How To Open Your Own Warehouse Gym: Part 2 by Elliott Hulse
In Part 1 of How To Open A Warehouse Gym you learned of my struggles as a student of fitness, a personal trainer and an employee of a mega-sized “Health Club” where most worthy trainers are treated like cogs in the big malfunctioning machine of the fake fitness facade.
After my departure from the marauding mess called “Lifestyle’s Family Fitness”… with zero clients, a new mortgage, over $10,00o in debt, my wife and 2 year old daughter… I was broke, lost and confused about how I was to go about getting paid to do what I loved most — Training Athletes.
What made matters worse, was that on my last day at the “health club” the only asset that I had to my name — my 1989 Lincoln Towncar, BLEW UP! Fortunately my father had sitting in his driveway the 1987 Econoline Ford Family Van that he used to lug me and my 3 brothers and sisters around Long Island several years back. He had no intentions of ever using it again and with only 70,000 miles on it he knew that no one would ever pay for what it was still worth. Little did either of us know that it would come to be worth over $300,000 to me over the next 4 years.
With the look of pride that only a father could have for his rebellious son… my dad handed me the keys to the only car that he had ever paid full price for, the old-school family van. With a heart broken, my seedling family and an old van I begun my first real journey into entrepreneurship.
My first plan of advancement was to find a local family owned gym where I could start to rebuild my personal training clientele. The first place I trained was in a Yoga studio, but that quickly ended since “Yogi’s” are typically passive and quite people (who also lack meat in their diets) and it seemed I was just too loud and rambunctious of a carnivore to share space with them. So, I was *shushed* the hell out of there in less than a month.
Next, I took my small personal training business to a local chiropractor’s clinic. This worked out quite well for about 7 months until one day I showed up at the office and the doors were bolted shut! It turned out that Dr. Crackmyback had not been paying HIS rent and had us ALL kicked out. I should have taken notice when the landlord threw a FOR SALE sign up on the front door… I guess I was too focused on correcting my clients form to see anything else.
Finally, I found a gym in downtown St. Pete owned by a female bodybuilder with an attitude worse than mine. The gym didn’t have many members and she liked it that way… most people seemed to piss her off. I sheepishly approached her one day and proposed to pay her $500 per month to train all of my clients at her gym. Surprisingly, she accepted my offer and turned her back to me and continued her 1000 rep dumb bell lateral raise routine.
It was at this small, barely surviving, half bodybuilding - half “cocaine station” gym that I had begun to get my “feet under me” and achieve some level of stability. The owner (lets call her “Cara”) was polite enough to me and my clients and seem to accommodate most of my needs. She and I both had strong personalities (and lots of testosterone) so for the most part we would aim to avoid each other. I kept my mouth shut and went home when I wasn’t training and she put her iPod on to avoid any useless conversation.
For about 2 years my personal training business grew from earning me about $2,000 per month to just over $10,000. It was at this time that one of my male clients asked me, “Elliott, you have such an amazing athletic background… why aren’t you training athletes?” This question stuck me like a dagger to my heart, the truth was that I wasn’t training athletes because I knew it would piss “Cara” off if I had a bunch of teenagers in here throwing around medicine balls… I was stifling my DREAM so as to not piss someone else off!!! This is the most insidious reason why most people never succeed, and I understood that this was exactly what I was doing.
With the idea of my dream rekindled, a semi-sustainable personal training business, and my 1987 Econoline Van I ventrued outdoors to begin my new business which I called “Strength Camp”.
GO TO PART 3 where you’ll learn exactly how I turned my van into a cash machine on wheels and finally gave myself the chance to do exactly what I loved to do…. and get paid very well for it.
Elliott Hulse is a Pro Strongman and Strength Coach that trains athletes to get super strong and fast in his warehouse gym with less than $1000 worth of equipment.
Learn how you can escape the clutches of the Fake Fitness Facade and rebel with your very own Warehouse Gym like Elliott did ==> http://www.WarehouseGymBusiness.com
It was at this small, barely surviving, half bodybuilding - half “cocaine station” gym that I had begun to get my “feet under me” and achieve some level of stability. The owner (lets call her “Cara”) was polite enough to me and my clients and seem to accommodate most of my needs. She and I both had strong personalities (and lots of testosterone) so for the most part we would aim to avoid each other. I kept my mouth shut and went home when I wasn’t training and she put her iPod on to avoid any useless conversation.
