From Garage Gym to 100 Clients with Rose Doldoorian

[00:00:00] Welcome to the Business of Unicorns podcast, where we help gym and studio owners create a business and a life they love. I’m your host, Michael Keeler. Join me and the Business of Unicorns team each week for actionable advice, expert insights, and the inside scoop on what it really takes to level up your gym.

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Hello, fitness business nerds. What’s up? Welcome to another episode of the Business for Unicorns podcast. I’m stoked for today because I have someone on the podcast for the first time who is a Unicorn Society member, owner of Lift for Longevity in Massachusetts, a newly branded and newly opened gym, which we’re gonna talk about here today.

It’s Rose Daldorian. Welcome to the podcast, Rose. Thank you so much for having me, Michael. I’m so excited to be here. Oh my gosh, what a treat. It’s been so fun to get to know you and your gym as you’ve joined Unicorn Society in the last, I think last year. Is that right? Yeah, I think it was September. Yeah So not even.

Not even a full year, and you’ve just been so crushing it and opening up a new space and, like we said, rebranding. We’re gonna talk about all that today because you’ve been really just, the team, every time I hear an update from Rose, I only hear good things. I only hear Rose is crushing it, a new milestone, more clients, and so we’re like, “We gotta have Rose on the podcast to talk about all the success.”

One, so you can just brag a little. And two, so our listeners can learn what you’re doing [00:02:00] well and steal all your ideas, which is what this podcast is all about. So maybe first just say a little bit about when did you, how long have you had your gym, and just tell us a little bit overall about the recent kind of move and rebranding you went through.

Sure. So my gym started actually in my garage. Yep. And it slowly evolved over six years. We were in my garage for almost six years. We actually started in March of 2020, so- Oh, wow … it was kind of COVID Perfect timing, Rose. Yes. But it really was nice to give people a space to work out- Mm-hmm … in a safe way that when there wasn’t other gyms open- Yeah

because of all of the things. So we slowly growed as an outdoor facility really with the garage open. Mm-hmm. And then we ended up moving into this space in September of this year, so with the rebrand and a new, bigger space, ’cause we really outgrew my garage gym a long time ago. Sure. Yeah. But listen, that’s such a great story, and there’s so many listeners who are probably like, “Oh yeah, my gym also [00:03:00] started in a garage.”

It’s just a very common experience to start small, start somewhere like your garage or a barn in the back of your house or renting another gym, and then suddenly getting to the place where you really need your own space. That’s amazing. And so let me just say this. When you first joined Unicorn Society, I think you had told us that you really weren’t really like a, I think you said, “I’m not a numbers girl.”

You really weren’t really, really were not, had not wrapped your arms around the metrics. And so can you just say a little bit about when you were running your gym before, when you didn’t really have metrics or data, what did a typical day look like for you? How were you making decisions about running your gym without having access to dashboards or metrics?

Yeah. I, I definitely went a lot on trusting myself and trusting the years- Mm-hmm … and trusting the good vibes and good energy of people, and that’s who I am- as a whole anyways Sure But I really had no idea about any metrics or numbers. I knew who my clients were and what they were paying and what [00:04:00] we were making, but that was really the extent of my knowledge of the members.

Which looking back on it now is wild to even think about. Yeah. You’re so not alone there, Rose. I can speak from my own experience with Mark Fisher and I starting MFF in 2011. Yeah, we knew to track some things upfront, but so many decisions we made early on were just going on vibes. Yeah. You know, what are people liking?

What are not liking? What’s working for us? What’s not working for us? And, and that has its place, right? There’s certainly a need to keep your finger on the pulse of the emotional experience for you and your team and your clients. But there’s something about learning as a owner to mix that with actual data about- Oh, totally

what’s happening. That way we can separate our facts from the feelings. ‘Cause sometimes they align, and sometimes they’re just way off and they don’t connect at all. And yeah, so can you just talk to me a little bit about going from someone who’s not a numbers girl into someone who’s, I think now, you mentioned before recording this, that you think of your dashboard and those metrics a little bit like a game you’re playing.

Can you [00:05:00] just say more about how you made that transition? Yeah. Obviously with you guys’ help in implementing our dashboard, I love how it’s set up so that we can see our numbers, not only month to month, but kind of week- Yeah … on our leads and our new members and our conversion rate, and I love taking that now and beating myself month to month.

Yeah. So I can see how many clients we have in May, and then in June, okay, I know I signed on this many. Now I have a little bit of an internal goal to sign on more than I did the last month. Yeah. 100%. Uh-huh. I like that little competition with myself to kind of- Yeah … grow the business through the numbers that way.

Yeah. Good for you. I think it, it makes such a big difference when you can see in a spreadsheet, look what my efforts did. I can actually track and measure. I put in this much more effort on lead generation, and look what happened. I put this much effort on retention, and look what happened. And thinking of it like a game, I think, is a really great mindset.

Yeah. ‘Cause sometimes we’re gonna win, and sometimes we’re gonna lose. Sometimes you have to try things [00:06:00] to figure out- Yeah … what works- Yeah … and what doesn’t work. And it’s that kind of put your scientist hat on energy that I wish more gym owners had. Yeah. I think that because when you can take that mindset of I’m playing a game and I gotta try stuff and I’m gonna try different strategies and different timing, that that’s a, it’s a great skill set to have.

So, you know, you made a leap that a lot of people hesitate to make in any small business, which is going from something that’s self-funded in your garage to something where you’re signing a lease and making a huge commitment. Can you just say a little bit more for our listeners, like how did you make that decision?

What, what is the data you gathered? Who did you talk to? What, what are the steps you took to decide I’m going from garage to big old commercial space? Sure. I think it was always a dream that I had. Mm-hmm. But I think that I got stuck in the garage gym ’cause it was easy of overhead. There wasn’t a lot of risk.

It was working well enough anyways. Yep Gave me the ability to train clients in a way that I loved and to help people. But really what kind of [00:07:00] pushed me towards that dream again was going and seeing Mark Fisher talk at Perform Better, and then going to the Perform Better conferences and talking to other people, and talking to other people in the industry, and just realizing that, like, all right, it’s time to kind of level up.

It’s time to take the risk. It’s time to push it a little bit more- Yeah … if that makes sense. Yeah, 100%. If you had to say, what do you think it was that finally gave you the confidence to, to take the action, to quote unquote pull the trigger? Is there any one or two things that you think really pushed you over that decision-making point?

There’s so many things Yeah I feel like it’s hard to narrow it down. Yeah. I had this deep knowing that it was gonna work. Yeah. No matter what I did, it was gonna work. Yeah. And that is probably a little woo-woo, but I just- No. That comes with a m- a confidence, right? A, a- Yeah … a kind of experience you have from having done it for so many years.

Yeah. You’re like, “Oh, I, I know a lot about how to do this now.” It [00:08:00] wasn’t like you- And I knew- … had a garage gym for six months. Right. You’d done it for years. Yeah. And I knew that our community was so special and so amazing. Mm-hmm. So I actually moved my gym closer to them- Mm-hmm … closer to where my people were.

Amazing. So I think a big part of what, uh, let us pull the trigger was finding a space. Because we live in rural Massachusetts, there is not a lot of buildings that are conducive to being a gym space. Yep. It’s just an old part of the state. There’s not a lot of stuff. So when I found a space, uh, after I had gone to the conferences and talked to people, I was like, “Okay, now I can see it.”

Mm-hmm. “All right. Here there’s a space for me, uh, in a town that is closer to the people that I serve.” Amazing. Yeah. I think that’s something I hear a lot when folks finally make the decision to do something big like this, whether it’s your first location, second location, frankly other things like have a baby, right?

Yeah. Big life decisions, right? Is that it’s hard to do until you can actually vision it for yourself. Sure. [00:09:00] Until you can actually picture in your mind this is what it would look like, finding a space that makes sense in a neighborhood that makes sense, kn- being able to picture your community going there and making, it being convenient for them, right?

So I think if there’s anything I’ve heard repeatedly on this podcast and through other conversations is that, is that creating that real vision for yourself, like really creating that movie in your mind of what are the next steps gonna be, what is this thing I’m going to build, what could it really look like, and then getting closer and ma- adding more details to that vision over time.

That seems to be something that really unlocks the confidence- Yeah … to take a big leap. Does that resonate with you at all? 100%. Yeah. I feel like I was in limbo. I, I had toured a few places. I had looked- Mm-hmm … at some spaces, and I was like, “Eh.” Mm-hmm. And then we found the space that we’re in, and I was like, “I can see it.

It’s here. I love it. This is where we’re supposed to be.” Like- Yep … again, I kinda trusted my vibes probably a little bit too much in that I had to go back and adjust some things once you guys told me kinda some metrics [00:10:00] to follow there. But yeah, I needed to see it until I was ready to really go. Okay. So now let’s talk a little bit about your actual opening, because you have some really impressive numbers, Rose.

When, I think you opened with 130 people on your inquiry list, meaning that you got 130 leads. I think you added 51 real committed clients in the first few months. And I think now, just, you started in January. We’re recording this in, on literally on June 1st. And I think you’re at almost 100, right? You’re at 90-something.

Yeah. Yeah. That- Closing in on 100 … that’s amazing. That’s, a lot of gym owners are, like, just dying to get to th- those numbers, and you did it all pretty quickly. So let’s talk a little bit about your pre-sale. How did you get to 130 people raising their hand and expressing interest? Yeah. So a big thing that we did, and I don’t know if this is specific to my market, but Facebook community pages have been huge for us.

Mm-hmm. So I posted them in all of our towns and surrounding towns, and towns that our avatar are in, posted it repeatedly in those community pages. That was [00:11:00] probably a big piece of it Yeah. So- So when you were posting, just to pull that string- Yeah … string a little more, what did you actually post? I posted our website.

We kind of had a landing page website with an, a link to a Google Form that they could fill out to get their name, email, phone number, and if they were interested in small group training or personal training. So it was just a quickie little form that they filled out, and then I reached out to them after that with more details.

Amazing. I love that you went really scrappy. Like, be in those Facebook groups throughout the whole community, and use a Google Form. You don’t even need, like, a fancy landing page. Just use something to capture their interest. I think that’s fantastic. So yeah, keep on going. Facebook groups- Yeah … posted that, are you interested?

That was huge. Yeah. And then all of my clients that I had- Mm-hmm … I gave them the link to it- Mm … to say, “Hey, if you have friends that wanna join once we’re in our Ware location, give them this form to fill out.” So they would give that to all of their friends, and all of their friends filled that out from there.

Amazing. Were there any incentives early on? Did you make any offers? It was [00:12:00] just like- No … “Tell me if you’re interested.” Yeah. Wow. It was just, “Tell me if you’re interested.” Wow. And then once I reached out to them- Mm … after that, I think I maybe did say, like, with founding pricing- Sure, founding pricing or something

but I never gave them a hard offer. Okay. Um, mostly because, and it kind of ties back to our space, I wasn’t sure when our open date was gonna be. Of course. And I was a little uncomfortable making sales for the future, if that- Mm-hmm … makes sense. Yep. Yeah, that makes total sense. Yeah, construction is hard to wrangle.

Yes. And so if you have a, if you have a moving date range, it’s, it’s hard to have the confidence to, like, actually get people’s credit cards and commitments if you’re, like, not sure- Yeah … when you can start delivering. So that makes sense. Yes. But it’s really impressive, and you must have had, one, like a good network and reputation for that many people to raise their hand and express interest without even the promise of, like, a specific discount.

I think it’s really great. And then once you started collecting all these names and phone numbers and emails, what was your outreach and conversion process like? Yeah. This is probably where I could have [00:13:00] used some more mature software to help me. Yeah, sure. But I went scrappy with it too, and I personally emailed and texted all of them- Amazing

once they filled it out and was like, “Hey, I’m Rose. I’m opening Lift for Longevity. We’re hoping to be open here.” Um, and just kind of had a conversation with them to keep them- Talking to me and- Yeah … engaged in our process, and I kind of directed them to our Instagram to follow along. So we were posting daily- Mm

construction updates and daily updates on Instagram so they could follow along there- That’s exciting … with our actual progress. Yeah. Listen, Rose, even if you had access to better software, more automations, you probably still would’ve gotten farther faster doing what you did, right? Yeah. Because it felt personal, because it was personal, right?

They were hearing from the owner about this thing that you, they could jump in and help you build, right? Yeah. And people get excited about being founders of a new business, seeing the construction process, feeling they’re contributing to this new space in their community, right? It’s an exciting time for a lot of people.

So it sounds like you really [00:14:00] capitalized on that. And then once you were willing to, once you were collecting credit cards and asking them to make a commitment, what were your initial kind of offers? Yeah, so we did, we are actually still running the same offer ’cause it’s working great- Great … still. So we did a buy two, get two offer- Mm

with, my coach Wendy helped me design that. Great. So credit to her for coming up with this. Shout out to, yes, shout out to BSU coach Wendy. We love you, Wendy. We love you. Yes. So we did a buy two, get two, ’cause most of our clients do two times a week personal train, or I’m sorry, small group training. Yep. So they got basically two weeks for the price of one.

Great. And we are still running that because it works- Great … super well for us. I love that. All right, so they do a buy two to get two. They get basically two weeks for the price of one. And then what do they, what do you convert them into? They then go right after that, they roll right into their weekly two times a week, three times a week small group training.

Right. Okay. So it goes automatic into a full membership from there. I love that. Yeah. So listeners, you might refer to, you might often hear this like the Netflix close, [00:15:00] right? Which is like what most software does these days, is you get a cheap or f- or discounted or free trial, which rolls automatically into a paying membership right at the very beginning, which, which is great because it doesn’t require you to have another sales conversation.

You sell them early on, on the two or three times per week, and at the end of their trial, it just happens automatically. They can opt out, of course, right? But I think the fact that’s just assumed they’re gonna love it and assume they’re gonna stay on, I think honestly more people should consider doing kind of a Netflix close.

I think it’s fantastic. It really works for us. Yeah. Good for you. Good for you. Is there anything else about your kind of launch that I didn’t ask you about that would be fun to share with our listeners? We did have a great opening party. Oh, yeah. And that is something that you helped us kind of plan.

Great. And honestly, it was such a busy day, I don’t even remember it. It was such a blur because there were so many people here- Yes … that I was like zooming around. It’s like your wedding day. It’s like you barely remember. Yeah. Literally. Yes. Literally. So that was awesome. I think we just did a [00:16:00] grand opening so people could come meet us and see the space and meet our, all of our long-term clients were here.

They hung out for the whole day. We had catering and some of our kind of trusted network people that we refer out to came to be like vendors for the event- Fantastic … which was amazing. Yeah. It was stellar. That’s amazing. Good for you. I think that it’s so great to capture the energy and excitement of an opening, and get people to bring their neighbors and their family and friends and coworkers, right?

Because oftentimes an opening party can be a huge lead generator, right? Yeah. For people who are committed to coming, and then getting all those vendors to also invite people to get the place really full like that. If you were to say, obviously the day is full of great connections and memories, but are there any tangible impact from your- Yeah

from your opening party? I think, and I was ill-prepared for this. I was very prepared for it to just be like a party. Sure. But I think we ended up signing up, it was either 10, 10 or 12 people that day- Mm-hmm. Yep … for [00:17:00] our intro membership. Amazing. Again, it was such a blur that I- Yeah, of course … just went with it.

Yeah, of course. But that’s what happens when you’re in the middle of opening. You’re working your way through construction, which we’re not even gonna talk about today. No. ‘Cause Please no. But ’cause there’s hardly anyone who has a great construction experience. But, but I think it’s so hard when you’re in that early building hustle to be clear-eyed about throwing a party that has great conversion.

Yeah. But the reality is that even if you, even if you just have a fun party with lots of vendors and get lots of people there, the conversion’s gonna happen, right? Okay. Even if you’re not laser focused on it, because you’re building a community that people are, wanna be part of, and it feels exciting and sticky in a positive way.

And so good for you. Good for you. Thanks. That’s amazing. So another thing that I’ve seen you, we’ve seen you do recently, which I think our listeners will wanna learn about and emulate, is that you’ve started taking yourself off the coaching floor more and more, which to give you more time to work on the business instead of in the business, which is something I think everyone who listens to this podcast wants to do more of.

So walk me through, [00:18:00] when did you first realize that you need to take yourself off the floor more? The week we opened. Yeah. What was the, what was, were you experiencing there? It’s just overwhelming to… I think I was still coaching 40-plus hours- Wow … while doing this. I also have a two-and-a-half-year-old at home.

Yep. It’s, it was chaos. That’s real. Yeah. And I do have an amazing assistant coach. She is phenomenal. She’s fantastic. We couldn’t do any of this without her. But she’s in nursing school, so we kinda- Mm-hmm … juggle that schedule back and forth I noticed quickly that Yep I needed to find some ways to pull back a little bit.

Yeah. Yeah. Good for you for noticing that, ’cause a lot of people have a hard time. You b- might have heard me talking about on this podcast before with other guests, people have a hard time letting go of that coach identity, ’cause they’re so good at it. They are often the best in the building at being a coach, and stepping away and being okay with your clients experiencing some other person as the [00:19:00] coach all the time- Yeah

it’s a hard thing to do. How did you reconcile that for yourself personally? I think I still am reconciling Yeah … that personally. Yeah, that’s honest. It’s very- Yeah … hard for me. Yeah. It’s very hard to kind of let that go, but I feel like Haley, and people will tell me all the time, it’s just about finding the best people, and I couldn’t have found better- Mm

in Haley. People are like, “You guys are literally the same pers- Like we are the same person. And so I think having somebody that you can rely on, or multiple people, which we will get there, we will hire- Mm-hmm … more coaches. We’re in the process of that right now. But just hiring the absolute best you can and training them to the absolute best that you can is the only way you can do it and not get some pushback from people.

There’s always gonna be a little pushback- Of course … especially when you’ve been their coach for six or seven or eight years. Yes. But people are so understanding that we’re just trying to help more people and- Mm … I’m trying not to burn myself out, ’cause if I- Yes … burn myself out, then [00:20:00] they get less of a service from us.

Yeah. No one can do any of it if you’re not- No … around. 100%. Yeah. Yeah. That’s amazing. Good for you. And I think you’re right that a big piece to being able to step away is the confidence that you have the right people to step into your shoes, to step into your place- Yeah … that your clients are gonna be well taken care of, and they’re gonna be following a lot of the same kind of principles and systems and standards that you set for yourself, and that’s hard to do at first when you’re first bringing on your first few employees.

But you’re doing it, and I’m glad that your first one was a positive experience- Yes … because it hopefully is giving you a little momentum to do it again- 100% … and do it again. And so now that you are taking yourself off the floor a little bit, what are the things you’re spending your time on to work on the business?

Yeah. So something that we never had to do in my garage gym was really any kind of marketing or lead generation- Yeah … because we were full. We were at capacity- Yep … for the better part of our time in my garage. So Now I spend a lot of time doing marketing- Yes … lead gen, and a lot of follow-up, a lot of client follow-up, a lot of check-ins, “How was your [00:21:00] first session?

You’re halfway through your trial period. How are things going?” So I do a lot of the client outreach, client relations- Mm-hmm … lead gen. Yeah. Good. I think that’s a great for our listeners to hear that once you do get off the floor, there’s a whole nother s- series of skills that you need to master. It’s a whole nother skill set beyond being great at coaching and the client stuff that really is required to be a great entrepreneur.

Yeah. You need to learn about lead generation and sales. You need to learn about HR and people management. Sure. You need to learn about b- running a facility and how to take care of a building and a space, right? And all those- Which we’re still learning. Yeah. That’s an ongoing… All of those, I think, are an ongoing, ongoing adventure.

And I think, I hope that our listeners who are in the same shoes as you, just opening up and growing, can get at least a little excited about learning those things. Yeah. So- Can I add something to that? Please. I just thought of something. Yeah. I feel like for me, part of the– This kind of ties both of our conversations together here.

Part of coaching for me, I’m a people person. Mm-hmm. I wanna be with people. I [00:22:00] wanna help them. I wanna see them succeed. So really throwing myself into the client kinda outreach, even though maybe I’m not in the gym on the floor with them, I’m still having conversations with them and hearing their wins and hearing their pain points and hearing their successes, and that’s really helped me transition from a coach to a manager, yes.

Yep. But still have that kind of people-oriented. Yes. I’m not just sitting looking at numbers all day. Yeah. I’m talking- Yeah … to people and helping them, just maybe in a different way than I did when I was on the floor with them all the time. Yeah. That’s beautifully said, Rose. I think people forget that the actual coaching starts when you first make contact with your lead, that those first interactions, whether they’re text or they’re Zoom or they’re whatever they are, those first interactions are the starting of the coaching process.

Yeah. Helping make sure people are ready to make change, really understanding their goals, helping them overcome their hesitations and fears to walk in the door. In fact, those first few interactions are maybe the most [00:23:00] important parts of the coaching process- 100% … before they touch a dumbbell or a barbell or a kettlebell.

Yeah. Right? Getting them in the door is tough, and that’s a big part of your job now. Yeah. And then long term, keeping them engaged and keeping them there, and we need someone really skilled as a coach to be able to do those parts of the journey. Yeah. So let me ask you a final question here, ’cause I wanna wrap things up a little bit.

Yeah. But for those people who are, who were like you were when you first opened, maybe were running out of their gym, work- working out of their gym or some rented other, some other space, who were running on vibes instead of data, what advice do you have for them about how to walk the path you’ve been on?

Go to BFU and have that like a shameless plug. But- I lo- love th- I love that answer. I didn’t pay her to say that. But I love that answer. So in that, just say more about what made that valuable for you. Yeah. Honestly, i- and whether it’s BFU or whoever else- Yep … you just need to find the people that you connect with, the people that truly kinda speak to the gym that you’re trying to build and the life- Mm-hmm

that you’re trying to build for yourself and your family, and making sure that you align [00:24:00] with them. But I couldn’t have done this without the help from you guys, from my clients, from my family, from all of that. So follow your gut and trust your vibes and trust your instincts, but find a way to make the numbers fun for you.

Yeah. And whether that’s through somebody else helping you get and analyze those numbers, or you figure it out on your own. But yeah, that’s the only way I could have done it. Yeah. Yeah, I think that’s really great advice. I think obviously Business Unicorns exists ’cause we know it can be really lonely to do this on your own.

Yeah. And starting a business often feels like you’re making it all up as you go, but the reality is that we have now both done it ourselves as coaches- Yeah … and worked with hundreds if not thousands of people who’ve done what you’re trying to do when you open a gym. So why start from scratch? Find people who can help and mentor.

Again, whether that’s us or some other local business owners or some other courses you can take, but you don’t have to do it alone, and you don’t have to make it all up yourself. There are tools and templates out there for you to help you get started. And and [00:25:00] it’s really wise to learn from the lessons of others.

And if you’re not a numbers person like I wasn’t, I didn’t even know where to start really. Yeah. So I needed the template- Mm-hmm … and the playbooks and the dashboard and all of that to have a way to organize all of this in a way that made sense to me. Amazing. Amazing. I’m glad we found each other, Rose. Me too.

It’s been so fun working with you. As I said, every time I hear about your progress from the BFU coaching team, I just hear that you’re crushing it, and I hope that continues, and we get to do it together- Thank you … for many more years to come. I would. Yeah. I’m happy to be here. Yeah. Thanks again for doing this conversation here today and sharing your experience.

Our listeners, I think, will really value from hearing your kind of garage to nearly 100 member story- Yeah. … which is just so impressive. And this is just the beginning, so I’m sure we’ll have you- It is … back again to give an update about where you are a year from now. And so thank you for your time and sharing your experience.

And dear listeners, I hope you found this valuable. Have a kick-ass week, and I’ll see you on the next one. Bye, [00:26:00] everybody.