The secret to your first million: Never tap out.
Today in 10 minutes or less:
✔️ How you do anything is how you do everything
✔️ He spent $15k to build an 8-figure business
✔️ The fitness franchise model
✔️ 4 brutal truths
Contrarian framework: How you do anything is how you do everything
One new tool to civilize your mind before we build your bank account.
I was washing my hands in the bathroom at Andy Frisella’s 1st Phorm HQ in St. Louis. A woman came to wash her hands beside me, pulled a paper towel out to dry them, then proceeded to wipe down the inside of the sink and countertop.
I thought, “Hmm, nice lady.”
As I applied my lip gloss, another woman smiled at me and grabbed a paper towel to dry her hands. Then, she also cleaned the spots and splashes off the sink and the countertop.
I watched, a bit shocked. I can hardly get some employees who make $100k a year to fill out their weekly reports on time, much less clean my bathroom.
So I blurted out, “What, what the f*ck are you doing?” Oops.
She looked at me and said with a shrug, “How you do anything is how you do everything, right?” Then she walked out of the bathroom.
I just got schooled on leadership by a 20-year-old in the customer service department.
Now, that statement haunts me. How you do anything is how you do everything. What if it’s true? What if cleaning the sink, doing the dirty work, is actually the key to your success in life? I have a sneaking suspicion it just might be.
-Codie
$15k to build an 8-figure business
This guy, Josh York, turned a mobile gym into an 8-figure business called GymGuyz that sends personal trainers and gym equipment straight to your door.
(Of course he does ice baths...am I right?)
Think of it like PostMates—but instead of takeout Chinese food filled with calorie bombs, it’s a trainer with a traveling gym who wants to get you swole af.
Now they’re in 1,000 cities, but it didn’t start that way.
Ice baths aside, we love this idea.
A look under the hood shows a few surprises.
First, he fronted $15k into startup costs for GymGuyz while earning $35k/year in a marketing job.
Second, he did it during the 2008 recession. So it was a really ballsy time to be forking over that kind of cash to build a business.
“I literally spent all of it,” Josh says. “I bought a van. I wrapped my van. I got trademarked. I bought all the equipment. I got insurance. I got everything I needed for apparel. I left myself just two grand for two weeks worth of expenses.”
This is where the beauty of this business model shines: The startup costs are small. There’s no brick-and-mortar, so no lease and utilities to keep up with, just the cost of the van and gas, (Hopefully you’re not in California, eh?) At the beginning, it was just him—so no payroll to worry about, either.
Eventually, he realized he needed to figure out how he could make money even when he wasn’t working (aka passive income). So in 2014, he turned to franchising.
The fitness franchise model
Josh knew that if he wanted to grow profits, he needed to grow his footprint. But he didn’t just set his sights on his home state of New York, or even just the U.S.
He set out to grow GymGuyz globally.
“We’re going to be the number one gym franchise on the planet.” Do you think he says that out loud in his ice bath? :)
create a bottleneck
Josh doesn’t just hand out franchises to anyone who wants one. He lets people know that he awards franchises. This might seem small, but it’s a crucial bit of framing that:
- Attracts only people who want to win (i.e. make money for the franchise)
- Transforms the franchise into a product itself
It’s the difference between a Timex and an Omega watch. One has a vastly lower barrier to entry, while the other requires you to jump through hoops and have deep pockets to get your hands on one.
This means people really want to franchise with GymGuyz. Josh charges $70k for each one and, according to their FDD (this is a mandated disclosure doc that all franchises have to share), the all-in costs could be between $66,600-$131,500.
For that money, you get a GymGuyz van plus all the equipment a gym rat could want to start training clients. Average profit margins for franchise owners sit around 30-60%.
But beware—there is massive variance in every franchise we’ve ever looked at. Winners win, but many lose.
Josh, how much you make fam?
Josh wouldn’t tell us how much GymGuyz earns on top of that. In fact, he told us, “I don’t do numbers.”
Okay, respect. So let’s do some back-of-the-napkin numbers which could be way off.
He started the business including van, decals, insurance, trademark, and gym equipment with $15,000. Assuming it even costs that much to supply a franchisee, he’s still coming away with $55,000 per franchisee.
Josh told us they have roughly 250 vans on the road. That means he’s brought in around $13.7 million on franchises after the hard costs.
We assume his marketing is really expensive to attract franchisees, and that there is a standard 20-50% failure rate.
Still, with more than 400 personal trainers across 29 states and 3 countries, that means income keeps flowing in with each customer and sweaty workout.
Van + You + Equipment = a nice lower-risk way to start a gym business.
(BTW if you want to learn more about this, check out my guide to franchising.)
4 brutal truths
All that said, business is hard. So I thought I’d share some of the brutal truths Josh learned building GymGuyz. Just for fun, imagine him yelling these at you from his ice bath.
Brutal truth #1: Only losers have a plan B
Josh left a steady marketing gig and doubled down on his vision—ignoring any other possible alternative.
“Do or die, baby. That’s it,” Josh says. “If you have a plan B, you’re gonna fail miserably. I can't stand when people are like, ‘Oh, I'm gonna try this new thing. If it doesn’t work, I can go back.’ They'll never be successful.”
What this means for you: Have unshakeable commitment and focus. Without it, you won’t be successful.
Josh gave himself zero options except success by leaving his job and only $2,000 to make it through two weeks. Burn the bridges.
Brutal truth #2: Everyone is replaceable
Josh used to be mentored by Fred DeLuca, the billionaire founder of a little-known sandwich shop called Subway. The two got to chatting about business one day and he imparted a lesson Josh would never forget.
“He looked at me and said, ‘I’ll give me one piece of advice: When you come back from this conference, I want you to stare at every single person on your team—and you'll be lucky if one or two are still around in the next five years. Chances are all of your original team members are going to be gone.’”
Josh was shocked—but it turned out to be true. “I actually remember feeling like a burning sensation ran through my body like, ‘oh my god, I cannot believe this is happening,’” he recalls. “But it turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to me.”
Josh ended up learning a hard truth that took him from struggling to earn his first million to earning his first $10 million: “Everyone's replaceable. Every single one.”
What this means for you: That great person you hired or that employee who seems like your best friend is probably not going to stick around forever—and that’s fine.
For Josh, it turned out that person wasn’t the right person, but the ones he hired after them were.
Brutal truth #3: You can never tap out
Not every business idea is a good idea.
However, if your biz is making money—even if it’s slowly—Josh has a word of advice: “Don’t ever tap out.”
What this means for you: If you want to build a billion dollar business, you’ll almost certainly fail more often than you can imagine. Businesses seem to break constantly. Keep going.
One strategy Josh recommends is keeping a strong visualization of what you want to achieve, so you know what you’re aiming for. Write it down on a piece of paper and tape it to your bathroom mirror so you see it every day. Set reminders for yourself on your Google Calendar or phone.
Brutal truth #4: You Will Fail...often
One night, a few years after opening GymGuyz, Josh had a panic attack. The issue: He had to make payroll for his employees next week—but didn’t have the $20,000+ he needed to pay everyone.
“I could put together maybe $10,000, but I needed more than twice it,” Josh says. “I was so desperate to the point that I was thinking about going to a casino and putting everything on red.”
Bottom line: He was desperate. Instead of making the biggest gamble of his life, though, he decided to call his clients, offering deals and specials to get as much work as he could.
The result? He was able to earn $40,000 by the next week—more than twice what he needed to make payroll.
What this means for you: There will be a point where your business will almost run out of money. What if you had a plan in place now for that? And let’s not make it involve a casino.
To staying in the black.
- Codie
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