S05E178 - Special Guest Christy Link - CrossFit Pioneer and Fitness Innovator
Christy Link-Petillo @kristy_link, a pivotal force in the CrossFit world and former owner of Brazen Athletics, joins David Syvertsen @davesy85 to share her remarkable journey from yoga enthusiast to CrossFit trailblazer. Christy's story is one of inspiration and transformation, ignited by witnessing the strength and camaraderie of female athletes at regional events. Through her experiences, we uncover the essence of a thriving gym culture, one that fosters community and connection, which played a significant role in Brazen Athletics’ success. Her insights are invaluable to understanding how passion and community intertwine to create a supportive CrossFit environment.
As we continue our conversation, we navigate the uncharted waters of CrossFit's growth from its raw, community-driven beginnings to a more structured approach post-pandemic. Balancing the zeal for fitness with the realities of business ownership during challenging times is no small feat, and Christy opens up about this delicate dance. Our discussion peels back the layers of developing internship programs for coaches and highlights the importance of integrating them seamlessly into the community. Christy emphasizes the necessity of gym owners staying actively engaged to nurture both coaches and members effectively.
In our final segment, Christy and I delve into the intricacies of expanding a CrossFit gym while maintaining a personal fitness journey. We explore the challenges of running multiple locations and the hustle required to ensure quality across the board. The conversation turns to the impact of high-intensity workouts on health, advocating for a balanced approach to fitness. As we wrap up, Christy reflects on the powerful impact of movement and fitness in transforming lives and shares her forward-looking aspirations in golf-specific fitness training. Her story is a testament to the resilience and adaptability required to thrive in the ever-evolving fitness landscape.
@crossfitbison @crossfittraining @crossfit @crossfitgames #crossfit #sports #exercise #health #movement #crossfitcoach #agoq #clean #fitness #ItAllStartsHere #CrossFitOpen #CrossFit #CrossFitCommunity @CrossFitAffiliates #supportyourlocalbox #crossfitaffiliate #personalizedfitness
S05E178 - Special Guest Christy Link - CrossFit Pioneer and Fitness Innovator
TRANSCRIPT
David SyvertsenHost
00:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the Herd Fit Podcast with Dr Sam Rhee and myself, Coach David Syverson. This podcast is aimed at helping anyone and everyone looking to enhance their healthy lifestyle through fitness, nutrition and, most importantly, mindset. All right, welcome back to the Herd Fit Pod-cast. I am Coach David Syrus and I'm again here without Coach Sam Rhee, but in his replacement I have a really special guest that I've been trying to line up for a long time. And guys schedules are very hard so line up, especially when you're not living ultra close to each other. But Christy Link here made a nice trek up to CrossFit Bison on a Thursday afternoon to speak with me on the HerFit podcast. And if you don't know Christy Link, you have probably not been doing CrossFit a long time in the state of New Jersey especially, she is part of no, she just is a former owner of Brazen Athletics, a 14-year owner, yeah, Wow.
01:00
That is a number, addie, very few people here. Christy, how are you?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
01:04
Good, I'm honored to be here. When you DMed me, honestly I felt a little celeb-like. I was like I better be on the podcast. So yes, thank you for having me.
David SyvertsenHost
01:20
This is a conversation that I'm selfishly very much looking forward to, because when I opened up CrossFit Bison with Chris Tafaro back in 2014, we started the process in 2012. And we've touched on that story before how long it took. There were a few gyms and I really only have about three of them in mind that I looked at and I was like, hey, if we do it right, we could be like them someday. We could be at that level. And it was CrossFit Hoboken where I started. It was CrossFit 908.
01:47
And we've had Tim Carroll on before and it was Brazen Athletics and Brazen Athletics from afar, and I don't know too much about the inner work and I just remember seeing them at competitions and they had the first thing that stood out. I want to get your answer on this Was it strategic? The colors? Their gym colors were purple and orange and you just knew that they were there. A because of the colors. B, they were very strong, they were always the heaviest lifters at every competition. And C, they loved each other. I mean it was culture 101.
02:22
If you want to sustain a successful CrossFit gym, I would say if there's one thing I took from Brazen as an early gym owner, it was that these guys loved each other and they were there, they showed up for each other, they did a lot for each other. And here we are all these years later and I've never really had a lot of conversation with Gracie over these days. So it's just, I'm really looking forward. There's a lot of conversation with Chrissy over these days. So it's just, I'm really looking forward. There's a lot of on-going to be learning with you guys in her conversation. So my business partner and co-host here in the HerdFit podcast, sam, he calls it the CrossFit Start Story. I think it's important for context to just kind of open the door to why and when you actually started CrossFit and why and when that led to you wanting to own a gym.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
03:09
Well, first of all, thank you for including me in your, you know, general three gyms that you think of and I'm going to say the same for CrossFit Hoboken anyway and you guys, when I think of CrossFit gyms in New Jersey, like you guys, are the ones that scanned out, as you know, the original and the OGs, the strong communities, and who really made an impact in this area. What's the question again?
David SyvertsenHost
03:27
So just when and why did you start CrossFit? And then when and why did that lead to hey, I want to open up a gym. Was that a lifetime goal of yours, to own a business?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
03:41
to own a gym. How into fitness for you. Yeah, it was not part of a plan. I'm also not tied with a person who really has a life plan. Like I was like, oh, I can imagine my wedding day looking like this. So it was not part of the plan. I at the time was teaching yoga and that was my. I've always been to fitness, from doing, like you know, denise Austin on TV to, like you know, valley Toll Fitness to yoga. Then I kind of my next step was gave my RYT 200 being a yoga teacher and then that was like my main source of fit-ness, like you know, the power yoga classes. Um, and then someone I was dating at the time started in CrossFit and I'm like, oh, let me come and watch. And I really had no interest and I was in the corner just doing my yoga stretches, I'll work out whatever. And then so you probably remember I don't know if you remember this the first regionals, which was at Gorilla Fitness yeah.
04:22
And at the time, regionals was just unstructured. I think there was just a couple of gyms who were like hey, do this competition? Everyone did different workouts. So if you were there, I was there. We did different workouts, so it was not even comparable. So I showed up at Guerrilla Fitness and a couple of the OGs Denise Thomas, karen Appens they were there and they just lifted these barbells and doing these pull-ups and I was just like I need to do this. But that cool I was like I didn't know, just seeing them up there. I would say they were my inspiration to start.
David SyvertsenHost
04:56
So the female presence, the women presence, is really like okay, watching those guys do that cool, but then watching them is really what kind of turned on the light?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
05:04
Yeah, that was definitely the light bulb for me Just seeing the girls up there doing pull-ups. You know their arms are like ripped and you know like yeah, 100%.
David SyvertsenHost
05:13
Cool, Did you have? You said you were into fitness. Was there a sport background, a training back-ground as you were growing up? Or you, just, like you would say, term yourself as active and just.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
05:23
I played sports in high school. Basketball is my main sport, softball I was in the more gym man for a hot second and then in college I actually got into competitive snowboarding. So I did the East Coast Pro Circuit for a little bit, so kind of non-traditional competitive sport. But I was always just at the gym, you know, just global gym, like machines, not really knowing what I was doing, just hoping this was making me stronger. And I think it did. Yeah, that could lend with me a lot. But I never had like structure, you know, aside from like when I started taking a yoga class that taught me like structure and movement. So it was always in my life in some part, just not very structured, it's competitive snowboarding.
David SyvertsenHost
06:08
See, that's something I never knew about you. I think the more, more, more I'm going to talk to you today, and just in general, the more you learn, like you. Just, you're a very interesting background and I think that goes to show what. What kind of person can actually take on a task of opening up a gym from scratch because you kind of like it, you want to help some people, and it turned into a major success story. Because you do. You have to go with the flow. That is what this is all about. Old school CrossFit. We just mentioned old school CrossFit a couple of times. Right, you just saw Coach Mike who's coaching on Thursday midday right now. She might actually hop into the 1 pm. Everyone I know I'm not, you know Mike's not in touch. Don't run our score the way, boy.
06:39
I don't run my score. It is crazy to me and I've been doing it less than you in terms of time how much things have changed, a in CrossFit, but B in our world During the time that you opened up a gym. From then till now, the social media explosion, oh yeah, and the awareness of fitness and the viewpoints of lifting and women working out. I always say women in CrossFit change the awareness of fitness and the viewpoints of lifting and women working out. I always say women in Cross have changed the land-scape of fitness forever and I think that's something all of you can hang your hat on, whether you coach on or just do it. I think I really do feel that way. Can you touch on what Cross was like back then? Because you know both. You know what it was like back then and what it both.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
07:24
You know what, what, um, what it was like back then, what it is currently now, just in terms of how different it was yeah, I mean, I think for anyone who had any sort of competitive athletic background, when you found this CrossFit type of workout, it was literally like crack. Like it was like crack for people who don't do drugs and you were just addicted and you couldn't wait for the next day. And I remem-ber at the time, you know workouts were posted on like blog posts, on like WordPress, so you know you manually post the workout and the gym I was going to at the time Gola Fitness I would sit there and refresh, refresh the mic before I look at the workout. And it was like. It was like I was competing in the Super Bowl and I say I was like I'm gonna get ready for these kidding things. Like it was, it was cra-zy.
08:11
You just got so excited about this workout and like, um, and you went in every day and you gave like 110 percent like it was just there was, it was just go like. You know, because it was just new with this new fun, exciting thing that and you can now be all of a sudden, be competitive with it, right. So if you were a former competitive athlete like you can now get that competitive feeling back and yeah, it was just like and it's good for you. So you're like this is a no brainer, I'm in, you know.
David SyvertsenHost
08:34
Yeah, it just it checks so many boxes.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
08:36
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
08:37
One thing about CrossFit back then and I don't even know if this is good or bad, but it was very not structured With programming and coaching. There wasn't a lot of content out there to really learn. I mean, even when I started, a couple years after that, I could go onto YouTube and find a video of a thruster if I forgot what it was, or a squawk thing. But now I mean, this is night and day, the amount of content that you can really teach yourself and watch others do. There was something raw about that that I really do think helped cross it, because it wasn't necessarily about how you compare to others. You're kind of all learning the same thing at one. There wasn't as much like RX Plus, rx Scale competing. No, it was just like bro, show up, go hard, give a high five, come back tomorrow. Yeah, did you kind of when you started Brazen no-transcript.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
09:51
Just about mind-body connection, how important movement is. So I was really grateful to have that training under my belt before I did my level one and got into crossfit, because it just taught me a lot about how the body moved, um, but I just felt how good movement made me feel and I just want, wanted to share that. First of all, um, and then it was something that I really really liked. So it kind of just like happened hand in hand, like again, it wasn't part of the plan, that it just made sense that this is what should be happening and, uh, in all honesty, there wasn't not much of a plan. We you just like we didn't have this plan. We didn't. If you're looking for advice on how to help with business, do not take that advice today. But we didn't have a plan. We just went with our gut and we were passionate about it. We knew we wanted to share it with others and you know, we just we really trusted that and just went full force with that.
David SyvertsenHost
10:40
Those are my favorite success stories and I like any. I like seeing anyone succeed in anything they want to do, especially if it, you know, includes a lot of hard work and ambition. But the ones where you kind of just walk into a room with the lights off and you're just going to keep walking, even though you don't know where the walls are and either as shake and you don't know if there's a hole in the ground, that you're just walking, and I think that takes a certain kind of personality to do that Like there's an amount of bravery there, ambition, I already said, and just belief in yourself. But also what makes this awesome in terms of a business is that you truly believe in the product.
11:20
You know you weren't a CrossFit coach and athlete that just told people what to do. While you went back to yoga and bodybuilding in the gym, you were in the trenches with them and that's where I think you could really show passion. Was that something that you really were even actively trying to do? Or you're like no, I'm not trying to sell anything, I just want to be here and be a part of it?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
11:39
Yeah, I mean essentially, I guess you know you are selling it, but it doesn't feel like that because it's what I believe and I think that's why I can never like sell cars, because I mean, okay, I like this car, but I'm passionate about selling cars, you know. So it is sales. Obviously it's a business. You need people in there, you need to make money. But it didn't feel like a sleazy sales pitch because I'm like this is amaz-ing, this is going to help you feel better. This is going to help you feel better in life and you're going to have fun Like, believe it or not, you're going to have fun working out and doing it.
12:09
So it doesn't. You know, it didn't feel like I was, like sleazy salesman.
David SyvertsenHost
12:12
Group fitness was not a new thing when CrossFit really took off, but I do think CrossFit took it to the next level and I remember growing up, working out was either for sports, like trying to get stronger, or something that you feel like you had to do. Yeah, it was like oh, if I don't, x, y, z will happen. If I don't, I can't fit in these pants anymore. If I don't, I can't take my shirt off at the pool anymore. That's why I work out CrossFit especially brazen, especially from my viewpoint. It was just fun to be around each other. At viewpoint, it was just fun to be around each other.
12:44
At what point if you remember anything might not have an answer to it Did it feel like, okay, passion, helping people, I love it. We got to run a business here. We need to make money if this is going to be sustainable. A to pay our bills, pay ourselves, pay other people? Were there any moments where like, hey, we have to now change this into a business model, even without calling it that? Or was it just al-ways? Hey, just keep doing what we're doing and those good things will come?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
13:10
Yeah, and I feel fortunate that we got into the game pretty early. I mean, we didn't have a sign on our door that's like yeah, and people just came. Yeah, that was just a lucky, you know good chain of events that we were early on in the game and it was this new thing that everyone was coming into. So I think we probably developed more like just policies and procedures, but I don't think necessarily a good, different business plan. I would say, mate, that might have happened after COVID.
David SyvertsenHost
13:38
Okay.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
13:38
That was trying to, when you're like, all right, we need to, or during COVID, that was a whole new player right we need to, or during during covid, during that was a whole new player we'll get.
David SyvertsenHost
13:48
How did you grow then?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
13:49
I mean because social media wasn't that big back then. It wasn't that big. Um, honestly, it was word of mouth, like we just I've done no more. And then you know, and we tried flyers, we tried like whatever was around like back then I feel so old saying dating myself, yeah, or the mailers like a mailers, yeah the newspaper has uh, I mean, you know a plier in Starbucks or something, um, but I think it really was just word of mouth.
14:14
And again, crossfit was just this new thing that people were looking for. Crossfit. So if you opened up and people found you and they came and then they liked you, they stayed, so it was the timing. Hon-estly, we just got an early time, you guys as well.
David SyvertsenHost
14:28
Right place, right time. I always thought any success story there is some luck involved, no matter what. Yeah, 100%. And timing is everything we have with a lot of this stuff. The other, I would say, most im-portant part to growing, because you can't do everything yourself forever. All right, we can call it burnout, which is what? Something we talk about here all the time with coaches make sure people don't get overworked and, um, what did you? How did you build a staff like how and how? What did you? How did you build a staff Like how, how. What did you? Without giving any secret sauce right, but like or or, getting too personal even, what did you find in people that said, hey, I now want you to represent something that I built from scratch? My life, kind of, is on the line with the success and lack of success in this in these walls. What did you start? Building a staff right away, or did you wait an X amount of time?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
15:21
We definitely waited a little bit I don't know how long because the years now are really gaver but it wasn't right off the bat. I think it became once. We noticed some people, some class and members who caught on to things a little quicker, just understood the concepts a little quicker. But honestly, the bottom line was that they were good people, like we knew we could teach someone how to coach. Yeah, you can't teach someone to be a nice person, so if you're a dick and you're a good coach, it's not valuable, you know. So if we see you're a good person and you're willing to learn and you understand the concepts, you know relatively, you know easily. That's kind of who we had our eyes on. You just had the conversation. Are you interested?
16:01
And we never had like a structured intern program. It was very like case specific. It was like all right, sit in the corner, write some notes down, just like notice class from a different perspective, you know, and then shadow the coach and then, all right, see if you can help that person in their air spot, you know, and then shadow the coach and then, all right, see that, see if you can help that person in their air spot, you know, like kind of just easing people in. Okay, now I need a warm up, you know. And so everyone was like a little different. It wasn't like, oh, you have to put in like 70 hours on the floor, we use manual. So it was very loosely structured case by case in terms of program.
16:29
But everybody at first was a member, including Jeff who now owns raising. He started as a member in Fairfield, which is super cool head coach, and now he owns the. But there was and actually I think I didn't reach out to Liz at one point because I was a little struggling for some coaches, you know, had just moved, you know, and schedules changed, um, so I ended up hiring two coaches who weren't brazen members people I knew just, you know, not brazen members and um't work out, not for any bad reason, they just got a new job with a scheduled change. So it was just kind of like reinforcement and this is not for every demo, this is just how it worked for us. That, all right, it has to be from inside, because I gave it a try, it didn't work.
David SyvertsenHost
17:11
It's, you know, it's just got to be that internal intern process yeah, when you don't have a structured inter program, which I do think can be a little overrated by, like, when I talk to affiliates, they you know, they show me this like eight point presentation, all these points like, hey, you do want to have things to hit yeah, exactly sometimes the structure is kind of like it takes you away from the natural state of what the space is. I mean, I actually think the internship program starts before you even ask the person to coach.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
17:38
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
17:39
You know, like we've had most people I think all of our members and Mike's a unique case because we knew him back from the day in Hoboken, so there was a two-year CrossFit relationship there. But they were members, they've been here for a long time, they know how we go about things, the good and bad of this place, and that is in itself kind of like a structured internship and it's probably a much safer approach than trying to peel people from the outside.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
18:03
Yeah, and they're already a part of the community, so it's just like OK, now you're just stepping on to the other side. People know them and you know it's going to be easier transition as opposed to a complete stranger coming in.
David SyvertsenHost
18:17
And touching on that, let me move on to the next topic, because this is something that we've, I don't want to say dealt with, but I'd like to see, if you had to, when you make someone a member sorry, when you make a member a coach, was there ever any? I don't want to call it hostility, because that's too strong of a word, but what there's ever any like, I've been doing crossfit three years longer than that. That guy or that girl and he's here, she's coaching me now. Like, did you ever have to deal with that? Or is it more like, hey, because you endorsed this new coach, it kind of just took all, like all the fluff away a little bit of both.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
18:50
Yeah, there's a bit like a little. Not not it's a kickback, but just like you know question, you thought it's been a little. I don't want to say kickback, but just like you know question, and you thought it's been very minimal. But you know, I think the answer we've given is that we can't be in every place all the time and you know we need some help and obviously someone who's been doing cross two years is not going to have the experience as someone who's been doing it for 12 years. Right, but they'll get there, you know, and, like every class, they'll get better and they're under our bill and we're teaching them. So, yeah, there's, it's been here, here and there. Not for the most part, people have just trust-ed our you know decisions and who we're putting up there. Um, but a little bit of that.
David SyvertsenHost
19:25
They never turned into anything like super major, though it's also I always say it's always important for an owner to be involved in the gym. You know, because if you didn't live there, let let's say you lived in Florida and you ended up in a gym in New Jersey and you were picking coaches from Florida Like you don't always know, like the pulse of the gym and does that person fit in, not just as a member, com-munity member, but also like can I go take over a room? Do they have relationships outside of the gym that could really mess this place up? And again, you never know with any, any person, ourselves in-cluded. You never know. But I think the fact that you started it from scratch you were there from the beginning, you care so much about it that usually does take care of. You know 99% of any sort of you know negative feedback that you would get on any coach you'd ever hired.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
20:13
Yeah, I can't imagine trying to run a place from a different state, and I've heard about gyms in the past I'm sure you have too that are no longer there. But it doesn't even make sense to me. Why would an-yone listen to you if I'm calling you?
David SyvertsenHost
20:24
from Brown or not.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
20:25
Like it's just, there's no connection.
David SyvertsenHost
20:29
It's a relationship business. It really is Now, so you guys take off. It really is um now, so you guys take off. You got a great culture, you're doing well, you're happy and I think every gym that has some level of success. After a few years you do start thinking about, hey, should we open up a set? Could we ac-tually run it back and do this exact same thing somewhere else? And there are good and bad. There are success stories and failure stories in anything within CrossFit and I know gyms that have done this and they've done well. I know gyms that have like I would never do that again. We've talked about it a few times here and predominantly the people I ask advice for they're like don't do it. Can you touch on because you guys opened up another one? Can you kind of peel back the curtain a little bit on why that was? Was it a necessity or was it a luxury? Like, hey, we're doing so well, let's do this again. Or like, hey, we need to pick it up a little bit, let's go try this somewhere else.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
21:29
Yeah, it was like. This is working. Let's do it again.
21:32
Yeah right, let's go back into the fire so easy, let's just snap our fingers and do this again. Um, but again, it was kind of something that had just worked out. Um, my, my foreign business partner, uh, knew of this gym in hoboken because he used to live above it and uh, it was just, if anyone lives in hoboken, it was a 24-hour, uh, supreme fitness there, forever. Yeah, uh, each sanction, um, you know just old school, old machines, yeah, and um, uh, he approached the owner if he felt like getting rid of it and your owner was like, yeah, he's, like we're like okay, we'll take it, we'll take it frank, and like that's re-ally kind of the gist, obviously much more paperwork and lawyers and team. But, um, yeah, yeah, he was kind of done with it and, um, so it wasn't even a available space. We just kind of inquired and went out. So, uh, that was again, it's another kind of all right, it works, let's, let's just go with it. So, um, and we opened that gym on credit cards.
22:30
I'm like oh, yeah, yeah, that I mean great, that happens a lot we went to get a loan and like oh, here's ten, oh, here's $10,000.
David SyvertsenHost
22:36
Oh really, oh, thanks, thanks my man, that's a few barbells.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
22:42
So, yeah, we literally opened the credit cards and again it was still pretty new and it was Hoboken, so it took off. Again, there was a little bit of love. I'm not going to lie Again, but again we didn't have a huge elaborate business plan or marketing scheme and the timing was good for us. And it's still great down there. It's still a lot of foot traffic and people moving in and out and at the time we had a lot of coaches. So I think that's what. And also I was younger. I mean I was in hustle mode, like that's what I wanted to do. I'll run back and forth, I don't care.
David SyvertsenHost
23:14
I mean I was in hustle mode, like that's what I wanted to do. I'll run back and forth. I don't care. Work every day morning afternoon.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
23:17
That's just what I was doing on the computer at night. You know, it's just.
David SyvertsenHost
23:21
So were you working at both at the time? Was that kind of like, were you kind of overseeing?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
23:29
Were you coaching at both? Yeah, so I was coaching at both and overseeing just like all you know. You had the two locations of the time so it was easy to kind of monitor that from the back end. Um, you know, just two separate emails but yeah, all the admin stuff I was doing I wasn't coaching too many classes, maybe like uh three here at both locations so my class load wasn't too high. But overseeing the you know like which didn't need toilet paper, which shouldn't be small, it'll sort of viral, vital, vital yeah, I'm like you.
David SyvertsenHost
23:56
If you don't know that side of the business, you're just basically looking at the wads, the equipment, yeah, the people. But like, like the toilet paper, yeah, you gotta like we decided to arguments here gotta I know like it's huge and it's, it's actually it's. You have to be on top, yes, be on top of every day.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
24:12
Yeah, there's a lot of little things that you have to be on top of because it, you know, I think I think I look at businesses with a fire tooth comb because of being a business owner. But you know, people do start to notice certain things, that they start to slip, and then maybe they notice something else and you just don't want to. You know, you don't want that to be shown, so it might be the Virgo in me also. Just everything needs to be organized and stocked at all times. But yeah, it's a lot of little things, you know, like paper towels in bathrooms, refill them, you know, like stuff like that.
David SyvertsenHost
24:44
This is coming to my mind now, this question, and you can plead the fifth on this, but when you open up a second one and this is a fear I have and I'll be honest about it when you open up a second one, did you worry at all about less face time at OG Gym as you were trying to grow the other one, or was it like you were? No, Dave, I was going there both places every single day, Like I made sure I avoided that issue.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
25:07
Yeah, I don't think at the time it was an issue. I think we had some good coaches in Fairfield and since I still did show my face at both places, it wasn't like all of a sudden, like where does she go? She's in Florida, she's a remote coach. That one is a different nature, yeah, so I think I was able to balance it pretty well, you know where it didn't really affect things that way, all right, good.
David SyvertsenHost
25:31
So that's something that I know a lot of people do stress about when they start opening the idea up of opening up a second affiliate. It would be you never want to kind of lose track of that founding father place, but you also, if you need to grow, you do need to kind of spread the wings and also open up the opportunity for someone else to maybe give a bigger role, like, were you giving bigger roles to other people or was it just maybe you know, know, hire another coach and get more volume of coaches in both spaces?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
25:59
yeah, we gave a bigger role to, um, you know, a couple of people in fairfield and, um, we have, you know, had a pretty good amount of interns like interested again, like everyone was excited about classes and wanted to be across mentors, great. So, when you know, we had a good amount of coaches, which I think was a big deal. So I think, like, depending on, like, your resources, whether it's financial, whether it's bodies, coaches, um, you know, if you can split the resources and split yourself evenly, because you obviously can't do everything you know, what I mean.
26:27
Oh, you can't coach effective classes, everything classes. So yeah, um, as far as opening up a second place, like just realistically thinking about both of those things, like you know, if you don't have the bodies can, or if you don't have the time, could you have resources to pay someone to do that? Or do you want to pay someone to do that? You know, so, like for me, like I wanted to do it, so yeah, like I would rather keep their you know the money for myself and then read to someone what I would pay a salary to someone to oversee something. Yeah, I was cool dealing with, so I was okay. But you know, if you don't have that time, then you have the resources to pay someone to do something like that yeah, that's one thing about being an entrepreneur, right is that there's usually options.
David SyvertsenHost
27:04
Yeah, you know not. Don't, don't mistake options for easier right like there's, there's always. Like rob peter, pay paul, like yeah if you are going to take. Yeah, it's not. I've always viewed my job here as it has changed over the years a little bit, and I've had people ask me like, oh, what did you like better, like six years ago or right now? I'm like neither Like, I don't really, but they're different. They're very different jobs complete ease, where you just like get to put your feet up on the desk and chill?
27:36
yeah, definitely not. It just just not not in this kind of but yes, I mean wow, um, in regard to you and your own training and your own like quest of fitness, because I I do think it can be very easy to lose track of yourself when you're pouring so much into others as a coach, as an owner, as a boss, like you always have. I think a good trait that you have is that you're selfless, right like you do put a lot of other people first, and that's that's a part of a big part of the reason why you and brazen have done well. Did you? Was this what you thought it would be when you started? Like when I started, I was like, hey, I get to work out five hours a day, every day, because I owe the gym, and that's like dude, I can't work, I can't work out twice as much. Were you able to? You know I hate to say put yourself first sometimes, but were you able to fill your cup so that you could pour from a full cup rather than an empty cup?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
28:27
Yeah, and it's. You know exactly what you said in the beginning. And that's what we did, like I worked out all day and then we went to Chipotle.
David SyvertsenHost
28:35
They're the same way.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
28:37
It was a quiet business Like you just work down and eat Chipotle and people can't work out. And you know, and yeah, and it's obviously evolved to like you know, I think, honestly, the past. I definitely there's a couple years where it was tough for me, when I worked out. I'm not going to lie, gonna lie, you know, and part of me is coaching these classes and I'm like god, I'm not even working out. I'm tell-ing you to do this where to work.
29:00
I saw is that considered the demos. Oh, my goodness, I didn't do the demos, but, um, yeah, and you just, and my right or not? Jeff and I talked about this a lot. Jeff was my head programmer and head coach and before he became owner, right, um, you know that him and I have been and yourself have been working out for so long. So if you do have those, I feel like we've just created this base that said, we do fall off for even like a year, where you're maybe only working out once or twice like you hadn't fallen off.
29:27
You know, like yeah you get it back yeah, you get it back like it's not gone completely, like, and you're still moving, you're still coaching you, you're not just sitting on a couch all day. But yeah, I mean, my workouts from year one to now are completely different.
David SyvertsenHost
29:41
Absolutely yeah.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
29:42
We also didn't know much about like recovery. You know what mobilize, stretch Okay.
David SyvertsenHost
29:48
I was like whatever.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
29:50
Yeah, like there was. Just like you were saying, maybe there was a YouTube video on how to snatch.
David SyvertsenHost
30:00
Like we didn how to how to snatch, like would you know how to snatch we? Just I bet your yoga back-ground helps a little bit. It did are just up. The mobility demands across it are high.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
30:04
They are so if you want to do it all. Yeah, I was super grateful for that because, um, you know, like I said, the 200 hours is 200 hours of classroom classroom time, um, and you know you're level one, you don't actually coach in, you learn about coaching, but you're not in front of a group of people. But I remember my first yoga class. I was so nervous. I was like right, I throw up. I never like taught in front of a group of people. I'm like holy crap, it is nerve-wracking.
David SyvertsenHost
30:28
It is Probably, take that for granted. It's like second nature, second nature, but I realized.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
30:35
I surf stuff.
David SyvertsenHost
30:36
Yeah, like you get sick, almost Like sick, even like now. Never nervous talking to a class, but I'm always nervous talking in front of a crowd of people. I don't know how it's like if I have to talk to at our holiday party or even our open party.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
30:48
It's something I'm always nervous. Yeah, it was different because it's like the whiteboard is your com-fort zone. I don't know, but yeah, totally.
David SyvertsenHost
31:01
So, cross, it has changed a lot.
31:02
Uh, good and bad, in my opinion um I do think there's old school cross at new school cross it, and not necessarily talking too much about, like the leadership changes, I've never really felt like it had a big impact on crossfit. Like who's the ceo? Like I, I've never really felt it mattered. I can, I like the guys that are up there now and I trust them, but to me it's still it's bison, like that's that's what there now and I trust them, but to me it's still it's bison, like that's what we're trying to do.
31:21
But things have changed and maybe even your viewpoints have changed on CrossFit. I think every-thing evolves over time and it doesn't need to be good or bad, left or right, it just like it has changed. Did you sense that at any particular time? Was it pre-COVID-covid, and did that impact the gym at all? Like I've had another affiliate owner said, once he stopped competing he felt the gym changed, not better or worse, but yeah, changed. Did you sense that in yourself at all, that as things changed for you in regard to crossfit, did it impact the affiliate?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
31:55
yeah, um, absolutely, and I would probably agree with whoever you just uh spoke to. So, um, yeah, you days, like again, you did like two, three days like you were taking care of yourself, right, you were just going hard every day. And Jeff, who was my head programmer he's younger than me but he was kind of in those same years, just a little younger but was still in the competing days and you know the two days, three days so we both went through that phase and you and I have always shared a very similar fitness philosophy and we also kind of like hit our breaking point at the same time. You know, for me personally it came through in some autoimmune issues, autoimmune issues that came out. Obviously, working out is a good stress, but for anyone who has any lot of immune issues, too much working out can actually be bad stress. So that was kind of my like okay, maybe I can't keep, can you maintain this, you know? So it was kind of like a big slap in the face.
32:47
Um, maybe others had like a subtle like all right, this is too much yeah um, to maintain and probably too much for, like your average person to maintain, yeah, if you're competing, fine. That's a whole dif-ferent, you know, and a different too.
32:59
Different goal. So, yeah, we definitely changed our programming more Really. Volume and intensity was a couple things that we focused on making sure we even do, you know, flying under pulps, you know just really watching the volume of certain movements and that we're not going hard fast every day. There's days where we're like, guys, we want you to take this slower. Look, get on the rower and have a conversation, call a conversational pace, like it's okay to have those like lower intensity day I would say required in some yeah, some cases overly.
33:31
so those are two major changes that uh, that we we did uh just again the volume of certain workouts or just overall workload at, you know, kind of look at a week. Yeah, you know, don't worry about them.
David SyvertsenHost
33:41
Yeah.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
33:42
And just varying the intensity levels and being like it's okay to not like give your 100% every day.
David SyvertsenHost
33:48
You don't have to be so sore every week.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
33:50
Yes, like you shouldn't be that sore. And even my private clients, like when I meet them, I'm like my goal is not to crawl out of here, like that's not like my goal, you know, like you should be a little sore but you should feel good, like I don't want you limping around, right, you know it's not necessarily the best thing to do. Like the whole pukey the clown I think was like come on nice, it's a little like and I mean, I've seen it, it's happened.
David SyvertsenHost
34:20
I mean, you are here for health and we always tell people like, why are you here? Like you do need to know and it can change over time, yeah. And if you are like, hey, go get her. I want to get everything out of her if I can. We're never going to criticize her Totally, but if your answer is not that.
34:34
don't go balls out six days a week. Yeah, you know I learned how to temper back a little bit or come in on the days where it is conversational pacing, though, even though it doesn't make you feel like you did something extravagant.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
34:47
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
34:47
Those days are the ones that you probably need more of, and the ones where you're crushing yourself probably need a little less of never going to say never, do it.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
34:54
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
34:55
But if it's a, we do think about one of my coaches and I would talk about we do think some people have like an addiction to really like going all out. Yeah, is it makes them feel good for the rest of that day? Because, mentally, yeah, because it is hard, it's admirable that someone does it. Yeah, is it smart? And I think in time you do start to kind of really fall in line with all right. Well, what are my actual goals and what is the path there? The path that we just previously talked Pookie the Clown that's not the path to your optimal health. That is something I think a lot of us that have been doing this a long time we've seen other people do it too. We've seen the good, bad ugly of going hard all the time. That's where I think people that have been doing it a decade plus can really give good input on what the changes are, macro level, that you can kind of apply to your individual quests.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
35:45
Yeah, I always want to say that's kind of you can generalize that a little more outside of CrossFit Even, just like you know, hiit boot camp, like it's the idea of like you've got to like be on the floor after a workout or you're dancing, that doesn't mean it's a good workout, you know it really only means your heart rate got really high.
David SyvertsenHost
36:02
That ends the day. That is what it means. It doesn't mean you worked hard it's it, you're just. It's so high that you need to sit down and like that's fine yep, um, now now coping with that and and dealing with, like all right viewpoints autoimmune issues, body issues, some people's injury based right, like I know a lot of people that I've gotten hurt and like, alright, I gotta stop doing my heavy squat snatches or my squat.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
36:22
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
36:23
The business side, coping with the ups and downs of that. You know, because this is. It is a relentless the word I always have been thinking in my head for eight years now. It is such a relentless job, like we. I don't know what your schedule is like. We were open 363 days per year, as early as 4.30 in the morning, as late as nine at night. There aren't many businesses that can say they're open that many times other than like a Walgreens or a several levies. How did you cope? And then you had COVID, right. How did you cope with the rollercoaster of emotions and financials and goals and people, right? People can cause a lot of stress in our lives. Relationships can change. Was there something that you were able to kind of fall back on, or a piece of advice you'd give a gym owner that has not yet gone through that roller coaster? Complete as much as they think they have yet.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
37:17
Yeah, and that's it's tough because you know the type of gym we're talking about is a. It's a community. So it's emotional, like you know each other and you get to know your coaches and you get to know your members and you're you're going to have shit that comes up from all ends, from your coaches, from members, from management. There's just going to be stuff. And yeah, I mean I can't say I was the best. I would see an email at like 8.30 at night and it might keep me up the whole night and I'm like God, why can't I just wait until tomorrow morning to read it? It's tough because it's also, again, it's a passion. You care about it and you do the best you can and then you get some little email that's not the best, it's just, and it hits you and I can't say I'm the best at dealing.
David SyvertsenHost
38:05
A gym owner said this to me recently. I'm like wow, it was so true. And he goes. You know you can have a client for eight to 10 years and to each their own. You know they always say don't take business personal. He or she leaves the gym. You've worked with them for eight to ten years good memories, bad memories, tears and you get emails like hey, that needs to cancel yeah yeah, and the guy it feels like you're getting broken up, yeah, and it's like it can happen in a gym.
38:33
It can happen 60 times a year.
38:35
Yeah, yeah yeah, it's so and I was like, wow, that was like a great illustration, and I told my wife that she was. Well, no one ever dumped me. So I don't know. So, but that is something I think I was not pre-pared for. Yeah, at the end of the day but you also can't let it bring you down that far. But you also maybe it was a sign to me that I was getting too inflated, that, oh, all these people love my gym. You can't feel that way either.
39:07
Yeah, you always have to make sure that if someone's here, you have a good membership, you have a good month, you get all these new members. You don't lose anyone. Oh, look at us. You can't get too high about that. You can't start thinking we're doing such a good job. You just have to stay straight in there, and I think that's a goal. That's something I would try to get everyone to get on board with is did you have any like side hustles, other jobs or activities out of CrossFit that helped you escape from the stresses of owning business that are 24-7, 365?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
39:37
Not really to be honest with you, right, yeah?
David SyvertsenHost
39:40
If you were to go back, would you have done that at all? Do you think that would have helped you, or do you think you're just too busy for?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
39:45
it Probably, but I probably would have been too busy for it and maybe not enjoyed it as much.
39:49
Yeah, I mean, that's something that I was able to do this past couple years. Where you talked about golfing earlier here, right, um, yeah, so, but that we're both really good, by the way, we're like. You know that you want to take us on mcgory, um, yeah, I would just say in the, in the recent years where I kind of structure things a little bit around, I've had some more time. But you know, six, seven years ago, yeah, yeah, no time activity, yeah, yeah I.
David SyvertsenHost
40:15
I've done some like side work, like work, like I had a job. I've actually and I don't tell many people about it I've had a part-time job outside of CrossFit since we've been open and I did it back then be-cause I needed more money. I made no money when we started and I've kept it and I've had the op-portunity to let go of it a few times and, yes, it does add some work and stress, but I've actually found that it's my go-to when I need to like get away around memberships and relationships and all this stuff, and it's really actually been a blessing for me in more ways than one. But that's the suggestion I would give.
40:47
Now, moving on to you know you owned for 14 years, right, and you know I don't take this lightly that you ended up selling Brazen and again we we talked about emotional hard and everything and what. What was, without you opening the door too much or just open up as much as you want. Was there a specific reason? Was it hey, it's just time for me to move on. Was there like, hey, this is a reason why the eyes kind of sit back and reflect on to some reason.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
41:20
Yeah and yeah. Again, I feel like it's cheesy, but everything happens for a reason when it's supposed to happen. Jeff and I had had conversations in the past because he's obviously grown, with Brazen in his role with us and how he might continue to grow, so it was thrown on the table years ago. You know, maybe one point you know, we could talk about ownership, you know, partnership, whatever. Just have that conversation. So he pretty much came to me with a conversation over the summer and we just kept talking and he was very respectful and he's like what do you want to do? He's like I would like to be a bigger part. That's personal, you know, and he kind of left it in my hands and yeah, it was like whoa a lot to you know. It was like, you know, I knew I would eventually probably I couldn't do this forever, but, um, now it's like, oh, here's the opportunity right now, you know, um, so yeah, it was, it was kind of heavy but like bittersweet and good and bad and um, I think the just the easiest, cleanest way was you know, I thought about, you know, partnering or keeping a percentage and, um, the best decision for me, for jeff and for the gym, I think was just to like, you take it.
42:24
Yes, I, you know, I know jeff, and he's super creative, super smart and he has a vision and I don't want to hold it back. You know, and you know, when you have a partner here after, like, christy, can I paint the wall? Christy, can I do this? Chrism, just do it. You know so, um, I just think that would was the best is just do it, you know so, um, I just think that would was the best is give him the reins and let him go, you know, and um, so he can just just do his own thing, and I knew he'd take off with his vision and um, it was also. It's kind of like a fairytale ending because I know he's just going to continue building on what brazen the foundation. So I couldn't ask for a better exit, to be honest no, that is optimal.
David SyvertsenHost
43:00
You care about it. It's like some people call the gym their baby, and whether that's too much or not, it's kind of irrelevant. It's so awesome to see that you built it from scratch, but it's going to continue to go on. I remember reading a book when we first started. It's like there's level one of a successful business Like you do well, you make your money, you make yourself happy, blah, blah, blah. But if it can thrive without you, like that's the ultimate sign of success and like it doesn't need to be about you and your effort, like it's only thriving because of you. You know getting it off the ground, but now continue to thrive because of other people, and this is what real impact is. Right, you've helped Jeff and now he's helping others.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
43:44
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
43:44
And that started from you and that's got. That's got to give you some pride and I hope you know you might not want to say it because of how humble you are, but that is something I hope you can really reflect on rest of your life and know that you opened the door for Jeff and others to impact other people's lives.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
44:00
Yeah, that's really awesome to hear. That's something that hasn't really sunk in yet, but thank you for saying that.
David SyvertsenHost
44:06
Absolutely Now. We'll wrap this up soon, but just kind of looking back on it, speaking of pride and what you're proud of, what do you? If I had to ask you one thing, and if you need to parlay it to two, you can. But what are you most proud of or happy of, when you just look back on that 14-year run, like something you overcame? Was it someone you impacted? I mean, there's like a coaching tree of peo-ple that started at Brazen I'm thinking about Courtney right now Like just people that just like they started there and now they're like they're out and just a big deal elsewhere. Like what's something that you're really proud of, that you really want to hang your hat on and just smile about when you get to look back on this.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
44:49
Yeah, you know, courtney's a great example. She's actually taking the space upstairs at Brazen and she's going to be making down mcdonough home base and uh, you know, and now jeff owns the owns the place. So I was like those two kind of really definitely stick out and that you know they just joined as members you know barely could spot. And then, and now it's like look at all this time and and then where they've grown and uh, but and then, just to anyone who's like life isn't changed by the movement, by just moving, you know, um, whether you feel way better with your kids. Like there's been a few marriages, like people met at a reason, like people who've not married have kids now.
45:25
So it's crazy, you know it's brought people together, it's brought fitness into people's lives and that's just really, you know, satisfying and that was the main goal, like to share this movement with others to feel better, you know. So that's just, and you know you forget how many people, like, how many names are in your mind. You know, like how many people Curry's got the doors. It's like infinite. And then you hear a name. You're like, oh, yeah, that person. So it's like like the list like is longer than you even can remember and you know you just hope they're continuing their fitness and feeling better. So yeah, it's a pretty cool feeling to just change people's lives to fitness.
David SyvertsenHost
46:01
Yep. Is there anything that you would have changed? Or are you someone that says like, hey, you got to go through everything, good and bad, to really get to where you are, because you know regret is different? I don't want to use regret, I don't like that word, but I'm trying to tell a bit. Yeah, brock, in the corner, everybody Is there anything that you would have done differently, just for the big picture, like something you would have done a small in a moment, like it could be as simple as hey, when we bought stones from Rob Orlando, um.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
46:35
I would say I, a couple of years ago I started working with a business coach which helped me structure a lot. And I would say a couple years ago I started working with a business coach which helped me structure a lot, and I would say maybe in Plum Bending Center, that sooner. But also I don't think my ego would have let me because I was like, oh, this is working, it's fine, why do I need your help?
David SyvertsenHost
46:51
Just harm when you reap well.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
46:52
Yeah, I'm like this is good. What do you know more about my gym than I do? So I think that and we were doing well, but maybe we could have been doing better. So I think maybe you know, taking on someone who has, like I, didn't have a business sense you know, like I knew this sense and I figured it out Right. But perhaps doing something like that a little earlier made me want to boost the hustle a little bit.
David SyvertsenHost
47:12
That's common with East Affiliate Summit a couple months ago and they said that's a very common story with CrossFit owners. It's kind of a different skill set. Some people have both. But you're like a people person love CrossFit, culture changer. A lot of times those people don't have the businesses and then vice versa, yeah. So if you knew that earlier, you maybe would have made that change a little bit earlier.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
47:34
Yeah, it means I'm going to implement a little bit of both.
David SyvertsenHost
47:37
Were you happy with how you took care of yourself over the years? Was there just like the sleep cy-cles across the coaching? Yeah, really rough, I still to this day struggle with that. Am I actually being healthy by living this way and being stressed out that kind of stuff? Not that unhappy stress when I say stress just always busy.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
47:56
Yeah.
David SyvertsenHost
47:57
Was there anything that you would have done for yourself individually, different beyond the business side? Yeah, to make things a little bit smoother for yourself.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
48:06
Yeah, I think my biggest struggle with running the business was not having an off switch. Like it's hard to have an off switch. That was like an hour night because I would just my laptop's always, you know, Looking at you.
48:20
Until I go to bed. So you know, putting even like an hour aside a night to just shut my phone off or not look at my laptop, because I just would always go to my emails, like you know, my phone emails. So that was what I struggled with, like just kind of just compartmentalizing a little time for myself just to not think about the business. I think that could be huge for somebody in something that I definitely struggled with across you know me time, I guess, because it was, it was it's consuming and I let it con-sume me.
David SyvertsenHost
48:46
If you started golf 10 years ago, probably a scratch golf for my now Exactly.
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
48:51
So it could have, would have you know, let, let us know.
David SyvertsenHost
48:54
Like what, what are you doing now? Like, where did this lead you to? What's the next chapter for Christine Link?
Kristy Link-PetilloGuest
49:09
Yeah, so obviously did a lot of soul searching and thought about maybe just taking a completely dif-ferent path and realized that it'd be weird. I've been doing this for so long and I also have some clients that I've had for four years.
49:16
I've been like oh, now I'm doing something else. Yeah, so I would like to get into a little more like golf, specialized fitness, okay, um, which is, you know, it's nothing that's reinventing the wheel, it's just kind of packaging it a little bit differently for someone who wants to perform on the course and absolutely, you know, um, you know, not be sore doesn't need to one rep max, a back squat, yeah, um. So I, yeah, I'd like to kind of get a little more into that and, just focusing on one-on-ones and small group training, I have a hey everybody, this is Dave.
David SyvertsenHost
49:43
I just wanted to let you know here that we ran into some technical difficulties at this point of the epi-sode. We actually only had about a minute 30 left, so this is the actual end of the episode. Just want to cut you off and wondering what happened. We did have some technical difficulties that made us cut it short just by a minute or two, but we thank Chrissy for coming on so much. She crushed it and she definitely is a pioneer as a gym owner, as a female gym owner, one of the most successful to ever do it. And well, thanks so much. We'll probably have her on again at some point. We'll see you guys next week. Thank you everybody for taking the time out of your day to listen to the Herd Fit Podcast. Be on the lookout for next week's episode.
