How I Got Started in the Fitness Business

What 70-hour weeks and a Master’s degree couldn’t teach me about making money

I had hit my breaking point in 2017.

Seven years prior, I had told the 18-year-old version of me that I was going to own my own training business.

It was around that time I discovered Elliot Hulse on YouTube and was consuming all of his content. I admired his “4 Layers of Strength” methodology and wanted to crack the code of building “Lean, Hybrid Muscle.”

So I did what anybody in my position would have done.

I went to college for a four-year degree in exercise science, graduated from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2014, and immediately applied to Ball State’s sports performance program for my Master’s. I wasn’t messing around. I worked long days as a volunteer GA, driving 45 minutes at 4am just to train the Men’s Tennis team.

My time there finally came to an end in the spring of 2016, and later that summer I was hired at a facility near my hometown to develop a sports performance branch. This was finally the break I needed.

Or so I thought.

I ended up working 70+ hours a week, charging something like $12 per session because the facility was afraid to charge more. To make matters worse, I had to split revenue with the facility 50/50. I was making $6 per session, per client.

Fast forward to April of 2017. I was sitting on my beat-up, black futon in the living area of my single-bedroom apartment. I made just enough money to pay for rent, internet, eggs, and chicken.

I was broke and depressed. The dream I had for the last seven years had become my own personal hell. The only thought I can remember is:

“I can’t keep living like this.”

So that Friday night in early April of 2017 I did the only thing I knew to do.

I started watching YouTube videos on building an internet business. Downloaded every free resource I could find. I even did some odd jobs to pay for a video series Elliott Hulse was selling about starting your own warehouse gym.

For awhile I was a man possessed. I wanted out of my situation and I wasn’t going to listen to anybody about how to do it. I was going to build my way, on my own terms. I would be a self-made man.

And that’s where I went wrong…

In this article I’m going to show you why this mindset is wrong and give you a framework to follow so you don’t make the same mistakes I did.

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The Lone-Wolf Mentality

Hustle culture sells the idea of isolation as a form of discipline. That going it alone is a badge of honor that influencers wear like armor online.

I’m here to tell you that there’s nothing further from the truth. There’s no virtue in grinding away day after day, all by yourself. You only turn yourself into a liability.

In January of 2018 I kicked off a nutrition coaching business using Precision Nutrition’s coaching software. Against the advice of my boss at the gym, I offered a 50% off discount to my first 10 customers.

I should have listened to him. Only 5 people took me up on my offer, and I couldn’t even cover the cost of the software with the revenue I generated. But I didn’t have anyone else in my corner pushing back on the idea either. No peer group. No mentor who’d been through it. Just me, making decisions on my own.

I began to accept that my dream may just remain a dream.

You can work yourself into the grave if you want to, but your effort isn’t the only variable in your success. The people around you will play a larger role than you expect.

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The Shift

I left the gym the summer of 2018 for a teaching job as the strength and conditioning coordinator at a local high school. It was during this time I began to lurk on Twitter. I enjoyed reading the content pushed out by entrepreneurs, and if I’m being honest, I was a bit of a lead magnet slut.

I wanted all of them. I couldn’t get enough free knowledge.

One of the accounts I interacted with was Eddy Quan.

I went through his 7-day “Tweets to Cash” email course and ended up buying his “Write Once, Sell Twice” email marketing course.

And as all great internet entrepreneurs do, Eddy continued to send emails to all of his customers. They’d all flow well from story, to problem, to action. But one email was different than all the others. He was pitching a community for entrepreneurs that wanted to grow along side other entrepreneurs.

They were offering a free trial, so I figured, “What the heck.” I was amazed when I got inside.

Some of the biggest creators were in this community. And they were all sharing their expertise with everyone in the community. I’m talking growth strategies, content creation, personal branding, marketing, sales, audience building, business systems.

They all had profitable businesses and were giving away their knowledge for free.

But here’s what really got me: within my first week, I posted about my struggling nutrition business. Someone with a six-figure coaching practice broke down exactly why my pricing model was killing me. Another member shared the email sequence that turned their audience into buyers. A third walked me through how to position my offer so it didn’t sound desperate.

All in one thread. All in 24 hours.

I implemented their advice that same week and started training three clients in my garage at $150/month each within ten days. More than I’d made in the last two months at the gym combined.

I’d been trying to build mostly alone for over a decade. I didn’t realize how much that was costing me.

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How to Break Out of Lone-Wolf Thinking

I made lots of mistakes for almost a decade. Here’s how you can avoid the same ones.

Step 1: Audit your circle

Who are you talking to about your business?

If you answered, “Nobody,” that’s a huge red flag. And if you answered, “people that don’t understand what I’m talking about,” that’s even worse.

You become the people you surround yourself with. If you want growth, it might be time to upgrade who you’re surrounded by.

Step 2: Normalize asking for help

Somewhere in time, we were taught that asking for help was a sign of weakness. Like we were giving up our autonomy if we followed somebody’s advice. But seeking help is actually a learnable skill.

Think about it. All great athletes have had coaches. Michale Jordan and Kobe Bryant had Phil Jackson. Tom Brady had Bill Belichik. It’s safe to say those men would not be the superstars we know them as without the HELP of their coaches.

Besides, asking for help shows that you have self-awareness for your weaknesses.

Step 3: Find your peer group, not just mentors

Everybody is at a different stage of the process. In the beginning, it makes no sense for you to try to keep up with those that are already ahead of you. What is working for them, might not always work for you.

Part of community is joining forces with others that are at the same stage as you. This allows you to talk strategy. To share what’s working and what’s not working.

Step 4: Show up consistently and not just when you need something

Nobody likes a freeloader. People can sense when you’re being one.

Think of it like a gym. The person who only shows up when they need a spot but never offers to help rack weights? Everyone knows who they are. Community only works when you invest in others just as much, if not more, than they’re investing in you.

Make sure you are being seen everywhere in your community and always be willing to help others.

Step 5: Have skin in the game

You can find free advice everywhere. Shoot, ChatGPT and Claude can fire off more content in a minute than anyone can type in an hour. But accountability happens in committed spaces. You have to be willing to put in just as much as you receive.

Join the Right Room

For me, I found community in Masterclass 24/7. I’ve made friends with over 500 like-minded entrepreneurs building their brands on Substack and X. I get to chat with six-figure CEOs, accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers, and even get feedback from a multi-millionaire.

The best part is they’re offering a 7-day free trial right now.

No strings attached. Just full access to see if it’s the right fit for you.

If you’re tired of figuring this out alone, use my affiliate link below.

Worst case, you spend a week learning from people who’ve already done what you’re trying to do.

Best case, you find your people and everything changes like it did for me.

We all know that progress takes time, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Join us today.

See you inside,
- Josh