I recently had a woman stop by the studio interested to join but she couldn’t because of her dilemma. She liked everything we had to offer and was particularly interested in our expert coaching in a small group setting. The problem was she had a membership to a local chain that she went to 5 days a week in the morning before work and she had a 2nd membership to a Boot-Camp gym that she went to 3-4 days a week after work. Her problem wasn’t our cost, but the total amount she was going to be spending on gym memberships. Her other problem, and a bigger issue, was trying to determine when she could fit in the time to come to our studio. After she explained to me that she had multiple memberships, I asked her “Why are you here?” It’s my thought that one gym should be enough. This would make sense to me if either of these gyms offered different training modalities (for example: participating in Spinning for cardio and fat loss and Pilates for core strength). Both of these facilities promise fat loss. She then went on to tell me that she wasn’t getting results from her 1st membership and she injured her back at the 2nd gym. Her doctor recommended she stop going, but she felt obligated because she was financially committed. I haven’t mentioned she has 6 kids. I truly felt bad for her. I felt she was wasting her money, and more importantly, her time.
I’ve wrestled with time management. As the studio has grown in our membership base, so has my team. My 12-14 hour days can consist of working with people privately, in a small group, mentoring one of my coaches, or working on the operations of the studio (marketing, finances, program design, etc). Throughout this process, I frequently review our method of delivering workouts. It’s a business for me, not a hobby. I’m sorry to report that many of my peers treat training and coaching more like a hobby. I guarantee to people that if they follow our program they will experience solid results. I actually like the challenge of taking a hard-gainer, someone very frustrated with their current state of fitness when they join, and following their progress. I get a kick when I observe someone who initially couldn’t perform a lunge unassisted and I then observe them doing it with a 20lb. sandbag in a couple of months. It gives me satisfaction when our members share their stories about seeing someone they haven’t seen in a year and the person doesn’t recognize them. Random compliments at Starbucks, fitting into old clothes once considered too small, and just feeling good about themselves when they look in the mirror, are comments that have become the norm around the studio. When I had this woman with 2 memberships in front of me with no results, I started to ask myself, how did this happen to her?
Around 4 years ago, my interest started to grow from being strength and conditioning coach, to being a solid operator of a facility. I have actually studied the restaurant business as a good model. One of the keys to running a successful restaurant is to deliver a consistent, good product to your consumer. Running a personal training gym is no different. Like an executive chef, I have my hand in everything, but I don’t perform every workout, similar to a chef that doesn’t cook every meal. We update our workouts, like they update their menu. I tend to lean more towards a five star steak house that prides themselves on having the highest quality ingredients, perfectly prepared and served. Our ingredients are the tools we use (kettlebells, TRX suspension system, and the Ultimate sandbag). The preparation is the expert coaching my team and I deliver. The service and hospitality is the fun environment it’s delivered in and the community that our members feel they are a part of. Bottom line of any restaurant - is the food good? At our studio the question is- do our workouts produce results? I can answer emphatically, yes!
This upcoming week we’ll be closing out the 1st of our semi-annual Challenges that I host every year. We will award the person who loses the most body-fat in 5 weeks $500 cash and $250 to the person in 2nd place. It’s not uncommon for our winners to lose 5% and 20lbs. That’s in 5 weeks. The average participant will lose 2% or 8lbs of body-fat. Again, this is all in 5 weeks. I host these challenges because as a husband, father and business owner, I understand that life sometimes gets in the way and your workouts aren’t always your priority. I do this to show people that if they commit 100% to our program for 5 weeks, good things will happen. At the end the day, I never want to waste anyone’s time or money.
See you at the studio.
P.S. Interested in our workouts, but getting to the studio isn’t convenient? Stay tuned as we launch our Online coaching and training in a few weeks. You can receive our coaching and experience all the workouts we perform in the studio, right in the comfort of your own home.