For a lot of people, health and a lil’ bit of wealth pretty much equals eternal bliss. If you’re physically in a position to reap the rewards of your hard work, then it doesn’t get much better than that, right? Well, if you up the ante of your health/wealth, then it really bloody well does. Just ask Rob Deutsch, the founder of the fitness phenomenon F45 Training.
We’re not using the word phenomenon lightly, folks. If you’ve ever chatted with an F45 member, then you’ll be aware of their reverence towards the organisation as a whole – but this enamoured following is just one element of its global success.
Deutsch, alongside his business partner Adam Gilchrist (no, not the cricketer) (JFC he must cop that a lot), have pretty much nailed the formula to scaling a franchise-based operation – and the results speak for themselves. As it stands, they’ve sold 900+ studios globally. That’s impressive in its own right, but it’s the speed in which this growth has taken place that’s truly remarkable. What are we talking here? Four years, people. Four. Goddamn. Years.
That growth means F45 is comfortably the fastest franchise rollout in Australia ever, enabled it to nab the mantle of the fastest growing fitness franchise globally, and fourth fastest growing franchise in the world full stop (justtttt trailing behind established giants like Subway).
They’ve even reached their cap in Australia, with 550 studios currently operating on home turf. So, with our fair nation sorted, Deutsch has his sights set on North America – having packed up their head office and moved it to LA so they can focus on their aim of establishing 7,500 studios there in the coming years.
But unlike a lot of big wig business folks with mildly inflated egos, Deutsch ain’t keen on the limelight. “I’ve just never been a fan of taking credit for what we’ve been doing,” he says during the latest episode of our Founders University podcast.
We’ve got an awesome team – I’ve never really liked taking photos, being in photos. I’d be pretty happy to sit behind it and drive it. I think it’s one of the reasons we’ve been successful, both my partner Adam Gilchrist and I don’t have Instagram, don’t have social media so we’re really happy to let the team drive it and let the faces look like they own the company.
Quite a nice change of pace, isn’t it?
Equally refreshing is his stance on team culture. Their head office is decked out with a basketball court, bar, darts – you name it, they’ve got it. They even run competitions every Friday for each game they have, and the winner takes home a legit trophy for their victory. This ethos is something Deutsch and Gilchrist established from day dot, agreeing that, “As soon as we stop having fun, we’re out.”
If you’re just as impressed by F45’s insane growth, then do yourself a solid and soak up more of Deutsch’s brilliance by listening to the latest episode of our Founders Univerity podcast. He chats about the role of tech in any given business, whether or not you need to be physically located in the US if you’re looking to scale there, how to create a product that’s so sexy that it never needed a marketing push behind it in Australia and more. Hell, he even details F45’s sales funnel, which makes the podcast worth listening to in and of itself. Give it a listen below or head HERE to subscribe.
