The Gym Owner Playbook: Lessons from South Austin Fitness

Lightly edited for readability. Speaker labels are omitted because the source recording is not diarised; quotes attributed elsewhere on this page were verified against context.

Hey! My body's like, "Holy crap!" After the first round, my body's like, "No, thank you." Yeah. Behind every gym, there's a story. A mission, a spark of passion that started it all. This is Gymdesk Originals. Real owners, real struggles, and the communities they've built from the ground up. Hey! Well... What's up, guys? Where are we today, Brian? We're at South Austin Fitness. In... South Austin. In South Austin. About 20 minutes outside the city. What is it, like 100 degrees right now? Yeah, it's like super hot, and it's whatnot.

What time is it? Austin in August. 10:30? 10:30? Yeah, hot. But we're gonna do a crazy workout today. Looking forward to three different... I'm not even sure what kind of modalities they are. We'll let you know. Mountain City. Yeah, we're looking forward to checking it out. Come on, let's go inside. Hi there. How y'all doing? Doing well. Are you Chris? I'm fine. Oh, Mike? Nice to meet you. Likewise. You too. Brian? Brian? Me too. Caden? Brian. Brian. Hi, I'm Alex. Chris. Nice to meet you, Chris.

Nice to meet you, Chris. Brian. Nice to meet you. South Austin Fitness, conveniently located in South, South Austin, AKA Manchac. We've got a seven-day free trial for anybody and everybody, and there's no contracts ever. Cancel when you want, and we've got you. That makes sense. That was the gym that, man. I'm going to... Oof. Yes. I killed it. That was like... My body's like, holy crap. After the first round, my body's like... Yeah. No, thank you. Yeah. No, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard to catch your breath.

Yeah. Even like your heart. Your heart is like... Your breath is like... Your breath is like... Yeah. It's hard to catch your breath. Yeah. Even like your heart. Your heart is like... Your breath is like... Your breath is like... Yeah. It's hard to catch your breath. Yeah. It's hard to catch your breath. Yeah. Even like your heart. Your heart is like... Your breath is one thing. What? Breath is one thing. Heart. It's like... Calm down. Relax. Whoa. My name is Chris Faye. I'm one of the owners of South Austin Fitness.

I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. I've been in the first place. And so worked with him for years, working out of his former facility. And then, you know, time came where we were looking for a new spot.

I wanted to launch a location that was ours that could, you know, create a community that we want and allowed us to do things different. To not just, you know, have you come in, get your workout in and leave, but feel like part of a family. You know, we want events, you know, you go out, have social hours, host watch parties like we're doing at the end of the month, that kind of stuff. So that's like kind of my why I wanted to launch the gym, you know, that good work life balance while we can help some people.

Yeah, that's awesome. Hi, I'm Rachel. I'm co-owner and trainer here at South Austin Fitness. I'm previously a stay at home mom. A common thread here that we have is Mike. Mike was my trainer, like maybe eight years ago now, eight or so years ago, got me into the fitness industry, convinced me to get my certification to become a trainer. And I've been doing that since 2020. And this is bigger than my biggest dreams. I love being here. I love teaching here. I love the interactions that I get to have day to day with my favorite people.

So I'm so glad to be part of this. She also does a great job of thinking of all the stuff that we don't think about. The little touches you see around here, just a lot of her. My name is Mike. I'm one of the owners here as well. Been in the fitness industry almost 20 years. Started with 24 Hour Fitness. Was a fitness manager, master trainer. Had to reach the ceiling there with where I wanted to go and then eventually went off on my own. This is now the third location I've opened.

I had my first location and I opened two locations there. Had those for 11, 12 years. And then there was a lot that happened with COVID being one of the big factors. It eventually shut down. And since I shut down, this guy's been in my ear about let's get a spot. Let's get a spot. Let's get a spot. And then we finally, you know, we're able to make it happen. And like these two mentioned, you know, when I had my original gyms and we've done a great job of doing it here, too, is like the biggest thing is community, creating a family.

And my biggest accomplishment as a as a previous gym owner, it was when and I didn't even it just happened organically. But for example, there'd be kids birthday parties from gym members that we'd go to. And 80 percent of the people there were gym members and none of them knew each other until they became gym members. So we were creating a community and a family. And we're doing the same here. And it's been, you know, we were open almost a little over half a year now.

And it's been amazing. It's been amazing. It's been such a blast. Ups and down. You were going to, you know, going to have some growing pains as to be expected, you know, but it's been great. It's been great. Awesome. So, Mike, you were training them both sort of. And did you guys know each other? I was just saying, I met Rachel through Mike's old gym, but I actually started with Mike at 24 hour fitness. Oh, so I was out of high school. I was a three sport athlete in high school, always been fit.

And then all of a sudden I get out of high school and I sit on my ass for a summer and I started getting a little belly and it doesn't come as naturally anymore. So I go get gym membership. I start training and actually Sammy, Sammy Scrags, I think was his name. And he left 24. Mike took over his sessions and that's how we met. Okay. And then we went from 24 to your apartment gym that we were training out of for a while. And then he opened his own place.

And as he likes to say, I was the, I christened it. First one to puke there. Yeah. Nice. So I've, I've, I've been with him for a while. And then Rachel joined the gym. You want to tell how you came to be part of his gym? And then, yeah, actually that's kind of a fun story. Yeah. So I was a stay at home mom before, and I have two kiddos and I met his wife, Leslie, uh, through a mom's workout group. And she invited us to his original spot.

And, uh, we had a mom's only workout. That was, uh, great. It got me hooked into working out. Prior to that, I had dabbled, had, uh, you know, memberships and stuff. That's a different places, but nothing that really got me committed to continuous workout regimen. So, uh, met Leslie worked out at Mike's place and I was hooked. I was instantly attracted to the community of people, not only the other moms, but the other members, everyone really merged very organically. It was just a comfortable place to be.

You felt, you feel encouraged. You feel missed when you're not there. You're not there. So that's how I met Mike through his wife. And yeah, like communities, everything to us, to me. And so we do a really good job. We've gotten really good feedback from visitors, uh, coming in for a DECA event. Yeah. About, they can feel the community, the sense of community and the vibes here. So I'm just so proud of it. I, it's been our dream and we're really, we're achieving it so far.

So I'm proud of us. That's awesome. Tell me, so just to kind of round out, you guys met each other. And then who said, Hey, let's all three of us, let's, you know, band together and start SAF. Like what was, you know, how did that happen? It happened like crazy fast. Yes. Really fast. So like I said, Chris had been in my ear. So I shut my gyms down December 31st to 22 was the last day of operation. Right. So January 1, 23, I was on my own, uh, bounced around a couple of gyms training.

These two followed me kind of doing the same thing. We're at a couple of different spots, training our people, trying to teach classes. And, you know, in 24, Chris and I were kind of, you know, getting closer. I was like, all right, man, go ahead and start looking for some locations and we'll see what we can come up with. And believe it or not, actually that year, I was also kind of dabbling in interviewing and I had some other companies kind of recruit me trying like, you know, there was a pretty multi-unit position that I got a couple of rounds of interviews through and just ended up not being the right fit.

But, uh, yeah, this almost didn't happen several different times, you know, but it just, but every time like something, I was like, all right, I'm okay. God, universe, I'm listening, you know? And so we're like, it just, everything kept directing me, us to this. And so, again, I'd been doing this so long. I had the resources and connections and those resources and connections came like that. And it just like, was like, yeah, let's do it. And then, so Chris and I originally went in on this and Rachel was a trainer, but we recently brought her in on, she should have been brought in from the jump.

She's incredible. Yeah. Like I don't even know. I mean, I'm at a loss for like all the little things like, you know, these, the hair ties and tampons and air freshener in the back rooms. Like, but it's like, of course, like the woman's touches is a big factor, but it's not even that it's so much more than that. You know what I mean? Like just everything about this woman, like it just, she's able to tie every little loose end together and then some, you know? And so it's been such a blessing having her, like, you know what I mean?

Like, cause Chris and I, like we're at the end of the day, like, no matter how much we know about the fitness industry, about business, whatever, like at heart, we're done. We're dumb brutes. You know what I mean? And so like, she's the perfect yin to our dumb yang. You know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying? So it's been great. It's been great. It's been great. That would be the Instagram thing. Like, put that out again. That's funny. So really cool. Everyone has their own journey and what you mentioned, you're, you know, you're gaining weight and all that.

Like I have my little story. And what, I mean, look at this. Crazy, right? We did. Let's get this guy in the camera. Come in here. So we get a little bit of sound. Brian right here. Our VP of marketing joined, joined in and we did three sessions. Back to back. Back to back. Back to back. We should definitely do that. So we did, the first one was HIIT, right? High intensity interval training. What was the second class called? Metabolic conditioning. Metcon. Metcon. Metcon. Metabolic conditioning.

Right. So can you tell us a little bit about that class? The Metcon is a longer than the HIIT class. It's 45 minute class. And that consists of periods of higher intensity and then weight training as well. So it's a good combo of both. Um, if you, it's good bang for your buck, you're going to get a good workout in both cardiovascularly and weight training. So. Okay. It's a good hybrid of our lift class, which is our PAT and our HIIT. Yeah. Right. So the HIIT is a little bit more slower, more, you know, lifting primarily.

The HIIT is high intensity. You got, you know, you guys saw 25 minutes, you know, so instead of short and sweet, we like to call it short and savage. Right. And then the Metcon is a good hybrid of both. Yeah. Yeah. And so the last one was called. You want to know about. Yeah. Yeah. So programmed adaptive training. Okay. Um, so we come in, we write all our own workouts. Everything's, you know, in our own brains. My, I would train Monday, Tuesdays. Mike's usually Wednesday, Thursdays, and we split Fridays.

And so we just communicate throughout the week. Like, Hey, I had a heavy anterior day today. So front side of the body, upper. So a lot of shoulders, a lot of chest. So he knows when he hits that upper body again, later on in the week, he can focus more posteriorly. And then within that class, allowing for all fitness levels, allowing, you know, you have a trainer, a certified trainer that didn't have someone else write the workout form. They wrote it themselves. And so they know how to regress a movement or how to progress a movement, make it more challenging for those athletes that need that.

But also we have people that have had knee replacements, shoulder replacements, their backs been bothering them lately. Their shoulder won't raise above a certain level. And so we have to adapt during the class. Yeah. The adaptive portion to accommodate and help them still get their fitness in without aggravating whatever's bothering. And in that same vein, we also have an in-house chiropractor and an in-house physical therapist. So if there's something that the collectively between three of us can't figure out, we've got two legit doctors in the house.

You know what I mean? I didn't go to enough school for that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's awesome. And I love the comprehensive sort of like health coverage, trying to meet people where they're at and help. Was it like that on day one? Do you always have the chiropractor? So that was one, that was one of the many things that, I mean, it was just beautiful how it lined up. Like literally our chiropractor, a couple of my clients had been seeing him for a while and they've been telling me, you know, to go see him.

I got some hip issues. So I went and saw him once. He was amazing because, so he's not your traditional old school chiropractor where we just adjust you and send you on your way. And, you know, I got to see you three times a week for six months and, you know, twice and then once a week. And no, he, his goal is to get rid of you and send you on your way and fix you within one to three sessions, five at the most. Like he's, he's, he's that good.

Right. And cause he doesn't just adjust you. Right. They're starting to realize more and more research that comes out is if you're having these bone or joint issues and that adjustment is good and it'll relieve the pain right then and there. But the catalyst and the root cause of that is more than likely a tissue issue. Right. Right. And so if you're not correcting the tissue and working into that muscle and the fascia, it, you're, the muscle is going to pull you right. The imbalance is going to pull your joints right back to the work.

He does deep tissue work. He does cupping. He does the full gamut, you know, and can, and we'll fix you within one to three sessions. It's insane. Yeah. He's insane. And so, yeah. I went to see him, uh, the second time and I don't know why I just, I had a feeling that I was like, I just kind of asked him, I was like, man, how you doing by the way? You know, he just looked like he was off a little bit against only second time I met the guy.

And, uh, he's like, actually, and he kind of goes off on, you know, like there were some issues with, he's trying to get out of the current lease. He's in and all, you know, yada, yada. And Chris and I think we had just got this place the week before. And I was like, you didn't sign any leases yet. Have you like, you need me? Like what? And he's like, uh, kind of, but why? What's up? And I'm like, bro, I just got another gym. Like we have an office space.

I would love to have you there. And he was like, are you serious? Like where? And I'm like, Manchuk. And he was in Kyle, which is, you know, 20-ish minutes from here. And he's like, stop. That's where I was looking in Manchuk. I mean, I can't, I can't make, you can't make this stuff up. Like he was literally looking in this exact area and it just, and it worked out beautifully. And I'll let, I'll let Chris tell you about John. Cause he's been going to him for a while.

Yeah. So like John's been my PT for every injury that I've had for the past eight or nine years. So car wrecks, shoulder issues. I have, you know, three herniated discs in my back that every once in a while will just flare up. And he's been the guy I've gone to consistently. And I've joked for years about like, you know, Hey, when I open my own place, you should come work. We'll feed off each other. It'll be great. And you know, he was, you know, receptive to the idea.

But at the same time, it was just always like, Oh yeah, yeah, cool. Oh yeah, yeah, cool. And then I call him and I'm like, Hey man, I'm signing the lease on a place tomorrow. And it just so happens to work out that he was in a bad spot with the company that he was with. Like they had just cut his pay by four to five K a month. Uh, he was looking for a new way to make that up. And so he was like, you know what?

I'm going to go ahead and try it out. He moved in here and started working part time, just out of here treating clients. Um, and then eventually he realized he's I'm doing well enough. I'm seeing enough people. I don't need the other place. So he was able to leave that job completely and move here full time. And it's just, it's been a great conglomerate of like he said, if, if someone has an issue and we don't know what to do, we can send them to them once they're done treating the tissue issue.

Right. We're great for helping retrain the muscle on how it's supposed to move. Right. So that's our gig. And so it's a very good symbiotic relationship. Like you would see in nature. It's like, if they're hurt, we got them. If they need retraining, they have us. And it's worked out really well. A lot of our clients are going to see them. Uh, our experience today. Right. We did three, which is unusual. Right. Very unusual. So good, good, good. Uh, good job again. Yeah, no, no, but I wanted to bring up a point.

Like, so you talked about like the fitness, uh, you know, you had slipped on the fitness or whatever. I kind of had my own personal experience like that too. You know, post COVID, you know, it was just, there was nowhere to go. I was, I lived like in the middle of nowhere. And then, uh, then I had a kid. So then I was like doing the sympathy weight with my wife. And I remember being in the hospital with her and I wouldn't got a bunch of food.

And I was seeing like chips, just a disaster. Right. I just wasn't taking care of myself. And then I was trying to get back in the gym. And as disciplined as I am, I couldn't do it. You know, long story short, I finally broke. And I was like, you know, I'm pushing 50 now, everybody. So it's harder as you get older, as harder to get back. Like once you like at a certain age. Right. But there are two things I wanted to bring up. One is I don't push myself as hard as I did in here.

And I felt like a weird, I don't even know how to explain it. It was like my body telling me, Hey, be careful. And it's like, you mentioned the word, did you call it? Like finding the quit or something like that. Oh yeah. Finding the quitter and you, and, but like, but not letting that quitter win. Yeah. And they were going back to like the culture thing. Because I was in the class, I'm like, bro, you're not quitting. Right. Like the little, Hey, Hey, you should chill now.

And I'm like, bro, we're going to keep going. Right. So I'm having that internal dialogue. Instead, he goes and grabs the hundreds. Yeah. Yeah. So, and by the way, that was, so it ties it. That was another point I was going to make. I've been trying to hit those for like four years. And I, you know, I finally did it and I've been doing it at home. I'm like, Oh, I don't know if I'll be able to do that now. But in terms of the culture part, again, it's the same thing.

When you guys were cheering me on, you have no idea what that did for me. Cause I was like, I felt like something inside was just, so if you're giving that to others who are, you know, they're going through their own journey. Like that's an incredible thing to give other people. And I could see why people want to go hang out and do things, you know, it's like, yeah, you get, you guys see other people like share stories like that as well. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's one of the, one of the many like sayings or slogans that we'll say is like, you know, here, like we lift each other up and them weights, you know, and it's not and them, it's them, the, and we lift each other up and them weights, right?

Like it's, and the weights is the second, right? Because again, the people come first, you know? And another thing is like, push yourself and each other, you know? You know, so it's just about having that relationship. And like everybody here, like a lot of them following and followers from Chris. And then obviously, you know, from mine and my old location and Rachel's got her people as well. And, but you know, now they're all blending and they're all becoming close with each other too. So it's just, it's just, they ask if they're going to show up to another class.

Like, Hey, you can come in tomorrow. What time? And that's really what I wanted. And, you know, another thing I wanted to touch on just real quick is like a lot of people, this is their happy place. Yeah. Like the, they get away, they get their hour workout in, they see their friends when they're here and then they go about their day. They go work, they do all the normal day to day stressors. And so for a lot of people, this is their escape. And so we have to remember that as trainers, like they're coming in here, not just to get a workout in, but to, you know, feel appreciated, feel, you know, like they've accomplished something and that's our job is to help them feel that way.

Yeah. You know, like someone hits a big PR, you know, everybody's patting them on the back, congratulating them, cheering them on, you know, like you grabbed the hundreds and I was like, Oh, he's fucking going to do it. He's going to impress them. And so I'm like, let's go with it. Come on. And so I was just stoked to see someone else grab them. Cause usually that's what me and you think. And the other thing I would just want to add is that people's happy places, people specifically tell us, you know, my anxiety is like really bad today.

I really need this. I'll be there at such and such time. And we, it's just a good place to let off steam and be with the people that you're comfortable with, be with people who will lift you up. And so, yeah, that's. So to get back to kind of what you were touching on, like, you know, the finding the quitter and Chris mentioned, like, I call it suffer sessions that I'll take myself and others through. Like people don't realize like, and you were having that internal dialogue and you know, you were trying to explain, like, I can't explain what you guys cheering me on was doing for me.

It's not just that, but it was also the fact that you're able to push through. Right. Like, and from a neuroscience standpoint, like what that does, like it, there's, there's several areas of your brain where it actually will fire on all cylinders and grow and create more connections. Like, for example, like your hippocampus, which is like the area of your brain for like memory retention and just memories in general. And, you know, it grows that area, but then you're, uh, intermissing a cortex, which is your kind of the area of the brain that will increase your longevity, believe it or not.

Right. And so this particular part of the brain is found to be huge in like these super agers that were, I don't know if you guys heard, you know, people living into like a little, you know, well beyond what we're used to seeing people live. And it's because in that particular area is when you push to a certain point, right. And to where you want to quit and it's that hard and you don't want to do it, that's keys. You don't want to finish it, but you do.

And it grows out of the brain. It just, it's so much benefit for just your mental health and everything, man. And that's, again, that's what we try and continue to do here with all of our members and athletes. And he's the dumb Yang. You were talking a little bit about the kids program. Yeah. Right. Talk a little bit about that in terms of actually, was that also intentional in the very beginning? Did it just kind of organically come out of nowhere? And how big of a component is that of the business?

We're still working on an official kids youth program right now. The stuff that we've done this summer, um, is just, so I'm also a performance coach for one of the soccer clubs here in town, cap city. Uh, I might be a little biased, but it's the best soccer club here in, I would say at all of Texas, but, uh, I'm their performance coach. Right. And so I ran a couple of camps here for different, kind of some of the elite, you know, the higher level kids.

And so we, I did that all summer. And then, you know, we all have between three of us, we've got several youth athletes that we train kind of one-on-one, you know, volleyball players, basketball players, football players. But so we're still trying, we're trying to fit in the schedule and actual youth program where it's, you know, at least one to two, maybe three times a week. Or, or it's a class where you like high school kids and middle school kids can come and train. But yeah, cause all three of us have so much experience with that.

And that's, you know, pouring into the youth to me, like it doesn't get much better than that, you know? And so we've been trying to figure that out. It's just been hard getting it in the schedule. So we're going to get that done as soon as we can though. Yeah. Any, do you guys have stories of like transformations, either kid or adults who come in here? It's like, they've been training with you for a little while. I mean, obviously you two have been here, but since you've started this place, do you have anything that kind of stands out?

Chad? Yeah. Yeah. Go ahead. Chad be a great example. Um, Chad was, he hadn't exercised in years. He's also a two-time cancer survivor. Yeah. I was just going to say two-time cancer survivor had, had some of his, um, you know, cardiovascular health affected. Right. And so he was really only at about 70% capacity. So coming in, we knew we were going to have to, you know, take it easier on him, but he's excelled, progressed insanely well. He's lost over 25 pounds now. Yeah. Uh, he's starting to do some more of our lifting stuff, our lifting classes, uh, and not just the hit.

So like, he's been a great story. We got a couple of really strong women in here too. Yeah. Jess and Adrian. They're amazing. Bailey's an amazing athlete. We have a ton of like standout cases. And then we have, you know, the people who have just started their journey. You know, we have brand new people coming to the doors, never lifted a weight in their life when they're 40 years old. And so you have those clients that like, you get to see, I'm working with a 65 year old man right now.

And he hasn't worked out in over 30 years and he's seeing state better stabilization. He's not having to use the rails going upstairs anymore. Just great muscle gain. He's getting all those good newbie gains. And it's just the neurons reawakening the muscles for him. It's all it's doing. His brain is like, Oh, you want me to recruit this now? And it's re teaching his body how to use his muscles properly. And it's been really rewarding for me to see his short term progress. Even sweet little Michaela.

She's a little 17 year old, like never really lifted before in her life. And she's, she's one of our members. She's a daughter of one of our members, best friends, but she's trying to get her mom in here too. But she's just adorable and like comes in and is like trying to, you know, push heavier and, you know, and eat more and put on some muscle. And it's been cool watching her journey too. Which for me is super rewarding because growing up, I was an athlete.

I was a volleyball player in high school. We never went to the weight room. It wasn't a thing that girls did. I didn't know until I was almost married in my twenties that girls could lift weights. I mean, you're not going to get bulky and all that silliness, but that it's important. It's important for, as you get older, for your bone density, for women to be lifting weights and taking care of their bodies this way. So I love having the younger kids, girls, especially influenced to be active, be strong.

I think it's just, it's something I miss growing up and I'm glad that we can impart that on the next ones to come in. She would say she wants to be shredded. Love it. Yeah. Maybe I'll ask you about your early days. What was it like? You just, you know, you opened the doors. You had some equipment, I'm sure from your old spot, you know, but tell me about how the opening went. Were you recruiting and trying to pre-sale before you're open? So honestly, yeah, I had a lot of my old equipment, thankfully still, but between the three of us and, you know, like Chris and I, like, I mean, there's over almost 40 years of experience or maybe, maybe a little over, actually over four years of experience between the three of us, you know, and we've all, all of our experience has been in South Austin.

So collectively, we've got a pretty decent following. Well, and I was born and raised here. Right, right, right. I know people. Yeah. And so like, we've, we've been very blessed. Like we opened the doors and by month, like our goal was to get to 50 members as quick as possible. And we got there, I think by month three. Yeah. Yeah. No, it is. Now I thought you were gonna ask, but like my early, early days, my first location. Now that was a different story, but yeah, we've been, we've been very fortunate, you know, to be in the stages of our lives that we're in, right.

With the followings that we have and the experience that we have to where this was a pretty smooth opening, you know? So, yeah. Just to add to that, we opened right around Thanksgiving. We got the keys right at Thanksgiving. And I think it was that weekend that Chris had some of his original personal clients coming in and training with just bare bones. I mean, it was the concrete floor. It was some dumbbells. It was not equipment. I mean, it wasn't anything like this. It was, I mean, the people who just want to be here, want to be a part of it.

Doesn't matter, you know, what it looks like. I mean, it's beautiful today, but it wasn't always that way. And. Exactly. And just to add to that, like most of my people are coming from an outdoor bootcamp perspective. Like I was a bootcamp instructor for years. And so they came inside and they're like, you mean, we don't have to deal with the wind, the rain. We get AC. There's a bathroom. There's a bathroom. Like, so for them, like just, they were excited for anything. And so I was really happy to bring them in and be able to, you know, have them ready to go.

Also fringe sport has been. Yeah. Shout out to Peter Keller, the owner of fringe. They've been great. They really have like their local Austin company. If you go pick up and you're, they'll give you a local gym discount. They'll give you a pickup discount. Like, and so instead of paying shipping, you're getting money off. So like, they're an amazing company. And that's why a lot of our equipment you'll see is fringe. So definitely worth noting. What's next for you guys, you know, where, what's the aspiration, the business goals and all that.

Are you trying to get to a certain member type? I mean, a member count and is it developing the children's programs or what's the, what's the, what's on the horizon for you guys? Yeah. A lot of ideas. Yeah. We, I mean, we have too many ideas. Grow the current programs, grow the member base is number one, you know, and then yes, get that youth program launched. But I would say the biggest focal point is no matter how big we get, no matter how much we grow is we don't lose sight of who and what we are, what we're about.

Right. And people come first. You know what I mean? Relationships come first, the community, the culture comes first, you know? And so that's the biggest thing, you know, we meet once a week and, you know, we always try and keep that at the forefront. Like at least some little small talking point, talking about our energy, the culture and checking in on each other's mental health, how we're all doing, you know? And cause if we're not good, this ain't good, you know? And so we've all got a lot going on.

He's, he's a brand new dad, baby girl, you know, she's got two kiddos, one going into high school this year. I've got three, one going into high school, you know? And then he started over with the third. I did. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know? So finally got my baby girl. Shout out to baby Nala. I forget where I was going with that, but. Well, so like, uh, you know, other, other things we've been thinking about is, you know, we've been talking with our physical therapist. He's willing to put together a good intro slash transitionary program for his clients going from a PT side of, uh, of things that come in, they work out at our gym.

They're like, Oh, I'd love to be a part of this, but they're scared to jump into those classes. So he's talked about, you know, putting together an introductory program. We're teaching people how to lift before they join into the classes on top of the programs that we want to do. We want to do more cultural events. Like I want to take people out and go float the river just as a gym, you know, it nothing's, you know, sure. We're some swag out there, whatever. But it's less about promoting the gym at that point.

It's more about spending time with our members outside of this gym facility. You know, I've been to how many client weddings? Yeah. Like six, seven client weddings throughout the years. I've, I've, I've officiated a wedding for two of my clients. Like I mean, like I've trained the husband and wife. And so that's the kind of relationship you want. You want them to like Eric hit me up. He had an extra ticket to a UT football game. He's like, you want to go? Of course I do.

So he, I went out there with him and we hung out and watched a UT football game together. It wasn't like a, Oh, you know, uh, that is my client. So I'm a, I'm going to work. No, it's, he's my friend. Yeah. No, it's great. After August, I believe at the end of August, planning to launch a women's lifting class. We're going to pilot it on Sundays. Um, she's gonna be our trainer for it and then hopefully expand that as it grows. So that was the other program I didn't want to forget to mention.

I'm excited about that. Yeah. Get my wife in here, get her out of the, out of the house, away from baby for a little bit. For new gym owners or, uh, aspiring people that want to open up their gym, whatever modality that they might want to do. Could be martial arts, could be this kind of gym or a yoga studio. Um, seems to me you have a story, a backstory, like, uh, what advice, maybe even drawing into your past, if things didn't work well, like someone's going to start, what's your advice for them?

The first things, I don't know how they popped up in my head this quickly, but they did. So the first thing is obviously work hard, right? Like you want to, you gotta be the hardest worker that you know, right? Be kind, be nice, right? Also don't allow you being kind and nice to put yourself in a position to where you're a pushover. Right? Like I grew up very different than, than how I behave today, as I'm sure most of us do, right? Like very different than what, you know, but I was to put it as nice as possible.

I was a very aggressive kid. I was the furthest thing from a pushover. Right? I'm a father and I never wanted that person to see the daylight again. So I went way extreme with being like overly nice, too nice, not knowing that I could also be assertive without the jackass showing up. Sorry. Okay. You know, and so like, you know, and not that I have any like crazy stories of me getting like messed over, but I just, I was able to realize, and like, I can also, you know, set boundaries, be assertive and, you know, not be a pushover, but also be the kindest, loving, caring person that I can be as well, you know, and the hardest worker, like that's put those three, keep those three things, those three things, um, as your main focus.

And I mean, you can do anything. I was also going to add, you know, if you can help it, don't do it by yourself. You know, and it, like just the business side of things is a lot for me to do. It's been a lot for me to think about without having to think about the classes, without having to think about equipment, without having to think about painting and getting stuff done around here. And so it's been instrumental having a team to do it with that, you know, obviously we've known each other for a long time.

So we kind of know each other's strengths and, you know, each other's tendencies. Some of us take a little bit more on our plates than others too often, but, you know, having that support system has really helped me with the business side of things. So I can focus on, you know, like just day to day, the rent, you know, do we need supplies? Do I need to up my membership at Gymdesk? Move up to that one 50 bracket, you know, stuff like that. And then some of the Gymdesk organizational stuff.

I, you know, I take a lot of that on myself. And, you know, at first, honestly, I was just like, I mean, I wish they'd really learn it. But at the same time, I realized they do so much more in other ways. I'm like, I'll take that on. That can be me. And so that's been something that's really been helpful for me is having that help. And from from a logistical standpoint, to answer that question, like, aside from the emotional stuff, right, is like, you know, because I've been asked this question a lot.

Right. And, you know, trainers coming to me, how do you do on your own? You know, yada, yada. And the best advice I can give any aspiring trainer who wants to be a gym owner is go first work at a big corporate gym. Learn the ins and outs of the business side of it, the sales side of it. Right. Because most trainers get in the industry because we care about health and wellness and want people to reach their goals. Right. None of us get in it because we're good salespeople, good salesmen, you know.

But that's part of it, too. And you got and you learn that. And most it turns most trainers off and they don't real because they don't know how to do it and they don't learn it. Well, in a big corporate setting, they got salesmen. They got the membership counselors. They got the club managers. They're going to teach you and train you. And you'll be able to pick and pull from the best, you know, that do it that the best little tricks of the trade, so to speak, as becoming a good salesperson, because you got to be able to sell yourself.

So what your services and then meet everybody in that gym and get to know everybody. Like I said, I left 24 Hour Fitness on great terms. I was able to do it in a manner that I took all my clients with me, let them know. Right. I didn't you know, I did it to where all of my members sessions were done the day I left. So nobody was asking for refunds. We didn't screw over the gym, you know. And so I started in my company with a full roster.

Right. And I've I've learned with just other trainers that I've like asked me and they start on their own. Like, how do you get clients? Yeah. I've got to go and work in a big gym first. And because they'll your spoon fed clients at most big facilities like that, you know. And so and retain them. Right. Be a good trainer. Retain them. That's where the emotional stuff comes in. Work hard. Be nice. All good stuff. Right. Learn as much of the business side of it from a big Mecca gym, a lifetime of gold to 24, you know, and then when you're ready, go launch your own thing.

One little anecdote or story that's kind of related to that. I feel like I learned a lesson. So I had my own chain of restaurants a long time ago. Right. And but the first one, the very first one that I opened, I had a friend come visit. And it just so happens that the prior owner of the restaurant was in there when this was happening. This is like a little event. And they're like, oh, yeah, let me get the such and such. They got some food.

I remember what it was. And I handed to him. And, you know, the woman was right here. And, you know, the bill came, you know, Bill. And he's like, I was like, hey, don't worry about it. I got you. He's like, oh, OK, cool. And the lady said, what are you doing? I'm like, oh, it's a friend of mine. He's like, if that's your friend, they should be more than willing to pay. This is your business. For sure. And, you know, this was a passion project for me, too.

And I was like, oh, yeah, I guess you're right, because this is a business. If I don't think of it that way, then I'm then it won't be a business and it'll fall apart. I think there's probably elements of that when we're living in passion space that we forget. Like, oh, no, we have to make money to continue doing what we want to do. Right. And that's part of like you still being able to be assertive and not being too kind that you're a pushover. Right.

You got to be able to set those boundaries and be like, listen, man, I love you. You want me to succeed. Right. Like I need my money. You know what I mean? Like, I know you love me, too. Right. So, like, I'm going to help you boy out. Right. I mean, to be fair, I've got lots of friends who have their own businesses. And that's something that, you know, like you said, I learned very early on in my training career is like, don't give away the freebies, but also same thing to your friends, businesses pay full price.

Don't let them give you a discount, support them. Right. Right. And, you know, because they're the same as you know, they're just trying to make it. And if you're, you know, taking away from that and not giving to them and supporting them, are you really their friend? Like, you know, now, granted, there are people in my life. I'll make an exception. Like, I'm not going to charge my dad. Of course. I'm training at the gym. You know? So we've allotted ourselves, what, 10, 12 slots. Yeah.

Of just people that we're like, you know what? They get a membership. They get a pass. They've either helped us financially. They've helped raise us. They're related to us in some way. And so those are the only people that, you know, in my brain, you know, my parents will always get a pass. My wife, obviously, is not going to pay for membership. But if you are not my best friend, like if I'm not a best manager wedding, you're paying. Right. Right. So. Right. Yeah. And maybe just going on what you said earlier, when you brought up Gymdesk.

I'm curious. How did you even find us? Like, what did that look like with that process? Uh, so actually, Mike had used another program before at his previous gym. And I just personally wasn't a fan of the interface. You know, booking a session was weird for me. I had to keep logging in every time I would open the app. And I was just like, it was too much. I started just Googling, not only software companies, but software companies that would integrate at a reasonable charging rate.

And so y'all allowed for authorized.net. You know, y'all also have Stripe, I believe. Square, I think, was another one that I was looking at originally. But y'all integrated with the one I wanted to use. And so I was like, oh, well, let me check out this Gymdesk. I found y'all through Reddit originally. So just so you know, when I was searching on there, that was one of the ones that popped up. And I went and checked out y'all's website. And I was like, this does everything I want it to do.

You know, I obviously had to take some time learning the interface. But once I got that down, like it does everything I want it to do. Like there's one or two things that I like I said, I would love a personal client list. So like when we log in, we see our personal clients, how many sessions they have. That would be a cool separate feature along with like members, visitors, and then like have a client section. But other than that, like it's made processing payments easy.

It's made, you know, point of sale easy. You know, I can do punch cards as we call them. So it's either 20 bucks a day or you can buy 10 sessions for 150 bucks. So you don't have to do a month to month membership. And I love that's an option as well. So that's how I found y'all was Reddit. I think we probably can do what you're saying about seeing that we just got a tag. Yeah. As a personal client for whoever, like Mike's, it'll, you know.

Would it take him from that member section to that client section? Filter by. So you can organize by that. Yeah. Got you. Yeah. Well, I love using the filter system, by the way. That is great. Yeah. Well, good. Well, I was just gonna say, I love using that feature mostly to see who hasn't been here. Cause if they haven't been in about two weeks, I have it set up to notify me. Yeah. And so it's like, if you haven't been in two weeks, you should expect to call or text from me.

Yeah. And that's, that's right. There is one of the many things that separates us. Right. Is we don't want to just collect the payment. We want to see you. Right. Like you are paying us because you want to get in better shape, you know, whatever your goals are. And so if we don't see you in a little while, we're going to check on you. Right. And I don't know, you know, and whatever the reason why, you know, they'll let us know, but they've, it's been, they appreciate that.

Right. Cause again, you're not just another number, you know, that we're just collecting money from. No, like we want to see you like, that's the point you are giving. You're paying us your money for a reason. Let's continue to make it happen. Let's stay consistent, you know? And so, and Chris has been great at checking in on folks, you know, shoot them texts, shoot them emails. And again, they all appreciate it, you know? And it just, it continues to keep them, you know, cause they've even said like, I know if I'm, you know, if I'm taking a week or two off, I'm going to hear from y'all.

And I'm like, yeah, you know what I mean? That's why we're here. Where you at? You know, like, that's why we're here. That's why you pay us. Right. So anyways. Well, you know, especially times like right now, like right now we're about to hit that back to school time. And so a lot of people's schedules are real wonky. People are taking last minute vacations before school starts. So I realized like right now, if I haven't seen someone in two weeks, like they're probably busy. Give them the benefit of the doubt, you know, but if I haven't seen someone who was coming three to four times a week in two weeks, something's changed.

Something's either wrong. Maybe they were sick. You know, that happens all the time or kids got sick or life got busy. But, you know, just that, Hey, how are you doing? Reaching out. You know, I also love that y'all track birthdays. It notifies us when the birthdays happen. So we can wish people a happy birthday. You know, if you could add an integration to like, if they hit a certain session number, like you could program session numbers, like someone hits a hundred, it notifies you. So you can go, Oh, this is your hundredth check-in and you can celebrate that accomplishment with that person.

That would be amazing. Yeah. Perfect. I mean, cause I was just sharing them earlier. Like how I look up, like how many sessions people have done. It shows how many hours they've worked out in the gym. Like I love that feature. And if I could make that a notification, that would be one of them. So like one of the things I want to do is as people hit those milestones, you know, reward them, get them shirts, you know, celebrate them, give them a shout out the gym, give them a shout out on our socials, that kind of stuff.

So, yeah. Yeah. Well, anything else you guys want to share that you think would be kind of cool for us to know or for folks that are watching this? Uh, Machel, you've been quiet. No, I'm good. I spoke. I spoke my piece. All right. You can say who the talkative ones are. I love the hats, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. That's all that man right there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he had these at his old gym. Yeah. Obviously it said something different, but yeah, I use the same company.

Yeah. Shout out to City Lokes. Hell yeah. So the colors, what do they symbolize? Oh, so this particular hat is, it's in my socks too. Yeah. It's Serape. It's like a, it's just a Mexican, I don't even know how to describe it. It's like, you'll see them on like ponchos. Oh yeah. You know what I'm talking about? Yeah. And so, yeah, it's just that same. Are you Mexican? I am. Oh, hold on. That virus, have Mexican. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I can't be Mexican, but that looks Mexican.

Yeah, yeah. Show them the bicep one. No, these are the boys. These are the boys. So this, I got the Mexican flag. Okay, there you go. On this side of the battle axe and the Ireland flag is over here. Oh, nice. That's supposed to be a brighter green, but I got to get that fixed and touched out. Yeah, spend a lot of time in the sun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So my son is kind of like, so I'm full Mexican, but my wife is Italian, like German Irish.

Okay. So he, yeah, I got all the flags. We have a little dojo at the house. I got all the flags. Nice. Nice, nice, nice, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's awesome. And that's something else that, you know, we want to highlight around here is the, you know, Mike's from San Antonio. I was born and raised in Austin. We both love a lot of the Houston influence. Right. And our PTs is from Houston as well. So like, if you look over here, I know the camera can't see it, but like, he's got the Azteca influence, but he's also got active, active RX, his brand chromed out.

He's got the little bling at the bottom representing Houston for like a grill. It's we want that. But like he had his muralist come in and Mike's done most of the other painting in this gym. So, and like I said, that's, that's why, you know, Mike's a busy man. He's very, very busy. But you know, once we finish up, we're still planning on putting plywood up here, but having some stuff that like represents that culture, you know, maybe Vince holding up the trophy or something like that.

And you know, Spurs, something, something to do with San Antonio, the Alamo, anything like that. Like we want to represent all of our cultures and everything here as well. Wow. Make sure everyone knows they're welcome. Yeah. Man of many talents. You don't even know. Writing a book right now too. Yeah. Nice. What's your book going to be called? Do you have a title for it? I do. A-B-C's to A-achieve, B-boundless, C-confidence. And it's directed towards youth athletes with big dreams. Each letter of the alphabet. There's a, what I call power phrase, where there's a phrase that each letter in that phrase start with that same letter.

Right? So for example, the C, one of my favorites is careful and concise communication creates connection. Right? So like, that's one of the things that like, obviously again, it's for student athletes with big dreams. And so, but communication is key no matter what you want to do, no matter what you want to be. Right? And so, but yeah, every letter in the book has a power phrase. And so each power phrase I elaborate on with stories that are relatable, you know, quotes from athletes and, you know, so on and so forth.

So. Great. And are you going to link it on your website eventually for the business or separate or where could people find information about it? It'll be somewhere. It'll be everywhere. It'll be everywhere. I'm trying to, I'm trying to secure a, uh, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to secure a decent pro athlete to write my forward, which would be helpful and beneficial. I know a few, I know a couple of good coaches to that could potentially write it for me, but we'll see. So yeah. Okay. We'll be done with that within the next couple months.

Maybe. Hopefully that's been, been saying that for a couple months. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Well, we're grateful to you for being our clients and our customers and for being so welcoming to us. And, uh, honestly, you guys have done something for me that I've, I'm not experienced in a very long time. Even with the training of the different martial arts that I do and at home training that quit quitter, finding that quitter and just smashing them down and keep going.

Yeah, man. It's a wall that I, there's, I feel like free or something. It's very weird. Hell yeah. It's really cool, man. So thank you so much. You guys are awesome. Uh, we had a great time and, uh, we battled it out. So yeah. Yeah. We did it. Yeah. Something that no one's done yet. So. Right. Right. Yeah. Come on down. It's amazing in here. You'll have a great workout and bust through those barriers you have in your mind and get to another level. Yeah. All right. Awesome. Yeah, man. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.