A Journey into Entrepreneurship with Fitstop's CEO Pete Hull #503

What happens when a former motocross racer swaps the adrenaline of the track for the thrill of fitness entrepreneurship? Meet Pete, the zealous CEO of Fitstop, one of the fastest growing functional fitness brands worldwide. His journey from motocross racer to business mogul is a magnet for anyone looking to kickstart their own entrepreneurial journey. Tag along as we unpack Pete's unique trajectory and learn the significance of work-life balance, embracing risks and finding solutions in the face of adversity. 

We've all heard the saying, 'fitness is a lifestyle,’ but how many of us can honestly say we've fully embraced this mantra? Pete and his team at Fitstop have developed an innovative fitness routine, guaranteed to whip you into shape if you commit to training thrice a week. We delve into the cool tech stack and rewarding system that drives and motivates Fitstop's loyal members. Discover how Fitstop doesn’t just encourage fitness; it promotes healthier lifestyles through inspiring events and educating its members. 

The road to success is often fraught with challenges, but it makes victory all the more sweet, doesn't it? Pete gives us an intimate look into starting a business with limited resources, building a global fitness community and the integral role of gratitude in business. Are you ready to get out of your comfort zone, face challenges head-on and chase your dreams? Join us on this exhilarating journey with Pete, and let his story inspire you to take the leap of faith, make sacrifices and transform your dreams into reality. Let's get fit with Fitstop, and remember, pressure is a privilege.

Chapters

• 0:00 From Motocross Racer to Fitness CEO
• 11:46 Training's Impact
• 16:07 Building Community Culture Within Fit Stop
• 23:46 The Inclusive and Inspiring Fitness Program
• 29:20 Starting a Business With Limited Resources
• 40:11 Building a Global Fitness Community
• 47:41 Gratitude and Inspiration in Business

Transcript

Lachlan Stuart: 0:00

So welcome to episode 503 of the man that Can Project podcast. I'm your Lachie ,Stuart, , and today we have a special guest with us. I've been going back and forth with Pete for a while A very busy man, and you're about to find out why. But Pete's the CEO of Fitstop, which is one of the fastest growing functional fitness places on the planet, which is phenomenal. You are going global, but I'm very excited, you know, because you've done this alongside your wife as well, which is such a unique and beautiful thing, and I'm also very excited to dive into that. But you took it from what started in Brisbane to now being a global brand. You're over 120 locations now around.

Lachlan Stuart: 0:36

Yeah we're 120, with three more opening this weekend, so 123 by the end of this weekend by the time. Everyone's heard this and it's just continuing to grow. But today I'm excited to dive into your vision the balance between work life balance, if that's a thing at the moment, as we just discussed the risks that you've taken, and also your ability to find solutions as the problems keep coming up, because for a lot of our audience, it's like 83% men and a lot of them wanting to find a way to be better in their life, and a lot of what you've done with what you've created is transferable into all areas of their life. So I'm looking forward to diving into that. But before we dive in, if you've been finding value in our episodes, if they've been lighting that fire within you, do us a favor hit that like button and subscribe and share on your socials or share with a buddy that you know will gain value from this, and every like, every subscription helps us reach more people, spread more inspiration and create a community of achievers. Remember, together we're not just dreaming, we're achieving.

Lachlan Stuart: 1:35

Now let's dive into today's episode and keep that momentum going. It's not a unique experience, but when you walked in somewhere we work. At the moment we've hired a office. You walked in. The lady at the front reception was like fit stop. I know that place, so how does that feel for you when you have moments like that?

Pete Hull: 2:18

It is pretty cool and I guess I'm a little bit fortunate. I don't really, you know, I guess paint the brand with my face. It's always been about our community. So I get these interactions and get to speak to people about their experience in fit stop. Fortunately, that was an amazing experience.

Pete Hull: 2:33

She trains out at Salisbury. Dave's the owner there and we joked about how much energy he has at five am in the morning. Then you know it's the same question oh, do you work there? Are you a trainer? I'm like I used to be, but I'm actually the founder. Then you know that look on her face is pretty cool. So again, you know, fit stops always been about the community. It's always, for me, really been about how we can grow and inspire the right people and whether that's our membership base, whether that's the trainers, the managers, the owners. I've been on a crazy roller coaster now for five years in franchising, coming up to five years, and I've been in the space for coming up to 10 years as a business owner within the fitness world. So it's been it's been pretty good.

Lachlan Stuart: 3:14

Yeah, I do have a photo that you posted recently that I'll spin around at some point and we'll get your take on it, which is pretty important. Like 10 years in business is so unique, but let alone, obviously, five years in franchising. But before we dive into the community and all of that sort of stuff because what you have created and your team is created and your community is created is really world class and there's a lot of great things that people can take away from that, from getting into their fitness journeys, the power of being in community but also taking risks, et cetera. But before we do, can we go back to the beginning? I know you had Jace from LSKD on probably two years ago now. Maybe it's times flown, but you guys grew up together doing motocross and everything like that. So prior to fit stop, you wanted to be a professional motocross racer. Can you take us back to your, give us an overview of your upbringing and then how you got into fitness and then yeah, sure, yeah, I've known Jace since we were 15.

Pete Hull: 4:08

I grew up in the Redlands, out in the Bayside. We moved to Mount Cotton. Yeah, when I was 15, I grew up racing motocross, super fortunate to be able to do that sport. I think it taught me a lot. It taught me that when you hit the ground really hard, you just got to get back up, and I think that's why I keep just getting back up and running forward in business and in life now. But yeah, jason, I grew up racing motocross. We knew of each other he's a little bit older than me and we could hear each other writing. We literally lived like three doors down from each other.

Pete Hull: 4:42

We both, again, really fortunate to have super cross tracks in our front yard and we could hear each other writing and this was before kind of, you know, diving into someone's DM on Instagram to say hello is. He literally rode up the street, up my driveway as I was riding my track and, you know, we started riding together and it just became great mates.

Lachlan Stuart: 5:00

And.

Pete Hull: 5:01

I got to see his journey and evolution of loose kid you know into LKI and then now LSKD and what he's been able to create, but literally, you know, going around to his mum's house and looking at all the merch and helping him at you know markets and at the motocross tracks doing pop ups and things like that. So, yeah, it was an interesting time, but I went from, you know, trying to chase a dream to be a professional athlete. I probably should have listened a little bit more at school. Probably would have paid off a little bit more now, but you know I was so caught up in that world I wanted to do was ride my dirt bike. I did leave school in grade 12, though, and I went and became a motorcycle mechanic. That was kind of my dad's history. He worked for a bunch of race teams for Honda Australia, and so I was kind of the company I was riding for and looking after and supporting me at motocross, and then gave me an apprenticeship, and that's kind of where I kicked off, I guess, my employee life, but at the age of 20, so kind of coming out of my trade just to kind of finish up and had turned pro in Australia and was traveling a little bit.

Pete Hull: 6:08

I definitely hadn't made it, but I was at that point where you were getting free stuff and that was cool it's always cool but I tore my ACL. So I tore my ACL at the start of the year. I got it repaired, didn't really recover properly, probably didn't listen to the right people or see the right people. And again, for me growing up, racing motocross, you didn't really have structure. It was like ride your bike, try to eat. Ok, you know, we were told to get a road, cycle and cycle and swim and do a little bit of weights. Probably didn't have the right education around us at this age. So when I did my first knee reconstruction again didn't rehab properly, didn't probably listen to the right people I jumped back on a bike at three and a half months should have been six just because that's all I wanted to do. So you go, yeah, yeah, and I tore it again and that was kind of the big handbrake. You know the surgeon told my mom, who you know financially backed me at that stage, that I should grow up and get a real job and that if I ever wanted to, you know, kick a soccer ball or run with my kids. You know, when I'm 40, then I need to really seriously think about what I'm doing with my life. So that was a kind of big handbrake for me to go. Okay. What am I going to do next? You know, sure, working on bikes was, was, was okay and it was keeping me in that world, but I guess it wasn't really what I was passionate about. Yep, I was probably still really arrogant and naive, thinking that I maybe get back into the sport. So I sit on the couch not doing a lot.

Pete Hull: 7:36

I decided to go and sign up to a certain three and four at Australian Institute of Fitness, actually in here at Lutwych yeah, right, wet, and did that. But what I? What I really learned through that process was connecting with people that had been there and done it, connecting with some amazing people. So my physiotherapist was working for the Brisbane Lions at the time. I surrounded myself with a bunch of S and C coaches. I got to travel back to the U S now working with some athletes and I got to be around a different kind of style of training and I started to formulate that out for myself and work with athletes that were motor cross riders and BMX riders.

Pete Hull: 8:11

So now, when I kind of look at business and and any advice I'm giving to a startup. It's like find your niche, don't be all things to all people, yep, you know, looking back, that's what I really did was I didn't think about money at that stage, and my wife reminds me of this all the time. I didn't care about money it's still not my driver I just wanted to help people and I wanted to learn selfishly. I wanted to still be around the sport. So I just started training a bunch of my mates who were pro athletes and built this methodology that turned into an online and offline program because I could work on bikes being a mechanic, you know. I could now train them in the gym, I could write them programs, I could work on the nutrition and I could go to the track and in some way shape or form coach them. Because I kind of half knew what I was doing. I became, you know and all things to a one athlete and again, a bit of a niche. No, I was doing it.

Pete Hull: 8:58

Motocross kind of built my brand. My brand was Power To Perform, p2p Again, I'm kind of like taking an effect. Lki piece Evolved. Yeah, my mom, you know, created this brand for me. She thought I could give people the power to perform. That's so good. And we were going to motocross tracks, the same as Jace selling his merch. But I was going to the tracks and taking a physiotherapist or a masseuse.

Lachlan Stuart: 9:23

I was setting up a pop up, so you had a team with you then, like of other health professionals, going.

Pete Hull: 9:27

Yeah, because it was about brand connection.

Lachlan Stuart: 9:29

Yeah, it's awesome.

Pete Hull: 9:30

How could I help? You know and give back you know this physiotherapist, simon his name is. He gave me so much with education and I was seeing him three times a week. He wasn't charging me and I was really exposed to just giving more and doing the right thing for different communities and just helping out. Because we were really passionate so we started doing the motocross tracks and then I was trying to get his brand exposure because he was running a clinic. So we're just kind of networking and connecting and doing what we thought was right. The pop up, though. So in motorsport you call it a pit stop, so we called it P2P's fit stop.

Lachlan Stuart: 10:04

That's where the name comes from. Yeah right, yeah, so brilliant.

Pete Hull: 10:07

Yeah, it is crazy to think how it's all evolved. Obviously, we dropped the P2P and we went into fit stop. But essentially it's your place that you go, that you can kind of take some time out, you can think about you, you can train for something that's outside of the gym and that's what we really focus on now and where the brand has really evolved into. It's focused on functional group fitness. It's heavily S&C focused, with a 12 week periodized program. But our biggest driver is we want people to move more so they can live more. Yeah, go get a 3RM. Today we're 3RM testing for back squats. People are hitting amazing numbers and supporting each other and supporting each other and ringing the bell and all that stuff. But what does it actually allow you to do? Does it allow you to sign up for your first half marathon or run with your kids or go hiking or go to the US and do your sport, whatever it is? But yeah, that's kind of what we're really about.

Lachlan Stuart: 10:57

How did you get to hone in on the we move more to live more sort of approach, because everyone has their approaches and I can really subscribe to what you guys prioritized, because I always think about older people, that you see some old people who they're not even that old, right, they might be 60, but they're shuffling their quality of life. From how I see it, it doesn't look that great in terms of if you want to be active. So how did you sort of dial in on that and how do you inspire people to sort of look at the bigger picture?

Pete Hull: 11:26

Yeah, I think it comes back to the original training methodology was. I wasn't training an athlete to be better in the gym. Everything we did was training them for their sport, and if our sport as an everyday athlete is life or whatever it is you choose, then that's what you should be identifying and pushing yourself into. So, from a training methodology piece, we really encourage it. Encourage training three times a week in fit stop. That's it. I want people to get outside, I want them to run, I want them to get active, I want them to have recovery days.

Pete Hull: 11:56

We've gamified our technology stack to incentivize people with the reward system and a different tier status of going from a rookie to an all star, purely based off three sessions a week. And I think if people can really subscribe to the fact that it's not about getting fit for the gym, that's a really short term approach. It's hey, what can I do next? And we've still got a long way to go within fit stop, to really dive deeper into this and to get a wider audience. But it's the little things, like the events we set up during the year, campaigns we sponsor trying to get people outdoors to run their first kilometer or five kilometers or whatever it is, but yeah, just inspiring people to chase more of that lifestyle piece and live a healthy and active lifestyle.

Lachlan Stuart: 12:43

It's brilliant because there are a lot of people out there who are wanting to start their fitness journey and there is a misconception that you need to train every day or you need to train five days a week or be doing barbell, back squats on both subles and all the stuff you see on Instagram. Yes, through the way that you've gamified it and I understand you guys also prioritize tracking through your app and everything like that, which I think is amazing. Thank you so much. Bye for now. Bye now. Three days of training for people. How can that deliver results for the people who are gone? It's probably not possible.

Pete Hull: 13:17

Yeah, well, I think the biggest thing is considering that it's not just about the movement patterns or the work that you're doing in the gym, right? It's like how do you adapt this to your lifestyle and how are we finding that balance of your right nutrition, your right hydration, your right sleep, without going too deep with all of it? Again, I know you're wearing a whoop- I know I'm going up.

Pete Hull: 13:39

You've got all the things right and I think that's incredible if that's what you're in tune with and focused on. But again, if we go back to move more, to live more, how do we provide a platform that keeps inspiring education over a longer term? Like, I would love to leave a legacy. I think if it's up, it can become a legacy leaving brand like a Nike or even in the fitness world. I think Orange Theory has done this with how we can teach our community just to live better, so that in 50 years time this is the vision that I have is grandma's sitting there with the granddaughter and the granddaughter's like grandma, you're so active, still you're still walking five kilometers and like eating well, like, how have you done this? Like I've learned through TikTok or whatever other platform is that right? And the grandma speak, you know, turns to the granddaughter and she's like, oh, I trained at Fitstop, you know, in my 20s, 30s and 40s and you know I loved it so much. I still pop in there and see everyone and do a session a week. Like, yeah, that that's kind of what this is about, I think.

Pete Hull: 14:36

And again, going back to me, you know wanting to jump into the fitness world and go from training athletes to you know, the everyday athlete or anyone that wants to be fit for life. For me it was around. Hey, fitness can be just really simple. You don't. We don't have to reinvent the wheel. I've never reinvented the wheel, I've just been able to, I think, work out how do we connect all the dots? How do we make sure we can inspire someone to feel less, less intimidated when they walk into a gym, of whatever, whatever gym that is? How do we get human connection? And we do that through our training methodologies. And then, how do we keep promoting education when people need it? When we walk into the gym for the first time, a lot of the time it's just like I want to move my body again, I want to feel safe and secure, I want to feel connected.

Pete Hull: 15:21

But then, as we start to progress, it's like I want to start honing in on, maybe, my nutrition. I want to start thinking about my sleep. I want to be around. You know different forms of athletes. I want to sign up to my first event. Like everyone's going to have their own unique journey. So, as long as we can have touch points through their journey and we can somewhat understand it. I think that's where data collection is coming into a big piece of the puzzle. Ai is going to help out a lot with this stuff. But yeah, everyone's kind of on their own path. So as long as we can, you know we can support that, whether it's a raise in season or a loft time, then I'm happy.

Lachlan Stuart: 15:53

Yeah, that's brilliant. It's great to see that you are, and data is a very important thing because it does give you feedback around what's working well for people, what you do and don't like, and that then drives results, and results is what motivates people to keep coming back. You've touched on community a lot and, as you were saying before, you're not the face of fit stuff. Your community is what? How did you recognize that? That was so important to, I guess, almost tie in it into a purpose? Because you were training athletes and now you're training everyday athletes, and I love that you refer to all of us as athletes, because we're an athlete for life. I think that's brilliant. It's motivating. It changes the narrative on how we can view training. But why do you believe it was so important to build that community culture within fit? Stop?

Pete Hull: 16:36

To be honest, I think that's like that's where I saw the success come from and I think success for me isn't, you know, financial success or freedom. It's it's all about kind of creating this movement and genuinely seeing people that are passionate, supported, you know, living their best life and it look, I didn't crack the code straight away for the first kind of six months of running a business. They're going from one on one coaching small group to then kind of jumping in the deep end. You know, leasing an industrial building out in Redmond Bay, you know, kicking off the first kind of group training timetable. I'm the only trainer, I'm all things to all people.

Pete Hull: 17:10

You know the first kind of six months was a grind, you know, definitely I was losing money every month even though the rent was super cheap. I was still traveling a lot, I was still working on bikes, like I was working huge days. I'm like man like. But I love this training style, like why isn't it working? And if you go back kind of nine years ago, it was very much that kind of transformational challenge and I tried a bunch of these more like lifestyle inspired pieces and how do I adapt people to the program. But we we probably weren't really loud or and proud about our training methodology and what we could do for the general public.

Pete Hull: 17:44

So the first real kind of spike I saw was we really went hard into a six week challenge and I treated every single member that bought into the program like a dedicated athlete and, to be honest, it's definitely not what fit stop is today. It was very restrictive. It was here's your meal plan on a piece of paper yeah, beck and I would personally write them out for every single person. But we had 20 people that did the first one and it was like no alcohol, no coffee. It was basically the 75 hard restrictive, super restrictive and not sustainable. But we got insane results. Like train every day, only eat this, like do your steps, you know, before bed, like it was full on, but really programmed everyone to change their mindset, to be like, hey, let's, let's be athlete focused. Like, let's just go all out on this, got insane results. I shared everyone's story. So, yeah, we should have shared before and afters. But the most important part was like, yeah, hey, I was a tradie. I put on 20 kilos since, you know, leaving school and doing sport kind of lost my way a little bit. You know, eight sausage rolls and drank beer after work, found fit stop, went all in with the six week program lost 15 kilos, feel the best I ever have, and I'm building friends again. So, after we did that, like those testimonials for me was like that big wake up call of like, oh shit, like this program works. Most importantly, though, it was building this connection, because everyone did it together. Yeah, we changed the training methodology through that program as well, where we started building out teams of three. I started changing the way the room would flow, and it was really all about the member. Like we can run a group of 36 people that are testing three RM on back squat. You know we've got three other stations around the room one coach in the middle, which is informing the room and guiding the room, but we actually create extra coaches because we're training in teams of three. If we're testing for a back squats, one person working, one person resting, one person spotting.

Pete Hull: 19:39

So we built this early on, because I was like oh shit, I'm not going to, like I want to bring all this, like this testing and tracking, in, but me as one coach I can't spot everyone. So I'm like all right, I'm going to teach these people how to look after each other. And then that was the kind of the big growth story and that really lean into. Okay, this is about the community. This is about how do we teach more people to train the right way to look after each other. They become accountable. Then they're accountable to each other. I don't have to have all these retention tools and all the stuff. It's like, hey, I'm turning off in my mates and I'm going to get great results. I'm going to push and encourage them that peer to peer pressure. So that's kind of.

Pete Hull: 20:14

You know, we went from 20 people opting into this series to like 80. The next one I went from like literally went from 30 members to like 120 within kind of a 12 week period, because people were just like, oh shit, I need to be a part of that. I was still training like Red Bull athletes and like Red Bull DJs were rocking up to my events and we had a lot of fun doing it. We would always make sure that we had a kickoff event and then a finisher kind of for the six week program. The finish would be a workout for time, kind of a testing element, but most importantly, just like, again, community, getting around each other, make it fun. You know, dj, blow up pools, yeah all the things and then throw huge after parties to the stage. It got pretty out of control for a while.

Pete Hull: 20:55

That was the hardest part in nightclubs and yeah, it's been an incredible ride. But back to your point like it's just, it's always about the people. Like how do we help more people get amazing results, feel a sense of connection and really support each other?

Lachlan Stuart: 21:08

There's a few key things that jumped out at me there, like how empowered your members must feel, because a lot of people when you mentioned you're teaching people to be able to spot and get involved in the community and actually be part of other people's results. That's so empowering and it does build confidence and it makes you feel like you're a part of something bigger than yourself. It's very easy to, could have been very easy, and I know a lot of places potentially do do this, where they're just like you sit off to the side and take your rest and we'll deal with it and you know you can be doing whatever, which is fine. But when you're actually accountable for someone else, it does make you want to show up, which I think is absolutely incredible, and I just it's no wonder you're growing at the rate that you're growing at. You then look at to your training methodology, where it's like community focus. You went from motocross to then training athletes to now your bigger purpose of empowering people, which I think is phenomenal. I just lost my train of thought.

Pete Hull: 22:08

I was on it.

Lachlan Stuart: 22:08

I was like yeah, I was like it's going to happen, but we'll come back to that. Damn it. That was going to be so good. Let's go to this, so providing obviously the group focus, performance, progression and unleashing the inner athlete and then sorry in everyone, no matter what that looks like. The tagline obviously we've sort of touched on. But everyday people design them to athletes. Why is that so important to you?

Pete Hull: 22:35

Yeah, I think it's more of a mindset piece. What we've really done is made strengthening conditioning training accessible for anyone and everyone, and group fitness can be intimidating, right, like I know the way you train I used to train. For me it's actually creating a really sustainable routine now and stepping into a fit stop. We talk about the home of functional fitness being fit stop and I talk about that for two reasons. The biggest one is home for me is safety. Security and that's the feeling we want to create.

Pete Hull: 23:07

My original brand had green astroturf at the front and a bunch of timbers and reds and blacks. The reason I did that was trying to bring the outside in. And again the original brand had a big stop sign with FS in the middle because fit stop, pit stop, stop sign. So again, all the layers there. It was all about the feeling Then have a good friend that run a brand agency that helped me kind of rebrand and actually identify kind of the real key things we wanted to bring to the wider audience. But the home of functional fitness for me is really about creating a safe and secure environment, lowering those barriers of intimidation, although, like fit stop, yes, sure, you're going to lift weights and you're going to work hard.

Pete Hull: 23:46

The way that we actually program it out. It's all about that time and rep based training. It's not hit training, so you're not going to come into fit. Stop and watch a clock and go as hard as you can for 50 seconds with a heavy bar and expected to lift the same way to someone else. We program it so as you walk in, you're going to meet someone, you're going to team up. You can back, squat the bar or a dumbbell for the first time. Maybe you've never done it before and that's been the interesting part about launching into the US. So many people have never touched a barbell and they're squatting for the first time using a barbell.

Pete Hull: 24:17

But in the same session you've got someone to the left of you in a different cell with a different team back squatting 120, 140 pounds over there. Whatever the conversion is 225 or something. Yeah, but you really make the workout work for you. Everyone starts and finishes together. It's a very inclusive environment. So you can go from again never squatting never, you know, never kind of going through those movement patterns to all of a sudden hitting these PB, sitting that hitting that, hitting that progression.

Pete Hull: 24:44

You can also walk in as a professional athlete Still get an incredible workout. You know you definitely want some sort of base level fitness at fit stop. But for me it's actually about re inspiring when we felt the best in our life and for a lot of us that was growing up through school or college or whatever it was. When we remember back and it's like, oh, I remember what I was doing, it's like I remember when I was part of a team sport or I was training on this program and I felt incredible and, like you know, those days are done. It's like, no, those days are not done. Walk back into fit stop, be a part of the program, find your team again and go for it, that's awesome, the barriers, intimidation that was sort of the tangent I was going on before before out of brain fart.

Lachlan Stuart: 25:21

But a lot of people, especially in the space we work in in men's health everyone's like you know just communicate with your partner better or do this and do that. Communication is crucial, but a lot of people are so insecure and uncertain in who they are they don't know where to start with that, you know. They don't know how to say the right things, et cetera. And the same with gym. It's 67% roughly of people are obese or overweight in Australia alone. That's significant, right? Yeah, we know exercise is important to that and obviously managing diet, sleep, the things that you've mentioned, your mission. But it's that step. Prior to that, how do we get people to feel safe and secure going into an environment? Because it can be intimidating. I think about my mum. She's extremely intimidated at the gym, but I'm like mum, you're going to get in there, it'll change your life and after a week or two you're going to feel like you've got a community. So the way you've just spoken about it and for anyone listening who is considering starting their fitness journey, you've got 120 locations.

Pete Hull: 26:14

There's bound to be one near you and if not reach out to Pete, maybe there's an opportunity, yeah no, and I was going to say it's a really good point and something that we've learnt into is confidence looks different on everyone and we can be the best shape in our life and feel the less confident we ever have. So it's making sure that you can get that sense of connection, sense of achievement. You start leaning into the real you again and then this stuff starts happening. But yeah, I'm a big believer. Fitness for me is every morning.

Pete Hull: 26:44

If I'm not, I know I'm not going to be on, if I don't train. Well, because of travelling, or man, when I was travelling to the US and we didn't have a fit stop, like I felt it, and it was. It was a lot to do with mindset, because fit stop is my routine, it's the hell I've to train, but it's also my people. Like I know I can walk into any fit stop and again, being honest, like I'll walk into a fit stop I haven't been into before or I haven't been into a long time. And at the start I'm like, oh shit, like who am I going to train with today? I know no one.

Pete Hull: 27:12

I'll kind of like stick, you know, to myself a little bit. I'll say hello to the team first and I'll stick to myself and then in the warm-up we always group people up. Then I'm going to find my team, I'm going to introduce myself, we're going to have a bit of a chat, then we're going to get into the workout. By the end of the workout I've just made two more good friends. You know we share some stories along the way. Usually it's like, oh hey, you've been going to fit, stop long and I'm like, oh yeah, about nine years, yeah, but that's what I love about it, it is that connection piece. But confidence looks different on everyone and that's why everyone's journey is quite unique.

Lachlan Stuart: 27:42

And that's why it's so unique that you guys have gamified, that we do it. Similar in ours, because once again, people have that resistance where you may not feel comfortable to introduce yourself, but you guys have taken that out of the hands of people to go look, we've got you covered, we're going to get you introduced so that by the end of this session you do feel part of the community. I think that's you know. You and I do this for a living. There's still moments where I walk into a room and I'm very happy to just blend in against the wall, but when people force you to, you're like so grateful they did that.

Lachlan Stuart: 28:07

Yes, the other thing, going back to helping people identify as everyday athletes when you think of yourself as an athlete, right, the habits that you want to have in your life are very different to if you picture yourself as just an everyday person right, where you might have your beers and your burger after dinner, as opposed to if I'm an everyday athlete and probably don't want to have my beers. I want to go to Fit Stop, or I want to go for a walk or eat healthy or drink more water, and it's just changing your identity, which is, I think, the language piece is very crucial to people, so I love that you guys do that as well. Want to sort of shift gears a little bit. You've been in business with your wife and at the time wasn't maybe wife in the beginning, beck.

Pete Hull: 28:47

Yep, no wife girlfriend.

Lachlan Stuart: 28:48

Girlfriend, you guys have ridden the journey together. How has that been, and what has it been like building something together, because it's very rare that a couple gets to experience that.

Pete Hull: 28:58

It is yes, and I think Beck tells a story slightly different. I might have to phone her in.

Pete Hull: 29:02

Yeah phone her in on this. I think she what's the sum of the language she uses is when you work with your partner, it puts a magnifying glass on your strengths and weaknesses Right, and I think for us, I'm really grateful that we're on the journey together Again. Going back to the very start, when I leased the first kind of industrial building 100 square meters we had no money. Really fortunate, beck's always had the stable career. So she's intelligent, she went to uni, got an amazing career. She's kind of always paid the bills, which is nice, because when you're a startup there's not much contribution coming back. I've always again she thinks I hate money I've always reinvested everything back into the business. For the first kind of three or maybe even four years I paid myself $500 a week. So that overnight success stuff and all the media stuff, it's all great, but you've got to go all in on your business. This is a long-term play for us and it's genuinely about creating the community. But yeah, going back to fitting out the gym, she had just got a new role. She got a company car. She had actually bought her first brand new car about I think it was about nine months prior. I convinced her that we should sell that and fund the equipment. So we sold her Toyota Corolla again. Partners at the time not engaged yet, but yeah, she sold her Toyota Corolla. We then bought a bunch of equipment. She imported it from China. It arrived three days before we opened and that's how we got started.

Pete Hull: 30:35

But again, super fortunate that she's always been heavily involved in fitness, super driven herself, always been our stability, our rock, and she just kind of, I guess, believes in me. She knows that if I've got a vision whether it's kind of arrogance, ego or whatever else you want to call it confidence maybe If I've got something in my mind, I'm going to achieve it Like there is no failure. It is like I burned the boats, it's all in, like I'm going to make this happen. So when we're having a conversation around, well, I'm going to I'm not going to kind of work out the 24 hour gym anymore. I want to build out this kind of the studio. My vision for it was very athletic, inspired, like how do we create this performance center? Yeah, we chatted about the investment that was going to be needed and went all in on that. That kind of grew. We were always around the gym. Beck was training in there. Where she could. She worked in the city. So we actually moved into the city so that she could walk to work. She only had one car family at this stage because she changed jobs again, so she was walking to work.

Pete Hull: 31:38

I was then driving out to the Redlands to run our first location, so we'd moved from Redland Bay into Victoria Point. We then opened Morningside completely self-funded all of it, but it had built this great business. It wasn't until we had franchised and then at about location number eight I think it was, or it was within the top first ten anyway finally convinced her that the business had some form of stability and that I wasn't crazy. But at that stage I was still all things to all people. So up until I think it was about you know, number eight or ten, I was the only full-time employee. I had a bunch of support around me.

Pete Hull: 32:13

And again this is going back to the community piece Every location we opened, they were my new team. It was like cool, these are the owners, these are the trainers, we're going to not doing the next one. So everyone would come with me to the next open, the third open, the fourth open, the fifth open. All of a sudden it's like there's a team of ten there helping. You know, I'm still finding leases, I'm painting the building with them.

Pete Hull: 32:32

It was complete start-up. There was no systems and processes, it was just energy and passion. But within all of that I'm still selling franchises. I'm understanding franchises of the law. Again, I'm across everything. So finally convinced her that, hey, like you need to come and step into the business and you need to sell these things in franchising. And again, I've always tried to lean into who's been there and done it and, more importantly, who's messed it up. So I'm looking across franchising as a whole. I mean, also, I don't really look at fitness franchising. For my inspiration it's kind of that hospitality industry, people that have got real scale.

Pete Hull: 33:08

And all the commentary is the area you'll mess it up is if you sell too quickly and you drive a bunch of cash in just from sales. You sell to the wrong people. They don't buy into the passion, energy, especially in early days when you don't have great systems, and then things go bad pretty quickly. You know you're setting these kind of false expectations. We don't have a vision aligned. You know values unaligned. So if it wasn't me selling, I knew we needed someone that was going to really protect the company, probably more than I was, and that was Beck. So finally convinced her step into the business. You're going to lead franchise growth and then she's done that for the last, whatever it is for you. So it's been incredible.

Pete Hull: 33:45

You know, it was definitely interesting the first kind of year, because it was like cool, you're going to step into the business, I'm the boss. I hate saying that but, like you know, sometimes again be arrogant and this is what we need to do. Beck's complete opposite to me High attention, high attention to detail wants to focus on every element of a process, really, really strong values around what we're creating and we'll never let that slide. So that first kind of year was, I'm like big picture vision and she's like but tell me the detail.

Pete Hull: 34:16

She's also come from an amazing, you know company in the city, overlooking the story bridge, eagle Street, pier, beautiful office to no office, sitting on the floor with a laptop and a phone calling leads that don't even know who fit stop is or what it is. So yeah, it was an interesting journey, but so grateful because we both feel the highs and lows. We both are always working on how we're communicating around it and we're always pushing each other in the right direction. You know she'll be the first one that'll be like hey, okay, I know you're having a bit of a hard time, but you need to get on with it now. Like this is what.

Lachlan Stuart: 34:52

This is what you're good at.

Pete Hull: 34:53

Like just go and focus on that, make these decisions faster, like move on with it, and then you know the same on the other side. You know I'll tell her what can you control, what you can't do, when you think about everything that can possibly happen. So for me and her it's like hey, what can you control right now? What are you going to action? What are you going to move forward with that stuff? I'll deal with it in the future. You know that's the later issue, but let's just do these things. So yeah, it's been good. How?

Lachlan Stuart: 35:15

much did like in that initial moment. You weren't married, you were just boyfriend, girlfriend. Yeah, Her saying yes to support you. How did that make you feel in that moment?

Pete Hull: 35:25

Well, I think that's where, like for me, I was like okay, like we're all in on this, like, and it was an interesting time when you're starting a business, you know whether it's friends or family you're always going to have people around you that are going to question she's never questioned that. It's like cool, like let's, let's get that done. Even to the point that we were probably six months into business operation. I had no idea what I was doing. Like awesome trainer, I got that stuff dialed, but I hadn't lent into like running a business. Yeah, yeah, I'm learning for the first time. How do I employ a team? Do I create a marketing plan? I'd gone to an event in Brisbane come on what's called, but it was for the entourage. So company Jack DeLosur runs went to this event, watched all these amazing people on stage and they were speaking my language. It was like you know how do you scale a business? How do you create a marketing plan? How do you write and read a P and L?

Pete Hull: 36:14

like I'm like I know none of this and anyway, it was that that time, when you're in those events and they're like cool, put your hand up. If you think this is for you, put. I put my hand up.

Pete Hull: 36:23

Go to the back of the room sign up Sign up All that stuff, right, and did you invest in yourself? Then, yes, I go home. I tell her, hey look, I think this is going to help me. It was $18,000 for the year. Like, at this stage I'm making no money, I'm going backwards. I don't think I was even paying myself. And she looked at me and said, well, hey look, if we don't do this, we're probably going to lose everything anyway. Right, so you may as well. I'm like, yep, you're probably right. And back to very black and white, which is great, I need that. So I'm like, yep, let's do it.

Pete Hull: 36:51

So for the next 12 months, I flew to Sydney every second month. We invested $18,000 in our first year of business for me to fly to Sydney on like Jetstar. I was staying in backpackers. I wake up Sydney, Shout out to those guys Like $23 a night. And I'm going to these events every second month, four days.

Pete Hull: 37:08

I'm just immersing myself, I'm taking notes, I'm learning, and the same way I learned about fitness, for me it wasn't necessarily about the textbook, it was about the real life experience and connecting and networking with the right people.

Pete Hull: 37:20

And that's what I did and that's how we created strategy. I learned how to write and read a P and L for the first time how to create a budget, watch a cash flow, how to use zero, like all the basics that I hadn't learned, yeah, and that set us up with an incredible base and that's what we kind of now do from a fit stop level. Is that mentoring piece and approach for our business owners. We don't say franchisee, franchisee or it's web business owners. Our model is actually a percentage of revenue comes into HQ and gets split out to our business, to our network. We're in business together but you got to own your shit. You got to own your business, you got to take responsibility for it, you got to know your numbers and you got to know what we're doing to maximize our campaigns and take responsibility for growth. So, yeah, I'm just really fortunate that she's just always had my back.

Lachlan Stuart: 38:05

Yeah, it's cool that one thing you touched on, you went from being an awesome trainer to then having to learn a whole new. I guess business in itself is a whole new thing and you just did that. You went all in and invested in yourself. A lot of people are hesitant to part with money to learn what they need to learn. So another thing that you said that I've also really Dive into when I'm looking at investing courses like who else is going to be there that I can learn from other right people that I need to be around, because majority of our business is online, so it's a bit different to bricks and mortars, so I can learn a lot of my mates yourself All run these incredible business where I can learn from a macro level. But then for the finer things in my business, I need to be around people who are running similar businesses, just to see what they're doing, what does work, what doesn't work.

Lachlan Stuart: 38:48

But it also requires an investment in time and also money. Yeah, I love where you said you went to Sydney and you're standing backpack is like Some people won't do that, like no, it's not possible for me yeah if you want it bad enough, you'll find a way. Yeah, and you guys are one of the biggest Brands in fitness and continue to grow, and this is where you started people don't ever see that, and I wanted to show you this.

Lachlan Stuart: 39:08

And then I want to quickly touch on your expansion. What photo you have to America, yes, and then we'll let you. You know times important so, but this one you posted on the stories the other day so yeah so is how it started, and for those who are watching on YouTube, I'll share this in the video.

Pete Hull: 39:23

yeah, that was a box mate yes, no beard, messy hair wearing LKI now. Lskd. My shirt says dream believer chief. Sorry, lorna, not sure if I saw that from you.

Pete Hull: 39:39

We never printed them in mass promise that that was actually the personal training studio I was sub leasing, yeah off. I turned up at that studio one morning at five and with clients and it was closed with locks on the door with the sticky note saying sorry they had. They unfortunately had gone and solvent Seize trading and sold all the equipment overnight and that actually is what forced me then into leasing the industrial building and starting my own thing. So grateful for that experience. But there's been some massive, massive highs and some massive lows over the last 10 years.

Lachlan Stuart: 40:11

What would you if you could go back and give one little bit of wisdom to that 2013 version of yourself? What would it be?

Pete Hull: 40:20

To be honest, I've enjoyed this journey. My my piece and the reminder for me always is who do I need to be next? And that's what I want to do very early, and it's not from a person, personality point of view. It's not who I need to, how do I need to change as me, but who do I need to be next for the people that you know that that are leaning on me? How can I provide more support? How can I get more growth?

Pete Hull: 40:45

Again, I think it's going back to kind of being a want to be athlete is what's that progressive state? And that can be challenging at times because you just want more and more and more. But for me, I try to lean more into. Ok, who do I need to be next and who do I learn from? So look at the moment. You know franchising is my world.

Pete Hull: 41:01

I'm trying to look at how do we better our systems, our structures, trying to create now a global organization. How do I need to structure my org chart? We're called a family tree, not an org chart. But who do I need to learn from? And people I look at and respect heavily is Don from Domino's, incredible business that is created now, and the master franchise or out of Australia it's multiple countries and, as I listed, and out of out of Brisbane. So fortunately I've got had a few meetings with him, a couple of coffees with Don and just trying to yeah, who do I need to be next to make sure that I'm still thriving, I'm still leading, I'm still learning and trying to be a positive influence for everyone around me?

Lachlan Stuart: 41:42

One thing you said at the very beginning as well was, rather than flying business class as a business owner, you'd rather invest that into marketing, and no one's ever said I've interviewed 500 people and a lot of business owners and people do that. But the fact that you said that for me shows that you genuinely care about growing what you've got and like really leading by example, because it is easy to you know once you get comfortable to go hey.

Pete Hull: 42:06

Treat yourself.

Lachlan Stuart: 42:06

But when you put in that back into marketing and improving your systems in the business, you're still doing that 10 years later.

Pete Hull: 42:12

Yeah, it's the same as I'm saying in the backpacks, maybe. Yeah, it was like I was happy to invest $18,000 in something but not happy to go and spend money on. Maybe the nicer hugs. Yeah again, I fly to the US a lot at the moment. It just got back from Singapore but I wouldn't go and book a business like I'm fortunate now I've got amazing points for all my flights and hey, if I get an upgrade ever like it's an incredible day and I'm super grateful for it.

Pete Hull: 42:39

Yeah, I was trying to gamify it at the moment like, oh well, I'd be lucky.

Lachlan Stuart: 42:42

What's today gonna bring yeah?

Pete Hull: 42:44

but again, I think it's just been smart with your money, but not scared to reinvest, and that's what we've done. I didn't need to go and build our own tech stack. You're spending millions of dollars in that technology world. You know could have done what everyone else does and MindBody or GlowFox and focus on a billing system, but for me it was okay. But what does the future look like? How are we investing early now to be able to create a member experience that is gonna last forever?

Lachlan Stuart: 43:10

Yeah, that's exciting. And finally, just before we go, heading over to Singapore, the US, what's some of the, I guess, the stressors for you at the moment? But obviously I was gonna finish it with what's your vision? You've already answered that, which is a beautiful vision to have people when they're 60 to go. It's because of fit stuff that I fit stuff so that I learned to live a better life ultimately going into US, singapore, all that sort of stuff. How's that for you on the excitement level? What's been, I guess, one or two obstacles along the way that you've had to overcome?

Pete Hull: 43:44

So many obstacles. For sure, the US is a big beast. One of the major reasons we jumped into the US was we got investment two years ago, three years ago maybe, from Lyft Brands, who own Snap Fitness Global. And when you talk about having a layer of support, I guess, the same way that you know, beck gave me that initial support and I know that you know she's always got my back when you've got a big company that have been there and done that and want to come in to showcase some of that support. You know that's the kind of foundation you need to be able to make those next big moves. And you know, with their help and guidance, the best way I speak about, you know, lyft Brands and Snap Fitness is they're my big brother that's been there and done it. They've done it different and they don't ever put me in a corner or, you know, tell me I must do these things. It's really about you know what advice and guidance and how do I want to lean on them as we grow. So you know, moving into the US, it's been nice to have that level of support and experience, but it's had huge challenges.

Pete Hull: 44:40

I've been working on the US project for over two years now. I've been travelling there for two years to do my research and identify key areas, our launch platform, our marketing plan. You know we, instead of just going over there and you know, selling a franchise and wishing them luck, we actually went over there and I leased an industrial building kind of back to it, rather than I, I set up a pop-up, invested a lot of money to set up a pop-up and an office. So for 12 weeks before we launched the actual first location, the first studio, we ran a pop-up for free every Saturday. I got an amazing trainer on board. Pete Posani has been in the industry for 20 plus years, really represented the brand with pride and understood our DNA. But we got feedback from our members, from our community in Santa Monica. So for 12 weeks we ran Saturday sessions back to back. We got feedback. We looked at our communication styles and techniques. We went for our pre-launch. We went live in our pre-launch and open with over 200 members and that level of investment again, like didn't need to do that. Probably could have just gone and spent a bunch of money on PR or Hyde and Ambassador or multiple of them. But for me, product, everything, member experience is everything and getting the feedback from the community was so important. Yeah, so that was our rollout, but, yeah, like a two-year project, that definitely didn't go smooth.

Pete Hull: 45:59

Understanding the US? It's definitely not the United States of America. Every state is different, every county is different. Franchise law is super complex over there, ip law, everything. It's a different culture. I think in Australia we have a little bit still of that kind of tall poppy syndrome. People will tell you that won't work or why are you doing that? In the US it's kind of opposite, but it comes with pros and cons. So everyone will rally around you.

Pete Hull: 46:25

This is incredible. You're amazing. You guys are going to crush it, but something goes wrong. Those same people will be the first people that turn around to sue you Again. There's all these layers of complexity that comes with it, so we've taken our time to learn it. Again. I love jumping in the deep end, burning the boats, but we're a bigger brand. I've got more people to think about now than just me. So it's how do we take these calculated risks? How do we make sure we've got a really detailed plan? We're setting ourselves up for success and that's kind of how it's flowing.

Pete Hull: 46:52

So we opened Singapore and the US in the same month. That was a wild journey, I was telling before. We opened the US in Santa Monica 200 plus members. The very next day, on Sunday, beck and I jumped back on a flight. We fly back to Australia. We land on the Tuesday morning. We go straight to our four day conference, our summit on the coast with Lyft Brand. So 800 plus people there. 5th stop, 9 round, snap. I'm back in the office then for a week. Then we go to Singapore for a fitness conference there and I get to go and meet our first location and run a session there as a trainer. Well that stuff. So Lyft doesn't have a balance, but it has integration. Beck and I both know that we took the commitment on to go and do the US and to expand into multiple countries so we can create a global fitness community. Pressure is a privilege and I'm grateful for it every day.

Lachlan Stuart: 47:44

That's a great perspective and for everyone following along. If you want to find Pete on socials, where's it? With your handle, peterhole, nice and simple? Head over to fitstopcom. There's stuff around franchising and also where you can find a local Jim. I love what you guys have done. Honestly, I'm sitting here inspired and the genuine care for the community is really something that I can pick up from the conversation that we've had. And even just investing in, like I said to America, to make sure that it just has your DNA, I really can buy into that and I've learned so much from this conversation. So thanks so much for your time.

Pete Hull: 48:19

No, thank you, mate, appreciate it. I just want to download the app. First session is always free because we get back to our community. Check it out and let me know what you think. Awesome thanks, guys.