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Transcript

How Studio Softwares Are Helping Business Grow · Gym Business Coach Podcast

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, right, welcome back to the Jim Business Coach podcast.
0:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Tim Lyons, joined today, special guest, flew in from out of town just for this podcast.
0:11
[SPEAKER_01]: We have the CEO of founder of Well This Living, then Friedman, how you doing, buddy?
0:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, this is great.
0:16
[SPEAKER_00]: What up?
0:17
[SPEAKER_00]: What up?
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, Ace, you got here.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks.
0:19
[SPEAKER_00]: My first time here.
0:20
[SPEAKER_00]: This is absolutely incredible.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
0:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm really glad to be here with you.
0:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally, this is a lifetime coming like an Arizona.
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You know what, Arizona, I gotta say, it's one of my favorite places.
0:33
[SPEAKER_00]: I love just the vegetation, the cactus.
0:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And I love that.
0:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, lack of vegetation.
0:39
[SPEAKER_00]: No, but the stuff that's here is like super unique.
0:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
0:43
[SPEAKER_00]: The cactus guy, like the rocky, I like the mountain look.
0:46
[SPEAKER_00]: I, you know, this is, uh, and the air is like dry and yeah, I love it here.
0:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I've lived your my whole life and I moved a couple of times and I just keep coming back me.
0:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
0:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
0:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So why, man, will you welcome and to add you guys or wellness living is the title sponsor of the Gross Summit.
1:03
[SPEAKER_01]: We're excited to have you there at there.
1:05
[SPEAKER_01]: You're speaking at the Gross Summit.
1:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You're also doing a lunch and learn on the first day for everybody.
1:10
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole, all the whole, everybody gets lunch.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: You're going to be speaking again.
1:13
[SPEAKER_01]: They're going to get a lot of lend-free.
1:15
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you going to be talking about, man?
1:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, you know what?
1:18
[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to be going over a lot of stuff.
1:19
[SPEAKER_00]: But the big thing at that event is all going to be about data.
1:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
1:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So we process
1:26
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, billions of dollars annually in credit card processing fees for gym memberships, you know, 7,500 plus studios.
1:37
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of data that we have.
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Gym visits, class bookings, personal training.
1:43
[SPEAKER_00]: We know what people are buying.
1:44
[SPEAKER_00]: We understand sort of where a gym should be.
1:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to be sharing a lot of that information.
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: What a successful Jim really looks like.
1:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh, that's exciting.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Have you ever shared this information before?
2:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Ever on stage?
2:02
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
2:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, you're going to have an exclusive data from the source.
2:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You're the source of the data, right?
2:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So you process all these, you know, all the credit cards and all the, you have all the data, man.
2:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what's exciting to me because
2:16
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, as a Jim owner, and again, but we're jumping ahead, but as a Jim owner, I remember my first couple of years in business, I was working my ass off just trying to make the ends meet and everything and then I got my P&L, you know, from my account and I'm like, awesome, is this good or is this bad, like how am I doing and I never really knew like there was never industry reports of like what the average Jim does and now after work with so many gems, we kind of know, but like even then it's just.
2:44
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... anecdotal right like i i i've seen thousands of gyms p n ls this is what about what everybody's making but you have
2:52
[SPEAKER_01]: the real data, right?
2:53
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got it all, you know, 75 hundred of them.
2:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, it's, it's really amazing.
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think like there's definite patterns that you spot of what a successful gym does and what a gym that's just doing like, okay.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
3:07
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't want to be on the okay gym, right?
3:09
[SPEAKER_00]: You want to be the one that's really killing it, driving, revving, driving profits.
3:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, there's going to be some interesting insights disclosed that that event.
3:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So I don't want to spill the bill.
3:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Those fill the VDA.
3:22
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, we found some really, really, some patterns.
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Right?
3:26
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just about comparing yourself to a benchmark.
3:30
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to you want to identify those patterns of what a successful gym owner does and you want to replicate that course.
3:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course.
3:40
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exciting.
3:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That's exactly what I want to I'm going to be right there in the front row, man.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to get off the stage and I'm going to go sit down.
3:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But listen, let's talk about wellness for a second.
3:49
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, wellness living is a big player in, you know, the gym management software.
3:55
[SPEAKER_00]: for those of that of the listeners never heard a well in this living before given the like the origin story of how you guys you know sure sure came to be okay so it's a long story for i'm gonna try to condense it uh... back in uh... two thousand and nine uh... i lost my job
4:15
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was working at a publicly traded medical imaging software company I worked there for nearly a decade, senior management, some restructuring, I lost my job and I'm like, what do I want to do with my life, when you grow up, yeah, you know, and you know, I had a young daughter had a mortgage payments on the house.
4:36
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, do I want to stay in this industry work at, you know, software company and another one or do I want to pursue my passion?
4:46
[SPEAKER_00]: My passion has always been training the gym, you know, kind of, you know,
4:53
[SPEAKER_00]: ever since I was an adult, I just love going to the gym and just transforming myself physically and it just, it's just an amazing thing.
5:05
[SPEAKER_00]: And I watch some of my friends.
5:08
[SPEAKER_00]: that we work out together, they're like losing a bunch of weight, getting thick, getting healthier.
5:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, you know, this is a great, a great opportunity for me to pursue something that I love, I love fitness.
5:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's make a business out of it.
5:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
5:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So I started a boot camp company.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
5:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Out my neighborhood park.
5:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And I blew that up, and this was in early of 2010, 2011.
5:31
[SPEAKER_00]: This is, yeah, early 2010.
5:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was all the rage.
5:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Boot camp was like a trending topic.
5:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Boot camp was trending.
5:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the same time, group on was trending.
5:41
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember this.
5:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So I rode that wave and I grew that boot camp to be really the largest outdoor boot camp program in North America.
5:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
5:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
5:51
[SPEAKER_00]: And I kind of I kind of watched my boot camp.
5:54
[SPEAKER_00]: I had classes with 160 people plus and one instructor.
5:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, I was in Vancouver, Calgary Edmonton, Miami, yeah, obviously Toronto, and I watched some of my friends who owned a gym and who started, yeah, yeah, I wanted to start some yoga classes at my gym, having trouble getting members to sign up, and I'd be like, okay, well that's interesting.
6:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I have weightless at my boot camps, and I have this group on offer coming up, maybe we could do something together.
6:27
[SPEAKER_00]: So I actually invented this concept of a discovery pass.
6:32
[SPEAKER_00]: This was like 2010, and class pass didn't exist at that time.
6:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought, well, I'm having such success on group on my boot camps.
6:44
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go and call up gyms, and I'm going to ask them, hey, or yoga studios, spin studios, CrossFit boxes.
6:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you're class is full and they're like, no, well, okay, which classes need people.
6:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You're like, oh, you know, my 630 class, you know, need some people and I'm like, okay, well, how many people do they need?
7:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they need 10.
7:06
[SPEAKER_00]: I can use 10 extra.
7:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I got, you know, 20 people coming 30 spots.
7:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
7:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Sam, try to get me 10.
7:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, okay, great.
7:13
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to go and I'm going to combine all of these.
7:16
[SPEAKER_00]: and sell it on group on as an aggregate pass.
7:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
7:19
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was really the first person to ever do that.
7:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And then I met my business partner and we scaled that to 2500 participating gyms and studios across 73 cities.
7:35
[SPEAKER_01]: In the aggregated pass.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: aggregated.
7:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So were you benefiting from the financially from making those sales because you were putting the deals together?
7:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
7:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you would get all the call of names and then you would send them out.
7:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Time to send them out.
7:46
[SPEAKER_00]: And I'd be using my body as the booking platform.
7:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
7:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
7:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
7:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And early on, you know, even when I had my boot camp, I, you know, that first boot camp I had 25 people show up.
7:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I came with my, you know, my clipboard and my sign in.
8:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
8:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm looking at this.
8:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I go, I can't.
8:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't, this is, this is, I can't scale this, what am I going to do with this?
8:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I need software.
8:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I went on the hunt for software.
8:10
[SPEAKER_00]: My body was really the big player and really the only one.
8:14
[SPEAKER_00]: And even when I was doing the passes, I mean, we were using my body.
8:19
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, within,
8:23
[SPEAKER_00]: the years that we were operating, we sold in excess of, you know, 600,000 of these passes.
8:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
8:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
8:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
8:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So you're using mind body.
8:31
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, mind body.
8:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yep.
8:33
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah.
8:35
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, they didn't treat me very well.
8:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was brutal and they were constantly increasing the pricing they were I sent my body maybe over a thousand customers or early days because they'd be called I had 2,500 participating studios across North America they had maybe 13,000 and they'd be calling you like land this is you know like how are you doing the scheduling and I'm like well you just
9:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I use my body here, give them a call, right?
9:06
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, so I must have sent at least a thousand over.
9:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And they were increasing the price.
9:13
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't really listening.
9:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like a huge customer there's, obviously.
9:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And to their point, they weren't really monetizing us appropriately in the beginning.
9:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I had five mind-body accounts with like 2,500 studios, 600,000 people.
9:32
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, yeah, right, like I understand, but when you do negotiate an agreement, you know, that's your word, right, and when you go back on your word several times, right, it's almost like, you know, it's almost like extortion, because they could just cut you off at any moment, and your business is done, how are people going to book their classes?
10:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So we made a decision to basically build our own basic booking platform to facilitate what we were doing with the promotions and the passes.
10:11
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the studios would be calling us, land like, this is so easy.
10:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Like scheduling is like a piece of cake.
10:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Like can you guys do, can we sell memberships?
10:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we do reporting?
10:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Can we do email marketing?
10:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're like, no, no, like we don't,
10:26
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't want to do any of that.
10:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We just want to do this pass.
10:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we're just doing the passes.
10:30
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just sending you people.
10:31
[SPEAKER_01]: We're helping you convert them into members.
10:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Like you were like an agency at the same time as a bootcamp owner as a same time as you created the software to solve the, you know, your own problem.
10:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
10:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's interesting.
10:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
10:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, they, they, they started more and more started calling and finally they were like, look, like,
10:50
[SPEAKER_00]: We hate this other software.
10:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Please, Len, we'll pay you just get us off of this.
10:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
10:57
[SPEAKER_00]: And that was really sort of a light bulb moment.
11:00
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, we basically took us about two years, two and a half years to get to the point where we can go commercial with the softness is like 2,000, early 2,000, 16.
11:18
[SPEAKER_00]: And we launched and yeah, we're, you know, one of North America's fastest growing software companies two years in the row and delight interesting.
11:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, man, what a great story, but see that's that's the right way to.
11:33
[SPEAKER_01]: That's like the way you would hope a company would create like be created by the user who's who's trying to solve their own problems so you already know like what the gym owners need yeah and instead of like an outside guy that's just a software nerd coming in and trying to build a software solution you have like that you had the laboratory
11:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, and, you know, and that's exactly it and, you know, just from my background, you know, I managed to kind of combine, you know, what I did in the past with the software company.
12:02
[SPEAKER_00]: I was really up in the process guy there.
12:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I kind of revamped the entire org there for a process perspective.
12:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I did UI work, I did user manual, so I had the full sort of breath of kind of understanding of what it takes to build software apart from the actual coding.
12:23
[SPEAKER_00]: So I didn't really do any coding, but I was more of the on the product scenario front.
12:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Gotcha and so it's so interesting group on I remember this that I those were the hate days right like people were just dying You know by a group on because it was a deal.
12:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and then from the gym owner.
12:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean there's people this area And I have no idea what group on this.
12:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, we were there like that was one of the things I grew a lot of our businesses What the hell is the group on thing of today?
12:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even I mean it ain't it's not Facebook anymore
12:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Google that it's all the standard stuff is still there like that's always been there there's no exponential growth yeah yeah anymore yeah it's kind of like exactly so you have to be you know when you're marketing for your gym when you're doing any yet if you're super strategic
13:09
[SPEAKER_00]: really fine-tune those ads, the messaging, heavy on SEO stuff, and now got AI, and the LLMs have recommendations too now.
13:23
[SPEAKER_00]: A lot of people are typing in, and chatGPT.
13:26
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to work out today.
13:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Where do I go?
13:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's how I search today.
13:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't even search on Google much anymore.
13:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And even Google gives you the AI, you know, response there now too, but like, yeah, if you're not on, if you're not on, with the call AEO, no, or LLMEO, like, what is there's different GEO and then got it, you got it, you know, it's all the same.
13:47
[SPEAKER_00]: It's you, you want to be, you want to be there.
13:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's certain things that you have to do.
13:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, get yourself that got you.
13:53
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so you got the wellness, let me platform us up and running now.
13:56
[SPEAKER_01]: What are we, we're in 10th year?
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Is that what it sounds like?
13:58
[SPEAKER_01]: 10th of a year?
13:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
14:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Decade, a decade in the game.
14:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, what decade?
14:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we incorporated in 2013, two years to build.
14:06
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, two and a half years.
14:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
14:10
[SPEAKER_00]: It's cool.
14:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I know, it's like yesterday, right?
14:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So, so congratulations on that.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: What's the, you know, what's the big vision now for wellness, where you guys going?
14:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Look, we're just in heavy growth mode.
14:22
[SPEAKER_00]: it's it's super exciting work you know our bread and butter has always been you know a fitness studio um but we are expanding it to other verticals okay and and there really there's a lot of synergies that happen when you when you do that that we have an exploited yet so what I mean by that let's say we have a lot of um a many spas um we have a lot of a massage uh product practitioners
14:52
[SPEAKER_00]: to Jim's and fitness studios.
14:55
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the visions that we have is, how do we intermingle those clients and refer businesses to get that referral thing going?
15:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have this thing?
15:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so that's something that we're working on and it's a big initiative for, because that's where we see
15:15
[SPEAKER_00]: the most value as far as, you know, what are the things that a gym owner's struggling with?
15:21
[SPEAKER_00]: We're struggling with to bring in new people, to retain new people, and to engage with the ones that they already have, right?
15:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Or win, win, win folks back.
15:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're tackling each of those elements with the software and with the relationships that we have with the 1500, the 7500 studios in our network.
15:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to get pretty creative in the next year or so to get that to get that going, but I think it's much needed.
15:54
[SPEAKER_00]: No one's really doing that effectively.
15:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, it would be interesting to see a conference from wellness.
16:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you do one like this, but like a conference where you bring all your users together in a certain demographic area, I should say.
16:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah.
16:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe it's a not necessarily networking, but it's a cross-reference referral network kind of deal.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: where you get to meet other owners and other industries.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, obviously, you wouldn't want to recommend somebody to your competitor down the street, but if we're recommend to a Cairo or a physiotherap, or a misoggio, whatever, that might work.
16:30
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, so we work together pretty closely over the last year on this marketing suite.
16:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really cool.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It's really cool what your team's done in the back end of this thing We just launched it you launched it what on April 29th.
16:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, any early information back on users.
16:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean just a lot of positive things You know, they're like wow, you know, you guys finally did it
16:52
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we've been talking about it and we did have a, you know, a marketing suite called 1.0, which was really rudimentary.
16:59
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a lot of limitations with it, but now you have like a full power marketing suite behind you.
17:09
[SPEAKER_00]: But the most important thing is that the cadenses and the journeys are there.
17:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So you don't have to create
17:20
[SPEAKER_00]: burn key.
17:22
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we layered in AI into it to really kind of personalize it to the actual business owner.
17:29
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just, it's just easy where you don't have to go in and write any copy or test any A, B, you know, subject.
17:41
[SPEAKER_00]: All of that is done for you, right?
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: It's great.
17:44
[SPEAKER_01]: and that is really thanks to you all like you because you've done that you've done the test yeah yeah yeah we did all the testing for years and that was it was fun that was like where my head went it was like I've I'm a big study of marketing and yeah records fonts and copywriting all that stuff
18:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And so yeah, you've got all that stuff in there, which is super cool.
18:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, it has been a missing piece, because we were big users of mine body before we switched the wellness living, and you know, and everything is said, it's like, I think that's still going on.
18:14
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't appreciate the client.
18:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm not the knock-on, but like, I don't know anybody that's that loves him.
18:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, look, everybody's got to get a complaint somewhere in there.
18:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, look, software software.
18:25
[SPEAKER_00]: There's always going to be some issues with every kind of software, but I think the bottom line is, do you have a software company that truly cares about your business?
18:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is vestating your success.
18:41
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, truthfully, I think, operating at this scale, I think I'm the last founder CEO left.
18:50
[SPEAKER_00]: Interesting.
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
18:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, because these guys are all bought out and stuff like that.
18:54
[SPEAKER_00]: They've been bought out multiple times.
18:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, I see.
18:56
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
18:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, kind of place, figurehead CEOs in a lot of cases.
19:01
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's different.
19:03
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, they answer to the investor.
19:08
[SPEAKER_00]: right.
19:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I answer to our customers.
19:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
19:13
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
19:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And our whole company answers to our customer.
19:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
19:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's one thing I will say, like you guys do listen.
19:19
[SPEAKER_01]: People pick up the phone.
19:20
[SPEAKER_01]: They get back to an email.
19:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And they actually do the thing that you suggest.
19:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, which is super cool and very rare by the way.
19:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So yeah, I said that does make that I didn't really I didn't think about that, right?
19:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Venture capital comes in.
19:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
19:33
[SPEAKER_01]: They buy it out.
19:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They got investors and they got to
19:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
19:37
[SPEAKER_00]: And really, you know, three years ago, we did a big liquidity event and raised a bunch of capital.
19:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And there was an opportunity that there to, you know, exit completely.
19:48
[SPEAKER_00]: And but we have just an absolutely incredible minority investor.
19:55
[SPEAKER_00]: They're called M1 Capital out of Omaha, just incredible group of people that really understand the mindset of like a founder and understand that, in order to be successful, it's all about the customer.
20:13
[SPEAKER_00]: like, you know, you cannot have a successful company.
20:17
[SPEAKER_00]: If your focus isn't on the customer, who you're serving, right?
20:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you do, well, do good by the customer, you're going to be a success.
20:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, that's just, it's inevitable.
20:30
[SPEAKER_00]: You just keep doing the right thing, the, the good thing, and you're going to, you're going to be successful.
20:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, something to take home for the audience here, right?
20:38
[SPEAKER_01]: The gyms, you know, yeah, a hush from our focus, right?
20:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Because we're focused.
20:43
[SPEAKER_00]: 100% and, you know, say what you will about, like, Amazon, Jeff Bezos, you know, that's his number one.
20:51
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... principal is smear first customer obsession obsessed around the customer yet we got a chance to uh... meet a gentleman named Jesse Cole he is the founder of the savanna bananas and he came in and spoke to our group of the iron circle so you ever seen the guy with the yellow suit on he's playing baseball he reinvented baseball at that level so he created banana ball you heard of this no
21:14
[SPEAKER_01]: No one.
21:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
21:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Look this guy up, man.
21:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Amazing.
21:18
[SPEAKER_01]: It's called fans first.
21:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It's his book.
21:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Fans first.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he, yeah, so it's a great story.
21:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Bottom line is this.
21:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Every move they make every decision they make is for the customer and the fan.
21:29
[SPEAKER_01]: They call it the fan.
21:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
21:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And so there's no, um,
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything's all inclusive on the ticket goes he goes I hate a nickel and diamond people for hot dogs in this You get a ticket you get a dog you get a total whatever you want there's no fees or taxes on anything They take care of everything So it's a flat rate for this no card for parking you show up and you enjoy the game and we're there for you And it's really cool and so now they've got
21:54
[SPEAKER_01]: six million people on a waiting list to buy tickets.
21:58
[SPEAKER_01]: They are a harder ticket to get the Taylor Swift.
22:00
[SPEAKER_00]: That's awesome.
22:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And so to your point, it's all about the customer and a fan, your customers.
22:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
22:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's common sense, but the point you made is like once the investors get involved, it's not about the customer financials.
22:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, financials.
22:16
[SPEAKER_00]: And then, you know, there's that,
22:19
[SPEAKER_00]: That delicate balance, you know, but at the end of the day you like the business decision has to be around what is best for the customer to go.
22:30
[SPEAKER_01]: that's the big takeaway here folks guys uh... you know a lot of us are looking up in a thousand and you know uh... you know you've had it sometimes you have to make hard decision to make less money uh... because you know for whatever reason right you could raise rates and you decide not to or whatever i mean we're always pushing the raise rates by the way on this podcast no we we we we
22:51
[SPEAKER_01]: What we do as an industry is such a big value we undercharge for it, a hundred percent.
22:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And so maybe maybe we can get into some of that data on stage and what the best gyms are charging versus the ones that are kind of struggling or whatever, but there was a state of the industry report that came out cash.
23:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, every year comes out, but like, you know, in a class based model.
23:11
[SPEAKER_00]: about $159 a month on limited classes, is that what you're seeing on your end or you don't know what yeah we have we have our but geography plays a critical you know what works here may not work in Miami okay you know like advice versus just the the demographic of the people that you're serving for really really varies and it's it's really based on geography
23:37
[SPEAKER_00]: But in general, if you just look at the industry and at a high level,
23:48
[SPEAKER_00]: There's no reason why people can't pay $1,000 a month interesting for their health.
23:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, right.
23:53
[SPEAKER_00]: Like course.
23:54
[SPEAKER_00]: What is more important than your well-being?
23:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
24:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
24:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I have so many things to say on this topic.
24:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's ridiculous what people will pay for prescriptions and quick fixes and you know, the easy button versus the hard work side.
24:12
[SPEAKER_01]: when we all know and we live over here and we enjoy it, most people don't enjoy it.
24:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It just don't.
24:16
[SPEAKER_01]: What we sell in that room over there is hard work, the leg gratification, it's soreness, it's discipline, that's not real attractive, right?
24:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if you think about it, to the regular, to the mom and dad, right, you know,
24:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That's not attractive.
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: What is attractive is, oh, I could take this shot in, you know, I won't eat as much and I don't have to do anything.
24:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's that's why it's a multi-billion dollar GLP ones and all these things.
24:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's, so we know that.
24:45
[SPEAKER_01]: But what we have to do as owners and operators that make it feel like the easy button is out there.
24:51
[SPEAKER_01]: because we know that's the right way.
24:53
[SPEAKER_01]: We believe it, right?
24:54
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's something we teach our clients.
24:57
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got to realize what we are selling here is not super attractive.
25:02
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you know, it's interesting because I guess part of the part of that struggle is really changing their mindset in regards to the fitness and the act of like working out, like, I don't know, I'm sure when you go, when you go and work out, it's like me, it's like a reward.
25:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
25:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Love it, that day is better.
25:23
[SPEAKER_00]: The day is better, right?
25:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like I accomplished something.
25:28
[SPEAKER_00]: This is this is my this is I might be doing stuff at, you know, throughout the day that might not be the best But when I get into the gym, this is my time to reward myself.
25:38
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna get in here.
25:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna because it just releases Like it's it's it's it's a physical thing, right, releases all these indoor fins and there's a
25:47
[SPEAKER_00]: just in a better mood after, and it's getting people in that routine and changing that mindset and treating it like this is your reward for a day.
25:59
[SPEAKER_00]: If you start working out, first thing in the morning, that's your reward, you know, difficult to get in here.
26:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Right, it's difficult to get any bluencher in here.
26:10
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, this is like paradise.
26:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
26:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, preach it to the choir and everybody listens like, yeah, I'm not in their heads, right?
26:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, of course, of course.
26:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's just jump back real quick to software for a second.
26:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Where do you feel, you know, well, this is gone in this path.
26:24
[SPEAKER_01]: You just release marketing, C2.0.
26:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You got the AI kind of built into that thing to write stuff.
26:29
[SPEAKER_01]: What do you think?
26:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, this is maybe missing the mark right now that you guys are trying to fill, right?
26:35
[SPEAKER_01]: What maybe even as an industry, as the membership management software, where, what's everybody missing the mark on, where you guys are going to fill?
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh-huh.
26:42
[SPEAKER_00]: That's it.
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a, that's a great, that's a great question.
26:45
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, um, and we're working through it.
26:49
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, I think, in, in a lot of ways, uh, a lot of companies are just kind of like, okay, here's the software, figure it out.
26:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Gotcha, but like this is it we can give you some training some basic training here's some manuals or whatever you know like figure it out okay right and I think by really
27:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Having those built-in tools where they're kind of done for you, like how we start doing with the cadences in the marketing piece is huge.
27:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And no one's really doing that effectively for all aspects of the software.
27:30
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're not just, so there's like a rewards program, for example.
27:33
[SPEAKER_00]: We have a great rewards system.
27:35
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's a little, it's a little hard to set up, right?
27:39
[SPEAKER_00]: For for the average business.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: That's true.
27:41
[SPEAKER_00]: So they're like, okay, I don't really know what this means or I don't, I don't really know how best to, so they don't use it.
27:47
[SPEAKER_00]: So they might not use it, right?
27:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Got it.
27:50
[SPEAKER_00]: And by providing sort of done for you, modeled systems where you could just literally come in there and turn it on and it's like, whoa, I have a rewards program.
28:01
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a marketing retention kit and set up.
28:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I have this, everything's on it.
28:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Done for you, right?
28:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Done for you to turn key is what you're feeling the voice.
28:11
[SPEAKER_00]: What we're leveraging AI to do a lot of that.
28:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So any kind of new release that we do, it's heavily kind of baked AI into it.
28:22
[SPEAKER_01]: So just ask it, you just tell what you want it and it goes and built it for you.
28:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, or yeah, or you click a button in it and it just basically okay, I need to I need a thing I need a new email boom there there there's right to out for you based on your own cuz you know yours you're saved a cup company information because it understands you yes yes, and that's how we built like Casey are our AI agent.
28:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Same way, we just fed it all your customer data, website, all your classes, class schedule, all your staff profiles, your about us section, and you can add more to it.
29:00
[SPEAKER_00]: So you train the model on your business, and it's pre-chained already.
29:05
[SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to do anything.
29:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there a world, now we're getting into the weeds?
29:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there a world where your Casey can look at your database and find people that or at risk and go and engage with them on already?
29:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Like go, hey, check it in on you.
29:24
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's a great question.
29:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So we were actually the very, I don't know how many years ago I think this was like going on.
29:30
[SPEAKER_00]: four or five years ago.
29:32
[SPEAKER_00]: We were the first to implement AI within our software.
29:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So we built something called Isaac, right?
29:38
[SPEAKER_00]: We actually got a government grant, a research grant.
29:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And we work with the University of York University out in Toronto and they developed a machine learning algorithm that did just that turn predictor.
29:51
[SPEAKER_00]: OK.
29:52
[SPEAKER_00]: So it would basically spit out, hey, these are the clients that have a high probability of learning.
29:57
[SPEAKER_00]: I did recommend that you reach out to them.
29:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Does it reach out automatically?
30:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Now it does.
30:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
30:03
[SPEAKER_01]: How cool is that?
30:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, so you don't realize it.
30:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Did you hear that?
30:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Things in a go out and talk to your database, find the people are at risk and go and re-engage with them automatically.
30:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
30:12
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not just email.
30:13
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a mess.
30:14
[SPEAKER_00]: As a mess, it's really the most important, right?
30:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's a mess.
30:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there a world where as the CEO of a fitness at business, that's using wellness, you can have it auto create reports that say, hey, I'm seeing this trend in a negative manner.
30:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, all right.
30:33
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's, so I don't, this is kind of like in our sort of inventory, still?
30:39
[SPEAKER_00]: It is, but it's getting close.
30:42
[SPEAKER_00]: So just kind of going back to what is a business owner need.
30:47
[SPEAKER_00]: What they need data, but more importantly, they need someone to help interpret that data for them, right?
30:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And not only interpret the data, but give them action items on what they need to do better to get better.
31:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're actually leveraging AI a lot for that.
31:11
[SPEAKER_00]: But also we have a whole team of people that we're building that will be basically helping the business owner with the business.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
31:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of.
31:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Business coaches at scale.
31:23
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's kind of like.
31:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Because again, like we have the data.
31:30
[SPEAKER_00]: And we know what's good.
31:32
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're feeding the AI, training every day, every day.
31:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to have these just these incredible reports, so cool.
31:42
[SPEAKER_00]: And we're calling like a business audit.
31:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So we do a business audit and we show hey look this is where you're revenues at this is where you're leaking This is your highest performing staff members.
31:52
[SPEAKER_00]: This is your and it's all in a report format that The business coach will go in and interpret all of those results and then there'll be some action items
32:03
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's coming out, huh?
32:05
[SPEAKER_00]: That's coming out.
32:07
[SPEAKER_00]: We don't have a definitive date because we're still, we have a few businesses currently in the pilot phase of this.
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: But we're really, really excited about this because again, it kind of,
32:22
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a lot of business owners look, they didn't get into this because they're MBAs, right?
32:28
[SPEAKER_00]: They got into this because they love fitness and they love helping people and they want to see people transform, they want to see people happy, healthy and fit.
32:36
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't know how to run a business, right?
32:39
[SPEAKER_00]: So by providing, by providing sort of those insights and kind of guiding them along, I think it's, I think it's gonna be really transformative.
32:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's fantastic.
32:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Always innovating.
32:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
32:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, then that's awesome.
32:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we're excited to have you out the gross summit.
32:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
32:57
[SPEAKER_01]: You're taking this stage day one right after me.
32:59
[SPEAKER_01]: You got the lunch there.
33:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Your whole team's going to be there.
33:03
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, if somebody wanted to have more interest, can we just put a link in the show notes that send somebody to go sign up with wellness if they had interest?
33:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, of course.
33:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
33:12
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll put a demo request in and we'll put that in the show notes.
33:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Guys, if you have interest,
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Go check out.
33:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and this is what we're using right now.
33:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We're loving the innovation and really, I think you nailed it early on.
33:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like, hey, you listen to your customers.
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
33:27
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's, that's what it's about.
33:29
[SPEAKER_00]: It's such a, it's such an amazing, like, I feel so like blessed to be part of this industry.
33:33
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just like just the other day I was visiting with a customer here.
33:36
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's typically what I like to do if I'm traveling.
33:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, okay, you know, we're, where can I, which customer can I visit there?
33:43
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, yeah.
33:44
[SPEAKER_00]: And take a class and hear their story and everyone's got just these awesome stories of how they fell into the fitness business.
33:56
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just a great feeling and I just feel super blessed to be able to help all these business owners out and really kind of help them live out their dreams.
34:09
[SPEAKER_01]: That's fantastic.
34:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm following you there, man.
34:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, listen, guys, that's it for this episode.
34:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Hopefully that helps you out.
34:15
[SPEAKER_01]: If you do have interest in wellness, go ahead and jump in the show notes.
34:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And until next time, guys, keep changing lives.
34:20
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you on the next show.
34:21
[SPEAKER_00]: I have some Tim.
34:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you so much.
34:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Really appreciate it.
34:24
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, man.
34:25
[SPEAKER_00]: See you there.