Good Neighbor Podcast: Youngstown
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Youngstown. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Stacey Willis helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Youngstown, Ohio.
Is your business serving the residents of Youngstown? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpYoungstown.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Youngstown
E4: Beyond the Barbell: How Habit-Based Nutrition Changes Lives Forever
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Stacey Willis.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a personal trainer? Well, one might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of welcoming RJ Balog, owner of the train station. Rj, thank you so much for joining us today of course. Thanks for having me absolutely well, we're excited to learn all about you and all about your business, so why don't we jump right in and why don't you tell us about your company?
Speaker 3:All righty. So I co-own and operate the Train Station Fitness. We are Youngstown's only CrossFit gym. We also own and operate 80-20 Nutrition, so that is habit-based holistic nutrition coaching. So yeah, that's the two companies together.
Speaker 2:All right. And how did you get started in the business?
Speaker 3:So I was a gym member at the train station for a year or so. My wife Mariah was the general manager, and we purchased it a little over a year and a half ago and started the nutrition company from the ground up. So yeah, that's those two.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what are some misconceptions that people have about being an owner in the fitness industry?
Speaker 3:Well, I think there are some misconceptions about the sport of CrossFit itself. A lot of times, what you see is the high-flying top 1% of the world doing CrossFit on ESPN and the CrossFit Games, and what I'd like people to know is that CrossFit is for everybody. It's community-based fitness and anything that we do is scalable, meaning that we can go up or down to meet you at your current fitness level. With the nutrition side of things, I think that when people hear the word nutrition, they think of dieting, caloric restriction, and while that is the case that we do those things, depending on the person's goals, we also teach people healthy habits and a way to eat to support any season. So you know, I always say my goal with nutrition clients is to get them to shop and cook and eat sustainably for whatever season of life they're in, so that they don't need a coach one day. We don't like to string people along for money. We want to empower them.
Speaker 2:So who are your target audience and how do you attract them?
Speaker 3:So for fitness, it's literally anybody. So we have members that are in their upper 70s that come to the gym five days a week and do CrossFit classes. We do personal training with a variety of ages and skill levels. We have youth classes, starting under 10 years old, running through high school, and then with nutrition. It just depends on their goals. So our target is literally everybody. We have your everyday weight loss client, we have people who have health related goals, and then we have performance nutrition coaching as well for higher end athletes.
Speaker 2:And outside of all of this work and nutrition and fitness, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:Well, I am grinding pretty hard right now with the startup business. So you know I love what I do. It's six or seven days a week, for sure A lot of long hours, but outside of that I enjoy hiking. I put a lot into my fitness myself. So, yeah, I'm just building a brand and loving the journey right now.
Speaker 2:Well, let's switch gears then. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you overcame and how it made you stronger? What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:yeah, um, so I used to do a lot of concrete work in my former career, so switching gears from working for somebody else to owning your own business is certainly hard. Um, a lot of business owners, especially in the wellness industry, deal with imposter syndrome. So sometimes it feels like, you know, because you do what you love to do and you help people change their lives, you like it so much that sometimes it doesn't feel like a real job. So I am constantly having to remind myself, my wife and my coaches that we belong and we're important. And, yeah, imposter syndrome is real. You know, sometimes you get overworked, sometimes you can't separate work and other life. So those are a few struggles.
Speaker 2:All right, well, tell our listeners one thing they should remember about the train station, and then something that they should remember about 80-20.
Speaker 3:OK, so the train station is community based fitness that you get to do with your buddies. Everything is scalable. Crossfit is for everybody, it's for every fitness level and I think it's the best type of fitness to get results. And then, when you pair that with good nutrition coaching using a holistic framework and working on healthy habits, the combination of the two is very powerful. I'd like people to take away from our nutrition coaching services is that we teach people how to implement healthy habits that stay with them forever. We don't like to think of it as a diet or a phase, but rather the longevity of eating healthy and having good healthy habits. So long term change for nutrition.
Speaker 2:Okay, and how can our listeners learn more about both companies?
Speaker 3:Well, you can Google us for sure, we are out there. Train Station has a website at thetrainstationfit 8020,. We're really active on social media. So we have Instagram page 80 underscore, 20 underscore, nutrition. That's our Instagram handle. The train station also has an Instagram page. We give a lot of good free content away. We're also both on Facebook. The train station Facebook page is just it. It's private for for members only, but uh, yeah, we're always trying to interact with the community and other small business owners and and uh, try to grow so we're easy to find.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, rj, I really appreciate you being on the show. Um, we wish you and your business the very, very best of luck.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much wish you and your business the very, very best of luck. Thank you so much. Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPYoungstowncom. That's GNPYoungstowncom, or call 330-355-3122.