0:00 Introduction

Welcome to Give It A Nudge. Today we have Michael from Strong Pilates. I think you’re going to love this story, quite different to a lot of the ones we’ve done. We haven’t done a fitness one for ages, so super excited about this. Michael, welcome to the show.

1:30 What is Strong Pilates

Strong Pilates is a unique Pilates concept. We franchised back in 2019, just pre-pandemic, which was fantastic timing. We’re a Pilates-rowing hybrid, or a Pilates-cardio hybrid. We use a machine called a Rowformer. The biggest criticism of Pilates is you don’t burn a lot of calories. We’ve taken the reformer concept and turned it into a high-intensity but low-impact format. Someone goes from three minutes of rowing onto the Pilates machine, heart rate elevated, resistance component, back to the rower, and you’re getting all the benefits of Pilates with a really high calorie burn.

5:00 Discovering the Rowformer and building the brand

I saw the machine in the US. I jumped on a flight because I was so intrigued by it. Toughest workout I’ve ever done. The studio over there only had 11 beds and lacked brand, music, and the one-percenters like a cold eucalyptus towel after your workout. So we created this brand and business model around the machine, put it into a franchise concept, gave it a go in Melbourne, and we got this crazy cult following. We’re now at 23 operational studios, 130 confirmed territories, launching in London this weekend, sold a master to Canada, 11 launching in Singapore.

8:00 Michael’s background and the path to entrepreneurship

I studied marketing and commerce for seven years, was always a PT, promoted nightclubs on the side. I tried working in marketing jobs and hated the nine to five. I was a marketing manager in the oil and gas industry. Then my business partner showed me F45. We were studio number 10 in the world, won the global award three years running, scaled from one to six studios over four years, and sold all of them at a 10x return. We put it all into Strong Pilates and we’re self-funded to date.

14:00 From franchisee to franchisor: the hardest part

It was really scary up until the point the studios were performing financially. We’re using our own money, but also other people are investing in our brand. They’re putting three to four hundred grand into a studio and need a return. That’s been the biggest challenge mentally. We’ve invested heavily in our HQ team so every component, performance, marketing, education, training, is looked after properly.

17:00 Strong Academy and quality control

To become a Strong Pilates trainer you need to go through Strong Academy, a three-week course. Half of the instructors fail because we’re really big on quality. They can retake it, but it’s about quality control. We’re also a clothing line, an education business, and a gym franchise. Wearing all those hats has been challenging. My business partner Mark Armstrong is an ex-detective, very operations-focused, and handles sales while I handle marketing. Chalk and cheese, which is why it’s worked.

23:00 Global expansion and the US plans

By June we’ll double our footprint. We have an ambition to hit 100 studios by end of year. London is our first international, we’ve sold a master to Canada, and Singapore is a developer agreement with 11 studios. For the US we want to be there directly, not through a master, starting in California, Texas, New York, and Florida. New York is challenging because of the machine size and rent, but we’ll work it out.

30:00 Best advice and the community factor

The more I put into it the more I got out of it. Doing the 12-hour days was a beautiful lesson. And the community piece: any location-based business needs to get into the community. Your hairdressers, your baristas, your local business owners, they’re your heroes, not the influencers. When they’re spruiking your business it’s incredible. Community is the number-one performance indicator and it’s the most intangible thing. No one knows exactly how to build it, but it matters more than anything else.