Everyone tells you you're killing it. But your week is back-to-back fires, the business only works because you're holding it up, and deep down you know this pace has a price.

Book your free discovery call and let's map out what your studio actually needs next: https://bit.ly/p-your-studio-check-up

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Connor built five businesses by 28 and it nearly killed him. This is the story of one cardiac ward, two business sales, and the three systems that turned Athletic Culture into a $115k a month gym.

He was doing 16-hour days and hadn't taken a real holiday in ten years when his heart gave out last August. A hole in his heart nobody picked up at birth, two weeks on a cardiac ward surrounded by 70-year-olds, then open heart surgery. Most owners would have used that story as the reason to quit. Connor used it as the reason to redesign everything.

He sold the pasta bar from his hospital bed, let go of a cafe, and went all in on the gym he calls his baby. Three months after surgery his partner sent him a video of my heart attack, he inquired that day, and signed the same afternoon. Eight months later Athletic Culture has gone from stuck and reactive to $115k months, and he hit a goal we set for the end of this cycle before we were even halfway through it.

Me, Connor and Sophie get into exactly what changed, and then his manager Taylor takes the chair to tell the owner's side of the story back to us.

In this episode you'll hear:

How Connor built a $100k a month gym with no sales system, no leads and no paid ads, and why that run was always going to hit a ceiling
The retention play that turned the slowest weeks of the year into his biggest Fitness Passport month ever
The playbooks and structure Taylor now runs, so problems get sorted before they become fires
How to prove your culture instead of just claiming it, plus the hiring rule that protects it: character over qualifications, no dickheads
What Taylor says owners get wrong the moment they finally hire a manager

Loved this one? Binge this next: The Hidden Reasons Your Culture Sucks and How to Build One Built to Win. Connor says culture is his secret sauce. That episode is how you build yours on purpose.

Connor went from a cardiac ward to $115k months in under a year, working fewer hours than he ever has. If you're ready to find out what that looks like for your studio, book your free discovery call here: ⁠https://bit.ly/p-your-studio-check-up⁠

Chapters

00:00:00 Five businesses, 16-hour days, then a cardiac ward at 28 00:07:25 Why he didn't quit, he redesigned everything instead 00:11:21 Selling the pasta bar and the second cafe 00:15:00 System 1: sales 00:16:12 Culture is king, and how to actually prove it 00:19:33 How a 21-year-old ends up with five businesses 00:26:05 System 2: retention and the Survivor Series 00:27:57 System 3: playbooks, structure, no more firefighting 00:28:44 The heart attack video that brought him to Geronimo 00:34:40 Taylor takes the chair: the manager's view 00:41:06 The letting-go conversation every owner needs to hear 00:47:05 The 3-2-1 goal game: naming the November number 00:49:58 Final advice for owners and managers