Latest / Real Estate for Real Life / Episode 10 • From Sobriety to Scaling: Building a High-Touch Fitness Business That Wins Clients with Ryan Ankner

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Episode 10 • From Sobriety to Scaling: Building a High-Touch Fitness Business That Wins Clients with Ryan Ankner · Real Estate for Real Life

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  On Real Estate for Real Life podcasts, we sit down with
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  standout business leaders to unpack what's actually working.
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  How they scale, lead teams, win clients and build businesses
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  that last. We're your hosts.
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  I'm Courtney Gauchman. And I'm Ryan Wilson.
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  Thanks for tuning in. You're listening to real estate
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  for real life podcasts. I'm Ryan Wilson, and we're here
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  with Ryan Ankner of Ank Fit, owner and operator of a personal
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  training studio in Newtonville, Massachusetts, and currently in
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  the process of expanding to Wobbin.
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  So thanks so much for joining us today.
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  Hi guys, how you doing? Thanks for having me.
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  It is interesting to be on somebody else's podcast.
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  So when you invited me, I was psyched because I don't want to
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  have to do normally I do the the board and you know, it's nice to
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  just be able to kind of do it. Yeah, I love it.
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  And what did you say before? Relax, you're just a you're a
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  guest here. Being a guest.
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  Relax on the couch and. Get the feet up.
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  Yeah, and. Just tell us everything.
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  Yeah, I mean, I love that you mentioned the expansion right
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  off the bat. That to me is like a bullet I
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  want or a beat at rather that I want to hit hard.
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  It's we're just a quick breakdown.
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  Inkfit started out in a tiny little, you saw it shoe case or
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  shoebox about the size of this room.
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  And somewhere amidst COVID, we can get into the COVID thing in
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  a minute, like we said, But there was a need to expand.
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  And I knew that the building was for sale and I had to get out of
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  there. And so I started and I found the
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  Newtonville space and it's 2 floors and it's a lot of room.
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  And it was way bigger than what I was used to.
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  And we built it out. The build out took really way
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  too long, but we got it going in early 22 and for about two years
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  it was great. And then around somewhere in the
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  middle of 24, in the beginning of 25, we started to get overly
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  crowded. And the entire model is private.
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  I say that time and time again is like we're not going for as
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  much volume as we can handle. We, I don't like it to be more
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  than two or three people on each floor at a time.
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  And we just need more space, period.
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  And we have, I think 15 trainers now including myself.
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  Wow, impressive. Yeah, I passed myself, I guess.
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  And I like you're saying our, our businesses aren't that
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  different in the way of, you know, running what we do and the
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  just the process of finding and maintaining relationships with
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  clients. And it's a lot of referral.
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  And like, as you know, like I've done mailers as I know I'm sure
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  you guys have. And, you know, literally like
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  handed, like I went all down Otis St. when I first opened up
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  and like handwritten like with people's names on them, like put
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  them out. And you know, my website traffic
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  went crazy, but it didn't actually book anybody right
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  away. So it's, I throw a lot of darts
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  and see what sticks. But you know, with the expansion
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  in Wob and it's at 60 and 33 Beacon St.
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  For those that know the neighborhood, it used to be
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  actually another real estate office and they then it was 2
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  real estate offices and then it was nothing for a while.
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  And the reason it, it jumped out at me is 'cause every piece of
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  marketing I've ever done hasn't worked as good as just having a
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  cool sign on a nice neighborhood kind of block that people go by.
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  And it becomes like for us, like we do the door open most of the
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  year when it's not the way that it is.
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  Now we don't have to get into weather because I'm miserable
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  about it. But when it's nice out, we get
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  the door open, dog treats and we know most of the people in the
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  neighborhood, like even, you know, meter made type people.
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  Like we kind of say hi to as many people as we can.
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  I try to instill that in everybody that like, if you say
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  hello to everybody, you never know, right?
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  Part of the community. So it's that's the thing, it's
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  like a classic neighborhood business, right?
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  And you've got the brick and mortar, which is something that
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  as much as our businesses are so relatable, it's also you have
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  something that is not very common anymore in the real
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  estate industry. So I love hearing that.
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  And I want to hear more about kind of how that has shaped the
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  business to the point where now you're able to scale, right?
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  You're saying that a lot of people are kind of walking by,
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  you're creating that neighborhood, feel that
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  community. Do you ever host any events
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  within the neighborhood or how have you kind of tapped into?
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  I like to do events like we have like physical therapy and I'll
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  give them a quick plug. Physics in Needham are friends
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  of ours and Jay is the guy who runs it.
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  And Jay and I have done a couple of collaborative events where
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  he'll come and he'll do like 1 was pretty big in a we did in
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  the summer. Everybody kind of sat in a
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  circle and he goes over like postural stuff and he does a lot
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  with the foot because like, and I wouldn't, I won't try to do
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  his job for him. He's brilliant in that way.
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  But it's basically like you start from the ground up and
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  it's just a lot of people's imbalances and issues are
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  related to the foot and the bones in it and the way that you
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  stand. And, you know, footwear is big,
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  as I say, with my like, nothing Converse is on.
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  But like, not the, you know, we all, we all have, like I
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  actually sort of broke my toe a few weeks ago.
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  Like I dropped the plate on it and it healed quickly just
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  because I know how my body works and the mechanics of it.
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  And I got lucky partially. It didn't hit the hole.
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  You know, it was right on the knuckle.
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  It wasn't ideal. But so yeah, we've done events
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  with them, believe it or not, not a ton.
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  Like I never, everybody always says you got to do a grand
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  opening. And like as much as I am like I
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  have no social awkwardness and I'm like, I like to chat with
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  people. My bandwidth for events, like
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  Full disclosure, like is so small.
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  Like I get gassed out. And like in the beginning I was
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  ripping 35 to 40 sessions a week some weeks.
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  And now it's like I've scaled that back a little bit and I'm
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  talking and then, but I have calls with trainers and I'm
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  feeding the new leads all come through me and my main, I'd like
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  to shift, you know, I don't want to get too ahead of myself, but
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  I'd like to shift into more of a mentorship role, kind of like
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  Brian's gig in a lot of the in, in terms of helping young
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  trainers and new trainers, you know, cultivate a book of
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  business. They are their own independent
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  contractors and the way we differentiate ourselves from a
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  lot of the competition. And I don't look at other small
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  gyms as competition. I look at Equinox and Lifetime
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  as competition. And I don't, you know, and
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  people say like, what do you mean?
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  Like you want to put lifetime out of business?
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  And I say no. Like what they'll do, though, is
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  they'll take a talented young trainer who's just out of
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  college. Maybe they got a kinesiology
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  degree, and they have no idea where they want to go.
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  Somebody will say, well, it's a great place to start.
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  I think everyone should do four or five years at one of those
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  places just to figure out what not to do and you know, what
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  you're good with and what you're not.
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  And I'm not trying to bash anybody, but I think people can
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  sometimes end up making less than they could be making and
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  not reaching their full potential.
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  Like I myself, Boston Sports Club was my example.
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  And, you know, I'm not trying to get a lawsuit, but you know.
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  Do they even exist anymore? There's a couple.
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  They're under the name of New York Sports Club.
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  And actually, Maura Healey, when she was the attorney general
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  during COVID, kind of bankrupted them a little bit.
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  Yeah because they decided just to charge everyone full price
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  but not be open during COVID I. Feel like that was it.
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  They charged business model, they charged everybody for, I
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  want to say like March, April and May of 2020, despite gyms
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  all being closed, including me, even though I was private.
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  And they said, well, you got to cancel in person.
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  And people said, well, I can't. Yeah.
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  So it was kind of, I'm not trying to be negative, but what
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  I'm saying is, but they, any competitor that is going to pay
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  a trainer a small amount, take 70% of their revenue and just
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  sort of like keep them stuck and like picking up towels, wearing
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  a name tag, tucking the shirt in.
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  Like I, to me, my trainers paid me $35 a session.
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  They can charge whatever they want.
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  They can work 24 hours a day or 4 hours a day.
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  I don't care. Do whatever you want.
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  We're open seven days a week. You get a Face ID scan to come
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  in. You do not need anybody to be
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  there. We have everything's taken care
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  of. I have cleaning people.
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  I clean most of it myself because I'm nuts and I'm
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  controlling and I don't know. It's I try to say to them on day
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  one, my first thing and I'm, if I'm, you know, going on and on
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  here, I'd forgive me, but I say to them, I'm not your boss.
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  I don't want you to ever make me be your boss is sort of the with
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  the take away. And I think that the reason I
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  look at bigger gyms as competitors is because, you
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  know, people disappear into that.
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  I spent years of my life with this weird loyalty to BSc and
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  then they fired me the minute that I was no longer exactly
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  useful in the way that they wanted me to be.
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  And I remember sitting at like an Irish pub in Brookline for
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  whatever reason with my dad. And it was like that Jerry
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  Maguire moment where he's getting fired and he's calling
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  all his clients. And I was calling all my
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  clients. And a large portion of them were
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  like, hey, like, I know you're going over to Equinox and I
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  don't want to. They didn't necessarily want to
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  go for the price increase and it a few did.
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  And one of those guys is still with me.
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  He's the best. And Dorothy Boyd, who's coming
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  with me. I wish I had that moment.
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  I didn't. It was very quiet the way that I
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  was let go. It was weird.
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  It was like cloak and dagger. But it was the best thing that
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  ever happened to me, honestly, because I was comfortable.
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  I was making enough to pay my rent and, you know, do my bills
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  and whatever else. And I might have languished
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  there for five more years. And the reason I like to sort of
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  be as vocal about this as I can to the point where I'm going to
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  get a cease and desist is like, if you're listening to this and
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  you're a trainer, don't languish.
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  Like just don't do it. There's.
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  So many opportunities out there. I mean a guy like yourself who
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  is proven now you started in a small gym in the Back Bay is the
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  size of this room, which by the way, it was super super.
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  Nice. It was very nice.
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  Bathrooms I've ever seen. And then you go, you open up
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  your own space in Newtonville, which is gorgeous.
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  And now you're expanded to Wabin, one of the nicest
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  neighborhoods in in the country, to be honest.
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  There's there's tons of opportunity there and there's a
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  lot of people in this town that that need and want the training.
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  So I think it's really impressive.
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  Thank you. What you're doing it's.
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  Really cool. So you're obviously now this is
• 9:33
  you're already at the successful point, right.
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  Let's take it back to kind of your beginning journey, right
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  Because I think that that's what what is really interesting.
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  I love hearing the vulnerability of you being honest about the
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  fact that you got fired, right? Like not everybody is willing to
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  say that, but I think it's due to the fact that.
• 9:48
  You get extra vulnerable. Fuck it, Yeah, I hope you cried
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  today. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say.
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  We cried in like 15 years so let's see if we can get it
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  going. But whenever I got fired was
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  probably the last time I cried. But OK SSRIs.
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  But I think that that's really interesting though, and you
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  know, it's obviously that was a game changer for you.
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  That's what shaped the trajectory of now your future
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  success, right? But prior to that, was that when
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  you had gotten sober too? Or like tell us about that
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  journey because I want to hear about how like you personally
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  have evolved and then that led to your I'll.
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  Start at the beginning and just run through it.
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  I grew up wonderful family, you know, like had every advantage,
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  you know, private school when I was young, like literally like I
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  will never, ever sit here and try to say that I had had it
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  rough ever. I when people say like, Oh my
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  God, you're so impressive. You've done so well.
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  My first thought is always like, it's easy to do when you have
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  had a wonderful, like upbringing and childhood.
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  And my dad ran a lumber business and my mom was awesome and
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  stayed at home with us and gave us a ton of attention and helped
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  us with everything. Like still super close with my
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  parents and they were terrific and I had every chance.
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  And I blew it because it was almost like it was too easy.
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  And I was just in my own head mentally, you know, private
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  school was challenging. I got overwhelmed.
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  And it was like one of those things where like, I went
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  through puberty. It was, and I've always been
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  kind of a silly goose. And I cannot, I cannot sit
• 11:09
  still. Like, you'll see me fit.
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  This is me going out of my way not to fidget.
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  And like, I'm just a different guy.
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  And for me, private school didn't fit the mold.
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  Like I grew up in Norwell, Mass Irish Catholic to the Max.
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  Like when I got to Derby Academy in Hingham, it was all
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  Protestant, you know, like Waspy people, for lack of a better
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  word. And like, I didn't realize that
• 11:29
  not everybody was Irish. And like, I just thought that
• 11:31
  was the way the whole world was. And like, it just, you know, it
• 11:34
  wasn't a diverse place by any means, but it was just
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  definitely like old money. And, you know, we had, I guess
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  more, if you want it, for lack of a better word, new money.
• 11:42
  And it was just a different experience for me.
• 11:44
  And I didn't ever really feel like I fit in.
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  And then like my grades were crappy and they thought I had
• 11:49
  ADD and that's when I started on meds.
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  And then, you know, if you grew up in the 80s and 90s, you'll
• 11:54
  probably remember that it was like the meds days of like
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  everybody was like, oh, you have ADD.
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  So here's some here's some Adderall and like it was your
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  medicine. And that, you know, I'm not
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  saying that's what made me into an addict.
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  I think I was born that way. And it's not something I'm 18
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  years sober coming up. Congratulations.
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  Thank you. Every time I get those applause,
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  I get weird about it. But yeah, I think from that
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  point, I ended up back in public school because I my grades were
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  kind of crappy and I, I didn't know where to land.
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  And I ended up like I started smoking pot, I drank.
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  And then like, I kind of just went off the rails at around 18
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  when I was about to graduate. And then I went to Curry College
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  in Milton. Like, you know, barely would
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  have gone to school period. What I should have done is done
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  something physical right away, but I went the part of the
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  reason this is all leading to how I got into fitness.
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  I was kind of a chubby kid by towards the end of high school
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  and I gained a bunch of weight in college and I was probably,
• 12:48
  you know, 240 lbs and no muscle and just kind of blah and not
• 12:53
  happy and miserable and, you know it.
• 12:56
  I led to drinking a lot and then I ended up in treatment a couple
• 12:59
  of times. And, you know, at 24, I went to
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  the second program down in Florida and I met a lot of
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  really good, supportive people. And despite, you know, getting
• 13:09
  kicked out of the treatment program, I stayed sober.
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  It was a crazy experience and I should probably write it all
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  down at some point, but I, I don't know, I'd never really
• 13:19
  identified as a sober guy. I just kind of like kept going.
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  I was like well it seems to be working better and I lost weight
• 13:25
  and now I have a decent job and like for the time.
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  Life got better. Life got better and then I got
• 13:29
  obsessed with fitness and I'd always had an athletic
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  background. Like I was always playing sports
• 13:34
  my whole life. I was always like, I didn't give
• 13:35
  a shit, but I was there. And yeah, once I, you know, got
• 13:40
  sober, like the fitness, they say replacement addiction is a
• 13:43
  thing. And for me at that age, at that
• 13:45
  time, it was fitness and cigarettes really.
• 13:47
  And which sounds weird, I, you know, but I smoked for a while
• 13:50
  after that. And then I moved.
• 13:52
  I was, I bounced around a little bit.
• 13:54
  I was in Boston in sales, and then I went out to Los Angeles
• 13:56
  for a little while and I kind of had no idea what I was going to
• 13:59
  do. All the while getting like
• 14:00
  heavily into running, heavily into weightlifting, yoga,
• 14:02
  everything. And then I moved back to Boston.
• 14:05
  I got certified and I went to personal training school at the
• 14:07
  American Academy personal training shout out on Boylston.
• 14:10
  They were lovely and I've had had a great experience there.
• 14:14
  And then after that I worked like I said, Bsci was at a
• 14:17
  private club in Beacon Hill for a little while.
• 14:20
  Both weren't exactly what I was looking for.
• 14:23
  The they were very nice and supportive in court of the court
• 14:26
  of the was the place. I'll give them a plug to court
• 14:28
  of the gave me an opportunity when I was like barely, you
• 14:31
  know, had my feet wet. And after that I, I, I knew from
• 14:37
  the jump that I wanted to do it on my own and I wasn't really
• 14:39
  sure how I was going to do it. And being at BSCI met a couple
• 14:42
  of people and I kind of put it together.
• 14:43
  And then I ended up at Equinox and another club real briefly.
• 14:47
  And were it not for the intensity of my my addictive
• 14:52
  tendencies, I think I've sort of flipped them into other areas,
• 14:56
  whether it be like the way I meticulously keep the space
• 14:59
  clean or, you know, relationship building it.
• 15:04
  And, you know, also just the, the emotional intelligence that
• 15:07
  I've sort of had but also developed has been beneficial,
• 15:12
  you know? How so how is like that's really
• 15:14
  impressive journey you took. How has all of those things and
• 15:18
  those things you've learned growing up and, you know, kind
• 15:21
  of going through those tougher times, How has that made you
• 15:23
  become a better leader, manager? I think for me, I was working
• 15:29
  with AI guess when I was, I visit my dad down in Florida and
• 15:32
  he has a stretch therapist that he sees her name is Sky.
• 15:35
  And I told her like you'd make a quarter $1,000,000 a year in
• 15:37
  Boston. You're that good.
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  I was like, please move here. She won't.
• 15:41
  Obviously it's too hot or too cold rather.
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  But I was talking to her and I've been quoting her for weeks
• 15:45
  and I should probably credit her it.
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  She looks at everybody like they're a small child.
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  And I'm not saying like in terms of immaturity level, but in
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  like, we're all just trying to do our best.
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  And I think if you take it and you look at people from their
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  core, like if you're, I get, I'm an angry guy at times, it
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  happens. I think it's like a secondary
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  emotion with depression underneath it, whatever.
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  But the I look at everybody from a standpoint of like, they're
• 16:08
  just doing the best that they can.
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  And everybody's like, you know, if they make a mistake, it's not
• 16:14
  the end of the world. And I'm getting I'm not great at
• 16:17
  this, but this is advice I give to everybody.
• 16:19
  Like it's not personal. Almost nothing is literally like
• 16:23
  the world is not like a movie or a television show where there's
• 16:26
  like some, you know, evil enemy deliberately trying to sabotage
• 16:29
  you or put you out of business. I don't think that's the way
• 16:31
  that it works. Like I have friendly
• 16:34
  relationships with most of the local other personal training
• 16:37
  studio owners. Like I chat with people all the
• 16:39
  time. I'm not worried anyone's going
• 16:41
  to steal clients or trainers. I just don't.
• 16:42
  I have an environment where why would you leave is the way I
• 16:45
  look at it. What do you?
• 16:45
  Think makes them stay long term. That's what I was going to ask
• 16:48
  is like, so you know, you kind of said at the beginning, you
• 16:51
  tell people you're not their boss, that kind of thing.
• 16:54
  So obviously you're setting a specific type of a tone for the
• 16:56
  work environment that they have, that they get to be their own
• 16:58
  boss, you're empowering them. But what else is it that you
• 17:01
  provide as a business Stoner that makes people want to stay?
• 17:05
  I'm going to quote myself and this sucks, I know.
• 17:09
  I've been quoting myself a lot lately too with these because
• 17:11
  I'm putting out all this promotional content on Instagram
• 17:14
  and Sam is my videographer. She's lovely.
• 17:17
  Shout out Sam, I'm doing a lot of plugs.
• 17:19
  I get a whole ad read for you next, eggfit.com.
• 17:24
  Sam and I filmed a couple of videos a few weeks ago of me
• 17:29
  talking about like talking directly to trainers.
• 17:31
  And that's, I'll just quote that in the sense that, like I say,
• 17:35
  personal training is a soft skill business, that masquerades
• 17:37
  is a hard skill business. In the sense that like it's
• 17:40
  super important to know how the body moves and it's super
• 17:43
  important to remember, you know, different metatarsals in the
• 17:46
  foot or whatever it may be. And like that stuff matters.
• 17:49
  I think most people who have any bit of an athletic background
• 17:53
  can figure that out. The other stuff, the soft
• 17:55
  skills, that's to me where people get jammed up and some of
• 17:59
  that stuff is innate and I think it can be brought out of people
• 18:01
  easier. But I think everyone is capable
• 18:03
  of being a decent salesperson with the right guidance.
• 18:07
  At least I what I said in the video as well is like, my goal
• 18:10
  is to try to find people's niche.
• 18:13
  I don't care what that is. I had a conversation with one of
• 18:15
  my trainers the other day. He's like, I told him, I'm like,
• 18:19
  I've been in the business 13 years.
• 18:20
  Your raw knowledge. He's in school training to
• 18:22
  become a physical therapist and he's outstanding.
• 18:24
  His name's Khan. And I said to him, I said,
• 18:26
  you're in terms of skill. I'm like, it's not an accident
• 18:29
  that when you're in the room and I'm training a client and I get
• 18:31
  jammed up, I ask you for feedback.
• 18:34
  I don't care that I've been in the business twice as long as
• 18:36
  you. That doesn't matter.
• 18:37
  You're better at this than I am. You may not be better at the
• 18:40
  like, Hi, my name is Ryan. Like, would you like to, you
• 18:42
  know, buy an expensive personal training package?
• 18:44
  And I'm not going to make you feel like you're being sold.
• 18:47
  That part is harder to teach, but I'm trying his niche.
• 18:51
  I told him don't even do phone calls with people anymore.
• 18:53
  I'll tee it up. I give you the lead and then
• 18:55
  they see how good you are in person.
• 18:57
  So that's my goal is to just sort of mold people and find.
• 19:01
  And he's phenomenal by the way. He's going to be a physical
• 19:03
  therapist. You'll be able to see him
• 19:04
  neither Newtonville or Wabin if you want to.
• 19:06
  And he'll be taking a few people soon.
• 19:08
  I'm not personally, I've capped my list on purpose.
• 19:11
  I'm not taking new clients because I want to focus.
• 19:14
  You know, we're doing Jerry Maguire again.
• 19:16
  I'm, I'm, I, I quote that all the time too.
• 19:19
  I'm a hack, but it's a classic. It is.
• 19:20
  It's a. Classic.
• 19:22
  The key to this business is personal attention.
• 19:24
  I say that to everyone. I want you to know and text
• 19:27
  people on their birthdays. I want you to remember what
• 19:29
  their kids are doing for summer camp.
• 19:32
  And it's doesn't have to be perfect.
• 19:33
  My wife owns a hair salon. Hi Lucy.
• 19:35
  She has a list which I think is adorable and brilliant to just
• 19:40
  literally, I don't, I don't know.
• 19:42
  And it's I want to be like, I've had people call me when they're
• 19:44
  going through all kinds of stuff.
• 19:46
  I'm not saying I need to be that person, but it's I think that
• 19:49
  the way to cultivate a client list and a trainer list is not
• 19:53
  that different in the sense that people just need to like, are
• 19:56
  you responsive? Are you polite?
• 19:58
  Do you fly off the handle at the a moment's notice?
• 20:02
  Like the only thing that I'm kind of a psychopath about it is
• 20:04
  sort of just. The cleanliness aspect.
• 20:08
  I have total OCD. Which by the way, anyone that's
• 20:11
  joining a personal training studio, that's really important
• 20:16
  to them because they go to those big box places and it's, it's
• 20:18
  obviously way different. I think that's really important
• 20:21
  in it. That probably relates to to the
• 20:23
  trainers that you have working for you, you know, because
• 20:26
  you're basically teaching them and showing, leading by example,
• 20:29
  that it's not just about how well you know the body and how
• 20:32
  well you can train someone, but it's actually how do you care
• 20:35
  for them, right? How do you actually take care of
• 20:37
  them? How do you treat people, which
• 20:39
  we talk about in every line of work.
• 20:40
  It's a really novel concept. If you actually care about your
• 20:43
  client, sincerely care about your client, it's gonna go a
• 20:45
  long way. And actually business is gonna
• 20:47
  boom because of it. Right.
• 20:48
  And clearly you're doing that not just for your clients or
• 20:50
  your training, but your actual trainers.
• 20:53
  Yeah. Which obviously, you know, as
• 20:55
  Simon Sinek would say, like take care of those that are in charge
• 20:59
  of you and they're gonna take care of the ones that you know,
• 21:02
  are, are running the business essentially your clients.
• 21:04
  So I think that's really, really cool.
• 21:06
  What else do you do to kind of keep people long term?
• 21:09
  Like what makes you a really good, for lack of a better word,
• 21:11
  boss? I like, I like Simon a lot and
• 21:14
  I've listened to a number of his books.
• 21:15
  I won't try to say I read them, I listened, but he's incredible.
• 21:19
  And I think that the what is it leaders eat last?
• 21:22
  Is that the one? And I'm not sure if this was in
• 21:24
  that or what, but I it's a quote that I love.
• 21:25
  And it's if your absence feels like a relief, you are not a
• 21:29
  leader. And I don't know that Simon said
• 21:31
  that, but I feel like that it's in that vein.
• 21:34
  And it's, I think that I wanted people to feel relieved.
• 21:39
  I want like I have trainers that literally request calls with me.
• 21:42
  And it's like I remember when I've had and I've had bosses
• 21:45
  over the years that were terrible, absolutely terrible to
• 21:49
  the point where I had to like figure out in real time, like
• 21:52
  how to manipulate them in an emotional way to get them to
• 21:55
  leave me alone. I had this one guy that was a
• 21:56
  total bully and I literally scheduled A1 on one with them
• 21:59
  and I sat him down and I told him I was intimidated by him in
• 22:02
  order to get him to give me the emotional, you know, vibe that I
• 22:06
  was looking for on his end. And that sucks to have to do
• 22:09
  that. Like I didn't mean what I was
• 22:10
  saying, but I had to like almost like coax him into a
• 22:13
  relationship. It was ridiculous.
• 22:15
  And when in reality, like I was a great performing trainer, I
• 22:18
  just was. I'm rough around the edges.
• 22:20
  I don't like a tucked in shirt. I never wear a name tag.
• 22:22
  That's how I am. And I think I've cultivated the
• 22:25
  opposite of any type of a business in fitness that people
• 22:28
  have ever worked for, aside from some competitors that do it
• 22:31
  similarly. There's nothing big box about
• 22:33
  what we do. It's everything is customized.
• 22:37
  And I treat each trainer, obviously, with the same level
• 22:40
  of respect and decency and fairness.
• 22:43
  But they all get an individual version of me.
• 22:45
  Some of them I'm like, listen, like I'm not your boss.
• 22:47
  Like if you work at night, you'll never see me again.
• 22:50
  And if you're great and you pay your rent on time and you don't
• 22:52
  cause problems, you may never hear from me again unless you
• 22:54
  want to. And that's kind of the we're
• 22:57
  trying to create a thing that's scalable.
• 22:59
  And I'm 43 years old in October, or I will be.
• 23:02
  And that's not old by any means. You don't look a day.
• 23:05
  Over 39. I say that so I can get a
• 23:07
  compliment too. Wonderful.
• 23:09
  I just, I don't want to be up super, super early for the rest
• 23:11
  of time. Like I've already kind of nixed
• 23:13
  the earlier than 630 AMS and even that is a little much.
• 23:17
  And you know, for me to the, the way to, I think keep trainers is
• 23:22
  just to be real with them and to just be a, you know, a friend is
• 23:25
  the wrong word 'cause there's always going to be a boundary of
• 23:27
  like I'm on my name's on the wall and whatever.
• 23:30
  But I don't want my trainers to ever feel like there's something
• 23:33
  they can't talk to me about. I don't.
• 23:35
  And you know, if any of you are watching this, I love you guys.
• 23:38
  You're awesome and you make my life easier almost all of the
• 23:40
  time. And I like to say like if
• 23:43
  there's a problem, like let's talk about it.
• 23:45
  Let's I like I love problem solving.
• 23:47
  I think that's the most fun part about what we do.
• 23:49
  And I think people get jammed up and I'm a big like, I'm not like
• 23:52
  an advice guy because nobody wants to hear advice.
• 23:54
  But if you want to work something out with me, my I tell
• 23:57
  people on day one, 24/7, my time is not that precious.
• 24:00
  I say that to clients and trainers.
• 24:02
  Call me whenever I don't care. Literally call me, I'll pick.
• 24:04
  Up it sounds like the difference though, is when you were
• 24:06
  explaining the manager that you had before, right?
• 24:09
  And the way that you essentially had to coach him into how to
• 24:14
  better manage you, right? But that is the difference
• 24:17
  between especially a big box gym versus a studio that you have a
• 24:21
  private studio, a big box gym, they're going to promote a
• 24:24
  trainer who's hit certain metrics, who maybe doesn't
• 24:27
  actually have leadership experience or leadership skills.
• 24:31
  They're promoting someone based on merit based awards that
• 24:34
  doesn't actually have the skill set necessarily, right?
• 24:37
  And that is the way that there's a reason why people shop local,
• 24:41
  right? There's a reason why people go
• 24:43
  with certain companies over others.
• 24:45
  And for us, similarly, we can relate to this a lot.
• 24:48
  For us, it's so many soft skills are required for our job to be
• 24:52
  really good. We are the out of the three most
• 24:55
  stressful experiences people will ever have in their entire
• 24:58
  lives. It's death, divorce and moving
• 25:01
  right, buying or selling a home. And we get to experience people
• 25:04
  at their most vulnerable, at their most emotional going
• 25:06
  through one of the most stressful times.
• 25:08
  So similar to what you're going through too.
• 25:10
  It's like there's a lot of pressure on how people are
• 25:12
  feeling when they show up to a gym.
• 25:13
  They could be feeling really good about themselves.
• 25:15
  They, they could be feeling terrible about themselves.
• 25:17
  I've had trainers for years, right?
• 25:19
  There are some days I'm, I'm feeling weaker.
• 25:21
  I'm feeling like for some reason I just, I'm not in it, right?
• 25:25
  Like mentally in it, emotionally in it, physically in it.
• 25:27
  And you need to have a trainer that has those soft skills for
• 25:31
  you. It sounds like as a small gym,
• 25:33
  as a, a business where you actually get to coach your, your
• 25:38
  trainers. You get to have those phone
• 25:39
  calls with them. You're developing them, you're
• 25:41
  helping to develop them into something that will reach them
• 25:45
  maximum potential versus a big box gym.
• 25:49
  People are most likely getting put by like pushed by the
• 25:51
  wayside, right? Like they're not getting that
• 25:53
  one-on-one opportunity to grow and develop.
• 25:55
  And sometimes it's like you said, it's not about you giving
• 25:57
  advice, it's about you lending an ear, right?
• 26:00
  Your trainers are probably socially aware enough and really
• 26:03
  skilled enough to even just talking it out loud, bouncing it
• 26:06
  off of each other. We say that's why people on a
• 26:08
  real estate team develop 10 times faster than a solo agent.
• 26:13
  It's the conversation that you're having.
• 26:15
  And sometimes it's just having that sounding board and being
• 26:19
  able to actually say things out loud to be able to process
• 26:22
  better and then now know how to move your business to the next
• 26:26
  level. Right?
• 26:27
  And I think that that's kind of from the sounds of what you're
• 26:29
  saying and how you're talking about this, it's like, I feel
• 26:31
  like that's the huge difference into like why you have something
• 26:34
  so special and why you can now open up a second location and
• 26:37
  still keep that special, that secret sauce that you have
• 26:40
  because you're not diluting it with this huge corporation,
• 26:44
  right? Those people having floor time
• 26:47
  and, you know, people just basically being a warm body to
• 26:50
  cover the shift. You actually have talented
• 26:51
  bodies that are covering it. I.
• 26:53
  Remember when I worked at Equinox?
• 26:54
  Keep in mind it was like 2 months and I used to hide in the
• 26:57
  bathroom. I was like so miss.
• 27:00
  Capstol or where are we talking? I would always use the regular
• 27:03
  one just because then you never know.
• 27:04
  But and I was just like, I was miserable.
• 27:08
  And it was this like, you know, pretty nice place and it was a
• 27:10
  clean setup and whatever. And there was a lot of talent
• 27:12
  there. The trainers there were actually
• 27:14
  very good. And I would love to relive that
• 27:18
  part of my life all over again. I was going, I went through like
• 27:21
  a weird breakup and like it was just like an awful time and I
• 27:24
  was at this low point and I like I said, I got fired at BSc and
• 27:28
  that's where I landed because it was close and it wasn't.
• 27:30
  I thought like that would be the answer for the first, for the
• 27:32
  first like 2 weeks, I was like, OK, this is a hell of a team.
• 27:36
  These guys love me. And then after that, like the,
• 27:39
  the niceties fell off and the like, you're now in this
• 27:42
  training program and this is how we're going to do it.
• 27:44
  And the management, like you just said, very much just hired
• 27:48
  from within, promoted from within, regardless of
• 27:52
  deservedness and, and whatnot. And I recall that being just
• 27:56
  like I, I was making mental notes about how to do it
• 28:00
  differently the whole time, truly.
• 28:02
  And that's why I say to people, like I spoke to a young lady the
• 28:06
  other day who wants to become a trainer potentially.
• 28:08
  And I think she'd be outstanding because she has the energy for
• 28:12
  it and she's timely and approachable and very like
• 28:15
  seemingly kind. And I said to her, like, go
• 28:19
  learn what not to do for a few years at another space.
• 28:22
  And like, obviously, like if I could get you going here easy
• 28:24
  and I look at it like, I don't know, I think like people get
• 28:28
  comfortable, like I said this recently as well, like, you
• 28:32
  know, they sometimes there's a four O 1K or a, or a health
• 28:35
  insurance thing or they've got like a routine going and they're
• 28:38
  able to, you know, there's always clients around that you
• 28:42
  could talk to you and you are your own boss.
• 28:44
  If you work at Ankfit like you're coming in and you know
• 28:47
  I'm there to help at all times, but you do you have to find, I
• 28:51
  will give you leads for sure. There's some people that I've
• 28:54
  been able to give a bunch of because they have that
• 28:56
  salesmanship, they have that available.
• 28:58
  They get back to me right away. They're incredible.
• 28:59
  I have some killers and you know, I think everybody will
• 29:04
  eventually be a killer. It's just depending on some
• 29:06
  start quicker than others, whatever, and I try to spread it
• 29:08
  out evenly. The new initiative that we have
• 29:10
  is we're doing a lot of video content and Saturday we're
• 29:14
  filming like 4 different trainers.
• 29:16
  I have them all do like an intro video.
• 29:18
  My name is my favorite exercise, like how I got into this.
• 29:21
  What's different in Ankfit? Like obviously it's self-serving
• 29:24
  in that sense too. Like it's let's people know what
• 29:28
  kind of a place Ankfit is. And I think that like some of
• 29:31
  many of my trainers came as a result of other trainers.
• 29:34
  As you know, like a lot of good clients will come from other
• 29:37
  clients and a lot of trainers. Same thing.
• 29:39
  It's it's I've tried Craigslist. One of my actually longest term
• 29:42
  guys, Rob is is from Craigslist. No, not Craigslist.
• 29:47
  Which one was it? Was it LinkedIn?
• 29:48
  Might have been linked. Myspace, maybe.
• 29:50
  Yeah. Friendster.
• 29:52
  It was one of the, like, archaic.
• 29:53
  Like, is this? I threw, like I said, I throw a
• 29:56
  lot of stuff at the wall. Yeah, exactly.
• 29:58
  I was like, is this like a real guy?
• 29:59
  I hired a virtual assistant and sent out 7000 emails, and, like,
• 30:04
  Rob got back to me. So it did pay for itself.
• 30:06
  And he's awesome. And he's been here four years
• 30:08
  now, almost. Is the majority of your business
• 30:10
  and trainers, are they referral based?
• 30:13
  Sounds like you've talked a lot of referrals.
• 30:16
  Do you guys try track that? Like so as a company, are you
• 30:19
  tracking a majority of like where your actual long term
• 30:22
  clients come from, the retention like the ones that actually you
• 30:25
  retain the longest, the longest standing clients, are they
• 30:28
  mainly A referral based one or are they internetly?
• 30:30
  It's like, what is kind of, I'd say, like what's the makeup of
• 30:33
  that? 80% is referral based.
• 30:34
  My my tracking system's a little archaic, I must admit.
• 30:37
  Like I'm not, you know, it's the CRM end of it is something like
• 30:41
  I've had a lot of people, a lot of companies try to pitch me on
• 30:44
  mind body and what's the other big one?
• 30:46
  Begaro And they're nice programs and I think they work great.
• 30:50
  But like we use Google Calendar and I use Apple notes a lot and
• 30:54
  I have a lot of it in my and I have like people's contacts
• 30:56
  saved with like where and how. And like, I probably like, I'm
• 31:00
  literally want my wife to start helping me because she's like so
• 31:03
  good at that, like detail that bookkeeping, like you throw that
• 31:06
  stuff in front of me and I'm just like, so that is a
• 31:09
  weakness, I will admit. But I have an idea.
• 31:12
  I learn everybody's names and I know everybody's story.
• 31:15
  And I tried to develop relationships with everybody
• 31:18
  that walks through the door. Some people are kind of quiet or
• 31:20
  shy and maybe they are less likely to want to have a chat.
• 31:24
  But a lot of people like we had someone recently relocated from
• 31:26
  Chicago and she said like when I did the initial intake phone
• 31:30
  call with her, her first thought was like, I'm looking for a
• 31:34
  community. And she described the gym that
• 31:36
  she was at in Chicago. And I forget the name of it, but
• 31:38
  they sounded similar and they were female focused, which we're
• 31:43
  trying to be more of. Like we started out with like
• 31:45
  black walls and it was cool and tough and I'm doing white and
• 31:49
  red on everything moving forward because I don't want the place
• 31:51
  to not feel like it's for everybody and I don't want it to
• 31:55
  look like an intimidating strongman.
• 31:56
  Jim, that's not what it is. We have some of that, but for
• 31:59
  the most part, it's just regular people, a lot of moms, a lot of
• 32:02
  retirees. And I think the community that
• 32:06
  the woman was looking for is sort of what we have in the
• 32:08
  sense of like, when you come in, everyone says hi to you.
• 32:11
  We offer you a cup of coffee. There's a comfortable place to
• 32:14
  sit down and take off and change your shoes, which we encourage
• 32:17
  and. Got to keep it clean for.
• 32:19
  Sure, that's big. And I don't know, it's to me
• 32:22
  like the community of it is, is huge.
• 32:24
  And like, I don't mean that in the sense like the corporate
• 32:27
  community where everybody's standing in a in a line like
• 32:30
  this and it's like a, you know, Macy's photo shoot.
• 32:32
  I mean it in the sense of like we do a video day, we all kind
• 32:35
  of work together and make some fun content.
• 32:38
  Everybody knows each other, everybody says hello to each
• 32:40
  other. There's no animosity.
• 32:43
  Toxic workplace culture is something that we have none of 0
• 32:46
  If there's like all these guys don't like each other, that's
• 32:49
  not happening. I'll either get rid of both of
• 32:52
  you or we'll fix it. It's not.
• 32:53
  It's not. There's not going to be any
• 32:54
  animosity like that. Doesn't work.
• 32:56
  So as you seems like as far as like the CRM aspect and the
• 33:00
  systems aspect as you expand, it's actually a huge opportunity
• 33:06
  when I look at it. So, you know, a question for you
• 33:08
  real quickly is, you know, every business goes through scaling
• 33:12
  problems and when you scale, often times with businesses, if
• 33:16
  they're not scaling properly, they can lose quality.
• 33:19
  So for sure, how do you, you know in your business plan to
• 33:22
  scale, which I have total confidence the quality will
• 33:25
  still be there, but how do you plan to make sure that the
• 33:27
  quality stays there while you scale?
• 33:29
  Great question and I've answered this to few people.
• 33:32
  The smart business people always ask that question because the
• 33:35
  biggest thing that you can see like.
• 33:36
  So you're saying Ryan's a genius, right?
• 33:38
  I think so, yes. That's, you know, from, from
• 33:40
  what I'm actually, for me, it's, I look at it and I won't use any
• 33:44
  examples because it's something negative.
• 33:46
  I've what there's a place that I used to go to get it was a
• 33:49
  restaurant of sorts and I would go there all the time.
• 33:52
  And then they opened up, you know, 7 places in five years and
• 33:56
  it just went, it's still fine, but it's not the same.
• 34:00
  And the last thing I that's why I want to stay in Newton for the
• 34:03
  most part. Excuse me, I looked in Wellesley
• 34:06
  and the price point was sort of high in terms of square footage.
• 34:09
  And I think Wellesley's lovely. I think there's a lot of great
• 34:11
  people there. I'm sure you guys have sold a
• 34:13
  bunch of homes there, but it just it's too far for me And the
• 34:17
  way that I'm going to keep that quality until I lose my damn
• 34:20
  mind like is that I will be in the gyms both of them every day.
• 34:25
  That's cool. And then when we we'll talk when
• 34:27
  I get to 1/3 and you saw me wince a little bit when you
• 34:30
  mentioned like expansion in CRM and like what like I know that
• 34:33
  I'll probably have like I said, I want to bring my wife in.
• 34:36
  She's much smarter than I am in, in that way and in a lot of ways
• 34:41
  and I think would be wonderful to help me.
• 34:43
  And my goal is like a few of the trainers have been with me for a
• 34:49
  bit and they're very good. And I'm, I don't want to say,
• 34:51
  you know, making them generals, but like there's a world in
• 34:55
  which like we all kind of take a piece and like some of the
• 34:58
  people that, you know, I haven't determined exactly like once
• 35:01
  I-22 gyms might be the end for me.
• 35:03
  Like I, I like to look at it. My dad's a business guy and like
• 35:06
  was in the lumber business and he's a like, let's figure out
• 35:09
  how we can get you to 15 places and then sell the venture
• 35:11
  capital. And I'm like, I was just down in
• 35:13
  Florida and I'm like, take a breath, Dad.
• 35:14
  And he's probably watching this too.
• 35:16
  But my mind said, and I think the way to keep it, keep the
• 35:20
  quality for me is like, I look at this like, let's see how
• 35:24
  Wabin does. Yeah, that might be enough. 2
• 35:27
  gyms, full capacity, you know, 10 to 12 trainers in each,
• 35:32
  whatever full time, everybody cranking it and I get to keep,
• 35:36
  I've already dialed my, my schedule down about 10 sessions
• 35:39
  a week on purpose to give myself 2 hours a day to focus on
• 35:42
  whatever else. And that helps.
• 35:46
  But we'll see. I mean, I could get to the point
• 35:48
  of like 2 years, three years, four years into Wobbit and I'm
• 35:51
  like, OK, I don't want to train anymore, but I do want to open
• 35:53
  up more clubs And then at that rate, tank fit could spread.
• 35:57
  And that's all I do. And I'm not saying if my clients
• 36:00
  are watching, like I love you guys.
• 36:01
  I, you know, I'm not like jumping ship, but there's a
• 36:05
  world where I'm 50 years old and I'm not using my body for work
• 36:09
  all day long. And it's more this and I can do
• 36:11
  like what we're doing where I sit down and get to know
• 36:14
  trainers and clients and talk to people and sort of, you know, if
• 36:18
  somebody's got a question, I'm available instead of with
• 36:20
  clients all day. Yeah, that's funny you bring
• 36:22
  that up because we've talked about the expansion as well.
• 36:24
  And the reason why we want to stay where we are and stay local
• 36:28
  and not have this enormously big team is because I always, and we
• 36:33
  always want to be present. You want to be present in your
• 36:36
  personal training studios. I want to be present in the
• 36:38
  office and with agents, training agents, mentoring agents,
• 36:42
  helping agents grow. But I also want to be present
• 36:44
  with my clients because I'm still just like you, very, very
• 36:47
  involved with clients every single day, negotiating deals,
• 36:50
  showing property, holding open houses, you name it, with
• 36:54
  clients at properties, etcetera. So I think the presence there,
• 36:58
  availability there is huge and that's how you can kind of keep
• 37:02
  the quality. So that's cool.
• 37:04
  Yeah. And I mean, I think that what's
• 37:06
  really interesting to hear too, is that this has kind of all
• 37:09
  evolved from you were learning, you were learning what you
• 37:12
  didn't like from the beginning of your career, right?
• 37:15
  Learning things from the big box gyms that you knew you weren't
• 37:18
  going to take with you. But that's still an amazing
• 37:20
  opportunity to learn. And it's a good like it's a good
• 37:23
  experience, right? I always say to the beginning of
• 37:25
  my career, it was a lot of learning what I didn't want to
• 37:27
  do. It was a lot of learning how I
• 37:29
  didn't want to manage people, how I didn't want to be a
• 37:31
  leader. And then, you know, once in a
• 37:33
  while you have a really amazing manager or amazing leader and
• 37:37
  you start to learn a couple of great tips from that person.
• 37:40
  And then you continue to build, build.
• 37:41
  And you've built this toolbox of kind of how you've now evolved
• 37:44
  into two different ank fit locations, right?
• 37:48
  But I also love that you're not so rigid in what your big goal
• 37:53
  is, your big overarching plan. You're kind of like going with
• 37:56
  the flow, gonna see how it happens, how it evolves.
• 37:59
  But you also know too that by 50 ish or whatever, right?
• 38:02
  Like you have a physical job. We don't like I sit at a desk
• 38:05
  all day. So to me, I'm like, I could
• 38:06
  probably do this till I'm like 7580 if I really wanted to.
• 38:09
  But I love that you, you have ideas, but it's not so rigid.
• 38:14
  You're not so set on like what your plan is.
• 38:17
  You're going to kind of take it day by day, take it step by
• 38:19
  step, which might be part of your sobriety journey as well
• 38:22
  too. Is like that taking it day by
• 38:24
  day, you know, like it could be like who you are, right?
• 38:27
  But I think that that's amazing because to see a successful
• 38:29
  businessman not be so sat on the next big step and just really be
• 38:35
  focused on this step, this step is huge.
• 38:37
  You're opening up that second location.
• 38:39
  We're excited to see what happens with that.
• 38:41
  We're excited to see you fill, fill all those hours in the day,
• 38:44
  fill that gym up with amazing trainers and continue to keep
• 38:47
  that quality of service. And then from there, we can't
• 38:51
  wait to hear what happens next, right?
• 38:52
  Like if it's going to be a third gym, if you're going to
• 38:54
  franchise, if you're going to stay as two locations and just
• 38:57
  be an amazing neighborhood name right in Wabanen in Newtonville.
• 39:02
  But either way, it's really cool to talk to somebody who has
• 39:05
  created such an amazing business trajectory for yourself in an
• 39:09
  industry where it's similar to real estate.
• 39:11
  You can be a solopreneur and you can do a phenomenal job or you
• 39:15
  can end up taking it to the next level, right?
• 39:17
  So there's personal trainers and then there's people that own
• 39:20
  gyms and, and help mediate or sorry, mentor personal trainers.
• 39:24
  So it's really cool to be able to hear your story and kind of
• 39:26
  be able to to learn from some of the tips and tricks that you've
• 39:29
  been doing with your studio to make it so successful.
• 39:32
  Thank you. Yeah, it's impressive.
• 39:33
  Appreciate that. Yeah, it's, you know, I, the
• 39:37
  quality of it is important to me.
• 39:39
  And I, you know, control is, it's not the most positive way
• 39:43
  to look at it in terms of being a control freak, but I don't
• 39:46
  want it to feel watered down. I don't want the attention to
• 39:50
  detail to be lost. I just, I don't know, you know,
• 39:54
  we'll see. I know I have the confidence
• 39:56
  that we can expand it as far as we want, and that's great.
• 40:02
  But I want to. I don't like to get too far
• 40:04
  ahead of myself because. My brain goes wild.
• 40:07
  Like I don't stop like and I said this to my wife last night,
• 40:10
  like, and she'll never believe me if I say I don't want to
• 40:12
  expand more than just the two. Like if I were to be like, ah,
• 40:14
  we'll see. She doesn't, she won't believe
• 40:16
  that at all. She's probably laughing if she's
• 40:17
  listening. But I said to Lucy last night, I
• 40:20
  that like, I am my father in so many ways.
• 40:23
  And in the sense of like my brother actually said this about
• 40:26
  my dad. He's like, dad, we'll throw out
• 40:27
  a lot of ideas and like you got to hang in there because one of
• 40:30
  them is going to be a home run. And I think my ideas are that
• 40:33
  way too. And I threw like a bunch.
• 40:34
  I've been throwing ideas at Lucy a lot.
• 40:36
  And like one of them, like last night was out of context.
• 40:39
  It doesn't matter what it was, but it was a terrible idea.
• 40:42
  And I said to her like, listen, I'm going to have some awful
• 40:45
  ideas. A lot of those awful ideas
• 40:47
  happened before I found and figured out the ank fit thing
• 40:51
  and just hang in there for the good ones is the way I look at
• 40:54
  it. So like I try to pace myself a
• 40:57
  lot. I spend a ton of my, because
• 40:59
  it's a fitness in the fitness sense to like if you start out
• 41:02
  and you're a runner and I jokingly, I always say like the
• 41:05
  thing I was always the best at was running.
• 41:07
  And I don't run anymore because I hurt myself a lot of times.
• 41:10
  And I it's the the length of runs I used to do.
• 41:13
  I don't have that kind of time anymore.
• 41:15
  I was great runner, but I didn't pace myself properly.
• 41:18
  And I would go, you know, running.
• 41:22
  At one point I was running probably 40-50 miles a week and
• 41:24
  I was hurt all the time and I lost too much weight.
• 41:28
  I was just not strong. And it doesn't help your body to
• 41:32
  be beating it up like that. And I think the same can be said
• 41:35
  for your mind and for the way that you do business.
• 41:39
  And I can already tell, like if I start to pull myself too thin,
• 41:43
  I can feel that might the smart and emotionally intelligent
• 41:46
  trainers and clients feel that immediately.
• 41:48
  They know when you're stretched too thin.
• 41:49
  They know. And if I'll have some of my I
• 41:52
  have one client, Felicia. She's awesome.
• 41:54
  Hi, Felicia. If you're watching and she is
• 41:57
  too empathetic and like, we'll come in and be like, are you
• 41:59
  good? And I'm just like, fuck you.
• 42:01
  How do you know? Because in my mind, I'm like
• 42:04
  this wonderful guy, like I'm putting on a show and nobody
• 42:06
  knows. But like there's the
• 42:07
  vulnerability is real with me. Like I'll be the first person to
• 42:10
  be like, I'm not great today, but like we're going to have a
• 42:12
  good workout either way. I like to make I'm not the most
• 42:15
  positive person. People often believe it or not,
• 42:17
  like a lot of people will be like, what are you So?
• 42:19
  But it's like I try to make it fun and silly and like the last
• 42:23
  couple of weeks, like I don't want to do like local New
• 42:25
  England weather, but like it's been a nightmare.
• 42:27
  Like we got killed last week or this week with the Blizzard like
• 42:31
  brutalized like half Sunday, gone all Monday, gone most of
• 42:35
  Tuesday, gone half yesterday. Today is the first normal day
• 42:39
  back. And I'm just like.
• 42:41
  What a better place to be, right?
• 42:42
  Yes, sitting on the couch. I'm loving it and I'm glad we
• 42:45
  didn't get snowed out. But for me, I have to.
• 42:48
  I'm kind of a bear with stuff like that because it's like I
• 42:51
  don't like immovable objects. I can figure out anything in
• 42:54
  terms of problems. I'll come up with a solution,
• 42:56
  but I can't move 600,000 lbs of snow.
• 43:00
  Right. Well, you can.
• 43:00
  You're very strong. Get all those trainers and
• 43:04
  you've got to. Do it, but as AI mean honestly,
• 43:06
  as a client of your your gym as well and I've known you for for
• 43:10
  years, I have no doubt in the success of your expansion while
• 43:13
  keeping up extremely high level of quality because that's really
• 43:16
  what you have built your business on when you started out
• 43:19
  super high level quality. And that's why you got some,
• 43:21
  some people I know that have been with you for a decade.
• 43:25
  Like that's not a coincidence. There's a lot of personal
• 43:27
  trainers out there. So you're, you're doing what you
• 43:29
  do at a really high level. And I think anyone that works
• 43:31
  for you is, is very, very lucky. Thank you.
• 43:32
  You might have just said this, but is there anything before we
• 43:35
  go that's like 1 take away? One piece of advice you've give
• 43:39
  listen listeners. In fitness or in general?
• 43:41
  In general or both? A thing that I'm terrible at
• 43:44
  that I'm working on is giving myself a break and allowing
• 43:49
  myself to take a vacation, mentally, physically, whatever.
• 43:54
  And you know, give yourself a little grace, I think is the
• 43:59
  best way to look at it. And if you're watching this and
• 44:03
  you're dissatisfied with where you are, there is no such thing
• 44:07
  as permanent. Everything is malleable.
• 44:10
  You can change any circumstance. Go wherever you want to go.
• 44:13
  I don't even mean to me. I mean in like in my business, I
• 44:15
  mean in general. Like if you're stagnant, you
• 44:19
  don't have to be. And I think like, but also like,
• 44:22
  I don't, you don't need to look at everything like it's live or
• 44:25
  die. I think that it's not that
• 44:27
  serious, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.
• 44:29
  Yeah, yeah. No, that's, that's awesome.
• 44:32
  I mean, the only constant is change, right?
• 44:34
  Yes. I love that because we're in a
• 44:36
  business where people think buying a house is the most
• 44:40
  permanent thing you could ever do.
• 44:43
  And to us it's like, I've moved like 19 times in the past, like
• 44:48
  in the past 30 years, right? Like so it's like nothing is.
• 44:51
  Permanent. No, I think in the past 19
• 44:54
  years, I think I said I moved like 12 times or something like
• 44:56
  that. So I had a feeling.
• 44:58
  Of it's close. To a real number, it's a lot.
• 44:59
  Yeah. I love change.
• 45:01
  I personally love change. It gives me energy.
• 45:04
  And I think that, like you said, it's life doesn't have to be so
• 45:07
  serious. It's not nothing so permanent.
• 45:10
  If you don't like something, change it.
• 45:11
  If you want a new experience, go take it.
• 45:14
  Right. If you want to try something
• 45:15
  different, do it. And ultimately, we have one life
• 45:17
  to live. Some people, you know, they want
• 45:19
  to stay in the same thing and just ride that out.
• 45:21
  Well, if it's giving you happiness, making you joyful,
• 45:24
  like, go for it. If not, change it.
• 45:26
  Yeah. And I love that.
• 45:28
  I think that's great advice. Thank you so much for coming on
• 45:30
  today. It was awesome to to learn from
• 45:33
  you and learn more about your expansion.
• 45:35
  And we're excited to see the next studio.
• 45:37
  So thank you. We're here with Ryan Anchor from
• 45:40
  ANCH Fit in Newtonville, opening in Wabin soon, so.
• 45:43
  Thanksagain.com. Thanks.com.
• 45:46
  Appreciate it. Thanks guys.