Eye On Franchising

A Different Way to Workout with GYMGUYZ Founder Josh York

Episode Summary

Today on Eye on Franchising we have an individual that works to be number 1 in everything that he does and GYMGUYZ is no different. Josh York started the GYMGUYZ business in 2008. However, it was many years prior that he began creating the path that would lead to a successful mobile personal training business. It was during his high school days of playing hockey that he developed a passion for fitness. He made the connection that being physically fit helped him perform better on the ice and feel great at the same time. Josh fulfilled his passion for health and fitness by working as a personal trainer in gyms on Long Island while earning his bachelor’s degree. In 2007, after graduating from college, Josh began working for a marketing firm and continued working as a personal trainer in the evenings. It was on one of these evenings at the gym that something clicked. He noticed that gym members were inconsistent. They had too many excuses not to show up at the gym and work out. Whether his clients were working late, unable to leave the house after a busy day, or just needed to get dinner on the table, Josh realized that there are dozens of rational reasons why many people aren’t consistent gym-goers. This is when he started developing a solution. BRINGING IDEAS TO LIFE Tapping into his creativity, his professional background in marketing, and his solid knowledge of health and fitness, Josh decided to launch his own company. He would offer an experience that was completely different by bringing customers a unique service: a mobile fitness company that comes to the setting of your choice. GYMGUYZ was invented, with a fully equipped van containing weights, resistance equipment, body bars, and so much more. The personal trainers would develop personalized exercise and nutrition programs designed to ensure clients achieve their fitness goals. Josh created GYMGUYZ from an idea and, like many great entrepreneurs, he started the GYMGUYZ business in his parents’ house in 2008. The dining room became a mini GYMGUYZ office. He started with a vision, a laptop, and one van. He conducted business at the dining room table with a cordless phone and one folder with a few client names. Josh was not only running the business, but he was training the clients as well. When not training his clients, Josh drove the GYMGUYZ van every day, up and down the Long Island Expressway, in an effort to market the GYMGUYZ brand and attract new clients. Soon that one folder became multiple files, and the dining room became crowded with file cabinets, a printer, a fax machine, and marketing materials. As soon as Josh got all the steps in place to franchise his business and during his first vacation since the business began he sold his first franchise. And he hasn't looked back since. Check out GYMGUYZ here https://www.gymguyz.com/ Have you heard the news? We are officially on YouTube. Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA --- Lance Graulich Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising Eye On Franchising

Episode Notes

Today on Eye on Franchising we have an individual that works to be number 1 in everything that he does and GYMGUYZ is no different.

Josh York started the GYMGUYZ business in 2008. However, it was many years prior that he began creating the path that would lead to a successful mobile personal training business. It was during his high school days of playing hockey that he developed a passion for fitness. He made the connection that being physically fit helped him perform better on the ice and feel great at the same time. Josh fulfilled his passion for health and fitness by working as a personal trainer in gyms on Long Island while earning his bachelor’s degree.

In 2007, after graduating from college, Josh began working for a marketing firm and continued working as a personal trainer in the evenings. It was on one of these evenings at the gym that something clicked. He noticed that gym members were inconsistent. They had too many excuses not to show up at the gym and work out. Whether his clients were working late, unable to leave the house after a busy day, or just needed to get dinner on the table, Josh realized that there are dozens of rational reasons why many people aren’t consistent gym-goers. This is when he started developing a solution.

BRINGING IDEAS TO LIFE

Tapping into his creativity, his professional background in marketing, and his solid knowledge of health and fitness, Josh decided to launch his own company. He would offer an experience that was completely different by bringing customers a unique service: a mobile fitness company that comes to the setting of your choice. GYMGUYZ was invented, with a fully equipped van containing weights, resistance equipment, body bars, and so much more. The personal trainers would develop personalized exercise and nutrition programs designed to ensure clients achieve their fitness goals.

Josh created GYMGUYZ from an idea and, like many great entrepreneurs, he started the GYMGUYZ business in his parents’ house in 2008. The dining room became a mini GYMGUYZ office. He started with a vision, a laptop, and one van. He conducted business at the dining room table with a cordless phone and one folder with a few client names.

Josh was not only running the business, but he was training the clients as well. When not training his clients, Josh drove the GYMGUYZ van every day, up and down the Long Island Expressway, in an effort to market the GYMGUYZ brand and attract new clients. Soon that one folder became multiple files, and the dining room became crowded with file cabinets, a printer, a fax machine, and marketing materials.

As soon as Josh got all the steps in place to franchise his business and during his first vacation since the business began he sold his first franchise.  And he hasn't looked back since.

Check out GYMGUYZ here https://www.gymguyz.com/

Have you heard the news?  We are officially on YouTube.  Come check out a few videos have have and give me a follow!  

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwoAdrkPZmveJt5AQRDk8WA

---

Lance Graulich

Franchise Consulting Services from ION Franchising

Eye On Franchising

Episode Transcription

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, franchisees, day, franchise, franchising, business, world, fitness, josh, years, create, money, crazy, hear, big, lance, territories, talk, successful, sell

SPEAKERS

Josh, Lance Graulich

 

Lance Graulich00:06

Hello everyone and welcome back to another fabulous episode of ion franchising. I'm your host, Lance Graulich. So today, you know, people say health is wealth and I absolutely believe that I'm not young anymore, but I gotta hit the gym six days a week. So today, we're going to talk about fitness and franchising, and my guest is an author. He's a host of his own podcast called fuel your drive. And he's the founder and CEO of the largest personal training company in the world. Josh York. Welcome to the show, Josh. Thank you so much, Lance. Appreciate it. Appreciate it. Absolutely. Well, Josh, let's start with way back when and how did little Josh become this big Dynamo in fitness, franchising?

 

Josh  00:53

Hunger, drive just this just, never taking no for an answer and never settling at number two. The only number I like is number one. And you know, I've always been into fitness, I always love helping people. You know, I always like to compare a personal trainer to a doctor, you only you eat what you kill, right. And at the end of the day, the most successful doctors are doctors that have practices and have multiple doctors working under them under them. And the same thing goes with the personal training world but no one's ever been able to professionalize the service or create this category and for me, I've always been in health and fitness and you know, I graduated college and they tell you you're supposed to get a nine to five job and you know would have been amazing if I was able to get a nine to five job working with someone like myself, but I'm working in a negative environment with no opportunity nowhere to grow. And you know, I just I can't do this is crazy. I you know, I started looking at like statistics it's an actual stat that 85% of people drive to work every day committing spiritual suicide. They're miserable, they they hate Mondays, they love Fridays and I can't live like this so you know I was very successful as a personal trainer making high six figures as a personal trainer at the age of 1617 years old all the way through the like you know, before I started gym guys when I was about 25 And one of my clients came in late one day and said Joshua wishing come to my house I just don't have any equipment. And I just kept thinking about like this is like you know, there's so many franchises out there like so simple like a cleaning franchise like how hard is it to get a car throw a couple pieces of cleaning supplies and air some rags mops and you know some you know, some fluid liquids whatever you need and go out to clean houses but they created a system they created you know, a process and I said that's what I'm gonna do. I came up with the name GYMGUYZ and GYMGUYZ stands for it's an acronym it says get you motivated goals uniquely yours zero excuses. We're gonna go out service clients anywhere from their home office, pool Park Place of Worship corporations, literally anywhere we bring the workout to you. We service over 1000 cities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. And we're just getting started. And I like to always say the next 10 years, we will be the largest fitness brand in the world. You mark my words on that. And it's super exciting. And it's great to make a living, but it's much better to make a difference. And that's the business we're in is helping people.

 

Lance Graulich03:13

I love it. That is absolutely fantastic. So when you got started who Where did you come up with the idea of actually, franchising? You mentioned the cleaning franchise, and that's a great, great model, obviously. I mean, there's so many great franchise models, but what what brought your attention to franchising? How did you fall into it?

 

Josh  03:32

So it's funny, you know, obviously, I knew nothing about franchising at all. And I just, you know, I knew like about McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts, and I used to be like, Man, it's like, you know, I remember I was having a conversation with a friend at the time. And I was telling them, You know, I was, I'm gonna start this business, and I'm gonna franchise it. And he laughed at me. And he was like, What are you even saying, like, you realize how hard that's that that is to do like, Well, that just that just, you know, after that day, I never spoke to that person ever again. Because I don't I don't I don't surround myself with people like that. And that person did actually reach reach out recently. I just bought an 18,000 square foot building. You know, for my parents dining rooms is staring at basements for 15 years. And he reached out and, you know, he was one of those, you know, who was like, I always knew you're gonna do it. 

 

Lance Graulich04:21

I don't I don't believe that. I don't remember any of that inspiration.

 

Josh  04:26

Unbelievable. But anyway, you know, you know, and I was like, You know what, I'm gonna, I'm going to start this business and franchise it and what I've always loved about franchising, and I continue to prove, you know, my beliefs correct is you get to surround yourself with great people, other great people. And if you think you have all the answers, you're wrong, and no one builds anything great alone. You have to do it with a great team. And if you look at some of the biggest franchises in the world, some of the greatest ideas and concepts they've rolled out have been from their franchise partners. And I just, I just know that that used to get be really excited. And that's kind of how I got into it and started looking at it. And you know, it's like a new world, right. And you think it's so big franchising, but when you actually get in involved in it, everybody knows everybody. And it's everyone's willing to help each other. It's the best community ever. I've made such great friends with the franchising world. And, you know, I'm very happy I went that route.

 

Lance Graulich05:22

Yeah, no, that's, I love hearing that part of the story. That's just amazing. And, you know, look, I tell people all the time, even McDonald's, you mentioned, the fillet of fish and the Big Mac were created by franchisees and the dollar menu from the dollar menu that, you know, franchising is truly all about collaboration. So, myself being a franchise broker, I hear it from people all the time here on my candidates, my clients that say things like, well, you know, what's the difference between owning something on that I created my own versus a franchise. And when you get to the part about being in business for yourself, but not by yourself, they tend to forget that it's not just the training team. It's not just the founder. It's not just your success coach or franchise, business consultant, whoever's assigned to you. It's the whole brotherhood and sisterhood of franchisees around you, that are supporting you. Because you have one common goal. You're not worried about as an independent owner, you're always worried about everything because you're completely by yourself on an island, unless you pay for it. That that help, right. Yep. So let's talk about your let's talk about as you get started, you're everyone always hears about how important it is your first franchisee, so in the early days, you get your Franchise Disclosure Document, you're all legal, and what year was that? That was in 2014 2014. And then selling those first, you know, onboarding, those first few franchisees? What was that selection process? Like? What if anything has changed over the years?

 

Josh  07:00

I got a lot has changed. So it's the last week in December of 2013. You know, we're just getting ready to get approved for franchising. You know, I have been running my business at this point for about eight years, my corporate territory, and I never took one vacation, on vacation. My wife and I are just about to have our first son, she's pregnant, you know what, like, four months pregnant, and she wants to take a vacation Christmas week, she wants to go to Cabo. I was very scared to do it. I didn't even actually want even go. But I ended up going on vacation. It's the first trip I took in eight years and you know, now approved for franchising. You know, startup January, you know, and I'm, you know, everyone you know, then again, you have those people like, how are you going to sell your first one that's got to be impossible. If you actually look at some of the stats, Lance? How many brands are actually with a franchise and they never even sell one? Yes, the numbers are crazy. Like it's like 60% or something. It's like such it's the numbers super high. I don't know if it's that high. But I remember reading it's very high. But so I love brownies, just you know, I love a good gooey, fudgy brownie. And this hotel had the best brownies in the world. Lance, I had a plate like I might have,

 

Lance Graulich08:24

Josh first vacation and eight years.

 

Josh  08:26

And I go back going back to my table and some gentleman looks at me. And he's like, you're eating all that? And I was like, oh, yeah, absolutely. It's like, well, how do you look like that? And he looked at that. I was like, Well, I don't need like this all the time. But I'm on vacation. I'm enjoying myself, you know, like one weeks not going to kill me. You know, I take care of myself. We start talking. And it's like, what do you do for a living? I was like, oh, you know, I run this company. We just started franchising. He's like, Man, my son would love this. So now we go back to the table. Turns out my wife was already talking to his wife because we were sitting right next to each other. And they're both teachers. So they're already talking. He facetimes his son, Sam. Now at this point, I'm like, oh my god, what am I doing? Right? So I run up to my room to get my iPad. Because that's where the FTD is right? And I call the person who's helped me the attorney and all that and like, I Lance, it was like, I think it was like 11 o'clock at night. Right? And the one thing I loved about this one person into this one individual is he's just not like he doesn't help pick up the phone anytime. I'm like, What am I do is I got to take a deep breath. He's like, you can show it to him. You can email to him. Have him sign this page. Like I didn't know anything at the time, right? Yep. Two weeks later, we closed the first franchise.

 

Lance Graulich09:40

That is that is that is one of the best stories I've ever heard. Yeah, so

 

Josh  09:44

But it gets better. So then, you know, I just keep driving and driving. So then I pitched that story to entrepreneur. Got a full page story, a free full page story in the magazine have I sold the first one. So the next three from that And then it took off like a freak wildfire,

 

Lance Graulich10:02

you've definitely heard the expression. You know, with franchising with anything momentum, it's all about momentum.

 

Josh  10:08

So, momentum, but but I don't want people to get this wrong because you will have lots of problems, pressure makes diamonds, right. And at the end of the day, if you think it's going to be easy, it's easy to say it's not easy to do. You know, there's lots of problems along the way. But, you know, that's pretty much how it started. And, you know, I went from my parents dining room to a very small office, the first office I had, it was so funny and, and this is also something I tell people all the time never take. You should never take advice from people who haven't done something successful or you trust because I remember my wife telling me at the time, Josh, do not leave your parents dining room, are you crazy, you're gonna pay $1,000 for rent, like, I'm thinking now, like $1,000, then was so much to me. Like I think about it. Now. It's like, it's like a joke. $1,000, right. But the office was so small that last, if you would pull the chair back a little bit, you would, I had like, I squeeze three desks in one area, you knock like dominoes, everything over on all the tables. Then I had our conference room, which is really like, you could barely even fit two people in this room. And I put I squished this table in there were like four chairs, you had to move out a chair just to close the door. It was so tiny. But I sold franchises from there. Then we moved to our next office, which is a little bit bigger. And then I ended up taking over another office next to that. And now I just you know, bought this building. But this is a matter of you know, this is over 15 years, right? Like people don't understand. And I've only been honestly, franchising, I'm not going to count 2020, but really just seven years. So we're in our seventh year, technically. So we're really just getting started. And it takes you know, a good decade for anything to really become successful and create momentum. But that's how it all started.

 

Lance Graulich11:50

Absolutely. That's such a great story. So let's talk a little bit about your process. And who would make you know who you're looking for? Who is who is the best gym guys, franchisee

 

Josh  12:02

great. So most people think it's a trainer. That's the first thing they think it's not right. It's not a trainer, you know, we're looking for people with sales, background marketing background, people who understand what it takes to manage a team, people who understand leadership, leadership is the number one most important thing. And honestly, in any business, but especially in our business, you got to be able to lead your team, you have to inspect what you expect, that's very, very important. And, you know, look, it helps if you have experienced as a manager in a club. But you know, this, again, is a very different business. It's not a brick and mortar business. And this is why our business model A is so sexy and reason why we're selling like crazy and grown like crazy is because, you know, people see it that this is the future. You know, look, we live in an Amazon world, everything's about convenience. And I'm sure you wonder if Amazon last hour or the last day, the last week, or you know, yesterday I did, there you go because that that's the world we live in, and that's not going to change, it's only going to continue to get even more convenient. And, you know, you know, in a way, you know, companies like Amazon and DoorDash they help our company because it continues to train the consumer behavior to like, want it didn't have you know, and that's obviously helpful to us.

 

Lance Graulich13:10

Yeah, no, that's, that's fantastic. So how many locations do you have? Or how many franchisees Do you have? Now? All these we

 

Josh  13:16

have 168 locations and we service about 1000 cities in the US, Canada and the UK.

 

Lance Graulich13:23

I love Yeah, you've already made it to the Canada and the UK. It's amazing. So as far as so let's say all these years later, you your think about your top 10% Your best franchisees the brain trust so to speak. What did they do specifically before? Is it a wide variety of people? We know they were weren't all trainers. Yep,

 

Josh  13:47

Yep. It's it's a little it's a mix of everything to be honest with you. And listen, I'm gonna give you the facts right now. Successful people. Move faster, talk faster, have energy don't take no for an answer. And just like I'm hoping everyone who's listening to this brushes their teeth twice a day, right? I hope so. Okay, you brush it if it rains, you brush it a bit Sunny. Sunday storm snow storm, you brush your teeth, right? Absolutely. And rules apply in business. If you people think motivation is what's going to get them their motivation is the biggest bunch of nonsense ever. Motivation will laugh or it lasts for about five seconds. You have to be disciplined every single day. People you know, people wonder why, you know, Michael Jordan's Michael Jordan or Kobe Bryant, Kobe Bryant, or Wayne Gretzky is Wayne Gretzky. All they would do is shoot that ball in that puck over and over and over and over again. Yep. Practice makes permanence and the top people in the system. They don't stop. They're also involved in everything they write every single conference. They're on every single goal. They ask questions they're they're always interested Right, they want to learn, you know, look, I got people in this business making seven figures, like, you know, you remember, you're in a business model that doesn't have a lot of expenses, you have higher profit margins, which is the key, because you have no brick and mortar. But business is not easy. I literally tell people, when I get on a CEO call before people come to the point where they're going to buy, you know, and again, I shouldn't say buy, because we award franchises, we do not sell them, we award them, I want the right people in this system. You know, it's great to do this. But let me tell you something, I learned this a long time ago, quality is much better than quantity. Okay. You can have a 500 people doing $100,000 A year you can have, you know, 200 people doing $2 million a year, right. So that's very important. But at the end of the day, what I really see in the top franchise partners is that just they're never satisfied. They always want more. And that is really one of the most important things. It's key. And, you know, and again, you know, leadership. Not everyone has leadership abilities from day one. But the key is you have to be okay with being uncomfortable. If you're not going to be okay with being uncomfortable, you're never going to get comfortable. And fear is the greatest indicator that you should do it. Like every time I'm scared of something I go, here's my little my clue, right? Success leaves clues. It's that it's so real that saying it's so real. I've heard that a long time ago. And it's so true, because it's all it's, it's like a game. You just have to be able to play and understand you just don't quit.

 

Lance Graulich16:31

Yeah, you know, you're you're dropping so much knowledge here. I'm loving it. And it's amazing that success leaves clues is something that I've said often as well. And that's the beauty when people are fearful. They can talk to you, they can talk to your existing franchisees through the validation process, and start to understand what's the best way to cure fear is not only doing it, but it's going through the process and getting educated. And realizing I got to do that. And you know, look to use a fitness sort of analogy, you know, aren't people Hey, a guy gets to 400 pounds, and he hasn't worked out his entire life or maybe since, you know, elementary school? Isn't he scared of what that first day is going to be like, but at the end of the day, you think of what the goal is, right? That's all it is fitness, health, wealth, it's all the same. Let's talk about Alright, let's talk about the investment level you mentioned. We know there's money to be made in this business, you wouldn't have the growth that you do, you know, franchisees, so I'm doing, you know, seven figures, what is the investment? What's on this van? give kind of a day in the life what a gym guys franchisee does,

 

Josh  17:45

Yep, yeah, well, the investments from 66,000 to 166. And that's just a difference between territories and pretty much 95%. Everyone does three territories because it's growth opportunity. And that you know, that would leave you at the 166 range. Well, Dana life, it depends on how you're coming into the business. You know, some people come into the business, semi passive, but they do have someone else involved, who's got skin in the game a little bit more money to bring to the table. And others come in as an owner operator. And you know, and honestly, it's the great thing about what we do here is we do so much for our franchise partners, like some of my billion dollar friends that are in the franchise world. They tell me I we do way too much. But you know what, I want people to be able to work on their business, not in their business. So, you know, we recently started an HR program, and obviously, due to joint employer, you can't actually hire, but we've taken over that whole process, we pick out all the rockstars, screen them, vet them sourced them, we create all the relationships with the largest, you know, the largest personal training certification companies in the world. And we literally, then give it to them on a silver platter and say, here's 10 People pick who you want, like we make it download, it calls don't get answered by the third ring. They come to our world world headquarters here. I don't have sales pros, answering the phone, I got sales animals, answering the phone, booking the assessments, putting it on their schedule, eventually, we're going to roll that into a call center, which makes it even easier. And you know, look at the end of the day for you to hire a secretary, you're going to pay 55 $60,000 alone just to do something like that. We're going to take that off the plate. You know, the b2b has been growing like crazy. We're gonna get in a lot of big accounts. We just closed a very big account that I can't disclose on here due to NDA, but it's one of the biggest in the world and it's bringing in a lot of revenue. And

 

Lance Graulich19:27

when a corporate wellness type thing, correct? Yes. Love it.

 

Josh  19:31

When a franchise partner starts and they could open in eight weeks. They start with a plate, right, just an empty plate. But then you pull one of these partnerships on the plate, you pull another one to senior homes, assisted living facilities, condos, daycares, all this stuff we're continuing to do to grow and scale that's where it's at. Right? That's that's what's gonna really really really skyrocket and obviously help them grow.

 

Lance Graulich19:52

So Josh, back to the age old question, why do I need a franchise boy if you can't figure it out with Jim guys, you got a problem right?

 

Josh  20:00

Listen, I have so many people telling me oh, I could just do this on my own. You know what I say? Good luck. Yeah. Luck people, people think people think that they can do it on their own. Listen, we also do all the marketing, all the marketing, you're responsible for owning the community and putting out materials in your market and building relationships. But we do all that for you. And if you want to make money, let me tell you, you need to spend money and we have it so dialed down to the tee where it was say, Listen, you want to get 20 leads a month? 3040 50 Here's what you have to spend. The system works. All you got to do is follow it.

 

Lance Graulich20:35

Yeah. Well, let's talk about the system. So when when I as a broker or anybody brings you a lead, a potential franchisee let's talk about a little bit about your process. You know, when they get the FTD when they get to review that unit economics validation? How are you doing Meet the Team day? Yep, yep, sure,

 

Josh  20:54

sure. So it's a six step process. And the first call is an intro call. And we want to find out their why, why why do they want to do this? What's the what's their why that's the number one most important thing, you know, going after we kind of figure that out, we go through a welcome presentation, giving them a little overview of the brand. Once that call is done, we'll send out a request for consideration. So, you know, again, we don't sell franchises, we award them. So we send out that request, we want to make sure, you know, you fill all that information out, and you actually get it back to us in a timely fashion. Because if you don't, that's a red flag to me, right? If you don't fill out the form, trust me, we're not coming after you because I'm not going to bring in a system because that shows some characteristics that I don't like to see from day one, right? Get that form back, we review it, we set up another call, we review the FTD, send out the FTD go through the FTD then we give them some time to review that FTD. After they review that FTD we then have a CEO call. So I will jump on a call, whether it's one on one or with multiple new possible franchise partners, answer their questions, give them a story about how we started where we are, where we're headed, how we're going to get there, talk about worldwide domination and helping people and changing lives because that's what we're all about. And then from there, they speak to some of our franchise partners, they go through validation, right, talk to some owners, you know, and again, you know, ask those questions that they want to get some answers on, because some things we're not able to disclose. It's better getting it from the franchise partner that goes well, they come for a team day, and then we sign them get them up and running in eight weeks. I love it.

 

Lance Graulich22:17

I love it. So, you know, I want to go back to you. You mentioned asking them about their why. And you kicked off the show today talking about, you know, certain characteristics you like and you need to have in people and why? You know, you had an awful experience as an employee as I did, which is why I became my own boss. So when you're asking people about their why, I mean, I'm assuming most of them are like, you know, I hate my job, I hate my boss, I hate the fact that I'm controlled by someone else. I mean, what are those common answers you hear? Yeah,

 

Josh  22:51

sometimes they are, you know, you know, see, you know, not to ship this for a second. But it's like, we have such an amazing culture here at my headquarters and my corporate team, it's not even normal, like, and I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna make more millionaires here than anyone's ever done in the business. Like, that's one of my, one of my missions, like, that's going to happen. And people don't understand, like, you can be an entrepreneur and you can be an intrapreneur. And they both can be very, very successful. And sometimes, you know, the entrepreneur is more like the franchise partner, you know, not as much risk, right? Because the systems in place, you know, yes, you're gonna have to deal with challenges and stress and all that. But when you surround yourself with other great people, and you bring them in, that's how you're gonna be able to really build a strong foundation, great business, but like, you know, things I typically hear, you know, it ties a lot into that culture, like, you know, you know, I worked here at this company for 15 years, and no one ever asked me how I was doing or you know, how I feel, or they don't even know my children's name. Like, I know everything about every one of my team members, and I actually do want to talk to him about it. I do care. And I've also have a lot of fun here. Like, you know, the reason my podcast and my book is named fuel you drive all that is because fuel is the four pillars of success. Find unity, earnings, and leadership, and we're gonna break them down in a second. And then you have drive. Obviously, you're not driving anywhere without fuel, drive. Those are our core values. Everyone has to embody them. Determination, respect, integrity, versatility and excellence. Now when you break down fuel the first one is fun. Can you run a business without having fun? Heck no.

 

Lance Graulich24:29

It I don't want I don't want to but can't force you could.

 

Josh  24:34

If you try to. You're gonna end up in that that stat I gave you about 85% of people that drive to work every day miserable. We had lots of fun laser tag dodgeball, renting out the movies, Kickboxing events fitness event. Well, we do all types of crazy stuff. You know, for Halloween, we're having a huge party, right? Like we do fun things. We laugh a lot. We have a great time because you could work hard but you got to play hard too. And you're gonna have a good time. So fun can go now One, unity, teamwork makes the dream work if there's no teamwork is never going to work. Next one earnings, if you're not making money, that's not going to work. And the last one is leadership. Good leaders will create other good leaders, you must lead by example, you know, and I use my kids as an example a time my kids are young, and I don't tell them to do anything. They just wash me every day and they put out the garbage they, my my son, you know, he knows the license plate numbers to the vans, he, he's it's just crazy. But he just follows what I do. And he's got great energy. And you know, I remember back in the day when I was in school teachers used to say, I was so hyper, I wouldn't sit still, I wouldn't stop talking. But let me tell you something, a closed mouth will never get fed. And if you don't have energy, you don't have anything and you're not going to be able to sell you're not going to get people excited. Energy is contagious. Energy is important. And you want to be successful. You better start working on that. 

 

Lance Graulich25:55

I love your energy I always have so that is just keep doing what you're doing. Let's talk numbers. Now. You know, a lot of people listening that are interested in franchise business. They're hearing you they're loving your energy loving culture, loving everything. So numbers, obviously, you have people that are doing incredibly well within gym, guys, how do you break that down?

 

Josh  26:16

So we break it down? average revenue per trainer. So what a full time trainer could bring in. And it's around 177,000 per trainer in gross sales, average locations have anywhere from five to 10 trainers, I got some locations that have over 30. Right. So just you know, put those numbers together and you'll see

 

Lance Graulich26:32

30 trainers, that's amazing. And is that like one city? Or is that that's actually

 

Josh  26:37

in three territory? Four territories? Okay. Got it. Yeah, you know, but you know, the numbers are powerful, but you got to drive your business, you got to drive your business every single day. And you know, I'm sure people listen to me, they get excited, they get motivated. The problem is, and here's where I'm going to call you out is you don't take action. No, you're waiting for like the perfect day, you want it to be sunny, with a 72 degrees out and the flowers blooming and all the birds chirping. It doesn't work like that. Yep, the time is now like I actually have in the process, we make this very clear. Once you're awarded, you have seven days to sign and font. You know, obviously willingly, everything's in place, and you're good to go. If you don't we part ways in your friends, because that tells me right? Yeah, you don't know how to make a decision. And if you don't know how to make a decision, that's going to hurt you in business severely. So you know, and I've learned that the hard way because, you know, obviously I've had challenges along the way. And you know, you can't, you can't get to the other side. Without eating the dirt. You can't get to the other side without enduring the pain. And this is why I'm a big believer in suffering every day. I use fitness as that I do things that most people would probably end up in hospital with. And I've trained myself over the years, whether it's my cardio, whether it's my ice baths, my insane he does saunas, I do, I do all types of crazy stuff. But I believe when you suffer like that, and it's, you know, 3040 minutes of your day of pure suffering. For me, it's about two hours every day. But when someone walks in on a Monday morning without giving you two weeks and quits, doesn't really bother, you know, because you're so strong here. This is where it's all at. And I will tell you right now your mindsets, 80% of everything. 80% of everything, and people think they need to be the most brilliant, smartest person in the world and have all these abilities and be super book smart. Let me tell you something. Sometimes the people who are the most smartest, are not as successful as it could be. Why? Because they think things through way too much. I fire aim ready. Most people like to go Ready, Aim Fire. I've closed some of the biggest deals in my life. Lance would just tell him absolutely. I don't even know what the hell I was doing. I figured it out after.

 

Lance Graulich28:49

Yeah, let's see old expression about a typical entrepreneur jumps out of a perfectly good airplane holding the the parachute and puts it on as he's going down.

 

Josh  29:00

That's it and builds it. And it's the truth. You know, it's the truth. But, you know, have have I had severe days of suffering and you know, sitting in a casino one night, almost putting my life savings down and make payroll, I can tell you the craziest stories in the world of things I've gone through to get to where we are today. I literally eat cans of tuna fish every single day for six years straight just to save money. Like I look into the fish, I actually get nauseous, like throw up, because I just can't even look at it anymore. I'm just like, then look

 

Lance Graulich29:26

and look where you are now buying an 18,000 square foot building.

 

Josh  29:31

That's because I'm willing to pay the price, you know, and the problem is, you know, being broke is hard. Being successful is hard. Choose your heart.

 

Lance Graulich29:42

Yeah. So well said

 

Josh  29:45

it's it's the truth. You know, people think, you know, oh my god, this is so scary. What am I going to do? If you only knew half the things I've done you would be like this guy is crazy. But you know what? I'm not crazy. Because I believe in myself. I I've, I've, I've doubled triple mortgage my home, I can tell you the craziest things I've done to get to where we are today. And I own 100% of my company, and I will never lose, I will never lose. And that's why we have the most amazing franchise partners because they know that and look during COVID Of course, I reached out I listen to you know, I've reached out to all my top my top mentors, you know, people that have run 100 million plus billion dollar brands, Josh need to lay off 60% of your team or for a little leverage going out of business. I refuse to do that. Because the first place I listen is right here. I listen to my heart first in my head second, was it painful? Yeah, but what do you think my team thinks to me now? They know no matter what we'll never, we'll never lose, because I will never let it happen. I will never let it happen. And no matter how bad things get, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? Are you are you going to die? Or is it going to be like some tragic note? Yes, figure it out. That's it. And that's how you win.

 

Lance Graulich30:59

And that's franchising. You know, when the shit hits the fan? Like a pandemic? Guess what? You got Josh York as your franchisor you're gonna be fine. Figure out how to get some PPP money, everybody will get through things, it'll be fine. I do have a fitness related question. Because how could I not ask you this question. You brought up the pandemic, as we all go through the pandemic, and statistics start to come out. You know, America is the most obese developed country in the world. With all of this access to fitness, why is it that that's still the case?

 

Josh  31:43

If you see what's happening lately, in the fitness industry, you know, peloton is laid off another 500 people, you know, the problem is these companies. And I like to talk bad about anybody but, but like, at the end of the day, these companies have expiration dates, because people are naturally procrastinators, they can't turn on the app, they're not going to use the machine, the treadmill becomes a great clothing rack, or the bike or whatever it is. People need accountability. And this is why our service is so needed. And this is why the demand is so high. Like, I look at our dashboard every day. Like Lance, it's crazy. Like the amount of leads we get in Procore my clients like sometimes like, it gives me like goosebumps because I'm like, I think back to when I started this like, like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of leads. It's wild,

 

Lance Graulich32:32

you're in demand,

 

Josh  32:35

the demand is super high. And that's why I knew I was going to solve this problem. And you have to be able to solve a problem. And this is a big problem. Because people don't realize that fitness can be fun, and you can make it fun. But you just need to be active. And this is the message we're delivering and the mission to you know, be able to change as many lives as we can and do it worldwide.

 

Lance Graulich32:58

Absolutely. That's amazing. So Josh, any final thoughts? That was a wonderful final thought, but I know, I know, you got more final thoughts for the day and he words of wisdom, we could talk for hours. You know, last words of wisdom

 

Josh  33:07

If you believe something, right, and you have a feeling that you want to do something, you just do it, okay, you just do it, you don't question it, you don't do it. I always like to say you can cut out a piece of paper and put it over the dial of your watch and write and oh W because the time is always now. And it should always be now and you should always take action. And you know the ones who sit around and just wait. Someone like me is going to come in and eat your meal. So take action. Believe in yourself. And it's just very simple. Just don't quit. That's it. Just don't quit. And don't pay attention to the noise out there. Don't pay attention to how this one's doing or how this one's doing. Because at the end of the day, everyone's journey is different. Focus on yourself. And great things will happen.

 

Lance Graulich34:02

Love it. Great way to end it. The Time is Now Josh York Founder CEO of GYMGUYZ. Thank you for being here. Josh.

 

Josh  34:10

Thank you so much.