Pursuit of Excellence 
By Kerry Lorette
PLUS
Wayne's Success Story for Clarence Bass
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In 1959, a seventeen year old young man was asked to fill in at the last minute on the company squash team. The young man with a background in tennis and a bent toward athletics hadn't really played the game before. Eager to be a part of the team environment at his new place of employment, he agreed to play. By his own admission, he failed miserably.

Most people would have shrugged it off, excused their performance on the basis of lack of experience. Wayne Gallasch isn't most people. 

He wanted to be more than a competent player, he wanted to be the best - or at the very least, the best he could possibly be. He went to work on his squash game and ended up winning a state title and other squash championships.

Practicing squash led him to bodybuilding in order to build up his strength and stamina. When he started to win physique and power lifting competitions, he discovered a new outlet for his competitive spirit - and a lifelong passion.

As he progressed, he began to research nutrition and develop his own protein products. With the lack of access to such products in Australia - fellow bodybuilders asked him to make up some of his protein supplements for them. Soon word spread.

Wayne found himself with a business on his hands, working nights and weekends with a partner to produce the product. Seeing a market advantage, he tracked down a wholesaler and offered his product. The wholesaler reluctantly agreed, but made Wayne promise to buy any of the product back that didn't sell. Two weeks later, the wholesaler called. His stock was wiped out and he needed more. The "Nutra-Life" food supplements business was born. This was in 1964.

But producing nutritional products didn't bring him close enough to the world of bodybuilding. During competitions, Wayne took the time to talk to his fellow competitors and submit nutrition and training articles based on his own experiences to the overseas bodybuilding magazines of the day.

They were well received and soon he was asked to take photographs to accompany those articles. He was then asked to film top events by a USA physique film distributor.

One of the first events he decided to film was the 1970 Mr. Universe Contest in England starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In those early days, only television crews were allowed to film. Thanks to the shrinking size of film cameras, Wayne got his shots -- through an opening in a brown paper bag he brought with him to the event.

This first film created a clamour for more. The young insurance officer and supplements developer with a wife, baby and mortgage approached his boss for more time off to go overseas.

"How can you afford this? I know how much we pay you!" was the response. Wayne then confessed his side business in nutrition and growing love for recording the sport of bodybuilding. In doing so, he realised that he could no longer commit to his day job. So, breaking with traditional wisdom, he quit - with not a penny in the bank.

The boss predicted a grim future - failure, bankruptcy, poverty for a wife and child. The perfect tonic for a competitive spirit.

All through the next decade, Wayne went overseas twice a year, worked in his supplements and film businesses and gradually faded out of competitive bodybuilding.

Customers who bought his supplements started asking for more. Weights, home gym equipment, clothing. Having moved his supplements business to a warehouse, Wayne made extra space and launched a fitness equipment business in the warehouse - known to Adelaide residents today as Fitness Warehouse. 

When video production technology came on the scene in 1982, Wayne approached his film distributor partner - wanting to make the switch from film to video. When the partner who had been responsible for distributing the films refused to consider the growing consumer demand for the medium, Wayne made a hard choice. He struck out on his own - the start of Gallasch Muscle Videos, now known as GMV Productions.

In 1983, an offer was made to buy out his Nutra-Life supplements business that was too good to refuse. Wayne then became a general health food wholesaler himself, purchasing rights to distribute other people's supplements and videos and building his other businesses.

The health food wholesaling portion of the business soon took off and a sales manager was called for. A ladylike woman called Tina with a head for business answered the call in 1985.

Her business acumen proved itself and it wasn't long before she bought out the wholesaling business. She also bought into the home exercise equipment retailing side of the business and started to lend a hand in marketing the bodybuilding and fitness videos.

Estranged from their spouses, a shared passion for hard work, bodybuilding and business development soon became personal. Another rule of business was broken - Wayne and Tina got married.

Together, they continued to listen to their customers. Demand overseas led them to realise the need to convert their videos to foreign standards, in particular NTSC. So, they looked around Adelaide and saw that other video producers needed local standards conversion. They purchased the right equipment, set up a duplication system to meet the market demand for their own products and GMV Productions with a public service profile was born.

Their first offices were set up in the same building as another video producer. This producer had editing equipment and Wayne, wanting to make his videos even better, learned the art of video editing.

As the business grew into the mid 90's, Tina's marketing antennae picked up on the explosive interest in the internet. A video customer offered to build a site in exchange for some free videos.

The first site Tina describes as "very basic." Even so, the response it received was overwhelmingly positive.

The response to the first site led to the creation of a second, one that offered a manual form of online ordering. But as the online community got more sophisticated, Tina and Wayne started getting requests from their customers to simplify the ordering process and make the already large site bigger and better.

Identifying what they liked on other sites, they sought out a developer who would take the site into the next phase of e-commerce and give the design a once-over. Happily, they decided on M-Plex.

Since streamlining the ordering process and re-designing the site, Tina says the hits have doubled. But more importantly, sales have too.

Tina says the web site ( www.gmv.com.au ) is like running a bricks and mortar business and Wayne updates the content almost daily.

Today, Wayne and Tina Gallasch travel the world and videotape for DVD release major bodybuilding and fitness events, Expos and professional contests, and the biggest names in the bodybuilding world. Their building in the heart of Adelaide's central business district houses an edit suite, a large duplication facility, a warehouse of DVDs, plus staff.

What have they learned from this incredible journey that started with prospective failure?

1) LISTEN TO CUSTOMERS. "Keep in touch with your customers. Feedback is priceless - it is free advice from your customer based on what they want. Listen to it. If what they want is related to what you're doing -- consider expanding your horizons."

2) IF NECESSARY, BREAK THE RULES. "If rules (not laws) get in the way of what you want, break them if you must. But remember to be prepared for the consequences." Bad rules should be broken!

3) COMPETE HONOURABLY. "Stay focused and harness your competitive energy. Be Nicely Aggressive. You can be well mannered and nice and succeed in business. Nice doesn't have to mean weak."

4) GROW SENSIBLY. "Don't be pressured into growing too quickly. Make sure you have a plan and don't go in under-funded. It's better to do it right."

5) HAVE THE COURAGE TO ASK FOR OPPORTUNITIES. When Wayne was first starting out, he approached some of the biggest names in the business to ask if they'd mind posing for him. Most agreed and Wayne built a reputation of getting the shots others said they couldn't. 

Sometimes he has even offered to work for free in order to open some of the more difficult doors. That has resulted in his being invited back -- and being well paid for his work!

6) DON'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER. "If I really want to do something where I need approval from someone else for rights or access to a market, I keep on until I get the answer I want."

7) BE TRUSTWORTHY. In your dealings with customers, suppliers and business associates: have the image that what you say can be trusted, but more importantly BE someone who is trustworthy. 

8) IF YOU USE NEW TECHNOLOGIES, DO IT RIGHT. "If you have an email address with your own domain name and have a professional web site, it sends a message to your clients that you are serious about your business. Just like having nice offices or an attractive store, if you appear to be successful, you are." 

9) YOU CAN MIX MARRIAGE WITH BUSINESS. They work together, they live together. How do they keep the marriage together? "You have to make a conscious decision NOT to talk about business during your private time," Tina said during our interview. Wayne chuckled and shot her one of those private "married couple" looks. Tina laughed and ducked her head. "Well, at least not right before getting ready to go to sleep..."

10) PICK SOMETHING YOU LOVE. While it's obvious Wayne's desire to be the best has shaped his business, as Tina observes "The success of GMV is all based on Wayne's passion for what he does. If you don't have that, it's impossible to find the energy and will to want to be the best."

**To read Wayne's article for Clarence Bass' SUCCESS STORIES section of his site, please click here.