17 - Calum & Christine Gawthorpe - CG Swim School

Today, James sits down with Calum and Christine Gawthorpe from CG Swim School to discuss the innovative strategies they've implemented to grow their swimming school. 

The pair share their splashy journey from starting small with just a few clients to making a big wave with 400+ swimmers. 

They've tackled growth with clever strategies like adopting slick admin tech and constantly refreshing their class offerings based on real community feedback. 

Along the way, they've learned the art of delegating, ensuring their team has room to float new ideas. This episode is packed with lessons on using authenticity in branding, the magic of targeted advertising, and making a splash with innovative swim programs—all served with a hearty dose of fun and enthusiasm. 

Listen now, for a wave of inspiration and practical insights that could help any activity business swim rather than sink! 💦

Stay tuned for more insightful episodes from Steps2Success, where we help you navigate the challenges of running a children's activity organisation with practical advice and expert insights.

Created with pride by LoveAdmin

Edited with finesse by Making Digital Real

Transcript

0:01

Hey everybody, this is James, strategic business manager at Love Admin, and you're listening to the Guided Growth Podcast, where we'll be taking you through the basics of growing your activity organisation with real insights and real actions you can apply to your organisation. Hey guys, welcome to episode 17 of the Step to Success Podcast, giving you the ideas and inspiration to take your children's activity business to the next level. This week, I'm with Callum and Christine from CG Swim School, looking at how getting creative can help you stand out from the crowd and boost engagement. Guys, thank you for joining us. Let's kick off by talking about CGU Swim School. Tell me about how it all started and the journey you guys have been on so far. So it started about, we had this conversation this morning actually, seven years ago. I started, had an opportunity at a pool, started teaching one of my friends triplets. Then their friends came along and their friends came along and the bookings rolled in, and all of a sudden we were 100 customers throughout a few days. I looked to my wife and said, I need help with invoicing and booking and everything else. And we've grown from there really. And now we're just at one site for now and another one in September, but we have around 350 to 400 customers at this one site, and our team of 10. So yeah, that's our kind of short journey so far. Yeah. So I joined the company in August of 2018, a few months after Carem launched, just to help out behind the scenes. We were doing everything manually. This was my first time doing an admin role. So I had sort of spreadsheets and documents and everything here, there and everywhere. So part of our progression, how we developed the company was developing the admin side of things, which is when we moved to Love Admin, and we were able to do everything online. And it was just a much better service that we could provide for customers. It made my life a lot easier. And we have since taken on administrators who are able to use the system. And it's a streamlined approach for all of us. Our lives have been made 100 times easier. So very grateful to Love Admin for that. Cool. No, I think it's always, always great to hear. And I'm sure it's a story that is familiar for a lot of people in this industry where it almost starts accidentally to an extent, or certainly gets to the point you're at now kind of by accident, it just sort of morphs into this thing that's probably much greater than you ever anticipated it would be and becomes a real big business to try and run. So yeah, I think it's really interesting to hear that path that you guys have been on. We're grateful for the accident. You know, thankfully, it's worked out well. And we're chuffed with what we've got now. That's been a good surprise. For sure, for sure. And so now moving more into kind of the world of engagement and gaining new customers and really growing things. What struggles have you had in the past with engagement? And do you find it hard to stand out from the crowd compared to the other swim schools that you've got in your local area? I think because swimming is a life skill, there are many families, well, people of all ages who look to swim schools, they want to start to learn how to swim so they can be safe on holiday or around bodies of water, whatever it is. So it's inevitable there will be competition. But we've thankfully managed to come with a unique approach. We've got quite a niche swim school in that we tailor make our classes to suit the needs of our customers. We've got small classes as well. So although it's been tricky trying to establish ourselves, we have thankfully managed to do so. Got quite good uptake, haven't we? Yeah, I think engagement wise, a lot of it was word of mouth at the start of our journey. And then we've worked on either, you know, as a family posting leaflets around different villages or Facebook posts has been a good contributing factor to our engagement. It wasn't easy at first to know where to advertise or how to do it or the best way to go about putting our name out there. And I don't ever think we'll get to the point where it's perfect anyway. We're, you know, we're always trying different things like, you know, getting posters made. It's an ongoing journey anyway, engagement wise, to see what we do. We have done a lot that helps with charities. At the pool in the past as well. So we've done swim-a-thons and bake sales and things like that. And that helps with engagement as well. But how, so with all of those types of initiatives and things that you do, how much attention do you pay to what your competitors are doing to try and do something different? Or do you just try and do your own thing? Honestly, to be honest, very little. We're not trying to outdo anyone else. We just want to serve the local community. We, you know, we were asked by some of our swimmers if we could host this. Well, we've done two swim-a-thons and we've done a bake sale and they were our, they were our customers approaching us, asking us to support them in a worthwhile cause. In fact, one of the swim-a-thons was for, on behalf of a child who used to swim with us, who sadly passed away. And the charity that helped his family with their loss. That was the bake sale. Yeah, it was a charity that we were raising money for. So we've never done it to be in competition with anyone else. We've just done it because it's a worthwhile cause. I think really the best thing is, you know, we look at it as we can, as always, we're the best versions of ourselves. We don't really need to look at others and what they're doing as much. And I think that's taken us, that's made us successful to this point. We've always had a family approach to our swim school. It's never been about making the most money. Obviously we need money to get by. That's an element of it, but it's never been the figures that's driven our decisions. It's how can we provide a service that people want? And how can we, yeah, how can we give people what we would have wanted ourselves? Yeah. And I think that's, that's a really important point with this industry, specifically different to others. And there's, there's a lot of material out there, blogs, other podcasts, all that kind of stuff around focusing on your competition and unique selling points and that type of stuff. And, and that is important, but only I think to the degree that you focus on what makes you, you and really shouting about that. I think, you know, building an engagement strategy around either highlighting the flaws in others or just trying to do something that's different purely because it's not what other people do, can make you not as authentic as as you should be. And certainly, you know, having, having worked with you guys for the past few months and seeing even in that short time, the work that you've done, you know, authenticity is, is really, really clear to see. The images, Callum, of you wearing a mermaid's tail will live forever in my memory. That I think is a really, really important to a really important point to kind of take away from that in, in terms of implementing. And when we touched upon the Merworld experience a little bit, and we'll come on to that later, but do you think it's anything that sort of holds you back when it comes to implementing a radical idea or an innovation that you kind of feel might be right, but is, is a bit of a risk? We've got, we've got the luxury of a pool that we have 24 seven or one of our sites and we use it all the time. So we do have new ideas. It's that the things we struggle with normally are when are we going to do them? You know, we're filling our classes are full Monday to Sunday and we have a short amount of time to put new ideas in. Also the pools that we work in, I mean, the things that sometimes you want to implement, you need bigger, deeper pools, but then you lose out on what makes us, us, which is a nice warm inviting pool. So you don't get the bigger pools. So that would be one of the things that held us back. But in general, I think new ideas, we kind of go, Oh, I quite like that. Let's go for it. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If it works, it works. I mean, we've done our aquasize recently. That was a new idea. It's worked great on a, on the evening classes, our morning classes haven't picked up yet. So that would be an, a little bit of a struggle into implementing that at the moment. I think in general, if we've got no ideas, we go for them. And if we can't, we don't see them as failures. We see them as we've had a go at it and it's not quite worked. Well, I'd say it's about finding the right staff though. So we used to hold antenatal classes. We had a teacher who was, who was amazing at offering the classes for pregnant or expectant mothers. And it was a great success. And we were really proud of being able to offer them. But then she decided to stop running them to follow a different line of work. And so we had to stop the lessons because we couldn't find a suitable alternative person to run them. So that, that is a bit of a stumbling block if you're not, if you can't find the right person for the job, but. Massively agreeing with that. Yeah. We've got a great team there. So we're really grateful for them. Yeah. I think, I think that, that people element, particularly with children's activities, swimming, gymnastics, dance, all that type of stuff is, is so reliant on the instructors delivering the sessions. And one thing I always focus on, and this sort of covers both this, this topic of new classes and being creative, but wide arranging stuff as well, is having that pipeline of, of talent, that pipeline of people who are undergoing training courses to backfill those risky positions where you've just got one person delivering a particular skill. You always need to make sure you, you know, in, in an ideal world have two people, three people who are able to deliver those sessions so that you don't have to cancel things off. Like similar with, with, with the Aquasize, I remember back in, back in the good old days when, when I used to manage in a famous health club who shall remain nameless, we, we always made sure that we had Aqua instructors coming out of our ears because... So you never got up and did it James? Uh, there was no video footage taken of it. Let's, let's, let's, let's put it that way. It, it was surprisingly fully booked on that day, but yeah, that, that will forever stay lodged in my memory as well, sadly. But yeah, I, I think making sure you've always got qualified people and you've always got those development pathways for people to upskill and learn new skills and, and get involved in your innovations, I think is really, really important. Um, because if your team buy into it, then, then it's more likely to be successful because it's, it's the coaches on, on the frontline who, who bring people to sessions. So with the, um, Aquasize, if we kind of focus on that one, cause I know that's one that, um, you know, we started with a discussion, I think that, that, that we had a few months ago and is now sort of transformed into a thing. What, what would you say are the biggest things that you kind of learned from implementing that? Were there any mistakes that you felt like happened along the way that you wouldn't do next time? Numbers wise, we were cause better, our one, our employee that does the classes, she was a bit nervous to start with. So we didn't know numbers wise, what we'd do. As in how many to have? How many to have in a lesson? Cause we, you know, on the dimensions that are pooled, I suppose we could have a certain amount and, um, do you want to start out with less? When she didn't need to really think advertising as well and hitting the right markets. I think timing wise is a big thing for Aquasize and targeting groups of people, um, that would be interested in it instead of targeting a whole audience. I think that would be a, one of the things I would do a bit more of, and hopefully we will do in the future a bit more. Yeah. So it's something we definitely need to consider is where to advertise and how to put our, our message out there because our evening class is full and there's a waiting list for it, but the morning classes is much quieter. So we're trying to think about, well, who would come at this time? Who's our target audience and try and hit them in a place where they'd see it, you know? Yeah. I think that's, that's always a key part of the planning phase, particularly where you've got radical ideas like the exercise was for you guys, you know, you're targeting a completely different audience to the normal audience you would have for your children's swimming lessons is really understanding before you launch something, I'm going to do this thing that I think would be really good. And I think it'd be really good for these people. And having that as your kind of central thing, right from minute one of who, who is this going to appeal to? And, and with, with Aquasize, you know, there is a, a stereotypical demographic that it does appeal to. And then it's a little bit of trial and error, you know, typically late morning, early evening slots are best, but for those types of activities specifically, but it's also really dependent on geography. So I think, you know, there's an element of really defining things before you get going. There's also the element of giving it a go and the whole kind of trial and error piece as well. So, so moving to thinking about the future now, then what thoughts have you guys had in terms of what your next innovation will be? Obviously, you know, you, you guys are starting to build a bit of a track record now of producing some really cool, innovative, new, new sessions that are driving engagement with the Merworld stuff, the Aquasize as well. What's, what's next on the list of different stuff you guys want to put into place? It's a good question. I think we're trying, trying not to bite off more than we can chew. I think we've got, we've got a couple of avenues we're looking to go down. One is just simply trying to make most of the facility we've got. So private pool rentals for the families or individuals who want to come and use the facility without there being a crowd or people watching. That's just to kind of generate a bit of income to keep us going and also to fund further training and whatnot for our staff. But we're certainly hoping next year to expand and start running lessons from another site. I think personally, I mean, the radical ideas, normally they come out of my head and Christine tells me you can or can't do this. I mean, I've seen some awesome stuff. I want to do some stuff in the summer holidays with the kids. So like the underwater snorkeling, where they go underneath and they've got the little machines. I'd like to do lots of different kids activities in the summer holidays to really enhance our pool, bring more money into the pool, but also create a fun, real fun summer holiday aspect, especially in August because we don't run our standard lessons in August. So we're going to be looking at exploring that more after Christmas in the lead up to August. But yeah, I've got to see what's doable and what's not. I think it helps that we have children, not to say that people who don't have children aren't innovative, but we know the struggles of going through six weeks in summer holidays of thinking, right, what am I going to fill the day with today? If we could try and fill that gap and give families something to do, you know, that we're on a win-win I think there. That's why we started the Merwild experience. Our daughter's now 12, but when she was six, she was obsessed with mermaids. And we thought, well, how can we do something fun for you? And that's how it all began. You know, it's all kind of been, there've been things that are close to heart, close to our home, thinking what would we appreciate and how can we help others also in the same boat? Yeah, I think that's always a good place to start is by at least guaranteeing that one person you know is going to like it, because the likelihood is if one person likes it, other people will as well. I definitely agree that summer holidays are a really great opportunity to take advantage of, both from a revenue, commercial point of view, but also from an engagement point of view as well. Summer holidays are ridiculously competitive for activities and that type of thing. And, you know, there's a whole load of competition, not just from other swim schools, but every other activity provider is going to be putting on something for the summer holidays because it's six weeks where kids aren't at school and they need something to stop them from climbing up the walls. So I think getting something right is really important rather than just putting any old stuff on. And there are sort of two golden rules that I have with summer holidays that I always sort of suggest to any club that's looking to start is go early. You want to be the first person because they're probably going to be abroad for a week during the summer holidays. They're probably going to be with family for another week, maybe two. So that leaves you with three weeks where they're going to need stuff to do. So they're going to make three bookings probably during that time. There's going to be 30 or 40 different providers. So you need to be in the top three of those 30 or 40 providers in your local area, winning that booking for that individual. And to do that, you really need to stand out and also be available when they're looking because they want to nail stuff down. They want to nail the summer holidays down early. So you need to be there and be available for when they're looking basically. And, you know, the fact that you guys are parents will certainly help that because you probably would have been through that exact same thing from the other side at various numerous points where you want to plan out the summer holidays and how it's going to go around work and booking holidays from work and all of that type of thing. And the other thing that kind of bleeds into that as well with going early is having a really strong creative proposition that's different. And this is probably the one time where I would also look at what others are doing. Obviously, you want to be authentic to yourselves, but you want to make sure that what you're doing isn't just come and do some summer swimming lessons and we've got an inflatable palm tree. And that's it, because actually that's not engaging. You know, children, in my opinion, don't want some holidays to be particularly educational. They want to have fun. It's the holiday. They're not a school. They want to have fun with their friends and they want to do cool stuff. If you can feed education without it feeling like it, that's like the golden place to be. But it's really got to be fun. It's really got to be out there as wild and as wacky as you can possibly go. And I think that's what makes a really great summer holiday schedule of activities. Yeah. So we always do a crash course every school holiday. But like you say, that is they know that they're there to learn how to swim for half an hour a day. So it is more educational. That's why we thought we'd do that for the mornings because they do serve a purpose. Mornings have crash course lessons in the afternoons. We do something else completely the opposite end of the spectrum. And then people can choose what fits them and their desires the best. Yes. Yeah. I think that's definitely right there. There will always be a market for people who want to learn stuff over the summer as well. But if you're looking to expand to kind of a mass market thing, going down more of the sort of wild, wacky, fun avenue, I think is definitely more popular. I think there's plenty of time by doing something now for next summer. I would also look at who else can I get involved in helping to build this? Are there team members that I can get to own it and delegate it out? Obviously, it's ultimately yours to own because it's your business. But if there are coaches, you can go, I'm thinking of doing something in the summer. I want it to be really out there. I want it to be really just crazy and innovative and something that we've never done before. And it's got to be within these limits and these timeframes. What do you think? Give them three weeks to go away and have a think about it. See what they come back with. And you may well find that you get something that you've not had to invest hours and hours in, but gives you something that's going to be really engaging for the kids. Obviously, you want to target your customers, and they'll know that better than anyone else. But that should also then draw in other people who aren't your customers to still come along and join those sessions. Yeah. So we have recently reached out to our team to see who would like to take on our social media management because we've realized we can't be good at everything. And I think, obviously, as you say, it's not necessarily doing it all ourselves because somebody could do it better. Yeah, I think using our team is a big thing that we are looking into a lot more in the next... Well, we have done and we're looking forward to doing that a lot more instead of putting the weight on our shoulders a lot more. But I think that's something you learn as you go along. I mean, we're not business people per se, but like we said at the start of our journey, we're learning things as we go along. And I think using our team is a big thing. So yeah, summer holiday, fun. We've got some young staff now, so it'd be good to get some ideas from them and see where we go. I've got a lot of things planned, James, don't worry. Having seen your camera roll, I don't doubt it at all. So yeah, I think that combination is really, really important for you guys, but also on a wider scale to others in the industry as well, where you're obviously like the principal fountain of inspiration for stuff because you've got it to where it is now. But delegating out that inspiration within the framework that you want the business to stand for, I think is a great next step when things start getting to the size and scale that you're at now. Obviously with the second pool reopening again next year, that's going to bring a whole other scale of things as well. Best way I'd describe it, and I use this expression to death really, is freedom within a framework. And for you as business owners, it is for you to set that framework of this is what we I've got all of these ideas, I just need someone to own them and actually turn them into a fully rounded thing, because I've got this huge organisation to run. And that's where you can then leverage the power of that enthusiasm of young coaches who are up for doing something fun, up for doing something different. And you can really kind of supercharge that innovation and boosting that engagement. Yeah, yeah, you're right there. But it is also something that develops over time. As you guys say, you're not business people, you're people with a passion that has grown because the passion is something that's shared with others. So developing that ability to actually go, you know what, I've got this idea, you go and do it, is quite a scary thing to go and do. Yeah, it is. I think it's been very hard. Well, it was harder at the beginning to relinquish a bit of responsibility. As we've taken on more and more members of staff, or people have come and gone over the last seven years, it's been hard to sort of say, oh, you know, our company's reputation is based on somebody else's teaching or, you know, their customer service experience rather than on our shoulders. It feels like it was, I think we've got better over time. But at the start, it's hard to take on other people's point of view. But I think now you realise actually, their views are just as valuable, if not more, because they're seeing things from outside of our point of view. And seeing things through fresh eyes is important to keep you on your toes, keep things moving along. Yeah, I think definitely when it comes to kind of the more radical end of things, when you're looking to introduce something that you might have never done before, or is really out there and really innovative, if you're doing it all yourself, it kind of feels a bit safer. Yeah, massively safer. Yeah, yeah, I'd agree with that, James. It does keep you safer, like the Merle world and the other things. You do feel safe. Like this exercise we have introduced, it's been completely by another staff member, our office admin have kind of pushed it. I've stayed out of the way. And it's the first thing I've asked in school in seven years, I've stayed out of the way and gone, you know, you do it. And how's that felt? A little bit daunting, to be honest, because wife will tell you when I'm in the pool, and if I'm, I struggle with training teachers, because I like to do things myself. I think that's what we're talking about is giving that responsibilities to others is I find that tricky, personally, just because I've been doing it so long. And I get not selfishly think, I'm better than you. It's, I've been doing this, this is mine. I'll just do this, I'll do this. And I sometimes don't let others do it, basically, so it's, it's, I think it's a control thing, really. I think when you've got your own company, and it's yours, and you do new things, you think, yes, it is massively safe. And I feel comfortable doing it. When others do it, you think, eek, what could go wrong? It's still my responsibility, but it's not in my hands. Has your mindset on that changed? Now that the exercise is live, and by all accounts is pretty successful? Do you think that's that's influenced your thought process for the future? Yes, to a certain extent. I mean, it's not my specialty. So I was nervous, but not about it. It's not something that I would personally want to do. Although I found the class is great fun. It's, you know, the employee we have is amazing at doing them. And she really, she's really good at them. And it's not something I could do. I don't want to put words into your mouth. But I think the, the nervousness you have is not based on the staff. It's just about the success of it. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Yeah, sorry. I agree with that one. I don't mean to come across in the wrong way. Oh, that's definitely correct. Do you think you'd feel more confident now, getting or having someone else more heavily involved in launching an innovation because of the experience you've had with Aquasize? Or do you think you would still have a similar level of reservation and kind of fear in the future? That's a really good question. I think I'd be more at ease. I don't think I'd ever be at ease with it. I'd still be nervous about new things going on without me being in control or in charge of them. But I would feel more at ease, I think now, seeing how Aquasize has gone. Yeah, I feel quite different, I suppose. I feel very comfortable with other people having a go. Because I think that's what we want to do, is people to feel like they can have a say. And they can, if they've got an idea and they want to run with it, we want them to know that they have our support and that we trust them to do it. Yeah, it's always hard, putting trust in other people, but equally, why shouldn't we? You know, like you say, everything along the way, we've learned from experience and we'll continue to do so. Yeah, I think that's the best way to grow confidence, is by trying stuff, getting to sort of 80% of your comfortable limit, doing it and then allowing that comfortable limit to grow. So you're always at 80%, but that 80% is a bigger thing because your overall confidence is growing as you get more and more successes. And I know, you know, just from the time that we've spent and the sessions that we've had, you know, launching the Aquasize and working on some other bits as well. You know, I think that process hopefully has been helpful in getting things to fruition. And yeah, I'm really excited to see what the future holds for you guys. And I think, you know, with those developments in terms of getting the team involved and staying authentic to what you guys do best is going to yield some really great results. Of course, yeah. I think you can't stay in your comfort zone, otherwise things never change or move forward. Yeah, yeah, no, for sure. For sure. Well, thank you very much for your time today, guys. It's been a really, really interesting discussion. I'm sure people will have a lot to learn from the way you guys have done things and certainly be inspired by the approach that you guys have taken well, whilst also doing it in a really, really authentic way. So no, it's been really great to chat with you. Do keep a listen out for our next Steps to Success podcast, which will come out next month. And we will see you again soon. Thank you very much. Bye bye. Cheers, James.