An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

To Expect Cash Flow Issues: Realizing that creating this entirely new and unique fitness concept would come with its own challenges, I knew the only way to succeed was to remain resilient. For months, I used my own personal savings to pay my employees, and I struggled to keep personal trainers with the company long-term.

As a part of our series called “Making Something From Nothing”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Josh York.

Josh York, Founder & CEO of GYMGUYZ, the largest in-home and on-site personal training company in the world, is a true entrepreneur driven by passion. As a leader who knows the value of building a strong culture, Josh founded GYMGUYZ in 2008 from his parents’ dining room table. Now, the in-home and on-site fitness training provider services over 1,200 cities internationally, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada. GYMGUYZ is the fastest-growing fitness concept in the U.S. with plans to open another 25 locations by the end of 2022.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a bit about your “childhood backstory”?

When I think back to my early days, life wasn’t always the easiest; ultimately, this allowed me to grow up quicker than most and practically raise myself. Having a difficult childhood showed me the importance of always choosing to do the right thing. That is what’s fueled my drive to stay in shape and put all of my positive energy towards my goals and aspirations.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

My favorite life lesson quote is simple, but something that has stuck with me my entire life, and that is “Knock em’ dead.” My grandfather would say this to me throughout my childhood whenever I embarked on a new adventure, and it has followed me into my work life. My grandfather was my father figure, and from him, I learned to give my all to everything that I set my mind to.

Is there a particular book, podcast, or film that made a significant impact on you? Can you share a story or explain why it resonated with you so much?

I would have to say Shoe Dog, which is a memoir by Nike co-founder Phil Knight. Similar to Phil, I have also created a new category in the fitness industry. I’ve always been inspired by his ambition and business decisions.

Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. There is no shortage of good ideas out there. Many people have good ideas all the time. But people seem to struggle in taking a good idea and translating it into an actual business. Can you share a few ideas from your experience about how to overcome this challenge?

From my experience, I’ve learned that the best way to overcome any challenge is to simply start and figure out solutions as you go. When it comes to entrepreneurship, you’re never going to have all of the answers, and failure is a big component to the whole picture. Failure is going to happen, it’s how you learn from it, figure out the next step, and make things happen that defines your success.

Often when people think of a new idea, they dismiss it saying someone else must have thought of it before. How would you recommend that someone go about researching whether or not their idea has already been created?

The best way to research whether an idea has already been created is doing your due diligence online. This means looking at the trademark sites, checking YouTube, conducting various searches, etc.

For the benefit of our readers, can you outline the steps one has to go through, from when they think of the idea, until it finally lands in a customer’s hands? In particular, we’d love to hear about how to file a patent, how to source a good manufacturer, and how to find a retailer to distribute it.

Having a vision is crucial in beginning the first steps of your business model. Once you have that vision, take action. Put your idea out there, ask as many questions as possible, talk to consumers, and listen to the feedback you receive. I trademarked GYMGUYZ based on my vision, and we became the first in-home mobile personal training and fitness franchise company.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started Leading My Company” and why?

1. To Expect Cash Flow Issues: Realizing that creating this entirely new and unique fitness concept would come with its own challenges, I knew the only way to succeed was to remain resilient. For months, I used my own personal savings to pay my employees, and I struggled to keep personal trainers with the company long-term.
2. To Take Risks to get to the Other Side: I created GYMGUYZ from an idea and started the business from my parents’ dining room table in 2008. I started with a vision, a laptop, and one van. I quickly learned that in order to achieve success, risk taking is not an option, it’s a necessity.
3. To Embrace Fear: When you’re scared, you just need to go for it. You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.
4. To accept that you will Struggle: I now credit my initial struggles as the key to my success, and I truly recognize the strength in suffering. I learned to continue to navigate the problems that arose until formulating a strong business model, and ended up creating the number one in-home personal training concept.
5. To Always Trial and Error: I founded GYMGUYZ with only $15,000, and I quickly discovered that without trial and error, you’ll never grow. Try new things, and if they don’t work out, try them again in a new way. Success comes from trial and error.

Let’s imagine that a reader reading this interview has an idea for a product that they would like to invent. What are the first few steps that you would recommend that they take?

Get with someone who has been there! One of the first steps should be collaborating with someone who has invented a product before. There’s no better way than to learn from the experts, as they are the ones achieving their goals.

There are many invention development consultants. Would you recommend that a person with a new idea hire such a consultant, or should they try to strike out on their own?

From my experience, it’s much better to try and strike out on your own, because that’s how you learn and grow. Unless the coach has done exactly what you’re trying to accomplish, rely on yourself, because ultimately, that’s who is going to get you exactly where you want to be.

What are your thoughts about bootstrapping vs looking for venture capital? What is the best way to decide if you should do either one?

While I don’t have personal experience with venture capital, I own 100% of my company, and if you’re going to bootstrap, determination is key. It’s very important to weigh your options and make the right decision based on your business venture.

Ok. We are nearly done. Here are our final questions. How have you used your success to make the world a better place?

It’s great to make a living, but it’s much better to make a difference. GYMGUYZ helps thousands of people achieve their fitness goals every day, and I couldn’t be prouder to stand behind that. We regularly receive calls from our clients who share how much our services have positively impacted their lives, and that’s all I can ask for.

You are an inspiration to a great many people. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.

Talk and Walk: you can talk all you want about all the good things you want to do for the world, but the key is just being a good person every single day. Always do the right thing, be humble, put your ego aside, and put positive energy into the world. Do the right thing, and good things will happen for you.

We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US, with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them

I would want to have a private breakfast or lunch with Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike. I’m truly inspired by his story and would love to compare notes on our experiences in breaking into completely new industries.

Thank you for these fantastic insights. We greatly appreciate the time you spent on this.

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Making Something From Nothing: Josh York Of GYMGUYZ On How To Go From Idea To Launch was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.