From finances to faith to fitness to fun, personal development is undergoing a renaissance.
Founded:
2021
Headquarters:
Arizona
Top Executives:
Dave Braun
Troy Amdahl
Travis Ogden
Products:
Personal development
Changing the direction of your life often starts with one moment, one decision. But what happens next? Will you stick to the new path you’ve chosen? Or will you fall back into old habits and patterns? The Oola Guys, authors of Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World, Dr. Dave Braun and Dr. Troy Amdahl, have been sharing their secret to lasting life change for the last nine years, but have recently taken a new path themselves—one that will introduce the “Oola Life” to millions more.
The Oola Experiment
Before the bestselling book series and sold-out OolaPalooza events, Oola (short for ooh-la-la) was a simple idea hidden in a set of index cards that laid out seven areas of life that deserve every human’s attention—fitness, finance, family, field (career), faith, friends and fun. Focused on his goals since high school, Troy Amdahl had been pursuing balance and success in these seven areas, keeping track of his progress and goals through a set of three by five note cards.
He’d shared his system with a handful of friends, and each December the friends would meet in Las Vegas for a guys’ trip that included time to check in with each other on their progress and design a life blueprint for the next year.
“We would sit there just trying to be better guys,” Troy explained. “We would put these cards in seven stacks, each representing a key area of life. The world is telling you that you need to make this much money or you’re defined by your career and income, we were thinking, ‘What kind of husband do I want to be? What kind of father do I want to be? What are the things that I want to do in the next year for fun? What does my faith walk look like?’ ”
One year, Dave Braun was invited along to celebrate graduation and a successful yearlong internship at Troy’s chiropractic practice, where the two had become great friends.
“I found myself on the floor of the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas with these note cards,” Dave remembered. “Back then, it was like note cards and a couple guys in a system, that if you write down what you want, you understand where you are, where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. Then if you take action on it every single day, you are going to eventually get to where you want to go.”
Inspired, Dave put the Oola framework to work, over time building the life he wanted: A beautiful family, a multimillion-dollar home, luxury cars, business investments—the whole dream. But over time, he lost touch with Troy, lost sight of the seven key areas and ultimately lost everything—his home, his marriage…everything. Dave knew he needed to get back to the basic principles he’d learned that weekend in Vegas. He knew he needed to call Troy.
“First of all, I reassured him, ‘Where you are is simply where you are,’” Troy shared. “I said, ‘I know you’re designed for something great. This isn’t who you are. This is just where you are. Who you are is that guy who used to sit in at the Hard Rock with big goals and dreams and made moves to make it happen.’ I said, ‘Let’s go back to that.’”
“So, the next day I went up in the mountains and I had this little black notebook and newfound hope,” Dave said. “And I was like, ‘What do I want in life? Where do I want to go?’ I called Troy the next day and I said, ‘Dude, I’m going to get back to this Oola thing, and if it works for me, we’re going to share it with the world.’ And Troy said, ‘First things first, go get a job. We’ll deal with changing the world later.’ I still have that notebook. It says: I want to be a visionary leader, educator, trainer and facilitator of Oola around the world.”
It’s safe to say the experiment worked. Dave found his way back to Oola, put the seven key areas to work, got his life back and decided to share Oola with the world. Together with Troy, the two Oola Guys have since authored a series of books; taken their message of life change to venues around the world; and have toured the country in a 1970 VW surf bus to personally share Oola with the people they meet. But they both felt that Oola could reach even more people.
More Reach = More Lives Changed
As leaders in personal development, Troy and Dave were often asked to share Oola with direct sales companies, which led to the Oola Guys meeting industry veteran Travis Ogden in 2013. Travis and Troy kept in touch as Oola grew and the two friends would frequently reconnect and talk about their lives, careers and goals.
“They were looking to take Oola to another level in terms of impact, which is one billion lives in seven years,” Travis shared. “At one of our lunches, I just simply said to Troy, ‘If you truly want to have that level of impact, the best vehicle is network marketing.’”
They talked through the possibilities of an e-learning personal development platform, shared through Oola Ambassadors, and accessible to everyone at a reasonable monthly price. But the Oola Guys had some hesitations.
“We told Travis every reason we didn’t want to do it,” Dave laughed. “And then he told us every reason why we should. He explained what makes this different: It’s fully digital; it’s never going to go out of stock; there are no FDA concerns, no shipping issues. But what really opened up our eyes was this: We want to be the number one personal development company in the world. We want to impact a billion lives over the next seven years. And we know that with a subscription-based model, we could do that. So, that’s what we set out to do.”
The Oola Lifestyle Framework
Over the next year or so, the Oola Lifestyle Framework came to life—an online membership-based platform, accessible via desktop or mobile app, fully customized to each member’s unique demographics, struggles, goals and dreams. The platform consists of a structured goal-setting framework, a community of fellow Oola Subscribers and accountability through personalized tracking in the app.
As Troy explained, “It’s not just an e-learning platform; it’s not just a community; it’s not just a technology like an accountability app or a companion app. It’s all of these things in one platform.”
Members join Oola and pay $77 for their first month to enjoy the platform, vibrant community and personalized tracking tools, then $47 per month thereafter. Ambassadors join Oola at the same cost, with an additional $97 per year fee for the annual business suite, which includes a personalized website, business app, marketing app and access to live monthly master classes with Dr. Dave and Dr. Troy. The platform launched in July 2021 with over 2,800 founding Ambassadors and has grown to over 3,200 Ambassadors and over 1,100 Members to date.
Though the Oola monthly subscription platform only launched this summer, exciting additions to the framework are already underway. In November Oola introduced a stand-alone course called “The Green Gap,” which focuses on helping Subscribers start the journey to becoming debt-free. In connection with this new course, a new retail customer type was introduced, to allow individuals to be able to purchase the stand-alone course without being a monthly subscriber to the Oola Lifestyle framework. A second stand-alone course is scheduled to launch in early 2022, with additional topic-focused courses in development. Currently, Oola is serving Members in 15 countries around the world, with Ambassadors and the related business opportunity available in the United States, Australia and New Zealand. As Oola expands, Troy and Dave’s dream of reaching one billion people seems well within reach.
“I know how much Oola helps people to put their life into perspective and understand they have control over their choices,” Dave shared. “Their thoughts and their choices and their actions are helping them pay off debt, be a better parent or simply love themselves more. Oola gives you the tools you need to overcome things. I would love to see that in the hands of as many people as I can.”
Oola Balance, Inside and Out
“We saw people getting burned out in network marketing. Fried,” Troy says. “They’d go get their crown on the stage, and they’re smiling for pictures but they’re just melting down once they walk off the stage because their life is completely out of balance.”
Troy and Dave want to disrupt the network marketing industry with more than the first e-learning platform in the space—they want to shift the culture. Here’s how:
Closed on Sundays
The Office, the website for enrolling and buying, shuts down for a day of rest for Members, Ambassadors and the corporate team.
It’s Your Business
Regardless of leadership level, Oola Ambassadors can operate additional businesses within the direct sales space.
Finding Balance
Every Ambassador and corporate team member is encouraged to live out the seven key areas of Oola, finding more balance, not more hustle.
From the December 2021 issue of Direct Selling News magazine.
