‘It would never fly today’: How Michelle Bridges turned a teenage dream into a multi-million-dollar fitness empire

When celebrity fitness trainer Michelle Bridges was 14, she convinced her school principal to let her run classes in the gym for the kids who usually ditched sports. But she wasn’t about to stop there. It was the 1980s, the height of the aerobics craze, and Michelle was thinking big.?

She gathered her legwarmers, her spandex leotard, and her cassette mix-tapes and went to persuade the owner of the local squash courts to let her run classes there.?

“The man must have been on drugs to let me loose on the general public. It would never fly today. There’d be so much litigation,” she jokes. “For many years, I’ve had an extremely strong sense of self-belief. I think it was because I was doing something I really loved.”

The Biggest Loser trainer Michelle Bridges is now at the helm of a multi-million-dollar fitness empire. This is what I learned from her about purpose, passion, and how to keep going when it all falls apart.

You create your own luck

Michelle honed her craft as a Les Mills instructor, bringing the global fitness phenomenon to Alice Springs and later to Sydney. Her classes were wildly popular and one day in walked Australian TV icon Kerri-Anne Kennerley.?

“It was at that point in my career where I thought, ‘We’re witnessing a tsunami of obesity coming our way and me teaching a couple of fitness classes here and there is not going to make a difference’,” Michelle recalls.

Being the ultra-motivated self-starter she is, Michelle decided to pitch an idea to Kerri-Anne for a fitness segment on TV.

“I chased her around the gym. I turned up in the most unusual places, like in the locker room when she was half undressed. And then finally she said: ‘I’m so sick of this. Alright, I’ll give you to my producers’. And the rest is history.”

Michelle then became a household name as a trainer on The Biggest Loser television show – a role she also landed in part because of her own initiative. She had seen the US version of the show and thought: “I want that job. I can do that job. I can do their job better.”?

“I sent an email to the production company saying, ‘If this show ever comes to Australia, I’m putting my hand up straight off the bat’,” says Michelle. Two years later, she got the call to audition.?

Punt on your wild ideas, even if others don't think it will work

A few years into The Biggest Loser, Michelle started to think about how she could reach a new audience and train people outside of the show. The 12-Week Body Transformation program was brought to life – online.??

At the time, no one was launching fitness programs in the digital space, but Michelle just knew there was something in it.

“I’d like to say I was a genius, but the truth is I was just flying by gut instinct”.

The program itself also challenged the status quo. Michelle wanted it to feel inclusive, so 12WBT is designed in rounds – everyone starts and finishes together.? “I was very clear how I wanted this business to run. The doors will open, we’ll start and then we’ll close the doors and we’ll go for 12 weeks. And then we’ll reopen the doors and start again,” she says.

“My accountant said: ‘That is the craziest business plan I’ve ever heard, effectively shutting your doors for three months. That makes no commercial sense’.”

But it created a sense of exclusivity and intrigue. The program went gangbusters. Its design fosters community, connection and a shared purpose – which good leaders know is a highly effective motivator.

There is beauty in vulnerability

The COVID-19 pandemic meant 2020 was a rough year for many people. Michelle hit rock bottom. Word got out her relationship with fellow TV trainer ‘Commando’ Steve Willis had ended, and she entered a phase of single parenthood. It was not an easy time to be in the public eye.

“That year was the most challenging year of my life, without question,” she says.

Where Michelle had always been the one cheering others on, suddenly the roles were reversed.

“I learned a lot about vulnerability and how beautiful vulnerability can be. Sometimes you look at social media and you look at negative comments, and you think people are mean, people are rotten. But I found it to be the opposite. A lot of people were very supportive of me and I allowed my guard to come down,” she says.

“It’s true what they say: when tragedy strikes, you soon work out who is there for you, who’s got your back. I know now that the close people in my circle are rock solid.”

She also drew strength from her lifelong passion: working out. “Exercise takes you away from the problems. The problems will still be there, but after a workout, the way in which you handle them and think about them has shifted. Taking care of your mental health through exercise is probably one of the best gifts you can give yourself,” Michelle says.

Curveball is a production of podcast consultancy and production company Deadset Studios. Curveball’s host Kellie Riordan is a leading podcast strategist and former head of podcasts at the ABC.