I Just Bought A Gym - Here's The Story: Part 1

I recently signed the paperwork to purchase Concept Move as of June 1st, 2022. Since high school, I’ve dreamed of owning and operating my own gym. It’s time for me to get off the sidelines and take a shot at it.

The story of Concept Move dates back to 2017, where I was just moving home from New Hampshire after working there my first year out of college. I was jobless, hopeless and frustrated with the health and fitness industry. To paint the picture, I got my real estate license within three months of moving home. My interest in staying a member of the meat grinder that is the health and fitness industry was waning. Losing hope, I was left to take one more shot at finding a coaching role before I would trade in my sweatpants for a tie and dress shoes.

My first step was moving in with my parents, which didn’t exactly fill me with pride. I wanted to find a job as soon as possible so I could feel the independence of earning a good living and leaving my dishes in the sink without repercussions. I love them for taking care of me during that time. It helped me set a foundation for success in the future but man, dating sucked.

I applied to a bunch of local gyms for various positions, interviewing at multiple locations in the first week of being home. I was hustling and wanted things to happen fast.

One of the interviews was at a local gym, HammerFit, in Essex with a young man, Lucas Zelazny. He was the fitness director at the ripe old age of 24. Speaking with him made me feel like I was talking to someone thirty years my elder.

The interview went well but resulted in my taking a position elsewhere that offered me an opportunity to work in corporate wellness as an exercise physiologist. I moved on but found that a relationship had been established between Lucas and myself.

A few months later, Lucas approached me with an idea that he'd been building on. He was looking to start a gym and wanted a partner, two partners to be exact, to help him build a local personal training studio.

We met as a group of 3 over the period of a few months, discussing business plans and dreams of doing personal training our way, the way that it ought to be!

Mind you, we were all under the age of 25 with less than 5 years of experience in health and fitness combined between us. Nothing could go wrong.

Lucas took the lead on most of the projects, finding a building to lease, establishing financing, filing documentation with the state. I found myself playing the role of "armchair coach" where I sat back and discussed ideas like I really knew what I was talking about.

Around the time that Lucas was preparing us to sign a lease on Industrial Avenue, a job posting for the Oakland Athletics was sent to me by a friend. The position was for the short-season affiliate, the Vermont Lake Monsters. I had grown up watching the Lake Monsters and found myself wanting to apply, so I did without regard for what may come of it.

I got a call about the job a few weeks later and went through a few interviews before being offered the position. I was torn. There was the gym, which we'd decided to call Concept Mov3 (not a typo), or there was work in professional baseball, my passion since I was a young boy.

I took the job in baseball.

Over the next few years, I watched Lucas build Concept Move into a personal training studio that rivaled any gym in the Chittenden County area. There were young trainers just starting their career, tenured trainers that established high quality work and eventually massage therapists adding additional services.

My role was to come home during the offseason from baseball, coach a few clients here and there and try to provide resources to some of the younger trainers at staff meetings or on a 1-on-1 basis. I loved being involved but it wasn't anything that was changing the landscape of what was happening there.

Then COVID-19 happened.

I was furloughed from my work in baseball, left jobless and frustrated in the middle of the year. Within 24 hours of that furlough, Lucas offered me a full-time job at Concept Move to train during the pandemic months.

What ensued was some of the most fun I've had within health and fitness, meeting people that I now consider my close personal friends and growing my coaching toolbox with a new population that spoke mainly English and didn't have to throw a baseball for a living. I was growing again and had Lucas to thank for it.

Since that day where Lucas picked me up from the trenches, my involvement with Concept Move has grown. I've come to love the people involved and have felt a stronger sense of duty to be a part of providing something good at the gym.

That involvement took another step a few weeks ago, as Lucas and I signed an agreement for me to purchase Concept Move. His work with Outsource Creative has taken him away from the gym space and my interest and curiosity has brought me farther in.

As of June 1st, Guild Training Systems will be taking over business operations at 2069 Williston Road. It is with great excitement that I announce this transition. We will be working hard in the coming months to continue to add value to the member experience and look forward to making further announcements!