The Show Up Fitness Podcast

Gym Ownership at Age 23 w/ Coach.Madds

• Chris Hitchko, CEO Show Up Fitness

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Ever wondered what it takes to open your own gym at just 23 years old? Coach Mads shares her extraordinary journey from battling anorexia as a teenager to becoming a successful gym owner with a thriving boutique fitness business.

The path wasn't straightforward. After getting her ISSA certification during COVID when gyms were shuttered, Mads discovered the stark gap between textbook knowledge and real-world application. "You get into the real-life gym and you're like, what the heck am I doing? I don't know how to apply this at all," she reveals with refreshing honesty. This experience shaped her determination to create something better.

Moving 2,000 miles from Canada to Washington, Mads worked briefly at the YMCA before taking a leap that most trainers wait years to attempt – opening her own facility. Her 2,000-square-foot private boutique gym now serves a clientele that's 90% women, providing a safe haven from the judgment often felt in traditional gym environments. "We're trying to break that stigma with our gym," she explains, describing how every potential member must meet her personally before joining.

What makes Mads' approach particularly savvy is her focus on multiple revenue streams – independent trainers paying rent, personal training services, memberships, and potential future additions like supplements and merchandise. This diversification strategy provides crucial stability in an industry where 81% of gyms fail within five years.

The challenges of solopreneurship weigh heavily at times. "Being a solopreneur is one of the hardest parts because I do everything myself," Mads admits. Yet she's tackling this by building a reliable team and creating systems that don't require her constant presence, with plans to expand into a collaborative wellness space including other health professionals.

Perhaps most inspiring is her mindset toward entrepreneurial risk: "I don't give myself a Plan B because that means you have to make Plan A work." This unwavering commitment exemplifies why she's succeeding where many others falter.

Are you ready to take control of your fitness career? Subscribe now and learn how determination, strategic thinking, and refusing to accept failure can transform your entrepreneurial dreams into reality.

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SPEAKER_01:

I want to own my own business. Like I don't want to work for somebody. I worked for, I don't know what you would call it, but I worked for someone for a year with a startup business. So in some ways, I got some business experience there, and I hated it. I hated my life for an entire year.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Show Up Fitness Podcast, where great personal trainers are made. We are changing the fitness industry one qualified trainer at a time with our in-person and online personal training certification. If you want to become an elite personal trainer, head on over to showufffitness.com. Also make sure to check out my book, How to Become a Successful Personal Trainer. Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review. Have a great day and keep showing up. Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Show of Fitness podcast. Today we have Miss Coach Mads. Thank you for showing up, gym owner, at the ripe age of 23. Holy shit, folks. What is going on over here? Thank you for taking the time there.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be on.

SPEAKER_00:

So we have a unique connection through Mr. Tyler, instructor. He does our anatomy. And you came down last week to see Mr. J and you did his uh life coaching stuff and you came and checked out our gym. We had a nice cup of coffee and we were chatting about life as a gym owner, and your story is pretty spectacular. So why don't we start from the beginning? When did you get certified?

SPEAKER_01:

So I got certified during COVID, which was not great. Um, so let's see, 2020, I think was the year I got certified. And uh I was still like finishing high school, so I got certified right after I graduated. Um, and then I didn't work for like a full year because all of our gyms had shut down. So that was great. No experience.

SPEAKER_00:

And where did you go as your first gym?

SPEAKER_01:

I went to, I actually moved 2,000 miles away. So I got certified when I was living in Canada, that's where I'm from. And then I moved to Washington and I started working for the YMCA there, and that was beginning of 2022.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so let's start with the certification that you got. Which one?

SPEAKER_01:

So I got my ISSA certification. Um, don't recommend that.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it from personal experience. I love hearing that as um we have a lot of trainers who have their SUF CPT up in Canada. And why don't you suggest for them to get to ISSA?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, I mean, I think any of them, the like textbook stuff, it's just like anything I do, it's like hands-on is way easier. And there's just no, there's no hands-on with that. It's all textbook stuff. And then you get into the real life gym and you're like, what the heck am I doing? Like, I don't know how to apply this at all. And I'm sure like college students can relate with other courses and stuff too. It's like you get in and you're like, I don't, I don't have any experience, I don't know what I'm doing. And I also don't feel like they cover the essential knowledge that you should have as a trainer. So like I said did go over some anatomy, um, but they didn't go super in depth with that. And it was like it's really easy to pass. Like, let's be honest, at least it was for me. Um, and maybe, maybe that's just me, maybe other people don't have the same experience, but there's not anything holding you to like you actually have to know your stuff. Um, and then there's just a I feel like there's a lot of information missing, like it's kind of outdated, it's not regularly updated with the new stuff with the new stuff that's out there. They've used the same program for like 15, 10 years, something like that. So there's a lot of reasons. Um, I think it gives you a good base understanding of what a trainer is going into, but I don't think that's where you should stop.

SPEAKER_00:

We are professionals with our hands cueing people skills, as you've experienced a lot, business skills. Don't really learn that in a textbook, do you? No, definitely not. Did they help you get ready for gym ownership?

SPEAKER_01:

No, none of that. I did that on my own.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and that's where I got to give you a ton of credit because you are doing what usually will take about five to seven years. Trainers will get that textbook cert, NASA Mace say they try to go to the high-end gyms, they can't get in, they don't have experience, then they go, whatever gym hires them, and then they quit. But you were able to make it through that year marker, and then you did what no one does. You're like, you know what? Screw it. I'm gonna throw the shit to the wind and just say, I'm gonna open my own gym. So way to go. That's so cool to hear that you have the the brass to get after it and take that leap of faith because now you have skin in the game, and a lot of trainers don't experience that. They can have all these great ideas, and I tell people all the time, ideas are not worth much unless there's action behind them. You can tell me you have the greatest new program or whatever it is, but where's your action? The proof is in the pudding. And so you invested into getting your own gym. Now, was there a client, was there a family member, someone who says, you know what, you should open up your own gym. Where did that notion come from?

SPEAKER_01:

So, I mean, this goes back a ways to my childhood. I'll I'll share a little bit of my story because it'll help with the background. Um, when I was still living in Canada, at around age 14, I went through anorexia. So that's a if for those who don't know, it's an eating disorder where you basically starve yourself. Um, I became skin and bones. I lost like 40 pounds in three months, severely uh under malnourished and all of that. My journey through that coming out of it was what pushed me into fitness originally. My basketball coach, I'm gonna give him a shout-out, not that he'll ever hear this, but he was my basketball coach and my phys ed instructor for all of high school every single year, which is not very common. And he had told me, he had really like pushed me in my fitness journey, like, hey, like get in the gym, like all of this. And by my junior year, I was leading classmates through workouts, and you know, they always wanted to work out with me because they're like, I feel like your act your workouts are doing something for me. And so at the end of my junior year, he was like, Hey, like, what are you thinking of doing for your career? And I was like, Oh, I'm gonna be a graphic designer because I'm really creative. He's like, Oh, okay, interesting. He's like, Have you ever thought about personal training? And I was like, What's that? So he kind of planted that seed and I looked into it. Long story short, I ended up becoming a trainer and I love it. Um, but I've always been one to, with the anorexia, especially, and just other things have gone through my life, I've always been one to push for bigger. It's like you never stop at the little stuff. Um, there's always something more you can be doing, which can be detrimental because then I'm never satisfied. So I have to be careful with that. But there's always just this thing in the back of my head of like, I want to own my own business. Like, I don't want to work for somebody. I worked for, I don't know what you would call it, but I worked for someone for a year with a startup business. So in some ways, I've got some business experience there. And I hated it. I hated my life for an entire year. And I was like, I am not doing this again. And I'm just the mentality of like, if I want something, I'm gonna go for it. And my basketball coach, this is the one quote that stuck with me. He's like, Madeline, if you set your mind to anything, you are going to achieve that. You have proved that to me throughout your four years of being here at this high school. And I just thought that was like, that was so like inspiring, motivating, like everything to me. And I was like, wow, that's actually so true. This little thing in the back of my head of like owning my own business, I just never thought that this is gonna fail. Like someone asked me a couple weeks ago, they're like, so what's your plan B? You know, if this is doesn't work, and I'm like, I don't give myself a plan B because that means that you have to make plan A work. If you don't have like a backup option, it's like, oh shit, like if this doesn't work, it's going down the drain. You know, I would say that I motivated myself to open that my own gym. I I never had anybody say, like, oh, you should do this, like that'd be so cool. I just kind of had that dream in my vision of my own.

SPEAKER_00:

I think that's really valuable input from your client because it kind of shows you what the average mind is like. They're very pessimistic and they look at you almost with a sense of regret because they wish they had that entrepreneurial spirit, because it's not easy to like say what you got to burn the boats. You got to go out there and give it everything you have. It's like saying, Oh, what happens if you lose the game today? I'm not putting that in my mind. No way. We're gonna win. And you have to go out there and give it everything you have. And so you started your own gym. Now, can you kind of describe for the listeners what's it like? Is it like CrossFit style? Is it small? Is it big? What's in there? Let's get the the visual description first, and then we'll get into some costs and then we'll ask some questions at the end.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, so general layout, we have a 2,000 square foot building. It's just a big rectangle. Um, we've got two bathrooms on the side, so there's a little bit of uh mess up the layout there. But yeah, we have a very open space, which I love, first of all. I hate things that are cramped. So open space, it's a private boutique gym, I would say. It's not um just open to the general public. We offer memberships as well as training. We have some group classes, we do some like hybrid stuff. Um but I would say the majority is through training. So I work with Tyson, we're bringing on another trainer this month, potentially two more trainers in the next two months down the pipeline. So it's very training focused. We like to have it community-based and we attract like 90% women. And I think that's probably just because of my vibe, like what I put out there. So it's great. It's a lot of women love it because it is private. There's I vet everybody that comes through the door. So it's not like you can just sign up online and you're allowed to come. And it's like, no, you have to meet me in person. I have to be okay with you coming into my gym. And like, I'm not afraid to set rules. If someone's if someone's breaking those, like you're out. Like, I'm sorry. But I have to, I have to hold it to that standard. So we very much care about the members, about the community, about like maintaining a space where people walk in and they feel safe. Because I don't think that's the atmosphere in a lot of gyms, the big box stuff, especially. I'm sure even trainers can relate. You walk in and you're like, I feel like I'm in this huge warehouse and I don't know where anything is or what anybody's doing, and everybody's staring at me and judging me. So we're trying to break that stigma with our gym. It's just like walk in, you're welcomed. Members are talking to each other, you may not know each other, but you're still engaging. Um, yeah, it's a very private, comfortable space where people come and focus on their health, and women can feel like they can actually work out without being judged and watched. So that's the general, general scope.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's great. And Walla Walla isn't the the biggest city in the world. It's what 50,000, 60,000 people.

SPEAKER_01:

Combined with the college place, that's that's like it's basically Walla Walla too. We have a little over 100,000, I think. I think it's like 110.

SPEAKER_00:

What's the competition like? Are there a lot of boutique gyms like yours in the surrounding areas?

SPEAKER_01:

I would say mine is probably the only boutique style, but there are, I do have other comp competitive gyms. Um, so there's probably 10 to 12 gyms just in our area. Um, and maybe two or three of those is competition.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's talk a little bit about the startup costs that were involved. Did you have a down payment? Did they kind of question you because you're a little younger? And they're like, you know, you have to pay six months' rent up front. What did the startups cost?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so I feel like I was very fortunate. Um, things just kind of lined up for me. I was married for three years. So my ex being involved in the picture, he had some like distant cousins that actually own the building that I'm in. And their sister was using it as a gym prior. It was like a private gym, basically just family stuff. And she was looking to get out of that because that wasn't her full-time gig. So she was getting out of that. And we happened to be looking for a space at that time. I was wanting to open something up, and somehow a conversation came up and we heard that she was leaving. We're like, oh, like let's go check out the space. So we did, and it ended up working out. Um, I had two other like subletters under me at that time. So I was kind of like taking over a lease, and then two other people were under me. Very random. I had a Mexican dance class that was in there, and I had like a martial arts jujitsu class that was also sharing the space with me. So it was kind of interesting at the at the beginning, um, working around equipment-wise. But the family members of my ex were pretty open to me like having a space. We had to sign a three-year, a three-year contract. Um I think it was just a requirement of same, same as like house rent, like first month's rent, and then a down payment of usually the last month rent. And an assigned contract. So it was pretty, pretty amicable, I would say. It wasn't too bad on that front.

SPEAKER_00:

Very easy. Yeah, the stars aligned for you. And what is your monthly rent right now?

SPEAKER_01:

Monthly rent with it utilities included, I pay$1,700. Okay. So it's very reasonable.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely. And what did the equipment cost, startup cost for that?

SPEAKER_01:

As uh being an entrepreneur is like the mind that I have of I can always find a better deal on something and I can still get a good quality. So I got most of my stuff used, like off marketplace, in really good condition. So this is gonna give someone a very low-end scope of what it would start, what it would cost to start up a gym. Because if you're buying everything new, it's probably like double or triple what I paid. So everything, like all the equipment I have right now was around 16,000.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you do credit? How did you uh finance that?

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't we paid all cash up front.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it, that's great. And I mean, there's a lot of financing opportunities. I know that when we started to show up down here, kind of in the similar boat. I didn't want to go high end, I didn't want to go low end. There was a couple whole-end gym spots that would be able to allow you to get the equipment and you could do a two-year lease with no APY. So that was nice. The lower hanging fruit to get in is definitely better. There's a spot when you're here right across the street called Body Fit Fitness or something, everything is customized. And when I look at that location, I know it's about 20 to 30 grand in rent per month. And then also, I'm guessing a minimum of a half a million. And so when you put that big of an egg, you have to get that back quickly or your investors aren't going to want to stick around. And so you started smart, yeah, do it lean. And there's some great books out there, you know, the lean startup. You're taking that mindset. And so you built a system. So maybe in the future, if you wanted to expand out and start more, you have a really good idea of what it takes, the woman hours that goes into it. I always ask people who are gym owners, have you ever slept in your gym?

SPEAKER_01:

I have.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's like a badge and honor. I love it. Way to go. It's something that's like you are literally opening the gym, you're closing it. When people say they work hard, they don't really know what it's like to be an entrepreneur because every day you're thinking about how am I going to pay rent? I have$1,700 that I have to pay this and I need to train. I need to live, I need to build, you know, car payment and your house, rent, mortgage, whatever. And so, what do you have to do to make that$1,700 within your current gym business?

SPEAKER_01:

I have to make sure I would say, because I already have a client base, I would say I have to make sure that I take care of my clients, first of all, because that's how you keep recurring, right? And then second, I would say, like, because we don't make a lot off of memberships, like that's not our focus. Um, second would be that I make sure that I'm not just like holding up in my little shell. I need to get out in the community and actually like let people know that we're here. Because it's private, that can be tough. It's not an insight location. We're kind of off the beaten path. So I would say those two things of like once I get people through the door, make them feel like they matter and take good care of them. And then second would be like actually getting the marketing out there.

SPEAKER_00:

How do you get the clients? The ones that you said you had to retain by providing that excellent service, but how did you get them from the get-go? They don't just open a gym and all of a sudden they're lined out out the door. You got to go out there and start greasing the elbows, networking, talking to people. What were some techniques that you used to get people into the doors?

SPEAKER_01:

I would say how I started up versus how I do it now is a little bit different because when I was first starting up, I had been working at the Y and I worked like the front desk and stuff there at the gym. So I'd get to meet people. I wouldn't say I got a ton of clients from there, but at least get my face in the community a little bit. And I got like clients were handed to me at the Y. That's the nice part of working for a bigger gym, is you don't really have to look for, which I think I'm just gonna insert this here. I think that can make trainers suffer a little bit because they never have to learn that from the get-go. Anyway, so I took some people there when I left. I was a good enough trainer for them that they wanted to follow me. So that's why I say take care of your clients, because people buy you, they don't buy like the outcome a lot of times. And then second, when I transferred, because I in the in between I rented space from another gym when I opened my own business. I rented space from a gym for a while. And I was advertising stuff. So yeah, I would talk to people word of mouth. Um, I would also I joined like some Facebook groups here locally, and I would post stuff out there like whatever about my business, like just a description, maybe a picture of me, like what I do, all of that stuff. Something that I felt like would resonate with my ideal client. So that's not something that's talked about a lot either when you start up, is like have an avatar, and an avatar would be someone that you like ideally want to train. If you could create the perfect person, this is who you want to be your clientele. And a lot of people misinterpret this and be like, oh, well, that's like I want to train other people though. It's like it doesn't mean you can't train anybody else, but that's who's gonna attract and that's who's gonna actually like resonate and get the client flow started. Attracting the avatar, um, especially Facebook. I think there was one post that I got 72 leads off of in that group. And then the second one that I put out a month or two later, I think I got like 54. And obviously, not everybody converted. I don't remember what the conversion rate was. Yeah, definitely like the local Facebook groups where people were active was a good start. And then from there, you start getting word-of-mouth referrals. Our our town, our city is very word of mouth based. That may not be everywhere. Bigger cities might not be that as much. But I definitely got a lot of word of mouth referrals, and so it kind of just built up from there. Now I would say um I've started putting like posters out there, I'll give out business cards, like stickers, like at least just create a brand awareness and then um create incentives for people like, hey, you get you know, a referral discount or something if someone signs up. So I've had a lot of people that are referrals come through that way. I still post in those Facebook groups occasionally just because I know like I can usually pull one or two people from there. Networking events has been a little tough just because we we don't have a lot around here. Um, and it they can be hard to find, but I have started doing those recently. Tyson and I have been popping into those on occasion. We have one coming in up in October. So that's a great way to at least get something. Um, but it's not our mainstream.

SPEAKER_00:

81% of gyms fail within the first five years. You're three years into it and you're doing great, you're paying your rent and you're loving everything about it. Always have those highs and lows. But what would you say some of the biggest struggles have been?

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh, biggest struggles. Um, well, I would say being a solopreneur is one of the hardest parts. It is the hardest part because I do everything myself. Thankfully, I've had some people that can fill in some small gaps. So, like one of my clients, we were trading um some training sessions, and she would like to clean my gym. So I didn't have to worry about that. So she takes care of everything inside the space, which is great. Um, and then I have someone that does some bookkeeping for me. So some smaller things like that, which is amazing. One less thing I have to think about. But everything else, I'm like the brain of the operation, right? Like right now, if I'm not there, it's not really running without me. So that's the hardest part because I have to always be on top of my game. It's not a it's not a job like a nine to five where you can just leave, you can check out for the weekend. It's like, no, I constantly got to be thinking of like what's the next step? How can I be better? How can I improve this? Or what's gotta happen to get me to the next step? So my brain is just constantly going. That's the hardest part.

SPEAKER_00:

But it's also important because you you have these puzzle pieces that you're trying to figure out where if you're just checking into that nine and five, it gets boring after a while because you're not stimulating yourself to grow and to figure out this piece of the puzzle. So, so far, what have you come up with to it? Sounds like one of your biggest issues right now is how does your gym run without you there? Because ultimately you probably want to maybe grow into other cities, maybe states, whatever. So, what are you kind of going through in your mind on how to figure that out?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's definitely something I'm in the middle of right now. So, you know, TVD down the road. Right now, I would say getting the right team in place is big for me because it's not going to run without other people. And I know from already the experience that I have in my own business, but also talking to other business owners, finding the people that support your vision and can carry that out is the hardest part. Because there's a lot of crappy people out there that are just in it for themselves, they don't really care. And I don't want to end up with people like that because they can really destroy your business. So I would say that's my that's my goal right now, is just creating a team of people that want to be here long term and then creating an atmosphere that they want to be a part of. And that starts with me. If I'm not holding out my end of the bargain, if I'm not being the person that they need as like a boss, that's not gonna happen. So that's what I'm focusing on right now. And like I said, we're on the brink of having potentially up to eight people total as part of the team in the end of October if everything works out perfectly. And then second would be part of that team, finding someone to like manage the space that can be a second brain of mine to be like, hey, this is how we're gonna run it. I can trust you to take care of it if I leave. Um, those are the biggest things right now. And then figuring out a model of like, well, how do how do I actually make money from this? How do I make money from those people working for me? Do I have do I bring them all on as employees? Do I charge a certain amount of rent? Like, do I have some employees? Do I not have employees? Like, there's a there's a lot of numbers to work out around that. Um, because employee tax is also quite high, right? Figuring all those out, doing a little more research, those are kind of my next steps for myself.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I was having that conversation with you at Coffee here in Santa Monica, and something that people don't realize, the glorification of gym ownership is awesome. Oh my God, it's gonna be so cool. I can do whatever I want. I'm gonna pay my trainers the most. But what you don't realize here in California, I had a trainer one year who I paid over$75,000. I had to pay 16.9% payroll tax. So Chris, owner of Show Finance, had to write a check for$15,000 that year just to keep them on payroll. The trainer didn't have to do that. All they had to do was literally show up. And so you're getting a really cool lens right now because you get to see both sides of the equation. And the trainer wants more. That's why they leave the big boxes. Oh, they take so much from me, it's not fair. But then you're starting to see how challenging it is to keep the business running, most importantly, but also to keep the employees happy as well. It's it's a difficult struggle to constantly entertain. And at the end of the day, you want your business to thrive.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

What would be some questions you have for me? Not that I'm the best gym owner ever, but you know, we have had gyms. We've had one for over 10 years. We've had a lot of trainers come through here. We have numerous streams of revenue. I think that's really important. So, worst case scenario, as we found in COVID, where most gyms quit, we were able to pivot into the online space and have our education side cover the gym rent for the time being. What are some things that you're thinking about maybe implementing, or just some questions to kind of have a nice little QA right here about gym ownership?

SPEAKER_01:

I'll start with this, just to give a general overview. Like with everything that I've talked about and what you've seen, what's like one piece of advice that you would offer me as maybe a next step for my business?

SPEAKER_00:

You're doing great so far. And you're you have everything aligned, optimize the team first, get that first stream fully running. You don't want to have too many things running at one time, like an octopus, you know, 10% over here, 10% over here. Get one really thriving to about 75-80% of what you feel is the total capacity. So if you're bringing in, let's just throw random numbers out there, say you're bringing in five grand a month currently. What is your capacity? And so if you had all of those trainers on your team, small group classes and so forth, full, what would the next stream potentially be? So I would like to see that second and third stream pay for rent, because then you can just profit off of the mainstream and split that for your own. So you don't have to be training a lot, as I'm sure, as you said, you're the face. You're putting in a lot of hours, which you I'm sure you enjoy training. I've experienced your mind is probably very similar to mine, maybe not as crazy, but you're training a client and you're thinking about, okay, how can I get Becky, a couple more clients? Oh, there's this thing over here I need to go to, and I also need to do this. So we're not fully present, and your clients can kind of sense that. And you want to be able to provide the best service as you're saying, so the clients stick around, but also you don't want to just be handing clients out to trainers who suck, as you were saying. So it's that difficult tug of war. So when you get that first stream at 80%, do you have some numbers roughly that you think you could be bringing in with that first stream with the trainer's training?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna try to split this up a little bit. When you say like first stream, are you talking about me training or like other trainers' training or a combination?

SPEAKER_00:

Just the trainer's training.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm trying to figure out the numbers here. So are you asking me like capacity, like numbers-wise? Because they will pay me rent right now. Like I don't necessarily make a portion of their cost. Okay. So, like, what number are you looking for exactly?

SPEAKER_00:

You look you're doing independent with them. So you are you and you said you were thinking about having other trainers who you would provide clients to and take a cut. Are you gonna go more into that or are you gonna lean into like a hybrid version where you have three or four Tysons paying you? So you have a little nugget to at least get maybe 30, 40% of your monthly rent, but then you're gonna focus on filling up those new trainers, so then you can take 40, 50, 60% of that cut, and that would be your main driver towards rent.

SPEAKER_01:

I would like to lean more towards a hybrid of having like some more Tysons, right? Like they can do their own thing, just pay me rent. But I would like to have some trainers that could take over my clients that I can feed to them and then make a portion of that. That's the goal.

SPEAKER_00:

Great. And so have you done any type of lead generation through ads? What are we doing to get clients in? Or are you because you're limited with the trainers, is that your next step? You're waiting to get the right people in play so then you can start funneling them in.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think it's a combination of both. Like I've I've done some ad stuff. I haven't really pushed it hardcore just because I have been super busy. Um, but also like finding the right people, I think it's important. So it's like I don't want to be overloaded with nobody to take them to.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what it sounds like that you have a solid three streams of revenue with the independent trainers. You have your business right now, which will eventually be your trainer's business, which will be another stream, and then you have your memberships. When you look at those three, which one do you see the greatest potential for revenue generation?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, it'd probably be that second option, I would say.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I think that's gonna be your gold nugget right there. So, you know, give yourself quarter four to optimize that going into Q1 of 2026. So then you can just start pumping a lot more into the ads and seeing how it works with getting them full, most importantly, retention, because your clients love you. Now they're gonna be working with someone else, and there's just going to be drop-off. It's something that you're gonna say it's not gonna happen, but people are gonna want to work with you. And we've had trainers leave here at show up and they're low to the brand. Trainers leave, and then you have two or three of them just, oh, you know, life happens, whatever. So it's like usually about a 20 to 30 percent will drop off. So you want to find the systems to drive in a continual funnel so then you can make up for that 20 to 30 percent drop that you're gonna incur.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you have any suggestions when it comes to that?

SPEAKER_00:

Like you said, the systems for getting good trainers. And I'm sure you're coming across a lot of people who inquire and they lead with their experience. I've been a trainer for five years. I don't really care about how long you've been training for because it goes back to your entry. How did you get certified? You read a book. So, do you actually know how to train? Do you know how to get people results? I don't want to spend a bunch of time with Brett over here who's doing some weird shit on a Bossu ball and then programming like an idiot because now I'm taking time away to make him a better trainer. I want trainers to come in who know what they're doing. So having a good hiring process, but we do at show up and you can definitely adopt it. But anyone that gets hired, they have to train my clients. And my try, my clients are between 200 to 350 per hour. And then I just have a conversation with my clients. Would you work with them? What did you like? What didn't you like? How was their appearance? How was their conversations? Is this someone who you think would represent the brand? And when the client gives the stamp of approval, so I have the trainer train a male and a female, and they both have to give the okay. If they get the okay, of course, I'm the final okay, but there's a good vetting process to make sure that they can provide quality service and professionalism to my clients because that's who the expectations are they should be able to train. Yeah, that makes sense. And then what are we going to do for the second stream? Do you think it's going to be more of the membership, or do you want to bring in more of the independent side?

SPEAKER_01:

I'd like to have more of the independent side, I would say. So, like next step goal, once we expand to a point where it's like the walls are breaking, like we need to have a bigger space. And my lease is up the end of next year. So I'm already kind of thinking about what that looks like. We have a potential building space available. I don't know if we're going to make that jump. I don't think it's a good idea right now. But the goal is to not only have trainers, but also to make it a collaborative effort, like a like a wellness place. So have other physical therapists, um, obviously trainers, acupuncturists, massage therapists, stuff like that. So it's a complete like, we're not just making money off the trainers that are there. It's also expanding and having other people to do that as well. And my goal is that that covers base rent. Everything else is profit.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go. That's great. And that's exactly what you should do. So then you have, you know, worst case scenario, your trainers go out of town or a couple of them quit. You that hit isn't going to be very detrimental because you have that stream that's going to be able to cover it. And that's a that's a great model to implement. So a lot of businesses fail. Use this example across the street. They only had one stream, it's just small group training. So if you need to get 300 members and then three other gyms open because they're opening all the time, and you have a 20 to 30 percent attrition, then how are you going to fulfill those needs? And they can't do it to keep up with the rent. And so then they're under and then they have to close their doors. And and when you have numerous streams like you have set up, that's great because a year from now we could have a different conversation. You could Holy shit, the membership side just picked up, and now I want to open a gym that's 5,000 because I'm going to be able to just bump up the membership and then use the training and the other professionals, medical professionals, to rent space. And again, that's the beauty of an entrepreneur is that that pivoting mindset is to be able to make an authoritative decision, which is challenging because everyone else is indecisive. If you were to ask trainers, other people, you know, what are your thoughts on this? They're not in the same situation to give the best feedback because their skin isn't in the game. They just show up, they train, they go home, that's it. You have to be able to make that executive decision with confidence, knowing that shit, this may not work, but that's the fun in it. It's like, but at the end of the day, you want to have you want to take that shot because you don't want someone else to take it. And so just making the decision, but being confident in that process. And I love the fact that you do have streams of revenue because that's one of the biggest flaws that I see gym owners lacking.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and we're looking and looking to bring some more on, hopefully. I've been talking to Tyson about maybe this supplement line that we're both uh a fan of, which I think would be great because the return is pretty high. So that would be awesome. And then even smaller stuff, just like getting stuff like merch out there, like people love merch for whatever reason, right? So always looking at that for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Those are great. I think I love going to the big gyms like Lifetime and Equinox. That's what we surround ourselves with in Santa Monica and just seeing what they're doing. And then you can go and look at their financials and the revenue that they're bringing in. Supplements are huge, and you could be like anti-supplement, but at the end of the day, if a client were to say, Chris, I'm gonna go get protein, I'd much rather say get this bottle right here for 50 bucks, of which I'm gonna take 15, 20 bucks on the top off of, versus going to some random influencer who's selling them some stuff that we don't know what's going in there. So if you believe in some quality products, which you guys have, and you have a good three or four products that you're constantly pushing, that could even fill the rent bucket in the future. And that's really exciting to say, oh shit, like the merch is getting 10, 15 a month and the subs are getting 15, 20 per month. Wow, this is actually doing pretty well. Let's explore that second idea of the bigger gym or the next gym or whatever that may be. Because once you have that entrepreneurial itch, which I can definitely sense, you're young, you're eager. In my book, I talk about help Nick, you have that hunger. And so you're going to want to probably have that itch of, okay, what's next? What's on the other side of the equation? So that's exciting.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Question for you, because we're we're probably kind of similar-minded, like you said. How do you manage that? Like, like you're saying, we're almost not really fully present with clients sometimes because our brain is just a million different directions. How would you say that you've managed that and still like showing up and giving your clients quality stuff?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm very selfish. And what I mean by that is today I was training my client and we were talking about how to get my clients' new business. So the stuff that I'm thinking about, I put it on them and just have a conversation with it. Because more times than not, what we find is your clients, as you know, they're your number one fan. But maybe because we're overthinking and we're not compartmentalizing it, that we're thinking they don't want to talk about this stuff. I they they want to talk about A B C and D. And rightfully so, they're not going to come in and oh my God, Katie, I need to tell you about my my problems I have. No, like today she came in, she vetted a little bit about you know stuff that's going on at you know, work and and home, 10, 20 minutes into the workout. I'm like, oh, so how's this been going with this other trainer? Let's talk about some opportunities. And so one of the things that I was thinking of is going to this charity event. Are there some similar situations that or events that are going on that you could recommend? Because I want to get this trainer full and she's gonna need about eight clients. If you were me, what would you do to try to get her more clients? And more times than not, it's oh, you're actually, I have a friend at work who's going to be needing a trainer because so many trainers are terrible at asking for referrals. At the end of the session, they just smoked them and they go, Oh, did you like the workout? Of course they're gonna say yes. And then they say, Oh, well, maybe if you know anyone who wants to train with you, I'll give you a free session or I'll give you a 5% referral. It's like I get emails all the freaking time from Uber. Refer a friend and get five bucks. Like, fuck you, Uber. I'm not gonna refer you a friend for five dollars. If you put some cash down, like, hey, if you refer me someone, whatever they invest for the first month, I'll give you half of that. So I'm not gonna profit anything. If someone gets one of these$3,000 tickets, I'll give you$1,500 cash. No questions asked. And that's my thank you because you're helping the brand grow. Maybe it's a connection studio or something else. What do they want? But I just have open conversations with my clients, and my clients love it. I would say half of the session is them talking about their life, other half is me talking about my life. Because as you know, a lot of your clients are stressed out and they're tired of talking about politics and all the bullshit that's going on today. And they'll just be they'll say, like, okay, I don't want to talk about this anymore. What's going on with you? And then I'll kind of unload a professional way. You have to know that balance, and those are where the people skills come in because you don't want to just overwhelm your client with so much drama that they're like, oh God, I'm going back to Chris to hear about the crazy shit that's going on. You know, it needs to be that happy medium.

SPEAKER_01:

That makes sense. And I feel like it helps the clients feel a little more invested in the business too, like they're part of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep. Do you do any type of community events for your clients and members?

SPEAKER_01:

Not as of now, but it's definitely something I've been thinking about, especially now that I brought on more people. When I was by myself, it was just too overwhelming to think about. But Tyson's pretty good to know about that. So I think together, like we could at least brainstorm some stuff to do. So we've we've started up this um on weekends, we'll get together and we'll do like a like a trainer session, basically. And then um we're expanding that to be possibly a we're gonna bring in like a coffee cart, so someone that I know locally to help them with their business. We're gonna bring in some coffee because coffee always attracts people. And then say, like, hey, come work out with the trainers. Like you basically get a free session when you come in and open it up to the to the people. So keep it local. That's one thing that we've been playing around with. I think we're gonna start that maybe October, November officially.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. Uh to piggyback off of that, something when you get your team solidified, finding a local outreach, whether if it's a school, private school, whatever, and finding a team. You said you play basketball, you gave your your coach uh a shout-out, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh, I do, I did play basketball. I played volleyball. That's mostly my sport.

SPEAKER_00:

Who is your coach? Was it a volleyball coach or basketball? Basketball. You said you're gonna give him a shout out, but you never said his name.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, he's from Canada. His name is Timothy Brock.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, listen, he's like, Oh, there's my name. I like it, and he's making a difference. That's huge. Way to go, Tim. And so I'd reach out to a local team and offer to sponsor them. And so then what you can do is let your members know that we're gonna have a charity event for the local volleyball team. You want to be able to get them the uniforms, travel expenses, the goal is to raise you know,$2,000, and your members will eat that up. They'll come in like you already have that initiative, which is great. Local coffee shop, donut shop, uh, Pilates Studio. You get people to come in, have a little cross, what they call them business, cross-penetration there. So you can refer clients to Pilates, they refer them to you. But then when you donate, then people part of that school community will say, Oh, what's the gym that's doing the fundraiser for? That's awesome. You get connected with the athletic director, the principal. And then, as you know, it's just it's all about networking. But I want the schools to know about me. I want the law firms, the medical community. I want it's like a game of monopoly. I want everyone in my freaking community to know that I'm the best and I'm being proactive by helping and giving first, but letting them know that my team is quality. Because unfortunately, trainers kind of have a bad rep and they think that we're just gonna be doing some crazy CrossFit stuff, hurting people. And so when you lead with giving and not just what the average person do, hey, uh, can you give me clients? I got a gym, you got to give me clients. Give, give, you know, me, me, me, me, me, take, take, take. When you take that other approach and you give back to your community, then you can do a lot of great stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like that. That's good. I actually I do have a connection with that already. I'm in the middle of um, this guy reached out from some of our local like middle schools, and we have the opportunity to sponsor them so they can put up a banner like on the I don't know if it's a website or I'd have to go back and look, but we're looking into doing that. So I'm kind of going through that process. It resonated with what you just said.

SPEAKER_00:

There you go. Look at you, girl. You're doing it, you're doing well. You got to just take this moment to pat yourself on the back because the one thing I would say is the most difficult, which you can relate to. We're not doing it for this, but you don't get out of boys, you don't have that coach to say, Hey, that was a fucking nice shot. Keep doing it. We don't have it's us, and you have to believe in your product. And there's a lot of times and you're gonna make decisions, you're like, shit, was that the right one? And you're gonna reflect years and be like, oh, that was stupid. I've made so many idiotic mistakes. I've opened gyms that I shouldn't have opened up and it costs a lot, but I learned from that and used it for momentum moving forward. And so you're doing a great job. Give yourself a huge pat on the back. Where could people find you if they're in the the northwest up there or if they want to follow you on your with your blue check mark on Instagram?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so physical location is 1331 Dell Avenue in Walla Walla, Washington. And social media is my handle is going to be coach.meds. That's Instagram, TikTok. Um, Facebook will be just under my regular name, Madeline Harmon. Um, Instagram is probably the best way to reach me though.

SPEAKER_00:

I always say it's great to offer to go to a spot to see if you can shadow. Make sure to bring a gift if you like coffee, if you like wine, whiskey, whatever it is, bring them a gift, be there prompt on time, be a fly on the wall. We're given two ears, two eyes, one mouth in that order. So make sure to use them that way. Anything else that you would give to that person who maybe's on the fence about starting their entrepreneurial journey, what would that advice be?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, there's probably a lot, I could say, but I've listened to a lot of Alex Hermozi stuff recently. So I would gonna throw a plug in there, go listen to him, because he's got great business stuff there. Um, but one thing that's really stuck with me from his stuff, and I'm trying to apply it myself. We're talking about kind of like making that decision, right? Like we're always like, oh, is this the right one? Is it not? And he says, like, if you can make that decision, fail, and then make it up faster than you would take to just like wait around and hopefully make the right one, then you should just do it. So what he's saying by that is like you might make the wrong decision, the wrong decision, but first of all, you're gonna learn from it, you're gonna figure that out real fast, and then you're gonna go and you're gonna actually make the right decision. But at least you're making progress forward, like you're taking that step, right? So rather than just sitting on the fence and being like, is this right? Is it not? I'm gonna wait for the right time. There's never gonna be a right time. You just gotta do it, you just gotta jump in, and everything else is gonna follow. Because when you put yourself in the fire, you're gonna freaking find a way out, right? Rather than I'm just sitting here and I have nothing that's actually pushing me to go forward. So, like I said, don't give yourself the B option. You only got one option.

SPEAKER_00:

And that advice definitely comes from like a Mark Zuckerberg and Alex does a lot of reading himself. If you are an entrepreneur or you want to be, I highly suggest the founders podcast because they go through all of the you know, the big moguls throughout the decades and what they've done and how they took that shot. And you know, you don't hear a lot of 20 year olds starting their own business. So we're gonna be hearing a lot more about you and your success. So keep it up. You're you're changing lives, helping people. And that's why we got into this. Any other questions before we call her a day? No, I think that's great. Appreciate it. Thank you for taking the time. And remember, keep showing up.