Episode 35: Remi Sovran | Cracking the Success Vault Podcast with Spectre Group

In this episode of Cracking the Success Vault, Sean Penhale sits down with Remi Sovran, owner of Ambassador Fitness & Performance, to share a journey that started with a life-changing back injury and evolved into a purpose-driven fitness business.

What could have been the end of his athletic path became the foundation for everything that followed.

Remi opens up about how he navigated severe back pain, took ownership of his recovery, and learned firsthand what actually works when it comes to training, injury prevention, and long-term health.

Today, he helps adults — especially those dealing with back pain and aging-related limitations — regain strength, confidence, and control over their bodies.

In this episode, Remi and Sean dive into:
• Turning injury into opportunity
• The truth about back pain and prevention
• Building a fitness business with a clear niche
• Launching and growing during COVID
• The power of content and online coaching
• Creating a community-focused fitness brand

Remi also shares how he built Ambassador Fitness from the ground up, growing a loyal client base by focusing on results, relationships, and education.

If you’ve struggled with back pain, want to improve your health, or are building a service-based business — this episode delivers both practical insight and real-world experience.

🔑 Topics Covered

💪 Back pain, injury recovery, and prevention
🏋️ Building a niche fitness business
📱 Online coaching and content creation
📈 Growing a business during COVID
🤝 Community building and client relationships
🧠 Health, longevity, and training for aging adults

⏱ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction to Remi Sovran
02:01 – Early Life and Hockey Background
16:31 – The Back Injury That Changed Everything
19:44 – Self-Rehabilitation and Learning
21:10 – Transition to Online Business
26:56 – Founding Ambassador Fitness
37:30 – Growth and Future Plans
43:12 – Community Engagement
44:40 – Defining Success

🔗 Resources

Ambassador Fitness
https://www.ambassadorfitness.ca

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Got like a sharp pain in my back.

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Not knowing the degree of the injury, I kept working out, training for a couple weeks, and came to the point where it was just it got real bad.

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Yeah. Your back injury was that way. Running the business was that way. Like you just seemed to be like, okay, I'm gonna go this direction and I'm just gonna go all in on learning.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

I was not ready by any means. Um, but it was in the back of my mind where it's like this could be a possibility.

SPEAKER_01 0:30

Today's guest is Remy Sovereign, founder of Ambassador Fitness and Performance, where he helps busy adults, especially those 45 to 65, eliminate lower back pain and take control of their health. Remy's journey started with a severe back injury that left him dealing with chronic pain and depression. When traditional care fell short, he rebuilt himself from the ground up, using his background in human kinetics to fully recover and turn that experience into his life's mission. With a master's in exercise physiology and experience working with elite athletes like the Toronto Raptors and Windsor Spitfires, Remy now brings that same level of expertise to everyday people, his results-driven, time-efficient approach to helping clients move better, feel stronger, and live pain-free. Welcome back to another episode of Cracking the Success Vault with Spectre Group. Today we're joined by uh Remy Sovereign, uh, owner uh at uh Ambassador Fitness. Uh, thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

Well, thank you, Sean. And I'm very happy to be here. This is exciting.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Yeah, this is gonna be a fun conversation. I mean, I'm a big athlete person. I grew up playing professional sports. I actually have some low back pain. So we're gonna get into some stuff. Um, so that's kind of interesting. I I read a little bit about your bio earlier. Uh we met a few weeks ago. Uh, but before we get into like how you built your business and what that injury was like and all that kind of stuff, why don't you take us back to sort of where you started, where you were born, where you grew up, and uh, you know, what you did before you got into sort of the health and fitness uh area.

SPEAKER_00 2:01

Sounds good. Yeah. So I'm from Windsor, Ontario. Grew up here, uh grade school, high school, did my whole university through uh here in Windsor. So um I come from a hockey background. So playing hockey growing up, played travel hockey, triple A, played a Euro Junior C Kingsville Comets back when they were around. Cool. Um, and then from that got into my undergrad, so after high school, I wanted to kind of get into physio. That was kind of like my intention, but I went into HK, did my whole HK degree. Uh, and then from that, physio school didn't really work out, applied to a couple places, just very competitive. So I decided to um just to upgrade myself, do my master's through HK. Uh, so I ended up doing a full internship and then research. So it kind of works kind of funny at Windsor, where it's like when you do your master's in HK, you have like two routes to go down. One you can do like an internship, or one you can do your thesis to get your master's. I ended up doing both. So I ended up having an internship with the Toronto Raptors. Cool. So that was a pretty cool experience where I moved to Toronto, worked with them kind of as like a strength and conditioning intern. Um, and sorry, I might be jumping a little ahead of here, but before that, um I was interning as well uh with the Windsor Spitfires for kind of two summers roughly uh under Joey Garland there. Um so that's where I kind of got into training, learning a little bit more about athletic therapy and whatnot. And that kind of led into the Raptors thing. Finished that kind of that internship was one of the best experiences I've had. Came back to uh Windsor, um, and then finished up my coursework, did a whole research project, got that published, and then um all from that kind of was got into some training afterwards.

SPEAKER_01 3:53

And so uh when did you do all of the the master's thesis working for the Raptors? How long ago was that?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

So we're going back to uh 2015, 2016. Okay, or sorry, yeah, 2015-2016 uh is when I had the um when I moved to Toronto. So I got into the master's program, and right away off the bat, I had landed this internship. So I went to Toronto, was interviewed for the position, and then I was notified the next day that I'd got it, so I'd have to move to Toronto. So I moved from Windsor to Toronto. Luckily, I was able to get kind of a course credit from it all. So living there with family um and then working with the team pretty much every day, yeah, learning from them. Uh, and then I moved back. So after that was done, and so I moved 2016 uh back to Windsor to kind of now finish up my coursework. And then about 2017 is when I started the research. So it was like a seven-week training study we did around um we were looking at a minute of work. So a minute of work. Yes. Okay. So we were trying to look at, and there's been research that's been done previously, looking at the least amount or minimal amount of time that one is required to improve um VO2 max. Okay. So like your maximal oxygen output, like more cardiorespiratory fitness. So there's been different protocols and one. I don't I won't get into too much detail on that, but we were just looking to see if we could add a weighted vest to people doing stair sprints three times a week. Literally, they would be sprinting for a minute total, 20 second intervals. So they were just sprinting upstairs, sorry, 15-second intervals um with 90 seconds rest, four times for a minute to total, three times a week. One group had a weighted vest, one didn't. Um, so the interesting thing is after the seven weeks, both groups improved, yeah, but there wasn't a significant difference. So the group that had the best, they didn't have any further benefit.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

It's interesting because I think most people when they're like working out, and I mean I come from a huge huge, I mean, I was a competitive swimmer, uh, swam on Canada's national team, had a full ride scholarship in the US. Like I worked out in the pool 10, 12 times a week, plus weights, plus cardio, plus plus, plus, plus. Uh, and everybody has this like weird mental, I gonna say blockage that the more weight you do or the more you can lift, the better off you're gonna be. And I have always found that that's not always been the case. Obviously, it's gonna depend upon the event that you're doing or what you're training for or whatnot. But in this instance, you would probably think that if I had a weighted vest on and I'm working harder because I'm I might improve more, but you're saying that's not the case.

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Yeah, so I mean, uh that's exactly what we found. Um, and the one thing that I mean, we couldn't kind of say this, but you can almost argue that sometimes, you know, uh, but just by adding the weight, there could be putting them at a higher risk of injury. Sure. Um now you could argue that the weight wasn't enough. We didn't have enough weight on them, but it was 10 and 20 percent of their body weight, like a progressive overload. Um, or that maybe the intervals weren't long, or if though those kind of variables were different.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Some variables, sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Right. So, but the point being is that um you know, weight itself may not be it's you know, just by adding a progressive overload to something like sprinting, you know, it's not necessarily going to improve your VO2 max when both are at all-out intensities for your cardiorespiratory fitness. Now, we did measure other variables like um lower body power and body composition, like body composition, there wasn't any changes either group. So, and there's more variables with nutrition and that on that end. Um, but with respect to um lower body strength, I mean both groups again improved. There was a little bit of a more of a tendency in the weighted vest group that seemed like there was a trend towards them having more improvements. So when you're talking about strength power, that's for maybe the weight can, you know, the overload. Yeah. Yeah. So it all really depends, you know, it depends on context. But you know, you see sometimes people maybe running or with a weighted vest or walking. It's not necessarily gonna maybe have the best, you know, the intended benefits that they may think, and could actually maybe do more harm than good in terms of at the same time, you can argue like uh their gate, it could affect the way they run, yeah. Um and whatnot.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

So who knows? Injuries, stress fractures, like just correct anything, right? Correct. Um, so what made you want to get into the the HK sports world in the first place? Obviously, I have found when I talk to many athletes that come from a competitive background, uh, most of the time they either wanted to do HK, they wanted to be a doctor, they wanted to do something in that health field because that's they grew up that way and maybe they had their own injury. Um, but as you were growing up, was HK always the thing that you wanted to do with human kinetics?

SPEAKER_00 9:19

HK, well, it was kind of like the starting program that I wanted to get into because uh and I alluded to earlier, like I wanted to get into physio. Now, I also wanted to do sports performance and training. So it was like I wanted to do both it to a like a degree. Like if I could run like my own practice with respect to maybe physio and have like athletic training, that was kind of always what I was most interested in. Okay. Um so HK was kind of a good introduction to everything, learning about the human body, exercise science. And you know, I had an introduction, I know in high school, there's an exercise science course, and uh a lot of my friends went into the program as well, just being local with Windsor. Um, but the um that's kind of a lot where the interest in, you know, obviously having a hockey background, athletic background. Yeah, um, that's where that kind of led into and my interest, at least to going into HK. So then the intention was to then go do say masters in physio, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

So and so okay, so you started playing you started playing hockey at a young at a young age. Correct. Did you play any other sports?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Uh so I played a little bit of soccer, baseball when I was a kid.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

It's typical hockey players, baseball, it's all the same.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

Volleyball too, but um so what made you choose hockey? It was the one probably I was excelled at the most, I found. Okay, enjoyed the most.

SPEAKER_02 10:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Um, and then I think my dad, just being a big hockey fan as well, you know, I think that kind of pushed on me a little bit as well.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

And yeah. And it had aspirations of doing the NHL thing, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

You know, every kid growing up, right? You want to make it to the NHL. I mean, I know the OHL draft was something I was always trying to be hopeful for, but um, you know, especially when you're in grade 10 like that, you know, you're looking to try to make the OHL and then NHL beyond or the next step. But obviously, I realized after not being drafted that yeah, kind of my what do you think?

SPEAKER_01 11:13

Uh what do you think was probably like what do you think was the strongest part of your game and the weakest part of your game? So I played defense. Um of course. The big tall guy, the big Zedano Chara guy playing defense. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

So I yeah, that's what I was kind of known for. That was my nickname, Chara. That's funny. And I know I did wear number 33, which I know is his number. That's interesting. On purpose or no? Uh, I did, like after, like I I think it was like my second year uh or my midget major year triple A. I wore 33. Everybody gave you the nickname and you wore 33. Chara, yeah. Interesting. So I think the the biggest part, obviously, long reach, big body, like I had great poke jack, you know, uh took up a lot of space, block shots. That's kind of what I was maybe more known for. Um, it's not like I would say I had a lot of high-end skill or wasn't gonna run a power play by any means. Um, but um in terms of a weakness, honestly, I think at the time, like I look back, I was very skinny. I honestly had a huge growth spurt uh as I was growing up. So I didn't really fill out until probably I was 1920. So I can't remember my exact weight, but uh I was maybe around 6'3 and grade 10, about 145 pounds, 150. Super light, yeah. And I mean, like in comparison, I'm 6'5 now, about 220. Yeah, so yeah, it was harder to I didn't have necessarily the strength to really like push your way through push my way through and have that like physical presence as a bigger body. Um, but there are other other attributes, like I said, long reach, stuff like that. That was good for me. But that was probably one of the biggest things I struggled with, and it I honestly really didn't probably fell out and like I said, till later, but that's one of my I was very similar.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

I mean, I went, I I honestly, I so I'm not that tall. I'm like just under six feet. I tell everyone six feet. Um I think I went away to university at like 130. Like I was the distance swimmer, yeah, super skinny, not super tall. Uh and in my first un my first year of university, I put on like 25 pounds. Like I think I just grew like crazy at like the age of 18. So that was like me. Started doing weights, started do eating more, just everything. Um, do you think it was for me? I always thought maybe it's because I didn't do weights uh training or I just wasn't eating enough. And once you're at university, I got a meal pass and I can just stay as long as I want and eat as much as I want. And I just kind of like thickened out, but it took a long time to like even learn how to operate my body in the pool after putting on 25 pounds. I'm heavier, uh not pulling myself the same way anymore. The technique was different. Like I had to learn how to do everything all over again. Um, do you think that was kind of similar to you?

SPEAKER_00 14:12

Absolutely. I mean, it wasn't until those early years in university that like I was eating more, kind of um training differently. But I also think too, like I I look back like when I was younger too. I was just like I was on the ice like three, four days or three, four times a day, and like just burning, burning, burning energy and not eating enough, but like that obviously balanced out, I think, later, and that's when I think kind of things evened out a little bit. But to your point, like completely I can relate on that end.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Yeah, interesting. Do you ever look back and wonder, like, man, if I had if I had grown earlier, maybe OHL, NHL would be a thing?

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Uh it the funny thing is, is like I don't want to say that, but like I think for sure, like um I'm a much better hockey player now or than I was before. Yeah, like I if I put like in comparison, I think with me filling out a little bit more, and also like I think I just developed like skill set-wise a little bit better, but um coordination and all that just really came along later on, came along later on. So it's hard to say um with respect to that. If I I'd done that earlier, if things would be different, but at the same time, if I maybe I just continued with it, yeah. Um, I know like there was an opportunity to go to junior B after that. I just decided to kind of quit a hockey though.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:42

But interesting. Because you wanted to move on with life. Um, that was yeah, like it was more, you know, uh after playing a year junior C, um, there was an opportunity to go uh to play junior B. Um, but you know, being like an 18-year-old, um, just kind of what I was offered at the time. It wasn't like I would be in, be in and out of the lineup, not playing a ton of minutes. Um, so with that and starting university, I'm like, do I really want to make this big commitment and then have start university have a full semester? Can I manage both? I just decided to kind of pursue more of my education and play recreational hockey after that. Nice.

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Okay. And so where did this uh uh I I read online uh this back injury? Where did this kind of come into play?

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah, so that's what I'm kind of known for is the back injury, back pain, but uh which is a whole different realm now. So it started. Um, so my third year university, um, I just remember I was I got into CrossFit was a big thing. Yeah. Uh this is when it kind of there was an explosion of it. And you know, when post-hockey, like my competitive stuff, playing recreational, still at the time, you know, looking for something to still do, right? So I kind of got involved into CrossFit, but I at the time did not really know what I was doing. So this is like second year university, getting into third. So, you know, with a lot of Olympic lifts, power lifts, you know, wasn't lifting properly, lifting lots of weight, doing a lot of the wrong things, yeah, uh really pushing beyond my limits. And then just one day I threw my back out on like a deadlift just with bad forms, and um got like a sharp pain in my back. Yeah, not knowing the degree of the injury, I kept working out training for a couple weeks, and came to the point where it was just it got real bad, yeah, real quick.

SPEAKER_01 17:42

I think that happens a lot of times though. Like, I mean, I got into CrossFit as well again after swimming. I think even during swimming, we were even kind of like at the end of my career, we were kind of doing it a little bit. Um, but it was so much about how much can you lift, how often can you lift it, you know, can you do it fast? And nobody cares. Most people, I shouldn't say nobody, most people don't care about form. They don't care about moving the actual weight itself. They just care, can you put it up and can you put it down faster than somebody else? And once your form goes out the window, like man, you can hurt yourself badly.

SPEAKER_00 18:20

100%.

SPEAKER_01 18:21

And you know, I'm a perfect example. Yeah, crazy. And so then that is that what led you into um doing a lot more of that, like 45 to 65 year olds with back pain, and now you're trying, are you trying to like get yourself out of that sort of box that people have put you in?

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah, so what ended up happening was like the back injury itself was somewhat of a blessing in some ways because it opened up kind of a whole different avenue of underservic people that I didn't realize were sustaining all these back problems. So after I had my back injury, like it was uh I was in a really bad place at the time. Um, you know, I dealt with kind of depression, I was on a lot of medications. I had pain to the point where I couldn't sleep at night. I remember driving to school, like I would have pain going down my leg, just trying to drive to school. I'd be sitting through exams with pain. It was bad. So, and I'd been seeing multiple different physios, kairos, people. No one that really helped me. And it was just some even gave me stuff that made me worse.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

And then I kind of just did my own rehab a little bit on that hand. I learned from just doing, you know, having obviously an HK background, the knowing about the human body, doing my own research. I ended up finding just reading a lot of spine journals and I came across a guy by the name Dr. Stuart McGill. And from his information, it just kind of resonated with me. He was talking about back injuries, strength and conditioning, personal training, and kind of everything that's wrong with back pain today. So, from all this stuff and doing my own stuff, trial and error, I got better, improved. Took about a year and a half, roughly, or so till I was pain-free, and then another year to kind of work back to activity. So all in that process was then I was kind of interning a little bit and working with the Spitfires, the Raptors. Yeah, but from that, um, it carved out. Um so I then started an online business where I was helping people online, and people were kind of it didn't even start that way as an online business. It's just as a YouTube channel where I was sharing my backstory, and then it kind of one person after another started commenting and sharing their stories, and I started to realize that there's there's something out there, you know, um, where there's a lot of people that are in a similar situation where it's like they've hurt themselves in a similar uh position to what I did, or whether it's from a different sport, and then they're doing the wrong things in the gym. Yeah. And so with my kind of you know, injury prevention background as I was learning, I then you know started working with people online, started working with people here locally, um and kind of carved out this little back pain, uh I guess expertise, you would say. Um but uh from that um, you know, I went um I opened the gym as you know ambassador fitness, but it we our specialty is a little bit different, so I've kind of more went to um 45 to 65 plus crowd. Um kind of more with general injuries, I'd say. I'm still kind of working with you know, back pain is still my specialty. Um, but then we have Coach Chelsea, who's the other trainer, she works more on the menopause side, so she just got a uh recent certification to new one, um, menopause training. So it kind of fits our demographic, but a lot of people with back pain, you know, trying to golf or yeah. All in that.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

And is it and it and are you seeing a lot of people who just haven't taken care of themselves over a long period of time that are now like, I should probably do something?

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yeah. And right now the trend that like what you're seeing is like a lot of there's adult sport performance, I guess you would call it now, right? Um, a lot of people playing pickleball and hurting themselves, right?

SPEAKER_01 22:22

So I'm starting to see more of everybody thinks pickleball is like this nice, soft, easy sport that anyone can do, and it's not a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

And you're starting to see more people come in and like, hey, like my knees are hurting. Can you put a program for me to help me with this? So starting to see a lot more of that, and that's what we're trying to kind of cater to a little bit more. Um, but again, like back pain is still within that yeah domain. So I still get people that will come to see me just for back pain, but um, I'd say it's a little bit less of a priority or focus at this point with where the gym is at. So it's a little bit different, but I guess that's just like my my you know specific specialty on that end. Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

And so what made you want to start the YouTube channel then? Was it just a place where in this like dark period of time you're uh or just coming out of it, you're like, man, I was able to fix myself. And so I'm not expecting to make money from it. I'm not expecting, I just want to share a story.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

So it was kind of interesting, honestly. Going back to the YouTube channel, it was like I, you know, I I guess I kind of there was a trend of a lot of like fitness uh professionals getting on to social media, mainly YouTube, and then they were building out kind of their businesses that way. So I kind of wanted to aspire to be like them. Um and I just wanted, I thought the back pain thing with my story and everything, you know, I realized there wasn't a lot of information. So I thought this was a way I could differentiate myself, you know. I feel like with whether it's personal training, strength and conditioning, like you kind of have to have your own specific area, sure, you know, um, to really kind of make a go out of it from business. So I thought the back pain thing was a way for me to go in and then I could kind of branch out afterwards. So that was my intention. And at the time too, like I had a couple friends that were into social media as well, and one ended up kind of getting somewhat famous through Vine and was making a lot of money that way. Um, so it was like spitting ideas off of him at the time, um, which was kind of helpful. But that's where that kind of started it in um it was early in university when I started all that really, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

And so, how long did it take before you actually thought like there's an underservice market here and there's a place for me to help people?

SPEAKER_00 24:44

So the craziest thing is the first video I ever posted to YouTube was my story of lower back pain. And you know, I posted that video and then I was posting kind of weekly, and then all of a sudden that video just blew up. It kind of just a lot of like start got a lot of views, a lot of comments, and I would respond to every comment, and then it just kept going, and then more people subscribing to the channel. And so I want to say within maybe like a three to six month ballpark, I started to notice I'm like, hey, there's something here, and then it just kept slowly growing, like uh month after month, year after year. Now, I'll say if you look at it recently, I haven't really posted much, I haven't been kind of as active, but I did it for several years through COVID and everything. And then um, you know, that it's a mid-sized channel. I'd say we're 11,000 plus subscribers on it. And it I was able to build a bit of an online business and also help me locally get clients right because people would see me there. But um, I have close to probably 500 videos on there. Wow. So there's a lot of work and effort that were put in, not all the best or the greatest quality, but yeah, but you're gonna start somewhere. It was a good experience, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:54

Like you're not gonna just uh you know, it's the same thing with I mean, it's the same thing with any business, and and HK is no different. You're not just gonna take over, you know, lead trainer for the Raptors or the Spitfires, like you gotta start somewhere. Yeah, the videos might be you know super raw, and you know, lots of editing errors because you didn't edit them or whatnot, right? But at the same time, it also gives you a little bit of um um what's the word I'm looking for? Um uh like it's it's it's authentic, it's you, yeah, it's just what it was.

SPEAKER_00 26:33

And that's the way, yeah. Like you look at it, just like it was literally like a phone, and I didn't even have a microphone, and yeah, just recorded and uploaded it. And so it was interesting, but it was fun looking back at a lot of that, a lot of work was put into that.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

But and so how long then from the time that you start this YouTube channel to the time that you start Ambassador Fitness?

SPEAKER_00 26:56

So we started in bat. Well, we're coming up on our third year anniversary now. Um, so that's on May 2nd will be kind of the official third year that we've kind of been there and moved in and everything. So if I look back, the YouTube channel was started in I want to say 25th, no, 2013. Oh wow, yeah, it was my so like 10 years. Yeah, I think that's yeah, somewhere around then, 2013. It was two years before the Toronto Raptors thing. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 27:35

So and so you said that you always kind of wanted to own a clinic, always kind of either wanted to do the physio or um the athletic training side of things. Um so you finish school, you get your masters, all this kind of stuff. You're now helping people virtually online, and I'm assuming some in-person at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 27:57

Yeah, so the in-person stuff really started for me. Like, I mean, so before uh when I was in my third and fourth year, I was working with the Spitfires there. So Joey Garland, I was interning under him. Um he was running kind of like a business through the gym in the offseason where he was training local NHL guys, guys from Spits, um, any local um kind of professional, semi-professional players. So worked with Tim and then I would help out through training camp a little bit, through their their combine and whatnot that they do. And then kind of came back the year after, did the same thing, but this time it became like a part-time position. Um and then moved into the Raptors thing from that. Um and then we went to um, sorry, and then with school and all that. So when I was in my master's when I came back from Toronto, I was just working online with people. And then once I was done my master's, uh finished my research here, I worked um at a local studio here. Um, and I kind of built up my clientele. And then built we had about 60 clients and then so that was 2019, 2019, and then or 2018. Sorry, end of 2018 started that. Built up like a clientele of about 60 um clients or so in that ballpark, and then COVID happened. Yeah, yeah. So you know, that clientele went from 60 to say 10 real quick. Yeah, but you already had an online presence, which made the transition easier for me than probably most other trainers dealt with. Um, so I transitioned as much as I could online. So I already had people training with me online, but then it was now trying to adjust these in-person clients to online. So I was able to, you know, scavenge what I could and sure, you know, um kept it going. And it just you had this cycle of a yo-yo in, close, open, close. Jim's had it the worst at the time. Yeah, it was brutal.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah, this so it's interesting you say that because I first hand experience. So I moved to Windsor in late 2017. Uh, when I was trying to build my clientele, I worked night shift at Good Life. Okay. Uh, because I knew that people at Good Life, I could meet them, they probably were social. If I worked there, I'd get to talk to people, putting away weights and all that kind of stuff, and and built a lot of great relationships, friendships, everything from there. But um, yeah, during COVID, like before I started Spectre with Jason, um, I worked at Good Life. Man, it was brutal. Like 15 people allowed in the gym at a time. You had a book online, 24 hours. Everything like the app would only let you do it 24 hours in advance. If you were the weren't the first ones, you couldn't get in. Like it was terrible. Gyms had it so bad. Um it wasn't easy, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

It was honestly one of the probably like, I mean, you can speak to the restaurant industry, I'm sure others can on that, but the gym's for sure one of the the toughest industries to weave, you know, just the up to open, close, open, close. And it was like you couldn't get a consistent um routine. And you know, the gym is you know, when you're in personal training, right? It's all about habits, right? So people would come in, they'd get in the habit, and then they'd be off. And then it's just like pulling teeth to kind of get them back in. It's hard. And then, you know, people were afraid to go to the gym because of getting COVID and whatnot, and they didn't want to wear masks or you know, be in the gym environment. So there was a lot going on at that time, and then even they had the vaccine passport stuff, so it was like there was a lot of like just technicality stuff to work around, which made it very difficult, but got through it and ended up opening ambassador shortly after.

SPEAKER_01 31:50

But I was gonna say, so during that whole time, you're now you're online, you're no longer teaching in person. Uh was it like, okay, now I'm actually gonna like whenever we get through this period of time, I'm gonna go open my own place. Was this kind of like a catalyst to be like, I'm gonna start my thing?

SPEAKER_00 32:09

Yeah, like in my mind, yes, but like I wasn't ready for it. So, how come you say that? I didn't know how to run, say, a gym. There's a difference between being a personal trainer and operating as like a self-employed individual and just you know, being a good coach, you know, handling everything that way, but it's a whole different aspect of like, you know, you have now more responsibility from a gym owner's perspective in terms of lease, you know, negotiating with the landlord and cleanliness, staff, insurance is different, cleanliness, everything you have staff to hire, manage. Um, you know, and it's there's a lot more responsibility, and it's just a whole different avenue, right? So I was not ready by any means. Um, but it was in the back of my mind where it's like this could be a possibility. Um so I think what ended up, if I ever recall what happened, is when COVID happened, the studio I was at, I ended up leaving um kind of halfway through. They went in a different direction with their business model, okay, which didn't really work for my situation. Um, and so we kind of went separate ways, like no hard feelings by any means. It was just um time. But yeah, it was just time, and we had different um opinions on the direction of the business. Um, so I went to a different place to with I had probably now, I mean, you know, the peak of things was 60 members, probably at 2530, right? Okay. For myself that I'm working with, plus online people. I had gone to a different place, which was Limitless Training Center. Um, and Paul, who's an amazing guy, um, I worked with worked with him there. And then uh he decided to he just kind of close the business after about a year and a half. So that was kind of my take to now go run um my own gym and open ambassador.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Yeah. And so in that process, then working, you said his name is Paul. Paul, yeah. So did did Paul then did you actually like take some time with him to learn like how to run a gym? Or you before you're like, I don't have any of this experience, I'm not sure I'm ready.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:24

To a year and a half later, you're like, okay, I'm gonna do this. Yeah, but like, other than attitude of I'm just gonna go do this thing, uh, opening a gym and taking on all this responsibility. Did he teach you how to run a gym? Or you just thought, you know what, now I'm ready for it and I'm just gonna take the chance?

SPEAKER_00 34:43

It was a little bit different. Um, because I would honestly say my experience before Paul was more of um when I was at um, so the other place I was at was JS Fitness. Um, when I was working with Jonathan, I he I kind of initially learned a lot from him and kind of running the systems. So when I went with Paul, um the business model was a little bit different where it was um multiple trainers, one gym, leasing space. Um, so everyone is kind of running their own kind of system to a degree. Um, but from Paul's perspective, like I had a lot of questions, like you know, like I learned from him in terms of like um more of like how he dealt with um I didn't know about paying utilities and all this sort of stuff, right? Like insurance and like he had the responsibility of that. So from that, and then even on the marketing side, a little bit like uh learned from him. So between him and Jonathan, like I learned a lot from both those guys. Um so from those experiences, obviously, that kind of helped me um move into or at least open ambassador.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

Yeah. And and I I joked earlier when you showed up uh coming up on three years, you know, the stats like 90% of businesses fail within the first three years, right? They either can't sell their product enough, um, you know, they can't, they don't have big enough profit margins, they can't stay open. Um, obviously, you're hitting that three-year mark. Uh, how's the business going? Good, profitable, obviously still wanting to grow.

SPEAKER_00 36:14

Yeah. So right now, honestly, it's been crazy. Like we're as busy as can be, I'd say, at this point, which is awesome. So when we started, um we probably had about 30-ish members. So it was just me and Chelsea. We were the two trainers. So we were both at limitless there, and we came over. Um and from that point, you know, we're now at probably around 100 members. Wow. So within three years, um kind of split between us. So, you know, I think we're close to our threshold to a degree in terms of what our bandwidth can handle from a training perspective and coaching perspective. We're close at least. But um, you know, I think for what we've done has been incredible um for three years, you know. Yeah. We've um got an um like an amazing setup and everything. Um, and uh couldn't be more happy with where with where we're at at this point.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

And so what's sort of the next thing for you guys? What's the next goal? What do you, you know? I'm assuming you did a five-year lease, you got probably two years left.

SPEAKER_00 37:30

So right now we have one more year on our lease, actually. Okay, but the landlord is amazing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

But the space isn't big enough though. To to grow. Are you guys wanting to grow more?

SPEAKER_00 37:42

No. Okay. So that's yes, the space is big enough. So uh to take it on a different side here. Um I don't want the gym to kind of get bigger than say well, here's the issue, right? So in the industry, right, like there's different models and that fit for each space. So with what we run, semi-private personal training, which is our main model, and we kind of work with that adult population, right? More of a 45, 65 range, you could say. Um the sweet spot seems to be somewhere between 1200 to 2,000 square feet. Okay. So we're probably at around 1500. Okay. So that fits our what our model allows. Now, yeah, you can make the argument, hey, we can get a bigger space and train more people, but that then we have to get more trainers in there too. I think we still have room for a little bit of growth in our current setup, but that would probably involve hiring at least a part-time trainer or at least me kind of cutting my hours back and having that person go full-time, and then we could maybe take somewhere to between another 40, sorry, 20 to 40 members in that ballpark. Okay. That would cap the space. I wouldn't want to go any bigger than that because then I think it gets um I can't remember, but it's Dunbar's number, um, which is like if you have, I think it's 150, um, in terms of relationships that you're, you know, that's what kind of we I wanted to make it your local neighborhood gym. So I'm not trying to make it bigger than it is. Yeah. Um, I love the space. We have an amazing landlord. She trains with us. Cool. She's a chiropractor upstairs. Yeah. Uh, so we have referrals both ways. Um, great location. So I'm very happy with it. So I honestly I think we have a little bit of room for a little bit of growth, but yeah, I think it's uh we're getting to the point where it's like let's just make sure we handle that properly or we'll see what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

So no big like giant aspirations to make a second location or anything like that right now.

SPEAKER_00 39:50

Like you think you will listen, I would not rule that out. Sure, that would be maybe uh if anything down the road, like say five, ten years, sure. If anything, but I think what I would prefer to do is expand into a different business. Um, which I recently got into um in real estate. Oh. So I um own a fourplex. Cool. So learning to kind of be like a small landlord. Yeah. Um purchased this um what are we now almost two years ago? Yeah. So I live in one unit and then have the other three rented out. Yeah. So that is kind of a little bit more my intention, is just to kind of look into different businesses.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

Use the use that business, which you love and enjoy to allow yourself the ability to do other things. Correct. Neat. So, yeah, as opposed to opening. And so do you have other than opposed to opening other gyms, then what are the goals for you then personally like want to own more units? Like, where's sort of your thought process in in terms of that side of things?

SPEAKER_00 40:56

So, and I'm fortunate because my dad and uncle um, you know, we're kind of more a little bit in real estate, so this is kind of where I've I've kind of learned a little bit more. I think um I would like to at least own another property or two, probably two. Um but you know, we're a little bit ways from that, but sure. I think expanding the portfolio a little bit on that end would be uh definitely something I would be more interested in. It's a little bit more passive, it's not as hands-on as, say, the gym. Yeah. So, but I'm learning as I go, right? I've it's been an interesting experience being a landlord.

SPEAKER_01 41:40

Yeah. I mean, you seem to be this kind of person that like uh like you come up with this idea to do something and you just go all in and you learn just by doing, right? Like your back injury was that way, running the business was that way, like you just seem to be like, okay, I'm gonna go this direction and I'm just gonna go all in on learning what it takes to do this thing.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

That's usually my mindset, yeah. And where'd you get that mindset from? That's a good question. Um, I want to say my parents and narrated, but but I don't know. I think you know, uh I've always been like self-motivated to do things. Um, and I don't not exactly sure where that comes from. Maybe being an only child, I don't know. Um, you know, I know definitely know within the family like there's entrepreneurial genes there between grandfather and um some you know other family members as well, so having their own businesses. So I think just some of that has trickled in trickled in a little bit. Yeah um and I guess it's just my personality, I guess. I don't know. Yeah, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

Yeah, interesting. Well, running out of time here. Um anything you want to tell anybody about uh where they can find you, what you guys are doing, um anything like that about the gym and anything like that. You guys want you want to tell anybody who's listening, you know, anything more about yourself and what they can expect from you guys?

SPEAKER_00 43:12

Yeah, I mean so right now we're coming up on our third year anniversary, um, which is gonna be May 2nd, uh 2026 here. So it's gonna be uh we're having an anniversary party. Oh, cool. And it's an open house style, so we're doing it a little bit differently uh this time around. And anyone is welcome to come. So come out for some giveaways, prizes, games, coffee. Um, it'll be from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Um it'll be a little fun experience if you're just interested about what we do, what we offer, and want to meet myself or Coach Chelsea or see what you know the whole gym's about and see our other members. It'll be a great time, I promise you. So if you're listening to this and want to come out, check us out. Uh maybe you're interested. In some personal training or like looking to work around some back pain or have some something you want to work on, feel free to pop on in. We'd love to have you out. And what did you say that was May? May 2nd. So Saturday, May 2nd from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Ambassador Fitness. And we're located right on Walker Road, uh 3774. So just between the expressway and kind of the airport there.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Oh, okay. Oh, got it. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, that sounds like a fun event. I mean, I the gym that I was working out of, that's kind of how I met with them. Was it just like this open house? I was like, you know what? Like what's this new gym? I'm gonna go check this out. Like, so maybe I'll stop by. Sounds like a fun place. So um, well, we always end every podcast the same way. I didn't prep you for this. Um, but what does success mean to Remy?

SPEAKER_00 44:52

Oh that's a good question, honestly. Um just like a full response, or like, you know, yeah, whatever you want, man. Um honestly I think success to me would mean like um giving back to, you know, making the community better and making the world, I guess, our local community a better place as we can. And you know, I'm grateful for the point that I'm at and the success that I've had, and I'd like to keep building that, but I also want to give back to those that maybe are in need or need help. And if we can make everyone just a better place and make everything better here, I think that would be, you know, a success to me, and what success would at least mean to me, yeah. Um, the better we can make our community. Yeah. And for all of us to succeed. Yeah, it's a great answer.

SPEAKER_01 45:50

So I mean, that's uh, you know, once you once you have some amazing things in your own life, being able to give those to other people, um, it's a it's a cool feeling. It's it's great to be able to give back.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

So 100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:03

I'm with you there. So uh well, Remy, listen, I appreciate the time. Uh, I know this was a little bit uh, you know, sort of short notice to come out here and do this. We are gonna do coffee, and I was like, you know what, let's change. Um, so I appreciate you taking the time out of your day. Tell us a little bit about the gym, what you're doing, what you got going on. Um, obviously everybody can find you uh Saturday, May 2nd. Saturday, May 2nd, yes. 11 to 2. Yep. Uh open house. Um but yeah, I appreciate your time. Thanks for uh thanks for chatting with us today.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

I appreciate it, Sean. Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 46:33

Anytime. All right, everybody. That's another episode of Cracking the Success Vault here with uh Spectre Group uh and our guest Remy Sovereign from Ambassador Fitness. Uh again, Remy, thanks for taking the time out of your day. Thank you.