Chuck Runyon - CEO & Co-Founder of Self Esteem Brands

Chuck Runyon - CEO, Co-Founder at Self Esteem Brands, LLC, Anytime Fitness, Waxing the City, The Bar Method, Basecamp Fitness

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
You're going to talk to Chuck Runyan, CEO of Self Esteem Brands. You
probably know Anytime Fitness the best ofall their family of brands. We'll talk
about their successes, some of thechallenges they've had the last couple of years,
and just how far their customers,their fans will go to show their
loyalty. This is Twin Cities CEOyou should know, powered by iHeartMedia.

(00:21):
It's another installment of CEOs you shouldknow. I'm Adam West and Chuck Runyon
is here from Self Esteem Brands.Welcome, good morning, Adam. Tell
me a little bit about Self EsteemBrands. Self Esteem Brands is based in
Woodbury, Minnesota. We are theparent company of Anytime Fitness, Waxing the
City, the Bar Method, baseCamp Fitness, and Stronger You Nutrition.

(00:44):
So four of those five brands arefranchising. Stronger Nutrition is a virtual nutrition
company that helps people with modifying theireating behaviors. But yeah, we are
primarily a franchise platform, and sowe have kind of these house of brand
that we are franchising in the world. Very cool. Tell me a little
bit about one of those brands orover all of them, if you want.

(01:06):
We got we got a while here, Yeah, but I think most
people are probably famire with anytime fitnesshere of Minnesota. My partner I started
it just over twenty one years ago, in two thousand and two. And
you know, this small idea.We started with a club in Cambridge,
Minnesota, about forty five minutes northwest of the northeast of the Cities.
And here we are today, twentyone years later. You know, over

(01:26):
fifty five hundred locations on all sevencontinents. By the way, no one
knows that we're the only franchise brandin history to be in all seven continents.
Dave and I flew to Antarctica inDecember of twenty nineteen, right before
COVID to install that club on aand a ship. And so today we
are active in forty two countries.We have over half of our clubs are
located outside the US. You know, health and franchising are alive and well,

(01:51):
and we are leading the way.We are one of the largest franchise
companies in the world, so youknow, proud of that. Dave and
I are lifelong Minnesotan's. You know, we love the States, we love
the four seasons, We love invitingpeople here from around the world to see
Minnesota. But we get to travelaround the world too and see various places
and it is a thrill. Sofifty five hundred locations, by the end

(02:13):
of this year, we will beat six thousand locations. What. Yeah,
a lot of people don't know thatthis little Minnesota company is global,
you know, really because you canuse that if you're a member, you
can use it wherever you go.Right, if you buy a local membership,
say in Woodbury, right, youcan use every club in the world.
You know. The other distinguishing factoris so back in two thousand and
two, right before smartphones, beforesocial media, you know, really at

(02:36):
kind of the dawn of what i'dcall this tech age. You know,
we were really the uber of fitness. We use technology to like open every
door twenty four to seven, giveour members twenty four to seven access,
but we didn't always staff the clubs. And so that's technology. That access
system today is the largest access systemin the world globally. So you're right
right now with your phone. Ifyou buy a membership, you get a

(02:57):
digital key and access paths on yourphone. You can use that at any
club in the world, open thedoors and have a work on. I've
been at a lot of hotels andthose are just miserable. So knowing that
I could travel and I could justgo to any Time Fitness, that's that'd
be perfect. This is correct.And you know right now about twenty percent
of our members use a different clubduring the month other than their home club.
And like, if you're in Australia, where it's very you know,

(03:19):
there's a density of quite a fewmillion Anytime Fitness locations. Forty percent of
our members use a different club duringthe month, and so that global asprocess
becoming more and more popular. Howdid COVID affect that business or any of
your businesses. Yeah, Look,it's funny. We sit around in like
strategic meetings and we never would thinkabout, gosh, what if our five
thousand network chain shuts down within twoor three weeks? Right, it was

(03:42):
almost implausible and we you know,on one hand, I wish it would
have never happened. I think it'sa little bit sad that our health leaders
and policymakers around the world wouldn't deemhealth as essential. Here we had liquor
stores open, and fast food openand tattoo shops open. You know,
wonderfully, But at the end ofthe day they closed down gyms and studios.
You'd think they would have fought fora way to keep those essential services

(04:03):
open, especially if you think aboutthe mental duress we were under during COVID.
So look, we had rapidly overthe course of three weeks, we
shut down every club in the world, and then as we're reopening over the
next eighteen months. It was everythingwas hyper local. I mean, you
could have two clubs like take Minnesotaas an example. During COVID, our

(04:24):
office is in Woodbury, Minnesota.For those that don't know, it's fifteen
minutes from the border of Wisconsin,and so you could drive fifteen minutes across
the Saint Croix River and get aworkout like you would normally. All the
restaurants over there open. Wisconsin's thriving, but here Donia's side of the river,
our clubs are shut down, ourrestaurants are shut down. It was
just and that happened around the worldin every country. It was hyper local,

(04:46):
and so I wish it would neverhappened. It was very, very
difficult for small business owners. Onthe other hand, I'm incredibly proud of
our network. I'm incredibly proud ofour team. We were I mean seven
days a week, you know,eighteen different time zones. We're working with
small business owners to help them navigateCOVID, how to reopen safely and then
overcome what was this incredibly difficult phasefor a small business owner? How did

(05:09):
you grow your business into what itis now? I mean, I think
about the technology piece. I've reada little bit about this, I think
on your website, on the AnytimeFitness website. But it seems so easy
now, but like you're talking abouttwenty one years ago, that was that
was like the future, right.It's a twenty one year overnight success,
right. I mean it seems easyon paper, but it has been,
you know, an obsession to execute, an obsession to support our franchise ease.

(05:32):
That's what's been interesting is, youknow, we really are a franchise
centric company. People invest a goodportion of their life savings to open up
one of our franchise brands, andso our goal has always been we wake
up every day thinking about how canwe support our franchise owners to help them
run a thriving, successful business intheir community, to bring health and wellness
opportunities. But to also like giveback to their community and like be a

(05:56):
thriving part of that. And soit's really been the secret to our success.
We've had this like selfless obsession tohelp our franchise ease around the world
succeed. And that probably makes youstronger having that sort of spread out right,
the ownership. And yeah, absolutelyI love franchising. It has you
know, its been around for hundredsof years, but really if you think
about the last seventy or eighty years, it has been a passport for people

(06:18):
from all walks of life to besuccessful. You know, franchising is there
are thousands of franchise concepts. Theindustry works, and you can be in
business for yourself, but not byyourself because a franchise or kind of becomes
your partner and they help you.And so really good franchise brands, you
know, steward their franchise ease tosuccess. And so everything about our success

(06:39):
really is reliant on how our franchiseesare doing. And it's it's good to
have that network. How do youmake sure it's any time fitness wherever you
go, Yeah, anywhere in theworld. What do you mean, Well,
I mean they're all different. They'reall different owners, but not all
of them, but they could be, and you got that brand wherever you
go. That's a great question.And you know so interestingly, Dave and

(07:00):
I we didn't really have much experiencein franchise when we started in two thousand.
Now we're quick learners and we grewincredibly fast. So if you were
to give me like a list ofthings we do over again, which would
take hours of a podcast, Iwish we had had a little bit more
stricter uniformity because right now today youcan there's a little bit of inconsistency around
the world. Like if you visitin any time fitness, they can they

(07:21):
can sometimes be a little bit differentthan they should be. Now in our
more recent countries like Australia, everyonelooks, operates and feels the same same
in Japan, but domestically we stillhave some of those legacy clubs that are
a little bit different looking or operatingversus the newer ones today. But that
is becoming less, you know,fewer and far between. I mean,
at the end of the day,we're becoming far more consistent. Like a

(07:42):
typical franchise. What are the valuesof your company it's a great question.
They've been a cornerstone to our successand how we think about the business.
We use what we call the fourp's approach, which is people, purpose,
profits, and play. If youwere to visit our office in Woodbury,
you'd see an outdoor sign and indoorsign with these four p's on there
and in an utshell like, wehave an uncommon care for the people in

(08:05):
our business, all stakeholders, ourmembers, our franchisees, our employees.
Our purpose is to improve the selfesteem of the world and help them be
successful through better health, through franchising, through your community profits. We make
no we're not shy about saying,Look, we need to strive for stakeholder
profits and shareholder profits. We needto help our franchises first, and then
a sense of play. You know, my partner and I again, we'd

(08:28):
love to have fun every day inthe office. You can hear laughter.
We just worked too hard and toolong. We spend half our waking hours
at work. We gotta have agood sense of play and so that Foster's
creativity alleviate stress at Foster's collaboration.So those four piece people, purpose,
profits, play are the high performancecocktail. Those those ingredients necessary which have
carried us to where we are todayand continue to help us execute at a
high level. Do you work outevery dayt one of your clubs? I

(08:50):
would not say every day. Icould get better about five six days a
week. I can't alternate between baseCAAM Fitness, Anytime Fitness and the Bar
Method. I kind of like,like like most can. I like the
variety. Yeah, so I liketo put a little hit, like high
intense interival training. I like theBar Method is a phenomenal workout for everyone.
And then of course I do somestrength training. He's have fitness,
So yes, you get my head'sup before you show up for I do

(09:11):
not you know, I put mymy baseball cap on backwards. They usually
don't know him coming. I loveto make surprise visits. I love to
meet our coaches and our club staffand our franchisees. Last night, in
fact, I went to the clubin Saint Paul with my son and the
franchisee was there fixing a lock onthe bathroom door, and him and I
laughed. We shared a moment.He's like, hey, Jock, I'm
like, you know, look atthis. The the glamour side of franchise

(09:33):
ownership. You're fixing a lock ona bathroom door, right, So he
didn't know I was coming. Weshared a nice moment. I do that
whenever I travel. Whenever I travelaround the world, I visit Inning's and
Fitness to get a workout and tocheck out the club. Outcome based thinking
approach. I have this on hereenough, that's something that you employ,
But what is what does that mean? We do? So we have to
prioritize, you know, the initiativesand strategies of our business. And we

(09:56):
always try to strive for what arethe outcomes first? What does success look
like? And then we work ourway backwards. And so, you know,
I think, like most companies,we have some metrics in place that
we're trying to move and so whatare the outcomes of those metrics we want
to achieve over the next quarter orthe next year and so and that helps
us define our priorities. And sowe've gotten far more diligent and I'd say
disciplined about outcome thinking, Like,start with the outcome you're shooting for,

(10:20):
work backwards, how do we getthere and that and then measure that along
the way, and you're thinking aboutmore than just profit, I would imagine
right hundred percent. I mean itis. I mean, first of all,
we're in the game of engagement.How can we help people engage with
their healthy behaviors. You know,just recently we launched a big important partnership
with Apple Fitness Plus. It's thefirst time they've ever worked with a brand
of our size to do this typeof integration. So every single one of

(10:41):
our members gets Apple Fitness Plus,and so anytime, anywhere, anyone at
the end of the day, nowyou can work out anywhere. You don't
have to be within one of ourclubs or studios because Apple Fitness Plus has
world class content. And so itis kind of our job, like we
want to make sure people are movingand people are healthier, and we try
to to like measure boundmetrics and behaviorsnot just like business metrics. And so

(11:03):
we know if people are changing theirlives and getting healthier, the business will
do better too. So we've gotI've got what I call these human metrics
and also these business metrics, andthose are very important to us. What's
a piece of advice you've gotten alongthe way that's helped you, you know,
especially in franchising. I think theif you're keeping everyone happy, you're
doing something wrong. There's just noway we can keep everyone happy. I

(11:26):
mean if and I love our franchiseowners, but we get together with them
regularly. And if you get aroom of say thirty franchise owners together,
you're going to have thirty forty sixtydifferent ideas, right, and they're all
great ones. But it's our jobto prioritize those ideas and say here's ones
we're going to do, but moreimportantly, here's ones we're not going to
do. So some of those ownersare gonna be unhappy that you didn't choose
their priority. But we cannot continuejust to make everyone happy. And we're

(11:48):
going to continue to innovate, andsometimes people have difficulty adopting change. You
guys have an annual meeting. I'mthinking about all the people that must be
involved in this owners of fitness.You know that they must be very vocal.
How do you do that? Howdo you hear from them to tell
you what? The annual conference forAnytime Finness have been some of the best
weekends of my life. They havebeen epic. There the super Bowl weekend

(12:09):
of our brand. It's people fromaround the world who come together. We
just had one two months ago inColorado Springs, Colorado. By the way,
we have never had one in thesame location twice. We go different
areas around the world, and sohere we had nearly three thousand people there
to network, to learn, toget better, to grow this brand,
to take back ideas and make theirbusiness better. The next day, we

(12:31):
have vendors, we have public wehave speakers, we have parties. I
mean, it is an epic timeand it really is a signature event and
it kind of refills everyone's purpose.It gets them aligned to profits. It
really connects us with people, andwe have a great deal of fun.
So for us, it is ayou know, the super Bowl weekend for
our brands. You're very community focused, community engaged. What's an example of

(12:54):
something that you were the franchisees do. Oh, you know, since day
one, Dave and I have alwaysencouraged community, and there's a you know,
our most successful owners are involved intheir community. They're doing fund raising
activities. We've had owners raising hundredsof thousands of dollars for local charities,
and we think it's great because theycan be hyper local that they can see
the lives are impacting, you know, anytime fitness and self esteem brands.

(13:18):
We have a charitable fund. We'vedone work with these special Olympics, We've
done work with military veterans. We'vedone work with like the American Heart Association.
So purpose and giving back is acore part of being one of our
franchise owners. We want them tomake it hyper local, and we can
do more than just sell memberships,right, we can change lives in avariety
way very cool. You're you havefranchises or you are franchises basically, but

(13:41):
there you have some employees. Howmany people do you employ? We have
but four hundred employees, you know, I would say two thirds of them
are based in Minnesota. But aswe become more global now and in adopting
and embracing this hybrid work style,we have more and more people now who
are hired that are located in areasaround the world. It's better for us.
I mean, especially if you thinkabout the work clubs are Okay,
we need people in Japan, weneed people in Southeast Asia, we need

(14:05):
people in the northeast of the States, and so we're really adopting this hybrid
workforce. And I think it's gonnaan asset for a long term. Talking
to check run in from self esteembrands, we've been focusing on any time
fitness if there's any you know,I mean, you can jump in with
the other stuff at any time.But I wanted to ask you about the
logo for anytime Fitness huge. Iguess I've been seeing it a lot longer
than I thought I did. Iguess people it's really personal to them,

(14:26):
so I saw that they're putting iton their bodies. Right. It's another
thing that people are always fascinated with. So if you visit our corporate office,
I think we might be the onlycorporate office in the world that has
its own full time tattoo room.Oh you do them there, we do,
and so come over with could youguys a tattoo if you want one,
it's on us. But two otherthings. At our annual conference,

(14:48):
the last one I just talked about, we have five full time tattoo artists
and they can't keep up. Imean, so people can get the our
brand logoed on them whatever personal waythey want, and then anywhere around the
world, let's say, a memberor an employee or or franchise he wants
to get a tattoo. This happensthroughout any given month, someone around the
world will get a tattoo. Theowner sends us the story why, the

(15:11):
picture of that too, and thetattoo in the receipt, and we reimburse
it. I bet you Over thelast twenty one years we've easily spent over
a half a million dollars on tattoos. We've had thousands of people. It's
good branding, get the tattoo.Yeah, branding. Really, aside from
Harley Davidson, we're probably the mosttattooed brand in the world. And by
the way, it goes back towhat you and I were talking about earlier.
Purpose Like no one ever says Igot a tattoo because we have the

(15:33):
best treadmills, or because we're upin twenty four hours. Because even they
don't even say it because I madea lot of money. It's always I
changed someone's life or I changed mylife. And like, I love this
new me, right, and I'mproud of how this brand has instilled this
these values of me and instilled thisnew person. I mean, so at
the end of the day, theywant to commemorate that with a tattoo.
That's incredible. I asked that carefullybecause I was like, do people really

(15:54):
do that today? Read that wrong? That's that's really that's awesome, all
right. I expect to see youguys over at that. iHeart would make
for that red heart would make foran incredible tattoo. But yeah, what
time is it? But how longdoes it take to get there? I'll
have a tattoo hours there in anhour. What else would you like the
Twin Cities or anybody else listening anywhereto know about your brand, self esteem,
brands or anytime, fitness or well. But before I talk about the

(16:15):
brands, I just want people toknow that health is essential. Right,
it's coming now on the other sideof COVID. It's never been more important,
and so I want to get peoplemoving, so even more so than
our brands. I just believe inthe power of good health. There's a
great quote out there. It saysa healthy person has a thousand wishes,
a thick person only one, right, and we saw that during COVID,

(16:37):
and so number one health is essential. Get moving. I don't care if
you choose any time, fitness,or there are so many great opportunities that
there are so many great brands.Just move, do some strength training.
The mental health benefits are incredible.So keep moving in Minnesota is a healthier
state. But the reality is we'rejust healthier of the unhealthy. Right,
we still have some people would besurprised to see some of the stats of

(16:59):
Minnesota are like, our health spanis still declining, even though our lifespan's
improving because technology can keep people livelonger. So I want people just to
get moving first and foremost. Secondlyis you know what they should know is
we are again fifty five hundred locations, forty two countries, were global.
The tattoo story is interesting, andthe secret to our success is we have
local franchise owners who care about theirmembers in a way that our competitors can't

(17:22):
match. Right, they know you, they care about you, They're betting
the community. They're gonna like,give you a high five, give you
little nudge, and kicking the buttwhen you need it. That's the beauty
of any time. And you cango any time, I mean literally twenty
four seven and it's becoming again twentyfour seven, any location, and it's
just yeah, it could not bemore convenient right when? And so you
can go with. We have anon our app. We have what's called

(17:45):
the busy meter. You know you'relocal, neing toime finished how many people.
You literally know if there's three peoplein there or thirteen people in there,
So you can go when it's lessbasi or morbids. You can kind
of choose that. I went pastfour or Anytime Fitnesses on the way here,
So I like that. You know, that's it's easy to find one.
I think SOA has nearly two underdany Time Fitness is and you know,
the beautiful part what we're proud ofis we bring this to the most
rural areas. I mean we can. We can succeed in towns of four

(18:07):
or five thousand people or a traditionalhealth club could never exist. And so
if you think about those types ofmarkets around the world, we're bringing a
like a type of fitness services andproducts that those towns could never afford to
do. What's it like walking intoa just briefly walking into an any Time
Fitness for the first time if youget a membership, because you can just
buy them online, right, nevertalk to anybody if you don't want to

(18:29):
do you can buy them online.You can do that. You can coors
visit the club too if you wantto, you know, see the club
and get a feel for it.So with whatever is best for that member,
we would definite accommodate. And youknow, I think you're going to
find a friendly staff member, maybemaybe a friend daise owner or staff or
a coach. I mean we areWe definitely want to help people. We
provide coaching and nutrition, recovery,fitness. We're very, very holistic.

(18:52):
It's not just about coming in andwalking on the treadmll or doing weights like.
We want to help you make stridesin your mental health, nutrition recovery
aspects. And so you're going tofind someone who's very friend who wants to
understand your health goals and then it'sgoing to say, all right, how
can we make this happen and providea very affordable plan to do it.
And so you know, we're justtrying to make health more accessible, more
affordable, more effective, more measurable, and you know, try to make

(19:12):
it quicker too. We know you'rebusy. Tell me about running at twenty
four seven too, because I knowthat was like one of the biggest challenges
we talked about that briefly before.But what's what was it like to get
into that world and what is itstill like? Well today, I think
it's very common. People are usedto like there's implied I know this is
not staffed, and I can dothis whenever I want. I mean,

(19:33):
if you think about Hotel has beendoing that for years, right, and
so at the end of the day, I don't think it's very novel to
the consumer. I think they loveit. Where we had some issues early
on was policymakers, you know,thinking that maybe this wasn't safe, or
maybe it wouldn't provide the level ofservice. And so thankfully we educated them,
we influenced them. Here we aretoday. Members love it obviously because
you can just go on your scheduleand you know it gives you all like

(19:56):
it. It's the you know,it's the gym on your terms, when
you want to go, how youwant to go, what equipment you want
to use, if you want touse a personal trainer or small group,
if you want to do freeways orcardio, I mean, you name it.
It's uh. We've empowered the membersto kind of like do it on
their time, not our time,wear whatever you want, right, just
about well, yeah, as longas you are wearing clothes. But yes,

(20:19):
we aren't. We're very very casualthat way, very informal. We're
still looking for franchise owners one alwayslook, we love enriching people through franchising
opportunities around the world. You know, we will still in twenty twenty four,
we will open nearly five hundred locationsaround the world. Sorry, I'm
still shocked right now. I mean, that's that's huge growth, right,

(20:40):
So think about this since two thousandand nine, for the last tenure wait,
actually at two thousand and e leftfourteen years, one of our locations
in Anytime Fitness a base camp ofBar Methin is we've opened up a gym
or studio once every nineteen hours forten years in a row. So like
three seven days a week, threehundred and sixy five days of the year,
every day, every nineteen hours,one of our brands opens locations somewhere

(21:03):
in the world. That's been goingon for over a decade. People,
I mean people don't they're a littlebit minded. They're like, you're surprised
with that, right, So somewherein the world today, any fitness go
open tomorrow, another one's going openand next day another one's gopen. It.
It's like we're going to think aboutyou open five hundred year that average
is more than one day. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then we
have base Camp Fitness, which isyou know base Camp is here in the
US, but we just open inAustralia. We're opening in Singapore. The

(21:26):
bar Method is going to open upin Japan probably in late twenty twenty four.
And with Waxton City now being actuallywax in the city is actually growing
at a faster pace than any timefitnesses today, it is an exciting time
ahead for us. This is anawkward question to ask, but I'm sure
you've looked at it. Fast foodrestaurant growth compared to your growth. How
who's who's got more, Who's growingquicker? We've actually grown faster. If

(21:48):
you look at Subway's growth through McDonald'sgrowth, we've actually added units faster than
them over that period of time.And look, they are great. My
mom was a store manager for McDonald'sfor twenty years. I worked in donaldsall
is young and so they are anincredible franchise system. Now, unfortunately they're
putting too many calories out in theworld. We're taking those calories away.
I think it's that caloric guilt whichis driving my passion for for fitness.

(22:14):
But they are a wonderful franchise brand. But if you look at the historical
number of units, we've actually grownfaster than those two brands. And hey,
the world needs more of this andless of that. Congratulations, Chuck
Runyan, SEB Brands or self Esteemself estem Brand. Yeah, congratulations on
all the success so far and goodluck this year. Sounds awesome. How
can people find out more? Theycan easily visit any of the one of

(22:37):
the websites Anytime Fitness dot Com,Basecampfitness dot Com, the Bar Method dot
Com, Washington City dot com andof course Stronger You Nutrition dot Com.
So any of those five brands,we can help you with an affordable membership,
we can help you with the franchiseopportunity, and we can just help
you live a healthier life. Andwe can help you get a tattoo if
you if you're ready, find away find me through social media and we'll
get that tattoo going. That's awesome, Thank you, Thanks Adam,