Since I posted that Beachbody "Before" photo, I got some requests for more background. It's been an interesting ride for the last 8 years, and I won't bore you with all the details. But here's a first installment of a little background on how we've grown:
When we launched the company in 1998, we started with a product idea, and produced the workouts and the ads to sell the workouts at the same time. I think the budget was $25,000. Now the budgets have an extra comma in them.
In the early days I directed the workout videos and the commercials. And we called on friends to help us with everything from working the equipment to leading the routines. That included Tony Horton and Debbie Seibers, our first two trainers who turned out to both have something extremely special about the way they put a program together.
Great Body Guaranteed was our first video series, 7 to 10 minutes of efficient moves sequenced so you would target the different sections of the body in an order that would move from strongest to weakest so you got a great workout in a shockingly short period of time. The first DVD was Tony Horton's Great Abs Guaranteed, and it sold well on TV.
Great Body Guaranteed was our first video series, 7 to 10 minutes of efficient moves sequenced so you would target the different sections of the body in an order that would move from strongest to weakest so you got a great workout in a shockingly short period of time. The first DVD was Tony Horton's Great Abs Guaranteed, and it sold well on TV.
We created the on-screen graphic look of Great Abs Guaranteed, so people would feel like their TV's were more than a thing to watch, but a real source of fitness motivation and information.
Debbie Seibers is here on set for the shooting of the Thin Thighs Guaranteed Spots. Thin Thighs was a pretty big hit, when many in the direct-response TV business couldn't make a short form spot work. We enjoyed solid results for two years, and the Great Body Guaranteed line is still a popular product on the website.
Our next program was a kick boxing video called "Tai Fit" which I licensed from a friend for a few years. With the popularity of that title and our other programs, all of a sudden we needed and umbrella name for an online store. I wanted to call it "Great Body" but there was a squatter sitting on the dot-com... The back-up name was Beachbody.com, so we went for that.
Debbie Seibers is here on set for the shooting of the Thin Thighs Guaranteed Spots. Thin Thighs was a pretty big hit, when many in the direct-response TV business couldn't make a short form spot work. We enjoyed solid results for two years, and the Great Body Guaranteed line is still a popular product on the website.
Our next program was a kick boxing video called "Tai Fit" which I licensed from a friend for a few years. With the popularity of that title and our other programs, all of a sudden we needed and umbrella name for an online store. I wanted to call it "Great Body" but there was a squatter sitting on the dot-com... The back-up name was Beachbody.com, so we went for that.
We started to get success stories and photos from customers. I think our first was from Piper, and we were surprised at how much people wanted us to use their stories to inspire other people. Hmmmm... using our real success stories to inspire people. The future started to look more clear.
In the meantime to experiment with promoting Beachbody, Jon had a volleyball buddy who was putting on weekend tournaments on LA beaches, and for a few hundred dollars and some Activit, we got to put up this banner that made us look big time. The only thing "big" though was our waistlines... Power 
90 and Michi's Ladder were right around the corner.
90 and Michi's Ladder were right around the corner.More to come...
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