Designing services inclusively can bolster your company's competitive edge and help you save marketing dollars. In this episode we meet Innervate Fitness (https://www.innervatefit.com/) - a unique gym that offers CrossFit training to clients who are commonly ignored by the mainstream fitness industry. Join hosts Petrina Kow and Laurindo Garcia as they get physical in this weekly podcast series from Be Inclusive.

****TRANSCRIPT****
Laurindo Garcia 0:02
So it's a typical day in Singapore, hot and humid. I am standing outside of Innervate Fitness. And in a moment I'll be going into speak to its founders and staff. I'm interested to find out about how a gym can be more inclusive to clients with diverse needs. And it's been a while since I've been to a gym. So here we go.

Petrina Kow 0:41
Hello, hello, and welcome to Inclusively, a brand new podcast series on inclusive business practices in Asia. I'm Petrina Kow.

Laurindo Garcia 0:49
And I'm Laurindo Garcia and we're delighted to be your hosts on this journey.

Petrina Kow 0:53
In today's episode, as you've heard, we're gonna get sweaty.

Laurindo Garcia 0:58
Yep we're in a gym. Specifically Innervate Fitness, a gym that offers products and services that are designed inclusively.

Petrina Kow 1:04
Okay, that sounds interesting. But what what does it actually mean?

Laurindo Garcia 1:09
Hang on, hang on, more on that later. But what I want to ask you is this. When was the last time you actually spoke to somebody at the gym?

Petrina Kow 1:16
When was the last time I was actually at a gym? I don't think I've been to the gym, in ages, I basically workout at home.

Laurindo Garcia 1:25
I'm the same I work out by myself in a park. But what's interesting about the folks at Innervate Fitness is that they have created a conducive environment for social interactions between different groups to come together and to flourish.

Petrina Kow 1:38
Okay, so what do you mean like tea dance or like speed dating?

Laurindo Garcia 1:43
Why don't we hear from the Innervate Fitness co founder, Moses James.

Moses James 1:46
it's a gym. So we come for group class, and there's bound to be some points where you're going to talk to someone. But what we found is that when we have our community days or group gatherings or events, that there's a lot of value in the interaction between different groups. And so we engineer ways to kind of promote that, that, that interaction.

Petrina Kow 2:14
So it was a very deliberate attempt for them to have different groups in the community to bump up against each other. But who exactly are the community

Moses James 2:25
We're a social enterprise. We work with youth at risk, persons with disabilities and the elderly. We have unique programmes for each of these groups in our gym.

Laurindo Garcia 2:35
That was Moses James, one of the co-founders at Innervate, and...

Petrina Kow 2:38
Wait. So he was saying, like those elder the seniors, there are people with disabilities. And so it sounds like they're two very different groups in the community that they all have under one roof.

Laurindo Garcia 2:54
That's right.

Petrina Kow 2:54
In a gym.

Laurindo Garcia 2:55
Exactly. I mean, conventionally, most people most business owners would focus on one specific segment in this customer segment and just focus on that. But what's unique, and I'm quite surprised with with this is what's unique with Innervate is serving multiple, and very diverse groups all under one roof. And that, to me is quite exciting.

Petrina Kow 3:20
Well, I'm wondering how they got from the, you know, I don't know, like seniors to like, I mean, would you have enough sort of equipment or or knowledge to serve such different communities with different needs, I would assume?

Laurindo Garcia 3:35
Well, I think you'd be surprised where they actually started.

Lionel Choong 3:38
It was my intention from the get go to do and initiate a youth programme that could help the disadvantaged youth here in Singapore.

Laurindo Garcia 3:46
That sounds great. But how do you transform that passion into something that's in a gym,

Lionel Choong 3:51
it's essentially a fun with fitness functional fitness fundraising event. That we get people down the fitness community down to do workout together. It started out small with like 40 people. Then the last iteration we had 650. Yeah, we really grew over the years. And the time and time again, we raise money for the various charities from Reach Community Services society, to this to the previous year, Singapore Children's Society, upcoming year, Singapore Children's Society again.

Petrina Kow 4:22
So in a way, it really began quite intentionally with that one group youth at risk. And I'm wondering, what is it about that group, I guess that that caught his interest?

Lionel Choong 4:32
There was a moment I was travelling, doing a small mission trip over to I think, wow, I want to say Kuching. Kuching in Malaysia, and I went there and I saw poverty at its lowest and at it's worst really in my opinion at least. And then I came to Singapore. I was really like how was really like broken I was like wah I really need to do something about it. And back then my coach Coach Kevin, he started, he was the guy who first started Operation Broken Wing. And the idea of it, and he said that you don't need to look too far away, they you know there's this, there's these youth who are in need. This poverty. And this youth in need here in Singapore. And true enough, when I went down to see that, and really witness that all together, it really, really moved me. And I think from there we tried to rally together to make a difference altogether. Yeah,

Laurindo Garcia 5:26
That was Lionel Choong, the other co founder from Innervate Fitness. What's interesting is that when they did rally together, they started from humble beginnings, and it has since transformed into something really quite fantastic.

Petrina Kow 5:39
So I guess it became clear after their very concerted efforts to serve this particular community, that when they became quite embedded within that community, they began to open their eyes to further opportunities.

Moses James 5:54
What we realised very quickly was that it's the persons with disabilities who aren't active that everyone's been trying to get on board. And so in a sense, the demand from this group of people is a was a little bit. How do I put this. There were more obstacles to them joining than then we thought. Most of it has to do with either time or money or both. So they'll say that the don't have the money for programme, they can't make time to come down. And upon reflection is actually similar resistance that able bodied people have towards studying like, gym programme.

Petrina Kow 6:39
Well, I can certainly relate to that this whole idea of time and money and I think that really is a common one like we, we talked about that all the time, right? Oh, no time, no money lah or whatever.

Laurindo Garcia 6:52
Think about it when you put your business hat on. You know, what they're dealing with is a classic business problem where they have to learn how to acquire new customers. And I can see what they, the opportunity that they've got, because they're working there. They're trying to serve a market there where there are fewer players. But you know, they're not going to get customers serve up to them on a silver platter. So they have, they're gonna have to work that out. And that's tough for any business, whether you're social enterprise or not, you gotta just keep on at it. Day in and out and day in and

Petrina Kow 7:25
Yeah, day in and day out, or day out and day in.

And, but, you know, I mean, the thing is, I've what, what really struck me about how they were going about it was really, it was a sense of, it's like this, this really big hearted mission, you know, to really be there for a community. And I think by by being so engaged in that community and the connections that they had, that it kind of opened doors to other communities and you know, immediately those, those those creative ideas and things sparked out that maybe it wasn't a, you know, a business plan that the document that came out that said, 'Okay, we're going to serve all these different groups of people.' And that's not how they began. But I think because of who they were and how deeply entrenched that they were in the community that that, this almost. I wouldn't say it was just a happy surprise was I bet there was a whole heap of hard work involved. But they were really able to serve the community and serve it well.

Laurindo Garcia 8:28
But hang on. I mean, hard work is a given for any entrepreneur. So what's really driving them to keep on persisting?

Lionel Choong 8:35
There are these moments where we do have to weight up and we realise that pursuing social causes comes at the expense of maybe spending time running an event, spending time resting for that matter, spending time doing any other thing. I mean, push put social enterprise aside, social entrepreneurship aside, as an entrepreneur, you the baseline for being an entrepreneur, you need to be ridiculously creative. I think you need to be creative. You need to be passionate. You need to want to go beyond your ways and means to find that profit, to find that customers, to make the magic happen.

Petrina Kow 9:12
That was Lionel Choong, one of the co founders of Innervate gym talking about being ridiculously creative. I love that. And next we're going to hear from Moses James on how doing business inclusively, gave them the competitive edge,

Moses James 9:27
Having that social angle and the things that we do for these groups of people, allows us to tap on various partnerships that we could then establish. Like running programmes, at off site locations at a senior activity centre or at the Children's Society itself, you know. These things feed back into the business that way and then we, close the loop, you know, by providing the services to them as well. It helps the beneficiaries a lot and helps us a lot too.

Laurindo Garcia 9:56
So what's it like for the beneficiaries? That's here now from Janessa Yu who started working out at the gym and loved the experience so much that she eventually became one of the gym's first employees.

Janessa Yu 9:56
So before CrossFit, when I did squatting exercises for therapy and the like, after squatting multiple times, my legs would start to feel a bit numb. And I think at that point of time, I didn't really know why. But after I joined CrossFit and being coached by Moses and learning the proper form and technique for squatting properly, I found that the numbness went away. I didn't really have that problem. And my legs felt stronger. So I think that that's one tangible benefit, which I was able to get from joining this programme.

Laurindo Garcia 10:51
And what I found speaking to her was, it wasn't just the physical gains and strength that she had made being at the gym, but it's also the the the confidence building that that whole thing that came with her being part of a gym, being being able to be your true self for work and seeing seeing other people's confidence also being built as well and I think that that's really great.

Janessa Yu 11:14
Across the board I see that people who come through this journey learn to start doing, start slow like myself, but after a period of time, you can see there you know become they become more confident. They become stronger or they're more willing to try something which previously they might say 'oh no I cannot do this.' Or think 'I cannot do this'. See maybe I can try this out and see whether I can do this. So, I think other than the physical aspect itself, the mindset change is very important as well. Because it helps in life beyond the gym as well.

Petrina Kow 12:00
And it's it's really inspiring to hear that I think too, especially if you're listening to this right now and you maybe are struggling with something either physically or mentally or you want to even thinking of trying something new, but you, you've been hesitating for whatever reason. But you know, I know I've been in that space before where you're full of doubt, right? You might be physically unable, maybe at this point to try anything new or different. So I suppose like, what would you say then to people who are, you know, struggling in that space? And and what would you say to them to take that leap of faith?

Lionel Choong 12:35
Always have them come and try? And you know, and you're like, come and try that. Oh, that wasn't so hard. Yeah. See? It's not that difficult after all right? Of course, I told him the story of our youngest kid adaptive athlete. Blind, visually impaired athlete who can do a box job. And I tell them what the story of an elderly who is eighty six year old who but can do a burpee. A lot of people think that there are really intimidated and scared by so many things, but I always encourage them to just try. Because you never know, unless you try. So long as you are daring and have a big heart. Give it a shot.

Petrina Kow 13:12
Now it's the effervescent Lionel Choong, one of the co founders of Innervate Fitness. And this is also our very first episode. Thank you so much for joining us on this wonderful journey of inclusivity.

Laurindo Garcia 13:24
What I hope everyone has gained from this episode is a you know, concrete case study here in Asia about how a company has designed products and services inclusively, and also learn to be innovative through inclusion as well. And these are all useful case studies to help us on this journey to make the world a more inclusive place.

Petrina Kow 13:45
Thanks for listening. That's it for episode one. Join us next time on episode two where we will feature...

Laurindo Garcia 13:55
We'll be continuing the conversation about inclusive product design. But this time from a different angle. Imagine designing products to be more inclusive on issues around race and sexual orientation and gender identity.

Petrina Kow 14:09
Exciting. Can't wait. And of course, if you like what you heard, please tell your friends about it. And if anything inspired you if you have comments do let us know. Remember to like, like and share, like and share everybody huh, like and share. And thank you so much for listening. My name is Petrina Kow.

Laurindo Garcia 14:28
And I'm Laurindo Garcia. Thank you so much for listening.