Systemizing Business Growth

In this, The Faces of Business, Bryce Henson, CEO, Fit Body Boot Camp, discusses systemizing business growth to help you thrive in your business.

In this, The Faces of Business, Bryce Henson, CEO, Fit Body Boot Camp, discusses systemizing business growth to help you thrive in your business.

Bryce is a fitness franchise founder who mixes his passion for promoting fitness and guiding fellow fitness professionals to expand their businesses and positively impact more lives in their communities.

As a business coach, Bryce focuses on his clients’ strengths. He helps them develop systems and processes that can be replicated across multiple locations and build a strong team by creating a positive company culture and investing in employee training and development.

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Bryce advocates continuously innovating and adapting to changing market conditions by staying up-to-date on industry trends, soliciting feedback from customers and employees, and experimenting with new products and services.

Bryce is also a motivational speaker and the host of the Fitness CEO Podcast.

Damon enthusiastically starts the Livestream alongside Bryce, who is equally thrilled to talk to the host. Damon asks the guest to talk about his professional background.

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The fitness wizard reveals that his professional journey is a testament to the transformative power of fitness. Despite a challenging upbringing, he discovered his passion for fitness in Los Angeles. With the guidance of Adam, his mentor, Bryce underwent a remarkable physical and personal transformation, gaining energy, confidence, and success in his career. This led him to become a franchise partner at Fit Body Boot Camp, where his passion for fitness thrives.

Bryce’s first career was in sales, which he continued even during his journey as a business owner. However, his true passion lies in fitness because it has been a transformative force in his life. He credits his success to the confidence he gained through his fitness transformation.

While talking about fitness transformation, Bryce stresses the need for commitment and progress, citing the importance of accountability in achieving long-term motivation. Starting something new may be challenging, but with coaching and momentum, the journey becomes easier.

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Damon relates the journey to success to the analogy of a child learning to walk. It often involves falling, facing challenges, and learning from failures. Damon then asks Bryce about the lessons he has learned during his fitness journey.

The guest talks about the biggest lesson he learned during his fitness journey. He says life is inherently difficult, but one can embrace the initial challenge and make things easier in the long run. Despite facing financial constraints and resistance to weightlifting, Bryce persisted and experienced remarkable mental clarity, energy, confidence, and enthusiasm.

Damon resonates with embracing challenges and uncomfortable situations to propel personal growth. The host appreciates the presence of the audience, Rosalynn and JJ, who contribute to the conversation. They discuss the difference between average and elite, emphasizing the importance of striving for excellence. Rosalynn adds a poignant reminder that none of us will escape life alive, highlighting the transient nature of existence.

The host expresses interest in learning about Bryce’s transition from a sales background to his current role.

Bryce shares that he has always been dreaming of becoming an entrepreneur and making a big impact. While his sales career was thriving, he had a realization about the gift of fitness and the desire to give it back to others. He enrolled in a certification program to become a personal trainer but initially didn’t plan on making it a full-time profession.

However, he was inspired by Bedros Keuilian, the founder of Fit Body Boot Camp and a well-known fitness consultant, and decided to pursue owning a franchise.

In 2012, he took a leap of faith and invested his life savings to launch his Fit Body Boot Camp location. He scaled his business to five locations, involved his family, and impressed the founder of Fit Body Boot Camp.

Eventually, Bryce was offered the position of vice president and later became the CEO.

Damon asks Bryce about his experience transitioning from being an entrepreneur to working in the Fit Body Boot Camp franchise at the corporate level.

Bryce mentions that his role has transitioned from being directly involved in training clients and connecting with them to leading a business team at the corporate level within the Fit Body Boot Camp franchise. He emphasized his passion for helping people and his love for connecting with his team and leading them.

Similarly, the guest acknowledges the significant learning curve he faced when dealing with higher-level business concepts and the challenges of scaling and managing an international franchising system. However, the rewarding aspect of impacting people’s lives and witnessing positive transformations keeps him grounded and motivated. Speaking at workshops and engaging with franchise partners and his team energizes and fuels his enthusiasm for the fitness industry.

In the journey to scaling, Bryce highlights the significant roles played by his Director of Operations, Brittany, his brother Barrett, the Executive Director of Coaching and Profitability, and Joe, the Director of Marketing.

Damon shows interest in learning about systemizing business growth and what strategies and practices Bryce has implemented to help his team streamline and systemize their business operations for growth.

The CEO mentions that he recognizes the value of implementing systems in business, especially when it comes to scaling and growth. He discusses the Entrepreneur Operating System (EOS) developed by Gino Wickman, which consists of six components: vision, data, people, process, traction, and issues.

Bryce discovered the book “Traction” several years ago but fully embraced EOS in 2019 when he hired a consultant implementer. They implemented EOS gradually, starting with the leadership team and expanding to the entire organization.

To Bryce, implementing EOS has been instrumental in establishing a system that works for Fit Body Boot Camp.

Damon asks Bryce about some important things to consider before and after using an operating system in his business.

The guest responds that effectively implementing an EOS demands a firm structure and improved prioritization. Vision follows suit. By setting clear quarterly priorities and focusing on executing them, the team stays aligned and avoids getting overwhelmed with numerous ideas. This approach fosters innovation, strong execution, and a sense of accomplishment for the team.

Damon discusses the benefits of having a focused system like EOS in executing goals and achieving tangible results. He asks Bryce if the latter believes that using this operating system has accelerated the changes in his business due to the increased focus it provides.

Bryce reveals that implementing the operating system initially slowed them down as they took a step back to evaluate and prioritize their goals. However, in hindsight, he believes this slowdown was necessary to accelerate their growth and improve execution. Looking back over four years, Bryce sees that their growth has been accelerated, and their deliverables and initiatives are more streamlined. Their franchise partners and coaches can now easily implement the systems they create at the franchisor level, resulting in various positive outcomes for their business.

Implementing the EOS operating system allowed Bryce to value clarity and take a step back to view the business from a higher perspective. Moreover, to grow a business, Bryce recognizes the benefits of having an external perspective, like that of a business consultant, to help identify potential weaknesses and provide valuable insights.

Bryce is concerned about the obesity epidemic and its negative impact on society’s physical and mental health owing to Covid-19. He believes proper nutrition and exercise can prevent many health issues and reduce healthcare costs. The guest is passionate about promoting self-care and caring for one’s health.

Damon agrees with the fitness guru. He shares his experience consuming too much unhealthy food and how making better choices has improved his mental clarity.

Damon’s story inspires Bryce, who appreciates the host’s clarity, confidence, and energy. He believes it’s important for people to realize that they are responsible for their well-being and that relying on others or the government is not the solution.

As the show concludes, Damon thanks Bryce for joining the conversation on systemizing business growth. He acknowledges the discussion about Bryce’s story, his experience at Fit Body Boot Camp, and his passionate commitment to helping people succeed.

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39:28

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

fitness, business, bryce, fit body boot, people, eos, coaching, life, damon, system, operating system, step, perspective, learn, entrepreneur, work, level, years, jj, locations

SPEAKERS

Bryce Henson, Damon Pistulka

 

Damon Pistulka  00:01

All right, everyone, welcome once again to the faces of business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And I am excited for our guests today because we have Bryce Hansen from Fit Body Boot Camp. Bryce. Welcome,

 

Bryce Henson  00:18

Damon, thank you so much for having me. I’m super excited to chat with you today.

 

Damon Pistulka  00:22

I am as well, Bryce, because man, your, your background we were talking about before he got on, I want to go over that. And then, you know, we started talking about leadership structure and marketing. And then, and then you got into systems and EOS. And oh, we got a lot to talk about. But Bryce, I always like to start back at the beginning. So let’s see how you got to tell us how you got to do what you’re doing today. It’s got this kind of story that brought you here.

 

Bryce Henson  00:54

Absolutely. Well, there’s two parts to it. There’s really the, I guess, unlocking of the passion of fitness. So I’ll kind of start there. And then yes, the business journey, but I live in Southern California now I have since 2005. But originally, I’m from the Midwest, I come from a broken home actually a blessing disguised as a tragedy. My father was a drug addict.

He’s an alcoholic addicted to gambling, not necessarily a trifecta for a good family upbringing. So my family life, you know, in my young years, was very volatile, volatile. And my mom bless her heart she’s really stepped up and did the best she could she possibly could, raising three kids and I grew up the later part of my childhood in the state of Michigan, where she was from and worked really hard. For first world standards. We come from humble beginnings.

We used to run out of money before we run in a month and it’s for as much as I love the Midwest, great place salt of the earth people, not the fitness capital the world and especially when you have you know, financial constraints, fast food, processed food was a staple of my diet, you know, for a long time. So, I always like to share that because now I’m a fitness guy, but I certainly wasn’t, you know, like that from the very beginning. But ultimately, a what happened is when I put myself through college,

I ended up getting a job opportunity in Los Angeles, California was excited to move to LA, the beaches, the sunshine, all the LA had to offer but you know, being very candid with you, Damon and your audience, the first couple of years were dark, I had more dark days than good. And you know, it was 3000 miles from home. I lacked professional skills. And really when you break it down, I lacked fitness. I didn’t have the energy that drive the enthusiasm but things changed and fortuitous situation happened.

One of my good buddies from college moved out west and we lived together. And this is really where the fitness transformation started. And after a few months of living together who he was my first fitness mentor, I finally mustered up enough courage say, Adam, will you show me a little about this fitness game and he turned to me said Bryce, I thought you never asked and really what he did over the period of two years, but hyper focus over six months, he introduced me to lifting weights circuit training into nutrition, but most importantly to coaching and accountability, because that was really the game changer for me.

And really, when I saw the Fit Body bootcamp model as a business model, a couple years later, a light bulb went on because I knew that same training modality worked for me in fact, you know, in the first six months of training together, I dropped 20 pounds of body fat I put 20 pounds of lean muscle on but way more than the physical look, you know, again, energy, enthusiasm, confidence, driving the fact from a sales perspective, a business perspective,

if I went from the least performing sales rep in the company all the way to the highest performing sales rep in the company and for me, that was really the first introduction of fitness in my life and it really drove a passion and really laid the foundation for a couple years later when I became a franchise partner within the Fit Body Boot Camp brand.

 

Damon Pistulka  03:37

So when you when you say sales rep that this was not in the fitness industry, this was outside of the fitness industry, so your fitness helped you be better in a in a job outside of the fitness industry.

 

Bryce Henson  03:48

That’s exactly yeah, my first career was in sales. And I guess I’ve been in sales for even through my business ownership as you would imagine, but no, previously to my fit, buddy journey, my business ownership journey. My first career was sales. Your point?

I mean, this platform of fitness and why I’m so passionate about you today is because it changed everything and if I can look you in the eye and say the one thing changed in that first year, where I just had explosive growth in my sales career. It wasn’t the sales strategy wasn’t the persuasion was the trainings. Yes, I did all that. But it was really the confidence that I acquired throughout the becoming a fit person through my transformation.

 

Damon Pistulka  04:25

Yeah, yep. Fit transformation. So tell me tell me a bit about that. What that looks like when when someone’s gonna do that. For you.

 

Bryce Henson  04:37

It’s not like Well, wasn’t easy, and that’s why I love the model of coaching because, you know, Damon, you can your audience know this to be true. You can find workout programs and nutrition plans on the Internet free of charge. But it’s one thing to know what to do, but it’s another thing to have someone hold you accountable.

And for me, actually, the best piece of coaching advice is my friend Adam When I finally asked him, you know, Hey, Adam, can you show me about this fitness game you play, he asked me for a 90 day commitment because he said, Bryce, you know how many guys that college asked me how to be fit, and how many actually stuck with it virtually zero.

So if we’re going to do this, I don’t want to waste your time, I don’t want to waste my time, I need your 90 day commitment that you’re gonna do what I want you to do, you’re going to train how I want you to train, you’re going to come with me to the gym, and you’re gonna eat what I want you to eat. After the 90 days, if it’s not for you all good.

But if it is, then obviously, we’re off to the races. And I’m so glad to provide that coaching expectation. Because as you would imagine, starting any fitness, anything moves your need for life. The first week, I could barely squat to go to the bathroom, my legs were so sore, but I just kept on putting one foot in front of the other one week turned into two to three before you know it, you know, 90 days had passed.

And was I incredibly fit over those 90 days. No, but I saw a difference in the famous words of Tony Robbins. Progress equals motivation. So I saw enough progress Damon, where it gave me that motivation to continue. I think that’s a big message, not only from a fitness perspective, but a business perspective, anything you’re starting new is gonna be tough at first, and you have to have that accountability and coaching, and really do it enough where you can gain some traction momentum. And then the rest is gets a lot easier.

 

Damon Pistulka  06:14

Yeah, you know, I had reading this morning, it was it was mentioning, watching a child learn how to walk is relating it to the fact of doing anything, don’t expect to go out and do it right the first time, you’re going to fall down, it’s going to take some work, it’s going to take some figuring out but as you do at it, it really anything worth it is going to take some failures, some challenges to get there, which is great.

So what did you really learn about this as you’re going through this? And then subsequently, you know, personally with your fitness journey? What have you learned by dedicating yourself to a journey like this and doing what you’re doing?

 

Bryce Henson  06:53

Good question, my friend, you’ve done this before. I think for me, one of the biggest lessons I gleaned is that life is hard. And it’s going to be hard no matter what. So you can choose to put hard at first. And when you do that, things become easy. But if you choose easy at first things become hard.

And for me going through that journey. I mean, like I said, you know, we used to run out of money before should run it a month Taco Bell fast food was a state by diet. I say this, you know, in quotes, I was a little allergic to lifting weights, you know, throughout my adolescent years, so I wasn’t this, you know, factory installed athlete by any stretch of the imagination.

And I was resistant to it at first, but I was interested in the outcome and the results. And I think by putting myself in a very candid Yes. Stuff like, this isn’t for me, I wanted to quit, but just keep it you know, as long as I kept on going, which I did, it really opened up this mental clarity, this energy, this confidence, enthusiasm. And what I learned is, you got to choose heart at first because if you don’t, your life is gonna become exponentially hard.

 

Damon Pistulka  07:57

Choose hard at first. I like that. I like that. Actually, I was reading something today it was talking about something similar. It’s strange, but it was was putting yourself in those those uncomfortable situations on purpose. To drive you forward faster, faster. Yeah, it’s life is hard. And that’s, that’s one of the things I think that we often forget when, when we are in times when life is good, and it changes to not so good. That’s just normal, that’s going to happen.

And the better off we can pre be be prepared for both of those situations, the better off we’re gonna be able to live and challenge and work through those things or go through those things. But we got some people listening now we got Rosalynn down here. Thanks for Thanks for being here today. Roselyn. JJ, what a great point. The difference between average and elite? He’s right. Right. Or she is right. She’s right. Yeah, JJ. Yeah, there we go. And Roseland dropping some more. And none of us will make it out alive. That’s right.

 

Bryce Henson  09:07

But that actually brings up my my belief in stoic philosophy and let’s do at that point. You said it, you know, tongue in cheek JG with that little wink, but it’s true. And if you haven’t Damon, are you familiar with Stouffville? That philosophy by any

 

Damon Pistulka  09:19

chance? Yes. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

 

Bryce Henson  09:22

So this is a bedrock for me. This is one of my guiding principles in North Stars. And there’s a few different ways I break down, you know, stoicism, but you know, first and foremost, it’s about bringing your death close to you. And I know it sounds morbid. Yeah, JJ said this in jest but when you do that, then the big decisions the really important things in life become super clear and all the trivial things that is human nature we all you know, get spun up on just seem to disappear. So kind of having that mentality of like, hey actually I think you’re destined to be on that’s, that’s at least been my experience.

 

Damon Pistulka  10:05

Yeah, yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. Well as you’re as you’re working today now let’s let’s talk about your, your journey at Fit Body Boot Camp. You’re the CEO of Fit Body Boot Camp now but you start, how did this start? Because you didn’t you didn’t just walk in and were the CEO. Tell us about your, your experience there how it started? What? So first of all, you’re in sales, and then what got you into to Fit Body Boot Camp to start with?

 

Bryce Henson  10:37

Well, great question. Thank you for asking. When I went through that journey that I just, you know, shared with you. My sales career was crankin. So I always had this dream and ambition to you know, be an entrepreneur and, you know, start a company and have a big impact. But at that period of time, like things were going really well actually fitness provide the foundation and my sales career was cranking I was in the mid 20s, making well over six figures. But I remember some guy walked up to me at the gym about two years in fitness journey.

And he introduced himself and he wanted to learn a little bit more about me, and you know, how I ate and how it worked out. He said he’d been watching me for a while. And this light bulb clicked like, oh, wow, maybe I can give this gift of fitness back to others. But even at that point, while I was ambitious to become a certified personal trainer, so I enrolled through National Academy Academy of Sports Medicine, the gold standard. I actually didn’t think that I would make this a full time profession. I thought maybe I trained some clients in the nights and weekends.

So yeah, once I went through my certification, I ended up updating my Facebook profile to personal trainer, and I was started receiving ads from this gentleman named Bezos, Cooley, and Bezos, Colleen is a dear friend of mine and business mentor, business partner. Now he’s the founder of Fit Body Boot Camp.

And he’s a very well known fitness consultant in our space. It is, you know, content in his courses, we’re talking about how to launch a fitness business, how to grow a fitness business. So I followed along for a while. And then I had this ambition, this calling, you know what I was meant for something more, I want to impact my community, create income while I make impact. And for me, that was kind of a match made in heaven.

So I did all the diligence I possibly could I put in the application to become a franchise partner to own a Fit Body Boot Camp location and launch one. And in the summer of 2012, I did this scariest, but ultimately, the most rewarding thing I possibly could do. And I invested my life savings and this little dream of business ownership underneath the umbrella of Fit Body bootcamp. And that’s really what got my journey started becoming an entrepreneur and a business owner. And I’m gonna give you the highlight reel, there was a lot of low lights, though.

But from 2012, to 2018, and scaling to five locations, I brought my family on board, my mom, my wife, my sister, my brother, and really made it a family thing and you know, had a lot of success with within the industry, a lot of learning lessons and trials and tribulations specifically on leadership and marketing, and just, you know, all the things that you struggle with as a new entrepreneur. But ultimately, I made a good impression on the founder. And at the time, the brand was just going in 2012. So I just kind of one of those places, or situations the right place the right time.

Of course, I developed strong relationships, I put a lot of work in as well, yeah. And our brand was really starting to hockey stick in 2018 in terms of growth, and our founder Baker’s reached out to me and he offered me the vice president position, which he gives me a hard time. I didn’t reluctantly or decline it. But ultimately I was a hard charging entrepreneur, I had my sights on 10 locations and whatnot.

But after a period of time, I took a step back. And I thought to myself, You know what, I can probably have the most impact, you know, serving on the franchisor level. So I made the leap of faith and becoming the vice president. And then despite the COVID and the craziness that we’ve all had to deal with over the last few years, you know, fortunate to say in 2021, as Pedro says, business empire has expanded in other facets.

There’s an opportunity, you know, and he needed someone to steer the ship and awarded me the CEO position. I took that baby and I ran so that’s how this guy from the Midwest run it ran out of money before he ran out of money. Taco Bell is a staple of his diet allergic to lifting weights somehow became a personal trainer, gym owner and then now the CEO of international fitness franchise, which is still wild to me to this day. But my message on that point is my friends if you’re listening to this, or you’re watching this, you are way more capable than you think.

 

Damon Pistulka  14:22

There we go. That was awesome. That was awesome. is one of the reasons why I was excited to have you on because listening to your enthusiasm and your messages is pretty inspiring. So thanks for sharing that. So So along the way, you know you you went from entrepreneur then into the Fit Body Boot Camp franchise, as at the corporate and doing those things, what are some of the things that you really enjoyed about being able to do that?

 

Bryce Henson  14:58

Well, it’s it’s so interesting because you know, First, my first six or seven years within the fit body system, I was boots on the ground, I was training clients, I was connecting, you know, with our membership and you know, coaching fitness and fat loss and human movement and really having a strong amount of personal connection, action, which I still do, and it’s what I absolutely love. But my role has changed. Now I’m leading a business team.

And you know, we’re supporting our franchise partners, but I’m more of a corporate setting. So the day to day has definitely shifted, but I think the passion for helping people, I’m a people guy, so I love connecting with my team, I love leading myself and team, I love seeing people when that all has remained the same. But I’ve also had to take a crash course, you know, because I was playing at a smaller level, now I’m playing at a very big international level, especially as for the franchising system is regulated by the Federal Trade Commission, and, you know, has to audit it every year.

So there’s just been a huge learning curve, and higher level business concepts like you know, information and systems and management, and scaling. So it’s been a definitely very rewarding journey, but also a very challenging journey as well. But I think that for me, what keeps me grounded, keeps me just fired up is just the impact.

And you know, I’m able to, you know, go out and speak at workshops and connect with our franchise partners connect with my team and just to just to feel people’s energy and to see the lives that we can chain it change in this industry is just phenomenal. And, and for me, you know, it lights my fire.

 

Damon Pistulka  16:24

Very cool. Very cool. So, you, I’m trying to write some notes here, because you got a lot of good stuff. I know, before we talked, we had a couple of points that I wanted to cover, specifically because of this. But now you’re at this corporate level, what are some of the things that you didn’t realize that now you’ve begun to understand or understand clearly now are keys to scaling?

 

Bryce Henson  16:51

Whoo. For me, the biggest thing, and this is I think this essence of leadership is you need to surround yourself with very smart people that have zones of genius in their in their area in their expertise, that are even better than than yours. And my for me in my case. So I look at my Director of Operations, Brittany, who’s just you know, detail oriented, and she understands operations, she understands business systems, my brother Barrett, which is a awesome thing, I get to work with him. He’s our executive director of coaching and profitability.

So he’s the fitness guy, he is a two sport athlete, you know, growing up, he knows the human movement, the kinetic chain, so really, you know, learning and gleaning from him, our Director of Marketing, Joe Coco’s, who’s out in Canada understands direct response and marketing and crafting messages writing copy. So for me, one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is, I don’t need to know everything.

What I need to know is to where to find the resources, find the people, set the vision, communicate with passion, with clarity. And if you can provide that strong vision, and assemble people, you know, more talented and brighter than you at certain areas of the business. You know, it can be like rocket fuel. So that’s probably the biggest lesson I’ve gleaned in my, you know, couple years now, in terms of steering the ship here at headquarters at corporate?

 

Damon Pistulka  18:10

Yeah, yeah, you know, and we, the other title of today was Systemising business growth. So we talked a bit about this beforehand, what are some of the things that you’ve seen and helped your team to coagulate around to really help to systemize your business? So the your Systemising business growth?

 

Bryce Henson  18:32

Definitely. And we were talking about this offline, Damon, inherently, I wouldn’t say I’m an overly overly systematic guy, but I see the value exponentially. And especially if you’re going to scale organization, especially the franchisor level, it just needs to be in the fabric of your organization.

And a tool that we’ve used is what’s called an operating system called Eos, or entrepreneur operating system. And it was created by a gentleman named Gina Whitman. And we’ve been talking offline, you cited the book traction on your deck desk, I’m rereading it for, I think, the fifth or sixth time. But that business system, you know, in there six different components of the system, from the vision to the data, people issues, process and traction components of the business, those six aspects of the operating system are so so critical.

And that’s just the foundation level of our operating system. And there’s more to that. But for us, that’s been a great way to implement a system that works. And for me, the value of franchise system is there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. It’s about modeling success and executing that success. And that’s really what EOS has done from an operating system here at Fit Body.

 

Damon Pistulka  19:43

I would I would think, you know, and as you said that when we were offline earlier, I really began to think about how that gives your franchisees at their locations, a better way to run their business right from the beginning because you’re using a a operating system to run the corporate level that feeds down into an operating system for them to run their locations. So did How long have you guys been using this? This iOS operating system? And and first of all start with that question.

 

Bryce Henson  20:19

Great question. And the short answer is since 2019, but the long answer is, I read the book traction, I want to say in 2016, or 17. And it was this lightning this god shot that came to me reading the book. And I knew that I had strong visionary qualities. I wasn’t a strong integrator, at least I thought at the time. But when Gino kind of described the different functions of the business, I was like, Oh, my goodness, this is what I’m missing. But at the time, I wasn’t on the corporate side.

So I saw the value. But you know, very candidly, Damon, I put the book back on the shelf. But in 2019, when I realized that I had a bigger ship to help support, I dug that book back up, reread it again, and it was inspired. And there was an opportunity actually to hire an EOS consultant implementer, if you will. And we I ended up researching and interviewing a few implementers.

And a gentleman named Brian Underhill, who is a dear friend now came in and doesn’t it gave the overview. So not only have we implemented ELS, but we’ve actually brought him along to help, you know, guide and implement for us and SharePoint. This wasn’t factory installed our big business at the foundation. So it’s been this learning curve, if you will, the stepladder approach, we first integrate it from a leadership team perspective, then once we had a couple quarters under our belt, then we started pushing it down for the whole team at headquarters.

And then we started pushing it down, you know, to you know, our owners and to their coaches. So it’s been this the stepladder integrative approach. But now I want to say four years later, at the time of this taping, we actually still have a long way to go. But I would say, across the board, the organization is rowing in the same lane, we’re aligned. And it’s you know, because a huge part of this is because of our adoption of the system.

 

Damon Pistulka  22:03

And yeah, so what are some of the things that you look at before, and after, that you can attribute to using an operating system in your business? Oh,

 

Bryce Henson  22:16

I would say structure, but more importantly, the priorities that prioritization, if I can say that correctly. You know, being a visionary, I have a lot of creative ideas, and a lot of ideas kind of come in flow. And that’s great.

You know, for you as the leader and entrepreneur, but your team, especially as your team grows, your team’s gonna have a hard time, basically keeping along for the ride, if there’s not a systematized approach to this. So what EOS does that’s worked really well for us is it keeps the main thing, the main thing being the famous adage, how do you need an elephant? And the answer is one bite at a time. And the analogy of Eos is how do you execute a whole year of planning and strategic growth?

A quarter at a time, so every 90 days, we reconvene with our EOS implementer. And we get crystal clear what are the three to five priorities from a leadership perspective, first and foremost, but then all the way through each department. And then let’s get super focused on what those priorities are rocks, as US calls them. And we get hyper focus on this. And there might be other ideas that come about in those 90 days. But they’re shelved for the next quarterly system.

So that way, the whole team in your whole organization knows, we are completely focused on these priorities of the next 90 days, once we execute these priorities, then we’re going to come up for air, okay. And then we’re going to, you know, glean all the other ideas that we came that we discussed. And then we get hyper focus next 90 days. And really what that leads to is not only it leads to innovation, but it leads to really strong execution, and it really execution in a way that your team feels really good about. And they don’t feel that they’re always running in circles, which has probably been the biggest benefit of us.

 

Damon Pistulka  23:58

Yeah, it does. It really does. As you said, the the 90 day rocks or tasks or big things that you want to get done in 90 days, and only limiting it to a few is critical in the overall because as you can say, as you said many times you being a visionary, or even people in running a department or running the location themselves, they can get a lot of their input that Oh, should I do this?

Should I do that? And you’re gone? Nope. This is the quarter, this is the thing that we’re doing. You know, this is what we’re focusing on this quarter. I’ve got these three things. When those are done, we can think about something else. But until they are we have to focus on those and put that on the on the list. Go ahead, go ahead. Sorry.

 

Bryce Henson  24:42

Forgive me. I was gonna say just humbling myself. I was so guilty so many times. Oh, yeah, of just having the flavor of the day or the flavor of the week or the flavor of the mugger and it just led to led to confusion for my team, which is just you know, not not a good thing.

 

Damon Pistulka  24:56

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we’re just going through a 90 day process. Right now again, with a with a client. So it’s, it’s always fun, it’s always fun, you know, we’re because you’re getting things done. And one of the things that I really like about the fact of a quarterly goals or however you choose to do it the time length, it’s, it’s really I think the focus that, that a system like EOS gives your team gives you as a visionary really helps everyone execute.

And people always like when they can, you know, paint a wall and the wall is painted and walk away, no one is done. Rather than paint the wall, get halfway down and go start building another wall someplace else, you know, you really, you have to be able to finish something and people like to see the see the accomplishment and what they’re doing, and do that. So do you think that using this operating system, you’ve been able to accelerate the changes in your business because of the focus?

 

Bryce Henson  26:06

Not only accelerate, and are you still with me? I think my internet lagged a little bit. But yeah,

 

Damon Pistulka  26:10

like a little bit. We’re back. We’re back yet we’re here. We’re here.

 

Bryce Henson  26:14

Yeah, not only has it accelerated, but I think it’s actually I think probably the for the first two quarters, I would even say it slowed us down. Just to really clear the one of those, you know, analogies where we took a step back to take two steps forward. But because how high paced and how fast paced we were in that analogy of the painting the wall. I mean, that is that was literally my organization for the longest of time, humbling myself. But taking a step back and actually figuring out okay, what walls do we want to paint, and then getting crystal clear. So it actually took us slowed us down for a little bit of time.

But now looking at the rearview mirror for four years, you know, delayed, it’s actually completely accelerated our growth, and also to the execution that we’re putting out there, the deliverables and the new initiatives for you know, our franchise partners, and our coaches are just so much more put together, there’s so much more streamlined, that they can take the systems that we create at a franchisor perspective, and then implement them with ease. So it’s done. Oh, yeah. variety of things for us.

 

Damon Pistulka  27:19

Yeah. Yeah. Huh. Yeah, this is cool. This is cool. So what have you learned from doing this, that you you had no idea what happened?

 

Bryce Henson  27:38

I think the clarity, first and foremost, it is. There’s another book called actually taking a step back, the E Myth by Michael Gerber essay. And, you know, he talks about, you know, the, the ability to work in your business versus on your business. And what us is really done as an a 90 day cycle, it forces you. And when I say you meeting myself, the leadership team and all of our apartments, actually take a TV timeout, and just take a full day of planning.

And we look at the business as if we’re not in the business anymore, we’re looking at from a 30,000 foot view. And he asked, he literally asked us to take a step back, remove all the people from the organization, you’re gonna look at your accountability chart, challenge your accountability chart, and then put back the people you know, in the right seats.

And it continuously challenge us challenges you to take a look and view your business for what it is. And I think so valuable. And you know, business consultant, like you, Damon, who has a lot of experience, you know, coaching and working with other businesses, it’s probably very easy for you to look at a business and say, Okay, this is where your break is, this is where you break is because you’re outside of it, right? You’re not emotionally tied to it.

You’re emotionally tied in the business, it’s really hard to do that. So that’s been another really, really big benefit of working on your business, in the words of Michael Gerber, instead of in your business, and I’m under the firm belief, you need to do both. But you need to be able to create a structure where you have the opportunity to really see that from a full holistic viewpoint.

 

Damon Pistulka  29:09

Yes, yes. Are you still able to train people once in a while? Em Are you cut out for a second there? I didn’t hear it. There you go. I got you back.

 

Bryce Henson  29:27

I said You mean training people? training people in the gym?

 

Damon Pistulka  29:30

Yeah. training people in the gym? Yes. Is that?

 

Bryce Henson  29:35

Yes, I do. It’s not often but I’m approximate product. So I work out at my location once a week on Tuesday mornings. That’s actually where I got my workout today. But more importantly, you know, every now and again, maybe one or two times a year, I’ll dust off the trading boots. I usually have a media guy come in and do some video of me but I love connecting and that’s, that’s who I am. That’s really the DNA I have with the industry.

 

Damon Pistulka  29:56

That’s cool. That’s cool. That’s cool to keep a little bit of practicing Get to two Oh, yeah, experience what your franchisees are doing. So what are you? What are what are you excited about in the fitness industry right now?

 

Bryce Henson  30:10

Well, what I’m concerned about, I’ll get on my soapbox for a little bit, it’s going concern, yeah, then we can show you what I’m excited about. You know, COVID really showed us that a big hole in terms of our society’s health in terms of, you know, obesity epidemic, and, you know, nearly 50% of population here in the states are statistically obese.

And, you know, that has major complications from a physicality perspective, from a healthcare perspective, from a cost perspective. Also, from a mental health perspective, we’re seeing a lot of mental anxiety and, you know, mental health issues, which, really, Damon can be avoided through proper nutrition, proper exercise regimen.

And so for me, that’s a very scary thing. In fact, you know, we’re spending billions of dollars a year on unnecessary health topic, healthcare and health costs because of this. So my big message is, you know, my passionate plea is, you know, people need to start taking care of care of themselves better, it’s the foundation for your life.

So that’s what I’m concerned about. But awesome news is, there’s a solution. And the solution is coaching, the solution is, you know, support accountability. And that’s why I’m so passionate. My mission, you know, within my organization, the biggest thing I’m really excited about is nutrition coaching, and most clients because they’re overweight, they come in, they want to lose body fat, they want to lose, you know, pounds and inches.

And while who you move, it’s a really good thing, if you really, really want to change and shape your body composition, you have to do with clean nutrition, you know, proper carbohydrates, fats, and protein. And we’ve done a lot of focus and effort, you know, developing a proprietary app, and also to be able to, you know, provide a better nutrition coaching. So that’s what I’m most excited in. And also two people are waking up, I believe. So I showed you the pain point. But ultimately, I also want to kind of show you my level of excitement for you know, what’s to come.

 

Damon Pistulka  31:59

Yeah. I mean, you, you hit it on the head that and, you know, there are a lot of people that during COVID, yes, we kind of were stuck in our own own space. And some people chose that, too. It didn’t go well. Other people it went okay, and you know, and for a lot of different reasons, didn’t go well or went okay.

But you know, that I think this is you said, I think this is a real opportunity for people to step back now and look at what what is something that I should be doing for my health? What is something that I should be doing for right now my physical health, but my mental health, and then one of the things that I really think that COVID taught us is that, you know, you look at business, and you’d look at life and everything.

And we we really are focusing, I think more holistically on people, rather than, you know, professional or personal or family or things like that. And we’ve really gotten hopefully, we’re taking a step to where we think holistically about, you mentioned mental illness, and you meant about obesity, and all these things are controlled, a large part by activity, what we eat, and a lot of other things in our life.

If we if we try to keep you know, if we keep seeing ozempic clinics, just you know, popping up, it doesn’t do a heck of a lot of good if you’re if the food that you are eating is junk, and you never get any exercise. And no because your health you can be skinny and not healthy.

You could Amen. There’s a lot of things that there and in you know, it’s been proven, I don’t know how many times over and over again that even moderate exercise, you know, if you’re 80 years old, you’re out and taking a nice leisurely stroll that might be your level of exercise that you need. But moderate exercise helps you mentally so much that it’s it’s just an you’re just preaching to the choir here, dude. Because I went from I went from being about 270 before COVID started to now I’m about 208 you if I wasn’t and I’m and I’m to await a lot stronger than I was.

 

Bryce Henson  34:19

And how do you feel? How do you think I’m sure it’s just

 

Damon Pistulka  34:22

you can’t you can’t you can’t you can’t even begin to think you can’t compare it you can begin you can’t even begin to compare it and the the nutritional part behind it is really I mean, I was a guy that yeah, kids, right wife, kids and we’re doing things and the kids didn’t eat what they were going to eat. I was like, Cool, man, I got another part of a burger to eat, you know, or whatever and that kind of thing.

And, you know, to me, too much of the wrong food, too much of the wrong food. I grew up in the Midwest and South Dakota on a farm. You know, I grew up eating too much but you talk about nutritional coaching. I mean, just the type of calories that you consume, you know, someone like me, if we had 14 bags of cookies in the house, that’s not a good thing. So don’t wine with the grocery store, buy, buy apples and grapes and strawberries and whatever else, something that’s cleaner, the better.

And you know, less processed and this kind of stuff, the mental clarity that you’ll get from taking those things out and then adding, I believe, and I have no backing out this other than myself. Exercise, you know, and I’m not young. But if I get I, I ride a recumbent bike about 10 miles a day, I walk two or three miles a day, and then I do weight training for 30 or 40 minutes every day. And the amount of energy I have, the amount of clarity you have is, is incredible, comparatively two years ago. And I am i That’s when that’s when people don’t do this.

And I’m saying this because I see people I see people that are in their 20s. Now that you know, it catches up to you. That’s all I’m saying. Oh, yes. Oh, yeah. So I think you got to be excited when you’re starting to talk to people about nutritional coaching, I think that you’re at a good good point in time, because we got people that are coming. You know, we’re COVID is behind us for the large part now.

So hopefully, some people are starting to go, Hey, maybe this is time for us to really think about how I want to live a better life. And it starts with me. And I think totally, you know, because your your background and talking about training and nutrition as an investment in ourselves and enjoy investment in our life and being happy. And I think that’s one of the things that excites me about being able to talk to you today and seeing your your enthusiasm in this, because you’re helping people and that’s the coolest thing about it, I think,

 

Bryce Henson  37:03

Well, I appreciate that. And just you know, hearing your story just lights me up because you know, the just the clarity, you have the confidence, the energy, it’s just it’s a game changer. And I mean to that point, you know, why started with the bad news.

I really hope and I’m really feeling this is a wake up call for people that the government’s not going to save you that your neighbor is not going to save you, you have to make the decision for yourself and it’s not going to be easy. Okay? You know, you got to put one foot in front the other but when you do, okay, your life gets better when you choose hard first your life gets exponentially easier. And that’s a message for me today. That is a message that I want your audience to hear. And that will serve our society very well.

 

Damon Pistulka  37:42

Man, Bryce, thank you for stopping by today. It’s been a pleasure talking to you. I mean, the things that you’re doing at Fit Body Boot Camp, awesome stuff. I wish you nothing but the best and I man, you’re inspirational. So if people want to learn more about Fit Body Boot Camp, learn more about you where they’re going to find find that information.

 

Bryce Henson  38:10

I appreciate appreciate that. I have a podcast that I teach about you know, business and nutrition and fitness and all that called the fitness SEO podcast so highly encourage your audiences to find me there. My social media handles. Yeah, my social media handles are real Bryce Henson, not to be confused with fake Bryce Henson, and our website is Fit Body Boot. camp.com. So you can find me at the podcast. You can find me on social you can find me on our website.

 

Damon Pistulka  38:37

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Bryce, I appreciate you stopping by today. We’re we’re talking about systemizing business growth. We got to talk about your story. We got to talk about your experience at Fit Body Boot Camp, and you’re just crazy enthusiasm for helping people and helping helping people be successful. Thank you so much.

 

Bryce Henson  38:58

Well, Damon, The pleasure was mine. I really appreciate the chat. And wish you all the best of luck.

 

Damon Pistulka  39:04

All right. Well hang out for a moment. Bryce. Everyone that was listening. JJ Casey. We had Roselyn in the beginning. Thanks so much there for dropping the comments in and all of you that were listening and didn’t comment. Really appreciate your, your views, your thoughts and just the positivity that you’re adding to our day. We’ll be back again later. Thanks so much.

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