On Opening a Gym: Part 1
As far back as I can remember, I wanted to open my own gym.
People ask me what got me into the fitness field and I honestly struggle to come up with an answer because it’s one of those things that just…is.
I can’t remember making a conscious decision, like “Yeah, I’m going to go with an Exercise Science degree over Accounting”. You know what I mean? It just wasn’t like that.
All I know is that everything that has happened in this past year was made possible by the fact that I could not turn back on this dream and that I DIDN’T know why. Because it had festered for so long there was no way I couldn’t pick it off (gross analogy, I know).
I chose to write this blog today because it marks the one-year anniversary of being told that the first space I thought I had was no more.
“Hi, this is Kasey, I just wanted to check-in and see what time I could come over to your office to finish signing the lease?”
<Silence>
“Kasey, I have some bad news.”
<Silence> (from me this time)
“Remember I told you we showed the space to a tenant of ours that was looking to potentially use that space for storage of some of their supplies? And they said they weren’t interested?”
“Sure”
“Well, they called me last night and said that they want it now. I kind of have my hands tied but they are threatening to leave if we don’t give them this space. I know we had an agreement and everything was moving forward in good faith.”
“Oh man, this can’t be happening.”
“I know Kasey, I’m so sorry. We’re more than happy to help you get started searching for another location.”
Professionally, it was the toughest phone call I’ve ever endured. It was 2 minutes long, but it felt like 30. I was in the back alley of a Panera in Santa Monica with my mind racing.
Having my own gym in Beverly Hills was THE DREAM. That’s what I wrote in my freshman paper for my Intro. to Exercise Science class in college and that’s what was going to happen.
Jess and I had made it to Los Angeles 2 ½ years prior and gotten ourselves to this position.
And now it was being ripped away.
I had already been looking for space for roughly 5 months before this call. It took a heck of a lot to even get in first position for this space.
We ordered pizza that night and all I remember was being immature. Poor Kasey didn’t get his Beverly Hills gym at age 25. Cry me a river.
I know. A first world problem for sure. But when something is in your heart for so long and you’ve sacrificed so much, it takes a lot to just brush it off and move forward.
But that’s what happened…2 more times actually.
2 more spaces were in my grasp and ultimately fell-through. Those are stories for another time. But each time, I remember coming home and telling Jess, “This is the one. This is why we had to go through (insert previous space falling through).”
By the time May 2015 rolled around, I was beat to hell. If I looked at another Loopnet listing or met with another landlord, I was going to vomit. I felt like I was more of a real estate expert than a fitness expert at that point.
But then my broker called one May afternoon and said,
“Hey, I was driving through Culver City and I saw this space I think we should check out. I remember seeing it a while back, but had forgotten about it.”
“Alright sweet, let’s give it a look.” It wasn’t Beverly Hills, but again, if I had to browse on Loopnet for another minute…
To give you a frame of reference, Los Angeles isn’t exactly teeming with fitness real estate. It’s a unique kind of tenant with a lot of red tape to cross, so if something is available that MIGHT work, you jump on it.
We went through the space with one of the landlord’s assistants the next day and as we walked through I thought, “Yeah, this probably won’t work.”
I didn’t get a good vibe. With past spaces, I always left super-excited and ready to fill out the application.
But this time I waited.
My broker and I went to the City Hall in Culver City and started doing some background work on getting parking approval. It seemed like a long-shot and I had to submit a “Special Operations” plan for their review.
I wasn’t too attached to the space, so while I followed up with them a few times over the next few weeks, I was expecting a no and wouldn’t be heart-broken if that were the case.
But oddly enough they called 3 weeks after that 1st meeting and said we were good to go.
“Huh, interesting.”
So I called the broker, told him the news (he was just as surprised) and we raced over to the landlord to let him know we were approved to move forward.
Well, unfortunately, 3 weeks LA time is like 3 months, and other potential tenants had come to the table with their offers.
And while what happened after is a story (a long one) for another time, I got the space.
The past 6 months have been a whirlwind taking the space from a concrete block of crap to the very presentable facility it is now. And I didn’t take a lot of time to reflect in that period.
But on this 1st day of 2016, it’s time to profess to a very powerful lesson this process taught me.
Sometimes a dream doesn’t come to pass once (or multiple times) because there is something even greater waiting ahead.
Sometimes things don’t work on your perfect timeline or in your perfect location. You have to adjust. You have to adapt.
Sure, I wrote that I wanted to open a gym in Beverly Hills. But, ultimately, I wanted to open a gym. And that’s what happened.
The details…well, they’re just that…details.
If I had taken that 1st space in Beverly Hills, I would be miserable right now. The same with the 2nd space. And the 3rd space.
That’s because this space I have in Culver City is better than I could have ever imagined. It sets up perfectly for the semi-private model that I wanted to institute and is probably the best location I could have gotten in terms of clients’ commutes and parking.
And being here reinforces in me what those other spaces lacked.
I thank God every day for allowing me to fail. Because it ultimately led me to success.
If you feel like you keep falling short of your dream, my advice is to be incredibly persistent, but be annoyingly patient. I was acting out of desperation in the 1st 10 months of my search and if that desperation had capitalized, I would have woken up one day realizing I made a huge mistake.
It wasn’t until I let the foot off the gas a bit that a space came up that was perfect and that I was able to make decisions around being un-attached.
So now you’re probably wondering why this was Part 1. Well, one of the “sacrifices” that I alluded to above was blogging. I pushed away something that I love to do (write) to accomplish what I knew needed to happen.
And while I would love to sit here and say “I’m going to write 3 blogs every week of 2016!”, I’m not going to. I’m just going to write because I love it and hopefully give you guys some entertainment and education in the process.
That being said, I want to share a lot of what happened these past 6 months and how the “concrete block of crap” went to “a very presentable facility”. It’s a crazy story, especially for anyone who is interested in opening their own gym.
Until then…
Dominate All Life,
Kasey
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