Presenting PHAROS to the World

This past weekend, Emylee and I presented our seminar “Building Our Dream Gym” at the Business of Strength Summit in Park City, Utah.

The Summit is a gathering of gym owners and their teams who come together to focus on the state of the industry—operations, sales and marketing, branding, hiring, and pretty much anything that might be helpful to small business owners in the fitness industry.

I have always made a point to travel for education and to build relationships. We live in a digital age, and it’s easy to purchase an online course. But it is not the same thing. The bonds you make from in-person interactions and the experiences you gather when you travel cannot be replicated digitally. It might feel like a big effort, but trust me—it’s worth it. Don’t live behind a computer. Get out in the world, meet people, build and nurture those relationships, and chase down every opportunity you can. If I’ve had any success, it’s because I took the time to do that.

Being asked to present was a real honor for us, and we feel that after ten years of riding this bucking horse of a business, we have much to pass on. There have been many lessons learned. We have lost. We have won. But we have always learned something. If we can save another business thousands of dollars and thousands of hours by passing on that knowledge, that was—and is—our goal.

The responsibility and challenge of business ownership should never be overlooked. You will solve one problem only to find another waiting for you. There is a reason not everyone starts a business. It is a 24/7 relentless force that will crush you if you are not strong enough to deal with the blows. Everything imaginable can and will happen. People you thought you could trust will let you down, bills will come out of nowhere, there will be floods, there will be AC outages, there will be lawyers, machines will break, people will quit, members will complain, and no matter how hard you try, it will never ever be enough. If you are not willing to take that on, then take a different path.

The bigger the dream, the bigger the cost. We are a company that dreams hard. We don’t come from money; there is no backup plan. From Day 1 this was a one-way ticket. We built it from the ground up. It was nourished with our own experiences, passions, and skills, and there was no blueprint for what we were doing. Advice is hard to come by when you are pioneering new territory, so it was all instinct and learning the hard way. But now we have the opportunity to pass that learning on, and we are happy to do it.

PHAROS and the PHAROSPHERE are not just gyms to us. They are the never-stopping vehicle that drives our lives and feeds our desire to serve our communities. Don’t open a gym because you love fitness. Open a gym because you love people and you want to see them find the best of themselves. Whether they are 14 or 84, you have the opportunity to enrich their lives and be the one that made a difference. There is no greater gift than that.

So if you choose to do this, then do it all. Go all in with every fire you can burn. Be smart, learn as much as you can, but courage, fortitude, and an undying belief in your purpose are what will carry you through.

Remember, at the end of the day it’s how you make someone feel that counts

We haven’t built our dream gym… we are building our dream life by improving the lives of those around us in any way we can. We deliver it all through the gym, but our great hope is that we can be the best part of someone else’s day. Beyond the shine of any product we can offer you, that connection is the moment we strive for. We believe that connection is something every small business should strive for

Thank you to Joe , Dan , Adam , Big Mike and the whole team at Business of Strength for the opportunity to share and for facilitating a fond return to a place that’s close to my heart.

See you in the gym.

PV