The Marketing Strategy That Transformed One Trainer’s Career Into Two Thriving Businesses

0:00You know, it's like then someone knows you're training her and then you get the intros intros and that's how I met like Maddie Ziegler, Olivia Rodrigo, Hailey Bieber. I have a set army of girls that I train. Hey everyone, welcome to Shopify Masters. I'm your host, Shuang Esr-Shan, and this is your companion for starting and scaling a business. In the protein industry, flooded with false promises and mystery ingredients, one woman is on a mission to fix all of that. Kirstie Gotso isn't just a celebrity trainer, she's the visionary who's exposing what we really put into our bodies. With her brand made of, Kirstie offers premium whey protein powder sourced out of New Zealand.

0:42Her brand has reached far beyond her own following and celebrity clientele that she trains. From Kai Gerber, Olivia Rodrigo, and Maddie Zagler, just to name a few. And she's here to chat all about fitness and entrepreneurship. Kirstie, welcome to the show. Thank you so much having me. Honestly, I'm such a huge Shopify fan, so this is like really a dream. So happy to have you here, Kirstie. You have always had this passion for fitness, and you have had an incredible journey working with Nike, launching your own app, and training these celebrities. Talk to us about how it all started and how you build up your clientele.

1:21Well, thank you so much. It's been, I know I feel young, but it's been like a long journey. So I started out working in fitness in New Zealand. I actually graduated with a double business degree first and then sort of took a bit of a jump in the other direction. And just to set the landscape, fitness was very not cool at the time. But I grew up in New Zealand, which is a very, very fit population and country in general. And so I was going to the gym a lot, but I didn't really love what I saw in the gym. I didn't love the nature of transactional language before and after. It was very bodybuilder dance at the time.

1:59And so I actually got my first start in fitness in fitness DVDs. And it was pioneering a high intensity program that was science backed. It was one of the first high intensity programs really of its like at the time that was really geared towards everyday people. A lot of programming was geared towards athletes. And I myself, once I'd tried, you know, my first few high intensity classes after thinking it was a near death experience at first, I was like, wow, this is incredibly transformative, both physically and mentally. And so that was how I got on board with it. But it was never really my goal to be a front-facing trainer.

2:34I kind of thought that I would just be, I was more the marketing behind it. And I thought I was going to be a stand-in for X amount of time until we found the right person to be the lead of this program. And it sort of, my career took off in a way I didn't expect. And here I am like 14, 15 years later, still being a trainer. So I did start in group training through those fitness DVDs. Then I extended into doing personal training. I still do a lot of group training. And I signed with Nike nearly 14 years ago. So very early on. Yeah. So it's been a fun journey and I kind of still feel like I haven't hit my peak yet, which I think is exciting.

3:15I mean, just being a trainer who is featured and signed by Nike. That's someone's life goal. But I think that was just your beginning. And it also brought you into the States and opened a lot of other doors for you. How were you able to build up your clientele? Well, I was definitely very fortunate. I was traveling to the States so much for both Nike, as well as I used to train a couple of the Victoria Secret models when I still lived in New Zealand. So I would come over closer towards the timing of the show or around Fashion Week and spend time with them, living with them in New York. And then by the time I did actually move to America in 2016 and lived in New York for five years, now I'm in LA, I think it was amazing to already sort of know the landscape a little bit and have some friends in fitness.

4:03But then in New York, you just meet people. You meet people at the coffee shop. You meet them out and about. You meet them in a bar. You meet them at a concert. And so it was kind of easy. My work husband and I, we used to train a lot of the Victoria's Secret girls and we used to train a lot of press and a lot of sort of people of influence, I would say, versus influences for Nike. And then when I moved to LA, you know, LA is a different beast. It's just, you know, it is kind of celebrity central. There's a lot of different talent here. And I actually met my first major client, Kaya Gerber, who's one of my best friends, in a Pilates class.

4:41And then that kind of just steamrolled. You know, it's like then someone knows you're training her and then you get the intros, intros. And that's how I met like Maddie Ziegler, Olivia Rodrigo, Hayley Bieber, all these girls. And, you know, I have a set army of girls that I train. There's really eight girls that I'm always with and I adore them. And I love like they have similar careers, but still very different things to focus on within it. So I'm always busy and I like to think we're always having a good time. Yeah. And working out fitness, it is quite a vulnerable state that you have to be in, especially for someone who is so high profile.

5:20The fact that these incredible women trust you to be a part of their life, a part of their routine. What is your advice there to build trust and build relationship, which is so key to any business, right? Oh, huge. I think, you know, trust and confidence is like truly unmatched with a product or with a person. And I think, sadly, it's not that common these days. So, you know, I am from New Zealand. We don't really have celebrities aside from like Lorde and our rugby team. I actually do train Lorde sometimes. I used to train her when she was like 16. And now I have her trained with one of my really good friends in New York.

5:57And, but so we have a kind of a different mindset around celebrity in general. The biggest thing for me is I treat them as people. I treat them on first name basis as the person that they are, not the person of interest to everyone else. Because at the end of the day, like that's who they are to me. It's like, you're going through the day to day, you're working through their goals. Yes, you're aware that there is a huge presence and pressure on them. But I think the best thing you can do is just honor them as the person that they are behind everything else and be there for that person and show up for them.

6:29And I think it's like about not having an agenda. Like I'm truly just there to get the job done. I'm about the work. And I don't, everyone always says, you know, if I had all your clients, I'd post them all the time. And I said, well, then you'd never have my clients because there is an element of privacy. And I think it's just respect. Like these people get violated all the time with their privacy. And as you said, that, you know, fitness and trusting someone with your body is very personal. So I like to just, I like to say I put the personal and personal training and I mostly keep it personal.

7:01I love that philosophy and that phrasing so much. So yeah, like you said, you're saying that, you know, you've not reached your peak. The first summit, getting that Nike deal, already incredible. Second summit, having these beautiful women that trust you and are part of your clientele. And then you also noticed this gap within the protein powder market. What were you trying to create that you didn't see anywhere else? So when I moved to America in 2016, you know, prior to that, I was traveling the world for Nike. I was going everywhere and I was spending time in a lot of different countries and amazing places, but not always the easiest for me to find the food that I wanted because I'm celiac.

7:42So I was born celiac. I've always had to read ingredients. And, And, you know, when you encounter a language barrier on top of that when you're traveling, the fear of getting celiac sick when you're doing a really busy Nike shoot or a big job where you're training thousands of people at one time, there isn't, you don't have much margin of error. You know, there isn't time to be unwell. So, and my reaction to weight is very severe. Like, I can't walk. Like, my stomach completely shuts down. so I'm not definitely not going to the gym you know or like being able to teach a class because I can't even really stand so I've always been cognizant of ingredients I was traveling the world taking protein powder with me at the time but I was always like this protein is not that great like to be honest even in New Zealand we didn't have a great option at the time for me to use so when I moved to the states I just became much more privy to what I thought food quality was and transparency with supplements and transparency with food in general and I was pretty disturbed and I felt my body not feel as great as New Zealand.

8:44New Zealand has very strict rules on products and food and, you know, your body does feel incredible there. So I undertook the exercise because people would ask me all the time for a protein recommendation. I was like, honestly, I don't have one that I like really love or the products that I did love. Their packaging and their brand was so bad. And then the, any of the few brands where the packaging and branding was good, the product was awful and such a lack of transparency around ingredients. So I thought, what if I made my own protein? And I'm from New Zealand. We have the best dairy in the world.

9:19We have known for our clean reputation. I'm a huge proponent of whey protein isolate. It is the premium form of protein. And then we obviously saw this plant-based revolution for quite some time. And there is no disrespect to people if you are plant-based, but a plant-based protein is not a premium form of protein and often has many more ingredients plus, you know, higher lead levels or things like that, just from the whey and the ingredients that are being used. So I wanted to highlight what I believe people should have as protein, but give them a clean source. Like, hey, maybe you're sensitive to dairy, but a whey protein isolate essentially has all the lactose removed.

9:56So my entire philosophy around Madoff was let's make a really clean protein that's very high quality, no unnecessary ingredients, and it's transparent, and people can consume without most confidence. And it actually says that on our bag in the serving instructions, which I think is cute, because that's all I want is people to feel confident with the choices they make. And then the name itself made of, the whole point was trying to teach people what their food is made of, from protein and beyond, because everyone was obsessed with reading the nutritional table values and never reading the ingredients.

10:30And they'd be like, oh yeah, I eat this because it hits all my macros and blah blah. And I said, did you read the ingredients? It's like full of crap that you don't need in your body. Yeah. Yeah. Truly telling people what your product is made of. Of course, I think having this idea is just a start because making that idea into a product is a whole journey. So how did you start approaching actually bringing this product to reality? So we had to do, I have a custom formula that's my own. I was really particular around the flavors. I only have chocolate and vanilla. I do not want to have strawberry cheesecake or peanut butter cup or any of that.

11:12I have no interest. If those are your flavor profiles, I'm sorry, this brand is not for you. And I, so I was testing, you know, nailing the formula was very important to me because I was like, hey, if I'm going to put this product out there and do all this work, like it needs to be something I'm super proud of. It needs to digest well, it needs to taste good, and it needs to be as honest as we claim that it is. And so we spent, you know, from 2016 to 2018 getting the product right, and then we launched in 2018. Now, what was amazing was launching a business can be so daunting, and then using Shopify truly simplifies so much of the scary stuff, which is really exciting.

11:55So for a product like mine, it was more about having the production and the manufacturing and, you know, sourcing the way for New Zealand and getting everything dialed. But then in terms of selling to the consumer, once you've got that website and turn it on, that part's so easy, you know, and it's been really awesome to see the difference on how we use Shopify and how our business can evolve from 2018 to now in 2025. you know, since we first launched. So happy to hear that. And even listening to your process, right? The two years in development, that's just one sentence, but I know that that must have been such a journey in itself.

12:31What was it like, you know, approaching different manufacturers and production partners and actually keeping yourself motivated for those two years? Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's a journey because a lot of protein is white labeled. So brands actually don't even have their own formula. They just pay a manufacturer and they white label something else and they package it up in their own packaging. And that's totally fine. You know, if that's the way that people want to do it, it's beyond the protein industry. A lot of, a lot of companies do it with skincare and supplements, but it was very important to me that we had a product that I had control over in a sense of knowing exactly what was in it because of that transparency, that honesty that I wanted with our consumer.

13:13And also because, you know, I have my own personal reputation within fitness and the wellness industry. So trust is really important too, with me being linked to it. And so it took a few tries. The first manufacturer we launched with was not my dream. We actually weren't a New Zealand grass-fed way at first, in the first testing realm. And then that was the most important piece for me. I was like, I'm from New Zealand, And that's the entire point. I'm not going to negotiate on that. So went back to the drawing board, refined again, and then actually partnered with someone who got it. And once I started working with him, he was like, you know, I just am so grateful that you care this much because no one cares.

13:54And that's the thing. It's like, it's about money for a lot of people. Whereas for me, I'm like, sure, I would love for this business to continue to grow and be something amazing. But nothing makes my day more than people saying they're like, oh my gosh, like I used to always skip breakfast and now I have Madov every morning and I feel so much better. For me, it's about that transfer of the feeling that you can give people and the confidence you can give them. I'm also curious about just moving from working in the fitness personal training space into a product-based founder. Because I think when you work with a client one-on-one, you can see right away that they're enjoying themselves and you can see the results that they get.

14:35But this is like a much longer feedback loop and there's much more complexities. So how did you adjust yourself? I think what was really lucky was, so in New Zealand, I used to have many jobs at the same time while I was working in fitness, but I worked in brand marketing as a brand manager for a fitness company. So I used to lead up high intensity, immersive fitness and children's fitness. So I was used to kind of looking at product in a sense of, it was a digital product or it was an experience that people were having in the gym because we used to sell that fitness programming to other gyms around the world.

15:10So I sort of had that experience with marketing, but having a physical and tangible product, especially something people are going to ingest, is an entirely different ballgame, you know. And it's really scary. And there's a lot of times, you know, you want to have a breakdown. There were many phone calls to my dad. And, you know, I think what's amazing about having your own business is you will learn so many things. I always say that having this business has taught me more than my degrees, and it's taught me more than so many other exercises in my life because you have to know dedication, patience, grit.

15:48You've got to keep resilience. Your feelings are going to get hurt now and then. I've had an entire production run one time get destroyed because whey absorbs scent. you know and we were sold out and in the same production facility there was um a pre-workout being made every round of production we do i sign off the sample because i'm so particular about it being consistent and that is my biggest anxiety inducing experience it's like once or twice a year depending on how many production runs we're doing and i was like oh this tastes like tutti frutti Like, I don't understand. And the entire production run was unusable.

16:25So it's discarded, you know, and luckily it wasn't on my dime. But it was in a sense because it meant then we were sold out for even longer. You're waiting in the production run. You know, you have things like lead times for ordering bags, ordering scoops, ordering the tape for the boxes. And a lot of the time things don't line up. And what I'm really fortunate for is I have a group chat with two of my other friends who are founders called Money Moves. And it's, yeah, Rocky's matcha. And I know you've spoken with Rocky, who's my best friend. And, you know, Melanie from Gia. And I am just so thankful for the support group of like troubleshooting, talking about it, having someone to be like, oh my gosh, guys, would you believe what happened?

17:09And then they're like, oh, you know, having people that get it. Because a lot of your other friends, if they haven't had to go through these exercises, they don't get it. So I think that's what's really amazing these days is with so many other people being founders and having their own, you know, you have this own little community as well of the business owners to talk through some of those things. Or even when you're sad, someone gave a bad review or, you know, because it feels personal. It feels, I always say that Madov is my son and my firstborn and I love it. Yeah, I really care so much. So So that part can be hard sometimes, but truly it's really rewarding when, like I say, if someone tells you that the product changed the way they feel about themselves, you can't ask for more than that.

17:52The reason why you pay attention to all of those details is because you care, and I know that it translates to the customer as well. When you initially launched, because you are someone of influence, and I think because there's so much trust that you build from your reputation, was it hard to start talking about a product that you created? Because it feels like it's a sensitive area when someone starts to create something that they're trying to sell. Yeah, I think it's like a difficult negotiation with yourself in a way. I'm very sensitive to that sales pitch type person. And I think there's just so much toxic enlightenment in the wellness industry already and people pushing something on you.

18:37And to the point that I would almost not talk about made of enough or push it enough because, and sometimes people would say, oh, I didn't realize that was your brand. They're like, you need to talk about it way more. And the more I actually leaned into that and just talking about how I personally use it, my favorite recipes or tips and tricks. And I realized that me being honest about it isn't transactional because I'm answering all these questions to people anyway about gym gear and style and, you know, makeup and skincare. So I'm like, why wouldn't I be allowed to talk about a product I genuinely use every day?

19:13Being open about what you're building is also fascinating as well. There's so many people who are interested in how founders are building their business as well. Yeah. And I think even it's like staying true to what this is. This is the whey protein isolate company. So people are always like, are you going to make a plant-based protein? I'm like, no, it's not on my vision board, honestly, because I'm really dialed on this. And to be honest, for us to make a plant-based protein, I'm going to have to negotiate on a lot of the things that I don't want to negotiate on, like a lot more ingredients and things that I don't love being in a protein.

19:48So I think it's been really nice to just sort of stay focused on the mission, focused on what it is that you really care about because you see a lot of brands expand and layer on a lot of products and it kind of gets away from the point. Sometimes it's amazing, you know, like I'm always dying for another product from some of my favorite makeup brands or whatever. But I think what's amazing about made of is it doesn't need to be different. Like this is such a great product. So yeah, it can be different. Like we could make different serving sizes of, you know, travel packs or whatever, maybe we can introduce another flavor here and there, but this is our core product.

20:26It's the consistency and the trust that you have in the consistency that makes it special. Yes. Yeah. I always say like, I love using the word consistency in general because, you know, that translates so well to fitness anyway. It's like consistency is the biggest driver of your success with anything. And, you know, consistently taking a product, that consistently showing up for yourself, you know, it sort of creates, I think what I love about a routine is it creates all these really good little like boundaries within your day without you maybe not even realizing it. Like, you know, if you know your morning routine is I get up, I have my made of with water or whatever it is, and then I go work out, you know, it's like you set the stage for all these positive things to keep happening through having that consistent morning routine.

21:14I also was wondering about building trust in a service-based business and versus a product-based business, because I think this is what has set you apart. Did you find anything surprising when you're trying to build trust in these two different realms? Yeah, I guess what's interesting is, you know, on a service-based level, it's much more, you know, not everybody can trade with me, you know, like, so I used to teach a lot of classes when I lived in New York, I don't actually actively teach on a timetable anywhere in LA because I am with my private clients and Nike so much. So I think made of is like my invitation for people to have a part of me that I care about as much as that energy that I'm putting towards my personal clients.

22:00Obviously I do have an online fitness platform as well called Pyro, but where everyone can work out with me. But I think, yeah, having the trust, I did notice that having built trust with people who do workouts with me, either via Nike, Pyro, or my clients, did translate over into them me launching a product because they were like, well, I trust her implicitly with my body and I have for so long and she's never led me astray. I'm going to trust her with trying this product. However, the one thing is for people that don't know you, there is a little bit of a barrier to entry of, oh, do I want to pay this amount of money to try a product and not know if I'm going to like it?

22:35I think we all think that. It's like that's why we get obsessed with looking at reviews. We get obsessed with looking at, you know, a testimonial from someone else, or it takes someone else that influences us to see like, oh, am I going to buy it? But what's interesting is, you know, we can see spikes in our sales when certain people talk about it. And what's interesting is it doesn't matter if it's someone with millions and millions of followers. For our product, what translates, I spike the most sales always because I guess people trust me, but it's experts. It's like fertility experts. It's digestion specialist experts.

23:10It's like nutritionists. And I think, and it's all people speaking about it organically. And that's been really amazing. Yeah. I think it's also interesting to think about in this space, right? Because you can have celebrity endorsement in this space, but to your point is I probably trust my friends or someone who's a medical expert more because I can understand what they're referencing and I can trust them. What's your philosophy when you're thinking about having people endorse Madov? So we've never paid anyone and never done any paid marketing for Madov ever. And I honestly barely post it on my actual like Instagram feed or anything.

23:54And I'm working on that. And, you know, I think what I love is obviously I know that paid marketing really can help amplify a brand. But I think what's been important to me is I don't want it to appear the same way as a lot of these other brands I see in wellness, even though they're doing amazingly. They have such an icky feeling to me of how transactional it is. And a lot of them very much lean on this before and after mentality of like, you looked like this and now you look like this because you took our product. And I'm like, well, first of all, your product doesn't even have enough in it to substantiate the claims that you make about it.

24:32That's point one. But point two, you've paid someone to say this, and then you've paid to market behind it. So then there's another layer of trust stripped away. And I don't like the idea of playing on someone's insecurity of, oh, I don't feel comfortable about how I look. And then I see an ad, and then I'm going to buy something out of kind of a desperation to make change. I like people, I want people to buy made of out of a like decision to be motivated or a decision to like change something about their daily routine or like show up for their body in a different way. But I don't want it to be like a manipulation if that makes sense.

25:10And listen, maybe that's not the smartest business advice because I see a lot of these brands doing amazingly, but my conscious feels clean. Yeah. Well, I think what's incredible is the way this product in itself, the model in itself is if the product is good, people will come back. And that's what brings in the lifetime value. And I think almost ads maybe even hurt this space because I do care more about someone recommending it to me. So I think having that butterfly effect of people just having word of mouth is like the ultimate goal. Yeah, that's the dream. And I think it's amazing. We have so many different ways that people can share links or share everything these days.

25:53It's definitely a lot easier if you have a brand than think prior to social media and all these other platforms and apps that make it so much easier to have a business and for someone to discover your product, ideally. How are you, I guess, balancing everything, also leveling up, taking on more responsibilities while you have all of these different sides of different businesses running at the same time? Well, I've recently learned about delegating because as an A-type Leo, I hated delegating and I was so bad at it to the point, you know, there's been times where I'm on Hawaii doing a filmed fitness job and I'm in my hotel room at 10 p.m.