The Franchise Insiders "Inside Scoop" Podcast

Josh York CEO GymGuyz How Mindset, Accountability, And Grit Turn A Small Idea Into A Global Fitness Brand

• The Franchise Insiders • Season 5 • Episode 18

Share episode

Send us a text

We sit down with GymGuyz founder Josh York to unpack how a mobile fitness brand scaled to seven countries by pairing accountability with convenience and culture. We talk mindset, unit economics, trainer retention, recovery, cash flow, and the power of relentless consistency.

• bringing the workout to clients anywhere with fully equipped vans
• why gyms fail most people and accountability wins
• exercise as medicine and habit design that sticks
• group sessions, B2B classes, and lean overhead economics
• due diligence with franchisees and survival funds
• culture, career paths, and trainer retention
• recovery protocols including cold plunge and sauna
• hydration, protein, and post-workout structure
• cash flow literacy and knowing your numbers
• grit stories, risk, and staying calm under pressure
• leadership by example and following the playbook
• teaser for a new fitness concept in 2026
• where to learn more and contact the hosts

Text us 305 710 0050 for our calculators, checklists, the 27 red flags to watch out for, and how to decode an Item 19


Visit www.thefranchiseinsiders.com to subscribe.
Send us your questions for an upcoming episode at 305-710-0050.
From your pals in franchise ownership, Jack and Jill Johnson.

The Franchise Insiders

Podcast

Schedule A Call

Text: 305-710-0050

Take our FREE Business Builder Assessment

SPEAKER_03:

Hi everyone, welcome back to the We Bought a Franchise podcast. I'm Jack Johnson.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm Jill Johnson.

SPEAKER_03:

And today, of course, we're joined by our esteemed panel of franchise consultants. We've got Brian Gross and David Sam Juan. But we also have one of our favorite all-time guests. This is his second time on our show, uh, Josh York. Josh, welcome back.

SPEAKER_01:

Jack, Jill, guys, thank you so much for having me on the show. I'm beyond excited and grateful to be on here. So looking forward to it.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, uh, Josh, I once heard David Lee Roth say it's like a shot of lightning in your Cheerios. And for all of you listening first thing in the morning, you ready for a lightning bolt in your Cheerios? Here comes Josh York. What I love about Josh is that, dude, you you just you built your franchise from humble beginnings to now like this this massive nationwide, maybe international franchise. Josh, what does it take to scale something like this? How'd you do it?

SPEAKER_01:

It takes the right mindset. That's what it takes. Like if you don't have the right mindset, you're not going anywhere in life. That's that's just that's just a fact. If you want to get, you know, if you want to be like normal people, try to get normal results. You gotta do what normal people do. If you want to be extraordinary, you do what everyone else doesn't do because doing things the normal way will never ever work. And speaking of uh, you know, international, we uh just actually sold seven, uh now we're in seven countries, four new countries. We just closed the deal literally yesterday. We're now going into Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Morocco, and Egypt. Uh, super, super excited. Uh the partners are incredible, and we are about to blow up. We're gonna open up a couple hundred locations now in the Middle East. So uh very excited about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Have you have you been there before? Have you been to that region before?

SPEAKER_01:

I have not, but I will be actually going there in the beginning of the new year.

SPEAKER_04:

How cool.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04:

Josh, can you tell us a little bit about your franchise? Just people probably seen before, but just give us kind of an overview.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure, sure, sure. Yeah. So so we bring the we bring the workout to you, right? We're not a gym. We're the rebellion against it. Gym models don't work. 90% of people have a gym membership, don't go. Treadmills become the most amazing clothing racks, apps don't work, AI, it'll help enhance, but it's never going to solve the problem. People need accountability and people need human interaction. So we come in our fully loaded advanced, stocked with enough equipment that you could possibly think of to provide you an incredible workout, 365 days a year, backed by our three C's, convenient, customized, and creative workouts, and we service clients anywhere. Home, office, pool, park, place of worship, hospital, senior homes. We work with large businesses. We are literally running PE programs for schools, like you name it, senior centers, uh, retirement homes, we're everywhere. And we do what we love to do. Make a living, but really make a difference. We help people, we change lives. It's the most rewarding thing in the world. I can sit here and tell you stories. Some of them get me emotional. We also do a lot of stuff with um disabilities, work with a lot of young kids with autism. We really help people, and it's the most rewarding feeling in the world. I got a call not too long ago from uh a parent of a child who severely disabled, um, needed help to start walking again. Very bad accident, uh, you know, heartbreaking to see. You know, I have kids, you know. I'm I know you guys have you know kids, everybody, I don't know if you guys have kids, everybody on here, but heartbreaking to see, and we just made it our job to help this this this child, and and we did. And it was the most amazing thing in the world. Like the mother called us up, like hysterical crying. Like, what would I have done without you guys? And uh, you know, she literally came to actually to my world headquarters to give me a hug. It's just incredible, man, what we do. So it's very, very rewarding, and um, I love it, and I'm you know, I'm very passionate about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Doing well by doing good, Josh. Yep. That's excellent. I I mean to be able to have something that gives back that helps people. Um, and let's face it, for those of us that are, you know, it we're busy, right? Life is busy. It's like we're getting all these great tools. I mean, I I'm sure you guys have seen it. AI has helped our business tremendously. Um, right now we're actually doing a project where all of our consultants were building all their Microsoft sites on AI. And the the just the convenience we have now versus a couple years is incredible. But we're all now doing more and taking on more stress. And and Josh, how important is physical fitness? Is being mindful, is things like mindfulness and the thing, the services that you provide. How important is that to everybody from all walks of life?

SPEAKER_01:

So doctors love to prescribe medications, right? Like they should be prescribing exercise. Everyone always wants to know man, Josh, how do I get energy like you? How much coffee you drink? How many energy drinks do you do? Zero. Zip, nothing. I've never drank coffee in my life. I don't drink any energy drinks. I've never taken a drug, never smoked, never been drunk. I'm just high on life. But you know what? My drug is my exercise. And it doesn't matter how I feel, doesn't matter if I'm having a bad day, doesn't matter. You do it every single day. I, you know, everyone here brushes their teeth twice a day, right? Hope so. Well, if you stop doing that, your teeth are gonna rot. Same rules apply to your body, and movement is medicine. You need to exercise, you will feel better about yourself. And honestly, why do you want to be walking around like not in shape? Like you just your clothes fit better, you're more confident, you feel great. Like it's the most powerful thing you can have in the world. It's it's your calling card, it says everything about you. And then on the flip side, because I see this all the time, you have children and you can't keep up with your kids because you're out of shape. Like, you need to be on top of your game. And I understand that everyone likes it, but there's really no excuses anymore because now there's a service out there, like Jim Guys, that holds you accountable and comes right to you wherever you want. You can't say you don't have space, you can't say you're busy at work. Well, we can come to work, we can work you out in a parking lot. We we make it work, we bring the workout to you. So um, exercise, everything, number one. And people be like, oh, well, I can't exercise, I'm too busy. That's not an excuse either. And honestly, you need to be a little bit selfish. The first person you need to take care of yourself, because if you can't take care of yourself, you can't take care of anyone else. And you gotta just figure out when to make it happen. And uh, it's very important.

SPEAKER_02:

Josh, uh I'm curious about uh trying to petition here over to the economics of this model, right? I think what you're doing really cool in the fitness space. We're seeing it in other industries as well, mobile, mobile, like say pet grooming, for example. So if I'm at the gym this morning, I look around, there's a hundred people there, all paying membership, all paying dues, there's trainers, multiple sources of revenue. So, how does a business like this scale where you're showing up working with one client at a time?

SPEAKER_01:

So we don't just work with one client. We do one-on-ones, we do semi-privates, we do small groups, we do large groups. We have some B2B accounts where we have 50, 60 people in a class, right? So uh it's it's very scalable. You also got to remember in the gym model, okay, you know, you have a bunch of people showing up, your expenses are also like times 100 compared to whatever it is in our business model, right? I have I have owners doing, you know, again, I'm sharing it, not saying you're gonna do it. You could do it, but I have owners doing seven figures a year, making 50 to 60 percent net profit margins. How do you do that? By working hard, right? Here's the next problem. People think you buy a franchise and you get sprinkled with fairy dust, you become a millionaire. No, you still have to put the work in and you still have to inspect what you expect, and you got to create good leaders. You got to hire good team members, you gotta be on top of them, and you got to be that person that people want to be around. Like being a boss is probably the worst thing you could do. You got to be a good leader. But when it comes to the economics of the model, the model's incredible, right? We are our youngest client, six, seven years old, and we actually have a couple that's 103 that you would believe you wouldn't even believe it. They look like they're in their 70s, and their parents said we've changed their entire life. We've given them probably another 10, 15 years of life just by them moving and exercising. So the demand is super high, and you're probably going to a gym, that's probably a one-off because most gyms don't work. Okay. I I tell you, we got it within like our world headquarters here, we have 37 gyms within five miles. And I don't even know how they survive. And then I go, Oh, wait, stop. I know how they survive. People pay$10 a month,$15 a month, and people say, all right, you know what? I go once a month, it's better than not going. Oh, I keep the membership. That's how you make money. It's not about really helping people and making a difference. It's about just filling up that bank count with how many members can I have, not show up.

SPEAKER_03:

Josh, you know what I like about your franchise? One of the things that we absolutely mandate for our clients is speak to five to ten franchisees. Speak to a low performer, speak to a high performer, speak to a mid-performer, speak to someone that left the system. Because you're right, there ain't no such thing as that franchise fairy dust. You've got to be the one that makes it happen as the franchise owner. And so we know if we send a client to you guys, it's not going to be like, oh, well, hey, you can talk to one or two owners. With you guys, you have so many franchisees out there, people can really do their due diligence because look, it has to, an item 19 can show you a million dollars average revenue. That's fine. But you've got to talk to the people that are out there. You've got to hear them. You've got to feel like, hey, if that guy can do it, if that gal can do it, I can do it too. You know, it's like we just had a client that got approved for a franchise, a great franchise yesterday, but he still had only called two franchisees so far. He had gone to the Discovery Day, and I'm like, dude, you still have five more phone calls to make at least. Don't you can't move forward. Look, you're gonna work with a franchise consultant, you're gonna get this pushback. You can't move forward till you talk to those five franchisees. So that's what I love about a system like yours is I know when I send someone to you, my client's gonna have built-in exit and acquisition partners, meaning that if in 18 months it ain't a good fit, they can sell to one of your other franchisees. But if they're rolling, you're gonna have other franchisees that they can acquire.

SPEAKER_01:

100%. Couldn't couldn't have said that better.

SPEAKER_00:

You're right, Jack. You you told me yesterday you're gonna love this guy and his energy and and everything he talks about. You're 100% since the minute I joined the call. It we just, you know, Josh speaks my love language with uh with the gym. Uh I've been working out my entire life, played division one baseball. Um, obsessed with working out, and I 100% agree with you. Like your body's gotta come first. And it's funny, I got into a rut last couple weeks, and I look back and what was I not doing? I wasn't waking up early enough to get my workout in, said I'll do it later. So again, I I love all this. My question to you, and and coming from also the fitness industry, I'm actually a certified personal trainer, is how do you retain your your trainers? Like, you know, we know in the gym model they come and go, whoever pays more, whoever you have to pay less fees to, how do you keep your guys from saying, hey, I'll call you on Saturday and charge you less?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so that's the secret sauce, man. And I can't share all those goodies, but I will tell you, no, you know, it's funny. If I you know, if I sat here and counted about all the people that told me this would never work, come man, we'd be here a very, very long time. Look, here's the deal culture will kill anyone with a good strategy. If you don't have a good culture and start there, that's a big problem. You need to have core values in your company, you need to have a mission, and you need to really actually align with it. I love how people say, oh yeah, uh, you know, you we we have respect in our company, and then the person's out of shape and they don't take care of themselves. Well, you don't have respect for yourself, so how are you gonna have respect in your company? That makes zero sense, right? Like 99% of the time people have issues, they should look in the mirror first and look at themselves before they start, you know, blaming other people. But look, it's very simple. We've actually created a career path. And remember, I was a trainer. I haven't trained anyone in like 14 years now. But look, being a personal trainer is not scalable. I tell everyone that. We actually share that in interviews, and people look like, what? Because most gyms want you to be slaves. We let them get opportunities where they can come from being you know part-time trainers to full-time trainers to territory managers to master trainers. We have many trainers who've come in zero dollars, partnered with franchise owners, and got equity in their company from their hard work. You're never getting an opportunity like that. Now, look, are you gonna have trainers that are come in and some will work, some won't? Yeah, but I'll tell you, like, you know, we have thousands of them now, and we just had our annual convention in Vegas. And if you want to go on YouTube, type in Jim Guys, and go watch our video. I also make our uh our own little rapslash pop song. It's unbelievable. You can also download it on all platforms. It's called All In this Year. The energy is so nuts. We call it the recharge, not our conference, because it's it's meant for you to come learn, connect, evolve, and recharge your batteries, recharge your business and get out there and drive it. We the amount of managers and trainers that came this year and how fired up they are. I had an owner call me. I just crack open. He tells me, he goes, dude, like I don't know if you put something in those drinks, but my trainer's brainwashed, like he's nuts. Like he is all in the business. The guy's waking up super early, he's working now, like four or five hours extra a night. He's obsessed, and he's like, This is what I'm doing the rest of my life. And the guy's sales are going through the roof. You gotta have a good culture, and that's the secret. And and the reason when I say I'm not gonna share the secret is because you can't share that. Like, that's not that's not taught. Like, you have to learn that and you have to you know earn it and get out there and understand like how do you want to be treated? That's how we treat everyone here. And I call I call everyone, people like to say we're a family. I don't say we're a family because families don't win championships, teams do. Okay, and at the end of the day, sometimes you might not have that right person on the team. You gotta trade them. Sometimes that happens. That's business. But we have the most amazing team ever, and um, it's pretty incredible. And you watch that video within five minutes of watching that video, you will understand what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_03:

That's awesome. Culture is so important. Um, you know, it's interesting. I was talking to um, do you know Charles Von Figlio, CEO of Tintworld? You met? Oh, yeah, yeah. I know, yeah, I met him, Charles. Yeah, he lives, we're like neighbors. So um we see him out on the walk. Um, we're working with a client, and I called him Saturday morning. He's like you, CEO, big company, important guy. He answers his phone Saturday morning. I'm like, hey Charles, sorry, sorry to bother you on a Saturday. He's like, call me anytime. I'm I'm always when I say this, for those of you listening, I don't want you to take this wrong. But he said, I'm always working. And it when you own your own business, it's not like it was when you worked for corporate America. It's like, oh man, I have to work this week. And it's like, dude, I I want to, I want to do this stuff, I want to work on deals. And there's a reason why Charles was that the first ever$2 million franchisee at Midas. You know, that's what propelled him into becoming a franchise or a reason Jill and I were the first ever France$2 million franchise consultants. It's when you can, and it's a reason why you have grown such an incredible business, when you can translate that passion, when you can have that goal and just be relentless into growing a company. And that's something every franchise owner, every franchise consultant, every franchise or needs to remember is that we have to be relentless and we have to be goal-oriented.

SPEAKER_01:

Dude, 100%. And listen, I'm 24-7, 365, and I balance everything. Uh look, first of all, there's no such thing as work-life balance. You balance it, you make it work. You want to go, you know, see your kid at school at lunch, okay, you can make it happen. Work your calls around that. You want to do something late at night? Okay, do it and then work after. I love working. I'm 24-7. Listen, I talk to all my franchisees every single quarter. Sometimes weekly, I talk to them. And I and they all have my numbers, every single one of them. And you know, my executive team gets mad a lot, like, Josh, you got to stop doing that. I'm never gonna stop doing that because that's who I am. And honestly, that's why we sell so many, and that's why I have so many so much success in the system, is because I am very involved. I will pick up the phone. I will say, listen, that call you just had was not the right call. I actually just heard it because operations sent it to me. This is how the call has to happen. Call this lead back. This is what I would say. This is how you're gonna close the deal. Works like a charm every time.

SPEAKER_03:

That's awesome. So, Josh, obviously, and by the way, you should Brian and and uh David both, they're they're like you. They both like they when when you meet them in person, like I thought I had, you know, decent muscle, and then these two guys show up like hiding flag, you know. Um, but it's important to build muscle. We know that we have to eat the right foods to continue to build muscle. But something that Jill and I didn't learn until we got a little further, so we didn't we didn't take enough time on taking care of our bodies after the workout. And that's something that in recent years, um, like massage, stretching, cold plunge, sauna. I would say I spend as much time on recovery now as I do, you know, on the actual workout. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that and maybe where your business is going and how how you guys will continue to expand if you're on that same track as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So yeah, it's definitely something that we're gonna be expanding to at some point. Um, because we're obviously already in the household or at the you know place of location that we're servicing. But number one, everyone should be pre-cooling their body before exercise. Okay. My testosterone, never even touched testosterone, never in my life. It's like a 17-year-old. It's over a thousand, almost a thousand milligrams. Um seriously, if you it's there's actually proven studies. If you pre-cool your body in temperature of 50 degrees or less, I do 27 every day because I just like I like it, it's comfortable to me. Um, but if you do it every day, and but you do it before exercise, and then you actually warm your body up, you will increase your testosterone. And again, my testosterone is through the roof. That's number one. Number two, yes, recovery is very important. And everyone always thinks you got to constantly pound, pound, pound, pound, pound. So there is something I do, and I share this often, it's very hard to do because I'm a lunatic. But every like nine to twelve weeks, I actually take a full week off of training because I train so hard. And um, you're you know, when you train as hard as I train, and I train like very, very hard. Your central nervous system needs to recover, your ligaments, your tendons need to recover. So that recovery is very, very important. Also, I should be sleeping more. It's just tough, you know, sometimes in my schedule and playing late night with my kids, or I gotta get my little guy to bed and he doesn't want to go to bed, and then I'm up with him all and that, but you know, so my sleep should be something I should prioritize more. But yeah, sleep's definitely also very, very important.

SPEAKER_03:

How do you track your sleep? Like I do the aura, and then I just ordered the whoop. Do you do either of these things?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I don't I don't do that. I just you know go to bed at this time, wake up at this time, I know how many hours I sleep, and uh, you know, one thing I like to do is old-fashioned way. Yeah, I try I try to I try to take an 18-minute nap every day, and I swear by that. Literally swear by that. I it doesn't matter when it is, it could be first thing when I get into my office, or it could be lunchtime, or it could be at six o'clock, or before I go home, whatever it is. But I try to take an 18-minute nap and I and I swear by that. But you know, I'm also very big into the sauna. I go to the sauna four uh literally four days a week, but like people like to go in the sauna like I go in the sauna. Like last five minutes in the sauna should be so challenging that you feel like you're gonna die. That's how you're actually really doing a real sauna session. Um, not going in there for 10 minutes, like, oh, okay, you know, towels off, and you know, you're walking out and you feel great. No, you you have to really because you're detoxing your body, you're you're releasing you know, shock proteins, like uh horm growth hormone goes up. There's so many advantages to it. And it also everyone's like, what do you do for your skin? I don't do anything for my skin. My skin's just so clean because I'm constantly like detoxing it.

SPEAKER_03:

I also drink a lot of water and people show punch, Josh, is good for the skin. Um, I really do. I think if like I always make sure I immerse my face for at least like 10 seconds.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's good too. That's really good too.

SPEAKER_03:

The sauna, you're so right. Like I did it this morning, and I at the 20-minute mark is where it gets hard. Uh, here's my question to you. And and Brian and David, I want your thoughts too. Red light sauna versus traditional. This is something Jill and I were debating the other day. Jill, Jill wants to get a red light. What do you guys think?

SPEAKER_01:

It's very funny. You're we're having this. So I just had this conversation with someone else the other day. I swear the red light, infrared sauna is a hundred times harder than the regular sauna because I've gone in like so so well, actually, I take that back. I did go in one sauna that was just out of control. But most regular saunas, I don't know. I just feel like they don't they don't do it for me like an infrared, like the way I sweat in an infrared sauna is like not normal. And you know, I you know it takes like two and a half hours to like really warm up to the to the top temperature, but I have one at my house, I love it. I also have infrared the the red light on it too, so I'm getting bolted at the same time. And uh yeah, I love it. It's great.

SPEAKER_02:

What do you guys think, David? Brian? All right, actually, so Josh, I want to I actually want your take on this. So we talked about you know lowering the body temperature important to that. I've seen a lot of the research there. How about someone like myself? I I love to work out, do something daily, but I kind of do this thing where I get lazy. I say, you know what, actually I'm just in maintain mode. I'm not trying to push myself because it's comfortable. And then I also love the sauna, and I I do exactly what you just said. I go for 10 minutes because it's comfortable, and then I go on with my day. So what do you recommend for that post-workout?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, post-workout. Well, first of all, everyone like I you know, I drink a gallon of water a day, but everyone's gotta like drink a water with like electrolytes. Like people think you drink water and you hydrate, like you you actually don't hydrate your body if you just drink water. You need to have electrolytes or some form of salt in your water to actually hydrate your bias, number one. But after a workout, look, you gotta be having protein every meal. That's very, very important. Um, you know, a lot of people like have these crappy protein shakes all the time, and that's really not good. You should be getting your source for mostly food. You know, I do have one shake a day, and that's it. But um, you know, I'm constantly like just giving myself, you know, healthy foods, like foods that are grown in in the ground, you know, and um I think at the end of the day, like people still can realize they can enjoy themselves. Like, you know, I went out on Saturday night, you know, I took my boys to the opening night for the Islander hockey game, and we were in this club, and like the food was just unbelievable. So I just went to town. Like, I must have had like honestly, I don't even know how many calories I must have had. It was not even normal, but like two days later I'm back to my normal weight. But I don't eat like that every day, but you can still enjoy. But like 90, like I'd say 85 to 90 percent of the time, you you got you gotta be healthy. But post-workout, you just gotta make sure you're hydrated, you gotta have good protein, and you know, make sure you're resting properly because you know your body's not gonna recover if if it doesn't. And if someone who you know is looking to like really amp it up, you got to get into that zone that like, see, I like I believe like I'm this unstoppable superhero and that no one could touch me, and that's why I'm the greatest in the world. That's just what I believe, and you should believe the same thing. But I just push myself, and it's just I get off on the fact that no one could do what I do. Like the things I do are so challenging, I love that. Like when I do my sprints, sometimes I duct tape my mouth and I only breathe from my nose. It's so hard, you have no idea, but it's it's very good, first of all, for my hockey skills, because I was I'm also a big hockey player, I still play every week. But the point is, is like I like to do things other don't others don't, and I know I'm gonna get rewarded in ways that others don't. So that's how I think about it. And then for those who are lazy, can't get up in the morning or have a problem. Think about someone you really love, right? So I focus on my family. I literally tell myself that something really bad is about to happen to my family if I don't get up and get out of bed. And I get up every single time, it works every single time. So, like the mind is so powerful and can play lots of tricks on you, but you also have to believe these things too, and that's what's gonna allow you yourself to elevate. And also, I say to myself, man, I got like thousands of team members in seven countries, in three thousand cities, in thirty-two states, and everyone relies on me, and I'll never let them down. So that's another way I look at it. So you have to kind of like somewhat play tricks with your mind with certain things that work for you, and that will help motivate and inspire you to get after and do what you got to do. And you know once you get it done, you're gonna feel great.

SPEAKER_00:

Jack, I I'm an infrared guy, and I think it's mostly just because of the smell in the in the sauna rooms that when they're not infrared, it's something about that smell that I I can just smell it now while I'm talking about it. Um But uh you you just touched on a big point there, Josh, um meal meals, right? Uh, and and nutrition. I see on your website you guys also provide meal services with gym guys. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I came from a bodybuilding background and my workhouse didn't change much, but my diet sure did.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, 100%. Like, yeah, we so we have a partner with a you know with a company that you know takes care of all the meals and nutrition for all of our clients. And you you gotta have that. And and again, like if you're not if you don't have the time, because everyone's like, I don't have the time to do it. Okay, so order them. Like, honestly, the meals come out to like six, seven dollars a meal. You'd probably be paying the same price you'd be paying if you were going out to the store. So, you know, um, there's no excuse then, right? You have an air fryer, the meals are unbelievable in an air fryer. You have a microwave, whatever. You got to get by, throw it in. Like, that's all I eat are those meals because it just works for me. Like, the only time I'm eating home with my family usually is, you know, like on a Friday night, Saturday, or Sunday. Other than that, like during the week, like I am just with my meals. Lunch, dinner, breakfast is my same thing I eat at home, but it keeps you organized and you need to have structure, right? If you don't have structure, you're not gonna have any success with your fitness, with your business, with your family life, with your relationships. Structure is needed, and you need to be obsessed about that. Where it's like, I like to always say I'm a sniper's best friend. I take the same step at the same second every single day. When you're that calculated, you can't lose. It's impossible. You just can't lose. The problem is people think it's gonna happen in a day or a week or a month. No, try like 10 years, okay? So you got to put the work in and you gotta keep that consistency. Like, dude, I don't ever miss. Ever. Ever. But it's so funny. I watch everyone else around me, everyone's always missing. Everyone's always missing. Soon as a bad snowstorm comes in or a rainstorm or you know, it's over, right? Oh, I stay in today, I'll miss it. A holiday comes in. Oh, today I'm not gonna, I'm I'll take off the day. I don't ever miss, and you should never miss. And that's what's gonna turn you into a very high-performing person.

SPEAKER_04:

We need Josh to call us every morning and most I'll just think the same thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh can add you to my friends' list. Yeah, you need like Josh to give you the thought of the day, or like Josh, I'm like, you're alarmed. Come on, let's go.

SPEAKER_04:

Let's go.

SPEAKER_03:

But it's so, you know what though, I think that that that's so important. Like we, you know, there's a lot of times where we say to clients, you need to be pertinent. In fact, we have a calculator, Josh, that before we do anything, before we show them any franchises, we want to see what their financials are so that we can look at their 12 to 18 month survival fund as they build their business. Because we want them to be prepared. As you're building the business, it might go slow. Sure, maybe you might jump out of the gate and be a record setter, but we'd rather prepare you and make sure you have enough cash so that as you go, because don't you agree the first 12 months are so critical. We want to make sure that you are prepared for that journey. And I had so I've had multiple people say to me, Why aren't you just selling me this dream of absentee and all this stuff? And it's because, dude, I don't want to call you six months from now, you know, and you tell me I sold you a fairy tale. Like building a business is freaking hard. But I'll tell you what, the the rewards when you do it right, and when you finally make that money that takes you to that next level of financial freedom, unless you're like some lucky tech guy in Silicon Valley, you're probably not getting a piece of the pie. So the best way to do this is to build your own business and a franchise that gives you that playbook, but you've got to be prepared for the heart first.

SPEAKER_01:

100%. And you know, I couldn't agree with you more. A lot of brands where they go wrong, they don't actually teach about cash flow and about management of cash and PLs and you know where your expenses should be and how much your margin should be. Like, that's the most important thing. Like, if you're not financially literate, like you're gonna have a very big problem in business. So I would implore other brands to really put a lot of time and energy into this because you know, when someone starts out, you know, running their operation, I see this happen all the time. Someone takes in a lot of money, like, oh my God, uh I made so much money, but then they forgot they had to pay out payroll and they have to pay out the cost of the services. Maybe they might be prepaid. They're not, there's so many different you know, ways to skin this here, but you gotta understand cash management.

SPEAKER_03:

It's shocking to me how many people don't. I mean, it's like franchisees when they approach us, some who didn't work with us, because we say, build your business to sell from day one. Oh, but I don't want to sell my business. That's okay. Build your business to sell. Aim, have an aiming point from day one. Build your business so that one day the right person calls you and says, Hey, I'm interested in potentially buying your business so that you can achieve a great valuation. And it shocks me. There are people out there that don't have a dialed-in PL. You you should you should almost every day look at your PL and make sure everything is dialed in.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, dude, I like I'm so nuts at the numbers. Like, I don't think there's a day I've not looked at the bank account, at the PL. Like everything. Like, I'm just nuts. Like, I don't even understand. And what's crazy is like, you know, this is actually, I was this is what I was saying during my keynote at our convention at the recharge. Like, our theme was all in. And I said, like, if you don't, like, do you know your numbers? Like, do you know your weekly revenues? Do you know like your conversion rate from like, you know, you know, client to trainer to utilization? Like, do you know that? If you don't, you don't know your business. Like, all in owners know their numbers. You have to know their numbers. And if you're listening to this right now and you don't know your numbers, okay, there's nothing wrong with that. Change it today. Fix that and make sure you get very successful around understanding your numbers and educated so you know, you know, what you know, really how to run your business. You know, I see sometimes people like, you know, they might have loans out and they're they're not even running them properly on their PL and they think their business is losing money, and it's actually not losing money. Like, okay, yeah, you have a payment, but you are profitable, but you have this loan right now, and after X amount of time, the loan's gonna be paid off. Like, people don't even realize that. So that's why you know you got to get bundled up there.

SPEAKER_03:

Josh, give us a crazy story. The last time Josh was on the podcast with us, man, I it was at a particularly challenging point of the year for us. And I'll never forget Josh saying, dude, if you ever think it's hard, there was a moment in time in the early stages of my business where I had to go to the casino and bet it all on black to keep my company alive. Josh, tell me if I'm getting this wrong. Yeah. And you did, and you made it happen. And I remember saying to Joe, yes, that's what it is. Like you're never, you're never out of it. You you gotta keep you gotta keep it going.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it was actually red. I ended up actually in there, I ended up doing it. I came up with another idea. The red's our color at gym guys, so obviously you gotta go red. But um, here's the thing like it it's really quite simple. There's no plan B. Be and you figure out a way. There's always a way. There's always a way. And I have suffered with more, more pain and cash flow issues than you could possibly imagine. I don't know anyone who would have lasted longer than six months. Things I've had to do, uh, just the pain I've had to experience and go through. But one story I don't think I've really shared, I'll tell you. So I took out um a loan from a bank not too long ago. Uh well, it was actually very long ago when I was saying it was like, I don't know, yeah, like 10 years ago about probably. I took out this loan from this bank, and uh I was like, all right, I'm gonna use some of this money to pay the loan. I don't need all the of the money, but I'll use some of it to pay it, and I'll just be good, right? And uh had this huge agreement that from the bank, and everyone's like, man, you gotta get an attorney to read that. The attorney wanted like$3,000 to review it. I I didn't even have like$3,000. Like, and I needed to close the loan to get the money to even do it. So I did what I always do. I said, I'll figure it out. You know, I I I breezed through it, you know, looked at like the basics, it looked good to me. I signed it, got the money. Well, there came a point a couple years later where I ran out of that money to pay that loan every month, and I didn't have the money to pay the loan. And I went month after month after month with not being able to pay the loan. So now we're at six months. I personally guaranteed that, and I put my house up on it. So now they come to my house, it's on a weekend. So they came to literally like figure out how much they could liquidate to like get back all the money for the loan, and they were gonna take over my house. So now they had so think about this, right? So you want to talk about being mentally tough, like I just kept in the whole time, all I kept saying was, I got it. I got it. The whole time I knew I was gonna figure it out somehow, some way I was gonna figure it out. Long story short, I made it my job to find another bank at a lower interest rate to take over that loan, and I worked my magic, and it's a very long story. We'd be here probably for 30, another 30 minutes if I told you it, but the long story is I got this other bank to take to take it over, and I eventually paid the loan off uh like two years later. But there's always a way out. The the reason most people fail and lose is because as soon as things get hard, they just stop. And honestly, that's like the most critical point because as soon as things get so bad, you are like right around the corner for the biggest breakthrough. You have no idea, but you can't hold on any longer. I tell people you got a doggy paddle, just doggy paddle a little bit longer. All right, you owe someone money, what's gonna happen? They're not gonna get paid. Okay, so maybe they call a collection company company on you. By the time all that happens, you'll be able to pay them back. Doggy paddle a little bit longer. And that's that's really what it comes down to. But I have stories like that. I can go on forever and ever and ever. I literally ran into a cash flow issue once. I had a huge bill I had to pay, or they were gonna turn off the electric in like my whole area. It was crazy. And they were gonna literally like um they were gonna lock down this other. I had this um uh storage unit facility, I had all my stuff in there. Long story short, I was able to take out a credit card last minute to get enough money just to pay off what I owed. And then I paid the credit card off. But like, there's always a way. You gotta sometimes it's very important. I like to advise people this all the time. Sometimes you just need to sit or take a drive and just be totally quiet so you can just think and gather your thoughts, especially during challenging times. And that feeling in your stomach, when your stomach's spinning at a thousand miles a minute, yeah, I know that feeling very, very well. That's an exercise for you to develop the ability to you know push through when you're having those times, but also get used to that feeling. Because the more you have that feeling, the more comfortable it's gonna become. So that's why I always talk about being very uncomfortable, because the more uncomfortable you are, you eventually become numb to that feeling. It's just like anything else. So, uh, and that also ties into the fitness side of it too. And I know I'm taking this a little bit you know sideways here, but I want to, you know, pivot here too because it's important. If you do hard things first thing in the morning, like jump in a 27-degree ice bat, push yourself in a workout, go crazy in a sauna for 25 minutes, and and that day something bad happens, you already put yourself through so much pain that it's like, yeah, that's nothing. Easy, I'll brush it off. So you you it there's also like a method here to like being able to like conquer great things and be super successful. And that's kind of how I do it.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, and I should add, and Josh, that was a powerful story. And for those of you listening, Josh and I have spoken about where his business is now. And let me just tell you, Josh has an incredibly valuable business now. He has successful, happy franchisees. He has scaled the mountaintop. So for all of you listening now who maybe it's not quite time for you to to invest in a franchise, or maybe you are a franchise owner and you're going through it, Josh's point is exactly right. You have to keep going. It's like my dad, um, we had an ad agency when I was uh uh when I was younger, and that ad agency went bankrupt um in 2000, and he was 62 years old, not employable, tried to buy a uh visiting angels franchise, they turned him down. So, what did he do? He started his own home care company called Home Care Assistance, and he went and he got this little office. And I remember all of us saying he's crazy, he's lost his mind, just into this business that works with old people. Well, he had the last lap because a couple of years later we all were asking him for jobs, and we eventually built the company and sold it to private equity. So the point is that listen to Josh's words because they're powerful. Do whatever the hell you can to survive. Um, and to your point, Josh, doing hard things. I noticed when I start my day with the cold plunge, my resting heart rate is 49. Versus if I don't do the cold plunge, it's you know 58. That tells you something. Cold plunge builds you up your resilience to deal with stress. And Brian, I know, I know I'm working on you still in the cold plunge, but that I'm not doing it. Yeah, Jill's never gonna do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Jill, I'm telling you, it's very good for you. No, my wife, she won't do it either. She won't do it. So I actually almost convinced her at one point. She later had her bathing suit on. She goes in, she took one step in it, she goes, You're a sicko, and walked out, and that was it.

SPEAKER_04:

My elbow in sweaty. I had like a bug bite. Jack made me put my elbow in. That was that was it for me. So I like a good ice roller on my face, but that's it's not the same.

SPEAKER_03:

It's not the same.

SPEAKER_04:

And I know, I know that it's really good. I really I understand the benefits.

SPEAKER_01:

Just you you can start with a cold shower. You don't gotta go crazy and go with an ice.

SPEAKER_04:

That's shocking my system.

SPEAKER_03:

Have you added on the the Wim Hof breathing? Have you done that in in combo with it?

SPEAKER_01:

Nah, I don't do that. No, I just go in there and just do my thing.

SPEAKER_03:

I love I love the Wim Hof breathing. I think for I I can't meditate, like just sit there and meditate. So for me to get into a meditative state, that that Wim Hof does it every time.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'll tell you something I like to do, and I and and and you know, I'm giving you like some of my secrets here. But so so what I do in the ice bath is so every night I've been doing this for the last, I don't know, my God, 25 years. Before I go to bed, I write down my goals every single night. And they're they're goals that I'm gonna accomplish. And that list has changed so much over the last, my God, the 15, 16 years. Um, believe it or not, one of my buddies posted a picture of I have 147 notebooks in my closet stacked up, and Richard Branson actually saw it and commented on it on LinkedIn and said it was a brilliant habit. Well, not that I need him to tell me that, I already know that, but um, you know, these goals you write down, you close your eyes, and there's a process to it. And manifestation is is is 100% real, but there's a process to it. So, like, for example, let's say you want to drive a Ferrari, you would close your eyes and you would say, I am going to own a Ferrari, but you it you have to have a timeline on it, right? Like by 2025, you'll fit you'll close your eyes, you say it, you picture yourself riding in it, right? So, Jack, you're in it, you see Jill right next to you, and you're like you see the wind just blowing the hair back and you see it, right? Open your eyes back up, you say it out loud again, then write your next goal down. So I do that at night, and it's got to be before bed because that's when most people like, I'll do it tomorrow. No, you don't do it tomorrow. You do it right before you go to bed when you're most tired and you never miss a night. I also recite them out loud in the morning in my ice bath. So as soon as I get in, it takes me about 15, 20 seconds before I can kind of like remain calm, close my eyes, I go through all my goals. By the time I'm done with my goals, I got a minute left, and it's like a joke. So that's what that's how I do it, and it works really, really well. And you know, as you once you get acclimated to it, like after a certain period of time, it just feels like a fine, like you're you're okay with it, you know. So uh that's that's that's that's how I've been doing it for a very long time now.

SPEAKER_03:

Josh, how many franchisees do you guys have?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh gym guys. Uh we are approaching what 78 franchise owners now.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow. And is it true that there might be a new concept coming down the pipe?

SPEAKER_01:

It is true. We are getting ready to roll out a new concept in the beginning of 2026, and uh we're literally gonna disrupt another industry in the fitness world. It's gonna be absolutely incredible, and uh, I'm very excited about it.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I I we've got some some secret intel on what that might be, and I I think you're really on to something because it's a it's a great sector. And so for those of you listening, once uh once Josh gives us the green light, we'll make sure everybody uh gets the uh the email. So make sure you're subscribed. Go to thefranchiseinsiders.com and subscribe. Hey, Brian, you're you're always so good at keeping us on track. What what's an important question that we haven't asked yet? What do you like? What do you see your top franchisees doing?

SPEAKER_02:

What's when it comes to their culture, they're building their teams. Like, what are the top what's making the top ones different?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, dude, they literally just follow exactly what we say in the playbook. Like they just follow the playbook. That's it. They follow the playbook. You know, it's funny. I started social media to kind of like indirectly market to my franchisees, and it just became just so freaking huge and blew up, which is awesome. Like it was blew up, and it's great, but they also see that. So I'm constantly putting out content really for them. Like, you know, it obviously it it it it it it's for everyone else as well, because they're they're getting the benefit of it. But they followed the blueprint, man. They see me doing it every day. You know, every day, the first thing I do on my Instagram story, I have not missed a day ever. I do a timestamp of my alarm clock, usually around 3.27, 328, or 329 when I wake up. Uh, and I've never missed a day. And I just keep doing that over and over and over again. When I go into sewing, I take a video of it over and over and over again. What does that show? Consistency, discipline. So good leaders lead by example. I don't even have to say a word. They see. That's it. Like everyone's like, man, your kids are so respectful and they're so driven and they're so smart. What do you how do you teach them? I don't teach them anything. They follow me and they see everything I do. That's how they learn, and that's how I teach them. You have to be a good leader. When you're a good leader, that's how you develop a good culture. And most of these cultures around here, I'd say 90% of them are all destroyed because it's like you say one thing, but do something different. Yeah, we're we're the I'm the first one in, last one out. Meanwhile, you show up to work at 10 in the morning. Like, no, that doesn't work. Like, no one's gonna get buying from that. Everyone's gonna know you're full of it, right? So it's like to really have that good culture, you you have to you really got you really gotta walk it and talk it. Like, that's really what it comes down to. You know, it's not that complicated, like, you know, and I and I'm not just saying this because I'm on this call, but like I know Jack and Jill, like I know I we just met guys, but I know that like you, they're they're great people, like and they do a really good job. And I and I listen, and I I I I like all the stuff you guys put out there, but like everything you say is real. Like, most people don't say the real things, right? Like you talk about semi-absentee, like I saw that video the other uh post about the other day. That's real, right? Like you need somebody to be working a business, like, but people don't talk about that. You you're not gonna build a good culture, like you guys wouldn't be great if they weren't great, right? You guys are great, I know you guys are great, but that's because they're great, right? And then you're gonna create other great people because you're gonna have that same type of great energy and it's gonna just roll out, right? And it just goes down to everybody else, and that's how it works. It it's really not that complicated. Like, people like, how do you scale internationally in all these countries? Same way. That's it. But it starts with me, and if I don't feel that good energy, that good vibe, I don't care what type of bank account they have, it's not gonna work, right? You've got to have that connection, and that's where it starts. And that's the same way with my franchisees. Like, you know, when I bring people into this, into this this this organization and they're on this team, I gotta feel it, man. And I've gotten very good at that. I've been doing this a very long time, so I I could feel it, and I just know it. And it's funny, like one of our newest owners, like year one, they did over 700,000 in sales, like made their money back and made a massive profit. And I knew it. They almost didn't even sign. They said they weren't gonna move forward. I was like, screw that. I called them right away. I said, Listen, I usually don't do this, but I'm telling you right now, this is the model for you, and you need to rethink it. Here's why. They said, you know what, Josh? I'm in. And we joke about that all the time. Like, you guys almost walked away from this. You made that happen.

SPEAKER_03:

You made that happen. The franchisees who follow the game plan do well. The franchisees that say, Well, I think you know what they're doing in this market doesn't work here, and we're gonna do things differently. Well, yeah, you're you're gonna get different results, and it may not be good.

SPEAKER_01:

100%, man. 100%.

SPEAKER_03:

What'd you say the other day, David? Just run the damn ball.

SPEAKER_00:

But uh, I'm gonna I'm not stealing Brandon's Thunder, but that's Brandon Downer's main thing. Just run the damn ball. Just old school football running down their throats and just keep running the same play over and over again.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I mean, I saw it the other night on Monday night football. I'm uh that you watch the the Chicago Bears have had tons of offensive line issues protecting the passer. What did they do? They went back to the basics, they went back to running the ball 70% of the time to pre-up play action so they could actually pass, and it's exactly right. So, and that's it. It is executing, it is following the game plan. It's being a passionate brand advocate. And I think if you're on Josh's team, you probably have no choice. Hey, Josh, how can people learn more about gym guys? Where should they go?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, they could just visit gymguys.com, Google us, you know, we'll pop up right away. Um, yeah, that's it. Okay. We're all over the place.

SPEAKER_03:

And if any of you out there would like either Brian, David, Morgan, or Catherine to introduce you to gym guys, um, just go to our site, thefranchiseinsiders.com. Um, you can also reach out directly. Brian, David, I don't know, you want to share your your contact information?

SPEAKER_02:

Brian Gross. And you can reach me at thefranchisinsiders.com slash Brian Gross or 573-701-6530.

SPEAKER_00:

And David San Juan, uh, as well, you can reach me at 305-496-4883-305-496-4883.

SPEAKER_03:

This has been great. Josh, as usual, wonderful to have you on the podcast. Do you want to give your phone number out too?

SPEAKER_04:

No, I give you. No, I still don't really know your phone number.

SPEAKER_03:

I still think Josh, any closing thoughts?

SPEAKER_01:

No, this is absolutely great, man. Guys, I really appreciated you having me on. Thank you so much. Um, you know, I think just people listening to this really need to listen. You know, these guys are great, and you know, I'm I'm backing them up and validating that they're legit. So, like obviously, if you're looking into franchising, you want to be with the right people, and these are the right people, and that's very, very important. There's a there's a lot out there, and very, very few high-level rock stars that know what they're doing and have that passion and that desire to help people. So uh that's really it. You know, I hope you know there's some valuable information here for you to learn from. And um, you know, thanks again, guys, for having me on.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, of course. And for any of you listening, if you want any of our calculators, any of our checklist, the twenty seven red flags to watch out for, how to decode an item nineteen, text us three zero five seven one zero zero zero five zero. For this episode of We Bought a Franchise, I'm Jack Johnson.

SPEAKER_04:

I'm Jill Johnson.

SPEAKER_03:

And we'll talk to you next time.