We were lucky to catch up with Samuel Newcamp recently and have shared our conversation below.

Samuel, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I attended a Catholic retreat from a non- profit in Pittsburgh, PA called Preambula Group. The retreat is called “On Fire”. In one of our final sessions, we were posed the question, “How can you take what you have learned here to go out and evangelize?” (I.e. spread the gospels). I was at a loss for ideas. Which is odd for me. Generally I am the idea guy! So the question really irked me for weeks following because I didn’t have an answer.

In a lot of small coincidences, I was trying to find a new gym space for a friend of mine who wanted to expand his CrossFit operations. In Pittsburgh there have been a lot of Catholic parish mergers which caused physical buildings to become open with nothing going on after the merger. I thought to myself, this would be perfect for my friend. Gives him a larger space and allows for the parish to gain some monthly cash flow in the form of rent rather than these buildings sitting vacant.

To make a long story short, my friend ended up not expanding but I had already laid the ground work so I thought, “I should just do this myself.”

I assembled a team and we set to work developing a program that combined fitness and faith. We realized that to assume a church space would take more commitment than our team currently had so we found a friend willing to rent us space twice a week from their Sports therapy office. It had everything we needed and was within our budget.

Our program has reached hundreds of people both through the gym and out. We do outreach programs with youth group and young adults at various local churches as well as our main program at the gym with a growing community.

Faith and fitness. Strange combo but it works well for us!

Samuel, 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?

Gyms in today’s world are completely absorbed by modern culture. Ego and a lack of God at the center of our lives has created generations of people who see fitness as a personal journey staring at the mirror. Our goal at Laudate is to remove those mirrors and reveal God’s reflection in the person who is working out next to you. We are creating a Christian based community in which our members can satisfy the human condition (i.e. Mind, body, and soul) in a wholesome, God- honoring manner and through this community, give back to the Christian institutions that have given so much for us.

Our program:

Elevated Prayer- Pray unceasingly in a class designed to improve physical fitness through functional body weight movements and traditional weight training. The best part? Praying together in community with other Christians seeking to honor God every day through all things.

Soulcore- “SoulCore is an apostolate that intentionally engages the whole person in the sacred experience of the rosary. Integrating the prayers of the rosary with core strengthening, stretching and functional movements to nourish body & soul and encourage deeper reflection on the virtues.”

We really pride ourselves on the community of people around us. We have received so much love and support and are excited to continue spreading this ministry for years to come.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I know that this may seem counterintuitive to a lot of modern business advice. However, I have found that when you really take a deep dive into building a friendship with your business partners, the financial startup capital can really be made a lot more affordable.

I have two partners at Laudate and we each split the rent every month as well as our yearly liability insurance. With God at the center of our programming and a deep friendship between the partners, we have created a strong team able to split the costs of initial capital.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

Laudate partnered with a non- profit in Pittsburgh, PA called Preambula Group to put on a walk- a-thon to help them raise money for their programming. The goal was around $10k. We ended up raising over $25k. While this didn’t specifically help Laudate financially, the good will and interested potential clients we received out of the event made the hard work definitely worth it. We have a video of the event on our website. It pays to be part of your community. Be creative about the partnerships you seek.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laudatefitness.com
• Instagram: laudatefitness
• Youtube: laudatefitness