Mat Lock:
Brendo McCormack, welcome to The Unleashing Potential Podcast.
Brendo:
Thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m about as every day as it gets. So this is great.
Mat Lock:
No, no. I’m taking that title. I’m more every day than you are. I’ve seen your videos.
Brendo:
I love it.
Mat Lock:
Great to have you aboard.
Brendo:
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Mat Lock:
I appreciate you making the time to talk to us. So big picture stuff, if you could just tell us a bit about yourself and how life is in WA right now.
Brendo:
Yeah, for sure. So, I’m Brendo McCormack. I’ve been in the fitness industry since I was 18, so it’s 17 years this year. So I’ve pretty much spent more than half my life within the fitness industry. As I grew up, all I wanted to do was sell protein and I got to realise that dream at 18 years old, which is pretty cool.
Brendo:
I live in Perth and I’m the founder of a popular platform, Perth Fitfam. So some people over East may have seen that, may or may have known me. I was a commentator for The Bay Games last year and hopefully back this year.
Mat Lock:
You will be back. If we can run it, you’ll be back.
Brendo:
On top of that, also one of the CrossFit Games commentators, I’ve done some cool stuff. I’m shot with Arnold Schwarzenegger. So, that was all built around this Perth Fitfam platform. But then from there, really stemmed, I guess, what I help fitness business owners with, which is a social media marketing.
Brendo:
So, 85% of businesses that I catch up with, which is about 400, whenever I ask them what the biggest issue is within their business, it’s always marketing. So they had a great product, they love what they do, they’re great trainers. They just never reached their potential because they didn’t know how to market themselves. So, that’s what I do.
Brendo:
So that’s where Fitfam Social Academy came in. And what we do is we teach fitness business owners, how to market their business. On top of that, before we get into it, I’m also a little bit of an entrepreneur. And last year we launched a dating app for fitness singles. So that got launched actually at the start of this year, by the time it was actually available on the app store. So primarily that’s where I spend most of my time at the moment.
Mat Lock:
And that’s a massive congratulations as well, because it’s going really well. It’s no mean feat, so massive congratulations for what you and the team have achieved so far.
Brendo:
Yeah, that one’s been a fun one.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. So, obviously we’ve had the… at the time of recording this we’re just starting to hopefully come out of COVID-19 and hopefully there’s not a second wave or a spike, let’s say. But obviously the fitness industry globally has been absolutely slammed with COVID-19. And the realities of not being able to operate and taking [inaudible 00:03:22], lots of gyms have taken their training online and so on.
Mat Lock:
And certainly here in Australia, we’re just on the precipice where the rules of being relaxed sufficiently to have 10 groups in some areas, 10 groups for act or boot camps and so on. Nothing indoors yet. But there’s certainly setting a relaxation. And I was really keen to get you on the podcast to have a chat about, if I was a gym owner or if we can talk to all of the gym owners out there, and just give them some really good advice about some of the things that they can do to help themselves in the way they handle their social media stuff around the whole COVID topic.
Brendo:
Yeah, for sure. I think that we’re in week number eight now that we’ve been in lockdown, at least from WA’s standpoint. So eight weeks ago or nine weeks ago as this-
Mat Lock:
You have a lockdown and WA.
Brendo:
Oh, we’re pretty much out of it now. So I’ll touch on this in a second. So, I’m going to go right back to the start. I’ll give you guys the advice that I gave my students and people, and I’ve done multiple interviews and podcasts on it. I spent two weeks just helping out business owners that didn’t know what to do. So I just said, if you guys want a free half an hour call, if you just want someone to voice with, to work out a plan for you, I’ll open up my Zoom. And so I spent a lot of time with business owners over here doing that.
Brendo:
So first of all, my main thing was that people needed to look at their finance. And obviously there was different stimulus packages that came out at different times and they needed to establish that they were going to be okay. So that they either came out a job seeker, job keeper, that they could get the super payouts, whatever was suitable to them.
Brendo:
As soon as they had that sorted out, then they could remove the… They could remove the fear that their business was going to go under, that they were going to lose their house, that they weren’t going to be able to eat. And as soon as those basic things were taken care of, then they could start to think a little bit logically. So the first thing was sorting out the finances.
Brendo:
On top of that, as part of the finances was making sure that you could keep memberships or subscriptions going. So a lot of people that are going to be watching this, they would be from the boutique or the studio based gyms. Like, your CrossFit, your F45s, these sort of gyms. Different payment gateway providers, they had different outcomes.
Brendo:
So some of them cut membership straight away. Some of them you just needed to showcase that you had adapted, and you could basically keep your memberships ongoing. So for a lot of gym owners that I’ve worked with, I would say that the median drop off of memberships is around about 30%. Which means that, with the government’s stimuluses if you’re retaining 70% of your members, then you’re actually going to be in a decent situation. So that was the first step. From there-
Mat Lock:
[inaudible 00:06:07], sorry, I’ve heard a similar number, anyone I’m talking to. But of course, a lot of the gym owners have cut their rates, their membership rate. So even though it’s only 30% of their members per se, they’re actual dollar value of their revenue was significantly lower.
Brendo:
Yeah, I wouldn’t have done that. So my advice on that was, if you could, maintain it the same. And I know that different gyms have gone about this process differently. So some had kept it the same, some had had a lower rate and then some had still offered their services for free, that people that lost their jobs. And I thought that was a great thing to do too.
Brendo:
So if we look at the value, so for me, I pay, I think $60 a week for my gym membership. And I kept my payments ongoing, except every gym was a little bit different. So I was like, “Okay. Well, you can no longer charge that high rate if you’re just doing online training because the value doesn’t equal the same.”
Brendo:
So you needed to adapt your membership options. So whether you were lending out equipment, online programming, whether you’re doing Zoom workouts, whether you’re doing a weekly Zoom. You needed to showcase additional value within that membership, because you probably had about a three to four week period where people would be okay to pay. But then if the value didn’t stack there and finance got here, then the gyms is a luxury item. I guarantee you, it would have been the first thing to go.
Brendo:
So these are the things that we addressed early on. From there, once I had established in the early stage that their business was going to be okay, it was about innovation. So they obviously, as we touched on, they needed to innovate their product to be able to create something which not only was good for their current members, but all of a sudden there was all these people that were stuck at home training at home, wanting something to do, which for me opens up an opportunity that, hey, you can start to provide value to people within your community that probably would never have come to your gym, but all of a sudden would be looking for something to do at home.
Brendo:
So if you were to able adapt your product and then innovate it, you were then able to market it to a completely new market that you wouldn’t have had before and bring on more memberships that way. So, that was starting right at the unknown where we didn’t know what was going to happen with COVID. Some businesses did well, some businesses kind of got to that adaptation stage, but they didn’t get to that growth stage. Which is okay. It’s absolutely fine.
Brendo:
But fast forward through this eight weeks, and I can give you guys an update from Western Australia. So as of the 18th of May, which is Monday from when this podcast is being recorded, gyms are actually able to open up under certain restrictions. So you can have indoor or outdoor classes up to 20 people provided that there’s minimal to no shared equipment.
Brendo:
You don’t use machines. So that’s things, assault bikes, rowers, skiers treadmills. Provided that you disinfect or wipe down the equipment after every session, which should be self explanatory. I know we do that anyway. And provided that you don’t go over one person per four square metres, which if it’s 20 people, that’s probably okay for most gym sizes. So we’re essentially about to go back to normal with classes capped at 20. That’s really, really good.
Brendo:
Which means that we’re going to start to see things rolling. Now over East, I know that you guys are a little bit different. You’re a little bit behind, I think you mentioned they’re just about to open up outdoor training.
Mat Lock:
Yep.
Brendo:
So we’re about to see some normality come into play. Now, from the recommendations that I’ve been giving my guys, because it’s been very reactive. You try and stay in front of the game, but we’re always trying to get people ready for what’s coming next. So throughout this process, the kind of content that we’ve been getting people to deliver is just honest content with where they’re at, at the moment.
Brendo:
So I know for me on my personal platform, I don’t often do workout videos, it was never really my style. But before coming into lockdown, I made a decision to myself, that I was going to be better off physically, by the time we got to the end of it and I was going to be better off financially, by the time I got to the end of it. So it was just two things that I could stick to.
Brendo:
And then from a physical standpoint, I knew I wasn’t going to have equipment. So I just said, “Okay, I’m going to have skipping rope. And I’m going to have a 24 kilo kettlebell.” And whatever the workout is, I’m going to adapt it to be able to use those two things. And as I started training, I just started recording my workouts, putting them out there in a way just to showcase the people that, “Hey, I’m doing this I’m with minimal. So you can do it too.”
Mat Lock:
Leading by example.
Brendo:
Leading by example, yeah. And I didn’t expect it, but the engagement on that content actually became really strong. Not just with likes and comments, but from people actually saving the workout for later. People then tagging me in the workout. And then people just coming back with messages, like really nice messages about how that’s helped keep them going.
Brendo:
And we’ve got the gyms to implement a very similar strategy with just putting out things and providing value through this time. Not trying to jazz it up through content that they’ve shot within the gym from ages ago. You’ve really got to meet people with where they’re at, at the moment and be relatable through that. So that’s I guess, from a content side of it.
Brendo:
We are going into stories. Stories is like 100% where it’s at. That’s your engagement component of the platform. Now, coming out of COVID and going back to WA where we’re at. So, hopefully with the Eastern States, you guys aren’t too far behind, you’re going to see a massive influx. Like people are going to be hoarding to come into the gym.
Brendo:
And the trick of this is you’re going to have to kind of balance between taking care of your current members that are there, making sure that you fill up classes and that everyone can get in, and then establishing through your booking system or however you go about this, realistically, how many people can you onboard at this point in time? Because you’re going to get an influx of people wanting to join. You’re not going to be able to service all of them.
Brendo:
So you really need to understand from your business point of view, how many people can you service at this point in time? Because getting new members at the moment is going to be the easiest that you’ve ever experienced within your business. You’re probably never going to experience this again.
Mat Lock:
Right. Yeah. But kind of a nice problem to have, however [inaudible 00:12:27]. But having awareness of that and building a strategy around that. The how to handle that. Especially with the restriction around numbers and so on. And whether that therefore means you have to put on more classes. More [inaudible 00:12:39] to accommodate the volume of people and so on.
Mat Lock:
But in terms of communicating. I mean, for me I think communication is the key, isn’t it? And I can only… It resonates when you say, you meet people where they are or where you go. And communication’s the key. And so certainly for our business. The question when it all kicked off was the how to handle that. You can hunker down and go quiet and stay out of the way, or you can reach out and offer all sorts of support and so on.
Mat Lock:
And so we decided to… Because when it kicked off, social media was just flooded. So everyone in the world was being thrown upside down. Not only with training, but with possible work, possible finance issues, health issues maybe, who’s at risk, who’s not at risk and so on. So it was just kind of massive.
Mat Lock:
So certainly from our perspective with the events in mind, so we’re not so much of a day to day consumption, let’s say. We’re not part of a daily routine per se. We decided to just reach out, be of help, but equally recognising what everyone else was doing. And basically not trying to just become part of the noise, let’s say.
Brendo:
Yeah. Well, social media had an increase of, I think Instagram was 30%, I think Facebook was 40%. So, it was super active. It’s definitely gone through the roof. People are just at home. There’s not as much to do. But then you have the mix of, there was a lot of doom and gloom. There was a lot of uncertainty, there was a conspiracy on… Yeah, walls are full of conspiracies. Sorry I press mute a lot.
Brendo:
Yeah. There was definitely a lot going on. And even now the biggest thing that I find from our guys in Perth is when the government releases an update is they’re uncertain about how to handle that situation, even though it’s positive. So I’ve found out that people… Not everyone, but a lot of businesses out there, even if they’ve been told what they can do, they on asking for more clarity. Where my big thing is, it’s very obvious for you.
Brendo:
You need to innovate and you need to have a plan to put in play. You shouldn’t be on the back foot in this situation. It’s like, okay, you’ve been given the guidelines, understand what that means for your business, put that into play now, have your steps. So, get your members, your current members, sorted out. And then work out, “Hey, can we bring on more people at this point in time?”
Brendo:
What’s your offer? So what are you going to provide these people? Is it going to be a standard membership? Is it going to be a post COVID special? Like, what are you going to provide to these people? And then put that into play. That’s what you’re going to start to market consistently at this time and keep people up to date with what’s going on.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, absolutely. Certainly, as you know, with my background around business model innovation, I think one of the biggest missed opportunities for a lot of business owners will be to simply go back to normal. When we can, to simply get back to normal. Back to the status quo. I think that will be a massive missed opportunity for many, many business owners.
Mat Lock:
And if I think about this industry, the fitness industry, I’ve spoken to a lot of gym owners in the last eight weeks. And there’s been an overwhelming response about how the online training has created an increased sense of community, a better connection.
Mat Lock:
And it’s not all about just doing workouts. I mean, some of those gyms have gone, “Okay, well, we’ll do a stretching session at 7:00 PM on a Thursday and have a glass of wine.” If you want to have a glass of wine, well, we’re doing it. That kind of thing that had just literally a 30 minute check in, “How are you going?” Everyone just jumps on, chews the fat for half an hour, off they go.
Mat Lock:
So much more social rather than just, “Right, we come online for just this, and we’re doing that, and there we’re going again.” And that’s important, which is from a workout perspective, having a routine is important. But some have gone beyond that. And I think it would be a shame if they let go of all of that, just because they no longer have to be online.
Brendo:
They innovated, it was so good. So I can give an example of someone within my network that implemented this really, really well. So he’s actually a trainer at a big box gym, so just a personal trainer within there. And so straight away, a lot of his business is gone and he would have had the option to do one on one coaching through Zoom. But what he did is he actually created a group.
Brendo:
So he had his weekly rate or his monthly rate, whatever that was he had within Zoom and exactly the things that you’re saying, like the stretching, he brought on a yoga teacher, he brought on a nutrition coach. He had his things that he was bringing to the group. And it was set schedules and people just jumped in and they did it together. It was that sense of community. And he actually got so many new clients who were outside of the gym, who hadn’t trained before.
Brendo:
The people that I was saying, the people that generally wouldn’t be your client. He came on and they opened up outdoor training last week for us in WA. And was out there and he said, “All my outdoor group training sessions are completely booked out.” He never did that before. And he said, “My business is actually doing much better now than what it was in the gym.”
Brendo:
And he’s not like I’m a young techno PT. He’s been in the game for years. He’s definitely at the older stage of his career. But he was able to adapt and innovate and use technology. And now he’s got a complete online business where he has all these clients that are going to stay with him online and he’s way better off.
Brendo:
And that’s literally what I wanted for people. I’m like, “Innovate, understand where you’re at and your business should be better off if you do this smart.”
Mat Lock:
And having a bigger impact, you could argue rather than just being a PT, that’s only one part of the story, isn’t it? To then have the mobility, to then have nutrition as well. It’s a much more holistic service that you’re actually offering.
Brendo:
Yeah, absolutely.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, it’s interesting, It’s interesting, that example. I was talking with a gym owner I know, who initially wasn’t confident about charging for still providing this. Well, they found their feet they just wanted to keep their members active while they figured out how they were going to handle it. And handle home life, homeschooling, everything around it.
Mat Lock:
But they were running basically… Had their Facebook group and they were just running the daily workout. But loads of people were really engaging and sharing and loving it and commenting. And same thing, it was like a magnet. Quite a number of new clients now, come to them going, “Oh, how do I be part of this? I keep seeing this and I’ve heard about it. It’s awesome. It looked like fun. I need to do something.”
Mat Lock:
So new members, absolutely new members who now… I mean, at best staying with them, then it’s not just a fad. That they’ve now onboarded a whole bunch of new members that they would never have accessed previously. So-
Brendo:
It’s so important. So, one thing that I’ll point out… And I always reiterate this to the business owners over here is, in Western Australia less than 17.9% of the population has a gym membership or does regular exercise apart from walking. So, it’s less than 20% of the population actually trying.
Brendo:
And the biggest thing that I say is, the industry I don’t believe is saturated. I believe our ability to market to different kinds of people is probably limited and this is a big part of why we teach people marketing. Is to find their niche, find what they’re good at, and then hone in on that. Because you can have gyms on different corners, but provided that their product or service is tailored for different people, realistically, the goal of the industry should be to turn that, 17.9, 18% up to 30% or up to 40%.
Brendo:
And this gave us a great opportunity to do that now, because all of a sudden that became of interest to people that wouldn’t normally train, which is what we’re saying now. So I would hope that people would learn from that and that they would be able to adapt that, to make a bigger difference in a world, which is really stickly, getting people fitter is what our industry should be about.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, plus their healthcare, absolutely. And in our local area here, we’ve commented a few times, how we’ve just seen more people out walking or jogging or cycling, or whatever they’re doing. Just more people at about, because I think you’re right. It’s just raised the conscious level of needing to move and not be sedentary and to get out of the bed and so on. And clearly an opportunity, if you’re in the fitness industry. Clearly an opportunity.
Mat Lock:
But Brendo, I’m conscious of time. Obviously you are a huge wealth of information around this subject. If people want us to reach out to you and find out more about, you mentioned the academy earlier that you’ve got designed for exactly this. But maybe just take a minute to tell us about that academy and where people could find out more about that.
Brendo:
Yeah, for sure. So as I mentioned, Perth Fitfam is my main platform, which is the social group of the Perth fitnessing over here. So I run that. But from that, as I mentioned, the biggest issue with fitness business owners was their inability to market or reach their potential. So that’s how Fitfam Social Academy came about, which we officially launched as a brand the day after we got told that gyms were going to be locked down. So, interesting time for us.
Brendo:
So we can be found on Instagram at Fitfam Social Academy or on Facebook at Fitfam Social Academy. And throughout that programme, we offer a range of courses to be able to help fitness businesses, crushing business by utilising their social media platforms.
Brendo:
Most of our clients who come on, they’ve got minimal to no experience with social media, or they might have used an agency in the past. And we basically just supply them with the tools and the accountability to be able to run their social media campaigns, their social media platforms efficiently and effectively themselves. So they can generate leads and sales by utilising social media.
Mat Lock:
Yeah, awesome. And I’ll put all of those links in the show notes, of course. No question about it. And I’m assuming, and fingers crossed that The Bay Games can go ahead and November as planned. We haven’t announced it, but I guess we’re doing so for anyone who’s listening to this podcast, when it goes live, we are going to have a business workshop day, the day before the weekend kicks off on the Friday.
Mat Lock:
And that you’re going to be one of the guest speakers there. And we’re going to have a workshop dedicated to exactly this and what we’re going to be telling anyone who’s coming to that workshop is, bring your phones, your laptops with you, because it’s going to be all about implementation, actionable advice and implementation.
Brendo:
Yeah.
Mat Lock:
Excited to have you come and share the wisdom that you developed over the years, and having personally been helped by you with a couple of tricky aspects around Facebook, I can attest to the fact that you really know what you’re talking about.
Brendo:
Yeah. I think that’s the biggest thing for us. It’s being able to really educate business owners that didn’t have that understanding how to do this. Like, just teach them how to do it at a high-level. And so they can do it themselves. For me, that’s really, really powerful. So yeah, I look forward to it. I look forward to dropping some knowledge whilst I’m over there and having some fun on the mic.
Mat Lock:
Absolutely. Well, we look forward to that too. Brendo, thank you very much for your time. Appreciate it, man.
Brendo:
Thanks Mat.
