How to Build Resilience Into Your Fitness Business to Survive Any Setback Featuring Shaun Krenz

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. I'm really excited for today's guest, and I want to talk about a story before we get into today. You know, over the last two years, we have been. Pushed, shoved, battled, and we've had to do everything we can just to keep our businesses afloat. And over the years, there's one thing that has always stood true, and it's partnerships, connections, networking, seeing new opportunities, seeing new products, seeing new services. And you probably maybe forgot about something that you may have gone to on a regular basis every year. And Rightfully so, because we have been busy in our health clubs, in our fitness studios. But I thought I'd just share a little bit of what's to come for those who are interested in sort of seeing, yeah, what did happen to that. And on the call today, I've got an amazing gentleman called Sean Krenz, and some of you may know of him because you've probably seen him around at the biggest, uh, the biggest trade shows in Australia for anything health fitness related. Welcome to the call, Sean.

Thanks, Richard. It's great to be here again. And certainly to you, mate, just to keep offering your service to the industry right through all the challenges. And I think we first met over a decade ago and it's been tremendous to watch you go from strength to strength. So I'm really pleased to be here today and have a chat with you.

I appreciate that. Well, Shaun, I follow you too. And if you don't follow Shaun, definitely check him on Instagram. You motivate me, right? With your fitness pictures, the shirts are off, the muscles are out. And it's not that, Shaun, but you're positive, you're focused, even in lockdowns. And you've been spending a lot of time— well, you're previously from Melbourne, you had some lockdowns, and your story is very motivating. So I want to get into it because there's so much stories here that we can share. But let's just talk straight away a little bit about you. You've been in the game for 15 years. Yeah. As a fitness industry, um, experienced, you know, expert delivering commercial strategies, successful events, conferences, and partnerships is a big one I want to touch on today. Um, you spent 12+ years heading up the national trade show offering. A lot of you will remember that, um, called The Fitness Show. Um, and I want to touch on that. Where the hell did that go? And, um, and then you continue to, you know, build out new offerings. Now at the moment, there's a new offering that you've been working on over the last 2 years which I think a lot of people are secretly excited that there's a real live trade show happening. It's called the Fitness and Wellness Show. And I might hand it over to you because I think a lot of people also would love to know what happened because we've got Fylex, we've got Fitness and Wellness Show, we've got the old show, we've got the new show. Let's just understand where you're at and the opportunities and what are we looking forward to coming up?

Yeah. Good intro. Thanks, Richard. I think the most people know me as the guy that heads up the national trade show offering for the fitness and wellness sector, right? It's a, it's a role that I've been in since 2009, um, and it had many different names over the journey. So, you know, it was when I started, it was the Australian Fitness and Health Expo, then it become the Fitness Show. Many industry professionals just knew it as Fylex, right? Because Fylex was the conference that ran alongside. I ran the actual trade show component. So those huge halls with exhibitors activating and stages and all that type of activity, love it or loathe it, it was fun, right?

So it certainly was. I remember going to Fylex, I'd speak at Fylex, and you walk across there and there was buzz, there was excitement, and that was all happening there. You know, you grabbed the, you grabbed the protein shakes in the breaks and, uh, That kept you going for the day.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, we had a lot of fun. And I mean, that was a role I was in for, for 3 different ownerships, the second of which I was a part of. We actually sold that business in 2017 to a company called Reed Exhibitions, who also own FIBO, which is the largest fitness event in the world, runs over in Cologne in Germany. And Reed Exhibitions is actually the largest organizer of trade shows and conferences in the world. They did $1.5 billion in turnover. And at that point in time, I actually signed a continuation of service agreement to stay on and run the business, which I was fulfilling right up until 2020 when COVID hit. Their revenue, that $1.5 billion in revenue that they do, was decimated, you know, become effectively zero, right? And an outcome of that was hundreds, I think even thousands of employees globally were made redundant. Wow. Including

that $1.5 billion, that $1.5 billion was across many different trade shows, right?

That's right. That's right. Yeah. Their whole portfolio of trade shows, right? The fitness show was just a small part of that. But yeah, that's— so my non-compete clauses were all gone with that as well. And the opportunity was there to, you know, continue on with that business, which I decided not to do. You know, perhaps I'm jumping ahead a bit here,

but I

think the story will kind of backtrack. Know, the, the reason for that— this will definitely resonate with you and, you know, a lot of people listening to this, this podcast from the industry— it had become very much a fun day out, um, consumer-led festival that's seen 40,000 18 to 30-year-olds coming to grab freebies, take photos with influencers, do workouts. Yeah, great at that, don't get me wrong, we had a lot of fun.

Yeah,

but in terms of adding value at the actual commercial end of the market It was really starting to decline and on its way to failing. That was the opportunity that I seen. And so with that, we announced Fitness Wellness Australia way before we were ready. This is back in June 2020.

Yeah,

it was strategic because other people were looking at the fitness show, my former business.

Yeah,

we wanted to put a flag in the ground, so to speak. And that worked because really quickly we won the support of, you know, all of the CEOs of all the gym chains in this region, all of the suppliers who I have very close and dear relationships with. And, you know, 6 weeks or 8 weeks after we made that announcement, Reed Exhibitions simply advised that the fitness show portfolio would be discontinued. And so as it stands, what we're doing with Fitness Wellness Australia is the only event of its kind in this market, you know, certainly at this scale in a sense that we've got the entirety, the entire level at the ICC. So the same venue in Darling Harbour, we've got the entire level booked to deliver our trade show and conference. There's other conference-led events running and, you know, in hotels that are still in the market, but at this scale, 15,000 square meters of exhibition space, 200+ exhibitors, 50+ conference sessions, there's nothing else even close. That's the reality of it. And so with that in mind, we're really excited to deliver We're at on the 16th and 17th of June, as you could imagine.

16th and 17th of June. We'll clear the schedule and make sure we're there. 16th, 17th of June. And it's been, wow, there's just so many stories in that, seeing opportunities as they arise and seeing the insight. And I have to agree with you, towards the end of probably last year, there was a lot of consumer-focused and there was a lot of conversations around that. And I think this is a great new Agenda here. I'm just looking at your website, fwa.show. You can check that out and you can see the agenda.

Yeah, do that, fwa.show. Exactly. I mean, let's just dive on that. Of course, when I started back in 2009, it was just a trade-facing event. So I need to put my hand up and take responsibility for taking it in that consumer direction. But of course, it was, you know, one event that become 4, that's seen 400,000 attendees 1,500+ businesses. So from an ownership standpoint, for a period in time, it was incredibly successful. In the end, right, the consumer components took away from commercials, so the model was broken. But I, I wouldn't change anything, Richard, right? It was, um, it was a great run.

No, it was lots of good, lots of good fun. And I definitely exhibited there for many years. So it was, uh, I remember I had some great times there with other exhibitors and, and speakers and so forth. So it was, it was the, the place to be. for the year. And so the new date is 16th, 17th of June. So Shaun, the other side of the tale is that you did launch the new brand FWA and the new business, obviously. Now, from my memory, that date that you served is pretty much COVID land. Is that correct? Was that before or after lockdown? I'm pretty sure it was after, right? Obviously.

It's been an absolute hustle, right? It's been the biggest hustle of my life because You know, my fellow entrepreneurs out there that have started a business with nothing, no customers, nothing, they know how it is. I started this thing in my garage in Melbourne in the middle of a lockdown. I literally had a laptop and phone. No one wanted to talk to me, mate. That's the truth of it. Even people I thought were really close, they didn't want to talk to me at that point in time. Yeah. It was, you know, 10 calls to get one person to speak to type thing. So It was that reset back where I was 12 years ago on full-blown hustle. And we were initially scheduled for November of 2021. That was the— Yes. When we were supposed to deliver it and we were set for that. But of course, 2021 got wiped out by lockdowns. Then we were set for March. It would've been on last week, in fact, on the 23rd and 24th of March. Yep. But again, we had to move away from March because now all of a sudden we're dealing with the shipping pandemic. All of our suppliers learned that they couldn't get it, couldn't get their equipment and their new technologies here on time. So, and then of course Omicron had a huge impact on the, yeah, the fitness facility operators. So we wanted to give more time to recover from that. And so here we are at June, um, and, you know, providing there's nothing down the road that we don't know about, we're, we're all set for June and I think we're going to exceed everyone's expectations because as much as it's been hard, with each postponement, it's kind of got bigger and better with more exhibitors and more speakers. But it's been a hustle, Richard, just to keep the head above water from a cash flow standpoint, as I'm sure everyone can imagine.

Yeah. And I think that's a really important point. There's a couple of things I want to talk about. One, going out there and saying, we're going to open up the largest event in a time when the previous entity, $1.5 billion loss, thousands of job loss, but you're going there and saying, I can do it. What's your driver, Shaun? What drives you every day to make sure that you can get this new dream into actual reality?

First and foremost, mate, I love building brands. I've been obsessed with the world of startup for a long time. And I believe that a great product with, you know, even greater marketing is an unstoppable kind of combination. And, you know, having worked with so many launch businesses through this trade show journey, you know, I always look to a few examples. You know, a brand like EHP Labs, for example, is our founder of that business. They started with the fitness show on the smallest stand in the whole show, a 3x3. And, you know, 3 years, 3 years later, he's got a double-story 12 by 12 type thing. And, you know, working with people like them to get their product in the hands of their target market, there's a high level of fulfillment that comes with that for me. So, you know, that's definitely a key driver alongside the fact that I'm an absolute fitness fanatic, right? I grew up in this industry. Yeah. I was a personal trainer before this whole thing started. So For me, going to events like this was always like a kid in a candy store, right? So I love networking. I love face-to-face. I love bringing people together to do what they do best, pretty much.

Yeah. I love bringing the community together. I love that. And I think that's a good reminder to everybody listening here that you've got to push through the hard times. And you certainly did, calling 10 people, 1 getting through. You know, I think that's the reality when you want to get a dream going. It's pushing through and it's getting going again.

Well, it's not just— I mean, yeah, it's 10 calls for one person to connect with, but then to close that one person to an actual sale is another 10 follow-ups. That's how hard it's been. And I'm sure everyone that's in a sales-facing business, certainly in a B2B environment, will resonate with that. I estimate there's been 5,000 Zooms across phone— sorry, calls across phone and Zoom through this whole journey to get to a point where we've got 200 exhibiting brands. So the ratio is not great, but it's worthwhile and it obviously gets easier once we've positioned this thing in the market.

Yeah. There's one thing that you can't replace in business. And a lot of people look into this and say, oh, that's a big show. They must have a lot of cash and they've got thousands of employees and that kind of stuff. But I love these stories, Sean, because these are the stories that if you tapped in, guys, and you've understood what's just happened here and understand that getting there, making that first phone call, that's the journey and that's the story. And you look back and you go, wow, that was something. You know what I mean? That's the drive that I get is when you see something and you see it completed, well, it took a person to drive the hell out of that to get it done.

100%. And you touched on this in your introduction, which I appreciated, the whole positivity aspect. I think you've got to maintain that throughout because there's a positive lesson in everything and it all starts up here. So if you can create that energy, then oftentimes, you know, I don't want to sound really cliché here, but that's where it'll kind of go, right? And, you know, advice to anyone launching a business, you really do have to celebrate the wins. First sale I got, I shouted that thing to the world, and I kept doing that over and over again to a point that, you know, I drove everyone mad, I'm sure. But it become real. People were like, holy shit, this is the new big trade show for our industry, right? And that's, that's That's kind of what you got to do.

Yeah. I loved it. And I was seeing your journey all the way along because it's in my industry and I'm very close to these kind of events as well. And I loved the marketing. I loved how you came out with partners and events and locked this person in, locked that partner in. It's just amazing piece of marketing there. Super organic marketing.

Well, that was all I had, mate, was my black book of contacts, to be honest. I really leveraged that and I'm forever grateful for the support from those people, certainly early days, that jumped on board and kind of backed me, if you like.

Love it. All right. So what's— we talked about the journey there. I'd love to know a little bit more what's in store. Let's just deep dive a little bit into the Fitness and Wellness Show. Just give a quick insight for those in the industry or marking that calendar out now. What are we going to expect? Is there speakers? Take us through kind of maybe a bit of an agenda and what, what would we generally see at the trade show?

So 2 big days running across Thursday, Friday, so not a weekend like the prior format. Yes, it's a massive trade show and everyone's going to think of the fitness show when they, when they picture this, right? Because that's what they've been to prior and it's as big as that, but without the consumers. The people in the room will be owners, operators of fitness facilities. executives.

So no consumers, Shaun, is that

what you're saying? It's a business event. It's designed to connect suppliers and operators at the commercial end of the market. Okay, well, we want to create an environment that's conducive to business. Primarily what we're doing is focusing on the procurement of products. So the exhibitors will be everything that you could possibly expect to see in a fitness facility. So, you know, supplements— everyone remembers supplements at the prior offering, and yes, that's still, that's still there, but not in that sort of format where you had the bikini models and, um, the freebies getting handed out. It's more so they're there to have a business discussion with an owner-operator of a fitness facility about their product being stocked, okay? Mm-hmm. But it goes beyond that. It really does have everything, whether it's bathroom amenities, access control, technology and software with billing, of course. Equipment's our biggest category, brands like Life Fitness activating their full range of new technologies. There's mirrors for gyms, there's lighting for gyms, flooring solutions, cleaning and maintenance solutions. That's what's really fascinating to me because when we created it in this format, in a B2B format without consumers, all of a sudden all of those types of suppliers were like, hell yeah, I want to put my product in a room with 5,000 potential buyers, right? Oh yeah. I always say it's the one time where the entire market will come together in the one place. That's our promise. And that's what we're like a dog on a bone to deliver, to be fair.

Yeah. Love that. Amazing. And you've got, so you've also got the education side and education is our background. We run marketing events all year round and education is huge for a lot of people. they've been getting themselves educated through, you know, the last 20 years in the industry. Talk about the education side of the agenda.

Yeah, great, great question. So that's right, there's, there's more components than just the trade show. The conference is our, our second component. And, you know, I'm going to make a big statement here that there's never been a conference offering across 2 days this comprehensive in this market. We've got over 50 sessions that are broken down into tracks. And the tracks that we're going to cover are thought leadership and industry insight, member acquisition and retention, revenue growth, marketing and social media, business and operations, strategy and finance, and fitness programming. And if you go onto our website, you'll see pretty much every CEO and executive from every major gym chain in the country is on board to sit on panel discussions underneath all of those tracks that will be facilitated by professional moderators. We'll get Richard to do some moderating for us yourself, mate, which will be good. And additionally to that, there's also a roundtable series where the gym owner can come and sit on a roundtable and have an intimate discussion, you know, surrounding marketing tips to get best bang for your buck or how to implement an effective hybrid offering or the perfect pitch, you know, nail your value in a single sentence. So there's that, there's a demo stage with all the greatest tech, latest and greatest technology being launched into the market. And you know, the thing about this is the crazy thing is it's free to get into the trade show for the most part. If you see a price, just hit me up and I'll give you a special code. Awesome. But it's free to get into the trade show. And then to do the actual full conference programming, we're currently at early bird phase, which means that it only costs you $395 for all that content across 2 days. And as you'd understand, that's kind of somewhere around 30 to 40% of the price for what's been in the market prior.

Totally. And I think, I mean, yeah, Guys, jump on this, get your ticket, and it's going to be the event of the year.

Definitely, mate. Yeah, that pricing ends on the 31st of May, so still a little bit of time to go, but then it jumps to $495. So the incentive's there to book now. Our agenda's uploaded and live on the website in terms of all the sessions we're going to cover. All of the speakers are uploaded. Next week we're going to be dropping the full timetable. So what, what time each session's on, who's specifically speaking on each session. So keep an eye on the website again, www.fwa.show.

I love this, you know, the topic building a $1 million personal training business in your facility, creating a killer culture and community that keeps members, key factors getting searched and clicked. You know, these are really tactical plays. And so yeah, very good education.

I'm not going to make statements like this at the risk of falling flat on my face, but there's never been anything like it in this market. The other thing I just want to drop as well is there will be a massive opening party on night 1 of the event. We've booked the entire Hard Rock Cafe in Darling Harbour and we've got capacity for 1,500 people. So what's something we've all missed through COVID is partying, right, and getting together. So that's going to be great. It's on the Thursday night. Um, tickets will sell out pretty quick. So if you do go buy your education program pass, I encourage you to do the $60 party add-on as well, because that definitely— networking event of the year.

Count me in. This is going to be a great event. Um, a couple questions before we go. So tell— what have you learned over the last 2 years of, um, the pandemic and, and how's it changed you as a person?

Oh, it's changed us all so much, right? I think for me, um, you know, my circle becomes smaller, but I value who's in that circle so much more, um, because, you know, the ones that stuck and, you know, cared and whatnot, they, they demonstrated who they are, right? So, um, From a business sense, it's you know it's resilience. It's you know never ever take you know take defeat. Just keep going and going, and where there's a will, there's a way, right? So oh man, it's hard. Like you look back to where we all were before this pandemic, and we were completely different. I mean, the positive is of course we got more time with family and. perhaps a little bit more balance in that sense. And I think that stays with us long term, and I think the aftereffect of that for the fitness industry will be tremendous. But, um, yeah.

Love it. Well, thank you so much, Sean, um, for the insights and the understanding of, you know, what's happening on the 15th and 16th of June. And, uh, we'll certainly be there— and 16th and 17th of June, sorry. Uh, we'll certainly be there, and I think it's a, it's a great It's a great show to get things kicked back properly and all together in one room, because that's the tough one, isn't it? We've all had different events and we have smaller events and things like that, but the industry does need a big one for the whole year, for sure.

As I say, mate, the one time where the entire market comes together in the one place. We've got plenty of room, 15,000 square meters in total. I can't wait, genuinely cannot wait for a big reunion party for the fitness industry.

Amazing. Thanks so much, Sean. It's been great to see this journey unfold and appreciate you putting all that hard work in for the industry. Guys, as I said, 16th, 17th of June, get aboard. There's so many ways to get aboard.

Yeah, thanks, mate. I really appreciate your time. It's great to be on here and I look forward to working with you going forward.

No dramas. Appreciate you, John. Thank you so much. If you've enjoyed this episode, guys, all you have to do is share with a friend. Um, this is, you know, this is some hot news. So if you, if you've been kind of wondering when the next, uh, big event is, uh, definitely jump into this one here and, uh, we'll see you down there. I look forward to meeting everybody there face to face at the Fitness and Wellness Australia Show, June 16th and 17th in the ICC in Sydney. I'll catch you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. Bye for now.