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Running a Gym
234 Plays2 years ago
Sometimes, the events that seem to be throwing you off your path are the ones that lead to exactly where you need to be. For Jeremy Smith, those diversions lead him away from college in his final semester to a trying time caring for his dad during an illness. Then he found himself coping with life through drugs, a choice that eventually landed him in jail. But as Jeremy began to rebuild his life, and his confidence, in the gym, he also began to see a way forward. Through the renewing of his faith and the encouragement of others, Jeremy Smith would eventually find himself running his very own gym.
In this episode, we discuss the hardships, hard decisions, and hard work that got Jeremy from college-dropout to gym owner. Plus, his progress from 1:1 coaching to group sessions and beyond, a unique combo that makes up his business model. Finally, the power of the steadfast encouragement of a spouse and the importance of helping people build confidence along with their skills.
To hear more from Jeremy, look for The Bar Performance Gym on Facebook and Instagram.
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Transcript
Introduction and Purpose
00:00:00
Speaker
Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
Meet Jeremy Smith
00:00:25
Speaker
Hello, and welcome, everybody, to another episode of the Uncomable Podcast. I'm your host, Philip Ramsey. And I'm Aaron Kramer. You know who we are. Yeah. Financial advisors who actually love what we do. Yeah, that's right. We're in the world. It is where. Anyway, grateful to be able to do this podcast. I love bringing guests to our audience and listeners that are doing uncommon things in an uncommon profession. And we have that today. Yes. One actually close dear to my heart.
Training Skills and Personal Records
00:00:49
Speaker
Yeah. So tell me why you wanted him on the show, and then we're going to get him on the show. Because he's amazing. So it's Jeremy Smith. Call him the gym.
00:00:55
Speaker
What's the gym called? The bar performance gym. Mm-hmm. Keep going, brother. So this guy's amazing. Like, if you've seen me, you know me, I'm a meathead. And this one area that I'm probably, like, I was overly confident in until I met Jeremy.
00:01:10
Speaker
Oh wow. Yeah. So it's funny. Our story, like me meeting Jeremy was funny. Cause in my head I was like, I want to have a guy teach me how to like, I've never, I didn't know how to get to like a one rep max for these heavier sets. I knew how to do like more of a hybrid thing. In my mind, I was like,
00:01:27
Speaker
I'm not paying anybody more than 50 bucks a month. I know what I need to do. And I told him that. I was like, dude, I'm not paying more. He's like, that's fine. Just let's work out together. I was like, all right, I'm not paying you more than that. Dude, it worked out twice together. I PR'd. He fixed a bunch of stuff. And he talked over my head in the way that it wasn't like big words. It was a very simplistic way. But what was going way over my head, I'm like,
00:01:51
Speaker
How much do you want? Yeah, take my money. Take my money. So Jeremy Smith, we have
High School Memories
00:01:56
Speaker
him on the show. We're going to walk through kind of his business, his business model, what got him to the point of like, I'm going to do this by myself. So welcome to the show, Jeremy Smith. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Let's just start with the obvious.
Journey to Gym Ownership
00:02:10
Speaker
Jeremy Smith and I went to high school together. Yeah, we just found that out. That was mind blowing for me. Let me tell you what I remember about Jeremy Smith.
00:02:19
Speaker
Yeah, I wanna hear this. This is the first time I ever felt a speaker rattle my heart. Isn't Jeremy Smith's car. No joke. Listening to, what is it? Dang it.
00:02:34
Speaker
Make you say, uh. Probably some no limit stuff. Yes. That was Jeremy Smith's theme song in high school. So I'm sorry to age us all so quickly. But man, Jeremy Smith is one of my guys in Dowling that I liked. Wasn't a lot of people there. They were great people. I just didn't really attach to them. But Jeremy Smith was one of them. So it's really fun to reconnect. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So you've got a family of three now. Married 13 years. 13 years.
00:03:03
Speaker
Uh, three kids, daughter, 12, almost 12. My son just turned 10 and my youngest will turn seven in a few days here. That's great. Awesome. And then, so how long have you owned the bar performance gym? Um, so I will be closing out my eighth year here in March. Wow. Uh, yeah, I believe.
00:03:25
Speaker
March was was when I started so eighth year. I'll be re-signing Re-signing lease. I say closing out just because I just finished my second My second lease there. So my first one was at a smaller place at about 3,000 square foot my second one now is about 7,000 square foot and
00:03:48
Speaker
at a five-year lease. So I'm about to re-sign again and so it just kind of helps me do the math. Since we've known each other in high school, I think this would be a fun question for you.
High School Dreams vs. Reality
00:03:59
Speaker
I think what you're doing now is perfect for what the guy I knew in high school, but what did you think that you would turn out to be in high school? Man, you know, I mean, I think as
00:04:11
Speaker
Any boy, you know, who's playing sports or whatever, you know, I thought that I would have, you know, had a better run at maybe going to professional. Yeah, I get it. You know, but I never, I never pictured myself being like, you know, in the gym, you know, it wasn't really even a big thing when we went to college, you know, I know, like, when I went to school, it was like,
00:04:34
Speaker
Really, I was looking for, you know, I played football, but was looking for the easiest thing I could do, you know, and it was like business management is what I got into, you know, and it's like, why business management? Well, because I know I wanted to be my own boss, you know, I know I wanted to own my own business. And so, you know, here and there, everything happened and, you know, end up opening the gym and it's pretty crazy. You know, lifting has been a passion of mine since probably
00:05:04
Speaker
Gosh, going into ninth grade, going into down lane, it was kind of introduced to it there. And, you know, it's always been a huge part. And so to have it come full circle and me, you know, being able to pass this along to others is great and work with youth athletes. And so it's just a, it's a big dream. So yeah, dude, that's really good. Yeah. How do you, cause did you ever have a job, like a real job out of college?
College Experience and Family Challenges
00:05:31
Speaker
Not really, no. Yes. I didn't ever have. You're kind of our spirit animal here, don't you? Yeah, a real job at all. So really kind of, little story is, so my last semester in college, I had to take, this would have been my fourth year, I was trying to graduate in four. Yeah, I like that. I like that plan. And so I had 19, 18 or 19 credit hours that I had to take. Yep.
00:05:58
Speaker
halfway through the semester my advisor came to me and said oh well actually you're still a couple let me backtrack I believe that might have been into the first semester and so we were setting up my second semester and we had to do this much or something and that's like it came down that I ended up having to take like
00:06:18
Speaker
21 hours or something like that. So I wasn't used which is a full load. Yeah, I wasn't gonna end up graduated. I was gonna fall like six credit hours short or something like that and so You know, I Looked into you know what I could do to to finish that but about that same time my father had an ascending aortic aneurysm. Oh, so I
00:06:43
Speaker
That like sprung a small leak in his in his a or none paralyzed him from the sternum down. So I Moved up to take care of him and thought that was a good idea and man that was that was just tough all around you know, so that was a few years that we you know, we put into that and so he
00:07:06
Speaker
Man, I think he lived for like 12 years with that. We did some moving around, ended up actually moving him back with us in Iowa. And that was a heck of a situation and heck of a strain on, you know, excuse me for this.
00:07:24
Speaker
on our family. But we got through that and we were just joking about that the other day, man, if that's one thing that we could get through, we'd get through that and we'd get through anything. Sorry to get broken up a little bit. It was good. Wow. Yeah, crazy situation, but so many ways. So you never graduated college? I never ended up graduating. You ended up going to hang out with your dad and trying to help him with that? Yeah, so I'll take care of him for a few years.
Overcoming Substance Abuse
00:07:50
Speaker
At that time, I kind of,
00:07:52
Speaker
Uh, got on, you know, went down a bad road. Yeah. Say that because I think your story is amazing coping in other ways. Right. Yeah. So, you know, I really started partying. Um, I was doing, you know, ecstasy, cocaine, meth. Um, you know, I was getting after it for a while and I just remember one time I, uh,
00:08:17
Speaker
I don't know. I don't know if I passed out or what I was on I was at this after party and I just remember like It coming coming to and like everything in my body was like sore all my muscles and what's you know, what's going on and so I just the crazy crazy districts, but um, so I just kinda From that point on was like man. This is you know
00:08:44
Speaker
I'm better than this, this isn't me. And this whole time, I gotta say that, the Lord has always kinda been with me a little bit. I kinda lost track a lot, but it was like, I'd end up going to church here, get invited here. And so there was always those little things. And so I was always kinda like, man, I'm better than this. And so I started to,
00:09:12
Speaker
Worked towards that and then I got in trouble and went to jail for about a month.
From Addict to Trainer: A Self-Taught Journey
00:09:20
Speaker
Got out and was on house arrest and moved back here to Iowa. So I started working for a stone company and then I was just kind of got back in the gym and that helped get my confidence back and somebody was like,
00:09:40
Speaker
And you should start training people. You're pretty good at this. People are asking me questions. And so I got into that and started working with clients and a lot of self-taught and studying crazy that I would, in school, not study, but then outside of school, it's all the stuff that interests you. You end up studying. And so that's kind of what got me here.
00:10:09
Speaker
Holy cow. Isn't that a cool story? Way more enduring. Yeah, dude, thanks for sharing. One, it's hard to reenact that, but what a cool thing to see where God took you from the valley, the lowest of those. Yeah, totally.
00:10:25
Speaker
and like where you're at now, right? And what a cool thing. I think in my faith, that's really what he's done with me too. Like when you're, when you're the most broken, it's when he can use the most. Yeah. Cause I mean, it's like for our listeners cause Jeremy will say it, but like,
00:10:41
Speaker
I mean, you've coached a couple women to the top of like, that was one world's and then placed in worlds and powerlifting. So you coached like some really good athletes to the top. And then you coached other people as well, but I'm just like, I mean, you got all those, but like you've gotten to your knowledge all the way to the point where you have like top athletes working. You're training the bucks, right?
00:11:07
Speaker
And you're self-taught. I want to just emphasize that for a second, because I feel like that one is very uncommon. Yeah. But I almost respect that more. Here's why. Because in going in college, you're going to be fed what they want you to study, where how you did it was like, no, I think there's something here. I'm going to go study more. Oh, there's something here. I'm going to study more. So it was almost like this
00:11:31
Speaker
progress that you had to follow the breadcrumbs, if you will, to what you know now, which is super knowledgeable. I want to go back to one story that you had, because when you first said like, hey, I'll never pay you enough more than this, I loved your response. Like, hey, let's just start working out.
00:11:47
Speaker
Because you know the self-confidence you had, like, I can get you where you want. I feel like this is probably just your nature in and of itself. But there's a lot of people that would know as much as you do and look at Aaron and be like, all right, then let's just keep going on yourself and just move on. Let's just part your ways. But you care enough to be like, well, let's just work out a couple times and then let your experience kind of talk. That's super uncommon. Yeah, it is amazing.
00:12:16
Speaker
the first or second time we worked out was front squatting because I like refused the back squat at the time and I was like let's front squat I think I've only I don't only hit 405 if I wanted to and then like you was working with me and then like you helped me stretch out a little bit and change a couple things and I hit like 405 for like five that day yeah I was like
00:12:36
Speaker
What? This, this, this weight just means like I'd be crushed. So it just is all a lot of weight. Let me go back to the lowest of the lows. Like where do you go from there? You wake up from being passed out and your whole body sore. Like what does that first step look like? Um, man, I wish I, you know, I wish I remembered it. Right. Clear. Right. More clearly. But, um, you know, I think, uh, it,
00:13:02
Speaker
You know, I just remember in my head saying, you know, this is, you know, this is not the life for me. You know, I'm, I'm right. You're destined for, right. And you know, so it wasn't, it wasn't like a light switch flipped, you know what I mean? I still had, uh,
00:13:21
Speaker
a lot of issues to to figure out you know and like i said but i i think you know it's crazy i started working this job you guys laugh at this but it actually taught me taught me a lot of like you know just being in
00:13:36
Speaker
you know your own business and dealing with people and all that but I worked a job selling fake cologne and perfume and I would go business to business and this is like you know Minneapolis man we would go to strip malls we would go to you know like gas stations late night after the clubs I mean did everything because you whatever you bought
00:13:58
Speaker
you had to sell bottles for a certain amount so whatever you sold them for you kept all the profits and so it definitely wasn't that profitable of a business but you know it taught me how to accept no and you know have people going and keep going you know because you'd walk into a business sometime in people black
00:14:15
Speaker
get the F out. Sometimes you just can sit and talk to somebody or joke with them and calm them down or whatever. But I think it just teaches you how to deal with a lot of different walks of life. And I think that's also been a big benefit in training people because there's
00:14:34
Speaker
I work with, you know, youth athletes to, you know, I've got a 70 year old client in there now who works out my life and she just kills it, you know, I mean, she was deadlifting over 200 pounds the other day, you know, I mean, she just, she just rocks it, you know, that's amazing. That's, that's, for me, the
00:14:54
Speaker
you know, the true joy. Yes, you know, I mean, this, yeah, this definitely isn't a isn't a million dollar business that I'm in, you know, but it doesn't need to be doing what I have to do and having family time and still have a positive effect on, you know, people around and impact other people. Yeah, I like how your I think
00:15:13
Speaker
the process of you becoming who you are today, you had to work on yourself first. And I feel like that's a really good thing to take away for our listeners now. It's like if you want to ever achieve anything, you first have to work on yourself. 100%. And what you did is like, I don't know how, you've always been in pretty good shape. Let's just be frank. Yeah.
00:15:33
Speaker
But what you ended up doing is cleaning yourself out mentally. And then you started focusing on your philosophy, moving yourself in, okay, I'm going to train myself. I'm going to be serious about this. I'm going to figure it out. And then once you did that, and I think that that's like a walking billboard, right? People are like, Hey man, like you're shredded. Can you help me? Is that how it went? Or am I just assuming, uh, I mean, you know, I think.
00:15:59
Speaker
I'll tell you what, I think the people that say that more that I notice that from are the ones that don't end up coming in and looking for training or doing that.
00:16:13
Speaker
So I don't know. I'm sure it helps. I'm not saying that it doesn't help. I'm sure somebody seeing that it gives them maybe a little bit more comfort or knowing that, hey, obviously he's... You walk the walk and he talks to us. I've been in the trenches doing that stuff for a lot of years. And I think that's obviously just what helps me out with
00:16:34
Speaker
you know, with the confidence of it, you know, and there's a, you know, you've got so many different training philosophies out there and so much new stuff and everybody's got this, you know, but I think that, you know, the basics will still always be, you know, there's always be beneficial, you know, and there's so many people that try to jump past the basics, you know,
00:16:58
Speaker
too quickly and you can go back and revisit those things and do a lot of different things to really increase your performance and all that, you know, without having to do all that fancy stuff, you know, right, right away. And then there's a time and place for it, you know, but, um, so when is it that you're like, I'm going to write my name on this lease to do
Establishing a Unique Gym Model
00:17:17
Speaker
this? Like that is a scary situation. Yeah, it is. It was scary, you know? Um, so.
00:17:23
Speaker
I had, so I was working at Aspen, that's where I started out at. And imagine that, you know, I didn't get along well with the owners or management, if you could imagine that. So it's always kind of been my thing. I've always, you know. Push back. Yeah, I've always been my own person. But, you know, so I came down to, you know, I ended up
00:17:51
Speaker
you know, saying something back to owner or something like that. And I got fired from Aspen, which actually worked out in my benefit because I was able to take my clientele, you know, they couldn't hold them, you know, if they fired me. So if I left and then took them with me, they could...
00:18:07
Speaker
So many ways I went down the street and started working with a few of them at this little snap fitness. And I had a decent clientele built up and I wanted to start doing just like some small group training. And just more like an individualized training. So I could work with more people than just if I did an hour long one on one training. You're just limited to, you know. That one person. And then you really have to charge a lot of money. You know, so I mean it's,
00:18:37
Speaker
Anyways, so I started working there and then The owner of one of the boot camp places around town Talked me into coming out there saying that you know, they were wanting to do you know a certain kind of like small group training which intrigued me and and about that time that I went over there they had
00:19:03
Speaker
got into their boot camp stuff and their boot camp classes grew huge and so I was kind of doing I had some of my clients that I would still work with in this small group format and so it got to the point where you know my clients their weights would be getting cleared off the bar we didn't be
00:19:22
Speaker
pushed out push back to the back room and And so I just kind of started feeling people out and seeing you know And that's always a scary thing because a lot of times people will say yeah, man. We're gonna come with you, you know And really I've been pretty lucky in the places that I've gone with my clients to be able to to follow me, you know, I mean but
00:19:46
Speaker
you know i just came down to i started looking at some some places and i was able to find a little place over on a hundredth street um there's a little 3000 square foot place and um i was lucky enough to have a
00:20:00
Speaker
a great client at a time who I helped just get some amazing results. And so she gave me like a interest free loan to get my first bit of equipment. And so I got that. And then, you know, I just paid her back. So within two years I had her paid all back. Beautiful.
00:20:19
Speaker
and you know slowly started kind of building you know buying equipment here and there and I was there for three years and ended up getting you know training the box and so that
00:20:35
Speaker
You had 25 kids in there and it was a little 3,000 square foot place and it was longer than it was wider. So it was pretty crazy. So anyways, I was able to find this new place which just about doubled my square footage. Where is it at, like location with?
00:20:56
Speaker
down on Lower Beaver Road. Oh, nice. Yeah. Kind of the back way to Ankeny. Yes. I know where that is. Yeah. So right by Beaverdale Little League. Uh-huh. Yeah. Just about right across the street. That's where we bike. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So.
00:21:11
Speaker
I was able to get that place and man it's just been awesome.
Rochelle's Role in Success
00:21:16
Speaker
It's allowed me to open up to like an open gym format to people so I can do a 24 hour access. I just have a key code there so people can come and go as they please. So that's been huge because the place before was pretty much
00:21:30
Speaker
You know, just like small group training or be with a personal trainer, you know, and so now I'm able to at least bring in some passive amount of income where I don't, you know, I can sell a membership and they can come in and, um, and, you know, I do it that way. I don't have to train them or do that, but then, you know, I'll offer programming or training or whatever, but.
00:21:51
Speaker
Two things. One, I want, well, three things. One, I think I've seen it. Do you have like a Hulk Hogan or like a Hulk? I saw that. My family and I were driving by, I was like, dude, that looks like a cool place. Of course it is. Okay. Two, then I want to give you some time to talk about your spouse. What's her name?
00:22:09
Speaker
So let's talk about Rochelle and her support in this whole process because one thing that I will tell you with confidence is people don't have, people don't go down this uncommon path successfully without the support of their spouse. So let's talk about that because I love this time of the podcast. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, we can go back. It's, uh, you know, it goes back to even when we first started and just even, you know,
00:22:39
Speaker
being with a personal trainer or whatever that was just starting the business. You know, I mean, I was, I would be at Aspen from four in the morning till seven at night, you know, we lived in Ankeny. So then I, you know, sometimes I'd sleep in the car, you know, and then, um, um, so that, you know, and you were married when you were doing this. Uh, I don't know if we were married yet at that, but together we did, we were together and we did live together. Um,
00:23:07
Speaker
So that, you know, that in itself is huge. But, you know, then to even go on and think about, you know, starting my own business, you know, taking a loan out from somebody. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.
00:23:23
Speaker
She's been, you know, nothing but supportive, like not even like a, not even a doubt or like a question of, you know, is this the right thing? And so that's 100% hard to find, you know, that's, that's. Yeah, Rochelle runs almost harder than you do that sometimes. She's like, you know, so at the time,
00:23:47
Speaker
she definitely was still killing it in her work, but not near what she's grown to now. And she is a story in herself because she doesn't have a college degree and she's a director now at a bigger insurance firm and she was just killing it. And so, obviously,
00:24:12
Speaker
I got to point out the fact that she's had a stable job. This is something that I could have never done had she not had a stable job. But she worked that and she would bartend at the Bow House. She just kills it. But that's also set up by her mom and grandma. That's just there. That's there.
00:24:37
Speaker
That's her DNA. That's her DNA, exactly. That's a blessing. Yeah, absolutely. And it just carries on. She's just such a hard worker. But yeah, she had no doubt ever about, can we do this successfully and
Family Values and Education Decisions
00:24:55
Speaker
all that. And so there's obviously trying times and any time that you're starting your own business. Oh, yeah.
00:25:02
Speaker
You know, we'll see. We'll just keep kicking along. It's kind of like termites. Keep pushing forward. Just like a termite. As long as you don't go away, you got a shot. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Go ahead. I feel like I'm kind of going this way. No, you're good. I just got so many questions. I love it. I know the whole story. So it's one of those things where I'm like, I don't know what to say, but like, yeah, it's fun to watch you and Rochelle like kick butt at this gym thing. What's her role now inside the gym?
00:25:27
Speaker
Nothing, okay, nothing. Just works out. Yeah, she comes in every morning. With the workout buddy, the seven year old workout buddy. And Sheila, and then another lady, Andy, those three are pretty constant. And then another lady that she works out at a different gym, but comes over every Saturday. So Michelle, and so they kind of have their little workout group, and they're in there six days a week in the morning.
00:25:54
Speaker
and she's been killing it there and then she goes home and you know she's now she used to work at Nationwide so she'd have to go downtown now she works from home so that's just amazing in itself you know she can go home and yeah you know she's just right there for kids need anything or whatever right what church you guys go to now so we go to revision church oh interesting right and do you are you familiar with that okay so revision is usually in the Clive Learning Academy
00:26:23
Speaker
Okay. Okay. Write down, uh, library and everything. Yeah. Didn't know, uh, right down in like, do you know where the bucks arena is? Yes. So is that 72nd? I think you're going, then you're going towards Walmart. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. There's that school right there. Okay.
00:26:38
Speaker
And so that's where revision is. Right now we're actually in Indian Hills because I think they're doing some construction. But man, Mike Howard is our passer. It's just awesome. I mean, we we've we'd love it there. It's unfortunate we don't get to go as much, you know, wrestling season, softball and baseball and all that. So it always ends up being on Sundays. But any Sunday that we have, man, we try to make it over there. Yeah.
00:27:06
Speaker
huge part, you know, and so big part of her family too, you know, and she Grew up like more Southern Baptist, but okay, you know, but yeah her parents, you know Then everything kind of got to more of a non-denominational her grandparents, you know still and her aunt and uncle I think still kind of stayed a little bit more Southern Baptist that but her dad and mom and all that, you know, I
00:27:32
Speaker
I think I don't know, but yeah, that's right. You know, what, uh, this is a question, crazy question that you probably won't get it asking all your interviews that you're doing. Uh, but you're going to send your kids to the Catholic private. I'm not either. Yeah. So I'm not against it, you know, and I've said, Hey, you know, send, what about Dowling for the kids? She's like hard pass. Yeah. Hard. So.
00:27:55
Speaker
But she has been open to one Christian. But their wait list is so long. So long. No joke. You send three kids there. Oh, dude. Close to 30 grand a year. Yeah, she's going to bartend again. That's what that means. Yeah. I thought maybe I close my gym and open a batting cage or something like that. Those things are always packed.
00:28:20
Speaker
Let's talk about your business model, because I feel like that's a lot of our business owners that listen to this.
Innovative Business Model in Gym
00:28:25
Speaker
They always are intrigued with business models. What is your business model? And you kind of mentioned it a little bit before, where now you have this Anytime, 24-axis, you know, that kind of stuff. But I didn't start out that way though, because that was like the difference between you, like you were...
00:28:38
Speaker
Cheaper than most people but because like you had kind of had I thought this was amazing because you did figure it out The fact that like after you help somebody a few sessions like you help them six times 12 times Let's just say 24 times because they're brand new. They don't need you hovering over them 24 7 so you could you could have four or five clients going at once and
00:29:00
Speaker
And like, you're just going back and forth between all of them, helping all of them, making more money in that hour, but they're paying a lot less than it would to just have you one on one. Brilliant.
00:29:11
Speaker
Yeah, you know, and that's what I thought, you know, it got to be, you know, the thing was, when I was at Aspen, it was all like one-on-one stuff, right? So you'd sell packages, right? And so it was like, you know, some sessions ended up being like $55 a session, if I can't even remember what it was, if you bought so many deals or whatever.
00:29:32
Speaker
You know, it just, after a while, like I think one-on-one stuff was a great way for me to start. I got to say that because it really gave me the time to analyze everybody's movement. And I worked with so many, you know, so saying that I was self-taught, I mean, I like, I really like would watch people, you know, and, and I was on with that, you know, and I, and, and everybody comes in with different, you know, problems or movement pattern issues. And so.
00:30:02
Speaker
that was great for me starting out and I think that's what really helped me kind of develop like the small group individualized training and that's what I call it more and so that would allow me to work with more people within about the same amount of time I don't ever give anybody like okay we're here we're only here for an hour
00:30:21
Speaker
right now you're at your workout may be you know 45 minutes to an hour and 10 minutes just depending on what we have to get done that day you know but or maybe if you talk to somebody a little bit more yeah like me but I've never like shoving you out like okay our hours up I got to move on to the next person right and so
00:30:42
Speaker
That allowed me to be able to get my hands on more people. Yeah, right and pass my knowledge along to more people But not have to charge. I mean like you go to lifetime. What is it? A hundred a hundred crazy some dollar hundred twenty dollars for an hour, right? Who? Who needs that somebody to look I mean you got a
00:31:02
Speaker
really, really, you know, maybe have some issues or, or something like that to have goals. You got goals you want to obtain. If you got to do that, you got to have something serious, you know, because most of the stuff, that's what I kind of backtrack and I'll say, you know, a lot of the basics get overlooked. You know, I mean, nobody needs to pay somebody $120 for an hour to show most people the basics. Not that many people are so advanced that they need some, some crazy stuff going on. You know,
00:31:29
Speaker
that's a really good point because there's only so much time that you have and your body can only take so much so like oh yeah do this lift do that lift do this lift like i can't remember what the first lift was yeah so like a whole hour that that's a long time well but even in here and here's the big thing this is what i noticed with a lot of one-on-one stuff though is my clients
00:31:49
Speaker
did not get any confidence in the gym. And to me, that's what the gym is all about, right? If you're not confident in there and with your lifting and that stuff, you know, it's the same way on the football field or something. If you're hesitant, right? If you go into hitting somebody and you're hesitant, you don't go full go into it. I mean, you're the one that's getting taken down.
00:32:11
Speaker
And so it's the same thing, you know, and so if you go into the gym, you know, it's about building confidence, right? And so that would be like, okay, if, you know, if you're doing bench press, I'm going to go over and I'm going to go over and get your dumbbells for you, right? And then when you're done with that, I'm going to take your dumbbells and I'm going to put them back. And then I'm going to get your next set of dumbbells over here. I'm going to put your weight on this deal. And so then like,
00:32:39
Speaker
but you're taking away the confidence that they could be building. Right. And so what happens when you leave? So what happens when I go on vacation or, you know, something like that, even if I'm like, okay, here, I'm going to write up a program for you or a workout for you. Still didn't get done because
00:32:55
Speaker
They're not used to going in, getting their weights and okay, finding their way around. Here's a bench that I gotta get to. And so it's all like they would be lost. And so what happens then, somebody buys 24 sessions from me and that's all that they can afford. And I'm gonna teach them this stuff and I'm gonna try to teach them this stuff, but I'm gonna be handing them their weights and we're gonna be like right here. And then that 24 sessions, then they're gonna be off on their own trying to
00:33:25
Speaker
Follow this path or you know continue on their journey and They haven't gained any confidence to go in there and do stuff and you see it, you know a lot with women But even you know even with guys too, but obviously a lot more with women, you know, yeah But so that's kind of you know, how I developed what I'm business model Yeah, you know I could work and get my hands on more people. Okay, and
00:33:49
Speaker
probably afford them time to have more sessions with me you know over time I get to have you know five you know three to five seven people in there at the same time charge them less but can still walk around the room and say oh man you know that set look good or you know see them from that's kind of the way I designed the gym the way that I can so I can see
00:34:14
Speaker
everything, you know, no matter where I'm at. So if I see somebody in the back corner doing something or struggling or looking confused, I can run over there and help them out. Or, you know, somebody needs a, a spot on, on something or, you know, so that's kinda just how, and now it's evolved to like, you got the keypad where people can go in and yeah, you got the trainers there now you got like, how many trainers
Future Plans for the Gym
00:34:40
Speaker
do you have working for you? So.
00:34:42
Speaker
Now I just have two trainers there. So I don't say they're not really working for me. I just do, like they just, I just charge them a percentage of whatever they bring in. So I, again, you know, so if you haven't picked up earlier, when I said, you know, the whole like, uh,
00:35:01
Speaker
authority thing. It kind of goes back to even like the whole corporate thing. I'm so like anti-corporate, anything which I think, you know, if we're being honest, it probably affects my business a little more negatively, you know, then it helps it. But, you know, like just a lot of those little things. So I don't want to employ anybody. Yeah. But
00:35:23
Speaker
That's fine, they can just pay me a percentage, you know, but then I just cap their percentage at a thousand bucks. So, you know, whatever they bring in. So, you know, they could run a very successful business and only end up having a thousand dollars of overhead. Nice. You know, so I try to be pretty fair. But again, you know, I don't go back. I don't do.
00:35:42
Speaker
any advertising like I probably should you know and so but yeah I just kind of like where you know yeah word of mouth works really well yeah yeah true that's the thing so what's the future
00:35:55
Speaker
Well, you know, I think I mentioned this before. It looks like I'm going to be resigning, you know, at least. So it's either that or, you know, or I don't know, sell the equipment. Try to go sell floors with my buddy. I don't know.
00:36:13
Speaker
Yeah, so it looks like it's going to be another big commitment, five years. And that's usually what we're looking at. I haven't talked to them yet to see. But the unfortunate news of all this is that with everything going on with the box, I don't have them anymore. So that's a little disappointing. Sure. Because that was fun. I was with them for, I think, five or six years. And it was kind of an abrupt stop. Totally.
00:36:41
Speaker
you know, seeing everything that's been in the news and all that, we can see why. Well, I haven't seen what's in the news, but I'll talk to you later. Yeah, later. Yeah, but anyway, so it's good for, I think it will allow me to be able to work with more like high school athletes and so, you know, because I've got a couple other small, you know, small like young kids baseball teams and that stuff. And so that will open up a little bit more time there.
00:37:10
Speaker
One door closed, another door opened. For sure. That's how it works. And I will say this, Aaron, you'll like this. You got to check this out.
Diverse Activities at the Gym
00:37:18
Speaker
I don't know if you've seen it, but we have the Iowa Sumo Club. Asala! Is at the gym. You have no idea how excited I am. They're doing a seminar there. I think it's on the 19th or something like that.
00:37:32
Speaker
So it's their second one. The first one, I mean, I think there was like 12 or 15 people there. A couple of guys from like maybe Chicago and Minneapolis or something, I don't know, but it's just interesting. It's so funny. So I have some wrestling mats there that I got for my kids, you know, and they just weren't being used as much. And there's another guy who does Strongman and he ended up meeting, you know, this guy who's so funny. I mean, he's so passionate about Sumo and all this, but he,
00:38:02
Speaker
is smaller than both me and you. And it's just great. He just is passionate about it and started this deal. And so he's been doing amateur sumo stuff for a while. Wonderful. That might be something you'd like. Come on, Aaron. Let's get you in, man. I saw a couple of the guys post something. I was like, aw, man. Until they get some bigger guys in there, that'd be cool. There's a couple of big guys in there. Is there? Yeah.
00:38:28
Speaker
I mean, they'll get hurt again. Oh, man. Well, that's our thing is like, I feel like every time I try to do something competitively, I like break. You'd have fun, man. Yeah. But it's funny that you say that because we just went to the Dells like two weekends ago and there's this new place up there called nature or something. And so they've got they've got like this other couple properties that
00:38:53
Speaker
It's this, I don't know. So anyways, we got a hotel room, hotel room for the family, $250 for the night. But then you got like these six little little parks or whatever that you can go to. And this one park is a manmade lake and it's got this huge, like blow up obstacle. Okay. And so we're, you know, you got to wear a lifejack and all that, but all the kids are all over. I'm gonna go on there and try. And so there's this little hill thing that you try to run up or walk up. And so I'm trying to run up it, right?
00:39:23
Speaker
My legs slipped out. I about tore my groin away from my pelvis. I'm like, oh man, I just can't dance. And I gotta move slow. No more fast stuff anymore for me. I'm getting too old. It's just slow moving stuff. Yeah.
Conclusion and Engagement Information
00:39:37
Speaker
See, we just gotta be, we're meant to watch now. Just watch people.
00:39:42
Speaker
Dude, Jeremy, I love your story. I love that you've not only adapted, but you overcome so many things. And I love the faith component throughout the whole thing. You've been a joy. You are truly uncommon. And that's the reason why probably I liked you in high school. Yeah. So congratulations on your success. And yeah. So if anybody wanted to hear more about you, how would they get in contact with you?
00:40:04
Speaker
Um, I mean, so I'm on Facebook, you know, the bar performance gym, also Instagram. Um, you know, email would be the bar performance. Jim at gmail.com. Um, perfect. Yeah. Well, reach out to me and I'll get you over to Jeremy. There you go. That's a good idea. So you've been listening to the uncommon wealth podcast. I've been your host Philip Ramsey and I'm Aaron Kramer. Until next time.
00:40:33
Speaker
That's all for this episode, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.