Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia and Keith Halladay.
Hi Alicia and Keith, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Alicia and I had been living happily with our 3 daughters in Albany, Oregon for 13 years when we got the crazy idea to buy an F45 Training franchise, sell everything, leave our friends and family, and move to Utah. I was the General Manager of 3 Anytime Fitness clubs for about 10 years and both of us had seen how engaging and effective group exercise could be. We knew that it was time to do our own thing and leave Anytime Fitness behind. We began to look at the various group fitness options – Crossfit, Orange Theory, Burn Bootcamp, Alloy, etc. They all had things we liked and things we did not like. Keith was driving to work one day and heard on the news that Mark Wahlberg had recently become a minority partner in a fitness company called F45 Training, which originated in Australia. After further research, F45 became the clear choice. It checked all of the boxes we were looking for. We purchased our territory in June of 2019 with plans to be open by January 2020. Unfortunately, we ran into several delays finding a suitable location. Just when we thought that everything was lining up with a great location, Covid-19 came along. We were devastated but we had no choice but to wait it out. During this time, our family of 5 was living in my in-law’s basement and I got a temporary job working for the US Census Bureau to make ends meet. In the summer of 2020, we decided to move forward with selecting a new space and get construction underway. Again, we were met with many delays (mostly construction) and didn’t open our doors until March 26, 2021. We have now been open for a little over a year! We have a tight-knit community and have met some incredible people along the way. We love getting to see the difference that our services have made in the lives of our members. It’s hard and stressful but very rewarding.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Covid and construction issues delayed our opening by more than a year. Our location is a little hidden, which has not helped our growth. Learning how to balance family life with seemingly 24/7 work has been rough.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
F45 Training Lindon is part of a global F45 fitness family, consisting of nearly 2,000 open studios in 60+ countries (with 1500 more currently in the works). We specialize in 1-on-1 personal fitness training in a team setting. The ‘F’ stands for Functional movements that mimic everyday life. ’45’ is the number of minutes per workout session. Each workout is coached by 2 nationally accredited certified personal trainers. The workouts consist of a perfect combination of strength training, cardio, HIIT, and agility that can be adapted to any fitness level. Every day is a new workout. Our members love that they can just show up and know that they will get an amazing workout every day. We have over 4,000 exercises in our database. Thanks to our personal trainers and innovative TV system, our members always know what exercise they are supposed to be doing, how to do it safely, how long to do it, and where to move next. Another important point that sets us apart is that we limit our memberships. Most gyms will charge a low rate and sign up as many members as they possibly can, even if they don’t actually have room for all of those people. We will never sell more memberships than we have room for. This allows our members to work out as much as they like and it allows us to build meaningful connections with each one. We know our members’ names, goals, motivations, and obstacles.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Yes, don’t try to open a gym right before or during Covid-19! We were delayed over a year thanks to Covid and because we were not open before it hit, we did not qualify for any of the relief programs. But we’ve made it so far!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://f45training.com/lindon/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/f45_training_lindon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/F45TrainingLindon
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/F45Training
