Good Neighbor Podcast: Orange County

From Gamer To Gym Owner: Building Community And Lasting Strength

• Rachel Fyffe & Daniel Krymow

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A week after opening his gym, Daniel Krymow lost his father. Soon after, a global pandemic shut down the world. What could have been the end became a catalyst: outdoor workouts, Zoom sessions, and a tight-knit crew that refused to quit. We invite you into the story of VNTR Fitness—how a small space in Rancho Santa Margarita doubled down on community, lifted together, and emerged stronger.

Dan’s journey from sponsored gamer to hands-on coach is a lesson in reinvention. He talks about building confidence through strength, why muscle is the best insurance for aging, and how knowing every member’s name changes the way people show up. We unpack the myth that lifting makes women bulky, explaining how muscle growth actually happens, the role of protein and calories, and how to periodize training to achieve definition without chasing extremes. If your goals include visible shape in your legs and shoulders, better back and core strength, or simply carrying groceries without effort, this is your roadmap.

We also examine why the gym grew to 286 members with virtually no paid marketing. When the owner texts you if you miss a week, accountability hits different. Word of mouth, member wins, and consistent coaching built a culture where new lifters feel safe and veterans keep progressing. Dan shares plans for a short, monthly podcast on training, nutrition, and supplements, offering practical education for anyone chasing sustainable fitness.

If you care about longevity, community, and results that last, you’ll feel at home here. Listen, share with a friend who needs a nudge, and subscribe for more local stories that prove strength is a team sport. If you loved the conversation, leave a quick review—your feedback helps more neighbors find us.

SPEAKER_01:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Rachel Fife.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Now, if you're looking for the ultimate destination for a transformative fitness experience where movement is life and where you'll discover your true potential with a unique approach to training, well, look no further. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, Daniel Primo, with Venture Fitness. Dan, how is it going?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm doing great. Today's great.

SPEAKER_02:

Good, good. Well, we're excited to learn about your fitness and your approach. So tell us about your company.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, my company was uh I found it in 2017. Um and I was a trainer since I was like 20 years old, and I opened it when I was 27, so I've been training for seven years. And um, yeah, I opened it here in Rancho San Margarita. Uh I started really small, and um the first year was really difficult for me to get it going because my dad died a week after I opened the gym, and I couldn't go back to Brazil. My dad, I'm from Brazil, so my dad was in Brazil and I couldn't do that. So it was really it was a really rough year, but then I managed to do well. The gym was doing really well, and then we got hit with COVID, 2020 was COVID, and then um ended up you know surviving COVID. I tried to do as much as I could and evolve and do work out outside. I did a lot of workouts over the Zoom, and uh the gym survived. No, we we I'm you know I'm very happy that we actually passed that craziness. Um now we're here. It's been eight years with the gym. We expanded it to the next door neighbor. So we we're a big gym now. And um, I have about 286 people in the gym, members. Um, and yeah, so far it's been a great journey. I love it.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. Well, how did you get into this business?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I got into the in the business because uh when I moved to America in 2006, um I was a big gamer. Like I was uh when I moved here, I was 16 years old. And then I left my family, came here, my dad told me to come to America, and I went to high school, and I've always been a big gamer. I was playing games every day. I was actually a really good gamer. Like I was a sponsor by computer companies. And when I came here and I was alone, you know, growing without my parents, I kind of had to, my dad almost did it for a purpose, so so I can stop the gaming. And then I I needed to I needed to find a new hobby. And then I got into sports, I played football in college in high school, and then when I went to college, I played soccer, and then I got into fitness. I started working out because I was kind of skinny, and then working out maybe gained weight and kind of got more confident with myself, and then I finally love it. I find loved being kind of like helping others achieve the same thing what I achieved. Like I felt better with myself. I I like being strong, I like doing something that's challenging, and because of that, I got into the fitness world and started training people, personnel training, group training. And then when I hit 27, I was like, okay, what uh what can I do? Can I am I continue to do this? But then I decided to open a gym. So I looked into open a gym, and then I came up with a gym and I started at OC Fit. The gym the gym used to call OC Fit because I did it with a partner. So I had a partner. Um, and then after four years with a partner, I bought him out and I changed the name and I completely rebranded to my own thing, and I call adventure. So it's uh that's how I started like from the beginning. I just I really fell in love with helping others be fit or feel better or learn how to work out or or be strong as to when you age. You need that. Like I want to be 50 and 60, and I want to I've seen so many people that are 40s and 50s, and they can't even do much. And I don't want to be like that. So I want to make sure that we all live a life like longevity, longevity in a way that you you are getting older, but you don't feel older because you have muscle tissue, you're strong, and you can be 60, walking, doing everything, you know. Um go to the groceries and don't have to worry about grabbing carrying groceries and things like that. So I really love that concept. It's almost like when I look at uh different different jobs, careers that help people, like for example, firefighters, nurses, doctors, they help people in a way. I help people in a different way. So I help them in a health-based way. So I help them achieve the different goals when a nurse also helps them in a different lost you there. Can you see me?

SPEAKER_02:

I can see you now. Do you want to pick up where you kind of left off and you're just kind of wrapping up why you got into the business? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so um, so yeah, I love it. I love doing the the this feeling that I'm helping others um in in a different scenario, like I said, different way. Uh that's how I see it. And so to me, for eight years being in the business, I have so much uh, I guess I can call it reveal, right? Uh uh like a feedback of like, man, you made me do this, man, you made me do my first this, man, and you changed my life because I lost 80 pounds. And I'm so there's so much been so much good that I get from from the members that are walking through my life or walk through my gym that I I feel so I I'm so grateful. Like it's so good to have that. And I love it. And because I love my job, I literally feel like I don't work. Like I I I don't I love working, so it's like it's not like a hassle for me, or you know, I I I will come here at five in the morning to teach classes. I don't care. It's not like a a burner to me. I love it. I literally love it. Um, so yeah, it's it's been great.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful so far. Yeah, so well Dan, what do you think are some misconceptions or uh myths in your industry?

SPEAKER_00:

Say it again.

SPEAKER_02:

Any misconceptions or myths in your industry that you think um you could touch upon?

SPEAKER_00:

What do you mean by that?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you know, if people think, well, you know, like for I maybe women think, oh, if I do weights, I'm gonna get all bulked up or something like that. You know, people think, you know, when they're with a certain type of workout, they might not get the results they want. I'm just wondering if there are any. And if you don't find any, then we don't have to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

I see what you think. Yeah, there is for sure. There is uh that that is one of the probably the myths, uh one of the big things that you just said. It happens a lot. So um the way that you the way that I I I guess everybody can do differently, the way that I approach that is like this. Look, it I guess we're living in an era that is kind of more different. Everybody's kind of like, I feel like our our time, 2025, if you look back in the days, the fitness industry grew a lot. So a lot of people are working out more, a lot of people are putting themselves in in regiments to get themselves better. So there is a part that a lot of women, they they don't want to get bulky, they don't want to get, you know, uh too much muscle. So I tell them, look, when you work out, no one is gonna grow muscle in a in 24 hours. You're not gonna wake up tomorrow and be a bodybuilder. The only way for a woman to grow into this bodybuilding concept that they think is if you lift weights actually heavy and you're eating a lot of food, because food is what really makes you grow, because you can work out all you want. If you're not feeding your body, you're not gonna grow. You can't grow from air. So you need to be eating a ton of food and lifting, and with time, maybe two, three, four years, yes, you will put muscle on your body. So then that's when the grow, when a woman is working out, they they will kind of like want to have a goal. So my goal is to build my legs, my goal is to build my butt, my bow, my goal is to build my shoulders. So you're trained to that position of when you hit that goal, then you don't have to continue to be hitting the gym that hard. You can maintain that goal. So now you got you have to go to the gym maybe a little less, you don't have to eat as much, so you just have to maintain. But if you continue to work out, you are gonna continue to a little bit put more muscle. But then when you get to a certain age, it gets harder to put muscle because you know when you age, everything kind of uh decreases. So that's why I tell them, look, by the time you get to 35, you're not gonna be putting that much muscle anyways because you're getting older. That's why you should start younger because you're gonna regret when you get older. So I tell them that, and then I say I always say a lot of the women here in my gym, um, we have a uh majority of the woman here is between 35 to 45, and they look incredible. And a lot of them like, oh, I want to look like that girl. Like, look at that, she's 41 and she has three kids, and look at her, she has abs, she has a you know a nice butt. I'm like, well, she eats well, she lifts every day. So then if you want to look like her, you need to lift weights and eat, and that's how you're gonna get those abs. That's how you're gonna get those legs, not by not eating or not going heavy, you need to actually challenge your body to grow. So like if people even say, like in anything that you do in your life to change, you need to do something differently. Like if you if you're on if you're on this path that you maybe do something all the time and you realize nothing's changing, well, because you need to change something. So for the workout, same thing, you you're not pushing your body enough, you're not challenging yourself enough to change your body. So you need to change your regimen, like you know what, you've been doing this for so long, go heavier, do more reps, or whatever you gotta do differently. So, all those girls that have this kind of misconception is uh it's it all depends how they want to look. If you want to be big, it will happen eventually in a couple years, but not big like bodybuilders. You just you are going to grow muscle. So if you don't want to grow muscle, then you shouldn't be lifting weights. So I try to tell them look, think as an effect of like you need muscle as you get older. So you need muscle to support your bones. So you're not gonna wake up tomorrow, bodybuilder, but you're actually gonna start defining your legs. And about two years from now, you're gonna look back and like, wow, my legs have definition, my butt is bigger, my arms are like my shoulders are all lean out. Why is that? Because you've been lifting weights. And a lot of the women now that I'm noticing, they used to do a lot of cardio, they used to do a lot of running and cardio, and then they never had definition, they want definition now. Like the only way to get it is by lifting weights. And a lot of people I feel like they're learning that, they're realizing that weights is not so bad. But it's true, I'm not gonna lie, if you do eat a lot of food and you do train hard, and you do that for five, four years, you are gonna put you can put a lot of muscle. So you just gotta watch out that and once you kind of reach your goal, you just gotta maneuver your food and your how how much you're training so you don't grow as much as you don't want to. But you are you if you're training eat it, you will grow. You it's that's how you works.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, you know, okay. Well, now you know we know marketing is really the heart of every business. So, how are you finding new members to your fitness facilities?

SPEAKER_00:

That's a great question because um I've been here for eight years with my business, and I mean I even talked to Peter about this, and you know Peter. Um, I have never marketed my gym. I have never spent a penny in any marketing, I never done any social media marketing, I never done any Facebook marketing, I never done any nothing. I have nothing done anything. The only thing that I've done so far is I've used Groupon and I've used Class. That's it. And every member that I have through my door, it's majority, I'll say 80%. If I look at my my little my my little ebooks thing, it's about 80% word of mouth. So people come in, they have a great experience, they love it so much, and they tell their friends, their friends will come in, they tell their friends, and it just be a snowball. And I have 20% of people that are like, oh, I saw you on Instagram, or I saw my my I posted you, uh a friend share on Instagram, like a story of a friend. So sometimes it can be Instagram, like they search or they search on Google, or you know, gyms around the area, and if my popped up, that's 20%. But 80% of my people, it's friends that tell friends, they tell friends, and it's a chain. And I can even imagine if I put marketing, I think I would even grow my gym more, which I even haven't done that because I just haven't even got there, which I'm which it I'm I'm I'm being extra nice. I should be doing that, but I haven't. I haven't spent a single penny in marketing.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Have you ever thought of doing your own podcast?

SPEAKER_00:

I did. I did, of course. I have a little place in my gym. Um, one day I'll show you, but right now I can't because I didn't there. But I made a little area in the gym with a black wall, and I'm supposed to put something on the wall, and I I I'm gonna buy a table, and I'm putting I want to put a table once a month, sit down there and record myself doing a little podcast. I thought about it for sure. It's like one of the greatest things is getting maybe a member, talking about something about the gym, or it can be an exercise, or it can be about fitness, nutrition. You know, once a month, do a little like 30 minutes about some information, maybe talk about supplement, and then get get some info about it. I thought about it so many times. I just haven't really done the action yet.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Well, now, outside of work, Dan, what do you like to do for fun? I know fitness is probably a big component of that, but what else do you like to do?

SPEAKER_00:

I I'm such a social person. I love um, I love community stuff. So I like, you know, working with the city, doing events with the city. I love um exercising myself. So I like very active. Um, I do a lot of things. I go surfing, I run, I work out, I play golf, I play pickleball. I'm constantly outside. Um and I'm social. I like I like meeting people, I like connection. Um, any events that there is, you know, the during the weekend, I like going. Um, so yeah, I'm like I'm I'm I'm on the go guy kind of, you know. I'm I'm always trying to do something new, either with my business or with myself. So sometimes I feel like I'm I even get myself overwhelmed with so much. But um, but yeah, I'm I'm I'm outgoing. I'm super outgoing. I love talking. I love you know talking to people. I'm like that's I feel like I'm like that. So I'm constantly out doing something. And I love one of my biggest passions is traveling. So I've been all over the world, I've been in Europe, I've been in South America, um, I've been a lot of the states in in uh in the USA. I live in different states too. I live in New York, in Texas, I live in California. Um, I love traveling. I love knowing different countries, different culture, understanding how they live. Because when you live in a bubble, you think you know a lot of stuff, you don't know nothing. You literally don't know nothing. Like you go to a different place and you're like, man, you don't even know nothing about the world. Like, you know, it's you think he so I love that. I love just going out there, making money and using my money to do things like travel or things like that, non-materialistic stuff. So that's just me. That's what I like to do.

SPEAKER_02:

All right. Well, Dan, please tell our listeners one thing they should remember about venture fitness.

SPEAKER_00:

One thing they should remember about venture fitness. Um I feel like that one if they came to my gym, you mean?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um the number one say, I think I would say community. Like my gym is like the place that when you because I I can sit here and you know and talk to you about so many gyms we have in any city, and all all gyms are gonna be very similar. You know, all that gym does the same thing that Daniel does, the same kind of workouts, is the same thing. So what makes me different in a way is when people walk in here, and I'm the owner, so I take care, I take I'm teaching classes, I'm always here. I feel what I get the most reviews and responses when people walk in here, they only stay, it's not even because the workouts are good, it's because they feel welcomed. They feel like the the people inside take them in as their their own. And the community could they I created it with everybody else with me, which is that's all them. It's what I think it makes what they remember the most. It's like, man, that gym was so good because the people, you know, it's not that, like I said, the workouts, it's the people. I got so many friends in there, they do so much together. It's a community, they hang out. Uh, it's what I think they will they'll the most remember, what what and what we are known for, it's the community. So many people that come here, they tell me, Oh, I've been to a different gym, I've been there for two months. The coach doesn't even know my name. Like they don't even know my name. So I know everybody's name. I I I literally I constantly text my members. I say, hey, you know, how you been? Are you are you are you feeling good? I I and that's one of the problems with me too. I literally have 200 texts a day because I text a lot of people. So I keep in check with them, I check on them. If a member doesn't show up for five days, I actually text them, say, hey, everything okay? You know, are you are you good? Um, especially if they are a little older too. I get concerned, are you okay? Everything's okay. Um, so I'm always on top. I try, but yeah, I feel like that's the thing to remember is this we are we are so united that is what makes the gym is the community, the vibe, the atmosphere inside.

SPEAKER_02:

Wonderful. Well, how can our listeners learn more about venture fitness?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I guess how they can learn more when the website will be up, you know, they can learn through the website, um, Instagram, or or coming here and joining the gym. But the only way to really learn more about the gym is is by coming and trying, you know, it's by doing it.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right. All right. Yeah. Well, Dan, I really appreciate you being on the show. And gosh, we wish you and your business really all the best moving forward.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnporangecounty.com. That's gnporangecounty.com. Or call 714 94 862.