How You Can Help Set Standards in Fitness Industry with CEO, Richard Beddie | Industry Change Ep 22

Welcome back to Industry Change. It's Richard Toutounji, and today I've got a very special guest with a very special name. I've got Richard Beattie joining me today on Industry Change. Welcome, Richard.

Thank you.

Good to have you here. Now we're in Christchurch, New Zealand. This is your headquarters of Exercise New Zealand, also reps as well, which I want to talk much more about. But I want to sort of kickstart this episode saying you've got a good name, by the way. That's good to

hear.

And we do generally get confused when the emails back and forth, Richard and Richard. So tell me about the Richard Beattie story because the Richard Beattie story is a very interesting journey. What you've come to grow over the last few years is quite amazing. Big growth and bigger to come as well. But it comes from one thing that you were talking about before. It's putting up your hand and saying, I can help out. And I wanted to ask you about that. How did you kind of start this whole journey of really running an organization, going global, not just I can help one or two people. You're helping globality. How do you actually do that? How do you take that first step? To say, that's what I— that's where the problem is, how do I fix it?

Yeah, it's interesting. Really good question, actually, because I, you know, I only know what I know, so I think what I do is very normal and exactly how everyone else works. And I realize that's not actually the case. I mean, one of the biggest mistakes you can make is thinking that everyone else thinks like you. But I just know how I think and how I operate. And I remember when I owned a gym, the first thing I did was I went to a conference. And why? It's like, well, people who know more of this stuff than me will be talking. And so I went along and then there was this AGM for Fitness New Zealand and it's like, what's that? Apparently it's where the gym owners go. It's like, well, I own a gym so I should go to

that. You should go to that, yeah.

And then of course what I did was I asked some questions at the AGM and I asked probably a few too many. Before you know it—

The curious questions.

Yeah, yeah. I was like, hey, what do you do this and why aren't you doing that? And, you know, again, I didn't think I was particularly awkward, but I was just asking, I would say, maybe the naive questions. And before you know it, there was then this election of the committee and then they go, well, that guy over there was talking a bit, why doesn't he stand? And I think at the time there was no one from the South Island because it was a bunch of, I think, either Aucklanders or Wellingtonians. I can't remember where they were from, but they weren't from the South Island. And it's like, but I don't know anything. And they said, well, you know, you can give your input. And so before you know it, I was on the committee, and then that kind of grew into another thing. And then eventually I became, at the time, what was called the president. Now it's called the chairman. Yeah. And it was just a matter of, well, I think I can make a difference, I can give my input, and let's see how it goes. Well, and that was, well, more than 20 years ago now. And you I continued to own my gym for quite some time, and I realized that when I woke up one day, and I was still very passionate about working in the industry, but I realized what I was most passionate about was not going back and running the gym and trying to get some more members, but it was actually about dealing with childcare. And the reason childcare was not about my gym, it was about an industry issue, because gyms were being regulated and that was a problem, and we were fighting government about it. And that really got me going. This is exciting. And funny enough, I wasn't being paid at all for this. This is actually—

It's that side stuff that people love that they don't get paid for.

You tell it. It was like, this is— I'm doing this as volunteer work. I was very fortunate because I had my own business, I could afford to like not spend time on my business because I was my own boss. If I was someone else's employee, you'd say, hey, why aren't you doing work for the one that's paying you wages? But that was my business, so that was okay. And then I realized that over time we grew that and we, you know, we started with Exercise New Zealand, we started to actually do what our customers wanted. Yeah. And people say, well, how do you do that? You go, just ask them. So we went out and said to the gyms who were not members, well, what do you want? And someone said, well, we want some stats, things like wage rates. It's like, well, if we did a survey, would that help? So we did, we did a survey. I mean, that was back in the days of pieces of paper.

Wow, so that's like, you know, basic marketing, but the best form of marketing. Ask what your customer wants and then deliver what they need.

Yeah, totally. And just, what do you want? Okay, we'll do that. And that seems reasonable. How much is that going to cost us? Well, some stamps, basically. Yeah. And so we, you know, we grew the association back then. I say, you know, it was either a part-time employee or no employees. Yeah. Now we employ 10 staff around New Zealand. But it's not about the size of our organization. To me, it's more about the impact that we can make. You know, how much difference and support can we give to the exercise professionals and to the facilities? Because that's ultimately what this is about. And we're quite unique, I think, as an organisation because we don't deliver anything. We help facilitate stuff, like whether that be events or whether that be resources and sharing it, but ultimately it's the providers of exercise, it's the gyms, it's the trainers, it's the yoga teachers that are making the difference. And what we want to do is support them, so they're the ones that are actually doing the work.

And Richard, basically based on the stats, the percentage of stats, you know, Exercise New Zealand has been very, very successful You've got a smaller population here than most countries, but you have the highest uptake of actually members in your organization. How do you go about that? How is that even happening?

Well, I'd go back to the basics. You know, what does the customer want and give them that. Not that we can always give them everything, but it is fundamentally— I think there are 2 core reasons why I'll say a gym, but it's a provider of exercise, might want to be part of an association. There's the big picture stuff. I get having an association is good. We advocate on their behalf, we engage with government. There's the big picture stuff, and many of the larger chains get that and they want to have a strong association. But then there's the, hey, let's go back to the days, you know, I own a gym, I want help today on a thing, on an issue, on a topic. And that's where you've got to also be about grassroots. So it's about having both. You need to engage with government, but engaging with government gives you nothing tomorrow. It doesn't help me with my marketing today.

So it's a long game you're playing. Yep. as more of a broad board sort of status and organizational status. And then what you're doing, you're playing the short game, the need game now for the actual members of your organization.

Yeah, absolutely. And there are issues every day. I mean, it can be we get phoned up and someone says, I'm fighting the council, I'm putting a sign out on the street and they're telling me I can't do it because it breaks council regulations. Can we help with that? And it's like, yes, we can. We've actually got some help and support we can give you on that. It could be employment matter, it could be membership contracts. There's day-to-day issues that gyms face, and not just gyms but providers of exercise, and we're here to help them. And then there's the bigger picture, and you need to do both. I think if you take your eye off the day-to-day stuff and you say we're here to engage with government, which is very important, then you actually lose the what are you doing for me today. But if you do the reverse and you just do about today, then you go where's the longer-term game? And the longer-term game is about solving the inactivity epidemic that we have. You know, that's the big long-term picture. You know, New Zealand Every Western country has obesity, type 2 diabetes as a major problem, led in a big part by physical inactivity.

Wow. And let's talk about that for a second because I know we've gone straight into exercise, but just in a recap, right?

Yeah.

For those who don't know about Exercise New Zealand at all, what in a 30-second viewpoint, what actually is it?

Good question. So we are a nonprofit body and we are a membership association, so the members are the providers of exercise. So many people would call them gyms or recreation facilities, studios, anyone that provides exercise to the public. And by joining as a member, they get resources, they get support, they get advocacy, and they get to come to our events at reduced prices. So we're out there to support those that are actually doing that for the public, but we're a nonprofit body, so we're not about the commercial end, even though many of our members are.

I got you. And so then that means then that individual studio owner, personal trainer, yoga facility, they can do what they do. with the backing of an industry behind them. Absolutely. For the high, the high-end stuff, which is your government, which you're lobbying, and for the low end, hey, I can't put my sign in the front because the council's

totally

avoiding me. Okay, great. So it's almost like an insurance policy to make sure you can run your business successfully.

Yeah, totally. Because we always say, you know, the thing that you know really well is your product. Taking a yoga studio, we're not going to tell you how to do yoga. We're not going to tell you how to do your classes and which classes to put on and when. That's what you know, and you know that really well. What we can help you with is all the other stuff, like Do you know the latest law related to employment law or the health and safety regulations? Or what about membership contracts? Because that's changed recently and the Commerce Commission investigated the industry. It's like, whoa, is it really? It's like, absolutely, but don't worry about that. You can focus on your product. We'll give you the guidance on that. So whether it be a resource or a newsletter update, in some cases it's about, you know, having training opportunities. Whatever that is, we want to say, what are the common issues? We can spend the time, sometimes the money, to develop resources. and then give that to our members. And so that instead of having to spend thousands of dollars on a particular project, we can do that once and then disseminate it to hundreds of members.

Yeah, and we've had a conversation before, there are so many resources here that's just everywhere that people can use. You spend thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, and here it is, take it, use it, go for it. I want to kind of veer the conversation because the, the thing that I'm hearing that you're really passionate about is global change.

Yes.

Um, and you were telling me before, you, you You got started off in exercise because you were just playing sports in school as a kid. Now you're showcasing how we can take this and take it globally. You're in Lebanon, you're in India, you're in many different places, but you're actually putting systems in places around the country. Talk about that, what you're doing on a global scale. It's more about the reps and how that works. Tell me about that.

Back in 2000, I was doing my MBA at the time. I did as my main project. I mean, many people in a master's have a thesis, but for an MBA it's called a project. And you basically work for 6 months on one thing. And I started to say, well, let's look at the exercise industry and let's look at how we can help develop some standards. At the time I didn't realize what the solution was going to be, but that was very much around actually helping develop standards for exercise professionals. And we call that now a register. Yeah. So the Register of Exercise Professionals was born out of that project. And that was very much research when I looked at—

And what year was that in?

That was 2001, I think, and then REPS launched in 2003 in New Zealand, and we were the 3rd country in the world to have it.

Wow.

Australia was the first, UK second, and we were just behind the UK being the 3rd country in the world.

So you're a bit of an instigator of global projects.

Yeah, well, I mean, you know, if anyone wants to blame anyone for REPS, they can blame me. Lots of people love it, and then a few people sort of are a wee bit scared by it, like, oh, someone's gonna tell me I don't meet a standard. It's like, that's not quite how it works, but There are people that are very anti having a standard. Yeah. And I think it's 'cause they're scared of it. They're scared that for the first time in their 25-year career, someone's gonna tell them they don't meet a standard. And they don't wanna say they're scared, so they lash out. People are, you know, it's how people often will react to something they're scared of. But actually there's nothing to be scared about reps. 'Cause reps, whether it be New Zealand or India or Lebanon, it's about saying, let's all agree together that we should have some standards for the people giving out exercise advice to the public. People can debate the standards. What do the standards be? Actually, that's up to the industry to decide. Yeah. But once you agree with the principle, Then actually taking it forward, I'll say it's relatively easy. I mean, you know, I was in a meeting in Lebanon where, you know, this is the first time that the industry had competitors in the same room. And I was going, you don't do this all the time? Like, no, this is the first time ever. And, and Lebanon, for those who don't know, Beirut is the vast majority of the population. So almost everyone is in Beirut or very close to it. It's a very small country. It's smaller than Canterbury, you know, it's smaller than any state of Australia in terms of geographic size. And so, you know, there's a smallish 4 million people in a relatively small population in a small area, but there's lots of gyms, there's lots of personal trainers, many of whom have zero training. So they are back in the days where having big arms is actually a qualification.

I think it still is a qualification, is it, Richard? Or what's the deal there?

Yeah, well, it might be a qualification, just not a qualification to be a personal trainer. And, you know, so again, you know, that's an example of, I'll say, an emerging standard. Yet there are some really good training providers. I mean, I presented at a conference and it was at the American University of Beirut. They have some of the best exercise scientists in the world there. Yeah. Yet at the same time, they've got personal trainers out there who basically— it's all male-driven, all bodybuilder-driven. And that— those that actually know what they're doing, it really annoys them. And so they're saying, should we have some standards? And again, I say, look, it's up to you guys. You do whatever you like. But if you were to have some standards, you could join an international grouping and that have standards, that share portability, that have a mechanism to move labour around. And that's really powerful because even if you don't go somewhere else, to know that by training here, this is recognised globally, that's something that most industries can't say. Mm-hmm. Because we know this with, you just need to get in an Uber and you ask the guy who's driving your Uber what his job is, and it's normally not being a taxi driver. It's like, oh, especially if they're from another country, they go, oh yeah, used to be an engineer. Why are you driving an Uber? And they'll tell you the story about how their qualification isn't recognised. Wow. Whereas in this industry, we have portability to now 12 countries, soon to be about 20. That's really exciting, and I think it's a fantastic opportunity for our exercise professionals, but also just for us to be recognised as a force in the global inactivity epidemic. Because that's the thing, you know, we are part of the solution to many of society's problems, not just our health problems, but our problems in general. Could it be mental health? It can be resilience. It can be body transformation, and that's something that we've sort of— it's where our industry came from, you know, weight loss, muscle growth, and that's still a thing. But also there's so many other benefits that we can give our countries. And in the case of New Zealand today, the benefits to exercise for Kiwis is immense, but that applies right around the globe as well.

Yeah, great. Well, you've just come back from an exercise session with your personal trainer, is that right?

Yes, correct.

And, um, you're obviously continuing to use the benefits of exercises for good, both yourself and for the globe. My question is, how do you— you know, you're, you're trying to deal with a lot of different organizations, a lot of different people, and trying to get everybody on the same page. Yes, probably one of the hardest things that anybody could do. There's a lot of leaders on watching these, these shows. A lot of— sorry, there's a lot of leaders watching something like this, and a lot of people are leading their organization, their community, their gym. How do you be a better leader? How do you get everybody in agreeance to say, hey, I wanna move forward. And it's, to a personal trainer, it's like, hey, I wanna get everybody to a boot camp. How do you do that? How do you manage all different expectations, all different personalities to have everybody agree on something?

It's interesting, if you'd asked me that 10 years ago, I'd say I don't actually know how I do it, I just do it. I think now, particularly having sort of read and watched some more, I'll say, modern interpretations of leadership, I would say, you know, start with the why. And so understand why we're trying to do this. What is the problem we're solving? Generally speaking, people will agree with the problem. Again, assuming, for example, we take registration systems. If people want to debate it, they generally want to debate the what or the how. But if we say, but why? Why do we want a more active nation? Do we want standards for people giving out exercise advice? Generally people say, yeah, kind of. Tell me what you're going to do about it first. But they're generally— they're not disagreeing with the concept. So if you're going to get people to agree on a concept then we can debate the what or the how. Good. And, and it's very much what— why are we doing what we're doing and what is the purpose? When we do that, what will that give us? What will that give us as an industry? But also, what will that give us as a population? So what's the benefits to Kiwis to have a registration system? Well, then they can safely go and get exercise advice from an individual. Is it going to be a perfect system? Of course it's not. It's no different, you know, driver's licenses don't fix car accidents. But imagine not having driver's license, and that's always like. I like the analogy because it's not everyone think oh but but wait there are trainers out there that don't that give out bad advice absolutely of course they will some of them may even be registered we're not saying they're perfect what we're saying though is they have the adequate training they're upskilling and they're bound by code of behavior which is something you cannot say about someone who's not registered so same with the driver's license driver's license we know how bad drivers are everywhere in the world right they don't follow the road code but at least we know with a license you've At some point being tested. I mean, the big problem actually, if you were to use that analogy a bit further, the big problem with driver's license, you were never retested. And that's the problem because there's no ongoing requirement. It's a one-off qualification.

They just ask you, are you going blind or not? Yeah, totally.

When you're 65, they'll check you to see if you're blind or not and then basically throw you in front of a car for another 5 years. Whereas with exercise professionals, every year we're checking to make sure they're current. Again, they're not perfect, but we are making sure that the person has the adequate training. No different to a doctor or a plumber or an electrician. You can still get bad doctors and bad plumbers and bad electricians, but at least if they're registered, we know that they meet a standard and there's someone I can complain to. Exactly the same. So I always go, go back to that principle, and if you can agree with the principle, then we can debate the how or the what or the, or the, or even the who and how much it's going to cost. Like, all of that is to be— you can— here's the thing, you can determine that. Because if you're at this table, we get to determine that. You can determine that. If you want to leave the table, I respect your view. I might disagree with you, but but it means you don't get to have a say on those later steps.

And is that why you'd say for anybody who wants to make a difference, do you have to start putting your hand up? Is that what leadership is about? Like you gotta take the first step?

Yeah, absolutely. So if you're talking about working with others, it's put your hand up and work with others. If it's your own organization or maybe you don't even have an organization yet, I've got this idea, this vision, actually the first step is starting to do something. And, you know, again, and again, this is how I think. I prefer to take, you know, you're in a boat and we're lost at sea. And I'm gonna go, we're gonna row that way. And everyone says, why row that way? I say, well, at the moment we're not gonna hit land. Let's row that way for a day. And during that time, if someone has a better idea to row another way, I'm happy to go that way. Mm. But at the moment we're not rowing anywhere. And I'm using this, we have no information. Now hopefully someone says, well, actually there's a bird over there, so that could be— all right, let's row that way. But at least we're beginning to row.

So you're a bit of an instigator. You get things started, you get things moving, and you bring the right people in, and you start rowing that boat to see where that goes to, and then you'll find the information as you go if you don't have it all in front of you.

Correct. And that's a key thing. Knowing what I do, I know what I do well, but also that's my greatest weakness, right? Because I'm going to act relatively quickly, and what some people could say impulsively. So sometimes I'm going to row that way, and I should have been rowing that way, or I should have been rowing this way. So what we need to do is bring in people that will complement what we do. So people with a little bit more detail orientated. So for other people, they might be the detail person. Then you've got to bring in the person who's going to be— who's going to activate stuff and get stuff done for you tomorrow. But it's about balancing what you're good at with other people. People, I think, make the mistake to bring in people like them. And it's like, you don't need another one of you.

I like that. People make the mistake of bringing people just like them.

Because I like people like me. I mean, I sat down for breakfast with you this morning. I think we think very similarly. We get stuff done.

Yeah.

But you don't need me working in your business, and I don't need you working in mine, because we've got one of them. It's us.

Yeah, and we'll be talking all day if that happens.

We won't get anything done. But you go to someone who's maybe a bit more detail-oriented, you know, it's, you know, the person who you want in your finance department or your health and safety department needs to be that detailed— some people would say boring, analytical person. But no, they bring a skill set that we don't have to the party. And the other mistake I think people make is to try to be that person. Go, Recognize your strength. It is probably your weakness. Play to your strength. Don't try to fix all your weaknesses. So by all means, be aware of them. Be aware. But, but no, I don't, I don't want to be that.

Double your strengths and hire someone for your weaknesses. But be aware, be aware. Be aware.

You need to be aware. And so I— and generally your weaknesses will be your strengths. You know, you can say you're a very confident, self-assured person. Someone, people would say an arrogant and probably insert expletive there. Yeah, you probably got that too, right?

Yeah, for sure, for sure. You definitely get that. Alright, now staying on topic because we've got a limited time here, the next question I have for you— you did mention about events. Quickly tell me about your annual event because your annual event is something that everybody attends. You have something like 1,000 people coming to this annual event in a smaller population of New Zealand. Talk about this event, FIDEX.

Yeah, so we have an event, FIDEX, which collectively between FIDEX and the Industry Awards, which is held the same weekend, we have over 1,000 people turning up. Wow. It's not bad given that we've estimated there's around 5,000 exercise professionals in our industry. So a few more if we count salespeople and, and sort of auxiliary roles. But, you know, 5,000 people and 1,000 of them turning up one weekend is pretty awesome. And at the same time, actually, as that event, we also have the Hillwater Yoga Conference. So that's only in our year 2 now. But what we're trying to do is bring together the best in presenters, but more importantly with the industry, to see how we can support them in an active way. And from the very beginning, our whole approach was if we could get more people turning up and we were receiving the same amount of money, that would be success.

Great.

I look at that as a business model, that's a failure. But as for us, we're not about money. We need money to exist, but it's just necessary, a survival thing. So for us, our metric for success is attendance. So if we can get more people attending the event, then that's success. And that's what we built. So we started off 200 people more than 10 years ago now, and now we've got, you know, over 1,000 at that weekend. And we, you know, it is, it's 100 sessions, it's 50 presenters, it's 11 streams, it's, it's, it's really good.

People flying from the whole country to be here?

Yeah, absolutely. And we, you know, we do things like accommodation on-site because we realize, you know, we're not from Auckland and Auckland's where we have the event. Yeah. And we know that when you go to a conference, it's not just the cost of the conference, the cost of flying there, it's the cost of the accommodation, it's all the things around it. So we try to make the whole experience experience as easy and as cost-effective as possible. So we actually rent the entire student village which is 50 meters from the venue. Great. And you can stay in that for, you know, a little over $50 a night.

I think that sums up our conversation is about thinking a little bit outside the box. Just by that saying, hey, let's rent this place to help our members easier to get there so they have a better experience. And I think that sort of sums up you in a nutshell is that you're always thinking outside the box to figure out how can we actually make that vision a reality by thinking a little bit differently and, and not assuming, but asking the right questions for everybody to come on the outcome. And you've been able to successfully get a lot of people aboard your mission, which obviously is creating a healthier, happier planet. Is that fair to say?

Yeah, well, we try. You can, you know, you always say you've got to do what you can do and you've got to see the opportunities. Where can I best make an impact and make a difference? And I think, you know, the great thing about our industry is you see people doing that every day, whether that be one-on-one with a person Whether that be in a group setting or whether that be perhaps in a management role facilitating and training others. But it's that idea of, I can make a difference. And if I can see that, then I'll keep doing what I do. And the moment that I can't see I'll make a difference, I need to go do something else.

Amazing. Thanks so much, Richard, for your time. Really appreciate that. Look forward to seeing the conference come up in November. Yes. Before we leave, what's the best place to start with Exercise Station of New Zealand? Where do I go?

So if you go to our website, exercisenz.org.nz, from there you can see information about our conference, about what we do as a membership organisation. You can get— there's links to the registration body, which is REPS. Again, depending whether you're an exercise professional, maybe you want to come along to Hula or Yoga Conference. Again, it's on our conferences page. So again, all the information is there from the Exercise New Zealand website.

Amazing, guys. Check it out. Thanks for tuning in to Industry Change. If you want any episodes like this, go and check out our podcast. You can listen to this on the podcast if you prefer the audio version. Otherwise, go to YouTube and subscribe. I'll see you next time on Industry Change.