Latest / The Action Catalyst / REMASTERED: Creating a High-Performance Culture, with Chuck Runyon (Fitness, Leadership, Franchising, Business)

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REMASTERED: Creating a High-Performance Culture, with Chuck Runyon (Fitness, Leadership, Franchising, Business) · The Action Catalyst

• 0:00
  Host: Chuck Runyon is the CEO at Self Esteem Brands, which is
• 0:12
  includes Anytime Fitness and also Waxing the City. And he and
• 0:29
  his business partner Dave Mortensen, co founded Anytime
• 0:51
  Fitness is just been an incredible, incredible success
• 0:55
  story, and they got a new book called LoveWork inspire a high
• 0:59
  performing work culture at the center of people, purpose,
• 1:02
  profits and play. So Chuck, welcome to the show.
• 1:05
  Chuck Runyon: Thanks for having me.
• 1:06
  Host: How in the world, wasn't Anytime Fitness, like the
• 1:09
  fastest growing gym for like, 10 straight years or something?
• 1:13
  Chuck Runyon: It was. And I want to take people back a little bit
• 1:16
  to this pre digital era, right? We were launching this in like,
• 1:19
  late 2001 2002 and in fact, we launched our first Anytime
• 1:23
  Fitness before the first iPod. So there were no smartphone. Was
• 1:27
  any Facebook. And so there was, you know, this idea of having a
• 1:32
  key fob that would open up every gym door in the world, right?
• 1:35
  Was just unheard of. And also, people do it and they go to work
• 1:39
  because of lack of service, or they might have some safety
• 1:42
  concerns, and so we really created the category of these
• 1:46
  type of clubs. They just didn't exist prior to Anytime Fitness.
• 1:50
  And you know, I think, like most entrepreneurs, they have that
• 1:52
  story where, you know, people would tell them this idea is not
• 1:55
  going to work, and it was no different for us. I mean,
• 1:57
  friends, family, industry experts said this idea will
• 2:00
  never work, and that's always a reminder for any of the
• 2:03
  listeners out there that you know that every idea seems crazy
• 2:06
  until you prove that it works, and now it suddenly seems pretty
• 2:08
  common. So but we, you know, we, we stayed steadfast, hoping the
• 2:13
  idea would work. We weren't 100% certain, and we applied
• 2:16
  ourselves. We created this concept. We launched our first
• 2:19
  gym in May of 2002 in Cambridge, Minnesota. And then the first
• 2:24
  couple years, I mean, we're just scratching and clawing to grow
• 2:28
  this, you know, and we started to really reach some, some
• 2:31
  acceleration there in 2005 and then the it just really took
• 2:35
  off. And from 2005 really, till now. And it's number one, it's a
• 2:39
  testament to the business model. But then number two, the fitness
• 2:42
  industry has had tremendous growth too, so we're also riding
• 2:45
  some of those tailwinds.
• 2:46
  Host: Yeah. So for people that don't know, I mean Anytime
• 2:49
  Fitness, I think you know, most people kind of get from the
• 2:51
  name, oh, it's 24 hours, like, highlight some of the other
• 2:53
  unique points. So like, what kind of what you're talking
• 2:55
  about here with the key fob?
• 2:57
  Chuck Runyon: Yeah, so for members, right, prior to Anytime
• 3:01
  Fitness, you'd have to drive a little bit farther to a
• 3:03
  neighborhood club, and you could only use it during the hours of,
• 3:06
  say, 5am to like 10pm or 11pm and but with any time we brought
• 3:11
  it closer to your home or work, because we're in a typical strip
• 3:14
  center that you might find with your drive through or your dry
• 3:17
  cleaners, your subways, your grocery stores, and so we're
• 3:20
  very conveniently located, but also you can access our stores,
• 3:23
  24/7, 365, and so you can come in anytime you want. It's
• 3:27
  typically about five to 6000 square feet, so they're a little
• 3:30
  bit smaller than a big fitness club, yet, so they create a
• 3:33
  little bit more comfort and intimacy. Yet you you get all
• 3:36
  the programming and equipment you'd find in a big club. And so
• 3:40
  that mixture of convenience and connectivity and being part of
• 3:43
  the community, you know, really appeals to our members. So that
• 3:46
  was, from a member perspective, very convenient, but from an
• 3:49
  owner perspective, it was such a simple model, because you didn't
• 3:53
  always have to be there and the club still operated, so your
• 3:56
  payroll costs would be lower. You'd have less headache of
• 3:58
  having to manage so many people in comparison other franchise
• 4:01
  opportunities. And you know, we gave our elders some freedom on
• 4:04
  offering things like personal training or yoga or some things
• 4:07
  they were passionate about. So it really appealed to both our
• 4:10
  franchisee as a consumer as well as our members as our consumer.
• 4:14
  Host: You have such a clear culture, yet you gave
• 4:18
  franchisees some flexibility in terms of what you allowed them
• 4:22
  to offer.
• 4:23
  Chuck Runyon: We did, and you know that is, we're trying to
• 4:26
  always balance standardization in the franchise so that every
• 4:30
  club looked and felt the same, but yet we wanted to, like,
• 4:34
  amplify the community, passion and personality of our owners.
• 4:38
  And that's, by the way, not always easy to do, and when done
• 4:41
  right. I mean, it's wonderful for the community and for our
• 4:44
  franchise owners. When it's done wrong, we have to fix those
• 4:47
  inconsistencies, and, you know, the experience nationally, but
• 4:51
  yeah, I mean, we look at Dave and I as entrepreneurs are
• 4:54
  always fighting for our franchise owners, and in a
• 4:57
  typical franchise system, I mean, you get no decision. You
• 5:00
  know, Whatsoever you have to run the playbook, you know,
• 5:02
  absolutely airtight. And you know, because someone signs a
• 5:06
  check to us, and it's a big part of their life savings. Dave and
• 5:09
  I want to give them a little bit more autonomy with any time
• 5:12
  fitness they're going to have in another brand. And so we've
• 5:14
  always kind of encouraged them to bring a little bit of
• 5:16
  personality. If there's something they're passionate
• 5:18
  about locally, whether it's a type of fitness class or, let's
• 5:21
  say, a charitable cause, they can get behind that to do things
• 5:24
  locally, and so it doesn't have to be standardized across the
• 5:27
  country. A couple of things people are fascinated by that.
• 5:30
  If you came to our global headquarters here in Minnesota,
• 5:32
  I think we're the only corporate campus I know of that has a full
• 5:35
  time tattoo room here in our corporate headquarters. And over
• 5:39
  the course of the last 15 years, I'm gonna guess that we've spent
• 5:43
  over a half a million dollars on tattoos, because we've had over
• 5:46
  3000 people get them, and we either pay for them or reimburse
• 5:49
  for them. And so the average tattoo is at least 100 to $200
• 5:53
  and so someone will send us a photo. They tell us a reason why
• 5:56
  they're getting this, any you know, Running Man tattoo, and
• 5:59
  they can personalize it anyway they want. And so we collect
• 6:01
  these stories, and it's always about some personal
• 6:03
  transformation they've made in their life, or they've helped
• 6:07
  someone make they've empowered someone to live a better life.
• 6:09
  And so it always comes back to that, you know, that purpose
• 6:12
  driven benefit that we've given someone or given ourselves. And
• 6:16
  so it's, it's far be bigger than just treadmills. Me open 24
• 6:19
  hours. I mean, this is really about changing lives.
• 6:22
  Host: So how in the world do you justify reimbursing 3,000 people
• 6:28
  for a tattoo is driving profit?
• 6:31
  Chuck Runyon: You know, thankfully, I wasn't very good
• 6:33
  at the finance part of this growing up. I don't know. I
• 6:35
  mean, it don't, don't get me wrong. We have business optics
• 6:37
  on this that we have to, we have to measure. But we also use a
• 6:40
  term here called R, o, e, i, which is return, unemotional
• 6:44
  investment. And I just believe that a business can do more than
• 6:47
  just make money. And so I don't really know how to measure it,
• 6:51
  other than the fact that, man, it's like currency for the soul,
• 6:54
  right? I mean, not everything important can be measured. And
• 6:56
  so, you know, I just know that we've literally changed a
• 6:59
  person's life. We've changed 10s or hundreds of 1000s of people's
• 7:03
  lives, and we may never know that impact, but when our
• 7:06
  franchise owners put their head to their pillow at night and
• 7:09
  they go to sleep, man, it just it feels good to know that you
• 7:13
  stand for something that is meaningful in that community at
• 7:16
  a time when, unfortunately, the world's getting to an
• 7:19
  unhealthier place. You know, our values are that, hey, we're
• 7:22
  going to help people like get to their best selves. It may start
• 7:26
  with fitness and they start with coaching. May start with
• 7:28
  empathy, but, and I guess that's just tough to measure, other
• 7:31
  than you know that it's, it's currency for the soul. It's the
• 7:35
  only way I can really, really state it. You know that return
• 7:37
  on emotional investment, and yet you guys are crushing it. Yeah,
• 7:41
  we will surpass 4000 units in 33 countries, operating in 17
• 7:46
  different languages, on five continents. And I think we're
• 7:50
  one of only maybe 15 franchise brands to ever do that, and no
• 7:53
  one's done it in that amount of that speed, right that amount of
• 7:56
  time. So we've probably likely done something no other
• 7:58
  franchise brand has ever done before.
• 8:00
  Host: So let's talk about profit, since we're since we're
• 8:03
  on that because so the book is called LoveWork. It's written
• 8:06
  about a culture, and then you've got these four P's, people
• 8:10
  purpose, profits and play. So what is your philosophy towards profits?
• 8:14
  Chuck Runyon: I mean, look, it is the financial life blood of a
• 8:16
  business. And this was written specifically for those who are
• 8:19
  involved in a small to medium sized business. And make no
• 8:22
  mistake, you have to have financial profits in your
• 8:25
  business as why we work and the four P's are a formula that has
• 8:30
  to be linked together. But we make very clear in the book that
• 8:33
  if you take out profits, the other three cannot sustain
• 8:37
  themselves, right where, if you take out, say, purpose, you can
• 8:40
  still have a sustainable company with, like, people, profits and
• 8:43
  play. But I mean, again, you have to make money in a
• 8:46
  business. And by the way, when you're making money that
• 8:48
  provides opportunities for your team, you can reinvest in them,
• 8:51
  and you can change more lives which has more purpose and play.
• 8:54
  So, you know, financial, I mean, you have to, you have to
• 8:57
  perform, you have to make money. And so we talk about that, and
• 9:00
  you know, some of the and by the way, the book, I hope, like,
• 9:03
  when people read it, they get a sense of empathy for just how
• 9:06
  tough it is, and how much we admire those who who own their
• 9:09
  own business. And it tells us some, really, some stories about
• 9:13
  how we made mistakes, about when we were a smaller business, we
• 9:16
  just weren't very good at strategic planning. We weren't
• 9:18
  very good at budgeting, and we weren't very focused in how we
• 9:21
  apply our resources. And I can tell you if, after doing this
• 9:24
  now for 20 years and working with small businesses, most
• 9:26
  small small businesses are not very good at strategic planning.
• 9:30
  They're just not very rigorous or disciplined in their
• 9:33
  financial planning. And if I could go back in time, I wish I
• 9:36
  can do that. So this book walks you through some of that, and
• 9:38
  specifically how to do some of that for as being a small to
• 9:41
  medium sized business and but, but make no mistake. I mean
• 9:45
  this, you have to make money, you have to show profits to have
• 9:49
  a growing, successful business. And so, you know, that is the
• 9:52
  lens we operate from. We also talked about the currency
• 9:55
  lifestyle, but you know, a lot of it focused on knowing your
• 9:57
  numbers, knowing your strategy, and making sure. Or that your
• 10:00
  business is improving and growing.
• 10:02
  Host: So talk to me about purpose. How does the company
• 10:04
  find its purpose, or where does that come from? Or how do you
• 10:06
  bring that about?
• 10:07
  Chuck Runyon: Yeah, so in the book, we talk about like, you
• 10:10
  know, what if you sell widgets, right? What if you're not in the
• 10:12
  fitness space like we are, we give you some tips on how to
• 10:15
  find your purpose and how to elevate it within your company,
• 10:18
  amongst all of your stakeholders. So we're very
• 10:20
  explicit in that. But I got to tell you, you know, I remember,
• 10:23
  I've been in the fitness industry beyond almost 30 years
• 10:26
  now, and in my early years, I didn't use purpose, I didn't
• 10:29
  really understand how it would move people, how it would
• 10:32
  amplify their performance. And then I learned it with Anytime
• 10:35
  Fitness and the books, they'll give you some moments on when,
• 10:37
  like, I had this epiphany, and I started to see the difference on
• 10:41
  how it, like, really deeply stirs people from the inside,
• 10:45
  and like, you know, takes them to another level when it comes
• 10:47
  to, you know, working a little bit harder, asking an extra
• 10:49
  question. I mean, going the extra mile on behalf of the
• 10:52
  consumer. And so, you know, if you think just in basic terms
• 10:55
  of, you know, IQ, you know, using your head, and then what I
• 10:59
  like to call heart power and brain power. Yeah, you've
• 11:02
  combined those two. And so I really want to make sure that
• 11:05
  our team has their hearts into this initiative, not just a
• 11:09
  brain into this initiative. And when they put those two things
• 11:11
  together, I'm telling you, it really amplifies performance of
• 11:15
  a team of individuals and and I can just see it in their eyes.
• 11:18
  And so, you know, in the facts are right, millennials
• 11:22
  specifically, would rather work for a company they believe in
• 11:26
  and earn less than work for a company they don't believe in
• 11:29
  and work more. In our industry employs a considerable amount of
• 11:34
  millennials, so it's important to them that they have values
• 11:37
  and they can align with what the company stands for, and so and
• 11:41
  but I actually said, I think this is every generations now is
• 11:44
  kind of aligning to that. But if you do employ millennials, I
• 11:47
  mean, they care about more about purpose than maybe previous
• 11:49
  generations. And so to me, it just comes on performance. So
• 11:52
  it's, there's like, I call it the economics of purpose. It's,
• 11:55
  you know, people, I mean, they will get out of they would jump
• 11:58
  out of bed on a Monday morning ready to tackle that problem
• 12:00
  because they believe in the mission. They believe in what
• 12:02
  the company stands for, and as if it's combining your heart
• 12:05
  power
• 12:05
  Host: What are some things as the leader that you think you
• 12:08
  guys do that helps sort of cultivate that sense of purpose?
• 12:11
  Chuck Runyon: Yeah, one of my favorite movies is It's a
• 12:14
  Wonderful Life with George Bailey, and we talk, you know,
• 12:17
  George Bailey, if you remember, gets a chance to see what would
• 12:20
  have happened if he was had never been born? Right? How
• 12:23
  would his town and the people around him been impacted? And so
• 12:26
  we use that as one of the examples in the book is, what if
• 12:29
  your company had never existed? Right? Who would be impacted,
• 12:32
  whether it be providing jobs to some of your employees, or
• 12:35
  whether it's the value of your products and services and how
• 12:38
  they're making your met your consumers lives better. And so
• 12:41
  start with, if our business didn't exist, who would be
• 12:44
  impacted? And then once you start to see, hey, look, yeah,
• 12:47
  we are doing something that provides value to people. Now
• 12:50
  you've got to find a way to tell that story. And so we do that in
• 12:53
  our internal meetings. We actually invest in some videos
• 12:56
  to, you know, share how we've impacted our franchise owners,
• 13:00
  impacted our members. And so, you know, I think a CEO has to
• 13:03
  be, in part, a storyteller of how the brand impacts the world,
• 13:06
  right, how, with the service and product we provide, how it
• 13:09
  enriches people's lives. And so we just frequently do that in
• 13:12
  various forms of medium, whether it is, you know, written,
• 13:15
  whether it's oral storytelling at our meetings, at all staff
• 13:18
  events and at our annual conferences, that's the
• 13:21
  signature moment when we invest in some very nice creative
• 13:24
  videos to explain that, hey, we do more than just make money. We
• 13:27
  actually impact people in profound ways. And so once you
• 13:30
  find out how you do it, now you gotta invest in some
• 13:33
  storytelling. It's so easy to identify with a cause. I mean,
• 13:36
  that's another thing, if you just make something like
• 13:39
  shoelaces, right? It doesn't seem like it's that romantic or
• 13:42
  that that sexy or life changing. But guess what? Any company can
• 13:45
  go out there and find the cause to identify with. There are so
• 13:48
  many, you know, big or micro causes in your community. Find
• 13:51
  one. You know, you can have your company devote a little bit of
• 13:55
  time, a little bit of resource, a little bit of money, host some
• 13:58
  fundraising events, you know, galvanize your team around a
• 14:01
  cause. I mean, that's another idea here in the book. It does
• 14:04
  not have to be a direct link, like we are to health. You know,
• 14:07
  if you make something that's a bit more obscure, there's still
• 14:11
  no excuse why you can't infuse some purpose into your company
• 14:14
  by saying, hey, that's what we stand for, and we want to help
• 14:17
  this, you know, this cause or this group of people.
• 14:20
  Host: Not to suggest that those of you that are in the shoelace
• 14:23
  making business aren't important. You're saying that
• 14:25
  this, this storytelling, that's one of the most important roles
• 14:29
  of like, you know, the CEO.
• 14:30
  Chuck Runyon: I really do, the CEO has to be the one, or, you
• 14:33
  know, the senior leadership team. It's about Look, here's
• 14:36
  what the values of our organization, here's what we
• 14:38
  stand for, here's the impact that we have. And in our
• 14:41
  strategic meetings, I mean, we will mix some of these purpose
• 14:44
  stories to say, look, if we do X, we will get y, like, we'll
• 14:48
  get the financial return. But let's also talk about the you
• 14:51
  know, what's going to happen to the frantic center? What's going
• 14:54
  to happen to our employees, what's going to happen to our
• 14:57
  members. We talk in, sometimes the emotional. And sometimes in
• 15:00
  what's very difficult to measure, we talk about that
• 15:03
  because, again, our team cares about more than just reporting a
• 15:07
  profit. And so yes, I do think it's important to get buy in.
• 15:10
  It's got to be top down. And I think the CEO has to mention it
• 15:13
  in, whether it's a State of the Union to the team, whether it's,
• 15:16
  you know, to the network, but I think it has to be part of the
• 15:20
  storytelling that goes on frequently, and I even do it in
• 15:23
  social media, whether it is through Twitter or through
• 15:26
  Instagram or through our internal dashboards. I mean, I'm
• 15:29
  always trying to put out there. You know, here's what we do,
• 15:32
  here's what we stand for, and here's how we're going to
• 15:35
  improve people's lives.
• 15:36
  Host: Let's talk about play. You got people purpose, profits and
• 15:40
  play, and you're you. You got play as a centerpiece of your
• 15:43
  culture. Talk to me about the balance of work and play.
• 15:47
  Chuck Runyon: I think it is a balance. I think it's the one
• 15:49
  big aspect that most leaders really struggle with, because
• 15:52
  they've, you know, they're serious, right? They want to get
• 15:55
  serious work done. And so in the book, we talk about there is
• 15:58
  science behind play in the workplace and how it fosters
• 16:01
  collaboration and creativity and alleviate stress. And we use
• 16:04
  terms like, let's take the work seriously without taking
• 16:07
  ourselves seriously, and that makes us more approachable,
• 16:10
  which gives us better relationships with our with our
• 16:13
  franchisees. But you know, even in our meetings, right? We can
• 16:16
  be kind of playful, which allows us to to be, you know, to be
• 16:19
  vulnerable and like put up ideas on the wall that may or may not
• 16:22
  work or seem foolish, but that may lead to another idea. The
• 16:25
  simple fact is this, we spend over half our waking hours at
• 16:28
  work. We do this more than we sleep. We spend more time here
• 16:31
  than we do with our friends and family. And I just think we
• 16:35
  should have a little bit more fun. It doesn't mean we don't
• 16:38
  take the work seriously. But you know, seven out of 10 people
• 16:41
  drive to work like disenchanted with what they're doing. They're
• 16:44
  emotionally neutral, or they hate their work. That's
• 16:47
  according to Gallup, and that has not moved in like, 20 years.
• 16:50
  Seven out of 10 people hate their work. I'm like that to me,
• 16:53
  seems like a miserable existence. I want to drive to
• 16:55
  work something I'm going to devote over half my waking hours
• 16:59
  to at something I enjoy, with people enjoying something I
• 17:01
  stand for, and so I gotta have fun. And you know, I'm telling
• 17:05
  you, there is you can there's a science behind it. It is another
• 17:08
  one of the four P's that just elevates your team's
• 17:10
  performance. And I know leaders have a tough time like embracing
• 17:14
  it, but if, but if you read the book, it has ideas in there,
• 17:17
  it's got tips in there, it's got some stories there, and it has
• 17:20
  the data and science to show that play in the workplace makes
• 17:23
  sense.
• 17:23
  Host: Alright, I have one more question for you. So before
• 17:26
  that, where do you, where should people go, Chuck, if they want
• 17:28
  to connect with you, or, you know, learn about the book, or whatever.
• 17:32
  Chuck Runyon: They can get the book on Amazon. It is just
• 17:34
  simply LoveWork. One word, by Chuck Runyon and Dave Mortensen.
• 17:37
  Host: Awesome. Well, the last thing, if somebody is listening,
• 17:40
  let's say they are a medium sized business owner, a big
• 17:43
  business owner, even small business owner or whatever.
• 17:46
  What's the very first thing you would tell them, the first thing
• 17:50
  you can do that will start to move the needle on restoring the
• 17:53
  health of your culture.
• 17:54
  Chuck Runyon: Be very transparent, be very vulnerable,
• 17:56
  and get your team like just simply go sit with them, asking
• 17:59
  questions. Say, Hey, I would love to improve the workplace
• 18:02
  culture here. I think we all would, right. We all want a
• 18:05
  better place to work. How can we do that? I mean, just your team
• 18:09
  is eager to give great ideas and to give perspectives, and they
• 18:12
  want a great workplace environment too. They really do.
• 18:15
  And so this is not just all dependent on the leader, right?
• 18:18
  Just simply go to them and say, I don't have all the answers,
• 18:21
  but let's make a goal here in the next year to have a great
• 18:24
  workplace environment. That is that's all about high
• 18:27
  performance, but can also be about more. It can be, we can
• 18:30
  have some fun along the way, and we can, we can impact some
• 18:33
  people. How can we do that together? So I think if you
• 18:36
  really bring the team in, and they all buy in, and they can
• 18:39
  all weigh in, man, you get you suddenly got the whole team
• 18:42
  aligned to like making this a great place.
• 18:44
  Host: Chuck Runyon, Chuck man, thanks for being an innovator
• 18:48
  and for advancing the currency of the soul. I really appreciate
• 18:52
  it, man.
• 18:53
  Chuck Runyon: Been a pleasure. Thank you very much.