Sweating Smarter: How Infrared Technology and Micro-Footprints are Redefining the Future of Franchising with Stephen P. Smith

0:00Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation, JLD here, and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire Brought to you by high level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform today will be breaking down sweating smarter. How infrared technology and micro-affirmed are redefining the future of franchising and to drop these value bombs at a Brought to Steven P. Smith in the EO Fire Studios, Steven is the founder and CEO of Hot Works, one of the fastest growing fitness franchises in the world, with more than 850 locations worldwide. He's an entrepreneur and venture-embecelling author with nearly 40 years of experience in the fitness industry, and today we'll talk about the micro studio advantage, why traditional gyms are falling behind, automating the experience and oh so much more, and hey big, thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Steven and ours. Monsters. Sleep impacts everything. Your energy, focus, and performance. Fit Nexus, Somnipods, three are ultra-comfortable sleep airbugs that block distractions, track your sleep and deliver personalized insights to help you rest and recover. If better sleep is a priority for you, visit fitnexa.com and use code EO Fire 10 to save $10 on Somnipods

1:04three today. Stop duct taping your business together. High level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling payments, and memberships all in one place, and when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial, plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Find highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Steven, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. First of all, what's up Fire Nation? A lot of people would agree, but they just don't do it. When you decide to do something, you have to stick it, and you have to stick with it all the way. You don't just stop. You don't change your mind. You don't change directions. You don't change industries. If you believe in something, you just have to keep doing it.

2:06I think most people, they don't believe in what they decide to do hard enough. In Fire Nation, that's why we're talking about sweating smarter. Now, infrared technology and micro footprints are redefining the future of franchising because Steven tried hard enough. I want to talk about the micro studio advantage because you believe Mass the Square footage is a liability, not an asset. Why exactly is the micro studio model so powerful, Steven? How does hot works maximize profit per square foot? That's with a belief that no square inch should be wasted whatsoever. When we opened the first hot works, I was adamant that we're not going to have office. We have very little storage. Everything that you sell in terms of the retail aspect of what we do in the Boote fitness studio should be on the shelf.

3:07You shouldn't waste space with unnecessary storage. Why would you need an office in today's world? There's no need for an office. There's a savings of maybe a couple hundred square feet right there. But you're so right. Every square inch matters and should be producing income for you. Fire Nation, it's critical that you realize where are your strengths and where are maybe the competitors' weaknesses. That's what I think was Steven's done better than most. I want to keep down this train by talking about why traditional gyms are falling behind. What are their weaknesses? Frankly, consumer demand has shifted towards wellness, towards recovery, towards longevity. How has that changed? Left so many traditional fitness operators scrambling to catch up? I think you're right. The old adage of bigger is better in the gym business. Not necessarily the case anymore.

4:09I will take a moment to turn the conversation into one of time as well. Not only should every square foot matter, every moment has to matter. That's why Armato for Hot Works is more workout last time because we believe if you can use the right tools and use the right exercise, the right workouts with those tools, then you can get more in a workout in less time than you can at the competition. Now can you give us an example of somebody that's going to, for instance, a Hot Works, and how are they getting a better experience that are overall? We have all types of folks from every age range. We do have a core demographic in the gym business that all important 25 to 40-year-old, female, core base of customers.

5:10Our business is about 85 percent female. That's the core demographic. If you're focused on the right, building the right culture for your business, and you're targeting within that demographic, and your messaging is correct, and you do it frequently enough, and it will be like a giant boulder falling into a column body of water. You'll get a massive impact where you want it to go, but then you also will get that ginormous ripple effect. By the ripple effect, I mean, well, maybe you have Sue coming in because she saw an ad and she fits right into that demographic that you're targeting. But if you make the place of a spot where she loves and becomes a raving fanatic, because it was built for her, and you start from building the customer culture in that way, then she

6:11will bring into your business her entire orbit. That's what I call the ripple effect. And then orbit is her mom, her husband, her daughter, her cousin, everybody in her Instagram, everybody in her Facebook, everybody on TikTok that she hangs out with, her entire orbit, and will come in because she is a fanatic about your business. And she's a fanatic about your business because you have presented the messaging that she likes over and over. And then she comes in and what she sees and what she experiences is exactly what you told her she was going to get. That happens. Then you've just created a raving fan and that will create that ripple effect for you that I'm talking about that will bring in that 18 to 80 year old female than everybody in between and some guys as well. So let's talk about automating the experience, Stephen, because that's something that I think

7:11you've done incredibly well that kind of builds upon everything you're sharing here. Because one of the biggest challenges in fitness is the training turnover, the labor cost. This chart is just so painful. It's so brutal. So how have you specifically used virtual instruction to create a more scalable business model? It begins with understanding that the hub of your business begins with the customer app. Our app in the beginning began with the fundamentals of allowing customers to get into the studio and then to book their workout appointment and to track their calorie burn as it's integrated the app and the workouts, everything we do with their fitness device, mainly Apple watch or Fitbit, but other devices can be used as well. So it began with that and then we have we produce and we release every month new workout

8:19videos. We have 12 different types of workouts in two categories. Nine of the workouts are some version of an isometric routine like hot yoga, hot Pilates, etc. And then three are hip training, the isometric routines are 30 minute workouts, the hip training are 15 minute workouts, hip training consists of cycling of a total body trainer that is a upper body leveraging bar and then you have cycling for the lower body. And then we have a rowing machine, we go hot thunder and we have a pattern on that machine as well. But those are the three different types of hip training that we provide. All of this inside of infrared saw an average about 125 degrees of radiant heat. So Steve, we're going to talk about the 15 minute lever building for results, not trends

9:21and the franchise opportunity when we get back from thinking our sponsors. One thing I've been dialing in for over a decade now is sleep, not only am I in bed every night by 9 pm, but I've really perfected my sleep environments. And one thing that's helped me do that is fit next. Fitnexa is a pair of comfortable sleep earbuds designed specifically for a great nights rest. They're built to minimize pressure on your ears, even if you're a size sleeper like me and their active noise cancellation helps block out the distractions that can keep you from falling or staying asleep. What really takes fitnexa to the next level is everything built in. You can listen to calming ocean waves, rain sounds and more completely offline with no streaming apps or subscriptions required. Fitnexa also tracks your movement and sleep patterns overnight then gives you personalized recommendations to help improve not just how long you sleep, but how well you sleep. You can even set a private alarm that wakes you without disturbing your partner, which my wife loves. If better sleep is a priority for you, Fitnexa helps you create the environment and routine to make it happen. Visit fitnexa.com and use code EOFire10 to save $10 on SobniPods 3 today.

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11:30That is where high level comes in. High level allows you to build and run your entire business from one platform. Website builder and hosting funnel and landing pages, email marketing, automation and workflows, calendar booking payments and subscriptions, even course and membership hosting. Everything works together seamlessly. Plus award winning 24-7 supports so you are never subscribed. 24-7 supports so you are never stuck. And when you go through my link at high level fire.com, you will lock my full bonus stack. A 30 day free trial of high level with full access, a private 50 minute coaching call with me, weekly live office hours with me, a digital copy of my book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success, my 50 days to something execution, roadmap and more. Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Get high level fire.com and start building your something today. Steven, we're back. As it kind of teased before the break, I wanted to talk about the 15 minute lever because most people assume that longer workouts actually create better results.

12:32They're like, oh, I was in the gym for three hours today. How did shortening workouts to 15 minutes actually increase retention, increase engagement, and increase customer lifetime value? The start with, what is important is it increases the number of calories that you burn. So you're processing energy at a faster rate. You're getting more of a workout in less time in that way, right? And then you're absorbing infrared radiation that goes into your skin up to an inch and a half and triggers all kinds of good things happening, happening inside of yourselves, inside of the mitochondria to accelerate your metabolism and to do things like increase your blood flow and bring more oxygen and nutrients to your entire body. So you're definitely getting more workout in less time because of that. I think that beyond that, if you're going to use an infrared sauna as an training environment,

13:37you also have to recognize that there are certain times the exercises that are more conducive to an environment like that, like, for example, yoga, Pilates, anything is going to work very well inside of an infrared sauna. It's not an environment that's made for ballistic training. It's just not. You're better off doing isometrics on a hit training machine so that you can remain sort of stationary in that environment. It's like about building for results, not trends because finish trends come and go. Let's be honest, but how did you build a franchise ecosystem that serves both the end customer and the franchise owner for the long haul? I think you have to remember the fundamentals of what we're here to do. We're here to help people work out and get results. You know, that's why a health club exists in my opinion. That's why it should be there is because people want to have a great workout.

14:39They want to get solid results. Now, I come from an athletic background. I've trained in many different environments, many different ways just about every workout you can imagine. I've probably done it. I can tell you that consistency is the key. Proper training methods are important. You see a lot of weird things out there. I am a proponent of a workout has to remain consistent, not just in terms of how often you use it and the frequency that you use it, but a workout needs to be consistent in terms of the flow of the exercises. For example, yoga, I started doing yoga using bichram right back in the day. I was 26 postures in the same sequence every single time you come and do it. It is a tremendous workout. I got incredible results from it. I learned a lot from that as well.

15:40I learned a lot from athletic training and football and bodybuilding about how important is to know, well, do I do a plank better today than I did the day before? You have so many trainers out there that promote, I call it schizophrenic training principles, meaning they want you to do the same workout completely different every time you come in the gym. I rather propose no cross-trained in between consistent workout types, consistent workout types that you can measure your performance with. The variety needs to come from the cross-training in between different workout types, not the same workout type done a million different ways. I want to talk about the franchise opportunities specifically because how it works is actually ranked the number one boutique fitness franchise by Entrepreneur Magazine. We love Entrepreneur Magazine.

16:41We just highlight great entrepreneurs, businesses, franchises around the world. Congratulations for that. What makes this opportunity so attractive in your opinion, Stephen? What do you look for in potential franchise partners? I'll start by saying that over 80% of our franchise owners were customers first. The growth that we have is organic and we think that says a lot about the experience that customers get when they come to hot works. You mentioned it earlier. We're in business to help people get spectacular results. Go back to the mantra that we have more workout last time. If we can continue giving customers more of what they want, which is results in saving them time, that will never go out of style. Stephen will say that one of the reasons that the brand has taken off has been because

17:46of its differentiation in the marketplace, but not differentiation and uniqueness at the expense of fundamental fitness training principles. Stephen, I want to end with a bang for people that are listening right now and they're like, I love what Stephen's talking about. I really understand the opportunity when it comes to wellness, recovery, longevity, 15 minute workouts, building for results, not trends. What is the next step for our listeners? What is your call to action for Fire Nation? Where can they go to learn more? Yeah, I mean, they can always go to hotworks.net. They really want to dig into the science bond and some of the story of how it works to a book published in late 2020. I mean, the list of resizing there, but it's on Amazon. It's called Hot Exercise. There's a lot of information there if they like to take a look at that book. I would say go to the website or get a copy of that book.

18:49Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with SPS and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, Stephen's book, his website, the opportunity, go to eofire.com, type Stephen S-T-E-P-H-E-N. In the search bar in the show notes page, we'll pop right up and Stephen, thank you for sharing your truth knowledge and value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thank you so much, Fire Nation. It's been a pleasure. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Stephen for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Are you an entrepreneur on fire? Who's going to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for eo fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest and I'll catch you there or on the flip side. Sleep impacts everything. Your energy, focus and performance, fit nexus, somnipods, three are ultra comfortable sleep air bugs that block distractions, track your sleep and deliver personalized insights to help you rest and recover. If better sleep is a priority for you, visit fitnexa.com and use code eofire10 to save $10 on somnipods

19:54three today. Stop duct taping your business together. High level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling payments and memberships all in one place and when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus act that includes weekly office hours with me and much more. Visit highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com.