Brandon Shuck opened his affiliate, CrossFit Pineville in Pineville, North Carolina, in 2013. This was a time of rapid growth for CrossFit, and many gym owners found they could hang a CrossFit sign on their door and attract members without spending too much time on marketing, maintenance, or retention.
However, Brandon – along with his wife, Michelle, and his brother-in-law – decided to take a different approach.
“When CrossFit first started, you could probably start in a dirty warehouse,” Brandon said, adding, “We didn't want that, we wanted it to be a nice, clean space.”
Brandon’s full-time job in sales allowed him to put everything back into the gym for the first five years instead of taking home any profit. He and his team spent the first few years buying new equipment, expanding into a new space, and building their team of coaches.
Brandon and Michelle saw what many CrossFit owners didn’t at the time: eventually, CrossFit athletes were going to want a more high-end space with well-maintained equipment and amenities.
They were right. Now, 11 years later, the gym is flourishing. They occupy a six thousand square foot space and have about 240 members. And, as they’ve done from the beginning, Brandon and Michelle continue to put their focus on their members: their health, their fitness, and their safety.
Contrary to what many people believe, Brandon says you don’t necessarily need to have a fancy marketing strategy to bring in new members and retain existing ones. At CrossFit Pineville, they send out monthly emails and wish the members happy birthday, but their main focus is providing the best gym experience possible, while making sure to give back to the community.
From day one, Brandon said he’s concentrated on making sure the experience at the gym is outstanding, which means providing a clean, safe workout environment.
“For a long time, I cleaned the gym every weekend. My general manager does a lot of it now for us, and we set the standard that when classes are done to clean your stuff up and make sure it's nice for the person coming in after you,” Brandon said.
He said if this expectation is not established at the outset, it’s hard to change the culture of the gym.
“I think it's just setting a standard that we want this stuff to be nice,” he said, “to make sure it's nice for the next person coming in.”
Brandon also makes sure he’s on top of maintenance. Every year he has a company come in and take apart the barbells, the bikes, and the rowers and blow the dust out of them, and grease and oil the machines.
“It’s expensive, but it's a lot cheaper than buying new stuff every few years,” he said.
Another key piece of his success, Brandon said, are the coaches. He hires people who share his mindset and his passion for making the community stronger and healthier.
While building a strong community and investing in the physical location helped grow CrossFit Pineville, it also protected the gym during COVID, which was a dark time for gyms.
“You know, gyms around us failed,” Brandon said.
“Luckily, it came down to the members, us being involved in the gym, doing the workouts with the class, and following and programming. Focusing on doing the right thing first,” he said.
Although Brandon was always focused on keeping the space clean and well-maintained, it became even more of a priority when he began working for CrossFit RRG in 2022.
Getting more involved in the insurance industry opened his eyes to the importance of safety in the gym and knowing what is – and isn’t – covered under your insurance policy.
Kids, for example. Brandon has young kids, and he knows how important it is for them to see their parents lifting weights and moving their bodies, but he also knows the dangers involved in what every kid does when they enter a CrossFit gym: hang from the rings.
“Especially rings hanging from a rig; they're like a magnet to children,” he said.
“We try our best to say, ‘Hey guys, no kids on the rings,’ because they’ll swing upside down and if somebody slips off of that and they'll break their arm or whatever, so I'm just always wary of that,” Brandon said.
If you do want to allow kids or dogs in the gym, it’s important to make sure they are covered on your insurance policy. Brandon said he’s often surprised how many people don’t realize what’s excluded by many insurers.
“We don't allow large dogs because I don't wanna do burpees and get hair in my mouth, but many other gyms do allow dogs. And most other insurance companies besides the RRG have an animal exclusion and if a member gets bitten by a dog then they're screwed,” he said.
Even if it’s the owner’s dog, the gym might be in real trouble if their insurance policy doesn’t cover animals in the gym.
“There's age restrictions on policies, some policies will protect coaches differently or not ensure coaches professionally,” he said.
Brandon said as an affiliate owner himself, he just wants to make sure gym owners know what their insurance company covers.
“Because a lot of people just purchase on price and that's not always the best thing,” Brandon said.
Above all – more than the cleanliness or the amenities – Brandon just wants to give people the tools they need to find success, both in and out of the gym, whether that’s a workout, nutrition advice, or a supportive community.
In the end, Brandon said the key is believing in the product and participating in it, which means doing the workouts and going to the events.
“That,” he said “is what’s helped us retain members, including people who have been with us since day one.”
About Author, Hilary Achauer