The VoicE Q1 January 2014 | Page 25

S B TARTING A WITH A PRINCIPLE ryan and Kristi made the decision to leave behind the city he had grown up in, the wonderful lifestyle they enjoyed, a nice home and his parents living nearby, to move to Conroe, TX. As Bryan recalls, “I remember the first day when we left I thought, what in the world did I just do? I took my son away from his grandma to “Moving back to our personpursue my al principles, we realized that dreams”. franchisees are much more capable to do what’s on our It was a big hearts ...” leap of faith for them, but on the 2nd day, he and Kristi realized that this was something they should have done a long time ago. “Moving back to our personal principles, we realized that franchisees are much more capable to do what’s on our hearts, with the energy and enthusiasm we have to get the community in shape”. Once the first location was open, and Gold’s Gym Conroe, TX with Kristi expecting their 2nd child, they moved to a 2 bedroom apartment across from the Conroe gym, and began working on their Kingwood location. While the relationship with GGI began to change, he was ultimately able to open the 2nd location and then 2 years later, opened the Houston (Bear Creek) club. In 2007, they began planning their 3rd location in the Woodlands location. In 2008 Bryan was awarded the best domestic franchisee, as well as the recipient of the first ever Bravo Award. “It was following this honor that I began getting calls from other franchisees asking for my help,” Bryan shared. “So I began accepting opportunities to work with other franchisees”. Trouble was waiting for Bryan as he got on the last flight to Houston from one of his weekly consultation trips. “The day before Hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast in September, 2008, I hurried home to tie down my trampoline and board up my windows. The Cat 5 hit the Texas coast and devastated a widespread area. We shut down all of our clubs for a week, with a big direct mail campaign that did not go out in our new location, it buried our operation,” said Bryan. “We did all that