Episode #580: Building Bozeman's Fitness Mecca-Steve Roderick's Journey with The Ridge Athletic Club

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This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks nyc. I have the pleasure of

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bringing straight from Bozeman, Montana, Demand

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the myth, the legend in the industry. Steve Roderick Ridge,

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Athletic. Welcome to the show. Thanks, Pete. It's my

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pleasure. Awesome. Well, you've been doing this now since

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2002 by building what I would say the mecca

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of fitness in Bozeman. So give us your background,

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how you got involved in the industry. You've been, you know, involved from day

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one in this sector and also a varsity

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athlete, which I'm hoping to become one day in college.

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So give us your, give us your personal background and then why you've dedicated

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your life to this Halo sector. Well, starting with

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the varsity athlete, you know, I, Rudy comes to mind. But

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I was a, I was blessed to have

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a experience with, you know, a lot of

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athletics, which in life can bring a lot of different

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values. And I was, I was very fortunate to meet a lot of great people

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and have good experiences, as you mentioned, you know,

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and I thought about the genesis of my

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athletic club experience. Ironically

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started like 35 years ago. You know,

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before that I was and always had been

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participant in fitness facilities, from

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Nautilus facilities to, you know, Golds

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to multiple. So as a member, I knew what it was about

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or I felt I knew what it was about. And like I said,

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ironically, I was, I was in a bar and this was

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about 1991, and I was in the sporting good industry

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at the time and living in

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Wyoming. I

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knew these three brothers that had a big

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oil field construction company. This was in Gillette, Wyoming.

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We're sitting around commiserating on the day, having fun,

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and one brother says, hey, Steve, you ought to

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take over that club. He says, that SOB is

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three months behind on rent. He says, you love that place. And, you

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know, I'm pretty sure we're just, you know, shooting

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the breeze. I say, I do that and not paying attention.

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And he gets up and I think he's just going to the bathroom or something.

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He comes back at about 20 minutes because it was a big strip mall

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and buildings that this company also owned

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as well as their construction company. And he comes back, the water keys,

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drops him in the middle of the table. He says, you take over tomorrow and

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you meet your employees at 7am that's fun. And

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I was awestruck. And you know, they say, don't

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write a check with your mouth that your body can't cash.

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And it was a 30,000 square foot

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facility. And that was my, my start. And

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I, I knew little in regards

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to running a Fitness facility. But that's where it all started.

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Well, so how did you get back from Wyoming in the oil

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fields to Bozeman, Montana? Well,

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I got involved and I made some calls as

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life is made up of a bunch of relationships and

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trying to find out what I could about the fitness industry,

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knowing I was taken over the next day. One

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call or one piece of information I checked that made me

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apprehensive. It was. I checked the Better Business Bureau. And at that time,

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the fitness industry was ranked number two

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at the bottom, just. Just above used car salesmen. And I

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was going. It didn't make sense to me because I felt

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that it brought. It could bring a lot of value to people

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with that. It was a facility in Gillette,

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Wyoming, as I mentioned, and just took over and

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was all in to figure it out and

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spent some time there, but coming to the understanding

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that, God, all the things I'd like to make and change,

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I would like to be able to do a facility from the ground up.

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And that started the dream, the vision, the goal, and

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was fortunate enough, through a couple different moves,

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to build this facility in Wyoming up a bit. I

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sold it. And that ended up being the first time I was

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worth anything. And it wasn't a lot, but it

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was enough to get to get the ball rolling in Bozeman, Montana,

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as I moved back, moved my family back to Bozeman

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and started the planning, which was about a four and a half

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year process of chasing money and

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putting the deal together. And that's where it started. Got it.

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So when you built this location in 2002, you

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know, as you and I toured the market

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several months ago, you really kind of in the outskirts

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of town, I would say, from where Bozeman

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has kind of evolved into. So, you know, talk about

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having a vision or basically just saying, hey, I just need a piece

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of land and I'll go as far as I think people will drive.

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And then over time, that kind of becomes, you know, the

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central part of Bozeman. You know, part of that you can say is

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vision. Part of it's like, hey, it's going to evolve at some point.

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And now you're kind of like in the epicenter of where you want to be.

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So talk about either that vision or. Or there just the way things

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work in the world. Well, it

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was a process. You know, the vision started

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off with trying to learn about the industry and

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took some time to travel across the country to

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multiple facilities that I was learning were

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the. The best of the best. And so I

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started doing that as well as posturing to find,

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you know, a location. In the process, that seed money

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I had, we bought. I bought out a facility

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in Bozeman and also

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partnered or worked with the gentleman that had a downtown

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facility was. And he was actually a developer, not an

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operator. And he had the land and the

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vision, you know, to build out here. And it was,

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it was way out of town at that point. And

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I looked at it and ultimately we. We put a deal together

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to, to buy this

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piece of land. And the commitment was we would buy his business

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downtown, which was a smaller downtown fitness

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facility, and buy the land. And he was going to give us

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one price if we got it open by, you know, a certain date.

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And that was all tied to. We wanted to have this development get kicked

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off. And two and a half years later, about three

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different banks saying no, and, you know, everything else

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from selling pre, selling executive

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memberships to come up with the final piece of cash to close the deal,

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it got done.

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This is Pete Moore. I want to let you in on a little secret. There's

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this company called Promotion Vault. And what they do is they give. Out rewards

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from retailers that allow you to incentivize your

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members without having to do zero down and one month free

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or giving away shakes or giving away T shirts. What you want to

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do is build a rewards program that lasts, that people

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value and that doesn't discount your own products and services.

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So here's the deal. There's something called Rewards Vault. The Rewards

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Vault is going to allow a member to set up their own profile.

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They are going to answer questions, you are going to get those answers. You're going

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to be able to target those members, and you're going to reward them inside your

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club, inside your spa, and outside of the club and outside

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of the spa to get them to become loyal, to get them to

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pay their monthly dues and to be rewarded properly

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for the actions. A lot of companies are cutting back on rewards. You

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shouldn't be. Promotion Vault, your answer, trust me, this is real.

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You know, you kept the downtown location, which is now

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kind of more of like a satellite or, you know, a

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hub and spoke type of model. You know, how important was it for you

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to maintain that downtown presence and given things that

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are going on in town, kind of to build the brand equity of

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the Ridge, to say, hey, look, here's your kind of boutique. You can do

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strength and cardio here. And I'm going to feed you into the. To the main

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club because it seems to have worked very effectively for you in

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Bozeman. Yeah, the, you know,

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the equity, brand equity, but also the synergy with

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downtown being as it is the middle of the, the business

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district. It was good to build the relationships, maintain the

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relationships down there, while also pushing the new

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project because that was going to be the, you know, the, the

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bread and butter of the business model of it. The, the

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actual viability of downtown. As I was learning

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how to go through the books on a

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fitness business, it was thin. But with

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the onset of the development of the new and

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bigger and you know, know, more expanded Ridge

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vision on the west end of town also brought

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downtown to life. And over, over the years

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it, together we're better. It just, it just makes

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for a, a more solid, comprehensive

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presence in the market. You know, when you take a look at

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your architecting a 50, 72,000 plus square

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foot facility, there are certain things that you could have done

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that you didn't do. There are certain things that you have right now that you're

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repurposing space and square footage to do, you know,

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talk about what you knew about the demographics of town and saying,

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hey, I'm not in the market to set up a racket. Sports, like, that's

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just not what this market needs. I think you have somewhere between probably

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15, 20% of like the entire population

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belongs to Ridge, you know, in Bozeman. So how did

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you kind of make those trade offs as you went around and saw what some

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other people were doing, you definitely could have said, hey, I'm gonna put some tennis

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courts in here. Hey, I'm gonna do some outdoor, you know, areas, or I'm

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gonna, you know, over time, you know, pickleball and things like that. But how did

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you kind of say this is what the expression of what the Ridge

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is and how confident you feel like it serves

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the demographic that you have today? Well, that's an

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interesting question or thought process. You know, the. We

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originally drew it up at 75,000 square feet and

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based on financing and, and getting the project to the table,

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we pared it down to 50. And, and over the years we've

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expanded with the additional facilitation and

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programs and to, to get back to about where we, where I thought it

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would be a good fit tied to

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trying to find all the different facilitation

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programmings that we felt would hit the market. Both,

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both currently at that time, as well as have the ability to grow.

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Tennis was being taken care of. We're in a university town

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and the Montana State University had a big, and still does

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have a big tennis facility. And program that

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facilitates both to the university and to the community.

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So that was one of the thoughts going into that where we start

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and stop with programs and facilities.

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The growth aspect. Thinking back the day

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we did, they call it soft opening,

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invited as many people as possible and put it all together.

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I was excited about an hour before it came to my mind. As

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you know, ultimately it could be that nobody showed up

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but you know. The entrepreneurs anxiety, right?

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Yeah. And lucky as it was

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fortunate we had a great honeymoon

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and from that point we continued to

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grow organically because people talk and

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that's important. You need to be effective at marketing and promoting.

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But ultimately if somebody likes something, you can't keep them

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quiet. And if they don't like something, they talk even more.

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So we've been, you know, it's 20. Well at this point it's

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almost 25 years, 30 years since we started

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the project. And we've been able to

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incrementally grow year over year both by

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the organic aspect, members telling members or

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friends and family, but also our community's grown,

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which has been fortunate. As you mentioned, we were in a part of

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town that did not feel like it was the best location at

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that point. But ultimately it became closer to the middle of

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town. And then when you take a look at, you know, saying that

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you went from 50,000 then went to 72,5.

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You also have some land adjacent to the large

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location that is is co owned that that could

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potentially be developed in the future. Is that correct?

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Yes, we have a condominium association

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and we built that out actually bought one piece

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of land and bought a second one. Then ultimately a third piece that

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is the encompass of this block of

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blad and we sold off some of the pads and we

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wanted to have some businesses that were

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brought residual value to the, to the campus

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while also maintaining area for you know, projected

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growth and expansion. We have now spaces that are

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common area and what you can change

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for cash and lieu, you know, of open space.

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And so we have opportunity for a couple more expansion,

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expanded areas for future growth. You know, I'd say to ask

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you because a number of companies in the category right now

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that have similar type of locations, you know, use this term campus

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and they use it, you know, for, for community but also for

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the, the amount of square footage and what you can and can't do on there.

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When did you start referring to this as a campus and

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what are the, what do the members feel when they come onto, you know,

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the ridge property? Well,

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it was probably five years into the project

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that we Started looking at it as a, as a campus. We, you

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know, as your, as any project, you know, it takes some horsepower,

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AKA money to get things done. We sold

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to an optometrist was which was a building

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pad to allow us to get some more

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revenue to buy another chunk of land. But it also

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was another business that had great synergy.

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Not a parking hog, but brought a lot of different

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types of customers to their building.

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Then over the years, the next one, as we were referring

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to campus, we had an opportunity to buy the last piece of land

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that's basically encompassed by three roads.

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And that was basically the journey.

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And then as you take a look at the growth that you've experienced in

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Bozeman, you know, as a resident, as a business

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owner, you've got the school that that's continuing to grow.

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You've got people that have moved out there probably during COVID because

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they could work remotely and be in a much better and a

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cleaner errand and you know, know, atmosphere. What are

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some of the other either big companies that are there or some of the growth

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that you see either from the recreational side, people being,

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you know, focused on outdoors, you know, cost of living,

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you know, think things of that nature that are, that are a big poll right

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now to Bozeman. Well, we've been, you know, the

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recipient of some very positive things. You know,

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part of it is, you know, it's your location and then the,

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the different industries that drive growth.

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One of the aspects is, you know, having an interstate and having

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Yellowstone national park drive people here.

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I think back, you know, at that time when I came to school here,

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we stood, when we went to the airport to go to a football game, we

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stood next to the bus waiting for the plane to come in, then got on

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because the, the airport only had one small building.

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Now it's an international, fully developed

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airport. As such drivers the

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photonic industries very big and it's been

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growing exponentially in the market.

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The whole aspect of tourism drives people in and it's a

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big driver. But the

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accessibility to your point, Pete, as

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you know, whether it be covet or a vacation, people can get

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here. Yeah. And once they're here, then you have an opportunity

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to share what possibly living and

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making a life in Bozeman would be.

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And as a consequence, that's what's been driving the growth.

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Yeah. So as you built out the culture

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and the employees and the personnel, we've had some time to spend with Rob and

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you know, she's one of your right hand team members here.

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Talk a little Bit about the tenure and the work

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environment that you've cultivated. You know, part of that might be from that

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original, you know, dropping the keys on you and saying, hey, I

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got to make some, make it go with my first club. But you know, when

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you, when you walk around your location, you definitely feel

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that people are taken care of, that they're respected. The

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place is really clean. You know, you got a sense that, hey, this

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is a well run operation. But what are some of the, the tenets that you

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kind of live by and that you've managed by? Well, you

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know, to start with, I, I look at myself as a very average guy

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with, you know, above average work ethic and

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very above average friends and colleagues.

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And the wise person told me one time, if you're gonna, if you're gonna

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run a business, he says, the thing you need to do is, is hire people

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smarter than you. And I said, well, that's gonna be easy.

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And I've been, I've been fortunate

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to, to have worked

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in the past and currently with amazing people. You know, you

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mentioned Robin, but there's, there's a lot to think about

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also, you know, the growth aspect. You know, we start off, we could have had

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our company party in a phone booth and you know, now

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it's, you know, well over a couple hundred people and the

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good begets good. You know, if you, if you're working with good people,

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other good people look to be part of a team.

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My, you know, I think about my,

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you know, driver would be always share your

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vision, your dream and goals with people and

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if they aspire to be part of something like that, they're going to be a

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good candidate.

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This is Pete Moore. Here's the last tip for you of the podcast.

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We are partnered up with a company called higher dose

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00:20:10,500 --> 00:20:13,860
higherdose.com they are the leader in

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00:20:14,100 --> 00:20:17,030
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320
00:20:17,750 --> 00:20:21,270
LED light masks, neck enhancers and

321
00:20:21,430 --> 00:20:25,150
other products such as PEMF mats and sauna

322
00:20:25,150 --> 00:20:28,390
blankets. If you have not gotten on the workout

323
00:20:28,390 --> 00:20:31,830
recovery train yet, your time and your stop

324
00:20:31,990 --> 00:20:35,550
is now. You got to get these products in there before these workout

325
00:20:35,550 --> 00:20:38,790
recovery and spas end up saturating your market.

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00:20:39,110 --> 00:20:42,740
Having your members walk out of the club and going into of their locations

327
00:20:42,740 --> 00:20:46,340
for 200 bucks per month where they're paying 39 to

328
00:20:46,340 --> 00:20:50,180
you. Let's become an expert in workout recovery. If we

329
00:20:50,180 --> 00:20:53,580
are already an authority in workouts, higher dose,

330
00:20:53,900 --> 00:20:57,580
check it out. There's a wholesale code and we look

331
00:20:57,580 --> 00:21:00,860
forward to helping you augment your products and services

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00:21:01,340 --> 00:21:05,100
to meet the demands of your members, and hey, let's get people

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00:21:05,100 --> 00:21:08,910
happy, healthy and sweating, and the recovery should be

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00:21:08,910 --> 00:21:10,150
just as good as the workout.

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00:21:13,910 --> 00:21:17,030
You know, how much of you running your business

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today and looking at the results, not just the financial

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results, but, you know, the emotional and the member and the employee results,

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do you think harkens back to being an athlete and be like, hey, I want

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to win. I want to put the best team on the field. I want to

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have somebody, you know, wear my jersey as if it's like they're. They're an athlete.

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How much do you think that's kind of infused in how you roll?

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00:21:40,340 --> 00:21:43,860
I think. I think it's huge. Pete, with that.

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As we all know, the fitness industry has a lot of

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different aspects and ways to approach it. Mine started

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off with, you know, I looked at it, I said, God, I'd like to have

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a place that my buddies would want to come to and work

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out. I'd like to have a place that my parents would love to

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come to, and I'd like to have a place where the people that

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aren't athletes or in fitness interest,

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you know, and so that's, that's been what's really

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been the catalyst behind what we want to have for facility, what we

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want to have for programs, and the type of people we want to have

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on a team. Because if we're all one. One type of person

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or interest group, you tend to, you know, attract that type of

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interest group. If you can stay, you know, you know,

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tied to the type of people you want to attract, then you'd have to do

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a better job of. Of, you know, achieving that goal.

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And then the last question I have is you've got a significant,

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you know, thousands and thousands of members, and you've definitely catered

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yourself towards all the different, you know,

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modalities that people are looking for. And, and you focus a lot on

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strength and cardio, like regular clubs, also big swim program,

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you know, as you take a look at catering to families. How is that,

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you know, been. Been a thrust of what you're doing, and how do you

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think about the age range that you serve? The

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age range that we've been fortunate enough to serve is

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relatively broad. Yeah. And, you know, we've done in the

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past gatherings and take our

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demographics, you know, like, getting old ain't for sissies

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party. And, And I'm going, well, how many people could that be?

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You know, we identified them as, at that point, when I was younger,

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65 seemed old, you know, so we, we said 65

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and older and we, we do, you know, we go through our data and

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we go, God, we got, we got well over, you know,

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1500 of people 65 and older and

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great turnout. And those things

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matter. The demographics. You mentioned the family. Programming

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wise, the most important thing to almost all

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of us ends up being children. And so

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that's knowing that if you're going to offer something for

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kids, you want it to be viable, you want it to be

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reputable. And we started off with, you know, a great kids

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program and area and been proud to have that always

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be a big part of what we've had. I think that's the

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driver for moms and for dads for sure.

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The other, the other thing is being there for

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adolescents, you know, because it's, it's a, it's a

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demographic that's too young to be old, too old to be young,

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but they're, they are your next customer. And

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if it's a place where they can feel, you know, welcomed and comfortable,

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you know, it's going to spawn more interest later in

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their lives. Awesome. And then, and then the last note is, you know,

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you've, you've spent a fair amount of time with Rex

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Roundtable and I know some of your good friends in the industry

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also are part of these mastermind groups. You want to just give a little

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00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:04,800
plug to the entrepreneurs that are out there that may be,

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you know, running their own business and don't have the network to

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kind of bounce ideas off of how Rex has kind of helped you,

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00:25:12,550 --> 00:25:15,270
you know, become who you are and the success you've had.

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00:25:16,470 --> 00:25:20,190
Yeah, it's, it's insurmountable and it's, it's in

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00:25:20,190 --> 00:25:23,510
line with Rex, but it's also in line with. To your point, Pete,

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00:25:24,470 --> 00:25:27,550
if you're not always trying to get better, if you're not trying to learn from

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00:25:27,550 --> 00:25:31,110
somebody else that, you know is doing it in a different way or has good

404
00:25:31,110 --> 00:25:34,550
information, you're going to lose your, your

405
00:25:34,550 --> 00:25:38,350
zest, let alone your edge. It's been, it's been

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something, you know, Eddie talk with

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00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:45,680
Rex. He was asked me in the past to give a plug.

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00:25:45,680 --> 00:25:49,360
And my thought and reflection on that is

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00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:52,760
if I would have ever done anything like that, which I had, I would do

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00:25:52,760 --> 00:25:56,400
it sooner because it's of huge

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00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,680
value, not only on the information share

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00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:03,600
and the inspiration aspect,

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00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:07,120
but you build relationships with people that you can respect

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00:26:07,870 --> 00:26:11,310
and that's it. You know, being around people smarter than you helps you become

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00:26:11,630 --> 00:26:15,430
your better version, as well as, you know, being

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00:26:15,430 --> 00:26:19,150
a ambassador of an industry where you're more than just a

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00:26:19,150 --> 00:26:22,750
business that's trying to be viable. You're someplace that

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00:26:22,750 --> 00:26:26,470
hopefully somebody else aspires to. Yeah. Well, Steve, thanks

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00:26:26,470 --> 00:26:29,710
for coming on the show. This has been great for everybody listening.

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00:26:30,190 --> 00:26:33,670
Long live the large sports complex that has

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00:26:33,670 --> 00:26:37,460
defined communities like Bozeman. Thank you for

422
00:26:37,460 --> 00:26:41,260
your contributions to the industry and look forward

423
00:26:41,260 --> 00:26:45,020
to checking in with you and seeing how 2026 goes. Thanks

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00:26:45,020 --> 00:26:48,020
for coming on. Thank you. Thank you very much.

425
00:26:55,700 --> 00:26:59,420
This is Pete Moore on Halo Talks, your captain speaking. I am

426
00:26:59,420 --> 00:27:03,070
the founder and manager, managing partner at Integrity Square. We've been around

427
00:27:03,070 --> 00:27:06,910
now for 15 and 1/2 years. We have been helping

428
00:27:06,910 --> 00:27:10,350
people like yourselves get capital, do mergers and

429
00:27:10,350 --> 00:27:13,950
acquisitions, consulting, strategic advice in the health,

430
00:27:13,950 --> 00:27:17,710
active lifestyle and outdoor Halo sector, trying to

431
00:27:17,710 --> 00:27:20,990
help as many entrepreneurs as possible get to the next level,

432
00:27:21,550 --> 00:27:25,070
take that inflection point and be the force behind your growth.

433
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:29,200
We are helping companies that have at least $3 million of

434
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:32,680
EBITDA, around $10 million of revenue, and

435
00:27:32,760 --> 00:27:36,120
we are positioned to help you get institutional growth capital

436
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:40,640
or to negotiate deals with strategic partners. If

437
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:44,400
you go to integritysq.com isq

438
00:27:44,400 --> 00:27:48,000
you can see our capabilities. Deck Happy to set up a consultation at any

439
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:51,400
time that is free of charge and we look forward to

440
00:27:51,710 --> 00:27:55,510
helping solve obesity, loneliness and diabetes. And

441
00:27:55,510 --> 00:27:56,350
go Halo.

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00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:17,720
Sa.