Here we are, already on the last day of January. Time flies when you’re having fun and how fun is it to pride yourself in going to the gym? Being able to set your own goals that only you can hit or break. Seeing the progress YOU have created. A place where you can go and, for at least an hour, forget about everything else that’s going on in your life…. I could go on and on, but I’m sure you’ve guessed the first month’s topic already so I will just get right to the point. If you didn't guess it's: a gym! The first month's business I chose to write about is Athens Health Club.
Located in one of the newest shopping centers of Sykesville, MD; and owned by Steve Freedman, a Eldersburg/Sykesville native and gym guru, Athens is the perfect business to start off my B2B Blog with. Not only is this gym one of the most well-known in the Sykesville area, even after competing with multiple other larger commercial gyms, I thought this business would be great to start with in January because who else needs some tips on how to continue to pursue their new year’s resolution goals once the first month of the year is up? I know I certainly do!!! I am going to explain a little about why I love Athens, dabble into Steve's Start-Up Story, and then end with three tips on how to keep up with your new year's goals, so keep reading!
Athens Health Club has been a business I have been loyal too since my senior year of high school. I joined in late 2014 and was so happy to do so because it was one of the only gyms I felt comfortable in while preparing myself for my college athlete years. Little did I know, almost 10 years later, I am still saying I am a member. The atmosphere is very welcoming with members ranging in all ages. Each membership comes with a daycare option, free workout classes taught by an Athen’s personal trainer, and a tanning option you can add on to your membership if that interests you. The workout classes differ each day, rotating between workouts and trainers so there is a class for everybody!! The weekly class calendar is provided on the Athens Website, but to sum up the classes offered, you have: Yoga, Bulletproof, Kickboxing, Soul Cycling, and a Full Body Transformation class. If you have a membership, you can attend any one of these classes for free! Speaking of memberships, Athen’s has one of the most affordable membership packages in the Sykesville area. They even offer affordable daily rates for anyone visiting for the weekend, and student packages for all those college kids that only visit home during the winter and summer months.
Steve has been nothing but amazing since I have been a member. I met Steve in early 2014, outside of the gym. He was a friend of a friend, and from that friend is how I heard about Athens. Ever since I joined, I never looked back. Steve actually teaches one of the classes listed above and it is one of the hardest workout classes I have attended. There’s not much you can say about “bulletproof” considering you have to attend the class in order to understand what I am talking about, but to keep the explanation of the class short and sweet, let’s just say for a full hour, you are constantly jumping, moving, burpee-ing, stepping, whatever you want to call it, to keep your heart rate up. Steve manifests some weird a** workout moves that you have to reciprocate and continue to do so until the next move is provided for you. It might not be for everyone, but I challenge anyone who is a member of Athens to try the Bulletproof class!! Outside of these classes, I catch Steve personal training a number of members ranging in all different ages at all hours of the day, and that’s when I got to thinking… “man, he’s been doing this for a while AND he’s still showing face at the gym. He’s consistently growing even with competition of multiple commercial gyms up the road, HOW?! Does he still love what he has started? He has to, right? He’s here everyday! I want to know how he did it and what got him here! With those thoughts, it lead me to a long list of questions.
So here I am, on a Monday night in the middle of January. We had just finished a Bulletproof class. I am drenched in sweat in the gym’s lobby waiting around anxiously for Steve so I can ask him my long list of questions. How is he going to react to a Realtor wanting to start a blog, build a business connection? It’s my first one, is this a good idea? I’m not sure why I was so nervous because Steve was really excited to be the first business to be a part of my 2023 B2B Blog!! He loved my questions, provided me with some great detailed answers, and I can’t wait to share with you the story of how Athens Health Club became well, Athens.
The first question almost anyone has for a successful business owner is what made them want to pursue their dream? They may be successful now, but who pushed them to succeed? What event or story do they have that got them to where they are now? Why did they chose to do this? When did they know that they had a great idea brewing and could pursue it? In this case for Steve, what made him want to start a gym? It was pretty clear when talking to Steve that one person in Steve’s life lead him to pursing his dream in opening up a gym. That person was his older brother, Tom. “I always looked up to Tom while growing up. We were very close in high school. We played sports together and were willing to do whatever it took to get better and be stronger”. To continue that mindset, the brothers found themselves attending the gym after school every day. Yeah, that was in high school, but I think we can all say that any teenager who played a sport in high school wanted to be better and stronger than anyone, really. Better and stronger than their teammates to gain a starting position and better and stronger than their opponents to gain a “W” for the season record. Although their gym intentions were solely to succeed in the sports they played in high school, sports eventually came to an end and Steve followed Tom to Salisbury University where the love for working out continued. That’s where the plan to develop a gym came into play. After Tom graduated and proceeded to jump into a full-time job, he found himself day dreaming about developing this gym while Steve found himself also day dreaming about a gym during his last few semesters at Salisbury University. Fast forward to a few years after both brother’s were graduated, they stuck to their plan and it was time to turn a dream into reality. With the financial help from their close friend Barry Frankel, Tom and Steve were able to open Athens Health Club.
Not only can starting a business be TOUGH, but starting a business in a competitive industry is tougher!! The time needed, planning visions to come to fruition, and getting started can be exhausting. I’m sure Steve has run into these hiccups many of times, but with him being so successful now, it made me wonder how Athens has grown since he started. “My business has grown and changed drastically since the early days”, Steve says. “To make any new business successful, you have to find a way to overcome your earlier mistakes. Keep your head up, correct the mistakes quickly and learn from them so they don’t happen again”. If anyone has encountered the job of trying to start a new business, I think you can chime in with a “hell yeah!” when you hear the questions of “how do I do this?” or “what the heck am I doing?!”. It’s definitely not easy and early mistakes are going to happen, but speaking from personal experiences, it’s all about how you react and bounce back, and I couldn’t agree with Steve more! On top of Steve learning from his own mistakes as a business owner, he also learned about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to a gym. At the beginning of Athens, it sounded like too many employees were hired, too much inventory was ordered, unnecessary expenses were piling up, and there was no set vision, the most important part of starting a business. There were multiple partners in the mix making any type of decision making extremely tough. Steve went on to say “having multiple leaders with different views of what the business is supposed to be makes it very difficult. It’s not that one particular person is right and the other is wrong in their ideas, but the multiple visions paralyze the business because forces are always working against each other. Dealing with this doesn’t lead to a greater path for the larger picture”. Steve eventually branches out as being the sole owner of Athens and it has helped evolve the gym tremendously! “One vision with one leader has been what’s worked best for me” Steve says. “With that being said, I’ve learned that you’re only as good as your team. There needs to be one vision but that vision is impossible without good people”. Steve’s staff has become his family and at the end of the day, that is what matters most. The evolution of Athens has definitely had its ups and downs when figuring out how to start up, but Steve quickly came to terms that he started the gym for one reason, with a passion for health and fitness and he wanted to make sure that his members felt this passion throughout himself and the staff every time a member visited. Once he conquered this, everything else fell into place.
After seeing Steve in the gym every day, whether that be to workout himself, teach a workout class, personal train others, or just show face, I already knew the answer to this question, but I had to ask it anyways: Are you happy with your decision and still love what you do? OF COURSE HE DOES! He’s there everyday! He truly worked from the ground up to turn his dream into a reality, but I wanted to hear what he had to say now that he can look back and see that his dream is now a success. Here’s how he answered: “Starting a business from nothing takes a lot of sacrifice, especially the first 5-10 years”. Steve proceeds to say “there have been a lot of hard times and burnout in the earlier stages but that’s just a part of the business owner grind”. Well, yeah! You don’t work your a** off the first 5-10 years, finally see results in continuing referrals and renewing memberships, and a cash flow just to say you hate it. His love for this job and hardworking demeanor goes unnoticed. His passion for Health and Fitness certainly shines as you walk through the doors of Athens and I can most certainly say that he still loves his decision of starting a gym and definitely still loves what he does.
The atmosphere of Athens has been mentioned quite a few times throughout my blog. It goes to show how well Steve, his staff, and the gym has done to create this warm feeling as you walk through the doors. Honestly, it’s what you want when you walk into any gym and Steve definitely agrees. When asking Steve why people should join Athens he follows the question with these words: “My favorite thing that Athens has to offer is the atmosphere. That’s why someone should join a gym. We have created an atmosphere and community that I couldn’t be more proud of.” As a member myself, I couldn’t agree more. Other members are pushing you to be better, the trainers truly do care, and the staff brings out the best in everyone. This gym is a comfortable space for anyone at any level. Steve goes on to say “When you walk into the doors you feel warmth and friendliness but you also feel a buzz of motivation” (not to say that might be the pre-workout hitting for some…..lol) but still, pre-workout or not, you get a burst of energy that makes you want to succeed. I know why Athens is the gym for you. but you have to come visit so you can make that decision on your own.
To finalize this phenomenal interview I went ahead and asked the question that lead me here in choosing Athens as being my January blog topic. You hear all over social media and the news about New Years Resolutions and how packed the gym seems when January 1st rolls around, but I truly was curious to see if a gym owner like Steve really sees a difference once the new year hits. And he does! Since atmosphere was such a big topic, I will continue with it. “In January you see the atmosphere change, but in a good way” Steve says. “A lot of new members signing up and and figuring out their fitness journey, and a lot of inactive members renewing their memberships trying to get back into a routine”. Based on a current members standpoint, I do see the gym become more packed, but the energy increases. No matter if you’re new, or have been there for a while, it’s nice to be around people who attend the gym to achieve the same common goal: better themselves.
Last, but certainly NOT least, the paragraph you have all been waiting for: Tips to continue your News Years Resolution goals. I will copy and paste Steve’s full monologue below so you can read all of the details to his answer, but if you like to skim paragraphs, like I do, I will bullet point them in a summary below with his words to follow.
Tips on succeeding your New Years Resolutions:
- Before starting any type of workout UNDERSTAND your “why”, your motivation.
- Remember your “why” and show up when you don’t want to!!
- Diet Diet Diet!
Steve's monologue on tips for anyone trying to continue their NYR Goals: “The best advice I could possibly give to someone trying to hit their New Year’s resolution is to first understand why they are standing there in the first place. Motivation. They are standing there because New Years was their motivation to start something new. People do the same thing with life events such as weddings and vacations. To be successful not only with your fitness goals, but with anything, is doing what you’re supposed to do on the days you’re least motivated. I pay far more attention to making sure I still exercise on the days I feel least motivated because I already know that working out is a given on days I’m extremely motivated. If you think about it this way, imagine if a professional athlete only practiced their craft on days they were motivated to do so, but didn’t show up on the days they weren’t motivated. I can’t imagine most of them would have become professional athletes. All of us live busy lives and when you introduce working out into your daily routine…. It’s hard! For this thing to work you’re going to have to workout on the days you don’t feel like it. Trust me, if you can do this long enough your new daily routine (that now includes a workout) will be burned into your everyday life. If you can get past that step (which is the hardest) my next piece of advice would be diet diet diet. So many different great forms of exercise, but no great workout will make up for a poor diet.” If you’re not sure how to match the perfect diet to your goal… Reach out to Steve or any trainer at Athens and ask them for a nutrition consultation, they will lead you in the right direction that will save yourself years of wasted time and energy getting no results.
I have my thoughts on why Athens is the best! I constantly catch myself inviting people to join the gym as if it’s my own, but that’s when you know the owner and staff have done their job: when currents members of this community are advocates for the business, out there referring others left and right. And I can promise you that Steve has done his job! Not only has he been with Athens since the beginning of its business journey, and is now the sole owner of the gym, but he STILL provides training services and treats all of his members like he did when he first started out. Throughout all the hardships and tough times Steve never lost who he was as his business started to grow and it shows. I’m glad Steve allowed me to share his story and I’m stoked to be able to say I am a member of this gym.
To tie it all together, if you have read thus far, Steve Freedman is someone that many small business owners look up too, me being one of them. I love his story and how he continues to make it grow. With that being said I can easily compare and understand everything that Steve has been through while building my own business. It's not easy, but the person you are and how you treat people will go a long way, no matter the mistakes. And just like Steve, I can take pride in saying that as my real estate business continues to grow, I will continue to treat each and every one of you like you are my first client. I am so excited to do so!!
If you have any questions, please reach out to either of us, Athen's Health Club and Madi Hall are just a #Hallcallaway!! Until then, keep an eye out for February!
Posted by Madison Hall on
Leave A Comment