Who we help

We work with gym owners generating $1k-$90k+/mo. Gym owners who are experts at their craft, with existing businesses desiring to grow their gym, their team and get to their next level.

These gyms have most of the raw materials necessary for a gym to run without you but they often lack the structures, systems, teams, tools, and guidance on how to get there.

What do we do

We work with these gym owners to build towards their ideal finished location.

We help them generate 10-25%/month profit per location.

We help them create great client results with a small skilled team on career paths.

And most importantly, we help them build towards a lifestyle they enjoy while pursuing a purposeful vision.

We do this through our two training programs: The Academy and The Method Syndicate. Our programs aim to maximize: Profits, consistent progress and prioritize the next right thing for you. Our programs aim to minimize: Complexity, wasted costs and effort, and stress.

Our philosophy

Your perfect gym model is a balance between profit, client and team results, and your happiness. To achieve this balance, we follow a philosophy built on six core principles:

1. Results - results are what matters

2. Priorities - keep the main thing the main thing

3. Progress - slow is smooth, and smooth is fast

4. Partnership - we push and pull each other forward

5. Passion - if it's not fun, you are doing it wrong

6. Discipline - freedom comes from discipline

Evan's Story

Part 1. Follow your passion to solve a problem

It started back in 2007 when I (Evan Lindsay) quit playing professional hockey to work as a firefighter in Canada. I soon came back to fitness and worked at a gym and decided to open one in 2009. I took thousands of $$ of fitness certifications the first 2-years of gym, and we were producing good client results. We got stuck at 10k a month in revenue. I got stuck because I was trying to reinvent the wheel every day, I was unclear on what to do first to make progress and I was stuck in my emotions.

Part 2. Getting good at the craft of operating a gym

After a session a client, who owned multiple restaurants, pointed out I needed to learn how to lead the team and learn how to grow the business. I only understood a small portion of the game I was playing, training. In the next few years, I bought many programs, hired numerous business coaches, and the gym grew from 10k to 20k/mo the next year, then 20k to 40k/mo, and then 50k+/mo the last year I ran it from the Cayman Islands.

Video #1 below on when we made the leap from 17k to 37k/mo in revenue.

Part 3. Growing a gym when you're not IN it

The first gym I ran remotely through a team was PAINFUL. Systems broke, relationships with the team and members strained, and personally, I felt guilty everyday, and became resentful.

After removing myself from the gym and selling it I felt lost on what to do next. This time taught me valuable lessons about what not to do running a gym remotely and how to sell them. I began consulting with gym owners then, applying cookie-cutter solutions - that worked in fits and spurts until the gym and owner needed a more personalised approach.

Part 4. Getting back in the gym business game

After consulting with hundreds of gym owners the patterns at 30k, 40k, 50k plus and multiple locations emerged. Regardless of the model, personal training, small group, large group, mom-and-pop, or franchise the same types of things break at the same stages. The application MUST be personalized to the operator and their goals though. In 2021 I was offered a broken gym for free, it was 1,000 miles away in a different country. After some deliberation, I liked the product, and the team and decided it was worth the risk.

Video #2 below on how that turned out.

Part 5. Creating your perfect gym model

We applied the same principles I have worked with hundreds of gym owners on, installing the systems one at a time and working with the team to build a self-sufficient gym. The first gym grew from 44 members to 250+ recurring members. Since we have added 2 more gyms, all located in another country that are growing the same way.

Article below on how our team describes this.

During this time our gym owner clients have achieved amazing results in their perfect gym model; buying several buildings, opening and acquiring gyms, running e-commerce businesses, moving out of state to run their businesses, growing their families, and taking extended vacations.

Video #3 below is podcast walking through this story and some keys to growth.

Resources

- Video #1 - 2012 Success Story of our first Gym (3-min 20-sec video)

- Video #2 - 2021 Most Improved Gym (~1-min video)

- 2022 Article on Remote Ownership on the MADabolic blog

- Video #3 - Podcast with Stu Brauer (62-min video)

Sarah's Story

Part 1. A Lucky Windfall

When Sarah was 26, she and her business partner (future husband), Chris, purchased a 7,000sq ft CrossFit gym in Newport Beach, CA moving their small weightlifting club of 20 athletes into the facility with them. As luck would have it, Evan had been consulting the previous owners, and Sarah and Chris were able to take over the contract, working with Evan to make a go of it at this gym thing. Thank goodness they did, because these two had a lot to learn about running a gym and growing a weightlifting club!

Part 2. Stabilizing

Taking over a gym that had to generate an additional $6k in revenue each month to cover expenses was not for the faint of heart. But they managed to grow the business within the next couple years from $14k to clearing $30k, paying themselves $4k/mo each. They finally had an idea of what they were doing and the business was stable as it grew.

Part 3. COVID, then Eviction

As Chris and Sarah were hitting their stride on running a gym and growing their weightlifting club, COVID hit. They refused to quit and used everything they could to their advantage to keep their community together while their facility was shut down. As they came out of COVID, their club grew and they were consistently clearing $50k/mo. With that came a lot of clients, and with a lot of clients came demand for parking. Because their business was taking up too many parking spots, SoCal was evicted from their location.

Part 4. New and Improved Location... and more

Once a new location was found, thanks to Chris's hard work of trolling the streets of Southern California incessantly, Sarah realized that she wasn't needed in the business as much anymore. At this point SoCal had had multiple $67k months, and was consistently clearing $55k. It was time for her to move onto helping other gym owners grow their facilities. Evan suggested they team up and Gym Builder was formed.

Part 5. What's next?

As SoCal's full-time staff have grown and developed substantially, their business is now working towards location #2. While Sarah supports SoCal's operations very part-time, she is also focused on helping other gyms/clubs grow as a consultant, knowing the operations and effective business practices are what give owners the life they want and work so hard for!