We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lizzie Martinez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lizzie below.
Alright, Lizzie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about how you went about setting up your own practice and if you have any advice for professionals who might be considering starting their own?
My husband and I were young personal trainers living in an apartment downtown. We would train clients at different gym and whenever we would save up enough money for a piece of equipment we would buy it and keep it in the living room of our little apartment, We ate tuna, watched red box movies, didn’t go shopping for ourselves – we just kept reinvesting any money we made into gym equipment until we had enough to open a small studio. Our first gym was about 3,000 sq ft. We kept that same mentality and dedication to reinvesting all the money we made back into the gym. Fast forward 12 years we now have an 18,000 sq ft facility and over 1700 members. I would tell anybody wanting to open their own business – keep your overhead low! We learned the hard way by having one of our gyms in an expensive shopping center with highway visibility. We were just working to pay the rent. We now have a warehouse gym with a lower overhead and it has helped us grow our business and build a profit.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up a military brat moving around a lot and ended up stationed in ft. bliss where I met my husband and ended up staying here! I was always active as a kid but never really got into weight lifting until I met my husband who was a trainer at the time. He started teaching me all about bodybuilding and personal training and I just ran with it! I like being disciplined with my food and regimen and I like having a schedule for my day. I try to stay as organized as possible even though it can be hard juggling running a business as well as being a successful professional bodybuilder. My husband was a bodybuilding competitor and I had been doing pageants when he convinced me to try bikini competitions. In pageants they would tell me I was “too ripped” so bodybuilding was right up my alley! I won every show I did as an amateur 6x undefeated and won my status as a professional bodybuilder the first time I went to the National competition in Vegas. As a pro I have worked hard to make it to the top.. it’s been about 5 years of loss after loss but finally this year I have placed 4th twice and 2nd once earning points towards the Olympia which is like the olympics of bodybuilding. Next year I will be working my hardest to win a pro show and qualify for the Olympia. Through bodybuilding I also earned a prestigious sponsorship with BSN supplements where they help pay for my competitions and supplements every month. I love learning about the fitness industry as much as possible and sharing everything I learn with my gym members and personal training clients. I also train clients online from all over the United States through my branded app. I work Mon-Sat training clients mornings and evenings while doing stuff for the business in the middle of the day. It’s a busy life but I love it and wouldn’t trade it for anything!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Two Reasons: Our customer service, and the results we provided for our clients. When we were first talking about opening up a gym my husband told me he wanted it to be boutique style where the customer service is first class. He took me to a restaurant in Mexico and when we went the waiter was serving us hand and foot – hanging up my purse, folding my napkin, refilling my water every sip! I told my husband – “I think they think we’re rich!” he said “No this is how customer service is over here and that’s how I want it at our gym!” So in our first two locations we were just a strictly private personal training gym where our clients would get free water and towels when they came in and we would customize their training and nutrition. We got a lot of great before and afters of all our clients which we would post on Facebook and our reputation as trainers started to grow.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
At one point we did have to completely change our business model. Like I said – we were a boutique gym offering private personal training and had a very high overhead in a shopping center. We decided to close that down because we were working so hard just to pay rent and we had to depend on personal trainers to make the business succeed. We switched the name of our business and changed the whole model to be an open gym so we could get memberships on auto draft and have a passive income. We are so thankful we made the change because business has been better than ever and we finally are making a good profit.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.lizzieifbbpro.com
- Instagram: Lizzieifbbpro
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shane.lizzie
- Twitter: Lizzieifbbpro
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNSibB_A6cXqc3hGAEZeo0w