Rick Mayo - The Great Resignation & It's Effects on Fitness

Hey everybody, welcome to the Future of Fitness, a top-rated fitness industry podcast for over two years and running. It is 2021, and I am your host, Eric Malzone. I have the absolute pleasure of talking to entrepreneurs, innovators, and cutting-edge technology experts within the fast-paced industries of fitness, wellness, and health sciences. Stop by futurefitness.co to subscribe and learn more. This episode of the Future of Fitness is presented to you by the Fit Tech Club, a business network run by the creators of the Fit Tech Summit, Europe's leading conference devoted to fitness and health technology. Look, friends, the fitness industry is changing faster than ever. The intersection of technology with fitness and health is growing bigger and more dynamic by the minute. Gyms are exploding figuratively, and their constituent parts are ending up at home, outdoors, on your wrist, or in entirely new places with brilliantly new concepts. Investors are pumping astronomical amounts of money into the market like we've never seen before. The FitTech Club believes that collaboration is the advantage to these times of change. That's why the club aims to bring thought leaders together to inspire them by making the right contact at the right time and giving insights to the industry's most relevant and current trends. Here's what Melanie Lauer, CEO of Kettler and TriSports, says about the FitTech Club.

We have joined the FitTech Club because it gives us access to the most recent innovations in the industry. It gives us access to a unique network and to potential business partners that help us developing our business further.

If you're interested in the fitness technology game and looking to accelerate your growth, I highly suggest you check out fittechsummit.com forward slash club to learn more. You can join the highly valuable newsletter, apply for the FitTech Club itself, or simply learn more or connect with people like me. That's fittechsummit.com forward slash club. Kids deserve our best. Brand X has dedicated themselves to doing what is best for kids in the youth fitness space for over two decades. Look, all major pediatric organizations agree that youth strength and conditioning and fitness programs must be specifically designed for children and coached by those specifically educated in working with children. This seems like a no-brainer. A successful and sustainable youth program comes from educated coaches who have all the tools to best serve the demographic. Brand X offers unequaled, ongoing support through ever-growing relevant content delivered monthly and mountains of information leveraging their 20 plus years of experience. As the developers of the original Kids Functional Fitness Program and Certification, and recognized as the world's leader in youth fitness, Brand X now offers Plug and Play Systems, a fully integrated and personally guided roadmap to start, build, and sustain a flourishing and profitable youth fitness program. This includes mentorship, education, programming, and a huge resource library, all offered at an affordable monthly price. If you are a coach, boutique gym owner, a school district, or anyone interested in paving a better future for our youth, you've got to check this out. For a limited time, Brand X is waiving the setup fee and offering a VIP discount on plug and play solutions. Visit thebrandxmethod.com slash VIP to get your code today. That is thebrandxmethod.com slash VIP. When you do what you love, running, racing, or simply enjoying the great outdoors, you want to do it for life. InsightTracker can help. InsightTracker was founded in 2009 by leading scientists in aging, genetics, and biometrics. Using their patented algorithm, Insight Tracker analyzes your body's data to provide you with a clear picture of what's going on inside you while offering highly personalized, science-backed recommendations for positive diet and lifestyle changes. Okay, time for straight talk. It's time that each single one of us takes responsibility for our own health. Personally, given the results of my Insight Tracker DNA and blood tests, I now have a clear and simple game plan to lower my cholesterol and stave off my family's genetic history of heart disease. The best part is that the plan doesn't include any kind of pharmaceuticals, just personalized nutrition and natural supplementation. Possibly my favorite feature of Insight Tracker is the inner age score, a singular metric that shows me how my biological age compares to my chronological age. They just gamify longevity. It's crazy cool. For a limited time, you can get 25% off the entire Insight Tracker store. Just go to InsightTracker.com forward slash future. But wait, there is more. If you're a coach, trainer, registered dietitian, or any other health and wellness practitioner, you can now leverage Insight Tracker services to help your clients perform better than they ever have. And you can offer them discounts while you earn revenue. InsightTracker Pro is your gateway to offering your clients Insight Tracker, the science-backed, ultra-personalized performance platform trusted by elite athletes and top coaches. Just go to InsightTracker.com forward slash future to get more information and enjoy deep, deep discounts. That is insightracker.com forward slash future. All right, we are live. Rick Mayo. Welcome back.

Thanks, Eric. How are you, buddy?

I'm doing really well. I uh I always see uh you know, I look at my calendar on Monday mornings trying to figure out you know how I'm gonna get through another week. When I see Rick Mayo show up and as an interview, I'm like, ah, it's gonna be a good week. It's gonna be a lot of fun. Uh you know, I always I always have great com I always have great conversations with you and I learn a lot. I feel like you're uh, you know, one of those people who, you know, entrepreneur, philosopher, uh all those things kind of you know mixed into one. So it's it's it makes really good conversation. I learn a lot. So um let's start with this, man. Today is uh what is today? 1111 21. And uh it is Veterans Day, so happy Veterans Day to all the people who have served. Um, but give us an update, Rick. What's what's going on in your world last time we talked, you were launching your franchise model?

Yeah, we're still in that, really. So, you know, it's been a good year. We sold 35 franchises um thus far, and most of them have been this year. As you know, we launched early 2020, which was not an ideal time to launch a fitness franchise because in certain areas of the of the country, certainly we weren't even allowed to be open. And so, you know, we that put a hold on our sales, understandably, and then we've we're back on it as the veils lifted a bit from this mess, um, you know, moving into this year. And so we're 35 sold, got some open, have a lot more coming, you know, actually have one in Montana where where you're in your home state, going into Billings, believe it or not. That'll actually be the next one that opens. So they're in pre-sales now.

Yeah, Billings is an interesting place, man. It's growing pretty fast. Um, I think a lot of like these little, you know, kind of mountain communities or you know, more rural cities. Um, yeah, that's that's fascinating. Good for you. Billings is cool.

What's the nickname for Bozeman now? It's like they're calling it something that has to do with Los Angeles, I think.

Oh, really?

All the folks, all everyone, yeah, yeah. All the migrants from uh from LA ending up in Bozeman, Montana. But uh I think they I have a buddy that lives there, and he's like, yeah, it used to just be trucks and farmers and ranchers, and now it's Range Rovers and you know as Porsche SUVs. Teslas. Teslas.

There's Tesla showing up, yeah.

Yeah, exactly. So completely different landscape. But that's what I've been busy doing. You know, we talked a little bit before we we hit record today on just uh you know going from having lots of irons in the fire to really trying to focus on the best opportunity vehicle that we have available to us, which is franchising, which has been a bit of an adjustment as an entrepreneur, and so far, so good. Um, but you know, we've got we've got a long way to go. We're proud of what we've done so far, but we have a long way to go.

Yeah, I would love to talk about that. I think it's a fascinating thing, more because you know, I think I can glean uh value from that transition. I uh had some friends on the podcast, and we all kind of joke that we call ourselves uh multi-potentialites, right? I always like to be working on like four, five, six projects. And I look at my days sometimes, I'm like, what am I like? How am I mentally juggling all this? But you had mentioned, you know, it kind of helps your entrepreneurial swirl brain, I think is how you referred to it. But how how has that transition been from working on so many different things? Because I, you know, I see your name in a lot of different places, you look at your profile. I mean, you've you've you know been on tech boards, you've been on, you know, I'm sure you've done a ton of advising and investing and all kinds of different things. So how has that transition going from so many things to now to one pure focus?

I mean it's it's not been easy, I'll have to say. Um it takes a lot of discipline, a lot more than I would have anticipated. So it sounds like you're going to be simplifying your life when you're going to give up some opportunities to focus on a better opportunity. I remember being at a talk that uh Tim Cook, so the CEO of Apple, was speaking, and he said, you know, we had there's a pile of Apple products on the table, and we were on these small roundtops, maybe eight people there, you know, so e each table that is. And he said, listen, we you know, Apple says no to more amazing ideas than you can possibly imagine, so that the things sitting on your table can be the absolute best products possible. And so I think the hard thing is like as you know, there's a bit of FOMO when you feel like you're missing an opportunity and you know it it goes back to just because you can doesn't mean that you should, but that's really hard. It takes a certain level for me anyway. I've had to develop a certain level of emotional maturity to be able to look at you know, and to look at an opportunity, and it might be a good opportunity, and it might make a lot of money, right? And so and it might make that money fast. And so you're like, well, why would I not do this, right? And it takes a a bit of emotional maturity to say, well, listen, um, this will be a distraction, even if it makes money, it's still a distraction. And this opportunity vehicle is short-lived, it will be a quick grab, cash grab, whatever that may be. And ultimately, it's not the best use of my time or energy. And that goes against all of my entrepreneurial bones in my body, I mean, to be honest. And so it's been very difficult. And I would say it's been kind of what we talked about before, where you know, this it's like a self-grow, self-help or personal growth journey disguised as business, right? It's like feels like what entrepreneurship is in a nutshell, and it's been a little bit of that. So I would say it's been very helpful in the sense that I've been able to direct all of my neurosis towards one type of business. I would also say it's been extremely uncomfortable at the same time, as you can imagine.

Yeah, yeah, I can. You know, there is uh I was mentioning it to you book uh a book called Essentialism by I believe it's Greg McCown. And it's one of my favorite books. I try to reread it every year, probably ends up being every two years. But it talks about that. There's a couple key things which, you know, I could probably save people reading the book because I could just explain a lot of it right now, but his writing's great. Uh, you know, you uh uh essentialists really kind of it's not it's different than being a minimalist. You you kind of poke around, you feel for for soft spots and and understand like what things in your life align with your values and give you the greatest opportunity for your given definition of success, right? And then you you try a lot of different things and then you kind of finalize on one. And the other major thing that I that I took away from that book is that there was always trade-offs. You know, there's no complete win-win, right? Like, you know, I've talked to a lot of my coaching and advising clients about certain things, like, well, I want this and this. I'm like, well, yeah, but you're you're gonna you're inevitably gonna have a trade-off. That's just the way it is. Like there's no perfect marriage, right? Where you got everything you want in your marriage. There's no perfect business relationship, there's no perfect anything, really. There's just little things that you're there's things that you're willing to give up for for something more beneficial. And it sounds like you kind of went through that same process as you were figuring this out.

Yeah, and I think I think I still will, and I think it's a great way to put it. It would be I think if you weren't an entrepreneur, it would be odd to hear that you feel like you're sacrificing, right, to to put all of your eggs in a basket, right? And your attention. But that's what it feels like. I mean, quite honestly, because it's not, it's it's uncomfortable. And so, you know, working in this area of of discomfort and sort of learning to to deal with that and navigate that, and still bring the same entrepreneurial spirit and juice when in fact it is a 20-mile march, right? It's your famous line from you know, great by choice, is like companies that could just get up and do work every day. You know, I've heard it described as do boring work or you know, whatever those things are, but it's true, and it's very hard to do when in fact you are used to you know handling lots of different projects, and you just kind of swoop in and you throw some advice around. Or you know, and I've done what you've done, I've done coaching, we've had we've owned coaching groups, I've owned like educational companies, licensing company, brick and mortar gyms, invested in some other things. It's you know, that's fun. A day in the life of if you've got eight or ten of those meetings and you're just like you know, swooping in and making a few decisions and moving on, it's great. It's completely different when you are sitting in the same business entity and those decisions now have work that needs to be done, some of it by me, not a lot, but some of it by me. It's a little bit unnerving. And so, but I will say that you know it's it's a little bit of as your as your skill set improves, um, you can certainly scattershot if you want. And listen, there's like you said, define your own success, right? But for me, I think as my skill set has grown over three decades, um I think it's important that your opportunity vehicle matches your skill set over time. And so, you know, maybe I wasn't ready ten years ago even to do franchise. Maybe that maybe licensing was the right choice until we could progress to franchising. But I will say, and this is really more of a credit to my team, now that we're in the best opportunity vehicle, meaning it had could have the biggest upside. It's the best thing for our for our customers or our franchisees, right? It's the best vehicle for success for them. But also for us, as you guys know, or you know certainly, um, Eric, that a franchise structure is a much more valuable entity than an IP company, like a licensing only, right? And so it does have the biggest upside for us. And I will say that I'm really proud of my team because now that we're sitting in the most advanced opportunity vehicle, we're really shining. Meaning, like I'm really proud of my team that we have showed up with a very good product that we're taking to market. It's pretty buttoned up, we're getting good feedback, validation has been great. Um, and I'm really proud of that because again, it's now you're it's sort of like you're in the big leagues, right? You've worked your way up from brick and mortar ownership in college all the way through to the minor leagues and triple A, double A, whatever that may be. And now you're finally in the big leagues, and do you really have what it takes? So it's a little bit unnerving. Um, but when you find out that you like at least early innings, we do, um, it feels good. It really does. So there's that side of it, but there's always the tempering of the squirrel brain, if you will, and to try to stay focused. That that's a daily challenge.

Do you uh just out of curiosity, do you find that now this is your main opportunity vehicle? I love that term, by the way. I'm gonna use it all the time. Now you find this is your main opportunity opportunity vehicle. Um are you still like, do you have things that aren't career related that are kind of helping you with that entrepreneurial creative outlet too on the side? Because now, like you mentioned, I I would imagine there's a lot of the entrepreneur in you has got you here, but now you have that kind of plan and you're sure you're gonna make you know minor shifts and pivots along the way, but you you you now it's execution, right? And uh, I know people who are you know very entrepreneurial sometimes have a a challenge doing just the pure execution of things, right? They always, you know, like you said, the squirrel brain gets gets going. So are are you do you have other things in your life that are maybe kind of distracting that squirrel brain as well?

Yeah, and that's a great point because what I don't want to happen, and and this is what you we all know that are entrepreneurs that are listening, you can fall victim to this. If you don't have a business structure set up where you can do many things, what may happen is that you just end up over-tweaking your business, right? I mean, there's a there's a theory of good enough, and like our business is proving out to be good enough. But if every day I woke up and I needed to do something different, right? And I said, Well, yeah, but I'm only working within this opportunity vehicle that I think gives us the best chance for success, then I would just be completely over-tweaking the business. And really, what it is, is like a personal neurosis that's manifesting itself in my business, and you can ruin your business. And so many of us do that. And I know you do a lot of executive coaching and you talk to people and you think, What are you doing? Like, don't do just double down on the basics that are, you know, the blocking and tackling, if you will, right? Quit doing all that. So 100%, it's so funny. We we talk about this, you know, business disguise or personal journey disguised as business, is I've literally been giving you know thought to like, all right, what kind of hobbies am I going to take on? Because I've got to have an outlet for learning and doing things differently, right? Because we are in a stage now where there's no sense in over-tweaking, and certainly we're looking to innovate, like we always say innovate in the box instead of it's not always outside the box. Sometimes it's like just make the thing better, right? And it is just slight tweaks that can do that. So we're always looking for those opportunities. But um, for me, it's 100% looking for ways to you know to satisfy that squirrel brain. And then and right now it's like, well, maybe I should take up archery or you know, like I motorcycling is my hobby. So I've signed up for some clinics where I'm going to track days and learning to race and like doing off-road racing. And I mean, you know, I'm looking at purchasing an old bike and just rebuilding it in the garage at night so I can just learn more of that. So, like anything like that. Um, you know, too. Or I'm, you know, and of course, um, my wife thinks I'm nuts because every two days I'm like, what do you think about uh me going back to jujitsu? She's like, didn't you get jacked up when you were going there? I'm like, yeah, but that was 10 years ago. Maybe I should go all the way through and get my black belt now. She's like, okay. And two days later, she's like, Are you gonna go to jujitsu? I'm like, no, that was a dumb idea. I'm gonna rebuild an old motorcycle. She's like, You are? You don't even have an old motorcycle. I'm like, Yeah, I've been talking to a guy on eBay. I've got one, it's in the state of Washington, I'm gonna ship it out. Two days later, I'm like, nah, I decided I don't want to do that either. So believe me when I tell you, it's still you know, alive and well. It just it's trying to manifest itself in different ways. And I'm just trying to do my darndest to keep it out of my business.

Yeah, oh God, it's it's so funny. I just resemble some of those remarks and recent days. I mean, when I was uh when I was, you know, in my my gym ownership days as an operator too, I was always launching a new program, tweaking something, completely shifting the program design, whatever it may be. And meanwhile, uh, you know, I I was breaking things just so I could fix them again. And you know, it was totally unnecessary when if I had just and I look at great gym operators who have been doing it for a long time and they they have a formula, they stick to it, they probably take far more vacation time than I gave myself back then. Like, you know, they they just seem to understand that principle, but I I can't help myself. I mean, I think if I count right now between I have like five, six different projects that I'm working on currently, and uh it's wild thing.

Especially if you're if you're with your insight, certainly deep deep knowledge of a certain industry, it's it's very satisfying to dig into complex problems to be able to zoom out from crop dust or height and kind of put all the moving parts together, and that's the fun part, you know. And then once you do that in a consulting um, you know, relationship, like uh probably like a lot of what you're doing now, is you put all that together and then you just turn it over to them and you go like, just do this, right? And then it's their responsibility to do the 20 ball marsh and and do the day in and day out, it's not yours, and that is awesome. But when you have to do that, I guess the best way to you know that I can say is just to hire the right folks. Um it's been good for me. And so I I'm you know, I'm probably working less than I have ever, um, but it's just more focused work, and I'm making fewer decisions because I'm not you know taking care of four or five different projects. I'm really just working on one thing, but within that one thing, um, you know, I'm not having to make as many decisions, but the ones I do are very impactful. And then we just scale, you know, hire people that are better than you at certain tasks and just get out of their way. I mean, I think I heard a CEO description, you know, very well where it's like the CEO should be able to identify that it needs to be done, but you're just not the one to do it. Right. And that's me. Like I can pick out all sorts of little things that we need to improve on or tweak this or, you know, bullets before cannonballs. Let's fire some things out and see if this new marketing play would would move the needle a little bit, you know. And so those are the type of things that again, innovating within the box that I think as long as you're not too crazy and you don't like because what you can run the risk of is all this stuff rolls, you know, poop goes downstream, right? So you can just bombard your team and they can just get super frustrated if you're constantly what what seems like to you just being innovative, right, to them seems like you're changing your mind every other day, and the initiative that they're working on is no longer important. And you gotta be really careful with that. And that's just been a learning experience for me. So hire great people, get out of their way. And then again, if you have some kind of need to do a bunch of things, just let themselves manifest themselves in different parts of your life, not in your business.

Yeah, man, so well said. I it took a long time to convince myself of this, and then you know, subsequently convincing other people that, you know, are in my sphere that, you know, you may love the decision making, the the you know, the quick start kind of mentality of of, you know, I got okay, this is this is the direction we're going this way, right? And I was like, well, I wouldn't everyone want to have that role. Who wants to sit and actually execute day after day, month after month? And I was like, oh, a lot, a lot of people have that that structure, the direction, and they just want to go. And I'm like, wow, well that and it took I just couldn't wrap my head around it, nor could I also wrap my head around like the idea that I have a million ideas that run through my head every day. And not everyone does that. My wife was like, I'm like, don't you have like 10 business ideas every day as you're walking down the street? She's like, no, I don't.

No, and I don't want to. Yeah, I can I can open and close a business in 10 minutes all in my head, like numbers and everything, right? And I'll I'll I'll get it, I'll be in the kitchen with my wife. I'm like, you know what would have been cool business. And I'm like, you know, maybe it's something you could do. Like, I'll do the franchise, we could do this. She's like, I don't want to do that. I'm like, but it's so easy, listen to how we'll put it together. And then as I run through it, and by the time I'm finished, she hasn't even had to interject at all. And I've already opened it and closed it and said, never mind, and left the room. And she's probably just like, all right. I mean, I'm pretty sure she doesn't hear 99% of it because she's so used to it. It's good to know that it's not just me, I'll tell you that.

Oh, it's not. There's a lot of people I've been in the room, and that's why it's you know, I love getting into you know retreats or things with other entrepreneurs because you can talk about this stuff. You're like, oh, we're all relatable. Great, we're we're all the freaks. That was just, you know, for example, and then we can change uh into a topic I want to chat about. But my sister, we're trying to figure out what to do with my mom in the next phase. She's unhappy with the place she's staying in. She's 83 and she really wants to go on a cruise. And my sister's like, well, you know, too bad there's no cruise lines for just teen years. And I was like, huh. What if there was a cruise? What if it was a never-ending cruise line? And once you retire, you just get on this boat. It's like an assisted living center on the ocean. And you just love that. I even have a I didn't even have a name for it.

They already have one. There was a guy I knew from the fitness industry. His name was Tony DeLeed, and he used to own some gyms actually in Atlanta called Australian Body Works, but he was a legend in Australia. And so he had moved back to Australia, and he and his son opened a bunch of other concepts. And I think Fitness First was one of their big ones, which I think is the same brand as Canada, but it's totally different. Anyway, anyway, he did great. Well, then eventually he took early retirement. He moved onto this boat, and and the condos were like exorbitantly expensive. But the boat was literally named the world, and all it did was just sail around from amazing port to amazing port, and you lived in a condominium on this boat. So that was your permanent residence, and it just moved around all the time. So it's been done. You just have to figure out how to bring the cost down and uh yeah, put some old folks on there. I think it would work out well.

Yeah, yeah. I was gonna call it like sailing into the sunset, you know, like that.

I like that. Yeah. Well, hey, um I mean I I said I wouldn't participate in any other business project, but it's amazing.

Yeah, yeah, it sounds brilliant. You can't go wrong.

Why'd you do that to me?

Oh yeah. So uh one of the things I I was I'm really curious to get your thoughts on is, you know, your selling franchises, you know, things are growing. You said 35 and you know, plus, I'm sure it's probably going to change every day. Um and how as we talk prerecording about what the pandemic has done to people's outlook on their profession, their life, their lifestyle, their values, and some people are calling it the great resignation. You know, but it's not just like it's not just restaurant workers, right? It's people at, you know, senior VP levels or or higher who are just having these dynamic shifts in what they're doing with their life. And I'm presuming that's coming into who's actually buying franchises or starting businesses and things like that. So I want to get your viewpoint on what's going on, you know, um, over the last year with people shifting in their dynamically shifting in in their careers and their outlooks on life and their style of life and where they live. Yeah, what are you seeing?

Yeah, I think you know, there's a couple things at play. So the evidence is clear, what you just mentioned. There's been more business licenses applied for in since mid-2020 till now um than there was in the last 25 years. So it obviously there's a lot of people starting businesses, which is great. Um, and then also franchise sales. So overall, not just you know, with Alloy, but franchises overall are really doing well right now. And of course, anytime there's a disruption and typically a downturn in the economy, franchising does well because it leaves some displaced, you know, folks that typically have uh, you know, and certainly our customer avatar, you know, if you're 45 to 65 or or you know might be a bit younger, but you've amassed a little bit of of wealth, then you can afford to buy a franchise. So that's a perfect person, right? Who may uh you know, when their life is disrupted, may look at things and say, you know, I'm not really I didn't really see it shaping up this way. As you know, Eric, you get you know you get into a career, um, you just sort of, and sometimes when you're younger, you just you know you're not really navigating, you're just sort of doing what you think you're supposed to do, and then you land somewhere and then you get some deep knowledge, and then pretty soon you're the CFO of a mid-sized company. And that's not bad, but it's really not what you had mapped out for yourself. So I think when you look at disruption of any kind, you know, big retail has has done so well with this, they know like if someone moves or has a baby or anything like disruptive in their lives, that's the perfect time to change someone's habits, right? And I would say like you can remember famously, I think it was oh geez, I can't remember the book now, but essentially it was Target. It was featuring Target and what they did with uh data, and they were able to predictively go back and and look at you know baby registries and compare the buying habits of those people and then overlay that with new customers coming in, and they could predict almost in a in a creepy way who which one of their shoppers or which of the shoppers were pregnant. And because what they knew is what every retailer knows is if you can sell them diapers, you can sell them everything, right? And so it was really important for big retail to jump on these, like again, people that have moved, people that are having a baby, any kind of a massive disruptor in your life is a perfect time to change someone's shopping habits, buying habits, whatever those things are, right? And I would say nothing's more disruptive than a pandemic, than a global pandemic. So even working from home, you know, um it just there's so many things that changed for people. I think it just it forced people to kind of step back and say, like, you know, is this really what I want to be doing? That in addition to the fact that there's a lot of people stay in those positions because they end up having kids and they've got two in college and two in high school, and they have a lot of they have a lot writing on it, and there's a certain veil of security that comes with that. Now, I would argue that I would always bet on myself before I would, you know, working for someone else and the decisions that that they might make. But I would say that that probably is happening in play, that's in play as well, which is there's sort of this piercing of this veil of security, even though it's health related, it probably crosses over into career as well. And we're having lots of discussions for fran with franchise candidates that are you know solidly employed, making great money, you know, middle to upper level management, who just are saying, Yeah, I'm you know 50 years old, I don't want to do this anymore. And I was a college athlete and I like working out, and I like a subscription-based income model. And so they look at fitness and they want to do good. You know, a lot of people talk about the you know, the altruistic reasons to get into it. Like I want to change lives, I want to help my community, you know, those type of things. Meaning becomes a big deal. So I think there's a lot of things at play there, but you know, I I think that's probably a lot of it. It's just the the disruption of their life, first of all, which can kind of rattle your cage a little and force you to maybe look at other decisions. And I think you know, piercing that that veil of security has made people understand that like you know, nothing's guaranteed, maybe even your health, right? So like if that's the case, I'm you know, I'm 40 or whatever that is, I need to get on and do what it is that I thought I'd be doing at this time. I want to take a shot at at this myself.

Yeah, that's what I want to ask you to expand on that with that thought. I've really liked that term piercing the veil of of security, right? Of of false security, I guess. And that certainly makes sense. I mean, in uh which book was it that I was reading? Um was it Black Swan? Uh it was one of those ones where it talks about, you know, what what it actually means to be secure, right? Or what it means to become in like is it is the the guy or the woman who's in that corporate job that's been there for 10, 12 years, right? Or is the taxicab driver, right, who's been doing it for 10, 12 years. Like who who has the ob who's more secure in what they do? Like sure, you know, one doesn't have you know health insurance and you know doesn't get a constant paycheck, they have to go out there and work for it all the time. Or is it this person who you know has all these things lined up, but then once the rug gets pulled, right, then what happens? So when you talk about that that veil, like you know, expand on that thought a little bit more. So I'm curious about it.

Yeah, I think it's just the what you said. I think for me, I've only worked for myself, I've never really had a you know, air quotes job. So I don't know what that feels like, but I can imagine in just speaking to candidates, um, that it feels like you're somewhat stuck, especially if it's something you don't want to be doing. And listen, a lot of the folks we talk to that are franchise candidates, and and think about this as like it doesn't matter if they're looking at franchising or just considering being entrepreneurs, it's kind of one and the same, right? I'm just using the franchise lens because that's my vehicle to speak to people. So um, but when we talk to them, a lot of them will say, like, I don't, they don't dislike their jobs. They really don't. It's not like it's a toxic environment. And if it was that, they would have been looking before. But I think it's just what's the disruption's been enough to just jog their their thought process a little bit and have them say, huh, you know, I've had some time, maybe they're working from home more, and you just you're more efficient at home, so you have more downtime to just think about things you'd like to do. You know, a lot of people that find us online looking for franchise opportunities do it in downtime from home. And they probably wouldn't have done that if they were still commuting and working in an office setting and sitting in three meetings a day or something. And so I don't I'm not sure exactly why that it is. I wish I did, obviously, but um I think it's just a a reality of of the times and just the changes. I mean, things just feel different, right? I don't know. I would say off kilter or you know, the what is it, the new the new reality or what's the the new normal of the silly terms?

The new normal.

This is the new normal, all of them. Whatever that is. But I I I just think it's that. And I don't think it's even disgruntled people that hate their companies or what have you. I just think it's um it's just change, right? And it's been forced change, but once you sort of tip that glass, it's like, well, wait a minute, you know, I've survived this. I've always wanted to be self-employed, you know. I'd like to bring something to my community of value, and uh you know, I kind of like fitness. It seems cool. Like I it's part of like their identity, right? I'd like to be fit. And so um, yeah, I think it's just a combination of all those things. And I don't know if there's any other kind of psychology at play that I'm missing, but that's at least what we're hearing.

Yeah, yeah, it all makes sense too. And I mean we can only pontificate on what what's going on. I would imagine too, there's like a certain element of um, you know, just being aware of your own mortality, kind of contemplating that to a certain extent. I mean, like, I think you're spot on, like, people just have more time to think. What happens when you think? You start reflecting, you start looking at your life's path, you start to realize, like, you know, I'm turned 45 this year. I'm like, holy shit, I'm half technically over halfway there. Right? I mean, you know. Um like, ah, well, you know, well, what do I have a regret? Like, is it too late? And it's never too late. I think it's what a lot of people are realizing too, especially in that 40, 50 year old thing, like you still got a lot of good, valuable years as far as your profession or whatever it is you want to do. And it's not too late anymore. I mean, we can live multiple careers. You know, people uh, you know, will live sometimes have five, six different careers in them, you know, over a period of time. Yeah, that's I think that's healthy.

No, a hundred percent. And and you know, you think long gone are the days where you you work for a company your entire life and you work your way up and then you get a gold watch at a pension, right? It doesn't work that way anymore. I mean, you could be with a company for 30 years, they go through an acquisition, and then your redundancy is eliminated and you're gone because they already had a sales team or they already had a CFO or whatever that is, right? And um, I I think people realize that more now than ever. And so I think that there is some security because it's a steady paycheck, and the the folks that we're usually dealing with are getting paid pretty well. And so there's a risk of losing that. But I think again, just with a little bit of time to reflect and a little bit of uh, you know, looking in the mirror and maybe looking at their own mortality, even if it was like you you think about like something like a pandemic and you know a virus, and it's like, well, what if I caught that? You know, what if I got really sick? I mean, I think everyone kind of goes to these mental exercises, and I think it just forces people to take stock of where they are and if it's really where they want to be. And if they are ever going to do anything, now's probably the time to do it. And so I'm sure that's driving a lot of it behaviorally for sure.

Yeah. You know, I'm curious when you look at the people who are buying franchises right now, and in your particular franchise, you know, I'll let you kind of describe it because it's you know, in its uniqueness of the high-end personal training. Well, let's start with that. Like, give give us you know what is unique about Alloy.

Yeah, so you know, we're we're in boutique fitness, and that's sort of a category in and of itself. So you've got like regular fitness, and I would say regular fitness would be like imagine just buying a membership at a gym. You know, you're a Planet Fitness or you're an Anytime Fitness or something like that. And then there's boutique fitness, and boutique fitness is everything from class-based concepts. So imagine like Pilates, yoga, cycling, spinning, you know, all those types of things. Orange Theory, F-45 boot camps, you know, and those are just think of 20, 25 people getting sweaty, you know, on one end. That's we would call it a class-based concept. And on the other end of boutique fitness would be one-on-one personal training. And so what we do is we kind of slot right in between the two and we do personal training. So we chase the same avatar, customer avatar, that personal training would, meaning higher income level, looking for something specific, age category, 45 to 65, right? But we're able to do it at a better value because we we do it in a six to one, you know, client-to-coach ratio. And we have technology and stuff that drives that, that makes it look, smell, feel like personal training. But in most markets that we're going into, personal training is you know, roughly $100 an hour. We're able to do it for $30. So it's a good value proposition to the right avatar. So we're going after 45 to 65. And as you may know, Eric, like that population holds 70% of the nation's disposable income. So it's it's a really relevant market, right? I mean, what better market to chase with a high-end service? Um, and the cut the customer avatar for all the class-based concepts is typically 30-year-old female leaning already fit. And again, that's why the churn rate in those models is somewhat high, because there's a lot of them in market and they all chase the same customer avatar. And so it's really easy for the customer to bounce from one concept to the other and sort of cherry-pick, you know, flavor of the week. Whereas with us, we're we're attacking an underserved market with a good value proposition. Real estate and everything is obviously driven by that archetype. Um, and and you know, we only need a really small footprint, so it's 1,500 square feet, so they're relatively inexpensive to open. Um, you know, and we need 130 to 150 members, it's a super healthy, profitable model. So it's just a little bit different than what's out there now. Um, you know, there's not a lot of personal training brands that aren't doing one-on-one. Um, and most fitnesses in the boutique section certainly doing class-based concepts. So that's really what sets us apart. And it's something we've been doing. You know, we've been in business for 30 years, we've been licensing for 15 years, 2,300 clubs worldwide. So we've had plenty of time and market testing and scaling things in other franchise structures to really know what's different and where there's a real gap in the market. And this was it for us. And so far, it's proving out it's it's easy to differentiate from other fitness concepts. And if the real estate's chosen correctly, which we do, and and everything else in the brand speaks to that customer avatar, it works pretty well. So so far, so good. But yeah, that's really what makes us different is it's personal training, not class based.

Yeah, yeah, I I really like the model a lot. The um I'm curious, I've I've worked with some in the past, won't say the names of the franchises, but large franchises and kind of trying to figure out problem solve, you know, some of the issues that that they have going on. And a lot of times it's been, you know, identify, I'm curious, you know, how you guys identify so far and what you sold, like who are the key types of avatars who buy these things? Um, you know, is it kind of the whale investor who owns, you know, a hundred different franchises? Is it the you know, the the person who's you know been a professional for 20 years, a dentist or a you know, VP of something who now wants to get into this? Or is it like you know, the the owner operator who you know maybe has been in fitness for a while? Like who are the people who are buying these?

It's a little bit of all of those. And I I think when we when we thought about bringing a franchise to market, we didn't want to be you know an exclusive franchise. Uh we'll say we wouldn't want we didn't want to appeal exclusively to say personal trainers that wanted to own a business, right? That would mean that we're probably gonna go one territory at a time for each franchise sold, right? And we're and we may be attracting folks with a little bit less business acumen. That's all. And that's not a derogatory term because certainly if someone like that can qualify, and that's another thing, is you know, a young fitness professional may have struggles qualifying, you have to have a certain net worth and liquid, right, um capital to qualify, then we have to be able to appeal to investors. So there's really three types, and we've actually sold all three types already. So there is the owner operator. So this would be someone who's maybe leaving corporate. They look at fitness and when they realize that they can replace and typically exceed their income, even if they're doing well, um, it's surprising, and they're like, well, this is exciting. Well, I they really like fitness, they're typically consumers of it. Like, you know, one of our um frenches in in Utah, she was uh, you know, head of her her, you know, she's a computer programmer, head of her department, big company, very successful, and was just a consumer of fitness. She worked out at a personal training place for the last 10 years. Started looking at it, wanted a new small group that was more scalable, bought the model. She's gonna work in there. So she's literally gonna leave corporate and go work and be her own manager, director, and work in the gym. And it's a job, but it's a cool job if you want it, right? So there's that person. Now we have other folks that are leaving um corporate and they're gonna do three to five locations, and they have no plans to work, like you know, service revenue, like train people in the gyms, but they're not gonna continue working, they're gonna do community outreach, back office support for their operating partners, that type of thing. So that'd be semi-absentee. So they're there, but they're not really there, they're not working in the business every day. And then we have full-on absentee, which is you say these big investment groups that come in that are looking at us that have you know 70 or 80 other brands you know similar. Like we talked to some guys this morning who own you know multiple brands um that are in the service-based space, so they really understand franchising and how to scale it. And I think all three avatars are interesting for us. Obviously, you can scale much quicker if you're working with big fish, as you said, or whales. So for us, that's really important, and our model does work with that. But I know it sounds cheesy, but like really we can work with all of them. If it's a one-off person, they're hard to beat. You know, if a guy buys it and he's gonna work in there every day, or a girl, it's like they're gonna be pretty darn good. They're gonna be hard to beat because they own the place, right? But that's probably not the best way for us to scale. And so we have to have it set up so both types of avatars and semi in the middle there can actually work. And that's what we're seeing so far is we're getting a little bit of everything.

Cool. I I'm curious too, when you have kind of the the middle one, right? The one who isn't an owner operator, but doesn't want to be hands-on all the time. How difficult is it is it for them to find staffing? Because that seems to be talent, you know, is tough to find nowadays, necessarily. I mean, hard to find, but then even harder to lock down in the long term, right?

Yeah, I mean, big time. And it's what's weird is we haven't had a problem, and I think it's the structure, the way that we have it set up. So the way the labor model is set up. It's it's a low labor model, first of all. So I'll say that, you know, it's 1,500 square feet. Again, you're at 130 to 150, you know, clients or members, if you will, as a really healthy model, great margins. And so when you're if you weren't gonna work in that model and you were gonna hire what we would call the general manager, that would be the internal term, but consumer facing, we would call that director of training as an example. This person is gonna service about 25 hours a week of revenue. So think about the you know, again, Layman's terms, they're going to do personal trained groups for about 25 hours a week. And the other 15 hours a week, they're going to help grow the business, right? Well, in our model, if it's run correctly with a salary, and then if you do some type of profit share, which we'd recommend if you don't ever plan on going in there, so that this person is so key for you, right? That's a six-figure job. So you can imagine someone who um they're say you're the PT manager at a large health club, you know, you're at a LA Fitness or something like that. Well, you've typically got a very top heavy management structure. You've got ridiculous KPIs and sales quotas that you have to meet, and then you're on this never-ending hamster wheel of churn, right? You're losing clients or selling clients, you're losing. It's just this non-stop sales all the time. There's nothing wrong with sales. I mean, we we teach it and believe in it heavily. Obviously, you need it, but to always be doing that and nothing else, that person's probably making 65, 70k a year, right? Maybe. Um, and they're just working that they're working 10, 15 hours a day. Again, it's not typically the greatest work environment. So if you if you approach the person like that and said, listen, um, you know, here's an opportunity to come and be a coach, just be a head coach. And yes, there's some sales involved to get ramped up, but our churn rate's only 3%. So if you're only churning out 3% of 130 clients a month, it's three people. It's a whisper that there's a spot open on Tuesday, Thursday at 8 a.m. and you fill it up, right? So you really become you get to get to actually be in the fitness business. It becomes more about servicing revenue and taking care of people. And that's why that that small number is important, right? It's like a flock that you're taking care of. That's a pretty appealing job. And so I can tell you that we haven't had a hard time filling it thus far. Even the part-time trainers that cover the other hours, you know, they're at a rate of, you know, the way the performance setup, they're at a rate of $35 an hour, which is pretty good pay, and they're on a shift. So even with those, you know, factors in there, that payroll is less than 15%, which is really low for if a personal training model, because typically, if you're doing one-on-one training, you're paying out half of what you're charging to your coaches. So this is all in manager, salary, everything less than 15% for payroll. So pretty cool the way it worked out. So we specifically haven't had any trouble just because the positions that we're offering pay really well, and they're typically appealing to people that are in the fitness industry. We have a vendor that just does talent acquisition and fitness, and we've written the the uh ad script for this position. And so far, so good. I mean, the last one I can think of, the guy in Montana, he lives in Butte, he's opening in Billings. That's a three-hour drive at 80 miles an hour, right? So he sight unseen launched an ad for this position in Billings, got 10 great candidates, pared it down, had a harder decision choosing one, but ended up with one, and uh, they came to training, you know, a month or so ago, and this guy's a total rock star. So it bodes well for us long term with the processes and everything we have in place to be able to identify this person. Um, but yeah, I I know a lot of gyms are struggling, but this model doesn't have a lot of lower paying positions, put it that way. So I'm not looking for front desk or cleaning crew or you know, those type of things just don't exist in this model. So it makes it a little bit easier for us than most.

Yeah, that's great, man. And I'm I'm all about, you know, I think uh, especially of being an operator of mostly large group classes was the model I had. It was it was tough to I wanted to pay people more. I always did. I had no problem doing that, but I also had to, you know, make sure I was taken care of and overhead was always large, and you know, these big facilities and it was tough. It was a tough game to play, and you always, you know, I'm I'm always really excited about you know kind of advancements or models that I see allow people to make six figures and stay in this business and be passionate about it and love it and and stick around for a while because that's what makes the industry more professional. No, I totally agree.

And that's an intrinsic, you know, motivator for me because I've been in the industry so long and I've seen so many people come and go because it's just so hard to break through and actually get to that point where you can actually make a living and make it stick. So to provide a vehicle that not only provides the franchisee with an opportunity to see a good return on investment and make a great living, but it also then provides their team, right? So they can actually go and provide someone in their community a six-figure opportunity and shoot, if they want to go a step further, um, you know, you could even do some phantom equity on the back end, like, hey, I'll give you write a first refusal if you want to buy it. How about a 10% phantom equity if we sell it, right? That type of thing. Um and you can even tie those things to employment. So it's like it kind of makes it stickier for them as well, right? Because the franchise agreement's 10 years. I mean, will you keep the same operator for 10 years? I really hope so. If you pay them well and there's some upside long term, you might. Um, and so I'm I'm a big proponent of taking care of those of your folks and I'm proud to have a vehicle that can do that ultimately makes me feel good. Because again, how many folks have you and I run into in the industry that just they're really good at it? But again, it's that they're in that low opportunity vehicle with a high skill set and they just wash out. It just doesn't make sense. They look around, they're like, I don't want to do this anymore.

Rick, uh unfortunately, time has run out. I have like three more things. I know I had three more things I want to ask you about. But uh, you know, I guess that just means I'll have to come have you back on, man. It's been really good. And um, yeah, so just give us the goods really quick. Where do people find you? Where do you want to send people online?

Well, you as you as everyone knows that's been listening, I'm only in one place now. So I'm very easy to find. It's just one place and one place only, alloyfranchise.com. It's that simple. Certainly I'm on social media all over the place, so check us out. But alloyfranchise.com, you know, we have a podcast as well. It's very niche, it's just about the business of personal training. But if you're interested in that or you want to hear more about some of the things we talked about today about the model itself, um, feel free to jump on there. You can find that through that website as well. But yeah, that's it, man. Uh I really appreciate uh the time as always. And you're right, you know, I think the first time I ever met you, I'm like, I could probably spend five hours talking to this guy about all things technology, you know, technology and fitness and everything else. So apologies to the listeners. I hope they got something out of it, but I sure had a good time.

Yeah, I did too. Uh right on. Ladies and gentlemen, Rick Mayo.

Thanks, Eric.

Hey, wait, don't leave yet. This was your host, Eric Malzone, and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Future of Fitness. 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, Catbox, 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 and 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 feature of fitness.co. You can subscribe to our newsletter there, or you can simply get in touch with me as I'd love to hear from our listeners. So thank you so much. This is Eric Malzone, and this is the feature of fitness. Have a great day.