Mat Lock:
All right, Dave Harvey. Good morning and welcome to The Unleashing Potential Podcast.
Dave Harvey:
Morning Mat, how are you doing?
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Good. Appreciate your time very much. I know you’re busy running a number of businesses, which we’ll get into, but I appreciate your time very much
Dave Harvey:
More than welcome. Love to help out.
Mat Lock:
Excellent, appreciate it. And for those who are not familiar with Dave Harvey, if you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, just I guess your background from your footy days onwards.
Dave Harvey:
Yeah. So I guess, yeah, grew up playing rugby, was lucky enough to play professional rugby for a number of years. Probably about eight to 10 years, eight to 10 seasons spanning across probably four countries, being Australia, or maybe five, Australia and a few in Europe and then in Brazil as well. And then, yeah, landed in F45 and ever since then has been running that business sort of coincide a little bit of pre rugby/business running and then set away from rugby and now I’m I guess a full time dad, full time a business owner and still wannabe athlete.
Mat Lock:
Well the still wannabe athlete, having seen you in action the other day under The Bay Games last year, you’re going okay.
Dave Harvey:
Still working on it.
Mat Lock:
You look amazing. You’re looking super lean and strong at the moment.
Dave Harvey:
It’s all in the kitchen.
Mat Lock:
Right. That’s interesting. We might come back to that. So that’s actually a major transition. Living 8 to 10 years you said as really a pro footy player, pro athlete. I’m guessing that was living, breathing, eating, sleeping footy every day of every week, every month, every year.
Dave Harvey:
Yeah, pretty well. Stemming from starting in Australia, I did things a little bit backwards. I kind of did Australia, a little bit of Australia and then did Europe and then came back here and then played pro back at home, which was fantastic.
But yeah, it’s just seven days a week I guess, or five days a week with a couple of days off. Had morning sessions, time off. We’d get a fair bit of time off, but sometimes whether it’s mental reliefs or you kick back and doing nothing and then back in the afternoon for a bit of training, a bit of video analysis and studying your game, opposition games and then games on the weekend and the next day would be a recovery. And it was a full time job at the time, I loved it. Made lots of mates, lots of life-long friends. Learned a lot about myself in good and bad ways. But yeah, it was intense. But wouldn’t change it for the world.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Excellent. It was interesting, we were chatting to Felicity, now Lemke, originally Felicity Galvez, Olympic swimmer, gold medalist in fact who was talking about when she was leading into both of the Olympics, ’04 and ’08 that she competed at. She said literally her day was, I think at least five days a week was three training sessions a day and she had in between those it was eat and sleep, literally. Eat and sleep, go back and train again.
Dave Harvey:
Pretty much eat, sleep, watch TV, you’d watch TV shows, watch movies, there’d be Xboxes, PlayStations, coffee, wander down the shops and that’s it. Some clubs would let you do what you want. Other clubs were really adamant on doing nothing and relaxing and resting and recovering. Probably more knowledge and content around that kind of stuff now compared to when I was playing. Bit of a, I wouldn’t say an old school approach, but a bit more like you can do as much as you want kind of thing. Whereas now there’s a huge emphasis on recovering and resting, getting your body right. But we did a bit of that. It was training and then nothing and then training again. So switch on and switch off.
Mat Lock:
Sounds like to the everyday athletes like me and most of the audience listening, that sounds like the dream life. However, I’m guessing it was also not so easy.
Dave Harvey:
Nah, I think a lot of people perceive it as the dream life. As much fun as it was, it’s also very mentally challenging. Physically challenging, but you can get physically challenging by training as much as or as hard as you want with a full time job.
But more the mental aspect of it was a little bit tough. Especially for me living away from home, that was pretty hard. But even playing back here, you’re studying opposition, you’re studying yourself, you’ve got to remember plays, you’ve got to remember what the opposition is doing. One bad game puts you on the outer, you never really have a full time job. You’re a full time player, but you never really have a full time job in the rugby aspect because you’re signing one, two three deals and then after that, you don’t know where you’re going to be. Whereas if you’re a school teacher, you’re a policeman, whatever it may be, you own your own business. Technically you’ve got a job for life. You tick boxes, you don’t exactly have to perform perfectly day in, day out.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. I imagine it’s an immense amount of pressure knowing that I can assume. So you transitioned then to, as you said, you bought an F45 franchise.
Dave Harvey:
Yep.
Mat Lock:
I think you said the other day when we were there last week doing the photo shoot, you were the sixth ever F45-
Dave Harvey:
Yeah. We’re actually the third F45 opened. So I was still playing at the time and I’d just left my contract playing Super Rugby and I wanted something to do. I’ve got a teaching degree, which I used a little bit, but there’s no jobs out there in the world of teaching at the moment. My rugby agent at the time ended up owning a few put me on to F45 and I bought one in 2013, I think we opened early 2014. Continued to play a bit, I was in the seventh circuit with Brazil at the time, so it was a fair bit of travelling and playing and training and working at the same time. So trying to juggle everything. But yeah, so we’ve traded at Castle Hill for about, well this would be our sixth year now, which is pretty cool.
Mat Lock:
And enjoying it?
Dave Harvey:
Loving it. Yeah. Still loving it. The alarm goes off at 10 past four, wouldn’t say I bounce out of bed, but I get out of bed and once I’m at work, yeah, I really enjoy. So yeah, I really enjoy being there.
Mat Lock:
Well you just mentioned before we went live, you were saying that your daughter has only just, I think in the last night or so sort of slept through. So I’m guessing over the last couple of years that’s been a challenge.
Dave Harvey:
It has been a challenge and there’s some good nights and rough nights. I mean there’s times where I’ve slept out in the other room, I’ve been fatigued, but there’s nights there’s three or four wake ups at night, but everyone has their own challenges and mate we wouldn’t change it for the world. And like I said, as soon as I’m in my work, it’s almost like game face. You switch it on and run the class, have a bit of fun with clients, help them as much as we can. Then if I need to hit a wall or come home then I kind of do that away from that public domain.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, of course. I’ve often seen gym owners, PTs, the emotional drain the clients can be without intending to be necessarily, but it’s not just being on your feet thinking about the workout and the programming. It’s also a little bit like hairdressers where people are sharing all sorts of life things…
Dave Harvey:
I think so, yeah. I think a lot of clients kind of look to you for advice or even just to chat, which is fantastic, which I enjoy, which is really cool. But at times, it can be draining. We’re pretty lucky at Castle Hill, we’ve got a lot of clients who are, we are not handfuls, which is fantastic. We’ve got a good client base and they’re all phenomenal, so it’s actually a little bit of fun. Like it’s fun going to work. You will help them and push them as much as you can, but it’s like chatting to your mates. Seven classes a day or so, four in the morning and three at night, yeah, it’s really good.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Fantastic. It’s great to hear that level of passion is still there because it sounds like it’s the motivation itself in training clients which is cool. Was that a hard transition to go from full, what, five days a week as a pro athlete to then setting up a business and all of the infrastructure that goes around it and everything’s involved with the day to day running of the business? How did that go?
Dave Harvey:
Yeah, that was probably the hardest thing. Probably the scariest thing is learning. I guess you probably said that, you said the words just then, the infrastructure of the business. Making the transition from playing rugby professionally to working wasn’t really an issue for me. F45 kind of gives me that team comradery and that sort of team environment, which is fantastic. But on the flip side it’s just running a whole new model, whole new business. I mentioned before, I got my teaching degree as a backup and I did a little bit of but nothing in terms of running your own business. And I guess I probably just learned on my feet, learned as I went. The first couple of years was pretty tough. I think first, probably six to 12 months I worked three jobs so I was playing footy, teaching and running the business. So trying to keep everything afloat.
Dave Harvey:
And then business started to get a little bit better, but it was just learning from the stakes and positives and negatives and probably not taking anything to heart, learning in the fitness industry that people come and go all the time. Fads change, people move, there’s waves of different ideas and different theories behind training. And yeah, just learning how to, from accounting to marketing as we discussed earlier and in terms of like Instagramming and everything, just people relations. And the way I see it, if you can speak to someone then you can run a business. If you’ve got no people skills, you’re in a lot of trouble.
Mat Lock:
That’s exactly right because every business needs customers.
Dave Harvey:
100%.
Mat Lock:
For sure. And I’m interested, did it give you a different insight into I guess what everyday athletes are doing? You know, the mums, dads, people who go to work nine to five or longer, five days a week and who are then training and trying to eat well as a hobby at the end of the day? The training and the competing is very much a hobby. Did you have a better insight having gone from being pro to trying to find your own time to get your training in and maintain your own fitness and so on?
Dave Harvey:
Yeah, definitely. I think there was a new appreciation for it. Being a full time footy player, even on days off it’s like, oh, it’s 10:00 AM, I’m going to go train now. Or I can get up early and go train or we had scheduled break times, we had scheduled field sessions and had massages and recovery. And the day was my leisure and I could do what I want. Now with the business, I kind of look at my clients and pretty much in awe of quite a lot of them. I open the studio at quarter to five or 5:30, oh sorry, 4:30, quarter to five in the morning. They come in, they train, they get changed, they go straight to work, they go home. So not only they’re working an eight til four job, a nine to five job, but they’re training at 5:00 AM, they’re getting changed and going to the city or they’re coming on their way back from work and they come in and do their session.
Dave Harvey:
And there’s just a new found respect. I guess I’m understanding now, but a bit more respect at the start to go, crap, these guys, they’re living a normal life. They’ve got to work, they’ve got to look after their family, they’ve got to cook, they’ve got to eat well, they’re on the run and they’ve got to train as well with this. There’s probably quite a few people out there going, well it’s not hard. It’s only 45 minutes of your day or an hour of your day, but I think mentally and physically it’s pretty tough. And making that transition now to family as you mentioned earlier, got a two and a half year old and family life and dad life and business life into training life now. Yeah. There’s a few hiccups on the way and yeah, huge, huge appreciation for what everyone does.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Absolutely. And so when you’re coaching your clients, when you’re guiding them, mentoring them along their journey, what’s the general advice based on that insight that you tend to give them around maybe recovery, maybe not think too hard on themselves, nutritional or maybe knowing when to push and so on?
Dave Harvey:
For me I guess a lot of the world, especially in the fitness industry is, everything is complicated. Everyone tries to overcomplicate things. There’s 50,000 diets out there. There’s 10,000 ways to do a dead lift, there’s you should be getting this amount of sleep. You should be drinking this, you should be drinking that. I just, I really try to encourage them just to keep it as simple as possible. When it comes to nutrition, just try and get your time into food right. Obviously, I don’t really tell them how much to eat or what to count, it’s great for some, not good for others. I just tell them to try and keep it really simple. Eat clean whole produce food. My family and I, we eat organic and what not and we go to farmer’s markets and we love it. That’s our lifestyle. So I try and preach a little bit of that. Otherwise try and get as clean as possible.
Dave Harvey:
And then just with training as well, just try and be as consistent as possible with the training. If they’re going to do three a week or four a week, do three or four a week every single week. If they’re training more, do that. If you want to go for recovery, get out on Sunday, get a bit of vitamin D, go for a walk and just get moving. And the consistency with food and training and just keeping it as simple as possible. I think if people overcomplicate things, I tell them, if they overcomplicate things they get a little bit stressed and they start to question why and they research and look for answers rather than researching, not looking for an answer. You tend to kind of broaden your mind and learn and educate yourself. So yeah, just kind of just tell them just keep it as simple as possible. Probably in every aspect, especially the food aspect, which is probably the hardest thing for them.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, sure. I think we all know that if you go onto Google, you can find any opinion you want.
Dave Harvey:
100%, yeah. And most of the time people go onto Google and they go in with a predetermined or a mindset of they’re looking for an answer. So when they hop on Google, they’ll have a look and they’ll find what they can’t to see. Actually I’ve got my own coach at the moment and his best bit of advice to me was if you’re going to research something, research without looking for an answer and you’ll sit on both sides of the fence and you can make an informed decision for yourself. So ever since then, it’s probably opened up a few things for me, which is great.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. I remember watching Forks Over Knives, it’s a documentary that’s now on Netflix and certainly one of the lead doctors on there was talking about whenever you’re reading anything anywhere, the first question you have to ask yourself is who wrote it and how were they funded? Who paid for the creation of this documentary?
Dave Harvey:
Exactly. Who wrote the article, who paid for it? Because they want to get their point across.
Mat Lock:
That’s exactly right. So particularly on Google where you can be splattered with millions of results instantly. I think that’s a really important thing. I certainly try and pay attention when I’m really researching something and understand what was behind it. Is there an agenda?
Dave Harvey:
Yeah, definitely.
Mat Lock:
And it might be okay if there is, but it’s just good to know that so you can make an informed decision.
Dave Harvey:
Yeah, spot on.
Mat Lock:
For sure. Very good. Well, we’re getting close to time now. I’m interested with the F45 model, the way you run it, what do you think is the main motivation that keeps people coming back? I certainly having been to your facility and met some of your clients and seeing that amazing sense of community and that sort of loyalty to the brand and to you, to each other. What do you think builds that?
Dave Harvey:
I think you just nailed it on there. This community. Results is fantastic. Seeing people lose weight, put on muscle mass. Results, numbers speak for themselves. But for me, the first and foremost thing within business in the fitness industry community, you build community, you’ll maintain your clientele. You look after your clientele, you’ll care about your clientele, your clients will probably care about you as well as a business owner. So they show a little bit more respect. And then after everything’s secondary. So you move into your results and food and how they approach every aspect of their life and every aspect around their training.
Dave Harvey:
But community is the key. So whether it be putting on events for them or learning everyone’s name that walks through that door at quarter to five in the morning half asleep. I think that’s a really important thing. Just getting the little tiny details possible. I always tell my members learn everyone’s name, if there’s three people in the class, run it as if there’s 303 people in the class. So keeping it the same, show as much energy and as much attention to detail as possible, but not only that, but build community and build fun and build a place where people want to come and they’re safe to come and comfortable and come.
Mat Lock:
Yeah. Awesome. Awesome. No, I appreciate that. And that was certainly the impression I got when I came with you and yeah, that was amazing.
Dave Harvey:
Awesome, glad you did.
Mat Lock:
All right, Dave, thank you very much for your time.
Dave Harvey:
You’re welcome.
Mat Lock:
We’re going to get you on for another episode, but for now I’ll just say thank you very much. If people want to reach out to you and connect with you, where’s the best place to do that?
Dave Harvey:
Probably on Instagram, I’d say. That’s Daveharvey17. It’s probably the best to reach out, just that way as opposed to emails and trying to keep my emails for business only and try and keep everything separate. So they want to reach out or anything like that, it’d be good.
Mat Lock:
Excellent. Dave, thank you very much.
Dave Harvey:
Thanks mate. I appreciate it.
