Ria Patag is a 19-year-old entrepreneur, podcast host, and fitness influencer. With her extensive weightlifting and nutrition experience, she focuses on content creation to help others learn about fitness. More notably, she founded an activewear brand called Bolt Active. Bolt’s unapologetic and bold branding is aimed to help young women feel represented and welcome in the fitness space, as a male associated industry.

Can you tell our readers about your background?

Thanks for having me! As a first-gen immigrant, my mom had these set standards for me, doing good in school, excelling in hobbies and sports, and more. However, I was simply getting by in school and didn’t have any hobbies. I didn’t fit in anywhere until my freshman year, I started weightlifting. Like most people, I started weightlifting due to bad body image, but fell in love with the process, where it became much more to me!

What inspired you to start your business?

I wanted to make the gym a less intimidating place for young women. Although the lifting community can feel male dominated, lifting is for girls too, and it doesn’t make you any less feminine. I wanted to help girls feel more confident and comfortable at the gym, and my way of doing so was creating my brand Bolt! To me, it’s not just activewear, it’s a community and a movement of strong women. 

Where is your business based?

At the moment, I run everything from my room! Including my inventory, as I’m doing self fulfillment for now and outsourcing to a 3PL later.

I live in Las Vegas, Nevada right now but would love to relocate one day.

How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?

First is the seed, next you have to plant it!

Once I identified what my brand mission was, who I was selling to, my brand values, etc, it was then time for me to use those values to find a manufacturer, since I wanted to sell ethically and sustainably made clothes. Inevitably, since they’re ethically made and the workers get paid a living wage, the COGS (cost of goods sold) is more than what it would be if I was reselling Alibaba leggings. Since I had a sense of direction, I went to my graphic designer to turn my ideas into visuals. I actually had her do my first startup’s logo!

From here, I put in the order for samples. In fashion, it’s a small investment to know your manufacturer is reliable and the product is what you expect.

While waiting for samples, bulk products, and more, I focused on growing my social media presence on Instagram and TikTok, so when I did launch, I had a warm audience interested in fitness / wellness!

What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?

I like to leverage social media, while content creating and sharing my knowledge when it comes to fitness and self development. From there, I’ll naturally bring up my brand, and sometimes my followers will even share it on their platforms!

I also love building connections via DM! I’ve made a lot of friends, not out of the intent for them to purchase, but to build genuine connections. They support me, even not by purchasing, but by following me and even reposting my posts. Word of mouth marketing is obviously something I rely on as a startup. People trust their friends and family.

What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?

My biggest challenge is definitely getting traffic. Organic traffic is lots harder than it seems! I’m overcoming this obstacle by investing more into paid advertising. Not just investing financially, but my time, and learning more on how to optimize my ads in order to get the best ROAS (return on ad spend) 

How do you stay focused?

Identifying what your distractions are. For me, it’s my phone. If I want to sit down and get lots done in one sitting, I’ll literally hide my phone from myself in order to avoid getting distracted.

Staying focused on a macro scale, to me, just means getting inspired and remembering your passions. Sometimes that spark can get lost, but you’ll end up finding it. Good ways to get that ‘spark’ back is by visually getting inspired (reinventing your vision board), talking to someone with similar goals, listening to podcasts or videos by people who’s spot you want to be in one day, and more.

How do you differentiate your business from the competition?

With activewear, all of the brands are pretty much the same, they all have cute clothes right? In a way, I make my USP (unique selling point) my brand. Most activewear brands will sell you on “tummy tucking” and “hide that muffin top” or “anti cellulite”. I’m not big on that, my entire brand mission is to uplift and empower women in the fitness space. Bolt’s changing the conversation to stop hiding and start embracing who you are, at all stages in your fitness journey.

What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?

I’m big on UGC for ads. If someone looks at an ad, and it- well, looks like an ad, they’re going to skip it immediately. I create TikToks, super personable and has me in them, and repurpose them for paid traffic. This seems to be a strategy I’m going to stick to for at least a while, and A/B test the different TikToks! 

What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?

Spend your time on revenue generating activities. It’s so easy, especially as a new entrepreneur to fall into this trap of ‘disguised procrastination- doing things that are time consuming, but unnecessary. For example: editing your LinkedIn, spending an awful long time checking email, random networking calls, etc etc. Before you do something, consider it’s ROI (return on investment). Is this going to help me make money? How is it going to help me make money?

What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?

My favorite app is Instagram! Social media can be toxic, and I don’t like using a lot of social media apps. I like Instagram because although it can be toxic when misused, it’s made for sharing your favorite parts of your life, which I can do while inspiring people who resonate with me!

I don’t typically read blogs, but Neil Patel’s blog is a good one for marketing! I’m more of a YouTube kinda person, and I love learning from people like Graham Stephan, Ali Abdaal, and more. I love to utilize YouTube for entertainment purposes obviously, but I mostly see so much educational value in it. I can learn whatever I want from people who are much more knowledgeable than me!  

My favorite fiction book is The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon. I love the message of everything having a purpose in life though it may not make sense at the time. My favorite nonfiction book is The Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss. It’s a handbook to living the life you want! I could reread that book 100x, because there’s so many gems on working less, and living more.

What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?

Canva is a tool to create graphic designs. There’s templates, element stickers, and text boxes; it’s very user friendly. I love it because it gives my website and Instagram feed an established look for free! 

Who is your business role model? Why?

Nastassia Ponomaranko! She’s my business role model because I see myself in her. She’s around my age, and a female founder, so it inspires me knowing she was able to have so much success in e-commerce through growing her personal brand.

How do you balance work and life?

The reason I wanted to pursue entrepreneurship was to be able to enjoy life more. With grind culture, it may seem like you’re not worthy unless you work 24/7 - but the truth is, if you work 24/7, it won’t even be your best work. There’s more to life than work and productivity, and I feel comfortable in my decision and the path I have. There’s no rush! Since I’m choosing to be patient, I feel no need to overwork myself, then burnout. The answer is a mindset shift! 

What’s your favorite way to decompress?

Honestly, the gym! Moving your body in any way that you enjoy is an amazing way to get your mind off things, especially business related stress. For me, it’s weightlifting, but there are so many different types of exercise! It could be yoga, dance, stretching, hiking, sports, even a walk. 

What do you have planned for the next six months?

I’m putting all my focus towards scaling Bolt! I’d like to put my income into either investments or ads. Also - be excited for winter drops. The compressive fabric we’ve got for the summer sets is unmatched- so imagine it in leggings! ;) 

How can our readers connect with you?

Connect with me on Instagram on instagram.com/riapatag

And check out boltactive.com