Health and Wellbeing Millionaire

‘You get one body, one life, one

chance so you have to make it count.’

Paul’s career as a fitness leader began over 30 years ago and his energy and enthusiasm for sharing the benefits of a healthy lifestyle remain as strong as ever. He taught over 5000 aerobics and group exercise classes and built his first award-winning fitness centre at just 24 years of age.

Today, Paul Brown is one of the most in-demand keynote and feature speakers, business consultants and health and fitness experts in the industry, speaking regularly at almost every major fitness-industry conference around the world with breakthrough strategies on client retention, sales and marketing along with sustainable exercise and nutrition programming.

He is known globally as ‘Mr Retention’ for his innovative and effective systems that help men and women of all ages make fitness a way of life. With over six million success stories world-wide, in 2005 his Face to Face Fitness program was chosen by fitness industry peak body IHRSA as the official member retention program to help reach 120 million active members by the year 2010, a target that was achieved.

Paul consults with health and fitness business operators on the best ways to build their membership, empowering their teams to deliver the best experiences possible. Face2Face deliver on-site training for instructors, sales and customer service teams and provide continuing on-line education resources and business support. He is also the architect of the F2F-IT, a user friendly and functional scheduling, prospecting and relationships management software. Face2Face now has clients and agencies on five continents while remaining a relatively low hype, but highly efficient business model.

An accomplished athlete in several sports, Paul was Australia’s first Aerobics Man and won four consecutive National Sports Aerobics titles. At ‘47 years young’ he participates in many recreational pursuits and still plays the physically demanding Australian Rules football. He was a member of the 2011 AFL Masters Squad playing representative games throughout Asia. Drawing on his extensive expertise in fitness conditioning and motivation, Paul has coached many national and world champions in sports as diverse as boxing, iron man and BMX racing.

Paul and his wife Jacqui lived in the UK for four years while developing their Face2Face businesses, then another five wonderful years living in the USA where they retain a second home. When not globetrotting, Paul, Jacqui and their son Ben live in their idyllic lifestyle retreat in Paradise Point, Australia.

How would you summarise your attitudes towards health and wellbeing?

You get one body, one life, one chance so you have to make it count. We are all born with the opportunity to be just about anyone and anything we want to be, and at the same time we are gifted with one amazing body to carry us through this world, from our first breath to our last.

But we only get one body. Unlike our cars, boats and computers, we can’t just trade our body in or upgrade at will. Medical science has come a long way in managing our failing health, but if you really want to enjoy a quality of life you must look after yourself.

My health is my greatest asset. Without it I can be of no use to my friends, family or loved ones. With it I can do, be and achieve anything.

For anyone who’d scoff at that I have one simple question: How much would you sell your health for? What price would it take to give up all the physical abilities you now enjoy and perhaps even take for granted?

For what fee would you be willing to forgo the ability to walk ever again? How much money would make it worth losing your ability to breathe unassisted; or to chew, swallow and digest solid foods? What price would you accept to never be able to play with your kids again, never be able to hug your loved ones or even just look up at a sunlit sky and smile?

Ask someone who’s lost any of these gifts, or perhaps never had them in the first place, and they’d tell you no amount of money can replace your independence, your freedom and your dignity.

What beliefs around health did you grow up with? How has that changed today?

I grew up in a large family playing a lot of sports, especially football, and I started lifting weights in my mid-teens, so if you asked me at the age of 19 what exercise and fitness was for, I would have answered, ‘to help you look good and be better at sports’.

Then my life changed forever as I watched my Father have a massive heart attack at just 51 years of age. All those long hours at the office, the stress of raising a large family on a modest income, eating on the run and smoking cigarettes had caught up with him. He was not overweight, but talking to his cardiologist you soon realised that while Dad may have looked healthy on the outside, he was dying through neglect on the inside. His arteries were hardened and clogged, his heart had weakened and his lungs severely damaged. Open heart surgery saved his life and gave him a second chance – not all are so lucky.

That was my wake-up call and my motivation and focus for exercise changed almost overnight from one of promoting vanity to one of preserving health and a sustainable quality of life. Sports performance and the ability to enjoy a variety of recreational pursuits remain a high priority, but there was and will always be a greater reason to keep active and eat right – for life.

Do you see any correlation with enjoying good health and wealth/creating financial success? If so, how?

What use is money without the health to enjoy it?

In so many of our ‘developed nations’, the highest priority seems to be the pursuit of success as defined by financial status and the accumulation of assets. The mantra might be construed as: ‘He who dies with the most toys wins’.

There’s no denying the pleasure of achieving financial freedom, it’s been one of my own driving forces since I was a teenager, but the key is not to seek money for money’s sake, rather strive for the freedom this resource brings.

Money on its own is just paper or numbers on a screen. The real joy of money is what it allows you to do. The freedom and independence are well worth working hard for, but only if you also have the physical, mental and emotional wellness to enjoy it.

So, as we all chase the great dream of the house, the car, the boat and the holidays etc., keep an equally important weekly to-do list for your health and wellness so when you make it you still have the get-up- and-go to enjoy it all with your loved ones and friends.

Remembering also that all the research supports healthy and fit people as being more productive, better decision makers and needing the least time off for illness and stress.

Fit for life is also fit for work and that makes a lot of dollars and sense.

As a father yourself, how does your upbringing compare to that of your own son today?

The health of our nation is dependent on our children. In my household today we are every bit as active as when I was a child, but with so many potential distractions the activity is more purposeful, and when we play there is always a message of how it helps us grow and develop.

Our son has done gymnastics since he was two as I believe this sets a wonderful foundation for many skills, abilities and importantly instills a sense of discipline that can cross over into sports and life. I am not prescribing this for every child, but we all need something early on to express ourselves physically so we develop active inclinations.

We also put more focus on the education about good foods. We not only eat a balanced selection of mostly healthful foods, we talk a lot about ‘why’ we do. At mealtime we talk to our son about what the foods on his plate do for his body, which foods feed his muscles, which give him energy, even which foods help his bottom (you know what I mean?).

In our house, food is not used as a reward or a punishment. Our son loves toys, but we make him earn them through a concept introduced to us by friends in Florida called the Chore Store.

Ben earns tickets for good behavior, eating well, exercising and being helpful around the house; he loses tickets if he misbehaves or does not pull his weight. Once a week we pull out a basket of toys of various ticket values and he goes shopping with his accumulated tickets. Some ‘big ticket’ items he has to wait and save up for; others he buys on impulse then realises it was a waste of tickets. It works for us not only as a behavior guide, but as a lesson in saving and managing wealth. Thanks Jen!

Other choices that we’ve made differently to my parents include:

• We married later in life and first focused our time on building a business, traveling the world and accumulating resources, so by the time we started a family we had more control of our time without the pressure of bills to pay

• My Father’s only income stream was his job; we have businesses and a solid investment strategy so our income potential is not limited to hours worked or years at the firm

• Having only one child allows us to focus our time and energy, but we are mindful that a lack of siblings also has its drawback; we arrange many play-dates and have created a welcoming home environment that other kids want to share, but they don’t come here to play computer games or watch TV, oh no, we play! Active games, swimming in the pool, tiggy, trampoline, I even teach the kids specific exercise and self defense skills to help their confidence and learn responsible playground etiquette.

What made you get into the health and wellbeing industry?

I broke my ankle playing football at 15 years of age and, after months in a cast, I joined my local gym to rebuild my leg muscles. I very quickly fell in love with lifting weights and the whole gym and fitness lifestyle.

I learned quickly and soon became a volunteer gym supervisor and that role ignited my passion to help others enjoy the gift of health and fitness. I discovered a great joy in empowering others and the changes I could see in people were the greatest reward of all. I knew this was my calling. In rapid succession I was promoted to head supervisor and elected to the management committee, which in turn lead to leadership and personal development opportunities that launched a whole new direction for my life.

I made a promise to myself to open my own gym by the time I was

24 years old and everything I did was aimed at that goal. In 1985 fortune struck when I won the inaugural Queensland State Aerobics Championships and I went on to be crowned the first ever Australia’s Aerobics Man. I went on to win another three Australian Aerobics Championships and this high profile opened new doors for me, resulting in club management, industry leadership and media opportunities, from which I was able to acquire the necessary skills and resources to open my own club, Busy Bodies Fitness Centre, right on schedule at 24 years of age.

Six amazing years later, having helped many thousands of people reach their fitness goals, I sold the club to broaden my reach with a mission to help other club owners and operators be successful at impacting their members lives and so enjoy a more successful business model. That was 1995 and to date we’ve helped many hundreds of health and fitness business operators and millions of their members around the world achieve their health and fitness goals.

What is your business?

Our two international companies are Face to Face Fitness and Face2Face Retention Systems and we also have agency partners in several countries. Together we help health clubs, fitness centres, recreation and leisure facilities build their membership and client loyalty to be more successful and profitable in any market.

We do this by providing face-to-face staff training, systems, software and online courses so these businesses can deliver life-changing programs and world-class customer service to their members and clients. Our award-winning new-member integration journey with cutting edge fitness and nutrition guidance is the perfect way to turn new clients into raving fans for life.

In simple terms, when you want to learn how to drive a car and get your driver’s license you attend driving school; when you want to learn how to get fit, eat smarter, achieve your goals and stay healthy for life, you join a health club that offers the Face to Face Fitness program, and they will give you a step-by-step course with all the advice you want and the support you need for the results you always dreamed of.

With that we offer our client clubs ongoing strategic business advice on retention, sales and marketing systems while also delivering ongoing training and mentoring to their staff to help them grow their membership, stand out from their competition and improve the bottom-line.

We have a printing and fulfillment division to provide a suite of member education packs and materials, a software division for the F2F-IT, which intuitively manages appointment scheduling, CRM and prospect management systems. Our support team are scattered around the globe maintaining regular contact with our partner clubs.

Separate to all that I have my speaking and consulting business, www.paulbrown.pro and we also have our investment arm, OMAW (Our Money At Work) and a property development trust which builds, owns and manages several residential and industrial properties.

Who is your typical client?

Any health club, leisure centre, sports or recreation facility that wants to keep its members and deliver a consistently higher standard of service with lasting results can benefit greatly from what we have to offer.

Our clients range from smaller private clubs to large, full-scale facilities. We also work closely with many community and municipal recreation centres and universities. Many are independently owned and operated and we also work with select major groups. You’ll see our programs at work in several countries including the USA and Canada, the United Kingdom and Middle East, Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Brazil and expanding into Latin America.

In truth our end clients are the millions of members of these health and fitness clubs. The many years and considerable investment made in creating the Face to Face Program have all been aimed at helping members make fitness at their chosen club a way of life; addressing the challenges they face, alleviating their many fears and misconceptions and showing them how to make healthy eating and regular exercise fit into their busy lifestyles. Their success stories are the cornerstones of Face2Face that have assured our place in the industry.

What type of results do you typically see from exercise and healthy eating?

I have witnessed so many successful transformations it’s unfair to single out any individual results. While every day we are seeing impressive achievements in weight loss, figure shaping and enhancements in physique, without doubt the most significant and powerful change we have seen across our millions of success stories is the realisation that the best thing about getting fit and healthy is not how great it makes you look, but how great it makes you feel.

Very few of us can ever hope to have the perfect body and look like Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, but the truth is that should not be necessary to be happy and is certainly not necessary to be healthy. Every one of us, however, can feel like a superstar with spring in our step, endless energy and the confidence to tackle almost anything. That is the richness a healthy and active lifestyle can bring and it’s well worth the meager investment in time and money.

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‘...the best thing about getting fit and healthy is not

how great it makes you look, but how great it makes you feel.’

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Do you work exclusively in the health and fitness Industry?

While our pedigree and passion is fitness, much of our experience in member acquisition and retention procedures are equally relevant to just about any industry or business that wants to grow and retain its client base.

We see real parallels in starting a new fitness program to that of changing banks, getting used to your latest smart phone or trying to settle into an unfamiliar role or with a new company. Change can be very exciting, but is mostly uncomfortable, and the new habits, skills and adjustments that we all need to master from time to time can be made a lot easier if your integration is properly thought through and planned out, especially given that most of the speed bumps are predictable.

Therefore, I now find I’m speaking at many non-fitness related conferences and welcome opportunities to work closely with companies on developing their own strategy for winning and retaining their clients for life.

What makes you or your business stand out from your competitors?

Be First - Be Best!

That’s what Tom Potter, founder of the very successful Eagle Boys

Pizza, franchise taught me. Tom and I played football together and, as a favour for an old team mate, he generously mentored me while I was creating Face to Face Fitness.

While everyone else in the fitness industry seemed addicted to aggressive marketing and sales to constantly replace their churning membership, we became the masters of membership retention.

We were first at launching a results-guaranteed, new-member experience program to improve client retention and we are still the best. With the help of our clients we get better every day and as our volumes go up, our costs of delivery go down. Our technologies and processes have also refined so more and more clubs of all sizes are being attracted to our approach.

What is the most common question you get asked by your clients?

When can you start?

How important has your own health and fitness been to the success of your business?

There is no way I could maintain the work and travel schedule that I do without a regular exercise regime and sensible food choices. It’s not unusual for me to fly all the way around the world three or four times each year and, when you see people on these long haul flights downing the free alcohol and junk food snacks, you just know they will blame the jet lag for feeling lousy when we land and many will be absolutely useless for days.

On the other hand I can hit the ground running and get straight to work, or play, as the case may be; all because I demonstrate a little discipline on the plane and get a bit of exercise either side of the trip.

Much of my work involves staff training in lecture rooms or on stage speaking at conferences where the days are long and the preparation can be demanding on mind and body. Some might think that’s justification to veg-out on the lounge and watch TV or head to the bar. It’s OK to enjoy both of these occasionally, but mostly I’ll make a bee-line to the gym to clear the head and recharge my energy levels. It keeps me on top of my game at work and also helps me be a better husband and father at home.

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‘You must take personal responsibility. You cannot

change the circumstances, the seasons, or

the wind, but you can change yourself. That is

something you have charge of.’

Jim Rohn

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How would you describe success and your personal opinion of what success is?

Know what you want, go for it, get it and then appreciate it.

I would define success as knowing what makes you, and those you care about, happy and content, then having the resources, time and good health to enjoy a lifestyle modeled on those things.

1. Step one is having absolute clarity on what you want and why you want it. How will achieving it actually feel? Be certain that it can truly fulfill you.

2. Defining the steps to follow to achieve your goals; developing the skills and mindset to get there, becoming the person you need to be so your dreams can become a reality, that is often the bigger piece of the pie and for me that brings the greatest rewards of all.

‘It’s not what you get that matters but who you become.’

Jim Rohn

3. Perhaps the next and more difficult step is to reset your goals because so many people under-estimate what they are capable of and that’s a real pity; aim high and always be prepared to re-set the sails if you go off course, or more often than not, exceed your own wildest dreams.

My ever-present caveat is that success is nothing if your health and wellness are compromised. Working long hours and ignoring valued relationships in the name of your career almost always ends in unhappiness and an inability to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Work hard at what you love doing, enjoy the journey and look after your health every step of the way.

What challenges have you experienced in life, health or business and how did you overcome them?

Like every reader of this book will recognise, life’s tapestry is awash with tears of joy and tears of pain; another Jim Rohn truism says: ‘The tide comes in, the tide goes out’.

Sometimes it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel as anything other than a train coming to run you down, but experience brings a wisdom and level of calm that I sure could have used when I was younger. That said, I wouldn’t change any of it because it’s what made me who I am today.

The first two years of owning my own health club were exciting, rewarding and very profitable. At such a young age I had it all: the nice house, car, boat, motorbike and great lifestyle. Then it all went pear shape when a much larger, much nicer, well funded, and much cheaper health club opened up just a stone’s throw from us (I know it was a stone’s throw as I tested the distance regularly).

Most of the next two years was hell; it was a classic case of ‘this town ain’t big enough for the both of us’ and they went out of their way to send us broke: poaching my best staff with attractive incentives, sacrificing prices to steal our members and following a host of unsustainable business practices all in an attempt to take over the market.

It saw the evaporation of the membership and business we had worked so hard to build causing financial ruin and the relationship with my business and life partner collapsed under the stress. I was alone and heavily in debt, but still had a business to run and all the costs and commitments that came with it. My one saving grace was we were much better at fitness. We really knew our stuff and we really cared about our members. We just needed to get our Mojo back – and we did.

Someday I’ll write a book on the whole story, but the short of it is I got my attitude right, stopped worrying about what my competition had over me and instead focused on our own strengths. We became not only locally renowned as the Fitness Leaders, but were recognized nationally. I knew I had to get smarter at business and worked hard on my skills and systems in sales, marketing and client retention. I surrounded myself with a positive peer group and networked regularly with other club operators.

Three years to the day after announcing they would take us over, my competition closed their doors while we were again trading at maximum capacity. The war was won, but it had taken a heavy toll, so I took an offer too good to refuse to sell the business and this allowed me to take my lessons on the road and help other business owners all over the world win their own battles by serving their members better and delivering real results.

This was the nucleus of the Face to Face Fitness Program, a revolution that has positively changed the lives of millions of people. The lessons came at a high price, but without the darkness I would never had seen the light. I have learned to embrace every misfortune, roadblock and obstacle as a welcomed challenge, to which there is a solution and a reason for me to rise up and get even better.

Remember it’s not what you get that matters, it’s who you become.

What important lessons have your learnt from this experience?

I can narrow down the many lessons I have learned to three essential truths:

1. Passion persuades

2. Persistence pays

3. What goes around comes around.

Whatever you believe in, you better be the most excited person in the world about it, for that spark is what you will need to light up everyone else. By always being the most enthusiastic person you know, you raise the energy levels of everyone you meet and that comes back in multiples.

If you are truly passionate about something you’ll stick with it and persistence also pays off. Most overnight success stories come from many years of hard work and determination and choosing a mission you love and believe in makes that journey of highs and lows always rewarding. The single common denominator I see among all my successful friends and colleagues is their dogged determination; we never quit.

I’ve also learned that all good will be attacked and while injustices, deceit, envy and disregard for others can seem prevalent, the good really do come out on top: as long as you stay true to your own values and beliefs you shall prevail; those that live by a lesser code will sure enough become victim of their own shadows.

If you had to star t over what would you do differently?

Isn’t this the million-dollar question, how many of us wish to ourselves every day? ‘If only I could turn back time.’

So many mistakes, so many acts of poor judgment, harsh words to take back, faux pas and slips-ups to avoid and the occasional cringe moment you just wish could reverse. We all have them because we’re all human. Then there are the things that go wrong and injustices suffered through no fault of our own – if only we could go back and change it all.

Then one day you realise you no longer make those mistakes and your choices are driven by an improved set of values and understanding of how the world works. You even seem to get luckier which by the way is no coincidence at all. This education and maturity comes as a direct result of all those experiences both good and bad, so thank goodness you had them. If you started over and missed out on all that, you’d never become who you are today and the greatest reward of life is not what you get, but who you have become.

I wrote a poem to illustrate how life’s harsh journey makes us better, even if we don’t always realise it at the time. I share it with our readers as my gift of thanks.

Go to www.paulbrown.pro/thebug for your free copy and share it with anyone you know that could use some wings.

‘The Bug’

Antennas bouncing up and down, his feet the pavement they did pound

Determination on his face, he’s keeping up a frantic pace

With anger the prevailing mood, his forehead wore a heavy brood,

And as he looked up in the sky a voice above enquired ‘why?’

‘Why is it you walk this day in such a heavy huffing way?

And why do you seem so inclined to use your feet in double time? You look to carr y such a weight, as if it’s always been your fate

So tell me once and tell me true, what is the driving force for you?’

‘I’m out of here, I’m walking fast to leave behind my wretched past

From the ver y day that I was born I’ve lived with ridicule and scorn

My dreams have all been beaten down and that is why I wear this frown

sigh.... A caterpillar’s life is tough and I have simply had enough.

‘Nobody cares at all you see, at ever y chance they step on me, I’ve coughed and choked on poison spray, and birds swoop down on me as prey.

Nobody cares about a bug, we never get a welcome hug

So walk I will and walk I must and all behind shall eat my dust.

‘Anyway....why do you make such a fuss or care that I should moan and cuss,

You’ve had it easy all your life, you’ve never known my brand of strife.

What matter should it be of yours, to know the life my kind endures

I’ve ever y right to feel this way, the price that I have had to pay!’

‘Forgive me’, said the voice up high, ‘I really didn’t mean to pr y

It just seemed odd to see you walk, but now we’ve had our little talk

I understand the bug you’ve been, but that’s the part I hadn’t seen

For you belong up in the sky, a bug no more, you’re a butterfly!’

What mindset does it take to achieve a lifetime of good health and fitness?

The key to happiness and good health is to enjoy most things in moderation while observing and living by the ‘non-negotiable minimums’ that our health is so reliant upon.

Regular exercise, good foods, rest and play are all non-negotiable essentials you can’t really live without, but there is room for some of life’s pleasures and indeed some of my favorites such as a nice glass of wine, a delicious piece of dark chocolate or a freshly brewed cup of coffee can help keep your life in perspective. Balance and discipline can happily co-exist once you know the rules and get your priorities in order.

With a little experimentation you can find what exercise and activities you enjoy the most while keeping fit and believe it or not you can train your taste buds to like the foods your body likes, so you always get to eat what you want.

The key is not to wait. There are no miracle diets or wonder workouts that can undo years of neglect, so find your daily and weekly health habits now, stick to them for life and you have every right to expect to be better off physically, psychologically, emotionally and financially.

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‘... Believe it or not, you can train your taste buds to

like the foods your body likes, so you always get to

eat what you want.’

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What stops people from sticking to ‘healthier lifestyle changes’,