Run a Profitable Gym
Run a Profitable Gym is packed with business tools for gym owners and CrossFit affiliates. This is actionable, data-backed business advice for all gym owners, including those who own personal training studios, fitness franchises, and strength and conditioning gyms. Broke gym owner Chris Cooper turned a struggling gym into an asset, then built a multi-million-dollar mentoring company to help other fitness entrepreneurs do the same thing. Every week, Chris presents the top tactics for building a profitable gym, as well as real success stories from gym owners who have found incredible success through Two-Brain Business mentorship. Chris’s goal is to create millionaire gym owners. Subscribe to Run a Profitable Gym and you could be one of them.
Run a Profitable Gym
Why Youth Training Is the Fastest Growing Segment in Fitness
Why is youth training the fastest-growing segment in fitness?
Today on "Run a Profitable Gym," Two-Brain founder Chris Cooper sits down with youth performance expert Bill Parisi to analyze the explosion in sports and fitness training for kids.
Over the last 35 years, Bill has built a network of more than 100 Parisi Speed Schools, with most locations averaging $20,000 in revenue per month while operating only four to five hours per day.
In this episode, Bill explains how NIL (name, image and likeness) deals have motivated parents to invest in training: Top college quarterbacks now earn seven figures!
He also discusses the pros and cons of early specialization for young athletes and compares average metrics from youth-training gyms and the fitness industry as a whole.
To help gym owners capitalize on demographic shifts, Bill and Chris share practical strategies: how to use events to generate referrals, how to balance seasonal variations in retention, and how to hire and keep quality coaches.
Check out this episode to discover how youth training could boost your gym's revenue and help you create a greater impact in your community.
To get more gym business data on demographics, rates and revenue, use the link below to download Two-Brain’s 2025 “State of the Industry” report.
Links
"State of the Industry"
Gym Owners United
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1:01 - Why youth training is exploding
12:04 - The early specialization debate
19:45 - Youth training metrics
33:28 - Retention in a seasonal business
37:41 - Hiring & retaining quality coaches
We're back with Bill Parisi to talk about the state of the industry. And I invited Bill on this show for three reasons. Number one, he and I have been around the industry a long time. And so I want to really get his perspective on these numbers. Bill's also intimately involved with uh Ursa, as it used to be called. And so he's seen data like this before. Second, Bill has particular expertise in the youth training and athletic training niche. And I really want to dig into that question and get his perspective on it. And third, uh, he's just a brilliant guy. And um, so you know, overall, just before we even got on here, Bill was holding up his copy of State of the Industry with all the sticky notes and stuff, just like mine. And he he brought up like 10 great questions that we're gonna get to. But uh before we get into it, Bill, thank you so much for coming on. We're on a profitable gym again.
SPEAKER_00:Chris, thanks for having me. Excited to be here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so Bill is um the founder of Parisi Speed Schools. He's got well over a hundred schools across the states right now. He specializes in youth athletes. And Bill, if it's cool, that's where I'd love to start. The the question that I had after looking at the data for state of the industry this year is the fastest growing segment in the coaching business, anyway, is the under 21 segment. And that's the first time I've seen it in six years. What's going on?
SPEAKER_00:Youth athletics, youth sports. Parents have become mad about their child playing sports and now with NIL and the opportunity to become a professional in high school. I mean, uh, high school kids can get NIL deals, right? Uh, the opportunity to get paid for your alikeness, and now in college you get paid, I think has changed the the paradigm some. And you know, obviously the the top two, three percent are gonna get paid. Most people are not gonna get paid uh when they when they go to college. Um, so but but that that concept and that opportunity and that the that excitement, I think, has really uh taken this to a whole new level recently. But even over the last number of years, when there was an NIL, you know, parents are just passionate about their their son and daughter sports, you know, they're just passionate. I mean, that's you know, their their success in sports is is really important to them. And um, but but but they what's really most important to them is their kids' self-confidence and and well-being. And you know, we can unpack that more, but but that to me, that's a big driver is is youth athletics.
SPEAKER_01:Let's talk about NIL for a minute. Like, what exactly is it for the audience who doesn't know? And when did that come into play? Like, why is that influencing the numbers now?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, I think well, I know NIL is name, image, and likeness. Okay. And there was a uh a court case that was brought against the NCAA by athletes that the NCAA was making all this money with image and likeness of these athletes. And, you know, it got to a point where, you know, they got sued and they won. You know, the the athletes won. You know, they won that, you know, you you can't, I should have the right to make money off my name and my image. And the NCAA was was doing that by you know broadcasting and whatnot, these athletes. And now athletes are able to get paid by businesses legally, whatever they contract to get paid. They just got to do the appropriate work and it's got to be within reason, meaning that it's got to be fair market value, you know. And some of these guys are so big time, you know, paying a quarterback to, you know, at Michigan is a million bucks is probably fair market value because you're on Michigan, you're on national TV. Yeah, your top quarterbacks in college now are now making, you know, seven figures. You know, they you know that that's the kind of money that's being thrown to to college athletes today. The average budget for a big-time college football team for for compensation is 20 million now for the athletic department. Football's about 13 million, but the numbers are astronomical, and I think it's flowing down. And I don't think that's the only driver. I think that's creating more excitement and and more interest in parents to get their kids more training at a young age, because you know, when you're seven, eight, nine, ten, everyone has the dream, right? Everyone has the dream to make the professional level. Well, now college is the professional level, you know? So now the dream in some ways is like even more applicable. I can say this, you know, if you just make an FBS team and you're kind of in the top 40 players on that team, just making the team. I I should say power four. If you make a power four team, which are the top four, and you just make the top 40, you're you're making a couple hundred thousand. You're not even you're not even starting. You're not even a starter. And if you're in the top, you know, 30 to 40 on the team in in power four, which is you know, about I don't know, 70, 80 schools, you're making a you know a few hundred thousand. That's the money that is being funneled now, you know, in football and and basketball uh as well. So, you know, and it just makes the dream, I think, for parents, even maybe a little bit more uh reality in a way, because now they don't have to make the NBA or NFL. Hey, if I make a college, high-level college team, I can earn some life-changing money for some families too, you know. But that's that's that's one aspect. But before that, youth sports have always been uh really powerful. And the driver to that is really the the self-confidence and the camaraderie and the teamwork and the work ethic you build, being on a sports team and and and the benefits you get from that. So, you know, I mean, I have two boys, right? They went through the system, they played high school sports, they are college athletes. My older son just graduated, he played division three basketball. So he he benefited from this great team, you know, that he was on through high school and through college. My younger son now is playing Division I football, a little bit different, a little more serious, kids get paid, and he's benefiting in another way. But but but the the money for them, I mean, that's not the that's not their driver. I mean, the driver for them is being a part of that team, being a part of that community, that family, that fraternity, and just you know, developing those life skills. And and and when it's all said and done, that's the real value. And still most parents still feel that's the real value that you get out of participating. I think the money has made it more sexy, more exciting, and for some, it's definitely more motivating. And parents might be willing to spend a little bit more money now because they you know might see an opportunity other than a scholarship. So I think that has helped, but the underlying foundation is really what sports are supposed to do. And really, it's sports are a metaphor for life, and you go through sports and you learn more from your defeats than your victories, you build resiliency, you build these these behaviors that will help you succeed in life, and and that's really what training help helps us prepare to do.
SPEAKER_01:When I talk to parents, and I've been coaching, you know, youth athletes, not not only youth athletes, but they've been part of our mentorship, our coaching practice now for about 25 years. And when I say, like, you know, why do you go in debt every year to get your kid on the traveling hockey team and go to all these tournaments and travel with them? And you know, sometimes if you got two kids, one's at one end of the country and the other's at the other end of the country to give a weekend, like why do you do that? And the the most frequent thing they've ever said to me is, we don't want to be the thing that holds the kid back. Like we don't want our lack of investment to be the one thing that makes the difference for making them to the next level. And I always thought that was interesting. And you know, as a parent, I can kind of understand that if your kid is passionate and they're good and there's a chance they could go to the next level, obviously I'm just gonna do whatever I can to support them, regardless of what the payoff might be at the end, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yep. I think yeah, and I think listen, parents, I think that's a big paradigm parents have. You know, they they want to give the kid every opportunity to succeed, no doubt. And they also listen, when your kids involved on a team and it's kind of like watching the Super Bowl and you have 10,000,$10,000 bet on it. You know what I mean? Like it's you're invested. You know, it's like it's very exciting to see your son or someone you're close with, you know, compete. Yeah, you know, and and I mean that's a that's a special feeling to be able to have, and it's exciting for the kids, exciting for the parent. I mean, I I do believe sometimes too many parents you know live through their kids, and it's it's okay to get excited. Like, listen, you know, I was a division one all American. I earned a full scholarship in college. Like I had my thrill, right? I had I had my time, but I still get really excited when my kids are out there and you know competing and doing things, you know. And I think parents, they they want to give the kid every opportunity to do that, obviously for the kid for the athlete, but it's a lot of fun for the parent as well, you know, to see their their kids succeed and just you know grow as a person.
SPEAKER_01:Do you see a broader awareness in the industry, or maybe by parents of my kid needs to be training, not just showing up and playing more? I I can remember when I started coaching hockey kids, a lot of their parents were like, Don't tell anybody my kid comes here. This is like our secret weapon. And now it's like every kid knows at least that they should be working out.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think listen, the the physical abilities of young athletes today have been elevated, right? I kind of say high school is the new college in some ways, you know. High school athletics is very competitive, it's become very competitive because of the amount of training and and the development of the athletes that they're having at such a young age, and they're becoming more specialized and skills are increasing. So, you know, I mean, when I first started training young athletes in 1991, the parents that used to send the kids to me, they were the oddball parents, like the crazy parents. You're you're sending your kid to what? You know, what what's this training? What training, speed training? What is that? You're like weird. Now, if you don't send them to a training, it's like you're depriving your kid, you know. So it's the paradigm has completely shifted. Where, you know, now it's completely accepted that, you know, if your kid is playing sports, getting them some type of training to enhance that because just going to your sport practice is not enough. No, you know, unless you're a genetic freak. And there are some of those, there's not many, but those are the guys that are making the pros. And if they get some training, those are the hall of famers, right? I mean, it just keeps going, right? It just keeps going. So, but to be competitive, you you have to be not only doing training, you have to be doing the right training. Because I've seen a lot of young athletes do the wrong training and end their careers, you know, and it's really sad. I mean, just the wrong type of training, too much sagittal plane lifting, too much squatting and deadlifting with poor techniques where they just destroy their back and they're creating their own injuries. And that's really uh that's an epidemic right now. I believe there are so many faulty movement patterns that are being prescribed in the weight room and on the on the on the field in terms of you know, quote unquote training, but we're really breaking down the athlete's connective tissue system, ligaments, tendons, and and and and doing in some ways, in some ways, doing more harm than good. So it's not only it's getting trained, but getting the right training, and that's where facilities can really stand out if they have a good foundation of movement.
SPEAKER_01:I've always wanted to ask you this, and I'm sure we could do a whole podcast just on this, but how does training fit into the the whole idea of early specialization? You know, it's it I I hear all the time, like, well, early specialization in one sport is terrible, but I go to a hockey game where 12-year-olds are playing better than 18 year olds were playing five years ago, right? Of course, it's more likely that they're gonna burn out, and of course they're gonna have overuse injuries and stuff, but like, does training off the ice actually mitigate that, or is it still just a bad idea in general?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, that that that that thought process around early specialization, it really comes down to movement patterns, right? So if you do a movement pattern over and over again, whether it be a baseball throw or certain types of soccer kicks, you know, that you know, you're gonna create the these limitations or these overuse injuries. Now, that can be avoided with proper training, right? So the skill of the sport, of whether it be, you know, dribbling a soccer ball or swinging a baseball bat or shooting a basketball or whatever that skill may be, that early specialization is very valuable, like to learn to learn those skills. Now, but but when your body's doing specific movement patterns over and over again, the body kind of develops this kind of overdevelopment for lack of better words, in in collagen, right? That kind of like has this specific path of this movement pattern. And now when you do something outside that movement pattern violently, I mean, there's a risk for injury. So it's really managing the collagen, the collagenous network of the body, the fascia, the tendons, the ligaments, it's managing that tissue in a way that it's omnidirectional and it's vibrant and it's springy and it's it's not you're trained in a way where it's one-dimensional, right? It's got to be multidimensional. And when you do things over, now in some things, you know, it's it's important to do things one-dimensional, like a thrower. You know, they throw a lot. Now, if they throw correctly and they build all the you know, stabilize your muscles, and they have good symmetry and they do other things than just throw, they're doing other you know activities. You know, you you are gonna develop this, believe it or not, this elastic Achilles tendon across your upper right peck if you're a right-handed thrower. That's been proven by science, where you won't have it on the left, but that's an adaptation that you need to be a high-level thrower. So you you need that, but you also need to have these other things to balance. So it's important to know that early specialization, there's value to it, but done incorrectly, yeah, could lead to challenges. So, you know, have you ever heard of a wrestler get injured or or have overuse injuries from wrestling? No, never. You never hear a wrestler. Why? Because wrestling is omnidirectional, forces are going through the body, through the tissues in all different directions all the time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So that's a sport you don't have to really worry about early specialization because that's exactly what we're talking about. Everybody should wrestle to create muscle symmetry and balance because you're using all these muscles in all these different positions, right? But if the sport requires a skill that's very specific, now you got to build a program that builds balance and symmetry and that's omnidirectional. So, you know, like basketball players, they you don't really hear much about basketball player overuse injuries. Why? Kids that play basketball early on and all they do is play basketball, they are the that's why they're the most freakish athletes on the planet, because their entire activity is multi-directional, omnidirectional, doing all types of changes of direction and jumping and all types of angles and whatnot. You don't hear about overuse in basketball. Maybe you get overuse for telatendinitis or you know, because you just you know just too much activity, no matter what it is, right? Yeah, so uh that's a a misnomer because it's funny when you hear somebody like Steph Curry say, Oh, you should play all three sports. Yeah, you you I recommend play three sports if you're a stud and you can play all three sports and actually play, get on the field. But if you're gonna play three sports nowadays, you're gonna play three sports at a competitive high school. Well, typically Steph Curry's a stud, like he's an NBA champion, right? Most kids aren't that. So to play three sports, I don't want to play a sport and sit on a bench, right? You know, and like just go and like not get a lot of practice time and not get a lot of game time. I'd rather be training for the one sport where where I can get playing time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, so it's about at the end of the day, it's not about playing three sports, it's about playing time. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, can I wanna play sport? I want to play a sport to play, right? Not play a sport just to play three sports. So, what high school are you going to? How competitive is it? You know, what's your chances? Who's in your position as a uh above your grade, below your grade, in your grade? What's your chances of starting or being the second string or not seeing time?
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. These are all vital questions parents need to look at and ask when we decide or they decide what their kid wants. I don't know any kid that is excited to go out for a sport and you know not play. Like the goal is to play. Now, most kids, here's the thing, most kids, a lot of kids don't play. Not many kids are happy with their playing time. You know, I mean, how many kids when the season's over and say, oh man, uh everything about every game was great. I played as much as I could, uh, and I I I maxed it out. Like that's like two percent. Right, yeah, very rare. Yeah. More than 50% of the kids, they end the season, they're not happy with playing time, they're not happy with their end result. Right. So it was more of an in some ways, it was more of a drain in some ways than uh than a positive, because playing time and making plays is what we want. That that that that doesn't happen to the majority of the kids. Getting a lot of playing time and making plays, you know, you you got to prepare for that. So, I mean, but there's other wins from the experience, right? Like, you know, but by competing and and whatnot. And again, I'm a parent. I got kids. I had kids that went to very competitive high schools. My son, he we went, they went to Don Bosco High School, right? Number one high school, one top high school in the in the U.S., you know, ranked the nationally basketball, football, top 100 year after year. He worked his butt off freshman year, sophomore year. He was a basketball player. Junior year got some time. I mean, he he really didn't start. Senior year gets his starting lineup job. He made the starting lineup at Don Bosco. Halfway through the season, he lost his starting job halfway through the season. He lost his starting job to Dylan Harper. Dylan Harper was a freshman on that team that grew two inches during the season, went from like you know, uh six foot to six two. But the point I'm trying to say is that he still had a great experience and he still got a lot out of sport, even though like ultimately he didn't have that starting position.
SPEAKER_01:You know what I love about talking to you, Bill, is like you you will not meet a true expert in any field who is not extremely passionate about that field, and it comes across in everything that you say your passion, and it's it's a big part of what makes you such an expert. We we could do an entire podcast on that, and we it would fly by and neither of us would even notice. What I'd love to do is is kind of pivot to some of these business numbers. And I'm gonna ask how they compare to the athletic training community, the youth training community. Are they high? Are they low? What do you think?
SPEAKER_00:Oh go ahead.
SPEAKER_01:No, so let's start with 129 clients. Like if if you were looking at a pretty C speed school or an athletic training facility, is that number high or low?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I would say that's interesting. That's probably like the threshold of right where we, you know, where we want to be or at the beginning of where we want to be. Like we want to be, you know, north of we we want to be in that hundred range, you know, for sure. You know, uh, and now you gotta understand, first of all, I want to say this book is is gold, right? I made all my notes. I mean, there's so much, so many pearls of wisdom in here, and this is such a great blueprint for gym owners to have a measuring stick. I like I said before, without this, it's like going into a basketball gym with a blindfold on and trying to shoot baskets, right? I mean, you gotta take the blindfold off and see where the goal is, like see where you need to be. We all need motivation, right? That's the number one lacking, you know, uh trait in our society, right? That's the behavior. That's the number one lacking behavior, is that motivation? And this is a book of motivation of where we should be. Because if you can't measure it, you can't manage it, right? And and and this is amazing. So that 129 number, I think, is a great benchmark that you laid out based on the research. To make 100 grand a year, that's what you need to get to. I mean, that's a great number, like the 100 grand to make 100K as an owner, 129 locked in. And if you follow the rest of this blueprint, this playbook of where you know need to be having these goals and getting your team dialed into these goals, you're you're gonna get to that next level. So there are so many pearls in here. And that's the first one that I earmarked, right? Like as a as a number. And in terms of Priesty Speed School, you know, the fact that we're really only a business that operates about four hours a day, you know, yeah, typically. I mean, we're only operating, you know, four to five hours a day from you know 3:30 or so, three o'clock to like seven or eight, you know, in that range, you know, we we average probably 15 to 20,000 a month in a in a typical program, on average, you know, and I would say that's you know, probably our median. And then um, you know, we've got our outliers, but you know, I mean, if you're not doing at least 20, we don't we don't consider you successful, you know, and that's just in youth, you know, that's just in that four-hour to five-hour window. And that doesn't mean someone that's doing, you know, five grand a month, 10 grand a month as an add-on. I mean, that that could be claimed successful as well.
SPEAKER_01:Of course. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And those numbers, like those memberships range for us with those smaller numbers, is smaller for, you know, that's like, you know, more like 30, 40, 50 members. But for us, we know at roughly, you know, 100 members, we're we're charging at least 200 a month, you know, for our program. So we know at that 100 mark is 20 grand a month. That's that's that that benchmark.
SPEAKER_01:You know, some people will hear you say we're charging 200 a month and think, wow, you know, I that's great. I guess I see how you can charge that for youth. I could never charge that in my CrossFed gym, boot camp. But the reality is, if you flip to the average, like the median average, average revenue per member, ARM, uh, it's like 205. It's it's up there anyway. It's not, it might be just under 200 now. It's going up every year. And the gyms that are doing it are not necessarily just selling group training. They're they've got a group training program for adults and they've got a Parisi speed school for youth, or they've got you know, a personal training option in there or something like that. Like, and they're building toward that ARM. The cool thing about Parisi is you know, the prices are are prescribed for you, right? Like you don't you don't dictate them, but you tell people what they should charge. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that's great, man. Uh, the next thing I wanted to ask about was the four funnels. So, you know, over the last few years, we've been trying really hard to like boil marketing down into something really actionable, like a checklist. And and now we break it down into four funnels and we break those out in the state of the industry guide. What I wanted to ask you about is like, how are youth training and athletic training gyms utilizing the four funnels? Are they doing well at it? Are they doing something different? What's happening there?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you know, I think we're we're doing well, and we are using those four funnels, and the way you lay them out, I mean, are just it's just genius in terms of the the model of social media, referrals, you know, general marketing initiatives. I mean, looking at those four areas and honing on them is is huge. And I think, you know, my paradigm changed a little bit here too. Um looking at your data, and you've you've helped me a lot because when I've grown, like a lot of our business has been referral. Like I've been doing this 35 years and and you know, before social media came out and whatnot, and we've been, you know, 70, 80 percent referral because we we give such a great service. And obviously that's evolving and that's changing, and social is playing such a huge role in that. And the fact that you know, you have a plan for that and you laid it to these four funnels, because in my mind, it was mainly like it was all referral-driven for for us for the most part. And we would do some advertising, we would you know, spend some money in some newspapers and things of that nature. But as this social media came about and has you know really changed the game, we we started to look at that and say, wow, you know, this is this is definitely changing the game. And that whole process of of what you do and how you do on social is now you know a game changer because that's opening up new pockets, like you said in your in your in your program. That if you don't, if you're not looking at these four funnels and you're not measuring them on a weekly, basic, daily, weekly, monthly basis, you're you're missing the boat. Like you're you're missing lead opportunities. So I I think we need to put more emphasis though, you know, on that, on that referral side of the house, because I don't think we we we know how to ask for referrals or we we know how to really drive referrals the way we really could. And you know, that is the the best type of re you know business you can get is referrals.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. How do you teach uh Parisi Speed Schools to uh go out and get referrals? A lot of gyms that I talk to, I say, Do you have a referral program? Yes, we do. And what they actually have is like a discount program that nobody talks about, they don't they don't push it, they're very passive, and it's just kind of like a hope and pray program. We teach gym owners to be active about referrals, but what I'm interested in is always like what is the best way to get more referrals in youth sport?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean this the easiest one that's worked for us is you know, bring a friend. Yeah, you know, bring a friend in for a for a session, you know, anytime, but we also run challenges. So, you know, fun. We call them challenges, and they come in, it's like a combine event, and it's an open open event where kids come in, they they test out, you know, they they see how how fast and how explosive they are, and they get their combine score. So we use those two ways, you know, a free demo class, bring a friend, and then we run these challenges either every month or every quarter, and the kids come and they test it's like a little mini decathlon kind of competition where kids really get excited about it and we promote that and we'll put that out there for kids to, you know, and parents to take advantage of. And it's it's a fun day, it's in a fun, it's a fun event. So that's that's how we kind of you know excite the community and and get people, you know, wanting to bring a friend in and you know compete against their friend and have some fun. So you got to make it fun, you know. And I think from an adult community, you can you can do things very similar. You can you know have challenges, you know, you have these these different challenges and you can have different handicaps. I mean, we have we we position our younger athletes, they get a different scoring system than our older athletes. And it's really not about competing against somebody else, but you're really competing against yourself, right? So you get your your baseline score on your first challenge, and then the goal is let me come back and what where am I gonna, you know, how how am I gonna improve? And then can I see my improvement by coming back? And that that measurement, that excitement to want to improve the athleticism. And I think with all the gyms that you coach, people are looking to do that. They want to see that improvement, uh, you know, measuring the outcomes. And I, you know, you have these different you know competitions and whatnot, but I think there's ways to make that easier. I think the toll that sometimes some of these people put on their body and the adult community doing the different types of workouts, I think there's different ways. I mean, you don't have to, you can come up with your own facility challenge, you know, your own four or five different, you know, protocols and have your own community kind of event with your members. And I think those could be really powerful.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you know, there there are thousands and thousands of gyms who are running a high rox program for this exact reason for adults, and it's super powerful. A gym could put together their own, you know, physical challenge and and offer that as a kind of adult combine, you know, too.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly right.
SPEAKER_01:But you give the actual combine layout and scorecard and everything to all the Parisi affiliates, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. We have it all laid out. We have a whole scoring system, it's all computerized in terms of you know just tallying the scores, and we have point totals that go from zero points up to 800 points. Uh, and it's kind of like a decathlete that you know it it's it's uh acceleration ability, 10-yard sprint, 20-yard sprint, vertical jump, standing broad jumps, uh, uh an agility test, pull up test. So it's it's these six different tests that we measure, and they all have a composite score. And it's it's fun. I mean, people love doing them. And I think a lot of adults would probably love doing those as well because it's it's real physical activity that that you need to be athletic to. To to do well in, you know.
SPEAKER_01:You know what's funny is when I was a kid, um, we had this program in every every school in Canada called the Canada Fitness Test. And every kid would have to do it. And the one that everybody hated the most was called the flexed armhang. And it was like this chin up, and you had to hold yourself above the bar and you didn't have to pull yourself up. Like the teacher could boost you up there, and then you had to hold it. And it's it's even like you know, it's it's in like Canadian music. People sing about this stuff. When when a few years ago we held the Canada Fitness Test redo for adults, 30 years later for most of us, the gym was packed. Like they couldn't, they couldn't get over like doing these tests again that they had done in the third grade. And some of them even wore their old 30-year-old Canada Fitness Test medals. Like people love this stuff. The other thing that I really wanted to ask you about, because I I do believe you know in referrals with kids, uh, my practice as a personal trainer grew from zero to 12 almost overnight because of getting referrals with youth athletes. I really wanted to ask you about social media. I mean, if anybody follows you on Instagram, for example, they'll notice like the quality of your storytelling and content and video has just gone through the roof in the last three or four months, I would say. But like, what's going on there?
SPEAKER_00:My oldest son graduated college with a degree in marketing communications.
SPEAKER_01:And when did he take over?
SPEAKER_00:Uh, about three, four months ago.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, well, okay. I wasn't just imagining things. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:No, I mean, he he has really shoved the camera in my face. He says, hey, you know, that listen, I'm I'm 58, right? So I didn't grow up with social media, right? I was I'm an old, I'm an old cat. But yeah, I mean, you know, listen, the the the takeaway is this. I believe it or not, I'm not like a big social media guy where but what I did realize, what I've realized is that you gotta be part of it. You know, you gotta be in the game. And if if you're not good at it or if it's not something you like to do, you better find someone that that you can bring on board to do it for you and help you and and guide you through it. So he's been the one that has been uh getting the camera in front of me and and and filming, and then and then we then we talk and collaborate on on what we want to say, what you what what what I want to put out there, and and we put it out. It's just being consistent and and and you know, it's kind of like I'm doing what I do, but now there's a camera there. You know, it's you know a lot of things I'm I'm I'm coaching, I'm doing, I'm training my athletes, I'm doing an education for coaches, and it's just now okay, we got a camera filming it. So it's really just finding someone that's gonna, you know, film those exciting moments. And then when you have an idea or a concept you want to share, you know, put it up there, get a camera. We bought a nice camera. We we got a couple, you know, tripods that can hold the camera, and we're just knocking it out. And and it's it's kind of fun, and we are building a nice library.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think, you know, I think what you guys do best is something that I've heard from Dan Martell before, which is capture, don't create. And it you're definitely not staging things, you're not standing in front of the camera and saying, hi, I'm Bill Parisi. And today's tip is like it's an action shot of you actually coaching, and it's incredible. I really encourage anybody to check out uh at Parisi Speed School at on um Instagram, just follow them and you'll see so much good content there. I really wanted to talk to you about retention too, because while retention in athletic training and youth sports is naturally higher than for adults, you also run sometimes it's kind of a seasonal business, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah, yeah. We have peaks and valleys in our business. We have two peaks and two valleys uh in youth. And what's nice, adults really counter that program really well. I mean, it's it's funny. I opened my gym, my first gym, it was a studio, 3,000 square feet in 1993. Right.
SPEAKER_01:Amazing.
SPEAKER_00:1993, I ran youth athletic training in that gym, and I ran adult training in that gym. And in 1997, and and Tom Plummer and all these people will validate this. In 1997, we did 987,000 in that space. 987. Amazing. Yeah, in 1997, it was just I had like 12 full-time coaches. I mean, we were, and the the average one-on-one price back then was like$35.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I think I do it in small groups at like 20 bucks. We were just busy day and night, like from the morning, afternoon, and then at night, kids. It was just completely screaming. The point is that youth business, that retention and and what we did, that drove the adults. So in youth, our valleys, our valleys, our downtime in youth is April and May. That's a big valley when spring store sports start. Okay. That's a big valley. But adults get jacked up. The summer's coming, so it's a it's a it's a peak for the adult, right?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:We know January, February, that's a peak for everybody across the board. You know, January, February, March. Everybody's through the roof. We are we our biggest, the first quarter is just a monster quarter for us because we have all the athletes, all the adults. It's crazy. The next valley, you know, then we have the for the youth, the valley is the um April, May. Then the peak for us is summer. We we we get really busy, June, July, and the first couple weeks of August. It's a big peak for athletes getting ready for fall sports. Yeah, right. And then adults tend to maybe slide off a little bit in the summer. And then another valley for us is when fall sports start. You know, September, October, we we the athlete training goes down some, but adults get really jacked up because kids are back in school, parents getting back on a schedule, you know. So they really have kept balanced one another very, very nicely. And that same facility that I have operated since 1992, believe it or not, it's the same facility, still going today, doing 900,000.
SPEAKER_02:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:Same, you know, it's a little bit bigger, about 4,000 square. But I don't know how many gyms have stayed worked the test of time. And it's another owner, by the way, owns and operates it. And it's in my hometown here, it's right, right local, but it's trugging away at, you know, just cranking out 900 grand a year and you know, just this cranking away for 30 plus heating.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's that's unprecedented and unmatched. You know, and I wanted to ask you about retention. Like, obviously, you cannot build that 30, 40 year gym without amazing retention. How do you keep the kids coming back year after year or you know, in the off seasons without just like churning them out and turning new ones back in?
SPEAKER_00:You know, when you think about our product, right? Our product are our coaches. You know, it's it's all about nurturing and developing your coaches. It's knowing how to recruit, knowing how to hire, train, develop, and retain. It's it's all that. It's every and that's why we put so much effort into recruiting, hiring, training, and retaining. It's it's I mean, if you do that and you do a lot of other things wrong, I mean, you're gonna you're still gonna figure, you're still gonna be successful. Yeah, I mean, I I think, I mean, for the most part, for the most part, you gotta have a good lease and and you gotta have obviously the proper pricing strategies and all. But but the secret to our success has has always been hiring and retaining quality coaches. We do that by providing them career paths and and really sound education to develop them as great coaches. So if their goal is to go and be a college coach or or or go and grow into another facility or open up their own, whatever it may be, we wanna we wanna be aligned with them and help them get to their goals and and provide everything we can for them to succeed in this industry. And that's resources, that's education, that's career path, that's just you know, mentoring them and getting them to understand the business. So that's that's your product. I mean, you're you owners, you know, the owners need to understand like a lot of their focus needs to go in developing and mentoring coaches. And it's not just some guy, I'm gonna pay part-time, he's gonna show up. Hey man, do do do we take them to lunch once a month? Do we have soft meetings? Do we get to know them personally? What's going on in their life? Do we do we have our hard meetings? Do we have a detailed job description for these people? And do we hold them accountable? Do we set clear expectations to our people? And uh do they understand the expectations, what's expected of them? And are you holding them accountable? Um, I mean, these are these are things that most managers or owners are not doing on a consistent basis because they just get pulled in other directions, and that's where things slip.
SPEAKER_01:I wanted to get your take on that a little bit deeper because you're you're a great leader, Bill. And you know, one of the things that owners get nervous about or shy away from even is doing like evaluations on their staff or writing out a clear job description or even holding people accountable. But in my experience, that actually the staff wants to hear that most of the time. What's your experience, sir?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean, listen, the owners that have challenges with that because they're too nice, you know, that or you know, or they they they they get their priorities are not, you know, maybe in order. You know, they're either too nice or their priorities are not in order. And I think you gotta get comfortable being uncomfortable. I mean, that's the most important thing. Honesty is not always positive. We have three core values at the Precey Speed School. They're really simple. It's honest, positive, and excellence. Honesty in relationships, positive in attitude, excellence in service. That's our core values. We've been living by them for 30 years. It's very simple. It's nine words, right? Nine words, that's our values. And our values lead to our mission and our mission statement, right? So, but just to unpack the values here for a second, yeah, and this is what we live by, right? So I asked owners out there, what are your facilities' core values? What's your facility's mission statement? What's your mission, right? So at the precinct's pizza, our mission, we believe we're the industry leader in performance enhancement for young athletes, that we improve not only the speed of movement, but the strength of character in any athlete, regardless of their ability, economic status, or event or or background. You know, we we we're gonna help these kids. Like that's our mission, right? To empower the youth of the world. Now it used to be empower America's youth. Now it's empower the youth of the world because we're all over the world. So, but our values are the underlying foundation to our mission, right? So going back to values, honesty in relationships, positive in attitude, excellent service. Well, honesty is not always positive. So, like there's a there's a paradox there, right, in a way, because honesty is not always positive. And understanding that dealing with this head on with a challenge that is being honest, it might be negative or perceived negative, but we have to have those conversations. And it comes down to accountability and holding people accountable. But where that gets screwed up is where you know people aren't clear on expectations. So you write down the job description, you go over it line by line by line, and then you hold people accountable. And when they when there's a there's a challenge, then you have to document that issue, you know, and and make sure they understand they made a mistake and there's repercussions if you do it again. And there's gotta be a there's gotta be a process to that. And eventually you have to fire people, right? I mean, I mean, and the people are way too quick to hire and way too slow to fire. You gotta hire slow, fire fast. And, you know, these are just one, you know, business one-on-one principles, a lot easier said than done in terms of you know, having the courage to follow through with these things, because you know, this coach, everybody loves him, and but he's always late. He's always, you know, he eats his lunch on the floor, it's not fair, you know, all these different things, right? So, but you know, you just can't have that. And and you know, listen, I've dealt that with my whole career, you know, and now but now we hire a lot better. We understand and we feel when these things are starting to brew up, where a coach maybe his ego's getting a little bit too big. We got to have a meeting and then we got to decide, hey, I get it. It's not maybe it's not what you thought it was, or it's not working out. Let's figure out an exit plan. You know, let's let's let's understand if you're not, you know, it's okay, let's figure it out and then move on that. You know, I just think you know, it hurts hard in the beginning when you got to like move on from someone, but it it's a lot more painful if you let it you know drag around, you know, for a while. So I I think the big thing is is really understanding the psyche of your coaches, having you know, core values and understanding and sharing core values with your team and you know, having a mission, like a real mission, like your local mission. What is your mission? You know, my organization started out when I had a couple locations with our core values and our mission statement. Now it's a you know a big network. So yeah, that's it's a lot there.
SPEAKER_01:Well, look, yeah, it is a lot. And and you know, we could do a podcast on this too, Bill. Like you've got so much experience and wisdom here. Do you find that this this degree of honesty, clarity, does it separate your best staff from your weakest staff? Here's why I ask when I did my first coaching internship, it was like 1996, and I felt like I was the best coach that was recruited as an intern among the three of us who were. And at the end of the semester, you know, I worked really hard in that job. I was, you know, down in Illinois, sweating, but you know, a pale Canadian kid. At the end of the summer, I got an A. And I was really proud of it until I found out that everybody got an A, including the people that I thought were really phoning it in, not trying hard, et cetera. And later on, a mentor said to me, you know, Chris, like your best players don't want to work with your worst players. And that's another reason to get the worst players out. Back to the question, do you think that doing these evaluations, giving people this much clarity, does it weed out the bad ones and strengthen the relationship with the good ones, or does it do something different?
SPEAKER_00:I think it all depends on the individual. I think it can make the I think it can make sometimes it can make the bad ones the good ones.
SPEAKER_01:Oh wow. Okay. Tell me about that.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I think I think sometimes we're, you know, we've we've turned house painters and bank tellers into world-class coaches. I love it. That's such a great quote. Oh my goodness. We really have. Where I turned UPS workers. I have we have a guy, his name is Rich Sadiv. He came to us in 2009. He's been at Us at UPS for over 25 years, brought his daughter in to uh to to work with us, brought his daughter in. She was a high school softball player, and he was a power lifter. Like that was his that was his, you know, he was a power lifter. And uh he started working out you know at our facility, and then he, you know, he was he was good in the weight room, and we said, Hey, you want to get involved with us, we'll train you. And you know, you start working with some athletes, he started working with our jumpstart athletes, believe it or not, our seven, eight, nine-year-olds started working with our jumpstart athletes. What he had and what he has to this day, and what the house painter has and the bank teller has, they love to motivate people. Nice. They they they they they are passionate about empowering other people, they're passionate about making an impact. They're not they're not only passionate about the content, they're not just passionate about training and lifting and exercise, they're passionate about people. Find me somebody passionate about people. I don't care what you do, I don't really, as long as you're fit and you and you work out and you're kind you, you know, you can't you like working out, if you're I'm gonna make you a great coach. And those are my best coaches. Long story short, this guy wind up not only quitting UPS a few years later, he wound up ascending to not only be our manager of our facility, he purchased our flagship facility in 2015 and then just sold that facility for seven figures. Amazing. That that is amazing. A UPS worker that like to power lift. So I have a lot of those stories where you know they start out as coaches, just coaches and mentoring them, but they gotta have that underlying value to want to really inspire people. If you feel if you're a coach or if you want to be a coach and all it's about you and you're you're you want everybody to be super motivated like you, and if they're not motivated like you, you don't want to coach them, it's gonna be hard to be successful in this industry, you know.
SPEAKER_01:It is, but I think that the real leaders in the industry create opportunities like this that allow people uh who are UPS drivers who love powerlifting to have an opportunity where they wouldn't have otherwise, you know. So thanks for doing that. Like you're revealing this hidden coach who was buried in UPS brown and you know, Metallica t-shirts.
SPEAKER_00:Like a waiter or waitress, or uh here's a here's a little uh nugget. You always gotta keep your slate filled, no matter where you go. I remember I found a coach. I was at uh a sporting goods store uh called Dick Sporting Goods, big here in the US. And uh I my kids were young at the time, really young, like seven, eight years old. It's like 20 years ago or 15 to 18 years ago, and they're playing with the basketballs, they're going crazy. I'm like, calm down, like guys, we're in a store. You can't be shooting baskets in the store, it's not me. So this this worker came by and he's like engaging with my kids, and I'm like, wow, this kid is special. And I and here's the magic words I I use all the time. Man, when I see somebody like that, just remember the sentence, everyone listening. This is a game changer, this is a change your life, create change your net worth. Here's the here's the words you're really good at what you do. Do you keep your career options open? That's all you need to say. Say that a few times a day. Hopefully, you can say it a couple times a week to wherever you go. Somebody that looks fit, somebody that that looks good, you know, somebody that has a you know, looks like they work out, but they're really good at something. Like, and I my bank teller, this house painter that I was blown away with. I mean, I UPS worker, man, those are the magic words. Man, you're really good at what you do. Do you keep your career options open? Now, I'm working at a bank, I'm painting houses, I'm working at UPS. What do you think they're gonna say? No, I love what I do, I don't want to do anything else. They say, Yeah, why? Well, you know what? I own a gym, I work at a gym, we have a great program. We empower kids, empower adults to get fit, change their lives. Would you be interested to learn more? Of course.
SPEAKER_01:Of course, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I usually, I usually, I usually get a confused look. I usually get like a look up to the side, yeah, to the side. It's usually a confused look. That's amazing. Yeah, but then you got to now bring them in, train them, and you know, so that takes, I mean, that's what we do, right? I mean, we we have a whole training system and we bring them in, we we we build them up, but that's what I look for. I I will say this. Not I'm big in education, huge. Yeah, not against having degrees. I like people with degrees, but a lot of times, for your degree, they got a master's degree, they think, all right, I got this degree, I should get this, I should do this. No, I would rather I would rather take that house painter that is thanking me every day for the opportunity than someone coming into my building thinking I owe them because they have this advanced degree.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it I never made this connection before, but when I was a new trainer, '98, um, I was talking to a college professor and said, 'I think I need to go get my master's. It's the only way I'm ever going to make a career of this.' And he said, What how is a master's going to make you more money? When you can tell me that, go get your master's. And right at that time, a coworker gave me a copy of how to win friends and influence people. And I started practicing that. And that's actually what made me a career. It was the ability to connect. And Bill, like you're an amazing connector. If anybody's ever been around you, the first thing that's going to happen is you're going to introduce them to somebody else in your network and you're going to make them feel special. Is that innate? Were you born with that, or is that something that you have to cultivate?
SPEAKER_00:It's funny you said that. I was in college in the recovery room in a cold tub at 19 years old. And I was reading this book. I was reading this book, and my friend looked at the title. And he and he looked at me and he walked out and he said he was like, Loser, like calling me a loser. I'm reading this book. Title of the book. We're in college. Yeah. How to win friends and influence people. Amazing. 19 years old. So I think you said that book. That was one of the first personal development books I read.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It was the foundation to my, you know, all my books. And then I would say the other one just throwing out books. Like that's a must. And the five dysfunctions of a team has really laid the foundation on building a culture in an organization. You know, I mean, I I I I actually did I don't know if you know this. I'm such a connector that at Ursa, you know, the big trade organization, I negotiated and facilitated to have Patrick Lancioni speak at Ursa.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, amazing.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I cut the deal. Like, you know, like his compensation was like a lot of money, it was like 30K, you know. But like that's the kind of connector I am because I was so into the book. I went went wet and met him. I reached out to him. I just attacked. And uh I said, this the industry needs this so much. I had them speak. They have, you know, they have this big trade shows. It's for the big box, yeah, that type of thing.
SPEAKER_01:So a lot of a lot of staff, but very, very valuable stuff from Munzione, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah. Well, that's I think maybe this is one of the biggest takeaways. And there's a lot of like quotable quotes from Bill Parisi on this podcast already. But one of the biggest takeaways is the people who are good connectors, even if they aren't born with that skill and they have to cultivate it, they are very rarely unsuccessful in the service industry. Now, they might not love their job, they might be at a waitress, waiter level, but they're probably really good at it. They might be a personal trainer who's not making enough money yet, but they will probably not lose their clients and they just have to fix the money problem. You know, and and what you're talking about here over and over is well, you have to connect, and here's how you connect, and here's how you connect with the clients, and here's how you connect with your staff. And you know, one of the greatest, I think, praises that I've heard from the the Paris C seminars is like you actually learn how to connect to people better, and that's a very transferable skill, no matter what kind of gym you have.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there's no doubt. And I and I gave a talk, I speak on the Perform Better circuit, and Chris Poirier, who started that, he's the CEO of Perform Better. I gave this talk back in 2009. He said, And to this day, he said it was the best lecture on Perform Better history.
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And it was my networking talk. It's it's how to you know grow your network to grow your net worth, you know. Yep. And and he said, and he and I went and did it this year, 2025. I did it again. He said, Bill, you got to bring back that talk. So I you're so dead on. And the uh the power of networking and engaging and how to win friends and influence people is the foundational skills I learned through that book on how to ask questions and how to listen. Like these things are invaluable skills that are that are you have to own how to listen. Listening is a skill, right? I mean, it's it's something that you have to practice, you know, and and and most people don't do that because when you connect with people and you talk about empowering your employees or finding the right people, because that's everything, it's all about finding the right people and then empowering those people. You have to learn how to be a good listener and really understand their goals, you know, not just their business goals, but their life goals and where they want to be and really connect with them and engage with them and and help them succeed in life. And then then you really become a family. Like you really like we say that at the Priesty Speed School, like we're a family, our network. We mean that. You know, it's not I'm Italian, I mean we have the family thing going, but you know, I really want to help people succeed, even people that say I want to do my own place, or that's fine, you know, like just be honest with us. That's our core value. And, you know, listen, we won't have any problem you doing your own thing. Just if you're gonna do it, just be transparent about what you want to do, when you want to do it, where you want to do it, and hopefully it, it's uh, you know, it aligns with us. And if it doesn't, that's okay, then we can move in different directions. So, but it's it's it's really about um, you know, mastering those skills, listening and asking questions. I've hired a guy 20 years ago, his name is Dr. Paul Staples. I hired him as a consultant, he has his PhD in educational psychology, and uh one of the biggest things he's taught me and what makes him a great consultant great consultants don't always have the answers, but they know what questions to a answers out of you. They get the answers, and this, like I will say, man, I like this book, this state of the industry thing that you guys put together, I I am really blown away with what you created here in terms of all the the nuggets. And there are so many people that get into this industry with passion and you get into the right reasons and all the things I just said about you want to help people and you want to empower and you wanna and you love fitness. But guys, if you don't have the blueprint, if you don't have the numbers, if you don't have the mentorship, it it's really hard. I've been very successful. I've had mentors my entire career, just like Chris. Now, Chris is one of my mentors, right? I mean, I've had guys, real industry legends, like people like over the years, like Mark Mastrof, guys that you know founded 24 hours, guys that became billionaires, right? In industry, like billionaires that I've had connections to and been mentored by. And I've I was able to grab all these nuggets from all these different people. You gotta have that mentorship. And I will say to this, Chris, I've been around a long time. I've been, you know, dealing with consultants my entire career. What you've built it to brings, we have a bunch of facilities at your facility, you know, using your services. And there's a lot of mentorships out there now. There's a lot. And people, just because they open up one gym and they they're making$70,000 a month, and now all of a sudden they're, you know, they're a guru, and that's great. You know, I'm not saying, but the reality of is what you've done for thousands of gyms, the data you're producing, this is real. This is not some slick marketing strategy that you have. Because I looked under the covers and and I have you know over a hundred facilities, and we have facilities that have different mentors, right? We have a bunch now coming over to you. We have some leaving, others coming to you. Uh, because because of what you've what you've put together and the structure you have and the discipleship you've built, right? You're building you're you're building a discipleship with your mentor network. And that is powerful, man. It's not just one guy trying to do it all. You you've trained disciples, and that's the lesson, you know. And these disciples are doing massive numbers, and guess what? They're fired up to help everyone else out there. So, you know, I mean, uh no, I I say it from the bottom of my heart because it's real, you know. I like talking about real stuff. There are a lot of phonies in this industry in everything, in every industry, right? Yeah, and a lot of people, you know, just maybe are perceived to be a lot more successful than they are. And that's all good. I mean, that's all I don't care about that. But the reality of it is when I find someone that I know has the goods, like they have the snake, not just the sizzle, I mean, I get excited. No, I do, I get excited. You know, the people, whether it be in business consulting like yourself or people in performance training, you know, like an Eric Cressy, or just, you know, guys that are at the highest of their of their field, you know. So um that's what I like to roll with, you know, and then and then how do we come together and help the masses? I've done a bunch of different courses with Eric Cressy, you know, we've we've collaborated on doing educational courses together. So finding the best of the best and and and figuring out how to help the masses. And that's what we're doing, right? I mean, we're coming together and working together to see how do we help more gyms succeed, you know, by by maxim out these needs. Numbers and looking at these numbers and see where you fall and tracking these numbers and getting mentorship. And then maybe adding youth to your program if if you have the space and if it makes sense. But yeah, that's that's kind of where I'm coming from.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Bill. I really appreciate that. And and um we're gonna we're gonna end on that. I I think there's a lot of takeaways to this episode, and we're gonna break them down over our um social and email the next few days. But Bill, thanks so much for for being part of this. Thanks for being, you know, in the industry. It's it's you that really gives me hope that uh the great people are still part of this industry. And if we just stay focused on them, we can block out all the other stuff. So thanks for that, man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, my pleasure, Chris. Thanks for having me.
