Zach Forrest, Director of Push Start, Free Gym Mentoring Program

Zach Forrest is the Director of Push Start, a free gym mentoring program from PushPress.

In this episode, Zach sits down to talk about his experience as a Navy Seal, CrossFit Games competitor, and business owner as well as why he's so passionate about helping gym owners succeed.

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Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
Welcome to the gym OS podcast. Helping fitness professionals become better business owners. One episode at a time. All right. Zach Forest, my guest here today, Um, we're going to start with Ah, real simple one that I pretty much start everyone with. So why don't you just give everyone listening? Ah, quick back story about you.

spk_1:   0:27
Yeah, totally s 00 What is going on? Outside way. Start over.

spk_0:   0:37
When your podcast starts off like that, you know, it's gonna be a good one. In his past life as a Navy SEAL and a CrossFit Games competitor where the margin for error was razor thin, it was uniquely refreshing to start our podcast like that today on the gym OS podcast from Push Press, we have Zach Forest, a long time gym owner himself. Zach has joined the push press team to help us with push start. Our initiative to help smaller and new gym's become more profitable. He's also on the cross that certification staff traveling around the world, teaching others how to move better. I've been talking often on with Zach about the gym business for years, and when we were able to snag him as a resource for other gym owners. I thought it was a huge win for push for us. So now kick back, relax and welcome to Episode five of the gym OS podcast from Push Press where we talk to Zach Forest about the business of fitness. All right, cool. Welcome back to the gym os Podcasts from Push Press. I'm your host, Dan with Maria, and we got with us Cool guest today in Zach Forest. A lot of you may be already know who Zach is, but I'm gonna let him take it away and introduce himself for you all.

spk_1:   1:45
Yeah, nice. Thanks for, uh, so let's I guess, sir, with when I found CrossFit back in 2005 and Wells in the Navy, Dave Castro introduced me to to this wonderful training methodology, and I've been doing it for a couple of years, Got out of the military, and, um, I didn't really know what to do with my life, So I decided to open up an affiliate. This is back in 2008. Um, and I bootstrapped opening up the first affiliate in Las Vegas with another partner, and we grew it, and it was doing pretty well, we split off. We opened up multiple locations. Well, I did. He didn't. And eventually it was five different Jim's over the course of What is that? 10 years that I had, uh, pardon in opening or owning. And, uh, it's been a crazy ride. I won't. At one point a couple points, I went to the games as a competitive. So I have that perspective and then also work on CrossFit headquarters Seminar staff, teaching level one. Level two's. So it's basically a general overview of my experience within the CrossFit realm.

spk_0:   2:54
A super cool, Um, many things I want to dive into, their first of which is, um Dave Castro. What? Did you meet him in the military? Did you know him from all that?

spk_1:   3:06
Yeah, he was one of one of my instructors going through some training in the Navy. Uh, he he didn't really, um, teach me about crossfit is a sw far as like how to do the movements or had a coach or anything. He more or less exposed me and, uh, some of the other guys to cross it by. In the military, we say, Hey, you're getting fallen. Told to do this. We had to give up one of our weekends and go through a course seminar on fitness. And we're all looking around like what a big what are people gonna teach us about fitness? We were super arrogant. And here comes gray glass than Nicole Carroll. Nicole being a very, uh I mean, she's She's definitely a fit looking human, but she's a small female, and we're all know I'm a small guy at 581 80 in this group, and here she is like kicking our ass is in weightlifting movements like overhead squatting more than what we could. And we're just like, Okay, there might be something to this. So after that weekend, Dave would continuously just throw these CrossFit workouts at us and they would wreck us. They would totally destroy us and his His part in my development came from basically not being good enough in his eyes. At any point in time, he was just like I mean, like, why are you so tired during workouts like, Well, I guess I need more fitness. So that was that was his role in exposing me to CrossFit. And then, uh, I got sent to another team across across country and the East Coast. And when I got there, they were doing CrossFit style stuff, and I would I would go back to Dave every now and then Ask him for advice or ask him, you know, Hey, what do you think about doing this workout versus this? Or what about getting the guys to do something like that? And he was kind of like a a long distance mentor for me at that. Around What? On getting out?

spk_0:   5:06
Sorry, sorry about that. Around what year was this when when he was exposed voluntarily telling you to be to do cross the workout?

spk_1:   5:14
That was 2000. How was 2005? And I think they were doing Level one seminars, and that's essentially what it was when we went through the senator. We had no idea what it was like. They didn't call it a level one course. It was more or less Greg, Nicole and Dave just teaching us about the fundamental movements, the foundational movements and the's concepts of work capacity across broad time and mold domains had a beat on and then destroy us with these very, very simple workouts. Um And then I think when I got sent across country, what was that? That was, I think, around 2006 2006 or 2007 I can't remember. And then, um, I got out in 2008 so Yeah, that's the time for him. Very early on. Both. You know, there's a

spk_0:   6:08
story. I'm curious if you know that I've never heard. How did it sounds like glass? Menand Castro hooked up pretty early in all this, but it also sounds like Castro is still working in the military. D know the story of that And how that genesis happened.

spk_1:   6:24
Um, yeah, it's like I mean, I've heard secondhand Dave touched on a couple of times, but basically, I'm not exactly sure how they've found it, but I know he reached out to Greg and it grew very organically, like Dave started helping with courses and then wanted to introduce it, um, to the military on a larger scale. And I know great had already had some sort of, uh, dealings with courses with the Marines and Dave brought to naval special warfare. I'm pretty sure on the West Coast and and I the details I don't know, but I think it just kind of happened very organically, Like Dave one to help out and become more and more. Uh, um, involved, I guess. And I'm not sure if he was looking at it as a full time job or what? I can't speak to that, but, hey, I think it was his idea to do the games while he was still in, and I think he just saw the potential for So when he got out, he I think he just went with it. But again, this is all.

spk_0:   7:27
So Dave's vision for the games might have been while he was still in the military training people.

spk_1:   7:35
I'm pretty sure it was. Yeah.

spk_0:   7:38
All right. I'm gonna, um, put you on the hot seat with a question here that I'm sure you're not prepped for. And hopefully you can answer. Um, you've been to the CrossFit games. How many times? Three times. Okay. What is a funny backstage moment at the games that probably you had to be an athlete to witness or see? That's something that I mean, hopefully you're allowed to retail, but I'm just curious. There's got to be some backstage shenanigans going on. I'm curious. Like, what's something you can share with us? Yeah, you know, it's interesting as a spectator because I just barely missed the cut. You know of making regionals and games myself. Yeah, but But it's funny you say that there are Tater. My opinion of it is exactly what you just said. Like I don't really see people being cutthroat, and I've always now that you mention it, it's a good question. Like I've always been curious. Like, how do you go out there and want to just annihilate other people in competition? Cause I know that's what it's like in sport. You wanna win, But then the minute you're done, you're picking someone else up off the ground. You're giving them high fives and hugs your smiles, and it's like the competition just ends the second you cross the finish line. Is there anything to that that like I don't get it? If I was on the floor,

spk_1:   10:22
it's wasted. Bring fish. It's to be honest, it's it's 100 wasted brain space and wasted energy. If you retain that aggression assertion when the when the timer's not going, that's when I've always told myself. It's like, Hey, when When? 321 go hits. Yeah, you're looking to your left. You're looking to your right. You're running your own race, but you want it you want that race Could be everyone else out there. It's like you have to use that, that driving that that emotion to give you that a little extra push. But that extra push drains your spirit Granger mentality for a lot of people. I'm sure they're people out there that this doesn't pertain to. But when, when the When the heat is over, When the race is over, you you don't want thio. Keep that in your in your in your mind, in your brain space. You want to let that go and in kind of recover from the about, that just happened. So I see it is kind of like a switch when when it's time you flip the switch, and then when it's when it's not time, you turn it off. So you're not wasting that mental energy.

spk_0:   11:27
Yeah, I guess now that you mention it, I used to always question it, but now that you say that like you watch an N b a game and after at the end of the game. They're like hugging each other and hanging out, and it's the same thing.

spk_1:   11:38
But you see that during the game? No adverse, Not maybe for some players, but I mean for the majority. I think that that Dr Thio win brings focus.

spk_0:   11:50
Yeah, I could see it now. I I guess I would always look at football and I would think like they're always on, but it's probably the same. You just don't see it. They don't highlight it. Like after games. They're hanging out and chill. Okay, cool. Now let's talk, change gears really quick and talk about being on the L one staff. I think that's pretty cool experience that it's unique. Not not a lot of people have, um, is there anything anything from the L one coaching or L to coaching experience that you can speak to that resonates with Jim ownership, Like what it's like going down the path of owning a gym, maybe stuff you see from people coming through the certification process that is similar or unique or something like that.

spk_1:   12:28
Um I mean, I enjoy this job tremendously. It sze It's allowed so much um, fulfillment in my life, and it's allowed me to develop on many different levels. Anything from public speaking all the way to, uh, like in interpersonal skills were learning with different personality types. It's very similar to coaching an affiliate, in that sense, put on a broader sense. Probably, um, the one thing that I think most people should take away from the level when the Level two is to home your mastery of the basics we see. And I see this with gym owners more than any other demographic, probably is that because they're trying to make money, they're always looking for the newest newest trend in the newest. Fatter so that shiny, then quote unquote shining new object When it comes to coaching like here's the quick fix like look at this mobility tool. Or look at this drill in yada yada and, well, it's good that you want to always be educating yourself. It's don't lose sight of the fact that your ability to coach people through the basics really, really well, I'm not talking like good enough. I'm talking like mastery level air squat, and the coaching of it like that is going to determine your effectiveness for 99% of people out there. It's like not like learning a proper Wendler cycle or how to marry small off squad cycles with CrossFit conditioning. Which isn't a thing, by the way, Like learning out and do that stuff is not going to bring money and through your door it sze And And that's what I wish more people would not only understand but be able to fall through it on executing. So I really appreciate it when affiliate owners off. Uh, this is happening more recently because of the time period, but affiliate owners are coming back to them. They're re taking their level ones and retaking the bubble twos. And at the end of the course, they're like, You know what? Taking this course of second time, you guys have absolutely changed it for the better. I think I've learned so much more of gaining so much more insight. Having been in the game for a CZ long as I have, that makes me feel good when, uh when people that have been around for years come back to the courses and they still take away what they say more than what they took away at the initial course. That's cool.

spk_0:   14:58
Yeah. I mean, it's always about getting better, right? And I'm sure you guys in the course are improving improving. Of course, one thing you said that I think is this. This is a podcast about the business of fitness, not necessary fitness. And And I think a good segue away for that is, as trainers, we hate it when people come to our gym saying like, Hey, I just wanna lose £20 from my wedding next month. I don't really want to do all the work, but I need the quick fix, right Quick Fix does never exist. It doesn't matter what what we're talking about. There is no quick fix for it. Um, and I think it's an interesting segue. Way to talk about, like mastering an air squad and and putting in the work to do the long tail fix is something that is a message of mine in terms of business, the business of Venice, and you've owned five Jim's, you said,

spk_1:   15:46
Uh, yeah, I opens and owned in some way or for five Jim's. We're managing three. We're running three affiliates at the end when I decided to wait to close down and sell off everything. So, um, but over the course of 2008 10 years it was five Jets, five different names.

spk_0:   16:06
So in light of that in the light that there's no quick fix. And then there's There's a lot of hard work in the consistent stuff that has to get done. What do you think is like the number one thing gym owner should focus on in order to run a better business? Um, from your experience from

spk_1:   16:24
my experience, the again this goes back to what I was saying and there's no one thing. But I would say you got him. You got to be good at the basics of business in the basics of business. I mean, you talk about all the time when I have had our conversations with with you on these things. That's like the core values your mission, like what your vision is for your business. That's the foundation of everything. You have to start there. But then what? I think a lot of people skip is like basic financial management. You have to understand what money does for your business and how it interacts inside your business. If you don't, you're gonna rely on the luck of your product and the luck of your market. That which is too much The market is something you can't control. You can control how money flows in and out of your business, and that's something that you need to exert control over if you want to be successful. So if a business owner came up to me and said, Hey, here's my problem Um, we're not making enough money or I feel overwhelmed and all this other stuff on and what should I do? I would say, Well, let's take a look at your books And if they were to tell me that, you know, they didn't have, um for they were showed me their books and they were organized and they were clear, and they were, um, presented in a way that gave us the information that we need. That's the first order of business. You can't if you can't measure something, you can't change it. So if you're not recording and measuring money within your business, it's not gonna get better. So that's what I would say on that.

spk_0:   18:00
Yeah, no, I think that's really important. It's something. Um, I believe a lot of people in general in gym owners specifically basically do the can I can I afford it? Accounting method where it's like I want to buy something. Can I afford it yet? Okay, I got 200 of my bank account. I can afford it. Um, and if they can't afford it, they don't buy it. But the budgeting doesn't happen. Forecasting doesn't happen. Projecting doesn't happen. These are all things that I do think, um, gym owners need to start paying attention to and worrying about. Did you have a bookkeeper and accountant when you run the gym?

spk_1:   18:36
Yeah, it was may. So I mean, I did. Eventually, when we got to the point that it was, um where I understood the rhythm of cash flow inside the business on a monthly basis where I could outsource the basic accounting and tax recording needs. So I would pay someone monthly and quarterly to do the basic accounting, the line by line. But then I would have access to the books. So if I ever want to go in and manually added something or look at, you know, a p e n L. R. A cash flow statement right then and there. Obviously, I could and I understood their accounting system. So it wasn't foreign to me. I could interpret all the data that was in front of me. I and that was literally I have been doing that for for all the businesses up into the last year. So nine out of 10 years, one of my major roles inside the business was was like, CFO, I need to understand what was happening with the money so I could dictate where the money you need to go. Um, and it's very hard to do that unless you have a good handle on it. As a small business owner. My opinion. A good handle on the day to day, week to week, month, the month transactions that are going on. So one of the easiest fixes for this is literally to spend 10 to 15 minutes at the end of every day, categorizing your income and expenses for that day into a good charge accounts. And if you're doing that at the end of the month, it should be crystal clear to you The financial picture anyway,

spk_0:   20:12
right? Right. Um, I was just gonna ask you what, What you know, a gym owner could do to get on the right path, But it sounds like you've just given that answer. So, um, is there less so There's probably a lot of gym owners right now listening. This, um, a book just came out recently. It's called Private. First for Jim's. We're gonna We're gonna have him on the podcast, the author of that. But outside of that book, is there another book or resource or website you can point people to That can help them start to get go down this path of understanding their finances and taking control of that

spk_1:   20:43
private versus great. It's an accounting system and a way of of managing your casual management system, and I definitely would back that it's it's phenomenal. But if you don't understand some basics accounting and financial management terminology or concepts, it's going to be less effective. So the first thing I would do is there's a book out there called Managing by the numbers or management by the numbers. I can't remember. I have it upstairs, but it basically breaks down the Big Three. The scoreboard, they call it the profit and loss cash flow. The balance statement on dhe some basic concepts between like cash and a cruel counting and makes it very, very simple. It makes it very, very easy to understand. It teaches someone how all three of those statements interact was with each other and how they paint a picture for the financial health of your business. I would recommend starting with that book. It's very easy to read. It's relatively short. You get it done over the course of a week, and if you if you understand it, you're gonna walk away with a very sound grasp of everything that you need to in order to manage the basics. So that's where I would I would recommend starting

spk_0:   22:02
very cool. I'm actually really, really glad that you're so passionate about the concepts of business, because most of the times when I talked to Jim owners like they they want to be better business people. But then they keep gravitating back to coaching and they keep gravitating back to the fitness and community. End of things and I get accepts fun, but like the concept of cash flow, like if you don't have your finances under control, and cash your cash flow, Um, under control. There will be no community or Jim to coach at. So

spk_1:   22:32
100%. See this in this. And I think Excuse me, a filly. Donors need to be honest with themselves, and this goes back to the core values. And this goes back to before you even get into the financial systems is what me and you talk about all the time. The core values, your mission, your vision. It's like if you're unaffiliated owner, you're opening up on a business on affiliate business. The purpose of the business is to make money. It may not be the purpose of the affiliate, but the purpose of business is to make money. If you have no interest in making money, you should either be a nonprofit affiliate or you should just be a coach in someone else's affiliate. It's a simple is that if you don't and like, if you if you in my opinion, you can open up a hobby, Jim and being affiliate like a nonprofit are that's fine. This this doesn't pertain to you, but if you opened up an affiliate as a business, then you need to understand much. If all you want to do is coach, then go be a coach. That's different.

spk_0:   23:31
Yet it's funny. Like how much stress without alleviate from so many owners. If they just were a coach somewhere,

spk_1:   23:39
if you were able to make a living as a coach, that was need For my 1st 5 years, I didn't want to do any of that stuff. I grew to enjoy it. But it's like, man, why do I have to do all this stuff? All I wanna do is coach and help people. Well, in order to keep the doors open, I have to do this stuff really, really well. Otherwise, I'm not gonna be able to coach and help people. So yeah,

spk_0:   24:00
all right. Yeah. Some huge concepts, man. I had something I want to ask you, and I forgot. So me train think real quick. I can't remember. It has some to do. It has some to do with what you were just talking about, but that's fine. We're gonna move on. Look, um so one thing I like to ask people, I'm as I've said in previous blackouts, I'm a big believer in failures, and I've had my share my fair share of failures, and it really made me a better person. Um, air there any, like, standout moments in your life where you thought it was all ruined. It was all over. You screwed it all up and looking back on it. Now you have something to stand. You learned something from it? You grew from it. Is there? Is there any moment of life for you like that?

spk_1:   24:46
Oh, absolutely. Many of those Many of those moments have occurred in the past 10 years of owning and running. Jim's the biggest. It's almost like you're asking me if I have any regrets or like No, no, no,

spk_0:   25:00
no, no, no. Not regrets. Yeah, more like So. So I think I talked about this with Nick. There's moments in your life where in the moment you're like, That's it, you know, like like like when you get fired from a job, you're like, I'm never gonna find other job as good as this one. And then you ask someone 18 months later and they're like, that was the best thing ever happened to me. Um, I like to exemplify that because a lot of like, right now, somebody might be listening. Issues like this is the worst situation ever been in. But there's light at the end of the corner and ill. And, you know, have you had a moment like that were in the moment, it was the worst thing ever. And now you look back out of your like, I learned a lot from that. That was a good experience, actually. And I'm glad it happened.

spk_1:   25:34
Oh, yeah. So, for example, firing people, both employees, staff members and members, um, that I I am Unfortunately, I am a people pleaser and I don't like, um, I don't like confrontation. That's going to make someone feel inadequate or like like, upset. I don't know, like I don't avoid confrontation because I'll argue with someone else. Point out when I feel like someone's wrong or all voiced my opinion, but I always want to give people a second chance. And I think this there was this time where I had a fire an employee because I had given him too many second chances. And, uh, I think after the fact, I realized you know what I should have had I should have given him the one second chance and had this conversation with him a lot sooner and assumes I had the final conversation with that employees. It was like a weight lifted off my shoulders like, Oh, yeah, this That was definitely the right thing to do. Okay, lesson learned. Um, slow to hire, quick to fire. I get it. People have told me that, and it took. It took a long time for me to actually understand it on. And I think it's probably one of the most important lessons and a 1,000,000,000 owner that's trying to grow their business can learn because your team is gonna make your product. Your team is going to be what it is that you're selling aside from your facility. But it needs to be your ability to choose good coaches and then get one of the ones that you made a mistake about. Like that needs to be learned quick.

spk_0:   27:19
Yeah, and for sure there's probably people. Listen, is right now who are totally personalizing that and saying like, Oh, there's a conversation I need to have other coach. One antidote to that I will make. I mean, I'm a huge believer in in that in what you just said. But one thing I've noticed, too, is there's a saying, You gotta have the right, but in the right seats and ah, lot of times. But that that doesn't necessarily mean that. Well, first of all, every human being on this planet means to do well and is good, right? So Well, way have to escape. Let it be wrong. Maybe not every Yes, maybe not every human being, but let's just assume if you've hired him, they probably owns a sinister, evil person. Right? Right. Um and so letting someone go could be putting them into the situation where they can. They can take their what? They're good at somewhere else and actually succeed. And they might be. They might be nonconfrontational, not wanna quit. Exactly. Might feel like they're gonna put you out. And that was that

spk_1:   28:20
was my issue. So, like, you're going back to your what you said about having the right butts in the right seats. I that was 100% my mentality. I was like, Okay, I have the right people on the bus now. I need to put them in the right seats. And I couldn't get past the fact that I had hired people that weren't right for the bus. You know what I mean? There were two people that I can think of readily that should have been on the bus to begin with. And my my mistake came and trying to move them around to different seats way too much when I should have just fired them from the beginning and right. And I know their affiliate owners out there like and this person, they they worked their butts off. They they're good, coach, but I can't get to do this or they kind of have this habit of doing that. It's like if they don't fit culturally or if when it comes to work ethic or maybe views on how to implement a programming or interaction with members, it doesn't really matter. And it's like you're not gonna find a good seat for that person. You may. But it's not gonna be worth the effort.

spk_0:   29:34
Yeah, so, yeah, the point I was gonna make is, um, there's been There's been instances where I had the right butts and I had him in the wrong seat, and the minute we moved the seats around, they flourish. That's what but from my experience running a gym, you're actually right. There's not a lot of seats on the bus in a gym, correct? Like you don't have the economics to hire a marketing team or a sale. You know, I mean, like coaches. It's coaches and owners and, you know, maybe some janitors or whatever, but there's not a lot of seats on the bus on a on a gym. So there's not really that many places. You can move them around to make them work,

spk_1:   30:09
right? Yeah, I totally understand that.

spk_0:   30:12
Yeah. All right, cool. So, um, in the spirit of helping gym owners learn more, um, my big thing right now is learn, learn, learn education, education, education. Um, I believe as long as your mind is like, tuned into learning, I listen to his main podcasts. I can, because even if it applies, a mere dozen have actually take away anything. I think it's just turning my brain on and making my brain, um, just learned just soaked Moor up. Um, what do you have any other podcasts or books that you would recommend the gym owners to listen to, read or otherwise consider? It's funny

spk_1:   30:47
that you say that? Because I was just thinking about for push. Start putting out like a list of, like, must reads or something like that. I'm not a big podcast guy. Um, I don't really listen to podcasts. I don't I find I don't retain the information that well, so I'm but I'm a huge reader, like I love reading. Um, recently, I've been doing the crossfit dot com book club books. So it's one book a month, and it's forced me to back off the business and personal development stuff and because the information has been about, um, science in the health industry. So this month is good Calories, Bad calories. That's what I'm reading. And, uh, that's proving to be, ah, solid read. Um, last month was was it rigor mortis? Yeah, it was. It was really Morris. So those are a couple books that if you're into the health side of things and you wanna learn about science or bad science in, um, in our industry and even some bigger industries, Then go ahead and read that. But as far as podcast go, I have nothing. I don't really listen to him. All right.

spk_0:   31:59
I'm the exact opposite. I love pot. I don't like

spk_1:   32:03
him. But when do you listen to him?

spk_0:   32:07
So I so for me, I've actually taken up some monastery. Toral. So low type fitness endeavors like running, biking and stuff like that. Um, so And the reason I do it is because it gives me, like, half an hour to an hour where there's nothing around me that could distract me, and I can vocus on learning s So it's kind of a double whammy for me. Also, while I'm driving, I listen podcast every time I get in the car. So I tried that I can let my

spk_1:   32:31
Monday I was driving and I started thinking about what the podcast was saying and I got distracted and I ran a red light. So I was like, Okay, I'm not gonna be Oh, Oh,

spk_0:   32:44
so you just reminded me of what I brain farted on earlier, I wanted to talk about push start. Okay, I know it's kind of it's an amorphous thing. We're So we're big on experimenting and trying to figure out how to make make things better for people, and that requires testing and learning, and in these kinds of things with the product and push start has been a learning experience. We brought you on to help new gym owners or smaller gym owners grow and succeed. Um, I'm just curious. Like you want to speak to the audience about what your vision is in terms of how you can help Jim's. You know what push Press is trying to do to help gyms like, you know, where were positioned in all that?

spk_1:   33:18
Yeah. I mean, my vision is Thio Club with some sort of, um, curriculum, if you will, Or learning module for gym owners, be it the experience that veteran affiliate owners that have been around you know, the salty ones have been around for years and years, five plus years to the brand new feeling that's just starting out. I want to squash those foundations like I was talking earlier. I want to I want to get them all in front of people the topics that they need to learn so that they can start down the path of proficiency in the mastery in the basics. So push starts. It kind of flows as a as a pyramid, with the foundation's learning about, you know, your core values, your mission, your vision, stuff like that flowing into financial systems flowing into like on boarding new members and your service. But it's all basic stuff. So pushed our centers around, learning the basics that affiliate could use to get a really, really sound foundation and Cindy and send the affiliate off to success. That's what that's what I'm looking to do, right?

spk_0:   34:33
Um, now running a gym, depending on your region, depending on the modality of the gym that you're operating, be a yoga across that or whatever. I mean, it's it's not one single thing, right? There's different ways in

spk_1:   34:47
different ways to be successful in a gym. Absolutely. Do you

spk_0:   34:52
find that given that, what percentage of running a gym do you think is the same across all of these different Jim types and regions?

spk_1:   35:00
Um, that's a hard question. Answer A percentage. It's very hard to do that, Uh, while there are many different ways to run a successful gym, there are, um, fewer weighs. Let's say there are fewer ways to run a successful brick and mortar service based business. Yeah, that's a great answer. That's what pushed art is really aimed at doing? Um, I'm not. I don't care if you do yoga or spin class or I hit training at boxing or a CrossFit. It's like there are certain things that all breaking more service based businesses need to implement. Um, in order to have a strong foundation from which to be successful. And that's what I want. Business or specifically, affiliate owners toe learn and become proficient at that makes sense.

spk_0:   36:00
That makes total sense. And I know the percentage is hard to do in my mind. It's like I think the way you phrased it is perfect. I'm gonna start using that. Any brick and mortar mortar based service business, in my mind is like 70% the same,

spk_1:   36:15
right? I You know what I would I would go with that. That makes sense.

spk_0:   36:18
Yeah, that's totally unscientific. That's just me. Kind of just putting it together in my brain. Um, but yeah, there's certain things you have to do and doesn't matter what you're doing. As long as it's a service business and the concepts and the philosophies and the procedures around them stay the same. It's just the execution differs

spk_1:   36:34
right, And until there's like a major market shift, a major market shift or a big change. The House service based businesses deliver their service. Um, those things. We're going to stay the same. And when those big changes happen, those businesses will have to adapt, or or or not and do poorly based off that. But until then, it's like you all need the same thing You all need a clear cut vision and mission for what you want. Do you all need sound financial systems for managing the cash, the expenses and the revenues? You all need tohave a good way of delivering the service like a consistent way of delivering the service, not just one person that can do it well, but like a consistent way to train other people to deliver the service. I mean, like, there's there's a good amount of things that need to be shared across businesses. However, like you said, the execution of those things will be different. And that's the best thing about the affiliate community is that you're allowed to be different. You're allowed to explore your your your curiosity when it comes to doing those things and prove that your way works better. We're just as good as someone else's way. And in doing so, hopefully keep it open. Source of that, everybody can learn.

spk_0:   37:53
Yeah, Open source. I love that concept. Maybe another topic for another day. But, um, one last thing. This is kind of Ah, no one that's dear to your heart. And you're very passionate about side. I want to dive into this, Um, one of my predictions for for this year moving forward in our community is ah, barbells will be going away more and more. The concept that Stuart Brown and them are pushing. And I personally believe in of operational efficiency, um is going to be taking either barbells off the floor or shortening them are moving more to dumbbells and kettlebells. Whatever you don't. You don't feel that way. You're eating your give me your, um, you know, one or two minute pitch on. Why? Why? That's wrong. Why? That won't happen. Or why that shouldn't

spk_1:   38:41
happen. I think barbells aren't gonna go away for a CrossFit affiliate. I think in order to be a strength and conditioning program, truth across that you, you you will. I mean, you'll want barbells just because they're so centric to the programming in the efficacy of the program. I mean, you can get results and you can increase your fitness and you can increase your work, pass across broad Temo debates without barbells, just to a less effective extent. In my opinion, as a coach, I understand Stuart, uh, place and its stance on how much real estate they take up and the stigma, the social stigma of training with the bar bell. I understand those things, but I think it's our responsibility as trainers and as business owners and as the proprietors of the of of the of the service, basically that we need to change that stigma. We're probably never gonna change the cost. I understand that. So you're gonna have to come up with different ways to circumvent that, and I think that just takes more creative people. But the efficacy of the Bar Bell is something that I don't think it's ever gonna go away. Um I mean, look at how long that tool has been around. It's like saying to a carpenter, Be like, You know what? I don't think hammers are gonna stick around too long in my baby, you know? So I think you could be successful without using barbells as a gym. But as a CrossFit affiliate putting on a solid CrossFit program, barbells will be centric to it.

spk_0:   40:22
Got it? So then, yeah, I don't think there's ever gonna be an argument on how efficient ah barbells are in terms of in terms of the training methodology, it's more the business and financial aspect of Ah, little, um, but your your argument is a a wildly profitable Jim CrossFit gym can be built around barbells 100

spk_1:   40:47
thinking I don't think they could be built around them. I think they will be involved in, um, just because

spk_0:   40:53
people yet, brother rather, I should say you don't have to remove barbells from a program in order to become

spk_1:   41:00
profitable. Why? I think I think you can absolutely be profitable. And it might even be slightly easier to be profitable if you're going out after that demographic Stewardess has proven that it seems, um or at least shown that it is possible. So yeah, either way,

spk_0:   41:20
I mean, that's the great thing about all this, right? Like you can decide what you want to do, and you can figure out how you want to do it best. And you also

spk_1:   41:28
want to see how strong sometime and without using a bar bell. I want to see the upper end of strength limit without barbell training.

spk_0:   41:36
No, you win there for sure. Absolutely, it's it's more. It's that sliding scale between the results you bring. Your clients What, what? They want their results to be like what your clientele want and in the business, right? Like, can you make enough money? And that's kind of like the sliding scale of everything we were trying to figure out here and help our clients. Explorer, right? Yeah, absolutely. Well, hopefully, um, hopefully we'll get a chance to maybe prove your methodology in real life,

spk_1:   42:08
hoping that's another conversation. All right,

spk_0:   42:13
so there you have it. Another episode of the Gym OS podcast from Push Press. In the book that was Zach Forest, ex Navy seal gym owner, CrossFit games competitors and currently heading up our Push Start initiative here. A push press, which is aimed at helping smaller and underperforming Jim's, become more profitable. If you have any interests or questions about the Push start program, make sure you head on over to push press dot com and find the link for push start in the Footer. Zack is here to answer your questions and help get you on the right track, and the resource is free. Our gift to you guys in the gym community doing great work. I hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Gym OS podcast. If you have make sure you give us a like write a review for us, it would help other gym owners find us as they continue down their journey of trying to become better business owners. Also, if you haven't already done so, you can subscribe to us on apple podcasts on Spotify or wherever you happen to be listening to this podcast right now. I would super appreciate it, and I would love to bring more information to you week after week, make sure you tune in next week for more great contents, and until then, he right