Gym owner, Katie Georgiades, of Rockbox Fitness Lexington, shared with Mike her 10X growth tale of going from the last $5K in her business to $50K in monthly recurring revenue — all while stuck in the middle of the pandemic.
You can watch the full interview here.
The Pain
Katie and her husband opened their RockBox franchise in Lexington, South Carolina, in April 2019. Her husband was putting in 13- to 16-hour days running back and forth to the studio and working with the general contractors, all while Katie was preparing to have their baby. Three days after the studio opening, their sweet daughter was born!
In the summer of 2020, the membership landscape of the post-pandemic fitness industry changed dramatically. Their RockBox location worked itself down to the last $5,000. While they had support from their franchise, Katie had to decide if this was it, if it was all over.
They gave themselves a deadline of only a few short months to decide if they could pull it off. They had to get creative if they were going to meet their goals. So how did they get 10x their lowest point?
The Pivot
RockBox Lexington started offering virtual solutions with Katie and other trainers. They invested in high-tech sanitation tools and upped their cleaning game, marketing themselves as the safest place to work out in South Carolina. They dug deep for ways to continue developing a community with limited operations.
They kept building a stronger foundation, and by the fall of 2020, they had finally carved out a sustainable monthly recurring revenue.
Katie shared that “Just being able to pivot quickly, adapt, and push through, it really helped us.”
Katie had been combing every possible tool she could get her hands on to help their gym revenue growth. One of those tools was the GSD Show on Black Friday promotions.
Katie knew what she had to do.
“I had this epiphany, coming out of that: Just take action…We basically ran that whole playbook, but in December, it was the catalyst for our growth as a studio.”
Katie is one of our platinum members here at Loud Rumor. To learn more about the program she’s in click here!
The Plan
A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, Kaite knew she had to develop her team to keep the momentum they had finally gained. But they needed a plan!
She implemented weekly sales team meetings in the gym to go over sales, numbers, revenue goals, and how the team was going to meet those goals. These have been transformed into team training sessions for accountability and skill enhancement.
“We set ground rules from the beginning to say, look, this is not about you judging each other. It’s not about anything but you getting better.”
By meeting and training consistently, Katie is investing in her team’s personal growth, their professional development, and encouraging a healthy competitive spirit. They even get homework!
The homework could be listening to The GSD Show, fitness videos, or reading assignments that help the team understand a high-level view of what the gym is aiming for. When each team member understands the vision, they get synced up and inspired to help the gym reach those goals.
The Hockey Stick Measures
At RockBox Lexington, they had to pivot their marketing, retention, and referral strategies to reach a level of growth that would keep their doors open.
They had to overcome a lack of processes and implemented checklists for team performance tracking and accountability. They utilized the scripts and cheat sheets provided by the Loud Rumor Consulting Program. Learn more about it here or schedule a free strategy call!
This helped them map out exactly where they were going by setting hard quotas and implementing simple changes for how they would get there. This not only improved sales skills, but it created a whole new positive experience and culture in the studio. Everyone was working in tandem and knowing exactly how they could contribute.
Referrals Saved Us!
In the midst of the pandemic, RockBox Lexington had no pipeline of leads and no foot traffic.
By implementing the referral request at the point of sale with the script from Loud Rumor, they grew exponentially! When someone signs up, your sales team member knows exactly what to say to generate at least two to five referrals.
Katie’s team made the Loud Rumor member referral script a standard part of their process and, in some months, generated 80% of their leads solely via referral. They ask at every opportunity!
Asking for referrals when someone signs up for “the fun class,” offering swag and gear when they bring a friend, getting their clients’ results, and asking for transformation-motivated referrals after an event or challenge. If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.
Some months saw as many as 100 referrals! In a gym with 360 members, that’s an incredible number! Out of 10 members, Katie is confident they could get a referral from seven. If you ask five to 10 people per day that question, you could be talking about three to seven new leads every single day.
But if you don’t ask anyone, it’s automatically a “no.”
Invest in Your Team
In order to keep reliable, productive team members, Katie had to get creative! How could she not only pay them fairly in a climbing minimum wage market but create a great place for them to work?
This manifested into team events, team challenges, interactive games, and icebreakers that go deeper into who the team is. Some examples were: team outings at restaurants, ax throwing, and one event was even on a boat! Anything to show appreciation for the team in other ways and implement ways to interact with the community.
Community Collaboration
Rock Box Lexington has also seen the impact of its promotions on the community. As team members share content, the word gets out, and even inspires their competitors. They’ve hosted several sip and shop vendor events, community challenges, plant shows, podcast hosting, and more.
Some events netted five to ten members and have been invaluable for brand recognition! Events like Katie’s Summer Sweat Series are group workout events at breweries and coffee shops that build cross-business relationships. This has helped her leverage the existing members who would also attend and increase community impact.
The Point
After staring at their last $5K to now being at the top of their RockBox franchise, Katie’s Lexington South Carolina location is also leading a stronger, more productive team with greater community influence.
As Katie said, “The whole team at Loud Rumor is incredible. I’m not just saying that because I’m here, but it’s been a huge influence in my leadership and our business.”
To learn more about how Loud Rumor can help you develop a training plan with your team, or increase your gym revenue growth and brand awareness, schedule your free strategy session here!
