Thabo Moyo — Touch Active, functional fitness

DJ Otzi and Hey Baby. I thought it would be appropriate considering my next guest because he's young, he's funky, he's fresh, he's vibrant. So I thought let's play a funky song. Who is he? Well, he's none other than Tabo Moyo. And Tabo is the founder and CEO of a company called Touch Active. - Yes sir. - And we're gonna get into what Touch Active is and why you started the company. But Tabo, tell me a little bit about yourself, right? Where did you grow up? Where were you born? Circumstances? These are the kinds of things we like to know. - That's it. All right, so as you guys know, I'm Tabo Moyo, founder and CEO of Touch Active. I was born in Pumbalanga. I'm first born and raised in Embal 19. It's just a little town outside Sikunda. And then I was, we moved to King Ross and then from King Ross, we moved to Creole. - Sounds like mining and power stations were in your childhood. - Very industrial area I guess. - Yeah? - Yeah, I think I spent my first few years, I don't know if I was nine or 10 years old in King Ross. My second, my first and second grade is a solar primary school. Then I moved to Creole. I think that I started my third grade up until grade seven. I did my last school in Fairvard.

- Yeah. - And then I went to Creole High School. And then I went to Tishiri, dropped out a couple of times until fitness found me and I've been doing fitness ever since. - So this is the thing and this is what I find so inspiring about Tabo's story is it is a story of fitness and just your journey. I mean, you didn't have it terribly easy growing up. I mean, it wasn't the easiest, most affluent of upbringings from what I understand. So, why fitness? I mean, particularly growing up, I mean, your formative years, obviously you were turning up but then growing up in Creole. I mean, there's not a whole heck of a lot to do in that town, really. - Really not much. - You cut off chunks of air to breathe from all the industry around there. - We've turned it up actually. We've actually turned it up, we've made Creole nice and funky. For some, we actually are absorbing our contents. They wish they were in Creole for the funkiness and the vibrancy that we bring into it. How I got into fitness, basically, you know almost when you're just off high school, looking to go into Varsity, still have all the better fans day in day. I first started with VUT. I was supposed to do, I ought to be doing safety management.

Dropped out six months in the course. Financial constraints. Thereafter, came back home for a couple of months, moved back to Boston. They tried to do a course, they had dropped out still. I just wasn't feeling it. Also did some needed courses at some colleges. - Your parents must have been quite excited about you dropping out, eh? If there were anything like my parents, I mean, they could not have been happy. - Obviously, but I really must say, my parents are people who've always supported me in anything that I was doing, or anything that I was involved in. It wasn't easy, certainly wasn't easy, but nonetheless was very interesting. I think everything that happened in my past made me what I am today. So moving right along out of dropping out of Varsity and not actually being able to make it in Varsity, you know, depression starts to sink in. I think I experienced deep depression at the age of 20, 21. This way I had deep depression and anxiety attacks and so on and so on. And then there was a friend of mine called Sam Martitiwale. He was working at the local gym at the time. So he was actually a tenant at my place, at home, I mean. And then I'd see him going to the gym quite regularly.

And then I'll check up on him during that day. I'll spend most of my time with most of my day at the gym, until to a point whereby I actually got an admin job right there. And then it was in no time practically. I think that's just the way it all ignited for me. I actually got a job there. I worked there for about 13 months. Then in between that, I already started to get the vision of training people, helping people. I remember I was working with a man called Patissos Msezane, he's also still one of my mentors at the time. 'Cause he actually was the one who identified the gift in me to say, man, you are good at this. Why don't you do one, two, three? I remember at the time I was still getting like 300 bucks a month for personal training and that's what I actually charge for a concession now. - Yeah, to try and live on that. But you said you were depressed. - And I've read many, many stories about what physical exercise and activity, how it can benefit people that do suffer from depression. One of the, I'm actually only just got it recently. I'm really looking forward to reading. It's a book by Ben Angel called Unstoppable. And he talks a lot about his depression and about nutrition and about exercise and how it helped lift him out.

And I know for me as well, I can tend to also get it very down in the dumps. And exercise certainly does help. We'll be back. We'll talk some more with Taba Moyo from Touch Active. They're doing some fascinating stuff. And he's very modest, but I happen to know that there is quite a, there's a story behind the story about how he wants to impact young people's lives. We'll get back to that in just a bit. It is what's involved on this Monday night. Thank you so much for listening. It is what's involved this Monday night. My special guest in studio, founder, CEO of Touch Active. It is Taba Moyo. So just before the break, we were talking. You said that you'd started to go to the gym. You were sort of there. You got a job, et cetera, et cetera. But you wanted more, didn't you? - I needed to be more. I think the people in the spaces that I found myself in needed me to be more. My community needed me. After everything that I observed, the stories that I got exposed to, and especially entering into people's personal lives, the stories, the personal stories that they were sharing with me, it really ignited me in a way that possibly nothing could ever occur anymore. - Yeah? - Yeah. - Because you've got a passion for your community and the community you live in and for fitness in the community.

- Yes. - And I think that's what first sort of drew me to wanting to chat to you. When I saw that you're a bunch of young people, you're starting this business. Clearly you have dreams of creating an empire, but you have this focus on your community, on the people around you. Talk to me about that. - I think that is centered for me being a family man. I'm family-oriented, so I'm family and friends-oriented. I truly believe I found so much fulfillment once I see the people around me being happy. So I feel like it's actually centered from that, that in the spaces that I'm exposed to, the spaces that I walk into, I wanna see people progressing, I wanna see people moving. After all, the body was designed to move, so we're designed to move, and moving makes us feel more alive. So when we move, we feel more alive. Actually, when you, I got this from, at the time when I was going through my depression, is that every time I'm sitting down, and everything, the world is just sinking in on me, it's getting big on me. I believe I'm on this dark space. - Yeah. - I just feel like I'm slowly dying, slowly. I'm breathing, but I'm dying. - Yeah. - But each time I move, I come alive. And I knew that dopamine release, that high, that adrenaline that I was feeling, everybody deserves to feel it.

And what a better way than fitness. And fitness is actually

very, very fundamental for character development. I'm one person who always likes to tap into the fullness of a person. Besides you coming to me as a client and say, "Yo, touch, I want you to work out. "I wanna work on my tummy. "I wanna work on my thighs. "I wanna six pack, I wanna lose weight there and there." I always feel that I need to touch your character first. I need to groom your character for you to be everything that you want in your life, other than just the fitness part of it. - Mm-hmm. - There's a quote by Arnold Schwarzenegger, one of the best bodybuilders of all time. He mentions that the same resistance that you're fighting in the gym is the same resistance that you used to fight in life. So once you hold a discipline in the gym, the same discipline that you apply in the gym, it applies in the rest of your life. There's so much anatomy that you can take from fitness that you can apply to all these fears in your life. - Mm-hmm. Okay, yeah, we got a 21-year-old at home and he's a big fan of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Arnold's philosophy. So I am aware of that, of that, yeah. So you were doing this and then what gave you the idea? I mean, this kid from rural, that's not rural in Pumalanga, I mean, I've been to rural in Pumalanga.

I lived in Nelsbeck for many years, by the way. Love Pumalanga, the place where the sun rises, love it. But, you know, it wasn't a big town that you grew up in. What made you think, okay, I know I enjoy fitness, but that you can now make a business of it, make a living. - To be honest with you, I'm just having fun. - Mm-hmm. - While getting paid for it. (laughing) - You know, it actually started with one client. To be honest with you, I was training one of the, one of the most respected men in our businessman, in our community, Ubabum Dunga. I'm using the transport and logistics business. So this other one time you heard about me 'cause I worked with, we did a wellness campaign with Eskim. Another local power station there, Macha Power. - Ah, yes. - Yeah, so I did a wellness activation there, so you heard about me through those spaces and then he gave me a call. Then he was my first PT client and also my mentor, still, Patty Caesar, says I'm the one that I mentioned before. - Yeah. - So those were my two first clients that I started to work with. And still I was just getting 300 bucks a month from each of them. - Okay. - So with me getting into it, I only found out how big the industry is when I was starting to get certified.

When I was going through my course, I was like, whoa. - Yeah, this is massive, this is big. - Massive, this is bigger than me. And more and more people started to inquire, like, hey, they need this, they need that, they need me to train with him. I just noticed that people love my vibe. So I was like, no, I'll bring it on. So I started helping one person. It just grew from there. I remember how what actually really exploded, that really changed my perspective was how actually big the business can go. It was when I started to boot camp. I think in the midst of me studying, one of my friends, Sia Butiles, is also another PT, shout out to him. He's a PT at Virgin Active, Sunnyside. So he was like, yo, Taj, start a boot camp. - Yeah. - I was like, what do you mean by that? He's like, no, just start a boot camp so that people can be aware that there's a PT in town. - Now, you're talking jargon. So for the people that may not understand PT, personal trainer. - Personal training, yes. - Okay. - He was like, no, so that people can know that there's a personal trainer in town. - Yeah, yeah. - And the plan was to actually do it for three months 'cause it was around December at the time when we were bouncing off this idea on me.

And then fast forward, the plan was to do it for three months. - Yeah. - And do it for five years. (laughing) - You start and you never stop. Where does the name come from, Touch Active? - Touch Active. I always get this a lot. People think that because I'm table. - Yeah. - And in my culture, most tables are called table touch. - Yeah, yeah. - So, but actually that was not the inspiration behind the name. The inspiration behind the name was also to, has always been to actively touch people's lives. So that's why it's called Touch Active. - Touch Active, okay. - Yes. - We're gonna talk some more when we come back. What amazes me though, I mean, I can see you're a very fit guy, but you're not a big guy. And I wanna talk to you about that when we come back, whether this whole idea of these massive big, muscly men and women is changing these days. We'll talk about that when we come back. It is what's involved on this Monday night. My special guest in studio, founder, CEO of Touch Active. It is Tabo Moyo, what an inspiring young man. What's involved my guest in studio, Tabo Moyo, from Touch Active. Now I said before the break, I wanted to ask you about this. I mean, it's very clear to see that you're a fit guy.

- Yeah. - Okay, but you're not a big muscle bound monster. We always used to call them watermelon farmers when we were going up those cars that were their lats, were so big they couldn't walk. Yeah, is that trend changing these days that people are going more for fitness and definition? - Yes. I feel like the way the fitness world is going into now, functional training is the new thing. That's not a crossfit. I like to call it hybrid training. - Yeah. - We do high intensive, high interval intensity training. So I'd go from weights training to body weight training. - Yeah. - I'd take it down to 30 seconds, 45 seconds. I'm not really counting reps. I'm just going until I fail. And I think that gets me pumping and it gets me burning calories like nobody's business. And I feel like that type of training, like she allows you to burn even more calories while you're still sleeping. So from one session, you can still continue burns calories up to like 48 hours. - Yeah. - With that kind of training. - Really? - From little is 15 minutes, yeah. - Wow, okay. I didn't know that. So yeah, because initially when I sort of was talking to a couple of people and I was talking about you, I thought, oh, it's just another Jim Bunny.

You know, one of those guys. Your fitness, your strength, all natural. And you believe in the natural approach. - Yes, no supplements. - Not supplements, okay. But I mean, you know, when we get into the legal side of things, steroids, those kind of things, not a fan. And you don't encourage people to do that at all. - Never, never, never. My philosophy is just clean eating and hard training. - Yeah. - That's what I push house-wise. - I've got a friend who says, "Eat clean and train dirty." - Yeah, yeah, that's the one, that's the one. - But I mean, we were chatting off here. I saw over the weekend, it's a documentary on Netflix. It's called "The Dominant and the Redeemed." And it's about the World CrossFit Championships. Those people are insane. I mean, I get out of breath just getting out of bed in the morning. The amount of stuff those people do. And it must be possible. And they're not all necessarily youngsters. And, you know, when you get to, it struck me the other day, when you get to a certain age, like anybody under 30, you call a youngster these days. Sure, it's scary stuff. But you sort of went further now. - So Touch Active, you were saying you've got a couple of clients.

How did you get the gym? Because now you've got a gym going as well. - Yes, yes, yes. So what happened, according to the corporate world, I did some wellness campaigns for certain companies. And then I also got a deal with Xalu Matlaco, big mining dynamite in the country. So we established a fitness center there. And that has also sort of burst a lot of other aspects of my business. 'Cause from there we were able to build on our merchandise, with the bootcamp still going. We're also touching base with the occupational therapy world. So, yeah, it's quite broad. - Okay, now, and is that exclusively for members of the mine there? Or members of the public can attend as well? - Members of the public, yeah. - In this little sleepy town of Creel, I would never have believed it. - A lot happens there, a lot happens there. And we make the things happen there. - But you said you travel a lot as well now. And the business and your reputation as a personal trainer is growing. So you travel quite a bit as well. - Yeah, I've been coming, like, for practically the whole of fame of being in job work. Job work for Chora, we've got some work that we're doing this side, a bit of corporate work, team buildings as well, pushing the merchandise as well.

- Yeah? - Yeah, so we are really scaling ourselves. We're taking over the nation. - Okay. - And South Africa's fastest growing fitness brand, Touch Active. - I like that, and I like the fact that, you know, obviously, you have faith in our country, and faith in where this country's going, because we have so much bad news all the time. - All the time. - All the time, and, you know, I've decided a while ago, I'm not gonna buy into the bad news. I'm not gonna buy into the doom and gloom. I don't believe this country is ruined. I don't believe-- - No. - We've made mistakes. People in power-- - So much to be about. - People in power have made mistakes. We can change that. - We can. - And it starts with people like you and people like me. - Of course, of course. - You know, and I love what you're doing, though. So how does somebody get hold of you? For example, the website I know is touchactive.net. - Touchactive.net. I'm one of the most accessible people in the country, I believe. You guys can find me on my website, www.touchactive.net, or you can drop me an email at tabo@touchactive.net, or you can dial me up, 0717621863. That is 0717621863. - Fantastic. I think for most people, I don't know where they are at the moment, some months will be on the way home, their months will be working.

- Tabo@touchactive.net, spelled T-H-A-B-O, okay. We have a gentleman that works with us, his name is Tabo Magubane. - Magubane. - And some of the listeners have christened him Thabo Magen Bean. - Thabo. (laughing) - You know, like Tabo's not the most difficult name, but yeah, we always tease him in calling him Mr. Magen Bean. But, so you've got a brand as well. You mentioned that very, very briefly, you've got a brand as well, the Touch Active brand. So what is that? A brand of clothing, what is it? - It's a brand of clothing. Soon we're going into water, the Touch Active water coming soon. Also launching our next April, athleisure way in April. - Yeah. - We also do hikes. We've been during the Trachinsburg. We've done the Mahali's hike. There's another one coming up in April. - Yeah. - It's the freedom hike. That's where we commemorate where we come from as a country, celebrating the past 20 years of freedom. So this way we come together, people from all sorts of parts of the country. So that's one of our annual events. We do two hikes a year. We have the freedom hike and we also have the heritage hike later in the year. - Yeah. - In September, October years. - Yeah. Now talk about this athleisure way, because this is becoming a big thing.

It's like, I don't know, in my days you had athletic wear, leisure wear. And then if you were a bit cross over, it was a track sheet, but it's more than that these days. - It's actually, it's a standalone fashion statement right now. It's always about looking good, but feeling comfortable and staying functional. - Yeah. - You know, people, because you're so busy,

the professional these days need to be flexible. - Yeah. - Most businessmen don't work out going around in suits. They do athleisure right now. - Yeah. - You know, so it's very comfortable, it's very durable and very fashionable as well. - Okay. - Yeah, it's a sort of a culture that is building up in South Africa as well, that is actually, I feel like it will change the way that people look at clothing. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah. - 'Cause it's massive overseas. I know in the States it's a massive, massive industry. - Yeah. - So what sort of clothing? Explain to the old person here, me. Like, I would go track suits. That's where I would stop. I mean, you've got, what, a hoodie on now? That says, what's it? Don't say touch active, huh? - Touch active, next level or nothing. - Okay. So that's one of the products. - That's one of the products that we have. We have a range of products. We have at Leisure Wave from track pants, spandex, vests, t-shirts, the works. You can work out with the clothing, but you can still wear the clothing, comfortably working to the mall, going to work on a sports day. It's quite, it's quite multiple. - Do you have sizes? I mean, are you sizes in the sense that you have something for the plus-sized man like me?

- Yeah, my sizes range from small to XXL. - Okay, XXL I can fit in. That's okay. XXL we can do. Lilly's smiling in the corner there. I'm talking about plus-sized man. - She's so tiny. - She's this little wave of a person. So you're doing some amazing stuff now. So if I was to say to Tubbo, listen, I'd like to get a personal trainer to come around to my work, to come around to my home and train me. You're up for that. - You do. - I'm up for that. I'm up for that. - You do realize you're gonna be relocating to Kharting fairly soon. - That is the plan actually. That's what I'm working on. - Is that the plan? - That's what I'm working on. - You're jumping ahead in the interview now because when we wrap up just now, I'm gonna ask you what your next is. So don't give away the secrets just yet. - Okay. - Okay. So you're, what did you call it? Athleisurewear. - Athleisurewear, yes. - Where, is that available yet? - It's available on our website. We have an online store on our website. So when you go on the website, just click on shop, click, click. - Yeah. - Tick tock to your door sting. - Ring, ring, what's that tick tock, ring, ring, ring. I don't know what it's called. Now, who designs this stuff for you?

- I'm actually working with a company called Influence Clothing. They're based in Cape Town. - Okay. - One of the best, best, best, best athleisure manufacturers in our country. - Okay. - Yeah. So I work with the best. Nothing but the best. - And then you'll say to them, "Listen guys, what do you got? "What are you working on? "This is my idea, is it a collaborative thing?" - It's a collaborative thing. We sit down with design. We talk design, we talk functionality. And also test it, give it a couple of feelers, and then once we're happy with the results, we put it out there in the market. So far, everybody's loving what we put out. - Okay. - Yeah. - All of that is available on your website, so you can order online. And then you said water. - Yes. - I have recently, recently, 'cause I didn't believe in drinking water, okay? 'Cause I thought fish made love in it. I didn't wanna drink water. - Yeah. - But, and that's, obviously I'm joking a bit, but the importance of water has come to my attention recently. And the fact that most of us are under-hydrated. - Yeah. - We don't drink nearly enough water. - We don't drink water, yeah. - So what's gonna be special about your water? - What the spaces we're trying to break into.

- Yeah. - Is the corporate spaces. - Mm-hmm. - And also in our community as well. One thing that I've realized, with every corporate setting, there's always a vending machine. - Yeah. - That's there. And it's always dominated by Coca Cola. - Yeah, the fizzy drinks. - The fizzy drinks. - Yeah, sugary drinks. - Sugary drinks. - Yeah. - And sugar's the number one thing that's actually, that's annihilating our health. - Yeah, I would agree with you 100%. I actually feel that sugar is actually even more addictive than drugs. - Can I tell you, and I've said this before, I think I've said it on the, but let me tell you. I was before, I'm now a type two diabetic. Partly because of my addiction to sugar. So for me to go through two to three liters of a carbonated soft drink a day, no problem. Couple of slabs of chocolate, no problem. Four, five teaspoons of sugar in my coffee, no problem. And then I got diagnosed with diabetes. Can I tell you, it is the hardest thing in the world I've ever had to give up with sugar. The hardest thing in the world. And I would agree with you, it is so, so addictive. And it's not just the sugar that we know about. - Sugar that we don't know about, that's not put in the packaging.

- They're putting sugar in everything, in one way, shape or form. So what's gonna make your water special? 'Cause I believe the new thing now is this alkaline water. - Alkaline water, yeah. - Are you looking at doing something like that? - Alkaline, I'm looking at spring water for now. - Yeah? - Just keeping it basic. - The more natural, the better. - The more natural way to look at it. I just want people to adopt a healthier lifestyle. - Yeah? - That's all I'm doing. - Wonderful stuff. When we come back, we're gonna wrap up with Tabo. It is Tabo Moyo from Touch Active. Don't forget that website, touchactive.net. If you'd like to get hold of him, this gentleman is very fit. And he knows his stuff, okay? So if you're looking for a personal trainer, tabo@touchactive.net. And before you ask, no, I am not going to employ him. I believe I am a lost cause. So there you have it. Okay, good. Somebody said to me the other day, you're not in shape. I said, don't be ridiculous, I am in shape. Round is a shape. That's me, round. - Can you do 10 push-ups? - Happy. Did, did, do you wanna know how many push-ups I managed this morning? - Tell me. - He reminds me, he reminds me. - 35, it's my new record.

Not, not with breaks in between, eh? - Okay. - Once off. - Once off. - Yeah. - Do you wanna put a zero next to the 35? - No, listen, I used to. No, I need to, listen, I get tired. Darn. I'm still, I'm still a little active. I'm not as active as I, as I probably should be, but I'm, I'm, I'm working back towards it. I used to be, I mean, I used to be scarily, scarily active. I used to train, as I said, martial arts. So, I would train four, five times a week, no problem. Saturdays for four hours, you know. And in the, in the days when you're young, your metabolism still works. And, you know, you can eat anything and everything. Now I have to be careful, eh? Now I have to be careful. But I can blame my diabetes as well a little bit for it, for the, for the, the, the, the tire around the middle. But I can't blame it entirely. - Can I ask you one question, though, about that? - The answer is, I don't know, wait. Okay, ask me the question. Ask me the question. - Why, why is it that you missed the most

being physically active in martial arts day? Why, why is the one thing that you missed the most about it? - Being able to kick the crap out of people. - Oh, you didn't want that answer. - Oh, okay. - I do miss, I do miss the feeling that there is, there is a certain, and you're right, that endorphin rush, and that feeling of, that just feeling good. - Yeah. - That, yeah, no, it's, it's very, and you know what, it slips away so easily. Absolutely. - Just stay in store. - Yeah? - It's gone. - There we go. So now, we, we're gonna, we're gonna wrap up now. But who would benefit from training with you? Would somebody in their forties benefit, fifties, sixties? - I have people 55, 55-year-olds as my clients. So from, I've actually trained a better, I've trained kids as well, but that's in a very low percentage, but my target audience has always been those young professionals to the oldies. So it ranges from 24 to 55, yeah. - Okay, but you would do older. - I would do older, gladly. They're easier to work with. - Yeah, why? Because they can't run away from you. - No. - Oh. - They're more knowledgeable, 'cause we share so much more, so I learn a lot from them through their life experiences.

- I think it's brilliant. Talbot, thank you for coming in and spending some time with us, sharing what Touch Active is. I admire your vision. I respect your vision. - Thank you so much. - What's next for Touch Active? - Taking over South Africa and Africa, everything. So basically, when you think fitness in South Africa and in Africa, you think Touch Active. - Okay, shall we, are we gonna tell those other gyms, those international people to make way for some local talent? - Ooh.

- Touch Active is taking over. Be on the lookout for us. Check us out on our social media platforms @touch_active, both on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Just be on the lookout what we have out. - All right, so there's the water to look forward to. There's the athleisure way. I learned something there as well. And-- - More fitness activations. - More fitness. Wonderful stuff. Talbot, we wish you all the best, and we're gonna be keeping an eye on you. You guys go well. Thank you for coming in tonight. - Thank you for hosting me. - It's an absolute pleasure. Anyway, you guys have a fantastic evening. And one more thing before I go. Thank you for listening.