Radio Front Desk
Radio Front Desk is a podcast that talks to real people in real clinics about what it takes to build a health and wellness business.
Host Denzil Ford, Editor-in-Chief of Front Desk magazine, digs into the inspiring stories of folks building their practices from the ground up — including what works, what hasn’t, and everything in between.
Created by the team at Jane App, this podcast is your source for discovering fresh ideas and proven strategies for clinic life. Join us on this journey of building a practice you love.
Radio Front Desk
Finding your people: The business case for creating community | Austin and Erin of Coast Mountain CrossFit
Having a place to go outside of work and home where you feel like you belong is crucial to our well-being. And for a lot of people, that place is the gym.
That’s where Coast Mountain CrossFit comes in. What’s special about this gym is the quality of coaching plus the community it’s created, which includes our very own Denzil.
In this episode, Denzil is talking to two people she knows very well — the owners of Coast Mountain CrossFit, Austin Evans and Erin Joyce to talk about their fascinating story in community building and business growth.
To check out more stories like Austin and Erin's, head to frontdesk.jane.app.
Guest bio
Austin Evans discovered CrossFit at the age of 14, blending it into his sports-centered life, which at the time included junior hockey, snowboarding, football, and soccer (just to name a few!). His passion led him to coaching, and eventually, opening Coast Mountain Crossfit, a gym located North Vancouver. He thrives on inspiring his clients to surpass their fitness goals through the space and community he's built.
Erin Joyce began her athletic journey early with gymnastics and cheerleading, eventually representing Australia on the world stage. At 14, she started coaching gymnastics, sharing her love for training and helping others succeed. This set the stage for her to become a CrossFit coach a few years later, continuing in a new space with the same passion. Within her work and the world of CrossFit, Erin values the supportive community and pursuit of staying healthy and fit. Erin has been a CrossFit coach for eight years and co-owns Coast Mountain with Austin.
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered as professional medical, legal, or financial advice. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Jane or Front Desk magazine.
I feel like, as adults, like you don't really get that Like. That's such an amazing feeling. Like you're coming into the gym and you've had some time off and you have these other adults that you have no connection with other than the gym, and they're like we missed you, like where have you been? And like there's like this hole and people need community, people need people and so, yeah, that's's such a I love hearing that because it's such a cool feeling and that's like a big part of like what fires us up at the gym is to have that culture and the atmosphere of people doing that, which is awesome welcome to radio front desk, a show that surfaces what real people and real clinics are doing to open, run and grow successful health and wellness businesses.
Speaker 2:I'm your host, denzel Ford, editor-in-chief of front desk magazine by JNAP. Here we have powerful conversations with health and wellness businesses. I'm your host, denzel Ford, editor-in-chief of Front Desk Magazine by Jane App. Here we have powerful conversations with health and wellness professionals on the business side of clinic life. We hear their stories and discover what works and how to do it, and we also talk about what doesn't work. If you want to check out more stories like this, head to frontdeskjaneapp.
Speaker 2:I'm feeling over the moon about today's episode because we're doing something a little bit different. My guests, austin and Erin, aren't just the passionate owners of Coast Mountain CrossFit. They're also people I know personally. I want to be upfront about that, because both of them have had such a huge impact on my life and my journey in fitness and health. When I first stepped into their gym, I told Austin that I didn't believe I could do CrossFit anymore, but he just said trust me, and I'm really glad I did. But their story goes beyond just inspiring people like me. Austin discovered CrossFit as a teenager in Whistler, bc, and it lit a fire within him that eventually led to nearly a decade of coaching. His wife and business partner, erin, grew up immersed in gymnastics and cheerleading, which eventually brought her into the CrossFit world. Together, they had the opportunity to start an incredible gym, thanks to two investors who believed in their coaching and saw their potential as business owners. I can't wait for you to meet them. Stick around, you're going to love this one.
Speaker 1:I guess I get an email and we're at my dad's house in Whistler, I get an email from Ian, from Ian Banks, you know, ian, yeah, about an opportunity to open up a CrossFit gym together in North Vancouver.
Speaker 1:He was looking to open up a gym back in the North Van area and he reached out to a few people for sure and was kind of maybe doing a bit of a scouting or interview process on who the right people would be to open up a gym back in North Van, because that was that was definitely his sole motivation was getting a North, was just getting a CrossFit gym back onto the North Shore, getting a community back in that area again. And so in the summer we met and then so there was Ian and then there was also Amanda Joner as well who were interested in both of them partnering up with somebody else to open up a CrossFit gym in North Van and I was one of those candidates. And so one of the asterisks or one of the rules I said was you know, I'll be a candidate to open up this gym with you, but on one condition is I got to bring her with me.
Speaker 1:So I got to bring my partner and we were actually pretty early into our relationship at that point for sure, so it was potentially a little bit of a risk.
Speaker 2:But when you know, you know, yeah, I knew that I won.
Speaker 1:I knew I couldn't do it alone. I won. I knew I couldn't do it alone for sure because Ian and Amanda did kind of want to be a bit hands-off with the business and they wanted people who really knew what they were doing or wanted to take the reins, because the goal for them was not to own the gym. The goal was to eventually step away from that and have whoever's coming in to take full ownership eventually. Step away from that and have whoever's coming in to take full ownership eventually. And so after a few interviews with other people and meetings and things like that, like we met them in Whistler once, we went to North Van as well, there was kind of a potentially a couple people coming in on the gym for having like multiple ownership and I kind of, uh, we kind of stepped up and I was kind of like like this, I was like it's, I like we don't want too many chefs in the kitchen, like if we were going to do it like we wanted to do our way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, because I've seen gyms, you know, with multiple owners and the direction might be this way for this year and who knows what will happen down the track. So I think we were both like, okay, it's the two of us Like we can manage this, because what else have we got going on right now?
Speaker 2:How did you have that foresight? Was it just from having seen other gyms that have too many cooks in the kitchen? Yeah, and then what that turns into, just like seeing, yeah, just seeing it how.
Speaker 1:Like you, were part of a few CrossFit gyms in Australia and you saw what worked and what didn't, and you know me being under Jordan and Whistler for pretty much seven years.
Speaker 1:I definitely got a good insight on the business side of CrossFit and kind of what like and a business side of owning a CrossFit gym and you know, maybe, what works and what doesn't work. And obviously there's things in Whistler that are going to be super unique because it is a resort town compared to some other things. But I think with the combination of our experience of being in the CrossFit space for a long time and you being part of definitely more gyms than me we kind of had an idea of how we wanted to run things off of the bat and Ian and Amanda liked our vision for the gym and so we ended up being the candidates or the people that they kind of went with, that they were going to invest in, to start up the gym, and it was totally so that was like July and then September.
Speaker 3:We were down here, we moved down here and then we were looking at the space that we're in now. I still remember like I think we met them three times to see it and then it was all go, go, go. From there it was like October was the month we were just like trying to get the equipment in the walls painted, the floor down. Yeah, that was a lot, because it was still.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was still kind of like, you know, october 2020, there was definitely question marks about the pandemic and COVID and things like that and kind of we. You know Ian and Amanda had trust in us, which was amazing. And also to the we. We both knew that you know this would be over eventually and you don't really get an opportunity like this, ever Like.
Speaker 2:we're like wow this is such a unique story.
Speaker 3:This is such an amazing opportunity and it just kind of goes to show like but we were fortunate that there was a group of people from another gym so we weren't starting from like ground zero with absolutely no one. We already had like some people that by October were like craving community. So I think we were very lucky in that sense to have that already and I developed this relationship with Ian before.
Speaker 1:So Ian just didn't, like, I guess, randomly pick me. Like Ian, you know, comes and works out in Whistler every so often on weekends and holidays and things like that. He comes up, he goes up there quite a bit and so I'd met Ian through the gym in Whistler and he'd obviously seen my passion of coaching and helping people out in the gym and it just kind of goes to show like you kind of look back on it now and you just, you know, for any, you know for anybody listening to this, it's just like, just like you never. It's just an example of like you never really know who's watching. Like do everything to the best of your ability and if you have a really big passion for something, like really go for it, because I guess they obviously saw something yeah and uh and you know it's we're so thankful because it's now created this like amazing career for us and you know we're on this right trajectory, so to say. And so yeah, I guess through just hard work and you just never know who's watching, I guess.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that. Yeah, so I do both the classes and the personal training with you, Austin, and my experience is that there's a lot of like really individual attention that you get in the gym. Like that is unique in my experience. But how do you do that? How do you bring coaches in that aren't you that are able to teach this many people, this many classes, that are offering that same kind of thing, Because I'm not just getting. Most of the time you don't teach my classes that I'm doing. It's Aaron or Juan and like, if you do a different time of day than I do, you get somebody else. So how do you build that in your all of your coaches that you're having in your gym?
Speaker 3:that you're having in your gym. Well, I think we're very lucky with the coaches that have come into the gym. For us, martina is the only coach that we kind of we got her set up with her level one. We've kind of taught her how we want to coach and kind of like the flow of a class she has teaching experience. So there was kind of like the flow of a class, she has teaching experience. So there was kind of like an element that we didn't have to teach in her, like she had that, and that was like an element that we looked for like very easily approachable for everyone bubbly, she's got good energy, like you know, when martina's in the class, like she's gonna have some fun, some fun music on um. So more for us it was like we want to kind of like get to know you as a person, like you as a person, what your personality is like, um, and then like the coaching side of things is something that we can then teach. Like you need to make sure your knees are out for a squat.
Speaker 3:That's something that you can teach over time, but I feel like you can't really teach someone's personality to be the way that you want it to be Right so we're very lucky in the sense that kind of like the coaches that have approached us or asked to get a job with us, they've always come to the gym and like trained with us for a little bit. So we've kind of like got to know them a couple of times or at least been in their presence, um, before we've like been like, yep, you're the one for the job um, yeah, it's like the culture we set to like through Aaron and I like that individual attention in the classes.
Speaker 1:We voice that to our coaches and, like our, our kind of onboarding with coaches is probably a little bit more lengthy than probably some other CrossFit gyms where, even if coaches are coming in with coaching experience, we still have them shadow classes.
Speaker 1:So they're going to watch Aaron or myself coach a class and then we're going to kind of slowly, you know, integrate that in. You know, whether it's two classes, three classes, however long it takes for that internship or onboarding to kind of come through with somebody coming with no experience, it's probably going to be upwards of probably a month for that. But they're basically, you know, kind of just watching the class and then slowly, each class they start to take over more and more of that class and then it's either Aaron or myself and then by the end we're just watching them run the whole class and then it's either Aaron or myself and then by the end we're just watching them run the whole class. So it's a slow integration that we've kind of 10 or 15 people like. We're making sure that everybody is getting individual attention each time. So that's super important.
Speaker 2:And do you most times when you're hiring you do like an interview? Do you have any like? Is it just that interaction that happens organically, that you're kind of using as a mock or like a stand-in for an interview, or do you actually also do an interview? How do?
Speaker 1:you for their coaches. Yeah, yeah, we still do an interview process yep.
Speaker 2:Do you have like a set of questions that you ask them like? How do you approach the interview? How do you evaluate whether someone is the right fit, whether they can do the job?
Speaker 1:yeah, we definitely like, we definitely have a set sort of questions. So like, okay, what? Like what is your intention of coaching? What do you want to get out of this? How much do you want to coach?
Speaker 1:Like just probably some standard questions, like other, um, other companies do for sure. And then, like aaron said, like just getting them in the gym, like that's the first, because, um, I mean, aaron can, can probably add to this. But you can get to know a person a lot, especially if they're already a coach or they're passionate about coaching and fitness. You get to know a person quite a bit by just watching them work out 100 percent, by watching them work out, watching them how they participate in a class themselves as a member. Are they somebody that's in the back, kind of diddling and not listening to the coach, and they're like, oh, I kind of already know what I'm doing, I'm going to do this. Or, you know, am I at the front listening to the coach, trying to get every attention of detail of coaching that I can just like a student, and so watching them train and watching them in a class says a lot about a person and what kind of culture and what kind of person we want to bring on to our coaching staff for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm sure you can agree with that, yeah interesting yeah yeah, when I interview people, I'm doing something similar in a much smaller moment. But listeners are going to get sick of me saying this because I say it every time.
Speaker 2:But it's the first like couple minutes. A lot of our interviews are virtual. The first couple minutes where they're, they're not actually thinking that they're on and I'm. I'm like what are they saying to me during that time when I say, how was your day? Do they complain about their work day? Do they complain about their manager? Do they complain about the work they have to do? Or do they say, no, my, my day's good. I'm working on this hard project and it's difficult, but I think I found a solution. Are they positive and that kind of thing? So you learn a lot about somebody by watching them when they don't think you're grading them.
Speaker 1:That's a good point, yeah yeah, yeah, like we've we've said that before too like about, about fitness. It's like okay, like how somebody approaches their training. I mean, obviously I'm biased because I'm in the fitness space, but I feel like how somebody approaches how they work out at the gym probably bleeds into other aspects of their life yeah, for sure like okay, are you the person like when it gets hard, like in the gym?
Speaker 1:are you just gonna kind of back off and be like, oh, this is so hard today, like why am I doing this? And it's like you know every decision you make throughout the day is going to lead to something down the road or during that day, right? So if you, kind of, in the gym, make that decision to when things are hard, like whether you're you know the weight's getting heavy and you got to push a couple more reps, or you got a couple more minutes left in that conditioning workout or a couple more meters left, right, it's like hey, you have these little mini decision moments throughout your training. Are you going to choose to like back off with that, or are you going to choose to like push through?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, and it's just like anything in work, or in life as well, you always run across these little, these little roadblocks or these little decisions you have to make throughout the day. Right, and it's like, okay, am I going take the?
Speaker 3:the easy road or am?
Speaker 2:I gonna take the hard road right and if you just like, take that hard road decision like every time, then there becomes no other decision to make yeah, you know what I mean, yeah, yeah, there's a question I was gonna ask later, but I think it's related to someone asking now there's a sign in the gym that says strength is earned, and I'm wondering how you think that applies to the business side of your life, your lives.
Speaker 3:I mean, when we open the gym, like I'm a big believer in like manifesting generally, like writing it out or like at least like seeing your vision somewhere, so it's like really important for me. Maybe me I just wanted it personally for myself, um, but Amanda actually made a whole bunch of like quotes and sayings and we had them that was some end of the foot this up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had.
Speaker 3:I think that was like two in the bathroom and then there's one somewhere else hanging up, and I think we're only down to like that strength is earned and that one's like put just above the plates.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just thought, it just moved there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I thought, this morning and I think you know like a lot of people come in with this intention of like, oh I stronger, yeah, but it's like the only way to get stronger is like you have to put the work in. Yeah, like there's no way around it. If you don't challenge yourself, you won't get stronger. Yeah, right, and like our, we always try to tell people like you know, like that, four, three, four, five days a week, that's where you're going to start to see the changes. If you're just like, well, I'm going to add one strength day in, you're going to see results, yes, in a year. But if you want, like those, like faster results, and you want to see it like you got to come into the gym more than not, yeah, so I think strength is earned. For us is like I think we just both come from backgrounds of you have to.
Speaker 3:I had to work to get where I am today. Like nothing has really been handed to me. Um, you know I came. We both come from separated families and I started working at 14 so that I could go on my trips for for gymnastics. So I was helping my mom pay. So I've never known anything different. Like if you want something, you have to get up and go get it. Yeah, um, and on the gymnastics team, like I was always team b, so I was always like I gotta work that little bit harder to try and get to team a, um, so I just think, yeah, I just think if you want like all these shiny, like fun things, you just have to put the work in and and um. I think for our business to be successful, like if we're not there or not, we're not putting in the work, I mean, no one else is gonna do it.
Speaker 3:I mean, we have some really great coaches, so don't get me wrong like we would not be where we're at without uh, without our coaches, because they are some godsense. We had some moments, didn't we?
Speaker 1:I'm very glad that we've got them, yeah there was a moment early days, early days in the gym, where it's just Aaron and I coaching, and this is like anybody starting a small business you got it. You're kind of doing it yourself for a while.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you got to like prepare yourself for that. We're like, ok, you know it shouldn't be too long, like we've got this, you do the morning.
Speaker 1:I do the morning or she does the afternoon, and we just change passing by as we go and uh and I was cheerleading at that time too yeah, you're also coaching cheerleading, yeah
Speaker 3:and we had this one moment. I was like rushing out the door and Tanner walked into the gym and I just remember being like because he's like tall, he's, he was muscular right, and I was just like in the car. Austin, who's that guy? Does he coach? I don't know what it was. It was his presence, the way he walked into the gym and the way he held himself and then, sure enough, yeah, and Tanner's been coaching more now, which has been good.
Speaker 1:He got a full-time job with the fire department. Oh, yeah um, which is awesome, and now he's back part-time coaching at the gym, which is awesome, so it's been good. So we've had more help, which is great so you touched on something.
Speaker 2:Let's dig in a little deeper. Tell me about being business owners and partners. What is that experience like? How does it work? How do you make it work it?
Speaker 1:It's unique for sure. I mean, I don't know many couples, at least from I mean I'm still young, I guess but I don't know many couples that own businesses together and are together as well and train together and train together and go grocery shopping together. No, it's good, it is really good. Um, I think early on in the business we established some, some roles in the business, which is super important, so we're not kind of stepping on each other's toes in the business. I think that's super important. Like, um, you know, I myself kind of deal with a lot of the administrative and a lot of the emailing and kind of the, the back end type stuff. And Erin's doing a lot of the, the social media, the marketing through social media. She's doing apparel. She's doing, um, a lot of uh, you know communications and developments with different brands and things like that which she's crushing right now. We just we just partnered up with uh like anarel company, lskd I don't know if you got that email.
Speaker 1:Where it's an Australian fitness company brand that's also now in the United States and really up and coming and we're getting some discounts for our members and our coaches as well, which is awesome and potentially in the future maybe collaborate with a uniform and things like that. But I think that's really been well for us, as we've kind of established like certain roles, so we're not kind of like crisscrossing and oh, did you do this and I do that? And it's like Aaron knows, like the emails are like that's me or the, the administrative stuff or the financial stuff, like that's me and I I don't really open up the coast mountain instagram like that's all Aaron.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean. So it's like it's it's me, and I don't really open up the coast on Instagram like that's all there. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So it's like it's, it's important and that's gonna save us time as well as when we have these established roles, and I think early on we kind of developed that and it's worked for us and I think communication is the biggest thing, like I think we do really well at just always.
Speaker 3:Like I will speak my mind if I'm like okay, we're we're like because also, like, who's going to critique us on our coaching if we don't critique each other? So you know, like we do have these conversations of like oh, I noticed this today. Or like, oh, I noticed that, so we're really good at like, obviously getting angry at each other, but then you talk it out and you realize, like you know, we have such knowledgeable coaches that we're always wanting to get a little bit better.
Speaker 3:So it's just like it's kind of nice that we feel like we have to continue to learn and continue to reach, because our employers are doing that as well. So I think it's almost like a cool thing to have that pressure of like you know, I want to impress him, like if he's watching me. I want him to be like whoa, that was a good class today, you know like um, so I think that kind of helps. I mean, the other thing too is like it's so easy to be in the gym, um, whether we're coaching or working out or just being there. It's not like somewhere where you're like maybe some people in their office spaces, like you're sitting in their car to go be in traffic. We don't have that feeling when we're at work, so I don't think anything ever really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always try to communicate, like, okay, I'm going to, we're making a comment about the coaching. Don't get mad at me, but I think we could do this better.
Speaker 3:It's like establishing these things like a little bit before or like the same thing, or I think, yeah, it's just kind of a warning before going into the next thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yeah, I guess the two, like aaron touched on it, they're like communication and then establishing roles in the business. Yeah, I think has been the two, like Aaron touched on it there, like communication and then establishing roles in the business. Yeah, I think has been the two most successful things for us to work together as partners and business partners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So let's talk about marketing and growth. How has that been for the gym? And then, what marketing have you really tried? What worked, aaron?
Speaker 1:Not my role.
Speaker 3:We have not put any money into marketing. Everything is being done through instagram or facebook. We have not paid for anything, right?
Speaker 3:no, nothing, no paid ads nothing like that which has been crazy, yeah, um and for us it's like people driving past they'll see the crossfit sign and obviously like, if you're going down that way to the dump or whatever, you're gonna see our crossfit sign a lot if you go there, um, and it's normally like, okay, like I've seen your sign a couple times, I thought I'd pop my head in. And then that's when we start to have that conversation of like, oh, what are you looking for? Come see the gym. So I think that's like the biggest one is just to sign out the front. Then the second one is like people bringing their friends Right. Yeah, referrals has been our biggest marketing?
Speaker 1:for sure, that is for sure. Yeah, we did one bring a friend day, which was good, so we did that. As far as like some marketing, you know like there's always like everybody's got. Like you know, if you're at the gym you always have the everybody has like the one or two, one or two friends like come on, like come work out with me, like let's do this, and the Bring a Friend Day was a good way to kind of do that, with a little community barbecue and stuff, which is awesome. So we could look at that as a way of marketing as well. Referrals has been a huge thing. Like we have like a rewards program where if you refer somebody to the gym, both of you get 25% off a month, which is awesome.
Speaker 3:So that's like a huge one for marketing is referrals with that, because we want to reward like our member. That's bringing someone into the gym as well, so yeah, that was a nice way of doing that yeah, so that's been really good um but I think it's also maybe the content that I post on Instagram and Facebook.
Speaker 3:I try to make sure what the community sees is kind of what goes on in the gym and like we have older members, so I really like to show like our older members on there we gym and like we have older members, so I really like to show like our older members on there we have young, like we have our kids class and now we're moving into elementary so we're having like that high school age. So I think maybe I hope to show people what I see in the gym and kind of like the community aspect.
Speaker 1:A lot of our videos and reels are just of the community not just the young 20 yearolds throwing up a bunch of weight and then you're like oh, this place isn't for me or I can't do that, so I'm not going to join.
Speaker 1:It's like no, we're going to show like on our social media we're going to show what the gym is, and that's everybody right. So, yeah, erin does a really good job of that, of making sure our social media and our posting and our content is what the gym is about, which is a ton of different demographics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it's like. I think it's really true, whatever you're doing, because my experience there as a client is that the people also really care. Like when I like step out because I'm traveling or something and I have jet lag and I've been gone a bit, people are like where have you been? Like not just the coaches, but like the people that I work out with. They're like where have you been? We've missed you, and I'm just like what is happening here?
Speaker 1:like how do you? Even notice I'm here that's like such a that's such a cool part about the gym and CrossFit gyms. I mean there's other, I mean it's not just CrossFit gyms, it's, you know, community fitness based gyms where I feel like, as adults, like you don't really get that. Yeah, that's such an amazing feeling, like you're coming into the gym and you've had some time off and you have these other adults that you have no connection with other than the gym.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they're like we missed you like where have you been and like you just don't get that as it like as an adult, but especially like I noticed it big time when I left university, I was like wow, I was like craving community. You crave it because in school, whether you're like in study groups or sports teams and things like that, you're kind of just like organically thrown into these things and you're kind of always in it in school, like you know kids in sports programs and things like that, and then when you leave that stuff you're like there's like this hole and people need community, People need people and so, yeah, that's such a I love hearing that because it's such a cool feeling and that's like a big part of like what fires us up at the gym is to have that culture and the atmosphere of people doing that, which is awesome.
Speaker 1:I love to hear that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love to experience it. It's great. So what are what are the, like the top three things you think have really led to your growth? And then do you have anything that didn't work, because we on the podcast we like to talk about what didn't work and like give people the juicy story. So is there anything that you tried that didn't work and what are the top three things that you really think grew your business?
Speaker 1:do you want to start, or me, I mean?
Speaker 3:I think I think having good coaches whether it's like they're really great with personality or like they're knowledgeable at what they're doing I think for crossford gyms, you know like we're selling coaching. They are the forefront of your business and so if we don't have good coaches at the front, it kind of like you know, if you're having a bad day and you're like, oh, and now we've got this like 150 wobbles like this is great, this will make me feel even better.
Speaker 3:But then you have your coach at the front, that's like all right, they're giving you a good vibe. You know, especially for the afternoon you guys have all been at work all day. You know like the coach can then just like turn your mood around and then you're like, okay, let's get these 150 wobbles out the way, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I personally think coaching is one of them yeah, yeah, growth coaching, um, making sure that you're creating relationships with the clients, so that keeping them and making sure you're constantly checking in with them is would be number two. And then number three is so yeah, I guess would say coaching like run really really good classes to develop relationships. Three keep a top-notch facility. I think. I think that's up there, like we're, you know, I'm sure you notice, we're pretty ocd.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're organized, everything's clean in there and it's going to set that tone right away like um, you know, if we show care in the facility and how we treat the equipment and how clean treat the equipment and how clean it is like people are also going to care about that.
Speaker 2:It's so well done that there's something like if somebody comes in and they're messy it's noticeable as a client. I'm like what is going, like what like, because it's just like you just don't see it. You don't see mud on the floor or you don't see like a spilled water bottle. So when you see it, you're like what's happening? Is there an earthquake?
Speaker 3:yeah, but then it's like easy to like get the equipment. And then it also makes it safe to get the equipment too, because we have like that dumbo rack and you know we have hasn't had an instance where someone hasn't put it back properly and then someone else has gone to like fix it and it's like bruised their finger. Yeah. So it's like it's important that you're like respecting your equipment enough that, like things don't get broken either. You know, a big thing for us is like don't let the dumbbell drop from the top, you know, because one, if it hits on the floor and rolls off and bounces to the person next to you, it's going to damage it. But also, too, like the better care you look after your equipment, the longer we get to have it and you know, at the end of the day, the more fun stuff we can buy, you know, for the gym, you know so tell me about the fun stuff, because you actually I get the benefit of using all of your fun innovative equipment.
Speaker 2:so how do you, how do you think about that? Where do you even find these things? Like some of the things you've had me using to work out are just so interesting to me I never even would have thought, like how do you keep on the cutting edge of the equipment that helps your clients, like, really get a good workout and do what you're saying where they're? You're really building a foundation for other things you want to do in your life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like the equipment. I mean you need your basic gym stuff, right, you need your bars and your kettlebells and your dumbbells and all that good stuff. And then, once you kind of have that baseline of basic equipment, you can start, I guess, adding some fun tools and things like sleds and sandbags. And you know, when you add these fun tools to training as well, it keeps a few things, it keeps the coaching engaged because you get to coach some different movements as well. So it's enjoyable for the coaches. It's obviously enjoyable for the clients as well.
Speaker 1:You know they get to use different pieces of equipment. You know, maybe instead of a barbell every single day or a dumbbell, it's like, okay, I get to use a sandbag like this is fun, it keeps like the training fresh and exciting and it also will help increase your fitness level because you're going to be using different objects and different pieces of equipment. That's going to maybe use different, different muscles and different ranges of motion. That kind of goes along with using like different types of bars, like we've used like the trap bar, the safety squat bar and things like that. Um, and I learned a lot of that stuff from Jordan at CrossFit Whistler, where he has like all the toys in the gym and kind of explained to me why having different pieces of equipment is important not only for increasing strength and and fitness, but also like just keeping the client and the coach a little more engaged with that stuff as well. So, um, that's where we. That's kind of a big motivator for getting some of the fun quote. Unquote fun stuff, yeah.
Speaker 2:I love it. Yeah, I have a lot of fun with that stuff, um for sure, um. So what is next for coast mountain CrossFit? What's your, what's your vision for the next phase of your business?
Speaker 1:do you want to go?
Speaker 3:well, we want that whole block, we want all of those buildings. That's number one. Oh, I love that yeah, obviously because we we really value like everything that crossfit has to offer and then like how do you get better at CrossFit? Or like functional movements is your recovery? So can we add some sort of recovery hot, cold, plunge physio, RMT, PT studio, Like how can we elevate what we already offer? It's kind of like in the fourth for future.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, like that's kind of like in the fourth for future. Yeah, yeah, like, um, that's kind of the next steps would be adding more value to the gym of you know if it's, if it's expanding into the, into the building, to maybe get some physio in there or some massage. Um, yeah, hot, cold, plunge sauna and things like that, where we could make it like a one kind of one-stop shop. Everything you need, coast, mountain has it to offer. Um, that's kind of the, the next step, the dream and the vision. That's the big um I would love to have maybe a podcast studio, maybe we launch a coast mountain podcast potentially maybe we talk training, we talk we talk nutrition, whatever it is.
Speaker 1:I would love that. So I know I definitely look up to some some gyms um around the world that have all of the. They have like a one-stop shop you go in. It's like it's not just a gym, it's facility, and I would love to have that one day, and so that's kind of what's keeping us motivated and that vision and kind of what those next steps are going to be. And it can also be an added just from the business side. Right, you can have those things as potentially membership add-ons as well. It's like, okay, you have your recovery lounge, let's say with maybe your compression and your hot cold plunge and your sauna, and it's like, okay, in order to have access to this, it's X amount of dollars more per month on your membership, right, because it's an added bonus. So those are just some business opportunities as well, kind of from that side as well.
Speaker 3:And you would really like to go for like hockey.
Speaker 1:Well on the uh and you would really like to go for like hockey yeah, like hockey training, like, yeah, that would be the next. That would be like the next step as well, as far as like training would be getting more into some sports teams and and, uh, whether, yeah, hockey is obviously my huge passion for that, so I would love to get some teams in there and that would be great, and I've kind of already potentially started get them getting the ball rolling with some of that. So we'll see, uh, we'll see how that goes. But, yeah, that's the, that's like the next steps as well, as is getting into some team training, whether that's partnering up with North Van Miner or the Winter Club and things like that. That would be really awesome yeah, I love that awesome.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you both for being here and sharing your story and helping everyone out there who listens kind of figure out how to do it for themselves too. So, thank you, thank you for having us thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 1:If anybody's interested in starting a gym, get help. Can't do it alone love it awesome.