Transcript generated via AI - Not 100% accurate

Justin: 0:52

Welcome everyone. Today I am joined in studio by Alexis King and Melissa Watson. I just want to say, thank you both for coming to join me today. And you're with Activate Fitness. Is that right? All right. And you are owners of Activate Fitness along with your husbands. So there's actually four of you involved in this business, but you also own other businesses.

Alexis: 1:13

Yes.

Justin: 1:13

Is that right? You guys are some... You're busy ladies. All right. Nice. Is it fun?

Melissa: 1:19

Yeah.

Justin: 1:20

How'd you end up getting... did you ever picture yourself as being entrepreneurs?

Melissa: 1:25

I think I always would thought it would have been cool. I would have liked to have done it and never thought we'd be where we're at today, though. Owning multiple businesses. No, like...

Alexis: 1:37

Yeah, I did not. If anybody knows my husband, Dallas King, he definitely is born and bred for it. And I just fell into that. Seeing his confidence and all that stuff in everything that he's ever done, has opened my eyes to see, "Oh, I can do this too", type thing. So that's how I fell into it. So yeah.

Justin: 2:00

Why not? It's pretty awesome. So how long have you been running Activate?

Melissa: 2:07

So we opened... september of 2017 was our opening time. So just ever since the. We hade been doing CrossFit for five years before that we started in 2012. Yeah. Together. I think we start like a month within each other. Yeah, we did not even know each other. We just met in the gym.

Justin: 2:27

Really, and now your owner's in a business together for the last three years...Almost four years, at this point. And just said, "Hey, yeah, we're going to do this." So how did you... how did it come about? What was... what kind of kicked the whole thing off?

Melissa: 2:44

You want to start that story or you want me to start it?

Alexis: 2:46

You can go ahead.

Melissa: 2:48

So doing CrossFit for five years, we were in a gym and we loved it. And I know, I think for Lex and I both, we loved it so much that we wanted to share it ourselves with as many people as we possibly could. I know it was a dream of mine to be able to do something more in health and wellness and with preventative care. I also have my RN license, so I used to be a nurse prior to this and worked in the ER and I've seen a lot of things that could've been a lot better if people had more of the preventative side versus the treatment side of it. So it's just something I've always wanted to do. I wanted to own my own gym, wanted to get more into the health and wellness side of things. And then as far as Activate goes, how... we... what was, what first started it?

Alexis: 3:38

We, I think we... had the same. So just like Moe's saying they had, she had like this vision and want to do that. Dallas and I did, too. I actually started CrossFit before Dallas did...a couple months before... and I kept telling him, "you have to come and try this. This is amazing." Whatever. And the year I started was the year we actually got married. So, right after we got married he ended up coming with me just to watch. He's like, "I'm not gonna be able to do this. I've got this bad knee, a shoulder," the whole story everybody always has. And, I'm like," just come watch." He fell in love with it. And he got his level one and everything before... we all had to get our level ones to even carry the CrossFit name and all of that. And, so he had his level one and helped coach and did a lot of stuff. And just seeing him do that through the other gym, I knew there was something in him. And then, of course, because it was in him I started to get that itch, like, "okay, I want to do this too. This is something we have to do." And then Mark and Moe... we ended up getting really close at a competition, actually, that we had all signed up for in Texarkana.

Melissa: 4:40

Yes. I still remember it.

Alexis: 4:41

Yeah. Middle of this rodeo arena.

Melissa: 4:43

In a big barn, is what it was...

Alexis: 4:45

It was freezing cold. Yes. And, anyway, so we had got close with them then, and then our friendship and relationships just kept building from there. And Dallas and I knew...were like, "okay, we, we want to do this, but there's no way we can do this by ourselves." the same thing. Yeah, there was no thing. So we sat at Texas Roadhouse. We know which booth it was. But Before I

Justin: 5:06

It was like a first date. Like you, it, it was like where you can remember.

Melissa: 5:10

when we went, like we were, I thought we were going with just the idea of possibly doing this. We get there. Dallas has his notebook with. It's like a done deal. Like we are doing this. And I remember leaving, getting out of the cars like Mark, this is supposed to be just an idea, not actually doing this, like we're doing this is happening. So it was crazy. But yeah, every time we go to Texas Roadhouse, now I still, I see that booth. And that's exactly what I think of

Justin: 5:36

So you showed up in Dallas. It's like sign here, yeah. initial here.

Melissa: 5:39

much. Pretty much. Yeah,

Alexis: 5:40

I was with her, I thought this was an idea, whatever. And I'm like, guys, I'll that Moe across the table. And I was like, I think this is a done deal. I don't think we really have a say in this. Uh, anyway, but our boys are the same in that aspect. If they speak something into existence, you sometimes get to reel it in because it's going to happen.

Melissa: 5:56

Yes. Both of them Mark and Dallas. Both. Yeah.

Justin: 6:00

So you got started, but, and you're, you can just tell as I sit here with you both, you're just infectious. You're, you're bubbly, you're excited. Like you're doing something you're really passionate about and it's it's put a smile on my face. Like I'm just having a good time and, but it's not always been easy. I mean, there's this, obviously there's this strategy that goes into building a business. And so when you think about that strategy and kind of some of the challenges, I'm sure you went into it, I'm going to maybe drop a, like a preview. You've had two gyms, one of them we had some trouble with. Can you maybe tell that story, would you mind.

Melissa: 6:42

gym off of Rogers, our Rogers location. Yeah, it, that's where we first started and we started there and it flooded. It flooded in, was it last year? May of last year? No, it's been two years now. Two years ago. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people I'm know are familiar with the flood and it just, it got flooded out. But before it did, we were very lucky that we had two gyms at that time. And it's God was making a plan for us because if we wouldn't have had that second location, we would have lost a lot. And I,

Alexis: 7:15

telling where we would be today, to be honest. Yeah. That's what we were on the fence about a second location in Fort Smith. That's not that big, um, the, the distance between the two locations weren't. 10 minutes, if thatto know that, that was kind a thing, a hurdle that we had to think about, is this going to be worth it? Are we going to lose people? What's, you not lose people, but I don't know. There's just this whole, it's a second. It's a whole second. Business like people like, Oh second location. No, it's a second business. Added onto the other ones, uh, no big deal. Andanyway, so that is, we, it was really like on our heartare we going to do the right decision, make the right things. And then we, we pulled the trigger. We were like, this is what we wanted. Like when we first talked about it, like there wasn't one location that was set in mind yes. To build that, build the community and all of that. But we kind of wanted to be everywhere. We wanted to go out somewhere else and start this same community. Start the same amazing thing that we have found and that we have built. And we want to put it a little bit everywhere. And we got a little taste of that withyou know, having the two locations and thenyou know, we hate it that we lost the 97 Oh five vocation that's we

Melissa: 8:24

was our

Alexis: 8:24

from the ground up. Like we spent hours in there prepping that building and getting everything where it needed to be. And we had people choose that gym and it was like dirtier, like Dallas's lawn and landscape was in the backside. So there's no way to keep the thing like completely clean and like it was dirtier and it was. Smaller. And we still have people choose to come to that land over the clean and nice yeah. At home

Melissa: 8:49

even people talk about it now. There's just something about the walls of that gym that we created. And I guess, I think it's just because of the startup gym and. We built a really amazing community there. I remember the night thatwe actually, it was getting flooded and we weren't going to even going to move the equipment out yet. We thought it was gonna be fine for another 24 hours. We didn't think it was going to get to the point it got too. And I remember that it was like nine o'clock at night and we're like, we gotta get this stuff out. It's going to get ruined if we don't do it tonight. And then we put a message on our members only Facebook page. Hey guys, we have to get this stuff out tonight. Within 20 minutes, it was over 50 people showed up with trucks and trailers, almost like you want to cry thinking about it because it just shows that like how amazing our community is. Like they all came together and we got everything out of there in

Alexis: 9:40

30 Yeah, it took us no time. And like I said, like we live, in Charleston, which is about 20 ish minutes, from Fort Smith. And we, we had the phone call like, okay, this is what we're going to do. We posted it like before we left the house, there was already like, 10 15 cars, they're waiting for us to Get there and everything. Yeah. And that was just that short amount of time. And in the middle of the night of all things in other people's homes where they were, there was a possibility that they were going to have to do the same thing and they were still there helping. So it was just like, it was amazing. It definitely. Yeah,

Justin: 10:11

How do you build a culture like that?

Melissa: 10:14

Oh, kids. One CrossFit is known to build a culture like that. And I know you do CrossFit as well, and you can see that. You go into a gym with all these other people that have that. They're like-minded, they have similar goals and you do these hard workouts together and it's you're dying and you're dying together. And I think that just brings people together. So I think that's a huge part of it. But I also feel like we've had a huge part in it too. Like it's always been our goal as when we started activate one of our number or not one of our goals. Our number one goal was to make sure that we were building a community. That was like a family. We, our goal is like, even now when new people are coming in, we want to make sure that they are super comfortable, that they feel welcomed because we both know what it's like to walk into a CrossFit gym. It's very intimidating. So our goal is to make sure that new person feels very welcomed. So I think he'd do that from day one with your members, that it just builds that community.

Justin: 11:15

So I can just say, coming into the gym and I've only been doing this now for a year and it's you're right. The community is amazing and you do feel welcome when you walk in the door and I can imagine that it's not like that everywhere. How do you train. Your employees to have that same level of care for your customers.

Alexis: 11:37

I, I honestly, and Mo you can, defer if you want to, but I feel like the people that we have chosen are perfect, like they are, they know what we look for and all of that. So it's not like we have to put work into any of our people. Like we just choose good people that care about people and that's. All you have to do. There's not like a science to anything, if you're a good person and you want to help other people, like that's, that's the answer to it right there. And so I feel like we have done that. We've, we didn't just go on the street and be like, Hey you on coach it activate, like, uh, nothing like that. It's been people that we've known for years. It's been people that we have had relationships with friendships with those kinds of things. So I think that in itself has made it, it's made it super easy cause I transitioned right into it and That's

Melissa: 12:23

a hundred percent. Like we didn't have to look or really try. And even now to this day, like we are very choosy on who we bring on to our staff, because againit's our name and we have a goal and that's to create an amazing community and.

Justin: 12:39

And you're doing it for what it's worth on the outside. You are really doing it. So it's really impressive. Really impressive. I'm going to have, I think one more kind of sad moment, and then we'll talk about other things, I want to talk about COVID for just a moment and. This has not been easy for you all either. And so when I think about COVID, and obviously there was closing of gyms, but something really stood out to me when you all went through thatand the strategy that you had to sustain the gem. Can you maybe talk a little bit about that strategy?

Melissa: 13:15

Gonna start it.

Alexis: 13:17

So we, I, he knew it was going to happen all the big States around us and everything were starting to close down. I personally went to social media immediately as what are these big gyms doing? Like I have an idea, we have an idea of what we can do, whatever, but there's ones and that's the beauty of the CrossFit stuff too, is like you follow their CrossFit gyms and all that stuff and can see like, are they going through something? Can we learn from it? Vice versa, whatever. An so immediately, Big D CrossFit and Dallas, it's got chasing grim. He's a level one he's on cross or used to be on CrossFit staff. I don't really know so much anymore. But he like announces and stuff for CrossFit games and all that stuff. So I was honed in on what they were doing and it was like immediately, it's obviously your members. Number one. What can we do? In order to stilltake care of them and renting out the equipment. Number one, it's just. Sitting in the gym, like during this whole thing, it's just gonna be sitting there and like everybodyyou know, science and all that stuff behind getting sick and all that is if you continuously move and take care of yourself, you're less likely to get sick and all that. So obviously that's our first thing that we think of. We want to continue our members. We want them back into the store as soon as we can get it open. And so we took twoMo immediately started making life. TheseRental sheets, rental agreements, right?

Melissa: 14:36

That's what it was. That

Alexis: 14:36

real specific here. Andand so we just decided okay, we have this many members, this is how much of equipment we have. We want to make sure we give them as much as we possibly can. Um, you know, doing that. Equipment rental, like so many people came and brought this, I was nervous a little bit. I was like, what is this stuff is like broken, in a way, that's kind in the back of my mind, I was like, you know what? It does not matter. If everybody's getting fit and all this is all, that we're looking for and do and all of that. And then we were able to programAnd we knew about what everybody had. Everybody just about had a barbell with some plates, dumbbells boxes, whatever a package deal. So we knew what, like what we couldprogram for them in order for them to still get good workouts and stuff at home as well. So that's what we went to number one, first thing. So can you continue with our members? They've always been our number one, so we had to do something for them and that's what we decided to do. So

Melissa: 15:32

And it worked

Alexis: 15:32

that was near

Melissa: 15:33

did the quarantine games. We tried to do a little online competition. Do you remember

Justin: 15:37

I do.

Melissa: 15:38

10 games? And that was fun. I think that kinda keep helped keep the community aspect going as much as possible.

Justin: 15:45

We didn't participate in the community games. Mostly. I think that my wife was concerned that I would bring her down. So she was like, I don't think

Melissa: 15:54

Yeah, I can't do it.

Justin: 15:55

I don't think we're going to do that. yeah. I will say that the intensity of the workouts did not go down at all during COVID

Melissa: 16:06

Yeah. Doing our job.

Justin: 16:09

Yeah, it was definitelyintense. I, I was so impressed during that momentwhen I saw the information about renting, the gear out or whatever. And I remember Jen coming to me and she said, Hey, they're going to do this gear thing. And I'm like, that's brilliant. This is so great. And it was just really encouraging to see how from a. But you were able to just pivot and make new decisions based on how your market conditions are changing. And then you just kept rolling with it and that you all had such positive attitudes, at least on the outside. Is people looking in? I know that it was tumultuous insight I'm sure. But it was really inspiring to see. Yeah. I'm

Alexis: 16:53

yes. Yeah.

Melissa: 16:54

the goal is trying to react to situations in a positive way. Cause bad, bad things are going to happen. We're going to have these speed bumps come along. It's just what are you going to do about it? Because you're going to be faced with it anyways. And

Justin: 17:08

you've shown just tremendouspoise through the severa you know, challenging moments that you've had to deal with.

Alexis: 17:16

Thank you. We like to think that we

Melissa: 17:17

a huge part in that too, for sure. They calm us down sometimes.

Alexis: 17:21

We like to think, that we have some things figured out and then something else comes up. So it's like we conquer a flood, and we're like, okay. This is it, we're going to be good for a while. And then here comes COVID, so it's, it's when we just know it's life, there's going to be hurdles constantly. And it's, and it is it's people are looking at us. I know we're just gym owners, but they're looking at us for okay, if they're going to react a specific way, like we want to be able to be a light to everybody. Like we want to be able to not in just the fitness stuff. But just world and, whatever. So ifif we can always have a positive mindset or whatever leader type thing, then that's what we're going to do. So I felt like we accomplished it. I don't know how now looking back sometimes that we did and we now we're hereDo

Justin: 18:11

you have such an influence on other people? I don't know what the total numbers of members are at the gym, but it's a lot of folks. There's a lot of people. And so you have the ability to touch a lot of people's lives. And so one of the things that I think has really impressed me is how you communicate with people. Can you maybe just share a little bit about your strategy for communication to your members?

Melissa: 18:34

So I honestly, like the we've found the best way of communication is our Facebook page. Our members only Facebook page. We have a private Facebook page, activate members only. So anybody that comes in to activate does activation Corp signs up for a membership. They go on this page and social media obviously is. Very popular. Everybody goes to it. So we just make sure to post everything on that. I like to make flyers for everything. So I'm always making those for announcements. And thenJust our coaches too, at the beginning of the class, trying to announce those different things that we're doing. And that's another big thing. And that's something I've had to get better at is like communicating. Sometimes I'll have an idea and we're going to do this and I'll share it with Dallas and Lex. And sometimes don't share with our other coaches and that's where I've got to improve on just making sure they know everything thing that's going on as well. And just making sure we, as a team, we know that they can get it out to our members because they have to do just as much as we have to do it. Yeah,

Justin: 19:32

that's really great. Cause that's a good transition. I was going to ask you, how do you take the communication internally amongst your team, amongst your employees and effectively do

Melissa: 19:40

Yeah. So we have a group message that we're always going back and forth. Andobviously that's our day to day communication, but we also do, we have meetings every, we were doing it every single month. And then when COVID started, we've gotten off track. Yeah.

Alexis: 19:57

trying to do at least quarterly. And during this time, like any major announcements, anything like that, of course we'll all get together and um, and that way, like we all have ideas, the four of us together, but also we want our coaches to be involved in it as well. They see people every single day, just about too. So we want to see what's going to work. What's not going to work. Are they even going to be interested, get everybody's opinion on it. And also we further education that way as well with our coaches. Um, there's a whole lot of differentuh, what do you call it? Certifications and all of that throughout CrossFit, gymnastics, all this stuff. And um, just for example, CrossFit. Yeah. Level one is what everybody has like Zach Dallas, Donna. Some of our coaches have a level two. And so Dallas actually took his level two cause his level one was up. And so after that weekend, it's they're mind mindblowing, weekends, just so you know, I'm in Dallas, geeks out over it. And so we pretty much had a small, like level two seminar with our coaches. This is what we, this is what I learned this weekend type thing. And then we just vomit it out on them and get them all jacked up again on everything as well. Um, that's what we do a lot, like quarterly used to be monthly of those coaches meetings as well

Justin: 21:09

Nice. So you're sharing kind of content at those coaches meetings. And then what is the development? Employee development process. You're talking about this level one and level two. What does a typical process look like for that?

Melissa: 21:24

So like Lex is already talking about it with the certification. So I'm familiar with CrossFit certification and then there's a ton of them if you want. Yes. If you want to learn about anything, it's really that across it. There's a lot that you can do. So we encourage our. Our coaches to take those right now, a lot of them are online, but we encourage them to take them. We always, we usually will help them with the cost and things like that, but we always say, all right, guys, if you're gonna take this course, learn as much as you can. And then you're going to come back and do a mini seminar for us. So we can also learn from what you learned and so you can teach us. So I think that's a big thing that we do. And then anything else, as far as employee development, what else do we do?

Alexis: 22:06

I think that's about, that's about it. Like anything that we learnor they learn, it doesn't matter. It doesn't have to be the four of us. It could be literally any of them, we'll all sit down. We'll, they'll discuss and just like they are teaching whatever it was that they just learned. And I feel like that is just how you can continue to expand and go and grow yeah. With each other. Yeah,

Justin: 22:29

Nice. That's really a great, it seems like a great process. You've got fantastic coaches. They're very supportive and encouraging. And I mean, I know I've personally learned a ton from them and just, you can observe them as they go through the gym. They're all very encouraging and supportive so well, you've got this business going and then on top of that, you're every time I turn around and you all have gotten. Stuff going on. You're just so intense. How do you find the energy to keep moving?

Melissa: 23:01

You just keep moving. You can't quit.

Alexis: 23:02

You There's no option.

Melissa: 23:05

Lexus. And how Dallas is like, he is go, go, go. And doesn't ever stop. Mark is the same way. Like just the other day he approached him with another business idea as like, how can we do another business, but whatever, that's what you want to do. ButI think, I think one, you just have to, you just have to figure out your schedule. You have to, I could go so far into this. I don't want to get off subject. So just having enough time and scheduling your day out to spend enough time on each business and just doing the things that need to get done. If that makes

Justin: 23:41

Yeah, it does. No, it does make sense. The importance of keeping a schedule and taking the time to actually process that schedule and not just winging it. I think if you'll get yourself into a lot of trouble, if you've done that. All right.

Alexis: 23:57

Oh yeah,

Justin: 23:58

Could you share, would you mind sharing a time? Can you think of a time.

Alexis: 24:04

I can't really think of a specific time.

Justin: 24:07

You just know that they've

Alexis: 24:08

Oh yeah. They've happened. Yeah. I just can't think of a specific right now. This is that on the spot thing we were talking about. Yeah. But also too, like scheduling all that, but all these extra things that we're doing is stuff that we're. I know we are super passionate about, like the gym is something that we're super passionate about. Dallas has a lawn and landscape company and he loves making things that look a specific way, make it even better. And seeing people like love their house again or their business, whatever it is that they're working on. We also have cowsthat's, that's like our stress reliever, but sometimes they cause stress too, so it's just again, there's life. But it's, it's fun to I don't know, like we have this. Heard and you get to watch them grow and then they have babies and then those babies grow. And it's just something that we thoroughly enjoy and taking care of them and all that stuff. So I think all of our extra stuff is all everything that we're super passionate about

Melissa: 25:02

I never really feel like work. Yeah. It's just, it's your, it's what we love to do. Every part of it.

Justin: 25:08

So that's the key. If you're going to have multiple businesses.

Alexis: 25:11

make sure you that bit. A

Melissa: 25:13

of time on it. Yeah.

Justin: 25:14

each one of

Alexis: 25:15

Yes.

Justin: 25:15

Alright. That's good. That's good feedback. Interesting. So let's, I guess we'll come back to activate for just a moment and, I think what's always impressed me about activate is the sense of communityuh, Just the individuals that are there. It's not just the community with the coaches, but it's the community with everyone that's attending and the members that are there and it's everybody's happy to see one another. And then everybody you know, teases everybody or, messes with them about, I think I saw a post the other day about being late or Hey, who's wearing purple shoes or whatever it might be. Yeah. How does that develop. Inactivate or in the gym, right? What is it that's really drawing people into

Melissa: 26:12

Okay. Just the whole, I think it goes back to what we were talking about earlier. Just trying to draw that sense of community in it. I said it earlier, but it literally just starts from day one with your members, your new members coming in and just making them feel welcome and welcoming them. And even having like different events and doing community, building events and things like that. We try to do those as often as we can. Granted right now we can't do as much as we want, butI just think doing things like that, that bring your community together. I think that's super important in building that relationship that you're talking about.

Justin: 26:50

Yeah, I've definitely noticed that as well at you're saying that the parties right.

Melissa: 26:54

We like to have parties. Yes we do.

Justin: 26:56

so much fun. And that, that for me is an opportunity catch up with people that I wouldn't necessarily see in the class that I go to. So it's like, I go to a 6:00 AM class on number. I'm not going to see the folks that are at the four 30, but I know them I've run into him before, or maybe I've caught that class once or so. I get a chance to catch up with people again, and that's always a great. A great time and a great moment to, and then it's just fun because everybody's hanging out and having a good time and you usually have games that you've put together and ways to engage with everyone.

Melissa: 27:28

I think that's super important whenever we're doing events. And I think initially we made, I don't think we did that in the beginning, but we learned the CrossFitters, like to be active, we're active people. We want to do something. And it is again and build community and it's just fun. So I think that's a big part of it is having games and just making it very lively, his lively as we can.

Justin: 27:48

I know we joined, I think, in, in November a year plus ago. So the first thing we did or attended was the Christmas party. And we were, I was nervous about going, cause it's like, I've been in the gym for a month and I'm getting my butt kicked. I can hardly move or walk for the first couple of days and not in a bad way cause I'm hurt. But just because I'm working out things, I don't. I didn't even know I had. And so I'm sore and I'm like, I don't know about this. I don't really know anybody really, is it going to be, and then we get there and had an absolute blast. And like you say, we ended up playing silly games and it's we were jumping over each other and then trying to do pushups. And then I was just like this crazy experience, but it was a lot of fun. And then we got to meet. Some people and engage with people that we hadn't before and all of a sudden it starts to build relationships and then just draws you in deeper. Yeah, for sure. And that's really, I think an exciting.

Melissa: 28:43

Yeah, it becomes a lot more than just a workout with cross it with activate. It's more than just coming to the gym to get your workout in, which is awesome too. Don't get me wrong. But having that community, people there to keep you accountable to coming and having those conversations and it's like your getaway.

Justin: 29:02

Yeah, I know. I feel. I guess accountable to some of the folks in the morning, not just because I don't know why, like I, I've just been, I do. I'm

Melissa: 29:10

should. Yeah, that's good.

Justin: 29:12

I don't know. Maybe I could sleep in tomorrow. It's well, no, it's a partner wad, and they're going to need somebody

Alexis: 29:17

Yes.

Justin: 29:17

I'm probably not the best partner, but I'll be there.

Melissa: 29:20

Yep. And there'll be saying something if you're not there. Where's Justin. Yeah.

Justin: 29:25

So I'm curious though, how there's a program. So for those that don't know anything about CrossFit and the way that, that. That works is that there's a program every day that you follow, right? There's this workout out with a wad of the day or right. The workout of the day. So the wad, so there's this program that you follow, who comes up with this stuff? Like what's the process.

Alexis: 29:45

So that's the structure CrossFit, right? So that's why we're always coach led and we always do the warmups and stuff together. So CrossFit does have a very distinctivethis is how you should run your class, like every hour or however long it is now. We do in that level one that we were talking about earlier, you learn how to program and do all the things. And so Mo and I have actually taken over. And so we do all the programming, the boys to help us out as well. Obviously. Sometimes they have to hone us in. Cause like we, like sometimes crazy workouts are like and where we'll kill a body part and then try to do it again the next day and be like, okay, no, you can not do that. We just demolished shoulder. So there is a method to the madness. You learn itwhile taking your certifications and stuff. Andbut yeah, Mo and I actually do the majority of the programmingourselves. So we do two weeks kind of rotations and stuff. So that

Melissa: 30:39

it's only been a process that programming, like figuring out what is working best in, let's say, and there's a lot of components there's, and you've seen too, you have your gymnastics, you have your weightlifting and you have your endurance part of it. And just putting all of that together. And there's a lot that goes into it. Like you have to think about. Okay. We worked quads. My quads are really sore right now. We work though. So we probably don't need to work those tomorrow. So you have to like, really think about those as you're doing it. And the same thing, like if you're doing super long workouts every single day, then you probably need to put some shorter ones in there. Put some sprints in there. So it's a lot to think about. Andit's been a process figuring out how,

Alexis: 31:14

still haven't figured it out.

Melissa: 31:15

we're still working. I feel like this is going good right now. We're doing good with what we're doing, but yeah, just taking two weeks at a time and we'll still work together on it and help each other out with it. It's going good. Keep doing it. I love programming. I do. It's like a challenge. It really is. And it's fun. See what we can come up with

Justin: 31:32

You always come up with some interesting things that's for sure. And it's amazing. It's. I feel destroyed sometimes physically, but yet I love it. It's like I keep coming back for more punishment and because I don't know why it's it just gets underneath your skin. Hey, I just want to go. And then the times where I've taken off, like Jen's general, look at me and be like, you're getting cranky. I'm like, no, I'm doing really. She's no, I think you'd probably need to go work out. You're and then I go and then I come back and it's man, I feel rejuvenated. I feel alive again. I feel positive and encouraged. And so how much does that physical, that, that fitness element tie into just our personal lives and feeling good.

Alexis: 32:22

Oh, whatI'm the same way. If I, I, you have to have rest days, in order to recover and all that, but all my rest days, like, all I want to do is go to the gym. Yeah. And, but there's also days, I'm not saying that I want to work out all the time. Cause there's days where I'm just like, I ain't getting out of the house. Like I ain't showering, say in here, um, so there's those times too, but I think in back, like whenever I first started cross it, I was super shy. I I've always been physically active, but I started out like I was going through college and whatnot had no idea what I wanted to do. I got my first full-time job. I started out the bottom as a assistant manager. And thenI had started CrossFit around the time that I had started that job. And Mo can do this too, because. Lee. I think all of our coaches have gone through this as well. So they'll start off a certain position and I chalk up to cross it. It's something about the way it makes me feel, the confidence that it gives me because I've never had a whole lot of confidence in myself. I've always just not. Dallas gets mad at me. Cause like I talked down on myself a lot, and all that even still to this day. But like I moved up to manager and managed multi properties and stuff. And then I moved up to area director and before I quit that job and the only reason why I quit it was because we were starting to do the gym and we had two locations at the time. And all of that, I was, although yet to a regional director, I had pretty much capped out where I could be. And I was really young, like 27, um, and I talk all that up too. The confidence and the way it made me feel and all that was the workout, the community, you have these people that are like always backing you up. And so not only is that in the gym, but it's actually everywhere and you just have to be open to see it. AndI know Mo did the same thing. She got promoted and whatnot through her job as well. So

Melissa: 34:08

Yeah. And the hospitals and nursing manager for a little whilefor the only did it a short time, it was like six months. And it was the same as the same time we were start opening gym. I got pregnant also with Mia, something had to go. So it was the nursing job that went. But yeah, it just, it builds confidence in ways that it's I can tell you, but you're not going to understand it until you actually do it yourself. I get, it builds so much confidence in other areas of your, in your life. And if you can become confident within yourself, there's so much more you can do. And just life in general. And that's hard. It's not easy to do that. Like that. It definitely takes time. And I really believe it starts in the gym and yourself.

Justin: 34:49

Interesting, I'm reflecting back just my personal life and I've always worked out. I've done mostly bodyweight stuff at home. That was always my. The thing is I'm not going to the gym. I'll just work out at home. And then we got involved at activate and me personally, I do feel like man, I've just got. Like it just kicked everything up a notch, it was like, now I've got a different level of motivation or a different drive than I have when I was still working out. It just it's completely new. I don't know if that's the community element or it may, it's probably a mixture of a bunch of things just feeling better. And I'm just really, I thought your story was really wonderful about how you were, you started to get promoted more as you got more active and you started to get involved. I think that's really. It speaks a lot about the importance of being physically active. And do you think that's a con you can accomplish that outside of, of a CrossFit gym outside of a gym, that lifestyle.

Melissa: 35:46

I don't think it necessarily has to be CrossFit is obviously what we choose, but I think it can literally be anything. You just have to one like it and love it yourself as number one. And then number two. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people surrounding yourself with a community that also wants good things for you. That's going to also take you a long ways and that can be with anything. It doesn't have to necessarily be with CrossFit, but I think that's the thing with CrossFit that you have these like-minded people with all these high goals and want to achieve great things. And you just surround yourself with those type of people. Then that's what you want to do too. And it just gives you a drive like you're talking

Alexis: 36:27

Yeah, it motivates you because you're like, Oh, I see somebody else doing this and I can do this too. So, and, and yeah. Seeing where you were just for example, and whenever you first walked in to across it, like seeing the things that you were good at, naturally, and then seeing the things that you weren't so great at that's in your job too. So mine was like being super timid and shy and Oh, confrontation. I don't want that. But then I rememberI know it may sound cliche or whatever, but like pull-ups, I did banded pull-ups for forever. And I knew I was strong enough to do them. And one day coach came up, took the band off. I was like, Nope, you're doing this workout without the band. And I was like, Oh, I can't do this. And I don't know, there's just something about that mind frame. And just like she said, if you find something thatyou know, you do and you enjoy, and it's something that, you continue to do and also have a group of people. I think groups of people is

Melissa: 37:19

people.

Alexis: 37:20

yeah, it's just huge in itself. So not only just the physical aspect of it, obviously that's a huge thing. Butalso just having those people that are in your corner that have your back, no matter what, like. Just builds on that too. So

Justin: 37:35

Yeah. The people part of it, I believe you're right. It is, like I said, I was working out at home. I was doing bodyweight stuff, but I didn't have the people part of it. And now I've got the people part of it. And I enjoy that. And not that I don't have people in other aspects of my life, different groups or whatever, but there is something about the community of working out together that does stand out for sure.

Melissa: 37:55

SportI think back to like high school and sports, like you were a part of a team and you're close with your team and it's the same thing with this. We are on a team. It's the activate team and we're just close with each other.

Justin: 38:08

Yeah, that's really good. I was thinking a little bit about. Dallas. And when he first got started, he just sat on it. He wanted to sit on the sidelines and watch you show up and work out and he gets involved in it. How often do you hear stories like that? Of people that are maybe a bit timid, a little worried about walking into a gym?

Alexis: 38:32

It's more often than not like we'll get phone calls or text messagesHey, I'm just going to let you know, this is where I'm at, whatever. And we. I tell them all the time. I'm like, listen, all of us have been there. Um, maybe I didn't have a ton of weight that I needed to lose or anything like that, but I still walked in not being able to do majority of the movementsum, and that's that comfort part whenever you walk in the door, that comfort part thatyou know, I hope that everybody feels, and that's what we strive for everybody to feel. So like a lot of times we'll just be like, Hey, just come to our facility. The hardest thing to do is to walk in through the front door and. As soon as they walk in through that front door, as soon as they see the facility, as soon as they start to see people and you may see a crazy athlete doing flinging around on the rings or whatever, and then you see other people doing Ringrose and you're like, Oh, okay. That's something that I can do. Like once I see, like it's okay. Andyou don't have to be this. Extravagant athlete or something like that to come and move with us. Then they all start to feel better and all of that. And so we always reflect backlisten, all of us came from a certain spot. And I think it's because we have seenwe have gone through it ourselves, but we've also seen those that have came in that have needed to lose quite a bit of weight. And we've got to watch their journey from the start and to see what they're doing today, where they're competing and all that stuff is insane. And it's, that's what

Melissa: 39:53

That's part of it. Yeah, it is so cool to see like Marvin, how far more like Marvin gives me goosebumps because the, see where he was at and to see like him doing box jumps and rope climbs and to it's just so cool to see that. And it's just, it makes me want

Alexis: 40:10

Yeah, I know.

Melissa: 40:11

but it just that's like the most amazing part of it. And I think another big part of it with people that. Are super scared to walk through the doors, making sure, because a lot of people, when they think of CrossFit, they'll go and search it and they see all these CrossFit games, athletes. So that's automatically what they think of. So I think it's making it known that look. We're a gym that offers other things than just like your RX division. We have scaled ways that you can do things if you can't do, pull-ups no big deal. I can't do pull-ups for two years. There's different things that you can do and let them know you're not going to be the only one in the class that is doing Ringrose and honestly, everybody gonna be dying anyway. So they're not even going to be looking. So just making sure they know that really

Alexis: 40:52

also letting them know, like all of us are doing the same, we're all working out together the same time, all of that. You know, I think some of the times, whenever they come in, they're thinking they're seeing all these machines where when you walk in, we call them Globo gyms. I don't know what everybody else calls them. I think that's from a movie, don't know.

Melissa: 41:07

I I said that to somebody else the other day and they looked at me like what's a

Alexis: 41:09

were like, what's a Globo gym. I was like, Oh, okay. Anyway, all these machines and you've got, and there's nothing wrong with it, but you've got to figure it out. And so yeah, people watch you and whatever, but in CrossFit, everybody's working out at the same time. You don't have to worry about somebody staring at you, judging you. And if anything, if he is watching you, it's a coach and we're there to correct. You just in case, if you're doing something incorrect to make sure you can come back tomorrow. That's our whole goal, so, um, Anyway. I think that, I think just reiterating all of that, to those that, have that phone call or that text message just come in and try us out. And that's why we do the three free tryouts. Like before you even sign up for a membership, it's three free classes. Come try us out. See if you like this before you even make any kind of commitment. And I feel like that's a huge thing for most people.

Justin: 41:53

Yeah, just getting comfortable.

Alexis: 41:55

Yeah.

Justin: 41:56

Yeah. I know for me personally, when I first walked in. I was scared. I was nervous to be in a place like that because you do see some of these folks, like just getting it. And you're like, wow. How am I supposed to lift that kind of way at first, you're not supposed to lift it anyway.

Alexis: 42:15

It's not the norm. Yeah.

Justin: 42:18

And so I think having some grace for yourself, but then also no one there is judging you. And no one is you're saying no, one's actually paying attention to you. Not in a bad way, but just nobody cares. They're there

Alexis: 42:29

Yeah. Yeah,

Justin: 42:32

if they don't, it doesn't matter. It's really just about. You show up. And then I have found myself though, now during workouts is watching somebody who's stronger than me or faster than me, or better than me at some particular activity. And it's was like, where are they at in this workout? Oh, they're a little bit further. I can catch up. I can catch up. I can do this. I can push a little bit harder. I can push a little bit more and it really doesencourage you to move forward.

Alexis: 43:05

It pushes yourself to a whole different, that's one thing that I like about competitions, like it, it pushes you so much into this different uncomfortable zone that you never thought that you would be able to obtain. If that makes sense. It's hard to put into words, but I, that I do the same thing when I first started at scope out the room and be like, I'm going to

Melissa: 43:23

do it. Yeah. I've got to

Alexis: 43:25

find Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then. Try to keep him out of the corner of my eye, and, and if I don't, that's, it's not that big of a deal, but at least I said, I could try, and I, I was trying to keep up and that kind of thing. So that in itself, that's one of the many things I love about the co class, the class atmosphereis that you do there's other people in there and you do get to be a pace off of other people or whatever. And push yourself to that whole other. Round that you never really thought that you could go, even if you didn't just want and you pute like at least, Yeah.

Justin: 43:59

I was impressed by just, there are people from every walk of life, every shape and size. You know, I was expecting everyone to be. The strong

Alexis: 44:09

yeah. Meat

Justin: 44:10

yeah, and that's not the case at all. And I thought that was really interesting about activate. I think the other thing is really shocked me. I'm going to I'm going to bring us back maybe just a second, which was how many entrepreneurs there are at activate. It is insane. The number of people that own businesses maybe it's like-minded people. And I think that's really encouraging, and I know we had a conversation. Early on with our son who, uh, attends as well. And, and we were talking about that and we were talking about just how many entrepreneurs are and how many people, or just living life and living their dreams, or trying to live out their dreams, fulfill their dreams by just being focused and dedicated. And what's really exciting is that you're living out your dreams and it's fun to be able to have this conversation with you. I hear your story. And to just be a part of it,

Alexis: 45:04

Yeah.

Justin: 45:05

really fun.

Alexis: 45:07

Yes.

Justin: 45:08

I guess we'll, we'll wrap up, but if you were to think about business ownership and maybe each of you would be willing to share, maybe one thing you've learned that someone else could take away from if they wanted to get started in something, what would you recommend for them?

Melissa: 45:27

I would sayif they were just wanting to get started. The one, they have to love it. If it's something they want to do. I actually just had this conversation with a friend the other day, but if it's something that they want to do, they have to pursue it and know that whenever you go into it, it's not going to be easy and it's not going to be great right off the bat. We did really good with activate, but the startup of it was very hard. We had some hard times and you just can't let those hard times get in the way of you continuing to pursue what you are doing. Like you just have to dig in and keep pushing to do what you want to do, and it will get better and you will start to reap some benefits from it, but you just cannot give up, even when it's hard. If that's truly what you want to do, it's truly what you love to do then just do it. Don't let anything stop you.

Justin: 46:23

good advice.

Alexis: 46:25

So if you're going into it, like by yourself, like having a mentor or somebody that you can always fall back on, you're going to make mistakes. We've done plenty of it. And if you do it like in a group, like the way we did is finding. Somebody else or a group of other people that are like-minded that are passionate about whatever it isthat you guys are that you're going to start up with. I think that's huge. Always having somebody that you can go to, or like just study the craft, whatever it is. Don't. I think some people fly by the seat of their pants. Majority of us do. But like somewhat, sometimes just because I think this is going to make money and it shouldn't be about how much money you're going to make. I, I have been a part of a couple of other things with, um, different property management things and all of that stuff and hearing some owners and whatnot, talk about um, you know, this is going to make so much money and then come at the end. Like I was like, Oh, that was a lot of headache. And. We didn't make money, or whatever. And I'm like, Oh no, that, that would just whole thing. Wasn't something that I was passionate about. And I couldn't see past certain things, so like, and we didn't get into this stuff to get rich by no means again, this was the whole passion, the love for the sport, the love for people and that kind of thing. Um, mentors and just having that group, somebody that's behind you not to do it just by yourself, I think is a huge thing that we've learned. Can't

Melissa: 47:55

imagine doing anything

Alexis: 47:56

Yeah, no.

Justin: 47:57

That's great advice. And I think, yeah, you could do with these microphones and stuff. Yeah. Thank you both for coming on the show and sharing your lives and all of the challenges and all of the successes and the brilliance of what you do and how it positively impacts people's lives and makes them better individuals, whether that's at home or work or play or whatever it is that they're done. So thank you.