On the latest episode of Atlanta Small Business Profile, host and small business expert Ted Jenkin sits down with Brett Butler, owner of 20/30 Fast Track Atlanta, a wellness education, supplementation, and weight-loss facility. We’re also joined by Tiffany Tippet, director of 20/20 Fast Track.
Transcription:
Ted Jenkin:
Hey everybody. This is Ted Jenkin, small business expert, right here on this week’s Atlanta Small Business Profile, and today we’re talking about your health. We’ve got Brett Butler who’s the owner of 20/30 Fast Track Atlanta, which is a really, really cool concept. I did a bunch of research on this, and I’m excited to not only learn and teach you about the business today, but more about the business of running this kind of business. So Brett, welcome today, and tell us how you got started into 20/30 Fast Track Atlanta and what it really is.
Brett Butler:
Thank you, Ted. I appreciate you having us. We are excited about the business model. I’m actually a client. Originally, my father did the program four years ago, and he’s 73 years old and has lost more than 80 pounds and kept it off doing the program.
Ted Jenkin:
Wow.
Brett Butler:
And so seeing his success I did it too, and I’ve lost over 70 pounds with the program. So it has been tremendous for my family, and with us having such incredible results, we figured if we could do it, anybody could do it. And so we decided to bring it to Atlanta.
Ted Jenkin:
Well, I know there’s a few people probably at home thinking, “Maybe I put on my COVID 15, it could have been COVID 30 right now,” and you all have come up with this concept of being called a contagious wellness expert. I really like that, because everyone wants to be more well in their lives and it can be contagious and exciting when you lose weight. So what is that concept and what’s that about?
Tiffany Tippet:
Okay, thanks Ted for having us, first. So as far as contagious wellness goes, we all know that sickness can be very contagious. Obviously in today’s world that’s a hot word. So we fully believe that wellness can be contagious as well. So we teach our members how to be contagious with their wellness, and the meaning behind that, it’s really the ability to … It’s spreading the ability to think well, to do well, to feel well from one person to another. So what we educate our members is the more you teach what you’re learning, the higher chance you have of retaining that information for yourself, which ultimately is going to help them in creating this new lifestyle. So we want them to not only learn from us, but to teach other people what they’re learning, because that’s going to, in the end, help them with this lifestyle.
Ted Jenkin:
Always the easiest way to learn something is to teach somebody else. At Fast Track Atlanta and the Fast Track program, you talk about this not being a diet, and there are a lot of people when they hear these kinds of things, they get skeptical. They see infomercials, they see claims that people are going to lose hundreds of pounds. So this is not a diet, right?
Tiffany Tippet:
Right. So we actually have an acronym we use for the word diet. It’s, “Do I eat this? And what we teach our people and what we say is, that’s not something you want to ask yourself the rest of your life. You don’t want to be on a diet forever. And it’s funny you say that they see these claims that people are going to lose 100 pounds, but we really have people losing 100 plus pounds. So it’s not a fad, it’s not a quick fix. That’s really bad for your body, really bad for your heart, that yo-yo dieting. So we actually tell our people, “Look, we don’t want you just to come here for another diet or quick fix. We are here to help you create that lifestyle, and that’s our goal is to help you do that.”
Ted Jenkin:
And there are a lot of people, even pre coronavirus that have very stressful lifestyles, they’re on the go all the time, they were in and out of the airport. Maybe the coronavirus has helped them like calm down just a little bit. But your program also focuses on hormones, it focuses on blood pressure. It focuses on lowering stress. How do you do that, and how important is that to actually losing weight and keeping it off?
Tiffany Tippet:
So as far as the hormone balancing goes, there’s really seven main hormones that can prevent weight loss, can cause weight gain, but not just that. It all relates back to stress. Even the hormone imbalance. So stress, there’s really two types of stress we teach on. Obviously we all have the external stress, but we also have that physiological stress, which is stress caused by the food that you put in your body.
Ted Jenkin:
Really?
Tiffany Tippet:
Yeah. So one way or another, the hormone imbalance comes from stress, and we are all stressed right now. We all have that. So it’s really important to learn the science behind what’s taking place. Stress, basically what happens, really quick version is when you have stress, it raises your cortisol levels. That’s a hormone in your body, but you can already produce so much. So what happens is that it hits a wall, but your stress is still going, whether it’s external factors or what you’re eating. So to keep up with that, the cortisol steals from your progesterone and your testosterone, and you become estrogen dominant. And that’s where you get all those hormonal issues like hot flashes, night sweats, unexplained weight gain, even hair loss, decreased libido. Estrogen dominance also though is the main thing associated with a lot of cancers. Breast cancer, uterine cancer, ovarian cancer. So all of this stuff relates back to stress, which a lot of people don’t really understand.
Ted Jenkin:
So people might know if I eat fried chicken and french fries and some peach pie every night, probably not going to be so good for me, but for an entrepreneur or somebody that’s a C-level executive that has a busy schedule, are there certain types of foods that they should have on their diet, or if they’re trying to meal prep?
Tiffany Tippet:
So as far as this program goes, that first 30 days is more really focused on balancing the hormones and getting the body to baseline, which means a very high health state. So it’s exactly the same. It’s exactly the same plan for anyone. Man, woman, no matter their weight or age, it’s the same program. It’s very structured because it’s a proven system. The system works if you follow this. So it is very structured, which is good. It makes it easy to follow. After we get your body to baseline, it becomes customized per person at that point.
Brett Butler:
Ted, I want to interject. I think it’s important to understand, all the foods we use are real grocery store and restaurant foods. So there’s no cans or boxes or any of that stuff. We’re having people eat real foods, but they’re very specifically designed to get your hormone levels back to a baseline. Afterward, we introduce foods one by one, in a very structured system with our coaching that allows you to identify. It may be foods that you think are good for you that are causing the stressors in your body. For instance, for you it might be green beans are causing your body to have a stress reaction. There’s nothing unhealthy about them, but it may be for you. So through that customization long-term, you learn to eat for you the rest of your life and figure out which foods identify, which foods are causing the stressors that are causing your body issues.
Ted Jenkin:
People have seen over the years, everything from a no-fat diet to a high carb diet, to the Atkins, keto type diets today. Why are people so skeptical when they hear about another plan that’s going to help them lose weight?
Tiffany Tippet:
Well, I think that there are so many fads, and there are so many things that are just out there for quick fixes, and people have tried. I think the average Americans tried 10 to 12 diets over the last five years. So there’s so many different options and maybe they’ll be successful for a few days. Any kind of plan you follow short term, you’ll probably get results. But it’s the permanent results that people aren’t getting. It’s the yo-yoing. They hop on a new plan, they lose some weight and they gain it back, and then they do it over and over. And that’s what I was saying. It’s really bad for your body. It’s really bad for your heart. So our goal is to educate our members on how to get permanent results. We want them to feel well, to look well, all of that, forever for the rest of their life. And that’s why, as Brett was saying, we customize a plan to fit them that’s going to show them exactly what foods and things cause that stress in their body, ultimately leading to hormone imbalance, ultimately leading to the weight gain coming back.
Ted Jenkin:
Yeah there are so many programs for people to choose from today, from the traditional Weight Watchers, to ones that are on an app right now, how do you market your business to get new customers? How do you get people who want to even learn more about a different kind of program that could be great for their body?
Tiffany Tippet:
So a lot of it is word of mouth. Obviously social media is hot, obviously right now for about everything. But when someone sees somebody, in 30 days they’ve lost 20, 30, 40 pounds-
Ted Jenkin:
They want in.
Tiffany Tippet:
They want in. They want to know what are you doing? And then they come to us and we teach them. So when we do an online webinar, it’s about 45 minutes of information, but we talk about the hormones, the science behind the plan, how to get permanent results, so they can decide if it’s a match for them. And like I said, it is a match for anybody, no matter your age or gender. This program is great. It’s going to get your body to a very high state of health, which we fully believe right now is super crucial. You want your immune system strong, you want to be healthy right now. So yeah.
Ted Jenkin:
And Brett, you also are running the Butler Property Management Group while you’re doing this. How do you juggle running multiple businesses? It’s hard enough for people to get into one business. And I know that you’ve got 15 locations. How do you try to balance your time to manage all this?
Brett Butler:
Well obviously it’s difficult. The easy answer is good people. We’ve got really, really great people. Tiffany does a fantastic job for us. Sarah James runs our Johns Creek location. And then I’ve got people on the management side of my real estate business also in Butler Development Group. So we’ve got a real estate development and management company, and I’ve got excellent people that help us do it. So it’s just a matter of keeping your eye on all the balls in the air, and trying to manage people really.
Ted Jenkin:
Well, we know that health is so important, both the mental and physical side. Do you all have a success story or one that sticks out in your mind for people that they should be hearing about when it comes to this? Because I do think there are people who probably now have been exercising during the coronavirus, and I do think there’s a lot of people that are also thinking, “I put on some weight and I might be returning to work soon, and I’ve got to get back into the swing of things and get something jump-started here.”
Tiffany Tippet:
Yes. So I will share one of my favorites. His name is Rob, and we have permission obviously to share his story. But he came to us and he just said … Actually his doctor referred him to our program, because she told, she said, “Look Rob, at your weight and your health …” He was diabetic, high blood pressure, no energy whatsoever. He said he had to have a nap every day. Even at work he would go out into his car and take a nap. But, “If you don’t do something, you will be dead in five years.” Told him about our program. He came and he just sent me everything today, but he’s down 55 pounds. So he’s right at his goal weight, which is perfect. But after nine days on the program, he came off of three blood pressure medicines, four blood sugar medicines, is no longer a diabetic, down 55 pounds, lots of inches, he’s just got his life back. He doesn’t have to sleep all day and he has energy and he doesn’t have to take all the medications. And it’s just been a complete 360 for him, and he feels fantastic, he looks fantastic. His wife joined us as well. So that’s just an awesome story. It literally saved his life.
Ted Jenkin:
That’s exciting stuff. And Brett, where can people find more about 20/30 Fast Track in and around Atlanta?
Brett Butler:
Well, we’ve got two locations. The best way to get to us is to go to 2030wellnessEastcobb.com, or 2030wellnessJohnscreek.com. That’ll give people some basic information ability to sign up for our free webinars that allow them to get all the science behind the program and hear more about it. It is fantastic being in this business, but helping people change their lives and have incredible impact on their health is amazing. Profit’s great, but helping people is just phenomenal.
Ted Jenkin:
Well, Tiffany and Brett, I want to thank you so much for sharing not only your story, but the story of some people that have been successful in losing weight. And folks, as we know as an entrepreneur, even if you’re successful financially, all the wealth in the world doesn’t matter if you don’t have your health. So check this out. It sounds like a pretty cool idea and a good business, and I thank you so much for sharing your story today. I’m Ted Jenkin, small business expert, and this has been this week’s Atlanta Small Business Profile.
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