We were lucky to catch up with Cody Romness recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Cody thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.

We started with 1 gym. 4 years later we were supposed to open our 2nd gym. The day we broke construction on our new location was the day the stay at home order hit Los Angeles. All construction was paused, dream put on hold, and we had to figure out how to save our 1st business from closing.

For about 3-4 months, we just tried to survive. Then we got to thinking, “how can we look for the opportunity here? Let’s stop feeling sorry for ourselves for a moment and think about how we could use this as a positive instead of a negative?”

So we started looking for other locations and ended up finding a space for a killer deal at a time that no one was signing leases. The best time to make a move is when no one else is making moves and that’s what we did. We opened Santa Monica 2nd and then 12 months later we opened Century City. So we ended up getting 3 locations in the time we anticipated we were going to have 2 locations.

It was that mindset shift that helped us scale.

Tactically, as a founder and person in charge of marketing & sales, I literally couldn’t be in more places than one. So I had to figure out how to scale my operations and what I do. We had to find new great people, train them, retain them, and give them the tools to be successful. Then that new hire had to learn how to hire other people.

So we built systems and processes. We looked at sourcing and hiring people like we do advertising for our gyms: how can we market this position in a way that attracts the right people? Then the people start coming in, you interview them based on best practices, and manage your pipeline.

You’re quality controlling. You’re updating how things are going. You’re giving other people the tools they need to be successful and moving as fast as you can.

That’s how you scale, baby!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Cody. I co-founded Allegiate with 2 other business partners. We have 3 gyms in Los Angeles and are looking to open #4 and #5 in the next 12 months in a new market, like Orange County, San Diego, Dallas or New York.

We help athletic people get strong and improve their mobility in structured strength & conditioning classes. Allegiate is a gym and fitness concept modeled after our experience as division 1 collegiate strength coaches and football players. We’ve built a community, a space, and a brand that people really care about. We’ve been around 7 years and are a focal point to members lives and an institution South Bay and Santa Monica, just like my favorite restaurants in the towns I’ve lived in. I’m proud of that.

I always wanted to start my own business and brand but I wasn’t sure if I’d actually have the opportunity and guts to do it. But I was writing a blog and my future biz partners were reading it. One thing lead to another and we quit our jobs, moved to LA, and started figuring everything out on the fly.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

“If you build it, they will come.”

Bullsh*t!

You have to find them. You have to attract them. You have to give them a reason to pick you. You have to provide such an amazing experience that they say, “damn, I’m in.” You have to follow up. To put yourself on the line eating no’s on your way to a yes. And you have to stay motivated through the whole process because if you build it, no ones coming to help you. You have to be your own source of inspiration. You have to pick yourself off the floor and get up and go. It’s on you to find them, delight them, and keep them.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

In our first year, I promoted a “once in a lifetime experience” event where people had to RSVP.

No one knew what it was going to be.

The event was a live metal band, playing a live set, in the gym, with fog machine, lazers, and projector with a montage of movie clips playing on it (saving private ryan, 300, gladiator, dragon ball z, ducks swimming in a pond).

The day of the event, the band canceled on me.

So here I had 50 people coming to this event that I marketed as a once in a lifetime experience and the experience just canceled. What the hell to do?

One biz partner said just call a DJ and do that. But that didn’t feel like a once in a lifetime experience and I had my marketing reputation on the line. That would have been easy to pull off but it’s been done before.

So i started calling all the local bars and music venues to see if they had someone that could help. Most places didn’t get back. Why would you? Imagine my voicemail, “hey i need a band tonight to play in a gym during a crazy workout. Please call me back!” then I remembered the chef at the local divebar by my brother’s house. They always had bands. I called him and then he put me in touch with the band that played on the weekends.

I called the lead singer up.

“Hello?”

“Hey, this is Cody. I own a gym. This is a crazy request but I’m supposed to have a band play a live set tonight during a workout at my gym. The band that was supposed to play bailed on me 3 hours ago. It’s gonna be lights off, fog machine, the whole deal. Is there any chance you could come over and play it?”

He was at band practice. He covered his hand on the phone and asked his bandmates.

“Yeah, that sounds kinda fun and out there. We’re gonna have a beer then make our way over.”

My heart was in my throat, I had found a solution.

“Is there any way you could come over like, right now, and have a beer over here? I’m buying”

“You got it, we’re on our way!”

Minutes before the show started, I fogged up the gym and put the band in front of the garage door. Our intern lit a light behind the band and put all our members on the turf in front of the garage door. The band started playing, the garage door went up, fog poured out, and the band started ripping!

The show went off without a hitch. It was absolutely wild. A true once-in-a-lifetime experience, just like I had promised. None of the members knew what had happened – they all thought it went according to plan.

“You weren’t lying Cody, that was a once in a lifetime experience.”

Contact Info:

• Website: www.codyromness.com
• Instagram: codyromness
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/codyromness/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/codyromness
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cromness
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/allegiate-gym-redondo-beach-2