We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Meg Kennedy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Meg, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
My parents always supported me and provided the funding for any sport or physical activity I wanted to pursue. For example, I wanted to train for triathlons in High School so my Dad helped me purchase a road bike and got up early to take me to the pool for early morning trainings multiple times a week. He even took up swimming too since he was going to be at the pool anyway! Letting me be involved in a wide variety of sports helped me become a well-rounded athlete and invest in my fitness well beyond my years of high school and college sports.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I had always been an athlete growing up and enjoyed weightlifting from a young age. After having my second child, I was in a battle with consistency in my physical training and started to feel soft and had less energy. I had gotten out of shape and started to lose a bit of my identity as an active, fit person. I had a fellow mom-friend who had just taken a 6-week intro to CrossFit and I was amazed at how much her body, energy levels, enjoyment of exercise, and self-discipline changed over that time and thought to myself “what do I have to lose?” I signed up for their next intro session and I was instantly hooked. I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere, the way I felt like I was on a team again with a coach and people to come alongside me. We sharpened each other in the best way. Everyone was so encouraging while also providing some friendly competition for me to really push myself. I quickly saw my body and energy and joy for life change dramatically and 12 years later, I haven’t looked back! I’ve never been so consistent with my exercise routine and sincerely look forward to every workout and I cannot say that was the case before CrossFit.
I watched this happen to others in our program over and over and realized the power this program holds to change someone’s life completely. I had never seen such an effective fitness program. I wanted to help others find the life I had found. It wasn’t long before I became a CrossFit coach and then a couple of years later, became a CrossFit Affiliate Owner. I love helping people reach their goals and come to life through our community and the confidence and joy they find as they achieve their goals. Their training leads to gains not just in the gym, but mental toughness and resilience outside the gym too. I love the impact CrossFit has on their lives.
I think one of the things that sets my gym apart from others is how deeply I care for and respect my members. Each of them is welcomed with open arms into our community from day one, no matter their fitness level or background. I work hard to make this place one that accepts you as you are but pushes you to become the best version of yourself without judgement. My team is professional in the way we coach as to provide our members with the best hour of their day every time they attend a class. We’re attentive and relentless on striving for excellence with a lighthearted vibe.
Let’s move on to buying businesses – can you talk to us about your experience with business acquisitions?
I purchased my gym from prior owners who had lost interest in the gym and were beginning to let it fail. Membership numbers were down to an extreme low and rumors were floating that the gym would likely close down soon. The owners approached me about buying it and had asked me to pay what they had invested in it. I had been coaching for them at this gym for a few years at this point and had learned a lot, (good and bad). I felt I had the experience, passion, and business understanding that it would take to revive this community and take us from red to black and I had the support of my husband, parents, and kids so I went for it. I paid the fair market value of the existing equipment and took over the lease and existing members, many of whom still left during the transition due to waning interest in the existing programming and dwindling energy, and from there I built an almost entirely-new member base with the culture I wanted for my gym.
The purchase process was pretty simple after some negotiating and waiting, but not perfect. We put together a contract that listed all the equipment in the gym that I was purchasing in the acquisition and we both signed it. Even though we were friends at the time of the transaction and could have easily agreed to just shake and pay, I’m very thankful we established a contract because just a few months later, they got in touch, wanting to claim some of the equipment that was listed in our purchase agreement and this made it easy for me to defend what was legally mine in the sale without it getting complicated. I should have requested they sign a noncompete agreement at the time of the sale, but instead took their word that they were done being gym owners and would not open another gym. A year and a half after the sale, I was shocked to find out they opened a gym just a couple of miles away and named it almost exactly what I had rebranded to just a few months prior. (I named my gym “Littleton Crossfit” and then they named their gym “Littleton Fitness”. The closeness in names is often annoying but I take responsibility for not taking better measures to legally protect my brand from this happening. As far as their gym being a competing business, other than sharing the market of potential members, my business has not been very hurt by this, thankfully. We’re still very well known and respected for the uniquely excellent service we provide.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Social media has been a mystery to me until recently. I’ve never had a very impressive following, despite posting what I think have been fun, attractive reels and photos from our classes to help draw people in to want to try our gym. Our best advertisement was word-of-mouth but even that was a slow way to really grow a membership. I was recently very lucky to come across a local expert in social media who ran an ad for us and gave me a strategy to get new potential clients through the doors and it’s working! My advice would be to pay an expert and not waste your time trying to figure it all out yourself. Do what you’re good at. Pay others to do what they’re good at. Organic growth is slow. Intentional, strategic growth is worth the money.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.littletoncrossfit.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littletoncrossfit
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littletoncrossfit
- Youtube: @littletoncrossfit
