Passion and Purpose: CEO invests in health with Anytime Fitness

Name: Luke Andrus
Title: CEO
Company: Blue Star Investments
No. of units: 46 Anytime Fitness
Age: 41
Family: Wife and 4 children
Years in franchising: 15
Years in current position: 5

For Luke Andrus, exercise and fitness mean more than a job, a business, or an industry. He considers it a calling to build his own healthy lifestyle and help others realize their fitness goals.

His mother was diagnosed with lung cancer when he was 14, and she died two and a half years later. Seeing her struggle and ultimately lose her battle with cancer left a profound impact on his life. He took a job at a gym and started working out for the first time in his life.

“It was a formative moment in my life that shaped me into becoming what I am,” Andrus says. “My hope for my mother’s survival started with her health and mostly focused on nutrition. That became my mission. I didn’t want to be in a situation in which my kids lose me at an early age in life. For me, there has always been a deeper purpose of fitness other than the conventional goals of just having a better physique.”

After working as a videographer, Andrus returned to school to complete his degree. In 2009, a friend opened an Anytime Fitness franchise and hired Andrus as an assistant manager. A year later, Andrus became a personal trainer. He didn’t plan to keep the position for long, but the personal connections with his clients made it too difficult to leave.

“Fitness is essential in my life,” says Andrus, who has run two 50K ultra-marathons this year and plans one more. “I don’t think I’ve had more than one week without working out in the past 15 years. I think fitness needs to be filled by intrinsic passion, whether it is for appearance or to be functional in a certain way. It really comes down to what you want out of it and what you are going to enjoy doing. To me, that is the perfect place for fitness.”

In 2014, Andrus became a personal training director for five locations and won the Anytime Fitness Trainer of the Year Award. He recalls it being the breakthrough moment of his career because franchise owners started reaching out to him for advice. He was hired as a franchise business consultant by Anytime’s corporate office in December 2015.

With the help of his business partners, Kevin Tupy and Kay Bergendahl, Andrus became CEO of Blue Star Investments in 2020 and purchased multiple Anytime Fitness franchises. During their first several years of ownership, they successfully navigated numerous challenges caused by the Covid pandemic.

Although he has been a franchisee for only five years, Andrus already owns 46 Anytime Fitness locations and has an aggressive plan for expansion. He would like to double that number over the next five years and become the largest franchisee in the system over the next decade. Along the way, he wants to provide customers with consistently high-quality service.

“If we are not driven to be the biggest and best, then what are we doing? We don’t want to just be the biggest; we want to be the best,” Andrus says. “We won’t forfeit quality to have the biggest unit count. Growing slow is not in our vocabulary. We want to grow fast and have quality in everything we do.”

Personal

First job: My first job was building cabinet doors in my father’s business, Christian Woodworks.

Formative influences/events: I began to take a personal interest in health when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer. I was 14 years old at the time. She died when I was 16 years old, and I got my first job in the fitness industry shortly after.

Key accomplishments: I revisited the fitness industry in 2009 after pursuing a career in videography. In 2014, I won the Anytime Fitness Trainer of the Year Award at our international conference. Currently, we are the third-largest Anytime Fitness franchise group.

Biggest current challenge: Our biggest challenge is to continue to grow in membership and personal training in a tough economy with growing competition. This is especially difficult when other competitors offer lower prices. Anytime Fitness has done a great job of assisting us by giving us SmartCoaching technology to help with member engagement and retention, and our AF app gives members personalized plans that can be accessed anywhere. On top of this, we have a partnership with Apple Fitness+ so that our members can access workout classes at home. It’s the most personal gym experience in the world. We’re the “Cheers” of the fitness industry.

Next big goal: Our goal is to be the largest Anytime Fitness franchise group with the highest member satisfaction.

First turning point in your career: The biggest turning point in my career was when I won the Trainer of the Year Award. It gave me a platform to speak to many owners who asked for advice. This lit a fire in me to help as many business owners as I could, which led to consulting, and that eventually led to my partnership.

Best business decision: The best business decision I’ve ever made was to leave the franchisor side to become a franchisee with my partners. My business partner, Kevin Tupy, has become a mentor in my life and a wealth of knowledge on how to build a business that cares about people. Being his friend is like drinking from a fire hose.

Hardest lesson learned: One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned as a CEO is not to promote people to roles they haven’t earned. Sometimes, we let our hearts get in the way, and we promote a friend instead of an outside hire who is more qualified. It’s one thing to give someone a role that they can grow into; it’s another to give them a job they aren’t ready for just because we don’t want to hurt them. In the long run, it is crueler because they are placed in a position they aren’t ready to have.

Work week: My work week is a mixture of travel and club visits and office work spent learning about new opportunities for growth through acquisition and new development. I will work a minimum of 40 hours per week, but it often extends to time after the kids go to bed each night.

I’m still waiting for that point as a CEO that I can play golf all the time. That hasn’t happened, and I’m not sure if it ever will.

Exercise/workout: I try to practice what I preach and stay healthy. For the past year, my way to do that has been ultra running. I have a marathon and two 50K+ ultras under my belt so far in 2024 with one more to go. It’s been a great source of personal prayer and meditation on the business for me.

Best advice you ever got: This comes from my favorite character, Augustus McCrae in “Lonesome Dove,” who said, “You can’t avoid mistakes; you’ve got to learn to handle them. If you only come face to face with your own mistakes once or twice in your life, it’s bound to be extra painful. I face mine every day. That way, they usually ain’t much worse than a dry shave.”

What’s your passion in business? My absolute passion is watching people advance in their careers and grow in their careers and in their personal lives. What else are we doing if we aren’t making each other better?

How do you balance life and work? Work-life balance can be defined in many ways. I define it as the ability to maintain your own identity when you are with your family. If work is a heavyweight 365 days a year to the point that I’m no longer myself, I am not balancing it correctly. The popular idea is to just shut work off and not touch it, but the business needs what it needs, and the business supports life. This really depends on the place of the business at the time and the demands it makes. When the demands are high, it’s just not as simple as shutting it off. In practice, the key for me is that when I’m present with my family, it’s important to segmentize the work and family. Instead of setting a nearly impossible standard to unplug completely, I step out when I’m needed so that my kids don’t see me buried in my work. Then I come back in when it is resolved. Even if it is a day that they have only 20 minutes with me before bedtime, the phone is off, we isolate ourselves, and they get full attention. A little goes a long way.

Guilty pleasure: I love my movies and shows. I’m quite addicted to quoting the shows I like in all the wrong times. I’m basically Michael Scott.

Favorite book: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

Favorite movie: “Big Fish.”

What do most people not know about you? I was once in a sci-fi movie called “Swamp Shark.” I played Ambulance Man #2 with zero lines. All you could see was me reaching down to lift the bikini girl into the van, and it revealed to me on national television just how much my hairline was receding.

Pet peeve: When people say, “That’s not my job.” The job is the job. Do what it takes.

What did you want to be when you grew up? We all want to be rock stars, right?

Last vacation: Croatian cruise with my lovely wife–all the islands, all the wine.

Person you’d most like to have lunch with: The fictional character Augustus McCrae from “Lonesome Dove.”

Management

Business philosophy: The one that comes to mind is simply that relationships matter. Give freely to other owners as often as you can. People remember the advice you gave them when you had nothing to gain, and those relationships resonate and sometimes come back as opportunities for you. If they don’t, you still did the right thing.

Management method or style: Trust and delegate to people but step in when needed. Too many people fail to manage out of fear of micromanaging.

Greatest challenge: Finding the balance of how to scale correctly. We’ll never get it right, but we’re getting better every day.

How do others describe you? I’m not sure if I want to know that, good or bad, unless it’s affecting others negatively. But I hope they see me as someone who helps others.

Have you ever been in a mentor-mentee relationship? What did you learn? Absolutely. Every pivotal moment in my life has been assisted by a mentor. Currently, my mentor is my business partner. It’s like trying to bear hug a freight train. If I retain 15% of the knowledge he imparts to me every week, I’ll accomplish anything.

One thing you’re looking to do better: Listen more.

How close are you to operations? Very close. I’ve worked in most of the positions in this industry, including club manager, trainer, regional manager, consultant, and owner. I can’t take responsibility for its success or failure unless I’m part of it.

What are the two most important things you rely on from your franchisor? Solid platforms that track performance and consumer insights. We have to see the data and trends of what the company is doing. We need platforms that show the KPIs and measures of productivity so that we can see what is leading to those numbers. Anytime Fitness always fights for us to do that. We have a great marketing team to discover and share consumer insights. It greatly helps to understand the needs of our clients.

What you need from vendors: Efficiency in their processes and deliveries and prompt support.

How do you train and retain? We train with a combination of corporate courses, our own LMS for our company, and mentorship. It’s got to be personal, and it must be fun. We retain them with great benefits, competitive pay, and a passionate culture. Also, we reward them as quickly as is appropriate. Give a preemptive raise to those who deserve it. Surprise them occasionally, and don’t wait until you risk losing them to reward them. My dad once said, “Pay people what they’re worth. If you’re paying them the lowest you can, you are saying to them, ‘If I could pay you less, I would.'”

How do you deal with problem employees? Visibility and documentation on work performance and corrective communication. We’ve learned that to be clear is to be kind. We log our employee coaching sessions so that when they need to be rewarded or require correction, we have the evidence.

Fastest way into your doghouse: Say the words, “No one told me to do that.”

Bottom Line

Annual revenue: We’ll be finishing this year at more than $20 million. We have great opportunities for margins, which is largely due to our franchisor’s team and resources.

Upcoming goals: We would like to open one more club this year and acquire as much as we can. In 2025, through organic growth and acquisition, we would like to open four to six locations and acquire 20 to 24 more clubs.

Growth meter: How do you measure your growth? Same-store sales are king. It’s tempting to look at overall revenue, but that’s a moving target when we are opening multiple locations a year while also acquiring existing locations. We’ve got to focus on the growth of each location.

Vision meter: Where do you want to be in five years? 10 years? The vision is to maintain our highest level of customer service and facilities while growing store count and same-store sales. In five years, I’d like to exceed 100 locations. In 10 years, we want to be the largest Anytime Fitness franchisee while still being synonymous with quality.

Do you have brands in different segments? Why/why not? We only operate Anytime Fitness clubs at the moment. When it is the right time, we will seek more opportunities in the health space. We love the other franchises that Self Esteem Brands provides, and I can see us moving toward those in the future. For now, there is just too much opportunity for organic growth and acquisition here.

How is the economy in your region(s) affecting you, your employees, your customers? We’ve definitely had to get creative. What I have seen is that people don’t mind paying for quality. Our maniacal focus is on a sales process that creates a genuine connection with our members. When they believe in us and themselves, they will invest in us and themselves.

Are you experiencing economic growth in your market? In many of our markets, yes. We have locations in urban and rural areas. That’s one of the best things about this franchise. Every town needs an Anytime Fitness.

What are the best sources for capital expansion? Until now, it’s been conventional financing and using our cash flow to fund growth.

Experience with private equity, local banks, national banks, other institutions? Why/why not? We have experience with all of these, but we structure our company like a PE group. I can see us landing there in the future.

What are you doing to take care of your employees? Passion goes a long way, but in the end, they want more security. It’s important to have a clear path to positional and financial growth.

How are you handling rising employee costs (payroll, minimum wage, healthcare, etc.)? We’ve prided ourselves in covering 100% of their healthcare contribution since we have offered it. We also offer a 401(k) match for all team members, including part-timers. As for minimum wage, we work in an industry that calls for higher than that, so this hasn’t been an issue for us.

How do you reward/recognize top-performing employees? We make this a regular occurrence, giving recognition to our performers in our weekly and monthly meetings. We also give out awards and trophies once a year to our top performers.

What kind of exit strategy do you have in place? Exit? And miss all the fun? We’re just getting started!