The Power of Purpose: How to Build a Thriving Business with Devan Gonzalez

Freddy D: 00:01:39

Hey there, Freddy D. Here today on the show, we're thrilled to welcome a powerhouse of purpose, grit and game changing strategy, Devin Gonzalez.

Devin is a mindset driven entrepreneur, CEO of Strive11 Fitness, host of the Mindset Cafe podcast, and bestselling author of Money Muscle Mindset, the underground playbook for aspiring gym owners.

From his humble beginnings as a 13 year old martial arts instructor to leading a cutting edge fitness franchise, Devin's story is one of resilience, evolution and the power of belief. By the age of 20, he had already built a six figure in person personal training business well before the online boom.

Fast forward to 28 and he launched his own gym, focused not on just fitness, but on personal transformation. Now as the CEO of Thrive11 International, he's redefining fitness accessibility through innovation and mentorship.

Helping franchisees build thriving businesses without the limits of traditional gym models. Devin delivers practical strategies and deep mindset shifts that stick. His message resonates beyond the fitness world.

If you're an entrepreneur, leader or somebody hungry for growth, this conversation is for you. So buckle up. We're diving into a journey of vision, hustle and next level mindset with Devin Gonzalez.

We're excited today to have Devin from Strive11 Fitness join us on the Business Superfans podcast this morning. Devin, how are you?

Devan Gonzalez: 00:03:29

I'm doing well. Thanks so much for having me. How are you doing?

Freddy D: 00:03:32

I'm doing fabulous. So tell us a little bit about your backstory of how Strive 11 Fitness came about.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:03:39

So Strive 11 Fitness came from my journey as a personal trainer, which started as what I thought was a college job. I worked for LA Fitness, big corporate gym during college and I went to college for business management.

Ended up switching to kinesiology because I had way more fun. Learning about how the body moved is essentially the study of human movement.

But then college was about to finish and it was get a career or keep diving into personal training. My parents wanted me to go the career route and I wanted to bet on myself.

So went into personal training a little bit more, left the corporate gym and went to a private gym and help build the whole personal training side of that business.

That was my first proof to understanding that I know the ins and outs of what works, what doesn't work for personal training, but that doesn't necessarily mean I knew how to run a business.

Through a disagreement between me and that owner, I ended up getting that nudge that I needed to do my own personal training company and grew that to six figures. Even though I was an entrepreneur, I was a self employed entrepreneur.

For a few years, it was a great job because it still is a job because you are your only employee.

Freddy D: 00:04:51

You're a business owner, AKA glorified job.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:04:54

Exactly. But it was like, what was that next step? And for me, one of my core values was, am I going to impact people's lives in a positive manner?

And so while I was starting to figure out what gym style I wanted to do, am I going to buy into a franchise? Am I going to open my own gym? I had plenty of failed business partners and investors along that journey.

I helped launch a national prep school for basketball athletes. They're up and running. I did my part. I still need to go back and do what I want to do, open the gym.

And through the years of finding the complaints my clients had with personal training gyms or boot camps, I started to comprise a model what is now Five eleven Fitness. It's a bootcamp style model, but we have no class time.

So you can come in at the flexibility of big corporate gym during their operating hours, but when you come inside, you get that same energy, that same feel as you would in a traditional boot camp model.

Freddy D: 00:05:48

So great backstory. So what was the things that you learned about to really transform?

Devan Gonzalez: 00:05:56

I would say everything begins and ends with your mindset. Right. How many trainers say they're going to open a gym and then how many actually do it?

During those failed investors and failed business partners, I could have been one of those trainers and just been like, you know what, I'm going to go get a job or stay self employed. But I knew it was still a possibility. For me, it was just a matter of when.

You may not know every tool or skill you need to have yet, but that doesn't mean you can't acquire those resources or skills. You just got to dig in a little bit. That was the first realization for me.

Like being a self employed entrepreneur, the next pivot of becoming an actual business owner and hiring employees.

I didn't know how to do any of that, but I already knew and had proof that I would find the resources and do the due diligence and overcome the obstacles presented.

To me, it's realizing that even though you may write a business plan and it looks amazing on paper, nine times out of 10, that's going to go to the wind once you get in the weeds of it. Just knowing that being a business owner, you have to be adaptable and know that that's part of the process.

Freddy D: 00:06:57

Oh, absolutely. You hit two things right there. One is you realize that as a solopreneur you can only go so far.

Yeah, you have a business, but you can't scale it because it's a team of you, yourself and yourself again. Right, Me, myself and I.

So what you did is you pivoted to start looking at a business model where you can have team members that are now taking care of the clients and the members so that you can start scaling while you're moving into a model for your franchising and helping those people in the franchise replicate what you've got.

So you've kind of created like a McDonald's for lack of a better way of explaining it, but a cookie cutter way of this is the way we train, this is the way we operate and that's how it becomes scalable.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:07:46

Right.

Freddy D: 00:07:47

So let's talk about the core values of your organization and what differentiates you guys, because I read it, but I want to hear it from you. What differentiates you guys from other gyms and other personal fitness trainers?

Devan Gonzalez: 00:08:03

Our core values. At first the same ideas, but not as clean cut. Now I reworded it to fit the acronym strive.

STRIVE stands for self improvement because at the end of the day we're in the fitness industry. If you're not improving yourself, how can you preach and talk to the members and the clients if you're not doing the same thing?

So self improvement is the biggest aspect. Next T is for teamwork. You can only build a business and scale a business if the team is working in unity and has the same goal in mind.

And then ours respect. And that's a big one for us. That goes all the way down to the member level, all the way upwards to the franchise level. It's a two way street.

We make sure our members respect our trainers, but our trainers are respecting our members and so forth is a full circle ring of respect. And then I is the biggest one for me, which is to have a positive impact on as many lives as we can, while we can. And then V is for vision. Right.

This is something that we hire by and fire by too. If you're not in line with the vision, then this isn't going to be the team for you. No harm, no foul.

But you got to see the bigger picture and want to be a part of the lead by example. Right. I wouldn't tell my trainers to do anything I wouldn't do or haven't done. Same thing with our franchisees and our members.

That's the acronym we to make it easier to remember. But that's the biggest thing for us is that we hire by we fire by and we even bring in franchisees on all by a core value alignment. Right.

And then how we differentiate ourselves between us and our competitors is understanding what are the psychological factors that aid in member retention? What are members really looking for? What do members really value? Right. That flexibility is one of the biggest things.

Traditional boot camp models are on rigid class schedules. You know, a 5:00am, a 16 to 30 class. While that does work for some people, not everyone's schedule is able to fit that.

So people don't want to walk in late. They feel like they're walking into grade school again. The bell rings, they show up 10 minutes late, and everyone looks at them. Right.

Fitness is already so personable and so vulnerable for certain people. We take that out of the equation. You're never late. Anytime you walk in, the workout's already consistently going.

We have meal planning, so we actually help the clients with their nutritional aspect of it.

We do the body composition scans, the heart rate technology, and some other factors to make sure that we're giving a client that whole circle of basically their health and nutrition approach.

Freddy D: 00:10:19

Right. Okay, so let's go back. How is it that you work with them?

A team is only as good as its leader, and a good leader is somebody that empowers their team and gets out of the way. We've all experienced leaders that kind of micromanage, and in turn, you're more reactionary.

And then it becomes just a job versus empowering a team member to where they're excited and they're a super fan of the company that they're working at. And now they're promoting it and telling everybody what a great organization it is. So how do you guys go about that?

Devan Gonzalez: 00:10:57

That's a great question, and I think it is true. That's something you learn, especially going from a solopreneur to a business owner and then hiring your first employee. You are that bottleneck.

It's important to understand that your employees want to have a piece of the vision. They want to buy in. Easiest way to let them buy in is to let them have some say. Hey, guys, this is the goal.

What are some options that we could achieve this goal? Right. Instead of being the only person that says, hey, this is the goal, this is how you're going to do it. Go get it done. Right.

Instead of just being a dictator, it's like, hey, guys, let's collaborate on this. I have this idea. I'm thinking we do this and let them buy in, because I guarantee they'll throw out some ideas. You didn't even think of.

And usually if the team can have a piece of the answer, then they're going to be a lot more bought into actually getting it done because they feel like it was their idea. Right. So that's a huge thing for us. But two is understanding that your business will be fine if you create your systems and processes well enough.

You teach the staff of the team how to do the things that they need to do, but then you leave some room for flexibility. Right. For us, like we have sales templates instead of sales scripts.

Because if I read off a script, it sounds robotic no matter how much you recite it and practice it. But if there's a template and you could have a script style next to it. So it's like an example a format.

But it's like these are the points that we need to touch. If you get from A to B, from B to C, it's like how you get there, that's up to you. Everyone has their own personalities. And that's one of the things.

I used to get in trouble when I worked for corporate personal training. I didn't read off their scripts, but I was still the highest selling trainer and I would get in trouble for it. I was like, I don't understand.

I'm saying everything you want me to say, but it just how you guys want me to say it doesn't. It sounds inauthentic to me. So little things like that. Our manager at the gym teaches our trainers as well. And he's not teaching them.

This is how you do it. He teaches them, hey, these are some ideas of how you can get this done. Right?

And so I think that's the biggest way to let them have their own flair, their own creativity to it.

Freddy D: 00:12:56

Well, because what that does, Devin, is you're creating an environment where it's a collaborative workplace so people are having fun at work. Sir Richard Branson says it best. People say work and life are separate, but he says, no, it's called life. It's one intertwined.

What you guys are doing is creating a culture where people are empowered to do what needs to be done and make decisions. They don't have to get permission. They can get something done that is beneficial for the company and transform that customer into a super fan.

Because the customer has an issue, your team individual steps in and says, hey, let me take care of that. I got it. It's handled. They're empowered now. The customer feels terrific about the situation. They're promoting your facility.

The employee feels great because they were able to handle the problem. So they're proud of themselves and you're creating energy that's contagious.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:14:04

Exactly. And I think that's the biggest thing is people need to realize that your team, your employees, like that's your first line to your customer. Right.

And if they're bought in or if they're excited, that has a natural, like you said, energy or natural feel that the customer receives first. So even this, we were planning on adjusting how we currently do one of our challenges.

And even though me and my business partner made an executive decision on how we wanted to do it, I was like, let's bring it to the manager. Let's get his buy in. Let's see what he says. Maybe he'll be like, no, I don't think it's going to work.

And then we can voice it back because at the end of the day, he's the first line.

Besides my business partner that's going to talk to the other trainers who also have to sell this if he's bought in on it, or he can have a voice of opinion and maybe tweak a little bit up. You know, he says there's going to be more buy in as he's talking to the trainers. Right. And that's going to be one of the biggest parts.

Sometimes the buy in is management, you know, ownership to management. So management can have a buy in to talk to the employees who they talk to the trainers.

Because otherwise it's just, oh, this is what they said we're doing now. And it's like, okay, if they understand the reasons why and they're bought in on that adjusted vision, that changes the.

Freddy D: 00:15:15

Whole dynamics of the organization and the outcome.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:15:19

Exactly.

Freddy D: 00:15:19

Because if you're telling people this is what you got to do and I expect this to be done and I want it by Tuesday versus, hey, here's the situation when you think we can get this done and they can come back and they might say, you know what, I can get it done today.

It's just a different mindset because of the fact that they're empowered and so many businesses, my years in the business world, poor management is noticeable in an organization because the energy is flat, sales are flat, they're not growing and people are leaving the company. They have a revolving door. And onboarding someone is expensive because you're taking two people, a new person and someone training them.

So you have double costs and lack of productivity all because you didn't take the time to really improve yourself.

As you mentioned earlier, it's all about mindset and Sometimes you gotta look in the mirror as the owner, manager or executive management and ask, am I really doing what I need to be doing? Empower my team.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:16:24

Exactly. And sometimes it's even that just asking them, hey, what do you guys need? How can I better serve you to get these jobs done? Is there better software?

Where are the glitches happening? And let them. Because if you're not on the front line, you don't know what all the problems are at the front line.

Freddy D: 00:16:41

Correct.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:16:41

And so you're thinking from a bird's eye view this is how this should be working. But you don't know all the glitches that I just found out. We had a software that was giving our trainers a headache.

We switched that software to a better software that gives us more functionality and the trainers are loving it and it.

Freddy D: 00:16:54

Probably costs less too.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:16:56

And it did. So we have a two way street of communication.

This morning one of the trainers came in and she was like, have you ever thought about doing this or marketing this way or collaborating? I was like, I haven't. I like it. Let's explore it a little bit. So now I'm gonna let her run point on that.

It's a whole different avenue we've never explored. She can take ownership of that and build a little team under it. But she's all excited and pumped up about it.

And so I think that's, it's realizing that you gotta have that open space. But also when things don't go right, ask why, right? And not just tell me what went wrong.

It's like why do you think this didn't go the way we thought it was gonna go? And let the team explain it. Because usually they'll start to think a little deeper in it and then be like, what do you think we could have done?

Or what do you think we could do next time so this doesn't happen. Right. Asking them and letting them give the solutions and then buy back in instead of just chewing them out because you didn't hit goal.

Or it's like let them re buy in. And each time they're re buying in, they're getting deeper and deeper connection to the business. Cause they're feeling again more a part of it.

Freddy D: 00:17:57

And I'm going to expand. You know, that's your job. Don't be looking at this area or that area. Stay in your lane.

And they might actually have a brilliant idea in another lane because they're looking at it from a different perspective. And if you don't empower that and say let me Hear it, you'll never know.

A great idea could have just went right by you because you never took the time to even listen.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:18:24

Exactly.

Freddy D: 00:18:25

And that's respecting your team. If they got an idea, at least let them be professional and caring to.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:18:33

Exactly. There's kind of like four categories of people in the workforce. Right.

There's employees, there's intrapreneurs, there's solopreneurs, and then there's entrepreneurs. Right. Or business owners. For me, I don't think of anyone as employees. To be an employee, that's your own mindset.

I want entrepreneurs, that is an employee as well. So if you're looking at another area of the business and you're like, hey, have you ever thought about doing this?

I want that those, those are willing to grow, get creative and expand outside. Those are the kinds of people you want. The only people that don't want that in management, that someone trying to take a job.

At the end of the day, if you realize as a manager, if you empower that they could get promoted. But that means get promoted too, because now there's additional roles that need to be served under you.

Freddy D: 00:19:18

Exactly.

Because there's an old saying, you take care of enough people to help them get to their aspirations, you don't have to worry about yours, they'll be automatically taken care of.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:19:29

Exactly. One of the things I tell all of our trainers, because we promote on a merit system, it's all about who deserves it, who's been put in the work.

And I tell them in the beginning, look, my goal is to create your dream job. You're coming on as a trainer right now. If that's where you want to stay, by all means. I'm not going to tell you what your dream should be.

But if you have a goal in marketing, a goal in sales career, I want to create that within this company for you.

It's going to open up those opportunities to allow you to essentially go in those directions when they, they present themselves, just to kind of give them a bird's eye view of the long term vision as well.

Freddy D: 00:20:03

And sometimes, you know, they're passing through and that's okay too because you know, they have their own aspirations. I've had team members where they were passing through, but I helped them get to where they wanted to go.

As they pass through, they got some additional training, their mindsets changed, et cetera.

And they're still super fans of me because it wasn't like, oh, well, you plan to being a doctor, you're going to med school and you're using this to pay the bills. Hey, I respect that. So while you're here, let's do a thing. Oh, you need to take an hour off to go to class.

See it, you know, because it comes back 100%.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:20:46

One of our trainers left a few months ago. An amazing trainer, great guy. He told me straight out when he joined that he wants to be a writer and the film industry and go the acting route.

That's his five year goal. I was like, no worries. If you do want a career here too, those are options. But I'm not going to tell you where a career has to be.

That didn't mean we didn't hire him. Still a great trainer. He left on good terms. He actually reached out with the LA fires.

Like first thing he did, day one, he texted me, hey, are you okay? Is your family okay? That's the kind of relationship you want to be building with people.

Even though I was a small blip on his journey in his life and still a relationship that you can still impact them, that's a moment of their life they'll never forget.

Freddy D: 00:21:25

That's what I call superfan. It's really about building those relationships.

When I started in the tech industry 45 years ago, I'm still friends with the guy I started with and we looked at one another and said, hi, you're new here. Yeah, I'm new here. Who do you know? I don't know anybody. So let's hang out. And 45 years later, we're still buds. Though we haven't seen each other.

I know I could call him up just like that and the conversation would be like, we talked yesterday. Because of those relationships, we went in completely different directions.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:21:57

Yep. That's awesome.

Freddy D: 00:22:00

I think that some of the things that you guys are doing when I read your stuff on your site is you really about developing an empowering culture that not only empowers your team, but you're really empowering your clientele because you're helping them reach their aspirations in health, fitness and et cetera. So let's talk about some of the things that you guys do to help your clients.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:22:28

We have a motto at the gym and never give up. While it is cliche, we try to build the never give up mindset. It's fun to see members form friendships not just in the gym, but also outside.

When people are working out side by side and one person get tired, you'll see them pushing each other. Come on, get back in here. Let's go, let's go. And that's all something that's born from the culture of the gym.

But that all starts from the trainers one being bought in on the vision, feeling like they're actually a part of something bigger. And the trainers being bought on on the culture.

And so from the member standpoint, like, the never give up thing is, like, working out is physically hard. It's emotionally mentally draining. We know that. But at the end of the day, you came here for a reason. What was that reason?

What is the reason you decided to get off the couch and come to the gym or go from whatever gym you were at and come to our gym? What's that reason? Let's dig into that.

On their onboarding process of a client, we ask them all those questions to find out what their why is so that when they don't feel like it, we can remind them of their why and get them moving. Because that's where discipline comes from. It's a skill that's done on the days that you don't want to do things, but you need to do it either way.

Motivation's fleeting in business and fitness, so we don't really go off of trying to motivate people. We're trying to help them become disciplined so that they can show up on the days that they don't feel like it.

Freddy D: 00:23:45

Yeah.

And then what you're doing too, is you're creating super fans of those customers because you're helping them achieve their goals and you're recognizing their dreams. And now you're basically helping inspire that and you become a teammate to helping them achieve.

So I'm sure you've got your story where you've transformed the life of a customer.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:24:08

I'll give a story to understand that. We've had clients all different walks of life. One of our clients went from £400, £200.

When he checked in one time, I thought he had the wrong barcode because we didn't update his photo. I was like, whose barcode do you have? And then I read the screen. I was like, dude, we gotta update your photo.

It looked like the crazy thing from mindset standpoint wasn't when he was £400, when he became closer to the 225 and 200 range that he sits at now, because one of my trainers noticed it. They tried to talk to him, but he wasn't receptive. So they told me so that I pull him aside.

They know I have a way with words, especially with him and me having similar body types. So I pulled him outside and I was like, hey, man, I just want to, you know, touch up on your nutrition, like, where are you at? Right.

And he kind of was caught off guard by it.

And I was like, I'm just asking because, like, the way I'm seeing things, I see you being very particular about certain things, but I just want to make sure this doesn't go in an unhealthy route with you trying to be healthy. And then all of a sudden it opened up this door to let him know it's okay to be vulnerable. We were outside for probably like an hour.

He was telling me all his fears. Every time he sees himself in the mirror getting back to £400.

So anything he's doing to not be that version of himself, helping him reshape his mindset and perspective on his current outlook has changed his life. Now it's not the same 200 pound person here today that culture goes beyond health and fitness. Members will come up and ask about job advice.

I had one of the members tell me that he got a job offer. He said, what do you think I should take? I was like, what do you do? Explain a little bit more. It was pretty much the same job.

He told me the pros and cons of both. Which one do you think you should do? I think this one. And I was up then do it.

Freddy D: 00:25:44

Because people need to bounce something off of somebody because you can't have a conversation with yourself. I mean, you can, but you don't get different feedback.

It's great to be able to bounce ideas off of people because talking to your brain inside your head, you get no other perspective. That person felt comfortable enough with your team and environment to share something personal. And that says a lot about your organization.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:26:11

No, I appreciate it. And that's the one thing that I'm trying to explain about Culture too. He has a wife that they talked about this.

He was telling me their ideas that they already agreed on and thought together. And that goes into our core value of having a positive impact on people like our culture. Even that never give up mindset.

It's all about any way we can help. We're here.

Like, we'll go above and beyond for our clients, you know, and that's the kind of thing with running a business, is you want to keep that when you help other people, your own goals get satisfied in the process.

If you focus on the service part of being a business owner, the financial aspect comes, but if you focus on the financial aspect, it'll be a lot harder to get to if it ever comes.

Freddy D: 00:26:50

Yep, totally correct.

So what's an Action item that our listeners, small to mid sized business owners, can implement into their workplace to transform their organization to the level that you guys are doing stuff at.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:27:06

First base level, I'll give you two the first base level.

One off of stuff we talked about is that if you don't have core values, start to think of your core values and they don't need to be this super generic list of what are your personal core values. You built a business, your business is a representation of you. Your core values need to be aligned with the business first and foremost.

But everything that you do, any directions or tangents that you want to grow, do they align with your core values? The second aspect is you have a team for a reason.

If you don't have a team and you're looking to onboard someone, realize that building a team, you are essentially a team captain, not a dictator.

If you want to build a strong team that wants to grow for you and with you, make sure that you're asking them questions, let them have buy in, let them give suggestions. Otherwise they'll come in, clock in, clock out, and then they're out.

Freddy D: 00:27:57

Yep, absolutely correct. That's the difference between a great leader and a wannabe leader. Because a great leader empowers their team and gets out of the way.

I learned this long time in management. My team doesn't work for me, I work for my team. My job is make sure they're successful. That's my job.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:28:18

Exactly. When something's not going right, it's your responsibility to figure out why. But when things are going right, it's the team that's doing it right.

Freddy D: 00:28:25

Correct. Devin, it's been a great conversation on the show and as we're kind of wrapping up here, any last tidbits that you want to.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:28:36

I just want to say that as a business owner, this is something that I learned when I went to franchise. My business partner didn't have an entrepreneur background.

Started taking over the business side so I could build the infrastructure of the franchise. Common sense is only common to the person that knows it.

A lot of things that I was doing while building the business, I didn't realize I was just doing because it was second nature to me. But for him, he didn't know those things.

Realized that if you do have a team, things that are common sense to you in business are not common sense to your team. Make sure you're explaining it to them. If things aren't going right, maybe it's something that you do naturally and you just do it without thinking.

Ask them what you can do to help them so that you can create those systems and processes for them.

Freddy D: 00:29:15

Again, it goes back to empowering and being assisting versus being a dictator, to use your words.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:29:23

Exactly.

Freddy D: 00:29:23

Great conversation that we've had, Devin, and great insights for our listeners. How can our listeners connect with you?

Devan Gonzalez: 00:29:31

If you go to my website, it's a hub for everything I have going on, social medias and all. But it's devingzalez.com and do you have.

Freddy D: 00:29:40

Anything for our listeners?

Devan Gonzalez: 00:29:42

I did just release a book. It's on Amazon. I don't really do coaching or anything, so I don't have any courses or anything like that. But I do have a Kindle version of the book.

It is to help aspiring gym owners, but if you take the lessons that are in the book, you can essentially open up any business with it. There's a Kindle version. It's $199.

Freddy D: 00:30:00

Okay, so we'll make sure that we put that into the show notes for our listeners and the rest of the information in the show notes. Devin, it's been a pleasure having a great conversation with you and we look forward to having you on the show again down the road.

Devan Gonzalez: 00:30:15

It was my pleasure. Thank you.

Freddy D: 00:30:22

Hey, Superfan superstar Freddie D. Here. Before we wrap, here's your 3A playbook. Attract, advocate and Accelerate youe Business Power Move. Here's this episode's top insight.

You don't scale by adding more to your plate. You scale by building others who carry the mission with you. So here's your business growth action step.

Empower one team member this week to lead a micro project from idea to execution. Give them ownership, not just tasks.

If today's conversation sparked an idea for you, share it with a fellow business leader who would benefit and grab the full breakdown in the show notes. Let's accelerate together and start creating business superfans who not only champion your brand, but accelerate your growth.