Speaker 1: I'll get a you Bloody Champions, Welcome to another and
Speaker 1: stillming the You project, Craig Anthony Harper. We've got a
Speaker 1: cast of thousands. As I look at my screen today,
Speaker 1: there's four humans. Four humans on the screen. Tara, Jarrett Russell, Jarrett,
Speaker 1: Tiffany and Cook. Will start with the person on bottom
Speaker 1: left for me, Tiffany and Cook, who's just had seven
Speaker 1: compliments in twenty seconds, and a big fat head is
Speaker 1: growing as I speak, Hi, Tiv.
Speaker 2: My face hurts from smiling from all those compliments. Apps.
Speaker 1: Ah, Rusty's been. Rusty's been pumping up your ties and
Speaker 1: telling you what an athlete you are and how jacked
Speaker 1: you are. And he's not wrong. You are. You are
Speaker 1: pretty jacked. There ain't too many people of your vintage.
Speaker 1: You old lady, that is, says the man who's nineteen
Speaker 1: years old of that error's in good shape, as you
Speaker 1: just quickly before we go to our guests, You're going
Speaker 1: to India in about seventy less than seventy two hours,
Speaker 1: it's about sixty hours. How are you feeling excited?
Speaker 2: Chaotic and excited? And it's a bit and it feels
Speaker 2: a little bit surreal because it's a very different kind
Speaker 2: of holiday. Yeah, do you are you?
Speaker 1: Do you have any apprehension because it's you know, obviously
Speaker 1: it's a different place and is I think one point
Speaker 1: one billion people and it's like that, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: not sure that you're Indian? Is that? Or you're Hindi?
Speaker 1: Is that great? Is that the language of it? Rush Jarrett?
Speaker 1: Is that the language of India? Hindi?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Hindi, Hindi is the Well there's lots of dialects in.
Speaker 4: India, but yeah, Hindi Hindi or a dialect of wow,
Speaker 4: So you better brush up.
Speaker 3: Also udu udu wow.
Speaker 1: Fucking hell. That's I'm glad you're not a bloody language teacher. Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: have you packed yet?
Speaker 2: No, I'm a last minute packer. I'm a last minute everything.
Speaker 2: So you know, it's a little bit like when I
Speaker 2: have speaking gigsaps. I'm just running around in a whirlwind
Speaker 2: of part anxiety, part excitement, part I'll just wait, I'll
Speaker 2: just do it later.
Speaker 1: So you know what I reckon. If you are a
Speaker 1: person in school and you wait until the last day
Speaker 1: before you start prepping for exams or you start writing
Speaker 1: that paper or that assignment that carries on through life
Speaker 1: and you become the chick that packs like twelve minutes
Speaker 1: before you're getting picked up, or you know, does Tara
Speaker 1: Jarrett do that rush?
Speaker 3: Jarrett?
Speaker 4: I tell you what I have given up when I
Speaker 4: say we're leaving at ten You know what I do
Speaker 4: now if we've got to leave at ten am, I
Speaker 4: say to her, we've got to leave at eight thirty.
Speaker 4: We're going to leave at eight thirty, and I build
Speaker 4: in a nineteen minute window of running late.
Speaker 1: So not true, it really. Now I'll just point out
Speaker 1: if you listening to this, well obviously you're listening to this,
Speaker 1: but you're listening and thinking to yourself the audio is
Speaker 1: a bit weird. That's because Russ's in a car somewhere
Speaker 1: in the middle of somewhere and Tara is in an
Speaker 1: office somewhere else. So that will explain this slight variation
Speaker 1: in the quality and perhaps even the volume of audio. Tara,
Speaker 1: we were talking to you before we went live, Tara
Speaker 1: and Russ of course of at the symbol at Pilates
Speaker 1: and other things and places. But so you've been building
Speaker 1: this brand in this business for a couple of years now,
Speaker 1: and you've kind of hit that tipping point where it's
Speaker 1: now gone a little bit. Let's be honest, mental, you
Speaker 1: can say that in this context, I think or not.
Speaker 1: Send me an email and it's like I said before,
Speaker 1: it's a combination of awesomeness and mayhem, and you went, yeah.
Speaker 5: Kind of, yeah it is.
Speaker 6: So we've just we've just launched our head office here
Speaker 6: and so we've got new stuff and just new everything.
Speaker 5: So before it used to be just the.
Speaker 6: Two of us pretty much doing everything, and now we've
Speaker 6: got staff in place, which is amazing and they're awesome,
Speaker 6: but we've got to I'm trying to train them at
Speaker 6: the same time being.
Speaker 5: Busier than we ever had. And I was just saying, I.
Speaker 6: Don't have the time to train the stuff so I
Speaker 6: can stop being busy, so I need to start working
Speaker 6: on it.
Speaker 7: Yeah, what's the gap between all the awareness between busyness
Speaker 7: and efficiency, Like you can be busy and inefficient or
Speaker 7: busy and efficient, or you can be not so busy
Speaker 7: and quite efficient.
Speaker 3: Right, m.
Speaker 6: So for me it has to be everything I'm doing now,
Speaker 6: I'm literally asking myself, is this adding value to the growth,
Speaker 6: because that's what my job is is to grow to
Speaker 6: grow the business. Is this going to add value to
Speaker 6: the to the product or am I stepping into my
Speaker 6: micromanaging And that's what I've got to step away from that,
Speaker 6: that micromanagement area and just let other people do their
Speaker 6: jobs and trust in them and delegate and them the
Speaker 6: responsibility to do it.
Speaker 5: So we are getting there.
Speaker 6: And that's something we're instilling from the start this week.
Speaker 6: But we've really only we opened our head office on
Speaker 6: the seventeenth of SEPTEMBERUS so oh sorry, August. So very
Speaker 6: young in terms of a head office and our stuff
Speaker 6: being under the one roof.
Speaker 5: We have had staff, but this is the first time
Speaker 5: we're all now under the one roof.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I reckon? Congrats? By the way,
Speaker 1: I went and had a look at your HQ. Is
Speaker 1: it I should know? Is it Port Melbourne I went to?
Speaker 1: Or where's that that? I went to? South Melbourne? Fucking
Speaker 1: amazing HQ, like all the production stuff where they do
Speaker 1: all the filming. You've got to be I'm not just
Speaker 1: like the point of this is not a promo for
Speaker 1: their business, by the way, everyone, it's just talk about.
Speaker 1: What I love about is someone who has an idea
Speaker 1: and then they turn the idea into a thing, like
Speaker 1: a small thing, and it grows into a bigger thing,
Speaker 1: and then other people come in and buy into the
Speaker 1: vision and the brand and they breathe life into it,
Speaker 1: and now they've got this fucking amazing, you know, flourishing
Speaker 1: enterprise that's all through Australia and growing and expanding. We'll
Speaker 1: talking about the business in a moment, but you know
Speaker 1: what I think, and this is very out of alignment
Speaker 1: with the warm, fuzzy, let's hold hands and sing kumbay
Speaker 1: our mindset that's pervading twenty twenty four. I think in
Speaker 1: a way, when you're doing what you're doing for the
Speaker 1: stage you are at for the development of your business,
Speaker 1: you can't have balance, like fuck balance for a while.
Speaker 1: Like I think, like when I was growing Harpers, and
Speaker 1: you guys were involved in Harpers in the early days.
Speaker 1: But when the first Harpers, which was Hampton Street, I
Speaker 1: used to get there at four point thirty or five
Speaker 1: in the morning and leave at nine at night because
Speaker 1: I was a whole fucking company, and I worked ridiculous
Speaker 1: hours and clean the toilets and vacuums your gym and
Speaker 1: fucking polish the mirrors, and there's a period of time
Speaker 1: where you just necessity dictates that for a while you
Speaker 1: need to be fully immersed and you having some downtime
Speaker 1: and a fucking massage and asleep, and it's you're probably
Speaker 1: not going to have it for a while, and that's
Speaker 1: just the price you paid for building something amazing, Do
Speaker 1: you concur.
Speaker 5: Or totally totally?
Speaker 6: Well, we actually our head office actually has a spoke.
Speaker 6: We're very lucky our space up the top that we
Speaker 6: can actually stay at, so it's got to apartment up
Speaker 6: the top. So I actually left here at six forty
Speaker 6: five morning and have been absolutely flat out since then
Speaker 6: and just went from phone call and meeting to meeting
Speaker 6: to phone call and then I literally got out of
Speaker 6: a meeting to come and do this with you. And
Speaker 6: I just sent a text to us seeing it's a
Speaker 6: massive day, but it's not going to finish anytime soon.
Speaker 5: So it'll be it just keeps going.
Speaker 6: And a lot of the times, especially especially the boys, will.
Speaker 5: Say, you know, stop emailing, you know.
Speaker 6: It's nighttime, watch a movie or something, and I'll say
Speaker 6: to them, I actually like this, I actually enjoy it.
Speaker 6: It's actually I save the bits of my day that
Speaker 6: I can do while I'm sitting on a couch and
Speaker 6: I find more enjoyable for nighttime work. So that's sort
Speaker 6: of my downtime. But there are times where we go
Speaker 6: far out we need a break. It's just my brain is.
Speaker 1: And I think also, you know, the thing that we
Speaker 1: don't talk about. I talk about on the show a bit,
Speaker 1: but broadly you don't talk about the impact that your
Speaker 1: work has. So we talk about work life balance. But
Speaker 1: I always say that if you are doing something that
Speaker 1: for the most part you love, then eighty hours a
Speaker 1: week is better for you than forty hours a week
Speaker 1: of something you fucking hate.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 1: I'm not suggesting people work eighty hours a week, but
Speaker 1: I you know, when I came and saw you a
Speaker 1: new place the other day and I see you guys,
Speaker 1: just like how awesome this thing that you're building is,
Speaker 1: and how happy you both were and exhausted but happy.
Speaker 1: You go, yeah, this is I mean, you couldn't do
Speaker 1: this forever, but for a period of time, or as
Speaker 1: the Christians say, for a season. You know, then it's true,
Speaker 1: that's what they say, that's what we say. I should say.
Speaker 1: Then you know, it's it's like that's what you do.
Speaker 1: You go look I'm going to go nuts for a
Speaker 1: year or two or three. And I don't know anyone
Speaker 1: who's built something awesome who didn't do that at some stage.
Speaker 5: You have to. You have to.
Speaker 6: You have to completely envelop yourself by it and be
Speaker 6: totally immersed.
Speaker 5: It's the only way it can happen.
Speaker 6: It's the only way we can grow at the speed
Speaker 6: that we're growing and have control. Otherwise it would just
Speaker 6: be absolute chaos. So very rarely is their downtime. Well,
Speaker 6: I haven't been, as you know, we live in Country Victoria.
Speaker 6: Our head office is in Melbourne. I think I worked out.
Speaker 6: What did I work out?
Speaker 1: Russ?
Speaker 6: I'd had three days at home in a house in
Speaker 6: Country Victoria in now nine weeks, I mean Melbourne, Russ
Speaker 6: is in Russ's in Caiabram. So yeah, yeah, So he
Speaker 6: says to me, Now he goes, you live in Melbourne
Speaker 6: and you visit?
Speaker 1: Yes, because I.
Speaker 6: Just have an opportunity to leave what we're doing at
Speaker 6: the moment, because there's just so much to do and
Speaker 6: so many people I need to connect with, and it's
Speaker 6: all great.
Speaker 1: I feel like you know, when you're doing something, when
Speaker 1: you're growing something, whatever the something is that you're growing
Speaker 1: and you're taking it from concept to practical reality to
Speaker 1: real world business to blah blah blah. Like in part,
Speaker 1: how well you can do that is about how well
Speaker 1: you can solve problems in real time. I feel like
Speaker 1: that business development is about high level problem solving, like
Speaker 1: eighteen hours a day.
Speaker 8: Yep, you're right, because the more humans you bring into
Speaker 8: the organization, and the bigger your organization becomes, just by
Speaker 8: the sheer size and the number of people that are involved,
Speaker 8: that brings in, as you say, more problems, more personalities,
Speaker 8: more conversations, more.
Speaker 3: Things to be aware of. And what Tara and I
Speaker 3: are doing, and.
Speaker 4: She's alluded to it is we're trying to put people
Speaker 4: in place of us to a degree and replicate our
Speaker 4: skill set with the people or bring other skills into
Speaker 4: the organization that we don't have because we can't sustain
Speaker 4: this pace the two of us. And so the difficult
Speaker 4: part is bringing the right people in at the right time,
Speaker 4: managing the.
Speaker 3: Sort of expense of that. There's a fiscal cost to that.
Speaker 4: You've got to pay for those people, and manage that
Speaker 4: with the with the growth of your business, and that
Speaker 4: means managing the cash flow and so yeah, there's a
Speaker 4: whole heap of considerations and that's where Tara finds herself.
Speaker 3: Now she has to look at the.
Speaker 4: Global picture of what we have to achieve and she
Speaker 4: has to put the right people in place and manage
Speaker 4: that growth, whilst I continue to kind of work at
Speaker 4: the coal face of new business and new franchisees. And
Speaker 4: I guess the end goal here for us is to
Speaker 4: is to almost make ourselves a little bit irrelevant, but
Speaker 4: that takes time.
Speaker 1: So how many for those people who don't know who
Speaker 1: the fuck Russ or Tara are because we didn't really
Speaker 1: explain it upfront. I was kind of operating on the
Speaker 1: assumption that you've been on a few times and people
Speaker 1: might be familiar, which will be true, but also people
Speaker 1: won't be familiar. So the business is called at Pilates, Tara,
Speaker 1: can you give us a thirty second synopsis of what
Speaker 1: it is? And then I've got a couple of questions
Speaker 1: for you.
Speaker 6: So we are we're a plot to studio, So we're
Speaker 6: a former Plarty studio, but we're the only twenty four
Speaker 6: hour reformer Plarties franchise in Australia. So we started in
Speaker 6: twenty twenty two. We are franchising and we're they're just
Speaker 6: over twenty sites.
Speaker 5: We've got more little open up this year.
Speaker 6: But we are what we call a hybrid studio, so
Speaker 6: we're actually staffed. We can be staffed at South Melbourne.
Speaker 6: Here we're staffed up to twelve hours a day and
Speaker 6: non staffed for twelve. So we actually have instructors on
Speaker 6: site that are there to help members. They you know,
Speaker 6: all the things a normal instructor would do, they're available
Speaker 6: to do that. But we have hundreds and hundreds of
Speaker 6: classes on our platform that we've grown and developed and
Speaker 6: brought instructors in from all around.
Speaker 5: Australia to record.
Speaker 6: So you can or the amendment can come in choose
Speaker 6: any class they want to do by any instructor that
Speaker 6: they want to choose to do, but they still have
Speaker 6: a physical instructor in the room is there to guide
Speaker 6: and help and you know.
Speaker 5: Just there to help them with anything that they might need.
Speaker 6: Or you can come after hours if you want to,
Speaker 6: and come at ten o'clock at night on a Sunday.
Speaker 5: If you want to.
Speaker 6: So it's convenience, it's also flexibility for people. But the
Speaker 6: other one for us is affordability. So we're a lot cheaper.
Speaker 6: We are per week what most people are per session,
Speaker 6: and that means it's because we can control so many
Speaker 6: variables and that's massive.
Speaker 1: So if I come in on a Sunday night at
Speaker 1: ten o'clock, I'm doing class and I'm using there's a
Speaker 1: screen on on each a former bed, and I picked
Speaker 1: my class from that. I put on headphones and then
Speaker 1: I go through that with you know, the teacher on
Speaker 1: the screen in front of me, and there's like a
Speaker 1: shitload of classes. But if I go in staffed hours,
Speaker 1: I do the same thing. But if I have any questions,
Speaker 1: there's someone there right feel like I'm doing it. I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm doing that. I'm not trying to everyone.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to explain the point of difference. Well, I
Speaker 1: love that there's like in a fucking in an ocean
Speaker 1: of fitness products, right, fitness programs and gyms and step
Speaker 1: into this and they're forty fucking seven that and BFT
Speaker 1: and you know, twenty four hour gyms and ladies gyms
Speaker 1: and old people gyms and mobile gyms, and it's amazing
Speaker 1: that you came up with something that hasn't been done
Speaker 1: and then when you go, oh, by the way, it's
Speaker 1: not forty bucks a class, it's forty bucks a week
Speaker 1: or whatever it is. How much is it's about that,
Speaker 1: isn't it?
Speaker 3: Yeah? Right?
Speaker 1: Which is? You know, it's what about the just from
Speaker 1: a business development point of view, So I really wanted
Speaker 1: this to be somewhat about you know, business development and
Speaker 1: for people who are thinking about building a business or
Speaker 1: a brand, but it a you know, a micro business
Speaker 1: or something that's going to turn into something a bit bigger.
Speaker 1: Is your biggest challenge? Maybe you can't answer this, but
Speaker 1: or maybe just thoughts on each managing the business development
Speaker 1: per se structure, organization processes, or is it managing and
Speaker 1: finding and leading the people like the business stuff or
Speaker 1: the people's stuff or is it the same Russ.
Speaker 4: Initially Craig, it was the business stuff because we had
Speaker 4: to create a business that was going to break into
Speaker 4: the Australian market and actually find it its own place,
Speaker 4: find its own ecosystem.
Speaker 3: That was the initial part.
Speaker 4: That's more or less done now, that just needs a
Speaker 4: bit of tweaking now and ongoing.
Speaker 3: The overwhelming most important.
Speaker 4: Part of whether or not we're going to continue to
Speaker 4: succeed and grow and develop is going to be highly
Speaker 4: dependent on our ability to recruit and appoint the right
Speaker 4: franchisees and also have the right head office staff that
Speaker 4: will help us support those people.
Speaker 3: It's all about the people now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, right, yeah, that's interesting, Howie, did you want to
Speaker 1: add something?
Speaker 6: Yeah, I agree, I was going to say exactly the
Speaker 6: same thing where I said at at the start, totally
Speaker 6: it was just all about the business and the processes.
Speaker 5: Now it's both. You've got the getting the right people.
Speaker 6: In place, but the other thing that we're doing at
Speaker 6: the moment is trying to now take the development of
Speaker 6: the business. So we do a lot of sort of
Speaker 6: R and D and we're trying to stay ahead and
Speaker 6: say what's next, what's next all the time, So it's
Speaker 6: constantly looking at what the next.
Speaker 5: Iteration of the business is.
Speaker 6: You can't stay still, you know, adapt or die, and
Speaker 6: that's what the fitness industry is notoriously terrible at. We go, oh,
Speaker 6: we've made it and we've got our product, that's it.
Speaker 6: If we stand still, then there'll be five other franchises
Speaker 6: just like us.
Speaker 5: So we have to and push ahead and what's the
Speaker 5: next thing.
Speaker 6: And one of the things that we always say is
Speaker 6: we are a technology company.
Speaker 5: Underlying that's what we do.
Speaker 6: That's our main thing that we focus on is the
Speaker 6: use of technology. It Plarties is just our product that
Speaker 6: we're bringing to the market because it's a product we
Speaker 6: love and know and people want. But we try and
Speaker 6: make it as easy and as fun and as new.
Speaker 5: To people as we possibly can.
Speaker 6: So that's where a lot of our sort of that
Speaker 6: business side of it is more pushing forward rather than
Speaker 6: you know, still working on the processes.
Speaker 5: The processes are done now, it's like what's next for
Speaker 5: all the time?
Speaker 1: What have you learned in the last We'll start with you, Tara,
Speaker 1: while we've got you and rush you think, But in
Speaker 1: the last three years, what's one thing that you've learned.
Speaker 1: I mean, you've had businesses for most of your adult life, right,
Speaker 1: nearly all of it. The same with you, Rusty. But
Speaker 1: what have you learned that you want to tell someone
Speaker 1: that's going to start a business or improve a current business,
Speaker 1: something that you learned where you went, Fuck, I wish
Speaker 1: I knew that earlier, or I wish I'd done that differently,
Speaker 1: or that's just a good lesson for me to have.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the first thing i'd say is if you've wanted
Speaker 6: to start a business, you go, I've got a great idea,
Speaker 6: which people will say all the time to me.
Speaker 5: They'll go, I've got this idea.
Speaker 6: The first question is what's the point? What's your point
Speaker 6: of difference? Why you if it's the same thing but
Speaker 6: different colored walls, or the same thing and just six
Speaker 6: or fourmers instead of five, and forget it, you're just
Speaker 6: you're fighting, You're trying to have another piece in the
Speaker 6: same you're cutting the pie up into more pieces.
Speaker 5: So find that point of difference and why.
Speaker 6: People are going to want to come to you, Why
Speaker 6: why you're so compelling. Probably the next thing I would
Speaker 6: say is borrow as little as you can at the start,
Speaker 6: and that's that's just keeping keeping over slow, do as
Speaker 6: go as hard and as long as you can without
Speaker 6: having to expand too much or spend too much money.
Speaker 5: At this you know too early.
Speaker 6: The other thing is if you've got if this is
Speaker 6: your if you've got a real understanding of what you're doing,
Speaker 6: trust yourself and don't take everyone.
Speaker 5: Else's opinions on board.
Speaker 6: And I think I wish that's something I could have
Speaker 6: told myself way back, because I know now there are
Speaker 6: certain things that I thought, thought I could have gone
Speaker 6: in a certain direction, but listen to too many people,
Speaker 6: and then you know, paralysis by analysis.
Speaker 5: You start, you start taking everyone's opinions on board.
Speaker 1: So yeah, it's in business jargon they call that a
Speaker 1: usp unique selling proposition. That and how many how many
Speaker 1: would be speakers I've spoken to this week in fact,
Speaker 1: but how many would be speakers come to me or
Speaker 1: have come to me over the years, And they go, basically,
Speaker 1: I want to do what you do, which is fine.
Speaker 1: I go, all right, well, there's I don't know how
Speaker 1: many probably ten thousand professional speakers in Australia already who
Speaker 1: are ahead of you, who've got more skill, more experience,
Speaker 1: more understanding, more insight, more brand.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: It's like so, and it's not that you can't do it,
Speaker 1: but if you're just going to be, as you said,
Speaker 1: you know, just another speaker, we're in a different fucking
Speaker 1: outfit doing the same thing, not as not as good
Speaker 1: as the people who are already doing it. So there's that,
Speaker 1: you know, And the same with personal training. I mean,
Speaker 1: back in the day when Harper's was a kind of
Speaker 1: a unicorn in the fitness landscape, Like, what the fuck
Speaker 1: is personal training? There's literally five personal training studios within
Speaker 1: eight hundred meters of my house, like five, you know,
Speaker 1: Like it's just if you want to, you know, if
Speaker 1: you want to open one, open one. But it wouldn't
Speaker 1: be my recommendation. If you're thinking about doing something, I
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't open a PT studio, Not these days. I'd
Speaker 1: if you want to be a PT, go and work
Speaker 1: in someone else's and let them pay the bills. But
Speaker 1: you know what about for you, Rusty, what's been a
Speaker 1: revelation or a light bulb for you in the last
Speaker 1: few years?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: For me?
Speaker 4: For me, I think again, if I could go back
Speaker 4: and coach myself, I would say to myself, use the
Speaker 4: skills that you that you already have or that you
Speaker 4: good at, Like what's your natural inclination and that's something
Speaker 4: that you should look to build a business in. If
Speaker 4: you're good with people and you like being around people,
Speaker 4: then do a business that's involved in service and customer
Speaker 4: service or something like that. But if you're not, if
Speaker 4: you're not good with people and that's not your strength,
Speaker 4: then don't work in that space because you're not going
Speaker 4: to be very good at it. If you don't enjoy
Speaker 4: numbers and technology, then then don't try and start a
Speaker 4: business in that space. So what are your skills, what
Speaker 4: are you good at, what do you like to do,
Speaker 4: and and try and develop something in that area, because
Speaker 4: ultimately you've already got a head start probably on your competitors. Yeah,
Speaker 4: and the other thing I would say is don't don't
Speaker 4: don't try and grow too quickly, and you know, manage
Speaker 4: manage your growth. Be really get your business to the
Speaker 4: point where it's really good, it really stands out, it's
Speaker 4: really got that point of difference, and be a little
Speaker 4: bit content with that for a while before you try
Speaker 4: and escalate it, you know, to.
Speaker 3: The next big thing. Because because bigger, what.
Speaker 4: I've learned in the last few years is bigger does
Speaker 4: not always mean more profitable, because bigger also means more expenses,
Speaker 4: more money going out.
Speaker 1: That's so true, Tara. Do you think that people underestimate
Speaker 1: the physical, mental, emotional cost like they I think a
Speaker 1: lot of people go, oh fuck, it's so hard, Like
Speaker 1: what did you think? What did you think there was
Speaker 1: going to be? Like it is like this, you know this,
Speaker 1: You might get there, but you're going to fuck up
Speaker 1: Part of your life for the next five years. Just
Speaker 1: know that going in, are you okay? You know, the
Speaker 1: whole fucking kicking back and weekends and like socializing for
Speaker 1: a period of time that might have to go out
Speaker 1: the window. Are you okay with that? And if you're not,
Speaker 1: then cool, that's also cool, But don't do this.
Speaker 5: Totally agree.
Speaker 6: I do remember the I want to answer that from
Speaker 6: two aspects. One is from our point of view, but
Speaker 6: also our franchisees who were coming on board and their
Speaker 6: start because they're starting their own business, they're just using
Speaker 6: our model and process. But I remember the time where
Speaker 6: I knew this was a critical point for us.
Speaker 5: It's going to grow and if this grows, I've got
Speaker 5: to go.
Speaker 6: Balls and all and put the amount of time, effort
Speaker 6: and energy in. And I really had to and sit
Speaker 6: down with Russ and go, are we ready?
Speaker 5: Do we want to do this? Can we go again?
Speaker 6: And we made that decision and said yes. And then
Speaker 6: but our growth, as Russ was saying, was pretty was
Speaker 6: pretty planned. And then we pulled the trigger on doing
Speaker 6: a head office and we knew it was going to
Speaker 6: really take off from there. But again it was all
Speaker 6: controlled and we knew exactly what we were in for.
Speaker 6: When a new franchise e comes on board, a lot
Speaker 6: of times they love the idea.
Speaker 5: It is an ego. It can be an ego.
Speaker 6: Business people love the idea of it's like you said,
Speaker 6: having a PT center or having their own gym. They
Speaker 6: you know, they want to be able to say, this
Speaker 6: is my space. Look at it Isn't it beautiful? Looks
Speaker 6: great on Instagram. But it's not just about creating a
Speaker 6: beautiful space. It's actually got to work, and they can
Speaker 6: create monsters. We've had We've had studios that have opened
Speaker 6: with two hundred plus members.
Speaker 5: The day they open. So the day they.
Speaker 6: Open, they've got over two hundred people that are going
Speaker 6: to come into their studio that need.
Speaker 5: To be onboard.
Speaker 6: They need to know exactly how to use the tech
Speaker 6: they need. Everything needs to be perfect and all of
Speaker 6: a sudden you can see them going oh shit, yeah,
Speaker 6: and we.
Speaker 5: Do a lot of prep them. It's a it's a
Speaker 5: big job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I've got a weird question for you, Russ. Russ, Well,
Speaker 1: this is not the weird question. This is leading. I
Speaker 1: think think this is an interesting question for our listeners.
Speaker 1: What you did the first center open the first at Pilarates,
Speaker 1: like of the you know, your current kind of stable.
Speaker 4: Of them, early early twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Okay, so at Pilarates as a business, would you say
Speaker 1: that like it started in twenty twenty one or twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: No, the look we were with Tara was toying with
Speaker 4: the concept probably in twenty seventeen eighteen. But the moment
Speaker 4: we actually made an existing face to face studio into
Speaker 4: an at Polarti studio and started making people use the
Speaker 4: platform to complete their class was early twenty twenty one.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we're going to say the genesis for at Pilarates,
Speaker 1: which is your company, twenty twenty one. How old were
Speaker 1: you then, Russ?
Speaker 3: Well, that's three, So I was fifty fifty three? Are
Speaker 3: you going on fifty four?
Speaker 1: So you were fifty four? Tara, how old were you
Speaker 1: at that time?
Speaker 6: Yeah, fifty two turning fifty three. Hence I said, I
Speaker 6: needed to make that decision to all what you know.
Speaker 1: But I think this is fucking amazing, right because you
Speaker 1: two are old as fuck, right, So you two are
Speaker 1: fucking t rexes, right, You're both fucking dinosaurs, you know.
Speaker 1: But this is encouraging because and I'm being silly, of course,
Speaker 1: because I'm older than both of you. So Tara, you're
Speaker 1: what fifty five or six? Now?
Speaker 5: I just turned I'll stop it. I just turned fifty four.
Speaker 1: Home fifty five, well, I don't know. And Russy, what
Speaker 1: are you?
Speaker 3: I'll be you fifty seven in a month.
Speaker 1: Okay, So fifty five and fifty seven, give or take.
Speaker 1: And what I love is that you're both fucking heading
Speaker 1: towards sixty and this thing is just starting to flourish
Speaker 1: and grow, and and you might be like, I love
Speaker 1: this idea of not in an unrealistic, fucking delusional way,
Speaker 1: but this idea of getting better as we get older. Now,
Speaker 1: of course there's an inevitability of cognitive decline eventually and
Speaker 1: physiological decline. Brough, I get all of that, right, But
Speaker 1: I say to people all the time, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: my shoulders are a bit fucked, and I have the
Speaker 1: odd blower back issue. And I haven't had an erection
Speaker 1: since nineteen eighty nine, but but I often just kidding
Speaker 1: it was ninety two. But I often I always say
Speaker 1: to people, like, I truly feel like I'm I'm getting better,
Speaker 1: do you know, in like I feel like I'm better
Speaker 1: under pressure. I feel like I'm better at solving problems.
Speaker 1: I feel like I'm a better decision maker and leader,
Speaker 1: you know, And there are some things I'm probably not
Speaker 1: as good at, of course, bench press being up there
Speaker 1: and as previously discussed erections, but you know, like I
Speaker 1: feel there's a real I'm kidding everyone, Tift put a
Speaker 1: face in her hands, but there's a real kind of
Speaker 1: underestimation of what we can do, be create in our
Speaker 1: fifties and beyond.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, you're absolutely right.
Speaker 4: And the other thing that I have learnt and I've
Speaker 4: watched Tara go through it as well, is because of
Speaker 4: the life experience that we both have going through, you know,
Speaker 4: all sorts of positive and negative and very uplifting and
Speaker 4: very traumatic experiences, especially Tara in the last couple of years.
Speaker 4: It's amazing how going through those processes gives you a
Speaker 4: very valuable thing called perspective. And what when someone comes
Speaker 4: to Tara with a major problem about their business or
Speaker 4: something in their workday, She'll just look at them and go, Okay, well,
Speaker 4: let's just look at the pluses and minus here, and
Speaker 4: within ten minutes she's managed to calm the situation and
Speaker 4: get this person looking at the problem in inverted commas
Speaker 4: in a completely different way because she's able to show
Speaker 4: them perspective.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, isn't it funny? Howie Tara Everyone I call
Speaker 1: Howie Tara Howie because that was her name before she
Speaker 1: met young Russ, back when he was not a t rex.
Speaker 1: How when we reframe things. I did a podcast that
Speaker 1: went up today today being Wednesday, called something like when
Speaker 1: Failure is not failure, And I was talking about this
Speaker 1: idea of how two people go for a run together.
Speaker 1: One of them wants to run sub fifty for ten
Speaker 1: k's and the other one wants to get somewhere in
Speaker 1: the ballpark of fifty five right or they start out
Speaker 1: the same and they end up both running fifty two minutes.
Speaker 1: So the person who wanted to run sub fifty is
Speaker 1: disappointed and pissed off and angry and frustrated and feels
Speaker 1: like a failure. And the person who hoped to get
Speaker 1: somewhere around fifty five and they've done fifty two the
Speaker 1: exact same time as the other dude or dude at
Speaker 1: they're happy as fuck. They feel like a winner. But
Speaker 1: they both did the same activity and got the same
Speaker 1: practical outcome. Fifty two minutes, yet they each had a
Speaker 1: completely different perception and therefore experience, right, And I just
Speaker 1: think it's when you realize that and we're not saying
Speaker 1: there are no problems. Of course there are actual problems.
Speaker 1: But sometimes we turn a one out of ten into
Speaker 1: a fifteen out of ten because we're having a bad moment,
Speaker 1: you know. And then there are other people like, you know,
Speaker 1: not that long ago, not that long ago, I spoke
Speaker 1: at your dad's funeral right now, that there aren't many
Speaker 1: harder days than that. So you get through that and
Speaker 1: you go, I can do fucking anything like this is
Speaker 1: not hard. You know. It gives you a level of
Speaker 1: perspective that you can't have unless you go through shits
Speaker 1: sometimes or unless you really become very good at understanding
Speaker 1: the way that you are managing your own subjective reality.
Speaker 6: Yeah, there's nothing that replaces experience or experiences. I have
Speaker 6: to agree totally in terms of what you're saying about
Speaker 6: reframing and and I've got about five examples that run
Speaker 6: through my head immediately, just of different different studio owners
Speaker 6: that I've come into contact with and had to help
Speaker 6: through different processes that when I actually, you know, they're
Speaker 6: in their mind. They've created a reality that doesn't exist
Speaker 6: based on.
Speaker 5: A problem that or might not happen.
Speaker 6: And to try and actually stay to them that it's
Speaker 6: a non issue because you break it or dan and
Speaker 6: you actually look at how successful they are and to
Speaker 6: show them do you know what you know this this
Speaker 6: studio is in the top three in the country.
Speaker 5: You know, you've got five thousand appointments a month, which
Speaker 5: is what some of them are doing.
Speaker 6: It's just crazy, and all of a sudden they go, Okay,
Speaker 6: it's not that bigger, it's not that bigger issue. But yeah,
Speaker 6: from a personal perspective, you're right. Twelve months later, I
Speaker 6: lost my brother and we came off the back of
Speaker 6: you know, fighting for our business through COVID and in
Speaker 6: amongst all of that, trying to grow a business and
Speaker 6: had two boys finishing year twelve and another one in
Speaker 6: university and it was just sheer bedlam, but we.
Speaker 5: Just pushed through. And now, as you said, everything's easy
Speaker 5: now because.
Speaker 1: It's all really shout out to my godson, your son,
Speaker 1: who is my godson, young Mitch, who graduated yes day
Speaker 1: as we record this. So yesterday was the seventeenth of
Speaker 1: September graduated with a law degree. And what a good
Speaker 1: boy are you too? This is a bit of a
Speaker 1: left turn, but you must be super proud.
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, there was a tier or three?
Speaker 1: Was there?
Speaker 3: There was?
Speaker 1: There was, it was, and.
Speaker 5: It was it was. I was proud of him.
Speaker 6: I'm proud of him for one getting into that course
Speaker 6: because that was a bloody great effort to stuck it out.
Speaker 6: He completed it, and he had two years of that
Speaker 6: course in lockdown. Yes, thirdly he graduated, but he also
Speaker 6: graduated with distinction.
Speaker 5: So he did just finish it.
Speaker 6: He finished it incredibly well. And he's still continuing on.
Speaker 6: So now it's all about practicing and being admitted to
Speaker 6: the bar and everything he needs to do for that.
Speaker 5: So and he's all organized for that as well. So yeah,
Speaker 5: we are proud of proud of him. He deserves.
Speaker 6: He deserves every bit of acknowledgment he's got over the
Speaker 6: last couple of days.
Speaker 1: What about you, Captain emotionally intelligence, did you break out
Speaker 1: a fucking hug, Rusty? I mean, did you did you
Speaker 1: have to watch an online workshop or something? I mean,
Speaker 1: I reckon, I've hugged him more than you've hugged him.
Speaker 5: No, no, uh.
Speaker 1: Mitch, look how fucking awkward he is.
Speaker 4: I'm very much in touch with my emotional capabilities these days,
Speaker 4: aren't I?
Speaker 3: Tara? Tara?
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, you're the fact, you're the high watermark for
Speaker 1: fucking emotional intelligence. Let's let's just get a poster view
Speaker 1: up on the internet. Well whine because I know you've
Speaker 1: got a busy day, but just quickly, so what are
Speaker 1: you currently sitting at, Tara? How many cents? Does twenty twenty?
Speaker 5: Rusty of twenty one.
Speaker 6: But we've got a few more opening up before the
Speaker 6: year's out, so it'll be sort of mid twenties.
Speaker 5: We were number twenty, which was head office.
Speaker 6: We've got some more. We've got Geelong opening up in
Speaker 6: on October five. We've got Southport on the Gold Coast
Speaker 6: in Queensland on October twelve, Kawana or.
Speaker 5: In sometimes post posts in November, and then we're looking
Speaker 5: at Kai and Gladstone.
Speaker 6: Gosh, all sorts of You've got LOCATIOND South Australia.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot.
Speaker 6: There's a lot happening, and it's just this continual, continual
Speaker 6: process of looking after current and then moving forward with new.
Speaker 5: So yeah, it's exciting.
Speaker 1: Do you do you either of you can answer this,
Speaker 1: So I'll ask you russy, Like when Harper's was growing,
Speaker 1: and you know, I had multiple centers and all of
Speaker 1: that stuff, and it was a different model obviously not franchises,
Speaker 1: but we were pretty fucking busy. I was always looking
Speaker 1: for basically a mini me, you know, like I wanted
Speaker 1: to and you were one of them. Obviously have surpassed
Speaker 1: me now because I'm the one carrying your fucking wheelburw
Speaker 1: barrow full of money around, But you know, it's like
Speaker 1: you came in, Tara came in and and like, here
Speaker 1: are these people who are a bit younger than me
Speaker 1: and the talented the spot. I'm like, for me, it's
Speaker 1: like a relief to have people who are, you know,
Speaker 1: think a bit like me and can be trusted and
Speaker 1: responsible and care about the business. And do you do
Speaker 1: you keep an eye out for those people?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: Absolutely, that has been that has been right at the
Speaker 4: top of our list since we decided that this business
Speaker 4: was going to grow into something quite significant. Tara has
Speaker 4: someone that is that she's basically training up to be
Speaker 4: a mini Tara, and I'm training up someone to be
Speaker 4: a mini Me. And then you know, Mitch has got
Speaker 4: his eye on a role in the organization as well.
Speaker 3: So you know.
Speaker 4: What, I guess they call it succession planning. That is
Speaker 4: very important to what we do. And I think, I
Speaker 4: think my answer to that question is something I should
Speaker 4: have added to your other question earlier.
Speaker 3: What have I learned?
Speaker 4: I've learned that that we need to make sure that
Speaker 4: we surround ourselves with people that are more skilled, have
Speaker 4: different skills, and have more abilities and intelligence than what
Speaker 4: we do, because we're going to run out of you know,
Speaker 4: we're going to run out of ideas at some point
Speaker 4: or perhaps you know, people see things through a different lens,
Speaker 4: and we need those people around us because we can't
Speaker 4: think of everything we just and it's not healthy. It's
Speaker 4: not healthy for Tara and I to be constantly coming
Speaker 4: up with the direction.
Speaker 3: We need our team.
Speaker 4: We need our team to give us inspiration and ideas,
Speaker 4: which they are.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're banned with only goes so far. We're going
Speaker 1: to wind up how we Tara, I, you know, I
Speaker 1: think about you guys, the finish line, whether that's in
Speaker 1: a year or five years or ten years, and however
Speaker 1: you get, you know, however it ends up, whatever happens
Speaker 1: in terms of you know, selling it all eventually or
Speaker 1: I don't know, obviously it's not a forever thing. But
Speaker 1: when I think about both of you, like, I just
Speaker 1: can't see either of you retired. I can't. I Like,
Speaker 1: I know you don't want to do what you're doing
Speaker 1: at the rate that you're doing it forever. But it's
Speaker 1: like me, I'm like, no, fuck retirement. Do you know
Speaker 1: what happens to people when they retire? I've seen it's
Speaker 1: not fucking good, right, Retirement sucks the fatty. You know.
Speaker 1: I can't see either of you just sitting on the
Speaker 1: fucking veranda in Kaiabram, just Russ just with his pocket
Speaker 1: knife and a piece of wood making a fucking pan flute,
Speaker 1: you know, or you just fucking knitting cardigans for the grandchildren.
Speaker 5: Like, yeah, I agree, I'm hopeless.
Speaker 6: I'll walk into I'll walk into somewhere and then pick
Speaker 6: out twenty things while I can make it better.
Speaker 5: Ye, terrible, It's terrible.
Speaker 1: You'll probably always be doing something.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I like to travel, but we'll always be doing
Speaker 6: something always, all.
Speaker 1: Right, Russ? Give the business quick plug how people can
Speaker 1: find out more and access a center? Where do they
Speaker 1: go give us the quick spiel.
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, we've got a very heavy presence on Instagram.
Speaker 4: But the best place is just go to our website
Speaker 4: because everything grows out of there. So at polaratesat Polarates
Speaker 4: dot duty is our website and if you go there,
Speaker 4: you can connect with any studio around Australia. You can
Speaker 4: connect with head Office, you can connect with Tara and I.
Speaker 4: So go to our website and use that as the
Speaker 4: starting point and you'll find where you need to go
Speaker 4: from there And.
Speaker 1: If you mentioned my name you'll get a year free.
Speaker 1: So no, that's not true at all. Well say goodbye,
Speaker 1: fair Rusty, Tara, Tiffany and Cook. Thank you for having
Speaker 1: a chat once again on the You Project.
Speaker 5: Thank you thanks for having us