Launching a business can be an exciting and challenging endeavor, especially when it involves a passion for design and fashion. In this blog post, I’ll share my experience of launching my own swimwear business, from the initial idea to the first sale.

The Idea

I’ve always had a love for beachwear (given I basically live in it). I’d spend hours researching different swimwear brands, styles, and designs. However, I often found that the swimwear I liked was either too expensive or didn’t fit me properly and was one or the other. What do I mean? Well, all the men’s board shorts were super floral, bright, crazy patterns, stuff that may look “ok” for a week in Fiji but you would never be seen dead in them casually in a city on a summer’s afternoon! This frustration led me to start designing and creating my own swimwear pieces. Something that not only functions well when wet but looks the part (stylish) when dry so you can wear them out casually too!

The Planning Stage

Once I had decided to turn my passion for swimwear design into a business, I started researching the industry to gain a better understanding of the market and the competition. I looked at the pricing, quality, and design features of various swimwear brands to help me understand what would make my swimwear stand out.

Next, I developed a business plan that outlined my vision, mission, target market, marketing strategy, and financial projections. This plan helped me to stay focused and motivated as I worked towards launching my business.

Design and Production

With my plan in place, I started designing my swimwear pieces. I spent hours sketching and creating designs, choosing fabrics, and testing different styles to ensure they would fit well and be comfortable for the wearer. Not to mention countless back-and-forths getting the samples just right!

Once I had finalized my designs, I worked closely with the manufacturer to ensure that the quality of the swimwear met my standards and that they were produced in an ethical and sustainable way.

Marketing and Sales

Once my swimwear had been produced, it was time to start marketing and selling my products. I created a website that showcased my swimwear designs, and I utilized social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook to promote my brand and engage with potential customers.

The First Sale

After years of ideas and hard work, the moment finally arrived when I made my first sale. It was a surreal feeling to see that someone had actually purchased something I had created. I sent a personalized thank you message to the customer and continued to focus on growing my brand.

Expansion and Growth

I am excited to learn more about a different industry and get to see my brand – Offshore Beachwear on men around the world. The aim is to become not only an online retailer but be stocked in stores around the world.

Conclusion

Starting my own swimwear business is a challenging experience. It requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and passion. Through the planning, design, production, and sales process, I gained valuable experience and learned valuable lessons about entrepreneurship.

If you’re considering starting your own fashion business, my advice is to do your research, develop a solid business plan, and stay focused and motivated. Remember that success takes time, so be patient and persevere through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.

The post I started my own men’s swimwear brand appeared first on Matt Fox.

The year that was…

I also launched a really hands-on 1 on 1 online coaching program in the middle of last year which has changed so many lives already. I became involved in a new business (more to come) I have moved onto the garden and front of house renovations and all of the general life stuff. But now, I want to be back here at least once a month for a recap or to just talk about anything relevant to what this blog has always been about- tips to improve your health and fitness as an average, relatable father to a toddler.

I am not some social media influencer (hate that term) who has all the time in the world on their hands to work out, travel and portray a (majority of the time) fake life. As well as being a qualified personal trainer, I also run an offline, face to face Bootcamp business here on the sunshine coast, TRUE FIT TRAINING which has a location in Noosa and also, more recently the 2nd location In Coolum. This is an outdoor Bootcamp, using minimal equipment for functional training.

So, in short, my 2020 was probably the biggest year of my life apart from when Harley was born in 2016! Some would argue 2020 was the biggest year for the planet, really. With the big C ( you know what I’m talking about) shutting down the world, and as I sit here in my fresh Noosa home, still shutting down the world, especially in Australia with borders been shut for over a year, and no promise when they will open again. Overseas travel seems like a pipe dream unless of course, you get “permission” from the great almighty leader (read sarcasm) and then on your return you get a forced hotel room imprisonment of 2 weeks and guess what, you pay $2500 for the privilege..

Travel, then with all that thrown in the mix probably won’t happen any time soon, and I think its reasonable to assume, Australia will be left behind if it continues its obsession with zero, were cities get shut down from a single case.

Going forward.

Onto 2021 and what you can expect? I want to continue to grow my reach to people everywhere around the world on educating them, helping them become the best versions of themselves, physically and mentally from my training methods. Last year the majority of people had to learn to live life without many things, a gym was one of those things. For me, in the fitness/training aspect, nothing changed. I have been training without a gym since the beginning of 2016, I was a step ahead.

The previous year taught many lessons too many people. So many learned to train with what they had(bare essentials) , but so many completely fell off the wagon. With gyms opening, but unlikely to ever be the same (at least in the near future) more and more people need to see and realise the benefits of my body weight/functional training style. Workout, anywhere, on your terms, maximise your time, transform your health and body in the process! This is where I come in, to help share my knowledge with anyone interested and going forward here, I will continue this.

I also want to keep it light-hearted and show what I get up to with the family, the house renovations and everyday life. If you want to see free content that will change your life head to my Instagram page HERE which is constantly updated with different workouts as well as my Youtube Channel HERE

I will be posting here at least once a month, See you soon!

The post I’M BACK! appeared first on Matt Fox.

If you’ve been following my journey for a while now you would know that It has been a few years since leaving the gym and weight lifting behind for a new fitness beginning with solely bodyweight training!

Switching to calisthenics was one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life, not just my “fitness” life. It has allowed me to pursue my passion for helping others achieve the best version of themselves, travel the world and meet and connect with like-minded people.  If you’re a new reader or stumbled across me, WELCOME! I hope I can give you value in whatever goals, fitness, health and personal you have set.

Back to the podcast…

In this interview, I get some great questions and speak about some things I have never personally opened up about, a bit more on overcoming cancer, how my mindset shifted and what calisthenics training has really done for my overall level of fitness. My advice to people looking to add more calisthenics to their workouts or make the full switch and never look back (like me and the boys doing the interview!). More muscle, strength, endurance and functional fitness have been achieved all without needing a gym or gym equipment, I speak about injuries I once had and how this all changed for the better when I made the switch.

I’m sure you can take something out of the interview and use it to propel you forward in the right direction.

Have a listen by CLICKING HERE 

It would be great to hear your feedback and thoughts on this and if you would like me to do another one covering a specific topic, reach out and let me know!

Until next time,

Matt

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It’s something about this time of year where there is a positive buzz around. New Year resolutions are in full swing and that’s awesome. You can’t complain when there is a positive vibe!

However,

I don’t believe that solely setting goals at the beginning of the year or New Year resolutions are the only way to go. Sure it’s a great way to get the year started but goals and objectives need to be revisited regularly and updated as you progress.

I recently did an Instagram post where I listed 5 of my new year resolutions. You can check out the post by CLICKING HERE. I wanted to elaborate a bit more on those in detail and how you can set goals and achieve them in 2018.

Firstly, opening up and revealing your goals publically is daunting, but it will go a long way to helping you achieve them. I’m not saying you have to plaster it on social media or write a blog about it (Yes, that’s me. I realise this) but even telling one person other than yourself will make an impact. Why? Because you instantly have more pressure to succeed if someone else knows about it. They will keep you accountable, no one really enjoys failing so its gonna suck if your best friend asks you about your goal and you haven’t even attempted it (Instant fail). This is the reason I did that post on Instagram and the reason I am writing it here, is it daunting? Sure, very!

So, some of my goals for are:

1. Be more patient. This stands for everything, with people I don’t know, with traffic, with work and with wanting things to happen all at once. That’s just not reality. Mostly because you can’t control what other people think or do. Making it pretty useless to get upset about things you cannot control. Patience- good things take time. Rome wasn’t built in a day!
2. Spending more time with my family. With Harley 14 months old and really developing so quickly I have made it one of my goals to be around him and my wife, Wilda more. It’s quite hard raising a child without family alone and Wilda has done the hardest job in the world for the past 14 months with her immediate family being on the other side of the world. It’s my goal to be there with them more and offer more support for us all.
3. Continue to expand www.bodyweightbuilt.com, the business I started with Wilda off the back of life-changing results in our fitness, body, health and lifestyle. Bodyweight Built training doesn’t need access to a gym or any equipment (at the very most, a pull-up bar). I want to continue to spread the philosophy of using your own body weight to achieve your maximum potential in overall physical appearance as well as wellbeing and of course lifestyle. Freedom to exercise wherever you are, no longer relying on a gym. There is a giant feeling of relief that comes with that, if you haven’t experienced it, I highly recommend doing so.
4. Spend more time in Europe and specifically Sweden. Over the summer months are preferable 😉 This ties in with goal number 2. Wilda is Swedish and her family and close friends all live there, it would be great for Harley to continue to grasp another language and culture too!
5. Do things that make me feel uncomfortable weekly. What I mean by this is to get myself out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to grow. Growth comes from a challenge. I’m very shy in a many ways and one of the big things I really want to improve on within this goal is to create weekly YouTube content and become more confident in speaking in front of a camera and crowds. To narrow down on this goal and the ‘weekly” side of things. I will post a new YouTube video on my channel every Wednesday. Check out my channel and video by CLICKING HERE.

There you have 5 of my goals for 2018. I do have shorter terms goals and I will assess change and revisit each goal and the others I have regularly. I highly recommend breaking up your goals into smaller goals, stepping stones to the end goal if you will.

Below are my tips on what type of goal length you should set yourself and the stepping stones to lead to each one.

1-week goals = Daily stepping stones

1-month goals = Weekly stepping stones

3-month goals = Monthly stepping stones

6-month goals =  Monthly stepping stones

12-month goals = monthly, quarterly and half yearly.

For the sake of not completely boring you, I’ll stop at 12 months (1 year), but I think it’s important to even make longer goals into 2,3 5 and even 10 years ahead. Where do you want to be at this very moment? Chances are they will change along the way, especially the long-sighted 3 years + goals but at this very moment.

Of course for all goals, everyday is a stepping stone, but I recommend breaking up the end goals (left column above) with smaller yet still substantial enough sized so you can do a detailed assessment on each stepping stone (right column above). Write them down, tell people about them (even if it’s just the one person) and work on them daily.

2018 can be the year you can change everything for the better. If you are not happy about something, ACTIVELY change it. Talking about it doesn’t change it, setting goals and working on them frequently does.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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But, what if you want more? What if what you are doing right now is fine, but you know you are worthy of more, you want to challenge yourself, learn something new and create another level of life experiences? Chances are that will require you to push yourself, take a leap of faith and get UNCOMFORTABLE. One of my favorite sayings goes: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always gotten” and its right on the money! If you don’t change, things around you are more than likely going to stay the same, I’m not talking about the weather- that changes! I am talking about your life, whats in it and the circumstances around it. The same things will keep happening, you’ll find yourself in the same situations where you might constantly ask yourself, “why me?” and this won’t change until you do.

We are creatures of habit, so we naturally don’t like change, but learning to embrace change, push yourself to change is where the magic happens. Getting out of your comfort zone will lead to amazing experiences. I struggle with doing this almost daily still, as new things arise for me, but if I didn’t get out of my comfort zone originally, I wouldn’t be writing this article today. I remind myself of why I push myself to become uncomfortable and all the positive outcomes that have come with it.

Recently, I took another step outside of my comfort zone by giving a Podcast interview on the WHITE PONY NETWORK. Going onto a podcast and sharing my story was something I have wanted to do for a while but always felt uncomfortable talking about myself and facing some questions I might not have ever answered before publically (or even to myself). Getting asked to come on the show was this opportunity to do something I have wanted to do for a while even if it made me feel uneasy, nervous and UNCOMFORTABLE- that is why I knew I had to do it!

Sharing my story and answering some interesting questions about myself made me think about how I have progressed and overcome some difficult times in my life, in particular, fighting off Cancer at 21/22 years of age and starting a business pursuing my passion to help others achieve maximum health and fitness. The common questions of ;

How do I lose fat?

How do I become better?

How do I get stronger?

How do I become smarter?

All those are answered with the same response- Push yourself, get outside of what is comfortable for you. Learn how to do it, when we are “learning” we are experiencing and taking in something we previously never knew and that in itself gets you out of what is your comfort zone.

If you would like to hear my podcast interview you can CLICK HERE TO LISTEN, it’s a great insight into how I all started and kept moving forward, learning new things and following my passions. You can see the show notes and a brief summary of the interview HERE and it’s also available for free download on the Podcast app under “White Pony Network”.

PS. Another part of getting outside of my comfort zone is to become more involved with YouTube and creating videos and vlogs to share with you guys about my training and fitness philosophy as well as sharing some tips and things I am sure you will find value from.

Please check out and SUBSCRIBE TO MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL BY CLICKING HERE

Until next time.

Matt

The post Getting out of your comfort zone – Podcast with Wes Petit White Pony Network appeared first on Matt Fox.

Everyone has dreams. What are yours?

More importantly what are you doing to turn these “dreams” into  reality?

If you aren’t setting goals towards achieving this dream you need to start now! Goal setting is crucial to achieving success for the main reason being that it gives you focus, it gives you a purpose and when things get hard or you feel like you want to give up, it gives you your “why”. Last night I was cleaning out some old paper work (yep, the physical type where I wrote with a pen and paper haha!) and I came across a list of goals I wrote exactly (well within a few weeks) a year ago from today! It was amazing to see that out of the 8 goals I had written on my note pad (with an expiration date of when I wanted to have ticked them off), 6 had been 100% completed and 2 were in the building phase- meaning they had been started and were not far off from completion.

So, how to create your goals and use them to help you achieve your desired outcome? Here are my top 5 tips to setting powerful goals plus what I found worked well for me and many others I have encouraged.

1. KNOW YOUR GOAL/S

Now this sounds simple, but it needs to be clear, specific and measurable.

By measurable I mean you need to be able to put a time and date to completion. Without a date, where is the motivation to work on it daily/weekly/monthly? Once you clarify your goal clearly in your mind you move onto number 2.

2.SETTING A DATE

This tip can be a little daunting but it’s super important because it holds you accountable. You must set a date! An expiration limit to when you want to achieve this/these goal/s. Without a date it becomes nothing more than a wish. If you want to add even more accountability to your goal/s- tell someone, tell many people! It’s not arrogant to proclaim your goals publicly and it will put a little bit of extra pressure on you to go after them, because the more people that know, the more people will ask you about it. A great quote by Napoleon Hill reads ” A goal is a dream with a deadline!”

3. WORK BACKWARDS

What I have found to be really useful and help you become clear on long term goals, even 5, 10, 15 years out is to work backwards. This is a great method because it allows you to break down major end goal/goals step by step, creating smaller goals. For example, if you have a goal for 5 years and you are clear on what that is, you can then divide that into yearly goals, things you want to mark as “done” each year which are a stepping stone towards that 5 year major goal. The more specific the better when it comes to dividing it up. If you want to divide it up monthly, great, half yearly, perfect! It all helps. I have found that when I am setting yearly goals, I like to break that year down into months and then the first month into weeks, especially if you have a new goal. Breaking the first month into weeks can really give you that focus to get going!

4. PUSH YOUR LIMITS

You want to challenge yourself, push yourself out of your comfort zone with a goal or goals that seem out of reach to you at this very moment. Goals that almost make you feel uncomfortable, such as telling other people. For example, if you don’t currently have a job, your goal could be “that by this time next year I will have a job paying….” ($50k, 60k, 70k a year whatever it may be). Then you will apply tip 3 and figure out what you need to do to get there! If you don’t set a goal that challenges you, pushes you out of your comfort zone and excites you – you need a new goal!

5. WRITE IT DOWN AND RE-EVALUATE

It seems obvious, but many people don’t write down their goals. YOU NEED TO! I find the old fashioned pen and paper is the best option over phone/computer because I connect more when I am writing down the words rather than typing them. I still make a copy on my phone and computer but my original is always done in a notebook! Once you have them written/typed down, you need to check them and re-evaluate how you are going. If you have reached a certain goal already, set a new one, don’t stop. If you are a bit behind on others, break them down further (daily even) and work on those, checking them off each night before you sleep and setting new ones for the day ahead.

The post 5 tips to setting powerful goals appeared first on Matt Fox.

Success is a broad term. What one person defines as successful the next person may not. However, most people view the most common, obvious sign of success by their financial means. Success equates to money right? Well, a lot of the time it does.  I mean the best athletes in the world are there because they are the best.  They have succeeded in being the best in their chosen sport and so they are compensated extremely well for it (most sports anyway), that being on a world wide stage.  Then to micro niche it, you could be successful among your friend group.  However with any type of success, no matter where it sits on the scale, comes some sort of jealousy.

In the past few years, I have changed my thinking and the way I look at or view success/successful people. Jealousy is a pretty common/normal human emotion I believe.  Everyone at some point in their life has felt it…..surely? So, the most common emotion to feel when we see someone with something we want (money, cars, holidays, boats etc- to name the superficial things) is that of jealousy or envy. I’ve felt it, sure, plenty of times, however now I don’t view it like that. I have been lucky enough to learn from some world renowned coaches how to turn this emotion of envy or jealousy into a productive, motivating emotion. To some degree it goes against human nature, so it takes some work, but once you can use it for a more positive emotion it sets you free.

When I meet someone I personally view as being successful I am no longer jealous.  I am HAPPY.   I love that they have an awesome business that allows them to make 7 figures a year from their laptop, working from anywhere and always travelling!  I’m not jealous because it shows me its possible. Why is that person different to you? If they have achieved something they want and you define that person as successful then why can’t you do likewise?

A MINDSET SHIFT

By viewing someone else’s success as a positive, motivating emotion it gives you a clearer image as to what needs to be done to get there. Instead of disliking out of jealousy someone who is successful, study what they have done to get there.  Learn from them.  Watch them and even ask them. If someone has done it before you, IT IS POSSIBLE. The success of others should bring you hope.  Their success should motivate  you to focus more and work harder for whatever it is you want to succeed at, showing you its not that far away!

ITS NOT LUCK
One of the things I hear often from people who still focus on the jealousy emotion is that someone successful is ‘”lucky”.  That word “lucky” is constantly used.  They are lucky, she is lucky, he is lucky – its easier for someone to accept luck rather than spend some time on thinking how that person achieved what we desire. Very rarely did that person you are jealous of win the lottery or get handed a multi million dollar business and sustain it. Very rarely does luck have anything more than a small, tiny slice to do with it, but very often this is all I hear.  Shift away from saying people are lucky, for we have no idea how hard they have worked behind closed doors. Instead of brushing it off as luck in your head or among your friends, think about how hard they must have worked to get there.  Put a spin on your thinking and how you perceive their situation.  This will make a huge difference to your overall outlook on life and help to stop unhelpful, negative emotions!

The post How to be successful appeared first on Matt Fox.