Devan Gonzalez didn’t stumble into leadership—he forged it in the fire of martial arts mats and business mistakes. In this episode, Devan unpacks how discipline, mindset, and purposeful mentorship shaped his journey from teen instructor to fitness franchise founder. He shares what most leaders miss: showing up beats motivation every time. Leadership isn’t about knowing everything—it’s about building systems so others don’t need you to. Devan dives into the bumps he hit, from marketing misfires to realizing common sense isn’t universal—it’s learned. He reveals how empowering his business partner by treating him like a franchisee, not a co-founder, unlocked scalability and clarity. You’ll also hear his unfiltered take on decision-making, delegation, and how Covid didn’t break his business—it boosted it. This is a masterclass in turning grind into growth and chaos into clarity.

Want to learn more about Devan Gonzalez's work? Check out their website at https://www.strive11fitness.com/franchise.

Connect with Devan Gonzalez on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/devangonzalez/.

Think you'd be a great guest on the show? Apply at https://podcast.allies4me.com/podcast-guest/.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrew's work at allies4me? Check out his website at https://allies4me.com/.

Key Takeaways with Time Stamps:

• 00:02:00 — Started leadership journey at 13 as a martial arts instructor.
• 00:04:30 — Mindset breakthrough: “You’re getting hit either way—fight back.”
• 00:06:40 — Discipline and showing up outweigh motivation.
• 00:08:15 — “Will I regret skipping this workout in an hour?” Powerful self-leadership tool.
• 00:13:40 — Early entrepreneurial ventures selling t-shirts—built drive to create.
• 00:15:30 — Chose purpose over a “safe” firefighting career.
• 00:16:40 — First big business challenge: poor marketing and hidden gym location.
• 00:18:00 — Transition from solopreneur to true business owner.
• 00:20:45 — “Common sense is only common to the person who knows it.”
• 00:22:00 — Leadership shift: partner says, “Treat me like a franchisee.”
• 00:23:50 — Delegation became the key to scaling without burnout.
• 00:26:10 — Covid pivot: adversity became an accelerant, not a setback.
• 00:28:00 — Real estate lesson: why using a realtor could’ve saved headaches.
• 00:31:30 — Opportunity mindset: build, adapt, repeat.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment of my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;10
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on the show.

00;00;51;10 - 00;01;04;11
Craig Andrews
Today I want to welcome David Gonzalez. He is a fitness entrepreneur and podcast host. He's the founder of strive 11 fitness. And he hosts the Mindset Cafe.

00;01;04;11 - 00;01;13;00
Craig Andrews
He started as, like, a martial arts instructor at age 13 and developed a love for fitness and mentorship.

00;01;13;00 - 00;01;20;27
Craig Andrews
He transitioned to personal training, developed a six figure business. Without doing anything online, then followed that.

00;01;20;29 - 00;01;36;23
Craig Andrews
By 28, Devin became a gym owner. Created a community that prioritized both physical and personal growth. I love that second part. Personal going along with physical. And then co-founded strive 11 fitness and scaled it into a,

00;01;36;23 - 00;01;38;00
Craig Andrews
franchise.

00;01;38;00 - 00;01;48;15
Craig Andrews
By 31. So anyway, I think this is going to be an exciting episode. I've been on Devin's podcast and we had chance to chat.

00;01;48;18 - 00;01;50;19
Craig Andrews
I think you'll love this. Devin. Welcome.

00;01;50;26 - 00;01;51;28
Devan Gonzalez
Thank you so much for having me.

00;01;51;28 - 00;01;54;02
Devan Gonzalez
I'm looking forward to running it back.

00;01;54;04 - 00;01;56;14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. So,

00;01;56;14 - 00;02;03;15
Craig Andrews
so you've always, always been in the. You were an instructor. I've read that right. You're a martial arts instructor at 13?

00;02;03;17 - 00;02;24;26
Devan Gonzalez
Yeah. That's correct. I mean, that part started as an opportunity that was presented. I mean, I start as a martial arts student, you know, young as a kid and got my black belt at the age of 13. And the owner of the the martial arts studio, basically asked me if I wanted to help teach some of the classes, you know, for the kids and everything.

00;02;24;28 - 00;02;28;25
Devan Gonzalez
And obviously, I'd ask my parents because I wasn't driving, and, I mean, someone had to drive me to,

00;02;28;25 - 00;02;35;24
Devan Gonzalez
to the studio, and they were on board. And so I basically got paid under the table. You know, I wasn't getting a W-2 or anything,

00;02;35;24 - 00;02;52;16
Devan Gonzalez
but that was my first realization that I liked helping people in the terms of coaching them and seeing them grow their own self-confidence, their own abilities, and being able to have that small imprint on their life.

00;02;52;16 - 00;03;10;20
Devan Gonzalez
Because, I mean, those kids, you know, and and even in adults later on that I helped build that, that physical fitness, but also that self-confidence was the main thing. They will always remember that day or that time when they trained at that martial arts studio.

00;03;10;23 - 00;03;16;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. What got you originally interested in martial arts?

00;03;16;03 - 00;03;17;14
Devan Gonzalez
Honestly, actually,

00;03;17;14 - 00;03;36;15
Devan Gonzalez
I wasn't I used to like watching Jackie, the old school Jackie Chan movies and and everything at that. But I started martial arts when I was really young. Probably like, 5 or 6. Didn't really. Wasn't really too fond of it. You know, I did the whole taekwondo and did tournaments and won tournaments, but it just wasn't fun for me.

00;03;36;18 - 00;03;57;28
Devan Gonzalez
And then my middle brother got enrolled into martial arts, and my parents kind of convinced me I had to go back because I needed to be the good older brother and show them that, you know, just because he's scared, you know, he can still do it. And I didn't like it at the time because I was too big to be with the younger kids, but I was too small to be the older kids.

00;03;58;04 - 00;04;15;23
Devan Gonzalez
So you naturally just get moved up. So when it came to sparring, you know, and fighting our martial arts style was a mixed martial arts based gym. So we did grappling. We did, you know, for, you know, punches the head, kicks the head and everything like that. And so I was just getting beat up by the older kids.

00;04;15;26 - 00;04;34;02
Devan Gonzalez
And so finally one of my coaches kind of gave me some personal lessons or private lessons. And he was that, look, if you don't fight back and you're scared, you're going to get beat up. If you fight back and you lose, you still might get beat up, but you're probably going to beat up either way. Why not just go out there and try to get some punches in?

00;04;34;04 - 00;04;50;28
Devan Gonzalez
And then so he made it. He made it. He dumbed it down like that so I could understand it and it made sense to me. But what he was trying to really convince me is my self-confidence and my ability to just throw a punch. And he knew that if I landed one, that I would start believing in myself.

00;04;50;28 - 00;05;03;08
Devan Gonzalez
And that's what happened. You know, I went out there and I was like, what do I have to lose? You know, I'm getting beat up either way. Like, let's let's just go for it. And the kid, the kid that I was sparring, that was kind like the bully in that in the class was probably about four years older than me.

00;05;03;11 - 00;05;09;08
Devan Gonzalez
And so it's a good difference in age when you're when you're talking about, you know, a ten year old versus,

00;05;09;08 - 00;05;20;16
Devan Gonzalez
a 12 or 14 year old. And so I went out there and, you know, one day and actually held my own, and all of a sudden it was like a light bulb that switch in my head. And I loved it ever since.

00;05;20;18 - 00;05;37;19
Craig Andrews
Wow. Yeah. And you know, from the whole concept of mindset, I mean, the discipline that, you know, to just show up and get your butt kicked again and again and again that, that, that had to be there, had to be tough.

00;05;37;22 - 00;05;56;16
Devan Gonzalez
Oh, definitely. I mean, when you're that young and you don't have really a say in showing up, you know, that was the I guess the one thing my dad really instilled instilled in us was you need to show up. You you committed to this and you're you're going to follow through. You said you're going to get your black belt, so you're going to show up.

00;05;56;16 - 00;06;16;00
Devan Gonzalez
I don't care if you feel like it, I don't care. You know what's going on. You committed to it. You you follow through. And so even though I didn't like the sparring, I still showed up as it was, you know, mentally and physically painful. But once that light bulb clicked, then all of a sudden that self-confidence started to grow.

00;06;16;07 - 00;06;41;23
Devan Gonzalez
And then it was like, okay, like I can actually do this. And he became a little more fun. So sometimes I believe that with mindset especially, it, dedication and determination are one in the same. But they're a skill, right? So showing up whether you feel like it or you don't, whether you see the results immediately or they're delayed result, you have to show up enough so that you don't have to show up for external motivation.

00;06;41;25 - 00;06;50;04
Devan Gonzalez
But by you showing up time and time again, you start to see some results and that starts to build an internal motivation.

00;06;50;07 - 00;06;58;14
Craig Andrews
You know, I, I had my, you know, regular battle this morning that started around 430.

00;06;58;14 - 00;07;11;04
Craig Andrews
You know, it's time to get up and go to camp Gladiator. I don't want to go. You know, maybe I'll take this day off. I swear, that battle comes every single time.

00;07;11;04 - 00;07;16;13
Craig Andrews
Monday. It was so bad. I was actually driving there, and I almost turned around in there thinking.

00;07;16;14 - 00;07;31;16
Craig Andrews
It's not too late to turn around. Thereby, nobody will see you if you turn around now. And it's just like it. It's just an endless battle. I think this morning I had like 250 check ins, and still after 250 check ins,

00;07;31;16 - 00;07;34;23
Craig Andrews
it's still, you know, tough.

00;07;34;25 - 00;07;52;02
Devan Gonzalez
No, definitely. And I think, I mean, I own a gym and it's still tough for me to workout some days. Right. And it's sometimes the hardest part is just showing up. And once you do show up, then you're like, okay, you go through, you know, you go through the motions, you go through the workout and you're like, oh, that wasn't that bad.

00;07;52;05 - 00;08;11;23
Devan Gonzalez
But that ability to turn around and know that you can just turn around and like you said, no one will know, but you'll know. And so like the reframe that I give myself is in an hour. It will I regret this if I turn around. Right. And so most of the time you can answer that with a yes.

00;08;11;26 - 00;08;29;26
Devan Gonzalez
You just go and you show up. You get it done real quick. It's like, what am I going to do besides this? I'm going to go back home and go to sleep, or I'm going to go back home and sit on the couch. It's like it's only an hour, you know, and then you, you start to make it seem smaller and smaller in your head, and then all of a sudden the time flies and you're done.

00;08;29;26 - 00;08;34;13
Devan Gonzalez
You feel great for the rest of the day, and no one knows that you're even debating, you know, not showing up.

00;08;34;15 - 00;08;43;10
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah. And the you know, for me, the way I put it is I know I'll be thankful.

00;08;43;10 - 00;08;57;17
Craig Andrews
Yeah. You know, I have, you know, I've compromised lungs so I can only do 35 minutes because it has other effects on me. But I know. Okay, if I go 35 minutes later, I'm going to feel better, and I do.

00;08;57;20 - 00;09;13;03
Devan Gonzalez
Yep. I mean, last night, I say the same thing sometimes it's not like, let's say I was going to work out last night at and when my daughter went to sleep, which had been around at 930, you know, because then take some, take some.

00;09;13;03 - 00;09;20;03
Devan Gonzalez
Bcaas and creatine and everything. And then I sat down and I was like, all right, I can go right now, but I am drained.

00;09;20;05 - 00;09;36;15
Devan Gonzalez
So I gave myself an hour and I was like, I'm going to go. I set an alarm on my phone. I was like, I'm going to go in an hour, right? So it wasn't the fact that I was delaying or not going. I needed to mentally recheck back in and I did. I went, you know, went and worked out.

00;09;36;15 - 00;09;55;04
Devan Gonzalez
And, I mean, I finished my workout, even posted on my story like I finish my work at like midnight. But for me, that that's my good time to work out. If I woke up early like you and worked out like, I definitely know for me personally, that's not my best time to work out. So sometimes you do have to push it a little bit and feel better, and that's fine.

00;09;55;04 - 00;09;59;29
Devan Gonzalez
But the main thing is you told yourself you're going to go today. As long as you do that, you're good.

00;10;00;01 - 00;10;05;24
Craig Andrews
You know, it's fine. You take creatine, which is basically food for the muscles, right?

00;10;05;26 - 00;10;06;22
Devan Gonzalez
In a sense.

00;10;06;24 - 00;10;24;18
Craig Andrews
Yeah. The the thing the funny thing is reason I can only do 35 minutes is when I do blood work, my creatinine level is too high. The waste product from that creatine. And it's an indication of kidney function. And for me it's just lack of oxygen to the kidneys that

00;10;24;18 - 00;10;33;15
Craig Andrews
So it's funny, you're you're taking something when you work out where I actually want less of that in my system because it doesn't get filtered out.

00;10;33;17 - 00;10;44;21
Devan Gonzalez
Yeah. I mean, we all naturally have creatine. Creatine, essentially, when you take it, it's not necessarily muscle for the food or food for muscle. So it's

00;10;44;21 - 00;10;58;05
Devan Gonzalez
you have three energy systems, right? So the first one being your creatine phosphate system, which you know is for essentially lifting. So I won't take creatine if I'm going to go on a run or do anything cardio based or even really plyometric based.

00;10;58;08 - 00;11;12;28
Devan Gonzalez
But if I'm going to lift that, I'll take creatine because it does help that initial lift and it gives your muscle a little bit more energy and power for, you know, basically zero seconds to 30s after that. Then you go to your glucose systems and then you go to your, your,

00;11;12;28 - 00;11;15;00
Devan Gonzalez
your lipid or your fat burning system.

00;11;15;00 - 00;11;16;23
Devan Gonzalez
After 30 minutes.

00;11;16;26 - 00;11;29;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well that's cool. I know that. So let me ask this. If you're not going to your fat burning if, if your goal is to lose weight.

00;11;29;01 - 00;11;35;14
Craig Andrews
Are you saying that you need to be at it for at least 30 mins before you start getting into the fat burning phase?

00;11;35;16 - 00;12;03;04
Devan Gonzalez
No no no no no no. Like the the fat burning phase is so energy systems and phases are different. So an energy phase is just what is your body metabolizing to produce the energy. Right. And what and what energy phase has the most force output. So like you're creating the creatine phase. It is very short lived but also regenerates fairly quick.

00;12;03;04 - 00;12;32;16
Devan Gonzalez
So if you rest for a minute or two then that's gonna be your first system that you'll hit again when you are in your glucose or your carb, you know, energy phase, right? For for layman's terms, that's essentially your first 30 minutes of your workout, right? But that doesn't mean you're not burning fat as fat burning or fat burning zones is all of an accumulation essentially of input and output of nutrients.

00;12;32;19 - 00;12;39;02
Devan Gonzalez
So if you have a deficit in the amount that you eat compared to the amount that you burned, you're going to lose weight.

00;12;40;10 - 00;12;41;06
Devan Gonzalez
Does that make sense.

00;12;41;08 - 00;12;45;00
Craig Andrews
That does it does. That's encouraging.

00;12;45;03 - 00;13;11;09
Devan Gonzalez
And a lot of people get that mixed up in in the best way I can explain it in workout terms is most and I've had clients that will warm up on the treadmill or want of doing cardio for 5 to 10 minutes before they start lifting. Well, you've just utilized ten minute, 5 to 10 minutes of your more powerful in terms of lifting, and you'll have more strength when you lift.

00;13;11;11 - 00;13;22;27
Devan Gonzalez
And you've already burnt 5 to 10 minutes of that. So it's better to do your cardio after you lift, because now you're in a slower metabolizing, slower force output,

00;13;22;27 - 00;13;29;17
Devan Gonzalez
energy system, which would essentially be using that that fat burning system.

00;13;29;19 - 00;13;41;29
Craig Andrews
It interesting. So I mean, it looks like you've been fairly entrepreneurial, you know, going all the way back to 13.

00;13;42;01 - 00;13;43;21
Devan Gonzalez
And yeah, in a sense, I think,

00;13;43;21 - 00;13;52;22
Devan Gonzalez
I mean, since the age of 13, when even when I was a martial arts instructor, I had t shirt companies and so forth in, in high school. And it was because I saw

00;13;52;22 - 00;13;59;28
Devan Gonzalez
other local brands and older kids doing it. And I thought that was so cool seeing their shirts all around school and around, you know, Santa Clarita.

00;14;00;02 - 00;14;33;09
Devan Gonzalez
And I wanted to be a part of that. So I started printing shirts and selling shirts at school, essentially, like out of my backpack. And it was so cool to have people tell me, oh, I saw one of your shirts at, you know, so-and-so or different parts of the Valley. And those were short lived businesses. But once I got into personal training in college because I switched from martial arts to personal training in college just because of scheduling, and that's when I started, you know, personal training for the gym and then personal training outside.

00;14;33;09 - 00;14;51;04
Devan Gonzalez
And that's when my true, like, entrepreneurial start happened. And then finally after, you know, a few years of working for gyms, I took that full leap in and started my own personal training business and grew that to six figures and then helped start a prep school for for basketball athletes

00;14;51;04 - 00;14;54;06
Devan Gonzalez
in middle school and then, you know, went from there.

00;14;54;06 - 00;15;02;29
Devan Gonzalez
So I mean, the entrepreneurial part was never really the goal until until college.

00;15;03;01 - 00;15;09;15
Craig Andrews
What what do you think flipped the switch?

00;15;09;17 - 00;15;33;17
Devan Gonzalez
Not I mean, before before college and even throughout most of college, like I was actually going to go the firefighter route. And so everything I was doing was aligned to essentially go that route and got my EMT certification and everything. And that's because my parents had always told me that I needed to get a job, a career, and then it came time to make a decision, stop personal training and go the firefighting route.

00;15;33;19 - 00;15;57;15
Devan Gonzalez
And it was one of those decisions where I had already found what I felt like was my purpose. I was loving what I was doing, and I could either double down on what I was doing or do something that I was told was a safer career. And so I just wanted to bet on myself. And I saw other people that were successful, and I was like, well, that's if they're doing it.

00;15;57;17 - 00;16;16;22
Devan Gonzalez
That's my testimonial. That is a possibility. I know that a lot of people don't make it to the level of, you know, the select few. But I've always been one of those people that if someone if one person is successful, that means it's a possibility. And I won't stop until it's it's my possibility or my opportunity as well.

00;16;16;24 - 00;16;19;14
Craig Andrews
Yeah. What are some,

00;16;19;14 - 00;16;32;01
Craig Andrews
what are some bumps in the road? Is some things, you know, either in your coaching or in your franchise. What are some things that you ran into that were then just kind of sucked?

00;16;32;03 - 00;16;52;23
Devan Gonzalez
The first one, when I first went independent as a personal trainer and started my own business, I went to a smaller private gym and to save money on rent and everything, this gym was hidden essentially, and I didn't know how to market. I didn't know any of those kind of things, and I wasn't really gaining any new clients except referrals.

00;16;52;26 - 00;17;02;06
Devan Gonzalez
Which was also a blessing, you know, with the curse, you know, it it taught me how to build referral systems and and everything like that.

00;17;02;06 - 00;17;12;02
Devan Gonzalez
But then I did have to move to a bigger gym, you know, and that was a little bit more known so that people didn't struggle trying to get to that gym. And everything.

00;17;12;04 - 00;17;40;13
Devan Gonzalez
With the gym itself, I will say some bumps in the road was going from solopreneur to business owner is that is a transition in itself. And my business partner had never been an entrepreneur or even a solopreneur beforehand. He was actually one of my clients, and I convinced him to hop on board with me on on my idea, because he was starting to go the personal training route after he did his bodybuilding show.

00;17;40;15 - 00;17;56;07
Devan Gonzalez
And I was like, look, I already been down that road either. Let's just fast forward you to where I'm at and I want to do this. I want someone to kind of go through the ups and downs and through the trenches with me. So he he hopped on board. We both, you know, quit what we were doing. And, and went all in on it.

00;17;56;09 - 00;18;16;15
Devan Gonzalez
And one of the biggest bumps in the road with that, with launching the franchise, I stepped away to do the franchise. And all of a sudden the business started taking a dip. And I looked at him and I was like, dude, what? What is going on? And he's like, I've been trying to figure all these things out, and I, I didn't want to bother you because I know you have a ton on your plate.

00;18;16;18 - 00;18;36;09
Devan Gonzalez
And I was like, dude, that's we're business partners. Like, if something's going wrong, let me know. Like, these were small fires. Now they're, you know, almost borderline wildfires. I was like, let's, let's get this central troll. You do this, this and this. And he was like, I didn't know that. And then that light bulb came on and it was like, man, for me, that was common sense.

00;18;36;09 - 00;18;56;07
Devan Gonzalez
And I didn't realize that I was just doing those things because I had learned those skills through being a personal trainer and having that business. But that's when I learned that common sense is only common to the person that knows it. Right. And so your life, your past experiences have developed what you now believe is common sense.

00;18;56;09 - 00;19;17;27
Craig Andrews
Yeah, all of that common sense is only common to the people who know it. And I think I you know I'll be honest I struggle with that. I've, I've gotten better over the years where I'm like well go do this. And I just assume that they can connect the dots. You know for me it makes perfect sense.

00;19;17;29 - 00;19;18;17
Craig Andrews
And

00;19;18;17 - 00;19;36;05
Craig Andrews
I remember I, you know, for me, I remember one time we were doing a, client strategy meeting and typical client strategy meeting. I'm sitting there, I'm looking the client in the eye and, you know, asking questions and and just kind of typing out their, their answers. You know, I don't have to look at the keyboard.

00;19;36;05 - 00;19;39;12
Craig Andrews
I type pretty well. And,

00;19;39;12 - 00;19;40;26
Craig Andrews
and I had,

00;19;40;26 - 00;19;58;01
Craig Andrews
I had to go to the restroom and I had a couple, a couple folks with me, a couple of employees, and just handed one of them the laptop, and I hit the hit the restroom. I come back and they're like, exactly where I left them. And they're like, Craig, this is hard.

00;19;58;03 - 00;20;05;17
Craig Andrews
And it was funny. It's kind of like I was like, I never thought of that as hard. It's just something I did. And,

00;20;05;17 - 00;20;17;24
Craig Andrews
but one of the things that really struck me was when we were talking back in the green room, you know, we we jumped on, I think it was 8 a.m. your time. And I was trying to figure out if things were busy at the gym.

00;20;17;24 - 00;20;20;15
Craig Andrews
And your response was, oh,

00;20;20;15 - 00;20;32;16
Craig Andrews
you know, I'm, I'm not involved in the day to day activities in the gym. And what that told me is that you've been able to build a team that runs those details so you can focus on the business.

00;20;32;18 - 00;20;57;09
Devan Gonzalez
Yeah. And that that's that was built through essentially that lesson I just had said and that was, I guess, another hurdle that me and my business partner faced together, where I had always tried to. I mean, we're even we're 50, 50 partners, but in in doing so, I always believe that both of us need to come up with the ideas.

00;20;57;09 - 00;21;13;06
Devan Gonzalez
Both of us need to do this. And he pulled me aside and he was like, look, I don't get how you just think like that. I don't get where these ideas come from, he said. How do you like how does how do you do it? Let me explain that to me and I'll try to do it. And I was like,

00;21;13;06 - 00;21;21;25
Devan Gonzalez
I don't they just it just happens, like, you know, like, I don't I don't know how to explain it, you know, I just drive down the street and sometimes ideas are in my head, I,

00;21;21;25 - 00;21;23;10
Devan Gonzalez
I can't turn it off or turn it on.

00;21;23;10 - 00;21;53;01
Devan Gonzalez
It just happens. And so then when that dip had happened in the gym, he was like, look, I don't know everything that you know. And also, as much as you try to force me just to make executive decisions, he said, we both know I'm not going to do it. So what I want, what I need from you as a partner is you tell me what to do, treat me like a franchisee, because this is when we started to build out the where I was getting the infrastructure of the franchise, and he was like, treat me like a franchisee.

00;21;53;04 - 00;22;15;03
Devan Gonzalez
And he was like, the win for you is we'll learn what systems and processes we don't have in place. And to for me, I'll be getting a less stressful environment trying to fill a role. I'm not I'm not the person to fill. And he was like, you're the visionary. Everything that we've created at the gym you created, it was a thought in your head.

00;22;15;06 - 00;22;34;07
Devan Gonzalez
He was like, then we talked about it, right? And so he's like, I'm the integrator. You're the visionary. Let's stick to those roles, but treat me like a franchisee. And I was like, okay, I was if I, if I mean if you want that. And then all of a sudden everything just started flowing a lot more systematically and everything.

00;22;34;07 - 00;23;06;08
Devan Gonzalez
So even now when I said I'm not a part of the gym, it's because he runs our corporate, you know, side of the business for our locations. And then I'm running the franchise side and building those out, building the systems and the infrastructure so that we can add in a bigger team for that. But when the onboarding and the training for the franchisees come into play, he's also in that aspect because there's already a system in place, there's already the infrastructure for it, and he can do really well if he knows at least the guidelines of where to go.

00;23;06;10 - 00;23;31;05
Craig Andrews
Yeah, you know, it's yet interesting. Yesterday I was on a call with some guy. It was a sales call. They were looking for some marketing help. And you know, they have these wild gall goals and it's, you know, with a problem we could easily solve, but we couldn't even make it through the call. He had to take a call because somebody, something came up in his business that needed his attention EMS.

00;23;31;05 - 00;23;51;24
Craig Andrews
And they're looking at it's like, you know, we we could totally help you scale your business. But the thing that's going to break it is that I didn't say this to him, but I'm looking at I was like, if you can't make it through a, you know, a one hour call without interrupting and taking a second call in the middle of that, there's no way you can handle more business.

00;23;52;00 - 00;24;00;24
Craig Andrews
The whole thing will break on itself. There's no way you can scale if you're absolutely essential for every minute in the business, from.

00;24;00;26 - 00;24;20;21
Devan Gonzalez
And I think for me too, like me and my, my partner had that conversation because that's how it was in the beginning. And it got to the point where I told him I was like, you already know majority of the things that I would say, I can't answer your phone call with every single little question, every single minute.

00;24;20;24 - 00;24;37;12
Devan Gonzalez
And I was like, I might as well just be at the gym, right? And doing all these things. I was like, I need you to make a decision on certain things. If it's something big, send me a text. We'll we'll hop on the phone or something. But as of otherwise, make the mistake. Right. And then we'll talk about it afterwards.

00;24;37;12 - 00;24;56;04
Devan Gonzalez
As if. Because half the time I'm making decisions. I don't know if it's the right decision or not. I was like, most of the time we've made different additions or, you know, adjustments to the business model. That was all theory until we made it reality. And sometimes I came back to you, I'm like, well, that actually wasn't the way.

00;24;56;04 - 00;25;16;14
Devan Gonzalez
And we just lost a few thousand dollars, you know, and we had to adjust. Right. And so I promise you, you're not going to burn down the business by making one adjustment to, you know, someone's membership and giving them a discount because you wanted to save the membership. Instead of asking me if it's okay, just do it afterwards.

00;25;16;14 - 00;25;34;19
Devan Gonzalez
You know, we can always talk about it and, you know, be like, okay, well, why did you do that? And that's fine. You know, next time I would have done A, B, or C, but that works too, right? So it's having that. And sometimes I even kind of forced that hand where I wouldn't be busy and he would call me, and then I would text him by, what do you need?

00;25;34;19 - 00;25;47;03
Devan Gonzalez
He's if I just had a quick question and I was I can't talk even though I was doing I was doing not anything busy. I just wanted him to make a decision. And then and then I would call it an hour or two later, I was, what was it? And then it was some small as a what'd you do?

00;25;47;08 - 00;25;50;10
Devan Gonzalez
And then he answered it and I said, that's perfect. Good job.

00;25;50;13 - 00;25;52;28
Craig Andrews
Yeah. And, you know, that's a little bit of that,

00;25;52;28 - 00;26;11;03
Craig Andrews
reaffirmation, that affirmation that you got from your your coach going all the way back to when you were ten, getting your butt kicked, your coach getting you out there going into an uncomfortable zone and then you experiencing a victory. And I think it's awesome that you circled around and encouraged him for it.

00;26;11;04 - 00;26;13;26
Craig Andrews
Hey, that's great. You made a decision. It was great.

00;26;13;29 - 00;26;16;06
Devan Gonzalez
Yep. Oh.

00;26;16;09 - 00;26;21;28
Craig Andrews
Covid, that had to be a bump in the road for a gym business.

00;26;22;00 - 00;26;52;08
Devan Gonzalez
It was a bump in the road for a lot of businesses. It was actually a thriving point for us. And for myself personally, the reason I say that is because, yes, there was the bump in the road for the first month or two. During that time, I was actually still personal training and we were I had just gotten married and we got back from our honeymoon the month to the day before the lockdown and lockdown happens.

00;26;52;10 - 00;27;11;08
Devan Gonzalez
We were about to open the gym and start looking for properties, so that got put on hold and my clients and stuff. Didn't want to train for about a month and then it was like, okay, let's do zoom workouts that lasted maybe a couple of weeks. And then people are like, look, we can we'll train outside. We're going to train at your house at this time, that's fine.

00;27;11;11 - 00;27;30;27
Devan Gonzalez
You buy all the equipment like it is what it is. And I was okay, like I'm cool with it. So I was actually blew up pretty fast. And then one of the gyms I was working at before, since they were closed down, I made a deal with the owner to pay him cash to rent out the gym, so it would be me and my one client in a 40,000 square foot gym.

00;27;30;29 - 00;27;56;01
Devan Gonzalez
And you know, it was an actual great time for us. And then the 2021 came around and I told my my partner, I was like, dude, I think this is the time that we start looking for a property. Like everything's starting to open back up. You know, a lot of gyms have closed. And so we actually found a great deal on what used to be a GameStop, because there was that whole GameStop ordeal that had happened around that time, too.

00;27;56;03 - 00;28;13;07
Devan Gonzalez
And so there was the GameStop near us that had closed, and there was probably four units in the plaza in that. I mean, there's a goodwill and there's a Ross in this plaza. So it has huge anchor stores. And I was like, well, if we can get that store for a good deal, I think this is our time to move.

00;28;13;09 - 00;28;37;19
Devan Gonzalez
And so we, we negotiated with the landlord. You know, we didn't use a realtor or anything, which was also a lesson learned. But we negotiated with us. They gave us, you know, a small startup deal. You know, they gave us a two year lease and then a five year option, and which helped out tremendously. And even with the five year option, they didn't try to, you know, finagle us or kind of work us around on the back end.

00;28;37;26 - 00;28;44;11
Devan Gonzalez
Like they actually really helped support, you know, a new business and two young entrepreneurs.

00;28;44;13 - 00;28;47;18
Craig Andrews
Well, what was the lesson about the realtor.

00;28;47;20 - 00;29;12;27
Devan Gonzalez
That, I mean, because we have a real estate team for the franchise and I had I used our real estate team to look over the lease and, you know, kind of prepare me for when I was going to execute the five year option, just in case. And there was some verbiage that could have gone sideways in term and some things I didn't know about checking the Hvac units and all these other things that you should have inspected beforehand.

00;29;12;29 - 00;29;35;12
Devan Gonzalez
And I mean, we've had issues with the Hvac since we've been in the property, but luckily enough, the landlords are they inherited it from their parents and they're younger as well. So they are super, you know, flexible. And we pay on time every single time. So they're, you know, they're happy with us and they work with us. But I think we could have got a better deal in terms of checking stuff out.

00;29;35;12 - 00;29;41;02
Devan Gonzalez
And even some like tenant improvements, all that kind of stuff. If we would have known that was even really a thing.

00;29;41;05 - 00;29;55;20
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Yeah. You know, one of the things I love about your, your Covid story, I, I know some people that I've heard whining about how Covid killed their business and,

00;29;55;20 - 00;30;05;27
Craig Andrews
and one of them in particular, I mean, he has a Rolodex that's enviable. He could he could get people on the phone that would open all sorts of doors.

00;30;05;27 - 00;30;23;27
Craig Andrews
And I'm like, dude, you couldn't figure out how to monetize that? Yeah. And just adapt just adapt to the time. And you know, kind of coming back to the concept of mindset. You saw opportunity where others saw limitations.

00;30;24;00 - 00;30;44;18
Devan Gonzalez
Yeah. I think it also comes down to the fact that some people liked being at home and not having to work and collect a paycheck. I remember after the first month my wife was working from home that their company just went remote. She was working for a mortgage company at the time and I was just staring at a TV that was off.

00;30;44;20 - 00;31;07;00
Devan Gonzalez
I was bored of watching TV. I was bored of you just sitting at home like I go stir crazy. It's like I like working. I like, you know, building and stuff. So me and one of my friends, actually, during that time created an online meal meal planning company. So we didn't prep it in the food, but we would just create custom meal plans for people.

00;31;07;03 - 00;31;25;03
Devan Gonzalez
And we had probably 15, 20 clients that we signed up, and we were running that for a couple months. And, and then we everything started opening back up. And so we slowly kind of tapered that off. But it was one of those things. We created a website, a brand and everything, and people started really loving it. But it was just that fact of building something and doing something.

00;31;25;05 - 00;31;31;12
Devan Gonzalez
There's opportunities everywhere. You just got to be, you know, open your eyes and realize that you have to have that opportunity,

00;31;31;12 - 00;31;46;08
Devan Gonzalez
opportunistic mindset. And that's how opportunities are presented to you if you think things are happening to you and you start to be the woe is me and you know everything is going wrong, then everything that you happen to see, you're going to look as a negative, right?

00;31;46;08 - 00;31;54;04
Devan Gonzalez
But if you view everything that happens to you as there's a lesson, there's a reason. What is the lesson? A reason it doesn't look so bad.

00;31;54;07 - 00;32;07;19
Craig Andrews
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, hey, let's wrap up by, what's strive 11 and what's what is it? How did people become franchise owners and all that.

00;32;07;21 - 00;32;26;29
Devan Gonzalez
Yeah. So strive 11 is a newer fitness bootcamp model, right? I know you go to, Camp Gladiator similar a similar than that except for we have no class times, right? I mean, that's our one of our big differentiating factors. So you can show up at any time. You still get that same group energy and and everything like that.

00;32;26;29 - 00;32;34;24
Devan Gonzalez
But if you do want to learn more about it, you can go to strive. And then 11 as in one one fitness.com/franchise.

00;32;34;26 - 00;32;39;24
Craig Andrews
Awesome. Yeah. And I like that I remember talking about that before

00;32;39;24 - 00;32;46;17
Craig Andrews
you know it gives gives a lot of flexibility. Yeah it's it's a really neat angle. I hadn't heard of that before.

00;32;46;20 - 00;32;47;11
Devan Gonzalez
Yeah. It's

00;32;47;11 - 00;33;06;10
Devan Gonzalez
it's that's the that's the one difficult thing is, you know, when even when members or franchisees are coming in and asking about it, they're like, what do you mean? It's a boot camp with no class times. And I'm like, well, let me explain, you know, but it I haven't seen another concept like it yet. And I mean, it was created in my brain and someone else had created as well.

00;33;06;10 - 00;33;10;07
Devan Gonzalez
Then we have similar brain.

00;33;10;09 - 00;33;12;26
Craig Andrews
But Devin, how can people reach you?

00;33;12;28 - 00;33;20;23
Devan Gonzalez
I mean, you can go to these two ways, either, you know, Instagram or Facebook, just Devin Gonzalez on pretty much any social media handle.

00;33;20;25 - 00;33;23;01
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well that's awesome. I Devin,

00;33;23;01 - 00;33;27;03
Craig Andrews
I love being on your podcast. I love chatting with you again.

00;33;27;03 - 00;33;34;10
Craig Andrews
I hope people reach out to you. And I, I love your commitment to mindset. Love your commitment to fitness.

00;33;34;10 - 00;33;47;02
Craig Andrews
I think I personally believe, you know, a lot of problems would be solved in, in our lives if, if we spend a little bit more time focused on fitness.

00;33;47;04 - 00;33;50;17
Devan Gonzalez
Or, or 100%. I agree. And you're a living testimonial to that.

00;33;50;19 - 00;33;53;05
Craig Andrews
Yeah. Well, thanks again.

00;33;53;07 - 00;33;56;24
Devan Gonzalez
Thank you so much for having me.

00;33;56;24 - 00;34;23;20
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest and sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;34;23;20 - 00;34;25;15
Craig Andrews
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00;34;25;17 - 00;34;48;27
Craig Andrews
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00;34;48;29 - 00;34;57;04
Craig Andrews
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00;34;57;04 - 00;36;59;09
Craig Andrews
It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.