[Alisha Marie]
Perfect, we are recording.
[Gail Tifford]
Okay.
[Alisha Marie]
Hey, my name is Alisha Marie. I am a
[Alisha Marie]
professional
[Alisha Marie]
Youtuber, influencer, content creator.
[Gail Tifford]
Hi everybody. I’m Gail Tifford, the Chief
[Gail Tifford]
Brand
[Gail Tifford]
Officer at WW, formerly Weight Watchers,
[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie]
I’m so excited to be here. I’m so honored
[Alisha Marie]
that I’m
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
able to be here with Gail. She said it
[Gail Tifford]
great. Should I just go in?
[Alisha Marie]
Thank you so much for being here. I’m
[Alisha Marie]
curious what you think about the term
[Alisha Marie]
health and wellness?
[Alisha Marie]
It sounds so broad and it means
[Alisha Marie]
something completely different to
[Alisha Marie]
everyone. What does it
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
necessarily mean to you? For me, what
[Gail Tifford]
wellness means is really my
[Gail Tifford]
mind, body, and soul kind of all working
[Gail Tifford]
together. We’ve banned the words ‘before’
Gail Tifford]
and ‘after’
[Gail Tifford]
because we feel like it’s kind of dirty. So
[Gail Tifford]
we talk about it as ‘now’ and ‘then.’
[Alisha Marie]
For a fitness and health brand to say,
[Alisha Marie]
“Hey, you’re beautiful no matter what size
[Alisha Marie]
you are,” no one’s doing that. I love this
[Alisha Marie]
wave of body positivity,
[Alisha Marie]
of people showing that, and showing
[Alisha Marie]
stretch marks, and showing real before
[Alisha Marie]
and afters, where
[Alisha Marie]
you have your leggings and you pose
[Alisha Marie]
like a fitness pose, but then you put
[Alisha Marie]
them down and show that. I think
[Alisha Marie]
that’s what people are missing in the
[Alisha Marie]
health and fitness
[Alisha Marie]
industry, and I love that you guys are
[Alisha Marie]
really tapping into that when not a lot
[Alisha Marie]
of other people
[Alisha Marie]
are. To see a brand doing it because they
[Alisha Marie]
actually believe, that I think speaks
[Alisha Marie]
volumes.
[Gail Tifford]
We’re really focused on, as we talk to
[Gail Tifford]
new audiences,
[Gail Tifford]
really coming right out to bust those
[Gail Tifford]
myths head on.
[Gail Tifford]
When I look at your community, they’re
[Gail Tifford]
rallying around you, but they’re also
[Gail Tifford]
rallying around
[Gail Tifford]
your point of view around health and
[Gail Tifford]
wellness.
[Alisha Marie]
I think honestly trust is the biggest
[Alisha Marie]
thing. I think getting, like you said, a
[Alisha Marie]
more diverse audience, you know, people
[Alisha Marie]
who are
[Alisha Marie]
super into fitness, as well as people who
[Alisha Marie]
have never worked out in their life to
[Alisha Marie]
show them how
[Alisha Marie]
it is for everyone. Again, there’s just so
[Alisha Marie]
noise and so many articles and different
[Alisha Marie]
things being thrown at everyone
[Alisha Marie]
all the time, so people are just looking
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
for honesty. You talked about trust and
[Gail Tifford]
that is
[Gail Tifford]
at the core of what our brand is, and I
[Gail Tifford]
think it’s really important that
[Gail Tifford]
in this day and age brands are
[Gail Tifford]
transparent. I think the thing about
[Gail Tifford]
YouTube and the video format of
[Gail Tifford]
storytelling
[Gail Tifford]
you can’t photoshop videos. That is what
[Gail Tifford]
so compelling about the platform
[Gail Tifford]
is that authenticity and just
[Gail Tifford]
you know people really being able to see
[Gail Tifford]
you, versus a perfectly photoshopped,
[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie]
you know, edited photo. Thinking back to
[Alisha Marie]
the 90s for instance, that would have
[Alisha Marie]
been a brand’s worst nightmare is
[Alisha Marie]
getting video footage of what it’s
[Alisha Marie]
really like.
[Alisha Marie]
However, now it’s the complete opposite
[Alisha Marie]
and using that to your advantage to show
[Alisha Marie]
‘hey, this is real results.’ Watch this
[Alisha Marie]
video, it’s not photoshop.
[Gail Tifford]
We’re learning a lot from our members,
[Gail Tifford]
but we’re also learning a lot from your
[Gail Tifford]
generation
[Gail Tifford]
I mean with your subscribers growing, how
[Gail Tifford]
do you
[Gail Tifford]
use them as a feedback tool? Like are you
[Gail Tifford]
constantly
[Gail Tifford]
hearing what they have to say and then
[Gail Tifford]
using them to generate
[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie]
ideas around content? I’ve learned so
[Alisha Marie]
much from my viewers over the years,
[Alisha Marie]
and I think one of the number one things
[Alisha Marie]
is that they love being included.
[Alisha Marie]
Whether it’s using the same hashtag.
[Alisha Marie]
Whether it’s even you just being active
[Alisha Marie]
and liking, or even just asking them ‘hey
[Alisha Marie]
guys,
[Alisha Marie]
I’m really torn. Which song do you like
[Alisha Marie]
better?’ What do you like?
[Alisha Marie]
They love that so
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
much. When we were
[Gail Tifford]
moving from Weight Watchers to WW, we
[Gail Tifford]
actually
[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie]
did the same thing. Oh my god!
[Gail Tifford]
We started with our community.
[Alisha Marie]
They’re the ones who are telling their
[Alisha Marie]
friends about me. They’re the ones who
[Alisha Marie]
giving me video ideas and telling me ‘hey,
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
you should do this.’ Overwhelmingly, our
[Gail Tifford]
members were like
[Gail Tifford]
we think this is so much more than just
[Gail Tifford]
weight. This is about,
[Gail Tifford]
you know, our overall wellness and it’s
[Gail Tifford]
about what you put into your body, but
[Gail Tifford]
how you move your body, and how your mind
[Gail Tifford]
supports that.
[Gail Tifford]
What we see happening is that health and
[Gail Tifford]
wellness has become a necessity. It’s not
[Gail Tifford]
a luxury anymore,
[Gail Tifford]
and people need to take care of
[Gail Tifford]
themselves so that they can take care of
[Gail Tifford]
the people around them.
[Alisha Marie]
I actually would love to hear your
[Alisha Marie]
perspective on
[Alisha Marie]
having an app, and what you envision
[Alisha Marie]
obviously that app and tool to do
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
with your brand? The brand started out
[Gail Tifford]
like a real,
[Gail Tifford]
in real life community. And then, when we
[Gail Tifford]
launched the app,
[Gail Tifford]
because of the fact that those communities are really
[Gail Tifford]
in the DNA of the brand,
[Gail Tifford]
it was really critical that we create
[Gail Tifford]
some sort of community within
[Gail Tifford]
the apps, a virtual community. I can imagine
[Gail Tifford]
it’s pretty similar to
[Gail Tifford]
to the community you have with your
[Gail Tifford & Alisha Marie]
followers. The number one thing I love so
[Alisha Marie]
is finding out that fans have become
[Alisha Marie]
best friends because of me. Like they met
[Alisha Marie]
online because of
[Alisha Marie]
my videos, and now they’re best friends.
[Alisha Marie]
And I can only imagine it being the
[Alisha Marie]
exact same way for WW, and I think
[Alisha Marie]
that’s
[Alisha Marie & Gail Tifford]
such an awesome tool. You know it
[Gail Tifford]
keeps them going and it
[Gail Tifford]
is, you know, you feed off the energy
[Gail Tifford]
and the support
[Gail Tifford]
of people who are on the exact same
[Gail Tifford]
journey with you.
[Alisha Marie]
I learned so much today. I think Gail is
[Alisha Marie]
such a boss
[Alisha Marie]
lady, and I love how transparent she was.
[Alisha Marie]
Seeing how she’s been able to come
[Alisha Marie]
and completely turn a brand around for
[Alisha Marie]
the better, and
[Alisha Marie]
is just so open and honest with
[Alisha Marie]
everything, I’m really excited just
[Alisha Marie]
to see where WW goes.
[Gail Tifford]
I loved speaking to Alisha today. I love
[Gail Tifford]
how she continues
[Gail Tifford]
to reinvent herself with her audience
[Gail Tifford]
and how they are
[Gail Tifford]
so welcoming and appreciating. I can
[Gail Tifford]
understand why millions of people
[Gail Tifford]
follow her every day, and I think that I
[Gail Tifford]
am probably going to be her number one
[Gail Tifford]
biggest fan from now on.
[Gail Tifford]
Well this is the reason why you heard
[Gail Tifford]
all of the noise
[Gail Tifford]
in the background so you can thank
[Gail Tifford]
Baby Kanga for that.
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