Yanga Ngcayisa
Creating Products

The philosophy that I have in changing wellness in their lives, that it's not just about a physical change, it's about a mental change and a whole lifestyle change if you want to get to a better place in that transformation.

The one thing that stands out is the fact that people are stressed. And when you mention that, everyone's like, "Yeah" -  that's the one commonality. But we don't realise that it feeds into every aspect of our lives. When you're stressed, you're actually not able to think properly, the decisions that you're making are not the best possible decisions that you could make.

There were a bunch of ladies and guys who reached out to me, but two particularly stood out to me. They said, "I really want to change my life in these 30 days!" I replied, "Well, you said it to me. I'm screenshotting this and holding you accountable for what you said to me. You've made that commitment now. And it's not only to me, but it's also to yourself, most importantly. I'm just here to hold you accountable".

The actual inspiration behind it was the fact that this space, and when I say this 'space' I mean fitness and wellness, has given me life. I wanted to give life to a space that has given me life. So it's giving back to something that has given me and this is me giving back to fitness. That was the inspiration, I've always been someone who wants to give back and now I'm giving back in a space I am passionate about.

I have to be so honest in this because it wasn't a matter of, "I've got this idea, let's go!" It was a matter of, "I've got this idea. Flip, where do I start?" There's always the climax of, "Oh, my word, I really wanna do this thing!" until the reality hits then it's, "Okay, let's get the steps going". 

I thought, "I've got resources around me, I just have to be resourceful with them and use them well." With the printing, there were costs attached to. And because it's such a new product on the market, it's like what do I compare this to? What is it supposed to cost? It was just getting over those stumbles like, "I don't know, but I'm going to keep going". Where do you price that? "I don't know, but I'll find out and I'll make it work".

So the funding element of it came from that, from reaching out to family members and salary savings. I was working as a coach and a lot of funds were being put aside. I've always been someone who sells things, but it wasn't necessarily the right thing at that time, which now I've found, so I've poured those savings over time into that. So, savings, reaching out to family members and salary - it's been pulling from different sources at different times.

We're now able to add this event side to it. We wanted to get some sort of event started, but not your typical fitness event where you host a boot camp and there are people there - that's great but we wanted to have something different. And this deck enables us to do that, to have a competition of who can finish this deck the quickest. 

Well, to start off there are challenges every day. But I think there are two parts to it. The one is more from a lifestyle perspective because it's understanding the fact that, as an entrepreneur, your entire lifestyle is based on making good decisions. If you really want to get this thing done, if you're trying to lead people, if you want to be a pioneer, your life has to be set out in a way that, although you'll get distractions, nothing will decrease your ability to make good, effective decisions to carry your company forward.

You got to look forward to failure because it's a stepping stone to success. It sounds cliche until you actually see it happen. And one of the things I've learned in the journey as well is that all these quotes and stuff are all good until you're actually in it. And then you've got to apply it and you have a story to tell - anyone who's ever sat in the seat that I'm sitting in speaks from experience of what they've been through. So it's never just a cliche.