Episode #518: Beyond the Gym-Exploring Cities with Michael Riordan's City Fit Tours

0:00 I am super excited to announce that we now have a formal partnership with The Prospect Wizard. And when I say wizard, I mean wizard. Obviously, you have a website. This allows you to convert your website traffic visitors directly into leads. It's not just another chatbot, and it's not AI, but it allows a visitor to call, text, or leave a voice mail. Immediately goes to you, your sales team, or anyone else in the club. Instantly, MIT shows a study that if you contact a lead within 10 minutes, chance of them converting goes up 9 times that of the average. We got the Atlanta Clubs on it, Vida Fitness, Gold's Gym, Mountainside, City Fitness Philly, College Park, become one of the next halo companies to deploy the wizard. It's easy to use. Go to the prospectwizard.com. Get a free 30 day trial. Talk to my boy, Dave Gallon. He will get you all set up, and let the leads flow based on the wizard. Go get them. This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks NYC. I have a fellow New Yorker joining us today. We're gonna talk about living an active lifestyle in the city curated for optimization.

1:15 Mike Reardon, welcome to the show. Thank you so much, Pete. Super happy to be here. Awesome. So, you know, we, we've been saying that, communities that are based on solving loneliness, diabetes, and obesity, is the future. Getting people out of the house and also, you know, whether on trips, they are actually, you know, doing their their routines or finding new routines. So talk about how you kinda stumbled across this. Was it a personal frustration that, you went to new cities and you kinda, like you know, we're looking for someone to help you do that? It's actually kind of a combination of that, where I would go away somewhere. One time, I was actually in Hawaii, and I went to go to the gym. And there was a line of people waiting to run on the treadmill, and I was like, well, what am I doing?

2:04 Right? I'm in Hawaii. Why would I waste my time in the actual gym when I can go run on the beach and, you know, up in the hills and all that stuff? And I did it, and it was one of the greatest runs I've ever taken in my life. Right? And then as I was working as a personal trainer, a lot of my clients were traveling for business. And whenever they would come back from somewhere really cool, whether it's Bermuda or Chicago or whatever, I was always like, oh my god. How was it? And answer was always the same. It was that they were there for work, and they didn't get to actually see anything local or do anything that was really, like, a local experience. Mhmm. And so I was like, oh, that's kind of a bummer. And then I'd ask if they, you know, if they actually did get to work out and the answer was always they would come back with, well, I went down to the fitness center and ran on the treadmill for 10 minutes, felt about how bad it sucked, and then went and got another croissant and a cup of coffee and got ready for my sales meeting. I hear you. I was like, yeah. Okay.

2:57 Well, that that's a bummer. And then I started thinking about how many people were actually coming to New York City and having that same exact experience, where they're stuck in a trade show booth or in a conference room or whatever. And, I did a quick look to see if anybody was doing anything that was fitness focused for travelers, visitors to the city. And And how long ago yeah. How long ago did you start this up? This was, in 2014. So we're just coming up on, on 10 years. Congrats. Thanks. You know, we we did a, interview with, ABC, Financial, and they said that there were a 34 year overnight success. So gotta build build value over time. You know, as we look at the space, obviously, you know, people are coming here. It's not necessarily a recurring revenue business, but I I saw on your site that you've got, you know, a run-in Central Park or the Cherry Blossoms tour or, Brooklyn Bridge and and run through Chicago. Are you actually have employees? Do you have, trainers that that you're affiliated with? And then you've got a 40 to $50 price point. So tell us kinda how that all came about and how your network works. Sure. So when it when it first started, I was actually leading all the tours myself, and then got to the point where an old injury started to really act up, and my ankle was was killing me. So it forced me to, you know, go out and reach out to some other people, who could be tour guides for me. Then the other thing, in in addition to the running tours, we also offer what's called the yoga walk. For people who aren't runners, they can actually

4:30 do something healthy and active and get outside to start off the morning. And I, you know, went and hired a number of different, certified yoga instructors to come on board and do something different than just their typical in the studio sort of yoga experience. And so I started having this team that sort of came together. They all work as independent contractors. And it's been, you know, one of the greatest things that I did specifically also because, when we have corporate groups that come into town, we can handle larger groups of 50 to a 100 people because they have a team that we can break that large group up into smaller groups. So I've got, you know, tour guides can handle each of those smaller groups.

5:12 You know, I went on your side. I was pleasantly surprised how many dates you have events going on. I mean, it's basically a daily, event business is is is what you're running. When you take a look over the last 10 years of, you know, ClassPass, Gympass, some of these other groups that are basically providing access to to bricks and mortar. Have you delved into that as part of the business? Are you kinda focused on, hey. This is outdoor experiential. I want you to be outside. I'm not I'm not trying to create a curated, you know, fitness studio experience or like a, you know, a bar crawl if you will, if you wanna go back to, you know, the negativity of of alcohol. But to talk about why you decided to just kinda stick to this component of the business and maybe as part of the the experience and, like, what you get out of it. Well, it really is what it is. It's it's it's an immersive experience for visitors to New York City that's focused on wellness.

6:04 Mhmm. And for us to go ahead and become another fitness studio, that really wasn't our business model or idea at all. This was specifically for people who wanted to get to see the city, when they were here for whatever. Whether whether it was, you know, a leisure travel trip to come into town and explore as much as you possibly could in a short amount of time. Or if you were here on business and you had very little bit amount of time to do, you know, anything that was a a local flavored experience. So and and you kinda touch on something with that. Right? As if we were to open a studio had just pictures of New York City all around it, it it it's still a studio. And that makes us sorry. It it it's one of the things that I I learned early on was that the identity of the the Fit Tours business is that we are actually a tour company with a fitness twist as opposed to a fitness company with a tour twist. Got it. And and when when that clicked, that sort of like the path kinda opened up for how we got business.

7:07 Gotcha. I guess the the the second part of the question is, do do people request and say, hey. I wanna do an outdoor tour, but I also wanna do a can you can you curate a solid core class? Can you can you get get us into Barry's boot camp? Does that ever become part of the conversation where you're basically giving them, like, a fitness, you know, 3 or 4 days, you know, test out other types of indoor and outdoor? Sure. So we we do have people who are in town, whether it be specifically to run a half marathon or the marathon. Right? And they're looking for stuff in addition to just the touristy part. They wanna have, like, a curated fitness and wellness, schedule. And we've been able to, you know, deal with whether they be massage therapists or stretch labs or, you know, any different type of thing there. They certainly ask us that.

8:00 This is Pete Moore. I wanna let you in on a little secret. There's this company called Promotion Vault, and what they do is they give out rewards from retailers that allow you to incentivize your members without having to do zero down and 1 month free or giving away shakes or giving away t shirts. What you want to do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people value, and that doesn't discount your own products and services. So here's the deal. There's something called rewards vault. The rewards vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile. They are going to answer questions. You are gonna get those answers. You're gonna be able to target those members, and you're gonna reward them inside your club, inside your spa, and outside of the club, and outside of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to pay their monthly dues, and to be rewarded properly for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You shouldn't be. Promotion Vault's your answer. Trust me. This is real.

9:04 So when you take a look at over the last 10 years, you know, obviously, you could go to you started with a a a whiteboard. You say, okay. I can partner with hotels. I can partner with travel agents. I can partner with go go direct. I can find instructors that have a lot of people coming in from out of town. How did you think about and, you know, without giving away the special sauce of how you you fill up these classes outside, and I can see on a schedule, you got a lot of classes and a lot of people, you know, attending. You know, for for an entrepreneur who's starting out and saying, hey. I'm I'm kinda starting from the bottom. And, you know, a lot of this is guerilla marketing and relationship building. So what what are some of the things you could say, hey.

9:44 This is what I've learned. I I always use this term experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. So what is some avenues you said, hey. This might be a great idea, but actually, it doesn't work that way. Maybe it's a health club saying, like, hey. When people come in for day pass, you know, also offer an outdoor, you know, experience with us. Well, what's worth it? What hasn't? If you could give us a little bit of wisdom. Sure. And and listen, if there was, you know, at the very beginning, it is throwing out as wide a net as possible because everybody wants to come join us. Right? If I build it, they'll come. They'll Right. You know, people still think feel the dreams. And it really has been you know, for example, I thought walking into hotels and speaking hotel concierges was gonna be my path to buying a yacht. Was that it just made so much sense. Right? But the thing that was was a real hard lesson to learn real quick was that what we do is very different, and it never really existed before. So when I would meet the hotel concierge, they would always say to me, what a great concept. We love this idea. We'll call you when somebody asks for it. And that was really hard to hear every time because I know that not nobody knows that we existed. So nobody knew to ask for it. And that the big thing that I had to do then was find out where we were gonna get people who were going to be able to actually embrace it, and then be a billboard for it. To, like, talk it up.

11:12 And that was that was hard. That that's the real learning curve in this whole entire thing was finding the people who could bring us business. And, you know, that was a few hotels. It was more about corporate groups and that sort of thing. Interesting. Lesson we talked about was the price point. So, on your website, Mike, I see it's somewhere between 41 to 49, you know, per event, which is, you know, probably a little bit higher than a studio, but, you know, lower than a, you know, ticket, a a a cruise, or a tour around on a sunset, to Statue of Liberty. It's, you know, at an interesting price to maybe not give it away, but also to say, hey. There's a lot of value here, and you're gonna pay for that value and that experience and that curation.

12:00 So how did you stumble upon that, and were there iterations to that? So my initial thought was to put it at a similar price point to, any of the fitness studios. And quite honestly, when we, you know, we're getting going, it ended up costing me money because I would pay you know, I like to pay my tour guides a decent amount of money for doing, you know, the the tours because it is not like working at a studio where also you just got, like, clients back to back or classes back to back. We do it, you know, once or twice in the morning, and then you're on your own, you know, you know, off to do whatever you do. So we needed to make it where it was going to be sustainable, where we could actually, you know, keep it at a fairly, inexpensive cost to our guests, but also make it so that we weren't just bleeding out money every time we got someone. And, you know, and then hoping that we, you know, would get more than 1 or 2 people at a time. And so that that's really the main reason that we came upon that.

13:02 And when you have people that are basically representing your brand but not full time employees, how much training or, you know, callouts are you are you are you forcing? You know, there's there's there's groups out there that, you know, as an analogy, you know, a studio wants to present a certain, you know, experience with their brand. They also have instructors that wanna have their own personality and vibe to it. So how do you kinda manage that? You know, obviously, people are outside. So is there headphones that they're talking or are they shouting or, you know, what what are some of the things that are, like, nuances to this? So one of the things that probably the smartest move I ever did, in my hiring practice was to go to find actors and performers.

13:47 And one of the main reasons was that was when I first started the business, I, you know, hired a bunch of my friends who were trainers, who I knew were, like, total badasses in the studio. But then when they get out to Central Park and they're, you know, meeting people that they've never met before, all of a sudden, they would kind of freeze up. And I'm feeling like, who are you? Like, what happened? And I just realized it's a completely different setting. It's a completely different, you know, situation. And so I needed to find people who were performers. And, there's a, you know, a website called Backstage, which used to be just a newspaper for actors and now it's just a Yeah. I remember that. Big website. And I could, you know, post a job and I would always put on the front, like, this is not an acting gig, but we're looking for fitness focused tour guides. And, you know, I would get a ton of people back and I'd sit through and all of a sudden I would find these absolute superstars who were full of life and energy and could take the not the script that we would give them, but the information. Right? The basic information, the history about Central Park, for example. They could take it, make it their own, and make it an entertaining discussion, right, to to talk with people. And and the biggest part is that they'd be welcoming and friendly people. And in that situation, you know, it it's just it becomes a very interactive and social situation, where they're talking and they're loud. They can project because they're actors and all that stuff. And it's just it's a it's a pretty cool thing to see when that

15:18 happened. I was like, oh, right. There you go. Of course. Actors who wanna look good, so they're they're very fitness focused, and they just naturally are outgoing people. So that really worked well for us. This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast. We are partnered up with a company called Higher Dose, higher dose dot com. They are the leader in workout recovery products, infrared technology, LED light masks, neck enhancers, and other products such as PMF mats and sauna blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout recovery train yet, your time and your stop is now. You gotta get these products in there before these workout recovery and spas end up saturating your market, having your members walk out of the club and going into one of their locations for $200 per month where they're paid 39 to you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery if we are already an authority in workouts. Higher dose, check it out, is a wholesale code, and we look forward to helping you augment your products and services to meet the demands of your members. And, hey, let's get people happy, healthy, and sweaty, and the recovery should be just as good as the workout.

16:43 You know, a lot of groups, when they're in one city, they say, okay. I'm gonna go to the next city. I'm not sure which one it's gonna be. You know? In New York, maybe you're going to, you know, Philly or Boston and just kind of, you know, go into adjacent larger, urban areas. You know, I see you went to Chicago. How much of that is, you know, your comfort and knowledge of a city versus, hey. I did a lot of research. This is what the research tells me, and this is where I'm gonna go. Yeah. Great question. So one of the the things and the reasons that we started with Chicago, which is a city that I absolutely love, was that during the pandemic, when when, you know, travel was shut down, the world was shut down, on a Facebook group of international, running tour operators, there was a guy who posted that he was looking to sell his business. And I was like, well, right. Well, here's a opportunity to take over a a Chicago based running tour company. Gave him a call. We had really similar philosophies, and he was just getting really busy with, another side business, a tour company that he was doing. And, he just basically gave it to me. And so that was, you know, super exciting. One of my best friends lives in Chicago. He's in the hotel, meeting planning world. And so I reached out to him. So what do you think of this? He's like, I'm all in. Let's do it. So that was sort of an easy fit. Went out there a couple times and fell in love

18:14 with the city more, got to know the city better, and just started to create, you know, running routes and the yoga walk courses that I thought would would be great. And then started hiring, you know, locals and started getting their feedback, and it went from there. It's funny. My next question was gonna be, how do you value a business like that, and what would you pay for it? So getting the keys is always a a a a great option. So it sounded like this guy just wanna make sure that his baby did not did not stop breathing, and and someone had basically taken over. I think that might be a lesson for some of the entrepreneurs that are out there that get into the sector. Maybe things aren't working out as as planned. And if someone's willing to take over your lease and some of your obligations, you know, that might be considered a win. So so that's really interesting. You know? And one thing Sorry to interrupt. But one one thing that really facilitated that whole opening in Chicago was something that happened last year that I'm I'm super excited about. And this, I think, could be a good lesson for people as well who might be struggling and and looking for creative, you know, out of the box kind of ideas.

19:25 Right before the pandemic, my only competitor, in New York City was a company called City Running Tours. And the owner, guy by the name of Michael Gazzella, reached out to me and, you know, just introduced himself, said he he saw that, you know, what I was doing, thought it was great, and suggested we get, you know, meet up for a coffee and just discuss, you know, the the state of the industry kind of thing. And so once I got past my, you know, leave the gun, take the cannoli kind of moment, like, why does this guy wanna meet me? We just hit it off really well. Had very similar philosophies of what we wanted our business to be. And we ended up working on a couple of projects together. Got to the point where we would lend each other running tour guides and stuff. And, after when the pandemic hit, we continued to work on some projects.

20:17 And when everything started to come back, we were just, you know, found ourselves working, on the same thing, butting our heads. And then, you know, finally, it just came up. It's like, why are we doing this? Going after the same people and and all that. Why don't we just merge our businesses? And, you know, once we both kind of sat there, we're like, yeah. It just makes sense. So my original company was Fit Tours NYC. His was City Running Tours. And we have recently become City Fit Tours. And that has been a really really great thing because when you are an entrepreneur and, you know, the owner of a small business, you are doing everything.

20:59 Absolutely everything. And that's that's hard. You know? All the different hats that you wear. And if you can bring in someone and and I was incredibly lucky to do that, to meet with someone who wanna get along with really well, had similar philosophies. And we are you know, we were doing basically the same thing, but we're different enough where it was an opportunity for both of us to grow our business and merging our businesses together was a great idea, and it's it's moving really well. And and falling on to that, have you guys given yourselves different titles? Are titles important in your business? We call ourselves cofounders. Okay. And, you know, it just organically sort of fell into what our roles were gonna be. Right? So he's more of an operations guy, and I'm way more of a business development guy. And that has obviously been great. So he's handling more of the, you know, the day to day stuff with our tour guides and scheduling and things like that.

22:02 And then I'm getting out there able to meet with, you know, or or, you know, spend time on LinkedIn, for example. This Sunday, I'm going out to a a travel industry, expo in Chicago. So I'll be out there for a few days just meeting people and and doing all that stuff. And knowing that he can manage all this stuff here while I'm gone is fantastic. And so it's just, you know, sharing the workload has been a really, really great thing for us together. That's great. And the last question is, you know, as you see a lot of convergence of, you know, health care, health insurance companies trying to get people outside, you got pickleball, you've got people training for specific events, how do you kinda look at that and say, you know, I'm sitting on a database that has all these people that are, you know, active lifestyle enthusiasts, but I'm not really actually trying to mine them for something else. You know? I'm providing experience.

22:59 I'm holding true to my brand. And if you come in from business school and tell me what to do, that sounds great on paper, but I'm running my business the way I wanna run it. And I'm making money profitably, and this is what I wanna do. Do you get sometimes people come to you and say, oh, I would do this with the business or, you know, I would go to 50 states and 50 cities, go raise some venture capital money. I'm assuming you and your partner would just say, hey. Thanks. You know, appreciate the idea, but, like, we're not working for anybody but ourselves. So if you give the the argument to say, hey. Look. You could do that and get on your own treadmill, which is gonna be a disaster at some point, or we're gonna do it our way. We're gonna do it outside. We're gonna provide experiences that's gonna lead to, you know, repeat business or additional business.

23:41 Right. Yeah. So it's it it is we we get that call at least 3 times a week, right, where people are saying, hey. You know, we could help you grow the business if you just did it this way. And, you know, we're pretty thick headed. And, we see all the 5 star reviews, that we get. Everybody, you know, calls us and and when we, you know, get out there and are on the actual tours, having people say to our faces, this has been the highlight of my trip to New York City or the highlight of my trip to Chicago. We know we're doing it right. Right? Yep. And the fact that it's it has been growing steadily organically, we're we're you know, we can be patient. Don't get me wrong. We certainly get frustrated often. But we know that we're on the right path. And it's just a matter of a little bit of, little bit more hard work and sticking with it, being patient, and going from there.

24:36 Sounds great. Well, since we're up by you, we'll, we'll get together, break some bread, give you some ideas of who we can introduce you to, and you can say yes or no, and we'll go from there. Awesome. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate it when you don't. You got it. Let's go, Rangers.