Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Alright guys, welcome to another episode of the FBU podcast. I got a really special one for you guys today, and many of you know that I have and am the host of the number one ranked fitness business podcast in the world. Not according to my mother, not according to my wife Vanessa, but according to some very obscure website that I've never heard of that gave us the ranking of the best fitness business podcast in the world. And I'm very excited and proud about that. But the bulk of all those episodes that caused that was me yakking into the butt of my phone while my await for my kids at jujitsu. And what I wanted to do was talk to more exciting, smart people on this podcast. And so that's what I've been doing. I've been bringing on some different guests, and some of them have been friends in the industry, some of them have have been members of my SPF mastermind. And today we have a very, very special guest, Melissa Chase. She's a member of the SPF Mastermind. We're going to tell her her really awesome story. I've had some great episodes lately, but this is you're in for a treat for this one with Melissa. So Melissa, thanks so much for being here.

SPEAKER_00 1:14

Thank you for having me.

Melissa’s Gym Snapshot And Market

SPEAKER_02 1:15

Yeah, that's gonna be great. And so just like give everyone at home the 10,000-foot view of your gym, like where you're located, what type of gym you have, who you serve, all that just a little brief overview so people kind of can picture, you know, what kind of business you have.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Sure. We own or I own Chase Fitness, we're located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. Our gym, our ideal client, our adults, busy adults, 40 to 65. I have currently three coach three full-time coaches and myself. We've been open a little over a year and a half. Our our two-year mark will be September 30th of this year.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Amazing. So let's let's I want to go back. We'll talk about where the business is because you're you gave a very modest introduction of yourself. There's a lot more to brag on that we'll we'll give you the opportunity to do because you're just doing amazing. But tell us, like, if we take you back before you joined SPF. Now, just a question were you open when you joined SPF?

SPEAKER_00 2:22

No, we we didn't know. I joined SPF in July of 24 and we opened in September of 24.

SPEAKER_02 2:28

Okay. So basically, before you joined SPF, you didn't even have the business.

unknown 2:32

Nope.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

No.

From Teacher To Trainer To PTA

SPEAKER_02 2:33

So tell so tell us what was going on in that time frame? Like, what was the thing that was happening in your life? What were the uncertainties? What were the challenges? What were the things that were going on that made you be like, all right, I need some some help here?

SPEAKER_00 2:49

Yeah. So I started out a long time ago, started out as a teacher and got out of that business and started doing training on my own at a Gold's gym and kind of just grew that side of my career. And then I started working in a small group training studio similar to the one that I own. And over that time I was uh introduced in terms of just being like on the management side of things and running the gym. So I learned a lot of what I would need to do when the time came for me to open my own gym, you know, how to hire, like what to do for that on the business side of things, like how important marketing is, how important it is to know your your client and who you want to have kind of in the gym. And then COVID came and I was in the process of going back to school. In 2021, I went back to school to be a PTA. So I went to school, did that, graduated, but I wasn't doing any training at the time. Then I really missed training people and I missed kind of working for myself and knowing that I had control over what I was doing. And so after I graduated school and started working for about a year, I got antsy and was ready to open my own business. And I knew going in the past, I knew all the things I needed to have lined up for, you know, how to start out and be successful, you know, right out of the gate.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

From a standpoint of the way, what made you get antsy?

SPEAKER_00 4:10

I just I I there was a ceiling that I wasn't gonna be able to to go through in terms of my pay and in terms of growth. And I was working for other people and I couldn't I just couldn't I wasn't satisfied. There was there was just something about it that just made me I just had the itch to just be my own be my own boss and and own my own training studio. I had control over what I did, how I did it, and and my growth wasn't limited to a license and you know the insurance companies in terms of what they were paying you in terms of documentation and all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

So you weren't even actually in the same business, right? So you were w working in a physical therapy clinic.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 4:50

And not a gym. What made you shift to opening a gym versus opening a clinic? Well, I guess you uh you can as a phys as a PTA, right? Or can you?

Why She Invested In Help Early

SPEAKER_00 5:00

Yeah, I could, but I knew I would always have kind of just that limitation of I'd be relying on the insurance companies with what they paid me in terms of reimbursement. So um, because I missed coaching and training, I started training a couple of clients in the clinic before the clinic opened and then after the clinic. And I got it to about I had about 10, 10 to 12 clients. And I was like, it just kind of gave me the confidence to just, okay, it's time for me to do this, and kind of so I started looking at the local like real like real estate and kind of what was out there in terms of if I was gonna rent something and and sign a lease for something, what what's out there, what can I do? What does that budget look like? But then I knew when I started that process, I knew I needed to have accountability of a mastermind group, I needed a marketing agency, I needed somebody to run my website because those things were not in my wheelhouse. I could coach all day long, I could help people get better and get stronger, but I just knew I had to have those pieces in line when I opened when and if I was gonna open my business.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

What were the things that you were experiencing that made you realize that? Like what were the did you try to do it on your own? Or like you might be one of the real smart people that just really understood it early of like, hey, I have no idea what I'm doing here, but like what were some of the things that you were experiencing that made you come to that conclusion so quickly?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Yeah, I knew just from working in the other gym that I was at. I knew all the things that needed to be lined up and needed to be having those all set and executed from a training standpoint. I knew, I knew programming, I knew all that, but I didn't know how to open up like how to open a business. I didn't know what a website was like, I didn't know how to create a website, I didn't know how to like do marketing, Facebook ads, any of that. So I knew I knew enough to be dangerous, but I knew what I needed to have in place and I knew who needed to do those, and it wasn't me. So I I knew that going into opening the business, I needed to invest in marketing agency to me to run my website. And then from an accountability standpoint, I know myself and I know that when it comes to checking in with you guys every single Wednesday, that it's gonna hold me accountable, but also give me the support that I need if I come across something that I don't know what to do with or how to do it. There's resources from you and from Joe and from Carly that I can just reach out to and if I have a question, because you guys have all and all the other members of the mastermind, they've done been there and done it before. So I just I knew that I needed to have all of those people kind of in my corner to get me from where I wanted from where I was to where I wanted to be as fast as possible.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Got it. So so basically the thing that you were looking for was accountability. Like you felt like there was a lot of things that you were uncertain about, so you needed a specific knowledge, right? But also you felt like there was a lot to do and you needed someone to help guide you, you know, every every step of the way. Okay, cool. And that I think that's it's interesting. I've I'm like, I've got I have like a lot of questions for you, but like the other the other thing is like how helpful was it because I was a trainer too in San Diego and I didn't have any business experience, like zero. I was just training like 60 hours a week. And here you come in and you're saying, Well, oh, I was training, but then I ran a gym where you got to do the majority of the business things. How helpful was that experience?

SPEAKER_00 8:25

It was extremely helpful, but it was overwhelming because it was like now this was my business and it was my money being invested in, and I knew like we had a scorecard, we looked at every week. So we had I had all of that, but it's like now it's like if I don't meet my revenue goals or my member goals or you know, schedule enough consultations, then it's on me. It's not on, you know, I was just a I was just a manager, but it wasn't my money, and it wasn't you know up to me to make those decisions and make those choices and make those things work. So I knew that I needed to have some accountability of people that I have to answer to. Yes, make sure I was doing it.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

Right. So you felt like that it it the experience that you had was very helpful to have the business knowledge, and then when you got to doing it on your own, it was kind of like you know, somewhat seamless because you had done a lot of that stuff before. Okay, cool. I think that's really good advice, Melissa, because I think a lot of people, and me included, it's like, hey, get some grow it within your company. Like if you're working, listen to this and you're working for another company and you know eventually you want to open up your own spot, like to use that situation to gain knowledge and to you know learn something about marketing and learn something about sales, like it's and I I know because I'm proof of this. If you just note training and you go to open a business, there's a very, very big learning curve. Whereas you can shorten the learning curve by doing some of the work for somebody else. I also think it's a huge mistake for like people that you know are 19 years old and they just open up a gym right away.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

I I do think there's some people that have had success with it, so I'm not saying I'm 100%, but I don't know. I feel like there's no time to have a mentor, there's no time for someone to teach you what to do and to take you. And I also think it's like the number one driver of our businesses is not our marketing, it's not our sales, it's our product. And at some point we need to have you know our stance on what we believe, you know, what we believe good training is, what we believe a good product is. And if you've never had any like mentors or advisors or people like that in your life, it's hard to form that stuff just solely searching Instagram, you know, for your mentors. So I think it's a I think it did the right thing, you know, by working for somebody else. Okay. Any other like like what were you feeling? Like, were you scared to start? Like what was the like some of the things that you were going through from an emotional standpoint that caused you to be like, hey, I need some help?

SPEAKER_00 10:58

Yeah, just uh it's overwhelming to think of all the the pieces that need to be in line to you know be successful and having just knowing that I have somebody, you know, in my corner that I can reach out to and be like, hey, I don't know what to do about you know making sure that this lease says what it needs to say. Or from a marketing standpoint, we're doing a pre-sale campaign. Like, you know, there's a lot of people that in this group that have done it before that were so giving and so just here, this is what we did, you know, try it and use it. Just information that was just, you know, at my fingertips and stuff. But it was from an emotional standpoint, it was scary. But I knew one, I had I have my PTA license to fall back on. So everybody says kind of you don't need to have a backup plan, but I just knew in my heart that I did not want to go back to working for someone else. And so whatever I was gonna need to do to make it work, but I knew that I needed to have a group of people that I could rely on and and count on every week that gives me the confidence and the reassurance that I'm doing the right thing. You know, getting on your calls and just listening to people with the questions that they have, you know, it it answers my questions or it just reaffirms that I'm doing the right things and I'm making the right decisions and I'm, you know, using all the fingers on the marketing glove and I'm just doing everything right. I just need to keep my head down and just keep focused on on you know my goals.

Growth Numbers And Current Reality

SPEAKER_02 12:23

Awesome. So you uh you make some really good points there, and I and I think one of the things like there's probably a lot of people in your same situation listening to this that are starting a gym or in the process of starting a gym, and you know, they they say what our clients say to us when they say, Well, I want to lose 20 pounds before I get to the gym, and then I'll start training with you. And it's just like it's such a silly thing to say, but I think a lot of business owners say the same thing. So, well, I'm gonna start my business and make a bunch of mistakes and fall flat on my face, and then I'll get some help. And I think you did it the the other way around. I think a lot of people are very scared to make an investment, right? Like you were making an investment in SPF mastermind before you were making much money. Like I guess you had some clients and stuff like that, and you had a job. But I mean, that's a that's a scary thing to do to be able to invest in you know a coaching program before you even open, but we are gonna soon fast forward to what's happening today and prove that that was actually a very good decision. So I want to get the timeline right. What month did you open? Or what you joined SPF July of 2024, correct. And what month did you open?

SPEAKER_00 13:36

September 30th, yep.

SPEAKER_02 13:37

You opened your gym September of 2024 with how many members you opened?

SPEAKER_00 13:42

10.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

10 members.

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Okay. Today is May. No, April, April 2026. So about two years later, two and a half years later. Where are we today?

SPEAKER_00 13:55

143 members.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Boom. 143 members.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Yeah, last year we had last year our gross revenue was just under 300k. And in this first quarter of this year, I've um at 132k.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

In the first quarter, yeah. Wow. So from 10 members, so you were doing like$2,000 a month.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:19

And uh, what's the monthly run rate right now?

SPEAKER_00 14:22

As much you mean the what they yeah, like what do you know?

SPEAKER_02 14:25

What is like what is the average per month that you're making?

SPEAKER_00 14:28

Oh, 32.

SPEAKER_02 14:29

32,000. So you basically went from 2,000 to 32,000 a month. And I know that you have you know, the cool thing about you is you have a small team, you don't have a huge, big team, you don't have a ton of people to manage. And how do you feel? How do you feel about how things are right now? Like, I know that you're you know, you come to all the meetings, you're always, you know, so giving, you're always showing up on you, you're a huge participator in the group, like you're always on calls, you're always doing stuff. You're coming to the brand workshop in a couple weeks, which I'm super excited about. It's gonna be amazing. Don't forget we have our AEO workshop on Tuesday. Yeah, that's gonna be great. But yeah, like give us like the overview of where you're at. Like, obviously, 132 something members is amazing, but like where you're at right now, how how are you feeling running this business? What's next for you? Like all that.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Yeah, I feel good. So when we first opened, I was doing a majority, me and my sister were doing a majority of the coaching. And as of now, I'm only on the floor about five to ten hours at the max a week. And then I still do all the consultations and all the sales, but yeah, it feels it's almost I'm very much a nine to five, like give me my paycheck and like uh just working, but so it's it's overwhelming, but but really a cool feeling to know that I have ownership over like my time and like how I want to spend it. And you know, from a financial standpoint, it's the salary that I was making as a PTA is was pretty good, uh, but I've already like I replaced that, you know, hands down replaced it from just being successful with the business.

SPEAKER_02 16:04

So and have and have a lot more freedom.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

What else? Like, what is the other perks? Like what what have you what are the benefits that come from the freedom? Like five to ten hours of session, five to ten sessions is not a ton of sessions. Are you doing more free time? Like, have you picked up a hobby? Like, what are you doing with the your life these days?

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Yeah, yeah, that's funny. You ask, I joined a golf league. So that's yeah, it starts in a couple weeks. Yeah, I have time to, you know, if I get up in the morning, I can take my dogs for a walk. I can make sure my stepdaughter gets on the bus. Like it's just it's I can be home, you know, after three or four o'clock if I want to. Just it's just it's it's a really cool feeling to know like I can I have a team behind me that can be here and run the business and coach, and I don't have to physically be on the floor, but it's it's nice to it's it's very emotional to know like I created something so amazing that it changes so many people's lives, and it that's what's fulfilling is that I know like I have 143 members that their lives are changed because of what I've created.

Hiring Coaches And Getting Off Floor

SPEAKER_02 17:12

So you're making more money than ever, you're have more freedom than you've ever had, you're making a difference in your community. That's that's pretty good stuff right there. That's pretty good stuff. I I I want to go back to the shift you mentioned this briefly, but I want to go back to the shift of going from all the sessions to now you're working five sessions a week, ten sessions a week. What was that? Everyone struggles with that differently. I wonder what like what was that transition for you? Was it did this happen slowly? This has happened. How did that how did that transition go? And was some of it hard for you to give up?

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Yeah, it started it. I knew just from talking to you guys and being on calls and getting like all that advice, but taking yourself off the floor is huge because it can have an effect on your members because they you're the face that they see, they trust you. So bringing a new coach in, I started out with bringing a guy in on a part-time basis. He started coaching just some, you know, three or four mornings just to kind of get his feet wet, but then transition him from part-time into full-time. And then that took me off the floor a you know, a lot more and allowed me to have time to do more consultations and continue to grow the business. And then once we started to get busier, I knew I needed to bring in another coach. And so bringing in another coach and then like making sure that they I mean, from my experience as you know, running the other gym that I was in, I knew kind of that transition and kind of how to onboard someone, and that was important. I didn't just throw them on the floor, they had to go through a training period, but it was a slow kind of take me off the floor kind of thing. But yeah, it's just been it's been easier than I thought. I like having the one-on-one time to sit down and do a consultation with somebody, but it's nice to to kind of know that I don't have to, you know, be up every morning super, super early, and I can I have good coaches that I can trust to give them the same kind of service that I would give them.

Website And Pre-Sale Marketing That Worked

SPEAKER_02 19:08

Amazing. I want to talk about what you've done to do this growth. I know you're you're an unbelievable implementer of you know how active you are in the group, but you take action. Like you learn stuff, you take the tools that we give you, you run with them. What are some of the things? I mean, this is not this is really impressive growth, right? So what are the some of the things? And I love doing this part because this is where you share, hey, what has worked for you. And there's a lot of there's a lot of truth to, you know, what will work for you will probably work with a gym, you know, that's 50 miles away from you, considering it's a comparable, you know, type of area and things like that. So what were some of the things that you did to grow the business? Let's let's focus let's focus on marketing and sales and like client, new client generation. Uh, I know you're a a GMM, do you have a big GMM proponent, my friend GR Hoff that runs Gym Member Machine, your marketing agency. So, but just give us the the the bullet pointed list of what are the things you've done to grow the company.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah. So one was having a website that when people go to the a lot of the feedback I get from the website is when people look at the website, they can relate to the people that are there. They say, you know, I can see myself, you know, working out there, you guys look welcoming, accepting, and comfortable. So the website definitely, and then having that work the way it's supposed to, with like we did pre-sales, so the pre-sale campaign.

SPEAKER_02 20:38

Hold on, I want to double-click on the website for a second. So what because I think this is a very, very helpful thing. I think people underestimate their website. And so you have said, like, what is marketing gold? Right? Your people are coming to your website and they're saying, I feel like I can see myself there, right? Or the words you're on your website say, I feel like you were talking to me. What were some of the things that you did on your website that are making that true? Like, what uh is it specific testimonials? Are you using testimonial videos? Like, what are the things that specifically are on the website that are making that true? And I'm gonna give you a plug. Uh, what is your URL?

SPEAKER_00 21:20

ChaseFitness.net.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

So if you go to chasefitness.net, you can see Melissa's website that is working well. It is a GMM website.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

It's a GM member machine website. Um, so what are some of the things that are on the website that you changed to it or created that's making people say that? Because this is really important.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Yeah, our faces are there. So when they go to the website, they see us, they see our ads that are running on Facebook, and they they can they see a familiar face. And then the second thing is they see on that website, they see Google reviews of people that have obviously left reviews, but they can relate to what those people were struggling with. And then the pictures and the content that we have on the website is. The pictures look like those people, like they can see themselves in those pictures, and then it's it's clean and it's the calls to action are very clear. Like, click this if you want this, click this if you want this. So it's it's easy and uh easy to navigate, and the people that look at the website they see pictures of people that they can relate to.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

So, yeah, you just like so for those listening at home, that was one, make sure your Google reviews are on your website and show. And and I think you said something really important in there is that they're saying things that people care about, right? They're in and I know I've taught this to you, but great website, a great type of Google review is not Melissa, is so cool and nice and fun. It's like, no, I went to Chase Fitness and I was this after I Chase Fitness, I am this. Like, that's kind of what you want to guide people to say in your reviews. Images of people that are your best customers, right? Ben Ben Stocks, who's you know, my ad manager, he's the guy that runs my ads for for the this consulting business, right? And he has always said that you know, one of the most important things you can do is get good pictures of your clients, right? Hire a photographer, you know, I he used to charge, he used to, you know, say 10 bucks an hour. It's like you're not paying anyone 10 bucks an hour for anything these days, but hire a local photographer to come in and take really, really good pictures of people that and then show, like what you said, show the people what that are like, hey, that's a person that is like me, you know, that's training at this gym. And the last one is, and this, you know, give credit to GMM and GR and the team of clean and clear. I think a lot of websites are not clean and clear. A lot of websites are very convoluted, they've got crap everywhere. They it's not clear on what you want them to do. And I know a GMM website does a really good job of that, of you know, telling people exactly what to do. So those are the three big takeaways from Melissa's web enhancer. So you can thank you, send her an email and thank her for those three points. Okay, so that's the website. Go on, what's next?

SPEAKER_00 24:12

From a marketing standpoint, we did a pre-sale campaign. And again, it's just kind of having content that goes out that shows the people doing and looking like the people that we want as clients. They again, it was, I don't know anything about marketing. I just said they asked for some talking head videos, they asked for pictures, and I gave it to them and they made it work. Our pre-sale campaign, I off the top of my head, I don't know what our cost per lead was, but it was ridiculously low because we had good content and the stuff worked the way it's supposed to. And we our pre-sale campaign ran from August until Thanksgiving. And I we ended up think at the end of Thanksgiving, we had we essentially doubled our we had a 20, 20 to 25 members through that time period, and then we hit January and we were at 45 members. So we grew pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

What was the offer on the pre-sale?

SPEAKER_00 25:16

Founder's rate.

Community Events Referrals And Retention

SPEAKER_02 25:17

Founders rate. Awesome. Founders rate. Okay, awesome. What else? So we got website, we got running a pre-sale. What are the other things you've done over the last couple of years to grow the company?

SPEAKER_00 25:32

We do we have quarterly monthly socials with our members. We go out to the community, we do stuff with them, we invite them to bring family and friends from a community environment. And we do buddy week. We try to do one quarterly. We have from a marketing standpoint, we go out to local comp businesses, companies, try to create some joint ventures. We hit up the local festivals and fairs, try to table, you know, uh it's just kind of using that marketing glove idea and concept where we have something going on with externally and internally from a marketing standpoint all the time. Like all the time. Always asking for referrals, asking for Google reviews from our members. You know, if somebody comes in and says, hey, so and so wants to come try it. Absolutely, come on in. You know, it's it's that giving kind of mentality. Like you say, you know, the lonely kettlebell, like I'd rather have a packed session with three people coming in just trying it, because once they're in the door, I know we can keep them.

SPEAKER_02 26:38

Beautiful. That is absolutely incredible. I love that you shared so much value with the things that you've got going on. What we we talked a little bit about what life like is today. I want to go back to that, right? So what are the you know benefits that having a company like this has brought to your life? We talked about the golf, we talked about the freedom, but what are what are the other feelings you're feeling right now? I mean, you're you're you've created a really successful business. What what's what's life like for you right now?

SPEAKER_00 27:15

It's it's good. It's it's me navigating, having that extra time and that free time to figure out what it is that I want to do. Or I look at it as what impact can I have on my community and what impact can I have on our members and like what can I offer them now that I don't have to be on the floor all the time? What can I do to help with retention? What can I do to help with just helping people and just helping a community and creating a bigger impact on the community that we have? And then from a standpoint personally, it's it's I've I have time to do the things that I've been not been able to do for the last two years or three years because I've been busting my ass to get the business up and running. So it's just, you know, knowing that I can go and play golf if I want to, or leaving in a couple of minutes to go home and spend the weekend with my mom. So it's just like I can go do that. I have that time and flexibility to go do that.

Freedom Benefits And Business Skills

SPEAKER_02 28:13

That's power. I said this to Vanessa the other day. I was like, I can't believe no, who was I talking to? I was like, I was like doing something, and it was like a Wednesday, or no, it was me and Hashi. I went out, I went out for a few days with Hashi, and it was like, you know, 1 p.m. on a Tuesday, and we were just trekking up a mountain, and we both kind of looked at each other and like like we were like almost like this is like a almost a surreal moment of like two guys that just busted their ass for so many years owning a gym to all of a sudden be climbing a mountain at two o'clock on a Tuesday, and to have a freedom to to do something like that is it's it's worth everything. Like it really is. And that and the thing that gets you that is business skills. Like that's what it is. Like we don't, if we don't learn business skills, we don't have that ability. That just doesn't come to you. Like it's if you you have to, you know, because you get to a point where, you know, and you've known you're a perfect, you know, you know, case of this, right? You got to the point where you were doing all the sessions and you were doing all the work. You knew you could do that, but there was things you needed to to do, there was things you needed to learn, there was things you need to delegate to be able to get you to the point where you are today. And that stuff doesn't happen. The freedom that you're feeling doesn't happen if we don't learn how to run a better business. It's just we just have to error and every stage, you know, comes with its own skill sets that we need to learn, every stage comes at with its own challenges. I'm working right now on the four stages book, right? So, like stage one, you know, you're in classic stage two you know zone where you're at right now. You're classic stage two. It's like a perfect sweet spot, right? But you as you continue to grow this and you get into stage three, and this business continues to grow and there's more people to manage, there's new challenges, you know, that that come from it. So you've navigated these brilliantly. What what advice do you have to someone that maybe is resistant to getting help with the business? Like obviously, this is a SPF mastermind testimonial interview, right? But at the end of the day, you know, what do you say to someone that is, you know, maybe grinding, you know, they're running the gym, they're in stage one, or they're even where you're at in stage two, but they're not feeling that sense of freedom that you're feeling, Melissa. And they're resistant to getting help, they're resistant to spend the money, they're they don't like, oh my God, you know, fifteen hundred dollars a month. Like I guess like, you know, what what are the things that you say to people that are maybe resistant to that as someone sitting here with the ability to play golf and you know, do all that?

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Yeah, uh it's it's one of those things, and just to kind of go back a little bit too, when it comes to the things that you need to do as a business owner, they're very simple. If you if you work on getting new clients and you get good at that, and you but you know the right people to put in place, like with marketing, with sales, and then you keep the people that you have, our retention rate is ridiculously low because I know that the product that we deliver is is amazing. Uh and you treat people the way they want to be treated and you give them what they ask for, then everything else will fall into place. It's it's almost I don't want to say that's it's easy, it's hard to run a business, it's overwhelming. But if you're doing all the little things, you don't have to do anything fancy. You have a website that works, you have a marketing agency that does what they're supposed to do, you have great coaches that deliver a great product, and then you hold your coaches accountable for what they're doing. It's it's simple. And if you do those things very simply, then all of the it just kind of it compounds. It's like we went from 20 people in September to 143, which is mind-blowing. So it's it's those things like if you can invest in and hold yourself accountable and know and count on yourself to do all those things, then absolutely 100% I do it all over again. And it does help to have some knowledge from a like from the back end of what I'm getting myself into, but you have to get over, let go of control, and you have to be okay with putting somebody else in charge of something, but you have to know and have the confidence in yourself that you know how to hold them accountable and and hold them to those standards and metrics as a coach, as a salesperson, as a you know, from a marketing standpoint, like is your marketing agency doing what they're doing, doing what they're supposed to do, of course. So it's it's letting go of control and betting on yourself that you can that you can do it. And from somebody that and from a standpoint of somebody that's that's unsure, I will I will tell I'm blue in the face, just do it. You know, if if you have the right people in place, then it's it's almost it's easy, it's seamless, but you have to do the little things. It's like being an athlete, like you uh to get better at something, it's just repetitions, but you have to be able and willing to do the work to do it.

Advice On Letting Go Of Control

SPEAKER_02 33:25

Yeah, it's kind of like the I think there's a lot of mother hens in the gym owner space, right? I can do you know that fable, the mother hen? Like I can do this on my own.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

You know, and I think that it's yeah, it's like it's advisable to, you know, be self-sufficient for sure. But I promise you this is that most people in the world have not accomplished what they've accomplished on their own.

SPEAKER_00 33:55

No, absolutely not. Not without, yeah. I wouldn't be here without having that experience from my old bus like the old business that I was in, that gym owner taught me a lot. But I like your support system at home, like your my family is a hundred percent behind in beliefs you, and it's it's nice knowing that you know th those people are in my corner, but I I know that when I got ready to hire somebody, hired somebody based on are they a good person? I can coach a squat, I can coach them to coach a squat.

SPEAKER_01 34:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

Having the right people in place and then trusting your systems and trusting that you have everything kind of set up to to run, and just you just have to be able to hold yourself accountable and hold the people accountable that work for you.

Wrap Up And Red Robin Goodbye

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Yeah, you glossed on something. I think you made a really good point there of like having support from your family. You know, I think that that's such a huge thing of like having that support at home and and them believing in you. And because yeah, we're doing something crazy, right? It's just like it's not like it's like what you own a gym, like what? Yeah. So yeah, having that support is is uh so if you don't have that, that might be the first thing you need to work uh for for sure. But Melissa, this was amazing. I'm so proud of you.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

I really am told you that I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys. So and I will say the my old the old gym I worked at, my my owner was she was part of a mastermind, and I knew like when I started looking for one, I knew what to look for and what not to look for. So I very appreciative and very thankful that you are you are who you are and you offer what you offer.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

Appreciate that. And yeah, obviously big credit goes to the rest of the team, Hashi. We'll give Leo a little credit. Leo, a little bit, a little bit, not much. But Hashi, Carly, Mel, and the whole squad. And then and again, I always you know you give big shoutouts to GR over GMM. They're doing a great job as well. So, Melissa, keep up the great work. I'm proud of you. I'm excited for you. I appreciate you doing this interview. You did a great job with the interview as well. So keep keep rocking. Maybe there's some media in your future. But and uh I I'm gonna stop by your gym when I was telling Melissa before we started recording. Her gym is in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and my kids go to I take my kids to a Christian sleepaway camp for two weeks. They've been going for now five years, and we drive literally right through Mechanicsburg every time we go, and it's exactly two, it's at the halfway point, it's two hours. And there's a red robin, there's no red robins around my house. And I love red robin, like I just love it. And so once a year we get to go to Red Robin on the way, but I promise we're gonna stop and check out the gym the next time we're driving up and we'll check everything out and I'll show the kids and stuff like that. That'll be good.

SPEAKER_00 36:50

Awesome. I'd love to have you.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Yeah, all right. Thank you, Melissa. Great job.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

Thank you.