- Words by tessVan Straaten Photography by Don Denton
As an athlete who played college football and some professional football and who has coached lots of kidsâ sports, president and CEO Chris Smith is used to taking hits and overcoming setbacks. But the COVID-19 pandemic definitely put him to the test.
âThis has been the most challenging business environment I think any of us have ever seen,â says the 47-year-old father of five.
Chris had a pretty good sense of what he was getting into when he decided to buy the company, after Steve Nash Fitness Worldâof which he was also president and CEOâfiled for creditor protection in the early days of the pandemic.
âI had the unfortunate task of terminating thousands of employees in a matter of seven days, which is terrible and one of the worst things Iâve ever had to do,â Chris says. âI donât know if I needed redemption, but I really felt I needed to get this business back up on its feet, and I just had a strong feeling that if I didnât find a way to open the business with a new partner, nobody else would take on that risk. That would have just left me with unfinished business and a sick feeling in my stomach.â
But as the public head of the company, Chris faced a lot of backlash from people who didnât understand what had happened.
âWe were one of the first businesses in the pandemic to publicly face challenges and people were looking for someone to blame,â Chris says. âI didnât own the business, I wasnât an owner, but what do you do during the pandemic if someone gives you lemons? You make lemonade and in this case, I got dump trucks full of lemons.â
Chris was convinced the company could re-emerge stronger, bigger and better than before. After talking to thousands of Fitness World members, he and others worked to change everything about the business, from the pricing model to the membership agreement.
âIt was a consumer-driven strategy,â Chris explains. âWe went and changed everythingâliterally everythingâand Iâm really proud of that. Weâve gotten better and weâve grown the business every single month.â
Chrisâs passion for exercise and its benefits began in his youth. His divorced parents didnât have much money, and playing sports was his salvation.
âLifting weights, exercise and wellness changed my life,â Chris says. âThey provided for me like nothing else could.â
Heâs now spent his entire careerâclose to 27 yearsâin the fitness industry, after getting into the business as a personal trainer.
âI stayed in it because I found something that I love that can truly make people better and something that makes a difference,â says Chris. âThatâs what I loveâmaking a difference for others. Thereâs nothing else Iâd want to do with my life.â
In mid-December, the BC government once again announced that all gyms would have to close down the next day, for at least a month, due to rising COVID case counts fuelled by the highly-transmissible Omicron variant.
âWe were shocked, along with the rest of the health and wellness industry,â Chris says. âThe information thatâs available is overwhelmingly supportive of the fact that gyms, fitness centres, and health and wellness facilities should be open. Frankly, youâre in a lot more danger going to a grocery store than a gym.â
Chris was once again faced with laying off staffâthis time, more than 500 of Fitness Worldâs 650 employees. And he struggled with how to explain the government mandate to their 75,000 members across 15 locations when he says thereâs been no data to support gym closures.
âI think thereâs definitely a lack of understanding around health and wellness, and the role exercise plays in not just physical health, but mental health,â Chris says. âOf all the things that are essential, health and wellness are as essential as it gets. The number one thing you can do to keep yourself healthy overall is to exercise three times a week.â
But despite the setback of a second COVID-19 closure, Chris says heâs still feeling pretty bullish.
âIâve been operating as a frugal chef for a long time now, and making sound decisions for the business from day one, expecting the unexpected, and always kind of preparing for those worst-case scenarios,â he says. âAfter the first shutdown, we made strategic decisions to operate the business in a different way and while itâs been very challenging, there have been lots of curve balls thrown at different periods of time, so Iâm fortunate to be surrounded by great people. My team is able to react to these situations and find ways to turn negatives into positives.â
Chris says the biggest lesson heâs learned over the years is around attitude and the kind of mindset you choose to have.
âOne of the phrases I live by is, âyour attitude determines your altitude,ââ he says. âThere have been a lot of times I could have personally given up, and a lot of times where people on my team could have given up, and the consequences of that giving up would have been bad for a lot of people. What Iâve learned through all of this is you have to keep yourself centred, and centred in a place of positivity, because if you donâtâespecially as a leader of a businessâitâs a slippery slope you donât want to find yourself on.â
As for whether heâs regretted buying a business during a pandemic, it should come as no surprise Chris has another sports saying for that.
âNo risk it, no biscuit.â
Story courtesy of , a Black Press Media publication
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