How To Hire Your Next Staff Member Featuring Chris Weier

Welcome back to the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. It's Richard Turtungi, and in this episode and this series of, um, episodes, we all talk about how to grow your fitness and wellness business. If you're a personal trainer or a studio owner or a gym owner We're all in the same game. We want to help more people to impact their lives. And we do that through individuals. We do that through the people that work for us. It could be a personal trainer, it could be a group exercise instructor, it could be a gym manager. These are all people. And over the last 2 years, we have had, you know, the fitness industry as a whole has run into a whole bunch of problems through COVID lockdown shutdowns. job losses, the list goes on. Now we've got flooding and a lot of opportunities, um, you know, that are happening over there where people just can simply cannot open their doors or they can't, um, you know, can't work in the industry they love. And so I wanted to call upon Chris Weir. Chris is the CEO of Fit Education, a well-renowned registered training organization in Australia. He's been in the fitness industry 25 years in many different roles, like I think all good Operators. He started off as a personal trainer. Yeah, the personal trainer. And moved into many roles including coaching, strength conditioning, and a fitness educator, which he currently does now. Um, Chris has degrees in architecture, building environment, human movement studies, and worked as a PE teacher prior to moving into fitness. I can only imagine the letters after your name, Chris. Welcome to the show, Chris. Good to have you here.

Thanks for having me, Richard. I like your haircut, actually.

Yep, uh, very good. If you, if you want to watch the 2 Bold Guys, uh, do on YouTube, um, jump on her YouTube channel. It's a good haircut, Chris. It's, uh, it, uh, there's always— there's a saying, it's either you're gonna go long or you're gonna go short. I decided to go short, so same as you. Chris, we've got a big problem in the fitness industry at the moment. Um, you know, what I'm hearing out there in the marketplace from our clients is that struggling to find staff. So we're talking about growing and expanding and scaling, and they go, Richard, but I can't find staff. Where do I find staff from? Where do I find team members from? So there's a big issue at the moment. I wanted to really maybe just chat about that first and sort of see what is going on here because you're— and I'd love to understand a little bit more about your background because you're in this every single day of the week. You're you know, basically people are coming to you to train up as a fitness professional, uh, to go into a workforce. Um, tell me how you're seeing this situation from where you're sitting, Chris.

Yeah, it's, it's— I suppose it's a good position for us in that, uh, I've got gyms everywhere screaming, send us your best graduates, or send us graduates, send us, uh, staff. And, um, I've never seen it this busy in terms of, um, Yeah, staff shortages. The other interesting thing that I might add there, Richard, is the new and different opportunities that are resulting out of COVID I suppose there's a whole shift to online training and the online opportunities. So I think the fitness industry has expanded post-COVID. There was a couple of dark years, years there, but It's kicking on. But yeah, it's a good position for an RTO to be in.

Yep.

We need to train people for the fitness industry, and I've got employers everywhere jumping up and down, yelling and screaming for new graduates.

So, so what happened, Chris? For those who don't know, what happened with industry? Why are we in this problem at the moment for Chris? Why are we in staff shortage at the moment?

Well, I suppose, look, COVID Caused everything to shut down. And fitness was one of the most impacted industries there. In fact, the stat was 81% of the exercise professionals lost their job at the start of COVID because every gym was closed.

81%. Huge.

81%. Huge. Yeah. In fact, I've got gyms up the road, friends up the road who just opened gyms the day before COVID hit.

Yep.

And they had to— they got their first class out and had to shut their gym. People similarly, they'd been operating for 3 months, um, and yeah, had to shut their doors.

But— And so, and so a lot of people when they shut their doors, right, generally, I mean, talk about airline, like look at the airline industry for example, um, what you're saying is that a lot of people didn't actually come back into the industry because they had to go find work elsewhere in different industries. Like, has this just expanded that people just didn't want to come back in the industry?

I think that a lot of those people have come back into various roles. However, I think there's new roles. Obviously, some of them would have gone and found other jobs, but I imagine they've moved on to different opportunities. I think there are, though, there's new opportunities. I'm not sure about you, but when I walk out the door, there's new gyms popping up everywhere. And I suppose I look at COVID, one of the 4 reasons that you could go outside your house in COVID was exercise and fitness. And fitness, people realized how important fitness and health was. If you weren't fit and healthy, then you were impacted by COVID more heavily. So that's, I suppose, a real positive outcome out of that COVID situation.

It's like a backlog, right? People are wanting to open up a studio or a gym or get into the industry and they haven't been really able to. And so now they're getting into that and the next thing is, okay, there's more out there and staff shortages are happening at the moment. And so it's So you just can't keep up with the demand, Chris? Like, there's, there's not enough people coming into training up?

I've had 2 meetings today with gyms asking me for desperately needing trainers, and I'm just saying, sorry, my graduates, uh, have got jobs already. Um, yeah, we need, we need more people. We need more students, I suppose. There's, there's a pipeline of students there, and I find that increasingly the gyms are after students in training Almost to fill those gaps.

And so just take me through your business a little bit first so we can understand what that looks like when someone comes in as a student. Because I mean, that's another question I want to ask, but just take me through how long it takes to get trained up and to get into a job and get that confidence.

I suppose that's a really good question, Richard, a hard question. All our training's competency-based. We can sign a student off when they're competent at their units. Typically, that's 12 months for a Certificate III course.

Yep, yep.

That's instructor, group fitness instructor, and 12 months for a Cert IV personal trainer. But the other day, I had a student, Lucy, who she was a retired ballerina. She was an elite ballet dancer. traveling around the world doing ballet, and she'd injured herself, and she applied all of that, and she completed her Cert III and Cert IV in a matter of a couple months. Wow. And is now really proud. She's out there excelling in the industry in one of the local gyms here, and I've watched with real interest her journey. And I suppose it's that dedication and hard work that she was as a ballet ballerina, she's applying that same effort as a personal trainer. And, um, yeah, she's killing it.

Yeah, I love that. I, I ran also to someone else yesterday, and they're, uh, um, they're an assistant, assistant in the surgery room. My son has an operation. I don't know the— probably the right terminology for that, so excuse that industry. I apologize. And so she assists the surgeon, and she actually wanted to get into Pilates. Uh, she wanted to train a Pilates instructor. I thought, wow, that's a great a great way. Yeah, she knows every area of the body, uh, really well. So you can, you can imagine there's other people coming in from different industries that have got skill sets that are putting up their hand saying, yeah, I'm really interested for a bit of a life change, a job change, and, um, they end up with you guys at Fit Education.

Exactly. And, um, yeah, we're getting, getting students from all sorts of different backgrounds, um, reinventing themselves. I suppose they might just like a bit of a sampling at the start. I want to keep my current job, but I want to help out my friends or do some stuff over here. So I suppose there's no one-size-fits-all sample of my student.

Got it. Okay. So let me— we work a lot with studio owners and I've got one in particular who really struggled recently to find a staff member. And you talk about this concept that we chatted to before called the mentoring Versus the hunting mentality when trying to find a staff member. It was quite interesting, and I want to deep dive on that a little bit more. What do you mean by, you know, mentoring versus hunting for your next staff member?

This is a really good program that we've got, and we've found that the best way for gyms and PTs to train up their employees is to look within their own network. So they've got A-teamers and people that love coming to their gyms and people that they know are hard workers and have all the right ingredients to be an excellent employee. They see them training in their studio every day. And it's that person that may be interested in becoming a gym instructor or a personal trainer or involved in some degree in the fitness industry. So most of our enrollments currently are coming through that partner coach mentor referral network. Nearly 90% of our enrollments are coming through referrals and training up their own trainers.

Well, makes total sense, right? They know the business. I always like to find within. It's much easier. And so what's some strategies that you can give to a studio owner? I like the concept here, but how do you get somebody to say, hey, you should be a personal trainer, train up and then come work for me. What's the tricks to do that, Chris?

I think the key— well, A-teamers are A-teamers. We all know that an A person, a champion person is going to be good at whatever they put their mind to. They're probably better at doing things going to their strengths, but an A person who really cares about their clients, who really wants to help people with their health and fitness, that they stand out. You can see the person who's in the gym helping their mates or helping the beginner in the gym or saying hi, or is asking you questions after the class about how they can do more, or even the person that started out and their life was going terribly, but fitness has— they've flipped the switch with fitness. And it's made a massive difference. They're the passion. I suppose it's the word passion is what I'm going to throw back to you there, Richard.

Yeah. Amazing. And so you find those people and then they're pretty much good to go. You just got to lead them on the path. Training.

Yeah. You train them with the skills that they need. And obviously everyone's got their different strengths. Some people are maths people, some people are talkers, some people— everyone learns and does differently, but particularly the practical people. Make great gym instructors and personal trainers.

Totally, it makes sense. And, um, and so they get their, they, they get their education and then they get their practical experience through the facility that they've been training at. Is that pretty much correct?

Exactly. Yeah, this is the beautiful thing, is that there's the PT or the gym, gym owner gets to train that staff member while they do the course.

Yep.

And train them in their own systems, how they like to have those things done.

Wow.

When they finish the course, they're ready to go and they know exactly how that gym wants to operate.

I really like that because in your own systems, a lot of the time we get staff on, it takes us time to understand the business and the clients and that kind of stuff. But it's almost like coming within, it's just like, oh, naturally. So it kind of gets me thinking that should we always be looking for the next A-game, A-player?

Great idea. Yes, I'm in a really lucky position in my business as an RTO in that I've got thousands of students and get to see lots of people come through in front of me. And as soon as I see that A-teamer, that potential, they're the person that I'm not going to let go out of my system and they're going to help me grow my business.

And

they have different skills that I'm looking for at the time, or I'll just make a mental note. Oh, that's interesting.

So always keep those A-Teamers around you. And if you find somebody in your studio or gym, um, start having that conversation, leading them down the path. I think it's a, it's a great opportunity. It's almost like someone's looking out for them and, uh, they, you know, they might not be happy where they're currently at and they can start testing the waters out by learning how this is, how this is going to take place. I really like that.

The other interesting, the other interesting bit there, Richard, is RPL. So some of those people come in with existing skills.

Yep.

And we can then RPL them through those existing skills towards their qualification. So RPL is recognized prior learning.

Right. So you can have done like my friend, the surgeon's assistant, the nurse or doctor, I don't know what your title is. would have skills in what you learn in education through anatomy or physiology or anything like that. That's what you can actually prior learn.

Exactly. And her skills within that workplace, she's probably really good at risk management or workplace health and safety and bookings. So they're skills that we can recognize towards the—

Wow, I didn't know that. That's awesome. So really you can speed through the process if you've been in, in some kind of field like this. This is excellent. It kind of just changes the aspect of things a little bit, saying Okay. I don't have to pay for the $370, $380, $390 Seek ad. Keeps going up every time I use it. You really can, you know, again, put that money internally and try to find staff that way. Let's talk about— let's flip the side for the actual student or the potential person wanting to get a job, get an opportunity. I mean, I remember, Chris, I became a personal trainer when I was 17 and When I left school, there wasn't any RTOs. The only place I physically could find, and maybe I wasn't looking in the right places, but it was TAFE. There was no nothing on the back of buses or billboards and that. And so I went to a TAFE course, and that's how I became a personal trainer. But when I left, there's obviously a few different things that you have to face. You're either going to work in a big box gym, Fitness First or something like that, Good Life, I should call now in Queensland, and That's one opportunity. The other opportunity which I took was I found— I applied for so many different jobs. I think I literally applied for 100 plus, got rejected with 100 of them. And I went to work for somebody as a mobile personal trainer. That was a great opportunity that I felt I had. And but then, so not everybody has the way to figure out how do I get a full-time career? How do I get full-time income? How do I make this livable? Um, and I think this has always been the struggle sometimes. I think in previous years we had a big, a big cycle of fitness professionals leaving. Um, and, and I think also too, and I'll ask about that question, but I think people come into the industry for different ways. Sometimes they come in part-time, but I see more and more people taking this as a career. How, how do you keep fitness as a career? What, where, where should you go first? Should I go and Should I go to a big box gym? Should I go start my own business up? What are the key, I guess, fundamental things you need in, in which way you go? You go and work for somebody or go open up your own place? What, what are you seeing, uh, is a needed thing for, um, the fitness, new fitness students, pros, professionals?

It's another hard question, Richard. Geez,

I like, I like hard questions. It's

making me earn my dollars today. But, um, I, I, what I'm really excited about at the moment are the opportunities in the Fit Stops, F45s, Body Fits. There's a whole new range of studios there, 12 Rounds, and they're employing staff, uh, which is a great place for someone to come out of their Cert III in Fitness to work fairly safely, I suppose. They can become part-time, full-time group fitness instructors in there and, uh, get some good practice on their skills. I think Taking your step, your question a step further, a weakness of fitness people always, and that includes me, is sales and marketing. Often fitness people like to do training and training other people and talking and having a good time, but their weakness traditionally is how to sell stuff and that business side of things. And so I think it's great for students to be able to work under someone, first of all, to get that experience and learn some of those things. And if they make some mistakes, it's not necessarily them that gets burned out, it's their boss that needs to problem solve those things. And as they get that experience, they'll learn more about how to do those sales and marketing things.

Um, well, I totally get that because that's the game that we're playing a lot of the time, and that's why I'm pretty passionate about this. Because, you know, I started a directory called Meet Your Personal Trainer, um, 10 years ago, and, and the whole, um, concept was that is that we want to get the individual out to the area. And I think the biggest barrier that— you're right, biggest barrier that fitness professionals have is that It is a, it is a personalized job, and especially if you're going to go into your own business, you do need to be okay to know that you're marketing yourself in some way, shape, or form. Even if you've got a brand, you're still marketing yourself. And I think that also comes down to, do you feel comfortable that, you know, how you're training someone, how experienced are they? So there's a whole array of issues that we find there. But that's good to know. That's what we're here for, to help marketing so that we can get you covered there. And the— you know, I love this, these— when you say this new wave of opportunities, the F45s, all that kind of stuff. And it is, it is really a new way to have a career in the industry because back in the day there weren't that many careers, was there, Chris, when you and I started? I don't think there was that career concept, would you say?

Absolutely. I started in PT. It was at All Sports Health Clubs at Jindalee. And the reason I got in was to get me through my uni course. I could earn $50 an hour doing personal training.

$50 an hour. You got caught with a $50 an hour. Yep.

Yeah. Rather than $10 an hour at the whatever, working at the supermarket or something. So, and I can tell you, I still know all those clients. They're all my friends, those people that I've trained in. And the opportunities that those clients then presented me later in life, that networking concept and people skills, I look back on those times very gratefully.

So it really is a— I think there's a lot of opportunities if you go in with the right attitude to say, hey, this is a long-term, if it's $50 an hour, if it's whatever it is, an hourly rate, but it can serve in any purpose it wants, and it's really up to the individual to see how that wants to, you know, where you want to take it, pretty much.

Yeah, I agree. Um, and that's one of my favorite parts as a— in RTO and training fitness professionals is watching this, watching my students progress through their career from working at an F45 to becoming a personal trainer at a FitStop to setting up their own franchise of that or their own gym brand or The other really exciting thing is the new opportunities that I'm seeing that are opening up online. One of my graduates the other day opened up a business, online fitness posing, and it's preparing bodybuilders for competition and it's all via online. That wasn't happening when I was, yeah, 20 years ago.

Opportunities are everywhere. Talking about opportunities and networking, you're based in— your office is based in Brisbane. Recently, Brisbane got a whole bunch of flooding happening and all right around your office, I believe. You talk about— and we had a question there I want to touch on— was mates helping mates, networking. You've been in the industry for over 25 years. There's something about this industry and networking. And tell me about this and why that means a lot at this point.

I'm very proud actually of the fitness industry and what happened during these tough times during COVID And recently in floods. And I suppose as I look out my office door here, I've got 4 local gyms and I love coming into work and they're all pumping. All of them are pumping. They're all different. Yeah. They're all helping different people. And during the floods, the floodwaters came very close to our office. We were lucky. But one of the gyms in particular, he went under. And so all the other fitness people were all out helping them lift equipment, move equipment. And I suppose it's that mates helping mates and looking after each other. And so there's just this really good feeling in the industry, and that's what I'm proud about. I think fitness people are particularly good at helping others, and I think you get a degree of satisfaction out of helping others. So, taking that step further, linking that back to looking within your gym group and looking within your communities. That's what you're— as a gym boss, you're giving, providing people with opportunities to come and work with you or move into the fitness industry.

Yeah, I like that a lot. You're looking out for people where they want to get to next. And it's interesting because I always say that things have a life cycle, meaning that, you know, someone can be in your studio for a year or 6 months or 2 years, but there's always an end date to it. And if you see an opportunity with somebody that they don't see within themselves, um, you know, that is the mates helping mates concept. So it's like, hey, reaching out, hey, you'd be a good trainer, ever thought about that? Um, you, you're a great people's person, why don't we do that? And sometimes that's all people need. They, they need that, they need that recognition from someone outside that probably respect, but they never really thought about themselves. And, um, I think that's even how I got involved in the industry. Some maybe careers advisor said you might want to go down this path, and she gave me a brochure and said, hey, have you thought about this? I said, no, I've never thought about this. What's this? It is that concept, right, Chris? You're helping people out.

Absolutely helping. And that's, that's what a fitness trainer is. They're helping, helping people. And again, I look back to when I first started out and my first clients as a PT and gym instructor, I'm still friends with those people. They're still part of my life, which I'm really proud of. I think that that means that I must have done a pretty good job all those many years ago. Yeah.

I love that. Staying in— I think this industry's large, but it's small. And I like the concept of always knowing that somebody's— someone could be close now, or they 10 years later, you'll need their support or help. And that's the mates helping mates. Keeping friendships within the industry, even if they're, um, so-called competitors. It— we are in the same industry, are doing the same thing, and at the end of the day, we still have a population that's 50% overweight. So we still have a lot of work to do, obviously.

Absolutely. And again, we all know someone that we can help, that everyone's got someone who they can— their enthusiasm will introduce them to a gym and change their life. And that person who maybe doesn't enjoy exercise at the moment. It's— you, you may know how to flick that switch on to, to change their life and, and move them from, um, depressed and, and not, not doing what they want to do to feeling great and, um, being the next personal trainer.

Love it. And everybody's got that first story of where you started. So think about where you started, guys. You know, what, what got you started? Who told you to go here? Who advised you? What did you see? Who was it that said, wow, I want to be like that person? Chris, before we go, I want to kind of ask you your wise words. Where's the industry going and the opportunities that are happening in the marketplace? So I'd love to know where you're thinking the opportunities over the next 5 years hold.

Online and community, the 2 words I'll throw in there. I think that again, COVID highlighted that people like social and people need to be in social things. We're in a society increasingly moves us away from hanging out with other people and doing those things. And so I think gyms are a great way to get community. And you look at the successful brands at the moment, and that's what they're doing really well is community. I think also having an online presence and using online and technology is a powerful tool. And if you can combine those 2 aspects, I think you're going in the right ways. What's really also interesting, I suppose, is that whatever I— probably my craziest dreams of what will be happening in 10 years' time, I'm sure they will be exceeded by the young people there today and their dreams and visions and where they take it all. And that's what I'm passionate about is giving those guys the tools to do those things that I can't imagine at the moment.

I love it and great answer. Well, thanks so much for giving your wise words, Chris, on this show. Now, I think this is a bit of a call out I'd like to say. If you do have anybody who you think would be a good future candidate for employment in your gym, even if you, you know, it's your first hire possibly. I just think it's a good idea to always be training up your next A-game player, as Chris says. So Chris, just a quick shout out, the best place to go to kind of get involved in this and take the opportunity, if someone's got, you know, a client, a friend that can come aboard and wants to do some training with you guys, where would they go and get the info from?

Well, that's an easy answer, Richard.

I told you I'd line up some easy questions for you.

Thank you for helping me out. Yeah, Fit Education, of course. And we've got a really good coach-mentor-partner referral scheme that's all set up to reward people who refer students or refer their next employee. And yeah, again, you're going to— that's the best way to employ someone.

Perfect. I'll put a special link in the show notes and we'll send this link out. You can jump in there and Work with Chris and the team, guys. Just a quick one. I always like bringing people on this podcast who's been in the industry, you know, for a while because what we do, we have context and they have experience, and they're not just here for a quick, not just here for a quick opportunity, here for long game. So guys, I recommend that you go and check out Fit Education, and they're doing some amazing things moving the industry forward. Guys, thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. If this episode has inspired you, helped you, moved you. Forward, make you think differently, I'd love if you do one thing for me. Just share it with a friend and say, hey, this is episode— really cool episode. We have a lot of other episodes. So if you can start, you can start from episode 1 if you want to, and you can all the way go all the way through. You can just pick up with this one. I'll see you next time on the Marketing Muscle Up Podcast Show. Thanks so much.