We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful TAYLOR HOOD. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with TAYLOR below.
Alright, TAYLOR thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’ve all been there before where things are tight financially and we start asking ourselves in the small/simple joys like a cup of coffee is worth it. Have you had an experience like this and if so how did you think about this sort of spending?
During COVID my business partners and I sat down and decided that even though the gym was closed, we were going to pay every employee their full pay. I believe our people are our biggest strengths and in doing that we were able to keep almost every person throughout the shutdown. Cost us some money but when things were reopening our members knew they were coming back to the same friendly faces they remembered before the shutdown.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Taylor Hood. I am originally from Texas and moved to Nashville in 2011 to be a music agent. After 6 years in the music industry I decided to make a change. When I left I weighed 220 pounds and needed to get back into shape. I joined Nashville MMA in 2016, fell in love with the place and lost 40 pounds. The owner and I struck up a friendship and I told him I would be interested in buying a piece of the company, just as a fan and friend to the business. He was killing it with the company and I wanted to hop on for the ride. When a brand new gym opened up a mile down the road from us, my business partner Ben Grove and I came up with an idea to do a merger. We spoke with the owner of that gym and he thankfully liked the idea. The merger went very smoothly and basically our members got a location upgrade merging with Training Camp. We also gained a large fitness area in the new gym which is great for our athletes. I decided that if I was going to be a good owner of an MMA team, I kind of needed to take a fight to earn the respect of my fighters. I needed to go through a grueling fight camp and weight cut and step into a cage. In Nov 2019 I took an MMA fight, got the win in the first round, and immediately retired from actively fighting. What these athletes put their minds and bodies through for their craft still is something that I admire every day and was grateful for the opportunity of gaining that experience. We have since moved again to a 40,000 square foot warehouse on Elm Hill Pike. Every area of the gym has grown in size and our numbers continue to grow. The team is also doing great at we had an event recently where 7 of our fighters fought on one card and all 7 won in the same night! If you decide to venture into Nashville MMA or Training Camp you will find jujitsu classes, intro to striking, intro to MMA, kickboxing, muay thai as well as all sorts of fitness classes that dont involve combat.
How’d you meet your business partner?
I have two business partners at Nashville MMA and Training Camp. Ben Grove owned the company before I got involved and he was doing so great at it I had to jump on board. I bought the shares off of another owner around that time as well. I also met a UFC fighter named Michael Chandler and pitched the idea of merging Ben and I’s gym with his. He wanted to know exactly what that would look like and after proposing the merger structure to him he liked the idea. Now the three of us are owners in both Nashville MMA and Training Camp.
Any advice for managing a team?
Communication. There are ways to communicate with folks that work for you without talking down to them. They already know you are their boss so taking a tone to constantly remind them is not going to be good for morale. Sure there are times when tough conversations have to be had but for the most part, talking to your employees like they are on the same team lets them know they are respected and appreciated.
Contact Info:
- Website: NashvilleMMA.com
- Instagram: @thood77