How We Money: The SISU Fit Story ft. Annie and Chris Mello

Annie and Chris Mello met at a gym in 2001, so it only made sense for the couple to one day open a gym of their own. With a mission to make Sioux Falls the healthiest city, Annie and Chris are getting candid about dad bods, failure, and what it took to bring their vision for SISU Fit to life.

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Transcript

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- I used to always say we're bouncing on a bed, but the ceiling's too low. Like I'm hitting a ceiling. And if I hadn't realized that or we hadn't been honest with ourselves and kept trying to force, force, force something that we knew wasn't going to ultimately work, I would've never had the opportunity for SISU.- Yeah.- So don't think that failures are the end. It might be the beginning.[upbeat music]- Welcome to "Common Cents on the Prairie™" a podcast dedicated to helping you demystify the sometimes complex topic of money. I'm Adam Cox, head of wealth management for The First National Bank in Sioux Falls. We're a community bank based out of South Dakota. In this podcast, we share expert insights from around the country and stories from our local community to arm you with the tools you need to make better financial decisions. Because the truth is, the more we talk about this stuff, the better off we're all going to be.[upbeat music] Today I am thrilled to be joined by Chris and Annie Mello, the husband and wife team behind SISU Fit, a new fitness facility in downtown Sioux Falls with a mission to make our city the healthiest per capita. Married entrepreneurs, coaches and parents to twin boys, they spent the last 24 plus years helping people build lasting strength and wellness. Their story began in 2001 at a gym in California, and now they're building a wellness movement right here in our city, blending community, lifestyle and fitness in one space. Since returning to Annie's hometown of Sioux Falls, they've become pillars in the fitness community. They've launched six gym concepts and co-host the "Marriage Fit Podcast" where they blend real talk about marriage, fitness, parenting and business in a fun, honest way. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Chris and Annie Mello. Hey guys, welcome to the show.- Thanks for having us, Adam.- This is great, we're excited.- Yeah, I'm excited too. Well like a good workout, we should probably warm up a little bit first. So let me hit you with a couple icebreakers and Annie, I'm going to start with you.- Okay.- When I say health is wealth, what comes to mind?- Health is wealth is basically the key to longevity. So if you don't have health mentally, physically, or emotionally, everything else is going to be failing.- Yeah, love it. Chris, why do you hate dad bods so much? Asking for a friend.- Right, no, I think the obvious answer is when people say dad bod, it's how they look with their shirt off.- Sure.- But I really view it what's going on on the inside and I think it's when people just mail it in with their life. You get to a point where you stop fighting for what you want. So everything that you don't want starts to happen.- Yeah.- And so that just crushes me inside. I've seen too many people over the years let that happen to them and almost you can spot the point in their life when they turn the corner and I vow to myself, it's never going to happen to me.- Yeah.- Yeah.- It doesn't look like it is so far.- Yeah.- You're on a good track. Good on you. All right, well I'm excited about this episode because I love talking about health and I love talking about wealth. Obviously this is a show about personal finance, so we get to combine the two and talk to a couple great business owners. So I'm excited. But let's start at the beginning. Where and how old were you and when did you meet?- So we have a fun story. I was 19 and he was 21. And we met at the gym.- Shocker.- Weird, right?- That's so weird.- We were going to Cal State Fullerton in Orange County, California, and he was working the front desk and my mom took me in to work out and I saw him and I thought, he's cute. I should get a job here. And 24 years later, and then he became my trainer as well.- You know, it's kind of like the stereotypical thing where a cute girl walks into a gym. And she meets a trainer and the trainer pursues her. It was completely the opposite. She pursued me.- Well, of course.- Which I was very happy when she did.- Oh, I love it.- She actually was my third personal training client ever.- Really?- Yeah, yeah. Because I just started training and then she walked in.- Okay. Well, Chris, you're from California, but Annie, you are not, is that right?- Yes, I was born here, but my mom and I moved when I was three to Los Angeles.- Oh, okay.- And I'm an Orange County guy. I was born and raised in Orange County.- But I do like to preference that. So my grandparents were here. And my grandpa ran the Development Foundation in Sioux Falls.- Oh really?- And so every summer, instead of having to go to daycare in Los Angeles, my grandparents took care of me.- Really?- So I have a very strong heart for Sioux Falls. So I definitely knew what I was coming back to.- Sure, sure.- Strong roots here for sure.- Strong roots here and you took a leap of faith.- I did. I trusted my wife with this process. Because people in California think South Dakota's North Dakota.- People everywhere think South Dakota is North Dakota.- And they associate it with the movie "Fargo" because at the time it was a movie. It wasn't the series yet. So you think it snows nine months out of the year, which it feels like that sometimes living here. But I was coming in completely blind to Sioux Falls.- Well what brought you here?- Business.- Business.- I always joke, you can take the girl out of the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the girl.- Yep.- And when we knew we wanted to open our own gym, Chris actually started doing finance when we were married. When we first got married, he was working for an insurance business and he just always had clients that he was training.

He'd get up at 4: 5:33

00 AM, train clients and then go to work his 8:00 to 5:00, 8:00 to 6:00. And then would sometimes train clients and come home. And when we were on our honeymoon, he just said, I don't know if I can do this. I think that my passion and my calling is really to help people with their health, not with their wealth.- Ironic.- Yeah, right, right.- And so I said, well, if we want to do this, I know a place that really take care of small businesses. And I knew Sioux Falls was just such a strong community medically. And just in general, they really supported small business and would listen where in Los Angeles it's a lot of a lot. And a lot of red tape. And so he trusted in me and he had never really left Orange County and thought, hey, let's take a leap of faith and we can always come back.- Yeah, yeah. And so did you come to Sioux Falls and open a gym together? Or did you join another gym? What did that look like?- No, we moved in 2008. And it was kind of funny--- Good time.- Yeah. So we got out of the big city right at the right time.- Yes.- And moved to Sioux Falls with my goal was to open my first private practice fitness gym, definitely. And we were bringing a whole new concept to Sioux Falls that was already going on kind of underground still in the big cities. And you know, I just realized that I always had an athletic spirit growing up and I didn't want to just be a trainer. That's kind of why I dabbled in finance and insurance.- Sure.- But that bore an entrepreneurial spirit in me. So I really wanted to find the bridge between the two.- Yep.- How do I marry the athletic and the entrepreneurial spirit? And that's when we came to Sioux Falls and we started our first gym from scratch.- Yeah, you sold your car.- I sold a car. I cashed in an IRA and I literally started the first business with another partner at the time with like $8,000. It was very field of dreams, very grassroots, very like the whole mentality was, we signed a year, 12 month lease.- Yep.- And I said, well if nobody comes, we're going to have a great place to work out at least for a year. But yeah, it was wild. But it's cool because we didn't know anything else. Ignorance was bliss. Totally in that perspective.- Did you guys always want to be entrepreneurs or did you just kind of fall into that?- So I wanted to do sports broadcasting. That was going to be my vocation. And I worked for a show called ESPN Hollywood at the time. It was the only show that was filmed in Los Angeles from ESPN. Or Fox Sports. And it was on the cusp, right? It wasn't where now we watch TV and you see women quite often. But I feel like there was maybe three that were, it was a good time to get into that industry. But I also saw the need to move a lot and I didn't want to do that to our relationship and I just didn't see my future without him. So this was, I would say yes. I've always had what I call the hustle muscle. I've watched my grandpa and you know, like bring big goals and bring dreams to this community. And I think he really instilled that in me and my mom always would say, just go after your dreams. Like, you know, don't settle. And so I think, yeah, it has really always been ingrained in me.- Yeah, what about working together? Was that a goal or did again that just kind of happen?- Organically, it happened. I think the longer being here and not knowing very many people, we could always trust each other. We compliment each other very well. I'm the vision and I tell him, put numbers to it, and he's more operations. I knew that he would support me always in business and in personal life. And I didn't ever have to worry about him stealing, him going behind my back, him going to another place and opening his own location and taking my clients. And then at the same time, we also had this bond of marriage. And so I actually think that it made us cleave more in our marriage and then grow our business to be more successful doing it that way.- When the first time we met, we were best friends first before we started dating. And we like all of the same things. And like she said, we compliment each other. So I think it was very much just a natural progression because we want, we love the gym, it's our safe place. We liked being there, we cared about people, we cared about each other, and we just kept taking steps forward. So there was never a strategy to do it. We just liked to do the same things and the same workouts and hang out at the same time. And so I think it just, yeah, it just naturally develops. But yeah, I mean, for me growing up, I knew what I didn't want to do. I didn't know what I wanted to do. So I think it took me a lot longer to find this niche. Because when we moved here, I just turned 28 and I still didn't know what I wanted to do until we started the gym. And a few people started coming in and we started training them and we had some classes and I was like, oh my gosh, this is exactly what I want to do. Now I got to figure out how to do it.- Yep, yep, I love it.- Yeah.- Well you brought up the personal and the professional. So, you know, business owners have to wear a lot of hats. And so in addition to running and owning a business, you're also a husband and wife, you're parents of twin boys, you're in the community, your friends. What does that integration look like for the two of you?- So we have a very strict schedule.- Okay.- Very disciplined. Shocker.- That has really worked for us, our preference. So we have a CEO meeting every Wednesday morning and you just talk business. And a lot of times in those meetings, Chris will say, do you want me to be your husband or your business partner right now? And it's a really good checkpoint because we know the intention and the purpose for the meeting is business. And so there are hard conversations that you have to have with your business partner. And that's a safe place to do it. And then we have date night. So every Wednesday night for the last, geez.- Started in 2005.- 18 years for sure.- Wow, good for you.- Never missed.- And we talk about goals, dreams, we don't bring problems into that night. It's not work. It's just about loving each other and getting to talk about things in a safe place. And then on Sundays we have our marriage meeting, which is planning the weeks out, finances, anything that we see or problems that have come into our relationship or with the kids during the week. And what we found with that Sunday, first of all, you have time to talk, you don't feel rushed. And then also a lot of what you might be heated about on Tuesday or Wednesday, you've now calmed down, are more rational. And we feel that it's just been really simple, honestly, but very effective for our business relationship and growth and for our family.- And this took years to develop.- Sure.- A long time. But again, we just kind of piece it together one by one, just learn from our lessons, took losses as lessons. And then just kept moving forward Because we always had the right intention for each other. We just had to figure out how to figure it out. And then figure out how to figure out together type of thing.- Yeah, love that. Okay. So at this point, you've started businesses, you've merged businesses, sold businesses, closed businesses. Talk to the business owners out there. We'll open up the advice line. Talk to someone who is thinking about starting a business. What's kind of your one to two to three best pieces of advice that you'd give to them?- Well, from a vision perspective, I would say what's the ultimate goal and vision. And work backwards. Have a business plan. Know your numbers. Have a really good proforma. It's going to be 10 times harder than you think, and it's going to be a hundred more times worth it if it's your passion. And I think that with vision and direction and leadership, it's the key to success. And I think so many business owners get into, we see it all the time in the gym world. I love to work out, I want to open a gym. And what they don't understand is most gym owners, their health fit goes to the wayside because they're focusing on their business.- Sure, yep.- And so I think if you have a structure and a good system in place, that's motivating, then to stay on track and go for the goal.- What about someone who's thinking, we come across these folks all the time who are thinking about getting near the end of their career and thinking about winding a business down or selling it. I know you guys have been in that place too, where you've merged businesses or you've sold or gotten out of businesses. What advice would you have for those folks?- I think it's similar to starting a business. It's just the opposite. So instead of a business plan, you got to have an exit strategy. And you've got to look ahead and reverse engineer back. Like she said, what do you want? What do you ultimately want when start a business? What do you ultimately want if and when you exit the business? Because what's the whole cliche thing when people retire, you know? They work their whole life for the golden years and then they retire, they get a pension. And then what do they do when they retire? A lot of people just get super, super sedentary. They lose their identity. So then they go and fall into some kind of isolation or some type of depression. Their health goes down the tubes. And so, I mean, you got to find out what you love to do getting into a business. But then also what do you love to do when you start to exit the business too? It's really conceptually the same thing. It's just opposite ends of it.- Yeah. I always tell people, you have to retire to something not retire from.- Bingo. Yeah, absolutely.- And I think to add to the first question, you need patience. I mean, we had our first gym downtown in 2015 on Main Street. And my vision was Shara was Cherapa eight years ago, well, 10 now.- 10.- 10 years ago.- 2015.- I wanted this lifestyle brand where you could shop, get groceries, go to a IV club, work out, have fun with friends in the grassy area, grab coffee. And we weren't there yet.- It was 10 years too early.- But I didn't let the vision go. And then I knew about four or five years before we were going to merge CPM, that it was a broken system. And I used to always say, we're bouncing on a bed, but the ceiling's too low. Like I'm hitting a ceiling. And if I hadn't realized that, or we hadn't been honest with ourselves and kept trying to force, force, force something that we knew wasn't going to ultimately work, I would've never had the opportunity for SISU. So don't think that failures are the end. It might be the beginning.- And turn frustration into fire. Like it's a gift to be frustrated. If you're really frustrated and really searching for the answer. It's just like that with fitness. You put all this energy, you put all this diet, you do all these things and you get some results. And then the body just stalls. Or life happens or something happens. And how do you navigate through the frustration? How do you flip it into fire? And then be honest with yourself to find a solution. I mean, that's the key to anything in life, I think.- What were you too frustrated about before you started SISU?- It was a broken system.- Yeah.- It was a broken model. We weren't training the same way, our avatar is a working professional and working professionals didn't need these types of workouts on the regular. It wasn't the most beneficial for them. And we also had four walls that we had spent 11 years behind and we wanted new space and we wanted a new message and we wanted a new brand that could inspire and help more people in our community. And I think you and I just felt stuck in this model that we were currently in.- I think too, there's three things in a business that you got to look at. If you got to look at the market, you got to look at the demand and then you got to look at sales. And those things have to be in a flow state. And it doesn't matter if you're great at sales, if there's no demand, you're beating your head against a wall. And the story I would say in my head over and over and over and it was, we got to find more people. We're people short, lead generation is the number one thing. If you Google why do gyms fail? The number one reason is lead generation. So how do we get more leads? Leads isn't the answer. It's the easy way out. And so where we were at with CPM in 2013, 14 or no, no, 2023, 24. Was there was six, seven other gyms like us, everybody's tried or not going to try those styles of workouts. So it didn't matter how good we got. So I kept saying, I'm just going to get better and things will get better. And I was getting better. Everything else wasn't getting better. So I was getting more frustrated because I kept trying to personally develop myself into a better person, leader, athlete, coach. But then I just was separating myself from everything else. It was like, it wasn't worth it, that's where you're saying beat your head against a wall. But then you got to take a step back and you've got to look for more clues outside of yourself and then start reading the signs. Because success is in sequence. You know, everything has to be happening at the right time with the right recipe, with the right ingredient. And if it doesn't, it doesn't matter how good you are, you're going to get stalled or more frustrated.- Well, tell me about SISU Fit and what's different about this concept than the concepts you've tried before?- So it's a 5,000 square foot boutique health and wellness facility. So what's nice about this is we're in, like I said, Cherapa, which is a development that has 244 tenants. We have about 890 employees on campus. And we have 24 hour access to our gym. So we wanted to create an experience for these people. We feel like most of our clientele are very stressed out. They either have families or they're starting new jobs or they're transplants and the stress just keeps getting more and they keep putting their selves to the bottom of the list. And so how do we create this experience that really values their time, makes them feel special and gets them better all in one spot? And so we worked with the developers who have been clients of mine for about 13 years. And they have the same vision with Cherapa, which is to create a better lifestyle for Sioux Falls. And we wanted to create a healthy lifestyle for Sioux Falls. So everything in SISU is thoughtful for them. So we have virtual pods so that people who are maybe getting off of work from a medical job

at, you know, 10: 20:42

00 PM can still come and get instructor led fitness. We have a sauna, so people can sit and zone out and just zen. A lot of times with my clients, I'll rip their phone from their hand and be like, you're going in there and you're going to sit for five minutes and chill. Each of our bathrooms are a spa experience. So you get towel service, you have everything that you could basically want to get ready. And so people can just take time and breathe, light, airy colors, SISU's Scandinavian or Finnish. And it stands for perseverance, resilience and determination. And that's what we really feel health and wellness emulates. It takes all three of those things to become the best version of yourself. And we wanted to, Chris always jokes call it the Cheers of fitness where we know your name, right? But we will also read a room and leave you alone. And so, yeah, we have cardio equipment, we have a garage door that opens, we have a lot of windows so people can get fresh air. You could see I like light.- Absolutely.- So excited.- I love it.- But it's just been a dream I really like, we literally drew this and it has now come to life.- I think from a model's perspective too, people are used to the big box gyms. People are used to the boutique gyms, the cycle studios, the yogas, the CrossFits. And this is what we consider a multi usage gym. So it's residential, retail, and then general. So I mean, residents that live in the apartments have access to this gym. And it's not a hotel gym. This is a full service gym. Everything that she explained. So anybody off the street is paying a premium membership to get this when residents get it baked into their lifestyle fee.- Oh wow, that's awesome.- And then you have partnerships with companies, the 890 plus employees where companies invest in their employees and do corporate memberships. Not corporate health. Corporate fitness and health. And then everybody that's in that downtown area that work or live in the downtown area, it's got the downtown vibe. It's got the big city feels, it's a destination spot where people want to come because of the premium quality, the location, the aesthetics. But then again, also the community and the personality and all that kind of stuff. Because a lot of gyms kind of fight off, if you were to ask these boutique gym owners what separates you from everybody else, and they're going to say community. And you'd be like, no kidding.- Yeah.- That's what everybody does. So if that's what everybody does, you're basically going to fight off location or personality. But when you can do a mixed usage facility where you can combine all of these things and make it flow together in sync. There's nothing like it.- Yep.- Nothing.- Yep.- And I mean, there are big cities that do this now with these big high-rise complexes. Sioux Falls, this is the first of its kind. And it's very similar to when we moved here in 2008 when there was no boutique gyms. And we started one of the very first boutique gyms where there's market, demand and sales. So this has all three. So when we go out in the public, we know that 25% of America has a gym membership. And then we know 78% have multi gym memberships of the 25. So we already know 75% of people don't have a gym membership. But then there's the 25% of people that do, 67% sign up and never show up again. So the numbers are kind of mind boggling. So it's kind of like open season with market demand. And we already know we're good at sales because we're in the 20 year room in fitness. So it's kind of wild. And then again, we like being there. Like we work out there. We go there on the weekends.- Our kids work Saturday and Sunday.- We bring our kids to fold towels. Like I like the coffee at SISU more than a lot of coffee shops. So I mean, it's someplace that we gravitate towards naturally too.- Chris, the first time you and I talked, you mentioned, you said your gym is not Gold's Gym, God's gym.- Yeah.- What did you mean by that?- Oh man. So it's actually from my wife.- Oh, okay.- So God talks to my wife first because I'm hardheaded or stubborn or just too distracted.- Same thing happens in my house.- And then I listened to my wife through God and we did, on one of our episodes of our podcast, we talked about a question, what's the number one thing you would give to your kids? What's like the superpower of life? And I think it's humility. And I think the number one thing you can do to get out of your own way is humble yourself. The number one way you could do that is give whatever you're doing to God. And it puts everything into perspective. When we're talking about the frustration of being a business owner. You can instantly stop that if you take a step back, you look up or look in. And all of a sudden clarity and peac, you just go, you just chill. Because that's what everything is ultimately about anyway. Our life goes so fast and we're so selfish and we're so knuckleheads. Humble yourself. And you can do it instantly. It just takes practice and it takes patience. And it takes humility.- Love that. You mentioned it. So not only do you work together, you also podcast together.- We do.- Tell me about the show.- So we have a show called "Marriage Fit" and we started it in 2015. Basically what happened is we'd have these wonderful, we have a lake home in Detroit Lakes.- Okay.- And I've been going there with my grandparents for, since I was five months old. They've had it since 1939.- Oh wow.- And so we would get these long road trips and we'd just have these really great conversations.- Because we could finally turn the meter off. When we're driving and getting out of town.- And we thought people should hear this because I bet you if we're going through this, there's a lot of other people that are going through this as well. And then we thought, you know what, we'll have these like love letters and we'll have this video collage of our growth and we'll get to share it with our kids. And honestly, the intention was let's help our members. It was never a monetary thing. It was never something that we thought we would like be famous for.- Right.- And it's just naturally, organically helped us cleave and it's just helped our community a lot. And people were really positively responsive to it and we genuinely look forward to it. And so we thought those three things, right? If we can help people mentally, emotionally, and nourish their bodies and minds and we love it too, why not?- Love it.- And we're podcast junkies ourselves. We crush podcasts. Every day, every week. When I was selling insurance back in 2003, 2004, we were living in California. So I would drive 30 to 38,000 miles a year. And a lot of it was personal development shoved down your throat from the leadership. So I would just listen to CDs. So they would call it a mobile library. So I never listened to the radio when I hit my early 20s. To now, when I'm in another car and someone's on the, I'm like, this is just weird. But I turned my car into a mobile library. And then yada yada yada podcasts started hitting the scene, we were game on with just getting good at listening to podcasts to better ourselves. So we naturally gravitated to, if we're listening to this, why shouldn't we do one too? It's kind of like the fitness thing.- Yeah, absolutely.- When we're working out, we feel great. We want other people to feel great too. She was the one that spearheaded again, the vision. We got to start a podcast. I'm like, I don't know how to set it. How do you get the mics? Where's the recorder? How do you push play, what do you do? So it was just, it took a long time.- Yes.- Again.- Everything took a long time.- Yeah. Patience, right, that keeps coming up.- And I think if you start early enough, you can take a little bit longer to figure this thing out.- Well you know, we paid for this podcast a year before I recorded the first episode.- Oh wow.- Yeah because I was so freaked out about doing it and thought I was going to suck at it. Some might say I still do six years later.- It's just haters man, they're everywhere. Just haters, they're everywhere.- Well, speaking of this podcast, it wouldn't be a personal finance podcast if we didn't talk a little personal finance. So I'm always curious with people to learn about their money background. So what was money like for you guys growing up? Any moments that stick out?- Well, yeah, so I was raised by a single mom.- Okay.- So one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles, moving a lot. Maybe that's where we developed the hustle muscle. You know, my mom had a college degree and was educated, so I was blessed with that. But she had a hustle for her jobs. You know, she would pick me up from school and we would go back to work and I would play office. And she was afraid that she'd lose her job. So she just put all of her all into it. And so I think that's where I came from is a real fear and scarcity mode of, if we don't work, we won't eat. And a part of me really loves that. And so they call me the fourth child because my mom was 22 when she had me and my grandparents were so young. So my grandpa was still hustling. You know, I was my grandparents' age when I was born. And so I got to see that. I got to see the next generation work where like, you know, my cousins are 13 years younger didn't. They saw the retired. So I had this blessing but at the same time always felt this need to go, go, go, go, go. And didn't understand about saving or it was just making, right? Money in, money out. I was scared of it. And yeah, that was really my emotional pain with it.- Do you still have a scarcity mindset?- Yes.- Do you?- I'm getting better because I'm hiring leadership around me that's helping me with that. I remember Chris and I with the twins when I was first pregnant every night I'm like, oh gosh, are they going to be okay? Are they going to be okay? And we would have this like, how are we going to pay for these bills? And it was probably like--- One of my friends, sorry, he was talking about insurance, health insurance because we do private insurance because we're a small business.- And he's like, dude, when you have your kids and you have to put 'em in your insurance, your insurance is going to triple. And I'm like, oh my gosh, the insurance is going to be more than our mortgage. I'm like a freaking out. And then all of a sudden, yada yada yada. The boys got born and we were able to get on the private sector or whatever. And my insurance went down. It's like, it was just so dumb. You know what I mean? Like we just didn't know type of thing.- I used to, I think in my mind when the boys were born, I told Chris one night, I'm like, I can't be a bartender because I was a bartender for eight years.- It was a backup plan.- And he's like, yeah, you haven't what? And I was like, that was my backup plan. Like if the gym didn't make it, I'll just go bartend a couple nights a week. So I think we hold onto these insecurities and with this new gym and just having my boys be seven now, we're the most set up we've ever been financially, emotionally, physically right now. And I think that, yes, I would say the negative thoughts want to creep in, the insecurities want to creep in, but just like fitness, we protect ourselves so much. We have so much deposits in the bank account now that we're able to know that we'll make it. And that helps a lot with that fear and insecurity.- And it's God's gym. It's not our gym. It's God's gym. Sky's falling, no. It's God's gym. Okay, it falls. It's His gym. He'll get us.- Yeah.- And I was raised very opposite of Annie.- Okay.- So I was very, Leave it to Beaver. We lived in a neighborhood, we always had a backyard. I had two other siblings so it was three siblings. We all had our own room. I went to private school and my dad was just very blue collar. He worked for Coca-Cola, he worked for a transportation company. All of these things. So we were very middle America, mediocre paycheck to paycheck. And so I always felt safe in our house, but money was very insecure in our house. It wasn't taught or talked about very much. I remember my dad would do the bills probably once a week. And I remember now I could feel his energy, the stress and then this and the ledgers and the paper thing. And it was just kind of wild. So we always had food in the refrigerator. We always had Christmas. We were always fine, but we were very middle. And I think success' biggest enemy is middle America easy. And it just drove me nuts inside. So I gravitated towards sports. That's where I felt like I could turn into a champion. That's where the athletic spirit was born. But even too, like in college, I learned about debt, not about saving or investing. So I purposely went to a junior college to avoid debt in university. And I purposely went to a state school to avoid debt. And all the while my parents like, you either get a job or you play sports. So I chose sports. And so I never really knew how to work outside of sports. So sport was kind of my job, but I wasn't making any money. So then when I started getting a job, I wanted to spend more than I could make. So I accumulated debt. We called it a freeze account. So my dad would loan me money and add it up. And with the idea that I would pay it off, but I never knew how to pay it off. And so it was kind of wild. And so, but I just wanted success. I didn't care about money or this or that. I knew if I just got really, really good, good things would happen. I would work my way out of it or learn how to make money, make money type of thing but it took a long time.- I feel like that's where, to be honest with you, with couples and you see this a lot in your career, is we're just not honest and we run or he wants to please me. So he just, we're going to be fine, it's great. You want this car? Great. And I'm thinking, we're both bringing in income so I'm thinking well then now I guess we're good. And I'm just going to go. And I was always so scared to look at the numbers because I thought it would debilitate me when actually it enhanced 10 times my experience. It's not fun though still. And I wish people would talk about that. And it didn't, we always say this, it didn't matter if we have 10 more zeros in the account, it's the honesty of where we're allocating, where where's our value in things. Just like your fitness, right? And I think I wish more people would talk about that and be a little more vulnerable. And we feel we need this persona. Oh, we have this successful gym and we're in Cherapa and you know, yada yada yada. And just be honest and be like, it's hard. This is hard. And I think if more people said that there's more expenses now, things are expensive. If you look at even like, this is silly, but like ground beef, it's like four times the amount.- The eggs.- And people, you know they're struggling. And just like in health, mental health, same thing. And I think if people would just be a little bit more honest, what it's done for us is it's really helped us get responsible, break it down, keep it simple. And then it's really taught us, because now we know our numbers. We're having our kids learn 'em. So we had a lemonade stand this summer and we taught them, they had to know what their product costs. They had to tithe. They had to save 30%.- Had a hustle, market. Take pictures.- I would have never Adam, never known that.- Yeah.- It was like, you get it or you don't. You know, my mom was always like, well we don't have enough money for that. But it wasn't like, well how can I get enough money for it? You know?- For sure.- With that question, I just feel like more people would just be honest.- And I think too it's the boogeyman. You know what I mean? It's like there's all this pressure and intensity inside of you that you're afraid to let somebody know. That you're not, it's an imposter syndrome. But when you literally talk about it and the other person actually really understands you, all the pressure just goes away. And you're never as far as you think you are. Everything's five, six, 10 times harder on the inside than if you just let it out on the outside and then you can find a real solution and then you're 10 times more proud of yourself. Because you actually know how to do it now and you're empowered.- So the number one reason we started the show was to get people talking about personal finance because people will talk about literally anything these days. But they still don't talk about money.- And the number one reason why people get divorced.- Money, yeah. Speaking of marriage and money, how and when did you merge finances? How did that go?- Right from the start, I actually have a funny story.- Yeah, this is funny.- We always had our own money. When we got married, we had savings account, just traditional checking, savings, long term. And our friends were getting married about nine months after us. And he did very well for himself.- He's getting like a Beamer dealership.- Oh, okay.- So he was making some money.- She goes, hey did you have to sign that prenup? Did you have any issues with signing a prenup? And I said, what fo? For all of his college debt and his Ford escort? No, I didn't have that issue.- It's pretty easy when you don't have any.- Yeah, that's right, exactly.- So we've just been always what's yours is mine. Mine is yours, I said to a friend last week, it's the thing that I love most about him is I could make a million dollars a year and he'd be proud of me and I could say, I really just want to work at home and take care of my kids. And he'd say, okay, we're going to figure it out.- Yep.- There's never been a competition. If anything it's good. It's a good competition. But so yeah, we are blessed because we've seen it a lot of different ways and for us this just works.- When and how do you talk about money? Is that during your Sunday conversations? Is it?- Yeah.- Yeah, and then I would say like, you know, with each quarter, Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, we'll sit down with our financial advisor and get a really good gross plan for following quarter. Following year, five year plan.- Yeah, we're having other people hold us accountable.- But that has only been, I'll preference. That's only been the last year.- Yeah.- We just started that.- It's a game changer.- And I think too, we've gotten good at budgeting and now we want to get good at projecting and forecasting personally. I think that's the next baby step for us is to plan the whole year out. Travel, tithing, savings, that kind of thing.- And it was fun, we did a trip in February and we just, just for fun, we put a budget on it.- Yep.- Exactly this and it was literally two five cents and we did not feel like we lived without.- Yeah.- We didn't feel any different. We had the same enjoyable time, we just were on a budget.- Yeah.- And so now you're proud of yourself because you stuck to it. You're proud of yourself because you have more money in your bank and you didn't deplete it with things that you didn't need or want.- It's like you have peace because you're just clear.- And you're motivated. And I feel it's so similar with fitness, right?- It's exactly the same.- I'm not surprised you have a financial advisor given that your fitness coaches and all those things that you need that accountability. What money goals do you have?- So I want to make the gym about $1.2 million in revenue in the next three years.- One million in a small business gym space is kind of the gold standard. ISo once you hit the seven figures in a small gym business, that's kind of the top of the chain type of thing. So we want to crush that.- That's great context.- Three years, I want to purchase our house that we want from, yeah, our dream house.- Yep.- We want to travel. We have our 20 year wedding anniversary coming up in the next two years. So we want to do fun destination to Costa Rica. Something fun like that. We want a long-term savings plan and I want to set up college funds or some sort of IRA for the boys at their age now and teach them about saving and really what they want. And then a hundred percent with it all. Chris and I just brought this up on Sunday tithe, you know, make sure that we know that this is more than us. And without giving back, you can't get what God wants you to have.- Diana and I are contemplating, well maybe she'll learn that we're contemplating this through this episode because I've yet to talk to her about it. We get approached to make a big gift and I thought, I don't know if we could or should do this. And then kind of like what you're talking about, it's like, what if we just say yes and then we just figure it out? We'll just figure it out.- The hardest part is the decision.- Yeah.- It's not the work. It's not the time. It's not even the effort. It's the decision. I always say the heaviest weight in the gym is the front door. It's true. It's the heaviest weight in finance is opening your wallet. Same thing.- I love it. Maybe closing it. This movement, it's very difficult. Very difficult.- Get the lock jaw.- What is your best money moment so far?- You go first, you're better.- The best money moment.- Yeah, do it.- This last year probably. We have been lucky to have partners. We're not doing it on our own. Just being prepared and hitting our numbers and knowing our numbers. And like I said, from not being afraid of 'em anymore has been for me, my best money moment is seeing something, seeing a dream that you would just throw out there. I'm going to make $10 million. But you don't know how. You just say it because your coaches or your mentors say go after your dreams. But that only gets you so far if there's no plan and this is the first time that there's an actual plan, vision and an attack mode to get it. So I would say for me, this has been my most proud moment.- Love it.- Mine was the biggest check. Selling the first business. Because I had no idea how to do it and I still don't know if it was even the right number now that I have more context on how to do it. Because it was 2010. It was December 31st, 2010. And it was a napkin at McNally's with with the guy that bought the gym.- Yeah.- And we just kind of figured it out. Because even in that space, the micro gym space in 2010, there was no formula, there was no business format system. I don't even know what the EBITDA was. But it was really cool to chase a big number and then actually deposit the check type of thing. Pretty wild, yeah.- Your worst money moment?- There's a few.- Okay.- What do you got, what's the worst? She's better at warming me up.- Well our CPA messed up.- Oh that was one.- Didn't charge us, didn't have us pay into taxes. And we doubled our revenue the next year. So we owed about $30,000.- We didn't pay the right estimates.- From the sell of the napkin job. And we were living back in Los Angeles without really profitable jobs.- Oh, ouch.- That was an ouch moment.- The other one too was when we moved back to California after the sale of the first gym, our house, we had to get a new roof and we were renting it.- We were renting it out to somebody.- We had a friend, family friend's dad do the roof because we saved 75%. And he was doing the roof and he put a tarp over it and it rained. And the house flooded and we were in California. And the renter went bonkers. Rightfully so. So then that set us back five years. But the contractor was great. He put us on a payment plan, whatever. But the hindsight was, the bright moment with that for me there was a bright moment is the money that I was consistently writing him every month, I turned it over and that was the savings when it was paid off. So that moment taught me how to save and ultimately pay off all the debt that I incurred since I was 20 years old.- Yep.- And so, and then that is like kind of one of my things too, to get started on something is debt can be a blessing because it could teach you how to save. Because if you just kept doing the same habit, all of a sudden you're safe. It's kind of like the Dave Ramsey thing.- Pay off all the debt and then just carry it over to the next credit card. And then once all the credit cards are done, carry it over to the savings. And when you're used to saving a hundred dollars a month and now you did the Dave Ramsey and you're saving $2,500 a month, that's a different story. So that's kind of the thing too with that.- Yep, love it. Well let's leave it there guys. This was awesome. Where can people learn more about you?- So you can go to our website, SISU-Fit, S-I-S-U-Fit.com. Schedule a tour online. We'd love to do a tour and have like a little one-on-one convo with you about your health and fitness goals. You can go to Marriage Fit.- Search Marriage fit on Spotify.- One word, no space.- And I like to hang out on Instagram. And LinkedIn with you.- With me. Yeah, absolutely.- So my Instagram is MisterMR.CPM.- Love it. Cool. Thanks so much guys, appreciate it.- Thanks Adam.- That was great.- Thanks for having us.- [Adam] I hope you found this helpful. If you did, please subscribe and share with your family or friends. If you have a topic you want us to cover in future episodes, send us a note through our website and if you're at the point where you want an expert opinion on your finances, reach out and we'd be happy to start a conversation. And remember, any comments, insights or strategies discussed on this podcast are intended to be general in nature and therefore may not be suitable for you and your situation, whatever that may be. Before acting on anything we discuss, please consult with your attorney, CPA and/or your financial advisor.