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Gateless | Business & Self Growth Podcast
Hosted by Gateless Co-Founder Kara Kayrouz, each episode features the untold stories of self-made women and their playbooks for success. Without gatekeeping, they share the tactical tips, strategies for building, and challenges encountered along the way.
Gateless | Business & Self Growth Podcast
A Powerhouse Duo: How Two Sisters Left Their Corporate Jobs to Build an Online Fitness Empire
In this episode, Kara sits down with sister duo, Ashley and Amanda of Rosey Times Two, as they open up about their inspiring journey from commercial real estate to the launch of their own fitness brand and electrolyte business.
They discuss the challenges of leaving behind their stable careers for the less stable, but ultimately more fulfilling, world of entrepreneurship. They go all the way back to the beginning, sharing how they started by posting healthy recipes and workouts and turned it into multiple successful businesses supporting their dream lives.
They share how growing up their relationship wasn’t the closest because of their age gap, but as they got older and ventured into business together, they’ve become inseparable.
Tune in for a raw discussion on leaving behind a career to pursue your own passions.
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Kara: Welcome to this episode of The Gateless Podcast. This episode was so fun. We talked with Amanda and Ashley of Rosey Times Two. They are the founders of Build and Burn Co. and now an electrolyte brand called ADAY. They talked us through how they got started. They both were in corporate and we're working this as a side hustle until, um, pulling the plug and going full on to focus 100 percent of their time and energy on Build and Burn, which is now a fitness brand and membership that you can join.
Um, they got into the details of really why they started this and their mission to just make people feel better. I think this episode is for you if you're interested in going for it and creating some kind of membership brand and you also want to launch products one day. But it's also for you if you're just curious to know like how someone finds the confidence to make the leap from corporate to entrepreneurship.
So with that, welcome Ashley and Amanda to the Gateless podcast.
Ashley: Absolutely. We're so excited.
Kara: Um, before we dig into all the details of the conversation, can you just give our listeners a quick intro to both of you, what you're doing? Build and Burn, ADAY, all the things you girls have been busy.
Ashley: We have been very busy and I'm about to get about to get a little bit busier here at 33 weeks pregnant, but we are two sisters I'm Ashley she's Amanda. I’m the older sister. We're born and raised in Sarasota. We both worked in corporate Uh, careers prior to getting into entrepreneurship, um, over the last four years, I guess, since we started our Instagram, Rosey Times Two, and it's kind of developed into having two separate businesses, Build and Burn, and then ADAY, our most recent launch, um, so our fitness app, and then our electrolyte product, so we can get into all of that.
Kara: Nice. I didn't realize you were both in corporate before launching. So maybe let's start there. Like tell us about what your lives looked like before you did this.
Amanda: We have very different paths to where we are because we're six years apart in age. So I worked in the corporate world for about six months before saying, throwing in the towel and saying, no, I'm going to be back with my parents and be my own boss, basically.
So obviously financially just, I was doing what I could to get by, and I knew, I would say I had delusional confidence. Yes.
Kara: We're all about delusion here.
Amanda: Right?
Kara: It absolutely needs to be delusional.
Amanda: I think you need it.
Kara: You do. You need it.
Amanda: So that was kind of my path to where we are, and Ashley's was quite different.
Ashley: Yeah, mine was just a lot longer. I did, um, I played college tennis, and then I got my MBA, and then I needed to get the, like, highest paying, most practical commercial real estate, corporate finance job I could, and I was miserable for like seven years. I would cry myself to sleep every night trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life, just knowing that what I was doing wasn't aligned with what I wanted to do, which was ultimately to work for myself and build my own businesses.
Um, so I did that for about seven years before Amanda quit her job and then I, I still have one foot in commercial real estate. I'm like making a slow Irish exit out of it, but I mean, I, I like quitting. I work full time on our, on our businesses for the most part, but I just, it's taken me a lot longer. I'm much more practical, analytical,
Amanda: Calculated.
Ashley: Type A, just classic older sister things.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly.
Kara: So how did, why commercial real estate for you? And then what did, what was your purpose?
Amanda: I did commercial real estate.
Kara: Why?
Ashley: She joined my job.
Kara: Okay.
Ashley: She was like, I'm going to follow in your footsteps. And I was like, it's great. It's so much fun. And it was, I liked commercial real estate because I was on, I started on the finance side of it.
Kara: Okay.
Ashley: I, like I said, I've always been very analytical, loved excel, all of that growing up. Um, but it just was, I know.
Amanda: Who says that?
Ashley: Hey, it has come in handy in our jobs.
Kara: Good skill set to have.
Ashley: Um, but I knew I wanted to get into the sales side of commercial real estate because I also loved people. So it was kind of a good way to meld both of those worlds, the finance side and then the people side.
Um, and it was pretty flexible. I knew that that was always important to me, wanting to be a mom one day. Um, so I just kind of knew that it was going to give me the flexibility that I wanted. It was uncapped because it was mostly commission based once I got into the sales world. So I enjoyed it, but I just knew that ultimately my passion wasn't in commercial real estate.
My passion was in fitness and health. And like I said, I played college tennis. We grew up super active. Our mom was a professional tennis player. Um, so we just always grew up in that world. And it was like, Okay, we can make money doing other things, but this is where our passion lies. And we always knew that we were going to get to the point where we had a career in where our passion was. And it,it took a while, but we got there.
Kara: I love that. So how did the conversation start? Was it just like a side comment here and there to start like, we should really do something together. It'd be fun to work together. Let's do something in fitness together. How did it?
Amanda: So we worked at the same corporate commercial real estate job and, or company, and we would always meal prep our lunches and then or meal prep, yeah, our food. And then we would work out during lunch and our coworkers would be like, Oh, what'd you bring in today? Like, can we have that recipe? So that's when it kind of started. We would start with, uh, posting our recipes on the page. But I will say the week before we started, we had like a business plan.
We were like. We're going to make this happen. Like if somebody's doing this, we can do it, you know.
Ashley: I think that was the biggest thing is we, there are so many people who are successful online, making careers out of being, you know, influencers at the time was probably more so than we didn't know that we would turn this into like true entrepreneurial, separate businesses outside of influencing.
We just kind of were like, people are successful posting their workouts, making money doing things online on their own time in what they're passionate about. If other people can do it, why, why can't we? And like Amanda said, it kind of started as a side hustle. She went full time and then I kind of just slowly teetered over to, you know, helping to work on the business more and more and now it's grown into more than we ever could have dreamed of.
Kara: Amazing. So when you were, when you threw in the towel after six months, which is so admirable, I want to hear all about like where this delusional confidence comes from because I think so many people struggle with just that, like, not being so in your head of the image. And, oh my gosh, like, I can't quit before a year.
I quit my first corporate job after three months as well. I stayed in corporate, but I knew it was wrong. And my parents were like, don't do it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Kara: You have to stay somewhere for at least a year. And I'm like, why? If you hate it and you're crying every night and you don't feel like yourself, what's the point in staying?
Ashley: Don't be like me. Be like Amanda.
Kara: Yeah.
Ashley: After six months, don't stick it out for seven years.
Amanda: Well, have at least, like, some sort of safety net, like, I had my parents, thankfully, get me back in love.
Kara: How old were you when you quit to
Amanda: So, I graduated college when I was 20, so I quit when I was 21.
Ashley: Yeah, so she was still young enough to where she didn't have a mortgage or kids or anything.
Amanda: Yeah, and it's like, that's the time to take the risk, like, do it while you're young. When you get, after you have kids and stuff, it gets a little bit harder not to say you can't do it, but
Kara: I think the moral of this whole story is be like Amanda, not like us, because I'm like, now I'm starting a business and I have a child and a job and all these responsibilities.
It's never too late.
Amanda: Never too late.
Kara: And you're right. like, that is the time where you have ultimate freedom and you don't have the responsibilities and you really are just thinking about taking care of yourself. Exactly. But when you went full time, did you know it was Build and Burn? Like, what was this business plan?
What were you, what did being full time at Build and Burn mean at that point?
Amanda: Yeah, so Build and Burn did not exist. It was just Rosey Times Two. And I And we were doing brand partnerships. Very small deals. Um, but I was also doing residential real estate. So when I threw in the towel with commercial and moved back in with my parents, I did do residential just to have some income coming in while I could keep growing, Rosey.
Um, and then I started selling fitness guides so that for the first like two years, I took most of the income because I needed something. So, I started selling a, my first fitness guide and it was a tennis program and nobody bought it. Not a single person.
Ashley: Your boyfriend at the time bought it.
Kara: A tennis program?
Amanda: A tennis workout program.
Kara: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Yeah, so it was like workouts for tennis players. I was like, this is going to be great, whatever. And it just goes to show you that like, you have to fail before you succeed.
Ashley: Yeah, because probably about six months after that. I started working a little bit more and more over time on the business and we started launching more of our, which has now turned into Build and Burn, more of our like signature 30 minute, they were PDF workout guides at the time.
We started launching those and those kind of started to snowball into selling great. So that
Kara: I have some of those.
Ashley: No way.
Kara: Yeah.
Ashley: Oh my,
Kara: I have some of those.
Amanda: I miss that.
Kara: This would have been now, like, three years ago.
Amanda: Yes.
Ashley: Yes.
Kara: Three years ago. I have time to sweat.
Ashley: Get out.
Kara: And then I have another one that was more focused on, um,
Amanda: Time to Sweat Express.
Kara: I bought it postpartum.
Ashley: Yes. Time to Sweat Express. Yeah. That was our postpartum.
Amanda: That was our original baby.
Kara: Okay, so how many years into the business did you figure out what people wanted to buy? Like the PDF workouts that were more in general than tennis?
Amanda: Probably, what, two years?
Ashley: Probably two years, and I think, I think a lot of it really started when COVID hit.
Kara: Yeah.
Ashley: And people were working out from home. Yes. Um, so all of our programs were accessible from home. They still are with minimal equipment. So that was kind of where we realized, okay, this is a really big target market for people that either are moms and want to work out at home before their kids wake up during naptime, or a college student. I mean, we have such a wide range of people on our fitness app now that all love the 30 minute workouts because they're just sustainable, accessible for everybody, such a wide group of people.
Amanda: Yep.
Kara: Okay, so it started as just the Instagram and posting the meal prepping and personal workouts you were doing and then it was the PDF guides of workouts and now you have a fitness app.
Ashley: Yeah,
Kara: And people join as members and they're getting workouts every week or
Ashley: yeah
Kara: They have like a bank that they could
Amanda: Every week Yeah, and then can pick from the library
Kara: And then you also just launched ADAY.
Ashley: Yeah
Kara: Electrolyte brand
Amanda: Yeah.
Kara: So this has all happened in four years?
Ashley: Four years. Yeah, we started in 2019.
Kara: That is amazing.
Ashley: I was looking the other day. 2019 is when we started. So just about, just over four years.
Kara: So how far ahead were you, when you say you had a business plan, how far did that business plan go? Did you know you wanted to do electrolytes and a membership and all these things?
Amanda: I'm pretty sure it had like a product that we were going to sell and just brainstorming ideas.
I think one of them was like healthy chocolate of sorts, you know, like we love chocolate. Yeah. We make it healthy. Yeah. Yeah. Don't we really? Just. You know, brainstormed everything we could. It'd be funny to look back at that now, because it has definitely evolved, but
Ashley: Well, we did the things we started and failed was a clothing company called Times Two Athletica. We had a manufacturer overseas. We did the whole thing. We got our name trademarked, everything, spent thousands and thousands of dollars on it, and we pulled the plug about six to eight months into it, just because we were like, this doesn't feel authentic to us because it was all overseas. We just felt like we didn't have control, but we always knew that we wanted to launch a product.
We just wanted to find something that aligned with us and that we felt like we could really, um, fill a hole in the market. Um, so we, I think we always knew that we wanted to have a fitness app one day. We just kind of wanted to start slow with the PDF guides. And what's so cool about those is there was no cost to selling those.
We would just go into Canva. We took the pictures ourselves, we put those guides together, and it kind of allowed us to prove the concept of people wanting to purchase our workout programs, um, and then we transitioned that into the app, and then about a year ago or so, we were like, what if we just launch an electrolyte business?
Because we had been taking electrolytes every single day. It was like our number one recommended supplement, one of the things we sold the most on our page, but we didn't feel like there was a perfect product out there for people who just want to work out every single day for 30 minutes. A lot of the products on the market were focused more on triathletes or super intense weightlifting and we were like, we need something that you can just kind of take every day for whether you're chasing your kids around the park or doing a 30 minute workout or going on a sweaty walk and that's kind of where that idea came about. So, yeah,
Kara: So smart. So you, you looked at what you were selling the most from through your affiliate links.
Ashley: Yeah.
Kara: And electrolytes was one of them.
Ashley: Yeah, like, and just something that we were so passionate about because it truly changed my life, especially in my first pregnancy.
It was like, this is something that I actually, and there's so many supplements on the market, this is something that I take, Amanda takes, my husband takes, so many of our friends take, our family takes because it really does make a difference in terms of staying hydrated and keeping your body functioning the way it needs to.
So it's kind of a combination of, okay, what already sells on our page and then also what, you know, we really felt like we could be passionate about putting out there.
Kara: So smart. So I do want to hear a little bit more about your, your process of deciding to pull the plug on, because I think that, I mean, you kind of glazed over that, which obviously it doesn't matter because you found the thing that you are successful at and aligns with you guys and is going to obviously be a big success.
But what, I don't know, like, how did that feel going thinking you were going in one direction and then seeing signals that
Amanda: I will say growing up, I always had little businesses, so I had a duct tape wallet stand and I would just be selling duct tape wallets like all through middle school Duct tape shoes, duct tape shoes, duct tape lunchboxes Whatever that was, that was my first
Ashley: Mini entrepreneur.
Amanda: Yes, and then in college I had a farmer's market stand in Gainesville. I would sell sweet potato brownies, energy balls I would lug all my equipment out there once a week for a few hours and like, you know, do all the finances I just loved Yeah. And I knew I was going to be, I was going to get there [00:14:00] one day. So I was like, let's, I'm going to do it now when I'm young.
Kara: How did you know? Did you have role models that were super entrepreneurial or did you just see that lifestyle?
Amanda: I would say, I mean, our dad's an entrepreneur.
Kara: Oh, okay.
Amanda: Yeah.
Ashley: Yeah. He owns his own construction company. So totally different, you know, market and everything.
But yeah, he was, he was very entrepreneurial, but I think you just always, I think some people just are kind of born with that passion and you were one of those people whereas I was much more like I gotta get three days I got to get the you know consistent job and she was more just kind of always yeah
Amanda: I would say I was on my own path But yeah college didn't really love it graduated early to get out of there didn't love like the drink you want your birthday
Ashley: When's my birthday?
Kara: Yeah, what is your sign?
Amanda: July. I'm a Cancer.
Kara: Oh, okay. My son's a Cancer.
Amanda: Oh, really?
Kara: He'll be like that. Yeah.
Amanda: I'm definitely more go with the flow, Ashley's calculated. That's our biggest difference. So we work well together. And yeah.
Ashley: But as far as pulling the plug on the clothing company, um, I think we just felt like we didn't have control over it.
Um, and we felt like having our production overseas, we really tried to make it You know, have it be made in the USA, but it's really cost prohibitive to do that. Yeah, it's a lot more expensive. That's the reality. Um, so we did end up going overseas. We had a manufacturer there. They were great, but we just didn't feel like we had the visibility into the production side of things that we wanted to.
Um, so we didn't know how the workers are being treated even though they had these like really confusing certifications and it just, it didn't feel like it was something we would be proud of putting out in the market. And that's kind of what you're like, this is not This is not going to work for us. Um, let's pull the plug.
And we thought for another probably six to eight months on what other products we could put out there. We brainstormed every single day on names of things, different types of products. And, um, eventually came up with electrolytes. And now we're so, so happy that we did and that we waited and, you know, made the right decision.
Kara: So how has, it seems like you guys are very close and maybe you always have been, but being six years apart, I would imagine there was like some point where you guys came together like, wait, we're friends, we're cool. Um, but how has your relationship as sisters evolved through the process of not just being sisters and being business partners and entrepreneurs together?
Amanda: Yeah, I would say we grew up not super close and you know, I was in middle school she was in college. We couldn't really be friends. We didn't have a lot the same hobbies going on. So when I went to college, I would say is when we got pretty close. You know, I started calling her asking her about dating, about my resumes, all that stuff.
I would look up to her and ask her for any and all advice and she was there. So that is when we got pretty close. And then with starting our business together, We've gotten even closer. We call each other 20 times a day at a minimum. Um,
Ashley: yeah, we've definitely had to kind of learn how to balance our more like friend relationship now with our business relationship, which is, you know, had its trials and tribulations, but we, we, I feel like we have really good open communication now and we've kind of learned what each other's strengths and weaknesses are and, you know, kind of have a little bit more of roles within our businesses that each of us handle.
Um, but it is sometimes it is hard to separate our business and personal relationship just because we are. We're talking about our businesses non stop because we're pretty much obsessed with them, which is a good problem to have. But yeah, it's been a challenge
Amanda: Totally.
Kara: What challenges have come up in the business that maybe even thinking back to actually even going back to like when you were thinking about quitting commercial real estate full time and going full time in the business, like where was your mindset there?
And then as you transitioned, I want to hear more about the. And maybe initial challenges you guys faced and how you worked through them.
Ashley: I actually think the challenge, maybe it's just like smaller businesses, smaller problems. Now we're bigger businesses, the problems seem a little bit bigger. But in the beginning, it was pretty simple because you were working on Rosey Times Two as like the influencer side of things.
I had a very successful career in commercial real estate, so I just, I literally was just like, take all the money, I'll do, you know, some of the front facing stuff, she did a lot of the behind the scenes stuff. So I think we went from like, I think I took maybe like 10 percent of the income in the beginning, and then it just kind of slowly worked our way up to now we're 50 50 owners of all of our businesses.
Um, so in the beginning, I feel like we didn't really have as many issues because you just kind of handled a lot of Um, and now I think we've, some of the biggest challenges we face are just with communication, I mean, decision making, decision making. Yeah, you know, very different.
Amanda: Yeah, Ashley's more of a risk taker. I more like to be comfy.
Kara: Really?
Ashley: Yeah. I know. Isn't that funny? Because I'm like the analytical one, but I think, yeah, that's actually a good point. It is kind of opposite of what you might think.
Amanda: Yeah. When it comes to like the business itself, like leveling up, Ashley's like, let's go. No question asked.
Like somebody presents something pretty. They're like, Hey, your customers can get this benefit. Blah, blah, blah. Ashley's like, yes. I'm like, no.
Ashley: You just don't want to spend the money. Yeah. And I'm always like, let's spend the money. I see the investment in this.
Amanda: I, I, I would say I felt comfy for a little. Yeah.
But I'm happy you pushed us to go out of our comfort zone.
Ashley: Yeah. Just like starting the app. I mean, that was a big investment starting ADAY our electrolyte company. That's been a big financial investment for both of us. So I think, um, yeah, I'm definitely more of the one who's like, let's just do it and see what happens.
Like we, we've come this far, everything's gone well so far. Let's just see what happens.
Kara: Yeah. I mean, that makes total sense. So you, you mentioned your mom was a professional tennis player. That's really cool. What about the source of the inspiration for you guys to do this? Like you've always been entrepreneurial, which makes total sense.
And then you just really were like, this corporate thing's not for me. I want to work for myself. I want to align. I very much resonate with what you said about just wanting to align what you do all day with what you're actually passionate about. Like, that's how you live the life that you're proud of and that you're happy and, um, and then you can thrive in all these other parts of your life with your relationships and.
All of it. But, um, where, where does the motivation come from? Or like the inspiration? Are you guys more of, I want to do these things in my lifetime? Or are you just more about living in the moment and just wanting to enjoy the life that you have right now? I'm curious, just like, what's the source of because from the outside, a lot of people would perceive what you guys did as like, you hustled really hard to get to where you are.
And yes, you are very calm and collected about it. And like, you did it slowly and methodically and In a, in a time frame that made sense, but like you hustled to get here and you took risks and you made big and bold moves and I think that in order to do that and have the confidence to do it, there has to be some driver behind it, you know, or else like it's hard to take a leap.
Ashley: Yeah, for sure.
Amanda: I mean,
Kara: I'm curious from both of you.
Amanda: Okay, I would say one of the biggest motivators we have is knowing how good movement has made us feel throughout our life. So. We, like when we started, we, we were just doing free live workouts also. We didn't really touch on that on our page. Oh yeah. So we would just do free live classes constantly.
Kara: Like you were going live on Instagram.
Ashley: Yeah.
Amanda: Yeah, exactly. Live workout classes. Okay. We did that for at least a year, and I mean, obviously no money the first year, not a dollar came in. And I would say, yeah, knowing how good movement makes us feel and like. Wanting other people to live a life that constantly you feel good.
I feel like most people coast through life feeling like mediocre. Mm hmm. And I would say movement elevates your life. And we just really wanted to share that with others. Yeah.
Ashley: Yeah, I think that just goes back to our why and why it's worked so well for us. It's like, I think both of us have had kind of extreme lifestyles in the past.
We've done like the whole 30, the 75 hard, the Constant HIIT workouts that just leave your body feeling fatigued, and we've really developed a balanced, you know, kind of 80 20 lifestyle is what we call it, 80%. You know, living clean and healthy and getting enough sleep. 20 percent just kind of living it up type of lifestyle and just wanting to share that with the world and being able to, you know, influence other people to try that type of lifestyle and give up kind of the extremes has been the biggest driver.
And then I think for me to beyond that, as I always knew I wanted to be a mom, I was literally when I was like trying to quit my corporate job and trying to find other jobs, I would be googling like What type of job is best for a mom like just for hours just trying to figure out what I could do where I could be present with my kids, but I always knew I wanted to work.
Nothing wrong with being a stay at home mom. I have plenty of friends that do it, but I just knew for me. I needed to have that other thing in my, in my life, that other driver. Um, so this has just kind of been able, allowed us to marry both of those things for me. Being able to stay home with my son and spend a lot of time with him.
And then work on the business, you know, kind of on the side on my own time. And that's what working for yourself gets to do. Yeah.
Kara: Do you guys get feedback from your community? At like reinforcing the mission that you set out to do. Are you getting like, this changed my life in this way?
Ashley: Absolutely. Yeah. I probably have like hundreds of screenshots on our phone that we just send each other.
Anytime somebody sends us a message, a message that says like, thank you so much for promoting this type of lifestyle. Like I used to work out at the gym for an hour and a half and I would do it for two weeks and give up. And there's people who have been on our app since we launched a year ago that are like, these are the only workouts that I.
have ever been able to commit to. And I just, there's nothing that makes us more proud than seeing those messages come through.
Amanda: I would say the feedback from individual people is just like, it will always keep us going. Like,
Ashley: And it's not like we get a lot of like before and after of like somebody's physical body.
Like that's never really been what we've promoted. It's more of just lifestyle changes. Like just move for 30 minutes a day and see how incredible you feel. [00:24:00] That is the same for everybody, whether you're a mom, a college student, I think anybody can benefit from that type of movement in their life. Yeah, balance.
Amanda: Mentally, it's like, game changer.
Kara: Totally. I mean, I completely agree. It's like, there's no better way to mess up a day than just do nothing all day. Yeah. Like, the mornings that you get out, first thing, you just go on a walk, right? Doesn't even have to be crazy, just approachable stuff. Mm hmm. You're meant to move.
I, I get that. Um, what about the way you think about the business in the future? Like, do you have big things that you want to do? You've already done so much, so I'm absolutely not suggesting that you need to do more.
Amanda: Do more. Don't tell Ashley.
Kara: You're only four years into the business. And have accomplished so much. I can only imagine what you guys think about, especially it being a new year.
Ashley: Yeah.
Kara: Like, what did your 2024 planning session look like for this business?
Ashley: Yes, we just did it.
Amanda: Yes. Yes, we did. Um, no new businesses this year. Thankfully.
Ashley: Never say never.
Amanda: But definitely, I mean, this year our goals are definitely decrease our on the influencer side of things. That's where like the income first started and we're definitely planning planning to decrease that.
Ashley: And that's just like brand partnerships, affiliate partnerships, things like that.
Amanda: Yeah.
Kara: Okay.
Amanda: Definitely. And increase time spent on our own brands.
Ashley: Yep.
Amanda: Um, so that's all for this year.
Ashley: Yeah, I think for Build and Burn, it's just continuing to increase our reach and our subscribership.
So we've, um, hiring has been one of the hardest things for us. Yeah. Um, so just trying to find ways that we can increase the reach beyond our own personal Instagram pages as far as marketing the app goes. Um, so we've tried to hire some people in helping with like meta ads and Facebook marketing and just trying to understand.
Kind of where we can invest some money this year to see the most growth. Um, so at Tholdenburn I think it's just to continue to increase our subscribership and, um, you know, widen that market. And then for a day, we really haven't, it's been very, we've launched six weeks ago. We've been live for six weeks and it's been going great.
We've been just kind of organically selling and marketing through our own page, but I think we really want to dig into that and start to figure out how we can expand that as well through SEO through Facebook meta ads. We just started an affiliate program. So this is kind of a whole new world of having a physical product versus having the app, which is all obviously online.
So it's, it's really, it's been really fun to see the differences in how we can run and operate those business, uh, both of those businesses and see where we can kind of hire some people to fill in to help us out where we, you know, may need it.
Amanda: Yeah. But I would say in the future, our plans are either to expand product offering with ADAY and just give more to the Build and Burn app, whether it's more customizations, that kind of thing. That's really our current plans.
Ashley: Yeah, we're adding nutrition in a couple weeks to the Build and Burn app. So we always just want to make the consumer experience a little bit better, I think, for both of the brands.
Kara: Um, You mentioned that you want to pull back on the brand partnerships and affiliate partnerships, and it makes total sense why you started there.
Would you say that that is the best place to start when you're building a brand and you need to monetize it so that it can sustain you, or would you have done things differently?
Amanda: If you're building a like social brand you mean?
Kara: Yeah, yep.
Amanda: Huh, I would say we would have done things the way we did them.
Ashley: Yeah. Definitely.
Amanda: Yeah.
Ashley: Yeah, I think so.
Amanda: And I mean, we always worked with, you know, partners that we just absolutely loved. Yeah. So it was, yeah, no, I think it was a great place to start and got us to where we are today.
Kara: How did you go about forming those partnerships? Was it you reaching out to brands or?
Ashley: At first,
Amanda: Initially, it was all just me reaching out to brands. And then over the years, you know, brands would reach out to us, negotiate, and now we have an agency that handles all communication contracts.
Kara: When you were first starting, what would you say to them before you had like a substantial, like big numbers to show them or anything like that?
Amanda: I think at first we would, I would ask for product.
Yeah. Just to try their product, love to post it for free, and then kind of just show them the content I would, I could create. Yeah. I would focus on like quality content in the beginning. Yeah.
Ashley: Yeah, I think what's cool about Instagram is you can see our exact demographics and we were able to send to brands and we still have like a 95 percent female audience.
98 percent female audience in the range of age from like 18 to 40. So it's just showing these brands that you have the right target market to put their products in front of, you know, people that would be interested. So we started off doing that and just kind of like Amanda said, organically, um, showing their products.
And then eventually they turned into some small, either affiliate partnerships or paid partnerships. But again, that's just a really. Low-cost way to start a business online. Yeah. Is just by starting to post. That's what's so cool about Instagram is, and or TikTok or any type of social media account is, it really doesn't cost much other than your time to start to grow on there.
Kara: Yep. Mm-Hmm. , did you always have the confidence to post yourself and just go for it, or did it take you a while to warm up?
Amanda: Uh oh, that's a funny question. We didn't tell any of our friends or family members that we were doing our page until we had maybe five or ten thousand followers. Yeah.
Kara: What?
Ashley: Yeah.
Amanda: We kept it a secret because we were embarrassed.
Ashley: That was like four years ago. So maybe it was a little bit less commonplace to have. Yeah. So idea of brand. I mean, over time, obviously, it's, it's grown to become where I feel like everybody and their mother has one. Yeah. Um, but back in the day, I was like, very nervous to share with my friends that this was something I wanted to do.
Kara: So how far, how many months into this were you before you actually told anyone?
Ashley: Like five or six, I'm going to say, yeah, five or six months into it. So we've been posting and that was posting every single day. So it was funny because it was such a big part of our lives. It took up so much time. We were doing like live workouts and I had some friends be like, Oh, I found you. Like I just never said anything. I saw you on there.
Kara: And then you're just like surprised. Yeah. We have like five to 10, 000 followers and have a real.
Ashley: And it is funny because I think maybe some friends I had in the past weren't quite as supportive of what we were doing.
Amanda: I mean, even family or parents were like, what are you doing?
Ashley: Yeah, they didn't understand it. Now they're like, they, our parents especially, and our friends are like, you know, they're like, this is so cool that you guys have just started this from nothing and built it into a pretty large, um, business, but I definitely had some friends, I think they were just judgmental, they didn't understand.
What we were doing and that definitely I, I kind of had a feeling that it would be like that just because it was so different than what I had been doing in the past with commercial real estate and just so much more practical on that side of things. And this was like a creative, fun outlet. Obviously we had hoped to turn it into a business, but we didn't know at that time.
So I think I was just kind of embarrassed to show that I was putting myself out there and doing something different. Looking back, I would, I should have been like owned it. I don't care what you guys think I'm doing it. And that's kind of where we're at now is You know, just, we post what we want, don't really think about other people, we're very confident in what we do and what we share and the message that, that we put out there.
Amanda: I will say it is nice having each other.
Ashley: Yeah. Totally. That's so true.
Amanda: Doing, doing it alone. It's a lot. It's lonely too, without each other. Yeah.
Kara: Yeah. Building something, Haley talks about this a lot, like building anything is, can be lonely. Yeah. Because nobody quite understands what you're going through and nobody quite understands why you're funneling all this time and attention into something that's nothing yet.
Amanda: Absolutely.
Kara: And it's hard for people from the outside to get it until it is something.
Ashley: And as far as like putting yourself online, there is a lot of hate. I mean, we don't get a ton of hate. We're very lucky. We have a great community. Like I said, it's 98%. Yeah. Females. Yeah. It's a lot of like minded. Um, people like us, but we do, you know, if a video goes viral, you get a lot of hate and it can be hard to look past that and be like, okay, these people don't know who I am.
They don't, they're just taking a five second clip and making a judgment off of it. So having each other, you know, if I get upset over something, Amanda's like, let's just delete the comment and move on. And it's nice to have each other for that too.
Kara: Have relationships in your life evolved since starting it?
Like the people that were kind of haters or judgmental of what you were doing before, are they still just as close to you or have you noticed like an evolution in the people that you actually surround yourself with? I guess it would be specifically challenged [00:32:00] because challenging because you guys are building a business where you grew up.
So you're surrounded by all these people that knew like past versions of yourself, which I find so interesting. I'm curious to hear more about that.
Ashley: Yeah, I'm not great at friendship breakups so I can . I kind of just keep people around like you guys can just stay. Even though you made fun of me for three years and now you're one of our biggest supporters. Um, yeah, I think, I think most people have come around though. Yeah.
Amanda: My friends were always supportive.
Ashley: Yeah. Your friends are always pretty supportive. Maybe it's 'cause she's younger and
Amanda: Yeah.
Ashley: In that social media generation.
Kara: Gen Z is so supportive of one another. They get it.
Ashley: They just get it.
Kara: They're not judgemental of what you're putting out there. They like embrace the whole awkwardness of starting something. Yeah. And they think it's cool. Yeah. I wish that we were.
Ashley: I know, right? But now that I see how people were, people were towards me and how I wish they would've acted. Anytime any of my friends are like, I'm thinking about starting this.
I'm like, go for it. How, like, how can I help? Like, this is how you should get into it. Just, you know, like kind of brainstorming ideas with them. And I think just being supportive after seeing how people weren't as supportive for me is, you know, something I can now turn around and give back to other people. Totally.
Kara: I mean, that's the, that feels good too. Yeah. Like to put it back out into the world so that you can, I mean, part of what you guys are doing is inspiring people to live a healthier lifestyle. But I think when somebody is feeling good because of the healthier lifestyle, they're also inspired to do the things in their life that they were previously scared of.
Cause you get confidence when you're confident in yourself and the way you feel and the way you look like there's correlation there to go do big things in your life. And that's why I really wanted to talk to you guys because I think having a healthy, just program in your life and routines and habits gets people to a place where they can go do the big thing in corporate or they can go do the big thing in entrepreneurship that they have been scared to do so.
Amanda: Yeah, it's like keeping that promise to yourself that you're going to show up to that workout. Exactly. Builds your confidence. Totally. And that goes into other aspects of life.
Ashley: Yeah.
Kara: Where are there things that you would, I guess, anti gatekeeping advice [00:34:00] is what we're about. What type of, what advice would you give to gals, guys, anybody that wants to start some kind of fitness brand in a similar space?
They haven't done it yet, but they know they have it in them, or they see a need, and they just haven't pulled the trigger.
Amanda: Yeah, I mean, number one, I would say if you wait until something's perfect, you've waited too long, so just start. And number two, I would say you have to be consistent, and it might take a year where you see nothing, like, no progress, but you have to, you have to be consistent because that's, that's, I think, what defines the successful people and the non successful people is consistency, showing up.
Ashley: Yeah, really just finding something that you're passionate about is going to allow you to do that. So for us, if we had started like a fashion blog back, you know, four years ago, we would not have been consistent with it. We would have given up a long time ago. Whereas with the workouts, it was like, we're already working out anyways in our apartment, especially during COVID.
Let's go live and share these with other people. And um, if it. weren't something that we were so passionate about, like to our core, it just wouldn't have been something that we would have stuck with over four years of making hardly any money, definitely not livable money for the first two or so years.
Um, so I think just finding something that you're super passionate about and being able to turn that into a job is like the dream, I think, for so many people. So if you know what it is you're passionate about, kind of peel that back, start to think about how you can eventually monetize it, but really just, especially for the social media perspective, just kind of start posting and putting yourself out there and seeing what the feedback is like and finding your people.
I mean, there's people, I think some people think it's too late to start on social media and that's just not true. There's people blowing up all the time. There's new businesses that are starting and there's room for everybody.
Amanda: Yeah, use social media because it is free to start a business, essentially.
Kara: Did you teach yourself everything on social?
Ashley: Yes. That is why I think it's nice to have somebody, a little, a younger sister working with me because I would not have been able, you were so good at just all of the different platforms.
I mean, there's so much out there. Yeah. So many editing platforms nowadays and I've gotten better over time.
Amanda: She's gotten better. She's gotten better.
Ashley: I've definitely gotten better over time, but it's hard. There's a lot. It's so hard. There's so much you can learn online, which is a good and bad thing because it can be overwhelming if there's, you know, too many, um, platforms to try and learn, but it's also like you have free access to so many people, so many teachers, so many resources that you just kind of have to Get in there and start to utilize them and figure out which ones work for you.
Kara: So there were, were there ever moments where you guys were like, oh my god, what did we start? We don't want to keep going or did you always kind of feel like you had wind in your sails and you had each other to kind of keep it going?
Ashley: I would say no. I feel like we've been so confident about what we've wanted to do, but it all goes back to our why.
Like again, we were just started, started off by sharing our workouts and our recipes. That, yeah, was just what we were already doing. I was so excited to meal prep my meals for Work every single day. Like, that was the most exciting part of my day walking into the office knowing I was gonna sit on a chair, type into an [00:37:00] Excel sheet.
I'm like, at least I have my yummy Moroccan spiced chicken that I made for lunch and getting to talk about that at lunch. So yeah. And then, you know, kind of just building on that. Getting to work together more and more. It just always kind of has been it's been fun. Like I know there's, there's, there's always had challenges for the most part.
Amanda: There's always been wind in the sail. Love them. Yeah, I love it.
Kara: Yeah. I mean, if you got energy and momentum, like you don't need to doubt yourself for no apparent reason, which I think a lot of people do like, wait, it's going too well. Yeah. And then they start self sabotaging.
Amanda: So It's definitely nice to have each other when, you know, maybe one of us is having a down month or a few months, like, like me, the other person picks up our slack and pushes us forward.
Ashley: Yeah, like we've both gone through personal things. Me having a child, going through postpartum, it was hard. She had to pick up the slack and then she recently got out of a six year relationship, but then I had to pick up some slack and it's just kind of been, you know, dealing with. Weaving in our personal lives with trying to navigate running businesses together.
But I don't think there's ever been a time where we've been like, I wish I were doing something else. Yeah. Which is so amazing. So lucky every single day that we get to do this as a career together. It's like the absolute dream.
Kara: So what is your mat leave plan?
Ashley: What is mat leave?
Kara: Figured you’d say that. Do you think you'll have any time off? Or I guess she has to
But doing something that you really want to do, It doesn't feel so structured, but you know, there's so many unpredictable components of postpartum that
Ashley: Yeah, my first postpartum was a lot harder than I expected. I didn't have any postpartum anxiety or depression or anything quite, you know, that strong, but it just, I think the lifestyle changes were really hard for me and I was still working in commercial real estate pretty heavily.
This is probably three. Two years ago? He's two. This was two years ago at this time. So I was still working commercial real estate, still working on building these businesses together. Um, and I didn't really take off enough time, I don't think, to give myself the time to adjust to being a mom. Mm hmm. So this time around, I, it's, it's hard because our businesses are in such different places now.
I'm not doing commercial real estate a day. And Build and Learn have both picked up. We have customers that need us every single day. Yeah. Um, and we handle pretty much everything. We have some small teams in place for things, but it's hard because I'm, I just love it so much. Like, I, I work till nine o'clock some nights.
I'm just so excited about it. So, I don't have a full plan. I know I should, for my own mental health, take some time off. And I think Amanda will probably push me to do that. Absolutely. Um, but I think we'll just kind of keep it organic and see how, how it goes. But I know I'll take off a couple weeks. You know, we won't have any brand partnerships for me to do.
And we'll be somewhat strategic about it, but I know that I'm not just gonna be sitting there and being like, all right, Amanda, you take over. I'm going to step out. I just, it's not, it's not in my nature to do that.
Kara: I mean, there's such a difference between doing work that's filling your cup, even postpartum than doing work that, you know, you're just doing to build somebody else's dream.
Yeah. So I, I get that. Well, taking time off is very important and I would be a big advocate of giving yourself that. Like I get it. I mean. [00:40:00] If you're energized by it, then maybe that's the thing that actually makes you feel good. Yeah. Realigned with yourself. Cause you can feel super weird postpartum. Yeah.
Like, who am I? Now I have two kids. Am I just a mom? You know?
Ashley: Yeah, exactly. Sometimes I think like, what would it be like to have, I have friends that have like six months off. I'm like, well, you just get to go and be a mom for six months. Like in some ways that does sound nice, but in some ways I'm kind of sacrificing that for being able to build our own business and have the flexibility to work.
I, I think they always say like when you become an entrepreneur, you think like, Oh, you're giving up the nine to five to get to work whenever you want, but really you just end up working all the 24 seven, but it's great because you're working on, yeah, hopefully things that you love and want to be working on.
So I think we'll have to kind of figure it out, but cool. We'll get there. Love that.
Kara: Okay. Last question. Um, I'm very curious about both of your morning routines.
Ashley: She just moved into a new place. I feel like yours is probably still getting established in your new place.
Amanda: Still getting established.
Ashley: I can go first.
Amanda: Okay.
Ashley: Mine is typically I'll wake up and work out before my son gets up. So he's, we, we got pretty lucky. He's a really good sleeper. He sleeps till like 7. 30. So I'll wake up at like 6. 30, get a workout in. Um, and then if I'm still working out, my husband will get him up. Um, we'll eat breakfast together as a family.
We always do like. Full breakfast. I always make like eggs, Greek yogurt, make sure it's super high protein. Collagen in my coffee. I just have one cup of coffee a day. Um, and then we always go on a walk in the morning. We've got a black lab. So he needs to be walked, which is good motivation. But I think it just kind of starts our day off on the right note.
Like you said before, just kind of getting outside and getting that morning movement in, getting the sun on your face. It's a little circadian rhythm jumpstart. Um, so that, those are kind of like the three things that I do. Every single morning. Work out, get some movement in with a walk, and then eat a high protein breakfast.
And then from there, it's usually, if I've got my nanny, we'll start work. Either I'll go to Amanda's house or, um, you know, work from home and kind of just get started with my day. But, yeah, that's pretty much it.
Amanda: Mine's pretty similar. Wake up, morning walk, get some sunlight in, uh, make a high protein breakfast.
My matcha. Matcha every day.
Kara:Same.
Amanda: Same? Matcha girl. Love that. And then I typically go to Ashley's house to our studio to film a workout at around nine, and that's my morning.
Kara: Love it.
Amanda: Yeah.
Kara: So you both get some alone time in in the morning.
Ashley: Yes.
Kara: Do your thing. Love it. Um, okay, so where can our listeners find you, become a member of Build and Burn, buy ADAY, just follow your journey in general?
Tell us all the handles.
Amanda: Ooh, okay, so our personal handle is Rosey Times Two, and it's R O S E Y Times Two. Typed out.
Ashley: Our last name was Rosenberg. Yes, hers still is. Mine's new since I'm married. But that's where the Rosey comes from. We always get asked that.
Amanda: That's a good point. And then our fitness app is Build and Burn co on all social channels.
Um, build and burn.co is the website and where you can sign up for seven day free trial. And then our electrolyte company is at @hey.aday on Instagram and heyaday.com.
Kara: Love it. Thank you girls so much for stopping by and sharing your story. This is so great and inspiring. I'm going to go learn some more social channels and just post stuff. It's so hard.
Ashley: It's so fun though. It's a lot to do now. But you got it.
Kara: Thanks guys.
Amanda: Thank you.
Ashley: Thank You.
