Million Dollar Monday

Mind, Body & Brownies: The Relentless Pursuit for Success Featuring CEO Josh York

• Greg Muzzillo

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“When you build a growth mindset, a resilient mindset, it allows you to literally just push through every challenge in life,” shares Josh York, CEO of GYMGUYZ. He also discusses the power of visualization and how having the end in mind can result in massive success. York’s energy is contagious. Tune in to Million Dollar Monday and get ready to be motivated. 

Chapter Summaries 

Key Takeaways:

  • I never quit no matter how bad things get. And I have trained myself over the years, doing very uncomfortable things, to be able to become this strong because you know, you have two types of mindsets, you have a fixed mindset and you have a growth mindset.
  • When you build that growth mindset, that resilient mindset, it allows you to literally just push through every challenge in life. Growing up, I just had to figure things out. I had that entrepreneurial bug in me.
  • In the times you are scared and nervous. There's one thing you do. You just do it.  But if you have a plan B, I will tell you right now, plan B is for losers. You will die. You will crash. You will burn. That's number one, number two, if you don't believe in yourself, and if you are not your biggest fan, you will also die and burn in that same situation.
  • At GYMGUYZ we pride ourselves in our three C’s: convenient, customized and creative. You know, it’s not a service it’s a customer experience.
  • Stay in your lane, focus on your strengths and delegate your weaknesses. But when you surround yourself with other intelligent individuals, you grow faster and grow stronger.
  • Leaders always create other leaders.

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Greg Muzzillo :

Hello and welcome to Million Dollar Monday. I'm your host, Greg Muzzillo bringing you real successful people with real useful advice for people with big dreams. I understand big dreams. I turned an investment of$200 and a lot of great advice from some really successful people into my big dream Proforma. That today is a half billion dollar company.

Josh York :

Well, hello and welcome. I am excited to introduce a very interesting individual. He's the founder and CEO of GYMGUYZ, a franchise with over 250 locations. He's also a motivational speaker. He also has quite a w ell-renowned and respected podcast and he is the author also o f a book. We're going to talk about, please join me in welcoming Josh, Josh York, Josh. Thanks for joining us. Thank you so much for the intro and really honored, you know, for you to invite me to the show. So thank you.

Greg Muzzillo :

All right. So let's start at the beginning a little bit. Talk to us a little bit, if you would, about your growing up years, you know, where did you learn, your passion obviously for fitness, which is the business that you're in today also, where did you learn your passion for entrepreneurship, owning your own business? And so tell us some of those stories that lead us up to the start of GYMGUYZ.

Josh York :

Absolutely. So, you know, I don't talk about this often, but I will because, you know, I have no problem with it, but, growing up was actually not very good at all. It was actually horrible. I had a very bad, very, very horrible childhood growing up. And, you know, I live the way life as bad times, create strong people. Amen, good times create weak people. Now I don't want you to misinterpret what I'm saying, that you have to have a horrible life growing up in order to be successful because that's not the case, but when you put yourself in situations that are extremely uncomfortable and difficult and challenging, that's how you grow. And I like to jump into rooms and fires. I just thrive from it. It's just crazy. I just love, I look at everything as like a game, everything I play is a game. And, you really have to, you know, be able to believe that things they're real, but they're not real because if you don't, you'll end up probably having a panic attack. I mean, going on medication and you end up in a hospital, have some medical issues because life is very challenging. But for me growing up, I never had any direction. I was pretty much raised by lions. So for me, you know, I had to figure out a lot of things on my own. But, like when I look back now and where I am today, it's really crazy. I used to always do very entrepreneurial things. Like I, my father had this, hedge trimmer in the garage. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna actually just go around the houses and tell people I'm gonna cut there. I'm going to cut their bushes for them. And I'll charge$25,$30. And I used to literally do something like this. Then I would shovel driveways. And like, I've always had this like crazy thing with being up early. Like I was always up before the rest of the world. And I would like literally just already preplanned and have my houses set up to just shovel. And you know, sometimes during a snowstorm, I used to make like$2,000. Cause I am just the most relentless animal you're ever going to meet. And I will, never tap out. I never quit no matter how bad things get. And I have trained myself over the years, doing very uncomfortable things, to be able to become this strong because you know, you have two types of mindsets, you have a fixed mindset and you have a growth mindset. And when you build that growth mindset, that resilient mindset, it allows you to literally just push through every challenge in life. And, growing up, I had just had to figure things out.

Greg Muzzillo :

So where do you go from there? W hat happened after college?

Josh York :

So, throughout college, I was personal training. I've always loved personal training. I love helping people, and I was very good at it, you know, but not scalable. You can't scale it. You can't make money when you're sleeping. And you know, I was, I was actually very successful as a personal trainer. I was making high six figures doing it by myself, and I literally gave it all up because I was taught in school you need to, you know, get a job w orking nine to five. So I was a good job making like 35,$40,000 a year. And I gave up all my clients and I said, I need to start my future. And, here I am now working in an environment with the most miserable people I've ever surrounded myself with in life. Like, there was so much negativity that you like, just got, it was like a tornado. A negativity would hit you when I walk in the door. And like, I'm looking at everyone in this building. And I'm just like, I'm like this. Like, I always will look at the owner. I'm like, this guy doesn't know what he's doing. Like he's not running this properly. And, I'm still young, right? I'm just out of college. But I just knew in my heart and my soul that this guy did not know what he was doing. And that lasted about four months. And I said, I can't do this anymore. Went back into fitness. And I always lived my life. Every no always gets me closer to a yes, and I will figure it out. And I just, you know, one day one of my clients came in late because I had to build up my clientele again. He said Josh I wish you could come to my house. I just don't have any equipment. I was like, wow, this is like the most simplest idea. No one's ever professionalized the service. No one's ever franchised it. Convenience is really starting to grow. Like, I started seeing like a lot more things are becoming convenient. I said, you know, I'm going to get a van stock it with everything needed. I'm going to come up with a great name, come up with a brand color and go out, start servicing clients. And I literally had some money that I saved up. I used to caddy at a country club. Okay. I actually hate golf. I'd rather watch paint dry, love driving a golf cart though. And, I'm very good because you have to be very good at building relationships. And I am very good at building relationships. Right. And I did research at this country club, but who were the top players? I got pictures on them. Obsessively studied them. And I would just wait until they walked in and just, and I would like kind of line up with the caddy master there to make sure I was the next one to go out. And that's what I did. And I became really friendly with these big time real estate developers. They used to give me a ridiculous amount of money. Every time I go out with them and I just saved everything and literally spent it one shot just like that when I was so scared. So nervous in the times of you being scared and nervous, there's one thing you do. You just do it, but. But if you have a plan B, I will tell you right now, plan B is for losers. You will, you will die. You will crash. You will burn that's number one, number two, if you don't believe in yourself, and if you were not your biggest fan, you will also die and burn in that same situation I just told you about. And I let myself just enough. For two weeks, I built up the business. I was nonstop, literally 18, 19 hours a day. I would not stop seven days a week. I had no friends, Eagles fly alone. I'm just working, working, working. People are out on 4th of July partying. I'm putting out signs and going to the doors and knocking on doors. And I just did whatever I had to do. And next thing you know, I got my next van, my next van, my next van, I started franchising in 2014. And today we are the largest personal training company in the world. We operate in three countries about to go to our next country. And, you know, and honestly I still deal with pain and the pain will never go away and it's still going to be challenges and issues. And you just have to know how to maneuver them. But you know, now I have an executive team and I have, you know, the correct legal staff and, you know, you, learn these things and grow over time. Yeah.

Greg Muzzillo :

But I love it. All right. We have a lot of people listening to aspiring entrepreneurs that think, you know, someday I want to franchise my own business. So talk to me, talk to us, talk to the listeners about what were the steps you went through to start a franchise, to go from doing it yourself, to starting a franchise, to finding somebody, to buy a franchise, teach them the business. How did you go about it? And what did you learn about franchising in those early days?

Josh York :

So, y ou k now, I just started calling a random franchise attorneys, you know,$40,000,$60,000. I didn't even have 6 cents in my pocket. So I'm trying to figure out how to even like, make this work, you know, and then I met this guy because I'm very, creative in a way. I do things very strategic. You know, I found out this, this weekly, networking group, this one g entleman who had a n experience in franchising used to go to, and, i t was free. So I j ust, I started showing up and, I sit next to him, you know, and I was just making small talk. And you know, now I got a relationship with this guy. I know a little bit about him. I know what he likes. And he was very into sports and I'm a big hockey player and he loves h ockey. So I got him some tickets. Next thing, you know, I'm best friends with this guy. He made an introduction to someone that introduction turned into, obviously how I started learning about getting franchise deals done and getting my agreements set up and your registration, and how to be registered in certain states and get approved for franchising and get your audit done and all that, all that good stuff. Right. Then I, you know, that's how I became officially a franchise by obviously, you know, going to people who've done it and, you know, getting their advice. And, you know, that's really, what's gotten me to where I am today because I've, I got some of the best mentors in the world that are in my pocket that I've really just spent a lot of time going after to make that happen. And then, you know, we, we started franchising and I actually, haven't taken a vacation its now almost seven years since I started the business. I haven't taken one vacation. I never, even, I've never in my life in a 13 years of doing this, I've never, ever taken a sick day ever. I work no matter what, no matter what. I'm a mad man. I'll tell you that right now, nothing could hold me down. I don't care if it's the flu. I don't care what it is. Even when I have the flu, I still jump in my ice bath every morning. And we can talk about that after. But at the end of the day, you have to be, you have to have a little bit of madness going on up here in order for you to really drive something when you're doing it bootstrapped. So I was like, you know what, I'm going to go on vacation. Fine. It's Christmas time. Nothing's really gonna happen. I'm gonna go on vacation. So we just arrived the Cabo this is right before I had my first son and my wife, and we're at the pool, we're hanging out, you know, and then we go grab something to eat. And they had a buffet line and I love brownies, like nice gooey brownies, like they are the best, right. Nothing better than a brownie. So I stacked this plate up. It's almost got, it's got to have like 15, 20 brownies in it and I'm bringing it back to my table. And as I'm bringing it back to my table, this guy stops. And he looks at me and he's like, what are you doing with all those? And I was like, I'm going to eat them. And he's like, you look like that and you're gonna eat all of those. And I was like, first of all, I work out every day. Second of all, I'm on vacation. Yes. So we just start talking, what do you do for a living? And I started telling him, and he's like listening. He's like, wow, very cool. Ended up going back to our tables. He's sitting right next to me, with his wife, we start talking more and he's like, man, my son would love this. So he starts FaceTiming his son and they're like, yeah, let me, let me see the document. You know? So now I just franchised now, I'm in Cabo. So they're three hours behind. I'm calling my attorney. It's like two in the morning. And he picks up he's like Josh is everything A ll right? I go well, listen, I got someone interested. What do I do? He's like, Josh, c an we talk about this tomorrow? I said, no, wakeup. I was like we need to t alk about this right now. H e's like this is just so crazy. G et, the document, give him the documents, send it in a n email, have him sign that last page, which is, y ou k now, people have to sign and we c an talk in the morning. So I sent him the document, right? Two weeks later, we closed the first franchise. And from there we took off like a rocket, like a rocket ship.

Greg Muzzillo :

So how I close my first deal, eating brownies.

Josh York :

Pretty much. So then, but then what I did was I pitched that story to entrepreneur. I started calling entrepreneur every day. I went through literally like I had the whole directory. Hey, how you doing? My name is John York. And I just started this great franchise. I got the best story for you. It's so good that you're going to shut down every other magazine company and click, click, click it. It must've taken me about almost, I'd say eighty six, eighty seven phone calls around there. And one person's like, wow, this is a great story. I got a full page story in entrepreneur that costs me nothing, nothing. Right? What my soul, my second franchise. And I just kept doing things. I'm very good when it comes to PR and I'm just relentless. I just, I will never stop till I get what I want. It's just very simple. And, and that is what really started, you know, the growth,

Greg Muzzillo :

Your positive attitude attracts success though. I think, I think people are attracted to you. You're physically fit. You're positive. You just beam energy. I think that that helps the whole law of attraction is a really big deal out of, uh, you know, good for you. Good on you for realizing you should have a good attorney and do franchising the right way. What you were talking about was having a disclosure document, because you're supposed to have a disclosure document and properly disclose a prospective franchise owner in a certain number of days before they join. And if you don't, you can get in a lot of trouble, especially if the franchise Fails.

Josh York :

a hundred percent. Yeah. A lot of trouble.

Greg Muzzillo :

So there's, there's a lot to learn there. So you did well learning from that person that you bought hockey tickets for or whatever, or whoever that person introduced you to what, along the way on your way to 250 franchises, have you found to be the most difficult part of franchising, the business?

Josh York :

Cash flow cash flow. Right? People don't when I talk about pain, like you don't really understand the type of pain. If you're doing this bootstrap and you don't have money behind you, the type of pain that you have to go through, I guarantee you seven years ago, 99.99% of people would have never would just quit and never go forward. It is the most pain. It is the most painful thing you'd ever experienced. And there is a very, very big price you have to pay to get to the other side.

Greg Muzzillo :

Yeah. Yeah. Lack of cash. Leaning on our suppliers to almost be our unwitting, investors, if you will. sometimes that works and sometimes that at the end of the day, doesn't work very well. What is one of the biggest, almost tragedies that happen to the business because of not enough cash, lack of cash.

Josh York :

It was Thursday evening.

Greg Muzzillo :

You remember the day?

Josh York :

Oh, I remember everything I could, tell you stories for hours, hours, and hours. A Thursday evening. I was still training people at the time. Payroll is on Monday, I'm already short like, like$26,000,$27,000, and ended up selling a package that day. It was now I got it down to like 20 grand. I was about short about$20,000. And, it's now Friday. Right. You know, and there's people who say, well, what am I going to do? Oh my God, what am I going to do? Well, if you do that and don't do anything about it, nothing's going to happen. Okay. So I literally thank God I didn't do this. I had, I had some money left over and I figured, let me, you know, obviously I'm going to go red, but let me go to Atlantic city. And I could hopefully hit red three to four times and double my money to make payroll. So I sat there and I actually, was like, considering this. I was like, it was like one in the morning, almost 12 l ike 1 2 in the morning, I'm sitting there and I'm like, all right, this w ould h ave been the round that I would have went red and it hit black. A nd I'm l ike, God, man, n o. I was like, man, I w ould h ave lost. You know? And I s it i n there and I'm like, this is just a bad idea. A nd I made a phone call to a mentor of mine. He actually picked up very, very successful guy, very successful. He's now he's probably multi, but he's a billionaire. H e made a lot of money. Self-made in the garment industry and he's like, Josh, he's like, Josh, this is a horrible idea. I know it is. It's a horrible idea. H e's like, think of something else. Y ou'll figure it out. I'm going back to bed. So as you see, I tend to call people at all hours of the night. Doesn't matter. So, I was like, you know what I'm going to do. Tomorrow morning, I'm going to call every single client I h ave and I'm going to have them renew their packages and I'm going to give them five to 10 free sessions.

Greg Muzzillo :

Nice. Okay.

Josh York :

Now keep in mind. I need the money by Monday. So I could not take a credit card because the credit card would not hit by Monday. So I need checks. And the bank closed that day. I think it was like three o'clock. So I had to collect all these checks and make sure I had enough money in the bank. So it would clear. So Monday when payroll hit, I'd be good to go. And I ended up raising$46,000

Greg Muzzillo :

Nice. Whatever it takes, you know, back in the, a little older than you. So back in the day, there were a few times we really had some significant cashflow, but we had to pay our bills. So today the banking system is different. But back then, you know, those little things on the bottom of a check, all those little lines, if you tore the check, then it wouldn't go through the machine at one, a process, they had to pull it out and then they had to manually process the check. And it would give you like two extra days.

Josh York :

That is genius, I love that. I love that. That's good. That's great, man. I tell you something like that. I love that.

Greg Muzzillo :

Yeah. Listen, you got to do what you gotta do, right? You gotta do what You gotta do. You got it. All right. So, and the fear. So talk to me about that sounds like you're married with kids, right?

Josh York :

Yes. Two kids.

Greg Muzzillo :

Talk to me about managing the fear of wondering if you're going to lose everything you have, because you don't have enough cash to meet payroll. How did you handle that fear that staring at the ceiling at whatever time, not wanting to involve your wife in any of it. How did you handle that? So I believe fear stands for false expectations, appearing real. And I kind of look at things as like a game, you know? And like I'm not look, I don't, I I've never watched Netflix in my life. I don't watch TV. I don't play video games, but as a kid, I used to play Mario brothers. And I used to love that game. And you know, in Mario brothers, you know, when you would die, depending on where you were, sometimes you'd start in the middle of the level and you wouldn't have to go all the way back to the beginning. And sometimes you got to go all the way back to the beginning. But the point is you get to live to see another day. And I say, I just, in times of challenging moments, I usually just say to myself, like Josh, what's going to happen?

Josh York :

Like, what's going to happen? You're going to die? Like what's going to happen? Nothing's going to happen. Just figure it out. And that's really what I do every time. And honestly, I love pizza,doughnuts. And I think about that, it makes me happy. And I just kind of changed my thought process. I don't, I really don't think about it. Like I just tell myself this too shall pass. That applies to success. And that applies to, but at the end, but at the end of the day, it always works out. I listen, oh my God, I can tell you a crazy story. Like I was trying to close this big deal. And it wasn't really set in stone that it was going to happen. And it was with this big corporation. It was, a high six figure deal. And I believed it was going to happen, but there was no like LOI. There was no deposit. There was nothing in place. It was just, we were gonna start these classes and they were going to pay up front. So I wanted to do this big ad because I knew if I did this big ad, I wasn't trying to do the ed. It was at a disadvantage. I wasn't trying to do it for the purpose of getting a lot of business out of it. I had to make myself look bigger than I was because there were people there that I was trying to connect with and I wanted them to see it. I cleaned out my whole bank account. I, literally emptied out my whole bank account to pay for that ad. So I literally spent everything I had to pay for that ad because I knew how important it was for these people to see this because if they see this, I'm going to get so much more business. But I literally did that banking at that deal was going to close on that Tuesday and it closed. Nice,

Greg Muzzillo :

Nice, well, achieving begins with believing and believing is a very powerful thing, Josh. Right. All right. So some concerning times, tell me about one or two of the high, highs along the way of getting to 250 franchises. Josh.

Josh York :

One of the big highs was getting into Costco. It was something I manifested before I even started GYMGUYZ. Like, you know, when GYMGUYZ was just an idea, I, you know, every time I go to Costco, I used to just walk past that aisle and I'd be like one day, one day, one day, you know? And I, and then sometimes I actually, I'd actually be in Costco and I'd stare close my eyes opened back up and be like, one day, one day, one day just kept, I just kept I made that thing happen. And, I every quarter would call the COO. I got his number, which is, which is a really great story, which you like I'll share in a second. But you know, like when you call someone on the phone and it's so uncomfortable, cause they can't, they don't want to talk to you and they can't stand you. But that's how it was. Every time I called him and I used to be just say, Hey, are you doing this? Josh? I'm being pleasantly persistent. I told you no last three months ago, I told you no, no click. So, how I got his number, I connected with his assistant through social media and I sent her a life-sized Hershey kiss in 10, boxes. So I had, you know, the, the large, smaller, smaller, smaller, and I put a life-size Hershey kiss. And I wrote a little note in there. Listen, I got the sweetest idea that you're going to love. Give me a call. So she gave me a call and I said, listen, I need a huge favor from you. First of all, did you love what I sent you? She goes, it's very creative. I go, thank you so much. And I go, now, you and I, we got it like that. Like we're like BFF'S, right? Like she's laughing, you know? Cause you just got to be able to have the personality, and know, how to vibe with people. Got it. So that's how I got his number and I kept calling them and then the pandemic hit and I jumped all over that, jumped all over it and he said, go ahead. I'm listening. That was the first time he, the first time he ever said that. So I'm literally, I was actually standing up like, just like this. I need my table. Cause I got so fired up when he said that. And he's like, I'm going to set you up with one of the buyers next week and then made it happen and got into Costco. So what does that,

Greg Muzzillo :

I mean, you got into Costco, you doing training in Costco, selling training. What are you doing?

Josh York :

We got in with their, um, gift cards. So we're offering personal training through the gift cards.

Greg Muzzillo :

What awareness? Good night. Good night. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that story. Congratulations to you. And the power of positive thinking, the law of attraction manifesting, they're all the same words of making things happen. Not just with persistence, not just with action, but with our brains because eventually our minds, I tell people a lot of people when I talk to them, they, think you k now, w hat do you mean? But you know, just because we have thoughts that a re vibration, they don't stop at our, our brain. Right. And I tell people, well, just because you can't hear a dog whistle doesn't mean that it's not making a sound. And just b ecause you can't hear somebody else's brain thoughts doesn't mean they're not vibrating throughout the universe a nd bringing things and making things happen. I think it's so, powerful that people keep that positive mental attitude and believing and manifesting good for you. And congratulations. All right. What dreams do you have left now for the rest of your life and the rest of the business?

Josh York :

My, my one dream, which I call dreams, facts, because all my dreams come true. I may even come through and very simple. You want to Bentley? Great. You better go to the dealership and sit in one. You want to live in a big home. You better go visit a big home and feel it, feel it, walk in it, feel what it's like to sit in that bath tub. You want to stay at a gorgeous hotel. I used to just whatever I could do, I used to back in the day, just to get enough money to pay for one night in a Ritz Carlton, just to get these, how you doing Mr. York. It's nice to see you. How can I help you? I wouldn't even eat at the hotel. I would do nothing at the hotel. The only thing I would do is stay at the hotel just to get the experience. You have to get the feeling. And for me, it's my children, right? I don't want them to ever suffer. Like I did. I want to make sure I create generational wealth for them. But honestly I lead by example leaders always to create other leaders and my kids. They're both, you know, my, my youngest is only three, but my oldest is seven. And like he does things that most kids would probably never do. Because he just watches what I do. We're always doing a project. We're always working. He takes out the garbage's is without even me asking him, he's cleaning up. He does all these things cause he sees what I do. And that's the same rules apply when you're trying to lead a business. Because when you lead by example, others will follow. And for me, it's just to make sure, look, I want to make, I want to make, I want to make everyone here who's been with me on the ride, which I will, multimillionaires. And I'm going to do that. That's number one. Number two is take care of my family. Right? Make sure my kids are set because I never you know, I'll never forget the day. You know, I'm a big hockey player. I, all I wanted was a hockey bag. It was like$40. And I'll never forget. My dad just said, no, not even like maybe just no$40. So I used to come to the hockey and the kids used to laugh at me because I had like four different, small bags to put all my stuff in. And I used to, I was always so embarrassed and I don't want my kids to ever feel like that. And I would never do that to them. So that's what really drives me. And you know, the fact that I could do nice things, like for example, one of the people who's been with me for a very long time, she came on board. I could barely pay her any money. And I overheard her in our old office. It was very small. And I could hear like sometimes the talking outside, she sold a watch that her great grandmother gave her because she had no money and she had to sell it and she was crying. She was hysterical. And she came back in. You couldn't tell that she was crying. She like, you know, calmed down. And I literally made a little mental note that when I c an afford, I'm g oing t o buy her a beautiful diamond watch. And I did that a couple of years ago and she just started h ysterically crying and it was the greatest feeling in the world. And when you give back and d o things like that, that's special. And that's what I w anna do. I w ant t o do that here.

Greg Muzzillo :

That watch me you 10 times happier than it made her. And I'm sure it made her very happy. Josh, you are an inspiration. You are an Energizer. And I really appreciate the time I spent with you. Congratulations to you and all of your success and all the best to you, your family and GYMGUYZ.

Speaker 4:

Greg, thank you so much for having me on the show. Great connecting. And you know, thank you.

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