Community Builders Speak Series: Health is Wealth

This Community Builders Speak Series was inspired by the first article I wrote a couple of weeks back on The What, Why and How of Community Building. I have had the privilege to meet amazing people in the fitness and wellness space in the last two years and I wanted to highlight what these self-employed individuals understood as Community Building and how they were building Community in their respective businesses.

I am hoping that by speaking to these entrepreneurs/business owners and sharing their story, it can bring greater relevance to others, and will inspire and motivate others to understand the true meaning of Community Building, from a non-social services and non-sales angled approach.

Many are already building Community with their client and follower base, but they do not even know it! This series is for you to learn from different individuals in different stages of their entrepreneurial and Community building journey, and apply it to our own situations, and hopefully reap the benefits from it.

Agnes Liew — Founder, Oompf! Fitness

Today I speak to Agnes Liew — Founder, Oompf! Fitness.

Below is our conversation that has been transcribed and edited for you.

Tell me more about yourself and your business

I started Oompf! Fitness as a private club for myself three years ago. It has now grown into a flourishing fitness community representing three sub-brands of Oompf!, and spanning over 5,000 sqft of space in two locations less than a minute walk from each other.

This has been an accidental journey of mine and I am very happy to share it with you, Alex, for your Community Builders Speak Series!

I spent 35 years of my life in banking and loved every minute of it. In fact, at the age of 61, I was the last of my friends to retire because work was so enjoyable, I felt that there was no reason to stop. My “Ah Ha” moment came when a routine health check-up showed that my bone density was declining, and it was an irreversible degeneration which could only be stablised and maintained. In fact, as of last year when I took my tests again, I actually improved significantly, contrary to the medical advice I got that the best I could achieve was to stabilise and maintain my bone density. So, it was possible to reverse my degeneration!

This sudden shock made me realise that the aging process had taken control and if I did not take back control, I would not be able to enjoy my silver and golden years. The idea of time waits for no one doesn’t really hit you until it happens to yourself. It did not matter that I was high-flying in my career, if I had no good health and family to spend my time with.

I was living in Hong Kong at that time and coming home to my family was wonderful. I had spent too long away chasing my career anyway.

So, I started in a big box gym to get fit. I engaged a personal trainer who was able to tailor a bespoke programme to my age and needs, a programme that was unique to me. I enjoyed the training and continued on my regular sessions. But what I did not like was the entire set-up of the big box gym. And since I was still mentally engaged and physically able, I decided to set up my own private club/gym.

In the year that I opened my private club/gym, I was interviewed and featured on Channel News Asia for International Women’s Day. After the interview was aired, there were so many like-minded women who sought me out to share with me that my story really resonated with them. They were in similar situations where career had taken centerstage, and health, fitness and family had taken a back seat. They were now looking to get fit and improve their health.

Oompf! Fitness then became the place where they could be comfortable working out in.

What is the motto you live by and that you want for the Oompf! team to live by as well?

We need to live the life that we demonstrate. This is very important to me and I stress that to my team and clients all the time. I am religious about my training, and it has become an integral part of my daily/weekly routine. I want the same for my team, and for this to also be share with our clients.

When they arrive at the same sweet spot that I have with my fitness journey, they will realise that it is sustainable. After experiencing what it feels like and what being fit and healthy does to their body and mind, clients become self-motivated. I always use myself as a benchmark. If a lady in her sixties can do it, anybody else can!

I get great satisfaction when I see clients experiencing change and transformation. Because I know then that they will be on their own path of sustainability.

Do you think people come to Oompf! because of you as the brainchild behind the brand/studio?

I think to a certain extent yes, at the beginning stage, but now that we have been around for three years and have a good team of full-time employees and trainers, people come not for me but for the team, for the trainers and instructors, and for the ambience that Oompf! provides. I am confident that if I extract myself from the equation they will still be coming. It is the Oompf! team and the ambience we give them that they come for. Much has to do with the personal touch of the trainers and instructors.

People are walking in to ask for personal training all the time, not because they know of my own personal training journey. I think increasingly people are more aware that diet alone for weight or fat loss is not sustainable. The same is true for the other way around where fitness for weight or fat loss, without diet, is not sustainable. Both need to be working in tandem.

For our group and rhythm cycling classes, which is a younger demographics, they come for the vibe, energy, excitement and engagement. And definitely our star instructors!

How do you define your Oompf! Community? Since there clearly are two separate groups.

We actually have three brands under Oompf!. We have Oompf! GX, Oompf! Cycle and Oompf! Fitness. But they can be separated into two different Communities. The personal training (PT) Community and the group class Community. I learnt from operating the business that trying to mix everyone under the Oompf! Community was impossible. This was the case because their needs and wants were very different and I was not able to have that one activity that will fit everyone.

The dynamics of both Communities are very different. The customers in the PT Community are older in demographic and they look for privacy, exclusivity and good quality training in a comfortable space. They appreciate the personal touch and what I like to call affordable luxury. They are mostly not on social media and will not participate in activities or challenges. The customers in the group class Community look for excitement and high energy, hard-hitting activities. They are from the younger demographics and are very active on social media. They are also the ones who will be engaged on our online promotions and challenges.

How do you engage your Community?

I know 90% of my personal training customers. And because I am at the gym very regularly, I have frequent 1-on-1 interactions with the customers. During these interactions I engage them in topics on optimization, sleep, hormone levels, soreness, pain management and my trainers are very well equipped to do the same. There are customers in this Community who know each other either because they were friends prior or they became friends after having back-to-back sessions and seeing each other so often.

Social media, specifically Instagram, is where we engage the group class Community. This includes events and promotions. The Oompf! instructors are also very personable and spend good time speaking to customers before and after the classes. Regulars know each other and there is a good vibe that continues to attract more people. This Community loves the lights, mirrors and little spots for photo ops. We also use candles to create that unique Oompf! experience and ambience.

Reviews are also important to engage the larger fitness Community and for individuals who need that additional push to come visit us whether it’s for personal training or group classes. People read reviews; I do. And for us, it always feels good to receive unsolicited reviews. It gives us an opportunity to know how we are doing and to narrow the gap on areas we fall short on and have to improve on.

How did you learn to build your Community? Was this something that you knew all along?

Everything has been learnt from experience. As an ex-banker who had no clue about running a fitness business, I really stumbled accidentally into the industry because of what I wanted to do for myself. Initially I intended only to be a financial investor. But I ended up being the operator!

I have been learning as I have been going along and I must say that it has been a phenomenally interesting journey because it has taught me so many things! It has also been a very humbling experience for me as I started as a “nobody” in the local small businesses fitness industry.

I learnt that running my own small fitness business meant having to deal with REAL people on a daily basis. Having been in the banking industry for the last three decades, I was exposed to a global network of professionals but I realised that the relationships built were totally different from those of my small fitness business. I have had to reset and approach my business (and Community) from a different mindset, because I recognized that I was a local company dealing with local people in a local Community.

Of course, my experiences in my previous roles allowed me to quickly adapt and transform the lens to which I look at things and people. And this too was great learning for me.

What I did know was that I wanted to create a world-class customer experience for my studio, to allow customers to feel like a million dollars. The epitome of fantastic customer service for me has to be Singapore Airlines, so a lot of what we do takes reference from the traveler and airline experience. We give customers what they want, and we serve it not just with a smile but with heart. I believe that a Community is formed when the customer knows that you really care for them, and they will be back.

Can you share any challenges you have had building Community?

I shared already that it was a learning experience from the beginning. But our greatest challenge to date must have been when we had to close due the circuit breaker.

Group classes are built to scale. But Covid posed the challenge to allow less than 50% capacity. So… to make the math work, we had to raise prices. This inevitably meant the classes would be less affordable for some within the Community, and also greater frustration because there were more people on the waitlist to get their chance to enjoy their workout. It is frustrating for us as the service provider because we are not able to meet the needs of the Community due to these restrictions.

All gyms are facing this problem, so the Community understands. But we are constantly ideating and looking to see how else we can make that difference and provide that star experience for the Community.

Do you have any advice and pointers to give to someone coming out to do his own thing?

A Community is a gathering of people with like-minded needs or goals who like to do the same thing. They have the same interests that’s why they come together. To build the Community, you will need to define who you want to serve. That’s what we have found. And successfully done for Oompf!

Questions to ask yourself would be “who do you want as your client?”, “who do you intend to serve?”, and “what segment of the population?”.

If you have your own personal journey that you can authentically share such that people can relate to, use it. I learnt that instead of engaging influencers or marketeers to talk about my studio, I should be the one telling my story instead. I had to step out of my comfort zone to do it because I disliked being interviewed and being photographed or videoed. But I knew the social presence was important and I was motivated by the fact that my story would help more people change their lives and lead them into their fitness and health journey, so I became the “poster girl” for change and transformation.

Parting Words

I have never been more fit than now, never in my life. I feel confident that I will not be a burden to my child, and I will be able to enjoy my retirement years in a healthy and mentally cognitive state.

Enjoy what you do. If you are in the business of helping people be fitter and healthier then you have to demonstrate through the way you live.

Remember that amassing all the wealth in the world will get you nowhere if you do not have the health to enjoy it!

About Alex Loh

I am a business and life coach, business owner, loving husband and doting father.

My compass is guided by the desire to help people. I coach individuals and business owners to find purpose. Together we unlock fruitful solutions, experience growth and achieve targeted success. Having successfully built and maintained communities over the years, my focus is to help businesses and organisations harness community as the vehicle to connect, and build credibility, trust and authentic relationships.

Come speak to me about Finding Purpose, Building Communities and/or in Optimising your Life!

Photos from www.pexels.com.
Visit Oompf! here!