrepreneur who made it her mission to discover healthy eating and fitness when she realized she was the only teenager in her school on blood pressure medication. She became a personal trainer, and by 2002, Amanda Tress was one of the first in her industry to start online training. It started with emails, then came the flip-cam for YouTube videos and Skype for consults. Over the years, Amanda has built the multi-million dollar FASTer Way to Fat Loss, now with its digital franchising model for fitness and nutrition coaches, one of the fastest-growing digital fitness and nutrition companies in the U.S. Founded in 2016, FASTer Way delivers a science-backed, sustainable approach combining intermittent fasting, whole-food nutrition, carb cycling, and strategic workouts. With thousands of certified coaches and over 564,000 clients worldwide, Amanda is passionate about empowering women to thrive physically, financially, and personally through education, community, and purpose-driven business.

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we talk about her innovative business model, plus the challenges and opportunities facing the industry today, from the “Ozempic effect” and personalized wellness.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, let’s put on our Wings with the inspiring Amanda Tress.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Amanda, welcome to Wings.

Amanda Tress:

Thank you so much. I’m thrilled to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, there’s lots of fast ways to lose weight, but not necessarily fast ways to keep off the weight. So, tell me, what was the inspiration— what was the inspiration that led you to create your company way back almost a decade ago?

Amanda Tress:

Yeah. Oof. Okay. We have to go all the way back. So, from the standpoint of the fitness and nutrition component, I personally struggled with health issues as early as high school. I was on blood pressure medication as a teenager, which might be hard to believe if you see me on Instagram now. Uh, but as I then went to college, I looked around and realized I was the only one of my peers on blood pressure medication. I had also been prescribed metformin for blood sugar issues and insulin resistance.

Amanda Tress:

And, uh, I thought, man, I just have got to take ownership and learn how to live a healthier lifestyle. Because as many people, and specifically women, have experienced, when I went to the doctor with different symptoms and the high blood pressure, etc., etc., my doctor said, here’s a prescription, and never once said, what are you eating? Are you exercising? Uh, and so in college, I did a complete 180. I learned how to eat healthy, specifically focused on whole food nutrition, gluten-free, dairy-free lifestyle as well. Uh, I started working out for the lifestyle instead of just athletics, and I was able to wean myself off of medications and quickly thereafter decided to become a personal trainer and a nutritionist so that I could really pay it forward and help other people who were in my same situation. So over time, I worked with hundreds of gym clients, helped these clients lose a tremendous amount of weight, burn fat, build muscle. And, uh, I decided after a few years to try and scale my impact by moving online. Now, this is a very long time ago. I actually started online training in 2002, if you can believe it. Yeah, if that— you know, 2002, it was more so me sending emails with meal plans and emails kind of checking in, how are you doing. Then that, you know, morphed into me using a flip cam to create exercise videos and upload them to YouTube and using Skype for consults and workouts. Uh, and I actually launched a digital marketing agency for women in fitness to help other trainers do what I was doing and train online in one-on-one or bootcamp type formats. So, I launched that about 15 years ago, and I scaled that to a multiple 7-figure business. But after a few years, my agency clients were coming to me and they were saying, Amanda, you’re helping us get all of these customers into our online training programs, but our customers aren’t seeing results because our programming is not effective. And I was running my own program at the time called Faster Way to Fat Loss, and I thought, you know what, why don’t I build a certification around my methodology, which was very unique and, uh, incorporated intermittent fasting, cycling carbohydrates, tracking macros, and then pairing the food cycle with effective 30-minute workouts. And so, I built a certification around my programming and had it approved by all of the biggest organizations in fitness.

Amanda Tress:

And I decided to create essentially a digital franchise model for my agency clients. And so overnight I went from 0 certified trainers to 85 certified trainers who were my agency clients. And I said, you can plug into my platform with your own book of clients. And so that was 2017. I created the certification. 2018, it was approved with all of these, uh, certification organizations. And, uh, so in 2017, I did like $2 million revenue, just this little kind of side hobby. 2018, we did $12 mil. 2019, we did $34. And then 2020, we were ready to go for the pandemic because we had a digital platform for meal plans and workouts. I had a certification for trainers all over the world who were losing their jobs due to COVID. And so, we really started to grow our membership base at that time. And then last year, our biggest story was that we had accelerated our percentage of year-over-year growth every year since 2020, when many of my competitors were struggling or crumbling. And so, this, you know, has been a really exciting time. We have a few different challenges now related to AI technology and the Ozempic effect, but definitely thrilled about continuing to grow and expand, specifically internationally right now. So, the future is bright.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, there’s so many things I want to pick up on there, and we’ll get to the Ozempic thing in a moment and all things AI. But I’ve never heard the term digital franchise model before. Tell me a little bit about the business model of how you did that with all these sort of certification of coaches. Tell me a little bit about that model and how that works. Very intriguing to me.

Amanda Tress:

Yeah, and you haven’t heard it because it’s not being done. We are the only ones who have this model. It’s the best model in the marketplace, hands down, end of story. My certification is the premier, most robust, comprehensive nutrition and fitness certification out there. So, from the standpoint of gold standard education, we have it. But the pain point for a lot of fitness professionals is they go through a certification and then they don’t know where to go from there. They get the credential, they have the certificate, but there’s no additional help. And usually, the traditional path is you try to get hired by a gym, you work in a gym, you become a salesperson on the floor, you trade dollars for hours, you’re working weekends, evenings, odd hours, and the average instructor is making $24,000 annually, which is unacceptable.

Melinda Wittstock:

Unacceptable. That’s very low. It’s extremely low.

Amanda Tress:

 It’s extremely low. That was a few years ago, the average. Now it’s climbed a little bit north of $30,000, but it’s still not acceptable. So really, you know, I started my agency to eradicate poverty for women in fitness, and that remains my vision, but now I have a different vehicle with FasterWay. So once someone becomes certified in the Faster Way to Fat Loss programming and methodology, they can then work with clients online and they do bring their own clients to the table, but I power their marketing engine with my campaigns and early stage offers and lead magnets and then amplify the flywheel with PPC.

Amanda Tress:

And so, the trainers, the coaches bring in clients and then the clients go through the program and platform that I have created for the trainers. And the, the coach actually gets a 75% commission on the sales, which is extremely generous. And there’s no other examples of that in the marketplace. But I believe in extreme generosity. And then, you know, they serve their clients through coaching. We have a great app platform. Where the clients have access to incredible tools and workouts. And we do a little road show every year where we do live pop-up workouts all over the country and now expanding into some Spanish-speaking markets too. And so, it’s just a lot of fun. It’s great, incredible community.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s an amazing way that you have built this because you may be a really good fitness trainer, you may be really good at all these different things, but you’re not necessarily good at launching a business, right, or marketing a business.

Amanda Tress:

So, so it’s almost business in a box for them. Exactly. Yep, yep. And the other aspect is so many personal trainers, they want to focus on coaching and nutrition and encouraging the client. They don’t want to worry about the tech. They don’t want to worry about the backend. So, we build them beautiful custom co-branded websites. Uh, we, you know, manage all the backend.

Amanda Tress:

Through Shopify and our different SaaS platforms. We have an incredible app that the client gets access to and is able to then, you know, work, work with their coach. We just take on all of that, that, you know, the trainer shouldn’t have to worry about, and they are able to earn meaningful income. My top coaches are earning 7 figures, uh, and they are just, you know, extremely happy with the scalability and sustainability of the model. And there’s really nothing out there like it in this industry.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Well, it’s a highly scalable model. Yes. But not only are you building— and valuable too, because you’re building this kind of membership community and presumably all the coaches, do they all have access to each other and like “mastermindy” sort of thing?

Amanda Tress:

Oh, yeah. I actually just got off a call with 30 coaches, and we were all brainstorming and masterminding. And yeah, it’s an amazing, unified community in this category, which is pretty rare. And we host different events for the coaches. We just had one in San Diego with 300 of our coaches, and then we brought in 1,000 clients for a workout the next day. And it’s just a lot of fun. We have a great time.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m amazed that no one has really copied this. Because it seems so obvious to me that this is— as you’re explaining it, like, everybody wins. And then it’s highly scalable for you because you just rinse and repeat. You create all the SOPs for everybody. And then it’s a little bit of passive income there in, in, in essence, right?

Amanda Tress:

I’m amazed as well that no one has copied it. I will say I was just chatting with an agency out of New York yesterday, and they were like, we’re just so impressed with you because we talk to 50 people a week who are trying to do what you’re doing, but they’re trying to make it as scalable as possible. And really, the beauty of what I’ve created is human plus tech. That human component, the community component, is the secret sauce. And my marketing expertise and know-how and the way in which I empower my trainers and coaches to generate highly qualified leads and then come alongside them with digital marketing— no one is doing that. It’s hard work. And we also, we offer 3 new workouts per day. So again, it’s like It’s a lot of work.

Amanda Tress:

We do a lot of non-scalable activities, which is part of the reason that no one has successfully copied the model. But I believe it’s the best model in the marketplace, and I will die on that hill.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, you do a lot of the work upfront to perfect these different new routines, new processes, all of that. But once it’s done, it’s done. And presumably it evolves. You’re getting feedback, I imagine, from all the certified coaches, and you’re actually learning in the marketplace from them as well.

Amanda Tress:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, it spans a number of things and very much aligned with your background, Amanda. I mean, you know, from not only the nutrition, but also the actual, you know, workouts and such. And so how personalized are these workouts for people? Like, if you look at your kind of plan and the type of things that you do, there’s a big trend now towards personalized wellness and AI. There’s lots of there’s lots of different aspects of AI we can talk about, but let’s start with this, this part that AI enables you to some degree to really personalize healthcare for people.

Melinda Wittstock:

So how is that thing?

Amanda Tress:

What you’re— yeah, so I’ll share current state versus ideal future state. And, you know, there’s again two big conversations in the category, in the, in the marketplace, AI and then Ozempic. And I actually believe that GLP-1 technology is even more transformative than AI. But the expectation now is that everything is personalized and customized. The reality of actually personalizing and customizing is it’s a little harder than people would guess. Okay, so we do offer, for example, personalized meal guides based on custom macros, which is driven by the proprietary formula and methodology that I’ve created, which is clinically proven to help women burn fat while simultaneously increasing muscle. So, we’ve hired different AI groups, different agencies, and brought in developers who we say, okay, here’s what we want to do. We want to scale the ability to personalize meal plans based on preferences and allergies and custom macros.

Amanda Tress:

ChatGPT and other tools hallucinate quite often, as you know, Melinda, as everyone listening. Also, LLMs are not great with math, which is very interesting. So, we’ve tried multiple different ways over many, many, many months to slice this up, because we have thousands of clients who start every week, and we wanted to be the first company who was able to, in a scalable way, offer these personalized meal guides, customized meal guides. And man, I mean, I’ve sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars, maybe more, into this project, and it actually is more difficult than you would think. We have a team of registered dietitians— this is crazy— behind the scenes. And again, to my point about non-scalable activities, If a client goes through my checkout process and wants to have a personalized meal guide, I have an actual human still now who is creating a personalized meal guide, right, with a little bit of help from AI, because it’s actually more tricky than you would think. And so, it’s funny because you got, you know, coaches and clients and entrepreneurs like “Oh, you just build an AI agent and you do this and blah, blah, blah.” And I’m like, “Yeah.” But the thing that people mistake is the AI can’t do the thinking for you.

Melinda Wittstock:

It can research, it can organize information, right? So, say, for instance, you’ve developed this proprietary thing, and you know, say, for instance, that I’m just imagining some of the factors, the age, lifestyle, where you live. Male, female, you know, maybe hormonal, yep, choose all these sorts of things, right? What the AI can do is filter and parse very efficiently for you, right? So, say someone signs up to your app and you capture information about them and then their behavior over time, you know, it’s going to learn about them and whatnot and be able to increasingly personalize.

Amanda Tress:

So that’s where AI works very well, but it can’t create the plan, you know what I mean? Yes. So again, we say human plus tech. And the more we integrate AI, the more we realize the value of the human, the human coach. And because, you know, AI can, you know, to some level encourage you and motivate you, but really that human connection is absolutely key. And knowing that your friend Susie is going to actually care and check up on you, and you’re then going to see her at church on Sunday, you know, so We have just to your point, looked at other ways to customize and personalize, and we’re continuing to do that from the standpoint of personalizing and customizing the workouts. Really now the ideal is we have thousands and thousands and thousands of workouts in our library. So if a client has an injury or certain goals or they have preferences or they like this type of high intensity interval workout, or maybe they’re not doing HIIT right now because they have adrenal fatigue from severe burnout, then we can provide them with different workouts in the app that are going to meet their needs and preferences moving forward to kind of give them a more tailored experience. So that is the goal.

Amanda Tress:

And then we also are working on adding more suggestion features, which I’ve been trying to do since 2019. But essentially, if you say, okay, you know, to my app with my voice or via text, I’ve eaten, you know, an apple and half a bowl of oatmeal and X amount, you know, 4 ounces of chicken and da da da da da. And then the, you know, programming would say, okay, based on your custom macros, you need to have at least 120 grams of protein. I’m using myself as an example. So, here’s some suggestions for how you’re going to close the gap on your protein macro minimums. And by the way, we know you’re on a GLP-1. And so, we also want you to have micronutrients to prevent hair loss and blah, blah, blah. So that’s really kind of where we’re going with the customization of the app, which is very exciting.

Melinda Wittstock:

I think the businesses that are going to do very, very well are going to be using AI because, you know, leads to a lot of efficiency. You can move faster. Or there are a lot of advantages, right? But that alone is never going to work because the more disconnected— and we’ve seen this effect even with social media that like we’re hyperconnected and yet we’ve never been more distant and divided and whatnot.

Amanda Tress:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like, in a way. So that sense of community is so critical. So how you bring community to a digital platform is going to be more and more important. So, you mentioned that you did pop-ups. How much of like your thing is actually like human, like focused on like actual humans connecting. Is that going to be an increasing part of what you see?

Amanda Tress:

Yes, absolutely increasing. So, it’s so funny, Melinda, because when I started my company, my entire team, for example, was virtual. Everything we did was digital. And we were poised for the pandemic. But post-pandemic, when everyone else is, oh my goodness, the whole team can work from home, and we never have to see each other. Just gone the opposite direction again. We always just, you know, I’m like, for whatever reason, and maybe because I’m a rebel, I always go the opposite direction. So now it’s all about these micro community events.

Amanda Tress:

It’s studio pop-ups, it’s leg days, it’s events for our coaches, it’s belly to belly, it’s getting people together in person. Because man, that is just— there’s power in proximity and in community. And we even last year, we did a leg day in Mexico. We’re doing one in Spain this year as we’re expanding. So that’s going to become increasingly important and you’re going to see more of that from my company for sure.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, let’s get to all things Ozempic then, because, yep, as you say, like it is actually more impactful in many ways than, than, than Oh my goodness, then, then AI in some respects, I can see why you said that. I mean, it’s having all kinds of benefits, for instance, and even ending people’s addiction to drugs. It’s having all kinds of other health benefits. So, tell me, how has that impacted your business? Are people saying, ah, you know what, I don’t need that program, I’m just going to get myself on Ozempic or Wegovy or whatever?

Amanda Tress:

Yeah, you know, it’s really interesting because we haven’t seen a decrease in conversions on our cart based on anything related to weight loss drugs. What we have decided to do and do need to do is insert ourselves into the middle of this conversation because clients who are on Ozempic, whether it’s a semaglutide, a tripeptide, or the new retatrutide. But for clients who are using these peptides for weight loss, they need strength training more than ever before. They need protein more than ever before. Their hair is falling out; their teeth are getting brittle. There’s this massive rise in dental issues because of the fact that when you’re consuming quite a bit less fuel, that means you’re not getting the micronutrients that you need. So, we really are the foundational program that every client needs, and I believe it should be illegal or irrational to be on a GLP-1 without a FasterWay membership.

Amanda Tress:

I firmly believe that. And so, we are doing our best to educate our coaches regarding how to coach someone who is on a GLP-1 and then how to transition them off. Most clients do not want to be on a, on a weight loss drug for life. They don’t. They don’t want to. They, they go on it because their doctor said try this and they get a jumpstart, a kickstart, and then they realize, okay, I need to work out, and I need to prioritize protein. But most people do not want to be doing a shot or taking a pill for the rest of their life. And also, muscle is our most important investment.

[PROMO CREDIT]

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Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Amanda Tress, the founder and CEO of FASTer Way to Fat Loss, one of the fastest-growing digital fitness and nutrition companies in the U.S.

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Amanda Tress:

It is the most important thing to invest in is muscle for longevity. And that’s just research. So, we, we haven’t been negatively impacted by weight loss shots. What I would say is we need to continue to have an arms open wide, very nonjudgmental perspective for people who are on the GLP-1s because Faster Way is such an important component of their success. Like truly, genuinely, uh, uh, you know, semaglutide, triseptide, retatrude, it’s just a tool. It’s simply a tool where Faster Way is a foundational operating system for a long-term, sustainable, healthy lifestyle. Uh, and so we’re educating, we’re, we’re doing our best to support these clients. And I might even create a category for life after GLP-1 because no one really owns that.

Amanda Tress:

Um, and so kind of working through that and thinking through that, right?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, that’s really interesting. I guess the Ozempic, uh, does, um, reduce your muscle mass. So, if you’re not working out, if you’re not eating enough protein, that’s a significant thing. I guess people like just aren’t hungry anymore and then they’re eating the wrong things or whatever.

Amanda Tress:

Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

So much of your health and wellness is holistic. It’s not just like one thing and it’s not one size fits all either. So, this mix of just eating healthy, eating clean, and eating clean for one person might be different than eating clean for another person, depending on their— so many different factors.

Amanda Tress:

Yeah, absolutely.

Melinda Wittstock:

I remember a long time ago doing this really big deep dive and like very, very detailed blood work and, and like, and, you know, food sensitivity tests and things. And there were certain things that I was eating that I had no idea but were just like caused inflammation for me, but not for other people. Like, so like you’ve got to really cut back your beef consumption or, you know, you should eat blueberries but don’t ever eat oranges, you know, like stuff like that. Do you get into that level of detail?

Amanda Tress:

That is such a great question. And I’ve also done that type of testing and turns out I shouldn’t have pineapple, but I can have octopus. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah.

Amanda Tress:

Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

What’s causing inflammation? Your body, like, how could you know?

Amanda Tress:

Right, which some of that is accurate, much of it is not, just because it’s kind of like whatever is in your system right now. And, you know, but that’s, you know, a whole other conversation for a different day. But that’s where we want to go. So, immediate, uh, you know, state, no, but future state, yes. And we are considering blood type, and we are considering body type and, and body shape and all of that. And we’re, we’re, we’re considering hormones and age and blah, blah, blah. But moving forward, yes, as I discussed with the personalized meal plans, it’s if you’re aware of a sensitivity and you can’t have kale or you don’t tolerate eggs or you’re allergic to shrimp, that’s really where we want to go. We don’t currently offer any sort of blood work, but we’ve even thought about that, Melinda, where we in the future would lean more into, you know, blood testing, where as part of our concierge program, as an example, you would get an at-home kit and you could test your progesterone, estradiol, testosterone, uh, morning, noon, night total cortisol, hemoglobin A1C, and then that would inform some of your programming as well.

Amanda Tress:

We’ve had a partnership set up to run that in beta, didn’t quite get there yet, but, um, it’s all— it’s just so important. Customization is going to be everything as we move forward.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, because even when you go to the doctor and they’re testing your cortisol, they’re using a real blunt instrument. But if you go to an integrative, um, a holistic, you know, doctor, they’re going to get really into, you know, detail saliva instead of the blood serum.

Amanda Tress:

Yep.

Melinda Wittstock:

And even your, and even your hormones and the impact that your hormones have on your, you know, so I’ve seen so many people. I remember I went through a period after I had my kids where I was working out, I was eating clean, I was doing all the right things, but I could not lose weight to save my life. Like, like I was doing all the right things, and it turned out it was just a hormonal issue.

Amanda Tress:

Yes. Yes, it’s very, very common. We work with a lot of clients in perimenopause and menopause, or even clients who are postpartum who have insulin resistance. And fat loss resistance is real. Don’t talk to a male bro science trainer about this because they won’t acknowledge it, and they say eat less, exercise more, that’s how you’re going to lose weight. But the reality is, women in perimenopause, women with PCOS, women in menopause, it is whole different ballgame. We actually just last week, we ran something called a cortisol reset. We had 6,500 clients come through and learn how to manage and balance and regulate their cortisol, which is also key.

Amanda Tress:

Like, that’s— there’s 17 hormones involved in weight loss and fat loss. So, we do a lot of education in our program.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hmm. Yeah, it’s so important. So, tell me a little bit about what it’s been like building this business because you’re obviously a pioneer. You mentioned 2002 when you were like at the very beginnings of marketing to people online and such and all the different innovations along the way that you’ve pioneered to create this business model. But it can’t have been easy. Like anyone doing anything new or different, um, by definition, like, that’s hard. So what have been some of the biggest challenges that you’ve had to deal with?

Amanda Tress:

Yeah, yeah, it’s not easy. It is extremely challenging. I love a challenge. I’m an Aries through and through. I, uh, embrace the obstacles. But I also, by the way, Melinda, I have 5 kids and their little kids. I have, yeah, I have 5 kiddos: 8th grade, 6th grade, 2nd grade, Pre-K 4 and 3. And, uh, we live in Costa Rica.

Amanda Tress:

I don’t think I told you that. Four of them are at international school. My 6th grader is homeschooled with Alpha School, which is an AI school. And I’m currently in Tampa because I’m having to lead my company. So here, one of the big Biggest challenges, man, it is difficult to find talented executives. And I’ve tried to rewrite this narrative many, many times over. It is difficult to find talented executives. Most of the time, the best team members promote from within, but because we’ve grown quickly, If you bring somebody in and they worked at a $7 million company and they’re growing and they’re learning, it’s like 18 months, 24 months, they kind of hit that skill limit.

Amanda Tress:

And so you can try to promote, but when you’re coming and you worked at a $7 million company and now you’re at a $70 million company that’s growing very fast and, you know, it’s, but then you bring in these guys who have been at a billion-dollar company or a $500 million company, and they can’t even wipe their own butt without help. And so, it’s been really, really, really challenging, whether I work with a recruiter or just have a referral, or we find somebody through LinkedIn, like, to find the right—

Melinda Wittstock:

…that’s the, that’s the toughest thing about business. At the end of the day, everything about business is about people. It’s about relationships. So not only relationships with your customers, but getting that right team, not only getting the right people, but getting them aligned and working. Every entrepreneur struggles with that, right? Like, this would be easy if it weren’t for the people.

Amanda Tress:

That’s so true. Yes, but not quite as fun. Not quite as fun.

Melinda Wittstock:

Well, yeah, no, it’s really tricky. So, what have you learned about the way to— have you any particular tricks that you’ve learned along the way to recruit at a higher standard or be able to evaluate people better?

Amanda Tress:

You know, I, I’ll tell you what I’ve done even recently. Now, is that going to work? I mean, TBD. So specifically with executives, I’ve got to be like at a 50/50. Like I’ve brought in through a recruiter and through a vetting process and with a background check, certain roles. I brought in a CFO who ended up being completely and utterly fraudulent. I mean, I’ve had people stealing money from the company. I’ve had— I’ve gotten— I can’t even say it because I’ve had that happen to me.

Melinda Wittstock:

My first company, I had a CFO steal from that, and it was, it was horrific. It took years to actually— I have recovered emotionally. I mean, it was awful.

Amanda Tress:

So many stories. And I feel bad because my current CFO is outstanding, and I have so much PTSD. I know, he’s so great.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’m like, I totally understand because you feel you feel like, oh my God, how could that have happened? How could I have been so stupid? How did I not see it? And like all the self-blame and all the stuff.

Amanda Tress:

And I have so many stories, so many stories that just legally I can’t share. But here’s what I do now. I have an executive leadership coach who works with my lead team, and he will interview and vet all the finalists. I have a slower process for hiring. I have more comprehensive background checks. But at the end of the day, someone could be absolutely outstanding through an interview process, And then you get them in and they just don’t know what they’re doing. One thing I absolutely must be better at is firing faster. My president thinks I am good at firing fast because he’s never seen anyone fire so fast.

Amanda Tress:

But even then you think, man, why did I give him 90 days to prove himself for, you know, XYZ? So, we are still kind of working on that. You’re gonna like maybe 50/50. Is just as good as it’s going to get. 50% of the people you bring in are going to be rock stars. 50% are going to be total duds. I don’t know. I mean, maybe somebody else knows the secret that I don’t know, but it’s slower hiring, bringing more people in through the process to vet, and then firing fast when we’re seeing that it’s not working out. And then just hope and pray.

Amanda Tress:

I mean, what else can I really do?

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, no, but the firing fast thing is a really interesting one that I remember learning pretty, I don’t know, a couple of years into my first business. And I always, my intuition was always telling me, but my biggest mistakes always have been ignoring my intuition.

Amanda Tress:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yes. Because I have a very powerful analytic mind as well. It’s so easy to let that kind of take over and say, oh, well, you’re being mean. You’re not giving this person a chance. You know, you should give them more, you know. But like, you know, and you know someone’s character, you know it in your bones, like in your intuition, if you actually trust that. So why waste everyone’s time? But it’s very difficult because women in particular, we’re acculturated to be so nice and understanding and collaborative. And, you know, so it can be hard to actually take the steps that you need to take.

Melinda Wittstock:

The other one was really interesting is when you have an employee or a team member, but especially an executive this kind of a meh, you know, not like really bad, like not actively causing damage, but not a superstar either.

Amanda Tress:

Yes. Oh, that’s the hardest.

Melinda Wittstock:

Or the hardest people, they’re toxic for your business because they won’t attract other A players.

Amanda Tress:

Like, right, right, right. That’s the absolute hardest. I just recently fired someone, great culture fit, super committed, drank the Kool-Aid, wore the t-shirt, great person, team loved this person, but was not effective, was not effective. So had to manage them out. Very, very, very hard to do. Very hard to do. But then you got these toxic people who are cancers to the organization culturally, but get so much done. Absolutely my right-hand man, you know.

Amanda Tress:

And so that’s hard too. But it’s just, it is, I, the, what you tolerate becomes the culture. And so, I’m just like, I’m getting even more clear and focused. But it is hard to, you know, I’m a 39-year-old female and I’m managing pretty much everybody who’s older than me, and I’m like tired of having to be a bitch all the time.

Melinda Wittstock:

But it is what it is. Get it done. But it just, it is what it is. Like, there’s just, but yeah, I know it’s a hard thing to manage for sure. So, I want to make sure that people know how to find you and work with you, Amanda. So, people that are looking for to up-level their life in terms of their fitness, their nutrition, they want to lose weight or they want to get fit or they just want to feel better. So, on that consumer side, what’s the best way? And then what’s the best way for like people who are in your industry, whether they’re like nutritionists, weight loss coaches, you know, like trainers or whatever, to work with you and become certified?

Amanda Tress:

Yeah, thank you so much for asking. If someone is interested in the program, they can simply go to fasterway.com, fasterway.com. And if you want to connect with me personally, I love interacting with people on social, on Instagram specifically, @amandatress, T-R-E-S-S, on Instagram, uh, and Facebook as well. And then for people interested in our premier certification, we only open enrollment a few times per year. Enrollment is currently closed, but we’ll open enrollment at some point in the coming months. And you can go to fasterway.com/certification to sign up for our waiting list. And we do have an interview process. So simply because you want to join doesn’t mean that you’ll be accepted.

Amanda Tress:

You have to go through an interview process to be considered, and then you can invest in the certification and work with, with our team.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s amazing. Well, thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today. Very exciting what you’re doing.

Amanda Tress:

Thank you so much, Melinda. It was a true pleasure, and I really appreciate the opportunity to connect.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Amanda Tress is the founder of and CEO of FASTer Way to Fat Loss, one of the fastest-growing digital fitness and nutrition companies in the U.S. with thousands of coaches using her “business in a box” system and serving almost 600,000 clients worldwide.

Melinda Wittstock:

Please take a moment to give us a five-star rating and review the podcast on Apple and Spotify—it helps more entrepreneurs like you find the secret sauce to support and grow their businesses.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s it for today’s episode. Head on over to WingsPodcast.com – and subscribe to the show. When you subscribe, you’ll instantly get my special gift, the WINGS Success Formula. Women … Innovating … Networking … Growing …Scaling … IS the WINGS of Inspired Business Formula …for daily success in your business and life. Miss a Wings episode? We’ve got hundreds in the vault, all with actionable advice and epiphanies. Check them out at MelindaWittstock.com or wingspodcast.com. You can also catch me on LinkedIn or Instagram @MelindaAnneWittstock. We also love it when you share your feedback with a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen, including Podopolo where you can interact with me and share your favorite clips.