Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 257: Movement, Mindfulness, and the Magic of Coffee: Inside The Caffeine N Fitness Journey
What makes Luis Baltierrez with Caffeine N Fitness a good neighbor?
When the pandemic shuttered gyms across the country, personal trainer Luis Baltierrez faced a crossroads. Instead of waiting for normalcy to return, he answered the call from former clients eager to resume their fitness journeys. What emerged was Caffeine N' Fitness – a unique business concept born from Luis's twin passions.
"Coffee is my pre-workout," Luis explains, revealing the inspiration behind his business name. Four years later, his facility not only offers expert training but also serves fresh-roasted coffee sourced weekly from local roasters. The combination creates a distinctive experience where clients can fuel their workouts naturally while receiving professional guidance from a passionate coach.
Behind the polished exterior of fitness entrepreneurship lies a challenging reality that Luis candidly shares. The administrative demands, marketing challenges, and sheer persistence required to build a sustainable business aren't visible on social media. Yet through faith, the unwavering support of his fiancée, and a loyal client base that weathered pandemic restrictions together, Luis has created something special. His client roster spans from twenty-somethings to those in their late sixties, with a particular specialty in coaching endurance athletes preparing for significant competitions.
Beyond his business, Luis reveals himself as a multifaceted individual – a kettlebell juggling athlete who hosts the "Grind to Grow" podcast, an artist who finds solace in drawing, and an enthusiastic home cook exploring grilling and smoking techniques. Most recently, he's demonstrated community leadership by opening his space to fellow fitness professionals displaced by devastating storms in Western North Carolina.
Luis's parting wisdom resonates with profound simplicity: "The importance of moving... we're made for it." In a world where physical activity often takes a backseat to busy schedules, he reminds us that consistent movement – even starting with just 10-15 minutes daily – is fundamental to longevity and wellbeing. Ready to experience this philosophy firsthand? Visit www.caffeinenfitness.com for a free three-day trial or consultation and discover how combining good coffee with thoughtful movement might transform your approach to fitness.
To learn more about Caffeine N Fitness go to:
https://www.caffeinenfitness.com/
Caffeine N Fitness
(828) 424-0443
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So today we've got a very special guest who I am intrigued based on the name of his business, because I love coffee and I love fitness and I love working out. And if you do, too, you're going to be just as excited, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, mr Luis Balterrez, who is the owner operator of Caffeine and Fitness. Luis, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me Skip. Thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We're thrilled to have you. Like I said, I'm excited to learn all about this because I do love coffee, and I'd love coffee more than working out but I do. I am a fanatic in the gym, so why don't you kick us off by telling us about Caffeine and Fitness?
Speaker 3:So Caffeine and Fitness started right after the pandemic. I was working at a large gym as a personal trainer doing classes and COVID happened. We kind of got let go because we couldn't have been inside. So I took about a two, three month off that job to do something else because I still have to make money. And then I started getting calls and texts from clients asking me when are we going to start working out again? So that kind of gave me the push to go on my own and start my own uh, in this case, my own business trainer.
Speaker 3:Uh, I started training at a park because, again, uh, we have to have to keep the distance. Uh, covered was still, you know, we still don't know what's going on or what was going to happen. So started at a park with a few clients doing a little bit of both personal training and classes. And then it got cold, it got rainy days, so I had to find my own a spot to to train. Um, during this process I was thinking of a name, of what to call the business instead of using my name. I mean, love coffee, love to train. I don't do pre-workout. Coffee is my pre-workout, right. So that's where the name came from Caffeine and Fitness. We've been at this current location, where I've been, for a little bit more than four years now oh wow, four years.
Speaker 2:Congratulations so thank you so do you? Do you have coffee there when you're doing classes?
Speaker 3:yes, yes, right now it's summer, so I have both options regular coffee to make coffee maker and iced coffee, and people can make their own uh. And then I get my beans from a coffee uh, a local coffee shop, and so they do their roast on a monday and I get it on a thursday, so it's pretty fresh coffee oh wow, nice, very nice, he says.
Speaker 2:As you know, I'm drinking some coffee right now yeah, there you go wow, how? Yeah? Well, you kind of explained how you got into the business, what. What are some myths or misconceptions about the caffeine and fitness business?
Speaker 3:I guess if that's a business, obviously it is well, uh, I mean I can say for the training perspective or coaching, um, it's, I love the job, right, but uh, being a business owner and starting even though I was already a trainer in the past going on my own, you still have to put in a lot of hours, um, getting new clients or trying to outgrow the business. So it takes a lot to sustain this kind of business, because now I'm on my own, now I have to do everything. So it's at first not as glamorous as it seems. Right, you see, especially with social media nowadays, the paint is pretty perfect picture of you know you can gain this many clients and blah, blah, blah. Not to say that that is not true. It could happen and people have done it, people are doing it.
Speaker 3:But I think in and I know people that want to be trainers or coaches and I just I always tell them you want to make sure that you are prepared to work long, long hours and to build whatever the number is of clients or whatever you want to make. It's going to take time, it's going to take a long time. So you want to be prepared for that, because getting clients is not easy. There's a lot of network that needs to be happening. There's a lot of doing events, giving out free stuff, so there's a lot of work that goes to be happening.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of doing events, giving out free stuff. So it's there's a lot of work that goes into it, so not as easy as it looks.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, and you're gonna love it. It's just one of the things I love this job. It's super fulfilling, uh, and I told my I tell my clients all the time you're the reason why I show up, because you know it's fulfilling. I love what I do and I make. I get to make an impact in their lives very cool, very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I can relate. Uh, you know, I run my own business too, and even though it, you know, I love it, but it's, yeah, it's not easy. I I couldn't agree more. So who are your target customers and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:So the most successful way for me to acquire clients is being word of mouth Everybody, all the clients telling other people. I've used social media in the past and paid ads and all the other stuff and it's never worked for me. So I and currently I am working on doing more events, network more, get more involved with the community and just get my name out there, even though I've been doing this for a while. But there's still work to be done, right? I mean, I have a range right now from early 20s all the way up to early late 60s, right from both personal training and classes. So I love to train athletes. I have a few endurance athletes, runners and cyclists. Those are really fun because you get to really really push them Because again, they got this big event coming up. So we really got to get into the details of all right now. We got to focus on food, we got to focus on nutrition, your rest, your training Everything is dialed in very specific. So I love that.
Speaker 2:Very cool, very cool. Well, have you ever thought about having your own podcast?
Speaker 3:So I do have my own podcast. Oh, oh nice, it's called uh. It's called grind to grow and uh. Right now, so I currently also am. I am a kettlebell juggling athlete and and I am in the process of I started a series where I'm interviewing and talking to all the kettlebell jugglers that I know and that I've met, because we just had an event not long ago. So that's currently my main focus on the podcast. But, yeah, actually I do. It's one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 2:Very cool, you're in good company yeah. So, outside of work, man, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:I'm also an artist. I like to draw, oh cool. But at the moment it's not so much fun, it's more like my getaway from the world. I can just kind of turn on some chill music, maybe a funny show, and just kind of draw for a few hours, if I could. Other than that, I love to cook and lately I've been getting into more grilling and smoking.
Speaker 2:So yeah, nice, nice. Who doesn't like that? I like to be on the receiving end rather than the cooking end, so let's switch gears for a second. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you've overcome and how it made you stronger?
Speaker 3:I mean this applies to both personal life and the business. I know how to train people, I know how to create a program and I know how to coach people. I know how to create a program and I know how to coach and teach a movement and this and that and keep somebody accountable to the business side of it. What goes in the background, the admin stuff and all this stuff, taxes, and now you gotta do this, now you gotta do that. It was a big learning curve, so it wasn't so much of me overcoming it by myself. It was part of it.
Speaker 3:I'm a big believer of you know God guiding me on what I'm doing and trusting him on what I'm doing, how I'm doing things, but also my fiancee, super supportive.
Speaker 3:When I went on my own she was like go for it, whatever you need, I'm here. And then from there, friends, family, clients that stick through a pandemic. We had a really terrible storm not long ago that we had to overcome. I'm still open, so I'm very I feel extremely blessed and fortunate to have that support too. So it was I guess you can say it's more of a group effort, because I feel like we have to lean into each other to get things done or to overcome something, but there's only so much that I can do and I learned that, too throughout this more than four years of having the business that I need help. If I want to grow the business, we'll need more members, but there's also I need to learn more, whether it's knowledge about training or the business part of it, and how to grow, how to network and create these relationships like this to to spread the word very cool, so your business didn't didn't have any.
Speaker 2:Did you have any damage from the storm from the?
Speaker 3:I did not, I, I was fortunate once, because on top of it I'm on the second floor of the building. So okay I. We had water, got it getting really, really close to it and even inside on the first floor. But no, currently I'm also. I have two other coaches who lost their place who are using my facility too, oh nice.
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people did lose their spaces, especially like the River Arts District and Western North. Yeah, Hammer just got hammered.
Speaker 3:I had art at the River Arts District and it was just gone.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, well, I tell you I'm very proud of Asheville and all the little towns in Western North Carolina and East Tennessee actually.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That are so resilient and it's good to see you know neighbors coming together to help each other. That's awesome, just like oh yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was. I mean to see that amount of people from everywhere in the United States to come together and like to help, to volunteer. It was overwhelmingly good to see that happening because it was, it was needed, and then going back to leaning on each other and helping each other like we needed that and there's still so much more to do. Like the the cleanup, it's been insane it absolutely has.
Speaker 2:But I think a lot, of, a lot of good is going to come from this, I think, in the end. Cool. Well, how, if you could think of one thing that you'd like our listeners to remember about caffeine and fitness, what would that be?
Speaker 3:The importance of moving. Whether you work out, play a sport, you know moving is key for longevity. And that said, yeah, because I'm a trainer and I've been an athlete too for a long time. But I think it's something that we all need it to a certain extent. All right.
Speaker 2:We're made for it, yeah, exactly yeah, yeah, so and it's.
Speaker 3:It gets overlooked sometimes because you know we get busy with work, we get busy with life and family or whatever it is, or there's setbacks in life, injury, you name it, you have surgery or whatever it is, and and it gets put in the back burner. So I like to remind people the importance of movement, of activity. You have to do something, like the body was built to move, and and if you don't, it's, it's gonna come with the prize. So yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I tell my wife that all the time. That's like, even if you just go for a walk. You know, walking is great exercise. Oh, it is yeah.
Speaker 3:And that's the key being consistent. Like you start with 10, 15 minutes, the next thing you know you're up to an hour, or you do it with a friend or you, whatever it is, but building that consistency is key.
Speaker 2:And once you do that and you get to that level, it's like an addiction, like you can't do without it. You got to do it.
Speaker 3:Oh it is, it's still good, you get mad at yourself because you didn't work out and that happens to me like a lot because it's like yeah, me too I need to do it. It's part of my day, absolutely my day Absolutely Well, luis.
Speaker 2:if anybody's interested in learning more, coming to join a class, get involved with Caffeine and Fitness. How can they learn more so?
Speaker 3:you can go to my website at CaffeineandFitnesscom and I am currently giving people a three-day trial for free consultations for one-on-one training.
Speaker 2:Oh nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I also have Instagram and Facebook and it's the same name Caffeine and Fitness.
Speaker 2:Facebook and Instagram. Wow, so free consultation Awesome, yeah, listeners, you heard that here. Free consultation at Caffeine and Fitness, and that involves a workout too, I would imagine.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, we can go through a whole assessment just to get the right, so I can prescribe the right. The next step, whether it was personal training or group training Maybe it is, you know, maybe it is an online one of this consultation through Zoom, because the person lives far away.
Speaker 2:I also have online clients, so nice yeah, all right, available online, all right. Well, at least I can't tell you how much I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to to spend some time with me and our listeners and tell us all about caffeine and fitness and wish you and your company and your family and your girlfriend all the best, moving forward.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you so much for having me. This was great and, yeah, appreciate the time.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. Maybe we can have you back sometime, of course.
Speaker 3:Anytime, all right man, absolutely. Maybe we can have you back sometime, of course.
Speaker 2:Anytime, all right, man Sounds good. Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:You're welcome. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.