Zipper Podcast Episode 1: Vision Fitness & Performance ft. Chris Basso & Kevin Cline: The Importance of Branding and Creating a Vision

Summary: 

Chris and Kevin, co-founders of Vision Fitness Performance, discuss their journey of starting and running a successful sports training and personal training facility. They emphasize the importance of providing a positive experience and treating clients like family. They share their financing strategy, which involved using their savings and purchasing equipment from closed gyms during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also talk about the challenges of hiring and building a team, as well as the importance of branding and creating a vision for their gym. They offer advice for new trainers and gym owners, emphasizing the need to make it about the client and to persevere through challenges.

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Transcript:

Chris Alto (00:00.998)
Hey, what's going on? This is Chris and this is the Zipper Podcast where we talk about the business of health, fitness and wellness. Today we have the co -founders of Vision Fitness Performance, Chris and Kevin. Hey guys, thanks for coming on.

Vision Fitness & Performance (00:12.782)
What's going on, Chris? How you doing, Chris? Thanks for having us.

Chris Alto (00:15.462)
Thanks for coming on board here. So we're super pumped to talk to you guys. You run a super successful sports training facility and personal training facility out of Bergen County, New Jersey. So I'll kick it off to you. Just love to hear a bit about the gym and the facility and then I have a bunch of questions we can start asking.

Vision Fitness & Performance (00:35.918)
Absolutely. We're a small facility. We're about 3 ,400 square feet. We specialize in small group and personal training of all walks of life. So whether you're a middle school athlete who's brand new to training or if you're a mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, we train everyone from middle school kids up to I think our oldest client is 76 years old. So as long as fitness is something that wants to be a part of your life, we can train you.

Chris Alto (01:01.926)
Amazing. So talk to me a little about how you guys got started. I think you, do you start as personal trainers at like a big box gym and then make the move to start in your own business? How did that, how did that work?

Vision Fitness & Performance (01:14.734)
So Kevin and I, we grew up together from the same high school, really small town in Burden County. And when we both graduated, I had just graduated high school, Kevin was finishing up college, and we started working as trainers at a small gym in Allendale.

It was very similar to what we do now. And that's where we got our start. And then I drifted off. I did corporate fitness and Kevin stayed at that same facility through COVID. And then he ended up working for a hospital gym and building out their sports performance program there. While I finished up at corporate, COVID hit. I started going to people's houses and just kind of hustling, training people outside in their backyards.

And we linked up, just DM'd on Instagram, said, hey, what have you been up to? We grabbed a coffee and the rest is history, man. We just, we really wanted to build something special where we could bring all our own clients and build something from the ground up.

Chris Alto (02:06.534)
Amazing, sweet. So what was that process? How did you think about differentiating yourself from the market when you were starting this? What did that process look like when you guys got a coffee? What was the vision and how did you go about getting things in these rolling?

Vision Fitness & Performance (02:25.422)
I think just from being, we've been both doing this for about 12 years and if not longer now. So you're in the gym for long enough. So like when it comes to like, how do we create and how do we actually form what the gym's gonna look like? It's just, you've been in the gym for long enough, you kind of know how to structure it, how we're gonna differentiate it. It's actually a question that Chris and I get asked pretty frequently here and...

I give them the same answer every single time. It's not like we even reinvented the wheel. We don't have some secret formula. When you come in, we're not doing this like niche workout. The difference maker is really Chris and I, and it's the service we provide you with. And it's the experience you get when you come here. So we're going to treat you like family. We're going to treat you right. And when you come in,

you're going to leave feeling better no matter what. And that's kind of our motto. And it really comes down to Chris and I just being in the rest of our staff just being positive people. And that's really made the big difference. Yeah. When, when Kevin and I first met for that coffee, there were two things that we both agreed on and we've always carried with us since we opened and that's providing a positive experience for everybody that comes through the door.

So you're always gonna feel better when you leave, better when you leave than when you got here. And just being authentic, being yourself. If you're trying to play into these fitness trends or trying to be something you're not, being that hoorah type of person, that's not what you're gonna get with us. You're just gonna get Chris and Kevin giving you the best experience possible, taking you through a great workout, and treating everybody like family, just trying to help as many people as we can.

Chris Alto (03:57.67)
Awesome. And so I guess to take a step back, what was the financing strategy for opening the gym? Did you guys get like a bank loan? How did you go about it? It was like your savings? Like how did you go about opening the gym for someone who's thinking about starting their own gym?

Vision Fitness & Performance (04:12.334)
Yeah, no, it was into the piggy bank for us. It was, you know, luckily, you know, we get to save some money over time when you're doing it for long enough. But yeah, everything was out of pocket. When we first started, you know, like obviously equipment is the biggest, you know, piece that you need. But at the time it was right around COVID. So there were the gyms that were closing. So we were going to gyms that closed, buying weights, buying machines.

Chris Alto (04:15.59)
Nice.

Chris Alto (04:28.006)
Mm.

Chris Alto (04:34.342)
Oh, interesting.

Nice.

Vision Fitness & Performance (04:38.414)
And we kind of just piecemeal things together. You know, like one of our biggest expenses was the turf and the flooring. That was probably the most expensive thing. And that was just like doing your research of like what company is going to get it to us the fastest and is going to give us a good product. And that was pretty much it.

Chris Alto (04:45.03)
Hmm.

Chris Alto (04:56.198)
What what who has been your favorite supplier? Do you have like a favorite brand that you guys use from an equipment standpoint?

Vision Fitness & Performance (05:02.094)
That's a great question. I mean, we love Rogue. We have some great pieces that Rogue has crafted. And then who else? I mean, it's been mostly Rogue. And then we have a couple like Lifetime Fitness, like Cybex machines, stuff like that. But there hasn't been one just like universal equipment that we've used the most. But Rogue is always reliable. It's a good source. We got a nice hammer strength incline bench that we love. Those are tough to find. Those are good. Those are nice. Classic.

Chris Alto (05:09.542)
stuff.

Chris Alto (05:29.414)
Do you get that through a COVID deal or? Sweet, it's a great idea. Okay.

Vision Fitness & Performance (05:33.422)
Everything here is COVID. Do you know? Marketplace. So marketplace. This is a great story. So it was, it was March and we're like, all right, spring's coming. Like we're ready to rock and roll. We book a Penske truck. We got to drive to the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania from Jersey. It was about a two hour drive. And all of a sudden we get a weather alert. It's like blizzard incoming. So I text Kevin immediately. I'm like, dude, this might be a really bad decision. And Kev's like, we're going. And I'm like, all right. So.

You know, we're still here today. So the story had a happy ending. We were able to get there. We got the equipment loaded up on a truck and made it happen. I think our motto, especially starting off there was just, we're going to figure it out. We'll figure it out. Like no matter what else, we'll figure it out. And we still live by that. Like whatever happens anytime, you know, a curve ball thrown at us. It's like, we're going to figure it out. Yeah.

Chris Alto (06:23.014)
I mean, I feel like that's so much entrepreneurship, right? It's just like, you got to just do it and it's probably not going to work, but you'll figure it out. So that's super interesting. Okay, cool. For somebody who is saving up to start their own gym, do you have a recommendation on like how much they should have saved? Like what would be a good amount that someone should think about having in their savings before they take the leap?

Vision Fitness & Performance (06:30.126)
Thanks.

Vision Fitness & Performance (06:43.726)
I think it comes down to first you got to scale it to the size of the facility that you want. Like we knew Chris and I knew that we couldn't work with like a thousand square feet. It was just our client base is too big for that. So we needed something that had a little bit of room. So like we had to fill a 3 ,500 square foot warehouse. So for us, like with build out with equipment, I think it was like a little bit over a hundred thousand.

Chris Alto (06:48.198)
Mm.

Vision Fitness & Performance (07:10.798)
all in from equipment to flooring to demo. So it was around probably about a hundred thousand. And I would definitely say to plan to spend more than you're anticipating. So if you go in and you're like, yeah, I can only spend a hundred grand. It's like, you got to be ready to spend 125. You know what I mean? Like you need, you need to make that, make a plan for that because something is going to come up. I think in that.

Chris Alto (07:34.758)
25 % buffer.

Vision Fitness & Performance (07:36.238)
Yeah, it's like buying a house. Like, you know, something's going to go wrong. And I think one of the other big things was, I just lost my train of thought when it came to pricing. We'll have to get back to that one, Chris. I'll think of it.

Chris Alto (07:38.918)
Yeah.

Chris Alto (07:50.342)
circle back all good. Okay cool so 20 % buffer. All right so what would be your advice for a new trainer? So somebody who is maybe they just graduated college, they were an athlete, they love working out, they want to help other people get more fit. Do you have any general advice on how someone should think about that? Whether it be starting their career or starting their own facility?

Vision Fitness & Performance (08:16.942)
I think my biggest piece of advice is to make it about the client and not about yourself. You know, you're no longer the football player or the baseball player. You're no longer...

you know, that star prospects, like you're now in an industry where you have to make it about the client. You're getting into this because you want to help other people. And I think what's changed since the introduction of fitness on social media is it's become a place for people to really show themselves off, show their accomplishments off, their aesthetics off when really you're trying to help other people. Um, you know, lifting was something that made me feel good. It was a positive force in my life. And it's something I always found myself coming back.

no matter how bad of a day I was having or how tough of a year I was having. It was really what grounded me and that's why I wanted to give us or create a space for people to come where they could turn their whole day around or turn their week around or turn their year around. And you have to make it about the client because it's really not about you.

Chris Alto (09:13.766)
Mm.

Vision Fitness & Performance (09:19.374)
It's this this field is a very selfless field. Like, and I think it's funny, I just wrote a note down of like, thanks, something that we're gonna do for like an Instagram post. And it was like five top tips for new trainers. And it's a long haul. It's something like, you know, it's not a get rich quick, like in order to create a good solid base of clients. It's something you have to do for years and years and years. And it's something that Chris and I have done for over a decade. And it took us a decade.

to create vision. And yeah, could we have done it earlier? Of course we could have done it earlier. But I think we set ourselves up for success by, you know, doing the grunt work, kind of, you know, eating shit for 10 years sometimes. And you kind of figure it out and you're like, all right, like I've kind of gotten my roots into my area. People know who I am. People trust who I am. They know that I'm going to give them a good product, but it takes time. And it's not something that you just, you can just do very quickly.

Chris Alto (10:16.614)
That's a great point. And to go off of that, it sounds like part of your core values are just providing a great product, a great customer experience, making it all about the client. How do you think about the vision branding? Like, how did you come up with vision as a brand? How do you think about continuing to build on that brand? Any advice for any other people who are in the industry around branding?

Vision Fitness & Performance (10:41.518)
That's a tough one. I mean, when we came up with vision itself, like our name vision, it's like what we came back to is that everyone has a vision of what their life is going to be. What if they want to be a better parent, a better friend, a better son, daughter. So for us, kind of like Chris hinted at is everything came back to fitness for us. And whether you're in the finance industry, whether you're just a stay at home mom,

If you have something positive like fitness in your life and a group of people who you meet every single day to work out, if you have something positive like that, it's going to impact the rest of your life and other parts of your life. You're going to be a better mom after you work out because you're taking care of yourself. You're going to be a better dad. You're going to be better at work because you're more focused. You have more energy. So I think.

Chris Alto (11:18.438)
Mm.

Vision Fitness & Performance (11:27.118)
for us, it's how can we help you get to your vision and how can you create your vision and how can we help you get there just simply by doing a workout? And I think it's as simple as that. Yeah, to piggyback off what Kev was saying, it's a little corny, but it's like when you're on an airplane and they say if the oxygen mask comes down, put yours on first and then help everybody else around you. It's not selfish to work out, right? It's not selfish to take care of yourself.

You need to do that so you can be a better mom or dad, so you can do better at your job, so you can feel better and stay healthy and be around longer to be with the people that you love. So, you know, don't be afraid to take care of yourself. That's so important. And I think it gets somehow it became like a selfish minded thing for like a parent to want to work out or want to spend an hour away from their kids to to take care of themselves. But in reality, it's just going to make them a better parent or make them a better spouse or just person in general.

Chris Alto (12:20.55)
That's a great point. Okay, amazing. And so you guys have a team now. Obviously it's just the two of you. We're just talking about how you don't have to work weekends anymore, which is pretty exciting. What was your process for hiring folks and any recommendations around maybe someone who's looking to expand their fitness or wellness business, how to find good talent and what that process looked like for you guys to grow your team?

Vision Fitness & Performance (12:44.494)
The one thing that if someone could have had a crystal ball on it would have told us, you know, like, Hey, you might have to train 15 hours a day. Like that would have been the easiest part. The hardest thing has been hiring people who are. Want to work, who are good help and who actually want to be a part of a team. And that is something that's been very, very challenging. And we've done everything from referrals of, Hey, I got this guy who's like, you know, we'll be a great fit for you. Um, we've been down that road a couple of times and it didn't work out.

And we got a hit just on Indeed. Like we brought this guy in Dave, who's been great Super Dave we call him. Super Dave. And he came in actually it was the week that I had my kid like my daughter was born and Chris just made an executive decision. He's like, I'm bringing this guy Dave in like we need help. And I was like, I trust you. And we had an interview with him and we threw him in with the wolves and he was you know, he rocked it. So it was the one thing we had was just a hit on Indeed.

Um, I don't think there's a clear cut path to hiring and finding the right person. I would, I think my best piece of advice is as an owner or a manager, don't expect who you hire to be exactly like you.

Chris Alto (13:44.806)
Interesting, okay.

Vision Fitness & Performance (14:01.774)
So me and Kev have a very high expectation for how we train, the way we conduct ourselves, the way we take care of the facility. You cannot put that onto other people and expect them to be exactly like you. You know, people are going to be different and you also have to learn how to manage towards their personality, their strengths and their weaknesses. So once you accept that and realize, all right, this person is going to be a little bit different. They might be strong here where I'm weak here and vice versa. And then you rock with it and you and you're going to learn, right? If you're in.

owner, you're also learning every day. You're not going to be perfect. So don't kill yourself over that. Yeah, I think to piggyback off of what Chris said is that Chris and I compliment each other in a great way. For instance, Chris is great with the financial stuff and all the technological stuff, great with websites, all that kind of stuff. He's great with it. I suck at it. I'm like a caveman.

So like we have a good compliment to each other and like there's other things that I'm good at and that Chris like might not be the best at. But like I wouldn't want to hire someone who's just like me, right? Because I could be OCD and control and like I want to make sure everything's done right. And I wouldn't want to work with that person. Like I want them to have the qualities that that I need that we need as a facility and not so much like like I don't want them to be just like me. Don't emulate me like just to be yourself. Because if you're trying to be somebody else,

People are going to read right through that.

Chris Alto (15:27.238)
Yeah, almost having like a compliment, right? To cover the gaps. That's what makes you guys a good team. Okay, cool. So it sounds like Indeed worked. Referrals weren't as successful. Did you have any recommendations around like interviews for folks? Like how to interview or like things you found? Or did you just kind of, Super Dave was just lucky?

Vision Fitness & Performance (15:30.446)
Exactly.

Vision Fitness & Performance (15:46.222)
He's Super Dave. You better watch out Marvel. I would say just in within the interview process, make sure you're prepared with questions that you want to ask and get to know them on a little bit of a deeper level. Like don't be afraid to ask those more personal questions. Obviously not crossing any boundaries, but.

just ask them and get to know who they are as a person, where they shine, where they struggle, how they've handled real life situations, what their experience is. All those types of things will help you get to know the person. Because sometimes a resume doesn't tell you the full story. And kind of setting just like any, I'm sure, profession would, just kind of setting clear expectations of like, hey, this is like where you're gonna start.

But this is our plan for you, what it could be if you stay on board for longer than a month.

Chris Alto (16:43.622)
Mm.

Vision Fitness & Performance (16:47.566)
And if you do that and like someone can buy in. And one of the things that Chris and I really do a good job of conveying is like, if you trust Chris and I that we're going to take care of you and that we're not going to screw you over and that we're actually good guys, then like you're going to have success here because like we're not looking to take advantage of anyone on our staff, on our team. The more successful they are, the more successful we are, the happier everybody is. So I think the trust factor and, you know, earning their trust.

Chris Alto (17:15.398)
There's a lot of sense. Okay. Cool. And then just around where you guys did launch, like what was your strategy to launch the gym? Had to get your first handful of clients, people in the doors. What did that look like? And any advice for anyone else who might be trying to get off the ground?

Vision Fitness & Performance (17:15.758)
like anybody is very crucial.

Vision Fitness & Performance (17:35.63)
Everything happened very quickly for us. We had a great contractor who did a really fast build out and did an awesome job. So we dove in quicker than expected.

I guess the best thing I could say as advice is just be ready to weather the storm because it's a lot going from just being a trainer to being an owner as well because now you're doing marketing, now you're doing the backend stuff, you're managing people and you're also training at the same time. So your energy is going to be depleted in a different way than it used to be. It's now like a mental energy, it's a physical energy and you need to be ready to

to be ready, I know I said it, but just to weather that storm. It's a totally different experience. But as we said earlier, as an entrepreneur, sometimes you just have to dive in. Because if you overthink that, you're going to talk yourself right out of it. You're like, no, I'm just, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. No, you're ready.

You're ready. Dive in. And I think for our case is, you know, what Chris and I strive is that like, you know, we have a partner, like he's my partner, I'm his partner. So you have somebody that you can lean on. It obviously helps a little bit. You know, it's easier in that sense that we could spitball ideas off each other, like, hey, what's working, what's not working, what should we do more of? What do I need to do more of? What should you do more of? So having a partner definitely helps.

I think Chris and I were at an advantage also because we were in the industry for 10 years. So we've already had a book of clients that was already kind of built out. But if you're starting from ground zero, it's a whole different ballgame. So you have to do the pre -marketing, you have to be advertising yourself. So that's a whole different laundry list of things you need to do as well.

Vision Fitness & Performance (19:23.31)
And for a lot of people having a partner in any business is a deterrent. You hear a lot of horror stories, but I say it all the time. Like I would not have done this without Kevin and I would not be continuing to do this without Kevin. We just have like the perfect marriage of personality, strengths and weaknesses. And it's worked for us. Now that doesn't mean you can't go out and do it on your own, but if you can find a partner who really compliments what you do, I mean, the sky's the limit.

Chris Alto (19:51.59)
Yeah, it takes a big mental burden off of things too. Like I could say from my experience having Carrie, you know, having somebody else who's in the trenches with you and to, you know, you're going to have bad days, you're going to have good days to celebrate, but I'm sure that it's, it's been helpful. Awesome. Chris Basso and Kevin Klein over Envisioned Fitness Performance. Any last piece of advice for any other gym owner, wellness business owner?

things that you'd recommend people think about as they're starting or continuing their entrepreneurial journey.

Vision Fitness & Performance (20:24.59)
I think it goes back to just remembering why you started in this field. You know, you get into this business because you want to make a difference for people and you're going to run into speed bumps. You're going to trip. You're going to fall. Sometimes you're going to second guess why you're doing it. Am I doing the right thing? But if you stay in this field and you stay in this game, you'll see the reward that you'll have and the impact that you can have on people. And there's nothing more rewarding than for instance, a young seventh grade kid whose first time working out is with you.

and you get to see him graduate college and he got to play a sport in college, there's no better feeling because you know that you are part of that process. And that is a very, very rewarding thing. I think as an entrepreneur, don't have the mindset that if I run into a brick wall and I don't get through it, I'm done. They want the person that's going to run into the brick wall. They don't get through it the first time. All right, let me do it again. Hold up. Let me do it again. Three, four, five. It doesn't matter. Don't let that brick wall be the deterrent. Just keep hitting that wall till you break through.

That's an entrepreneurial mindset.

Chris Alto (21:26.118)
Amazing. Well, thanks so much for coming on, guys. This has been super helpful. Yeah. We'll chat soon. All right. See you.

Vision Fitness & Performance (21:33.582)
Awesome thanks for having us Chris. Appreciate it man.

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