The Fit to Grit Cast
Fit to Grit is an audio/video/newsletter hybrid featuring in-depth conversations with leadership within the athletic space. Guests range from top executives within the athletic space to professionals in adjacent industries with a proven track record of success working in the athletic industry.
We explore visionary ideas and practical strategies driving the industry forward, covering areas such as marketing, finance, branding, equipment, product development, biz dev, and more. Join us as we share actionable insights and real-world experiences while embodying the "fit to grit" spirit.
The Fit to Grit Cast
How Overcoming Injury Led to Helping Others Break Limits
"I was told that maybe I would never walk properly again. Hearing that, something in my mind clicked and I said, no, that's never going to happen."
These powerful words from Stuart capture the essence of resilience that defines both his personal journey and his approach to helping others at Ideal Fitness. After suffering a devastating back injury just as he was transitioning from a 12-year corporate career to pursue his passion for fitness and rehabilitation, Stuart faced a crossroads that would shape everything that followed.
Instead of accepting limitations, Stuart spent two years rehabilitating himself while simultaneously building his business. This dual journey transformed his understanding of what clients truly need, shifting his focus toward helping people with medical conditions, chronic pain, and those over 40 who feel intimidated by traditional fitness environments. Today, his studio serves clients with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Parkinson's, joint replacements, and those who have never exercised before.
At the heart of Stuart's methodology is his "Walk of Wants" system—a remarkably simple yet effective framework that helps clients achieve what seems impossible by breaking goals into manageable daily or weekly steps. Stuart believes in keeping things straightforward: "Making it difficult is only going to make it a real challenge for anybody. They're going to turn away."
Perhaps most telling is what you won't find in his studio: mirrors. This conscious decision reflects Stuart's deep understanding of client psychology, as many have thanked him for creating a space where they don't have to confront their reflection while working out. Similarly, he often avoids scales, focusing instead on measurements, functional improvements, and quality-of-life indicators that truly matter to his clients.
Stuart's story reminds us that true transformation—whether in health or business—requires vision, consistency, and a willingness to approach challenges differently. His journey offers a blueprint for anyone facing seemingly insurmountable obstacles or seeking to help others overcome their own.
Have you been trying to force yourself into a fitness approach that doesn't feel right? Perhaps Stuart's client-centered philosophy is the missing piece in your own wellness journey. Follow Ideal Fitness on Facebook, Instagram, or visit www.idealfitness.co.uk to learn more.
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And I was told that maybe I would never walk properly again. Hearing that, something in my mind clicked and I said, no, that's never going to happen. I'm going to do this, I'm going to walk again. Hey, everyone.
Speaker 2:Welcome to another episode of the Fit to Grit cast, where we go through all those visionary and implementer type ideas that come to us during our normal daily gym break. Today I have a very special guest Stuart. Stuart, why don't you tell everyone? Just start off, tell everyone a little bit about who you are, your story and where you're at today.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I started. I've always been into fitness, but I was in corporate employment for many, many years since leaving school. I did gymnastics as a child and then, when I gave up the gymnastics, it was martial arts karate, taekwondo and I started teaching karate for a while. Then I decided that I no longer wanted to work in corporate. It was the Inland Revenue I worked for for 12 years and I needed a change. So I decided that fitness was my thing, fitness and rehab was my thing, and I trained as a personal trainer and sports therapist and that was back in 2008.
Speaker 1:And shortly after training, I wanted to set up the business and I had a serious accident and broke my back. So I was in hospital for quite some time and I was told that maybe I would never walk properly again. Hearing that, something in my mind clicked and I said no, that's never going to happen, I'm going to do this, I'm going to walk again. And I rehabbed myself. It took me at least two years to rehab myself, and while I was rehabbing myself, I was also setting up Ideal Fitness and trying to get clients on board.
Speaker 1:And that's where my direction from just doing pure personal training and sports therapy changed to helping people with medical injuries, medical conditions, people over 40. And that's evolved over time and that's evolved over time Since 2008,. Things have moved on and I'm now working with people in their 50s 60s with chronic conditions EDS, ehlers-danlos Syndrome people, people who've got, people who've had um, parkinson's, uh, people who who've been diagnosed with um chronic joint issues. I'm rehabbing a lady at the moment who's just had a knee replacement another client of mine, she's had a hip replacement. And I'm also working with people who have never exercised in their life, super morbidly obese people. So that's my journey to date.
Speaker 2:Nice. Why don't you tell everyone? Because I know in this space it can become very convoluted with different types of services, different types of offerings. So can you give everyone a little bit of an explanation on what your business actually is Like? What is it that you actually do? Um, for instance, are you and I know you're not, but are you a yoga studio? Are you uh, you know, do you consider yourself a physical therapist, like what? What kind of, uh, what kind of establishment and facility do you feel like best suits, um, your target audience?
Speaker 1:I've got, uh, but was there's two parts to my, to my business? There's the sports therapy side, which is, uh, mainly rehab sports massage, deep tissue massage and then there's the other side of things where people come in um, that's the fitness side of it, um, where they come in to to lose weight, increase their, their fitness, or um, I've got an older gentleman now who wants to increase his weight. He lost a lot of weight very drastically and he's going to put that back on. So there's two sides to what I do. There's the rehab side and there's also the fitness side for corporate, which is helping them change their lifestyle, helping them become better how can I put it? So reach a level of happiness within themselves that they haven't got at the moment? Yeah, of happiness within themselves that they haven't got at the moment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you kind of have a mix of you kind of have a mix of different offerings and services based off of the different types of, we'll just say, different steps in life people may be at, depending on what they need. And with that said, so, how long, how long have you ran? How long has have you been open? Like, how long have you been really going once you took the leap into the corporate from the corporate world? Uh, how long have you really been doing this?
Speaker 1:I've. I set up ideal fitness um in 2009, oh wow. So back in 2009, um, I was, uh, before I had my studio. I was mobile, so I went round to people's homes and I trained them at their home and then I had a lot of people saying they'd like to come to me. A room became available for the sports therapy, became available for the sports therapy, and then, while I was treating people for sports therapy, they would say I'd like to come to you for the training. So another room became available, and, yeah, since 2009. So I've been in my studio now, um, for about 11 years oh nice, so it's 2025, so about 2014?
Speaker 2:so it took you about five years five years from when you opened and you started going mobile to making the shift to getting a location. What were some of the pains? What were some of the pains you felt when you were? Because and I'll give you an explanation on why I'm kind of going about this is because I see a very, very commonly and you're probably you probably seen it too with maybe some of your competitors or some other people you know in the in the industry that usually it's very similar to what you said I want to leave the corporate world, I love to train, I love to help, but then they end up going, starting off by going mobile and going to people's homes because they think that that's the best solution for them.
Speaker 2:So what were some of those pain points that you felt like moved you from? Not just and I know you said that they said they wanted to come to you but, um, that you felt was holding you back from. You know, when you were doing mobile, that really helped you take the leap into actually going in and getting your own, your own location going mobile.
Speaker 1:It was. For me it was. It was the easy choice, um I didn't have any overheads apart from apart from my car, um having the studio, it's the, it's the extra overheads. So the pain points for me there was can I actually afford it? Can I actually make this work? Have I got enough clients?
Speaker 1:yeah am I? Am I charging my clients enough to be to be able to afford a studio? But yeah, with the right mindset you know you can do it. You don't have to be perfect to begin with. You start off messy and you make a few mistakes and, yeah, it works. If you want it to work, it will work. But a lot of the pain points are around around money.
Speaker 1:Now, can I afford to do this? Because, going mobile, all you have is just you. Yeah, um, no other overheads, um, but in the studio, you've got your electricity, you've got the the rent to pay. You've got your electricity, you've got the rent to pay. You've got equipment to buy as well. Going mobile, you don't need much equipment when you're mobile because some of your clients that you go and see may have their own equipment that you can use In the studio. Here you've got to provide that for the people that come to you, and then it's maintaining that. So they're all. They're all the main pain points. But yeah, over the years those pain points are no longer pain points, they're just part of everyday life.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and and I think that that's a, you know, a good first, I think a good first stage for a lot of people. I mean, I think a lot of studio, studio owners, they will, you know, you know, not gonna say all of them, but there are some that will have a huge, will get an investment right, they'll work through and get the investment side, they'll learn those pain points pretty fast. But that doesn't happen for a lot of us, right, it's like in which I actually highly recommend is going through those pain points and it's kind of like the first. That's like the first move on from a mindset perspective on, oh, expenses like, but these are really investments and so, with that said, the pain points are kind of gone now in their everyday life.
Speaker 2:What have you seen from when you took that leap? How have those pain points now turned into positives? And, for instance, you are afraid to get clients right. So how has just having a space versus going mobile, um, we'll just say, increased your revenue, um, per like getting clients, or per um keeping retention going?
Speaker 1:I'd love to hear from you and your experience on that the pain points have turned into positives because, um, I'm able to charge what I'm worth now. Yeah, um, I'm able to charge more I'm able to over the years. I have um stories that I can tell. I have my own story that I can tell in the very beginning. But now I've got clients here whose stories I can pass on. I can say this is what I do, this is how I've helped, and my pricing, yeah, it's increased. In the beginning I was charging very little. My pricing has now increased. I'm charging exactly what I'm worth now because I can prove that I can do it. I can prove that I'm worth that. Having the studio has really helped because it's taken away a lot of those initial pain points. It's given me stability. People are actually coming to me finding me rather than me having to find them.
Speaker 1:My marketing has drastically changed. In the beginning, when I started, social media wasn't there. But social media now is a big part of my marketing. But social media now is a big part of my marketing and I can put out to people that may want to work with me in the future, people who are following me. I can put out to them exactly how I can help them lose weight, change their life, rehab an injury, um, and they have somewhere to come to, um, instead of, uh, me going to them. And what some of my clients have told me is having having a place to come to helps them with their journey. They feel they're actually doing something, they're on a journey, they've got a place to come to, whereas if I go to them in their home, it isn't giving them the incentive to feel like they're progressing. Um, to feel like they're they're progressing, they need to get out and go somewhere and and work, work with me in the, in the studio. That's what's. That's what I've had from quite a few of my clients.
Speaker 2:they need to be getting out and coming to somewhere yeah, it's quite interesting because I've seen a huge trend of you know, especially with the online space and social media. You know, a lot of people kind of do the opposite, kind of say, hey, you know, like, hey, I'm on a gym, I don't want these responsibilities, I'm going to go back to doing everything remote and online and visiting people. And it's funny because I heard this phrase the other day where someone said to me the grass may be greener on the other side, but it still has its spare amount of fertilizer, you know. So you know the whole concept of it doesn't matter which industry you're in, you're going to have your pain points. And, yeah, you may have had less overhead when you were doing everything remotely, but you had no way to target your marketing. You know, it's like, oh, like, I don't have a location now, I don't have this and that, and so you end up having to market more because you have a broader area to market, right, yes, and so back to your point in marketing.
Speaker 2:I'd love to, you know, dive into that a little bit more, because I think that the psychological counterpart to you know owning a studio and something that I try to tell a lot of you know, our clients and or people that watch this cast is the concept of you know, and you kind of nailed it.
Speaker 2:People want to go somewhere, they want to feel motivated.
Speaker 2:Everyone assumes, with what happened, you know, five years ago and we were all in it, you know and studio started to shut down and you probably had your problems with that too, but I think that everyone assumed that people wanted to stay, stay at home and work out from home.
Speaker 2:But I'll be the first to tell you like I like my, I like going to going out, I like going to my studio, I like going and going because it makes me feel like I am progressing, like you said. And so, with that marketing, which will kind of lead to the second thing I kind of want to talk about a little bit here is, you know, having a space and an experience for your customers definitely helps out with retention, definitely helps out with getting more clients. But, similar to your space, how did you start to handle that side of it, the side of oh, like, I have to start looking, I have to market, I have to either dedicate my time and or my invest money into marketing. And how did you start to take that leap into the mindset of like, hey, I can't do this all myself, I'm gonna need to start investing in, in, you know, bringing more clients in the marketing side of things.
Speaker 1:I, I, I evolved, I. I got better at using um, definitely got better at using social media um, and having the studio, I was able to offer more services uh, I was offered instead of just the, the one-to-one um, I was able to offer group classes, group group rehab classes, um, mental health um, help, um. So that was all part of my part of my marketing Um. So it's like um, building a bridge, learning, learning, the type of learning, the words to say to people in marketing. So the studio, when you're mobile and you're going to people's homes, the way you market that is so different to the way you market your, the way I market my studio, because I can combine with my, the programs I have. I can combine the sports therapy and the personal training. They can go from once they've gone through the sports therapy program go from once they've gone through the, the sports therapy program. They can transition then onto, uh, the the personal training side of it, and and enhance what they've already learned through the, the sports therapy. So the marketing of that is is vastly different. I can, that's, that's an additional, and then adding on to that is the, the mental health um side of things.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of people that come to me are suffering with, uh, mental stress, um, from the things that they are. They're suffering with, um, they're suffering with their older clients who've got problems with joints, problems with stress at work, their successful managers, ceos, and it's providing on the marketing, it's providing the tools that they can use to survive, survive day to day, and that goes out with my marketing. So it's not all about, it's an all in. You've got to. It's a 12 week program. It's an hour, it's an hour, two hours, three times a week. It's starting at small.
Speaker 1:So with my marketing, it's encouraging them to get started. So bringing in things like three minutes a day is all you need with your workouts. Starting with stress management is the very first thing I always start with. Every client of mine is stress management, um, how to, how to cut down on the stress. Then it's nutrition and then, finally, it's the, it's the, the exercise. They're the first things that every single client, whether it's through rehab, wanting to lose weight, wanting to gain weight, wanting to increase strength, the first thing I start with is always stress management, then nutrition and then it's the exercise. So you have always had in my marketing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So it's like you came up with. You came up with your nice system. Nice system, which kind of your your, your kind of your operational type system of how you handle, how you handle this stuff, and then you kind of said, hey, now we can market that. Do you offer any sort of like uh assessment up front when they come into the door, to kind of help?
Speaker 1:kind of help make the sell yes, always, always.
Speaker 1:When anybody comes to me and is thinking about working with me, the very first thing I go through is why. You have to understand why they want to work with me, why they want to work with a fitness coach. What's their journey. I have to understand them. So the assessment, the very first thing, is learning about them. What's got them to where they are now? It could be talking their childhood, it could be a trauma they've gone through that's brought them to where they are. But it always starts with why, why have they them to where they are? But it always starts with why, why have they got to where they are now? And then it turns into um, what so? What do you want to achieve? So, from why, um? To what, what do you want to achieve and in what timeframe do you think you're going to achieve that? And then it's breaking that down into what's your lifestyle like, because a lot of people who come to me haven't got a lot of time. They can't afford to take out an hour, two hours of their day to dedicate to exercise, so it's going back to fitting things in in work, stuff they can do at their desk. A lot of people are sitting down at their desk. When they come to me, they're sitting at their desk for two, three hours without moving their sleep pattern. They're taking work home, so their sleep pattern is erratic. So it's working on those stress busters first, stress busters first, and then we work on, then it's um nutrition and then it's the exercise. So when, well, and when I'm talking to you for the very first time, um, I'm getting to understand them. I'm getting to understand where they come from, where they are now with their diet, with their stress, with their workload, and getting to understand them. And then we sit down and we work out their goals and I use a system called the walk of wants. So we start with their ultimate goal, whether that's in 12 weeks time or 24 weeks time. Start with their ultimate goal and we'll break that down into weekly goals. So their goal could be week one. I want to lose two pounds week one, and it's not just about losing those two pounds, it's understanding how they're going to do it, why they want to do it. It's always why they want to do it. Why do you want to lose two pounds in the first week? Is that achievable? Is that sustainable for you? What are you going to do to ensure that goal is met. And that's broken down into weekly and then for some it's broken down into daily.
Speaker 1:Some people are very complex, so it's broken down into daily chunks and they have things they have to do. It's about learning a new routine. It's about learning a new routine, breaking habits that they've got, they've had for 40, 50 years. It's breaking those habits. It's understanding why or how they got those habits in the first place and how they are going to get rid of them. Not get rid of them, but change those old habits for new, better habits and be able to sustain those. And it's small steps. For everybody it's small steps. Some people need to be broken down into hourly, some people it's daily, some people it's weekly, but it's always broken down and they have that it's. It's something they have to work on consistently. Consistence is the is the key to making those habits sustainable and, for the rest of their life, to getting the results they want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it sounds like. It sounds like you had to develop this system, because if you didn't, then you'd probably be all over the place, because everyone is different, every single person is differently, and I feel, I feel like the same goes for most studios, or something that you made me really think about when you were talking about how you basically had to come up with a client like operate it's basically like a client operation system around your services, right, but how did you kind of do that internally, like do you? Did you get to the point where you started hiring other other physical therapists, other trainers, and start to have to find a way to systematize that, not just for your clients but for your team as well?
Speaker 1:I've always worked on my own. I've had other personal trainers and fitness coaches here as independent, but I've always worked on my own. But anybody that's worked with me in the studio always follows my walk of wants. Um, that, that's the system I know that works um 100 for my clients, whether they, whether it's rehab or whether it's um just pure fitness. The 12, uh, the, the walk of want, everybody will follow. So everybody that's worked with me learns the walk of want system. It worked for me. When I broke my back, I used that system. It was around about that system that I developed the walk of wants, breaking it down, making sustainable goals. For me when I broke my back, it was daily goals.
Speaker 1:It can be the most simple thing that changes. You put it down there. It's the most simple thing, because I believe that keeping things simple is the best way to sustaining long-term physical change, long-term mental change. Keeping things simple. Making it difficult is only going to make it a real challenge for anybody. They're going to turn away. They're not going to continue if we make it difficult. So you have to put it into the most simplest terms and, like I say, some people need hourly, some people need daily, some people need weekly.
Speaker 1:But, keeping it simple with that walk of want system. And each time they move on to a next goal, a new goal, they physically say to themselves in their mind or or out um, they physically say I want to achieve. I want to achieve it because they're physically saying that, so it's, it's, it's instilling into them why they want to do it and it gives that motivation to, to, to continue you know.
Speaker 2:Uh, this really brings me back to the whole point of the, of the, of the fit, the fit to grit, cast um, to begin with, because we talk a lot about, you know a lot about clients and their um, the, the, the, the long-term goals that you have to come up with very similar to, very similar to your, your, basically product that will get I want to get a little bit more into it in a minute here but that it took you years to develop. And that key there, you said, was simple and I think that it very much relays to studio growth and growing the internals of the studio as well. Right, it's, it's a very, it's a very similar concept. Looking at those long-term goals, trying to come up with, like, how do we keep this simple but still kind of stay on track? Because, as you said, like you're dealing with a lot of clients, that a lot of clients that they, they may need different things and as studios start to grow and as they start to bring on more employees, it's a very similar process. You know trainers, different types of trainers, different age ranges and, like you said, even clients.
Speaker 2:How do you start to market and realize, hey, how do I keep this simple and market ourselves effectively to a wide range of audience, but not not giving ourselves marketing fatigue and thinking. We have to a wide range of audience, but not giving ourselves marketing fatigue and thinking. We have to do 80 different things to bring in some people right. And so back to your program. How have you persevered and kept yourself from what I'll just call shiny object syndrome, because it sounds like you've taken this since you've broken your back and you have continued to find yourself in restraint to overcomplicate it and to continue to evolve it, but continue to keep it simple. So how, how have you done that? What are the kinds of things that you have done over the years to improve your system without over complicating it and still having it continue to be effective?
Speaker 1:it's about keeping it is about keeping it simple. There are a lot of things out there that, uh, I've I've wanted to do, um, that, that, that shine that light. You, you think, oh, I'm going to do that. Or then the next thing, oh, I'm going to do that, oh, I'm going to do that. But you have to look, you have to take a step back each time and think is that really going to be the right thing for me? Is that going to really improve what I do here in the studio? Because there's a lot of things, there's a lot of equipment I could have bought to put into the studio. But is it really right for what I want to provide to my clients? Is it really right for them? Is it? Or is it just something that's gimmicky? Um, so for me it's taking that step back and looking. Hang on a minute. Is that going to enhance what I do? And it's the same with um. When I'm working with clients, um, they come in and they say I want to lose five stone. When do you want to lose it? Um, by two months time. It's never going to happen.
Speaker 1:It's like building a bridge you've got to lay the foundation, then you've got to build the columns and then you can build the road that goes above those columns. You can't build that road before you've got the rest underneath. So it's taking that step back and saying, hang on a minute, do I really need that? Is it time to put the next brick into the bridge? Maybe not Setting yourself that goal of, yeah, I want to do that. Today isn't the right time, but it might be in two months time. So you look at, in two months time. Okay, there's my goal, I'm going to be able to do that in two months time and you work towards that.
Speaker 2:What I love about what you said there is that you, you, basically, you basically alliterated the whole point of vision. Right, like you, you came out you've, you've built this, you've built this studio. You had a vision in place and said, hey, this is where I kind of want to take it. Are you 100 where you want to be? Yet you could be, you could not be, because usually visions you have a five, a ten, even you kind of like a 50 year old goal. Right, if you really want, maybe your 50 year goal is to retire, right, but at the end of it, at the end of it it's, it comes down to like you had to make conscious decisions based around is this going to, is is this going to lead to the wellbeing? And it could be, like you said, buying equipment, not buying equipment.
Speaker 2:I tend to use an example that I give to a lot of prospects that come in the door, because usually a lot of studios dismiss the importance of vision and, you know, really developing it and understanding it. It sounds like you really sat down, but I think you gave a good correlation to how vision can kind of make or break the direction of what you're doing, like if you said hey, I'm going to bring in all these, all these you know, bench press machines like, oh, all these fancy bench press machines and I'm just using an example because I can see a bench over there, but you probably use it for something different Um, is that like hey, free weights may not heavy free weights. We're not a we're not a free weights kind of power lifting type facility, because in reality, that could hurt people. And so you know that the vision that you came up with kind of put you into this realm of hey, if I do this, this could attract the wrong audience, and or it's about good.
Speaker 1:It's about understand. It's about understanding the client you want to work with. It's about understanding their abilities, what they want to achieve. So having all these for my studio, having a lot of bench press machines, et cetera, et cetera is not what my clients want. They don't want that.
Speaker 1:It's simple because a lot of my clients haven't trained for years. Um, some of them have never trained at all. They're complete beginners. They're in their 50s, 60s, some of them in the 70s, and they haven't trained for years or never trained. So putting them on a big, scary machine, it's just going to turn them away. So that for them is for my studio, is not the right thing. It's about showing them in my studio what they can also do outside of my studio. So with my clients it's how to, how to invest in themselves um, using resistance bands, using dumbbells that they can go and purchase themselves and do at home. Um, yeah, I've got equipment here that, um, they wouldn't have at home. Um, but that's why they come to me, because they can do that other stuff.
Speaker 1:But in my studio it's about investing in the equipment that can enhance the lives of the people that come to me and doesn't frighten them away, because a lot of my clients have said to me I would say 80% of the people that come to me and doesn't frighten them away because a lot, of, a lot of my clients have said to me I would. I would say 80 of the clients that I have would never go to a big gym. That's too frightening. They don't like all the equipment that's there, the kind of equipment. Um, and having coming to my studio, having the simple equipment and having that one-to-one with me or a small group session, it improves their confidence. It improves they can go away and use some of my coaching in their own personal life. They don't have to. They don't think they have to go to a big, fancy gym all the time to get fit or to rehabilitate themselves. Big, fancy equipment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I love that, I love that conception. It's funny because I think back to what we were saying earlier on in the cast. We talked a lot about the whole premise of in today's day and age, people want to go places to feel like they're moving right, like they're making progress. And the example that I was going to give is it's like if you were a yoga studio, you know why would you have, like we said, bench press machines in there, because that's not the audience that you're going to have, and so you're kind of wasting money. One, you're wasting money, but two, you could start attracting an audience that you're going to have, and so you're kind of wasting money. One, you're wasting money, but two, you could start attracting an audience that may not match with the price point or it may not match with the visuals and the experience of what you're trying to provide.
Speaker 2:And so I'm a very big component of like you said earlier, like people want to go and have progress.
Speaker 2:But you know, I'm, for instance, if I went into a studio and it was leaking all over the place, let's, let's use your example, for instance, you and your rehabilitation. If I went to you and you had a whole bunch of reds and blacks all over the wall and you know, these, these free, these free weight bench press machines. I'm probably going to look at it and be like, wow, this, this, this makes me emotionally feel anxious, like alert, you know, and it's actually going to lower retention and lower, uh, the ability for for clients to want to work with you or even, in short, judge a book by its cover. Everyone does it, you know. That's the whole point of branding. Right is like hey, like how do you effectively communicate that? And so I think you've done a really good job at kind of seeing that, involving your vision around, around that and leveraging the vision of what you're trying to do to continue to try to improve the experience of your members well, I don't.
Speaker 1:One thing I I purposely don't have in my studio is mirrors. Oh, purposely don't have any mirrors. Um, a lot of the women that come in, and some of the men as well, um, they've said to me I'm glad you don't have mirrors. They don't like looking at themselves. That's the mindset of a lot of clients that come to me. They don't want to look at themselves, they don't want to see themselves working out, they don't like the shape they're in. So if I had mirrors here and they saw them, they'd have walked out straight away. That's it not doing anymore. Not having mirrors encourages them to come back yeah, yeah, that's.
Speaker 2:that's. That's really interesting and I I love that's a good example of you understanding your audience. Um, you understanding your audience and, uh, a very simple I mean I not going to say how much money you've you could have lost, but how much retention, and I don't. I mean, I don't know where your retention is at with your group classes, in your memberships, but I would believe that if you did put mirrors in and you weren't really thinking about the experience that you were providing, that you probably wouldn't have as many members, right, and you'd probably like, I have no idea why I'm losing members, and it would be something as small as mirrors.
Speaker 2:And the reason I like this example is because, again, like, we're talking a lot about long-term goals and not short-term gratification, not just for clients, and like what you do so much, without necessarily having to be like, oh, we're going to create.
Speaker 2:You know, we're going to go out there and we're going to create all this fancy stuff with mirrors on the wall and we're going to like, make sure that we have these rooms that are doing this and we're doing that. And it didn't feel like you had to over impress, um, and you didn't feel like you had to do all these tactical type situations and spend all this money. You just said, huh. And why that's so important in this industry and just as a whole, as an evolving business owner, is because what you just said, the impact on that simple change, was a strategic move that you made and it's moving away from the thought of, oh, I have to do more, more, more and I just doing stuff, throwing stuff at the wall right, and you just said, huh, maybe if we just did this or we did this, and those are powerful shifts that a lot, of, a lot of uh, studio owners can take um, and I love that example. Man, I'm going to use that one for the future, if you don't mind.
Speaker 1:Well, I have a lot of clients that come in and they have a lot of issues, A lot of yeah, a lot of issues, self-belief issues. I like to take before and after pictures or progressive pictures of my clients A lot of my clients won't allow that, so we have to find other ways of.
Speaker 1:Well, how are we going to show your progress then? How do we know that you are are progressing? Because we all know that a picture, uh, says a thousand words. So instead of using, uh, progressive pictures, uh, we use the the measuring tape. Has the measuring tape gone down by half an inch this week? Has it gone down by um, or is it going up?
Speaker 1:Some of my clients won't step. I won't use the weigh scales. For a lot of my clients I won't use weigh scales because that is depressing for them. When they see they're in the mindset of stepping on the scales, it's the only way to see progress. And if they don't see those scales, that number on the scales going down, that puts them in. That can put them back weeks. But if they see the number on the tape measure going down, perfect, yeah, that motivates them forwards. So it's knowing. For me, it's knowing what your client want and how to tailor each program to that client, how to tailor their progress in a way that speaks to them.
Speaker 1:Like I say, for years it's all been about weight, weight, weight, stepping on the scales. That's how you showed progress, but it's not. The scales only show mass. You can step on the scales and you could have put on two or three pounds, but you measure around their waist and they've lost two inches from their waist. So for a lot of my clients, scales are not used. It's all about the measuring tape. It's all about how they're feeling. Are they feeling happier? Are they feeling less stressed? It's all about them telling me how they're doing in their daily life. It's all about, um, how they, how they're progressing with their, their nutrition. If they're on medication, if they're coming to me for medical issues say they've got asthma can we improve their, their peak flow? Um, that's another thing. Can we improve their breathing? So we measure their breathing, um, and that's taken periodically. Um, and when they see that's gone from a score of 200, which is a very low score, to a score now which is 400, fantastic, and they can see that they're they're doing more, they can go for longer walks. That's how we've been, that's how we're measuring their progression. And then the weight loss that they want to achieve is a side effect of all that.
Speaker 1:Some people have got high blood pressure. They continue with extreme hypertension. How do we bring that down? So it's measuring their every couple of weeks, measuring their blood pressure, and putting in the exercises that they can do at home to increase their performance, to bring down their blood pressure, so they can eventually come off medication. People with diabetes the first thing is getting them to understand how they can self-manage their diabetes. They may be new to diabetes and they've been told that they've got diabetes or they're pre-diabetic.
Speaker 1:A lot of people that come in to me don't understand nutrition properly. It's another progression is how they understand their nutrition properly. What are they putting into their nutrition, their daily nutrition? How are they changing their daily nutrition from what they thought they were doing right, right, but getting no changes to doing it, um, right for them, um, and seeing the changes. And that's that. That's how I'm um putting in that. That's how I'm measuring progression with people. It's not one stepping on the scales and that's the same for everybody. That's how I measure progression. That's not how it's done. It's different for everybody. Everybody is bespoke. The progression has to speak to the person who wants that result. If it doesn't speak to them, then they're not motivated to move forwards.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think the big takeaway here is is understanding that you're, you're you.
Speaker 2:You have kind of mastered the kind of the ability and it took you probably years to do so and to, to to build this simplicity, but taking something as complex as each individual person's needs and wants, and found and built a program and a system around a simple system around all their needs.
Speaker 2:You know about all their touch points of of that they need, and I think that that's a great takeaway that a lot of people can take away from this cast is just that perspective of like, hey, yeah, you could go out there and you can, you know, buy a program or a system from somebody else. You know you can, you can have someone really quickly, you know, write up a vision statement, you know, create you some random values or whatever. But at the end of the day, all those things are living, breathing, evolutionary type things that you have to keep living and learning and leading by example, doing yourself, so that you can get to that point where you can simplify it right, where you can get to that point where you can simplify it right, where you can get to the point where you're continuing to evolve it and work with it. It's not just a one and done thing right, no it has to be education.
Speaker 1:Yeah, each of my clients it's education. It's turning around 40, 50, 60 years of what they were used to be, what they used to do, what they are used to doing, what they were taught as a child. It's changing that. It's changing their subconscious, that each of my clients learns that change takes time, it's not going to happen overnight and I have husband and wife teams that work with me. They work together. One of my clients the other day said to me me and my wife, we're working out together, we run a business together, we're eating the same things. Why am I getting different results? To her. And it's educating them on why, why they're getting different results. It all starts with education simple, simple education, and then progressing from there it's funny.
Speaker 2:It's funny because it's it's one of those situations where every time I talk to a studio owner and you definitely, I I've seen you get this as you've continued to evolve but they all come in and say something along the lines of, like I just need more business, or I just need more of this. Like, show me a system, create me a scope. And it's like they contradict themselves because it's what you just said is suitable, not just in the individual, in the growth of us as people. We're all different. We all have different metabolisms, we all have different body types. We all have, you know, different heights, weights.
Speaker 2:And even back to when you said you use the measuring tape instead of the scale, like yes people don't understand that like hey, just because you're losing fat doesn't mean you're not gaining muscle, and so you think you're only losing one pound, but in reality you could have lost six and gained you know, you know a pound of muscle, right? So people don't see that stuff. And in the, in the, in the business world, no matter what kind of studio you are, even if you you looked at all of your competitors, you looked at all of the people that you compete against in your area they're ran, they're operated, they market everything they do is not going to be 100% identical to the studio next door to them. You know, and that goes even down to the emotions and the breathing of how it evolved. And so I think that's another great takeaway for people to understand.
Speaker 2:Like you know, just like you work with your clients and you think that they don't understand, you know and you have to train them. And it makes sense because they're not business, they're not business owners, but I mean they could be, but they don't understand their body. Think of that very similar to your business. There are systems, there are operations, there are things that you can use and tailor off of, but it's going to be the evolution of of what you do and separating yourselves and making yourself different. That's actually going to uh, it's actually going to help you evolve and grow, right? So, yes, you'll help.
Speaker 1:You'll have well, you'll have health. Everybody has health. It's it's treating your, your health. If you're a business owner, it's treating your health like your business. It evolves. Um, you have a plan, your strategy in place. You have a vision of where you want your health to be, where you want your business to be. Um, they have to come together because if you're a business owner and you have poor health, that reflects on your business.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:If you have good health and you have the strategies in place to improve your health, that's going to improve your business. And if you have employees, you're at the top of the business and that's going to filter down to the rest of your staff. It's going to filter down to the rest of your staff. It's going to filter down to your employees, so they're going to feed what you're giving from the top and your business will then become known as a good business to work for it's, it's kind of branding one, what I call branding 102.
Speaker 2:It's it's understanding, it's it's the, the concept of everyone's like, hey, I just need this fancy logo or this color scheme and they just go out and buy something from some Joe Schmo down the street for a few bucks, not realizing that, hey, the visual component of the communication that you're representing to the world is going to resonate and trickle down from you personally. So the business is going to evolve that way too, and that is branding one-on-one right, understanding that leadership and branding are very, very relatable concepts. That, um, and I like to use this great example. I like to use this great example Um, there was a study, there was a study that came out a few years ago and anyone want to look it up, they can look it up, but it was this, this study, and I don't know if maybe you've heard of this study. It was a study where they were kind of looking at the growth I'm not a geologist by any means, but it it correlates pretty well here where they took a room and they started to two rooms. They started to grow crystals in them.
Speaker 2:You know, they put them in the same environments and started to grow these crystals and in one of the rooms, compared to the other one, one of them, they would go in and they would, they would, you know, yell even down to yelling at the crystals, like having people go in there and fight, like making sure the environment was very chaotic and, you know, like making sure the environment was very chaotic and you know, maybe unorganized, unorganized type, chaos type scenarios where the other room they had a very, very therapeutic, they made sure everything ran on sync, they made sure that, you know, the people that were going in there were doing more positive affirmations and they found, over the years, as these, these sets of crystal started to grow, that the one room, what was very chaotic, started to grow red, that they started to grow more red like crystal, red like crystals, and they were very unorganized and jagged and cornered. Or the other room, they were blue. They're very symmetrical and organized and I like using that example because it really showcases the benefit of growth and evolution, not just for an individual but for simplicity and organization. And I think that you nailed it on the head with what you talked about with you know like, hey, you know, I came out with the system, I grew to the rate that I wanted to grow in the ways I wanted to do and tried to take this, this, this, this mythology of my vision and stay organized with it and set goals around. That, I think, really showcases your ability to be a blue crystal right.
Speaker 2:And so, you know, we could go on all day. I love talking to you about all this stuff. We've kind of hit an hour here, so why don't we finish off and just kind of, why don't you just tell everyone a little bit more about yourself, your website and some places they can find you personally?
Speaker 1:All over Facebook Ideal Fitness, my website, wwwondealfitnesscouk. You find me on LinkedIn, facebook, instagram. I'm based in Telford, in Shropshire in the United Kingdom. I'm here for sports therapy, injuries, everyday injuries, work injuries, stress injuries. I'm here for weight loss. I'm here for weight gain. I'm here for stress management. I've been through a lot myself over the years mental health issues, not just breaking my back, but I also have epilepsy, so keeping that under control. So I'm here to help anybody that needs anybody over 35, 40, 50. I'm here. I understand what the older person goes through their day-to-day struggles running a business, running a family. I understand all that. So that's where I've evolved my business helping those people who want to evolve themselves, who want to take their not just their lives, because their lives impact others. I want to help those people evolve themselves and get to where they are, where they are happiest with the rest of their life.
Speaker 2:Well, that's wonderful, thanks, thanks, Stuart. I really appreciate you being on. This is another episode of the Fifth Grit Cast. I'm your host, zach Coleman, and I hope everyone has a good rest of their day.
