Welcome John Farkas to the BFU Team!

Speaker: [00:00:00] 1, 2, 3, 4. Welcome to The Business for Unicorns podcast, where we help gym and studio owners create a business and a life they love. I’m your host, Michael Keeler. Join me and the business unicorns team each week for actionable advice, expert insights, and the inside scoop on what it really takes to level up your gym.

Get ready to unlock your potential and become a real unicorn in the fitness industry.[00:00:30]

Yeah. Hello my friend. If you are looking for a business expense paid trip to get out of town and you wanna get around some like-minded business owners and maybe spend the weekend learning from me and the rest of the business unicorns team, you’ll really wanna check out our next Unicorn Society retreat.

Although this event is really for our members of Unicorn Society, we always open up a small handful of seats for gym owners who are curious to see [00:01:00] what BFU is all about. Our ABLE retreat is happening on Friday, April 3rd and Saturday April 4th, and it’s in Atlanta, Georgia, and it’s all about marketing and sales.

That’s our theme for those two days. You’ll learn what the best gym owners are doing to grow their gym. Month over month. You’ll get a shot of inspiration, some momentum and clarity, and you’ll spend some quality time with some of the most successful. Driven and honestly friendly gym owners in the industry.

So to get our full agenda and learn more about what the weekend includes, click low in the show notes [00:01:30] and you’ll have all the information there. Hope to see you in April. Hello, fitness business nerds. What’s up? Welcome to another episode of the Business Unicorns podcast. I’m super stoked for today’s episode.

I’ve been looking forward to this on my calendar for many, many weeks. Today, we’re having you on the podcast for the very first time, Mr. John Farkis, who is the owner of Blue Ocean Fitness in as it’s Chesterfield, Missouri, if I got that correctly. Uh, and he’s also successful, multi-location, multi-location.

Alloy personal training franchisee, which we’re gonna talk a ton about. So [00:02:00] lemme just officially welcome John to the podcast. Welcome. So glad you’re here.

Speaker 2: Thank you, Michael.

Speaker: I, I truly mean it. We’ve been getting to know each other a little bit more over the last few weeks and months, but having this on the po on the calendar for the last few weeks, I’ve been so excited to down and have this conversation so we can actually.

Introduce you to our audience because not only are you an owner of your own independent gym in Missouri and multiple alloy franchise franchises, but we also are taking on a new role, which maybe we kick off this podcast by announcing Do you wanna tell the people something new you’re working on? [00:02:30] Maybe with us.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. We’ve, this is something that’s been a long time coming, knowing both you and Mark, but I’m really excited that we’ve decided to join forces and Yep. And bringing a, uh, more of a franchise arm to business for unicorns. Being an ally franchisee, obviously, that’s kinda where I spend most of my days.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker 2: And I think it’s, I just think this is a great partnership. When we began this conversation, learning about y your, all, your vision, your mission, what you’re trying to accomplish. What I’m trying to accomplish there. There’s just great alignment there [00:03:00] and I’m really excited to kick it off.

Speaker: I’m so excited too.

So not only am we welcome welcoming John to the podcast, it’s the first time podcast guest, but I’m welcoming to the podcast is now the our newest addition to the business Unicorns team. We’re so excited to be in this partnership with you, John, and as John just said, listeners, he’s gonna be working with us for any.

A lot of alloy folks are, alloys are growing like crazy. Alloys are expanding all over the place and we wanna work with more alloy franchisees and we work with more franchisees in general. So having John on the team as that kind of specialist for us as a person who really knows not only what [00:03:30] it’s like to be an independent gym owner, but also multi-location and a franchisee is gonna be just so important for us as we grow business unicorns and we wanna serve more and more people.

All of you out there who are franchisees and maybe didn’t think. That you, we were for you before this episode we’re for you. And now we have someone who really can speak to your language and to your experience. So maybe let’s start with a little more of your backstory, John, so people who are just getting to know you, hearing about you for the first time.

Maybe tell ’em a little bit about how blue that started and then maybe we’ll start to pivot into Alloy.

Speaker 2: [00:04:00] Yeah, I’m a career fitness person. I started personal training at the age of 19, back in 2002 and nine years later, 2011, I had worked at several gyms, just, just couldn’t find that fit for me. That was just, I was just, I was so obsessed with the clients and helping people and just, I couldn’t find that like perfect environment that I think would.

Help me help others. And so that’s when I made the decision to open Blue Ocean Fitness. I had no business plan. Mm-hmm. Had no idea what I was doing.

Speaker: Yep.

Speaker 2: I was [00:04:30] completely clueless. I remember I was driving home from a conference in Chicago. I called my mom and I said, mom, uh, I think I’m gonna quit my job and open a gym.

Wow. And this was completely caught or by surprise. Rest is history. We opened in October, 2011, two years later. We expanded five years after that, we expanded again, and then 2020 hit, we all know how yeah, how that unfolded. For most gym owners, it wasn’t pleasant. Our growth pumped the brakes on, on expansion, and so we pumped [00:05:00] the brakes for a couple years and then once COVID wound down, it was, it just, I was really torn.

Do I wanna expand it? Continue to expand the one location or do I want to do something else? And ultimately the goal was still clear. It was just helping as many people as possible in our community. And so that was been a, and what led me to Alloy personal training and, and just said, you know what? I want to make a as big of an impact in the St.

Louis community as I can. And that was when we started opening up other locations and we’re [00:05:30] still doing that today.

Speaker: That’s amazing. And how many locations are you at for your alloy franchise?

Speaker 2: So we’ve got three open and we’re about to open number four here, and we’re midway through construction as we speak.

So wow. We’ll be opening our fourth alloy, fifth gym overall and, and then working on number six with the least negotiations right now. So we’re hoping to open two this year and just keep going.

Speaker: That’s amazing. Congratulations my friend. Let’s go back to that pivot point. ’cause I think so many of us during COVID got beat down.

Our businesses [00:06:00] got beat down. We had to scale back closed for a while. Many of us closed for a long time legally. And you came out of that with a sense of, okay, I wanna grow, but how could I do it differently? And I’m just curious if you can say more about that decision point, because I think all too often people who are independent.

Owners who made their own j who, you know, built, built it all from nothing. They have a hard time with the idea that they’re gonna pivot away from their own brand that they’ve built and start to grow and embrace another brand. So you just helped me. How’d you make that leap from growing your own thing to wanting [00:06:30] be part of a, a franchise community?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so there’s a couple things that kind of, that really helped with that decision to go to the, the franchise. First and foremost, I would say a lot of people in the fitness world, they’re familiar with Alloy personal training. They’re familiar with Rick Mayo. He and I have been very close for a long time.

He, he. Officiating my wedding. Like we, we’ve been very close for a long time, so there’s a lot of trust there. Not just in him, but in the brand, and I really believe in what they’re trying to do, and so there’s a level of trust there That was extremely important to me. [00:07:00] The second reason is. Just being part of something bigger.

Yeah. I would say the same thing. Why would I want to work with business for unicorns? It’s the same thing. To me. It’s different, but it is the same. It’s just, it’s part of being something bigger. I did the whole independent gym owner thing for a long time. That’s a lonely, that’s a lonely road.

Speaker: It really can be.

Speaker 2: And so I just, I wanted to be part of something bigger. I think doing stuff with other amazing people is, is so much fun. It’s it, you can achieve so much more [00:07:30] together. You can, and it’s just also more fun. It’s, I remember a Tom Brady interview where he said, being part of a team, it’s doubling the pleasure, dividing the pain.

And I, and that really speaks to just being part of something bigger, BFU or like Alloy. And it’s when you’ve, when you’re going through trouble, when you’re going through rough patches, you’ve got people you can turn to. And again, you’re all, you know, similar goals and speak a similar language. And to me it just, it’s more fun and, and I think it, it just, it really excites me to work with others.

And then really the third and final reason [00:08:00] is just, I believe it opens up other opportunities, exactly what we’re talking about with. BU love working with other gym owners, helping other gym owners and this, and being part of a franchise. It’s really nice that the entire franchise speaks the exact same language and there are a lot of advantages to that that allow me to, I think, effectively help others.

And that’s also something I’m deeply passionate about. So those are, that’s a very long-winded answers. No, that makes sense. What, what led to the franchise

Speaker: world. Yeah, it makes sense and it’s a [00:08:30] complicated decision to make, right? So clearly are a lot of factors in play. Absolutely. And it’s interesting that your answer overlaps a lot with kind of some of Mark’s reasoning for wanting to do it as well.

And he’s talked about it a lot on this podcast. Long-term listeners, there’s many reasons I won’t speak for him, but one of the things that he said, he was also wanting to be part of a community of other people learning how to do this thing together. And while, while we had a, our partnership in growing Mark Pressure Fitness, he was never fully lonely.

It’s still different than being part of a giant community of people all working on the same model in the same way. And sharing their wins and sharing their lessons. So I think that’s really a big [00:09:00] part of the reason I see a lot of people join franchisees. And the other thing for Fisher, which I don’t, I didn’t hear you say explicitly, but I think is maybe part of it was he was like, I was ready for someone just to tell me what to do.

I was ready to like not have to make every single decision myself and just, just gimme the playbook. I’ll run it. I’ll be a good operator for the franchise.

Speaker 2: Yeah. Plot to that, that there’s a lot of truth in that. I think having, as entrepreneurs, I think a lot of people, they want to use their business to express their creativity and like.

Do different things within the business. And I still have that with my [00:09:30] independent studio. Yeah. Mark has that with BFU. So we still get to e express ourselves Yes. And, and do things the way we want in some areas, but with franchising it, it is nice that in there are certain things that it’s like, hey, you don’t have to think about it.

Mm-hmm. You just, you know, so there are definitely some advantages there. That there’s some decisions that are left off your plate, that that can be very, um, freeing. Listen,

Speaker: as an entrepreneur, we make a million decisions a day and it’s sometimes nice to have some of those just not even be on your plate, which is fantastic.

And I get that the appeal for a lot of folks, when [00:10:00] Fisher started first exploring all kinds of franchises, okay, if I remember correctly, again, I don’t wanna speak for him. He looked at all kinds. He was looking at fitness, but he was also looking at non fitness. Possible franchises. And the more I thought about it for a second, I was like, do would that be a good fit for me?

Would I want someone just tell me what to do? And I had such a strong aversion to it. I had the opposite reaction. I would go insane. I’m completely unemployable. No one can give me a playbook. I wouldn’t wanna tear it apart and rewrite it. And so I was just like, go. Follow the wind Fisher. I can’t do this with, I can’t do this one [00:10:30] with you because I’d be the worst franchisee ever, but I’d be a good consulting, I’d be a good consultant for a franchise company.

Speaker 2: Right.

Speaker: But I, I, I couldn’t be a franchisee. But it’s good to know those things about yourself. It’s both a strength and a weakness probably. Um,

Speaker 2: absolutely.

Speaker: Let’s talk a little bit more about scaling. ’cause I think we talk a lot on this podcast. We talk, obviously a lot of our listeners are independent owners.

We have some franchisees who listen, but we have a lot of independent owners. And one of the biggest challenges to running your own boutique studio is growing to multiple locations. What that process is like and how to do it. And clearly you’ve done [00:11:00] it mul in your own business by growing and scaling up multiple times in bigger locations, but also multiple times now with a franchise.

So what are the lessons you’ve learned about what makes scaling really possible?

Speaker 2: First, I would say it is a completely different business. Yeah. Even if you’re, even if it was, you’re scaling your independent brand and remove franchising from the equation. Yep. To me, the fundamentals of business are the same, whether it’s a franchise or an independent brand.

And, and so it’s a completely different animal because if you think about, [00:11:30] especially for those kind of trainer nerds, and I know a lot of independent gym owners, myself included. Yes. That’s, we were the trainer, nerd turned, gym owner, and, and. Being that being in that position, like it’s just, it’s when things go wrong or when something needs to be taught, you’re there on the floor and it’s just like you can tell your coach like, Hey, next time try this.

Hey, don’t do this, don’t say that, say this. And I remember with the first location, it was just constantly you were able to connect with your team ’cause they’re standing 10 feet away. [00:12:00] And so the, it just, it made it so much easier to communicate with people, keep everyone on the same page. Whereas once you go to multiple locations, you lose that in-person interaction and so you’re, the communication just has to be so much more effective.

And this was. Probably the biggest thing that I struggled with in the beginning was just understanding it’s, oh shoot, I can’t stand next to someone and tell them what to do or how to solve a problem. And so it just, the reliance [00:12:30] on systems processes a hundred times more important than with one location?

Speaker: Yeah,

Speaker 2: a hundred percent. And so again, there’s just the communication, the systems, the processes, those were all different areas that at multiple locations like. You can’t just put a bandaid on things and Okay, I’ll go talk to this client and smooth it over. And so those were some tough lessons learned in the beginning.

Yeah. But we, we slowly but surely figured it out.

Speaker: Yeah. I’m sure there’s, I’m sure there’s many more lessons along the way, but maybe let’s just pull that thread a little bit for a little bit longer. So when it comes to communication [00:13:00] systems specifically, right, where you’re spread out across multiple locations, you know, seeing everyone face to face as much, what are some of the kind of communi communication processes or systems you’ve put in place that have actually helped the most?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so for most of our internal communication we utilize Slack. I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t use it, it’s just, it’s one of many options out there.

Speaker: Yeah, it’s certainly, I’ve seen across the board from my own experience and working with a lot hundreds of gym owners that a tool like that actually is infinitely better than email for internal communication.

Speaker 2: Yes.

Speaker: Just infinitely [00:13:30] more eff efficient. I had trouble with that word. More efficient, more effective, and I think just generates a much more organized, flowing communication than trying to communicate internally with email. So I think something Slack can be a big change for some of our listeners that I think is worth considering.

But, sorry, I cut you off. Keep going.

Speaker 2: Yeah, no, that I completely agree with you. Whether it’s like email or a group text, I’m like, oh my gosh. Wow. Stay as far away from that as possible.

Speaker: Yeah,

Speaker 2: it just in. And that may work with one location. But again, as you start to scale, I just, I think [00:14:00] it’s really important that you just kinda have to pick a platform.

And again, there’s pros and cons to different ones. Yep. But just pick a platform and it’s like, this is how we communicate, not email and text and this and that. And we wanna keep it as simple as possible. And so we utilize Slack for our internal communication. One of the things that I think we really do well is our internal communication cadence.

Mm-hmm. We actually have a theme for every day and so on. On Sundays, I share, here’s [00:14:30] our weekly focus and our weekly announcement. Alright. Our weekly focus could be something as simple as, Hey, make sure we’re greeting everyone within five seconds, that they walk in the door. Mm-hmm. It could be something as far as, hey, make sure we’re pointing out wins to clients.

So it’s really just the basics, the blocking and tackling of. Providing a good experience for our clients. So that’s our weekly focus. And then our weekly announcement is just something we need, whatever we need to share with our clients. It could be something about reminding people to update their in-body assessments.

It could be reminding them to [00:15:00] sign up for an internal challenge. It could be bring a buddy week. Or some sort of promotion we’ve got going on or event. And so that’s our Sunday post. And then we have a system so that Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, it’s something more educational or tactical I share with the team.

And then Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I try to catch people doing something right. And, and it just, it could be a screenshot of a Google review, it could be, uh, just a really awesome text message that a client sent us about a [00:15:30] coach and just how something positive. But again, it’s every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I wanna try to catch someone doing something right.

And, and I will say that’s probably been. One of the hardest things for me.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: But it speaks to being with multiple units. You can’t just go over and give someone a high five. Oh man, I love the way, I love the way you did this with this client. You can’t do that. And so that’s where I actually, it’s embarrassing to admit, but I actually have to have it on my calendar.

Yeah. Three days a week. I need to catch people doing something and, and I don’t do that every time, [00:16:00] but I, more times than not I do, but it’s, you have to. It’s like whatever you reinforce, you get more of. So I always wanna point out some of the positives that we’re doing on our team and, and you end up, like I said, you get more of them.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that’s really amazing, John. I think it’s such a great system. I hope our listeners were taking notes because that kind of a systematic consistent approach to communication, you’re right, kind of yields the results you want. If you want people to perform well, they need lots of praise. And if you’re not good at con, just remembering and very few of us are, put it on your calendar.

There’s [00:16:30] no shame in having reminders in your calendar to do some of the most important work of management and leadership. Put it on your calendar like a priority, and then that, that pulse of communication I think is also. Chef’s kiss. So smart because people really do feel a sense of trust when leaders are consistent, right?

When there’s a regular rhythm and there’s habits and they know what they can expect from you and when, and you show up consistently delivering what you said you would deliver, it builds a sense of safety. A sense of trust that they know you’re in, [00:17:00] that you’re organized and you’ve got your shit together and you’re there to support them.

So I think that consistency really, I think, can do a lot of heavy lifting, just creating a culture where you’re seen as a competent leader.

Speaker 2: One. One more point that I would add on this is that it also protects me from myself. Yeah. In an embarrassing confession. When I think back to me as a leader five, 10 years ago, whether it was like our weekly team meetings, we would have a weekly team meeting and I would have 37 things on the agenda for us to discuss.[00:17:30]

Yep. And it was just, Hey, don’t forget about this. Don’t forget about that. Don’t forget to do this and that. And I didn’t realize it at the moment. It was like everything I was sharing. Was good. Sure. But it was by sharing so much at once, it’s like, when everything’s a priority, nothing’s a priority. Yes. And so by, by having this system in place, I, I think it forces me to take a step back and think about like, all right, what do I, what do we really need to focus on this week?

And, and it’s important that, you know, we focus on that one, you know, one or two things [00:18:00] and remove a lot of the other noise and extra junk.

Speaker: Yeah, I think that’s that again, so damn smart. ’cause our job as leaders and as managers is to provide direction, to provide clarity. And all too often when we do the first version you described, which we’ve all done guilty as charged for sure for many years at Mark Fisher fitness and management jobs.

Before that, what we’re doing when, when we come to a li a meeting with. 32 reminders is we’re creating noise, we’re creating confusion, right? Instead of direction and clarity. And so I think it’s, and many of you listening to this are probably nodding [00:18:30] your head as you’re listening. That’s you. And this is your opportunity to say, okay, what is the most important shit?

What are the one to three most important things in this meeting? I really want them to walk away with? And not just walk away with having heard it, but walk away knowing what to do about it. How it actually applies to them and their role. And so I think that’s so smart. Lemme just zoom back out again. So the way we got into this part of the conversation was talking about what unlocks scaling.

And your first answer was really about systems for communication, systems for [00:19:00] scaling, how you all communicate, how people get praised, how people get feedback, how you all know what the most important things to work on are. So aside from communication and systems, anything else, any other lessons learned for what makes scaling possible?

Speaker 2: Yeah. Two, two things come to mind. One is just keeping it simple. Mm. And this is one of the things that I think living in both worlds, the franchise world and the independent studio world, this is one of the beauties of franchising. No matter how bad I want to, I can’t just [00:19:30] go launch another service. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve been very guilty about chasing shiny objects over the years.

And, and instead you, when you. Just, oh, I can’t do, I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to. Yeah. By adding in extra services, it forces you to focus on getting better at the main, you know, keeping the main thing, the main thing. And so you have to keep it simple in, in order to scale. And I think that’s important.

Again, you can’t, if you look at within the fitness world, any. Any [00:20:00] franchise that’s any business which mostly or franchises to my knowledge, that have really scaled to a high number of locations. No one did it by offering 10 different services. And so I think that’s one of the things that with scale, you actually have to simplify and.

Reduce, cut back on the noise, cut back on some of the things you’re doing. Yeah. Uh, so that’s, the simplification is huge.

Speaker: That’s great. I, and that’s a great example of, I think what independent owners can learn from franchises. It’s like when you look at franchises, I, and oftentimes I’ve heard people [00:20:30] say this, that you wanna run your business as if you’re going to franchise someday.

Right from me, from a profitability perspective, from a simplicity perspective, from a clarity of systems perspective, I think that’s a kind of a great heuristic, frankly, for many gym owners. In fact, we, mark and I like that idea so much that we change one of our core values of business for unicorns to simplicity.

So now we’re always running through everything through this filter of, is that the simplest version? Is that the most simple version we can use to get the results we’re looking for? And I think so many gym owners just add on change and they just, [00:21:00] they wind up with this big handmade art, arts and crafts project of a business that has no scalability because it’s just too complicated and they get used to the complication.

I’ll speak for myself and say at MFF, we made things way too complicated for many years, but we were swimming in the ocean. We had built for ourselves. We didn’t realize how. How complicated it was, so I’m sure many of you’re listening. I’m like, my business is not that complicated. But you have four services all with different rates and different timescales, different schedules, and so I think the simplicity I think is really important.

Lemme ask you the reversed [00:21:30] question, so that’s maybe something that independent owners can learn from franchisees. What do you think franchisees out there listening can learn from independent owners?

Speaker 2: So something that. I see both sides, the good and the bad.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: I, I believe, and we’ve talked about this in the past, one of the biggest downsides of independent owners is I think.

They, you struggle to get them out of their business. The opposite is also true, I think with a lot of franchisee owners. Yeah. They’re not involved [00:22:00] enough in their business. Yeah. And so I believe one of the things that franchisees could learn from independent owners is just knowing the community, knowing the business, un understanding the business.

And I’m not saying you have to be the. Trainer, guru in your business, but you do need to understand what’s going on. Mm-hmm. You do need to have a pulse on your culture, on all of your numbers in the business, on what kind of service are you providing. And so that’s definitely one thing that I think franchisees could learn from independent owners is just to, there’s times where you [00:22:30] need to lean in and actually be more involved.

And again, it’s unique. That’s one thing that I see that independent owners and franchisees are often not always. But are often just, yeah. On poor opposite ends of the spectrum on,

Speaker: yeah, 100%. Lemme ask you another, another question. Kinda generally speaking about scaling, you can answer this from either perspective, but I find when I talk to our unicorn side of members and they talk about growing and scaling, one of the things that they’re most afraid of as they grow to multiple locations, or even just bigger and bigger locations, is they’re afraid of what’s [00:23:00] losing, what originally made their gym special.

Everyone knows in the first few years there’s this kind of magic sauce. If you’re lucky and there’s a vibe in your gym and there’s certain kind of energy people expect, certain level of training and service they expect and they’re just really afraid and rightfully ’cause this can happen, that as you scale and grow, the gym changes so much that it becomes kinda unrecognizable from its for former self.

Some would argue that’s inevitable and necessary. Some might argue that’s a really bad thing. I could probably argue on both sides of this fence. But from your own experience, what have you done to make sure that as you grow and [00:23:30] scale. From independent or a franchise perspective, that the DNA stays the same, that you know that what makes it special remains?

What are your thoughts on that?

Speaker 2: Yeah, that’s great and that’s definitely something that I struggled, I took about a year to make the decision to work with, to go the franchise routes. Like I said, I, this wasn’t unlike. Opening the gym where I did that on a drive home. Yeah. On a fitness where I made that decision on a car ride.

I took almost a year to make this [00:24:00] decision and I really, I was just really torn. Do I wanna open more independent studios? Mm-hmm. Do I wanna open more gyms at all? Do I wanna go the franchise route? Um, but I think the, in order to keep that DNA, one of the transitions that I had to make over the years was.

I now look at my team as my clients.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker 2: And whereas again, I started as the trainer guy, I now view the coaches are my clients, and the clients are their clients. Mm-hmm. And to keep that culture and to [00:24:30] grow that culture, I think it starts with, as a leader, like how you treat your people.

Speaker: Sure.

Speaker 2: And are you, are you taking care of your people or do you want, do you.

Bend over backwards to help them out when you know. Mm-hmm. Maybe something like really tragic happens. Do you, do you care about your people? Do you celebrate them? I mentioned like in Slack, I try to catch people doing something right. And guess what? I also expect them to catch the clients doing things right.

And to point out different wins. Yeah. And so I think a lot of it just, it is as, I think there is a piece of it that is just as simple as [00:25:00] like. However you treat your people, that’s how they’re gonna treat your clients. Yeah. And so if you take care of them, they’re gonna take care of the clients. One, one of the best compliments I get at our Christmas party is just, oh my gosh, your team’s so nice.

Where do you find all these really good people? And in my head I’m like, oh, honestly, I don’t know. I just, I take care of the, let’s here’s, I make it clear, here’s our expectation. Yeah. Here’s how I expect you to behave, and I’m gonna. Treat you that same way.

Speaker: Yes.

Speaker 2: And so it just, when you take care of people, they’re gonna take care of you.

Speaker: Yeah. I think that’s a really great paradigm shift. John, [00:25:30] for a lot of folks listening, I think they hope they resonate with this, just that as you grow to grow and scale, your focus as a manager leader is not really on the customers anymore. It’s on the team. They become your focus. I think it’s also in line with a lot of.

Popular leadership theories like servant leadership, right? The idea that we’re really there to serve our team first, and that’s a big part of, I think, how you described your approach is being of service to your team, and then they will then serve your clients, which I think is so smart, and I think a lot of listeners would really benefit from thinking more about how am I treating my team?[00:26:00]

In a way that sets them up for the most success in treating our clients the same way. Oftentimes when I think about this process, this pattern, I think of like gardening, right? That farmers aren’t the ones that actually grow the fruits or the vegetables or the flowers, right? We actually just maintain the conditions to make it possible for them to grow.

So if you think of your team as like the soil, you really just wanna make sure. Best possible soil to actually cultivate a great experience for growing the flowers and vegetables, which in this analogy are your clients. But I think there’s [00:26:30] something about that just creating the environment and the conditions for them to thrive in.

And when they’re thriving as your team, they’re gonna be much, much better experience creators for your clients. Yeah, I love that. Alright. I know we’re getting to the end of our time, so maybe let’s do a little wrap up. So first of all, thank you for doing this, John. What a great first podcast to have together.

We covered so much ground. I love that. Our listeners got to learn a little more about you and the great work you’re doing for people who want to follow you or actually maybe even reach out and talk to you about coming to coach with you and business unicorns. How can people [00:27:00] learn more about you and your work?

Where can they find you on the interwebs?

Speaker 2: Yeah, so I’m on Instagram at Coach John Farkas. Mm-hmm. Uh, probably the easiest way to track me down or if you’re part of the BFU community, that’s very easy to do.

Speaker: Yeah.

Speaker 2: Inside our community there.

Speaker: Great. Yeah, feel free. So if you’re a Unicorn Society member and you wanna talk to John, just go into our circle community and DM him.

He’s in there now. And if you wanna learn more about working with John as part of business unicorns, go DM him there. We’ll put his in his Instagram down below, shoot him a DM and say, just [00:27:30] type the word unicorn society. And he’ll reach out and get in touch on whether or not you’re a good fit for coming to work with us or just say hi and follow his great work that he’s doing across all of his businesses.

Any final words to our audience out there, John? For all of our gym owners out there who are pushing to grow and hustling to build their businesses, any final words of advice?

Speaker 2: The best advice I would leave someone with is just remember why you started.

Speaker: Yeah, I

Speaker 2: think being a small business owner, gym owner, or not being a small business owner is tough.

There’s so many dynamics in today’s world, and so I think [00:28:00] as, as challenging as it is, I also love it. So don’t forget that there’s good days and bad days. When those bad days come, remember to take a step back and just remember why you got into this. And I, I love, I just, I love the work we do. I, I think the, the.

Gym world is so important. Like we’re, we’re not selling cigarettes here, like we’re, we’re. We truly are changing people’s lives, as cliche as it sounds. So just, you know, when those bad days happen, when you feel like you’re getting kicked in the teeth, just remember, you know what this is all about.

Speaker: Yeah.

Said my friend. Great final [00:28:30] words. Thanks again for being on the podcast and welcome to the Business Unicorns team. I’m sure we’ll have you back on this podcast many more times and all your listeners. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks John. And all your listeners, have a kick ass week. I’ll see you on the next one.

Bye.

Speaker 2: [00:29:00] Bye.