We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lori Haddox. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lori below.

Lori, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Risking taking is a huge part of most people’s story but too often society overlooks those risks and only focuses on where you are today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – it could be a big risk or a small one – but walk us through the backstory.

I first discovered My Gym as a mom to an 18 month old with a lot of energy and a zest for learning new things. A friend actually suggested going to a free trial class and while they didn’t enroll, we loved it and it became our special time together since I worked late most nights. Fast forward to a few years later, the owners were putting together a franchase for My Gym and I wanted to be a part of that.

Opening a business almost 60 miles away was a challenge and I spent many a nights there late in the beginning, 7 days a week, while learning the best ways to run the program and reaching out to the community since classes for kids was just “becomming a thing”.

I would say the first 10 years were a struggle, both financially and time away from the family. I went in with the idea that I would have more time with my kids since I was working with kids but unfortunately, being so far from home and the time and dedication it took, I relied on my husband and friends a lot. But it definitely was a challenge both financially and personally and I spent many nights wondering if I could make it work.

But I believed in the program and how it helped kids develop both physically and socially and that finally paid off. Now almost 30 years later, we are an important part of the community, always looking for ways to help and give back (we host a CHLA Blood Drive every year and raise $$ for Neuroblastoma Research after losing one of our “kids” almost 12 years ago) among other things,

I am blessed with an amazing staff who handle the gym like it was their own and they have become family which I believe leads to the success we have had.

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.

My Gym Children’s Fitness Center was started in 1983 and by 1992 had 5 locations, including the one I discovered and began attending with my first son. We became close friends with the owners of our location and they wanted to know what we thought about maybe franchising My Gym. We loved the idea and after a lot of thought, bought the 5th franchise and opened in February of 1996. To give you some perspective, there are now over 700 internationally.

While my background was in the Entertainment Industry, I did graduate with a Business Marketing degree so owning my own business didn’t seem so far fetched. Plus I loved and believed in the benefits of the program so how hard could it be to teach something I loved. Little did I know how difficult it would be since the franchise itself was so new and we were helping to develop business practices for future locations. Plus the closest location to open was in Ventura, CA and we were living in the San Fernando Valley – an hour long trip with no traffic. But I jumped in with both feet (and hands and knees) and gave it everything I had to make it work.

What I Ioved most about My Gym is how I saw firsthand the benefits of the program and how it helped my own kids to develop. The self confidence they gained was invaluable. Plus, My Gym creates an environment where families can come together and make lasting friendships and memories, a place where children can improve their fine and gross motor skills while playing games and learning new skills. When you meet other moms with kids the same age, it’s easy to develop friendships. We actually met our best friends through My Gym, pretty much raised all 4 of our “kids” together and are still “family” today.

My Gym is so unique in the way the classes combine innovative, early physical education/pre-gymnastics skills and teach them through play to empower children as young as 6 months and help them acquire the skills, confidence, and positive self-image needed to become healthy young adults. In the last few years, we have also added non-competitive Gymnastics Classes as well as our Ninja Training Class which uses obstacle courses to help kids with core strength, balance and self confidence.

And since our classes are so much fun, imagine how great your birthday party would be when the whole gym is yours and you get to pick the games and activities we do!

I think one of the things that makes me smile most is when new moms come in and tell me they used to come to classes at the gym when they were little and now they are bringing their babies!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

There were so many times in the first 10 years that I was just ready to quit. During the slow months, we stressed over making payroll and keeping the lights on. Could we pay our full rent this month? I had nightmares of never getting another new kid enrolled in classes. How was I going to let moms know what a great program we had since social media didn’t exist. But I’ve never been a quitter so we refinanced our house and gave the gym an influx of cash and I just kept teaching great classes, giving everything we believed in to the kids and parents and tried to bring that extra spark and excitement to the program. And I taught every class, day after day and lead every birthday party until I knew my employees would keep up the same high quality classes and I still made sure I was available all day, every day. I walked flyers around neighborhoods, went to the park and passed out free class coupons, tried to join every event I could find to let parents know about My Gym. And eventually it turned itself around and became a very successful business.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I wasn’t alone in having to pivot during Covid. We have a brilliant corporate office and in just over a week after being shut down, we had a class structure and programming for online classes and a way to stay open. My directors were amazing and grabbed what they needed from the gym and started teaching classes from their studio apartment. (They are best friends and shared an apartment so they didn’t need to separate from each other). They taught classes and I followed up with parents online to let them know classes would be over zoom for the immediate future. We forwarded calls to a cell phone and worked with parents to make sure they felt connected to us. And because of the connections we had before Covid, our parents were super supportive and helped us keep our doors open (over zoom!). Covid brought us many different challenges, including running outdoor classes or having one family at a time in the gym but each time, we kept a smile on our face and a positive outlook because we knew at some point, we would be able to welcome our families back to the gym for our amazing classes.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.mygym.com/Ventura
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mygymventura/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mygymventurafun
• Twitter: https://x.com/MyGymVentura1
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/my-gym-ventura-ventura?hrid=_ijktziWUeTHVCJ3cAaA2Q&osq=my+gym+ventura