The Fit to Grit Cast
Fit to Grit is an audio/video/newsletter hybrid featuring in-depth conversations with leadership within the athletic space. Guests range from top executives within the athletic space to professionals in adjacent industries with a proven track record of success working in the athletic industry.
We explore visionary ideas and practical strategies driving the industry forward, covering areas such as marketing, finance, branding, equipment, product development, biz dev, and more. Join us as we share actionable insights and real-world experiences while embodying the "fit to grit" spirit.
The Fit to Grit Cast
How a Mobile Fitness Business Grew Without Ads—Just Real Connection
Chelsea's journey from Division I volleyball scholarship athlete to mobile fitness entrepreneur reveals how authentic passion transforms into sustainable business success. After playing at Eastern Kentucky University and working with USA Volleyball at the Olympic Training Center, Chelsea eventually found her true calling in bringing personalized strength training directly to clients who might otherwise never step foot in a traditional gym.
Home Turf Fitness was born from a simple yet brilliant observation: parents spend countless hours waiting during their children's activities—what if this time could be used for their own fitness? Chelsea and her business partner Melissa created a company that brings full equipment setups (battle ropes, bosu balls, dumbbells) to clients wherever they already are—schools, workplaces, community centers, or private homes. This convenience factor removes the time barrier that prevents many people from maintaining consistent exercise routines.
What truly distinguishes their approach is the focus on proper strength training rather than typical fitness classes. Serving primarily women aged 30-65, many navigating perimenopause or menopause, Home Turf Fitness provides specialized programming that accommodates all fitness levels with appropriate modifications for aging bodies and previous injuries. Their client communication emphasizes education—dispelling myths like women getting "bulky" from weightlifting—while fostering accountability through community.
The business partnership between Chelsea and Melissa exemplifies how complementary strengths create remarkable results. With different personalities and approaches, they collaborate on programming while respecting each other's unique contributions. This diversity benefits clients who experience varied training styles, keeping workouts fresh and engaging. Their sustainable growth philosophy—focusing on what works rather than pursuing rapid expansion—has allowed them to thrive for nearly six years while maintaining quality and personal connection.
Ready to experience fitness that comes to you? Connect with Home Turf Fitness through Instagram and Facebook @HomeTurfFitness, visit hometurffitness.com, email contact@hometurffitness.com, or call/text 571-265-7417 to discover how convenient strength training can transform your fitness journey.
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We can sit there and we'll go at it. She's a more creative person than I, so like I'll come to the table with these ideas, but she'll think of totally different ones, because we're so different.
Speaker 2:And it's awesome that back and forth on you guys having different ideas on Way to Go, that's collaboration. And hey, everyone, welcome to another episode of the Fit to Grit cast, where we sit down with individuals and talk through all those visionary type ideas that come to us during our normal daily gym break. Today I have a special guest Chelsea. Chelsea, why don't we just start off by you telling everyone a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your story? What helped you come about to create Home Turf Fitness?
Speaker 1:Okay, great Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. My story, I guess, goes back to really I played volleyball probably at the age of 12 when I moved from California out to Virginia, um, and I really got into that quickly, um, and found something that I loved and had a passion for and just excelled at. So I played all year round. I played junior Olympic teams, um, and traveled across the country playing in huge tournaments and stuff. And, of course, during all that, through high school, you know I wanted to play in college if possible and you know so I did everything I possibly could.
Speaker 1:But this was back in the I'll age myself here. This was back in the like early to mid 90s, and so recruiting and all of that was totally different than it is now. It was like the dark ages compared to now and everything that they do no social media. There was none of that stuff. So it was like putting your foot to the pavement, making the phone calls, going to places you know, getting your name out there, making VHS, videotapes for recruiting and stuff like that. And I did go on several recruiting trips to schools that I was interested in, but I did end up getting a full-ride scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University Division I, scholarship to Eastern Kentucky University, division I, and that's in Richmond, kentucky, and I played there for four years and learned a lot in that process.
Speaker 1:And then, after I graduated from college, I actually went and got, I guess, a paid internship at USA Volleyball, the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. So I worked for them for quite a while and then ended up leaving for whatever reason I don't remember it was a long time ago and I worked for Mikasa Sports next, which they're actually the maker of the volleyballs that are the Olympic balls, like the sponsored ball, um, and they were out in California and I'm originally from there. So I moved back, but I, you know, I hadn't been there for so long, um, so when I moved back, it was just uh, it just it was totally different from the East coast. So, um, I had all my family out there and stuff, but it just, it just didn't feel right. So I ended up moving back east and had some other jobs in between but ended up being the first assistant volleyball coach at the University of Rhode Island and after doing sports marketing at Providence College as well. So, and that was actually my major was broadcasting and then my minor was marketing. So I coached at the University of Rhode Island and to me that was more enlightening because I was under a head coach and he actually knew my head coach very well. They had started some coaching accreditation with USA Volleyball together so he knew her and but I will say that working under him he was a completely different coach than my coach was. So I it was just enlightening to me to see another side of college Division I college coaching and how it actually could be in the sense of taking care of the athletes, the nutrition, mental health, like all of that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1:I learned a lot. I obviously did a lot of strength and conditioning. Through this process. I was not the strength and conditioning coach, but you know those coaches were kind of widespread throughout all the sports and there's only so many of them. So you know I would work with them, I'd run the programs. So basically sports had been my life. You know I would work with them, I'd run the programs. So basically sports had been my life.
Speaker 1:You know, continued to be, and as I was getting older I had always wanted to become a certified personal trainer. But again I said you know my major was broadcasting, communications and marketing. I just never went that route. And so, finally, at the age of 45, and so finally, at the age of 45, I decided to get certified, which, by law, you are not required to be certified as a trainer. However, obviously it goes a long way saying, you know that I'm continuing education, just everything involved in getting a certification, you know. It just says a lot about the person. I think so, and we wanted our company.
Speaker 1:When Melissa, my business partner, and I started this company, you know we wanted to make sure that anybody and everybody we hired was certified within whatever they did. And so she it. Just it makes a big difference. So she actually has the back of the academic background and she was an athletic trainer. So we put our minds together and created the company. Now I'll tell you, the company started because her daughter does cheer, and if anybody knows cheer, they are in the gym six days a week, hours upon hours. So those parents just sit there I mean, some obviously probably leave but so Melissa would go on her own and do her own workout out in the parking lot for herself, and she'd have all these moms come and be like, hey, can I join you, I'll get a workout in too, and so she had the idea like this is actually a good idea. So that's kind of where our business kind of blossomed from that idea.
Speaker 1:However, we don't just focus on cheer groups and sports and stuff like that. We have all the equipment. I got a battle roped, bosu balls, wall balls, tons of dumbbells, and I take all of it to the client. So, wherever they may be, we're in a middle, we're in middle schools and schools in the county that we're in I do teachers and staff and the school pays for it for the teachers and staff, so they can get a workout in two days a week after school.
Speaker 1:And we're in private homes. We're in communities with large groups up to like 13 people. And then we have, you know, we have one-on-ones and I have a husband, wife, couple, mother, daughter, but our niche is really group personal training and probably women, 30 to 65. That tends to be what we pull in. But we do have men who are part of it because they realize these are strength workouts. These aren't, like you know, just basic fitness dance classes and stuff like that. These are written programs from myself and Melissa and our other trainers that we specialize for each group, that we do so and that's kind of how it grew. I mean, we're super small. We have probably two employees, including myself and my business partner, and then we have some independent contractors probably six people total who do something for us in the fitness capacity. So that's kind of how it all came together.
Speaker 2:That's a long story.
Speaker 2:So you were also an athlete too, and it's funny because we, you know you probably haven't, I don't know how much you looked into me before you jumped on the cast, but you know we used to work with a lot of professional athletes, college athletes, all that, and there tends to be a very similar type, um, personality type not negative in any way, but there's the same like personality type in the fitness industry as in the sports industry.
Speaker 2:Because I think that and that's kind of a plethora of why the Fit to Grit cast became what it was was because you yourself were trained at a younger age on how to reach long-term goals through those short-term activities, instead of thinking about it the opposite and going, oh, just short term gratification, right, and that plays very heavily into business, you know, into building, into building a solid business.
Speaker 2:A lot of companies really fail at understanding the long term goals and how to reach those long term goals versus hey, just, for instance, bring me 80 clients tomorrow, right, no matter how small you are um, and taking that time and that patience. And so I think that what you're doing, even with the size that you're at, you're kind of you've taken the time, which is pretty much stage one of what I say. You know, the studio model, even though you're kind of outdoors is you have been validating your service and validating your, validating your offers and what you're going to do, and doing that in a much more sustainable way instead of let's just build and spend until we break. You know.
Speaker 1:Oh, and that's the thing that, like I, part of me feels guilty because I feel like, oh, maybe I'm not ambitious enough, but we were happy, like we don't need to be huge. We really wanted to fill this need of those people who don't have time to go to all fitness levels and modifications for, you know, aging and injuries and stuff like that, and that's what we find that people really like about what we do.
Speaker 2:Well, and that goes back. Right, that goes back. You found your audience and you understand how to, how to shift your offerings and your programs to that particular audience with how you do the strength training.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, the psychographics are going to shift. Like I'm a dad of three, if I was to take my son to a soccer game, for instance, and I'm like man I want to work out, you probably would be a good fit for me. So you were able to find the how as well. Well, like being able to go in and say hey huh, moms and dads are busy, you know, like three man, like going to the going, going to the studio for me right now. I would love your program out here because, like I'm trying to fit in my own visionary time, like every day.
Speaker 1:I've had a a group before where the kids were at soccer practice and the moms are just sitting there, and I've gone to the park at the soccer practice at night and work to the parents out while they wait for the kids to practice. So I mean it's perfect because they can, you know, two birds with one stone, so to speak. They can get their workout done without having to take the time to go to another place that they're already going to 10 places in a day or whatever you know and then get it all done in one spot but still be there with their kids.
Speaker 2:So now, one thing I really want to bring up because you brought something up interesting. You talked a lot about your business partner and I know she's not on on this call with you, but I think that it's, you know, and I'm I've never been a component of having a partner and in the business myself, but having employees that act as partners is more so my kind of mythology. Um, but they're that what I've seen from a lot of the, a lot of the greats is the complementary type positions that can be held by you versus her, you in general, but everyone who has you know a partnership type mythology, because we can't do it all ourselves. So how is having a partner kind of played a role into the kinds of systems and processes, basically the role that you play in the growth of the brand compared to what her role is in the growth of the brand?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean we couldn't have matched up better, to be honest with you. I mean we're very different personalities. She's very high energy like, and she's just go, go, go all the time and I'm not. I'm a lot more little key and so that is the total opposite. But in the business sense, bringing those together works really well. And we actually worked at a job together previously and that's how we met, so we already kind of knew we worked well together. But it's great because when we first sat down and we're developing this company and who's going to do what and what needs to be done, we just delegated, knowing whose strength was what.
Speaker 1:And then there's been some changes over the years. We're going into our sixth year of business and there's been some minor changes here and there, but we work really well together and, yeah, we don't agree on everything, but we're able to come together and like, hash it out, detail wise, break it down, and then we figure out a solution and we've always figured it out. So you know, either, I've gotten lucky having her as my business partner, um, but I couldn't ask for a better business partner. But she and she runs her uh groups and she programs differently than I do and sometimes I sub for her groups and so they get a taste of how I program my workouts. So it's it's kind of nice because, you know, not everybody's the same and um, it's kind of nice to have those differences here and there and and to to get different kinds of training, um from other people. So I mean, we've it's, it's worked out really well at this point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think that you nailed something on a head that a lot of people could take away from this is don't hire yourself, even if it's an employee or a partner, because, funny enough that, back and forth on you guys having different ideas on where to go, that's collaboration. Ideas on way to go, that's collaboration and that's that strategy. I would say collaboration and having the ability to have someone say no to you and or say maybe we should focus on this direction and you collaborate together is by far, I think, one of the biggest strengths that you guys have at your size, because a lot of companies don't have that, especially self-owned business. Owners are entrepreneurs, right, and that tends to be a hold back for a lot of people. You know me, it's, it's huge for us.
Speaker 1:Uh. I mean it's uh because we can sit there and we'll go at it. I mean, you know, respectfully, but we'll go at it. And she has. She's a more creative person than I, so, like, I'll come to the table with these ideas, but she'll, she'll think of totally different ones because we're so different. And it's awesome because then now you have like twice as many ideas, or or she'll, you know, have a good response Like well, instead of doing that, how about we tweak it and do it like this? You know, so then we compromise or whatever, and it always pans out. So I agree, it's a huge. Like, if I, if she was like me, like I don't, I don't know if we would still be in business, to be honest with you.
Speaker 2:So Vice versa, right, I'm not going to say it's quite simple because it's not, but it really comes down to just someone. I'm not going to say it's quite simple because it's not, but it really comes down to just someone. And you brought up creative, because you know I've been in my industry enough a long time, I've worked with a plethora of businesses before I started to really focus in on the athletic driven community that personality types play a huge role in hiring, marketing and just the growth of everything. Everything is revolved around people and you know you usually have one person. Creatives are usually pretty good visionaries. They're pretty good at like saying this is where we want to be in 10 years, this is our goal.
Speaker 2:And the people that are more, we'll say, we'll say checklist oriented are a little bit more, yeah, operators. You're probably more of the operator. You're the kind of an integrator type Like you probably like to sit down and make sure the system's right, Make sure that the trainers check the boxes off, make sure the trainers are happy that they understand what they're communicating, while she's making sure that the alignment with the vision is continuing to grow strong with what you guys are doing. And so I think that you guys have found and the reason I bring that up. The reason I bring that up is because I think you guys have kind of a leg up compared to a lot of other people at your stage, because it makes it very hard in certain valley of death periods within building a business where you're like huh, you know, like for, and I'll just be vulnerable and say like for me. For instance, I'm right now, I'm both the operator and the visionary, so you can only do one better.
Speaker 2:You probably work on the vision stuff and it could probably burn you out where your partner probably, when she works on operations, she probably gets burnt out, and so it shows you that sometimes you just need to shift what your position is and it's time for you to bring someone in that can take that stuff off your plate that may be burning out. Maybe that's why you're not happy in the growth of what you're trying to achieve with your passions and still be able to bring those passions out. So I love what you guys are doing. What are kind of your plans? I know that you're still small. Do you guys have any like continued growth plans that you're continuing to try to do with the brand?
Speaker 1:I mean, I'll be honest with you, we, when we started the company we it was more of a neither she or I are the money makers in the family, so we kind of started it just to fill that need, not so much to make money, obviously making money is important still yeah yeah, but um, so we never set any like super long-term goals.
Speaker 1:Um, however we do it, you know the fitness industry it ebbs and flows and with what we do, a lot of like all of her groups, all of them are outside. And I'm in Virginia and we've got like four inches of snow on the ground and they're still running groups outside and these clients don't care A lot of. All mine are inside. It's just. It's just the nature of the business. It. You know you can't pick and choose what comes to you and you kind of take what you get. So, you know, right now in the wintertime, business is a little slow, and she and I caught ourselves in recently and we picked it back up in kind of a rut. Like we were both happy with our schedules for a while there. We couldn't really add any more and we and the problem is to hire more personal trainers. You got to have the clients to hire them, you know. So you can hire a trainer, but then I don't have a client for you, so, so that it's like that's difficult too. So we kind of just were in a comfortable place and we just stayed there for a while. But I don't know, something happened. I don't even know what it was and you know most of our business is word of mouth or social media. We have tried the advertising route. We don't really have a budget for that, but we have put money into it in certain places and just got nothing from it. But the word of mouth and social media we get more from.
Speaker 1:So we went through a stint where we did a lot of social media stuff but oh my goodness, that's a full-time job in itself. So that kind of went by the wayside. So you were talking about burning out, so like we burned out of that, so we stopped doing it. A lot we burned out of our website and keeping up with it. So we just recently hired somebody to just take it over, revamp it, clean it up, update everything, and then they'll update like as we have things. So we're kind of picking back up that's a new goal the social media stuff, picking that back up, trying to get back out there and scheduling stuff on social media versus trying to just do it in a moment, and so that's working so far.
Speaker 1:So, again, no serious long-term goals. If we grow and start bringing clients in, then we'll start hiring more personal trainers. We just hired a new one, so we have her on, but she doesn't have any clients yet, but this the situation coming into it. So so it's a slow process, um, you know, but that's like I said, if we grow them we'll go with it, um, but we're not. We're not really pushing it at this point, um, but I know it's like if we could get our information out there. There's so many people who I know, who would love to do that work out wherever they want to work out, um, instead of going into a gym or something like that.
Speaker 2:So you brought up something quite interesting, and I see this for brick and mortars as well, especially because the fitness industry has gotten to a point where it's and I don't know how many if you ever looked at like any, looked at any like marketing companies where it was all about you know like, hey, we need to bring more people in or we need to do that, but it tends to all run on we'll teach you how to sell and then you're just calling a million people and in your area and doing that stuff. And to me, that's the premise of the values of the fitness industry is community, and that's what we kind of need to keep it right. How do you, how do you evolve your digital marketing tactics when you're ready it right? How do you evolve your digital marketing tactics when you're ready? Someone like yourself, I would probably come in and say, yeah, you don't need a fancy brand strategy, you don't need a fancy like. You need a lead by example, you need to validate. And so I would probably come in and say what you're doing right now is exactly where you need to be. I wouldn't come in and say, hey, you need PPC or Facebook. In fact, I don't think Facebook advertisement and Instagram advertisement is needed in this industry. I think it's an e-com thing that somehow got brought over to the studio community and the fitness community and I'm like, I get it, but I have to put 250 pieces of content. I'm organic, I'm a marketing agency. Like I have to, like that's my audience, I have to, that's my audience.
Speaker 2:But you're local, it's about community, it's about growth slow, sustainable growth and you're going through those pain points right now. Right, you should be going through those pain points. If I ever have a prospect come in and they're like oh, I've never ran a Facebook ad in my life and or done any social media, or, you know, I don't even want to. This is for you, this is for you. I'd be like well, to be honest, I don't. You don't need to be an expert at it, but you should have at least gone through the normal pain points of understanding how it works, leading by example, so that when you hire somebody, you understand what is needed, like your web person that you hired. You know the at least enough now, because you went through it, and that is needed. That's part of business growth, especially when you're bootstrapping and you're starting.
Speaker 2:Not everyone in this industry and you can tell I'm passionate about this needs to go out and get a $10 million investment from an investment company to grow a business Like. In fact, those are the ones that usually fail because they come in and they have no idea what they're doing and then they overspend on crap. And so I think what you're doing is great. I think that you know you're understanding your audience, understanding like, hey, you know we need to start small here and you're going with the flow of normal business acumen and an operations acumen where it's like, huh, now we need someone to help us with this. So how are we going to fill that role? You know, even if it's small, um, how do we bring on a personal trainer?
Speaker 2:So I give you kudos for where you're at and what you're doing. So I think it's, I think you're in a great spot. I think what you're doing is fantastic and, uh, you're kind of in the normal valley of death for the stage that you're at. To be honest with you, I've been there. I know how it is for my, for my business. So, with that said, why don't you tell everyone just a little bit more about the company, a little bit, and how you, what makes you different, what makes you special for what you're trying to achieve, and what types of people would value your services the most?
Speaker 1:I think what we found is that the most, most of the people who come to us, probably one of the number one things is they need accountability and people don't know how to program. Most people don't know how to program for themselves. So, you know, a lot of these clients we have were probably clients who either didn't go to the gym, refused to go to the gym, don't want to pay for the gym, or if they went to the gym at all, they did probably like a group fitness class, but they didn't actually go and really focus on like strength training and stuff like that. So that is what we do, that is our thing is focusing on the strength training. Now it's typically we have. I'd say probably our average, like our median age, is probably 40s, in the 40 range.
Speaker 1:So we're dealing with a lot of women who are probably in perimenopause and menopause and the way they need to work out is different and they're not realizing those changes. So they're all like at a complete loss. So that's what we do we come in, we strength train them. We also, you know, collaborate with a nutrition. My business partner is a nutrition coach also, but that's also like a full-time job in itself. So we collaborate with somebody who is a health and wellness coach, you know so we have a lot in the community. We can send our clients to her. But strength training is the biggest thing. So our programming has weights and dumbbells and we talk to these clients so the women are not afraid to lift weights and push heavy. They're not going to get big like men A big myth that women are so scared about that. And we come, we take everything to them. So it's not like it's not yoga, it's not body weight stuff. It can be, because that can be just as hard. But we try to make it interesting.
Speaker 1:If somebody comes to us and wants a one-on-one, we don't do your typical like when you go to a gym you do assessments and like all of that stuff that you have to document. That is really not what we do. Like we'll program specifically for that person and what their goal is and we'll tailor it to their goals. Program specifically for that person and what their goal is and will tailor it to their goals. But unless they truly want all that detailed stuff, that's not really what you know, our baseline, that's not really what we do.
Speaker 1:So just trying to get people moving. You know, a lot of people are just not moving enough these days. So that's our key thing. So just bringing the equipment to people going where they feel comfortable, whether it's their house, or hey. I got four friends we want to work out together and if that's going to keep them accountable and bring a sense of community, then let's do it, because then you'll keep working out, you know, and you'll benefit from it molecularly and potentially physically on the outside. So what we were going for, you know, in doing this is the accountability in the sense of community it brings to people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it definitely brings a sense of not just differentiation for what you guys are trying to do compared to the brick and mortar establishments, but you're putting yourself in a position where you're bringing that community together for more than just you know. These are all moms, these are all dads, right, and so it helps even them build relationships, which is a great, which is a great vision, right, yeah, well, and we.
Speaker 1:we have, like we have everybody in as an app that we use for communication, that you can't see people's like personal information but um, and that everybody who's in whatever group, is in their group on that app and we all communicate through that, either give each other a hard time or put inspirational quotes or whatever you want to say in there, and so that keeps it going. Between workouts there's still communication there. It's not just on the day that they work out and that that's really big too. That helps a lot.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, definitely. That definitely helps a lot and that's the whole sense of community. Right is the sense. And when you start living your brand, like you guys are, you start building this community of like-minded people and these people will then be your advocates to have more people come. And so back to at the beginning, when we talked about marketing. It doesn't have to be like I said, it doesn't have to be what works. You guys have seen what's worked. Doesn't have to be what works. You guys have seen what's worked.
Speaker 2:How do you just amplify what works instead of you know, instead of going out there and trying all these different things? Is it possible eventually to bring on a different, a different stream? Yes, but there's always best to have to. What happens if one breaks? You know, economy changes blah, blah, blah. You always have to kind of find two, but it's always good to start with one and not get that marketing fatigue which I think that you did.
Speaker 2:One thing that a lot of people that we talk to never have a sense of, which is we tried it, it didn't work. So let's shift into and find out what's working when most kind of look at it and go we tried it and let's just keep going with it. Let's just keep going. Everyone else is doing it. Let's keep doing it.
Speaker 2:And I'm not saying that it may not work in the future for you. But you know, you, just to be honest, like if you were going to do, you said you tried Google ads. You know, if you're going to try Google ads, like, be honest, like that could become quite expensive and you should have a good budget, know that you're you're set like, hey, we know we're going to invest two, three thousand dollars a month, or just you just need to. And Facebook ads, for instance, you're probably going to be like, oh, now we have to create a whole bunch of creative content. We have to think about the writing, we have to think about this, and it's like, like I always tell my process'm like you're not, you're not nike, like you don't have a a million dollar budget to throw towards advertisements all the time, like, yeah, you know. So, yeah, finding that community and finding those partnerships, like that's what it's all about.
Speaker 1:And I I give you even more kudos that you're.
Speaker 1:You're continuing to live by your guys's values and try to follow those values through the growth of what you guys are trying to achieve, and so, naturally, you see, you know, as you do it, you figure out what works and what doesn't work, and we're putting money into, like putting an ad in some community for something Nothing came of it. We did like events Nothing came of it. We tried networking groups Nothing came of it.
Speaker 1:You know, and and we've done other things too but where we're trying to get in is hard to get in, like communities and you have HOAs and then, but then you have to know who to contact and then it's it's like you're diving in way too deep. And then you know, and then we're so tiny that now we're in, when we get into stuff like that, we start competing with those corporate fitness companies who come into these big communities, and you know. So we're looking more for the individual, like groups and stuff like that that help us out. And we do some local events like Ladies Night they just had a new year, new you thing so those are perfect for us Fitness related but those are very difficult to find. So you know, you just got to stay on the websites and the networking stuff to see if you know what events pop up and stuff like that. So that's kind of what we do Just keep searching.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think that I think that this is the great part about this is that kind of everyone looks at it and gets burnt out by it. But this is kind of the fun part about business is finding what, what really works and find your finding your niche Right. And I think that you know I'm not I'm not going to say I know the direction you go. You've been in your business longer than I am, but just hearing what you're saying and I don't know if you've already tried it, but you know schools may be a good opportunity for you.
Speaker 1:We've lost every school in the county and we've actually been in about three or four different schools over the course of a couple years. But they just don't always stick with it. Because, I will tell you this, sometimes it's depending on when, like if it's elementary school, they don't get out till later. So by that time those teachers are like I want to go home. You know. So, when I've been in this middle school near us this is my fourth year there, so like that has stuck and that group of ladies is like I'll have anywhere from five to 12 people, you know, on a given day. So that has worked out great. Trying to figure out, like why did that one work out but the other ones didn't consistently work out?
Speaker 2:um, you know, I don't know, maybe it's, it's the person where they committed enough to their fitness journey, you know, yeah people, you're always going to have the psychological counterpart, and I think that a lot of people, a lot of people misplace, um, everyone's different, no matter what you're always going to. And that's, I think, why people tend to just focus on the demo so much, because they don't understand the psychological side. Because you can't, it's a lot harder, but you know, then you get. You kind of just have to come up with the system like well, we know, the middle school one work compared to the elementary, compared to the high school, because of the times of days that when they're at school, or when they have practice, or when they have games, or when they have practice or when they have games, and so then you kind of look at it from that aspect of oh, this is the one that's working. How do we then find other middle, stick to the middle school route, cut out the elementary and the fluff of the high school and colleges or the elementary, and then you kind of just say, all right, let's see what further works in this, and then you just take that 1% increment every time and try to improve and improve it.
Speaker 2:Right, that's the beauty of the long term goals that we talked about at the beginning, right, like looking at it from a long term aspect and looking at it for much more of. I want to grow sustainably versus versus unstainable, you know, versus you know I want to make a million dollars tomorrow. Okay, well, if everyone made a million dollars tomorrow, we'd all be having to thrive for $10 million. You know, like it's just. You know inflation would go through the roof if we all made a million dollars and then it would only be worth a dollar. So, you know, have a better understanding of the concept of. You know it is hard in business and you just try to find your way to build passions off of what you do to.
Speaker 1:you know, have that grit and perseverance to kind of do it, and so another of the avenue that has worked for us is actually going into businesses like a dental office, the ladies there. I would go work them out two days a week and then we drop down to one. I'm not currently with them right now, but they came back to me after a year hiatus and I did it again and so like even that is like something we could push, but you know it's, it's getting out there. That to me would probably be a phone call or having a flyer or something and walking in and and showing them and and usually people you know I understand that, you know you offer something like what we offer. You're like people get scared, like oh, I don't know, I have a bad knee, I don't think I can do that, or whatever their reasoning is. And then they don't go to that next phase.
Speaker 1:As we learn through all of our studying to be a personal trainer, getting into that phase to commit is the hardest phase and we like to when we see that we offer one free class so they can see what it's all about before they commit to it. Because I get it. You know you don't want to spend, you know all this money for a six-week session, right, however many days you pick, and you have no idea what's going to happen and what to expect or if you can even do it physically. So that's what we do, offer that. But you know, getting into the workplace would be fantastic, but it's got to be small workplaces because then you again are competing with corporate fitness and there you go.
Speaker 2:I think that just answered your kind of your own situation there a little bit Like, yeah, like if big corporate you're competing, that's not your audience anyway. Your audience would probably be the small business in the area and probably that probably hire more female type personnel, probably focusing on much more of an admin or someone who's in an operations spot like you, instead of the individual, so that they can work on. How do we keep retention with our, our team? Oh, our values are similar, so let's have these classes as part of our dentist's office per se, our weekly or monthly routine, so that we give more ability for people to want to come work with us and stay with us, right, and so that that could be like the avenue that you take with that. It just depends on if the values really match your values and what you're trying to do.
Speaker 2:But I love how you're looking and you're exploring these other types of options and then kind of eventually seeing, hey, how does this pertain to the online space as well? How do we get this out there and find something that works from an online space? And right now, your app seems to be the best course of action, right? How do we take this app and build a community around it, um, and then leverage our, our trainers and our people to be our advocates for bringing in more people. Um, and it really I'm not going to say that simple, but it really could be that simple, right, you know?
Speaker 1:um it sounds so simple.
Speaker 2:It sounds simple and then, but that's, that's the point of strategy versus execution, right? Yeah? The problem is most people don't build that simple strategy and say, hey, let's, let's focus on this. They just go out at the whim and they just say like, well, let's do all these things, and they don't have a plan, you know, and then the execution's off or they don't stick in it long enough. They don't stick in it long enough to let it work, because even the things that do work are going to take time.
Speaker 1:Well, the funny thing is is like when I was in college, I told you my minor was marketing. Like I think I probably used my minor.
Speaker 2:That's right. You're trying to do what I do. I kind of found a way into the field different than you have.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the problem is is what I was taught in the 90s is so like there was no, like there was no email until my senior year in college, like it did not exist. So that's that's where I'm at. So what I was taught had nothing to do with anything online social media. Social media, it was all you know, putting your portfolio together and taking it to the person or making phone calls, and it was all that kind of stuff. So now you know, I'm like and I'm fine, like I've learned the social media. Do I have a lot more to learn? Heck yeah, but you know it's's, it's like a totally different way of advertising. I kind of like it better. However, you can't always pinpoint exactly like you know who you want to see it. There's obviously there's ways to tweak that, but versus you know, walking into a building and talking to somebody.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:People don't do that, and the problem right now that we have is that it's finding who do I talk to, who is the person that's going to help me, you know, make this happen in this business or in this community or whatever. And that's where we've hit roadblocks. It's like who do you go talk to? Like the community person or the you know. So that's been our biggest issue is where to go to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's hard. You kind of have to find, but once you find one person you can probably find other ones. I've always tended to see that back to where I'm at. Where I'm at in my business your market definitely tends to. The best way to find your market is to see what are your problems with what you're doing, and so you being much more of the operational mindset it probably is going to be from someone in the schools and or these small businesses that is in that operation admin type role that loves checklists, that loves making sure we have employee retention and working on the scheduling and all that stuff where your partner, if she does any of that stuff, it would probably be more of what I just said. Like, oh, let's envision where we are, we're going to be in five years, narrow it down to one year and then come up with a plan to start trying to reach those people and if it doesn't work, then we shift our market a little bit. And so sometimes to you come up with the aspect of you try to market to one person and another type comes in and then you're like you have to learn, all right, well, this is really my market. That, not this, because the biggest thing with online right now, um, that I'm seeing a shift at is because of AI and and and all this stuff coming out there. One it's going to be very similar to what I just said about money, like, oh well, you want to put now do a hundred pieces of content a month. Oh well, now everyone's doing doing 100 pieces, so now you need 600 pieces, right, and so that's starting to, that's starting to come in fruition of what we're doing.
Speaker 2:But you also have the tendency to start thinking okay, we have to be more authentic. Back to you're saying that connection in the community side. How do we do that? Well, we have to stop talking to the, talking at the person, but talking to them. So stop saying stuff like operations directors how do we help you? You know it's more. So.
Speaker 2:What is the pain points that they're going through as an operations, which would probably be retention, how to keep their employees happy, how to keep them aligned, which would be oh well, let's start talking about how we can build better retention internally through us adding this program, which then leads you down the rabbit hole of oh well, now we know how much they're going to save on new hires, because we're still following our vision of helping people, but we're also helping them save money at the same time, and that's something that I've even had trouble with. You know, being in the online community is how do you start to pertain the psychological pain points of these people? So a lot of that comes down to live in those pains yourself and being authentic and vulnerable enough to talk about those pains to the world. But I'm ranting now.
Speaker 2:I'm in it. I've been in. This is like my third podcast for the day, so I'm like all hyped up and I love connecting and I'm passionate about this stuff, as you're aware. So why don't we cut the podcast towards the end now? Why don't you kind of just tell everyone like a little bit about where you are, how they can find you and, if they have any interest in learning more about what you guys are doing, how they can contact you?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're primarily in, well, we are in Prince William County in Northern Virginia, probably about 30 miles outside of DC. So we pretty much just do Prince William County just because we're so small. It's a big county and between with the county, both my business partner and I, we actually split it because she lives on one side and I live on the other. And then we do have Facebook, just Home Turf Fitness, and then we do have Instagram at Home Turf Fitness, and then we do have a website which is hometurfitnesscom, which is currently, as I mentioned, in the process of being updated, but it's still up, it's still live. And then if anybody wants to email, it's contact at hometurfitnesscom. Those are the ways you can get a hold of us through social media or email. Like I said, a phone number you can also call or text. The number is 571-265-7417. And that is our company phone number.
Speaker 2:Perfect. Well, we'll make sure that we put all those down in the description notes so anyone can find it. You'll probably have to reach out to me if you ever want to change your phone number, because those things usually stay stay pretty static. But, um, again, I I really thank you for being on. You know you, you gave a lot of, uh, insightful information into not just what you do but how you got to where you were, and hopefully it will give other people motivation to um continue to try to spread their message and to to grow around community, and so I appreciate you. Um, I'm your host, zach Coleman. This is another episode of the Fit to Grit cast and we'll talk to you all later.
