The One Hour That Should Improve the Other 23

What if your workout didn’t just make you stronger — but made your entire life better?

In this episode of The Back Office, Dalayna Dillon sits down with Barry Wise, founder of B Wise Fitness, to talk about what it really takes to build a business in the health and wellness industry — and how consistency and people-first thinking shape long-term success.

Before launching B Wise Fitness in 2017, Barry spent years leading teams in the retail and wellness space, including managing multiple locations and helping transition corporate stores into franchises. Those experiences taught him how to build strong teams, serve customers well, and create systems that support growth.

Today, B Wise Fitness is built on a simple but powerful philosophy: your one hour in the gym should positively impact the other 23.

This conversation explores the lessons learned from stepping out on your own and the mindset required to create a business that improves people’s lives — not just their performance.

No one has it fully figured out. But we’re building anyway.

Show Notes

Guest: Barry Wise
Business: B Wise Fitness

Barry Wise is the founder of B Wise Fitness, a training facility built around the belief that fitness should support everyday life — not make it harder.

After years of leadership experience in the retail and wellness industry, including managing teams and overseeing store operations across multiple locations, Barry launched B Wise Fitness in 2017 with a mission to create a more holistic and sustainable approach to training.

Rather than focusing solely on workouts, B Wise Fitness begins by assessing posture, joint mobility, and movement mechanics to build customized programs that improve stability, mobility, and long-term health.

In this episode, Barry shares the story behind starting his business and the hard-earned insights that come from building something of your own.

In this episode we discuss:

• How Barry transitioned from corporate leadership into entrepreneurship
 • What led him to start B Wise Fitness in 2017
 • The philosophy behind training that improves daily life
 • The realities of building and leading a team
 • The hardest lessons learned in business
 • How expectations changed after opening his own gym
 • What he’s most proud of in this stage of business
 • Leadership insights from managing teams and serving customers

About B Wise Fitness

B Wise Fitness believes that training should complement your life — not complicate it.

Their approach focuses on identifying movement limitations, improving mobility and stability, and building strength in a way that supports long-term health and daily performance.

The goal is simple:
 Make your one hour in the gym positively impact the other 23.

About The Back Office

Hosted by Dalayna Dillon
Founder & Creative Director of Signify Marketing

The Back Office invites listeners into honest conversations about marketing, growth, leadership, and the real decisions shaping active businesses.

Facebook/Instagram: @signifymarketingsocial 

www.signifymarketing.social

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Welcome to the back office. I'm Delena Dillon, the founder and creative director of Signify Marketing, and this is where you sit in on real strategy. Each episode, we step inside active businesses and have honest conversations about marketing, growth, leadership, and the decisions shaping what happens next. No one has it fully figured out, but we are building anyway. So today we are hanging out with Barry Wise here at B Wise Fitness. And we're gonna talk about what it looks like to build a fitness business that focuses on improving everyday life, not just workouts, and how his leadership background has shaped the way that he has built the culture and what he's doing now. So, Barry, thank you for jumping on here with us today. We're excited to get started. So let me just say right off the bat, he is not a stranger to the podcast world. So he's he's quite the podcast expert, really. So tell us about the podcast you got going on.

SPEAKER_02 1:07

Yeah, so I am uh one half of the Barry and Mac Show. That is a podcast that covers OU football, sports in general. Um, and we're going uh pretty much year-round on a little hiatus now as uh spring football kicks back in um on the kind of the college football side, but we cover primarily OU. Um it is myself and Damian Mackey. We've been doing it now for multiple years. Uh we work with OUInsider.com that uh covers all things OU, not just football, uh, but been doing it for a while. Um really successful, you know, just started out as a passion project, and then from there we have just allowed it to organically grow.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Well, and as an OU fan, I'll say it's probably successful because OU, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

Helps a lot when they do well. When they are playing well. In the podcast industry on the sports side, they say that the enemy to success is not playing poorly, it's indifference. When the fans become indifferent, that's when nobody cares.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Well, now we know, but it's always, I guess, well, hopefully always a good conversation with OU football. So, and you have an Instagram page just for the podcast, right? Yeah, yep.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

It's at the Barry and Mac Show on Instagram. You can also find it on TikTok as well. Same thing. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

On the tick of the talk. Well, very cool. So aside from just talking OU football, which is the elite here in Oklahoma, I'll have to say I'm an OU fan. So I I couldn't do a podcast on it, but I'll cheer them on. But aside from that, we are here at B Wise Fitness, and um there's a lot, there's a lot that goes into what got here, got you here, right? So tell us a little bit about your story and how we ended up here doing what you do here at B Wise.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

So it is a I I will give us the the condensed, like two to five minute version. Okay. Um, but I have always sort of been in the health industry. You know, when I was in high school, college, I I really enjoyed um sports marketing, leadership, that kind of thing. Uh, but then as as time passed, I I recognized that health, the health sciences exercise was kind of where my focus needed to be. I tried it in the corporate world and gained a lot of valuable experience with that. Uh, but at the end of the day, you know, running my own ship and and getting myself to a point where I can have really a direct impact on humans, which is it's really it's a fitness business, it's a business for health, but at the end of the day, it it's a it's a human business. It's it's interacting with other people who are are going through things, who are dealing with stuff on a day-to-day basis. And you know, it it was sort of a a career that at the end of the day kind of found me more than I found it. But I'm incredibly thankful for that. You know, it I and started off in the corporate side um and worked there for a a handful of years.

SPEAKER_00 4:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 4:15

And after a while, I just said it's not enough. It was also kind of a rocky business, you know, in in that kind of era, if you will, for what I was doing, and transitioned um to slowly building up a client base, um, building a a reputation, a brand. This is a hard industry to break into.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

So why in you mean in the health health and not health and wellness, or are you saying that's the same thing?

SPEAKER_02 4:45

In the coaching and training space. Okay. Health and wellness, too. Okay. So if I was going to give somebody career advice, honestly, I tell people to stick with helping somebody else for as long as you can. Because this business is so much built on, you know, maybe for better or worse, um, what you can produce and being able to visibly show people those things. The the problem is when you step into it and don't have a reputation, don't have a brand, don't have a a way that you are going about and packaging and presenting things, it can be it can be a struggle. Yeah. It can and even if you do have that, it can still be a struggle.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

That's really interesting. So you're saying your career advice would be to stick with somebody for as long as possible.

SPEAKER_02 5:37

Yeah, and well, what I mean by that is, you know, one of the things that that I did was I attached myself to people who were already doing it really well.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

Gotcha, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

And and that to me was what um sort of helped catapult me. Uh, you know, I could you know name a handful, that really is kind of unimportant. At the end of the day, um the the big deal is that I had folks who were running successful businesses or a part of successful brands, and I just sort of, you know, gave my efforts to be a part of what they were doing to see and learn and navigate, and then from there, once I had the confidence, yeah, I broke loose, um, broke off and started my own.

SPEAKER_01 6:24

Yeah, that's so interesting. And what what I also was thinking of when you were talking about how like um it's hard to have your own reputation and things like that. What I was thinking too is like as a fitness coach, like what could be hard is you can on your side be doing everything right, but it's dependent on that person being committed to the process. Because at the end of the day, yeah, we see these like uh before and after pictures and stuff like that, but like, yes, that was the coach 100%, like giving them the tools and the strategy, but they had to have the follow-through. So, do you see what I'm saying? Like, is that hard? Is that a hard piece of it?

SPEAKER_02 7:00

You you know it it is, but that is why I clarify it as a human business. Yeah, there is a a great book that I'm gonna plug that I literally was just talking to my father-in-law about, and the book is called Conscious Coaching.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Conscious Coaching.

SPEAKER_02 7:16

Yeah, it's by Brett Bartholomew. Um, he's a like kind of well-known strength coach in the space, and it is a coaching book that has nothing to do with talking about exercise, science, and fitness. It is all about humans, and the most successful coaches aren't necessarily the best at building the best programs, you know, creating the best meal plans. They're the best at building buy-in.

SPEAKER_00 7:42

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

And that is what that book is entirely about. It is about, you know, it's kind of cliche at this point, like what's your why? But that's kind of like what that book is about is how do you navigate that with different people, with with people from all different backgrounds, different walks of life, uh, different social statuses, income levels, different obstacles physically that they're facing. How do you adjust your presentation? Yeah, how do you adjust your approach each and every time so that you're ensuring that they have success? And a lot of that book is just about taking ownership of your communication side and not always blaming them.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Right.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

And and you if you did, if or if you took the blame approach, you're gonna be very disappointed a lot of the time. Yeah. So it's actually a a really fantastic point what you bring up because a lot of your success is counting on them, but but part of the counting on them is is the job, is building buy-in where where the care is there.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

Yeah. Wow, that's a totally different way to look at it, but that's awesome. So that's a good book. We're gonna have to leave that in the show notes too, so you guys can grab that. But when did you really realize that health and wellness became more than just a job for you? Obviously, you were interested yourself, but how did it be switch? How did it switch from just being an interest to this is what I want to do?

SPEAKER_02 9:11

Yeah, um honestly, it it kind of happened on the the the the corporate climb, if you will. Um, I was seeing people do this business well from my vantage point, and I appreciated a lot what they were doing. I respected what they were doing, and I thought that I could also do it.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:34

So it's probably about 2016.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Uh, you know, so I'm because I I I tell them going on about a decade in in business now for myself, for for like in some form of facet, and it hasn't always been super successful, um, but it has grown, and that organic growth I really attribute to having some longevity with, you know, not just having kind of a hip fad that's you know kind of cool in the area and then dissipates over time. Um, but that's when the interest sort of sparked. Um, and then it was about 2018 where I started kind of putting feet to fire, and I uh I was able to to to come up with a plan of attack, um, whether you know, uh venue where I'm gonna do things, um, the actual nuts and bolts of like the day-to-day operations, what does running a business look like, you know, what does the the income and and and our expenses, like all of the actual business stuff. But um, I'd say about a decade ago was when I really had the spark of saying, I'm gonna give this a try and then see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 10:41

Well, like you said, it's pretty common for people in this space to pop up and go away. So longevity is huge. And I kind of think I don't know if this can really be tested across every context, but I really do think in most contexts, if you just stay consistent doing something, you can outlast failure, like you can outlast anything, you know, if you just decide you're gonna last, um, in some regards, yeah. Obviously, it has to make sense. But I I actually heard from I was talking with a friend who knew someone who was wanting to get into this, and probably three months later they gave up. So, like what what held to you have that longevity of 10 years going on 10 years?

SPEAKER_02 11:31

That's that's a really good point. Um, it it is very difficult. Yeah, a a long time ago I had somebody tell, and honestly, at this point, I could be totally conflating stories. I'll be honest with you. I I say somebody told me, I also could have just heard it. Yeah, I could be totally lying to you. But um essentially, what I think I at one point heard was that the best business owners and the most successful people um don't try to conquer the world in a single day. You you have to have a obviously a short-term view, um, you know, to whether it's income and that kind of thing. You do have to have some like, hey, I gotta get something going. Um but taking the long-term view of if every single day I devote even just a little bit of time to what I want to do, when I stack that up over a one-year, two-year, three-year period, and you look back at that, well, you know, if you're for like basketball analogy, right? If you if you're practicing 200 shots a day and you, you know, look at that, you know, a hundred days from now, you know, um that 200 shots might not have seemed like a a lot, maybe that individual day, but you stack those reps up and and it ends up being a lot of volume, a lot of time of of of putting forth effort towards something. So uh I I was told every day try to get at least one thing accomplished to help you move forward in what you want to do.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

And and just let the chips after that kind of fall where they may.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

Yeah. Well, because like you said, it's kind of it it kind of goes perfectly into health and wellness, like do one thing a day, and in the moment, in that week, it doesn't look like a lot, but you're gonna have something to look back at and you're like, oh, I didn't realize I'd come this far. So it it totally relates across the board. So was there a moment, obviously, whenever you're in the corporate world um in health and wellness, which I'll say I I know that doesn't really matter all of the places you've been, but he's he's done some cool things uh in the health and wellness industry. Um, what was the moment like when you were like, okay, I'm ready to build this on my own? Like how did you know you were ready to just jump off and do it on your own?

SPEAKER_02 14:02

I knew I was ready to I knew I was ready to do it on my own when I started to feel being sought out. Oh and that was a game changer for me. That it completely changed my confidence level, it changed how I viewed myself, it it not only rationalized the time I had spent working with others for very little, if not no money at all, uh it finally rationalized that, but it also uh gave me a little more appreciation for that. And I I recognized that that time and that investment that I had put in was worth it. And I remember somebody reaching out to me, you know, at this point, this might have been like old Facebook days, but somebody reaching out saying, Hey, um I am you know going through uh these certain health issues, I know that you've worked with people like this um recently, I've uh and and I've seen some of those things. And at that point, I said, if I'm being sought out and can organically um continue to build that reputation to where that is taking place, and it really was just the one. Like I specifically remember the situation and and not necessarily the message verbatim, but but kind of the general sense of it. And at that point I knew that I had something to offer that was valuable to to others.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, that's so cool because yeah, sometimes if it was left up to our own timing, like in our own confidence level, it's gonna take us a lot longer to make a jump like that.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

But to whenever someone is saying, Hey, I see what you're doing, I see the value in what you're offering, I I'm you know, I want your help. For me, I know the biggest hang up on like actually launching out into Signify Marketing, like on my own from what I was doing, because I was again in the marketing, but like to do it on my own, what stopped me is like I didn't want to do all of the self-promotion. Like what you're saying of like if it can happen organically, that was like, oh, maybe I don't have to like you know, you kind of get over that. You have at some point you have to get over it as a business owner, the self-promotion, because you're not promoting yourself, you're promoting your product, you're promoting what you can offer. But like, was that a huge thing for you holding you up of I don't want to be out there like trying to tell people that you're and so when you said organically, that was something that was like, oh, okay, this can feel natural.

SPEAKER_02 16:38

Yeah, yeah, um I I've never really thought of it that way. Uh, but you could even ask ask my wife, I'm not incredibly interested in um hearing people necessarily talk about me or like putting myself out there in terms of like look how amazing I am. And in fact, like if you like go through my social media, it's very like anti-fitness cringe. I like to be as science-based as I can. I essentially kind of like vlog my days, right? And that is my promotional content. I'm not a huge fan of putting out a bunch of viral, you know, trends and doing things like that. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and some business. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but but for me and what I have done, it just hasn't been um my means to get there. And and I have done some different things, you know, in terms of like the viral space and and self-promotion, but I always found that that was a for me a short-term sacrifice of the image for like maybe a very short or small game, versus kind of holding true to making the brand be me. And is and in that term, um it was it was much easier for me to be a little more unassuming with not only like how I present myself in the the face-to-face interactions, but also how I'm handling um my promotion. But yeah, I've never thought of it that way. It is tough to put yourself out there and feel like you're not just kind of hey, shine shine the light on me, look at how awesome I am. That that is kind of a a little bit of a conundrum, especially you know, if you care about how people view you. Right. You know, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Well, I do have to say this. I have to say this because this is encourages me too, and everyone out there that's kind of like I mean, would you call yourself a solo entrepreneur or what would you say? Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

100%.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

So I feel like you do there's some amount of it that you have to stay true to you and your brand. And then there's another element of it of people aren't gonna know unless you tell them. So it's like this balance of I gotta put this out there not to promote me, but because like I think I can help people, and I think that what I offer is valuable, and so you just put it out there. So this is just a little encouragement to anyone that's in that boat of like, oh, I don't, I don't want to just be promoting myself. You're promoting your product, and the people who need you, they need to find you. And so that's just that's just a side, that's just a little side thing. But uh, but I will say, if you're not following Be Wise Fitness, you will be by the end of this because it is actually really it I enjoy watching the daily vlog style. Like I like seeing what's going on because one element we haven't really touched on is you kind of tapped into uh meeting needs that other people aren't meeting in the in the idea that you work with a lot of people with special abilities.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Yeah. Uh so I work uh with a uh large percentage of the uh special needs population here in Oklahoma, uh, or at least in Tulse, Oklahoma. But I have people who travel from different um towns, counties, um, whatnot, just to um have the opportunity to do some of the things that we're doing here. And it was a business that that sort of again kind of sought me out more than I sought it out, but is is extremely rewarding in like a totally different facet, um in a totally different way because some of the things you're accomplishing, you know, on a day-to-day basis aren't the things you think you're typically accomplishing when you go into a gym, right? It it might be learning to to run, it might be uh taking a client who's never ever leapt off the ground, never jumped in their entire life, and you're getting to see them learn the process of just this simple thing that that we can take for granted so much, and you get to see in real time um them learn and develop and strengthen, and it's one of the coolest things, and I feel so blessed that I've actually been able to to tap in and work with a market that really is very underserved in general. Yeah, um it's a um actually, you know, to throw some numbers out there, at least some some uh stats, it is uh diabetes is one of the biggest issues in special needs populations, and one of the biggest fighters against diabetes is just exercise, just moving your body um and eating good food.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

So why do you I mean, where do you think that stat comes from? Like, why do you think that is?

SPEAKER_02 21:33

A lot of it has to do with this is a little bit of theory. Yeah. So uh yeah, so I I think it's a um it's multiple things. Yeah, it's kind of a confluence of issues. One is that they are underserved from an economic standpoint. I don't think we pour enough money and resources into educating the um that population, and not just that population specifically. Specifically, it but just the people who are taking care, parents, um, family, people who are involved in their lives, who are helping them make real day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year decisions. We don't pour enough resources into the educational side of that.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:17

We don't necessarily treat them the the best going through public schooling. We don't um put them first a lot of times. And they have to really claim their advocacy. They have to advocate for themselves twice, three, four, five times as hard as any other person just to get the information that might be more readily available to, you know, the the neuronormative kid or or or whoever.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:45

Right. So so there are obstacles there to that. The other piece of it is just caretakers, family being overwhelmed by just the the costs of food, the costs of trying to do things a healthier way, which is one of the things we try to navigate here. It is help with that. And then just actually coaching, discussing with whoever they're taking care of, or that individual themselves, you know, having the the buy-in to want to do that, right? To not um place their health and their their well-being or or their their sense of well-being on the back burner.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah. Did you know that this was a need you wanted to meet whenever you first opened BWIS?

SPEAKER_02 23:35

It was not.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

So it was a surprise.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

It was a surprise. Can I tell you the story? Yes. So so here's the story and how it all happened. I had a client reach out to me in what also really coincided with the launch of the business itself in the format that we see today. I had a client reach out to me, and they were homeschooled at the time, uh, through a homeschool organization here in the state of Oklahoma, and they said, we have no outlets for this individual. This individual had fragile X syndrome, which is very similar similar to Down syndrome. It manifests a little differently, but it's genetic, it's seen pre-birth, right? What we know before they're born that they have fragile X syndrome, and it is passed down typically by the mother. A lot of other um interesting info about it, but the ultimate part of it was that they really didn't have access to physical education, didn't have access to any kind of like health science. Um, they they weren't going to necessarily have the most success doing traditional team sports, you know, and Special Olympics is is great, and those organizations do a wonderful job, but they are trying to do a lot for a ton of people. Right. And it's hard to have that individual attention. And that they reached out and they said, Hey, you know, we've seen your qualifications and your background and what you're doing with, you know, individuals with injuries, individuals with, you know, maybe some pre-existing health conditions, and well, we're interested in you working with our child. And I said, you know, I haven't done this a ton. You know, it's like one of those little small footnotes in the textbook, is what I tell people. It's like, oh, also, and if they have special needs, here's what you do. You know, it's not a focus, it's not something that we put a lot of attention into. And they reached out and they said, Would you be interested in doing this? And I said, I will give it a whirl. And it was the best decision ever made.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

And you just, I mean, it I guess it just word of mouth, right? Carried from there. So, like when people see you're doing that with this kid, they just are like, Oh, well then let's try this out.

SPEAKER_02 25:52

Yeah, it was a ton of word of mouth with that business because that is one where when we talked about self-promotion, I almost thought of that even more so because I never want to come across as being inauthentic, as if that's a word. I I don't want to come across with trying to you know earn brownie points of like, hey, look what I'm doing over here, because that's not the ultimate reason. So I'm even very careful with like how I frame things, how I post things, right? Because at the end of the day, it's not me doing the work, it's them.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

Right. Well, and I can see what you mean because you don't want it to look like, hey, look at look at me working with special needs. Yeah. But you know, you found a need that no one else was meeting. Like, let's just be honest, that's it's underserved, like you said. Um, so I think that's awesome. I it's and it's also fun again on the Instagram side of it, it's fun to watch. Like it's fun to see those what seems like a little baby step, like for them is huge, and it's fun to witness that.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

Yeah, the it's it's a part, it's cool to be a part of that journey. You know, I I have clients doing everything from jumping. Uh, like my my client Brennan, I'm totally good to put his name out there, doing a wonderful job. Um, I got a client named Brooke who, you know, imagine going through your whole life, you know, Bro Brooke won't mind me telling her story. Imagine having cerebral palsy that affects the the left side of your body primarily, and certain things like hanging on a bar, playing on the monkey bars at school have always been just like so far out of reach and felt like such an impossibility. But part of what we do is program and coach to achieve those little little life milestones. And and with Brooke recently, that was one of the ones that we were able to to accomplish was just hanging from a bar, you know, hanging from a bar and lifting your knees, just really what seems like a small thing that is ultimately not, but but matters so much in how we kind of view ourselves as capable.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

A hundred percent. And that is probably one of the most powerful things that you give to these kids, adults, is capability. Like that they are capable, which is so cool. So cool. So one of the things that stands out about B Wise Fitness is your philosophy that training should make life better. I think one of your like little phrases was that the one hour here makes your 23 hours out there better. So where did that come from? Where did that idea come from?

SPEAKER_02 28:40

Well, honestly, a lot of introspection. Yeah, I get uh a lot of time because I do run my own business. I I'm always in my world, so I always get to think about my world. I recognize that a lot of people who are not on the entrepreneur side, a lot of times they're going to do jobs that they don't really care about, right? That they don't care about the success of that company, they don't care about, you know, necessarily the specific product that they're making or the engineering behind it or how where it came from. Um I'm fortunate and blessed that I get to. And I get to think about what it is that that we're really doing, right? And one of the things that I came to when thinking about this, and I'm sure I've heard people say something similar at different points, but ultimately you're only spending one hour, you know, if you're doing it right, yeah. You know, about one hour in the gym on on a regular, you know, three, four days a week basis. And and and you're spending the rest of your life doing life. And the the goal of life isn't to gym, the goal of life is to live.

SPEAKER_00 29:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

And and it is it is much better living and going through the world when when things that shouldn't be difficult are less difficult.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Right.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

It makes everything so much better. You know, the trying to put myself in the vantage point of someone who maybe does have a certain need, whether it's physical, mental, of just thinking about going to like an amusement park and you totally avoid one side of the park because you know there's stairs over there. Imagine how shrinking that is to your world. My goal is to take this one hour that we spend here to expand your world and your vantage point when you go out there. And I think that is what ultimately makes life more fulfilling is to be able to experience it better without having you know foggy glasses on, right? That that are that's either dampening or or limiting how much and and how often you can experience.

SPEAKER_01 31:01

That's so cool. And I I mean, yes, we are not supposed to live for the gym. We go to the gym to live life better.

SPEAKER_02 31:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:09

That's so good. And we shouldn't be avoiding stairs. So if you're avoiding stairs, don't avoid BYS.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Yeah, don't avoid stairs.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

Don't avoid stairs. So I'm sure that probably there are elements of BYS that looks differently now than you thought it would when you first started. So how have how does business look different now than whenever than what you expected it to look like from the start?

SPEAKER_02 31:33

Yeah. Honestly, and this maybe goes into the weeds of like the actual business strategy of it, kind of the economics of the business. When I very first started, you know, going on 10 years now, um, one-on-one training was really still the rage and still what people wanted. However, in the last I'd say, half decade or so, uh, we've switched to gyms being a lot more focused on community. A lot more focused on marketing to the group and to the the class, to the uh more to groups of people versus the individual. Right? You go back to 80s, 90s, early 2000s, a lot of training and marketing was focused on you, you one person come in and achieve your goals, but then you saw the rise of things like CrossFit, Zumba, um, you know, um cycle classes, things that are a group experience. And one of the biggest changes now that you can see within the business is if you come in here, you know, after about 12 o'clock, this place is packed. Well, we are serving multiple people at different times. And what I found was everybody does better when the business is run that way.

SPEAKER_00 32:54

Wow.

SPEAKER_02 32:55

I feel better because of the atmosphere in the community, but also they are getting much more enjoyment, enjoyment out of it and accomplishing more because there is a real exponentially kind of improving power that comes from doing things with a group that you do not get. Even if you have the best coach in the world, I realize that my coaching has limitations, and that limitation is I am not a peer.

SPEAKER_00 33:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

And being around your peers and your peers or other people who are experiencing something similar, those individuals cheering you on matters a lot.

SPEAKER_01 33:35

That's so cool. So this is getting into the psychology of people. It's just like we need people, yeah. Right? We want to do things with people. Everyone thinks I think we kind of make funny like little jokes about being like antisocial or introverts, but like even an introvert, you need people. We need people in our corners, and yeah, accomplishing things together is more fun than alone. That's brilliant.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

Absolutely. Kind of circling back, it's a human business.

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:04

And the experience that you have as a a human is really all that you have and all that you own. And I think if you really got into the minds of most people, I think most people, although in you know, alone time can be nice, but ultimately we are at our best when we are doing things with others.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

That's so cool. And true. I love that. Okay, so what has surprised you most about running a business?

SPEAKER_02 34:37

I I would say the biggest surprise has been the just the level of of work and not work in a sense of when you get into business and entrepreneurship, you know that you're gonna have a high workload. You know that you're gonna have things going on a lot, but it is the nature of you're running the business all the time, especially in a business like this, your brand is always you. From the moment you step out to do anything, you are representing yourself in your business. So every single thing that goes on in your personal life, things that are going on, you know, in the gym, things that people are saying about you, you know, things that, you know, whether good, whether bad, um, and then just the the communication piece of of handling things on a regular basis, all of that uh workload is something that you have to manage. And I think entrepreneurs, even if they know the work is coming, are are often surprised. I I know I was a little bit at just how intense it can be.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

Yeah, I agree. A lot of people don't realize like literally 24-7, but sometimes it's good, like when you're powered up and ready to go, but then there are times where you run into it and you're like, I need to pump the brakes. And so then that's probably when it gets super overwhelming. What have been things that you have done to kind of balance that out where it's not just relying on your energy level, but it's sustainable?

SPEAKER_02 36:10

One of the biggest things that I did was learn that you do not have to immediately text back.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

There you go. There you go.

SPEAKER_02 36:19

That was a game changer. When we're talking in the weeds of like what could everybody's like, yo, you got to create work-life balance. Yeah, but what does that mean? Yeah, how do you actually do that in practice? Um, one of the things that I did was create hard cutoffs for myself. And at 7, 7:30 every single night, my phone goes on do not disturb and I check nothing. Wow. And that was a massive game changer because it allows me to be fully invested in family, fully invested in whatever I'm doing so that I am recharged and ready to go when I get back. Right. Right? It doesn't dilute what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 37:01

Yes. Well, and because you, you know, you're I'm sure at the beginning you're kind of like, oh, it's okay, maybe 30 more minutes, but like then the next day, you're that much more depleted. You're not fresh.

SPEAKER_02 37:11

Exactly. You you you're you're depleting yourself, and you might get uh a short-term reward uh in that in that time, but long term, as you you know, kind of mentioned to the sustainability piece, it's not sustainable. You cannot do it no matter how hard of a worker you are, no matter how hard of a hustler and and you know you are uh in that respect. It is it's difficult to be on all the time for everyone. Yeah, and you have to have moments where where you you give to yourself, yeah, and you allow yourself to to to fully recharge and get away mentally from all of the the stresses, all of the the thoughts that go into like oh what am I gonna do here? How am I gonna navigate that? You have to give yourself those moments, otherwise you will be worthless when you're finally back at the job doing it is what what you're needing to do.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Yeah, well, because I always think as like I have to do this again tomorrow. So like I gotta remember that, like, I gotta do this again tomorrow. So, what has been the hardest or one of the hardest lessons you've learned so far in business?

SPEAKER_02 38:24

Not to take things personal. That is, especially in a business like this, where you are building relationships, you know. I I am fortunate that my attrition rate is far lower than the the average gym business. A lot of gyms have very high attrition, especially, you know, like the big commercial gyms. Uh, we don't here at this space. However, you still do have some attrition.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Right.

SPEAKER_02 38:52

And not taking that personal, knowing that just there's different stages and seasons that people have in life when things don't go right, when maybe uh a certain program or a certain strategy wasn't the most effective. You know, not getting too down on yourself to where you're you're now fearful to do it again.

SPEAKER_01 39:16

Right, right, because again, you gotta do this again. So for sure. What's one of the proudest moments you've had so far in business?

SPEAKER_02 39:26

That is a wonderful question.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Gotta think about the good too.

SPEAKER_02 39:29

Yeah. You know, I I don't know if there is a a moment per se, yeah, or any any specific situation that I can highlight, but it honestly, it has been the the words that on a daily basis I hear, not even just from my clients and my athletes, but from the people around them who will come to me and say, You won't believe the change that I have seen in this person, not just outwardly, because I'm of full belief that what we do to affect the outside of our body drastically affects the inside of our body. And meaning like even down to like our our spirit, like what we're we're putting out there, right? And and I have had people come up to me and say, the you have just drastically altered this person's life, and we feel it and we see it, and and it makes our life better, and it makes their life better. And I I hear things like that on a pretty regular basis, you know, and I won't ever place any one of those any higher than the other, right? But but those are meaningful things, and and those are ultimately you know what make me proud. I I fully think that the if you're serving the right purpose, yeah, um, both not just your your earthly but also your your heavenly purpose as well, if you're serving that in an honest uh way with with integrity and and with some uh aggressiveness, like some some get after it, the money and the promotional stuff will all take care of itself.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

Well, there you go. All right, so um if you could go back to 2017, 2016, to before the opening of Be Wise Fitness, or maybe you're talking to someone who is like at that starting point, kind of like where you're you're where you were at, what advice would you give yourself or to that person getting started?

SPEAKER_02 41:43

I would say start.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

There you go.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

Absolutely, like and not a whole lot to add to that, other than just so many businesses stay in the uh the but they don't even put it in gear.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:57

And and you gotta put it in gear before you ever know what you have.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yeah. Well, and I think we talked about this while we were getting set up. Like, we're probably the same in the way of like just start. Like you don't have it all figured out, just start. You don't know all the answers to all the questions, you just gotta start. You just start, and it'll get better as you go.

SPEAKER_02 42:17

Yeah, it it will take care of itself. That is the way progress works. Yes, it nothing is perfect the first time. I'm sure the first time somebody made vanilla ice cream, it didn't taste good. I bet you it didn't taste good at all. Yeah right? But eventually they're like, oh, a little more sugar, a little more milk, make it colder, and then you got vanilla ice cream.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

And and it's great. It's great now. Okay, so one more question before we close. We always like to ask this what's one thing that you don't have fully figured out yet, but you're choosing to build through it anyway within your business.

SPEAKER_02 42:56

Something I don't have fully figured out yet, but uh, but I'm choosing to build through it. I would say just the the concept of scalability, right? So with what I am doing, particularly with the special needs community, yeah. One of the reasons that you know it it has grown is because it is a need. Well, my objective with that is to reach as many people as possible. That is a logistical issue. That is an issue of messaging, branding, getting the word out, you know, having people know, and then also having the resources to serve those communities. So that that is the area where you know a lot of folks in my business who are local gyms, practitioners of any kind, uh a lot of times the the thing that kind of that they mull over the most is just scaling the product to where you're not diluting what you do, right? also maximizing your reach, and that is where where I I would say there's still some growth left and some figuring out, but I'm also confident that I I may not hit you know well exactly what I vision it to be, but I also that this is never what I envisioned this to be either. So I'm just I'm down for the ride.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

Yeah. Well I mean I think a lot of people can relate to that because scale like how can you scale this? How can you do this more? How can you help more people? I think everyone can relate to that and you'll figure it out one step at a time, right? Okay, so tell people who want to learn more about B Wise Fitness or to connect with you where can they find you?

SPEAKER_02 44:44

So you can find me on Instagram at B WiseFitness letter B W I S E Fitness or on Facebook. You just search B WiseFitness available on there. I am putting out um educational material I'm putting out kind of daily vlog style success stories just people doing cool things on a regular basis and also hearing some of the interaction that goes on some of the chit chat some of the funny things that get said you know within a session and working with some of the populations that I do like you'll hear some funny things and some funny noises every now and again but but it is uh it's still a wonderful blast and and I enjoy it um every day.

SPEAKER_01 45:25

Awesome well I'm always here for a good vlog so check them out on Facebook on Instagram and that is it for this session of the back office. If this conversation gave you clarity a new angle or even just the reminder that you're not the only one navigating this then it did its job. Take what's useful, apply it move on it because no one has it fully figured out but we are building anyway and if you found this valuable then you can share it with another operator who's building and you can always hang out with us in between episodes on social media at Signify Marketing Social. So I'm Delana Dylan and I will meet you back here next time.