August 26, 2024 • 43 mins
Welcome to the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast, proudly supported by Superfit Grow, Com Marketing, and Impact Training. In this episode, we sit down with Russell Harrison, the CEO of Spartans Boxing, a fast-growing gym franchise known for its community-driven approach and innovative training methods.
Russell shares his journey from a recruitment career to leading a successful boxing gym franchise. We delve into the vision behind Spartans Boxing, the challenges faced, and the strategies that fueled their expansion. Discover how Spartans Boxing has integrated community building, technology, and a holistic approach to fitness, making a significant impact in the industry.
Join us as we explore the future goals of Spartans Boxing, including their plans for global expansion and their unique programs aimed at mental wellness and community engagement. Tune in to hear inspiring stories and valuable insights from Russell Harrison.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Music.
(00:09):
Well, good afternoon and welcome to the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast,
proudly supported by Superfit Grow, Home Marketing and Impact Training.
Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Russell Harrison,
the CEO of Spartans Boxing, a rapidly expanding gym franchise that has made
a significant impact in the fitness industry.
(00:30):
Under Russell's leadership, Spartans Boxing has not only grown in size, but also in reputation.
Known for its community-driven approach and innovative training methods with
a deep passion for fitness and commitment to empowering individuals through boxing.
Russell has successfully built a brand that resonates with people from all walks of life.
(00:51):
We're excited to dive into this journey, the challenges he's faced,
and what's next for Spartans Boxing. Welcome to the show, Russell.
Thanks, Mel. Thanks a lot for having me. I'm excited to chat.
You're very welcome. And just for our listeners, we were just chatting offline
and Russell and I have walked the streets as teenagers in the same area.
(01:12):
So that was a really interesting conversation.
So hence why it's so amazing to see your journey.
Yeah, you must be so proud of what's gone on over the last few years with Spartans Boxing.
It's funny, Mel, because when I meet someone that's also from,
you know, we'll shout it out, the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
(01:33):
Um you know you try i quite often try and
tell the story of how that shapes you in life
and in business and a lot of people don't quite get it but you
do i totally get it it toughens you up and i think that's why people like you
and i just jump the obstacles and just go right around them don't let the walls
(01:53):
stop us uh we say how we see it uh and but at the same time we're passionate
isn't it? We want to help people and we love what we do.
Absolutely. 100%. So let's kick
off the journey with the background of Spartans Boxing and the vision.
What inspired you to create Spartans Boxing?
(02:15):
Well, it's a long story. I'll try and give you the long story not too long.
So, look, for me personally, and again, going back to the northern suburbs of
Melbourne, like all Aussie kids, you know, I was involved in sports from young.
My parents put me into martial arts when I was eight years old.
The first boxing gym that I ever joined was actually in Heidelberg West,
(02:38):
which we were just talking about before.
It was in a little run-down scout hall down on the creek there.
Um so i i was involved in sports
and martial arts and got involved in in boxing as a
kid i had uncles who were boxers um
so you know they were keen to sort of see um me
get involved and put the gloves on um but and i played footy and played cricket
(03:01):
and did all the stuff that aussie kids do um but um sport for me was always
i did it at a decent level um but i made my parents happy and And I went to uni and I got a real job.
And so, you know, as we do, right? And so, you know, I worked for 15 years in recruitment.
(03:22):
So that was kind of my real job. That's what moved me to Singapore.
14 years ago, I moved here.
And I was running businesses across Asia Pacific, but always kept a toe in the
water with boxing, competed at a few different levels, was coaching.
But it was always something that I did on the side. It was my side gig.
It was my love. It was my passion.
(03:46):
In 2015,
I met my now business partner, a guy by the name of Naz Musa.
And in fact, I'd love to take all the credit, but the launching of Spartans,
it was his sort of brainchild, if you like.
Naz is a serial entrepreneur. He's worked across the world with different startups
(04:06):
and some OK exits, which always helps.
And at that stage, he was in Singapore. he just
sold a business and he decided
that he wanted to fill a gap in the market
in Singapore which was to have a boxing gym that was accessible for everybody
all the gyms at that stage then were sort of griping over who was the meanest
(04:28):
the toughest and the baddest as they do as they do and so Spartans was born
out of very much the opposite it was about making a boxing gym that It was friendly, inclusive.
It was in the community to make people feel welcome who had never boxed before.
And if you go a little bit further back in terms of Nars' story,
he found boxing back in, I think, 2006.
(04:52):
He was really overweight, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,
and the doctor said, sort yourself out or else.
And so he found boxing. He was living in Dubai at that stage.
And part of that journey, he got involved. He started boxing.
He signed up for a white-collar boxing match.
He lost 40 kilos, fell in love with the sport. And so he firsthand experienced
(05:14):
the transformational power of boxing.
And so when he and I came together, you had two guys who, first and foremost,
were business guys, for want of a better term. Like, we're running businesses.
But we had a love and a passion for boxing.
But we thought that there was a much better way to do it than the old kind of,
you know, half smelly spit and sawdust kind of gyms that I grew up in.
(05:39):
And so that's how Spartans was born, really.
And, you know, we did. If you look back now, this was nine years ago when we launched the first gym.
We didn't know what boutique fitness was then. Like we weren't talking about boutique fitness.
We were talking about operating, you know, a single boxing gym and just doing it really well.
(06:00):
So we were doing, you know, boxing classes for kids and families and for women.
And, you know, the ethos was if you bring kids, they'll bring families.
And if you bring families, they'll build communities.
And we built it around that kind of sports club mentality that you find in Australia.
Australia and so the first gym became and it's
still there now you know almost 10 years later it
(06:21):
became a real feature of the local community um
and then you know after I think about the first
year or so we started to assess it as a business um and
you know the the metrics were great from a business standpoint we had OPEX break
even position really early we were profitable from year one um so we were both
(06:42):
clever enough to know hey this is a pretty special kind of business and then
we sort of embarked on this journey that we're on now,
which is now, you know, boutique fitness franchising.
It's very interesting because like you said, you know, like 10 years ago you
didn't even know what boutique fitness is.
And, you know, the reality is we're all doing boutique fitness.
(07:05):
No matter how big our clubs are, whether they're, you know, I'll talk in square
metres, but whether they're 250 square metres or they're 1,500 square meters,
we're all doing boutique fitness because we have several business models under our roof.
It's not just one business model. We have several.
So tell me, Russell, I mean, talk to me about the growth and the strategies
(07:27):
that you've had to put in place that were like non-negotiables in order to have
successful franchises. Yeah.
Yeah, well, I think that's probably the first thing, right? So back in 2018,
when we're making decision about how do we grow the business,
we did a little bit of work then with Enterprise Singapore, which is like a
government agency here that helps businesses expand and go into different markets
(07:52):
and all that sort of stuff. So that helped us with a bit of research.
And that first bit of research was, if you go out and own, operate and bootstrap
and do it all on your own, this is where you can get to.
Or if you look at franchising and you build a franchise model,
here is how you can scale it.
So for us, franchising was the way we decided to go. And we decided that pretty much from the get-go.
(08:14):
Um so we opened our second location
in 2018 which was a
very rough cut version of a franchise um still
there today which i'm really proud to say um and
um you know we we we lent
into the fact that we wanted to be a franchise business now in
(08:35):
2019 end of
2019 nas and i had a meeting and
we made the decision that um one of
us had to lean into this and so
i threw away my 15 year career in recruitment um and decided that i was going
to move into this as my full-time gig so that was i can remember it vividly
(09:00):
because that was october 2019 um and then we know what happened shortly after that, right?
So we opened the third and fourth gyms in Singapore in early 2020.
And then COVID hit, right? And so I was sitting there going,
shit, that was a stupid idea.
(09:22):
You know, anxiety levels to the max.
So, but, and I'm careful how I say this because I know COVID was a really,
really tricky period for everyone.
But COVID for us was definitely needed because we got to sit still and we got
to really look at what world-class franchises were doing.
And then we started to
(09:44):
do all of the things that we needed to do to be able to scale the
business properly so you know we completely digitized
the customer experience from app to crm to
dashboards to analytics you know payment gateways and
all of that kind of stuff and then we did another project
with enterprise singapore at that stage where we built
our digitized franchise management system and so
(10:05):
that's the backbone of the business you know your training your
onboarding um you know your business management dashboards
everything the franchise needs to sort of keep the thing
together um and so covid was
good we had time to do that um but then the
thing that we did mostly during covid was we lent
into this thing called community which we were
(10:26):
talking about since we started right um that we knew that was our secret source
um i know a lot of people talk about that that now um but for us it was really
hey look you know how how do we build communities and what have we done well
to do that and so we lent into that during covid we really brought people together.
Um you know we launched an online um reality
(10:50):
tv show and sort of we were you know podcasting with
different athletes and celebs and all this kind of
stuff we just did a bunch of stuff to bring people together um and
so as we came out of covid um we
rapidly expanded and so you know we're now
10 locations in singapore um we
launched in dubai october 2021 um which
(11:13):
was sort of us to go okay we're an international brand
now does this actually work um it did um
so we've grown from uh we're five gyms
open in dubai now we've got another four scheduled for opening in
dubai we launched our white collar boxing events which then really laid grounding
(11:33):
to the pillars of our business which make what we are today so we've got gyms
we've got events and then probably a long way to answer your question is we've
also got a boxing academy,
and so our boxing academy is the area of our business the education arm where
we're making sure that coaches are doing things the way that they should be doing them.
(11:54):
And like everyone likes to think that they're special, right?
And everyone likes to think that their businesses are special,
but you know, in boxing, you know.
I sound like a broken record when I say it, but a good boxer doesn't necessarily
make a good coach and a good coach doesn't necessarily make a good coach in a Spartans environment,
because we're not just teaching fighters, we're teaching kids and women and
(12:16):
we're trying to do it in a safe, inclusive manner.
So there's a bit that goes into it. So for me, the academy was really one of
the key non-negotiables to make sure that the quality and standards of coaching
across the board in our business was ticking the boxes wherever we were,
whether we were in Dubai or Singapore.
And so we've subsequently, now we're in five countries, so we've landed in the
(12:38):
Philippines, Cambodia, opened our first gym in Oz in northern suburbs of Melbourne.
Not living each parade? We went further out. We went further out.
But around Ivanhoe is definitely on our radar.
Perfect. Yeah, so we're in our first ones in South Morang. So we opened that just a few months ago.
(13:01):
And, you know, as suspected, community is the secret sauce again, right?
So just getting involved with all of the footy clubs and the sports clubs and
all of that sort of stuff. So, yeah, long story long.
But, I mean, everybody's success is a story, and we need to listen to more stories.
(13:21):
One of the things that I noticed that you consistently said then was community.
And as we know, lots of people say, I have a great community,
I have a great community.
But to you, if you were to walk into somebody else's studio or club,
what would be something that would stand out that would say to you, yes, this is community?
(13:44):
That's a great question. Look, I think, and it's really simple stuff, right?
Like, and this is what we started doing back then. And then we had to obviously
systemize it and put it into a process.
But, you know, simple stuff like knowing your name when you walk in the door, shaking hands.
You know, in a boxing gym, it's asking people to come in and making them feel
welcome rather than sizing them up as if they're going to get punched up.
(14:07):
All right. So, you know, that depends.
Some gyms, maybe some people are huggers. I don't know. But at least a fist
bump and a first name. I'm not a hugger. You're not a hugger?
That's the little break of anatomy. Yeah, that's absolutely true.
It's pretty, yeah. But look, our industry is full of huggers,
right? So, you know, for me, like that's one of the telltale signs.
(14:32):
But for us in our business, right, we've kind of, we've tried to,
and, you know, our global CMO uses this term and I love it.
We've tried to codify community as much
as we can so depending on where we
are in the world there's still that sort of um consistency across
the board and you know i've always sort of wrapped it up into three tiers um
(14:55):
you know one is what we call spartans community and you know that's whether
it's spartans or you know change that name for the name of your club right but
just making sure that people feel like that place is home it's a family um you know as i said.
First name basis you know how's the kids etc
etc right so just making sure that the club is home
(15:16):
um the second one for me
is what we call local um and we sort of have a a system and a process where
we ask all of our um gyms in their local area they have to immerse themselves
in the local area right so you know tie-ups with local businesses and you know
making sure that you're You're setting up a network around the area.
(15:39):
And obviously, that's great because there's a bunch of customers there you could
potentially get your hands on, right? So that's nice.
But also, it's about, you know, members' benefits and, you know, all that sort of stuff.
So, you know, making sure that you really immerse yourself in that local community.
And then a really important one for us is grassroots.
And so because boxing, you know, the roots are in the sport, if you like.
(16:04):
Um so we make sure that the grassroots portion
of it is you know we do community-based local
boxing events um we are affiliated
with all of the local boxing bodies so in singapore
it's the singapore boxing federation uae it's the uae boxing
federation in oz it's boxing victoria so whatever the local boxing body is we
(16:25):
get involved and we try and work with developing developing athletes and sport
from the ground up and so when you kind of put all those things in and I tell
all my my franchise owners you got to do all the things all at once all the time,
right that's the secret sauce right um but for me if you know if you're doing all of those things,
(16:47):
you've got no choice but to build an amazing community um so you've given us the recipe for
community let's let's talk
still talk community but what type
of technology are you using within your club that
keeps that community still going on yeah look that's a really great question
(17:10):
i think and my guys will hate me for this but we first and foremost we start
with simple stuff right so each one of our gyms has got a whatsapp community
right and so So, you know,
not that everybody needs another WhatsApp group in their life.
I know in Oz people aren't as heavy WhatsApp users.
You know, I message my family in Oz and it takes them like a week to reply to the message.
(17:33):
But in Asia, you know, it's WhatsApp or it's Telegram or it's Viber or something, right?
So each one of our gyms has got an online community through those various chat channels.
Channels um you know in terms of um the technology that we use we've used glow
fox as far as just you know keeping members engaged with attendance and all
(17:55):
of that sort of you know the basic kind of stuff um in the gyms themselves so.
I was very, very careful with the type of technology that I wanted to use,
if we call it a retention tool, right?
You know, I'm a boxing purist at heart. And so I was very careful when we were
looking at technologies as retention tools to make sure that they specifically
(18:19):
spoke to what we were, which is, you know, we're in the boxing modality.
And so we use impact wrap in all of our gyms,
which is a tool to be able to, you know, count out the number of punches that
you throw and how hard you hit and it's all about you know engaging members
it's all about tracking progress it's all about gamification all right and so
(18:40):
when you've got it's about around about 90 of our members they just come for
fun fitness and community,
um those sorts of tools are really really powerful to
keep people engaged and keep them coming back we've got
another crazy bunch about 10 of our membership are
the guys that say yeah actually i want to go and pursue this for competition
and so yeah so we've got
(19:01):
some really decorated amateur and professional boxers
that we've developed over the years in singapore the
uae um and so and that could be amateur professional we do white collar boxing
as well so in addition to you know the technology that talks to the masses in
our in our sort of um membership base there's also this really unique avenue
(19:24):
of people sort of wanting to go off and pursue competition.
So yeah it's it's a pretty cool when you get all of those things working all
at once um it's really amazing to see how members sort of you know interact
depending on what it is that they're doing and what their goals are what does
a typical franchisee look like,
(19:44):
Good question. For our single unit owners, they're typically somebody who has got a day job.
Yeah. Right. So, you know, we call them an active investor.
They're typically they're working in their day job, usually quite senior and
accomplished in what they do.
And they've got a connection or a love with health and fitness,
(20:09):
not necessarily boxing, but health and fitness.
And so for those people they're
typically you know they're spending not all of their
working time in the gyms and you know they've
got a team but they're definitely involved in
the key stuff like you know building community engaging their.
Teams looking after the numbers you know
(20:30):
all that sort of stuff so that's for our single unit owners for our
multi-unit owners they are typically people who
have ran businesses not necessarily health and
fitness again but they've got an understanding of running multi-functions
across business um and so
you know they've decided that they want to build their little gym empire um
(20:50):
which is quite cool um and so i would say that they're probably just a higher
level of business acumen in those type of franchise owners um and And then we've
got a bunch of owner-operators.
Now, in my opinion, if I was going to do a single-unit gym, owner-operator is
(21:11):
undoubtedly the best model.
The people are living, breathing, absolutely involved in every facet of the gym.
And those gyms are clearly more successful when there's an owner-operator in
there. You can't beat passion.
So there are a couple of the typical profiles. files master franchises for us
(21:31):
we we've only just signed our first master franchise for vietnam which has literally
just happened um so again you know we're talking to people who are,
um i guess senior and accomplished business professionals who've got the ability
to be able to build and scale a business um not necessarily again in health
(21:54):
and fitness but that's the expertise that they've got.
So, yeah, so as much as we talk about when I answer questions like that,
it sort of hits us that we've been doing this for a while, but we're still really babies in the game.
So it's interesting. I don't know if I've cracked the code yet in terms of what
(22:14):
a fantastic franchise owner looks like.
I kind of put my recruitment hat on, which was 15-odd years career before this.
And, you know, even with the best will in the world, the best systems,
processes, et cetera, et cetera, you know, people will always surprise you in good and bad ways.
Oh, I absolutely agree with that one.
(22:35):
So what I got out of that was that if.
Really, anybody can open up a Spartans boxing studio.
You don't have to have a deep passion for boxing.
Obviously, you want to have a deep passion for health and fitness.
But if you're somebody that looks and say, I'm someone that looks out there
(22:57):
at opportunities and I might look at something, look, Spartans boxing.
Wow, I'm not a boxer. I'm not really in the health and fitness industry,
but I know that everybody's loving the health and fitness industry at the moment.
And I feel that that's a good concept.
I can be that type of person that can come along to say, hey,
Russell, I'm really keen of opening up, you know, a boxing studio.
(23:19):
Yeah, we've had some great successes with that kind of profile.
So people, and, you know, it depends what you call it.
I think there's some, you know, in I guess with everything that's going on in
the world, there's a real move for people to want to, you know,
find their icky guy or their triple Ps or, you know, whatever you want to call it.
But just being able to merge the sort of, you know, purpose,
(23:40):
passion, profit, sort of rolling it all into one.
And so we've had some great successes of people that have done exactly what
you just mentioned. They've said, hey, look, you know, I really like the business model.
I can see the merits in the business model. I've got a passion for business.
And, you know, they get to know the boxing and fitness space as they go.
(24:00):
And so that's worked really well. Now, conversely, people who have been in and
involved in boxing and fitness have also provided to be great franchise owners for us as well.
So just before I move quickly to the next question, do you envisage Spartans
(24:21):
opening up studios, let's say, in universities or secondary schools or,
you know, the bottom of hotel units?
Because I look at boxing as a really great tool to help people that suffer from
anxiety, you know, social interaction issues and, you know, fitness is all about
(24:41):
the social side of it. Do you envisage that happening?
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for that. That's a great question for me.
Look, so a few things on what you just mentioned.
So number one is since we started, we've always done school programs.
So we do boxing in schools and we do that in Singapore and in the UAE.
(25:04):
And so that's always been part of that.
So schools, most definitely.
In Cambodia, we have a really interesting concept where our gym is actually
in a hotel. It's in a luxury hotel.
And they've put that in there because, you know, they've wanted a concept.
They wanted members to be able to have an experience when, you know,
(25:27):
they're not just going in there and just doing weights. So we've done the hotel concept as well.
So to answer your question, yes. I think probably the thing that we've really
lent into even further than that is we've got a part of our business which is called Spartan's Mind.
Mind all right and so we
have um i always give him shout outs
(25:48):
when we're talking about this but there's a guy who is in our
group called dr paul englert um so paul is a psychologist um he's done a body
of work in and around youths and leadership and all that sort of stuff um i've
actually got there you go shout out for him he's written this book here it's
called future selves um this is.
(26:09):
A whole it's a sort of a set of
cognitive beliefs around how people build their
future selves and so in spartan's mind we've
built youth programs that link
boxing programs to future selves as
a whole sort of counseling program and so we're
one of the first um fitness businesses
(26:30):
that i know of globally who have linked you know
actual bodies of research and counseling programs
into the sports programs um so
we do that in singapore with a local um
not-for-profit charity organization here called impart sg um and so we've got
two programs that we run with them one is called project grit so that's where
(26:53):
we run these 12-week programs for kids future sales plus boxing we've got that's
for youth so they're 13 to 19 years old um and then we've got another one called.
Project Brawl, which is for kids. So the kids are 6 to 12 years old.
And then we also do another one, which I don't know why we haven't given it
a name, but we do it for ex-offenders as well.
(27:16):
And so it's basically, as you said, it's all looking at thinking about this
concept of holistic wellness, right, which is obviously a huge portion now around
mental health and mental wellness.
And so just linking in programs that bring all of that together.
And I think for me this is going to be one of the key things that we do as we grow in Australia,
(27:41):
because I know that Oz in terms of the thinking in comparison to say you know
countries like Singapore etc I think that the thinking in Australia it's a lot
more primed for these sorts of programs.
I think a great name for your program that you don't have a name for or something
like On the Road to Betterment or On the Road to Greatness because,
(28:04):
you know, they've come from a negative place and you want to send them on a
journey to a positive place.
So I think that, yeah, maybe consider something like that.
I'm going to tag in the marketing team on this afterwards.
People in the industry will say Mel is full of ideas and you can either take
a little bit or take a whole lot.
(28:25):
But, yeah, and I love doing that stuff. but enough about me.
Anyway, so really briefly, before we talk about your future goals and your vision,
let's talk about some of the challenges as a CEO.
How do you balance life as a CEO and then go home to family?
(28:46):
Should I call in my wife? Yeah, because I want to know how you don't talk shop.
Well, funnily enough, my wife is a boxer and a boxing coach.
So we talk a lot of shop. You talk a lot of shop. We talk a lot of shop.
But at the moment, we've got a two-week-old newborn. Congratulations.
Yeah. So, look, how do I balance it? I think probably maybe like a lot of CEOs,
(29:11):
I'm more interested in work-life integration than work-life balance.
So I feel incredibly privileged that my job now is to go around the world,
give people an opportunity to be an entrepreneur, have their own business, their own boxing gym.
(29:32):
I get to run academies to recruit and train coaches.
I get to go to boxing events. events um so i feel privileged that what i'm doing
is you know it's a real passion for me and
as i said i sort of ditched the real career five years
ago now to do this um so for me it's very much about work-life integration um
(29:52):
but you know like anybody that's running their own business right like it's
a round the clock gig um all right i'm sure you know seven it's 24 7 right so
there There is no real off button.
You can be out of the restaurant at 10 o'clock at night, Russell,
and someone says, my fob doesn't work.
(30:13):
Exactly, right? Exactly. So I always, look, the guys in my business,
I'm known as the eternal optimist.
And so even, you know, if I'm in the midst of a really challenging period in the business,
I feel, again, incredibly privileged because, you know, What is also included
(30:34):
in my day is I train every day, right? I train six days a week, right?
And those training slots are
just as important and vital in my calendar as any other meeting, right?
So I never miss training six days a week, right?
And you do that because you're in this industry, right? So...
(30:55):
I think that's probably the way that I manage it. The challenges that I have,
I think, are probably not dissimilar to most definitely other fitness businesses,
but also all businesses around the world. You know, we're in a people business.
So, you know, trying to always get people who are the right people for the business,
believe in the broader vision, you know, in boxing especially,
(31:20):
because, you know, we're somewhat, we're sort of trailblazing in terms of what we're doing.
Um you know we have to constantly remind
people who are in our business hey this is a this is a
global brand um you know what we're trying to do
here is much bigger than just the local boxing gym down on
the corner um and so you know trying to get
people who have got the the knowledge and passion
(31:42):
for boxing um but also being able
to see a broader vision um sometimes
those two things are mutually exclusive um so
you know people are the probably the biggest challenge for
us um and you know again i'm probably talking
for every single business owner or ceo who's
trying to scale a business whether it's scale it locally
(32:04):
or globally um you know growing pains with scale uh whether it be funding whether
it be compliance you know there's a whole bunch of things um i just try to be
the eternal optimist and just take it all as look this is part of the journey yeah i i I love that.
(32:24):
And it is, it's all part of the journey, isn't it? I mean, every day you get
up and there's something new happening.
There might be a new obstacle or an old obstacle, but you just keep moving forward
and you don't let, and you don't let other individuals get in your way either.
If you've got a vision, you just go, you aim for that.
And so talking about a vision, what are the plans for Spartans over the next,
(32:47):
let's talk about the next 18 months.
Yeah, sure. Sure. So yeah, look, we're hyper-focused now on two regions,
Asia Pacific and the GCC in the Middle East.
So in the existing markets that we're in now, so Singapore, Australia,
Philippines, Cambodia, the order of the day is to expand the gym network in those countries.
(33:14):
So that's in the Asia Pacific region.
And also, as I'd mentioned, we've got Vietnam now on the horizon for us as a new market.
So it's to continue to scale the gyms in those markets.
In the GCC region, where things have happened incredibly fast for us,
so as I mentioned before, we only launched in October 2021.
(33:35):
We've already got nine gyms in Dubai sort of open or in the pipe. Saudi Arabia.
Focus um so we're in fairly
advanced conversations to get into saudi um so
that's the gyms continue to you
know go into key new markets and expand the markets that we're
(33:56):
in right now um for our events which
is our white collar boxing events um so
you know for the unaccustomed these events are
for people who have never boxed before um just
the average person that comes in off the gym uh it
comes in off into the gym off the street um they're typically uh
(34:16):
high level working professionals you know i
say to everybody some people want to climb everest and
some people want a marathon and then there's a crazy bunch out there that want
to have a fight um and so we basically take these people in we put them through
a training camp and at the end of it we put on a huge black tie event um so
we've done six of these in dubai
(34:36):
we've got our seventh one coming up in Singapore in October this year.
And our events schedule, what it looks like is we'll run two white collar events
in each country that we've got gyms every year.
So our events business this year goes from three events, next year, it'll go to six.
And then very quickly, we sort of end up doing 12 plus events per year.
(35:00):
And our academy, our academy is really interesting.
So we've built a whole bunch of IP in our academy for two reasons,
really. One is around quality and standards with our own coaches.
And then the other one is, you know, we now, this is a revenue stream for us.
These boxing courses are courses that members and public can buy from us.
(35:23):
And so our strategy with the academy is
really simple we're not creating all
of the content now we're creating more of a portal and
so we're currently in conversations with some of the largest boxing
educators in the world where the Spartans Boxing Academy becomes the portal
to get access to boxing education so each one of those arms I was meeting with
(35:46):
my marketing manager yesterday and we'll talk about the marketing plans for
each and you know he turned a little bit pale We've got a lot of work to do.
I'll just read down to your marketing team while you're talking.
I was grabbing a pen to write it down, yes.
And, you know, look, we do what most small businesses and, you know,
(36:06):
we think and act like a startup. And so, you know, we do everything very, very lean.
And so, you know, this whole concept of work-life integration is very familiar to all of my guys.
Let me ask you, Russell. So, okay, so your events that you're doing,
you may have already done this, but have you considered running an event inside a fitness expo?
(36:29):
So, like, for example, Sean Krenz is running the Aus Fitness Expo in October
in Sydney. He'll have a trade floor show.
To show off the Spartans boxing brand, have you thought about doing something like that? No.
We haven't, actually, but I do love it. Yeah, I do love it. We do. Voices in the mail.
(36:53):
Yeah, yeah, right. You're going to have to send me a couple of invoices from this call.
But no, in all honesty, like, you know, look at your business model a little
bit like, you know, High Rocks and the CrossFit Games.
Why can't you have, you know, Spartans boxing running off the trade floor show
of an expo? So you get to show the franchise side of it and then you get to run an event.
(37:18):
And everybody, as you know, loves fitness events, the physical side of it,
and they're going to come and watch. So it's going to help your brand grow.
And the other thing for your marketing team that I hope are listening now.
So, guys, get in touch with Nigel Benton at Australasian Leisure Management
Magazine because if you've just opened your first location out near South Morang,
(37:41):
He would love to do a press release on that.
And Russell Harrison, the guy from the northern suburbs of Victoria,
gone global with a brand.
So there's an incredible story right there for you.
Wow. Thank you. That's fantastic. I appreciate that.
Yeah, I think that the, you just mentioned sort of High Rocks,
(38:04):
right, and the sort of events.
And, you know, that's one of the things for us is that we wanted to have underneath
our group, we wanted to have these arms because each of them obviously feed into each other, right?
So, you know, the franchise gyms, they are people that go into our events.
(38:24):
The events, we've actually had some franchise owners that have come from people
that have done white collar boxing.
The academy sort of feeds the whole thing. So we've created this really unique infrastructure.
Structure um but I think probably the
thing that you've said which is I love it like trying to do
it inside of these other events but that probably wouldn't
be our white collar events because these are like black tie gala
(38:45):
events but we also do um sort of community boxing events and the idea is to
showcase you know boxing um and so I think that could be yeah that's it I love
it absolutely because everybody learns differently in life and the same can
be said when we go to purchase product.
Some can purchase, you know, off a bit of paper they've read about it and then
(39:07):
some see it visually and go, yeah, that's for me.
I want to do that. Yeah. Yep. Agreed.
Well, we've had a really interesting discussion today, haven't we?
Time's flown. It has. It has flown. You've got some, you've got an incredible story.
You've got some amazing, you know, future goals and vision.
You've got the Academy happening, your first location here in Oz.
(39:30):
Is there anything else that you wanted to mention on today's podcast?
Um, no, I mean, I just want to thank you for your time, Mel.
As I said, we've sort of bumped into each other a few times,
but we hadn't had a chance to do this. So I really appreciate the time.
And of course, you know, if anybody in Oz is listening, you know,
we're new there and there's first movers advantage in terms of what we do as
(39:53):
we sort of grow and scale in Australia.
Australia will be for us globally our largest market over the next five years.
So you know I think you know kudos to all the Aussie brands because Australia
is just now such a great market for fitness and there's a really high bench
benchmark set in Australia and so we're just really really excited to be there
(40:16):
and I'm looking forward to you know continuing to expand there.
So will you be at will you be at AusFitness Expo will you be at Beyond Active
in Sydney, where could somebody physically catch up with you?
Yes, I'll be Beyond Active in
Sydney. So I'm talking on one of the panels there. So that's in December.
(40:37):
I will probably be in Melbourne within the next couple of months.
I'm just trying to arrange dates, newborn.
So the travel schedule took a backseat for a while, but I'll definitely be at
Beyond Active in December in Sydney. Fantastic.
That's amazing. Now, if somebody wants to catch up with you, you're on LinkedIn?
(40:58):
Yep. They can get me on LinkedIn, Russell Harrison.
They could email me directly. It's just russ at spartansboxing.com or they can
find us on any of our socials, spartansboxing.com or Instagram is at Boxing Spartans.
I'll drop all of those links at the bottom of our podcast.
(41:19):
This afternoon we spoke to Russell Harrison the
CEO of Spartans Boxing as I said the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast is
proudly supported and sponsored by Michael and Benji at Superfit Grow Richard
Tudiani at Com Marketing and Steve Jensen at Impact Training thank you Russell
for joining me on the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast thanks again Mel cheers.
(41:42):
Music.
Music.
(00:09):
Well, good afternoon and welcome to the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast,
proudly supported by Superfit Grow, Home Marketing and Impact Training.
Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Russell Harrison,
the CEO of Spartans Boxing, a rapidly expanding gym franchise that has made
a significant impact in the fitness industry.
(00:30):
Under Russell's leadership, Spartans Boxing has not only grown in size, but also in reputation.
Known for its community-driven approach and innovative training methods with
a deep passion for fitness and commitment to empowering individuals through boxing.
Russell has successfully built a brand that resonates with people from all walks of life.
(00:51):
We're excited to dive into this journey, the challenges he's faced,
and what's next for Spartans Boxing. Welcome to the show, Russell.
Thanks, Mel. Thanks a lot for having me. I'm excited to chat.
You're very welcome. And just for our listeners, we were just chatting offline
and Russell and I have walked the streets as teenagers in the same area.
(01:12):
So that was a really interesting conversation.
So hence why it's so amazing to see your journey.
Yeah, you must be so proud of what's gone on over the last few years with Spartans Boxing.
It's funny, Mel, because when I meet someone that's also from,
you know, we'll shout it out, the northern suburbs of Melbourne.
(01:33):
Um you know you try i quite often try and
tell the story of how that shapes you in life
and in business and a lot of people don't quite get it but you
do i totally get it it toughens you up and i think that's why people like you
and i just jump the obstacles and just go right around them don't let the walls
(01:53):
stop us uh we say how we see it uh and but at the same time we're passionate
isn't it? We want to help people and we love what we do.
Absolutely. 100%. So let's kick
off the journey with the background of Spartans Boxing and the vision.
What inspired you to create Spartans Boxing?
(02:15):
Well, it's a long story. I'll try and give you the long story not too long.
So, look, for me personally, and again, going back to the northern suburbs of
Melbourne, like all Aussie kids, you know, I was involved in sports from young.
My parents put me into martial arts when I was eight years old.
The first boxing gym that I ever joined was actually in Heidelberg West,
(02:38):
which we were just talking about before.
It was in a little run-down scout hall down on the creek there.
Um so i i was involved in sports
and martial arts and got involved in in boxing as a
kid i had uncles who were boxers um
so you know they were keen to sort of see um me
get involved and put the gloves on um but and i played footy and played cricket
(03:01):
and did all the stuff that aussie kids do um but um sport for me was always
i did it at a decent level um but i made my parents happy and And I went to uni and I got a real job.
And so, you know, as we do, right? And so, you know, I worked for 15 years in recruitment.
(03:22):
So that was kind of my real job. That's what moved me to Singapore.
14 years ago, I moved here.
And I was running businesses across Asia Pacific, but always kept a toe in the
water with boxing, competed at a few different levels, was coaching.
But it was always something that I did on the side. It was my side gig.
It was my love. It was my passion.
(03:46):
In 2015,
I met my now business partner, a guy by the name of Naz Musa.
And in fact, I'd love to take all the credit, but the launching of Spartans,
it was his sort of brainchild, if you like.
Naz is a serial entrepreneur. He's worked across the world with different startups
(04:06):
and some OK exits, which always helps.
And at that stage, he was in Singapore. he just
sold a business and he decided
that he wanted to fill a gap in the market
in Singapore which was to have a boxing gym that was accessible for everybody
all the gyms at that stage then were sort of griping over who was the meanest
(04:28):
the toughest and the baddest as they do as they do and so Spartans was born
out of very much the opposite it was about making a boxing gym that It was friendly, inclusive.
It was in the community to make people feel welcome who had never boxed before.
And if you go a little bit further back in terms of Nars' story,
he found boxing back in, I think, 2006.
(04:52):
He was really overweight, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes,
and the doctor said, sort yourself out or else.
And so he found boxing. He was living in Dubai at that stage.
And part of that journey, he got involved. He started boxing.
He signed up for a white-collar boxing match.
He lost 40 kilos, fell in love with the sport. And so he firsthand experienced
(05:14):
the transformational power of boxing.
And so when he and I came together, you had two guys who, first and foremost,
were business guys, for want of a better term. Like, we're running businesses.
But we had a love and a passion for boxing.
But we thought that there was a much better way to do it than the old kind of,
you know, half smelly spit and sawdust kind of gyms that I grew up in.
(05:39):
And so that's how Spartans was born, really.
And, you know, we did. If you look back now, this was nine years ago when we launched the first gym.
We didn't know what boutique fitness was then. Like we weren't talking about boutique fitness.
We were talking about operating, you know, a single boxing gym and just doing it really well.
(06:00):
So we were doing, you know, boxing classes for kids and families and for women.
And, you know, the ethos was if you bring kids, they'll bring families.
And if you bring families, they'll build communities.
And we built it around that kind of sports club mentality that you find in Australia.
Australia and so the first gym became and it's
still there now you know almost 10 years later it
(06:21):
became a real feature of the local community um
and then you know after I think about the first
year or so we started to assess it as a business um and
you know the the metrics were great from a business standpoint we had OPEX break
even position really early we were profitable from year one um so we were both
(06:42):
clever enough to know hey this is a pretty special kind of business and then
we sort of embarked on this journey that we're on now,
which is now, you know, boutique fitness franchising.
It's very interesting because like you said, you know, like 10 years ago you
didn't even know what boutique fitness is.
And, you know, the reality is we're all doing boutique fitness.
(07:05):
No matter how big our clubs are, whether they're, you know, I'll talk in square
metres, but whether they're 250 square metres or they're 1,500 square meters,
we're all doing boutique fitness because we have several business models under our roof.
It's not just one business model. We have several.
So tell me, Russell, I mean, talk to me about the growth and the strategies
(07:27):
that you've had to put in place that were like non-negotiables in order to have
successful franchises. Yeah.
Yeah, well, I think that's probably the first thing, right? So back in 2018,
when we're making decision about how do we grow the business,
we did a little bit of work then with Enterprise Singapore, which is like a
government agency here that helps businesses expand and go into different markets
(07:52):
and all that sort of stuff. So that helped us with a bit of research.
And that first bit of research was, if you go out and own, operate and bootstrap
and do it all on your own, this is where you can get to.
Or if you look at franchising and you build a franchise model,
here is how you can scale it.
So for us, franchising was the way we decided to go. And we decided that pretty much from the get-go.
(08:14):
Um so we opened our second location
in 2018 which was a
very rough cut version of a franchise um still
there today which i'm really proud to say um and
um you know we we we lent
into the fact that we wanted to be a franchise business now in
(08:35):
2019 end of
2019 nas and i had a meeting and
we made the decision that um one of
us had to lean into this and so
i threw away my 15 year career in recruitment um and decided that i was going
to move into this as my full-time gig so that was i can remember it vividly
(09:00):
because that was october 2019 um and then we know what happened shortly after that, right?
So we opened the third and fourth gyms in Singapore in early 2020.
And then COVID hit, right? And so I was sitting there going,
shit, that was a stupid idea.
(09:22):
You know, anxiety levels to the max.
So, but, and I'm careful how I say this because I know COVID was a really,
really tricky period for everyone.
But COVID for us was definitely needed because we got to sit still and we got
to really look at what world-class franchises were doing.
And then we started to
(09:44):
do all of the things that we needed to do to be able to scale the
business properly so you know we completely digitized
the customer experience from app to crm to
dashboards to analytics you know payment gateways and
all of that kind of stuff and then we did another project
with enterprise singapore at that stage where we built
our digitized franchise management system and so
(10:05):
that's the backbone of the business you know your training your
onboarding um you know your business management dashboards
everything the franchise needs to sort of keep the thing
together um and so covid was
good we had time to do that um but then the
thing that we did mostly during covid was we lent
into this thing called community which we were
(10:26):
talking about since we started right um that we knew that was our secret source
um i know a lot of people talk about that that now um but for us it was really
hey look you know how how do we build communities and what have we done well
to do that and so we lent into that during covid we really brought people together.
Um you know we launched an online um reality
(10:50):
tv show and sort of we were you know podcasting with
different athletes and celebs and all this kind of
stuff we just did a bunch of stuff to bring people together um and
so as we came out of covid um we
rapidly expanded and so you know we're now
10 locations in singapore um we
launched in dubai october 2021 um which
(11:13):
was sort of us to go okay we're an international brand
now does this actually work um it did um
so we've grown from uh we're five gyms
open in dubai now we've got another four scheduled for opening in
dubai we launched our white collar boxing events which then really laid grounding
(11:33):
to the pillars of our business which make what we are today so we've got gyms
we've got events and then probably a long way to answer your question is we've
also got a boxing academy,
and so our boxing academy is the area of our business the education arm where
we're making sure that coaches are doing things the way that they should be doing them.
(11:54):
And like everyone likes to think that they're special, right?
And everyone likes to think that their businesses are special,
but you know, in boxing, you know.
I sound like a broken record when I say it, but a good boxer doesn't necessarily
make a good coach and a good coach doesn't necessarily make a good coach in a Spartans environment,
because we're not just teaching fighters, we're teaching kids and women and
(12:16):
we're trying to do it in a safe, inclusive manner.
So there's a bit that goes into it. So for me, the academy was really one of
the key non-negotiables to make sure that the quality and standards of coaching
across the board in our business was ticking the boxes wherever we were,
whether we were in Dubai or Singapore.
And so we've subsequently, now we're in five countries, so we've landed in the
(12:38):
Philippines, Cambodia, opened our first gym in Oz in northern suburbs of Melbourne.
Not living each parade? We went further out. We went further out.
But around Ivanhoe is definitely on our radar.
Perfect. Yeah, so we're in our first ones in South Morang. So we opened that just a few months ago.
(13:01):
And, you know, as suspected, community is the secret sauce again, right?
So just getting involved with all of the footy clubs and the sports clubs and
all of that sort of stuff. So, yeah, long story long.
But, I mean, everybody's success is a story, and we need to listen to more stories.
(13:21):
One of the things that I noticed that you consistently said then was community.
And as we know, lots of people say, I have a great community,
I have a great community.
But to you, if you were to walk into somebody else's studio or club,
what would be something that would stand out that would say to you, yes, this is community?
(13:44):
That's a great question. Look, I think, and it's really simple stuff, right?
Like, and this is what we started doing back then. And then we had to obviously
systemize it and put it into a process.
But, you know, simple stuff like knowing your name when you walk in the door, shaking hands.
You know, in a boxing gym, it's asking people to come in and making them feel
welcome rather than sizing them up as if they're going to get punched up.
(14:07):
All right. So, you know, that depends.
Some gyms, maybe some people are huggers. I don't know. But at least a fist
bump and a first name. I'm not a hugger. You're not a hugger?
That's the little break of anatomy. Yeah, that's absolutely true.
It's pretty, yeah. But look, our industry is full of huggers,
right? So, you know, for me, like that's one of the telltale signs.
(14:32):
But for us in our business, right, we've kind of, we've tried to,
and, you know, our global CMO uses this term and I love it.
We've tried to codify community as much
as we can so depending on where we
are in the world there's still that sort of um consistency across
the board and you know i've always sort of wrapped it up into three tiers um
(14:55):
you know one is what we call spartans community and you know that's whether
it's spartans or you know change that name for the name of your club right but
just making sure that people feel like that place is home it's a family um you know as i said.
First name basis you know how's the kids etc
etc right so just making sure that the club is home
(15:16):
um the second one for me
is what we call local um and we sort of have a a system and a process where
we ask all of our um gyms in their local area they have to immerse themselves
in the local area right so you know tie-ups with local businesses and you know
making sure that you're You're setting up a network around the area.
(15:39):
And obviously, that's great because there's a bunch of customers there you could
potentially get your hands on, right? So that's nice.
But also, it's about, you know, members' benefits and, you know, all that sort of stuff.
So, you know, making sure that you really immerse yourself in that local community.
And then a really important one for us is grassroots.
And so because boxing, you know, the roots are in the sport, if you like.
(16:04):
Um so we make sure that the grassroots portion
of it is you know we do community-based local
boxing events um we are affiliated
with all of the local boxing bodies so in singapore
it's the singapore boxing federation uae it's the uae boxing
federation in oz it's boxing victoria so whatever the local boxing body is we
(16:25):
get involved and we try and work with developing developing athletes and sport
from the ground up and so when you kind of put all those things in and I tell
all my my franchise owners you got to do all the things all at once all the time,
right that's the secret sauce right um but for me if you know if you're doing all of those things,
(16:47):
you've got no choice but to build an amazing community um so you've given us the recipe for
community let's let's talk
still talk community but what type
of technology are you using within your club that
keeps that community still going on yeah look that's a really great question
(17:10):
i think and my guys will hate me for this but we first and foremost we start
with simple stuff right so each one of our gyms has got a whatsapp community
right and so So, you know,
not that everybody needs another WhatsApp group in their life.
I know in Oz people aren't as heavy WhatsApp users.
You know, I message my family in Oz and it takes them like a week to reply to the message.
(17:33):
But in Asia, you know, it's WhatsApp or it's Telegram or it's Viber or something, right?
So each one of our gyms has got an online community through those various chat channels.
Channels um you know in terms of um the technology that we use we've used glow
fox as far as just you know keeping members engaged with attendance and all
(17:55):
of that sort of you know the basic kind of stuff um in the gyms themselves so.
I was very, very careful with the type of technology that I wanted to use,
if we call it a retention tool, right?
You know, I'm a boxing purist at heart. And so I was very careful when we were
looking at technologies as retention tools to make sure that they specifically
(18:19):
spoke to what we were, which is, you know, we're in the boxing modality.
And so we use impact wrap in all of our gyms,
which is a tool to be able to, you know, count out the number of punches that
you throw and how hard you hit and it's all about you know engaging members
it's all about tracking progress it's all about gamification all right and so
(18:40):
when you've got it's about around about 90 of our members they just come for
fun fitness and community,
um those sorts of tools are really really powerful to
keep people engaged and keep them coming back we've got
another crazy bunch about 10 of our membership are
the guys that say yeah actually i want to go and pursue this for competition
and so yeah so we've got
(19:01):
some really decorated amateur and professional boxers
that we've developed over the years in singapore the
uae um and so and that could be amateur professional we do white collar boxing
as well so in addition to you know the technology that talks to the masses in
our in our sort of um membership base there's also this really unique avenue
(19:24):
of people sort of wanting to go off and pursue competition.
So yeah it's it's a pretty cool when you get all of those things working all
at once um it's really amazing to see how members sort of you know interact
depending on what it is that they're doing and what their goals are what does
a typical franchisee look like,
(19:44):
Good question. For our single unit owners, they're typically somebody who has got a day job.
Yeah. Right. So, you know, we call them an active investor.
They're typically they're working in their day job, usually quite senior and
accomplished in what they do.
And they've got a connection or a love with health and fitness,
(20:09):
not necessarily boxing, but health and fitness.
And so for those people they're
typically you know they're spending not all of their
working time in the gyms and you know they've
got a team but they're definitely involved in
the key stuff like you know building community engaging their.
Teams looking after the numbers you know
(20:30):
all that sort of stuff so that's for our single unit owners for our
multi-unit owners they are typically people who
have ran businesses not necessarily health and
fitness again but they've got an understanding of running multi-functions
across business um and so
you know they've decided that they want to build their little gym empire um
(20:50):
which is quite cool um and so i would say that they're probably just a higher
level of business acumen in those type of franchise owners um and And then we've
got a bunch of owner-operators.
Now, in my opinion, if I was going to do a single-unit gym, owner-operator is
(21:11):
undoubtedly the best model.
The people are living, breathing, absolutely involved in every facet of the gym.
And those gyms are clearly more successful when there's an owner-operator in
there. You can't beat passion.
So there are a couple of the typical profiles. files master franchises for us
(21:31):
we we've only just signed our first master franchise for vietnam which has literally
just happened um so again you know we're talking to people who are,
um i guess senior and accomplished business professionals who've got the ability
to be able to build and scale a business um not necessarily again in health
(21:54):
and fitness but that's the expertise that they've got.
So, yeah, so as much as we talk about when I answer questions like that,
it sort of hits us that we've been doing this for a while, but we're still really babies in the game.
So it's interesting. I don't know if I've cracked the code yet in terms of what
(22:14):
a fantastic franchise owner looks like.
I kind of put my recruitment hat on, which was 15-odd years career before this.
And, you know, even with the best will in the world, the best systems,
processes, et cetera, et cetera, you know, people will always surprise you in good and bad ways.
Oh, I absolutely agree with that one.
(22:35):
So what I got out of that was that if.
Really, anybody can open up a Spartans boxing studio.
You don't have to have a deep passion for boxing.
Obviously, you want to have a deep passion for health and fitness.
But if you're somebody that looks and say, I'm someone that looks out there
(22:57):
at opportunities and I might look at something, look, Spartans boxing.
Wow, I'm not a boxer. I'm not really in the health and fitness industry,
but I know that everybody's loving the health and fitness industry at the moment.
And I feel that that's a good concept.
I can be that type of person that can come along to say, hey,
Russell, I'm really keen of opening up, you know, a boxing studio.
(23:19):
Yeah, we've had some great successes with that kind of profile.
So people, and, you know, it depends what you call it.
I think there's some, you know, in I guess with everything that's going on in
the world, there's a real move for people to want to, you know,
find their icky guy or their triple Ps or, you know, whatever you want to call it.
But just being able to merge the sort of, you know, purpose,
(23:40):
passion, profit, sort of rolling it all into one.
And so we've had some great successes of people that have done exactly what
you just mentioned. They've said, hey, look, you know, I really like the business model.
I can see the merits in the business model. I've got a passion for business.
And, you know, they get to know the boxing and fitness space as they go.
(24:00):
And so that's worked really well. Now, conversely, people who have been in and
involved in boxing and fitness have also provided to be great franchise owners for us as well.
So just before I move quickly to the next question, do you envisage Spartans
(24:21):
opening up studios, let's say, in universities or secondary schools or,
you know, the bottom of hotel units?
Because I look at boxing as a really great tool to help people that suffer from
anxiety, you know, social interaction issues and, you know, fitness is all about
(24:41):
the social side of it. Do you envisage that happening?
Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for that. That's a great question for me.
Look, so a few things on what you just mentioned.
So number one is since we started, we've always done school programs.
So we do boxing in schools and we do that in Singapore and in the UAE.
(25:04):
And so that's always been part of that.
So schools, most definitely.
In Cambodia, we have a really interesting concept where our gym is actually
in a hotel. It's in a luxury hotel.
And they've put that in there because, you know, they've wanted a concept.
They wanted members to be able to have an experience when, you know,
(25:27):
they're not just going in there and just doing weights. So we've done the hotel concept as well.
So to answer your question, yes. I think probably the thing that we've really
lent into even further than that is we've got a part of our business which is called Spartan's Mind.
Mind all right and so we
have um i always give him shout outs
(25:48):
when we're talking about this but there's a guy who is in our
group called dr paul englert um so paul is a psychologist um he's done a body
of work in and around youths and leadership and all that sort of stuff um i've
actually got there you go shout out for him he's written this book here it's
called future selves um this is.
(26:09):
A whole it's a sort of a set of
cognitive beliefs around how people build their
future selves and so in spartan's mind we've
built youth programs that link
boxing programs to future selves as
a whole sort of counseling program and so we're
one of the first um fitness businesses
(26:30):
that i know of globally who have linked you know
actual bodies of research and counseling programs
into the sports programs um so
we do that in singapore with a local um
not-for-profit charity organization here called impart sg um and so we've got
two programs that we run with them one is called project grit so that's where
(26:53):
we run these 12-week programs for kids future sales plus boxing we've got that's
for youth so they're 13 to 19 years old um and then we've got another one called.
Project Brawl, which is for kids. So the kids are 6 to 12 years old.
And then we also do another one, which I don't know why we haven't given it
a name, but we do it for ex-offenders as well.
(27:16):
And so it's basically, as you said, it's all looking at thinking about this
concept of holistic wellness, right, which is obviously a huge portion now around
mental health and mental wellness.
And so just linking in programs that bring all of that together.
And I think for me this is going to be one of the key things that we do as we grow in Australia,
(27:41):
because I know that Oz in terms of the thinking in comparison to say you know
countries like Singapore etc I think that the thinking in Australia it's a lot
more primed for these sorts of programs.
I think a great name for your program that you don't have a name for or something
like On the Road to Betterment or On the Road to Greatness because,
(28:04):
you know, they've come from a negative place and you want to send them on a
journey to a positive place.
So I think that, yeah, maybe consider something like that.
I'm going to tag in the marketing team on this afterwards.
People in the industry will say Mel is full of ideas and you can either take
a little bit or take a whole lot.
(28:25):
But, yeah, and I love doing that stuff. but enough about me.
Anyway, so really briefly, before we talk about your future goals and your vision,
let's talk about some of the challenges as a CEO.
How do you balance life as a CEO and then go home to family?
(28:46):
Should I call in my wife? Yeah, because I want to know how you don't talk shop.
Well, funnily enough, my wife is a boxer and a boxing coach.
So we talk a lot of shop. You talk a lot of shop. We talk a lot of shop.
But at the moment, we've got a two-week-old newborn. Congratulations.
Yeah. So, look, how do I balance it? I think probably maybe like a lot of CEOs,
(29:11):
I'm more interested in work-life integration than work-life balance.
So I feel incredibly privileged that my job now is to go around the world,
give people an opportunity to be an entrepreneur, have their own business, their own boxing gym.
(29:32):
I get to run academies to recruit and train coaches.
I get to go to boxing events. events um so i feel privileged that what i'm doing
is you know it's a real passion for me and
as i said i sort of ditched the real career five years
ago now to do this um so for me it's very much about work-life integration um
(29:52):
but you know like anybody that's running their own business right like it's
a round the clock gig um all right i'm sure you know seven it's 24 7 right so
there There is no real off button.
You can be out of the restaurant at 10 o'clock at night, Russell,
and someone says, my fob doesn't work.
(30:13):
Exactly, right? Exactly. So I always, look, the guys in my business,
I'm known as the eternal optimist.
And so even, you know, if I'm in the midst of a really challenging period in the business,
I feel, again, incredibly privileged because, you know, What is also included
(30:34):
in my day is I train every day, right? I train six days a week, right?
And those training slots are
just as important and vital in my calendar as any other meeting, right?
So I never miss training six days a week, right?
And you do that because you're in this industry, right? So...
(30:55):
I think that's probably the way that I manage it. The challenges that I have,
I think, are probably not dissimilar to most definitely other fitness businesses,
but also all businesses around the world. You know, we're in a people business.
So, you know, trying to always get people who are the right people for the business,
believe in the broader vision, you know, in boxing especially,
(31:20):
because, you know, we're somewhat, we're sort of trailblazing in terms of what we're doing.
Um you know we have to constantly remind
people who are in our business hey this is a this is a
global brand um you know what we're trying to do
here is much bigger than just the local boxing gym down on
the corner um and so you know trying to get
people who have got the the knowledge and passion
(31:42):
for boxing um but also being able
to see a broader vision um sometimes
those two things are mutually exclusive um so
you know people are the probably the biggest challenge for
us um and you know again i'm probably talking
for every single business owner or ceo who's
trying to scale a business whether it's scale it locally
(32:04):
or globally um you know growing pains with scale uh whether it be funding whether
it be compliance you know there's a whole bunch of things um i just try to be
the eternal optimist and just take it all as look this is part of the journey yeah i i I love that.
(32:24):
And it is, it's all part of the journey, isn't it? I mean, every day you get
up and there's something new happening.
There might be a new obstacle or an old obstacle, but you just keep moving forward
and you don't let, and you don't let other individuals get in your way either.
If you've got a vision, you just go, you aim for that.
And so talking about a vision, what are the plans for Spartans over the next,
(32:47):
let's talk about the next 18 months.
Yeah, sure. Sure. So yeah, look, we're hyper-focused now on two regions,
Asia Pacific and the GCC in the Middle East.
So in the existing markets that we're in now, so Singapore, Australia,
Philippines, Cambodia, the order of the day is to expand the gym network in those countries.
(33:14):
So that's in the Asia Pacific region.
And also, as I'd mentioned, we've got Vietnam now on the horizon for us as a new market.
So it's to continue to scale the gyms in those markets.
In the GCC region, where things have happened incredibly fast for us,
so as I mentioned before, we only launched in October 2021.
(33:35):
We've already got nine gyms in Dubai sort of open or in the pipe. Saudi Arabia.
Focus um so we're in fairly
advanced conversations to get into saudi um so
that's the gyms continue to you
know go into key new markets and expand the markets that we're
(33:56):
in right now um for our events which
is our white collar boxing events um so
you know for the unaccustomed these events are
for people who have never boxed before um just
the average person that comes in off the gym uh it
comes in off into the gym off the street um they're typically uh
(34:16):
high level working professionals you know i
say to everybody some people want to climb everest and
some people want a marathon and then there's a crazy bunch out there that want
to have a fight um and so we basically take these people in we put them through
a training camp and at the end of it we put on a huge black tie event um so
we've done six of these in dubai
(34:36):
we've got our seventh one coming up in Singapore in October this year.
And our events schedule, what it looks like is we'll run two white collar events
in each country that we've got gyms every year.
So our events business this year goes from three events, next year, it'll go to six.
And then very quickly, we sort of end up doing 12 plus events per year.
(35:00):
And our academy, our academy is really interesting.
So we've built a whole bunch of IP in our academy for two reasons,
really. One is around quality and standards with our own coaches.
And then the other one is, you know, we now, this is a revenue stream for us.
These boxing courses are courses that members and public can buy from us.
(35:23):
And so our strategy with the academy is
really simple we're not creating all
of the content now we're creating more of a portal and
so we're currently in conversations with some of the largest boxing
educators in the world where the Spartans Boxing Academy becomes the portal
to get access to boxing education so each one of those arms I was meeting with
(35:46):
my marketing manager yesterday and we'll talk about the marketing plans for
each and you know he turned a little bit pale We've got a lot of work to do.
I'll just read down to your marketing team while you're talking.
I was grabbing a pen to write it down, yes.
And, you know, look, we do what most small businesses and, you know,
(36:06):
we think and act like a startup. And so, you know, we do everything very, very lean.
And so, you know, this whole concept of work-life integration is very familiar to all of my guys.
Let me ask you, Russell. So, okay, so your events that you're doing,
you may have already done this, but have you considered running an event inside a fitness expo?
(36:29):
So, like, for example, Sean Krenz is running the Aus Fitness Expo in October
in Sydney. He'll have a trade floor show.
To show off the Spartans boxing brand, have you thought about doing something like that? No.
We haven't, actually, but I do love it. Yeah, I do love it. We do. Voices in the mail.
(36:53):
Yeah, yeah, right. You're going to have to send me a couple of invoices from this call.
But no, in all honesty, like, you know, look at your business model a little
bit like, you know, High Rocks and the CrossFit Games.
Why can't you have, you know, Spartans boxing running off the trade floor show
of an expo? So you get to show the franchise side of it and then you get to run an event.
(37:18):
And everybody, as you know, loves fitness events, the physical side of it,
and they're going to come and watch. So it's going to help your brand grow.
And the other thing for your marketing team that I hope are listening now.
So, guys, get in touch with Nigel Benton at Australasian Leisure Management
Magazine because if you've just opened your first location out near South Morang,
(37:41):
He would love to do a press release on that.
And Russell Harrison, the guy from the northern suburbs of Victoria,
gone global with a brand.
So there's an incredible story right there for you.
Wow. Thank you. That's fantastic. I appreciate that.
Yeah, I think that the, you just mentioned sort of High Rocks,
(38:04):
right, and the sort of events.
And, you know, that's one of the things for us is that we wanted to have underneath
our group, we wanted to have these arms because each of them obviously feed into each other, right?
So, you know, the franchise gyms, they are people that go into our events.
(38:24):
The events, we've actually had some franchise owners that have come from people
that have done white collar boxing.
The academy sort of feeds the whole thing. So we've created this really unique infrastructure.
Structure um but I think probably the
thing that you've said which is I love it like trying to do
it inside of these other events but that probably wouldn't
be our white collar events because these are like black tie gala
(38:45):
events but we also do um sort of community boxing events and the idea is to
showcase you know boxing um and so I think that could be yeah that's it I love
it absolutely because everybody learns differently in life and the same can
be said when we go to purchase product.
Some can purchase, you know, off a bit of paper they've read about it and then
(39:07):
some see it visually and go, yeah, that's for me.
I want to do that. Yeah. Yep. Agreed.
Well, we've had a really interesting discussion today, haven't we?
Time's flown. It has. It has flown. You've got some, you've got an incredible story.
You've got some amazing, you know, future goals and vision.
You've got the Academy happening, your first location here in Oz.
(39:30):
Is there anything else that you wanted to mention on today's podcast?
Um, no, I mean, I just want to thank you for your time, Mel.
As I said, we've sort of bumped into each other a few times,
but we hadn't had a chance to do this. So I really appreciate the time.
And of course, you know, if anybody in Oz is listening, you know,
we're new there and there's first movers advantage in terms of what we do as
(39:53):
we sort of grow and scale in Australia.
Australia will be for us globally our largest market over the next five years.
So you know I think you know kudos to all the Aussie brands because Australia
is just now such a great market for fitness and there's a really high bench
benchmark set in Australia and so we're just really really excited to be there
(40:16):
and I'm looking forward to you know continuing to expand there.
So will you be at will you be at AusFitness Expo will you be at Beyond Active
in Sydney, where could somebody physically catch up with you?
Yes, I'll be Beyond Active in
Sydney. So I'm talking on one of the panels there. So that's in December.
(40:37):
I will probably be in Melbourne within the next couple of months.
I'm just trying to arrange dates, newborn.
So the travel schedule took a backseat for a while, but I'll definitely be at
Beyond Active in December in Sydney. Fantastic.
That's amazing. Now, if somebody wants to catch up with you, you're on LinkedIn?
(40:58):
Yep. They can get me on LinkedIn, Russell Harrison.
They could email me directly. It's just russ at spartansboxing.com or they can
find us on any of our socials, spartansboxing.com or Instagram is at Boxing Spartans.
I'll drop all of those links at the bottom of our podcast.
(41:19):
This afternoon we spoke to Russell Harrison the
CEO of Spartans Boxing as I said the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast is
proudly supported and sponsored by Michael and Benji at Superfit Grow Richard
Tudiani at Com Marketing and Steve Jensen at Impact Training thank you Russell
for joining me on the Gym Owners Fitness Business Podcast thanks again Mel cheers.
(41:42):
Music.
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