The Alimond Show
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The Alimond Show
JP Sherry of Train - From Lawyer to Fitness Entrepreneur: Innovating Personal Training Spaces, Mastering Legal Contracts, and Empowering Trainers to Thrive
Can a passion for fitness transform into a thriving business? Join us as we uncover the fascinating journey of JP Sherry, a lawyer turned innovative entrepreneur, who has seamlessly fused his legal acumen with his love for fitness to create 'Train'—a luxury personal training facility like no other. Amidst the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, JP's vision offered personal trainers a unique opportunity to rent private lanes by the hour, allowing them to maximize their earnings without being bogged down by hefty overheads. Discover how his blend of legal expertise and entrepreneurial spirit culminated in a sleek, spacious gym that caters to clients seeking a high-end, personalized workout experience.
In our engaging conversation, we dive into the intricacies of legal contracts and the critical role they play in business expansion. JP shares invaluable insights for personal trainers at various stages of their careers—whether you're just starting out or a seasoned pro, there's something here for you. Learn about the importance of a sturdy support system and how aspiring to become an "A-plus" person can transform both personal and professional lives. With practical strategies for lead generation and fostering independence, this episode promises to equip trainers with the tools needed to thrive in the ever-evolving fitness industry.
So my name is JP Sherry. I have two businesses. The first business is JPS Law. It's a civil litigation boutique located in Tyson's Corner, and my second business, which is really my passion project, is Train. We're a luxury private personal training facility in McLean, virginia, and we rent private training lanes out to personal trainers by the hour.
Speaker 2:Okay, tell me more. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 1:So the concept is plug and play right, and it was born out of COVID. So I was working out with a trainer at Equinox when COVID hit and after that gyms were shutting down, trainers were scrambling to maintain their businesses. A lot of trainers were getting laid off. My particular trainer I had known for a long time and he agreed to be in our little family bubble and so he came to my home gym and he trained me during COVID. He came to my home gym and he trained me during COVID.
Speaker 1:I had sacrificed the man cave when we moved into our new house and I wanted to build a sort of commercial style gym. So when other people were scrambling to get equipment, I had the benefit of really having a full gym that was available. And as we trained and he got more and more worried about you know what he was going to do from a business standpoint people were training people outside wherever they could find. I started asking him some questions right, why don't you go out on your own? And his response was well, I don't know the first thing about how to do that, right, it just seems daunting. How to do that, right, it just seems daunting. And then I asked another question which was out of the, I think, $135 an hour that I was paying Equinox, how much he took home and I was shocked. Do you want to guess how much?
Speaker 2:Between $35 and $50.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you're well aware then. Yeah, and it would be dependent upon how many sessions he was able to book in a given month, which wasn't really within his control. So I thought there has got to be some sort of healthy medium where someone can provide a facility for trainers and make money as well, and then the trainers can make more money. So the idea was kind of born at that point, and for the next year, when he would come over and train me, I would ask him a million questions. I literally drew the first version out, not on a cocktail napkin, but I used my daughter's colored pencils and her ruler. I took a piece of paper and I started drawing out what the facility would look like. And so I made this poor guy move all the equipment around in my home gym so that we could simulate a lane, because the idea was all right. Well, what if we had just individual lanes? And they're all identical, and they had all of the equipment that you would need to train, and you would come in and you would just rent by the hour. So if you didn't have a client, you're not losing any money. Basically, they don't pay us until they know they're getting paid by their client, because the alternative solution that other trainers have done is they sign a lease and if they don't have business coming in, they still have to pay all of their overhead.
Speaker 1:And having come from Equinox, the idea was well, how do you get clients who are at these higher-end gyms to want to leave to go to a small box gym? And COVID was helpful in that regard, because no one wanted to be in a big box gym anymore. But we wanted to just build it out to be really nice, right, to look like an Equinox, to look like Barry's Boot Camp, so very sleek in its design, so that trainers' clients would want to come to train. We wanted them to be bragging about it on social media, we wanted them to have a facility that was fun to come into to work out at and we don't charge them anything to come to the facility. So it's really the concept. I think is somewhat like salon lofts, if you're familiar with that, right? So, but we don't rent by the month, we just rent by the hour.
Speaker 2:Your personal vibe and aesthetic kind of reflects the aesthetic that you're telling me about, that you created.
Speaker 1:That's very astute of you, because I built train the way I would want to go into a gym and work out. So I don't like crowds. I prefer to have space, and COVID helped with that, because all of our lanes are at least six feet apart. You don't have to share with anyone. No one is in your space. So even during prime time, the thing that's nice is you don't have to worry about the crowds, because if all of the lanes are taken up, it doesn't matter, because you just stay in your own little space. So it made me happy. When it was done, I would go in and I would say this is my sanctuary, right? This is what I would want, and it was fun to see that other people wanted that as well.
Speaker 2:So tell me, from lawyer to creating this space, why I know how you got there, but, like, what motivated you, because I'm sure it was a lot of time, energy resources, what?
Speaker 1:motivated you, because I'm sure it was a lot of time, energy resources. Yes, you know, I have always been passionate about fitness and I have had the benefit of working with amazing personal trainers. I never became a personal trainer myself. I rely 100% on the expertise of those amazing individuals, but I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. There have been ideas that I've had, but I haven't known how to put them into action. Right, so I might think, well, here's a cool invention, but it would stop there because I'd have no idea how to get that off the ground With my law firm.
Speaker 1:I started my own firm 12 years ago. I've been a lawyer for 20 years and so I knew how to run a basic business. I understood the concepts of your operating expenses, your marketing, that sort of thing. When COVID hit and this idea hit, it was something I was passionate about and it was something that I had good knowledge about as well. So it was kind of always me maybe looking for an opportunity in the background, and then this just sort of happened and, um, it just felt right and sort of evolved from there now tell me a little bit, if wish to, about the law side of your life.
Speaker 1:Sure, I always joke. Now that I have trained, you know I have two jobs. Job number one, which is the law firm, is it's aggression, it's writing nasty letters, it is fighting people in court, depositions, cross-examinations. It's a stressful job but it's one that I like. And job number two is train, and it's all about health and wellness, and so I want more train in my life and, I think, less of the aggressive litigation in my life. It gives me balance, right.
Speaker 1:But I always knew I wanted to be a lawyer since I was a little kid. I just love the idea of being in a courtroom. So, in terms of law, I wanted to be a trial lawyer, and that is something that stuck with me from the time I was a little kid to the time I went to college. I just always knew right, I am waiting to get into the courtroom, and as soon as college is over, I'm going to law school. I didn't want to work at a big corporate firm, I just wanted to be in court, and so that's what happened.
Speaker 1:I went to GW for law school and then I found a great mid-sized firm in Vienna, virginia, which is where I started.
Speaker 1:I went to them and they said look, we'll get you your first trial within a couple of months of you passing the bar exam. And they did, and I was hooked, fortunately, because I had banked my whole future on liking this and I loved it. And as I've gotten older and started my own business, it really helped me understand the businesses of my clients so much more. When I started JPS Law 12 years ago, it was incredible because my clients who were entrepreneurs they gave me more business when I had left my prior firm because they had all been there at some point and they appreciated the fact that I had gone out on my own and they wanted to help me. And so seeing that, you know, has made me pay it forward. And with the trainers themselves, I love helping them with that setting up their LLC, making sure they're protected, talking to them about you know, how they can generate more business, how they can protect themselves. It just has been great to use that sort of collective knowledge that I've gathered to help other people.
Speaker 2:Do you incorporate that within any aspects of your business with Train, where you're helping train the trainers on the business, or is it just something that you do casually?
Speaker 1:So it is casual, right. The main thing for us is we don't want to step on anyone's toes, right? Train, unlike other facilities, is not one where they come in and they have to wear a train t-shirt and we pretend that they're all under the train umbrella. It's the opposite, right? We want them to promote their brands. We want everyone to know that we exist to help trainers promote their individual businesses. So I am there to provide them with guidance. But we haven't had any sort of set sessions. Right, we'll try and do group events together, you know, dinners, that sort of thing, but it's really just an elective process, right? If they want to come to me, they can. Sometimes they'll ask me about their, you know, liability waivers, that sort of thing. Others it's just sort of general business questions. But I love it. That is probably one of my favorite parts.
Speaker 2:So liability waiver, as if you're like a lawyer or something.
Speaker 1:Correct Exactly how do I avoid getting sued? Or, if I do get sued, how do I avoid going bankrupt?
Speaker 2:So what type of businesses do you work with on the law side?
Speaker 1:It runs the gamut right, but the probably largest portion of our practice is real estate and construction litigation. So we have a ton of developers and contractors in the area and then on the flip side, we do represent the occasional homeowners who have issues with builders that we don't have a conflict with, but because litigation is so expensive, generally it's the businesses that we represent. The rest of our practice is very diverse. Any kind of issue you can imagine a business might have from breach of contract, someone leaving and trying to steal employees, non-competes. We get a lot of partnership disputes, which I find really interesting. It's basically like a divorce, but the business is the baby and people get very emotional because they've put the blood, sweat and tears into it. So there's a human element to it that really makes the case more interesting.
Speaker 2:So I love to ask you what are your? It's just I'm so interested in both businesses here and I know where your passion lies versus like where your bread and butter probably, I'm guessing is right now. But what advice would you give a business owner from all the crap that you've seen? What advice would you give somebody who's in five, 10 years into their business when it comes to protecting themselves?
Speaker 1:Sure, um, just have an attorney. Look at your contract, right? The number one thing that happens. When businesses come to me and they have a dispute, it generally revolves around a contract. There's a contract in play somewhere and eight times out of 10, when I look at that contract, I just shake my head either because it's been pulled from the internet, or maybe it's been handed down from someone else and there are things missing, right?
Speaker 1:The number one thing that's always missing is an attorney fee provision. So in Virginia and many other jurisdictions generally, if you have just a regular old dispute with someone, you don't have a contract that says if I sue you and when I get to recover my attorney's fees, then you can't. And so if you have a $10,000 dispute but I tell you it's going to cost you $10,000 to litigate it and you're going to win, but you're not going to get that money back, it won't make any sense and that is something that is so easy. It's a sentence that I can put in a contract. It doesn't matter where it goes, it just has to be there. But there's so many clients I talk to who say I wish I had just known this and that's something that I can. Look at someone's contract and in 30 minutes, tell them three or four things that might be missing, that they should have and that really can protect them down the road.
Speaker 2:So that same question, but to trainers. Yes, what advice would you give a trainer who is wanting to do what your trainer wanted to do in terms of, just like, expand his business and take control?
Speaker 1:Sure, for the trainers, for the new trainers, I would say this right, it's really hard to build your business on your own. The way I built my legal business was simply by being at other firms that I enjoyed, but then ultimately leaving and cultivating my clients through those other businesses who then came with me. So for new trainers, I would say go work at a good gym, right, build your skills, build your client base and when you're ready to leave, some of those clients will come with you. Some of them will refer you business going forward. And it's a good way to start going forward. And it's a good way to start for the. For the trainers who have been around for a while, I would say focus less on Instagram, right, we have a lot of trainers who are very concerned about their daily content, which is great for the ones that are looking to build their virtual business right their online presence. But for the brick and mortar, what we find is that the age group of the people who are going to pay between $120 up to $200 an hour for personal training, they're not looking on Instagram for that right. A lot of them are on Facebook, right, a lot of them are on Facebook and a lot of them are just looking for a different way to connect or be referred, and so I try to tell the trainers maybe take one or two of those days when you're going to post content and use them to try and get people another way, because I can share with them that we try and drive in leads as well.
Speaker 1:People see train and they don't know that we're a really a club for personal trainers. They just come in and say I want a trainer. So the fun part is we can then push leads to the trainers and the more business they have, the more business we get. So it's really symbiotic. But I can share with the trainers. Look, we have a social media presence but I'd say 75% of our business comes because people just see our sign on the street because of our location, and the other 25% comes through our Google marketing, that sort of thing, our email campaigns, and those are things that the trainers aren't really thinking about. Right, collecting contact information so they can continue to reach out to people, build their potential client base, that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:Have you thought about creating your own little free mini course online for trainers that are wanting to like? Is that going to be that most helpful thing for your business is to recruit more trainers, or how do you expand yours? I know you thought about maybe other locations.
Speaker 1:Yes, uh, so we're actively looking for a second location, which is a very exciting Um, but in in terms of you know, um, expand its and whether we would offer courses. Right, it is something that I think about. Originally, there was an idea of providing even more support and more structured support. Right, here are certifications that are available for you to better yourself. Here are courses that we can provide, you know whether it's a simple, just sort of business development course or maybe a legal type course.
Speaker 1:But one thing that I learned, and I would also recommend to anyone, is, when you have an initial concept, to keep it simple.
Speaker 1:That's what I did when I was first envisioning train train, which is how can I make this so that I can replicate it? Right, how can I give people everything they want but pare down everything else, which is, we are here for a solitary purpose and that is to provide a luxury facility for trainers, and it is what they make of it. Right, in a perfect world, a trainer has a full book of business but doesn't have a location, and they come into us and they book a lane, you know, every day, all year long. But we also have trainers who come and they're just starting right. So they need our help and it's been fun to see we had a trainer. She came from North Carolina. She was great, had a huge client base in North Carolina and started from scratch with us, and in a year we built out her entire book, which is a testament to how great she is, and it was also just fun to see that we had the ability to do that.
Speaker 2:You keep saying book a lane for all of us, people that have no idea what that means. Yeah, what does that mean?
Speaker 1:All right. So each lane is identical. It's about 25 feet long and it has a power rack on one side, which is where you can do bench press, squats, all that kind of fun stuff, and then on the other side is another rack that has dumbbells, kettlebells, trx, a jump box. The idea was that the lane should be long enough so that you can do whatever you want in it. People will box in their lanes. We have agility ladders, cones, so you can lift weights, but you can also get some cardio in right.
Speaker 1:Each lane also has an assault bike, which people have a love-hate relationship with, but that is the idea. So each lane is numbered. This facility has five lanes and it's like booking a dinner reservation, right? Only you can choose your lane. So trainer goes on our app and says I need to find a lane for 930 tomorrow and they will see which lanes are available. And then they just click a button and they pay at the time that they book the lane, and then they simply show up, they get checked in and that lane is theirs for an hour.
Speaker 2:That's awesome, kind of like an Airbnb, but for like the fitness world.
Speaker 1:Right, and we don't make them clean everything up afterwards like an Airbnb. We don't have these crazy rules, so they just they leave, and then we clean it and then the next trainer gets on.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I love that concept Very simple, easy to use.
Speaker 1:Yes, it makes it. It's fun because now, thinking about the second location, I can take the things that I've learned and kind of distill it down even more. So there are two or three changes that I'm really looking forward to seeing whether they make a kind of substantive difference.
Speaker 2:Is there anything else you want to share that I didn't ask about? I'm sure there's so much regarding train or the law side of your life.
Speaker 1:No, I don't think so of your life. No, I don't think so, other than just if you're a personal trainer out there and you're looking for a location where you can train your clients, feel free to contact us. Our goal is to build, hopefully, many more of these, but the idea is that, for a trainer who might otherwise have been stuck with a client base in McLean, if we build three or four of these throughout Northern Virginia, they have the ability to expand their client base without increasing their overhead.
Speaker 2:I think that's brilliant.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. And then my last question is what piece of advice would you give to anybody? What's something that you live your life by? That you find yourself saying again and again.
Speaker 1:Sure, just surround yourself with good, competent people, but manage your expectations. The A-plus people out there are unicorns. Right, I'm not an A-plus person, but if you surround yourself with good people and don't be afraid to ask for help, it's really. It just gives you a leg up, and having that support system is invaluable.
Speaker 2:Who's an A-plus person?
Speaker 1:Who's an A-plus person?
Speaker 2:How would you define an A-plus person?
Speaker 1:So an A-plus person is someone who is a self-starter, right, and an A-plus person is someone who doesn't just come to you with a problem but has already either come up with a solution or is showing their work as to why they're coming to you and asking for your help. I would tell my employees on the law firm side to try and help them go through that process. I'd say, before you come to me, imagine that I'm on an airplane, a transatlantic flight, and you can't get in touch with me, right? And so you have to be the one to make this call. Do everything that you would and then, if you still can't come up with the answer, come to me and then show me your work, so trying to teach people. Look, I need to exert that additional effort. It's like a muscle, right. You need to exert that additional effort. It's like a muscle, right. You need to exert that and the muscle will grow. You'll be able to deal with this better in the future.
Speaker 2:I love that, so it sounds like you're an eight-plus person. I aspire to be thank you so much for being on the show. You had so many good tips. I think the concept is brilliant and it was so amazing to be able to meet you and talk with you today likewise thanks for having me.