Barbell Business

🔥 From Plateau to 350+ Members – How Zach Thew Scaled Catoctin CrossFit to a Thriving, Full-Time Team 🔥 When Zach Thew took over Catoctin CrossFit in 2013 , he had no idea the battles ahead —including losing 35% of his members during the shutdowns . But instead of throwing in the towel, he doubled down, rebuilt, and grew . 📈 From 170 to 350+ members in just over 2 years 💰 Churn under 5% while...

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.  🚀 If your gym isn't ranking #1 or at least near the top of Google, you're missing out on a steady stream of high-quality leads. Most gym owners are still relying on outdated SEO tactics that just don't work anymore. Or they're relying too much on paid traffic....

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 stuck—his gym was plateaued for nearly seven years. But instead of staying stuck, Jim made a game-changing decision —he joined Big Little Gyms . What happened next? 🚀 He shattered his growth ceiling, hitting a record $60K month 📈...

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...

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-foo...

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: Drew's...

📲 🎧 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 onlin...

Some fear is great because it keeps us alive. Are you afraid of making a left turn out into traffic when there's not an opening? Good. Don't 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 P...

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 o...

This week, we met up with our friend Conner Moore at a box in Mission Viejo, California. To be clear, we said "a box," not "his box." That's because Conner shut his box down. Ultimately, this is a story of Conner's 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. "I am really excited to be a part of this and sha...

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 ). He's one of the few people in the industry with a very solid perspective on both business and training, and he's one of our favorite speakers of all times. AJ breaks down what he considers to be the three pillars...

We haven't 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 ch...

You may have heard the expression, "C students make the best teachers." They remember the struggle of not getting it. They tend to give students the kind of support they wish they'd 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, t...

We have a super-exciting guest this week. A big "get," if you will. We've been wanting to feature him on the podcast for years, because we're his biggest fans. That's 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 Markus's old box in Orange County, CA, this week. Marku...

Who do you learn from when you're already at the top of your field? How do you get the motivation to grow when you're 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 wh...

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? Casey's the creator of Fitbot, the software that keeps our personal training programs from being our personal nightmares. One thing we've found as gym owners is that people very rarely stumble upon a great opportunity wit...

Because gym owners almost always love coaching, it's 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 pe...

It's 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, he's inadvertently made the career switch from pro-ball player to nutrition entrepreneur. Sound familiar?   Okay. So maybe former Oakland A's outfielder Danny...

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. "I'd carry more weight on purpose, just to, not to prove a point, but because I could and I loved it. I lived...

Just because you've eaten in a restaurant doesn't mean you know how to run a restaurant. Most people will agree with that in general, but it's 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 te...

How do you know when your business is big enough? When can you stop raising capital? Can you get out of your building's terrible lease terms? Mike Melby is a venture capitalist who works exclusively in sports and fitness. He's overseen the inception and growth of a lot of businesses, and on this week's episode, he shares some of the common traps owners fall into. As a functional fitness entreprene...

If you want to learn how to juggle, you don't 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 don't get completed on time and additional revenu...

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 rela...

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 th...

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 &...