Focus On What You Love: How To Avoid Burnout and Grow Your Gym

Kevin Ogar’s workaholic tendencies almost destroyed his gym. Here’s what he did to save his business.

-Hilary Achauer

Kevin Ogar is a busy man. He’s the owner and head coach at CrossFit WatchTower in Englewood, Colorado and the co-owner, head coach, head judge, and competition director at WheelWOD, which offers adaptive programming for gyms and individuals and runs the top adaptive competitions in the world, including the 2024 Adaptive CrossFit Open and the Adaptive CrossFit Games. 

As if that weren’t enough, Kevin is also on the CrossFit Level 1 Seminar Staff, running about four to eight weekend-long CrossFit Level 1 Seminars a year, and works as an affiliate rep for CrossFit, helping CrossFit gym owners run successful businesses. 

Kevin is passionate about all of his endeavors, and there was a time when he thought he could balance them all, taking on new roles without delegating or letting go of any responsibilities. 

Then about two years ago a friend approached him with some frank words about CrossFit WatchTower.

“He said, ‘Hey, you're missing things and you need to fix it, and fix it quick,’” Kevin said. 

Kevin realized that to succeed he had to work less, not more. 

Something Has to Give 

Kevin is a well-known figure within the CrossFit community. Before his injury in 2014, which left him paralyzed from the waist down, Kevin was a four-time CrossFit Games Regional competitor, finishing as high as sixth in 2012. He continued competing after his injury, and was the 2022 CrossFit Games Champion in the seated without hip function category.

He’s owned CrossFit WatchTower since 2015 and that same year he joined Chris Stoutenburg — a Paralympic champion and owner of CrossFit Indestri in Ontario, Canada— to help him run WheelWOD, which creates versions of the CrossFit Games Open workouts for adaptive athletes. 

“Originally it was just wheelchair users,” Kevin said, “but then we had someone who was like, ‘Hey, I'm missing a limb, can I join?’ Or, ‘I had my arm amputated, can I join?’” 

Soon they were creating workouts for people with neurological conditions — anyone in the adaptive athlete community who wanted to compete in the CrossFit Games Open and have fun. From there, they began running in-person competitions. They created the WheelWOD Games and eventually were running the adaptive division at eight competitions worldwide, including WODapalooza and the SeaDog Summer Showdown.

Then in 2023, CrossFit approached Kevin and asked him how they could grow the adaptive competition. He told them the solution was for WheelWOD to take over.  

“CrossFit is already doing a ton of stuff and trying to do so many things with different people. And the eight adaptive categories they had were great, but WheelWOD has 15 categories. We can focus only on that and do it for cheaper and make it just as great,” Kevin said. 

Kevin cares deeply about everything he does – whether that’s running a Level 1 Seminar, organizing an adaptive athlete competition, or coaching classes at CrossFit WatchTower. 

“My passion is in helping every single person that walks in my doors or needs help,” Kevin said, “and a lot of other affiliate owners are the same way.”

While this is an admirable quality, and it drives Kevin in all of his endeavors, it also means he has a hard time saying no to people. Like many other CrossFit affiliate owners he got bogged down in the details of running his gym, taking his eye off the big picture. 

“I was trying to run the gym, do my full time role with CrossFit (as an affiliate rep), do seminars and it just wasn't working for me. I was not running the gym well. I was letting things slide. I was missing a bunch of stuff,” Kevin said.

As a result, the membership numbers at CrossFit WatchTower began to decline. 

Once Kevin’s friend approached him and told him the gym’s future was at risk, he knew he needed to make a change. 

“It was either get really good at delegating and trusting other people to do some work or lose the gym,” he said. 

How Kevin Saved CrossFit WatchTower

The first thing Kevin did was ask his wife, Shannon Ogar, to take over the day-to-day operations of the gym. 

When Kevin thought about what he really loved about owning CrossFit WatchTower, it was interacting with the members, coaching the classes, and managing the development of his coaches. Once he let go of the reins a bit and refocused on what he loved, wonderful things began to happen.

Not only did the gym gain 30 new members over the last two years, but the current members noticed a change in Kevin after he began coaching more. 

“I've had members come and tell me, ‘You're much happier and much more pleasant to be around,’” he said after he stepped away from the day-to-day operations.

Looking back, Kevin said he now realizes how close he came to losing his affiliate.

“I really could have run this place into the ground,” he said.

Shannon took over the accounting, event planning, and ran a recent “bring a friend” month at the gym. That initiative brought in an influx of new people who never would have stepped foot inside the gym. 

Running multiple businesses meant Kevin didn’t have time to organize this type of promotion, but until he delegated some of his responsibility, nobody else felt like they could step in. 

Talking to other CrossFit affiliate owners in his job as affiliate rep, Kevin said he’s seen a number of owners burn out because they feel they need to do everything themselves. When gym owners force themselves to do tasks they dislike, instead of finding someone else to take on those responsibilities, the members notice. 

“I've seen so many gyms crumble,” Kevin said, “not because the owner was a bad coach or a bad business owner, but they didn't like being there anymore and your members can sense that.”

When in Doubt, Go Back to Basics

Kevin’s other piece of advice to CrossFit affiliate owners is to focus on providing an excellent service for the people in your community before you spend money and time on marketing. 

“I’ve seen gyms spend so much time on their marketing and everything else and then their product inside the gym is trash,” Kevin said. 

Kevin said CrossFit has been doing more marketing work recently to support the affiliates, and it’s made a difference in his gym. Now, when a person Googles “CrossFit,” the affiliate map is at the top of the search results. 

“I’ve already gotten two or three new members just from the affiliate map alone,” Kevin said, “and then those two or three members brought in other people. I let the CrossFit name do the marketing for me, and then from there just make sure that when people come into my gym they don't want to leave.”

Kevin said he thinks the biggest challenges for many gym owners are time management and work-life balance. For him, success came when he re-evaluated his priorities and put his time and energy into the work he loves. 

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.