Tips for Designing Your Gym from the Experts at Perform Better

[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 ’cause we’re having someone on the podcast who’s never been on the podcast before, even though we talk about their company all the time. And on the podcast for the very first time is Erin Milani, who’s a sales manager over at Perform Better, and you all know Perform Better from their equipment and their products, their [00:01:00] education.

They do so many amazing things for this industry, so I’m excited to have Erin here today, both talk about Perform Better and to make sure you all learn some lessons from this podcast about how Perform Better can help your gym be even better. So Erin, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. I’m very happy to be here today.

What a treat. I’m so excited. I, as Mark and I and the whole Business for Unicorns team and community have been such big fans of Perform Better. I think we have a few people from our team speaking at your summit so far- Mm-hmm … this year. I think four people on our team. Yeah. Mark, Ben, Chris, I forget who else.

But, and so we’re such big fans. First, for people who maybe don’t know much about Perform Better or haven’t met you before, just give us a little bit of your background. I think you’ve been at Perform Better for many years, so- Yes. … give us a little bit of the story about how you got there and what Perform Better does.

Of course. I have been with Perform Better now for 21 years- Wow … which is scary because it makes me feel old when I think about it. I was a former strength coach and wanted to train people. I ended up moving up to Rhode Island, and there was no strength and conditioning jobs available. And I remember one of [00:02:00] my mentors who spoke for Perform Better in the past was checking into the NSCA convention and saw Chris in line, and since he spoke for Perform Better, he knew Chris.

Mm-hmm. He said, “I got this girl coming to Rhode Island. You got anything available?” And he was like, “Uh, sh- if she wants, she can come up and meet me.” And at the time, there was no females working. It was, like, typical locker room, which unfortunately I fit right in. So it was a big change, and in my mind I remember being like, “Oh, it doesn’t really matter.

I’m gonna be outta here in six months anyway. Once- Mm … a strength and conditioning job opens up, I’m out.” Yeah. And I remember Chris sitting in his office and he’s, “If we’re gonna train you, I’m gonna do this. We really want people here for the long haul, and we want people here that are dedicated and, and not just in and out and looking for a side thing.”

I’m like, “Yeah, okay.” I’m like, “No problem, Chris.” Fast-forward 21 years later, here I am I realized that the position and the company was just the best of both worlds. So it was really taking the strength and conditioning perspective that I was used to, cutting out the terrible hours that you [00:03:00] get as a strength coach and- Mm-hmm

the nasty parents when you train kids, but dealing with more of a sales side. So I was able to use my background and my knowledge from being a strength coach to help people and other coaches find the right equipment, talk about programming. It just, it just, it was weird how everything worked out. But yeah, here I am today, and I look around at the staff that we have, and everyone’s been there for a long time.

I think our newest people, we just hired two new people, but other than that, I think they’ve been there for five or six years. So it’s crazy when I look back and see Chris like, “Oh, you’re not just here for… We want people here for the long haul.” Yeah. And in my head I’m like, “Yeah, little does he know.” And he knows that story now.

So I totally… It’s totally fine, but- Yeah. Yeah, I got tenure. Well, just, it says a much about the culture that Chris and you and other folks who’ve been there for a long time have created. And maybe this is a good first lesson for our listeners. If you had to look back at what’s kept you around for 21 years, what do you think it is about the culture at Perform Better that, that really makes it sticky for someone like you?

It’s definitely the culture. I know it’s cool to see [00:04:00] everyone at the summits be like, “Wow, you guys seem like you’re friends instead of just coworkers,” which I think number one- Yeah … it’s definitely true. That’s a big part of it. But also just nothing’s the same, and I remember from day one them telling me, “Everything, there’s nothing black and white with our company,” which is crazy when you think of a sales company.

They’re like, “You go into Home Depot, this is the price,” or, “This happens, this is their policy.” We can get two different people order the same thing in two different calls that are two minutes apart and handle it completely different, which I think is cool. There’s always new challenges, always new questions, things that come up that even after 20-some years I’m like, “What?

I’ve never heard of such a thing.” But yeah, everything’s, nothing’s black or white. Everything’s gray, and I think it keeps you on your toes. Every day is different. People are like, “What do you do?” I’m like, “Uh, depends on the day.” It’s just so different. But I think that’s the exciting part is you know what you have to do, but then you never know what’s gonna get thrown at you or what changes you’re gonna have to make to adapt and make it- Yeah

work for one person that won’t work for another person. So it’s pretty cool. Yeah. [00:05:00] I love that. I think that’s a great lesson already for our listeners, Erin, right? ‘Cause the research actually shows, the research on workplace cultures and re- you know, employee retention shows that people really want to, one, have a friend at work.

Mm-hmm. People who they look forward to seeing, people who they know know them on a personal level. That makes a huge difference to how long people stay. And the second thing that people often shows up in the research that people want is they want growth. They wanna know- Yeah … they wanna be challenged.

They wanna feel like- Their contribution matters and they can keep learning and growing and contributing more over time. And clearly you’ve been able to do that. Yeah. You wouldn’t even be there for 21 years. So I think already, I think our listeners can learn from Perform Better just in the way you all manage the business.

Yeah. Um, can you say a little bit more about all the things Perform Better does at the moment? Yeah. ‘Cause I think y’all, y’all do so many things and I think that’s part of your strength, and I think it’s also probably, I’m guessing, a marketing challenge to communicate all the things you all have going on.

So just wanna say a little bit about what are all the ways people can interact with Perform Better? Yeah, of course. [00:06:00] So obviously we’re an equipment company first and foremost. We have sold everything from what people call toys or the miscellaneous items now, which is your balls, your bands, your dumbbells, l- little things that everyone’s gonna use daily in a gym.

And that’s how we started, what we got known for And then over the last couple years, which longer than a couple years now that I think back, but started selling rubber turf, more racks, more specialized equipment that are gonna be used for certain pieces that can complete a gym. So instead of just being more of an ancillary company, we became a facility company.

So we always said we wanted to be the one-stop shop for people to come to, and nowadays, 100% we are. We do everything from the layout and design. We do 3D walkthroughs, which is pretty cool, so we’ll deal with a lot of architects daily if they’re doing a new facility, uh, which is great ’cause it’ll take the work off of the gym owner who might not know [00:07:00] about building and putting airlines in walls and where to put outlets based on where the equipment’s spaced out.

So we will handle all of that to getting the equipment. We do rip out, we do install, we do financing. So when I say one-stop shop, nowadays it’s really cool ’cause when I first started, we didn’t have all those options. And now after all this time, just to see how we’ve evolved as a company and grown that way, it’s crazy to see literally start to finish layout concept to completion, everything that we can do just in a small amount of time, which is insane because in my…

I mean- Yeah … I look at other companies- It’s amazing … they’re hiring people to do and it’s… Nobody else really does that. Yeah. It’s also amazing because that moment of opening up your own small business, especially a gym, it can be really lonely to- Yeah … figure out all that on your own, and to work with people who have now done it hundreds and hundreds of times to give you the best advice on what you really need on day one, what you don’t need on day one.

Yes. How to [00:08:00] secure financing and, and work with your landlord and build out the walls correctly and find the right surfaces so they- Mm-hmm … can withstand the wear and tear. We made so many mistakes, I’ll speak for myself- … at Marquee Fitness, of just terrible decisions we made about equipment before we knew that we should just call it Perform Better.

Yeah. And I wish I would have from day one. It would have made my life so much easier. And so we talked about products and facility design, and you also have the whole education arm. You wanna talk a little bit- Correct … about that? Yeah, which is… it’s funny ’cause we do have a ton of education, and that kind of separated us initially from our competitors.

One of the downfalls is that a lot of people started to kinda- Think of us as an education company. So they’ll come to the summit and do a hands-on, and use all of our equipment, and listen to our speakers, and everything’s performed better, and then they’ll come up to us at the end and be like, “Where can I get one of those med balls?”

Or, “Where can I get one of those bands?” You’re like- … “I’m- wait, what?” Like- That’s literally what we do. Mind blown, yeah. But it’s crazy to think how many people started to think of us as an [00:09:00] education company because of our summits that have grown, and we started the Perform Better Functional Training Institute at our location, which Mark has done a bunch of stuff there.

Yes. So we’ll run seminars in our own headquarters, do hands-on, we’ve run certifications, things like that, which is really cool because, again, it’s in our own facility that we can control it, and see everything that’s going on, and make it the way we want it, and which is something that has grown over the years and gotten us a lot of customers to kinda stay because, again, going back to the whole culture and it’s not just going to a seminar.

It’s once you’re there, it’s I feel like they become family. They’ve become- Yeah … more than just- 100% … a customer, which is, it’s… We always joke around. I don’t think there’s a store I can call to be like, “Oh, hey, is Johnny there? How are your kids?” But yeah, we look back and weddings and parties and things that we’ve had, like- Yeah

we’ve had more speakers and customers and just come in and hang out or be invited to weddings or… It’s really different, but it’s really cool. Yeah. That’s amazing. I think I probably first heard about you all from seminars. I think I- we brought one of the, [00:10:00] some of the Mark Fisher Fitness team to a seminar- Yeah

early on, and I learned at the seminar you also had equipment. So I was one of- Yes. … those people who, who thought you were education first, you know? Yeah. And that was a long time ago. But, but I think the seminars have grown because they’re so good, right? Yeah. It’s, you all curate amazing people. And I’m, obviously I’m biased, ’cause I think, like I said, there’s like- Yeah, me too

four people from the Business of Unicorns team who are speaking this year. So if the listeners wanna go check out when the next summit is, we’ll put the link down below in the show notes for this podcast. But you can also go to the Business of Unicorns Instagram. I think we posted about it recently- Yeah

with all the dates where our team is gonna be there. So go check those out. But let me dive in and pick your brain a little bit, Erin. Sure. Since you have so much experience designing gyms and facilities, I know a lot of our listeners are current gym owners or future gym owners. Let’s just talk about the difference, ’cause I like to think there’s a difference between what people really need to buy on day one of opening their gym- Yeah

versus what their ideal dream gym might look like in year 3, 5, 10, right? Yes. And for a lot of people who are bootstrapping it and don’t have [00:11:00] venture funding, which most gym owners don’t- Yes … you might not open your gym with your dream gym, depending on your ability to take on risk and get financing. So can you just talk a little bit about right now, if you had a new gym owner who was calling you, trying to figure out what equipment do they really need?

And most of our listeners probably do small group personal training- Yeah … or a large group, maybe some one-on-one. What are the things that, what, what’s your advice to folks when they’re just opening up? What’s really essential on day one of opening a gym? So what I always tell people is everybody’s programming is different.

So what do you do? When you have a client walk into your gym, what do you imagine? Because there’s people that’ll say, “We do small group training,” or, “We do team training.” Mm-hmm. I’m not gonna lie, there’s probably not many gyms out there that do not have a, “Oh, you have 20 kids in a group? You need 20 of everything.”

That is 100% not the case. Yep. And it’s just, and it’s crazy, ’cause a lot of people don’t realize that. So when they’re opening up, they think, “All right. I need 20 of these and 20 of these and 20 of these, ’cause worst case [00:12:00] scenario, I’m gonna get 20 kids in my group and they’re all gonna like…” All right, your programming doesn’t call for all 20 kids doing the same thing at once.

Yeah. It calls for, you know- These people doing mobility, and these people doing stability, and these people doing their strength and their plyo’s over here. So how would you break it up? If somebody walks in, how would you imagine it ideally? So that’s a good starting point to kinda hear how they run their groups now or how they wanna run them moving forward, ’cause that’s a big thing.

Yeah. Once they get that- ‘Cause then you, what you’re really pushing them is starting to think in zones, to think in how to break things up and teach things to large groups of people, even small groups sometimes. Yeah. ‘Cause I think you’re right, there’s some folks since COVID are really connected to this kind of pods idea, where every s- everyone in small group personal training has every piece of equipment- Yes

they need, right? And they replicate it in these pods. And that, that can, I think, work for some models some of the time. But for folks who do any sort of large group or team training, it’s impossible to have the, every piece of equipment for everyone, and it’s not necessary. So yeah, keep on going. You were gonna say something.

So it, what’s funny, ’cause the way you said it, it’s not necessary, is the hardest part I [00:13:00] think for people to grasp. Yeah. ‘Cause they’re like, “I need a what if.” The best part about us is the what if is we stock probably 90% of the stuff in our warehouse, and we usually ship same day. Mm-hmm. So I’m always like, “Get what you think is gonna cover you,” and- Come back to me in three weeks or four weeks and tell me, are you using all six of them or do you not touch them?

Because then you don’t need 20. Right. You can keep that six, and then maybe worst case scenario add two more or add three more, or you only are using the six pound and the eight pound. Forget about the fours and the 12s. Don’t, you don’t need 20 of those. Like- Yeah … so just keep an eye on once you’re open, keep an eye on it, and you can have it a day or two later.

Like, it’s just, I think realizing like, all right, so I’m not gonna go two months without something and, and panic and my whole program is gonna go out the window. That’s big for people to hear. Yeah. So that’s step one, is see what they envision, what they think. But space is a big one that- Mm-hmm … a lot of people don’t [00:14:00] realize.

So just the space that they have to work with. And keep in mind like, all right, are there other coaches? Are there other, do you have offices? Do you have bathrooms? Can you… Like, realistically you only have so much space to use for your training. So if you want this and this, your space may only allow for this and this.

So as much as you wanna make this perfect gym, you don’t have the facility for it. Yeah. So we’re gonna help you get what you want in the space that you want. Which is what- I can tell you, Erin, sorry I didn’t mean to drop what you were saying. No, no. Go for it. I, I, I can’t tell you how often we have Unicorn Simon members who send us their coaches, the layout of the gym they’re trying, the changes they’re trying to make.

And I can’t, and I’m, I’m not a professional gym designer, but I’ve been around the block enough to look at a drawing and say, “This is insane.” Yeah. And what they do is they pack equipment all right up next to each other, and they don’t realize for function and for safety, there needs to be some space around the equipment.

Yes. People need to be able to walk around your squat rack- Yeah … to load up the plates [00:15:00] safely. Load the plates. And that gets- The plates is the biggest one. Yeah. Yeah, not get hit in the back of the head with another bar when I’m try- Yeah. And so, and so they s- they, they just wanna squeeze it all in, and I think that’s one of the biggest mistakes that they make, is they don’t leave enough room for people to move around- Yeah

for the bodies to be in the room, right? Yeah. For people to move that equipment. And so I think I’m glad that you’re saying that. It makes me feel like- Yeah … I’m not crazy for giving that- No … that feedback all the time. Not at all. Yeah. Yeah. It’s so funny, ’cause I’m actually working on two facilities right now.

One of- Mm … they both have this issue, and I’m trying so politely to be- like, one of them is their stuff crammed right now, but they want to, they’re realizing that everyone that comes in is trying to stretch before they do anything, ’cause it’s more of a- Mm … it’s an adult fitness center in- Yeah … a business.

So you know, there’s no kids, no nothing. They’re not, it’s more they come in during lunchtime and work out. So right now they’re realizing that before they do their cardio or their plate-loaded circuit or whatever they’re gonna do, they’re like taking up space, like laying on the floor in between machines- Mm

’cause they, they need to stretch that way or do something that [00:16:00] way, and there’s no room for it. So right now I have that issue of trying to, “All right, what don’t you use that we can get rid of, or can we change the layout around where you can add a specific stretching area because it’s needed?” Like right now, that’s their number one, “We need space.”

I’m like, “Okay.” So I have that one. Then I have the other facility, which is the complete opposite- Mm … which they’re like, “We need 10 racks in here.” And they sent me w- their drawing that I guess one of their student athletes did in one of their courses, and I feel terrible ’cause I wanna be like, “You should probably go back to school.”

But he put all the racks in there, and it’s exactly what you said. I don’t know how you can humanly possible get a plate onto- … either the bar or the weight holders because you’re gonna hit the next rack. Like it d- it doesn’t- Yeah … there’s, that’s why there’s specific measurements for what you need to walk through and load the plate safely.

And we’ll push it sometimes like a minimum if you have to, but when it’s six inches from a wall, [00:17:00] you’re kinda like, “Ah, I hate to break the news to you, but you got four racks in here that just cannot exist- Yeah … unless they go on top of another rack.” Like it’s- Yes. Good luck. Yeah. So- Yeah … it’s funny to hear, like I’m glad you appreciate that and understand it because I look at it, and I know people get excited, “This is it, and this is what I want.”

I’m like- Yes … “And you might wanna get a different building. I don’t know. Like I don’t- Yeah. … I don’t know what to tell you.” Totally. Yeah. That’s, it’s so funny ’cause we, our gym, Mark Fisher Fitness, was in Manhattan, and so we had to make use of every square inch, and we had constant conversations with our team about them wanting to add equipment, but we just didn’t have the space.

And so I just got, I developed, I think, a good eye for what can work and not work safely. Yeah. ‘Cause we had also a lot of volume of people coming in and out. And so, but it’s hard to know, especially when you’re first opening- Yeah … a gym, what the flow it’s gonna, it’s gonna be like, what the, what a full room is gonna feel like.

And forgetting that people need a place to hang their shoes and- Yeah … stretch and put their jackets, and you need a p- quiet place where you can shut the door and get on a phone call with your bank. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Make sales [00:18:00] calls. That people forget all of that when they’re first designing their space.

So it’s- Yeah … it’s great to have you guys to turn to- Yeah … to be able to ask these kind of questions. Let me ask the kind of opposite end of the spectrum. Yeah. So that’s some thoughts for people who are just starting out. But for the folks who have been opening gyms for many years- Is there any equipment that came around in the last few years that’s new and exciting that people should know about that, and maybe consider putting in their gyms?

Right now the biggest thing that we’ve seen is like things that are modular. Mm-hmm. So storage was always an issue in a lot of, in a lot of places that we noticed. Uh, but then they started to, we started to see a lot of the half racks and the power racks where you can now put storage in the back or storage on the side, or going back to the whole pod thing, create this whole little rack with storage and a single leg squat attachment and this attachment and that.

And then, you know, a couple years down the road, I don’t need this anymore, but I can turn it into this. It’s crazy to see how much stuff has been modular That [00:19:00] has come out, which is really cool because now you have people, “What about if I fit it in my corner? What about this without that?” And it’s kind of because of our design guy, who is a savior.

He can put really anything together and be like, “Yeah, I think it can work. We’ll take this cross piece and that upright and this and make it work,” which I think has been a huge help. But it’s been really cool because you just see completely different configurations depending on, one, what people need, and two, what space they have, what they can actually fit.

Yeah. So it’s been really cool in that aspect to kind of see what we can create, but a lot of it comes from our customers too, which I know it sounds crazy, but we will take feedback any time. Yeah. And there’s been customers that they’ve given us some really cool ideas ’cause it’s gonna work for them, and when we find out- Sure

it can actually work, we’re like, “We gotta tell people about this. Thanks.” Yeah. “This is great.” But yeah, it’s one of those things where we’ve had customers come to us, “You know what I think? Is this possible?” And we’ll do anything we can to try and make it work, and if it works we’re like, [00:20:00] “It’s awesome.” So- That’s amazing

yeah, a lot of feedback, a lot of trial. It’s been cool, but I think the modular stuff, including the storage in there, has been probably the biggest thing that we’ve seen. That’s huge. It’s like a big, it’s a big adult Lego set where you can- Yeah … put all these different pieces together- Love Legos. … in different ways, right?

And it’s great, ’cause I think a lot of gym owners have awkward spaces. It’s hard to find a space that works for gyms. Yeah. Some people are blessed with giant 10, 20, 30,000 square foot factory floors, but many of us are not, especially those of us in cities like New York. Yeah. I know it’s so hard to find a space for a gym, and so we have to get creative.

So I just love that people can call you all up and say, “Hey, I got this little space. Help me figure out a modular approach to fitting some real function here,” and you all will figure it out, which is fantastic. Yeah. Yeah, it’s really cool. Yeah. Good for you. Let me ask about the seminars and the summits that you all do, because I know that’s a, it’s a huge part of obviously how I learned about you all.

Can you just say a little bit about who are the summits for, and what are the kinds of things people can expect to learn about when they come to a Perform Better Summit? [00:21:00] Yeah. So the summits are usually for trainers, coaches, physical therapists, chiropractors, really anyone that is in the fitness industry or the athletic industry.

We cater to pretty much everybody, but a lot of it is- Rehab talks, strength talks, speed talks, and then business talks obviously. So it’s pretty cool in that aspect that we’ve kind of covered all areas of it. And when you look at the schedule, the way we set it up, we try to do at least one of those talks in each 90 minutes.

So we try not to put three strength guys all in one time slot, and three rehab guys in the next time slot. If you’re an athletic trainer, you can see this person at this time, and in the next slot, this person at this time, if you wanna kind of stick to the athletic training track. Same thing with sports performance or rehab or nutrition or…

We try to space them out, that way you’re not having everyone in the same kind of [00:22:00] realm at once. I th- I think it’s so smart. It’s one of the things I’ve always really appreciated, is because I’m someone who’s owned a gym and now owns a gym coaching company for gym owners. Yeah. But I’ve never been a personal trainer.

I was a dancer, a massage therapist, so you know, I’ve been around moving bodies my whole life, but I’ve never been a personal trainer. But what I loved about going to Perform Better summits is that, yes, there’s stuff about the fitness for sure, but it’s mixed, right? Yes. It’s some information about the fitness.

It’s information about management and leadership and business, and you can get it all in one place. And frankly, there’s just not that many fitness industry conferences that do it all well these days. Yeah. So I think you all are just so unique in that way. And you’re right, you can go and sample from that menu of all different kinds of topics in one weekend, which I think means you’re guaranteed to walk away with just a ton of value.

Yeah, and that’s the thing. We don’t have anyone register for certain courses or certain classes. So if you go to something and you don’t like it or it’s not what you thought, just go into another one. Or if you’re in a hands-on- Yeah … and you realize your body [00:23:00] hurts from doing hands-on all day, go to a lecture.

It’s just, people can go in and out- Yeah … which I think is great because sometimes you go to these seminars and it’s not what you expect, or their topic- Yeah … is nothing like what you expected. So- Yes … we give people the freedom to roam around, listen to pretty much as many people as they can, figure out who they like, who they don’t like, what they like, what top- It’s, there’s still a lot of new people that don’t really know what they want.

So it’s cool to give them that freedom and just figure it out for themselves. We give them a blueprint, but don’t give them all the answers. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Like I said before, we, we have some Business Unicorns team members who are gonna be at some upcoming summits. We’ll have the links down below to the upcoming summits and of course, to Perform Better, the website itself.

But for folks who wanna follow Perform Better or find out more about what’s coming next down the pike, Erin, where else can they find you and follow you online? They can go to performbetter.com, which is our website. Mm-hmm. We have all our information up there. They can call 800-556-7464. Any of our staff can help.

You can ask for me, [00:24:00] I’m fun. Uh, we have Instagram, Facebook, all that stuff, which I think it’s @performbetter or perform_better. I don’t even… I should probably know this, but- That’s okay … you know. Yeah. We’ll hunt them down and put them all down below- Perfect … in the show notes. Yeah. That’s perfect. But yeah. I just wanna, on behalf of my, my Mark Fisher Fitness that I own for 13 years, and the whole community at Business of Unicorns, just wanna say thanks, y’all.

Y’all have been such great partners to us. Y’all have been such great examples and role models in the industry for people who care about doing good work and taking care of your customers, and sharing knowledge and education in an industry that is still young and growing. So I just wanna say thanks to you and your whole team, and Chris, for putting together such great events, and leading the industry with such integrity.

So thank you for that, and thanks for being here. Thank you. I really appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Oh, we appreciate you guys. Yeah. And thanks for all the business, and for having me on today. Yeah. And I’m sure I’ll see you soon. I’m sure. We’ll have you back again. And dear listeners, thanks for listening.

Hope this was a fun one for you. Have a kick-ass week, and I’ll see you on the [00:25:00] next one. Bye. Bye, guys.