He's 29 with 6 locations doing seven figures. Here's what he's doing that most franchisors won't.

⏳ Read time: ~3 minutes

TLDR:

Darcy Ellis is 29, the son of world champion boxer Lester Ellis. Six HitFit Boxing locations. Two doing seven figures. Melton gym has 1,000+ members. His Bundaberg launch cost $400 in ads instead of the usual $8,000. His personal brand generates more franchise enquiries than his company accounts. Here's what to steal from his playbook.

PS: Apologies for the delay between editions, like you reading this, I have been swamped. So over the next couple of weeks expect a couple of more editions of interviews and some straight up advice from what I working on and seeing at the moment in franchising.

THE OWNER ON THE FLOOR

Most franchisors want to remove themselves from the day-to-day as fast as possible. Darcy went the opposite direction.

"At the heart of every successful gym, the owners were often on the gym floor helping drive the culture and the actual experience."

He does not want franchisees who open a gym, install a manager, and check in once a month. He wants owners in the ring.

That is a deliberate choice. And it is working.

THE FIRST FRANCHISEE DEAL MOST FRANCHISORS WOULD NEVER DO

When Darcy awarded his first franchise, he did not charge them upfront and hope for the best.

Here is what he did instead:

His reasoning: they were friends. He would not ask them to risk their savings on something unproven.

That first franchisee is now their best marketing material. Their success attracted the next round of franchisees.

A FACT YOU SHOULD KNOW

Your first franchisee is your most important marketing asset. Not your website. Not your brochure. If they succeed, they sell the next five franchises for you. If they fail, no amount of ad spend fixes the damage.

PERSONAL BRAND BEATS COMPANY ACCOUNTS

I asked Darcy where more franchise enquiries come from. Personal brand or company accounts.

Personal brand. No question.

He posted casually for years. Doubled down in the last 12 months. Since then, they have awarded more franchises than ever before.

This matches what I see across franchising. People trust people. Not logos.

$400 INSTEAD OF $8,000

When HitFit launches a new location, the typical ad budget is around $8,000. When they opened in Bundaberg, their franchisees spent $400.

The rest came from organic content. They wore HitFit shirts around town. They posted videos. People in a regional community started recognising them.

The numbers:

WHAT DARCY DOES DIFFERENTLY

A few things most franchisors resist that Darcy does as standard:

STORIES OUTPERFORM EVERYTHING

Their most viral content was not a flashy brand video.

It was about a woman who could not walk across a shopping centre before she started at HitFit. Since joining, she walks without assistance.

That blew up more than anything else they posted.

Darcy's advice: start by sharing stories of others in your community.

A selfie with a member. A caption about their progress.

Someone who is nervous has now done 100 sessions. Someone who lost their first kilo.

Anything worth celebrating is content worth posting.

SOMETHING TO CONSIDER

Darcy spent $400 launching Bundaberg because his franchisees had already built trust through organic content before the doors opened.

Most franchisors do it backwards. They spend big on ads at launch and hope the content catches up later.

If you are opening a new location in the next 12 months, get your franchisee posting content in that community weeks before launch day.

Local stories. Local faces. Local landmarks.

Let the community know who is coming before you spend a dollar on ads.

The franchisees who build an audience before they open need less money to fill the gym, the van, the shopfront. Whatever your model is, the principle is the same.

Content first. Ads second.

A question to sit with this week:

If your first franchisee told their story publicly today, would it sell the next franchise for you? Or would you rather they stayed quiet?

Joel

PS: Full conversation with Darcy is live on the podcast now.

Each week, I interview marketing experts or share insights from the strategies I have used to help grow Jim’s by 2,000+ franchisees.

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