July 24, 2025 • 46 mins
In this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart podcast, host Dr. Karen Litzy welcomes Carl Daikeler, the visionary entrepreneur and CEO of Beachbody, now known as Bodi. With a career spanning over four decades, Karl has been a trailblazer in the fitness and nutrition industry, co-founding Beachbody in 1998 and overseeing its growth into a powerhouse brand renowned for iconic programs such as P90X, Insanity, and 21 Day Fix. Join Karen and Carl as they explore business, mindset, and the keys to reaching health and fitness goals, along with Carl's insights on balancing the concepts of being healthy, wealthy, and smart. Tune in for an inspiring discussion filled with valuable lessons and strategies for success!
Time Stamps:
[00:02:19] Infomercials and fitness innovation.
[00:04:36] Home fitness program development.
[00:08:59] Reality show fitness experience.
[00:12:06] Digital strategy in fitness.
[00:18:03] Company valuation highs and lows.
[00:21:25] Transforming lives through health solutions.
[00:25:58] Making hard decisions in business.
[00:30:45] Unlimited fitness market opportunity.
[00:34:09] Theater and producing journey.
[00:38:16] Importance of daily exercise.
[00:42:28] Healthy, fulfilling life through movement.
More About Carl:
Carl Daikeler is a visionary entrepreneur, and the CEO and co-founder of The Beachbody Company, leading innovator in the fitness and nutrition space. With a career spanning over four decades, Daikeler has been a trailblazer, pioneering unconventional and highly effective methods to help individuals reach their health and fitness goals. Daikeler co-founded Beachbody in 1998, now known as BODi, which has expanded into a powerhouse of fitness and nutrition tools under his leadership over the last 26 years. The brand is celebrated for its iconic programs such as P90X, Insanity, and 21 Day Fix, and its profound impact on millions worldwide. Over the years, Daikeler has overseen the development of continued innovation resulting in massive growth, including the creation of Shakeology, the world’s first superfood nutrition shake that has sold over a billion servings. He also hosts "The BODi Experience" podcast, is a successful Broadway theater producer winning three Tony awards, and a tech investor. You can connect with Carl Daikeler more through his Instagram at @carldaikeler and LinkedIn.
Resources from this Episode:
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart podcast. I
am your host, Dr. Karen Litzy, owner of Karen Litzy Physical Therapy located
in New York City. And today I am so excited
for my guest. We are going to be talking business. We're
going to talk big business. We're going to talk mindset. And
so to help me walk through all of that, is Karl Deichler.
(00:25):
He is a visionary entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of
the Beachbody company, leading innovator in the fitness
and nutrition space. With a career spanning over four decades, Deichler
has been a trailblazer pioneering unconventional and
highly effective methods to help individuals reach their health and fitness goals.
He co-founded Beachbody in 1998, now known as Body with an I, which
(00:49):
has expanded into a powerhouse of fitness nutrition tools under
his leadership over the last 26 years. The
brand is celebrated for its iconic programs, such as P90X, which
I mean, we were all doing, Insanity, and 21 Day
Fix, and its profound impact on
millions worldwide. Over the years, Deichler has overseen the
(01:10):
development of continued innovation resulting in massive growth, including
the creation of Shakeology, the world's first superfood nutrition
shake that has sold over a billion servings. He also hosts
the body experience podcast is a successful Broadway theater
producer winning three Tonys, which I do want to talk to you about that
and is a tech investor. So Carl, welcome to the podcast.
(01:33):
Thanks for having me on, Karen. I'm trying to figure out which
of the words in your title got me
on. Healthy? Wealthy? I don't know if I'm hitting that
mark right these days. Smart? I'm not sure about at all, but
Well, let's see what happens as we go through the
podcast. We'll see which buckets we can put
(01:58):
But first, before we even get to all of that, now I just gave a
pretty great introduction as to your business life.
What were you doing before all of that happened? So
give the listeners a little bit more about the history of you and
how you kind of decided to go the route. What got
(02:19):
Well, um, yeah, it, it, it, I would say
it started in production. You mentioned the theater background, uh,
which is, which came way later, but early in
my career, my family owned a little theater outside of Philadelphia called
the Bucks County Playhouse. So I sort of grew up there and had
a jump on, production, lighting,
(02:40):
all the technical stuff that led to getting
into video production early and going to a great college
for that, Ithaca College. And right out of school, I started to
produce videos for companies. And
one of the things I got into was producing infomercials. And
I learned very early that the infomercial was
(03:01):
just a framework for selling. So you could really break it
down And one of the most reliable categories
of products that you could sell in what they would
call a program-length infomercial was fitness. But
I always would question, you know, I would watch a fitness
infomercial and, you know, all these gadgets. Every
(03:23):
year there was a sort of a new pipeline of gadgets would come out. And
I'd look at this stuff and I'd be like, I would never, like, that doesn't look
like it would work. So I never really got it. And that gave me an idea, like,
If if I'm sitting here having this reaction, there's
got to be tens of millions of other people having that reaction so what
if the infomercial was actually showing you
(03:45):
something that that made sense to
a rational person and gave you a predictable outcome
over a specific period of time and so like the first
Attempt I made was this little program called
eight minute abs and And it was before
I started this company, and I just just thought you know if I
(04:07):
just did eight minutes of ab work a day I could maybe
get myself in shape because I've got the problem right. I'm not a natural exerciser
so produced this product, did a little
commercial for it, and it was a smash. It was just an absolute home
run. And I said to my partner at the time, I think we could do more
of these. I think there's other ideas. And you know, basically this is the days of
(04:31):
Right, yeah, this is not the days of Instagram and TikTok, right?
That's right. So the premise was, rather than
hire a trainer, let me distribute good
training principles to you on a videotape, which then turned into
a DVD, and now obviously is digital. But
that was the early premise. My partner at the time did not want to
(04:54):
Go down that path. He wanted to be more of a media company. I said this is
a big idea So i'm leaving some details out to get to
the point but then uh in 1998 raised the money
to start this company from some angel investors and
our first Big program was a thing. We did
with tony horton called power 90 which was
actually the prequel if you will to p90x which
(05:18):
was just a 90-day program that he and I had
developed sort of together. It's something that I
had done kind of in college and high school. And I said, hey, can
you give me a program, Tony, that in 90 days,
I know if I really stick to it, that I'll get in great shape. So
he gave me that, and I just did it. And 90 days later,
(05:38):
he's like, how'd it go? I'm like, I got in great shape. So
I said, let's make a video out of it. and uh,
uh that that really That really set the company up
for success. We went I I think it was in our I
don't know third year Yeah, second
year in business Um, we did six million dollars
(05:59):
in sales in the third year. We did 33 million dollars in
sales so it took off, you know, we were tiny little company and it's
And it's been variations on the theme now for 26 years
and that is Find a genre or a modality
That would be suitable for people to do at home Some
things aren't that suitable or or we haven't figured out
(06:21):
how to train them appropriately yet but uh, but but
give people a bespoke day one to what we like to say day
done and and it's very appealing to people like
me who aren't necessarily going to easily
incorporate fitness into their daily habits, but
if it's a project, whether it's 21 days,
(06:45):
like a 21-day fix, or six weeks, or
like Slim in Six, which was the second program we did, to the 90-day programs,
and that project Sensibility really
works for me, and I think that has appealed to the
people we've attracted at Beachbody, now Body, since
(07:08):
Yeah. So that's a long time. And I can remember in like the
late, I guess it must've been the late nineties. I remember like
the DVDs of P90X and doing
Yeah. Look, and we got, the industry didn't
understand us, the infomercial industry. They were like, you're going to show people doing
pull-ups, pushups, squats and
(07:33):
sweating and it looks hard that doesn't work on tv and
and again the premise was if if it
was appealing to me so if it's appealing to me there's got to
be a million people out there who are just like waiting for something that makes sense
and uh and that's what they'll do so So that's what
it was, but we did it like these programs
(07:55):
were the equipment, right? So you could buy a Bowflex for $1,500 or
you could buy a P90X for $120 or now you can subscribe to over 140 different
programs on the platform for $180 a year and it's like professional
(08:16):
television. It's like, they've got a narrative. Like, I'm
sorry, I'm going on and on. No, no, no. I get excited about this. When
we went digital, we recognized that rather than produce,
like P90X was 12, I think 12 or 13 videos that
you would repeat over the course of 12 weeks. When we went digital, we
saw the opportunity to do something in real time so that
(08:37):
it was like a reality show. So we produced this program with
trainer Autumn Calabrese called 80 Day Obsession. And
her and her cast, she probably had eight or nine people in
the cast. And literally we shot one
workout a day for 80 days. So, and
the premise was, look, it's really hard to both flatten your
(09:00):
abs and lose weight and build your butt. Okay. Cause
like those, like the way you eat, it's just a
difficult thing to achieve both at the same time. So she
designed a meal plan around it, but what was really unique
about the program was when you plugged into that
day one, you followed along day by day and
(09:21):
these people became part of your life for three months.
Like that cast, they were your friends and it was like a reality
show. Like the people in the background, you would identify with one of them and
their facial expressions or, you know, and when
they were sore, you're sore. So it really changed the
dynamic of in-home fitness and that that's just
(09:43):
what we've been doing with each innovation and technology to
try to make it more of
an experience. So that even though you just might be working
20 to 30 to maybe 45 minutes at home, you feel
like it was just as social, but more efficient than
Yeah, yeah. And as you're talking, I'm
(10:05):
just thinking in my head, like, man, you have really had
to make a lot of pivots Right. Because
when things went to DVDs or when things went digital, you
could have just thrown up your hands and been like, oh,
So can you talk to some of the challenges that come with
pivoting within your business or even any
(10:28):
any business? And if you've made any recent pivots to Bodhi
that you'd like or Bodhi, I did it. I said it wrong body.
I said it wrong. I can't believe I said it wrong. We talked about this before. Sorry.
Well, it's just it's a natural thing. I totally get it. But that's
why our our marketing is Love Your Body, B-O-D-I,
just to try to help people get it, what the premise is. And by the way, It
(10:52):
was an acronym for Beachbody On Demand Interactive. And
so we had the URL B-O-D-I. And
I was like, oh, a four letter URL. That's great. But
you're right. You can't be in business 26 years with
the outrageous technical innovations
that have come along without needing
(11:15):
to figure it out. And it's not just technical innovations. Those technical
innovations and the implementation or the adoption
of social media and the replacement of what
we would call linear television forced us
to change. But The
good news is, through all of it, from VHS,
(11:39):
then going to DVD, like I can remember the people who used
to do our VHS tapes were saying
to us, you guys are the last ones duplicating VHS tapes,
like why is that? And what was happening was, as people were buying DVD players,
they were putting that in the living room, taking the VHS player, putting that in the spare
room where they would do the home workouts. And then it
(12:00):
turned into, you know, we were the last ones still printing
DVDs when everything was going digital. But in 2016, we made
the decision to implement a digital strategy,
which was a completely, it's a complete dislocation. from
our existing business model, but it's the future. And
(12:21):
you can't just stay in
the buggy whip business and watch cars driving down the road and go, well, this'll
pass. So you have to adopt it. And
what feels like, really, you
know, the most significant changes which happened post-pandemic.
So, you know, we're talking about end of or mid-2021. Here
(12:44):
we are mid-2025. That's a long dislocation. until
you think about the nature of the problem and
the obesity crisis continues to
rage and people are getting busier
and busier and less healthy and
(13:06):
making more excuses and here come the drugs and the
GLP-1s and quite honestly I
think what we do is more important now than it was when we started 26 years
ago because somebody's got to stand up and
say this is unacceptable for us as
a society that wants to survive and and adults who
(13:28):
want to show our kids what's important about engaging in
life and making it more than passively
scrolling on a screen or passively watching TV and
engaging in life in some active, conscious
way. And that's what keeps us going. But for
sure, the need for reinvention in
(13:51):
the midst of this has been an incredible
struggle. with no foregone conclusion. There's no,
I'm not entitled to success. I've got to figure it out. The company is
doing everything that they can to figure it out. And frankly, I
think because this issue,
these headwinds have affected the entire home fitness
(14:13):
business. Peloton, Mirror, Tonal, other
content companies. Even now, the dramatic
rise of content on YouTube and like you said, Instagram.
But I think we, body, is in the
best position in the industry to
(14:36):
redefine in-home fitness and the prioritization of
health because we are a content business and because we're
not random. So let me explain what that means. So the
equipment companies, it's very difficult for them to
replace their equipment revenue with content
revenue, because the price points are so dramatically different.
(14:58):
So they kind of have to take a big step back in order to rebuild. So
here we are with 140 programs, thousands of workouts, all proven
to work for people, fast results step-by-step right at home. So
we're in a really good position there, but then you go, well, wait a minute, YouTube, you
know, there it's all free. Well, the
ground is littered with people who are
(15:21):
face down in the dirt, who just gave
up because they would work out with YouTube videos chosen randomly
through searches, I want an upper body workout, or I want a
dance workout, but nothing that really walks them
through it step by step and has gone through the rigor of
testing like we have. Like we won't release a program until
(15:42):
we test it thoroughly, and if it doesn't make it to the finish line with the
results that we expect, we don't release it. So
I know like, so right now I'm in the middle of a program called 25 minutes
speed train, 25 minutes a day, seven days a week for eight
weeks. I know when I wake up at
5 a.m. and push play on that thing, I know
(16:04):
that I am marching a step forward in
a predictable outcome of improving my strength,
my endurance, and maintaining my
weight. And at 61 years old, that says a lot.
I'm in better shape now than I was in my mid thirties. So that's
the difference. I call that training dysfunction where people are sort of wandering around
(16:25):
the gym and spending an hour or two trying to figure it out or wandering
around YouTube trying to figure it out. We put it
together for them step-by-step, and at less than 50 cents a day, it's
a pretty good deal. So it's our job just to figure out how to tell that story, and
Sure. And now if we talk
(16:47):
a little bit more about kind of the business side of
the business. Right. So I'm sure you've gone up to very high highs
and to some lows and then to some mediums and etc.
So can you can you tell the audience a
little bit more about your sort of high highs where
the company was valued at a very, very high amount?
(17:11):
I'll let you talk about that amount. And then what
happens when, let's say that valuation falls off, and
what do you do from a mindset standpoint to keep moving forward?
Yeah, well, luckily that happened when
I was mature enough and had
done enough personal work to not let
(17:33):
the numbers define me. The outcome is not what
defines me, it's the process and frankly the riddle of
solving, like how do I get three
quarters of the population who aren't
exercising at all, or, you
know, look, 75% of the US adults aren't
(17:54):
getting exercise, 25% aren't exercising at
all. So it's like, so that's the challenge, right? So,
but look, you asked the question, we went from a $3 billion
valuation, and now we're sitting at this, existential
number like in the 50s below 50 million like
(18:15):
that's an incredible fall and it's it's tragic for
people who invested in this when we first went public but um
I'm the majority shareholder and what they call a controlling shareholder. So it hurt me
hurts me hard But I have never taken
a lot of money off the table and I've been doing this Because
(18:35):
I love the substance of it I
love what we're creating so Sure,
I would have loved it to continue to grow from three billion. That
was certainly the point I also think it
really can grow past that and way
beyond if we get this right, because
(18:59):
people are going to need it. And as with the rise of
AI, people are going to maybe have more leisure time and
they're going to need to do something. And I'm hoping that they don't just choose
to age and suffer, but instead
want to make the investment in some discomfort so
that they can age and thrive. And so
(19:21):
that's our opportunity. Now, you say the high of
highs, right? When
P90X was at its peak, which was 2008, 2009, 2010, I've
never experienced anything like that, like just, you know,
being at a restaurant and overhearing people talk about
(19:42):
a thing that was an idea. over dinner, you know, or
getting calls from my parents. Every time they met somebody, they couldn't
believe it. And and relatives asking
if they could have copies of the poster because they were so proud they
wanted to put it up in their houses, you know, that kind of thing. That was pretty wild.
Even, you know, when I met I met Obama at a
(20:04):
function. And was lucky enough to get you know, two
minutes talking to him surrounded by secret service and
uh, you know, he was mr. President these the this is these are
the guys I was with there with my um, uh co-founder and
these are the guys who Started beach body and they developed
p90x with tony horton and obama says p90x Ah,
(20:27):
I love p90x. My wife is doing p90x and all
these secret service guys are doing p90x That's
the kind of moment you don't expect in your life. Particularly
For sure. Like, you know, that's one of those things that sort of
sticks in your mind. But I will tell you, that
(20:50):
is, that's a fun story to tell, but
it's the stuff that gets me out of bed and
keeps me creating and dealing with The
pain of suffering
to solve the problem is working with
(21:11):
real people who were at
their wits end, had no hope, and then
watching them thrive. Like every month or
two months, I'll put a little group together. We have
a community called the Body Experience Community. And it's a free group
that it's sort of attached to the body platform. And
(21:32):
we got tens of thousands of people in
there. And I'll say, hey, look, I'm gonna pick three
or four people to work with me and we'll just have a text thread
going separate from this community. So the last couple
of months I've been working with a woman who was doing a women's
hormone health program. So I was doing my thing, she was doing her thing.
(21:52):
And by the end of each day, we would check in on each other. Did
you do your workouts? How was your nutrition? So she
was doing this program called Belvital, which was designed to
help for women who are like, why is my
body not reacting to like, I'm working out
like hell and I'm dieting and doing all the things I'm supposed to do. Many
(22:13):
of it, which is somewhat irrational or extreme, but
they never put it all together to have
an approach to balance their stress, appropriate approach
to nutrition that does not starve them, but takes
out maybe the things that are creating additional stress or
insulin response or cortisol spikes and
(22:37):
incorporates stress management and some supplements. Well, this woman started
this. She was in her, she's like, I think like 250 pounds,
very frustrated, woke up, she would go to bed, have acid reflux
every night. and wake up with incredible painful
joints. So she's in her, she's midway
(22:57):
through the third month of the program. So she's
two and a half months in, she has lost She's
lost 22, 23 pounds so
far, no acid reflux. Her joint
pain is gone. Her lower back pain is gone. And
as she has said to me, I feel like myself again. Brain
(23:20):
fog, night sweats, hot flashes gone. So
compare that to being recognized, to
having a brand that you create recognized by the
President of the United States. I'll take her story every
day of the week because, and I literally do,
I make notes of these things so that when I'm super frustrated,
(23:42):
I go, wait a minute. Make some decisions which
can be very hard on the people who are affected by
these decisions you know, we we got out of a network marketing
business, which was a Tragic thing for
many people who expected that to go forever Well, it was not growing and
it was actually holding us back. So I had to make a really hard decision but
(24:03):
when I triangulate that with stories like this woman Judith or
hundreds of other of these stories who I
have to succeed with this business to help the
other Judas in this world. That's
my job. Not to run a big network marketing company.
(24:23):
Frankly, not to try to run a $10 billion fitness company.
I need to help Millions of people solve
the lifestyle problem that we were born
into, which is a lifestyle of gratification, processed foods,
and lack of discipline around
our activity level. And our company is the one
(24:46):
because the CEO has the problem. I don't like working
out, I hate vegetables, and I'll eat pizza every meal
of the day if you'll let me. So so I'm constantly solving my
own problem Karen and that's why I know that this I
have to succeed at this and the only reason I'm in decent shape at
61 is because I run this company and So so that's
(25:08):
how I keep going. And so so every day is
a high for me every day that I find a
way to find new hope to find some innovation to
simplify the process of
lifestyle change for people who really want it, who don't want complexity,
that's my calling. And in a world that gets so, goes
(25:31):
gaga about biohacking and complexity and
wearing wearables and rings and necklaces that tell them
if their heart's beating, it's just not that complicated. And it's
my job to try to impart that it doesn't have to be this
And, you know, you had just mentioned about having to
make some hard decisions. And I think something that would
(25:53):
be really helpful a lot of entrepreneurs and, and CEOs
listen to this podcast so what advice do you have.
about making those hard decisions? Do you have a
rubric that you follow to make those decisions
or counsel? How do you make those decisions and how
(26:13):
would you advise maybe another entrepreneur on
how to make a really hard decision, which I know a lot of people do
Yeah. Well, It's
interesting, I read something, there's a
lot to unpack there, okay? The first part is,
(26:37):
be careful of decisions that are purely
meant to speed things up because you're
in pain, because things aren't going fast enough. So
it's very easy to screw the pooch, as
they say, because it's just not happening at
the rate that you expect or the rate that you want. What
(27:01):
you need to do is run a good business. And
so I think it's pretty fundamental. Make
sure your core business, like do whatever you can to
make the core business, the thing that is important about
the business, make
(27:22):
that work. And that includes questioning whether
it's important. Like what is important here? And
then within that, make sure that
you are surviving. Despite being at this 26, 27 years,
I always know where my cash is
(27:44):
to make sure that I'm not going to run out of cash. I've
been doing that since I started this thing when I had no money
and was financing this out of my pocket and I've never lost
that discipline, that I got to make sure I've got enough cash,
which means that sometimes I'm going to have to reduce costs in order to
preserve cash or be picky about
(28:08):
innovation or initiatives and cash allocation that
could burn cash too fast. That doesn't mean you don't take risk. You
just have to manage your
risk so that you don't find yourself stepping
off a cliff. That's really what it comes down to.
(28:31):
And then like what you said, the decision point, If
you're you know, I don't like you called it a rubric. I'm,
not even sure what that means. I I like like just check boxes I
I don't I don't have anything. That's that um Like
that's a framework like that or or not something that I had
(28:53):
that's consciously that way but obviously
business is pretty simple. You
want to find something that people need that has
margin in it so that you can operate a business. And
then you want to try to sell that to as many people who
(29:13):
need it as possible. and
get a flywheel running, okay? So like, it's just
super basic, but usually people
expect that to happen way faster than it actually does. And so
you need to always measure your
(29:34):
impatience and always
maintain creativity because you're not gonna
visualize it all perfectly right out of the gate. So you
have a good idea of what you're gonna do, and every night,
check your work, and every morning, make sure you're
doing the important stuff, not just the
(29:57):
stuff that you like to do. I
don't know. I guess maybe that's a checklist, but that's sort of how I approach these things.
If you know what you want to achieve, like
a mission orientation versus just an orientation of,
I want to make a billion dollars. So if
you have an orientation to some mission or some measure
(30:20):
of productivity, That's the thing. As long as
your fundamentals are appropriate, that that's going to spit out some free cash flow.
And that's the way I operate is I know that this
company is in a virtually unlimited
total addressable market, or TAM, because
(30:40):
there is no leading fitness brand. There's
leaders, Peloton, Nike, Apple
Fitness Plus, but nobody has scaled to be ubiquitous to
be the brand, which means with
75% of the population who's not getting enough exercise, that's
(31:01):
a major opportunity. That's kind of like
knowing that you just invented the toothbrush and
75% of the population has bad breath, we just got to figure out how
to market this thing. Well, I've got the toothbrush and
all you need to do is push play on this platform called
(31:22):
Body and your whole life
is about to change. And I just got to figure out how to market that efficiently
Right. Yeah. And I think that's really great advice. I
really resonated with your advice
on being patient, especially in today's world where, you
know, we expect everything to happen in five minutes, right? Like
(31:45):
you pull out your phone and if the app doesn't load in five
seconds, you're like, what's wrong with this phone? So as a business owner,
when you feel like, man, this should have happened already, And
maybe it's only been a month or it's only been two months. Right.
Yeah. And and it's like we as a business owner, we
just want to go, go, go, go, go. But to your point, sometimes the
(32:06):
best thing you could do for your business is. Not
Well, the impatience is causing you pain, which
makes you more impatient because you want to get out of the pain. So
Like, that's just it. And that's why so many people
quit. And, you
(32:29):
know, honestly, if and this is what when I said, you know,
I've had to overcome and I've had to luckily this dislocation that
started in really 2021. I'm
lucky that I was fairly mature at the time, because I don't know if I would have been this resilient.
But I know that as long as I have the resources, if
(32:51):
I don't quit, because I know the market's there, It
is impossible for me to fail. It's impossible. So
I just need to keep going and I need to keep going smart, preserve cash,
keep marketing, keep figuring it out, pay attention to the market because
the opportunity is just too big and human
(33:13):
lives And our well-being is one thing
that cannot be replaced by AI. So I know I'm in
a position that technologically is not going to get wiped out.
There might be aspects of it that AI will complement. But
the outcome and the ability to actually get people results, that
is a human experience. So humans need what I do. And
(33:36):
so if you're just in a position that you refuse to
quit, Either you're
going to die or you're going to succeed. Those are the only
Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. And I just
think that was a lot of pearls of
wisdom dropped there. So I really hope that people are taking notes because
(33:57):
that was great. As we start to wrap things up, I
do want to talk to you about um, the Broadway connection.
I'm in New York. I love Broadway shows. Um, and
how did you obviously, you
know, theater's in your blood. Um, but how did
you get to be a producer on, on
(34:20):
all of these shows? And just so people know, it's not like one or two
shows, like it's a good number of shows and they've won Tony's
and one of the, that plays once on this island with
We used to live across the street from each other. This was many years ago.
I used to hang out with his at the time girlfriend, now a wife. But
(34:44):
it was I was going through the playbill IMDb,
I guess. And I was like, holy cow. So how I
think it's really interesting, because I'm sure a lot of people just
kind of put you in one sort of little box of like, this is a
fitness guy and that's all he does. Yeah, I think that's probably fair
to say. So how do you, and
(35:04):
again, I think another great question for other business owners, how
do you expand into other areas and
Well, I didn't do it on purpose, meaning I didn't do it
because, oh, I need to diversify. I'm not a
believer in that. If your market opportunity of your one thing
(35:25):
is good enough, just keep repeating it. If you love it, go for it. Or
if you're serving something, that's fine. But
like I said, I came from a theater background. And my
dad, who worked like well
into his late 70s, I was like, Dad, it's time for you to retire. And
(35:46):
I had made some enough money, you know, the P90X days
and everything were good to me. So I had a friend who
worked with Ken, his name's Hunter Arnold, who
and I said, you know, I'd love to start investing in
Some of the shows that have meaning Like
(36:06):
that's that's what I like to look for things that that have a certain feeling
and meaning about them and I said, but since I'm on the west coast,
my dad will be my proxy and And it'll
be fun for him to do in retirement. So I in
the first thing I invested in was Well,
the cast recording of a revival of Godspell, that
(36:28):
was fun. And cause Godspell is one of my favorite shows. Then that
led to they, Ken and Hunter
were putting together Kinky Boots. And
so I got involved in that and that, you know, I wasn't what they call above
the line. I was really just an investor in that, but that did super well. And
you know, and then so we just, kept
(36:51):
putting money in and a couple of times I put enough money in early enough that
I would be considered a producer. That's the way it was with
Once on this Island and Moulin Rouge. And then,
you know, I didn't know that that meant that I was going to be eligible
to win a Tony. But I, you know, I
don't know if you can see him. I got three trophies over here and it's
(37:13):
a wild thing. And what's funny about it is my daughter, is
extremely talented. She's been
singing since she was five months old. And she's actually right now
in Little Rock, Arkansas. She's
about to open in the part of Sheila in Hair.
(37:33):
Oh, fun. But it's super fun and she's just
terrific. But it's just funny that I've got three
Tonys sitting in here and this is the career that she chose. So
it's just always like, I just, you know, hey, maybe someday you'll be a three-time
Emmy or a three-time Tony winner too, you know, who knows? But
that's what it was. So it's literally just a fun side
(37:56):
thing to go see the show, I'll
tell you one funny story. Yeah. And I'm sorry, I'm going on.
Just to show you how I'm kind of stupid sometimes to that. So
I was, you know, I'm on social media on Instagram. And, and
I usually just share about my fitness journey and try to help people understand
(38:17):
how they can avoid disease and the importance of
working out that just 11 minutes of moderate exercise a
day could lower your risk of early death by 23%. Like
that's my job on social media. But one day I was in the
middle of New York and I'm walking around Times Square and I happen to walk by the
theater where Moulin Rouge is. And I thought, and I was
(38:38):
like, Well, wait, that won a Tony, but
I couldn't remember, did I win a Tony for that? Was I
a producer on that or was I just an investor? So I went into the box office,
it was the middle of the day, and I stood in line, there was a guy
there, and then I got in line, I was like, hi, can I
look at the program or the playbill? And she goes, why?
(38:59):
And I was like, well, I just, I want to see if I'm a producer on
this show. Because I didn't want to do a story on Instagram
and say I was a producer and I won a Tony if I
was just an investor. So sure enough, my name was in there. She must have
thought I was insane. But that's just how much
of a hobby it is. It's been great. Hunter is great. Ken is great.
(39:21):
Ken's got a show coming out, Joy. That's going to be fun to see. but
it's a fun hobby. I don't think I've made a
lot of money. I've maybe broken even on it in general, but
it has been a very colorful part of
my story and gives me a little creative break
Yeah. Oh, that's great. That's fun. I love to hear that. Now,
(39:43):
as we start to wrap things up, what do you want people to
take away from our conversation today? If you could pick
Well, the most important thing for me is that,
like I said, that toothbrush. People, I
(40:06):
think, would have a very hard time these days going
about their day and not brushing their teeth. And
obviously, tooth decay, all that stuff is painful, right? We
need to have that same discipline
and imperative about physical activity.
(40:26):
There was a study in what they call the JAMA Oncology,
that journal, found that physical activity, that physically
active people have a 20% lower
risk of 13 different types of cancer, colon
cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer. Like
(40:47):
these little facts are the things that people
don't know and they don't integrate. And then when they get
sick, it's harder to come back because they haven't been
active to start with. And we sort of visualize these
very fit people at the expensive gyms and
their beautiful outfits, or I need to biohack and
(41:08):
have all the readings. It's just not
that complicated. If at a minimum, go
for a walk every day. But if you
can create a little bit more discomfort for yourself, lift
some weights and find a little bit of, I'll
say pain, but it's really discomfort of pushing your
(41:30):
muscles. Cause it's gonna help everything about
your life. Less likelihood of depression and
coping with anxiety. It's gonna help you reduce your risk of diabetes.
I mean, so many people, so much
of the population is pre-diabetic and they don't even know about it.
And it's this, activity level,
(41:53):
like you can even be eating well and
still prone to these diseases because your
body is not working and you might get osteoporosis because
you're not challenging the skeletal muscles,
the skeletal system to stay strong
and stay developed. And so if there's anything that anybody could get from
(42:15):
this or any of my social media or the
body platform, it's that Sure, it's great
to have abs. It is fantastic when you get
a couple of belt loops back and your clothes fit. But
that is what they call tertiary. Number one and
number two is, number one is, this
(42:36):
is how you live a healthy, fulfilling life, by
pushing yourself 20 minutes a day. But make it every
day. Like, even if it's stretching, give me a couple
of days a week, but make that time, make it
just as, Every time you touch your toothbrush, you
should be going, okay, now I'm going to work out. It should be that imperative. And
(42:57):
the other thing is, so one, take care of yourself. And
two, know that when you're taking care of yourself, you are teaching your
kids that this is important because we're
giving them phones too early and letting them off
the hook with accountability for their wellbeing, which
comes from being active. You know, we don't want to let kids out anymore because who
(43:18):
knows what's happening out in the world. They're watching you
and it's important that you move. We'd love it if
you did it using body programs. We've tried to make them short and fun
and efficient so you don't have to drive back and forth to the gym or you take the
app to the gym, but whatever it is, I just hope people that maybe, maybe
today, Karen, you and I motivated four or five people to go, you know what?
(43:40):
This sounds like it makes sense. I just got to figure out a way to start it and
take it from the CEO. It's not
only is it hard to start, it is hard to keep going, but you
have to find a way, because that is the way to live a healthy, fulfilling life.
Excellent. And where can people find you if they have questions, they
(44:01):
Well, it's the name, at Karl Deichler, sorry for the spelling, C-A-R-L-D-A-I-K-E-L-E-R.
But really the easiest way is to go to body.com, B-O-D-I.com. And
that's where you plug into the ecosystem and you'll find everything I'm
Perfect. And for everyone who's listening, if you scroll down on
(44:23):
whatever platform you're listening to right now, we will have the links
to all of that. So one click will take you to everything. And
last question, it's one I ask everyone, knowing where you are now in your
Hmm. No
matter how successful you get, it never gets easy
(44:44):
because you're always going to want to create something
new. So just don't ever look for
easy. Don't ever expect easy. But
when you find something that excites you, do it and keep going.
Excellent advice. Well, thank you so much for coming on
the podcast. This was great. I love learning more about you,
(45:13):
Excellent. And everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. Have a
Hey, everybody, welcome back to the Healthy, Wealthy and Smart podcast. I
am your host, Dr. Karen Litzy, owner of Karen Litzy Physical Therapy located
in New York City. And today I am so excited
for my guest. We are going to be talking business. We're
going to talk big business. We're going to talk mindset. And
so to help me walk through all of that, is Karl Deichler.
(00:25):
He is a visionary entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of
the Beachbody company, leading innovator in the fitness
and nutrition space. With a career spanning over four decades, Deichler
has been a trailblazer pioneering unconventional and
highly effective methods to help individuals reach their health and fitness goals.
He co-founded Beachbody in 1998, now known as Body with an I, which
(00:49):
has expanded into a powerhouse of fitness nutrition tools under
his leadership over the last 26 years. The
brand is celebrated for its iconic programs, such as P90X, which
I mean, we were all doing, Insanity, and 21 Day
Fix, and its profound impact on
millions worldwide. Over the years, Deichler has overseen the
(01:10):
development of continued innovation resulting in massive growth, including
the creation of Shakeology, the world's first superfood nutrition
shake that has sold over a billion servings. He also hosts
the body experience podcast is a successful Broadway theater
producer winning three Tonys, which I do want to talk to you about that
and is a tech investor. So Carl, welcome to the podcast.
(01:33):
Thanks for having me on, Karen. I'm trying to figure out which
of the words in your title got me
on. Healthy? Wealthy? I don't know if I'm hitting that
mark right these days. Smart? I'm not sure about at all, but
Well, let's see what happens as we go through the
podcast. We'll see which buckets we can put
(01:58):
But first, before we even get to all of that, now I just gave a
pretty great introduction as to your business life.
What were you doing before all of that happened? So
give the listeners a little bit more about the history of you and
how you kind of decided to go the route. What got
(02:19):
Well, um, yeah, it, it, it, I would say
it started in production. You mentioned the theater background, uh,
which is, which came way later, but early in
my career, my family owned a little theater outside of Philadelphia called
the Bucks County Playhouse. So I sort of grew up there and had
a jump on, production, lighting,
(02:40):
all the technical stuff that led to getting
into video production early and going to a great college
for that, Ithaca College. And right out of school, I started to
produce videos for companies. And
one of the things I got into was producing infomercials. And
I learned very early that the infomercial was
(03:01):
just a framework for selling. So you could really break it
down And one of the most reliable categories
of products that you could sell in what they would
call a program-length infomercial was fitness. But
I always would question, you know, I would watch a fitness
infomercial and, you know, all these gadgets. Every
(03:23):
year there was a sort of a new pipeline of gadgets would come out. And
I'd look at this stuff and I'd be like, I would never, like, that doesn't look
like it would work. So I never really got it. And that gave me an idea, like,
If if I'm sitting here having this reaction, there's
got to be tens of millions of other people having that reaction so what
if the infomercial was actually showing you
(03:45):
something that that made sense to
a rational person and gave you a predictable outcome
over a specific period of time and so like the first
Attempt I made was this little program called
eight minute abs and And it was before
I started this company, and I just just thought you know if I
(04:07):
just did eight minutes of ab work a day I could maybe
get myself in shape because I've got the problem right. I'm not a natural exerciser
so produced this product, did a little
commercial for it, and it was a smash. It was just an absolute home
run. And I said to my partner at the time, I think we could do more
of these. I think there's other ideas. And you know, basically this is the days of
(04:31):
Right, yeah, this is not the days of Instagram and TikTok, right?
That's right. So the premise was, rather than
hire a trainer, let me distribute good
training principles to you on a videotape, which then turned into
a DVD, and now obviously is digital. But
that was the early premise. My partner at the time did not want to
(04:54):
Go down that path. He wanted to be more of a media company. I said this is
a big idea So i'm leaving some details out to get to
the point but then uh in 1998 raised the money
to start this company from some angel investors and
our first Big program was a thing. We did
with tony horton called power 90 which was
actually the prequel if you will to p90x which
(05:18):
was just a 90-day program that he and I had
developed sort of together. It's something that I
had done kind of in college and high school. And I said, hey, can
you give me a program, Tony, that in 90 days,
I know if I really stick to it, that I'll get in great shape. So
he gave me that, and I just did it. And 90 days later,
(05:38):
he's like, how'd it go? I'm like, I got in great shape. So
I said, let's make a video out of it. and uh,
uh that that really That really set the company up
for success. We went I I think it was in our I
don't know third year Yeah, second
year in business Um, we did six million dollars
(05:59):
in sales in the third year. We did 33 million dollars in
sales so it took off, you know, we were tiny little company and it's
And it's been variations on the theme now for 26 years
and that is Find a genre or a modality
That would be suitable for people to do at home Some
things aren't that suitable or or we haven't figured out
(06:21):
how to train them appropriately yet but uh, but but
give people a bespoke day one to what we like to say day
done and and it's very appealing to people like
me who aren't necessarily going to easily
incorporate fitness into their daily habits, but
if it's a project, whether it's 21 days,
(06:45):
like a 21-day fix, or six weeks, or
like Slim in Six, which was the second program we did, to the 90-day programs,
and that project Sensibility really
works for me, and I think that has appealed to the
people we've attracted at Beachbody, now Body, since
(07:08):
Yeah. So that's a long time. And I can remember in like the
late, I guess it must've been the late nineties. I remember like
the DVDs of P90X and doing
Yeah. Look, and we got, the industry didn't
understand us, the infomercial industry. They were like, you're going to show people doing
pull-ups, pushups, squats and
(07:33):
sweating and it looks hard that doesn't work on tv and
and again the premise was if if it
was appealing to me so if it's appealing to me there's got to
be a million people out there who are just like waiting for something that makes sense
and uh and that's what they'll do so So that's what
it was, but we did it like these programs
(07:55):
were the equipment, right? So you could buy a Bowflex for $1,500 or
you could buy a P90X for $120 or now you can subscribe to over 140 different
programs on the platform for $180 a year and it's like professional
(08:16):
television. It's like, they've got a narrative. Like, I'm
sorry, I'm going on and on. No, no, no. I get excited about this. When
we went digital, we recognized that rather than produce,
like P90X was 12, I think 12 or 13 videos that
you would repeat over the course of 12 weeks. When we went digital, we
saw the opportunity to do something in real time so that
(08:37):
it was like a reality show. So we produced this program with
trainer Autumn Calabrese called 80 Day Obsession. And
her and her cast, she probably had eight or nine people in
the cast. And literally we shot one
workout a day for 80 days. So, and
the premise was, look, it's really hard to both flatten your
(09:00):
abs and lose weight and build your butt. Okay. Cause
like those, like the way you eat, it's just a
difficult thing to achieve both at the same time. So she
designed a meal plan around it, but what was really unique
about the program was when you plugged into that
day one, you followed along day by day and
(09:21):
these people became part of your life for three months.
Like that cast, they were your friends and it was like a reality
show. Like the people in the background, you would identify with one of them and
their facial expressions or, you know, and when
they were sore, you're sore. So it really changed the
dynamic of in-home fitness and that that's just
(09:43):
what we've been doing with each innovation and technology to
try to make it more of
an experience. So that even though you just might be working
20 to 30 to maybe 45 minutes at home, you feel
like it was just as social, but more efficient than
Yeah, yeah. And as you're talking, I'm
(10:05):
just thinking in my head, like, man, you have really had
to make a lot of pivots Right. Because
when things went to DVDs or when things went digital, you
could have just thrown up your hands and been like, oh,
So can you talk to some of the challenges that come with
pivoting within your business or even any
(10:28):
any business? And if you've made any recent pivots to Bodhi
that you'd like or Bodhi, I did it. I said it wrong body.
I said it wrong. I can't believe I said it wrong. We talked about this before. Sorry.
Well, it's just it's a natural thing. I totally get it. But that's
why our our marketing is Love Your Body, B-O-D-I,
just to try to help people get it, what the premise is. And by the way, It
(10:52):
was an acronym for Beachbody On Demand Interactive. And
so we had the URL B-O-D-I. And
I was like, oh, a four letter URL. That's great. But
you're right. You can't be in business 26 years with
the outrageous technical innovations
that have come along without needing
(11:15):
to figure it out. And it's not just technical innovations. Those technical
innovations and the implementation or the adoption
of social media and the replacement of what
we would call linear television forced us
to change. But The
good news is, through all of it, from VHS,
(11:39):
then going to DVD, like I can remember the people who used
to do our VHS tapes were saying
to us, you guys are the last ones duplicating VHS tapes,
like why is that? And what was happening was, as people were buying DVD players,
they were putting that in the living room, taking the VHS player, putting that in the spare
room where they would do the home workouts. And then it
(12:00):
turned into, you know, we were the last ones still printing
DVDs when everything was going digital. But in 2016, we made
the decision to implement a digital strategy,
which was a completely, it's a complete dislocation. from
our existing business model, but it's the future. And
(12:21):
you can't just stay in
the buggy whip business and watch cars driving down the road and go, well, this'll
pass. So you have to adopt it. And
what feels like, really, you
know, the most significant changes which happened post-pandemic.
So, you know, we're talking about end of or mid-2021. Here
(12:44):
we are mid-2025. That's a long dislocation. until
you think about the nature of the problem and
the obesity crisis continues to
rage and people are getting busier
and busier and less healthy and
(13:06):
making more excuses and here come the drugs and the
GLP-1s and quite honestly I
think what we do is more important now than it was when we started 26 years
ago because somebody's got to stand up and
say this is unacceptable for us as
a society that wants to survive and and adults who
(13:28):
want to show our kids what's important about engaging in
life and making it more than passively
scrolling on a screen or passively watching TV and
engaging in life in some active, conscious
way. And that's what keeps us going. But for
sure, the need for reinvention in
(13:51):
the midst of this has been an incredible
struggle. with no foregone conclusion. There's no,
I'm not entitled to success. I've got to figure it out. The company is
doing everything that they can to figure it out. And frankly, I
think because this issue,
these headwinds have affected the entire home fitness
(14:13):
business. Peloton, Mirror, Tonal, other
content companies. Even now, the dramatic
rise of content on YouTube and like you said, Instagram.
But I think we, body, is in the
best position in the industry to
(14:36):
redefine in-home fitness and the prioritization of
health because we are a content business and because we're
not random. So let me explain what that means. So the
equipment companies, it's very difficult for them to
replace their equipment revenue with content
revenue, because the price points are so dramatically different.
(14:58):
So they kind of have to take a big step back in order to rebuild. So
here we are with 140 programs, thousands of workouts, all proven
to work for people, fast results step-by-step right at home. So
we're in a really good position there, but then you go, well, wait a minute, YouTube, you
know, there it's all free. Well, the
ground is littered with people who are
(15:21):
face down in the dirt, who just gave
up because they would work out with YouTube videos chosen randomly
through searches, I want an upper body workout, or I want a
dance workout, but nothing that really walks them
through it step by step and has gone through the rigor of
testing like we have. Like we won't release a program until
(15:42):
we test it thoroughly, and if it doesn't make it to the finish line with the
results that we expect, we don't release it. So
I know like, so right now I'm in the middle of a program called 25 minutes
speed train, 25 minutes a day, seven days a week for eight
weeks. I know when I wake up at
5 a.m. and push play on that thing, I know
(16:04):
that I am marching a step forward in
a predictable outcome of improving my strength,
my endurance, and maintaining my
weight. And at 61 years old, that says a lot.
I'm in better shape now than I was in my mid thirties. So that's
the difference. I call that training dysfunction where people are sort of wandering around
(16:25):
the gym and spending an hour or two trying to figure it out or wandering
around YouTube trying to figure it out. We put it
together for them step-by-step, and at less than 50 cents a day, it's
a pretty good deal. So it's our job just to figure out how to tell that story, and
Sure. And now if we talk
(16:47):
a little bit more about kind of the business side of
the business. Right. So I'm sure you've gone up to very high highs
and to some lows and then to some mediums and etc.
So can you can you tell the audience a
little bit more about your sort of high highs where
the company was valued at a very, very high amount?
(17:11):
I'll let you talk about that amount. And then what
happens when, let's say that valuation falls off, and
what do you do from a mindset standpoint to keep moving forward?
Yeah, well, luckily that happened when
I was mature enough and had
done enough personal work to not let
(17:33):
the numbers define me. The outcome is not what
defines me, it's the process and frankly the riddle of
solving, like how do I get three
quarters of the population who aren't
exercising at all, or, you
know, look, 75% of the US adults aren't
(17:54):
getting exercise, 25% aren't exercising at
all. So it's like, so that's the challenge, right? So,
but look, you asked the question, we went from a $3 billion
valuation, and now we're sitting at this, existential
number like in the 50s below 50 million like
(18:15):
that's an incredible fall and it's it's tragic for
people who invested in this when we first went public but um
I'm the majority shareholder and what they call a controlling shareholder. So it hurt me
hurts me hard But I have never taken
a lot of money off the table and I've been doing this Because
(18:35):
I love the substance of it I
love what we're creating so Sure,
I would have loved it to continue to grow from three billion. That
was certainly the point I also think it
really can grow past that and way
beyond if we get this right, because
(18:59):
people are going to need it. And as with the rise of
AI, people are going to maybe have more leisure time and
they're going to need to do something. And I'm hoping that they don't just choose
to age and suffer, but instead
want to make the investment in some discomfort so
that they can age and thrive. And so
(19:21):
that's our opportunity. Now, you say the high of
highs, right? When
P90X was at its peak, which was 2008, 2009, 2010, I've
never experienced anything like that, like just, you know,
being at a restaurant and overhearing people talk about
(19:42):
a thing that was an idea. over dinner, you know, or
getting calls from my parents. Every time they met somebody, they couldn't
believe it. And and relatives asking
if they could have copies of the poster because they were so proud they
wanted to put it up in their houses, you know, that kind of thing. That was pretty wild.
Even, you know, when I met I met Obama at a
(20:04):
function. And was lucky enough to get you know, two
minutes talking to him surrounded by secret service and
uh, you know, he was mr. President these the this is these are
the guys I was with there with my um, uh co-founder and
these are the guys who Started beach body and they developed
p90x with tony horton and obama says p90x Ah,
(20:27):
I love p90x. My wife is doing p90x and all
these secret service guys are doing p90x That's
the kind of moment you don't expect in your life. Particularly
For sure. Like, you know, that's one of those things that sort of
sticks in your mind. But I will tell you, that
(20:50):
is, that's a fun story to tell, but
it's the stuff that gets me out of bed and
keeps me creating and dealing with The
pain of suffering
to solve the problem is working with
(21:11):
real people who were at
their wits end, had no hope, and then
watching them thrive. Like every month or
two months, I'll put a little group together. We have
a community called the Body Experience Community. And it's a free group
that it's sort of attached to the body platform. And
(21:32):
we got tens of thousands of people in
there. And I'll say, hey, look, I'm gonna pick three
or four people to work with me and we'll just have a text thread
going separate from this community. So the last couple
of months I've been working with a woman who was doing a women's
hormone health program. So I was doing my thing, she was doing her thing.
(21:52):
And by the end of each day, we would check in on each other. Did
you do your workouts? How was your nutrition? So she
was doing this program called Belvital, which was designed to
help for women who are like, why is my
body not reacting to like, I'm working out
like hell and I'm dieting and doing all the things I'm supposed to do. Many
(22:13):
of it, which is somewhat irrational or extreme, but
they never put it all together to have
an approach to balance their stress, appropriate approach
to nutrition that does not starve them, but takes
out maybe the things that are creating additional stress or
insulin response or cortisol spikes and
(22:37):
incorporates stress management and some supplements. Well, this woman started
this. She was in her, she's like, I think like 250 pounds,
very frustrated, woke up, she would go to bed, have acid reflux
every night. and wake up with incredible painful
joints. So she's in her, she's midway
(22:57):
through the third month of the program. So she's
two and a half months in, she has lost She's
lost 22, 23 pounds so
far, no acid reflux. Her joint
pain is gone. Her lower back pain is gone. And
as she has said to me, I feel like myself again. Brain
(23:20):
fog, night sweats, hot flashes gone. So
compare that to being recognized, to
having a brand that you create recognized by the
President of the United States. I'll take her story every
day of the week because, and I literally do,
I make notes of these things so that when I'm super frustrated,
(23:42):
I go, wait a minute. Make some decisions which
can be very hard on the people who are affected by
these decisions you know, we we got out of a network marketing
business, which was a Tragic thing for
many people who expected that to go forever Well, it was not growing and
it was actually holding us back. So I had to make a really hard decision but
(24:03):
when I triangulate that with stories like this woman Judith or
hundreds of other of these stories who I
have to succeed with this business to help the
other Judas in this world. That's
my job. Not to run a big network marketing company.
(24:23):
Frankly, not to try to run a $10 billion fitness company.
I need to help Millions of people solve
the lifestyle problem that we were born
into, which is a lifestyle of gratification, processed foods,
and lack of discipline around
our activity level. And our company is the one
(24:46):
because the CEO has the problem. I don't like working
out, I hate vegetables, and I'll eat pizza every meal
of the day if you'll let me. So so I'm constantly solving my
own problem Karen and that's why I know that this I
have to succeed at this and the only reason I'm in decent shape at
61 is because I run this company and So so that's
(25:08):
how I keep going. And so so every day is
a high for me every day that I find a
way to find new hope to find some innovation to
simplify the process of
lifestyle change for people who really want it, who don't want complexity,
that's my calling. And in a world that gets so, goes
(25:31):
gaga about biohacking and complexity and
wearing wearables and rings and necklaces that tell them
if their heart's beating, it's just not that complicated. And it's
my job to try to impart that it doesn't have to be this
And, you know, you had just mentioned about having to
make some hard decisions. And I think something that would
(25:53):
be really helpful a lot of entrepreneurs and, and CEOs
listen to this podcast so what advice do you have.
about making those hard decisions? Do you have a
rubric that you follow to make those decisions
or counsel? How do you make those decisions and how
(26:13):
would you advise maybe another entrepreneur on
how to make a really hard decision, which I know a lot of people do
Yeah. Well, It's
interesting, I read something, there's a
lot to unpack there, okay? The first part is,
(26:37):
be careful of decisions that are purely
meant to speed things up because you're
in pain, because things aren't going fast enough. So
it's very easy to screw the pooch, as
they say, because it's just not happening at
the rate that you expect or the rate that you want. What
(27:01):
you need to do is run a good business. And
so I think it's pretty fundamental. Make
sure your core business, like do whatever you can to
make the core business, the thing that is important about
the business, make
(27:22):
that work. And that includes questioning whether
it's important. Like what is important here? And
then within that, make sure that
you are surviving. Despite being at this 26, 27 years,
I always know where my cash is
(27:44):
to make sure that I'm not going to run out of cash. I've
been doing that since I started this thing when I had no money
and was financing this out of my pocket and I've never lost
that discipline, that I got to make sure I've got enough cash,
which means that sometimes I'm going to have to reduce costs in order to
preserve cash or be picky about
(28:08):
innovation or initiatives and cash allocation that
could burn cash too fast. That doesn't mean you don't take risk. You
just have to manage your
risk so that you don't find yourself stepping
off a cliff. That's really what it comes down to.
(28:31):
And then like what you said, the decision point, If
you're you know, I don't like you called it a rubric. I'm,
not even sure what that means. I I like like just check boxes I
I don't I don't have anything. That's that um Like
that's a framework like that or or not something that I had
(28:53):
that's consciously that way but obviously
business is pretty simple. You
want to find something that people need that has
margin in it so that you can operate a business. And
then you want to try to sell that to as many people who
(29:13):
need it as possible. and
get a flywheel running, okay? So like, it's just
super basic, but usually people
expect that to happen way faster than it actually does. And so
you need to always measure your
(29:34):
impatience and always
maintain creativity because you're not gonna
visualize it all perfectly right out of the gate. So you
have a good idea of what you're gonna do, and every night,
check your work, and every morning, make sure you're
doing the important stuff, not just the
(29:57):
stuff that you like to do. I
don't know. I guess maybe that's a checklist, but that's sort of how I approach these things.
If you know what you want to achieve, like
a mission orientation versus just an orientation of,
I want to make a billion dollars. So if
you have an orientation to some mission or some measure
(30:20):
of productivity, That's the thing. As long as
your fundamentals are appropriate, that that's going to spit out some free cash flow.
And that's the way I operate is I know that this
company is in a virtually unlimited
total addressable market, or TAM, because
(30:40):
there is no leading fitness brand. There's
leaders, Peloton, Nike, Apple
Fitness Plus, but nobody has scaled to be ubiquitous to
be the brand, which means with
75% of the population who's not getting enough exercise, that's
(31:01):
a major opportunity. That's kind of like
knowing that you just invented the toothbrush and
75% of the population has bad breath, we just got to figure out how
to market this thing. Well, I've got the toothbrush and
all you need to do is push play on this platform called
(31:22):
Body and your whole life
is about to change. And I just got to figure out how to market that efficiently
Right. Yeah. And I think that's really great advice. I
really resonated with your advice
on being patient, especially in today's world where, you
know, we expect everything to happen in five minutes, right? Like
(31:45):
you pull out your phone and if the app doesn't load in five
seconds, you're like, what's wrong with this phone? So as a business owner,
when you feel like, man, this should have happened already, And
maybe it's only been a month or it's only been two months. Right.
Yeah. And and it's like we as a business owner, we
just want to go, go, go, go, go. But to your point, sometimes the
(32:06):
best thing you could do for your business is. Not
Well, the impatience is causing you pain, which
makes you more impatient because you want to get out of the pain. So
Like, that's just it. And that's why so many people
quit. And, you
(32:29):
know, honestly, if and this is what when I said, you know,
I've had to overcome and I've had to luckily this dislocation that
started in really 2021. I'm
lucky that I was fairly mature at the time, because I don't know if I would have been this resilient.
But I know that as long as I have the resources, if
(32:51):
I don't quit, because I know the market's there, It
is impossible for me to fail. It's impossible. So
I just need to keep going and I need to keep going smart, preserve cash,
keep marketing, keep figuring it out, pay attention to the market because
the opportunity is just too big and human
(33:13):
lives And our well-being is one thing
that cannot be replaced by AI. So I know I'm in
a position that technologically is not going to get wiped out.
There might be aspects of it that AI will complement. But
the outcome and the ability to actually get people results, that
is a human experience. So humans need what I do. And
(33:36):
so if you're just in a position that you refuse to
quit, Either you're
going to die or you're going to succeed. Those are the only
Right, right. Yeah, absolutely. And I just
think that was a lot of pearls of
wisdom dropped there. So I really hope that people are taking notes because
(33:57):
that was great. As we start to wrap things up, I
do want to talk to you about um, the Broadway connection.
I'm in New York. I love Broadway shows. Um, and
how did you obviously, you
know, theater's in your blood. Um, but how did
you get to be a producer on, on
(34:20):
all of these shows? And just so people know, it's not like one or two
shows, like it's a good number of shows and they've won Tony's
and one of the, that plays once on this island with
We used to live across the street from each other. This was many years ago.
I used to hang out with his at the time girlfriend, now a wife. But
(34:44):
it was I was going through the playbill IMDb,
I guess. And I was like, holy cow. So how I
think it's really interesting, because I'm sure a lot of people just
kind of put you in one sort of little box of like, this is a
fitness guy and that's all he does. Yeah, I think that's probably fair
to say. So how do you, and
(35:04):
again, I think another great question for other business owners, how
do you expand into other areas and
Well, I didn't do it on purpose, meaning I didn't do it
because, oh, I need to diversify. I'm not a
believer in that. If your market opportunity of your one thing
(35:25):
is good enough, just keep repeating it. If you love it, go for it. Or
if you're serving something, that's fine. But
like I said, I came from a theater background. And my
dad, who worked like well
into his late 70s, I was like, Dad, it's time for you to retire. And
(35:46):
I had made some enough money, you know, the P90X days
and everything were good to me. So I had a friend who
worked with Ken, his name's Hunter Arnold, who
and I said, you know, I'd love to start investing in
Some of the shows that have meaning Like
(36:06):
that's that's what I like to look for things that that have a certain feeling
and meaning about them and I said, but since I'm on the west coast,
my dad will be my proxy and And it'll
be fun for him to do in retirement. So I in
the first thing I invested in was Well,
the cast recording of a revival of Godspell, that
(36:28):
was fun. And cause Godspell is one of my favorite shows. Then that
led to they, Ken and Hunter
were putting together Kinky Boots. And
so I got involved in that and that, you know, I wasn't what they call above
the line. I was really just an investor in that, but that did super well. And
you know, and then so we just, kept
(36:51):
putting money in and a couple of times I put enough money in early enough that
I would be considered a producer. That's the way it was with
Once on this Island and Moulin Rouge. And then,
you know, I didn't know that that meant that I was going to be eligible
to win a Tony. But I, you know, I
don't know if you can see him. I got three trophies over here and it's
(37:13):
a wild thing. And what's funny about it is my daughter, is
extremely talented. She's been
singing since she was five months old. And she's actually right now
in Little Rock, Arkansas. She's
about to open in the part of Sheila in Hair.
(37:33):
Oh, fun. But it's super fun and she's just
terrific. But it's just funny that I've got three
Tonys sitting in here and this is the career that she chose. So
it's just always like, I just, you know, hey, maybe someday you'll be a three-time
Emmy or a three-time Tony winner too, you know, who knows? But
that's what it was. So it's literally just a fun side
(37:56):
thing to go see the show, I'll
tell you one funny story. Yeah. And I'm sorry, I'm going on.
Just to show you how I'm kind of stupid sometimes to that. So
I was, you know, I'm on social media on Instagram. And, and
I usually just share about my fitness journey and try to help people understand
(38:17):
how they can avoid disease and the importance of
working out that just 11 minutes of moderate exercise a
day could lower your risk of early death by 23%. Like
that's my job on social media. But one day I was in the
middle of New York and I'm walking around Times Square and I happen to walk by the
theater where Moulin Rouge is. And I thought, and I was
(38:38):
like, Well, wait, that won a Tony, but
I couldn't remember, did I win a Tony for that? Was I
a producer on that or was I just an investor? So I went into the box office,
it was the middle of the day, and I stood in line, there was a guy
there, and then I got in line, I was like, hi, can I
look at the program or the playbill? And she goes, why?
(38:59):
And I was like, well, I just, I want to see if I'm a producer on
this show. Because I didn't want to do a story on Instagram
and say I was a producer and I won a Tony if I
was just an investor. So sure enough, my name was in there. She must have
thought I was insane. But that's just how much
of a hobby it is. It's been great. Hunter is great. Ken is great.
(39:21):
Ken's got a show coming out, Joy. That's going to be fun to see. but
it's a fun hobby. I don't think I've made a
lot of money. I've maybe broken even on it in general, but
it has been a very colorful part of
my story and gives me a little creative break
Yeah. Oh, that's great. That's fun. I love to hear that. Now,
(39:43):
as we start to wrap things up, what do you want people to
take away from our conversation today? If you could pick
Well, the most important thing for me is that,
like I said, that toothbrush. People, I
(40:06):
think, would have a very hard time these days going
about their day and not brushing their teeth. And
obviously, tooth decay, all that stuff is painful, right? We
need to have that same discipline
and imperative about physical activity.
(40:26):
There was a study in what they call the JAMA Oncology,
that journal, found that physical activity, that physically
active people have a 20% lower
risk of 13 different types of cancer, colon
cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer. Like
(40:47):
these little facts are the things that people
don't know and they don't integrate. And then when they get
sick, it's harder to come back because they haven't been
active to start with. And we sort of visualize these
very fit people at the expensive gyms and
their beautiful outfits, or I need to biohack and
(41:08):
have all the readings. It's just not
that complicated. If at a minimum, go
for a walk every day. But if you
can create a little bit more discomfort for yourself, lift
some weights and find a little bit of, I'll
say pain, but it's really discomfort of pushing your
(41:30):
muscles. Cause it's gonna help everything about
your life. Less likelihood of depression and
coping with anxiety. It's gonna help you reduce your risk of diabetes.
I mean, so many people, so much
of the population is pre-diabetic and they don't even know about it.
And it's this, activity level,
(41:53):
like you can even be eating well and
still prone to these diseases because your
body is not working and you might get osteoporosis because
you're not challenging the skeletal muscles,
the skeletal system to stay strong
and stay developed. And so if there's anything that anybody could get from
(42:15):
this or any of my social media or the
body platform, it's that Sure, it's great
to have abs. It is fantastic when you get
a couple of belt loops back and your clothes fit. But
that is what they call tertiary. Number one and
number two is, number one is, this
(42:36):
is how you live a healthy, fulfilling life, by
pushing yourself 20 minutes a day. But make it every
day. Like, even if it's stretching, give me a couple
of days a week, but make that time, make it
just as, Every time you touch your toothbrush, you
should be going, okay, now I'm going to work out. It should be that imperative. And
(42:57):
the other thing is, so one, take care of yourself. And
two, know that when you're taking care of yourself, you are teaching your
kids that this is important because we're
giving them phones too early and letting them off
the hook with accountability for their wellbeing, which
comes from being active. You know, we don't want to let kids out anymore because who
(43:18):
knows what's happening out in the world. They're watching you
and it's important that you move. We'd love it if
you did it using body programs. We've tried to make them short and fun
and efficient so you don't have to drive back and forth to the gym or you take the
app to the gym, but whatever it is, I just hope people that maybe, maybe
today, Karen, you and I motivated four or five people to go, you know what?
(43:40):
This sounds like it makes sense. I just got to figure out a way to start it and
take it from the CEO. It's not
only is it hard to start, it is hard to keep going, but you
have to find a way, because that is the way to live a healthy, fulfilling life.
Excellent. And where can people find you if they have questions, they
(44:01):
Well, it's the name, at Karl Deichler, sorry for the spelling, C-A-R-L-D-A-I-K-E-L-E-R.
But really the easiest way is to go to body.com, B-O-D-I.com. And
that's where you plug into the ecosystem and you'll find everything I'm
Perfect. And for everyone who's listening, if you scroll down on
(44:23):
whatever platform you're listening to right now, we will have the links
to all of that. So one click will take you to everything. And
last question, it's one I ask everyone, knowing where you are now in your
Hmm. No
matter how successful you get, it never gets easy
(44:44):
because you're always going to want to create something
new. So just don't ever look for
easy. Don't ever expect easy. But
when you find something that excites you, do it and keep going.
Excellent advice. Well, thank you so much for coming on
the podcast. This was great. I love learning more about you,
(45:13):
Excellent. And everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. Have a
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