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Adversity is an essential part of great stories, and few things spell adversity like muscle damage, broken bones, shoulder and chest injuries.
Arriving at Western in the 1970s, David ‘Patch’ Patchell-Evans, BA’77, LLD’12, was all set to pursue a degree in business before a horrific motorbike accident intervened. As he took the long road to recovery, Patch discovered the life-changing power of physical health and therapy. Today, as the head of one of the largest health clubs in the world, Patch is helping people across Canada (and beyond) find the good life.
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Connie Clerici, QS ’08, and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group, Inc.
Transcript
Eric Morse
You're listening to the Entrepreneur Podcast from Western University's Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship, powered by Ivey. In this series, join me Eric Morse, as we uncover the stories of our entrepreneurial legends. These Western Founders have revolutionized industries, build recognizable brands, and added richness to lives across Canada and beyond. Discover their origins, their greatest moments, their deepest challenges, and what makes each of them tick. Welcome to The Legends series.
Adversity is an essential part of great stories and few things spell adversity like muscle damage, broken bones, shoulder and chest injuries. Arriving at Western in the 1970s, David “Patch” Patchell-Evans was all set to pursue a degree in business before a horrific motorbike accident intervened. As he took the long road to recovery, Patch discovered the life-changing power of physical health and therapy. Today as the head of one of the largest health clubs in the world, Patch is helping people across Canada and beyond, find the good life.
Eric Morse
It's… it's quite a business you've, you've built there Patch. I want to get to that. But I also want to start, you know, way back... maybe early days and get caught up with your story. And this is one of our Legends podcasts. And we're really happy you joined us today. So thanks so much.
David Patchell-Evans
Thanks, I guess qualifies a legend? Does that mean I have to be good or old?
Eric Morse
I think you have to be good and probably old doesn't hurt either. Hey, let's just start from the beginning. When you were growing up, was being an entrepreneur on your radar? And if it was, you know, when was the earliest you kind of thought about that?
David Patchell-Evans
Well, my father died as a child in a car accident that I actually saw. And so my mother had to look after three kids and three boys. So it wasn't a lot of money. So, you know, I never, it never occurred to me, I didn't know what an entrepreneur was, I don't think people talked about it years ago. what I knew was, I didn't want to be hungry. And I knew that my job is the oldest boy was to help look after the family. Okay, you know, so at eight or nine, I started to do paper routes, and shoveled snow and you know, cut grass and all that kind of stuff. And the benefit of that is you can kind of do it on your own time. And you could do it as fast and as hard as you want it to. So you get rewarded. If you get paid five bucks to cut a lawn, you get rewarded, if you did it fast, because you made money quicker, sure enough, and I can make a lot more money that way could then I think back then you get paid two bucks an hour or something. It was a it was a way to be more successful quicker. And when I wanted to. And you started, you had a paper route. And you kind of even at that time understood leverage, I think you had a couple of kids working for you doing their own paper routes. So in Toronto, at the time, there was three papers to go mail and telegram and start. And so people bought one or the other. So what I did was, I got all the papers on all the streets that I could walk to. And so then when I delivered, I was carrying all the papers instead of just one. So reduce, I got rid of the redundancy, right. All right. And then I also noticed that most people didn't like to go to the door and ask for money and go to the door and still someone buy the paper. So I spent a lot of time doing that. And then I got other kids that went to school with me to actually deliver the papers. I still delivered the Globe in the morning because not too many kids wanting to get up at 5 a.m. and deliver the Globe. But... but you know, what happens is when you collect the money, people are worried about people not paying, that's also when you get all the tips.
Eric Morse
Right. So that was a good insight
David Patchell-Evans
You know, and some of these people would actually have all three of my papers. Wow. You know, because some people want to read the paper all the time, right? Just you know, there wasn't, there was no internet, you know, so. So, in every direction, I could walk in, you know, half an hour, 40 minutes, I hit all the newspapers.
Eric Morse
Wow, great story. So then you came to Western University as a student you came to study business, but something traumatic happened that changed that path. Can you kind of walk us through that story?
David Patchell-Evans
Well, there's two parts. I don't tell people very often as in high school. One of the ways I figured out how to make money was to book rock and roll bands. Okay. And so like Friday nights, I used to rent a hall somewhere in you know, get all my high school students to buddies to party. But in the middle of summer before University, I booked the big concert and it rained all weekend. And I lost all my money. So I came to actually went to college, and I was walking through the college with my girlfriend at the time, and the guy thought showing us the campus goes, "here is the cafeteria, and it's all you can eat." And I looked at him like he was crazy. Say what? I just said, Okay, Sign me up. That's how I got to Western. Okay? I was like, I thought I could make a lot of money in the rock'n'roll business. But, you know, I had lost a bunch. They had these different government loan programs. And then at Western, I thought, I'm gonna take business and learn all about business. And, you know, enrolled in economics and business 20 is what it was called back then, I don't know what it's called now. And I had this bad motorcycle accident, and I ripped apart the right side of my body, you know, tore off my deltoid broke my clavicle, you know, ripped off my chest muscles. My right arm still doesn't go totally straight.
Eric Morse
Yikes.
David Patchell-Evans
But I went to the Kennedy Fallujah clinic for physiotherapy a couple times a week. And I was training. I mean, I was taking rehab, but all these Olympic athletes were around me training like crazy. And I said to David Weiss, who was the guy in charge at the time, you know, if I came more often when I get better, and he looked at me, like I was kind of crazy. He says, of course, of course, we get better, right? And so long story short, I ended up coming four hours a day. And so I got off the description of disabled, took a groin the following fall, to build the right side, my right shoulder was about four inches lower than my left, back up, in the experience made me passionate about fitness. And I had all these people helped me through that rehab journey. And I thought I could give back that way. So as I when I got accepted into business school, I thought, you know, I know I can do business. But I need I need a skill. So I said, I'm going to go back. I'm going to switch from business to kinesiology. And I remember the professor at the business school. Look at me, like I had two heads like, "what are you thinking?"
Eric Morse
Well, he probably didn't realize the the extent of your business education you had already by that time
David Patchell-Evans
No, no, but you know, he said, you're going to become a teacher? And I said, No, no, I'm not gonna become a teacher. And I'm gonna look after people's fitness. And he thought I was crazy, cause you gotta remember, this was a long time ago. This was 1975 right? Okay. And so when I took my kinesiology courses, it was called Phys. Ed, at the time, I was focused on I was going to how I was going to help people, right. So it really drove the focus. And because I'd gotten accepted in the business school, I could take my options to courses here in the business school, even when I went to do my Masters exercise physiology. They let me do that.
Eric Morse
Oh, great.
David Patchell-Evans
So I had this unique combination, right. And then I started a snowplowing business in university that gave me hands on experience. And then I got the business school to do an analysis on my snowplowing business is one of their...Which became a case study, right?
Eric Morse
Oh, cool. And you learn anything from that. Did you do anything good with the case?
David Patchell-Evans
I learned the process of thinking things out, the different papers you took talked about unique selling position, my unique selling position was I would have the snow plowed by seven o'clock in the morning no matter what. And I would take small lots that other people didn't want, but charge as much as the big lot.
Eric Morse
Got it
David Patchell-Evans
Most guys didn't want the inconvenience. And then I paid people that were in Physical Ed with me, or the sports teams with me. Well, because they're going to work all night. They but I paid them more for working fast. You know, so if you if you saw someone speeding in the middle of night, in some small lot in London, that was one of my guys. You know, and but I did it too, right? You can't ask people do things if you can't do it. So if it, if it snowed, I didn't sleep, usually for two or three days. But you know, back in 1976-77, I was making 70,000 bucks a year going to school.
Eric Morse
Wow. So you already even even though you didn't really think of it as entrepreneurship necessarily. You'd figured out a way to make money to pay for school and to do a lot of the, you know, the things you were doing outside of school, I'm sure as well.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. And the money... borrowing the money. I had five trucks at the time. And having to establish a relationship with the bank, when I went to borrow money for that very first fitness club. Is is my banker said, "I think that's a stupid idea, but we trust you... that you'll pay it back with the snowplow money."
Eric Morse
Ah, okay.
David Patchell-Evans
So the first 10 years really, that I had the fitness club business, I still still plowed.
Eric Morse
Yeah, really interesting.
David Patchell-Evans
So I lived off that not off the business.
Eric Morse
So tell me about buying that first gym. It was a gym that you were a member of. Is that Is that right?
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, I was training for the Olympics and the Olympic rowing team said if you want to keep your card, that's money that government gives you if you're a high level athlete... you need to work out of this novice fitness club. So I'm going to this place I don't need this. You know, I'm doing all this stuff in Phys. Ed, what do I need these guys? I went worked out and I found out this circuit style equipment, intense training was really good. And so I would ask the guy a lot of questions; I'd ask questions about training, and I'd ask him questions about his business. And I had done my thesis in fourth year on opening a squash club. And I'd done all the analysis of it at the time. So I was asking him some pretty pertinent questions. He looks at me and he goes, "you ask me damn questions. Why don't you just buy this business?
Eric Morse
Alright?
David Patchell-Evans
No, at the time I didn't know, I thought he was a lot older. But it was only about 10 years older than me. And his daughter now works for me. This gentleman...
Eric Morse
That's fun.
David Patchell-Evans
But you know, at the time, you know, he was in a different industry and he just thought I'd open this up, they were opened up across the country, it'll be easy. Well nothing's easy. Right?
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
And you got to be into it. So I opened it up and everyone said, what are you gonna do different? So well, I'm actually going to look after people. I'm actually going to get them in shape. Because fitness clubs back then we're focused on selling memberships, and not on changing lives. And that became my model, and we're going to change your life for the better. Right? You know, and that's that cultural difference of making it a reward for the time you put into exercise and making sure you get results. That's how we grew from one club to, you know, almost 500.
Eric Morse
That's amazing. It's amazing. Were there other experiences, while you're at university that kind of shaped your journey as an entrepreneur?
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, you know, when I think of the different things, I think of the case study program that they use... I assume they still do that at the school.
Eric Morse
Yeah, absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
So I learned to think, how people can think differently about the same thing. And weirdly enough, is I went to Huron College, as I mentioned, and they had all these courses I didn't take at Western. And they're all liberal arts courses. And, you know, I took a few courses in philosophy, sociology, which it never would have occurred to me to take. And we thought, you know, they were labeled bird courses, you know, really easy. But what they did is really make you think
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
Right. And when I took the case studies in the liberal arts stuff, and I started to think, how can you make a difference in people's lives? Because, you know, I thought anybody can do a business. You know, it's kind of arrogant to think, but I thought, if you're gonna do a business, what I learned from the snowplowing was, what was my unique selling position gonna be in people's hearts and in their bodies?
Eric Morse
Okay.
David Patchell-Evans
Right. How do I make their leisure and physical activity, their social activity, psychological activity, all make their lives better. You know, and created a culture in the company aimed at improving people the way they wanted to improve, you know. And then I took all kinds of courses in sales because as a athlete in a business school, you get arrogant. You think you know how to do it. Right.
Eric Morse
Right. world's your oyster at that point, right?
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. But when you actually go and try to sell something, I quickly figured out that I wasn't, you know, I was telling people, I wasn't selling, I wasn't getting inside of their heads, in their hearts. So I took all the top motivational salespeople in the world back then. I went to virtually every course. So I thought of that as my independent study. Right. And so I took the background that had the business school background I had in the liberal arts, and then the school of hard knocks, which is how do you actually make it work? Yeah. And put them all together? Right?
Eric Morse
Yeah. Fantastic.
David Patchell-Evans
So I guess that was entrepreneurship.
Eric Morse
Yeah. It's a good education.
David Patchell-Evans
And there was a great, there was a great professor, I took a course in entrepreneurship at the school, took it in the master's program, and there's a great professor there. His name was Russ Knight.
Eric Morse
Yeah.
David Patchell-Evans
You know, us?
Eric Morse
Yeah, I do.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. You know, and I go back every once in a while and say, Russ, what do you think? You know, and I bounce stuff off him. And then he gave me the... well he used my Snowplowing business as a case study. And then when I was going to open up my Second Club, we used it as a case study for a business course. I got so much out of that, right. Because now I was in defending myself, my idea... against people that were only a couple of years younger than me, in most cases, a lot smarter.
Eric Morse
I don't know about that.
David Patchell-Evans
But, you know, to have that challenge to your way of thinking was really useful.
Eric Morse
Yeah. You know, and sometimes teaching is such a, such a great way to learn, right? Because you just have to think about it in ways that maybe you wouldn't otherwise.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, it's not just a great way to learn but if the teacher asks you the right question. Right. I think that's the gift of the teachers that you have there is that they ask the right question. And that helps you learn.
Eric Morse
Yeah and you know the fun thing about the case method for me anyways Patch is that you know, hopefully, I'm asking good questions of my students but I always find I learned something new every time I teach a case, from their creative way of thinking about a problem and as you said earlier, everybody thinks about it a little differently. And that's that's so much fun for sure.
David Patchell-Evans
Well, it's when I read your resume, I thought, Okay, here's a guy that is thought about what people are thinking about.
Eric Morse
Ah well, thanks. I try. Well, so you bought that first club in '79? How do you go from one club to 450? The best known brand in Canada? You know, what led to that transition and growth?
David Patchell-Evans
Well, the first thing you have to do, in my case, I didn't have very many stuff is you have to do one stuff per time. You have to do everything yourself. Right.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
You know, and one of the hardest jobs I learned was cleaning the Whirlpool when it was 20 degrees below zero. You know, the filter was on the outside wall. You know, so I learned a little bit about construction that way, right?
Eric Morse
Sure.
David Patchell-Evans
And then I, as I went through my lease that I inherited from the previous owner, I realized this is so one sided?
Eric Morse
Yeah
David Patchell-Evans
You know, and so I had to learn how to read leases. So here, I had to learn how to make a whirlpool work. And then I had to learn how to negotiate with the landlord, and say, this is unreasonable.
Eric Morse
This is a major graduate degree, wasn't it?
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. You had to know the nuts and bolts of how to do something. And you had to know, the literal part of how to interpret the two things right. And then people come in to sell your advertising. And you quickly realize, I don't have a clue. So I joined things like the advertising sales club.
Eric Morse
Okay.
David Patchell-Evans
So that I, you know, in the concept that you have in school of continuous education, that's what you start, you got to put in practice, right. Right. I joined the advertising sales club and I learned, oh, I need to network.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
Right. And I need to make contact with people. Oh, this is what sales is, I need to take these courses. Right. Yeah. And, and then I had come back, but honestly, to the business school library, and say, Okay, this is what I need to know, take out four books, in the same diligence about, you know, that you would have, how do you understand this physiology problem? Yeah, it was a business problem. I had this unique way of looking at things from a business school perspective, and Exercise Physiology perspective, you know, because I trained, and how do I get people in the best shape their lives in such and such period of time, and I applied that same logic of, I want to run a marathon and this day is I want to open a business on this day. And what did all the backward steps to do? Right? The combination of skills really worked out well.
Eric Morse
Yeah, absolutely. What how did you go about? I mean, I think you've really changed the perception of gyms across the country, right? They were always fragmented. It was kind of always one offs. There were a couple of chains, but they didn't have the best reputation. How did you tap a piece of it?
David Patchell-Evans
What I started off with having core values for the company, and the number one core value is caring. And, you know, we've grown to about 20 clubs, and we've been influential, but there was this negativity that came from many other clubs not operating ethically, as you're just implying, right? So created a thing called a Canadian Association of Fitness Professionals.
Eric Morse
Okay
David Patchell-Evans
I knew I couldn't change the ownerships mind. But I could influence everybody that worked for them.
Eric Morse
Okay. Interesting.
David Patchell-Evans
And I knew if I made everyone in the industry get better than I've made, but give the opportunity for everyone in the industry to get better... people being what people are. People in the fitness industry want to help people. Like, if it's like a teacher, like yourself, if you didn't want to help people, you wouldn't continue to do this. Right?
Eric Morse
Right. Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
So people that stay in the fitness industry inside of them, they want to help people. So the role of canfitpro Canadian fitness professionals was provide courses and materials opportunity for instruction, to develop people's talent to deliver what they want to deliver when it didn't exist. It's one thing to take a course in school, it's another one to know how to deliver it to a person.
Eric Morse
Sure.
David Patchell-Evans
So I get people said to me, Well, why are you creating these courses are going to educate all your competitors? I said, my job is to stay ahead of my competitors, no matter what, whether the Course exists or not. But if the whole industry can get better, then I'm going to be I'm going to do okay, too. There's no way I can run all the fitness clubs in the country. Realistic, right. Right. So... because there are low barriers to entry to run a fitness club, you know, in terms of...
Eric Morse
No, absolutely
David Patchell-Evans
It's not like a telecom company, right. So by educating everybody, then everybody became better. Yeah, more Canadians become fitter, which was my goal anyways,
Eric Morse
Right. Sure.
David Patchell-Evans
It helped him on all fronts.
Eric Morse
Yeah. And he really became the leader in the industry. So you know, by doing that more people are going to want to work with you for you and hopefully join the gym as well as that trickles down.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah we became the industry leader in Canada. But canfitpro is the fitness leader in the world.
Eric Morse
Yeah, that's fantastic.
David Patchell-Evans
You know, so I have the most clubs of a single individual anywhere in the world.
Eric Morse
Is that right? Oh I didn't know that Patch.
David Patchell-Evans
I can't think of an organization of 20 clubs or more, one by one person. But I'm also one of the few people with a practical degree, like kinesiology Phys. Ed, that runs fitness clubs, because a lot of times people don't combine the two talents. Right?
Eric Morse
Right. No, I think it's that combination that you've had, through your work and through education that has really set you apart that way.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, in the university, quite honestly, creating that melting pot that allowed me to get these things.
Eric Morse
Well, what lessons might you have learned, you know, going from one to 450? Or maybe it's more than that now I think? You know, any lessons that you would share in terms of how do you grow that quickly? Or things that you had to learn along the way?
David Patchell-Evans
All kinds? So for me, the key was, how do you do one club? As good as you can?
Eric Morse
Yeah.
David Patchell-Evans
In basically, I always think of my businesses, one member at a time, right? So I always want to keep every member. But everyone's important. And I try to think, medically professionally, like every life counts, right?
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
With that attitude, you develop enough people one location, you can open a second, you can make more money, if you have one location and one look more money per location, if you just focus on one location, but it's not convenient for the population. If you're if you just had one location in West London, for example. Yeah. And people from East London would have to travel all the way. So then the next stage was build it, and then build a conveniently go more, you know, that led to being dominant in London than it led to be dominant in different parts of Ontario, then dominant in Ontario, then dominant in Canada. You know, and I couldn't, I took the same techniques down to New Zealand. And we're now you know, we've been there four years. And we're the biggest group of clubs in New Zealand.
Eric Morse
One of the things we talked about a lot patch in entrepreneurship is the this idea of what got you here may not get you there. And we often talk about talent on the management team, the system's, the processes you have in place. You know, can you tell me about that? You know, how did you get your operation so that you could handle, you know, clubs across the country.
David Patchell-Evans
I was in the sport of rowing right? Now, I played hockey, and I played football and stuff like that... In rowing. You can only go as fast as everybody in the boat. So it doesn't matter how great you are individually, the boat will go any faster if everyone's not going together.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
So that was my edits were the business. And then I tried to surround myself with people that were better at different things than I was, like early on... a guy that was a fireman. His name was John Connolly, his wife. He's passed away now his wife still works with me to him. He saw me working fixing fitness equipment. He says, It's driving me crazy watching you try to do that. Right? So he became my second employee, and he was fixing equipment for me on the side. But he was really into computers.
Eric Morse
Okay.
David Patchell-Evans
You know, I'd get all these checks. Every month, I'd be writing those checks. And he saw me doing that one night at three o'clock. And he goes, Well, let's just put that on a computer. This was 1980. Okay. But John on the side had become great at computers. Back then they were RadioShack computers. So we were actually we created a system for doing withdrawals before the mortgage companies were doing it. You know, so there was this technical side, a little bit implemented, right? And then I'm pretty driven person. And I'm go-go-go all time and I need someone to balance me out. I had a great employee was working for me. Her name's Jane Riddell. She graduated from Western too. She was a high level athlete at Western. And, uh, she was really kind of like the Ying to my Yang. She believed in the same stuff, but then she would say, okay, here's how we implement it piece by piece.
Eric Morse
Okay.
David Patchell-Evans
I didn't I didn't have time to do the piece by piece. Right. I'm running. Yeah, they come running... and Jane would make sure this stuff got followed through got followed up on right.
Eric Morse
Absolutely critical.
David Patchell-Evans
So and she's... Jane still with me.
Eric Morse
Wow! Fantastic.
David Patchell-Evans
Second-in-charge of the company. So that led to developing great people that stayed with you. So in my upper management team, if you came from the fitness side, there's nobody in the upper management team that hasn't been with me 20 plus years.
Eric Morse
Wow. That's a real statement.
David Patchell-Evans
And when they've come from other sides, like, Pat Jacklin, who's my CFO, you know, she's been with the me and I think 20 years too.
Eric Morse
That speaks a lot to your culture Patch. You know, can you tell me more about the importance of culture and how do you keep people around that long.
David Patchell-Evans
People don't want to leave. People don't want to go places. If your culture is fun, really helps. So, you know, I'm the Chief Entertainment Officer, right?
Eric Morse
(Laughter) So back to your rock and roll days.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. But on a scale of one to 10, I reinforced constantly, that we're tens. We have to be 10s to help people become 10s themselves.
Eric Morse
Okay.
David Patchell-Evans
You know, I teach people about how to engage with people, talk to them, and elevate their spirit. And that culture is one of the things that keep everybody in the company. Most people want to have lives of meaning. So if I, if I do the right things, they can fulfill the purpose, they have to have a life of meaning inside the environment of our clubs, right? The first person you have to look after is your staff. And if you look after your staff, they'll look after your members. I want that, you know, and I want the members to be looking after way I'd want to be looked after.
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
So it's just care for each other. Right? Yeah. Happiness is one of our values. Perseverance is one of our values. Integrity, right? Fitness, of course, you know, so all these things are crucial and important to the picture.
Eric Morse
Yeah, and I, you know, gosh, we've been through so much over the last 18 months now that culture, I'm sure is has been a big part of what seeing you through. But if we think about this past year, global pandemic, it's not your first crisis, it's your toughest given the government forced you to shut down. How do you lead during a crisis?
David Patchell-Evans
You gotta believe. You know, the key part of my success has been believing in myself to make another people believe in themselves. And let's believe in ourselves as a team.
Eric Morse
Okay?
David Patchell-Evans
So you got to believe that these things are temporary. It's like injuries, I'm injured, I will get better. You know, I have to do the rehab. Now, after the training and have to work out, but I will get better if I do those things. So with COVID is, you know, let people know you have their back. Let them know you get it. You know, make sure you pay the same price they do. Like when COVID started, we paid our people for two weeks, you know, even though we had to close.
Eric Morse
Yep.
David Patchell-Evans
And I stopped paying myself then I still not pay myself. And does that make a difference? Everything makes a difference. But psychologically makes a huge difference, right? It's no different than when I started, be able to do every job and be in everybody's shoes. So I don't agree with the way we've done things. I believe fitness is a right. The the opportunity to look after your health should not be taken away from people. There are ways to do it. Right.
Eric Morse
Yeah.
David Patchell-Evans
So I think that's been totally done wrong.
Eric Morse
A lot of people suffered because of it, I think mentally and obviously physically, but I think mental health, a lot of us, myself included, you know need to workout.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, they've proven for 50 years that if you exercise on a regular basis, you make 20% more money. 20% more productive. 20% happier minimum.
Eric Morse
Wow.
David Patchell-Evans
Right? You know, we know. And this is one of the failures of our school system. If kids exercise on a regular basis, they get better marks.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
Oh, but what do we do we cut back on Phys Ed. Right. Yeah, and think you know, something magic is gonna happen! It's not. Right? People's level of self esteem is higher when their bodies were right. It's not perfect bodies, but having a functional body. Because when you have a functional body of a functional brain.
Eric Morse
Yeah. Well, you know, I've heard you in the past, talk about activity and how important it is just to the regular operation of your business, it's had to be really hard to keep that up throughout the pandemic and keep your, you know, your top team positive about what the future is gonna hold.
David Patchell-Evans
Oh, it's hard. But I mean, running a marathon, it's hard, but you can do it. Right? virtually anybody can run a marathon. If you can run a mile and if you can't walk a mile, then you'll learn how to run a mile then. But it's having the tenacity to put one foot in front of the other. Right? So my people have been incredible just saying, Okay, son came up today, what are we going to do? One of my favorite quotes is Leonard Cohen. The doors got a little crack or the windows got a crack. I can't remember how it goes. That's how the light gets in.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
Right. So you just got to look for any glimmer of hope to buoy people up, right. Yeah. So if there's a COVID going crazy in Alberta, how's it doing in PEI? So Alberta, we could be like PEI really soon. You know, I wrote a thing called the 21. Leaders Guide to Resilience. You know I'm a big guy on resilience right? So at the start of COVID, I said, What am I going to do? So I started getting up two hours earlier. I got 10 developments, psychologically improving, motivating books, and I would read five pages, 10 pages, 20 pages of each one, all from different walks of life, right? And I read these, and I jot down notes. So every morning, for the first three months, my morning was focused on how to be better. So then I wrote this guide, and I shared it with my staff and with anybody that wanted it. If anybody wants it, you can have it. But it was about taking 21 minutes a day to set your day up for success. Well, no little bit of stretching a little bit a minute, minute meditation minute thinking about this, that kind of stuff. With the whole idea. It was like exercise for the heart. Yeah. Basic heart, mind, body... But to move you to that stage, so you would be hopeful.
Eric Morse
Okay Yeah. And you've got everybody back to that culture thing. Everybody is trading on something doing a shared experience and looking, you know, towards the future. I think that's tremendous.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, it's, it's, you know, you have to be student history, too, right. Yeah. So this isn't the first plague. Europe In the Middle Ages was devastated, but half the population or more being killed. Right.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
How do we not have that happen?
Eric Morse
Yeah, for sure.
David Patchell-Evans
And then how do people get out of it? So I talked about the roaring 20s are coming.
Eric Morse
Alright!
David Patchell-Evans
So 100 years later, but the next roaring 20s are coming, right? Yeah. Yeah. And then I talked about, you know, people realize now that the hospitals are not designed for your health, they are designed for you when you're sick.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
So your job is not to go in the hospital.
Eric Morse
Yes.
David Patchell-Evans
It's not to go in the hospital, find out, you know, how to get unsick. Your job is not to go there in the first place. You know, and you can be the unlucky one that gets cancer, you can be the unlucky one that gets something else. But all those things are reduced if you're healthy.
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
And your mental attitude is a big factor in this. Your mental attitude can only be positive if your physical capabilities are positive.
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
But which is why I believe fitness should be considered an essential human right. So to get through COVID. It's like getting through a marathon. Same deal, right?
Eric Morse
One step at a time.
David Patchell-Evans
One step at a time. You don't know what's coming up. So this is like a marathon over a mountain, through a stream, in the dark.
Eric Morse
Right. Right. Right.
David Patchell-Evans
All we know is that there's a finish line, but we don't know where it is.
Eric Morse
Yeah, that's the hard part, isn't it?
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah, we know that it'll finish because it always has, yeah. To be standing here and healthy when it finishes, yeah. financially, spiritually, intellectually, socially, that kind of stuff. So it's the balance of all those things all the time? And like, how do you make a prudent financial decision, so your business is still here... In three months, six months, whatever it is, and also a decision that is for the positivity of the people work for you and for your members?
Eric Morse
Yeah, that's hard.
David Patchell-Evans
That's, that's the daily. That's my daily grind.
Eric Morse
Yeah I'm sure.
David Patchell-Evans
The... the opposition forces.
Eric Morse
So let's look forward now a little bit. You know, four decades, you've been doing this. Goodlife Fitness. You've built an amazing business that affects you know, people in their daily lives. What keeps you going?
David Patchell-Evans
You know, I didn't get in the business to make money because I kind of thought I would make money from a snowboard business, right? You know, as I developed I thought, okay, you can make money doing this. But you're only gonna make money if you make a difference in people's lives. So I'm so lucky... before I read about it, I was doing what I love. You know, so I would have done it for free. Right. So that takes us forward to now is my job now is to prepare my successors, you know, so I spend my learning curve preparing them. And it goes back to when I'm, I was picked Entrepreneur of the Year in Canada about 10 years ago. And as I was talking to him at the time, they said, you're the only guy who hasn't sold.
Eric Morse
Ah Okay?
David Patchell-Evans
Right. And I said, Well, how did I get picked then? So it's because you've grown so much, you've learned how to be somebody different at each stage. So now, my job is to leave a legacy inside the people that work at Goodlife. So, you know, I fall off a mountain heliskiing things are looked after. Right? Right. And so that's what I'm learning to do. And for an entrepreneur, that's really hard.
Eric Morse
Right!
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah And got to where they are right? And it's illogical that one person could do all the stuff anymore. But if I can develop in all the different components of the industry, the same attitude of caring, or whether you're driving our technology, or driving our construction, or driving our people department, if everyone's got the commonality of culture, then they can fulfill the mission of their particular part of the business. Cause they want to go do it. So I'm trying to think, Okay, how do I become entrepreneurial about creating people with different skill sets that can run the company, so no one's gonna know all the stuff I know, because they didn't start from nothing.
Eric Morse
Yeah, you said something, I think it's really important their Patch, I mean, you've gone through a trajectory, right, a life journey that that no one else has. And so you have a body of knowledge that's different than, you know, I think a lot of people don't understand the patience that it often takes for an entrepreneur to build that team below them because, you know, you forget, oh, gosh, yeah, it took me 10 years to learn that that was 30 years ago, but it took me a long time to learn that and so there's some patience that that goes along with building that team. And, and I think the entrepreneurs that build the best teams, you know, recognize that and give time to their teams to really make it work. Right.
David Patchell-Evans
So you've obviously interviewed a few? (Laughter) No, you're absolutely right. It is patience. Yeah. It, you know, in the risk I see in the classification of entrepreneurship now, yeah, sometimes that gets mixed up with get rich quick.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
And so when people talk about being an entrepreneur, I often think they think they're going to be a tech entrepreneur, come up with an idea and get rich quick.
Eric Morse
Right.
David Patchell-Evans
Bill Gates did not get rich, quick. No. Right. You know, Steve Jobs did not get rich, quick.
Eric Morse
Yeah. And I like to remind people that 99.9% of all business started are not tech businesses.
David Patchell-Evans
And, you know, in 95% of businesses fail by the fifth year, right, right. So, it really, if you're going to work for yourself, and be an entrepreneur, pick something that you actually really care about. Because if you're thinking about how to cash out, you're probably never going to cash out.
Eric Morse
I think that's a great lesson for our students and for all entrepreneurs, frankly. It's going to be hard. It's going to take time, and so you better love it.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. And you've got to like people, and you're not going to do this by yourself. No, if let's say, you're really good in engineering, and not so good when people get some people on your team that make up for your weaknesses, the number one thing with entrepreneur is to get people that back up your weaknesses, and your weaknesses might be stronger than most people in that area but they are not the level of... if you want to be huge and great at your business, your your strength becomes a weakness, unless you have people that are better than you. Like surround yourself with people that are better you because the skill set of being entrepreneur is that weird ability to see something that other people don't see and create something.
Eric Morse
Mm hmm.
David Patchell-Evans
So most of the time, people aren't gonna agree with you. At the same time, you gotta be willing to sit back and say, okay, they don't agree with me... should I be listening harder?
Eric Morse
Yeah. That's a great skill.
David Patchell-Evans
Same patience you talk about, right?
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
You know, so it's great that people talk about being entrepreneurs. And, you know, one of the things they need to think about is leading with your heart, not your head.
Eric Morse
Yeah, you gotta have both right. And too many people leave one at the door for sure.
David Patchell-Evans
Yeah. And it doesn't really matter what it is because you're going to deal with people. Yeah, even if you're making robots.
Eric Morse
There's people somewhere in that.
David Patchell-Evans
Somebody is going buy the robot. Right? You know, so it's it, there's always a saleable? Yeah. There's, which means there's always a connection with people involved.
Eric Morse
Patch this is, this has been a lot of fun for me. What's one last thing that you might share with our listeners, whether they're students or maybe somebody a little bit later in life, thinking about starting up a business?
David Patchell-Evans
I'm thinking about how you're also going to give back.
Eric Morse
Okay?
David Patchell-Evans
So one of the things I've noticed is, even when I started the business, we we funded charities, charities, you know, I was in the Boys and Girls Club group, for example, nonprofit in my area, right? I couldn't make a difference. So think about ways that you're going to give back, ways you can socialize and give back. I didn't know it at the time, but when I look back it has two major benefits. You create a social group outside of your work group.
Eric Morse
Yeah.
David Patchell-Evans
But when things are shitty in there will be shitty times. Yeah, that social thing you've done, also fills up your heart.
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
Like my business helps people. And if you're doing something you really love, it's almost always gonna help people in some way. Right? So if you're, if so if you consider yourself on the darkest days, I'm helping the people that work for me. I'm helping the people that buy whatever we sell, and I'm also giving back in some way. Yep. You know, I've tried to give back in a lot of different ways over a period of time, and I look back... when I was given a PhD from Western, it was in recognition of all the stuff I've given back. It was so, so interesting because they weren't giving me this degree because I had been awesome in business. It was because I taken some of that talent and give back to people. And then I was so lucky that the chancellor was Joe (Joseph) Rotman. And, he and I got to talking. And I said, I asked him what you just asked me what motivates you? And he says, Come and see me.
Eric Morse
Oh, yeah? Cool.
David Patchell-Evans
So I went, saw him on my birthday. Okay. He spent like four hours with me telling me a story. He says Patch, the best part of my life was after I was 60, when I started to spend more of my time giving away money, then making it.
Eric Morse
Ah that's cool.
David Patchell-Evans
And after he died about three or four months after he died, I sent a letter to his wife. Just telling her how much I appreciated that day.
Eric Morse
Oh, wow.
David Patchell-Evans
So I happened into that by accident. One of the first things that Western, they had a special Olympics thing, the Winter Special Olympics. And it was like, early on the first year, and I volunteered. And so um, I had this boy that I was looking after, who's only I think a year or two years older than me. He had downs and it was super nice. Had a great day, teach him how to cross country ski, and everything. It was all at Western, right. So I went back to Huron College, I'm having dinner that night, and I'm telling the group that I'm with about my great day at the Special Olympics, right. And then the woman sitting across from me, her name was Sue Cullen, but her name is Sue Cullen now, the man who became her husband was a good buddy of mine. He's on one side of me. And they had been childhood sweethearts from Sarnia, Ontario. And they both looked at me kind of funny. So what was his name? I said his name? Is That's my brother.
Eric Morse
Oh, you're kidding. Wow.
David Patchell-Evans
Right. So fast forward, like, would have been 30... 25 years later, I have a special needs daughter who has severe autism. And I'm getting people to help me with this. And she's one of my first volunteers.
Eric Morse
Wow. That's great.
David Patchell-Evans
I didn't, you know, I didn't know at different times, I've been drawn to help the special needs community. Yeah, that I would end up 30 years later, lucky enough to have a special needs kid on my own journey with you. And that special needs kid taught me half the stuff that has made my business successful. And the number one thing it taught me, you talked about patience. Yeah. And it taught me to focus on happiness.
Eric Morse
It is amazing Patch, it is a circle, right. And I think people and especially aspiring entrepreneurs, too often lose sight of that, you know, your reputation is critical. Your network is critical. You're, you know, that idea of social capital, which I think is kind of what you're talking about, and giving back. And, you know, all of those things help you so much as an entrepreneur in ways that that you can never know. And as a person as well, as you've pointed out.
David Patchell-Evans
And there's a fun side to it, too. It's like, I'm sitting, we're doing we have conferences all the time for our staff. And I'm sitting beside a woman, Rochelle, who's helped organize our conferences. She's fairly new to our company a couple years. She's talking I looked at her said, Did you work with the Ceeps? (Laughter) And, you know, for people listening to this who aren't from London, the Ceeps is the beverage, beverage institution of London.
Eric Morse
That's right... for many years.
David Patchell-Evans
And I used to work there.
Eric Morse
Okay.
David Patchell-Evans
Right. And so the Ceeps is a very fun place to work. Yeah. You know, and I tried to keep that culture and Goodlife. But her job was to help at this conference, make sure we had fun.
Eric Morse
Perfect.
David Patchell-Evans
And so sitting, I get to talk to her. I go, "No wonder!"
Eric Morse
Yeah (Laughter)
David Patchell-Evans
Right. Like, what you're talking about is what goes around comes around, right?
Eric Morse
Absolutely.
David Patchell-Evans
And Rochelle is still with me doing a great job. Yeah. And we're still a fun company to work for. Because I start off every call with on a scale of 1 to 10, What are you? Our people in Goodlife believe in themselves...
Eric Morse
Yep.
David Patchell-Evans
Then they can influence other people to believe in themselves.
Eric Morse
Absolutely. Yeah. What a great business. You know, I can't wait to see what the next four decades brings and wish you all the best and share your positivity in terms of getting through the tough times. We are in right now.
David Patchell-Evans
Thanks so much for the opportunity. Really appreciate it.
Eric Morse
You bet Patch! Thanks so much!
David Patchell-Evans
Take care.
Eric Morse
The Entrepreneur Podcast is sponsored by Quantumshift 2008 Alum Connie Clerici and Closing the Gap Healthcare Group. To ensure you never miss an episode, subscribe to the show on your favourite podcast player or visit entrepreneurship.uwo.ca/podcast Thank you so much for listening. Until next time,