We recently connected with Marco Olano and have shared our conversation below.

Marco , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

We are a Private Personal training facility located in central Phoenix. We separate ourselves from other gyms because we keep a healthy positive environment focusing on the clients specific goals and health longevity.
The best way to describe my gym is a Fitness Studio focusing on the clients goals.
I am very passionate about changing my clients lifestyle for the long term. My main goal every time someone comes through the door is creating a trusting personal relationship with them to educate and empower them to achieve their specific goal. No matter if their goal is learning self defense, learning how to safely weight lift for the first time in their life, weight loss and muscle building, or improving athletic performance, I work hard to identify my client’s specific road blocks and together we achieve their goal.

Kamikaze Fitness PHX offers:
Personal Training
Boxing
Self defense
Athletic performance
Nutrition plans

Also we like to give back to the community, which is why we partnered with The Phoenix, an organization who helps people through all kinds of recovery. For all clients with The Phoenix we offer free boxing and self defense classes to everyone who signs up through The Phoenix app.

For me it’s more than just a job, I truly love what I do and I have worked hard to build a fitness studio to serve my community. I’ve been a professional athlete most of my life, and it’s very satisfying helping people with all the knowledge I have acquired through my many years of hard work.

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

For anyone who may have not heard about where Kamikaze Fitness PHX comes from let me explain the history.

My name is Marco Olano and I’m originally from Lima, Perú.
I grew up by the beach and I have always been involved in competitive sports since a young age such as swimming and all kinds of aquatic sports.
When I turned eleven years old I tried boxing for the first time and shortly after that I started training MMA (mixed martial arts). I fall in love instantly with the sport. I started competing at a young age, I was fifteen when I had my first MMA fight. I was fighting professionally by age 17. I had a good career, by the time I was eighteen I was Peruvian Welter weight national champion and the year after that I became the Latin American Welter weight champion. Shortly after that I was called for the UFC reality show The Ultimate Fighter.

What sets me apart from other trainers is that I’ve been through a lot in my own athletic career which has helped me develop as a personal trainer and business owner. I have been a professional athlete for so many years and have been involved in sports my whole life. I understand what it takes to perform at a high level, I have lived the lifestyle and continue to continue to practice what I preach to my clients in my daily life. I think all this experience sets me apart.

I take a different approach when it comes to training my clients because I want them to make training part of their lifestyle rather than a quick fix motto. I teach longevity and sustainability with training so you can improve and live a better healthier life for decades to come.
I make my training really dynamic and different to keep my clients from plateauing and results slowing.
I work hard to keep my clients happy and make exercise an enjoyable part of their lives, something they look forward to. My hope is that they look forward to coming to the gym every day and understand the short and long term benefits of exercise instead of just dreading working out.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

I met with my wife in 2018, we met at the gym I was training at, and we fell in love pretty quickly as we both realized how rare the quality of our relationship was. We have so many similar passions when it comes to health, fitness, and lifestyle. A big part of our marriage is that we both value food as medicine, exercising as a priority in our life, and living a holistically healthy lifestyle.

My wife is a certified nurse midwife who teaches holistic health to her patients, empowering woman to improve their health through whole food nutrition, exercise, adequate sleep, stress management, and a good support system.

Together we opened Kamikaze Fitness PHX because we value this holistic healthy lifestyle and we want to raise our family with the same foundation and balance in life.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

During the pandemic was a time when I had to reinvent my business and pívot.

When all gyms were shutting down this was a very stressful season. My wife was a nurse at the time and in grad school and I was running my business out of a large gym.
I decided to put together a small gym in my living room. During the pandemic I was able to work from home with my clients and I was fortunate to be busy enough so I could support my wife and I while she was finished grad school and focused solely on her studies. After this it opened my eyes and made me see that I could give a better experience to my clients with a more private approach. So when the opportunity presented we decided to open Kamikaze Fitness PHX.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://msha.ke/kamikazefitnessphx?fbclid=PAAaZJEaps1wxyP1YQKK5YlVci_dyTYemFykVLyYkEUlOLzc-ShuhyJRnEyhU
• Instagram: @marcolano93 @kamikazefitnessphx
• Facebook: Kamikaze Fitness PHX
• Yelp: Kamikaze Fitness PHX
• Other: TikTok: Marcolano93

Image Credits
Jessica Olano