How to Build a Fitness Brand That Actually Lasts - Stewart Miller

This is the beyond the Story podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Sebastian Ross. Stuart, welcome to the show. How you doing, Sebastian? Thanks for having me. I'm doing well. Thanks for being here. Thanks for taking some time out of your busy day to hang out with me for a few minutes. Sure to appreciate it. You're coming to us from the other side of the world, literally over in Dubai. We're recording here in, in Miami. So glad we finally were able to work out our time, time zone differences here and get an opportunity to, to have a chat. I appreciate you. Thank you for jumping on and you're in one of my favorite cities, so it's always good to connect. Well, I hear great things about Dubai. It is on my list. I've yet to make it there with my adventures, but I hear it's, it's definitely a place to visit. Yeah, you're, you're welcome. Look forward to seeing you. Absolutely. Well, you and I connected in the great Dan Martell's elite coaching program. Happens a lot here on the podcast as I continue to meet other interesting, successful business owners. Forward thinking people that want more out of life and their business seems to be the common denominat of there. So love being able to connect outside of the group here and of course the world of podcasting. My, my world here to, to have a conversation on this show specifically. I like telling people's story, Stuart. I like going back for some context for our listeners, going back to the beginning of the story. Now the beginning's different for everyone, of course, so you decide where that beginning point is. But bring us back for a little bit to where the story began and what really brought you into present day with what you're doing in the world of fitness. Yeah, I'm not going to go right back to the beginning of business because I started when I was very young at school and then built a number of different businesses and in different industries, but felt passionately in love with cycling and started a bicycle business. I was 30ish and I had a great business at the time and I was passionate about cycling. So I imported a brand from Canada called Cervela which was the time was a very new brand and it was a racing, racing bicycle. I brought just the frames to South Africa and we started selling and in the first year we sold 25 odd frames and then fast forward 10 years I sold that business and we were doing 100,000 bicycles a year and we represented a number of other big brands, for example, brands that you'll Recognize being Diamondback and Huffy and some great USA brands as well as many other European brands and USA brands. And we did accessories and we did licensing with Tony Hawk and Sha White and Disney and Barbie and all these beautiful things. And during that time we were able to deal with some professional athletes at Ironman and professional mountain bike racing and cycling racing and Tour de France and all these things. And we were also able to deal with the enthusiast, the cycling enthusiast. And we were able to obviously supply Toys R Us and the supermarkets with kids bikes. And I'll tell you that I got as much pleasure selling a hundred dollar bike as I did selling a$10,000 bike. Because when she rode out of Toys R Us on the Barbie bike and her dad couldn't catch her, that it was some special times and some special moments. And my kids were able to see that with me at times. We would go into the store, I would help out, I would help assemble, I would help sell and I'd bring my kids along with me to be part of that journey. And a turning point for us was when we realized, my wife and I, that this was the industry we wanted to be in. We wanted to be in moving people. We want to be an exercise. And most importantly, the joy of exercise that we sold our other businesses and other interests and we focused purely on the bicycle business. And we grew that and it got to a really good size and it was the right time to exit. We exited and we moved to Dubai. And when we got to Dubai, we also knew we wanted to stay in the world of exercise. And we opened our first boutique studio, first of a kind globally, where we created multimodalities under one roof. So yoga, cycling, boxing hit just under one building, but no gym, just the concept of all the classes. And we were fortunate enough to attract some incredible talent, a number of trainers from North America, which we all know is the key in this space. You know, it's the coach and it's the community. You build around that. And within our first year, we became the number one boutique in the uae. And we kept that award for five plus years afterwards. And then that was the point for us when we realized that we were, we were living our dream and we were living our passion. And our mission is to move a million people a day, whether it's in person or digitally. And that's what we, we live and breathe every day. Everything we're doing is in that direction. And you know, we make work look easy. We've been told that by too many people. But the reality is when it's. When it feels a little bit like play. You know, people say, you know, you go on a business trip or. Well, we're actually laughing earlier because we're actually going to. We're coming to New York on a business trip and we're going to an event. And yeah, people saying, you know, enjoy your trip, have a good time. Yeah, cats for work. But of course it's good time, otherwise we wouldn't do it, would we? Right. So, yeah, we're in a great place and we're sitting in such a beautiful industry and I think we all know. Well, at least, you know, I know, I know you enjoy it and I know that a lot of other team members in the elite program also see the benefits of exercising every day. And, you know, we built a business around that. Yeah, Like Dan says, exhaust the body, tame the mind. And that's a tough quote to argue with because that's exactly what it does. Yeah, he says quite a lot about exercise, but. Yeah, I remember that one. And we, we're fortunate. We live in, in an incredible city, an incredible country, and we're able to network and, you know, you know, work with businesses from around the world here. And, you know, we do business in North America, in Europe and in the uk. So originally South African. I don't know if you can recognize the accent. Yes, I can. Absolutely. My best friend of 25 years is from Cape Town, so. Yes. Okay. Yeah, beautiful city. So, yeah, we do. We live in a, in a, In a beautiful place that everybody here wants to try something new once, trust me, different. They give you a chance. They want you to succeed, you know, and it allows us to try new things. It allows us to push the boundaries and, you know, if you deliver a good product, you stand a chance to win. Yeah, well, you mentioned about said new. People say you make work look fun. I always like to say, you know, every day is Friday if you're doing it right. Yeah, yeah. I've always struggled with, you know, the weekend and, you know, Friday. Thank God it's Friday. I mean, I love the song, you know, they. Everybody singing it, you know, but the reality for us is it's every day is the same. And, you know, we're in the fitness industry, so when everybody, everybody's off, we're on. And our business runs 247 and we absolutely love, but wouldn't have it any other way. And so why did you guys decide to buy after the exit? Obviously, it's a beautiful place and great place to live as well, but how did you guys arrive at going, you know what? Dubai is our next stop. It's like an umbilical cord. It's pretty close to South Africa. Distance wise, similar. Only a two hour difference in time zone. A lot of South Africans here and you know, English speaking, it was like an easy landing, you know, it doesn't mean we're going to stay here. I might be close to you soon, but, you know, this is the real, this is the reality. It was an easy first stop. Yeah, My good friend of, of over 25 years, we met in Huntington Beach, California. Yeah, yeah. Orange County's crawling with South Africans and He moved there 30 years prior to that and just retired down in Costa Rica. And you'll never get him out of there now. You're never getting him out of the jungle and the beach. And it's an ideal, ideal scenario. He loves it. He wakes up, drives his buggy down to the beach, gets a surf in for a couple hours, starts his work day and it actually, he's, he's not in the fitness industry. You're actually selling it. It sounds pretty good. I might, I might skip and go straight there. Oh, I gotta connect you too. He's actually opening, he's not in the fitness industry, but he's in the process of. Where? They just got done doing it two weeks ago, opened a biohacking clinic down there in San Jose. So they're doing stem cells and peptides and hyperbaric chambers and all the stuff to, you know, keep us alive to 150, you know, but I'll have to connect. We're in the process of meet him. What's that? I'd love to meet him. That would be great. Yeah, we're, we're actually the process of launching his podcast too. So timing's pretty good. You guys can meet and connect and you'd be a great guest to, to talk about what, what you've been able to build here. I always like to talk a little bit about the, the, the dare I use the word journey, so overused these days, but the journey of, of, of building a business and over the years and you guys have had a lot of great success and continue to do that. What was one of the toughest things that you, you came up against through the process of actually building the brand and exiting it. You know, one of the things that resonates with you because we've learned it as well in the elite program is, you know, building a business that you want to run away from. And I've done it. I've done it, so I know how it feels. And you know, zero to one is super hard. Then you get a bit settled, then you grow, then you grow. Then you realize nothing worse than being in a place you don't want to be. You're trapped, you're in a cage, you're locked up, you're in jail, and you don't see a way out. Because you've been so passionate about this space for so long, you've built this incredible machine. It's finally getting to a point that it's generating the profit that's made it all worthwhile, that you're now living and breathing, but you're done. That's a horrible place. It's not just horrible because you're trapped, it's horrible because you feel like, what have I wasted my time doing getting here and what else could I be doing? So it's dealing with those demons. And, you know, that's one of the hardest things. I don't want to say that I've done it twice because the second time around I got to a point where I knew when the moment came that it was time. And it was maybe one or two earlier, one or two years earlier than probably I should have exited when I exited the second time. But it was the right thing for me because I also get to a point where I add no more value to a business. I'm very good at building. I'm very good at solving problems. I can see into the future. I have a very special gift. But at a certain point in time, I need to be building the business further or I need to be exiting. And that is another level, you know, that's unlocking another level, going from another to build another startup. So as a business start, it has to stay a startup for me. It has to. That's the reality of it. That's, that's your, that's your zone of genius. That's where you're, you're, you're the most creative and most exciting and I guess, easy. It's easy. Otherwise it just becomes this slog like, you know, you're not going to catch me doing. And I like doing exiles. I'm actually an Excel world champion. But I ain't gonna come and work for you to do it, no matter what you pay me. I mean, I lost 17 minutes and I'll be done. Right? Right. Well, hey, listen, it's very important to know a. What, you know, what we love and what we don't love and what we're good at and what we're not good at. And I think a lot of people miss that mark. I mean, I've, I've started. I'm 47. I still like to say that I wake up every day and it's a hell. It's a hell no. It's really easy to decide whether or not it's something I want to do. In another. Another Dan Martell ism Stop pretending like you don't know. And I think a lot of people get stuck in a space of I don't know. And well, we, we always know. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, Jeff Bezos talks about it first and second tier decisions or swing door and fixed door decisions. We spend a fortune of time on those swing door decisions and not enough time on the. On serious decisions, the fixed door decisions, that when you go through it, the door closes behind you. Can't open that again. So, you know, it's the same. It's the same with you saying, you know, hell yes or hell no. It's the same as walking away from things and, you know, it's saying no to a lot of things. And I think that that's. As you get a little bit older, you start to realize that saying no is very difficult, but it's more important than the yeses. Yeah, no is a complete sentence. It was once said. Yeah, I like that. Who have, who have you got to become as a human being based on your business ventures and success and like, what's. What. What, what have you been able to discover about yourself? How have you become a better husband, a better friend, a better father, a better business partner? Through this, through this whole journey of building brands, exiting them, and figuring out what's next for you. I hope that I've shown my family, my boys, my wife and my friends that you can always start over. I've started over many times, literally, from a blank sheet of paper. And Peter Thiel's book Zero to One explains it very well. But if you're in startup mode, you're always starting from zero. You're solving the problem for the first time every time. And I think that it does become tiring. It does take a lot of work. There are periods where you are exhausted that you have to believe in yourself and you have to have the confidence that you're going to get through this. And I think that that is what doing this over multiple times, moving to another country, setting up different businesses, starting multiple businesses over the last 30 years, I think, and different industries, not in the same industry. So that in itself is a huge challenge. But that's what I enjoyed and I hope that that's shown also my two boys and, and like I say, my wife and my friends around me that it's never too late. I mean, you can do it. I'm going to do it again and again and again and again. I mean I'm not stopping, so it's not. Well, I'm stuck, I'm unhappy whether it's in a relationship or whether it's in a business, whether it's how you feel. And I'm fortunate enough that I'm super excited about the next five years because I have more energy, my mind is clearer, I have better space than I did when I was 39. So I know that the next five years I'm going to be able to build something quite unique, quicker, easier and I've got the energy to do it and that's exciting, that's an exciting place to be because if it carries on the way that I'm working and we talk about hyperbaric, we talk about peptides, talk about all these beautiful things, this cross between that world of wellness, well being longevity and exercise are the same now. We're building new gyms now and 30% of that business is covered by that space. And we're actually putting all these products into subscription models. That, that role is getting even more exciting. The likelihood of me feeling better 60 than I do at 50 is becoming very real and I look forward to that. Isn't that exciting place to be? Yeah, it really is forward thinking and knowing you're creating momentum as we're growing older, which is incredible. So you enter that space with a clear, you enter that space with a very different mind, very different experience and you're also able to clear through things a little bit quicker. So what you're able to build in three years, would it take you 10? But you have more energy so it, you're able to do it easier and quicker and enjoy the process a little bit more. Maybe the word is be more present which when you're younger it's very hard, you know, to be present because you, you, you know, you, you feel under that extra pressure. Sure love that present. Wow. Yeah. Those of you listening right now, if you only take one thing from this entire conversation, what does it look like to be more present in your life, business, professionally, with yourself, etc. Definitely a thought to consider. Stuart, it's been a privilege to chat with you man and get to know you, finally get to meet you here. I know we've been going back and forth on Instagram, we Got you booked on a few of our clients shows to get out there and share your story as well. And I look forward to staying in touch with you and connected with you here. Wish you continued ongoing success and I'm inspired by this conversation. I'm sure our listeners are as well. Any final thoughts for our listeners? I think you know, follow me on Stuart Miller on Instagram or Stuart Miller on LinkedIn or X and you know, just DM me Seb and I'll send you across retention tool scorecard sheet to to fill out. Retention could be for your business, for your staff, or if you're in the gym business for your members. And I hope you find it interesting because it's quite interesting when you see the dashboard. And if you, if you, if you need anything further, you know, DM me. I'll come back to you. Absolutely friends. I'll make it easy for you guys in the show. Notes the description of this podcast episode be a direct link right to Stuart's LinkedIn and Instagram DM DM him the word Seb free gift he's going to give you just for for listening to this episode on here. Stuart, thanks again for your time my brother. I appreciate you man. Appreciate you have an awesome evening. You do the same thing. Until next time friends, thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of the beyond the Story podcast. Be sure to appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We sure do appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launch Lab.com Studios we'll talk to you next time.