SPEAKER_00: 0:06

What's up, guys? Welcome to another special episode. I am doing with members of my SPF mastermind. Super excited to do these interviews, and we're doing this in conjunction too with a project that we're having, which is basically a book that shares all the success of some of our longer term members. And I twofold from this. One, it you know helps us, you know, document the success that we're having with people. But two, it's like it acts as fuel and inspiration for you guys listening to hear about these gym owners that despite everyone saying business is tough out there and everything's really hard. And uh there are people that are that are doing well, you know, despite that, and you know, allow this to serve as inspiration for for you. So I am today here with Marty Vaughn, and he is the owner of 360, and I have the shirt to prove it. Actually, your shirt is one of the ones I wear most. It's a good gray, old school gray that I like. I like I like gray, and I like, you know, when I work out in it and I sweat. I like it. You can in a gray shirt, you can tell that's really sweat. Yeah, it's a good shirt. It's a good shirt. And you are in Nashville, Tennessee, and I've been in the group for quite a while now. But what I the main thing I'm interested in today, Marty, is for you to share where you were when you when you came. You're in a really good spot right now. You're in my CEO mastermind, you're making a bunch of money, it's like things are going really good. And we'll talk about where you are right now, but I want to take us back to where you were, you know, when you joined, and really I honestly, where you were before and what made you make the decision to kind of come aboard and do some of the stuff with us. So take us back.

SPEAKER_01: 2:01

All right. Well, yeah, I opened uh brick and mortar in 2016, just kind of you know, just getting out of another another business, kind of on the one-on-one trajectory, uh, trying to get away from that. And I knew I wanted to do some semi-private small group training. That was the business model I wanted to chase. So I just decided, okay, it's it's time to open my open my place. So I brought off rover my one-on-ones, another trainer. We just kind of started off in the place I'm in right now and had some slow growth, and we were going pretty well. And then, you know, as uh is usual the case, the uh you know, COVID kind of hit in the 2020. So that kind of put a little bit of a detour into everything. So it kind of gave me an opportunity to kind of reassess where I'm at. I had to because I uh I became a sole trainer in my business. I called myself a kitchen table trainer because everybody within my gym was was on Zoom training that still stayed with me. So I kept my head above water and it helped me survive. And that's kind of when I think I started listening to you. I found your podcast. You you kind of spoke about you know what to do in this shutdown. And I and I kind of borrowed your ideas of inviting people into the gym, take some, you know, take some equipment home, and that allowed people to still stay under the umbrella of training for me and still provided revenue. So I I didn't make any money, but I didn't lose any money either. So I was kind of still, you know, still there. And then once we reopened and and had the chance to reopen, I thought, well, you know, this is a good opportunity to make some new hires, kind of start fresh, if you will. And that's when I think you sent me an email inviting me to the uh the mastermind. It was it was a Zoom mastermind, it was not in person. And after that when I joined, it was it was July 2020. And that's just when I I just knew I needed some help. I needed I needed my own personal trainer for my business, just like people that come to us need personal trainers to kind of take you by the shoulders and direct you in certain areas that you need to go. And you know, I I liked your personality. I like you have kind of uh just a you know, I could have a beer with you just as much as you tell me what what is good for my business. So I I like that part of it, and you own your own business. So they kind of attracted me to you through that with your podcast and and then you know, just the meetings. So, you know, since then and and go back before that, I was a member of another mastermind. That it it was okay, but it was just I I felt it was not exactly what I needed. For some reason it was lacking. So I quit that about a year later and then or a year before that, and then you know, I I could have found you. I just knew I needed some some help and direction coming out of COVID and and you know, taking that next step and a little bit more of a a guided trajectory into you know to where I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_00: 5:04

What was the the biggest frustrations that you were having, the biggest things that were possibly happening in your business and life that were calling you to get help?

SPEAKER_01: 5:17

I think it was just to be honest, the first thing was just kind of my own personal development. I mean, nothing happened with me really until I looked in the mirror first rather than looking through the window what other people are doing. It's like I had to kind of get my shit right before I could kind of take the business. You know, you you say your business is a reflection of the owner, good or bad. And and until I got that right, you know, I actually quit drinking and it kind of just kind of you know, it cleared my mind. Everything kind of just kind of I needed this to go this way. It'll it allowed me to kind of look a little bit in depth into my own shit and get that right first. And then, you know, that's when I started growing and things started becoming more clear. But uh, but just getting out of my own way and knowing I needed that help. And you know, this business, I guess any small business is very lonely. It's like you're on a desert island. And you know, I can't look to friends here in town to see what they're doing well, because that's my competition. So, you know, that's what helped with this mastermind. I was able to take what other people are doing, maybe, you know, in New Jersey or New York, you know, they don't mind sharing because I'm not their their competition. And uh, you know, and it just got it from you because you own your own gym still. And it's like you're you're coming at all this with pure knowledge of what's working now.

SPEAKER_00: 6:42

Yeah. Where were you in terms of the amount of money that you were making at that time? Like, were you satisfied with that? Was that a driver for getting help? Like what was oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: 6:55

Yes. I mean, the whole the whole idea is to kind of you know get into the semi-private training. The whole reason I wanted to do that is so I could make more revenue with you know, with my training energy and the hours I'm putting in. So I knew that was kind of the the next step. But but yeah, I mean, I I was I think I was fifteen thousand a month was kind of my revenue around then. You know, it was you know, I was getting by with it. You know, I I knew that was my I was still fresh into the new business world and owning my own business. And so, but I I needed that next step. I needed somebody to kick me in the butt, tell me what to do to continue to grow.

SPEAKER_00: 7:35

And when you were making that 15,000 You were doing all the work.

SPEAKER_01: 7:42

Yeah, yeah, I was doing most of the work. I was still doing some one-on-ones. I had another trainer who was kind of paying me, kind of he was more in a independent contractor, paying me a little bit of rent. So it was working, but it wasn't gonna work for the long term. You know, it was it was keep it was keeping me fed and housed, but it wasn't really, you know, doing much more than that, you know. Right.

SPEAKER_00: 8:04

So you weren't living on the street, but you weren't even close to making the money amount of money you you wanted to make. And what was the schedule like? Was it kind of a grueling schedule at that point?

SPEAKER_01: 8:18

Yeah, I mean, I was I was doing all the programming, all the program writing, all the marketing, which was little to nothing. You know, I was trying to do my own Facebook ads and stuff like that. And it was just, you know, trying to learn how to be a marketer, which I don't, you know, which I'm a better marketer now, but trying to create Facebook ads. I mean, I'd rather pull my fingernails out than than do that. But it's but yeah, I was just doing everything. I was just a one-man show. And you know, that that went as far as it could before. I was just like, I have to do something.

SPEAKER_00: 8:49

I'm so interested because I you're you're like you're like a COVID baby for us, you know, like in terms of you know, when you join the group. Um because it's like I I it's I think sometimes I almost try to forget COVID and how like horrible it was. But I realized like you mentioned something about how I was like teaching people what to do from a podcast. And I I I honestly don't like bring myself back to that moment, but like what were you experiencing during COVID from like a business standpoint from like the the uncertainty must have been just immense? Like I know it was for me, right? But like what was like the emotional state, the uncertainty, like what was going on in your mind about the business during COVID that made you, you know, kind of make the jump to us. Like I'm trying, I'm trying to like get back to that point of like, all right, yeah, you're struggling, but like also the this COVID thing that you're doing at the same time.

SPEAKER_01: 9:55

Yeah, I mean it's it was the unknown. It's like you just don't know what the hell is you don't we didn't know how long we were gonna stay shut down, if it was gonna be a year or whatever, but you know, it's I I think I look back, it's like I needed help, and I was you know, keep him ahead above water, but I also understood I have to invest some money to make this next step, and I was willing to do that. And it was scary because you know, it's like, oh shit, I might not I might need this money next month, but you've got to pay to play and to grow and and just you know take that next step. And it was, you know, it was best decision I've made from a business standpoint so far, other than just starting my own business and moving to a brick and mortar. So yeah, it was it's it's been uh it's been amazing.

SPEAKER_00: 10:40

So I'm gonna start telling people, like, I mean, based on where you were and where you are now, like you're calendar right now. Like I love you're in the CEO mastermind and you come in and like your numbers, everyone's looking at your numbers and they're jealous as hell of you, like which is just my P L. Right. Uh you're doing really good right now. And but like before we get into revealing how good you're actually doing, because I do want to talk about that and like where the business is and what your schedule's like, it's it's a lot better. What were the things, and I think this is where people can start getting some coaching from you, right? Some insights from you on what were the things that you started to do after you joined us, right? That made you re-like, oh wow, this is starting to work. I'm starting to make more money, I'm starting to, you know, have a little bit better schedule. My business is, I'm starting to like this business thing more, and we like it more when we have success. Well tell us some of the things that happened that made you start to realize that this was working.

SPEAKER_01: 11:47

I think the first thing, one of the first things was you know, farming out my uh my my marketing and taking that off my plate. Because that was his kind of wearing me down and you know, letting the professionals do that. Create the Facebook ads, help me out with my website, and just make sure that was dialed in first. And then that that really helped me because I've been doing 50 strong. It's kind of my it kind of led me down this path where I'm at right now because my I'm dialed into the 50 and up age group. That's what I do best, we do best. That's what we're kind of known for in Nashville, and becoming more known. And that was from the marketing company. And it's like that's I got tons of leads, tons of new members from that, you know, from from that marketing campaign. That in conjunction with people realizing after COVID, if they took care of themselves, COVID would not affect them as much. So it was kind of that it kind of perfect perfect distortor, if you will.

SPEAKER_00: 12:50

I want to stay, I want to stay, I want to stay right there because that's a good point. And I and I totally forgot about that about you, that a lot of people were kind of like leaning on this 40 plus thing, like I was. And you kind of took it, and I think that's what I mean. One of the things that we teach in mastermind is the clarity on target market. That's one of the principles that that I learned from Dan Kennedy. It's one of the principles that I've taught you guys many times. It's like, who is the person that you're trying to get into your gym? It's one of the most important decisions. The clearer you can be with that, the easier the marketing's gonna be. And you went all in on the 50 plus market, and you still are today. Take us back to that decision, you know, and the clarity around that decision of this side. Because here's the thing, when you make a decision like that, you it's hard because now you're saying no to other things. So it's not an easy thing to do. So tell us about that decision.

SPEAKER_01: 13:43

I think it that stemmed from early on in my training days where I, the company I was working for, I I took the hard ones. You know, I took the older ones, I took the people with knee replacements because I felt like, okay, if I don't know how to work with these people, I'll learn how to work with them as I go. So I kind of became the guy who nobody else wanted. All the trainers say, hey, Martin Marty, I'll take them. And it's like it it was valuable because you know, you've become so much better working with the challenging ones. You know, the young athletes, I mean, they're kind of easy, but to me it's like, and those are those are people who who need our help. And there's a void out in the industry still of people who, you know, where do they turn if they can't go to a boot camp or a crossfit? It's like a floor's in the middle. It's like they they're kind of on their own out in the middle of the ocean trying to survive. So I I think just finding a home and and knowing there's a place for people that need that help, there's a void in that in the industry right now. So knowing that that they have that extra money they're willing to spend, they know they need it, they know they need help, and you know, they know they can't do it on their own or they might hurt themselves and you know do it wrong.

SPEAKER_00: 14:56

So I want to I want to make an interesting turn here and ask you this question. When you were doing 50 plus a lot, and a lot of people do 50 plus, they think, well, they're older, they're banged up, they knee replacement, stuff like that. A lot of times we think one-on-one. And your business was one-on-one heavy, yeah, and your business is now very heavy, small group, semi-private, as you call it, right? Yeah, so I don't like that term. You don't need a word.

SPEAKER_01: 15:25

I like the word private.

SPEAKER_00: 15:25

I like the word like getting people there half naked in the bathroom. Like, what is it? I don't know. It doesn't it doesn't dive through it anyway. But but you have done a brilliant job of going from a very one-on-one heavy business to almost, I mean, I think you have some one-on-ones, but not a lot, right? The majority of your customers are are small group, semi-private. 85%. Yeah, 85%. And so talk us about that shift going from like a market that you almost like think they have to be in that one-on-one setting. And you didn't change your market when you went to small group. You kept the same market still 50 plus focused. Talk about the shift from your business model of being one-on-one to small group.

SPEAKER_01: 16:12

I think, I mean, to be honest, I'm I'm 56. So I think there's that age, you know, the age, I forget in this in the mastermind you said 10 years up or 10 years down. Yeah, that's the important thing.

SPEAKER_00: 16:22

That's like you you your age, you can relate best to people 10 years you're senior and 10 years you're younger. So if you're 40, you'll relate to people that are 10 years older than you and 10 years. So if it's like 30 to 40 and then 40 to 50, if you will. So that's it.

SPEAKER_01: 16:40

There's already that built-in trust before they even start with you. So like they they know that you're kind of, you know, you've you've done this for a little bit and you have a little bit of knowledge about what's going on. And you know, again, I'm 56, so I'm kind of in their in their atmosphere to begin with. But but yeah, and and from that, with my model, I'm still doing our screening. My the first session with everybody is with me. So I I build that trust with that first session after they decide to join. And I can I educate people. I take into a little bit of the functional movement systems and just kind of educate them rather than sit there and pick them apart. So I use that as it's I'm still actually kind of selling them on long term, even though they paid me money already. So I'm kind of building trust and just showing them, you know, what they're what they're good at, what they're not great at, and educating them on why certain things might be happening. So I'll build that trust even within that first session. And then after that, that's when they kind of go into a that they will have another one-on-one, maybe with me, it might be with my head trainer. And then they go into the semi-private where they kind of it's kind of they're on ramped a little bit more than just thrown into the middle of the of the fire and and just hoping hoping praying and keep our fingers crossed that everything's gonna work out. So it's less of a gamble, and you know, I'm build I'm building that trust and community with that person.

SPEAKER_00: 18:03

When you were doing one-on-one, what were you charging?

SPEAKER_01: 18:08

Probably 75 when I was starting to review.

SPEAKER_00: 18:11

And what are you charging for a small group?

SPEAKER_01: 18:14

Small group,$397 a month for two sessions a week is kind of my sweet spot right now.

SPEAKER_00: 18:20

So it's about$40. Is that it? So and you're getting$45. And so you're getting, what is it,$399? Divided by eight. Yeah,$50. No,$399 divided by eight is$50. So you are getting six in a session?

SPEAKER_01: 18:40

We're doing four right now. I kind of I can't I keep it at four because we do have that more needy clientele.

SPEAKER_00: 18:48

Yeah, that's fine. But so you basically went from making$75 an hour to$200. And do you think anyone would have gone from one-on-one$75 to 200?

SPEAKER_01: 19:02

No.

SPEAKER_00: 19:03

All right, and that's the beauty of the model. Maybe one or two. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One or two rich folks over there in Nashville. Okay, great. No, but this is great. I think it's a lot of people because a lot of people get stuck on the model and they think that, oh, if I have a specific, but so a couple of things you did well. You I really clearly narrowed down the market that you were going to go after, and then you built a profitable model. You didn't just stick with a model like that you were doing before. You found a model that was gonna make you money, and you found a way to structure it in a way that was effective for that market.

unknown: 19:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 19:40

Brilliant. Exactly. Brilliant. What are the other things that you did? What were the things like I'm gonna tell people where you are now and they're gonna be like, holy shit. But like, what were the elves were like step taking stepping stones from when you started in COVID to where you are now? What were the other like big kind of moves you made from a business standpoint that helped you go from you know where you were to where you are?

SPEAKER_01: 20:03

Well, obviously, I'm not doing this by myself. So it it uh, you know, magnifying glass on team and bringing in team members, and it's still not perfect. I've I've made some bad decisions, yeah. But but you know, I'm still kind of, I mean, I have a great team now that's those bad decisions make me look a little bit harder at at potential coaches. So it's just you know, that's that's part of the growing process. But that my time management, which I'm still working on, it's still it's not perfect. I mean, I still try to work on the time management and and it's hard to get them on way sometimes, but that and you know, just just listening to everything that you guys tell me because we we were on a call yesterday, and it's like I've I've heard things a hundred times from you the same the same thing, but sometimes when you need to hear that, it pops up. Kind of like when you're in church, sometimes it's like hey, they're speaking to me. It's like there it's you just hear it when you need it. And so it's it's those things, and that that's that's charging my battery when I when I come to the meetings every Wednesday. It's a battery charger. I plug my plug my charger into you.

SPEAKER_00: 21:14

No, you're the man. No, you you've done tremendous. And let's talk about any specific things that you have done from a marketing standpoint that have generated new customers. You've had some really big years the last like two years. Like when you you've got like some net client growth that's like solid. What were some of the things that you campaigns or marketing ideas that that brought in a good chunk of members that you could share? Because I want this to be about two, not just you know, the story, but are you know the listeners gonna pull something from this um and get an idea from you that you could coach them on that they could go implement?

SPEAKER_01: 21:55

What were some of the things that you that I think I think the biggest one of the big or the biggest thing is referrals from my membership base because the people like that?

SPEAKER_00: 22:06

You're killing it with referrals, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 22:07

With my with people that bring in it's like they have friends who are needing the same thing. You know, they hang around friends that are similar to the age groups uh that they're in. So it's just like they, you know, they come in and they bring friends, and and one of the biggest things lately is it's a referral campaign where the gift of fitness. So I gave people the option to give as many people, friends, coworkers a free month of training as they wanted through a text campaign. Basically sent them the information. They went to a landing page, entered that person some information, it popped up, introduced us, and then I kind of, you know, just kind of the rest was on me. So that that simple Wait, I wanna I want to explain this.

SPEAKER_00: 22:52

I wanna I want to make sure if we have it.

SPEAKER_01: 22:54

So you basically sent your members a text that yeah, so well what first of all, I make the personal say, hey, do you have anybody that you would like to prefer? I can let me and I sent I use Nom Lee so I sent them a a uh pre um setup text where it kind of it takes them to my uh uh convert cloud. And there's a there's a form in there, they fill out the information for their for their friends. Their friend gets the text, then I also get the introducing text from me, and then that I'm able to reach out and say, Hey, would you like to jump on a phone call, something like that. So it's a it's an introductory, but it gives that person a whole month to get a taste for what we do. So to me, uh like a two-day or three-day or even a week, it's just not enough for people in that age group to get a good understanding of what they can benefit from. So a month, you know, you get a pretty good idea with a with a month of training to understand, hey, this I'm seeing some results already. So it kind of gives them that. Plus, when you get a referral from a good member, it's like that's that's gold. Uh, you know, the any any extra work that we have to put towards to to bring in that person is it's it's it's a worth it's worth this weight and gold.

SPEAKER_00: 24:13

Yeah, and I think the the the cool thing about what you're doing is you're not just sitting and waiting for referrals, like you're actually doing something to generate referrals. And I like the text campaign too, because I've done something similar, but like sometimes we do like a hard copy thing or sending a letter in the mail, but the text thing seems to make it an envelope system, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 24:33

Yeah, but it's like a virtual envelope system, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:37

And I I I I like that idea a lot. Like you have the conversation with somebody, and a lot of times the conversation, they're like, Yeah, yeah, I'll I'll send someone, and then they never do. But the text kind of allows you to keep the conversation going. Exactly. I do remember that when we were tracking how many customers we were getting from referrals. I think we did that at one of the meetings. And I remember you were like through the roof with the amount of referrals that that you were getting. Is there anything else? What other from a marketing standpoint, what were there some of the other things? Were there campaigns you've run, any playbooks that we gave you that you ran? Like what were some of the other things?

SPEAKER_01: 25:15

Um the 50 strong going back to that.

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 25:19

Basically, that is that's too much of the price of one. So you I'm I'm going back to that free month that's stuck in there, you know, kind of hiding that kind of has always worked for me. So if you get too much of the price of one, then two months of progress, they're very comfortable with what we do. They've met people in the gym and they've become acclimated to what to what we do. So it's just it's it's I don't know the numbers, but I mean, I'm always people always stay. Very rarely do I have a person that says, Well, I I I'm not ready for this, or I can't afford it.

SPEAKER_00: 25:51

Yeah, and how did you promote 50 strong? Like what were the ways that you got it out there?

SPEAKER_01: 25:56

See, 50 strong, I it's off it's off Facebook and and um Instagram. That that that kind of really drove my membership base right after COVID. It kind of cooled off a little bit. But even, you know, even with people who come in that came from the website, I still offer that as a good as goodwill and a good gesture to say, hey, we happen to have this two months for the price of one 50 strong, I want to give you that offer. I want to give you that uh ability to take advantage of that. Nice. So it's like there and of course there's like all the things.

SPEAKER_00: 26:29

And they gotta pay, right? So you're getting a customer, right? They're paying for it, they're investing in it, they're just getting it to buy one, get one.

SPEAKER_01: 26:37

Yeah, I find so much more value in that. If they're gonna pay something as opposed to like a free trial, you know, the uh I think having some ass in the game kind of clears out the the fluff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 26:50

Yeah. And so so basically the the was the when you were running 50 strong, was it more of an evergreen campaign, or was it something that was more of a time-sensitive stop start? Because I've seen people do it both ways.

SPEAKER_01: 27:01

It's it's an evergreen. I mean, this is like you know, I I get with a marketing company, we have different photos and different people, but it's um it's it's it's an evergreen, and it's kind of my evergreen. It's like some people have the free whatever or two months, two two training sessions for$99.

SPEAKER_00: 27:18

That's that's it's your it's your front end offer of hey, when someone wants to start at 360, you you do this and you sell this, and it's kind of how they get going.

SPEAKER_01: 27:27

Yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna squeeze as much juice out of that as I can.

SPEAKER_00: 27:30

Yeah, yeah. And how's the conversion rate from 50 strong to member, full member?

SPEAKER_01: 27:36

Once I do a consult, I would probably say it's 80%. Wow. I mean, I mean if if I get them in the door.

SPEAKER_00: 27:42

So you could sell 10 of them, you're getting eight clients.

SPEAKER_01: 27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:46

Yeah. There you go. Amazing. Great chairs, Marty. Let's talk about what the anticipated. Where is Marty gone today? Give us some stats. Member um, number of members, revenue, where are you at? What's your time frame, like what are you doing all day? I know you're not nearly trending as much as you used to. We we we put the kibosh on that.

SPEAKER_01: 28:12

I'm training about 15 hours, which honestly I still want to Yeah, you like doing it, right?

SPEAKER_00: 28:17

You like doing it.

SPEAKER_01: 28:18

Yeah, I do, but I'm still trying to figure out how to manage that to where I kind of you know get down to 10. It's it's hard. It's hard when you have people that have been with you for 20, 25 years. Yes, yep, yep. You know, it's it's it's like breaking up or getting a divorce. And yeah, that's just tough. But but yeah, I mean, I started out with about I think 35 members and you know, when I started with you, and each year I've grown. So I'm I'm hovering around the 200 to 215 member range. Boom.

SPEAKER_00: 28:46

200 250 members, like 400 bucks a pile. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:51

And that's in, you know, I'm 2200 square feet of space. Boom. So it it's still it's it's tight, but I you know, I'm getting as much as I can out of the space. I could I could exp I could expand a little bit if uh if a space opens up next door, but uh you know, I mean that's that's uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 29:09

That's a damn good business. Where's the revenue at right now?

SPEAKER_01: 29:12

See, I'm projected to get 700 this this year. 720 is kind of what my uh when I did my one year plan. So I'll get close to that.

SPEAKER_00: 29:23

And what is that a month? Like what's the run rate right now?

SPEAKER_01: 29:26

Let's see I'm around 60 a month. Beautiful revenue.

SPEAKER_00: 29:31

Yeah, very similar to Marty. I just said but you you're in Nashville and he's in New Jersey, so you're winning. Yeah, he's got better economics than you do.

SPEAKER_01: 29:41

Yeah, exactly. More more densely populated, too.

SPEAKER_00: 29:43

Yeah, yeah. That's amazing. And then talk about your schedule. I know you're training 15 sessions a week, but it's I talk to you and I know you like to train. I I I think you're you're training because you want to train, not because you have to train 15 hours a week, but talk

SPEAKER_01: 30:00

about your schedule like I know you play the guitar like I know like like is there freedom in your life or are you still like yeah I mean there there's I mean there's more freedom I I can I I can rely on my team here I I think you know I just bought a bought a house something that in my budget before you know six years ago would not have even been I wouldn't have even thought about it so now I've got I have the freedom to you know invest some more money into a nicer house get out of a get out of my condominium and just kind of but but yeah I have some freedom and go vacations I can you know really I want to make more but I don't worry about bills you know I don't worry about you know where where my money's gonna come from I'm more comfortable I'm I'm able to you know I'm 56 I'm I'm able to invest for retirement now kind of catch up on that where I wasn't doing enough in my earlier years so I'm looking at that but yeah I'm just looking you know at at the freedom aspect of this to where I can I can take a a day off or take an afternoon and not worry that things are going to fall apart here at my gym. And then you know my main aspect right now is just kind of being the CEO making sure things are kind of run appropriately make sure everybody's doing their stuff I still do I still have a lot of influence over the marketing. I'm still doing all the sales I kind of I like the sales I think I'm good at it because you know again if I'm if somebody's coming in they're 60 and a 56 year old is gonna meet with them as opposed to a 22 year old that's gonna that's gonna hit different yeah so I I must still I like doing that I like doing the consoles I like doing that first screening session and kind of you know getting to know the person. But yeah I mean this you know vacation I'm I'm more able to take time off and just you know be like a normal person.

SPEAKER_00: 31:57

Where have you gone on vacation? Where where have you gone?

SPEAKER_01: 31:59

See I went to uh St. George's Island nice for about a week as as last year. Uh buying a house this year I'm kind of my time's a little bit crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 32:10

So I'm I might have to kick that down the road a little bit but uh yeah I like and you and you're playing your guitar and getting in there in the bars in Nashville like I never when I went to Nashville once I was like there's a bar like and it's legit every store is a bar like with the live like live music it was crazy.

SPEAKER_01: 32:29

Yeah you walk out of one door walk next door and it's another four story bar with three or four bands in it. But yeah I I don't play a whole lot but it gives me the opportunity to you know I will travel a little bit with the with an artist that I play with and you know we'll go to Colorado sometimes Texas and you know it gives me that freedom to do that and and you know still pay the bills without depending on music for that which is yeah tough to do let's so great picture and then what's the staff look like how many staff members do you have see I'm at seven now including myself including myself I think seven yeah I just hired I just hired a trainer and she came back she was looking for some more work she was pre-COVID but as you know I've been kind of looking to feel that member that customer uh appreciation or member support person and she fills that void just about perfectly because she's she's done that in the past she did it for me then and she'll be also be training a little bit so yeah I have two full time three part-time almost full time so you know for right now it's it's going well beautiful but you know that'll probably change the more who knows you know how that goes so obviously we just highlighted some of the business success that you've had what are the personal wins you know that have come from the transformation that you made in business what how has it impacted you as a as as a man as a business owner like health stress levels confidence whatever you want to get into but like what are the big changes that you've seen from a personal standpoint I think I mean with personal training it's always been looked at as kind of a it's a part-time gig it's like what what are you gonna do when you when you grow up and it's like it was never never looked at as a true profession. So I think just knowing I have a a real job a real business that brings me a comfortable living getting you know getting getting past the COVID thing getting your business through something like that it's like I I'll I'll take anything that comes at me now I'll I'll I'll be able to handle that. So the confidence to do that the ability to again you know have a have a livelihood where I don't really have to worry about bills I can you know take time off not really worry about things. You know you you talk about I forget what it's called it's you know I grew up in a very not a low income but medium to low income and you know we always looked at money a differently and well I can never afford that or I could you know how do they afford that and it's like I don't so I come up from where it's like it's it's hard to to realize what I've done, the accomplishments I've done and sometimes I have to kind of step back and say hey you're you you've made this business a big thing on your own shoulders. You know I have a team of course but everything's kind of all the decisions have have been mine and taking that next step and everything's kind of a little bit of a a speed bump and a trajectory and you know it's you know it's it's always like this but for the most part the upper trajectory is what you know what has to happen that compounding interest. So I think I think just you know being being comfortable you know knowing I have I have more time and I can relax a little bit more take a deep breath. Know that if I'm out of the gym and go to the to the mastermind for a couple of days that it's gonna be okay. And I'm a little bit of a control freak so that's hard.

SPEAKER_00: 36:13

Yeah yeah yeah no that's great very well said if someone was thinking about joining SPF and they were kind of hammering and hawing about being on the fence about it what what would you tell them?

SPEAKER_01: 36:30

I mean I would say you if you want to take the next step you're either going to trial the error it might take you 10 years to get to one spot or you could take the easy route hire your own personal trainer for your business just like you do you know I just like you help people get in shape it's like you'd be a hypocrite not to say that you don't need help with the things us most of us trainers are not good at most of us trainers don't know shit about marketing any kind of business to be honest. So that's that's the true aspect of this is becoming a business person in the training world. And you know just you just you got to pay to to to be better. And it's you know it's not a it's not a ton to pay it's just like it's it's rewarding because you you see the the the trade off. And then again it's like you're you're you're on this desert island when you run your own business. It's like it's very lonely. It's like you against the world and to have a whole group of people to reach out to and access what they've done wrong what they've done right and take those shortcuts is invaluable. And it's just uh again I wouldn't I would not be here talking to you after this if I didn't have that knowledge coming from you and the passion that you have for this and helping people you know this is not just a job for you you do this is a passion that that you just you love doing what you do and it and it shows and that's what keeps me coming back.

SPEAKER_00: 37:56

Yeah man Marty I appreciate that and yes I have found my niche you know I thought it was fun in owning a gym but it's really not it's helping people run better gyms is is is the niche for me.

SPEAKER_01: 38:10

Well that that's that I mean and it's it's the you have the passion.

SPEAKER_00: 38:14

It's like you and you own your own gym and it's like you're you're making people's gyms better but you're making their lives better because you teach the personal development that first and like think about what that change does to families and it just it roots out into the into the world really and that's just a that's a cool thing that you have some uh some power over it it really is that's one of my like coolest insights from this is that it it has not stopped at the owner right that that's some of the things that we're teaching the benefit really and it's funny if you link back to our mission for this company our mission for this company is not to help you it's to help your customers and their families right and so if we help you become better at business you will help more people in your community those people will be healthier those people will have better influence over their families those people will have better influence over their family members family members and everything like that. So it spreads across way deeper than stopping at Marty Vaughn.

SPEAKER_01: 39:18

Yeah I mean we're we're all changing lives you know yeah we've got to change our lives first and it's just yeah that that trickle down is is it makes it makes the hairs on my arms stand up.

SPEAKER_00: 39:29

Yeah Marty you came to us doing$15,000 a month you're now doing over 60 you have ridiculous margins everyone is jealous of your PL when they when it comes in everyone's like I want the 40 plan. But it's great you've done so well but again it's been a joy and an honor to work with you and to continue to work with you after all these years. And I really appreciate you coming on to share your story and share all your wins and to you know for you to watch you continue to grow into the awesome business owner that you've become so natural is very lucky to have your your company great job.

SPEAKER_01: 40:07

Well this has been a pleasure and it's like uh you know I wouldn't be here without you again and you know it's just uh it's a it's an honor to to be even considered for something like this and and and I appreciate the the opportunity as well.

SPEAKER_00: 40:20

Awesome job Marty thank you buddy