Speaker 1: I get a team, You're Bloody Champs's the you project,
Speaker 1: It's Jumbo, It's Fatty Harps and mel Tempest. The Queen,
Speaker 1: and I don't say this insincerely, the Queen of the
Speaker 1: Australian fitness industry. She's the backbone. She's like everyone's mum,
Speaker 1: everyone's big sister. There ain't well, I was going to
Speaker 1: say their own line. There are quite a lot of
Speaker 1: people in the fitness industry who gives who give a fuck?
Speaker 1: But she gives all the fucks. Hi, how are you?
Speaker 2: I'm amazing and thank you for that incredible intro.
Speaker 1: Well, it's true, it's true. I mean, you know, I've
Speaker 1: been around longer than you in the fitness industry, and
Speaker 1: so I'm pretty discerning, and I'm pretty skeptical, and I'm
Speaker 1: pretty good at I've got a pretty good bullshit filter.
Speaker 1: And you have consistently been one of the few people
Speaker 1: in the fitness industry in Australia who are both good
Speaker 1: at business, are also good at people. Also good that's
Speaker 1: them both, isn't it, And also good at just being
Speaker 1: the real deal and caring about people and understanding the
Speaker 1: multi variability of building a business, but also building a culture,
Speaker 1: meeting people's needs and also in the middle of that
Speaker 1: being a good human that people can respect, respect and
Speaker 1: trust and look up to. And I don't you know me,
Speaker 1: I'm a smart ass. I don't say things like that
Speaker 1: too often, so when I say it, it's true. So congratulations,
Speaker 1: you are you good?
Speaker 3: I'm very good.
Speaker 2: Bit bloody cold here in Ballarat, but so I'm not coping,
Speaker 2: not coping with the winter, creter.
Speaker 3: I don't like the winter. I need to I need
Speaker 3: to be somewhere warmer.
Speaker 1: I think a bit cold in Bellarat butt and still
Speaker 1: a bogan like the host, still a bokuking.
Speaker 3: Hey, don't laugh.
Speaker 2: We over the weekend we looked at this house down
Speaker 2: the beach somewhere.
Speaker 3: For a family member. In the name of the street
Speaker 3: was boken Court.
Speaker 1: That I want to buy a house in that court,
Speaker 1: just for the bloody address. Hey, thanks for doing this. Now,
Speaker 1: this is not a thinly veiled promo for your event,
Speaker 1: but we're going to have a real conversation, but off
Speaker 1: the top and at the end we're going to give
Speaker 1: it a promo. So the Ignite Fitness Business event is
Speaker 1: happening on August three, sorry August two in Melbs at
Speaker 1: Crown Plaza and yours truly is opening, So I'm really
Speaker 1: happy to be doing that for you. I don't do
Speaker 1: too much fitness industry stuff anymore. I do a few
Speaker 1: things a year, but I'm really happy to be involved.
Speaker 1: And so if you're in the fitness space, if you're
Speaker 1: a health wellness professional, if you work in a gym,
Speaker 1: if you own a gym, if you manage a gym,
Speaker 1: if you're a trainer, if you're a fitness instructor, if
Speaker 1: you've got your foot in the fitness industry or your
Speaker 1: big toe in any way, at the very least check
Speaker 1: it out. Go and have a look. Mel I'll tell
Speaker 1: you where to go to have a look in a minute.
Speaker 1: I was there last year, and I've presented at well.
Speaker 1: I've presented thousands of times, but I've presented a lot
Speaker 1: of fitness industry things, and it was maybe the best
Speaker 1: thing I've ever been to in terms of a fitness event.
Speaker 1: Very like great energy, great culture. Everyone wanted to be there,
Speaker 1: and all of the speakers were good and the content
Speaker 1: was good. So you know, I love promoting. I'm going anyway.
Speaker 1: I'm getting paid anyway, So me saying all this shit
Speaker 1: is and I'm not being paid for this, right so,
Speaker 1: and I also don't need to do any of this,
Speaker 1: but when something's genuinely good, I'm happy to one put
Speaker 1: my name behind it if that means anything, who gives
Speaker 1: a fuck? But also just you know, genuinely say, if
Speaker 1: you work in the fitness space and you want to
Speaker 1: do better, create better, you know, grow, expand in the
Speaker 1: fitness industry, build a brand that people want to be
Speaker 1: part of. At the very least, go have a look
Speaker 1: where do they go? And have a look?
Speaker 2: Mel they go to ignite fitness, dot com dot au
Speaker 2: and Craig.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you what.
Speaker 2: For your listeners, I'm going to do twenty five percent
Speaker 2: off the ticket until the.
Speaker 3: Seventh of July.
Speaker 2: Yeah wow, Yeah, twenty five percent off the ticket until
Speaker 2: the seventh of July.
Speaker 3: And all I need to do is use a promo
Speaker 3: co Harper. Now, the good thing about the event is
Speaker 3: obviously we've got their women's event on.
Speaker 2: The Saturday and the fitness business roundtables on the Friday.
Speaker 3: They can either do both Friday and Sat Day or.
Speaker 2: Just do one of the days, still get their twenty
Speaker 2: five percent off and still get their OS Active CEC.
Speaker 1: Points awesome, and I didn't know that was happening, and
Speaker 1: that wasn't an organized In fact, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you that full transparency, everyone one. I didn't know Mel
Speaker 1: was going to do that because I rang Mel. I
Speaker 1: had a doctor's appointment. It seems I'm not dying, so
Speaker 1: you can all breathe easy or feel you you're probably cursing,
Speaker 1: and I rang Mel at let's see, my appoint was
Speaker 1: eleven thirty. It's twelve thirty eight now, I don't know,
Speaker 1: somewhere in the ballpark of eleven o'clock and went I
Speaker 1: had it. I had somebody's schedule today. They pulled out
Speaker 1: and I was trying to resolve. I was trying to
Speaker 1: fill the gap in a loving, caring way, and I thought,
Speaker 1: how can I fill the gap? And also I thought, well,
Speaker 1: why don't I ask Mel, because we can win, win,
Speaker 1: we can have a good chat, and we can plug
Speaker 1: the event. So an hour ago she didn't know, or
Speaker 1: an hour and a half ago, she didn't know this
Speaker 1: was happening. And I got her out of the doctor
Speaker 1: in Mulgrave, which is half an hour away. We were
Speaker 1: meant to record this at twelve thirty. When I got
Speaker 1: in the car. It was about twelve oh one, so
Speaker 1: there's been minimal prep and fuck it, here we are
Speaker 1: and I've interrupted today now just so a couple of
Speaker 1: things I want to know is when you run these events,
Speaker 1: and this could be in any industry or it could
Speaker 1: be for any reason to make money or not everyone,
Speaker 1: but for you mail running this event where you bring
Speaker 1: the industry together, you get some great educators and speakers,
Speaker 1: and you know people can come and get some professional
Speaker 1: development and some CC points and all of that is
Speaker 1: your goal to just get it on and not go broke.
Speaker 1: Like is it hard? I imagine because I know the
Speaker 1: venue like the venue. They're not given Crown Plaza away right, everything,
Speaker 1: And I'm not doing it for nothing, and neither of
Speaker 1: most of the people. Like I was doing the maths
Speaker 1: on the way home from the old doc and I
Speaker 1: was thinking it must be a challenge just to not
Speaker 1: lose money.
Speaker 2: It's so it's a one one girl show kry. So
Speaker 2: I'm not not, you know, doing the old ego thing.
Speaker 2: But from start to in male organizers everything does all
Speaker 2: the promotional stuff, organizes the graphics, tells the graphics guy
Speaker 2: what to do do, all the marketing. You know, chat
Speaker 2: to the guys at Crown Plaza, organize how it's going
Speaker 2: to look go down. They have a quick look at
Speaker 2: the room, organize all of the audio stuff.
Speaker 3: And everything like that.
Speaker 2: On the actual day, I have a lovely lady Larissa,
Speaker 2: who comes along as you met, you know last year,
Speaker 2: and with his powerpoints are working.
Speaker 3: So it's a bit of a one man show. Look.
Speaker 2: And you know what people forget is they just look
Speaker 2: when they go to events. They look across the room,
Speaker 2: they go, oh my god, look how many people here?
Speaker 2: And they charge X amount of dollars bad, and then
Speaker 2: they multiply it, and you know, they think you're walking
Speaker 2: out with a million dollar check. What they don't understand
Speaker 2: is that it took your freaking six or seven months
Speaker 2: to organize the bloody event. So let's divide up all
Speaker 2: of that money over book those hours, and I'll probably
Speaker 2: get more doing something else in another industry. But I
Speaker 2: love what I do, and I truly do believe that
Speaker 2: the industry is moving more towards personalized events.
Speaker 3: You know numbers under you know that eighty ninety mark
Speaker 3: where people can.
Speaker 2: Really connect with one another, and you know that they
Speaker 2: can get into each other's heads and find out what's
Speaker 2: really going on in business and how are you handling,
Speaker 2: say your staff or your programming, and you know, how's
Speaker 2: money going at the moment, and just really.
Speaker 3: Ask personalized questions. And not only do they get to.
Speaker 2: Do that, you know with other fitness business professionals are there,
Speaker 2: but they also get to get in the face of
Speaker 2: the presenters and the speakers.
Speaker 3: And have one on one. So you know, I've done
Speaker 3: it because it's personalized.
Speaker 2: I haven't done it because I want to be a
Speaker 2: you know, a millionaire or an entrepreneur or anything like that,
Speaker 2: because if I wanted that title, I certainly wouldn't be
Speaker 2: working in the fitness industry, as you know, I'd be
Speaker 2: off doing something else. So yeah, I do it because
Speaker 2: I love it. Do I walk away from it with
Speaker 2: a big pocket full of money?
Speaker 3: Not really? Nah?
Speaker 1: And of course you own Genesis twenty four to seven
Speaker 1: in Ballarat and you've owned that it used to be
Speaker 1: Body and Soul that you've owned that for one hundred
Speaker 1: and thirteen years because you're very old. How many personally
Speaker 1: what's the population of Ballarat these days give or take.
Speaker 1: I think I asked you this once before, and maybe
Speaker 1: you didn't.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's you know, it's around, it's growing pretty quickly.
Speaker 2: It's around that one hundred and twenty mark give or take.
Speaker 1: Wow. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we've got you know, as you know, those
Speaker 2: suburbs moving out each each month. There's new developments happening.
Speaker 2: But you know, we've got over one hundred fitness facilities
Speaker 2: in Ballarat and that's.
Speaker 3: An awful lot.
Speaker 2: Hundred over facilities, Yeah, in ballerap Yet Ballarat is supposed
Speaker 2: to be one of the highest regions for obesity.
Speaker 3: So how do you work that out? How do you
Speaker 3: have over.
Speaker 2: One hundred fitness facilities, massive sporting clubs, a lot of
Speaker 2: money generated into secondary schools in their sports stadiums, and
Speaker 2: yet we have you know, I think we're in the
Speaker 2: top three for a B city.
Speaker 1: Do you think that that figure is right? Like do
Speaker 1: you think that's true? Or and if that is true, why,
Speaker 1: like why is that true?
Speaker 3: We've also got an awful lot of takeaway drive through
Speaker 3: we've got to hack.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so we've got one hundred fitness facilities and one
Speaker 1: thousand fucking fast.
Speaker 3: Well that's the reality of it.
Speaker 2: Two. You know, when people say how do I find gym?
Speaker 2: I say, driving the ballot and turn left. We see
Speaker 2: the hungry Jack sign and you can't get lost.
Speaker 3: Is it true? Are we in the top three? Well,
Speaker 3: we can only go by the data that's given to us.
Speaker 2: I think the problem in Ballarat is that, yeah, it.
Speaker 3: Is the fast food outlets.
Speaker 2: I think that we send as a fitness provider, we
Speaker 2: send the wrong messages out to the community.
Speaker 3: We should be about solving problems.
Speaker 2: You know. Okay, the fit and the fast and the furious,
Speaker 2: they're already going to gyms, They're already going to your bfts,
Speaker 2: your boutique places, our club and many other clubs.
Speaker 3: They are in town.
Speaker 2: But we're not really hitting the mark and we're not
Speaker 2: really trying to drag in our guys that are suffering
Speaker 2: from chronic illness or those that do have our weight problems.
Speaker 3: We're really not marketing to them.
Speaker 2: And until we start to do that, not just as
Speaker 2: a community, but as an industry, we're forever going to
Speaker 2: be high up there in the top three with obese
Speaker 2: and chronic illness issues.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Do you know what I'm just thinking now as
Speaker 1: somebody who's in the middle of a significant research journey,
Speaker 1: and my life is doing my own research, running my
Speaker 1: own studies and reading other people's research in the outcomes
Speaker 1: of their studies, and I'm thinking, how do they get
Speaker 1: that data Let's say one hundred thousand people, Well, we
Speaker 1: know that it's definitely not the done thing to weigh somebody,
Speaker 1: right it's and like, of those one hundred thousand people,
Speaker 1: if they're saying it's got one of the highest levels
Speaker 1: of obesity, how how do you know that? Like who's
Speaker 1: taking these measurements and where are the measurements being done?
Speaker 1: And if you have taken measurements on how many people,
Speaker 1: how big was the sample? And how do you extrapolate
Speaker 1: that to one hundred and twenty thousand people in an
Speaker 1: expanding rurle. I don't know that. Just to me, some
Speaker 1: of that seems a bit you know, like, what's that
Speaker 1: based on? And you can't say, oh, they're getting it
Speaker 1: from doctors because all that information's confidential. So who the
Speaker 1: fuck's doing all the weighing and body fat measuring?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, let's okay, So you say it's confidential.
Speaker 2: I'll give you an example of something that I was
Speaker 2: able to do.
Speaker 3: So I was able to.
Speaker 1: Go to.
Speaker 3: A tech company nameless.
Speaker 2: I was able to go to a tech company, and
Speaker 2: I was able to pick a couple of gyms in
Speaker 2: bell Right, So if you're a bone right now in
Speaker 2: Ballat listening to this, it may very well be new.
Speaker 2: And I said to them, I want to know how
Speaker 2: many members that club really does have, and I want
Speaker 2: to know how many visits they get. And so right
Speaker 2: now you're sitting back on well, you're never going to
Speaker 2: find that atmail because you're not privy to that information.
Speaker 2: I'm pretty privy to it and pretty close to the number.
Speaker 2: What this company was able to do was able to
Speaker 2: tell me, over a twelve month period how many visits
Speaker 2: the club had had within a certain radius of where
Speaker 2: the building sat. And then they were able to give
Speaker 2: me a rough estimate of how many members that business had,
Speaker 2: and then they were able to break down the demographic
Speaker 2: of the people going to that club and the other
Speaker 2: clubs that I did.
Speaker 3: This true, and you know what, it was all based.
Speaker 2: On what what's the one thing that you take to
Speaker 2: the gym?
Speaker 1: Are your phone?
Speaker 2: Get what's on your phone apps?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, you go.
Speaker 2: So it was based on the active apps on the
Speaker 2: phones of the consumers that were going to these clubs.
Speaker 2: So I was able to walk away with a pretty
Speaker 2: a four colored up chart telling me my competitors roughly
Speaker 2: how many members they've got, how many visits they've had
Speaker 2: to their club, the demographic of their club. And what
Speaker 2: I'm able to do with that information is in utilize
Speaker 2: my social media marketing based on trying to grab a
Speaker 2: hold of my competitors members.
Speaker 3: Now, if I'm able to find that out, can you imagine,
Speaker 3: like really think about it.
Speaker 2: He's sitting in the doctor surgery and he's putting all
Speaker 2: this stuff into his computer.
Speaker 3: And we don't know what sort of software they have,
Speaker 3: We don't know what apps that they use. Are they
Speaker 3: collating some of the information from our visits?
Speaker 1: Fuck? You should have been a spy dude, or at
Speaker 1: least a government operative on your sneaky now what you want?
Speaker 1: I know, I'm not sure you should have told that story.
Speaker 2: I'm not really too concerned about it because, and this
Speaker 2: might sound a.
Speaker 3: Little bit, you know, she's pretty sure of herself.
Speaker 2: I'm comfortable in my business. I know who my demographic is,
Speaker 2: I know who my people are. Yeah, of course you
Speaker 2: keep an eye on your competitors. I mean, why wouldn't you.
Speaker 2: You're supposed to do that if you're a good business person,
Speaker 2: then you do keep an eye on them, but you
Speaker 2: don't allow them to rent space in your head.
Speaker 1: But what so, why did you do that then?
Speaker 2: Like the reason I did it was because the tech
Speaker 2: company came to me and they worked with me in
Speaker 2: the past when they were the person was with another company,
Speaker 2: and they said, we like working with you, and we
Speaker 2: want to give you this this option here, and we
Speaker 2: want to.
Speaker 3: Give you as like a test ummy. So we went
Speaker 3: through the process.
Speaker 2: Then we used some of the information for some marketing
Speaker 2: for a new program that we were launching in the club.
Speaker 2: I mean it even tells you what's what part of
Speaker 2: Ballarete I should be marketing too. And so we did
Speaker 2: some social media adds to the area that they suggested,
Speaker 2: and we got new traffic through the club. And that
Speaker 2: was the result from that marketing and we target those
Speaker 2: people based on the information that we were given from
Speaker 2: the tech company.
Speaker 1: Wow. Well, so if you live in Balorat, I can
Speaker 1: watch out. That is a lot of fitness facilities one
Speaker 1: hundred that is, although where I live on Hampton Street,
Speaker 1: which you know where that is, I mean I would
Speaker 1: say within a you know, well up and down from
Speaker 1: my house five hundred meters one way or the other,
Speaker 1: So to the left or the right of my driveway,
Speaker 1: I would say there are ten, you know, including PT studios,
Speaker 1: actual gyms, Like there's two maybe six hundred meters two
Speaker 1: proper commercial gyms, multiple PT studios. There's literally near my house,
Speaker 1: there's if you're standing out the front across the road,
Speaker 1: there's five shop fronts, three of the shops. So there's
Speaker 1: a PET studio, then I don't know what, then another
Speaker 1: PT studio, then I don't know what, and then there's
Speaker 1: a pallate studio and out the back of that is
Speaker 1: another different, separate business PT studio. So there are literally
Speaker 1: four fitness businesses within eighty meters not even eighty meters
Speaker 1: fifty meters of each other. And then you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean there are I think, you know. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I've thought about a lot is like
Speaker 1: when I grew up in inverted commas in the eighties,
Speaker 1: working in gyms, I know, you're way younger than me
Speaker 1: by about a day. Like there were literally like I
Speaker 1: worked at a place called track Side Sports. That was
Speaker 1: one of my one of my first gigs, and I
Speaker 1: ended up managing that as a young dude in Hampton
Speaker 1: and there were squash courts, old school squash courts. There
Speaker 1: was up gym, there was arp pool, swimming pool, and
Speaker 1: there was an aerobics room. And that was pretty razzle
Speaker 1: dazzle in those days. Like there was an aerobics room,
Speaker 1: like pretty decent gym, pretty decent pool, pretty decent you know,
Speaker 1: that was that was state of the art. And now
Speaker 1: I mean squash courts pretty much don't even exist. I
Speaker 1: don't know where that. I'm sure they're around, but because
Speaker 1: it's just a lot of space and not a lot
Speaker 1: of return on that space, as you can imagine. But now,
Speaker 1: I mean every second street has got a twenty four
Speaker 1: hour gym, ladies gyms, gyms for people over fifty five, huge, huge, bloody,
Speaker 1: multimillion squillion dollar gyms, smaller boutique gyms, you know, the
Speaker 1: f forty five's, the bf tees that you know, cross fit.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's just a small goos board of fitness businesses.
Speaker 1: Now is it harder than ever to make a buck?
Speaker 2: I think, going back to what I just said previously,
Speaker 2: know your community, know your demographic, a market to them.
Speaker 3: Don't try and be something.
Speaker 2: That you're not just because you know that gym two
Speaker 2: those downs now introduced some type of new program. It
Speaker 2: doesn't necessarily mean that you need to chase it. You
Speaker 2: know your community, know your demographic. But the other side
Speaker 2: of that too is I think the next six months
Speaker 2: is going to be really interesting, Greig, because let's look
Speaker 2: at what's happened in Victoria.
Speaker 3: All of a sudden, you know, landlords are.
Speaker 2: Being hit with this ridiculous you know, extra land tax
Speaker 2: now that we've got to pay, which means that we're
Speaker 2: going to pass the increase onto the tenant. So that
Speaker 2: means all of those studios, people who don't own their freeholds,
Speaker 2: their rent is going to go up, so the rank
Speaker 2: goes up. They're already talking about interest going up, so
Speaker 2: those that are buying their homes.
Speaker 3: The interest rates are going to go up.
Speaker 2: So there's a lot of dipping happening at the moment,
Speaker 2: and I wonder if all will survive.
Speaker 3: I've seen probably three or four small, small, you know, shed.
Speaker 2: Places that have closed down in the last few MONTHSS
Speaker 2: and purely based on the fact that their rent's gone up.
Speaker 2: It's becoming competitive, am I seeing people drop their prices
Speaker 2: in order to get foot traffic through absolutely, is that
Speaker 2: the right.
Speaker 3: Thing to do. Depends on your financial situation.
Speaker 2: If you've got a lot of outgoings, I certainly wouldn't
Speaker 2: be dropping your pants too quid to get the foot
Speaker 2: traffic through the door.
Speaker 3: So I think, you know, traditionally with gyms and.
Speaker 2: Studios over the last say five years, what I've seen
Speaker 2: is if they need to close up shop and they
Speaker 2: don't do it by June thirtieth, they'll most definitely do
Speaker 2: it over the Christmas New Year period.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Wow. And also is what you're talking then? Just
Speaker 1: thinking two. In Melbourne, there's an increasing number of I
Speaker 1: don't know what they call them, but I call them megajyms,
Speaker 1: these gyms that are like an acre of bloody gym equipment,
Speaker 1: these massive meathead gyms. It's like fucking twenty bench presses
Speaker 1: in a row and fifty treadmills side by side, and
Speaker 1: I don't know how the fuck they financed that. And
Speaker 1: there some of them are selling like eight dollars a
Speaker 1: week memberships to start. I'm like, fucking good luck. I
Speaker 1: don't know how that's going to go with the long term.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I've seen a few going for four or five,
Speaker 2: six dollars a week. I've seen one for six dollars
Speaker 2: a week in baler Rap, But how.
Speaker 3: Long can you keep doing that?
Speaker 2: And let's let's all be honest about directive memberships and
Speaker 2: not talk shit about you know about it. How many
Speaker 2: of them actually clear at the end of the week,
Speaker 2: so you know, let's talk to club owners about their arears.
Speaker 2: So they sign up one hundred people on six dollars
Speaker 2: a week and the majority of the people are probably
Speaker 2: under twenty one. What percentage of the six seven eight
Speaker 2: dollars a week actually clears?
Speaker 3: How often are they.
Speaker 2: Chasing arrears and sending them to debt collection? Because this
Speaker 2: is another issue that we have at the moment. A
Speaker 2: lot of people are living week to week. A lot
Speaker 2: of gym memberships are bouncing, and people are going, oh no, no, no,
Speaker 2: we're seriously stop talking shit because they are. And it
Speaker 2: doesn't matter what you're paying eight dollars a week or
Speaker 2: you're paying fifty dollars a week at the five star
Speaker 2: down in South Yarra, that's just open. Memberships are bouncing
Speaker 2: because people are not spending and though we read lots
Speaker 2: of articles about people won't give up their gym membership
Speaker 2: and people won't quit their gym membership. Well they might
Speaker 2: not give it up, and they might not quit it, but.
Speaker 3: They're sure it was allowing it to bounce.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent. And I think also what's happening
Speaker 1: is like we're trying to and I understand it. Like
Speaker 1: there are so many businesses that are essentially reinventing the wheel, right,
Speaker 1: They're just it's like, movement is movement, you know, Flexion
Speaker 1: is flextion, Extension is extension. Getting your heart rate up
Speaker 1: is getting a heart rate up. Movement is you know.
Speaker 1: It's like when people are you know, like we're f
Speaker 1: forty five and those kind of circuit based programs where
Speaker 1: people go from one thing to another and then we've
Speaker 1: got you know what is kind of loosely called functional training, right, Well,
Speaker 1: everything's functional depending on what you're doing and what your
Speaker 1: needs are and what your body requires. It's like even
Speaker 1: a pinloaded bench press is functional if that's what you need.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like people think, unless you're standing on
Speaker 1: a fucking wobble board or a bosu, or you've got
Speaker 1: three different things going at once, it's not functional. I
Speaker 1: don't think they understand function. But anyway, but yeah, there's
Speaker 1: just I think there's the constant kind of reinventing of
Speaker 1: the wheel, where, like you said before, the business two
Speaker 1: doors up the road has got like some new fancy,
Speaker 1: high tech, twenty five dollar machine that like, at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, sweats sweat, and reps are reps
Speaker 1: and weight is weight, Like a ten pound dumbell is
Speaker 1: a ten pound dumb bell, you know. And I remember
Speaker 1: remember setting it. I said, I've set up a bunch
Speaker 1: of gyms for companies, right and one of the companies
Speaker 1: I set up a gym for they wanted a PEC
Speaker 1: deck right there, and I go, I'm not, We're not
Speaker 1: putting in a PEC deck. They're like, why I go,
Speaker 1: Because it's it's a ten thousand, eight thousand dollars machine
Speaker 1: that we can do one thing on. I go, you
Speaker 1: can do a better movement on bench, on a bench
Speaker 1: or on a ball with a couple of dumbbells. There's
Speaker 1: a lot more flexibility and a lot more variability, and
Speaker 1: you're doing the same movement, and we can get those
Speaker 1: dumbbells for a hundred bucks, right, And so it's trying
Speaker 1: to I think, in all of those environments figure out
Speaker 1: what are my needs. What have they got for me
Speaker 1: to work with? What's optimal for my body? Yeah, you
Speaker 1: want to enjoy going there, but you know, some some
Speaker 1: times the trillion dollar gym, with the state of the
Speaker 1: art everything, there ain't too many people in that place
Speaker 1: getting outstanding results necessarily. So I kind of like, for me,
Speaker 1: I'm big on Yeah, I want somewhere that's got good equipment,
Speaker 1: of course, but I also want to be in a
Speaker 1: place that I like to go to. Is it a
Speaker 1: good culture? Are the staff educated and inspired? Do they
Speaker 1: fucking know anything? Do I want to? You know, And
Speaker 1: I don't want to throw anyone under the bus here,
Speaker 1: but you know, it's like the barriers to entry for
Speaker 1: the fitness industry are pretty low. So you know, if
Speaker 1: you're a would be client or a would be member,
Speaker 1: make sure. And it's not that we don't want new trainers.
Speaker 1: We definitely do. But and everyone's got to start somewhere,
Speaker 1: including mel Tempest and Craig Harper. But you know, like
Speaker 1: I literally pay an exercise physiologist to train my dad,
Speaker 1: right because I want the best person in the area
Speaker 1: that's available to work with my dad. So, you know,
Speaker 1: there are a lot of things that we need to
Speaker 1: factor in when we consider where we go and who
Speaker 1: we trust with our body.
Speaker 2: The reality, too, Craig, is that so many people are
Speaker 2: over complicating workouts. Now, you know, let's get the twenty
Speaker 2: five thousand dollar machine, Let's get the fifty thousand dollar machine.
Speaker 2: We so over complicate programming that we disqualify those that
Speaker 2: are OBEs and those that do have chronic illness and
Speaker 2: those that do have mental health issues.
Speaker 3: Those people condition themselves.
Speaker 2: They walk into have a look, they see things are
Speaker 2: too complicated, or they see your video clips on TikTok
Speaker 2: and all the rest of it looks true.
Speaker 3: Hard, I'm not joining the gym. Hence why we have
Speaker 3: obese the issues, chronic illness issues, and mental health problems,
Speaker 3: where young trainers, with all due respect, are over complicating
Speaker 3: things for the everyday lay person to come in and
Speaker 3: join the gym.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think, look, it's interesting because I've been
Speaker 1: having a lot of conversations lately with my training partner, Mark,
Speaker 1: who's lovingly referred to as the Crab, whom most of
Speaker 1: my followers know. So his daughter Jamie, she is nineteen
Speaker 1: and she's just finishing hers at three and four, and
Speaker 1: she i don't want to get in trouble here, so
Speaker 1: I need to be careful what I say. But she
Speaker 1: was asking me about programming and stuff the other day,
Speaker 1: which we were having a good conversation, and I said
Speaker 1: to her, look, yes, of course you need to know
Speaker 1: how to write programs, and you'll develop more knowledge understanding
Speaker 1: skill over time. You'll get experience, Your programming skills will
Speaker 1: get better. You work with different people, you know, and
Speaker 1: of course you need to understand the body and anatomy
Speaker 1: and physiology and basic you know stuff, and a bit
Speaker 1: of nutrition and hopefully a bit of psychology without being
Speaker 1: a psychologist, all this stuff, and we need that. But
Speaker 1: also at the end of the day, if I'm a
Speaker 1: fifty year old dude and I come in to train
Speaker 1: with her, for example, who's a fit, strong, healthy, nineteen
Speaker 1: year old young lady. I mean, what really matters as
Speaker 1: long as she doesn't injure me, is that I enjoy
Speaker 1: the experience and I want to come back like, did
Speaker 1: you do a good workout, Craig, yep? Would you have
Speaker 1: done it without Jamie? Probably not cool? Did you think
Speaker 1: she knows what she's doing? Did you like her? Did
Speaker 1: you enjoy the hour? If the answer is yes, yes, yes,
Speaker 1: then I'm probably going to come back right. But we
Speaker 1: know that there are people in gym's who work as
Speaker 1: instructors and trainers and whatever who may even have good knowledge,
Speaker 1: but they just don't have whatever it is the X
Speaker 1: factor people skills, energy, intent that people want to be
Speaker 1: around you know, do if you're a trainer, if you
Speaker 1: work in fitness or health or it. I mean, and
Speaker 1: this is not about or loathing, it's about self awareness.
Speaker 1: Do people want to be around you for an hour
Speaker 1: on a regular basis? Because if the answer is no,
Speaker 1: the rest of it's redundant.
Speaker 3: No, I agree with that.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's not just personal trainers, it's group fitness
Speaker 2: instructors as well. You know, the objective is to get
Speaker 2: your person in their training session, whether it's a PT
Speaker 2: or a GFI experience, it's to get them.
Speaker 3: From A to Z.
Speaker 2: It's the trainer and the instructor needs to know that
Speaker 2: it's not all about them, that it's about the client.
Speaker 3: You know, the three rules, Stop, look and listen. That's
Speaker 3: what you're there to do.
Speaker 2: And you need to know where their headspace is at
Speaker 2: the at the time, too, are they do? They just
Speaker 2: need to get through the session today. Do they just
Speaker 2: need to vent to you? Are they one hundred percent
Speaker 2: there with you? It's really quite interesting. The rtos, with
Speaker 2: all due respect to anybody that's listening, the rtos need
Speaker 2: to lift their game because they are sending people to
Speaker 2: JIM owners like myself. We're going through the interview process.
Speaker 3: And I almost want to put my head in the bucket.
Speaker 2: At the end of the interview process, you know, you
Speaker 2: ask them the basic questions, what's going to make.
Speaker 3: You, you know, a great personal trainer? Why should I
Speaker 3: I hire you?
Speaker 2: But then you ask them questions like where do you
Speaker 2: think you're going to get your clients from? Oh, I'm
Speaker 2: going to get them from the reception desk because they
Speaker 2: all walk through the front doors, you know, with herds
Speaker 2: and herds, and no, that's not where you're going to
Speaker 2: get your clients from. And you talk to them about programming,
Speaker 2: and then you might talk to them about do you
Speaker 2: want to teach groups?
Speaker 3: Do you want to teach kids? Do you want to
Speaker 3: teach all the adults?
Speaker 2: And they're just like their mindset is I want to
Speaker 2: teach people that are on.
Speaker 3: TikTok and on Instagram.
Speaker 2: You know, I want to train people twenty one to
Speaker 2: twenty five to twenty six, you.
Speaker 3: Know the fifth the sports and athletes. What about the
Speaker 3: rest of the generation?
Speaker 2: And they're not teaching them in the rto that the
Speaker 2: world is bigger than the reflection in the mirror.
Speaker 3: They're not teaching them how to set up a business.
Speaker 3: What is a business?
Speaker 2: They're not even they're not even addressing issues such as
Speaker 2: sham contracting in our industry, what to be aware of.
Speaker 2: They're just taking their money, throwing them in the classroom situation.
Speaker 2: Do ten hours you'll be right giving the thumbs up,
Speaker 2: go out and sit in the job.
Speaker 3: Interview with Mail, and then Mail goes, what the fuck
Speaker 3: is going on?
Speaker 2: But shouldn't even be working in the fucking supermarket Andlane
Speaker 2: be training my clients well.
Speaker 1: And also think about the immense responsibility that you have
Speaker 1: of working with someone's body and telling a person what
Speaker 1: to do with their body. And you know, apart from
Speaker 1: the knowledge that you need to have, and of course
Speaker 1: you know, we're not doctors or physios or you know,
Speaker 1: but at the same time, we're prescribing exercise and you
Speaker 1: know that part of the problem. I think mel is
Speaker 1: let me put an next an asterisk next to this,
Speaker 1: because there are some There are some very good educators
Speaker 1: in the RTO space, but there are some shit ones
Speaker 1: obviously no names mentioned. But so you've got people who
Speaker 1: are instructing personal trainers, would be personal trainers who have
Speaker 1: never been personal trainers. Right, You've got people literally teaching
Speaker 1: people how to do the job who have never done
Speaker 1: the job, or they've done the job a little bit,
Speaker 1: but they certainly haven't been successful. Right, So they are theorists. Well,
Speaker 1: theory is good, but the experience of being a trainer
Speaker 1: is not a theoretical one. It's a face to face
Speaker 1: practical one. Right, So if you can't fucking build rapport,
Speaker 1: build trust, build respect, create engagement, create an experience that
Speaker 1: people want to keep coming back. For all your understanding
Speaker 1: of anatomy and physiology and nutrition and biomechanics and all
Speaker 1: your science, doesn't fucking matter. You need both. Yes you
Speaker 1: need the science, Yes you need the knowledge. But and
Speaker 1: I could tell you countless stories of people. Remember I
Speaker 1: employed five under trainers over twenty five years. I could
Speaker 1: tell you countless stories of people who worked for me
Speaker 1: who their scientific knowledge was somewhere between pretty good and outstanding,
Speaker 1: but they just couldn't keep a client because they were
Speaker 1: fucking boring. And then people are going, oh, well, it's
Speaker 1: not your job to entertain people. No it's not. But
Speaker 1: it is your job to be able to create an
Speaker 1: experience with somebody and to build connection and rapport and trust.
Speaker 1: And doesn't matter what you think. I can tell you unequivocally,
Speaker 1: if people don't like you and like spending time around you,
Speaker 1: they're not coming back. And no, it's not a popularity contest,
Speaker 1: bah you know, but it's all of it. It's practical,
Speaker 1: it's physiological, it's psychological, it's sociological. And if you don't
Speaker 1: understand the totality of the you know, even when you
Speaker 1: think about it on the most fundamental level, it's a
Speaker 1: customer service job, right. If you don't want to serve customers,
Speaker 1: then fucking go do something else because it is a
Speaker 1: customer service role and understanding how people are, you know.
Speaker 1: And anyway, back to the long winded story, I said
Speaker 1: to young Jamie, your biggest challenge won't be remembering what
Speaker 1: the four cords are or that they insert into the
Speaker 1: PTELL attendant and then into the tibial tuberosity in the
Speaker 1: front of your fucking tibia. That ain't your issue or
Speaker 1: the five adductor muscles of the FEMA. Right, your biggest
Speaker 1: issue is going to be how do I talk to
Speaker 1: this fifty year old man and instill trust and confidence
Speaker 1: and respect both ways and give him a workout that
Speaker 1: he wants to come back for or she wants to
Speaker 1: come back for. You know, that's the thing and at
Speaker 1: least part of the courses. And you can't you can't
Speaker 1: give someone experience, but you can have these conversations with
Speaker 1: them to understand the totality of what is required if
Speaker 1: you are going to be a fitness professional working with
Speaker 1: the general public.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree with that, and you know what, create
Speaker 2: one of the other things that we need to think
Speaker 2: of as an industry is if we were to become regulated,
Speaker 2: would that be a betterment for the industry?
Speaker 1: Explain that to people? How like people are going to
Speaker 1: go what do you mean it's not regulated? Explain because
Speaker 1: also keep in mind, probably seventy percent of the people
Speaker 1: listening now don't go to a gym. Yeah, and probably
Speaker 1: ninety percent of my listeners are not fitness or health
Speaker 1: or wellness professionals. So when you say the industry is unregulated.
Speaker 1: Unpack that a little bit.
Speaker 3: The way to explain it in Layman's terms is, as
Speaker 3: fitness professionals, we don't answer to anybody. We don't answer
Speaker 3: to anybody except the ato. That's about it.
Speaker 2: So anybody the naven next door can go out and
Speaker 2: get some business cards printed up and says he's Joe
Speaker 2: Smith the personal trainer. If he wants to do that,
Speaker 2: he can go and rent a factory around the corner
Speaker 2: and put a sign out the front and b Joe
Speaker 2: Smith the personal Trainer. There's nobody there that comes to
Speaker 2: check that we are.
Speaker 3: Doing the right thing.
Speaker 2: You know, doctors, nurses, fieries, coppers, they all have and association,
Speaker 2: they all have somebody that they have to answer to
Speaker 2: when they do the wrong thing. And we, as an industry,
Speaker 2: and that's in Layman's terms, we don't have that.
Speaker 3: And I feel that if we were to.
Speaker 2: Become a regulated industry then that may, and I say
Speaker 2: may lift the standards of those going out into the
Speaker 2: workplace as fitness professionals.
Speaker 1: That's see, that's going to blow people's minds. That So
Speaker 1: you don't need Now we're not saying that's a good thing,
Speaker 1: by the way, but yeah, The only thing they won't
Speaker 1: get or correct me if I'm wrong, is they won't
Speaker 1: get insurance. Is that right?
Speaker 3: Well, let's let's let's be honest about that. How many
Speaker 3: do have insurance?
Speaker 1: Oh? Really? Don't you need insurance to be registered?
Speaker 2: So if you're a fitness professional and you're working in
Speaker 2: a club, yes, of course they're going to ask you
Speaker 2: to go get insurance because they won't let you work there.
Speaker 2: But Joe Smith that just had his cards printed up,
Speaker 2: the rents the factory around the corner, and let's Craig says,
Speaker 2: show me your insurance.
Speaker 3: Does he have insurance?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Yeah, that's crazy, isn't it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: And this is why true, and this is I'm not
Speaker 2: going to go down this path. But we all know
Speaker 2: that the reason that we were treated the way we
Speaker 2: were treated in COVID was because we just weren't seen
Speaker 2: as a professional industry. Hence why we were always put
Speaker 2: on the back burner. And we need to be a
Speaker 2: regulated industry. And I think by doing so that will
Speaker 2: create better fitness professionals, maybe not in our immediate lifetime,
Speaker 2: but long term because we are going to have a
Speaker 2: lot of consumers Craig again, that are going to have,
Speaker 2: you know, long term chronic illness and obesity, and who's
Speaker 2: going to be looking after these people when we have
Speaker 2: a healthcare system that is struggling.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's so interesting. When you employ trainers, whatever,
Speaker 1: group X, teachers, reception people, what do you look for?
Speaker 1: I mean, I know that's an open ended question, but
Speaker 1: how do you how much of it is about what's
Speaker 1: written in the resume, how much of it is about
Speaker 1: their training or qualifications, and how much is about your gut?
Speaker 1: In that half hour?
Speaker 2: Ninety point nine percent of it is all about gut. Really, Yeah,
Speaker 2: if they don't converse with me, well, if they don't
Speaker 2: converse with the front desk staff, who is their immediate
Speaker 2: person when they arrive.
Speaker 3: I also go buy body language, the way that they're dressed.
Speaker 2: I had a guy once turn up in kappa white
Speaker 2: football shorts, thongs and a T shirt for a job,
Speaker 2: and I told him to go home and get changed
Speaker 2: and itver ever came back. So it's about Ah, it's
Speaker 2: all about that immediate conversation. Because see, in my club,
Speaker 2: and I know that everybody runs their clubs different, but
Speaker 2: we just run flat line management. Everybody is the same,
Speaker 2: irrespective of whether you went to UNI, you've got a
Speaker 2: PhD versus the one that has certificate for.
Speaker 3: Everyone is treated the same.
Speaker 2: Everybody brings something different to the table that our members
Speaker 2: want and desire. So it's more about this and I
Speaker 2: you don't sit in with the personalities.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: And I mean I look back at the trainers that
Speaker 1: I had over the years that were really popular and
Speaker 1: really in demand, and literally some of them had a
Speaker 1: waiting list, like they were full, Like if you want
Speaker 1: to train with that person there, you can't, And so
Speaker 1: they would have a waiting list, and most of them
Speaker 1: were not tertiary qualified. Now that's not to say that's
Speaker 1: the cause, but the ones that were in demand, obviously
Speaker 1: they were good trainers, but often they were just fun.
Speaker 1: They were just charismatic people.
Speaker 2: They were every people who could communicate normal conversation with
Speaker 2: their client.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, I know this is cheesy, but
Speaker 1: they genuinely cared like they just cared like it's it's
Speaker 1: not like oh, I mean, of course it's a profess
Speaker 1: relationship and it needs to remain that way. But it
Speaker 1: is a lot different to a lot of other services
Speaker 1: in that like, for example, I trained one lady who
Speaker 1: I started training early in my career. Her name is Pauline.
Speaker 1: She's still around, God bless her. I trained her for
Speaker 1: sixteen years. I tried to get rid of her for
Speaker 1: about fourteen She knows that. She would laugh at that
Speaker 1: because it got to the point where she absolutely didn't
Speaker 1: need me to train her, but she was wealthy and
Speaker 1: she would just prefer that. Right, So she's like, and
Speaker 1: I would try to get her to train with other trainers.
Speaker 1: I've got try to get a train independently. But we
Speaker 1: just got on well and she trusted me, like I
Speaker 1: never ripped her off. I would have been happy at
Speaker 1: any time if she moved on, but just building that
Speaker 1: connection and that rapport and that trust with people where
Speaker 1: you know, if she had have said to me, I
Speaker 1: can't pay you anymore something, I'd just turn up anyway.
Speaker 1: I know that's bad business, but you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: I'm like, fuck it, just you know, just whatever like
Speaker 1: and that is. You know, I don't think that's a
Speaker 1: great business plan. I wouldn't be advising that too much.
Speaker 1: But it's like there's this real kind of balance between
Speaker 1: being strategic and corp commercially minded, which you should be,
Speaker 1: but also like being a human and treating people well
Speaker 1: so that they genuinely understand that you're not just after
Speaker 1: their dough. You know.
Speaker 3: There's that mix, right, Yeah, yeah, I agree with that.
Speaker 2: I would have members, you know, come in and say,
Speaker 2: I'm going away in six weeks time, but my membership
Speaker 2: runs out in two weeks.
Speaker 3: What can I do? And we're just like, you've been here.
Speaker 2: One hundred years, don't worry about it, just just keep training.
Speaker 3: Until you till you go away. But you're right, it's.
Speaker 2: All about it really is about that that love relationship
Speaker 2: that you give you that you give your client. You know,
Speaker 2: it all comes back to the look and listen and
Speaker 2: have some empathy and take an interest in what they
Speaker 2: do outside of the club. It's just doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be all, you know, all about the exercise and what's
Speaker 2: happening in the club.
Speaker 3: And there's some people that will like that approach, and then.
Speaker 2: There's some people that just want you to come in
Speaker 2: train them, don't talk too much, just tell me to
Speaker 2: do and I'm out, And that's okay too.
Speaker 1: Yes, for sure. I mean when I started, I was
Speaker 1: trained my first PT client in nineteen eighty six, and
Speaker 1: I thought, oh, this is just a handy, handy side hustle, right,
Speaker 1: this guy wants me to train him. I'm like, I'll train,
Speaker 1: I'll do my other job, I'll run the gym, I'll
Speaker 1: And then another guy wanted me to train him, a
Speaker 1: friend of this guy, So I went awesome. So instead
Speaker 1: of making a hundred bucks on the side of making
Speaker 1: two hundred, this is great. That was three sessions each,
Speaker 1: by the way, thirty three dollars an hour, and I
Speaker 1: thought I was the king. And that turned into a
Speaker 1: few more and it just like that just developed to
Speaker 1: within six months, I had about forty hours of personal
Speaker 1: training a week on top of my forty hour job,
Speaker 1: without marketing, without there being an industry, without there like
Speaker 1: there was no insurance, no regulation, which apparently there still isn't.
Speaker 1: Nobody knew what personal training was, and I ended up
Speaker 1: within six months I had a waiting list of people
Speaker 1: who wanted me to train them, and nobody dropped off.
Speaker 1: And they didn't drop off, not because I was amazing,
Speaker 1: but they just loved it, and I just I had
Speaker 1: fun with them and I liked them, and they got
Speaker 1: in shape and we talk shit and I knew about
Speaker 1: their kids, and I knew about their shitty boss, and
Speaker 1: I knew about their sore back, and you know, we
Speaker 1: had fun and if they forgot their money that day,
Speaker 1: it didn't matter. Fuck it. And i'd, you know, I'd
Speaker 1: turn up and I book. I'm reading this book. You
Speaker 1: should read it. So I bought you a copy, and
Speaker 1: I'd write a nice message inside, and every now and
Speaker 1: then I'd go to their fiftieth birthday or you know.
Speaker 1: And so you're just building this relationship which is much
Speaker 1: more than just a transactional dynamic. But in the middle
Speaker 1: of it, you're making good dough. They're getting results, they're happy,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't need to be a traditional transactional business concept.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think a.
Speaker 2: Lot of trainers would now say they've moved away from that,
Speaker 2: the transactional side, and that they are having more friend
Speaker 2: sessions with their clients. But in saying that, Beaukra, you've
Speaker 2: got to have boundaries too when you when you're people,
Speaker 2: as you know, you know, I think offline, you said
Speaker 2: to me, you know, about what's one of the things
Speaker 2: that makes a great fitness professional.
Speaker 3: You know, my response is, don't sleep with the members.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what makes a great fitness professional. Be their friend,
Speaker 2: be their bu and be there when they need you
Speaker 2: and help them get the end result that they want.
Speaker 3: But you know, don't cross those boundaries.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think fucking the clients is not a great good,
Speaker 1: not a great plan, not a great plant. Although although
Speaker 1: very popular one melt.
Speaker 3: Yeah. The worst.
Speaker 2: The downside to that, Craig is when they're married and
Speaker 2: their partners coming to one of they what's coming on?
Speaker 1: Hell? Has that happened in your joint? So what was
Speaker 1: the next question? It's always good chatting. Tell people how
Speaker 1: they can come along to the Ignite Fitness business get
Speaker 1: together and also the ladies are the Women's Health Summit
Speaker 1: the following day. How can they get involved? How can
Speaker 1: they get a discount where they go?
Speaker 2: Just jump on ignite fitness dot com dot au and
Speaker 2: if you use the code Harper by the seventh of
Speaker 2: July you'll get a twenty five percent discount. Now you
Speaker 2: can go to both days or just go to one day.
Speaker 2: So there is points I will say for the women
Speaker 2: listeners out there, you do not need to be a
Speaker 2: fitness professional to attend the Women's Health somewhere on the Saturday.
Speaker 3: We're covering all topics from menopause to bullying in.
Speaker 2: The workplace, so there's lots of conversation happening, so you
Speaker 2: do not need to be a fitness professional if you
Speaker 2: want to come along on the Saturday.
Speaker 1: And the good news ladies is I will not be
Speaker 1: talking at that day. He wait, no, I will not.
Speaker 1: I will say goodbye a fair but always great to
Speaker 1: catch up with you Mail. Appreciate you.
Speaker 3: Craig. I always love having a chit chat with you.
Speaker 1: Always thanks lovely,