Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sam Lloyd. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

My company is called Project Stay Athletic. Essentially, I came up with the name because “staying athletic” is something I feel very passionate about. I use the term “athletic” here very loosely as essentially being able to move however you want to move.

Like if you look at children. Most of them are way more mobile than the average adult they play, run, jump, and move carefree.

So the ideology behind my company is essentially restoring that ability to move carefree and without thinking to adults by combining both strength and flexibility training to build well-rounded humans.

Sam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

So being an athlete is what got me into the industry. Basically I always said to myself I wanted to do something when I grew up that would force me to stay in shape. I never wanted to be like one of those people who always talked about how good of shape they used to be in when they were younger. At one point I wanted to pursue a professional basketball career, but my collegiate career at the small school I went to did not pan out the way I intended. This along with injuries caused me to really want to explore more about the human body and how to build a stronger one.

This is currently mostly what I do with clients when they come to me now. People come to me with questions about how to either lose body fat/weight, build muscle, fix joint pain, or improve athletic performance. For me I love the variety of people I work with because I tend to get bored if I’m doing the same thing over and over day after day. I love to troubleshoot things and find different solutions. Taking an individual approach, no two people are exactly the same. Somethings may work for one person that don’t work for another person and the challenge of finding the solution to yield the same outcome is what I find fun.

Probably one of the coolest parts about in person coaching, are the relationships formed. It’s funny because people always say that as adults it’s harder to make new friends, however some of the people that I train have ended up becoming some of my closest friends, mentors, etc.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Sure, so I’m heading into my 3rd year of business currently. And one thing that I’ve come to find is that a lot of running and maintaining a successful businesses your ability to be flexible and to pivot when certain ideas or thought processes don’t pan out.

One idea that I had at one point was to switch my coaching model to offering only a group training option. I quickly learned that Group training is a little bit more niche specific. Many people seeking out a coach want a little bit more one on one interaction, and it can be a little difficult for certain individuals into a more group like setting especially if they have no interest in working out with other people.

So I went with this idea for about six months, and I saw a significant drop in revenue. This caused me to move away from the group training options and go more the route of One on One Training and my current Personal Training Membership options.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

To never get comfortable. I sort of already knew this, but once you start hitting certain financial milestones business-wise you may have the illusion that you’re set and don’t need anymore clients.

The example that comes to mind is my dad always told me to “always be selling/marketing.” This is something that most people that have worked a sales job or owned a business have heard, I knew it was true because I have seen it work for myself before; however, at one point when my schedule was super busy I greatly reduced the amount in which I was marketing.

This proved to be a bad business decision as nothing is ever set in stone. And then when I had certain clients fall off because they moved or got extremely sick, etc. then it led to more frantic scrambling to try to find their replacements as I don’t like taking on just anybody as a client, I only want people that are serious about their goals, & their health, in addition to people that I can click with and forge a relationship with. When you’re trying to replace all of that at the last second it can be a little difficult and sometimes you might find yourself settling for non-ideal clients as you may rush the vetting process.

Contact Info:

• Website: ProjectStayAthletic.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/SamStaysAthletic
• Facebook: Project Stay Athletic
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SamStaysAthletic