272. Joey Gonzalez: From pursuing entertainment to global fitness brand Barry’s CEO, the real business behind the brand, power in adaptability and pursuing fulfillment over the 9-to-5 Episode Description:

Summary

Trading Secrets: Joey Gonzalez – From Pursuing Entertainment to Barry’s CEO

Episode 272 – January 5, 2026
Host: Jason Tartick (with David, “Curious Canadian”)
Guest: Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry’s

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Overview

In this insightful episode, Jason welcomes Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry’s (previously Barry’s Bootcamp), to peel back the curtain on his non-traditional career journey, the real business behind building a fitness empire, and the personal philosophies that have fueled his success. The episode covers Joey's pivot from aspiring actor to global fitness CEO, the economics and community strategies behind Barry’s, leadership and private equity, and Joey’s personal secrets to balance and fulfillment. Jason and David also reflect on intentions for the New Year, gifting with meaning, and the challenges of finding balance in fast-paced careers and family life.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Setting the Stage for 2026 & Recap of the Holidays (00:00–21:24)

• Jason and David discuss post-holiday lethargy, balancing family traditions, and practical questions about gift-giving and budgeting.
• Emphasis on spending with meaning over materialism.
• “Any gift you give, there should be meaning, thought, and time spent to it…Whatever this special moment is, there’s such intention behind it.” – Jason (11:00)
• David shares the best gift he ever gave: a bank account for his parents to use on monthly date nights, emphasizing thoughtfulness over expense. (11:36)
• Conversations turn to New Year’s themes, resolutions, and the value of slowing down for deeper family conversations.

Words and Themes for the New Year (17:28–21:24)

• Jason and David exchange their “words of the year.”
  • David’s words: Moments and Choices – “If you want something to change, start making different choices.” (19:07)
  • Jason’s focus: Balance and Prioritization
• Segue into how these values connect to the episode’s guest and subject matter.

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Main Interview: Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry’s (21:24–67:43)

Joey's Nonlinear Journey: From Stage to Studio (22:24–25:51)

• Joey details his passion-first approach, pursuing acting from age 13, landing in film/TV/theater, but eventually pivoting upon realizing he needed financial stability.
• “I wasn’t willing to settle for just showing up and working 9-to-5 and not feeling that fulfillment…there is nothing, I think, more important than enjoying your work.” – Joey (22:51)
• His acting background provided unique skills—musicality, performance, memorization—that transferred naturally to leading fitness classes and later, running a company.
• “You spend a lot of time developing soft skills. So you really learn about what it means to have EQ, to be human.” – Joey (25:26)

CEO Life: Stress, Leadership, and Climbing the Ladder (25:51–30:47)

• Joey thrived under chaos (including the pandemic), keeping stress in check through meditation and a centered mindset.
• “I do actually perform really well under chaos.” – Joey (26:35)
• Reflected on rising from instructor to CEO in 11 years, noting company size factors and his proactive push for partnership.
• “Sometimes people just need a nudge; you’ve got to stand up for yourself and advocate for yourself.” – Joey (29:18)

The Business of Boutique Fitness: Growth, Community, and Competition (30:47–41:22)

• Boutique fitness projected to double from $40B (2023) to $86B by 2030.
• Joey’s advice for consumers: Know what you want (community, confidence, efficacy) before choosing a gym. (31:28)
• Price disparities and value: “There’s real value in some of the more premium players...it’s a sort of to-each-its-own thing.” – Joey (33:01)
• Startup costs for gyms vary: Entry concepts ($300–600k), Barry’s model ($3M+ per unit). (34:56)
• Site selection involves walking neighborhoods, looking for “co-tenancy” (e.g., Whole Foods), focusing on accessibility, parking, and synergy with other fitness venues. (35:46–37:26)
• Insights on post-COVID retail: Customers leave home less, making strategic clustering and locality more important.

Building and Scaling Community: The Power of Organic Marketing (38:03–40:18)

• Barry’s grew community organically—no paid media in early years, but through referral programs (“Friends with Benefits”).
• “Our conversion rates are…30-40% when it’s organic…When they come on paid media, it’s like, in the single digits.” – Joey (40:04)

Financing Growth: Private Equity and International Expansion (41:22–47:40)

• Two rounds with PE firms (first with North Castle Partners, then Princeton Equity Group); importance of partnership values.
• “You don’t really find out what partnership means until times get really hard.” – Joey (42:17)
• Franchise model for international growth; U.S./Canada/UK are company owned.
• Recouping capital on new studios: goal is under 36 months payback. COVID forced difficult but ultimately successful adaptations.

Incentivizing Talent & Operational Sophistication (48:34–49:57)

• Instructors compensated hourly, per head, and with bonuses for acquisition/conversion.
• “Instructors actually have access to a dashboard where they track their KPIs.” – Joey (49:12)
• Unified KPIs for instructors, managers, and leadership ensure alignment and performance.

The Future of Barry’s and Fitness: Tech, AI & Core Values (49:57–51:39)

• Joey sees limited disruption from AI in physical fitness delivery; focus remains on in-person experience as key value.
• Use of AI will instead enhance business operations and marketing efficiency.

Nutrition, Routine, and Life as CEO (51:45–54:13)

• Joey experiments with different nutrition strategies, previously intermittent fasting, now a managed meal plan via nutritionists.
• Favorite cheat food: Nachos! (53:17)
• Workout regimen: 5 days cardio, 6 days lifting, often double sessions (12 hours/week). (53:31)
• “I love working out…It’s my favorite part. Like, I love it. I have so much joy.” – Joey (53:52)
• Transitioned to morning workouts after having kids, adapting as life changes.

Is Graduate School or OPM Worth It? (54:14–55:21)

• Joey completed Harvard Business School OPM, designed for founders/operators, not traditional MBAs. Vast value in upskilling and especially networking. (54:38)
• “Over 50% of the value in a program like that is actually the networking and the people that you meet.” – Joey (55:13)

At-Home Gym Recommendations (56:30–58:59)

• Top equipment: Woodway treadmill (“best of the best,” $10–12k), dumbbells, squat rack, cables.
• Joey recounts how seeing Justin Timberlake’s Woodway treadmill led to upgrading Barry’s equipment, shifting them toward a premium model.
  • “You run a running company, you don’t know what a Woodway is?” – Justin Timberlake, recounted by Joey (58:53)

Behind-the-Scenes Secret: Premiumization Triggered by a Celebrity (58:20–60:30)

• The decision to upgrade Barry's equipment and amenities was catalyzed by inspiration from Justin Timberlake and has since shaped their luxury brand identity.
• “That was the beginning of us premiumizing the business…thanks to Justin Timberlake.” – Joey (59:39)

Joey's Trading Secret: The Myth of Balance & the Four Fs (61:08–64:01)

• “You don’t find balance, you create it.” Joey structures his life around: Friends, Family, Faith, and Fulfillment.
• “If you aren’t engaged with all four, you’re not living your full potential.” – Joey (61:40)
• On balance: “There’s almost no such thing as balance, there’s only disappointing someone. …You have to pick and choose.” – Joey (64:00)
• Joey practices tough prioritization to maintain presence for his children.

Bonus Mindset Takeaway: Apply OKRs and Business Learnings at Home (65:28–66:19)

• Joey has experimented with bringing organizational strategies (OKRs, mission/vision/values) to his family life, fostering intentionality at home.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “I always talk about how…you can learn so much through failure and through challenge.” – Joey Gonzalez (22:51)
• “You spend a lot of time developing soft skills…learning what it means to have EQ.” – Joey (25:26)
• “I do actually perform really well under chaos.” – Joey (26:35)
• “Sometimes people just need a nudge and you’ve got to stand up for yourself and advocate for yourself.” – Joey (29:18)
• “When you are going with a friend…they’re 30 or 40% more likely to come again.” – Joey (40:13)
• “Our growth strategy has always been: we don’t want to be the biggest. We strive to be the best.” – Joey (45:23)
• “There’s almost no such thing as balance, there’s only disappointing someone.” – Joey (64:00)
• “You don’t find balance, you create it.” – Joey (61:08)
• “Friends, family, faith, and fulfillment…the four Fs.” – Joey (61:41)
• “If you want something to change, start making different choices.” – Jason (19:07)
• “It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being intentional with your choices, and living with the consequences.” – Jason (paraphrased, 19:07–20:34)

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• [22:24] Joey’s career pivot from acting to fitness instruction
• [24:09] Transferable skills from the arts to business leadership
• [27:39] Climbing from entry-level to CEO—advice for aspiring leaders
• [30:47] Boutique fitness: what to know as a consumer and operator
• [35:46] Site selection strategy: walking the neighborhood
• [38:03] How Barry’s built their community—organic marketing secrets
• [41:22] Private equity experiences & values-driven partnerships
• [44:33] International expansion: adaptation vs. consistency
• [48:57] How instructors are compensated and motivated at Barry’s
• [50:23] How fitness and wellness brands can (and can’t) use AI/tech
• [53:31] Joey’s personal fitness routine & nutritional approaches
• [58:20] “Behind the scenes” secret: The Justin Timberlake/Woodway story
• [61:08] Joey’s Trading Secret: The Myth of Balance and the Four Fs
• [65:28] Applying business frameworks at home for fulfillment

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Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Passion and adaptability are the foundation of Joey’s path from struggling actor to CEO — chase fulfillment, not just financial results, and be willing to pivot.
• In the business of fitness and beyond, community fosters loyalty more than paid marketing.
• Climbing the ladder internally? Advocate relentlessly for yourself, and embody the responsibilities before you’re given the title.
• Balance is actively created, not discovered; embracing tough choices and sometimes disappointing others is part of sustainable success.
• Soft skills, self-awareness, and values-driven leadership build cultures that weather crisis.
• Premiumization (and innovation) often come from unexpected personal inspiration and outside perspectives—be open to influence.
• Apply business frameworks (OKRs, mission, vision, values) to home life for greater personal and family intentionality.

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For Those Who Haven’t Listened…

This episode is an inspiring blend of personal journey, actionable business insight, and honest discussion about modern careers and wellness. Joey Gonzalez’s openness about failure, adaptation, leadership, and balance—plus memorable anecdotes (including one about Justin Timberlake and treadmill upgrades)—make this a must-listen for aspiring entrepreneurs, fitness professionals, and anyone seeking fulfillment beyond the 9-to-5.

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Connect & Learn More

• Joey Gonzalez: Instagram: @joeygonzalez
• Barry’s: barrys.com | Instagram: @barrys

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“You don’t find balance, you create it.” – Joey Gonzalez (61:08) “If you aren’t engaged with all four [friends, family, faith, fulfillment], you’re not living your full potential.” – Joey Gonzalez (61:41)

Transcript

[Jason]

Foreign. Welcome back to another episode of Trading secrets. Welcome to 2026. I'm curious, I got David with me here. We're gonna do a little intro longer than normal because we got a new year here. Because I just want to know how you feeling going this year? What are you working on? What are you not working on? What'd you learn from last year? What type of like big 2026 TRE or hacks are out there? I don't know. It's a new year. It also feels a little weird. This like Monday is January 5th. It felt like from planning the holidays until this first Monday of 2026 has been four years in itself. And the perfect guest we have on Joey Gonzalez, CEO of Barry's Boot Camp, who's going to tell you all about the ins and outs of what you should know about their gym. Different biohacks, different things that he does, how he got to where he was starting from the ground up. It's a Perfect episode for 2026. Now before we do anything, please remember to hit subscribe, follow us on social media, on YouTube and give us five stars and let us know guests and themes you want us to cover this 2026 because there will be some trading secret shakeups. Things will be done a little differently this year, but an exciting way for the money mafia. David, 2026, how you feel it? Like, where are you at mentally? You're looking in the rear view mirror at 2025. You're looking in the windshield at, at 2026. How you feeling?

[David]

Yeah, I, I feel pretty good. I feel pretty good. I'm not in this mode entering 2026 where I feel like I have to change a lot or I have to get my ass into gear. So I'm feeling really good about that. I got to just touch on something you said, Jason. I think the listeners will feel this. There's got to be some kind of study that is done about when Christmas falls the day of the week because I'm telling you this Thursday Christmas, which basically means that whole weekend after is a write off. And then the Thursday New Year's, which means the whole week's a write off. I think I texted you on New Year's Day, which was Thursday and I said I've never had a Thursday feel more like a Sunday. I had Thursday scaries thinking I had to get to work on the next day and I had a whole nother weekend which was a complete write off. And so it felt like the longest break ever compared to a Saturday Christmas. It feels like Christmas is one or two business days and you're back at it Monday the 27th, it's business as usual. You party on New Year's on Friday, Saturday and you're back and you didn't even get a break. So that was real. I think I might have had some resolutions that came from being such a long break where I maybe, maybe let a little loose a little too hard, but that's how I'm feeling. Current state of mind. Did you feel that at all?

[Jason]

We'll get into the letting a little too loose for New Year's Eve or the holiday. But before I get into that, what I felt, you know me, man, high energy guy. Do a lot of my head's in 10 different places. A little Tasmanian devil. I have never been more lethal lethargic in this like this Christmas period to New Year's Eve. Like I'm still doing my stuff, you know, I'm still going to the gym, I'm still getting some work done. But man, I am doing it at a snail's pace. I am anybody. I don't know if it's the moon, I don't know if it's the time of year. I'm tired. Are you tired at all? Is this a me thing?

[David]

I am tired. I will say that I think that has to do with my three week old or four week old now, but I got to spend some time, I got to spend some time with. Maybe this is your body saying you're tired because you're trying to do the things that you do 365 days a year. And I need you to slow down during the holidays so that you can get energized to do it again. Okay, maybe that's it. But it is tiring. I mean traveling the holidays, it's, it's, it's. The holidays without a doubt are the most mentally stressful time of the year for a million different reasons. And I think as we get older and I love you mom and dad and Dale if you're listening and Gary if you're listening, sometimes when we get older and our own lives start to grow within our, our personal lives, having to go spend time at the holidays with parents and having to revert back to like the teenage childhood expectations of like those dynamics, it is more like wearing and stressful on the brain sometimes as amazing as it is, it's like, it's just really interesting. But this is stressful time of year. It's amazing time of year, but stressful.

[Jason]

Well, I'm sure I can't Even. I mean, we talked a lot about this, Catherine and I. It's just like, when you have kids, like, you guys obviously have two kids, right? You want to start to then create your own traditions within your own family while still appealing to the traditions that, like, your families want to carry out too. Because, like, how meaningful is that? And I have to imagine with kids, it's got to be like, you know, Santa comes, open the gifts, okay, Pack them in the car, go to this in laws, go over here, go do the FaceTime over here. It's got to be even crazier with kids.

[David]

I would just say it goes back to the root of any successful marriage or relationship. Communication and communicating. I think in that dilemma, it becomes what. What is important to you? What is important to me? What's going to be important to our kids that maybe we did or that we didn't do as. As kids and find a way to kind of make sure that each of those really important things are being done. I've gotten more in the Christmas spirit being with Ashley because I never did a lot of the things that she did. So that's kind of how we feel. By the way, shout out. Catherine, surprising you. What an amazing, amazing moment that was. So, dude, I need to just.

[Jason]

I mean, the night before, she. So I sent her flowers and like, I said, kind of like her and family and stuff. Just like, hey, Merry Christmas. But, you know, have the best time with the family. Go Lions. Because Lions were playing on Christmas Day. They FaceTimed me, like, family FaceTime me at 9pm I said hi to everybody that night. I'm like, merry Christmas. All right, I'll call you in the morning. I text her. She took a 6am flight on Christmas day. My dad went and picked her up. They put her in the. My mom's room until I got up. And she was. She was only there in there for like, 20 minutes. And she was just like. She was wrapping gifts. I get up, weirdly enough, I go right outside to get the gifts because I was like the last one up that day. And I come back in and my mom is filming. And I was like, my dude, I've been in the social media shit doing all this stuff for. This will be year number nine. That's insane. That's a whole different conversation. You're nine of this. And my. I don't think I've ever seen her hold a camera to. To like, videotape me. I'm like, what is she doing? But all right. Like, mom, Merry Christmas. And then I saw her And I just. My. I was like, blown away, dude.

[David]

When you saw the blown. When you saw the camera, was there any. Any hint of like, oh, she's filming me to get a reaction because Catherine's visiting.

[Jason]

I thought when I saw the camera, I was like, this is weird. Never would. I thought Catherine, the one thing too that also saved. That is if there's probably one day of the year that I see my parents maybe take their phone out and get some videos, it's probably Christmas, probably the only day they do it. So I'm like, oh, Mom's just like, the Christmas thing again, you know, like, oh, Christmas morning.

[David]

Well, I got to say, for those who saw it live on Instagram, in the moment, that's how I found out that she visited and surprised you too. And the feeling that I got as your friend and like, how overjoyed happy I was that that was actually reality was so cool. Cuz like you said, we had talked about it days before your guys's first and what you were hoping the last Christmas ever apart and how to handle that in the future and attack that. And to know that you didn't. You didn't even have to do it because she's the goat and she got on a plane on 6am I. I was so happy for you guys. It was great. It was great to see.

[Jason]

That's sweet of you, brother. Yeah, it was. It was awesome. It was a Christmas. It was like the best Christmas ever. And then I think about what I wanted to ask you was now that you're like, you know, you're no longer the Grinch, you're now like, the Santa Claus. We talk money on this podcast. Do you. How do you deal with the Santa Claus thing with. With Carter? Like, how do you. Do you do, like, your own gifts for mom and dad and Santa Claus? Do you set a budget so there's not like this crazy expectation for the next year? Like, what are your room.

[David]

It's so funny. I grew up in a household where Santa Claus got you the gift you wanted and mom and dad get you 20 other gifts. Like, that's.

[Jason]

Oh, see, I was the polar.

[David]

So was it.

[Jason]

I was like, santa gives you the 20, and then at the end, mom and dad give you that one gift. You want it?

[David]

Ashley goes, no, they're all from Santa. Oh, everyone like, mom and dad don't get you anything.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[David]

Like every gift, she's like, yeah. No, he's like, parents. She goes, parents give you gifts on birthdays. Santa gives you gifts on Christmas. I'm like, kind of makes sense. Like, birthdays are for parents. And so that's a. That's an argument that I lost.

[Jason]

And there. Dude, there's this funny. I just had breakfast with Andrew Reese this week. Love the guys, the absolute best. And obviously, like, you see someone and then what happens? Your phone, you start getting all their social media. Right? So I get this social media that he did it. Must have done it a while ago. But his comment to Sean in the, like, video skit was, well, that's not what my mom did. My mom did it way differently. And then it went to his tombstone in loving memory of. You know, it's like, obviously a joke. Like, he got killed. Yeah. Saying that. No, I feel like there's so many things like this, like, tradition. You're like, well, in my family, we did this.

[David]

You know, as far as budget, the budget really comes in with Ash and I making a really strong, concerted effort to not spend on each other. Christmas is about our kids now. I think similarly, too. Like, we have Mother's Day, we have birthdays, we have Valentine's Day. Like, Christmas, we get a couple things, but it's very, very, very, very limited for each other. And a lot of it goes into your kids. And man Carter's two and a half, and he really understood Christmas this year, and he was great. And he. We didn't spend crazy amount with him. I will say. And this is for another episode. I had a panic attack with all the stuff we have in the house, and I start cycling through and getting rid of some of it and donating some of it, because it's, like, making me go crazy. But I did get him, as he really wanted, hockey skates. He got his first set of hockey skates. So we got to go. He's got to go rip on the ice. Wow, that was great.

[Jason]

That is awesome.

[David]

I love that.

[Jason]

That's beautiful. You can't beat it.

[David]

Yeah.

[Jason]

All right, well, let's get into. I will say I'm just going to quickly touch on this holiday spending for me for, like, I need to do better with budget because I just, like, I go all out on Christmas. It's great. It's like this. I spent a lot on Christmas this year, but I also did something cool. This here is. I did donations, like, very specific, thoughtful donations in the name of certain family members and stuff to certain charities that they would like, which I thought was cool. But, yeah, I think. I think I probably got to get that under control.

[David]

If you holiday budget, if you can spend with meaning, though, it does it feel good? Like, it feels so good if you spend without meaning, out of panic because you didn't have thoughtfulness. And so you get the designer thing even though there's no meaning behind it. That's what keeps you up at night. But, man, when you can. When you are fortunate enough to work, to spend without impacting your finances and. And have meaning behind it. I've had the opportunity to it a couple times. My old job, where I was making a lot more money, man, it's just the best. I have some. We should do it.

[Jason]

I think any gift you give, there should be meaning, thought and time spent to it. Even if you decide that you want to do the material thing, if you're going to do the material designer thing, whatever it is, let's just say. I don't know what. Let's say it's a. A sweater. I don't know. You should go to every single one of the luxury if that's what you're going to do. Luxury places. Understand it. What is the vibe like? Like, spend the time, the energy, so that, like, whatever this special moment is, there's like such intention behind it. So I think that should be for, like, any gift because, like, I think the people are like, oh, here, like, just go get it, or whatever. Like, that's. That. That ruins the entire point.

[David]

Best gift I ever gave. And I'm gonna let you think about this because I want to hear yours is. Was in a job I was making three times as much as making now. I had zero expenses because I lived on the site. I live 3,000 miles away from home for my parents. And it was at the time my life where I knew I was never gonna move back home. I opened a bank account for my parents, and I only put $3,000 in the bank account. The only rule for the money in the bank account that they had to use was it had to go to a date night once a month. And every date night that they use, they had to send me a selfie or FaceTime me from their date. So it was like a one and they had to go on once a month until next Christmas. And then I couldn't. I couldn't do it every year. But that for me was the conversations that we had, things that they did. And it was just that moment in my life where I was like 30 years old, and I was just like, man, you start realizing how much your parents sacrifice for you all those years and how far they probably drift apart and just making sure that you have what you need. It Was like, to be able to give that back. I was like, that was the best gift I ever gave.

[Jason]

That's the best. You can't. I mean, you can't beat that. That's. I mean, it's funny. It's kind of the same it was last year. Last year had a really good year, financially. I think the good thing about spending a lot during the holidays is, fortunately, anyone that's listening this, hopefully you've had a good indicator of what the whole year has been. Right. So you've seen how much you've spent, how much you've earned. So if you splurge on the holidays, I would say at least do the financial outlook to understand, like, you've brought in a lot of cash or you've spent a lot less, so then you can splurge when it's time. But my dad was, like, for, like, months and months, he had been looking at. For this pickleball. This pickleball. It, like, sends the balls.

[David]

Okay.

[Jason]

Right. So it's like an automated. Like, you put, like, 100 in. It'll shoot them at different speeds. You practice with. With it. I don't know. I'm, like, blanking on the name of what that would be. But those things are expensive. Like, they're very, like, on the low end. They're probably, like. The cheap ones are, like, a thousand bucks. Expensive ones go up to, like, 3,000. He had been studying this for, like, months and months and months and months, and went up there, and he had, like, three different things. He's t in the pluses and the minuses. And I see the one that he circles that's, like, got the good value, but it's still good. It's probably 2200 bucks or something. And I'm just a whim. Like, you know what I've had? I've had a good year. Let's rip this. So I got it for him, and it was so. I've never spent, like, that, you know? And he was just so caught off guard.

[David]

Yeah.

[Jason]

And he started, like, kind of, like, almost like, shaking a little bit and, like, start crying. Is like. Like, tearing up and, like, stopping. And it was like. It felt like I was watching, like, my dad's childhood self who, like, maybe always never got that thing or never treated himself to that because he's always been so worried about, like, you know, making sure that there were enough finances stuff that, like, he got treated. And I have a video of the whole thing, and I didn't, like, put it on social media or anything, but Like, I'll have that video and that memory, like, forever.

[David]

I saw a video and after this, we'll turn to New Year, some New Year stuff. I think we'll turn the page on it. But, Jay, I saw a video and this reminded me of it on TikTok. And it said, don't forget about your parents, because it's still. It's still their first time living too. And it was. And you know what the video was? It was. It was a dad probably in his 50s, and he got a pair of Air Jordans, and he'd never. And he always wanted Jordans, but never got him as a kid. And now he's an adult. So you don't think your parents really want, like, fun gifts? And he's. Same thing he got him. And he cried. He was like, I've always wanted a pair. And it's like, don't forget about your parents. They're going. They're like. Even though it's about. Like you talked about Carter, like, it's about my. So my parents are. They're still going through life for the first time, too. So they still deserve the opportunity to, like, have that feeling. So that. That made me think of that in the video. That's special, though. I love that you were able to do that for him and get that reaction. All of our parents deserve it. So.

[Jason]

And as time ticks, like, I think it's just so important whether it's your parents, your kids, your wife, your friends, whatever, to, like, stop for a second and just have these kind of conversations, you know, like, have those kind of conversations and it just moves so quick. I think you forgot to do that. Like, even just a simple question, like, hey, dad, like, what you ever remember, like, one thing you wanted for when you're a kid but you didn't get it, or like, you know, what was your dream car? Like, just things. I don't know these answers. You know what I mean?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah.

[Jason]

Yeah. It's interesting.

[David]

Yeah.

[Jason]

So I remember once there's. Reminds me of this one story. I was like, I gotta tell my dad this. We were sitting. It was back in Buffalo. I was going through college and college. I was really having a hard time in college. My first year at St. John Fisher, I was just, like, struggling with the classes I was in. I was struggling with the transition from high school to college. I just, like, was really depressed and I was like, I don't know, what am I going to do with my life? Am I even going to make it through through college? Like, how's this Going to work. And I was sitting in our backyard. We've in ground pool. My dad did a great job with the pool, but very, you know, like, you know, middle class living. And I looked at the, the house in the backyard with my dad. I was like, dad, I just want to say, like, this is so impressive. Like, you bought this house, you work hard, you've done everything for us. Like, I remember, I was like, I was like, this is. Do you ever look at your house and just be like, wow, I did it. He's like, yeah, you know, yeah, I do. But I also look at it like. And I, and I want, I also want, like, you know, I want more. I want to keep going. I want to keep going. And I was like, yeah, well, good for you. Just, you know, have that. And I still, I want to like, go back to that memory again now and be like, dad, I just want to let you know, like, when I was in that moment, how impressed I was with what you did from where you, you know, started. And I don't know, it's like revisiting those conversations. Maybe that's a 2026 theme. It's like, slow down a little bit and start to, like, have some of those deeper conversations. Because time's just going.

[David]

You have to, you have to be able to slow down and have those conversations at the end of the day. It's, it's, it's what life's all about. To be able to have those and ask those questions to get those answers before it's too late. So that's, that's incredible. That's amazing. So I love it.

[Jason]

Well, let's go. I know you're talking about. So let's. I jumped in there. 2026. How about we start with this? What's, what do you think your word of the year is?

[David]

My word of the year? I have two of them. Moments, okay? Moments. And this is what I mean by moments. I always use the term as a hockey coach after a game said, do we lose the game or do we lose the moments? Okay. It's very clear sometimes in a hockey game where, you know, you're getting dominated and you end up losing. It's like, hey, we lost that game. But there's a lot of times you lose a hockey game and it's like, we didn't lose the game, we just lost the moment. Right? A lucky bounce and things like that. So when I talk about moments, I, I think about it like this. I want to be able to make, do the little things in 2026 to make the big things possible. Because if you take the moments to make the feel of the big things better, then when you look back in your year, you say, I had a great year. And because you remember the big things, but if you don't take care of the moments to allow the big things to happen, you won't ever get that feeling.

[Jason]

I love it. So I think it makes so much sense.

[David]

So that's. So moments is my word of the year. And then choices. We've talked a lot about choices lately. Yeah.

[Jason]

Oh, yeah.

[David]

So choices is my. Is really. I'm triple downing and realizing that everything that we do in life is a choice. It just whether we want it, you know, relative to this episode, do we want to eat healthy, do we want to go to the gym, do we want to communicate with our partner? Do we want to get up a little earlier? Do we want to hit the snooze button? Do we want to stay in our job? Do choices like really, really looking in the mirror and making choices and sticking to them and understanding that if we want to change them, there are choice. Those are my two words of the year. How about you?

[Jason]

And I also think with choices, I know it gets a little hard because I think what people do is they make choices that aren't in the best interest of them, and then they get so upset with themselves for that choice. And I think it's like if you're, like, if you're gonna make the choice to hit the snooze button, then live with the repercussions. You know, that's like a lot. But, like, just stop dwelling on what isn't. When you make a choice, that's the choice you made. And nothing changes if nothing changes. So if you want something to change, start making different choices. But if you don't, you don't have to be this version of perfection that maybe you see on social media or something else. Like, maybe find. Maybe it's like the answer is actually finding complacency with, with the choices you do make and you'll find more happiness. But yeah, I think too, for balance, I'll just give you that, like, in general, I want to find balance within all areas of my life. Balance with work, balance with planning ahead, balance with my sleep schedule, balance with routine, balance with Catherine, balance with work. Just like, just in general, it's balance. And I think it comes from. Actually reminds me of the Chloe episode. Like, no is a full sentence. And I also think for me, it's prioritization. Like, it's Reverse engineering, like, stop focusing so much on like, I gotta get a hundred things done today and think about, okay, at the end of this day when I fall asleep, what are the big three to five things that I really want to make sure get done? And let's reverse engineer it and start the day with that. So the theme is balance and there's like little nuances, tricks, tactics I'm going to try to incorporate to achieve that.

[David]

I love that you brought that up because we, in the recap of this episode, we will be talking about balance because Joey brought up balance in the episode and I love the way that he talked about it. So I love that for you because I know how important balance is for where you're trying to get to in life. And I think that that's really, really important.

[Jason]

I think, David, I love that we could probably go on for like another hour. And it's also what we have the JTA for to talk about our year end recap. If it's the finance, the professional, the personal side and yours. So this is a nice little tease, nice little warm up for that. But why don't we kick everyone off to the Joey Gonzalez episode, talk all about things in the health regime and working out in biohacks from the CEO of Barry's Bootcamp. Anything before we wrap?

[David]

No. Guys, it's January 5th. It's time to get going. Barry's Boot Camp. Let's get it going. Come on.

[Jason]

Let's get it going. We will see you guys in the recap. Let's ringing the bell with the one and only Joey Gonzalez. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. Today we are joined by entrepreneur and CEO of the global fitness brand Berries. Ever heard of it? Joey Gonzalez. Joey had dedicated a decade of his life trying to break into the entertainment business in la. But after realizing he wasn't achieving the financial stability, he knew he had to make a change. In addition to acting, he was working jobs in real estate and in the restaurant industry before stumbling upon his role as a fitness instructor with Barry's Boot Camp. From there, Joey organically worked his way up the company, eventually assuming the role of CEO. Eleven years after taking his first class, Joey's unique story of working various side jobs to make ends meet to now, being the CEO of a multimillion dollar company is the epitome of what it means to be an entrepreneur in today's business world. Joey, thank you so much for being on Sharing Secrets.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Thank you for having me.

[Jason]

I mean, what a cool story. I think what's really Interesting is a lot of people that listen to this show are actually the opposite of you. They get stuck in the corporate grind and they're trying to look at more of passion. And you started in passion and then aligned passion with a role as a fitness instructor. So I guess I just want to start with just a little bit of advice for anyone that is out there struggling with what they're doing on a day to day basis, and they're trying to find a little bit more passion in their career line. What advice do you have for them?

[Joey Gonzalez]

By the way, that is like an amazing observation because I always talk about how I think you can learn so much through failure and through challenge. And when I think about the first 10 years of my career and I think about what I set out to do, I was in SAG at 13 and I was working in film, TV, musical theater and went to USC to study acting. But it didn't end up working out for me. Right. And I pulled myself out by choice. But when I look back and I think about, like, what was the lesson that I learned? It was that I knew at a very young age that you could love work and you could love what you do. And so that's why in your intro you described how many different jobs I had after that. Because I wasn't willing to settle for just showing up and working 9 to 5 and not feeling that fulfillment and that passion. And I just don't think anyone should. And I understand, you know, everyone's financial position is different, but there is nothing, I think, more important in life than enjoying your work.

[Jason]

Yeah, I think it's so, so important. And I think what's cool about your work is there's. It's a weird crossover, but it's a different crossover. But there probably are some crossovers. So are there any things from your time in studying acting that you actually deploy in your current role as a CEO?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Oh, God, yeah. If we back up and just look at it from an instructor lens. Because that was my first role. Right. Was so easy for me to step into that red room. Because the things that we expect of our instructors are musicality, programming and performance. Musicality. I had done, you know, musical theater. I know an eight count and I can see a beat drop from like 90 seconds away.

[Jason]

My kids love it.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They think it's the coolest thing. But that's just like how my brain works.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Performance I spent years, you know, doing. At 13, I was studying at Second City doing improv and, you know, went on to do on camera work and Just really learned how to perform essentially. Right. So got to use that tool as well. And then lastly, programming. It's like when you're an actor, you have to be off book so you have to memorize everything. That's what we do as instructors. We build very complicated workouts and then we have to leave it and just remember being able to recall. So I would say that from the instructor standpoint was useful. What tools did I earn as like a CEO? I think a as an actor and as a creative, you spend a lot of time developing soft skills. So you really learn about what it means to have eq to be human. You're very in touch with your emotions, like almost in an annoying way.

[Jason]

Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

You have to learn, learn how to cry on cue. These are like very raw, emotional things that you have to become expert at. And I think helped me gain the EQ that I have now, which really like empowers me as a leader.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And then additionally I think the performance piece too because I still do teach. Right. I do a lot of media for Barry's so that has all kind of served me in that role as well.

[Jason]

We will get into Barry's boot camp. We will get into the industry. All that is coming. But a couple questions I do have as a CEO because I do find that stuff so interesting is. Let's just start with this one. There's. There is a Harvard business case study and I did see that you went to Harvard Business School. No big deal. But it was talked a lot about how majority of CEOs in America for large or mid sized companies, they did a study and cortisol levels are actually lower within all of these CEOs. And the idea behind it is like when stress is coming the way of these CEOs, they can keep cortisol levels pretty low and still be able to manage the mayhem and guide the ship and lead the ship. Do you think that applies to you? Like do you believe your cortisol levels are lower? Do you think you have a differentiated skill set?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Fact, because I do actually perform really well under chaos. And the pandemic is a great example of that.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

When the world and my organization was losing its mind, I was very centered. I had to meditate a lot obviously to get there, but was really able to kind of tap back into entrepreneurial roots. And yeah, sometimes I feel calm and chaos, so that might make sense.

[Jason]

Okay, the second question I got for you is I always find it so fascinating how someone can go from literally like one of the entry level positions we'll call it to literally the CEO. And you did it within 11 years. I always thought someone, I used to work for a large bank and I worked at the headquarters and I would watch the bureaucracy of the people that were able to escalate into EVP positions, president positions, board positions, and then CEO positions. It was like an artist watching the ability that they had to move internally and externally. How did you do it in 11 years? And someone that is listening to this, that's like, one day I aspire to be the CEO, but they think it's impossible. What advice do you have for them?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Well, in fairness, I think how difficult that is is dependent on how large the company size is.

[Jason]

Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And so when I joined Barry's, it was two studios, so it was a fairly small organization.

[Jason]

How many employees when you joined?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I would guess between 40 and 50.

[Jason]

Okay, maybe, sure.

[Joey Gonzalez]

It was very kind of, no frills. It started in 1998. So Barry, I call him the mad scientist. He came up with this thing. There was new, no boutique fitness. There was this industry didn't exist. Right. And he essentially like created it. And I, I had no ambitions to be a CEO. Like, that's not what I set out to do, but I didn't. Foresight, never. I, I'm not that title driven. I just really loved the organization and I knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life building berries. That was like my dream. And so what that meant for me is I went from instructor, I then went into the GM position. So I was essentially like operating the day to day business. And the way I chose to do that was to actually distance the founders from the business and let them just like live their lives and run operations and manage the business. And so, so I was acting like the CEO from the third or fourth year that I was at Barry's. And then I begged them consistently across those years to invest and to actually become a partner in Barry's. And it took five years. And finally one day I walked into the office and I said, look, I want to do this with you. You know, I love Barry's more than anything else in the world, but I will do it without you. You. And this is your final chance.

[Jason]

And you were thinking about like going 25 years.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I didn't know I was doing what.

[Jason]

I was like, please say yes.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And that was what it took. Sometimes people just need a nudge and you got to stand up for yourself and advocate for yourself.

[Jason]

What was the result of that?

[Joey Gonzalez]

The result was yes. And so I moved to San Diego and I, you know, opened. That was my first studio as a, you know, 50% shareholder. So I, I was investing my own capital at that time and then I did that again in New York City and I, I really became tasked with, there was proof of concept in la, but not portability. So I was tasked with proving that this was a portable concept.

[Jason]

Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And so I had to learn quickly how to. I think the main core competencies that served me were building community, so community marketing and just getting the brand out there, creating brand equity and then finding and training fitness superstars.

[Jason]

What is the. In your day to day or your annual role, like all the things and hats you wear, what is by far the long shot, hardest responsibility you have?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think it's probably what a lot of people say. It's just the people management piece.

[Jason]

Okay, and is it, why is that?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Because you just, is it finding very unreliable. You don't know what to expect of humans. Right. They have emotions, they get triggered. And so when you are showing up to a meeting and something is said and you can see a reaction take place, it's just a hard thing to manage, you know, makes. Especially when you're, when you have EQ and you're empathetic.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Because you start to like feel things that people are feeling, you know what I'm saying? Of course, it's like very draining.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah, of course. I mean, you're wearing the emotions of like so many people that are trying to either, you know, move their careers in one direction and, or serve for their family or whatever it might be. So I can imagine that. Let's talk a little bit about the business. So the boutique fitness market, it's valued at 40 billion in 2023, projected to grow to 86 billion by 2030. That is massive growth. I want to ask, let's first start from the consumer, then I will get into the business side. All the people listening that love Bears boot camp, maybe they love some of your competitors. What are some of the things that a consumer needs to be looking at or considering that they might otherwise not be as they are potentially going to sign up for membership?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think the first thing you need to ask yourself is what are you looking for? Right? Is this a place that you want to go to to feel community and connection with people? Is this a place you want to go to to feel confident and good about yourself? In which case maybe it's not the hardest thing out there. Right. Maybe it's something that, you know, you can do every day, you know? Or is it about efficacy, do you actually want. Which I feel like is so taboo to talk about now today, but, like, do you want your body to look better in a few months after you're doing this four or times a week? Which is a very normal, I think, reaction?

[Jason]

I think so. And those are like, I said, I looked at your arms, I said, I gotta get mine bigger. That's normal. Now I gotta go to berries more.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But figuring out, you know, what your objective is, and maybe it's all three of those things. Right?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And then you have to kind of assess the business and see what the value proposition is. Right. Like, what's the cost? Is there a reason, you know, you kind of shop around and you see what costs more, what costs less. Do I care about these amenities that they're offering? Is it worth the extra $32 a month? Month.

[Jason]

Okay. Okay. I think that's good. Do you? I. I will say I think there's massive price disparity in this market. And I think there are some boutiques that are, like, just hammering the consumer. Do you think there's a dollar amount, like, hey, all those things to consider that you just said while signing up for a membership, if you're spending over X, you're probably not going to get your return?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think that is, like, very subjective.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I name names, but, like, there's, you know, a concept out there that I just don't get it. It's so expensive.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And it, to me is like a very silly workout, but it has a cult following and people swear by it and pay obscene amounts of money for it. But they are being fulfilled by going, you know what I mean? So I think it's a sort of to each its own thing. I don't have, like a formulaic. If you're paying more than, you know, $300 a month, it's a waste of money because I think there's real value in some of the more premium. Premium players.

[Jason]

Okay. That makes perfect sense. I want to ask as a business owner, if someone's listening to this and they're thinking about starting a boutique gym. We've seen all the success.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Don't do it.

[Jason]

First and foremost, don't do it. But, you know, you guys, 90 studios, 15 countries. I know you have a goal of adding 12 more locations this year. That's 13% growth. If you get to the 12. We'll talk about that in a second. If your to do list is getting longer and longer so much it's become greater than your actual work day. Well, the good News is you're busy and busy is good. But when you are busy, you have to know how to optimize. And you might want to start thinking about optimizing with Upwork Business Plus. If you're overextended and understaffed, Upwork Business plus will help you bring in top quality freelancers fast. You'll get instant access to the top 1% of talent on Upwork in marketing, design, AI and more. What you'll first do is go to Upwork.com do that right now because when you spend a thousand dollars on Upwork Business plus, you'll get $500 in credit. Go to Upwork.com SaveNow and claim this offer before 1 31, 2026. Again, that's Upwork.com s a v e terms apply. Someone's here, they're listening to this and they're like, you know, I kind of want to start one. Give me just a roundabout dollar amount. You think someone would have to come up with to be like, this is probably what you would need to get a boutique gym going in like a good place. Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So it's once again, it's all related to, is it like sort of premium? Is it entry level? I think the lower cost boutique fitness concepts, you could spend under a million dollars. Like some of them, I think three to six hundred thousand dollars to get up off the ground.

[Jason]

Interesting.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Barry's is usually over 3 million.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

For one unit. Gotcha. So there's a lot of variability there and it just depends on what you're looking for.

[Jason]

Right. When you guys are thinking about your locations because you now have 90 studios. I've always wondered from a CEO perspective, like, what goes into that as far as like what city you go to. Where in the city are you looking at other things like either restaurants or grocery stores that are close. What's the strategy of location setting?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah, I love this question because it's something that I'm still really close to.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I like to walk the neighborhood and the site before signing a lease.

[Jason]

Still, how far will you walk when you sign it?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Probably like three or four blocks.

[Jason]

Okay. Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

The main considerations are obviously like location. Right. You want to be in a good spot that's easily accessible. Co tenancy, which is what you were touching upon. Like is there a Whole Foods close by? Is there other fitness. Which is something we actually look for. We like fitness districts. We're fairly differentiated, so we're not afraid of competitors.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And then the third piece, which is kind of depends on the market, but I'd say like, 70% of the markets we're going to now is parking.

[Jason]

Parking.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I cannot overstate how important parking is when it comes to. Yeah, Boutique Fitness. Okay, that doesn't even. Like, that's just choosing your geographical location. I haven't even touched the surface of, like, the work that it takes to actually sign a lease because then you have to move into the space and do all this huge assessment on the infrastructure. Like, we have to look at floor load and make sure it can handle all our treadmills and our weights. We have to do crazy sound tests above, below. So it's a lot of work. It's a very specialized use, and it's a lot of work.

[Jason]

It makes sense. You did mention Whole Foods and competitors. Are there any? Cause it always seems like there's certain retailers that, like, it doesn't matter what city, what state. They're always next to each other. Do you have one that you're like, okay, if they're close by, this is pretty good. Like, is Whole Foods a good example? Do you have any consistency? Whole Foods. Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

There's a study recently, I actually learned this from our CBRE team today that shows in a post Covid world, people are traveling, they're less likely to leave their homes. It's about 60% of the time they're spending leaving their homes. And it might be more applicable in, like, suburban, like, secondary city areas. But the reason they were saying that is, like, it's become even more important for retailers to cluster around one another because then you're improving the likelihood. If you're close to a Whole Foods or you're close to a place that someone's going to go to regularly throughout the week, they're more likely to also visit you. Does that make sense?

[Jason]

Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Okay, so clusters and I didn't know that, though, that people are leaving their homes less.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I didn't either.

[Jason]

I would. I would honestly think that opposite.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I left and never went back.

[Jason]

That's what I'm saying.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I still haven't been.

[Jason]

I hate going my house. I'm like, keep me out. Let's go. That's interesting. It's good stuff. When you think about community, everyone that's listening to this in some capacity, maybe it's on their social media, maybe it's in their hometowns. Whatever it is, you need community to lead today and to create influence, to create power. Whatever you're doing in business, you have to have community. It's like, it is such an important part of the game. I think based on my observation, one thing Barry's bootcamp has done so well is they've created that community that people are so engaged to it. Like, I could bring up Barry's bootcamp and people light up. I'm obsessed. Oh, my God. I got my instructor. What is it from the marketing perspective you think that Barry's has done in your 11 years, that has really allowed you guys to build community? And in that, like, what's one big mistake that you guys made along the way?

[Joey Gonzalez]

So I'd say that the secret to our success in terms of the global community piece.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Is how we marketed. And up until maybe four or five years ago, we had no budget for paid media. All our marketing was organic. We didn't rely on people to just. We didn't just expect our clients to, through word of mouth, bring their friends, but they did okay. But we figured out a lever to pull and to make that happen even more frequently, which we have these referral campaigns. They're called Friends with benefits. Yeah.

[Jason]

Good marketing play. Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

How to make it berries, you know, and it's basically. It's worked differently depending on the campaign. But it's usually something like, if you bring a friend and you both come together and you take a class, you both get a free class. Just something simple. Like, sure, there are. Are other ways that we invite our clients to acquire, you know, to use them as acquisition tools. But that's been, like, I think, how we've grown the community so organically. And the biggest mistake, I think, is when we started investing a lot in paid media.

[Jason]

Interesting.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Because our conversion rates are, you know, 30, 40% when it's organic.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

When you bring a friend.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They're 30 or 40% more likely to come again.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Right. When they come on paid media, it's like, in the single digits.

[Jason]

Oh, wow.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Under 10%.

[Jason]

Interesting.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But it makes sense because the thing that people love most about Barry's, and I would argue, like Barry's is about efficacy.

[Jason]

That shit works.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. You love to swear.

[Jason]

Oh, yeah, rip it.

[Joey Gonzalez]

It really works. Like, really well. But people come for the community, they come back for the community. And so when you are going with a friend or when you know someone who's there, it just makes the whole experience better.

[Jason]

This one blew me away. So 13% growth. Here you guys are talking about opening 12 locations, and you already have 90, and then you debuting new international locations in Madrid, Athens, and Dublin, which I found just fascinating. Obviously, if you're talking about 3 million bucks a pop for each one, you're Going to need financing because that's a lot of money for. For 12 of them, you're talking 36 million. And it looks like you source new funding with Princeton Equity Group to help fuel this global expansion. We've had a lot of people come on, and either they exited their companies through private equity or worked with private equity. We just did an interview with a veterinarian clinic that was acquired by pe. How has the PE process been as a CEO?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. So this was actually our second turn.

[Jason]

Second time. Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

2015 is when we did our first private equity transaction.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

That's when I was appointed to global CEO.

[Jason]

Got it.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So I mentioned I wasn't that title driven. It took someone else coming in and being like, you're the CEO.

[David]

Yes.

[Jason]

What are we doing? I know, like, fine, I'll take it. I don't care.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But they were. Their name is North Castle Partners.

[Jason]

Okay. That was your first piece.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They are pretty expert in fitness, which was hard to find, especially back then, but they had brought equinox from under 10 units in the 40s. By far and away, the most sort of intelligent conversations I had as I went through that process of finding a partner and ended up being my best friends. Like, the most incredible humans ever. We faced Covid together, which is like, the business was so successful and it was doing so well that, like, you don't really find out what partnership means until times get really hard.

[Jason]

Yeah. Makes sense.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And that's when I, like. Like, you know, grew to love them exponentially more, like, because they were just the most incredible people. And their. Their, like, belief is that you can drive value through values, and they lived that truth. This is not what you were expecting?

[Jason]

No, not at all.

[Joey Gonzalez]

No one has this story.

[Jason]

Yeah, I was gonna say the lowest manner.

[David]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And he still is one of my best friends. He exited, obviously, in January, and we teamed up with peg, which is Princeton Equity Group. But. But that whole process of when you're looking for an investor and a partner, we're a very. I haven't even mentioned it yet, but we're very mission, vision, values business. And that's something you learn in business school. You do your mission, vision, values, and I think every organization has them, but they are, like, front and center for us. It's the first page of every deck we have every employee have a copy of it. It's really important for us. It's part of onboarding. It's part of how people are reviewed. And so when we look for private equity partner, we really try to. To find someone that's values aligned.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And there are ways to do that, by the way. Like, one of the. One of the tricks I would have is, like, I would call front desk because they like to take classes and check out the studio, and I'd be like, what were they like?

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And I would get real time feedback. Like, they're kind of rude or oh, my gosh, they were so nice. That, like, really mattered.

[Jason]

Of course it should. Right. So that's a good one. I like that. All right. With the new international locations, Madrid, Athens, and Dublin, from a United States perspective, we understand kind of some of our culture and our practices around just fitness. Is anything drastically different? No.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think when we launched Milan, the fuel bar, which is our shake bar, essentially a protein shake bar, we had to rework a lot of the recipes because they don't have the same sort of, like, sweet taste profile. Europeans don't love ice. So we had to change, like, the recipes on how much ice went into a shake. I would say that we're willing to adapt and change almost anything because we don't ever want to have the reputation of being this American company that just rolls in and does things the way we do them.

[David]

Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

That is so, I think, contradictory to who we try to be. Like, we are even here in the States, if you go to Barry's NoHo, it looks different than Barry's Upper east side. We really try to embrace local nuance and feel the vibe.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Of the neighborhood.

[Jason]

It makes sense.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So what I was saying is, like, we will experiment and do things differently everywhere. Except for in the red room.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And no matter where you go in the world, that red room feels the same.

[Jason]

That's it. That's a consistent. That's like the. The McDonald's touch. So wherever you get those fries, it's going to be the same. That's the red room. Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But not.

[Jason]

But not. But not.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But the opposite.

[Jason]

But the opposite. I like that. I like that. Okay, but talk to me about this. I mean, massive growth. The industry's growing. You guys are growing again. Like, how and why and what does it look like to be able to grow your business 13% in just one year? And what's sparking all that?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think, you know, it's actually when you. When you look at the size of Barry's up against our competitors, we're really not that big.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

90 studios for a company that's 26 years old. Many of our competitors are in the thousands. Right. And they're in 50 countries.

[Jason]

Our.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Our growth strategy has Always been. We don't want to be the biggest. We strive to be the best.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Opening 12 studios a year is like around one a month. That's not that challenging for us. We have the resources to execute that.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But one of the things I did want to highlight for you is that our international studios are franchised. So that does take some of the burden off of us.

[Jason]

Interesting.

[Joey Gonzalez]

With two exceptions. So the US Canada and the UK are all owned and operated by Barry's corporate.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

The rest is all franchised.

[Jason]

Interesting. I don't know if you could share this. Can you share what it costs to get into a franchise internationally?

[Joey Gonzalez]

It's a little bit complicated. The country deals are all very different and there's usually like a couple different fees associated. There's like a get in now fee that's related to your whole territory deal and then you pay basically a per studio fee.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And there, there's a obviously a percentage of revenue there.

[Jason]

Sure. One of the most advantageous things I've ever done for my growth is seeking therapy. And I will tell you finding a therapist in the right match is hard and it also can be quite expensive. Well, there's a trading secret for you called Rula. Rula does things differently. They partner with over a 100 insurance plans making the average co pay just $15 per session. That's going to be real therapy from licensed professionals at a price that actually makes sense. Sense. Think about it. You can use your insurance benefits for all your physical health check ins. Why not your mental health? Well now you can. You can get a licensed therapist and you heard it. The average copay just 15 per session. So here's what you're going to do. You're going to go to rula.com trading secrets to get started today. That's r u l a.com trading secrets for quality therapy that's covered by insurance. True end to end care with Rula. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable high quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Just visit rula.com tradingsecrets to get started. After you sign up you'll be asked how you heard about them. Please support our show and let them know we sent you. That's Rula r u l a.com tradingsecrets. You deserve mental healthcare that works with you. Not against your budget when you and not a franchise model but when you open a new studio. Let's call in this states. Do you have what is your projection of how long it'll take to recoup the costs.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. So every lease that we sign has an underwriting model attached to it.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And that underwriting model has historically always had the goal of payback within at least 48 months, but we like to see under 36 months.

[Jason]

That's. That's impressive. That's impressive. Have you ever opened a studio and it fell apart or failed?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Not until Covid.

[Jason]

Okay, gotcha.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But we opened about three or four studios in Covid that were dying on the vine. Okay. And we really have gotten good at sort of breathing life into anemic studios.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And so we brought them back. You know, there were. There was a time where, you know, there was one we were even considering closing, which we'd never done in 26 years, and so happy to say, like, every single studio in our system is profitable.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But it wasn't always that way. And Covid really took away a lot of the tools that we needed for success.

[Jason]

Okay, Interesting. One thing, just as a consumer of your product, I've always been interested in the fitness. Instructors are so great. They're so motivational. They're like you said, from a performance perspective, like, they're incredible. But I've always wondered to some, my brain operates on the money side. Are they incentivized by, like, performance? Do they get bonused and commissioned out based on how many people are in the class?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yes. And in addition to that, over the last Berries has become very sophisticated boutique fitness concept. And I think there are very few that are doing it the way we do it. Instructors actually have access to a dashboard where they get to track their KPIs.

[Jason]

Oh, wow.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And so not only are they paid hourly, plus per head, they're also bonusing on acquisition. Right. Because we want them out there sharing their black card and bringing people in. They're bonused on their conversion rates, and they're bonused on how many classes they teach.

[Jason]

Interesting. And they'll have a whole dashboard in which they can see their KPIs all the time. That's pretty cool.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Which mirrors also how our GMs and AGMs bonus as well. And it's how the leadership team views. That's essentially the life cycle of the customer. We look at acquisition, we look at conversion, then we look at frequency, and that's our paid attendance on a weekly basis is. Is how we define success. So we've aligned across management, talent, and leadership all the same KPIs.

[Jason]

So. Interesting. All right, talk to me about five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now. We're seeing change move at just. The only constant right now is change. We're seeing technology and AI in every industry. They're saying will not look the same in five years. It will not look the same in.

[Joey Gonzalez]

10 years and 15 years.

[Jason]

But there's always feels like there's only so much integration you could do in a boutique gym like this when you're envisioning growth and change. What do you think Barry's looks like 5, 10, 15 years down the road, bro?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah, I think so. First of all, the five year plan is about as far as I can go without having a panic attack. I don't plan 20 years. I know I can sit here and lie and pretend that I do, but I really don't. Five years is plenty for me.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

We have the goal of opening 60 corporately owned and operated studios in the UK, Canada and the US and 20 franchise studios globally. That's our studio count in terms of how I think AI will impact our business.

[David]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

We ventured into like at home workout digital workouts and we have an app now called Barry's X and it has content and our clients, you know, can subscribe to that. But we did learn through Covid that like our core competency and what we do best is in person experience. Yeah.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And I think it's so important for the soul to see people and touch people and interact with people and. And I think there's less and less of that happening, evidenced by people leaving their home less often.

[Jason]

Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Also evidenced by this whole work from home culture we haven't really bounced back from.

[Jason]

Sure.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Right. Which you can see the studies. A lot of people who work from home are seriously depressed. They're not interacting with humans. So I think AI for us, we need to get better at integrating it into our business practices. So into our marketing efforts into.

[Jason]

Got it.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. There's so many tools now that we're not using that could make make things so much easier for us.

[Jason]

And that's more from business operations, not from a consumer going there. Yeah, I think that makes perfect sense. All right, talk to me about this. You're a fitness instructor. You're now the CEO. You do kind of hold a responsibility to, you know, make sure that your nutrition and your. Your fitness is first. I feel like, talk to me a little bit about some nutritional hacks from an instructor and CEO of Barry's Boot Camp. Anything specifically or trading secrets from a nutritional perspective, either. Do you don't. Do you recommend.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think it's different for everyone. I am like a big Experimenter. So I go through different phases. A few years ago, I was really into, like, intermittent fasting. Yeah. I would do prolon, which is that mimicking fast for five days? Yeah.

[Jason]

Oh, that's tough.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Very tough.

[Jason]

It's like bone broth for five days. Yes.

[Joey Gonzalez]

It's like, don't show me one of those packets.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But like, cellular autophagy. There's some. You know, there's a lot of upside to doing that. That now for the past. Pretty consistently. For the past three years, I've been working with Concentric Consulting, which is essentially like nutritionist.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And they plan out all my meals.

[Jason]

No way.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And it's very different than how I've ever eaten. Like, I eat way more than I used to. It's more of a bodybuilding program. But my thing to them was like, are you gonna compete? And I was like, no.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I'm not. Because also, I think the end of that is crazy.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

You know what I mean?

[Jason]

And I want to.

[Joey Gonzalez]

You know how they.

[Jason]

It's like nuts. What goes nuts? Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And so the dehydration.

[Jason]

Water pills to your. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And yeah. I've been. I've been so happy with the results.

[Jason]

Do you ever do cheat meals?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Oh, yeah.

[Jason]

And what's your go to cheat meal?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Nachos.

[Jason]

Oh, nachos. That's a curveball. What do you throw on there?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Either chicken or beef.

[Jason]

Oh, it sounds great.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah.

[Jason]

Hungry.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I like to make them at home, too. The kids love nachos.

[Jason]

I like it. And then your workout routine. Outside of doing a berries type workout, do you do anything else?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. So I do five days of cardio, which will usually, for me be berries, unless I'm in a place that doesn't have it. And six days of lifting, which is around, depending on the body part, 60 to 90 minutes.

[Jason]

So you're doing double sessions almost every day?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Like two hours.

[Jason]

I mean, damn.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. Like 12 hours a week of working out.

[Jason]

Wow.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But I love working out.

[Jason]

I mean, the CEO Barry should. Right. I think that's a good fit.

[Joey Gonzalez]

No, but people listening who think that's crazy. You have to understand, like, I. It's my favorite part. Like, I love it. I have so much joy.

[Jason]

You a morning or late night workout always, huh?

[Joey Gonzalez]

No, I didn't used to be. Oh, interesting. Yeah.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Switch.

[Jason]

You learn something new.

[Joey Gonzalez]

You have kids, you just have to, like.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Change your habits a lot.

[Jason]

I totally. I mean, one day, you know, maybe one day. Let me ask you about your mba. So you go to Harvard Business it was an opm. Opm, yeah. Okay, so OPM at Harvard, what are you, I mean, what are your thoughts like? Do you see the return in that people right now that are thinking about maybe going to get an OPM or going to get a master's or going to get a mba, like a big school, like, just what's your take? Do you think that's necessary to be a CEO of your nature?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think it depends on what your path is. Right. So my program, OPM is actually designed for my exact archetype. So it's someone who doesn't have an MBA and who had no business running a business, but somehow ended up there, who wants to equip themselves with a lot of the skills that maybe their peers in the workplace might have. That makes sense.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

There's also this like moment where you have to accept like, okay, the skills that got me from 0 to 50 stores are very different than the skills I need to get from 50 to 100.

[Jason]

True.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So that's why I enrolled in that program and it was incredibly enriching and I loved it.

[Jason]

And you feel like you've seen the return with it though?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Oh yeah.

[Jason]

In big ways.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And you know, they actually block it out for you. But they say that over 50% of the value in a program like that is actually the networking and the people that you meet.

[Jason]

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[Joey Gonzalez]

Number one thing would be a Woodway Treadmill.

[David]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Because they are the best of the best.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

There. Are you familiar with wood waste?

[Jason]

Not really.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They look like a tank.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They have, like, strips of rubber.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It feels like you're running on the road. Yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They eliminated the sort of belt and deck of a treadmill. So usually there's like a piece of nylon that goes around the deck and just moves.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

It's really bad on your joints every time your foot hits that belt.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

There's a little bit of slippage in your knee and your ankle, so your body's kind of moving forward.

[Jason]

Explains a lot.

[Joey Gonzalez]

A woodway has, like, strips of steel covered in, like, cloud, like rubber, where you just kind of like bounce a little bit.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

They're very expensive.

[Jason]

How much are they?

[Joey Gonzalez]

They're over $10,000.

[Jason]

Wow. Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Around $12,000.

[Jason]

Okay. So Woodway treadmill. What else would you say? So, like, any of those. I mean, you obviously, you guys like it from a dumbbell perspective. What? Dumbbells? You guys.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I love dumbbells because it's a very easy way to ensure that you're working out both sides with the same sort of force.

[Jason]

Right.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So if you have barbell, an 80 pound barbell, and you're pressing it or curling it, you might be favoring your right side.

[Jason]

Sure.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I do love that piece of dumbbells. You also, I think, need to engage a lot of your secondary muscles more with dumbbells than like, machines.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

But I would definitely have dumbbells and probably a squat rack. And then I love cables. You can do so many things with cables.

[Jason]

Okay. All right. There you go. You guys got enough information to now build your at home gym, but still keep your parry's membership. Don't lose that. I'm just curious. Just from a. CE is like one trading secret thing behind the scenes with Barry's boot camp that we would never know internally that maybe you think that we'd find interesting or fascinating maybe about the business, the marketing, the growth management. Just something about Barry's. We. We wouldn't know unless we heard it from you.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I mean, I have a funny story that kind of like changed our business. So we use the woodways.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And the woodways are, you know, when you're talking $12,000 a unit, 20 to 25 of them, compared to what we used to use, which was like a $2,000 treadmill.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So it's a $10,000 Delta per machine.

[Jason]

Sure.

[Joey Gonzalez]

You know, that easy math and that Was a very big switch for us. It's a big line item number.

[Jason]

Totally.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And the reason why it happened, which is a story I've not told often, is that one of my best friends is Justin Timberlake.

[David]

No way.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And he was giving me a tour of the new house that they just built and brought me in the gym and showed me the Woodway. And I was like, what's this? And he's like, dude, you run a running company. You don't know what a wood weigh is. I was like, no, I don't, but I'd love to learn. So he schooled me and taught me all about it and, you know, explained that it was proprietary and that it was amazing. And I used it and fell in love with it. And I pitched it to my three other. The three other Barry's founders. And I thought for sure they were going to be like, you are not nuts. And they loved it. Really, we should do this. And that was really the reason why I think that is like a significant story, is that that was the beginning of us premiumizing the business. Because Barry's used to be like a hole in the wall, no frills.

[Jason]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Barry's Chelsea, which is probably my favorite studio. Cause it's just so sentimental for me every time I walk in. Was the first sort of new prototype of Barry's. It had Woodway treadmills. We never had locker rooms or showers. We found a great sort of amenities partner and broug them in. It was the first time we had fuel bar. So we really stepped the business up. And then sort of retroactively, you know, retrofitted the other studios. And everything we built from then on was that model thanks to Justin Timberlake. I mean, the deadmo part.

[Jason]

Yeah, that's a pile.

[Joey Gonzalez]

The fuel bar was thanks to my husband.

[Jason]

Okay, gotcha.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And all the recipes with me.

[Jason]

Everyone played in.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah.

[Jason]

How do you. How does someone become best friends with Justin Timberlake? How does that happen? That sounds. That sounds cool.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. It's a long story.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Mutual friends. It was actually Jess Jesse my. Was the first one I met.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

The best human on earth. The best mom. The best. They're both like unbelievable if you ask me.

[Jason]

Like, top five crushes.

[Joey Gonzalez]

She's on there and it's absolutely annoying. She gets out of the. It's like, oh, J. She's so hard to be you.

[Jason]

The impact of Jess Justin on berries. I'm never looking at those treadmills the same. I love it. That is awesome. All right, well, I do want to wrap With a trading secret. So it's something specific. It could be specific to Barry's. It could be specific to your career track as a CEO. Could be something financial advice, personal advice, professional advice, whatever it might be. That is people can only learn from you, from your track, not from a textbook or TikTok tutorial or even in getting an OPM at Harvard Business School. What can you leave us with?

[Joey Gonzalez]

I think a lot of people ask about balance. Like, how do you find balance? Because running a global company and having, you know, two very young, active kids and wanting to be really connected and committed to my family, it's tricky. And my answer is always, you don't find balance, you create it. And the way I like to think about it is I focus on four things. Friends, family, faith, and fulfillment.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

The four Fs.

[Jason]

The four Fs.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And I feel like if you aren't engaged with all four of those things, you're not living your full potential. And just to dive in a little bit like friends and family. That one's kind of obvious, right. Because it goes back to love. And, you know, that's. I'm a love guy.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah. It's also, like, been shown. It's. It's proof that it gives people the will to live. Like, it's like, the number one thing. They did a study recently that showed, like, if people have friends and family that they love around them, their will to live is greater.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Which I think is really interesting.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

The faith piece is, like, it can mean different things to different people. Like, it can be religion, but I think to people who aren't religious, who are more spiritual, it can also be meditation. It can be. I think of it almost as, like, the recognition that you are a very small piece of a massive puzzle.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And that really humbles people. And that's important part of balance, I think.

[Jason]

Yeah.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And then the last would be fulfillment, which I think most people think of as work and job. But you have to remember, like, you don't work for your first 15 years, and you don't work potentially for your last 20 or sometimes more.

[Jason]

Sure.

[Joey Gonzalez]

So you have to have some fulfillment in your life. And it should either be a job that you love or you should have. Have, you know, hobbies that you love. That's the way I think of it.

[Jason]

I think it's really good with the time management and just balancing. I was thinking. I was just doing a little math in my head, but you got 168 hour. 168 hours in a week. You do 12, you know, working out, you do 56 sleeping, you're down to 100 hours and you're the CEO of a massively growing company. So how like, like where are you? You said you create that, but how do you create it? Are you carving out in your schedule certain time blocks? Like how are you actually creating it? Because it always feels like to me, and I know a lot of people that listen to this show that just not enough time. So like, how are you creating it?

[Joey Gonzalez]

You have to make tough decisions and you have to like, I think you're the only one who knows the answer to that. There are often times where I can't go to a meeting at work. That's really important because my kid is doing some kind of presentation. And when you give me those two choices, choices, it's obvious to me, right, someone might have a different reaction to that based on how they view balance. But I really want to be an active participant in my kids life. I also have a funny line I always use that there is almost no such thing as balance. There's only disappointing someone, you know what I mean? Because that's essentially, that might be the.

[Jason]

Trading secret right there.

[Joey Gonzalez]

You have to pick and choose.

[Jason]

That's why I suck at balance, because I don't like to disappoint people.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Damn. All right, you just gave me a people pleaser.

[Jason]

Oh, big time, big time. Yeah, I got pulled in a lot and then I say yes to too much and then I don't have time for anything and then the only person that impacts negatively is me. Like, so yeah, I think that's a really, really good one. I think one of my trading secrets is there's often time I do presentations. Like I'll speak at Tick Tock headquarters and I'll speak to brands and I'll talk about, especially from a talent management perspective when we're managing talent. I'll tell them to think about someone that they look up to, like a celebrity author, whoever it is, like actor, actress, Justin Timberlake, and you could. And then define their brand in three words. In the most, most people, when you ask them who is their favorite person they look up to, they can list off like 50 words that define their brand and have no trouble finding three words that define their brand. I'll instantly pivot to them and I'll say, okay, what's your brand and your company? And everyone falls apart and struggles. And I think we struggle so much understanding ourselves and our brand and like what we represent, but also what we want to represent. And I thought it Was really cool that you said love a lot. And love actually is like the one of the biggest reasons that Barry's continues to have the brand equity. It does success and growth. And I think that's a cool exercise, like thinking about either your business, your brand or what it is. Like what do you want it to represent, what do you think it represents and where do you want to go with it in just one word. And like, that is a good directional place to be when you're trying to navigate the craziness of life.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I love that.

[Jason]

Yeah, that's a trade secret I got out of it.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I actually think you can take a lot of learnings from the business place and apply them at home. Are you familiar with okrs? It's like mostly, it's in, mostly in the tech world, but a lot of companies use okrs. It's objectives and key results.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

And you have your leadership team and everyone below them create an objective. So it might be like to drive same source sales in 2025 over 2024, but then the key results are things you can actually accomplish.

[Jason]

Okay.

[Joey Gonzalez]

I actually did that. It didn't end up working. I just, it was too stressful for me to track, but I did it with my family balance. Like I had, I had objectives and then I had like spend five days traveling a month. Do you know what I'm saying? And then I track. So you do something like that. The other thing that I did do is we created mission vision values for our home.

[Jason]

Wow.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Which I think is so cool for our kids to learn about the values that we value most.

[Jason]

Yeah, I think it's really good. Yeah, I think it's really especially. We had a guy, Sahil Blumon, and he talked a lot about like the value of time versus the value of money and how like based on your age, you are a billionaire in seconds and like making sure you take that. And he's like, you know, put me in the corner. He's like, like Warren Buffett's got, you know, X amount of billions of dollars. Would you trade places with him right now? And the answer is clearly no. Right? I wouldn't because of our time and age and everything else. And so he's like valuing that. And then he got a little bit morbid, but. But also a wake up call. Talking about like, you know, you don't live in the same city as your parents. Your parents are 60. You know, how old are your parents, how often you can see them? Okay, so now you have, you have three more rounds of golf with your dad and 14 more visits, like on average. And like, it's like, whoa, whoa. And I think the idea of doing the okr, the objective and key results is a good way to be. Like, I'm going to see my parents four times, three months, no matter what. Like, I will prioritize. And I think that's another good takeaway. So a lot of takeaways here. A lot of trading secrets. We'll wrap it up. Joey, where can everyone find everything you have going on? Where can they find Barry's, all the information they want, Give us. Give us the plug.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah, I'm just Joey Gonzalez on Instagram. So. Joey Gonzalez, G O N Z A L E Z. That's my main platform where I engage and interact and post content. Barry's is berries.com cool. And it's Barry's on Instagram.

[Jason]

I love it. Follow everything they got going on. Reach out to Joey and Joey Gonzalez. Thank you for being on this episode of Trading Secrets.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Thank you. Appreciate it.

[Jason]

Ding, ding, ding. It was good to be in the intro with the one and only curious Canadian, but it's better to even be back home in the recaps for the first time in 2026, Joey Gonzalez Hollis, CEO of Barry's Boot Camp. David, what'd you think of the episode?

[David]

I mean, I needed it. I needed it to just sharpen my mind a little bit for the business side of it. And I needed it to just talk about treadmills and dumbbells and eating right and all the things that all of us need to hear, no matter what. I loved some words in there. We talked about balance. We talked about exercise. We talked about nutrition. We talked about some motivating tactics as we really, all of us professionally want to be motivated for. For standing up for ourselves, which he did for himself and his career. So all in all, I think it touched the necessary buckets to start 2026 with.

[Jason]

I love it. It's a perfect episode as we start this year. You know, you talked about some of the high level takeaways you had. What would you say either quotes or lessons or things you learned from Joey that you'll be bringing into 2026.

[David]

Yeah, the biggest one that he talked about his first partner that he did with one of the private equity deals. He says you don't really find out what a partnership means until you go through the hard times. He talked about that going through Covid and really had to, like, all their gyms were profitable. Then this really put a couple of them kind of in question. And to, to hear that. I always relate that back to, to, to relationships and marriages. I always said, when someone asked me, why Ashley, I always said that she's the first person in my life I ever wanted to go through the hard times with. I knew that if I got sick or she got sick or, you know, we lost a family member, that she would be right there to support me. So from a business side and a one really, really, really resonated with me.

[Jason]

I love that. I think that's such a, that's such a beautiful takeaway. And that's, that's bang on the other thing too. I don't know about you. Have you ever done a Barry's Boot Camp class?

[David]

I have never done a Barry's Boot Camp.

[Jason]

Barry's Boot Camp will beat your ass. I say that because they're like, I mean, it's as hard. He said it perfectly. Like, it's as hard as you want it to be. You know, you, you can kind of control it, but man, you know, you're. The competitive side comes out, you look left and right, you see the, the people going faster. You go faster. It, it grinds it. I actually, for the first time ever, David, I bought something called. It's. It's an app called the Class Pass. And you get access to credits where you can just take all these classes. This is actually something I'm doing. In January, I will be going to Barry's Boot Camp, but also just trying all classes. Like, I'm gonna try boxing, jiu jitsu, like all this stuff. And then see, of all these. Dude, I did Pilates the other day.

[David]

I want to do Pilates.

[Jason]

No, you don't. It is the most, most, most humbling athletic experience I've ever had in my life ever. Like, I've never felt so out of place ever in an athletic foundational place ever. Like, I was.

[David]

I'll be, I'll be so bad. Did you get the shakes? I love seeing like the simplest poses. And you see people like, shake like crazy.

[Jason]

You started off, you know, if you do. To go to the gym and I do four sets of planks for a minute, that's a big deal. You start off in like, like a six minute plank and I'm looking left and right and it's all women in there and they're all like, not even flinching. I'm over there shaking the wheel. Like, it's unbelievable. My stomach, my abs right now, killing me.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Killing.

[David]

I love it. I love it. I do. I do love that you're doing A little sample platter of all these different classes, though, because I think that that's what, you know, that's what the new year is supposed to bring us.

[Jason]

The other thing, too is I'm doing. I'm doing dry January right now. We didn't talk about that in the intro, but Dry January, January. I'm fasting.

[David]

I'm not.

[Jason]

Every day.

[David]

Well, good.

[Jason]

And also, like, a little spoiler alert, I'm doing. We're doing a campaign, actually, with Tommy John. And Tommy John is making a really nice contribution to Wags and Walks. And the dogs will be in it. But one of the photos, you know.

[David]

Catherine, you're in underwear.

[Jason]

In the pajamas. There's what I have to do, like, solo stuff. And then we're also having the CEO of Tommy John on and stuff. So that'll be a cool one. But, yeah, I gotta be in.

[David]

Yeah, you gotta be in it.

[Jason]

Some kind of undergird hermit, apparently. So I better. I gotta tighten it up. You know, the Buffalo. I bet a lot of Buffalo wings in December, a lot of beers, a lot of wine till, like, January. I gotta. I gotta tighten this up.

[David]

Jay. I had 20, 25 was the best health year I've had in since I was playing, like, college hockey.

[Jason]

Let's go.

[David]

15 years ago.

[Jason]

Great.

[David]

I got under £200 and I didn't look back. And then this longest break ever happened. And I'm like 210 right now. And I gotta get down, down. So I feel you on that. My goal is JTA 2025 or 2024 from last year, because we do that in a studio and it's on video. I can't even look at those. I had to delete them off my Instagram. My face was so bloated and gross. So I'm. I'm looking forward to this year's JTA where I can hopefully just be able to look at myself. So I feel that I'm glad I don't have to be Tommy John underwear style. But that's. That's okay, guys, if you're listening and you're in the same situation, guys and girls, it's. This is okay. This is where we're at rolling it.

[Joey Gonzalez]

To get together some of the things.

[Jason]

I only leave for the recap. The. The true money mafia, the true group over here that I. I throw out there. So we'll see. But, David, once we set that JTA date, which we know it's coming up soon, you'll have some time to prepare.

[David]

So good.

[Jason]

You know, doing that we'll see what happens. And onward it goes. I. I will talk, you know, real quickly. We're in this health conversation this week. I've had some weird health things this year. I broke my finger.

[David]

I.

[Jason]

My back's all screwed up. I'm going tomorrow to get a nerve to nerve test, which is crazy. They, like, stick needles in your leg and then they stick, like, I don't know, like nerve, you know, like when you get. You know, when you get. Oh, my God. Stims. No, like stems. And then they shock your nerve, like, intentionally to see which nerves are responding and how. I'm like, oh, this will be great. Anyway, that's tomorrow. Me with the neurosurgeon on the 6th. Let's get out of our health and get back into Joey Gonzalez, though. Any other big takeaways or things you want to make sure we hit on the recap?

[David]

Yeah, we said in the intro, I said I would reference in the recap his trading secret was all about balance. The two things I'm going to say are. I loved his line. He says, I always say that there's no such thing as balance. There's only disappointing someone. I think that that is so true in so much sense is because if you're trying to balance, it means you're cutting something off that you feel like you should do more. Is it work? Is it something at home? Is it something for you that you're trying to get more balance up so you're not doing that as much.

[Jason]

Much.

[David]

I thought that that was a really interesting line that he said is there's no such thing as balance. There's only disappointing someone. And then when he did talk, like.

[Jason]

I'm good, like, in my. And like, where I'm at with myself and just, like, growth and stuff, I can. I'm okay with disappointing someone. You know what I mean?

[Joey Gonzalez]

Yeah.

[Jason]

You can't make. No is a full sentence. Like, I can't. You can't fill everyone else's cup up. You can't take care of everything and everything. Otherwise, there's nothing left at the home front. You know what I mean? As someone who's done that for, like, you know, a lot of my years, forever working, like forever. My whole life I've been, you know, if I played hockey, I played on six teams. Like, I never did anything with balance.

[David]

Well, he said it in his trading secret to do. He goes, you don't find balance, you create it.

[Jason]

Yeah. Oh, there we go. There we go. There's my quote.

[David]

His way of doing it was the focus on the four Fs, he said Family, faith, fulfillment and fun. So I think that that was a really interesting way to take on it. I think, I think it just like if he has his four foundational things for balance and it's those things, you know, I've said mine before recently, like, for my life to be fulfilled, do something you love, do with the best of your ability. Treat people right along the way. Like, I really think those things are really important for people to have as just like a foundational reset to make sure that you are able to find balance or have a foundation or be able to feel secure when life gets crazy. Because 2026, we can say all the good things we want. It's going to get crazy for all of us listening at some point. So what do we. What are we doing to center ourselves so we can actually be able to evaluate where we're at and what we're doing?

[Jason]

Yeah. And I think addition by subtraction is a big one too. Especially. I like that continue to grow. Like you think about. I think about like my life and my friendships and my family and, and just all areas and like, think about your, Your, Your. Your nuances and the people in your social network like a target symbol. And like those people in your. The small, smallest pinpoint of that target, your safest place. Like, those are people that you need to make sure you're protecting that circle, like, with the utmost respect for yourself. Like, if you let any bit of toxicity into that pinpoint target, you are like, putting yourself in a really tough position. The people in your pinpoint target you should feel safe with, they should be rooting for you. You should be rooting for them. Their successes should be celebrated, like all the good things. And I think addition by subtraction is a big one. That's been a big part of my 2025 to get where I am. So today.

[David]

I love it. I love that for you. Listen, JTA, JTA, 2025 is going to. I feel like it's going to be. We're still going to put you in the hot seat for some financials, but I feel like the outlook. I'm feeling warmer. I'm feeling warmer for Jason. I feel like I'm. I'm not going to have to grill him as much. I think we're going to. I think we're going to talk more about, like you talked about in the intro, the review mirror, the. Or the windshield. I think we're really going to talk about the windshield feel. We're going to Feel good about it. I'm. I'm excited for JTA this year. I really am.

[Jason]

I'm excited. I think in 2026. One more theme I want to say, and I think it's like. It's just like, I want to be feeling good, right? So if, like, suppose you want to go have your chicken wing night and your taco, like, don't be your. You want to feel good doing that, do it. But then also I want to make better decisions with my eating, my sleeping, my drinking, all that. Because I just want to show up and feel better. I saw something with Tom Brady and he was talking about. About when him and Eli Manning. No, it wasn't Eli.

[David]

It was Tom Brady.

[Jason]

You saw something about the breakfast order?

[David]

Well, you saw something about Tom Brady in the news this week.

[Jason]

He's talking about Alex Earl. Yeah. Oh, yeah. St. Bart seems, like, wild, huh? You see. Do you see Bethany Frankel's breakdown of it? She's like, it's like the Hungry Games out there.

[David]

It's amazing.

[Jason]

It's like Aspen or Aspen or St. Barts.

[David]

Well, Aspen, I feel like now is like, for the influencers, and St. Barts are like, for the wealthy.

[Jason]

It's like, well, St. Bart's New Year's Eve. I mean, you heard the travel with Libby. That's like the. That's like the big, big, big boy. Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's. Yeah. There's no joke around there. I went St. Bart's once. Wild, wild experience. It was offseason. Anyway, Tom Brady says he's ordering breakfast. He's training with Peyton Manning, and P. Manning, chef or whatever, comes over and orders, and he's like, yeah, I'll have granola and fruit, and that's all. And. And Peyton gets. He tells. Sells the order. It's like 10 eggs, four slabs of bacon, three pancakes. And Tom was like, are you serious? And he's like, why are you eating like that? He's like, why wouldn't I? We just worked out. He's like. And he's like, why are you eating like that? He goes, I eat like this not because I want to. Because I want to feel good. Like if I ate what you ate after, I'd have to sleep for. For four hours. So I think that's a theme. Just feel, make the decisions. It's going to feel good for your future, yourself.

[David]

I love that. That again, goes back to balance. As long as you're doing, as long as you're. You're putting in the work and you can make those decisions and you want to be accountable for the choices that you make. Back to choices. You could own the moments to make sure that we look back on the year and say this is a great year. And I think all the little things.

[Jason]

To bring it all back to Joy Gonzalez. Like this is the guy that exemplifies that. I was in the room with him, I talked to him. He exudes positive energy. You could tell tell he's healthy. You could tell he feels good. You could tell he's got a positive outlook on life. And that all comes down to just who he is at the core. And I thought it was a fun episode and a really good one for 2026. So, David, anything before we wrap?

[David]

No. It was a great episode. A fun little intro. I'm looking forward to it. I'm looking forward to the year. I'm looking forward to jta. I'm looking forward another year of the podcast. Thank you for listening. You've made it this far. 2026. Hope you're with us. Hope you're riding along with us.

[Joey Gonzalez]

Us.

[David]

A lot of good, a lot of fun, a lot of inspiration. A lot of good vibes coming in the future.

[Jason]

Good vibes coming. Let us know the questions you want David to ask me in jta and let us know we did a little different format here. A little intro, a little recap, little bop bop, how do you do? So let us know what you guys think. I hope you thought this was a great episode. I know we did. And most importantly, I hope you have the best year of your life yet. Hopefully this was another episode of Trade Secrets, one you couldn't afford to miss.

[Joey Gonzalez]

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[David]

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[Joey Gonzalez]

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[David]

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[Joey Gonzalez]

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[David]

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[Joey Gonzalez]

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[David]

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[Joey Gonzalez]

Nues pere a co.

[Jason]

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