Nick Reyes, Chief Happiness Officer at PushPress

Nick Reyes is the Chief Happiness Officer at PushPress and one of the very first employees. 

On this episode, Nick talks about culture creation, why he started a gym, his experience in the Marines, fitness trends and more!

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Transcript

spk_1:   0:00
Welcome to the Gym OS podcast, helping fitness professionals become better business owners. One episode at a time. Push press as a company probably pretty similar to yours. We're made up of a bunch of individuals who care passionately about what we're doing. And what we care about is helping gym owners succeed. Over the years, we put together a pretty big team of people who have made push press what it ISS. In today's episode, we're gonna chat with Nick Raya's Nick is the owner of Kansas City Athletic Club and the chief happiness officer here at Push Press. He was one of our earliest hires and one of the key members of our executive team. If you've interacted with our front end sales team or support team, you probably met Nick at some point in your journey with push press. And if you're not yet a push press clan, you no doubt we'll talk to Nick as part of your journey. In the process. I can't speak enough about Nick as a person apparent, a co worker, somebody that I have the pleasure of working with daily. In this episode, we wrap with Nick about his backstory. Why he opened a gym, How he came to working with push breasts and things he sees that's happening in the fitness industry in general. All right, Nick, let's start with something easy on the three of softball. Why don't you tell everyone with your current role here is that push? Rest.

spk_0:   1:34
Uh, appreciate the lob pitch here. I'm the chief happiness officer. Push press. So essentially, that entails, uh, we like to say, giving the people what they want, making him happy, making sure that they've got a good experience from the time that they first touch base with us until, you know, they have executed on making their their gym, their vision come to fruition.

spk_1:   1:57
You know, one thing I've I've noticed and felt is intentions like words and title set intention. And I really love the title. Chief Happiness Officer, can you speak to, like, why? Why? You think that might be an important title, as opposed to, like, Chief Revenue officer, Chief sales officer, whatever it might be your

spk_0:   2:17
Yeah. Yeah, I know for sure. Ah, you know, I think whenever we whenever I first started a push press right like that, my actual title was chief revenue officer. And then we kind of realized that just grabbing revenue doesn't speak to who we are as a culture. And so, you know, with the change of happiness, Officer, I mean, it really did kind of shift my my my own mindset as to you know, what is my exact job here? What is my role here? What is the goal of every single day whenever I break open the laptop or whenever I'm talking to a client or a prospective client like is the golden grab revenue, I would say Absolutely not. Like the goal is to make sure that they're happy. And so it's crazy that the title can actually control that. You know, it's like it's, like, keeps you grounded as to what the mission is.

spk_1:   2:59
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Um, pretty, pretty cool thing that that is, um, why don't you Why don't you take our listeners back a little bit and give us a backstory into nick races?

spk_0:   3:11
Oh, man. Yeah, s o I'm from, uh, inner city. KCK went to a A lot of people may not know this. Even it push press like I went to a prep school for high school. And at one point, this this prep school was like in the top 20 public schools and in the entire country. And so ah, kind of bucked the trend when all of my schoolmates were going to these good colleges and I decided to just kind of bored of school and worn out of school. So I went to the Marine Corps, spent six years in the Marine Corps. I got out of the Marine Corps about the same time that I met my now wife and followed her down to Phoenix. You know, got she got her grad school degree, and then I really after that kind of started my career in in Tech working for Sprint than from their kind of navigating over to Sprint Partner Company. And it just kind of kept going into that tech sales role. Like every job that I found myself in with your tech company and I I really enjoyed that. You know, that the sales role in each one of those and so went from you know, this this this kind of start up company here in Kansas City after Sprint and then eventually found my way into caterpillar. Uh, you know, the big Fortune 50 company working in a sales capacity for them before I before I found push Press. So So, yeah, Marine father of two and husband of Ah, to it to a great wife who's also pretty career mindset it. She's a physician assistant in Ortho, So our family gets pulled in a lot of different directions and and thankfully, you know, working here for push press with our team and having the flexibility that we do allows us to kind of maintain a pretty awesome level of family happiness, just just due to the flexibility that we have here. So So, yeah, cool, cool

spk_1:   5:08
backs. That's a super cool back story. I actually want to dive into the sales end of things here for a second, but, um, first, I want talk about military experience. I am not a military person myself. Um, have my haven't really been around military people in general. I feel like California is not a pro, you know, super pro military state. Um, but one thing I've noticed in running this business is some of the most organized, most diligent, most responsible employees that we have and people that I enjoy working with the most are come from military backgrounds, and we've almost made it like a check box or a question now is like, Do you have military experience? Because we've seen such a remarkable difference and people who do and don't, um and I guess that's That's not to say people who don't have military experience don't possess certain traits. But it's 100% for the military people you do. Can you speak to maybe some things you learn in the military or that have helped you in your career in your life, in in work and career?

spk_0:   6:06
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know, I I I'm with you. I don't know that it's necessarily exclusive to the military, but you know that I always say like, you're what? The level of work that you feel, you are maybe working outside of your comfort zone. That's an acquired thing, right? Like you feel like you're working hard now and you're really not. You need if you put in an extra hour every day, if you wake up an hour earlier every day, it becomes a little uncomfortable for a while, and that's when you're really kind of breaking that zone rights, like college does that for a lot of people forces you to You gotta go to class on your own, which isn't necessarily comfortable. You don't have mom telling you to write. Um, you got to stay up late in study and you're learning the self discipline part of it. And so you learn a lot of those traits. But I feel like with college just by the nature of how it's structured, you can also kind of punt on some of those things, skate by with a C, and you never really, you know, immersed yourself into, like staying up until 1 a.m. studying for something or or waking up early. And in the military there is no pass, right? Like you have to wake up. You have to do p t u have to eat. You know, you're you know you're certain meals. You it's so regimented, especially early on that it basically redefines What work ethic is in your mind at a very young age and actually one of the things I think a lot of military guys struggle with when they if they get out after their first contract is they get thrown into the corporate world, typically into an entry level position. And they may have had four years, six years, something like that in the military, probably leading a decently size large group of men and women. And then they're thrown back into Well, I have a leader now have a boss and they don't work the hours that I'm willing to work. And so it just it could be It could be a little bit little bit tough, but I think that's the reason why. Just redefines work ethic at 18 if you go in right after high school,

spk_1:   8:13
you know that's that's interesting concept I've never actually heard discussed before. I thought about before. Um, and it's It's ironic, because in the fitness space, it's all about being uncomfortable to achieve gains, I guess, or growth, Um, and you're right, like there's a lot of people in college who can kind of skate by with can get A's without having to work crazy hard because they're just they can outsmart the system, right. But in the military, there's no out military ing the military. You're getting up earlier so that you're doing what you have to do. It a given, right? You remember there was one story you told us that I think would be in a funny antidote, which I have some I forgot. So I'm doing it selfishly, too. The story about like being paired up and having to take showers and freezers or some weird things like

spk_0:   9:01
that. Yeah. Eso No, God. Talk about uncomfortable. Right? So, like, um, everything that Marine Corps basic training is centered around it. Like it's for a reason you don't do anything for just just just for just for funds. He's, you know, and so little things, like, you know, aa getting dressed in the dark. They would call it getting dressed by the numbers. Right. So you stand at attention at the end of Iraq. Uh, you're nothing but underwear and this, you know, drone struck will say, start getting dressed. You have 10 98321 Right. Like it. Like skip numbers intentionally. And the guys have, like, one bhutan, right? Like they got on a shirt and not even close to dress. It's your it's pitch black. And then when they turn the lights on and no one's dressed, they chew everyone out. You get undressed, they turn the lights off and you do it again and you do it again and you do it again. By the time you're done with basic training, you could you have purposefully at the end of the day before you stage your clothes in such a manner that you can get dressed without seeing anything. And you can do it so fast that moving forward if you were in a environment may be sleeping out in the desert and you started taking gunfire. You would be able to get dressed in the dark in a hurry with under stress with someone yelling at you, and you don't you don't worry about it. Right? So everything has, um, intent behind it. The ah ah, going to the bathroom. You know, hitting the head is no different. So they would say, you know, in a platoon of 80 recruits that you've got two minutes to get, If you have to go to the head, you've got two minutes. And so you know, when you when they've intentionally stopped, you not allowed you to go to the bathroom. I know that seems weird for a lot of people that may be listening to us that you actually have to request permission to go to the bathroom in basic training. But you're trying to filter as many people as possible through a porta potty, and that is not like one in one out, like had a football game or something, right? That is typically as many people as you can cram into a small port a potty space and out as possible. So that's usually, you know, one guy standing, Ah, aiming at the left little urinal, Uh, one guy standing on the bench aiming down. And one guy, uh, kind of at the door, uh, aiming between the guy's legs, you know? And so ah, you learn to take advantage of opportunities to relieve yourself When when you can. When you have down time, you learned you learned to leverage your downtime. Really importantly, so that you're not thrown into a porta potty with two other guys.

spk_1:   11:49
That's hilarious. Maximizing time operational efficiency. I guess that is best. Um, hey, why don't you Why don't you tell us a little bit about how you came to own a gym? How did that happen?

spk_0:   12:01
Oh, man. So interestingly enough, um, I met the original. You know, the founding team at CROSSFIT 913 I was like one of the day one members. I've been working out at a snap fitness, which is like a 24 hour access franchise. I think pretty sure they're all over the U. S. But I've been working out there and had some back pain and was like on a, you know, doctor prescribed pain pills for, ah, pretty severe back pain. And where I wasn't sleeping at night. Doctors had told me to quit exercise blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, ah, friend of my wife's found out that, you know, there's a CrossFit gym gym opening and my wife actually knew one of the guys that was opening it. Ah, TJ kibble in. So she said, you know, TJ's opening a CrossFit gym. You should go and check it out. You know, if you're gonna be in pain, like but you love working out, you should probably, you know, stop just running on a treadmill. It snapped Fitness. So became one of their Day one members, TJ Kipling and Brady more originally open the facility and at about the three month mark, maybe two month mark. Somewhere in there I got my first night asleep with no pain pills and no back pain. So that was like one of my That was probably my big first. Ah ha! Moment of holy crap. This works and it's significantly improve my lifestyle. Fast forward. Several months and they had been kind of kicked out of the facility that they were in with the partnership that they had opened with and were really looking at having to close the business. So I bought into the business, helped find the, you know, the new location. And that's how I became an owner. I was passionate because they had cured, you know? Ah, a big problem for me in a very short period of time when doctors in modern medicine they're only solution was either pain pills or surgery. And to this day, I have zero back pain and love. What we d'oh at now Kansas Athletic Club.

spk_1:   14:08
You know what I look like? I love about this story. This is actually the first time I've ever heard it is, um, in sales and in business. We talked about finding the customers pain and solving their pain because That's ultimately what brings value to the equation of your existence as a company. And they literally solved your pain. Yeah, right. Really? Yeah. So I mean, you became so in debt in them, you obviously bought in and became a partner and help them move and help them grow just from solving your back pain. That's cool. Yeah. Um, So how did you guys find Push breasts like, Take us to that moment.

spk_0:   14:47
So when they first created across the nine re they created with mind body, right, Like, I think I like a lot of gym owners that are opening up a facility. They Google and management software and usually the big fish with the, you know, billions of dollars of net worth as the number one Google wrist listing. So they clicked on the first Google listing. I don't I would doubt that they did a ton of two diligence just knowing Brady and D J. And in their mind, set back in the day. But eh, so they fired up a mind body account. And, you know, once I came onboard me having the corporate background and the data kind of data driven background that I that I had, I realized that all of the data that I was looking for was such a pain to extract from mind body, and part of it was set up. Part of it was the confusing system. It just didn't fit what I needed. And I ended up tracking most all of our important data points manually on spreadsheets. So when we moved to a new facility, you know, we had did we have done demos with, uh, no other gym management platforms and really weren't coming up with anything that we thought was a viable solution for us. So we were pretty intent on sticking with my body. I went down to Ochi CrossFit where I was doing my USA W certification and met a gentleman named Jake Crandall. And Jake Crandall said had, you know, being one of the very few gym owners there in the room. We started talking and he said, Well, you know, we use a platform called Push Press. They're they're they're they're fairly new. You should look at them. I got on a demo, saw how easy it was and saw that the data points that I was manually tracking were were pretty much all right there. And that was even impressed. Put push prices infancy. Um, and you just knew him almost immediately. Like, this is what we're doing. There's no other no other doubt. Stop my surgeon. Look another platform from there and jumped on board.

spk_1:   16:54
So it's widely known and discussed in business. That data since you're talking about data is is the new oil, right? Those who possess it will end up winning. Um, and that push press that that's an important endeavor of ours and something We're moving down, as you know, um, what do you Can you tell the gym owners out there listening right now? Like what? You think that 12 or three, most important data points are that they should be looking at and why? Yeah,

spk_0:   17:22
So, um, this I'm actually gonna work a little bit backwards here on kind of reference. Some of the things that I look at and push press, you know, pretty consistently payments forecast and push press to me is super important, because that shows what we're going to make in just membership revenue in the next month. And Kansas Athletic Club. We basically have a rolling 12 month budget for all income line items and all expense line items that that forecast raises that we're gonna give the staff and certifications we're gonna pay for for them. And I mean everything under the sun. It's all privy. A. It's all based upon making sure that membership revenue number grows so that payments forecast is like data point number one. If that's trending below our forecast, then we know that we're in trouble with the overall budget and we need to play a little game called Fill the Gap right like we're $1000 underwear. We need where we need to be. Ah, we can't be. So what are some ways that we can do? What were some things that we can do to feel that $1000 Gap way? Play that game from time to time? Unfortunately, so that's one important data point, I think for most gym owners, that data point is largely driven by leads in sales. So what are your How many leads are you getting every single month? How many of those are you closing? Eso Those are important and then churn. Are you tracking churn A data point and what are you doing to mitigate that number? What are you doing? To decrease that churn number? I think that those are probably my top three. The the outcome of both new sales and losing clients.

spk_1:   19:09
Yeah. Yeah, like every business. That's kind of in our line of work, which is with the recurring revenue subscription type business. You're gonna be living on a few things. That's incoming sales length of membership and turn percentage is right. That kind of dictates your revenue, which is casual, the right. And

spk_0:   19:27
it really should dictate your daily actions, right? Like if, let's say and I I I doubt this happens for a lot of Jim's. Let's say you've just your you've killed all your turn like you have virtually no churn. Uh, and the turn that you have, you you know you can't really help. Maybe people are legitimately moving out of town, and that's your primary source for all of your turn right, then, really, your daily actions, if you've got process, is set up to tackle the turn part and you're still not where you want to be financially. Well, then they need to be on income creation or revenue creation and that needs to be where your daily mindset is. At the same time, if you're if you're getting in a tunnel leads and you're converting those leads and you're just moving kind of sideways and not up. Your daily actions really need to be centered around. Turn reduction

spk_1:   20:18
of those two income generation or turn reduction. This would be a loaded question with two parts was two things. What do you think Jim owners were focused on? And what do you think they should be focused on speaking generally.

spk_0:   20:30
Generally, they're focused on income creation and they need to be focused on churn reduction. Right. I think those new softball Yeah, yeah, I know that. I actually think that the deeper answer here is Ah, and I'm guilty of this completely is I think the reason for that is we all want to believe that our business best serves every single person that walks in the door. So if someone cancels than it truly is that they don't have the money to pay for it or it truly is that they don't have the time, we don't want to believe that we have failed to, um to set forth a solid value proposition toe where they create the money in their budget where they create the time in their day

spk_1:   21:20
That's so true and the other the other aspect to it is we're all humans and we we we base our actions based on just human are emotionally driven, like things were hard wired to write and closing a new client and bringing a new face in the gym is Ah, What is it? An endorphin hit endorphin? Yeah, George it it is. Um, saving a member from turning is something that has no tangible moment, you know, like it's not like that. The person who's coming to you saying like I'm gonna quit and then you save them. It's just like they're slowly leaving. And then they're so true. Yeah, So I think a lot of owners chase that endorphin hit of like, got a new member, which is ironic. And unless this is a good segue way into sales, because no gym owner I know ever wants to be a sales person, but they do like the endorphin hit of closing. You know, five new clients in a month or something, right?

spk_0:   22:13
Right, right. Yeah. So that's actually I was on the talking to a buddy of mine. Ah, just just just earlier today, who was asking, you know, who basically thank me for a lot of work that he had done with us for sales development, Um, and understanding that it's okay to know your worth, not discount that and ask someone for that worth for that value. And I think that's really tough for a lot of gym owners.

spk_1:   22:45
Yeah, so this might be me preaching to the choir, but I think this is important for our listeners to hear. My biggest inflection moment in business to date was when I took a sales course and I took it for my gym. Um, but I also took it for push Press because what we're selling is very similar. Um, and and the course really taught me how to be unethical sales person who was driving decision making on a client's behalf but at the same time valued my time and valued my service is and put a premium on on what we did didn't discount what we did. Um, we didn't, you know, taught us not the lower prices based on our own security, because once you know how to sell and you understand the psychology of it and the direction of it. You can actually keep your worth. You know, you don't have to discount your your service is to get clients. Um, you're a sales professional. You come from that background. Is there any framework or any quick, um, sales primer you can give? You can give someone listening right now that can help change their perception on sales. If that person used to think of sales like I did like, I'll never want to be a sales

spk_0:   23:51
person. Yeah. So couple of things I would say Listen, listen, listen, listen. And if you listen to what they're saying and you ask questions that are not in your maybe not in your financial best interest, but in understanding their pain points. And those things may not align, right? But like, if you really ask questions as to why they're standing in front of you, then you will be absolutely prepared to prop prop up your solution to their pain points. Ah, but you can't do that. If you're not listening to what they're saying with the true intent of Do I have a solution to this or not. If you're not listening that in that framework you you're you're just you're putting yourself in your foot, right? Um I tell people like from a sale standpoint, you have to be able to do one of two things. Either truly believe that what you offer will solve their that solved their problem with beyond any shadow of doubt. Or you have to be able to not sleep at night. One of the other, Uh, there's no happy median there. So if someone says that they are having, you know, tons of shoulder pain and they're hoping crossfit can solve it for them. Ah, I gotta be honest. I don't know that that's gonna you know, you may have a solution in your facility, but it may not be, you know, do a free trial class of CrossFit. So you better learn to sleep at night, if that's what you're pitching.

spk_1:   25:28
Yeah, I mean, but again, understanding sales. If you have to ask those questions and like you said, asking, listen asking listen to understand that they're coming to you for shoulder pain. So either you might even be referring them to a doctor or you might be referring them to personal training. We could work on shoulder and scapular strength and not just general go and lift and put a bunch of stuff over your head and do kipping pullups, and destroy your rotator cuff even

spk_0:   25:52
more. Exactly exactly. But you can't get there if you're If you're just thinking, Oh, man, it's been a tough month. I need another CrossFit membership, right? Right?

spk_1:   26:01
Yeah, like the one of the bigger sticking points from my sales course. That that I could drop on people is it's called staying on the new. And that's basically like my job is not to make you say yes, My job is to find a reason for me to say no, right? So that keeps really ethical. Like I'm I'm actually actively trying to disqualify people when I'm selling them, because that leads me down a question questioning that doesn't make them defensive because I'm not tryingto set them up for the sale. I'm trying to set them up for, um, you know, disqualification. So, like I'm trying to find reasons why they wouldn't be a good fit in my gym as opposed to trying to force them to be a good fit. I was a huge take away that I got from the sales course. Yeah,

spk_0:   26:40
we do that here. A push Press, right?

spk_1:   26:42
Yep. Yeah. I became one of the founding principles of the sales. And luckily, when we found you, you jived with all of the philosophies we had with sales because you were unethical sales person, and it worked. So now let's talk about something a lot of people probably don't like talking about that's failures. In my opinion, failures are paramount's to becoming a successful person. I don't think there is a single successful person who hasn't failed tremendously and often s. So I I don't think it's taboo to talk about failure. Personally, I talked about mine openly. Um, can you share with us like a failure that you've had? That was, at the moment, the worst thing that's happened in your life and maybe didn't turn out so bad. Maybe he turned out to be something good. Yeah.

spk_0:   27:28
Yeah, I've actually got one. It's funny. It pops up on Facebook memory every year and every few years I share it. Um, the startup company that I work for here in Kansas City, It employed about 50 people. It's called I copped digital. There were publicly traded company. They sold. We sold digital video systems to law enforcement. Like, you know, like what you would see on cops, right? Like those were used to be all of VHS tapes. And this was ah, right of the time when that all started switching to, ah, take cameras and wireless cameras and body cameras on officers and things like that. So I managed the East Coast sales and ah, we as a company, we had never turned a profit, right? So investor driven never turned a profit, kept raising funds, kept spending funds and internally, like I had, I thought in my mind like that was a big goal of mine was to get to the position that I was at and 100% honesty. I became ridiculously complacent. Once I achieved a certain salary, I thought, like, man, this was this is get this was this is if you could have pinpointed a job, you know, back in high school that you would have been thrilled with this is it You've done it. And eventually that company filed bankruptcy. And in fact, my wife and I closed on the on our house on Friday before Christmas, Uh, moved in over the weekend and on Monday morning, when I went to the office, they laid off all 50 employees. Oh, man. And Christmas was like that Thursday, right? Like so I remember being like it just this felt like a slap in the face. Like, you know, what? You were responsible for 1/3 of the country's sales. And one of the reasons why we had to file bankruptcy was because you were complacent. You quit just that. Wake up early, go to bed late grind that you learned as a Marine because you were just fine with where things were at.

spk_1:   29:35
Wait, that's what they told you. Or that's what

spk_0:   29:37
you That's what I internalized, right? Like, those were the feelings that I had. No one blamed it on me. It was It was what I felt like I had let down a ton of people and that became probably the biggest motivating factor is like you will never be complacent again like you would. You will work, you will wake up, you will grind. And if you're not willing to, then maybe there's something else wrong with what you're doing. But this is who you are now. U You can never make that mistake again for the rest of your life. At largely shaped the last gosh, I guess it's after that I went to Caterpillar and then now for push press, that's been nine years. So it's all over the ship the last decade of my life.

spk_1:   30:18
That's interesting. That makes me think of something that somebody told me once recently, Um, that I feel is very important and kind of in line with what you're saying, but also at the same time, not which I think is a good lesson. T tell people here, and that's like when you because I see this come up in like gym owner forms all the time, like I got this coach and they're doing X, Y and Z, and how do I fire them, or do I let them go? Um, one thing that was told to me is every person inherently is good, and every person inherently can kick ass at something. And if they're not kicking ass at a job in your company, you're actually doing them a disservice by keeping them because they should and could be kicking ass somewhere. And they're they're stuck in a situation that they probably know how to get out of themselves. So a lot of times when it comes to letting go of people, it's the same concept, like in the moment. It's really hard for you. It might be the worst thing in their life, but when they look back on it in 18 months, he'll be like, Thank God I got out of that situation because I probably would have still been there and still been unhappy. But now I've got this better job that I'm doing better things that you

spk_0:   31:20
know, ah, 100% agree, 100% agree. I mean, if if the passion isn't there, then you really are doing a disservice by stringing them along.

spk_1:   31:30
Yeah, yeah, because a lot of times is an owner of a business. You kind of know when someone's not a fit and just because it's an uncomfortable conversation, you let them waste time, you know, and it's doing your business is a service, but worse, it's doing them a disservice. You know, absolutely cool. Why don't you name for everybody? Like I love the idea of exploration of knowledge. In fact, one of my most favorite podcast right now is called the Knowledge Project, where it just talks about concepts that people have figured out that have nothing to do with anything in particular. But, you know, it's just about frameworks of knowledge. What's something that you're curious about, Something you want to learn or you are in the act of learning about. And, um, how have you gone? About seeking that? Yes.

spk_0:   32:16
So, you know, I think recently the you know, the big thing that I've been trying to learn about is like the, uh, the psychology of keeping clients and keeping them happy. Right? So, like, um, what are what makes a client dissatisfied? And how can you preemptively attack that for different industries? Right, cause it's every client is different. Some of them might be, ah, projecting dissatisfaction because of something else in their life. Like so there's just a ton around churn reduction for both the gym and for push press and client happiness that I think again, if you're just revenue focus, then maybe you don't care. But if you truly are trying to like, make sure that every single one of the clients at your gym or at your company or whatever it might be are satisfied. You can't just say like, I don't need to learn this. I don't need to study this. I don't need to learn different hacks for my gym to make sure that people smile every time they walk into this place. Like who's doing it really? Really? Well, let me let me see what they're doing. And I in one of my big goals, I think it actually does go and visit some gym. So I think, do it really, really well. Or identify some gyms that do it really, really, really well. And then go visit them and see exactly what watch it happen, right? Yeah, I got a tangent, but I think that that's something that not enough gym owners probably do. You know, we don't create time to go and visit other gems and see and forge relationships within our own fitness communities and learn best practices from each other.

spk_1:   34:00
Yeah, that's a good point. So there's something you brought there that made me think of something the whole, um How do I make sure everyone smile? Um right when you said that my mind started to think about the gym I was involved in, and that was never really a mission, although it was a mission like the point was to make sure we had a great time. But saying those words like telling your coaches, make sure everyone smiles. It's so simple. It's like a piece of core course statement, right? Yeah. Um, and I find it just like Chief Happiness officer, like, I find it so powerful that when you put a few words or a title or a direction to something that it just shapes culture, you know? Um,

spk_0:   34:41
well, I think mandible point, right? Like it's easy. You either. They walked in the door and they smile. We're doing our job. They walk in there doing just like, Hey, what's up? We're not doing our job.

spk_1:   34:52
Yeah, Souto, where's that exactly? It's It's just like I know it. It's an obvious concept to me, but just hearing that is so profound, like if you don't put thes mantra is down on paper and in your coach's mind and in your founders mind they don't happen like conscientiously happen, so that that's actually a huge. I give I honestly, at this point in this podcast, if there's one thing you're listening to this and you're taking away, it's that put very important concepts down on paper and make sure everyone understands that that's your culture. Make people smile, if that's what it is. You know. You

spk_0:   35:26
know, it's funny you say that because even internally at push for us, you know, we didn't always have on paper core values. And so as those core values were published discussed, ah, at our retreat, you know, And it has changed Really? The fabric of the company. Yeah.

spk_1:   35:48
So while we're on that topic, why don't why don't you share with everybody what your favorite core value is with push Freshman boy. Oh, man. So God, can you repeat, I'll tell you mine while you're thinking about it, mine is to create real relationships because I believe we're in a relationship business. Not just it, like as, um, push press helping gym owners. But I believe in helping gym owners help their clients, and it's all relationship driven. And to me, at the end of the day, when I'm on my deathbed, it's like the relationships that I've created, and the people I've helped ultimately is all that matters, you know, like, and that includes my family. And that includes my friends, and that includes our clients. But the real relationships one to me is one that's just so tangibly important.

spk_0:   36:34
So I go 50 50 between that one and empowered dominating gems. So it's so hard for me, right? Like if so, maybe just to give the listeners, Ah, run down here. There it's our core values are empowered. Dominating gyms build a kick ass product, create real relationships, be a data driven organization and execute incremental perfection. So the real relationships I 1000% agree. I think that's one of, like, the main ones for us here. But the empowered dominating gyms to me whenever I picture that, I picture the person who took the massive leap of faith moving the gym from their garage and signing a lease, and we allowed them to take that vision that they had when they when they took that massive leap of faith and create this powerhouse in their market. So to me, that's Ah, that's that one, like, kind of speaks to the heart a little bit you know. So I go back and forth between the two, but either one of those I think are awesome. Answers.

spk_1:   37:38
Cool. Cool. Cool. Um, so kind of given that we're, you know, we're on this thing. This concept of learning and growing are there. What are your three favorite books? Podcasts or other educational things you're soaking in right now? Yeah.

spk_0:   37:54
So, uh, never lose a customer again by Joey Coleman is one of the books that I'm kind of in the middle of right now. Um, snap selling every so often, all I kind of switch back over and read that again. That's by, uh, uh, Jill Konrath podcast wise pockets wise, I jump around a lot. I don't think, you know, outside of like the daily for news and political stuff, which is a short, little 25 minute podcast that I do listen to every day. As far as, like, knowledge enrichment, I really you know, if someone slacks something in the and at push breast like, you know, you send me some stuff and I'll I'll jump in and listen to a few episodes, but I don't really have one that I just have to listen to every single day for knowledge. And Richmond, I'm a lot more into the, you know, the audio books and listening to those as I'm driving around the city and sitting here working stuff like that. So some of the other ones that I think I've gotten great value from, um, out liars I read, you know, every every couple of years. Ah, breakthrough company is another good one. Um, uh, any of the leadership books, like like like the serving leader, I think is an awesome book. So, you know, I think for gym owners in general, you know, you and I talk about this really kind of refocusing into leadership books and visit business development books. Ah, and podcasts really needs to be kind of where the where the mindset shifts too, right?

spk_1:   39:31
Yeah. I mean, what the reason we're doing this podcast on One thing we've kind of come to feel is a lot of gym owners spend a lot of time listening to podcasts that center around gym stuff. And I think they need to start listening to business stuff because business is bigger than Jim's. Jim's do need to know business. And I mean there are stuff that out there that's good that are specific to running a gym business. But many of these concepts are tried and true and executed at levels that are orders of magnitude higher than a local gym. And there's a lot to be learned from the business community, general. So we're trying to take some of that information from that community and bring it to the gym. Um, what's ah. If you could give if you could give the listener right now one thing that they could do in right after this park House has done to make their gym better or their life better, or or something along those lines, what would it be gonna give to? Yeah, you could get.

spk_0:   40:28
Okay, 1st 1 And it's not as may be quite as tactical, but 1st 1 Find an in person sales course in your local city area, something you can drive to sign up for it and do it when I say needs to be the local. And hopefully it's in a room full of people, some forced role play and not just something online that you click through. I think that that role play portion it really makes you uncomfortable and grow a ton. So find one and do it.

spk_1:   41:08
Can I interrupt you right there? Yeah. Yeah. Can you build a sales seminar that we bring to the community specific for Jim's? Yeah, Let's do it. Given that you're the pro. Okay, we'll sidebar that next

spk_0:   41:23
one. Okay, Uh, so the next one and this is one that I've probably done. Oh, gosh. Like 3 to 4 times a year since since I got involved with the gym. And you could do it. Right now it is go through every single way that someone becomes a client at your gym from the time that they first hear about you until the time that they are, you know, three years in and put yourself through that journey. So what does that look like? Like so they hear about you from a friend. How do they find you? Contact. You become a client. And what do What's that First couple of years client experience Look like map that entire process out. And if you can put yourself in those shoes and maybe even do it, like sign up for your own consultation or no sweat Intro. How hard, is it? How easy is it? Did you have to make 30 klicks to sign up for it? Did you get you know, some weird e mails or did was something miscommunicated with you? As you you kind of walked yourself through the journey does that is originating. That journey and Google look different than if you originated in Yelp does. How much different does that look if they just walk into your door and they talk with a coach instead of you as the owner, walk yourself through that journey, and if you think that it's too cumbersome to click heavy, it's not intuitive. Then your clients, I guarantee your prospects. Think that, too you could do that day,

spk_1:   43:00
that that's a really, really good one, actually, something that, um, I don't think we've ever did at my gym. Putting yourself in your client experience is pretty key because I mean, you know the system best. And if your clients can figure it out there, if you can't figure it out or if it seems a little hard for you like Nick was saying, then it's gonna be literally probably 10 to 20 times harder for somebody who doesn't know what they're trying to do.

spk_0:   43:26
Yeah, and maybe, maybe not even just that. They don't know what they're trying to do, but, like you got also think their motivation. Like if they're just now thinking that they're going to start their fitness journey and they're a little timid, maybe a little bit like I'm not sure I want to do this. You know what 20 klicks to get it started might give them just the excuse that they need to keep sitting on the couch.

spk_1:   43:52
Funnily enough, that's the whole reason I decided I want to start pushed press because it took me 20 klicks to buy a foam roller. And it

spk_0:   43:57
just, you know, I love that story, by the way, Um, so

spk_1:   44:03
my five minute fix that I will maintain to the day that I die is if you're a rock in a gmail dot com E mail address like Louisiana trainer at gmail dot com, or no nut up, spend the five bucks or seven bucks. Whatever Google charges now get get a really male with a real domain because he was a customer. Anytime I do business with any service provider, if it's something at gmail dot com. I move on immediately because nothing reeks. Hobby, business nonprofessional Somebody who may not be around next year is more than a gmail dot com email address. So freakin lutely. And that's not not to talk smack about anyone who has a Gmail address today. You know, like you just have to again look at it from the customer's standpoint. Like I know it's free. I know it's easy. It takes no time. But from a customer standpoint, you probably honestly are losing 50% of your leads. Just

spk_0:   44:59
press you know what else is free and easy going out for a run instead of hiring a professional to teach you fitness.

spk_1:   45:09
Exactly. Yep. Yeah, so that's that would be my five minute fix. So if if you're listening this right now, you have You have a few things you can do. Sign up for sale seminar, run through your sales journey, get a professional email there. You three things you can do when you leave. Okay. Couple more quick, quick questions. Um, these are more on the fun side. Um, what's your favorite beverage on your I know you have an extensive drink shelf. I see it all the time when we do voice video meetings. What's your favorite beverage on your shelf right now? The one that you would or for your most esteemed guests when they come

spk_0:   45:42
over, um on the shelf right now is a bottle of high West that one of the members at my gym brings back every time she visits her hometown in Utah. So, uh, they're in Park City, So love some high west. That's the favorite thing on the shelf right now.

spk_1:   46:01
What am for those who don't know? What is that? Is that a whiskey? Bourbon? It's a bourbon. Yeah, and that's made in Utah. Yeah. Park City isn't parts of Park City, Utah, right?

spk_0:   46:11
Yeah. Hi. West whiskey? Yeah.

spk_1:   46:13
Isn't alcohol not legal in

spk_0:   46:16
Utah? Oh, man, I don't know how that works. I just know. I remember

spk_1:   46:21
when we went there. They were joking around that, like all the beers like, you can't have it more than a certain percentage. Just like one or 2% of Yeah, it's

spk_0:   46:27
a big Mormon community, right? So yeah.

spk_1:   46:31
Interesting. Okay. And last one, before we wrap this up, boutique fitness as we know it has been evolving fast. And, you know, given that we're from across the community, I would dare to say Cross. It's the one that kind of kick this off many years ago. But it's here now. Corporations are getting involved. We're seeing franchises pop up left and right. Um, we're seeing boutique in home solutions coming out like the fitness. The boutique fitness industry is evolving fast. What would you boldly predict for 2020 that might impact our boutique gym owners out? There is something they need to pay attention to shift to trend towards or whatever. Yeah, so I

spk_0:   47:18
think in general we're going to continue. I think we will see consolidation in the marketplace is is my guess. I don't know. It's a bold prediction. I think it's one that we are already seeing, but that will continue to see. Um, so I don't know if that answers the question. Um, maybe you'll continue and it's so some of these I think we started seeing last year. But like, you know, if there's a piece of equipment like monitoring, you know, like the stair climber like now their entire Jim's being formed around versa. Climbers and entire Jim's being formed around rowers and, you know, skiers. So if anything, I think you'll continue to see specialty gyms that the niches may be widened a little bit. Where you have entire kettle bell. Jim's maybe more of those, Um, but I don't know that they will last long. Like, I feel like you can only go in and and and get on a verse a climber for so many times. So you know what I mean? Like that. That is that Is that mice? From what? Bold prediction.

spk_1:   48:21
Yeah, let me let me lend, cause I've been thinking about this a lot lately. Um, that absolutely is a trend, like in L. A. They just think launch a thing called plate fit, which is, you know, it's a little vibrating plate. Things like, literally, I went into a global Jim. It was kind of making fun of it on a video once because it's just a little plate that vibrates, and this will stimulate your muscles, you know? Okay, I use them or for therapeutic reasons and for actually working out. But there's a thing called plate that that just opened, and it's like doing a whole workout while being vibrated on a plate. That's when. And I'm like, Okay, it's a new novelty. I get it. Someone made a franchise court corporate franchise around it. Okay, How has a customer like, How long do I want to do? Vibrating squats and vibrating like dumb bell, whatever on a plate. I don't know if I'd be a member of that for more than three months, right? And, um, on one hand, it's It's for our gyms in this industry, the boutique single owner operator or yes, small regional. You know, presence kind of sucks that all these franchises are coming into our space. But on the other hand, it's like they're all fighting over these 3 to 6 month concepts. I've done orange theory I've done at 45. I've done all of these workouts, and I promise I I couldn't do it more than a month or two. I think yoga is the only thing that I could spend a four long for a long amount of time doing. But outside of that, it's I don't see any of these lasting a long time, Michael people, but the good thing is, they're gonna introduce a lot of people to high intensity interval training There, they're gonna introduce people to spending $200 a month for high level, high value, high, high touch point fitness. And honestly, these facilities aren't run by people who understand fitness. They're run by cheerleader cheerleaders who are cheerleading coaches and their own by people who are looking to just make money and fitness. They don't really care about Venice. The franchise owner operators are not your average gym owner. They're just people with a lot of money who are looking to diversify their money. Right?

spk_0:   50:15
Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, that speaks to the exact reason why crossfit has been so, you know, such a revolution is you don't do the same work out every time you don't just go in and jump on a plane. Now, you may touch the bar bell, you know, three times a week, But you're doing different movements with that barbell, right? So, um, so, yeah, I think I think if anything to expand upon that, you're gonna like the ones that you see succeed. We'll be the ones that have maybe different class types in different niches within their within their umbrella, you know?

spk_1:   50:47
Yeah. What I can see happening is, um, some umbrella owns Pilates, yoga, martial arts across that boot camp, you know, And then you they just recycle remembers between their own verticals, and they got somebody for three years because you do three months here, four months there. Whatever. Oh, I could see that happening for sure. I mean, what this goes to say is and honestly, even crossfit or strength and conditioning type, high intensity Jim's don't aren't immune to this because I'm sure every gym out there, like, if you look at your member base after about 18 months of like, okay, I gotta pull it now I can do I can do most barbell movements to some proficiency, but a lot of ah, and they get a little bit bored. So you still need to pay attention to this. I my opinion in the boutique gym space, because you've gotta have a wide enough offering or continually have, like, little niche verticals that people could get interested in for a while to two, keep them interested and engaged right

spk_0:   51:40
up yet, or forge partnerships that allow you to do so. Oh,

spk_1:   51:44
exactly Up. All right. Cool. Um, that's it for me. Is there any parting messages or statements you want to make, too? The listeners out there

spk_0:   51:54
stay on the ground, Gus. And, uh, Yeah, don't get complacent Down the grind. That's it.

spk_1:   51:59
Ah, again, Such simple words. And if you actually take heed to them could be very impactful to your business. All right, well, that wraps up another episode of the gym OS podcast from Push Press. Where we Ah, talk the fitness, the business of fitness. Um, we're gonna be doing a little Siri's of these podcasts were gonna introducing our teams to get to know our team better. This is Nick Raise the Chief Happiness officer or the choux of Person Press, which I just realized the funniest acronym ever. Right. I'm gonna start calling you a choux and make sure you subscribe to this podcast. If you are in the business of Venice and you want to keep learning about how to become a better business owner in your fitness facility, our mission here is the transfer. You from a finished professional into a business professional. We can be found on apple podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening to a podcast now and until next time we'll see you later and stay on the ground.