Jen (00:01.132)
Mellie, welcome to the Mum Safe Movement podcast. How you going? How? I'm very excited that we've lined this up amongst children and sicknesses and school holidays and all those things. Let's kick off the way that we always do. Do you want to share with me a word around how you're showing up today? And we know each other well.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (00:04.407)
Hi. Good, thanks for having me.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (00:10.806)
Have a good holiday!
Jen (00:27.01)
What's that? We're gonna leave this in.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (00:28.926)
the lights yes please let me hold the lights hang on i have three lights so one went down my time bring it back it there she comes my goodness there it is this is life yeah and now i'm so
Jen (00:32.302)
Do you need to fix them?
Jen (00:41.676)
All right. I love it. It's like the, yeah, it's just how life goes, doesn't
Meli Comachi Cordoba (00:52.791)
sorry. I'm not going to play with that.
Jen (00:53.302)
It's okay. I think we are good. Nice. I don't know if your words gonna stay the same word, but
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:01.702)
it definitely, yes, my word is anxious. Yeah, and excited if I can go for two. Yeah, this makes me really excited, at the same time anxious because I don't know if I'll be able to stay on topic.
Jen (01:07.778)
Yep. You can.
Jen (01:18.24)
Well, the fact that we've just gone completely off topic, I think is okay to like falling lights in the background.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:23.167)
But I also know this is a safe space, so yeah. If I go too far, just bring me back.
Jen (01:26.274)
Yeah, it is. I will do my very best. Either that or I'll just go way down the road with you and we'll just leave it, lead each other astray. That is fine. Cool. What is something that you're winning at at the moment?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:34.156)
Awesome.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:39.246)
Oh, I'm going to add, I'm launching a new, my first session in the evening. And before I even put the word out there, the session was 50 % booked. And now we are, now we are at 70%. And I'm, I'm starting in, I think it's like two weeks. Oh yeah.
Jen (01:51.383)
Amazing.
Jen (01:58.658)
Fantastic. How do you feel about working in the evenings? Is that something that you stop doing for a while and then you're ready to do again or?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (02:04.448)
No, I never stopped. I just didn't do group sessions. It was always one -on -ones or like mom and dad, but never a group. And since I started here, I got more more interest from those moms that go back to work and then they cannot make it to like super early in the morning if I would open one and I already have my weekends sold out. So it was like evening or nothing.
and the group kept growing and here we
Jen (02:34.646)
Amazing. Fantastic. Do you do early mornings too or no?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (02:39.542)
It's just one and it's not too early anyway.
Jen (02:41.804)
Yep. Okay. Cool. Cool. Cool. Cool. So that's in alignment with your values and your business is growing, which is awesome. And tell me something that you're working on.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (02:46.188)
Yes. Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (02:50.604)
been working in the in our online membership the MAM movement have is one I run with now other eight MAM Safe trainers and it all started in my head like four years ago and I couldn't find the the headspace or the actual space to do it until I went on one of our hot seats and you went like would you do it with a friend? I was like yeah why not I would do it with friends and it was
Jen (02:53.655)
Mm -hmm.
Jen (03:13.388)
Mmm.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (03:20.254)
and it was seven of us, six of us, and now it's nine of us. So I'm excited. Yes, so good, so good.
Jen (03:24.554)
Nine friends. Nice. That's exciting. Very, very cool. all right. So Mellie, obviously, well, not obviously, you are one of our Mumsafe trainers. what I would love is for you to share with me and everyone listening, your journey to get to where you are now in about, I don't know, five, six, seven minutes. Let's go.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (03:35.917)
Yes.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (03:46.414)
So my boyfriend is dancing and when I stopped dancing and dance teaching I wanted to eat basically because I had a history of eating disorders and my partner he's always been very sporty and active and he went like just go to the gym around the corner and you'll be fine and yes.
Jen (04:08.866)
Let's just pause on that. Okay, so here we go. So what I just heard you say is you stopped dancing and you wanted to eat so you felt like you needed to replace eat dancing with exercise so you could eat.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (04:20.748)
Yeah. But I wasn't, I wasn't stealing the hedge face I am now.
Jen (04:26.294)
Hmm. What was it like being in that headspace though?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (04:30.19)
Well, I needed to be small. I had to be small. Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, No, it was a me thing. And I was trying to find that, yeah, that replacement. I went to the US for a life experience and I came back, I went back to Argentina with like five kilos, which for my frame is a lot. And I went like, it was fun.
Jen (04:33.206)
Why? you needed to because you needed to be. Yep. Not because someone else told you.
Jen (04:56.874)
I wanna keep eating, please let me eat.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (04:59.794)
It was fun. I like that and I want that. And he goes, yeah, okay, just go to the gym and you'll be fine. He came from a place of love, obviously, because he saw all my struggles. yeah, sharing a meal, I reckon for him, was like a goal, without me going to the bathroom afterwards and doing all the things. So, yeah.
Jen (05:27.798)
Yeah. You know, it's really interesting, isn't it? Like there's this whole, I'm going to say epidemic of probably women about our age who've been through that, that no one knew that they were going through that. And now people are getting comfortable talking about
Meli Comachi Cordoba (05:40.556)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I've always had once I said, hey, I think I have a problem. That's what happened to me. I went to everybody that I was in contact with on a daily basis. And I'm like, hey, this is what I've been doing for the last seven years. And they knew, right? So I need help. And this is what we're going to do. blah, blah. my, and I go into this and then we can keep going if you want to.
Jen (06:07.392)
It's okay. This is all part of the process.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (06:10.617)
When I told Gabby, my boyfriend Dan, my partner now, he goes, okay, so he used to, we used to talk over the phone. This was 21 years ago, by the way, like no cell phones, like landline. My mom was there. And he goes, I'm gonna call you every day as I do. And I'm gonna ask you, did you throw up today? And you're gonna
Jen (06:24.12)
pulling the phone into the other room kind of scenario.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (06:38.348)
Yes, how many times? Hello, hello, how was your day? Did you throw up today? Yes, how many times? Four times. Okay, that's a lot. I laugh, but I know it's not funny. It's the way I deal with things, just for everybody watching or listening. This is how I deal. He was like, yeah, this is four times is a lot. And I was, and I felt so, I think that I was ashamed that I was doing this and this guy.
Loving me so much and just staying It was like okay the week after three times the week after two times I I can't remember how long it took for me to stop binging and Doing all of that, but at one point it was like yeah I haven't and I haven't and I haven't and then when I would have like a relapse and I ate like a whole tube of what's the name of the chips that come in Yeah, those
Jen (07:30.563)
the Pringles. Because once you pop, can't stop.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (07:36.502)
He scratched the bottom. He was doing his thesis for his degree and I found myself with empty hands and lot of time so I went and did the whole tube. And when he came back I felt so bad that I didn't throw up. And I was like, I just had the whole tube of blah blah blah. He was like, cool. You know, you know better.
I'm not going to say that was it, that's all it took for me not to do it again, but every time it got easier to go back to the right path. And I don't know how many years I mean now, but I haven't, I haven't done it. I haven't, I mean, since we got to Australia 11 years ago, I haven't, I haven't, I'm thinking, but I haven't. Yeah. But I feel comfortable talking about this with anybody.
Jen (08:28.834)
Yep, well done.
Jen (08:33.134)
Yeah, I think we need to. We need to and I think that we think that it's getting better. But what I also am aware of is that there are young women, 20 year olds, 21 year olds, 30 year olds who are still suffering and older women too. But it's very interesting when you've been through something and you come through and you're willing to talk about it. It's like, well, if I'm sharing then less people will go through it. But is that the actual reality? Like there's still many, young women going through the exact same thing.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (08:34.139)
It is part of my training, and it's okay.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (08:44.642)
Yes.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (09:02.402)
Yeah, I don't
Jen (09:02.728)
yeah, I don't know either. I don't know
Meli Comachi Cordoba (09:05.292)
I know and I'm nervous when the time for me come as a mom to have those conversations. Because having gone through it, I don't know if it makes me qualified at some point to talk about, I don't know. mean, if doesn't.
Jen (09:24.056)
I think it just makes you more aware, right? More empathetic, more aware. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, cool. So we've talked about food and the going to the gym. So that's where your journey of going to the gym started.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (09:28.406)
Hopefully yes. Yeah, I hope
Meli Comachi Cordoba (09:40.374)
Yeah, so I went and I went into one of those like Zumba like classes. This was way before Zumba and the instructor comes to me afterwards and he says hey you can dance blah blah blah. Yeah, I can dance. I've danced before blah blah blah. He goes I work for this company. It's a fitness company and we we shoot videos like at a TV studio every three months and then they go all over the world for instructors to learn from them then run the sessions from those classes.
at local James and we are shooting a video in like two weeks time and the owners of the company are coming to the rehearsal tomorrow would you like to come? I was like I don't know, I had no idea about this like I don't know and I checked the weather and it's like you know what it's gonna rain tomorrow and I don't do rain well.
Jen (10:27.182)
So I'll come because it's raining.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (10:29.166)
Exactly and he goes I'll pick you up in a cab and I'll take you there would you come? So What I can only stay for an hour and a half because I have things to do I had nothing to do by the way and But I don't know I feel the need to set boundaries I guess so I went and they only saw me dancing dancing for like 45 seconds a minute a half
because they got stuck and started discussing about two steps, whatever. And I went, it's five, I need to go. He goes, no, but you haven't like, we've done only one, I need to go. Like there's somewhere I need to be and I need to go. So I left. I went, huh, that was fun. But they're not gonna call me. The next day they called me and said, hey, would you like to be in the video that we're shooting in two weeks time? Yeah, sure. I had nothing to do. I was just back from the US on a holiday mode, you know? So I did
went to the TV studio, shoot the video and I was nervous because the last time for me at the TV studio was like, I don't know, five years before that. And I was like, they're not gonna call me again. It's fine. That was fine. But that's it. Two weeks or one week later, they go, would you like to join the team? And I was, yeah, sure, why not? I have nothing to do. I have no job, I'm not studying, sure. So I joined the company.
and with the dancing like program and then I went also for the balance core yoga like, has a little Pilates as well and then I thought okay if I'm staying I need to study so I went and did the Pilates course and then the personal trainer certification and then I became a master trainer and then I started
you know, getting into more of the backend stuff, how you pick the music, how you put the steps together, how you work with people around the world, Australia included. And I started doing that. And nine months after I started, the guy that took me there, he gives me a call and say, hey, the time for me has come. I'm leaving the company. Say yes, just say yes and take my position and I'll help you. And that's what I did.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (12:55.95)
I took his position, was 27, 28, and I was the only female being a global director, and I was the youngest. So that was a problem for them because I always had something to say. I was always not okay with something or feedback or whatever. And I had opinions and I was like, oh, well, you know, and they always have something to say about my body, by the
Jen (12:58.722)
Mm -hmm.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (13:26.566)
And like I had enough already with my own self -esteem and body image and all my history that we just covered. And I was like, yeah, but Melly, like I was too thin for them. And I was now at the other end. Like I thought it was too big for dancing. Now I was too small for fitness. And I was like, if only Melly would gain whatever kilos.
Jen (13:39.739)
Interesting.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (13:54.868)
Like you can never win, you know? You can never win. So I took more responsibility, more responsibility. I started running fitness courses and then I traveled all around, all over Argentina. I went to Asia. I was lucky enough to go to Maldives and it was fun until it wasn't and it was too much pressure and I quit.
Jen (13:54.87)
I learned it. Yeah, yeah.
Jen (14:20.877)
And then is that when you came to Australia and kind of,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (14:23.822)
12 months after I quit, we came to Australia.
Jen (14:27.052)
Yep. And then share with us how you ended up working with mums once you got to Australia.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (14:34.446)
Oh, because we used to live right in front of the Iron Cove. This is a big green space that you can take all the lava around the water. It's like 7k, 7, 8k and lots of green. And I thought, wow, a lot of prams, mums with prams out there. And I thought how amazing would be because I thought I had an idea, by the way. But I wasn't the first one. How many?
Jen (14:56.974)
You did have an idea. We all have good, the best people have the best idea, the same ideas.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (15:05.944)
So I said, how amazing would it be to run sessions outdoors with moms and their babies? And then I started doing a little bit of research and I found you, I found another guy, and then I got depressed because we had no ticket back home. We moved with one way ticket and eight pieces of luggage. And that was it. And it hit me and then I got pregnant.
Jen (15:11.287)
Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (15:36.11)
And I started doing my third, third and fourth in fitness here because this is Australia and you have to do it all over again. And when I was three or four days overdue with Sofia, I went to this fitness fair looking for a mentor because back then you would need a mentor and do like 40, 50, 60 hours with them. And all the big gyms, all the big box gyms were there. No one would take me. No one, because I was pregnant.
Jen (16:03.104)
you're pregnant. Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (16:06.248)
no one wanted to work with me even though the placement was going to happen once my baby was
I already knew I wanted to work with moms and I was on the verge of crying because they would all say literally no to me in my face like no, no, no. So the coach of my coach comes to me and say, what do you want to do once your maternity leave is over and it's over and you're back to work? You know what? I want to work with moms. So they went to his office, to their office and came back with your details. And it's this flyer of you holding Marley
Jen (16:42.702)
Marley, Marley, you turn 16 next week. Can you believe that? It's crazy. 16.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (16:43.79)
my god,
Well, that very night I went back home and sent you an email explaining everything like blah blah blah, I'm overdue, this is what I want to do and you replied to me almost straight away saying enjoy your baby, take your time and whenever you're ready get back to me and we'll go from there. That took me two years. Was never depression in between and raising a baby with no support, with no family and all of that in between.
Right? So I went back to you and I did the Safe Return to Exercise. It was a small group. It was a close group, actually, that you did for some fitness first personal trainers. And I jumped on that one. And then we went for lunch, just you and me. And you said, what do you want? What do you want out of this? And I went around my business and then Max, she was pregnant and she needed someone to cover for her maternity leave.
So I did that and after that I started a one -on -one with you. We did the research and Northride seems to be back then like a good place to run our groups. It wasn't, I tried, but it didn't work. And then one day you were in Thailand, I think it was, and you sent me a screenshot with the Google Maps from my place to my location and another one from my place to your location.
Jen (18:13.919)
Hahaha!
Meli Comachi Cordoba (18:18.614)
down St. Inier Park and you were like, I've been thinking about it, but I want to do your thing, but whatever, whatever. And I took over St. Inier Park and then I did. And then COVID hit. And then I got pregnant again and we moved to where we are now, an upper North shore in Hornsby. I took a long maternity leave, long maternity leave and I opened
Jen (18:29.165)
You did?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (18:47.182)
my home sweet location 18 months ago. It's been so good because yes, I started a business from another business from scratch again, but I have all the foundation. Yes, exactly. Everything is so solid that I'm not gonna I'm not gonna lie. I'm not gonna say oh, it was it was like a breeze. No, it was there was lots of work behind, but it didn't have that stress of not knowing what to do.
Jen (18:57.954)
You started from experience, not from scratch, right?
Jen (19:16.674)
Yeah, the confidence was there, right? And also you had that self belief that you knew what you were doing. Yeah, it's like, yeah. And a lot of I think a lot of newer trainers, if there's newer trainers listening to this, they not only are trying to figure out the business side of what to do, but they're also trying to figure out if they even think they're good enough to do what they're doing. And what should I charge? And I've not been doing this for long. But when you go in a second time and your story is kind of similar to story going from Sydney to,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (19:23.273)
Yes.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (19:45.164)
Ride.
Jen (19:46.168)
the Sunshine Coast and starting again, it's like, yeah, and you can do all the things that you maybe didn't do the first time or you do all the things more efficiently and you go out there and you own it. It's like, this is who I am. These are the relationships I need to build. This is what I'm gonna charge because this is what I'm worth. And there's a energy that comes with that that's attractive to people that wanna work with you rather than that like, I'm just charging this much because, and yeah, know, sign up when you want to.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (20:15.106)
Yeah, no. Yeah, no. Yeah, but also I reckon, I don't know, lots come from that. And at least for me, part comes from aging. I don't know if that's a word to use, but being more wise.
Jen (20:17.134)
No.
Jen (20:37.89)
Getting older? Getting older, getting more, more experience. think, yeah, let's just roll the experience. The aging is a gift, right? Anyway, whatever we look at it.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (20:45.004)
Yeah, I'm not saying it in a negative way, yeah, aging definitely, yes. yes, yes. I'm super comfortable saying no to people. I'm comfortable saying, not saying, but if I don't think someone is a good fit for my community, I'm happy for them not to stay with us, if that makes sense.
Jen (20:51.539)
You give less fucks, don't you, about what you're doing? Yeah.
Jen (21:12.91)
Absolutely. I agree. 100 % agree with that. Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (21:14.828)
Yeah, I love what I do. And I just took one week off and it was the first time taking the week off only checking emails once a day because I still did. But only once a day and not doing anything else. And I miss it. It was fun. I know I'm going to taking proper breaks like the one I just took.
Jen (21:34.382)
You missed it.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (21:44.578)
but I love it. I miss my women.
Jen (21:49.743)
Yeah, it's interesting though, isn't it? It's like you miss them, but it soon gets old when you run your business 52 weeks of a year or for 50 weeks of a year and you give yourself two weeks off over Christmas. And it's like, you need those mini breaks, especially as the kids get older and at school holidays and all those things like you don't want to miss those memories. One of the things that I really admired about what you did after having your second baby was to take it slowly.
and to go, this is what I'm willing to do and this is what I have the capacity to do and I'm gonna do it really well. And then when I'm ready to take on something new, then I'll do that. And I saw you do that, like, you know, kind of hold yourself back, do the thing that you will, and then kind of build on that, which has been really cool. And I think there's a lot of lessons in that from people that even if they want to go really fast, do the thing, do it well.
and then add the next thing and then add the next thing instead of trying to add all the things and doing none of them very well at
Meli Comachi Cordoba (22:47.49)
Yeah, yeah, I did exactly that. And at one point I had like a discussion with myself, let's call it. You know when you know what you want to do is that want to do this, I want to do this, want to do but it also how fun would it be to do this as well? But if I wouldn't have taken the time, proper time to bring the second baby home, because I don't
for you, but for me, going from one to two was like a break in the face. And I didn't expect that to happen.
Jen (23:25.09)
I think though you had a, so I don't think I ever got, well actually, no, cause Indy was really hard and Marley kind of wasn't. And sometimes anyway, I shouldn't say it out loud. I wonder what it would have been like if there was just one. I love it to death. She always says, she always says, mom, I wish I had a baby, another baby brother or sister. I was like, no, you destroyed that for any future children. And I love you very much. And I wouldn't change anything about you.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (23:35.49)
you
Meli Comachi Cordoba (23:40.194)
Yeah,
Jen (23:50.6)
But this is just the circumstance we find ourselves in. And I've said that to her, so she's fine. And maybe some people will be like, what the fuck, you said that to your child? Yes, I did, sorry. But you have a much bigger age gap as well. So I think, yeah, I just stayed in it, I guess. It was like, I've got one, let's have a second one, and then I'll come out the other end. But yeah, yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (24:02.026)
yeah, we have six years. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (24:13.794)
Yeah, but I did, I took the time and I'm glad I did because I enjoyed Lucia much, more because my head space was different.
Jen (24:24.429)
I think that's also there's an also a age and experience things around around having babies later. Like I look at like I had Marley when I was 27, Indy when I was 29. And then my sister's had her children, she's kind of done it the opposite and had her babies in her late 30s. And I kind of go there's a level of and also my best friend had older children, then she's had two younger ones. And I just think you allow yourself when you're older to slow down
And I look back and you know, I did what I did and there's all these things, but I never took proper time off. I was always trying to build my business whilst juggling my children. And there's part of me that's like, I didn't ever spend that time just on the kids. And I can't change that. And I don't, I'm not saddened by it, but I just go, that's an interesting observation of we didn't have that, that time.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (25:11.595)
No,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (25:17.912)
Yeah. I had the gut big enough to do it differently the second time. Yeah. Yeah. I'm glad I did.
Jen (25:24.406)
Yeah, I think so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's cool. It's cool. It is cool.
Mellie, you evolved your business. So when you first started it, was Phoenix for Mums. And then over the last couple of years, you've evolved it to Phoenix for Women. Tell me about
Meli Comachi Cordoba (25:44.046)
Exactly. Well, I guess as I evolve, my business does it with me as well. And I'm 40, I'm turning 43 and I'm not the same one.
I like when I when I started seven eight years ago like my own my own my own training has changed the way the way every cover has changed and I know things I didn't know seven years ago eight years ago and so like so do my members with moms now having the little ones at 40 then
post -natal, the early post -natal period sometimes overlaps or so with perimenopause and there's a change in the people that come to me. still have the very young moms dealing with all that and not at all with perimenopause or post -menopause at all, but I find that more women my age are coming my way now.
And it was only natural to go from moms to women, because also I have members that are not mothers.
and they're welcome to come and I want them to feel welcome and I want them to feel safe and that they can yeah that they can fit perfectly and they don't need to be a mum. I still have the qualifications and I upskill regularly in the mum space when it comes to exercise and all of that so it's not that I'm less of a trainer because
Meli Comachi Cordoba (27:45.422)
I went from moms to women. I feel I'm opening the space to those that don't feel they would fit in with the other name and also for myself because I'm a mom, yes, but I'm also a woman. Or I'm a woman first and then I'm a mother. I don't know. Like, I don't know what's the order for that. I'm a human first.
Jen (28:12.578)
And then I identify as a woman. And I am a mother. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's funny because I still, I guess, you know, my message to trainers would be find your niche drill down. And it's but I also when I'm listening to you or listening to anybody in a I guess a mentoring space or anything like that, it's like what feels right for you, because it actually doesn't matter what any business book says or any any
Meli Comachi Cordoba (28:14.604)
And then yes, and then I did do another. So
Jen (28:41.56)
person says to you, it's like what is in alignment with you right now? And there's two sides to it. So what I can imagine is, is people listening to you that have gone, I'm just going to specialize in moms. And then they're listening to you speaking and you're saying, I've opened it to women because I want women to feel welcome. And it's like, yeah. So then they're questioning and going, well, maybe I should do it for women too, because I want women to come. And what I would say to that person is,
If you want to specialize in moms, don't let scarcity allow you not to just really drill down into that. And if you want to change it at some point, you can. And women will still come, like we had, you know, non -moms. And then for you though, it's like I've been in that space and the evolution of my business is to cater for women. But I think, and I think that you've done it in this way. It's not necessarily, I think it's more the preconception though of
the market might perceive as a mum. And this is an education we do all the time. It's like a mum, once they've had a baby to the day they're no longer with us, they're a mum. But for some reason in the fitness industry, we think about mums as being this very short period of time. And when you say women, people with older children as well, even if they're, know, annual women that don't have children, then count themselves into that because for some reason they've counted themselves out. If you don't say,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (29:51.968)
Exactly.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (30:03.757)
Exactly.
Jen (30:06.336)
women, moms of all ages and stages or women or something. And it's, yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? But there is no right or wrong, I think is the biggest thing I'm trying to get across.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (30:13.614)
No, and that being said, 85 % of my members are mothers.
Jen (30:20.013)
Yeah. Yeah. So you could still say moms and welcome those women in, but it's what feels right for you. And that is the hundred percent most important thing. Mellie, you touched on there about how your trainings changed as you've, whether it's moved through motherhood or you've gotten older, what are the key things that have changed for you and what are the key things that you're seeing change for your women that are like say over 35, 40, 45?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (30:29.71)
Absolutely.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (30:49.63)
Yeah. I realized that I don't recover as quickly as I used to. And this was before, this was when we were trying for Lucia, my youngest, she's almost three. So I would be 37. And I'm not a runner, but I go for runs every now and then. Maybe I'm a runner. Maybe that makes me a runner.
Jen (31:13.71)
I always question that. You can run, you are a runner.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (31:19.943)
yeah and I didn't sweat before like I would go for 5k and I was fine and one day I found myself like out of breath sweaty and I was like this is this is different
Jen (31:40.224)
I'm like, what are those dripping with sweat, bright red face, like, for my whole life.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (31:43.086)
This is different. You know the cheeks like strawberries? My whole face goes now like that. I didn't realize. I wasn't in the trying to conceive space. I was like... And then it hit me. What if I'm running out of eggs and we're doing all this effort?
Jen (31:50.88)
My whole face goes like a strawberry. That's yeah, good.
Jen (32:11.834)
my God.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (32:12.426)
effort, by the way, we're going through all of this and it's not gonna happen. So I went to the doctor and this is a different conversation but not many doctors are educated when it comes to the perimenopause and perimenopause phase and so we run a blood test which we know now it says nothing but it came back with something like
You're not premenopausal at all, like the... and we are not even gonna do like a second reading of the hormone next month because again, we know now that it's pointless, but hey. So I, we kept trying until I got pregnant. But my recovery wasn't, wasn't as quick. I used to go for run and just after that, back to normal and I was fine. I would go for resistance strength training
I was fine. Maybe with a little bit of doms, but okay, you know, but and everything changed and I didn't know why. And I now know I was entering the great menopausal stage. My mom was menopausal young. Yeah. And after doing Nadia's No Romance course, she opens almost
Jen (33:29.533)
okay.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (33:38.868)
One of the first things she said was like if you want to know at what age you're gonna get a postmenopausal ask your mom if she's around and my mom was young and I went okay, so that makes sense and I was still when I did Nadia's course I had a miscarriage and I was trying again for Lucia and I was I was right there and they thought of what if what if it's too late, you
But that was basically it. My recovery wasn't the same. I didn't... The body composition changes, I see now. My midsection has changed. That didn't happen before having Lucia. And I thought after having her, was the early postpartum stage. She's almost three years and my body's not the
And it went almost back to the same after having Sophia, but I was six years younger. And also genetics, and there's more than one component to this, right? But yeah, recovery, recovering more than anything else was for me.
Jen (34:52.081)
And do you see the same thing in your clients? Like,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (34:54.114)
Yes? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, yeah. But also, I get a big wave of women that, thanks to social media, they know now they need to strength train. They are babies when it comes to exercise. They never exercised before. Or they used to run and do cardio and just that. And now we
Jen (35:10.734)
Mmm.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (35:24.072)
all these doctors and I'm glad they're there telling us you need to things. You need to you need to do that specific effort in order to build lean muscle mass, increase or slow down the decrease of your bone density. That's and that's and I'm glad they're listening to that and I'm saying listening because most of
Jen (35:47.468)
density.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (35:53.89)
things come in like this sort of, what would the name, format. It's either a reel on Instagram or a podcast or an audio book, whatever that might be. I'm glad it's out there and I'm glad that they're listening and they are smart enough to understand that we need to change the way they train.
Jen (36:15.438)
Yeah, so if someone either a mum or a woman themselves is listening or a trainer that's working, maybe they're a younger trainer and they're working with women that are, you know, upwards of 35, what are the key things that you would be educating? So let's say you were putting that reel together and you were so we've covered bone density, we've covered, we've covered increasing muscle mass, is there anything else that they should really be focusing on obviously recovery in that? Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (36:44.192)
yeah i was gonna say recovery and protein intake protein intake yeah but recovery like you don't need to go hot or go home for every single session you do you can allow yourself to recover you can go for walks please go for walks
Jen (37:07.392)
Yeah, it's funny. I was never a walk. I fucking hated walking. Like I still like I was always like that. Why would I walk like I'm going to park as close to the shops? But what I also realize is I was living a very active life like as a personal trainer. It's like I was on my feet from the second that I got up and I needed to save that time. And now I'm like, well, I need to walk my dog in the morning and the evening because I'm not doing the same physically demanding work anymore. And anyway,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (37:10.412)
Yeah, I know.
Jen (37:33.313)
So, Mellie, what I heard you say before was something that I know gets your back up a little bit, but you use the words go hard or go home. And I think so, you know, social media is great on one hand because we've got this access to more information. If people are very considered about where they're getting their information from, they're probably getting really good quality information, but we can't
Meli Comachi Cordoba (37:42.861)
Yes.
Jen (38:02.466)
but have social media forced into our environments that we don't align with. And, you know, we've had discussions about this of late of different posts that have been posts and things like that and the messaging that's coming across. you know, we've got this very positive side to social media. What would you say? It's a battle, isn't it, for women, because we've got all the positive stuff and all the stuff that we're glad that we're being exposed to. And then we've still got all this bullshit stuff that
Meli Comachi Cordoba (38:31.234)
There's lots of it. There's still lots of it on there.
Jen (38:31.914)
is imposed on women. Yeah. Tell me about the go hard or go home on the flip side. Yes. Yes, please.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (38:38.818)
Yeah, can I tell you a little story about the Johar of the Home? I was in a call a few months ago and we have the Sydney Running Festival coming up in September, right? And there was someone offering a free marathon, so the full length training for gym owners or business owners like myself to offer to our members for them to
Jen (39:09.4)
So they were, so this was a coach or a trainer offering something to other coaches and trainers that they could then offer to their clients. Yeah, cool, got
Meli Comachi Cordoba (39:15.674)
Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And he kept talking about the marathon, like the full distance. And I asked him like if also other distances would be covered, like the 10Ks or the half marathon. And he goes, and he had this, if I may, big, big energy. I'm sorry.
Jen (39:45.326)
Cool it?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (39:45.998)
He goes like, what would you do half thing when you can do the full thing? Yeah, mate, but that doesn't work for everybody. And you're leaving out a huge amount of people and you're doing a big disservice to your community by not looking after them. And that gave me straight away that maybe it's just me.
But I don't think he has the qualifications to train those that have gone through a pregnancy, a labor, and delivery, and the healing space and beyond. Why would you say that? And I went in a space like, and I went like, yeah, because I work with moms and some like just it's not doable for them doing the full length. It's just not doable.
He said another bullshit again and I went like you know what you can't help me that's fine cool
Jen (40:51.17)
think there's two sides to it, right? And if he had approached the call of, is a high level program for your clients that are ready to run a marathon, then it's very different, very different conversation.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (40:59.854)
Yeah, but he also said everybody can run in the
Jen (41:07.662)
I've, you know, everyone could run a marathon, but they probably need to learn to run 10 Ks and 21 Ks and also take into consideration everyone's individual circumstance along the way, rather than just mass programming for everyone and saying, just suck it up and get
Meli Comachi Cordoba (41:15.374)
Yeah, exactly. But he's also one of the people that says things like, we all have the same 24 hours in a day. We don't!
Jen (41:25.41)
Fuck.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (41:30.21)
We don't! We don't!
Jen (41:32.494)
We have 24 hours in a day. They are not equally distributed.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (41:34.562)
Yeah. No, they're not. Not if you're a mother, not if you have little people, not if you have a cool drop -off and pick -up and activities and all of the things. So that mentality of just do the full thing or do nothing, what's the message we're sending to those women when we say this? You know what? Stay home. Just don't move. Don't get stronger for you.
Jen (41:52.24)
Mmm.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (42:04.246)
Don't do it for your kids, do it for you. That's my thing. If you're gonna get stronger, if you're gonna get fitter, if you want to get faster, do it for you.
Jen (42:12.182)
Yeah, so he's saying if you if you don't measure up with the standard that we are setting for you externally, then don't don't bother showing up. Yep.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (42:16.882)
you're not working, do nothing, yeah. And that gave me like, it was, I don't know, it was, I was burning. But he couldn't help me because he's not my people.
Jen (42:31.178)
Yeah, so what is the approach like if let's say you did have someone that was wanting to start to return to running, like what what kind of would have been a better approach? And what would you
Meli Comachi Cordoba (42:44.248)
Forget formal events, because those are fun, but you can get to those later on.
Jen (42:52.896)
or let's register for the let's go do a park run a 5k park run or let's make that the first goal.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (42:55.854)
Let's go for 5K, exactly. I was gonna say go from 0 to 5Ks. Be in slowly. See how your pelvic floor is coping. I don't know. See if you can breathe. Let's do single leg exercises. Let's go little by little, you know? What's the rush?
Jen (43:15.672)
This is the thing though, isn't it? And I think a lot of people, so I see why women may buy into that. Let's do the 42Ks, there's no excuses because especially when we think about the pressure that we put on our former selves and it was like, I've got posts that pop up sometimes and it is like go hard or go home and you can do anything you put your mind to. And it's like, yeah, I can do anything until my kid comes in and tells me something like, and I know I can do anything I can put my mind to, but
Meli Comachi Cordoba (43:38.568)
I'm back there,
Jen (43:43.778)
I don't necessarily have the luxury to put that energy into my day because of the season of life that I'm in at the moment. And you're constantly choosing, aren't you? And we really want to find a space where, especially moms, women, can exercise, not show up, feel like they're not meeting standards, like get rid of the standards because there's no standard aside from.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (43:51.713)
Exactly.
Jen (44:11.094)
showing up and doing your best on any given day and that's going to go up and down anyway.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (44:18.496)
It doesn't... Yeah, just the idea
Meli Comachi Cordoba (44:25.012)
go hard or go home. doesn't have a space for
Because we deal with women that maybe they didn't sleep the night before.
Jen (44:36.802)
So how could someone do better if they're a trainer in a class? Like if they're training and they're training a group of moms, rather than taking that go hard or go home approach, what are some tools that they could implement in their class environment to meet a mom where they are on any given day and help her to work to what is her best capacity on that day?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (44:57.014)
Before anything, it doesn't really matter what the woman next to you is doing because they might have... Maybe they are at a different stage of life, you know? Maybe they don't have a sick kid this week. So they can do more. Yeah, they can do more than you today. whenever... Absolutely. Yeah, exactly. That's what I tell them to do.
Jen (45:18.924)
So put your blinkers on and yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (45:24.43)
and you can put your blinkers on and you can still have a conversation with the woman that is next to you and talk about things, talk about life without thinking, oh, she's lifting heavier than me or she's going faster than me. And I've 10 burpees and she's, she's done 13. I don't know. I'm making this up, but who cares? Like, and whenever someone comes to me, it's like, it doesn't matter what they're doing. Cause if it's the first session for them, I never met them before.
I don't know where they capable of. Maybe they didn't even go to the women's issue yet. So I don't know the state of anything. So I'm not gonna push them because we don't go by go hard or go home. Like you may walk away today feeling that you haven't done much or you could have done more. But we are new to each other. And you're gonna see me pushing others a little bit more because I know them. And because at the beginning of the session I asked them, what are you today?
And if they said they were agreeing, because we work with the traffic light system, just like you used to do. If they said they were agreeing, I know I can push them a little bit. But if they said to me they are red, because mentally speaking, they're not feeling it today, it doesn't have to be physical, or they are a number, you're recovering from an injury, or they're dealing with things at the moment, I'm not going to go and push them because I'm not going to help them. The only thing I'm going to do is help them to feel
shitty about themselves and we don't do
I have no, that's not what I'm building. That's not what I'm fostering. So no.
Jen (47:05.112)
think a lot of it is giving women permission to do what's right for them because there has also been this preconception in the fitness industry that we've got a dog now because we've got a garbage truck outside everybody so the dog is gonna bark at the garbage truck for a minute or so. Rosie, thank you. Good girl.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (47:16.395)
Yeah, Rosie.
Jen (47:28.41)
Yeah, we have been preconditioned in the fitness industry to go hard. And that's what we thought for a long time, we had to be lean, it had to be hard, and there was only one way to do things. And it's still relatively early days that we're educating the industry that fitness doesn't look one way or health doesn't look one way is a better word than fitness. And you do not have to move in the same way as the next person is or the same way that you did 10 years ago. And all of the things are okay.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (47:54.702)
No!
Meli Comachi Cordoba (47:57.959)
Not two bodies are the same. And we can have two women right next to each other, three months postpartum, with two completely different circumstances. I'm not gonna do
Jen (48:11.982)
I love that. I love, I love, love it. You can tell the difference between a, like, let's say you've got two mums and bums groups and you had one with a trainer that didn't necessarily know the things and one with the trainer that did know the things. And you can have your turn in a sec. The one with the trainer that does know the things, it's like, are they even doing the same session? Like they might be moving around, but there's like maybe 10 women
Meli Comachi Cordoba (48:37.976)
Yes!
Jen (48:42.346)
seven different varieties going on. And then the other one, they're all picking up the same way. They're all doing the same exercise. They're all moving around and it looks the same. So it's like, as an observer, it's like, you know your shit and we can help you do better.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (48:56.64)
exactly what I was gonna say. If you see a group of women doing all the same thing, run. Don't run into each other. Walk into different directions. Yes, that's not the thing you should be doing. If you look at a group of women, not even mums with butts, women in general doing all the same exercise at the same pace, lifting the same weight.
Jen (49:04.544)
Run, but don't run if you're not supposed to be running.
Jen (49:11.798)
Mm. Yeah.
Jen (49:18.7)
The other... Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (49:26.998)
No!
Jen (49:29.022)
The other thing that I like is only having one, not like, but I observe is only having one alternative exercise. And it's like, if we think to pre and postnatal and we think, you know, the five key contraindications, so we've got pelvic floor, abdominal wall, pelvic pain, wrist pain, knee pain. Obviously there's other stuff that comes in as well, but they're the main five. But the only alternative exercise is reduce the weight or do this, I don't know, some other exercise. And it's like, yeah, but if your exercise
Meli Comachi Cordoba (49:43.65)
Yeah.
Jen (49:57.334)
is a lunge and she's got sciatic pain so she can't do a lunge but the alternate exercise is a hip raise, is a hip bridge, well that's not good for sciatic pain either so are you changing the exercise for the individual country indication or are you just mass prescribing alternative exercises because why? Like that's the other I
warning sign for me, it's like, well, if it's not this, it's this, but no, it should be if it's not that, who are you? Who is your body? What can you do? And also what I hate is when people just give the people that can't do it a fucking shit exercise, like something that doesn't work them doesn't push them because it's not about going well, you can't do this exercise. So I'll just give you a filler exercise. It should be, can't do this exercise exactly. So where is your sweet spot instead? How can I still push you to where?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (50:40.908)
Right, no, no, no, no, no, that's a cute one.
Jen (50:49.452)
you're working to your maximum capacity with progressive overload, but we're not tipping you off the other side.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (50:56.524)
Yes, all the yeses. I think I have the moment three or four pregnant women. They're not in the same class, but I also have moms dealing with prolapse and moms dealing with overactive pelvic floor or abdominal separation or sciatic pain. And whenever I call the exercise,
and I do the demo, it's like, but you're not doing this, but you're not doing this, but you're not doing this. And instead you're going to be doing this, but you're not going to be doing that. You're going to do something else and you're going be doing... They all get it now?
Jen (51:31.404)
Why do you think trainers don't do that? Do you think it's because they don't know or it's too hard?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (51:36.832)
I want to believe they don't know because they don't do it because they don't know. Because if you do know and don't do it because it's too hard, you should be doing something else.
Jen (51:50.958)
So this is why MUMsafe exists, right? And I'm gonna give MUMsafe a plug right here because we have to. Because you can do a pre and postnatal course and not take any of that learning with you and still hold that pre and postnatal course and say you're certified, but not fucking implement a thing. And MUMsafe trainers, they're implementing, they're partnered with Pelvic Health Physios, they're continuing their education. And that is why we have to have a difference between holding one pre and postnatal course.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (52:02.564)
Absolutely, yes.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (52:16.545)
Which is right.
Jen (52:16.588)
and having the thing that says, absolutely, it's great. Having the thing that says, I'm holding the certificate, I'm implementing my learnings, I'm dedicated and committed to that, and I'm continuing my learnings on top of
Meli Comachi Cordoba (52:28.982)
Exactly. Yes. No, yeah, definitely. If they don't do it because they're being lazy, they shouldn't do it at all. They should do something else. And if you are... No, because if they don't do it because they don't know... Yes, please.
Jen (52:40.14)
You mentioned something the other day. I'll go on. Carry
Jen (52:46.466)
Yeah, I get that's fine. Totally okay. Well, okay, but you need to find out what you don't know if you're to work with this demographic.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (52:54.83)
It's 2024.
Jen (52:57.966)
Yeah, but it's 2024 and I was thinking about this the other day. It's really fucking depressing that Marley's turning 16 and I launched my business when he was three months old and we're having this same fucking conversations. It's fucked.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (53:07.656)
We have seen, I know, we have seen in the same conversation. Yeah, I know. Yeah, it's true. It really is.
Jen (53:13.644)
And that is because the fundamental change, and I'm going to say it, men who are sitting in those positions in the designing the cert threes and cert fours and the big box gyms are not saying we have to do this different. The people at the top of Medicare are not saying we have to send women to pelvic health physios, our health funds are not sending letters out. It's too hard,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (53:37.548)
Yeah, those are people not caring basically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's yeah, it's it's it's more men than anything else. No, no, no, no, no, it's not that. No, no, because we also it's definitely not just because we also have those female personal trainers that after having a baby, they go and run mums and bums groups without getting qualified because
Jen (53:48.258)
I don't want to say it's just men, but it is, it's still men sitting at the top in the majority of those positions.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (54:07.18)
They are personal trainers. they've been qualified in the exercise fitness space, but they haven't done their pre and postnatal certification. because they went back and trained and then maybe they were super lucky and they didn't experience any of the contraindications, they think, I can train other moms.
Jen (54:28.842)
A qualification is simply becoming a mother.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (54:30.99)
Exactly. It's not because again and I feel they repeat myself over and over but not two bodies are the same Not even the same body is the same after each pregnancy You know So don't do it and I keep like it's 2024 like it's it's everywhere You know, you should get qualified if you train months and you don't even need to run mumps and bumps sessions to get qualified for training mumps
you could run extra you could work at a big box stream that I use I did this I work at a fitness studio and they were doing sort of crossfit things right so and the owner he wasn't qualified and when I started working there I went like this is what I do this is how I do it and this is the education I have around this like you could go and do
and there goes my leg again. going to and I'm safe returning to exercise, there are other courses out there as well but I haven't done like three or four it's by far the best one. Just go into that and you know what he said no I think I'm fine and I used to run the sessions where most moms would come.
Jen (55:33.23)
Just leave it, it's fine. Carry
Meli Comachi Cordoba (55:58.798)
knowing that some some moms would do the 6 a .m. the 6 p .m. session I used to run the mid -morning one like the less busy ones for James that they open for moms only because moms are available to run at that time of the day
Jen (56:11.118)
for moms, they market to moms.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (56:18.08)
It's such a huge day service.
Jen (56:20.91)
It is and it's even the statistics I've said them on the podcast before but if anyone's not heard them it's 42 .7 % of the potential clientele walking into a gym or fitness facility that is working with both males and females are likely to be mothers not just it's over 50 % are women and 42 .7 % are moms alone. So there's, there's a, I feel like there's an ethical shift that needs to happen. And it's not until you know, you're,
fitness first and your F45s and your CrossFit gyms and your, you know, good lives and all of those big box places start to go. No, we're gonna put policies and procedures in place for the mums walking into the doors of our gym. And it's in my brain, it's so fucking easy how to fix this. It's like I've written it down in my phone a lot of times, like you just gotta do this, this, this and this and you can say that you're doing the right thing by mums. I think there's four or five things I came up with. It's so fucking easy if they just.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (56:52.492)
All of that. All of that.
Jen (57:19.566)
could be bothered.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (57:20.618)
Yeah, exactly. That's the thing. They don't care. And I don't know. It's so fucked up, really.
Jen (57:27.806)
Let's talk about language, Mellie. So there was a post, there was a post and one of our beautiful other Mumsafe trainers, you know, whenever we put anything into the group, it's always done from a space of trying to raise the industry to a higher standard. And this particular post was brought to our attention because the trainer was like, I want
Meli Comachi Cordoba (57:47.726)
absolutely.
Jen (57:54.092)
do something about this or I want to bring this to attention. I don't know whether I should email the person directly. I don't know whether I should call them out directly. I don't know how to handle it. And I know my approach is always to post like, so some of the posts you'll see on my Instagram or whatever is I've seen someone say something and I believe the complete opposite or I want to call them out. So I'll call them out. Usually it's not to the exact person. Sometimes I have done it. But in general, it's
you know, someone says, no, you can exercise lying on your back. It's all a myth. It's like, well, actually, it's not. Did you read the research? Maybe you should go read it. Why would you? Yeah. But think, you know, things like that. So talk to me about language for
Meli Comachi Cordoba (58:29.356)
What, pregnant? You mean?
Meli Comachi Cordoba (58:38.266)
Women in general, we look out more than looking. And this is what's thanks to social media, I guess. We have all these images right in front of our eyes, the way how we should look. I'm glad it's changing though. But for you to see that it's changing, you need to follow the right people.
Jen (59:05.186)
You have to be in the right bubble.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (59:06.506)
Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because if you're not, you still, I guess, you get, you should look like this after having a baby or you should do this after having a baby at like, at a week, at two weeks, whatever that is. And women at that stage in particular, I'm not saying that the rest of the stages, but at that stage in particular, we are so vulnerable. If someone comes, if you're not...
Educated at all and someone comes and tell you you should use I don't know a waist trainer You know They would do it and what's that gonna do for them? It's gonna fucked up their pelvic floors Right for a tiny ways. I'm not gonna get anyway, and then we get all this all this Just you know when you see I don't know must be getting for that, but you know it's just the bum It's just a tile
with letters, no image, nothing else, a few words saying get your pre -baby body back in six weeks. Fuck that, it's not gonna happen at what cost.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:00:21.322)
I don't know, it's wrong or like the bursio abdominals, I can't remember what it was.
Jen (01:00:26.762)
It was, yeah, it
Do you feel like your abdominals are bursting out or they've been ripped apart or something like that? And it's just this scared language, isn't it? It's the language that scares women. And then it's the other language that offers these standards that are not okay.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:00:53.066)
If I read that, that tells me you know shit about
Jen (01:00:58.626)
tells me that they ran it through ChatGPT and they gave them that answer. ChatGPT needs a fucking education.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:01:03.639)
shut
Like, really?
Jen (01:01:10.104)
But to not police that and not go, is this the language? So if you've got a brand that is aimed at moms, well, I like to think if you've got a brand that's aimed at moms, you're not using that language anyway. If you're a fitness facility that has seen an opportunity to work with moms and you're choosing to use that language because you think a little bit of shock factor and a little bit of scaring will bring those women in, maybe it will, but you've done a really shit job
speaking to or looking after the whole woman rather than just playing on her insecurities.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:01:45.998)
Just picture a woman at 12 weeks postpartum with a large abdominal separation and I'm saying large as in wide, which we know is not the most important measure we need to take, right? But she knows she has a four finger separation and that's all she knows because she doesn't care about how deep it is because she doesn't know. But she saw something online and she measured herself.
and she has four fingers and then she goes online and sees this post. What is she going to think?
Jen (01:02:23.022)
Well, she's going to think she's broken,
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:02:24.406)
Exactly. Yeah, and then she's gonna try to fix herself going to these places where people that are not qualified are running the sessions And you know what happens next? They come to us, which is great for business is great But before coming to us They had to go through a whole like a shit time. They shouldn't have gone through
if the trainer running whatever that was, was qualified. You know, there's no need for this. Just do the freaking course, educate yourself and do better. It's not that hard really. It's not, it's not. I love what we do. It's not rocket science. It's pretty simple.
Jen (01:03:17.068)
Yeah, I can see you're getting emotional, which tells me how much, yeah, you care.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:03:20.33)
it's it's not i've seen it time and time again women wanting to go far fast high like and i hold them back and they don't like it and that's okay because i'm not gonna i can't make you train with me if you don't want to that's fine but i'm not gonna train you in the way you want to just to bring to bring business to my business
because I'm gonna be making you huge disservice and harm. I'm more than happy for them to go somewhere else knowing that they're gonna come
Jen (01:04:00.844)
Yeah, and the hope there is that they come back because the flip side to that is they stop moving. And we know now all the research is like, we don't we need our population to be moving. Mellie, if if you could change something about the industry in your time in the industry and leave, leave your legacy, what would that
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:04:10.966)
Yeah. Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:04:16.265)
But
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:04:27.282)
You know what I will love? For
The people doing running the three and four, three and four, yeah, I three and four in fitness, they would include training moms. Because I remember there was only one unit or what, not even one unit. I think it was, I did it eight years ago anyway, yeah. And I think it was the whole unit was something like special population.
Jen (01:04:36.44)
Hmm, set threes and
Jen (01:04:49.176)
There's like three pages the last time I looked at it. Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:05:02.08)
And there you had children, moms, as in general, and seniors.
Jen (01:05:13.186)
Yeah, I'm just trying to pull up some statistics. And I want to just I want to share these because you've just tapped on it like because we do have this special population part of of what what we learn. But the really interesting thing is so that like the quantity of and I always come back to like there's the emotional side of it and we both get emotional and it really neither of us would have been doing this for as long with the frustration in there if we actually didn't really give a shit.
when in 2021, these are the numbers. So the specialized education inside your cert 3s and 4s for if you wanna train 15 to 17 year olds. And there's also special education for people wanting to train older adults. So 55 plus. So in 2021, there was 283 .2 thousand 15 to 17 year olds using our gyms and fitness facilities.
and there was 2 .2 million older adults, so over the age of 55. But, and we'll go back to the statistic that we said before, the 42 .7 % is 3 .34 million mothers that are not getting, there's no education or no awareness. And then if you think back to the older adults over 55, technically 42 .7 % of that 2 .2 million are over 55 and moms.
I just, still just don't understand.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:06:44.872)
yeah it's hard to get because we are not like that and it feels like it's easy to fix because it's a no -brainer every trainer should know all these things unless you specialize in training guys
Jen (01:07:00.034)
or at least be moved from.
Jen (01:07:05.378)
Well, it's not even that, it? This is where what we've covered in our certificates. This is where your education ends. These are the extra places that you need to know more about. This is what you're qualified to do now. If you're choosing to come out of this certificate and never train a mom, cool, don't worry about it. If you're choosing to come out of this certificate and never train this demographic, but
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:07:15.64)
Mm -hmm.
Jen (01:07:25.23)
The thing about mums, and I know that the women conversation is as well, but the thing about mums is if you just want to train general population, you are training mums because that falls into our general population.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:07:36.64)
Exactly. I don't think moms are a specific demographic. it's... Yeah. That's a big number. Exactly. Being such a big number. Yeah.
Jen (01:07:43.04)
It depends on if you look at the definition of special population in an education space, they are, but I understand they're a mass special population. Yeah.
Jen (01:07:55.672)
But you know the, okay, so the other side of this is if we base our education on the mass population using our gyms and fitness facilities, then men should be the special population.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:08:06.05)
Yeah.
Yeah, I
Jen (01:08:11.81)
That's it. That's all we got to say. So your legacy piece, Mellie would be to have some education on training mums inside of cert three and
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:08:13.656)
Yeah.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:08:22.574)
That would be amazing. I don't know if it's my space. Because I work, for now, I work locally, very locally. But I would love for that to happen.
Yeah, just do the right thing. Because again, it's 2024. I think we all know better. Just do the right thing.
Jen (01:08:44.984)
Just do the right thing. I think that's a good spot to wrap us up, because otherwise we will go for another couple of hours. Mellie, I want to say a massive thank you for taking time out of your day to join me. I think back to our journey and it's been like, I think aside from Mags, you're like the longest standing person who's been in this space in my world. And I love to call you a friend, not only
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:08:51.157)
We can go.
Jen (01:09:13.838)
colleague and a work person but a friend like we've been backwards and forwards in about our slow cooker adventures lately. It's like have you tried this one? Oh my god, why did I not know this beforehand? You can buy a slow cooker for $45. But the the like you coming into my world when you did gave me a whole lot of confidence in what I did because you allowed me to teach you and share what I'd learned with you and then you so beautifully went and implemented that and then you know to pass
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:09:19.681)
Thank you.
Jen (01:09:42.924)
Centennial Pirate Baby onto you is such an honor. And then to watch you have another baby and continue to grow and step into the version of your business that is right for you and give back to the Mumsafe team and give back to me is, yeah, I can't thank you enough for all of
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:10:00.654)
thanks. I look back and everything happened at the right time. It was a pain having to leave Centennial Park at some level, but it was the right thing for me to do. Driving from here down Centennial Park four times a week, it wasn't doable. Not with a huge belly or with a little human.
Jen (01:10:20.631)
yeah, no.
Jen (01:10:24.206)
too
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:10:29.624)
So it was definitely the right thing to do. And in the middle we had COVID and it was such a huge learning. Like I look back and it's a beautiful circle. It's just perfect. So yeah, thanks.
Jen (01:10:45.742)
Thank you. All right, sweet, enjoy the rest of your day and I'm sure we'll chat again soon. Take care.
Meli Comachi Cordoba (01:10:51.902)
Absolutely, we will. send you a recipe and you send me another one. Bye.
Jen (01:10:54.998)
Sounds good. Bye.
