đĽ From Plateau to 350+ Members â How Zach Thew Scaled Catoctin CrossFit to a Thriving, Full-Time Team đĽ When Zach Thew took over Catoctin CrossFit in 2013 , he had no idea the battles ahead âincluding losing 35% of his members during the shutdowns . But instead of throwing in the towel, he doubled down, rebuilt, and grew . đ From 170 to 350+ members in just over 2 years đ° Churn under 5% while scaling operations đŞ Built a team of 5 FULL-TIME coaches đ Leveraged Big Little Gyms to refine str...
Feb 20, 2025â˘1 hr 18 min
Want To Grow Your Gym? Go Here: https://biglittlegyms.com/ I just did a deep dive into how to get your Gym to the TOP of Google in 2025. đ If your gym isnât ranking #1 or at least near the top of Google, youâre missing out on a steady stream of high-quality leads. Most gym owners are still relying on outdated SEO tactics that just donât work anymore. Or theyâre relying too much on paid traffic. Google has changed, and if youâre not adapting, youâre getting left behind. So I put together a step-...
Feb 10, 2025â˘49 min
Ready to grow your Gym? Book a free strategy call with Big Little Gyms at BigLittleGyms.com . For years, Jim Breuer , owner of Momentum Fitness in Eau Claire, WI, felt stuckâhis gym was plateaued for nearly seven years. But instead of staying stuck, Jim made a game-changing decision âhe joined Big Little Gyms . What happened next? đ He shattered his growth ceiling, hitting a record $60K month đ Grew total revenue by over $80K year-over-year đŞ Expanded personal training revenue by over $30K đ...
Feb 05, 2025â˘2 hr 36 min
In this episode of The Barbell Business Podcast , we sit down with Mycal Anders , a Marine Corps veteran, elite strength coach, keynote speaker, and the founder of Next Level Performance Consulting . Mycal has taken the leadership skills he developed in the military and applied them to the world of fitness, growing his gym, scaling his revenue, and creating a thriving community of high-performing individuals. đĽ What you'll learn in this episode: â
How Mycal doubled his gymâs revenue while maint...
Jan 30, 2025â˘52 min
In this episode of The Barbell Business Podcast, we sit down with Mike Wilson, owner of CrossFit OYL in Rhome, Texas. Mike shares his incredible journey of leaving a high-paying engineering career to pursue his passion for fitness. Along the way, he grew his gym from 59 to 230 members, quadrupled revenue, navigated the challenges of buying out a business partner, and moved into a 10,000-square-foot facility. What youâll learn in this episode: The risks and rewards of transitioning from corporate...
Jan 22, 2025â˘1 hr 29 min
In this episode of Barbell Business, we sit down with Drew Girton, gym owner of Pendulum Fitness. Drew is a industry veteran, coach, and business owner, join us as we explore his incredible journey and the strategies behind his success. With over 20 year experience, Drew has helped countless individuals achieve their fitness goals while building a thriving business. Join us as we dive into: Drewâs origin story and how he got started in the fitness industry. The keys to growing and scaling his su...
Jan 15, 2025â˘2 hr 39 min
đ˛ đ§ Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher Barbell Shrugged helps people get better. Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since. Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barb...
Sep 06, 2017â˘40 min
Some fear is great because it keeps us alive. Are you afraid of making a left turn out into traffic when thereâs not an opening? Good. Donât die. Other fears, while they feel exactly the same in our bodies, are less useful. Are you afraid of sales conversations with prospects? Or of public speaking? Or of raising your membership prices? Yeah? We need to talk about that. This week, we met up with Peter Scott of Fearless Life Experience to talk about the fears that stand in our way and how to conq...
Aug 30, 2017â˘47 min
How do you make your gym stand out when every other gym in town offers the same services and specials? I mean, we know your gym is the best, but how will your prospects know? We asked killer marketer Jeff Sherman of Tech Sweat about how to make a connection with your clients before you even meet them. In this episode, we talk to him about what in the wide world of social media marketing is worth our time, what trends to let go of, and why itâs necessary in order to get our potential clients to k...
Aug 22, 2017â˘37 min
This week, we met up with our friend Conner Moore at a box in Mission Viejo, California. To be clear, we said âa box,â not âhis box.â Thatâs because Conner shut his box down. Ultimately, this is a story of Connerâs success, but we met with him today to talk about that particular phase of failure, what he learned, and how it can help the rest of us. âI am really excited to be a part of this and share the story, because I think one thing that we missed is the idea that we can grow from critical fa...
Aug 15, 2017â˘48 min
This week, we took a trip to fabulous Las Vegas to meet up with old-school Barbell Business podcast host and two-time world-record-setting powerlifter AJ Roberts (Instagram: @ajroberts ). Heâs one of the few people in the industry with a very solid perspective on both business and training, and heâs one of our favorite speakers of all times. AJ breaks down what he considers to be the three pillars of running a successful gym: sales, marketing, and experience. If youâre like most box owners we kn...
Aug 08, 2017â˘58 min
We havenât been able to independently verify it, but we think MMA trainer and entrepreneur Mike Dolce, of Dolce Fitness and The Dolce Diet , might be the hero of an old-school novel . Hear us out. After his father suffered a massive stroke, Dolce got a job as a New Jersey dock worker at the age of eight. Eight years old. Scraping barnacles off of fishing boats for $2 a day, like a⌠well, like a character right out of a legend. Being a forward-looking youngster, Dolce knew that $2 in his pocket w...
Aug 01, 2017â˘1 hr 3 min
You may have heard the expression, âC students make the best teachers.â They remember the struggle of not getting it. They tend to give students the kind of support they wish theyâd had themselves when they were struggling to learn algebra (or English, or chemistry, or whatever). The same can be said of functional fitness coaches. While natural-born athletes can certainly make great coaches too, the self-described âfat kidsâ have a natural empathy for their prospects that helps close the sale an...
Jul 25, 2017â˘49 min
We have a super-exciting guest this week. A big âget,â if you will. Weâve been wanting to feature him on the podcast for years, because weâre his biggest fans. Thatâs right, kids! This week we got to talk to Markus Gerszi, of Barbell Business fame! [Thunderous applause; confetti falls from the ceiling.] Joking aside, it was very cool to be in Markusâs old box in Orange County, CA, this week. Markus is a smart dude, which is why we keep him around. Weâve been wanting to get his best practices for...
Jul 18, 2017â˘46 min
Who do you learn from when youâre already at the top of your field? How do you get the motivation to grow when youâre already, frankly, pretty awesome? Maybe there are worse problems to have⌠Okay, there are definitely worse problems to have. But as entrepreneurs, this is the challenge that we all hope to face at some point. This week we travelled to Chino Hills, California to interview someone who knows a ton about the top tier of personal development: Bedros Keuilian, CEO and founder of the Fi...
Jul 11, 2017â˘1 hr 4 min
What would it take to get Casey Jenks functional fitness sainthood status? Is that a thing? If we just put his face on a medal and wear it around our gym, will that do the trick? Caseyâs the creator of Fitbot, the software that keeps our personal training programs from being our personal nightmares. One thing weâve found as gym owners is that people very rarely stumble upon a great opportunity without first encountering a world of pain. For Casey (and for us before he came along with Fitbot,) th...
Jun 27, 2017â˘25 min
Because gym owners almost always love coaching, itâs easy to fall into the trap of wanting to do all the hands-on stuff yourself. You love your work, so why would you want to let anyone else take over? This week, we talk to Alwyn Cosgrove of Results Fitness to find the compelling answer to that question. We were thrilled to have the chance to sit down with Alwyn, because he was one of the first people to really convince us of the merits of systemizing our own business. Alwyn helped us explore so...
Jun 20, 2017â˘1 hr 2 min
Itâs a tale as old as time: A Major League Baseball right-fielder starts selling deer-antler supplements to teammates during pitching changes. Word spreads until members of rival teams are making transactions on base, until finally, one day, heâs inadvertently made the career switch from pro-ball player to nutrition entrepreneur. Sound familiar? Okay. So maybe former Oakland Aâs outfielder Danny Putnamâs specific story isnât one weâve heard before, but youâve seen those basic elements over and o...
Jun 13, 2017â˘55 min
As a Marine Corps lieutenant, and usually as the only woman in the room, Taylor Drescher anticipated the challenges she might face as a leader. In her case, she was able to identify that her strength as a leader was literally her physical strength -- so she played it as much as she could. âI'd carry more weight on purpose, just to, not to prove a point, but because I could and I loved it. I lived for that, you know? So, why not? Then, the guys would be complaining or falling down, I'd be like, â...
Jun 06, 2017â˘55 min
Just because youâve eaten in a restaurant doesnât mean you know how to run a restaurant. Most people will agree with that in general, but itâs harder to see the truth when looking at your own business. The same goes for working out or coaching in a gym versus running a gym. This week, Garry Lineham talks to us about why it might be more important to grow in your business experience than in your technical knowledge when running your own gym (or any business for that matter.) The core reason is co...
May 30, 2017â˘56 min
How do you know when your business is big enough? When can you stop raising capital? Can you get out of your buildingâs terrible lease terms? Mike Melby is a venture capitalist who works exclusively in sports and fitness. Heâs overseen the inception and growth of a lot of businesses, and on this weekâs episode, he shares some of the common traps owners fall into. As a functional fitness entrepreneur, you probably get a ton of unsolicited advice about how to grow your business. âYou should get mo...
May 23, 2017â˘1 hr 1 min
If you want to learn how to juggle, you donât start with five balls. You become proficient with two and add from there. The same is true for gym owners. We often see gym owners take on multiple projects and attempt to create multiple revenue streams at the same time. This often leads to a lack of focus, frustration, and sub-par work as projects donât get completed on time and additional revenue streams fail to materialize. The shotgun approach seldom works. Ask yourself this⌠âŚin moments of weak...
May 16, 2017â˘1 hr 16 min
Entrepreneurship is inherently lonely. Not to mention, it can be stressful. Being the only one in charge means you hold all the responsibility, which is why partnerships are often so appealing to experienced entrepreneurs. When executed correctly, partnerships can help bring a business to the next level. At the same time, they can cause more stress, and lead to failure of a business. Like any relationship, a healthy partnership is build on trust and communication. This week, we visited Athletics...
May 09, 2017â˘49 min
We say it all the time- it is important to communicate to your clients that they are paying for coaching and not just a gym membership. On that note, it is important to charge a price for your service that matches the value you are providing. More often than not, gym owners are not charging what they are worth, and that is problem. Some say, it feels strange to charge a high price for something they are passionate about and others say they have to compete with the cheaper box down the street, bu...
May 02, 2017â˘51 min
There is a big difference between working IN your business vs ON your business. No matter what industry you are in, there is a milestone that every entrepreneur needs to hit in order to take their business to the next level. That milestone is systemization. In this episode, we catch up with Angelo Sisco, our head business coach at Barbell Ethos, and Jason Dunbar, founder of Iron Fire Athletics & CrossFit Poway, to talk about the process of setting up systems in a gym business. model. If you are ...
Apr 25, 2017â˘1 hr 2 min
As gym owners, we are in the business of showing people the value of coaching and investing in their health. As entrepreneurs, it only makes sense that investing in ourselves is equally as valuable. In this weekâs show we interview Marci Lock. Marci is a very successful coach, and you can tell why as soon as you hear her speak in this episode. She works with some of the most successful entrepreneurs in the world, and charges 1 million dollars a year to work with her. She obviously did not start ...
Apr 11, 2017â˘56 min
If you have been watching our show, you have heard us say it many times- We are in a relationship business. With the amount of gyms in the market, that is more more true than ever before. If you want to succeed in building a strong community, you need to focus on connecting with your clients and building an experience that they value. That experience starts the first time they walk into your gym. In this weekâs show, we are podcasting with Jordan Harbinger. Jordan runs The Art of Charm , a podca...
Apr 04, 2017â˘1 hr 12 min
Wouldnât it be awesome if there was a process in life that could help you rapidly advance your progress? Well there is. Itâs called mentorship. Just like a coach or a personal trainer, a mentor is someone who can guide you through the process and show you a clear path to your goals. That doesnât mean you donât have to do the work, it just means you have someone who has gone through the same process to help you get there faster, and with more clarity. We visited Mycal Anders at CrossFit PHX to ta...
Mar 28, 2017â˘1 hr 3 min
If you are like most gym owners, you started a box because you are passionate about fitness. You wanted to turn your passion into a career, and you started a gym on the side in conjunction with your day job. Now if you are like most gym owners, you also noticed that running a gym and trying to work your day job was a lot harder than you expected. You hit a plateau with how your business was scaling, and you realized that there are just not enough hours in the day to have a day job, and still hav...
Mar 21, 2017â˘52 min
We are excited to share a special kind of show with you this week. We had Justin Ross of Monkey Reel Media come visit us to teach you about marketing with video. Justin creates high quality video content for gyms and in this episode we talk about why video is the most important type of content you need to have in your marketing strategy. This is a special show because instead of just an interview, we shot a live demo where Justin shows you how you can create high quality video testimonials with ...
Mar 14, 2017â˘34 min
