Carolyn Moos |  Charlie’s Interview

Hello everyone and welcome back. This is our pro athlete interview series and this

is brought to you by the family office glove and today we're here with carolin and

carolin how you doing today. It's wonderful to be here I've heard great things about

the impact you're having on many levels with various demographics. So it's wonderful

to be here. Well, much appreciated. And I know I was talking to Carolyn when we're

looking to schedule you for this podcast and for this interview. And I know that we

haven't had a chance to have you come out to one of our live events. But we do a

lot of these different things from the podcast to interviews to the live events,

which are like our super summits where we have one coming up in New York, we've

won out in Florida. Or you might have seen this, like we have a social media fall

and I think it's like 15 .5 million right now, whether it's on YouTube or LinkedIn

or any of those, whoever you came to us, thank you. And I'm excited for you guys

to get to know Carolyn here. And the whole point of this is when we have our

different live events or do interviews, a lot of times we'll have investors up on

stage, professional athletes like Carolyn. And the whole point of it is to try to

get some insights and advice of what did they do themselves to get to where they

are now. So for Carolyn, how did she get to become a 0 .1 percenter in the

athletic space or now in the business space? And sort of how did she do that? And

then maybe we can get some insights whether if we're a professional athlete

ourselves, I'm not right now, but if we are a professional athlete, like how can we

actually get ourselves to that same level? And what are some of those tips and

strategies and tricks that you were able to use that we could then use ourselves or

just take them and tweak them so that they fit, you know, fit us so that way they

actually work. So thank you for taking the time. - Absolutely, those are all great

questions. What I like the most is you talk about the intersection of business and

sport. And I do think a lot of athletes potentially can struggle with that

transition. So they don't create the groundwork for, what are their passions, what

are their skill sets? What is their defined expertise? And my first advice is to

merge your passion with your skill set, with demand in the world. The world is ever

changing. When you think about technology, when you think about even COVID and how

that changed, how we do e -commerce, how we do brick and mortar business, how hybrid

work has changed the way in which we communicate with one another from a business

standpoint. So going back to athletes, first identifying what is my true passion,

what is my calling in this lifetime, and you don't need to know freshman year in

college, for example. I started off pre -med. I always share my story. And the flaw

that I found in our healthcare system, it was based on treatment, not prevention. My

passion lies in preventative health. Lifestyle modification, nutrition, fitness,

promoting anti -alcohol, anti -drug messages amongst teenagers. So I knew in my heart,

I wanted to work in a space that would be profitable, but also feel good to my

soul. And that means I'm helping people live better and longer. And when I was pre

-med, I realized that I would probably see 50 to 70 patients a day, perhaps have 15

minutes with them, perhaps prescribe them insulin shots and tell them good luck with

their type 2 diabetes. And I didn't feel okay about that. And so I realized that

with the consumer shifting from the standpoint of I am my own best medicine, there

is a higher emphasis on out -of -pocket expenses. And essentially now insurance

companies are investing or in the gym memberships. They actually have write -offs for

insurance companies, for gym memberships, for holistic health initiatives, taxing for

poor nutrition consumption in some countries, which is wonderful. Getting rid of

alcohol or taxing for alcohol that makes it that nature. I personally haven't drank

my whole life. I've eaten clean my whole life. I started studying nutrition in sixth

grade. So my interest and passion started so young, it stuck with me everywhere I

went and then well into my Stanford years. And so to answer that question, I

actually started my own side business before I even transitioned from professional

sports. So I became certified as personal trainer, I built out my client list, and

then Skype came about. And I built up clients in Los Angeles, Phoenix, I was

playing in France, and then in Miami, and my clients wanted to work with me

everywhere I moved. And I said, I need a solution for virtual training. So I share

this story because Skype was fresh off, you know, software, people were utilizing it

for social aspects, not for, you know, virtual training. And so I called my lawyer

and I said, I need something in place from a liability standpoint to allow me to

expand on my demographics and have pre recorded content to be able to scale better.

So from there, I took my passion, my expert seats and my skill sets, and I was

able to scale out who I was able to reach and the speed in which I was able to

reach them and still be doing other things. So the broader analysis there is I took

my passion, turned it into a skill because I have a plethora of CEUs in background,

biomechanical analysis, pre and postnatal fitness and health, working with at -race

populations, type 2 diabetics, obese patients, even though I love working with student

athletes and NBA players and NFL players and MLB players, which I've all worked with

them. I actually love working with all types of backgrounds. And so I took that

background, I took the software, I took my expertise, and I realized that human

capital only takes you so far. So I'm going to encourage people there in the

business space to think about time, space, compensation, and scalability. And how can

you take what you offer in a product or service, because it's going to fall in one

of those two categories, and be able to scale it as fast as possible, reaching

demographics that relate to you the most. Being six foot five, because I'll answer

that question, it becomes about a lot. I am six foot five, and I'm a yoga

instructor, and that's a little bit rare, and being a female, and who relates the

best to me? I will say sixth to ninth grade volleyball and basketball players, both

boys and girls, is a primary demographic that I do work with, also pregnant mothers.

And so how am I able to scale and reach them in a way that is relatable, helpful,

and goes across all continents essentially. So that was my journey as I started very

young. I started coaching, I started training, and I was a freshman in Stanford and

I even started doing that on the side. So I started building that and then by the

time I moved back to Los Angeles, I had 30 to 40 clients and I was doing my own

thing, finished my master's at USC and health communication management, which was a

combination of business school and communications. And I've just been in that space

forever since 2001. What's interesting, you look at Peloton, you look at Fitbit, you

look at all of these companies who again, product or service, and they've merged the

two. Peloton, the product, which is a bike, and they also have services, which is

virtual trainers through their bike and their fitness offerings. So it's just fun to

keep a pulse on that industry because I think more and more people are investing in

their wellness and everybody wants convenience. So whether they work out at home half

the time and they work out at a gym another half the time, it's a growing tendency

for everybody to integrate that into their life. And so the demand for what you

offer is another point I'm gonna make. I think in life, you have to realize

pivoting and let's say people stop eating donuts. That would be wonderful, right?

- Yeah. - For Starbucks? - Yeah, first of all, - Let's take caffeine. So let's say

Starbucks and all of a sudden there was a mandate that no one can consume caffeine.

It's now an intensely identified drug or whatever, however they want to classify it.

All of Starbucks would suffer obviously 'cause that's their marquee product. But I

think we're in a space with fitness, health and wellness where it's just

exponentially growing and people are becoming more and more aware of the prevalence

and the importance of investing in your own health. So I just see a great, bright

future for that space. And it can use the grow and pivot in most interesting ways.

So for me, that's my personal calling. I love helping people, fitness, health, and

wellness. I have my own website, fitforlivinglife .com. And my contact is off of that

website as well. - I love that. And I think that's very rare. I feel like what

you've done is very rare where a lot of times someone might, let's say in sixth

grade or whether it's in third grade, they're like, I want to be a veterinarian.

That was myself. I'm not a veterinarian now, you know, They

commendable. I appreciate that. You know, I think initial interest stems from

curiosity. You know, you look at a young child, they say, "I want to be an

astronaut. I want to fly to the moon," you know, and it's this far -reaching goal,

which is somewhat attainable for some people, but a very, very small percentage of

people will go after certain goals in life. We all look at professional athletes. A

very small percentage of D1 athletes will actually make it at the professional level.

So how do they re -identify that realistic goal, that realistic passion in a way

they can execute that path. So for me, I'm gonna reemphasize this. If your lifestyle

actually emulates the very goal you're going after, you're more likely to achieve it.

And so specifically in the fitness and health space, 'cause I've managed hundreds of

personal trainers over the course of my career. I look at the ones that truly love

what they do and they also live that which they're promoting. they actually have a

much longer career because it's who they are. It's their identity, it's their sense

of purpose, it's what they would want for a best friend or family member. And so

it's sowing grains into their DNA and their way of being that their work becomes

their play. And they also give an example each and every day about what they're

asking for from their clients. So that's, you know, some tidbits in the fitness and

health space for sure. - No, and I guess what about for someone who let's say in

sixth grade, maybe they didn't think about what they wanted to do. And let's say

they're in the professional sports career now. Like, I guess do you have any

strategies or things that might help someone to focus or sort of find like, what is

my passion? What am I passionate about? Or what's something that is not just, oh,

this would be great to make money, but it's like, no, this is actually what I'm

passionate about. And I can make money doing it, but it's something that's like

totally aligned with your own values that you were able to find. - Yeah, that's a

great question. I highly encourage young student athletes to do internships, even if

they're still in high school and taking the summer months. And granted, I will share

my story as I was tied up in the summers. I didn't have any extra free time, but

I did start internships /exposure fresh from year in college. I was playing USA

basketball, traveling to Vienna, Frankfurt, Brazil, Slovakia, Chetanel, as a sophomore

and junior in high school. So I really didn't have a lot of free time. But so I

have sympathy for finding the time, but making the time for things that are most

important to you. So internships are a great way to do that. And don't be afraid

to dabble. So it might be computer science. It might be engineering. It might be

advertising. It might be marketing. It might be sales. And as soon as you get a

little taste of what you actually gravitate towards and what you're really good at

doing, you have to be a people person. In certain industries, you have to

communicate well and work well with people. If you're in computer science and all

you do is coding, you don't actually have to have those great communication skills

with humans but with computers. So I always encourage people just find out what your

personality is, what skill sets you really love, and then go with that and build

off of it. But try as many things as you can as young as possible so that as you

get to those older stages, you've weeded all of that out. Yeah, no, that makes

sense. And I guess we didn't go into too much. What was your background? I know

when you talked about going to Stanford, like, what was your professional career

before you started doing what you're doing now that we've been talking about? Yeah,

great question. So, essentially, when I went to Stanford, again, I was pre -med, and

then I was just shy of a double major. And at that point, from 2001 on,

I had already had a side business built up with personal training and yoga,

nutrition and all of that. So I wanted to keep that going. So frankly, prior to

that, I was a young entrepreneur. I kind of share these funny stories, but I rode

horses for seven years and I started my own shop at the horse shows. So I made

like tie -dye T -shirts and bracelets. And I was just a little entrepreneur

entrepreneur at AG. So I've always had that sense of, hmm, how can I make the most

of my time? I'm going to be here for six hours, and I'm only showing three. What

can I do for the other three hours? And I just had that unique mindset of kind of

leveraging who you're in front of, what do they want to see more of? And how can

I offer something of value to this audience and make a business out of it? So I

always encourage people to start as young as possible. And for me, it was pretty

young, where I started to develop that mindset. - No, I love that. And well, I

guess when you're talking about, when you're saying, okay, I had these 30, 40

clients that they traveled with me, you went through Skype trying to find different

resources. For someone that let's say is going into and making that transition. So

they're going from the professional sports space and now they're going into the

business space. What are some of those, I guess, strategies that you use and sort

of goal -setting techniques that you're able to do to sort of outmaneuver, outwork,

and sort of strategize of, all right, I know I could do 100 things. We could all

do 1 ,000 things, but here's the top five things, or 10 things that are actually

gonna move the needle. How are you able to sort of set those goals or identify

them so that you knew what to execute on? - Yeah, great question. I'm gonna go back

to the point I made previously, which is optimizing human capital. So a product is

one thing. It can sell through manufacturing, and housing, and so forth. A service

requires human capital. So let's just take a very obvious example, a one -hour

massage. Now, massage was highly affected by COVID because that's an in -person

experience. It's hard to give a virtual haircut. It's hard to give a virtual

massage, right? Other services that cannot be replicated in unique ways. However,

personal training can be replicated through virtual experiences. So if one can figure

out do I have identified as a product or is this a service and is there a way

that I can do other things while this is selling in a way that I can scale it as

fast as possible but still maintain high quality and I think some people scale too

quickly and they try to distribute too quickly and the quality suffers so I think

that's the only downfall of that mindset but I think the biggest thing is thinking

about how much time do I have how do I allocate my time my mental and my physical

energy, and what are the best ways to scale it as fast as possible? Well,

maintaining quality, yep. - I guess when you're building that out, trying to maintain

the quality, what are you doing? 'Cause I think it's sometimes if for entrepreneurs

or innovators, you know, let's say they build something in the basement, they're

like, oh, this is amazing. But then like, when they put it on the world, they're

like, ah, it was cool to you, but maybe it's not great for the market. What do

you What do you do to make sure that it's a right product market fit or that it's

great for the customer or that you know it's a good product but that the customer

experience is really what you wanted it to be? Like what do you do to make those

things happen? - That's a great question. Number one is feedback. Constructive

criticism, and this is something I'll tell a third grader, is when your coach

corrects you on the basketball court, they love you, they care about you, they

actually think you have high potential. So if a young child can learn to take

constructive criticism to feedback and use it to their advantage, which is to

improve, and that goes to business. If I'm going to take feedback from my customers

and improve the product, I'm going to win. But if I'm, you know, a little bit shut

down and I think, no, no, no, the way that I'm doing it is the best way and I'm

not open to any feedback. You're actually limiting your growth and your ability to

scale. So the number one thing it's asked for customer feedback. Number two is start

on a smaller audience. Maybe it's your following. You have a group of 30 yoga

enthusiasts and you say, okay, let's try this and tell me what you think. Start

with a group you know well, get their feedback and then scale it after you get

that feedback. So it's all about timing, exposure, and then being completely flexible

when it comes to adapting to that feedback and adjusting to what you're putting out

in the market. And also being okay with saying, that didn't work. You know, some

marketing tactics. So maybe you run an advertisement with a coupon or a percent off

or you target a particular demographic geographically that you thought would be

extremely excited and they're not. Maybe it's the geography, it's not actually the

people but it could be the exact zip code or it could be the age group that

you're targeting or the basketball players that's, you know, fit a certain age that's

going to be more relevant towards. So I think being a little bit aware of tweaking

the little details to get the results looking for. Yeah, no, that makes sense. And

a lot of times, like what a message might, that might work great for me, might not

resonate with you, right? So just want to make sure that you are pivoting, testing

the waters, AB testing, and that's great that that's something that you put into

practice. Absolutely. And in fitness, for example, it could be lowering risk of

injury, improving mental performance for one person, for a pregnant mother, she cares

about having a healthy child. For a defensive lineman, they're trying to get bigger,

stronger, faster. All they care about is size and speed. You know, it's like, you

have to have a different conversation in an honest way based on who you're speaking

to and can you actually deliver on what you're promising them? That's huge. Integrity

in your product and service is huge. - Oh, yeah, I love that. And I guess part

that I want to touch on is you talked about going to your attorney let's say when

you're trying to see all right how do I actually expand my reach how do I get

there did you have any recommended I guess sort of like who did you have in your

corner whether you know when you're in sports you might have a coach or you might

have a personal trainer in the business side of things I know you might have that

attorney but did you also have business advisors or what did you set up to sort of

like help facilitate your own success that way - Yeah, great question. I think first

and foremost, I go with people I trust and I say that for everybody. A lot of

sports agents have built in resources. So they'll have a real estate agent, they'll

have, you know, a business manager, they'll have investors and people they've already

used for the last 15 years. For myself, I turned to my Stanford friends to be

honest with you because I went to school with them. You know, what they went

through and I trust them. So Thankfully, I have a really good network of very close

friends but are very good at their profession. And I tap into those resources

typically. I also look at ARAX for tees. So if you look at intellectual property or

you look at e -commerce, there are lawyers that specialize in given sectors. And it's

very important if your question is pertinent to a given sector to really stick with

that sector when you speak with professionals. - Mm -hmm, that makes sense. And did

you, I guess or your own personal training side of things or on like sports

medicine side or nutrition, do you have other people that are in that same field

that you sort of go and you're like, all right, little mastermind group of, what do

you think about this? What are you doing here? I know you're in the space and we

don't compete, but we both understand like do you set up groups like that that you

ping ideas out of or what do you do that way? - That's a great question because

the analogy I'm gonna use is that individual sport versus a team sport. So if you

took golf versus a basketball team, is that golfer willing to collaborate with all

their golfers to perfect your game, right? So in the fitness space, I will say

this, that if you have individual personalities that are really good at what they

do, let's say a yoga instructor, you will find more often that they stay in their

lane, they don't ask for a lot of advice, they observe their competition, and

You know, just to say, however, I think it is a mistake not to have mentors. So

throughout my life, I have wonderful other personal trainers that are a bit older.

Celebrity trainers in Los Angeles, for example, that have done wonderful things, three

of which are retired now, and they actually move to a super small, quiet area where

no one bothers them. They've had their positive impact, and they, you know, have

done incredible things, and now they're in a more quiet space. So I think it's

really important to always look at either who's older or how things are changing

from a technology standpoint, from an environmental standpoint, from a consumer

standpoint, and who has done something so creative and disruptive. They're like, wow,

you know, I can do something like that or I wanna do something similar. And I'm

always open to mentoring. I have young kids age 10 to 30 come to and say,

I want to do something similar, will you talk to me for a half an hour? And I

think that that is the biggest gift in the world if you can mentor and get back

to the next generation that way too. I love that. I mean, that's something I'm sure

that you looked for and you were appreciative when you were coming up and now that

you're at the space you are now, you can then actually do that for others. So

absolutely. I love that. And I guess when we go to these final questions, I guess

before we finish, for what you're doing now and for, let's say the current space

that you're working on. Is there, are there investments? Are there sort of strategies

or sort of recommended approaches that you're seeing? I know you talked about tech a

bit, but is there something for let's say yourself of either ideas that you're

currently investing in or if you don't want to speak about specifics, areas that

you're like, oh, this is definitely an area I think has a lot of interest or

opportunity for growth or impact of whether you want to put in your own sweat

equity or investment dollars behind it, what are you currently seeing in the market

and what kind of recommendations would you give that way? - Yeah, great question. I

always start with someone and say, what is your risk tolerance? I think that's

really important to identify and having a diversified portfolio is also very

strategic. Obviously COVID affected a lot of things going back to products and

services and e -commerce and international relations, even with health issues that can

have a huge impact on how we do international e -commerce as well. So with those

points put aside, I think it's really important for individuals to number one study

what markets do they know the most about. So for me, I know a lot about fitness,

health and wellness, technology, and scalability. However, I do tune into Inc

Magazine, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal. These are reads that I do every day. I

have the e -reads. I do them every day. And then I attend live events for

Bloomberg, for Inc. and I always keep a pulse on everything. Some other great groups

are the Players Impact. TPI is a group of former professional athletes and it's

almost like Shark Tank. And so they do virtual pitching on a monthly basis and they

have companies come in and just speak about their companies. No pressure to invest,

but to expand your horizon of what are people trying to do to disrupt the

marketplace? And it gets you creative juices flowing. I'm not a huge TV person, but

I love Shark Tank. And so that's kind of, it's like a treat for me just to sit

down and hear pitches all day long. I could do that for eight hours a day and be

happy. So I love just being around creative spaces and thinking about what products

and services are new to market. And then also looking at other big investment

companies like Bryant Stillbull is a good one in Los Angeles and they do publicize

who they're investing in after they've agreed upon those investments and then just

studying those various websites and keeping up with what other people are doing as

well. I love that. Well before it finished do you have any last bits of like

information insights recommendations or just words of wisdoms that you'd give to

either one I guess business people or professional athletes that are currently in the

sport or trying to make that transition or maybe they're in sixth grade and they're

like all right this is what I want to do for the future like you did. I

appreciate that so one major concept I'll give health is wealth and being proactive

versus reactive and our investments and our health and our wealth is so synergistic

so for example if you eat well I don't drink alcohol I mentioned that before no

drugs no alcohol clean living get your sleep, work out. That's just as important as

investing in your wealth and your portfolio and your financial returns. So when you

think about that psychologically, a lot of people are, again, reactive, not proactive

in nature. So if you come up with a 10, 15, 20, 25 -year plan based on where you

are now, sit down with a financial advisor. I think that's a wonderful task to do.

Our National Basketball Retire Players Association, we do for free financial management

consulting for the upcoming rookies that are now gonna be veterans. Yeah. - That's

great. - That's a huge benefit. So I encourage everyone to take advantage of that

and to really come up with a plan and not only come up with it, but stick to it.

And as we all know, about five years ago, their statistics put on the market, 70 %

of pro athletes go broke. And it's okay to talk about these things because they're

very real and have a huge amount of passion for helping people make those good

decisions and putting your values in the right places. You know, if you value people

in places over things and really taking your time to develop a life that is

supportive and conducive to longevity. And that's again, health and wealth, they're in

the same bucket. You know, if you come up with a 5, 15, 20, 25, 30 year plan and

be consistent in the choices you're making relative to health and wealth, you're

gonna be in a really good place. And that's conversation starts young. I'm happy to

have that conversation with fifth and sixth graders about good choices. And I think

that earlier you can start with financial management and health management. It's the

best thing you can do for the next generation, for sure. - I love that. I think

that's great advice and that's for any age. So it's pointless to make a plan of

what you're gonna do of like, oh, I wanna own this in 30 years. When you're You're

not going to enjoy it unless you spend some of that time on your actual health.

Yeah. And is it an appreciating asset or is it a depreciating asset? Because I

think sometimes the glitter and people get attracted to depreciating assets and that's

not intelligent, right? So life is all about balance that way for sure. I love

that. And Carolyn, before we go, what was your website one more time just so we

have that? I know you mentioned it earlier, but. Absolutely. You can visit www

.fitforlivinglife .com. And my email is z .moose @stanfordalumni .org.

- I love that. Well, thanks so much for being on the show today. I definitely

appreciate it. - Absolutely, it's wonderful to be here. I look forward to meeting

everyone in person and just keep doing what you're doing. You're impacting a lot of

people in possible ways. - Well, same to you. So thanks for being a mentor, advisor,

and for killing it in the space professionally, athlete, business, and just personal

life. So thank you so much. Thanks so much. All right. Thank you.