A long time ago in a state far far away….
Just kidding it was only a few years ago in a somewhat far away state: Texas. A young ambitious man was working part time as a personal trainer and part time as a server’s assistant at a fine dining restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas. He absolutely hated this job with a habanero fiery passion and the love boat uniform it required even more. Whoever’s idea it was to adorn the poor staff in a white tuxedo while serving calamari and shrimp cocktails is the mystery of the century.
One day, he was late for work at the restaurant and couldn’t find the final humiliating piece of the of the uniform: the bowtie. So, he called in and officially quit because the bowtie was nowhere to be found. He called in and told the manager “Yeah I can’t find my bowtie so I’m going to quit”. The manager replied “That’s cool just come in we have extras”. Our protagonist then replied “no that’s alright I’m gonna go ahead and quit”. Now this probably wasn’t the most responsible way to quit the restaurant gig, but the past is the past…
Fortunately by this time he had enough clients at the family gym to support himself. This is what he was meant to be doing anyway. He became a pretty well known trainer in Fort Worth and built a large clientele, gained a good reputation, and changed a lot of lives in the process. He started to notice that the trainers cool new workout equipment or mind blowing new exercise (for the trainer anyway) was not what kept clients coming back and getting great results. IT WAS ABOUT THE CONNECTION AND ACCOUNTABILITY. The clients he made a deep connection with were so much more successful than the ones who just kind of worked out and left. The more honest the communication was, the better the long term results were. It was that simple.
Things were going pretty well until one day he felt restless. Restless in the sense that he had a strong desire to move away from the area he had spent his whole life in. There ended up being a very specific reason this itch came about.
Well, his serious girlfriend at the time (practically fiance) just so happened to be an actor. They talked about moving to either LA or NY. After much discussion, it was decided that the best coast would be the life altering choice. He started calling gyms to simply continue personal training, and found a great deal on rent at a place called Fuel Rx Fitness. The owner was nice, but seemed to be having a hard time attracting new clients and paying the rent.
So, our friend kept looking around at other gyms in the area before moving so he didn’t put all his eggs in one basket. After another month or so, a new ad popped up that said “Need someone to take over my studio or buy it from me”. Out of curiosity, he picked up the phone and called to investigate the situation (knowing full well he didn’t have 100k to buy it). Shabam! It was the same place with the great deal on rent!
With very little cash in the bank, he started his way into “taking it over”. After moving to Cali, he put in a ton of sweat equity by working for free and putting cash in the owner’s pocket for about 8 months because he knew his purpose was calling him to create his own game and help people more efficiently. Looking back on it, a lot could have been done smarter and better.
After a lot of back and forth, negotiations, a down payment financed by some awesome clients, and an epic conference call (with an amazing counselor, thanks dad!) to finalize the details, the place was his!
Since that day there have been tons of challenges conquered, a heap of mistakes, a re-painting from brown and yellow to red and white, and most importantly hundreds and hundreds of lives changed for the better.
The only reason we have seen any success whatsoever is because of the amazing trainers who work directly with the clients delivering our brand of empathetic direction that has changed the game.
P.S. This is Patrick Williams the owner writing about his self.
P.P.S. I just thought that the third person narration would sound cool and make me seem like a big shot 😉
