Cody Mooney - Pliability & The Mindful Movement Market

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[00:02:10] podcast collective dot I O to learn more and contact me directly. That's podcast collective dot I. All right. We are live Cody Mooney. Welcome to the future of fitness. Yes. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Yeah. Yeah, it's a pleasure. I mean, I've been following

[00:02:34] Romwad for, as you and I were just discussing for a very long time, having spent a lot of time in the CrossFit world. Obviously we'll get into your background. You've been deeply involved and still are in the world of CrossFit. Exceptionally, I've gone pretty

[00:02:51] far as an athlete, much farther than I ever did. I'll grant that. But I think mobility, movement health, Anthony Benerian, I talked about this last year on a podcast, how that's a really

[00:03:04] big trend in technology is really starting to play a role in human movement health and more people are starting to pay attention to it. So I feel like what you guys were in Romwad up

[00:03:15] until about two years ago and rebranding the pliability and really starting to go over that mass market as you were saying earlier is a really interesting place. So I think it has a lot of beneficial aspects for many people in the industry to understand the opportunities here.

[00:03:30] And yeah, so it's really cool to have you. I'll just stop chatting now. Cody, if you want to maybe just give us a little bit of your background, kind of how you've developed as an athlete and a business person, how you got through the director of performance and

[00:03:41] pliability. That'd be great. We'll take it from there. Yeah. So my background a bit was, I mean, always in sports. I mean, my parents put me in sports from the minute I could walk. And honestly, most of my childhood memories are in sports. I was there in the

[00:03:57] summer, I was playing three sports at a time. I was constantly running around and it was always bringing me to practices. And it was just like always that's where I felt my best. That is

[00:04:08] what I love to do. I always loved the team aspect of it. I loved all that. But then around 16, I found CrossFit. And it was kind of this really cool experience where I always

[00:04:20] enjoyed working out, but I didn't love just like the go in, do the bench, do the squat move that day. So when I first saw some of the new CrossFit, I was like, what is this

[00:04:31] stuff? Like, and I would go probably like once a week, but I was always trying to mix it in with at that point, I was like, but either going to basketball practice, and then

[00:04:40] I come after. And I started slowly kind of mixing it in. And I realized that, that style of training, like functional fitness, constantly like pushing the limits in this and then using like full range of motion here was quickly transferred over to sports in a

[00:05:00] beneficial way. So I kept with it. I'm like, I'm gonna keep doing this and one day turned into two, two turned into four. And that process kind of like went throughout.

[00:05:09] And then I got my L1 and I was by that, my sophomore high school year summer, I was like playing sports, trying to work out as much as I could. But I was also part time

[00:05:22] coaching at a gym. So I took on like a, like a role there. And I really loved it. And then I would implement that back into the high school gym. So I started like teaching the kids these ways, which was really nice. And that's what I kind of

[00:05:35] became known for. Like I was just like known as the CrossFit guy that did this and kind of like grew throughout that. And then when I went to college, I was supposed to play college baseball. I did some of the fall ball leading up to it. But

[00:05:46] then I was really loving competing that year. And this is back like regions when I brought like 68 or something like that or 60. And I was probably 18 at the time. And that year I missed it by like two spots. So the next year I

[00:06:01] was like, you know what, I'm gonna really just kind of like give this sport my all. So I didn't play baseball. And then I went to a gym in Portland, Maine called CrossFit MF. Missed athletics. Great that they were there, my coaches,

[00:06:13] my training people my whole time still great friends. But that year I qualified and that was 2014. And that's what we're talking about. It was like Reebok headquarters. It was the community was amazing. I fell in

[00:06:24] love with it. And from there, yeah, it took on for about a decade, I'd probably say of me coaching, traveling, seeing the world getting immersed in different communities. But we all have like this underlying passion for health

[00:06:40] and wellness and fitness through CrossFit, which is super cool. I got to compete at the games 2017 as an individual. 2018 I missed it. I got to be on the demo team, which was an amazing experience. And in 2019, I competed with Alex Smith, Camille LeBlanc and Jessica Griffith. And

[00:06:57] we got second on the at that year at the game, so which was great. So I feel like I got like a really cool, all encompassing approach to CrossFit, which is very sweet. From like the coach side from the young growing up

[00:07:13] through the sport side and then to actually compete getting a chance to compete at the games, which was really cool. Yeah, that's kind of where my I guess in a really fast nutshell, my kind of like experience in the sport kind of came from.

[00:07:28] And how did you how did you get involved with RomOn and now Planability? Yeah, it was kind of funny. So I actually had like one of the first RomOn accounts. I remember my like username used to be like Cody MF

[00:07:41] because it was misfit and they gave us all free accounts. Because honestly, that was back in the day where we used to train like everyone was watching like a day in a life rich running he was doing

[00:07:51] like eight workouts in a day and we're like, we need to train that much. So we just really needed this. And I needed specifically like this, this platform or this piece I can put into my training that was

[00:08:03] just the opposite of what our training is, which is so intense. It was like this deep like my my moment to decompress a little bit and to kind of like recover myself and get ready for the next day. So

[00:08:17] I just came across the platform I reached out they sent me an account so I started doing it. I fell in love with it. And eventually, I think maybe like a year later, I met up with like Scott, who's the

[00:08:30] founder, who's my business partner today that I was like, man, this thing is awesome. He's like, yeah, it was like let's teach you as an athlete. So I was actually an athlete there for like

[00:08:38] four to five years. So I got to see the brand grow. I got the like great interactions with the brand before that, which made honestly the transition eventually pretty seamless, which was cool. Awesome, man. And you know, I look at mobility. I mean,

[00:08:53] obviously, you know, Kelly Starrett is kind of one of the Yeah, for sure. big names who made mobility mainstream. And you know, CrossFit could have been a better community to start that with because they're so diligent about their bodies. I

[00:09:10] mean, I was always, you know, I say this candidly now whenever I was when I was doing CrossFit for 10 years, I was kind of always had some injury something going on. Yeah, just always something. Yeah. Nagging.

[00:09:22] I think a lot of us do even still today. I mean, yeah. Yeah, I mean, even though you know, and even now skiing like 4050 days a year, I got some like groins tight, my knees ache, but that's just part of being an active

[00:09:34] lifestyle. But I think anyway, the point is like CrossFitters tend to be a little bit more in tune, I guess with their bodies than the general public. So it seemed like a natural place to start with with rom-odd and pliability. But you know, I know that you

[00:09:51] guys see the opportunity now to hit a mass market, right? Opened up a little bit past that community. You know, maybe give us some as you look at the market for I believe, you know, as you guys phrase it is human movement, health, right? Can you kind of

[00:10:10] give us an idea of like, outside of CrossFit? Like how big do you think this market is? How do you describe the market? What do you think's driving it? I mean, I think the market is massive. I think that like, more than ever people are understanding how I

[00:10:27] think movement from its base form, whatever that may be for them and physical activity is this grounding experience that really makes you almost human again, it makes you feel alive, it makes you feel good. And there's obviously significant health

[00:10:43] benefits. So I think that like now I think as I think we really are understanding, unfortunately, COVID, the lot of people being isolated and staying inside, I think a lot more and you know, you're working from home, you're sitting like all

[00:10:58] these things, people started to really like, I think appreciate again, like something that made them feel just good and free and all that. And I think a lot of it was movement because a lot of times you're outside or you're either back with

[00:11:11] the community looking out, sweating, you're like, man, that was such a good, positive experience in my life. But I want to continue that. And I, I always stand by and I always will. I think actually CrossFit was like a huge starter

[00:11:27] in that from a long time ago. I think that like this methodology of, you know, functional fitness in a way, where it's a little bit of everything and anything and they're just throwing these different movements at you and you're running, you're swimming, you're squatting,

[00:11:41] you're doing everything, you're going below parallel, you're, you know, you're breaking all these range of motions and you're trying like to push yourself this way was something that I think was proven. There is pieces of it. Maybe not everyone loves to do it at a certain

[00:11:55] level, but there's pieces of it that translate to so many different things that actually benefit in so many other ways. It could be running, golfing, hiking, you know, basketball, football, whatever it may be. So I think like it was a huge movement to get people

[00:12:11] to understand that movement is important, but not just movement, like free movement in a way where it's instead of just doing a quarter squat. Now we're going like below parallel and that's a whole different world to live in. You know what I mean? You're going through full

[00:12:27] ranges of motion. You're really, your body can move through something without having to compensate if it's a golf swing or anything like that. You have the ability to do these things, which is really cool. And then most likely do it again and do it again and do it

[00:12:39] again and do it again because that's what you love to do. So as a brand and as kind of who we are as Romod, it was like superb. Just like we get it. Like I think it did so well in the sport because no other place

[00:12:55] where people actually do things like that. Like what other resource you have or you come into a gym and you go do like a, have to go do like a one arm overhead dumbbell squat. And you're like, Whoa, I didn't have

[00:13:07] the mobility to do that. I need to go stretch. Like most people don't experience that in their day to day life. You know what I mean? So I think it was just like a really cool place to start. But then so

[00:13:19] when we wanted to go outside of that, you still have to understand like where and why is flexibility mobility needed inside of these sports. And I think that like, it was just super cool for me to experience that because we got to work with

[00:13:32] a lot of SMEs and bringing a lot of people that were professionals inside that sport. And I started to hear how their training, their routines still needed range of motion in so many different ways. And it really started to allow us to create like this

[00:13:48] platform that we're still evolving and still reaching to have to something where our core product that we give is passive approach. We do believe that if you do it, you will benefit from 100%. But then also allowing to hit in different areas and it feel native and

[00:14:08] organic and really give them a product that they feel benefits them. That's just been one of the coolest experiences. And it's like, it's like a learning experience for me, to be fair, because I always understood like fitness and I was always a

[00:14:20] believer in it and a lover of it from you can say probably a crossfit lens and just from like a gym lens, but like understanding it from an everyday use and through other sports and all that as we continue to grow the brand, it's just been really,

[00:14:34] really cool. Yeah. Awesome. And maybe this will upset the table for some more questions to fire your way, Cody, but walk me through like the consumer experience as it is now with Playability. What is that? Yeah. Yeah. Give me a whole thing. Yeah. So like our

[00:14:52] daily, we call it our daily sessions, but it's like when you come into the app, you just see like a schedule. It's a weekly schedule. That is our core product at heart. It's always been there. It's a yin yoga ish approach, but it's more passive holds. So you're

[00:15:09] going to get longer routines, longer holds, passive meditated, we have some breathing techniques in there and all that stuff that will never change. We believe that like that is our at our core, that's who we are. And it's like a, it's a really wonderful experience for everyone

[00:15:25] to give them probably the best, one of the best like 20 to 25 minutes of their day really grounds them. They get, they come out of it and they feel like they feel good and it will start to build this foundation of, you know, range emotion inside your body and

[00:15:40] flexibility and mobility that we, you know, we feel you'll benefit from. But then, which is really cool, we've started to open up this explore section inside of the app. When you hit explore, you'll get different hubs, we have training hubs, running hubs, golf hub,

[00:15:57] where we have, that has been our version to start testing some of different sports and getting into where like we can kind of hit home and tailor stuff towards people that are really looking for to benefit in a specific thing. And that's been like a super cool part

[00:16:14] for us because what we've allowed, what that's allowed us to do is obviously expand our methodology a little bit, but still keep our core and kind of expand that way and like push us to kind of evolve and drive the product. And we've done

[00:16:27] that by bringing in some really cool SMEs, some really cool professionals in the space to help us like do that with purpose. And I think that's been one of the coolest things to see, especially for me because it's like I said, it's like going

[00:16:40] to school every day and you're like, wow, that's pretty amazing. You know, I get it. That's how it translates. That's that makes sense. Yeah. And then we have some really cool stuff coming on the horizon, which I don't want to share now, but I'm like pretty

[00:16:53] excited and it'll be a very seamless, but it'll be pretty easy to understand when you hit the app. Like here's your directions. Here's how we want you to have an experience with the app. We have a really cool team behind this that does a lot of development testing,

[00:17:10] all this stuff and it'll be a really good experience, hopefully for our members to hit the platform. Be like, oh, wonderful. Like this has what I need and it was easy to find and it's just like a really great user experience. So I've been using it the past

[00:17:26] few weeks. Thanks for letting me play with it. I like the, it does give you a mobility assessment, right? Yeah. I believe it was just overhead arms overhead squats and a couple different variations. I'd say it kind of, for the most part nailed my issues,

[00:17:49] right? Left shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then I left ankle. So that took like a year to a year and a half of development. So we built that fully from the ground up. We didn't like license it or anything. I think that's one of our coolest things. I

[00:18:05] think it kind of gets because we're health and wellness brand, which started in like as a raw mode across and all this, it kind of gets put aside some, but I think I hope the story does eventually come out. Like the founder, Scott Perkins, his

[00:18:18] knowledge of tech is insane and how he prioritizes like doing things right and building the right foundation is one of the, like not if the major factor of why we've been able to scale this way and grow this company. And it's just cool. So that's

[00:18:39] just like another great example of how we didn't just go out and license something. We actually built it and we're constantly evolving it. We have some really, again, cool stuff coming up with a team. There's two people that really work on this stuff. And it's just

[00:18:53] like when there's new tech that comes out, like LIDAR, like the face recognition stuff, and you can kind of use that technology to get better experience to our users. Like we have some people on that team that are just like on it. They're like, Hey, here are

[00:19:04] the things I want to do. And we're like, sweet, let's figure out how to get this done. This is going to make a really sweet experience for the member. So yeah, I'm glad you like it. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, it's almost table

[00:19:20] stakes now for, you know, fitness and wellness technologies to have an aspect of personalization, right? Of course. Textualization. Yeah. People need to know. That's just the way it's going to be. It's, you know, the biggest buzzword of the year so far is hyper personalization within the

[00:19:39] industry. And that's just we're just getting started. So it is really interesting. I mean, here's a big question I have for you when you look at mobility, movement health, right? Getting someone to start and adhere to a consistent fitness plan is hard enough. Yeah, for

[00:20:00] sure. But to get them to get into a like, I am totally looking at myself. Like I can work out consistently, but my mobility routines are shit. Like I just don't, you know, I know I need to do it. It's just like one of those things I'm like,

[00:20:16] well, do I have time to work out? I have time to do mobility. Like what am I going to do today? Do I have time for both? That would be great, but doesn't always work that way. Right. Yeah. So when you work at like

[00:20:25] looking at how people can start and adhere to mobility, like the psychology of it, like is it more difficult than starting a fitness routine? Is it more, is it less friction? What do you think? I battled this in my head all the time. And I, someone asked me

[00:20:43] the other day, like what's your, what's the biggest competitor and all this stuff. And honestly, when I think of that, I don't even think of brands in a way. I think of literally just getting people to stretch. I said the hardest thing is like getting people to

[00:20:55] take the time to start a routine to stretch, understand the actual like importance of it. That I think is really hard. And most of the time you don't like the people that do, if you even, I've met some people that are like, they totally get

[00:21:08] it and they're like, you know, the whole like it back and cross it, like there'd be a couple of people. I used to have this friend told me, I used to work out with super strong, but he was also super flexible and you constantly

[00:21:17] stretch. We got it. And I was like used to those people that would get it. We usually came from like an injury and they would understand that like, you know what I mean? Or, or in CrossFit you'd see it sometimes, like I said earlier,

[00:21:29] where you get like a no rep and you couldn't do something. And you're just like, man, I'm really sick of this negative experience happening. I need to figure out a way to fix that. So I think one of the biggest things is, is, I mean, obviously time everyone

[00:21:41] is running around. Everyone is, you know, like it's constant. We're all searching for more time of the day. But I think one of the biggest things that we've been working on and trying to find ways of is educating, I think educating people on self, like self

[00:21:59] educating on these important stuff with these things is not only like a really empowering thing for people, but it's also they understand it. And I think when you can understand a little bit, you start to, you can make correlations in your life where like you get

[00:22:11] it. So if I'm a golfer and I love the goal, and it's super important to me. Sometimes like you don't really know how important it is until it's gone. And but if you can get someone to realize before it's taken away from them that like, Hey, let's

[00:22:25] just like take some time, slow down, do some of these things that we're not 100% guaranteeing you that you're never going to get injured. But like it's proven that if you can, your body can move freely and away from these limitations and all that stuff that like you're going

[00:22:38] to have longevity within this thing that you love because that's always my goal in this. I'm just a health and wellness like advocate at heart. So my goal is just like to continually help people move. I just want to see people continually do what they love. I think

[00:22:53] it's, I think it's a wonderful, I think a really powerful thing when someone has a habit that is like good for them. And I want them to be able to hold on to that and do that and show other people. And I think one goes to two

[00:23:06] and two goes forward four goes eight. And it just like starts to grow that way. And you can kind of share that. So I think there's multiple factors into getting people to start this routine. Is it hard? 100%. But I think it's like something that we will continually push

[00:23:20] for. And I think we are starting to crack the code a little bit of getting people to understand that like, this is part of your thing that enables you helps you do what you love in life, whatever that may be. And like, let's be proactive in

[00:23:37] this space. Let's, let's get ahead of this thing. Like, like, let's not look back and be like, damn, I wish I would have done some of this stuff. Damn, I wish I would have like worked mobility this year because I got a ton of no reps at

[00:23:47] regionals that kicked me out of this position. Like, damn, I wish I would have, you know, like been stretching. I felt that pain on my back for a long time. And I went just like Sunday morning and tried to go play 18 and now like the back is

[00:24:00] kinked or whatever it may be. Yeah. So it's like, it's, it's, that's what you just nailed on as like one of my biggest driving factors is just like getting people to kind of create this positive routine and this positive habit that like also break it in

[00:24:14] a way where it's like, this is, this is a lifestyle. Like, you know, you want to live that lifestyle. Like you can't put water in a car and expect it to run. Like gasoline is gasoline. You know what I mean? Like there's a, there's a concoction of what

[00:24:28] gasoline is. And like, if you want to live that lifestyle, you want to go fast. You want to push your rounders. You have gold. You want to finish a marathon. Like let's give you the right stuff for your body to like get there, do it and feel good

[00:24:39] about it and not have to have such a, like if we can maybe not have such a bumpy road on the way, let's do it. You know? Yeah. And it's, it's one of those things where, uh, you know, if you work out weights, go for a run,

[00:24:55] do crossfit, whatever it is that you love, like you feel immediate benefits. Like you, you know, you have an orphan high or, you know, whatever, you know, and no cannabinoid system, whatever it is that people say gives you the high after a workout, right? Um, but

[00:25:10] mobility, it's like, it's, it's a delayed gratification. Um, and that's, I think that's, you know, a struggle at all. And there's so much focus over the past few years on recovery, um, and recovery science, but it's mostly been like, you know, all the trendy stuff, right?

[00:25:26] Like the cold, hot therapies, right? Red light, all this stuff that's like, you know, sciency and easy to monetize, but mobility is still not quite where it should be in that conversation, right? Yeah. Yeah. I don't think it is yet, but I think that like we're, we're getting

[00:25:44] there. And I think that it is starting to, it is starting to become something that's like a piece of your training. I think that like everyone is super metrics driven. Like they want to see their performance score. They want to see the recovery score and all this other

[00:25:58] stuff. So I think it's just still educating people on how, like instead of jumping into a cold pond, instead of like doing a song, like those are all beneficial things, but there also is this super like natural primal thing that doesn't take, you know, like this or

[00:26:15] that to do. It's just you, your body breathing, meditative stretching that actually pushes those recovery scores and stuff like that just as much or close to. And that's like, like we've partnered with whatever integrations we have is like with whoop as well. So it's like

[00:26:32] cool to kind of see the correlations and a lot of that data is coming through. And it's just like, again, it's educating people on using, different tools to help that recovery and stretching mindfulness, mobility being one of those is I think it is a really big

[00:26:48] step in like the fitness space that needs to happen. And we're trying to get there, but it is it's challenge. It's a challenge for sure. I mean, like you said, most people have what an hour, maybe an hour in a day to work out, like maybe given

[00:27:01] or take, you know what I mean? So it is it is a challenge, especially when you get outside of CrossFit. Crossfiters, I mean, they sometimes have like two hours or when we're not, you know, we spend a lot more time in the gym than most people. So, yeah.

[00:27:14] Yeah, it's like, yeah, I can always joke that you can always tell a CrossFit because they're going to have like three things are going to have a shaker bottle in their hand. They're going to have a cup of coffee, probably Starbucks, no cream, no sugar.

[00:27:28] And then and then maybe like a foam roller attached to their bag. Like, yeah, you know that you do 100 percent certain you do. Yeah, 100 percent. Yeah, let's let's talk about the market opportunities. So it's some information you guys sent me a little while ago. You know, the mindful

[00:27:44] movement market was stated to be about twenty nine billion dollars. Right. And, you know, CrossFit is obviously just a very small sliver of that. But when you guys start to look at the opportunities to expand into the mass market, like first of all, is that number field?

[00:28:05] Do you feel like them are still accurate? And then, you know, how are you guys what are some of the expansion opportunities you've mentioned golf a couple of other ones? But yeah, how do you look to expand into that market and how big do you

[00:28:16] think it is currently? Yeah, I mean, I like I said, I think it's huge. I think it's bigger now than it ever has been. And I think one of the ways so the hard thing about, I think, going broad market is that there's not cautious with the term,

[00:28:31] but it can become like almost like a blending thing if you go too fast, where you kind of just like you're very reactive in a way where you're like seeing this, you're seeing that and you're just like trying to bring all these things in and maybe become something

[00:28:43] you're not. And I think that's like one thing that we have a really good team and we've done in a really cool way where like we haven't tried to be the do all and do everything and like we're the everything app. It's important. You know, we know our

[00:28:56] we have a red tape. We know our lines, we know our rails and we've really tried to like evolve what we are, but not continually change our methodology, like what we believe in is what we are. There's a bit of, like I said, there's a bit of mindfulness,

[00:29:10] there's a bit of breathing. There's, you know, stretching passive. We brought in some more corrective movements that are a bit more like active stuff. But yeah, I think the space is I think the space is huge, dude, and I think it's needed more than ever.

[00:29:27] We sit, we stress, we live very crazy lifestyles. I think these tools that allow us to slow down a little bit are going to be like things that help us feel like ourselves again and are those positive impacts that we need as humans, I think with ourselves

[00:29:47] and with our bodies like throughout the day. Yeah. Yeah, like you mentioned golf. Yeah, like that's obviously golf's a very large and lucrative market, like golfers will do any sort of continue golfing, right? Is there any other markets you guys have identified as strong targets

[00:30:09] you want to get into? Yeah, so I think golf is one of them. I think running is a huge push for us. We just came out of the running of I think the training space in general. I think that's where you can get our grassroots

[00:30:21] just crossfit and we always will appreciate that and understand that. But I think that's where I was saying that majority of training now is more of this functional functional fitness style of training. So we'll push hard into there. But I think like golf running. Yeah, I mean, running

[00:30:39] has been super cool. So it's been interesting to get into a little bit. It's been interesting to see that world kind of tap into. So it's a really unique sport in a way where it's you don't need a gym membership. You don't need much.

[00:30:51] And most people just like. Put on their shoes, get out the door and start kicking it and running. And it's pretty impactful and it can lead you in a really good feeling, but they can also beat you up pretty bad as well. And then golf is

[00:31:06] another interesting one where we found like golf is it's fun and it's really cool and there's a lot of mobility needed. But the people that do golf are usually like again, it's something that it's like you work all day and you're like you hit the course

[00:31:23] and there's not much prep for it. There's not much maybe training for the swing outside of it. So it's kind of like, again, getting people to understand and tapping into that where they feel like they can relate to the product and the movements and understand and kind of

[00:31:38] get them to like in their head work like, oh, like this will benefit my golf swing or like I do that half swing because my back is bothering me. But like this has been better. I can open up now. I can kind of see how

[00:31:50] like my hips should move in the swing and feel those benefits. Yeah, so like that's that's some big spaces we're hit where we've been getting into and we'll continually grow that. And then I think as I always talk about like our daily sessions is something we'll continually push

[00:32:05] and show like this passive approach that we really believe as our foundation, as a brand and as a company is kind of a touch point that can fit to all these sports and where everyone will benefit from. Yeah, awesome, man. Yeah, I mean, running

[00:32:23] I'm sure a lot of people listen to this realize like the injury rate is ridiculous. Dude, it's crazy. If you're going to if you're going to train for a marathon, there's like a 93% injury. Yeah, you're just going to get you're just going to hurt. Yeah.

[00:32:35] And it's just like I and I get it because honestly, I love nothing. I feel like nothing makes me have that like what you're talking about, like the runner tire, whatever like the feeling after like running your outside. It feels good. You're sweating.

[00:32:48] It's like nature and all this. But then like the minute my body cools down, I'm like, wow, my knees, my ankles. I'm like, yeah, you know what I mean? It's it's you're pounding on that pavement a little bit. It's rough. It's rough for sure.

[00:33:01] And especially when you start training a couple of days a week, if you're running for something, it becomes like super noticeable how impactful that the sport can be. Yeah. So it's been cool to see. And, Cody, you referred to earlier a partnership with WUPE,

[00:33:18] so that kind of sparked my curiosity. Like give me give us a rundown of like. What a partnership like with a company like WUPE looks like, like what are the mutual benefits of you guys work together? And are there any other big ones

[00:33:32] that you guys have currently out there? So WUPE is like our major one right now. I mean, we don't integrate with too many people in this. Scott can speak more about the tech side of stuff, which is pretty cool. We have maybe a potentially another one

[00:33:46] coming up, which would be a pretty sweet one as well. But with WUPE, a lot of it is just really cool. It's just the data we get to see. You know what I mean? There's a lot of they're pretty started like pretty heavy and crossfit.

[00:33:57] It's funny, I used to train across Fenway in Boston and WUPE used to come in of like a eight person team and they used to come to the gym once in a while and now they're massive. But a lot of it for us is just understanding,

[00:34:09] you know, like when people strange scores are high and making the correlation between like passive and our routines and our daily sessions. And are we really actually pushing the recovery scores and like helping out that way? And kind of like some of the heart rate stuff

[00:34:25] during the routines. A lot of us, it's data based stuff to help us evolve our product, which is really cool. And I think it's been like a pretty big eye opener for us in the past little bit. And I think WUPE is just like a great example of

[00:34:39] wearable stuff like that and where the health and wellness community is going, where they want to track these metrics. And it's just like educating users on how like it's it's a full circle thing. And it's just like, you know what I mean? And we can kind of play

[00:34:55] in that world. And I think it's just been has been a really cool example for us internally to see how that works and continue, like I said, evolve what we give to best benefit people and help them recover and get back to, you know, performing each day

[00:35:11] like they want to whatever that is out of their bodies. Yeah, yeah, very cool. And I want to know too about obviously you guys have the majority of your energy and time put into direct to consumer. But have you guys explored any kind of commercial opportunities?

[00:35:28] So, you know, partnerships with brick and mortar gyms and health clubs or any schools like university training centers? Like what kind of yeah, so we get yes, we get we get hit up sometimes by like a bigger community like that. If it's a gym, like we work with

[00:35:48] we work with definitely a handful of gyms for sure. A lot of our some of our athletes when they're involved in a gym so heavily, they'll reach out kind of create this little mobility space and it'll be like a cool experience. One of the coolest ones,

[00:36:01] I think that has been like coming up recently has been firehouses. So we've got to hit up by a couple of you where it's just like it's been super cool to see and it like really cool to hear their stories and how it's benefit.

[00:36:11] We just have like a pretty decent size one down in Virginia kind of reach out to us and we kind of help them get like the whole firehouse onto the platform and using it. So I think it's definitely an avenue that we're going to be tapping into

[00:36:22] for sure and trying to, drive that way. I think that there's like some implications that we're still kind of fleshing out and seeing what that is, but we definitely have some academies, some, you know, like like I said, the firehouses stuff like that, that have reached out

[00:36:38] and then like, hey, it's usually and that's where I say it's always like one goes to two, two goes to four. It's usually like one or two people. Like, you know, this product has made a huge like super easy. It's click and follow along

[00:36:49] and it's been like really beneficial. And then like a couple of people get on and then like once there's enough someone will reach out and be like, hey, can we do something here? And we're always like, yes, let's like let's help out. Let's do this because again,

[00:37:01] it's just like spreading that word and spreading the education. And it's just been really cool to see for me because it's nice when I I see how our product works inside of sport all the time. But when you see it work in life as well,

[00:37:15] it like I get fired up. I'm like, that's just cool. You know what I mean? If there's someone at the desk that's just like, hey, I've been struggling with this back pain forever, but I've been stretching and it's been really helping me or like a real life scenario

[00:37:26] like in the firehouse and stuff like that. I'm like, that's really cool because that's beyond that is beyond just like sport. That is again still some physical activity where it may not be, but it's it's working and it kind of like goes back

[00:37:40] to our mission and our vision of we like believe in our stuff. And it's just like it's yeah, I take it as a win when we find those. It's nice to hear and nice to see. Yeah, well, you know, I actually had a couple of beers

[00:37:55] with some good fire fire friends last night, and they're always looking for opportunities to stay healthy and keep their people. I mean, it's it's a very expensive problem, right? Yeah, of course. If if they're injured and, you know, one of the things I I maybe you're probably

[00:38:10] working on it, but I think a huge opportunity for something like this would be pickleball. Yeah, yeah, we've we got reached out to buy a couple couple of things. I don't know. Someone sent us a pitch, sent me a pitch deck once. It was for Scott and I,

[00:38:25] but it was like a big event in Miami. But there were there. I forget what the number was. It was like the number of injuries happening in pickleball. And I was like, wow, that is unbelievable. It was crazy. I couldn't believe it. Oh, my goodness.

[00:38:38] Yeah, I've never seen anything in my fitness and health wellness career like pickleball. Yeah, maybe CrossFit, right? The fire. Yeah, just it's just it's all fire. Everybody I know does pickleball. And, you know, I guess I'm I got I got I got to try. Yeah, I know.

[00:38:57] At some point, you haven't tried it yet. Sounds like it's no. No, I haven't. Really? Because my wife is adamant. She refused to do it. OK, I don't know why. Fair enough. Maybe because she's hyper competitive and she's worried that she'll get hooked on it. Yeah.

[00:39:09] Yeah, but it's just like a good it's it's just a good example of I think a lot of these injuries come from when you're doing something intense like that, if you your body doesn't move freely and you put it to a limit

[00:39:20] or it like needs to go to something. It's like, all right, I'm going to go there, but I don't really know what's going to happen. You know, I mean, if you're not testing those range of motions and you're not like your body's not used

[00:39:30] to or can get there safely, it's I mean, we've seen it in CrossFit. Like most of them, it's weight. Like sometimes weight will push you into position. They're like, whoa, you know, that was too much or something along those lines.

[00:39:43] But I think when you're also playing a sport, that's aggressively making you go side to side and moving that way. You don't have full control all the time. You're like, oh, no, that's too far for me. You know, when you're in that action at 100 percent. So, yeah.

[00:39:58] And a lot of people are. It's it's such an easy sport to play. Oh, yeah, for sure. You know, so you get a lot of people who are, you know, relatively sedentary get into it. And I'll walk by during pickleball time at my health club gym.

[00:40:10] And, you know, you look through the glass and all the course. And I'm like, she's saying knee braces, wrist braces, all kinds of stuff going on. And I'm like, yeah. And then then, you know, up stream downstream, you block off one like

[00:40:25] where else is it going to come from? You know what I mean? It's kind of one of those things. Again, you're going to move somewhere. So, yeah, it's that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to just like, you know, keep pushing the pace

[00:40:38] and set the tone that, you know, like move, move freely. Allow yourself, like give your body that at least, you know, give yourself the the head space, the ability to feel good, ability to move and continue doing what you love. Like the worst thing is to see

[00:40:53] when someone gets injured, you know, especially when they love doing something that was positive for them physically and mentally. It's pretty, pretty nasty cycle to get into. Cody, if you don't mind, before we start to wrap this up, give us a little insights into how Plyability

[00:41:10] is doing as a business, like whatever you can share, you know, like, you know, I think you guys maybe had some recent fundraising. I can't remember exactly. No, no, no fundraisers, companies. Yeah, no fundraising. No, not for us. No, I mean, we've we've experienced

[00:41:26] a good amount of growth last year. It was really cool to see that the transition, we didn't really know what would happen. And we kind of like we didn't really lose much and we started kicking right off and started going. So last year was

[00:41:40] was really cool for us. There was there was a good amount of growth. We grew in about a 15 plus percent in subscriber growth, which was really cool. So it was just like really cool for us as a company and as a brand to see

[00:41:55] that like what we believe in and our mission, vision and all that stuff, like what we pictured. It works and it's going to work and like let's put some gas in this fire and let's keep it going. So as a company, we're stronger than ever.

[00:42:07] And I think another huge addition of what we've done last year was and through kind of the past two years through Covid, which was definitely not easy. We've built an amazing team of some really freaking cool people, which I like for me, it's been the biggest thing

[00:42:23] because I've always come from such a team, you know, sports. And I think it's just really important to have the right people and in the right mindset and for everyone to believe in what we do. We have runners, moms, dads, CrossFitters, Olympic growers.

[00:42:39] Like we have some cool people, some great SME chiropractor doctors touching this product daily. Some back end people that are just geniuses and blow my mind all the time. And I think it's just like, you know, it's a piece to the bigger picture.

[00:42:55] And I think like what we've created here is really cool and we're just going to continually try to give our members the best product and push into the space and bring awareness to like stretching is here to stay. And we're going to continually push that message

[00:43:09] like where we want to show you the benefits. We want you to understand this is going to make a difference in your life in a positive way. So like take the time, let's get the time to do it and we're going to make it

[00:43:19] as easy as possible for you to do because I think that's one of the things that helps create a habit. Yeah, reducing friction. Yeah, for sure. Last question I always ask Cody is, you know, what are some of the what are one or two the biggest challenges

[00:43:34] you're facing right now as a company? And I asked that in the screen of people who are listening may have a solution could reach out to you. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I think it's just understanding how to get, like I said, I think our biggest

[00:43:46] always our biggest uphill battle and that's something we'll always face is like stretching isn't the new sexy, fun, like gritty push yourself like I'm going to get jacked from it thing. You know what I mean? It is the slowing down. It's truly getting people

[00:44:02] to take the time to understand the benefits of it and stretch and to do this positive thing for themselves. So I think it's just always and customer feedback is one of the best things that we have and we constantly are reviewing it, looking at it, everything,

[00:44:15] because it allows us to continually evolve and adapt our product to giving our members like something that truly works for them and fits their lifestyle. So I think it's it's just anything on how to like what you would like, what style do you like?

[00:44:29] Is it click and play? Is it easy to follow along? Is it the passive holds time? Like when do you like to do it? It's constant questions that we're asking and getting back just to help you create this stretching routine and become part of their lifestyle

[00:44:45] and they feel the benefit of it in their lives. I think that is always that will always be our biggest uphill battle as a company is getting people to understand the benefits of consistently stretching and what that can do for them. Yeah. Yeah, I mean,

[00:45:00] I fully know the benefits and I still struggle to do it. Right. And I think that's yeah. So so far so good. Myself included, man. Like I I did it for years. You know, I am partner in the company and still like some days like,

[00:45:13] dang, like I just did a workout and I'm like at home kind of do one of these in my back. I'm like, I should find that I'm stressed. Sometimes it is still that thought in my mind. But the more I continually educate myself, the more I know,

[00:45:26] like I know I need to do because they're you know, this is this is something that's going to help me continually do what I love. And that is randomly going out for a run, randomly going to the gym with my wife. You know,

[00:45:39] Scott and I start our days off as business partners three days a week in the gym. And it's just like, you know, it's like a huge part of what we believe in. So it's like for me to continually do that. Like I can't put water

[00:45:51] in the gap in the car. I need to put gasoline in the car and, you know, I need I know what that means. Yeah. Awesome. Well, could people want to get a hold of you or reach out and just generally, you know, work with pliability?

[00:46:05] What's the best way for them to do that? Yes, probably just through Instagram. Cody J. Mooney is my my handle. DM me, reach out questions or that may be it's all welcomed and accepted and appreciated. Like I said, there's any way we can help out if it's a

[00:46:23] an event, a charity, anything that like, you know, we do think that would benefit, you know, some of a brand like us, like we're we're totally open to looking at that and helping and spreading this message that we strongly believe in. So, yeah. Awesome. All right.

[00:46:42] Appreciate your time. Yeah, thanks, dude. This is great. Wonderful Friday. Yeah, man. Spring and I'm going to go get my mobility and perfect. Thanks, Eric. Thanks, buddy. Yeah, man. Ladies and gentlemen, Cody Mooney. Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone,

[00:47:01] and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Feminist. If you did, I'm going to ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe

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[00:47:42] You can subscribe to our newsletter there or you can simply get in touch with me as I love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone and this is the Future of Fitness. Have a great day.