CrossFit Lake Effect: A Different Kind of CrossFit Gym

Why Paul Burkert, owner of CrossFit Lake Effect, has never taken a salary from his thirteen-year-old CrossFit affiliate. 

Paul Burkert started doing CrossFit in 2010, at a gym in Grand Rapids, Michigan called 8th Day Gym.

“I was one of their first 60 customers,” Paul said.

As with many people who start CrossFit, Paul quickly became obsessed with the workouts, the challenge, and the community. He was often at the gym for four to five hours a day, and one of the owners of the gym began living in his basement.

Then in 2012, after two years of working out at 8th Day Gym, Paul had an idea. 
“I was a little bit bored with my corporate job, and I wanted to do something on my own, 
but I didn't want to quit my job,” Paul said. He decided it was time for him to open his own gym, so he could have a new challenge and bring the CrossFit experience to more people in the community.

The first thing Paul did was find a place a few towns away to ensure he didn’t take any members from 8th Day Gym.

Next, Paul found a business partner, and in 2013 they opened CrossFit Lake Effect. He decided to keep his full-time corporate job, and now, thirteen years later, not only is the gym still open, Paul still has his corporate job.

“I run my affiliate a little bit differently,” Paul said, “I don't take any money from it personally and I invest one hundred percent back into the gym.”

Low Prices, Exceptional Experience

When Paul opened his gym, his motivation wasn’t to make money, but to help others improve their lives.

However, even though Paul didn’t want to make money himself, he still wanted the business to succeed and to grow. That’s why he puts one hundred percent of his profits back into the business.

“I invest back in the building. I invest back into the coaches. We have gorgeous equipment. We want to make sure we’re adding value back to all the customers,” Paul said.

Not having to rely on the gym for an income also means CrossFit Lake Effect can keep membership prices low, which helps with retention. They have about 170 members, and one hundred of those have been members for more than a decade. 

Secrets of His Success

Since Paul has a full-time job outside of the gym, and also travels frequently for work, he has a part-time gym manager who works with one of the coaches to handle scheduling and day-to-day operations. He and his team also use technology as much as possible, including software automation and AI to ensure people receive a response right away.

“I think we all know in the gym world, people are motivated. So if you don't answer an email within 15 minutes, they're onto the next gym. And so even if you have somebody dedicated to that and they're not answering until the night or the morning, then you potentially miss those people,” Paul said.

They always offer a free week of classes to potential members, and when a prospect signs up for their first trial class, the website sends the CrossFit Lake Effect team an alert, letting them know new people are coming into the gym.

CrossFit Lake Effect is in Holland, Michigan, a vacation destination known for its centuries-old windmill, tulip festival, and picturesque lake. And not only does the gym get frequent visitors dropping in for a workout, but Paul travels often for work and visits CrossFit gyms around the world.

As a result, making the drop-in experience an enjoyable one is important to Paul. For $25, visitors to CrossFit Lake Effect get a t-shirt and can attend classes for three consecutive days.

This generous policy means that people are more inclined to write good reviews of the gym and return the next time they visit the area.

“Last weekend we had three or four people come in for the tulip festival and they bought more than one hundred dollars worth of apparel,” Paul said.

Old School Whiteboard

While Paul and his team use the latest technology for communicating with guests and prospects and managing billing and scheduling, they have intentionally stayed low tech when it comes to the whiteboard.

“We write the workout on the board and we write everybody's names on the board,” Paul said, adding that he feels using an app for the workout scores interferes with the community feeling in the gym.

“You look at the board and then you're like, oh, who's Steve? It just keeps people engaged, so we have fifty feet of whiteboard across our gym on the class side,” Paul said.

Paul also feels this system allows the coaches to look at the whiteboard and assess if people are scaling correctly.

“If you see somebody who is getting way more reps in, even if they're going RX, maybe they need to increase their weight,” he said.

Another way Paul uses the whiteboard is to easily check the class sizes. If he sees one class consistently has more than 20 people, he knows it’s time to open up another class. 

Coaches Make the Gym

The secret to any successful CrossFit gym are the coaches. Paul said he has coaches who have been with him for more than a decade.

“Typically when I have coaches leave, it's because they're literally leaving the area,” Paul said.

His retention strategy is to make sure there isn't one coach that's carrying too big of a load, but also make sure they're coaching enough to stay good at coaching.

CrossFit Lake Effect’s policy is that a coach needs to have at least four classes every fifteen days.
 

“The more somebody coaches, the more value they bring to a wider range of people, so they get more per hour as well. The idea is that it's not about them, it's about bringing value to the community,” Paul said.

Almost all the coaches are hired internally from an intern program through the local colleges. They get college credit for coming to the gym and learning how Paul and his team run the facilities.

“They'll run a warm up, shadow classes, and then we'll slowly bring them into coaching classes,” Paul said.

When he’s looking for new coaches, Paul said it doesn’t matter if they aren’t the best coaches right at the beginning.  

“We pick people who care about the community who want to serve,” Paul said, “I've found that if they care more about the gym than their status, then they take better care of the people.”

About Author, Hilary Achauer

Hilary is a renowned fitness business writer, marketing content writer, and journalist. She’s written content for start-ups, entrepreneurs, executive coaches, wellness providers, gyms, and CrossFit. Her focus is always on telling the best story with a clear, compelling style and being able to engage readers, bring in new customers, or build an audience.