in this episode we feature Tony Velasco of afterburn fitness welcome to the content supply podcast I'm down in need and each episode we bring you an inspiring brand creator or message to help you discover how you can experience success in your business as we unpacked stories and strategies about all things content and growing a successful brand so this is just a whole discovery process for all of us we feature a variety different brands on the show from entrepreneurs entertainers copywriters marketers coaches athletes to designers filmmakers photographers and many more all brand owners all creators so it's my belief as with many others that every company is a Content company and has to be one to stay relevant and competitive because let's be honest the internet is so full of brands that it can be very easy to get lost in the crowd so quality and effective content really separates you that's why content supply was created to supply brands with ongoing custom content so they can engage with their customers by providing value telling stories and making more sales and when we say content I'm talking about video and audio and written or image all and everything in between all those content creation and building a business is really hard you never finish the building and creating even after you experience some success you have to keep going on in the journey content supply was created to be a resource a community and a solution to fill that large gap of content so thanks for joining the show and now let's get to the interview I'm very excited to have Tony Velasco with me today Tony is the founder of afterburn Fitness afterburn Fitness is a high-intensity training facility combining everything from Olympic lifts to classes to kickboxing to yoga nutritional guidance and really everything else rolled into one but after burn furnace is more than a gym it's a community of people trainers and members alike all with the belief that there's a foundation of fitness and health that can be built to improve your lives the afterburn effect and the concept of muscle confusion creates a level of success for their members that is not seen at really any other gym the energy of afterburn fitness is really contagious the level teamwork and community building is pretty incredible and the local members of the community and the online members community are pretty engaged there's a lot of charitable events there's a lot of different training exercise and a lot of transformation so without further ado Tony thanks for joining us today yeah course man definitely so tell me a little bit more about the story behind afterburn Fitness why'd you create it I'll try to give you the sped up quick version long story short I mean I originally I play sports in high school and it always you know enjoyed working out and all of that stuff but you know this it's not like I woke up as a kid and automatically dreamed of being a personal trainer and owning a gym and all that stuff it kind of honestly just kind of fell in my lap in terms of the training thing but once it did and I kind of started to go that route I did kind of fall in love with that and really as I started to get more into the training a scale up with the business side of it and really just business in general and so once I realized it you know it could be something that I could grow and really kind of take off with that then became my main goal was was alright I'm training I'm right now I'm packing 60 70 hours a week whatever like what's the next what else can I do right because I don't the whole idea of being stagnant drives me insane and so it was really one of those things were at as many clients as I could fit I couldn't work any more hours and the only logical step to go from there was all right I've got it you know I saved up a bunch of money and and you know I'm gonna risk it all and put it all on the table here and and build afterburn fitness and I just I wanted to create something that you know was kind of starkly in contrast to what was kind of the norm in terms of like how gyms were run and really just wanted to kind of build everything from like the most foundation foundational piece being that community type thing right the one that you know you probably know from wrestling and anyone who play sports like you know that community of brothers that you have or sisters or whatever and whatever sport you're playing like being able to kind of be a part of some like that again but also be but also apply like proper business practices to it and it evolved a lot I mean when we first opened compared to what it is now I mean it's a starkly different ballgame than when it was back then but that foundation piece you know that community oriented you know that feeling still remains and is definitely the main link for sure so with the community focus how'd you go about building it like obviously you already had as kind of a client base as it was all right how did you tap into more than community of that audience and I don't know if this is exactly answered your question or not I am a wholehearted believer in every sense of the word that like great culture is like massive and I'm talking like whether it's you know a you know jam or with you know within a company and the employees and so just creating a culture of kind of like this look you know let the like mindedness that you feel like when you walk in and like a feeling in a sense of like in a business like I think everybody wants to feel like they're a part of something right like you know whatever that main objective is for that company that you no matter where your role is in a company that you still play some part and have some impact in hitting that objective and so we obviously do that from a business standpoint with our staff but creating that same concept with the membership base that like everyone is kind of a part of the community and building that community and helping everybody so when someone achieves x-rite you were a little bit a part of that and so that's kind of the main focus I guess I like that a lot yeah cuz that's one thing that I mentioned before we started recording that I am the current member of Gold's Gym out of convenience right right next to my office I mean it's fun you know you have obviously the typical functions of any gym you've got the weights you've got the cardio I mean you've got the room decks just the exercising but it's yeah I think each gym is kind of custom to the athlete or how you want to work out and and and I mentioned to you earlier to that I grew up wrestling and so that kind of workout routine is familiar to me and I feel like it's there's more results with that for sure and I think a CrossFit gym is is definitely intriguing and it's like community aspect too because when you're in a Gold's Gym I mean you're you're exercising it's very much of like a solo experience unless you get a trainer when you get the community or the team that sounds like that was kind of your competitive edge exactly yeah that's it I mean I think people are looking for taking me wrong the the Planet Fitness that's not going anywhere you mean like for as much as it's the exact opposite of what we do it's a genius business model and it works but for what we do but we're trying to accomplish that sense of you know naminé like being a part of something is so integral to like you know anything and everything that we do mm-hmm well it sounds like more of a personal experience to where you get to know people on a different level like I've seen on your website you guys have different events that go far beyond just your facility there yeah you go to stadiums you do other kind of community events and and I think it was it's kind of like a was a missing piece of that industry that you know working out being more of like like a true experience social experience everything else like no different than someone who's a you know a member to you know a country club right so you remember to TPC or whatever there's a sense of like a cool sense of belonging right like you know I'm a part of this and obviously our our

demographics not the right word but you know what someone's a part of is a little bit different than what someone at a country club is a part of you know this is the people in here kind of more of like a work hard play hard community type of it but it works because it's it's still that same concept it's that underlying concept so then with say other brands who are trying to do with you do is building community or tap into kind of that custom experience that's more personable what recommendations like with your experience with building out different fitness I'm sure you have a lot of insight to those who may be wanting to do similar things to what you do what are some insights you think well since you isn't you specifically mentioned CrossFit a couple of times I think that they can say that it's geared towards everybody right and I'm not saying it's not the problem is a lot of the perception with the games and all that kind of stuff like it's only for the elite athlete I think a lot of the time it comes down at least more from CrossFit standpoint like it's really hard to market that to the everyday person but it just really really is it'll market to you you know as a former athlete it would mark it to me as a former athlete but I mean that's 510 percent of the population a lot of those places that that focus on that those community oriented gyms the biggest problem is that that they're not marketing enough to the general population and there's a lot of other things but I think that's the biggest one is that we try you know that yeah you come in here you know even if when you walk in the facility I mean it can look intimidating to a lot of people to come here like at his massive rigs and turf and tires and all know what's going on here but at the end of the day our our marketing approach and our you know our delivery once people walk in is one that still markets too peels to the general population and so that would be my advice I guess that's yeah and that's cool too because not only do you consider like the athlete or the fitness professional you consider the people who also want to experience that team yeah exactly that happened before who were like actually like I kind of missed that grown up in athletics so let's try it out with this gym experience right of any age - yeah yeah you look at your website and social media I mean you guys have on Facebook I think is your biggest phony almost 15,000 people excited yeah yeah and so speaking to that just your online presence beyond just your two facilities in Valencia and Manhattan Beach how have you guys grown that social base I mean is it content is it the fact that you've involves people to help refer afterburn Fitness what's kind of been your strategy there it's I mean it's all the above my biggest feel on just social media and all of that stuff in general and you know we do our best and go me wrong we could still do a hundred times better right like anything we're always trying to get better but I think I believe that in this day and age anybody any company actually just did a talk about this kind of this thing exactly cool that I think you should be a media company whatever it doesn't matter who you are what you are like in terms of what industry you're in because the end of the day social media is not going anywhere right I mean you and I both gonna be in our lives for a very very long time it's only gonna grow I'm in what he now is like the Facebook the YouTube the Twitter Instagram it's gonna be I mean there's multiple there's a multiplicity of different bathrooms that exist and they're you know some of these maybe one exist in 20 years exactly you've all but it's gonna evolve and it's going to continue to grow and I think the the the most underlying you know piece of all of it is that all of us go to it right whether it be Facebook Instagram Twitter to be entertained in some or another right right you know whether it's something you know funny or there's something of value that we can learn from it or you know someone goes to Pinterest because they want to find ideas about what to do for the home by the end of the day like we're trying to get some sort of some kind of value or entertainment out of those those apps and so knowing that creating content that does exactly that that creating content that is you know either entertaining or providing value to our base to draw people in so they have a good reason is if we're not just going to sell someone 24/7 because that's not what people go on social media for and so by creating content like especially videos you know that do that I like I think GoPro redbull are some of the best at it right like GoPro sells cameras right well what they're selling I mean with all day artists there's a picture of the camera it has a price under it and the you know in a 60-second commercial or 30-second commercial and the 28 seconds before that last clip is this cool last video of some guys surfing or skydiving or whatever right their media company red bull does the same thing guys are jumping out of the totally yeah yeah I mean on Apple TV I mean they have their own platform for content whether they're you know Red Bull whether they're using GoPro video can you any kind of filmmaker content creator you know they're tapping into that drive for high-end sports and exploit and it gives people that experience it's entertaining yeah yeah and so it's I totally agree it's going nowhere do you think as you guys would scale or get to that point of a higher amount of content to build a community beyond your just your facilities well sure yeah no I would absolutely love to that's obviously definitely a goal and something we definitely have our eyes set on first sir I I think if you're to be honest I don't think that if you really have any sort of big growth plans with you know the social media game as it is that you can't not have that on your on your agenda it's completely agree well it's it's interesting too because with the evolution of what social media may look like that will change but the I guess the content styles won't necessarily change and what I mean by that is I mean like with me and content supply like the concept I'm trying to focus on is content really all content falls into four different types of content types there's video there's audio there's image or still and then there's my copy or written and like there's that kind of branches off into so many different forms you've got the VR like the virtual reality you've got the live experience that I know your business partner Adam likes to do a lot of he loves he's got like random moments with Adam uh-huh YouTube channel sing stuff you crazy crazy guy but I mean there but it all kind of trickles back into content which kind of stays as that constant for businesses no matter how the platforms may evolve and so I think putting something in place and realizing that yes content has its place and that like you said every company has to be a media content company to really survive yeah especially now or or if you want to grow I mean maybe there's that mom pop shop that just wants to keep at a local like a minimal level and that works for them then but you can already tell I mean with the presence you guys have online heart from your influence at your two facilities in California is there's so much for more and more growth because you got started how long you know it's been five years six we opened Valencia in 2011 and we opened up Manhattan Beach in that very very end of 2015 and then we're actually I actually got done looking at a piece of property yesterday and have been looking for probably the last month or two and Westlake for our third location so no yeah oh that's great yeah they've grown right there so you mentioned two so as far as content with this growth obviously as you add a third location what ways are you guys gonna start using content more I mean you mentioned you're gonna start a podcast or some kind of weekly show yep let's do you have in mind well I mean we just we just put a guy you know Jeremy is I met Jeremy yeah he's doing your houses media hey he's our media director and so he I mean we're starting to just work heavier into like just creating more videos again both from a like a value standpoint but also like you know we have you know some funny stuff some entertaining type videos you just hit a funny thing like a spoof on a bunch of these different like movies yeah we did one like it was for our trainers and they all kind of got together and teamed up one team did god what is it it's a Keanu Reeves movie with oh boy break right yeah Point Break scene and then they did a scene from wedding crashers and just so it just kind of gets people to engage yeah but but right now we're really just just starting with that and really trying to just build our YouTube page and the one one they and I actually wouldn't mind getting your opinion on it personally obviously I don't see Facebook anywhere instagrams not going anywhere YouTube's not going anywhere what's your thoughts on Twitter which that's something we don't really use a whole own I don't even say we don't use a lot of we don't really use it all and then snapchat which came out was on fire it's a big game and then like I wonder now if that is something that's going to kind of fall the wayside especially with Instagram stories and that's one thing what are your thoughts on those two yeah no that's a great question so Twitter let's start with Twitter my thoughts on that is that it still has its audience for sure but they're not in my opinion they're not innovating enough like these other platforms like you just name it and you know Instagram Facebook in YouTube to stay as relevant kind of like how we saw vine which was thriving and then just kind of died I don't know if that happened to Twitter I mean like is it Twitter still have its place but I think it goes back to the question of where does your audience as a brand exist you guys find most your audience on Facebook YouTube I mean plenty of them are there and then as you guys grow that you what's happened to that and then Instagram but Facebook is that primary source of you know content and the same thing with snapchat is we see most of the younger generation you know the the teenagers right now using snapchat and so the question is like how will that platform evolve to adapt to you know marketing to that audience because they're not they're demographics not quite in maybe your demographic as you know right you know a gym and a fitness company but it's hard to say for snapchat more so than Twitter for me because you have most of the young pre 20 year olds who are on snapchat and Instagram only and who are not on Facebook right and who are on YouTube but more so on snapchat and Instagram so it's kind of like keeping up with the evolution of your community your audience and what platforms they have preference for and then you just have to adapt your your media and your content to that so that's kind of my opinion there I mean I don't seem to going away anytime soon but definitely with like Instagram for example and Facebook they both integrated new features that are very snapchat like and so it's like is snapchat gonna be like what are you gonna do to change the game to become more relevant right you know I'll be interesting but like for sure like you know I I mean on your website you have a snapchat and Twitter yeah but as you said you don't really put much focus on Twitter or snapchat and so I mean I still think like Facebook YouTube and Instagram those are the main competitors for most audiences right now yeah where where do you see everything going so you got you're adding the third place you're adding only shows like what is in ten years from now what's afterburn Fitness is gonna be like I have three five seven ten year game if all goes according to plan you know we'll have in ten years from now we'll have 30 plus locations and you know we'll be completely all over the west coast and specified locations in the you know on the East Coast but to be honest I want afterburn to be a nationally recognized brand when I first started we first opened up this one in 2011 it was I believe like ten thousand square feet and we expanded a couple of times I would take it from 10 to I believe like I think women 10 to 12 to 15 to now 26 or so but at the beginning when it was just 10 not only was I not a hundred percent focus and concerned about you know the other the next 20 locations but I wasn't sure about like how big I wanted to get like who I wanted to compete with necessarily and at least initially competing with more like the boutique type facilities and studios and things like that and you know we're at a point now where with the size of the clubs we're at you know we kind of compete with everyone fortunately and unfortunately I guess if you know I you know we compete with the big boys the LA Fitness is and the Gold's and and the equinoxes and all of those because of the scale that we operate at but we also compete with you know the boutique stuff the CrossFit's the the orange theories and all of those as well but 10 years from now I want to be that club that is known alongside again all of those so when you're naming them when you're when you're naming off LA Fitness and equinox and Bay Club and all of those that afterburn is in that list as well for sure franchise franchise franchise you know it's so ironically it's our wanting to bring that up so one of the main you know Forks in the road that we came to and decided not to go the franchise route that simply because for what we do I don't believe that it's a cut and paste business model I don't believe we can cut and paste like a gold or a 24 hour or a Planet Fitness or all of those which is very you know the the business model is very straightforward and you know I mean all the other very my new details that we do really needs to be constantly governed properly and the only way to that is to keep everything under that that one corporate umbrella and entity and so you know we decided to take the route of will grow a little slower you know we're not going to franchise and you know sell twelve tomorrow and locations right do one here and then two there and then three next year I mean what gives you oversight and ownership to the operations the community and so it's all kind of that one you know it's not the McDonald's franchise exactly yeah the ownership so um one other kind of final thought I wanted to pick your brain on is you see a lot of online Fitness communities and brands being built on line basically specifically online you know people are building their private Facebook groups their sales funnels to get people to join this paid program has that have any of those online paid communities or fitness programs ever been a consideration for afterburn Fitness eight online like trainee types up right right so it's let's say it's like an online training course to be like learn how to get a six-pack just I'm random yeah six pack AB in six weeks for the summer and here's a 20 video exercise workout routine that costs $50 $150 to get into and there's this online sales funnel I mean that's that's such a popular model and many brands nowadays and it's it's working for a lot who are figuring out the formula is that was that ever a consideration though of focusing on online versus in-person community building no I mean we tried a couple things to generate some more online presence in terms of actually turning it into profit and and and like a business model but to be quite honest you know the couple of times we've done it and we really just did it from a standpoint you know we have our challenges Billy run couple times a year 60 days and you know we try to do like an online version where we did that where they could sign up they would have online guidance and videos and that kind of a thing and it did okay what because we really haven't put you know since then we haven't really put in a ton of effort into that so that we could focus on the more you know ground or stuff it may be something once we can get you know this next one up and running and we go you know get that next step of the ground-floor stuff going that we could then focus on it but at least up until now haven't put a whole lot of focus on it gotcha yeah and obviously I'm just curious because obviously it's a popular model right now yeah you know it's not it's not for everyone in that sense but yet there's I'm sure there's great potential anyways so where can people find you online the few best place is definitely gonna be Facebook so just afterburn fitness on facebook or just WWF burn Fitness calm on the web perfect solid I brother thank you yeah take care man we'll talk soon thanks for joining us today definitely make sure to check out Tony and afterburn Fitness they're a brand to definitely keep your eyes on especially as they continue grow and provide value to their community and they have some pretty cool plans in the works particularly when it comes to more and more content but how seriously great I've been inspired for my own business especially with how Tony cares about his community and always tries to give back from doing charity events to different programs all to help people to change their lives with team activities and fitness so we mentioned content and brand building throughout this episode so if you're overwhelmed with running your business and you know you need more content especially an ongoing constant supply of content that's custom all in order to take your brand to the next level then make sure to learn more and check out our website of content supply at content supply dot IO so thanks for listening everyone and we'll see you on the next episode

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