Sarah (00:00.45)
Well, welcome, Peter. It’s really fantastic that we’re able to spend a bit of time with you today because you’ve got quite an interesting background, pretty high profile and you’ve done a lot of great things. And I wanted to start out by talking really about your childhood and your family background. And I wonder whether business was a part of that.

Peter taunton (00:11.451)
Thank you.

Peter taunton (00:25.657)
Yeah, you know what? That’s a great question. And I wonder myself because I grew up in a very small town. I went to school in a two-room schoolhouse. I was on the youngest of seven kids and I had an opportunity. I was first introduced to business when I was eight years old. My father owned a small grocery store and that little hometown that we lived in. And at eight years old, I write a passage. Once again, I was the youngest of seven.

a rite of passages, you sold popcorn in front of his grocery store. It wasn’t a choice that you had. He said, look, when you’re eight, you sold popcorn. So that was my first experience in business. And he set it up in a way where you would go into his grocery store, you would buy your popcorn, your oil, everything you needed to put yourself in business. And then at the end of the day, everything that you sold,

You brought it to him. He pulled out all of your cost of goods. So you had to pay him for your cost of goods. And then he took half of the profit, which I like it. Through my eight-year-old lens, it looked like a fair deal to me. I paid for the cost of goods, and then I split it 50-50 with the owner of the business, the owner of the building.

Okay. So at eight years old, it was fair. I never once thought for a minute that this is an unfair deal. I’m doing all the work. I knew that he gave me the environment of which to work. So, you know, that was a great learning place, as silly as it sounds. But where really the gold was was.

being in a place where I had a front row seat to watching my dad work every day in his grocery store. And one of the things I really appreciate about him is he never put himself above anything. Sometimes you’d see him at the checkout stand, sometimes you’d see him carrying out groceries, doing the books, shoveling the sidewalk, stocking the shelves. So with that mindset.

Peter taunton (02:32.833)
Everyone who worked for him loved him because he knew he was just a grinder and that’s something that he instilled in me.

Sarah (02:40.75)
But essentially that’s leading from the front, isn’t it? That, you know, you’re doing everything yourself, not being too proud to do those humble jobs.

Peter taunton (02:49.002)
And people, and it’s noble because a lot of people think that when you’re the boss, you get to, you don’t have to do anything. And that is the mindset of some people. I think it’s personally, I think it’s fairly short-sighted, but, um, you know, I’ve always taken the other approach saying, look, you know, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t ask you to do anything. I wouldn’t be prepared to do myself.

Sarah (03:08.386)
So do you think that that’s obviously stayed with you? Were there other lessons in practical terms about business that you felt that your father passed on to you or conversations over the dinner table, that sort of thing?

Peter taunton (03:20.977)
Yeah, you know what? I mean, my dad was a very conservative guy. He’s a very conservative person in general. He believes that, you know, he loves America, the land of opportunity. Those that are willing to work hard and put in the effort should bear the fruit. And so he’s always been about that. He’s always been tough, but fair. I learned that from him. I always say, don’t mistake kindness for weakness. My dad taught me compassion.

One time I was at his store and I walked by his office. I’m eight years old. I walked by his office and I see my dad sitting down with a gentleman and my dad has this really stern look on his face. And my dad’s office door was closed and I’m watching. And when the meeting was done, I walk in there and I said, hey dad, what was going on? Cause I was curious, cause I could see that my dad was visibly upset.

And he says, son, that man stole a bunch of stakes. And he said, you see that long coat that he had on? Yeah, inside that coat, he had sewn packets and he filled it full of expensive stakes. And I say, oh, so what did you do, dad? Did you call the police? And my dad looks at me, he goes, no, son, I gave him the stakes.

So that put me back on my heels a little bit. I, for the first time, I saw real life, what real compassion looks like. Okay, so that stuck with me to this day. So many of the life lessons that I learned about how you show up every day, I credit it to my parents. I truly do.

Sarah (05:02.53)
Was there ever an option that you wouldn’t go into business?

Peter taunton (05:08.045)
Well, I mean, I was in my mind, no, because I like the idea of being a business person, being a businessman. But, you know, when I got into it, I didn’t know how I was going to do it because I grew up poor. OK, so you can you could talk about being in business all you want. But if you don’t have the financial means, if you don’t have something that’s thrown, you know, thrown at you, it’s not an option. So.

For me, my first big break came when I was 22 years old to turn around a failing health club in my hometown. That was my break. And the opportunity was, hey, Peter, we’re gonna pay you 16,000 a year, but if you can turn this business around, we’ll let you buy us out with the profits, okay? This was a business that had been losing money for years. And…

I think in all fairness, I think that they probably thought I had no chance of turning that business around. To be fair, I was 22 years old. I was rocking this crazy mullet haircut. And I thought, you know, I had quit college. I quit college my junior year because once again, I was getting through college on student loans. And I thought, oh my gosh, I’m going to be 100 before I get these things paid off.

So I quit, I quit college, right? For that reason, because I couldn’t afford it. And so I got that break and you know, it took me eight years to turn that business around to a point where I had bought everyone out and I owned that health club. So at that time I’m about 30 years old and I went on over the next 10 years to add about seven more clubs because when I had the business, I made it into a very profitable business.

I would always take any profits I had, I would double down, I would save it and then I would build another club and then I would build another club. And I did that seven times and then sold those clubs. But I didn’t know that was going to be the learning grounds or the training grounds for me to eventually build one of the largest wellness brands in the world.

Sarah (07:20.834)
So what was the key for you in the turnaround? I mean, you’ve talked about kind of the business ethos on the humanitarian side, if you like, but what was it that you did specifically that you could say that would make a difference?

Peter taunton (07:27.716)
Yeah.

Peter taunton (07:32.269)
Well, to turn it around, it started with, I remember my first day on the job, I was walking through the club, I was carrying this legal pad and a pen, and I was just writing down all the things that I needed to do. The first thing that was obvious to me is the club was very dirty, okay? So I made notes of things that I had to do, and the very next day, I called an all-staff meeting. Now keep in mind, I am 22 years old.

I’ve never managed people before. And I had, I said, everyone, I want everyone to show up the next morning. Cause we’re going to give the club a deep cleaning. All right. And I’m there and I’m holding that same legal pad and I’m just getting ready to divide people up into groups so we could kind of divide and conquer. And one of the people, one of the people there raises her hand and she says, Hey, Peter, I just got to say something on behalf of the group.

Um, we don’t clean and now that was a moment of truth for me. And I’m today, as I look back at it, I’m very thankful for that because it was, it was a point in time where I had to make a decision. I could have said, you know what? You’re, you’re exactly right. My bad. Anyone, if you don’t want to clean, you don’t have to say, you can go ahead and go home. I could have said that. But instead.

From my father, I learned you gotta stand with your chin up, your chest out. And I looked at her with 50, I had 50 employees at the time, 50 of them. And they’re all, most of them are older than me. And I looked at her and I said, her name was Barb. I go, Barb, and you also don’t have a job. And I pointed to the door. Now you could have heard a pin drop, okay? Now the moral of the story is she ended up staying.

But as I divided the jobs for everyone, I took the bathrooms. So that sent a message across everyone. The first message was, this guy, he may be young, but he’s not playing, OK, number one. And then number two, which was equally as important, I said, I’ve got the bathrooms. Because they’re probably looking, saying, who’s going to get the bathroom job? You know, that’s the worst job, cleaning toilets on the floor. You know, who’s got that job?

Peter taunton (10:00.269)
So I took that job and that earned a lot of the people’s respect. Now, consequently, over the next 30, 45 days, about a third of those people ended up leaving because they didn’t have the customer service skills. They weren’t willing to lean in. They weren’t willing to greet people when they walked in the door. For me, every single person that came in, I had, I agreed to them, hey, how you doing? Have a great workout. When they’d leave.

Thanks for coming in, hope to see you tomorrow. If you can’t make that guest feel special, you can’t work for me because in the fitness space, you’re in the people business, you’re in the service business, you gotta show up every day, whether you want to or not, you gotta show up with a great attitude every day. And…

Sarah (10:48.366)
So that sort of set the stage for you and that’s proved to be the foundation, I guess, for the big development. So Lyft Brands, tell us about that. Tell us about your journey with Lyft Brands.

Peter taunton (10:59.201)
Yeah, you know what, that same club that I had turned around, that there was one gentleman that was there that I had eventually sold that business after 20 years. And there was one guy that worked with me, had worked with me for about 12 years, just a great guy, hard worker. And he was my successor. When I sold that company, he was the guy that was running that business. And when I left, when I moved on, I was not intending to go back into the fitness space.

And what happened is he called me about a year or so later and says, you know what, it’s so different without you here, which is not uncommon. Normally when the founder of a business leaves, the culture changes. And, uh, and he says, I, you know, I’m really not happy here. Would you ever consider building a club? And I wasn’t excited about getting back into the fitness space because I’d been there for so long. I wanted to try something else. And, but. You know, you know,

My life has been so unique and I’ve had so many blessings and that always seemed that one opportunity leads to another. And when I sit back in hindsight and reflect on it, I think, boy, I’ve sure been blessed in my life. And that’s how I looked at it. I ended up telling him, look.

I’m going to build some of these clubs. I didn’t build these big mammoth clubs with pools and everything. I built a smaller footprint. I made it 24 hour access and, and I said, look, I’ll build it. I’ll build it. You can run it. And when I built that club, it performed at a very high level. All right. Such a high level that I said, Hey, look, you know what? I’m going to build another one. And I put it in a different size market and.

That one performed the same way. So I built one in a big urban market. I built one in a mid-sized town. And the last one I built was in a small town of 3,500 people, little town, okay? One stoplight town. And that store performed the same way. Well, it was at that time that I knew that I had a tiger by the tail. And that’s when I said, look, I’m gonna franchise this concept and I’m gonna take it to market. Now…

Peter taunton (13:18.441)
I didn’t know at the time, Sarah, that I was going to build one of the largest wellness brands. Look, I had three clubs. Okay, let’s be real. I had three clubs. I had zero franchise experience, but I had a lot of common sense and I had a lot of street smarts. Okay. And, you know, it worked out. It was the right product at the right time. And I ended up expanding it to thousands of locations in 28 countries. So go figure.

Sarah (13:48.482)
What was the key to scaling? I mean, obviously, the franchising distribution method is key. But below that, you’ve got to have everything. You’ve got to have processes. You’ve got to have philosophy. You’ve got to have vision, teams. What do you think counts most in terms of scaling the business from where you started to what you have now?

Peter taunton (14:01.026)
Yeah, no.

Peter taunton (14:09.965)
Well, I think one thing is, you know, I’m a little bit OCD, right? I’m really organized and I think you have to be extremely organized and you have to be very, um, task orientated. Okay. And you’ve got to be able to multitask. So being organized and then being able to multitask will serve you well. All right. So that did, I had systems and processes and so there’s many, many steps of

of selling a franchise to the store opening and being profitable. There’s many steps in that place. So if you take every one of those steps and if you assign someone to that lane, then once you feel like you’ve got the full field covered, now it’s just a matter of adding additional resources as you build. Believe me, one year, I opened 377 clubs in one year.

I was opening more than one health club a day, okay? Honestly, I was opening more than one club a day. Imagine that, I’m not talking about signing 377 leases. I’m talking about opening stores, okay? And instead of having one person in that lane, I might’ve had two or three people in that lane, all focusing on that. And then, so I looked at myself kind of as a head coach.

Sarah (15:09.591)
Wow.

Peter taunton (15:36.405)
My job is to make sure everybody understands the role that they play and everybody needs to stay in their lane. And when people would get out of their lane, when somebody say, hey, Peter, so and so over here, I tell them, hey, look, you don’t need to worry about that. That’s not your responsibility. That’s theirs. OK, I keep them there. And pretty soon people understood the culture. They understood how the big machine works. OK, we all can’t not any one of us are great, but collectively as a group.

we’re gonna soar like eagles. And that’s what we did.

Sarah (16:10.658)
So you’ve had a number of other businesses as well. You probably, you do have a number of the businesses. What’s the driving force for you there as an entrepreneur?

Peter taunton (16:21.581)
Well, I think the driving force is just that. I think retirement is overrated personally. I like the challenge of building a company and building a brand. I really truly enjoy that. It’s not always easy and that’s part of being it. So being an entrepreneur, you have to have the stomach for it, okay? Like in the United States right now, we’ve got high interest rates, okay?

The highest interest rates we’ve seen in probably 20 years. OK, so you have high interest rates. You’ve got inflation. So everything’s costing more. So the money is more expensive, and the cost of goods is more expensive. It’s affecting the consumer spending habits. So look, right now in the United States, it’s a difficult place to launch a business, right? But if you’ve been through it before, you know that we will get through it again.

You know, you have to be patient. You have to be smart and calculated and don’t get too far out over your skis financially.

Sarah (17:28.674)
Well, you’re doing just that in terms of the new business, which is that you’re involved with Nautical Bowls, which is, you know, that’s exciting that that’s coming to Australia. And you could look at that in the prism that you’ve just given us of, you know, high interest rates, inflation, you know, times are tough. You know, a lot of Australians are really struggling with mortgage repayments and everything else. So why is now a good time to bring the product over?

Peter taunton (17:35.385)
Yeah.

Peter taunton (17:47.512)
Yeah.

Peter taunton (17:51.644)
Yes.

Peter taunton (17:55.089)
Well, number one, I have a great partner in Dean. Dean and I, when we met, we hit it off right away. He’s very like-minded. We’re very calculated on what we do. And the product that we’re bringing to market is very relevant. Our product, regardless of how the economy is, today people want to eat healthier. They all know that eating a balanced diet

and moving your feet, exercising, pays dividends. You don’t have to argue that anymore, okay? Science and time has taught us that if you do these things, you’ll have a better quality of life as you age. It’s just, it’s a proven fact, okay? So people in general, most of them, given the choice, would rather have something that’s healthy, okay? Now…

It’s not that they’re never going to have a burger or a bratwurst or, you know, or pizza. It’s not that they’re never going to have that. It’s just that. Most of the time they’re going to try to have it make a healthy choice. Okay. Our product, think about it. It’s plant-based, dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free, made with organic or all natural ingredients. So our product, it’s not dessert. Okay. It’s not dessert. It’s a meal replacement. And.

And I love the versatility of it. Many of our people have it in the morning for breakfast. Some have it as their mid-morning snack after they’ve worked out. Some people have it for lunch. Some people have it as a mid-afternoon snack to tide them over before dinner. And some people have it for dinner. But you’re never going to go out to a restaurant and then swing by nautical bowls for dessert. That’s not who we are. We’re not Ben and Jerry’s. We’re a meal replacement.

And that’s one of the things I love about the product. I love the product that it’s affordable, number one. It’s filling and everything, and it’s good for you. It’s full of antioxidants. It’s very good for you. Everything we do is natural, even our peanut butter, okay? A lot of our competitors out there, if you want peanut butter or almond butter on your bowl, many of them, they’ll reach down and they’ll take a big scoop out of the big vat of peanut butter and put it on your bowl.

Peter taunton (20:11.849)
or they take something like out of a cake decorator and squirt it on your bowl. For us, we don’t. When you look behind our counter, we have a glass display. One of those glass displays is just peanuts. The other one is just almonds. And we grind your peanut butter fresh right before your eyes. So that’s the kind of guest experience that our guests are looking for. So everything is made fresh, everything is handmade, and they love it.

Sarah (20:39.598)
So what do you think the challenges are in terms of the Australian landscape in business right now for you?

Peter taunton (20:46.049)
Look, I think for us, the one thing that we’ve been able to do in Australia, the material cost to build a store is less than what it is in the United States. It’s less by about 30%. Okay? So it’s a smaller footprint. It’s less to build out. The Australian society as a whole, they’re very active. Okay? They’re active. It’s a healthy, active lifestyle, much like the United States. So…

It’s not like I’m going in there trying to educate people that eating this food is good for you. They’re already there, they’re already motivated to eat that. And I know that my product, I know all of my competitors out there, and I also know that my product is better. My product tastes better, it’s handmade, and the quality of the ingredients, we just don’t skimp. Even our granola, our granola is gluten-free and sugar-free, okay? It’s…

You know, there’s all kinds of cheaper granola out there we can use, but we use a gourmet granola because we know that matters to our guests.

Sarah (21:54.434)
So what’s the five year plan, if you like, for the brand? Where would you like Nordical Bolts to be?

Peter taunton (22:01.337)
Well, look, in five years, I’d like to see us have more than 100 locations across Australia, which I think is very doable. Because this is a very simple business. What many of our franchisees love is there’s only one full-time employee, one full-time employee and 10 to 15 part-timers. Very simple business. In our stores, there’s no cooktops, there’s no exhaust hoods. You’re not cooking anything.

The simplicity of the business is what drives the entrepreneur to my concept. It’s a very simple business, not a lot of moving parts, and that’s what they like about it. It’s not technical. It’s a great business for multi-unit owners, people that want to have more than one store. That’s why we do area development agreements and things like that for people, where they can go in. They can go into a market or one of the larger cities there and say, hey, look.

I want to build three of these or five of these, and here’s the area that I want to build these in. We’ll work with them to do that.

Sarah (23:09.412)
Have you made mistakes in your businesses? Have you had failures?

Peter taunton (23:12.301)
Oh, of course. I mean, I have, but, um, you know, my, probably my most costly mistake was a, when I wanted to create my own backend software. Okay. And, you know, look at the end of the day, it was my, my chief technical officer was the one that said, look, we can do it and, and I trusted his judgment. But look, that’s part of leading a company.

The project was supposed to cost about a million and a half dollars. It ended up costing me about $4 million. And they thought they were going to have it done in a year. And we did it. I spent $4 million, and we were into it for three years. And even when we went to market with it, it still was not a great product. It was a very average product. So for me, what I, but as a CEO, look, you own those decisions. You can’t.

You can’t push it off. You know what? That’s on me. I should have pulled the plug on it earlier. But that’s living and learning. You know what I mean? That’s living and learning. And what I feel the most, what disturbs me the most about that decision is not the money. That doesn’t matter. The money doesn’t matter. It’s the frustration that I put my franchisees through trying to constantly.

you know, put this software together with duct tape and bubble gum. You know, it was, it was just, you know, I’m sorry for that frustration that I put them through because it wasn’t necessary.

Sarah (24:46.446)
Do you get fearful about any of your decisions? Are you someone that stays awake at night? No.

Peter taunton (24:50.669)
No, no, I don’t. You know, I don’t. But I don’t knee-jerk my decisions. One thing about me that I’m able to do, I’m able to really assess the landscape very quickly. I’m able to assess the landscape. I’m able to assess the situation, the upside and the downside. And if I can live with the downside, I don’t get too terribly excited about the upside, okay?

I know the potential of something, but I’ve got to get comfortable with the downside because that’s where the reality could hit, you know, never bet the farm. Okay. When you’re running a company, you never want to make a bet that could jeopardize the livelihood of the hundreds of employees and families that are counting on you to make the right decision every day. Okay. That would be reckless. So I think.

Part of running a company and growing a brand is you gotta be fiscally accountable and be thinking for not just yourself and the business, but the families that you impact.

Sarah (25:58.23)
Now you’ve obviously grown up with business, you’ve proven yourself in many instances. Do you think now, would you say that business is instinctive or do you think it’s a mindset that you learn or you can learn? Can anyone be good at business?

Peter taunton (26:15.285)
I think it’s a little bit of both. I mean, obviously, I’m much wiser today than I was when I was obviously 22. But the same drive and ambition I had when I was 22, I’m really thankful that same drive today is still in me, right? That I still get up excited to do things and to accomplish things. I still enjoy doing that. I still enjoy empowering people to make decisions. I still enjoy.

mentoring people. I understand the importance of mentoring today because I can’t be 10 places at once. So today I’m involved in multiple companies. I don’t run them all, but I hope that I’m impactful in every of the companies that I’m a principal shareholder in. That the information that I share, the experiences that I share, they find gold.

little nuggets along the way that helped them save the road rash that maybe I went through. Because look, business is all about learning, okay, and mistakes. And I’ve said this so many times, but I think that it’s true that anyone, if they’re going to be completely honest with you, they’re going to tell you that all the learning that took place in their career,

It came in times of strife. It came at times of difficulty. It came at times where you had to pivot, and you had to make critical, tough decisions, and you fought through it. Anyone can run a company with the wind at your back. It’s a second, third generation company. It’s on autopilot. Anyone can do that. So I always have a special place in my heart for the entrepreneur that is willing to take something that’s never been done.

and chart a course and become successful at it. I think that’s a great quality. That says a lot about entrepreneurs that are like that.

Sarah (28:17.262)
So you’ve been well recognized by the business community. You’ve been featured in Forbes, in Entrepreneur 500, Top Global, Franchise 500, all those publications, for instance. What does recognition mean to you? And what would you say has been the pinnacle of your achievements? What are you most proud of?

Peter taunton (28:35.885)
Well, look, I’ll be honest with you, you know, acknowledgement and, you know, accolades that people get in all fairness, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some amazing people in the, I’ve been in business for 35 years. I’ve had the good fortune of working with some amazing people. So I’m not a one man wrecking crew. You know what? I, I’d be a fool to stand here and say, yeah, I did it all. Aren’t I smart? Aren’t I great?

look, you know what, I look at myself as I’m a head coach and I’ve got to be able to spot talent and I’ve got to be able to take talent that maybe sometimes they’re a little bit rougher on the edges and it’s my job to buff them into a shining diamond, right, to help them realize their own potential. And I’ve had the good fortune of being able to do that through the years with dozens of people where I’ve…

empowered them to go on to do great things. Because I’ve had many people that have worked for me that have gone on to land significant jobs with other companies because of where they came from and what they’ve accomplished. For that, I’m happy that I could have been part of that. I’m also I’m very grateful that I had a front row seat to the American dream, literally. Think about it. I’m the youngest of seven.

I went to school in a two-room schoolhouse. I grew up poor from a family that didn’t have much, but my dad gave us opportunity to work at his little grocery store. And you had an opportunity to turn around a failing health club and you’d turn that into one of the largest wellness brands in the world. That doesn’t happen every day, right? And so I’m so thankful that I was at the right place at the right time in the right gene pool to put all that together.

And I’m on the receiving end of it today. You know what? I’ve got a very blessed life, but I never take it for granted. It’s, I still get very, when I have a franchisee that fails and they close their doors, it still affects me. I still don’t like it. It’s, you know, I’m hurt when that happens because I know how fragile a young, an entrepreneur can be. I know how fragile people get when they’re, it’s their first.

Peter taunton (30:59.525)
venture into business, they buy a franchise, they buy one of my franchises, and it doesn’t work out for whatever reason, whether it’s the economics of the business economy or the location, or it was more work than they thought, pick it, there’s a litany of reasons. But the bottom line is, whenever one of those businesses close, it affects me because I don’t want them to lose faith. You know, sometimes losing is part of winning.

and you got to get up, you got to dust yourself off and you got to keep forging ahead. But I can tell you from firsthand experience, there’s nothing more rewarding than getting into a business and having, and growing that business and having it thrive. And suddenly you’re in a place in your life where you’ve got financial freedom, you’ve got more flexibility in your schedule where you can spend more time for yourself, with your loved ones, with family.

There’s nothing more rewarding when you can put yourself in that position. And in most cases, you can’t do it unless you’re your own boss, unfortunately.

Sarah (32:06.862)
Peter, I think we’ll probably see quite a bit more from you and other brands. I would imagine that you’ll be dipping into other brands and be interesting to see the nautical bowls journey as well. But thank you for your time. Congratulations on your achievements, particularly with Lyft brands. It’s brilliant and been lovely to chat. Thank you.

Peter (32:15.771)
Yeah.

Peter  (32:25.188)
Now, thank you.

Yeah, Sarah, thank you. And you know what? I’m happy to come on your show anytime.

Sarah (32:31.49)
That’s great, thank you.

Peter
You bet.