Latest / She Rises with Ashy & Tijana / 266. The Truth About Building a Business No One Talks About with Matt Gordin

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266. The Truth About Building a Business No One Talks About with Matt Gordin · She Rises with Ashy & Tijana

0:05
Speaker 1: Apodjay Production. Welcome to the Sheep Rises Podcast. I'm Ashley
0:13
Speaker 1: and I'm Tiana. This podcast is about female empowerment.
0:16
Speaker 2: And encouraging you to be your biggest, boldest, and most
0:19
Speaker 2: authentic version of yourself.
0:20
Speaker 1: We help you shed the shame, grow to a new level.
0:23
Speaker 1: We're gonna laugh, cry, and talk about the topics everyone
0:26
Speaker 1: else is too afraid to talk about.
0:28
Speaker 2: Get ready for your next level of self. Welcome to
0:31
Speaker 2: the she Rises Podcast. We have an incredible guest for
0:33
Speaker 2: you today, a man at business owners, serial entrepreneur Matt.
0:37
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us, Thanks for having me.
0:40
Speaker 1: For anyone who doesn't know who you are. Could you
0:42
Speaker 1: hear this in like a thirty second nutshell, Who you are,
0:45
Speaker 1: what you do for work? Why are you here on
0:46
Speaker 1: the she Rides podcast today?
0:48
Speaker 3: Yeah? So we are own boutiqu finished studios. So we've
0:51
Speaker 3: got four brands, Club Parties, Stretch Lab, Rumble Boxing and
0:55
Speaker 3: Cycle Bar. Got a wife, two kids, two little girls.
0:58
Speaker 3: We spent some time over in the US back in
1:01
Speaker 3: twenty fifteen. We launched a company called Bike Exchange over there,
1:04
Speaker 3: which is an online bicycle marketplace and kind of what
1:07
Speaker 3: led me to what we're doing today. So while we're
1:09
Speaker 3: over there, we sort of fell in love with cycle
1:11
Speaker 3: Bar and exponential Fitness over there, and both my wife's
1:15
Speaker 3: family and my family was enfranchising in Australia prior to that,
1:18
Speaker 3: so late twenty nineteen we made the decision to come
1:21
Speaker 3: home and we knew we wanted to do something enfranchising
1:23
Speaker 3: and sort of while we're over there, we're exploring a
1:26
Speaker 3: few different options and decided to bring cycle Bar back
1:28
Speaker 3: to Australia and my wife and kids moved back late
1:31
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen and then I was handing over the business
1:34
Speaker 3: for six months. Came back in March to see everyone,
1:36
Speaker 3: and the borders shut down and every went back. So
1:39
Speaker 3: it was a pretty interesting start to a new fitness franchise.
1:42
Speaker 2: Wow wow, that's huge, And you know it's interesting, Like
1:44
Speaker 2: we love the business stories and we love what it
1:46
Speaker 2: takes to be able to get to big business and
1:49
Speaker 2: growing what you've been able to grow for yourself. But
1:50
Speaker 2: what we love and what our audience also loves, is
1:52
Speaker 2: also the human behind the business and it's something that
1:55
Speaker 2: we often like to talk about. So would you be
1:57
Speaker 2: open to sharing a little bit about just who you
1:59
Speaker 2: were before you started the businesses? And like the drive
2:02
Speaker 2: that you had to initially get yourself to where you
2:04
Speaker 2: are and maybe even the wounds that were kind of
2:07
Speaker 2: driving that success and that desire for success.
2:10
Speaker 4: I love the giggle.
2:12
Speaker 3: Yeah. No, it's always an overnight success, isn't it. I
2:14
Speaker 3: think I've always been an entrepreneur. I guest. I did
2:17
Speaker 3: accounting of finance university, started at KPMG. My dad was
2:21
Speaker 3: running Bike Force, so it was a bicycle franchise network
2:25
Speaker 3: in Australia. So grew up through the bike shops, always selling,
2:28
Speaker 3: always hustling on the weekends and didn't really enjoy the
2:31
Speaker 3: eighty hour a week grind of auditing. Pretty quickly moved
2:35
Speaker 3: into my own bike shop in journle Up, turned it
2:37
Speaker 3: around from sort of doing three hundred grand a year
2:40
Speaker 3: to one point six mil pretty quickly, and then we
2:43
Speaker 3: decided to move to the East Coast to sort of
2:45
Speaker 3: grow the brand over there, and so opened up store
2:47
Speaker 3: in Docklands, Esen, n Richmond and sort of grew from there.
2:51
Speaker 3: Had the opportunity through the Bike Exchange guys who had
2:54
Speaker 3: built sort of like a car sales for the bicycle
2:56
Speaker 3: industry and we were their number one customer. Were sort
2:59
Speaker 3: of just mucking around at one of the kid's birthday
3:01
Speaker 3: parties and sort of suggested that we should move to
3:04
Speaker 3: the US launched Bike Exchange there and literally like six
3:07
Speaker 3: weeks later we were making plans to book flights and
3:11
Speaker 3: find out where we wanted to live and sort of
3:13
Speaker 3: took an opportunity, I guess to you know, once in
3:15
Speaker 3: a lifetime opportunity to go and do something that might
3:18
Speaker 3: never happen again. Right, So it was a pretty cool experience.
3:21
Speaker 3: Loved it there. We built a house, we planned on
3:23
Speaker 3: staying there and then we'll stay away from politics. But
3:27
Speaker 3: so someone got into power that was going to not
3:29
Speaker 3: let us get a green cart, so we made a
3:31
Speaker 3: decision to move home after that.
3:33
Speaker 1: Gosh, sometime's in business too, like when you feel a
3:36
Speaker 1: pool to do something you've got that was it intuition
3:38
Speaker 1: that you just had to go for it, or you're
3:40
Speaker 1: just a big risk taker And business in general.
3:43
Speaker 3: No, not so much risk taker. I think just the opportunity.
3:45
Speaker 3: I'd seen how successful the Bike Exchange guys were in Australia,
3:49
Speaker 3: and at the end of the day, I probably realized
3:50
Speaker 3: there was a limit to what you could earn in
3:52
Speaker 3: at bike shop, right, no matter how good we were
3:55
Speaker 3: so took that opportunity, had a one year old. My
3:58
Speaker 3: daughter was one when we did it, so we took
4:00
Speaker 3: my daughter away from my parents, and luckily enough, my
4:02
Speaker 3: wife's parents were actually able to come over with us,
4:05
Speaker 3: so they just sold their business. So that was really helpful.
4:08
Speaker 3: But I don't know if it was a risk or
4:10
Speaker 3: just an opportunity a bit of fun. See what comes
4:12
Speaker 3: of it.
4:13
Speaker 1: You work with your father now, I've worked with family
4:16
Speaker 1: members as well, and I hear people say all the time,
4:18
Speaker 1: like it's not good to work with family, not good
4:20
Speaker 1: to work with friends. How has your relationship been with
4:22
Speaker 1: that and was there any moments where you didn't speak
4:24
Speaker 1: or you clashed or has it just been incredible because
4:27
Speaker 1: you're on the same page in the same wavelength you
4:28
Speaker 1: want to talk about the relationship dynamic of building a
4:31
Speaker 1: business like this together.
4:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, I guess I've kind of always been in firm
4:34
Speaker 3: other than KPMG. I've kind of always been in family business.
4:37
Speaker 3: So worked obviously with the bike shops with dad, and
4:40
Speaker 3: he was a franchise or kind of moved into that
4:43
Speaker 3: GM of the franchise network role. And yeah, there was
4:46
Speaker 3: plenty of times where where you don't get spoken through. Well,
4:49
Speaker 3: you're in the bad books for a little while. But
4:52
Speaker 3: you know, I think we always had the right intentions
4:54
Speaker 3: and the right attitude to get through it. I sort
4:56
Speaker 3: of took that opportunity to leave, which was pretty big
4:59
Speaker 3: at the time. I was basically running the bike Force
5:01
Speaker 3: group with for him, and he was super supportive with
5:04
Speaker 3: the opportunity to, you know, as a once in a
5:06
Speaker 3: lifetime kind of thing, to go and do it and
5:08
Speaker 3: we'll be here when you get back if we need
5:10
Speaker 3: to kind of things. So that was awesome. And then
5:13
Speaker 3: funnily enough, he now works for me, so I can
5:15
Speaker 3: give him the silent treatment every now and again when.
5:18
Speaker 4: The roles are reversed.
5:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, for the most part, I think, you know, we
5:21
Speaker 3: get along, well, we kind of have. You know, he
5:23
Speaker 3: has his defined role now, you knows what he's responsible
5:26
Speaker 3: for and lets me make the decisions. And so that
5:29
Speaker 3: that was probably the hardest thing to start with for him,
5:31
Speaker 3: always making the decisions and always having the final say
5:34
Speaker 3: to it's my turn now, and you know, still give
5:36
Speaker 3: me input. I want to hear it and I want
5:38
Speaker 3: your advice, but ultimately I need to make those decisions.
5:41
Speaker 2: So when the student becomes the master.
5:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
5:44
Speaker 1: I found that even working with my husband. We've worked
5:46
Speaker 1: together for nearly eighteen years now, but the start it
5:48
Speaker 1: was the same thing. It was almost the most difficult
5:50
Speaker 1: thing was allowing each other to have our set roles
5:53
Speaker 1: and not like jump on each other's toes and respect
5:55
Speaker 1: that you've got your strengths and weaknesses and so do I.
5:57
Speaker 1: And how to make that dynamic work as a beautiful team.
6:00
Speaker 3: Yeah for sure. Yeah. So my wife works here as well.
6:03
Speaker 3: She manages all the retails of things, so something that
6:06
Speaker 3: I have no idea about, which is awesome when I
6:08
Speaker 3: just let her run with that. Always got its challenges,
6:11
Speaker 3: for sure, But I think there's always someone you can
6:13
Speaker 3: rely on as well.
6:13
Speaker 1: I think working with friends and families, you know they
6:15
Speaker 1: have so much not only interest, but they really want
6:19
Speaker 1: the best of the business. Whereas you can get amazing
6:21
Speaker 1: staff members, but they're not as emotionally invested.
6:23
Speaker 4: Whereas like my mum, for example, she.
6:24
Speaker 1: Does all of our bookkeeping and all of our finances
6:26
Speaker 1: with our brands, and you just know that she's got
6:28
Speaker 1: your back no matter what. Whereas when you hire someone
6:30
Speaker 1: that you don't necessarily have that deeper connection with it
6:33
Speaker 1: feels different.
6:34
Speaker 4: That's the pros and cons that comes with Yeah, for sure.
6:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, some of a couple of our brand managers I've
6:39
Speaker 3: known for thirty plus years now, and you know, all
6:42
Speaker 3: went off in different paths and then when we started
6:44
Speaker 3: this sort of came back together. So yeah, I agree
6:47
Speaker 3: that loyalty is pretty hard to buy.
6:48
Speaker 4: It is.
6:49
Speaker 2: I remember working with my dad, I worked on site
6:51
Speaker 2: for five years. Come from a family of developers and builders,
6:54
Speaker 2: and it's so interesting. I think when you're working with
6:57
Speaker 2: family and loved ones, it's learning how to like put
6:59
Speaker 2: on the workht versus like the family hat. Yeah, you know,
7:01
Speaker 2: it's like the role of being him being my dad
7:03
Speaker 2: versus him being my boss. And I met, and it's
7:05
Speaker 2: the same even with your wife and with your dad,
7:07
Speaker 2: and you know, just the family who are already involved.
7:09
Speaker 2: It's like knowing when to switch that hat. I'd love
7:12
Speaker 2: to know. Have you found that challenging over the years
7:14
Speaker 2: in business? Knowing when to switch, Oh, this is my
7:18
Speaker 2: work mate, this is somebody that I'm working with, versus oh,
7:20
Speaker 2: right now my wife needs me in this moment. Has
7:22
Speaker 2: that been challenging for you?
7:23
Speaker 3: Yes? And no. I think I've kind of always got
7:26
Speaker 3: my workout on anyway, right, I do try and be
7:28
Speaker 3: there for the family and stuff as well, So even
7:31
Speaker 3: going back to trying to make it to all the
7:33
Speaker 3: kids netball games or all the kids sporting events or
7:37
Speaker 3: their assemblies and all that sort of stuff. So no
7:39
Speaker 3: matter how busy we are at work, we always make
7:41
Speaker 3: sure that we turn up to those things. So I
7:43
Speaker 3: don't think I've missed a netball game yet, which is
7:46
Speaker 3: pretty impressive. And I think going back to my dad
7:49
Speaker 3: and knowing what he was doing at the time, I
7:50
Speaker 3: didn't appreciate it at all, right, when when I was
7:53
Speaker 3: playing football and stuff and he'd turn up to every
7:55
Speaker 3: single game or training session. And I'm sure the girls
7:57
Speaker 3: don't appreciate me turning up today, but I'm sure it's
8:00
Speaker 3: something that over time they will. But my wife and
8:02
Speaker 3: I've always been in business together and always not that
8:05
Speaker 3: we sit there and talk about it all the time,
8:07
Speaker 3: but kind of understand that it's stressful building your own
8:10
Speaker 3: business and with the family involved as well. Inevitably it
8:13
Speaker 3: ends up turning back into business at some point, and
8:16
Speaker 3: we try and be mindful of, you know, if we're
8:18
Speaker 3: out of dinner and things like that that we're just
8:19
Speaker 3: we talk about other things.
8:21
Speaker 1: Yes, we have to be conscious of the same thing.
8:23
Speaker 1: Sometimes we'll be at dinner we're talking about kids or work.
8:26
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, we need to talk about other things
8:28
Speaker 1: rather than just the kids.
8:29
Speaker 3: Work kind of all intertwined, right, it's all together.
8:32
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes it is hard to separate, and it's like
8:34
Speaker 1: it always coexisting together.
8:36
Speaker 4: It is all intertwined.
8:37
Speaker 2: Yeah. I'd love to know, you know, as a business
8:39
Speaker 2: owner and like people try to sell this thing of
8:40
Speaker 2: like balance, I'd love to hear your perspective on what
8:43
Speaker 2: you think it doesn't exist.
8:45
Speaker 3: It's right, the overnight success is all about balance, and
8:50
Speaker 3: I think there is some balance to it for sure.
8:52
Speaker 3: Like I do try and take my weekends now, and
8:54
Speaker 3: you know, for the first three or four years that
8:57
Speaker 3: didn't exist. But especially in the US when we were there,
9:00
Speaker 3: we've sort of were really caught up in just trying
9:02
Speaker 3: to grow this thing as quickly as possible, you know,
9:04
Speaker 3: and with the one two three year old, is challenging
9:06
Speaker 3: to not be there and not give that time, so
9:09
Speaker 3: particularly weekends now, I try not to do too much
9:11
Speaker 3: during the week. It's tricky, especially being with an overseas
9:14
Speaker 3: master franchise or with exponential Yeah, we've got meetings at
9:18
Speaker 3: you know, seven am, eight am. One of our biggest
9:20
Speaker 3: franchisees now has forty locations in Australia and they're based
9:25
Speaker 3: in the US as well, So probably four out of
9:27
Speaker 3: five mornings I've got calls at seven am. And then
9:30
Speaker 3: I guess being in perfect a little bit lucky because
9:32
Speaker 3: it gets a bit quiet in the afternoon with the
9:34
Speaker 3: East Coast sort of finishing up, So that's probably what's
9:37
Speaker 3: allowed me to get to those netball games and whatnot.
9:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's beautiful.
9:41
Speaker 1: I love success stories. I love seeing people climb to
9:44
Speaker 1: the top and live an amazing life. But most people
9:47
Speaker 1: that I'm really inspired by all that have done really
9:49
Speaker 1: well in business, there's been one, if not multiple times
9:51
Speaker 1: where they have nearly given up, or they've merely gone bankrupt,
9:55
Speaker 1: or they've made some really risky investments and it hasn't
9:58
Speaker 1: turned out and they've managed to turn it around. Has
10:00
Speaker 1: there been any moments for you and your wife and
10:03
Speaker 1: your father where you're like, what the fuck? How are
10:05
Speaker 1: we going to get through this? We shouldn't have done this,
10:07
Speaker 1: or this has turned sideways? Now, how are you going
10:09
Speaker 1: to do this has there been some moments that have
10:11
Speaker 1: really rocked you and nearly haven't gone through it.
10:13
Speaker 3: Plenty of them. I think that's kind of business, right,
10:16
Speaker 3: whether it's my family or my wife's family. I think
10:18
Speaker 3: all of us through business, have had our ups and
10:20
Speaker 3: downs along the way. I think Bick Exchange, I guess,
10:23
Speaker 3: was a global business. We had Germany, Australia, US, and
10:26
Speaker 3: there was a bit of internal stuff going on at
10:28
Speaker 3: different times, different goals with ownership and structure around the
10:32
Speaker 3: platform and other bits and pieces, and probably contributed to
10:35
Speaker 3: the decision making to make that move to come home
10:37
Speaker 3: and throwing basically everything at what we're doing today, coming
10:41
Speaker 3: home almost not with nothing, but like we'd put a
10:44
Speaker 3: lot into that US business and coming home sort of
10:47
Speaker 3: six years later and not quite starting again, but almost
10:50
Speaker 3: starting again, right. So, But then even with this business,
10:53
Speaker 3: it always takes five times longer and costs five times
10:56
Speaker 3: more than the paperwork looks like at the start. Raither
10:58
Speaker 3: you know, yeah, we have done really well. We sold
11:00
Speaker 3: one hundred and seventy studios now we've got eighty open.
11:03
Speaker 3: But yeah, there were times where we've had to raise
11:06
Speaker 3: money and I'm not sure where we're going to raise
11:08
Speaker 3: money from and putting money in ourselves make payroll. And
11:11
Speaker 3: there was a time a few years back where myself,
11:14
Speaker 3: my wife, my dad and probably three of my key
11:17
Speaker 3: staff members all took a pretty significant pay cup for
11:20
Speaker 3: six months to get through. And not that it's anyone
11:23
Speaker 3: else's problem, but no one sees any of that stuff
11:25
Speaker 3: right to get to the other side and sees the
11:27
Speaker 3: journey that we go through for the franchise network to
11:30
Speaker 3: support them and be there to help those guys. But
11:32
Speaker 3: you know, it's not for them to feel sorry for us.
11:34
Speaker 3: It's hard, right, but it's the same in their businesses too.
11:36
Speaker 3: You've got to turn up, you've got to keep showing
11:38
Speaker 3: up until you give up. You've always got a chance
11:40
Speaker 3: to keep driving it and keep growing it.
11:42
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
11:43
Speaker 2: If you don't quit, you can't lose.
11:44
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah. So we ended up doing a deal with
11:48
Speaker 3: Viva Legre, who's an ASX listed company to support us,
11:51
Speaker 3: and you know, we've got a really great relationship with
11:53
Speaker 3: those guys, and you know, really thankful for Harry and
11:55
Speaker 3: the team over there to back us in. And I
11:57
Speaker 3: think we've done an amazing job since as well.
11:59
Speaker 2: Amazing I would love to know, with'd like the one
12:01
Speaker 2: sixty stores, Like what number of stores felt the most challenging?
12:05
Speaker 2: You know how people say sometimes it's like the first
12:06
Speaker 2: to three or first to five in any area of
12:09
Speaker 2: life when you're kind of scaling, what sectional period of
12:14
Speaker 2: stores felt like the most challenging for you.
12:16
Speaker 3: I think it's always challenging. I just think you have
12:18
Speaker 3: different challenges, right, So I think the first few were
12:21
Speaker 3: actually quite easy, like and I think that's part of
12:23
Speaker 3: why we went with the master rights rather than coming
12:26
Speaker 3: up with our own brand in Australia, so we had
12:28
Speaker 3: some credibility behind the brands. You know, they might have
12:30
Speaker 3: had five hundred open studios in the US or for
12:33
Speaker 3: club parties for instance, They've got fourteen hundred globally now.
12:36
Speaker 3: So we've got huge support, huge network. They've tried everything
12:40
Speaker 3: and sort of nailed that process. So I feel like
12:42
Speaker 3: it's sort of fast tract us three or four years
12:45
Speaker 3: to get to where we are today by doing that.
12:47
Speaker 3: But in the same token, you give up some of
12:49
Speaker 3: your revenue, so then it's harder to fund the business
12:52
Speaker 3: and to put the support teams in place that you
12:54
Speaker 3: need to do that. And then as you get bigger,
12:57
Speaker 3: You've just got different problems on different days, right, So
13:00
Speaker 3: you know, whether it's at the moment we've got twenty
13:02
Speaker 3: two studios on the board that have got least that
13:05
Speaker 3: are getting built, you know, and trying to get counsel
13:07
Speaker 3: approvals and shop for your drawings and construction quotes and
13:10
Speaker 3: pre sales and you know, just amplifies everything more and more.
13:14
Speaker 3: So I would honestly say all of it is challenging.
13:16
Speaker 3: If anyone says it's easy, they're lying.
13:18
Speaker 4: I agree.
13:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, same problems, different zeros, a p more zeros, Yeah,
13:24
Speaker 2: more problems.
13:26
Speaker 1: I've ran London before and that was more than enough.
13:28
Speaker 1: So my hat goes off to you.
13:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a challenge for sure.
13:30
Speaker 1: I've been curious just because it's quite topical at the
13:32
Speaker 1: moment online and the way the world's moving is with
13:35
Speaker 1: what you guys do. Is AI helping you, assisting you,
13:40
Speaker 1: impacting you at all with like stuff or is it
13:43
Speaker 1: making it more efficient? Like what's your views on AI
13:45
Speaker 1: and how does that impact your business at the moment.
13:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, massively. We've invested a ton of time over the
13:50
Speaker 3: last probably twelve months ago. We started probably a little
13:53
Speaker 3: bit before it was even ready to sort of be
13:55
Speaker 3: what it could be. I was literally at home one
13:57
Speaker 3: night and I was trying to listen to some AI
13:59
Speaker 3: voices just to see whether I thought that they could
14:02
Speaker 3: speak to customers and whether it was advius enough yet
14:04
Speaker 3: to be how to do that. And at the time
14:06
Speaker 3: it probably wasn't quite, but really quickly with chat and
14:11
Speaker 3: topic and that the voices became very good. And so
14:14
Speaker 3: we've spent the last sort of six to twelve months
14:17
Speaker 3: building out a platform that basically can manage all of
14:20
Speaker 3: our inbound lead flow across all the studios, so AI texting,
14:24
Speaker 3: AI calls, it can make bookings for first time bookings,
14:28
Speaker 3: connects with that point of sale system, puts all the
14:30
Speaker 3: comments and notes like if it asks you know, if
14:32
Speaker 3: they've got to saw back and all that stuff, puts
14:34
Speaker 3: it all into the system. And we're just getting started.
14:36
Speaker 3: So we've gone live with our first three studios now
14:39
Speaker 3: testing the numbers and conversions and stuff, and then we'll
14:42
Speaker 3: look to expand that into sort of retention and member
14:45
Speaker 3: retention stuff, look into sort of pre sale bots and
14:49
Speaker 3: what we can do in pre sale sort of things
14:51
Speaker 3: as well. So, yeah, I think you have to be
14:53
Speaker 3: AI first, and i'd like to think that we're kind
14:55
Speaker 3: of right at the point end of that, you know,
14:57
Speaker 3: not quite seeing the results in the studios yet of
15:00
Speaker 3: you know, are we saving money, are we're getting better conversion?
15:02
Speaker 3: But I have no doubt over the next three to
15:04
Speaker 3: six months get there.
15:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's crazy what it's doing for business. And I
15:07
Speaker 1: see both sides. As people that have unique degrees in
15:10
Speaker 1: graphic design and video editing.
15:12
Speaker 4: And all those kind of jobs.
15:13
Speaker 1: I feel really bad that a lot of them are
15:15
Speaker 1: not going to have their jobs, you know, in six
15:17
Speaker 1: twelve months time. But then as a business owner, gosh,
15:19
Speaker 1: the amount of wages that you say, having AI, it's insane.
15:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, if we can save one front desk person per
15:26
Speaker 3: studio at last fifty sixty thousand dollars per studio, it's
15:29
Speaker 3: a massive saving. Even in what we can produce as
15:32
Speaker 3: a team with twelve of us at head office compared
15:35
Speaker 3: to what we can produce twelve months ago. Like we've
15:37
Speaker 3: rebuilt all of our training modules with AI voiceovers and
15:41
Speaker 3: all of that sort of stuff. Whether we can consume
15:43
Speaker 3: data and analytics from all of our point of sale
15:46
Speaker 3: systems and literally just ask a question like, hey, how
15:49
Speaker 3: many studios didn't sell a member yesterday or the day before.
15:52
Speaker 3: How many studios are tracking less than fifteen leads for
15:55
Speaker 3: the week or whatever that number is. That's where we
15:58
Speaker 3: want to get to where we can really utilize that
16:00
Speaker 3: data consumption sort of stuff as well.
16:02
Speaker 1: That's so powerful, isn't It Just saves so much time.
16:05
Speaker 1: It's so much more efficient, and then your time can
16:06
Speaker 1: be spent on growing the business and doing other cool things.
16:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure.
16:10
Speaker 1: Is there a moment you look back on your career,
16:12
Speaker 1: your whole like, how long have you've.
16:13
Speaker 4: Been in business for? Now?
16:14
Speaker 3: Twenty odd years?
16:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, twenty odd years.
16:16
Speaker 1: Is there a moment that you look back on everything
16:17
Speaker 1: that you've done, everything you've worked for, everything you've been through,
16:20
Speaker 1: all the hard times and good times. Is there a
16:21
Speaker 1: moment that you can pinpoint that you're like, I'm so
16:24
Speaker 1: fucking proud of myself, so proud of that moment, that
16:26
Speaker 1: achievement or that thing. Is there one that you could
16:29
Speaker 1: speak of?
16:30
Speaker 3: Not really, I don't really think about it yet. I
16:31
Speaker 3: think maybe i'll look back on it and be how
16:33
Speaker 3: to say that I don't regret anything that we've done,
16:36
Speaker 3: So I don't regret leaving the bike industry or going
16:39
Speaker 3: to the US starting Bike Exchange. Even so Bike Exchange
16:43
Speaker 3: didn't necessarily turn out the way we sort of had hoped,
16:45
Speaker 3: it still learned a lot and learn a lot of
16:48
Speaker 3: things that we put into this business, you know, simple
16:50
Speaker 3: things around how to raise money, how to structure that
16:53
Speaker 3: sort of thing. So I'm sure I'll look back and
16:55
Speaker 3: we'll be proud of what we're built. It's hard to
16:57
Speaker 3: sort of, you know, we're just seeing the grind still
16:59
Speaker 3: every day. Take time to look at that.
17:01
Speaker 1: When you say raise money, I've never had any on
17:03
Speaker 1: the podcast talk about that. Can you explain a little
17:05
Speaker 1: bit more about that? So is that like getting an
17:06
Speaker 1: investor involved or how does that happen?
17:08
Speaker 4: How do you do that? Could you touch on that?
17:10
Speaker 3: Don't you just shake the tree and that just focuses out.
17:14
Speaker 4: Wich?
17:16
Speaker 3: Yes, I guess like a whole bunch of different ways.
17:18
Speaker 3: So initially it was friends and family to start with,
17:21
Speaker 3: like just the bat to me with an idea and
17:23
Speaker 3: we'll like, yeah, whatever you want to do, will support
17:25
Speaker 3: it and sounds like a good idea. How much do
17:27
Speaker 3: you need kind of things, So that was interesting to
17:29
Speaker 3: start with, and then as you do it, Yeah, so
17:32
Speaker 3: a percentage of the business. So initially we gave up
17:34
Speaker 3: fifty percent straight up to raise half the amount of
17:37
Speaker 3: money that we needed to get going, or what we
17:39
Speaker 3: thought we needed to get going. And then we've had
17:42
Speaker 3: a few different raises since then, nearly through friends and
17:45
Speaker 3: family to be honest, and then obviously the deal with Beaver,
17:47
Speaker 3: who brought out some of those minority shareholders along the way.
17:50
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think just being confident with your obviously
17:54
Speaker 3: you need to know what you're doing and be able
17:55
Speaker 3: to show that you can run a good business and
17:57
Speaker 3: talk the talk, but also being able to walk the
18:00
Speaker 3: walk and do what you say you're going to do
18:01
Speaker 3: and deliver on those results as well is really important.
18:04
Speaker 3: But you just got to like we got a lot
18:06
Speaker 3: of nose along the way as well, right, But you've
18:08
Speaker 3: got to keep asking. You got to find a way.
18:09
Speaker 3: And whatever happened, whatever time we were in, I just knew,
18:13
Speaker 3: one way or another, I'd solve the issue that we had,
18:16
Speaker 3: whether it was to raise money or whatever the issue was.
18:19
Speaker 3: We work through it and get it done one way
18:20
Speaker 3: or another.
18:21
Speaker 4: Would you just.
18:21
Speaker 1: Jump on a phone call it did do like a
18:23
Speaker 1: whole presentation in front of the people that you wanted
18:25
Speaker 1: to get money off or how does it.
18:27
Speaker 3: Like, Actually, yeah, individually normally so friends and family obviously
18:30
Speaker 3: is easier in terms of just reaching out and setting
18:33
Speaker 3: up a meeting and sort of showing what we're doing,
18:35
Speaker 3: what we need, you know, reaching out to brokers and
18:38
Speaker 3: see funds and all that sort of stuff. The venture
18:40
Speaker 3: capital money is probably looking at some different things early
18:44
Speaker 3: days around ownership of the brands and things like that,
18:46
Speaker 3: where we were a master so it was a little
18:48
Speaker 3: bit unique. But yeah, just reaching out to a whole
18:50
Speaker 3: bunch of different people, anyone that we thought was relevant
18:53
Speaker 3: to the space and obviously really happy with Parna with
18:57
Speaker 3: Fever has been awesome.
18:58
Speaker 2: Business is just huge rejection therapy, isn't it pretty much?
19:02
Speaker 3: You know, lots of firefighting just every day. Yeah.
19:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like the whole room's on fire and you're
19:07
Speaker 2: sitting there like I'm good.
19:09
Speaker 3: Yeah. We have a thing called you just be a duck,
19:11
Speaker 3: so you just like float along the top and then
19:13
Speaker 3: your legs are running underneath.
19:15
Speaker 4: Oh my god, that's so true.
19:17
Speaker 2: There's this little dog emoji where like it's a dog
19:19
Speaker 2: sitting in a bus and the whole bus is on
19:20
Speaker 2: fire and he's like, I'm Okay, like that's how it feels.
19:24
Speaker 4: It's awesome.
19:25
Speaker 2: I know you have like a female customer base as well,
19:28
Speaker 2: and we have predominantly a female audience as well. A
19:30
Speaker 2: lot of women who are mums, who are business owners,
19:33
Speaker 2: startup businesses. Maybe they've been in the game for a while.
19:36
Speaker 2: Is there something that you would say to them if
19:38
Speaker 2: let's say that they were at the beginning stages of
19:40
Speaker 2: business and they were wanting to do the parenting thing
19:43
Speaker 2: and build a business. Is there any piece of advice
19:45
Speaker 2: that you would give to them that has really helped
19:47
Speaker 2: you on your journey as you've navigated all the challenges
19:50
Speaker 2: through business and life.
19:51
Speaker 3: Yeah. I think in general, you've just got to be
19:53
Speaker 3: prepared to put the time in right and build a
19:56
Speaker 3: good team. So, yeah, you have to make sacrifice somewhere,
19:59
Speaker 3: whether that's going out and lifestyle and holidays and whatnot
20:02
Speaker 3: to still be there for the kids. But I think
20:04
Speaker 3: you can get a particularly if you build a good
20:06
Speaker 3: team around you. So as much as you know early
20:09
Speaker 3: days you try and do everything yourself, you just can't
20:11
Speaker 3: do everything yourself, and so you've got to build a
20:13
Speaker 3: good team. You've got to treat them well so that
20:15
Speaker 3: they want to stay around and they respect what you're doing.
20:17
Speaker 3: And I find for me, I get a lot of
20:20
Speaker 3: that from working hard and turning up and build that
20:22
Speaker 3: respect that way. I think it's hard to build that
20:25
Speaker 3: if you don't turn up and you're just sort of
20:26
Speaker 3: pointing your finger and telling people what to do. So
20:29
Speaker 3: I think just building a great team, building a good culture,
20:32
Speaker 3: looking after your team members, and that should give you
20:35
Speaker 3: some flexibility in the hours and stuff that you can
20:38
Speaker 3: do as well. But if you're not ready for it
20:40
Speaker 3: as well, then you maybe wait a little bit. You
20:42
Speaker 3: don't have to rush into it. You've got to be
20:44
Speaker 3: able to put the time and effort in. There's no
20:46
Speaker 3: substitute for doing the work. There's no shortcuts. It looks
20:49
Speaker 3: easier on the outside, but there's no shortcuts to it. Unfortunately.
20:52
Speaker 3: If you want to be successful in the business side
20:54
Speaker 3: of things, you've got to work hard and you've got.
20:56
Speaker 2: To put in, put in the reps and your stripes. Hey,
20:58
Speaker 2: there's something that Leila Holmosi talks about actually about how
21:01
Speaker 2: and it's something you just touched on, is being the
21:04
Speaker 2: role model that you want your teammates or that you
21:06
Speaker 2: want your staff to then become because they're going to
21:08
Speaker 2: model you based on who you show up as, your
21:10
Speaker 2: level of integrity, your character, versus trying to tell them
21:14
Speaker 2: and be like, we're instilling these beliefs and these values
21:16
Speaker 2: in the business versus I'm going to show up as
21:19
Speaker 2: this and then hopefully that then trickles onto them and
21:21
Speaker 2: inspires them to then show up in the same way
21:23
Speaker 2: as well.
21:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. I think it's having an attitude
21:26
Speaker 3: of like, I'm paying you to do your job, so
21:28
Speaker 3: do your job is not the right way to do it.
21:30
Speaker 3: I think, you know, sure that they've got to pull
21:32
Speaker 3: their part, but it has to be done by example.
21:34
Speaker 3: And you know, I have conversations regularly with some of
21:36
Speaker 3: our franchise ease around if I only turned up Monday
21:40
Speaker 3: morning and Friday afternoon, would you guys think the same
21:43
Speaker 3: about the franchise network as what you do today, right?
21:45
Speaker 3: And it's the same thing for their staff if you're
21:47
Speaker 3: not showing up and you're not involved and you're not available,
21:50
Speaker 3: or you don't respond to them on time, or you know,
21:53
Speaker 3: they don't get paid on time, or there's just things
21:55
Speaker 3: that break that trust really quickly that is just not
21:58
Speaker 3: acceptable and you're not going to be successful. You can't
22:01
Speaker 3: do anything else to get pass those sings, so you've
22:04
Speaker 3: got to do the basic things really well.
22:06
Speaker 1: I love what you said about how it looks easy
22:08
Speaker 1: on the outside, because we get comments like that whole time,
22:10
Speaker 1: or even family members have said to us, Oh, it
22:12
Speaker 1: looks like.
22:13
Speaker 3: You got guys sit on podcasts.
22:15
Speaker 4: He's going to go yeapful day or take some TikTok videos.
22:17
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, well me, you can see the behind
22:20
Speaker 1: the scenes logistics, how hard we work, like we're the
22:23
Speaker 1: same like early mornings, late nights. And I've been in
22:25
Speaker 1: business for over fifteen years and my husband as well,
22:27
Speaker 1: and it's just there is so much that goes into
22:30
Speaker 1: and what I've really learned too. And I don't know
22:32
Speaker 1: if you agree with this. I don't think owning a
22:33
Speaker 1: business is for everyone. Some people are better off going
22:36
Speaker 1: through nine to five and just working for someone else.
22:39
Speaker 1: You've got to have this fire in your belly and
22:42
Speaker 1: there's hunger for success, and you've really got to love
22:44
Speaker 1: what you do, because if you don't, I just don't
22:46
Speaker 1: think you'd last more than you're doing it.
22:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred stand there's the reason why sixty percent
22:50
Speaker 3: of small businesses closed in three years, right, And it's
22:53
Speaker 3: really hard. So it's hard, you've got to want it.
22:55
Speaker 3: A lot of people go into business because they think
22:57
Speaker 3: that they are in the business so they can make
22:58
Speaker 3: the rules and they get time off, But it's actually
23:00
Speaker 3: the opposite. You probably work twice as hard for yourself
23:03
Speaker 3: than what you do way around.
23:05
Speaker 2: So, yeah, one the misconception of yeah, owning a business
23:09
Speaker 2: will give you more freedom, And yes, it gives you
23:10
Speaker 2: more opportunities. It gives you the freedom because you have
23:12
Speaker 2: the money and the finances to be able to support
23:15
Speaker 2: you in the long term. But like what you mentioned before,
23:17
Speaker 2: there are seasons where you go through where you have
23:20
Speaker 2: to head down, bum up, and you don't get to
23:21
Speaker 2: spend time on the weekends with your kids, and you
23:23
Speaker 2: don't get the afternoons to have a leisurely walk or
23:26
Speaker 2: have a nice dinner. It's you're working till eight nine
23:28
Speaker 2: o'clock at night even longer, and then you're getting up
23:30
Speaker 2: on the weekends and you're doing the exact same thing.
23:32
Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people sometimes have that
23:34
Speaker 2: misconception in business that it can just be like a
23:37
Speaker 2: leisurely ride. But you get out of business, what you
23:40
Speaker 2: put in and the harder and faster that you go
23:42
Speaker 2: in the beginning, the more momentum that you create. And
23:44
Speaker 2: I think that's a cool conversation to have, especially for
23:46
Speaker 2: people who aren't as seasoned in business or are still
23:49
Speaker 2: kind of getting on the journey of business as well,
23:52
Speaker 2: to kind of have that. I believe that expectation coming
23:55
Speaker 2: into business of like you have to put in the
23:57
Speaker 2: work and you have to put in the hard yards
23:58
Speaker 2: in order to actually get a return.
24:00
Speaker 1: And a lot of people look at business owners and
24:01
Speaker 1: they think you get so much more money in holidays,
24:03
Speaker 1: but our staff, like an out o the business, I
24:05
Speaker 1: get way more holidays than Steve and I do. Like
24:08
Speaker 1: you guys are going on holidays, like how many holidays
24:11
Speaker 1: a year? And when we go on holidays, yes it's
24:13
Speaker 1: still a holiday, but we're working the whole time. We
24:15
Speaker 1: don't actually get to switch off from the stuff.
24:16
Speaker 3: And yeah, I don't think I've been on a holiday
24:18
Speaker 3: in tenures, fifteen years not looked at my email, absolutely
24:22
Speaker 3: not taking my computer with me kind of things. So absolutely, yeah,
24:25
Speaker 3: even the other day I was looking at something around.
24:27
Speaker 3: You know, next time you at a restaurant on a
24:29
Speaker 3: public holiday and paying eight dollars for a coffee. You know,
24:32
Speaker 3: everyone just thinks of the cafes making a pile of money, right,
24:34
Speaker 3: But those wages are now like seventy six dollars an
24:37
Speaker 3: hour for public holiday cafe workers, which is just wild.
24:41
Speaker 2: They're just trying to break even.
24:42
Speaker 3: There's all sorts of different challenges. I like, even with
24:44
Speaker 3: us now we're paying payroll tax and all those other
24:47
Speaker 3: things that people don't want. You get those different levels,
24:50
Speaker 3: and it's just there's lots of different hurdles you got
24:52
Speaker 3: to jump through.
24:52
Speaker 4: It's a killer.
24:53
Speaker 1: That public holiday made me giggle because there was a
24:55
Speaker 1: public holiday recently.
24:56
Speaker 4: We asked our personal assistant to do some things in
24:58
Speaker 4: a Monday. She's like, it's public holiday. We're like, oh,
25:00
Speaker 4: it's fine, we'll do it.
25:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'll cover that because it's like going eighty
25:05
Speaker 1: dollars an hour or something like my We've got that.
25:07
Speaker 2: And it's so interesting as well, on the topic of
25:09
Speaker 2: like going out and having dinners and you know, wanting
25:11
Speaker 2: to talk about different things around the balance conversation. When
25:13
Speaker 2: you're in business, you kind of become so obsessed and
25:16
Speaker 2: so fixated that it becomes like ninety percent of the
25:18
Speaker 2: things that you actually do talk about. And it's something
25:20
Speaker 2: that I love about business. Like we would added a
25:22
Speaker 2: girlfriend's birthday the other night, and I'm sitting in the
25:24
Speaker 2: corner like just like quickly like messing over se science
25:27
Speaker 2: and turning over sales and things like that. It's exciting.
25:30
Speaker 2: You want to talk about it. You become so obsessed.
25:32
Speaker 2: And I shared something with Ashley the other day, this post,
25:35
Speaker 2: and it was like business owners have like slightly something
25:38
Speaker 2: wrong with them, like psychotic, just like a little speic
25:41
Speaker 2: grew loose or something, because.
25:42
Speaker 4: They are so obsessed.
25:43
Speaker 2: And I think that is the character trait that you
25:46
Speaker 2: kind of have to have in business in order to
25:48
Speaker 2: do the numbers that you're doing and do the studio
25:50
Speaker 2: the level it like you know, the scaling and the
25:52
Speaker 2: way that you are. And I think it's a really
25:54
Speaker 2: powerful thing because a lot of people maybe who aren't
25:56
Speaker 2: necessarily in the business game, we'll go, oh, that's a
25:58
Speaker 2: bit unhealthy. But I think everything in moderation and also
26:01
Speaker 2: like when we can turn quote unquote perceived negative traits
26:05
Speaker 2: something that's actually productive, it's a really good thing.
26:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree. I think I've probably got undiagnosed ADHD
26:11
Speaker 3: and so we've definitely got obsessive note writing compulsive disorder
26:14
Speaker 3: as well, like constantly just writing things down as I
26:17
Speaker 3: think of them, and most of the time I never
26:19
Speaker 3: even go back to my notes. But if I don't
26:20
Speaker 3: write it down, I just think about it a hundred
26:22
Speaker 3: times until I write it down. So if you scroll
26:24
Speaker 3: through my notes on my phone, there's about ten thousand.
26:26
Speaker 4: Oh we feel you, I understand.
26:30
Speaker 3: Yeah. I used to have sticky notes, but I banned
26:32
Speaker 3: myself from sticky notes because I was just like covered
26:35
Speaker 3: in sticky notes.
26:35
Speaker 2: It gets overwhelming, right, You're like, shit, it's getting real
26:38
Speaker 2: messy in here.
26:38
Speaker 3: Most of the time it's the same thing. Just three
26:40
Speaker 3: days later you're like, oh yeah, what about that? And
26:42
Speaker 3: you write it down again and can't find the note
26:44
Speaker 3: that I wrote before. So yeah, I agree. I think
26:46
Speaker 3: you've got to be obsessive. You've got to want it,
26:48
Speaker 3: and or you don't have to write. You can just
26:49
Speaker 3: run a good business, and you know, if you're happy
26:52
Speaker 3: running a good independent business and working nine to five
26:56
Speaker 3: ish and whatever, but you're going to get out what
26:58
Speaker 3: you put in, right, So it's okay to not want
27:01
Speaker 3: that either, But you can't have both love that.
27:04
Speaker 2: There's actually a book that I've been reading lately in
27:06
Speaker 2: a conversation we've been having around ten X is Better
27:09
Speaker 2: than two X. It's basically a book about like big
27:11
Speaker 2: vision thinking and how like if you think in two
27:14
Speaker 2: X increments, like you're going to get average kind of growth,
27:17
Speaker 2: whereas if you think in that ten X vision, you're
27:19
Speaker 2: going to get something that's going to change who you
27:21
Speaker 2: are and everything about what you currently do. And if
27:24
Speaker 2: you're open to sharing, like it's clear that you're a
27:26
Speaker 2: very a visionary and someone who is like a serial entrepreneur,
27:29
Speaker 2: I would love to hear a little bit about what
27:31
Speaker 2: your focus is for the next like one to two
27:34
Speaker 2: to five years, and what you see for yourself and
27:37
Speaker 2: your brands, and like the vision that you have for
27:39
Speaker 2: yourself and your business.
27:41
Speaker 3: I guess we want to be the number one boutique
27:43
Speaker 3: fitness brand in the country. I think Pilates in particular,
27:46
Speaker 3: we're doing a really good job at Stretch Lab. We've
27:49
Speaker 3: got a bunch as well. But I think my philosophy
27:53
Speaker 3: is more around just getting it done day to day,
27:55
Speaker 3: so I've always focused on the sales that I need
27:58
Speaker 3: to hear the targets today rather than you know, in
28:01
Speaker 3: our old bike e change, we always had these massive
28:03
Speaker 3: forecasts and three year four cars some budgets, and in
28:06
Speaker 3: reality you just never hit them right. And every month
28:08
Speaker 3: you're sort of negative around some of these missing your
28:12
Speaker 3: targets and stuff, kindrealistic things. So mythloss has always just
28:15
Speaker 3: been just built a great business and good things will
28:18
Speaker 3: happen kind of thing. So just stay Byay, we're focusing
28:21
Speaker 3: on getting the next one open and getting the next
28:23
Speaker 3: franchise e on board, just growing it that way rather
28:26
Speaker 3: than worrying too much about what the next three years,
28:29
Speaker 3: five years, ten years of right. But we're constantly evolving.
28:32
Speaker 3: I think we're constantly adding to our workouts, you know,
28:35
Speaker 3: to our instructor network. Probably the one vision I do
28:38
Speaker 3: have is I genuinely believe that AI can solve a
28:42
Speaker 3: lot of problems for us in terms of it might
28:46
Speaker 3: not be as good as our best front of house person,
28:49
Speaker 3: but it's absolutely going to be better than our worst.
28:51
Speaker 3: And so to have a consistency around just knowing that
28:55
Speaker 3: every lead that comes in that we work so hard
28:57
Speaker 3: to get around, you know, you spend money on advertising,
28:59
Speaker 3: you get the lead in they've actually said hey, I'm
29:01
Speaker 3: interested in your brand and then not to call them
29:04
Speaker 3: or yeah, to not get them over over a period
29:07
Speaker 3: of time. And so you do all this work trying
29:09
Speaker 3: to get there and you kind of feel like you're
29:11
Speaker 3: spinning the wheel a little bit. Whereas if we can
29:12
Speaker 3: just nail that process with AI and know that it
29:16
Speaker 3: might be going eighty percent of our best employee, but
29:19
Speaker 3: every studio is on the same level and we can
29:21
Speaker 3: save the studios money in the long run as well.
29:23
Speaker 3: A massive focus for us. That's probably my only main
29:26
Speaker 3: vision at the moment, other than just growing the network,
29:29
Speaker 3: but something that we're taking really seriously.
29:31
Speaker 2: Would you say that's been a huge takeaway for you
29:33
Speaker 2: in business is to just focus on like what's in
29:35
Speaker 2: front of you. Do you think that's been something that's
29:37
Speaker 2: been super productive for you to keep consistent over a
29:39
Speaker 2: long period of time versus like thinking of the big
29:41
Speaker 2: vision but like more focusing on them now and like
29:44
Speaker 2: what's kind of in front of you and like, I
29:46
Speaker 2: guess fighting fires as they come up.
29:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, the firefighter. I think that's just my nature and
29:50
Speaker 3: some people are built differently, Like even at my old business,
29:53
Speaker 3: you know, you'd have some of the guys in there,
29:55
Speaker 3: like the coos and stuff that are doing these big
29:57
Speaker 3: vision kind of hey, we want to do this and
29:59
Speaker 3: want to do that, but they don't get anything done.
30:02
Speaker 3: And so I've always been the guy that got you done.
30:05
Speaker 3: Is how we sort of used to talk about it
30:07
Speaker 3: a bike exchange, and we just get stuff done. We
30:09
Speaker 3: move quickly, we nimble. Tomorrow could be completely different. We
30:12
Speaker 3: might throw the AI stuff in the bin and start
30:14
Speaker 3: looking at something else, right, but you've got to move
30:17
Speaker 3: and be flexible to keep driving it forward. And you know,
30:20
Speaker 3: maybe it's not super healthy just doing fire flighting every
30:23
Speaker 3: single day, but I think we get a lot of
30:25
Speaker 3: stuff done that way. For sure, we could definitely be
30:28
Speaker 3: better at like forward planning and giving more notice to
30:31
Speaker 3: marketing con steps and coming up or to our pipeline
30:35
Speaker 3: of what we're working on at head office for the
30:37
Speaker 3: next twelve months. But honestly, it just changes so much
30:40
Speaker 3: that it's so hard to do.
30:42
Speaker 2: And also, when you're moving at the rate that you're
30:43
Speaker 2: moving at, like what you said, the vision changes all
30:45
Speaker 2: the time. So this is working for you and that's
30:48
Speaker 2: how you operate. And I just wanted to hear that,
30:50
Speaker 2: like your perspective on that, because again, like every business
30:52
Speaker 2: owner is different. There is no one size fits all.
30:54
Speaker 2: Everyone has something that works for them, it feels really
30:57
Speaker 2: good for them. We're quite similar in that sense. Like
30:59
Speaker 2: you know, obviously there's an external goal. We're like, okay,
31:01
Speaker 2: in the end goal, we would love to be here,
31:03
Speaker 2: but right now, like this is what we're doing. We
31:05
Speaker 2: have that same kind of energy of just like get
31:07
Speaker 2: it done, move on to the next thing, get it done,
31:09
Speaker 2: and it is. I think business in general is quite
31:11
Speaker 2: that fire fighting energy. It's just you're putting out fires
31:14
Speaker 2: left right, Zener. When you're the business owner, you get
31:16
Speaker 2: passed on all the shit that nobody else wants to do.
31:18
Speaker 2: And when nobody else can figure out the AI problems,
31:21
Speaker 2: like you get that problem and it's just beyond you
31:24
Speaker 2: do all the time.
31:25
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love it.
31:26
Speaker 3: I think obviously we have a goal. Fresh airholders long
31:28
Speaker 3: term have an exit at some point. But yeah, I've
31:31
Speaker 3: always just said you've got to build a good business
31:33
Speaker 3: first and the rest will take care of itself. So
31:35
Speaker 3: that's really all we're focused on. You can get caught
31:36
Speaker 3: up in the exits and all that sort of stuff
31:39
Speaker 3: along the way. And I been in business long enough
31:41
Speaker 3: now as well to know that these opportunities will come,
31:44
Speaker 3: but also they're not always there, right, So you just
31:46
Speaker 3: got to focus on building a really good business and
31:48
Speaker 3: a strong business no matter what, and the rest will
31:50
Speaker 3: take care of itself.
31:51
Speaker 1: I love what you talked about the leads before. True,
31:53
Speaker 1: just to quickly touch back on that and how AI
31:56
Speaker 1: can help with that, because I've got another business, which
31:57
Speaker 1: is a product based business, and we've now got a
32:00
Speaker 1: live chat on our website and someone comes and asks
32:02
Speaker 1: the question that AI can actually take them through to
32:04
Speaker 1: the checkout process.
32:05
Speaker 4: Do that all with them? Was before it just used
32:07
Speaker 4: to be a chat and like bots that would reply and.
32:09
Speaker 3: Al someone had to reply at some point.
32:11
Speaker 4: Yeah, whereas now I can have a whole checkout process.
32:13
Speaker 1: And for us, like I just think it's important for
32:15
Speaker 1: anyone who is in business right now the importance of
32:17
Speaker 1: every single lead in our business. Coach has said to
32:19
Speaker 1: us like the power of one. So every lead that
32:21
Speaker 1: we get in for our retreats or for anything we're selling.
32:24
Speaker 1: Obviously long term, the bigger we get, we'll have to
32:27
Speaker 1: simplify it. But we take every lead very seriously and
32:29
Speaker 1: we actually voice message and talk to every single person.
32:32
Speaker 1: I think that's just really important to stress to anyone listening,
32:34
Speaker 1: like every lead is a lead, and I love how
32:36
Speaker 1: you guys are utilizing AI to make sure that no
32:39
Speaker 1: lead is slipping through the cracks, because you're right, it's
32:41
Speaker 1: hard to get leads, whether you're spending on advertising, you're
32:43
Speaker 1: posting on social media, or you're doing all of the above. Like,
32:46
Speaker 1: every lead is a lead, in the power of one
32:47
Speaker 1: is super important.
32:48
Speaker 3: That's probably the one thing that frustrates me the most
32:50
Speaker 3: is when one of the franchisees will say or our
32:52
Speaker 3: leads aren't good or this type of lead isn't good.
32:55
Speaker 3: But like my view, honestly, is all leads a good lead.
32:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I agree.
32:58
Speaker 3: I genuinely believe that. Even you know, we've got studios
33:02
Speaker 3: from Bondai to other areas around Australia. It aren't as
33:06
Speaker 3: upmarket as that, But you can build a good business
33:08
Speaker 3: anywhere if you have the right team, the right people,
33:11
Speaker 3: the right product and treat those people exactly the same.
33:14
Speaker 3: At the end of the day, people are people, and
33:16
Speaker 3: if they're going to the effort of inquiring for your
33:18
Speaker 3: business and putting their details into submit it, then I
33:21
Speaker 3: believe they're as good as any other. Yeah.
33:23
Speaker 4: I agree.
33:24
Speaker 1: Look, I'd love to wrap this up with a couple
33:25
Speaker 1: of questions around the actual businesses you have.
33:28
Speaker 4: Now, do you do pilates?
33:30
Speaker 3: I don't do it regularly, but I do it.
33:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, I love that.
33:32
Speaker 1: So you've got pilate studios. And then I heard you
33:34
Speaker 1: say stretch lab. If I go to a stretch lab studio,
33:36
Speaker 1: what am I doing? You literally taking me through it.
33:38
Speaker 3: It was all about one mobility, so one on one
33:41
Speaker 3: assisted stretching, which is a whole range of P and
33:43
Speaker 3: F stretches and kind of like the way we describe
33:46
Speaker 3: it is sort of yoga being done for you. So
33:49
Speaker 3: the results are actually quite incredible and the feedback we
33:52
Speaker 3: get from it is pretty amazing. So everyone knows they
33:54
Speaker 3: should stretch, but most people don't do it, so it
33:57
Speaker 3: is something that you know. It's got a really broad
33:59
Speaker 3: range of customers from athletes to gym goers to office work.
34:05
Speaker 3: Is elderly. Older people just want to be more active,
34:08
Speaker 3: more mobile with their grandkids, that sort of stuff. So yeah,
34:11
Speaker 3: seeing a lot of success in that category.
34:12
Speaker 1: And do you have studios on the Gold Coast with
34:14
Speaker 1: this stretch lub because I want to go try it.
34:15
Speaker 3: We do? Actually, yeah, you Ashmore amazing. Try Actually it's
34:21
Speaker 3: there's Club Parlarti's at the bottom and stretch Lab up top.
34:23
Speaker 1: Perfect beautiful. We actually need to go and try it,
34:25
Speaker 1: that would be awesome. And the Gold Coast, Sydney, Melbourne.
34:28
Speaker 1: Where else in Australia.
34:29
Speaker 3: Yeah pretty much every right now. I got a couple
34:30
Speaker 3: in Adelaide, got a bunch in Sydney, couple in Melbourne,
34:33
Speaker 3: Sunshine Coasts and Gold Coast and then in Perth as well.
34:36
Speaker 1: If anyone listening that wants to go try a stretch
34:38
Speaker 1: Lab class or a Prolates class, they head to your website.
34:41
Speaker 1: Do you have any little sneaky discounts or do you
34:43
Speaker 1: have class passes? How does it work?
34:44
Speaker 3: Yeah? So we do first class free so whether it's Rumble,
34:47
Speaker 3: Cycle Bar, Club Partis or stretch Lab, if you're interested
34:50
Speaker 3: in just reach out to the studios. Each of the
34:52
Speaker 3: websites have a free session for first timers, so would
34:55
Speaker 3: love to get you in there.
34:56
Speaker 4: And how the go amazing.
34:57
Speaker 1: We'll leave all the details for that below because I'm
34:59
Speaker 1: guessing they just go to the website, register details and
35:01
Speaker 1: they get a free pass.
35:02
Speaker 4: It can go along. So that's simple, perfect.
35:04
Speaker 2: Amazing believe all your details below.
35:06
Speaker 1: Before we finish off, if there's one piece of advice
35:08
Speaker 1: that you could leave for all of our listeners that
35:10
Speaker 1: are parents in business or just business in general, what
35:13
Speaker 1: would it be.
35:13
Speaker 3: I think you just got to make time. It's easy
35:15
Speaker 3: to get busy, being busy and getting caught up in
35:18
Speaker 3: the office and doing the hours, and I think you've
35:20
Speaker 3: got to do the work for sure, but you have
35:22
Speaker 3: to make time for the family and kids, and you know,
35:24
Speaker 3: they grow up so quickly and before you know they'll
35:27
Speaker 3: be gone. So you've got to work out and build
35:29
Speaker 3: a good team, find time for yourself somehow as well.
35:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, don't forget to live throughout the processes.
35:34
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And that's probably the one thing is you've got
35:37
Speaker 3: to enjoy the journey because it's so hard and it's
35:39
Speaker 3: so easy to be negative and certain things or certain
35:41
Speaker 3: problems or whatever. But at the end of the day,
35:44
Speaker 3: you've got to enjoy that process and that journey so
35:47
Speaker 3: you can get to the other side.
35:48
Speaker 4: Beautiful.
35:49
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for all of your wisdom, time
35:51
Speaker 1: and just advice and sharing your story. It's suffer inspiring.
35:54
Speaker 1: Really appreciate you today.
35:55
Speaker 3: Nor is at all. Thank you.
35:56
Speaker 4: Thanks so much.
35:57
Speaker 1: All right, guys, have you enjoyed the episode and we
35:59
Speaker 1: will leave all the details and the show links below
36:01
Speaker 1: so you guys can go along and try a class.
36:03
Speaker 4: I'm definitely going to try that stretch out.
36:05
Speaker 2: I'm still that will be there, awesome. We'll see you
36:07
Speaker 2: guys soon.
36:08
Speaker 4: Bye bye,