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In our latest video, we sit down with the dynamic founder of Bolt Fitness, Ceri Cummings, to explore the inspiring journey behind building a successful fitness business. Titled “Building a Strong Business and Brand,” this episode delves into Ceri’s unique approach to fitness, the creation of the MEANT method, and the core values that have driven Bolt Fitness to become a community favourite.
Discover how Ceri’s personal journey led to the founding of Bolt Fitness, his commitment to a personalised training approach, and the strategies that have propelled his brand to new heights. Whether you’re a fitness enthusiast, an aspiring entrepreneur, or someone interested in brand building, this video is packed with valuable insights and motivational stories.
Join us as we uncover the secrets behind Bolt Fitness’s success and learn how staying true to your mission and values can lead to remarkable business growth.
The Interview with Ceri Cummings
Key Takeaways
- Founding Story and Unique Value Proposition
- Personal Motivation: Ceri moved to Australia and couldn’t find a gym that resonated with his personal approach to training.
- Combination of Methods: He combined elements from CrossFit, functional training, and personalized coaching to create Bolt Fitness.
- Personalised Approach: Emphasizes the importance of a personalized approach in a group training setting.
- Mission and Methodology
- Mission: To positively impact the lives of 1500 local families using the MEANT method.
- MEANT Method: Focuses on Mindset, Education, Accountability, Nutrition, and Training. This registered method addresses the varied needs of individuals in a structured manner.
- Brand Development
- Customer-Centric: Ceri put himself in the shoes of the customer to develop a brand that meets their needs.
- Consistency and Professionalism: Maintained these attributes throughout the growth phase.
- Evolution and Expansion
- Service Expansion: Expanded services to include a female-only studio, Pilates reformer studio, and online programs.
- Brand Values: Integrated MEANT values into staff culture (Mission, Excellence, Accountability, Nurture, Teamwork).
- Success Factors
- Customer Focus: Always listening to the needs of the customer.
- Staying True to Mission: Focus on long-term goals rather than short-term trends.
- Guaranteed Results: Promises results or offers money back, emphasizing their confidence in their methods.
The Script from the Video
Ceri Cummings
I genuinely believe that if any business had those values, then it has to work.
Calum Maxwell
It is no wonder that you have built such a successful brand and business.
Calum Maxwell
Can you tell us a story, about the founding of Bolt Fitness and why you started the business?
Ceri Cummings
Absolutely. So I moved over to Australia 11 years ago, and I couldn’t find a gym that I resonated with. So whilst looking at lots of different gyms, I explored CrossFit. I explored lots of other functional training studios. But there was something still missing. And for me, that was the personal approach to training itself. So I like the group aspect of those, but there was nothing personalised, so I took what I enjoyed about CrossFit, what I enjoyed about other functional training styles, and what I believe everybody needs, which is a personalised approach and created Bolt Fitness.
Calum Maxwell
How long did that journey sort of take? What? What did you go through? What led you to?
Ceri Cummings
So it took me about three years of training at different gyms and not really enjoying what I was doing for an extended period of time. Yes, it’d be fun at the start. but then I quickly got bored because it wasn’t right for me. So yeah, after three years, I decided to go out and start looking into how I can create my own brand on my own training style that I believe would be able to help the right people.
Calum Maxwell
That’s excellent. thanks for sharing. So tell us a bit about the mission. How do you empower your members through your services?
Ceri Cummings
The mission is quite simple. It’s to positively impact the lives of 1500 local families from this area. and we do that with our unique method. So unlike other gyms that just do training, they give you a key fob to go and access it. What we do is we use a five-step approach, which we’ve actually registered as our own.
Ceri Cummings
So it’s the MEANT method. And we focus on these pillars, Mindset, Education, Accountability, Nutrition and Training. Because I believe everyone is at a different stage of each of those. Therefore, they need a different approach to get the results that they want.
Calum Maxwell
You really thought those out. Like how did you come up with or what? What did you go through to get that that MEANT solution.
Ceri Cummings
The words of the MEANT actually took a lot longer than the application of what they included. So obviously mindset is quite simple, but understanding the reasons why people fall off and drop off, and we were too busy at one stage focusing on trying to help with people without being able to label it and solve it in a certain way.
Ceri Cummings
Same with education. Like we believe that everyone needs to be educated in the right areas, at the right level, at the right speed, at the right time. And we found that during training or during consultations, we are constantly imparting our knowledge and experience on people. So we just call that educated. And then once we got the mindset and the educate, it quickly just flowed into holding people accountable.
Ceri Cummings
Nutrition because it’s obvious it’s part of gym and goals and life and health anyway. And then training. So they were there for a long time, but there was never in that simple form of the MEANT method. And I think it’s an industry wide thing. We always focus on training first, then it’s nutrition. But that’s actually the last two things we focus on, because if you don’t get the mindset right, the education be held accountable to that.
Ceri Cummings
Without good nutrition and training, then it all falls apart.
Calum Maxwell
That’s amazing. It was under the surface, and you just threw everything that you did, brought it to the top and classified it so that you could educate your customers, I guess from the beginning through the middle, through to the longevity of having them be a member.
Ceri Cummings
Yeah, absolutely.
Calum Maxwell
Yeah. That’s cool. Thank you. So Bolt Fitness is such a strong brand and identity. what strategies did you and elements did you focus on, to build such a great brand?
Ceri Cummings
So to build a good brand, I put myself in the shoes of the customer. Like I’ve already mentioned, trying to find a gym that was right for me. And what I wanted, what I needed was quite difficult. So I reverse engineered that, put myself in the shoes of the customer and thought, okay, if I was this person, what would I want, what I need, what would I feel, what would I think?
Ceri Cummings
And that ultimately then allowed me to give them what they wanted. So put myself in their shoes. Firstly, and then maintained consistency and professionalism throughout that whole period of growth at the very start. So when we first started up, it was always customer focussed, we stayed professional and we had the bigger picture of serving people for a long period of time, not just quick fixes.
Calum Maxwell
That’s excellent. I love that consistency and I love that you share it like reverse engineer. When we listen to our customers through the process of serving them, we really do better understand their needs so that we can accommodate them. one of my favourite pieces is from a book is, “We are the sidekick to our customers.” We need to help them be a better hero.
Calu Maxwell
Absolutely brilliant. Thank you for sharing. That’s great. How has your brand evolved through your journey, and what are some significant milestones along that journey?
Ceri Cummings
Eight years ago, Bolt Fitness was born. Ever since then, whilst listening to our customers and being true to our mission of helping more and more families in the local area, we felt the need to bolt on more services. So it’s literally by accident that the name of the business has turned into a perfect name because now we have a female only studio, we have a Pilates reformer studio, we have an online program for people that can’t make it into the gym as well.
Ceri Cummings
So in essence, we’ve evolved by bolting things on to the business, which worked out perfectly. Back in the day I was looking at just the gym, but all these bolted add ons have been perfect.
Calum Maxwell
Can you share some examples of how your brand values have empowered you in the business?
Ceri Cummings
I like to make things as simple as possible, hence the MEANT method and the pillars for our training. But what I’ve done for our staff is the same MEANT method, but we are Mission driven, Excellence, Accountable to each other, we Nurture, and then it’s all about Teamwork. So every decision we make in the business, everything that we do, is always in line with one of those five values.
Ceri Cummings
So the decision making process behind what we do is based on helping those families positive, positively impact their life.
Calum Maxwell
I love that you’ve, you know, taking the MEANT word, partnered with your values. so your delivery method versus your values, they are so aligned.
Ceri Cummings
It just, yeah, it works. Like I said, with Bolt Fitness eight years ago, we now both on and then those pillars meant I believe that’s the way training is meant to be. And with the way that we run our business. I think the business is meant to be all of those things. And I genuinely believe that if any business had those values; mission driven, excellent standards, accountable to each other and the customer, nurtured opportunities and looked for growth and worked as a team. Then it has to work.
Calum Maxwell
And succeed.
Ceri Cummings
It’s MEANT to be, as cliche as that sounds like it literally works perfectly. And then we don’t have this, this crazy values list in the office that nobody understands. It’s very simple and t’s easy then if we believe in it; we don’t have to think about it because it’s just what we do naturally.
Calum Maxwell
What do you believe are the critical factors that have led to Bolt Fitness’ success?
Ceri Cummings
The main thing I believe, behind the success that we’ve had is always being customer focussed, listening to the needs of the customer, hence why we added on a female only studio, we added on Pilates, we’ve added the online training. So ultimately listening to the needs of the customer and staying true to the mission. Because if we listen to the customer and our mission was to help more families, then it had to align.
Ceri Cummings
So we haven’t jumped on the hottest new trend. We haven’t jumped on the next big thing. What we’ve done is we’ve thought about it from the start, and we’ve built each of those pillars out to what pretty much guarantees results for our customers. And that’s one of our promises. We will guarantee results or give them money back if they follow those simple steps.
Ceri Cummings
So when we then tell a customer that we’ve got all the answers they need, they just need to do it. As long as those both things come together, it’s what allowed us to do so well over so long.
Calum Maxwell
Listening, consistency, building a structure, a plan, a mission that serves your customers, incorporating that into your team and your daily processes and decision making. It is no wonder that you have built such a successful brand and business. Thank you for sharing today, Ceri. I really appreciate you taking the time and, I can’t wait to share this information, this story with the world.
Calum Maxwell
So cheers, buddy.
Ceri Cummings
Thanks to Optimise as well for building me three awesome websites for the businesses. Nah cheers mate, thank you.
