Ravi Davda was overweight growing up and tried many different things in order to lose weight. When he was 25, he went through a major transformation. Although he fell in love with the gym, he also regularly used the Couch25k app to help with his journey. He then became a Personal Trainer and regularly recommended this to his clients as well as the NHS 12 week fitness plan to his more vulnerable clients.
Ravi Davda is the CEO of Rockstar Marketing, a digital marketing agency product of his transformation that eventually a full-fledged business to further help people who want to spread awareness and train people to become fit. In an exclusive interview with Asina Voice, Ravi spoke about his journey.
He was born in Birmingham, UK. Both of his parents are of Indian origin. “I started along the traditional route - going to school, sixth form, university, and then working for 5 years in retail banking. I soon realised that this wasn't for me, and in 2016, I gave it up and became a personal trainer. I did this for a couple of years, then started digital marketing freelancing for a gym owner. Since then, I've set up my own marketing agency, Rockstar Marketing,” Ravi told Asian Voice.
Sharing the story of his transformation, he said, “Growing up, I was very overweight. At my highest, I was over 100kg and I'm only 170cm tall. I would often get called names and bullied at school and even at university. In my second year of university, I decided to do something about this and started exercising. Initially, I just wanted to lose a bit of weight, but I fell in love with health and fitness. Eventually, as I got more and more into it, my goal was to look lean and get a 6 pack.”
Describing his biggest learning while training why Asians need to tackle obesity and what leads to obesity in the first place, Ravi said, “For most Asians, it's the lack of exercise and eating too much. My biggest learning when losing weight was that everything is fine in moderation, and it's useful to do some exercise every week. This helps with both physical and mental health. There are many myths when it comes to health and fitness, but essentially, losing weight is all about consuming fewer calories than you burn. That's all.”
When asked how he came up with the idea of helping trainers digitally market themselves better, Ravi told us, “It's generally not trainers we work with. It's more gyms, studios, and other businesses within the fitness industry. We've also had clients from outside the fitness industry too, including recruitment, tuition centres, HR consultancies, and many more. But as my passion and background are in the fitness industry, this is what I love to do.”
He also elaborated on the trends he has observed in health and fitness while helping clients. Ravi said, “There have been many trends over the last few years, both for fitness and nutrition. HIIT training has become a massive thing. So have fitness watches and trackers. It goes further than this too, for example, mental health has become a massive trend too. Personally, these are great and can help, but of course, there's nothing that beats hard work.”
Talking about how important it is for Asians to be serious about fitness and his observation during the pandemic, the digital marketeer said, “It's been a lot harder to exercise during the pandemic, obviously. Gyms have closed down. But there are still things you can do. For me, I've been doing some workouts at home, running, and more. I've also been doing more yoga. I think it's so important for Asians to be serious about fitness. It helps with mental health. You always feel better after exercising.”
But what is the future of business owners in the health and fitness industry? According to Ravi, “The future for business owners is that more and more will start seeing exercise as part of their day and actually something that helps their business, rather than something that takes time out of their day. It helps with decision making, reducing fatigue, being more present at work and home, and many more. It's not separate from your business, it's a part of it. Integrating the two is important.”
