In 25 years, Genesis Health Clubs has established itself as the premier fitness center in Kansas. Rodney Steven II, the owner of Genesis Health Clubs in Wichita, Kan., developed his clubs to completely outdo the competition with exceptional facilities and remarkable service — two features that have propelled Genesis to success.
Steven, 39, was on a path to law school — a thought he still can’t fathom, considering he never really had a desire to attend college in the first place. However, respecting the demand of his parents, he scanned the
Midwest for a college he could enjoy and simultaneously prosper. He found that home at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Ill., with a Division I tennis scholarship.
Although, Steven’s passion was tennis, it was Campus Lake, a lake positioned in the center of SIU’s campus, that reeled him in. Aside from tennis, Steven has spent his life as an avid water skier. During college, his house was on Campus Lake where he spent an exorbitant amount of time ripping across the lake with two skis strapped to his feet.
Coming out of college, Steven had his eyes somewhat set on going to law school, but had started exercising at a local fitness club in the meantime. “I got out of college in 1994, and I was working out at a health club on the west side of town and the health club wasn’t doing too well,” he said. “I started getting involved in the club, started living there every day, working out. I went home and I told my dad I could make this health club work, and he said ‘don’t even touch that thing’ — I was getting ready to go to law school. Long story short, I got involved in the health club business. I started working at that first club every day from open to close. Started building a good team, and we had about 300 members there in the beginning. After about a year or two, I had to buy a Dairy Queen next door just to tear it down for parking.”
Steven was 22 when he opened his first health club. Today, he has 10 locations within a 300-mile radius of Wichita. “My whole life I grew up playing sports,” Steven said. “Working with people was the ticket for me. I love the idea of working one-on-one with an individual and helping them achieve their goals. That’s my passion, working with the members. Being in the office is not my strong suit, it’s not my passion, and it’s not what I enjoy. Now, as the company has grown to several hundred employees (Genesis has around 700 employees) I spend a lot of time in the office, but it’s not what I love.”
In the early years, Steven took value in each and every member. He worked with people regularly to ensure expectations were met. He even developed a policy that no piece of equipment would be down for more that 24 hours. “The brand of your facility is your staff and you’re only as good as your staff,” he explained. “Our staff has been with us for a long, long time, and I really believe it’s our sincere desire to want it right, our sincere desire to want the facilities to be beautiful and spotless, nothing broken more than 24 hours. We have policies here where we don’t just let things go for a couple of days. Everything is a top priority that day, and I think our staff knows, from the top down, that everybody wants it right, and we really don’t settle for second best at anything we do. Any of our programs are above and beyond — they are first class.”
Many of Steven’s vendor relationships have helped him keep those promises to his members. “I’ve only switched companies once or twice,” Steven said. “I believe in relationships, and companies like Precor have helped me keep that promise.” Steven added that Body Training Systems has also helped him in keeping his club running smoothly. “I met with Rich Boggs at a social function, not even industry related, and I believe he was sincere in helping our business grow.”
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Steven has realized over the years the importance of his personal training department, both from a members’ results standpoint and a financial necessity. Before any personal trainer reaches the floor, he looks for personality and a passion for wanting to help people.
“If you would have asked me 10 years ago, can a personal trainer make $50,000 a year in a health club, I would have said wow, it was tough,” Steven said. “Today, even an average trainer can make $40,000 to $50,000 a year, because people are really starting to invest in their health and their future. They realize so much, how important their health is.”
At least at Genesis, Steven has seen a transformation from people looking to build mass and get extremely ripped, to people wanting to be healthy. He has seen the average person take an interest in their health. “People are seeing that they are being driven by their doctor, their kids, their grandkids. Most people just want to live better, live longer and live a more active lifestyle than in the past. People are realizing that exercise is their ticket to their future.
“Right now we have in the company probably 100 personal trainers. Personal training is our niche here and it is something that has really grown in the last five to 10 years. To me that is very exciting, especially with the group fitness and group training — you have small group training, Pilates training. There is a lot more one-on-one and small group training that is going on.”
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With exceptional customer service, an amazing personal training department and a great staff that cares, there are still a few things that can provide challenges for a thriving health club after 25 years. However, one that has become a major factor for Steven and his Genesis market has been the development of low-priced exercise facilities. No, they don’t offer the same amount of care as Genesis, and they probably don’t help members reach results in the same way, but Steven feels that when a customer sees a low number over a higher number, they will choose the lower number before they research the difference.
“You have a lot of low-priced competition coming in and confusing the market,” Steven explained. “People will always go for the easier thing at first. They want the miracle pill, they want the weight loss pill, they want the easy gimmick — let’s buy this $8 video on TV, and people try it. I think what’s hurt our industry so bad is there are so many gimmicks, I’m not going to call the low-priced clubs a gimmick, but possibly a low-priced club that won’t give you the full service and good group fitness classes that you need, the one-on-one attention with a trainer, someone that will get you established in the programs that will help you stay.”
Steven pitches the idea that exercise is fun, but people don’t understand exactly how to get involved with a system that allows them to enjoy exercise. “You want to come and enjoy your exercise, whatever that might be,” he said. “We have just built two new tennis clubs this year. We added tennis to one of our facilities that was already a large fitness club, and then we built a ground up club with tennis in it. It’s just another example of ways to get members engaged in their fitness activities, where they are enjoying it, they’re loving it, they aren’t just coming in because they have to work out, they come in because they can’t wait. They can’t wait to meet their doubles team that night or whatever it is. The more activities we can get people involved in, the more fun it is for them.”
The flip side, according to Steven, is people are getting caught up in society and what is the current easy way. Joining cheaper clubs may be easier at the time, but it won’t get them involved in a system of long-term enjoyment and success. “It really might not be serving their best interest, and I think a lot of them figure it out over time, but I think one thing is that we lose a lot of people that weren’t successful at those clubs.”
The fear for Steven is the length of time it might be before someone takes a chance on a workout facility again. “How long is it going to be again before someone joins, and gives health and fitness another try,” he asked.
Many people may try Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, only to discover after they lose weight, that they must stick on a strict diet by themselves, or continue in the program forever. However, Genesis believes that the lifetime commitment to health and fitness at a health club far outweighs the benefits of altering ones diet. “All these different weight loss programs may not have worked for them, but we all know that health and fitness is a lifestyle and we’ve got to get them in the clubs exercising. Once they do that, then we will work on fixing their diet.”
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As a new member at Genesis, one instantly becomes involved with every additional moneymaker for the club. “It’s about getting people to come and give them something that they may not have tried before,” Steven said. From day one, the new member is pushed to be involved with the club in a multitude of aspects. They receive a free personal training session, free court time, free health assessments and many other features the club offers.
“I think the health club membership is the best value out there,” Steven said. “You can literally come use the health club every day, you can shower at our clubs, we have free coffee at our clubs, towels, soaps, water, all kinds of amenities in the shower, razors, a TV on every machine in the cardio area, you have fitness classes, free yoga, free cycling classes and everything, for $50 a month. There are low-priced clubs out there that are cheaper than that, but I think it’s amazing the value someone gets living in the Midwest.”
The value that they deliver to members has assisted Genesis with high rates of retention. “A staff with very little turnover, gives that member the comfort of knowing that same employee is going to be in there when they come in to take that group power class, or that group kick class or the cycle class, or the personal trainer they might have some questions with,” he said. Genesis has also started hosting dance classes free to members. Steven said it was just another way to give members a reason to want to come to Genesis, or stay at Genesis.
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Steven isn’t your typical club owner. He is an outside the box type of thinker — clearly, anyone can tell that through the wide range of Group X classes, tennis courts, pools and basketball courts. Steven believes that activity is the number one reason anyone should decide to be a Genesis member — which explains why Genesis was awarded management of the Wichita Ice Center, by the Wichita City Council earlier this year.
“The Wichita Ice Center was something that was evolving for a lot of years,” Steven said. “I wanted a downtown health club years ago, and the Wichita Ice Center is downtown.” Genesis began discussion with the city several years ago about putting a fitness facility inside the ice center. “We’ve been running the facility for three months, and we are working on putting a health club in on the second floor. I say that the ice center is very similar to a tennis center at one of our health clubs, we just have to have the health club on the second floor, which we are in the process of having open by Christmas this year.”
Managing the ice center has brought on similar challenges that the tennis facilities face on a regular basis. “Building the sport of junior hockey or figure skating is very similar to building tennis,” Steven said. “You have to have career minded tennis pros, just like you have to have career minded hockey pros. Currently, what was down at the ice center was a lot of part-time coaches and real part-time figure skating coaches.
Our goal is to get more full-time coaches down there, more full-time career employees that want to build the sport of hockey and figure skating.”
Members that join the fitness center will pay a little up charge to use the ice facility, but they will receive access to both the ice center and the fitness facility. “It’s mainly being built there to grow the sport of hockey and figure skating,” Steven said. “Getting involved in the Wichita Ice Center has also led me to buy a local sports team here, our hockey team called the Wichita Thunder.” Financially, the Thunder weren’t doing to well and there was a possibility of the team leaving Wichita for another city. “I’m into growing kids hockey right now, and growing figure skating, the last thing I wanted to do is take these kids’ idols out of Wichita, so we decided to invest and become the sole owners of the Wichita Thunder. We are wanting to grow the hockey team to help grow kids hockey here in town as well.”
Steven continually thinks about his members, even when hockey is involved. He plans to utilize the Wichita Thunder, a minor league hockey team, to give members of Genesis another option for social outings and events in the club. “One thing that separates Genesis is our activities for our members to do,” he said.
Steven sees a great opportunity in focusing on his members. He realizes the importance of great sales, but he understands more the value of an existing member. In order to keep them happy, Steven has implemented a multitude of things that range from rafting and ski trips, to social events called Thank Genesis It’s Friday (TGIF). On the rafting and ski trips, typically only 100 to 150 people can make the trip, but at TGIF, where Genesis provides free beer and food to its members, more than 200 show up on occasion.
It’s his love for his members that have helped Genesis Health Clubs be so successful. He doesn’t use crazy gimmicks or try and dupe people into joining his health club — Steven does everything in his power to give his members a higher perceived value for a Genesis Health Club membership, whether it be amenities throughout the club, after parties, Group X classes, ski trips or parties at a hockey game. Everything implemented, has been done with the member in mind. -CS
By Tyler Montgomery
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