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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hi, this is Angela Faye from Canada's podcast.
[00:09] SPEAKER_00: I am very excited to introduce and do you to Chris Smith from Fitness World.
[00:14] SPEAKER_00: Now, Chris has been with Fitness World for a year, but there is a much bigger story behind this that we're going to share with fitness enthusiasts, business owners, and anybody that has gone through a transition over the last 12 to 18 months.
[00:28] SPEAKER_00: You will get great value of this conversation with Chris.
[00:31] SPEAKER_00: Chris, welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:34] SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me, Angela.
[00:35] SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to be here with you today.
[00:37] SPEAKER_00: Awesome. So before we get into the business conversation, just tell me a little bit about Chris.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: What's your purpose, Chris? Why are you so involved in the fitness industry?
[00:48] SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a long story, but I'll give you the short version if I can.
[00:52] SPEAKER_01: Just always been an athlete growing up as a kid, was fortunate to play collegiate athletics as well.
[00:57] SPEAKER_01: Really became enamored with body and movement and exercise and wellness and all the things going on with it.
[01:04] SPEAKER_01: I had intention to actually be a strengthening coach, but as luck would have it, I ended up in the fitness business.
[01:10] SPEAKER_01: And it's just been very transformative for me in the sense of my ability to impact people through movement and wellness.
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: And that's really what still gets me out of it every day.
[01:19] SPEAKER_01: It's just the ability to really make a difference through things that are controllable and everyone's everyday lives.
[01:26] SPEAKER_00: And if you could sort of tell us, what's your big bold goal? What's your moonshot?
[01:34] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the moonshot is to continue to evolve and grow this business.
[01:39] SPEAKER_01: And just, you know, I say leave the world a better place, but it is really make a difference.
[01:43] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, when I look at things like obviously we're coming out the end of this pandemic and they're talking about,
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: oh, it's going to move into an epidemic.
[01:50] SPEAKER_01: There's lots of epidemics that have been impacting Canadians and everybody for a long time, like cardiovascular disease.
[01:57] SPEAKER_01: Every, you know, every loss of life is tragic, if you will, but four times as many people die from cardiovascular disease every year, then died from COVID.
[02:06] SPEAKER_01: And that's diet and exercise.
[02:09] SPEAKER_01: All we've got to do is make a few small changes as a community to really kind of make the world a better place.
[02:14] SPEAKER_01: And so those are the things that I keep chasing after to really kind of, you know, make a difference.
[02:20] SPEAKER_00: Chris, what are the little changes that you think people could make in their daily lives that would, you know, improve their own well-being as well as community well-being?
[02:31] SPEAKER_01: Well, it's all the simple things, right?
[02:33] SPEAKER_01: So, it's, you know, take the stairs, go for a walk every day, get up and move a couple times a day, even if you do have a fairly sedentary lifestyle slash, you know, profession, just even get it up and do some active stretching,
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: having the ability to have a stand-up desk at work, because you literally burn twice as many calories standing as you do sitting, you burn twice as many calories if you're walking as you do standing.
[02:56] SPEAKER_01: So stuff like that, like even on a conference call, right? Like, your nearer park, especially this time of year.
[03:01] SPEAKER_01: You have the ability to just go on a nice, slow, leisurely walk while you're maybe on a conference call, still very actively mentally engaged.
[03:07] SPEAKER_01: Those things can make a big difference in terms of the overall impact.
[03:10] SPEAKER_01: And then the other side of it is nutrition, right?
[03:13] SPEAKER_01: People got to make, you know, healthy decisions, and it doesn't mean you can't cheat or have some fun snacks or different things from time to time.
[03:19] SPEAKER_01: But you've got to make an effort to, you know, eat whole foods and, you know, balance out your macronutrients and that sort of stuff.
[03:26] SPEAKER_00: Well, and I see a whole opportunity for another podcast on nutrition between us.
[03:29] SPEAKER_00: But I want to jump a little bit into the fitness industry as a whole.
[03:34] SPEAKER_00: You know, the problem is it's clearly in transition.
[03:37] SPEAKER_00: There's changing consumer expectations and experiences.
[03:42] SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there's an evolution of the business model, perhaps gyms and memberships and leisure centers of goddess here.
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: But they need to evolve.
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: Tell me a little bit about your transition personally and professionally over the last 12 months related to the transition of the industry.
[04:00] SPEAKER_00: What have you seen?
[04:02] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, my story there is, you know, it's interesting and it's different.
[04:07] SPEAKER_01: But, you know, I was the president CEO of an entity called Steve Nash, Fitness World and Sports Club or SNFW Fitness BC Limited, operated 29 different fitness centers in Bruce Columbia.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: Those were multi-purpose clubs and up to and including a brand called, you know, Crunch and UFC gyms.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: There's a whole bunch of things going on.
[04:26] SPEAKER_01: During the pandemic and the beginning of that, that business unfortunately went into bankruptcy.
[04:31] SPEAKER_01: Through that process, I was fortunate to be in a position to, you know, acquire the company.
[04:36] SPEAKER_01: That was the exciting part.
[04:38] SPEAKER_01: I got vilified it in some circles for doing so.
[04:42] SPEAKER_01: And they're like, how could the guy that was at the helm of that?
[04:44] SPEAKER_01: I was in the ownership group. I didn't make that decision.
[04:47] SPEAKER_01: It wasn't my decision.
[04:48] SPEAKER_01: But it was my decision to kind of go after this business.
[04:50] SPEAKER_01: And I did. And the reality is, I don't think there was a long line of people.
[04:54] SPEAKER_01: In fact, I know there wasn't.
[04:55] SPEAKER_01: They were lining up to buy the business and reopen it in the middle of the pandemic.
[04:59] SPEAKER_01: And so it took great risk there to be able to do that.
[05:02] SPEAKER_01: Back to the question of how is it evolving?
[05:04] SPEAKER_01: One of the things I tell people is, well, what are you doing different?
[05:07] SPEAKER_01: What I try to tell them is everything.
[05:08] SPEAKER_01: Like, what do you mean, everything? Everything.
[05:11] SPEAKER_01: So we evolve our price model, our value proposition, our compensation plans.
[05:16] SPEAKER_01: You know, everything that we do that would impact members or team members or whatever,
[05:19] SPEAKER_01: really took a fresh kind of perspective to say, let's just do everything that we ever wanted to do
[05:24] SPEAKER_01: or can think about doing differently.
[05:26] SPEAKER_01: And let's take the opportunity now to do that.
[05:28] SPEAKER_01: And so we've done that.
[05:30] SPEAKER_01: Fitness World now is a low cost high value brand.
[05:32] SPEAKER_01: We believe we've got some of the best equipment, if not the best equip clubs and all of Bruce Columbia.
[05:38] SPEAKER_01: And just, you know, I can go on and on and on about all the things that we change to make different.
[05:43] SPEAKER_01: But I think that that was the key for us was to pivot and go meet the consumers.
[05:47] SPEAKER_01: Along with that, obviously we have digital offerings.
[05:50] SPEAKER_01: You've got, you know, what we call FWPT online.
[05:53] SPEAKER_01: We have group fitness classes that you can access online, both live classes, as well as then recorded content.
[06:00] SPEAKER_01: So that ability to kind of meet the consumer where they are as well, right?
[06:04] SPEAKER_01: If they're not, didn't feel safe coming to the club or whatever might be or just restricted on time.
[06:09] SPEAKER_01: And they want access to, you know, programming and stuff to keep them active.
[06:13] SPEAKER_01: And certainly we have the ability and maybe effort to provide those services.
[06:19] SPEAKER_00: Chris, how do you, I mean, Steve Nash and certainly in Western Canada, you know, is a pretty big brand.
[06:26] SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, and there's been some other major fitness brands that have seen some demise.
[06:33] SPEAKER_00: If you like over the last 18 months or 24 months, you know, and another one up my sleeve that I was personally impacted by is a tough mother, you know, again, they're event space.
[06:47] SPEAKER_00: So they were more rotational.
[06:48] SPEAKER_00: You're very infrastructure based.
[06:51] SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious about the infrastructure piece of your business.
[06:57] SPEAKER_00: Going to the gym, you're totally reliant on that infrastructure piece where all the equipment is versus now I hear you're doing a pivot really of both physical and digital.
[07:10] SPEAKER_00: What's your plans with the infrastructure side of things?
[07:15] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we took the opportunity, you know, Angela to just reassess kind of the physical layouts of all the facilities.
[07:21] SPEAKER_01: There are certain things we need to do certainly from a physical spacing, COVID and that sort of thing.
[07:26] SPEAKER_01: But at the end of the day, again, it's meeting what are customers looking for?
[07:30] SPEAKER_01: And as much as there are at home fitness solutions, we also understand the reality that most fitness consumers, you know, while they might do something at home, they still want a place to go.
[07:39] SPEAKER_01: And so it's really what does that place look like?
[07:42] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, there's a certain amount of equipment from exercise variation, programming variation, those things that most people really want access to.
[07:51] SPEAKER_01: And so yeah, there's a certain kind of square footage footprint you need.
[07:54] SPEAKER_01: I say the minimum that we're looking for is probably around 15,000 square feet.
[07:59] SPEAKER_01: An ideal facility for us is around 25,000, total square feet.
[08:03] SPEAKER_01: And, you know, some of the differences now is we make sure we've got tons of space for functional training.
[08:08] SPEAKER_01: So those are things, you know, where people could do TRX, kettlebells, Bulgarian bags, walking lunges, sled work, whatever might be to provide all that, as well as just lots of like Olympic platforms.
[08:19] SPEAKER_01: So there's a lot of people that like to train in some of the old ways, if you will, with, you know, doing cleans and, you know, power movements and that sort of thing.
[08:29] SPEAKER_00: So your ideal clients, then with maybe I consider myself a complete amateur when it comes to fitness, want to do it more than, but I'm not a professional.
[08:38] SPEAKER_00: Do you do both those markets or would you describe as your market savings?
[08:43] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we actually, you know, we, we threw a marketing and all those efforts, right?
[08:47] SPEAKER_01: We've got kind of our nine personas, if you will.
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: Okay.
[08:50] SPEAKER_01: The reality is we market to nine different groups of people.
[08:54] SPEAKER_01: When you look at those nine different groups, they represent everybody.
[08:57] SPEAKER_01: So it's literally from the teenager all the way to the, you know, 70 year old individuals who's on a senior program.
[09:04] SPEAKER_01: And so we've got programming, we've got classes, we've got equipment, we have all those things to really kind of, I won't, I don't want to say cater as much as make sure that fitness is accessible to all those groups and all those populations.
[09:17] SPEAKER_01: And they can really enjoy their workout in our facilities.
[09:21] SPEAKER_00: Well, and so the audience, you said you changed your value proposition.
[09:25] SPEAKER_00: What, is there any standout segment that you've experienced a rush or a super positive response to your new value proposition in any particular segment?
[09:40] SPEAKER_01: I think again, you know, the pandemic has put different strains on people from a mental health perspective and what's going on there.
[09:47] SPEAKER_01: And so the connection to mental health and physical health, you know, I think there's probably 50% of our customers, they need the physical workout, they need that, you know, exertion and the endorphin release and all those things just to keep the head right.
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: And so when you think about that, you know, I would say probably during the, during the height of the pandemic, the 20 to 30 to 40 year old individuals, those are the ones that we've seen really resonating at this time.
[10:09] SPEAKER_01: And I think that's mostly because some of the other populations of people are just waiting for, you know, vaccines to be prevalent, that sort of thing.
[10:16] SPEAKER_01: But even as we sit today where here in BC restrictions have continued to ease for now in phase three, we're seeing just a rush of everybody.
[10:25] SPEAKER_01: We're probably having one of the best July's month of date and history of people just coming in being excited.
[10:30] SPEAKER_01: And so there is this pent up demand of people that were kind of waiting to just, you know, feel really good and safe and that, you know, they're coming to the doors.
[10:38] SPEAKER_01: And that's because they know that the answer is movement, exercise and wellness.
[10:42] SPEAKER_01: And people understand that.
[10:43] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
[10:44] SPEAKER_00: Let's talk a little bit about the fitness profession.
[10:50] SPEAKER_00: You know, I've done some research in just anticipation of our chat and, you know, recently there's been about 75,000 fitness professionals who lost traditional fitness work.
[11:01] SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me a little bit about your direct staffing impact over this transition from Steve dash to fitness world.
[11:08] SPEAKER_00: And where perhaps you see the trend going in work in the industry.
[11:17] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, great question in terms of, you know, just the people and where they're on what they're doing.
[11:21] SPEAKER_01: Again, during that transition, I had the unfortunate task of having to, you know, let go of a lot of people.
[11:26] SPEAKER_01: We were fortunate able to bring some of those people back.
[11:29] SPEAKER_01: I know that most of them that wanted to stay in the fitness industry did.
[11:33] SPEAKER_01: So they found a way to pivot one way or the other with digital platforms or became an independent personal trainer or whatever that might look like, which was awesome.
[11:41] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, there have been tremendous job losses.
[11:44] SPEAKER_01: A number of closures are, you know, footprint now is 15 locations in BC.
[11:49] SPEAKER_01: Obviously the prior entity was 29.
[11:52] SPEAKER_01: Also half of those locations went away, right.
[11:55] SPEAKER_01: But there's, yeah, I've been a lot of contraction that's gone on overall.
[11:58] SPEAKER_01: What I would say is again, if you do look at the industry's statistics kind of on even every five year increment, there is still growth going on.
[12:07] SPEAKER_01: Really not just in, you know, Canada and North America, I mean globally, there is growth in this sector.
[12:14] SPEAKER_01: And particularly some of these digital offerings are going to provide even more jobs for people.
[12:19] SPEAKER_01: And even when we talk about the shift to remote work and some of these things.
[12:23] SPEAKER_01: And you know, you look for some of the economic statistics right now around where people are working and the jobs report.
[12:28] SPEAKER_01: And all these different kind of nuances within the economy.
[12:32] SPEAKER_01: You know, fitness is one of those examples where I think it's an industry that people really are drawn to because of what it stands for and what you get to do.
[12:39] SPEAKER_01: The way it makes you feel when you help somebody all those types of things.
[12:43] SPEAKER_01: And there's an opportunity for people to, you know, now more than ever work in the fitness industry and do so remotely.
[12:51] SPEAKER_01: Right, which is something a lot of people are really drawn to coming out of this is, hey, I didn't, you know, I like the idea of not going to the office and community and sitting in the car.
[12:58] SPEAKER_01: For a couple hours every day is there something else I could do. Maybe I might make a little bit less money, but I'm going to be happier.
[13:04] SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be healthier. All those types of things.
[13:07] SPEAKER_00: Well, and it's interesting. I think my mind just went out that the definition of success and happiness that you tapped into there where, you know, quality of life seems to be such an important factor popping out of particularly post pandemic.
[13:26] SPEAKER_00: But also I heard, you know, the remote work, the globalization, I'm super intrigued about even the name fitness world.
[13:36] SPEAKER_00: And we've gone from a branded local to now in my mind fitness world, you know, has a could have a global impact.
[13:44] SPEAKER_00: What are your growth plans, Chris?
[13:47] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, certainly plans to grow the business both corporately and then, you know, some big plans, you know, maybe down the road as we continue to build out our footprint, you know, potentially looking at opportunities to bring on franchise ease as an example at some point down the road.
[14:00] SPEAKER_01: We're not there yet, but certainly something that we think about, you know, in terms of this business and the opportunity that we have, you know, particularly starting in, you know, with Canada as a whole.
[14:12] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, there's tremendous opportunity. I'm not necessarily looking to be global just yet, but certainly the brand in terms of what we offer and what we embrace is, you know, it's big, big thinking, big ideas and, you know, again, just want to make an impact.
[14:27] SPEAKER_00: How do you see sort of the convergence of physical activity and technology? Are there any particular advances that you're seeing impacting either your facilities themselves or just the fitness industry in general?
[14:43] SPEAKER_01: Well, again, when you look at just the technology as a whole right and there's a new app and there's a new company and there's a new capital rate. I mean, it's just going so fast, right, with the the advent of all the different things that are going on.
[14:56] SPEAKER_01: I think what it's really doing is it's, it's, we're not quite there, but we're pretty close to where there's no excuse.
[15:03] SPEAKER_01: Right. So it used to be like, well, I, you know, I can't exercise because I don't have enough time. I can't eat right because I don't have enough resources. I don't.
[15:11] SPEAKER_01: All these different reasons, quote, and excuses right that people would have are almost virtually all gone now. Right. And so when you look at what that's really what technology's been able to do for us, right, is just made everything really simple, really easy, very accessible.
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: And that's from everything from programming on the nutrition side to the programming on the exercise, the apps that, you know, help you either cycle, run, walk, you know, meditate, whatever you want to think about.
[15:37] SPEAKER_01: There's just so much out there now to really help make everything accessible. And that's a huge difference maker. And so again, the businesses are growing internationally. So, you know, I read an article yesterday in the Wall Street Journal talking about, I think it was some, I think it was a Wall Street Journal.
[15:54] SPEAKER_01: Just about even fitness in China. So right now about in fitness in China is booming yet 5% of people have a gym membership. So if you compare that to Canada, Canada about 25% of people about one fourth of the population has a gym membership in Canada in China. And you can think about the population of China 5%.
[16:14] SPEAKER_01: What's interesting in China, though, is 5% of people get their fitness through apps and technology, another 5%. That's 10% of the population. Whereas in the US, what tends to happen is we have 25% of the people that have a gym membership of some type, right, whether it be boutique fitness, whatever might be low cost, high value, high end, could be anything.
[16:36] SPEAKER_01: Those are typically the same people that use all those fitness apps. There's not a lot of people that use fitness apps that aren't in gyms in North America as an example.
[16:46] SPEAKER_01: So there's some of these dichotomies or different things are just, I think, very intriguing. When you start to think about, like, look, we got 25%. We got one out of four people working out. That's clearly not enough.
[16:57] SPEAKER_01: We've got to get three out of four, four out of four. And again, we are growing that direction, but it's very slow. I hope there's this giant awakening where people say, hey, health is important.
[17:09] SPEAKER_01: Wellness is important, and I control all of that in terms of my circle.
[17:14] SPEAKER_00: Chris, what do you think the barriers are? And maybe let's pick on a Canada or North America since where that's market where we're working in. What are the barriers to going from one in four to three in four being, you know, at their optimal fitness levels?
[17:34] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you know, this is where I tend to get a little bit more passionate, maybe a little more political in some regard, but you know, the elimination of physical education in our school systems is a huge factor.
[17:48] SPEAKER_01: The continual high cost to get your kids in activities and in sport, like those costs continue to escalate. And unfortunately, it's becoming more of a just hyper competitive environment.
[18:01] SPEAKER_01: If your kid can't compete, then they can't be there. So these are habitual things that need to start at an early age. No different than we learned how to, you know, right? And how to do math and do basic things.
[18:13] SPEAKER_01: Movements around stabilization and balance and hand-eye coordination. I mean, look, it's not about, are you going to make the NHL?
[18:21] SPEAKER_00: Right.
[18:21] SPEAKER_01: It's about, are you going to have a great quality of life? Are you going to be an active person? Are you going to bake your community better? Are you going to make, you know, all those kind of big ideas and big thinking, I think, as well, there's a bit of a reset.
[18:32] SPEAKER_01: And unfortunately, there's not incentive. So there's different things that have been both in US legislation and then even things have been put forth through the Canadian government as an example in the form of tax credit.
[18:43] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, a couple of years ago BC, we introduced a 2% employee health tax on every business. Well, there's certain businesses that are doing things to make a difference.
[18:52] SPEAKER_01: And if you as an individual are very active and your family is very active, I think the government could do some things to incentivize individuals, right, to move more, to be better, to do different things, to pay less for certain insurance policies, if you will.
[19:08] SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's a lot of kind of big ideas and things there that could happen that would really incentivize people to live their best life and maybe just be a little bit more. Because right now, it's all intrinsic, right? It's all, well, I'm doing it for me, I don't really care about anything else.
[19:22] SPEAKER_01: And that's great, but we need more people to care because again, the overall impact on society as a whole, if more people did actually actively engage in health and wellness, it would be, I mean, game changer for everybody.
[19:37] SPEAKER_00: And what is the game change that will happen if we get from 25 to 75% more active?
[19:47] SPEAKER_01: Well, you think about even just that, you know, again, in here in Canada with our social medical systems, and again, it varies province to province, but at the end of the day, the healthcare system and the burden on the healthcare system would go down tremendously.
[20:00] SPEAKER_01: So back to cardiovascular disease, you think about obesity, you think about diabetes. Some of these things that are just really commonplace, would become very, very rare.
[20:09] SPEAKER_01: And then again, you think about the financial impacts of that. And again, we're in a social system where we all have shared costs on a lot of these big ticket items.
[20:17] SPEAKER_01: I mean, that money eventually would make its way back into the average, you know, Canadian's pocket. And again, by just everyone choosing to be better or be the best version of themselves.
[20:27] SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm particularly passionate about this. I'm also involved right now in what's called a sprint coach, so working working with the world's largest sports retailer company at the moment and looking at innovations and disruptions that could happen in that industry.
[20:43] SPEAKER_00: So I happen to have some stats under my belt, you know, and physical activity or the lack of activity is identified as the world health organizations, one of their top priorities.
[20:56] SPEAKER_00: And really, it's across the board, everybody has to get involved in enhancing access to physical activity. So, I mean, gems and fitness world are the obvious.
[21:10] SPEAKER_00: I do definitely understand the government incentives, but for our entrepreneurial audience that's listening here, how can they tap into what you already know about physical fitness or programs or offerings or
[21:23] SPEAKER_00: what you know about the benefits of physical and what would you compel each entrepreneur to consider in changing or adapting their business environments to allow for their people and their community to be more active.
[21:41] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I hear you loud and clear in terms of, you know, the passion you have in some statistics. So, yeah, even if you're looking at it from all businesses. So even if every business took an active engagement stand on this.
[21:53] SPEAKER_01: So even if you look, okay, so I've got 10 employees, 20, 50, 100, 1000, whatever you have, there's again a ton of statistics around if my team members, my employees are actively engaged in health and wellness, what does that mean for my business?
[22:06] SPEAKER_01: And so absenteeism goes dramatically down, meaning your employees are not missing work. So that automatically means increased productivity.
[22:15] SPEAKER_01: And then there's a ton of statistics that just show the amount of productivity that you get as a result of them and the mental acuity and the mental sharpness and everything else that goes with being physically active as well as, you know, eating healthy and those types of things.
[22:27] SPEAKER_01: Just goes a tremendous, you know, distance. And so yeah, it's not just about people in the fitness industry, how they're championing this and carrying the torch.
[22:34] SPEAKER_01: It is really about every business and bracing this and supporting their employees and employed to really get moving. And so again, they can get active in their community and go help rebuild parks, right? They can do habitat for humanity stuff.
[22:49] SPEAKER_01: Because even then, right, you're active. You're doing something, team building culture, all the aspects that go with it, you can sign up to go do a 5k with your team. 5k is not very far.
[22:59] SPEAKER_01: It's really not. You can walk the 5k. Anybody can do a 5k.
[23:04] SPEAKER_01: Right?
[23:04] SPEAKER_00: And I think about it, that's a classic segue to that whole, you know, every step in the right direction is one step forward. So, you know, 5k is not that far.
[23:16] SPEAKER_00: It might sound like it, but it's not that far. Chris, I want to bring it back to fitness world a little bit and just give you the opportunity to say, what business partners or collaborators or partners, would you like to see, you know, what do you need in the next 12 months to get more fitness happening, both for you as a business and in the world?
[23:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, we're really, you know, we are growing and we've been, you know, promoting some people within our internal organization.
[23:47] SPEAKER_01: And that's really the way that we want to go about it. We want to promote from within is really kind of our key objective.
[23:52] SPEAKER_01: So people have an opportunity to learn our culture.
[23:55] SPEAKER_01: But yeah, we are looking for passionate people that are like minded that want to do what we do. I mean, our core values are pretty straightforward, pretty simple, but, you know, fun, teamwork, passionate and inclusive people.
[24:05] SPEAKER_01: So if those are people and those are kind of values that resonate with them and they're in fitness, particularly here in BC and then obviously we do have plans to expand beyond, but yeah, we're looking for those like minded people that want to be part of what we're doing.
[24:19] SPEAKER_01: In terms of additional collaboration partners influencers, we've got some now, excuse me, but certainly looking for more people that, you know, are also just passionate about growing and making a difference and kind of that being part of that movement, just to make the world a better place.
[24:34] SPEAKER_01: Because I mean, I know that stuff sounds cheesy and I'm a kind of a cheesy guy in that way, but I really, you know, I've seen the impact.
[24:42] SPEAKER_01: I've been doing this for 25 years. I've seen the people break down in tears when they lose five pounds because they've had a thyroid issue their whole life, never been able to lose weight.
[24:51] SPEAKER_01: And then you dial some stuff in, you work with their natural path, they start crying because they've accomplished this incredible milestone.
[24:57] SPEAKER_01: And there's examples of example after example of those types of things and we can do that for every single Canadian.
[25:04] SPEAKER_01: We really can if we all collectively make an effort to do so.
[25:09] SPEAKER_00: Awesome. Chris, how can people connect with you post podcasts?
[25:15] SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm newer to Instagram, believe it or not, I avoided it for years and years and years, but I am on Instagram.
[25:22] SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if I know my handle, but I think it's smittness FW, SMIT, NESS, FW. They can connect with me there.
[25:32] SPEAKER_01: Certainly I'm on LinkedIn, you can find me there. And you certainly can, you know, I think my email is even attached to my LinkedIn account.
[25:40] SPEAKER_01: So happy to engage with anyone that kind of wants to be part of my world and part of what we're doing here at Fitness World.
[25:46] SPEAKER_00: And would you be looking for perhaps infrastructure partners or programming partners going forward?
[25:54] SPEAKER_01: You know, we've got a lot of things that are always on the go. I'm never one to say, you know, always open-minded, right?
[26:01] SPEAKER_01: We're always looking at different ways to pivot our business, excel it, whether that's through people or technology or otherwise.
[26:08] SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I'm a pretty open-minded when it comes to those types of things at the same time. Yeah, I mean, we're running a business at an enterprise level currently.
[26:15] SPEAKER_01: So obviously we've got partners in a lot of different sectors and a lot of different places, but always open to, you know, exploring new ideas and concepts and individuals.
[26:25] SPEAKER_00: Well, and I want to just close out by saying, listen, for all of our audience members, I think Fitness Health and Wellbeing, the direct health benefits of being physically active as well as the productivity.
[26:38] SPEAKER_00: And community benefits of every Canadian or, in fact, everyone listening, being physically active is well and truly expressed here by Chris.
[26:49] SPEAKER_00: We hope that you will connect with Chris and the team at Fitness World. We've shown, tell him you how you can connect with them.
[26:57] SPEAKER_00: Chris, is there any last words that you'd love to share with an audience of entrepreneurs going forward, as they look forward at the future?
[27:08] SPEAKER_01: Well, I think the future is bright for everyone that stays hyper-engaged and just, you know, remember, it is always about your people.
[27:14] SPEAKER_01: So, if you take care of your people and you build, you know, sound relationships, then the rest of your kind of hope, streams, goals and ambitions desires, those types of things, my experience says that, you know, they work out.
[27:25] SPEAKER_01: If you take care of your people.
[27:27] SPEAKER_00: Awesome. I love it. Chris, thanks for doing us on Canada's podcast.
[27:30] SPEAKER_00: I look forward to actually popping in and hopefully checking out any facilities as soon as possible.
[27:37] SPEAKER_01: Love to have you.
