The (Secret) DMN8 Master Plan
TL;DR
Build a personal training company.
Build outdoor gyms in public spaces where we offer group fitness.
Build indoor gyms in leased spaces where we offer gym use, retail & personal training.
Build a healthy meal kitchen & delivery service.
Build an app for bookings, transactions, memberships & meal deliveries.
Build a virtual workout platform & sell a branded wearable fitness tracker.
Build a marketplace where our members can buy health & wellness products & services from our brand partners (& eventually 3rd parties).
Build wellness centers where we offer recovery & beauty services.
Build social clubs & healthy, sustainable restaurants.
Bundle access to all the above into one single affordable monthly membership.
There it is. The secret is out.
DMN8 is building the fitness industry’s very own “Amazon Prime” membership program, where every one of our businesses is vertically integrated and we sell our services in a marketplace – alongside 3rd party product & service listings.
The Longer, More Detailed (Secret) Master Plan
Having a Mission & Thinking Long Term
Those closest to me know that I am a huge fan of Tesla, the electric car company. Moreover I greatly admire Elon Musk, the entrepreneur.
I was inspired several years ago, when I first read Elon’s blog post “Master Plan, Part Deux”. In the article, Elon referenced his first blog post “The Secret Tesla Master Plan” from a decade earlier.
I read both – and I was blown away.
Since the very beginning, Elon’s vision was clearly articulated and his plan clearly laid out for all to see.
Most noteworthy though, was this idea that Tesla had a meaningful purpose and mission: accelerating the advent of sustainable energy.
Today, 15 years since Musk’s first blog post, Tesla is the most valuable automaker on Earth with a $710 billion dollar market cap. Tesla’s affordable midsize sedan, the Model 3, is currently outselling every other car in it’s segment.
Thanks largely to Tesla’s success, every “incumbent” auto company is now scrambling to transition their entire fleet from internal combustion to electric, to avoid becoming obsolete in the next several years.
It’s crazy to think that back in 2006 when Tesla sold very tiny and very expensive electric sports cars, no one took electric cars seriously. Nobody (save for a few investors) thought Tesla had a chance of becoming the world’s most valuable car company.
And yet, they did. Elon and his team believed it was possible right from the start. And by working really hard for a really long time, they changed the world for the better of all humanity.
That sort of mission, vision, commitment, conviction, teamwork and against-all-odds execution is inspiring to me.
Many years down the road and working on solving an entirely different problem, I draw on that inspiration every single day.
This brings us to the DMN8 Master Plan.
In this blog post I’ll lay out where DMN8 is today, what DMN8 is building & why it matters that we succeed…
Let’s start with “why”.
The Mental Health Crisis
There is currently a worsening mental health crisis in the developed world.
Society suffers from anxiety, depression, prescription drug dependence, loneliness and stress on a level not seen before.
The rate of suicide is higher than ever.
Although we now have smartphones, social networks and cheap tools for communication – we are feeling less connected, more lonely, more depressed and more divided than ever.
“We’re social beings, and we are not meant to live in isolation. Community is critical for us to thrive, especially for someone with mental illness who is already experiencing the common symptoms of loneliness and isolation.
Community provides many elements that are critical to mental health, but here are three of the most beneficial aspects: belonging, support, purpose.” (1)
I can’t help but imagine a world in the future where people spend more time together in our parks and open spaces, gathering for positive, constructive events like group workouts and engaging with their local community in real life more, like people used to do before the internet.
The Physical Health Crisis
The entire world (and especially the US) is increasingly overweight and chronic illness is out of control.
Obesity affects 19% of children and 42% of adults, putting people at risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and some cancers. (7)
This health crisis is now also a financial disaster for the US. Chronic modifiable disease currently costs the US around 3 Trillion in subsidized care, which is roughly 18 percent of the nation’s GDP (1). (This is more than twice the average among developed countries.)
And what’s crazy about all of this – is that most of it is entirely preventable.
75% of Heart Disease, Stroke, and Type 2 Diabetes and 40% of cancer could be prevented if the major risk factors for noncommunicable diseases were eliminated – the most important of them being a poor diet. (4)
Numerous studies support a strong link between obesity and mental health. This relationship appears to be bi-directional; while mental health disorders increase the risk for obesity, having obesity also increases the risk of mental health disorders. (6)
In summary, society doesn’t just suffer from loneliness, anxiety and depression. Society also increasingly suffers from obesity, chronic illness and cancer. And nearly all of this is preventable with lifestyle changes like a healthy diet, participation in a community and increased physical activity.
(1) United States; CMS (Office of the Actuary)
(2) https://www.crfb.org/papers/american-health-care-health-spending-and-federal-budget
(3) https://www.statista.com/statistics/268826/health-expenditure-as-gdp-percentage-in-oecd-countries/
(4) https://khn.org/
(5) https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=SHA#
(7) https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/costs/index.htm
Solving These Problems
There is a lot of unnecessary and needless suffering in the world. It’s important that we do everything we can to solve these problems.
I want to make the world a fitter, healthier and happier place. I’ve made it my personal mission. And it’s now the official mission statement at DMN8.
DMN8 already does this every day. But we only do it on a very small scale.
Today we’re only a team of twenty. By inspiring thousands of talented people to join us and to help us – and by using technology to create a for profit business that compensates everyone involved extremely well, DMN8 will one day do this on a much larger scale.
(Like, really really large).
OK, so our (secret) master plan goes like this:
Build a personal training company.
Build outdoor gyms in public spaces where we offer group fitness.
Build indoor gyms in leased spaces where we offer gym use, retail & personal training.
Build a healthy meal kitchen & delivery service.
Build an app for bookings, transactions, memberships & meal deliveries.
Build a virtual workout platform & sell a branded wearable fitness tracker.
Build a marketplace where our members can buy health & wellness products & services from our brand partners (& eventually 3rd parties).
Build wellness centers where we offer recovery & beauty services.
Build social clubs & healthy, sustainable restaurants.
Bundle access to all the above into one single affordable monthly membership.
Phase 1 – Build a personal training company
In Musk’s “Master Plan, Part Deux” blog post, he says that “The reason we had to start off with step 1 was that it was all I could afford to do with what I made from PayPal.”
“Step 1”, in Musk’s case, was a small, low volume electric sports car. Tesla started by addressing a small market because it didn’t have enough capital to take on the high volume sedan and SUV markets.
Unlike Musk, I never co founded a company in my early twenties that made me two hundred million dollars. But even still, I can relate to Elon’s decision to start with a smaller market due to capital constraints.
See, when I started DMN8, I was 27 years old and living in a van. As hungry as I was to start a world-changing fitness company, I was flat broke and there was nobody in my life who could or would lend me money to build anything.
I had to fund it myself. But I didn’t have enough cash to rent myself a small studio apartment, let alone a gym or a restaurant to operate.
I had no money and no access to outside capital so I had to look for opportunities with zero startup costs.
Staring at the roof of my van each night, I envisioned creating a company that impacted billions of people, transformed millions of lives and made the world a measurably fitter, healthier, happier place.
I started with personal training. Not scalable at all – but extremely high margin.
In less than one year of working seven days a week from six to six as a personal trainer, I saved enough money to pay off my credit card debt and get myself a small studio apartment in Los Angeles so that my van could be used for phase 2 of the company’s plan.
DMN8 continues to offer personal training packages today and will always offer this service to our members.
Phase 2 – Build outdoor gyms in public spaces where we offer group fitness
I then saved enough to purchase tens of thousands of dollars worth of workout equipment, I built the first DMN8 outdoor gym & rebranded my personal training company from “You’re Dominating” to “DMN8” in 2020.
DMN8 workouts exploded in popularity and today DMN8 is the largest outdoor fitness community in Los Angeles.
We sell a wide variety of workouts across multiple outdoor locations. Our community of fitness lovers purchase packages which make staying fit super affordable, and everybody has a ton of fun out at our classes.
We’ll continue to expand our outdoor workouts to hundreds of communities where we can bring locals together in beautiful outdoor spaces to share positive interactions and improve their fitness together.
Phase 3 – Build indoor gyms
DMN8 is preparing to open its first indoor gym, which is a really exciting milestone for our company.
Onsite we’ll have a beautiful gym for members to access on their own time. We’ll also sell personal training, indoor group fitness and sell retail merchandise, healthy meals, snacks & drinks.
Phase 4 – Build a healthy meal delivery service
DMN8 is going to operate its very own kitchen and meal delivery service – providing affordable, locally sourced and organic meals to its members which will be delivered the very same day they’re cooked.
Phase 5 – Build an app for bookings, transactions, memberships & meal deliveries
DMN8 is building an app that will effectively act as a marketplace for all our services. One affordable membership fee will unlock discounts on all our services, like Amazon prime does in the Amazon marketplace.
All our fitness products and meals will be ordered through our own app. We’ll bundle workout + meal programs that consolidate our members’ spending on their health and wellness while giving them access to the highest quality products and services in the market.
Phase 6 – Build a virtual workout platform with livestream & an on demand content library, then sell a branded wearable fitness tracker
We’ll start with livestreamed and prerecorded workouts that are shot in beautiful outdoor locations, then we’ll build out a workout library with all different types of workouts.
Without giving too much away, I’m particularly excited about the VR/AR possibilities we unlock when we have a membership base that’s hyper local around DMN8 hubs and outdoor gyms.
DMN8 is also designing a branded wearable in the form of a branded wrist strap. Our members will use this to check in at our gyms, outdoor workouts and social events.
We’ll be able to offer premium services like a workout tracker, sleep tracker, stress tracker and more – to effectively help our members be fitter, healthier and happier people.
Phase 7 – Build a marketplace where our members can buy health & wellness products from our brand partners (& eventually 3rd parties)
Shortly thereafter, we’ll launch a marketplace in app where members can purchase discounted and exclusive products from our brand partners. This will be a virtual extension of our IRL marketplace we have at DMN8 on the weekends.
With a wearable, virtual and a marketplace all communicating in app, we’re going to offer a gamified social fitness experience unlike any other before that ties together content, community and commerce.
Phase 8 – Build wellness centers where we offer recovery & beauty services
As a leading fitness membership program, DMN8 will be well placed to open “wellness clubs” where we sell premium experiences like hot/cold therapy with infrared sauna and cold plunge, massage, body scrubs, facials and more.
We’ll also host social events on site like bachelorette, engagement parties and self care days.
Phase 9 – Build social clubs & healthy, sustainable restaurants
Finally, we’ll build venues that are specifically designed for our frequent community events – like a modern wellness-focused clubhouse that’s accessible to members and their guests.
Our community will utilize the space frequently for socials and in the day time it will be open as a place to have coffee/tea, eat, socialize, hangout and to work. Ie “the third place”.
Staying true to our mission, all menu items will be healthy, sustainable and locally sourced. The facilities and decor will be eco friendly and agile for easy rearrangement.
All of our facilities will be thematic of nature and the great outdoors, while still having a modern chic vibe and of course, great music.
Our kitchens will serve as the local kitchens for our meal delivery program and our restaurants will serve as “pick up” spots for those members who prefer to save money on delivery fees.
By vertically integrating these various healthy & wellness solutions, we’ll be able to price our meals and workouts competitively while also offering more flexible full-time employment opportunities for our trainers.
Phase 10 – Bundle access to all the above into one single affordable monthly membership
And of course, all of the above will be bundled into one single membership.
We’ll consolidate our members’ health and wellness spending. We’ll give them access to the greatest facilities, events, trainers & technology. We’ll give them the tools they need to achieve, maintain and most of all enjoy living their best life.
One membership for your fitness, health & happiness. Tens of millions of members. Tens of thousands of outdoor gyms, indoor gyms, clubs, spas & restaurants.
A fitter, healthier & happier world. This is an inspiring future and it’s the future that our entire team is working hard to create.
If creating this future is exciting for you, please apply to work at DMN8. We need awesome people!
If you’re interested in joining the team at DMN8 and helping us make world a fitter, healthier, happier place, please visit DMN8.com/careers
Special thank you to my friend Dr. Ryan M. Greene, DO, MS for his help gathering the data referenced in this blog post. Find Ryan at Monarch Medical & Health Club in Los Angeles.