The Yoda Of Yoga – e52 – Bobbi Hamilton, Adam DeGraide – David Vs Goliath

Adam Degraide:

Coming up today on David versus Goliath, the Yoda of Yoga. That’s hard to say.

Bobbi Hamilton:

My goal is global wellness through play. So let’s go.

Adam Degraide:

You’re taking on that giant, that Goliath, and I hope you win.

Speaker 3:

Welcome to today’s episode of David versus Goliath, a podcast dedicated to helping small businesses leverage technology to not only help them compete against their large competitors, but win. Your host is currently the CEO of Anthem Business Software, a three time Inc. 500 recipient and a serial entrepreneur with a passion to help small businesses everywhere find, serve and keep more customers profitably. Please join me in welcoming your host, Adam Degraide.

Adam Degraide:

Hey everyone, it’s Adam Degraide with another fantastic episode of the David versus Goliath podcast. Today we have Bobbi Hamilton, the CEO of Chi Universe. This is a fascinating interview and a fascinating product. You’re going to really enjoy it. Today’s episode is brought to you by automatemysocial.com, where you can automate if your business up to 99%, 90%, 99% of all your social media for the rest of your life and never have to think about it and then just customize the little bit that you need to customize on a regular basis. It’s a life changer. You could take the tour at automatemysocial.com, save thousands of dollars, stop the madness today with automatemysocial.com. You can also visit us online at davidvsgoliathpodcast.com. There you can subscribe to receive our newsletters and to get updates on the podcast and you can also apply to be on the podcast. Well, with no further ado, let’s get right into it today with Bobbi Hamilton. Bobbi, welcome to the David versus Goliath podcast.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited to be here today.

Adam Degraide:

I was thinking about starting the episode today with me in this pose, the yoga pose. If you know anything about me, Bobbi, I’m not a yoga expert by any stretch of the imagination. I think the last time I stretched was 1973, a couple years after I was born. But I definitely could learn a lot. I was intrigued. I had an interview back for the watchers and listeners with a gentleman by the name of Tom Dusenberry several weeks back. It was great. And he’s in the games as you know, and as we just were talking hanging out. [inaudible 00:02:39] Yeah, he’s on your board now. This is all making sense. And we were just talking afterwards. He’s like, “I got somebody that I think would be a great interview,” and I checked out your product. The product’s pretty cool. Just for the watchers and the listeners it’s Chi Universe, Chi Universe.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Oh, flip. Okay.

Adam Degraide:

Right there. Huh?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Yeah. Show that one. Show that one. Yes.

Adam Degraide:

Oh no. My producer’s going to show much better shots than that, but it’s Chi universe, everyone. And I thought it was interesting because at the end of the day what you’ve got is a scenario where you’re almost taking a twister style concept from what I could see, and then turning it into something fun that families can do and learn about yoga. So why don’t you tell them a little bit about Chi Universe and then we’re going to get into how you started Chi Universe and what led you to do it in the first place.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Sure. So Chi Universe, essentially our featured product is the Chi yoga mat and game. And it has a symbol system on the yoga mat, which actually properly aligns the body and it gamifies yoga. So the symbol system is based on the principles of alignment and anatomical averages. So we have a kid size and we have a twin adult size and the symbols on the mat gamify the product and really engage students for longer. And so you match the symbols on the mat with the symbols in the how-to poster that comes with it or the symbols in the video instruction or in the game app. So you look at the images and you see the symbols and then you try to mimic the pose on the mat using the proper symbols. And then you use your focus breathing, count how long you’re in the pose.

Adam Degraide:

I could use this. There’s no doubt in my mind. I’m starting to feel like as the older I get, I probably could use a little bit of yoga in my life. My wife loves yoga. She does yoga from time to time.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Great.

Adam Degraide:

She also does a lot of Pilates and things like that. And it’s everything I can do to get out of bed in the morning and just power up and sit at the piano, play a guitar, do by podcast, have some fun. And my biggest problem is that I’m always on a computer and our world today, I’m either sitting in front of a camera and a microphone or I’m doing work or I’m playing piano or I’m playing guitar. I’m sitting down a lot. So I think it’s fantastic. And my producer, while you were describing that, was showing the watchers and the listeners some of the imagery because it really is fun. Now it also comes with an app. I noticed that, which was interesting. So you give away a free app on the iPad and in the Android?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Yes. Currently our iTunes app is a 10 level game and it coordinates with the one side of the poster that comes inside of the yoga mat. And so you can earn key points and you work for your key points and it’s pretty adorable actually. But one of the things that’s really exciting is that we are working towards expanding our game tech and fit tech now. So we’re raising capital to expand our digital offerings.

Adam Degraide:

That’s great.

Bobbi Hamilton:

It’s interesting. You start a business, you have a vision and then it sort of takes on a life of its own. So I love the fact that we’re going to be continuing to grow and build this thing out. My goal is global wellness through play. So let’s go. We got to go bigger.

Adam Degraide:

I like global wellness through play. Now for the watchers and listeners that maybe have heard the term gamification or haven’t, let me try to help them understand what that means. So years ago I built CRM and this is early in the days of gamification where softwares tried to put an element of fun to get you to do key tasks that you needed to do. So one of the things that we did, Bobbi, was we created a game that for every insurance agent that gathered email addresses and input them into the software, they would get gamification points and then they would run contests inside of the agency. Whoever could get the highest number of emails into the system would qualify. And there was different tiers and different badges that they would win. And then at the end of the month, our company gave away to the top producer in the top agency within our network of insurance agencies at the time, $150 Starbucks card or Amazon card. I can’t remember what it was.

And that was early days of trying to get people to have fun. So when Bobbi says that she’s taking yoga and she’s gamified it, she literally means that. What she means is that yoga is a game that you can play as you get fit and get well because the game itself makes it more interactive and interesting. Now, how did you, A, come up with the idea and then B, what gave you the courage and the ability to take that step and start it? How did that all… Tell the listeners and the watchers the evolution of how you ended up where we are today?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Sure. Well, originally I came up with the idea while I was teaching. I’ve been a yoga teacher for a long time and at that point I was at the Venice Public Library teaching yoga to children. And there happened to be a little girl who just couldn’t follow me visually or auditorily. And so there was a sharpie just randomly laying on the ground. And I ran over. I brought all the mats for the children. So I ran over and I started drawing symbols and pointed to teach her how to use the symbols. And then her body was in perfect position and I did that because when she was trying, it looked like she was going to injure herself. So really I was trying to prevent injury.

And that’s really what the principles of alignment do. They prevent injury, they increase safety, but it engages the user. So when I step back and saw this little girl in perfect position, I realized like, “Okay, this could really be something.” And I just went off all into the process working on the design and development. And the rest is history. It was a labor of love really.

Adam Degraide:

I could imagine if I was trying yoga for the first time, I would be the person that you’d be highly concerned is going to injure himself as I try to contort my body in ways that have never been contorted. And I love how ideas are formed and where you see need. And the spirit of the entrepreneur that lives in a lot of people that watch and listen to this podcast is, we see a problem, we can clearly see the solution and then there’s a step between seeing the problem, seeing the solution, and actually doing it. So when you took your first stab at a mat, how long did it take you before you got to the place now where you feel like, “I’ve got this thing down. This makes sense. The users of the product understand it. Can use it well.” How long was that evolution from concept to completion and how many years, months of time and development did that take?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Oh my gosh, it was extensive. It was an extensive research and development process. I’d never built a product before. I had built a video before. So out of college I was a medical researcher and I did learn about the childhood obesity epidemic at that time. And I did want to create programming to help children because understanding the implications of obesity and cancer was something that I really wanted to tackle. So I had been an athlete my whole life. I was a springboard and platform diver for UC Berkeley. And I wanted to use my skills to innovate movement for children. I didn’t know what I was doing. And I created a first product that was a video product and it ended up getting turned into yoga breaks and on PBS stations across the US for years, they ran these yoga breaks and I ended up normalizing yoga for children. And-

Adam Degraide:

That’s great.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Thank you. So, which is another story of where I ended up because I didn’t have enough IP at the time and really lost my innovation to other people. And so when I started the development process for the yoga mat and game, I was very serious about doing the IP for it. And so not only was I learning how to develop a product, I was also spending money on patents and trademarks and copyrights. And I just want to say, as a small time business owner, I literally, at times I was sleeping on my girlfriend’s floor to be able to pay for the patents. And that always really embarrassed me and I never wanted to tell anybody. And then when I heard-

Adam Degraide:

No, you should not be embarrassed by that. As a matter of fact, more people that are watching and listening to that are considering starting a business need to understand that. You have a board of directors now that has the former CEO of Hasbro Interactive on it. That doesn’t happen overnight. That happens with a lot of sweat, tears, blood, and in some cases sleeping on your family, relatives or friends couch for a period of time to pay for it. So did you bootstrap the whole business to start yourself? Were you funding it exclusively yourself?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Yeah, I was. I bootstrapped it and then I had an advisor teach me how to sell equity in my business. So that was another learning curve where I had to learn and also have enough courage to be able to raise capital. And I raised small amounts in the beginning, like 10 grand or 20 grand at a time just to keep it going and keep building it. So it was a huge learning process. It was not-

Adam Degraide:

What was that? Bobbi, you strike me as someone that, and don’t take this the wrong way, doesn’t have the killer instincts. I have no problem putting my foot on someone’s throat and saying, “You should do this.” But that’s my personality, right. It’s very gregarious, it’s very outgoing, it’s very confident. You strike me as someone who’s very reflective, someone who is very patient, very kind. How difficult was it for you, not that I’m not kind by the way. If people know me, they can tell I’m a decent guy for the most part. But was it very difficult for you to do that and did it take several times? Because there’s a lot of people right now watching and listening that have that personality, that have your personality, but they have great ideas and they can’t get to the next step because they’re afraid. They’re locked in fear on asking that person for money and how to be confident when their nature is to be, “Aah, think about it. Take the weekend, talk to your this person.”

No, at some point somebody’s going to say, “Are we doing this or not?” So how was that transition for you from not raising money or asking for the money to where you are now?

Bobbi Hamilton:

That’s a really good question because I wasn’t confident. My first property, I took an investment for animal yoga, the one that was on PBS Kids. And I lost that property and it was a really hard learning experience for me. Over time, what I began to realize-

Adam Degraide:

Somebody trademark it, somebody stole it from you and trademark it? They realized you didn’t trademark it?

Bobbi Hamilton:

They stole my property, they stole the whole concept. They recreated it exactly the way I made it and I couldn’t get anybody to fund that. I’d taken my first 75,000 that I had raised as early twenties and I wasn’t able to pay it back. And that was devastating to me. So I didn’t feel confident taking money. But also I had been told by people, “Well you’re a woman and when you fail once, it’s harder for you to raise money.” And I had to overcome a lot. I had to really overcome what other people told me and also what was inside of myself. And I was a bit shy and I was a trainer. I drove all over LA, I worked for huge business executives and one time I had this female business executive in finance say to me, and she loved me and she would say to me, “Whatever you are doing for my children, you’re godsend. They’re happy and focused. When you leave, they do their homework.”

And I would train her and her children and one day she said to me, “Why would anybody fund your business? You can’t even ask me for the money I owe you.” And that was a really big wake up for me. And so I had to-

Adam Degraide:

That’s definitely tough. That’s tough. That’s tough. So hold on. I want you to hold that thought. I want you to hold that thought because I’m getting a red light from my producer that says I’m over on break here. So I need to take a break. But when we come back, I want to continue right where we left off, the fact that you couldn’t even ask her for the money that she owed you for her own kids. It’s a good question. You’re with Bobbi Hamilton and Adam Degraide, your handsome host of the David versus Goliath podcast. Here’s a very important message from automatemysocial.com. We’ll be right back.

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Adam Degraide:

And we’re back with Bobbi, the yoga master. The yoga guru. Really, the Yoda of Yogi of yoga. Wait, the Yoda of Yoga. That’s hard to say. Try that. Try that. The Yoda of Yoga. I actually think that’s going to be the title of this week’s episode, The Yoda of Yoga. I like that. It’s really good. So you were just talking about raising funds and how you had this powerful female executive who you were impacting their kids in such a powerful way. She loved it. The kids were doing great, she owed you some money and she said, “How can you ever run a business? Why would I ever give you money if you can’t even ask me for the money I already owe you?” How did she handle that?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Well, I did take some deep contemplation after that and I knew that I needed to overcome some of the beliefs that I held inside of myself. But really what did it in the end is that I believe so fully in the wellness effects of yoga therapy and I really want to create change. I really wanted to give this to the world and help people. And when I saw it as something even bigger than myself and that why would I hold back something that could contribute to the wellbeing of people in the world that I had to get out of my own way. And so I started raising money also through the magic, I swear, of meditation. It literally, I would meditate and then I would get really focused, this is how you do it. So you get into meditation and once you’re within the oneness, then you ask the universe for what you want.

And the universe would put me right next to the person that would end up investing in me. It was unbelievable. The magic that ensued to help me develop this business really came through my deep desire through meditation, asking the universe to be guided. And I would literally just be put right next to the person who would overhear me talking about my business to my parents or something. And they would be like, “Oh, who are you? Can you tell me more?” And so it took a lot of magic from the universe to help me realize this thing. But I did end up getting the hang of it over time, and I was able to bring in an investor at one point who became a main investor for me to get me through to a level where it just became undeniable that this product was a hit.

Adam Degraide:

That’s awesome.

Bobbi Hamilton:

The kids loved it and parents loved it and the press loved it. And I’m at that point now where I’m like, I’m so confident that I have such a great product that there’s really nothing anybody could say to me to discourage me.

Adam Degraide:

It’s not an easy journey to get there. It’s funny, you talk about becoming one with the universe. For me, I spent a lot of time in prayer. So for me it’s like if I’m not feeling something inside to me, I get before the Lord for myself and I pray and I say, “God, give me wisdom. Give me the right direction you want me to walk into.” And I’ll tell you, man, without doing that I feel like I’d be walking blind. And sometimes you can react too quickly or not quickly enough if you’re not, to your point, centered with what’s important to you in your life. And it makes a lot of difference. So you are at a place now where you have powerful former CEOs on your board. I’ve been in those board meetings myself. I’m on my fourth business now. I’ve sold three.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Great.

Adam Degraide:

A couple of them I’ve had boards on. Not a big fan of boards in a lot of ways because I’m like a free spirit and it’s like I’m not a big fan of lawyers. I’m not a big fan of dentists. I’m not a big fan of doctors. I’m not a big fan of boards because all of these things tell me what not to do. And to me it’s like, “Ah,” I always fight it by saying it drives me crazy, trying to restrain my own natural instincts. But they can be very helpful. They can also be very hurtful.

In your experience with your board now… So obviously to have those type of caliber people on your board, you must be doing well. So congratulations.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Thank you.

Adam Degraide:

What are those board meetings for you now? What are the primary things behind the scenes? You don’t have to get into the nondisclosure piece of it, but you’re having a board meeting, you’re having difficult conversations. Is it mostly vision casting? Is it more relationship driven board members? Is it a blend of both? Tell the watchers and the listeners a little bit about the life of a board meeting for you right now at Chi Universe.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Sure. Well, we were discussing Tom Dusenberry is on the board and he’s a visionary. He brought in the highest earning acquisition in the history of Hasbro. And I trust him very much, but I also have some other very solid people. And often a board meeting will be strategizing or it’ll be like, okay, I have this person or I have this opportunity. How do we close the deal on it? Can you guide me in what I need to say and do or this is where we’re at and help me get to the next evolution of it. So I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I just had to file a first lawsuit against an infringer, a major retailer, and I literally maybe would not have had the courage to do it if I didn’t have my board members.

Adam Degraide:

Yeah, exactly.

Bobbi Hamilton:

So I needed that. It’s a very scary process and I don’t know if you’ve ever had to go through the process of obtaining an attorney or fighting. This is-

Adam Degraide:

Bobbi, I have about 30 attorneys at any given moment that I work with. It’s funny you mentioned this. My buddy who owns a business had a client of his owing about $90,000 and he fronted the money for this client and he had for the first time in his life, get an attorney. It’s never comfortable, but it is only… If you have IP and you have contracts to protect your IP and somebody infringes on that, there’s only one way to make sure that your contract is enforceable and you’re doing the right thing. It’s not ever fun. It’s never fun. I’ll tell you that whether you’re suing or you’re being sued. But it is the cost of doing business unfortunately in the year 2022. It reminds me of the Back To The Future episode where they were talking about how the justice system was working so much more swiftly. And he said, “Well, how do they do that?” He goes, “Well, they abolished lawyers,” because lawyers can definitely take up a lot of time.

But I would just encourage you to trust them. Your board members who have gone before you in that aspect have wisdom in that aspect. And you got to defend yourself and you got to fight for what’s yours. And that doesn’t mean that they can’t use the idea, they just got to pay you for it.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Right. I know, exactly. Just pay me for it. But okay, so going through this process, I want to talk about this as a David and Goliath podcast because first of all, what I realized in going up against a major retailer is that it is so difficult to even get to the process of suing them.

Adam Degraide:

There’s so many layers.

Bobbi Hamilton:

There’s so many layers and it’s so exhausting. I mean I was waking up, first of all, going through the discovery of being infringed and counterfeited and trying to get them to stop selling was a nightmare in itself. But then going through the process of trying to get an attorney, a nightmare in itself, I was literally waking up and smashing my pillow against the wall. It’s not a waking up and meditating. I had to really work with myself to get through this process because of-

Adam Degraide:

Smashing the wall in the middle of the night might have lend you to believe that you were not completely at one with the universe at that moment. You were at war and you didn’t know it.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Yes. And it’s the struggling and it’s so difficult. It’s one of the reasons why I just became determined to get a lawsuit filed because what I realized in going through this difficult process is that it’s actually a business model for large retailers to steal from small businesses because it is so difficult to go through the process of-

Adam Degraide:

And they know and they know that you don’t have the stomach. Most people don’t have the stomach to do it.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Yeah, exactly. And that’s why it’s a business model. And that’s why I’m fighting for small businesses now because okay, what ended up happening for me was I was interviewing 15 different law firms and then it was such a difficult process that I literally called Berkeley Law. I went to Berkeley and I was like, “Well, maybe if I just call Berkeley.” So I called Berkeley Law, I left them a voicemail. They didn’t even call me back. And they put out two calls into the network and I got calls from a male attorney and a female attorney who went to Berkeley.

Adam Degraide:

That’s great.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Who do you think rescued me?

Adam Degraide:

I don’t know.

Bobbi Hamilton:

The female attorney.

Adam Degraide:

And those dirty men. Those dirty men.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Oh, I’m just saying. I’m making a point, but what-

Adam Degraide:

I understand.

Bobbi Hamilton:

The larger point is this. I am privileged to have had that education and to have that school make a call for me into the network and they [inaudible 00:30:08] me because the law firm that ended up writing the complaint is impeccable. And getting to this point was so incredibly hard that it made me realize, “Okay, well given this privilege, it is my duty to fight for small business. We are the backbone of America and it’s like, “You like the product? Pay for it.” What I ended up realizing is-

Adam Degraide:

That’s my whole point. It’s like, “Okay, great. If you like the product, no big deal. I have the IP on it. It’s mine. All you got to do is give me a little piece of it and we’ll be fine.”

Bobbi Hamilton:

So what I’ve learned in the process in building a small business and go doing all the research and development is that people like me, designers and people pay for these educations and then they spend their time building their life work for something that they think they’re contributing to society. And then what ends up happening is these large companies, you serve them and then they leave the small business holding the development debt. And then the larger company ends up making all the profits off of the smaller company. And I’m here to say, “No, you can’t do this to American small businesses. This is the American dream and you don’t get to cut us out and kill us.” I mean-

Adam Degraide:

Yeah, by the way. And that’s one of the things that they need to fix, by the way, is intellectual property rights in other countries as well too. Because the world’s very global now, especially with a product like yourself. And if you have a global patent, it’s got to be enforced. And I don’t know how to do it because I’m not smart enough to figure that out. But I love the fact that you are fighting for small business. You’re taking on that giant, that Goliath, and I hope you win because so often in my life… They always say that, “Theft is flattery if you’re a great idea.” But at some point theft is just theft and someone’s going to pay for it. And this has been great. Well, we got to take another break from another amazing sponsor, Bobbi, and when we come back we’ll have our last and final segment. T.

His has been so much fun with Bobbi Hamilton. You’re learning about the SmackDown that’s about to happen legally with her and that large retailer who will remain anonymous on this program. But we are so grateful to have you watching and listening. Stay tuned from another important message. We’ll be right back

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Adam Degraide:

And we’re back on the David versus Goliath podcast with the Yoda Yoga Master Bobbi and your handsome host, Adam Degraide on the David versus Goliath podcast. And you are taking these people to the mat, no pun intended. This is actually exciting information and it’s valuable conversation that we’re having. It’s not a comfortable one, but it’s a very valuable one because many small businesses and inventors and creators and people that come up with trademarks and they get them, they struggle with this and theft is a real problem. And your story, Bobbi, I guarantee is encouraging someone right now who’s watching and listening. And for that, we thank you and we wish you the best. We really do. We always want the good guys to win here on David versus Goliath. And at the end, just make sure you take the sword out and slice its head off. That’s what that David did.

Hold it up, hold it up for the world to see. But anyway, so now at Chi Universe, back to a little bit more fun things, you’ve got the yoga mat, you’ve got families doing yoga together, you’ve got people getting healthy, you’ve got people learning how to breathe. I could learn that. I’m terrible at it, but at the end of the day, this is valuable and fun information. How large is your business right now? How many people work alongside of you on a daily basis from manufacturing to shipping to everything right now in Chi University?

Bobbi Hamilton:

Oh, a number. I don’t know if I could give you a number, but yes.

Adam Degraide:

Guess.

Bobbi Hamilton:

I probably have 20 people around me working on this. There’s a lot of moving parts and you have to learn every part of the business that you’re going through and it’s just a evolution of development. Like I was saying earlier, we are at a place where we’re looking to expand and grow now and create more of an e-learning and digital fit tech offering.

Adam Degraide:

I love it. I love it.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Thanks. I mean, there’s so many different people who’ve come together to put this project into such a cool state. Even down to the Chi character, Chi our flying squirrel logo character was designed by a veteran Disney animator. And so I’ve collected so much talent along the way and I love talent. I love talent so much. I love working with talent. My passion really is the research and the development and the teaching and creating the assets. And I love working with the people that take it to the next step and seeing who falls into my path on the next step. That’s one of my favorite things.

Like I said, we are trying to create greater global wellness and the yoga therapy is such a huge aspect to it. It’s really the reason why I’m doing it because not only does it make you feel well physically, but more than anything coming out of this pandemic ,I’m realizing the mental and emotional wellness aspects of the yoga therapy are so incredibly important as people are suffering, as children are registering at the highest anxiety levels of all time. People are really suffering. And if we can just include a few wellness techniques into our life, two or three breathing wellness techniques or just even five yoga positions that you love, just having a handful of collective materials that will make you feel better will shift you mental and emotionally.

And we’re trying to come out of a time that has created such emotional and mental strife for people. And what I’m saying is, let’s move into wellness as a world people. How do we feel better now? And so we simply teach that to kids and parents and kids and families and adults and teenagers, how to feel better in one breath. And I can do it with you now. How to get more focused with three breaths, how to do even a sitting yoga pose to take some pain out of your back and to get comfortable in order to be able to focus. Do you want to-

Adam Degraide:

I got to tell you. I got to have you back on and for a little fun episode we’ll do where you can instruct the watchers and listeners on DvG on five Yoga poses and I will try to perform them on camera for everyone to see. That would be a lot of hoot. I do have a question though and this is not to get political by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re saying something that I’m hearing the exact opposite a lot of in the media now, which is the celebration of unhealthy body masses, unhealthy body. And so you can’t tell people that they’re out of shape anymore and that they can have their lives better because we’re almost celebrating that as a culture. Have you seen that? I think it’s detrimental for people. People are proud of the fact that they’re out of shape. I’m out of shape, and I don’t like it. I want to get better, I want to be in better shape.

But for me to say that people like, “Oh no, you’re fine. Be comfortable with yourself.” No, I don’t want to be comfortable with myself. I want to be the best version of myself. And has that been a challenge for you at all with that suicidal message that they’re trying to push on us?

Bobbi Hamilton:

I don’t see the message in that way. The message that I see is… What people are trying to say is, “Stop shaming us.” So chi is your life force energy. And I think that when you’re alive, when you have the good fortune of that spark of life within your body, that is beautiful. And I am for body positivity and I am against shaming people. People are really suffering because of the food and the agriculture that we’re being forced to eat.

Adam Degraide:

That’s my point.

Bobbi Hamilton:

You have no idea the amount of genetically modified canola oil in their food. This is painful for people and-

Adam Degraide:

Well, they’re trying to do more of it, Bobbi. They’re not just trying to do less of it, they’re trying to make more of that stuff for us in the future.

Bobbi Hamilton:

That’s why we have to wake up as a culture and a people and basically say, “We can’t have this in our food anymore.” And I don’t want to be shamed for my body. I don’t feel comfortable in it. So it’s not about shaming. It’s about accepting people as they are and then giving them the tools to feel better, which is what to cut out in the diet. A lot of it is not people’s fault. They don’t know what they’re consuming. And it’s about creating awareness so that people will stop consuming certain foods that are poisoning them. And it’s about creating energy. It can be really difficult for people to get their body moving. When I’ve been injured or when I’ve been completely beaten down by getting into a lawsuit with somebody who’s stealing from me, I’ve had no energy. And it’s about giving people tangible steps to getting into physical movement, to using the breath from small movements into effective fitness movements.

We want to help people go in the right direction. We don’t want to shame people. And I’m on board with this. It’s like I’m so done with controlling people and shaming people. I just want people to go no matter what, I am grateful for my life force and my body and I’m going to do what I can to cultivate feeling well. And today maybe that’s only 20 minutes of focus breathing or walk around the neighborhood. What can I do with the amount of energy that I have and how can I build my energy and my life force to create more strength, to create more endurance, to create greater physical fitness?

Adam Degraide:

I love it. I love it. I think it’s interesting because at the end of the day, you have to make those small steps. Although I will say, Bobbi, this is just Adam’s personal opinion. A little bit of shame goes a long way. And by the way, hold on. What I mean by that, I’m talking about myself now by the way. I’m not talking about shaming other people. I’m talking about when I look in the mirror and I’m like, “Dear God, what have I done? The pandemic’s killed me. I put all these pounds on.” That to me is a healthy thing because I’m saying, “Okay, I’m not happy with myself, therefore it’s affecting how I feel. It’s affecting what I do, it’s affecting my energy levels and I want to work on it.” And I have been working on it. And I think that that’s really, really important.

It’s not about where you are. It’s about where you’re going. And you could be in the worst place physically or the best place physically, and they’re both missions are the same. How do we get better? That is really the idea. And when it comes down to business, it’s the same thing. It’s like your business might be, for lack of a better word, fat bloated, out of shape, tired. You got to put some life back into that thing. It’s not about where you are, it’s about where you’re going and the steps you can take every day as a business leader and a business owner and as an entrepreneur and aspiring entrepreneur to get there. It’s one step at a time like Bob Wiley said in What About Bob, “Baby steps, baby step out the door baby step on the bus, baby steps.” And before you know it, you’re in Lake Winnipesaukee.

I don’t know if you’ve ever seen that movie, for those of you who have ever seen the movie you know exactly what I’m talking about. Bobbi’s looking at me like, “What on earth is he talking about?” It’s a movie called What About Bob with Bill Murray. It’s one of my favorite movies in the world. And you too can end up on a boat strapped to it just like Bill Murray was, one step at a time. Now in closing, there are people right now that are stuck. They’re stuck in their life personally, and they’re stuck in their business professionally. What advice do you give them that they can do right now so they stop watching this podcast? What is the one thing they can do to get themselves going in that positive direction from your perspective?

Bobbi Hamilton:

I would say, take the time to shut down your electronics, sit and take some breathing, and as you breathe, breathe into your body and breathe into your own success. Breathe into yourself and start believing in yourself and start envisioning where you want to get to and get so clear on what you need and where you want to go that the universe will just start help putting it in place for you. And when you come out of that, call your friends and family because we are so separate from each other right now and we don’t pick up the phone and we don’t spend the time with the people who support us and love us. And so I think we need to hold each other and encourage each other and then just build up your courage to make the calls that you need to do and to write down your goals. I just, I’m a firm believer in manifest destiny. And I think when you write them, when you envision them, when you sit with them, when you write them down, they really start to materialize in your life. And-

Adam Degraide:

There’s no doubt about it. There’s power in that. There’s no doubt about the fact that you can absolutely both positively and negatively feed your life and the question is is what are you feeding yourself with positivity or negativity? Bobbi is 100% the yoga master. You know it. She’s as smart as Yoda. We can hear it right now in her voice. Has anybody ever called you the Yoda of yoga?

Bobbi Hamilton:

No, but I am the Chi Master.

Adam Degraide:

I love it. [inaudible 00:46:59] I’m telling you, I hope you’ll taking me up on that. Just for you to know this, I don’t even know if you know this, Bobbi, I believe you’re the 52nd episode of David versus Goliath, which means that I’ve been doing this for a year.

Bobbi Hamilton:

Cool.

Adam Degraide:

And for the watchers and listeners, I’m going to be doing an episode, but I want to wait until I’m back in my main studio in a few weeks. So it’s going to be a little bit after the year. And for the year anniversary watchers and listeners, you know who I’m going to interview? Me. I’m going to interview, no, I’m going to interview myself.

Bobbi Hamilton:

What?

Adam Degraide:

And so I’m going to take the whole episode, ask myself the questions, and then answer them just like I was a guest because a lot of people ask me, “Adam, I know a little bit about your story, but tell me a little bit more about your story.” But Bobbi-

Bobbi Hamilton:

I’ll interview you, Adam.

Adam Degraide:

That’s sweet of you. I really appreciate. I think it’ll be funny or if I interview myself. So now Bobbi, have you had a good time today on the David versus Goliath podcast?

Bobbi Hamilton:

You know what, I have. You’re a lot of fun. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Adam Degraide:

How can people find you, find your product?

Bobbi Hamilton:

So you can check us out on Chi Universe. That’s spelled C-H-I like Chi Lifeforce Energy, ChiUniverse.com and you can join our community on Instagram at Chi University yoga. We have so many cool fit minded parents and adults joining in the conversation and contributing clips on movement. We have some challenges and some giveaways and we’re building out our social media some more this year. So look around for us. Chi Universe.

Adam Degraide:

I love it. Chi Universe, everyone together, breathe, and then out. This has been another amazing episode of the David versus Goliath podcast. Bobbi, thank you so much for joining me so much. Watchers and listeners, you can’t learn about play things like this on any other podcast. We have so much diversity here. It is such a blast to interview these men and women here to learn about what they’re doing and how they’re slaying their own Goliath right here on the David versus Goliath podcast. I’ll see you next week. Everyone have an awesome day.

Speaker 3:

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Speaker 5:

(Singing)