How We Led Our Fitness Business Through 2020 and 6 Different Pivots
Paden
Have you ever wondered what it’s like to navigate your business through a global pandemic? And not just pivot your business model once, but six different times in a single year? We actually get asked a lot Michael and I on how we’re doing, how do we navigate it 2020, we get asked to speak about how we’ve led the team, even just finishing up 2020, realizing we were only down 9%, over 2019, the year we hit seven figures in our business. And when we look, we wanted to take a minute for listeners to go back together, he and I and think back on what it was really like, what were the hard moments for us what was really going on behind the scenes, and walk back through each and every pivot that we had to make in the business model and some of our takeaways and even with what we’re looking forward to in 2021. Because let’s be honest, we’re still in the middle of this global pandemic. But it felt like we hit a milestone at the end of 2020, where we could look back, kind of take a minute and say, What a crazy year. So we’re going to bring you into our perspective as owners. And this will be part one of this two part series. Because the next episode, we’re going to invite our team to share what it was like for them to implement our ideas to actually have to be the face of the business to so many of our clients navigate their own emotions in this crazy last year, and still manage to be professional uplifting and motivating. And so we want to offer to you this unique insight into both the entrepreneurial leadership side of running a business through pandemic but also cycle back and give you the chance to learn what it was like for the our coaches to go through this many pivots in our business, and still bring the hype, encouragement and professionalism that we’re known for. So I hope you enjoy this episode. And we look forward to sharing with you what we experienced in 2020.
Michael Hughes
Welcome to the Gymnazo podcast where you get to peek behind the curtains of what it takes to create and run a seven figure fitness facility that ranks in the top 5% of boutique fitness studios for revenue. But to be honest, that’s the least important thing about us. Founded by me, Michael Hughes, Gymnazo has created an ecosystem of services that blend performance with restoration techniques, and attracts top coaches to its facility hosted by its owners Paden and myself and our top coaches, this podcast shares our best practices on everything, from how to build a sustainable fitness business, to how to program for maximum results to how to build a hybrid training module that’s online. And in person. We have marketing secrets, movement, innovation, and breaking down trends in the industry. If you’re a fitness professional, or a fitness business owner, this is where you learn how to sharpen your skills and to see maximum results. So there’s so much of our time that I honestly, I don’t even feel I know that we spend future forecasting, right, you and I are a lot about like this happened today. And this is what’s gonna go tomorrow. And this is what my dreams of tomorrow look like, what do you think, and I feel that that’s been obviously huge asset to our relationship, but I really excited that we get the opportunity truly, to be reflective, being now January 2021, we’re gonna spend the next I don’t know, 40 minutes to an hour and a half. Who knows, talking about the past, and 2020. And really digging into what we believe was like our mindset shifts, how many pivots, we went into what we were going through as an owner and as the practitioner and how we either work together, or challenge each other on an on a decision. So I’m amped about this particular podcast, and really couldn’t think of a better partner, wife, spouse and friend, that can dive back to the past 365 days that we had no idea or coming was an issue that we’ve talked a lot about, like, oh, when the next recession happens, we’re gonna do that. And yeah, here we were slapped in the face with it. And well, we’re not through it yet. But we’re certainly we would you say at the beginning of the end,
Paden
I think we’re at least at a milestone of recognition that we’ve finished, you know, the 2020 year and even though I know we both believe are going to continue to have to pioneer and persevere through most of 2021. At least it’s good to acknowledge what what just happened. Because a lot happened. Yeah, a lot happened and who we had to be. And what we had to do was really a powerful shift.
Michael Hughes
You mentioned to me not that long ago that you know, for some people, you correct me a little bit It is the 2020 rule kind of taught them to, to hold and to rest and to be still. And for us, it was certainly not that no active it was pushing. It was the longest, two weeks, the shortest one month, quote, unquote, in our lives. So what do you mean by that? Yeah.
Paden
So I listened to an inspiring talk with Mel Robbins. And I think she was with Lewis Howes, and they were doing an interview, and she’s kind of clipped a section where she spoke about how she looks back on 2020 as a motivational speaker, where all events were severed, you know, she really looks at it as the great pause is how she articulated it. And she even generalize it to say, you know, most of us had to hit pause in our lives. And I thought to myself, we didn’t have to, we know, like, we would have been dead in the water. If we’d hit pause, pause was never the option pauses what people did who are now out of business, in our industry.
Michael Hughes
That’s true. And the numbers staggeringly growing. Yeah. More and more. And that’s true. So if I look back, right, and I remember in the because the year sharp, just like any other year, right, we’re hanging out with our best buds at their house and brand new year 2020. Wow. 2020 vision year, you know, it’s clarity, all this amazing thing that started the new decade, depending on how you do the math. And three months into it. Yeah, three months and what 17 days?
Paden
Well, today’s hold up because 12 months ago, we you threw a huge party to celebrate Gymnazo being in business going on its 10th year in business. And we had like, it started off with this flapper era. What did we call it rings roaring into the 20s or roaring 20s. And we had a huge party. I mean, hundreds of people here, super fun, catered live music,
Michael Hughes
like it was a really goes the best holiday party we’ve ever
Paden
had. Yeah, and it was really a cool like, we felt like we were kicking it off in a really profound and great way. For me personally, I remember, like typing out in the notes in my iPhone, something called why this last year was the hardest year of my life. And last January, I wrote down at least 20 things that happened to me personally, including postpartum depression, including, like having all these things, late nights, writing this course doing all these different things and how it was so hard, and I’m really looking forward to entering into a season in my life that was going to be easy.
Michael Hughes
Gosh, made me think it’s right. I can’t just jump into it. We have to go 2019
Paden
Yeah, we were a little bit we were grinding in 2019. Like we worked so hard and had a second baby and founded a second business. That’s
Michael Hughes
right. So going into the r&d and investment.
Paden
Yeah, we put every penny we had as people because we were funding it from our savings account. And we look literally MTB into all the savings and max out the line of credit for Gymnazo on this new business believing with our souls manifesting in our biggest ways how we were going to hit reach another seven figure business and that’s how we went into 2020
Michael Hughes
That’s right. So just real quick those those listening as Ben I have this kind of reflection here we started what’s called Gymnazo Edu or Gymnazo media to be quite transparent, which is Gymnazo Edu. And that was our basically traders are b2b Right, we’re b2c Now it’s our b2b to really take what we’ve done for the last decade and coach coaches because it’s been profoundly successful of what we’ve done with our own environment Long story short, you know, that’s where the six figures goes in. That’s where the course Christian goes and that’s where we’re totally uncomfortable right now at the end of 2018 I was totally uncomfortable Yeah. In writing
Paden
huge checks we’ve never written before to try to partner with the with like the magic bullet marketing team that was going to just rake it in and we just wanted to make impact and help people and we went into 2020 Like okay, here’s the energy like this better work
Michael Hughes
on displays and all the all the cash all the contracts we had to sign all the relationships we put together
Paden
it’s an opt in for four months spending $10,000 a month for a marketing agency so we had some big skin going into the game of 2020 before anything fan that’s
Michael Hughes
when we started doing our webinars and just like it’s it’s like a whoopee cushion
Paden
it was a lot of me going Michael we can do it like you have to just sell people this way and Michael resisting to his core like it doesn’t feel authentic. It doesn’t feel right. This is not the right way to do this. Anyways, yeah.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, but so that’s how we really sewed first perspective, reminder. I don’t want to call him histology because that’s longing longing for the past. so long for that, but definitely that’s 2020 started was already in a grind,
Paden
hoping for relief. Like we were ready to, like, take a minute take a vacation like we desperately needed a vacation.
Michael Hughes
Remember, we took a vacation the end of 2019 after doing all the prep for the course. Yeah, we thought we were done no into Mexico. Oh, that’s right. And then we were like, not even close. Oh, yeah.
Paden
We were married like you guys. We were. We were showing I was working. We had multiple babies. You were working like 10 hour days, like usual. And then I was coming back online from eight to midnight every night with a newborn waking me up four to five times a night like it was a man reading scripts. Yeah, writing scripts so that you could go on weekends, on top of your full coaching schedule to shoot all the content for our course in our coaching program. Yeah. Yeah. So when we went like we were exhausted going into 2020. Then my grandma passed away, which was emotional for me. And yeah, so we start off with arch. And like, let’s talk about that.
Michael Hughes
Well, it’s interesting, because we start off with that. But you know, the interesting thing is like, you know, I love the this quote that I read from the Navy SEAL book. When you think you’re right, you’re 100%. Really out. You’re 40%. Yeah, yes. 60% left, or whatever the number is right. You got more left significant left. And we certainly proved that. Yeah. So here we go. Right back to now we were March 14, is when we were sat down at our team meeting. Right? Yeah, I mean, we got it was eminent that was shut down, locked down in our small little County, in the middle of nowhere between San Francisco and LA was going to get Shut, shut down.
Paden
Yeah, it was we went through the denial phase. We went through the flabbergasted phase, like how are people taking this so seriously, then we started to pay attention and realize it was serious. And it wasn’t just serious. It was coming for us. Like we have to be ready for this.
Michael Hughes
We weren’t the first gym to shut down. But we started to work toward the last. Yeah. And
Paden
then there was I think you’re talking about the week that it was like, every business owner anywhere has to make the ethical choice for all of your members on whether you stay open or whether you close indefinitely, or for whatever, you keep thinking it to two weeks like we sold two weeks, guys that day, we just got rain this sucker actually coming to think about Yeah, well, we can’t think about that. But um, and then like you’re in this uncomfortable places, the owner, like you have to make this, this decision that impacts hundreds of people in our case. And I remember we circled up with our team, and we poured whiskey shots. And we sat
Michael Hughes
there and the bourbon just flows. Well, bullet bourbon, though,
Paden
I really can’t tell the difference. But yes, you can. So everybody sat around, and we just said like, are we making this choice? And we don’t know what we’re going into. But as a team, we kind of circled up and just said like, yeah, we feel that we need to make this pivot.
Michael Hughes
Yeah. So we took a toast and slug it down. Some of us took two.
Paden
And you meant yes. But do you remember walking out of the facility that night?
Michael Hughes
It was eerie. Yeah. I remember it being the last one here.
Paden
Yeah, you were emotional about it. That was hard to walk out and feel the emptiness. I think it was 530. And to realize, this is when we’re pumping, and there’s nobody here. Like what are we about to go into? What do we have a business
Michael Hughes
or business times and it was empty. And it was a Wednesday night?
Paden
I want to say or something like that? Yeah.
Michael Hughes
Middle the week? Yeah, I
Paden
just felt very eerie. And I remember Yeah, so anyways, I know we wanted to dive into mindset.
Michael Hughes
Well, that’s, that’s kind of what it is. You know, it’s like what we were going through, you know, I really want to share what it took to be a business owner and a coach during this during this time. And, like I like all things it starts with your mindset. And remember, you did a really good job of leading that team meeting. And if you don’t know Peyton, that, well, you’ll get to know a little bit more right now. She loves any Vikings story out there. You know, Netflix, she’s watched them all. And you know, it was really that kind of Viking goddess in a sense. So it was like weird, like, it’s like, it’s like any any epic movie with any like epic Braveheart type of speech. That kind of happened. It was, it was it was good, because it you know, it was it was your personality shining, saying, This is what we’re going to do. And we’re going to do it as fast as we possibly can. And I’m going to remove any operational roadblock that got in our way. And it’s a story that we share that we’re proud of that we had an email in our in our clients inboxes that Sunday, we shut down I think Wednesday Thursday, with a complete plan of action and videos already It recorded in our first pivot. Our first pivot was doing on Demand training. We filmed an entire quarter CG crush it that weekend. Yeah. And that was that was this is like it was doing it. So take us back to that.
Paden
So for me, there was a moment that as any leader you don’t share, and I remember feeling, Vic, like a victim, I would say there was about 24 hours where I was a mix of anger and just victimized by all of this. And I was really like, What the hell is this? Like, I didn’t want this. I wanted it to be easy. I wanted it. I wanted to win this year. What is this? And it actually just felt like, well, if you want to train trainers, then you need to step up and be a leader that a trainer would follow. And you can start with leading your team. I think that kind of busted me out of my victim Enos and said, You know what, gosh, if there’s one thing we needed, which was to build trust with a training community that doesn’t know who we are, maybe this is the No offense. And I it’s hard to say Silver Linings on a global pandemic that have killed so many people. So I say this in kind of a somberness. But if I had to look at it from the lens of a silver lining, I would say like it was the backdrop we needed to prove our business, crushes it. And that are the what we’ve figured out is absolutely sustainable and Pandemic proof. And now we can say that, but in that and then that moment, I knew, weirdly, this is the backdrop you’re going to be thankful for later. And you need to dominate this season. Because if you can do that you can talk about it and people will connect.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, I think it goes to show that we’ve a lot of a lot of clients, thank you to every single one of them that have said, well, you guys have really done a great, great job. And we kind of look at you’re like yeah, we you know, we really put the effort in like, Thanks for the affirmation, because we’ve been trying. And it’s you know, people kind of ask, Well, how’d you guys do it in a sense, and we’ve practiced the previous nine years. Yeah, the infrastructure, the operations, the communications, the built trust with our, for years, the chain of command, but also the ability to pivot? Yeah, that chain of command. And I thought that was really, really fascinating to see that come out. And we just wrote it. We just, we just wrote it, and then we’re able to kind of fully get an understanding of that, On Demand training is good, but does something better?
Paden
Well, yeah, and that’s where you come in, right? Like I virtual side of Yeah. And I’m always the activator, the move fast. Like, take no prisoners have no questions. That’s my style. Like, if you want somebody that’s just gonna breathe confidence and execution and something, it’s gonna be me, if you want it to be good. It’s not gonna be it’s gonna be you. So there’s so many points are is like, Okay, I’m activating this idea. And you come along, and you fine tune it, sharpen it, systematize it, teach everyone else how to master it. And then you’re off to the next thing, because I’m on the next thing. And now you’re coming, coming up and making sure it’s dialed. And that’s a lot of what we did in 2020. Right.
Michael Hughes
I appreciate that. Yeah, it’s really this concept that we talked about, it’s like, how do we continue to hype up this thing that we used to call subpar? Virtual virtual coaching? Yeah, right. It’s like, virtual, it’s okay. You know, it’s alright. But in reality, as we look at it now, it’s way more than okay. I certainly still believe personal in person training is the is the best. Yeah, but virtuals really close. And better in other ways. Actually,
Paden
I mean, if you have a sweet home gym setup, and you’re self motivated person, it’s, it’s gold,
Michael Hughes
or if you live more than 25 minutes away from your gym, or if you move to a different state. Yeah, you know, if you know that amazing, talented coach, trainer practitioner, and you want access to them. Yeah, those are the amazing parts. Those are amazing parts.
Paden
One thing I would say looking back on 2020, from a mindset standpoint, it was it was like we and I know I wrote an article on Forbes about this, which was it was like we were in a Super Bowl playing to an audience but we didn’t sign up. We didn’t know we were going to be getting game time. Like we didn’t know we were going to be watched but as an entrepreneur and fitness. It was time to get you’re not in the stands watching like you’re actually fighting, bleeding and pushing to stay alive. And it felt very, and I know the Viking thing. It’s true, but like it felt like it was a battle. And it was a battle that we were going to prove like are we going to sink or swim in this and that felt really energizing for me like that visual, that rallying. cry was really, really powerful. And for our team who are all very highly motivated, very competitive people, that really worked, because it was like, Okay, we’re going to do this together. And then for sure, I would say the big thing that you and I both knew instantly, was we were not gonna put anyone on unemployment.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, that’s, it’s really fascinating. You say, like, you know, do you enjoy owning a business, Michael and the pin? You said, so good. One time you said the best part of my week is payroll. Yeah. Somebody looks like really? Like, it’s not the worst part of the week. No. And, you know, it’s, it’s, I mean, maybe from from the heartache of the headache, excuse me to another numbers and make sure it’s right. You know, the details. But what is the point payroll? It’s to support those people who support your dream? Well, yeah, what we do,
Paden
that they’re giving their time and talent to help you build your vision,
Michael Hughes
like that’s the trade of what being a business owner is, and that it is, it’s the best part. And it’s huge to it. I don’t know, it’s like, yeah, it’s like, how can we continue to be, at least, you know, have that kind of monetary thankfulness? relationship? The bond that is between an owner and a employee? And that’s what it is, is that to continue to keep that path going? Nonstop? Yeah. And you were you were on that point? You’re on that point. And part of that, just so you guys know, kind of full details is that was to make that possible, because our business did downtick without a question. It was to remove me off. Yeah. And to make that and make that and make that happen. And that was interesting point. For me being you know, a coach that spent most of my day coaching to not coach. Yeah, and to watch everyone else coach was very guilty feeling I have to be honest. Yeah. Like they’re showing up early. They’re working. I’m still working without a question.
Paden
You’re doing the morning show in your PJs, which is a luxurious time
Michael Hughes
it was worth though it wasn’t mental rest at the baby means it was fun. But so it’s coaching. But it was really looking at the backhand. And it really taught me a big lesson. Because I’ve always been your tummy, I’m raised as a as a doer. Right? You do it if you want it done, right. Here’s the quote, do it yourself. And I’ve learned that that’s certainly a good saying, but it’s not the best saying, it’s certainly something to step back and be able to kind of look at all the work done all the prep work that has to get to get done, and really showed me the value. And I really, you know, again, there’s a lot of prep work, a lot of prep work to get virtual training to the point where it is where to the point where we actually started, we made a course out of it. And that was actually really, really cool. And if anyone listening coach, you want to know what we did. Like literally, we honestly made a very inexpensive course that you could literally check out Janaza edu.thinkific.com. It’s Jim Nazo dot Thinkific Oh, Janaza Thank you. Janaza chamado dot.dot.com. And we have a course that really took us exactly how we pivoted online, the tools that we use, the programming that we use, how we did our, our checklists, how we did our quality control, and the equipment list. Anyways, long story short, we’re all about open sourcing what we’ve done, and providing an example, because we believe that our business will be forever blessed, in a sense, financially blessed because we have virtual training, that we’re not going to turn turn off. So we want that for you. Anyways,
Paden
and there’s a lot of people, I think that have been sitting on the sidelines, capitulating back and forth on is this really going to be the future with virtual training? Or is it just going to go back to in person, and maybe I should just wait for that to happen. So even if you’re in that place, but you’re curious what it looks like to go online, this mini course can be huge for you. And it’s janaza.thinkific.com, how to transition your business online, I think we even go into three different ways to generate revenue with virtual services. That’s right. So you might find one that really speaks to you and fills in a gap for you. And you might find that maybe there’s one that’s turned you off from day one, but we articulate two different other options, and one of those might become a huge source of revenue for you that can stabilize your business in downturns, because that’s definitely what this has done for us. So, yeah, so yeah,
Michael Hughes
so as we begin, it’s funny thing, is that still like a year ago? I know it’s true. So now we go through to you. We we did the math, and we essentially were we had six different major pivots that we had to go through business and coaching. Yeah, right. Because every time we did a a programming pivot, that therefore had to mean a back end. pivot, a software pivot, again, indications pivot, and email pivot. Yeah, it is a
Paden
business pivot. So it affected everybody and everything we did.
Michael Hughes
Alright, so let’s listen up.
Paden
Okay. So the first one that we did was a smaller one. Looking back at the moment, it felt really big, which was about a week before we shelter in place actually went into effect over that weekend, we shot on an entire month of body weight home workouts that would apply to 80% of our clients. And we had an email in their inbox on Sunday saying, we understand that if you want to work out from home, and you want to see how the next two weeks go, and you are no longer feel safe coming in person, you can be on demand. And what we mean by on demand is we pre filmed full length workout videos, that people could work out from home with us. And they can do it any time because they have a 15 minute video, and here you go. So we call that on demand. And so we offered on demand as well as we continue to offer in person training for an entire week. And that was our first pivot. We gave people the option to be virtual, they were massively thankful that we were beating them to the uncomfortable moment where they had to pick up the phone and say, We don’t feel safe coming here. What are your options? Like we had an option before they even felt the emotion that would make them want to shift?
Michael Hughes
Then it came to the first massive pivot. Yeah, which was don’t go in your facility anymore.
Paden
Yeah, that was the shelter in place. You cannot be in facility streets or vacant kind of thing. Stay at home. And even our coaches were training from their homes, like so everybody was in their little cocoon. And it was kind of exciting. I
Michael Hughes
would say in the beginning of the rainy day with a fire in a movie kind of mine is we live
Paden
in Costa California, and everyday is gorgeous, glorious and 70 degrees and sunny. But we’re still sort of like, oh, it’s our little family unit in our home. Your training from the living room. The two sessions a week you had
Michael Hughes
Yeah, well, no, I realized quickly. I still needed to go to the facility. Yeah. Which was, again, looking back at a totally fine, because housing alone here, or 7000 square feet, you know,
Paden
but we had to pivot to daily meetings with the whole team, because we were so used to being social, so used to being in connection. Talking in the Back Coach office, like that was a whole different thing. And that
Michael Hughes
was a big thing. I’m glad about it. We did daily meetings. Yes. Daily. for a good hour. Yeah, I’ve just, there’s so much communication that needed to happen. So much updating, Yeah, amazing. What 124 hour, I mean, really 16 hour, workday, quote, unquote, at that point was and how many things needed to be constantly spoken about? I remember the first time I remember the first time we finally said, Hey, guys, I don’t think we need daily meetings anymore. It’s like, oh, really, you think we can do it?
Paden
Well, because I mean, for anyone that lived through the pandemic, as a business leader, you know, the news cycle was changing every 24 hours. And it could change in such a dramatic way that you had to be ready to activate a new idea or pivot in a new way. So we were constantly updating the team so that they wouldn’t feel like they had they weren’t getting the info like we were feeding them the info that mattered and energizing them all together.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, exactly. 12 weeks later, right? That’s when we’ve come back inside. That’s our third pivot.
Paden
But one thing about that pivot those second pivot, which was moving to entirely virtual, we were very obsessed with the customer experience. And I think that’s one thing we talked about very well. Was it for loosely, yeah, Persona customer because we knew like this, people are feeling isolated. I mean, we had faces and names two people that lived alone, that had just lost a significant other. And there, they couldn’t see their grandbabies like people that are just really getting depressed or anxious or whatever, like we knew it. So it was like, how do we show up for them? Can we keep them in our focus, because that’s going to guide us to innovate the right things. So that’s when we said, let’s do a morning show with Peyton and Michael in our home with our little babies running around because at least that brings connection and friendship into people’s living rooms. And a lot of people tuned in and we’re really happy to feel like they had that human touch. We were doing that five days a
Michael Hughes
week. Remember that? Remember the first two weeks? It was seven days a week?
Paden
Yeah. And then we were like, that seems a little extreme. Can we at least sleep in one day, which as parents of toddlers is impossible.
Michael Hughes
That made sense. That was really nerve wracking in the beginning to be quite honest with you all. And it was always nerve racking for the first three to five minutes. Yeah, and then a minute five, six. cuz he was like, Oh, this is fun.
Paden
Or it’s me looking just bedraggled in a bathrobe trying to make you coffee, you feeling stressed that it’s 7am. And we had to be live and then just wanting to have an opening song and putting way too much pressure on ourselves. When really when we sat down, we had no topics that we knew of to speak about. We just had to riff off each other. Yeah. And that was fun. That was fun. Yeah, I kind of missed it actually, like a wish there was a reason we could just like have a morning show again, maybe we will. This podcast will be the reason we should go live more often. But, but we did that we did Facebook Lives. And we just set our team free
Michael Hughes
even though we had our monitor. Our coaches had their own shows, right? Yeah, client and Mitch
Paden
did their cooking show. Then we had like CJ doing his mindful movement. Thursday evenings, rope flow. He did flow like he was taking stuff from work method that he was excited about and doing it live with clients who then wanted to buy ropes from us. And we started making ropes like it started just now we have a rope program. Yeah, which now some exactly, we’ve, we’ve innovated so many times, but we cut our team loose and literally said, build what you want. You have to go live on Facebook, you know, X number this day at this time. And so Kalina would be like, Okay, fine. I’m going to do a kettlebell sequence. And she would do it for people who own kettlebells. And then
Michael Hughes
Sean did the backyard book backpack.
Paden
Yeah, like load up your backpack with weight? Yeah, follow along. And we just had fun with it. And now we have over 150 Different recorded videos in our Facebook group for our members. Gosh, you
Michael Hughes
know, it’s kind of it’s crazy. Like, we have to go back like that Facebook group still has a lot of intrinsic value sitting there. I kind of just realized that like, you got a lot of workouts. Yeah, that. No, come a rainy day, you know.
Paden
And then we went back and we took, we went and interviewed, probably 80% of all the past coaches we’ve ever had on staff, because we thought that would be a community connector. And so we would interview them in a zoom call, go live on Facebook, and people will get a chance to connect to coaches they hadn’t seen in years. We did remote wine tasting. We did remote beer, socials,
Michael Hughes
we did 105,000 clubs. Yeah, most
Paden
people were still getting like five hitting their 500 workout with us. And we would like doorbell, ditch them a t shirt while they were live on a zoom, call social. And then we’d ask them to go check the door. And then it would be fun and everyone could cheer for them. We
Michael Hughes
really very JAM PACKED three months. Yeah,
Paden
we did not sit back man, we did not sit back, we might have lightened the coaching schedule by maybe 10 classes a week, but we pumped out content. And I’ll say this, our team really showed up and like mentally had to get over their bed head had to get over the disorganized lighting are back backdrop. Like they had to rally and get over themselves in the service of others. And within 12 weeks, they were dynamite on video,
Michael Hughes
and the clients being able to follow through and, you know, take this take this in person experience where they have the facility, they got all the cool equipment, you know, the data, and to be in the living room. I mean, we didn’t have any choice. No one had choices in a sense, you know, but it was great. And I’m just thankful that they they did follow through. Because that was obviously it takes two to tango. But
Paden
and don’t forget in this pivot as well, because this is the biggest pivot so we’re spending a little more time on it. Because we also Michael was sitting there and we were going, Okay, we’ve got a range of clients I’m paying is 99 bucks, I’m paying us four to $600 a month. How are we like we’re blowing up anybody under $200 a month, like they’re getting mad more value than ever, because it’s unlimited access. And like there’s, you know, a lot more value there. However, we want to be very insecure about those higher paying clients, many of whom were just bankrolling us to stay alive. So when they wanted to reengage, they could come back. But that’s not a good place to be in as a business and you feel like, well, we feel like you gotta serve. Yeah, we don’t want to OP, you just like you don’t want to old people. But you also don’t want to take advantage of people. And so it was like, Okay, what do we need to do? How do we and we obsessed about it? And I remember that one day, you stood there looking around all the equipment in janazah. And you were like Peyton, we are the Amazon fulfillment house. And I was like, Oh my gosh, that’s so brilliant. Because we were struggling to get equipment which was backordered months into the homes of our clients because they were missing weights and bodyweight was only doing so much and you stood there and went like we need to get this equipment in their hands. And so we gave complimentary equipment For that VIPs we allowed people to rent other equipment if they were at a different level of membership. And we moved equipment out into people’s homes.
Michael Hughes
It’s Mercedes crushed. Yeah, the spreadsheet on Allen is impressive. Very
Paden
detailed. Very impressive. Yeah. And then we had equipment bundles anyway. So we Yeah, so that’s the those are some big that was a big pivot. That was a 12 week pivot. That was a long one. But then in
Michael Hughes
that we wait, then we built semi private. Yeah, virtual right. And we thought that was like, how do we do that? So fascinating to go back and be like, oh, yeah, that’s how we do it. Super simple. Yeah. But to build it. Like, you know, like building that manufacturing line is the hardest thing. You know, it’s like, and that was the biggest thing that we figured out how to do semi private, virtually. And honestly, the one thing that will most certainly not go away, because virtual, semi private. Yeah. That’s yeah, that’s an absolute keeper. Yeah, so that was all in there as well. Okay. Okay. All right. So
Paden
that brings us to June when we were finally allowed to open at 10% capacity in California, which, thank goodness, on one hand, we’re in a 13,000 square foot facility, we could operate decently back to where we were before.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, we’re limited, but not by much because we were limited because of social distancing, not necessarily because of square footage. And yes,
Paden
like, if you were a yoga studio 3000 square feet, like, you could only have like, four people in there when you were used to 30. Like, that’s huge. For us, we were allowed to have 30 people in the facility at any point pretty much 24 I want to say maybe.
Michael Hughes
So that’s when we try to hybrid. Yeah, and hiring no hybrid, honestly, I have to say is, um, you know, what it is for so hybrid training, you know, there’s, there’s this notion of they’re called a rural hybrid gym. And what that typically means is you do virtual and in person, but you do virtual or in person. Yeah, we did virtual and in person, meaning the virtual session that was running was the exact same session as the in person, session. It’s the ultimate, I honestly believe it is the ultimate in terms of service for fitness. However, it is extremely challenging to do ask our coaches that ask our clients that, and I honestly, really, I’m going to try to bring it back, obviously learning from you know, mistakes and whatnot. But because I do think there is a happy medium, and I won’t get into it here, but it’s really basically we have the seven inch TV screens where virtual people were doing the exact same workout as the people in facility and the coach had to coach the screen and coach the people live live. And they did it was up to our quality.
Paden
Oh, wasn’t up to the coaches quality. I mean, you’ll hear that at the tail end of this podcast, where we asked them to give you their candid experience, but that really pushed them. Yeah. Because a mentally emotionally my perspective was they were missing human connection. They were really feeling isolated. It was almost like such a low vibration it felt at times because they just wanted to be around people, they finally get to be around people, but now they’re tech support. But now they’re having to coach a screen that can only hear the coach but can’t hear the jokes in the back. And now the coach is trying to tell them the jokes they feel included while trying to give modifications and coach and then trying to figure out the music and the timing and the volume and and it was a lot our coaches crushed it. In my opinion, they did so well. That we asked a lot of them in that pivot, I’d say
Michael Hughes
looking back, we didn’t have the right tech for it. Here. We tried to make it as simple as possible, but sometimes spend money on the tech people spend the money on the tech.
Paden
Yeah, so that was a big pivot it only lasted three and a half weeks wasn’t that like that? Sure. Because right after Fourth of July, it went to sorry guys, you can’t be in person unless you’re in a park or a parking lot. And at the time, we were like screw the parking lot. That’s ridiculous. We don’t want to use a parking lot. Let’s use a park instead. And so we were just doing parks and then going back into virtual pure virtual here virtual so the coaches could actually be in facility coaching the big screen so at least that was setups, they didn’t have to be in their homes, they could still be around each other distanced, etc. That brought a really good kept the energy good for the team. But then the park workouts like hitting
Michael Hughes
it got harder and harder because not harder and harder. It got more challenging in a sense because of maintenance schedules and park. Recreation and then you know people you people are used to a nice facility facility. It’s flat ground, so time with tree stumps, even though it’s quite functional, really realistic, it’s just it’s a it’s a it’s another change. Right?
Paden
Yeah, totally missing equipment. Yeah.
Michael Hughes
And it’s really and it gets sunny. And, you know, we’re used to this, you know, it’s like, it’s really interesting what a training environment really does to chip away at people’s challenges in a sense, right? Fitness is hard. Taking care of stuff is hard mentally. So you really try to break down as many barriers so it’s as easy as possible. Anyways, the park certainly worked certainly worked. And for those people, there’s people are still training at parks to this point, because these certainly, because we still can’t be inside. And they don’t have a parking lot at all. Yeah, anyway. So just good on those coaches out there who are listening that are still training on tennis courts and playground Park.
Paden
Yeah, it’s hard. And it’s hard to hold all of that equipment out for just a one hour and then have to pull it out again. And then in our town, the Parks and Rec Department would only allow you to have four hours a day, so and they wanted it like back to back because they were juggling all these requests. And so that was hard because like wait, work training 12 hours a day, like we haven’t changed that much around the fact we still have a 6am we still a 5:30pm like, we can’t commit to four sessions. So then that was challenging around that, too. So and then, okay, so that was two pivots in March, one in July, or one in June, one in July. And then the fifth pivot is when it was oh, man, I can’t remember if it’s September or October. But there was, but sometime early fall, we were allowed back in facility again at that 10% capacity, like, almost
Michael Hughes
got to the 25. Like we were like on this ramp, like Yeah, it was like right before. It was right before Halloween was like, Oh, that’d be it. We’re at plans. We had meetings, we had blueprints ready to go to 25%.
Paden
That’s the next pivot. Hold on. No, no, no. Yeah, it wasn’t after Halloween is after Thanksgiving. It was like Thanksgiving week, you guys sat down and said, Okay, if we can expand it 25% What does that look like, and you guys were like, We need to hire another coach. Like, that’s the conversation I think. And then so anyways, we were allowed back in and then we were just doing virtual. So we kind of kicked hybrid to the side, because we had worked it out to where we had virtual handled, the music was figured out all the different elements kind of were dialed the coaches were liking focusing on virtual environment only. And then we brought in person back in and allowed the coach to focus on in person dynamics only.
Michael Hughes
But that was still going to one program when our when we’re used to three. Yeah, and that was again, another another challenge
Paden
1.3 Different levels of group training
Michael Hughes
at the same time three coaches through different programs through different clientele demographics. And just again, I you know, tip the hat to our clients for for a providing feedback, be sticking with it. See making the most of it. And, you know, here’s, here’s the honest truth. When we get feedback, we know it, we already know what’s going on. But you know, obviously we do our best to say how do we how do we solve as many problems with as few solutions as possible. But it’s really great to have have an amazing community where the like, they’re just honest with us. Yeah, just honest. Like, okay, so we get we get enough of them, right? Be quite frank, we’re good enough. I’m like, Okay, we’re gonna make it happen. We’re gonna make a switch. And what led us to where we are now, I don’t want to jump ahead too much more, but
Paden
Well, no, that’s, that’s about right. So between pivot five and pivot six, we were planning to pivot into more freedom and flexibility than Thanksgiving hit, then the case count started to escalate. And we went from being able to consider going to 25% capacity to sorry, guys, pull the plug literally within, like you have 24 hours to move everything back outside. And we were like, Oh, that
Michael Hughes
was hard. We’ll give you 72 hours before we started enforcing anything. I remember that fine tune little details that we’re taking.
Paden
Take the 72 hours thinks
Michael Hughes
and that allowed us to buy every single Herstal met in the county to go outside in a way that was
Paden
and this time, okay. Yeah, this time we said no Park, we’re going to actually bite the bullet and invest in an outdoor facility. And we’re going to have to do the thing that wrenched your heart out a little bit which was start dismantling the internal facility and started on migrating it outside.
Michael Hughes
Honestly, I would have said the exact same phrase dismantling. Yeah, everyone listening I’m a fuss. I’m an operations guy. Yeah, I am an operations guy. I love it. I love it. I love it. Love it. And to take away something that you’ve been building for for a decade, this facility that we’re in while we were in it for five years. Oh, this facility we’re now was a dream of mine. Yeah, from our first facility. Mm. Like I knew what I wanted from the very beginning. I finally got it. Yeah. Long story short should rip it
Paden
apart. Yeah. Emotional. It sucks.
Michael Hughes
To be honest with you. It really sucked. I mean, it’s great what we have outside. I really is. But yeah, it was that was really hard. wasn’t as hard as the first shutting night shutting down the facility. You know, but yeah, that was, but it’s also rewarding, because it was finally we could draw a line in the sand. Yeah. And do it. Well, let’s wishy washy.
Paden
Let’s talk about the local Health Coalition. So right before Thanksgiving, they were getting word that we were going to close there was this whole movement locally saying we’re not. And we’re going to put it on a website for public display saying we are the frontline of actually what they believe in, we believe in 2%. We are the frontlines of health, we will not be benched. We are health and fitness is the way to fight this pandemic, like we are moving into that, like we stand behind a lot of that stuff. But they were like, We will not be going back outside. Like we will continue to operate fully indoors. And that’s where it was like, honestly, as much as I love to be a rebel and stick it to the man and not be controlled and I hate overreach on authority, like I so wanted to join, but it wouldn’t have served our clients. Because the clients, our clients and community, really do care about safety and really do care about distancing. And even though we feel we can do that in our facility, it didn’t feel right. And so we got some some backlash from that both from the training community and some of our clients finally said, Screw it, we’re not going to do it because you aren’t breaking the rules.
Michael Hughes
It’s interesting, because no matter what, you know, no matter what, there was no best answer. There’s only an answer. There was no win win. It was always a Win, lose or lose win. Yeah. And so we made the best lose win that we thought we could we can make. And it was it was it was it was what it was, it was when
Paden
Well, here’s the truth. We’re the ones who had to sign for all the loans. We’re the ones who’s asked will be handed to us if we make the wrong choice. So at the end of the day, we have to look at navigate our conscious. Like what conscience excuse me, and what we feel right about. And so I remember we talked you said what can I spend to go outside and that was like, literally off the top of my brain. This is the number and you’re like done and you’ve been tracking and buying and planning and, and executing on it and even yanked a water feature from our backyard and went missing. And then it turns out to be like one of the favorite things you got landscapers building, we got planter boxes you had, you have like trees, trying to bring some greenery in you we got shipping containers that you loaded with all equipment. So you just open the sliding doors and there’s equipment mounted ready to go yanked the turf out, like now we have rubber and turf outside. And it’s really cool.
Michael Hughes
And just putting the finishing planning touches on an over which, you know, shade is kind of full, it’s gonna be full blown in next two weeks, it will be done. Yeah. And that’s exciting.
Paden
Yeah, it is exciting. And it’s crazy. Because like, I don’t know that us doing this. It’s hard to know if it really recouped our investment in it. But it still feels like it was the right choice for our members.
Michael Hughes
Oh, I think it’s very simple to say, by no means that we recoup the investment but it is. But honestly, here’s the truth of it. It’s fun. It’s energizing. If you ask Michael, how you doing? Yeah, I’m honest. I’m having the time of my life. Yeah, I’m being an entrepreneur. Yes. So true. fun. It’s fun. Yes, there is this thing called a loan. But you know what, it’s really a capital investment. Yep. from an outside source called the taxpayers.
Paden
Oh, that’s a good one. I should have talked about that a little bit earlier, because I did get through a funk when I had when everyone kept congratulating me on the fact that we got government funding. But the terms of the government funding was the equivalent of having a mortgage taking a mortgage out on a business I already owned. And it felt so demoralizing and negative. And I was like in a victim mindset, I think around around May with that. Like even we went on a date night once. And there was another couple and they were very flippant, in my perspective about Oh, that’s great. You guys got all the funding you want, you’ll be good. And I was like, do you even understand like, we’ll be paying this back for 30 years at 3.75%. That’s a freaking mortgage people and we owned it outright and I was really upset about it. And then it was like head shift. You can either think that or you can say that was the easiest venture capital I could have possibly come into contact with. And I’m just gonna say that the United States government just backed my business vision. And that’s literally the only way you can look at it and stay positive. So that’s the way we’ve been talking about it. Like we have to steward this in this money to build revenue streams, not to just keep us afloat, like what we do with this money has to fuel innovation that will last far beyond this pandemic.
Michael Hughes
And the best part is capital, investments, VCs, they get to own your business. Yeah, we didn’t really get to maintain 100% ownership. So yeah, just more looking at it from that from that light. And it’s been again, you know, looking back at 2020, you know, people said again, and if people ask me, from here on out, I’m gonna say it is been the year with the most amount of silver linings team most amount of opportunistic points that I’ve ever had condensed into nine months. And yeah, that’s honestly, the truth of it all. The truth, doesn’t mean it was easy, does it? In fact, it was the hardest business year of our lives. Even when janazah started, it started in the Great Recession of 2009 1011. Coming out 1213 It sounds like but we started there. We didn’t I didn’t know any different in our in all honesty. So yes, it was the hardest part. But it’s where we, I believe, such as we you and I but the team, our clients are community shined and still are shining, right? We’re not done. Yeah, you know, certainly is a clear path to get out of this thing. But it has to be implemented. And then this amazing hope for 21. Right is that and that’s when it comes out, like where we were when we were starting 2020 With this hope, by this new venture that we started and put all our eggs in the basket, and it got chopped, chopped at the knees. You know, this could still happen by definition. But it’s like we’re it’s like I’m back to the beginning of 2020. Again, saying here’s his hope, but it’s but it’s now times two, there’s two hubs, the hubs of the BBC, and other hubs of the beat to the b2b business to business business to coaches, and now our businesses to clients has a whole new opportunity with the virtual side of things. And I want to share like, you know, we now have clients, I’ve showed this in other podcasts, we’ve had clients that are not from this area, we have clients that have moved away that are still members with us. We those are opportunities that we did not have the bandwidth for last year. Yeah. True. And we can acquire more clients than our than our local community can can sustainably give us like, I’m gonna show you how to how to how to talk about we had talked about, like, how many clients we have, and what’s the percentage of the of the market that we own, in a sense in terms of clients, that’s no longer a figure that we can justify the run, because it just doesn’t matter.
Paden
Yeah, it’s a globalized training. This virtual reach is a real piece to leverage and for us in 2021, there’s this excitement around, gosh, if we can, if we can drive demand for our virtual training, we can help capture some talented trainers, like get him on boarded in our team and allowed them to join the remote training team. And that’s super exciting.
Michael Hughes
It’s really cool to have a business and training conditioning of service based business where we can have teammates that are basically remote. Right? Yeah. And I was I want to say this, you know, I wish I knew this going into this field. But the training and conditioning industry is not a high money making, you know, leveraged, you’re not gonna become a millionaire. Like you’re, you know, whatever the case is just simply it’s not that it’s a passion industry.
Paden
It’s bleeding heart givers who want to help make people’s lives better, and who don’t charge what they’re worth. And as a result, have we’ve normalized, cheap prices for very high quality high intention people.
Michael Hughes
Yeah, nice. This industry, I firmly believe to leading up to 2020 was becoming a commoditized. Industry. Now, it’s been reversed or has the opportunity to be reversed, or leverages there were special, where specialties can be accessed, where you don’t have to just settle for what’s in your community. You can push for something different. That’s a big a big excitement for me, that I’m amped for is truly informed. And the last piece is that though it’s not fully recognized at the legislative level, but I think people released To respect how important a solid immune system is, yeah, and there are essentially I’m going to just break it down to as simple as I possibly can three ways to get a strong immune system, food movement, and stress, sleep, whatever you call those. That’s it. And we covered two of those. I mean, we cover all three of them to really think about and that is baseline health care at its finest.
Paden
Yeah, not preventative not not reactive.
Michael Hughes
I use it I actually use it the way I thought it’s most appropriate health care. Yeah, not sick. Sick care. I like that. Nothing against hospitals, or doctors, those that sick care, just flat out definition. Yeah, you only go to them when you’re sick. Or in need. This is when prevented anyways, that’s my soapbox. But.
Paden
So the way we’ve we’ve designed this episode to go is in two parts. First part is from the owner, entrepreneur. skin in the game, side of the pandemic, looking back, you know, what did we do? What was the mindset? What was it really, like, etc. And then we wanted to give also the perspective from our team who really had to take our ideas, take the technology that we handed them, take the prescription for how to do it, and go and win with it, like go and get themselves right about how to bring good quality energy into a crazy pandemic, and how to energize and inspire people who are not doing well mentally. And not to say they all weren’t, but enough were in I think we could all safely say 2020 was a mental struggle for a lot of us at various points more than others, and how, as a coach, do you have that experience yourself as an individual, but how do you authentically go and roll out with a smile and with a heart, all these services, this many pivots? And so we want to invite some of our key team members to have a candid conversation about what it was like from their vantage point as well.
Michael Hughes
So you’re ready to listen to that. Yeah, and this is paid Michael out. It was great to chat with you. Pay off I hope you guys enjoyed today’s episode. And if you did, please share it with your fitness obsessed friends and peers who are also navigating this world of fitness and trying to succeed the trends and misinformation. As you guys can see this podcast is basically a masterclass for trainers wanting to level up in their coaching skills, and their fitness business model. relaunches in 2020 because you and your fitness tribe deserve to see an unfiltered look at all the aspects of what it takes to stand out as a next generation coach, and build a successful fitness business sell, share far and wide. And please, when you do, do me a favor, take a screenshot of this screen and share it to your social media accounts and use the hashtag Janaza podcast that’s hashtag Janaza podcast that way we can see you and share your posts with our audience. And finally, when you’re ready to go to the next level as a coach, or in your business, and to reach more people, please go check out Janaza edu.com. We have put together the best 90 Day coaching program on the market for trainers wanting to become a masterful practitioner and build a business that gives them the freedom and impact. So let us help you do just that. We have online training and one on one coaching to guide you through a full 90 Day certification. We even get you training our clients live because it’s always better to work out your kinks on someone else’s clients than yours. But we promise you this, your clients will be blown away by the transformation our program will help you make you’ll be masterful at a whole new level and part of an incredible community of coaches worldwide, taking their skills to the next level. So if you thought this episode had some fire to it, and inspires you to take action, wait until I see what we deliver on this program. So just go to Janaza edu.com. And we’ll see you on the other side. Remember that turning your passion for fitness into transformation and sustainable business is critical to reaching the people and lives you were put on earth to help it matters and truly can make an impact in other people’s lives. So, hope you do that. Keep sharing a passion and we’ll talk to you soon
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