We recently connected with Erin DeBee and have shared our conversation below.

Erin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, folks often look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight – but that often obscures all the nitty, gritty details of everything that went into the growth phase of your business. We’d love to hear about your scaling story and how you scaled up?

Our F45 North Park studio got titled the #1 F45 studio in North America recently and when asked the main reason why it came down to our people. Scaling up our studios came down to turning our team into a family, and thus spreading that mentality to our clients. When you first begin building a team, there are going to be people with different goals and expectations than the one your business sets. One of the most important things you can do is not lower your standards to fit an employee. Setting your brand apart from the rest isn’t supposed to be easy, and having the right team members is the key piece to getting there.

Working in the fitness industry, work never feels like work. When the employees of your business treat each other like family and genuinely enjoy building a business with one another, you can tell. Our members saw this sense of community within our staff and it trickled down. We come in every day and our members are our friends and family. When you have happy people, the business side of things like the revenue and the numbers follow.

How do you get happy staff? You appreciate them and you reward hard work. Our owner, Brooke Kloiber takes our staff on trips, coordinates dinners for us all, and drives us to be the best because she expects the best. Start with your people, love them, and the rest will follow.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started with a background in sales and found myself curious about a sales position within a fitness studio. It seemed like combining something I was good at with something I was passionate about. 6 F45 studios later, I’ve learned so much about managing, driving success in a fitness environment, and growing our community.

F45 is team training, life-changing. It is a global fitness community specializing in innovative, high-intensity workouts that are fast, fun, and result-driven. The team mentality at F45 is what sets us apart. Our style training helps our members transform their lifestyles physically and mentally while encouraging community growth. Our functional training classes continuously evolve, so no two workouts are ever the same. Our group training creates an upbeat environment where goals are not only met but also exceeded. We pride ourselves on helping our members feel strong again.

The community we have built at each of our studios is what we as a business are the proudest of. We’ve created a space where you meet friends, build relationships, network, create connections and surround yourself with like-minded individuals. We go so much further than fitness and physical health, we’ve been able to aid our members with their mental health through things like building confidence, providing a support system, and giving actionable items in our F45 Challenge.

We have a diverse community that is accepting of everyone. That’s what makes us team-training, life-changing.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

We’ve been able to expand our client base through referrals. By focusing on providing the best experience possible for our current members, they want the people in their lives to share it with. We have incentivized our members with a referral program where both the current client and future client are able to benefit.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

During the shutdown with COVID-19, we faced some large obstacles. We had to shut down our studio and think of an alternative to keep our community active and healthy. We offered two live zoom classes daily throughout the pandemic with recorded versions sent out as well. We moved our equipment and conducted socially distanced outdoor boot camps. We kept our core community strong but lost a few valuable members throughout the journey. We are back open and ready to bring the F45 community stronger than ever!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.f45training.com/northpark
• Instagram: @f45_northpark
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/F45TrainingNorthPark/

Image Credits
Kirk Hensler, Hale Productions