Finish Lines & Milestones: Episode 109: Joey Twidale - Taking Risks Down Under

Here's how you can enjoy this episode:
- Spotify (watch or listen)
- YouTube (watch or listen)
- Apple Podcasts
- Amazon Music

Guest: Joey Twidale of @wippetapparel

Show Notes:

Joey Twidale,⁠ Founder of ⁠Wippet Apparel⁠, and I met through Instagram. At first, I had no clue he was in Australia, but once I heard his story I had to get to know him better.

During this conversation, sponsored by ⁠Previnex⁠, we talk about:

• How he’s never considered the irony of his name “Joey” as an Australian (you know, a baby kangaroo) Surely I can’t be the only one who thought this?
• The story of how I found his brand, ⁠Wippet⁠, through Instagram
• The 50K he did last weekend in ⁠Cairnes⁠, Australia in 80% humidity and 80+ degrees (29-31 C)
• How he got into endurance running
• His first marathon on the beautiful Sunshine Coast of Australia and how it was a family affair
• What he uses for running fuel
• His cancer diagnosis at age 22 two days before Christmas
• The story of how he met his wife at⁠ the black tie fundraiser his friends organized for him the year after his diagnosis ⁠
• Being a high school teacher (grades 7-12)
• His online apparel business for runners, ⁠Wippet⁠, how he got started and where the name came from

Also, here are some new Australian terms I learned during this episode. Please let me know which ones I missed!

 

• Stall = Booth 
• Track = Course
• Ticket = Certification 
• Chrissie = Christmas

Sponsor Details:

• • ⁠Previnex⁠ - Use code ALLY15 for 15% off your first order

Episode Transcript:

[00:00:00] This is a Sandy Boy Productions podcast.

Ally Brettnacher: Welcome to Finish Lines and Milestones, a podcast to celebrate everyday runners. I'm your host, Ali Brett Knocker, and if you run, you are a runner and every runner has a story. So every Friday I drop one of those stories here and hope to inspire you to your next finish line and milestone. This week I am on episode.

1 0 9. It's wild. And I have my first guest from Australia down under, but before I tell you all about him, I wanted to talk about something so exciting that happened this week. So on Tuesday night, athletic Annex, our local run specialty store hosted Jenny Simpson.

Yeah, that Jenny Simpson, the Olympian World champion. If you don't know who Jenny is, which I was not super familiar with [00:01:00] her career, I. Before this, go listen to the Ally on the Run episode, the most recent one that has Jenny. It was great, and it talks all about Jenny's experience having her last professional race at New York City last year, and then immediately going and running seven marathons in seven days on seven continents for the great world race.

So that story was wild. Anyway, now her and her husband Jason are running in every state around the United States. She said that, she'd been all over the world for her career and wanted to see our country that she has represented for so long. And so Indiana was, I think, 20 something on their list of states to visit.

And on Tuesday they were at athletic Annex with their camper, which is not a huge Winnebago type situation. It's like a little camper. Van kind of thing, They had their, both of their dogs there and we got to meet her, chat with her and her husband Jason, and then go on a 30 minute run together.

There were probably about 50 of us, I would say, in the community. I [00:02:00] ran with my friend Christy D, who works for Athletic Annex and is a running coach. And I did my best to be respectful and try not to hog Jenny, 'cause I could have asked her a million questions. You know me. And I was so grateful to Larry Koblenz who works for.

Annex he, when we were running next to her, he like lobbed up a question for me. He's like, what's your next race ally? And so I got to talk to Jenny about running Marine Corps for Ainsley's Angels, and I was so thrilled to be able to plug that to her because Wow, how cool would it be to have her. Do that someday for Ainsley's Angels or another organization that's similar.

Anyway, she asked such thoughtful questions. She was so kind. I feel like I could be friends with her in real life and her husband was so cool too. And no, I did not recommend that he should watch The Fox Hello Farm Serial Killer documentary. That would've been weird. Yeah, I did. I did that. I couldn't help it.

I just said, you guys gotta go run by this house. You gotta watch this documentary while you're here. And they are actually in town through the race this weekend, and we'll get a chance to go to the Speedway, which is so cool. I'm glad that they get [00:03:00] that very quintessential experience in our city of Indianapolis, which if you are new to this and listening from Australia is where I live.

So I live in Indianapolis, Indiana. It is about three hours drive south of Chicago and about a one hour flight. So we're in the Midwest, And it was, funny when Jenny was talking about her great world race, her favorite race was Perth, Australia, and she had talked about how beautiful it was, and so it's just kind of funny talking to her about that.

And then listening back to the conversation I had with my guest this week, Joey Tal and how he lives there. He lives in a city called cans, which is in north Queensland. I've actually been there, which is kind of wild because I actually. found Joey through Instagram. Had no idea he was based in Australia at first.

uh, he has a company called Whip It and he sent some hats to Amy Haas who is race across the states on Instagram, Amy Haas. So he sent her and her husband some hats and she posted about it and was wearing them for her ultra marathon [00:04:00] this year. And I thought they were super cute. The design was very eye catching and so I just went down a rabbit hole, looked into it and funny enough, I actually reached out and asked if they wanted to sponsor this podcast and.

You know, join up with the Sandy Boy Productions Network and have, you know, an opportunity not knowing that. It's literally like Joey and his wife and a couple other people he works with building this company that launched last year. So it was funny. He was like, yeah, of course I'll be on your podcast.

And I was like, oh, that's not. What I meant, but, I went on his website and I saw his story, a little glimpse into his story and was like, oh yeah, for sure. Let's, let's talk about this. I loved hearing about how he's building this business, how he got into running, how he was diagnosed at age 22 with a very rare chronic leukemia, which was really interesting to talk about. He just ran a 50K the weekend before that. We recorded this, and it was right before Easter when he was on a break from teaching, which is what he does for his day job. So all around he [00:05:00] was really. A wonderful person, great to talk to, as part of his business.

They're right off the bat giving back 5% to the community, and I just really wanna support him and his brand. I actually bought some socks that I'm wearing that you cannot see, and a hat for myself. And they're getting ready to launch shirts if they are not been launched already. So make sure you check them out, follow along on his journey, And I can't wait for you to meet Joey. But first, this episode is brought to you by Pren X. Pren. X has clinically effective supplements that promote longevity, performance, and everyday health. And as you are listening to this, at least, sorry, in the United States, they are US only. So Australians, everyone else just tune out for a second, but I'm sure they'll ship.

To you. Eventually there is a Memorial Day sale going on for Pren X. I personally use their gut and greens for my green. I use their Muscle Health powder post-workout. I use several of their other supplements and my daughter Sydnee. Huh? Australia. Get it. Sydnee and I are, obsessed with making smoothies with their [00:06:00] Rafi Plus protein powder.

So I'm about to post a video about that with the recipe of our favorite berry berry goods smoothie. And you can find me on, Instagram ally, A-L-O-Y-T, Brett. B-R-E-T-T. Ali Tre underscore runs. So it's Ali Tre runs Find me on Instagram. I'll be sharing more about that. But they only do sales four times a year.

And so this Memorial Day weekend, they're offering 15% off every single order and I really just love how it's made me feel. Really, the natural energy is the big piece of what I was looking for when I started working with them.

And I just feel like. Using all their products, I'm recovering better. I am not as tired. I have that natural energy. So if you're considering, focusing more on your health, that's what Prev X does. they focus on creating health. So check them out, previn x.com. That's P-R-E-V-I-N-E x.com.

Again, that sale will run through Monday Memorial Day for the weekend. You can also outside of the sale if you [00:07:00] miss it, use ALLY15 if you're listening to this after the holiday. Don't miss out. Okay, now onto the episode. Enjoy this conversation with Joey tw.

Ally: Hi, Joey. Welcome. Hi. Thanks for conversation. Of course. Thank you for getting up at five in the morning to talk to me. Yeah, that's okay.

Joey: Um,

Ally: really excited.

Joey: So, yeah, can't

Ally: Yeah. How do you say your last name? Dale

Joey: a

Ally: Twi. And do you go mostly by Joe or Joey? I used to be

Joey: more

Ally: but

Joey: I probably get Joey more often now, so, yeah, it,

Ally: really doesn't.

Joey: bother me to be

Ally: Okay. I feel like as an Australian Joey is funny to me because of kangaroos, but do people get, like, does that a thing for you? Do people? I don't think so.

Joey: I think because we're like kangaroos and Joey's and things so frequently, people don't really think of that. And to be honest, it's probably the [00:08:00] first time I've ever actually made that

Ally: No, get outta here. It's like one of the first things I thought of. I was like, oh, he's Australian. And he goes by Joey. That's hilarious.

Joey: yeah. There you go. I've never, yeah, I've never thought of that.

Ally: That's funny. Oh man. Well, I found you through your company, whip it through Amy. I'm race across the states. I think that's her Instagram. But I saw her share about your brand and I was like, what is this beautiful brand that I've never seen before?

And that's how I tracked you down. Yeah. Thank you.

Joey: you. Yeah. So

Ally: reached out to Amy.

Joey: and just said, Hey, I, like what you do, even though, , we're still a startup, so we're, we're really trying to target the Australian market, but I thought, yeah, I'll send some over. And, she really liked them, so, yeah. Um, the rest is history. She wore some, and yeah, she's, she's loved it.

So.

Ally: That's good. I'm so glad. Yeah. I saw she wore them. Did she wear one in her Ultra that she just did her first Ultra? [00:09:00] Yeah. I,

Joey: I

Ally: believe, her husband and

Joey: and Amy wore one of the hats in the ultra. So it was, it was a really nice thing to see. particularly like we only launched in December, so it's nice to kind of have people, particularly someone that's so educated in the sport of running,

Ally: Right.

Joey: to really like the

Ally: Productive.

Joey: and like what we, we did.

So yeah, it was,

Ally: Yeah. Was nice. So cool. Well, she's gonna be on this podcast at some point this year. I can't remember when we're recording, but I'm so excited to meet her. I've been following her on Instagram for quite a while, and I also love what she does. So, yeah, she.

Joey: seems fantastic. She's such a lovely person and, she was, she

Ally: Really nice to

Joey: to deal

Ally: with. Yeah. Speak really highly.

Joey: of Amy.

Ally: It was

Joey: a

Ally: a really good experience. So,

Joey: yeah.

Ally: Well, I wanna hear all about your business at some point, but first of all, I wanna congratulate you on your 50 miler that you just did. When was that? So that was,

Joey: last weekend,

Ally: yeah. Holy shit. Yeah, man, it's [00:10:00] been days,

Joey: ago now.

Ally: so yeah, it was, really good.

Joey: and yeah, it was something I'd never done before. So, 

Ally: Yeah, I loved it.

Joey: I, I was a little bit anxious

Ally: into it. I had a few setbacks and, um,

Joey: um, a few injuries and, and I thought, oh, I dunno how this will go.

but yeah, it was, it was great.

Ally: would you believe me if I told you I've been to Cannes, Australia. Really? Yeah. And I saw, and I.

Joey: would, I.

Ally: Yeah, I have, and I had to look up what year it was 'cause I was like, I have no idea when that was. It was 2006, so like nearly 20 years ago. My dad, my middle sister and I went to Thailand and Australia and my dad used to do some business in Australia.

So we went to Sydney and then we went to to CS to scuba dive, which was like barrier

Joey: the Great Barrier

Ally: in the, I mean, no big deal, just in the Great Barrier Reef. It was the coolest thing ever. So yeah,

Joey: we're really lucky. It's, um,

Ally: we actually moved up.

Joey: to near cans, only six months ago, so

Ally: wow.

Joey: [00:11:00] yeah. So, there's also the Daintree here, which is, a rainforest older than the Amazon. And,

Ally: Wow.

Joey: there's a lot of world Heritage listed sites up here, so it's just a beautiful, place to live, particularly if you like, being outdoors and experiencing

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: So yeah, we're, we're really lucky.

Ally: Oh, that's so cool. So do do you scuba dive? Have you gone scuba diving? I just assume that like, I'm like, well, Australians must, because they have the great Barrier Reef there,

Joey: Yeah, so I don't actually scuba

Ally: diving.

Joey: because you need like a ticket. but we have gone snorkeling and things. You've just gotta be, really careful because, you need a boat to get out to the reef. and in certain parts there's still a lot of crocodiles and ji, which is like a deadly, stinger, which, yeah, if they sting you, it's like a jellyfish type thing.

so they come in the summer, and there's a season where you can't swim. people do wear stinger suits, which is like a full body

Ally: what, okay. So

Joey: So it's beautiful. but often more than not, unless you go with a tour or a, or a local that really [00:12:00] knows the reef, it's, it's pretty hard to get

Ally: there.

Joey: experience it properly

Ally: Mm. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know about that. I, we saw, I think a small shark, the only shark I've ever seen while scuba diving there. And I remember having to jump off a moving boat, which was pretty scary actually, at the time. I was, what, like 16 or so, but really, really amazing. And I also wanna say that for people who are like cans, they probably think of like the CANS film festival and like how that's spelled like in Europe, but it's cans Australia is spelled what?

C-A-I-R-N-S. So like, Americans will be like Cairns. Like, it's just hard to wrap my head around. But when we went there, we learned how to say it properly. So I was also pretty proud that I could say it the right way. So it.

Joey: it's quite popular, with tourists and backpackers and, it's, it's more rural than our. cities like Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, but it's still on the east coast. And because it's in far north [00:13:00] Queensland, it's a, pretty big destination because of , the natural beauty and the experiences here.

So yeah, it's an awesome place to

Ally: So because your, your race was there, are you close enough to where you ran parts of the course throughout your training or what did that look like? Yes,

Joey: for this run, um, I got my first ever coach who did up my training plans for me, which was just a game changer as far as, just my ability, ability to run and my preparation. And

because he coaches lots of, other runners, he held a run about a month before on the track. so that day we did 30 kilometers.

but given it's so tropical up here, it rained the whole time. And then I.

Ally: when I ran

Joey: ran

Ally: 10 days.

Joey: ago, it was, I think we started at five 30 in the morning and it was already 29 degrees and then 80% humidity. So,

Ally: my gosh. I'm gonna like Google what, 29 Celsius?

Joey: What's, what's the, uh,

Ally: 80. Oh my God. [00:14:00] 84 almost. Yeah, 84 degrees. That's warm.

Joey: it was 31 degrees, so I'm not sure what that,

Ally: Um, let's just

Joey: to, but

Ally: almost 88. Yeah, that's, that is toasty. 80% humidity. Wow.

Joey: everyone was just wet with sweat. but

Ally: It was over.

Joey: which was

Ally: Oh yeah.

Joey: Um, instead of direct sunlight, I

Ally: That's always a.

Joey: a challenge to run in when it's just clear skies and really hot and

Ally: Yeah. Yeah. I was gonna say, are you used to that kind of heat and humidity or is that not something you would be running and training in? Usually? Is that unusually warm or is that kind of how it is for this time of year? yeah.

Joey: so that's very normal. we are coming out of wet season though, so wet season's over the summer,

Ally: Okay. Which typically

Joey: um, it

Ally: get,

Joey: below 28 degrees. So, um, the, the 80 degrees, , during night, , just because it's so humid and hot. And then of the rainforest, I think they get about two [00:15:00] meters of rain over the summer period. so typically hot and humid through the day, and then it pours rain late afternoon into the night and then just repeat that process for three months. So, yeah.

Ally: so what was the surface you run on? Like, now I'm picturing you running in the rainforest, but is that. An accurate depiction of like what the course was like, or could you kind of paint a picture? Uh, yeah.

Joey: so, so the parkland that we ran along is on the edge of Cairns. So, there's actually a really beautiful stream beside the path. is a path, but because it does kind of traverse through, you know, a lot of, rainforest type vegetation, uh, a lot of the path is kind of cracked

Ally: Mm.

Joey: But,

Ally: yeah, it's, it's,

Joey: beautiful.

Ally: you know, surrounded by trees and

,

Some parts you kind of go.

Joey: through a little bit of farmland, but most of the time you're kind of in the trees with the, the stream beside you and, you do three laps of the course. So, yeah, it was,

Ally: Okay.

Joey: nice experience.

Yeah.[00:16:00] 

Ally: And so what was your crew like? Did your wife come out and help crew? You was your coach there? Yeah.

Joey: so, it was actually my coach's event. so Smurf, who was my coach, it's called the Cairns Smurfs CAIRs 50.

Ally: Okay,

so

Joey: I pretty much, my, my wife is not much of a runner. and we had a whippet stall actually set up at the event. So my wife actually had to man that while I ran. So, she, she got there at about seven

Ally: 30.

Joey: the morning of the race.

so I'd already finished one lap and then she, cheered me on for my second and third laps. but yeah, other than that, because all my friends and family are down south, so it was just my wife and I and yeah, just, I. Um,

Ally: Wow.

Joey: it and yeah, it was, um, a really supportive community. So makes, you know, it makes the run so much, um, more enjoyable I think when everyone's so supportive and, which is pretty typical of the running community.

I

Ally: Right?

Joey: everywhere

Ally: Yes.

Joey: positive [00:17:00] community. So yeah,

Ally: Yeah, it was.

Joey: it was just a great experience.

Ally: That's so cool. And was it 50 kilometers or 50 miles?

Joey: 50

Ally: 50 kilometers. Okay. So I misspoke earlier. Sorry. I just think I can't keep track. Everyone does all this crazy distance stuff. I'm a, you know, lowly marathoner instead of, you know, maybe someday a 50 k, but whew, to be fair, I think

Joey: I've never run,

Ally: running up.

Joey: one marathon before and I don't think it was nearly as successful as this because I hadn't trained properly. So, 

Ally: Maybe one day I'll do.

Joey: 50 miles.

Ally: Yeah, maybe. Who knows Now, I mean, geez.

Joey: knows now.

Ally: It's the natural progression of things. People I talk to are just like, yeah, I did a marathon and then I did a 50 k and a 50 miler, and then a hundred k and a hundred people are nuts. I just can't. Fathom. Really? Yeah. At least the 50 k. I can kind of wrap my head around having run 26.2, it's like 31.

Right? Somewhere around there in terms of miles and like, okay, [00:18:00] maybe I could do that, but only if I train for it. To your point. 

Joey: it's amazing what the mind, I think can do because yeah, it was only two years ago that I was pretty happy to run 10 kilometers and it just, like you said, it was just

Ally: That natural progression. I think

Joey: for now

Ally: for now though, because

Joey: obviously

Ally: training.

Joey: and everything is such a huge, has a huge impact on everyone else in your life as well because it takes up so much time.

So, of being so busy with work and that as well, think I'll give it a break for a little bit and just go back to running for enjoyment, but I definitely have, I, I would love to do some international, marathons maybe in the

Ally: Right. I know you gotta come on. Come on over. Have you ever been? I haven't and it's definitely

Joey: on the bucket list, to get over there. And my wife and I would probably hire a van and do a little bit of a road trip. And, so my wife has been before,

Ally: okay.

Joey: and we have,

Ally: pretty much done,

Joey: everywhere else almost. I've, I've done South America and Central [00:19:00] America, but yeah, just

Ally: man.

Joey: haven't been to the us

Ally: All right. Well, yeah, we do have a lot of marathons That would be worth the trip and just, you know, everything we have in, in general, I think a road trip would be so much fun. I got to do that when I was younger. My parents drove us around the country in an rv, so I'm lucky enough to have seen a lot of the country and yeah, so, well, you'll have to keep me posted.

We'll stay connected after this obviously, but,

Joey: definitely.

Ally: so how in the heck did you. Get into endurance running. Ah, so

Joey: it was never really planned, I

Ally: as a young person.

Joey: uh, in my teenage years, even prior to that, I love running. so parents lived quite, not, really rural, but semi-rural. , So we had a lot of empty roads to run, so I used to run them frequently and then always ran through school. never competitively.

I was always very just mediocre. I could run, but I was never like, you know, a state representative or[00:20:00] 

Ally: Yeah. and then, yeah, I

Joey: finished school, stopped running, you know, enjoyed

Ally: graduation,

Joey: and all the things that young adulthood bring.

Ally: uh.

Joey: Uh, so kind of moved away from fitness for a couple of years and, you know, was pretty focused on my friends and having a good time.

And, then I had the, diagnosis and then. After that, it was probably more of a chip on my shoulder situation, just being stubborn. And I kind of wanted to,

Ally: initially, like I said,

Joey: it was just a gold

Ally: 10

Joey: kilometers again. 

Ally: and then I hit,

Joey: that and I thought, I'll just do a, a half marathon and see how I go.

Ally: yeah,

Joey: Um,

Ally: and I ran a really,

Joey: good race at my first half. And then,

Ally: I just from

Joey: there

Ally: started

Joey: doing half marathons just as a training thing. Every few weeks I'd kind of just get up on Sunday and feel like doing, um, you know, 20 kilometers. And then I had friends sign up for the marathon and I was like, yeah, I'll just do it. the marathon, and then, yeah, it was just that progression of the 50. So, I, I [00:21:00] would like to do a marathon again and do it properly because, just raw dogged the first marathon. You know,

Ally: Yeah,

Joey: train properly.

Ally: I,

Joey: no structure to my training. I was just very inconsistent. I definitely didn't run enough.

and it got to race day and it showed, I think I got to 33 kilometers and, and my right quad was just cramping so much that I couldn't, I just, I, I finished, but it, it was just not running, which I was pretty disappointed about. It was more of a

Ally: yeah.

Joey: which is never fun. It

Ally: No.

Joey: ruins experience a bit when you don't feel like, you know, you feel you have more to give

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: you're kind of hindered by an injury that's probably just due to lack of training, a lack of miles under the legs.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: yeah, it was a, I definitely learned a lot, and it's probably why I didn't stuff the 50 up. So,

Ally: Yeah. When,

Joey: good.

Ally: where did you do your first marathon? The marathon that you've done? I. So that was

Joey: in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast.

Ally: Okay.

Joey: another[00:22:00] 

Ally: Beautiful.

Joey: so

Ally: it's,

Joey: on the coast from, it takes about an hour from Brisbane to get to the Sunshine Coast. Noosa is just a beautiful, beautiful place of the world. clear beaches and,

Ally: oh wow.

Joey: a really, really nice kind of, it used to probably be more of a surfing community, but now property is worth millions and millions and millions of dollars and, you know, it's a bit more bougie now.

So, but

Ally: It's still got like

Joey: you know,

Ally: really nice surf

Joey: and, um, I have some

Ally: friends live around

Joey: the

Ally: Sunshine Coast area. So

Joey: yeah,

Ally: it was just really nice experience.

Joey: and my, my mum ran the half marathon,

Ally: That's really cool. Yeah, and

I had two brothers

Joey: also.

Ally: want.

Joey: the marathon, one did the half, off the back too.

So yeah, it was a nice, nice experience

Ally: It's nice to do that while you can, you just get up and run a half marathon. Yeah, I know.

Joey: yeah, it was a nice experience.

Ally: And did you say it was your mom's [00:23:00] first half marathon? Yeah, that's right. So,

Joey: So it was her first ever, it was actually all of my family's first at everything, so it was,

Ally: wow.

Joey: my mum and my brother's first half, my other brother's first marathon as well, so,

Ally: And your first marathon. That's so fun.

Joey: and my first,

Ally: Yeah. Where is your dad in the mix?

Joey: so

Ally: he would love to do it.

Joey: it. He's a very resilient, stubborn person himself, but his body just is in

Ally: Mm.

Joey: shape to do it.

Like he's got a really bad knee. . Which can blow up. Like he's fine walking, um, and he can walk for like, loves walking, but it's that more high impact

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: type exercise where, um, yeah, he can't really do, so he was cheering, taking photos, giving everyone everyone's personal aid station

Ally: yeah, that's the best.

Joey: yeah, he

Ally: Oh,

Joey: he was great.

Ally: that's really cool. So are you one of three boys then in your family, or do you have any other siblings?

Joey: Uh,

Ally: I've got

Joey: another brother, so

Ally: another problem, another

Joey: boys.

Ally: [00:24:00] four boys. Wow. Yes.

Joey: the youngest one, , he's a, he's quite a good footballer, so he was actually playing, , rugby that weekend, so couldn't run. But he's a bit of a lunatic and quite athletic. He actually made a bet with a friend at work that he couldn't run a marathon in two weeks with no training. So he had been training for rugby, but it's a very different fitness. rugby players can't run marathons, but he woke up at four 30 in Brisbane, on a Sunday morning and ran it by himself, and his

Ally: Girlfriend.

Joey: was just driving five kilometers up the road and giving him a power raid. So

Ally: Wow. So that was, that was pretty,

Joey: was pretty insane to,

Ally: oh

Joey: fold.

Ally: yeah. What was the bet? What did he get?

Joey: I'm not sure what

Ally: I'm not sure.

Joey: from a friend, but

Ally: I hope it was worth it. It sounds crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That's wild. Wow.

Joey: made, my experience. The marathon really made me reflect and think, man, I've been prepping for this for like

Ally: Right?

Joey: and really battled

Ally: [00:25:00] Yeah.

Joey: you know, just a pair of old asics on not even running specific shoes and off he

Ally: Yeah. Gosh, it's, it's annoying when people can do that, but that's pretty funny.

Joey: people,

Ally: Yeah, some people, so, What do you fuel with? You mentioned Powerade. I'm just curious, like what other brands are popular in Australia that you use to run? Gatorade. Gatorade. Okay, so like Gatorade, Powerade,

Joey: yeah, Gatorade, Powerade. ,

Ally: Typically

Joey: there was a really good, I think it was pure

Ally: nutrition. Okay.

Joey: to them guys um, the cans 50 and that they had a really electrolyte that was really high in

Ally: Sodium,

Joey: like salt.

Ally: yeah,

Joey: you can actually taste the salt and normally that's probably quite an overwhelming taste, but it

Ally: actually,

Joey: was quite refreshing and it sat really well.

so I really enjoyed that and I found it just, yeah, really helped. obviously with cramps and

Ally: yep.

I.

Joey: take, if it's a really long run by myself and there's no aid stations with water, I always take my [00:26:00] camel back and try and drink about 500 mils of water every. Depends if it's really hot and humid every like 40

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: if it's, you know, nice weather, maybe every hour.

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: Um, and then gels, , I only ever use gels if I'm going over that probably half marathon

Ally: Okay.

Joey: sometimes I might take one or two, but, I know people that love eating lots of gels. Um, whereas typically on race day, I'll probably probably eat one every

Ally: Minutes, 45 minutes. Yeah.

But yeah, other than that, I just, you know.

Joey: always carb load. I love eating lots of rice

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: like sweet potatoes and brown rice specifically. I'll eat a little bit of pasta and bread, but I find they're probably not as unprocessed. Um, so try and get clean carbohydrates. 

Ally: And then

Joey: if pre-race breakfast, I

Ally: just have

bananas.

Joey: and just a piece of toast.

Ally: There you go.

Joey: normally

Ally: Okay.

Joey: I often,

Ally: I don't get hungry during race.

Joey: or anything, so,

Ally: What about [00:27:00] for your, your 50? What did you eat? so

Joey: lunch before the day before

Ally: I ate.

Joey: a huge burrito that, yeah, it was delicious too. chicken, rice and all the good

Ally: Sounds risky. Yeah,

Joey: well I was just, I was thinking anything that's large and with a lot of rice, I'll eat. and my stomach really handles, I don't have a reactive

Ally: that's good.

Joey: like I know, know some people get sick if they drink coffee or eat energy gels or, but I, I've never really had that

Ally: So

Joey: I was kind of confident in my, I was confident

Ally: stomach

Joey: ability to, um,

Ally: digest that.

Joey: food. and then the night before I had a pad tie, so a lot of rice, um.

Ally: Yeah, there wasn't, wasn't,

Joey: a lot of like veggies or chicken in it, it was pretty much all rice

Ally: mm-hmm.

Joey: but I,

Ally: I

Joey: overdo that meal. I kind of,

Ally: was reasonable.

Joey: but it wasn't huge like the lunch was because I didn't wanna wake up heavy.

Ally: [00:28:00] Right. 

Joey: yeah, so it was, um, fantastic. And

Ally: then setting up.

Joey: , The day before the cans 50, they had a, like a kids' family fun day

Ally: that's cool. Yeah.

Joey: so kids get to run like a one kilometer track and you know, their parents can run with them.

And

Ally: So setting up,

Joey: for that, up our stall for that was, way more humid than the actual race day. so we were just like dripping in sweat. So yeah, we, I think I drunk a liter and a half of Gatorade and four liters of water

Ally: wow.

Joey: in about a five hour window.

Ally: Yeah. Wow.

Joey: Which. It

Ally: Right at the time.

Joey: and I was hydrated the next day, but then as soon as I got home to the hotel in Aircon,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: to go to the toilet all the time.

Ally: Right. Yeah, that's,

Joey: yeah, didn't sleep much, but that's

Ally: that's all right. Yeah. So we kind of breezed over, you mentioned your diagnosis and so you were diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia right when you [00:29:00] were 22. Yeah, that's right. That's crazy. So how did you know something was wrong?

Joey: Uh,

Ally: so,

Joey: my friend and I had been to South America for four months, like just backpacking and

Ally: oh my.

Joey: just to do your typical, checks like doctors before we left, like make sure you come back and you get all your bloods and things, just to make sure you haven't brought anything back or you're not sick or. so just went and got regular bloods, 

Ally: Just to

Joey: do

Ally: our checks and things. And

Joey: I had

Ally: graduated. The reason we went was

Joey: like

Ally: graduation,

Joey: gift to ourselves. and after we got back, I moved back in with , my parents and was just pretty much looking for work and the doctors

Ally: said, oh,

Joey: you're gonna have to come in.

Like, we

Ally: do

Joey: wanna

Ally: secondary tests. And then,

Joey: and then, 

Ally: yeah, they called me that night after tests,

Joey: test,

Ally: is

Joey: is

Ally: that.

Joey: typical. Normally they wait, it's like a week.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: they said, look, we're gonna have to come in, make sure you bring a bag. So my mom and I drove in and then, yeah, the rest is kind of history.

So they, , took me into the more of a city, [00:30:00] hospital. And then, and this was the 23rd of December, so two days before

Ally: Oh,

Joey: So like we had all these, these Christmas plans and stuff, which fortunately still went

Ally: so basically

Joey: kept me in that day and did a number

Ally: tests and things just really are.

Joey: kind of superficial tests, I guess.

None of the, the proper, they were like, look, it's pretty much guaranteed you've got this leukemia. but go home over Chrissy, enjoy Christmas, and then, um, you can come back and we'll do all the secondary testing and things like that. So, And you know, now it's been, is it seven years?

Ally: Seven years.

Joey: Which just, oh no, sorry. It's much, it's been nine years this

Ally: No way. Okay.

Joey: Yeah.

Ally: Which makes you 31. Okay.

Joey: Yeah.

Ally: Wow.

Joey: 20 16. So time flies. So.

Ally: Geez. one of my best friends from from college went to the dentist and found they found cancer in her jaw. It's just like out of the blue, right? Like you were just not expecting it, like.

Joey: Yeah,

Ally: can't imagine, especially as [00:31:00] such a, like you're 22, that's really hard to, to go through that.

Especially the holidays. I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah, that's fine.

Joey: Everyone. Um,

Ally: Everything.

Joey: always happens at Christmas, doesn't

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: lot of bad things and

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: And, 

Ally: It was funny though. I think

Joey: um,

Ally: like in retrospect, I was, because I was so young, I still really,

Joey: positive outlook on life in a, in

Ally: sense. I'm still very naive

I think I'm,

Joey: probably now still, although

Ally: when it happened,

Joey: I, I'll never forget,

Ally: was

Joey: was

Ally: joke around.

Joey: and, Having a laugh with the nurse and she said, oh, make sure you keep this, keep the positivity. And I

Ally: Oh no.

Joey: Like,

Ally: Okay.

Joey: yeah. So I think the, the actual diagnosis wasn't necessarily, It was strange. I found, I, I handled it quite well. once again, I was quite naive and didn't probably realize the situation. And then because it was, um, it's LGL leukemia and it's really rare, particularly in young people, but in old people it's rare to, and it took them [00:32:00] about four months to actually diagnose the specific leukemia,

Ally: which

Joey: in my head I had this process of cancer treatment in my mind and I thought, I'm pretty young and fit.

Like I'll go through

Ally: chemotherapy

Joey: I'll come out the other side and I'll go into

Ally: remission?

Joey: And, and then when they said it was more of a chronic type of, leukemia, that was quite hard to deal with because I think my mind I thought, you

Ally: Six.

Joey: months and my life's back to normal. And, um, but when they said it's chronic and we're basically going to be, I. Swimming through uncharted waters with, uh, your treatment and things. And this could just be very long term. That was quite devastating because I thought, well, this is something that I have to deal with for, a long time

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: you know, six months or two years or, whatever's probably, expected

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: get

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: with cancer. Yeah, it was, um, it was a, an interesting situation.

Ally: Yeah. Chronic. I didn't, I guess, I'm fortunate enough not to know [00:33:00] anything about that, that there's like a chronic type of leukemia. and so then how do you treat that initially? And then what does that look like now for you? Do you still do anything or, yeah, so,

Joey: I was really fortunate in one regard. There was two, there's two strains. one of the strains is really aggressive, one is really slow moving. 

Ally: so slow moving that essentially

Joey: the goal from my specialist is to, keep my immune system up. So one of the key indicators that I had, the leukemia was really low, white blood cells. my neutrophils were like

Ally: Pretty much non-existent.

So I trialed two different

Joey: uh,

Ally: medications. So my

Joey: all my

Ally: medications,

Joey: oral.

Ally: so

Joey: the

Ally: is I can take,

Joey: the oral medication at a lower dosage to typical chemotherapy, 

Ally: which means I don't get as many.

Joey: of the symptoms. I don't get as sick, but it still controls, the cancer essentially.

Ally: Wow. Whereas,

Joey: if I did normal chemotherapy, I would [00:34:00] get all of the symptoms. So all the negative effects really impact my life without any cure. So it would be defeating the purpose essentially. 

Ally: so yeah, I

Joey: I, I trialed two. Oral

Ally: Chemotherapy drugs

one.

Joey: of them really kind of messed with me physically. One of them

Ally: Really kind of mess with me mentally. Um, really affect my emotional state, my regulation, things like, so

Joey: we got

Ally: the third,

Joey: one, which I'm on now, and I've been on it for seven years.

Ally: wow.

Joey: so

Ally: So I take that

Joey: that,

and night. and

Ally: still have specialist appointments every three months.

Joey: which they do all my bloods, check all my lymph nodes and just check for any lumps and things.

and yeah, just based my medication changes on that. 

Ally: I

Joey: also, I did about a year ago have my medication reduced, which was like a really big milestone and I was 

Ally: st

Joey: And then I noticed I was like losing, hair [00:35:00] patches of hair. I'd actually got like a, uh, it, it's not an,

Ally: it's

Joey: not alopecia, but it's a similar kind of hair loss disease, which is triggered by, you know, your immune system and stress and things.

So

Ally: One of the,

Joey: main medications to treat that was the chemo drug I was already on.

Ally: oh

Joey: they had to increase the message back to where it was. So yeah,

Ally: yeah.

Joey: it's

Ally: One

Joey: of those things. like my specialists also are kind of figuring it out, figuring it out as we go. so, you know, I see pathologists and oncologists, dermatologists, just depends on

Ally: on symptoms,

Joey: and

Ally: but yeah. At,

Joey: at the moment, like body's so used to, I guess the toxicity from the drugs that, it doesn't really have any kind of impact on my life at the moment. fortunate. So,

Ally: yeah. Wow. Wild. At what point in this journey did you meet your wife? Have you known her for that whole time, or did you meet her after your diagnosis? 

Joey: Yeah, so, , [00:36:00] Toowoomba, where we're from is, you know, it's got about 250,000 people, so it's not huge, but it's not tiny

Ally: Yeah,

Joey: her brother

Ally: my,

Joey: age and, uh, my wife is two years younger than me. So, my brother and her brother and I went to different schools, but knew a lot of the same people, but we had never met, which was really weird. just that we hadn't crossed paths with so many mutual friends.

Ally: yeah. and my friends organized

Joey: the curveball, black

Ally: charity event.

Joey: for me the year after I was diagnosed. And I. All the young people from our town, went. So it sold out in like a day and there was thousands of people and, her and her friends actually went.

Ally: so she didn't 

Joey: know me and I didn't know her. And we actually met at the front of the ball, as we were kind of going in the ball. and yeah, I just chased her pretty hard then. yeah, and she just,

Ally: Wow.

Joey: with it. And, obviously we've had [00:37:00] those conversations about what that looks like for her and everything, and she's just taking it in a stride and

Ally: Wow. That's so cool. You met at the curve ball. Will you tell people a little bit more about what that is?

Joey: yeah,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: I was diagnosed in 2016, and I've got a, an amazing group of friends. really. people. And in

Ally: Which 17

Joey: they

Ally: got together and

Joey: formed

Ally: Curve ball admitting

the objective of creating the curve ball. So

Joey: the

Ally: Ball is

Joey: is a

Ally: black tie charity event where

funds have raised.

Joey: for an individual that's been given like a curve ball, like something significant has impacted their life, then a charity.

So the, the money gets split. the curve ball where I was the, recipient, there has been times when they've given it to, like two or three recipients just based on needs or community kind of feels. 

Ally: Who deserves it. so yeah, on the night, all funds raised go towards the recipient and the charity. There's a lot of, donations and raffles and

yeah, it's just a huge [00:38:00] fundraising event. So

I was the recipient, they raise 70,000.

Joey: Australian dollars, so a lot of money,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: which at the time was just huge. and it's still significant, in my life because medication's not cheap.

And, 

Ally: I said I take.

Joey: morning tablets, morning and

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: I'm always at the pharmacy and I'm still always buying medication. And so even though that was, you know, nine years ago, the impacts of that have been huge on my life. So,

Ally: So yeah,

Joey: it, um,

Ally: it was, it was a really,

Joey: beautiful guest year and it was a lovely night, and yeah,

Ally: and then you met, that's so fun. But you met your wife as part of that, and so is Curveball like an organization that exists in Australia? Everywhere And like, so people almost like, have you heard of GoFundMe in the United States? Like is it kind of like that but it's event based? Yes,

Joey: Yeah,

Ally: we have, we have

Joey: we have GoFundMe too. And probably the difference is that

Ally: GoFundMe.

Joey: like you said, is quite [00:39:00] nationally recognized. Um,

Ally: Whereas

Joey: Curveball

Ally: was just in our hometown.

Oh,

Joey: just completely designed by my friends.

Ally: oh, they, okay. I was thinking they got together and made it just for you, but no. Okay. That's so cool.

Joey: So, they, they organized and designed everything from the logos to entertainment, security, toilets, alcohol sponsors, did all the, council approvals.

And yeah, it was a huge, huge thing that they did. It was, um, because they all work full time and this was just like, you know, something they were doing of

Ally: Wow.

Joey: and if you've ever organized an event

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: you know, two or 3000 people, it's, it's a huge, huge job. 

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: So it was, it was mind blowing.

And then, 

Ally: Next day after the covid.

Joey: ball, they have like a big recovery where everyone goes to like a pub and,

Ally: Oh, that's fun.

Joey: and a

Ally: Bit more of a casual setting.

Joey: not in a suit.

Ally: Mm-hmm. Yep. it was fantastic. [00:40:00] Wow. Wow. That's so cool. So let's talk about work a little bit, because you're a teacher, right? So how, which is like amazing. what kind of teacher are you? 

Joey: I do high school. I'm a high school

Ally: okay.

Joey: so

Ally: school.

Joey: here is from grade seven to grade 12. so that's students between, say, 12 years old and 18 years old. my

Ally: areas in our health.

Joey: and physical education and business. which kind of aligns

Ally: Yeah. I was like, well, that tracks. Yep.

But at the moment I'm actually teaching.

Joey: history,

Ally: Wow.

Joey: yeah, just kind of what the school needed at the time and, and that interests me.

So, and

Ally: Also.

Joey: got a specialty in engagement and like behavior management. so prior to this I did a lot of work in, youth and family case work and youth work and things like that before transitioning to education and

Ally: Yeah. So,

Joey: so that's kind of where my specialty lies 

Ally: How long have you been doing that? Uh, so I'm

Joey: I've only been a teacher for four years.

Ally: Okay.

Yeah. So

Joey: in, in my [00:41:00] past, occupation, that's where I kind of did more of the, youth and family I. Casework. And, most of that was around supporting young people and their families to reengage with

Ally: education, so I.

Joey: wouldn't work with specific schools. I would get, referred

Ally: Families

Joey: and clients from like, child safety and things like that.

Uh, and then I would come in as like a support network to 

Ally: try and just improve general life outcomes and their wellbeing and

Joey: health and

Ally: them

Joey: the tools to

Ally: toengage successfully with education.

Joey: Because a lot of those families and young people had disengaged from school and weren't going at all, and, were really falling behind academically.

So, yeah, it

Ally: a bit of a journey.

Joey: into teaching. But yeah, four years in, so.

Ally: Wow. Those, both of those jobs sound really hard, so props to you very Um.

Joey: people-centric. lot, a lot of people work, which is good. I, I definitely

Ally: I.

Joey: with teaching, I [00:42:00] need the holidays when they come though, because it's so exhausting. I was very naive and I was one of those people that kind of looked at teaching and thought, oh, they get so many holidays.

Like, that's so,

Ally: That's easy.

Joey: good on

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: Yeah. Oh, and now, it just gets to holiday time. And I genuinely need that time just to, recharge because it's such a big, working environment when you're just constantly with people, and you're constantly problem solving and critically thinking and, managing behaviors that have a. Gotten worse and worse. 

Ally: Worse.

Joey: so it's a tough environment to work. But yeah, it's really rewarding and I love, love working in education, so

Ally: Oh, let's talk about your business now, so this is wild to me. So you're just doing all this, all this stuff. You're a teacher. Um, and what break are you on right now, by the way?

'cause that's how we got a chance to connect.

Joey: Yes.

Ally: Yes, that's what I was gonna ask Easter.

Joey: Easter break. So we have two weeks off, and this is my second week

Ally: [00:43:00] Okay. Okay.

Joey: back to school in like six

Ally: Yeah. Oh,

Joey: I'm counting.

Ally: right. Yeah. So we in the states just had our spring break, which spring breaks are all different across the country. even in our state and by city it's all different. Um, is Easter break the same way for you or is it kind of standardized? it's

Joey: quite typical everywhere

Ally: okay.

Joey: I think. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but typically it's probably the holiday where are more likely to go, camping, because the weather's really nice for camping. It's, um, normally cooled off a little bit. don't normally get rain. There has been a

Ally: Rain.

Joey: lately.

Ally: So.

Joey: can still have like a nice fire and go out for the weekend and it's a long weekend, for everyone this weekend coming. So it means that parents and things that work full time just have that extra day or two to get out with their family and make camping and things worth it. but yeah, it's a really nice holiday here we head into [00:44:00] winter and, Yeah. Spring break. Yeah,

Ally: Yeah, I know. It's so funny 'cause I'm like, yeah, we're spring break because we're heading into summer up here in the Northern Hemisphere. 

Joey: of course.

Ally: So, okay, so back to Whippet. So, you started a business and. Tell us maybe a little bit about the business too, as part of the story, but how the heck did this idea start?

Joey: Yeah,

Ally: Yeah, so

Joey: whipper, my undergrad was in business management,

Ally: Okay.

Joey: I moved into education, and don't think, business me too much. It was probably more the, entrepreneur side of business and I always kept large lists of

Ally: Ideas,

Joey: and innovations and things that I would love to start.

And the years, nothing's really been feasible. So

Ally: I've never really,

Joey: acted on anything. then I just,

Ally: obviously.

Joey: a huge trend at the moment of runners and running and health and fitness and it's a really big thing. And it was actually at one of, the [00:45:00] events people, I just recognize people often saying, I can't find my family.

And friends in the crowds take pictures of them and you know, someone would be like, oh, we just missed them. Oh, we didn't see 'em. Or, because at these events now there's thousands of

Ally: Oh yeah.

Joey: and everyone's running together and it's just mayhem. And I even kind of looked at my family and friends and everyone

Ally: Wearing

Joey: white, black,

Ally: black, gray,

That's, I feel like that's a big color for running.

Joey: yeah. Navy, you know, was an occasional peach or orange, which was kind of quite standoutish.

Ally: Mm-hmm. So I thought wanna make,

Joey: kind of a brand that represents, 

Ally: firstly I

Joey: wanted to

Ally: represen everyday runner

Joey: so people that are just running for the fun of it. And I don't think, like,

Ally: there.

Joey: are so many, elite runners out there and elite athletes and what they do is amazing. I wanted to create a brand that kind of everyone could wear. And, we have park runs here, which is kind of a nationally recognized run on a Saturday morning in a lot of, towns and cities [00:46:00] where, people will meet in one of the major parks and run. And that was kind of the target market I was looking at.

Um, that and kind of just your, your weekday run club. 

Ally: Yeah, we created a

line

Joey: of, really high

Ally: quality.

Joey: running apparel, but it's really fun and colorful and bright. So 

Ally: I just wanted to represent the

Joey: and happiness of

Ally: running and what it means to me.

Joey: through.

Ally: visual?

Joey: apparel and

we have the caps and socks at the moment. and then the shirts will hopefully be released.

Joey: at the end of this month.

Ally: Oh, they're, they're on the ship. They're on the ship,

yeah. Yeah.

Joey: so really hoping they get here and the rest is kind of history. We, we launched in December and it's been a lot of ups, lots of downs, so

Ally: Yeah. I, it's, it's hard. Definitely. Um,

you know?

Joey: every, I think particularly with the influence of social media and things, everything looks really easy and

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: these days, but until you're on the ground doing a lot of this stuff, yeah, it's, it's quite a lot to [00:47:00] navigate. I'm sure as you, as you know yourself.

Ally: Yeah. And so where are you getting your shirts from? Where are they made? So they're made.

Joey: China.

Ally: Okay. Um, 

Joey: so I really wanted to source someone that was, ethical, uh, and environmentally kind of focused. So I made sure, like particularly with our shirts, which is, you know, as far as, resource based, obviously. Our biggest

Ally: Resource.

Joey: 'cause shirts take so much more material.

Um, and our shirt orders so much bigger.

Ally: So we

Joey: paired up

Ally: manufacturing

Joey: that's, you know, very ethically driven. And, our shirts are all like,

Ally: fully recycled.

Joey: We're not there yet. 

Ally: We use

Joey: lot of recycled

Ally: lots 

Joey: as part of the

Ally: manufacturing process.

Joey: hopefully

Ally: We can actually

Joey: earn a

Ally: earn a bit money,

Joey: turn over more profit consistently, 

Ally: we can move

Joey: fully recyclable.

because

Ally: all those extra

Joey: like cost

Ally: money,

Joey: and you've gotta

Ally: find specific people. So

Joey: I looked and looked and I couldn't really

Ally: find [00:48:00] anyone that was

Joey: a hundred percent, um, recyclable, but

Ally: also

Joey: had all the

Ally: features.

Joey: wanted, in our shirts. So our shirts are like, you know, have the antibacterial properties. To prevent the odor and, the UPF 50 plus and really lightweight. And it was just really hard kind of getting those features matched with a manufacturer that could also do a hundred percent recycling.

Ally: So

Joey: our

Ally: shirts are a little bit

Joey: um, recycled

Ally: material

Joey: hopefully we

Ally: eventually that transition, so that's really cool. How do you design? Are you the designer? Do you design the patterns, the colors?

Joey: Yeah,

Ally: so I do a lot of the parts colors.

Joey: my wife also has input. Um, my wife and I are very different people though, so it's, it's good to get another view.

Ally: Mm-hmm. She

Joey: quite introverted

Ally: doesn't really,

Joey: like running, so it's a nice perspective, I

Ally: yeah,

Joey: She's not, she's not, obviously not my target market, but, um, she's got a really good eye for design, so she's really good to ask. I

Ally: I worked

Joey: [00:49:00] a,

a

Ally: Welsh girl living in Brisbane, actually,

Emily Freelance Design. She was

Joey: she

Ally: fantastic.

Joey: She helped me, do up all my tech packs for the caps and the shirts and the socks. and then

Ally: I negotiated with.

Joey: lots and lots of manufacturers to try and find a good fit for what whip it represented.

And

Ally: Yeah. The rest

Joey: is,

Ally: is becoming, is becoming history. Did you, how do you, how the heck do you find a manufacturer? I feel like that's such an interesting thing like Google. I mean, is that where you start or do you have people that know people that connect you? Or how did you find your manufacturer? Yeah, so, 

Joey: the girl that helped me, Emily, that helped me with my design, I believe she recommended a couple. I ended up using one of those. So my shirt cap and sock manufacturer are all different people. aaba.com is

Ally: where I've been

Joey: found my sock and cap

Ally: manufacturer,

which

Joey: itself is a process because essentially you're

Ally: reaching out to manufacturer mm-hmm.

Joey: and then

Ally: they all say they've got the best.

Joey: price and the best quality.

And

Ally: So then you need to all [00:50:00] your own research on that

Joey: manufacturer and

Ally: business,

Joey: and kind of investigate

Ally: they're like.

Joey: and what certifications do they have, and. 

Ally: That was

Joey: a, also

Ally: process. But yeah.

Joey: it was hard. But then once I'd finally found one, I found it got much easier. Uh, and then it's just, dealing with and making sure you're very aware of language differences and cultural differences and things when you're communicating, uh, with your Chinese manufacturer.

Ally: and eventually, to be honest, I would love

Joey: to

Ally: to

Joey: here in Australia, although the

Ally: organizations I reached out to

pretty much,

Joey: just to get initial meetings and get all of my designs transferred to their, blueprints and things for manufacturing was almost gonna cost me

Ally: much as we call our shirts.

Joey: made. so there's just no way could have

Ally: Spend

Joey: you know,

Ally: 6%.

Joey: more. On my manufacturing of the shirts, I just wouldn't have afforded it.

Ally: Yeah. It's [00:51:00] something I think

Joey: as a startup we're very conscious of and something that later on, if we can move into that more

Ally: mature

Joey: business stage, we can

Ally: start,

Joey: to yeah, shop

Ally: I think.

Joey: I think will be really important to us.

Ally: Yeah.

And how did you decide how many shirts to buy? Uh,

Joey: my hand was a little bit forced on that because a shirt manufacturer is quite, renowned in a sense. Uh, they service a lot of international clothing companies and sporting teams and things. So it was a minimum 500, order quantity

Ally: okay.

Joey: per design,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: which

Ally: scary.

Joey: you can imagine,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: I eventually got 'em down to 300, um, minimum order quantity per design.

So that's still 1200 shirts, which is a lot of

Ally: Yeah. so yes,

Joey: it's a big risk and I'm always reminded that it's a big risk, but it's

Ally: just

Joey: you know, it's one of those things I think life's too short you know, if you

Ally: risks,

Joey: and things don't happen for you, [00:52:00] you

Ally: right?

Joey: always say, oh, lucky, or

Ally: someone

Joey: but it's essentially they're just more willing to take risks and put more energy and effort into it.

And

Ally: I think that, you know,

Joey: if all

Ally: fail, tried,

Joey: and,

Ally: it's okay to try and fail.

Joey: I

Ally: People are don't

Joey: like to

Ally: uncomfortable. Mm-hmm.

Joey: much anymore. And I think,

Ally: You know, being

Joey: uncomfortable is the only place where you learn things and grow and, in your life. And

Ally: so.

Joey: so

Ally: Amen.

Joey: I hope for

Ally: Sake.

Joey: my wife's sake that, yeah, I sell some shirts,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: um, we'll see.

Ally: Yeah. do you ship all over the world? yeah. That's great. Yeah,

Joey: I have a friend in Hong Kong that

Ally: I just did a,

Joey: a trial order with and it

Ally: to work, the, to get

Joey: seemed to get to Ellie fine, and I've sent

Ally: Canada. Okay. so I believe so

Joey: I, my shipping costs, I think it costs me 20 Australian dollars to ship internationally at the moment. although I did go

Ally: I in, and

Joey: edit that down to like 14.95. 

Ally: [00:53:00] so it makes a little bit more reasonable

running. For example, the running caps aren't for a running cap, aren't either.

Joey: expensive

Ally: So,

Joey: typically

Ally: in Australia, um, the low end

Joey: end introduction

Ally: running cap would be like $50.

Joey: whereas your high end caps can be 69 point $70. So we're at that $46 mark. So, I think we've got a really, really good quality cap. Uh, that is as good quality as the really high market ones, but because we want to target that everyday runner, we didn't wanna make our price too expensive. So

Ally: Right. Yeah. If people trust the product,

Joey: and are willing to pay the 14.95

Ally: yeah.

Joey: shipping, then

Ally: Then yes. Yeah.

Joey: then yes.

So, yeah.

Ally: obviously at the moment

just trying to build the market.

Joey: the market

Ally: Australia,

Joey: and if we build it organically, you

Ally: America

Joey: and Canada and Europe, then

Ally: been great.

Joey: So it's,[00:54:00] 

Ally: Yeah. How did you come up with the logo and the name? So.

Joey: we have dogs and I love my dogs and yeah,

Ally: We were trying to figure out

Joey: A business name by combining the two dog names. and nothing really stuck, the names we came up with didn't really represent what I wanted in the brand. because I feel like your name really reflects because essentially,

Ally: that's

Joey: image that you're carrying.

So I wanted to make sure we got that right. And then Claire, my wife just said,

Ally: what about whip, you know, they're a

Joey: fast dog, one of the fastest dogs.

Ally: got a really nice ring

Joey: to it, it's easy to say. Uh, and then

Ally: I just tried to modify,

Joey: the whip it name. 

Ally: I had a couple different,

Joey: versions, but yeah, whip

Ally: mm-hmm.

Joey: HWI

Ally: W kind of

Joey: kind of

Ally: came out

Joey: on

Ally: and

Joey: I

Ally: knew that I wanted the slogan to be kind of copy running that.

Joey: and that's what I wanted whip it to be known as.

So [00:55:00] yeah, I,

Ally: Essentially,

Joey: did up some mock logos. Of the W for whip it with a smiley face

Ally: yeah.

Joey: it. And then

Ally: One of my best mates actually said, why don't you,

Joey: use the w from the actual whip it name as the, the i and the w of the face for the logo. So yeah, we just did that and drew a line under it,

Ally: there you go. Yeah. That's so cool. I really love, I love branding and so I was curious about that. I really, I really do really like it. It looks so great and yeah. Are you in running stores locally? No, not in,

Joey: we're not in any running stores yet. So, 

Ally: they're

Joey: running a

Ally: opening, sorry.

Joey: a running specific shop in Cairns,

Ally: Okay,

Joey: uh, which will be the first,

Ally: so.

Joey: hopefully we get to stock some in there. And then back in Toowoomba, there's also a running specialty shop, which hopefully we might stock in there. at the moment it's probably more of a focus, just directly targeting run clubs and

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Build up

Joey: just a social media [00:56:00] presence and yeah, just, you know, reach our community. We really wanna build a community, you know, not just customers and stuff. And in

Ally: in the,

Joey: the

Ally: we'd love to,

Joey: to. Yeah, I've got, I've got a lot of plans, you

Ally: right?

Joey: we'll

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: Yeah.

Ally: I feel you. There. It's like I have to, I, it's so hard at night to shut my brain off because I just always have ideas of things I wanna change or I wanna do. And then I ended up getting myself into now having a podcast too. And now I work with another podcaster. And so now we're doing events, speaking of planning events.

And so then it's like, okay, just all the things. But I, I love it all because the running community is just, is so amazing and so. I find myself just kind of accidentally building a community as a result of getting to meet people like you and other people all over the place. Now I know you're my first Australian guest, so

Joey: I think, um, accent's

Ally: Australian too.

Joey: too,

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: everyone will love that.

Ally: People will be like, who's this guy? He's not from [00:57:00] Indiana, Yeah, we have a marathon here. That's amazing. Flat, fast. But I think the major races here, like Chicago would be such a good one for you. New York is iconic, obviously. do you have any bucket list races that you would target to get you over here as you think about that?

Joey: I am definitely building a list. I think New York definitely. I think the city itself, even not being American and never have been visited. I think New York has such a, cultural significance to anyone in the western world. it's in so many movies, it's in so many TV shows, you know, it's spoken about frequently and I think that would be, I love, running for reflection and the, the view.

So what a better way to take in one of the most renowned cities in the world than on foot. You

Ally: It. Yeah, And through all the, boroughs, it is [00:58:00] absolutely amazing. Amazing. Oh, amazing. Yeah.

Joey: Just being in it. I think you can drive around a city, but it's very different to running around a city.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: a

Ally: much different

Joey: feel

Ally: place.

Joey: I think. 

Ally: And then

Joey: Tokyo

Ally: Tokyo. definitely.

Joey: would be up there. yeah, I, I

Ally: I think just trying to do a marathon in each, 

Joey: continent would be pretty epic.

Ally: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I have a previous guest of this podcast who just did her, Antarctica race, and that was her last continent, and I was just like, wow. It's so crazy.

Joey: That is a wow moment.

Ally: Yeah. Yeah. And she's running like, I don't know how many countries, but it's crazy. So, yeah. Do you have any other travel plans like running, unrelated to running?

It sounds like you really enjoy traveling. is there anything you're doing this year or soon?

Joey: So

Ally: I.

Joey: had, um, one of my best friend's weddings in New Zealand [00:59:00] three weeks ago. Uh, and then July last year I had one of my other really good friends get married in St. Jpe in France.

Ally: Geez.

Joey: so

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: so we've traveled quite a lot in the last 12 months with weddings. We are thinking this year, we might try and just leave it for a little bit.

although because we are in Cairns, Indonesia and Japan really aren't that

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: us, so We might do Japan for, 10 days at some point, or, I would love

Ally: So,

Joey: Torres Strait Islands are up the top of Australia, so,

Ally: okay.

Our dense people here are,

Joey: are, there's two groups.

So there's Aboriginal and there's Torres Strait Islander.

Ally: so

Joey: the Torres Strait Islands are really hard to get to, because they're right up the tip of a, right up the top of Australia. because they're all island groups, there's no like major flights there or anything. So pretty much have to fly from Cairns to a town up the top of Australia and then you can ferry across. Or get like [01:00:00] a

Ally: Wow,

Joey: small little, I don't know, three person plane or whatever, and land on one of the islands, which is pretty much just has a runway. So the school I'm at now is mainly a boarding school and most of our students are Torres Strait Islander or Aboriginal,

Ally: really?

Joey: young people, communities and things.

Yeah. So, I would love to get up to the Torres Strait and, see a lot of my kids' families and really immerse myself in the Torres Strait culture. And, 

Ally: They're just such beautiful people, so that is something I would love to do.

Joey: while I'm

Ally: I'm

Joey: in far North Queensland, but,

Ally: we'll see.

Joey: We'll

Ally: Yeah. So,

Joey: so there's a few

Ally: yeah.

Joey: possible, but, um, What about

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: Have you, would you

Ally: Come back.

Joey: to

Ally: my gosh, I hope so. My, so my oldest daughter is named Sydney, and

Joey: well.

Ally: so I've, I've been to Sydney. Like I said, I was there, you know, a couple decades ago. My husband went for work before we got pregnant, and so it just ended up on a list, the name Sydney, and we both liked it. And so it just was kind of like, oh, all right.

Well I guess that's, that's her name. And so I wanna take her [01:01:00] there. And I want to go back because it's been too long. And I would also love to run the Sydney marathon 'cause that would be incredible to do that while over there. Yeah, this year, you know, I have a wedding on, on the other side of the country in Seattle, Washington, which is a beautiful part of the country.

but yeah, I, I'm already dreaming about, you know, maybe we just got a direct flight from where I'm from Indianapolis to Dublin, Ireland, which for us is a big deal because we don't have many direct flights to get us somewhere like internationally. So I'm trying to think about that for maybe fall break or something.

We'll see. But, you know, after the pandemic for us, like all I wanna do is travel, but our kids are still pretty young, so, We're finally getting to the point where my youngest, I have two girls, one is almost eight, one is almost four. And so they're finally, we can drag them around a little easier because they're more self-sufficient, um, and they can watch something on their iPad.

But yeah, I would love to do an international race, someday. I've never done an international race or marathon and so that would be, that would be fun. I just [01:02:00] wanna pick places that I wanna see and then just go run a race there. So like you said,

Joey: um, you

Ally: can do the

Joey: east coast of Australia and do, you could do Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Cairns Marathon. All in all in the one season.

Ally: my God, I can't even imagine trying to do that. I've tried to do two marathons in a year, one, like back to back one time, and it did not go well. But, you know, that was a long time ago and before I started using a coach, which like you said, makes a lot of difference. I.

Joey: Oh, huge amount of difference regardless of how much I guess you think you know, or how much you've run before, it's just really good to have

Ally: Someone else that

Joey: structures everything. and

Ally: definitely hold you more accountable. Agreed. Absolutely. And I used to think, I mean, I had done a ton of half marathons, so you know, I thought, I know exactly what I'm doing, I'm fine. But I was doing it all wrong. Like every run, I would just go run as fast as I could for whatever mileage I was planning to do.

And I realized very quickly [01:03:00] in using a coach that that was very wrong. You're not supposed to do that. So, yeah.

Joey: It does. It, it keeps, keeps training

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: too.

Ally: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Joey: mixing it up with different interval staff and speed work

Ally: Agreed.

Joey: and the same thing over and over. And, yeah.

Ally: Yeah. Yeah, it really does. Absolutely. well man, I, I've really enjoyed the opportunity to get to know you, Joey. This has been so fun. You're so impressive. Gosh. It, I mean, just

Joey: Thanks.

Ally: we didn't, when we talked about whip it too, we didn't really talk about like the mission side of things. So you've obviously talked a little bit about how you would love to have recycled fabric and, you know, be supportive of the environment.

But what else are your values as a company and brand as you look to continue to grow?

Joey: Yeah, so I guess our overarching mission is just to empower the everyday runner to, find their happiness and community through running. I think that's our main kind of mission. and our values kind of revolve around that. So, Have fun, [01:04:00] find your fulfillment, community focused and be kind.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: like our full kind of focus areas, for values. Uh, and I think, you know, as we progress and we can actually turn over some money, we are gonna try and involve ourselves a bit more with the community and charities.

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: as part of our shirts we will, we do do a 5%, of all our profits will go to different

Ally: So

first charity, actually, we

Joey: just got approval, uh, as

Ally: Justen, which is like a

organization that supports young people through their cancer journey. So, oh, that's cool.

Joey: year olds.

Ally: Yeah. So, we're not sure if we

Joey: will do that

Ally: like a

value amount,

Joey: or just a, a time-based

Ally: see

Joey: just to,

Ally: what happens and we

Joey: then we'll just

Ally: kind of different charities.

Joey: as we go.

I think's important

Ally: Yes.

Joey: as a business, there's probably not enough. Businesses, particularly businesses that make millions and millions of dollars that give enough back. It just kind of blows my mind that like

Ally: Much. How much

Joey: is enough for

Ally: of.

Joey: of some of the companies and, and I mean hopefully we, we [01:05:00] eventually are at a point where we can donate more than 5%, as we progress and grow.

but yeah, just a bit of a starting point and yeah, would love people to get around, whip it and, enjoy their running like I have and it's given me so much, it's given me, you know, it's running for me is so much about the wellbeing and mental health and, freedom and experiences and, and community and, and like meeting great people like yourself.

You know, it just, you give me the very positive running energy, you know, does that answer the

Ally: It does. Yeah, no, I remember looking on your website and seeing that 5%, and I just thought that it's really amazing to do that kind of from the outset of your business. Like you said, you're taking a big risk, but you still wanna make sure that you're kind of putting your stake in the ground, that hey, you're gonna support the community from the get go versus, when you can, which obviously when you grow, you can do more, but I, I really think that's cool.

Thank you. Yeah.

Joey: it's, it's one of those things I think strategically we just really want to help from the, the get go. And it just kind of, it [01:06:00] keeps, keeps the business accountable too. And it means that when we actually, some more profit, and it's not all just going to business things, that increase that percentage amount and we will continue to donate and to give to charities and things because yeah, it is important.

It's important to. support your community and support people around you. And, in a day and

Ally: I.

Joey: where people are probably less connected than ever, on a face-to-face basis and level, running is a really good start to rebuilding that. And I think if we can get some brands and, things like whip it that support that, it's gonna be positive.

Ally: Yeah. Agreed. Okay. Are you ready for my end of the podcast questions?

Joey: certainly.

Ally: Okay. There's only two, and the first one is, what is your favorite running mantra and or song?

Joey: So I had one, uh, another good friend of mine, recommended 18 months ago to run without music. So.

Ally: Hmm.

Joey: I was a big, big runner with music, always took my music [01:07:00] and, I would get a little bit freaked out if I forgot my AirPods or so I started running without music and it has changed my life. So, I never run with music ever, and I just find the mental clarity and amount of reflection and just, it has just changed my life.

Like, it's that significant. So, I would recommend if you, obviously everyone's different, and I'm not saying if you love music, that's, that's completely fine. Like, but I recommend just give it a go once or twice and see how it feels. And if you hate it, go back to music. But, but while I run and I'm thinking, I like, particularly for that cans 50, it was more just like keep, keep turning the legs over.

If I just keep turning over, don't walk because I have, like for the marathon, when my body broke

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: bit of walking, going and I just didn't feel. I didn't feel like I'd really honored myself much because I walked, so I just, during the camp, it was just big. Just turn the legs over, turn the legs over, um, and really focusing on that next step I think is huge.[01:08:00] 

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: because if you

Ally: Over yourself?

Joey: if you think too far ahead, um,

Ally: Yes.

Joey: you've got a lot of fatigue in the legs and you've still got 20 kilometers to go, or you've got a bit of a niggle, you know, you, your calves hurting or you're getting some tightness in your hip you've got 20 kilometers to go, it's overwhelming and it's easy for the mind to kind of give up a little

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: you just focusing the next aid station or the next,

Ally: Next.

Joey: lap I find that's just trying to be really present. When you're running. And I guess that's why for me, personally, why running with music really

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: it, it really gets me to remain present and, listen to the things around you and look at the things around you and make notes of it.

And I find, I find it's just a really good distraction and a good way to zone out and enjoy the run.

Ally: Yeah, when I started this podcast, I had that, right. It's been my, one of my end of podcast questions since the beginning about songs, and I realized very quickly, like there was a theme, like a lot of [01:09:00] people didn't listen to music. And I thought that was bizarre because I was like, you, I would get so anxious about making my playlist and having my music, but now, like, as I've met more people who don't, I've, I've tried it and I ran last year, my first full marathon without music, and it was like, it was so different and I, I found I didn't miss it either.

you don't need it as much as you think that you do. I do like listening to podcasts or audio books when I run. It's just a way for me to consume more content 'cause there's just not enough time. But, um, but I find that the music now, like, I just don't, I don't rely on it anymore either.

So, for anybody listening, hello. We both, you know, you and I both felt the same way, where we like have to have it, but now it's like, you know, just give it a shot. It's not so bad. It, it seems like it's gonna be so hard, but it's just really not. And that's all you can do is try it.

Joey: it. If you don't like it, go

Ally: Yeah. Yeah. I actually, my transition was almost

Joey: I, I was all music. Then with

Ally: [01:10:00] marathon.

I ran with my headphones.

Joey: in my pocket and tried putting music in, but I was too far gone to enjoy

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: And then I transitioned to full no music and yeah, it was huge.

So.

Ally: Yeah. I like it. And then next finish line or milestone.

Joey: for me, I think I really want to run a sub three and a half hour marathon.

Ally: okay.

Joey: probably my goal. you know, there's no part of me that wants to run a sub three hour. That's just too much for

Ally: Yeah. yeah.

Joey: so I think running a a three 30 marathon would be awesome. And, I think when I train properly again, I think I should be able to do that, hopefully quite easy.

Um, but in saying that, I don't think that will be for a little

Ally: Now I think now that I've done the

Joey: cans 50, I think I'll just enjoy my running and, doing it for the, physical and mental sides of it. And then, possibly next year, yeah, give the three 30 marathon [01:11:00] a go.

Ally: Yeah,

Joey: we'll see.

Ally: I really like that you're taking a breather after. I feel like especially, I dunno, if you think about social media, everybody's just like, go, go, go. Like how many, like people are doing all these crazy races back to back to back. And what I found, especially being so immersed in the running space, is that I don't ever wanna lose my love of running or burnout, right?

Like if you're just chasing times all the time, it gets exhausting both mentally and physically. And so, yeah, I've really tried to be better about that as well. and not, I mean, last year I prd my marathon. The year before that I prd my half marathon. And so now I'm like this, thank you so much. And this is the year of fun.

And then perhaps next year will be, I'm almost 40, so I'll be 40, um, in a couple years, and that's when I wanna qualify for the Boston Marathon. That is kind of my goal that's, that's lingering out there. So, which would be running around three. 35, I think, for me, so, sounds so scary. Yeah, so, so much fun.

Joey: [01:12:00] there.

Ally: Yeah.

If I want to, I will. Yeah, exactly right.

Joey: And you, I think that's, you, you get a lot of mental clarity once you realize you can do a lot more than you think you

Ally: Mm-hmm.

Joey: um, through

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: and like you said, I doing back to back events, it's, quite impactful on everyone around you too because, like, you know, get home from work late-ish and then I won't have to go for a two hour run.

And like, it's also, you know, trying to get balance in life

Ally: Yes. Yep.

Joey: awesome and I love running, but there are other things as well. And you know, if you are someone that I think doesn't love running and you only wanna run once a week, that's also fine. It's just whatever your,

Ally: Yeah, if you run, you're a runner. That's what I say. That's what everyone, you know, needs to hear. So, and you know what's so funny, Joey, is that every time I end this podcast, I say, happy running. Did you know that? No. I do that swear since the very beginning. Yeah, there you go. So it's just kind of funny that that all like is intertwined somehow.

Joey: isn't it.

Ally: Yeah. It's weird.

Joey: that's,

Ally: That's, I think it's probably,

Joey: a [01:13:00] common term for runners to say, because that's the only reason

Ally: yeah,

Joey: I put it on,

Ally: right?

Joey: the back of the,

Ally: Yeah,

Joey: people used to say, oh, happy running, or Run happy, or

Ally: yeah, yeah. 'cause Brook's shoes, right? They're all, they're run happy and then, yeah. Ever since I started my small business athlete bouquets I do a handwritten note in every order still, and I write happy running. At the end, so, so I love that so much.

Joey: must be something in the name. Hey.

Ally: Yeah. You know, so, well, thank you so much for spending this time with me bright and early in your morning.

what do you, do you have a run slated today? Are you gonna go run? I think I'm gonna go.

Joey: to the gym and do a bit of a legs session.

Ally: Okay.

Joey: I did a bit of a hike yesterday, so, 

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: I, my wife and I are going to the coast, on the next couple of days, so I thought I'll go for a beautiful run along

Ally: Yeah.

Joey: beaches with

Ally: Uh

Joey: palm trees, you know?

Ally: oh. It sounds great. Sounds so fun. Well enjoy that.

Joey: having me.

Ally: Yeah, absolutely. And thank you to [01:14:00] everybody who, who listened

Joey: yeah, you've been a pleasure to talk to. It's been really nice. So thank you.

Ally: likewise. Yeah, absolutely. And happy running. Yay.

Joey: You too. Yeah. Happy run.

Ally: Yeah. Alright, take care, Joey. Talk soon. Thank you too.

Joey: you. See out.

Bye.

If you enjoyed this episode of Finish Lines and Milestones from Sandy Boy Productions, please share it with a friend. Rate it on Apple or Spotify, follow along, subscribe all of the things. It will really help. And I would love and appreciate your ongoing support of this show. And thank you again to Previn X for sponsoring this episode.

if we're not friends on Instagram yet, you can find me at @allytbrett_runs and I will talk to you again next week. Thank you.