Millionaire lifestyle and fitness entrepreneur Sam Wood was living the picture-perfect life.
asserted
Wood → live → life
The personal trainer had a reality TV star wife and he sat atop a self-made business empire, valued at $71 million, that he’d just sold to a Melbourne billionaire.
asserted
he → have → billionaire
The 46-year-old entrepreneur shouldn’t have had a care in the world, but Wood was anxious.
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Wood → have → world
“When you’ve gone from nothing … to something like that, there’s a bit of imposter syndrome, there’s a fear that one day something could happen, the bubble could burst and the dream could be over,” he told a NZ podcast in 2024.
uncertain
he → go → 2024
“It’s funny, I had more anxious moments with money than I perhaps did with this sort of optimistic, youthful enthusiasm when I had none, you know, because I was like, you have something to lose.
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you → ’ → something
“It’s like, ‘f---, imagine if I lost all of this now or something happened or this wasn’t real or I somehow stuffed this up.’
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I → ’ → this
Wood’s anxiety would prove prophetic.
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anxiety → prove → ?
A Triple Zero call from his step-daughter to Queensland police on Saturday night, in which she described Wood allegedly strangling wife Snezana, has brought his world crashing down.
uncertain
Wood → describe → world
Locked up in a watch house cell at Maroochydore, near Noosa, after being refused bail this week, Wood will have plenty of time to reflect on how it all came to this.
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it → lock → this
A TV romance
Wood was a 34-year-old personal trainer when he went looking for love on The Bachelor Australia in 2015.
Snezana, also 34 at the time, was a single mother from Perth, a scientific sales representative from a tight-knit Macedonian family and the oldest woman in that season’s cast of hopefuls.
“I remember the first time I touched her it was a hug for a photo shoot on the first group date and I could feel something there,” Wood told Jules Sebastian in an episode of podcast Tea With Jules in 2016.
uncertain
Wood → look → 2016
“That was the first time when I realised there is really something special about her.”
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I → realise → her
Wood embraced his new partner’s young daughter Eve and the child was given her stepfather’s surname.
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child → embrace → surname
He had a ready-made, photogenic family.
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He → have → family
For more than a decade the genetically-blessed couple were high-voltage, social media and red carpet mega-stars.
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couple → bless → decade
Wood amassed almost 250,000 followers on his personal Instagram account and Snezana gathered 330,000 followers of her own.
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Snezana → amass → own
They graced the cover of the likes of Who Magazine, Stellar and NW, built out their fairytale to include three more young daughters and struck partnerships with brands including Weetbix, Mercedes Benz, Bupa, 2XU and Under Armour.
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They → grace → Weetbix
The trappings of their wealth included multi-million dollar homes in Melbourne’s affluent Brighton and on the Mornington Peninsula, and expensive European cars.
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trappings → include → Peninsula
Even Eve, just nine-years-old when her mother appeared on The Bachelor, grew to become an influencer herself.
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mother → appear → Bachelor
The reality of business
Wood leveraged his fame to build an empire, targeting women with his at-home fitness and nutrition business 28 by Sam Wood.
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Wood → leverage → Wood
It offered pregnancy and postnatal plans, as well as a 12-week menopause program.
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It → offer → plans
Months ago, Wood launched Ollo for Women, a medical and physical weight loss program targeting women in midlife.
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Wood → launch → midlife
When Wood eventually sold his fitness business to Bastas for a reported $71 million, the deal included retention of Wood as the face (and body) of the rapidly-expanding enterprise.
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deal → sell → enterprise
“I’d had no social media following before (The Bachelor), and it just went bananas, you know, went from 20 followers to 250,000 in a number of weeks, and so did Snez,” he told the Dom Harvey Podcast in April 2024.
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he → have → April
After Wood launched the fitness platform in February 2016, 5000 people signed up in the first month at $50-a-month.
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people → launch → 50
“$250,000 a month revenue, and it was me and a few tech guys in an office, and I was filming the videos in my gym,” he said.
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he → film → gym
“By the third month, we had 10,000.
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we → have → 10,000
[It] just absolutely exploded.”
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It → explode → ?
Wood told Paul Spain on NZ Tech Podcast in February 2024 that the business eventually grew to more than 1 million subscribers globally, at the time of recording with an influx of subscriptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, giving locked down Australians an at-home fitness option.
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business → tell → option
Bupa, one of Australia’s biggest health insurers, noticed and offered their customers three months’ access to Wood’s online program for free.
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Bupa → notice → program
The insurer expected an extra 10,000 sign ups, but instead 130,000 joined in three days, Wood said.
“We went from 30,000 to 160,000 almost overnight,” he recalled.
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he → expect → 160,000
After several offers to buy the platform, Bastas’ DBG Health stepped in, buying the operation’s parent, Australian Life Tech.
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Health → buy → parent
Wood clarified in the podcast that while he sold the business to Bastas for $71 million, he pocketed $15 million himself.
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he → clarify → million
One former associate said Wood was “ruthlessly ambitious about building his brand”, but was often reluctant to acknowledge or pay those who contributed to his ascent.
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who → say → ascent
The dashing reality star engaged a retinue of publicists, personal trainers, marketers, brand managers and dieticians, who got virtually no recognition and sometimes spent months chasing him for payment.
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who → engage → payment
Some were never paid for their services, while a few were forced to use lawyers to apply pressure.
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few → pay → pressure
On one occasion, gym equipment was seized from his gym in East Brighton, The Woodshed, to recoup a debt.
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equipment → seize → debt
His burgeoning profile created an expectation that local businesses would align their products with his brand, and pay for the privilege.
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businesses → burgeon → privilege
“He used commercial arrangements to build a perception of himself that wasn’t real.
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that → use → himself
It was all an illusion, and I’m not even sure he realised how entitled he’d become,” said a former associate.
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associate → ’m → ?
In 2016, Mazda agreed to provide Wood with a BT-50 utility – free of charge.
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Mazda → agree → charge
…and 46 more, not listed.
The Aporia
