Connor & Rob Darnbrough – Co-Founders of SmartFit Method on Turning a Health Scare Into a Fitness Revolution

All right, welcome back to the Casey Adams Show. Today I am joined by Connor and Rob Darnborough, the co founders of the Smart Fit Method. Guys, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Casey, thanks for having us.

Of course. So I know we were chatting a little bit before we just jumped in here, but I'm really excited for this conversation leading up to this and understanding the story dynamic of the father son duo. And of course, like, working on this company together and not only is inspiring, but I'm really excited to dive into the history of it. And I want to start with that before we dive into the company and everything we're going to talk about of what you guys have built, let's maybe dive into the quick, high level of what the Smart Bit method is. And then, Rob, talk to me about where this originated from and why you guys decided to build this company.

Perfect. The way we look at Smart Fit is the same way you might look at medicine, right? So let's say you go to visit a doctor, and that doctor does a set of blood work on you and then prescribes certain medicines to improve your situation. My feeling was that fitness should follow the same line, meaning that we should test frequently to make sure that the program we're following is actually working and doing what it's supposed to do. And then we can focus on concentration like we would in medicine, frequency like we would in medicine, and dosage, and this becomes really important, then retest to continue to see benefits in the individual. And I felt for far too long the fitness industry was failing us as individuals in that arena. Quite often we're just going into a facility and we're saying, hey, I want to look like my friend, or I want to be like my buddy, or I want to look like the trainer at the front without any indication of genetics, dosage, frequency, or consistent or concentration within that in that program. And I think that would be very much akin to just reaching in someone else's medicine cabinet, taking their medicine and hoping for the best.

Yeah.

So the Smart Fit method is looking for a better way to do that where we can use science and technology and the convergence of technology to improve the overall experience and actually move the needle for people as opposed to just going into a gym. And I say this quite often to people. How do you know where you go is working? Because there's more than just the mirror, Right. There's what's happening at a cellular level as well. So what we wanted to do is build something that actually looks at the whole person and Figure out how do we actually improve their longevity, but more importantly, improve their health span. So SmartFit is really driven around using the convergence of all of these new technologies that are available and putting them together in a method that allows a person to do a much better job, or at least better understand what works for them and what doesn't work for them.

Absolutely. Now that, that's, that's incredible.

I think. Go ahead. Yeah, I was just going to say, and I think the reason that this became such a profound factor for us was a bit of my background and what happened with myself. I, you know, I was a competitive cyclist in Canada growing up. I, I competed at a fairly high level and you know, not, not going into the pros and Tour de France or anything like that, but at a very high level where I trained at that, that component. And what happened was that I got into my mid-20s and of course I have an entrepreneurial background and I started to open up businesses. And you know, I'd always been sort of that way. So I'd always been sort of the driver behind starting innovative businesses.

Just to interject, is it, is it accurate that I remember seeing you started like five businesses before you were 21, is that, is that accurate?

Exactly. Yes, yes. So I, you know, incredible. I don't like the word serial entrepreneur, but I would have been what they would have defined as a serial entrepreneur. As I found my footing in my early 20s, business became more demanding for me as I started to move into the financial sector and I was doing work around succession planning with family businesses. So I had to put my cycling career kind of on the side at that point. I did, you know, I ran that company and six other companies over the next 20 plus years and I was fortunate enough to be successful that I was able to retire. And when I say retire, what I meant was by that is that our companies were self managing. So in other words, they didn't need me to be there in order for them to be able to continue on during that time. You know, I'm in my early 40s at the point I'm thinking maybe I should go back into racing, maybe I should do a master's program in race. But I'd also become quite addicted to working out. And I was sort of your traditional gym rat. Right. I was an hour and a half, two hours in the gym. I was definitely changing my physique and I was getting results and benefits. And most people would have said I was the fittest person that walked into any room. I would have appeared that way. Now, appearance. What was interesting is that I bought my wife, who was going through sort of typical middle age challenges of hormones and so forth. I bought her a opportunity to go down to Health Nucleus in San Diego, Craig Ventura's location, and do a longevity test. And of course, first thing she said to me as well, there's no point in me doing it if you're not going to do it, so let's do it together. So we did. We arrive at there, and they do a series of tests on us, of course, the basic ones that you would get from the fitness industry. Body fat, lean mass, visceral fat, all these things. Flying colors in all those areas. But however, when they did the CT scan and MRIs, they discovered that I had developed an aortic aneurysm and I was 2 millimeters away from open heart surgery to replace the aortic valve. The challenge with that is that it's not a great diagnosis, right? If it does rupture, you don't make it to the door, right? So it's a pretty quick death, right, as far as that goes. And the first thing they did is said, go talk to a couple of cardiologists and figure out where we go from here. So, of course I did. I got in touch with two very good cardiologists. But of course, they read from the same manual that all doctors do, which was, hey, Rob, you need to do nothing, right? So in other words, we don't want you lifting anything over 30 pounds and we don't want you to walk up any hills. So actually, one of them said, if you see a hill, turn around. So I was 49 at the time, right? And I think, you know, going from somebody who prided themselves on fitness, you know, had always had a purpose in their life. I'd lost everything as far as that. I wasn't working any longer, and I wasn't able to train or exercise or do anything I wanted. So about four months went by in a deep state of depression, where I was probably driving Connor, my other son Justin, and my wife Michelle, for sure. Absolutely bonkers, right? Because I was just not the same human being, both physically and mentally. And I started to look into, were there alternative ways? And I read an article about a company called Vasper out of Silicon Valley that we're working with NASA on developing fitness equipment that was assisting astronauts who were suffering from severe atrophy when they returned from outer space.

Interesting.

And I was. I was sort of like, I wonder what that is all about, right?

This.

This idea of AI and fitness being in the same arena.

Right.

So I started to investigate it further and realized that it was being used in cardiology, cardiology centers. It was being used in the 49ers dressing room. George Kittle was a huge proponent of it. And I also saw it was in spinal rehab centers. So I'm thinking maybe this works for me. So I called him up and I said, hey, Sebastian, Peter, the co founders of that company, Father son situation as well, is this something I could use? And of course, their first answer was, well, we can't say yes for liability reasons, but what we can do is put you in front of Dr. Jeffrey Gladden, the interventional cardiologist and longevity doctor who wrote the paper on it. So I immediately contacted him and we had some connection. We had both been in Strategic Coach, which is one of the top entrepreneurial programs in the world. Right. So we had that connection. I said to him, can I come see you and see if this works for me? So I was at the point, cowering to my condition. I wasn't in a good state of mind and I was afraid to even go for a walk with my wife. Right. I was, I was quite terrified. So I flew down to Dallas, Texas and I met with Dr. Gladden. And the first thing he did is he tested me to see where I was at physically. And having not done anything for four months, my VO2 max or cardiovascular capacity had diminished to an average 54 year old male. And I was 49. Coming from an elite background.

Yeah. Right.

So I was obviously seeing this running in the wrong direction.

Yeah.

I also lost 15 pounds of lean mass, muscle mass.

Right.

So everything was atrophying and moving in the wrong direction. And of course, that's why I thought maybe this machine could be something I could use. So he tested me on it, put the leads on everything. And one of the things that I learned in business a long time ago is that the problem is never the problem. The problem is always the inability to think about the problem. So for instance, 30 pounds, is that the same, same recommendation you would give to me at five foot eight? 165 pounds that you would give to somebody at six foot five? 320 pounds.

Yeah.

You know, what does the 30 pounds have to do with anything? Right.

Yeah.

So I wanted to see, would it create any additional thoracic pressure, would it allow me to work out and could I use it? So they approved it. So I acquired a machine. They're not cheap. And I flew it to my house in Kauai and I worked out on it for 21 minutes. And, and what this does is combines right hit or right intensity. I don't like the word high intensity because high intensity is mental. Right. Intensity is based on you genetically and what you're capable of. Right. And then cold. So the machine is 45 degrees. So it's activating beige and brown fat and use blood flow restriction, which is increasing arterial health. Right. So elasticity. So I acquired the machine, took it to my house, and again did 21 minute workout three times a week. After three and a half months, I go back and I'm telling you, I did nothing else because I was terrified to do anything else.

Yeah.

I go back to see Dr. Gladden. I've had no change in my aneurysm. It's the same, hasn't increased, but my VO2 max has improved from, get this, an average 54 year old to an elite 45 year old male.

Oh, my goodness.

And I'm working out an hour a week, not an hour and a half a day.

Yeah.

Right. I'm thinking light bulbs are going off. Right. I'm thinking, whoa, what's going on? So I go on a deep search and I look at 27 different types of equipment in the marketplace, talk to all kinds of longevity doctors, and try to figure out if there's other AI type of technology out there that could maybe allow me to start putting some muscle back on. So I find this great company again in Texas called arx, which is an adaptive resistance.

I heard about this machine this past week and it seems fascinating. You're obviously the expert here, but when I saw it, I was like, wow, this is like, why doesn't everyone have one of these? Right. Or why isn't this so wildly known?

Exactly. I mean, what is literally? It is literally, yeah. Arx. ARX is adaptive resistance exercise. And we can get more into this as we go through in the conversation. But basically what it is, it's based on perfect time under tension. Right. So when we talk about time under tension, the muscle really doesn't care how many sets or reps you do of a dumbbell or a barbell. It only cares how much time the muscle is actually under tension.

Yeah.

And when you look at an average set of 10 reps, the muscle is actually under tension for a very low amount of time. Actually about 18 seconds.

Right.

So it's not a lot of time that the muscle remains under tension, because two things that happen is we have a strength curve, meaning that if I have a barbell on my Chest, I might be able to push £100, but as I move through that range of motion at the midpoint, to keep that muscle under tension, the weight may need to be 150 pounds. It's going to vary as I go through that as it relates to the muscle and the joint angle and their strength capabilities. But what's really interesting about working with dumbbells and barbells is that gravity plays a massive role in the eccentric phase or negative phase. So I'm 2.2 times stronger lowering the weight than I am lifting the weight. So unless my buddy can put another £120 on the bar at the top and then up to 300 as I'm lowering it, chances are that my muscle is not under tension. And therefore I'm really going to have to create the risk of injury or joint damage to be able to really achieve full capacity or full load. And we'll talk more about muscle fiber recruitment as we go along. So what ARX does is there is no weight. It's adapting to force production. So, meaning that I am perfectly loaded throughout the entire range of motion through the entire strength curve, right in both directions, concentrically and eccentrically. So instead of doing six sets of 10 reps to get a minute and a half of time under tension, which would take me 27 minutes in a gym, if I didn't look at my phone. Right. If I didn't look at my phone, if I actually just stayed concentrated on the workout, we can achieve the same thing in 90 seconds.

Wow.

Right. So if I want to go to the gym and do a big five, which is, you know, a chest press, a deadlift, a shoulder press, a pull down, and a squat, it would take me two and a half hours to get the time under tension that I can do in 12 minutes.

Yeah, no, that's right.

So I always look at that as being. Yeah. The other thing was fascinating about the machine, and we'll go there, is that when I used to deadlift, I could hit 320 over 260 on blood pressure because of that initial jerking effect that occurs to try and get the weight to be meaningful.

Right.

When I work out on ARX, my blood pressure stays under 140 and 70, even at full intensity.

Wow.

Right. So I'm not putting my aneurysm at any further rest. So to carry on with the story, what happened was. And I'll let Connor jump in as to where he took it from here, I. I began to acquire more equipment. So my house was looking like a smart Fit before we had smart fit, right. And I was gaining muscle. I got my Cardiovascular system, my VO2 max to 63, which would make me an elite 25 to 30 year old.

That's incredible.

Changing a lot, right? This is fascinating. And at the same time I was putting muscle back on, I was gaining 6, 8 pounds of lean mass. I was putting myself back and my mental capacity was improving significantly because, you know, the way you exercise, the way you feel everything. My blood panels were improving though, which was really interesting. So not only was I looking better in the mirror again, I was looking better on my blood panels. As a matter of fact, last month I found out that I've actually reversed my aneurysm by nearly half a centimeter, which is unheard of. And I got my first blood panel that was all green.

That is, that is incredible.

I had no yellows, no reds, nothing.

Yeah.

So if we go back to this time in night in, in 2019 when I was discovering and working through this, Connor was at sdsu.

Yeah. Just to interject real quick as well, like I first want to say I. The story is. It's so fascinating to me and so inspiring where I and just to like inject some personal dialogue. I relate to that so much in the sense of like a huge reason why I've had this show for seven years was when I was in high school, I nearly got paralyzed. I was ended up in a neck brace for like six months. Inner spine is ligament damage and kind of like through that battle led to this like new path of self discovery, like self identity and like leaning into business when I was, you know, 16, 17 years old. And I'm curious to Connor, for you to chime in here is, you know, as when it comes to not only your place in the smart fit method, but getting involved and like really leaning into it. I'm curious to hear even before we go there, like when your father's going through this, like are you out in the hip side learning about these machines or like what's your personal experience with like throughout this journey that you know, Rob, your dad has been sharing. I'm just so curious about how this was for you and then ultimately what led to like leaning into this together as a family dynamic duo here?

Yeah, so it was definitely an interesting experience. So I was going to college at the time and you know, I was, you know, we're from Canada, we moved to America. You know, a lot more personally myself. You know, moving to America is a lot more opportunity here to start a business. I've Always been pretty entrepreneurial minded. I was going to college, I was working three jobs and I was going back on holiday and, and seeing my family. And you know, I kind of caught this in segments. You know, I, I went back, found out about the initial diagnosis, you know what, didn't really know how that was affecting him. Came back again, saw what it had done, saw the deterioration of muscle mass, saw the deterioration in regards to energy and just kind of the, the reality of what, you know, a medical diagnosis like that can do to someone. I'm especially in my own family.

Yeah.

And you know, then again, go back to college, come back again for holiday. And that time when I came back, everything had just turned around and I wasn't really aware of everything that he was kind of doing and the vasper and all this stuff. I kind of heard about it, but I hadn't really seen him using it or didn't know too much about it at the time. When I came back it was like, you know, my dad had like fully come back again. Right. And that was pretty staggering to me. And it definitely opened up or like lit the switch. So while he was doing that and his energy was coming back and he started looking into all the different technology that he can use to help himself. What I did is I went back to school and didn't tell my parents or anything like that. And I started just going down the same rabbit hole at the same time. And I was, because, you know, I come from, from an athletic background as well. I was a competitive skier, I was a competitive martial artist and a competitive mountain biker. And so I, I had a lot of athletic training and I never heard about this equipment either. And so I just went super deep down the rabbit hole, stopped kind of going to class and just got pretty much obsessed with this type of alternative approach to health and fitness. And then when I came back again, it was Thanksgiving, my family was in Kauai, came back to visit them. I had put together basically a business plan of how can we use some of the stuff that my dad was doing at his home to help himself, to help the general public. Because I felt that it was wrong that the only way most people could get access or learn about this type of equipment was either if they're a professional athlete in a well paying sport like football or basketball, or if they had a severe medical diagnosis. And that's really what lit the idea. So I came back, approached my dad with the business plan based on his journey and what I've seen him do. Looked at a lot of different technologies he was using. And we were talking about it more at this time and started figuring out, okay, how do we methodize this approach? How do we really improve the efficiency of it, the effectiveness of it, the safety of it for the general public? And then that's when we decided, you know, over that trip to start a business together, which led to where we're at today.

That's so incredible. So it was, I believe, 2020 is when you guys initially started the business. Correct. And the first location was San Diego.

Yeah, we opened in 2021, obviously, because of COVID So, yeah, it's a difficult time to open up a gym facility or.

Absolutely.

We opened up Cardiff in the summer of 2021. But what that. And you are correct, we did start the company in 2020, but that was. All of the time was spent on processes, systems, sports science, and sports medicine and looking at how to combine again. I'm a big fan of Peter Diamantes, who wrote the future's faster than you think. And it's not just about technology. It's about the convergence of technology. So how do we converge different technologies together to create an optimal outcome?

Right. Yeah.

And one of the things that I'm quoted in a book called Industry Transformers, number of my business in the past have been industry transformers. So when Connor came to me, I said, if there's an opportunity here, because the fitness industry is just not working for people, it's just not working.

Right.

We can see it. We can see it across the board that people just aren't seeing it. And where I really noticed it was as people aged. And part of the reason that is, is because there didn't seem to be a clear understanding between stimulus, catabolic, and anabolic recovery. Right. So what happens is we were, you know, I was talking to a number of my friends, and they were blown away with what I was doing, and I was doing it on such a short period of time, as opposed to spending every day in the gym. Right. I was doing it on an hour a week minimum. Like, that was maximum. I mean, an hour a week and a lot of time recovering. Right. And looking at, you know, the different modalities around recovery, which we can talk about more. And so what. What really surprised me was I saw a lot of my friends who were struggling in their 40s and 50s and 60s who were trying to go back and work out the way they did when they were 20. And what I would say to them is, can you party like you were 20? And they'd say, I can't party like when I was 20, if I go out and party like when I was 20, it takes me three or four days to recover. And I said, interesting. So why do you think you can work out the same as when you were 20?

Right.

And that became very profound for us to understand that one of the challenges is, is that the fitness industry is hyper focused on the 20 and 30 year old. Right. And then nothing. And then maybe you get the YMCA and water aerobics.

Yeah.

And that's pretty much what the fitness industry is. Right. So what I wanted to do is say we need to be able to be more scientific about the way that we approach fitness so that yes, the 20 and 30 year old can work out with us and be very specific to them, but understand the differences in recovery and stimulus requirements and how those things work together so that we can optimize the outcome as opposed to just saying I do. Chest and tris on Monday, back and binds on Wednesday, legs and shoulders on Friday. We have to understand the recruitment of muscle fiber and which refibers we're recruiting and how long they take to recover because they're very different. Slow twitch will recover in 90 seconds. FG Flask, glycemic fiber will take up to four days to two weeks to recover. So if you've damaged that muscle, should you be working out again two days later? Probably not, because you're going to end up leaning into over training and over training, I will tell you, will find your weakness. In my case, it caused an aneurysm.

Wow.

Right?

Yeah.

For some people it's a knee injury.

Yeah. No, I absolutely. One of my buddies, good friend Diego, he's a professional all natural bodybuilder and the last couple of years working out alongside of him, it's transformed the way I approach things where it's very, as you said, John, or like his, the method in which he brings to it is like, you know, well crafted and we're always talking about like, you know, I, I have this like EMF suit that I'm curious to get your thoughts on. But when, when we were initially first meeting, it's just, I believe so much of fitness and like the daily routines is just like sort of baked into like growing up or what your parents did. And now there's this world of like what does like the quote unquote, like modern health stack look like in the next five, 10, 15, 20 years? And I'm curious to know and Rob when it comes to the type of clients that have come into the SmartFit method in the early days of the business when you first opened up to now, has that changed a lot over time or what's been the, I guess you could call the main customer or the type of person that's coming in there, is it young, 20, 30 year olds, is it a little bit of everyone or what's been the.

Out of the. Yeah, so yeah, I can answer that for you, Casey. So generally speaking, you know, when you, as I mentioned earlier, when you look at the fitness industry, there's a saturation of group fitness, kettlebell swinging, all these things. Right. And, and, and if you look at like the social media six week challenges, they tend to appeal to 29 year olds. Right. So if you take some of the big, you know, the big sort of group fitness orange theories, at 45, their average client is 25 to 34 years of age and 69.7% female.

Right.

Okay. So that's a significant component if we talk from a business perspective. Right.

Yeah.

The challenge with those individuals is that the churn rate is quite high. Right. They're moving around, they're doing, they have a different motive around it. What happens is when you sort of get past age 40. Right. Things change quite significantly from a hormone perspective, from a recovery standpoint, from a stimulus need. Right. And what we found is that we see a lot of members who are trying to, at their 50s or 60s, go back and you know, swing a kettlebell and jump up and down on a box and all the other things that they do in the group fitness, which works, you know, let's say fairly for a 20, 25 year old, 28 year old.

Right. Yeah.

But generally will lead to injury for those people who are getting older. Right. So the unfortunate thing is the fitness industry has sort of forgotten this market of 40 plus individuals who also from a business perspective have $5.8 trillion in disposable income. They control 70% of all disposable income. However, there doesn't seem to be anything focused on their needs which are very different to a 25 year old's needs. Very different. And so while we are not exclusive to the 40 plus market, this more scientific approach gives an individual a much clearer understanding of what they need to do. Because one of the things that frustrates me, and this frustrates me in like the efficacy of diets and workout programs is someone who's sitting on top of their own hill and has done something that worked for them and then feels now it should work for everyone.

Yeah.

Like you should put butter in your Coffee, because it works for me. So everybody needs to put butter in their coffee as an example.

Right.

And it's so generalized. And I keep thinking to myself, you know, if I look at the way I go about my day, which is the type of stimulus I'm looking at. And again, I treat exercise like medicine. So, for instance, I don't go to the gym to go to the gym more. I go to the gym to allow me to do the things I love doing with my family, friends, outside. So I need a certain cardiovascular capacity, and I also need a certain amount of strength above baseline to avoid injury and stress and risk.

Right.

So I have to be at a certain level. So our philosophy at SmartFit is that we need to approach it in a much more methodical way and be much more consistent in the way we go about exercise, because it's not about loud music, it's not about jumping around. And even though our community is fantastic, like, our members love each other and they spend time and they become friends, we're not trying to sell that. We can put you in ineffective zones for training, like zone three and four. We used to call those junk miles in cycling. We're going to spend a fair amount of time oxidating fat in zone two. We're going to stimulate growth of the VO2 max in zone five in short doses and durations. And we can give you the science behind that. And then we're going to stimulate the muscles to recruit all seven muscle fibers. And this is really difficult because let's say, for instance, Casey, that I was your trainer. I have no clue how much you can lift. I can look at your facial expressions. I can see whether you're getting injured. But I'm really guessing, let's be honest, both Connor and I are trainers. We understand. I'm guessing, I'm guessing based on your effort. So ultimately, I'm always limited, and this is why I don't like hits is that hits are measured on emotion, Right? Because, for instance, you take it to bottom, right? Let's go all out for 20 seconds. 10 seconds off. All out for 20 seconds, right? Let's do that. Okay. Let's say. Or reverse. They've messed. They played around with it both ways. The problem is that the Israelis figured in the 1970s that we can't actually achieve max capacity more than in two sprints. So if we're trying to achieve eight, we're kind of holding back. Very few people want to go and sprint between cones to the point of throwing up. And if you get them to do it once, they're not coming back to do it again. So what I like about using AI is we can stimulate the right intensity for an individual that will stimulate the response in their body that is necessary for them to either increase cardiovascular capacity or will help them oxidate fat for energy. For instance, most people will look at Dr. Maffetone's research that anytime our heart rate is above zone 2 or 180 minus our age, the chances of us oxidating fat for energy is not going to happen. We're going to be moving towards glycogen.

Right.

So if we really, you know, are doing something for the purpose of burning fat, then we need to use the science behind how our body uses energy. Right. And if it's going to use that energy, we want to be able to use it correctly. Same thing when we lift weights. If we can hit that FG fiber, that's the fiber that holds most of the glycogen stored in our muscles. So if I can get the glycogen out of your muscles, the next thing you have, you have to eat, has somewhere to be stored. If I work out too light because I'm afraid of getting injured, because I will get injured lifting dumbbells and barbells. At the end of the day, a barbell wants to get to the center of the universe and you're in the way.

Yeah.

Right. So there's. There's a point where you're going to potentially run at risk of injury. But if I can get that FG fiber and I can pull that out for an individual now instead of that next thing they eat going into fat storage because the muscle is too full, we can free that muscle of the glycogen, allowing the body to restore that energy appropriately. Right. In the muscle fiber. So there is a lot of science here that is widely available, but we're still working in an industry that is archaic. If you go to somebody from the 1960s and hand them a cell phone, they're going to look at you like you're an alien.

Absolutely.

But if you took them in a local gym and you said dumbbell, barbell, treadmill. Oh, okay.

Yeah, that's. That is. That's the truth. Absolutely.

So we can do better. And, you know, I have an emotional attachment to this because I followed that method.

Yeah, yeah.

And it nearly killed me.

Yeah. And just to interject here, I. I get, like, so excited in this conversation because, I mean, you're spot on. And I think about my parents a lot where, like, they're in their. Their late 50s, and they're not the most consistent in the gym and haven't really, like, grown up that way. And I'm like. It's just. They're not given sort of like a new framework. Like, they. They think that that has to be the old way. And like, hearing this excites me so much, and it makes me curious about, like, you know, you guys are in Park City. You guys are about to open up new facilities there. Just for the people that are listening, like, how many locations do you guys currently have and how do you think about the, you know, the franchising model and the scale of the smart fit method? Because, you know, I listen to this conversation and it's like, I personally am, like, very excited to, like, go in and start doing this, but also when it comes to, like, the widespread availability, I think that's what I'm most excited about, you know, into these next decade to come, which is like, this new advancement of technology and how it can be more available to people, hence why you guys are obviously bringing this to the market. And it's. It's really incredible to see. And I'm curious from the business lens, like, how you guys think about that. You know, look, you're looking up to open the new facilities in Park City. Maybe just fill me in and fill the audience in on, like, kind of how many locations right now and how you think about that in the future.

Yeah.

So, I mean, we have nine locations currently. We have locations in San Diego. We have a location out in Chicago. We have some locations in Orange county, and then we also have two locations opening up here in Utah. Our initial growth was mostly through the franchise model.

When we originally started, we weren't really looking to expand through the franchise model, but what happened is we essentially had members working out at our studio who saw the impact we were making for people and wanted to open up their own studios themselves. So we did is we converted over into a franchise model. And those locations, those eight locations have all been opened through a franchise agreement.

Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah, it's been great because the people who are helping open these, they've seen the benefit they experienced the equipment, and they just really want to help other people in their communities. We are moving more towards corporate expansion right now. Not that we're not going to continue opening franchises, but both my father and I are moving more towards opening our own studios, own corporate models to just continue growing this thing out. We'll probably do that for the next 20 or 30 locations.

Got it.

And then come back into the franchise model. And that's when we'll probably expand greater with, you know, something like this. It's, it's an emerging market. You know, we're really disrupting the fitness industry. A lot of what, you know, my dad was talking about there is, you know, we're, we're taking a very different approach. We're not putting a template and just giving it to people or creating a personal training program with chat GPT. Like we're, you know, we're really looking into these, the biometrics of this individual, what their VO2 max is, what their metabolic health is, what their body composition is, what's their strength level at pound per, you know, pound per, like pound per pound, essentially what their weight is versus what the strength they can put out is. And then based on all this information, we're formulating a protocol for them based on their recovery rate, their fitness level, and then we're constantly optimizing that quarterly for them. So it's something that's very unique in the industry and we are the fastest growing company in this space currently. There's other facilities out there that are trying to use some of the same technology, but we have had in the shortest period of time, the most open operational locations. And I think that's because it's not just about the equipment. It really is about the personalization of whatever workout someone's doing to them. And really what the equipment is, is it's just a way for it to make it a whole lot easier for us to do that for that person in a whole lot less time.

Absolutely. And something you said there, Connor, is when I'm hearing this, a core part of that methodology, as you said, is the quarterly assessments. And then if I'm not mistaken, the three day per week in the studio, is that the preferred, as you would say, the method that people follow? Or do some people come in once a week? Is it five days or is that not even recommended? I'm just curious, in terms of the protocol on that front, what's great about that?

Is it. It's completely based on their fitness level and their goals. So we essentially, based on all those tests, they're going to get a recommended protocol. And that could be three times a week, it could be five times a week. We do factor in how much time they have available as well. Right. Like if the person is extremely busy, they're not gonna be able to come in five or six times a week. And we're gonna have to do the most we can, maybe with two sessions per week. But based on their time, based on their fitness level, we measure the amount of stimulus that we need to provide that person for them to get the results they want over the period of time they're looking for. So it really does. You know, there's some standard things we do do because there's science that, you know, we'll say, hey, we shouldn't be doing the strength training on the level of intensity that we're doing it at four times a week. That's not going to work for someone. But based on that person's ability to recover, they might do it twice a week. So it really does come down to how that orientation goes with them. We do a full week of basically calibration of the equipment, so making sure everything is dialed into their fitness level and their potential.

Absolutely. I love that. And one thing that I just to this was important that I wanted to cover, and you both can speak on this, but for you, Rob, how has it been since the early days of this company working together, father, son duo? I think this dynamic is so important and so special, and I'm curious to know what led to that. Most importantly, I know Connor gave the background of presenting the business plan and leaning in there, but. Yeah, what's that been, Rob, from your perspective? And of course, I'd love to hear from your perspective as well, Connor.

Yeah, I think one of the most important things is that having been an entrepreneur my whole entire life, I've always been focused on value creation and making sure that we have something that is beneficial to an individual. Generally, what we're looking at is there are certain challenges that people face, whether it be their fitness or their financial world or whatever the case might be that they need to eliminate.

Right.

There's opportunities that people are excited to capitalize on. You know, you mentioned running a marathon, for instance. Right. And then everybody comes to the table with certain strengths. So the key is to utilize those strengths, to maximize them, to help capitalize on opportunities for the individual and to help them eliminate dangers that they face. Right. And so that approach to business, I think, is transferable across all businesses, whether we're selling a widget or helping somebody with their overall fitness and health. So when Connor came to me with the goal to become entrepreneurial, you know, and my opportunity to get a purpose again, where I was helping others. So in other words, taking lemons and making lemonade out of it. In other words, instead of being in a situation where, you know, I. I had been dealt a tough deck of cards, I had Found a way out of it, but not just keeping it to myself. Being able to have a, as Larry Page would say, mtp, a massive transferable purpose in life.

Right.

And that comes twofold for us. First of all, it comes from the fact that we see people come off their diabetes medication, lower blood pressure, change their outcome and health. And you know, my situation might speak to a lot of people. You, you shared yours. Most people are dealing with something and if they're not, they're going to be right at some point. You're going to be dealing with something. And what I want to help people is not to cower to their conditions, but find a way through it. Right. And be able to do something for themselves and be able to get around a situation. Maybe it's just something as simple as a frozen shoulder, right. Or maybe it's something more serious like what I'm dealing with. Right. But that opportunity was exciting for me because we're being able to help people. But the second thing is, like most people who have had a certain level of success in business, nothing excites me more than to speak to somebody like yourself, Casey, or help somebody like Connor. I really want to help the next generation. I disagree with a lot of my generation, which is that your generation is lazy and they don't want to do anything. I think you're the next generation. And you know, and we've shown that because some of our trainers have actually become our franchisees.

Oh, that's incredible.

We're talking about 20 year old men and women that have gone on to open their own facilities. And so I see a dual purpose in my role here is to transfer the knowledge we have around health and fitness and recovery and so forth, and then also help the next generation of entrepreneurs and pay it forward. Right. And that's really probably one of the most rewarding things that I get out of this business is being involved in it. From my perspective, this is ultimately going to be Connor's business. Right. This is ultimately going to be his baby. He's going to run it. I'm here for guidance and to share that ability. So knowing that role and Connor knowing that, you know, this is his future, I think makes our relationship easy in our. In. In where we stand in this. Right. I can bring a lot of time and expertise to the business model. I've been around business a long time. But Connor has the energy and the drive of a 24 year old to really change an industry. Kind of like I did back when I was in my 20s. Right. And so I I, I appreciate the business relationship from that perspective. The other thing that Connor has done is he's entered into things like strategic coach, entrepreneurial frameworks to better understand how to expand the business and grow the business properly. And, you know, I think that that becomes really important to us to making sure that we do it right. You know, one of the things that Connor touched on is our longevity tests, Right. So we. First thing you do when you come in is we do a 22 metabolic risk factor test on you. We look at your VO2 max, we look at your metabolic flexibility, we look at all these key factors, and we also look at your body scan and body composition. Right. Then we talk about your availability to adapt. And then what we do is we put you in touch with our sports doctor, who then reviews your scenario and meets with you to discuss what you need to be focusing on and how we need to work on it. And if you want to take it further from that, we've just entered a new program called Smart Health where we can put you in charge, in touch with our concierge doctor who can get into things like stress, adrenals and hormones with you. So we can offer the whole entire package for somebody. And I think the goal has always been within Smart Fit. What would, you know, what would somebody. I'm 55 years of age. I want to continue to be athletic. I want to continue to snowmobile my kids, snowboard, ski, whatever. What would I want if I could get it in one place?

Yeah.

And what I would want is I want a perfectly dialed stimulus, a great recovery room, and a doctor that knows what's happening at a cellular level for me. And that's ultimately what the method is, is trying to build that out. Connor's going to drive that. I'm going to guide.

I love that. I love that perspective as well. And it's, it's so cool to hear, like the dynamic duo and what you guys have created.

Absolutely. And Connor, your perspective on that?

Yeah, I mean, my perspective was really just, you know, I, I seen this technology help my own family so much that I, I really wanted to share that with other families. It really is a family business. Like when we first opened, you know, my girlfriend got involved. She's still involved. Mina, the dad was involved. My mom even got involved a little bit. My brother worked for me for a while. Like, it, it really was when he initially started business, try and help other families. Right. We have tons of, you know, we have multi, multi generations in our facility.

We have grandparents, their kids are working out there.

Their grandkids are working out there. It's pretty cool to see in terms of like, you know, the father son dynamic. I mean, it's like you said, it's pretty smooth I think, because we both come from a good place where we're both really just trying to help people with their health and fitness.

And also I think that going to strategic coach and really studying how to be a better entrepreneur has helped as well. We're really good at separating the work and then the fun. And we, we have, you know, strict like boundaries there as to like, okay, this is when we're on, this is when we're off. And I think that's really important. Any sort of family dynamic if you're going to be working together because, you know, you're family first right before business and, and I think that's extremely important.

Yeah, no, I, I love that perspective and appreciate you guys both sharing that. I mean, I feel like genuinely I could talk to you guys for hours and I have like so many questions, of course, like, you know, Connor, for context, like I'm 24, the same age in terms of like what's inspiring to you and you know, obviously these different coaching programs and like the mentorship that you have with your father, Rob. And it's just so, it really is to me, like so great to see. And I'm, I'm curious as we start wrapping up here, guys, like to you, Rob, you know, we didn't get into too much in terms of like all of the, like the prior businesses too much into the depth. But I want to ask you this and it could be pointed towards Connor, which, but also just to the listener is like throughout your entrepreneurial journey, you know, you've, you've had many different business models and different successes. If you could go back in time to when you're starting your first business, what have you not only learned, but what are some of the key businesses like pieces of advice that you'd give to your younger self and also to young entrepreneurs, whether it be Connor, myself or listeners out there today.

Yeah, I, I think, you know, I, I live off of a couple of key phrases that I work with all the time. One by Izzy Sharp, the founder of Four Seasons, which is to systemize the predictables, right. So that you can humanize the unpredictables. So that's a really important piece of what I've done in each and every of my businesses, is to put the systems and processes in place that take care of the day to day things that need to be done so that When a situation needs a human involved, like a human relationship, that you're there to do it because you're free of worrying about all the little things that just to have to happen. Right. So I like to always think of it like a saying I heard once before, which was, Frank Sinatra didn't move pianos.

Right?

He stood on the stage and sang and entertained the audience. So we want to make sure that the piano is in the right place, that it's tuned correctly. Those are all systems and processes. And bringing on technology was what allowed us to be successful. In all of my previous businesses, we also looked at another thing that's really important. This is also for our members as well as the business that Peter Drucker once said, you can only improve that, that you can measure. So make sure that everything in your business is measurable and in your fitness world. Right. So I use a good example when I talk about fitness with people, right. Is I said each and every one of us, and I come from a bit of a financial background, puts together a retirement plan, a financial retirement plan. And in that financial plan, we determine how much money we have, how much money we can continue to contribute, how time will play an effect on it, how inflation will affect it so that our last two decades on this planet are enjoyable. We have enough money. Then the next question I always ask, do you have a physical retirement plan? Because you can have all the money in the world, but you don't have the capability to enjoy it because you haven't taken care of your health and fitness, then it's of no use to you, Right? And what's fascinating to me, and this is one of the things that, when I first brought it to Connor about, hey, I'll help you build this business, but what you have to do is you have to look at it the same way we look at a financial plan, and that is we need to be able to reverse calculate for an individual where they're at today, what is necessary so that when they go to Italy with their friends, they're not sitting in the hotel room while their friends are hiking the Dolomites.

Yeah, yeah, right.

That's really important to me is that we create a physical retirement plan. So part of that was developing apps, developing technology, integrating technologies, and the convergence of these technologies as we go along. And then lastly is a Jocko Wallach quote that I love, which is extreme ownership, right? It's extreme ownership. You know, his troops would come to him and say, you know, captain, Captain, we're, We're. We just got notified that we're not going to get a new shipment of supplies for three more days. And his answer would be great, that'll make us better at utilizing those supplies we have. Right. And I think that if you're going to run a business and you're going to, whether you're a franchisee or franchisor, an independent broker, whatever the case is, extreme ownership is critical to your success because you can't take the Al Capone approach, which is, I don't understand why society's against me. I've been nothing but a benefactor to society. In other words, everyone else is wrong. I'm right. Right?

Yeah.

You have to be open to the mindset of saying, okay, what could I be doing better? And what we do is we use very significant tools that we've gotten out of Strategic Coach. I was in that program for close to 25 years. Connor has now been in it for three years. And we use tools to better understand and take the emotion out of decisions. So Connor talked about how we manage family. Same way we use tools like experience, Transformers, impact filters, entrepreneurial time systems. And we're very disciplined to those. Because one of the things I've learned in business is that generally when something goes wrong, 99% of the time it was a failure to follow process. And once you get through all the excuses and you get to ownership, you find out that if they just followed the process, it would have addressed the issue. So I'm a big fan of making sure we use the tools, we use the processes, we use the system. Because at the end of the day, ultimately what you want to think about is not selling your company or, or don't build a company to sell it. Don't build a company to retire from it. Build a company that can become self managing. As Warren Buffett said, it doesn't eat while I sleep.

Yes, absolutely.

So these are all in my head all the time. And I try to approach all business matters, reminding me myself of these great quotes.

I love that. I appreciate you for sharing that. And put, before we wrap up here, I want to just ask this to both of you guys, which is just what excites you the most about the future with the Smart Fit method. And once you both answer that, where's the best place for everyone to really just stay in touch and get more involved and learn more about everything you guys have going on and of course, go and visit facilities.

Sure.

I mean, what really excites me about what we're doing is these new facilities are opening up through this corporate model. Um, you know, really combining the fitness, the recovery, the functional medicine side of things all into one platform. You know, this really allows people to kind of have an all in one shot when it comes to their own health span, the quality of life and how long they live that quality of life.

So that, that's definitely one of the main things that excite me. If, of course, opening more and more facilities is going to be great. We're going to keep expanding into new states, new areas. The best way to stay in touch with us is probably through our website as well as social media. So smartfitmethod.com is our website, Martfit Method is our social media platforms. And then, you know, if they want to stay in touch with me personally, LinkedIn's probably the best. Connor Darnbrough but yeah, I mean, I love talking about this stuff. So of course, if any of the listeners are interested, just shoot me a message on LinkedIn and I'm more than happy to go over it with people. And yeah, I'm super excited just to see where this company continues to go and see whose lives we impact.

Absolutely.

And I would say just to add on to that, Connor, I think Smart Fit has a. If you want to make a massive transferable difference in the world, you need to touch more lives. That's really what it comes down to is that we don't try to gain value for ourselves in each relationship. We try to create as much value as we possibly can, that the individual doesn't feel they're compensating as enough for that value. But the way that we end up getting compensated is by touching more lives, both from an emotional standpoint and a financial standpoint, knowing that we're helping more people. So there's three ways that your person can be involved in SmartFit. Right. Obviously as a member, which I would encourage everyone to come in and, you know, look up on our website, smartfitmethod.com and find a location near to you. And if we don't have one near you now, they're probably coming. Right.

Love it.

The ability to go in and experience this type of membership and be able to even just do your own longevity check to know where you're at, I think is profound for everyone. We all need a baseline and we need to understand what that baseline is because again, we can only improve that, that we can measure. So we need to be measuring.

Right.

The second thing is you could contact us about potentially opening up franchise in your area if you wanted to bring this technology and capability to your area. And we can discuss that as well again through the website. You can link to that. And the third is Connor is currently doing a safe. A fundraise right now to expand the business and grow the business. So those individuals who just want to be a part of something but don't necessarily want to run their own facility.

Yeah.

They want to just be a part of this changing of the fitness industry, completely overhauling something that isn't working for 92% of the population and do a better job of it. And if you want to be a part of that, then you can contact us in regards to our safe investment, which is open until the end of April.

I love that. Well, I will absolutely put all that information. Email the contacts down below. And before we wrap up, guys, I just really want to say I am so not only just blown away, but inspired by what you guys are. Excuse me? By what you guys are doing. And, you know, there's. There's so much to learn and I'm so excited to get in there sometime here in the near future and really just can't wait to see this technology continue to grow and expand and be available for more people because it's. It really is so incredible. And once again, thank you guys so much for taking the time today and for sharing what it is you guys are building and all the lessons learned along the way so far.

Yeah.

Thank you for having us on, Casey. Really appreciate it.

Of course.

And thank you, Casey, for doing what you're doing. I'm always inspired by young entrepreneurs, so keep it up.