Ep. 10: Blending Fitness and Design: How Kodi Kitchen Berg Crafted Fitness Products That You Want to Display
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Summary of the Episode:
Today I spoke with Kodi Kitchen Berg, founder of Equipt Movement, about her journey from actress to business owner and how she scaled Equipt by utilizing unique partnership opportunities and meeting her customers where they’re at in their everyday lives.
Throughout the episode, Kodi emphasizes the significance of community building, learning from customer feedback, and knowing your areas of expertise so you can effectively delegate and outsource.
*A note about this episode: This podcast was recorded in May of 2024 and is being released in March of 2025, so some things related to how Kodi markets Equipt NOW may have changed, but the past learnings she shares throughout the episode are still relevant and helpful.
Actionable Tips You’ll Walk Away With:
How to leverage in-person events
Effective ways to foster brand partnerships with new connections
What it means to meet your customers where they’re at
How to connect with your customer through unique touchpoints in their everyday lives
Ways to craft messaging for each of your customer profiles while maintaining a consistent brand voice
Kodi Kitchen Berg’s Bio:
Kodi started her career as a model and soap opera actress on General Hospital. However, she always felt like fitness was too end result-oriented, and she was tired of traditional weights. She wanted weights that made her feel good and want to reach for them.
She’s a believer in the power of movement, and that beautiful design incentivizes movement. This belief inspired the creation of Equipt. In the episode, Kodi explains how Equipt removes the intimidation often associated with fitness, making it enjoyable and playful through design-led weights.
Timestamps:
01:02 The inspiration behind Equipt
02:29 Using customer insights to influence their content and strategy
06:35 Early business learnings
09:12 What acting and being a mom taught her about business
10:20 Building a small community first
11:25 How building a community helped her think of more expansion ideas
13:30 Expanding their in-person events
14:01 Making their lifestyle accessible to everyone through an app
16:15 How she forged her first few partnerships
16:59 Her approach to building partnerships with new people
19:36 The importance of thinking outside of the box to differentiate your brand
20:17 Tailoring your messaging based on who you’re talking to
22:00 How to start growing together
23:03 The messaging through line when speaking to each customer profile
25:06 Meeting the customer where they’re at
28:08 How they’re connecting with customers on vacation through hotel partnerships
28:34 Why you should think about the feeling someone is going to get from using your products, not just the physical benefits
30:45 Determining her bandwidth and areas of expertise
34:00 All of the cool resources female founders have available to them now
34:32 How to identify your areas of expertise
36:50 Why it’s important to try every role in your business before outsourcing
38:56 Her ice cream business
41:39 One piece of advice she’d give newer business owners
Connect with Kodi and Equipt:
Kodi's personal Instagram
Equipt's Instagram
Equipt's website
Ojai Ice Cream's Instagram
Connect with Lindsay and LC Creative:
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If you're more of a TikTok fan, connect with us there
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Related Episodes:
More About the Behind the Label Podcast:
After years of listening to podcasts targeted toward service businesses, we noticed there weren’t many shows helping brands that sell physical products like jewelry, home goods, clothing, and more.
And while some marketing advice is used universally, there are differences between marketing a product vs a service.
Which is why we made a podcast dedicated to helping product-based brands with their marketing based on real-world experiences.
We talk about things like:
Creating a marketing strategy that works for you
Honing in on your ideal customer profile
Email, social media, and website best practices
And so much more
You’ll learn straight from other successful product-based business owners and industry experts.
And at the end of each episode, you’ll walk away with actionable tips to revolutionize your marketing and cultivate a community of brand-loyal customers.