Connecting the Dots

Connecting the Dots...with an average guy (Joel Martin)

• Adam Leishman • Season 1 • Episode 35

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This week, I had the pleasure of meeting Joel, a small business owner whose innovative and quirky marketing techniques have captured a wide audience. Listen in as we discuss his journey, the challenges he’s faced, and the creative strategies he uses to keep his business vibrant and visible. Perfect for entrepreneurs and anyone interested in the behind-the-scenes of successful marketing campaigns.

Speaker:

Week 35, week 35 since I turned 49. Decided I'm gonna use this as a way to connect with people that I find interesting. And this week's another one of those weeks where I reached out to somebody I've never met, but I followed them online. And this guy has been entertaining me for years. He's a small business owner finding his own little rhythm in the space of marketing and he's entertaining and you've got to follow him because, well, he'll like that. But he's entertaining and I got to go meet him and chat to him about, well, all the stuff I didn't know about him. So that was pretty cool. Let's go meet somebody average. I'll explain that in a tick.

Speaker 2:

This is Joel. G'day. This is actually the first time we've met in person. And you said it before when we were walking in here, I actually feel like I know you because I've been following you on the socials for so long now. I feel like I know who Joel is. That's good. One of the things that I've learned about you since being here today is you are way taller than me. You must be touching on, you know, mid sixes, 70 foot. I tell everyone 6'3 but it's probably 6'2

Speaker 3:

Right,

Speaker 2:

okay. So we're, firstly, where

Speaker 3:

are we? Where are we sitting? So this is my gym. It's called Average Joel's Gym. And yeah, we're a gym located in Bongaree, probably on. And.

Speaker 2:

I always start by asking people what they do. What do you do here?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, small business owners, we all do the same stuff. Everything. Yep. Clean the toilets, vacuum the floors, personal train, gym stuff, social media stuff, pretty much everything. I call it the CEO, the Chief

Speaker 2:

Everything Officer. Yeah,

Speaker 3:

that's

Speaker 2:

what it is. So, I've been watching your story, and I encourage anyone that, you know, I think a lot of people have seized this to follow your story on Instagram because it's entertaining and it's just, it's quirky and, and, and I, I can use that word and I know you won't be offended because I'm pretty sure you're going for quirky in some of your advertising. What

Speaker 3:

led you down that road? Okay. Good question. Always looking for a point of difference, I suppose. And for me, my newsfeed, my algorithm is kind of biased towards, the fitness industry kind of teaching you how to do a push up or a squat, something like that. So I wanted to get away from that and I wanted to be like, tell a story. It's probably the biggest thing. Drum up engagement through that and show, I don't know, show people what it is we kind of do outside of teaching people how to do push ups and squats.

Speaker 2:

Just

Speaker 3:

something different.

Speaker 2:

Now let's talk about the gym and work backwards because it It feels like we're sitting in a old squash court and well it does, I shouldn't say it feels like that. When you look around, you can see the remnants of it. Why are we in a squash, old squash court?

Speaker 3:

So the gym started in the seventies, just to give you a little throwback to it. We still, I still don't know. I'm trying to figure that out. I think it was built in 1972 and I think there was about four owners in that time. Still don't know. A lot of people have a fair idea about. Like when I'm after concrete kind of facts, it's, it gets a bit iffy. So we're still trying to figure that out. Anyway pretty much we started as a squash court and then it's slowly being converted into a gym. I would have liked to keep a squash court, but yeah, it just hasn't paid the bills through for whatever reasons, but yeah, we've had to convert it. How many courts was it originally? It started as four courts. I don't know when they got rid of the first two. We got rid of our last court anywhere from five to eight years ago. I can't really remember. Really bad with numbers. So, I'll try my best.

Speaker 2:

And how long have you, were you here in? Was there always a gym element to it?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so it started its life as the Bribey Island squash court. Pretty sure on that one. It then went to Bribey Island squash and fitness. So I think that just means they got some dumbbells and a couple of treadmills, whatever. And then it changed to Bribey's Physically Fit, which I operated under for a number of years. And then it changed to what it is now, which is Average Shovels Gym. And we got rid of the last court, yeah, like I said, probably about five or eight years ago. And we're sitting in it. This is our old sports court.

Speaker 2:

And how, how long has it been, average, Joel's gym? Good question.

Speaker 3:

I don't know. 10 years? Don't know. And

Speaker 2:

average? Where did, where did you come

Speaker 3:

up with this name? Yeah, it's a good one. So, again, point of difference. So, the gym world's filled with like, performance this, and excel that, or whatever. And I wanted a point of difference. We needed a point of difference. We need something that people, they asked me that question. Why Average Joel's Gym? I need something that's memorable. Right? All these things. It actually started, I tell people anyway, there's a bit of debate over this one, but one of the local school teachers here started the name unofficially. So he started calling me Average Joel in response to a movie called Dodgeball. One of my favorite movies, right? So, dodgeball, the gym there is called Average Joe's and it's our story all over. It's like a bunch of, like, ragtag people competing in a dodgeball tournament to save their gym from being swallowed up by the big gyms, right? So then that started getting around, everyone started calling it Average Joel's and then I just thought, oh, stuff it, I'm gonna do it. And you know. Everyone was trying to tell me no, don't do it, all this kind of stuff. People still do it. I just don't care. Whatever. It's a point of difference. I love our name. I think it's awesome.

Speaker 2:

So do I. I think it's great. And certainly now the branding you've got and the graphics and I see you've got some neon out there. It looks

Speaker 3:

awesome. Yeah, the neon's good. Yeah, just all that kind of stuff. Like our logo, everything. It's all designed to be different, be memorable. That's the point.

Speaker 2:

And was there a life before GymOwner for you? What did you do before that?

Speaker 3:

So I started as a personal trainer down here. So the old owner, a good friend of mine Chris, he convinced me into getting my 4, which, cause I was training with him at the time. So I did, went and did it. I got qualified. And then I started working for him on the reception desk, but I was working as a personal trainer outside of this gym. And in the gym too, so I'd rent space off of him and then he wanted out and he spoke to me, he's like, Joel, I'm thinking about getting out of the gym game, what do you think? And I was like, oh, okay. He goes, would you consider taking it on? And I was like, oh, okay. And then that's how that happened. It wasn't like a conscious decision and becoming gym owner or anything like that. It just landed in my lap. It's

Speaker 2:

real weird. I I was half expecting you to tell me that you had some type of building or construction background because I've seen you with every tool, every power tool known to man at some point in a video.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. Just handy? Learned by doing? Is that? Look, pretty much. It comes back to that small business owner thing. A, I'm just too tight, right? But B, like when I first started the gym, we had no money. I honestly thought we were going under every week. We were running our electricity bills so late that they were threatening you know, cutting us off and all that kind of stuff. So I just had to do things myself and I've just kind of continued with it. And then also it's kind of goes hand in hand too with our content creation because I'm just telling that story. So if we're doing something like, you know, when we redid our flooring, I'll just bring people along for the story. It tends to respond really well. I don't know. I don't know what I do. I'm just. My dad was a bit of a handy kind of a dude, way better at it than me, but yeah, probably just like, I don't know, a combination of being a tight ass and just wanting to give things a go myself.

Speaker 2:

What's your favorite thing about running a gym?

Speaker 3:

My favorite, look, there's a long, long list to that. I would say, At number one for sure is the people. You meet all walks, like uber wealthy people, down to like people that are really community minded, down to all sorts. You help people through marriage breakups, you help, it's just like it's wild the amount of people that you meet and yeah, blessed. It's unreal. It's so good. It's really rewarding. I would

Speaker 2:

imagine in a gym it's one of those places where the common theme for everyone that comes here is the people.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, depends on your demographic, right? So, some people are here under doctor's orders. Like, they're like, you must exercise, right? Some people are here because, for the most part, for people to completely shift their life, they've had to go through a major life event. Nothing gets someone into exercise or the gym like a marriage breakup. A 40th birthday coming up, a school reunion. These tend to be the things where people go, alright, major life shift and then they, that's what brings them in. It's a small percentage that are just kind of here because they're proactive and they're just like, oh yeah, I heard that exercise is good. But yeah, for the most part people throw around that term all the time, better themselves. I'm happy with how people are. I think. We're good, right? No one needs to better themselves in that sense. I know I'm looking into it too much but yeah, I get where you're coming from in terms of bettering themselves physically and that kind of thing, but yeah, I don't know. I'll probably just read into that too much. I kind of think, nah, you're good. You're good already. You're a good person in general. Let's just increase the expos a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

What are some of the things that people don't talk about running a gym that just oh, I

Speaker 3:

wish I wish that didn't exist. Oh Good one. I mean we just did a video today about Like the weird kind of stuff that goes on yesterday We're kind of having a discussion about all the weird stuff that's happened over the years like being in fistfights stopping fistfights Just weird shit. Gyms have like a no barrier of entry, like we let anyone in, we're very welcoming, like that. But yeah, with that comes like a level of weird stuff that happens. It's fun, it makes the job interesting. Outside the gym, do you have any hobbies? That's all kind of taken a back seat compared to what I used to do since having kids So I've got a three year old and I've got a one year old at home. So they're my priority at this stage hobbies Before them so many so many hobbies

Speaker 2:

movement related fitness related

Speaker 3:

or oh yeah all of them like sporty stuff so skydiving Scuba diving, spearfishing, downhill mountain bike windsurfing, there's too many.

Speaker 2:

I'm pretty sure I, years ago, at some point you woke up one morning and went for a long run, walk, that just, you just kept going up the coast, and I

Speaker 3:

do something every New Year's. Right. I don't know why, it's just something stupid. And so, last New Year's I was like, okay, how far can I make it in 24 hours, like, can I make it to Noosa was the big thing, or can I get to Gympie, I forget what it was. And I got 12 hours in and I was like, Oh my God, my injuries were just flaring up. I was like, Joel, you're an idiot. Called my wife, she came and picked me up. And yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I'll be doing that one again, particularly with my injury list. But yeah. So something big every New Year's? Something weird. I always swim across the passage. Every New Year's I'll swim across the passage. So New Year's Day, I do the one kilometre swim under the bridge over to Bribie. But then prior to that, I'll do, like, I wouldn't mind walking around the island, like, that'd be kind of a good one. That would take a while. Ages. That's a big island. Yeah, it's massive. I mean, that's like walking to Caloundra and back, literally. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, you would be. You'd be walking to Caloundra, and then you've got to cut across, and then you'd be walking down, like, through the middle of the island. Then you're at White Patch and all that kind of stuff. So, kind of thinking about doing that. But having since stopped running. It, like, it takes its toll on your fitness and that kind of thing, and I just kind of wake up and go, I'm going to go do this stupid thing and then have to be bailed out because my injuries just flare up.

Speaker 2:

What in some of your videos recently you're talking about being the little guy and wanting to make sure that the big guys don't come and, you know, take over, is that a real

Speaker 3:

threat? A hundred percent. I mean look, it is a narrative, it's a cool story but yeah, we've always been under threat from the big guy. I don't know how we survived, honestly. When I like told people that we got like no cash, we literally have no cash. We, I spend everything I reinvested into the business. It shows. Yeah, yeah, we're constantly working. I could probably do things differently and go to a bank and say, Hey, give us lots of money and do it how, you know, big business or big gyms would do it. It just doesn't sit well with me. I don't like, like, putting, I suppose, my family or my home at risk by going and getting these massive loans, which can be a strength, but it means that it takes us ages to do stuff. We are in the middle of nowhere, so we're on the back streets of Robbie Island. You would not put a business here if you were looking at somewhere to put a business. You'd just be like, no, this is not in a thoroughfare. There's no foot traffic. So we've got to work really hard to kind of, Try and get people. Like there's a reason why McDonald's doesn't open up where we are. Like Macca's situates themselves generally at like an intersection or around about these kinds of things, high traffic kind of areas. But yeah, it's always been us versus the big guy in my mind. But he's saying that I've had nothing, but really good interactions with most of the, well, yeah, most of the fitness businesses over the years. They've been really good, but yeah, it tends to be. Kind of the narrative that we, we play online, I suppose.

Speaker 2:

And what's, what's next for Average Joel's gym? What's, what's the future got?

Speaker 3:

Yes, good point. You've

Speaker 2:

deleted the squash courts.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. It's air conditioned, it looks

Speaker 2:

lovely. Yeah, it's air

Speaker 3:

con, so we, we finally air conned last year. That was awesome. I was, and a big risk to us, like, we didn't own the building. We, we've purchased the building since, so we purchased the building in February. Prior to that, it was my landlord's, right? And so every investment that we did, whether that be air con, redo the floor, stuff like that, that was all out of the gym's pocket. The landlord it's just like, no, not my problem type thing, which is fine, but it's a big risk, you know, reinvesting all that money and then being like, Hey, I'm just going to sell it anyway on your Joel. And if you can't come up with the money, well, too bad type thing. So yeah, I don't know. Look, business owners, you know, I've got no problems coming up with ideas. I can come up with ideas all the time, but it's about following the numbers, right? Making sure that I'm reinvesting in the areas that members want. I really want to update this room, like our grip fitness room. I'd love to see, I mean, Hirox is a big thing at the moment. Getting some kind of that kind of capability in here. I don't know, we'll see, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2:

And out of all of the things that you've done along the way here that makes you guys a little unique what's, what's your most favourite bit of the gym?

Speaker 3:

Ah, being a goofball? My favourite bit of the gym? Yeah, good question. Still love all the hands on stuff. So I still take programs, I still personal train, I still do classes. You know, like I'll be running a class tomorrow. So I love that. And that's why I got into it ultimately, was to show people how to exercise. It's just I've had to like, you know, renovate a bloody squash court in the meantime. So yeah, I'd say like for the most part, my passion is still the fitness side of things, group fitness or that kind of thing. Awesome. Thank you very much for chatting with me today. Oh, no worries. Cheers. Tell me about your cars. Oh, the cars. Yeah. Out in the front at the moment is a 1968 Volkswagen micro bus, they're called by definition. It's just a combi van, right? That's cool. Believe it or not, that was my first ever car. Right, so you had it a while. Yeah, I've had that from when I was 17. Yeah, wow. I bought that for 4, 200 or something like that. And yeah, love that car. Yep. Big, like, emotional attachment to that. My wife doesn't want me to get rid of it. We should probably sell it, right? Because old cars are just It's stupid to own their money pits, but yeah, there's a big emotional attachment to that one. My favorite car at the moment is the 1962 C10 Chevy Redneck Ute. Love it. It's awesome. But it's incredibly expensive to run. It's a big V8. It's my first ever like real, I suppose, like Bogan type car, but I love it. It's awesome. And then there's the. Motorbike, probably my favourite thing, favourite automobile, I don't know what you'd call it. Motor transport would be the motorbike, which that's they're called an adventure bike. This thing's a KTM 690 which, yeah, I load up all my camping gear on that. And I'm actually supposed to be going to Fraser Island this weekend, but we've been ruined out, so that's not happening. Actually, that's my favourite. Right. The Chevy's second and then the Kombi, the Kombi's just still here because of the emotional thing like I was saying, but yeah, yeah, they're the cars. Cause one of, one of you is old. You have the same birthday as me, right? We do have, we've got the same birthday, my wife and I. Right, I'm 19th of April. We're, so, the three of us. Yeah, we share it. It's weird. That is weird, isn't it? I didn't realise that. Yeah. Yeah, she's the 19th, so. Yeah, so am I. She's a year older. Okay. But yeah, two Aries at home. If you buy into that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

I

Speaker 3:

I hit the big 5 0 next year. Oh, nice. So. Yeah. Yeah. I'm 40 next year. Right. There you go. That'll be fun. So I'm trying to figure out another thing to

Speaker 2:

do on my 40th.

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Adam Leishman

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