Scaling Up Success Podcast

From Gym Owner to Empire Builder: Adam Ludlow's Entrepreneurial Path

• Ryan Van Ornum • Season 1 • Episode 8

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Ever wondered how to scale your business without burning out? In this episode, Adam Ludlow of Rewired Fitness joins Ryan Van Arm to share how he built and manages four successful businesses in Spokane, Washington. Starting with his first gym in 2013, Adam quickly learned that doing everything alone led to burnout and bottlenecks. Over time, he cracked the code to sustainable growth: stay a generalist, but hire specialists. This strategic shift accelerated his success, allowing him to achieve in three months what once took nearly a decade.

Beyond the business strategies, Adam offers a refreshing take on work-life balance. Instead of chasing freedom as a future goal, he built his companies to support the lifestyle he wants now. He also explores why physical gyms are thriving post-COVID despite the rise of online fitness—people are craving connection and a sense of community, or what he calls the "third place." Adam’s story is packed with valuable insights for entrepreneurs in any field, especially his advice to "define what winning looks like in this season."

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Speaker 1:

What's up everybody? This Ryan Van Arm and this is scaling up success podcast. Today I'm here with Adam Ludlow of rewired fitness and, uh, super excited to have him on. I've known Adam for uh, what a couple years now. Yeah, right, two years. Yeah, he hangs. He hangs his hat up in Spokane, washington, and, uh, I'm super excited to have you on this episode. So why don't you just start by telling everybody about what you do, who you are and what makes you you?

Speaker 2:

Thanks, ryan, I appreciate that. So, adam Ludlow, I've been in Spokane since 2011. I currently own technically four businesses, two gyms, so I've been in the fitness world for a long time. I own two brick and mortar gym locations, one in Spokane and one in a little town called Mead Washington, which is just north of Spokane, and I own a business coaching company and a holding company that's more just passive for some commercial real estate that we have man that's legit dude and like man.

Speaker 1:

I lived in Spokane back in like what? 2001 to 2005. And man, the changes that are happening up there is pretty incredible. Over the last like 10, 15 years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's. When we got here there wasn't a whole lot going on. I'm glad we've we've seen a lot of growth. Honestly, it was one of those things where COVID put Spokane on the map in a lot of ways. Our population almost doubled since 2020.

Speaker 1:

Man, that's incredible. Yeah, doubled since 2020. Man, that's incredible, yeah, and does uh just maybe going a little off tangent here, but like, does i-90 still have like the six foot or six inch ruts from the, the studded tires up there on the freeway? That's never changing.

Speaker 2:

So spokane's potholes are like just you know, it's kind of like rolling the dice every time you drive. Uh, you just don't know what you're gonna hit exactly, exactly.

Speaker 1:

Do I need a front end alignment after I go?

Speaker 2:

to work today? Yeah, well.

Speaker 1:

I digress, but, man, that it's still a pretty cool spot to live in. So I'm I, you know I definitely need to get back up there and say hi to you guys and everything. But, uh, you know, running four businesses, man, that is, that is, uh, it's probably a challenge to be able to do that. How do how do you do that? Is it leverage? What do you what? What? What do you focus on that? Really succeed with what you're doing.

Speaker 2:

It's a good question. I'd say the the primary thing that has allowed me to be able to do what I'm able to do is building really good teams. We wouldn't be able to do any of this without a really good team. So, for the longest time, I ran one of our gyms, which we started in 2013. And I, like many entrepreneurs, I kind of just did everything and that turned into a very, very busy job where I was the lid and the cap as to where we could grow and, at some point, had good coaches, kind of learned by throwing myself in the fire as well, but realized, like, I can't do more than this until I figure out how I need to not have my hands on everything. So, um, that that's really been the biggest part is, you know, uh, train, recruit, develop and empower the right people in the right positions, doing the right things the right way. Um, that that's helped us, uh, exponentially be able to do more and also have a lot more fun while we're doing it.

Speaker 1:

And I tell people it's kind of like rewriting your job description, right, you know, as a business owner, as a solopreneur, let's say until you start leveraging and pushing that stuff off not pushing it off, but giving it to somebody that may have more time and abilities. Like I, I struggle at certain things in my business and I know that other people have those skillsets better, way better than I do. So how, how do you, what, what made you go to that, to that level, and say you know what? I just need to give this to somebody else. And how do you continue to develop such a strong culture in your businesses?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question a spot where this is probably as big as I can grow it under my current ability and power and bandwidth and skill set and all of that. So I think realizing, especially for our two gyms which are, you know, our two larger businesses and more active, have more day-to-day requirements, impairments I think I realized like my role, my role for both of those has shifted a lot. I'm not as much in the business and not as much in product delivery. I'm. I will work a little more on the business and with the team, with the brand, but a shift that happened for me was realizing. I probably need to stay a bit of a generalist but I need to get good at hiring specialists. That helped us grow quite a bit and I think you know realizing, with our first gym that we've had for about 12 years, I did that. I just did that really slowly.

Speaker 2:

With our second gym that we've had since this fall, we were able to scale and grow that really fast, just knowing like, all right, I know what I need to go do as a generalist to get this thing up and running and I know exactly who I need to put in what position and what skills I need to bring as specialists and that allowed us to grow exponentially faster. I mean, we covered in three months. We covered what used to take me nine years. So, um, that feels good. I'd say like that's. You know, that's something I was like. This is a fun project, cause I kind of get to see how I used to. You know how I would have done things in the past verse. Um, you know I've learned enough ways to do it wrongly that now I know a little bit more about how to do things correctly. That's probably been a big part is realizing the power of when I can act as a generalist at times and put specialists in the right place. That's a really good combination.

Speaker 1:

Man, that's. That's really sound advice for a lot of people that are looking to kind of like get out of their own way Almost. You can oversee everything, you can kind of understand where everything is going, but have people that do it better than you. Um, now how I I'm sure for the first you know X amount of years that you were building out that first gym. What was your work, life balance like until you started kind of leveraging those pieces out?

Speaker 2:

Yeah it, you know it was, uh got into fitness. Uh, because I took something I was passionate about that was kind of a a hobby, turned a job, and then I wanted to turn a job into a business, turned a job. And then I wanted to turn a job into a business and as we were building out the gym, uh, you know, I mean there's a lot of uh, we, we don't work nine to five, we work five to nine in the fitness industry. So there was a lot of that for a lot of years and a lot of grind and hustle and trial and error. And even when you're wildly passionate about something, you're willing to devote that many hours and years and ultimately decades to. You know, passion only goes so far. So I think I'm just as passionate about the fitness industry. Now I'm just passionate about it in different ways than really have been at any other point in my life. But, realizing, for the longest time I kept thinking, well, when we get to a certain spot I'll have, you know, a better work-life balance. And I just I kept seeing it as, like it's out on the horizon and it's kind of blurry. I can't really see it, I'm not really sure how to get there, but I know it'll happen eventually, and kind of just thinking like, well, if you just put the time in, you'll get there, and realizing that's not the way this works Right, and, I think, realizing now I've intentionally built our businesses where the things that I really want to be able to leverage out of it stay at the forefront for me.

Speaker 2:

I want to be able to have as much autonomy and control of my time as humanly possible, so I've tried to build our gyms in a way where in place or things that give they really give me my time back. I recognize that what we've built currently although I think it's working very well it the lifestyle that we can get from it, the schedule that allows, the impact and kind of benefit it gives to our family. It's a great balance. There's things we could do where I think if we really just wanted to, for example, go make more money, we could probably do it, but we would have to give up on other things. Sure, being able to clarify, like, what's most important to us and how do we not compromise on that, I feel like we found a pretty good sweet spot with that that's.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic and being able to like it always feels like. To me. It's kind of like you can't ever just be perfectly in the middle of work-life balance, like there's always a little bit of a pendulum swing. You know what I'm saying. But you can make that smaller. You can make that pendulum swing smaller. So, with what you do right now, what are you seeing? Like, how do you stay ahead of? Like, because, like in the fitness industry, trends happen a lot. How do you stay ahead of that, do you? Or do you just have a consistency that you've built into your business with it?

Speaker 2:

I think understanding that when you're in a micro industry. So I mean that's like I would say we're in a micro gym industry, um, so for the listener that's hearing that that might be a new word. But what I mean is, like, if you think of gyms like breweries, there's, there's macro breweries, like you know Budweiser would be a macro like, it's everywhere. It's um, it's meant to reach the masses, uh, and it's readily available and it's cheap. It's maybe not the most customized thing but you can get it anywhere. So, like, macro gyms for us are, you know, your planet fitness, 24 hour fitness, those are awesome, those are probably always going to be around and the industry needs those. But I like to play more in the micro gym world where so like niche brick and mortars, usually non franchises, smaller, typically like class based gyms, that's more where we fall in and that's more like micro brewery, you know, like your local down the street. So I like the micro side of it because I think we fix very specific problems for people but we're not for everybody. So for me in my industry, like there's always problems to be fixed, right, there's always new things coming up. But knowing if you get really good at defining what problems you actually fix for people and what products you actually deliver for people.

Speaker 2:

For us we don't get people fitter and we don't sell fitness Like that's way too generic. We tried to go much more specific than that and build our branding, our model, our messaging, our culture around that. I think that's given us probably not only leverage but clarity that maybe some of our competitors don't have. We don't really think of what we do as selling gym memberships At the end of the day I mean, technically, that's what people are paying for. But I think when we've defined what we're doing a little more deeply than that, it's given us a better look and a better lens, which I think has helped mostly on the clarity side of things.

Speaker 1:

That's quality right there, man. You know it's understanding, like you just said, having clarity in what your. Your almost like a mission statement to what you do for your business. A lot of people just go out there and try to throw stuff at the wall and you, you, you were very defined, you were very, you know, flushed out type of uh um, business model for you and what I've seen in business that like, if you have a niche, stay in your niche. You know, if you try to go to the masses, you're probably going to get ran over by the big boys anyway. So, but niches definitely work. So with with that being said, I don't think any part of business has not been affected by technology in the last 25, 30 years, especially since computers and internet and everything like that. What are you seeing in the fitness side of things? That's really, I mean you guys, there's so much technology coming into that business side. What are you seeing right now that the trends are pushing towards?

Speaker 2:

I would say I probably have two answers to that. One is what a lot of people thought we were going to see but didn't, and then I'll probably talk a little more on what I think I'm actually seeing. So the big one that I think most of the fitness industry thought that we were going to see and I wouldn't say it really fleshed out, it did temporarily, but it's kind of fizzled, obviously, like when COVID hit. That was very difficult on gyms, right. So you know, fitness took a very quick pivot during COVID. Yeah, if you were paying, you know, 150 bucks, 200 bucks to go to a local micro gym and then all of a sudden they're closed. It's like, well, all gyms basically became either dead or pivoted to like online fitness training systems or studios or online coaching or programming.

Speaker 2:

But I think a lot of people assumed that the whole industry was going to turn that way and get on the train or get ran over.

Speaker 2:

And I think what we've noticed is there's been some great growth in tech in the fitness industry but at the same time culture and society has only developed a larger craving for participative community and there are less and less places that have made that available and the gym has kind of naturally become a spot for people to get some of that.

Speaker 2:

So I mean traditionally, if you think about this, like 10 years ago you had your home life, you had your work life and like maybe you had something else you were a part of, like could be you know, your church or a softball league you were a part of, or buddies you bold was like most people kind of had like a third place, and what's interesting is like work and home have gotten so much closer.

Speaker 2:

I mean, a lot of people are working from home, like we are right now. Right, um, or it, or it's gotten a little bit more blended. But the need for belonging somewhere outside of those where you can be with, you know, probably people of similar walks of life, similar age, similar interests, demographics, whatever that has not shrunk whatsoever, if anything. I think that's gotten harder and harder to find, with a huge demand and a really low supply, and I I think that's one of the niches where gyms uh, maybe somewhat more like ours, but kind of gyms in general have planted a flag in the ground and done well that's cool, that's real cool to me.

Speaker 2:

It's like, you know, it's kind of hard to argue that that hasn't happened, because I'm like well, dude, you can work out at home for the cost of an app and a pair of dumbbells, but people will pay 10 times that to go to a gym where they have to book a class. It's appointment only, it's proximity based, it's time bound, it's expensive, like all of these barriers. Like, yeah, but like I want to. I want to feel like I belong to something outside of, just you know, my work life and my home life. I want to feel like I get to be around people. I want to, I want to do something where I feel like I'm doing something, kind of a team atmosphere.

Speaker 2:

Uh, I want to get out and like sweat and laugh and get, you know, get out of my work mode or get out of my house mode. I don't think that's going away. Uh, really don't. Maybe I'm not even thinking that, but like that to me is. I think that's a big reason why I've got a lot of confidence that micro gyms will probably be around a long time.

Speaker 1:

And then, you know it, it's funny because I was military and I found that that camaraderie at the gym, you know, did more than a lot of like, the, the, the, the scenarios that we, we, we worked through, you know, uh, just being able to be physical, uh, you know, hang out, do something, uh of you know activity level with with other people, that it, it. It's not easy moving weight, you know, you know. So, having someone to have your back, even just as a spot, you know, like, if you're lifting different things, like that, there's so much camaraderie that's born from that stuff and it's there's something about like, I know, like I guess, accountability partner, it is much easier to flake on myself than it is to flake on a gym partner.

Speaker 1:

Oh, we're going to be there at five 30 in the morning, all right, I'm going to be there. So, no, very interesting, and I, and I liked, I like your take on that. So, with, with that being said, you talked about this a little bit. The social environments, really, since COVID have really changed the gym environment, but do you see that it's swinging back even more? I mean, with some of the things that you've been talking about?

Speaker 2:

back even more, I mean with some of the things that you've been talking about. You know that's a good question. I think it's too early to tell. I think the social environment still has a lot of demand. I don't think that's gone away or is going away.

Speaker 2:

I also think there's been a heightened increase in the market specifically for gyms, where some of the benefits we've had in tech development they just make the user experience a lot better.

Speaker 2:

For example, our newest gym gym is a 24 seven gym more of a traditional open gym model but you can go whenever you want and for us, like our tech system, it's not like we reinvented the wheel or anything, but like we have it where you don't have to go through a sales process. You can sign up online or through an app, you can get access through your phone and you never have to like sit through a sales pitch. You don't have to like wait for the gym's staffed hours. You uh, we made it where, like the user experience, can go when they want and sign up when they want, um, and just little things like that of. That's an advance in tech that I think meets that's an advance in tech that I think meets society and culture a little more where they're at of. Like, yeah, we, we do want community, but I also. There's some individualized stuff that I want now and I don't want to wait for it Right.

Speaker 1:

Having a little bit of automation to things on the backside, I think is is flushes a lot of that stuff out too Like they don't have to. You don't have to talk to someone on the phone to get your membership started, that you can do everything yourself. A lot of our community is more understanding of tech now. You know just navigating the internet type of stuff. So now give a little bit of advice to like someone starting their entrepreneurial journey. What little tips or business hacks would you give to someone just starting out?

Speaker 2:

I love that question, regardless of what age they are. But if they're starting out in an entrepreneur journey, I think the best advice I would give is define what winning would look like in this season. I think a mistake that often gets made and kind of unknowingly, especially for early entrepreneurs is uh, probably this would probably never get said out loud, but it's kind of said subconsciously is that well, I'm not really winning until my business is up and running and I'm, you know, doing x amount a year and we're crushing it and blah, blah, blah. And I mean that's great, like great to have that in the back of the mind. But like, define what winning would look like in this like startup season or in the grind season or in the discovery season. Like you got to be able to find what winning looks like at all different stages, and oftentimes in the early stage. If you don't develop a culture and the mindset of defining what winning looks like, then I don't think you'll develop one later.

Speaker 1:

I would agree with that, and I and I think, if you start with, like I want a thousand clients, or whatever it is right, you move the goalposts for your happiness and cause, like, oh, I hit a thousand, or like, or I maybe I didn't hit a thousand in a timeline, or maybe you don't even have a timeline and it just feels like you're setting yourself up for negative thoughts of intrusion to happen. So, no, I, I, I totally respect what you said on that and and I, I, you know it's it's quality, sound advice, and thank you for for sharing that man. Man, it seems like these, these podcasts go so quickly. But, man, we've, we've already reached our time, man, and I appreciate you being on this thing. How can, how can people get ahold of you and you know, visit, visit your gyms about your business coaching, give all the socials, get out, give all all all you want out now, right now, man.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate it. So best way to follow me personally is Instagram at coach Adam Ludlow. L U D L O W? Uh links to both gyms around there. Uh, we own rewired fitness co and rewired two, four, seven. Uh got 12-week coaching and leadership course coming up that launches at the beginning of March. If that interests you, I'd say follow, because we're going to have some discount codes going out from my own personal Instagram during the month of February. Other than that man, if anybody's interested in more questions, just wants another voice to talk to I love conversations like this. Another voice to talk to. I love conversations like this. Feel free to reach out. We'd love just to hear more about the listeners and what they're going through and what questions they might have.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic man. Well, always love catching up with you. Adam, appreciate you as not just a fellow, you know, business owner and, but you know distant friend. We we've known each other for years and always love catching up with you, my friend. I appreciate it. Ryan man, thank you Absolutely. Have a wonderful day.

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