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In this episode, Kim Gouch, Chief Brand and Marketing Officer at Retro Fitness, dives into her journey and the dynamic evolution of the fitness industry. She discusses how Retro Fitness is redefining the HVLP market through community-driven experiences, authentic branding, and meaningful consumer connections. Kim highlights the brand's Get Real campaign, which celebrates individuality and emotional connection in fitness, and shares how community engagement and simplicity in consumer experience shape their approach to growth and retention.
She also explores the difference between branding and marketing, emphasizing that true success comes from building a brand for the future — one that resonates with younger generations through authenticity, technology integration, and inclusivity. With a focus on data-driven insights and collaborative innovation, Kim outlines Retro Fitness's strategy for explosive yet sustainable growth, ensuring the brand continues to inspire connection, wellness, and belonging in every community it serves.
LINKS:
https://www.sportalliance.com/en/perfect-gym/
https://www.withflex.com/
https://egym.com/int
Hey friends, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness and wellness industry podcast for over five years and running. I'm your host, Eric Malzone, and I have the honor of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the extremely fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. If you like the show, we'd love it if you took three minutes of your day to leave us a nice supporter review wherever you consume your podcast. If you're interested in staying up to date with the future of fitness, go to future of fitness.co to subscribe and get weekly summaries dropped into your inbox. Now onto the show. One theme keeps coming up: the right technology can make or break your business. That's why I'm thrilled to introduce our new presenting sponsor, Perfect Gym. Perfect Gym isn't just another gym management system. They are part of the Sport Alliance Group, Europe's leading fitness software company that has officially entered the U.S. market. Now, I've seen this movie before, but here's the difference. They've opened up a U.S. headquarters in Boston because they understand that the American market deserves dedicated, localized support. After digging into the platform, one benefit especially stood out. They are simplifying the nightmare that keeps business owners up at night migrations. These guys were able to migrate one mega client with more than 250 locations in six different countries in just 20 days between two payment runs. No disrupting operations, no member loss, one seamless operation that simply works. Now, if you have ever switched platforms, you know how terrifying that process can be and how truly impressive that feat is. At a high level, here's their secret sauce. They give the power back to the operator. Instead of forcing you into their closed ecosystem, their Perfect Gym Marketplace connects with over 120 integration partners. So want to use your own app, your preferred payment processor, class pass for booking? No problem. Whether you're running a single studio or managing a multi-location enterprise, Perfect Gym was built from the ground up for multi-club operations. They've invested a ton into this platform, and now they're bringing that European engineering excellence to America. The migration experts have arrived. Check out perfectgym.com where enterprise level sophistication meets operator freedom. Today's episode of the Future Fitness is brought to you by Flex, the only HSA FSA payments infrastructure built specifically for leading fitness and wellness brands. I have been so impressed with the Flex team and their vision to transform how people pay for fitness. They built a platform that makes HSA and FSA spending seamless, unlocking a new revenue stream for brands and giving consumers easier access to the products and services that keep them healthy. Here's why this matters. That is not just incremental growth, that is transformational revenue powered by consumer dollars that are already set aside for health and wellness. What excites me the most is that Flex is changing the game for the entire industry. They're bridging the gap between healthcare and fitness by making it simple for consumers to spend their pre-taxed dollars on the products and services that help them feel and perform their best. Flex works with fitness leaders like iFit, Johnson Fitness, Tempo, and Aloe Moves. Honestly, this is a no-brainer, and I rarely say that. If you want to see how Flex can drive growth for your fitness brand, visit with Flex.com. That is with Flex.com. Now onto the show. Okay, we are live. Kim Gouch, welcome to the future of fitness.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.
SPEAKER_00It's great. I really enjoy our conversation so far. And you know, uh, your excitement and energy about what you're doing right now is infectious. And uh I think that's uh that comes across very clearly as people will know during our conversation over the next 45 minutes and what you guys are doing at retro, you're making some big moves. And I think overall, right, the HVLP, as we were just discussing, is booming. Everyone I know, as I was telling you, who's involved in that from either the franchise level, franchise or level to the franchisees to everything, they're all so busy. Like I can barely get five minutes with these people for good reason. So it's it's a great time to be there. And I know you have a lot of experience and things you want to talk about, which I think are valuable to the audience. I mean, I always love the conversation of how branding is different than marketing. So you've had a lot of experience there. Uh, we'll talk about retros, big moves, how you guys are looking at you know the next year or two and and the expectations there. And we'll see what else comes up too. So let's start with this, Kim, if you don't mind. Give us a little bit of your background, how you got to be the chief brand and marketing officer at Retro Fitness, and then we'll take it from there.
SPEAKER_01Awesome. All right, cool. Thank you. Yeah, I couldn't be more excited about the conversation today. I love talking about all of these topics. Obviously, you know, I'm a brand and marketing person, so this is my shtick, right? The history that I have, I believe that I've been very fortunate throughout my career to have been part of branding products and services at the very onset, very beginning, you know, the brainchild of somebody's idea, moving it into, you know, a national, even a global entity or product. And uh so I feel very fortunate to have had that experience and build upon those experiences. So anywhere from hotels to consumer packaged goods, wireless telephony. I was part of the original team that's that introduced the first wireless PCS technology called Voice Dream Wireless, which is now T-Mobile, into the domestic market space. So I have a really broad stroke of what that looks like on how you brand something and how you grow it, how do you scale it? I couldn't be more excited to be here at Retro Fitness now because of all of those experiences. I can really bring a broad perspective of how consumers behave against something that you're building, whether or not a brand has started brand new or it's evolved like retro fitness, looking at how it's perceived and then what the future looks like. I never build a brand for today, I build a brand for tomorrow and five years from now and 10 years from now. And all the experience that I've had throughout my career, I'm able to really hone in on the special nuances of retrofitness and be instrumental in the next phase of growth for this wonderful brand. And I have to tell you, I moved across the country to take this position. I thought I was retired. Um I had sold my business. And six months into that, I said, I'm not retired. I don't want to be retired. So I started talking to Andrew Arfano, our CEO, who has an amazing background himself with Starbucks. And I just, I needed more. I could I couldn't get enough of it. I said, this is absolutely where I'm supposed to be. And so I packed up from Scottsdale, Arizona and moved it all the way to West Palm Beach, Florida. And uh couldn't be more excited about it.
SPEAKER_00Why? Like why why was this so exciting to you? What what about retrofitness? And was it the the industry, the brands, the um the niche? Like what yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So great question. All of the above. So the excitement for me really is when when you look at from you know the the human interest part of it, I'm very excited to be part of something that helps people be happy and healthy. 4-7 exercise health and fitness position in the fitness industry excites me greatly because I want to be part of a movement that actually enhances someone's lifestyle. And whatever that is, right? So I know we'll talk a little bit more about our get real mantra. So I want to, I don't want to give away too much now, but but get real really is about what it is for you. So your journey may be very different than my journey, which is very different than someone else's journey, perhaps somebody who was on a GLP one um drug. Everyone's journey is different, but at the end of the day, the end result is the same. Happiness, healthiness, exercise, fitness, right? So from the emotional standpoint of that, that excites me. From a brand and business and growth excitement, it really comes down to we are in a position right now with retro fitness where there was what I call the phase one of retrofitness when it very first started, to now what the phase two is, which really is 2019 going forward. And we call that the retro fitness of the 21st century. This new RF-21 model or prototype, if you will, is phenomenal. It takes the average gym experience and elevates it into really what matters for folks, which is community. It's a community of folks who are like-minded but are on different journeys. And it expands into parts of your fitness journey that you wouldn't normally expect. I'll give you an example. We had a visitor here on Monday. He was a prospective franchisee. And after touring, he was so excited he had this big permigan. And I said to my goat Carlos, you look so happy. And he goes, I'm so excited. He said, You know, when I walked into your club in Del Rey, all I felt was this, wow, this is like a spa. It's not a gym. It's like a spa. And I have all these things at my fingertips. I've got strength training, I've got cardio, I've got the usual suspects. But then I go into the red light therapy room and now there's a whole different dimension, right? Or I go into the human touch massage chair and I sit down and I relax and I think about my meditation and I think about my muscle recovery. And then I go up to the smoothie bar and I can entertain, you know, a meal replacement or just something that to satiate how I'm feeling. The smoothie bars are open to the public. So now I can talk to other people that aren't just gym goers, but actually people that just walked in off the street to say, I want a healthy snack, right? So he just he was like my poster child of a brand reel because he really did articulate what it is we're trying to put out there. So that excites me. And then I think the third thing that really excited me about this brand was our executive team. So, so the leadership of Andrew Alfano, with his myriad of experience with Starbucks, and he was one of the original folks that started out with Starbucks and grew it to the behemoth that is today. What he brings to the table and his love for brand and his experience growing a brand excited me a lot. Because most, most of the times your CEOs in general really aren't brand or marketing people. They're really operations people, right? So it's very rare to be part of a C-suite where your ultimate leader loves to put brand first. So how could I not be excited about that, right?
SPEAKER_00You know, this next question I think will lean into a lot of the topics that we have scheduled for today. And how does in this HVLP market that is, you know, like we talked about, booming? Especially booming from you know, amount of private equity to the amount of territories being sold and built and everything. It's just it's crazy. Um it kind of reminds me of the 80s. I was talking to somebody about this when uh, you know, there was on every corner there was a 24 hour or a Bailey Bally's or you know, an LA fitness. It was like everywhere. It was like sometimes they were across the street from each other, right? And it's it's so it's it's a very hot time. How do you how does retro differentiate in that space?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So so I agree with you. You know, we we were just talking about Gold's gym the other day. And the godfather of gyms, right? And I love that because I do love the fact that the fitness industry, you know, it's right now it's a $35 billion industry with projected growth of 20%. So it's a very strong foundation, right? And when you look at, you know, the different categories and how each of those categories or those segments of the fitness industry serve a purpose. To me, the HVLP is a great purpose in a and in a good portion of the sector that that is not necessarily overcrowded, right? I see us as kind of number three. So you've got your planet fitness, which is just the monster, right? And then you've got your crunch. And then I see us as kind of the third in in that in that category. And really, we all bring so much awesomeness to the table. I know that's not a word, but I love it because it really does explain. Yeah, it explains what you know how uh how strong we all are together. But our real true points of differentiation in that high value, low price segment really doesn't come in the form of low price. We're all pretty much competitively priced. I think what retro brings to the table that keeps us really standing out from the crowd are those things like our community-driven approach. So your smoothie bar being open to the public. So now we've become this place of not just a gym, but a real true brick and mortar quasi, you know, store in a store, right? You've got the smoothie bar in itself is the, you know, is the mini QSR of the gym, right? The the quick service restaurant. And then you've got points of differentiation like our Zenden. So we have titled it Zenden. Really truly, what it is, is it's a segment of the gym outside of the regular gym space, typically in the front as you walk in, um, that has the red light therapy, which is full body red light therapy. So we went all in. We didn't just say, hey, let's just dip our toe in the water and do face. We said, no, we're gonna do the whole thing. So you got full body red light therapy. Then you have your full body tanning. Now, other HVLP products do give some tanning services. They provide that. But truly, what we provide in the tanning sector is when you become an ultimate member, that's part of your package. So that's a big deal for us, and it's a big deal for our membership. And then you've got the Zen Den, which is the meditation room, which is the full-body human touch massage therapy chair. Great for meditation, great for muscle recovery, just a just a really zen-like space to, you know, to convalesce and think about your journey. And I really think that some people say, well, I don't know, is that really a point of differentiation? And I really think it is because it's something that is not an afterthought. It's well thought out in the holistic approach that we want our members to feel. So I keep using the word community. Our community is not just about going in and stepping on the cardio deck and doing the stair climber or the treadmill. Our community is not about free weights, just going in and lifting some iron. But rather, our community is about the journey that you're on at any stage. So if I need muscle recovery, I know I've got the Zen Den as part of my package. But if I also need strength training or I was on GLP one and I need, you know, to build muscle mass, I've got that as well. So I like the fact that we are, we are boutique and to a certain degree, but we're also a very spa-like experience, right? So, so you get a you get a a, I guess, uh, what's the word I'm looking for? You get a large menu of services and offerings and benefits and features that you wouldn't normally get at a planet fitness or a crunch, right? So, and again, I love all of our competition. Competition is good because it basically brings awareness to the HVLP space and it's good for people. But I love the fact that we can differentiate ourselves with those pieces or those nuances that our membership can really embrace and and appreciate holistically.
SPEAKER_00And what are some of the basic metrics of the business? Like what's a general square, like square foot and then like pricing for the consumer, or like what are the basic tasks?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So, so we don't go too big. Our sweet spot really for a retro fitness is anywhere between 15 and 20,000 square feet. So for the, you know, for the consumer, that gives them just enough space to really see the open environment. We didn't want to close it off. You know, we talked a little bit earlier about the old days and the grandfathers of gyms. Remember, it was all very kind of dark. And when you walked in, there was a there was a a wall or a desk that shut you from the back. You couldn't see. The retro fitness is the exact opposite. It's very open. When you walk into a retro fitness, it's very community-minded and looking and oriented. We don't have a desk. There's nothing blocking you from seeing all the way to the back and all the way to the left and all the way to the right. And we've gone to very lengthy processes of looking at where how the footprint is designed. So within 15 to 20,000 square feet, where the group classroom lives is important. And that's close to the women's locker room. That's important. And where the strength training or the the big dumbbells live is important to the back where most, you know, you've got a you've got a setmick segment of the population where that's where they go. The cardio deck oversees everything so you can watch and and um and feel part of the community, right? So everything has purpose, all the pieces. And the, you know, the pricing is generally the same. We're looking, you know, anywhere from you know $24 to $34 a month. It's it's very affordable. I I was sharing with you earlier about the baby boomers to the millennials to the Gen X and the Gen Y's. Those price points is are very important. The price point that we offer, we're not here to gouge people. We're here to give people an opportunity to live their best lives. So you don't have to spend a lot of money. We don't have to make a lot of money. What we do is the longevity. We're not here to just have a quick transaction, we're here to have a lifestyle with you and grow with you. Our commitment is to have longevity in your membership cycle. You know, we talk about churn or attrition in the business, right? So the average cycle of a membership, generally speaking, is anywhere from eight to 12 months. In our case, our goal is not to just look at attrition that way. Our goal is to say, let's not talk about attrition, let's talk about living healthy lives and building a community to where people want to stay and thrive and continue on their journey. And what are the things that we can do to adopt in our programming, whether it's personal training, group classes, the 24-7 conversation around nutritional and wellness habits, right? Our app talks all about meditation and breathing and how proteins help you. It's all about health and wellness. So that with your when you're not in the gym, you're still with retrofitness 24-7, right? And that lends itself to longevity. And that lends itself to somebody who says, I'm not going to think about my contract timing, I'm going to think about like my life and what that means day to day.
SPEAKER_00That's a nice segue into this conversation around brand, branding versus marketing. And you know, we had in a previous conversation we talked about the emotional aspect of branding versus kind of the transactional aspects of marketing. And maybe we could, you know, uh talk about your get real campaign kind of in that that light as a you know as a example of what you may mean. So yeah, give us some insights. Like how do you how do you differentiate the two? How did the get real campaign exemplify those those differences?
SPEAKER_01Sure. Yeah, so I do I love this because again, I'm I'm a brand builder first. That's my first passion. Marketing as a, you know, is a just as important um and certainly a a normal part of my discipline because branding and marketing it they're usually arm in arm. Branding first, you have to have an emotion. So you have to evoke emotion and you have to have a connection to the consumer. That's how you build a brand. If you're missing that emotional aspect, you really don't have a brand. You have something that's a trend or something that might, you know, be a flash in the pan. And so the very first thing you do to build a brand is find the emotional connection. Establish the emotional connection. You know, you establish it through voice, through certain consumer experiences, through different communication strategies and tactics, et cetera. But the emotion has to be there. The marketing part of that is the transaction that happens to grow that brand, right? So when I look at retro fitness and I say, okay, so what is it about retrofitness that's going to resonate with the consumer? This is where Get Real comes in. So get real is our brand mantra. It is the mission, it's the lifestyle, it's the lifeblood, it's the reason to strive to be better. It's the positive sentiment. It's everything that has to do with empowering folks on their journey. So when I created the Get Real campaign, I had to make sure that it had tendrils across our entire system, not just our membership base and not just our clubs. So get real starts here at the corporate level, and get real lives within all of us at the corporate support level. As the franchiseur, we must get real first with who we are right now, right here. Then it moves into other areas of the business. So as we look at the business to consumer marketing transaction, get real plays a role. As we look at the business-to-business discipline, get real plays a role. And then as to our franchisees, our club members, our club employees, everywhere in the system, get real has a connection and plays a role. And that's truly the emotional connection you you built, right? So a lot of brands will say they have an emotional connection, but they don't live it, right? They'll talk it, but they don't walk it. So look at Starbucks as a perfect example. They are a brand machine. Why are they a brand machine? Because they chose the right direction to actually live all the way through their system from their top, down, and out. So get real for us, again, like I said, is the reason to strive better. It's your positive, your sentiment, your empowerment. I love get real. It gives me the chills every time I talk about it because to me, it has no boundaries, but it means everything. But it means everything to who you are and where you are on your personal journey. So I'll give you an example. Yesterday we had our 9-11 stair climb challenge. It's an annual event. We have, as you know, pretty heavy penetration in the New York, New Jersey areas. And so with the 9-11, the towers, the first responders, the firefighters, everybody, that's something near and dear to us. And so yesterday, as we were cheering on all of our clubs with their events and we were doing the stairclim challenges, all of them, a gentleman did a video, and it was so heartwarming because it truly was a get-real moment for him. He was a first responder at 9-11. And he said, I'm not the hero. The people that passed away that day are the heroes. But he said, I do this every year for them. Boy, is that get real? It's huge. It's a get-real moment for him, right? So I thought, what an amazing testimony. And we're going to use this video across multiple channels because it's a powerful statement. It's the get-real moment for him at that time. And retrofitness allowed him to live that. I think the other part of the get-real mantra is when you talk about people who were on GLP ones, those folks usually, you know, very obese, right? So they've never either seen a gym or they've been too intimidated to go to a gym, right? That's a get-real moment for them. They were on the GLP one, they've now lost a significant amount of weight. Their doctors typically subscribe, hey, you need to or prescribe, you need to go to a gym and start working on your muscle mass, right? And your strength training. That's a get-real moment. That's a scary moment. So you walk into retro fitness, the last thing I want you to do or feel is intimidation. What I want you to do is say, okay, I'm getting real with my life right now. This is the next step in my journey. It's big. When I talk about get real with my staff, even or just folks here at the corporate center, getting real every day. We are, we have a tremendous responsibility to uphold the integrity of the fitness industry. That's a get real moment. And we have to get real with who we are, what we say, how we say it, when we say it. So, like I said, it starts with that mantra, that emotion. And then you work in the transaction of marketing. That transaction of marketing happens to be in the form of multiple disciplines. Digital marketing, we all know we're in the sales and marketing business in the fitness industry, right? Because it's leads and it's joints. And so the transaction part of the marketing is taking the emotion of get real and then moving that into a transactional communication or conversation of, hey, you want to get real with your life. Here's here's I'm going to lead you to this. I'm you're going to join our gym, and then you're going to go into your community atmosphere and you're going to love life.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Um, I feel like a lot of the marketing and branding also can be baked in or live alongside the consumer experience, right? Like that's that's part of like the product, like, you know, product people like, well, product is marketing. Marketing people are like, well, I don't know, not really. It's kind of tough. But yeah, um, you know, when you look at what you guys do and maybe the HVLP sector in general, like just by nature of the model, when you look at a consumer experience, there's not as many levers as you could pull as, let's say, like a personal training studio, right? Because it's so high touch. It's it depends on that high touch factor. So when you look at crafting a unique and really valuable consumer experience and maybe set the tone on, like, if you can, um, on what the expectations of the consumer are nowadays, like how how do you guys focus on that and how does that bleed into the actual marketing and the brand?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's such a great question and a big one, a deep one. I I think if I if I had to sum it up pretty quickly, to me, it's consumer experience means everything, right? So, so everyone's different, but at the end of the day, the consumer experience doesn't need to be that complicated, right? You know, the old saying, keep it simple, it's so true. When I when I look at when I look at our points of differentiation and I and I kind of weigh them against the consumer experience or what I want out of that experience, really what I want is people to feel part of the community and to be comfortable with who they are. So when I challenge my team, when they're creating those marketing campaigns, I give them that reminder of give, make sure that you're communicating, whether it's visual, words, all of the above, communicate.
SPEAKER_00Today's episode of The Future of Fitness is proudly brought to you by EGIM, a vertically integrated market leader in the fitness and health industry with an incredible vision, transforming healthcare from repair to prevention. I've been a huge fan of EGM's team and technology for years now, and I can tell you that their commitment to innovation is unparalleled within our industry. Here's what makes EGM so special. They partner with companies to improve employee health by providing access to fitness and health facilities. And they equip those facilities with cutting-edge smart gym equipment and digital solutions. The benefits are clear. Companies see reduced healthcare costs and increase productivity, while fitness facilities benefit from a growing engaged membership space. What really excites me is EGM's smart fitness ecosystem. By combining their strength equipment with AI-powered software and their corporate wellness platform Wellpast, they are leading the shift to proactive preventative health. This isn't just AI for show. This is the real deal. If you're interested in learning more about eGim and how they're transforming healthcare through exercise, visit eGym.com. That is eGYM.com.
SPEAKER_01What it is for your journey. You don't need to use imagery or lifestyle photos that show somebody with a perfect body. That's not real. What's real is the experience that you have where you, you know, as a as a woman, I look at myself in the mirror and I go, well, you know, I probably could tone that up or I could tone this up, right? Or as an older woman, I could say, boy, I wish I didn't have so many wrinkles, but I do. So what do we do with that, right? So same thing here at Retro Fitness is what do we do with the different folks that come in and how do they experience us? It's really truly community. It's, I just want to feel good about where I'm at and my surroundings. So brand reputation and elevating that experience is important. Feeling comfortable with your environment, that goes back to brand reputation. And how does that tie into marketing? It ties into the nuances of the lifestyle photography, the words we use, the empowerment, right? So, you know, I think about some of our campaign slogans or our headlines, right? And I, so, you know, I think about it's it's National Fitness Month, crush your goals. It that that to me is an experience, but it you can you can develop whatever your own definition is with that. So I think I've answered your question in a roundabout way, but I I wanted to make sure that it, you know, it that the the the breadth of it, it's a it's a multifaceted answer, but the breadth of it really does come in the form of just generally speaking, your experience and how you feel about the end result, which is the community.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, awesome. So when you look at like the uh we talked about the beginning of the conversation, the younger generations, I'm just gonna call, I don't know, I get them all mixed up between gen X and I don't even know what I am, but the younger generation, let's say like the 35 and younger, right? I I take it are are a big portion of where this HVLP boom is coming from. How are how are their expectations different than you know, um someone might age in their 40s, boomers? Like how is it how is it changing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So Gen X, Gen Y are those two uh generational cohorts. And you know, I absolutely love I'm a I'm a total data junkie. I I'm a nerd when it comes to just reading and understanding and learning more. And I love reading about the Gen X and Gen Y generations because they teach us a lot. And really what they bring is, you know, think about since they were born, they knew nothing about the old rotary telephone. They were born with iPhones in there and they were born with smartphones, right? So they don't, they don't even know, some of them don't even know what a CD is. And I love that because their expectations are all very technology driven, but they're also very organic and raw and and natural. And I love that because it's kind of like this weird, diaposing conundrum that they live in. There's technology over here, but then there's this beautiful, soft part of them that loves community, right? So to me, their expectations come in the form of the messaging we deliver inside the four walls and outside the four walls. So let's talk about inside the four walls. All of our matrix equipment has video, right? So the messaging on the video is messaging that we pay very close attention to. And it's not a sales pitch of messaging, which is what inherently most people want to go to, like sell, sell, sell, right? Ours is not that. Ours is messaging about empowerment. So we put a lot of information on there about nutritional recipes. We put video information on meditation and breathing exercises and health and wellness tips, right? What protein is better than another protein? Why is collagen important? We put enough education, but enough information that that satiates their technology need in the four walls, right? And most of them, if not all of them, are on TikTok and all of these crazy social media platforms. So our our approach, our creative approach, is all very TikTok-esque, very short, fast films, short, fast messages, right? So we're speaking their language. Now let's talk about outside the four walls. Our app is a perfect example. Our app is designed to be an information resource, but also an entertainment resource, but also a connection to where you're at in your fitness journey. So you can track your fitness journey, you can track your challenges, you can watch your videos. So it's a multi-pronged approach to how they think and how they operate in their day-to-day and how they were programmed as they grew up and became young adults. And I absolutely love the feedback that we get. We communicate often daily on social media platforms with them. I love that they are communicative with us that shows that there is brand value there and it shows that they have we've made an emotional connection with them. Most importantly, I love when they give us feedback that's harsh because I know that that means they're paying attention. So my team, I tell them every time when you get harsh messaging, you write them and you say, Thank you very much. We will take this to heart. We will look into this. We this is part of our journey to be committed to your journey. And you you didn't get that from baby boomers. So I love their honesty and their transparency.
SPEAKER_00Well, what is uh, do you have any examples you could share about harsh criticism?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, sure. Like, okay, so you know, post-COVID, right? So we we became very um strict about wiping down machines, making sure that we had the bottles of the spray of antibacterial, things like that. And so it's, you know, you'll get a you'll get a harsh statement saying, hey, I I visited the Del Rey, Florida Club and the antibacterial bottle was empty. I didn't like that. Kind of, you know, gross me out. That to me is so important that they told that took the time to tell us that, right? And that's I'm not gonna say that's easily overcome, although it is, but it's more than that. It's not just an easy click check the box. It's now like, hey, that's a reminder. Let's everybody remember the small things are the most important things. Paper towels in the restrooms, right? Clean bathrooms, clean locker rooms, smoothie bar. Are we wearing gloves? It's those kinds of things that we all need daily reminders of, right? We all in our daily lives get get a little bit into our routine. And so the the the Gen X and Gen Y are happy to remind us of those things, and I'm happy to receive it. I think it's wonderful.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Yeah, and that's the big when I hear that, I'm like, who takes time to do that?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I'll I'll like I'll see something like, yeah, I didn't like that. And I'm just gonna go about my day because I got 10 other things in my mind that I'm gonna do. So who does that? Let's zoom out. I want I want to talk about your guys' bold vision of of where you where you can take retro. I mean, yeah. Like you said, you're in the top three, you'd like to be in the top two for the HVLP category. What's that gonna take? Like, what is what does that mean? I mean, is it uh I don't I didn't even I don't know if I asked this type of because I don't remember an answer, but are you guys private equity backed or like how give us a little idea on the structure of and then?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so we are we are privately owned and uh and very very proud of it. Have we do have actually one of our franchisees is private equity. BlackRock is one of our franchisees. And so they are not a lot of people uh get that confused. They're like, oh, BlackRock, they're they're an investor. No, they're a franchisee. So our goal is explosive growth, and we are right on the cusp of it. We have been preparing these last few years since 2019 to scale and be prepared to scale. And knowing that our explosives growth is coming down the pipe, you have to, you know, I always say clean up your backyard before you have the barbecue. We are preparing all of the system standards procedures so that no matter how fast we grow, we are not going to skip a beat. Things will not fall off the radar or we will not, you know, what's the word I'm looking for? Cheat, you know, we are we will be there solid citizens, solid brand all the way through. Our aspirations are big. There's no doubt about it. But again, knowing what we know about the fitness space and the potential for it, why not? Look at Planet Fitness. They're a perfect example. I love using Planet Fitness as a case study. They did it and they did it well, and we're right behind them. So, right now, we are working on some really big deals to move into the Midwest and growing West, explosive growth in the Southeast area, continued growth in the Northeast area, even though we have a tremendous amount of penetration, there's still room to grow. So, existing franchisee growth, new franchisee growth, a lot of massive um, you know, direct investment things in play. There are multi-unit operators in play. So as I sit here today, our goal is to get to a thousand units in the next couple of years. And that sounds crazy, but it's you watch, we're you're ready. It's it's game on.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. I I don't think it's crazy. I I think just what we've seen, you know, over the last you know, 12 to 24 months of the growth of this category overall, then the demand just seems to keep building. So I don't think it's crazy at all. One of the always last questions I always ask on this is what what do you what do you need? And I ask that from like as as the industry's listening, um, what are some of the challenges you're facing right now? What if people are going to reach out, like what would you like to hear from about? Are you, you know, uh looking for staff? Are you looking for, you know, I'm guessing you don't need investment at this point, but like what yeah, what do you need? What's what's one of the biggest challenges you're facing?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Oh, I love that question actually. So, so let's talk first about uh it's not necessarily challenge, but what I need is absolutely I need more multi-unit franchisees. We're talking to large groups, but I love, I tell you, we've got a we've got a multi-unit franchisee in the Northeast. I won't, I won't call out his name, but I will tell you, I love this group. I love the group because they're smart, they're fast, they're nimble, they get it, they're great operators. They are the poster child of a multi-unit operator. I would love nothing more than having more of them. I need them. I I thrive. My team thrives off of them. Our operations team, everyone needs more good multi-unit operators, right? I need more, I need more insights and data. And I, you know, we have our usual suspects, your, you know, ABC Fitness or all those guys, right? But it's funny because having come from the consumer packaged goods world and even the hotel world, a lot of data. And like I said, I'm a data junkie. I need more of that in the fitness space. I feel like the fitness space is just a little bit behind the times when it comes to general knowledge, right? And I do it, I have to say, I'm very appreciative of the fact of where I came from and the resources that I have that I can call on and use a lot of consumer behavior research, a lot of a lot of retail data, things like that. But it would really be nice as the fitness industry as a whole, if we could get together and figure out how we could really elevate the information and the data that we have together. And then I think from a from a team perspective, I have a wonderful team. I love my team and I love who I work with. We don't, we don't work in silos here at Retro, which I love too. I'm a very big collaborator. But I would love to have, I think, more fresh minds. So when we talk about as we grow, we have what we call an FBC. It's a franchise business coach. They are our brand ambassadors out in the streets and they are the business coaches to our operating units and our franchise systems. I would love to have more fresh minds and fresh bodies and just really hungry people. I think it's great to tap into the existing market in the fitness space. But can you imagine if you expand in that area and you get folks that are just like me from different industries? The perspective that they bring and the creativity, I think is just it's unstoppable. It's great stuff. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, those are great answers. And the data thing, I agree. And uh I've had this conversation recently. I think it's it's it's a huge opportunity for maturation of our industry. If we can start to pull, like at the Athletec event I went to over the summer, I can't remember who's he's from sports sometime. Anyway, he he presented on consumer data, but I believe they got from like credit card companies, right? So he knew more about our consumers than we knew, right? Like, okay, well, if someone buys a Whoop or an Aura, here's the differentiating factors between those two consumers, and they're more likely to go to this type of club, to this type of club, or this type of personal training, or this outdoor activity. Like he was like, whoa, like, why don't we have those type of reports? And I'm guessing, and Eddie, I'm talking to you because we had discussed this, Eddie, from uh Eddie Hertzman. I'm guessing executives would be willing to pay for inside reports like that. If they're timely, that filled with data, actionable data. I'm sorry. That's right. So I think that's a huge opportunity. So anybody who's listening out there, we'd love to see those chapter reports.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I I couldn't agree more, Eric. And I I gotta tell you too, like, you know, one thing that I found being new to, you know, quote unquote new to the fitness space, I have found that that there's data out there that the majority of the fitness industry wouldn't regard as valuable data. And I disagree. There's, to your point, consumer data, retail data, behavioral information, how people behave absolutely is relevant with what we're doing and how we do it, right? Yes. Not just the technology. Like I think about, you know, we talked about Gen X and Gen Y, and they were born with technology and they were born with smartphones attached to their ear. You know, I love how the Fitbit connects to the matrix equipment, connects to our app, connects to all these things, right? But really truly, if you take yourself out of that, outside of that, it's what makes people tick. So we do need more lifestyle information. And that's a that's a broad stroke of all different kinds of education.
SPEAKER_00Awesome. Kim, thank you for for doing this. Uh, if people want to get a hold of you or if you want to send them anywhere specifically, where would you like people to go?
SPEAKER_01I would love. They can find me at Kim at retrofitness.com.
SPEAKER_00Nice.
SPEAKER_01They can find me on LinkedIn, Kim Gouch, and I I welcome any and all emails, phone calls, smoke signals, whatever. I am a big collaborator and I would I love conversation. I think conversation is the winner of all things good, no matter what your journey is. And that includes conversation about failure and how we win from failure.
SPEAKER_00I love it. I love it. Well, thank you for joining me. Uh, I'm very excited to get an update in a year from now and see uh where you guys are at. So love to have you back on. Ladies and gentlemen, Kim Gouge.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much, Eric. It's been a pleasure. Really appreciate it.
SPEAKER_00Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This is your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Minute. If you did, I'm gonna ask you to do three simple things. It takes under five minutes and it goes such a long way. We really appreciate it. Number one, please subscribe to our show wherever you listen to it, iTunes, Spotify, Castbox, whatever it may be. Number two, please leave us a favorable review. Number three, share. Put it on social media, talk about it to your friends, send it in a text message, whatever it may be. Please share this episode because we put a lot of work into it. We want to make sure that as many people are getting value out of it as possible. Lastly, if you'd like to learn more, get in touch with me, simply go to the futurofitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me as I love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the Future of Fitness. Have a great day.