Pain is Part of the Process: GymGuyz Founder Josh York on Building a 7-Country Franchise Empire

This is a transcript from Episode 13 of The Franchise Champion Show. Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube.

Alan Regala: Today, I'm excited to be joined by Josh York, founder and CEO of GymGuyz, the world's largest in-home personal training franchise. Josh took a simple idea—bringing the gym into people's homes—and turned it into a revolutionary fitness franchise with hundreds of locations worldwide. Josh, thanks so much for joining me today.

Josh York: My pleasure, man. Thanks for having me, pal.

Alan Regala: Okay, so Josh, you are the biggest ball of energy and enthusiasm I have ever come across. Were you born this way or how did this come about?

Josh York: Let me tell you something, man. If you want to get results like normal people do, you do what normal people do. If you want to get results like extraordinary people do, you don't do anything that normal people do. So no, I've always been different. I've always done things different. People used to look at me as weird, but I already knew it in my mind and with all my soul and power that it was my superpowers. And yeah, I've always had energy like this. I don't drink coffee. I don't take energy drinks. I've never smoked a cigarette, never touched a drug, never been high. I am as pure as they come and I like to always just say I'm one of one.

Alan Regala: I love that, Josh. I love that. I always knew you and I were going to get along well. I love that stuff. Okay, so what were you doing prior to starting GymGuyz?

Josh York: Man, I've had more jobs than you could possibly imagine. I've been all over the place. I've literally had like, oh my God, I must have had like 50 or 60 jobs. I've tried everything. I just never really found what I really love to do. And I was always into fitness and, you know, as a younger stud, which I really am still young. So I'm just going to say like, you know, I'm not even going to say that because, you know, it's crazy. If you look at pictures of me 20 years ago, I look exactly the same, if not better. So it's pretty crazy, but that's why it's so important to work out.

But, you know, I used to see people training and like, you know, smiling with their clients. They're getting results. I was like, this is such a great job. I was like, I need to become a personal trainer. And that's what I did. And, you know, after you start doing it for a long period of time, you start to realize like, wow, like it's great. But, you know, you could do well, but like you're only as good as how many hours you have in a day. You eat what you kill, right? And I used to always compare it to doctors because doctors without patients are unemployed and, well, trainers without clients are unemployed. And I used to always ask myself, how can I make money when I'm not working? Because I need to make money when I'm sleeping. And I just didn't know.

So, you know, I left my very high six figures. I'm talking back like when I was 17, 18 years old, I was making like $150,000 a year as a personal trainer.

Alan Regala: Wow, wow. Good for you.

Josh York: And I was like one of the most probably productive trainers, high level trainers in the area. And I gave it all up to take a marketing job out of college because they told me I needed to get a 9 to 5. So I started working in a marketing firm for $35,000 a year, and I knew literally within an hour that this wasn't going to work for me. And it's not for me.

Alan Regala: Wow.

Josh York: So, you know, went back into fitness. And one of my clients one day came in late and just said, "Josh, I wish you could come to my house. I don't have any equipment." And it just kind of stuck with me and I was just like, man, this is such a simple idea. No one's ever thought of it. No one's ever professionalized it. I'm going to do it. So, you know, I got a van, came up with the name GymGuyz. It's an acronym for Get You Motivated, Goals Uniquely Yours, Zero Excuses. Went out there, started driving the van. You know, it's a moving billboard, so I used it as advertisement and started getting some clients. And the goal was always to franchise it. We started franchising in 2014 and today we service thousands of cities. We're in seven countries, 32 states. And the truth is, we're just getting started, baby. We are just getting started.

Alan Regala: Wow, wow. That's quite a story. And what a great way to start this business. So tell us about GymGuyz. How does this work? Like, what's the experience like for a client?

Josh York: Yeah, so yeah, we bring the workout to you. So in-home or on-site. So your home, office, pool, park, place of worship, hospital, senior homes, assisted living facilities, daycares. Literally, you name it, we bring the workout to you in-home and on-site. And we pride ourselves in our three C's: convenient, customized, and creative workouts. And, you know, based upon your first initial assessment, which is a complimentary assessment, we go through obviously three different assessments: a body assessment, nutritional assessment, and a fitness assessment.

So we're going to understand obviously where your nutrition's at. We're going to put you on our high-tech body analysis machine. Then we're going to test you from a fitness level. And from there we customize a program for you and get you all set up and, you know, start your fitness journey. So I always say it's great to make a living, it's much better to make a difference. And it's really great when you're able to have purpose and change lives. And, you know, throughout the hundreds of thousands of people we work with and lives changed, it's the most incredible thing in the world.

Alan Regala: Yeah. Now that's amazing. Especially for your franchise owners who are helping change lives directly with their clients. Tell me what it's like from a business standpoint to be a franchise owner.

Josh York: Yeah, so, you know, our franchise owners obviously are coming on board, hiring personal trainers, creating great cultures, creating great leaders, and just building incredible business models in their territory and going out there and changing people's lives. You know, from an owner perspective, you know, you come into the business for $92,000 to $175,000. The difference there is between territories—one territory, two territories, or three territories. The majority of our owners do do multiple territories so they can lock up that bigger area so they have opportunity to really scale and grow and not just make an impact in your pocket. I mean, make an impact out there in the community and really help people because that's our thing.

That's their responsibility. The great thing is you don't need fitness experience. We don't have anyone who's an owner that has fitness experience. They either have an interest in health and fitness, they have an interest in helping people and changing lives, or they just want an unbelievable genius business model that literally aligns with the world we live in with convenience, right? Has very, very low expenses, super, super high margins. It's a very, very scalable business. You have recurring revenue—as I like to say, aggressive recurring revenue—because it's so consistent. You have large businesses you're able to work with. You get large accounts. And, you know, at the end of the day, it really does feel amazing when you get a call from a client that's crying on the phone because you changed their daughter's life. You know, like we work with a lot of children with disabilities and we help these kids so much. It's so amazing. And then on the flip side, like we have our oldest client, 104 years old right now, and she can plank for a minute, one minute. It's really special and it's just incredible.

Alan Regala: Wow. That is super cool. Yeah, you know, first thing that came to my mind was the residential side of things and helping people in their homes. I didn't realize you guys work with kids with disabilities. That is amazing. That's super fulfilling. And then, you know, you mentioned the commercial side of things. Tell me about that. How does that work?

Josh York: Yeah, so I mean, we're constantly working with companies, right? We're working with large companies that we go on-site and we're running wellness challenges. We're running seminars. You know, we're running sessions, right? With these companies. And, you know, ultimately, you know, we're building a business model around the commercial space as well, which allows owners to really diversify their revenue streams and build multiple streams of income, which is extremely important from a business perspective because you can't just rely on one thing. You've got to be able to have different things going on. And obviously corporate America, you know, they're always looking for health and wellness benefits for their employees. And, you know, we're the perfect fit.

Alan Regala: Yeah, that's awesome. That's awesome. So, you know, speaking of being a business owner, you're someone that clearly has a lot of energy, a lot of drive. How do you balance, you know, running a big business with, you know, just life in general? Like, how do you think about work-life balance?

Josh York: Yeah, I mean, look, I'm very strict. I get up at 4:45 in the morning. I'm in the gym from like 5:15 to about 6:45, 7:00. I'm home. I'm making breakfast for my family. I'm sitting with my kids. I'm talking with them. I'm in the office around 9:00. I work until about 6:00, 6:30. I'm home with my family. I'm at dinner. I'm helping with homework. I'm at my kids' games. I coach my kids. I go to about 95% of their events. I tuck them into bed every night. I have a great balance. You know, I am very, very—I like to say not structured but almost in a psychotic way. Like almost like a sniper's best friend. Like I would be a sniper's best friend because I think I take the same step at the same second every single day. Like that's how calculated I am. And that's really the type of discipline you really need if you want to be a high-level performer.

Alan Regala: Yeah, that's great. I mean, so it sounds like as a high-level performer, especially with your own business, you can clearly get a lot done, be at the top of your game, you know, beating everyone else. But at the same time, you are able to be intentional with your time. So you get to decide when you're going to be working, when you're going to be exercising, taking care of your body, when you get to spend time with your family, make sure you get to 95% of their games and tuck them into bed and all that good stuff.

Josh York: Yeah, look, if you want to have things people don't have, you have to be willing to do things people won't do. That's it. Very, very simple, right? And, you know, you also got to be a great multitasker. I'm a great multitasker. And like, also, like people don't realize, like people think like, man, I got to work so hard. I got to work 20 hours a day. No, you really don't. Like you have to work smart, not hard. Smart. Like if you're actually focusing on a good couple of critical tasks every single day and you keep rinsing and repeating that day in, day out, day in, day out, day in, day out, like you know what you do. Like I come in the morning, I got my Post-it ready to go. Like it's already prepared the night before, just like my clothes are laid out in the morning. My breakfast is ready to rock and roll. I have everything prepared in the cooler that I take with me to my office. Like when you're so calculated like that and you have everything ready to go, all you got to do is just execute.

And as long as you execute and you keep building those small wins and stacking them and stacking them and stacking them, eventually they become big wins. But along that journey, you're going to get smashed in the face. You're going to get hit over with a sledgehammer. A truck's going to smash you over, then you're going to get run over a couple times, then you're going to get screwed over. All these things are going to happen.

The ones who really succeed are the ones who don't quit, right? Like pain is part of the process. The problem is most people are soft like marshmallows and fold like cheap chairs. So as soon as things get difficult, everyone taps out. That's why it's very, very easy to win, right? Like, you know, there's been so many difficult times I've had in business. Like you have no idea. Like 99.9% of people would never be able to hang in. But, you know, like I always just ask my team like, "So what do we do now? What do we do now? I guess we just quit, right? We quit. We made it this far." Exactly. And you don't make it this far just to come this far. You make it this far to finish. You always finish what you start. That is rule number one. And if you say you're going to do something, you do it and you get it done.

Alan Regala: I love that. I love that. You know, I get a lot of people that are interested in, "Hey, I'm interested in business ownership. I love the benefits that can provide, but I've got this nice tech job, I'm making good money. And I would really love to start that same time, but I'm going to keep my job. Can I run this semi-absentee?" You know, how do you respond to those people?

Josh York: Yes, so look, here's the deal with semi-absentee. There's no such thing as a semi-absentee business, okay? Look, someone's got to be running the business. You're never going to get a full-time result with a part-time effort. We actually do have a lot of semi-absentee owners, and this is how it has to work if you want to be successful. Husband and wife couple—someone's running the business full-time, someone's working full-time. You have a partner or a friend or someone that comes into the business—same scenario. You give someone, you know, some type of equity in the company or pay them a very, very good salary to manage, but you still need to inspect what you expect. You still need to put in about 25 to 30 hours a week. Now if you're working, okay, you still need time. But you don't just go and say, "Hey, I'm going to buy a franchise and put all my money into this business, but I'm still going to work full-time and it's going to work." It's not going to work. It's impossible. It's not going to work. And I don't care what business it is, it's not going to work.

Alan Regala: Yeah, yeah. No, I think it's smart to burn the bridges, just burn the boats, I guess, right? Burn the boats. You just go and you go full in. That seems like the best way to really get something started the right way and to grow a business quicker and more successfully than trying to do multiple things at the same time like that.

Josh, what advice do you have for anyone that's looking to buy a franchise?

Josh York: So here's the thing, right? Like franchising allows you to advance yourself. It's the greatest model out there because you're jumping over the hurdle of all the mistakes and challenges that have been made and all the learnings and everything, right? So it's an incredible business model. It really is. You just got to understand, just like if you were doing this on your own, which you'd have to work 7 million times harder and deal with 700 million more problems, you get to shortcut that, but you still have to work, right? You still have to put the work in. You still have to drive your business, but you have support. You're in business for yourself, not by yourself. And that's why I love franchising. That's why I always wanted to open a franchise, because it's just an incredible way. And like, you know, if you go on to our YouTube channel and go to the GymGuyz YouTube channel and watch our recent Recharge Recap video with our own rap song that I actually write—I don't sing it, but I write it every year—you will really understand what culture and energy looks like and how incredible it is when you build an unbelievable community. And that's what we do all day, every day.

Alan Regala: That's amazing. That's amazing. Josh, how can people get a hold of you?

Josh York: If you go on Google and just type in "handsome," I pop up on every page. But, you know, you could just go find me on Instagram. You could just type me in on GymGuyz and I pop up everywhere. But yeah, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on every social platform. I also put out a lot of content out there that people really enjoy, so I'm everywhere.

Alan Regala: Yeah, yeah. I appreciate that. I'll put some links in the show notes. Josh, thank you so much for joining us today and for being a franchise champion.

Josh York: My pleasure, man. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.